Hi guys!! I finish my exams and now I'm enjoying my holidays^^
It may be also a little boring, because there are a lot of explanation (and they aren't even all. My mind work to much sometimes =_=)
Well, what else I have to say? Read and enjoy!^^
Note: I've posted the betaed version now. Much, much better u_u. Thanks to my beta, Flattered By Mockery^^
Chapter 3
Artemis's sentence was welcomed with three pairs of questioning eyes and one, totally stupefied, green eye.
"W-wait a moment. Did you say 'Wonderland'?"
They all turned around, looking at the red-head who had spoken. He was really pale, and he looked at Artemis like she had just said that the Millennium Earl went around giving sweets out to children.
"Lavi, what's happened?" asked Allen.
"A-and before, you said the name 'Alice', right?" he gulped "But that's impossible!!"
Kanda was losing his patience. Not that there was a lot left. Not after what happened. And surely not for Lavi's strangeness.
"Oi, Baka Usagi, hurry up and explain what you're babbling about. Who the hell is this Alice?"
"Alice is a character from a children's book that I read some years ago. And the title is actually 'The Adventure of Alice in Wonderland'!"
"Are you saying-" interrupted Tyki, lifting an eyebrow, "that we are INSIDE A BOOK?!"
Finally, the light-bulb turned on, even in Allen and Kanda's minds. "WHAT?!" they both screamed, turning toward Artemis.
She only shuddered. "I'm sorry, but things are really like this. I believe you've already figured it out."
"And you think I'll believe in this idiocy?"
A vein popped out on Artemis's forehead. Then she smiled. "Well, if you have a better explanation, we are listening, little-samurai-with-female-hair."
It occurred to Allen and Lavi then, to block Kanda together from jumping at the girl and strangling her with his hands.
"I'll kill her! I swear I'll kill her!"
"Wait Yuu, calm down now. We can talk civilly."
In a second, Kanda turned, grabbing his weapon. "Now I'll cut you too, Baka Usagi!"
But when he tried to extract his sword, he found that he couldn't. "What the hell-?" He tried again but with the same result: Mugen didn't want to come out from its sheath.
"I think it's futile to continue to try," said Tyki suddenly.
The three Exorcists looked at him. "What the hell did you do, Noah?" Snarled Kanda.
"Me? Absolutely nothing. But seeing as I can't use my Noah's power, I think that your Innocence is totally unusable too." The other replied very calmly, crossing his arms.
'Or at least, I hope so,' he thought.
Lavi's hand immediately went to his hammer, while Allen was trying to activate his left arm without success.
"Shit, it's true, I can't invoke it! What's happening?"
Tyki smiled. It was true that he couldn't use his ability, but since the Exorcists were unarmed too, he didn't have to worry.
"It's perfectly normal," intervened Artemis, catching the others' attentions in an instant. "The magic from the Other Worlds don't work here. In this world, the rules are different, and so is the kind of magic that we use."
"Are you saying that in this world, there is magic?" asked Lavi, interested.
Artemis's look became sad. "But it's really true that you don't remember anything? Did you forget everything?" she asked, lowering her head.
Allen sighed. "You've already asked this many times. And we've already answered you, we don't know you, we don't know what you're talking about. If it wasn't for Lavi, we wouldn't even know where we are right now. So, now, would you be so kind as to give us an explanation, please?"
And he looked at Artemis, waiting for an answer.
It didn't come. The girl continued looking at the floor with her hair covering her face, silent.
After looking briefly to the others, Allen tried to walk toward her and touched her head gently with his hand. "Ehm, are you okay?"
When Artemis looked up, her eyes were full of tears.
Allen's hand was paralyzed in mid-air.
"Excellent, Boy, you made her cry," said Tyki.
"Good work, Moyashi, you made her cry," joined Kanda.
"You're really skilled at making girls cry, Allen. First Lenalee, now Artemis," added Lavi.
"B-but I didn't say anything wrong. I even said 'please'!"
Meanwhile, Artemis wasn't listening to them.
"What did I do? Did I pick the wrong people?" She put her hands on her head. "Oh no! No-no-no-no-no-no-no! What can I do now? My master will kill me. Well, if I'm lucky, he could do even worse." She continued with tears running down her cheeks.
Suddenly, Tyki sighed and walked toward the girl, catching her hands and gaining her attention.
"Listen, now calm down for a moment. What do you think about trying to explain this to all of us, from the beginning? This way, maybe we can help you. We can't do anything if we don't understand what's going on first, ne?" he said to her, smiling.
Artemis looked at him for an instant, and then she nodded slowly.
"Good."
Lavi looked at the older man with some admiration. "Wow, you're very good with the women, eh?"
Tyki shuddered. "We can say I had 'a lot of experience'."
Lavi wondered to himself why this last sentence annoyed him so much. It didn't matter to him what Tyki did, did it?
Kanda huffed impatiently. "Che. Can we start with this explanation, or do we stay here all day, giving compliments to each other?"
"Okay, we are going to do things this way," said Artemis. "I'll guide you to my Master's home and, while we walk, I'll tell you all I know. What do you think?"
"Deal."
********************
"If I remember well, your name is Lavi, right? You said you've read Alice's story some time ago. Do you still remember it?"
They'd entered in really thick woods, but they'd quickly found a small path inside it. While they were walking, they found a clearing and a little bridge on a small river. They found a lot of bifurcations on their path, but Artemis knew the way and, with her as their guide, they didn't lose time deciding which way to go.
There was one thing that they all noticed just entering the forest: there wasn't any noise. The trees were completely motionless and there wasn't any sight of birds or other animals.
Lavi smiled. "Who do you think you're talking to? I don't forget nothing, it's my work recording things."
"The book told the story of a girl named Alice who, one day, while she was reading under a tree in her garden, suddenly saw a white rabbit, wearing a vest and a pocket-watch in his hand, that was complaining about being terribly late. Surprised to see him, Alice chased after him into a hole, and she found herself inside a very strange world, called Wonderland. Here, she met a lot of strange characters, like the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar and the same White Rabbit, that she'd chased for the entire story. Finally, she arrived at the castle of the sovereign, the King and the Queen of Hearts, while their servants were the playing cards. The Queen wanted to kill Alice, but just a moment before they cut her head off, Alice woke up in her garden and understood that it was only a dream. The end," concluded the boy, shuddering.
"Tsk! Such idiocy! What was the need of writing a book about the stupid dream of a stupid girl?" Spat Kanda, annoyed.
"Besides the fact that Alice isn't a 'stupid girl', like you say, this is only the official version of the story. In reality, things are a little different." Said Artemis. "You see, most important, is that it was Alice who wrote the book."
"No way! I clearly remember that the author was Lewis Carroll (1)." replied Lavi, shocked.
"No, no. It's a mistake. This man only took Alice's story, and published it with his name. Now I'll explain everything."
"A few days after Alice had had her 'dream', walking around in her garden, she casually discovered the hole where she had chased the White Rabbit. So she started thinking that it wasn't only a dream. She prepared some things to take with her, and she jumped inside the tunnel, finding herself in this world again. Discovering that it was the passage between the two worlds, Alice started to come more and more often to Wonderland. She became friendly with the most part of the inhabitants who guided her around this realm and they helped her to run from the real soldiers, because the Queen of Hearts still wanted her head. And things went on in this way for some years."
Artemis went on with her story while the other four listened to her, more and more interested by each word.
"Unfortunately, one day, returning from one of her 'trips', she found a bad surprise waiting for her: her house was burnt in a fire. Her family was safe, but after what happened, they needed to move to another city, far from there. Except Alice didn't want to lose her new friends, and she didn't know if there was another passage apart from the one in her garden." Artemis stopped for a moment. "So she made her decision: she left a note to her parents, and she returned to Wonderland, sure to never go back to her own world."
"But this is absurd!" interrupted Allen. "How could she have abandoned her family only to live in this world?"
"Well, her family wasn't very good." Replied Artemis with a grimace. "Her father was always at work, and her mother considered the public life more important than her daughters. The only person whom Alice really loved was her older sister. But when this story happened, her sister was already out of the house because she was married, and this left nobody to Alice."
She smiled sadly. "Alice decided to live with friends that actually loved her, instead of a family that ignored her."
There was a moment of silence in the group.
"I think…I'm starting to understand a little," murmured Allen.
"Anyway," re-started Artemis, "before she left, Alice wrote the story of her trip. She thought that maybe someone, reading that script, should have found another passage into Wonderland, like her. But it seems that her script had always been considered only as a fable for children, because nobody else had ever arrived in this world after her (2)." She concluded shaking her head.
"But we're here and yet you don't explain to us why!" Spat Kanda suddenly.
Artemis chuckled nervously. "Ah yes. Well, you know, this is the most complicated part to explain."
"I really hope, for you sake, that you'll find a way to explain it."
"I really hope so, too."
Artemis was searching for a way to start again, when suddenly after a curve, they saw in the distance, a little house surrounded by a strange forest made of huge mushrooms.
"Amazing!" whistled Tyki.
"Ah, we've arrived. This is my Master's house," said Artemis with a smile. "Come on, I'm sure he'll be able to explain everything better that me." She stopped. "Even if I risk my life this way."
Lavi put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry; I'm sure it'll all be okay. My Gramps is often angry with me, but even he's never tried to kill me."
"You don't know my Master," murmured the girl.
"You don't know the Old Panda," replied Lavi.
"Come on Artemis," said Allen.
With a last sigh, Artemis started walking toward the house, followed by the others.
(1) Lewis Carroll is a pseudonym, his real name is Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, but he is always remembered in this way, so I decided to use this, even if Lavi probably knows the real name (he's a Bookman, after all).
(2) All this part is pure fantasy, I invented it with my twisted head, and Carroll is probably cursing me in this moment. I hope his curses won't work…
Artemis: I'm going to die! I'm going to die! I'MGOINGTODIE!!!!
Me: don't say stupid thing. I just create you, I can't let you die.
Artemis: -sniff- so, do you love me?
Me: of course, you're my OC! (*hugs*) and I need you, I can't let those four idiots going around all alone, they would destroy everything…. Well, no this would be Komui…but they would cause a lot of trouble anyway.
Artemis: XD yeah, I won't die!!...but isn't this a little too spoiler?
Me: the readers will understand. See ya next time! ^____^ and more important, Read&Review!!
