"So let me get this straight," Jade began as the large group headed through a maze to get to their destination: Hearts Castle. "In this world, time is completely random, people with faces are Role Holders, and everyone is loaded with weapons."

"And everyone here has a clock for a heart." Nightmare reminded her with a smirk.

"Except mummy and I, we have hearts!" Anthony said as Jade's mind whirled with all the new information.

"It's because Anthony's mother was an outsider who decided to stay in Wonderland. Anthony inherited his heart from his mother so he doesn't have a clock for a heart like his father." Nightmare explained once he saw the confused look on Jade's face.

"So Anthony is like a hybrid?"

"In a way yes, even though he has a heart he can summon weapons or turn any object he touches into a weapon. Anthony also heals faster due to his genetics but not as fast as a Role Holder does."

Damn this world is fucked up. She thought as the group finally made it out of the maze and up the hill to the castle.

"Yes you can say that." Nightmare mused with a smirk.

"I didn't say anyth-"

"I can read minds."

"What!"

Meanwhile Alice Dupre was pacing back and forth in the Queen of Hearts' library that has now turned into a temporary work room for the Clock Maker of Wonderland, Julius Monrey.

"You are going to burn a path into the carpet if you keep it up." He said, never taking his eyes off his work. "I'm sure that Anthony will be back, he has Nightmare and Gray with him."

Alice just stopped and stared at the man sheepishly. "Sorry Julius, it's just I get so nervous when I don't know where Anthony is, no matter who he's with."

"Understandable, but please stop pacing you're making me antsy just watching you." The blue haired man said before taking a sip of his coffee that the woman brought him earlier. "85 points, there's too much sugar in it."

This made the woman smile since it reminded her of the times she lived in the Clock Tower with the antisocial man. It's hard to believe that it was almost 23 years ago I came here, and Julius and the others still look the same. She thought with a wistful smile. Though she too did not age much being that this was a dream world, she knew that unlike the others, she would eventually die of old age even if she still looked like she was in her mid to late twenties. She was brought out of her musings when a Hearts maid entered the room.

"Lady Dupre, Lord Nightmare and Lord Gray have returned with the young master." She announced as Alice's eyes lit up. "They also brought an outsider with them and the Queen would like all the Role Holders to meet her."

"What?! A new outsider at a time like this?!" The wife of the Hatter nearly screamed with fury before storming out of the library to the entrance hall, Julius and the maid right on her tail. "What is that man thinking?! It's too dangerous for an outsider to be here right now!"

"Knowing Nightmare, there is probably a reason behind it." Julius sighed as the three made it to the entrance hall where the Queen of Hearts, Vivaldi, was waiting along with Ace, Peter, the King, Elliot, Dee and Dum, Pierce, Boris, Gowland and finally the Jokers, Black and White; all of them with different expressions at the thought of a new outsider. As the castle doors opened, in came Nightmare and Gray at the front of the group of faceless servants and in the middle of the group, a young woman was holding hands with Anthony. Once the young boy caught sight of his mother he grinned happily before dragging the young woman with him as he ran up to Alice.

"Mummy, this is Miss Jade! I've been talking to her in my dreams!" He announced as Alice's eyes widen before narrowing at a sheepish Nightmare.

You and I are going to have a talk later Nightmare. She said in her mind as the man slightly flinched from the undertone of anger in the thought. Alice then turned her eyes on the new outsider before her. The girl appeared to be in her late teens, early twenties and was tall for her age; she wore a black corset top that had short sleeves, a pair of black, ripped up jeans, and black sneakers, a black fedora with five sterling silver rings pierced through the brim and a sterling silver skull and cross bones above it was perched on her head, and she also wore a pair of glasses. It was hard to make out her some of her facial features because of how the fedora was placed upon her head; all that Alice could tell was that the girl before her had green eyes and short black hair. What stood out the most on the girl though was the four piercings of all of the card suits on each ear and the tattoo of a Celtic black spade on her right wrist.

And is that a gun attached to her hip? Alice thought incredulously as she spotted a .45 handgun in a black leather holster strapped to the girl's side. What part of the world does she live in to have to carry a gun daily?

Jade on the other hand was studying the woman before her. She had long light brown hair held by a black headband, and aqua-green eyes. She wore a long sleeved black dress and a dark blue-green shawl; the woman did not look a day older than 27 at most. Jade actually had to look down since the woman was about 5'6"-5'7" while Jade was 5'10".

"I am Alice Dupre, Anthony's mother. And you are?" The lady Hatter asked holding out her hand. The girl grabbed it in a solid hold and shook hands with her.

"My name is Jade Queens, ma'am." A surprisingly quiet, but firm voice came from the outsider before her. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise, may I ask why you carry a gun on you if you live in the real world?"

Jade just smirked at this. "Well Mrs. Dupre, if you lived in a place nicknamed Hell's City then you would carry a gun on you too." She said casually as Alice stared at her in shock.

So you brought someone who can actually defend herself. She thought to Nightmare.

"You have no idea." The incubus murmured to her as the two watched Jade be dragged around by Anthony to meet everyone.

"This is my uncle Gowland and my friends Boris and Pierce!" Anthony said as the two stopped in front of a man with long reddish brown hair that was in a braid, a fuchsia haired cat boy with multiple piercings and tattoos, and a mouse boy with red hair and blonde streaks. The mouse boy looked like he was going to faint any second from just being in the same room as the cat; Jade then was dragged to the next set of people.

It was the obvious owners of the castle if the crowns and hearts did not say anything about it. There was a man with rabbit ears and he had white hair and red eyes, he also wore glasses. Next to him was a man with short light brown hair and red eyes and who carried a sword and behind him was a man with grayish brown hair with a mustache and beard, he was obviously the king with the way he was dressed. The last person had her heart stop though. The Queen of Hearts was a beautiful woman with long dark purple hair and amethyst colored eyes but what shocked Jade was how much she looked like Lilith! The tattoo artist did not to say anything about it though and decided that she would ask Nightmare about the weird coincidence later.

"This is my friends Peter, Ace, and the King, and the Queen is my auntie Vivaldi!" Anthony said before dragging her to another group.

"And this is my uncles Elliot, Dee, and Dum!" The boy said as he dragged Jade to a man with orange hair and rabbit ears and two twins who were about her age, one with long black hair tied into a pony tail with blue eyes while the other had short black hair and red eyes.

How many friends does this kid have? Jade thought before the little boy tugged on her hand again to the last group of people.

The 21 year old soon found herself facing two men who also appeared to be twins but the two looked exactly the same in every way, the only thing telling them apart was that one was dressed as a prison warden while his twin was dressed as a jester.

"These two are the Jokers, Black is the prison warden and White is the jester and owner of the circus! The two of them have taught me how to play lots of card games." Anthony said with a grin. "And finally this is my friend Julius!"

The man before her was interesting to say the least; he had long purplish-blue hair that was tied into a loose ponytail and he had sapphire blue eyes that were hidden behind a pair of glasses similar to Jade's. He wore a long sleeved, white button up shirt, a yellow vest on top of that and a long black trench coat and black slacks. What stood out the most was the clock earring he wore on his left ear and the clock he wore as a brooch.

He must be the Clock Maker that Nightmare was telling me about…he's not too bad looking. Hell, all the guys here aren't that bad looking. Jade thought with a slight smirk. If only the guys back home looked this good.

At the corner of her eye Jade could see Nightmare chuckling to himself and instantly remembered that the silver haired incubus could read minds, it didn't embarrassed her however, just annoyed her a bit. The 21 year old then noticed that out of all of the men that Anthony introduced to her that not a single one was introduced as the boy's father. She was about to ask the orange clad boy where his father was when she caught the look Nightmare was giving her practically saying "don't ask"; she subtly frowned at this but turned her attention back on the large group.

"It's nice to meet all of you." Jade said politely.

"It is also nice to meet you Jade Queens. How about we all have a tea party so we can get to know each other better?" The Queen of Hearts suggested with a ghost of a smile, the simple expression reminding Jade too much of her foster mom.

"Of course your Majesty." The raven haired girl said with a slight bow, not wanting to be rude. This made the Queen give a hearty laugh.

"My, my! And we thought Alice was the only outsider with manners! Please, you may call us Vivaldi." The purple haired woman said with a pleased tone before ordering some of the servants to ready the tea party.

So the Queen talks in Victorian style. Jade noted with amusement as the group was escorted outside where the sky turned from morning to dusk in a blink of an eye. The tattoo artist would have been amazed at the strange phenomenon but was too stunned by the beautiful sight of the rose garden in front of her.

"Wow, this garden is amazing!" The green eyed girl said with awe as the group sat down at a long table in the middle of the garden, Anthony sitting on her left with his mother and Vivaldi sitting beside her at the head of the table.

"Why thank you Jade, we love our roses especially during this time. It brings out the marvelous red color in them." Vivaldi said with a dreamy smile as the servants poured all the Role Holders tea. "Do you happen to like roses?"

"Actually I do, it's one of my favorite things to draw on my spare time. It's actually one of the first things that my mom taught me to draw." Jade said with a smile as she briefly relived the memory in her mind.

"So you draw?" The King of Hearts asked with interest. "What else do you draw?"

"Oh many things, but my best work is the ideas my clients come to me with."

"Clients?" Ace asked with a curious smile.

"Oh I'm a tattoo artist." Jade said causally as Alice and Vivaldi nearly choked on their drinks in shock.

"You're a tattoo artist? That's so cool!" Boris said. "Can you do my next tattoo? I want to get a badass looking skeleton fish on my forearm or something."

"Sure man, come to my mom's shop and I can do it for you. You might want to hide your tail and ears though." The raven haired girl said with a chuckle.

"Wait, your mother owns the tattoo shop you work at?" Alice asked incredulously, obviously not pleased with the kind of work that Jade and Lilith do.

"Yeah it's called She-Devil Tattoos; it was her dad's shop but once he died she became in charge. Now it's her, me, and my three sisters that run it."

"What about your father? Shouldn't he be running the shop too?" Julius asked with an arched eyebrow.

"My sisters and I don't have a father. Our mom is all we need." The 21 year old said with a smirk as she sipped her tea for the first time, surprised by the delicious taste.

The taste of this is familiar but where have I had it before? She wondered as she took another sip, however she could not pinpoint when she has had it in her memories. Suddenly an image of another tea party at the same place she was now appeared in her mind's eye, but what was different about this one was instead of a large group of 17 other people with her there were only three, yet all of them, except for one, were blurred to the point that Jade could not distinguish their features. The one that wasn't blurred appeared to be a young boy with light brown hair but that was all she could see of him before she was brought back to reality.

What the fuck was that? She thought as she blinked a few times to regain herself. She didn't get to ponder on it for long when Anthony dragged her to go play with him, Boris and the Tweedles.

As the five went off to play, the Role Holders turned their attention on Nightmare and Gray.

"Nightmare," Alice began sweetly, "why did you bring an outsider at a time like this?"

Even though the lady Hatter was asking nicely, the incubus was no fool, he knew that she was furious with him along with half of the Role Holders.

"Well you saw Jade; you can tell she can protect herself."

"That is not what she asked you Nightmare!" Vivaldi snapped. "Now answer her or off with your head!"

"Now, now Vivaldi, there's no need to lose your temper." The silver haired demon chuckled as the Queen grew red in the face. "There is a reason why she is here and I will reveal it in time, I am just asking you to trust me."

"Why should we trust a sniveling caterpillar like yo-" Vivaldi began but was cut off by Alice.

"Fine Nightmare," She said as the other Role Holders looked at her with surprise but her eyes never left the demon's. "but you better not keep us in the dark for long."

The incubus just smirked.

"Don't worry; you won't be there for long."