This is a quick warning. This first chapter was originally made for my account on Quizilla. It was going to be a story with this as the universal intro and then every chapter after this would be dedicated to a character tree. I copied most of it from there so Peter isn't in this one hardly at all. (I had to cut his intro short while posting this for the other site.) The rest of the story will be a Maria X Peter story. I guess if I get enough requests I could make other Kuni no Alice stories, but Peter is the easiest for me, since he is my favorite. Enjoy. XD (There may be some spoilers both manga and game)

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It happened far too quickly. She had just been walking home from school when she looked up at the sky to see the clouds and determine whether or not she thought it would rain on this cloudy day, but when she looked down again, she fell into a humongous hole. She had no idea how she hadn't seen it coming, but suddenly, she was plummeting deeper and deeper through the giant chasm in the earth.

She screamed but she must have fallen so far now, no one could have heard her. Terrified, Maria Pines had to reach up and grab the glasses that flew off of her face. Her elbow length dirty blond hair flew wildly upward with the rushing wind. She kept her blue gray eyes tightly shut against the air, though, since sunlight couldn't reach her, it was pitch black around her anyway. Her blue jeans puffed up with air and her long sleeved red shirt was threatening to fly up and cover her face revealing everything it should hide.

The next thing she knew, she was sitting at the top of a clock tower. She looked around, panicked. The sky was black and littered with stars. Looking down from the sky, she realized she had never seen such a place in her time, so full of trees and dirt paths, not a car or cement road to be seen. There was a magnificent looking castle, a grand mansion and a huge Amusement Park in the distance.

Remembering she was afraid of heights, Maria scrambled away from the edge and quickly down a stairwell, where she bumped into a tall man with long hair the same shade and color as his cobalt eyes. Even being tied at the nape of his neck, it trailed down to his knees. He wore a black coat with elaborate gold edges that matched his shirt underneath. His pants and shoes were the same plain black.

"What are you doing here? Leave! Go back, now!" He yelled in a deep scary voice. Maria jumped and slipped past him, thinking this man must own the clock tower and obviously sees her as some trouble maker who snuck into the tower. As she scrambled down the stairway she called back.

"Yes sir! I'm very sorry, it was an accident!" Exiting the stairway as the man turned around and ran after her. Maria began running through the doors at random in her panic. Finally making it to the entrance, she ran into a new man.

This man had shoulder length straight silver hair and the left eye was grey while the other was covered in an eye patch. He wore a dark gray coat with black and gold boarders, a black tie and a frilly white shirt that covered the top of his dark gray pants. His expression was still shocked.

"Who are you? A stranger?" He asked curiously. She looked back nervously at the door afraid the blue haired man would find her. "Don't worry, Julius isn't a bad guy, but he will make you leave Wonderland if he catches you." The one eye's man said. She looked back up at him.

"Wonderland?"Maria asked. The man nodded. "That's where you are. My name is Nightmare. How did you get here? He asked quietly. She was unsure whether to tell the truth or not and did not notice that the man answered her fear of the man chasing her. Finally, she decided to start with her name.

"Um... I'm Maria." Next was the hard part. Who would believe she had fallen down a huge hole and gone to a place called Wonderland and looked like it was hundreds of years in the past? Apparently, nightmare was a mind reader.

"So the hole just appeared? How odd. Well, Maria, I'd love to chat with you more, but Julius is on his way, here... You should go somewhere else for a little while." He said She wanted to stop and asked questions, but was not brave enough to face the blue haired man. (Julius?) Giving a look back over her shoulder, Maria ran out the door and down the stairs outside. There was a path leading into a forest that surrounded the tower and she followed it and made her ways past a fork in the road at two separate points in her haste to be away.

Once Maria decided she was far enough to be safe, she thought for a while. It looked like she was somewhere back in time, she was in a country or city with a name she knew was not part of her word, Wonderland, hair colors like Silver and blue (without differently colored roots or eyebrows.) Plus the one eyed man read her mind and anyway, what kind of person would name their son Nightmare?

Maria concluded that she could think of three explanations. 1. She was crazy. This was her least favorite. 2. She was dreaming and 3. She really had fallen into some kind of alternate universe. She dreaded what kind of conclusion she would draw up next and decided to walk on, but noticed it was light out now.

When she was standing at the top of the clock tower, it was night, but apparently during her escape from Julius, daylight sprang forth. She mentally added this to her 'I'm crazy/ dreaming/ in another world' list as she walked down the dirt road toward the mansion she had seen earlier. It felt peaceful to her and unbelievably comfortable to be surrounded by the tall still trees and being able to feel the warm silence because not a car could be heard in any direction. She sighed comfortably. If she was going crazy, it might not be so bad after all.

Soon. she reached the tall black gates of the mansion. Since she was only looking, she didn't try to touch or open them at all.

"Hi, there, Onee san!" Called a sweet voice from only a few feet away. Maria looked around. There were two young teenage boys standing near her. The twins both had short black hair sticking out from under their colored hats that matched their uniform jackets. One wore all blue and one wore all red. Even their eyes shared these colors. Their black pants were the first articles of clothing to break this pattern. Maria was worried though, because each boy held a large pole axe.

"Hi, boys, I'm Maria what are your names?" She asked. The two smiled mischievously to each other but before they could respond two men walked up to the gate from the inside.

"Dee, Dum! Who is that!" Yelled a strange man. He had wavy orange blond hair that brushed his shoulders. His narrow eyes were a bright clear blue. He wore a lovely thick purple patterned scarf with bits of straw sticking out of it randomly, his black trench coat contrasted with his green pants and yellow boots, even with the gold belts, one around his waist and one diagonally from his right shoulder under his left arm and blue circular designs near the fastenings and sleeves. The piece that stuck out the most about this man, though, were the long furry rabbit ears sprouting from his orange hair and fading into light brown fur.

"You're supposed to take care of everyone." He snapped again. The second man put a hand on the rabbit man's shoulder as he snapped the fingers of his free white gloved hand and the gates began to open.

"Now, Elliot. Isn't that rude to our guest?: Said the man with almost shoulder length black hair hanging out from under a grand top hat decorated with a red ribbon, bunches of roses and black feathers. There were also two note cards one of which read 10/6. He had turquoise eyes that somehow told her this man is dangerous yet made her feel safe at the same time. He wore a big black bow tie with intricate gold designs, a white coat with extra long coat tails, a white shirt, black pants that suddenly turned white at the knee and black shoes. The twins stood on either side of her as the hatted man and Elliot approached her.

" But, Blood-" The rabbit eared man started but the hatted man shot him one cold look with those turquoise eyes and Elliot fell silent.

"Forgive us, Miss. You are a new face here, am I correct?" Blood asked in an alluring voice. She nodded in response.

"Her name is Maria, Boss!" The red twin piped up.

"Dum, Blood's talking, shut up!" Elliot said and pounded his fist down on the child's head.

"Sorry, I'm just looking around... I don't mean to cause trouble. I'm a bit lost, I guess. I don't know how I got to Wonderland at all, so I'm exploring." Maria explained. Blood smiled.

"You mean you're a stranger? From another world!" Elliot explained, his ears standing up straight. Maria almost jumped in shock.

"Y-Yeah, is that normal?" She stuttered. Elliot turned to look at Blood, the twins stared at you, but Blood smiled wider.

"Not unheard of but not normal, either." He explained. Maria felt slightly relieved at possibly not being seen as crazy in this delusional dream world.

"Hey, everyone! Is there an outing in progress going on here?" Came a voice from a few yards behind her.

He had smiling dark red eyes and short wild brown hair that dangled partially over his eyes. This man wore a long red trench coat with belts along the sides. The bottom was torn and frayed giving it a ragged appearance. Under the floor length coat he wore a black shirt with bright red lining, black pants and knee high gray boots.

"Ace!" Elliot shouted his blue eyes suddenly furious. Blood's smile faded and Dee and Dum's axes were shifting in the twins' hands restlessly. Based on everyone's reactions, she felt nervous. Maybe, despite this new man's smiling face and cheerful manner, he was bad?

"What are you doing here!" Elliot demanded, his brown rabbit ears twitched angrily. Ace waved and stopped next to Maria.

"I'm on my way to the castle, so I thought I'd take this shortcut... Hi there, I'm Ace." He added holding out a gray gloved hand for the girl to take. Maria hesitantly took his hand.

"My name's Maria?" She said quietly. Elliot looked like he was about to explode.

"Idiot! You took the wrong path again! You're lost!" The blue twin, Dee, yelled. Ace suddenly stopped smiling and looked around him.

"You must be mistaken, I'm sure this is the right way." Ace said lightly. Blood taped his cane on the ground and sighed.

"The path to the castle is back the way you came, look in the distance, you are walking away from it." He said pointing to the huge white and red castle only a few miles away. Ace looked and tapped his finger to his chin.

"Are you-"Ace was cut off by Elliot's thunderous voice, he had finally bubbled over.

"Yes! We're sure; now leave us and the stranger alone!"Suddenly Blood turned to glare coldly at the rabbit eared man as Ace's eyes widened and he turned back to Maria. Even though she had already shaken his hand, he seized hers again.

"Oh, wow! I had no idea you were from another world, Maria, though, it does explain your strange clothing!" He laughed "I mean... a girl wearing pants?" He added in a mutter so quiet Maria barely heard him. The twins turned to Elliot whose face was flushed in embarrassment.

"You stupid blondie rabbit!" Dum yelled. "You told the enemy about the stranger!" Dee finished. Maria, feeling annoyed by all the attention and Dum's blondie comment, almost snapped at the red twin, but caught sight of the black axes in their hands and thought better of it.

"Well... Thank you, everyone, for the warm welcome, but I need to find a way home." She said diplomatically. Ace responded first.

"Oh, I can take you to the castle. I think Queen Vivaldi would like to meet you, too!" He suggested, but suddenly the axes were flying right by her face. She jumped but when she could focus her eyes again, Maria saw the weapons were directed at Ace. Both twins were glaring murderously at Ace. Their axes were on either side of his neck, but he was still smiling.

"The stranger can stay here, if boss says so. Onee san doesn't need to go to the castle." One of them said darkly as Blood reached over and grabbed Maria's arm firmly, leading her away from the twins and Ace to stand by his side against the mansion's gate.

"You don't want her to stay in enemy territory, because you know she's better off there." Ace said smoothly and suddenly slashed his sword out of its sheath, throwing the axes away from him.

"Oh my! Shouldn't we stop them!"Maria yelled in terror as the twins and Ace began battle. Blood looked down at her with a gentle smile.

"No, since you're mew here, you may not know about the territorial war." He said in a silky voice. He continued at her blank expression. "There are four regions. The clock tower is the only neutral ground. The Heart Castle, which is where Ace lives, the Amusement Park and us, the Hatters here at Hatter Mansion, are in a power struggle." He explained. Elliot appeared on the other side.

"You may not know it, but Blood here is the leader of the mafia!" He exclaimed. Maria suddenly couldn't wait to leave the mansion.

"I really should go, though." She said desperately. Ace suddenly popped up in her face dodging axes.

"You might find more answers at the castle, Maria." He said. She paused for a moment, sighed and responded.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt. Just to see if there are answers of course." She said shakily. She was terrified of making the mafia mad at her, but she also needed to get home. Ace's smile was the biggest she had seen on him yet as Elliot scowled at him and the defeated Dee and Dum sulked. Blood, however, smiled at Maria. He leaned forward, just about giving her a huge panic attack, and whispered in her ear so no one other than Maria could hear.

"You are welcome here anytime... Also, be very careful in this world." He warned. The blond fought the urge to rub her ear the man had tickled with his low voice as the Hatter stood up straight again.

"Bye, Onee san!" The twins yelled as Ace lead her back down the road they had come from. For a while, neither spoke until Ace started veering off the path into the thick trees and bushes.

"Ace, shouldn't we start on the trail?" Maria asked confused. The man just smiled over his shoulder.

"I'm trying to get you there quickly so I can introduce you before another time change. Don't be scared of the woods while the sun is out, so I can save you, I'm a knight, you know." He said cheerfully as she doubtfully followed him inside the sea of trees.

Maria began to hear a huge amount of voices and strange noises after they had walked along for a long time. The sky was constantly hidden from them, but when the green light shining through the leaves suddenly got darker, she almost screamed.

"It's just afternoon now... You're a jumpy one, huh?" The knight asked as if she should have expected the sun to sink from morning to afternoon in a span of three seconds.

"How did you get here anyway?" He asked. She took a deep breath, mostly to calm her down.

"I was just walking home from school when a hole appeared in front of me and I fell through it. That's all. I ran away from the clock tower because I think I made the blue haired man, Julius, mad." She explained. All Ace could respond with was:

"You know Julius!" His voice was excited. Maria nodded hesitantly. "I go to his place all the time." He explained. She responded with a nod before Ace brushed away some low branches and helped Maria squeeze through a hedge into the entrance of an enormous Amusement Park.

"Um... Well now I know where all the noise and voices came from." She said with a sigh. "Ace you got lost again, when I was at the top of the Clock Tower I saw that the castle was between this park and the mansion we just came from." She explained. There was a loud voice coming from in front of the pair before Ace could disagree with her.

"Hi there!" The voice called. A man with mid shoulder length reddish brown hair in a braid, his bangs curled over his forehead and stubble on his chin stood before them. He had happy blue eyes behind round glasses, an eccentric bright yellow coat with blue lining and musical note decorations, a yellow shirt under it and a yellow and blue checkered belt criss crossed over his waist decorated with a horse on each side. His pants were light gray Capri pants (They look like riding pants to me, but I wouldn't know.) his long socks matched his belts and his shoes were brown. As strange as his appearance was, Maria first noticed the violin in his hand.

"Ace, have you decided to try the park out?" Asked the man when his smile faded, seeing who had stumbled out of the hedge. Of course Ace's smile never faded.

"No, I'm taking Maria, here, to the castle. " The man's face fell even more. For a moment but he quickly smiled and took her hand.

"Hello, Maria, I believe you are a new face here. I am Gowland the owner of this park." He greeted cheerfully. The blond girl smiled back at him.

"Thank you, I just came here to Wonderland earlier today, I'm still not sure how, but it's nice to know that most of the people here are pretty nice to me." She said partially as a hint that any clues to how she got there would be appreciated. Unfortunately, she received a reaction she should have (but hadn't) expected.

"An outsider! Ace! You're traveling with a stranger!" He yelled. Ace simply nodded. Something purple and pink flew down from a nearby tree. Gowland turned around to see what had fallen. It was a teenage boy with pinkish purple emo hair, spiked slightly and covering his right golden yellow eye. He had cat ears at the top of his head that matched his hair. There was a gold assortment of rings in his right ear, one included a gold fish skeleton exactly like the piercing in his long cat tail.

This cat boy had a black upside down triangle under his only visible eye and wore a black short shirt with a pink collar and pink zippers at the bottom. On his right arm, he wore a wrist length black glove held at the bottom with a pink collar. On the left his glove was elbow length. His short black skort had pink zippers at the end of the skirt and his black and pink stripped socks were knee high but the right sock hadn't been pulled up all the way. A fluffy pink and purple stripped boa over his shoulder and gold chains dangling from every pink collar. Gowland turned away from the boy unconcerned.

"Are you alright?" Maria asked quickly. The boy was standing up by this time and turned to see if there was anyone behind him before staring back at the girl with a raised pink eyebrow. Thinking this was odd behavior, she turned to Ace and Gowland who were both watching her with puzzled expressions.

"What?" She asked, nervously. The boy gathered himself together and shook his head.

"I see, now... You MUST be a stranger!" He said with a laugh. Gowland continued for the cat boy before Maria could ask any questions.

"My, My... No one here in Wonderland would be concerned about a random person like Boris, or any other person close to them or not for simply falling out of a tree!" He said and began laughing with Boris soon joined by Ace. Maria was suddenly hit with a wave of anger.

"Of course I was worried! He could have hurt himself, why don't you care!" She snapped, ceasing all laughter. The Park Owner looked at Ace for a moment.

"You haven't explained anything to her, yet?" He asked before turning back to the flaming teen. "Being hurt or dying doesn't mean anything like it apparently does in your world. We all just get replaced anyway." Gowland explained and Maria's anger melted.

"How can you say that? What do y- That's terrible!" She mumbled before Boris spoke again.

"It's normal here and you should get use to it, since you'll be here for a while." He said. Maria had almost forgotten about going home.

"Oh, no... I won't be here long. Ace is taking me to the castle to see if we can find out how I get home." The boy stared at her again.

"Um.. If you say so... Well, you can come over anytime if you don't find your way back home, right, Old Man?" He asked Gowland who smacked the boy in the head with the bow of his violin.

"Of course, and don't call me that! Before I direct you to the castle, though, allow me to play a song in your hon-"

"NOOOOOOOO!" Boris screamed and raised his hands to cover his fluffy pink ears. "Take the north path to the castle and don't let Ace tell you otherwise, he's directionally challenged. Now, go, quick!" He yelled. She wanted to stay and ask a question but obeyed him anyway. Along the path to the castle, she decided to ask her question to the knight.

"Hey, Ace?" She asked to get his attention.

"Yes?"

"Is it normal in this world to have oddly colored hair and animal ears?" She had been waiting to ask for ages but either could never find an opportunity or it slipped her mind at the wrong times. Ace tapped his chin with a gloved fingertip.

"Hm... Some people DO have animal ears, so yes, but what do you mean oddly colored hair? He asked. Maria sighed.

"In my world, people are only born with brown, blond, red or black hair. I had to ask, because Julius has blue hair, Nightmare has silver hair and Boris has pink hair!" Ace's eyes were wide in shock; she continued to surprise him looking at his red eyes.

"No one in my world has red, gold or silver eyes like you, Boris, Nightmare and the red twin." She said and Ace laughed.

"You wait 'till we get to the castle. Peter has white hair and res eyes and the queen's are both purple!" He said and she shook her head. The Queen sounded interesting but she guessed that Peter was just an aging servant to have white hair and the red eyes seemed to be common here.

Soon enough, they were at a maze made of hedges the castle was just beyond them. Maria tried to find a way through the maze, but kept following Ace and became more confused.

"Ace, the queen would like to see- Who is that?" Asked a soft but obviously irritated voice. Maria turned to see a young man with almost shoulder length snowy white hair with two sleek white rabbit ears on his head. He had narrow bright red eyes behind round glasses. His jacket was plaid and the pale pink shirt had ends that made their way through the collar and under the bottom of his jacket in folded strips. A gold pocket watch lay against his hip and the brown pants he wore had numbers circling at the top and bottom of each pant leg and his shoes matched his jacket.

"Hey, Peter, this is Maria... she's an outsider!" Ace exclaimed. Peter looked at her closer adjusting his glasses.

"Where did you find her?" He asked as if she couldn't hear them.

"I picked her up at the mansion... She's here to see if we can find a way for her to go home." He explained and Peter glanced over at Maria.

"You won't find anything, I'm not sure what Ace believes, but there's nothing in the libraries about strangers or anything foreign, we'd know. I'll take you to the queen anyway, though. He said Maria instantly became angry with Ace. Seeing her look, Peter smiled slightly. "Don't worry; you can stay as long as you want." He said misunderstanding. (Cutting it down because I'm out of space from here on.) She was led to the receiving room, met the queen and Ace explained her situation. Vivaldi agreed there were no known answers before Maria requested to go outside for some time to think. At first the queen was hesitant but finally agreed reluctantly. She left the castle, found her way through the maze and stared at the forest before her unsure where she should stay, what she should do or what questions to ask who..