Young Writers Society

Lira was trying her best to hold onto the steering wheel as chaos raged on around her, but something in her snapped when she heard Baba say something from nearby.

When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw that a cutlass had been thrown right through Baba. She didn't know if scarecrows could die from something like that, but she felt the same kind of fear she had felt when she realized that her home was gone.

Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, she turned to Baba and tried wrenching the cutlass out of Baba. She wasn't making any progress with it. It was taking almost all of her focus and strength to keep the ship under her control; she didn't have enough to spare as she tried to get the sword out from the wood and from Baba's body.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flicker that might have been Peter Pan approaching.

But she was far too distracted by her two current struggles to question it all that much - she just hoped she'd be able to free both the ship and Baba soon.

Baba's body flapped and rattled underneath the sword, limbs pulled skyward by the wind. The sword was the only thing that held the scarecrow down.

Lira's hands were stretched apart, one on the wheel, one on the sword handle. She was buffeted, pelted, and pulled. She couldn't hold on for the both of them.

"Lira-" Baba shouted through the bluster- "Lira the wind's too strong, let Baba go, they'll think of- of something-! Lira you'll-"

Baba stopped.

She was already gone.

A tiny yelp was swallowed by the current, her body, or any sign of her being there, whipped out of sight in seconds.

Baba screamed her name into the sky, and the name was swallowed up, too.

Kate cursed rather colorfully and loudly, directing the tirade at the amalgamation of happenings that made them want to stab something. fortunately, there was no shortage of things to stab.

Namely, the deck.

Kate needed an anchor and that seemed to be the only one available. She looked up just in time, however, to see Lira missing from her spot on the deck and Baba getting swallowed up by the vortex.

Kate had hardly a moment to process this before something knocked into her from behind, she felt her weird ax come lose from the deck, and all was black.

Meanwhile, in Wonderland...



V had been chasing the Heartless in front of him for the past hour. He knew that, theoretically, he could have stopped chasing it half an hour ago when he realized it wasn't heading towards a horde of them. But he had almost been caught when he tried sneaking into the organization's base last week, and wasn't all that fond of actually being discovered.

So here he was, chasing after a Heartless.

Terra, who hadn't gone running off since they left Neverland, had given him a look once or twice that clearly said he wasn't doing a good job hiding why he was so intent on catching this one specific Heartless. By the time Terra had laid down on his shoulders, he was starting to finally push their faces out of the corner of his mind.

After rushing out of Neverland, they had ended up in Wonderland. They were currently in one of its forests. The whole place shifted so much that V didn't bother to figure out where exactly.

Terra gave his cheek a headbutt.

"Fine," he relented, slowing down. "I'll put this Heartless out of its misery already."

With a swipe of his keyblade, the Heartless was gone. V sat down next to one of the towering trees. Letting out a tired sigh, he scratched Terra's chin. The soft fur felt nice. Even though he knew it was dangerous to sleep out in the open, napping underneath this tree felt like exactly the perfect way to spend the rest of this afternoon.

He stretched a little. Terra climbed off of his shoulder and went to curl up in his lap-

V's eyes shot open.

There were people nearby. He couldn't make out the words, but he knew those voices. He shot to his feet with a start. There was always a chance of running into Luxord here, but he hadn't expected to run into him so soon.

V swore.

No matter what he did, Luxord was going to recognize him. He could hope that he wouldn't recognize V's longer hair if it was in a different hairstyle, but Luxord could be observant when he wanted to be. He had become a member of Organization XIII for a reason.

V swore again.

He had to be practical. His current appearance wasn't as fast, which meant he had to do another little change today. He had already changed back after leaving Neverland so he could scare that Heartless, but it looked like his earlier appearance was getting an encore.

He let the change overcome him.

Terra, smart enough to read the situation, jumped back onto his shoulder.

Then he darted off into the woods. He kept running and running and running. If he had been smart, he might have opened a Corridor of Darkness to get off of this world. But he was too worried to even think of something like that right now; he was just concerned with getting away-

He suddenly tripped over something and went falling to the forest floor.

Kate's groggy-eyed, splitting-headache-induced wake from a forced slumber was abruptly hastened by a muffled impact to her ribs, followed by a heafty tangle of limbs falling over her midsection.

In a blink, she was on her feet, kicking the pointed toe of an unfamiliar pair of lacy boots into the ribs of the flamboyantly dressed man who hadn't had the sense to watch his feet for knocked-out unwitting travelers.

From the boot moving up, Kate's gaudy new bundle of frills and pastel playing cards only got more horrific. The boots were laced up over a pair of white fishnet stockings, which stopped mid-thigh was Kate felt, but didn't see, through the lumps of ruffles and petticoats in various shades of baby blue, pink, and pearly white that fell to her knees. The top of the dress was tailored to give her a very particular pigeon-breasted shape over a set of understructures that fit snugly beneath. It was like some cursed mishmash of the Edwardian and frilly lolita silhouettes.

That thought brought a jolt of pain to Kate's skull. Lully is rubbing off on me...

It took a moment to realize that she'd been staring in horror at her wardrobe change for nearly a full beat, meanwhile, the guy who was dressed significantly worse was left sprawled on the ground and had nearly had a chance to catch the wind she's kicked out of him.

Ax-thing in hand, Kate pointed it at the guy. "What the hell, you glitter-brained, two-left-footed, oaf!"

"What the fu-!" V exclaiming, clutching the part of his stomach where she had kicked him as he sat up. That hurt. At least she hadn't tried using her keyblade on him—he wasn't too eager to test how badly that would-

Wait, keyblade?

V slowly looked up from the tip of the keyblade. Kate was standing there, wearing an outfit that was all too fitting for Wonderland but all too jarring when Kate was the one wearing it.

But this didn't make any sense. They were supposed to still be on Neverland. Even if they weren't, he should have seen Hook's ship while he was running here! He had been a little distracted and hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings, but he was pretty sure he wouldn't miss a giant pirate ship.

On second thought, this was Wonderland. It could have shrunk or been turned into something else. He got to his feet and started to look around. If he was lucky, he would find some kind of explanation.

But then his eyes landed on Baba.

The scarecrow was unconscious, but they still seemed like they were as alive as sentient scarecrow from Halloween Town could ever be. V took a deep breath and stuck his hand into his pocket. He gripped the metal inside of it so hard that it would probably leave a mark when he let go. Baba was okay. Kate was okay. Luxord hadn't found them and neither had the queen-

V froze.

They had been in a group of five. Now there were only two. Two of the missing three had been the king's men; V wasn't as worried about those two. They probably knew a thing or two about Heartless. But the last one he couldn't find was just as new to this as Kate and Baba were.

He spun around to face Kate again.

"Where is she?" V demanded, completely ignoring Kate's keyblade as he easily towered above her. "Where's Lira?"

Without warning, Baba snapped awake, and leapt at the strange man's head. Baba curled aggressively around his skull, locking their arms and legs around his neck.

Baba intended to say a number of things. Who are you, why do you know our names, give Lira back, you have something to do with this. Things like that.

Regrettably, all the scarecrow had the heart to form, at the moment, was hisses.



When the three came to their senses, the first thing they would notice would be the monstrously colourful checkerboard ceiling miles above their heads, and that they were all sitting inside a giant biscuit tin. If they were to climb out, the second thing they would notice would be the mountainous glass table that the biscuit tin sat upon.

The third thing would be a poorly trained puppy the size of a rhinoceros pawing at the table's base, hoping to knock it over.

"Baba, get off," V said, frantically trying to get a grip on the scarecrow as they clung to his neck and head. Baba wasn't even being coherent right now. They were just hissing right into his ears. He would have tried blocking out the noise if Baba wasn't clinging to him so hard.

He was so busy trying to get Baba off that he lost his footing. Stumbling over Terra—who reacted with a hiss of his own—V went crashing to the ground with Baba still wrapped around him.

Something jingled in his pocket as he hit the metal floor. If he had been paying more attention, V might have realized he had gone slamming into the base of a giant cookie tin.

Kate growled in frustration. The keyblade was gone from her hand in an instant and she turned away from the brawl. Whoever this guy was, he was dumb enough to be losing a fight to a potato sack, so he wasn't Kate's problem.

Her gaze traveled up the smooth metal walls, just tall enough that she could reach up and grasp the top. So she did.

Pulling herself over the top, Kate landed with a thump on the other side of the wall. A printed pattern of cookies and bright colors covered the other side of the thin, curved metal wall, imitating a cookie tin.

The surface Kate stood on was glass, through which she could see, far below, a puppy the size of a hippopotamus pawing at the base the glass table - because of course it was a giant glass table - as though it was trying to knock it over.

Kate groaned.

Going feral was great fun. Baba had established that. But eventually, it would be time to remember what they were looking for, and reconsider wether wrestling the man to the ground and rolling around in crumbs was all that helpful.

Couldn't hurt to try it a little longer.

A little later, Baba rolled over, off of the stranger, and the two of them sat on a pile of enormous biscuits. Baba turned their head, and looked at him.

"Aight," said Baba. "Who are you, where's your doing, and what's Lira."

"And Donald, and Goofy." Baba added.

"As in, who are you, and where are they." Baba clarified.

"I'd do it again. So you'd better be helpful."

V coughed and took a big gulp of air, finally able to get a breath in now that Baba wasn't clinging to his neck. The scene around them was finally starting to register. Even though he could have sworn he was in a forest last, he looked like he was in an enormous cookie tin right now.

V rubbed at his neck. That was another reason to avoid Wonderland; it was just a pain trying to navigate it now.

"I don't doubt you'd do it again," V said. There was a jingling in his pocket again, but he wasn't paying too much attention to it. "We met earlier in Neverland—I'm V. And I wanted to know where they were, too-"

The jingling continued, but now it sounded like it was coming outside from his pocket-

He glanced down.

Terra had stuck one of his paws inside the pocket and was pulling out the little black pouch he kept inside of it. He was trying to paw it open, too.

V's eyes widened in horror.

"Terra, no," V hissed. "Give that back-"

Terra replied by picking it up in his mouth and darting over to Baba—wisely staying just out of V's reach. Before V could swipe the pouch and everything in it back, Terra had plopped it down in Baba's lap. When V leaned over to grab it, Terra sat down right on top of the pouch; only Baba would be able to easily get it out.

"Baba," V said, giving a very strained smile. "Can I please have that pouch back?"

The pouch was open the second it landed in Baba's reach.

Baba pulled out a little silver charm. The left half of a heart. Inside the pouch were eleven more, all identical.

Twelve. Twelve best friends. Wow.

Baba placed the charm back inside, and handed back the pouch, wordlessly judging.

V let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

"Thanks," he said, taking the pouch back. He shot Terra a glare.

Terra, in response, hopped off of Baba's lap and went marching over to the charm Baba had in their hair. Standing on his hind legs, Terra gave the charm a little swat.

"Terra, stop," V reprimanded the dream eater. Terra replied with another swat and a look directed at Baba. Groaning and resisting the very strong urge to swear, V reached over and scooped Terra up into his arms. "I'm not going to let you eat my nightmares for a week, you pain in the as-"

For a moment, it felt like Terra was suddenly trying to climb across his chest and onto his shoulder. But when V looked down, Terra wasn't trying to get anywhere. He was trying to slip a paw around the chain V kept hidden underneath his shirt. V's eyes widened in alarm. He tried to left Terra up and away, but Terra had wisely popped his claws out and gotten on stuck on the chain's links. When V lifted the dream eater up, Terra lifted up the necklace he had been trying to hide.

The one that had three more charms, each perfectly matching the charm Baba kept in their hair. And the necklace had a chain that Baba would have seen a hundred times before: a mostly silver chain, with a single off-colored link near the center.

Even though Baba had somehow not realized the implications of the charms in the pouch, V was sure they'd put it together now.

As stated on Page 2, Baba was quite content with Levi being a memory, and felt that there was nothing to forgive. Memories were memories and they were good and well.

But someone insisted on coming up again and again these days. Not actually showing up. Not actually communicating. Just being suggested at by ridiculous circumstance, and mysterious strangers.

Sooner or later, Baba would have to decide how they felt. But Levi wouldn't decide wether he was back or not. It felt quite unfair.

"Mister V," said Baba, more than a little bitterly. "You're V, or you're not V. Levi grew up, or he didn't, or he destroyed the Destiny Islands, or he didn't. And you have his charms, or you're him, or we're all dandelion seeds blowing about in somebody elses' dream.

Baba knows you'll only lie again. But whatever it is, please. Pick a lie, and stick with one."

V sat very, very still.

(Terra, sensing that any irritation V had at his actions had faded at Baba's speech, jumped out of his arms and smugly sat down next to him.)

V silently readjusted the necklace that was dangling above his chest. He didn't say anything for a moment—he just sat there and fingered the pouch that he had back in his pocket.

"You're right and wrong," he admitted in a voice that was both was and wasn't his. "It's not as simple as you make it sound. I am V, but you knew me as Levi first. You could say that I grew up, or you could say that I physically haven't changed a single day in the past five years. Destiny Island's destruction and what happened to your world was my fault, even though I didn't send the Heartless there."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

When he finally let it out again, his form was back to its original one: his ten year old self, with the same dark clothes he had been wearing when he appeared at Lira, Baba and Kate's worlds—even though Baba had only seen him as something almost identical to the Heartless. But when he opened his eyes, they weren't the same light purple he had always taken for granted as a child.

They were gold.

"I go by Vil now," he said. "Levi hasn't been my name since I said goodbye five years ago. I...had another name too, but I don't use it anymore."