I know I should be updating the other stories, but this idea was too cheesy to pass…

I mean, I'm on my fourth story!

What is up with that?

The events in Bakugan New Vestroia do not take place in this story. Think of it as a different story in a different time in the view of a single character in a single world…

DISCLAIMER!

I don't own Bakugan… I own a few episodes though…

Chapter 1

She's pitiful

Pitiful that was the one word that could ever describe her in my eyes. She would get beat, abused and other acts of mistreatment. She would stand up wobbly. She would cry in her sleep.

Yes, I even heard her sobbing. She would sob and sob and sob, until she fell asleep on her pillow, wet by her own tears.

Yet she does not fight back, no she just… hangs her head low to make her orange hair conceal her teary eyes. There were times when she could no longer walk. But still she had to get up before the sun graces the sky with its radiant light. She never wanted to be here, she isn't supposed to be here. Where are her friends who she cherished so much and cherished her in the same manner? Why is she still here in Vestal?

I know that we should be more hospitable to outsiders… But even I cannot control everything… Yet…

Until I do… she will have to remain as she is… Pitiful

Alice fell onto the ground again.

Mylene was furious. She had slapped Alice yet again. Alice accidentally placed Mylene's Bakugan on the wrong shelf. This enraged her of course, and she slapped Alice's pale cheek.

"You are useless!" she exclaimed for the nth time "No wonder they spat you out of Earth and sent you here."

Alice heard these words of cruelty a thousand times before. She simply propped her hands to stand up. Behind Mylene was her trusty sidekick (if that's how you call it), Shadow. He had this smirk on his face that mirrored his deranged way of thinking.

"The next time you do this, I won't be so forgiving!" Mylene said as she pulled on Alice's hair "Now, put them in their proper places before I come back or you'll get lashes again…"

Alice winced. Mylene continued this cruel treatment in hopes of making Alice cry, but to her dismay, not a tear would escape Alice's eyes. Her eyes became water, but nothing more than that.

Alice would never get lashed, because Volt was kinder than Mylene and wouldn't whip her. For that, Alice was thankful enough.

Mylene stormed out of the room, leaving Alice on her knees and Shadow watching her with amused eyes.

Alice shakily stood up. She didn't bother straightening her clothes or dusting them up. She approached the glass case where all of Mylene's Bakugan are placed. She lifted her eyes to them and started counting. One by one she named them; her breath became heavier with each word she said.

She hasn't eaten since breakfast. She felt extremely weak and crushed. She stared at her reflection in the glass pane and began to wonder why she looked the same when she was accidentally transported to Vestal.

She was with her grandfather when it happened. The Dimension Transporter was acting up. Her grandfather accidentally got hit by a flying debris and died instantly. She didn't have time to mourn her loss though as the portal suddenly sucked her into Vestal.

She arrived in one piece, but not for long.

Spectra was the one who found her. He didn't know what to do with her so he handed her to Mylene, since like her, Mylene was a girl. But Mylene wasn't as kind as Alice thought. Soon she found herself tumbling to the ground and bruised all over.

She opened the glass pane and took out the Bakugan one by one. She carefully placed them on the table where the glass case was placed on. Mylene knew if even one of her Bakugans were dropped.

Afterwards, Alice proceeded to put them back on their proper places again. Surprisingly, Shadow didn't bother her this time. He just stood there with a nonchalant yet mischievous look on his face. After putting them back, Alice counted them again. She sighed in relief to find out that the Bakugans were in their correct places and in the correct order.

She turned away from the glass case, but slipped and fell on the floor.

Shadow cruelly laughed at her pitiful state. She leaned on her elbows and tried to stand up, but Shadow had his foot forcefully pushing her back and preventing her from standing.

"So Little Miss Muffin, care to clean my room now?" Shadow asked.

Alice winced. She knew that Shadow didn't like it when she didn't answer his questions. She opened her mouth to respond, but her throat felt dry and no voice came out.

"Well?" Shadow kicked her harder

"Y—Yes, Master Prove…" She managed to say.

Fortunately, Shadow lifted her foot from her back. She took a few deep breaths and soon her breathing returned to normal. She coughed; the passageways in her lungs were getting narrower.

All of this hard work was taking out its toll on her. She became sick after staying there for a while, but she never told anyone.

She practically forced herself to clean Shadow's room.

Shadow's room was large and spacious, but it was full of trash. Rubbish piled from the floor to the ceiling. She had the hardest time cleaning this room. If that wasn't bad enough, Shadow scattered more trash as she cleaned it.

After roughly three hours, she was able to clean Shadow's previous pile of trash and put them out. Shadow's second pile of trash was also taken care of. She polished his Bakugans and placed them neatly on the shelves. She knew that Shadow's room would be dusty soon.

There was a light knock on Shadow's bedroom door. There stood the youngest of all Vexos, Lync Volan.

"What is it Master Volan?" Alice asked, truthfully she knew that his Aluze fell into the river again and that she'd have to get it for him.

"Aluze fell into the river." Lync said casually "Go get it for me." He said in a commanding tone.

Alice nodded as she stood up. She always had to swim that cruel river. Most of the times, she would come so close to drowning.

And she wished to drown, but a certain someone always came to save her pathetic and pitiful life.

One who went by the name Spectra Phantom…

She sighed at the thought that he might be there again. She followed Lync to the river. She scanned for Aluze and saw it at the usual spot where she always found it. She dipped her feet into the water and walked towards Aluze. She dipped her head and swam towards it. She barely had the strength to walk, much less swim against this torrent of the river.

She grabbed Aluze nonetheless. She lifted her head and walked towards the bank. She handed it to Lync. Lync wiped it clean with his green cape. Then he went off.

Alice wanted to fall there and then and just rest. She wasn't able to sleep much last night because Prince Hydron kept her all night.

She fell onto her knees. She ridiculed her own weakness. She chuckled with no apparent reason. She chuckled, but deep inside she was helplessly and utterly broken. She tried standing up, but her knees weren't strong enough to keep her standing. She forced herself nonetheless.

Volt was one of those who were kind to her. He only made her take out his trash which was sometimes empty. Gus was the other one, but she guessed that Spectra told him so.

Spectra was the queerest of them all, but he was still kind to her nonetheless.

Alice knocked lightly on the door of his room.

"Come in…" Spectra said as he opened the door for her.

Spectra's room looked like an office and a room morphed together. A ton of paper works mounted on his desk where his laptop stood. On the other side was a bed where he rarely sleeps on.

"You're wet." He pointed out.

Alice looked at herself, but what could she do?

"Master Volan asked me to retrieve his Aluze again…" Alice plainly replied

"Master Volan?" Spectra echoed "Since when did Lync become your master?"

"Yesterday…" Alice replied "Prince Hydron commanded it…"

Spectra looked at Alice with such sad eyes, but it was barely seen under his mask. He led her to a chair and commanded "Sit."

Alice sat by reflex. Or maybe it was because Spectra pushed her down. Or maybe it was her weakness that made her fall involuntarily onto the chair.

Spectra's queer kindness towards her centered on her and not on his room or his Bakugan. She wrapped her arms around herself, she felt cold.

She felt a warm coat on her shoulders. She looked up and saw Spectra hovering over her. He had placed the coat on her.

"Thank you Master Phantom…" Alice muttered "Must I clean your room?"

"No need…" Spectra said "And you don't have to call me 'Master' anymore."

"But Prince Hydron will be furious if…" Alice protested but Spectra cut her short

"You will not call me 'Master' and that s final." Spectra said

Alice nodded weakly. She stood up and handed the coat back to Spectra. She bowed her head and said "Thank you once again, Master Spectra…" she gasped and apologized "I'm sorry…"

"That's okay…" Spectra said as he sat down the chair and resumed reading his book.

Alice resumed doing her normal chores. Prince Hydron made her polish his bronze statues of the six Bakugans who fought Naga; well he only had five at the moment. Her heart was broken every single time she saw them, but gave way to no tears.

"What do you think Alice?" Prince Hydron raised the question in hopes to see her cry "Aren't they just magnificent?"

Alice lifted her eyes from Alpha Hydranoid's immobile feet and saw the three headed Hydra who used to be her guardian Bakugan. She felt her eyes getting watery, but her tears refused to come out. It was like the mighty bronze statue of her former friend was helping her stop her tears with mere will power.

Alice didn't respond. She knew Hydron just wanted to make her feel bad.

"What?" Hydron started to mock "Do you not feel remorse for the loss of your former friends?" He gazed at the beautiful statues and named them one by one "Alpha Hydranoid, Storm Skyress, Blade Tigrera, Preyas and Hammer Gorem. I do not have the Dragonoid yet, but I swear I will…"

Alice simply ignored his childish remarks.

But all of a sudden, Hydron grabbed her long orange hair "So you think you're so clever huh?" He forced her head up and made her see all of the five bronze statues. Alice winced. How much more suffering was he going to make her endure?

"Can't you hear their screams of pain and cries of mercy?" Hydron cruelly whispered into her ear "Can't you see how much they've suffered?" He pulled her hair harder and made her face Hydranoid "This one was stubborn. He refused to give in to the experiments and came out strong. Yet his strength failed him, and now he stands as a statue…" He laughed mockingly "Oh, and did I mention that your name was his last word?"

Alice's heart broke. She didn't want to cry… no, not in front of this sadistic prince.

"Alice… Help me…" Hydron muttered into her ear "Alice… Alice…"

Alice imagined it. She saw Hydranoid being turned into a statue mercilessly. She heard his voice loud and clear. Distress was clear in his voice, but she also heard longing and helplessness. She used every bit of her strength to keep herself from crying in front of Hydron.

"Why won't you cry?" Hydron asked. His voice was full of frustration. He threw Alice towards the statue of Hydranoid and said "I don't know what Mylene did to you, but it seems that you've lost your ability to feel… You are worthless…"

Those words echoed in her mind. Yes, she had admitted that to herself by this point in time. She was indeed worthless.

Hydron left. This time, Alice didn't fight the tears. Her will power was all but gone. She wiped Hydranoid's statue once more.

"I'm sorry…" she muttered, over and over again. She looked up to Hydranoid and could only imagine how much he endured. Compared to hers, it was far greater in scale.

She did the same to the other statues. She cleaned them with her tears and muttered apologies as she imagined what they went through.

That night, Alice dragged herself to her room. She had a mad smile on her face, like always. She staggered until she finally reached the door of her room. She leaned on it for a considerable amount of time until she finally raised her hand and turned the knob.

Spectra was right behind her; he was carrying a tray of food. He always did this for Alice. He knew that she wouldn't be able to eat by the day, so he sent her food by night.

He always felt pity for this girl who was supposed to live her life miserably. He felt responsible for her suffering, no; he knew that her suffering was indeed his doing. He wanted to apologize, but one look at Alice's crazed features and he found himself feeling a wave of different emotions, pity, anger, guilt and others more that he can't come to comprehend.

He didn't bother knocking. He knew that the door of her room was always opened. He knocked three times though, to make her know that he was coming. He opened the door and saw Alice sitting by the wall. She hugged her knees to her chest.

She was sobbing, like when he always saw her. He knew that talking to her would be useless since she wouldn't respond to him anyway and also his guilt would never let him utter any comforting words to her.

Alice didn't normally look at Spectra, but this time was different. She began to wonder why he was doing all of this for her. The question was visible on her face.

Spectra saw this, but said nothing. He knelt in front of her and wiped off a single tear from her cheek. He couldn't manage to say a single word. No, he was too ashamed for that.

He left Alice and the tray of food. He went back to his room which was just beside Alice's room. From there he heard her sobs.

Pitiful…

That's what she is…

Yet it puzzles me as to why she still stays here…

Through my small acts, I hope I can at least relieve her pain…

For it is my fault…

It is my fault that she's suffering…

It's my fault that she's withering away in Mylene and the others' grasps…

It's my fault that she's become pitiful…

That's the end of the first chapter of this fanfic.

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chquine_harvinellisse