Disclaimer: You know the drill.

Chapter 7:

El strained to keep her cool, knowing that Alice's dilemma was more important than hers at the moment; there would be time later to further interrogate the cat.

"Have you seen Alice?" Sora blurted out, wide-eyed.

"Alice, no. Shadows, yes!"

Dayna twitched. Must he always be so cryptic? "Where did they go?" She inquired patiently.

"This way? That way? Does it matter?"

"Yes, actually, it does." El lost it; the Cheshire Cat really knew how to push her buttons.

He grinned, satisfied at his effect. "Step deeper into the forest to the deserted garden. You might find shadows in the upside-down room!" With a wink, the cat disappeared again.

"Thanks for the tip!" Goofy said genuinely, waving to the empty air. The other four eyed him, but ultimately left his behavior alone.

"Okay, let's get go-" Donald got cut off by the arrival of the Heartless. "Aw, phooey."

An enormous Heartless appeared in front of them, causing Dayna to take a couple of steps back. "What is that thing?"

El internally groaned. "It's a Large Body. Attack it from the back – its front is heavily guarded." It barreled towards the group and El shoved Dayna and Goofy out of the way. She barely managed to dodge it, herself. "It moves fast for something of its size." El noticed out of the corner of her eye that the Large Body was now throwing itself at Sora and Donald. Luckily, Sora threw himself into a dodge roll and neatly came back up to his feet behind it. He looked surprised at his own grace.

"Sora! Get its back!"

The boy instantly did as she said, whacking away until the Heartless swung a fist at him. Sora was knocked to the ground a few feet away, gasping for breath, and the Large Body decided to take advantage of his weakened state. It stomped over to where he lay.

"H-hey! Fatty!" Dayna burst out. The Heartless turned to face her and was extinguished with her fire spell. She lowered her keyblade triumphantly and then sagged when several more Heartless appeared around Sora, who was attempting to get back to his feet. Dayna dashed over to them, Dreams Equinox at the ready. "Hey, leave him alone!"

The other three were caught up in battles of their own. A myriad of Soldiers danced around their prey with gleams in their eyes. Donald analyzed the situation; the group was separated, with two of the arguably less-experienced fighters weakened, isolated, and surrounded – they had to get out of there.

"Retreat to the back of the forest!" The duck screeched to everyone's surprise. "Go on, move!"

El paused but reluctantly followed his orders. She bashed a couple of Soldiers out of the way and ran towards Dayna, who was in the process of helping Sora get to his feet. Seeing that the boy was still struggling, El swooped over and picked him up.

"E-El!" The boy's cheeks were red as he squirmed in her arms.

"Save it, key boy, and stop making this harder than it needs to be. Don't think I like this any more than you do."

Sora shut up after that, and finally the group reached a doorway that hadn't been there before.

"What the heck?" Dayna wheezed, skidding to a stop. Donald pushed her forward to keep moving.

"Don't just stand there!"

"Sorry!" She squeaked, and then let out another squeal in pain as she rammed into a small wooden gate. Dayna quickly fumbled around for a lock and slammed it open for the rest of the group to come through.

Sora and El were the last to enter and El unceremoniously dumped the boy into a chair. None of them cared enough to question the tea party setup they had arrived at, but all of them gratefully collapsed into different chairs.

A few things happened when they did: firstly, all of them were healed of their injuries and weariness. Secondly, munny rained down on them. Thirdly, an elixir appeared on the table. Fourthly, green healing orbs were scattered around the room, and fifthly, the table dematerialized and three Soldiers took its place.

However, reenergized as they were, the five made quick work of the enemies. Seconds later, the table and chairs reappeared.

"That's it – nobody sit down!" Donald snapped. "Let's just keep going through that door."

Too fed-up to question him, the motley crew stumbled through the doorway. Once they saw where they were, however, a synchronized moan rang out from the group.

"You have got to be kidding me." Sora spoke for them all.

"'Fraid not." Freaking Cheshire Cat. "They're hiding somewhere. And the momeraths outgrabe."

"Er, is that code for something?"

Dayna was ignored. "Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the light."

The cat was gone again, leaving the group to figure things out on their own.

"Okay, so a lamp?" Sora guessed. "But… aren't those…"

"On the ceiling?" El finished, looking up. "Good thing we are too, then."

The rest of them followed her example and saw that the table was suspended from the floor... Or was it the ceiling?

"Gawrsh, I feel a bit woozy." Goofy wavered on his feet. "But I see them lamps over there." He pointed at two chandeliers.

"Good work, Goofy!" Donald cheered. "Let's go."

Of course, when they started to move, more Heartless appeared.

"Funny… It's like they know we're getting close to something." Sora noted, demolishing a Shadow. "Dayna, let's go turn on that lamp."

"'Kay." She followed him to one of the chandeliers and managed to pull herself up to it with Sora's help. Once there, the two hesitated, not knowing how to light the lamp. There wasn't a switch, nor was there a wick for them to set on fire.

"Er… Try tapping it with your keyblade." Dayna suggested. Sora did as she said, and a smile spread across his face when the room became a little bit brighter. All the Heartless in the room dissipated into nothing.

"It's too dim. Make it brighter." The Cheshire Cat was curled up around the second lamp. "There's one more lamp that you need to light."

Sora gestured at Dayna to go over to the next chandelier, but El was already beside it. She sent the cat a glare but tapped the lamp nevertheless.

Nothing happened.

She tapped it again impatiently. Still nothing.

"What the hell?" El confusedly looked at Dreams Dusk but quickly pulled her mask back on.

"Twilight," The Cheshire Cat whispered in her ear as she stiffened. "is the third, oft forgotten, component of the worlds – the middle path between the two ends of the spectrum. There, you will find the answers you seek." He drew back from her frozen figure as Dayna clambered onto the lamp.

"Everything okay?" She questioned ignorantly.

"Just light the lamp."

So, Dayna did as El said. She seemed to have no issue with it, which canceled out any ideas that only the Kingdom Key could use 'the power of light' or whatever that crap was.

"All the lights are on. You'll see the shadows soon." The Cat stated smugly. "They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else. The shadows might go after that doorknob, too."

Again, the Cheshire Cat was gone.

The motley crew split up and scoured the ceiling of the bizarre room to ensure that the so-called shadows weren't there.

"No dice." Dayna said as the five reconvened. "How do we get out of here?"

"I saw a latch when we were looking about, a-hyuck." Goofy led the way to a large wood panel and unlocked the latch. Instantly, the panel swung inward.

"If I had a munny for every time I thought about how much I hated this world, I would be the richest girl in Traverse Town." El griped as they came out on top of a hedge in the courtroom. She threw up her arms. "Great, how the hell are we supposed to get down?"

El had three modes: cool and calculating, pissed-off and frustrated, and, on the rare occasion, amused. At that moment in time, however, she was in her second manner.

"We jump." Goofy smiled naively before clutching his nose and leaping off the edge. He waved up at them happily from the ground. "Come on, fellas!"

Dayna closed her eyes and followed his example. Like a good friend, he caught her amidst her muttered apologies. Donald came down next, and then it was just Sora and El.

God, El hated heights, she really did. With a final breath, she stepped off the edge.

Sora came after her, treating the whole thing as if it was no big deal. With everyone safely landed, they proceeded back into the bizarre room.

As soon as they entered, they spotted the Cat once more.

"You'll get a better view from up here." He waved his tail at them invitingly. By that point, all five of them were exasperated, but had no choice but to do as he said if they wanted to find the shadows.

Once they had gotten up on the table, the Cheshire Cat stretched and got up on his back legs. "The shadows should be here soon." He cheered. "Are you prepared for the worst? If not, too bad!" He gestured at the top of the room, and with a feeling of dread, the group saw the shadow come catapulting down at them.

Dayna let out a scream as the thing swiped at her nose with a purple club before it landed on the floor. Its arms were long enough to span the width of half the room, and its legs were about the same length. Its torso and head were the smallest parts of its body, and seemed to be the most unstable.

"El, do you know what this thing is?" Donald quacked, procuring his staff in preparation.

She shook her head steadily. "I've never seen it before."

It shot out a burst of fire at them and the quintet scrambled to get out of the way.

"Okay, so it uses fire magic." Donald thought quickly. "Dayna, shoot ice magic at its head. Goofy, you throw your shield at its torso."

Without saying, Sora and El knew to get up close and personal with the Heartless. El's fear of heights forgotten in the importance of the situation, she swiped Dreams Dusk at the enemy as Sora jumped at it. The two battered away at the Heartless, but El was thrown off by one of the clubs. She held in a hiss of pain at the aches that emerged.

"Heal!" Donald cast from the table, and El felt her bruised body healing.

"Thanks, duck boy."

Donald snorted but continued shooting ice spells at the Heartless.

After a few minutes of their barrage, it crumpled to the floor.

"Keep going!" Goofy shouted, even as everyone paused. "It's not done yet!"

Following his advice, the motley crew fought more. And more. However, to their dismay, the enemy got to its feet again after all of their efforts.

This cycle repeated over two more times until the Heartless could get up no more. It fell back onto the ground with a thud, and purple flames overtook its body. An enormous pink heart floated through the room, just like with the Guard Armor, and they all watched it as it disappeared from view. A huge sense of relief claimed all of them, and to celebrate, Donald tossed an elixir for them all to share. Instantly, all of their power and health was restored.

"What a racket. How's a doorknob to get any sleep?"

El, still embittered from their stressful day in Wonderland, spat out a response. "Oh, let me go ask my other talking doorknob friends; I'm sure they'll know."

The doorknob ignored her and let out a huge yawn, revealing what appeared to be a keyhole. Without permission, both Sora's and Dayna's keyblades materialized in their hands and shot out jets of light at the doorknobs mouth. A loud click insinuated that something had just been locked.

"What was that?" Donald squawked. "Sora? Dayna?"

"It sounded like something closed…" Sora muttered, looking at his keyblade confusedly.

But, the doorknob was not done; it spat out a gummi block onto the floor. Goofy went over to the multi-colored object and picked it up excitedly.

"This gummi ain't like the others. No, sir."

Donald snatched it out of his hands. "I'll hold onto it for now."

Goofy pouted, but got over it when the Cheshire Cat arrived on the scene.

"Splendid. You're quite the heroes, but if you're looking for Alice, she's not here."

"Then where is she?" Sora demanded, fed up with his crap.

"She's gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness." He exclaimed gleefully. "Ta-ta, my friends!"

With that, he left their presence for the last time.

"No…" Sora groaned; that was another friend he had lost.

Donald patted him on the back comfortingly. "Let's go back to our gummi ship. We might find her in another world."

"Yeah, and Riku, Kairi, my dad, the King, and Mai, too!" Dayna added.

"And Lea." El said thoughtlessly. And Ven, and Isa.

"Oh, yeah!" Sora's attitude did a complete 180. "You never got to interrogate that cat about him!"

She shrugged. "It's okay. I got a small tidbit from him that may prove to be helpful in the future."

Donald and Goofy exchanged glances. "If you say so."

She stared them down. "I do."

"Okay, let's get off this world!" Dayna clapped her hands together. "So El can make us all dinner!"

As everyone else brightened, El drooped. Crap, she had forgotten.

"How do we get back to the ship?"

Donald stroked his beak. "Normally, we land directly on the world and then shield the ship, but in this case, I think we call Chip and Dale to beam us up. Give me one second."

"One." El and Dayna chirped. El gave the other girl a noogie for copying her.

"Not helping, guys." Sora chuckled at their antics and then joked, "Are we sure we don't want to say goodbye to our friend, the queen?"

El blanched, feeling bile rise up in her throat. "Completely, 100 percent sure."

"All right," Donald interrupted, "we should be back in – "

The bizarre room disappeared and the walls of the gummi ship control room replaced it.

"Now." Donald finished. "Thank you, Chip and Dale."

"No problem!" The two chipmunks chorused before saluting and going off screen.

Sora collapsed into one of the three chairs in the room, Dayna following suit. Despite feeling a wave of exhaustion overtake her, El remained on her feet stubbornly.

"So, where to next, and how long will it take us to get there?" El leaned against the doorway, giving in to her exhaustion slightly.

Donald waddled over to the main screen and pushed a few buttons. He leaned closer to the display, squinting, and then jabbed at a world. "Olympus Coliseum." He sounded out carefully. "And the travel time is about four hours."

"More importantly," El spoke up again, "who's turn is it to drive the ship?"

Goofy scratched his head. "Uh, actually the path back from Wonderland is cleared up already. After two hours, though, how about Day-ah-nah and I give it a shot?"

El nodded. "So I'll start making dinner now, we'll eat, and then after we arrive at Olympus Coliseum, we'll stop for the night?"

"Sounds good to me." Sora stretched and reluctantly got off the chair. "Today's been a long day."

"No kidding." Dayna agreed, reflecting on the two major battles with the Heartless. It was amazing how much adrenaline drove their bodies; none of them had slept (albeit a couple of two hour naps) for about two days. Instantly, her limbs felt more wearied than before. "El, do you need help with dinner?"

"I'm fine, kid. You go practice your magic tricks with duck boy."

Donald jerked at being addressed, having begun to doze off in the third chair. "Wack! I don't remember agreeing to that!"

"Please, Donald? You promised!" Dayna was instantly reenergized. "Please."

"… Okay." He gave in to her puppy eyes. "Sora, you're coming too."

The boy sagged. "All right." Despite the fact that he was very much excited to get better at magic, his body was very much excited to fall into bed and never get up again.

As the group prepared to split up, Donald turned to face Goofy. "And what are you going to do, Goofy?"

"Gawrsh, I guess I'll just go sit in our room." He waved to everyone cheerfully and then walked out the door. Moments later, they heard a door shut, followed by the sound of bedsprings creaking.

"There's got to be something more productive for him to do." El muttered, shaking her head. "Anyways, I'm off to the kitchen. Don't bother me unless you're having a heart attack or something equally as drastic." She ducked out of the room but then shot her head back in seconds later. "PMS from any of you does not count as drastic."

Dayna giggled while Sora and Donald fumed. "Hey!"

"No, key boy, that's not what we're eating for dinner tonight. Hay is for horses." El said patronizingly. "I'm going to make something much better than that."

Sora opened and closed his mouth, searching for a comeback. "W-whatever." He finally spluttered. "Let's go, guys."

Donald led them to a second hallway while a satisfied El continued down the first towards the kitchen. Once there, she found a wide, flat pan and her needed ingredients and then placed them on the counter. Looking at the spread in front of her, a bittersweet smile tugged at her lips as she remembered preparing the same meal for very different people in a very different world. She turned the stove on and held a spatula tightly in her hand.

"My crepes are the best in Radiant Garden, after all." El mused, pouring the mixture on the pan. "At least, that's what some people say."

The Next Day…

Unsurprisingly, El's crepes had been a hit, and the quintet had melted into their beds with full bellies once they had touched down in Olympus Coliseum. Dayna felt more confident in both her magic and shooting skills and had gotten plenty of practice gunning down Heartless ships on their way to the new world. Evidently, she had a knack for long-distance fighting.

Sora, on the other hand, had floundered a bit with the magic part but had excelled with the combat. Donald had grudgingly complimented him on his skills after he had gotten knocked on his tail feathers.

El, too, had decided that she preferred brute force to what she called "magic tricks." Donald, understandably, seethed about her wording, but was soothed when he took a bite of her meal. Upon doing so, he immediately declared that El was the official chef of the gummi ship. El protested, demanding that, "this ship runs on democracy, not dictatorship, duck boy," which ended up in a vote. Four out of five votes led to her doom. She went off to bed in a silent, simmering anger, leaving all of the dishes behind on the table. Donald and Sora reluctantly cleaned up the remains of their dinner as Goofy and Dayna went off to lead the ship on its course.

And now, it was dawn. El watched as the morning light filtered through the window and then swung her feet off the side of the bed. She tied her shoes on and shrugged on her clean military jacket. Last night, she had been able to find a laundry machine and now all the stains had been removed.

"Wow." Dayna had said in astonishment upon entering their room last night. "Everything smells so much better in here."

El had given her some serious shade but had let it slide. Now, it was payback time.

She yanked the blinds open to let in all of the suns glorious rays and smirked vindictively when the other girl let out a squeal.

"Time to get up, pony."

The older girl walked out the door after she saw that Dayna had crawled out of bed; it seemed that Dayna was definitely not a morning person.

She proceeded into the kitchen, where she found the boys seated. Goofy and Donald seemed pretty awake, with their cups of coffee in hand, whereas Sora was nodding off on the table. All three looked up at her expectantly when she stopped in the doorway.

"What's for breakfast?" Donald asked excitedly.

El snatched a banana from the fruit bowl and a granola bar from the cupboard. "I only cook dinner. You're on your own for breakfast and lunch."

Donald groaned, but relented. He followed her example and grabbed four more sets of her meal. He passed them out to the boys and then jabbed the last set at Dayna when she stumbled into the kitchen. She blinked at the banana sleepily before realizing that she was supposed to pick it up.

Dayna sat down in a daze, her thick ponytail sweeping over her face. El amusedly leaned over and moved the strands out of her eyes.

"Thanks." Dayna yawned.

"Wow, you are really out of it in the mornings." Sora noted, beginning to wake up after his meal.

She chewed, ignoring his comment, and then swallowed. Almost instantly, the sleep flickered out of her eyes. She gobbled down the rest of her food rapidly and then belched quietly. Dayna pinked at everyone's stares.

"F-food wakes me up." She stuttered, getting up from the table abruptly in her haste to change the subject. "Are we ready?"

Goofy followed suit. "Let's go, fellas."

"'Kay."

The group traipsed out the trapdoor amidst Chip and Dale's cheery goodbyes and squinted in the bright sunlight. Behind them, the door clicked shut and the ship shimmered into nothing. The hot sun beat down on them and the bright blue sky made El's eyes ache.

"This feels strangely familiar." El scanned the wide courtyard appraisingly. "What's next, duck boy?"

He bristled, then relaxed. "Now, we scout out the area. Starting with that door." He pointed at a doorway bordered by pillars.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sora bounced in place, excited at the prospect of a normal world; Wonderland had taken a toll on all of them. "Let's go!"

Anyone else get sad when El made crepes? More importantly, is anyone else glad to be out of Wonderland? Because same.

Hope you liked!

- SoraMaiDay