Chapter 2: Two Sides
My eyes couldn't help but widen in amazement at the sight through the window of the Gummi Ship. Space and stars as far as the eye could see with galaxies in the distance, but it didn't have the darkness of space, because it was illuminated by colours like an aurora.
"Enjoying the view?" I turned to Clara and her smile.
"Yeah, I didn't realise it was so beautiful." I admitted.
"Soak it in." Oswald smiled as he piloted the ship. "Not many people get to see the space inbetween worlds ya know."
"I can't wait to see what's out here." I thought aloud.
"Certainly is exciting, ain't it?" Oswald asked.
"So, uh, awkward question, but...what are you two...like?" I asked.
"Whaddya mean? Oswald asked.
"Well...why are you after the Door of Light?" I questioned.
"Simple. We're gonna bring all the worlds back." Clara replied, smiling.
"But...why you two?"
"It's a mission I gave myself." Oswald explained. "I've studied all manner of light and darkness in the past, and when worlds began to vanish more rapidly, I decided to find the Door to Light to restore them. Actually stopping the worlds destruction is...another ones job." He seemed to mumble more when he said that last part.
"And I'm travelling with him because he saved me after my world was destroyed. I wanna help as much as I can, too!" Clara beamed.
"And...how did you get this Gummi Ship?" I wondered aloud.
"Get it? Ha!" Oswald turned to me with a confident smile. "I made it!"
"You built this whole Gummi Ship?" I gasped.
"All by myself." He boasted. "Always had a knack for making things, me. Let me tell you, working with both magic and technology really is amazing."
"Woah...that's really incredible, Oswald!" I praised him.
"O-Oh! Thanks, heh-heh." He chuckled. "Glad to see someone appreciates my skills."
"I do!" Clara waved her hand.
"I wish I could use magic and incorporate it into my things too." I said.
"So you ARE the techno type! Yeah-heh!" Oswald cheered. "I guessed from that machine you brought on board."
"Uh-huh. I've always liked making things, and learning about how everything works." I nodded. "But, because I've only known Traverse Town, not even my original world, my knowledge is very limited..."
I stared out the window again. "So, with this opportunity, I want to learn as much about everything as I can!"
"That's a wonderful ambition." Clara clapped.
"I can definitely get behind a dream like that." Oswald said, then he looked forward. "Oh! Look lively you two, we're coming up on a new world."
"Really!?" I pressed my face up against the glass window to see something slowly closing in on us.
It appeared to be a sphere, only it was dark pink with hedges in the shapes of hearts covering it, along with what looked like clocks sticking out of it.
"That's a world? It looks kind of...small." I stated.
"That's not the world itself." Oswald said. "It's a representation of itself to outside travelers. Think of it like a little preview image painted onto the front gates."
"Oh...so, how do we land?" I went on.
"Like...this!" He suddenly shot forward full force!
"Woahwoahwoah you're gonna crash!" I cried as we barrelled straight at the sphere.
But instead of crashing into it, we instead went THROUGH it in a burst of colourful lights forming into a tunnelling portal, before we came out into darkness.
"Here we go." Oswald spoke casually.
"Could you give me some warning next time!?" I panted, clutching my chest.
"Sorry about that. But we've arrived." He stared out the window. "Hmmm...funny, don't see anythin'."
"Ooooh! It's below us!" Clara pointed out the window. We looked down to see some kind of small tunnel leading to an odd room.
"It's a bit of a drop." I stated.
"Can't go any lower though, too small for the ship." Oswald said.
"Then how do we-ah!" I accidentally leaned against the glass as the rabbit opened the sphere for us and fell out.
"Nox!" Both of them gasped.
I thought I was gonna fall and land painfully...but instead...
"I'm...floating?" I was descending very slowly, watching as clocks and furniture flew up past me, along with a mirror with a weird reversed reflection.
"Guess it's safe then!" Clara determined as she also jumped out, followed by Oswald, all three of us then descended slowly and landed in the room.
Wonderland
"This place is...weird." Was all I could say, looking around the wonky room.
"I think it's pretty wonderful." Clara praised.
"Do you really think the Door to the Light could be here?" I asked.
"Never sure." Oswald shrugged. "But they say the Door appears to those with true Light. Worlds themselves have their own lights, so theoretically, the Door could be anywhere there is light. That's why we're searching every world as thoroughly as possible."
"Hmmm, well, it seems from here there's only one way we can go." I pointed to the single curving corridor.
We walked down it and through a series of doors before coming into a pink coloured room of some kind with a bed, table that had two drinks on top of it, and what seemed to be a small door.
"Okayyyy..." I was honestly having difficulty trying to interpret what all of this was about. Did people actually live in this 'world'?
"Dead end looks like it. Save for that door." Oswald pointed at the tiny one.
I knelt down to it. "There's no way we could fit through there."
"Of course not, you're far too big." The doorknob said...wait...
"The doorknob spoke!" All three of us gasped.
"Aahhhh! My word, so many noisy people coming through today!" The doorknob groaned. "Honestly, why do I even bother trying to sleep?"
"Very sorry for disturbing you, sir." Clara spoke to it.
"Oh, well...quite alright my dear." He sniffed. "It's just I'm so groggy..."
"Do you know a way we can come through here?" Clara asked sweetly. "If we do, we'll leave you to sleep peacefully."
"That would be lovely." The doorknob admitted. "In that case, try the blue bottle on the table?"
Our trio looked down at the blue and red bottles on the table. "These ones? So we have to drink them?" Clara wondered aloud.
"Be careful. We still don't know how this world works. Who knows what just a drink will do." Oswald warned.
"Oh, it'll be fine." Clara waved it off with a smile as she rank from it. "Mmm, it's sweet!"
She handed the bottle to me and I peered in. It looked like milk, but more importantly, it looked full, despite Clara just drinking from it.
"Welp, only one way to find out." I drank a mouthful, and it actually was sweet, like chocolate. "That really is nice!"
"Okay, okay, quit taunting me and let me taste." Oswald gave in as I handed him the bottle and he drank from it. "Aaah, that's nice." He put it back on the table. "So, what happens noooooow!?"
Suddenly, the three of us shrank down to the size of mice!
"Wow, this must be magic, or chemistry, or something." I figured, as we were now the same size as the door.
"In a drink? There are SOME boundaries to these things." Oswald said that, but he looked just as thoughtful.
"Everything looks different when your smaller." I noted, when suddenly, several Shadows and Soldiers appeared in front of us! "Heartless!"
"Looks like some things remain the same." Oswald sighed as we readied our weapons.
To my own shock I found that Shadows and Soldiers weren't exactly difficult for me to handle. Just a few days ago three Shadows would be a real danger to me tied with one Soldier, but with the Guardiarm I blew through all of them. They were quickly reduced to nothing but orbs and Munny.
"It's a shame they showed up when we were shrunk." Clara moaned as her Familiar sucked up all the Munny. "If we were normal size, we could have squashed them like ants."...She was still smiling as she said that.
"Actually, that was smart of them." I spoke. "They only showed up when we were more viable targets. It shows that they're not completely unintelligent."
"More like instinctual." Oswald said. "Heartless only work on their own primal urges for hearts. Nothin' else matters to 'em."
"They drop a lot of stuff as well." I noted, when my eye caught something, and I picked it up.
'It's another gem, like the one the Nightstar dropped.' Except it was much smaller, and all I could see inside it was a little dark purple swirl. 'These things...they're becoming more prominent...but the Heartless in Traverse Town never dropped them before...maybe...'
"Oi, Nox!" Oswald called to me. "C'mon! Door's gonna let us through!" I quickly pocketed the gem and followed after them.
"Now I can finally get some sleep..." The door hoped aloud as it opened and we walked through, it closing behind us.
What we walked into was...not what I expected. I honestly didn't know what I should have expected in this place, but not some kind of purple and green forest with arrow signs pointing in every direction imaginable.
"Sssssssooooooo which way?" I asked.
"'Which way' is not the way." A voice suddenly echoed out. "All ways here are wrong ways. Mostly because they're others ways."
"Hey! Who's talkin'!?" Oswald yelled out. "Show yourself, coward!"
Then, something appeared on the branches of one of the trees. It appeared to be a pink striped tail, and it swung itself around to reveal the rest of the striped body and a big, grinning face.
"Yourself is myself, though this self is a strange self indeed." The cat grinned.
"You're a...cat?" I thought aloud.
"A Cheshire Cat." He corrected me. "I must say, it seems troublesome trios travel in threes. You're the second pair of thirds here."
"Do you mean, three others are here? You mean Sora, Donald and Goofy?" I guessed.
"Who can say? Well, I can say. But I won't say if you say that I should say where they stay." He almost giggled in his speech. "Why don't you look around? Plenty of arrows to direct and misdirect you, you'll find your misguided misdirection eventually." He then seemed to fade away into nothingness.
"That was...weird." Oswald mumbled.
"Well, we heard the crazy cat. Sora's group is here somewhere. All we can do is look around." I nodded.
"That's the spirit!" Clara agreed.
We followed one path and seemed to come to a cottage of some kind with a carrot patch growing beside it.
"What do you know? Somebody actually lives here." I commented.
"What a cute little cottage." Clara complimented.
"C'mon, let's check it out." Oswald said.
I knocked on the pink door. "Hello? Anybody in?" When no response came, I opened the door, and found that nearly every object was rabbit themed with two pointed ears or just bunny pictures.
"A bunch of rabbit fanatic stuff...well, this is awkward for me." Oswald admitted.
"Even cuter." Clara practically squealed.
We walked upstairs into the bedroom, which was quite small, it was easy to look around in.
"Doesn't seem to be anything here." I noted.
"'Cept for a chest." Oswald kicked a red box. "Could always take what's in it."
"Isn't that stealing?" I clarified.
"Depends on the contents." He told me. "Things from other worlds have been misplaced all over the multiverse from multiple destructions alongside the pathways between them being forced open by the Heartless. You think the Potions and Ethers Clara has been collecting really belong in worlds like this? If anythin', we're doin' good by acting as cleaners, preventin' anybody else from getting their hands on stuff like this."
"...You actually make a very valid point...but I can't help but think it's an excuse of some kind." I rationalised.
He rolled his eyes and opened the box, reaching inside and pulling out a blue vial with two green stars in it. "Hi-Potion. See? Cleaning. Okay, Clara, put this in your bag and-hey!"
I turned to Clara to see her swallowing something with her innocent smile. "What?"
"What do you think you're doing just eating anything you find? Especially in a world like this, where a drink shrank us down?" Oswald complained.
"There's a little box of cakes here." She pointed to a small box that had little square cakes reading 'Eat Me' inside them. "They're saying I can."
"Doesn't mean you should!" Oswald argued.
"There's still plenty left if you-ow!" Suddenly, Clara had a massive spontaneous growth spurt that made her hit her head on the ceiling of the house. "That's weird-ah!" She grew again, forcing her into a sitting position in the now cramped room.
"Uh, Oswald? We should leave." I said.
"Way ahead of ya!" He cried as he sprinted out the door.
I followed him out the door of the house just before Clara's legs burst through, her arms ripping out of the roof as the front windows flew open to reveal her face.
"Ummm, I think I'm stuck." She said.
"No kidding." I said, when suddenly some Soldiers appeared behind us! "And now there's this!"
"We gotta protect Clara!" Oswald said as he pulled out his Wrench as I summoned the Guardiarm.
The Soldiers were easy to beat, and didn't come close to the house. But then some new Heartless FLEW in. They were little red ones that were triangle shaped wearing yellow curling wizard hats. I came up with this nice little naming scheme where I gave them a colour then a music theme...it's clever! Anyway, I named this one Red Nocturne.
The little guys all gathered around and started shooting fireballs at the hay roof, causing it to be set alight.
"Ah! Ouch! No fair!" Clara cried as she tried to wave the fire away.
"Hold on!" I stretched my whips out and grabbed one of them before slamming it into the ground.
"I gotcha covered!" Oswald declared. "Thunder!" Suddenly a bolt of lightning fell from nowhere and struck one of the Red Nocturne's before sparking out and zapping the rest of them.
"Phew, that was close." Clara breathed in relief.
I quickly punched the last one and found it dropped another gem. This one was small like the dark ones, except it had a tiny little ember inside of it.
'They're different...I'm beginning to get a collection.' I thought as I pocketed it.
"You're lucky I knew how to do somethin' like that." Oswald told her.
"So you really can use Magic!" I pointed, rather dumbly.
"Told you, didn't I?" He boasted again. "I may not know all of it, but the ones I do, I'm quite proficient in."
"I helped too!" Clara waved, stuck inside the house.
"You okay, Clara?" I asked.
"Oh yes! Thank you, you two! Shame I missed out on the fun, though." She replied.
"Now how we gonna get you back to normal?" Oswald thought aloud.
"Hmmmm..." I pondered for a moment. "If eating something sweet made her grow, maybe eating something else will have the opposite effect." I walked over to the carrot garden and plucked one out. "Try this."
I placed it in her large hand and she ate it. After a second she quickly shrank down back into the house, and walked out at her normal size. Well, we were still shrunk, but you get what I mean.
"That's better." She breathed a sigh of relief as I did my best to place the door back in place.
"Alright, new rule, we don't eat anything else whilst we're here." Oswald put his foot down.
"Okay..." Clara looked a bit sheepish, but still managed to retain a small smile.
"Let's try one of the other ways." I said, walking back the way we came.
Another pathway seemed to lead into some kind of hedge maze. It was difficult to navigate, and the fact that Shadows, Soldiers and Red Nocturne's kept appearing didn't help in the slightest. But whilst we were beating them, I picked up on something.
'It seems that the Heartless only drop these when I defeat them.' I thought, looking at the five red orbs and eight black orbs I had accumulated alongside the big one I got from the Nightstar. 'So they must be tied to the Guardiarm somehow...'
I held the five red ones in my right hand and summoned the Guardiarm. As soon as it appeared, the five orbs started floating in its palm, then they began to emit a light, a soft, rhythmic pulse.
"Hey, Nox! What's that?" Clara looked over my shoulder.
"They're orbs I've been picking up...well, more like, Shards I guess." I figured.
"They came from the Heartless? Looks new to me." Oswald said.
"Sure it's okay to pick up Heartless droppings?" Clara said.
"We've been taking their Munny." I argued, before scrunching my eyes up. "I think I've seen this light before."
"Where?" Oswald asked.
I thought for a moment. "I remember! This light is the same I saw when I watched the Moogles work. It came from their furnace...it's the light of Synthesis!"
"Synthesis?" Clara echoed in awe. "The Guardiarm can use Synthesis? Can it work on my Items?" Her pouch spat up two Potions, but they just bounced off of my hand, and the actual tongue of the pouch caught them before they could shatter on the ground.
"Seems like it only works on these." I said. "But how does it work?"
"Sorry, no clue." Oswald shrugged.
"Have you tried concentrating?" Clara asked.
"Concentrating?" I repeated.
"Yeah, like focusing. Focusing is really important you know, in anything, really!"
"Focusing...focus..." I stared at the Shards intently, focusing on them, willing them to do...something.
Then, the five of them began spinning around each other, and they all joined together into a bigger diamond shape that the Guardiarm absorbed into itself.
"It's like with the first one." I remembered, staring at my palm. "Wonder what it does?" I held out my palm and focused.
Unexpectedly, I shot out a fireball that singed the hedge wall!
"Woah! You just used Fire!" Clara gasped.
"No way! I can use Magic!?" I focused and shot out another fireball that traveled a fair distance down the path before fizzling out. "This is so cool!" I tried firing a third one, but found nothing came. "Huh?"
"Seems like you're out of MP." Clara said.
"MP?" I echoed.
"What we use to gauge how much Magic ya got in the tank." Oswald elaborated. Focusing for a moment, I did feel a bit, empty...like, only a quarter full if I had to make an estimation.
"Hold on." Clara's pouch spat out a small blue cube that it tossed up. The cube burst into a soft blue light that washed over me, and I felt 'full' again. "Ether fills you back up."
"I can use Magic..." I stared at the Guardiarm in fascination, it really was amazing. "Shame I can only do it twice."
"Once you get used to Magic, your MP is sure to increase." Clara reassured me. "I didn't imagine your weapon could do something like this, but, be careful about using it, alright?"
"I will. Don't worry." I assured her.
We managed to find our way out of the hedge maze and back to the arrow trees. When we came back, a familiar voice rang out.
"Did you enjoy not finding not your way?" The Cheshire Cat reappeared on a tree branch balancing on its own head, before putting it back on its shoulders.
"More riddles, huh?" I thought aloud.
"No riddles from me, but riddle me this: How can you find a way that is your own when the way you walk is defined by others?"
"...He's makin' my head hurt." Oswald admitted.
"What do you mean when you say our way is defined by others?" I asked.
"Why, this worlds itself is twisted and turned by others." The cat gestured with its legs as if they were arms. "Made of dreams and illusions and hysterical fits."
"Sounds pretty cool." Clara stated simply.
"This world is defined by others?" I simplified it.
"Correct. And of course, the way you walk is also paved by others, out of sight." The cat giggled. "But your goal is always the same, in front of your spying eyes. Those who walk in light skip towards the shine, those in shadows charge into the dark."
"Wait, now you're taling about light and darkness?" Oswald perked up. "Just who are you, cat?"
"Just a Cheshire Cat, who are you?" It giggled. "But I suppose I can show you a way. A different way, made of different fits and illusions and dreams. I'll even show you a shortcut." He pulled down on the branch of the tree, and suddenly a door opened up in the tree before it vanished.
"Can we trust a cat?" Clara asked me.
"Why you asking me?"
"Because you where the only one who seemed to understand him." Oswald said.
"I didn't understand. I interpreted." I said. "But, we've looked everywhere else, so might as well." And so we walked into the tree, and what we found was the most shocking thing yet.
The sky was a murky black and dark yellow. Cracked stone paths were under out feet, and almost all around us were black, thorned vines that snaked and snared and strangled the almost dying bushes, as random blood red roses sprouted everywhere. It led up to a towering, dark red castle with a large, almost black red heart on the front of it.
"What...is this?" Clara asked in disbelief. "It looks and feels completely different from the rest of this place!"
"He said that this is a part of the world made from different...whatever they were." I said. "Guess this is the darker half."
"Why would someone do this?" Clara asked, shaking her head, her smile leaving her face. "Turn a wonderful mystical world into...this?"
"Well...when you see something like this...sometimes a mind wants to twist it, and try to see what it would look like if...it was more sinister, more disturbing. That's just my creative thought at least." I said.
"A dark half, huh?" Oswald said. "I doubt the Door to Light would be here...but I don't think we can overlook this."
"We should explore at least. There are probably Heartless around." Clara agreed.
"Right." I nodded as we began walking forward.
We did indeed run into a few Soldiers, Red Nocturne's and even two Large Bodies as we explored. The further we went in though, the scenery remained the same; broken stone, black thorns and bloody roses.
Eventually, we came into a wide open area, like the ruins of a coliseum.
"Where's this?" I thought aloud.
"Seems fancy." Clara stated.
"Uhhh, you two?" We looked as Oswald pointed at a prominent stone block in the middle of the area with a heart engraved on it.
"What's this supposed to be?" I thought aloud.
"Well, um...yep, yep, I think that's a chopping block." Oswald said. "...Definitely a chopping block."
"Chopping block!?" Me and Clara instinctively clutched our throats.
"How horrible!" She gasped.
"Looks like whoever in charge is very chop-happy." Oswald grimaced.
"What are you three doing in my castle!?" We all jumped as a loud booming voice echoed around us. We looked up to see someone who definitely didn't look like she belonged here. She was a fat pale-skinned queen wearing a tiny golden crown with black and red robes and a heart on a stick. Following her was a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and glasses of all things!
"Your...castle?" I said, looking around at the ruins. "Are you sure?"
"Silence!" She boomed. "I see what's going on here! You three are after my life!"
"What!?" All three of us gasped.
"You thought you could just waltz in here and kill me like those monsters!? You despicable beings!" She ranted.
"Hold on a second!" I yelled. "We weren't even thinking that! We were just trying to find something!"
"Impossible! Everything here is mine! There's nothing for you to find!...Unless you took my life!" She yelled.
"...Is she deaf?" I whispered to the other two, who could only shrug.
"What are you mumbling about down there!?" She shouted. "I've seen enough! Guilty! Oooooooooooff with their heads!"
Suddenly, soldiers that looked like playing cards all sprung up in the stands and began cheering as the giant metal door in front of us slowly opened. What came out of it was a more, gruesome version of a card soldier. The heart on its front had colours that were dripping down, almost as if the heart was bleeding, and it carried a giant dark red axe with a heart shaped head, and wore a black spade shaped executioners hood. This was the Executioner of Hearts.
"That doesn't look good!" I gasped as the way we came in was barred by an iron gate.
The Executioner reached behind its back and somehow pulled out a mushroom which it ate, causing it to quickly grow to thrice its size!
"And that's definitely not good!" Clara gasped as the now giant Executioner pulled its axe back. We all ran out of the way as its axe crashed into the ground with tremendous force, causing the crowd of cards to cheer wildly.
"Looks like we're fighting!" Oswald declared as we readied our weapons.
The Executioner swung its axe in a wide birth that we barely managed to avoid. Oswald jumped and swung at the Executioner's head, but the giant merely blocked it with its hand before swiping its arms and knocking him back. Clara ran forward and bit its leg using her Familiar, but it easily shook her off before I charged forward. I honestly had no idea what to do against an opponent like this, so I tried stretching my whips forward and slashing at its flat body, but it seemed to barely feel it as it swung its axe, making me fall on my stomach as it sliced through the air over my head.
"How on earth are we supposed to fight something this size!?" I yelled out.
"Ya never watched giant monster movies? Aim for its head!" Oswald said as he smacked it across the leg with his Wrench.
"My whips can't reach that high!" I argued.
"But you've got something else now, right?" Clara asked.
"...Oh, right! My Magic!" I remembered. "But I can only use it twice...I'm gonna have to get a good aim!"
"I can help!" Clara declared. She jumped forward and held her Familiar forward. "Blizzard!" The Familiar coughed out a ball of ice that froze the giants hands, causing them to collapse to its sides.
"Right! Fire!" I shot a fireball from the Guardiam that crashed into its face, making it stumble back.
"Great! We're pressuring it!" Oswald declared as he brought his weapon down on its back.
"Awesome!" I declared as I ran forward. "I'm gonna hit it hard!"
"Nox! I'll give you a boost!" Clara waved.
"Boost?" I echoed.
"Yeah!...Just don't scream!" Suddenly her Familiar grew large and swallowed all of me apart from my head sticking out!
"...Wha-?" I gasped as I felt like I was completely enveloped in felt before Clara aimed me at its head.
"Launch!" She yelled as the Familiar suddenly spat me forward!
"Ahhhhhh!" I screamed as I shot through the air, closing in on it. "Ahhh c'mon, Nox! Act cool!" I flailed wildly some more.
Suddenly, a whole bunch of the card soldiers suddenly gathered together and formed a wall that blocked my punch.
"Ah! Ahhhhhhhhh!" I yelled as I fell, thankfully Oswald jumped and grabbed me, making us both land safely. "Clara! A little warning next time!"
"It was fun, though, right?" She smiled.
However, our chat was cut short as all the card soldiers in the stands began flying around with long spears and swooped down on us at high speeds.
"This is unfair!" Clara whined as we dodged the now attacking soldiers as the giant one was still attacking us, the combined assault meant that I was slashed across the chest and the face, before being thrown skyward by the force of the crashing big axe and painfully landing.
"Gah! C...Clara, O-Oswald...the big guys easy, at least he's an easy target. We gotta get rid of these things first!" I used my whips to slap several of them out of the air, making them flutter to the ground like useless cards.
"Easy! Thunder!" Oswald cast the Spell again which zapped a group of them.
"Gotcha!" Clara winked as her Familiar opened up and grabbed several of them in its mouth, before forcefully spitting them out at the Executioner who blocked its own comrades with its axe.
"Okay! This time-!" I ran forward with a punch again, but the remaining ones formed a wall around him lightning fast, before the one in front of me stabbed me in the gut. A sharp pain flared up from my stomach and I fell to my knees as I clutched my abdomen.
"Nox!" Clara suddenly pulled me out of the way as the axe crashed down where we previously stood. She quickly used a Potion, causing the pain to fade away. "Are you okay?"
"Now I am, I think." I said as I quickly stood up whilst Oswald beat away the rest of the cards.
"That's the rest of them." No sooner had Oswald said that when dozens more card soldiers shot out of the crowds. "Oh come on!"
"How are we supposed to deal with all of this?" Clara gasped as her Familiar attacked the card soldiers again.
'This is bad...c'mon! Think!' I panicked. 'I can only use Fire one more time...and even if I use the Guardiarm on the soldiers, more just keep appearing! What do I do!?'
I quickly took out the bigger orb with a star in it. "Can you do something!? Anything to help!?" I took out the rest of the small dark orbs, there were fifteen now. "You have to be useful somehow!" I held all sixteen shards over the Guardiarm, and suddenly it gave off the soft light again. "Wait...now it's working?"
"Nox! Watch out!" Clara cried as some soldiers suddenly descended towards me.
"Okay! C'mon! Focus...Synthesis!" The orbs combined together and gave off a strong light that suddenly pushed back all of the soldiers and somehow deflected the giant heavy axe.
When the light faded away, I was holding something. It was a long, dark blue lance with little white dots on it, resembling space. The head of the lance had a bright yellow star in the middle of it, as its elongated point was layered with green, blue and pink neon colours. I later named this the Star Spear.
"What's...this?" I gaped at it. I didn't have long before the cards suddenly swooped down on me again! "Ah! Uh...do something, please!"
I held the spear forward in an attempt to do...something, when suddenly it launched itself forward, spinning like a rocket! It drilled through the cards like paper before smashing into the Executioner with such force it pinned it to the wall before it vanished in a beam of light.
"Woah..." I stared at the damage the attack had done in awe.
"Nox!" Clara quickly helped me up.
"Don't worry, I'm good." I assured her. "This is our chance! Let's finish it whilst its downed!"
"Way ahead of you!" Oswald declared as he aimed his wrench, and the spring part sprung forward and hit it in the head, before latching on with its teeth, and pulling the giants head down to smash it into the ground. It groaned as it reached for its axe which it dropped.
"No you don't!" Clara's Familiar bit the giants arm, making it retreat in recoil.
"I've gotta finish this now!" I thought aloud, looking at the axe. "Maybe if...!" I wrapped my whips around the axe, and using all of my strength (mostly the Guardiarm's power) I lifted the axe above my head. "Nnnngh! Clara! Oswald!"
"We got it!" Oswald said as he weighed down one of its arms.
"Go for it, Nox!" Clara cheered, holding down the other arm as the giant flapped feebly beneath them.
"Nnnnnnngh! Bloody Beheader!" Using all my strength, I slashed the giants neck with its own axe, causing the giant as well as its axe to explode into red paper hearts. I then promptly sat down. "Phew..."
"Way to go, Nox!" Clara cheered.
"What was that you yelled?" Oswald asked.
"Uh...attack name?" I responded.
"...Cool." He gave me a thumbs up.
"You...! How dare you defeat my executioner!" The queen yelled. "Guards! Seize them!...Guards!"
"...Looks like you're out of guards." I observed, looking around at the empty stands. "Guess that means we win."
"You!? Win!? I always win!" The queen screamed. "Always!"
"I think that's enough." Clara said. "I don't think the Door to Light is here."
"Yeah, especially with this loud bagpipe hag here." Oswald muttered.
"Guess so. Welp, see you, Queen!" I waved.
"Wha-!? Where are you going!?"
"Our own way." I said as the gate behind us opened.
"You can't! All ways are mine here! MINE!" She continued to rant as we walked out and I couldn't help but smile a little.
"A shame...this is such an interesting world too." Clara lamented as we walked.
"Shame the people are a bit...eccentric." I chose my words carefully.
"Don't worry. Not all worlds are like this." Oswald assured me. "By the way, Nox...that spear you summoned..."
"Oh yeah, I made it from Synthesis...but..." I focused again. I felt completely empty. "It completely drained my MP, and it was just one attack."
"Maybe because it was born from Heartless." Clara theorised.
"That might make it dangerous. Maybe you shouldn't try that again, Nox." Oswald said.
"Are you kidding? If I have something like this, its a new ability to experiment with!" I couldn't help but grin. "The Guardiarm is awesome!"
"Hmmm...okay. But if you fall into the darkness, I'll kill you." Oswald stated simply.
"What!?"
"Just kidding!" He laughed.
"But you said it so seriously..." I breathed.
We stepped through the mirror back into the more bizarre Wonderland. "Hey, we didn't find Sora's group." I realised.
"Oh, you remembered too. Bit of a shame." Oswald nodded. "But on the other hand, who's to say that cat could even be trusted?"
"Being trusting of a stranger means you should distrust your trusting." Speak of the devil and he shall appear on a tree branch.
"You. You know a lot more then you let on." I stated.
"Indeed. My mind tends to go a wandering, much like you three are doing. And the other three. And others." He grinned. "So much wandering to do, so much to see...yet I never leave."
"Something about you is definitely...different from anything else here, yet still belongs here." Clara said.
"Quite." The cat agreed rather simply. "But you shouldn't dwell on me. After all, there are other things far more dangerous to dwell on."
"What are you talking about now?" I thought aloud.
"Wanderers such as yourselves can be dangerous things." The cat said. "Beware of what you find, because the truth is also a very dangerous thing, because what is it in the end? Really, a man with mirrors and delusions. And that is the most dangerous man of all." He then faded away.
"Until the very end...he confuses me." Oswald sighed.
"Guess we'll just have to find out about it later." I shrugged.
We returned to the weird room and got back to normal size with the other bottle, before returning to our ship.
"Onto the next one, then." Oswald said, before turning to me. "How was it?"
"Hm?" I realised he was talking to me.
"Your first world."
"Well...it was certainly weird." I admitted, but then I smiled. "But looking back on it, I can't help but smile at how beautifully weird it really was."
"That's the spirit!" Clara cheered. "Let's go and find a weirder world next!"
"Yeah!" I cheered. "Let's go!" And so we set off again, leaving my first new world behind us.
Info
Shade Shard: Used in Shard Synthesis. Dropped by Pureblood Heartless
Ember Shard: Used in Shard Synthesis. Dropped by Fire-related Heartless.
Star Spear: A Heartfelt Attack based off of the Nightstar. It shoots the spear as a drilling attack that launches in a straight line.
Executioner of Hearts: The queens very own favourite card from the other side of Wonderland. Its upgraded size and deadly axe gave it tremendous strength, but it was no match for the combined might of Nox, Clara and Oswald!
And so the second chapter is out, completing Wonderland quite quickly Let me know what you guys think about this style of one world each chapter. Should I continue like this, or should I slow down a bit?
Also, just to let you know, I will be telling this story as if it was an actual Kingdom Hearts game. Including all of Nox's abilities, like the Guardiarm Synthesis.
Nox has the ability to use Heartfelt Attacks, which he can make through Shard Synthesis. Heartfelt Attacks act as his own form of Sora's Summons, and allows Nox to unleash a powerful attack based off of the Boss Heartless he got the main Shard from.
Now then, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! And I'll see you in the next one! Let me know which world you want to see next: Deep Jungle or Olympus Coliseum!