Where Nalani awoke was somewhere she was sure she hadn't fallen asleep; wait, she had never fallen asleep. A voice was talking to her, but it sounded distant. Finally, her eyes fluttered open, and she was staring up at a lion. His fur was an orange color except for his chest which was cream. His pupils were large, and what little of his irises could be seen was red. The way he held his posture said something; he seemed to hold himself with some sort of nobility.
But how could a lion be noble? Nalani slowly tried to sit up until she realized that she couldn't. "Are you alright?" His voice wasn't very deep, but he was definitely older.
'Did a lion just... speak to me?' She wondered as she rolled over and stood, but she felt off. Instead of standing on two tall legs, Nalani seemed to be standing on four. '...Huuuuh?' She turned her head around to get a look at herself. Her height had been cut in more than half, and reddish-brown fur was covering her body. Thinking she might faint, but gaining a hold on herself, she turned back toward the noble lion.
"Where am I?" She heard herself ask; at least her voice hadn't changed.
Something like relief seemed to wash over the lion's face, "The Pride Lands. I was out looking for my daughter, but I found you instead. What's your name?"
"Nalani," she replied a little hesitantly, "Yours?"
"I am King Simba." 'That explains why he's standing so tall.' Nalani felt like shock had slapped her in the face and though she didn't know much about royalty, she did know that you were supposed to bow. Nalani gingerly bent her head and pushed out her front paws so that she resembled someone making an attempt at a bow. Simba roared a laugh. "The way you react kind of reminds me of a friend of mine. Three, actually," he added in afterthought with a smile. The lion was smiling. "You don't have to bow, it's alright."
A thought flew through her head. 'Sora, Donald, and Goofy traveled to many worlds,' Leon's voice repeated in Nalani's mind. 'There was Olympus Coliseum, Wonderland, Deep Jungle, Beast's Castle, Land of the Dragons, Monstro, Pride Lands, and many more.'
"Sora?"
He nodded, pleasantly surprised. "That's him. I haven't seen him in two years..." Simba paused. "We have a common friend then, huh? Obviously you got here in a different way... You look a wreck, what happened to you?"
Nalani mulled that over. Something had happened, but what? Her mind was foggy. "I left a cave in a different world," she said, slowly, as she tried to jog her memory, "and then I was sucked into a vortex." Ceron. Stefa. Jewel's Grove, "...Oh, no. The world, it... ended."
XxxxxX
"Yoo-hoo!" The voice of a young girl reached Ceron's ears, sounding like she was just over him. His eyes slowly opened and the blurriness faded enough for him to make out the image of a blonde girl in a pale blue dress standing hovering over him. All of the flowers, grass, trees, and other plants surrounding them were gigantic. She smiled at the sight of his consciousness. "Whatever are you doing in the world of Wonderland?" she asked, interest in her voice; her accent was very British.
Ceron rubbed the back of his head. He felt like he had been hit by a truck, "Wonderland? Where in the name of video games is Wonderland?"
"It's just beyond the rabbit hole," answered the girl as if it were obvious.
Ceron stared at her for a long minute. "You're on crack, aren't you?"
"Excuse me?" She demanded, clearly outraged. This girl was young in body, but not in mind. When Ceron didn't say anything more, she sighed. "My name is Alice. Wonderland is a familiar home to me, for I haven't seen my own in days."
"Ceron," he introduced himself.
Alice considered him with intrigue as she seated herself on a log. "It's not often that we get strange visitors here. What are you doing here?"
Ceron shrugged. "I was in my world, a vortex sucked me up, and here I am." He was surprisingly calm about it, but there was no real need to get bent out of shape. After all, Stefa and Nalani had been on their own, separate journeys long before.
Alice, however, did not handle the news quite so calmly. She clasped her hands over her mouth and gasped quietly, "Oh, my! That's not very good, now is it?"
He shrugged it off as he glanced around. There were particularly large roses facing him with glares. Maybe he had hit his head, or something. "What kind of world is this, anyway?"
"A very illogical one," sighed the girl.
"That I can understand." Ceron opened his mouth to ask her how to get out, then closed it. How on Earth would she know? She had already admitted that she couldn't return to even her own home.
One of the red roses began to speak. "You couldn't possibly be a dear and escort this precious weed home, could you?" Alice frowned at the rose, mirroring the dislike.
"Apparently the roses here are like teenage girls back at school," noted Ceron as he unsheathed his long-sword and turned his attention back to Alice. "You haven't been seeing any weird white or black creatures, have you?"
"Heartless, you mean?" She replied with a small smile. "Oh, yes, many. I have also spotted a few white creatures here and there, but I just figured them to be part of Wonderland's illogical creatures... Such as the people in the black coats," this caught Ceron's interest more than anything else.
"There were people in black coats here? Huh. Where were they hanging around at?"
"In the Bizarre room that is connected to the Queen's Courtyard and the Rabbit's Hole," she answered pleasantly, obviously pleased that she was making conversation with someone who appeared sane. "I could take you there, but we must find a different way into the Bizarre room, otherwise it will be off with our heads." Ceron had been counting on her to be relatively normal under the layer of insanity, but her last sentence made him question it.
XxxxxX
"We meant to tell you," mumbled Pence sheepishly to Roxas. He, Hayner, Olette, Naminé, and Roxas had just reached Station Heights, "Someone blocked off the mansion's basement, but we had no way to contact you guys."
Roxas sighed. "Sounds kind of like sabotage. That's alright, though. Are we still allowed to hang around? I'm sure we've got a while before anyone wants us back."
"Always a pleasure," Hayner grinned, pounding his fist against Roxas'. Naminé and Olette had walked ahead of the boys, leaving them to do their talk while they had their own.
"It's nice to see you again," Olette said to Naminé with a smile. Although her last visit with Naminé had been very brief and they had hardly any time for anything more besides an introduction, it was still a pleasant surprise. "It's always nice to have another girl around." Olette had grown somewhat. She was a little taller and her hair had grown, but she liked her old style so much that she really hadn't adjusted it.
"I understand completely," said Naminé with a small smile. "I was around Axel and Roxas for a long time, and on top of that, Organization XIII was made up of twelve men and one very scary woman." She shivered inwardly at the thought of the sadistic Larxene.
"So you're all on another journey? That can't be too fun."
"The circumstances aren't," admitted Naminé, "but seeing everyone again is nice."
Olette abruptly stopped as her eyebrows flew together. "That's strange, why is that girl sleeping in front of the building?" She was starting at a part of the station's wall where a girl was apparently sleeping.
Naminé narrowed her eyes in ordered to get a better look. "That's not just any girl. That's Stefa!"
"Stefa?" Olette barley had time to ask as Naminé shot toward the girl like a bullet.
Naminé bent over the sleeping girl a little, glancing back at Olette, "Better known to you as Keira. Stefa," she spoke clearly, shaking her by the shoulders a little. Immediately, Stefa's pale eyes opened to find Naminé's face inches from her own. Out of reaction more than anything, Stefa let out a small scream and made to move away. Having been leaning perfectly against the wall, Stefa could not move and only succeeded in hitting her head. Naminé backed off a little, "What happened to you? Where's Nalani, Ceron?"
XxxxxX
Simba had been very sympathetic about Nalani's situation because he understood completely. He decided to take her back to Pride Rock so that they could see if there was anything that could be done to help. Nalani noted how beautiful the lands were as she and Simba walked: the grass was green and all of the kingdom's subjects seemed to be very happy. "It's so beautiful here."
"It is, isn't it? When I was a cub, I couldn't stand it; I always wanted to explore the weird, nasty, and dangerous." Simba laughed, "My parents, especially my father, had their hands full."
Nalani couldn't help but smile. "It seems like the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree," she noted; Simba had told her quite a bit about his daughter, Kiara.
"Even if she had been more like Nala, it wouldn't have made all that much of a difference." Simba sighed as they came up the path that led to a large and unusual shaped rock. "Here we are, Pride Rock." Sure enough, the area was filled with many lionesses, but there were a few lions lazing around as well. A beige colored lioness with a cream-colored chest approached the two of them, carrying a lioness cub in her mouth. She dropped the cub before Simba.
"Simba, your daughter would like to tell you where-" Nala stopped speaking as she noticed Nalani. "Oh. Who is this?"
Simba smiled. "Nala, this is Nalani. She's a friend of Sora's."
"It's nice to meet you, Nalani. Any friend of Sora's is a friend of mine." Nala said, smiling, as she skillfully placed a paw on the cub's tail as she made to get away. "This is our lovely daughter, Kiara." Kiara smiled sheepishly up at Nalani.
"It's nice to meet you both," said Nalani, her joints twitching to bow until she remembered that she 'wasn't allowed'.
"Now then, what is it you would like to tell me, Kiara?" Simba asked with a calmness that showed he was expecting something really bad.
Kiara's smile became sweet. "I love you, daddy." She rubbed her head against one of his front legs.
Nalani couldn't help but smirk. 'Nice.'
"Your daughter went to see Kovu, again." Nala stated with annoyance.
Simba sighed and stared at his daughter hard in the eye. "Go up to the den, Kiara, and I'll talk to you later. In the meantime, Nalani needs some help getting home. Or, at least, back to her friends." Simba nudged a crestfallen Kiara with his nose, and she stomped the rest of the way to the den.
"I think I may have an idea of how you can reach Sora, Nalani," remarked Nala.
Nalani tilted her head to the side. "You do? Really?"
Nala inclined her head. "There's one of those neon transportation spots at the top of the rock, feel free to use it." Nalani had absolutely no idea what she would do without a Gummi Ship to transport to, but the offer was so generous that she had to take it. She promptly excused herself and headed up the rock to make an attempt to reach someone.
She stood on the neon spot and immediately felt her health return to normal; her relief gave way to surprise as a beam of green light shot from the sky overhead, and she was transported away from the Pride Lands.
XxxxxX
Alice was very surprised to see how well Ceron could navigate around the forest, but it was never enough to get to the correct Bizarre room. She knew what had to be done; they had to cut through the Queen's Courtyard. "How bad can it be? You said her servants are a bunch of cards, right?" Ceron asked her as he pulled out his long-sword once again, "Paper-thin."
"Oh, I don't know about this," squeaked Alice when he was one step away from the Queen's courtyard.
"I'm quite the skilled swordsman, and you said that you can use the power of light. We'll defeat the cards easily." He assured her before stepping into plain view. The courtyard was not exactly large, likely because it was simply to serve as a throne room. There was a throne at the north end of the courtyard where a fat woman sat; she did not seem to care much about Ceron's appearance, but her head practically did a 360 at the sight of Alice.
"He's helping Alice! Quickly! Off with their heads, off with their heads!" The mad woman shouted, cackling when her army of red and black cards ran forward to fight.
Ceron rolled his eyes, "Too easy. Get behind me, and stay in my shadow," he added to Alice, who complied with ease. As every card ran at him, all he had to do was simply slice them in half; they really did most of the work for him. Some of the more intelligent cards hung back for an obscenely long time, forcing him to run up and slice them. The job was still simple. had to do was wait for the cards to come to him so that he could slash them in half. Within about seven minutes, the courtyard was littered with the bodies of torn cards.
The queen's pale face was steadily becoming more and more purple as she shrieked, "Seize her! Seize her!" Beside her, on the ground, a white rabbit was frantically staring at his golden pocket watch.
"You're all so fucking crazy here," groaned Ceron as he sheathed his sword and turned around. There was one card left, and it was very determined to follow his mistress's orders.
"I believe the correct word is 'mad'," corrected a lazy male voice from somewhere behind him.
Ceron did not bother to turn around to stare at the striped cat standing on his head. "Yeah, if you're part of one of Lewis Carroll's books... Alice! Use your light!" But Alice, terrified, was beyond fighting now. "I have to do everything around here." In an instant, he had run forward and slashed the final card in half.
"Off with his-!"
"Head, yes, we get it." Alice snapped at the Queen before she turned back toward Ceron with a curtsey. "Thank you. The Bizarre room is this way." Ceron followed her as she walked through the opening between the hedges and disappeared through a dark doorway.
XxxxxX
Stefa and the others had returned to the Usual Spot to allow her to explain. "Your world was destroyed?" asked Hayner, quite surprised as he stared at her.
She rubbed her temples. "Yeah, I hope Ceron and Nalani are alright..."
"I wish there was a way to contact Riku, but if we can't get into that basement, there's no way to contact anyone," groaned Roxas from the arm over the loveseat, beside Naminé.
Naminé turned toward Stefa, who was on the opposite arm of the sea, with a reassuring smile. "I'm sure they're fine, but they probably are in a different world. Nothing too bad, I'm sure."
Something dawned upon Stefa; she was amazed she had not thought of it sooner, "Wait, Naminé! Why don't we take a portal and find them?"
Naminé rubbed the back of her head. "It's not that easy. We don't even know where they are." Before Stefa had time to argue, the neon green transportation spot began to glow. The group exchanged looks as Roxas, Naminé, and Stefa walked over it to see what was going on.
"I think...Sora's come back early," mumbled Roxas before he turned around and grinned. "I guess this is goodbye for now, but we'll be back soon; don't worry."
Pence, Hayner, and Olette nodded and waved. "See you." said Pence as the three stepped onto the point and disappeared in a flash of light.
XxX
"Stefa!"
"Nalani!" The two ran from opposite sides of the ship and embraced.
Sora grinned as he took in the large group on his ship. "It's a good thing we went back to have Cid give us a bigger Gummi Ship."
"Stef, I was a lioness, and I met the king lion, queen lion, and princess lion!" Nalani exclaimed with joy.
Stefa frowned. "I met two Nobodies turned to Somebodies." She stated, grinning a little at her own joke while Roxas rolled his eyes. "What does that get me?" Nalani smiled and gave her a pat on the back. "Where's Ceron?"
"We... still haven't found him," answered Kairi, her eyes scanning the screen from behind Sora.
"But he might be in Wonderland because that's one of the few worlds with a lot of activity," added Sora.
Stefa grinned a little more. "I bet that's fun for him! Hey... Where's Riku?" The answer did not need to be vocalized as familiar hands wrapped around Stefa's waist and pulled her against a body. She smiled a little at the warmth, able to put the thoughts of her world out of her mind for the time being.
Luckily, Nalani thought to ask about Jewel's Grove. "Sora, what's going to happen to our world and everyone in it if it was destroyed?" It was a question whose answer she had been await for a while, but Sora kept telling her that he would explain when they picked up Roxas and Naminé.
Sora sighed, sinking down in his chair a little. "Your world be sent to End of the World. That's where every destroyed world goes. As for the people in it, hopefully they will have escaped through a corridor of darkness." Guilt immediately welled up within Stefa and Nalani.
"Could this have been prevented if we had sealed the keyhole?" mumbled Stefa, the grin slipping off her face. Sora nodded sadly, causing both girls to look downcast.
"But don't worry," Kairi said comfortingly, "Sora got back Destiny Islands by sealing Kingdom Hearts."
Riku pulled Stefa a little closer to him. "That would mean it's been unsealed, though. We have to figure out what Organization XIII is up to, and fast. And, this time, no one will be left in the darkness."
"But it might help if we are in the darkness." Naminé quietly added. Everyone on the ship stared at her as if she were crazy. "Castle Oblivion resides in darkness, remember? I can seal Kingdom Hearts from the outside and someone else can do it from the inside. Then, I'll use a portal to get in with everyone else."
Roxas immediately opened his mouth to argue, "And I'll stay with you."
"We'll figure everything out later, I guess," decided Nalani. "In the meantime, we should probably rescue Ceron from Wonderland."
Stefa smirked. "Aw, but I think he probably likes it, Nala."