Soon after the Cheshire Cat vanished leaving Rix and I at the front gates of the Red Queen's wasteland of a Castle. Rix somehow seemed pleased at the thought of her mother coming to a possible demise. The idea that her mother may have been suffering had brought a small smile to her face. She seems to have some serious family issues, maybe she's just as mad as everyone else here. I noticed that Rix summoned her keyblade Lady Luck.
"We might want to be prepared for a fight," Rix cautioned. I nodded and summoned both my keyblades Two Across and my newest one Lost Memory. "Oh yeah...I heard you had two now. You must be pretty special if you can wield two."
We began to walk through the dead, confusing maze. We were cautious as we started walking through. As we did I took in the scenery, there were also dead plants and small animals on the ground, looking more hopeless than anything I've ever seen before. We came to a small opening that went in four different directions.
"I hope you still remember your way around here, don't you Rix?" I asked her. "I mean, you did used to live here..."
"Well yeah, but it didn't look like this. But I should at least be able to get us through here still."
"If you say so. So, where should we go?"
"Uhh," she looked around and down all four paths. "Let's try that one," she said pointing to the path furthest to the left. We both went down the path furthest to the left, hoping it would be the right path. As we walked on, everything seemed quiet. "Well...looks like things are good so far.."
"Yeah...but its too quiet....something doesn't feel right." It seemed that right when I said that we heard some odd moaning and groaning.
"What was that...?" Then beings that looked like cards came out of the bushes with weapons like staffs and knives. "It's my mom's card servants...man doesn't look like they've been treated well."
These card servants looked as dead as the maze and the ground. They looked like they had no sense of anything or even who Rix was. They kind of looked like they could be the walking dead. Is it possible they lost their hearts and it just effected them in a different way? It was like they had completely lost their minds and had indeed gone mad, as the Cheshire Cat said. They groaned as they came toward us.
Rix and I both charged at them and began swinging almost knocking them out instantly. As those three fell four more came walking out the bushes, armed. We fought them off, knocking their weapons from their hands, and blasting to the ground with magic. While Rix was fighting a group of them I was also fighting a group of my own.
"Ya know, these things are getting annoying I never really liked them much," she said as she knocked one down.
"Yeah, you're telling me. They just won't give it a rest." I then heard a swoosh sound run behind me. I saw that Rix used her keyblade like a boomerang to knock down a card servant that was coming behind me. "Thanks."
We both walked back towards each other and stood back to back as the large amount of card servants started to close in around us. "We need to do something to hold them off, so we can get out of here," Rix said.
"Yeah...because this obviously isn't the right path."
"Hey! I tried alright. Its been a while since I've been, and besides its not like my mom did such a good job at keeping the place up either."
"Well we've got to do something." Then I had an idea. It may have been a bit crazy but at least it could get them out of the way, plus if they were just stunned it would take them some time to get up. "How are strong are you?"
"What?"
"How strong are you?"
"Fairly strong I guess..." she said, confused.
"Strong enough to hold someone's else's weight than just your own."
"What? I don't know."
"Well, lucky for you I'm pretty light. When they get close enough I'm going to jump up and all I need you to do is grab my feet and spin me around and I'll do the rest."
"Um...ok?"
When the card servants got close enough I jumped up and I was able to count on Rix to grab my feet and she started to spin me around immediately. I connected my two keyblades at the teeth and used the magic of wind. As she spun and spun the wind grew and grew creating a large spinning tornado around us. The card servants were stumped to a stop, confused at what was happening. When the wind was powerful enough I disconnected my keyblades and the tornado shot at them knocking them to the ground. Rix then tossed me high enough in the air so I could land perfectly on my feet.
"What the heck was that, Ayame?"
"Let's get going."
"Right." We then both ran back where we came. and looked at the remaining three paths.
"So how about another try Rix?" I smirked.
She chuckled, "Oh so you're a funny girl huh?" She looked at all the paths as she got quiet. It seemed like she was trying to remember which one was the right path. "The path down the middle.."
"Are you sure?" I teased.
"Hey! Don't do that. Don't you try and pull that to make me doubt myself," she said as she crossed her arms and pouted.
I laughed. "But are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure...this is the path I took that one time to help Alice escape."
"Alright." We then walked down the path in the middle. This path seemed to be a bit shorter than the last one. And thankfully soon we walked up to an open and deceased clearing of the Red Queen's courtyard. "Guess you were right."
"See." We walked forward a bit and stopped to look around.
"I wonder what this place looked like before it looked so...dead." I said as I picked up a piece of dead grass then dropped it. "Do you even think your family is around?"
"Probably hiding behind those castle walls."
"Look who it is if it isn't Rix..." We looked around but we didn't see anyone. Then Rix walked over to a nearby shrub.
"Well what do you know if it isn't the Caterpillar," she said as she leaned down and then I walked over to see who she was talking to and it indeed was, literally a caterpillar. An all blue Caterpillar with red hands and sitting there smoking a pipe. "Why are you here?"
"The question is Rix is Why are you here? I thought you left and were never to return?" I found his voice to be annoying. He had the voice of a preppy, pompous, know it all, and self righteous rich man.
"Well I'm not here by free will I'll tell you that much, I had to be here chaparone," she said referring to me.
"Hey!" I cut in. "I can very well handle myself. You're from here."
And then the caterpillar looked to me. "And who are you?" he asked puffing smoke.
"What? Me?!"
"Yes! That is what I said. Who are you?!" He asked again as he blew a puff of smoke so large in my face that it made me cough.
"He's got a bit of a short fuse.." Rix whispered.
"I'm Ayame," I told the Caterpillar.
"Ayame. I shall remember that," then he looked to RIx. "But to answer your question Rix, I am here to enjoy the show."
"Hmm?" she questioned. "What show?"
"Your mother of course. She loses it every time it comes and destroys her land. It's quite hysterical," he said puffing more smoke.
"Who's there?!" we then heard a worried and frightened sounding voice.
"What do you know...the irony," the caterpillar said.
Rix and I turned around and saw a frumpy woman with black hair in a black and red dress, wearing a crown and carrying around a scepter shaped like heart. There's no doubt that she was the Queen of Hearts.
"Oh great..." Rix muttered. The queen looked over at us and hurried over to us.
"Rix darling is that you?" the queen said as she walked over to her.
"Yeah mom..."
And then she looked at me. "Oh? Who is this? Are you Ayame? Xemnas told me you would be coming. I've been looking forward to meeting you."
I then thought with her being a queen she would probably expect the proper manners in her court. "Yes, I am. It's also a pleasure to meet you Your Majesty," I said as I curtsied.
"Oh and so polite." What was Rix talking about? Her mother seemed so kind. Rix was standing off to the side practically snarling.
"Thank you, madam. Now I know I am here to help you, I would like to hear from you what you need help with.'
"And straight to the point ready to get to business. I like that. Well darling, I need and army since I am sure you have seen I am a bit scarce in that department. And to reestablish my presence and placement in the kingdom and in Wonderland."
I knew exactly what she wanted, like Rix said. an army and making her mark in Wonderland to expand her kingdom and rule. "I understand, and I can make that happen."
We all then heard a monstrous growl as the ground shook. The queen squealed and looked really scared. And from the distant woods walked out a large heartless fashioned after card. It was black and red and had spikes all over its body swinging around -in both hands- what looked like spiked knunchucks with a spiked metal ball at the ends that were lit on fire. As it got closer the queen shrieked and ran off to hide somewhere. Rix and I readied are keyblades and got into a fighting stance.
"Think this is the 'it' Caterpillar was talking about?" I asked Rix.
"Oh yeah...no doubt about it...scared?" she teased.
"Please, I've seen scarier than this thing. This thing is like a cupcake. You?"
She laughed. "Nope. You know we have to deal with this right?"
"Oh yeah it coming at us isn't obvious enough," I said sarcastically. "It's attracted to our keyblades."
"Yeah well....maybe it'll be fun."
"Oh I'm counting on it..." The large heartless then stopped in front of us and growled and started spinning its weapons. "Alright Rix, I'm counting on you. No slacking," I said as I twirled my keyblades.
"Me? Slack? Never. You know I've got your back."
I laughed. Rix was very fun to be around not only was she funny but she was witty. I could see her and I to actually have a pretty strong friendship. "Can you be creative, Rix?"
"Sure can be."
"Well if get an Idea, just play off it."
"I'm great at being spontaneous. So you ready?"
"Yup."
And practically at the same time Rix and I ran towards each other thinking the exact same way. When I reached her I dropped to one knee and tossed her in the air to height of the heartless's head using the powers of darkness. Since she didn't have the powers of darkness she would need some leverage. I then soon followed, jumping after her reaching the same height in the air next to her. We both readied our blades, she then swung Lady Luck, and I swung Two Across at the same time. They spun sideways towards the heartless's head and as It hit a large white light erupted. It was a start, but we knew we had more to do to get this thing out our hair.