Jade sat in the Gummi ship, the old outdated model was originally owned by the three heroes themselves: Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Donald was at the wheel and Goofy operated the weaponry, they made a pretty good team. And the entire adventure was documented by a member of the party Jade had been previously unaware of. A small cricket by the name of Jiminy had been given the job to document the entire journey for future ages. Jade smirked to herself wondering what her history teacher would have said if she brought back Jiminy's journal. The Gummi ship's mechanics were now Quistis and Rikku, though mostly Quistis; the original mechanics, Chip and Dale had left to tell the Queen where Sora had gone. That had been thousands of years ago though and whether or not they actually ever made it back was a mystery to all. It had been Quistis's idea to leave Traverse Town in the first place. She had suggested they go to another world seeing that there was only so much training she could do to prepare Jade for the universe beyond Oz and the tiny town. They were headed to the world known as Wonderland, Sora's idea and he would not be persuaded otherwise. Wonderland was a world Jade was very familiar with. A lot had changed since Sora vanished, including the ignorance and safety of the worlds around him. The worlds now were all quite aware of one another, and Wonderland and Oz were actually very close… were they really allies? So much had changed since Sora had left it was enough to make anyone's head spin. Every world in Sora's time had been defined by a particular boundary, within this boundary there was a certain understanding of reality that in that world was considered to be truth. This was the reason for the no meddling law that was now completely useless. For if an outsider meddled in worldly affairs it would introduce a new truth to a world that for so long only saw things one way it could spark an unstoppable chaos that could throw the entire universe into pandemonium. Two truths could not coexists without contradicting one another, and that is why when Darkness came and the boundaries melted away into nothing the universe had little choice but to give in to the Darkness. The worlds reacted differently to the chaos around them which separated the worlds that vanished entirely, from the worlds that ended up like torture chambers, from the worlds like Oz that went into hiding and tried to remain hidden. Some of the worlds panicked when they felt their boundary slipping away. This caused complete pandemonium to rise up within the world making it easy picking for the Heartless. Worlds like this shattered within days and sink into the darkest depths of Oblivion never to see the light again. Other worlds took a different approach, they fought back against everything. It was a kind of mass paranoia that seized everyone on its surface making them strike out against anything new and strange that was introduced to their world. The madness that seized this world was the same kind that previously drove the worlds into Oblivion. But this path only delayed their destruction, turning them into torture chambers making all who reside upon it miserable, pained, ruthless, and insane. That was what happened to Wonderland. But Oz was the third type a type that tried at first to form an alliance with the other worlds. But that soon failed; the various truths of the other worlds all contradicting one another. Soon the very chaos the alliance was formed to prevent broke out among the people involved in it. And in the confusion Oz's witches and the Wizard himself, cast a spell hiding Oz, until recently when at last the Heartless had found them again.
"Hey Jade!" Sora's voice broke through her thoughts like a knife. She looked over he was sticking his head out of one of the doors. Jade walked over to him, she had become pretty good friends with Sora in the few weeks they had trained together. He was determined to fulfill his promise which was both good and bad. He would stop at nothing until he had fixed what in his mind, was all his fault.
"What is it?" Jade asked trying to see whatever it was that Sora wanted to show her. Sora grinned and beckoned her to follow him down a narrow hallway. Though Sora still missed Kairi, he had cheered up since when he was first informed about her death, not that he was cheerful, but he wasn't depressed and he had been getting better. Jade looked at him curiously as he descended a ladder still beckoning her to follow. "Where are we going?" Jade asked putting her hand on the ladder.
"I want to show you something." Sora said with a grin. Jade shrugged and followed him down the ladder. He jumped off landing without a sound on the floor of a room Jade had not been in before. Then again this was his Gummi ship so it made sense that he knew a lot about it.
"I still don't understand what you want to show me." Jade said jumping off the ladder behind him, but she didn't land as lightly, though she could have if she wanted too. She was under strict orders by Quistis to keep her magic to the bare minimum so she could not glide to the floor as Sora had done. For some reason Quistis was just like Jade's mother when it came to magic. And Jade was supposed to keep it a secret from pretty much everyone. It turns out witches are easy to find if they use their magic, and if people knew Jade was a witch if in some kind of horrible emergency she had to use her magic they could use it to track down Sora and the last thing they wanted to do was put Sora at risk. So it was worse than on Oz, at least on Oz Sean and Collin had known about her powers. And Sean had even more power stored away within him. Jade often wondered what had become of her black haired friend.
"You don't see it?" Sora asked with false surprise but Jade could see amusement gleaming in his crystal blue eyes. He folded his arms shaking his head as if disappointed in her. Jade raised an eyebrow at him unsure about what Sora was aiming at.
"No I don't see it." Jade replied. She put her hands on her hips watching the great hero with interest wondering where in Oz he thought this conversation was going. "So what is it, you wanted to show me a wall or something? I don't see it Sora." Jade said at last.
"Really? Then try turning around." he said with a grin. Jade shrugged and turned around and at once the sight behind her took her breath away. Behind her was a rather large window looking out at the most beautiful sight space had to offer. The light of the remaining stars was sprinkled out against the infinite black background of space. It looked like she was gazing out into infinity itself. Jade walked over to it pressing her hand against the glass. It was by far the most amazing sight she had ever witnessed. Even though there weren't half as many stars as their would have been back in Sora's day it still looked like the Emerald city at night, bright spectacular, amazing, a sight the eye never tired if. Though this sight was far more spectacular than anything the Wizard himself could create. "Thought you'd like it." Sora said walking up next to her his eyes focused on the brilliant display of lights before them. "I'd show Rikku too but she's a bit occupied with getting this old ship to fly."
"It's amazing Sora," Jade said softly unable to tear her gaze away from the sight before her. On the way back she would have to pull Rikku away from Quistis, if only briefly, to let her look at something this mind bogglingly beautiful. For once Jade didn't feel as homesick, if she had not left Oz she would never have seen this utterly amazing sight.
"Sora, Jade, Quistis, and Rikku, you might want to report to the cockpit ASAP." Donald's voice drew Jade's reluctant mind away from the beauty of the stars and back into the interior of the Gummi ship. She looked up at the intercom. It was the first time Donald had used it on the trip, and by the look on Sora's face Donald obviously didn't use it very often.
"We better go see what's going on." Sora said a bit of worry slipping into his features. Jade nodded following him back into the cockpit. Quistis and Rikku had already beaten them there and Quistis was leaning over Donald staring in disbelief at the sight before them. "What's going on," Sora asked but at once he fell silent. Jade knew what she was going to see before she even laid eyes on it.
"Not pleasant looking from up here is it?" she asked looking at the dark forbidding world before her. What in Sora's time had been a cheerful and colorful land had been twisted into one of the most horrible worlds to set foot on. Jade hoped Sora would change his mind now about going there; this world was literally a mad house. Though previously Wonderland had indeed been a rather insane world it was now inhabited by the most psychotic creatures imaginable. They were ruthless, merciless, and most had no sense of right or wrong driven only by their twisted paranoia to kill anything that moves. Sora nodded meaning for Donald to continue his descent onto the planet. "Wait! You mean we're still going?" Jade asked slightly panicked by Sora's decision.
"Of course we are." Sora said as-a-matter-of-factly. He acted as if Wonderland had not changed at all from the one he had visited but the dead world before him was not something to be toyed with. The creatures there could and would kill him first change they got. Driven mad by the darkness the creatures of this underworld both hate it and love it, it had become their very essence; their very being and they would do anything for it. "I said I'd fix this universe and I meant it. I'm not turning any world down. Not even Wonderland."
