Disclaimer: Don't own Bakugan. TT_TT That is all...
AN: *sigh* Why are there no good dark Alice fics for Bakugan? Seriously! The only ones I have found have her with a split personality or being controlled, so that doesn't really count. I intend to do a fic where the Alice everyone thinks is the real one is a mask for someone else, who is on no one's side but, well... You'll just have to read and see.
Ch 1: Your Inner Silence
"And then, I let him have it with my secret weapon, Frame Fire!" Dan Kuso crowed. "Man, you should have seen me! I was, like, totally wicked! But then again, what would you expect from the world's greatest Bakugan brawler!"
"Whatever," scoffed the blue-nette, Runo Misaki, "I just checked the rankings, and you're sitting at 121."
Dan looked baffled and frowned. "That's impossible, Runo. I've got to check this one out for myself." He pulled up the rankings and grimaced. She was right, but how could this be? He was one of the famed Battle Brawlers, for Pete's sake! Together, the six of them, Marucho, that jerk-Shun, Julie, Runo, Alice, and himself, in one way or another, were solely responsible for the creation of the Bakugan game and the rules thereof. Had he really been slacking off so much?
Didn't mean he couldn't rub the small details into the pigtailed tomboy's face though.
"Hah, 117," Dan countered, managing to sound more satisfied than miffed.
"Oh please," growled Runo, "You should save your breath till you break into the top 10."
"Yeah right, like you're one to talk. You're not even ranked," retorted Dan hotly, before blowing a raspberry childishly.
"Oh, like that's real mature!" screeched Runo.
The other Battle Brawlers on the video chat session winced.
13-year-old Alice Gehabich gave a mental sigh of resigned exasperation. Just how had she ended up associated with these utter children again?
Oh right! First off, she had been friends with Runo (She still couldn't decide whether that had been altogether a bad thing or not yet), then, she had met the others through online recommendation by Runo ('Thanks for that, by the way,' she added sarcastically in her head.), then, she had stuck to handing out refreshments whenever the fledgling group was together in person, and, somehow, that had made them all automatically consider her one of their best friends for some incomprehensible reason. In all honesty, the only one she actually liked and respected was Shun. She was mostly Runo's friend out of pity for the brash tomboy, who didn't have anyone else who could really be called a friends due to her attitude.
Sitting in her room at her grandfather, Michael Gehabich's, estate in Moscow, Russia, Alice went through the usual motions associated with interacting with the mentally inferior teenagers, who had somehow managed to endear themselves to her on some level, despite how annoying they could be. It was ironic how they considered her to be the 'angel' of the Battle Brawlers, considering how she had managed to secretly end up with so many Darkus Bakugan in her possession.
Briefly, Alice turned her attention away from the squabbling of the other Battle Brawlers to slide open a drawer off-screen on the side of her mahogany desk and opened a small box, fingering the multitude of small, black spheres inside before closing it.
She had never brawled before. Not only did the idea -even the notion of conforming to the idea that this was only a game- wrinkle her nose in disdain, but she needed to keep up the persona everyone knew and loved as the only Battle Brawler, who had never brawled, a shy genius, who's winning strategies could have her at number 1 on the Brawler Rankings -instead of Shun- if she were to ever try.
It had been her who had written the rule-book for the game, taking all the ideas thrown around by the other Battle Brawlers, who had already decided on making it into a game (she was ashamed to admit Runo was one of them), and sorting, compressing, and altering those brainwaves into something with at least a hint of decency that satisfied everyone. Though even now, she berated herself for having even that much input into the atrocity that was Bakugan brawling.
If only they all knew how much she truly despised this game, how utterly disgusted she was at how they literally played with the lives of other living creatures.
The only reason she even still associated with the Battle Brawlers -the only reason she hadn't disappeared into obscurity like Shun had already wisely done- was because she needed to be there, to play the part of sweet, sensitive, utterly innocent Alice Gehabich, to make sure those idiots didn't eventually go too far with their naïve machinations.
It was true irony that she should be the one that brought the group full circle, secretly being attuned to Darkus, the final element to the group's veritable Round-Table of Bakugan elements, from the shadows under a wholesome cloak of purity and nativity. Only Shun knew that she even had Bakugan, but he respected her choosing not to brawl, and, even then, he -like everyone else- was unaware of her element, though she was sure he had his suspicions.
Darkus was the element of darkness, and it basically went unsaid among the Bakugan community that your Bakugan reflected your person, and for whatever reason you generally did not find Darkus bakugan unless you were attuned to them or had stolen them.
'How very true,' Alice decided bitterly. Darkus was a bit of a taboo element, and the wielders of it were very few and far between. People generally gave you a wary and slightly wider berth in the Bakugan community if you had Darkus, so you better bet your bottle caps she kept her element a secret!
Just what would the other Brawlers think if they realized that sweet, innocent Alice was a Darkus type?
Julie Makimoto gasped and squealed, "Danny, that is so dreamy! 117! That's four whole spots in one day! Definitely worthy of a big smooch from Julie!" Puckering her lips, the tanned albino girl proceeded to give the camera an adoring kiss.
Dan blanched heavily and leaped back with a cry of, "GROSS!", tripping over his chair and landing with a truly wince-worthy thud. Rubbing his head, Dan groaned, "Aw man, that hurt." He jumped to his feet. "Stop slobbering all over the screen! I'm a Battle Brawler; I'm not your boyfriend," he sniffed.
"Woah~," Runo deadpanned before scoffing, "This is so kindergarten!"
"You go, Danny! I'll always be your biggest fan in the world!" Julie cheered obliviously.
Alice winced mentally with an inaudible sigh; it was all she could do to keep her usual, kindly poker face going. Julie had been so nice before... A little bubbly and eccentric maybe, but the Australian girl had been nice enough... And then the hormones of puberty had hit her all at once, late, and as hard as a freight train on steroids.
Good bye, brain, and hello~, Dan fan-girl!
Chuckling in amusement at their antics, the youngest and richest of the Battle Brawlers, 11-year-old Marucho Marukura interjected, "Dan, might I suggest you set your sights on Shun? He's ranked number 1, and in a few years, you could surpass him."
"Huh? Uh..." Dan's brows furrowed in frustration, as his jaw clenched.
'Not likely,' Alice snorted mentally. 'Then again, Shun may be a bit out of practice after all this time, and if Dan really worked at it, he actually might beat him. Perhaps our dear Ventus brawler needs a wake-up call.'
Out loud she asked, "In a few years? There has to be a way you could challenge him or something, right?" Now that Alice really thought about it, this was a confrontation she would support, if for no other reason than to meet up with Shun face-to-face herself once more. He was ignoring her too, after all, and she was the most innocent in this.
"Hrn, I bet I could take that jerk," Dan scowled, leaning back in his chair with his arms supporting his head. He sighed and seemed to somber slightly in a way that the Pyrus brawler almost never did, except sometimes when speaking of Shun and his silent defection from the group. It was times like these, that Alice could sometimes see something in him to respect as a person and not just an obnoxious brat. "I don't mean to brag y'know, but no one's even come close to challenging me." He let out a long breath. "Better look out, Shun, because I'm gonna' take you down."
Alice just shook her head.
Five minutes of nonsensical squabbling later, Alice finally couldn't take any more and politely excused herself, faking drowsiness with a forced yawn and a smile. As usual, everyone bought it without a thought. After all, in their eyes, Alice Gehabich could do no wrong -such was her reputation, and that was just how she wanted it.
As the video chat clicked off with a beep, Alice's shoulders sagged, and she leaned back in her chair. It seemed that all the Battle Brawlers did anymore these days was argue and brawl. They didn't even really take brawling all that seriously anymore; it was just a game to them, a game they had invented and were some of -if not the, best at. Being part of the group was lately starting to become more trouble than it was worth.
She reached into the pocket of her yellow dress and pulled out a single, black sphere.
'Reaper,' she sighed, turning her powerful Bakugan over in her palm a few times. She let out a deep exhale and closed her eyes. In retrospect and considering the fact that these Bakugan were living and independent creatures, she really should have expected at least one of them out there would be overjoyed by the idea of constant, vicious, heart-pounding battles.
Darkus Reaper was one of those few, and he hadn't been happy to find out she never intended to battle. His rants had been long-winded and loud, but he had stopped eventually and had not spoken to her since. Alice hated it, the silent loathing. She didn't understand why anyone would really want that kind of life, a life of constant conflict and bloodshed. Alice sighed. Then again, that was the point; she didn't understand.
Reaper could really hold a grudge. Not like Darkus Hydranoid. No, he was completely loyal to her and seemed bound to her will entirely, immediately deferring to her decision to remain separate from the Battle Brawling community in all but name, despite being arguably even more blood-thirsty than Reaper!
Reaper had called him a pansy and scoffed that it was his own fault for having Alice as a master. The girl soon learned that Hydranoid's particular Bakugan species was powerful but had the oddest quirk of being unable to survive without an absolute master. It frightened Alice a bit to know she had such control over any living, thinking being.
If it were any other way, Alice would have had nothing to do with Hydranoid. However, due to his dependence on her, she couldn't not take him around with her. The separation from her -as his master- might not be healthy for him; it could even be outright deadly due to how dependent he was. Granted, she never took him out of her pocket, but still...
Alice frowned, stuffed Reaper back into her pocket, and began rubbing her temples in small circles with her lithe fingers. She needed to get her mind off Bakugan for a bit. Maybe she'd go see what her grandfather was doing in his lab.
Smiling, Alice stood and nodded to herself in confirmation. That was a good idea; his technological mumbo-jumbo would be sure to clear all troublesome thoughts from her head. 'If for no other reason than how I'll be half brain-dead by the time he finishes explaining how whatever it is he's been working on actually functions,' she giggled mentally.
Somewhere beyond the dimensional veil in the volcanic realm of Pyrus, a sinister white dragon hurtled through the air towards his ultimate prize. Finally, he had reached his destination, an area where the dimensional veil was weaker, when a voice roared, "NAGA, WAIT!"
"Out of my way, Drago," snarled Naga's raspy voice, as a red dragon, adorned with yellow horns and spikes, barreled through the space in front of him, cutting him off.
"Why are you so obsessed with gaining all this power, Naga?!" demanded the Pyrus Dragonoid with a desperate hiss. "You must know that it will only lead to your ultimate destruction!"
"Silence!" commanded Naga with a boom. Drago flinched. As powerful as he was, he wasn't sure he could stop Naga completely on his own. "You have no idea of what we feel inside! You know nothing of our world!"
"I suspect you were the one behind the human they call, Michael," snarled Drago, eyes narrowing dangerously. "What I'd like to know is: where did you find him?"
"Eh heh, hah hah hah!" Naga cackled, before smirking and holding up a card between his pearly talons. "Do you know what this is?" he taunted.
Drago's eye narrowed further, but before he could stop him, Naga hurled the card into the rift, opening a strange, rippling, rectangular gateway. "A portal!"
"Yes!" crowed Naga victoriously, lunging for the gateway. "It leads to the source of the power!"
"Boosted Dragon!" roared Drago without warning, expelling a massive fireball, that Naga barely dodged. With a bellow, Drago gave his wings a powerful flap and slammed the claws of his feet into the shoulders of Naga, who had been surprised by the ferocity and suddenness of the attack. "I'll stop you no matter what! Boosted dragon!" Drago inhaled deeply and exhaled his volcanic payload down directly into Naga's face.
"No0O0o0O!" Naga howled in rage with the agony of having his face slowly but surely melted, thrashing and tearing his shoulders free of Drago's powerful grasp at the cost of having the armor shorn from his shoulders in bloody, scaly chunks. He twisted midair, and his tail lashed across Drago's face, sending the Dragonoid spiraling wildly through the air. "I have come too far, and I will not be bested by some lowly upstart Draganoid!"
Drago roared in defiance and fired off two more large fireballs. Naga snarled and spiraled wildly to avoid them, darting downward and pulling-off a midair flip, before slamming his feet into the slower Bakugan's face and using the momentum to propel himself back towards the portal and launch Drago downward, as Drago watched his escape helplessly, only to catch a whirling, purple bolt of plasma to the chest as extra insurance.
"With luck, we shall not meet again!" Naga spat venomously, as he passed through the opening in the rift; the portal began to close behind him. "Onward to Vestroia and power!"
"NO!" shouted Drago, flying upwards after the white dragon, but it was far too late. It would only be moments later that the world began to shake, and everything literally began to fall apart.
"...and so, I believe that these Bakugan creatures can only appear in our world in the form of a ball," Alice's grandfather, Michael Gehabich, reported into the face of a video camera, as he made record of his discoveries into dimensional travel and transportation. "Also, only on the battlefield, which has the same dimensional structure as Vestroia, can they go back to their original form. I- Hrm?"
A buzzer sounded from the door, interrupting him. Due to the nature of his experiments, Dr. Gehabich found it prudent to keep the door locked, just in case something went wrong and someone got hurt. Ugh, so many lawsuits. It wasn't his fault if other people were far too stupid to know when not to poke their noses into dangerous, sparking things. That was just begging to be turned inside-out, especially when dealing with dimensional physics.
However, because he turned around at that moment, he did not notice a cloud of dark miasma, overflowing with negative energy, beginning to seep into his lab through the Dimension Transporter system.
He typed in the code for the lock without fuss, and the steel doors hissed open. Into the doorway stepped Alice Gehabich, who smiled a small, mentally-tired smile. He returned the smile; he knew interacting with those Battle Brawler friends of hers always seemed to quickly wear on her. "How are you, Grandfather, and how is your project c-?" She paused and backed up, before pointing with furrowed brows. "Is it supposed to be doing that?"
Dr. Gehabich spun around in alarm at her question, as the cloud of negative energy roiled and pulsed chaotically.
Now in another version of this universe somewhere out there, where a truly kindly and naïve Alice and her grandfather stood stunned into inaction, both would be subjected to the full power of a mega-dimensional nova of Silent energy. Dr. Gehabech would become Hal-G, and Alice would develop a second personality, who was everything she wasn't, known as the cruel, powerful brawler, Masquerade.
However, this wasn't that dimension. This wasn't that Alice. And Dr. Gehabich was not stunned into inaction.
"Get back, Alice!" he yelled.
Something quickly slammed into her chest, even as Alice took another step back, causing her to trip backwards out the doors just as they were closing. Alice could only gasp in stunned surprise, momentarily unable to comprehend why her grandfather would shove her so hard, as an explosion of violet energy lashed out through the doors just before they could close, catching her in the chest and followed by a rippling shockwave that dashed her against the far wall with bone-shaking force. For a moment, Alice knew only blindly-mind-shattering pain, and then, everything went dark.
Alice felt like she was floating weightless in a void. It was a pleasant and at the same time completely unsettling sensation. At first, Alice's mind rejected the possibility of her being in such a situation as impossible just on principal, but then she open her eyes.
Ruins and blackness, flecked with brief flashes of multicolored lightning ruled the area. Arranged around her in a circle in the void were six solitary vortexes of otherworldly power. The colors were familiar and distinctive; for a moment, her breath caught in her throat.
"N-No way," she whispered after a heartbeat, idly noting how her voice seemed to echo oddly in this place. "This can't be- Vestroia?" Considering how much Reaper and Hydranoid had babbled when she first obtained them, Alice knew at least the basics about the Bakugan worlds.
"An excellent observation, little human girl," rumbled a raspy, powerful voice. Looking down, Alice saw herself to be 'standing' above a massive, purple sphere, roiling with arcane, unnatural energy. She felt the utterly massive power of, well, whatever this was resonate with her, pour into her, empower her. Being near it was like drinking from a tall glass of water in a desert. She was almost pulled into the feeling, but there was an innate feeling of danger in doing that, and she shook her head vigorously, trying to focus on anything else.
"Interesting, Hal-G, wouldn't you say?" came the rumbling, raspy voice again. "Her body seems to have taken a true shine to Silent energy; it resonates with her in perfect harmony. The power of Silence suits her well, and she suits it."
"Indeed it does!" cackled a voice behind her.
Alice jerked around -even as a small voice inside her wondered how she had obtained the traction to do that in a void- to the sight of a tall, green-skinned, old man, wearing a garish, black cape and a maniacal smile of glee, rubbing his hands together like a giddy child in a candy store.
"Her aura hasn't even split! It's adapted and changed! Quite unique!" Hal-G announced gleefully.
Alice felt a sudden, irrational burst of annoyance bleed visibly onto her features at being talked about like she wasn't there, and the girl was unable to stop herself from scowling openly at them. Her eye twitched; the Alice she showed everyone did not scowl, she would maybe shake her head or, at worst, tut disapprovingly, but for these people, here in Vestroia of all places... Well, it looked like she could make some exceptions.
"Excuse me," she hissed dangerously at the large, skinny troll, "But just who the hell are you people, and how are we here?!" She made a wide gesture to everything around them. She blinked in surprise once more. Since when did she curse, even in anger? What was with her lack of control right now?!
The troll actually tut'ted at her question. "My dear Alice, I always thought you such a fragile girl. Shows what I know, considering how perfectly you've assimilated your power."
Alice glared at him, eyes narrowed. "I am not your dear, weirdo. What are you talking about? Am I seriously supposed to... know... you?" She took a closer look at him and then gaped. Truly, it was the same hair and glasses... just, wilder... crazier... mad as a fricking hatter. "G-Grandfather? Wha-? What is this?! What happened to you?"
"Oh?" Hal-G blinked, before grinning. "Shouldn't you be asking the same about yourself?"
"What are you t-? How would I-?" Alice blinked and then gave herself a look over, only to have blonde hair waver into her vision. She stiffened and then padded herself over, fingers lingering most on the long, curly, blonde locks currently replacing her orange hair. "What the hell is going on?!"
Her green blouse had seemingly been replaced by a black, form-fitting tank-top and her yellow dress by a white trench coat with short sleeves. She also had on baggy, purple pants tucked inside black boots; and gloves. The whole ensemble was also covered with odd buckles in places that gave the slight impression of someone having tried to dress her in some sort of mutant straight-jacket and failing horribly. It was an unnerving look, all in all. They were Darkus colors she noted; her eyes narrowed, and she turned her attention towards the Silent core, spying for the first time a dark, hazy outline inside and a glowing, red eye.
"What's Silent energy? What did it do to me and Grandfather?"
"It's actually Hal-G, now, dear," Hal-G pointed out with an impish grin, only to have Alice actually snarl at him.
Alice was feeling really weird, this situation was weird, her Grandfather was being weird, and even more importantly, her clothes were weird! Everything about this whole situation was pissing her off. Her negative emotions all seemed to be on serious hair triggers. She had little to no control, and she hated it! This whole situation was so far beyond hope of going back, that it was just managing to piss her off even more! Why was she so angry?! Why was she so annoyed?! Why couldn't she control her emotions like she had always done?! Dwelling on it, only made the problem worse!
Something had gradually begun bubbling up inside of her, and Alice grit her teeth, as her hands went to her pounding head. As Hal-G continued to babble on nonsensically, something inside Alice seemed to snap, and a feeling that could be associated with little else but raw power screamed through her suddenly, venting her frustrations out and releasing a brilliant pulse of negative energy that could have temporarily blinded the unprepared. Alice rode out the explosion of energy till the end and sagged suddenly, feeling much, much, better and breathing hard from exertion.
"Are you quite done throwing your little tantrum?" Hal-G asked flatly.
Alice whirled on Hal-G, eye twitching, but stopped, closed her eyes, and took a deep, calming breath, letting it out slowly and counting to ten. Her eyes snapped open again in a glare. "WELL, excuse me, if some people don't just find the idea of being turned into some kind of circus freak just absolutely the best thing since sliced bread, you blithering fuck-nugget!" she hissed.
"Oi, I resent that," Hal-G retorted flatly.
"You have spunk, child, but the full scope of this matter is currently beyond you," spoke the booming voice.
Alice turned to the Silent core. "Is this thing I'm feeling inside of me, that did this, Silent energy? What is that, and who are you?"
"I am Naga, the most powerful Bakugan alive, one of the two White Ones," boomed the voice. "Silent energy is but one power of two, along with the Infinity power of the Infinity core, which empowers and holds the Bakugan worlds in balance. However, I find myself sealed within the Silent core in my quest, and only the power of the Infinity core can see me freed currently."
Alice decided it really wouldn't be the wisest thing to comment on how Naga couldn't possibly be as all powerful as he thought he was, considering how he was trapped so completely, so she remained silent and committed his words to memory.
Then again, who was she to judge? He could very well be the most powerful Bakugan alive, just like he said; he just obviously wasn't more powerful than the Silent core.
"Naga and I have been working together for quite some time now," Hal-G said. "I didn't expect you would get involved in any of our interactions so soon."
"So, it worked then," Alice stated with narrowed eyes. All this time, she had wondered why the Bakugan had appeared on Earth, trapped and helpless within tiny spheres, and it had been them, Naga and her own grandfather -right under her nose! "You did manage to travel to another dimension, just like you always talked about doing. I suppose this means your machinations here together are what are responsible for all the Bakugan appearing on Earth."
"Naturally," Hal-G grinned.
"Why?" Alice demanded, there was a dangerously cold tone in her voice. Perhaps she could accept him being responsible for this because of inflicted madness, but she was rather sure her grandfather had never had any sort of affliction prior to today. That meant he had been completely lucid and caused all this of his own volition!
"Why?" Hal-G blinked.
"There is an entire race of beings being enslaved by children as nothing more than trinkets and play-things," Alice snarled. "Just what is this all about?!"
Hal-G frowned and then tilted his head with a grin. "Why it's about power, of course! It's all to make Naga the most powerful Bakugan in the universe, and then he shall rule over all as the most mighty of ascended creatures!"
'That was all?! Was that their entire reason?! Could anyone possibly be so selfish as to doom the entirety of their own race to the demeaning fate of being children's toys or worse?!' Alice was truly and utterly baffled by the sheer scope and gall of his crimes and could only clench her jaw, trembling with rage, as she glared but said nothing. 'Right, stupid question, because Naga obviously could be!'
Naga rolled his eyes. "Oh brilliant, she's one of those honorable types."
Hal-G shrugged, unconcerned, and placed a hand on Alice's shoulder. She barely refrained from jerking away. "My dear Alice, it's a concept hard to comprehend for someone like you I'm sure, but don't worry. Soon you'll see how your new power of Silent energy helps you, and then you'll understand perfectly."
Alice chose not to respond; she was in no position to do anything against them, whether she liked it or not. Despite how powerful they seemed to think she was or could be, she currently had absolutely zero control over whatever this stuff inside her was, and these two had both power and control in spades, even if one of them was trapped inside a giant bowling ball.
She scowled, when Hal-G patted her on the head fondly. Hal-G smirked and then turned to Naga. "I'm sure it's mostly just a bad case of culture shock." He patted her head again, only to receive another scowl.
"We have important things to discuss," Naga rumbled. "Send the whelp back to Earth till she can actually be of some use to me with her powers. I will summon for her then."
Hal-G grinned and held up a card, ripping open a rectangular, flashing gateway, and took hold of Alice's arm with a smirk, placing the card in her hand. "Just think of where you want to go, and it will take you. Have a fun trip!" he called, throwing her in. The gateway closed before his ears could catch her string of creative curses.
In Alice's room in the Gehabich estate, Alice came hurtling face-first out of a rectangular portal.
"Son of a motherless goat-oof!" Alice grunted, as she impacted the floor. The Dimensional Transport Card came fluttering past her to land by her head a moment later. "Great," she sighed. "Just brilliant." She noticed the echoing lilt to her voice had remained even after returning to Earth, so she assumed it was part of her transformation.
The girl twitched after moment and then took her time getting up and brushing the imaginary dust off her white trench coat. She picked up the Dimensional Transport Card and her eye twitched in annoyance, before she placed it in her pocket. It was official, she was not amused by this new grandfather of hers.
She looked back down at her outfit and grimaced, before walking into her room's bathroom and seeing something in the mirror she hadn't before, because the tint was obviously clear from the inside.
Covering her face was a massive set of triangular blue shades with a black and purple band, which together obscured all but a triangular space including her nose and mouth. The shades were thick to the outside observer, and there was absolutely nothing they covered that could be seen. She didn't see even a hint of her former self looking back at her from the mirror, save perhaps for the fact that she was a girl.
Frowning, Alice reached up and removed the shades from her face to assess the damage inflicted underneath by the Silent energy, only to blink in surprise, when her elaborate outfit and blonde hair returned to normal in a flash of multicolored light. She blinked once more in shock and then looked down at the shades.
Quickly her hands traveled all over her hair and body, confirming that she wasn't just hallucinating out of hopefulness. Picking up the mask -for it had become one by losing the hooks for ears when she transformed back- again, Alice frowned and turned it over, raising it up to her face.
In another flash, she once more stood transformed by the strange negative energy -Silent energy- she could feel inside her body now like a foreign limb. 'Well, it could be a lot worse. At least, I actually look human and not like something from Mars like Gra- Hal-G does now,' she corrected herself with a scowl. She was doing that scowling thing a lot more lately. 'And I can turn back without any trouble; that's a relief.'
Alice removed her mask and became herself again, yellow dress, orange hair, and all. She blinked; she felt more like herself without the mask on. Alice took a slow, deep breath and sighed in relief. Oh yes, she felt much better now. She looked up into the bathroom mirror and gave herself one of her usual, sweet smiles that others knew her by. Unfortunately, she came off looking bit strained and tired, but that could be worked around with dedicated practice.
She looked down at her reflection in the blue lenses of the shades and frowned. It was strange, but she could sort of feel the shades with more than just her sense of touch if she concentrated. Somehow, this article was now an important part of her as much as any vital organ, and it seemed to hold the negative energy of the Silent core at bay for as long as she did not wear it.
That was very good news. Her brows furrowed. What to do with it though; she couldn't have the mask getting damaged. It appeared to act as a seal for her negative energy. She needed it to be safe and out of the way. She needed it to-
"Disappear?" she muttered lightly with eye-brows raised surprise, as the mask dissolved into tiny motes of light and flowed into her chest.
Well... that was all kinds of convenient. Alice's face broke out into a wide, genuine smile -the first of the day. Maybe this whole mess wouldn't be as bad as she had first perceived, after all...
She was still moving to Wardington as soon as possible, though, without a doubt at all. She would rather deal with the Battle Brawlers 24-7 than her now-insane skinny troll of a grandfather.
Suddenly, something wriggled it's way out of her pocket and bounced off the floor and onto her desk. "Yahoo! I feel like a new Bakugan!" crowed Reaper, bouncing about, as his ball form clicked open. "Damn, what a rush! Just what have you been doing lately, brat?! Finally had a change of heart, because I've got calories to burn! Aw yeah!"
Alice twitched and groaned. Then again, if Reaper was suddenly this active again while she was around them...
AN: And done! Plot bunny written and posted! Several things were changed here, obviously, but that's why it's an AU!
It always bothered me in the show that Drago basically just stood there, when Naga went after the Infinity and Silent cores. He really should have put up a better fight than mere words. I mean, seriously, he was right there! Ergo, I wrote a short but hopefully epic battle to replace that slight against Drago's awesomeness.
Yes, Alice will not have a split personality. So there will be no Masquerade... at least, not in the conventional sense. Chew on that why don't you? *cackles evilly*
Her attire when transformed is basically Masquerade's except her hair doesn't stick up weirdly and is just turned blonde and more curly and it's tailored for a female.
Anywho, Read and Review! Or not. *shrugs* I just really wanted to get this written and out there before I lost my sudden bout of inspiration.