Author's Note: Thank you so much to for all your lovely reviews on this story! It's so encouraging to know that someone is actually reading and enjoying this fanfic.
I have about 40 chapters planned for this fanfic so here's to hoping I don't take 10 years to complete it, haha!
With Xigbar in the lead, the pair had finally reached their destination. It was about time, too. Reina wasn't sure how much more abuse her aching legs could take and getting to the Mad Tea Party was only the first step of her mission.
"Looks like they started the party without us," Xigbar mumbled as the sound of music reached his ears.
Waiting for them beyond the white picket fence was a small, secluded garden nestled in the center of a circular row of finely trimmed hedges. A cute, wooden cottage with a straw roof was to the left of the garden, but it wasn't the center piece of the yard by a longshot. Reina's eyes had instantly been drawn to the long dining table table in the center of the courtyard where a bunch of teapots whistled a happy little tune while teacups painted all colors of the rainbow danced atop of the pink tablecloth.
The teapots were dancing, actually dancing, as if they were alive. Yep, there was no doubt in her mind that she was in the right place. The name "Mad Tea Party" fit the scenery so perfectly as she watched the ceramic cups bounce up and down in lively motions on their own, magically coming to life without a care in the world. A string of lanterns hanging above the table lit up the small garden as the heat from the boiling teapots filled the air with a thick layer of steam. It smelled rather nice in the courtyard, too, like freshly brewed chamomile and vanilla spice from the different flavors of tea that filled each of the happy little teacups.
While the fiesta looked like it was already in full swing as the dishes continued on with their dance party atop of the table, the hosts of the party were nowhere to be found: the Mad Hatter and March Hare. Ansem the Wise had noted in his journal that the Mad Hatter and March Hare were always celebrating their Unbirthdays—whatever that meant—but he had advised against interacting with them if possible. They were corrupted by raw insanity and there was nothing to be gained from speaking with such deranged individuals, and Reina was almost relieved to not see them skipping around the table even though she was curious about their absence.
"You don't seem too freaked out by this place," Xigbar said, having to raise the volume of his voice so she could hear him over the sound of the musical teapots.
"Not really," Reina replied, matching his loudness. "I studied magic under a powerful wizard named Merlin who would often make brooms and mops come to life to clean up his home after our weekly lessons."
Xigbar chuckled, amused by her statement. He would not have been surprised if there was always a big mess to clean up after a magic lesson with Reina. "Alrighty then. What next? Is the key you're looking for stashed somewhere around here?"
While shaking her head, Reina pulled out the leather journal once again to flip to the chapter detailing the location of the First Key of Radiance. Xigbar was standing next to her, peering down at the pages to sneak a peek at the words written inside. It served him little good; the handwriting inside looked to be nothing more than chicken scratches. As to how Reina could actually read and understand the words was beyond him.
"It's actually not located in the Mad Tea Party, but in the Bizarre Room just ahead." She brought the book closer to her face as if it would help her read the passages better. "But to be honest, it's not exactly clear as to where it is in the Bizarre Room. All it says is that he hid it inside and that you'll know where it is once you're there."
"Oh." That was all Xigbar replied with. Normally a sarcastic remark would follow shortly after, but he just didn't have anything to add to that at the moment. Probably for the better.
Reina glanced around the garden but didn't see any door that could lead to another room besides the door on the small cottage. She figured it belonged to the Mad Hatter or March Hare, and while she didn't want to barge in uninvited in case they were hiding inside, there didn't seem to be any other doors at the Mad Tea Party.
"Do you think the cottage could lead to the Bizarre Room?" The brunette asked her companion.
"Your guess is as good as mine," he shrugged before walking past her and over to the dancing dishes. He absentmindedly picked up a teacup to examine it up close before the little piece of china let out a shrill scream of terror, prompting him to swiftly set it back down.
Reina couldn't help but giggle as she strolled right up behind Xigbar. "Fancy a cup of tea?"
"Not from here. If these things act like they're alive, I'd feel like I'm drinking their blood or guts or something," he said before lazily taking a seat in a large chair with bright pink cushions to prop his muddy boots up on the table, causing the dishes to stop singing and scatter about. Finally some peace and quiet; their singing had been wearing on his nerves.
Even though she was ready to hurry up and keep moving on, Reina's own tired feet encouraged her to take a seat at the dining table as well. Maybe a break was just what they needed after everything. She allowed herself to recline in the wooden rocking chair beside his, taking note of how all the chairs at the table were mismatched and looked like they all belonged to different dining sets.
"You know, I wonder where the Mad Hatter and March Hare are. I mean, I'm glad they're not here—I've had my fill of crazies for one day—but it seems strange to me that the table is set but they're nowhere in sight," she said, curious eyes sweeping across the area.
Xigbar just grinned. "Maybe the god of this world didn't want go to through the trouble of including them in your story since they wouldn't be important to the plot."
His comment made her blink a few times in confusion, unsure of what he meant by that. "That's…a weird thing to say. You make me sound like I'm just some character in a book or movie."
"Don't think too much about it, sweetheart. You'll hurt yourself."
Typical Xigbar, never passing up an opportunity to insult her.
She watched as he tucked his arms behind his head and leaned back comfortably in the chair, closing his one eye as if he were about to take a nap. Did he forget they were on a time sensitive schedule? She didn't want to be here in Wonderland after dark. Find the First Key, kill the big, bad Heartless, and get out. That was the deal. They didn't have time to nap.
"We should get a move on," Reina urged him as she stood up from the rocking chair. A ten second rest was all she needed.
"What's the rush? We can't leave until the Drainer shows up. Just let it come to us; it'll be drawn to your Keyblade sooner or later. Just chill out and relax for a bit before the fun starts."
Reina pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation. "You may be fine just waiting around, but I don't want to be here when the sun goes down. I don't have a place to stay here, and I don't exactly want to camp out in the woods with all the Heartless crawling around."
"Didn't I say I'd keep you safe? Day or night, that promise still stands," he opened his eye to throw a glance at her before his mouth widened into a wolfish grin. "Or maybe it's me you're worried about? Scared that I might try something while you sleep?"
"No, by now I think you're smarter than that. You know I'd beat the crap out of you if you tried anything."
Her words drew out a low, deep laugh from the back of his throat. "Don't threaten me with a good time, sweetheart."
"Enough joking around, Xigbar," Reina reached for his elbow to try and tug him up and out of his seat. "I really do want to hurry up and be done with my mission in Wonderland. The key I'm looking for is extremely close and I don't want to waste another second! So can we please find the Bizarre Room?"
He could hear the exasperation in her voice and gave a resigned sigh. "All right, all right, you win. Let's go…But first—"
As he got up from his chair, he positioned himself so he was standing right in front of the petite young woman. "I'm going to need for you to listen to me real closely for a second. The key isn't the only thing that's close; the Drainer is, too. I can sense it nearby."
Xigbar's smile had dropped as he stared down at her, and Reina's spine straightened at the seriousness of his tone.
"Now when it's showtime, I want you to find a place to hide. Don't even think about trying to play hero or testing your strength by challenging it. This isn't an ordinary Heartless, 'ya hear me? Don't go near it. Leave everything to me. In fact, don't even think about drawing your Keyblade. Just stay hidden."
"Is it really that dangerous?" She asked.
Placing his hands on his hips, he leaned forward until their faces were only centimeters apart. "You have no idea, princess. If this thing touches you, it'll steal your strength. It'll leave you drained, hence the name Drainer, and it will even suck the very essence out of your life. A single touch would be fatal for a kid like you, so just stay back and let me handle everything."
She wanted to remind him that she wasn't a kid, but she also needed him to know she wasn't stupid, either. A Heartless scary enough to cause concern for someone as strong as Xigbar was a Heartless she didn't want to underestimate.
Realizing his closeness, Reina reflexively leaned back away from him as she turned her gaze to the floor. "Right. Stay back and leave it to you. You got it, pal."
"This also means that if it turns out to be more than I can handle, you run. Understand?" He didn't draw away from her even though he sensed his close proximity was making her uncomfortable. "Just leave me behind and run as fast as you can. Get out of the area and get to safety."
That was enough to bring her eyes back to his. "What? You expect me to leave you behind if something goes wrong?"
"Yep."
She scrunched up her nose at the thought of abandoning him in the middle of a battle. No, she didn't particularly care for the guy, but she wouldn't just leave him for dead if things got a little crazy with the Drainer.
"You can't expect me to leave my partner behind," she scoffed. "I may be a weakling but I'm not a sniveling coward who abandons her teammate."
His golden eye narrowed down at her as the wrinkles in his forehead grew more prominent. "We're not going anywhere until you promise me that you'll do exactly as I say."
This wasn't a matter he was willing to drop. He was really that concerned about her safety, it seemed, if he wanted her to make a promise as selfish as that one. His expression had hardened, and he wasn't going to let her step past him until he got what he wanted. Since Reina didn't like the way he had her cornered, she decided to give in and tell him what he wanted to hear.
"Fine, fine. I promise. I'll ditch if something goes wrong," she said with a loud, overdramatic sigh as she held up her hands in defeat. "But why don't you just try not to screw up while fighting the Drainer so me running away isn't even on the table."
The muscles in his face relaxed as that same, lop-sided grin of his quickly returned. "Losing isn't on my agenda but I like to cover all my bases in case of an emergency. Now what are you still standing around for, kiddo? Aren't you in a hurry to find that stupid key or something?"
He was already turning his back to her and walking towards the small cottage on the other side of the garden, leaving her behind to glare daggers at his back.
Did he always have to be so annoying? Reina was convinced she'd never understand him, from the weird, cryptic things he'd randomly say to his odd sense of humor. At least if the Drainer was nearby like Xigbar had said, that meant that their little adventure in Wonderland was almost over. Good! She couldn't wait to get rid of pirate-wannabe and be on her merry way!
She followed after him towards the cottage and watched him swing open the door. It wasn't locked and it led them right where they needed to be-the Bizarre Room. Luck was finally on their side!
As soon as she stepped inside, Reina knew was in the right room because everything inside was, well, wrong.
The whole room was flipped, like they were walking on the ceiling and everything inside was upside down. There was a large brick chimney that reached to the roof above, and she could see that everything was comically larger than life, just like the flowers that were in the Lotus Forest.
"Xigbar, am I dreaming? Everything in here is just so weird and—"
"Bizarre?" He cut her off.
Bizarre didn't even begin to cut it. "Why is everything so big in here? I mean, it feels like we're walking on the ceiling even though we're standing upright, but it just feels like this whole room belongs to a giant or something. Tell me, did we shrink to the size of ants? Is the room upside down, or are we somehow upside down?"
Her questions made Xigbar laugh as he walked further inside the bright pink room. "You'll give yourself a headache if you try to understand the mechanics of each and every world you walk into. Just roll with it and accept things as they are, which in this case, everything is just odd."
She supposed that made sense, but with everything in Wonderland being so wacky, how would she even be able to find the First Key of Radiance? Her father said she'd know it when she saw it, but the room looked almost barren. At least from this angle.
When she looked up, she saw chairs, a table, and some other furniture casually hanging upside down from above. There seemed to be more objects and things of interest above them, but there really wasn't too much to see on their current floor. Just an empty floor with a few ramps decorating the area, letting her know this side of the room was, in fact, the actual ceiling of the Bizarre Room.
The only thing that really stood out was an image of a beach painted on a large canvas lying on the tiled floor. It seemed to be the only object that looked to be right side up from their current view, but Reina wondered why it wasn't hanging up on the nearby wall. If it had fallen off the wall, wouldn't it fall on the opposite end of the room where the chairs and grandfather clock were stuck to the ceiling, which was actually the floor?
Oh, jeez, she really was giving herself a headache trying to make sense of it all.
"You know, I think we might be in the wrong place…" Reina suggested as she quickly whipped her father's journal back out. "I think we're supposed to be in the Bizarre Room to find the key, but maybe not this version of the Bizarre Room? Maybe we need to find a way to get on the ceiling, which is actually the floor, and enter into the room from the proper, straight-up angle?"
Xigbar remained silent with his back still turned to her.
"Uh, sorry, I might have confused you just now. I know I'm not making sense but—"
He held up his hand to silence her.
His gesture immediately put the girl on edge as she slowly closed her book to slide it back into her bag. The room was quiet. Everything was still. No Heartless, no Cheshire Cat, no singing teacups—it was the emptiest place she had ever been to in Wonderland, but that didn't mean that it was safe.
Staring at the back of his head, Reina waited for a signal as Xigbar remained motionless. This could have been another prank of his, a silly attempt to make her nervous or scared for no reason, but she knew to take him seriously as she heard his deep, gravelly voice tearing through the silence.
"It's coming."
Right on cue, the ground beneath her began to turn a deep shade of purple as a heavy fog began to fill the whole room. The temperature dropped by twenty degrees without warning, sending uncomfortable chills down her spine, and Reina's senses jumped into alert. A rush of panic rose within her as she could feel the suffocating touch of darkness entering the room through a dark portal from the ground, just like when the other Shadows emerged in the forest earlier.
Xigbar's Arrowguns were already in his hands by the time the hidden evil showed itself. It rose from the ground, a shadow unlike anything Reina had ever seen, as the fearsome Heartless finally took shape and revealed itself to them.
"Looks like we found our target," said a surprisingly calm and cool Xigbar. "Go hide, Reina."
He didn't use any pet names this time. The Drainer was here, and it was time for him to get serious.
Reina, however, couldn't find the strength to move. The Heartless took on a monstrous form, terrifying her to the very core. Standing at twice the height of Xigbar, it had the head and body of a tall, disfigured person, but its entire form was as black as night with nothing but a pair of glowing, yellow eyes distinctly defined on its face. It was impossible to tell if it was supposed to resemble a man or woman, but it had more limbs than any person Reina had ever seen. Six different arms jutted out from its upper body, while two muscular legs kept its body standing upright. Behind its body swayed two thick, long serpent tails lined with spiked trailing from the base of the creature's spine to the tip of its tails.
The very sight of the Heartless left Reina's legs trembling as the creature of the void made her paralyzed with fear. It was a good thing Xigbar had instructed her to refrain from engaging in the fight since she wasn't sure if she could even make her frozen limbs move, let alone draw her weapon and prepare for battle. Her eyes, however, were drawn to something gold and shiny hanging from the creature's neck—a necklace. It was similar to the one that Reina carried with her, even down to the pendant in the center that was carved into the shape of a golden key.
You'll know where it is once you're there.
Her stomach twisted in uncomfortable knots as she realized what her father meant. It should have been obvious that the other Four Keys of Radiance would look identical to the one she already had. Finding the First Key hadn't been the hard part of this mission; taking it was the real ordeal.
Seeing the key hanging down from the monster's neck had been enough to snap the girl out of her stupor. Keeping the key out of darkness's grasp had been the main part of her mission, but it looked like the Drainer had already gotten its grimy fingers on it. It wasn't too late, though. She needed to get it back!
"Xigbar!" She pointed out. "The key! He has the key!"
"Stop standing around and get to safety, moron!"
If she wanted to get the First Key of Radiance, she'd need to trust in Xigbar's abilities to take down the monstrous Heartless that wore it proudly around its neck. She had seen him fight before, seen what he was capable of, and there was no doubt in her mind that her new companion would win and help her get back the key.
She just needed to have faith in him.
Not wanting to get in the way, Reina was soon forcing her legs to move as she hurried away and out of the line of fire. She found refuge behind one of the slanted ramps in the corner of the room, ducking behind it and keeping herself out of sight. With her out of the way, Xigbar knew it would easier for him to give it his all without fear of her getting caught in the crossfire.
"You ready to eat lead, bastard?" He taunted before springing into action, covering the Drainer's body with his round of bullets.
It didn't try to dodge or evade the lasers shooting towards it, simply allowing itself to be pelted with the deadly beams. It wasn't very bright, Xigbar thought, if it didn't even try to leap out of harm's way. The Drainer was soon shrouded in a cloud of smoke from all the bullets, and the smell of gunpowder clang heavily to the air around them. The Freeshooter stopped and waited for the smoke to subside, to see if his Arrowguns had been enough to take it down in just a few hits, but he should have known better than to think it would be that easy.
The glowing bullets had collided with the creature's shadowy form, but they did little to damage its tough skin. One laser, however, had penetrated right through the Drainer's chest, causing a small hole to form where a heart would have been beating had it been anything other than a Heartless. The hole closed up almost instantly, and Xigbar knew he needed to come up with another strategy.
"All right, Tough Guy. Show me what you've got," he snorted. This was only the beginning.
No longer standing idly, the Drainer moved on the offense and tried to swat at Xigbar with one of its many arms. The agile marksman easily dodged the shadow's touch, fully aware of the consequences if he so much as brushed against the Drainer's fingertips, but the Heartless was surprisingly slower than expected. That could play to his advantage.
Xigbar disappeared by jumping into one of his makeshift portals only to reappear in the air directly above the Drainer's head. Bullets rained down on the monster from above, and Xigbar didn't stop shooting until he needed to reload his ammo.
Just like last time, the bullets hadn't injured the Heartless at all. Either it was immune to physical attacks, or he hadn't found its weak spot yet. Most Heartless could be defeated by his bullets, but sometimes he just needed to find that one, special spot to aim at. He kept shooting and shooting while leaping through one portal and into the next to avoid getting touched every time the Drainer tried to reach out to grab him.
Reina was peeking out from her hiding spot, watching Xigbar shoot at the monster over and over without so much as making a dent in its health. What the hell did he think he was doing?! He couldn't just keep blindly shooting at it, hoping to eventually break through its skin. He was wasting ammo, and she had already seen for herself just how slow he was whenever he reloaded his Arrowguns. Could he really defeat such a powerful, impenetrable Heartless with the defenses of a brick wall? Unless he had some other tricks up his sleeve, Xigbar's weapon just wasn't to work on the beast.
On instinct, Reina was reaching for her necklace and summoning her Keyblade into her palm. Just as she was about to step out to lend her partner a hand, she remembered his warnings from earlier as his voice echoed through her mind.
Don't even think about trying to play hero or testing your strength by challenging it. This isn't an ordinary Heartless, 'ya hear me? Don't go near it. Leave everything to me. In fact, don't even think about drawing your Keyblade.
Before she had seen that the Drainer was in possession of the First Key of Radiance, she honestly thought honoring Xigbar's commands would be simple. She knew she wasn't cut out for battle, especially not against something that was drastically stronger than her, but that was before she knew there were some Heartless out there that Xigbar's bullets couldn't penetrate. He needed help and she was the only one around to jump in.
But…Xigbar made her promise not to interfere. What was she supposed to do?