Description: What if Alice was one of the "poison princesses" what will it change... or will anything change at all? Brelice, other pairings if absolutely insisted on. Rated for later chapters.

Disclaimer: Pandora Hearts and Dokuhime are owned by their respective owners I'm just borrowing the characters and only claim the idea of this fic. No characters were harmed in the process of making this fic, although the amount of Break's hidden candy and sweet stack might've dramatically decreased.

Original Sin (Prologue)

My kiss does not tell tales of love.
My embrace does not give warmth.
I only bring death.

Sablier - 40 years before Oz Vessalius' banishment to the Abyss

"Don't leave!" cried the brunette for the millionth time already before she roughly startled out of her dream with tears rolling down her face and a hand on her wildly pounding heart. She had this dream from way before she could remember. She hated it, especially since it came back every night. She hated not knowing who or why in the first place she chased after. She only remembered long, braided gold hair and warmth.

"You had that dream again, Alice? That's not good."

Alice was startled when she heard the familiar voice and dropped the bedspread she was wiping her tears away with. In one of the chairs in the bright room sat a woman in her mid fourties who beared the obvious traits of a noble and she held some neatly folded clothes.

"What do you want Granny Celia? It's not like you to just visit this early in the morning."

"Early? It's already noon!" said the woman with disapproval in her voice and stood up."Now hurry up and get ready, because there came a request for you."

"A request? For me?" asked the girl surprised and finally got up from her bed.

Alice, who haven't looked like more than thirteen- like everybody in her "family" possessed an unusual beauty. She had long straight chocolate brown hair which fell way past her hips, amethyst colored eyes and unblemished skin that was whiter than lily. Her body was also generous for her age with soft curves in all the right places, although she was a little shorter than others.

She proceeded to the luxorious bathroom that was attached to her room and started the bath and while the water run to the tub, she slowly pulled down the white lacy nightgown from her body, put it in a basket and stepped onto the cold black marble floor. She closed the tap, put bubbles and some salts in the water and got into the tub. The water was warm and in no time her skin became red while she played absentmindedly with the bubbles. She was so deep in thought she didn't hear Celia enter the bathroom.

"Yes. Although for the love of God I couldn't figure out why would they want you. Lottie is far more suited for this kind of jobs." answered the woman while she started washing the girl's body with soap.

Alice frowned and closed her eyes when water with the amount of a small bucket poured down her head and Celia started rubbing her hair with shampoo rather harshly than rinsing it out.

An hour later when Alice was washed profoundly, body massaged with lotion to make her skin softer, nails filed and lacquered to perfection, carefully chosen corsette and clothes tight enough to show off her curves (and nearly choke her) to the satisfaction of her companion, the girl was ordered to sit down before her dressing table while Celia combed and styled her hair then upplied make up. When she was finished with all the painful procedures Alice looked like the finest porcelain doll lacking even the slightest flaw. She hated it, but kept quiet. She learned a long time ago, that resistance was futile.

"It really looks like the clothes do the man." said the woman pleasantly while eyeing her up and down checking for anything amiss. "Now come and be a good girl. And most of all for the love of everything sacred, keep that smart attitude of yours in check." she was already out of the room when she said it, but despite this her next sentence and the reprimanding tone in it still was audible to the younger girl. "I swear someday it will tie you in a whole lot of trouble."

Alice took one last look at his room burning its image to her brain, because she had a feeling this will be the last time she saw it. Her eyes wandered from the delicate cream colored walls to her red curtains and her mahagony bed which got bedposts and same red canopy as the curtains, bedsheets and decorative pillows, her mahagony floor and furniture, the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling of the room, her many dolls and puppets to finally rest on her black cat, Cheshire laying lazily and without any care on her bed. She sighted and exited her lonely room in her tower to catch up to Celia.

It wasn't like she would miss this place or any of it's inhibitants, simply she was just familiar only with this space- her room. Of course, in her view it was a sorry excuse of a room, since it was located on the top of a tower far away from the main building. This was one of the reasons why did she only met with a few people. Visitors was scarce and she wasn't allowed to leave her room at all. Like everybody was pretending she didn't exist. For this reason she was distant from the rest of her relatives and hadn't bore any affection for them. In fact she loathed them with every fiber of her body. Also she couldn't remember her past at all- she couldn't recall the faces of her parents or anything outside her room and she got only recollection of the recent years. Of course she didn't know how long that was since she haven't got any time-keeping devices aside from an old grandfather clock. Still, it was somewhat a home to her.

She knew this day was going to come, when a request would come for her and she will have to leave, but Alice haven't know it will come this early. She only completed her training two years ago and there was still girls older than her. She thought they asked always for the oldest. Therefore this was an important assignment where they needed to choose carefully. She wondered what kind of man will she be forced onto and her scowl deepend.

Once outside, the warm sunlight caressed her face, but Alice couldn't appreciate it at all. There was a time when she would given anything if she could leave that damned tower even for only a short time, but because of her "granny's" influence she lost that desire long ago. Celia wouldn't give a damn for such foolish and unnecessary things. Not while she needed to be educated to perfection and disciplined.

She took quick disinterested looks at her surroundings though while opening her black lacy parasol knowing full well it will earn her a lot of unneeded reprimanding if she didn't do it thus ruining her perfect pale skin (even though she found it unnecessary for a walk less than fifteen minutes mostly under trees), not really noticing the birds singing plesantly nor bothered what her companion might thought about it. She was actually a bit grateful they chose her, if for nothing else than at least for finally getting the hell out of this place. This thought made her a little too cheerful and she actually started singing softly to herself until her companion asked her to stop it when she got to the part of "Till the queen screems 'Of with your head!'..." since it was disturbing so she was forced to hum the rest of the song what in itself earned her some very dark glares, but Celia hadn't said anything and Alice was curious about what else can she do and get away with it.

Alice dreamed of escaping from here and living a normal life nearly as much as from the mysterious blond. Which raise the question of why exactly did she feel always like she forgot something very important everytime she had that dream. Really, just who was that guy? Why did she dream about him in the first place? And why couldn't she remember her past at all? All of it was just too confusing and goody now her head hurt. Great. Like all that hairpins and decorative accessories wasn't making her head heavy and pick in her scalp or her tight clothes and shoes wasn't uncomfortable enough in the first place. Not to mention that her eyes hurt and teared up so much because of the kohl that she wanted to wipe it off. She felt really stupid. Just what more could possibly happen to her today?

While hurrying through the garden that separeted her tower from the rest of the mansion they saw two deep red cloaked men coming their way, traitor of their own kind dragging an "elder sister" of hers deep into the forset- to the execution grounds.

"The Shinigami caught her yesterday." interrupted Celia Alice's thoughts without any care. "The fool fell in love and abandoned her mission to elope with him. I really hope you are wiser than her." the woman looked at Alice. "No matter what you cannot fall in love. You would kill him anyway." she said softly. "Besides there are plenty of girls who can replace you, Lycoris."

"I know that already." Alice frowned in disdain for the name. It was costumary to give a flower's- a poisonous one's name to every "princess" in her family. She turned down her head when they walked past the Shinigami. She also wondered briefly if she will ever be in the previous girl's place- she just couldn't imagine how in the world will she succeed if she don't even have the desire to do so or any sense of duty towards anybody here. Suddenly just escaping became very alluring for her since Alice despised them and despised this place above everything else. She knew full well this was just a warning to all of her sisters, because many of them couldn't bear with the painful training and tried to escape. They wanted them to fear and obey. Unnecessary things like any kind of emotions besides fear, be that sadness, curiousity or god forbid- love- was strictly punished.

Since she was born into the Baskerville family she had no choice. To the outside it was a family whose main priority was to establish connections with other noble families. Only the members of said family knew that every girl (sometimes boys too) born into it or bought automatically became poison princesses- assassin mistresses against other nobles. Disposable weapons. And because of this questionable practice all kind of failure was unacceptable.

She walked silently behind Celia passing through many halls and hallways counting her steps while looking around in the gorgeously decorated main building of the mansion until they reached a heavy dark wood door- the study of their master. The woman knocked on the door then opened it and stepped inside.

"She's here, Glen-sama." said her companion after a deep bow and Alice stepped forward. Strangely enough the room was in semi-darkness despite the sunny weather since the large windows was covered with heavy curtains and the only source of light was a lit candle on the writing-desk.

In front of her sat the head and only master of the noble Baskerville family, Glen Baskerville, currently writing one thing or another in some paper, only briefly looking up then going back to his work. The man appeared to be in his mid twenties. He had black hair, amethyst irises and a very pale complexion.

"Glen-sama." bowed Alice deeply before kneeling down, never rising her hard stare from the mahagony floor and the persian carpet. She hated this above everything else and most certainly hadn't made a secret of her distaste which earned her a discreet nudge at the ribs- a courtesy of Celia. Even though Glen was her father, she wasn't allowed to call him that. Because to him and everybody else she was nothing more, than a poison princess, a thrownaway tool and nothing else.

Anger woke inside her for the first time she could remember and she decided that they couldn't do that to her. No matter what she will complete her task and she will be free after that. She had enough of her meaningless life until now, that her sole purpose in life was to prepare for this day only. Alice wanted none of this anymore. She will escape even if she will be hunted for the rest of her life or she must run for the end of the world. The fundations of her plan was already set and she was suddenly very grateful for her long bangs and the posture of her body that hid her face. She quickly guarded her emotions, softened her eyes and put up a blank face albeit she hadn't lift up her head, hoping that no one could guess what was she planning.

"Rise 499th poison princess of the Baskerville family." said the man, but never looking up. "It has been decided to which family you will be sent."

My body cannot love anyone.

Authoress' Notes: This is my very first fic, so be patient with me, also constructive critique is most welcomed and strongly recommended. Reviewers all receive virtual Break plushie! I'm sorry for the grammatical errors, English isn't my native language. Updates most definitely will be slow. *bows very deeply and many many times while saying sorry*
Also the song Alice is singing is Hypnogaja's Looking Glass, a song I fell in love with a few days ago. By the way, the singing part was inspired by an incident which happened yesterday while with the biggest knife home I was cutting up the meat for making stew, at the same time I was singing this song and when I got to the quoted line my mom very strongly advised (aka ordered) me to stop since it's highly "disturbing"... whatever that may mean in that situation (unnerving maybe?) XD

~Natsuhi