Chapter 6: Wonderland

Starting Theme: Full Metal Alchemist beginning theme 1

"That little squirt took down the giant heartless!" a voice muttered in the dark.

"Such is the power of the keyblade. The child's strength is not his own." Another said.

"Turn him into a heartless. That will settle things quick enough" came another.

"Those two are the king's lackeys. A couple of bilge rats, by the look of them!" came a fourth.

"You're no prize yourself!" came a woman's.

"Shut up you-!" came the same voice again.

"Enough. The blade has chosen him," a tall woman silenced them, "Will he conquer the darkness…or will it devour him? Either way he could be quite useful…"

"All right, let's go!" Sora shouted

"Where's the ship? The port?" Riiku asked calmly while Sora jumped around her.

"Wait a second, Sora…Riiku." Donald said nodding to her.

"Huh?"

"We'll be going many places…," Donald said, "but you can't tell anyone that we're from another world!"

"Why not?" Sora asked.

"We gotta protect the world border!" Goofy smiled.

"WORLD 'ORDER', NOT 'BORDER'!" Donald shouted.

"The order of the worlds are being disrupted," Leon began, "Due to the heartless."

"Got it. What are they, anyway?" Sora asked.

"Heartless…those without hearts," Leon replied, "A researcher named Ansem filed a report on the heartless."

"I think it might help solve the mystery, but…," Yuffie said, "The report is scattered everywhere, and we can't find it all."

"What do you mean by 'everywhere'?" Sora asked.

"I mean different worlds!" she replied.

"Gawrsh! That means the king-?" Goofy said.

"Right! He might have gone looking for that report!" Donald exclaimed.

"They feed off the darkness in people's hearts," Leon said, "Watch yourselves."

"Sora…there is darkness in every heart." Riiku muttered.

"Where…," Riku asked himself, "…am I?"

Sora and the others stepped onto the gummi ship. It was huge, bigger on the inside then outside appeared to be. Straight a head was a ladder with a sign beside it that read 'Cockpit'. Beside it on both sides were strange devices of every shape, color and size.

"Welcome to our ship." Donald said.

"WOW!" Sora exclaimed.

He began running around, pull Riiku everywhere he went, touching everything.

"Wow, look at this," Sora said while he ran around, "Check this out! Cool!"

"Um Sora…" Riiku muttered.

"THAT'S ENOUGH," yelled a small voice, "Will you stop touching everything you see!"

"Huh?" he mutter nose beginning to bleed.

"Ah! Sora!" Riiku cried fussing over him.

"Down here," Said the chipmunk, "We're trying to keep this place clean! Don't make a mess, okay?"

"Those are Chip n' Dale," Donald explained, "They're the mechanics of the gummi ship."

"Hey don't call us 'those'!" Chip yelled.

"Please to me you." Dale said.

"TAKE OFF YOUR SHOSE BEFORE ENTERING THE COCKPIT!" yelled Chip.

"Okay…" Sora whimpered.

"Welcome! I'm Jiminy Cricket, captain of this ship!" Jiminy piped up.

"Everybody ready? Fasten your seatbelts." Donald called.

"Take it to full power!" called Chip.

"Aye-aye, sir!" Dale called.

"BLAST OFF!"

"Whoa…!" Sora cried in surprise.

Riiku, who had been standing in front of Sora, fell square on his lap when the ship had pulled forward. When the ship steadied out both Sora and Riiku were dizzy and looked like they were going to throw up.

"Sora! Riiku! Take a look outside." Donald said smiling.

Sora stood up and looked out the window, thousands of stars shined and sparkled. He turned and smiled at Riiku, who immediately got up and stood beside him. Her eyes lit up and she smiled.

"Amazing…!" Riiku said.

"Ya, if only Riku and Kairi could see it." Sora mumbled.

"…."

"We're here." Donald called back to them.

"What already?" Sora sounded surprised.

"So…what world is it?" Riiku asked.

"It's Wonderland."

They all walked over to the exit of the ship, Donald and Goofy looked right and then left. Then they walked out of the ship followed by Sora,

"Um…guys look down!" Riiku cried,

"Huh?" The three boys looked down.

Sora reached up just as he began to fall, pull her with him. She let out a scream as she toppled out of the ship's door and down the dark whole with the others. She landed with a soft thump, she looked down and saw she had landed on Sora's lap and he had landed on Donald and Goofy.

"Ouch…" Sora mumbled.

"How come we're always landing on our…" Goofy began.

"Be quiet!" Donald cut him off.

"I will not be doing that again!" Riiku cried.

Out of no where a white rabbit came and jumped on Donald's head. The others watch as it happened and Donald became very upset.

"Oh my! Oh, my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late…I'm late!" The rabbit cried.

"What the-?" Sora asked to himself.

"Let's follow him!" Donald Shouted.

"I just know we'll regret this later." Riiku mutter under her breath.

The four friends ran after the white rabbit, they soon came to a long dark hallway. Donald pushed them on.

"Oh, dear, I'm here! I should be there! She'll have my head for sure!" the white rabbit cried.

"Wait! That darn rabbit…" Donald yelled.

"Huh?"

"He's gone," Sora cried, "Where'd he go?"

"HEY!"

"What," Sora looked shocked, "How did he get so small? This door's tiny!"

"He didn't get bigger," a voice came from below, "You're simply too big."

"Huh? Who said that!" Sora exclaimed in surprise.

"Down here!" the voice drifted up.

It was the door knob, he was the one speaking to all of them and telling them they were simply too big to fit.

"You may want to try one of the bottles on the table."

"Table?" the four friends replied in confustion

"Behind you."

The four of them turned around to see a table with two bottles on it. One was red and one was blue. Sora walked up to the table and picked up the blue bottle. It had a small note on it that read Drink Me he looked over at the others a look of confustion on his child like face.

"Guess we better drink it." Riiku replied happily taking the first sip.

Everyone was surprised when she shrunk, when she was done she was less than half her original size. The others soon followed her and then once all shrunk down the four friends turned to the door.

"Now you can go in." he said swinging open.

The door opened up to a wonderful, big and beautiful garden with thousands of lovely roses of many colours and large bushes. There were archs and trees and many other things that made the garden oh-so beautiful.

"Wow." Riiku exclaimed.

"You said it..." Sora replied looking around.

"Guilty!" someone yelled.

"On what charges?" a girl asked.

"On the charge of trying to take my heart." a rather large woman replied matter-of-factly.

"But that's so unfair." the blonde haird girl whined.

"Off with her head!" the large woman shouted.

"WAIT!" Sora yelled.

The queen looked up at him in surprise, she hadn't expected to see him standing there. He was closely followed by the silver haired beauty that was Riiku. Her mint green eyes scanned over the seen that now played out before her. The light wind blew her purple dress ever so slightly, she turned to the burnette beside her with a questioning look.

"She didn't do it! The heart-" he paused at Riiku's look, "I mean, what if we can prove Alice didn't do it?"

"Very well, come back with proof and I'll let her go."

The guards grabbed Alice and threw her into a small silver cage. Sora and the others ran over to her and looked up, she was so high above them that it hurt to look up at her.

"Go find the Cheshire cat he'll know something!" she instructed them before the curtain was closed on her.

"Guess we go this way..." Riiku exclaimed pointing in the direction of the woods.

"Guess so..." Sora replied.

Riiku took off first her platnume blonde hair flashing like lightning in the sunlight. Sora followed close behind with Goofy and Donald. Riiku shot into the woods and looked around. It was a very large forest in more than one way. She turned and looked at Sora for some sign that he knew what they were looking for. But the look he gave back to her was as confused as her's.

"Let's split up, we'll cover more ground that way!" Riiku said and ran off before Sora could speak.

"WAIT! RIIKU!...come back..." Sora turned to the others.

"She'll be fine Sora." Donald reasured him.

"Yeah, h-yuck, she can take care of herself." Goofy chiamed in.

"I...I guess you're right!" Sora smiled a little.

The three boys continued inthe other direction searching for the Cheshire Cat that Alice had mentioned to them. Soon Sora started sujesting they just tell the queen about the heartless and that they had tried to steal her heart. Goofy yelled at him telling him that it would mess everything up and cause major confustion.

"Really," a voice sounded from above, "well, that may or may not be true."

"Hmmm?" Sora looked up only to find a light pink and purple cat sitting in a tree.

"The Cheshire Cat knows everything," he said simply, "all you have to do is avoid getting confused."

"THE CHESHIRE CAT!" the three boys said together.

"Here you go," he said throwing a box down to Sora, "the evidence you seek is in that box...or is it?"

Sora, Donald and Goofy looked down at the tiny white box in their hand, wondering what could possibly be inside it's four walls. Sora looked at Donald and Goofy, but they seemed to have no clue either. Sora looked up at the Cheshire Cat.

"To trust or not to trust," he said fading away, "I trust you'll decide."

"Huh...he's gone!"

"What a creepy guy!"

"I wonder what's inside," Sora opend the small box and out popped a heartless, it jumped down and ran off, "A HEARTLESS! STOP!"

"What who is that," the queen shouted, "why you-"

"Your majesty, HE'S the evidence," Sora said taking a swing at the heartless and making contact, "look out!"

"NO!" she shouted as the heartless disappeared.

"Do you see no? Alice is innocent," Sora said to her, "let her go!"

"Grrr..." she growled.

"Ya let her go!" Goofy siad lowering the cage with Donald.

"Hey you can't lower that!" one of the gaurds said.

When the cagewas lowered, the curtain opened to show a very empty cage. Where was Alice? Where had she gone? Everyone in the court was shocked. No one knew how she had gotten out or where she had went.

"Alice...?"

"Alice! Where is Alice! All of you go search for Alice," the queen yelled, "I don't care who finds her! Just do it!"

"This dosen't looks so good..." Donald murmmered.

"Gawrsh!"

"OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" The queen yelled.

"Uh...let's go look for Alice and Riiku!" Sora shouted running back into the woods.

Riiku walked through the large forest. Everything was huge! Or maybe she was just really tiny. She was starting to think splitting up wasn't her best idea. She had no way of protecting herself from heartless. She didn't have a keyblade like Sora and she couldn't do magic like Donald. And worse of yet she was lost in this big forest. She decided to sit down and rest for a bit. She was tired, she must have been walking for hours and hours. Or maybe that's just how it felt. She wished Sora would come find her, but that was a dumb wish. She got up and started to walk on again. A few minutes later she heard rustling behind her. She turned around thinking it was Sora, Donald and Goofy. But to her surprise two boys dressed in all black from head to toe stepped out. She backed up, startled and scared. The smallest of the boys stepped closer. His hand was extened out reaching for her, Riiku finally stepped back so far she tripped over a log and hit the ground. the boy rushed forward to make sure she was ok as well as the taller one. This scared her even more she got to her feet and took off running leaving the boys in the dust. She wasn't watching where she was going and slammed into something hard. They both hit the ground.

"Ow..." Sora muttered rubbing his head.

"Oh Sora, it's you!" Riiku cried happily.

"Uh...yeah who were you expectiong?" he asked.

'These guys-oh never mind, it's nothing." She replied smiling.

"Well alright..." Sora grinned

"So why are you here Sora," Riiku asked, "what about Alice?"

"She's missing and that queen is crazy," Sora muttered, "the heartless probably took her."

"B-but I thought the heartless only attack people on the spot..." Riiku shuttered.

"I'm not sure..." Donald said mainly to himself, "but something may be manipulating the heartless...something really evil..."

"AHHHHHH!" they all screamed as the Cheshire cat popped upside down out of a tree.

"Might you be looking for Alice?" he asked.

"Yeah," Riiku mummbled, "damn cat nearly gave me a heartattack."

"Did you see her?" Sora asked.

"No."

"Then what do you want!"

"Well I know where the shadow is." he replied simply.

He lead them back to the enterace of the world, where the table with the strange potion had been. Riiku looked around the room. It looked larger with the table gone.

"This way? That way? Where...? Dose it matter," he said, "did you know that...when you turn on the lights a shadow is made? Are you prepared for the worst? If you're not...that's too bad!"

A huge heartless made of paper appeared out of no where. Riiku shied closer to Sora. Sora out streched his arm in front of her in a protective stance. He let out a low growl.

"You...you tricked us!" he yelled.

"Tricked you? Nothing of the sort," the Cheshire Cat said grinning, "the Cheshire Cat is always here to help the weak."

Sora was attacked with the Heartless's flaming torches. Sora fought back as best he could while trying to protect Riiku from it at the same time. Riiku ran around and tried to douge as best she could, but she was no fighter. She wasn't cut out to be a fighter. She'd never be able to help Sora save his friends and who was she kidding she couldn't save her's either. Just then Sora was hit so hard he was flung acrossed the room and hit the wall on the other side.

"Oh no...SORA!" Riiku called to him

"All right now," the cat said, "you'll never make it like that. I'll give you something you're missing."

"Oh?" Sora was confused suddenly snow flakes appeared out of no where.

"HOT! HOT!" Donald had had his butt set on fire.

"Donald," Sora called but then a stream of snow and ice shot at Donald, "Whoa!"

"Sora did you just do that?" Donald asked.

"Hey put me out too!" Goofy cried his butt burning too.

"The wielders of the keyblade should be able to use a little magic, right?"

"Wielders," Donald questioned as the cat pointed at Riiku, "R-Riiku is a keyblade wielder too!"

"Ma-magic! This is magic?" Sora muttered.

"Sora, Riiku! Here it comes!" Donald yelled.

"H-huh," Riiku turned in time to see the heartless's arm coming at her, "No! Don't touch me!"

There was a flash of light and then there in Riiku's hand was a lovely keyblade. It's blades were like wings. Black and white wings. It had White and black bulbs oh the tips of it's blades. The Main key was a light silver. And it's handle was like Sora's only black, red and white. The keychain had a ying and yang symbol on the end of it.

"Huh! Riiku you have one t-ouch," Sora was flung in the air and landed on his face, "take this!"

"Grrrr! My magic isn't working!" Sora cried as the heartless brushed off his attack.

"Whoa," The heartless attacked Sora again sending him, Donald and Goofy flying and having a very unpleasent landing.

"Cure," Donald called healing everyone that was hit, "Sora you have to concentrate!"

"What?"

"Accumulate power at the tip of the keyblade," Donald instructed, "imagine the enemy freezing! Concentrate in your mind!"

"I'll help Sora!" Riiku cried taking aim

Sora focused all hit power into the keyblade and took aim. This time he would end this. He was sick of being batted around like some old toy. This heartless was going down this time for sure.

"FREEZE!" he yelled.

"FREEZE!" Riiku yelled with him.

"We..."

"Gaw...gawrsh."

"Oh my." the Cheshire cat muttered.

"You did it, Sora!" Donald and Goofy sried together.

"Yeah, but Riiku helped me!" he said slipping his arm around her shoulder.

"Uh...what is it? What's going on," the doorknob yawned, "such a racket. How's a doorknob to get any sleep?"

"How can you sleep...when we're trying-"

"Yaawn..." The doorknob yawned to reviealed a keyhole.

"A keyhole...?" Sora muttered, then a beam of light shot from Sora's keyblade.

"Let me sleep in peace..." the doorknob mummbled sleepily

"What...was that?"

"It sounded like something closed with a CLICK."

"Hey a gummi block," Goofy said, "uh...but this gummi ain't like the others, no sir!"

"Give it here," Donald replied, "you're right. I've never seen this kind of gummi block before."

"Gummi block?"

"Yeah, they're used as componets for our gummi ship."

'Splendid! You're quite the hero," The Cheshire cat applauded them, "really quite excellent! your power has blossomed! I can't wait to see what you'll do next!"

"Cheshire Cat...who are you?" Sora asked growling a little.

"..." The Cheshire cat stared back blankly, "if you're looking for Alice, She's not here. My friends, I'm afraid she's gone! Gone with the shadows...into darkness!"

Several shadowy figures sat around a huge table, looking down at an orb reflection Sora and his crew of friends. the figures watched intesely as the four friends talked to a very chit chatty Cheshire cat.

"That darn cat...it needs to shut it's big mouth!"

"We should have finished him off when he turned down our offer."

"Too late for that."

"Even if we let him live, he can't do us much harm."

"But the boy and the girl are a problem."

"They've already found one of the keyholes."

"We need to take care of this right away-"

"There's no need to rush. It will take him ages to find the others," Maleficent said calmly, "besides...the pieces are all falling into place in our favor!"

Ending theme: Full Metal Alchemist ending theme 1