CHAPTER ONE –

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Alice was more than shocked to see the silver haired man. But what was more surprising, was the fact that most of Wonderland's role holders were also standing beside him. She could have fainted right then and there, but she instead shook her head and continued to gape at the group.

"Wh – what are you . . ." she trailed off, not sure what to say. Of course, she could question their sudden appearance, but she was certain that Nightmare would explain that to her anyways.

I – I'm not asleep, am I? Alice wondered.

"No Alice you're not, you're completely wide awake," Nightmare said, a small amused smile spread across his lips.

However, before Alice could respond to him, two voices gleefully cried out, "Big sister!"

Alice shifted her gaze from the incubus to two identical young boys, who both engulfed her in a giant hug, their arms wrapped tightly around her.

"Hey!" A voice yelled out, "Get your hands off of her, you brats!"

The two boys turned their heads and stuck their tongue out at the person who had yelled at them.

"Shut up you stupid hare!" the boy dressed in blue said, sounding annoyed.

"Yeah," the other boy agreed, "you're just saying that because you want to touch her!"

Elliot's face reddened, and within a blink of an eye, he pulled his gun out and pointed it at the two. "You want to say that again you pesky little –"

"Elliot that's enough."

The March Hare blinked before looking at his boss from his peripheral view. However, his boss wasn't looking at him. No, he was looking at the girl with the beating heart instead.

Putting his gun down, Elliot's gaze returned to the Tweedle twins, who were helping Alice up from her spot on the shaded tree. He noticed how quiet she became, but he especially noticed how she was avoiding eye contact with them. Heck, she was even avoiding looking at them at all.

"Alice, my love!"

The girl slightly turned her head to look at the minister, who looked gleefully happy to see his beloved.

Alice felt a strained smile spread across her lips. "Oh, hello Peter," she said, still forcing the smile on her face. Feeling a small pang of guilt for pretending to be happy, Alice dropped the smile.

Pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear, Alice looked over at the group of role holders and frowned. With her eyebrows furrowing together, she asked, "What are you guys doing here? I thought you only come out in dreams."

"We thought so too, but it seems as though we are able to enter your world," Vivaldi said, opening a fan and began to fan herself.

"So this is what it's like in the real world," Ace said, looking at his surroundings with a goofy smile on his face, "it's kind of like Wonderland."

"Um, yeah, kind of," Alice said, smiling tightly.

"It's pretty warm out here," Boris noted. "What season is it?"

"It's spring," Alice answered, her eyes raking in Boris' cat ears and tails, which was currently swishing around. She began to wonder how she'll have to explain why those were there if any normal person just so happened to walk by and saw them.

Turning her attention to Nightmare, she asked him, "Do you know how this happened?"

A childish smile crossed Nightmare's face as he shrugged. "Nope, not a clue," he deadpanned.

Giving him a dull look, Alice wrinkled her nose. "Well, do you know how to get back to Wonderland?"

Someone coughed, and when Alice turned to look back at the group, she noticed a mean expression on Blood's face. "Trying to get rid of us already, young lady? That's not very hospitable."

Alice frowned.

"Do you really want to get rid of us, big sis?" Dee asked.

Dum's eyes widened slightly, "Don't you like us, sis?"

"What? No, no, I do. It's just that – this is very sudden and unexpected." Alice explained, hoping that the two wouldn't cause a scene. With that sudden thought in mind, Alice added, "Also, aren't you guys supposed to be fulfilling your role in Wonderland? What's going to happen if you're all here?"

The role holders glanced at each other wearily, feeling a bit uneasy.

"Alice's right," Julius said, speaking up for the first time. "It wouldn't do us, or Wonderland, any good if we all suddenly vanished."

"What will happen to us and Wonderland, Nightmare?" Gray asked, looking at the incubus.

Everyone else also turned their attention to the man.

"Well," Nightmare began, sighing a little, "the people are more than likely going to look for us, and if we don't return before they decide that we're all dead or gone and won't ever come back to finish the game, they'll get new role holders. If that happens, it'll be a bit more difficult for us to return home."

"Let's say that we don't go back, what'll happen to us then?" Elliot asked, feeling curious.

A small pitiful smile spread across the dream demon's lips. "We either start to disappear seeing that we don't belong in this world, or we start to become 'normal.'"

"Normal? What do you mean?" Boris asked.

"Well, let's take you for an example," Nightmare said, looking at the Cheshire Cat. "If you were to start to become normal, your ears and tail would disappear – and your pupils might change too. But as for the rest of us, we would lose our ability to transform our tools into weapons and change the time. We aren't in our world after all."

"So how do you find a way to go back to Wonderland?" Alice asked.

"The white rabbit's the most familiar of doing this task. Although I'm not sure if he actually appeared in the real world – you see, when he does come to this world, it's usually through one's dream, that's also how you're able to enter Wonderland," Nightmare explained, looking over at Peter. "If we're lucky, Peter might have forgotten to close a hole in the dream realm."

"But can't he just make one?" Alice asked, looking over at the minister whose facial express was quite serious at the moment.

"He can, but that takes tedious work. If we are not able to find an open hole, then our other – only – option to make one."

"And you have to be asleep to do that, right?"

"Yes."

"But that's going to take a while," Elliot protested. "We could be stuck here long enough to have already been replaced! Who knows what might happen if we go back to Wonderland and our roles are already taken. What's going to happen then, huh?"

"There is, actually, a rule about that," Nightmare said. Everyone returned their attention to him once more. "We'll have to fight the person who took our role to the death."

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AN:

I know that it's been a while since I first posted up this story, and that this chapter a bit late, but hey! Better late than never, right? (This chapter's more of a filler, and I apologize for that, but I had to get that out of the way in order to continue the story - it was necessary.)

I'm just happy that I actually got to write this chapter considering my busy schedule, and thankfully this is only the second chapter - so those of you who have been waiting for this update would only have to read one chapter to remember what's going on. Or you don't. It works either way - I guess.

Anyways, I'm not sure when I could update again, but until then, please stay tune and enjoy the story!