Be honest with me, dear reviewers and followers. Who wished they could directly threaten the Queen of Hearts and get away with it?

Anyway...HOLY CRAP, this chapter took a long while! Plus, this is the longest chapter I've written to date. I guess the madness of Wonderland was finally getting into my skull...

Guest1: Still curious about Medea and Axel? All in due time...all in due time...

Guest2: You wanted the scene of the villains? Here you go. Hope that sates you for a while.

That being said, it's gonna be a while till I present the next chapter; but in case you're curious...next up will be a familiar world.

Enjoy the chapter!

As usual, constructive reviews and compliments are welcome. Rude comments are not.

I own nothing of Kingdom Hearts except my OCs.

Read, leave a review, but no flames.

Chapter 4: Wonderland

Inside a dark room of what indicates to be originally a castle, a group of individuals were watching the scene unfolding before them; especially when they watched a boy, a woman and a girl inaudibly speaking with a duck and a dog. It was already clear that the Heartless that arrived in Traverse Town had been eliminated, which was a rather disconcerting notion for them.

"That little squirt and the moon child took down that Heartless! Who'd have thought it?" one individual asked.

"Such is the power of the Keyblade. The child's strength is not his own," the second individual agreed, "But what of that little girl? I've never seen her power before."

"Why don't we turn them into a Heartless? That'll settle things quick enough," the third – a female – cackled a bit.

"And the two brats' friends are the king's lackeys!" the fourth noted as he waved his hook. "Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the looks of them."

"You're no prize yourself," the fifth individual laughed, "The lady with the creepy hands could be, though."

"Shut up!" the fourth yelled threateningly.

But then another woman's voice interrupted them: "Enough."

From the shadows, a woman in a black robe with a flaring motif and horns on her head emerged to see the situation as well; rather than being frustrated, she was more amused at the change in developments, more so when she heard that the girl with power over the shadows is travelling alongside a boy with a weapon he hardly understands.

"The Keyblade has chosen him, and the Shadow Mage has finally emerged from her hiding place. Will it be they who conquer the darkness?" the woman wondered with intrigue. "Or will the darkness consume them? Either way, they might prove useful…"

As they sailed through the lanes away from Traverse Town, the two island friends got themselves a bit of a surprise when asked an unexpected question from their new friends, most likely wanting to delve into whatever they've missed since they weren't around when Luna was going through her recovery.

"Say, Sora, would ya mind tellin' us how Luna came to be with you?" Goofy asked out of curiosity.

Sora titled his head in confusion. "Why do you want to know where Luna's been?"

"If anything, they probably wanna know what happened to her," Medea answered for them.

When Luna heard that, she quickly noticed that Sora turned to her, giving her a face that asked 'should I tell them or do you want them to wait on it?'; she turned to Medea to know what she had to say about the matter, but the most her guardian gave her was a shrug that said 'it's your call, not mine'.

As much as Luna wanted her old friends to know where she was and what's she been through, she wasn't exactly favoring the idea of spilling out everything while they are out travelling; if only for the reason that she doesn't any information leaked out at the most inopportune hour. And besides, she didn't want the people who used to know her be kept in the dark about her whereabouts up until now; they would probably want to know as much as any other people she's met before would.

With that decision made, Luna turned to Sora and shook her head 'no' to indicate that she doesn't want to talk about it for now. Thankfully, he understood what message she was conveying to him.

"Sorry, guys, we'd rather not talk about it right now. Luna's not up for it," Sora told them.

"Why not?" Donald asked.

"Well, we're travelling right now, and…if it's okay with you two, could we wait until we get back to Traverse Town and meet up with Seymour again?" Luna requested, "I promise we'll tell you what we can afterwards."

"That's alright with us. Maybe ya just need t' sleep on it for a while," Goofy said, surprisingly willing to comply.

"Are you serious?" Donald questioned his pal.

"Yup. 'Cause we're coming up on the first world," Goofy replied as he pointed out the window of the cockpit.

Everyone looked ahead to where he was pointing, and – sure enough – they could see their first destination just a few leagues away from their current position. From a distance, it looked like a rather zany place with a castle surrounding by hedges in the form of hearts, along with a cottage and wonky trees and flora in a few places. It just made Luna and Sora wonder what could be waiting in such a curious place like that (no pun intended).

Once the gummi ship made a landing, the door was opened so that they could step into that world and take a look around. But there was one thing that suddenly bothered Luna…

"What is this place called?" Luna asked.

"It's called Wonderland, I think," Donald replied as he prepared to step out. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was just wondering…are we stepping on any ground?" she asked.

"What do you mean by…?" Sora was about to ask, until he looked down below his feet.

This made everyone else in turn look down and realize that they were merely standing in mid-air – far above what appears to an abyss miles under their feet! Then, without warning, all of them started to fall down the tunnel until the environment changed into a supposedly endless hallway aligned like the tunnel itself. Sure, there came a point where they started to fall at a slower rate than normal, but what they've been seeing really perplexed them; sometimes they would see furniture hovering around in certain places, a while other objects were hanging upside-down and every which-way. Throughout the fall, Sora and Luna couldn't help looking around in awe at the bizarre place around them, Donald was tapping his foot impatiently, Medea had her arms folded as she tapped her fingers like she's waiting for something to halt their descent, and Goofy took a nap for a little bit.

But their curiosity had to cease for a moment when everyone crashed onto the floor at the bottom and found themselves in a distorted hallway that didn't seem to be structured by regular architects. Then, all of a sudden, a white rabbit dressed in a waistcoat with a pocket watch ran past them, almost as though he was in a distressful hurry for something he had completely forgot about who knows how many hours ago.

"Oh, my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" the white rabbit cried out as he ran, "Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear! I'm here, but I should be there! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! The queen, she'll have my head for sure!"

As this was happening, everyone stood dumbfounded at what they just saw earlier.

"What was that about?" Sora wondered.

"What do you suppose made the rabbit so worried about being late?" Luna questioned, "Could he be needed to set up a tea party and forgot about it?"

Medea scoffed at that. "Oh, please! Weren't you listening to what he was saying? Didn't he say 'the queen, she'll have my head'? I'd like to know whoever the hell runs this place, and find out whether or not she should be called a queen at all."

Naturally curious as to the situation of the world, everyone followed down the hall to learn what was up that made the rabbit so distressed; but of course, they ran into a few surprises along the way. First of all, when they found a door, they opened it only to find another door followed by another and another door. One at a time, the group crawled through the door and found themselves inside what appeared to be someone's abode (whose it was is anyone's guess, but who gives a darn about it?) As expected of someone's home, it was filled with nearly every bit of furniture that gave the place a rather homey look to it.

But then they got another surprise when they saw the same white rabbit running through a door that looks way too small for any of them to fit in, let alone squeeze through without having any problems.

"How the hell did that happen?!" Medea questioned in a confounded tone.

"How did he get so small?" Sora wondered as he examined the door.

Just then, the doorknob gave out a lazy answer. "No, you're simply too big."

Everyone jolted in shock at what they just saw happen before their eyes; nobody saw a talking piece of a door coming.
"It talks!" Donald cried out.

Medea frowned at the duck. "No kidding, Sherlock, after what you saw a moment ago."

The doorknob mumbled a bit, before looking at them with sleepy eyes. "Must you be so loud? You woke me up."

"Good morning," Goofy said casually.

"Good night," the doorknob answered grouchily. "I need some sleep."

"Wait a minute, Mr. Doorknob. How can we get small enough to proceed?" Luna asked.

"Why don't you try drinking that bottle…over there?" the doorknob replied before falling asleep again.

Everyone turned around and, to their surprise, found a table right in the middle of the room with two bottles that were filled with red and blue mysterious contents that seemed rather suspicious to the average person.

"That wasn't there when we came in," Medea commented.

Sora looked at the bottles and examined both of the containers, checking to see what they're supposed to do with the containers and the stuff inside them.

"Are there any instructions on the bottles, Sora?" Luna asked.

"Nope, I don't see any. All the labels say is 'Drink Me', nothing else," Sora replied as he scratched his head, "We might as well give them a try, won't we?"

Before anyone could make any protests on this and say that things needed to be thought through, Sora drank from one of the bottles, and all of a sudden began to shrink until he was small enough to possibly fit through any small space.

"It's okay, guys! I'm fine," Sora reassured in a cute voice (due to his size).

Luna, feeling like Sora's right, reached for the bottle and tried it out herself. The moment she took in the strange stuff, she felt herself shrinking until she was at the smallest possible proportion.

"Oh! How peculiar…" Luna commented.

Moments afterwards, Donald, Goofy, and Medea also shrank down in little time until everyone was at the necessary height. While it was rather weird to not be their normal size, what else were they going to do? At the very least, they can keep going through the rest of Wonderland without more trouble – or at least they would, if one problem hadn't already occurred…

"Yo, sleepy door! Ya gonna let us through now?" Medea demanded.

But to their displeasure, the doorknob was already in a deep sleep, and snoring away. How mortifying that had to be after all the trouble they went through to try and move on!

"Hey! Wake up!" Donald shouted angrily to no avail.

"What are we going to do now, Sora? The doorknob is asleep again," Luna questioned, disappointed at their situation. "And we're not getting anywhere."

Sora shrugged his shoulders. "I wouldn't really know, would I?"

That was when Goofy spoke up from afar and said, "Hey, fellas! Maybe we can get through a hole by the bed over here."

The moment they heard this, everyone turned to find Goofy near the post of the bed and pointing toward a large hole that he must've found when they weren't paying attention. It looked like their luck was about to change after all; but who knows what they might find when they go through the hole?

"Maybe we'll find out where the rabbit went," Luna said as she started to go through. "I do want to know what was making him run in such a hurry."

"Yeah, well, you'd better watch what you say, Luna," Medea warned her, "Curiosity killed the cat, y'know."

"You worry too much, Medea," Sora said with optimistic skepticism.

Everyone slipped through the hole by the bed to find themselves in a huge outdoor courtyard with heart-shaped hedges and architecture that were decorated with heart shapes, leading to what looked to be a court for judging criminals filled with living cards acting like soldiers with their card motif spears at the ready for intruders. At the stand past the guards stood a blonde-haired girl in a blue dress, facing a tall judge's stand where a large woman dressed as a queen sat impatiently (like she was wanting to get something done with immediately rather than waiting any longer).

That was when they caught sight of the white rabbit running up the stairs on the other side of the stands, and blew his trumpet before making his due announcement.

"Court is now in session!" the rabbit announced.

"I'm on trial? But why?" the girl demanded to know.

"Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, is presiding!"

From the entrance to the court, everyone could see there's something not pleasant going on. But on Luna's part, she was more focused on the girl supposedly on trial; she couldn't understand what could possibly be going on that requires a trial, or what the point is for that matter.

"Why is she going on trial? What has she done wrong?" she couldn't help asking.

Medea was more focused on the woman seated up high. "THAT woman is the Queen? That fat pig up there?"

At the same time, the Queen of Hearts let out a rude 'hmmph' and declared, "This girl is the culprit. There's no doubt about it. And the reason is…because I say so, that's why!"

"That is so unfair!" the girl protested.

"Have you anything to say in your defense?" the queen demanded.

"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong!" the girl insisted, "You may be the queen, but I'm afraid that doesn't give you the right to be so…so mean!"

This obviously didn't sit well with the short-tempered queen, as she began to growl angrily for the defiance being presented to her so boldly, or speak against her actions for that matter.

"Silence! You dare defy me?!" the queen yelled.

From the entrance to the court, Sora and Luna immediately realized that things over at the so-called trial was getting completely out of hand; not to mention, the way the girl was being wrongfully accused for no good reason didn't sit too well for them. Honestly, they couldn't stand the idea of an innocent being judged without any real indication of any wrong done to the person overseeing the proceedings.

"Hey, guys, we should help her out," Sora said, eager to jump in and help.

"Well, yeah, but…" Donald replied, not exactly sure about that decision.

"We're outsiders, so wouldn't that be muddling?" Goofy asked.

"Meddling!" the duck corrected.

"Yup, and that's against the rules," Goofy agreed.

Luna didn't like that. "But that poor girl is being unfairly judged for no reason. That queen must not have her way, or else more people would suffer under that woman's watch by…well, whatever she does to them."

"C'mon, ya bumbling blockheads! You wanna let that queen behave like a brat who wasn't given a candy?" Medea demanded irritably, "Or do you wanna do something right? Make up your damn minds already!"

As this was going on, the queen made her demands. "The court finds the defendant guilty as charged! For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart! Off with her head!"

The card soldiers, at the command of the short-tempered queen, began to march their way towards the defenseless girl to carry her off for execution. This terrified her as she found herself surrounded.

"No! Oh, no, please!" she cried out in terror.

With that event being the right amount of motivation for the party, Sora and Luna instantly booked it to stop the unnecessary slaughter the horrible monarch was about to get for the wrong reason, with their friends following right behind them.

"Hold it right there!" Sora demanded.

"Stop it! This isn't right," Luna insisted, "This is an unfair trial."

The card soldiers – upon hearing them demand their stop - stepped aside, rather surprised that new people had shown up and stopped the trial from finishing. The girl at the defendant stand was certainly amazed that there were some people trying to stand up to her, while the queen was both mortified and enraged that the court had been interrupted so brazenly.

"Who are you? How dare you interfere with my court!" the Queen of Hearts shouted angrily.

"Oh, let's see…Just a bunch of sensible people who wouldn't senselessly kill people without a legit reason, unlike you!" Medea retorted.

"Excuse me. But we know who the real culprit is!" Sora pointed out, knowing what was really up.

"That's right. It was the Heart—" Goofy was about to give out details, but then blocked his mouth since no one would get what the problem is.

"That girl who you're wrongly judging without reason is not the one you're looking for," Luna insisted strongly.

"That's nonsense. Have you any proof?" the queen demanded.

That part stumped Sora significantly; how and where are they going to get the proof that the culprit was not Alice? They know it was the Heartless, but how can they possibly explain that if the Queen of Hearts might refuse to believe it?

Luna saw the girl being dragged off into a cage next to the queen's judging stand, and was forced to stay locked inside there, helpless to the insanity around them.

"Bring me evidence of Alice's innocence!" the queen ordered, "Fail, and it's off with all of your heads! Gather as much or as little evidence as you need. Report back here until you're ready."

Not sure where to start in their search, Luna wondered how they were going to be able to find the evidence necessary to save the life of Alice. But what she did know was that if something is not done to stop the queen, what are the chances that her guardian will intend on doing something rather aggressive to get the tyrannical monarch to do whatever they want? She didn't want that to happen too soon, or else they'll get into trouble.

"Pardon me? There may be a way to find what you're looking for."

Luna turned in response to the voice of Alice, and approached the cage to find out what she had to offer to help increase their chances of saving her.

"Do you have a way to guide us?" Luna asked.

"The Cheshire Cat might be able to help you. You can probably find him in the Lotus Forest, just past another hole through the garden," Alice explained. "But be careful: there are some dangerous things out there."

Before Luna could ask what she was talking about, the curtain around the cage turned to cover up Alice from sight and a card soldier's spear blocked the way to the cage.

"No speaking with the defendant until evidence is presented!" the soldier ordered.

Offended by this, Luna moved away from the cage and returned to the others to give what information she was able to acquire and know what to do from there.

"Sora, we'd better start looking for any evidence. Why don't we start by looking further into Wonderland?" Luna suggested to the others, "Alice said we should start in the Lotus Forest, and see if a cat can help us."

"Okay…so where is it?" Sora asked.

"She said it's past a hole further from the one we came out from," Luna replied.

"Then, let's start looking," Donald said, walking toward the hole in the bush first.

"Yup, we'd better hurry before someone changes their mind," Goofy agreed.

With an innocent defendant's life on the line and not wanting to waste any time pondering too much, they followed the directions they were given and entered through the hole to find themselves in an enormous forest with giant leaves and flowers, and big tree stumps that anything could seat on at their leisure.

But before anyone could make any more movement, they got themselves a startling surprise when a smiling cat's head suddenly appeared and disappeared at random intervals; this went on for a couple minutes until at the stump near them, a full body formed along with the head, revealing that the creature they were facing was actually a cat colored with light and dark purple stripes with its crazy grin still staying where it is. This had to be the Cheshire Cat that Alice spoke about earlier before they left.

"Who are you?" Donald wanted to know.

"Who, indeed? Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing," the cat answered vaguely.

"Mr. Cheshire Cat, if you know who the culprit is, can you tell us?" Luna asked, hoping to learn something. "Surely, you have an answer that you can provide to us. Alice is in danger, I'm sure you know."

"The Cheshire Cat has all the answers – but doesn't always tell," The Cheshire Cat replied, "The answer, the culprit, the cat all lie in darkness."

"You're really helpful," Medea deadpanned.

Then, the cat vanished into thin air just as Sora called out, "Wait!"

"They've already left in the forest. I won't tell which exit," the cat's voice echoed, "There are four pieces of evidence in all. Three are a cinch to find. The fourth is tricky. Big reward if you find them all."

Donald was not too sure about this information. "Should we trust him?"

Then, the Cheshire Cat reappeared again. "To trust, or not to trust? I trust you'll decide!"

With that, the cat disappeared yet again, leaving Sora and Luna and the others to determine where to go from there.

"Gawrsh, the cat sure loves to speak in riddles," Goofy said, stating the obvious.

"Well, if you ask me, I think we'd better trust what he says and look for those pieces of evidence," Sora suggested, "and the sooner we do that, the sooner we can save Alice from losing her head."

"Still sounds suspicious to me," Donald interjected.

"But Donald, what other choices do we have?" Luna reminded him, "Let's go look for the evidence quickly."

"Well, once we do that, the fat queen had better not double-cross us, or she's gonna get what's coming to her," Medea agreed, rather eager to see the monarch humiliated.

As cautious as they were about the Cheshire Cat's words, it was agreed that they had no other option but to believe what he says for the time being until they have confirmed whether or not there is actual evidence they can use against the queen. It was quite a hectic search in between battling more Heartless that loved to show up when they weren't supposed to and scanning the area for their proof of those same creatures; but in the end, they were able to successfully find the Stench, the Footprints, the Claw Marks, and the Antenna (seriously, how on earth can those things fit in a box? It's just weird).

Just as they had found all four pieces of evidence needed to confront the queen, the Cheshire Cat made an appearance yet again.

"Well, look what you've found. Nice going," the cat applauded.

"Now we can save Alice," Sora said more eager than ever to do the job.

"Don't be so sure! She may be innocent, but what about you?" the Cheshire Cat said cryptically.

Medea groaned at this. "Once again, he maintains ambiguity in his sentences…"

"Mr. Cat, what do you mean?" Luna questioned in confusion.

"I won't tell. But I'll give you something," the cat replied. With a wave of his hand, a small glimmer of blue light suddenly appeared right in front of Sora and Luna before vanishing from sight. "A little something to help you against your foes, and quite useful, indeed. Isn't that generous?"

A little creeped out, the most Sora could say is, "Let's hurry back to the court and get Alice out of the trial."

Not wanting to stick around too long, they were about to take their leave and return to the Queen's court; but Luna got a surprise when the cat suddenly appeared near the hole back to the court like he had business with her.

"My, my, I forgot to give something more to you, my dear. A word of advice to bear in mind," the cat said to her, "There are dark shadows following you everywhere. You'd best watch your step. If you're thinking the Heartless, you're not even close. The shadow that follows you is one that has haunted you for so long, and will not stop until you are found."

Then, the cat vanished after giving her the cryptic warning (by this time, Luna's most likely gotten used to the spontaneous disappearing acts), leaving Luna to ponder what he could possibly be talking about.

"What was he talking about…?" Luna wondered.

"Hell if I know," Medea replied like she wasn't sure either. "C'mon, let's get going before we miss the showdown with the piggish woman."

At the courtyard, though, it was easily noticed that the queen is rather impatient to get on with the trial and do what she wanted to do from the start. At this point, the most Sora and Luna could do is cross their fingers and hope that they have enough proof on hand in order to confirm Alice's innocence once and for all.

"Alright, we've brought our evidence right here," Sora announced.

All four boxes were presented to the queen, each containing all the evidence that clearly indicated a different culprit than what the Wonderland residents were idiotically thinking. But despite this, the Queen of Hearts was not convinced about this.

"Well, that's certainly a lot of evidence, but I'm still not impressed," the queen said, not paying attention to the huge evidence presented to her. "Cards! Bring forth my evidence!"

The card soldiers, at their queen's command, delivered in another box similar to the others and aligned them with the others; but then caused the five containers to get scrambled in the process. Things were just not looking good for the party, more so since the queen was not following their word.

"Hmm, checking all five would be a waste of my time," the queen said, thinking she's got the edge, "All right, then, choose which box you want to present. I'll decide who's guilty based on that evidence."

Sora was appalled at this. "What? After all the trouble of collecting it?"

"You dare object? Then you'll lose your head!" the Queen of Hearts bellowed. "Now choose! One box!"

As Donald and Goofy watched from the side, Sora, Luna and Medea were forced to figure out what to do next to stop the monarch's unfair tactics. How were they going to get past this problem if they can't tell what's really in the boxes, and for that matter how can they know what the queen put in as her 'evidence' for the trial?

"Dammit, I'm really beginning to dislike this queen more and more," Medea growled angrily, "If she does something that crosses the line one more time, she's really gonna pay the price for her unjust tyranny…"

"Now what are we going to do? We have to save Alice, and yet this…" Sora was at a loss for words about the situation. "This is just completely unfair! How are we going to save Alice like this?"

Then, Luna decided to take matters into her own hands. "Sora…let me handle this. I think I know how we can turn this trial against her."

Before any questions or protests could be brought out, Luna walked down from the defense stand and paced around each box as though she were looking for something. Everyone watched with different receptions, some of which were puzzled as to what she was doing while one other silently wanted to know what she was stalling for. But the quiet girl used her Shadow Mage powers and focused on searching through the boxes to find something that can give a clue; but then, when she felt a dark aura around one near her to the right, Luna opened the box and a Heartless emerged from the container.

The queen, horrified at what she saw, cried out, "What in the world was that?"

"That, your Majesty, is the evidence. That fiend is what really went after you," Luna announced.

"You see? That proves our point. Alice is innocent," Sora added, showing that he's done with the queen.

The tyrannical queen, angered that she had been beaten in her game, yelled out, "Silence! I am the law here! Article 29: Anyone who defies the queen is guilty!"

"That's crazy!" Donald squawked furiously.

"Seize them at once!" the queen commanded.

As most of the card soldiers began to make their advance at their selfish monarch's command, one of them hurried over to the crank tower and used the mechanisms to lift up the cage to an unreachable level, not allowing the party the chance to open it at the first opportunity.

"Sora, we have to get the cage lowered!" Luna cried.

"Hang on, Alice! We're almost there!" Sora called out, hoping she's still there.

Needless to say, despite the efforts of the gang to even touch the crank tower, that proved to be difficult because there were so many card soldiers trying their very hardest to stop them from achieving their goal. It certainly didn't help that the Queen of Hearts kept barking orders at her soldiers to stop them from using the tower and threatening to chop someone's head off if the job wasn't done well enough; in fact, there were times where she would want Sora or his friends to have their heads removed.

Eventually, though, all this got Medea so fed up with everything the queen's tried to do to thwart them that she decided to take matters into her own hands and put an end to this insanity.

"Alright, that does it!" she growled.

With just one burst, Medea jumped out of the crowd of cards and landed right on the queen's stand. This actually managed to startle the monarch, since she didn't figure that someone would have the nerves to get anywhere near her.

"What are you doing here?! Get out of – !" the Queen of Hearts was forced to shut her mouth when Medea held her Black Claws against where her neck would most likely be.

"Keep your mouth shut if you want to stay alive," Medea hissed irritably. Then, she looked up towards the cards and raised her voice loud enough that no one can oppose her. "Alright, you flat-minded imbeciles! You make one more move against Sora and Luna, and the queen will lose HER head! Now LOWER THE DAMN CAGE!"

Upon seeing that their queen was being threatened if the request is not fulfilled, the cards immediately scrambled to the crank tower and hurriedly turned each of the wheels as fast as they could so that the cage could be lowered. Then, in record time, the curtain-covered cage lowered down so that Sora and Luna could hurry over to make sure that their innocent defendant is still okay with Medea jumping down since she was done with the queen. But when they pushed the curtains back, everyone – even the people in the court – were shocked to find that Alice had vanished without a trace!

"Where is she?" Sora questioned in shock.

"She must've gotten kidnapped while we were fighting," Donald guessed.

From above, the queen shouted to her card soldiers, "Fools! Find the one who's behind this! I don't care how!"

From there, the card soldiers frantically began running through the gardens to search for Alice (obviously fearing the idea of losing their heads if they failed to deliver her at any costs). That was enough of a sign for Sora and Luna to leave and try to find her as well; that, and leave the courtyard so they could avoid being around the Queen of Hearts any longer.

"We'd better go find Alice before we get into any more trouble," Sora said nervously.

"I don't think we'll be coming back to Wonderland after this," Luna agreed, "especially after what happened with the queen back there."

"Hey, in my defense, I was getting irritated at the stupid fat woman-child back there and I wanted her idiocy to stop," Medea reminded defensively, "Though, admittedly, it'd make my day if someone had the guts and the brains to see that queen overthrown. That'd be something I'd have loved to see."

"Gawrsh…no wonder you're mad at the Queen," Goofy commented.

Just as they had left the courtyard and reentered the Lotus Forest, the group got themselves a surprise when the Cheshire Cat made his appearance once more; by this point, it's become pretty clear that this mischievous feline is not going to quit it anytime soon, and he's showed up for a reason only he knows.

"Hello again, Mr. Cat…" Luna simply said.

"Have you seen Alice?" Donald asked.

"Alice, no. Shadows, yes!" the cat replied.

Goofy tilted his head in confusion. "Where did they go?"

The Cheshire Cat answered vaguely, "This way? That way? Does it matter? Left, right, up, down! All mixed up thanks to the shadows!" But the cat wasn't done yet. "Step deeper into the forest to the deserted garden. You might find shadows in the upside down room!"

Then, as per the usual, the cat vanished from sight.

Medea groaned at this. "Again, he speaks in riddles. Doesn't that cat ever speak straightly?"

"I don't think he will, Medea. But what could he be talking about?" Luna wondered.

"He did say to step further into the forest to reach a garden," Sora answered, "So…let's go look for the garden and find that upside-down room the cat spoke about!"

"Luna, does this kid ever think about what he's doing?" Medea asked her master, exasperated at his leaping before looking action.

"Unfortunately, Sora is very impulsive. He was always that way with almost everything, even in those play fights," Luna replied as she shook her head.

Left with no other choice but to follow Sora (if only to keep him from doing anything too rash afterwards), the gang traversed deeper into the forest to find what the cat spoke about before; sure enough, they were able to find a house within a garden that had a huge table with a set of chairs waiting for guests to have a seat and join in what seems to be a tea party. But they didn't really have the time to think about having a tea party; they needed to find the cat.

When they opened the door to the bizarre house, the party got themselves a surprise when they found that the entire room seemed to have flipped around in a dizzying fashion, and it was especially weird because certain pieces of furniture were somehow staying where they were without falling off anywhere.

"Gawrsh! Everything's gone all…every which-way!" Goofy exclaimed in surprise

"But where's that cat?" Donald asked while tapping his feet.

Just as the duck asked that, the Cheshire Cat appeared before them, standing casually without a care about the wacky environment.

"They're hiding somewhere. And the momeraths outgrabe," the cat said, "Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the light."

"How do we do that? Where do we turn on the lights?" Luna asked, puzzled at the riddle.

The cat grinned. "You tell me, my dear."

Yet again, the cat disappeared on a whim, leaving them to solve the puzzle on their own.

For once, Sora had to groan at the constant riddles being thrown at them. "Man, that cat is really giving me a headache…"

"I wouldn't blame you on that, Sora. It can be tough to know what someone is thinking," Luna agreed sympathetically.

"Sora! Luna! Look out there!" Donald suddenly called as he pointed his fingers out towards the room, "There's lamps in the room! And they're not lit."

Luna and Sora looked over where their friend was pointing, and – sure enough – they could see a group of glass lamps scattered around in certain places, obviously left unlit for who knows what reason and ready to be used for whoever was supposed to be living inside the quirky house.

"Now we're talking! Let's get down there, and start lighting all the lamps!" Sora exclaimed excitedly.

"How are we going to do that? They're in several weird places," Luna questioned.

"Isn't it obvious? We go all around the place and find a way to reach them," Sora replied, eager to get to work.

"That could help you give a lesson in magic while we're here," Donald agreed, knowing that Sora needs to expand his capabilities.

"Bear in mind, it's his first time hearing and learning about magic. Don't be too hard on him," Luna requested.

"I sure hope he doesn't," Medea agreed.

True to the duck's word, the search for the lamps and lighting them all up certainly did help give Sora some coaching on how to use magic – in particular, for the moment, fire – under the right circumstances. However, it did take a lot of dizzying searches for where and how they were going to reach each of the lamps in order to light them up as the cat told them to. When they did finish the job, though, they got a visit from the Cheshire Cat, who seemed to be rather pleased that they had done what he expected them to do.

"All the lights are on. You'll see the shadows soon," the cat said, seeming rather amused. "They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else. The shadows might go after the doorknob, too."

Once the cat disappeared with those words left in their minds, Luna couldn't help but wonder what he could be talking about. There were many doors they've encountered, some of which had doorknobs; so what could he mean by…That was when it hit her like a brick wall against her face: the doorknob within this very room! What other doorknob could a Heartless go after?

"Sora, we have to find a way back to normal ground!" Luna exclaimed in horror, "The doorknob…I think that sleeping doorknob could be in danger!"

Sora was dumbfounded at this. "Are you sure, Luna?"

Luna nodded. "Yes, I am sure."

Not wanting to make any arguments against her, Sora allowed Luna to take the reins in the group and follow her back to the floor of the bizarre room to find the Cheshire Cat waiting patiently for them like he knew they were coming.

"The shadows should be here soon. Are you prepared for the worst? If you're not, that's too bad!" said the Cheshire Cat.

All of a sudden, without a single warning of the danger coming their way, a towering Heartless landed on the floor of the room. It was a colossal creature that gave off the impression of something that should belong to a circus, what with its wonky arms and colorations of black and red with touches of yellow here and there; to make the matters much worse, the wacky arms were busily juggling what appeared to be sticks of some sort.

"What is this, a circus performer?" Sora asked, having trouble comprehending its appearance.

"You tricked us!" Donald shouted angrily at the cat.

The mischievous feline didn't seem fazed by any of the tension. "Tricked you? Nothing of the sort. The Cheshire Cat gave you something useful, didn't he?"

In the midst of the argument the duck was having with the cat, the new Heartless – actually called the Trickmaster – kept on juggling its sticks until it approached the fireplace within the room and lit the very sticks it was holding on fire. This caused everyone to be more worried about their situation than they necessarily had to be.

"Here it comes!" Luna warned.

"I got it! Fire!" Donald shouted a spell, and shot out a fireball form his staff.

Unfortunately, that proved to be a bigger problem for the team because the fire spell not only didn't affect the juggling trickster, but it also made the flames on the sticks much worse as it pounded the ground with its burning weapons and tried to set them on fire.

"Damn it, you stupid duck! Didn't you even pay attention to the sticks in its hands?!" Medea yelled angrily.

"How was I supposed to know that the sticks were already burning?!" Donald argued back.

At first, it seemed like the fight was not going on their favor; and it didn't help because of the Trickmaster's aggressive use of its sticks in its hands. But just when things were about to get worse, a little hint was given that neither keyblade wielder nor Shadow Mage expected to hear from their eccentric bystander.

"Have you tried using what I gave you? Perhaps it might make things easier for you," the cat suggested.

Fortunately, Luna picked up what the cat was talking about, and remembered that he did mention giving them something useful; but what was it? There was only one way to find out.

"Sora, follow my lead with your blade," Luna instructed him.

"Okay…whenever you're ready," Sora agreed.

Within that moment, Luna summoned her Shadow Hands as she normally would; but this time, she had them positioned in a way that gives off the impression they're about to fire out something from their fingers. Concentrate, concentrate…you've seen that blue color, so you should know what that means, she thought.

As she was doing this, Sora positioned his keyblade like he's about to shoot something out of it, even though it wasn't a weapon meant to fire out a projectile.

And then…

"Freeze!" Sora shouted as Luna called out, "Go, Blizzard!"

In mere moments, the keyblade and the Shadow Hands unleashed blasts of freezing cold flakes of ice at the Trickmaster, causing not only the sticks to go out in smoke, but it also made the monster double over and recoil from the impacts of the spells being fire out at the same time. From there, Sora was able to dive in and give the thing a major wallop with ease while Luna continued to use that technique to keep the creature from doing any more harm to their comrades; it didn't take long for that fiend to succumb to the might of its opponent.

However, all that noise from the battle reached the doorknob as it rudely woke up from its sleep when it really didn't want to.

"What a racket. How's a doorknob to get any sleep?" the doorknob yawned.

Just as the doorknob started to yawn, though, everyone saw a bright light form inside its mouth into what looked like a keyhole and went over to inspect it. Then, to Sora's surprise, the keyblade reacted to the development and let out a beam of light towards the keyhole until a clicking sound was heard. Luna heard this quite clearly, and when she used her powers to search for any signs of the shadows lurking around, she couldn't find anything dangerous within; that meant this world was as safe as it could get.

"What was that?" Donald asked, puzzled at this.

"You hear that? It sounded like something closed," Sora wondered.

But what caught Goofy's attention was when a strange colored block appeared during the locking process.

"Look at this. It looks like a Gummi block," Goofy said as he examined it, "It doesn't look the others. No, sir."

"I'll hold on to it," Donald offered as he took the block for safekeeping until it can be examined later.

The Cheshire Cat appeared one last time, and gave a round of applause to the group down below, almost as though he enjoyed the show.

"Splendid. You're quite the hero," the cat said, impressed at everything, "If you're looking for Alice, she's not here. She's gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness."

Boy, was Sora disappointed at that information. "No…"

Luna shook her head. "How can that be…? Where was she taken?"

Medea clenched her fists. "Damn it! Whoever took her was a sneaky rat."

"Let's go back to our gummi ship. We might find her in another world," Donald suggested, trying to reassure Sora and Luna.

As everyone started to make their way back to the ship, Luna couldn't help but wonder what was going on this time around. She understood that the Heartless were a dangerous threat to the worlds, but how could a specific person disappear without any indication of turning into a Heartless themselves? For that matter, what happened to Alice that caused her to get kidnapped? If only she knew what the reason was…