//------------------------------//
// Heartless: Wonderland 
// Story: Kingdom Hearts: The World's Reluctant Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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After the meal, and cleaning the dishes, Goofy laid out which room everyone would have, as there was a shield icon on his, a wand for Donald's, and the odd crown for Sora, while Sombra found that Fluttershy's and Radiant's had their Cutie Marks on their doors, leaving just a shadowy mark on her door. She quickly discovered that the rooms were large enough to house a bed and some clothing containers, with a bit of room to walk around in, plus a small circular window that allowed them to peer out into space, but other than that there wasn't anything else for them to be interested in. Such a thing told her that the occupants of the ship were likely supposed to sit in the cockpit all day, watching the pilot fly through the space between worlds, though she was grateful that the lower level seemed separated from the rest of the Gummi Ship, as in when the pilot moved she found that this level remained the same. Sombra had to guess that it had something to due with not wanting to piss off anyone else who might be on the vessel, so the two levels were totally different in how they reacted to space, but she also knew it meant nothing to Fluttershy and Radiant, thanks to their private world.

The shy one had started work on her farm without wasting time, where she even said that some of the items could go into whatever dishes Sombra made in the future, while Radiant was creating an area where she could do her own work, due to the fact that it seemed like the World had left her some supplies as well. By that she meant that there was a chest of items that looked like Radiant was supposed to set up a workshop of some kind, which made sense given what she had told them previously, though for the most part there wasn't much for Sombra to do since she didn't have a skill like the pair did. She did observe the pair for a time, finding that the worker rabbits were definitely doing everything in their power to prepare the ground for planting and seemed to be devising ways to move water to the crops, showing that they were definitely not normal rabbits. At the very least it looked like the pair seemed to be enjoying themselves, causing her to leave the realm for a time and turn her attention to the Gummi Ship, or at least see the controls in action as she returned to the cockpit and found that Sora was ready for takeoff.

It took Sora a few moments to get the controls right, where Goofy made sure to correct him whenever he did something wrong so they didn't crash into any worlds or obstacles while they flew through space, though once Goofy thought he was ready the ship finally departed from Traverse Town. There was a navigation panel that allowed him to see everything that was around them, detailing where hazards and obstacles were, such as asteroids, panels from enemy vessels, debris, and whatever else had been left in space, some of which caused Goofy to tell Sombra about the weapon system that was part of the ship. The guns were supposed to be used to clear out items that they couldn't avoid, like asteroids, but at the same time the ones who worked on the Gummi Ship, a pair of chipmunks called Chip and Dale, made sure that they knew that the weapons could protect them as well, in case enemy ships attacked them. Apparently one of the ways for the Heartless to travel from world to world happened to be by using their own Gummi Ships, something Donald and Goofy had seen on their way to Traverse Town, meaning Sora would have to keep an eye out for them while they were traveling.

Goofy also informed her that it would likely take a day or two to reach the next world, meaning they could rest, relax, do a bit of training, or do whatever they wanted, where Sombra decided to spend a couple of hours just sitting in one of the new chairs that had been added to the cockpit, as there were three new ones behind the ones Donald and Goofy were sitting in.

Such a thing allowed her to see what Goofy had been talking about, Sora could use the console that was in front of him to move the ship around and use the weapons to blast a few asteroids that were coming their way, where she found that there were what appeared to be large coral pieces forming a path of sorts, which Sora was following. No one had any idea why the coral even existed in the first place, though Donald informed them that other parts of the World were different, because Chip and Dale informed him that there was an area that had what appeared to be a large energy twister right in the center of it, or somewhere near the center. While Sora carefully flew through space, despite his excitement to be on his way to another brand new world, Sombra pulled out her new spell tome and placed a hand on it, where she activated her dark power for a few seconds before pulling her hand back. When she opened the book she found that a number of new spells had appeared in the back of the tome, all dark magic spells that matched every dark spell she had learned over the years before she put her plan into action, causing her to smile for a moment, as it meant that they could be used in this world.

Sombra was sure that she could find some use for a number of the dark spells she had learned in the past, though it only made her that much more excited to see what the next world had to offer them as they searched for Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey while hunting down the Heartless before more worlds fell to their dark power.





Two days later Donald loudly announced that they had reached the next world, causing Sombra and the others to leave their respective parts of the ship and only came to a stop when they reached the cockpit, where they found that the world that looked like it had a red and light red checkerboard design on it with some structures in the shape of hearts. After the group looked at it for a few moments Sora looked at the console again and tapped a button, which Goofy reminded them was a cloaking device to make sure no one on the world could see the ship, to help preserve the order of the worlds, since they weren't supposed to tell anyone about the rest of the worlds. With that in mind Donald waited for Sora to be ready before he teleported them down to the new world, where they appeared in what seemed to be a long vertical tunnel that was full of furniture that had odd shapes, like they were bending or something, though they happened to be in the air and just floated down like it was nothing. The furniture that was below them seemed to be imprinted in the ground itself, an odd thing for sure when Sombra thought about it, and based on what she could see there seemed to be another tunnel that seemed to be the only way forward.

As they landed, and Goofy turned around from his relaxing position to crash into the floor, they found a white rabbit in a suit and carrying a large watch run by, mentioning something about being 'late' and that the 'Queen would have his head for sure', as he headed down the tunnel and disappeared.

"Sounds like something big is happening." Fluttershy said, though at the same time she helped Goofy onto his feet as the others glanced around the decent sized chamber and confirmed that there were no other entrances, though Sombra felt there was one, besides the vertical passage, behind them somewhere, one only the denizens of this world could use to move from place to place.

Sombra had to agree, it seemed like the rabbit was worried about missing something, hence why she and Sora followed the passage and found a door that ended up having a few more behind it, until it brought them to a large room that was arranged weirdly, plus they and the others were now giants in comparison to what was around them, only to watch as the rabbit, now small, ran by a small door and it closed behind him.

"Wow... how did he get so small?" Sora asked, because he was sure that it was impossible for someone to shrink that fast, without stopping to cast spells or anything, and while the others glanced around the area, with Sombra seeing a couple of small areas that might be openings that connected two points together, he crouched to stare at the door.

"No, you and your friends are simply too big." a voice said, where they discovered that it came from the door itself, rather the doorknob since it was animated and could talk to the group, a fact that allowed them to see that it's keyhole was it's mouth, given how it stretched while he was talking, especially when he yawned, "Must you be so loud? You woke me up!"

The group glanced at each other as Goofy apologized and asked him what he meant, where the Doorknob revealed that there was a potion for them to take to shrink themselves, which happened to appear on a table that popped out of the floor and caused everyone to stare at it for a couple of seconds. Sora, eager to explore the new world, quickly made his way around the others and took a quick swing of the potion that had a down arrow on it, where Sombra and the others found that he shrunk down to the size of the rabbit in a matter of seconds. With that in mind the group took turns taking a quick drink of the potion and then passed it to the next person in line, shrinking down to Sora's size without delay as the room became gigantic, though once everyone had their turn a new enemy showed up, a small red robe wearing Heartless that had no arms or legs. This particular foe had a round head and a yellow hat, though it did have the power to launch fireballs at it's foes, so with three of them appearing in the first wave the group quickly dodged the incoming projectiles and struck down the group of enemies with relative ease, as they were like the Shadows, going down in two to three hits.

Fluttershy had a name for these foes, the 'Nocturne', as they seemed to move around like they were musical notes, though as the others listened to her Sombra made sure to snatch all of the freed hearts, absorbing one to find that it gave her a small boost to her magical power, so a lot of them would be a significant boost.

Of course those three were only the beginning, as more Shadows, Soldiers, and a few Nocturnes appeared in the room, but as Sombra slashed her way through some of them, and her darkness snatched all of the freed hearts, she found that there was no other way out of the room, save for one that was hidden behind an oddly placed bed. She pointed that out to Sora, who dispatched with a pair of Shadows before returning to the table, where he picked up the other bottle and sampled it for a moment, allowing him to grow back to his original side before turning towards the bed. Everyone else watched for a few seconds as he actually shoved the bed back into the wall, how Sombra had no idea and decided to blame it on the rules that this world operated by, though before they moved forward the group waited for Sora to shrink back down to their size so all of them could head through it together. Once he caught up to them the group headed into the passage and found that it was shorter than they were expecting, as it was more like a minute or two of walking before they reached the opening that allowed them to enter another part of the new world.

What they discovered was that the area in question appeared to be a mixture of a garden and a court area, as there was a judge chair, an area for an announcer to speak in, a defendant area, and even an area for a small jury, though the guards seemed to be animated cards, each with one of the four symbols on their surface, and there was a girl standing before the judge, like she was on trial, all while the white rabbit blew a trumpet.

"Court is now in session!" the rabbit stated, where they could see that he was huffing like mad, which made sense due to the fact that he had been rushing through who knew what to reach the raised stand he was standing on, though while the girl asked what was going on a slight glare from a overweight female figure, a ruler no doubt, stopped the rabbit from giving an explanation as he returned to his task, "Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding."

"This girl is the culprit, there is no doubt about it!" the Queen of Hearts stated, where Sombra found that she wore a red and black dress that looked like a chess board, with a golden crown on top of her head and a heart shaped gravel, and it was far too easy for her to see that the Queen was used to getting her way, reminding her of herself before her defeat, "And the reason is... because I say so, that's why! Tell me, Alice, do you have anything to say in your defense... besides the usual 'I've done nothing wrong'?"

The girl dressed in a blue dress, Alice apparently, paused as she faced the Queen, as she was starting to realize that she was going to be blamed for whatever had brought upon this court session, all while Radiant noticed that Sora seemed a little annoyed by what he was seeing.

"Well then, if you have nothing to say in your defense, we can get on with things: the court finds the defendant guilty as charged!" the Queen continued, showing that she was mostly ignoring Alice, who Sombra could feel some light inside, a force that was pure and untainted by darkness, while the girl tried, in vain, to convince the Queen that she was wrong in thinking she was a criminal, "For the crimes of assault, and the attempted theft of my heart... OFF WITH HER HEAD!"

In that moment Sora, without any regard for what Donald was trying to tell him, rushed out and told the Queen that she was wrong in thinking that Alice was the culprit, along with the fact that they knew the true criminal and that they could obtain the evidence she demanded that they present to prove their tale. Sombra really had no idea why Sora would dare to do such a thing, but at the same time she had to admit that this was best, instead of worrying about the order of the worlds they could just invade whatever was going on and help resolve things. If they said nothing about all of the worlds, and presented themselves as travelers, she reasoned that most people would look the other way and not question what they were doing there, just like how the Queen didn't seem to care about where everyone came from, rather she was far more interested in their evidence. Of course she also imposed a limited time period for them to find the evidence that would 'convince' her that Alice was innocent, though to keep the girl from fleeing she was imprisoned in what looked like a small birdcage next to the Queen's judge chair, so she could keep an eye on her.

Sombra could tell that there was a path to the Queen's castle that they couldn't see, it was shrouded by the nature of this world, like the Queen and her guards had a way to open it when this session was complete, though since there was only a single opening left she, Sora, and the others walked through it and found themselves in a dark wooded area.

"This place is so weird." Radiant remarked, because it seemed like the rules of this world were different from what she and the others were used to, especially when considering the potions that could change one's size with a quick drink from the endless items, since six people had drank from them and Sora was still able to use one to return to their small size.

In the following moments they found what appeared to be a cat's head, looking different from what they were used to and having a wide crescent smile on his face, phasing into existence, then disappearing, only to reappear somewhere else for a few seconds before appearing on a large tree trunk to their right, with a pink body with purple stripes standing on top of his head.

"Oh, hello there. Who are you?" Fluttershy asked, though as she said that the others glanced around the forest for a time, as Sombra could no doubt feel more Heartless lingering in the shadows, allowing her to focus on the odd cat for a couple of moments, because if everything else was different she was sure the cat would be the same as well.

"Who, indeed. Poor Alice... soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing." the cat replied, where he stepped off of his head and reattached it to his shoulders, making him more like a cross between a human and a cat, even if he acted like the latter far more than the former, all while the others listened to him without saying anything, "The Cheshire Cat has the answers you seek... but doesn't always tell. For you see, the answer, the culprit, and the cat all lie in darkness... but for you, my dear, the answer is clear: the culprits have scattered, leaving their innocent comrades behind. Four pieces of evidence have been left behind, three are a cinch to find, the fourth... well, not so much... but I will reward you if you can find all four of them."

Sombra, being used to the darkness and things like the 'Cheshire Cat', knew that it was wise to not openly trust the cat, but, at the same time, his information was all they had to go on, so she and the others decided to explore the rest of the forest as they kept their eyes open for the evidence boxes, pink gift containers accordingly to Fluttershy. Of course they had to deal with the Heartless, more Shadows and Soldiers, allowing Sombra to reach out with her darkness to capture each heart that was freed, all while finding that both Fluttershy and Radiant refrained from using their Keyblades in battle. She already knew that the former had a hard time actually fighting, if what she had seen in Traverse Town was any indication, while Radiant seemed to be keeping hers hidden until she was sure Donald could be trusted, due to his poor actions when he and Goofy found Sora. As they dealt with the first two groups of enemies, however, Sombra also found why the Cheshire Cat had said that three of the boxes would be easy to find, as one was hiding behind some tall blades of grass that seemed like they were trying to form a protective area for a few flowers, causing her to collect it as they continued on their way.

Another box was literally just around the corner, as they walked up to an area that had what appeared to be decent sized mushrooms for them to climb on, without the heads breaking, and the box was on a platform that looked like it was part of the forest, like a lily pad growing on a stalk. While they explored Fluttershy found a larger chest on one of the stalks and was surprised by what was inside it, three of the ninety-nine missing dalmatian puppies, numbers 16, 17, and 18 based on what their collars said, though for the time being she decided to keep them inside her Animal Sphere. It was a safe place for her to keep the animals she could tame, based on what Sombra determined from what she had said, though she also said that she could switch that feature on and off as she desired, so for the puppies this would be a safe haven until they got back to the ship. She and Radiant understood what Fluttershy was saying, she was going to use their private are to house the puppies until they returned to Traverse Town, causing them to nod their heads as they found Sora climbing up the stalks to get up into what seemed to be the highest place around.

By following him, however, they found that one of the thicker trees had an opening that somehow teleported them back into the room that the Doorknob rested in, though they dropped down onto the stove that had been in the room and found the third of the four boxes, allowing Sombra to add it to the others they had found.

With that in their possession they quickly returned to the forest, having to pass through the court area again since there was no quick way back, and the group confirmed that Sora really enjoyed exploring new worlds, as he found his way to another large chest in the forest, this one having a large gummi block inside it. From there they discovered that there was a large boulder blocking one of the exits and another one had no stalk for them to jump to, as there was a gap between the one it was connected to and those near the thick tree, though Fluttershy was willing to help lift everyone onto the stalk, one at a time, so they could enter it together. The opening she allowed them to access brought them, once more, to the Doorknob's room, though this time they dropped down onto a water facet that was large enough for all six of them, in their small forms, to safely land on it, though fortunately the cabinet off to their right had the fourth and final box, which brought a smile to their faces. Sure enough the Cheshire Cat appeared on the facet for a moment, congratulated them on finding all four boxes, and presented them with his gift, the Blizzard spell, which went into their tomes as Sombra tried it out, finding that it allowed her to fire off what appeared to be snowflakes at a wall, though she was sure that this was the basics of the spell.

After acquiring the spell, and the last box, the group dropped down to the floor without delay and quickly headed through the door they had used a few times so far, allowing them to return to where the Queen of Hearts was waiting, where Sora indicated that they were ready, causing one card to escort everyone but him and Sombra to the jury stand.

"Now then, show me this 'proof' you have collected." the Queen commented, her tone showing them that she wasn't too eager to believe them, and when the four boxes they had collected were presented Sombra could see it didn't impress her at all, especially when she summoned a fifth box, used a bit of magic to bring them all together, and them returned all five to the line in a new setup, "Checking all five will be a waste of my time and patience, so you, boy, will choose the one that you want to present. You have one minute to decide."

"Sora, do you trust me?" Sombra inquired, because she knew there was nothing stopping her from sharing her opinion with the young boy, the Queen had said nothing about her talking during the minute, where Sora nodded his head for a few seconds as she lowered her voice, "Fourth box, trust me."

Sora nodded as he made his way down to the boxes, make it look like he was studying them, before tapping the fourth one in the line, though as it opened a Soldier appeared from inside it, who stood there for a moment as it looked around, unsure of what was going on, before noticing the Queen and rushed at her, causing Sombra to grab it and silence it with a swing of her scythe. The Queen, despite clearly having evidence of someone who wanted her demise, declared that due to Article 29, which decreed that 'anyone who defies the Queen is guilty', meaning that it really didn't matter what they did to clear Alice's name, she was guilty in the Queen's eyes and so was the group, since they dared to help the girl out. With that in mind several sections of the area sunk into the ground and a short sandstone tower appeared across from where the Queen was resting, where a few guards pulled on some wooden cranks and raised Alice's cage into the air, meaning they would have to free her before doing anything else. Fortunately it looked like the Queen didn't do anything to the others, as Radiant and the others were able to jump out of the box they were in before joining her and Sora, where everyone pulled out their weapons and went on the offensive as a number of cards tried to defend the tower.

As it turned out this 'battle' couldn't even be called one, as Donald, Radiant, and Fluttershy held the cards back with both their magic and weapons, Goofy helped Fluttershy out so she could gain more confidence in battle, while both Sora and Sombra tore the tower apart with their weapons, much to the dismay of the cards. The tower itself was brittle and was far too easy for just two of them to destroy, though pouches of Munny ended up being scattered from the structure, almost as if the Queen had built the thing with currency and not actual materials, though Sombra realized why after a few more seconds. One of the sections she cut through happened to have a Shadow lurking on it, just like one Sora knocked off of the structure, almost as if the Heartless were trying to stop the tower from being used for some reason, and she found that a couple of them were carrying the pouches, like they were stealing from the Queen or something. It made her take a moment to wonder what they were up to, before she felt a surge of dark energy and turned towards the cage as the rest of the tower collapsed, where everyone turned and watched as the cage returned to the ground, even the Queen had to look over the ledge of her seat to see what was going on.

When the cage turned around, however, they found that Alice was gone, the Heartless had sent another one to grab her while everyone was distracted by the battle, where the Queen declared that all of them, cards and intruders, were to find the culprit and bring them before her, meaning the group could leave without delay, only for Fluttershy to bring them back into the odd forest, just in time to see a rock fly out of a flower.

"Is something wrong?" Goofy asked, because he had noticed how distracted Fluttershy was when Alice was taken and that made him interested in what she might have noticed that everyone else hadn't noticed, which was followed by a familiar face appearing on the boulder, as it was the Cheshire Cat.

"Cheshire says there's a 'large shadow' somewhere in this kingdom." Fluttershy said, showing them that she must have talked with the cat while everyone was distracted with Alice's sudden disappearance after her 'trial', causing the others to realize that she was referring to a powerful Heartless, just like the Armor in Traverse Town.

As she said that a group of Heartless, consisting of some Soldiers and Nocturne, appeared to attack them, along with a fat tall figure who looked like a ball with arms and legs, a Large Body she guessed, though what was interesting was that the newest one couldn't be hit from the front, rather they had to attack it's back to bring it down. Sombra, naturally, absorbed the heart that was freed from it and found that it also granted her a defensive boost, something that was good to know as her power latched onto the rest of the hearts and captured them, allowing her to add more to her growing collection while they moved deeper into the forest. When another Large Body showed up Sombra discovered something else, they could, in fact, hurt that type with attacks to the chest, they just had to be magical attacks since Donald's magic tore through it as the others dealt with the other Heartless, another useful piece of information to add to what they had learned since the start of their adventure. While they fought their enemies there was one last thing they discovered, Radiant found a couple of small square capsules that happened to have materials in them, like elemental shards and even potions, meaning that part of her abilities had to be active, given what they had seen so far, which told Sombra that she'd be able to start making items in the near future.

The path they were following returned them to the blocked passage from before, which had to be where the boulder the flower spat out must have come from, before they found that it brought them to a two story cottage with a long table set for many out in front of it, with a painting of two odd figures at the head of it. Next to the painting of a sad person and an equally sad rabbit person was a sign telling people to have a 'merry unbirthday' and that sitting on the seats would give them gifts, where Sora decided to be nice and sat almost across from the painting, choosing the seat to it's right, looking from the opening that brought them here. After the others sat in random seats, as there were six more to pick from, they found that it rained pouches of Munny and capsules that had potions in them, items everyone picked up and put away as Sombra noted that the painting changed to the two people being happy. Following that they found that they could open the nearby door, the house's door, only to find themselves on the ceiling of the Doorknob's room, where Sombra found a number of lights that were out and realized that to find the Boss Heartless they were going to need to drive it out into the open.

With that in mind Sombra used her new fire spell to light the pair of lights that were on the ceiling, leaving the Heartless to the others for a few moments, though she wasn't too worried since her darkness snatched each heart that was freed as she ignited both lights, before she felt a surge of darkness near the table.

"There we go, the way is open." Sombra said, dropping down on a Large Body and wiped it out with a flurry of ice, using the Blizzard spell while the others dealt with the rest of their enemies, though once that was done Sora nodded to show he understood what was going on as he found a panel to open.

The opening in question brought them back to the Queen's court area, on top of one of the hedges, where they found a chest that had three more dalmatians, numbers 13, 14, and 15, allowing Fluttershy to safely collect them before all six of them headed back into the Doorknob's area. When they entered the first chamber, however, everyone found the Cheshire Cat sitting on the table and that a dark barrier suddenly appeared once everyone was inside the room, though that was followed by both bottles on the table disappearing as the cat realized something big was coming. Sure enough a tall dark Heartless descended on the room, struck part of the ground, before hopping over the table as everyone got ready for a fight, all while Sombra noticed that the creature was taller than the table, had odd diagonal arms that looked like steps for some reason, and a tall round hat of some kind on it's head. It happened to have two batons that it juggled around while looking at them, though it could also swing them around like they were swords, plus it could even ignite them with flames to do additional harm to whoever it hit, causing everyone to scatter as they finally engaged it.

What Sombra discovered was that it was far too easy to dodge the incoming attacks, because they were mice compared to the colossal monster that had come down to fight them, so if someone ducked down they could avoid being hit by the next attack, regardless if they were in the air or on the ground. At the same time it looked like the Trickmaster, as that was the name she was giving it, was easy to stun, as a single powerful hit to it's chest would cause it fall to it's knees and open it to a massive amount of damage since five of them would strike it at the same time. Fluttershy, of course, continued to use her staff and barrier spells to help prevent everyone from taking damage, opting to fly around the air to give her a far better view of everything, and since there were so many warriors to fight, each doing their own thing, the Trickmaster had no choice but to target those that were close to it. Sombra even found that the Blizzard spell would put out the flames on it's batons, weakening it even further, causing her to grin as she rushed around the ground and slashed into the Heartless as it tried to hurt them, eventually knocking it to the ground.

As the Trickmaster dissolved Sombra collected it's heart, before pausing as she found what appeared to be a shard of a fragmented heart that left the Heartless as well, a powerful dark shard that had to belong to a dark being, a negative one in some manner, while also having a sense of wonder inside it.

"Fascinating. Who do you belong to?" Sombra commented, as she had no idea who could have possessed such a powerful fragment, but instead of outright absorbing it into her being, like the other hearts, she set aside a private portion of her inner storage area and stored the fragment inside it for the time being, so she didn't accidentally absorb it as well, not until she had the completed thing.

Sure enough the Doorknob started to wake up from his sleep, or partly wake up since he sounded like he was going to fall back asleep at any moment, and asked about the racket, though as that happened one of his yawns revealed that there was a faint blue keyhole deep inside his own keyhole mouth. As he yawned, however, a light appeared within him and the Kingdom Key reacted, gathering light at it's tip while Sora stared down at it for a couple of seconds, before it yanked itself up and fired a beam of blue energy into the smaller keyhole for a second or two. That was followed by a locking sound being heard, as if the Kingdom Key had just locked something important, and as the smaller keyhole disappeared a gummi block fell to the ground, something Radiant picked up and added to their collection. As the Cheshire Cat congratulated the group on their success over the Trickmaster, however, Sombra realized what their overall goal should be, they needed to find what appeared to be the heart of the world and seal it so it was safe from the Darkness, all while looking for those that everyone else was looking for.

Such a thing caused her to smile, because it meant that they had another reason to visit each world and see what they had to offer, something that only made her that much more interested in what the future held for her, the group, and the rest of the worlds.