Wow!’ I looked around, astonished. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this...’
‘It’s called a Gummi Ship.’ Donald turned to me. ‘It’s how we get to other worlds.’
‘A Gummi Ship...’ I repeated. ‘Interesting...wait...other worlds?’
‘Yeah!’ Goofy cut in. ‘There’re other worlds!’
‘Other...worlds...?’ I looked out one of the windows as the ship had started to take off. ‘You think...my brother could be in another world?’
‘Sure!’ Sora grinned. ‘Maybe Riku and Kairi are with him!’
‘Do you think...Lance could be here?’ I asked quietly as we wandered through the dark hall.
‘It’s very possible.’ Sora grinned. ‘Maybe Riku and Kairi too!’
‘Uhm...Sora?’
‘Hmn?’ Sora turned to me. ‘What’s up?’
‘Your friends...Riku and Kairi...’ I smiled shyly. ‘What are they like?’
‘Oh? Well...’ Sora folded his arms, thinking for a moment. ‘Kairi’s really nice. She is always happy and laughing. Riku...he’s my best friend. Kinda snarky, but pretty cool.’
‘Oh, I see!’ I giggled.
‘So, Ai,’ Sora said. ‘Tell me about your brother. Is he nice to you?’
‘Oh, yes!’ I nodded. ‘He’s the nicest anyone’s ever been to me...I couldn’t ask for anything better.’
‘I hope he’s here...’ He sighed. ‘He’s probably looking everywhere for you too.’
‘Same for your friends.’ I smiled.
‘I’m late! I’m late!’ A white rabbit in a coat sprinted past us. ‘The Queen will have my head for sure!’
We tried to follow him but he ended up going through a tiny door that we couldn’t fit through.
‘How’d he get so small?!’ Sora crouched down in front of the tiny door.
‘No, you’re simply too big,’ the door spoke back, making us jump back in surprise.
‘D-did the door just...speak...?’ I stuttered.
‘Must you be so loud?’ The door complained. ‘You woke me up.’
‘Good mornin’!’ Goofy waved.
‘Good night!’ The door yawned, ‘I’m going back to sleep.’
‘Wait!’ Sora said. ‘What do we have to do to grow small?’
‘Why don’t you try the bottle?’ The door answered. ‘Over there?’
A table with two small bottles on it randomly appeared behind us. I approached the table and picked up a bottle. It had a label with “Drink Me” written on it. The other bottle had a similar label, though this one was red and had a giant tree. I held the blue bottle up to my mouth, ready to take a sip before Sora stopped me and grabbed the bottle.
‘I’ll go first, just to be safe,’ he said. ‘It could be dangerous.’
‘B-but what about you?’ I asked nervously. ‘If it’s dangerous for me, then it’s dangerous for you too!’
Sora shrugged and took a sip before I could stop him. We waited, and then Sora started to slowly get shorter, and shorter, until he was no taller than my pinkie finger. I crouched down and let him climb onto my hand.
‘You scared me!’ I cried. ‘Don’t ever do that again!’
‘Sorry.’ Sora sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. ‘I just didn’t want you to get hurt.’
I frowned at him.
‘Anyway, I’m pretty sure it’s safe,’ he said.
I carefully put him down on the table before grabbing the bottle and taking a sip. I began to shrink down, just like Sora had. Donald and Goofy both followed soon after.
‘What now?’ I asked.
‘Let’s take a look around.’ Sora jumped off the table, and onto the chair before jumping onto the floor, Donald and Goofy following him.
‘U-umm…’ I stood at the edge of the table, anxiously looking down at them.
‘Just jump!’ Sora called to me. ‘I’ll catch you!’
‘O-okay…’ I readied myself before closing my eyes and jumping.
As I fell, I was suddenly caught by Sora. I opened my eyes and smiled sheepishly at him as he placed me on the ground.
‘See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?’ Sora grinned.
‘I guess…’ I mumbled.
‘Sora! Ai! Look out!’ Donald yelled.
A Heartless had appeared and tried to attack us. Sora shoved me away from harm and destroyed it. However, more appeared around us.
‘There’s too many!’ I cried, looking around.
At that moment, I spotted an opening in the wall.
‘Look!’ I pointed and ran towards the opening. ‘This way!’
Sora, Donald and Goofy followed behind me. As we reached the other side, we found ourselves in a garden courtyard of some kind. We noticed the Heartless hadn’t followed us, so we took the time to catch our breath and look around. I looked at the guards in front of us. They looked like playing cards. In front of them, standing on a podium, was a young, blonde girl looking up at a large, raven-haired woman. The rabbit we had been chasing ran up the stairs of some platform, before blowing his trumpet.
‘Court is now in session!’ He said, out of breath.
‘I’m on trial?’ The blonde girl cried. ‘But why?’
‘Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!’ The rabbit announced.
The black-haired woman, the Queen, leaned forward and looked the young girl over.
‘This girl is the culprit,’ she said. ‘There’s no doubt about it!’
‘What did this girl do?’ I thought to myself.
‘And the reason is…’ The Queen paused for a moment. ‘Because I say so, that’s why!’
‘That is so unfair!’ The girl yelled.
‘Well, have you anything to say in your defence?’ The Queen asked.
‘Of course!’ The girl replied. ‘I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong!’
The Queen glared her, ready to explode.
‘You may be queen,’ she continued. ‘But I’m afraid that doesn’t give you the right to be so…so mean!’
Everyone around her looked shocked, and scared.
‘Silence!’ The Queen roared. ‘You dare defy me?!’
‘Hey guys,’ Sora said nervously. ‘We should help her out.’
‘I agree.’ I nodded.
‘Yeah but the—’ Donald began.
Donald and Goofy explained that we couldn’t interfere with other worlds’ affairs because we were outsiders. It still didn’t feel right though. This poor girl was being accused without any reasoning or evidence. From what I could tell, she was innocent.
‘The court finds the defendant…’ The Queen paused. ‘…Guilty as charged!’
What court? Everything about this was wrong.
‘For the crimes of assault,’ the Queen continued. ‘And attempted theft of my heart…’
‘The Heartless!’ I thought to myself.
Sora gasped. He must have realised it too. This girl was definitely innocent, and we had to do something.
‘Off with her head!’ The Queen yelled as guards surrounded the girl.
‘No! No!’ The girl pleaded. ‘Oh, please!’
Sora ran ahead, determined to stop this injustice.
‘Sora, wait!’ I ran after him, followed by Donald and Goofy.
‘Hold it right there!’ Sora pushed his way through the guards.
‘Who are you?!’ The Queen asked, shocked. ‘How dare you interfere with my court?!’
This was not going to go without consequences, but we were in too deep now.
‘Excuse me,’ Sora said. ‘But we know who the real culprit is!’
‘Uh-huh,’ Goofy chimed in. ‘It’s the Heartle—’
Goofy quickly covered his mouth.
‘They won’t say it’s the Heartless?’ I thought, looking over at Goofy. ‘Is that part of the whole meddling thing too?’
‘Anyway,’ Sora continued. ‘She’s not the one you’re looking for—’
‘Nonsense!’ The Queen cut him off. ‘Have you any proof?’
Sora fell silent, unable to defend his statement.
‘We’ll find proof!’ I said, determined.
Sora, Donald and Goofy gave me a surprised look.
‘She’s innocent!’ I yelled. ‘And this is injustice!’
‘Keep this up and you’ll be next, girl!’ The Queen threatened me, making me jump.
Sora stood between me and the Queen, in an attempt to protect me. The Queen finally decided to let my outburst slide.
‘Bring me evidence of Alice’s innocence! Fail, and it’s off with all of your heads!’ The Queen demanded. ‘Gather as much or little evidence as you please. Report back here once you’re ready.’
We all nodded, agreeing to the Queen’s request.
‘Until you come back with proof,’ the Queen explained. ‘The defendant shall be imprisoned.’
The card guards grabbed the girl and locked her in a small cage. Another card stood guard over her. We talked with the girl, whose name was apparently Alice, and found out most of how she ended up here. She had been curious and explored a rabbit hole and fell in. She followed the Cheshire Cat’s advice, and after she made it to the Queen’s castle, she was arrested and put on trial. We wanted to ask her more questions, but the guard forbade it. We were then pointed to the archway that led to the forest, so that’s where we decided to start looking.
As we stepped into the forest and looked around. A creepy, pink cat head appeared out of nowhere, wildly grinning and bouncing around. I hid behind Sora, terrified. The cat head appeared again on a giant tree stump, a matching pink body dancing on it before coming together as a complete cat.
‘Who are you?!’ Donald asked.
‘Who, indeed?’ The cat replied. ‘Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she’s not guilty of a thing!’
‘This must be the Cheshire Cat.’ I whispered to Sora, who nodded in agreement.
The Cheshire Cat was cryptic in all of his hints and phrases, saying something about the culprit lying in darkness before disappearing.
‘Wait!’ Sora yelled.
‘They’ve already left the forest. I won’t tell which exit.’ The Cheshire Cat’s disembodied voice echoed. ‘There are four pieces of evident. Three are a cinch to find.’
‘Should we trust him?’ Donald asked.
‘To trust, or not to trust?’ The Cheshire Cat appeared one last time, ‘I trust you’ll decide!’
The Cheshire Cat vanished, leaving us to try to decipher the information we were given.
‘Lying in darkness…’ I thought aloud. ‘What does that even mean? Aside from it being a Heartless, I mean.’
Sora shrugged, looking at Donald and Goofy for an answer. They both shook their heads. I looked around the forest. Everything was giant. The trees, the flowers, even the grass was taller than us.
We wandered around on the forest floor for a while, splitting up to cover more ground. The forest was far from quiet, as Heartless swarmed the area. It was dangerous to be alone, but the others were never far away. After taking about a few more Heartless, there was finally time to actually look around. I found myself in a clearing with a single, giant, yellow flower. On the ground below it, I could see some marks. They were footprints. I pulled my Polaroid camera out of my bag and snapped a photo.
‘That’s one down.’ I studied the photo.
I looked up at the yellow flower, and approached it. It was closed, but aside from being huge, something was odd about it. I reached out to touch the flower. As my hand touched the bud, a voice echoed in my mind.
‘Give me a potion…’ It said.
I yelled in surprise, pulling my hand away. I heard Sora and the other rushing to my aid.
‘Ai!’ Sora called to me. ‘Are you okay? What’s wrong?’
‘Th-the flower…’ I said shakily. ‘It spoke to me…’
‘What did it say?’ Donald asked.
‘It…it wants a potion…’ I replied.
Sora pulled a potion from his pocket, staring at it before looking at the flower.
‘Are you sure, Sora?’ I asked.
Sora nodded before opening the bottle and pouring the contents over the flower, causing it to bloom. I felt strange when it opened. All of my fatigue, and my injuries were gone. I was completely healed. I looked over at the others, they were experiencing the same thing.
‘Thanks...’ The flower’s voice echoed in my mind.
‘I guess that was the right choice.’ I smiled, looking at the giant bloom.
‘So, did you find any evidence?’ Sora asked.
I nodded, pointing to the footprints before holding up my camera, ‘I took a picture of them.’
‘Great! I found some claw marks,’ Sora said. ‘But I need your camera.’
Sora led me to the claw marks, and I snapped another photo. There was another flower. This one’s petals were red. Like the yellow one, it was closed. I reached out and touched the flower, and just like before, a voice echoed in my mind.
‘Give me a potion…’ It said. ‘I’ll make you bigger…’
‘This one wants a potion too.’ I turned to Sora. ‘It said it’ll make you bigger, though I don’t know what that means.’
‘Only one way to find out!’ Sora grabbed another potion and tipped it on the flower.
‘The Bizarre Room holds all the answers…’ The flower said as it opened.
Pollen flowed out of the flower and onto Sora, who started to grow. Donald, Goofy and I ran to avoid being trampled. I looked up to Sora, who was gigantic, but in comparison to the rest of the forest he was the size of a regular human.
‘Do you see anything?!’ I yelled, hoping he would hear me.
‘Hold on,’ Sora replied, looking around before touching the tree. ‘I think I can move this tree.’
He grabbed the tree and rotated it. There was a single branch, and it was now under a doorway, making it accessible. Sora noticed a fruit sitting on top of the branch. He grabbed the fruit and looked at it for a moment before taking a bite. He began to shrink back down to our size.
I frowned and folded my arms, ‘Do you always eat anything you find?’
‘Probably,’ Donald replied.
Sora laughed awkwardly, ‘No!’
I let out a small giggle. Even though I had only just met him, I felt so at ease around Sora. He was so laid back and cheerful.
‘You remind me so much of him.’ I smiled.
‘Who? Lance?’ Sora asked. ‘How so?’
‘Let’s see…’ I thought for a moment. ‘You’re kind, cheerful…reckless, brave…’
My smile disappeared as I thought of Lance, and tears started to prick at my eyes. Sora must have noticed this, as he put a hand on my head.
‘Hey, don’t worry,’ He said softly. ‘I’m sure he’s okay.’
‘S-sorry…’ I sniffled, wiping my eyes.
‘It’s okay.’ He patted my back. ‘Now, let’s find the rest of these clues.’
‘Okay…’ I nodded.
Sora looked up at the doorway.
‘How do we get up there?’ I asked.
‘I think I saw a way up when we were looking for clues,’ Sora said. ‘Follow me.’
Sora led us up some giant lily pads that were elevated off the ground. On the way, we found a strange-looking antennae. I snapped a picture of it as possible evidence. We carefully made our way higher into the treetops. Sora kept me close and constantly looked back to me, making sure I was okay. After a while, we finally reached the doorway. Sora looked back at me and nodded.
‘I’ll go first,’ he said as he stepped into the doorway, with me, Donald and Goofy following behind.
As I stepped through, I felt a sense of weightlessness. It was as if I was falling. I looked down, to see I actually was falling. I screamed as I fell. Luckily, Sora was ready to catch me.
‘Ai! Are you okay?!’ He asked me, concerned.
I nodded, too scared to get any words out. We were standing on what looked to be a stove. Suddenly, a horrible smell filled our noses.
‘Ugh, what’s that smell?’ I said, covering my nose.
‘I dunno,’ Sora replied, practically gagging at the smell. ‘The Heartless maybe?’
‘It’s coming from one of the vents.’ Donald pointed to the vent on the stove.
‘I don’t think this would be much use to us as evidence…’ I peeked inside. ‘Without a picture I mean.’
Everyone agreed, and we turned our attention to the rest of the room. The room was oddly familiar. That’s when I noticed it.
‘We’re in the room with the talking door!’ I pointed to the centre of the room.
There, was a table with two familiar-looking bottles.
‘This place is crazy…’ Sora looked around the room. ‘So, we just went in a giant circle?’
‘I guess so,’ Goofy replied.
‘Anyway, it looks like we found everything,’ I said, going through the photos. ‘If the Cheshire Cat was telling the truth anyway…’
‘You think we should go back?’ Donald asked. ‘And present the photos to the Queen?’
Sora nodded, ‘I think this should be enough.’
Upon everyone’s agreement, we made our way back to the Queen of Hearts.
We approached the cards guarding the Queen of Hearts.
‘You’re back,’ one of them said to us. ‘So, does that mean you’re ready to present your evidence to the Queen?’
‘Y-yes, sir.’ I clutched the photos in my hands.
‘Very well. Counsel, step up to the podium.’ The card soldier holds out his hand, and I handed him the photos, ‘I shall present these to the Queen.’
Sora stepped up to the witness stand, while Donald, Goofy and I stood to the side.
‘Show me what you have found,’ the Queen ordered, and a guard gave her the photos.
‘Well, that's certainly a lot of evidence.’ The Queen looked through the photos. ‘But I'm still not impressed. Cards! Bring forth my evidence!’
The guards brought out five boxes. My photos were in one of them, but they didn’t let us see which one. When we looked, the boxes were laid out in front of Sora. The Queen instructed Sora to only pick one to present.
‘What?!’ Sora protested. ‘After going through all the trouble of collecting it?’
‘You dare object? Then you will lose your head!’ The Queen yelled. ‘Now, choose! One box!’
Sora carefully studied the boxes before picking the one second from the right.
‘Are you certain?’ The Queen asked him. ‘No second chances.’
‘I’m sure.’ Sora nodded.
‘Now we shall see who the real culprit is,’ the Queen said.
Sora opened the box, and a Heartless leapt out before vanishing. My photos were sitting inside the box.
‘What in the world was that?!’ The Queen exclaimed.
‘There’s your evidence,’ Sora replied. ‘Alice is innocent.’
‘Silence! I’m the law here!’ The Queen roared. ‘Article 29: Anyone who defies the Queen is guilty!’
‘That’s crazy!’ Donald yelled.
‘Cards! Seize them at once!’ The Queen ordered.
Everything in the courtyard vanished, and a tower rose out of the ground. One of the guards spun one of the wheels, making Alice’s cage rise up high and was covered by a curtain.
‘If they touch the tower, then it’s off with all your heads!’ The Queen said. ‘Get them you fools!’
The cards charged at Sora.
‘Sora!’ I ran over to him, shooting down some of the cards. ‘Get to the tower! We’ll cover you!’
The cards I had shot down got up soon after, and Donald, Goofy and I fought them off as Sora began destroying the tower. Bit by bit, it began to crumble, and the guards became more aggressive in an attempt to crowd us. Sora managed to destroy the tower and came to our aid before it was too late. We were all interrupted when Alice’s cage began to lower and the curtain slowly began to draw. Everyone waited in anticipation, but when the curtain was fully drawn, the cage was empty. Alice had vanished.
‘She must have gotten kidnapped while we were fighting,’ Donald said.
‘You fools!’ The Queen yelled. ‘Find the one who's behind this! I don't care how!’
‘We’d better go look for her.’ I turned to Sora. ‘I have a really bad feeling about this…’
‘Yeah, me too,’ Sora agreed. ‘Let’s start in the forest.’
When we walked into the forest, the Cheshire Cat had reappeared.
‘Have you seen Alice?’ Donald asked him.
‘Alice, no,’ the Cheshire Cat replied. ‘Shadow, yes!’
‘Where did they go?’ Goofy piped up.
‘This way? That way? Does it matter?’ The Cheshire Cat spoke in riddles. ‘Left, right, up, down! All mixed up thanks to the shadows!’
No one really understood what he meant. He mentioned an “upside-down room” and “deserted garden”. We figured that would be the best place to start. We made our way to this garden. In the garden was a large table lined with teacups, teapots and biscuits. On the wall above the table hung a painting of a man and a rabbit. “A very merry unbirthday!” was written underneath them. I looked back at the table. Upon closer inspection, everything on the table was covered with a layer of dust. It was called the deserted garden, after all.
‘How weird…’ I thought aloud.
While we were distracted by the abandoned tea party setup, a group of Heartless suddenly appeared, one of them a giant round soldier. It took a lot of work, but we managed to beat them all. When we turned back to the painting, it had changed. The painting now depicted the two figures in a panic. Not only that, but the table had vanished. Feeling unsettled, we decided to continue into the house.
The room was oddly shaped. There were large slants against the walls. In the centre of the room were two tables with what looked to be lamps. As we looked up, we saw the familiar table with the two bottles. “Upside-down room” finally made sense.
‘They're hiding somewhere.’ A voice caught our attention. ‘Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the light.’
We looked around and there, on one of the tables, was the Cheshire Cat. Following the advice, Sora climbed one of the tables. He looked at the lamp for a moment before summoning his Keyblade. He used it to light a small flame in the lamp. A flower, upside down on the ceiling, began to grow.
‘It’s too dim,’ the Cheshire Cat said. ‘Make it brighter.’
‘What now?’ Donald asked.
‘Just one more lamp you need to light,’ the Cheshire Cat replied.
Sora leapt to the other table and lit the other lamp. The flower grew to full bloom, and a shadow appeared in the corner of this room’s “ceiling”.
‘All the lights are on. You'll see the shadows soon,’ the Cheshire Cat said. ‘They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else. The shadows might go after that doorknob, too.’
I felt the anxiety rise up in my gut. I felt like we shouldn’t go back to that room, but we had no choice. We had to, for Alice’s sake. Sora put his hand on my shoulder, making me turn to him. He gave me a reassuring smile. I took a deep breath and began walking with the others to that room.
When we made it back to the main room, the Cheshire Cat was, unsurprisingly, waiting for us on the table.
‘You’ll have a better view from higher up,’ he called to us.
We climbed up on the table and approached him. He stood up on his hind legs.
‘The shadows should be here soon.’ He grinned. ‘Are you prepared for the worst? If not, too bad!’
He pointed to the ceiling, and we looked up. A giant creature leapt down and over the table. It had a “stacked” head with multiple faces, long, paper-like arms and gangly legs with axe-like feet. As it unfolded its arms, it revealed two clubs and began juggling them while walking around the room. It made its way to the stove, lighting the clubs on fire. I drew my bow, ready to fight. Sora, Donald and Goofy drew their weapons too. Its attacks were hard to read, as it swung at us from all directions. We were able to narrowly avoid most of its attacks. I fired a few arrows at its head, stunning it as it crumpled to the ground. When it got back up, it turned its attention to me and hit me into a wall with one of its clubs. I was dazed, and my vision blurred. My ears were ringing, but I could faintly hear Sora yelling my name. I could see his blurred silhouette running towards me.
‘Ai!’ He yelled. ‘Ai! Snap out of it!’
He pulled out a potion, making me drink it. My senses slowly started to come back to me. Behind Sora, Donald and Goofy were fighting off the giant Heartless.
‘Sora…?’ I managed to say.
‘Can you still fight?’ Sora asked me.
I nodded, and he helped me to my feet. I was still a little weak but I shook it off and readied my bow once more.
It was a difficult battle, but the giant Heartless was finally defeated. It crumple to the floor, trembling, before falling over with its arms waving in the air. It vanished and a heart flew up and disappeared.
‘What a racket!’ A voice said behind us. We turned to see the talking door. ‘How’s a doorknob to get any sleep?’
The door yawned and a glowing light appeared in his mouth. Sora’s Keyblade, as if with a mind of its own, reacted, and a beam of light shot out from it and into the doorknob’s mouth. There was a sound and then all was quiet again.
‘What was that?’ Donald asked.
‘It sounded like something closed,’ Sora said.
Something fell on the ground in front of the door.
‘What’s that?’ I picked it up.
‘This gummi ain’t like the others.’ Goofy looked over my shoulder. ‘No, sir.’
‘I’ll hold onto it.’ Donald held his hand out to me and I gave him the gummi.
‘Splendid. You're quite the hero.’ The Cheshire Cat reappeared. ‘If you're looking for Alice, she's not here. She's gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness.’
‘No…’ Sora gasped.
‘S-sorry…’ I mumbled.
‘For what?’ Goofy asked me.
‘I-I…I don’t know…’ I replied.
‘No need to be sorry, Ai.’ Sora shook his head. ‘It’s not your fault.’
‘Anyway, let’s go back to the gummi ship.’ Donald cut in. ‘Maybe we’ll find her in another world.’
Lance didn’t seem to be here, so he must’ve been in another world too. I thought about the place in my dream. I thought maybe that’s where I would find him.
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