Prewrite: Ok, I seriously owe you guys an explanation. Birth by Sleep came first, then Re:Coded, but those are just the major distractions with many minor milder distractions between. You all are lucky I don't have a 3DS (yet) or you probably wouldn't be hearing from me until Halloween at the earliest. I'm not going to make any promises about an update schedule, since I know I probably won't be able to keep them. However, I'm going to try my damndest for you. The fans, what few there are left, deserve better. Let's get this show on the road…

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. The Disney Corporation and Square-Enix do. Buy their stuff. Give them your munny. Do it nao.


Chapter 10: A Frabjous Day

Daniel stepped through the hedge archway, finding himself in what looked like an outdoor courtroom. Up in the judge's seat was a woman dressed in red and black heart-shaped patterns, with a small crown on her head, indicating some sort of monarchy. To put it politely, she wasn't the prettiest or thinnest woman around.

To put it the way it ran through Daniel's mind, she was fat and ugly.

There were what looked like living cards all around, standing as guards. Daniel did his best not to stare as he walked by. Before he got to the exit on the other side of the hedge wall, he heard a grating voice cry out, "Stop him! Guards!" He made a mad dash for the hole in the hedges, but was grabbed by several card soldiers before he got very far. Muttering curses under his breath, he allowed them to drag him to the stand.

The queen looked him up and down, then declared, "No doubt about it! This boy is the one who stole my royal scepter!" Daniel called bullshit. "Bullshit!" he called. He hated being unfairly accused of things he hadn't done. "I've never seen you or anyone here before in my life!" Obviously, this didn't go well.

The queen was livid, her face redder than her dress as she screamed in anger, "I will not stand for such language in my court! Off with his head!" Daniel ducked just in time to avoid a swing from a card soldier's spear, then crab walked backwards to dodge the vertical slashes. Drawing his sword, he dodged a few more attacks by rolling to the side. Once he was in the clear, he jumped to his feet and faced his attackers.

He fought defensively at first, blocking and dodging more than attacking, hoping he could maneuver himself to the exit. Unfortunately, things weren't as simple as that. Before long, he noticed that card soldiers weren't the only things attacking him, and he wasn't the only thing card soldiers were attacking. Several small floating creatures had appeared in the area, and were flinging about magic attacks. They were giving the card soldiers a hard time, many of them using themselves as shields to protect their queen.

Daniel slipped past the soldiers directly in front of him, now getting a better look at the creatures. Some were red and some were blue, but all had the same yellow hats and black faces with yellow eyes. If that wasn't enough of an indication, the emblem on their bodies confirmed it: heartless.

Daniel went on the offensive, attacking the heartless mercilessly. It didn't take much to wipe them out, but more soon appeared, including the fat ones Daniel recognized from the coliseum. Seeing that they had a common enemy, Daniel called out to the card soldiers, "Hit the big ones in the back! Their fronts are invulnerable!" The soldiers heeded his advice and, with a little help from him, all the heartless were wiped out.

Daniel took a breather, keeping his distance from the card soldiers. Despite his caution, they seemed to no longer bear him any ill will. He stepped up to the stand, facing the queen, who looked afraid, but still angry. "Your majesty, since I helped your men out, may I be pardoned of all charges? I'll even help you look for the real culprit." The queen considered his offer for a moment, then replied curtly, "Fine. But if you don't find it, it's off with your head!" She didn't need to say it twice. Daniel was off through the hole in the hedge before another word could be spoken.

He emerged into a forest…or at least, he thought it was a forest. Everything was huge! The mushrooms all around were as big as trees, and the trees, well…even bigger! "Well," he muttered aloud, "quite a pickle I've gotten myself into now..." He'd told the queen he'd help, but that had mostly just been to save his own skin. He had a feeling that actually going out to look for it would be a lot of wasted time with no real payoff. It also seemed unlikely at this point that Riku or Kairi were here.

However…he wasn't really sure of how he'd get back to his ship. "How am I supposed to get out of here…?" He heaved a sigh. Suddenly, he thought of the doorknob. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that the doorknob would know how to get out. Getting to the doorknob was easier said than done, however. He'd have to go back through the card soldiers, and he wasn't eager to do so. He'd have to find away around that room. And this forest seemed as good a place as any to start.

He started to walk through the forest. Before he got too far, one of the flowers spoke to him! "Give me a potion, and I'll show you the exit." The surprising thing was, Daniel wasn't surprised. All the things he'd seen since leaving the islands had desensitized him to stuff like this. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a potion, sprinkling it on the flower. The flower opened up, and a passageway suddenly appeared in the grass nearby. Daniel thanked the flower, heading through the hole.

The next thing he knew, Daniel was standing on a solid surface high in the air. Looking down, he found himself in the room that the doorknob was in…way up on a bookshelf! He groaned inwardly. He was in the right room, but how in the world was he supposed to get down? He looked around for something soft to land on, not seeing anything. His arm throbbed slowly, and he knew that using darkness could get him down easy. Leon's warning echoed in his head, and he weighed his options. "Well…it'll only be for a moment; I don't think it'll do much damage…" It was an excuse, of course, but he ignored that obvious fact.

This being the first time he was drawing on it willingly, he wasn't sure how to start. He closed his eyes at concentrated on darkness: its form, its power, exactly what he wanted to do with it. He felt a hot streak shoot up his arm, and felt it burn. He opened his eyes, and slowly stepped off the edge of the bookshelf. The ground rushed upwards to meet him, faster than he thought. At the last possible second, he threw his left arm out below him, and a burst of darkness exploded from it. He landed directly in the darkness, which cushioned his fall, saving him from life-threatening injury.

It still hurt like hell, though.

With a pained groan, he got to his feet, pushing the darkness within back down, bottling it up before it got out of control. His arm stung as he darkness receded, and he gazed down at it. As always, it looked red and worn. With a pained groan, he walked towards the doorknob…and felt his hopes fall.

The damned thing was asleep.

He let out a scream of rage, punching the floor hard. Of course the door was asleep. Of course he'd risked life and limb to reach the damn thing. And of course all his efforts were wasted. Darkness engulfed him once again as he continued smashing his fist into the floor. Suddenly, the spot he was punching turned black, and a giant pool of darkness formed on the floor, sucking him in. He let loose a cry of shock and fear, trying to hold back the darkness, but it was too late. He was already caught in it, being sucked further and further in, until he was surrounded by the pure blackness.


Postwrite: There we go. One shiny new chapter, ready for your reading pleasure. Now, let me take a moment to share my plans with you. I definitely intend to finish this story, sooner or later. However, now that I've played all the games currently available in the US, I've decided that I want to expand my version of the KH universe as far as possible. How I will do this? I'm not 100% sure yet. I'm working on it. Very slowly. As stated in the prewrite, I'm not going to give you a definite update schedule, since I have no idea if I'm going to be able to keep it or not. But I'm going to try and update as often as possible. Thanks for your patience.