I would have gotten this out a few days earlier, but I needed to get some editing done by other people! Especially the part introducing a special guest character in the story! But I digress... you probably just want to read what's going to happen to Yulia!

Disclaimer: I do not own Diamond/Joker/Clover/Heart no kuni no Alice. Nor do I own the guest character who appears in the second part of the chapter.


Chapter Two

I guess I should start by saying that I'm not your typical university student.

Oh, I seem normal enough to the untrained eye and I worked hard to maintain that image. Which means I don't do drugs, or smoke or drink or any of that crap teenagers or people who still think they're teens see as a rite of passage to 'being cool'. I study and keep up my grades at UBC since that was the point of going to a prestigious university despite what some of the party animals attending the school thought. I avoided the dating scene in general and definitely did not sleep around. All in all, I was just your normal, everyday girl who just wanted to graduate and get a degree.

Except for the fact that I was a Princess in another realm on my dad's side of the family. The Realm of Magic, in fact.

Turns out that my father was the first-born Prince of the Realm of Magic's ruling family. Prince Caden Lucius Alteria of... Alteria. You know the Alteria tacked on to my last name? It just so happens to be the surname of the Realm of Magic's royal family.

Quite the secret to keep from your family huh, dad?

My dad was supposed to inherit the throne, but during one of his outer realm travels... stuff happened.

...

...he met my mom and fell in love with her after the Florence Nightingale syndrome took into effect because he was badly injured and she was nice enough to nurse him back to health despite the fact that she had a lot of other issues on her plate. But my mom was Filipino and Filipinos had a tendency of caring for others more than themselves. Not all of them, but quite a number of them from what I've observed.

But yeah, after the Nightingale effect hit my dad hard, he gave up the throne to be with her and that was the end of that.

The Alteria family was not only responsible for a realm with a fantasy novel setting, but they also ruled over a powerful race known as the 'Alters'. The Alters were humanoid and could pass for humans should they choose to, but they were exceptionally strong compared to the average person. They also had a variety of powers and abilities that were all over the place.

Most people think being a princess was a dream come true. A princess of a badass and powerful race? Even better!

If you were into that kind of thing, anyways.

But I was just a sixteen year old girl back then. A teenager trying to get through the ups and downs of high school. Especially having to deal with other teens who made you their favorite target. It was hard enough as a modern day teenager who lived on Earth.

So the excitement of the princess revelation was lost on me.

Being a long-lost member of a royal family was something straight out of a fantasy novel. Or a paperback romance. After all, members of royalty and nobility lived in luxury. You no longer had to work for a living and people did your chores and prepare your food for you. People worked for you and you didn't even have to lift a dainty finger. The only thing you had to do was look pretty decked out in clothes worthy for royalty and go to princess lessons to refine your manners.

Basically the premise of 'they all lived happily ever after, the end'.

But that was the thing. It wasn't an adventure. There was no happy ending.

That only happened in fairy tales.

Or the cliché plot of a romance novel that you bought at the local drug store.

What a lot of people seem to forget in these kinds of situations is reality. And I knew more than anyone that reality was an aspect of your life you had to face eventually no matter how ugly or painful was. Nothing good came out of trying to out run it.

Those who insisted in escapism to dealing with their painful reality, well...

They either went insane or died of despair once reality's cold, hard claws finally gripped them and refused to let go. There was only so long they could out run that beast before it ripped them apart.

Not that this kept people from trying to deny what was staring them right in the face.

Reality was never kind to anyone. But running away from it was pointless, which was why I always faced it head on. It was going to come after me eventually, so why not face it head on and on my terms?

So that's what I did. I entered the Magic Realm to the capital city of Alteria and went right up to the palace carrying one of the Magic Realm's national treasures as proof that I was my father's daughter since he was the last one tasked with protecting the sword. Having the sword with me (plus the family resemblance) proved beyond a doubt that I was descended from the Alteria line. My immediate family -my dad's brother and his children- accepted me for who I was. And for that, I was eternally grateful.

But as grateful as I was for their help, I wanted nothing to do with the my newfound status, the politics of the powerful Alteria family or the fantasy world that was the Realm of Magic. I just wanted to go back to being an ordinary teenager who only dealt with everyday teenage angst and drama.

But I couldn't.

Because the day I discovered that I was heir to the Realm of Magic was the day that my life on Earth literally went up in flames.

The Realm of Magic and my status as a princess was the last thing my dad ever told me about before he died in my arms.


Let me tell you that the Final Resort of Justice literally showing up on your door step is never a good thing. So you can imagine just how thrilled I was when he came out from behind the tree and revealed himself.

"...Darkbreaker." I exhaled, letting out a long sigh that I hoped would tell him just how happy I was about him being here. "It's been a while."

A word of advice: do not mess with him. Doing that was a first-class ticket to getting yourself killed.

The best way to deal with him was to be polite and keep the sarcasm on the down low. Do not antagonize him. Ask him why he approached you in the first place and fervently hope it's a task that won't take up too much of your time. Or that he needed to deliver something.

Final word of advice? Show some damned respect to the guy that the multiverse considers its' last resort in dealing with threats.

Guess I should describe him so you know who to be on the look out for.

His outfit was easy enough to describe since he always wore the same thing. At least, that was my impression from our encounters. I usually saw him wearing a midnight black jacket with its edges in jagged tatters. It covered a white, collared shirt. He also wore black gloves, but because he had a habit of stuffing them in the pockets of his pants, it was hard to see.

All in all, he cut a depressing monochrome figure. Would it seriously kill him to wear something other than black or white? Why doesn't he wear a sky blue shirt for a change? They would match my eyes!

Ahem... moving on.

However, if you looked closer, it turned out that the Last Resort of Justice wasn't just a black and white figure. Because hidden behind narrow, black shades, shadowed by a fringe of smooth, jet-black hair, were the man's eyes.

They -and you did not hear me admit this at all- were radiant.

His left eye burned gold and his right eye blazed crimson. They were the colours of the gentle sun and destructive fire.

To any multiversal wanderer (like me), the rumours made him unmistakable.

A monochrome shadow, the stranger whose age remained a mystery, sightings of whom abounded throughout the eons on multiple worlds, the ghost between light and the dark, crushing evil and injustice without remorse or pity.

Only ever mentioned in passing, he was only there if you knew where to look, hidden in the background behind the heroes and legends of the worlds he'd been to.

Never in the spotlight, but always, always a power to be reckoned with.

Tens of thousands of lifetimes in his wake, those cold eyes had seen civilizations rise, and worlds fall, often with his hand involved in one or the other, always pursuing justice, and his own unknown goal with a single-minded ruthlessness that often struck his allies as bordering on the cruel.

He was the greatest of allies...and the most terrible of enemies.

He was both salvation and destruction.

He was justice.

He was the nightmare.

He was the man they called Alexander.

Alexander J. Darkbreaker.

I only met him a few times in my relatively short life, but those few meetings were enough to last me a life time. He was a good ally to have if the fate of the universe was at stake. Scratch that. If you were ever in a life-and-death battle that determined the fate of multiple universes and all the worlds in it, you WANTED him on your side. The Darkbreaker being your enemy was pretty much your death warrant; the only thing you could hope for if you ever get to that stage was that everything in your Last Will and Testament was in order and that hopefully there was something left of you to bury.

"Not long enough." He gritted out.

Fantastic.

He sounded like he was in such a lovely mood, but I completely agreed with him there. His presence anywhere typically had the unfortunate side effect of Heralding Dark Things to Come.

Though I did not say this out loud as he did have the ability to kick my ass across the universe and back.

Just... no.

"So what is it this time?" I asked, getting straight to it. There was no point in beating around the bush; I would have to do whatever task he had for whether I wantedto or not. "What Eldritch Abomination has come out from the workshop to threaten the universe?"

I paused.

"Again?"

The man chuckled. But I could tell that he was far from amused by my statement.

I guess that was something we shared: a very, dark sense of humour. Only people witness events a majority don't in their life times would get it.

"It is a complicated matter."

Oh good. A complicated matter. The only time anyone ever needed me was when something complicated came up.

As much as I hated it, the fact that the Powers That Be or whatever force that controls the multiple worlds or universes up there was sending for me meant that the situation was not entirely salvageable. If they were sending in the Darkbreaker...

well...

That meant that the situation was so bad that there was no way to fix it.

And that meant a permanent solution.

Let me tell you that a 'permanent solution' to a problem was not a good thing in case you haven't picked up on that yet.

I rolled my eyes. "I kind of got that when I saw you. You don't travel the multiverse for leisure trips. And just me? You do realize that my cousins are far more powerful than me, right?" The ones that are still alive, that is.

The last time he showed up it was to tell me that if my family and the other nobles didn't knock off the fighting soon, there would be a serious fall out that would result in a lot of death. Not just in our own world and among our own race, but the conflict would spread out to other worlds... and eventually other universes.

He also added that he would take care of the problem if we couldn't do it ourselves.

That had been a fun conversation.

So yeah. If he ever shows to track you down and talk to you, just know it isn't because he wants to invite you to his birthday party. Or give you good news.

The man left out a long sigh. "That is because it is a personal matter. A job left unfinished by Ceres." He paused before saying in a flat and emotionless tone, "It was the one that killed her."

I didn't realize that I had held my breath until I exhaled. The matter involved Ceres? And what the Darkbreaker wanted me to do was fix the mess that killed her?

"If Ceres couldn't finish the job." I said slowly. "What makes you think I'll be able to?"

Ceres was one of the most powerful beings of her time. Even a thousand years after her death, her name was still spoken in whispers by those who knew of her or personally knew her when she was still alive. Unsurprisingly, she and the Darkbreaker used to be allies...or perhaps allies was maybe too strong a word. If I had to really put into terms, it was more like two top level predators in nature crossing paths now and again, exchanging wary nods of acknowledgement and keeping one eye on each other till they were out of sight. The Darkbreaker never really was one for making friends, and his ruthless, almost extreme methods of ending the threat before him had earned him both respect and caution from even Ceres, who was kind to EVERYBODY. And I do mean that literally.

...needless to say, they could work together if the situation demanded it, but, well...I think they just sort of had a mutual agreement to disagree on some points.

Ceres always WAS accommodating like that.

She was also kind and very beautiful. Combined with her strength both physically and mentally, she could give any girl and woman in the universe a run for their money. Though she didn't mean to, Ceres had a habit of inducing feelings of insecurity into anyone of the female gender.

Not much about Ceres' history was known other than the fact that she was a very powerful Alter and her accomplishments across multiple universes were vast. Far too many to count. Her younger brother, who was not as powerful as her but still very powerful in his own right, was the one to marry into the Alteria Royal Family and produce powerful offspring who eventually become my ancestors.

The Altheria family was distantly related to her, but I suspected that was not why Darkbreaker came to me in the first place. Ceres was much more deeply intertwined with my life than with theirs.

"Many of your race were killed when they combated this threat over a millennium ago." The man's voice was so cold that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. "It took out two universes and a quarter of the worlds in the third before the Alter, led by Ceres, were able to put a stop to them. But... at a steep cost."

I stared at him in disbelief.

What?

"How many Alters were taken out in this huge battle?" I asked, doing my best to keep my voice level.

Did I even want to hear the answer?

I knew from experience that Alters were insanely powerful to the point of unfairness to the rest of the universe. Not only were they blessed with super strength, but depending on their lineage they were also granted powers that ranged from mind control to creating earthquakes by simply stomping on the ground.

They were also crazy. But the kind of crazy that was never backing down from from a seemingly impossible downhill battle. Seemingly. Members of the Alter race had the bad habit of turning the tables of a battle completely to their advantage.

However all of this had the unfortunate side effect of Alters deluding themselves into thinking that because they were so powerful, that gave them the right to think they were better than everyone else. And in turn they should be the ones to rule the multiple universes and not just the Realm of Magic. Not all of them thought this way and a number of the Altheria Royal Family rejected the view, but there were enough supporters to make the situation within the Realm tense.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I forgot who said that quote, but they were eerily accurate when they decided to toss out that piece of wisdom to society.

And then it all finally blew up when the previous king -my uncle, rest his soul- was assassinated.

"Wait, what?" I said when I realized that the Darkbreaker had said something and I completely missed it in contemplation of just how screwed up some of my dad's family were.

The man in question shot me a look. If you asked for my opinion on the matter he was giving me a look of disbelief- probably because I was ignoring him. Fair enough. Ignoring him usually wasn't done unless you were crazy.

...did I mention that I was an Alter and that crazy came with the package?

"Um, continue." I hastily said to cover up the awkward silence that was beginning to settle in. I was all for awkward silences just to tick off the other party, but this guy?

Nuh-uh.

"Hundreds of Alters." I did not miss the dryness in his voice- either at the fact that I decided to zone out or because of the numbers. "Not including Ceres and the other casualties who got caught in the crossfire."

Ah.

... so whatever horror threatened everything back then had been pretty bad. The fact that it took down over a hundred of my race meant that these boogeymen were nothing to scoff at. Because hundreds of dead Alters meant millions of casualties for the other races.

And I still remembered his earlier words: two universes and a quarter of the worlds in the third.

"So what happened? If Ceres was involved then there's no doubt that she put an end to all the death and annihilation." Ceres would not have allowed two universes and a quarter of a third to be destroyed on her watch. Which made me wonder why she had let the collateral damage get so bad in the first place.

A dark chuckle made me look up.

"What?" I asked, not bothering to hide my annoyance.

"You were wondering why there was so much damage gone before she put an end to things."

I was not surprised he picked up on that. The Darkbreaker, in his words, knew everything. And if not everything, he usually knew more than everyone else.

"Well, yeah." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Considering how her praises are being sung a thousand years later, you would think that she would have destroyed this threat way before it did that much damage."

Cue really awkward silence. After a considerable amount of time had passed he finally spoke.

"You of all people know that Ceres was not invincible." His tone was bitter. He and Ceres had not exactly been...friends, so to speak. But there had been a certain rapport between them nonetheless, one adjudicator to another before her untimely death and there was no doubt in my mind that despite whatever moral or ethical differences they might have had, her death had definitely hurt him...a lot too, given the brief crack in his composure. "Her greatest accomplishments were recorded and passed down through out the generations, but only those. They did not speak of her failures, the burdens she carried, or the heart break she was forced to endure as their 'saviour'."

Guilt immediately washed over me and I looked down at the ground to avoid his accusatory gaze.

Yes, I did know. How could I not when our destinies were so intertwined together?

Ceres had been painted over as one of the greatest heroes to have ever existed. What most people forgot, however, was that she was a person too. A person who sacrificed everything in her life for the greater good.

...and one of the harshest examples of what that life entailed was standing right in front of me now.

"So what am I supposed to do?" I finally asked. "Assuming that you can tell me anything?"

Because destiny just loved throwing me into life threatening situations without much information to go on. I often had to do a lot of figuring out on my own whenever I was dropped into another world. While I was not happy about being dumped in the middle of nowhere with no clue about anything, I was pretty used to it.

"My job is just to give you a means to get to your destination... and to ensure that no harm comes to your body while you take care of things. Speaking of which, you have been transported to the hospital safely. The doctors are now trying to diagnose your unconscious form."

"Huh? What do you mean-"

Something inside me froze. He... wouldn't...

"How long?" I demanded. "How long have I been unconscious in the real world?"

A brief twitch at the corner of his lip was all that made it past his guarded expression, but that in itself told my sinking heart everything it needed to know.

"The entire time we were having this conversation." He did not bother hiding the amusement on his face this time, mismatched eyes glinting. "You just suddenly collapsed outside your dorm. Probably from exhaustion."

SON OF A-

I looked up just in time to see him standing right in front of me. He reached out, gently clasping a hand over my shoulder and then shoved me hard. As I fell backwards, I got the sense that there was nothing behind me to break my fall.

My suspicions were correct as the familiar sensation of free falling washed over me.

The last thing I saw were the blazing crimson and burning gold of Darkbreaker's eyes as he watched me fall.


For the record, I was going to get him back for this. The universe's Final Resort of Justice be damned.


"Wake up."

"..."

"I said wake up."

Every inch of my body ached and for some reason it was freezing. The only thing I wanted to do as of this moment was curl up into a ball under the warmth and comfort of my blankets. Without opening my eyes, I reached around to try and find my sheets only to grasp nothing but air.

Where are my blankets?

And for that matter, since when was I rooming with a guy? Last I checked the UBC dorms didn't allow people of the opposite gender to room together-

My eyes snapped open and I forced myself up.

Or at least I tried to.

My body was so sore and my muscles screamed with even the slightest movement that I wondered for a minute if I had gotten hit by a truck while I was unconscious. Or fallen off some great height that was impossible for ordinary humans to survive. The latter certainly wouldn't be the first time.

"Guh...!" I winced, clutching my head and squeezing my eyes closed tight.

And on top of the aching muscles my head was killing me.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

With a grimace, I forced myself to look up. Might as well get a good look at the person who so rudely interrupted my blissful state of unconsciousness. If he had been an enemy, I highly doubt I would still be alive now. My reputation preceded me and any chance to catch me off guard was an opportunity to take advantage of if you were my enemy.

Staring down at me was a tall man with long dark blue hair that was tied back with a yellow ribbon. He had a bit of a clock theme going on since he was wearing clock earrings and a third, pocket sized one like a necklace. And lastly, on his face, was an impressive scowl that told me he was anything but impressed with me and that he thought my existence was a nuisance.

"Hi." I deadpanned.

I could tell we were going to get along real well.


And now Yulia has ended up in Wonderland! Care to guess who was the Wonderlander to greet her? I'll give you a hint: He's a grump who likes coffee!

And Darkbreaker is the one who belongs to DarkShiftRising. If you want more info on him and everything around him, check out Dark's Deviant Account: MagnumPhoenixZX and the Division-Omega group. Plenty of info there!