AN: Hey fans, readers, writers, and all other fanfiction viewers alike! lyokoMARVELanime here once again with another exciting chapter of Kingdom Hearts Dual Keys, where we'll be wrapping things up in that crazy, mixed-up, messed-up, wacked out world that is Wonderland!
Sora: I gotta ask, why did we only do the Wonderland wrap-up in this chapter?
AN: Well because Wonderland's wrap-up involved facing off with a major Heartless boss like the Guard Armor for one thing, and because there were also a few other things in this chapter that I just had to throw in that made it a little too long for us to really get into having anything else in there. Plus, the next world you guys go to will have a serious focus on one particular thing, and I wanted to leave that for at least one chapter in total.
Ventus: Makes about as much sense as anything does in Wonderland.
AN: Ven, really? Come on.
Ventus:...Okay, yeah it makes way more sense than anything in Wonderland, period.
AN: Thank you.
Goofy: Hey, there lyokoMARBLE...uh loco-Marvin...
Donald: Just call him something like Mister Author!
AN: While I wouldn't have said it the same way as Donald, I wouldn't have a problem with it if you did so, Goofy. Seriously, don't strain yourself trying to say the whole name. Anyway, what's up?
Goofy: Well I was just wondering if you were gonna answer any of those reviews you've gotten since the last chapter?
AN: Well sure, why not? Where should we start?
Ventus: How about this one, from "Jibanyan with Komasan"
AN: Ah yes. The one where he asked what had happened to Terra and who is in Sora's heart. If you really need to ask my friend, then you probably didn't read Ven's Journal Entry from the previous chapter, or you just didn't play Kingdom Hearts BBS, or read my previous story. [Warning, some of the following will be spoilers for both if you have not done either]. Terra's still been possessed by Xehanort, and as for who's in Sora's heart, it's Kairi, as we all already know from playing the first Kingdom Hearts game, and of course Ventus' heart.
Donald: But how's Ven's heart in Sora when Ven's still around to teach him?
AN: Yes, that's actually similar to an earlier question from reviewer "rinsegaku". Yes, a fractured version of Ven's heart is in Sora, because Ventus received a fully recovered version of his heart from the Future Sora that he met during the events of Keyblades of Future Past. So that's a thing, and yeah, we may likely see a few other problems that would result from time travel mess, but like said reviewer had said, that's what makes this fun!
Sora: Hey, how about this question from "Jad826", who was asking if we would ever see any kind of artwork for the new design of Ven's Keyblade?
AN: Yes, well as much as I would like to post something like that somewhere online, I'm afraid I can't, seeing as I do not have a deviantart account, nor do I really intend to ever get one. While I do actually do my own cover art for these stories, that does not mean I'm confident enough in my abilities as an artist or with photo-editing programs like Photoshop to go and do something like that. But if anyone would like to take on the challenge of trying to do so, please, let me know.
Goofy: What about this one from "Nerdman3000", who was telling you about how he hopes that Kairi's role in this story isn't the same as it was originally in the first Kingdom Hearts game?
AN: Yes, thank you for that reminder, Goofy. I've gotta be totally honest here. Kairi's role in this story may actually start off as being similar to that original iteration, but I can promise that it won't be completely the same. I do indeed acknowledge that in my last Kingdom Hearts story, Kairi got the chance to really shine as a true Keyblade Warrior, or as said reviewer and probably a few of you would put it, a real badass, and honestly, I'd like for her to have a similar role in this story as well. I just can't really make it happen right away, but I can promise that it will happen. Kairi's not some damsel in distress, even if she is a Princess of Heart, and she's shown, even in the first game, that she's not afraid to stand up and fight if she has to, so I have no intention of relegating her into such a role when instead, I can take her bravery and willingness to fight and enhance it a little. That's all I can really say at this time though. Then again...maybe I've already said too much?
Now, let's move onto the story, shall we? Are we able to do it like we normally do, or are we gonna have to use the manual controls for starting this story?
Ventus: Looks like we're back to the manual controls.
Goofy: I've got it!
AN: No, wait! Goofy, don't pull that lever!
Goofy: Uh, pull this lever? Okay. [pulls the wrong lever]
AN: [gets a massive amount of muddy water dumped on him from the ceiling] Pah...Goofy, I said don't pull that lever. It's the other lever for starting the story.
Goofy: Oops. Sorry! [pulls the correct lever]
AN: Enjoy everyone, while I go and get cleaned off.
I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Chapter IV
After thinking over the information that the Cheshire Cat had given them, the four friends figured it would be easier to find the four pieces of evidence if they split up, so that way, they would each be likely to find one piece of evidence each, but at the same time, they also determined that they should try to stay as close to one another as possible while they searched, and so they were all soon off searching the forest for the evidence that the suspicious cat had left for them to find. Ven and Donald had an easy enough time finding two pieces of evidence right there in the forest, one being a picture of footprints that could likely have belonged to the Heartless, and the other being a pair of antenna that were clearly ripped off of the head of a Shadow Heartless, and shortly afterwards, Goofy came back with a box that he was holding very tightly under his arm, almost as though he was doing his best to make sure it stayed closed.
"Hey Goofy, why are you holding that box so tightly," Ven asked when the knight reached him and Donald at the forest's entrance.
"Because of the nasty smell that's inside of it," Goofy explained.
That confused both wizard and Keyblade Master, and prompted the latter to ask if he could see for himself. Goofy seemed a little hesitant on letting Ven check, but still handed over the box to the blonde anyway, allowing Ven to crack the box open so he could look inside. The instant he had slid it open just enough, though, Ven immediately slammed the lid closed again and flinched from the horribly nasty scent that had seeped out when he did open it, and even from that brief whiff, he knew that it could only belong to one thing. "How did that cat manage to get a Heartless' scent into a box like this," Ven questioned with a groan, as he was trying to suppress any urge to gag from the scent he had just inhaled.
Donald and Goofy both shrugged in reply to his question. They ended up deciding to leave such things for later when they heard Sora calling out to them from a tree branch high above them. Turning to see the spiky haired kid waving down to them, Ven could only assume that Sora had ended up finding the evidence that was difficult to get, and he immediately made his way up to Sora as fast as he could. "What's up, Sora," Ven asked once he was standing on the same branch as his apprentice.
"Aside from us and level of weirdness in this world, I think I found the evidence that cat said would be the hardest to get," Sora joked before confirming what Ven already suspected.
Ven then motioned for Sora to show him what he meant, and the boy immediately led his teacher through an opening in the tree. Oddly enough, they ended up coming out at a very high point of the bizarre room that they had started out in earlier, which was only reinforced by the fact that they could hear the doorknob snoring several feet below them. Looking at their current surroundings while trying his best to not look down at the moment, Ven quickly found the box containing the last piece of evidence, sitting on a ledge just across a gap from where they would end up standing once they had completely entered the room, which was actually the very small space of the top of a faucet. It was at that point that Ven was glad had waved for him to wait before stepping out of the exit completely, because that gave them the chance to go back and call Donald and Goofy up to them so they would not end up having to go all the way back around to meet up with the two again.
After the two Keyblade Wielders were joined by their other two traveling companions, Sora started to brainstorm on some ideas on how they could get to the evidence box from the faucet. The gap itself may not have been that wide, but the main concern they had with the jump was the distance between their current position and the floor below, which was most certainly not the least bit small, so what they really needed to do was think of a way to get across without falling all the way down and possibly breaking their necks. "Maybe Donald could use a levitation spell to help one of us float across," Sora suggested.
"No way. That takes a lot of concentration, and if I'm not careful, I could end up dropping whoever I'm trying to move over there," Donald shook his head.
"Well, maybe I could just jump down and then give one of you a boost to help you jump over," Goofy suggested.
"No, that has a bit more risk to it than just trying to jump across ourselves," Sora said.
After letting the three throw a few more ideas around, Ven finally interrupted with a small cough, gaining the three's attention as he summoned his Keyblade. "I'll take care of getting the evidence," Ven reassured the three. "You guys stay put and try not to fall."
Before any of them could ask what he was going to do, Ven reeled back and then threw his Keyblade forward, letting in spin through the air before returning to him as his Keyblade Glider. Sora may have seen it before in Traverse Town, but that time had only allowed him a small glimpse, so this was the first time he was really seeing what had once been the blonde Keyblade Master's usual mode of transportation between the worlds, and naturally, he was thrown into wide-eyed awe at the sight of it. "Wow! The Keyblade can become a hoverboard," Sora asked in excitement.
"Not exactly," Ven chuckled as he hopped onto the board. "This is actually just one of many forms that it could take on when it becomes a Keyblade Glider. Sometimes they can become hover cycle, a hover scooter, or really anything else, and at one point, they were used to allow Keyblade Wielders to travel between the worlds without the use of a Gummi Ship."
"So why aren't you using yours to travel to other worlds instead of riding in the Gummi Ship with us," Sora asked.
"Well for one thing, I wouldn't be able to teach you very much if we were traveling with separate vehicles," Ven joked before turning serious again. "The main reason though is because the king believed that the Heartless could track us through the Keyblade, and that using it to travel between worlds would be like drawing a moth to a flame, since it doesn't make it seem like we'd be able to fight back while they're in this state."
"So I guess that means I won't learn how to use a Keyblade Glider any time soon, will I," Sora asked, slightly disappointed.
"Afraid not, kiddo. Besides, we should probably let you learn how to fly the Gummi Ship before I teach you how to at least summon your own Keyblade Glider," Ven smiled in sympathy before ending what he said with a light joke, drawing a smile to Sora's face once he did. With that bit of conversation settled, Ven easily flew down to where the evidence was sitting, and retrieved the box in question. After opening said box, Ven was able to see a picture of a tree in the nearby forest that had claw marks on it, and the claw marks in question were surrounded by a haze of shadows, indicating that they had been made by the Heartless.
"Well, look what you've found. Nice going," the Cheshire Cat's voice called out, drawing everyone's attention to the faucet that was sitting just below where Sora, Donald, and Goofy were standing to see that he had appeared right on top of said faucet.
"So, is that all of the evidence you wanted us to find, or is there something else that you would care to share with us that would help prove Alice's innocence," Ven questioned, making sure that his tone carried a bit of a hidden warning in it.
"That's all the evidence there is for you to find, but don't be so sure it'll be of that much help. Alice may be innocent, but what about you," the cat asked in a clear riddle.
"What do you mean," Sora asked, clearly not getting it anymore than Ven was, beyond the uneasy feeling the blonde had gained after hearing said question.
"I won't tell, but I'll give you something, little boy," the cat replied, and he then sent a small orb over to where Sora was standing with a wave of his hand. The orb in question had the image of a snowflake inside of it, and it easily went into Sora's chest, but since he was not expecting such a sudden thing to occur, Sora had jumped back a little in surprise, and ended up losing his balance as a result.
"SORA," Ven, Donald, and Goofy all shouted when the brunet's footing finally slipped and he started falling to the floor. Ven immediately jumped back onto his Keyblade Glider and dove down so that he would be directly underneath Sora, and not a second later, Sora safely landed on the back of Ven's Keyblade Glider, much to everyone's relief.
"That was way too close," Ven sighed once he had moved down to the floor and dropped Sora off. Once his apprentice was safely on the floor, he then moved to carry Donald and Goofy down as well, and after doing so, he reverted the hoverboard into a Keyblade once again and then asked Sora, "How do you feel, Sora? Did that cat's little trick do anything to you?"
"I feel okay, but, it feels like there's a cold feeling building up inside me. Like I'm going to freeze in an instant at any second," Sora admitted as he shivered a little.
Ven let this information sink in as he thought for a minute, and then told Sora, "Summon your Keyblade and focus on that feeling. Then, aim the Keyblade up into the sky as you think about creating a shard of ice that would freeze an enemy."
Sora was not really sure why Ven was telling him all of this, but shrugged and did as he was instructed. After summoning his Keyblade thinking about the cold feeling that was building inside him for a few minutes, Sora aimed the Keyblade up into the sky and thought about wanting an enemy to freeze like Ven had told him, until he finally shouted, "Freeze!"
In an instant, a shard of ice came rocketing out of his Keyblade and soared into the air before shattering on the ceiling above them, surprising Sora while Ven just smiled in amazement. "Well, how about that. Looks like that cat helped increase your magic powers just enough for you to be able to use the starting level ice magic spell," the blonde commented.
"So, I can use magic in a fight now," Sora asked.
Before Ven could respond, a number of Heartless suddenly started forming around them, prompting all four members of the group to ready their weapons for action. "Looks like we're about to find out for sure," Ven commented.
With that, the four were charging into battle once more. Ven did not really need to worry too much about Donald and Goofy, since he knew that those two could take care of themselves rather well, as evidenced by how Goofy would smash and bash various different Heartless with his shield, especially when they got too close to Donald, while Donald blasted them left and right with various different spells, so while he fought off the Heartless that were coming at him, he kept a close eye on Sora as he fought. Looking at the boy's fighting style, it was quickly apparent that he had not had any actual training in sword fighting, but Sora's amateur skills were still rather impressive nonetheless. More than that, he seemed to flow from swinging the Keyblade at enemies to trying to blast them with the Blizzard spell rather easily. Still, Ven could find a few faults in Sora's fighting style that indicated how he was trying too hard to make the Keyblade do what he wanted instead of letting the Keyblade guide his actions, something that Ven himself had trouble with during his own early days of training. In the end, despite whatever faults Ven had noted in Sora's fighting style, the four were able to fight off the sudden ambush, much to everyone's relief, with each of them none the worse for wear save for a few scratches. Thankfully, those were easily remedied by a Cure spell, courtesy of Donald.
"Well, if the stuff we found in the boxes isn't proof enough that the Heartless are here, than that little fiasco certainly settles it," Ven remarked as he let the cool, calming feeling of Donald's healing spell wash over him.
"But what do ya think that crazy cat was talking about when he asked if we were so sure that we were innocent," Goofy asked.
"Who cares?! We've gotta hurry and go save Alice, now," Donald reminded Goofy as he finished patching everyone up with his magic.
"Yeah, we've got all the evidence we need, so it shouldn't be too hard to prove that Alice isn't the one that tried to steal the queen's heart," Sora eagerly added.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that, Sora. Given what impressions we've had of that woman so far, I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to pull something that would make sure that she would win any argument no matter what, so let's keep on our toes until after we've made our case," Ven cautioned.
Everyone nodded in agreement with that sentiment, and they all immediately turned to leave the strange room that apparently had multiple entrances in and out of it to the rest of the Wonderland, and return to the Queen of Hearts' court in order to prove Alice was innocence, each feeling very concerned and bewildered by the Cheshire Cat's odd warning riddle.
The group knew full well that they were not given a time limit for gathering evidence, but considering what they had seen of the Queen of Hearts, Ven felt that it was best for them to get back as quickly as possible just in case said queen decided to carry out the sentence she had given Alice while they were gone, and that was why they ended up racing all the way back to the court area as fast as they could. After speaking with one of the guard cards to say that they were ready, Donald and Goofy were brought to a set of bleachers off to the side while Sora and Ven were directed to the witness stand to present the evidence that they had found. Standing before the queen now made Ven and Sora praise Alice for her bravery in speaking out against the queen in the way that she had, because each of them could not help but feel a bit nervous right now. Of course, Ven was actually much less nervous than Sora, seeing as he had dealt with things that were much worse than this, but when he saw that the younger Keybearer was actually shaking a little due to his nervousness, he did not hesitate to place a calming hand on Sora's shoulder in an attempt reassure him that everything would be fine. Sora nodded in thanks to Ven for this, and the two then brought their full attention to the queen so that they could present what they had found.
"Well, that's certainly a lot of evidence, but I'm still not impressed," the Queen of Hearts remarked when she saw the four boxes of evidence that the two had presented. "Cards, bring forth my evidence!" This order immediately drew a subtle, suspicious glare from Ven as two cards brought in a fifth box of "evidence" as the queen called it, as he was sure that this box was one that contained a piece of evidence that would allow her to rule in a way that she preferred instead of how they wanted it to go. The cards then shuffled the five boxes in a way that made it hard for them to really keep track of which box was one of theirs and which was the queen's, and once they had finished the queen declared, "All right, then. Choose the one you wish to present. I'll decide who's guilty based on that evidence."
"You want to decide something like that based on one piece of evidence? That doesn't really seem like something one would expect in a fair trial, your highness," Ven questioned.
"Checking all five would only be a waste of time, and I do believe that you were in a hurry to prove Alice's innocence," the queen pointed out.
"What? After all the trouble we went through of collecting it, you're just going to decide based on what's in one box," Sora moaned.
"You dare object? Then you will lose your head," the queen practically hollered.
"No! No, we do not object," Ven immediately insisted.
"Then choose one box, and one box only," the queen ordered.
Well, now the two were stuck. After all that trouble they went through in collecting evidence, they ended up being forced to choose only piece to present, and what made it worst was the fact that their pieces were mixed in with the one that the queen's cards had added before being shuffled around, so there's was a one-in-five chance that they would end up choosing the box that the queen had added, and saying that it was a safe bet that hers was not one that told the truth was putting it mildly. The whole situation was actually making Ven start to sweat just a little bit, and he was honestly wondering if they would be able to survive if they chose wrong, until Sora suddenly tapped him on the shoulder in an attempt to get his attention.
"Let's choose the box in the middle," Sora whispered once Ven had turned to him.
"What? Are you sure about that," Ven asked. "The odds may be in our favor, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be a bit careful Sora."
"I know that, Ven, but I've got a good feeling about the one in the middle. I can't really explain it, but I feel like…like I can kinda sense something bad coming from that box that's similar to what I feel around the Heartless," Sora explained.
Ven was not entirely sure why Sora would sense something like that from a piece of evidence, but he did have a pretty good idea. Still, he had to be absolutely sure before they did anything. "Can you sense that same feeling from any of the other boxes?"
Sora closed his eyes to better focus for a minute, joining Ven in ignoring the queen as she shouted for them to hurry up and decide, and eventually he said, "Yeah, I'm getting a similar feeling from three of the other boxes, except for one of them. I mean, it feels a bit similar but like its hiding something that's supposed to have a strong light."
Ven turned towards the boxes and focused his own senses for a minute, until he was able to pick up on the same thing as Sora. The fact that Sora was able to sense such things at all so soon after acquiring the Keyblade was actually rather impressive, since even Aqua had admitted to being unable to sense various levels of light and darkness around her until she had reached a certain point in her training, but then he remembered that Sora had the heart of a Princess of Heart inside of him at the moment, in addition to the fragmented version of his own heart, so it only made sense that one or even both of those two factors was amplifying his senses to some extent. After he had reached this conclusion on what was affecting Sora's senses, Ven looked to his apprentice and nodded to say that he agreed with his decision, and the two then faced the queen again to announce said choice.
"Are you certain? No second chances," the queen reminded the two.
"Yeah, we're sure," Sora nodded confidently.
"Very well then. Now we shall see who the real culprit is," the queen announced.
Despite how confident they were in their decision, Sora and Ven could not help but hold their breath, hoping that they did not choose wrong. They watched as one of the cards presented the box to the queen, opened it for her, and then revealed the contents of the box had formed into a temporary illusion of a Soldier Heartless, much to the queen's shock, and the card guards' greater surprise, as they had not expected such a creature to suddenly appear, even as an illusion. "What in the world was that," the queen demanded.
"Your evidence that Alice is innocent, as well as anyone else you were hoping to convict," Ven simply stated. "That creature is but one variety of monsters known as the Heartless. They're beings of darkness that are born from the darkness within people's hearts, and they prey on the hearts of others out of an animalistic instinct to create more Heartless by drawing people into darkness."
All around them, the two Keybearers and their companions could hear the card guards muttering words of disbelief and slight fear of what would happen should they ever come into contact with such creatures, and unfortunately, the queen was able to hear such murmurings too, and she did not like it at all. "Silence! I'm the law here," the queen finally roared, rendering an end to all matter of speech that had broken out due to what had just been revealed. "Article 29: Anyone who defies the queen is guilty!"
"That's crazy," Donald protested, only to suddenly end up locked in a cage along with Goofy.
"Sora! Ven! Help," Goofy shouted, alerting the master and apprentice to the two's plight.
"Seize them at once," the queen shouted as the stands and court all melted away in a puff of smoke, soon to be replaced by a single tower in the center with a number of cranks on the side that the cards used to raise Alice's cage into the air, while the judge's stand that the queen was sitting upon was lowered a little to the ground. "Cards! If they touch the tower, you lose your heads!"
"Which means we can save our friends by taking out the tower! Thanks for the tip, 'your highness'," Ven shouted in retort before he summoned his Keyblade and threw right at the queen, knocking her unconscious the minute it hit her. When his Keyblade was in his hand again, Ven looked to Sora, who had summoned his own Keyblade already and started to fight back against the cards that had moved to attack them, and shouted, "Sora, focus on the tower in the middle of the field!"
Sora immediately nodded in response to this and shoved the spear of the card he was currently keeping at bay back, along with the rather flimsy guard in question before running over to the tower. Ven then took this moment to engage the cards by swiping and slashing at them as fast as he could, providing Sora's approach to the tower with some very welcome cover. At one point, Ven noticed that one of the cards get blown back by the residual wind of his strikes, and that made him smirk a little at a new idea for keeping the cards back, while mentally berating himself at the same time for not thinking of said idea before now. With his new plan in mind, Ven raised his Keyblade into the air, letting it glow with magic as he summoned the spell he had in mind, and shouted, "Aero!"
Upon announcing the name of the spell, a powerful vortex of wind erupted around Ventus, sending the cards flying away like they had been swept into a tornado, which was actually not that far off from the truth if one were to be completely honest. Ven then swiped his Keyblade in a quick variety of different, fast attacks, until he felt a familiar energy finally build up inside of him, and he immediately directed that power into his Keyblade, unleashing his unique Command Style: Fever Pitch. With the power of his Command Style enhancing his abilities, Ven was able to easily race around the field and knock back any cards that dared to approach Sora again at a much faster speed than he had been moving at before.
From where Sora was, he could hardly believe what he was seeing. One minute Ven was fighting like he always had up until now, and then the next minute, he had blown the cards away with a simple wind spell and then, after hitting a few of the cards a few more times, he had started glowing with a light green aura. A minute after the aura had appeared, Ven started moving a lot faster than he had been before, almost like he had suddenly gained super speed for a minute. Seeing all of this made Sora giddy with excitement for the moment when Ven decided to teach him how to do all of that, but he knew he had to focus on his current job, and he quickly went to work breaking the tower as fast as he could, slamming his Keyblade into whatever piece of the tower seemed most vulnerable. Unfortunately, it was taking a little too long, and he was starting to get a little frustrated, especially since some of the cards would occasionally get through Ven's rather rapid defense and try to attack him, for what little good it did them, but then he remembered that Donald and Ven were not the only ones who could do magic now, and when another group of cards started charging him, he immediately spun around and fired an icy blast of the Blizzard Spell at them, freezing them in a block of ice that Ven easily cut down seconds later, allowing Sora to destroy a good half of the tower.
While it was good that Sora was making progress, it was not quite fast enough for anyone's liking, but thankfully, Ven knew just how to remedy that. Moving quickly, Ven immediately cast a few more wind-based spells, most of them being Aero or Aerora, until he finally felt a new bit of energy build up inside of him like when he was preparing to unleash his Fever Pitch Command Style, and he did not hesitate for a second to unleash this energy as well, activating one of his unique Tier Two Command Styles as his aura changed from light green to bright white. "Sora, get clear," Ventus then shouted, and the spiky haired boy did not hesitate to do so, providing Ven with a clear opening for what he was about to do. "Command Style: Cyclone Finisher!"
Instantly after Ven had announced the name of his attack, the blonde began racing across the battlefield while spinning around like a top, tearing through anything that stood in his path, be it the cards, or the tower he was directing most of his attention towards. Doing so was not really all that easy, seeing as this particular Command Style's finisher was not that easy to direct like some of the other Command Styles that Ven used, but thankfully, that was not a problem when the target was as stationary as the tower keeping Alice, Donald, and Goofy locked up, and in no time at all, the tower had been completely destroyed like an old, rundown wooden house caught in a tornado. With the tower gone, Donald and Goofy's cages were instantly snapped open, freeing the two from their unexpected confinement, and Alice's cage was lowered back to the ground, waiting for the four heroes to open it and free the captive Princess of Heart inside.
Donald and Goofy were quick to approach Alice's cage, mostly because they were the closest to it, but Sora and Ven hung back for a minute, the former because he wanted to talk to his master about what he had just seen, and the latter because of the feeling of dizziness that had come over him after he came out of the attack he had unleashed. "This is why I don't normally use that Command Style," Ven muttered to himself as he wobbled on his feet a little, trying to shake off his dizziness.
"That was so awesome," Sora shouted once he had reached the blonde, obviously too star-struck by what he had just seen to notice his teacher's current state. "How'd you do that weird glowing thing that gave you some kind of power-up, or what even was that? Was it some kind of really advanced magic spell? No wait! I bet it was a cool Keyblade power, right? Can you teach me how to do it?"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down, Sora," Ven chuckled once he had finally managed to shake off his dizziness. "There will be plenty of time to tell you about all of that later, but right now, let's help Donald and Goofy check on Alice, and then get her to safety, okay?"
"Okay, sure," Sora conceded, slightly disappointed. "But can you at least tell me what it was that you just did?"
Ven thought about it for a minute, until he shrugged in agreement with that as he revealed, "That was a small demonstration of the Command Styles, a special power boost with unique abilities that all Keyblade Wielders possess. I'll tell you a bit more about them later though, because like I said, we've got a job to do right now."
Sora was more than happy to accept that little explanation for now, after all, Ven was right to say that his training schedule had to take a backseat until they had made sure Alice was safe, but unfortunately, it turned out that would be a bit more difficult than they had originally thought it would be. "She's gone," Goofy shouted, drawing everyone's eyes to the cage and rousing the queen from her unexpected nap.
Sure enough, the cage Alice had been in was completely empty with not a single sign of the girl in question ever finding a way to break the cage open so that she could escape or that Alice herself had ever been in there. "Please tell me this is just another weird thing that happens on this world," Donald pleaded, hoping that was the case.
"No, I don't think so," Ven mused once he was standing in front of the cage with the other two. "I can sense that something or someone with a strong darkness in their heart had been here. They must've kidnapped Alice while we were too busy to notice."
"You fools! Find the one who's behind this! I don't care how," the queen shouted, clearly just a small bit distressed about Alice's disappearance as the four outsiders to Wonderland were, though more than likely not for the same reasons as them, and the card guards were instantly off and running in an attempt to find the missing girl.
Looking at the cards as they scrambled about to try and chase after the mystery kidnapper immediately told the four that there was no way the Queen of Hearts or her cards would ever be able to find Alice or her kidnapper before they were long gone, and that was all the prompting that they needed to take off in pursuit of their own search efforts. "If they wanted a way out of this world, they would probably head for that bizarre room," Ven commented as he led the group towards the forest. "And since there are so many ways into said room through the forest, they would have an easy way of losing anyone who would try to go after them by going back to the room through there."
"So why don't we just go back to the room and wait there," Sora asked as they entered said forest.
"Because for all we know, they could go along a path that we don't know about. One that could allow them to get through without anyone ever noticing them, so for now, the best thing to do would be to follow the trail of darkness that they left," Ven replied.
"How do we do that?"
"The same way you were able to figure out which box we shouldn't choose back at that mockery of justice the queen called a trial. Keyblade Wielders have the ability to sense strong presences of darkness and light around them, and while it can be used by people who aren't Keybearers, it's still a very difficult ability to really get a grasp on," Ven explained. "Just reach out with your senses, look beyond what you see and hear, and search only for a feeling you would associate with light and darkness."
"A sound plan, though rather poor. Perhaps you might be willing to hear what the cat might have to say to help in this chore," a painstakingly familiar voice suggested, drawing everyone to turn and see that the Cheshire Cat was back again.
"Have you seen Alice," Donald asked, thinking that there could not be much harm in asking, since aside from that little hiccup at the court which he seemed to know about, the Cheshire Cat had been a pretty decent amount of help to them so far.
"Alice, no. Shadows, yes," the cat shrugged in reply.
Everyone looked to Ven, each silently asking what he thought about that, and he simply shrugged, "Good enough for the moment. Finding any powerful Heartless could give us a clue to where Alice was taken." The blonde then looked back to their riddle-giving acquaintance and asked, "Which way did they go?"
"This way? That way? Does it matter," the cat replied like he honestly did not care. "Left, right, up, down; all mixed up thanks to the shadows!"
"Enough with the games! Just give us a straight answer on where the Heartless went," Ven demanded, having had enough of this troublemaker and his penchant for dragging them along like a fish on a lure.
The cat jumped a bit at Ven's outburst, but ended up shrugging it off and said, "Fine. Step deeper into the forest to the deserted garden. You might find shadows in the upside-down room."
"Thank you," Ven nodded in relief, glad that they had something of a straight answer on where to go now, and with that, the Cheshire Cat disappeared once again, leaving the four to be on their way in their chase after the Heartless and, hopefully, Alice and her kidnappers.
The group was able to find their way to the garden easily enough, especially given how the place seemed to be set up for a party of some kind, but that was not really important at the moment, considering that the minute they stepped into the garden, they were ambushed by another swarm of Heartless. Ven was a bit surprised by how much fire Donald and Goofy ended up putting into the fight, but he figured that the two felt that they had to make up for the fact that they were unable to do anything to help their friends a little while ago, so he left them to it and did not say anything. Still, the fact that they were so fired up did help them to deal with the Heartless quickly, leaving him and Sora with very little to do, surprisingly, and thus, the four were able to proceed to their destination, which turned out to be the very bizarre room once again, only this time, only this time, they were shocked to discover that they were walking around on the ceiling as though it were the floor!
"This place is completely screwy," Donald muttered aloud, earning him three nods in agreement after the others heard him. After a minute or so, the group moved on to see if they could find the Heartless they were looking for, only to have absolutely no luck finding anything other than the ones they had already dealt with, along with some larger ones that Ven was quick to identify as Large Bodies. These new, rotund Heartless proved to be much more resilient than the smaller ones that the group normally dealt with, and at one point, the group found themselves getting increasingly frustrated in dealing with them.
Surprisingly, Sora was the one who ended up becoming the most frustrated out of all of them, right to the point where he felt like he wanted to just light something on fire, and watch them all burn to ashes. In fact, when he found a moment to pause and think, he could not help but feel as though there was something inside of him that felt like it was also on fire, similar to how cold he felt earlier when the Cheshire Cat had given him a boost to help him learn Blizzard. Upon thinking of that moment, Sora decided to play a small hunch, and aimed his Keyblade at a nearby Large Body and focused on that feeling of wanting something to burn as he shouted, "Fire!"
An instant later, a burst of flames shot out of Sora's Keyblade and rocketed towards the Large Body, where it immediately began to incinerate the Heartless a little once it had hit. Smiling at this, Sora immediately charged forward and hit the large Heartless with his Keyblade a few more times until it was finally destroyed, and he then turned to fire off another blast of the same spell, which instantly set another Heartless ablaze, this time destroying it completely. Sora's newest magic ability did not go unnoticed by Ven, who quickened his pace in defeating the enemies before him until there was nothing left for any of them to fight. With their enemies dealt with for the moment, Ven dismissed his Keyblade and turned an excited grin towards his apprentice as he exclaimed, "Sora, you've learned how to use Fire Magic! That's amazing!"
"It actually wasn't that different from when I first used the Blizzard Spell. I just figured I should do what you told me to do that time and see what happened," Sora modestly shrugged in admittance.
"Well either way, it's still impressive that you were able to learn it on your own without any instruction or power boost," Ven said.
"Indeed it is, now you can proceed if you wish," the Cheshire Cat's voice suddenly commented, drawing everyone's attention upward until they spotted him standing on a ledge above them, or at least what counted as a ledge at the moment.
"Hey you, you said that we'd find the Heartless who took Alice here," Donald squawked angrily.
"They're hiding somewhere, and the momeraths outgrabe. Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the light," the Cheshire Cat replied before disappearing again.
"Gawrsh, what do you think he meant by that," Goofy asked.
"Well if this is the ceiling of the very weird room that we seem to keep coming in and out of…" Ven started reason as he indicated the nearby tables with what looked like candles in the center, though in point of fact, they were actually the room's main light fixtures. Ven then motioned for Sora to follow him up to the candles, and after the two were standing next to each of the candle-like lights, they both raised their Keyblades to them, and used their fire magic to light them both.
With both lamps now lit, none of them were surprised by the Cheshire Cat's return, or the fact that he had another odd clue to give them. "All the lights are on. You'll see the shadows soon. They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else. The shadows might go after that doorknob, too."
Hearing that new message made Sora, Donald, and Goofy concerned about the doorknob's safety, assuming that the cat was referring to the same doorknob that told them how to get small before going back to sleep, but Ven on the other hand, while concerned, had something else on his mind. "There's no way it could be that simple, could it," Ven quietly thought to himself. "I mean, this world is all kinds of crazy and messed-up, but is it really to the point that it would be so simple for it to be hidden there?"
"Ven, are you okay," Goofy asked, drawing Ventus out of his thoughts.
"Y-yeah," Ven nodded hesitantly.
"Then stop standing around! We've got to get down from here and help the doorknob before the Heartless get him," Donald reminded Ven.
Ven just nodded in response and joined the others and finding a way out of their current position and back down to the actual floor below them, all the while wondering if the very thing that the Heartless needed to find to drown this world in darkness was actually where he thought it would be.
The group found themselves going through the hedge maze once again in order to get off the ceiling of the bizarre room, seeing as they could not right themselves even if Ven were to fly them to the floor with his Keyblade Glider, which the blonde had attempted to try and failed at, and soon enough, they were back in the bizarre room again, coming in through the same entrance that they had first used after growing small. They did not see any Heartless right then though, aside from the usual ones, leading them all to think that the cat was just giving them the runaround for kicks for a moment, until Ven suggested that they try to get up on the table with the growing and shrinking potions so that they could get a better view of the room. That turned out to be the very thing that the Cheshire Cat seemed to have wanted them to do, as a second after they had all made it onto the table, the Heartless that they had been looking for appeared before them, dropping down from the sky before jumping over their heads in a spinning flip.
This massive Heartless that now towered over them was definitely the leader of all the Heartless here in Wonderland, as evidenced by the fact that it was extremely different from the others just as the Guard Armor had been from the Heartless in Traverse Town. It had long, spindly lavender legs that looked like scissor jacks connected to a thin magenta body, while the arms were steel blue and seemed to be made of paper. Its shoulders sported magenta shoulder pads and a set of lavender armor covered its body. Topping off the Heartless's body was a head that seemed to be made of several segments balanced on top of each other, each alternating between lavender and magenta with greenish-yellow borders between each segment, and each segment also sported a face with a jagged line for a mouth and gold-yellow eyes. This Heartless also carried weapons, which appeared to be a pair of batons that seemed like large maracas to the team, but after everything they had been through in Wonderland, they all knew better than to assume anything about what should be normal.
"What kind of Heartless is that," Sora exclaimed as he summoned his Keyblade and assumed a battle stance.
"Don't know! This is the first time I've ever seen it," Ventus admitted as he did the same as Sora, with Donald and Goofy quickly joining the two in this action.
"Well it won't be around long enough to matter. I'll hit it with some magic," Donald exclaimed as he prepared his first spell of the battle.
"Donald, wait! We don't know what this thing is capable of," Ven tried to warn his friend, but unfortunately his warning came a little too late, as Donald had already cast a powerful fire spell at the monster. Instead of hitting the monster's body though, the flame ended up being redirected towards one of the monster's batons somehow, and when it struck, the baton was instantly lit on fire. Seeing this did not seem to worry this Heartless, as it simply spun the baton around in its hand before lighting the other one as well, making everyone back up in nervousness. "I think that proves the point I was trying to make earlier," Ven muttered.
Donald just chuckled sheepishly in response before everyone immediately scattered to avoid the flaming batons when the monster swung said weapons down at them. In the process, they had ended up jumping down to the floor, and then scrambling in order to avoid getting stepped on by the large monstrosity. It was at this point that Jiminy finally made himself known again as he jumped out of a pocket of Sora's jacket and onto the brunette's shoulder. "Hey fellas, I think I dozed off for a bit during that fiasco that queen called a trial. What's going on now," Jiminy asked. The only response Sora gave was to point at the monster, which immediately made Jiminy jump as he exclaimed, "Whoa! The Trickmaster! Sorry I asked!"
Hearing the cricket's exclamation made Ven pause for a moment in his rapid retreat from the Heartless's attempts to get him and he immediately raced over to Sora and his passenger so that he could clearly ask, "What'd you just call this thing, Jiminy?"
"The Trickmaster. It's a powerful Heartless leader like the Guard Armor in Traverse Town," Jiminy started to explain.
"Yeah we figured that much out, but how do you know what it's called," Sora asked.
Jiminy reached into his coat pocket and produced the journal he was using to chronicle the events of their journey as he explained, "Before we left the castle, I found a few notes that the king had on the Heartless, thinking that they might come in handy. I didn't really know what they were at the time, but after hearing about the Heartless and seeing the Guard Armor in Traverse Town, I figured out that they must be notes on some of the more dangerous Heartless; namely things on what they might look like and what they can do."
"Are you sure about that," Ven asked as he deflected a fire ball that the Heartless boss threw at them with his Keyblade.
"Considering that this fella fits one of the descriptions in here almost perfectly, yeah, I'm pretty sure," Jiminy said before he ducked back into Sora's jacket pocket in order to avoid being singed from a spark of a fireball that Ven had deflected.
"Good enough for me," Sora said as he deflected a few fireballs with his own Keyblade. "Does it say anything about how we beat it?"
Jiminy popped out of the pocket once more as he skimmed through his journal for the desired information, until he finally replied, "Its weakest points are on its chest and its head; hitting the legs won't do any good according to these notes. Also, avoid using any fire-based abilities since those will only end up lighting the batons it uses on fire."
"Yeah, we noticed that," Ventus deadpanned as he nodded towards the batons that were still on fire, which the Trickmaster was now juggling.
"Then I'll try something else. Thunder," Donald shouted, raising his staff above him. An instant later, a storm of lightning bolts came raining down on the Trickmaster, one or two of them striking him at a weak point and causing him to stop in his tracks before flopping down a little.
Seeing this as their moment to strike, Ven immediately shouted for Sora and Goofy to move in, which the two were quick to do. Goofy was the one who ended up leading the charge, and as a result, he tossed his shield right into the Trickmaster's towering face. Once his shield had returned to him, Goofy jumped up to bash his shield on the top of the Trickmaster's head before he landed on the ground again and turned so that he was facing Sora, shield forward as the Keyblade Wielder approached. It did not take long for Sora to figure out what Goofy had in mind, so once he was close enough, he jumped up into the air, and then let Goofy and his shield act as a springboard for him to get even higher so that he could deliver a number of powerful hits to the Trickmaster in an aerial combo. Ven did the same as Sora, only without the assistance of Goofy and his shield, and while descending to the ground, he cast a quick Blizzara at one of the batons, thinking that the ice spell would render the weapon useless. When he landed, he looked to the baton he fired the spell at and saw that the flame had been completely extinguished, confirming what he already suspected, and what he needed to quickly inform his apprentice about.
"Sora, use an ice spell to douse the flame on the batons," Ven shouted, to which Sora immediately nodded to show he understood before he aimed his Keyblade at the baton that was still enflamed so that he could do just as his teacher had told him to.
With both batons now back to their original state, it seemed that the group would have an easier time dealing with the Trickmaster. Unfortunately, it was at that moment that the Trickmaster came out of its disabled state and stood up straight once again. It did not take long for the massive Heartless to realize that its batons were no longer on fire, but it did not seem to care all that much, as it simply started to juggle the batons in its hands like a master juggler, and it then somersaulted across the battlefield, likely hoping to squash one of the four beneath it as it did. Sora and Ven were quick to roll to the side in order to avoid being hit, while Donald and Goofy just ran or jumped out of the way, but they all still had to deal with it swinging the batons at them like a pair of large clubs. At one point, Sora ended up with the unfortunate bad luck of getting struck head-on by one of the juggling Heartless's batons, and he was sent flying into a nearby wall as a result, leading Donald to stop preparing the Thunder spell he was about to unleash on the Trickmaster and divert his attention to healing Sora while Goofy and Ventus kept the Trickmaster busy.
As it turned out, the two did not need to do much to keep their foe away from their friends, as the Trickmaster suddenly made its way over to the nearby stove. This action confused the two for a bit until they saw it place one of its batons on the stove and then hold it there until was in flames once again. Seeing this immediately prompted the two into action as they raced over to stop the Trickmaster from lighting its other baton, but their efforts only led them into needing to avoid the fireballs that the Trickmaster threw at them with the baton that was already lit. Goofy was able to keep safe by either dodging or blocking the fireballs with his shield, but Ven had to do everything he could to avoid being set on fire, and sometimes, that was not always the easiest thing to do, as evidenced by how some of the fireballs ended up coming so close to him that he was surprised that he did not have to remove his jacket due to it catching fire.
In the end, the Trickmaster's stalling tactics proved to be successful, because now, both of its batons were lit up with flames once more, and it was soon throwing out numerous different varieties of fire blasts at them once again. Ven could only grit in his teeth in frustration, until he turned to see that Sora and Donald were now racing over to rejoin the fight once again, and he quickly got an idea on how to end this fight for good. "Donald, you and Goofy keep this thing busy. Sora and I need a couple minutes," Ven informed the royal magician.
"Okay," Donald nodded as he charged forward with an ice spell already prepared to go as he joined his long-time best friend in battle.
Sora was about to ask Ven why they were not helping the other two when Ven cut him off by saying, "You wanted to learn about Command Styles, right Sora? Well, consider this a crash course in how to use one of the three basic ones that any Keyblade Wielder can perform."
"Is this really the best time to be teaching me something like that," Sora asked. He may have wanted to learn about the ability that he had seen Ven use earlier, and he was excited to hear that the blonde was willing to teach him how to use them so soon, but he really did not think that the middle of a battle like this was the ideal time or place for such a lesson.
"If we want to beat this thing, then I'd say so, especially since I'm teaching you a Command Style that will be perfect for stopping this thing," Ven informed Sora as he prepared to charge in. "What you need to do in order to activate a Command Style, is use certain types of spells or fighting abilities numerous times over, which will build up a surge of energy inside of you. When you feel that power reach its maximum, all you need to do is direct it into your Keyblade, and that will activate the Command Style. For the one that we need to use, we need to use ice magic various times over in order to activate it. Understand?"
"I think so," Sora hesitantly replied before he winced a little at hearing Goofy let out a yelp of pain after getting hit by the Trickmaster in some way that they just missed. "I mean, I get that we need to use ice magic a lot in order to use the Command Style you have in mind, but I don't think I really understand what you mean by directing power into the Keyblade or how using a bunch of certain spells and fighting abilities would help with that."
Ventus could see what Sora meant, as the confusion was evident on the kid's face, and so, he opted to take a different approach and simply said, "Just watch me, and you'll see what I mean in just a moment." With that said, Ven charged in, Keyblade ready, and he immediately started lashing out at the Trickmaster once again, giving Goofy and Donald a chance to breathe a little more easily. This time though, Ven used a much larger number of ice-based spells such as Blizzard and Blizzara over and over again, until he landed on the floor again and Sora saw him raise his Keyblade up in front of him as it seemed to glow a little. After holding the Keyblade in front of him for a few seconds or so, the glow from the Keyblade transferred over to Ventus in the form of an icy blue aura as the blonde shouted, "Command Style: Diamond Dust!"
Sora expected Ven to charge in and start attacking the Trickmaster once again, but instead, the blonde just turned towards him with an encouraging smile on his face that was clearly prompting Sora to take a shot at it. Not wanting to let his master down, Sora charged in and started doing the same as Ven, which was not entirely easy considering he was still just starting out with using magic and he only knew one ice spell, but after using said spell over and over again for a few minutes, he started to feel something building up inside of him. It was similar to the cold feeling he had when he first gained the ability to use ice magic, only this time it was much more powerful, like it needed a stronger outlet than just a simple spell, and when he felt this feeling reach what he could only assume was its peak, he did as Ventus had told him to and directed the power into his Keyblade. The first time he tried, he did not really get that far since it was hard to focus while he was still in midair, but thankfully, the strange power that had built up inside him did not fade at all before he landed on the ground, and he quickly started trying to direct it again, until finally, he too was glowing with the same icy blue aura that Ventus currently had around him.
Seeing his apprentice had now managed to activate the Diamond Dust Command Style on his first try instantly brought a proud grin to Ven's face, which he made sure that Sora could at least get a glimpse of before he hardened his expression again when he turned to face the Trickmaster once more. "Alright, let's end this, Sora," Ventus shouted as he rushed forward.
"Yeah," Sora shouted in reply as he did the same. A minute later, the two were both jumping into the air again and unleashing faster strikes than before, only this time, Sora noticed that said strikes were laced with ice powers, which became even more evident when one of their attacks completely doused the flames on the Trickmaster's batons without either of them ever casting a single ice spell. It almost made the spiky haired apprentice stop and stare in awe for a bit, mostly due to the fact that he could not believe that he was now able to do such things, but he managed to shake it off and tell himself to think about such things later after he saw Ventus swing himself over so that he was standing behind the Trickmaster, his Keyblade glowing a little, and Sora quickly to notice of the fact that his Keyblade was also emitting the same glow, prompting him to follow Ven's lead on what he should do next.
Once he saw that Sora was in position, Ventus immediately channeled every last bit of energy that the Command Style through his being and into the Keyblade and shouted, "Command Style: Diamond Dust Finisher!"
The blonde did not really take much notice of the younger Keybearer repeating the phrase he had just shouted, as the noise of a massive ice glacier forming beneath each of them made it a little difficult for him to really hear it that clearly. Once the glacier had completely formed with massive ice crystals surrounding them, the two both spun around rapidly before swinging their Keyblades out and sending the crystal shards flying in all directions, with most of them ending up heading towards the Trickmaster. With the power of this aiding them in their efforts, all that was left for them to do in order to defeat the Trickmaster was to have Sora, Ven, and Donald each cast one final spell while Goofy tossed his shield into the large Heartless' chest, and the Trickmaster soon started to wobble and shake before finally falling over and bursting into shadowy mist much like the Guard Armor had when the four had defeated it, releasing what seemed to be a heart-shaped crystal once it had.
No one could avoid letting out sighs of relief at seeing that they had somehow managed to scrape out a victory, and after a minute or so of tired panting, Ven walked over and gave Sora a small pat on the back as he said, "Congratulations Sora, not only did you just learn the first of the three general-use Command Styles, but you did so in the middle of a battle and won. I have to say, I'm impressed. I'm sure that not even Aqua would've been able to do something like that."
Sora only grinned up at his teacher, honestly feeling a little too tired to give any other form of response after that battle, and thus ended up leaving most of his celebratory reactions to Donald and Goofy who were already both cheered in congratulations for him and for their group's victory against the Trickmaster. Said celebrations were suddenly cut short when the doorknob suddenly let out a loud yawn, drawing everyone's attention to him as he complained, "What a racket. How's a doorknob to get any sleep?"
Everyone was honestly just wondering how he was able to sleep through any of that at all, until he suddenly let a large, drawn-out yawn that allowed them all to see that something was starting to glimmer into existence inside of his mouth. The object in question, which appeared to be a strange, glowing keyhole, quickly drew curious glances from Sora, Donald, and Goofy, while Ventus just stared at it in disbelief, almost as though he could honestly not believe that it was there in the first place. "What is that," Goofy asked.
"It's where the key to this door is supposed to go, you big palooka," Donald admonished like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I don't know. Something seems strange about this keyhole, and why is it glowing," Sora pointed out.
"Sora, Donald, Goofy, step aside," Ventus suddenly interrupted in a commanding voice. The three then turned around to see Ven spinning his Keyblade around in his hand, until he was holding it in a standard grip as opposed to his usual reverse grip, with the tip aiming right at the keyhole that had just appeared before them. When they saw the tip of Ven's Keyblade suddenly start glowing with a small orb of light, the three immediately scrambled aside, leading them to watch as a beam of light shot out of the Keyblade and into the keyhole. After a minute of this beam streaming into the keyhole, the sound of something being locked could be heard echoing around them, and the keyhole disappeared just seconds before the doorknob's mouth had closed again. "Of all the places it could've been, it just had to be in the one place that you would expect such a thing to normally be," Ven muttered.
"Hey, Ven, do you know what that was," Sora asked, having overheard the blonde's grumbling.
"Yeah. What you just saw is known as a Keyhole, but not like the ones you typically think of. In this case, a Keyhole is like a passage that leads to the very heart of a world, and if something like the Heartless were ever to get inside of it, they could consume the world's heart and plunge it into darkness, ultimately leading to that world's destruction," Ventus explained.
"Is that why the stars have been going out," Goofy asked. "Because the Heartless have been gettin' into the Keyholes of other worlds?"
"That's exactly it," Ven confirmed.
"So how do we stop them from getting into the Keyhole," Donald asked.
"Well for starters, the Keyholes are typically very difficult to find, almost to the point where only specific individuals on a world even know where they are, but as for stopping the Heartless from getting into them completely, there's only one way to do that, and you all just saw it with your own eyes."
"With the Keyblade," Sora gasped in realization.
"Exactly," Ven nodded. "As you've no doubt learned by now, the Keyblade can open any lock, and the opposite is just as true. More importantly, the Keyblade is the only thing that can seal a world's Keyhole for good, making it so that it will forever be closed off to beings of darkness like the Heartless."
"So then when we go to other worlds, we need to find their Keyholes and lock them shut so that the Heartless can't get into the hearts of those worlds, right," Sora asked.
"That's right," Ven nodded.
The other three each returned Ven's nod with ones of their own, each now fully understanding what they needed to do on this mission now while looking for their missing friends, and they all then prepared to head out and start seeing if they could find any clues about Alice's whereabouts until Goofy noticed something on the floor in front of the door. "Hey, fellers, I think something fell out of the Keyhole," Goofy informed them as he walked over to pick it up.
"It looks like a gummi block," Donald said, identifying the oddly shaped, green and gold colored object that was now in Goofy's hands after they all got a good look at it.
"A what," Sora asked.
"It's a special kind of material that's used in the construction and repair of Gummi Ships," Ven explained to his apprentice.
"But this gummi ain't like the others, or at least not like the ones that we use for our ship. No, sir," Goofy pointed out.
"Maybe, but we should still hold on to it, just in case. There may be a chance it could come in handy later on," Ven reasoned.
"Okay, I'll hold on to it for us until we get back to the ship. Then we can store it someplace safe," Donald decided for the group, and nobody argued with the duck.
"Splendid. You're quite the heroes," a painstakingly familiar voice congratulated, though it did not sound like the congratulations were all that sincere, and upon turning around to see the Cheshire Cat standing on the table that currently towered over them once again, everyone was sure that said praise was not sincere at all.
"Hey you! You said that we'd find Alice if we followed the Heartless," Sora shouted.
"No, he just said we'd find Heartless if we listened to him. We only assumed that we would find a clue on where Alice was if we did," Ven pointed out before turning to glare at the cat. "But that doesn't mean you didn't at least imply that you were going to help with finding her!"
"Well, if you're looking for Alice, she's not here," the cat revealed. "She's gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness."
"No," Sora groaned sadly as the cat disappeared.
The younger Keybearer's despair was shared by everyone in the group. They were supposed to save Alice from whatever danger she had been in, and instead, they had practically allowed her to get kidnapped because they were too busy dealing with the Queen of Hearts and her selfish actions, and then ended up being played by a crazy cat. Such news was deeply saddening for all of them, and Ventus was quick to realize this and said, "Hey, cheer up you guys. Just because she's not here anymore doesn't mean she's gone for good. For all we know, she could've been taken to another world like Sora's friends had likely been."
"Yeah, Ven's right! So if we keep going, then we might find Alice along with the king and Sora's pals," Goofy nodded in agreement, having been the first to perk up after Ven's reminder.
"Then let's hurry and get back to the ship so we can go to the next world and help them," Donald declared.
"Okay, sure," Sora nodded in agreement, already starting to feel a little better now. "But how do we get back anyway?"
"Don't worry; we've got a remote control for the ship's teleporter that can bring us back up at any time. We just need to move outside for it to work properly," Goofy revealed.
"Well then, let's hurry up and do so," Ven said as he led the way to the nearest exit of the room. "I think I speak for all of us when I say I've had enough of this world to last a lifetime."
No one argued with Ventus on that sentiment, because the most important lessons that any of them had learned from this world was that one should never take anything at face value when traveling to other worlds, and that they all now hated Wonderland.
AN: [comes out of a bathroom with a towel over his head as he finishes drying off] Well, that's a wrap on Wonderland, and while they may not have saved Alice, they did seal the Keyhole, which Ventus gave an explanation about, and hey, look at that! Sora's learned a little bit of magic, and how to use a Command Style!
Ven: I kinda thought you wouldn't have him doing stuff like that until the half-way point in the story at least.
AN: Yeah, I've gotta be totally honest here, part of me wasn't really sure about letting Sora learn any of the Command Styles in this story at all, but then I figured, if he saw Ventus using any of them, he'd most likely keep begging him to teach him how to use the Command Styles until it drove Ven crazy, so I figured, why not at least let him learn about the three general-use Command Styles for now? I mean, sure, it was fun writing about the awesome abilities Sora and Kairi had when they were using the unique Command Styles that I had them gain in Keyblades of Future Past, but you have to keep in mind, those versions of Sora and Kairi were from the future, and they had been through all of the adventures we've seen so far with a darker edge to them, so having them learn such advanced abilities like how to use unique Command Styles just made sense. This version of Sora is just starting out with everything, from being a Keyblade Wielder to traveling the worlds, so to have him learn how to use his unique Command Styles would be a little strange.
Sora: Aw, come on! Let me learn at least one of them!
Kairi: Or how about me? I mean, I may not be taking an active part in the story right now, or even one for a while, but you can at least let me learn a little bit about that, can't you?
AN: No and no to both. I'm trying to keep this as realistic as possible here, and having you guys learn those special abilities that are your unique Command Styles is doing the exact opposite of that. But hey, if you readers want Sora to at least learn his unique Tier One Command Style, let me know in a review, and I'll take it under consideration, but I make no promises on the matter.
Ven: What I liked was how at the end of this chapter, you pretty much summed up everyone's feelings about Wonderland in Kingdom Hearts by having us share that feeling.
AN: Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, I've never really heard of anyone who said that they liked Wonderland, and me personally, I find it to be seriously wacked out and messed up. That's why I avoided going back there as much as possible when I played the Final Mix version of the first game in the HD Remix that I own. That said, if any of you actually like Wonderland, then I'm sorry if I've upset you with such comments, but I'm pretty sure that even without acting on the feelings that I share with a good number of people, after all that they've had to deal with here, I doubt any of our four heroes are too fond of it either.
Speaking of which, I know I could've been a little more original and had Sora choose the wrong box of evidence, but like I said, the odds were heavily in their favor, and unless you're really unlucky, it's very rare for someone to choose the box that makes it seem like our heroes are the guilty party. Still, that didn't stop me from at least throwing in a couple of things that would follow if that did happen, if you might have noticed. I know I don't really seem to give Donald and Goofy much of a chance to really do all that much in this story, but I've always kinda focused more on what the guys using the Keyblades do in a battle, and it's actually kinda hard to really write battle scenes for those two when you can't really take much notice of them, even while watching a walkthrough video or something similar to that online.
Well, I think that covers everything I wanted to say this time.
Ven: Hey, how come we didn't see another one of the Ventus' Journal Entries?
AN: Oh that. Well you can't expect me to really have all that much to put in there. Like I said last chapter, the stuff that goes in those things are about the events that had unfolded during the time that had passed between this story and where we last saw Ven at the end of Keyblades of Future Past when Mickey became his new teacher. There's not really all that much I can really say at the moment, but I promise, you will see something from them again soon, and it won't be every four chapters or so before you do. I'm going to try my best to add one in at the end of each chapter I can if it's possible to really say something important in them.
Now, with all of that said, Onto the Preview!...
The team continues on to the next world while Ven continues to give Sora a few more tips and pointers on how to be a Keyblade Wielder, and their next destination turns out to be one that Ven knows quite well, having been there during his first journey, and also somewhere that the young master believes would serve as one of the best places to really take a step forward in Sora's training. In a coliseum where monsters and heroes are constantly competing to prove their strength and show their might in friendly competition, just what sort of dangers could the four really have to deal with? Well, a certain ruler of the Underworld and lord of the dead may know the answer to that better than they could hope to. Find out what challenges await the team when they arrive at one of the most well-known sites of competition in the Kingdom Hearts universe, next time.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure all of you have already figured out where we're going next time, haven't you? I mean really, I couldn't have been more obvious about the destination even if I wanted to be, but I don't want to make you guys struggle too much with figuring out what worlds the group's going to, even in the case of the new ones that I'll be adding in. You'll have to wait and see about those though, so until then...
Please read and review, and see ya real soon!