Oh hey, would you look at that. Another chapter has risen! So sorry for the delay. The usual of school, life, writers block, etc. But we got another one for all of you. THANK You all so much again for checking out this story. I seriously never expected it to get so popular. So big thanks from me and TheDeadGirlRisen!

Ch.23

After Sora had met back up with Donald and Goofy, he told them that he was ready to leave. Once they double checked over everything, they headed out towards the exit of Traverse Town. Once the group arrived, they noticed there was a portal light that would lead them back up to the Gummi ship. Sora was still feeling a bit nervous, but he breathed, trying his best to stay calm.

Donald pulled out a small remote control from his pocket and pressed a button. In the blink of an eye, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were teleported from the ground up into space, right into the Gummi ship. Currently they were in the back of the ship, where the teleporter was. Sora started to glance around seeing all the strange technological devices attached to the walls of the ship.

"Whoa…" was the only word that slipped out from his mouth.

"Just wait 'till ya see the cockpit. That's even more impressive," Goofy commented as he lead the group out.

'Yes, if only for the reason that we will be able to view space.'

"I can't wait to see it though, the view must be pretty at least," Sora replied.

'Oh it is. Though I've never been in a ship like this, I have been through space, I can remember that it's quite a sight.'

Quietly, Sora followed Donald and Goofy into the cockpit. From there his eyes widened with wonder. Immediately he ran up to the side and stared out the dome glass ceiling/window. Out before him was miles and miles of stars and space. Far more stars than he ever had seen before in his life.

He couldn't take his eyes off of the view. His heart swirled with wonder as he kept finding everything so fascinating. "Oh wow… I've… I've never seen so many stars. It's breathtaking."

'See? What did I tell you. It's truly a magnificent sight.'

'Even I have to agree it is a beautiful backdrop.'

Sora smiled as he continued to gaze upon all the stars. He made sure to shut his mouth and go back to thinking his thoughts, as he wanted to have a conversation with just Vanitas and Ventus.

"I can't believe it though… that I am up here. Seeing all of this... I wish Kairi and Riku could see it…"

'Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right Sora. Remember we have something to tell you about Kairi, just not right now.'

"I know… I still worry though… But I know you guys are here to reassure me."

'That's Ventus's job, I'm here to give you the realistic truths.'

"But it's the thought that counts," Sora retorted. "I know you still care. You just express it differently."

'Whatever,' Vanitas grumbled.

Before Sora could answer, someone cleared their throat, pulling him from his concentration on his talk. Sora jumped slightly, but turned around to see it was only Donald. He tapped his webbed foot as he looked at Sora.

"Sora are you listening?" he asked, cleary seeing Sora had not been.

"U-Uh ... Sorry! I was just… erm… getting lost in the view," Sora said quickly, hoping that it didn't come off as too fake sounding.

"Sure," Donald replied, giving a small shrug. "Anyways as we explained before, this ship can take us to other worlds."

Goofy, who was already sitting in one of the seats in the cockpit turned around to join in the conversation. "The Heartless ships often give us a hard time."

"Wait, what?! There are Heartless… all the way out here? In space and in their own ships?" Sora exclaimed.

"We don't know too much about them," Donald answered. "They could be Heartless that are in the shape of a ship for all we know. We manage it just fine though. The gummi ship has good defences and guns to fight them off."

"Just gotta be aware when we're in flight," Goofy added in.

"Now let's head off. Take your seat and we can head off."

Sora took his seat and buckled up. Donald took the pilot seat and set the ship in motion. Soon the stars moved around them as they flew through space. Sora once again gawked in amazement. The sight was still far more than he ever expected. Looking up into the stars couldn't compare to flying through space and having an unobstructed view of them.

"Hey guys, when do you think we will get to practice magic?"

'Not sure, but if we don't get time to ourselves to teach you, we can learn on the go,' Ventus suggested.

"Okay, sounds good."

After that Sora began to focus on the journey ahead. They traveled through space for a while until Heartless started to show up. Donald entrusted Sora to get to the ships weapons area, so he could fire and attack the Heartless. Sora nodded, albeit feeling a bit worried about the idea. He knew they needed to try and clear a path out from the oncoming Heartless though so he set off with determination.

There was a quick reassure from both Ventus and Vanitas though that he would be able to handle it. It would be different than swinging around a keyblade, but he would be able to manage it. Firing a weapon couldn't be too difficult after all. In fact as soon as Sora sat down in the seat and took hold of the control, he started firing right at the Heartless.

The more he focused, the better of a shot he got. Soon all the Heartless ships in the area were cleared out and the ship once again picked up speed. Sora stayed down by the weapons area though, in case another fleet showed up. Which, after a few minutes, more did. Sora got right back into attacking them while Donald tried to steer the ship out of the way.

Soon enough all the Heartless were gone again and something could be seen in the distance. Sora made his way back up to the cockpit and took his seat. Now that he was back up in the top of the ship, he could see what was coming more clearly.

"Is that… is that what I think it is?" Sora asked hesitantly as the distant round object started to get bigger and bigger.

"Yup, that's a world up ahead," Goofy replied.

Sora felt a small mix of excitement and nervousness enter his system. They were closing in on a world. Another new world to Sora. He couldn't help but wonder many things all at once.

"What do you guys think this world is going to be like? Do you think either of you have been there before? There's probably Heartless there too, right?"

'It's nothing something to be excited about, you will be visiting many new worlds after all while we look for those friends of yours.'

Sora's mood shifted back to more worry than excitement. "Yeah… I guess that is true. It is still interesting. And hey, if this is a world you guys have been to, maybe you'll finally remember something."

Ventus hummed thoughtfully. 'That would be nice, wouldn't it? Though right now we don't know what the world even is.'

Sora cleared his throat, thinking of an idea. "Hey Donald, do you know what this world is called? Like how do we figure out something like that?"

'And he finally asks something smart,' Vanitas muttered in a slight teasing tone.

Sora had to withhold from commenting back to Vantias, as he was trying to pay attention to what Donald was about to say.

"The scanner built into the gummi ship tells us. This upcoming world is called…" He paused for a moment as he looked at the scanner, "Wonderland."

'I don't think I've heard of that world before… doesn't sound familiar. How about you Vantias?' Ventus asked.

'No, but it sounds like it is going to be full of annoying people… naming a place Wonderland… how lame…'

'Hey, you never know. This could be a really cool world!'

'I doubt it, I mean they named it Wonderland, that's kinda pretentious don't you think?'

'No, I think it makes it sound cool and well… full of wonder,' Ventus replied back.

"Yeah I'm with Ventus. We shouldn't judge a world, just by the name," Sora added in his own two cents.

'I doubt the world will be any more interesting than any other world.'

"I guess we'll just have to see," Sora commented as Donald slowed down the ship to hover above the world.

After that, they headed back to the transport area to teleport down to the world. When they entered the world, a whole new crazy adventure then started for Sora. The world of Wonderland was far more crazy and weird than any of them had expected. Even Vanitas could agree with that, though he still disliked it.

There were Heartless to fight, and much to Sora's surprise they seemed to fit in to the worlds asteetics. All new types of Heartless tried to attack him, but he kept his guard up and kept his eyes on fighting.

Along the way he ever practiced magic as Vanitas and Ventus instructed him. Within a span of a few minutes he had learned the basic fire spell, which brought him delight. It started to make things easier as he went along attacking the Heartless. Vantias also found it very amusing in watching Sora set fire to the Heartless.

'Why must you two be pyromaniacs…'

'Burn heartles burn!' Vanitas cackled as Sora shot more fire at the heartless.

Ventus sighed quietly, leaving the other two to their fun.

The adventure continued on until they reached a rather large Heartless. Sora swore that it had to be bigger than the one that was back in Traverse Town as he saw it towering over them. He didn't have any time to discuss that though as the battle quickly ensured.

Sora quickly learned along the battle that fire spells against this particular Heartless were bad, so he had to refrain from using them. He did wonder what he was going to do, but Ventus said that there were other elemental magic he could learn after this. Sora had been tempted to learn a blizzard spell right then and there, but both Ventus and Vanitas warned it was safer to do so afterwards. Sora knew from past experiences that it was best to listen to them as much as he could.

Once the Heartless were defeated, Sora locked the keyhole of Wonderland and they were ready to leave. Sora, Donald and Goofy headed back to teleport to the ship and once they arrived on the ship they told Sora where the resting quarters were if he wanted to relax.

"We will handle flying the ship and fighting off the Heartless. You can take a rest," Donald said. "We'll let you know when we get to the next world."

"Yeah, you did a really good out there. You deserve it," Goofy added in with a friendly smile.

Sora started surprised. He never expected to be complimented for his work. Not by anyone other than Riku and Kairi, and then of course Ventus and Vanitas. He only stared in shock for a moment, trying to process the compliments. Thankfully Ventus spoke up to him, snapping him out of his daze.

'You should thank them back.'

"O-Oh… Um thank you…" Sora muttered.

Donald and Goofy smiled back at him before both telling him "You're welcome," After that they let Sora head off to the resting area. Sora walked down there quietly before entering the room. Which was a small area with three beds built into the walls of the ship. Sora walked right up to one before flopping down on it with a tired yawn.

'At least we're out of that world, good job learning that fire spell, we'll have to see about finding the next level fire spell…'

"There's another level?" Sora thought his words, far too exhausted to speak out loud.

'I remember that there is something like that. Basically each level of the magic gets stronger. If I remember… the next fire spell is… Fira right?' Ventus asked towards Vanitas.

'That sounds correct,' Vanitas responded.

"Oh okay. So do I just gotta keep working on it until I get better at it?"

'Yeah, the more you practice it, the better you will get. Then you will get it to be Fira,' Ventus replied. 'But next you should focus on is bizzard, the opposite of fire.'

"So, is that a water spell then?"

'Erm.. not quite. There is a blizzard and then there is water. Two different things actually,' Ventus said, trying this best to explain.

"Oh ok."

'There are also dark versions of spells, such as the fire spell,' Vanitas commented.

Ventus felt a bit of apprehension towards Vanitas's comment. Even though over the past 10 years he had come to accept Vanitas, the darkness was still something he was wary of. 'Are we sure we really would need a spell like that though?'

'I do not complain about you teaching him light spells, so why are you complaining about me teaching him dark spells? This way Sora is balanced and can use both light and dark depending on what the situation requires.'

'You do have a point... I just never used spells like that before… so I am just unsure,' Ventus hesitantly spoke.

'Just as I have never used light spells before. Also this way Sora learns from both of us equally.'

"I agree," Sora said, chiming into the conversation. "Balance sounds right. So I wanna learn a little bit of both. And I know you guys can teach me!"

'Good than I will get started on teaching the dark fire spell.'

'Then after that I can help with the blizzard spell.'

Sora nodded, smiling in response. "Thanks guys… but I think I may just rest a little first… that was a lot more fighting than I expected.' He didn't even hear Vanitas or Ventus's response as he quickly drifted off into sleep.

We did skim over Wonderland yes. We aren't going to detail each and every world. Only will have a few points here and there if it feels necessary to have. Other than that, thanks for reading again!

Dead: Hello everyone hope your enjoying the story! Please let us know what you think and if you like the direction we're taking. Have a good day.