Disclaimer: I do not own Pandora Hearts or any of it's characters.

Chains

"Another mission completed." Alice sighed tiredly. She had just finished destroying the 50th chain in under a month. She was exhausted.

Gilbert put the seal on the B-rabbit's powers back in place, and Alice returned to her human form. The brunette fell to her knees from exhaustion, landing in a pile of the Chains' blood, panting from exertion. She clutched her throbbing heart as she tried to calm her rapid heart rate and breathing.

Oz ran to her aid, sliding to a stop in front of her. He scanned her for scratches and bruises, finding to his relief there were none. The blond hugged his chain protectively, feeling her difficulty breathing. He kneeled and picked her up bridal style before carrying her over to Gil. They walked to the carriage waiting on the outskirts of town and climbed in.

After several minutes of relaxing as the carriage brought them back to the Reinsworth mansion Alice calmed down and fell asleep in her contractor's arms. When the carriage came to a stop in front of the mansion the trio got out of the carriage, Oz carrying Alice. Oz laid Alice down on the couch closest to the fireplace and dragged over a blanket; draping it over the sleeping brunette.

He then roamed the rooms until he located Break, who was sitting on the back patio eating sugar cubes. Upon seeing the blond he greeted, "Why, hello Oz! What can I do for you?"

Oz answered, "We need a break. Alice is getting overworked, and i'm starting to worry about her health."

Break smiled. "Well, you're in luck." He popped another sugar cube in his mouth before continuing. "We have one last mission we have to offer that you guys can do. Then you'll have a break."

"What's the next mission?" Oz asked. He plopped down into the seat across from the one-eyed man. Break offered him a piece of cake, which Oz politely turned down.

"There's been a chain spotted near the sight of the Tragedy of Sablier, and we need you to check it out."

"But isn't that place connected directly to the abyss? Shouldn't chains in that area be normal?"

Break ate a tea cake in one bite before replying. "Yes, from time to time. However, because of it's connection to the abyss we need to make sure that the Baskervilles aren't planning to do anything sinister." He explained.

Oz nodded. The mission wouldn't be too exhausting for Alice. Just one chain; that was 7 less than their earlier mission.

After a moment Break questioned, "Where's Alice and Raven?"

The blond replied, "Gil is in the kitchen probably, and Alice is resting in the living room. " His stomach growled, asking to be fed. "When's dinner, i'm starving?"

The albino answered, "Any time now, the cook started the meal a few hours ago."

As if on cue, Gilbert walked in and announced, "Dinner's done."

"Great, i'll go wake Alice up. She'll get mad at me if I don't wake her." Oz said as he jogged down the hall to the living room. He kneeled down next to his sleeping chain and shook her shoulder lightly, rousing her from her slumber.

She rubbed her eyes and looked blankly at her contractor; too sleepy to comprehend anything at the moment. "What?" She croaked, her voice rough from sleeping.

Oz whispered, "Dinner."

The brunette was immediately was filled with energy. She jumped up, intending to run straight to the kitchen; however, she lost her balance as soon as her feet hit the ground, causing her to stumble into her friend's arms. Oz caught her before she fell to the floor and helped her regain her footing before letting her go. Alice and Oz then walked to the kitchen where everyone else was already waiting at the table. They sat, and everybody began eating.

Alice ate the most out of everyone, naturally, and as soon as he was done she walked off to her room. When everyone had finished Oz returned to his own room. As he changed into his pjs he thought.

Tomorrow was going to be a rough day, he could feel it. There was also a sense of insecurity he couldn't quite seem to shake; like he knew something bad was going to happen.

He climbed under the covers and relaxed, drifting off in seconds from their hard days work.

Beepbeepbeepbe-Oz slammed his hand down on the alarm clock, effectively ending the annoying beeping. He sat up and stretched before he got out of bed and dressed for their last mission.

After he was done Oz walked to the kitchen to make breakfast without waking his chain; she needed all the rest she could get. He quickly made some scrambled eggs and bacon then decided to wake Alice up.

When he knocked on her door it opened; she must have forgotten to lock it last night. Oz peered around the wall to see the bed, where his friend was fast asleep. A small smile tugged at his lips when he gently shook her shoulder and she looked up at him with the most adorable face.

"Breakfast." He said, answering her unanswered question of 'Why did you wake me?'

She nodded ever so slightly in recognition to his words. The brunette got out of bed with the help of her contractor and they both walked back to the kitchen so they could eat. When they were almost done Gilbert came in, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Oz got up and pulled a container of eggs and bacon from the fridge and handed it to his valet; he knew that if he left all the food on the table none would be left for Gil, so he thought ahead and saved some for him. Gil thanked him gratefully, ate his portion then began washing the dishes. While Oz and Alice waited for Gil to finish they dozed off on their chairs until the raven-haired man woke them up so they could get going.

The carriage ride to the capital was fairly long, giving everyone aboard another few hours of sleep. Gil and Oz woke up when the carriage came to an abrupt stop. Gil looked out the window to see what the problem was, then screamed, "Damn it!"

He slammed the door open, revealing the chain that they were hunting roaming the streets, attacking everyone and everything in it's path. The chain was called Holy Knight, a chain that wore shining armour that glistened like the sun. It was huge, about the same size as the B-rabbit.

It looked over at the trio and cried, "The B-rabbit's here! If I eat it, then i'll be so much stronger than I already am!" It charged.

Oz shook Alice a little too roughly as he tried to wake her up; panic rising up from the pit of his stomach. Alice woke up confused, having no idea what was going on.

"Alice!" Oz yelled. "The chain is coming after us! Wake up!"

The girl stood without her usual enthusiasm she had when she got to defeat another chain and sighed, "The faster I get this over with the faster we can go home."

Gil unsealed her powers, allowing Alice to transform into the infamous B-rabbit. She scowled at the chain charging towards her, showing off her sharp teeth.

"When will these cards ever learn?" She wondered out loud.

"Alice, watch out!" Oz coached as the chain was upon her; but she was ready for it. She jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being sliced by the chain's massive sword, then slashed it in the side; denting the armour. Holy Knight knocked Alice sideways, shoving her into a brick building.

She grunted from the impact, causing Oz to call out with worry, "Alice? Are you okay!?"

The rabbit responded, "I'm fine. This card is simply getting on my nerves!"

She dug her scythe into her opponent's abdomen, piercing the armour and puncturing through to the other side. The chain screamed in pain as Alice yanked her scythe out of it, then watched as it sank back into the abyss.

"That'll teach you to mess with me!" She snarled.

"ALICE! WATCH OUT!" Oz screamed at the top of his lungs. He tried to run to his friend, but Gilbert held him back.

She turned around to see what Oz was warning her about, but instead of seeing what Oz had warned her about she felt something heavy slam into her head, throwing her backwards into another building.

"ALICE!" Oz cried again.

Said girl shook her head to rid her vision of the stars invading it. "I'm fine. Just caught me off guard." She reassured.

This time her opponent was Pitch Piper, a chain who solely relied on it's tunes to confuse and manipulate enemies. It began playing a song on it's ocarina that messed with Alice's head.

She shook her head again trying to ignore the voice creeping it's way into her mind, still unable to see clearly from the stars. Irritatedly she charged her opposer, intending to slice a hole in it's mid section. Pitch Piper stopped playing and gave her an insane smile before using the instrument to block her blade. She drove the scythe as hard as she could into the ocarina, though she couldn't seem to break it.

Suddenly, before anyone could think or do anything, a pole controlled by Piper's tune pierced through Alice's back, narrowly missing her heart.

"OH MY GOD! ALICE!" Oz screamed. He fought Gilbert's grip on him with all his strength, to no avail. She looked at the object impaling her and yanked it out, dropping it beside herself.

Using his free arm, Gil shot Piper several times in the head, causing it to disappear back into the abyss. Oz struggled more and more, the panic driving him more and more insane until his valet finally resealed the B-rabbit's powers and let him go. The blond rushed to his chain and kneeled next to her, inspecting the gaping hole in her chest.

He turned to Gilbert and demanded, "Where's the nearest hospital!?"

Gil scanned the area briefly. "One or two miles down the road." He ran over to his master and picked up the brunette bridal style. "Let's go!" He cried as they ran as fast as they could with a wounded girl to the carriage.

As he climbed in Gil ordered the driver, "Hospital, now!"

The carriage wheeled to life, rolling down the streets at a pace that made the passengers flop up and down from the force of every bump they hit in the road. Alice wearily glanced around the carriage, unable to see her companions. She was in so much pain she couldn't even bing herself to cry out from the crippling sensation.

The girl looked down at the gaping wound in her chest, shocked by the amount of blood she was losing; you would think she was a murder victim. She rasped in breath after breath, sucking in as much air as she could get. When they were almost there the pain became too much for her, causing her to pass out, which only freaked out the already terrified Oz even more.

As the carriage rolled into the parking lot Gil thruster some money at Oz to pay the driver with before he jumped out of the still moving carriage, headed for the hospital doors. He burst in yelling, "I need some help over here!"

Immediately several nurses rushed in a stretcher which Gil laid the brunette on. The one of the nurses asked, "What happened?"

Gilbert replied, "She got involved in a fight and a pole went through her body." Alice was wheeled down the hallway by the running nurses, out of the raven-haired man's sight.

After several second Oz joined him in the waiting room, severely shaken up. Gil tried to comfort him, but whatever comfort he could give made little impact. The only thing that could soothe his worries was seeing his chain alive, not in danger of death. The hours ticked by agonizingly slow, torturing the duo as they awaited news of their friend's fate. Gil suggested that Oz take a nap to loosen up, but the boy was too tense to even relax, much less fall asleep; he couldn't even imagine sleeping while his chain could be dying in the other room at that very second.

Finally, after what seemed like years a doctor emerged from the room they had brought Alice into. Oz sat up expectantly, fearing the worst. The doctor sat down next to them and flipped through the papers on his clipboards, sighing.

He looked up at the two people anxiously awaiting his evaluation. He started, "Your friend is in very bad shape. She should be dead." Oz's breath hitched on the word 'dead'.

"However," He continued. " she seems to be doing much better now than when you brought her in." The blond breathed out the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"But she is still jeopardy. She lost a lot of blood, we're lucky the pole didn't pierce her heart, or else she would've died instantly." The doctor informed them.

Oz was unable to speak, so Gil thanked the man for him, and the doctor walked back to Alice's room. The raven-haired man glanced over at his master, who had his head in his hands, shoulders shaking lightly. He paced a comforting hand on his back, wishing he could stop the poor boy's pain. Why did they go on that mission in the first place?

"This is all my fault." He muttered under his breath. If they hadn't gone on the mission, if he had pleaded with Break for a sooner vacation this wouldn't have happened. If he had noticed what Pitch Piper was doing earlier he could have warned her.

Gil whispered, "No it's not."

Oz looked up at his valet, tears staining his cheeks. "I could have prevented it."

Gilbert pulled the blond in for a hug. "But you didn't cause it." He pointed out.

The boy's lower lip quivered. "I'm her contractor. It's my responsibility to watch over her and not let anything bad happen to her." He lowered his head and sniffed once. "I failed."

"No you didn't. None of us knew Pitch Piper was going to do that, you need to stop blaming yourself for every bad thing that happens to those around you." Gil said firmly. He placed a hand under the boy's chin, forcing him to look up. "You have a bad habit of doing that."

Oz sighed. "Yeah, but-"

"No buts."

The blond sighed again in resignment, maybe Gil was right. It still didn't change the fact that his friend was in the hospital because a pole was driven through her body.

They waited again for an update on Alice's condition, this time Oz began to get a bit drowsy, though he refused to let himself fall asleep. The same doctor as before walked over to them this time he didn't seem as down as the last time; which put Oz in a hopeful mood.

"How is she doing?" Gilbert asked the doctor.

"Badly, but she's stabilizing. She's awake, and keeps asking for her colleagues." He said.

Oz's face lit up in anticipation. "Can we see her?" The blond asked hopefully.

The doctor replied,"I don't see why not."

Gil and Oz looked at each other. "You'll have to stay quiet though, the last thing we need is to stress her out." He said.

The boys stood and followed the doctor to Alice's room. Inside were three nurses huddled around a hospital bed in the center of the room. When they saw the duo they moved aside, revealing the girl laying there. Oz covered his mouth with a hand as his breath hitched at the sight of her condition.

Sh looked horrible. Her skin was ghostly white, void of all color, making her look as if she was dead. The medical down she was wearing had a large bloodstain on the chest; the blood looked old in one places and new in others. Her small frame shook with every heartbeat and heaving breath.

"Alice?" Oz gasped.

I'm going to continue this story no matter what, but reviews will get chapters uploaded faster.