Separated!
Swift Heart had decided she had waited long enough to hear what exactly Dementiva had in store for her. She was currently kicking the bar of her cell and yelling at the top of her lungs. "Hey Bear failures! Creepy lady! Someone get down here and answer my questions!"
"Hey, pipe down rabbit!" Shatter Heart said as he walked down the stairs.
"If you want answers, we will give them, but I can guarantee you that what we tell you will just make you feel worse," Blade Star said, following a short distance behind Shatter Heart.
She flung her arm out to indicate her cell, "I doubt it can be much worse then you kidnapping me and keeping me in this cell. I don't do well being in one place for long so go ahead and lay it on me." She noticed Shatter Heart had burns on his arm and that his fur was poofy. "Don't you know you're not supposed to stick a fork into an electrical socket?"
Shatter Heart snarled, "I had a little run in with that wolverine friend of yours, not to mention the dog, fox, that Pegasus and the mopey bear from your family."
She felt her heart speed up and against her will a smile broke out over her face, "They're here?" She couldn't believe they had gotten here so quickly. The fact that Fauna and Grumpy were among the rescue party made her even happier.
"Yeah, they're here, but soon it won't matter because you see," Shatter Heart grinned sadistically and pointed at her chuckling, "You're going to be the new white rabbit of Wonderland!"
"So you've said. I still don't get what that means. Am I going to have to carry around a stop watch and say 'I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date?'"
"Your children's stories notwithstanding, it means your going to be an important fixture in the new order of this land," Blade Star said, "you see, Wonderland is extremely complex, there is very little semblance of order here. In fact, this very land seems to radiate chaos, such chaos that it contains wonders you could not imagine, but not even a sorceress of Dementiva's power can really work with the chaos around here, so she'll need an advisor. The white rabbit is the one piece of order amidst the chaos of Wonderland, the white rabbit possesses innumerable amounts of knowledge, enough that he or she can navigate not only the terrain in mere hours, something anyone else would be hard pressed to do, but can locate anything in Wonderland, and even easily traverse between this world and the world you came from."
She folded her arms across her chest, "So what's going to stop me from running right back home as soon as I'm made the White Rabbit? Those new abilities plus my speed kinda give me the advantage."
Shatter Heart couldn't help himself, he started laughing at Swift Heart's reply, "You, you think that's all HAHAHA! Do you know how much knowledge the white rabbit needs? It will take more mental capacity than you could conceive of, in fact all that knowledge is going to push out everything else about who you are," Shatter Heart then advanced, grinning sadistically at her, jabbing his right index finger at her with each phrase he spoke, "You'll forget your name, what you are, who you were, your friends! Your family! Everyone who you ever knew or ever knew you!" He stopped and jabbed her in the chest before stating with finality, "In short, once the change is done this morning, Swift Heart Rabbit will have ceased to exist!"
"And that is just what we want," Blade Star added. Swift Heart was frozen. Hearing she would forget everything about her old life brought a new terror with it. She wanted to feel sad, she wanted to feel terrified, but she couldn't find the way to express her emotions, because it wouldn't matter. She wouldn't remember who she was, she'd just be the White Rabbit.
"Looks like the little bunny is scared," Shatter Heart taunted, "And don't think your friends will save you before then."
"Shortly, they will be separated, and then without their ability to work together, we will eliminate them one," Blade Star held up a finger, "by one," she lowered her finger, "of course by the time that's done your transformation will be finished and it won't matter anyways. I'm going to go and see if the Red Queen has considered my plan," the ninja bear added, turning to leave and leaving Shatter Heart grinning at a horrified Swift Heart.
The Red Queen was currently in her parlor, having her toes and nails painted by her Red Girls as well as her hair styled. She was not in the mood to be disturbed. Blade Star arrived and noticed the Red Queen was having her little foot and hand treatment. The ninja bear cleared her throat, deciding to be subtle for now.
The Queen shot upright, glaring daggers at the bear. "What! What is so important that you had to bother me in my personal chambers?"
"What is important, is that this plan is in jeopardy, some rescuers from the rabbit's family have arrived and they will be here before dawn, and if they can free her all your work for this will be for naught," Blade Star said, glaring back with equal menace, "I simply wish to ask to use your 'jub-jub' birds to separate them, so my friend and I can eliminate them with haste."
"Very well. Get off me!" She shook her attendants off and headed out of the room. "Follow me!" Rolling her eyes Blade Star followed. They climbed the stairs to the Red Queens tower. Opening the door to the top most room, The Red Queen called out in a sickly sweet voice, "Babies! Mummy needs you to wakey wakey. She has a little fun for you!" The 3 Jub Jub birds, who looked like giant vultures with black, red, yellow, and blue checkered feathers and beaks full of razor sharp teeth, dropped to the floor by their queen and rubbed their beaks against her. "Yes mummy wuves her wittle babies." Blade Star tried not to gag. Going to the shutters the Queen threw them open and pointed out to Wonderland. "Find the intruders! Capture them and take them to opposite ends of Wonderland!" Squawking and cackling the birds took to the air to do their Queens bidding. She turned to the ninja bear, "Happy now? My darlings will take care of them."
"Thank you," Blade Star turned and left, however before she could speak to Shatter Heart she ran into the Wizard of Wonderland.
"Good plan, but what do you plan to do about the one group that won't be deterred?" he asked, scathingly.
"I know that Valiant Heart won't be caught by those birds, so I plan to deal with him personally," Blade Star said, stopping to speak with the Wizard, "Shatter Heart fancies a duel with the dog, Grumpy Bear won't last five minutes without them to protect him, as for the fox and the shapeshifter, if you're so concerned about them then you can deal with them yourself," Blade Star walked away, heading back Swift Heart's cell.
"Oh I will, rest assured I will," the Wizard said, glaring after her.
Meanwhile with the rescue party, Fauna had regained her true form and was walking a few paces behind the others. She was watching Valiant Heart, trying to piece together just what had happened to him while he'd been gone.
Valiant looked over at Fauna and asked, "What's wrong Fauna, did I grow another head on my back?"
"Just trying to figure out the new you. Where did you get those powers from?"
"Well, I kinda got them by accident," seeing Fauna's confused look he continued, "I had a run in with a little kid with orange hair when I was a cub, he had lost his mother and Noble Heart was trying to help him. Turns out the kid had a lot of pent up spiritual energy, and when I spent time with him, I got some of it by mistake. Those spasms I used to have were the energy trying to break free and that little meltdown was those powers succeeding, it nearly killed me," he pointed over at Snowy Heart, "Snowy's little vision led me to a strange man who always wore a green bucket hat and when I met him, he said he knew what had to be done. He trained me, taught me how to control the powers and then, taught me how to be a Soul Reaper, a being who's job it is to send souls to the afterlife and fight corrupted ones in this world, though that shouldn't be an issue since those things never happen up in the Kingdom of Caring, but I did learn a lot about how to fight, and I got a lot stronger," he drew forth his sword, "this is a Zanpakuto, a weapon that is basically a piece of myself, what I did back there was release it into its Shikai, or initial release, showing it's true form and unleashing its real power, in this case the ability to send powerful blasts of lightning at my enemies. There's supposed to be a higher level to it but I'm not at that stage yet."
Fauna stared down at him, and barely contained a laugh. "I don't know what half of those words mean but I'm happy for you. Glad to know you won't be randomly spazzing anymore." Her face darkened momentarily, "Plus if you had been home a few months back I could have directed you to some wayward souls."
"What, you mean the poachers?" Valiant asked, "I kept up on news about them, you're little killing turned them into hollows. I dealt with them and you'll be happy to know they didn't go to a 'sweet hereafter' they're in probably the worst place for a human soul to be."
She grinned at him and flicked her tail, "That definitely is the icing on my revenge cake."
"You should have heard them, they turned into a hydra like thing, kept swearing that they'd 'get that shapeshifter' cause unlike most hollows they remembered who they were. They were no challenge," he waved it off. He then looked sideways at Fauna, "Did you think I was going to lecture you about them?" he asked.
"Honestly I don't know what to expect form any one anymore. But I was pretty sure I was safe 'cause you aren't exactly the lecturing type."
"Got that right, not to mention that through my training I've learned that not everyone deserves redemption, some people are beyond help," he stated.
A loud shriek was heard from the air, drawing the groups attention to the 3 large birds descending on them. Fauna's ears instantly went back as she reared and whinnied a challenge. Valiant swung at the nearest bird and it backed off instead grabbing Grumpy Bear and hauling him away. The other two birds seized Snowy Heart and Loyal Heart and began to bear them aloft.
Valiant Heart swore and pointed his finger at the retreating birds, "Hado number 4, Byakurai!" a bolt of lightning shot from his finger, but the birds easily dodged, "I can't chase them, Fauna..." he turned to see the Pegasus was gone. Fauna had gone after the bird that landed closest to her, ready to kick its brains out. It had snapped hit's murderous beak at her before grabbing one of her comrades and taking off. She took off after the bird, flapping her wings furiously to keep up.
The other two birds had flown close together, Loyal Heart had been shocked by the sudden grab but recovered as quickly and he conjured a sword in his right hand he stabbed upwards at the bird. It squawked and flew higher, above the other one nearby. Loyal Heart stabbed again and the bird cried in pain, releasing the dog cousin. It was fortunate for Loyal Heart that he landed on the back of the other bird. Loyal Heart grabbed onto the bird's neck and held his sword to the bird's throat.
"Take us to the ground before I am forced to harm you!" Loyal Heart demanded, actually growling like a real dog.
Grumpy looked up hearing the growl from above him. "Loyal Heart! If he drops me I'm not going to be happy."
"Do not worry," Loyal Heart said, "if he drops you he'll be less than unhappy," Loyal Heart nicked the bird's neck, "land now!" he demanded. Hissing, the bird began to lower to the ground. When it landed it flicked its claw, tossing Grumpy a few feet away. It then hunched its shoulders and shook, freeing itself of Loyal Heart. Cawing at them it took flight, headed back the way it came.
Loyal Heart shook himself free of the dust he gathered on his landing, and dashed over to Loyal Heart, dissipating his sword as he did so, "Grumpy Bear, are you all right?" he asked.
He was on his feet, brushing off his clothes, "Fine." He looked around. Wherever the bird had dropped them, it had taken them out of sight of the castle. "So any bright ideas?"
Loyal Heart looked around, "We should continue, the birds flew in a straight line, so the castle should be," he pointed, "that way, roughly, unless the Cheshire Cat shows up again or we find other means of help, we should move and stay on guard, I have little doubt that we will be attacked now that we are separated from the others."
Nodding he started to walk back the way they came, trying not to feel disheartened.
Meanwhile Fauna had changed her form to that of a peregrine falcon to catch up with the Jub-Jub bird. When she was hovering above it she shifted once more into a mountain lion and started to scratch up its back, trying to get it to either land or drop its prey.
From below the bird, Snowy gave a cry and tried to grab the bird's talon, "Fauna, I hope that's you up there!" he shouted. The bird shrieked in pain before opening its claws and dropping Snowy Heart. Seeing the fox fall Fauna dove off the bird, regaining her Pegasus form as she got below him.
"Thank you, Fauna," he looked up to see the bird dive bombing towards them, "hold still for a moment," he raised his left hand and his bow formed. Snowy drew the white string back and sighted along the shaft of energy, and fired, striking the bird dead on.
Voicing a cry of pain, it headed for home. Fauna dove down to land momentarily, to catch her breath. She whinnied in surprise when she landed in something cold and squishy. Snowy looked around as the world was white and cold as though it was winter everywhere, smiling a bit despite the circumstances, "This reminds me of my original home in winter," he slid off Fauna's back and landing with a soft squish, "but not nearly this squishy." He bent down and took some of the white stuff on his finger and smelled it then tasted it, "this isn't snow it's vanilla ice cream?"
She fluffed up her feathers, feeling the cold. "Of course it is. Talking vanishing cats, ice cream instead of snow, it all makes perfect sense." She shivered and snorted, seeing her breath fog in the air. "If I see a giant cherry roll down a hill I'm checking out."
"Considering everything we've seen here, I wouldn't be surprised if that happened, but please do not leave me here alone," Snowy asked. He then looked around, "do you know any way we could locate the castle once again?" he asked Fauna.
She sneezed, "I could fly up and see where it is." Turning into a snowy owl she flew up about 50 feet. Taking a moment to look around she came back down, taking on the form of a polar bear, hoping to use the fur to keep her warm. "Okay I have good news and bad news."
Snowy was not as all cold, he was used to this kind of climate, "OK, enlighten me please."
"Good news, the castle is off in that direction." She pointed south with her snout. "The bad news is that there are a whole bunch of ice cream mountains between us and there."
"I see," Snowy Heart said, "then I suppose we should start hiking, the sooner we get to the castle the sooner we can rescue Swift Heart."
Fauna nodded. "As soon as we get somewhere warmer I can shift and fly us to the castle, but for now I'm going to have to stick with big bad and furry."
Snowy smiled, "I actually feel safer like this, the people I grew up with considered Polar Bears to be great guardians of the wild."
"Good to know." She grinned at him and started to run in an easy lope. Snowy jogged after her, actually feeling comfortable despite everything.