When Kairi opened her eyes, she found herself in a new world. Instead of being surrounded by brick and pavement like in the previous world, she was now in a beautiful garden full of white and red roses. The blocks were quite a nasty sight compared to the rest of the place.

"Kairi, are you there?"

"Minnie!" Kairi smiled. "This world's so beautiful, aside from the bugs."

"I agree. That's why I think you ought to find this world's keyhole and get rid of them, if you're up for it!"

"Of course! Anything to help a friend." The girl grinned. She glanced around, looking for anything unusual besides the blocks. The bugs always seemed to create a new problem for each world, usually by stealing something…

"Help! Oh, please! Someone help!"

Kairi summoned her keyblade, running to the voice. She found the girl in a hedge maze, cowering away from the Heartless. "Stand back, I'll protect you!"

The girl did as she was told, waiting for the bugs to be destroyed.

Once she was done, Kairi flipped back her hair before looking to the girl in blue. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm quite alright. Thank you." The girl mumbled, but she looked confused for some reason. "Excuse me, but have we met before?"

"I probably would've remembered meeting you in a place like this." Kairi laughed, unaware the real Kairi's journey was influencing her own since she and the girl had been friends before. "My name's Kairi."

"How do you do, Kairi?" The girl asked, giving a dainty little curtsey. "I'm…! I'm…"

Kairi frowned, seeing her face melt into distress. "Something wrong?"

"Why, I can't remember my name! I can't remember anything at all…!" The girl wailed in worry.

"What?!" Kairi gasped.

As if in response to her question, a purple cat head appeared beside them, making Kairi jump back. "You could say her mind's like me- a little fuzzy."

"You mean she has amnesia?"

"Gesundheit!" The cat teased before continuing on. "No, silly. I mean what the miss has misplaced lies literally littered about the palace. Yes, her memories… Oh, and everyone else's, too. The place has become quite buggy, you see…or maybe you don't."

"So the bugs stole everyone's memories…" She whispered in thought. "I better find the keyhole quickly this time!"

"Keyhole?" The girl beside her suddenly asked. "Is it a big keyhole?"

"Yes!" Kairi exclaimed, clasping her hands together at the thought she could destroy the bugs quickly this time around. "Do you know where it is?"

"I… Oh dear…I can't recall…" She moaned.

"Poor thing." The cat chuckled, not seeming the least bit sorry for her. ""What's to remember with her memories dismembered? No, to get the girl thinking, you need an inkling!"

"An inkling? What's that?" Kairi asked, looking to where his tail was pointed. There was something tiny glowing in the grass.

"Don't look at me! I don't have a clue! But if you have an inkling, all of this will be forgotten… Or is it remembered?"

The cat disappeared, leaving only a smile behind that poofed away shortly after.

"Guess I'll have to see what he means." Kairi shrugged to the other girl.

She jogged up to the trinket. It looked like a tear drop, laying all alone in the grass.

The moment she touched it, her head was flooded with someone's memories.

"Alice, do sit still while I'm teaching your lessons!" a older woman scolded, perhaps the girl's mother or sister.

"Another cup of tea, Miss Alice?" Asked a funny- looking man with a giant hat.

"My name is Alice. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

She recognized the voice at once and ran it over to the girl.

"Oh, whatever is my name? It's on the tip of my tongue!"

"Just a guess, but maybe it's Alice?" Kairi suggested as the inkling disappeared in a flash of light.

"Alice…?" Alice asked before she smiled. "Oh, of course! My name is Alice!"

"Well, it's nice to officially meet you, Alice." Kairi grinned. "Uh, just checking in… did you remember anything about that keyhole?"

"Yes, it was glowing and… Fiddlesticks, I can't remember where I saw it!"

"Maybe the bugs stole that memory too." Kairi muttered mainly to herself. "But where can I find more?"

""Oh, this way, that way, and in-between ways. And don't remember—in blocked ways, too" The cat purred, appeared in a handstand before brushing his tail under Kairi's chin. "But you must be careful! Alice's inklings are strewn about but so is everyone else's! Take care to find the right ones…!"

He disappeared with that sinister smile, leaving the girls alone again.

"Alice, sir tight, I'll be back in a bit." Kairi promised.

She turned only to bump into the darkly-cloaked figure.

"You're doing great, Kairi. Just fix the memories and end the hurt. The worlds still ache, your next road awaits."

He disappeared just as quickly as the cat had.

"I wish he'd stick around long enough for me to get some answers." Kairi sighed.

"Friend of yours?" Alice asked tentatively.

Kairi shook her head. "Honestly, I'm not sure."

She finally got started looking around the gardens until she was stopped by a heart-tipped spear.

"Stop! You there, what are you doing?!" A card barked.

"Uh, I'm looking for something… my friend here lost." Kairi said, giving her most charming smile.

The soldier frowned. "Well, you may kindly search somewhere else! These gardens are property of her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts! If you go wandering around here, it'll be off with your head!"

"Oh! Wouldn't want that!" Kairi laughed nervously, eyes wide. This card seemed to think the punishment was normal, did the Queen always chop people's heads off?! "I'll be on my way!"

She ran off into the maze. "Guess I'll just have to find my own way in."

She bent down and was about sneak off when a shine caught her eye.

An inkling was hidden in the bushes. She snatched it up.

"The roses must be red to match my hearts, white roses are to be nipped at the buds!" A loud-mouthed woman exclaimed.

"The flowers are here to be planted, I'm suprised they're white roses…" A card soldier handed the person whose memory this was a pot of roses.

"White roses…! What'll I do?!"

Kairi pocketed it with slight confusion. It seemed the bugs stole memories regardless of their significance. Alice's name felt a lot more important picking up, this was just about roses.

She suddenly heard a voice and peeked around the corner to see a spade card worryingly racking his brain for something.

""I've made a real blunder this time… 'Off with his head!' the Queen of Hearts will say. Look at me! I've worked so hard, I'm covered in dirt! And for what?! I got it all wrong. What was my mistake?"

Kairi walked up as the inkling vanished. Turned out that memory was quite important, it was a matter of life or death! "Could it be white roses?"

"White roses…" The soldier's face lit up with memory. "That's it! I planted white roses instead of red ones! Oh, I better find some paint… Here, thanks for helping me remember!"

He dropped an inkling in her hands before running off.

"Her Majesty, The Queen of Hearts!"

"I need to get home, could The Queen of Hearts really help me?"

Kairi shook out of the memory. "I got another memory, I'm not sure whose it is though."

The girl continued on only to find herself in a new room, shrunk down!

"Being little makes for big trouble, hmm?"

Kairi looked up to see the cat from before balancing on his own head.

"Especially with them around. What to do, what to do?"

"Them? What do you mean, them?"

The feline didn't answer, of course, disappearing into thin air.

Just as he'd left, a giant Heartless appeared, towering over Kairi. It seemed as though either the Heartless grew or she shrank!

Thankfully, it was just a regular shadow Heartless

She ran around the room to find a giant table. She climbed up it, hoping to get a better view. She instead found two big bottles, one labeled red, the other blue.

The cat suddenly appeared again, chuckling. "Surprised to see me? Here's a little something for rising to the challenge. After all the commotion, you might like this little potion."

She caught the inkling and potion, the memories being about the Cheshire Cat himself. He vanished once again.

Kairi turned to read the labels of the bottles. The blue one had a picture of a tree shrinking down while the red had one growing tall. She drained the red one and just as she thought, she grew bigger, back to normal size.

She began to search the room for more memories but paused at seeing a small door with its knob askew. "What an odd little doorknob…"

Right after she poked it, the doorknob suddenly yawned with its big mouth, startling her greatly. "Ah!"

"Odd?" The doorknob huffed, glaring up at her. "Out of the two of us, I would say you look the most strange for being a doorknob."

"O-Oh, I'm not really a-"

The doorknob yawned loudly once again. ""I'd just fallen into the nicest nap, and then the whole world turned on its side! Mmm… Do take care. You never know when another twist of fate might be at your door."

"A twist of fate might be at my door… You mean there's a door to the bugs around here?" She looked around to spot a fissure up in the air. "Don't worry, I'll get rid of them!"

"Please do… I'm so tired…"

While Kairi eliminated the bugs, the friends contemplated why this felt so familiar.

"Memories… Didn't we read something about memories a while back?" Daisy asked aloud.

Suddenly, Tink rang quickly before pulling up one of Ansem's reports.

Clarabelle read it through and then nodded. "Right here, Ansem the Wise talks about someone named Roxas who could manipulate memories."

"And you think he might have something to do with this…?" Minnie asked. She remembered who Roxas was, of course, but had been warned by Ansem the Wise not to say anything about him or the events of two years ago to those who were in the Castle Oblivion incident. Telling them might cause severe distress since the memories were still in their heads, just not a part of their chain. They had to find a way to gently tell them that didn't press the forgotten memories too hard, but had no idea how to go about it. The only one who could know was Roxas, and he was already gone.

"Well, he is the one name written in the journal." Daisy reminded them, flipping back to the original mysterious message.

"Right…. Oh! Kairi's back!"

They all turned to see Kairi walking out of the sector.

Kairi walked out to find the doorknob giving another big yawn. "Is it any quieter in there?"

"Yes, thank you." The doorknob mumbled. "Finally some peace and quiet… I'll be getting back to my nap now. Here's a token of thanks…"

She caught the inkling, getting a view of a large pocket watch.

She turned to see a white rabbit in a waist coat and glasses under the table she'd found the bottle on. "I'm late.. I'm late for… something very important! Oh, but I can't remember a thing about it!"

Kairi walked up, full of pity. Had she found any of his inklings? "What exactly do you remember?"

"Hm?! Oh!" The rabbit gasped in surprise but then realized she was trying to help and racked his brain. "Er, well, I remember a polite young girl in blue…"

"You mean Alice?" Kairi asked hopefully, thinking maybe he had one of Alice's inklings

"I can't remember that either. Perhaps I will once I think up the rest…! …I glanced down at something…. And then I knew I was terribly late!"

"Maybe your watch?" Kairi suggested, it was the only thing she could think of, though she didn't see a watch on him.

"My watch! Oh, yes!" The White Rabbit chuckled in delight. The inkling vanished from Kairi's hand just as quickly as it had appeared. "I looked at my watch and realized I was late for the trial!"

In his wake was an inkling depicting the White Rabbit. Kairi placed it in her pocket, hoping it was one of Alice's missing memories.

"Alice! I'm back!" Kairi called, running over to her friend.

"Oh, Kairi! Do you think you can help me get my memory un-fuddled?" Alice asked, clasping her hands together.

"I can sure try! What do you remember?"

"I was in a field of flowers, as I recall… Then I saw someone and began to follow them." Alice explained.

Kairi glanced down at the three inklings she had. The Cheshire Cat would be difficult, perhaps impossible to follow seeing he could teleport to wherever he'd like… The Queen of Hearts went around beheading people, she was someone to run from, not to… That left only one more. "It has to be the White Rabbit."

"Yes, it was a White Rabbit." Alice smiled happily. "I followed him into a burrow, and then I fell down a peculiar hole. That's how I ended up here."

"What else do you remember?" Kairi asked.

"Well, I asked someone if they knew how I could get home. They always answered with that strange smile…"

"You mean the Cheshire Cat?" After all, he had always guided them with a strange smile.

"Mm." The girl nodded enthusiastically. "The Cheshire Cat. He suggested I visit a castle belonging to someone important…"

"The Queen of Hearts, right?"

""Precisely! And while I was trying to ask the Queen of Hearts how to get home… Oh! There in her court is where I saw the Keyhole! I remember now!"

"I'm so glad." Kairi smiled.

"Thank you, Kairi." The girl said, taking her by the arm. "Here, I'll escort you to the castle!"

"The truth lies through the keyhole. And with it, true memories." The darkly cloaked figure whispered, watching them go.

The girls arrived to find nearly all of Wonderland ensembled for the aforementioned trial with the Queen of Hearts, a grand woman in red and black, presiding as the judge.

"Who are you?!" The Queen yelled, pointing her scepter at the two.

"I'm Kairi and this is Alice." Kairi introduced, performing a far less graceful curtsey than Alice.

"We only need a few moments to look around." Alice explained further.

"Stop where you are! This is my garden, and only I decide who gets to look around or asquare or any other shape. Is that clear?!"

The girls froze in their steps before giving each other a worried glance.

"We're just looking for something very important-!" Kairi tried to say but was interrupted.

"Hmph! A likely story! I demand you both stand trial immediately!" The Queen bellowed.

"What?! How come?!" Kairi protested.

"Yes, Your Magisity, you must exsplain! We haven't done a thing!" Alice added on.

"Aha! A lie if I've ever heard one. More proof that you're the thieves who made off with my memory!"

The Queen lost her memory too? If only I had found some more inklings…! Kairi thought to herself. Still, she wasn't the one who did it. "We didn't steal your memory, the bugs did!"

She realized her mistake the moment the Queen's eyes widened in fury. "So… That's how you did it! You and your army of insects!"

"Ah, no! Bugs was a bad word for it!" Kairi cried.

"You have no evidence against us!" Alice argued suddenly.

Kairi nodded. That was true, there was nothing saying they'd done the crime.

"I most certainly do!" The Queen announced. "For one, I've decided you're guilty! Guards! Off with their heads!"

"Alice, you need to get out of here, but first, where's that keyhole?"

The girl looked around quickly before locking eyes on something high in the air. "There, it's in that birdcage!"

Kairi looked to where she was pointing to see a birdcage covered with cloth by the Queen's throne. There was a wheel next to it, it could probably lower the cage.

"Thanks! Okay, Alice, you have to run but I'm staying here. This could be my only chance to get to the keyhole!"

"But Kairi-!"

"Just go!" Kairi shoved Alice out of the way of a swinging ax, slicing through the card soldier that wielded it.

Once she was sure Alice had ran off, she set her sights on the wheel.

She weaved and dove around the card soldiers, occasionally having to block a few before using one's edge to spring her up to the wheel. She gave it a mighty blow, sending the birdcage down to her level. She pulled off the cloth to reveal the keyhole.

"Get her, you fools!"

Kairi swung out the keyblade, locking it as she'd done with the ones before. She was blinded by a bright light.

In a strange world where the earth and sky were upside down, Kairi found herself facing a massive Heartless with spindly arms and legs.

Kairi put out its torches with water as it tried to incinerate her. She landed perfectly only to be knocked off balance when the world suddenly rotated. Now the sky was on the ceiling and the floor on the right!

"Alright, two can play at this game!" Kairi called before beginning to bounce off the walls.

The boss tried to follow her movements but ended up getting tangled in its own arms, giving Kairi enough time to finish it.

She landed gently before flipping back her hair. "I did it! Everyone's memory should be back to normal now."

"We're still trapped…" Minnie announced, her friends gave a collective sigh in disappointment.

Just then, another line appeared within the journal's pages.

"There are more hurts than the one you have just undone…" Clarabelle read out loud.

"Undo the hurt to unbar the way…" Daisy thought for a moment. "Well, we can't unbar the way if there's still some hurt in the worlds."

How many hurts lie hidden in the journal, was it present in every world they'd once visited?

Tink rang something on the lines of, "Kairi's on her way to another world then?"

"Oh, there she is!" Minnie exclaimed.

They looked back to see Kairi but she wasn't alone.

"I've had enough of chasing you around!" Kairi growled. "Who are you?!"

The black coat didn't answer her question, only saying: "This world has been connected. Memory and reality now stand tied. And now it's time you learned the truth…"

He formed a dark corridor before stepping back into it.

"What truth?!" Kairi called, running in after him.

The friends watched as the screen suddenly went to static.

"Who do you think it is?" Clarabelle mumbled. "Could they be a part of Organization XIII?"

Daisy frowned. "That's not likely, we defeated the remaining members on our journey to stop Xemnas."

Plus we never encountered the Organization on our first journey so this can't be anything my journal made up. Tink wrote down on a scrap piece of paper.

"Whoever they are, I'm sure Kairi will catch them, there's no need to worry." The Queen assured them.

They suddenly heard a slam at the door, causing them all to jump.

"Who's there?" Daisy asked, running to the door.

Clarabelle followed shortly after. "Maybe Chip and Dale found someone to rescue us!"

The door suddenly flung open, pushing them to the ground.

Kairi had been the one fighting to get in, but it wasn't the Kairi who'd journeyed to stop Ansem and Xemnas. She was younger, wearing the same clothes she did when their journey first began.

"How are you here?!" Minnie gasped, running from her chair to meet the girl.

That voice… "Minnie?!" Kairi recognized her and unsummoned the keyblade. "But I was just chasing the guy in the hood! Besides, our worlds are separate, aren't they?"

"Your Highness, look!" Clarabelle called, pointing at the monitor.

Minnie went over to check as was quite confused to see her own back. It was as if there was a camera set up behind them, but no such camera existed. "How…?"

Suddenly, the black coat materialized next to Kairi and in his arms was…

"Riku!" Kairi cried.

The figure allowed her to take her sleeping friend, watching silently as she tried to wake him. "He won't wake up…"

"You! Who are you?! What have you done to Riku?! And where's Sora?!" Kairi demanded.

The hood vanished like an image from a screen, revealing none other than Sora himself. "I'm right here, Kairi."

"Sora?!" Minnie gasped.

"Huh? Oh, no! Not really!" Not-Sora grunted. "I'm just a digital copy of him, the real Sora. But you can still call me that if you want!"

"Real Sora?" Kairi asked in confusion. "What's that mean?"

The others looked slightly uncomfortable, knowing someone needed to answer.

"Kairi, you're not actually… really a human being…" Minnie started gently. "You're actually a data copy of our friend Kairi. We created you to search the journal for us."

"Journal?" Kairi repeated weakly.

Daisy motioned to Tink's journal that sat on the desk. "You, Sora, and Riku exist inside this journal, that's why we couldn't fix the hurt ourselves."

"Oh…" Kairi mumbled. She wasn't real. Just some lines of code, a copy of someone else. Did that mean… she didn't even have a heart? "W-Wow, that's a lot to take in…"

"It took me a minute to accept too." Sora admitted. "I only learned a little while ago… Riku and I were hanging out in the secret cave when the bugs suddenly appeared thanks to the memories from Tink's journal being torn apart and then stitched back together by someone. By the end of the fight, Riku was like he is now. It seems as if the journal mainly remembers him comatose, as it was written from your adventures."

Kairi held Riku a bit closer. "We need him, Sora! There's gotta be a way to wake him up!"

"I think there is, if we defeat all the glitches. I think if we do, everything will turn back to normal."

Kairi nodded with determination.

"Wait, Sora, how do you know about Tink's journal?" Minnie suddenly asked. "No one should know they're in it…"

"That's where it gets even weirder." Sora huffed, crossing his arms. "The lines between memory and reality crossed even further after it hit Riku. Someone I didn't know approached me and before I knew it, I was a vessel for the journal's true memories, chosen to shield them until the bugs were gone and they were safe to return to the pages."

"So, you're Tink's journal?" Clarabelle asked.

"Kinda. I'm still myself, just with the journal's memories added on." Sora shrugged. He stepped up to the computer and inputted a few commands that turned it to one of the journal's first messages: Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it. "But it gave me the power to import you all to help solve this mystery. I know I should've checked before but-"

"Import? What do you mean?" Daisy asked.

"Huh? You haven't figured it out yet?"

Minnie glanced back to the monitor to see her back again and realized the truth: "We're inside the datascape of the journal..!"

"Your Highness! Your Highness, can you hear us?!" A high-pitched voice suddenly called, echoing around the room.

"Chip, Dale, you found us!"

"Uh-huh. We've been searching for ya' ever since we saw you disappear!" Dale explained.

"So if Chip and Dale aren't with us, and Kairi and Sora are, that means…"

"We really are in the datascape..." Daisy confirmed Clarabelle's suspicions. "Sora, is there a way to get us back home."

Sora was about to answer when alarm suddenly began to blare, but it wasn't the same they'd heard when first viewing the journal.

"Oh no! Someone's trying to break into the data from outside!" Chip cried.

Sora ran back to the monitor to find it now filled with red and black bugs. "No, no! If someone hacks in, there'll be no way out for you guys!"

"You have to escape before-!" The chipmunks' voices cut off.

The boy suddenly stopping typing, bowing his head. "The link to the real world's officially cut…"

"Oh no…" Kairi whispered, seeing the others deflate.

"B-But it's okay! We can just repair it!" Sora smiled. He crossed his arms. "Well, we could after the bugs are gone."

The room fell silent, knowing that would be an arduous task.

"Why don't I just get rid of the bugs for you? Not only will it get you guys home, it'll save the worlds and wake up Riku!" Kairi exclaimed after gently setting Riku down in one of the library chairs.

"That could work-!"

"No way are you going in there alone!" Daisy declared. "We've been watching all this time, it's time we do something!"

"Right! It'll be like old times with our little Kairi!" Clarabelle smiled.

The real Kairi, she must mean. Little. Does that mean the real one can grow… and I can't? Kairi contemplated this before realizing she had given an answer. "I might not be the real Kairi, but I'm sure we'll make a great team even so!"

"Yeah! I'll stay here, guard the computer, and be your guide. Okay, so I think the journal still has your equipment and armor data…" Sora mumbled, typing in a few commands. "Ah-ha!"

In a flash of code, Clarabelle and Daisy found themselves in their traveling clothes, fully equipped with anything they might need.

Tink gave a quick ring, joining their side.

"Ah, an adventure with you all, how exciting!"

"Minnie, you should probably stay with me." Sora told her regretfully, stopping her from joining.

"What? But why?"

"If the bugs get a hold of me and corrupt my personal data, I won't be able to help you guys anymore. Someone has to be here just in case."

"Oh, alright then…"

"Don't worry, dearie, I'm sure you'll get to go on another adventure with us real soon!" Clarabelle assured her.

Daisy nodded. "Hopefully not a world-saving adventure, just an exploring one! We could find new worlds together like we used to!"

"I'd like that." Minnie smiled softly.

Tink seemed to say something along the lines of "It's settled then!"

"Let's go!" Clarabelle exclaimed.

They turned, ready to face a new world when they realized there wasn't any way to get to one.

"Uh, how do we get out of here?" Kairi asked, glancing back at Sora and Minnie.

"Hehe, I forgot about that. Here, I'll open a path!" Sora inputted a quick command, summoning a dark corridor. "There you go!"

"Thanks!" Kairi smiled. She took one last look at Sora and Riku, the ones she wanted to keep safe, before going out to destroy the threat against them.