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Kingdom Hearts: Heart and Soul, chapter 24

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Chapter 24: A Broken lens

    The group of shrunken teens soon found that night falls quickly in Wonderland. While some—Sora, Alice, and Angelique, for instance—wanted to set off immediately in search of where the Card Soldiers took Salem and the Hatter, others decided that it wouldn’t be the best plan. Riku, always providing the logic to counter Sora’s impulsive behavior, pointed out that wandering around in the dark, with their current sizes, would cause more trouble than good. Together with Jade and Tegan, the group was convinced to rest until morning. The Hatter’s hat made very good shelter, even if it was a little cramped.
    So when morning finally came and the sun began to rise in the sky, one person began to stir. Lying flat on his back, Vanitas grumbled sleepily when a beam of sunlight came in through a hole in the hat’s lining, hitting him directly in the face. After such an exhausting day like yesterday, all the black-haired teen wanted was to get a few more hours of shut-eye. But he was wide awake now. And because of everything that happened, there was no way of going back to sleep now. It was a wonder how he had managed to do so in the first place.
    When I see that idiot’s mug again, I’m gonna slug him so hard he’ll see the curvature of this world. I don’t need this…
    Turning on his side with a muffled, groggy curse, Vanitas glared blearily at the shapes hidden in the shadows of the hat. As his eyes adjusted, shapes and shadows turned into the sleeping forms of his comrades. Jade had been leaning against the hat’s silk lining, feet and arms sprawled as limp as a ragdoll’s and snoring softly. Alice lay huddled up in a ball by the aburnette’s side. Sora and Kairi were sleeping together off to his left, her head on his chest, in a way that Vanitas was sure to fluster them both when they woke up. Riku was slumped in a sitting position nearby with his bangs lying messily in his face. For a few moments, Vanitas was confused when he didn’t see the white-haired head of Angelique, but then he remembered the state the Witch had been the night before.
    It had taken a while for Angelique to calm down. But when she finally did, she became so uncharacteristically gloomy and depressed that you wouldn’t even think it was the same girl. Her usually sparkling eyes turned dull. She barely said anything more than a few syllables or muttered grunts. Seeing Salem get taken away had hit her hard and she was sick with worry for her friend.
    With her mood being so dismal, everyone had decided it was best to let her have some time to herself. Of course, they made sure that someone was always keeping an eye on her, just in case she tried something stupid. Angelique was now sitting (and hopefully sleeping) out in the open, on top of the hat while her Dream Eaters patrolled the area. Since the creatures had no need for sleep, they made perfect watchdogs while everyone else rested.
    It wasn’t until Vanitas turned over to his left side that he came face-to-face with the last member of the group. It came as a bit of a shock to him at first; Tegan’s face was so close to his that he could count all the freckles spread across her cheeks and nose. In fact, it shocked him so much that he lurched back and his head knocked into one of the pins stuck in the hat’s sash. When he was sure that he hadn’t scalped himself, Vanitas noticed something discouraging about his red-haired friend.
    Tegan was sleeping soundly, but there was a strange hitch in her breathing. Upon closer inspection, Vanitas noticed that slight purplish smudges showed under her eyes, and her eyelids were red and slightly swollen. It was as if she had spent the night crying herself to sleep.
    “What the…” To add the strangeness of the situation, Vanitas also found that her long limbs had been folded up against her torso so that she was tucked into an uncomfortable-looking ball. She actually looked fragile, like a china doll. It was odd seeing her so small. Even in their currently shrunken state, Tegan was still just as tall as Vanitas. And it wasn’t like she was a meek little mouse, either. What had happened?
    Geez, I’d expect this from the Witch, but you too Freckles? I’m pissed about Salem too, but…
    Vanitas’ stomach started twisting into a hard little knot. He didn’t understand why, but a bitter, unpleasant feeling began to swell in his chest when he thought of Tegan crying over Salem. Was he…Jealous? No. No, no he wasn’t. After all, why the hell should he care who the redhead cries about? Her tears weren’t any concern of his. It didn’t matter to him…
    “Hey…What’s that?” Vanitas jumped, muttering another curse as he glared at Ventus. It was starting to annoy him, how the blond would just pop up out of nowhere.
    “You know,” he hissed. “A little warning would be nice, before you decide to start haunting me.”
    Ventus rolled his eyes and instead stretched out an arm, pointing at Tegan. “What’s she holding there?”
    Curiosity aroused, Vanitas glanced back at the sleeping girl. Sure enough, her hands had been pressed up against her chest, fingers twisted around something. Carefully, the two boys inched their way closer. Vanitas lifted a hesitant hand out, making sure not to wake Tegan up as he gently pulled her hands away from their current position. It was difficult trying not to wake the girl up, but Vanitas soon managed to pry a few fingers away so that the object held inside them became visible.
    It was a pair of glasses. They must have been more than a few years old, with a blue frame and thick, round lenses. The left lens was cracked, split almost all the way through the circular piece of glass. A faint smudge streaked across the other lens, rusty-brown in color. Just about every part of the frame was scratched and one of the ear pieces was bent slightly, almost like they had been stepped on. They were vaguely familiar.
    “I’ve seen these before,” he said quietly. “But where…?”
    Just then, Tegan began to stir, mumbling sleepily. Vanitas jumped back and put as much distance as possible between the two of them. At the same time, a loud snuffling sound woke everyone up. As the noise grew louder, everyone jumped to their feet.  Keyblades, halberd, and cards were drawn as the brim of the hat began to lift, revealing a very large, very wet, nose. The appendage huffed and puffed, blowing the grass around as the hat tipped over, an outraged cry signaling that Angelique had finally woken up.
    And when the hat finally rolled over, whose face did they encounter? Bayard the bloodhound’s.
    Alice was the first to get over her shock. The blonde’s eyes snapped with anger as she marched up to the dog, fists clenched.
    “You were supposed to lead them away!” she shouted. “The Hatter trusted you!”
    Angelique rushed up from around the hat, hair and dress disheveled and lance aimed right at him. “You let zem take away our friends!”
    “They have my wife and pups.” The hound’s ears drooped even lower as a pitiful whine rumbled low in his throat. Angelique started, lowering her weapon. As angry as she was, there wasn’t a way for her to respond to that.
    “Sit.” Alice commanded. As Bayard did as he was told, he stared at the blond curiously.
    “Would your name be…‘Alice’, by any chance?”
    “Yes, but not the one everyone is talking about.”
    “Are you sure about that?” Sora muttered, more to himself than actually to Alice. It still mystified him that Alice had forgotten everything. He knew she was the right one, but how could he prove it if she wouldn’t acknowledge it?
    “The Hatter would not have given himself up just for any Alice.” Bayard retorted.
    “Where did zey take ze ’atter?!?” Angelique demanded, voice rising shrilly with worry. “Where did zey take Salem???”
    When Bayard revealed that the two had been taken prisoner and moved to the Red Queen’s castle, the white-haired witch’s heart rose in her chest. Now they knew where to go! Bayard must know the way. If they hurried, they could save Salem and the Hatter too!
    “We’re going to rescue them.” Alice announced, taking charge as she marched up to Bayard.
    “That is not foretold.”
    “I don’t care!” Alice yelled, causing everyone to flinch at the sudden ferocity in her voice. “That Hatter wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for me, nor Salem! I can’t just leave them!”
    “The Frabjous Day is almost upon us,” Bayard pleaded. “You must prepare to meet the Jabberwocky.”
    “But friends come first!” Jade shouted. “Alice is right; we cannot just leave them to the Red Queen’s wrath! I refuse to abandon them!”
    “Same here.” Tegan announced, standing defiantly next to Jade. Angelique nodded, as did Kairi.
    “We have to help our friends.” Sora added in.
    “From the moment I fell down that rabbit hole I’ve been told who I am and who I must be.” Alice shouted, her courage growing with every word she spoke. “I’ve been shrunk, stretched, scratched, and stuffed into a teapot. I’ve been accused of being ‘Alice’ and of not being ‘Alice’ but this is MY dream. I will not leave those two to suffer at the Red Queen’s hands.”
    “But if you diverge from the path…”
    “I make the path!” Slowly and surely, Alice had made her way until she was directly in front of the massive hound. Yet for the all the difference in their size, Alice’s voice rang out with such command that Bayard had no choice but to listen. It was clear that Alice had no intention of abandoning her friends, destiny or not. She would not change her mind.
    Tegan watched as Bayard slumped down and felt a wry grin form on her lips. If that wasn’t asserting your dominance, she didn’t know what was. It was good to see Alice take charge of her life for once, and she could see why the blonde was one of the Princesses of Heart. Even if Alice wasn’t aware of it, her courage and strong heart were admirable.
    And it was a funny thing. While Alice made her speech, Tegan couldn’t ignore the strange aura that was developing around her. It had started out as a faint glow, but as Alice continued to speak and as her courage and confidence grew, the aura grew as well. A faint glow grew into a blaze of white light, curling around her petite form like white fire. At first, Tegan had been startled. But as she looked around, it had seemed like no one else had noticed the occurrence. Then it occurred to her. The aura must have been caused by Tegan’s powers. Could it be that her Anima powers were letting her see something the others could not?
    I’ll have to figure it out later, she thought as they all climbed aboard Bayard’s back. If this new power had to do with her Anima abilities, Salem might know about it. Or, like the strange chains, it could be a complete mystery. But that would have to be solved later. Operation: Rescue the Lunatics was now under way.
    “Let’s go!”
    “Time to storm the castle!”
    “Don’t forget the hat!”
    With Bayard’s help, getting the Red Queen’s castle took less time than on foot, but that didn’t mean it was an easy trip. The closer they got to Salazangrom, more and more Heartless blocked the path. And with their small size, the teens couldn’t fight them off the normal way. Physical combat was out, but their Keyblades could be used for magic just as well.
    Even without their main Mage, the group still got in some good hits. Angelique proved to be a natural at water-based spells, along with her repertoire of sleep spells. Tegan used the opportunity to get a better handle on controlling her chains. It was far from perfect, but no one had been knocked off their furry transportation so they couldn’t complain. Even Jade had found some way to help.
    Apparently, weapons and spells weren’t the only cards the aburnette had in her deck. During one particular run-in with The Heartless, Jade had grabbed what she thought was going to be another Fire spell (she was meticulous about organizing them). Without even looking, she had tossed the card up into the air and was momentarily puzzled when she felt her energy drain slightly more than usual with the type of spell.
    Even more puzzling, the card hadn’t changed into a fireball like expected. In a burst of white and black mist, it formed into an all-too familiar creature that leapt at the first available Soldier Heartless.
    “Jade, you can summon Heartless too?!?” Riku shouted as he watched an oddly colored Neoshadow tear into the Soldier. “Oddly colored” because instead of black, this Heartless’ skin was molted black and white, swirling into each other like mixing paint.
    “I-I didn’t think that would happen!” Jade responded, stunned. “But if I can, I’ll take it!” Pulling out a few more cards, she threw them forward, summoning more black-and-white Heartless. This time, Shadows and Neoshadows fought against Soldiers and Deserters in a truly surreal battle that no one ever would have thought could happen. And once the swarm had been defeated, the “Heartless” returned to Jade as a seemingly normal handful of cards once more.
    “Nice, that is.” Jade pocketed the cards with an approving smirk. This was bound to come in handy later. And too think, the ones who controlled Heartless were supposed to be the bad guys!
    I wonder if I can do the same trick with the Nobodies in my deck as well, she thought. Although, the only Nobodies I have are a couple of Dusks. I doubt they could be of any use. But this does offer quite a few possibilities.
    “Why do you think Jade’s were white and black?” Kairi asked to no one in particular. She had seen the images printed on the cards before Jade returned them to her bag. The Heartless there looked like normal Heartless, no funny black-and-white skin.
    “Excellent question there, Kairi.” Jade stuck her hands on her hips and glared at the ground. “I have a better one. How is it that I can do this? Or rather, how can a normal set of playing cards function like the real things? Curiouser and curiouser…”
    “I am sure zat all answers shall be revealed,” Angelique shifted impatiently from one foot to the other. “But for ze moment, can we please ’urry to ze castle?”
    “Angie’s right. Let’s get going.” Without another word, Tegan released both halberd and chains. Ignoring the stares of her friends, she climbed back onto Bayard’s back, sitting cross-legged with a serious frown on her face. As everyone else joined her, Jade frowned as well, crossing her arms across her chest as she sat down next to the redhead.
    “Tegan…”
    “It’s okay, Jade.” Tegan looked back to the others to see if they were watching.  Once she was sure nobody was, she pulled the pair of broken glasses out of her pocket, staring hard at them. “Thank you for giving these to me.”
    Jade nodded, eyes fixed on the glasses like Tegan. Something about this still didn’t sit right with her. Anxiety and foreboding had settled in the pit of her stomach every time she saw those cracked and broken frames. They meant something to Tegan, but she didn’t know what.
    It’s none of my concern, she reminded herself. I have to get home, I can’t stay. I need to get what I have come for, and that’s that.
    But part of her wondered. What if she didn’t go home? What was there for her, in that world? She cut herself off from her friends already. Her parents wouldn’t care if she never came home. Her father already made that clear. She could do it, if she wanted too.
    Who am I trying to fool? All I do is bring ruin to those around me. Misery. Pain. That’s it, that’s all. I’ve already brought Tegan pain…
    Last night, after Salem had been taken, she had pulled Tegan aside…
...
...
    “Tegan, I would like to speak to you.” Jade gestured over to the big tree they had landed near, motioning for her to follow. The redhead had been confused at the request, quirking an eyebrow and murmuring uncertainly. Making sure that nobody saw, Jade grabbed the redhead’s arm and drug her back with her. Tegan protested and struggled, by Jade clapped a hand over the louder girl’s mouth.
    “Will you shut your bloody gob for a second?!?” Jade hissed. “I just want to talk!”
    Tegan ripped the hand from her mouth. “Well, couldn’t you think of a better way to ask? Damn girl, you don’t need to freaking kidnap me! What do you want???”
    Jade’s hands dropped to her side as her face clouded. “What is your connection to The Organization?”
    Tegan’s jaw dropped as Jade stared intently at her. “E-Excuse me???”
    Jade reached into the bag at her belt. “The two in black that kidnapped me from my workplace sought me out specifically. They knew my name. Now, they could only do this if they had some specific plan in mind. Given how their leader is Xehanort, this was done with certain intent and a specific purpose. I aim to find that out then go home. Do you follow?”
    Tegan nodded, mouth gapping and eyes wide. For one cruel moment, Jade compared her to a fish out of water, but that thought passed as quickly as it came to her.
    Her fingers closed around the object she was looking for and pulled it out of the confines of her tool pouch. In one fluid motion, she tossed it to the girl across from her. Tegan, in turn, caught it as swiftly and efficiently as Jade had thrown in, but with a look of utter confusion etched into her face.
    “Before they pushed me through that Dark Corridor, one of them gave me that. The other told me that if I should come across a violet-eyed girl answering to the name of ‘Tegan McAllister’, I was to give it to her.” Jade let her face harden into its usual mask of scowling intensity. “Now I will ask you once more. What is your connection to The Organization?”
    She watched as Tegan shifted her confused stare down to the object in her hands. She had expected to see a look of condemning guilt push through the confusion; the one look that showed Tegan knew the game was up. That she had been caught. This way, Jade could get to the bottom of this chaos that had thrown her life back out of normalcy. She had spent enough time struggling to put her life together again, and now everything had been ruined by these damned world hoppers. The least she deserved was to know why.
    That was what she had been hoping for anyway. If this Tegan girl was involved, she’d be doing everyone else a favor in exposing her and extracting whatever information she possessed, by any means possible. She didn’t abide by traitors, after all. Especially when the ones being betrayed were the likes of Sora and his friends.
    But when Tegan dropped the pair of broken glasses like a hot piece of metal, the look on the girl’s face was enough to make even Jade take a step back.
    Tegan’s face had drained of almost all color, looking like paper against her fiery hair. Her eyes widened as fat tears built up at the corners. She began to shake badly as pitiful moans tried to force their way past her lips. Frankly, Jade thought she was going to throw up. If this girl was faking, she was a damn good actor. Her mother was one, so she knew all the tells. But this, this wasn’t acting. It was the look in Tegan’s eyes that said it all.
    Panic and pain filled up those wide, mirror-like eyes. And fear enough to kill a person a thousand times over. It was like many years of suffering had been brought back to the surface. All at once. Fear. Pain. Sorrow. So many emotions swept through Tegan’s face, one after another. Her trembling knees collapsed like fragile twigs as the girl came crashing to the ground. Jade, convinced that this wasn’t an act, dropped her mask of suspicious anger and was at Tegan’s side in seconds. Good thing, too. If it weren’t for Jade’s hands grasping her shoulders, Tegan would have fallen flat on her face as well.
    “Hey, what’s the matter with you?” Jade asked frantically. She had seen cases like this and couldn’t afford to have the redhead pass out on her. How would she explain that to the others? “What’s wrong? Are you ill?”
    “Where…Where did you get this?” Tegan’s voice had been so faint that Jade wasn’t sure that she had really heard the question in the first place. Looking down, she saw Tegan’s wide eyes locked onto the glasses.

    How odd that she would react that way to a trashy pair of eyewear in the first place…
    “As I said, the two Organization members gave them to me to give to you…” Jade frowned. “What’s so important about them?”
    Tegan’s fingers reached out hesitantly towards the frame around the cracked lens, just barely brushing against the deeply scratched metal.
    “These…I haven’t seen these glasses in years.” Tegan held them pressed against her chest. “They belonged to someone very important to me. Someone who’s gone.”
    “Gone…” A stab of pain sliced through Jade’s chest. An important person, who meant a lot to her, gone. That she understood very well.
    “B-but, I don’t understand. What does this mean?!” Without warning, Tegan flung herself at Jade and began to sob softly. Startled at first, Jade could only sit there as Tegan’s tears soaked her shirt. But it only took a moment before she put her arms around the other girl in a comforting embrace.
    Jade wasn’t as cold as she tried to be. And she couldn’t stand seeing others hurting. That’s why she took the blow from the Bandersnatch for Alice. Why she swore to bring Salem back after witnessing the witch’s tears. And, even now, she dropped her cold outer shell to comfort a truly distraught girl who was hurting.

    Just as much as I was…
    “So we have more questions than answers, huh?” Jade sighed as she nudged Tegan away. “Well, that won’t do. Not at all.”
    Tegan sniffed in response and rubbed at her tear-stained eyes. “No Organization member should have these…I need to know…what’s going on…”
    Jade got up, one her small, true smiles tugging at the corners of her lips. Holding out a hand, she pulled Tegan up with her. “Well, I suppose we will have find some answers, don’t you think? If I know my Kingdom Hearts villains, and I am certain you do as well, there’re bound to be some foolish blokes running around in black coats here in Underland.”
    “Alice…That’s right!” Tegan exclaimed with a hiccup. “If a Princess of Heart is here, one of the Thirteen Seekers should be here too!”
    “Exactly. What do you say we track down one of them and get our answers, eh mate?” Tegan nodded.
    “Aye, lassie. They won’t know what hit them!”
    “That’s the spirit.” Jade chuckled.

...
...
    “Hey Jade, we’re here!” Tegan’s voice, shouting in her ear suddenly, snapped Jade out of her thoughts. After shooting a furious glance at the redhead, Jade turned to gaze up at the high wall surrounding the Red Queen’s castle.
    “Bloody hell…”
    “You can say that again,” Vanitas grumbled. “This thing’s huge!”
    And that was saying something. Even if they had been their normal height, the massive surrounding wall had to be at least fifty feet high. Chipped and worn gray rock made up the wall, as well the boarder of a dismal moat surrounding the perimeter of the wall. Although with the height of the wall, a moat seemed a little unnecessary.
    “Ugh, that’s just disgusting…” Tegan grimaced as she peered past the dead grass and into the murky, polluted water floating around in the trench. Actually, she wasn’t even sure if it was water. It was so clouded that you couldn’t see the bottom of the moat and the liquid bubbled and steamed like some sort of bizarre, gray lava. Steam rising from the surface smelled of rot and mildew. Absolutely nauseating.
    “What is that?” Kairi frowned as she stepped closer to the edge. Her finger pointed to a large object floating out in the moat. There seemed to be a lot of things floating around in it. “They look like some sort of floating rock, but rocks don’t float…”
    Tegan and Jade glanced back at each other, exchanging looks of disgust. It would seem that they had both forgotten about the statue-like heads floating in that muck. But now that she remembered, Jade went to test a theory out.
    Picking up a large twig, she crept closer to the edge of the foul-smelling “swamp”. She had to grab onto a sturdy weed (after all, who would want to fall in that stuff?) and leaned over as far as she could. The smell was awful and she wished that she had tied something over her face first.
    “Gah, I say it is quite possible that I may just lose my lunch after this…”
    “Thanks for the mental image there, Dumbass…” Vanitas groaned, eliciting a smirk from Jade.
    “My pleasure…bitch…”
    As Jade dunked one end of her twig into the murky liquid, she jumped back in alarm as the color began to drain from the stick. The surface started to dry and crack as wood was replaced by stone. Jade cursed empathically, hurling it as far away from her as possible. Jade wasn’t sure if the strange effect could pass onto her, but she would rather not take the chance.
    “Well, that proves my theory.” Jade ran a hand through her hair as she glanced back at the others. “Make sure that none of you touch the water. It appears to have some sort of petrifying agent in it, and we haven’t got anyone who knows the Esuna spell.”
    Tegan smirked as she slipped a hand into one of her coat pockets. “Good thing we have our own transportation then, huh?”
me: haha! first post of summer vacation!
Tegan: *clutching the glasses and glaring ominously at Light* You better explain what's going on here...
Angelique: eek! *hides behind Jade* s-scary!
Jade: I'm with Tegan. Explain yourself.
me: *sweatdrops* you do realize that is a major spoiler, right? i CAN'T reveal that, at least not for a bit.
Tegan: *continues glaring*
me: I'm not telling!

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Kingdom Hearts belongs to Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix. Alice in Wonderland (2010) belongs to Tim Burton and Disney. Heart and Soul belongs to me.
© 2014 - 2024 LightandDarkHeart
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ChaosPhantom444's avatar
Phantom: Cool trick Jade
Chinx: Poor...Poor Tegan...why act sad? It's not like he's coming back anytime soon. After all he did leave you. *smiles in a sinister manor*