((So, just to tell you a bit more about the story before you start it… This is the first fanfiction I've posted on this site, and it's been a while since I've written very much, so I'm a little rusty. Shatter will follow the plotline of the actual anime, just with my random OCs thrown in for fun. Not very original, I know, but there you have it. It will probably be very, very long. I'd love to include a picture at the top of each chapter, but I guess I can't do that. Oh, well. In any case, please let me know what you think!
Note: I don't own Pandora Hearts or any of its characters. So, please don't sue me~?))
Shatter
A Pandora Hearts Fanfiction
Chapter One: Chance
The cobblestone street was mercifully deserted, and at any other time she would have paused for a moment to admire the soft, silvery moonlight that glowed on every surface, lending the entire town of Nosambria a nostalgic and dreamlike atmosphere.
But now was not "any other time", and instead she hurtled down the street like a frightened rabbit, her dark chocolate hair streaming behind her as her feet thudded irregularly on the cobblestones, her ragged panting and racing heart the only other sounds she could hear clearly. If she concentrated, however, she could just make out the sound of another pair of feet hitting the stone quite a way behind her; the measured, sharp, businesslike tap-tap-tapping… So different now from all the times when-
Don't- think about that now! You might stop running, and then what? She clenched her teeth and focused on moving as quickly as possible. If he does- catch me… Would he really-?
BANG.
Her silent question was answered harshly as a bit of the wall of a small shack a little way ahead of her suddenly exploded outwards in splinters, falling to the ground followed by a small bullet. Her sea-green eyes widened, the pupils small and trembling. A desperate sob welled up in her throat, but she quickly shoved it back down. I can't break down yet. I can't- I can't let him catch me…
… But do I really deserve to live, after all?
She ran on, teetering on the edge of panic. Over the sounds of her footsteps and heartbeat, she was beginning to hear the muted, vague roar of a crowd. Good! Maybe I can lose him there! He was already far behind her, for even though he'd been trained, she was quick and agile. She'd always been faster than him, much to his chagrin-
She skidded around the corner of an intersection and relief flooded her. People! There were people on this street, and though the crowd was relatively thin, surely he wouldn't risk shooting at her with so many witnesses!
… Would he? He'd always been so dedicated, stopping at nothing to do his job… And she had a terrible feeling that he now held a special grudge against her… How far would he go?
Her relief fled before this thought, and she sprinted on down the street without a pause, drawing odd looks from some of the more fancily dressed passerby. After a few moments she risked a glance over her shoulder. She noted that he must be farther behind than she'd thought- he hadn't rounded the corner yet, though she didn't know how close he was. She turned her attention forward again. If I can just make it to that side road up there before he rounds that corner, maybe I can lose him-
Most of the passerby strolled along the edges of the road, but there was one small group that walked right down the middle, and they were between her and her chosen escape route. She veered slightly to one side before she got anywhere near them, keeping an eye on them to make sure they didn't inadvertently walk right in front of her; the last thing she needed right now was a collision-
Right there in the middle of the street, mid-run, Grace Sorelle froze up and stumbled to a halt, a halt that she could not afford. Her wide eyes were locked on that group of people. A tall man, dark-haired, dark-clad and ominous. A young boy with bright golden hair, emerald eyes gazing broodingly at the ground. And…
A girl. A girl with dark, brown-tinted hair that reached almost to the cobblestones, dressed in a strange long coat and short skirt, with vivid violet eyes that looked fierce and bold in a strangely lonely way.
Around her hovered a faint lavender aura, an aura that Grace had seen only a few times, an aura that she'd come to associate with fear and death and destruction.
Chain.
She stood there for a moment and just stared, eyes wide, stunned and incredulous. The few chains that she'd encountered had never looked so human, had never appeared so casual with other people as this chain seemed to be with her two companions as they all walked together down the street, the tall man seemingly bickering with the chain girl. And although this chain had that familiar look in her eyes, like an animal in the wild…
For some reason, she didn't have that malicious look that Grace had observed in the other chains she'd seen.
The sound of another pair of running footsteps far behind her jolted Grace out of her brief trance, and she bolted once again down the road. Towards the chain and her travelling companions.
The dark-haired man and the chain were still engrossed in their argument, but the blond boy was already looking at her, his emerald eyes puzzled and vaguely concerned in the common expression of someone witnessing a girl as she sprints through a crowd for an unknown reason. As she neared them, feeling the desperation of her expression, hearing her own ragged panting and thudding heart, the concern on the boy's face grew, along with a tinge of alarm. When she was less than ten feet away, he spoke. "Hey," he called, "are you okay? What're you running from?" As he spoke, the girl and the tall man paused in their argument to look her way as well.
It was then that she came to a snap decision, one that she knew she might wind up regretting. She skidded to a stop right in front of them, gasping for breath, and locked her eyes onto the boy's, then onto the dark-haired man's, feeling the urgency in her expression, putting even more into her voice.
"You should- get out of here, quickly. If- he finds out…" She turned her gaze on the chain, the girl with the long dark hair. "If he finds out- what you are- he'll come after you, too." She saw the girl's violet eyes widen slightly with surprise, but of course there was no fear in the expression.
The boy, on the other hand, looked shocked and slightly frightened. "What…? How do-"
The footsteps were so close now, so close, and she couldn't waste any more time if she truly wanted to live. "I'm sorry," she gasped out, and then broke into a run again, dodging around them.
After a moment, she noticed something alarming. The other person's footsteps had stopped. Grace skidded to a stop and whirled around.
And there he was. A young man, several inches taller than she was, with bright ginger hair in a very short ponytail and brown eyes. Dressed in a black-and-white jacket and trench coat, with a silver pistol held at his side in one white-gloved hand.
And he'd stopped a few feet away from the chain and her fellow travelers. Grace looked on in horror as he eyed them all with sudden suspicion. No, no, they didn't do anything, don't go after them! She didn't know why she felt that these were not bad people, but her friends had always deemed her an excellent judge of character, and she could not ignore this strange instinct that had always proved so dependable. And so she did something else reckless and unwise.
"Chris!" She shouted, her voice cracking. His head snapped up to look at her, suspicion replaced by that heart-wrenching look that burned itself into her memory; pain, betrayal, and that awful, grim anger. Grace threw her hands out to either side, opening herself up as a target. "You're after me, not them," she cried fiercely, aware that her voice was trembling in a very un-heroic way. "Remember?"
She was rewarded by the sight of him raising his pistol and aiming it straight and true at her heart. Terror flooded her, and she threw herself down to one side an instant before the BANG pierced the air. She scrambled quickly back to her feet and took off again.
And the footsteps started again behind her, but then there were two pairs of footsteps behind her, and soon after that both of them stopped. She slowed and looked over her shoulder.
There was that boy, standing there in the middle of the street with his arms spread to either side just as her own had been a moment before. He was directly in Chris's path, and she saw the gunman's fists clench. Behind him, the tall man's golden eyes were wide with alarm, and he barked out one word. "Oz!"
The boy, Oz, did not move. "You're not killing anyone today," he said with surprising calmness, his voice strong and firm, "if I have anything to say about it." Chris's eyes narrowed slightly, and the tall man quickly moved around him to stand by the blond boy's side, one hand going to his pocket as though he had a concealed weapon of his own. The chain girl followed to stand on the boy's other side, glaring at Chris skeptically. "Leave now," Oz continued grimly, "before we report you to the police."
A shadow fell over Chris's eyes as he looked down, teeth clenched. Grace could see the tendons straining in his hand as he held his gun in a tight grip. Slowly, he looked up, over the shoulders of the group barring his way, and his eyes locked on Grace's. They were grim and cold, and sent a chilling message that he didn't need to put a voice to. 'No matter where you run, I will find you.'
Then, abruptly, he turned around and strode away, stuffing his gun unceremoniously under his coat as he did so.
Neither Grace nor the three people in front of her moved until Chris was out of sight. Then, slowly, she sank to her knees on the cobblestones, trembling violently.
Immediately, the man with the dark hair turned on Oz. "What were you thinking?" he snapped gruffly, looking genuinely upset. "Do you realize how easy it would've been for him to-?"
"It's okay, Raven. I'm fine." Oz turned around to look at Grace where she knelt in the road, shivering. Most of the crowd was gone; probably due to the gun-wielding man they'd seen shooting at an innocent bystander. That was… So close. He was really going to kill me. She'd avoided a breakdown thus far by sheer necessity; she couldn't afford to waste her breath sobbing when death was hard on her heels. But for now at least, he was gone, and Grace felt the hot tears beginning to leak from her eyes. How did things go so wrong…?
"Are you okay?" Oz walked closer and stopped a few feet away, looking down at her with concern. "He's gone now-"
The chain girl pushed past him- with enough force to make him stumble- to stand right in front of Grace, her hands on her hips and her expression grim. "How did you know that I'm a chain?" she demanded bluntly.
Oz blinked. "Alice-" he started.
"Oh, shut up. She knew already. She said so herself." Alice continued to glare down at her with those relentless violet eyes. "Well?" she pushed flatly. Both Oz and Raven looked at Grace as well.
Grace was silent for a long moment. "I-I…" She swallowed and let her gaze drop to the ground. She couldn't look at them, not with the terrible weight of what her next words implied. Even though one of them must carry a similar burden. It did nothing to lessen her shame.
"I… It's one of the powers of-..." She swallowed again, and her next words escaped in a whisper. "Of my chain."
Silence. She didn't dare look up to see their reactions. "My chain," she continued very quietly, just to break the hush that had fallen over them, "can sense the presence of other chains… And- well, she has another power, too, but…" she risked a glance at the three people's faces.
What she saw there hurt to look at. Oz's eyes were wide with shock. Raven's face was a combination of surprise and frustration, his expression showing his thoughts quite plainly: Damn. We're not out of danger yet. Alice's expression was surprised and wary. After a moment, Oz spoke. His voice was almost as quiet as Grace's had been. "You're… a contractor?"
She flinched slightly at the word. "Y-… yes…"
Slowly, the man called Raven stepped forward to stand in front of Oz and Alice. His golden eyes narrowed as he looked down at Grace. "I should've guessed as much," he muttered. "That man chasing her was dressed in the official uniform of Pandora."
Oz quickly looked up at him. "Well," he said, having recovered from the shock, "she doesn't seem dangerous." Raven turned a look of blank disbelief on Oz, who frowned stubbornly. "She just went out of her way to warn us about that Pandora guy," he pointed out. "She didn't have to do that. And then she almost took a bullet trying to get him away from us!" He looked back at Grace and smiled. How can he be so collected after all that? she wondered. "Thanks for that," Oz said brightly, and, in spite of a sound of protest from Raven, held out one hand to her.
She just looked at it for a moment, still kneeling on the ground. Then she carefully reached out and took it. Oz shook her hand before helping her up. "My name is Oz Bezarius," he said, gaining another sharp glance from Raven. "And these are my friends, Raven-" he gestured at Raven, who looked surprised to be called a friend, "- and Alice."
Alice looked even more surprised than Raven did, but her expression quickly changed to a grudging scowl. "Huh. Don't get so arrogant, manservant," she grumbled, but Grace thought that under the mask of annoyance the chain seemed almost pleased. Confused, but pleased.
Oz grinned at Alice before looking back to Grace. "So what's your name?" he asked.
Grace blinked uncertainly, looking from one face to another. After a moment, she replied hesitantly. "I'm Grace… Grace Sorelle."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Grace." Oz cast pointed glances to his right and left, where Raven and Alice stood. "Right, guys?" They both looked at him flatly for a moment.
"… Hmph." Raven folded his arms across his chest and looked at Grace grudgingly. "Yeah, I guess… Nice to meet you." But if you wind up turning on us, you're as good as dead, said his expression. He clearly didn't approve of how trusting Oz seemed to be, Grace noted.
Alice just looked at her as though sizing up an opponent. Oz elbowed her in the ribs, and she promptly backhanded him right in the face. THWACK. THUD. The blond boy lay sprawled on the ground. Alice turned away, crossing her own arms. "Psh. Whatever."
A vein throbbed on Raven's head. "Oi, you can't just knock him out like that, stupid rabbit!"
"He's my manservant! I can do whatever I want with him! So shut it, Seaweed-Head!"
And so another round of bickering ensued. Grace sweatdropped. Oz sat up, rubbing his face. "Nnh…" He climbed to his feet. "Anyway…" He smiled good-humoredly at Grace. "Since you can't really stay here, you can come with us. You're probably going to have to tell your whole story, though, since Bre-"
Alice and Raven immediately broke off from their arguing. "WHAAAT?" they both half-shouted in unison.
"Oz, you can't be serious. This girl is an illegal contractor! We can't just go around taking in strays as if-"
"Are you forgetting that our goal is to find my memories? I don't want this stupid kid getting in my way while-!"
"-Do you remember Break's reaction to learning that you were an illegal contractor? You know you can't just-!"
"Uh, I- Really, that's okay, you don't have to-" Grace broke in desperately in an attempt to diffuse the situation.
"Look…" Everyone stopped and looked at Oz obediently. He frowned at them all before looking at Grace. "If we leave you here, that guy will find you. And we saw what he would do if he caught you, didn't we?" He looked at Raven. "She'd be better off taking her chances with Break throwing her in prison than she would if she stayed here and waited for that guy to come after her with a gun again. And anyway, it's not like she's evil, or anything, so maybe we can convince him to make an exception! He did with us, didn't he?"
Raven frowned. "But, Oz, he needed you for his own purp-"
But Oz had already turned to Alice. "And Alice, she has her own chain. After we've explained everything to her, if she wants to, maybe she can help us."
Alice scowled. "I don't need any more h-"
Oz turned back to Grace and nodded matter-of-factly as if it was already decided. "So don't worry about it," he said brightly, ignoring his friends' annoyed looks. "You can come with us. It'll work out."
Grace blinked. "I… Um… Well…" She looked down. "… All right," she said at last. "All right... Thank you."
Oz grinned. "Well, that's settled!" He looked up at Raven, who looked less than pleased. "So anyway, where was the carriage, again?"
