Chapter 5 - -The first Wonderland Arc-welcome to wonderland!

Misa sat up in bed, panting heavily and covered in sweat.

She looked around, dug her nails into her covers, trying to remember what she was looking for.

She had been dreaming.

However, she couldn't remember what she had dreamt, she couldn't remember what she was now terrified of, or what caused her heart to beat so rapidly.



There was nothing in her room to remind her, she didn't know what she was looking for when she got out of bed and opened her closet, but she searched behind every piece of clothing, under every pair of pants and every pair of shoes, but there was nothing. Nothing that could remind her of that something she so desperately wanted to remember.



She sighed heavily as she dropped herself onto the bed again, arms outstretched over her head, staring at the cold emotionless roof.

Something... there was something really important that she needed to remember.

It was just that, she had completely forgotten it.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, searching through her mind for the answer she was looking for, but there was nothing.

It was so strange, she never really forgot things... well, at least she hadn't forgotten anything since she came to Destiny Islands. Every single moment of her stay there was burnt into her memory, down to every single detail.



She rolled over at her side and threw a glance at the alarm clock that stood on her bedside table. It was a cute little old-fashioned alarm clock, none of that digital bullshoot.

For a while she studied the two timers, one was pointing between XII and I, and the other was pointing at VIII.

Now, what did those letters mean again?

X was ten, if she was correct, then XII must be twelve! And V was five, so VIII was 5+3, which was eight!

She jumped out of bed as she realized what time it was.

They had decided to meet at dawn, which was, according to her, around six or seven o'clock.



In a hurry, she put on some clothes and didn't bother to brush her hair or anything.

She threw a bag over her shoulder, she had packed it with stuff she thought was important before she went to bed the day before, and she really didn't want to forget anything else now.

She hurried out of her bedroom, slammed the door behind her, ran through the small living room, and headed for the door that led out of her little apartment.

With shaky hands she tried to lock the door behind her, but after about 15 seconds she found it useless and threw the keys at the hard stone floor.

"Why would I need to lock the door anyway? It's not like I'm coming back" she said to herself, and then hurried towards the staircase, which led down to the first- and ground floor.

She jumped over several steps, trying her best to get out of the apartment building as fast as possible.

One floor was behind her, one left and then she would be out.

She almost flew down the last staircase, her hands on the banister to prevent herself from tripping. One last step and she was on the ground floor!

Now, the only thing remaining was to run out the front door and head for the gummi ship. She hurried up, headed for the door, was just about to open it and finally get out in freedom, and then... she was on her butt at the floor.



"Oh, I'm terribly sorry! I didn't see you there!" A sort of familiar male voice said above her.

She rubbed her hand at her forehead, the part of her that had probably bumped into the other person first, because damn, her forehead hurt!

"Ouch.. no... it's okay" she replied.

The boy offered his hand; she could see it under her long silver bangs.

"Here. Let me help you up" he said.

Misa lifted her glance, and brushed away her hair from her silvery eyes.

She knew this boy. It was the blonde guy with the weird monkey tail who resided in apartment 237, just two apartments away from hers.

Zidane somebody-or-other

"Uh... thanks" she said silently and grabbed the boys hand, and was then yanked up from the floor very quickly.



"Oh, you're that pretty girl who lives at my floor" he suddenly said, as she threw her long hair behind her back again.

"Excuse me..?" she asked silently, she wasn't at all used to being called anything but weird, 'pretty' was a description of her that she never had heard before.

Zidane grinned and put his hands behind his head.

"I've been looking at you for a while, but you never talk to me" he said cheerfully.

Misa blinked, she had noticed him, but she had no interest in boys or men whatsoever, and everyone knew this guy was a big man-slut.

She twirled a silver lock of hair around her pale index finger.

"I've never had the need to..." she answered and looked down.

"Oh? You have a boyfriend already?" he asked, obviously not used to rejection.

Misa looked at him through her long silver bangs, this guy was starting to get annoying, he was asking about private matters and besides, he was in the way.

"I have no interest in you... nor anyone of your gender or my own..." she said silently and walked over at his side.

"Now, if you will excuse me... I'm already late..."

"Late for what?" Zidane asked, not moving away from the front door.

Misa gave an annoyed sound in the back of her throat and mumbled something about stupid monkey brained man-whores.

"Please, you're in the way..." she said and waved a lock of silvery hair away from her eyes again "And if you would just please move, I may consider your offer..."

Zidanes face cracked into a self-satisfied grin and he took a step away from the door.

"It's a deal then," he said before Misa pushed him out of the way and rushed out of the building.

"Hey! You better not forget!" He shouted after her, but she didn't really pay attention to him, the only thing she thought of was to get to the Gummi ship as fast as possible.



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



"What took you so long, slowpoke?" Sora asked, with that usual grin on his face when Misa finally arrived at the place they had decided to meet.

She supported herself on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

"I'm sorry... really sorry..." she managed to say between her rapid intakes of air.

"I was just about to go and check if you were alive" Sora said, laughing to cover up the fact that he had no idea where she lived.

Misa looked up at him through her silver bangs.

"As I said... really sorry..." she said and slowly lifted her body to full height again, throwing her long silver locks behind her back in one long graceful move.

Every single strain of her hair glistened in the light from the morning-sun, like polished silver that had always been treated with great and loving care.

She was really one outstanding piece of work, though that thought really didn't come to Soras mind, since all he was thinking about now was getting in the gummi ship and fly away, the sooner the better. Besides, the girl was of no greater interest to him.



"Never mind. Lets board the Gummi ship already" He said cheerfully "And I'll tell you more about wonderland!"



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



They were all seated in the gummi ship at their usual places, which meant Misa sat on the floor close to Sora's chair.

Donald was pushing some random buttons, Goofy had fallen asleep and was snoring loudly from his seat, Jiminy was writing in his journal as usual, and Sora was rambling about his adventures in wonderland.

Misa was listening to him with great interest, to her, this world he was talking about seemed very interesting and bizarre, like a world that could only exist in your wildest imagination, and a place where you could only get to in your dreams.

"And then this strange purple cat popped out of nowhere again, and he grinned like a..." Sora told his story with great passion, waving his arms around and almost falling off the chair on occasions "But you see, Alice wasn't anywhere there either! And we were all 'nooo!' and then we had to..."

And Misa couldn't take her eyes off him as he spoke.



All of a sudden Sora's story was interrupted.

"Sora! Come take a look at this" Donald said, making Sora turn around in his chair to see what his funny friend was talking about.

"What's up?" he asked, but he couldn't really see anything weird.

"I can't find the radiant garden anywhere!" Donald said pointing both at a digital map and the window, "And now we've been driving around for more than 15 minutes!" Sora looked at the map, and Donald was right, the Radiant Garden was nowhere to be found.

"Maybe it's not here yet," he suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

"It could be that we have to go through another path first"



Donald scratched his head, most probably trying to find a solution to the little problem they had.

"What about that other town?" Misa suddenly asked "Traverse or something..."

"No, we haven't been there for ages!" Donald replied and waved Misa's little suggestion away "I don't even think it's still there

Goofy was still sleeping in his chair, and nobody really bothered to wake him up, since he wouldn't be much help anyway.

"Perhaps we could go through there?" Sora suddenly suggested pointing at a spot on the map where he thought the Radiant Garden had been before.

Donald looked at where Sora's finger was pointing and nodded in agreement.

"That seems reasonable enough" he said and started to push some buttons again.

"We'll try that".



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



Less than five minutes later they were already facing another world.

"Well, thats NOT the Radiant Garden" Donald said in a pretty irritated manner.

Goofy had finally waked up, and was staring out of the window just like the other four.

"Isn't that..?" he started, but was interrupted by Sora shouting

"Wonderland!" Sora was bending over the control board as far as he could get, almost crushing his nose against the window.

"Holy shoot! It really is!"

Misa looked at the strange world in front of her, it was so green and pink, in a way it almost looked like a strangely patterned strawberry.



"Oh, can't we land there? Please Donald!" Sora pleaded, he was now on his knees on the floor, folding his hands as if he was praying.

"No! We have to find the Radiant Garden!" Donald replied as stubborn as always.

"Radiant Garden can wait!" Sora countered and as a last resort put up his puppy dog face "Pleeeeaase"

Unfortunately for Sora, Puppy dog eyes had no effect on Donald whatsoever.

"No! Were not landing in that crazy place!"

"Come on Donald, don't be so suborn" Goofy said, trying to convince Donald to land the Gummi ship by himself, since he didn't want a repetition of the Deep Jungle incident.

"Um... that's 'stubborn', Goofy," Misa corrected, taking Donald's usual part.



"Come on Donald! You're the only one who doesn't want to!" said Sora, still with those pleading eyes.

"Well, I'M the one in charge of the ship!" Donald asserted and crossed his arms to look more stubborn than before.

"You stupid boring duck!" Sora said grumpily "You're being unfair to Misa too! She really wants to see Wonderland!"

Misa couldn't remember to ever have said something like that, but she really wouldn't mind seeing wonderland.

"Please Donald, I promise we wont stay for a long time" Sora pleaded again, not at all willing to give up.

"ALRIGHT! Just shut up you stupid nut!" Donald yelled and slammed his hand on the landing button.



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



Before they knew it they were falling down a strange hole, actually it looked more like a very tall room with paintings on the walls and floating furniture all over the place.

Donald sat on the top of a cupboard, looking as grumpy as before, he wasn't too excited about this it seemed.

Goofy had seated himself in a rocking chair and seemed to be quite comfortable, since he was almost falling asleep again.

"For how long will we keep falling?" Misa suddenly asked, she was sort of sitting in midair with her legs crossed, her elbows supported on her knees and her hands underneath her chin.

Sora was floating forth and back, changing from swimming to flying movements, obviously he was having a whole lot of fun.

"Till we reach the floor of course," he answered.

Misa looked down, seeing the ground far down there.

They would keep falling for a while it seemed.





It took almost five minutes before they were done falling.

Everyone landed steadily on their feet, except from Goofy who had fallen asleep and therefore fell to the floor with his back first, which made him wake up.

The silver haired girl steadied herself on her feet as they finally landed on the floor.

This place was even crazier than she had imagined it, but she didn't mind at all, in fact she already liked this world.

"Awesome!" Sora shouted excitingly and jumped up and down like a kid who had just been promised a lollipop by his mother.

"Didn't think we'd end up here again..." Donald said, he was obviously the only one who didn't really like wonderland.



Suddenly, while Sora was still busy being strangely happy, a white rabbit ran past them in a real hurry "Oh dear! I'm late!" it said checking it's pocket watch.

"Isn't that?" Misa started, remembering this part of Sora's story.

"It's the white rabbit" said Goofy, who had just got up from the floor.

"Wait!" Sora shouted and ran after it, and the other three followed him.

Misa couldn't really see why they were following a rabbit, but she decided that the other guys probably knew better than her what to do in this place.

They followed the rabbit until it disappeared through a huge door.

"Not again" Donald sighed.

Sora had already opened the door, revealing a smaller door, another door and even more doors after that, until the whole group had to crawl through the last door on their hands and knees.



"Now, that was fun right?" Sora said happily, while the rest of the small group looked at him strangely.



"Where are we now?" Goofy suddenly asked, turning the groups attention to the surroundings.

They seemed to be in the middle of a great forest, everything was really huge, from the flowers to the mushrooms and the nuts that had fallen from the gigantic trees.

"Well it's not the Queens castle, fortunately" Sora replied and looked around.

To Misa, the place seemed to match Sora's description of the forest where he had searched for evidence to prove Alices innocence the last time he had been there.

"Let's explore this place!" Sora shouted eagerly, and ran of in a hurry, making the rest of the group follow him.

"Sora, you twit! Get back here!" Donald yelled after him, but Sora didn't listen.

They kept running after him for a while, before he suddenly stopped.

"Sora? What's wrong?" Misa asked, but he hushed on her.

"There's someone here" he said, the keyblade suddenly appearing in his hands.

Misa thought it would be smart of her to summon her own blade, and soon it appeared in her hands surrounded by green numbers.



"Oh no, oh no! What have we here, sister?" they suddenly heard a voice say from somewhere above them. Before they could react to the first sound, another voice replied to it "Not know I do, sister" it said, this one sounded slightly younger.

The small group listened, waiting for the voices to speak again, but the air was now shrouded in complete silence once more.



"What was that?" Donald asked, wand at the ready, prepared to blast anyone who suddenly showed up with whatever magic spell he came up with first.

"Sora..?" Misa looked up at Sora from behind her silvery bangs, she had never thought they would encounter anything dangerous already.

"I have no idea" Sora answered, clenching his hands on his keyblade, whoever the voices belonged to, he was ready to encounter them and kick their sorry asses out of wonderland.

"I think it is that keyblade wielder" said the first and slightly darker voice, followed by a low chuckle that sounded more like a taunt than anything else.

"That keyblade wielder I think it is, indeed" repeated the second voice, trying to sound just like the first one.

There were chuckles coming from everywhere around the little group, taunting chuckles that almost freaked them all out.

"Whose there!?" Sora yelled at the disembodied voices, his keyblade still at the ready, prepared to beat the living shoot out of whoever they were

"Show yourselves!"

"Oh my... oh my!" The darker voice shouted, on the brink of hysterical laughter by the sound of it "The keybearer is trying to be a hero!"

"Oh my!" The second voice replied, in a childish imitation of the first one.

"Show your ugly faces!" Donald yelled unable to hold back his temper.

Then there was silence again.

The silence was even more frightening than the voices, the little group couldn't know what was going on, whether or not the disembodied voices were planning an attack or something even worse.



"Shall we show ourselves, sister?" The darker voice suddenly asked the other one.

"Show ourselves we shall!" the childish voice replied happily.

Either, that person was very young, or just plain stupid.

The small group gathered as best as they could, each of them facing in a different direction, ready for whatever they were going to meet.

Misa's hands clenched around her sword, this was for real, now she was going to face a real enemy, and she would have to fight them.

She didn't know how to handle this blade; she couldn't even remember what she had done the first time, so how was she going to be of any use against someone who was probably much stronger than her?



"May we introduce to you!" the darker voice said "For the first time ever on a stage in wonderland!"

There were strange sounds from the trees, sounds that seemed to be coming from everywhere around them.

Louder and louder, closer and closer and then suddenly, out from the safety of the shadows of the trees jumped two figures.

Both of them did about two somersaults before they landed on the ground, revealing their real appearance.



"The juggler twins!"



The whole group stared at the two figures wide eyed.

Both of them were girls at the exact same height. They had long, wild and curly white hair, with the exception of red stripes in the hair of the girl to the right, and blue stripes in the other ones hair.

Both of them wore jester hats in the same colour as the stripes of their hair, and the clothes were also in that colour.

The girl who wore red had a dress with an incredibly lot of laces on the lower back part, the lower front was almost completely flat.

Her upper part was a red corset laced with yellow and red striped ribbons, and underneath that she had a short-sleeved white shirt with big puff sleeves.

She also wore red and white striped tights, and a pair of red shoes that really looked like they belonged to a doll.

Both of the girls wore a lot of makeup.

The red girl did of course wear red makeup. The makeup around her eyes was shaped as small, thick spikes, almost to resemble thick eyelashes. Her lips were painted blood red, and on her cheeks there was drawn a heart and a diamond.



The other girl, who wore dark blue, was dressed in more masculine clothing.

She had a jacket with white frills hanging out of the sleeves that almost completely covered her fingers. Over the jacket she wore a white corset, decorated with blue laces and laced together with black ribbons.

The bottom of the jacket was in spikes, like a jester's costume, and on the end of every spike there was a bell.

Her pants were decorated with white laces along the sides, and she wore a pair of knee-high boots, which more than anything else resembled the boots of a hard rock musician.

Her makeup was in a very dark shade of blue, and her face was also painted white.

The makeup around her eyes was shaped as one long spike that went from the top of her eyebrow, to the top of her cheek.

Her lips were painted in the same colour, and also stretched to form a sick clownish smile, and on her cheeks there was drawn a club and a spade.



With other words, they were both very special looking persons.

What confused Sora and his group the most however, was the lack of a uniform.

Because of that, they couldn't know if this was an enemy, or not.

"Oh, it's really rude to stare!" The girl in blue said, placing her hands on her hips.

The darker voice had obviously belonged to her.

"Rude to stare it is!" the other girl imitated the first one.

The girl in blue suddenly slapped the other girl over the face in a swift movement of her hand.

"Oh, shut up you twit!"



The group looked at them wide-eyed as the girl dressed in blue yelled insults at the girl dressed in red, who was crying like a little child who had just lost her favourite doll.

"These chicks are weird" Sora said, scratching the back of his head before crossing his arms

"eird? They're completely insane" Donald replied.



"Please, do excuse my sister" The girl in blue said as she turned her attention back to Sora and the rest "She's not quite right in the head"

"Not right in the head, I am" the other girl mimicked and hit herself lightly on the forehead.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," the blue girl continued after sending her sister a quick glare "My name is Zorna, and my fool of a sister here is Thornette"

Zorna's blue painted lips cracked into an evil smirk.

"And we're your welcoming-committee, sent by the Others of course!"

While her sister was looking dangerous and threatening, Thornette stood behind her waving a white little hand while smiling stupidly.



"Welcome to wonderland!"



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



The land of eternal rain... there was only one thing that one could always be certain of here; you went to sleep to the sound of raindrops playing their unpredictable song outside your window, and you woke up to the sound of raindrops playing the very same song, their eternal symphony...

Almost wherever you went in the grand castle of Burmecia, you could hear this lullaby, this beautiful ballad, and this mournful lament.

It was the eternal rule, in this land there would always be rain, and if nothing else, at least everyone here knew that.



On the fourth floor of the castle, the raindrops' song was more of a miserable lament than anywhere else.

Why it sounded so horribly sad right here, nobody knew, but it was the truth, and everyone could hear what terrifying grief and sorrow the rain expressed here.

It was because of this, that there was almost not a single soul that dared to live, or even set their foot on this floor. However, there are always exceptions to the rule.



In the cold stone corridors of the fourth floor, light footsteps from a couple of high-heeled shoes could be heard as loud echoes between the walls.

No women lived on this floor, only three men did, however, the floor was very often visited by their most superior, their most respected and admired, their Empress.

It was her this time as well, the graceful woman who were now completely dressed in black, she who had given them life, or at the very least; something to live for.



The Empress headed towards one of the three occupied rooms.

This room was so close to never lit up as one could get, it was always engulfed completely in darkness, because the young boy who resided there liked it that way.

It made him forget everything, if he could not see anything, then nothing could remind him of the past either. His Empress had convinced him that the only important thing was the future, the bright future that they were creating, the celestial future that he had longed for since his life had been so brutally snatched away.

The Empress knocked on the door three times and waited for an answer.

"You may enter" was the answer the young boy gave, and the Empress entered.



The boy sat on his bed, his back bent and his elbows resting on his knees.

The black hood, the most crucial piece to this fine organization's uniform, hid his face from the empress eyes.

As he realized it was his Empress, he got up from his seated position, revealing that he was not taller than a young woman.

"My Empress" he said respectfully, and put his hand to where his heart was supposed to be, before he gave a deferent little bow.

The Empress' red-painted lips curved into a gentle smile before she closed the door behind her.

"You really live up to your given name, my dear" she said as she gracefully swept across the room towards the window. The window was covered by black curtains to prevent any light from entering the room, and thus interrupting the pleasant darkness.

"It is so dark in here" with a refined movement the Empress parted the curtains to let the pale moonlight in.

The boy averted his glance from the light, the moon had been considered unpleasant to him even before he had lost his heart.

Again, the Empress swept across the floor, now towards him.

"Why not let in the moonlight, as a reminder of the bright dawn we are walking towards?" she said, with the same gentle smile.

The boy seemed to be looking at her.

"If your wish is that I shall let in more light, then I shall welcome the light with joy" he replied, and bowed his head respectfully.

Empress slipped her white fingers under the boy's hood, and gently brushed them against his cheek.

"My dear... my beloved..." she whispered lovingly.

The boy gave a pleasant sigh at the Empress' gentle and loving touch.

"Soon is your time... Soon you shall be my brightest star" Empress continued.



This boy would agree to anything the Empress suggested, he was her obedient minion who would grant her every wish, her eternally grateful servant who would always search for new ways to make her happy, and no one... not a single soul except for his Empress, was allowed to touch him like this.

"What shall I do... my Empress?" he asked silently, not wanting the moment to stop.

The Empress rubbed her thumb softly against the boys lower lip to silence him.

"Not yet... not yet my love" she whispered.

"Your time will come soon little shadow..."

The smaller boy lifted his hooded glance to look at her, and he gave another sigh of delight as the Empress moved her slender fingers over his ear.

"And then you will shine... but for now, just observe them"

The boy nodded in agreement to the Empress' request.

"I will..."

The Empress then slowly removed her hand and let it fall gracefully to her side, making the boy clench his fists in disappointment.

"My beloved obedient little shadow..." Empress said lovingly.

"My dearest Nightshade"

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