Chapter 1- An Interrupted Engagement Party

10 years later ….

After all these years, nothing had changed. Alice and I were still having that stupid dream and we still didn't know what it meant. This burden of having to deal with the dream was beginning to wear Alice out, I noticed. She'd grown paler and less fun over the years. However, puberty hit her well, and she'd grown into a very pretty young woman, I have to admit. On another happier note, she was doing very well in her Lugia training. She'd now learned so many moves and was growing stronger every day. Both Lugia and I were very proud of how she'd come along. However, she still had a long way to go, according to her Lugia dad. Also, Alice was becoming a very admirable Pokemon trainer. Over the years, I continued to give her a new Pokemon for her birthdays. She now had a Mawile, the Deceiver Pokemon, a Beautifly, the Butterfly Pokemon, a Kirlia, the Emotion Pokemon, and an Absol, the Disaster Pokemon. And yes, I do realize that most of her Pokemon are from the Hoenn region. Anyway, my teachings on how to be a Pokemon trainer were going well, and she had created a bond with her Pokemon. Even though these dreams were torturing us, mostly her, she still had her good days.

Unfortunately, today was not a good day, because we were going to this big party hosted by the Ascots, a wealthy family of whom worked with Alice's father in the trading company. And they sucked. Lady Ascot was a stuffy stick in the mud, Lord Ascot was stiff, yet unflappable, and their son Hamish was … ugh. Alice had known him ever since she was a kid, but every time I saw his face, it took all the strength I could muster to keep myself from throwing up. And now, today, we were going to a party at their mansion, and, unfortunately, I had to go as well. I couldn't be left alone at home all because of one time when I accidentally trashed the house. There was a mouse! I was trying to kill it, I swear! But that little incident caused me to have to go everywhere with the Kingsleigh's when they went out. And today, … well, if I had to pick between taking cyanide and going to the party, I'd pick the cyanide.

I was sitting in Alice's room on her bed, waiting for the announcement for when we would go. I was reading Slaughterhouse Five, which was a book that I'd never read for the life of me, but since I was incredibly bored, it was the only thing I could think of doing that would keep me entertained at the moment. I began reading a limerick that was at the beginning of the book.

"There was a young man from Stamboul,

Who soliloquized thus to his tool …"

"Huh," I said to myself. "I've never seen the word 'tool' used like that before …. Oh well."

But before I could continue, I heard Ms. Kingsleigh's voice call, "Pinocchio, it's time to go!"

"UHG! Fine!" I groaned. I closed the book, put it in my backpack, put my backpack in my pocket, and trudged downstairs.

Alice and her mother were waiting outside along with a horse-drawn carriage. I noticed Alice was wearing a pretty, light blue dress and had her hair pulled back. It was a shame; I liked her hair down. She looked prettier that way. She also looked extremely tired. But I couldn't blame her. Who wouldn't be tired if they kept having a recurring dream bothering them for ten freaking years.

We clambered into the carriage and were on our way. I watched as the buildings of London passed us and then fade into the countryside. Nobody spoke the whole ride until Alice's mom started messing with her hair.

"Must we go?" she asked.

I agree, I thought. Do we really have to do this. It's not like this family is nice to us, anyway.

"I doubt they'll notice if we never arrive," Alice continued.

Let's just hope so, I begged silently.

"They will notice," Ms. Kingsleigh said in a slightly firm voice. She adjusted Alice's dress, but then gave an angry look. "Where's your corset?"

Alice looked away. I had to agree with her not wanting to put that on. Who would want to wear something that looked like it was suffocating the crap out of them?

Inhaling angrily, Alice's mom lifted her dress above her ankles. "And no stockings!"

"I'm against them," Alice said defensively.

"But you're not properly dressed!"

"Who's to say what is proper?" I could hear Alice's human father coming out of her. He always acted like that, considering things in a logical manner. That's what made him so freaking awesome! "What if it was agreed that 'proper' was wearing a codfish on your head? Would you wear it?"

I snickered at this statement. She had a point.

Her mother closed her eyes irritably. "Alice."

"To me a corset is like a codfish," Alice said.

"Please," her mom snapped. "Not today."

"Father would've laughed," Alice mumbled.

I felt one of those moments where a car screeching and crashing sound effect would've worked perfectly for the moment. Her mother looked down hurt.

When Alice was thirteen, her father had died when he went out to sea on one of his trading routes. A huge storm had broken out and his boat sank. It was a really sad time for the family, especially Alice, having the one person of whom she could talk to taken away from her. Thankfully, her Lugia dad was there to help her during that time. I'd done my best to try and help, but she was still pretty hurt.

"I'm sorry," Alice apologized. "I'm tired. I didn't sleep well last night."

"Did you both have bad dreams again?" Alice's mom asked worryingly. This was one of the few times Alice's mom was actually concerned about me. That was a rare occasion that barely happened between us.

"Only one," Alice said honestly. "It's always the same since we can remember. Do you think that's normal? Don't most people have different dreams?"

Alice had a point, and she was right. Most people did have different dreams.

Her mom shook her head, as if she didn't know how to answer that question. "I don't know," was all she could say.

Alice looked slightly downtrodden by this. Her mom removed her necklace and put it around her daughter's neck. At least she was trying to help Alice now.

"There," she said. "You're beautiful. Now, can you manage to smile?"

Alice gave a small, attempted smile. I even smiled at this small moment of hope, but then boredom settled on me again, and I pressed my face against the window.

"How much longer?" I groaned, as if someone had just asked me to donate a kidney. "I've been sitting here so long, my butt muscles are starting to hurt."

"Quit your whining," Alice hissed, smacking me on the arm. In the past years, the pain Alice had given me hadn't changed. It was strange that she would grown this old while hanging around me so much. I'd thought, for sure, that my aging curse would've affected her by now.

Back at the Academy when I was being transformed into a robot, something happened in the lab with some of the magic they would be using for later, and I got this aging curse put on me. It wouldn't affect me because I'm a robot, but anyone else who hangs around me for a couple of days would soon feel the side effect of it. In other words, they would stop aging. They could still die if they got, like, sick, or if someone stabbed them, but they would pretty much go on living forever. But for some odd reason, it hadn't taken affect on Alice yet …. Oh well.

"You better not embarrass me this time," Alice said warningly to me.

"When was the last time I embarrassed you?" I asked scandalized.

Alice gave me a don't-give-me-that-crap look.

"Fine," I huffed, throwing my hands in the air and rolling my eyes. "I won't do anything …. But I'll still be bored out of my mind."

"Did you bring your DS?" Alice asked. Over the years, she had become familiarized with the different pieces of technology I carried with me.

"It's charging."

"What about your phone?"

"I'm only using it when necessary. I don't want to drain the battery life."

"What about your iPod?"

I stopped myself before I could say anything.

"Eh," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

The carriage soon came to a stop as we arrived at the Ascot's mansion. We clambered out and walked into the gardens where the party was already in full swing. And there were Lord and Lady Ascot, looking like how all crappy, rich families were.

"At last," Lady Ascot said, a small edge of annoyance in her voice. "We thought you'd never arrive."

I was hoping we would have an accident on the way here, I said to myself.

"Alice, Hamish is waiting to dance with you," the old woman continued. "Go!"

Alice unhappily trotted off to wherever the heck Hamish was. When she'd left, the Ascots' gazes fell on me.

"Oh, you're here," Lady Ascot said disapprovingly.

"Nice to see you, too," I mumbled under my breath. I turned to Alice's mother. "If you don't mind, I'm going to find a tree to sit under until this whole bru-hah-hah is over."

"Fine," Ms. Kingsleigh sighed.

I trudged off towards the gardens, my head hanging as if this was the worst day of my life (which it kind of was). I eventually found a big tree a ways off where everyone was dancing. Now was the time for me to start entertaining myself.

First, I banged my head against the tree multiple times in hopes of giving myself a concussion so that I wouldn't have to endure this boring-butt party anymore. But that didn't work. So then, I decided to walk around the tree a few times, hoping to make myself get dizzy and throw up. That would hopefully make us leave. After a few minutes, I had gotten dizzy, but not enough to get sick. So after that, I let myself fall down against the three, and after getting myself into a comfortable position, I decided to listen to some music on my iPod. Wanting to listen to something more catchy than the waltz music that they were playing, I first listened to "Lake Shore Drive." That was able to lift my spirits some.

It made me think back to one time when Alice and I were put in a time out for once again fighting. I wanted to make peace with Alice, so I put this song on and we ended up dancing together along with it. After that, it became Alice's favorite song from the 70s.

I tapped my fingers to the piano part of the song, bobbed my head back and forth, and sang a little of the refrain quietly. Then I listened to "My Sweet Lord," another excellent song, in my opinion. I imitated myself playing a guitar at the electric guitar parts and sang the "Hallelujah" moments. Then I decided to pump myself with metal, so I listened to the "Immigrant Song." Like most people, I mouthed the screaming parts and headbanged like there was no tomorrow. And I honestly didn't care if anyone saw me. Now was my time.

After that was over, I noticed Alice and Hamish slinking away from the dance floor. I quickly put my iPod away and crawled like a tiger approaching its prey up to them.

"Alice, meet me under the gazebo in precisely ten minutes," Hamish ordered and then walked away. He looked as disgustingly stupid as ever.

I popped up from the grass right next to Alice. She gave a small jump, but then relaxed when she saw it was me.

"Hey," I said, wanting to make some pleasant conversation with her. "So, how'd it go?"

"Well, I was able to survive it," she murmured. "We heard you singing, by the way."

I waited for the angry blow of Alice saying that I embarrassed her, yet again.

"But we just ignored it."

I opened my eyes in shock. I wasn't expecting that to come out of her mouth.

"Mmm," I said. "Why does Hamish want to meet with you under the gazebo?"

"Who knows."

We heard some giggling behind us. We turned around and saw the Chattaway twins, Faith and Fiona. They were friends of the Ascot family and, therefore, had to get mingled with the Kingsleighs. Not only were they annoying, but they were huge gossipers, as well.

"We have a secret to tell you," Faith said with a stupid grin on her face.

"If you're telling us, it's not much of a secret," Alice pointed out.

"Duh," I mumbled.

"Perhaps we shouldn't," Fiona said slightly panicky.

"We decided we should!" Faith cried.

"If we tell her, she won't be surprised."

"Will you be surprised?"

"Not if you tell us," Alice said. "But now that you've brought it up, you have to."

"Yeah, you both are in the doghouse now," I said.

"No, we don't and aren't," Faith said eagerly.

"In fact, we won't!" Fiona agreed, looking as stupidly happy as her sister.

Alice then gave a sneaky look. "I wonder if your mother knows that you two swim naked in the Havershims' pond."

"Ooooh," I laughed in a delightfully evil way.

The smiles on the girls' faces vanished.

"You wouldn't!" cried Faith.

"Oh, but we would," said Alice. "There's your mother right now." Alice turned her head and pointed to the girls' mother.

"I've even got a picture of you both on my phone," I said maliciously, taking out my phone and turning it on. I was lying, of course. I'm not a pervert.

"Hamish is going to ask for your hand!" Fiona blabbed.

All body movement left me at that statement. I almost dropped my phone. "What?" I said in a low voice.

"You've ruined the surprise," a scolding voice said. It was Margaret. I'd totally forgotten she was here as well.

In the past ten years, Margaret had gotten married to some guy named Lowell. She seemed pretty happy with him, but now that this was suddenly happening, she was most likely wanting the same for Alice. The only difference was that I was pretty sure that Alice was going to commit suicide on the night of the honeymoon.

Margaret grabbed a hold of Alice's shoulder and led her away from the twins. I quickly stuffed my phone into my pockets and followed them.

Margaret made an angry sound. "I could strangle them!" I heard her whisper.

Please do, I begged quietly. It would free the world from another unnecessary annoyance.

"Everyone went to so much effort to keep it a secret," Margaret continued.

"Does everyone know?" Alice asked, sounding as if she were dreading the worse.

"It's why they've all come. This is your engagement party. Hamish will ask you under the gazebo. When you say yes-"

"But I don't know if I want to marry Hamish," Alice interrupted, sounding as if she didn't want to hear the end of that sentence.

"Who then? You won't do better than a lord."

We all looked over at Hamish who was blowing his nose … and then looked at the bugger in his handkerchief. I gave an incredibly disgusted look.

Please, I said to myself. She can do better than that!

"You'll soon be twenty, Alice," Margaret said. "That pretty face won't last forever. You don't want to end up like Aunt Imogene, do you?"

She nodded over to the old lady who was sitting under an umbrella, fanning herself.

"And you don't want to be a burden on Mother, do you?" Margaret continued.

"No," Alice said, as if she couldn't answer any other way.

"So, you will marry Hamish. You'll be as happy as I am with Lowell, and your life will be perfect. It's already decided."

Oh boy, I thought.

"Alice dear," Lady Ascot said, suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

Alice and Margaret stopped walking.

"I'll leave you to it," Margaret said and then walked away.

"Shall we take a leisurely stroll through the garden?" Lady Ascot offered. "Just you and me."

Her eyes fell upon me and she gave me this look as if I was the most disgusting thing she'd ever seen.

I rolled my eyes and walked away, but then I stopped. I turned around and watched the two walk away. Wanting to hear this, I decided to turn invisible (another function that the Academy set me up with) and follow them. I climbed on top of the hedges and after some searching, I found them in a part of the garden that was filled with roses. I walked cat-like along the hedge that was closest to them.

"Do you know what I've always dreaded?" Lady Ascot said.

"The decline of the aristocracy?" Alice answered. I had no idea what that meant, but at least it was an answer.

"Ugly grandchildren," Lady Ascot said. "But you're lovely. You're bound to produce little … imbeciles!"

I wasn't expecting that to come out of her mouth, but then I saw that she was staring at the roses.

"The gardeners planted white roses when I specifically asked them red!" Lady Ascot continued.

"You could always paint the roses red," Alice suggested. I sniggered a little.

"What an odd thing to say," Lady Ascot said. They continued walking. "You should know that my son has extremely delicate digestion …"

But I saw that Alice wasn't paying attention. She was looking off into the bushes. I followed her gaze … and I saw what looked like a rabbit hopping through. I stopped dead.

"Did you see that?" Alice asked.

"See what?" Lady Ascot said puzzled.

"Twas a rabbit, I think."

"Nasty things. I do enjoy setting the dogs on them."

Yeesh, I thought.

Lady Ascot went back to talking about nonsense. "If you serve Hamish the wrong foods, he could get a blockage."

I saw that Alice wasn't paying attention again. She was staring at the bushes, once more. I looked that way as well … and again, I saw the rabbit.

"Did you see it that time?" Alice asked.

"See what?" Lady Ascot said again.

"The rabbit!"

"Don't shout!"

Geez, lady, I thought. What are you? The royals?

"Now pay attention. Hamish said you were easily distracted. What was I saying?"

"Hamish has a blockage," Alice started, but both of our gazes fell onto a doorway just ahead, and there was the unmistakable rabbit sitting there for about two seconds and then ran off.

"I couldn't be more interested, but you'll have to excuse me," Alice said, finally getting away from Lady Ascot and running in the direction of where the rabbit was. I jumped down from the hedge and followed her. I eventually caught up to her halfway between the hedges. When I became visible again, Alice jumped and gave a small squeal.

"Don't do that!" she hissed.

"Sorry," I said.

"Did you hear everything we were saying?"

"I heard enough. You can't marry Hamish because first off, he's disgusting, and two, what if he finds out about … you-know-what?"

Alice stopped.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "I didn't think about that 'till now."

I saw the deep confliction on her face. Nobody in the family knew about Alice being a Lugia besides me, Alice's mom, Margaret, and Coraline (I wrote about that). Not even Margaret's husband knew. Deciding to change the subject, I said, "I saw the rabbit."

"You did!" Alice said, sounding happy to know that someone else had seen it. "Then I suppose I'm not going mad …. But then again, if you saw it."

I didn't know what she meant, at first, but then it hit me.

"Hey!" I yelled offended.

"Come on." Alice grabbed my wrist and pulled me through the hedges.

"By the way," I asked, "what's a 'blockage'?"

Alice stopped, leaned down, and whispered what it was in my ear.

"OH GROSS!" I shouted. Alice shrugged, and we continued on our way.

When we made our way out of the maze, we saw Aunt Imogene nearby.

"Aunt Imogene," Alice said, walking towards her. "I think I'm going mad. I keep seeing a rabbit in a waistcoat."

"Hey, I saw it, t-" I didn't get to finish because Alice stepped on my foot. I hopped on my other foot, massaging my damaged one.

"Can't be bothered with your fancy rabbit now," Aunt Imogene said, fanning herself. "I'm waiting for my fiance."

Now this was something that neither of us had heard about.

"You have a fiance?" Alice said confused.

But then we both saw some movement in the bushes. The rabbit!

"There!" Alice cried, pointing. "Did you see it."

"He's a prince," Aunt Imogene said, as if she hadn't heard Alice. "But, alas, he cannot marry me unless he renounces his throne. It's tragic, isn't it."

Now that made me sad inside. Poor Aunt Imogene was old and her mind was starting to go. But nobody in the family had the heart to tell her what was going on. So all Alice managed to say was, "Very," and we both walked away.

After we escaped that situation, we heard some odd movement coming from within the garden. Walking under an archway, we both saw Margaret's husband, Lowell, … kissing another woman!

My mouth dropped open.

"Lowell?" Alice said puzzled.

"Alice," Lowell said, slightly flustered. "We were just … Hattie's an old friend." The woman walked off as Lowell approached us.

"I can see you've very close," Alice said.

"Yeah," I muttered. "A little too close."

"Look, you won't mention this to you sister, will you?" he asked. "Either of you?" His gaze fell upon me.

"I can't promise you that, buddy," I said, deciding to mess with him. "I'm kind of a big blabber."

Lowell looked slightly panicked at this.

"I don't know," Alice said. "I'm confused. I need time to think."

"Well, think about Margaret," Lowell said. "She would never trust me again. You don't want to ruin her marriage, do you?"

I gasped. He'd touched a button.

"Me?" Alice said incredulously. "But I'm not the one sneaking around behind her back …"

She stopped abruptly. I turned … and there was Hamish. Hooray.

"There you are," he said.

I saw Alice give a look as if she was preparing for the worst. So was I.

In less than five minutes, everyone was gathered around the gazebo. Everybody was smiling except for me. I was wearing a grumpy look and I crossed my arms in a pouty manner. The only other person who didn't look happy, apart from me, was Alice, who looked as though this engagement was her own death sentence. Hamish got down on one knee, taking Alice's hands into his.

"Alice Kingsleigh," he began, but then Alice interrupted.

"Hamish."

"What is it?" he hissed.

"You have a caterpillar on your shoulder."

She was right. There was a small, blue insect on his shoulder. Hamish gave a look as if the thing was brandishing a knife at him. He was about to flick it off.

"Don't hurt it," Alice said, quickly intervening. She picked up the caterpillar and put it on a leaf. Even at her horrible engagement party, her Lugia instincts still showed.

"You'll want to wash that finger," Hamish said in disgust.

I rolled my eyes. All these people seriously came here to see this?

"Alice Kingsleigh," Hamish continued, "will you be my wife?"

He made a dumb smile that made me gag a little. Please say no, I begged silently.

Alice looked even more nervous than before.

"Well," she stammered, "everyone expects me to … and you've a Lord … my face won't last … and I don't want to end up like …."

She looked over Aunt Imogene, who looked slightly hurt.

"But this is happening so quickly, I …"

She walked away from Hamish and looked out at everyone.

"I think I …"

She looked over to her left. I followed her gaze … and there was the rabbit, taking out his watch and tapping it impatiently. My eyes bulged and my mouth dropped open.

"I think I …" Alice said, turning back towards the crowd.

I shook my head at her. Don't do it, I begged, but then-

"I need a moment."

Alice ran off the gazebo and after the rabbit.

"Alice!" I yelled. Instinctively, I ran after her.

I eventually caught up with her and saw the rabbit running ahead. We followed it through the trees and up the hill. At the top of the hill, there were the remains of an old tree and at the base of it was a rabbit hole. Alice got on her knees and leaned over the hole. I squatted next to her.

"Hello," she called. "Sure is a long way down."

"SURE IS!" I said loudly, trying to be comical.

Alice jumped … and fell down the rabbit hole.

"Whelp," I said to myself, "Alice is going to kill me."

I would've walked away and let her deal with her problems by herself, but as her Pokemon protector, I knew I had to make sure she was safe. So I jumped in after her.

I caught up with her as we fell through the dark hole. This time, I don't think Alice's dress would be opening up to form a parachute. This was so much easier back then.

Also, Alice kept banging into stuff, like a bookshelf, the wall, me, the wall …. She then tried to grab onto a loose root, but it broke. Then she hit a piano, but was able to block it using her forcefield ability before it could hit her. Then we bounced off a bed that was just randomly sitting somewhere, and then …

BAM!

We hit what must've been the bottom of the hole.

"Well," I said, "that was fun."

"Fun!" Alice seethed. "You made me fall down, you idiot."

"Oh come on! Can't you take a h- Why is that chandelier upside down?"

It was true. We were sitting next to a chandelier. Then I saw that Alice's hair was standing up on end. I screamed and pointed. Then my hat fell off. And that's when I realized, we weren't on the floor; we were on the ceiling.

Alice and I fell again, and landed on the floor, me landing headfirst. I was so glad I didn't get a concussion.

When we got up, we noticed that we were in a room that was filled with doors. Then I realized, we must've been having that stupid dream again. But this room wasn't like this before. Must've done some remodeling. Alice began trying the doors, but they were all locked. After trying the last door, we both turned and saw a table in the middle of the room that must've just appeared out of thin air (of course). On the table was a key. Alice walked over and picked the key up. She tried it on all of the doors. I didn't work for any of them, except for one that was behind a curtain … and was small.

Alice and I stooped down. For some odd reason, the door wasn't talking like before. Must've gotten rid of that door and replaced it with an inanimate, less annoying door. She put the key in the lock and the door opened. She tried to crawl through it, but, of course, couldn't fit through it. I don't know where Alice's brain was today. She looked frustrated, but then looked back at the table. Following her gaze, I saw that there was a small bottle full of … whatever on the table. We both got and walked toward the table. Alice put the key on the table (which I knew was stupid on her part) and picked up the bottle. Like last time, it had a card on it that said "Drink me". Alice unstoffered the bottle and sniffed it. She gave a disgusted face. It must've smelled like crap.

"It's only a dream," she said to herself, and then drank whatever was inside the bottle.

Great, I thought, she's YOLOing it again.

After taking a huge swig from the bottle, she put it down and began coughing. That made me confused. The last time she drank from the bottle, she said it had a bunch of different types of flavors with it. But now, she was reacting to it as if she'd just drunken Milk of Magnesia. Then, she began shrinking. However, this time, her clothes weren't shrinking with her. I turned away in case she came out naked.

"Alice!" I called. "You okay!"

"I'm fine," I heard her voice, and then she said annoyed, "You can look."

I turned around and saw that she still had her skirts on, which was a relief, because I was not going to be walking around with her buckskin naked.

"Hang on, girl," I said, picking up the bottle. "I'm coming."

I popped the bottle into my mouth and drank. Alice's reaction from before was completely accurate because this stuff tasted so bad that I can't even put it into words. I missed when it tasted like my favorite snack food.

In no time, I had shrunk to the same height as Alice, but I still had my clothes on. I pointed at her and gave her a Nelson Muntz laugh. She rolled her eyes, and we both went over to the door.

It had locked again. Alice turned back to the table, where she'd left the key. She tried climbing up the table to get it, but had no avail.

"Nice work, doofus," I mumbled.

"Oh, well if you're so smart, why don't you just fly up there and get it!" she said angrily.

"I would, but … I'm too lazy."

Alice punched me in the face. After massaging my jaw, I was about to punch back, when something caught our eyes.

There was a small glass case under the table. Alice bent down and opened it. In it was a cake that said "Eat me."

"I wouldn't do that," I said, but Alice wasn't listening. She ate a piece of the cake … and started growing. She grew up until she hit the ceiling. I just hoped that it wouldn't collapse on us.

She bent down, got the key, grabbed the bottle again, drank some of the potion, and shrank back to the size she was before.

We both then raced for the door. Alice put the key in the lock and the door opened.

Author's Note:

Hi everyone. Man, this chapter ended up being super long. But I'm glad I got it done. Enjoy and please leave a review. Also, I do not own any of the references made in this chapter.