Once upon a time, in a place unknown, there was a dream.

Once upon a time, in a place unknown, there was a man.

No one knew who had dreamt the dream…but such a tiny dream it was.

No one knew where the man had come from…but so insignificant he was. So average.

The tiny dream began to think.

The man began to ponder.

"I don't want to disappear. How can I make people dream of me?"

"I want to make a difference in this world with the knowledge I possess and access.. How can I change the world and those in it?"

The tiny dream thought, and thought. And finally it came up with an idea.

The man thought…and thought….and thought. And finally, he came up with an idea.

"I will let the humans stray into me…and I will let them create the world"

"I will take the responsibility on my own shoulders and instigate the prophecy myself…and I will let the twins complete the prophecy. And, eventually, the world."

Walton and Metheria

~The Blood Queen of Spades~

The first Alice went walking through the woods of wonderland.

Bravely with a fearsome sword gripped tightly in her hand.

She cut down creatures in the way of her unyielding wrath

Leaving carnage in her wake by red and bloody path.

"We could do it, you know."

"What?"

Silvery aura shimmering around him like a mirage, Walton turned up, and for a second, his eyes glowed a harsh shade of silver that looked more like dull steel than bright shining silver. "We could take over the world. Do whatever we wanted. Take revenge on anyone we wanted."

"Why would we want to?" Scowling fiercely at her brother, Metheria's golden glow blazed horribly in a flare of rage. "I'm happy here. All I want to do now is forget mum's and dad's deaths. I want to train with anyone I can. I want to learn. I don't care how. Revenge is beneath me now, Walton. It'll stay that way."

"Think about it, Eri!" A pet name that hadn't been dug up in years made its rare appearance as Walton gazed hard, eyebrows narrowing. "We know who killed father, we know where he is—think about it! We can do it! We can kill him! Torture him! Make him pay for every minute he stole off my father's life! We can turn his blood to quicksilver and grind his bones to dust in a second. We've been awakened, Metheria! Awakened! Unlimited power! We can—we can do anything!"

"Revenge? Revenge—for our father?"

Metheria glanced up, amber flooding her eyes as she turned away from the book they had been studying. "Revenge?" She repeated the word slowly, tasting it. "For dad, for mom, even—even for the people that bullied me?"

"Of course, Eri." Pupils gleaming maniacally, a wry smirk spread on Walton's lips. "All of them. We can kill all of them. It wouldn't even be hard."

In so many ways, Metheria was so much younger and juvenile than Walton. Walton was so smart, so logical, always following that ancient rule—eye for eye and tooth for tooth. How could someone dispute logic like that?

"Really…?" Dazed, a ball of pure auric energy flickered to life at her fingertips, flooding the room with warmth and light, so different from the shiver that was running down the twins' spines and (unknown to both twins) the Flamel's consciences as they listened with a simple spell from two rooms away.

"Well, then," said Metheria, her own lips twisting into their own evil grin as she turned back to her book, copper-hued hair falling in front of her eyes. "If that's the case, I suppose we'd better start learning."

A dark shadow in the night seemed to blaze into light and color, a silhouette lighting against a silver glow before the light faded out of existence. The shadow disappeared completely, but the senses still lingered—footsteps crunching on gravelly road, the whispered hushes, and maybe even the faint scent of apples on the air, mingled and tainted with the smell of burning sage. Slowly, the gravel shuffled and the footsteps crunched their way into the woods before stopping altogether. The gold and silver glowed again, mixing into a shade of copper before dying into the two solid forms of a black-haired, black-eyed boy and a copper-haired, green-eyed girl, both smiling and laughing innocently.

"That was excellent," the boy gasps finally. "Well done, Metheria. What induced you to call on the fire, though?"

"It's easy. I remember the ancient methods of burning at the stake—it wasn't hard. Not at all, like you said."

"Well, it was brilliant, Mether—"

A crackle. Faint, but it was there. A rustle. A snap. Then another. The twins turned one direction and another before Metheria nudged Walton. He felt her lips, warm at his ear, whispering viciously. "Do something, Walt!"

"I can't," he whispered back. "I spent my aura hexing Galvem—I don't have any left!"

"Walton!" Metheria's hair was almost tugged out by the roots as she whispered urgently. "How could you—what—we couldn't have done that! We took precautions every other time!"

"Well, this was once in many. How was I supposed to know the one murder we don't watch for is the one where someone catches us?"

"A simple tracking spell shouldn't have to take such a large amount of energy," she said bitterly as she whirled around at the prompting of another sound.

"Walton and Metheria Aresca," says the voice, ringing around the forest, and the twins don't gasp—they're beyond that—but they glare accusingly as they hear the voice. The voice shouldn't be alive—the twins abandoned them in a burning building nigh ten years ago—but the two voices of Pernelle and Nicholas Flamel ring around the clearing as the twins back up against each other, both auras blazing like fires.

"The Sorceress and the Alchemyst. Was I supposed to have known you survived?" Mock saluting and bowing, Walton stepped forth. "Perhaps you'd like me to bow. Well, times are changing. We're in charge now."

"We taught you everything you ever knew," the voice whispers around the dark trees, and the leaves shiver as the twins instinctively shake with them. "I can defeat you both easily. Painlessly, even."

"We are the twins of legend," Metheria says, stepping forth once more, but her voice quavers and she glances at Walton. "We will prevail."

"As you wish, girl," Nicholas says alone, almost amused. "But how?"

"V'racana," whispers the Sorceress with an almost sadistic delight, and both appear quite suddenly on opposite sides of the clearing, green and ice white swirling together in a sphere of pure auric power, and gold and silver is washed away in a tide of pale mint as auric energy blinds every being in the forest and a whisper echoes around the clearing, the voices of Pernelle and Nicholas high and eerie with power and something undefinable. "You have been charged for murder, and you will be condemned justly…"

"YOU CANNOT DEFEAT US," screams Walton. "WE ARE LEGEND! WE ARE UNDYING! YOU CANNOT DO THIS!"

Quite abruptly, the four are all gone, and the light has died. But peppermint, apple, sage, and lily still echo around the clearing in wafts of stench along with the lingering voice—"let me show you what I can do…"

The first Alice came before the spirits in the woods

Condemned her as a sinner,

Was kept to remain for good.

All she left is the gruesome path

Of bright and shimmering blood

Her death remains a mystery until this very day.

Edward and James

~The Mad King of Diamonds~

The second Alice was a tame and tender gentleman.

Singing songs to all the folks who lived in Wonderland.

He sang a song to fill up what was empty in the world.

Creating songs of madness that were waiting to be unfurled.

It was a fast, sprawling stretch of land that reached as far as Edward's eye could see. Squinting in midmorning sun, he gulped nervously. Was he to lead the people he had brought here to breathtaking victory…or hopeless defeat?

A hand meets his shoulder, and Edward looks back and smiles at his brother James.

A static spark traces along his shoulder line as aura sparks to aura, and both twins slowly turn back to see two black haired, pale-eyed passengers dismounting with regality barely seen in this day and age.

Nicholas and Pernelle Flamel.

Their mentors.

Little did the two know that the twins had a secret to magic more powerful than anything the Flamels could master.

When every passenger was out, gathering wood and provisions and what not, Edward began to slowly hum, collapsing onto the solid, dry land and fiddling with pieces of grass as he hummed out a simple little air he'd learned in church, not at all the most complicated. But his brother joined in, singing the simple lyrics to a hymn he had learned as their auras flared like two beacons, their song rising in harmony as their magic seemed to grow…

Still singing, Edward stood up and raised his palms straight out toward the sky, the forest, and the field before his aura blazed like a cloud of sunlight. Beside him, James ignited his own aura like a moonbeam as the whole glen was bathed in brilliant copper light that clouded everything from existence for all of a few seconds.

When the blazing glory was over, the entire forest had been cut and constructed into house after house, all completed. The empty fields had begun to germinate with wheat already, and a whole colony had been constructed and thrived within the all of thirty seconds.

Most impressive of all, the song of plenty the two had been singing whilst causing this horrid magic had fueled all the energy…and neither twin was depleted of their aura at all.

The others soon returned, a simple memory spell decimating any knowledge of the miraculous transformation that had happened.

All, that is, except for Nicholas and Pernelle Flamel.

The twins, in their celebration, didn't notice the two frowning at each other in a frustrated, tired manner.

They didn't notice their simultaneous look and nod.

"Ed?"

Turning slightly, Edward smiled lightly at the face of his twin, James, who was plucking white roses off of the nearby bush, plucking off the thorns, and weaving them into chains.

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever feel sorry for what we did? Like, killing all the animals and trees or stopping the others from learning the value of hard work?"

"No, not really. It's easier to ignore when we don't have the equal amount of energy taken from us. Our songs really do provide all the auric energy…I can't believe no one's found it before. Not even our mentors…think, James! We could be legend! We are legend! We'll change the world—we'll save it. And it won't even cost us a single thing! Not energy, not even that much time. With our task turned that easy, it's impossible to fail! We'll rule the world!"

"And are you willing to pay the price for that?"

Edward jumped back, startled—the mouth of James moved, but the voice trailed behind the motion and the sound was not the sound of his brother. Instead, the disembodied tone of a stern, angered Nicholas Flamel exuded from his brother's mouth.

"Nicholas? What are you doing? Release James at once, or face my wrath!"

"What will you do otherwise? Sing me a lullaby?" There was a tone of sarcasm and rather sadistic humor as Edward opened his mouth, closed it, and glared again at his not-brother. "That's right, I know it. And I've placed a ward around you to stop you from even talking. You may try, but consequences would be unpleasant."

"I suppose you're wondering why I chose to possess your brother as opposed to you. My reasoning is simple—you are the real villain of the piece. Your brother follows mindlessly after you, perhaps, but you are gold. You are the older of the twins—for one always comes first, no? And, because of this, it is you I must best. You fall, and your brother falls too."

"And what is your greatest undoing?" A smirk crossed James's face, and the uncharacteristic look of certainty and power on his face began to reveal to Edward the magnitude of what was happening. "The fact that you believe you will always have a follower. You believe that, always, someone will trust you and follow you to the ends of the world and back. But you are alone now. And betrayal is your biggest undoing."

A thorn plucked off the stem of a rose and pressed deep into a pulse on his neck, and Edward thought no more.

The sun was red and low in the sky, hazed by smoke, when his mind became his own again. James blinked, turning a small semicircle in the grass, fiddling with the roses in his hand.

"Edward? Edward?"

He looked down. His fingers were sticky and the roses were a splattered a dark shade of red.

His brother's blood was on his fingers, on his hands, everywhere, painting the roses and the grass and the bushes their shade of red.

A single scream, his mind withdrew, and the conscience he had reclaimed for such a little time disappeared as he fell.

And with him fell his dream, his future, and his colony.

This Alice was as fragile as the flowers all around

A madman came to hinder him and shot him to the ground.

His blood stained the roses to a bright and somber red.

And all who shunned him saw the roses, wept for what was dead.

Thomas and Cornelia

~The Queen of Clovers, the Persuasion Queen~

The third Alice was a young and lovely girl from Wonderland.

A truly pretty creature, was not to understand

She turned all of the people to her every beck and call.

And gave birth to a new country that rules above them all.

"Let me see you two again." Nicholas's eyes narrowed more as Thomas's eyes widened and Cornelia's batted. "No, I do not fall for that face. Ignite your auras again."

Obediently, two flares shot up, a beacon for every monster in the general vicinity. Their power was a magnitude beyond comprehension, more than some Elders.

"Well, you're certainly powerful…" Nicholas stopped. Something off-kilter was irking him, but it slipped his grasp and he nodded. "Very well. If you're so desperate to be trained and fight as the twins, I'll take you to the nearest Elder."

When he had left, Thomas smiled. "We've got it in the bag, Lia. What's to worry about? We're famous already—your pen, I mean. You've probably ignited at least two of the states to declare war on the Union. And me…well, c'mon, our dad's a good general. We're famous. All we need now is to become legend."

"I don't know, Tom…What if we're caught?"

"Hey, it's fine." Aura rising in a tidal wave, Thomas sent a rush of energy into Cornelia's aura, igniting it into a bright-colored moonbeam-tinted flare. Cornelia glanced at her own aura, a shimmering silver, as Thomas's own flared from the effort. It was a colossal amount of energy, but he didn't tire at all. "Hey, look at your aura."

Cornelia looked closely. "What?"

"I can't even see the gray from here." Walking closer, Thomas peered until what appeared to be unblemished silver was shown in its true nature—gray tinges peeking out in small quantities. It was not a lot, but it was enough to see when up close.

It was enough to prove to anyone who cared to look that closely that Cornelia was not meant to be the twin of legend.

"I can't even see it," smiled Thomas, adopting the French accent of Nicholas Flamel. "You truly are the twins of legend, gold and silver, my my!"

Cornelia cracked a smile. "Thanks, Tom," she said, peering closer at Tom's aura. "And I can barely see the copper in your aura either. No doubt about it, we've got the Flamels fooled. They think we're meant to be the twins of legend. And we will be," she added hastily at Tom's ashen face. "We will be…but we weren't meant to be."

"We're pretty persuasive, aren't we?"

This elicited a chuckle from Cornelia. "Obviously, to make the Flamels see gray as silver and copper as gold. But hey, I'm pretty and smart, you're handsome and athletic. We're popular. What's not to like about our life?"

"The fact that we might well have started the war?"

"We'll go down in legend as the instigators of the Civil War. All will tell the story about how the South won, how we made a new nation out of something old and dilapidated. And eventually, all will tell the story about how we won the world."

"So, I heard about the promotion," winked Thomas.

"I know, right?" Cornelia smiled, a blot of ink staining her nose. "I don't know what instigated General Lee to have me write the speeches for the victory…but I'm obviously proud. And speaking about promotions, I heard of yours. The youngest general yet, eh? A fine warrior you'll be. What's the first mission?"

"Old Sherman's set on getting his regiment to the sea, pillaging the whole way. I'm to stop him."

"Well, good luck." There was a pause as Cornelia glanced around critically, then commented conversationally. "You know, you could just call the sea to swallow them up. Make a wall of water from that sea and stop them short at Macon."

"They get to the sea, but they die in the process and not the sea they were thinking of…interesting." Thomas's eyes were alight, but quickly dimmed. "But you know Flamel. With luck, he'll let me grow a blade of grass in a deserted field at midnight…"

"Well, yeah, about that," said Cornelia, flawless face scrunching into a frown. "I was thinking. I ran into an Elder the other day, and he promised me immortality if we'd serve him. He'd let us do anything, he said."

"The Dark Elders?"

"They're not dark, Tom. That's a lie Flamel made up to stop us from achieving our full potential."

"You're speaking like the Elders."

"I'm speaking like someone who's weighed the options and seen which one will benefit us most."

There was a pause.

"Which one did you meet? Where can you find him?"

Red eyes, dark feathers. "Pledge allegiance to me," a croaking voice says.

Both step forward and speak as one. "We, Gold and Silver, Thomas and Cornelia Hale, do pledge our alliegance to the Elder One."

There is a moment of darkness, and when it clears, the alleyway reappears. "You may leave," the voice rumbles.

Both turn to leave, but the streets of Atlanta are empty. There is no sound, anywhere.

There is a moment of shock, and then Cornelia wails. "What has happened?"

The deep, scratchy voice of the Elder echoes terribly in the deserted streets. "Gold and Silver? HA! You may have fooled that plodding Alchemyst, but you have not fooled me. You'll live forever, alright. You'll live forever in my own personal shadowrealm, and you'll go mad until you beg for death that will not come!"

The Shadowrealm is on a dimension so segregated from the Earth that no one feels even the slightest aftershock of the scream.

The third Alice then became this country's sovereign queen.

But she withdrew, her nation lost in one distorted dream.

All she sees is rotting flesh inside her vanity

Afraid of death, she rules in place for all eternity.

Brandon and Hannah

~The Inquisitive Twins of Hearts~

Find the lightened forest path, that's where the journey starts.

A tea party with blue roses that's where the forest parts.

An invite from the queen, the invitation was

The trump card, the ace of hearts…

Lord Tammuz's realm. Green and lighted forest by anyone's standards.

"Well, there you are," Nicholas Flamel says, smiling warmly at the two. "Out you get. Enter the forest, ignite your auras, and tell him I sent you to reclaim the old debt he owes me. Say no more, no matter how he taunts you, lest you make a new enemy. And Tammuz is not someone you want to make as an enemy."

"Pardon, sir, but what is it he can do that you can't?"

"You flatter my abilities," smiled Nicholas. "But there is much he knows that I don't, and I would very much prefer for his servant Palamedes to remain my friend. He is a good person."

"As you wish, sir."

Ten steps into the forest when they could no longer see Flamel, and a swarm of nymphs melted out of dark green shadows. "And what business do you have here, foolish humani?"

"No normal humani," protested Hannah, igniting a powerful silver aura. "We are gold and silver, sent by the immortal Nicholas Flamel, who has sent us here to reclaim an old debt your master owes to him."

There was a moment of speculation when the nymphs conversed in an archaic tongue that neither twin understood, then the leader turned back toward them again. "The Green King does not talk with any normal being directly…but you are not normal." There was a pause. "You know you are to be awakened, don't you?"

"Yes."

"You know the dangers and accept them?"

"Yes."

There was a pause. "I have seen you before."

"What?"

"Many eons ago, back when my master owed a different debt to that immortal humani. He awakened you. And do you know what happened?"

"No."

"You both died. An overload of senses. Well, you, anyway," the nymph deadpanned, pointing at Brandon. "Your sister went blind and deaf within the first moon."

"I…"

A new nymph appeared in front of the first, bowing. "The Green King will see you now."

"You've come to be awakened."

"Yes."

"Sit."

Two chairs wove themselves out of vines almost directly in front of the throne, a table appearing in between the throne and the two chairs.

Obediently, the two sat.

"Drink."

"What?"

Two curling autumn leaves appeared, both filled with a lukewarm liquid and a single green tea leaf. The twins exchanged a confused glance, but one gave a miniscule shrug and picked up the cup by three fingers and took a small sip, the twin copying similarly.

"Look up."

Both looked up to a canopy of leaves, but the Green Man snapped his fingers and vines curled off from the over-hanging branches. Budding roses began curling off the leaves, and the white roses soon had a small film of water dripping from them, making the roses appear blue. The water smelled salty and briny, like the ocean, and red splattered it.

"Is that…"

Brandon stood up, peering closer and squinting, before plopping back down with a look of revulsion etching itself on his face. "Is that blood?"

"It is the blood of the last twins I awakened for Nicholas Flamel. I watched here, from my scrying pool, as they sailed the sea from England to America. The water from that ocean is what covers those roses. The blood from the gold twin is what splatters that plant. It is the blood that was shed when Nicholas Flamel killed him."

"What?"

"Did he have a good reason?"

"Good enough, I suppose—dark magic was at the root of the problem with those twins. But that is not my point. My point is that the Flamels's life ambition is to find the twins, and he will stop at nothing to get them. Including disposing of the wrong ones. So I ask again, are you willing?"

"Yes."

"Then—"

"A bad call," a rasping voice rang out. The Green King was frozen, his mouth open, tongue stuck in motion, unblinking. The wind had stopped blowing, the sunlight had stopped flickering, and the leaves had stopped rustling.

"Who…who are you?"

"Cornelia Hale," said a high, raspy voice.

"Thomas Hale," said a deep, quavering voice.

"Gold and Silver," Cornelia added.

"Oh?" Brandon's eyebrows were raised. "If you're gold and silver, why aren't you with Nicholas Flamel, defending the world?"

"A number of reasons." Thomas's voice was accusing. "First, we joined the Elders—"

"The Dark Elders?"

"Only Dark because Flamel says they are."

"They're good, really," rasped Cornelia. "We're immortal because of them. All we need to do is serve them…and for something so simple we are immortal."

"And what do you want with us?" Hannah's tone was wild with rage as she stood up. "Let time move again! We are about to be awakened!"

"We are offering you a deal," whispered Thomas. "Join us. Abandon Flamel. You see what he did to the twins before you. You will be awakened by our Elder. You will be immortal. You will rule the world."

"I suppose your Elder promised you the same things. You're gold and silver, but you're not ruling the world, are you?"

"We are not pure gold and silver."

"Indeed," said Cornelia, a hint of amusement touching her mocking tone. "We tricked the Flamels."

"He had good reason to kill those twins. Let us go, I say! We will never serve you!"

There was a charged pause. Then Thomas spoke up again.

"You've made a grandiose mistake."

"But we'll let you repent," whispered Cornelia. "Our Elder is forgiving."

A card slid into the air, the ace of hearts.

"When you're ready to follow your heart, tell us."

Floating on a waft of ice-cold wind that was definitely not natural, the card slid into Hannah's pocket.

The Green King was spurred back into motion.

"Then let us begin."

He saw their faces.

"May I inquire what—"

"Nothing," Hannah quipped quickly.

"Nope," said Brandon as the Green Man's gaze turned to him. "Nothing at all."

The fourth Alice was pair of curious siblings with their wits.

Straying into Wonderland is where their tale begins.

Interested in the all the worlds they passed through many doors.

Inquisitive, on their every whim, became two great explorers.

"Where are we?"

Nicholas Flamel nodded happily at the scene. "Both of you have learned so much from these past years. I have almost complete faith that you're the real twins. So now it's time to show both of you where you came from…who you really are…or should I say were?"

"What?"

The door to the old deserted shack opened with a bang on a waft of peppermint. "Come on in to the Shadowrealm of Danu Talis."

"What?"

"Didn't you know?" Nicholas's eyes were wide. "Have my years of telling you about everything and anything about Shadowrealms taught you nothing? There is a Shadowrealm for every point in time. And now I'm about to take you to your first Shadowrealm…the Shadowrealm where the twins first brought about the fall of Danu Talis."

"How was that?" Nicholas Flamel drew the twins by hand out of the door, out of a bright light that clouded the realm.

"It was…"

"Wonderful. Magical."

"Are all the Shadowrealms that amazing?

"No. Some are horrid. But all hold knowledge unreachable now. Why? What do you have in mind?"

"If you don't mind, I'd like to look back and see the twins before me, and how they fared."

Nicholas automatically stiffened. "Who told you?"

"Lord Tammuz. He told us everything about the twins he awakened for you. And—"

"And what?"

"…A pair of twins showed up. Cornelia and Thomas—"

"Hale. They asked you to join their Elders, didn't they?"

"They did."

"Then you should know that they weren't real gold and silver. They tried to trick me, and I fell for them. They tried to trick their Elder, and he didn't. He shut them in his own Shadowrealm, the Deserted Georgia Shadowrealm in the era of the Civil War. They went mad, and in their madness, their master took over their minds and sorted their memories. They are now sane, but they have falsified memories of fake evils I have done and all good deeds their Elder has done. They serve him, while he works through them."

"Yes, but we'd like to see it ourselves, to see if they're really at fault. I'm sorry, Nicholas, we really do like and trust you…but we'd just like to make sure."

"I understand. And after you have seen it, you will know for sure I have only your good in mind."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

"Here." Nicholas paused a second and pulled a shard of stone out of his pocket.

"This is a piece of Clarent, the Coward's blade. It is from the tip, and will not possess or harm you. You may use it to open a portal to any Shadowrealm, anywhere, at your word."

"Thank you, sir."

"May you do well. Learn all you can. And may your names live on forever as Ti Oantilils, the Explorer of Realm and Realm in between."

"Thank you, our guide and mentor. Please, can you tell us where to go?"

"Hm…" Nicholas thought for a moment, then took the piece of Clarent from Hannah's hand. Muttering incessantly over it, he finally put it down. "There."

"What?"

"The first three times you use this stone, it will guide you to what I consider to be my three greatest failures."

"And they are…?"

"Walton Aresca, Edward Mantell, and Cornelia Hale. Of course, their twins were also quite evil, but I feel those were the three biggest instigators of their twins. When it comes to the Twins I train and evil, usually one leads the other into folly."

"Huh…thanks, Nicholas."

"Anytime. Oh, and you two?"

They turned simultaneously.

"Come back soon. You still need to change the world."

"Nicholas?"

"Hm?"

"How do you create a Shadowrealm?"

"Well, usually an Elder does, but people powerful enough can usually make their own. There's a bit of complex magic involved…why? What were you thinking of?"

"I was thinking that maybe…maybe I could make one? I mean, I've been to so many. I want to make my own personal world. A paradise of my own, if you will, where I could learn, safe from every danger, until I could defeat the Dark Elders and save the world once and for all. Plus, maybe Hannah could use it as a present. We'd both love it, I'm sure."

"It isn't that simple. There are many inconsistencies involved. And if one thing goes wrong…then you could quite possibly die."

"I know. But my protection for an indefinite amount of time…that's a risk I'm willing to take. In this way, I will be safe until I become the real twin."

There was a pause.

"I truly believe you are the real twins. Go ahead. Make your world. If you're successful, I think it's time to let you begin your fight against the Dark Elders."

"Oh, wow, Brandon! This is completely perfect! It's like something out of a fairytale…but I thought you didn't like this kind of stuff?"

"This is your side. My side's a bit further over."

"Let me guess. Medieval-era cross between Roman-style gladiators?"

"You know me well."

"Well, we'd better tell Nicolas it worked out well. He was a bit doubtful."

Drawing the piece of stone out of her pocket, Hannah drew a doorway in the air, a shimmering piece of glass with not back and no front, simply standing there. Holding her hand in front of the door, a doorknob appeared out of nowhere. Hannah grasped it and turned.

It didn't open.

"W—what?"

Wide eyes turned to wide eyes as alarm flared up in both pupils.

"It won't open."

"You're kidding."

"It won't open."

"It has every other time, you just have to turn it hard enough, oh move over and let me try it…come…on!"

"Any luck?"

"No, but it's bound to open sooner or later, right?"

Neither answered, but both were wondering whether or not it would.

"Nicholas did say that there might be problems, and if it did, we might be stuck for…forever."

"I'd go mad if we had to stay here forever."

"We're the twins of legend—just yesterday Nicholas was telling me he was almost completely sure. This was our last test."

"Key word: almost."

"You mean we'll stay here, lost forever?"

A pause.

"No. It will open."

"It has to."

It didn't.

The stubborn older sister and the clever younger brother.

Were closer to seeing the nature of the true Alice than others.

But both will never wake up from the dream that they had planned.

Forever they will wander hopelessly in Wonderland.

Who will be the next Alice?