Hello to all the little heroes and heroines! UknownHero here and welcome to another chapter of Awaken By Time! It's been a while since I was focusing my attention on other fics, but hey, here's another chapter because I felt like it. Also, to address a concern by ronin warriors fanatic: Well, the actual "time travel" thing Aqua experienced wasn't actually time travel. It was more being sealed in a void, unable to age. Her senses have dulled to a point where she is unable to light within others, which is why Aqua was unable to detect Alice's pure heart or Ventus in Sora. Anyway, enough talk, time to overthrow a Queen.

Again, I suck at fight scenes!

Load Game… Start!

Chapter 11: A Wonderful Land (Part 3)

Sora and Aqua had their backs to each other, holding out their Keyblades as the Card Soldiers surrounded them. The Queen had quickly recovered from Sora's attack, Donald and Goofy were trapped in their cages and Alice's cage was up in the air. "So, want do we do now?" Sora asked, looking around frantically, making sure a Card Soldier won't catch them off guard. Aqua looked around and quickly analyzed the situation. The tower that held Alice's cage up was their top priority, but with their friends trapped it would be difficult to both fend off the Card Soldiers while getting Alice down even with the two of them.

"We free Donald and Goofy first." Aqua answered, looking at the cages. "We be able to fend them off all on our own."

"Alright. I'll take care of the cages, you keep the guards off me." Sora said.

"Sora, be careful." Kairi said in a worried tone. Sora only grinned.

"Well!? What are you idiots waiting for!?" The Queen yelled out. "Seize them at once! OFF! WITH! THEIR! HEADS!" The Card Soldiers panicked before attempting to pile onto the Keyblade Wielders, but were blown back as Aqua quickly casted Reflect around them.

"Sora!" Aqua called out before quickly freezing a guard. Sora didn't waste any time and made his way to Goofy's cage first.

"Stop that boy! He's going to re-" Sora didn't even think and hit the Queen with Fire, causing her to fall over and reveal her ugly pantaloons. Everyone in the room couldn't help but laugh at the Queen of Hearts' misfortune, before a few of them got interrupted by Aqua bashing them in the head, stealing two halberds and proceeding to swing them around wildly, knocking out Card Soldiers left and right all while giggling at the Queen. Meanwhile, Sora managed to get to Goofy's cage and quickly used his Keyblade to unlock his cage before knocking away a guard.

"Thanks Sora!" Goofy said before jumping down. "Now, where's my shiel-" He was then whacked in the head by his shield. Sora turned to see where Goofy's shield came from, only to see a white blur hiding away. "I'll go help Aqua, you go get Donald!" Goofy said before charging into the fray, knocking over Card Soldiers like they were bowling pins.

"Thanks for the help Goofy!" Aqua called out before throwing the halberds away and blocking a swing from the side, countering with a strike to the head.

"That tower's the thing that's holding up Alice, right?" Goofy asked as he threw his shield, hitting several enemies at a time. Aqua nodded before setting an unfortunate card on fire. "Then let me handle these guys while you get Alice down!"

"Thank you Goofy!" Aqua replied before Goofy quickly cleared a path for Aqua to the tower. Aqua quickly made her way there and tried to turn the crank, but it seemed to be stuck.

"Come on…" Aqua growled as she jammed Rainfell into the tower to see if she could loosen the thing. After figuring out that the chain was jammed somewhere in the tower's inner workings, she pulled out her Keyblade along with one of the cranks. She then realized that the Crank Tower was actually made of cheap plaster or Styrofoam.

Aqua didn't ask any questions as she proceeded to tear it down.

"Donald!" Sora said as he quickly aimed his Keyblade at the duck's cage and unlocked it. Donald quickly jumped down and was caught by Sora. "Sorry for getting you guys arrested…"

"Well, make sure it doesn't happen again!" Donald grumbled before looking around for his staff. It seems Sora found it when someone threw it at his face and knocked him to the ground with the magical duck sitting on his chest as he caught his weapon. "Hey! My staff!"

"Yay…" Sora weakly cheered, Sora shakily holding up his arm with a thumbs-up. Donald quickly got off Sora and helped him up, casting Cure on him before they both nodded at each other and charged into battle.

"Thunder!" Donald cried out, casting lightning upon his enemies while Sora started helping Aqua with destroying the Crank Tower.

"Sora, watch out!" Aqua called out as she quickly casted Blizzard on several guards, freezing them in place. "Ugh! This is taking too long! We can't hold them off much longer!"

"Anyone have any ideas?" Sora said before knocking out a guard and setting another on fire, who comically ran around trying to put it out.

"Let's use our heads!" Goofy suggested as he used his shield to bash a Card Solider in the head. Sora and Aqua just looked at each other.

(13 seconds later)

"COMIN' THROUGH!" Goofy shouted out as his shield knocked everything and everyone out of his path as Sora used him as a battering ram while they were pushed forward by Aqua and Donald.

"AAAAAHHHH!" The group cried out as they charged, full steam ahead, into the Crank Tower, destroying it completely and dropping Alice's cage down to the ground. Unfortunately, Sora tripped and caused everyone to fall into a heap. Aqua was the first to recover and pushed Donald off of her. She made her way to Alice's cage and pulled back the curtain.

"Alice, are you-" Aqua started before stopping herself when she realized something.

Alice was gone.

"She's gone!" Aqua exclaimed in surprise.

"WHAT!?" The Queen shouted out angrily.

"She must've gotten kidnapped while we were fighting!" Donald guessed as all the boys stood up, brushing themselves off. The Queen quickly glared at her useless guards.

"You fools! Find the one who's behind this! I don't care how!" The Queen commanded. The Card Soldiers nervously nodded and frantically searched for the girl.

"How did she disappear…?" Kairi wondered to herself. "The cage was up in the air the entire time until you guys took it down."

"I'm wondering that too…" Sora replied before shaking his head. "We need to find Alice before guards do." The other nodded at that.

"Maybe she escaped on her own while we weren't lookin'." Goofy suggested but Aqua shook her head.

"The cage was locked tight." Aqua pointed out. "Unless she had help, I doubt she left on her own."

"We should check the Lotus Forest. Maybe that cat from before might help us." Donald suggested. It wasn't a bad idea and they didn't have any other leads so they decided to head into the Lotus Forest. Déjà vu kicked in as they entered the forest, the Cheshire Cat appearing atop a lily pad. "Have you seen Alice?"

"Alice, no. Shadow, yes!" The Cat answered.

"So the Heartless might be involved in Alice's disappearance…" Aqua muttered.

"Maybe. Maybe not. There are too many shadows in the darkness after all." The Cat said, appearing on Aqua's shoulder.

"Gah!" Aqua called out, surprised by the Cat's voice as he returned to his original position.

"Well, where did they go?" Goofy asked.

"This way? That way? Does it matter? Left, right, up, down! All mixed up thanks to the shadows! Step deeper into the forest to the deserted garden. You might find shadows in the upside-down room!" The Cheshire Cat said before leaving the group to let them think about his words.

"Upside-Down Room? Deserted Garden?" Donald muttered to himself. "I don't remember seeing any of that."

"Ugh… every time we speak with him, my brain hurts…" Sora groaned.

"Well, he said to walk deeper into the forest. Maybe we missed an area while we were searching for clues." Aqua said. They all agreed with that and started walking. After fighting more than a few Heartless, they stumbled across a large boulder covering a hole in the wall. Aqua and Sora quickly pushed it away and the group went through the hole, only to find themselves at a tea party.

"Maybe this place is what the cat meant by Deserted Garden…" Goofy guessed as he looked at the picture of a panicked man with a large hat and an equally as panicked hare. "I think I recognize one of them from Traverse Town…"

"Well, there's nothing here apart from stale crumpets and cold tea." Donald noted before her spotted a Shadow Heartless in the ground and heading towards a door of, what seems to be, a cottage. "Hey! Get back here!"

"Huh?" Sora said before he saw the Shadow go under the door. "Alright." Sora muttered as the group proceeded to follow the Shadow. Suddenly they found themselves at the Bizarre Room. Except they were on the ceiling.

They suddenly realized the true meaning behind the Bizarre Room's name.

"This is so weird…" Sora said as they walked into the room. "I wonder if all the worlds are like this…"

"Not all worlds are like this, but they do offer different experiences." Aqua said before giggling. "Like Disney Town, that was really fun! Oh, there was also the Mirage Arena. I wonder what happened to that after all this time…" Before Aqua could lose herself in the past, the Cheshire Cat once again appeared, this time on the tables with candles on them.

"It's too dim. Make it brighter." He said before leaving.

"Well, at least it isn't cryptic…" Donald said before he, Sora and Aqua jumped up and used fire on the candle. They noticed that there was more light in the room, but it also emphasized the shadows in the room.

"That should be enough, right?" Sora said.

"What next?" Donald asked before the Cheshire Cat appeared once again.

"One more lamp that you need to light." He said before disappearing. Others just sighed and lit the other candle without any hesitation. And once again, the Cheshire Cat appeared to give his message. "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."

"Huh? The Doorknob?" Sora said. "Does he mean that sleepy doorknob from before?"

"Likely. Looks like the Heartless are going to attack him." Aqua said before noticing something. For some reason, Sora's hair looked a bit… spikier? No, it was... "Huh!?" Aqua exclaimed. They all suddenly felt the gravity shift, causing anything loose like their hair and clothes to point upwards.

"Uh oh…" Goofy managed to get out before gravity truly righted itself, causing them to fall off the ceiling.

"WHOA!" Sora yelled out as everyone screamed as they fell. Everyone thinking as quickly as they could, they quickly execute their landing strategies. Donald flapped his arms and slowed down his descent, Goofy used his shield as a sort of parachute and Sora & Aqua…

Well, they just held onto each other and prayed.

"AAAHHH!" The Keyblade Wielders screamed out as they braced themselves for a very painful experience, until they saw the bed they pushed suddenly popped out of the wall right underneath them at the last second. They bounced on the bed when they landed, causing them to let go of each other, and roughly landed on the floor.

"Ow…" Sora moaned, his face meeting floor. Kairi just winced at his pain.

"My back…" Aqua groaned in pain as she slowly stood up and cracked her spine back into place. Suddenly, both Sora and Aqua had a warm feeling overcome them; indicating Donald just used Cure on them. As Donald quickly used an Ether potion to restore his Magic, the Cheshire Cat appeared to inform them.

"You'll have a better view from higher up." The Cat said. Sora and Aqua just cursed the cat under their breath and started making their way to the table.

"The shadows should be here soon." The Cheshire Car informed the group when they got up onto the table. "Are you prepared for the worst? If not, too bad!" After that, he disappeared.

"Hey, wait, what does this-" Sora started before stopping himself as something fell from the ceiling, before flipping over them and landing on the other side of the table.

It was a bizarre Heartless with spindly legs resembling scissor jacks, arms that appear and sound like they're made of paper, and a head that is made of several segments balanced on top of each other. Each of these segments sports its own face—though all of the faces have the same glowing yellow eyes and jagged mouths—and they alternate in color from red to black. Its arms are black and it juggles clubs with zig-zagging, purple and lavender stripes on them. It wears black armor with large, red shoulder pads, a black codpiece, and has a very thin and small red body. The upper halves of its legs are red, while their lower halves are black. Its feet are black, flat, and curl at the tips. Much of its upper body and head sport gold highlights.

"That cat is really starting to annoy me." Donald grumbled as he took out his staff.

"Gawrsh, you think this is the Heartless that kidnapped Alice?" Goofy asked as he got out his shield.

"I don't know, but we can't let it endanger the others here!" Aqua declared as she summoned Rainfell.

"Then let's give it our all!" Sora called out as he summoned the Kingdom Key as everyone settled into their battle stances. The large Heartless looked at them before roaring as loud as it could. Sora, Aqua, Donald and Goofy only looked at each other before focusing their gaze at the Heartless.

Alice could wait a few minutes.

-Sora, Aqua, Donald & Goofy vs. Trickmaster-

"Watch out!" Aqua yelled out as the Trickmaster used its batons to smash the table into the ground. Goofy and Donald dived off the table just in time while Sora and Aqua threw away their Keyblades and jumped, grabbing onto the Trickmaster's arms. Looking to get them off it, the Trickmaster started waving its arms around wildly. Sora and Aqua held on as tight as they could, with Sora losing his grip and getting tossed into the air.

"SORA!" Kairi cried out. Sora, thinking quickly, summoned his Keyblade back to his hand as he fell, before stabbing the large Heartless right in the Heartless symbol on the top of its head. It yelled in pain as it started flinging its head around, trying to get Sora off. Sora's Keyblade got loose and caused his to be flung in front of the large Heartless. Unfortunately for it, Sora used Blizzard and blasted it in the face (well, one of them), causing it immense pain. The Trickmaster put its arms one of its faces in reaction but had forgotten about Aqua who let go just in time to get the maximum momentum to stab it in another of its faces.

"Didn't like that, did you!?" Aqua shouted out before pulling out her Keyblade out of its face and launching off, landing back onto the ground.

"Nice one, Aqua!" Sora cheered before covering their ears as the large Heartless roared. "And I think we made it mad."

"Then let's keep it up!" Goofy called out as he pulled back his arm and let his shield fly.

"Alright! THUNDER!" Donald shouted out as he cast lightning upon the Heartless. The Trickmaster knocked away the shield and tanked the lightning before smashing its baton on the ground, creating a shockwave. They were knocked back by it but weren't as hurt as they expected. Still, they drank their Potions just in case. Then, they dashed up and started hacking away at the thing as hard and fast as they could. Sora and Goofy were using each other as stepping stones to get to the Trickmaster's face while Donald and Aqua were casting as many spells they could cast before being completely drained, knocking it out on occasion. Then, it went over to the stove and lit its batons on fire.

"That's not good!" Sora said before getting hit by one of the batons, slamming into a wall. When he recovered, he noticed he was on fire and tried to put it out, only to get blasted by a Blizzard spell courtesy of Donald. The Trickmaster became harder to fight from there, constantly having to dodge its attacks and not being able to get in attacks of their own.

Suddenly, the table that was smashed popped up, along with the Shrinking & Growing Potions. As the others jumped back and noticed this, they all gave each other a look before smirking. Sora and Aqua quickly made their way to the table while Donald and Goofy distracted the Jester-like Heartless. After helping Sora up, Aqua looked at the two Potions before nodding to herself. "Sora! Potions! Up!" Aqua shouted out as she jumped in the air. Sora didn't hesitate and quickly hit the Growing & Shrinking Potions up into the air. "Pick on someone your own size!" Aqua shouted out as the Potions hit her intended targets.

Aqua and Sora smirked when they saw Donald grew into a giant compared to them, with the Wizard laughing evilly as he grew while the Trickmaster shrank to their size.

"Or… maybe not." Sora said as Donald readied up his spells before they all charged at the now small Heartless. In actuality, it became a bit harder to actually fight it despite it being weaker. It was extremely flexible and dodged their attacks. Luckily, it couldn't dodge Donald's lightning and ice spells and stomps. Unfortunately, it could hit his allies by but Aqua's well-timed use of Reflect negated the issue.

Eventually, another set of Shrinking and Growing Potions appeared on the table. Silently deciding it would be better to fight it when it was bigger than all of them and to not endanger his allies, Donald used the Shrinking Potion on himself and the Growing Potion on the Heartless. Fortunately, the Heartless was extremely weak and one good hit would finish it off.

Sora and Aqua looked at each other before nodding and started charging at the large Heartless. The Trickmaster tried to defend itself by swinging around its batons. They dodged each swing before slashing at its hands, causing it to let go of them. Thinking quickly, they spammed Blizzard on one of the surprisingly light batons before they lifted it up and raised it over their heads.

"Take this!" Sora shouted out as they smashed the baton over the Heartless' head, destroying the baton. Then, they ran up and jumped.

"Good-bye!" Aqua called out before stabbing it and launching off it. The Trickmaster screamed in pain before freezing. It then collapsed, its large heart floating off to who knows where. After catching their breaths, Aqua noticed something on the ground where the Heartless fell. Aqua picked it up and studied it.

"Ifrit's Horn…" Aqua muttered to herself before throwing it over to Goofy. "This might help."

"Thanks!" Goofy said before the accessory on. Suddenly, they heard a snort.

"What a racket. How's a doorknob to get any sleep?" The Doorknob said sleepily before yawning. Before any of them could say anything, they saw something glowing in the Doorknob's mouth.

"Hm? What the-" Sora and Aqua said before their Keyblades started to glow. Suddenly, their Keyblades pointed at the Doorknob's mouth as a beam of light emitted from them and into the Keyhole. With a satisfying click, the Keyhole disappeared.

"What was that?" Donald asked.

"You hear that? Sounded like something closed." Sora replied. "Aqua, do you have any idea why?"

"What was… could it be…" Aqua mumbled before shaking her head. "I'm not sure… but it seems important at least…"

"Well, whatever that was, it doesn't matter right now. Alice is still missing." Sora reminded everyone. Suddenly, the Doorknob coughed in his sleep and spat out two things. "Huh?" Sora said before he and Aqua picked the items off the floor.

"Sora… that's gross." Kairi said. "Wash your hands after on the ship."

"Thanks mum…" Sora said as he rolled his eyes before studying the object. "What is this? Looks like it's made out of the same stuff the Gummi Ship is made of."

"This gummi ain't like the others, though." Goofy informed the group. "No, sir."

"Okay, I'll hold on to it." Donald said. Sora didn't really argue and gave the mysterious Gummi Block to Donald. Meanwhile, Aqua was studying the chain she picked up. It was silver with the Ace of Hearts as the token.

"Could this be…" Aqua muttered to herself before smirking. She detached the Keychain on her Keyblade and put the new Keychain on. Her Keyblade started to glow, which caught the attention of the others. Then, in a flash of light and playing card symbols, her Keyblade's new form was shown to everyone.

The blade and handle of the Keyblade were made up of a single, purple shaft with a pink highlight. The cross guard was made of two clubs facing each other, with a yellow and orange-brown checkered pattern, and the pommel is a diamond with a slightly darker version of the same pattern. The rest of the guard is a purple and red horseshoe shape with curled ends. The blade is tipped with a large, orange heart with a thin, red and yellow border. The teeth of the Keyblade are comprised of a large, red spade with an angled base.

"Lady Luck." Aqua said as she twirled her new Keyblade around.

"Whoa! That's so cool!" Sora exclaimed in surprise awe. "How did you do that?" Aqua giggled a little at Sora's expression.

"Remember on the island, how I said that Keyblades can become more powerful with things called Keychains?" Aqua started to explain. Sora nodded. "This is what I was talking about. The worlds usually gift us Keyblade Wielders their power after doing something beneficial for it in the form of Keychains, often formed from our memories. Though, there are ways to synthesize Keychains if you have the right materials and a good Moogle. There's even a myth that Keyblades were originally forged by Moogles but it isn't that that important right now." Aqua said before putting away Lady Luck. "Now, let's go find Alice."

"Splendid. You're quite the heroes if the world is willing to give gifts." The Cheshire Cat said, appearing out of nowhere. "If you're looking for Alice, she's not here. She's gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness."

"You mean… she's not in this world anymore!?" Aqua exclaimed before cursing. "If I wasn't so weak…"

"No…" Sora said sadly.

"But fret no more. I trust you will retrieve our princess." The Cat said. "But why trust me?" He said before disappearing.

"…I really hate that cat." Sora muttered as the Keyblade Wielders slumped down.

"Let's go back to our Gummi Ship. We might find her in another world." Donald suggested, trying to comfort the two.

"We've gotta go to a safe area to return to our ship." Goofy said. "There's Heartless here, so let's go back to where we landed." The Keyblade Wielders just nodded.

"Alice… Riku… Kairi…" Sora muttered as they started making their way back. He looked at his Keyblade before tightening his grip on it. "Don't worry… we'll find you. I promise."

"Thanks Sora…" Kairi spoke up. With the image of Kairi smiling in his head, he could only smile. Meanwhile, Aqua was thinking.

'Ven… Terra… now Alice…' Aqua thought before sighing sadly. "Looks like it's going to be awhile before everyone is happy…"

"We have plenty of time." Sora said, trying to cheer Aqua up. Aqua only smiled sadly.

"Yeah… time."

(Sora's Mind)

"I wonder if there's a way out…" Kairi muttered to herself as she looked around. Sora was sleeping after such a tough day and she didn't want to disturb his dreams to alleviate her boredom, so she decided to do some exploring. She was being very careful, since this was Sora's heart and she really didn't want to affect anything or see anything she wasn't meant to see. As she travelled deeper into his heart, she noticed that it was starting to feel less like Sora and more like… someone else.

'Is there… someone else here…?' Kairi thought. Despite her mind saying otherwise, she travelled deeper in Sora's heart, trying to find whoever was in here with her. Eventually, she arrived at another station, but unlike the other stations, it didn't depict Sora. It was someone she didn't recognize. Actually, part of the station was gone but she looked closely and saw that it was slowly repairing itself. "Hello? Is anyone there?" Kairi called out. She sighed when she heard nothing. She was going to walk away when she jumped in surprise when she heard someone speak right behind her. She turned around and saw someone she shouldn't have met yet.

"Who… are you?"

Save Game… Quit!

Ugh… I really need help with fight scenes. Maybe someone who can write them for me… Anyway, that's it for now! See ya all whenever!

UknownHero signing off, my friends!