I really should be working on New Game, given that nasty cliffhanger I left for you guys. But...*sigh*...writers block is a ******.
Oh well. xD
-Static
/*\
"Psst!" She hissed, "Ace!"
As always, the Knight had been lost in the forest in the middle of the night. He was stuck in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by identical sets of trees and brush. His tent was assembled, there was a small rabbit cooking over the spit, and he was sitting by his fire, taking sips from a whiskey bottle and patiently waiting for his dinner to be done. Naturally, he knew she'd been there - no way a girl like her could sneak up on him - but he was surprised.
Why would she be trying to catch his attention? Why was she even out in the woods? She knew better than to run around alone in the dark. Unless...
"Oh, hey Alice!" He answered boisterously, playing up his surprise and joy. Though his facade was perfect to a fault, she still rolled her eyes,
"Please," She responded, "Like you didn't know I was here from the start."
He couldn't decide if it pleased or annoyed him that he could no longer fool her so easily.
"Fair enough, what's up? Did you come to offer to guide me to the Tower?" He expected an instantaneous answer, but...nothing. Then something interesting happened.
Alice looked...hesitant. That was new. Why would she not want to answer?
The girl in question bit her lip and looked down at her feet. She knew what she wanted to ask the knight but...she was worried about the repercussions. Once she made the request, there would be no turning back. She would be unable to revoke her words, because she knew that he'd make sure it happened. She considered taking the out he offered her, was leaning towards that option, but too late she realized he'd picked up on her apprehension.
One moment he'd been sitting on the ground by the fire, and the next he was standing directly in front of her. He hadn't made a sound.
"You're not here about the Tower, are you?" he asked, pushing her up against a tree. Cornering her. Slightly, she shook her head. He leaned in a little closer. It was always good fun to make the Outsider uncomfortable. Besides, he'd probably get an answer sooner. Her aqua gaze flickered to his face for but a moment, and then she looked away again, still hesitant. He raised his eyebrows at her expectantly.
What's your question Alice?
"W...ou...tea...e...ow...figh...?" She mumbled. Ace's eyebrows scrunched together,
"Sorry, what? I couldn't hear you. Speak louder." He stated, and with that Alice glared at him, full on in the face.
"Will you teach me how to fight?" The knight was speechless.
Of all the things he expected he might hear tonight, that was definitely not on the list.
/*\
It hadn't taken long for Ace to drag Alice back to the castle. Her reasoning had been sounds and she seemed earnest enough. The knight wouldn't lie, he was a little excited. Alice, ever the purveyor of peace, had finally decided to take his advice. She wanted to learn how to fight. And she had asked him of all people. It took very little time for him to agree, and he knew exactly where to start. After all, if one was going to teach another certain survival skills, they first had to find the pupil a suitable weapon. Three time periods later, and to the girls immense exhaustion and displeasure, the knight slammed through the front doors and locked eyes with the first maid he stumbled upon.
"Maid," he said, with the most authoritative tone he could use. Gone was the happy-go-lucky "Stray Child". He had gone into full-on Role Holder mode, and his voice commanded complete and utter obedience. "Guide me to my room."
The woman wasted no time.
/*\
The spare claymore was too heavy, and there was a similar issue with the mace. Her hands shook with every gun she held, and she couldn't balance a spear to save her life. However, even after half an hour of testing, there was still one more item for her to try.
When the small armory of his room had been entirely exhausted, the knight had felt a little dismayed. Even if she could do well in hand-to-hand combat, such efforts would be useless if she couldn't wield any sort of weapon, especially in Wonderland, and then a thought came to mind.
On his belt, right next to his sword, rested a dagger. Not once had he ever used it. It wasn't very big, maybe twelve inches, and it was relatively light. Once the latest failure commenced - the axe had actually toppled Alice onto her side - the knight took the weapon back.
"Alice," he said, placing it back on the hook, "I think most of these are a bit too big for you. How about you try this." And once the hilt of the knife rested in her palm without immediate disaster, he started feeling confident in this notion. Even more so when she cut through the air experimentally. Her movements were fluid, and her balance was almost perfect. Though the other weapons had been blatant failures, she definitely had a bit of natural talent for the dagger.
"...I like this one." She stated softly.
Ding-ding-ding! We have a winner! Feeling a bit victorious, the knight pulled Alice into the courtyard where he trained new soldiers. Now it was time for the fun part.
/*\
"Again," her teacher commanded, swinging his sword down once more. Immediately her hand shot up to meet the blade, and the hilt of her dagger caught the claymore just as it was about to hit her head, allowing her to quickly throw it to the side, and step in with her own mock blow. At this point, it had become a reflex.
A reflex that Ace had all but beaten into her now worn and battered body.
"Ace, please," she panted, "I'm so tired, can't we take a break?" He only laughed and shook his head.
"No, an enemy won't give you a break in the midst of a battle."
"But this isn't an actual battle! For the time being, you still don't want to kill me right?!" He grinned,
"Fair enough, but you need to build up some muscle and endurance, I won't be able to teach you much else without those two things. What little I've shown you thus far is nowhere nearly enough for you to survive a real fight. Again."
And as the blades crashed together, only one thought registered in Alice's mind.
Yes, she mused, as she repeated the exercise once more, her mentor still having yet to break out into a sweat, Once this is over, I'm absolutely going to kill him.
/*\
For some reason, it was taking Alice a long time to finish making the coffee.
"Hey 'Ulius." She mumbled, "Coffee's ready." And she set the tray down with shaky fingers. This in itself was enough to alarm the Clockmaker, even before he looked up at her face. He was shocked, rather unpleasantly. He dropped his tools and pushed away from his desk.
Her eyes were ringed with circles so dark that she could be mistaken for a raccoon. Her clothes were disheveled and covered in dirt and grass stains. Her hair was a mess, her ribbon missing, and it looked as though there was a hole over her knee on her left stocking.
What the Hell happened to her? He was going to ask when she spoke first.
"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to try and get some sleep." She didn't make it two steps before she collapsed onto the floor, entirely passed out.
Julius, worried sick (though he'd never admit it) lifted her into his arms and carried her to her room, instructing a passing Clover Tower employee to notify Gray and Nightmare of what had just happened. He then commanded a maid to follow him, so that she might help Alice take a bath and go to bed.
He waited outside the door for several hours, until she woke up.
/*\
For hours on end, Alice would train with Ace and her dagger. The hours turned into full time periods, which continued to multiply. By her calculations, the hours turned to days, the days to weeks, and the weeks to months.
And she was getting better.
At this point, the courtyard was a second home. She knew each and every bench, tree, and cobblestone that the space was constructed of, and it certainly helped that Alice had become so much more capable. She had always been able to throw a good punch, but in that respect she had been a one-trick pony. Not anymore. Ace, even, was having issues in his sparring matches with her. She was smaller, more agile. She was doing flips and cartwheels all around him, using the outdoor furniture to her advantage. Today, she had pulled something a little bit different, and had decided to do a back flip over his head to triumphantly place the tip of her knife at his throat.
"Did I win?" She asked breathlessly, hope shining in her eyes. It had become her goal to be able to rival Ace. He was the best in all of Wonderland, it had been why she'd approached him with the issue, and so he really couldn't penalize her for her ambition. However, that didn't mean he had to like it. With one swift movement of his foot, he kicked her leg out from under her, and after she had fallen down, lightly placed his boot on her back, the sword lightly grazing her shoulder.
"Nope." he answered cheerfully.
"I was so close!" She whined, glaring at her dagger. The knight only laughed, and offered her his hand.
"You were very close." He acknowledged, and lightly placed a hand on her head, ruffling her hair. "You're a very good warrior Alice," He stated softly, "If you can give me that much trouble in a sparring match, when you're holding back, then there's no way you won't be able to handle a gang of rebels." He praised.
Wait, that sounded awfully...final. Was their training...over?
Upon asking the question, Ace nodded.
"Yup! You don't need me anymore." But then he tilted her chin up, so that she looked him straight in the eye. "But I did enjoy teaching you."
"We should still spar sometimes." The knight only laughed,
"You are hell-bent on beating me aren't you?" Alice wryly grinned back.
"I've begun to feel empowered." She giggled. She gazed down at the weapon in her hands and held it out to her companion, "Do you want the dagger back?" She asked, her thumb lightly tracing over the now familiar heart emblem. She'd assumed that now practice is over, she would have to go shopping for her own knife. Ace shook his head.
"No, you've used it more in this past month than I have in the entire time I've owned it. Keep it. It's all yours. Think of it as your graduation present." And with that, he tossed her a small belt. A belt with a knife sheath on it.
Ace watched her walk away, simultaneously proud and puzzled. Alice had done very, very well and she'd taken her studies with him seriously and yet...
He still couldn't help but to wonder just why she'd decided to pick up a weapon. She'd never told him.
/*\
The day Ace ended training was the day it happened, the day that Alice had been preparing for. After all this time, after all this dreaded anticipation, the tension had finally climaxed.
She had met Julius in the plaza just beside Clover Tower. He had been shopping for clock parts. Naturally, she joined up with him, as they were both headed back, and she genuinely enjoyed his company (much to his perplexity). They had just turned a corner to take a shortcut down an alleyway when...
"You're not very smart are you?" A voice had snarled, "You enforce a rule we all hate and yet you still have the nerve to come out into town. Without your bodyguard no less." Then a different voice spoke up. Then another, and another, and another.
"Did you really think we'd ignore you?"
"Are you really that cocky?"
"Do you sincerely plan to use the Outsider as your shield?" And with that last remark, Julius opened his mouth to respond when...a gunshot sounded, and with that sound, that loud reverberating bang in her ears...Alice lost it.
Her mind blanked and her vision went white. By sheer reflex alone, she whipped the knife out from under her skirt and lunged. Ace's teachings had not gone to waste, and her senses almost seemed to have heightened. She could determine that there were ten people surrounding her and the Clockmaker, and she could dully hear him call out to her as she rushed the first gunman.
"Alice, what are you doing?!" He shouted, but it was no use.
She could only barely hear him as she dodged the bullets.
/*\
I have been of the opinion that Alice needs to learn to fight for a while, almost ever since I joined this fandom.
I figured Ace would be the most logical choice as a teacher, as he seems like a blade person where everyone else is all about their guns. Besides, isn't the knife Alice's weapon in several popular Alice in Wonderland games now?
But more than that, why has the peace-loving Foreigner suddenly decided she wants to fight?
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