Disclaimer: I do not own any Kingdom Hearts characters nor Disney and Final Fantasy. But i do own my OC

A/N: Chapter 23 is out. I hope all of you have a fun time reading

The door to Begining

Chapter 23: A heart of ice

"Cards! Seize them at once!"

The ace of spades ran to the cage and grabbed hold of a wheel that was hidden behind it. Then, getting a good grip on it, the card spun the wheel as quickly as he could. A red curtain fell over the cage, and the cage shot up on a rail to the top of some kind of tower that stood next to the Judge's bench. The queen looked up at the cage with a proud nod, and then turned back to ordering the other cards.

"If they touch the tower," she shrieked, pointing her fan at them, "you lose your heads!"

The card soldiers immediately leapt forward, landing in a circle surrounding Donald and Goofy. The two exchanged glances before they pulled out their weapons. Several cards moved to surround the judge's bench, holding their weapons and glaring up at Sora. Others ran up the spiral staircase so that they could jump onto the Judge's bench. Sora looked first at the queen, then at the soldiers, and then back at his friends. He shifted his weight onto one leg, ready to jump down, willing the Keyblade into his hands.

"Hang on, guys!"

Goofy looked up at Sora, an almost serious expression on his face. "Sora, no!"

The solemnity in Goofy's voice surprised both Sora and Donald. Sora froze in place, lowering his Keyblade slightly. "Goofy…"

"Go get Alice!" he yelled, before taking his shield with both hands and barreling into the army of card soldiers.

Sora took a small step backward, slightly surprised. The cards began to leap from the staircase in an attempt to get onto the bench, some of them failing. It didn't take long for them to figure out how to make a bridge across out of themselves. Sora looked first at the soldiers and then nodded at Goofy (even though Goofy probably couldn't see it). Withdrawing the Keyblade, Sora ran across the Judge's bench toward Alice's cage. The queen rose from her seat as Sora dashed past her.

"How dare you!" she shrieked. "What do you think you're doing?"

Paying her no mind, Sora leapt from the Judge's bench onto Alice's cage, grabbing onto the sides and clutching it for dear life. The cards yelled angrily from the top of the Judge's bench, their cries intermingled with the outraged screams of the queen herself. Sora looked down at the ground and swallowed hard. This was a lot higher than he had thought.

As the cards tried to hook onto Sora's clothes with their spears, Sora forced his weight onto the cage, pushing down so that the cage would be forced to fall back to the ground. The cage rattled. He pushed again and again, the cage jolting violently each time, the hook from which the cage hung weakening with every push. Sora could hear the enthusiastic cheering of Donald and Goofy from below, but the sounds of the queen howling in outrage easily drowned them out. It was difficult to simply ignore a voice that loud, especially when it rang almost directly into one's ear. Even so, Sora didn't give up. He continued pushing down on the cage until the beak of the bird shaped hook snapped, and the cage, together with Sora, slid back to the floor from the top of the tower.

The cage hit the ground with such force that Sora tumbled from it. He shook his head from side to side, half expecting to be surrounded by the card soldiers. Yet to his surprise, it was as though everything had screeched to a halt when the cage crashed to the floor. All the cards were looking at the cage now, as though frozen. Even the queen leaned over the edge of the Judge's bench, straining to see. Sora jumped to his feet and ran at the cage, grabbing the curtain and throwing it back.

Everyone's eyes went wide as the red curtain drew back to reveal… nothing. Sora's mouth went slightly dry. Donald and Goofy moved toward Sora and stood slightly behind him, gaping at the now empty cage. The trio exchanged shocked glances. When did that happen? The cards looked up at the queen as the queen's face started to turn beet red.

"You fools!" she shrieked, banging her fists on the bench and shaking her fan angrily at the card soldiers. "Find the one who's behind this! I don't care how!"

The cards saluted the queen before running about the courtroom in circles. After a moment of mass panic, the cards exited the courtroom. The queen then turned to look at Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

"This includes you three as well!" she hissed, waving her fan angrily. "Quit dawdling! Find Alice, or it's off with all of your heads!"

Sora jumped slightly as though he had been poked in the butt by something sharp and began to run for the Lotus Forest, with Donald and Goofy trailing hurriedly behind him.

"Oh no, she's just disappeared." Rika shouted worriedly. The young girl was about to jump down from the bushes into the court room but C held her back. She grabbed the girl hand rather firmly as she prevented her from meddling in

"Good ridden then. That good for nothing girl annoyed me for her stupidity."

"C, you know as well as I do that this isn't normal!" Rika struggled to escape her grip.

"So there is a dark force that is behind this trial. A force that is so strong that it slips by right before us without anyone noticing it. How exciting." The older woman crossed her arms, showing that she couldn't have care less about the matter. Of course, she wouldn't. C hated that Alice girl because she was so curious over everything. To her, this world was just another plain world like the last. What was so special of it to be curious about? After all, curiosity normally lead another person into trouble, something that the woman found annoying nonetheless. So why curious when it's something that got us into troubles?

"C, please! Don't tell me this place has already gotten into you already?" Rika said with a frown. It was already bad enough that C didn't bother to give a single care toward that poor innocent girl, but being mockful about the matter was something beyond her expectation. What was C's problem?!

"Oh come now, you know as well as I do that the witch has already begun her little game."

"Then, that is terrible. We have to do something! The witch must have wanted her for her heart. But that heart only pure because it's a childish heart. So what should we do?!"

"How about …" She paused, acting as if she really tried to put some thoughts into the matter. "Nothing?"

"That isn't something."

"It is to me."

"C!"

"Fighting her won't bring them back. So why bother?" The older woman shrugged, showing that she couldn't care any less about the conversation. No, she was faking it again. There was just no way she would simply give up everything just like that. True, C didn't seem any slight interest with whatever Maleficent was doing but that doesn't mean she could just let the witch does whatever she want. Everything could even up in ruins if they just sit back and ignore the problem.

"It's more of fighting to take back what they were trying to protect back then." Rika replied, choosing her words carefully. It had always been that way. The young girl knew that she was treading dangerous water whenever she opened her mouth to oppose anything, but that didn't stop her from saying anything in return.

"It won't change anything. They're gone."

"Well, Sora's still here!."

"Let's not bring that up." C looked away. It would seem like Rika managed to touch her nerve spot to say the least. So she did care for Sora, despite how much she tried to fake it. As if, the girl hadn't known better than that.

"Not until you give me the reason why." She frowned. "Well, I'm going to see if I can find out anything."

"Don't bother." Much like before, C shrugged the thoughts aside, yet stopped as soon as she realized she was alone on top of the bush.

"Rika? Rika?!" Great, that girl ran off on her own again.

"Isn't this just great?!" She let out an annoyed huff.

"We're goin' already!" Sora shouted over his shoulder. "Geez!"

"That queen lady's totally lost it," Sora muttered, as the trio trudged deeper into the Lotus Forest. He pushed aside a tuft of tall grass and stepped over it, then held it back for Donald and Goofy as they followed him loyally.

As Sora dropped the grass and moved so that he was instep with Donald and Goofy, he heard a familiar voice resounding in the air. It came softly at first, humming a semi-haunting tune which gradually turned into a round of soft, echoing chuckles. Suddenly, sets of paw prints began to appear on the ground as though something invisible was walking around them, circling first Donald and Goofy, then Sora. The paw prints then headed toward a nearby tree. Sora narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"The Cheshire Cat."

As if on cue, the Cheshire Cat appeared in the branches of a tree a few feet in front of Sora, his moon shaped smile glowing from out of the darkness of the forest. He was hanging upside down from one of the branches with his hind legs crossed as though he were sitting cross legged on the floor.

"Loooose something?" he asked casually.

"Yeah," Goofy said with a slight chuckle, stepping forward. "Have you seen Alice?"

The Cheshire Cat blinked slowly, his smile stretching. "Alice, no," he said. "Shadow, yes!"

"Where did they go?"

The cat shrugged, curling upward so that he could seat himself properly on the tree branch. "This way? That way? Does it matter? Left, right, up, down! All mixed up thanks to the shadows!" His grin grew. "And besides: all ways here are the queen's ways." The cat pulled at the fur on his head in order to make himself look just like the Queen of Hearts, an imitation of the tightly bound bun on the top of her head.

Sora's spirits fell. "Just great," he grumbled.

"Step deeper into the forest," the cat continued, "to the deserted garden. You might find shadows in the upside down room!"

With that, the Cheshire Cat once again vanished.

"'The upside down room'?" Sora echoed, turning to look at Donald and Goofy.

They both shrugged. "Let's just keep going," Donald suggested.

And so they did. The trio trudged onward, deeper into the forest, mostly in silence. An urgency hung thickly in the air as they walked. All Sora could think about was helping out Alice. Where could she have gone? She couldn't have gotten far without anybody knowing. The only logical thing would be to assume that the Heartless actually kidnapped her. But what would they want with her? As far as they knew of the Heartless so far, all they ever seemed to be doing was attacking them.

"Hey, look there!"

Sora looked up as Goofy pointed to an open passage just ahead of them. It was where the foliage grew so thickly together that it formed a sort of tunnel. All the light that could possibly filter into the tunnel was blocked out so that beyond the opening nothing could be seen but the black of night. Where it led, none of them could possibly know for sure.

The trio exchanged glances before daring to enter the dark tunnel. They walked along slowly, silently, Sora trailing his fingers absentmindedly on the "walls". The darkness seemed endless until Sora bumped chest first into some sort of grass hedge wall. Somewhat surprised, Sora dug his fingers into the hedge as though he was making sure it was real. And then, gripping the hedge firmly in his hands, he began to tear the hedge apart to make some sort of passageway. That's when light exploded into their faces, illuminating the new place unexpectedly.

Their eyes went wide in wonder. "What in the…?"

"Cool! This is the best tea I have ever had." Rika said as she took a slip. "Also, weirdest." The girl leaned back her chair, enjoying the tea party in the hidden garden of the mad hatter and his bunny companion.

"Rika! We don't have time!" C hissed as her eyes shot daggers at the younger girl. The older woman crossed her arms and let out another annoyed huff. This was what Rika meant by finding out something?! The thought almost infuriated her. They didn't have the time to mess around like this, not when Sora and his friends could walk up on them any second now.

"No no no … not yet. You must have a cup of tea." She was cut short when a hand pressed behind her back, pushing her forward to an empty chair. The mad hatter insisted in it as how it would seem.

"Yeh C, you must try this!" Rika held her cup up.

"Tea? Sugar?"

"Don't test my patient! Get out of my way."

"C'mon C, you need to relax for a while!"

"Why, what is that?" The mad hatter managed to get her flower shape charm.

"What?! Give that back!"

"No wonder you don't have time. This thing doesn't even have numbers!"

"It's a charm you idiot, not a clock! Now give that back!"

Yet he didn't listen and dip it into the tea pot like a flower shaped cookie before pulling it out, placing it in front of him on the table. Putting the bottle of sugar into his eye like a microscope.

"Ah! Now I see what wrong with it." He announced, making sugar fall restlessly on top of the charm.

"This thing is full of glass." He used a folk to pinch it.

"What are you think on doing?!" C whispered threateningly under her breath.

"Oh this glass needs some smooth butter!" He said. "BUTTER!"

"BUTTER!" The bunny repeated, shouting into C's left ear before holding the butter and rushed toward the mad hatter's side.

"Butter?! What?! Don't you dare!" C ran over him as he used a knife to cut the butter and spread over the charm like a piece of bread.

"No! This is the very best butter!" He said, throwing the plate of left over butter directly into her robe. "What are you talking about!?"

"Tea?" The bunny asked.

"Tea? Oh, I've never thought of tea. Of course, tea." He said, pouring into the pile of sweetened butter that was covering the charm.

"Sugar?"

"Sugar? Two spoons." Two spoons were handed to him as he placed them on top of the mess. "Two spoons. Thank you. Yeah!"

"Jam?"

"Oh, I forgot about jam. Of course."
"Mustard?"

"Mustard? Yes … of …" He suddenly stopped at his track. "Mustard? No don't be silly. Now lemon, that's what needed." He squeezed into the sticky pile.

"That should do it!" He handed what seemed to be a junked of food all mixed up together back into her hand.

C stared blankly at it. …

"This thing is my last birthday present before, … everyone in my family got killed. How dare him…!"

Her icy blue eyes flashed as anger washed over her face.

"How dare you!" She murmured murderously under her breath.

"Why thank you … Of course, we care for our guests"

"You mortals really don't know your own limit." She raised her right hand and snapped her fingers. "And for such arrogance you will be punished for it."

'Uh oh … Not good.' Rika clearly swallowed hard and jumped out the seat, zipping herself away as far as possible from the table.

C's hands glowed in a dim light while strong wind raging around her, along with bone freezing ice. The moment the wind died down, before the hooded woman was no longer people but frozen ice statues of the mad hatter and his bunny friend. Fixing her robe, C brushed off the butter and turned around without another word. She left.

"C …" Rika spoke up hesitated as C walked pass her. The older woman stopped and gave her a hard glare. Her blue eyes were glowing inhumanly under the hood, staring at her sharply. Rika took a step back, scared. She didn't speak another word. Once it was quiet, C turned back to the road before her and walked away.

'Even if I have already known that you aren't human, no you were never human. I still couldn't help but wishing for the change to come. It's scary seeing you like this. No, it was terrifying. C, is it really impossible for me to wish that you were still the same sister you once were to me? Even if we are never related, back then, you still treated me like a younger sibling, taking care of me like what an older sister would do. You gave me a family when I was just a castaway, never needed by anyone, you gave me a home when I need it most. And I'm thankful for that. But then, why do you have to change? Why can't you be the person you once were? I miss the person I once call sis.'

Rika watched as the blue hood slowly disappeared within the distance. Her cyan eyes watched as the small figure walking away. The person started to fade from her vision as another image replaced it. Rika blinked slightly. She was imagining things again. The young girl let out a sigh and let the simulacrum messing her vision. A girl with long cobalt blue hair was holding out her hand, waiting for the girl to take. Her face was smiling. Both bright and gave off a warm glow. It made her feel safe. Rika reached out her hand, as if trying to reach out to grab the girl hand. Yet, her hand only went through. Rika bit her lips harshly. It was reminding her that everything was all in the past now. The young girl held herself back, not wanting to cry. The past, those wonderful days had already faded away in the cruelty of time.

'That's right. Crystal is gone. Forgotten by time. And killed by the darkness.'

She thought bitterly. Yet, deep inside, she knew the real Crystal was still alive somewhere, hidden until someone could come and save her. It was just not the time yet.

Rika shook her head slightly and looked back at the entrance. C was already long gone.

"I really need to stop her before she decides to kill anyone."

P.S: Please review and tell me what you think of the chapter.