Ambidextrous
AN: I love Retraces 78 to 82. These chapters were amazing, much better than anything I could ever pull off here. However, fanfiction isn't about doing better than the author: I just love to write about these characters. As much as I prefer to stay close to the original, Ambidextrous has already taken a different direction, and some things simply won't fit with the plot I had in mind. All the same, beware of spoilers: I am still fitting everything that does serve my plot in.
Now, on to business, I have a story to finish. Since it has been a while (sorry for writing so slowly), here is a summary of what happened previously:
Previous Chapter Summary:
Glen Baskerville, Zai Vessalius, Sheryl Rainsworth, Rufus Barma and Gilbert Nightray successfully used the power of their five Black Winged Chains to prevent the destruction of the world. But in the meantime, Gilbert found out that Glen intended to send the three of Vincent, Break and Oz to the lowest level of the Abyss.
Unable to oppose his master directly, but determined to find a third option, Gilbert decides to keep his last promise to Oz, and use the Nightray key to go into the Abyss and rescue Alice.
Disclaimer: All characters except for Joseph (the coach driver from chapter 2) were borrowed from the mangaka Jun Mochizuki. The copyrights go to Square Enix.
A billion thanks to my sister Stingmon for her help as a beta-reader.
Vessalius
Gilbert had thought that he would be too agitated to rest as Vincent had advised, but exhaustion won him over. No sooner had he boarded the carriage than he fell like a stone on the seats. In spite of the jolts and the sword digging into his side, he slept right through the travel back to the Nightray manor.
Joseph had to shake him awake. Gilbert assured him that he would be fine on his own, and instructed the driver to bring the horses back to the stable. If all went according to plan, Gilbert wouldn't need them again.
Alone, he hurried across the driveway leading to the Nightray manor. It was strange to feel the weight of a sword at his side after so long. Gilbert hadn't fenced in two years, not since he had left for the capital: he had always favoured pistols for his missions, as they were easier to conceal. Furthermore, Gilbert had been quick to learn how to incapacitate his targets without killing or crippling them for life. As for assassination… for what is was worth, bullet wounds were less bloody.
Yet before he knew it, Gilbert was adapting his walk to the weight at his side, like the sword had never left. It looked like eight years of sparring with Elliot and being massacred by Break had left their mark on him. And to think Gilbert used to be so far behind, back in the days when Lord Oscar had initiated him into fencing alongside Oz...
Gilbert barged through the double doors, and raced up the carpeted stairs to the second floor. Vincent's room wasn't locked. Sharon's voice rose from Gilbert's shadow:
"There is a hidden compartment inside the cabinet to your left. Fit the queen's crown into the little hole on its left side to open it. The antidote is the small triangular yellow flask."
"By 'queen,' you mean the chess piece?" the man asked.
"Yes."
Gilbert had already opened the set and taken the black queen. He rushed to the cabinet, and felt for the hole Sharon had mentioned. As Eques' contractor had said, the tiny crown fit perfectly. Gilbert turned it with a click.
When he opened the compartment, he found an assortment of small crystal bottles glinting in the dark. The flask Sharon had described was tucked between two thicker glass bottles containing a greenish liquid. To Gilbert's relief, the small flask was full to the brim.
Gilbert crouched down, and placed the bottle on his shivering shadow. A patch of darkness detached itself and swept the clear object along.
"Is that the one?"
"Yes," Sharon answered. "According to Lord Vincent."
Gilbert hesitated in front of the remaining bottles. He heard the distrust in Sharon's voice. The man couldn't blame her. Vincent had poisoned her in the past, and he had never been on friendly terms with Break, either. As much as Gilbert wanted to trust his brother, he still couldn't be positive that Vincent was on their side.
"Maybe you should bring Break and Reim here?" he told the Chain inside his shadow. "If Vincent lied… they might find the true antidote while I am away…"
"Don't be ridiculous," Sharon cut him off. "Reim can't disappear now, and you can't afford to wait here until I get to Break. Hurry and find Miss Alice. We will take care of the rest."
Gilbert shut the cabinet, got to his feet, and descended the stairs four at a time. Sharon was right. There was no time to lose, and they couldn't afford to doubt each other at the moment. Reim had already taken great risks by freeing Sharon and hiding her, even though it had been on Rufus Barma's orders – Gilbert winced at the mere thought of the written message, which the Duke had apparently hidden under Reim's bandages, of all places.
In any case, if the servant disappeared along with Break, it would be far too suspicious. Reim had had no choice but to go back to his master's side, leaving the task of rescuing Break to Sharon and Vincent. Gilbert could only hope that Break would find a way to save Oz once he had recovered.
"Echo will be there, too," Gilbert whispered. He didn't know whether he was trying to reassure Sharon or himself. "I am…not sure where her loyalties lie, but she seemed concerned about Oz."
"We will be fine, Gilbert," Sharon told him in a gentler tone. "Please focus on your own task."
Gilbert's steps faltered when he passed the mantelpiece in the Nightray living room. The hat Ada had given him was still there. He touched it tentatively. It had dried while he was away. The material felt smooth and soft against his gloveless fingers.
He was here on Oz's orders, Gilbert reminded himself. The thought made the weight on his chest a little lighter. He put the hat on, and allowed himself a small smile. As childish as it was, Gilbert had always felt sheltered under its long black brims. He reached the side door and its subterranean passage with renewed determination.
The Nightray Gate was there to greet him, imposing as ever with its high arc, broad gold bars, and the hint of never-ending darkness beyond. Gilbert put a hand to the sword's hilt without slowing down. He walked up to the door and grabbed the bar. The hard metal slipped right through his fingers.
Darkness engulfed him. Gilbert could hear rattling chains and swashing water all around him. His ears rang from the sudden air pressure. The man walked with purpose. The shallow water hindered his progress. Gradually, he was starting to distinguish vague forms in the dark.
His hand moved to his holster, but met nothingness. He had left his pistols with Echo.
"Don't worry," Sharon's voice sounded very close in the darkness. "Eques can take care of the Chains."
Gilbert nodded. He could feel his shadow shudder as he scanned the darkness. The forms he had glimpsed were motionless. The man took careful steps forward. He could make out the eroded contours of ruins and broken furniture. Silence weighed down on him.
Gilbert sighed through his nose. For now, he was alone. However, Chains would definitely feel his presence in their home. They would follow the smell of human blood.
There was only one Chain that Gilbert was after. He fished the music box out of his pocket, and flicked it open.
The sad tune made for strange background noise as Gilbert splashed his way across the water, deeper and deeper into the darkness. It sounded eerie and defeated, like a requiem. But Gilbert had no intention to die here.
He called Alice's name. Nothing. Not even a drop of water in the distance. Every move Gilbert made seemed deafening in the silence, yet strangely muffled. There wasn't enough air to carry an echo. It was suffocating.
Gilbert kept calling. Neither his voice nor the dreamlike melody could drown out the ringing in his ears. The dark brims of his hat looked grey against the murk of the Abyss. The occasional broken toy floated by in the sky-less wasted landscape, but there was no trace of a little girl or giant rabbit.
The man skirted around the square point of what looked like an old giant chess set, with its broken tip immersed like a surreal iceberg. The more he walked, the more Gilbert feared that his search was hopeless. Mere hours in the outside world could equal to an eternity in the Abyss. Gilbert might be anchored to Sharon's time through Eques and their connected shadows, but Alice was on her own. Did she even have enough power left to defend herself against the other Chains? What if she was…
Gilbert stopped and strained his ears. He thought he had heard a voice.
"…Hatter..."
Gilbert started:
"Break?"
"We found him," Sharon replied hastily. "Xerx, hang in there!"
Her disembodied voice was full of anguish. Trembling words were drifting to him through the gurgle of the waters at his feet. Gilbert could barely understand their meaning. He took a reluctant step forward. The splash drowned Sharon's voice, along with the faded echoes of Vincent and Break, and the broken notes of the pocket watch. Gilbert halted his steps. Gradually, the water stilled around his ankles. Breathless words drifted to his ears:
"…will thank you when you stop this sickening hobby of collecting poisons, you little rat."
"Break!" A wave of relief washed over Gilbert. "Are you alright?"
"How wounding, Mister Hatter,"came Vincent's sultry voice. "After all the trouble Miss Sharon and I went through…"
"Yes, I'll be sure to thank Gilbert for taking advantage of that brother complex of yours. How considerate. Not only does he treat me like an invalid, but he had to send you to play nursemaid."
"H-Hey!" Gilbert protested. "It wasn't Vincent's fault if that bottle got stolen!"
"They can't hear you, Gilbert," Sharon said. Gilbert jumped slightly at the clarity of the sound, and the ripples swallowed the fainter voices of her two companions. "Break will be fine… Xerx, don't push yourself! Here, lean on my shoulder."
"Oh right, Gilbert is here,"Break's snide voice was back. "Did you find Alice yet?"
"No," Gilbert answered a little sheepishly. "Not yet."
Sharon relayed the information.
"Then stop slacking and get back to work," Break sighed. "I'll get Oz for you."
"We, Break," Sharon heaved a sigh. "Get used to it. Miss Echo, is the road clear?"
The dark waters fell silent for two seconds, until Sharon's voice rose once again:
"Alright, let's go. Gilbert, we'll have to act very quietly from now on. Please don't worry about us. You said it yourself: we can't rescue Lord Oz without Miss Alice."
Gilbert nodded and resumed his pace. It was true. There was nothing Gilbert could do to help his colleagues from the Abyss. If he wanted to go back to their side, he had to find Alice, and fast.
But where could she be? It felt like he had been walking for hours, and still there was no sign of a Chain. The Abyss was nothing but a deserted marshland.
'Could it be because I am a Baskerville?' Gilbert wondered suddenly. 'Are the Chains avoiding me?'
Gilbert couldn't be sure. He kept scanning the darkness in search of hungry eyes, and straining his ears for a noise of any kind. But Gilbert was alone with the sound of his own steps and the melancholic melody. He almost wished the Chains would attack. Then he wouldn't feel this draining mix of anticipation and pointlessness.
He thought he heard Break and Vincent's voices, and almost stopped to check. Had they been spotted?
Gilbert was about to voice his worries to Sharon, but a sharp pain in his left hand stopped him. The man gripped his shaking hand and looked around him. He found himself in a field of overturned ten feet tall cubes, with rusting numbers on their faces. There was no Chain in sight.
Gilbert could still feel the pull from Raven's efforts as the giant bird recreated the broken chains. The open watch at his wrist seemed to weigh a ton. Yet the sensation from earlier had been different. It was reminiscent of the times when B-Rabbit's powers had been unleashed. Did something happen to Oz? Or…
"Oz!"
The man turned round just in time to see Alice materialising atop the highest toy box. She looked changed, almost immaterial in her silk black dress and ribbons, but Gilbert would have recognized her shrill bossy voice anywhere. He would never have thought that he would be so happy to hear it.
Gilbert had heard anger and relief clash when she called Oz's name. Both emotions vanished as soon as Alice saw the man:
"Raven..."
Her voice was trembling. From shock or anger, Gilbert couldn't tell. She was too far for him to read her expression. Of course, he knew what to expect.
A lump formed in his throat, but Gilbert refused to look away. It was almost a relief to meet Alice's accusing glare. The man had expected this anger from the moment he had shot Oz. Ever since, he had been waiting for a punishment that never came.
No one had a right to hurt Oz: it was the one thing Alice and he had always agreed on. Gilbert knew that she would never forgive him.
"Why…" Alice's hands balled into tight fists at her sides. "No, don't tell me. You remembered, didn't you? Who Oz really is."
Gilbert was taken aback. What did that have to do with anything?
"You found out that he was the real B-Rabbit, so you shot him," Alice said bitterly. "Is that it?"
Gilbert could only stare at her in silence, dumbstruck. Lacie's melody was fluttering between them tauntingly.
"No," the man answered without thinking. "No, I… It wasn't a choice I made."
That was when it truly struck him. How instinctive it had been, to move his hand and pull the trigger. How the servant had heard the gunshot before he even had time to comprehend Glen's order. How, ever since, Gilbert had been a stranger in his own body.
No… It had been the case long before that. Before his amnesia, before the Tragedy… He had had this alienating feeling almost as far as he could remember. When had it all begun?
His head throbbed. Gilbert looked down at his hands and realized they were shaking. His fingers closed around the vibrating metal of the pocket watch. The box swallowed the notes with a resounding click. Silence fell.
"I did…I do remember," Gilbert said. His mouth felt strangely dry. "The truth is that I am a Baskerville. I was Glen's servant back in Sablier. Ever since then… there was this voice in my head," the man clawed at his skull. "It's driving me mad. And now master… Oz is..."
Distorted memories of his master danced before his eyes. Oswald's calm words, Oz's laughing eyes, Leo's pale hands pulling at his hair to chase the ghosts away. An ancient hooded hunchback with scrawny lips, spouting murderous commandments that took root in Gilbert's head. A vow carved in flesh and blood between Chains and Baskervilles. So that's why Vincent never sank into the Abyss. Raven's warning. Possessed boys, century old voices haunting him...
"Who poured these thoughts into you?" Break had asked.
Gilbert didn't know. But if this voice and his left hand bound him to Glen's will, then...
"Where is he?"
Gilbert raised his eyes from the cold golden watch to look up at Alice. She had taken a step forward on her box. She was going bare foot.
"Where is Oz?"
Her powerful voice vibrated in the confined air. It shook Gilbert out of his trance:
"He was taken prisoner. Master…Glen is going to send him to the lowest level of the Abyss."
Alice flinched. Even from this distance, Gilbert could tell that she was shaking. She stomped her foot on the giant cube:
"Don't! Glen… No, you can't do that! Oz is mine! I was the one who brought Oz to the real world! I should decide what to do with him! You can't take him away!"
Gilbert's eyes widened. It suddenly dawned on him. Alice wasn't shaking from anger. She was scared. Scared for Oz. And what she had said…
"You remember," Gilbert whispered.
"That's right!" Alice gave a vigorous nod. The movement sent droplets of water flying around her face. "I remember everything. I was there, that day, when Oz nearly destroyed the world. Jack forced him to do it!" her voice was growing stronger with every word, until she was screaming: "He stole Oz from me and used his power… Oz couldn't even fight back! He was crying, and Jack wouldn't listen…!"
Her voice broke. Her slight shoulders were shaking so hard Gilbert was afraid they would dislocate. The surreal halo that surrounded her made Alice's tears glow on her cheeks, their shine apparent even from this distance.
Gilbert was speechless, stuck between shock and an overwhelming sympathy that constricted his throat and kept his voice trapped. Even the man's shadow shuddered at his feet. He had been there to witness Oz's torture. Gilbert remembered the scene Alice described all too well.
"I won't let him do it again!" the little girl cried, her eyes shut tightly against the onslaught of uncontrollable tears. "I won't let anyone use Oz again! I won't forgive those who made him cry! Not even Glen, not even you! Just…"
A hiccup cut through her screaming. She used her sleeves to wipe at her nose furiously.
"Just…give Oz back to me," she said between sobs. "Don't kill him, Raven."
Gilbert almost jumped. She sounded pleading. Did Alice really think that…?
Of course she did, Gilbert thought with sudden revulsion. She had seen him shoot Oz. She also knew the reason why Glen had given that order. She was Alice Baskerville. As such, she knew that her uncle's orders were absolute. And Glen Baskerville wanted Gilbert to kill Oz.
"I won't," Gilbert said firmly. "Never."
Alice stilled, and her black dress fell in small drifts around her ankles. Gilbert took a step forward. Dark water rippled all around him. The man thought he heard a clatter in the distance, but he ignored it.
"Oz will be fine, I promise," Gilbert pointed at the stilling water. "Sharon and the others went to rescue him."
The man suddenly realized that the metallic sounds were coming from his shadow. He strained his ears to hear more from Sharon's side, but something was covering her voice. Gilbert thought he heard Break shout, and heavy clanging in the distance.
"Hurry, Lord Oz! We have to get away!"
Hope flared in Gilbert's heart. They had found Oz! They would protect him. Now, all he had to do…
"Then why are you here?"
Alice's voice brought Gilbert back to reality. The man clenched his left hand resolutely and turned back towards her. Maybe there was a way out after all. Gilbert suspected he knew what was wrong with him, and how to protect Oz from now on. But first, there were some things he had to confirm.
"Oz sent me to get you," he told Alice. "He said that, a hundred years ago, you took his powers and became the new B-Rabbit. Is that true? Do you remember anything like this?"
"Yeah," Alice answered hesitantly, and raised a hand in front of her face. It was translucent. "But it looks like he got them back. And now Jack is using him again."
She snorted. It sounded like a sniffle.
"You should have brought him here! That idiot rejected me, and now I can't even go back…"
"I will bring you back," Gilbert said. "You're the only one who can save Oz. So tell me: have you really lost all of his powers? If you went back to our world, could you take them back?"
Alice threw him a suspicious look:
"I can still feel some power. Just enough to move about." She grinded her teeth. "And even then, I had to ask the other Alice to bring me here when I heard the music box. I can't handle Oz's powers without a proper body."
Gilbert felt a renewed confidence. That was it.
"In that case," he said, "make a contract with me."
Alice's eyes widened. For a second, Gilbert thought her body looked a more solid white against the darkness of the Abyss. That only strengthened his suspicion.
"What did you say?"
"If you still hold some power from the Abyss," Gilbert told her, "then you are still a Chain. In order to go back to our world, all you need is a contractor. But it doesn't have to be Oz, does it?"
The little girl fidgeted. She still looked wary.
"You said you were one of the Reapers," she pointed an accusing finger at him. "Why would you help Oz now?"
The man hesitated. The memory of the gunshot was looming over them heavily, clouding Gilbert's confidence. He took a deep breath:
"Raven told me once that the two of us were bound by my left hand. At the time, I didn't realize what it meant. A hundred years ago, this contract I made was the first step before becoming the next Glen Baskerville. I vowed to serve him until the day I died."
"But I can't obey him anymore," Gilbert told Alice. "Not if it means sacrificing everything he loves. He was already forced to send his own sister into the Abyss, yet he is still trying to maintain that law about Children of Misfortune, even though…"
Gilbert stopped himself mid-sentence. No. He wouldn't mention the fact that Glen had also been ready to sacrifice his own niece. It was unsettling enough to see Alice this distraught; she definitely didn't need to hear that on top of everything.
"It's absurd," Gilbert said instead. "I won't let my master repeat his own mistakes. Even if it means betraying him."
His voice turned bitter:
"I broke my vow long ago anyway. In the end, the one I want to protect is Oz. The reason I renewed my contract with Raven was to save him. And now I can't even go back to him..."
"Even then… If I can't be relied on… at the very least, I want to share Oz's burden. If I was chosen as a host for Glen, then my body should be able to stand the power of five Chains. I am sure I can bear the power of B-Rabbit. If worst comes to worst, Raven can seal some of it away. This way, if B-Rabbit's power is shared between us… Oz won't have to handle this alone."
Alice was peering down at him like a hawk, with her toes gripping the side of the giant cube. Her amethyst eyes stood out sharply against her surreally pale face. The man still couldn't tell whether she was staring at him with reproach, fear or hope. Either way, he couldn't blame her for distrusting him.
"Besides," Gilbert's voice grew softer. "I've come to realize that I misjudged you." The man lowered his eyes. "I called you a parasite, when all this time you were protecting Oz. Long before I even knew him. Please forgive me."
Gilbert drew his lips into a tight line. Once again, Break had been proven right. Overcome by his own jealousy and resentment, Gilbert had been blind to the truth. It was about time he set things right.
He heard Alice take a sharp intake of breath. When he looked up, she seemed slightly flushed. She shook herself, her long dark hair flying all around her and sending golden drops in every direction. After that, the little girl raised her chin, put both hands on her hips, and with a decisive nod, she said:
"Oz belongs to me. If you're his, I guess that makes both of you my servants. This might make up for what you did."
Her words were still harsh, yet she sounded bolder. The little girl hopped from box to box until she landed on the one opposite Gilbert. She held out her hand and the man took it. He thought all had been said and done when, out of the blue, Alice stood on tiptoe to whack him on the head.
"What was that fo…"
"For shooting Oz." Alice punched him again. "And that's for being an idiotic, useless seaweed-head."
"I am not…!"
"Stop saying that you can't be relied on, or I won't," Alice grabbed Gilbert's hair and yanked, so they were nose to nose. "I already told you, didn't I? I won't let anyone hurt Oz again, especially you. If you are useless enough to go crazy and try to shoot him again, I will use his powers to crush you. So you'd better put up a good fight, because I'm going back to him, and you're coming with me!"
Gilbert blinked, at a loss for words. Beyond the boasting authority that the Chain took whenever she talked, he could hear the distress in her voice, and see the worry in her eyes. In her own, strange way, Alice was seeking reassurance. That there was the slightest chance that she wouldn't disappear, and that Oz could be saved. That she could protect Gilbert from himself.
The thought was so baffling Gilbert felt oddly flustered.
"You said it yourself," Alice shouted into his face. The man cringed. "You can't listen to Glen anymore. You'll be my contractor, and that means you'll only obey me. Swear it!"
Alice paused for breath and fixed him with an expectant glare. Gilbert's ears were ringing, yet her words sounded so hopeful he couldn't bring himself to get angry. In this moment, Alice was only a child trying to make her statements come true by yelling the words as loudly as she could. From up close, her embarrassed blush looked redder still, and Gilbert could feel her fingers shaking around his locks.
In the end, they were in the same boat.
He shook his head; the movement made him wince when his hair remained trapped within Alice's tiny fists:
"I can't do that."
The little girl opened her mouth to protest, but Gilbert put a placating hand on her head, half to make her back away and let go, half to reassure her:
"That's not how it works, stupid rabbit," he elaborated, his voice soft. He called her names almost as an afterthought these days. "You're a Chain, and I am a Baskerville. That makes us equals. Comrades. So I can't serve you."
The flush on her cheeks grew darker:
"I'm a Baskerville, too!"
Gilbert couldn't help but chuckle at that:
"Then that is all the more true, isn't it? Since we can't be by Glen's side anymore," he added ruefully.
A flicker of grief crossed Alice's features, and she went quiet. She looked to the side.
"You won't go away," she asked under her breath. "Right?"
Gilbert gave her a small smile:
"That's the point of making a contract. Whatever comes at us, we'll fight together."
Alice seemed to ponder that.
"Comrades… I suppose that's fine." When she turned back to him, there was a grin on her face. "Alright, Raven. First we save Oz, then we come back for my sister."
Sharon's voice startled them both.
"Gilbert!" Gilbert's shadow heaved. "I can't hold on much longer, Lord Oz is…!"
Gilbert's heart skipped a beat:
"Alice!"
A bright glow took over her body when he called her name. Alice swiped at the rusted number ingrained on her cube. Pearls of blood burst between her fingers when the metal cut her skin. Sharon shrieked. The floor vanished from under Gilbert's feet before he could take Alice's outstretched hand. The man was dragged down into the darkness.
He reached a helpless hand out to Alice. With her eyes set in a determined scowl, the Chain stuck her bloody fingers into her mouth and jumped after him. She snaked one arm around Gilbert's neck and sucked the blood off her other hand. She locked lips with him right before Eques' shadow swallowed his head.
Gilbert gulped out of reflex. Then gravity made a violent comeback. The man landed dizzy and scandalized next to a breathless Sharon. In the next second, he saw a crowned lion pounce. Eques burst out of their joined shadows and impaled the Chain on its flank.
"What a surprise," a sarcastic voice came from behind the lion. "To think you'd be behind all this, Nightray boy… or whatever household you're leeching off at present."
A violent shockwave took over Gilbert before he could answer. The man rolled out of the way as the two Chains fought, one hand clenched over his heart. It felt like a fireball was about to burst out of his chest. The man took a sharp intake of breath when the energy spread like wildfire through his veins. By contrast, the draft felt freezing against his hair. His hat had flown away.
Gilbert struggled to keep his eyes open. Even his eyelids burnt. He glimpsed Charlotte Baskerville through the furnace. The woman made no effort to suppress her shivers of cold fury.
"So you made a new contract." Her eyes were shooting daggers at him over her toothy grin. "Does it hurt? Don't worry. I will free you from the pain right now."
Her growling blended in the roar of her Chain. The lion pinned the black unicorn to the ground, only to leave it rearing at air and attack Gilbert. The man barely had time to unsheathe Elliot's sword. The claws and the black metal clang together. Gilbert was thrown back from the force of impact.
In the blink of an eye, Sharon was standing between him and the feline Chain. A black wall rose all around her.
"Gilbert," Sharon cried as Eques held the lion off with its horn. "I'm sorry, Lord Oz got away… He went outside. Go after him, I'll hold her back!"
"What?" Gilbert staggered back on his feet. His heartbeat was deafening to his own ears. "Sharon, what happened…"
"Aw, but aren't you worried about the Hatter and your little brother?" Charlotte snarled. "Master Glen and the others should be about done with them. Now move aside, I need to have a little chat with Jack…"
"They're buying us time!" Sharon turned to Gilbert hastily. "Don't listen to her! Go!"
Sharon took several steps back, breathing heavily. Safe in the shadow of her Chain, she held two fans before her in a defending position. With a last look at the fighting duo, Gilbert turned heels and fled.
"Master Glen trusted you!" Charlotte's screeches made him flinch. "I'll get you for this, traitor!"
The Baskerville's cries and Eques' whinnying pursued him as the man rushed towards the exit. He forced himself not to look back. His left hand was still clutching at his heart, where a contractor's seal was carving its way into his skin. The other clenched the black blade tightly. There was no turning back. Gilbert had already made his choice.
Oz was right ahead. Whatever had happened to him, Gilbert would be by his side to face it. The man knocked the double doors open with his shoulder:
"Oz!"
The boy was there. Surrounded by dewy grass, Oz stood shaking against the breaking dawn with his back to Gilbert. Oz was holding his hands before him, palms up, as if checking for raindrops. He gave no reaction when the man called his name.
"Why..."
Gilbert's relieved smile froze on his lips. The voice was deep and hoarse. Completely at odds with Oz's frail body. The man's fist clenched around the sword hilt with barely suppressed rage.
"I can't summon the scythe," the shaking voice went on. "Why? Glen, what did you do this time?"
Suddenly the boy turned to face him. Gilbert felt a sick feeling sink into his stomach. The eyes were green and wide like those of a wounded predator. Haunted and mad.
"No," the possessed boy whispered. "It was you, wasn't it? Gilbert..."
Gilbert glowered at him. He could feel the power of B-Rabbit concentrating in his chest like a wild animal about to pounce. The pull in his left hand was getting fainter. Raven was almost done restoring the chains Jack had destroyed.
"You tricked us," Gilbert growled back. "All of us. You have no right to use Oz like this. I won't let you."
"So you were the one who took his powers."
Oz's features relaxed, until his lips curled up into a lenient smile:
"Oh well, it was only a matter of time until Alice interfered again. I suppose I should thank you for bringing her back to me, Gilbert. I'd better settle this now."
Gilbert jumped out of the way a fraction too late. A metal spike slashed the left side of his arm. Pointed chains materialized all around Oz like so many hydra heads. Jack raised his arms, and their pointed ends turned to face Gilbert.
"Alice!" the man shouted, holding his bleeding arm to his chest.
The fire in his chest swelled and exploded. A dozen more chains darted through the air to meet Jack's. They knocked them out of the way with thunderous clanging. When Gilbert took a step back, he felt the presence of a massive Chain at his back.
"How nice of you to join us, Alice," the possessed boy greeted her.
"Jack…" a deep growl came from behind Gilbert, making him feel a shiver of kinship; the ferocity of her hate was going right through his body. "I am going to maim you limb by limb!"
"Don't!" Gilbert held out a hand in warning. "You can't hurt Oz!"
"Stay out of this, Raven. Oz rejected me. He's going to pay for this!"
"Gilbert has a point, you know," Jack chuckled. "Besides, you were never B-Rabbit to begin with. You can't blame Oz for taking back what is his."
"You shut up!" Alice roared. "I don't care if he was the original B-Rabbit! Oz was always mine, and I can do whatever I want with his powers! Now give him back, Jack!"
"Don't mind if I do," Jack whispered. "Oz."
No sooner had the name left his lips than a dark shape rose among the uncoiling chains. Gilbert could make out two lowered rabbit ears. With a pang to his chest, he realized the figure was hiding its face behind its hands.
"Oz…" Gilbert called softly.
The rabbit clenched his hands tighter in a vain attempt to shield himself from the world.
"Don't…" his voice rumbled among the rattling chains. "Don't make me…"
"Kill them."
Oz gave a cry, and the chains soared. Alice charged.
"Hold him back!" Gilbert slashed at the hissing chains with Elliot's sword. "Jack can't stay in control for long. Don't hurt him!"
But it was impossible to distinguish the two rabbits. Their contours were black and blurry, like twin shadows of the same entity merging as one. Their clash looked like a black mountain emerging from the fog.
Gilbert had to look away when Jack came at him with chains in his wake. Gilbert could only square up to them and back away. But his opponent followed, dancing before the black blade, unarmed and exposed. Gilbert cursed under his breath. He tried to parry and move out of the way.
The chains kept coming, darting from every direction. Hot pain flared in Gilbert's limbs when he failed to bat them away for fear of hurting the boy. He could hear Oz's desperate cries among the commotion.
"Gil! Alice! Run! I don't want to kill you! I don't want to kill you!"
"As if I'd let you do that," Alice growled.
She sent him tumbling to the floor with a smack. The earth quaked in protest. Gilbert and Jack were knocked off their feet. Bloody grass and an open sky span before the man's eyes until the giant Chains jolted back into focus.
"Gil, please, get Alice out of here!"
"I'm not leaving you behind, Oz," Gilbert jumped to his feet, his eyes trained on Jack. "Never again!"
The possessed boy was staggering back to his feet, showing the first signs of fatigue. Gilbert was too lightheaded to feel any triumph. His legs were bleeding profusely. In his peripheral vision the rabbits were still fighting in a black chaos of claws and teeth. The world was turning fuzzier by the second.
"Don't worry, Oz," Gilbert willed his voice to remain steady. The blood in his left hand was pumping wildly. "Any second now..."
"This is quite draining," Jack conceded between short puffs of breath. With a flick of his wrist, the possessed boy gathered the discarded chains behind him and advanced towards Gilbert. "You look pretty worn out yourself. However, unlike you, Gilbert, I have only one Chain to keep under control."
Gilbert took slow steps back, his sword at the ready. Jack was ten meters away. Soon, it would be over soon...
A sudden hissing sound made the man dive in alarm. Four spikes sunk into the ground Gilbert had been standing on milliseconds ago. Jack had struck from the back.
"I wonder," the ghost said as he came to meet him head-on, "which of us will collapse first?"
Gilbert pushed the boy away, and a spike sank into his left shoulder. The man rolled out of the way on his uninjured shoulder with the sound of hissing chains close to his ears. When his momentum sent him back to his feet, Gilbert felt a final jolt in his left hand. Then he heard the caw.
Raven. At last.
Jack looked up at the sky with sudden trepidation. Gilbert rushed at him.
The possessed boy tried to get away and hide behind a wall of snaking chains. Gilbert had to watch his step against the tremors the giant rabbits were causing in their scuffle. He slashed wildly at the chains. Gashes were opening all over Gilbert's body as he ran, but he barely felt them. High above, Raven was swooping down on them.
Three feet. Gilbert swiped two chains out of his way, and reached with his left hand. His face even, Jack pointed straight at his heart. Without missing a beat, Gilbert slammed his bare hand against the possessed boy's forehead. A violent earthquake broke behind the man with heavy clanging. Out of the corner of his eye, Gilbert saw giant black talons holding a metal coil to the ground. Raven had landed right on the chain about to impale its contractor.
The sword fell to Gilbert's side. The man hung on to the struggling boy, his right hand digging into a frail shoulder. Gilbert's left hand glowed a bright blue against Oz's forehead. The servant didn't hold back this time, and let all the power he held as a Baskerville seep through the seal. The small body went limp in his arms. The two rabbits and crow vanished in a ray of morning light.
"Oz," Gilbert panted, holding on to the boy's forehead and shoulder like his life depended on it. "Oz, can you hear me?"
Blurry green eyes blinked madly up at him. Oz's fair features were distorted in a grimace of pain. A drop of blood was dripping from the side of his bottom lip.
"…Why?" he croaked. "Why did you come back? You… I almost killed you!"
In spite of his wounds and racing heart, Gilbert couldn't help but give a heavy sigh of relief. The voice was cracked and hoarse, but the man recognized it as Oz's. Regardless, he forced himself not to let go. Gilbert had learnt of Jack's acting skills the hard way. Oz would never forgive his servant if he let his guard down too soon.
"I had to, Oz," Gilbert said nonetheless. He knew Oz would hear him. "I need to be by your side."
"Are you out of your mind?" the boy grabbed Gilbert's mantle with both hands. "You saw what I did! You know what I am! Why would you want anything to do with me?"
"I am your servant…"
"No, you're not!"
Oz was striving like the very devil to free himself. Gilbert grabbed both his wrists with his right hand to hold him still. He didn't feel confident enough to let go of the boy's forehead just yet.
Oz panted heavily. He wouldn't stop struggling, and it felt like each word was hurting him, grating on his tongue like salt into a wound:
"You're Glen's servant. Go back to him. Alice, too. She… She's his niece, right? You belong with him. Both of you. Forget about me. I'm just… I'm just a doll!"
"I remember," Gilbert told him gently.
This gave Oz pause. His hands felt cold even through the man's glove. Gilbert held them close to his heart:
"You and Alice were always together, back in Sablier. Once, she tore one of your sleeves and asked Master Glen to sew it back together. I volunteered to do it in his stead," the man chuckled self-mockingly. "I was so vexed. And I think that's all the interaction we had back then."
Oz refused to look at him.
"But that's all in the past," Gilbert told the crown of golden hair. "My master is dead, and there's nothing I can do about it. In this time, you were the one who gave me a place to belong. I don't want to give that up."
A brief silence settled. Oz broke it in a small voice:
"That was all fake. Just a part of Jack's plan. He let me borrow his body, only to get it back and destroy everything. This is what I was created for. I can't help anyone. Least of all you."
"You did," Gilbert protested. "You saved me!"
"This is just what you want to believe."
"This is what I know," Gilbert said stubbornly. "Those years we spent together were the happiest of my life. They were real. Don't you dare tell me they weren't."
"But I am not."
"What difference does that make?"
Gilbert was getting confused and angry. Idly, the man could feel Alice's own frustration at the back of his mind. This argument was only hurting Oz. Why couldn't he see that it was pointless?
"It makes all the difference, you idiot!" Oz shouted. "I can't even control myself! Do you have any idea how many people died because of me? I caused the Tragedy of Sablier. I almost destroyed the world, twice. What's stopping me from doing it again? I'm better off…"
"Then make a contract with me!"
Oz jerked his head up and glared at Gilbert with fierce watery eyes. The man couldn't help but flinch. Yet he refused to back down:
"I already made a pact with Alice, and Jack lost some of your powers because of it," he insisted. "If I made a pact with you, we might break his influence completely…"
"Don't even think about it," Oz interjected. "I won't turn you into an illegal contractor!"
"It wouldn't be an illegal contract," Gilbert said in the same breath. "As messengers from the Abyss, the Baskervilles are meant to make contracts with Chains by drinking their blood. That's how I contracted Alice."
Gilbert shuddered slightly at the reminder. The less said about exactly how that had transpired, the better. He put the thought to the far back of his mind
"I do have a seal," he went on, "but it won't drag me into the Abyss."
Among the fear and grief, he saw a glint of relief flash across Oz's eyes. Slight as it was, the shift lifted Gilbert's spirits. He looked at Oz with daring hope:
"If we made a pact… maybe you could be freed of your seal."
Oz seemed to hesitate. For a second, his eyes grew distant, like he had just realized something. The boy shook his head to rid it of the thought. The anger was gone, but he still looked upset and scared.
"I can't," Oz said haltingly. "Alice is safe with you now. I don't want to make the two of you take that risk. Not after everything I put you through. Alice died, and you… I hurt you so many times… And you only stayed with me because you thought I could replace your master..."
Gilbert's chest constricted at that. His grip tightened around Oz's slight wrists. He could feel a mad pulse.
"You don't understand," Gilbert said, rueful yet firm. "We can't go back. Alice and I are traitors to the Baskervilles. Not because of you," he added immediately. "But because Glen was ready to sacrifice anyone who threatened the stability of the Abyss. Even…"
Here again, Gilbert barely stopped himself in time. He had lost so much blood he had trouble thinking straight. But he was positive Alice could still hear them.
"Even his own family," he said in a low, bitter voice.
Oz's eyes widened in horror. He understood. Gilbert knew he would.
The boy's body went slack against his. Gilbert almost lost his balance when he had to steady Oz with his left hand. The boy's trembling had almost turned into spasms. His teeth were chattering:
"But…you won't let him. You will protect her. Right?"
"I will," Gilbert held him closer. "But only if you come with us. Alice and I decided this together. We are not going anywhere without you. I am not going anywhere without you."
Oz's conflicted gaze turned pleading:
"Please, Gil… You've accomplished so much. I'm sure you don't need me anymore," his voice was so faint Gilbert could barely hear it. "I'm… glad we met. I wish we could have stayed together. I want to believe in your promise, I really do, but more than that… Gil, I… want you to be free."
Gilbert shook his head. He couldn't take this anymore.
"Don't you get it?" He was clenching Oz's wrists so tightly they might bruise. "After I lost my memories, all these years, you were the only one who kept me sane. That will never change! It's true that you saved me by replacing my master, but before I knew it… I started to use that as an excuse. I made it my duty to protect you, to stay by your side… anything to stay by your side. I always wished I was destined to serve you."
The boy's eyes went saucer wide. Gilbert couldn't stop:
"Even after I shot you… I could only think of the way to save you. Even if you're not my master, I can only be free by your side!"
Oz's cheeks were flushed a deep red from the fight and the fear, his eyes a surreal bright green under his golden bangs. He was still panting, but it looked like he had forgotten why. Slowly, a smile bloomed on his juvenile face. Gilbert was rendered speechless.
"You idiot," Oz's shoulders were shaking with silent laughter. "Do you even hear yourself talk? Geez..."
The boy sighed through his nose. He shivered slightly in the morning breeze, and his features seemed to waver before settling into an expression of resolve; but the smile never left. Oz's wrists gave a gentle prod and, because Gilbert knew this smile very well, because he knew Jack could never pull it off in a million years, he let them go.
"You have it all backwards," Oz told him. "You were the one who kept me sane. Ever since Father rejected me. If I'm a Chain, you're the only contractor I want."
Oz's fingers were trembling when he cradled Gilbert's face, like he was still afraid to touch. The servant didn't move. He let the boy tuck stray black locks behind his ear experimentally. Featherlike touches lingered on his cheekbones, and long fingers came to rest at the nape of his neck. Small hands and emerald eyes were pulling him in.
Gilbert didn't understand what was going on until Oz started nipping at his bottom lip.
The kiss didn't last long. No more than the time Oz needed to sneak his bleeding tongue in and wrap it around Gilbert's, so the man could taste it before he swallowed. The boy only lingered for a second, to savour the wet warmth and the intoxicating scent of tobacco. But by the time Oz pulled away, Gilbert was misty-eyed and breathless.
"Oz…"
"Yes, silly," Oz played with the soft locks framing his servant's face. The strong scent of cigarette smoke clung to the wavy hair. It drifted to Oz like a warm welcome as his fingers combed the knots away. "I love you."
Gilbert grabbed his shoulders.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to," Oz chuckled. "I didn't want anything to change between us. I loved to see you doubt. It was so funny and cute… And this way, I could woo girls whenever I wanted. That always drove you crazy."
The boy hung his head too late. Gilbert had seen the tears.
"I was cruel. Gil, I..."
The air got knocked out of his lungs. Gilbert was hugging him so tightly Oz could speak no more. Or it might have been the lump in his throat.
"You damn…" Gilbert sobbed, and somehow it sounded like laughter, like the man couldn't have been sadder or happier, "impish, reckless, stubborn, tyrannical little brat!"
He could hear Oz's trembling smile in his teasing voice: "You still love me."
"I always loved you! Since the day we met," Gilbert said. He was pretty sure Oz hadn't loved him this long. And if he had, his young master was even more sadistic than Gilbert had ever suspected. "And I will always love you!"
"I know."
Gilbert froze. Oz's voice was growing faint. The servant's left hand hurt. Something hot was flooding his throat and chest. It set his blood on fire. Looking down through a hazy fog, the man met the boy's resigned gaze.
"Oz…!"
"Don't worry," the boy smiled, ephemeral and mischievous. Unreachable. "I'll be right here."
Oz's eyelids drooped. A shiver ran down Gilbert's spine. Waves upon waves of power crashed into his being, each rush stronger than the last. They shook his whole frame until the man broke into uncontrollable spasms. He could only cling to the frail shoulders of his young master to keep steady.
The black rabbits were merging once again. Gilbert felt Raven's struggles as the bird fought the overwhelming presence of the foreign twin Chains. For what felt like an eternity, the boy was his only anchor in a storm of destructive power.
Then the seal was back in place. Emerald green eyes turned stone cold.
"That was quite impressive, Gilbert," the deep voice slurred out of Oz's lips like an exotic snake. "And a huge mistake on your part."
Rage shook Gilbert out of the aftershock.
"Jack."
The possessed boy's smile was humourless:
"Why are you so surprised? You were the one who got Oz out of this body to join Alice. Naturally, that only leaves me in control."
"Get out," Gilbert seethed. "I won't let you hurt Oz ever again."
"I can't get out," Jack chuckled. "This is my body, after all."
"That's not true," Gilbert said. He sank his fingers into the boy's shoulders, and hoped Jack wouldn't notice that he could barely stand. "Oz was born and grew up in this era. You are nothing but a ghost hijacking his body."
Jack shook his head:
"This body is the one I was born and grew up in, until I was forsaken by the power of the Abyss. I lent it to Oz long enough for him to collect the fragments of my soul. Now that you made a contract with him and Alice, the three of us are bound to B-Rabbit."
"Liar…"
"The seal is still on my chest," Jack put a hand to his host's heart. "And when the clock strikes twelve, the four of us will be dragged into the Abyss."
"Liar!"
Unmindful of Gilbert's iron grip, Jack unbuttoned Oz's shirt. Horror-struck, Gilbert got a glimpse of the black mark. The seal was a quarter to completion.
"It is the logical conclusion of your foolish actions," Jack said neutrally. "Then again, logic never was your strong point, was it, Gilbert? You only ever followed your feelings. This is why you can't harm me. Not when I look like this."
Gilbert couldn't answer. Jack smiled, glassy-eyed:
"Of course, there is a way out of this: you could still reject Oz and be freed of his influence. That would also get rid of me. Since the needle has moved this far, it's too late to save this body."
A pause. Gilbert felt nauseous. His vision swam, and the black needle seemed to tilt ever closer to its starting point. Still his tongue remained frozen in his mouth.
"You won't? Come now. There is nothing to regret. Try as you might, Oz was always beyond saving. You heard him: he would rather let you live free of him."
There was no answer but the chirping of morning birds and a distant clatter from the manor. Jack trapped Gilbert's forearm in a death grip.
"Just do it," the ghost hissed. Panic gave a sharp edge to his voice. "You won't be apart for long. I'll just take the world with me, and then you can join Oz in the Abyss. Give my Chain back, Gilbert."
"Stop pestering my servant, will you, Jack?"
Jack raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side. His smile turned grim:
"Oz. I see you've learnt from the times I took over your body."
Gilbert's face answered with a smile of its own, weighted by irony. The two contractors were close. When Gilbert's host looked into Jack's eyes, he could see his own red irises reflected there.
The colour didn't suit Gilbert at all, Oz decided, and neither did his boyish voice. But he would make do.
"Not exactly," Oz answered. "Gil is exhausted. That idiot was about to lose consciousness. I promised that I would be there to support him if he ever fell. It's as simple as that."
"You seem to be in a better mood," Jack said lightly. His long fingers loosened their grip and traced the contours of Gilbert's wrist. "I take it Gilbert's body is to your liking, then?"
Oz rolled his eyes and let go of his former body's shoulders. Good thing Gilbert was out cold, or his poor servant would have died of embarrassment from the innuendo.
"Actually, Gil is right." Oz crossed Gilbert's arms and pointed one finger at Jack. The man's features set into the scowl that Gilbert usually directed at Alice when he scolded her. "I have used this body for fifteen years now, and I'm rather fond of it. I would like to have it back."
Jack shook his head sadly:
"You didn't listen to anything I said."
"I did."
"Yet you keep on burdening Gilbert and Alice with your existence? This is rather selfish of you."
"It is," Oz admitted. Idly, he felt Gilbert's self-depreciating smile creep back on the man's lips. "I was hoping that Gilbert's plan would work… He must be rubbing off on me."
Jack smiled indulgently. He put a hand on Gilbert's arm:
"You can still set them free."
But Oz merely shook his head:
"I can't. They won't let me."
And in spite of the bitter resignation he felt, Oz couldn't help but feel a twisted pride in that fact. He hated himself a little more for it. But he could still feel the bite of Alice's anger at the back of his mind, urging him to go on, and Gilbert's comforting presence, steady even in sleep.
Oz had thought he had accepted his fate. But in the end, he just couldn't let them go.
"They've gone so far to protect me," he said softly. "The least I can do is to try and stay alive."
Thin pale fingers closed around Gilbert's cravat. There was a mad glint dancing in Jack's eyes. Oz couldn't help but shudder a little. Even with their inversed height difference, the ghost's mere presence was enough to put him on edge.
"You don't understand, Oz. You don't have a choice," Jack's fist clenched into a knuckle-white grip. "Either you break this second contract right now, or we all sink into the Abyss. All for nothing."
"You are the one who doesn't understand," Oz said, grateful for his own practiced detachment and how steady his voice came out. "I am not threatening you, and I am not asking for a favour either. This is my right as your Chain. You gave me a human body in exchange of a wish. That's how a contract works. It can't be broken until I fulfil my part of the bargain."
A glimmer of interest shone in Jack's eyes at that. He furrowed his eyebrows thoughtfully:
"Something tells me you aren't going to break the chains again that easily."
Gilbert's eyes glowed an angry red when Oz frowned at him:
"That," he said, his words harsh from raw memories, "isn't your wish."
"Of course you would know all about it," the ghost said.
Oz ignored the sarcasm:
"I only realized just now. Something was bugging me about your memories. I don't remember contracting Lacie. Yet in that winter when she met you, she used B-Rabbit's powers to save you, even though I was only a plush rabbit at the time. Don't you think that's strange?"
All traces of ill humour had vanished from Jack's face as soon as he had uttered Lacie's name. Oz felt a bitter lump form in his throat. He had been mulling these memories over and over during his imprisonment, unable to think of anything but. After his fight with Gilbert, things were finally clicking into place. Why Jack had been rejected by the Abyss, the fact that Alice could take Oz's appearance, the power that they shared... the very nature of B-Rabbit's power. Who Lacie's Chain had been.
Oz didn't like where this was leading him. But it was too late to turn back.
"I can grant your wish, Jack. I will bring you to Lacie."
Jack's eyes were open wide, so enraptured by Oz's words that it felt like the ghost was staring straight into his soul. Calculating, looking for any sign of deceit. Oz held his gaze steadily.
"What do you mean?"
An ear-piercing roar cut through the question. The two contractors looked up at the sky in alarm. The Jabberwocky was soaring through the morning sky, blocking up the sun with its giant wings. Oz raised Gilbert's arms over his head out of reflex.
The dragon almost knocked the two contractors over as it flew past them. Oz barely had the time to glimpse the growing fireball in its mouth. The giant Chain came to hover before the broken windows of Pandora Headquarters, drew back its long neck…
"Break!" panic surged through Oz like a waterfall. "Sharon!"
The Jabberwocky fired. The roaring of Chains could be heard from where they stood.
"Little Echo! No!"
Oz made a run for the manor, and the sharp pain in Gilbert's limbs almost made him collapse on the spot. Even with the Baskerville's healing ability, his wounds were still deep. Oz felt nausea overcome him as he struggled not to trip, determined to get to them before it was too late. Jack took him by the wrist before he could take another step.
"What," the ghost repeated, unmindful of the dragon ten feet above their heads, "do you mean?"
"Let go!" Oz tugged on Jack's hand, but he was too weakened to free himself. "We have to help them!"
"Answer me," Jack said dangerously.
So Oz told him, in two rushed sentences.
Jack's face lit up with such raw, desperate hope that Oz thought he might be sick. The Chain went on, past caring:
"We need a Child of Misfortune in order to reach her. We have to go help Break and Vincent!"
Jack had already let go of him. With a little rattling noise, he bent over and retrieved Elliot's sword from the humid ground.
"Very well, Oz. I'll help you out," he ran alongside him with sword in hand, a merry smile on his too young face. "And thank you. I could never have wished for a better Chain."
The offhanded insult, the gaping wounds all over Gilbert's body, my fault, all my fault, the sickening sight of Jack in his former body holding Elliot's sword, the smell of burning wood and metal above and the mighty roars of the Jabberwocky, Oz let it all drown in the adrenaline rush as he looked up at the flames and called to Alice. In the next second, the giant rabbit had taken hold of them both, and they were jumping into the chaos of the upper floor.
"You had better know what you're doing, Oz," the rabbit growled mid-air.
Oz had no time to answer as he was dropped to the floor alongside Jack, who winced. Oz couldn't help but glance sideways at the mark peering from the slightly open shirt of his former body. The needle had just moved to ten. We're running out of time.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, a feline Chain barged into his line of sight. Before he knew it, the scythe was in his hands and Oz was slicing at the beast. With a yowl, the lion vanished into a rain of dust. Charlotte Baskerville burst out of the cloud, knife in hand, her eyes a fiery red:
"Found you, traitor," she grinned and aimed for Gilbert's heart, only to be blocked by Jack.
"Leave them out of this, Lottie," the ghost said, his voice even as he dodged and countered Charlotte's furious attempts to stab him. "I believe I'm the one you're after."
"Fair point, Jack," she said between swipes. Her crooked smirk was turning more demented with every strike. "Took you long enough to come out."
"I'm sorry it had to come to this," the ghost said forlornly. "After it took so long to gain your trust and Glen's."
An enraged snarl broke through the clanging. Charlotte's voice got higher pitched until it threatened to break:
"I should have killed you first back in Sablier, you bastard!"
Jack laughed it off: "Call a spade a spade."
Oz couldn't keep track of their fight. Up into the sky, Alice was holding off the Jabberwocky with her spiked chains and mighty fists, jumping from window to window to avoid the blasts. Suddenly, when she hopped back into the open, Oz glimpsed a white figure in her fist.
"Break!" he exclaimed with equal amounts of fear and hope.
Next thing he knew, something was pushing at his back and there was a gunshot. When Oz turned round, he found Vincent at his back, smoking gun in hand. A red-clad figure dropped to the ground.
"Take better care of my brother's body," the man snapped at him and fired another shot. He was wearing Gilbert's hat, Oz realized bemusedly.
"W-Why aren't you with Break?" Oz asked before he could stop himself, his scythe slicing through incoming Chains as if it had a mind of its own.
"I dumped him to look for Gil, of course," Vincent said. He straightened the hat on his unruly hair swiftly. "The Hatter seemed to be faring well enough on his own. I met Lady Sharon on my way here. She was injured, so I left Echo to tend to her. Good thing Lottie was in a hurry."
It seemed he was about to say more, but he suddenly clapped his mouth shut and pulled Oz by the wrist. In the next second, the whole room shook and sent everyone tumbling to the floor in a cacophony of growls and crumbling debris. Through the stars and white dust invading his vision, Oz saw the huge grotesque head of the bleeding Jabberwocky gasp for air. Alice had its neck pinned to the ground.
"Alice, Jack, let's get out of here!" Oz ran around the dragon's head to get to Alice and the man she held in her hand. "We need to get to Sharon and Little Echo!"
"She left Eques in my shadow," Vincent added belatedly as he moved backwards towards the giant Chains and kept firing meticulous shots. "This should take no time at all."
A bullet got Lottie in the head. Jack took the opportunity to run up to them. Oz got another fleeting look at his chest and saw that the needle was still moving. The ground seemed to waver beneath his feet. It felt like it would give in any second now, ready to swallow him whole, back into the darkness he had come from.
'Gil,' Oz thought desperately, his heart hammering in his servant's chest. 'Wake up. You have to wake up...'
Jack and he reached Break at the same time, followed shortly by Vincent. A black wall was already rising all around them. But Alice was still in rabbit form, the clock was ticking and the scythe wouldn't go away, hitching to slice through the surrounding golden chains, Oz had no idea how to stop it…
'I need you to activate the seal,' Oz urged Gilbert's slumbering spirit at the back of his mind. 'Please, please, wake up…!'
He could feel his contractor stirring at his call, willing exhaustion away. Oz clung to this bit of consciousness, kept shouting at Gilbert over the bridge of their contract, when a wave of darkness rose from Eques' shadow and swept the group along. Alice let go of the Jabberwocky at the last minute. The last thing they heard was Lottie's voice, screaming at the other contractors to rummage through the ground floor and seal off all the exits.
They landed in a mass of limbs, metal and black fur. Oz had no idea which body was his anymore. He was only dimly aware of Gilbert's presence close by, just shy of reach.
"Miss Sharon," Break's breathless voice cut through the thick silence. "Are you alright?"
"Get off my face, you damn clown," Alice growled close to Oz's ear.
Looking up, Oz glimpsed a mop of blonde hair that might have been Jack's or Vincent's. Over that, he saw Sharon rush over to Break with one arm wrapped over her stomach. Oz caught a glimpse of torn silk and bloody bandages on her fair skin. Everything looked and sounded fuzzy. Oz felt like he might throw up.
"Gil…" he muttered around a coated tongue.
There was a blur of white and a tug at his wrist. Oz was pulled to his feet. He came face to face with a mask of grey. He blinked. Echo's face cleared before him.
They remained frozen on unsteady legs and stared at each other in silence. Her hair was covered in dust and debris, her cheeks powdered with chalk, her clear eyes huge with worry. Oz couldn't recall a time when he had seen her so open. He wanted to comfort her, but couldn't seem to find his voice. The scythe was still in his hand.
He heard a coughing fit behind him, violent enough to break the spell and make him turn round.
"I will be fine," Break said raggedly. "I think our main concern should be: what do we do with him?"
The sight made Oz wobble harder on his feet. Jack had been surrounded. Break's sword was at his throat and Vincent's gun at his temple. Alice and Eques were lurking in the shadows behind the ghost. Oz could feel the rabbit's growling all the way to his gut. The weapon in his hand felt heavier still. Dimly, he realized that Echo had stepped forward to stand between him and Jack, knife in hand.
Jack was standing among his enemies in the half-destroyed corridor with an amiable smile on his face. White powder was falling from the roof on his hair like snow. The ghost had one hand clenched loosely around the hilt of Elliot's sword, the other to his half-exposed chest. The clock read eleven.
"Don't kill him," Oz blurted out.
Vincent's finger only curled tighter around the trigger. His expression was set in rigid anger and grief, the very picture of betrayal. Oz didn't dare move a muscle lest the man shoot on impulse. There was nothing but contempt in Break's eye as he stared Jack down, his stance unwavering in spite of the trail of blood at the corner of his mouth. Sharon kept close to him.
"We don't have a choice, Lord Oz," she said without tearing her eyes away from their captive. "If we don't finish him now, he will be cast into the Abyss."
"That's the plan," Jack said cheerfully. "The one Oz came up with, that is. We are going to meet the Will of the Abyss."
Break narrowed his eye at that. Jack's polite gaze drifted from his to Vincent's without wavering:
"We would appreciate it if one of you two gentlemen could lend us his help."
There was an ominous click.
"Don't do it, Vincent," Jack said gently. "Gilbert wouldn't want this."
Vincent drew in a sharp breath, seemed to hold back the urge to scream. His hand was shaking madly around the gun. Break's expression turned to one of intense disgust.
"Oz," he asked in a low voice. "Do you intend to change the past?"
"No," Oz answered in a rush. "I found a time paradox in Jack's memories. I think it might be part of what caused the distortion of the Abyss. The Will of the Abyss needs my power to fix it, but only people born with red eyes can meet her. I need your help to reach her."
"And I need to get my sister out of the Abyss," Alice interjected.
This, more than anything, seemed to capture Break's interest. Yet Oz's borrowed eyes kept darting back to the seal on Jack's chest and the slow, relentless progression of the needle. He thought he could hear the seconds ticking away, pulsing at his temple like blood, Gil, Gil, please wake up!
"There's no time. I can't get my powers under control," Oz stammered. He was clutching at Gilbert's bloody chest without meaning to. Was his heart even still beating? Was it the clock? "I can't get through to Gil… At this rate, we will be stuck like this forever… We will…"
"I'll handle this," Break sheathed his sword. "Time to end the masquerade. Would you give me a hand, milady?"
Sharon had already kneeled down and started drawing a pentacle with a piece of chalk. Break completed the drawing while Vincent held Jack at gunpoint. Sharon motioned for Oz, Jack and the giant rabbit to stand together on the pentacle. Once they were all gathered, Break slammed his swordstick in the centre.
There was a flash, a jolt, a world in black and white turned on its axis in a burst of pain. Oz was left panting on the floor. His body felt heavy and warm, almost feverishly so. It felt so strange, yet so disturbingly familiar, Oz wanted out of his skin.
"Well," Break's voice seemed to come from very far away. "I think that settles it."
"What… Oz!"
Hearing Gilbert's voice at last prompted Oz to open his eyes. Here they were, all three beings that shared his powers, all pinned to the floor by the bluish light of the restraining pentacle. Jack down on his knees and breathing heavily, eyes trained on the broken clock on his chest in anticipation. Alice in her human body, clad in the spare of red clothes and white ribbons she had gotten from her bond with B-Rabbit, who struggled to sit up while glaring daggers at Break and Jack in turn.
And Gilbert, back in his own body, his bloody clothes clinging to his skin, his pale face covered in sweat as he stared at Oz from his position on the ground. He looked small and scared; it felt like they had jumped back in time. Back at the coming of age ceremony, when everything had gone mad; back in Sablier, a helpless little boy bleeding to death at Oz's feet...
Oz closed his eyes tight.
"The seal…" was all he could manage, in a low growl that he refused to acknowledge as his own voice.
With a sigh, Break slammed his swordstick a second time. There was a patter of feet when the human captives stood as one. Oz didn't even try to get up from his slumped position on the floor. He felt too big as it was. His long ears twitched as he waited with batted breath.
"Oz, it's not working!" he heard Gilbert's panicked voice. "The needle has moved too far! Oz!"
The voice sounded much closer. Reluctantly, Oz opened his eyes to meet Gilbert's terrified golden ones.
"Then we don't have much time left," Oz said in a low voice. "I'm so sorry, Gil… I have to meet the Will of the Abyss and ask for her help."
The man was shaking hard. His eyes were filling up with tears. Gilbert held it all in with a shuddering breath:
"I'll go with you."
He meant it as reassurance, but Gilbert could as well have hit him, it hurt so badly. Oz silently and vehemently cursed himself for all the times he had felt accomplished when Gilbert had sworn to always be by his side. They didn't even have a choice in the matter anymore.
"Will you come back?"
The quiet inquiry startled Oz out of his gloomy thoughts. Those were the first words Echo had spoken since they had arrived. She was looking up at him with the same concern she had shown while Oz was possessing Gilbert.
"I will," he answered before thinking.
He regretted it almost immediately. His ears drooped uneasily. They both knew what had happened the last time Oz had made this kind of promise: Philippe's father had been killed and the child had become an illegal contractor. A hint of wetness appeared in Echo's clear eyes. All the same, she nodded and pulled a pistol from under her wide sleeve, which she handed to Gilbert.
"Master Vincent used most of the bullets," she warned him. Her voice had recovered its deadpan tone.
"What about you?" Gilbert asked her. His voice was raspy from repressed tears. "What are you going to do about Master Glen?"
"I'll help Lady Sharon escape as Master Vincent ordered me to," she said neutrally.
Oz peered at Vincent warily. The man had opened his mouth like he was about to protest. In the end, he just shook his head with an irritated scowl. Gilbert gripped his pistol tightly as he looked from his brother to Echo with growing anguish:
"I'm sorry. I dragged you both into this... I'm so sorry..."
Oz wanted to scold him, tell Gilbert that it was his fault, never his servant's, and why did he always have to blame himself… but something in Echo's even stare stopped him. There was some hesitation there, like there was something she was dying to say but couldn't quite find the words.
"It's alright," she said after a pause. "Noise is loyal to Master Vincent, and I…"
She glanced Oz's way, and words seemed to fail her once more. She inclined her head.
"I'll handle things here," she said quietly. "Just go."
Oz stared at her in bemused wonder. He wasn't sure if it was from the instinctive protectiveness he felt around young girls ever since he had been given sentience, from the time Echo and he had spent together on St Brigitte's Day – did it make a difference after all? Did I really help her? – or the incongruity of her being concerned about someone like him, but the Chain felt a surge of affection warm his heart.
"Little Echo…"
"Just Echo!" she snapped, and her whole body shook with her cry of protest.
"Thank you."
Echo looked up with a jolt. A bright blush was peering from the cracks in her mask of chalk, and her lips were drawn in a tight line. She turned away in the same swift motion.
"This is all well and good," Break's voice cut in. "But you are still short a red-eyed jinx, am I right? Count me in."
Yet another couching fit swallowed his last sentence, and the man almost fell to his knees before Sharon caught him.
"Break, you can't be serious…!"
"Don't try to stop me, Gilbert," Break cut the servant off. "This is a purpose I intend to fulfil. I swore to grant her wish."
Oz's ears perked up at that. Her? Did he mean the Will of the Abyss? The Chain peered at Gilbert, but his servant looked just as confused as Oz was. Sharon, on the other hand, showed no hint of surprise.
"You can't go in your state, Break," she told him softly, her face grave. Oz could tell that it cost her to turn Break away from his goal, when all this time she had been doing everything in her power to help him. Yet when she turned to them, there was nothing but determination in her eyes.
"She told Break that she didn't want to be the Will of the Abyss anymore," Sharon told them.
Oz straightened in spite of himself. He stilled when the tip of his ears brushed against the crumbling roof. The Chain knew dangerously little about the Will of the Abyss after the Tragedy had driven her mad, but if what Sharon said was true, it might play to their advantage.
"Of course she doesn't," Alice growled exasperatedly. "That's why I'm going to get her. And Raven too," she added, turning to Gilbert, which prompted a startled "what" from him: "We had a deal, remember? First we settle accounts with Jack and save Oz, then we go back for my sister."
It seemed to take several seconds for Gilbert to remember what she was referring to, but his eyes lit up at last, and he nodded. The man turned to Break with purpose:
"You don't have to come, Break," he told him. "I'll go as your left eye."
Break twitched.
"What the hell are you…"
"You saved Oz for me," Gilbert finished before Break got a chance to further object. "Just like you promised. It's about time I paid my debt to you."
All the stubbornness seemed to vanish from Break's face, replaced by disbelief. His grip tightened around Sharon's shoulder. He averted his eye. The young woman directed a forlorn, grateful smile at Gilbert. Oz felt prouder of his servant than he had any right to be.
"Break, was it?" Jack asked lightly. "Think of it this way: the Baskervilles are still after us, and the situation here is sure to get complicated. You wouldn't want to leave Miss Sharon without a knight, would you?"
Break turned a deadpan stare towards the ghost. Jack held out a pendant hanging from a thin chain:
"This is yours, I think? I took it back from Lottie. Please don't hold it against her, she was always overprotective."
"The blood mirror!" Sharon cupped one hand over her mouth.
Oz noticed the way Break tested the stability of his feet before he deftly detached himself from Sharon and walked up to Jack. In spite of the smooth confidence he was showing, Oz couldn't help but feel a pang of worry.
"Why thank you, Mister Hero," Break snatched the chain from Jack's hand and passed it around his neck. "I wish you a pleasant journey into the Abyss, then. Send my best regards to Alice, will you?"
Jack's only answer was an obliging smile. Behind him, Vincent still had his gun pressed to his temple. Oz could see Gilbert trembling in his peripheral vision.
"Is there no other way, Oz?" the man asked. "We can't just…"
"I'll go, brother," Vincent's voice cut in.
"But…"
"On one condition," Vincent's mismatched eyes turned to slits. "If we meet the Will of the Abyss, you should be the one to make a wish."
Gilbert started at that, but recovered quickly.
"I trust Oz," he told his brother firmly. "Whatever wish he wants fulfilled, I'll help him grant it."
There was no mistaking the resentment in Vincent's eyes when he turned to the Chain. Oz couldn't help a shiver, which was thankfully hard to notice with his current appearance. He really wasn't deserving of anyone's trust, for dragging them all back in this hell they had fought so hard to escape. All but Jack.
"Jack will handle it," Oz said softly, yet his deep voice still made the roof rumble. "He is the only one who can convince the Will of the Abyss."
"And don't you try anything funny," Alice pointed a warning finger at Jack. "You'll ask her exactly what Oz told you to, and that's it. Otherwise, you're dead meat."
"Don't worry," Jack grinned at her, seeming to find her suspicion absurdly funny. "It is my wish, after all."
"What?" Gilbert asked, alarmed. "Oz, what does that mea…"
"We found them! Glen Baskerville, Sir, we found them!"
Oz turned round with a jolt, his black fur bristling in startled fear. Two men clad in Pandora's uniform had just appeared at the window and were waving their way. They disappeared as fast as they had come, running in opposite directions with terrified cries.
"Everybody get down!" Oz shouted and got on all fours to shield the others with his body. In the next second, the wall exploded.
There was the inhuman screech of the Jabberwocky, a detonation and roaring fire that went to eat at Oz's skin. The rabbit curled up on himself to cover the others as best as he could. He thought he heard his name somewhere in the commotion; he couldn't be sure. The flaring pain, the nauseating smell of burning flesh and fur, it was all too much for Oz to take. All sounds drowned in a cry of agony that seemed to come from everywhere at once.
It stopped just as suddenly, in a burst of blue flames that forced Oz's eyes open. The entire corridor had been destroyed; the rabbit could see the sky from his position on the ground. He barely even felt the pain of his burning wounds as he took in the view.
Two gigantic black birds were facing each other against the rising sun. Their monstrous beak and mouth were dripping with long flames. Their talons and claws dug into the ground. It looked like they could take to the sky and drag the entire world with them.
"Run," Oz said in a ragged growl, unable to look away from the scene long enough to make sure the others had gotten away.
Gilbert was there before him. The man stood close to the Raven with a revolver in one hand, Elliot's retrieved sword in the other, and faced his former master. Oz could tell that he was shaking. The rabbit felt a horrible sense of déjà vu.
All of a sudden it felt like he could read Leo's expression from this distance: impassive features, every step filled with purpose as the possessed boy walked up to them, in stark contrast with the furious storm in his black eyes. Those accusing eyes trapped Gilbert as surely as they burnt Oz.
There was a black blur. Before Glen could come in hearing distance, Alice jumped on Gilbert's back. The startled man staggered forward and barely recovered his balance. Alice plucked his ears firmly.
"Stop it, Glen!" she screamed over Gilbert's head and threw her legs around his chest so she wouldn't fall off. The man hissed in pain when her heels dug into his ribs. "Raven and Oz are my contractors! Leave us alone!"
It felt like time had frozen for them. Glen stood before them, his pale face stark against the black dragon wings that embraced his figure from behind. The beast's feral slit yellow eyes squinted over his head ominously. The possessed boy's expression was clearly visible now, his surreal eyes burning with one betrayal too many. For all of three seconds, Glen Baskerville didn't move.
For the last time, Oz summoned the scythe. He heard Jack gasp.
'Midnight.'
The earth opened under them in a giant black void. Glen jumped back when the chains burst from the darkness and snaked their way around the giant rabbit and three humans, but Vincent threw himself at his brother and caught him in a tight hug. Gilbert returned the embrace with Alice hanging precariously on his back, and the chains encircled all three. Jack had already started to sink. Raven vanished, but Gilbert never looked away from his former master.
When he told him: "I am sorry, Lord Glen," among the nightmarish rattle of chains, Oz heard Jack say: "Goodbye, Oswald."
Merciless metal sank in his fresh burns and wounds. Oz lifted his head to let out a howl. He saw a cloudless sky and a flock of birds. The rising sun lit their feathers a blazing gold. Then he was dragged down and darkness closed on them.
'Back into the rabbit hole,' the Chain thought derisively as the links bit into his flesh like slithering spiked snakes and dragged him down, down into a void that got darker with every yank of the chains, further down.
Their descent seemed endless. Oz wouldn't even know they were falling if it weren't for the coils pulling them. He couldn't see or hear a thing, couldn't tell whether the others were still with him. When he tried to call out, instead of releasing a sound, Oz almost choked on empty air. It felt like sinking without the water's weight to break his fall.
It was an eternity before Oz recovered any of his senses. An old scent washed over him, thick with melancholy. It was faint, but the memory of it, along with the shock of finally smelling something after his endless dive, hit the rabbit like a shockwave. Oz almost wanted to cover his nose from the strength of it. It was a sweet smell, tinted with moss. Oz was reminded of candlelight, dusty plush and dry flowers.
When he opened his eyes, Oz found himself in the same colourful room the pocket watch had first sent him to, with its red checkerboard floor and four walls made out of wooden shelves. Countless dolls were falling from them with delighted cackles. Invisible strings broke their fall, and for several seconds they just hung there in a circle, six feet above ground. In the middle, Jack was holding a crying white Alice in his arms.
"You came," the little girl sobbed into his chest. "You came for me!"
Jack gave her a twirl. In a flash, Oz saw his flushed cheeks and exhilarated grin as he spun the Will of the Abyss around. The dolls started a mad round dance around them, clicking and chortling. The possessed boy and girl kept calling each other's names in overjoyed voices as they danced together like two lost children who had just been reunited and could scarcely believe it.
Oz looked away from the mad scene. His gaze landed on the three of Vincent, Gilbert and Alice, who lay sprawled across the floor three feet away. The little girl was rubbing her forehead and grumbling in slight pain, seemingly unmindful of her sister and Jack's antics. Gilbert, on the other hand, gaped at them in open disbelief. He pulled himself together when Vincent glared at the dancing duo and made to get up. Gilbert held him back by the shoulder and shook his head, ever wary in unfamiliar territory.
The movement, however slight, seemed to draw attention from the dolls. A blonde wigged crowned puppet dressed in red left the round dance to hover above the two men. As soon as she spotted it, Alice jumped to her feet and held out an arm before the two brothers. She stared the doll down. It whirled around with convulsive shrieks:
'He's back!' The toy's plastic eyes rolled in their sockets, 'Vincent came back to cut us to pieces!'
The Will of the Abyss froze in Jack's arms. The dolls all flew away with a great racket. They screamed threats and warnings in mechanic voices as they circled the three humans without daring to come too close. Gilbert picked up the sword carefully, his other hand still holding onto Vincent's shoulder in a silent command to be careful. Seemingly unbothered, his brother was reloading his gun with the hint of a playful smirk on his lips.
Gilbert met Oz's eyes above Alice's head and motioned for him to come closer with a tilt of his chin. Oz crawled over with careful steps. The ground seemed to shake under the weight of his huge black paws. The Chain cast an anxious glance at the Will of the Abyss. The little girl was holding on to Jack for dear life and hiding her face in his chest while her toys kept on shrieking around them.
"Why?" she sniffed and pointed a trembling finger at the group. "Why did you bring Vincent and Gilbert? They hate me! I don't want them here, Jack!"
"Don't worry," Jack held her close, his smile ever serene among the chaos. "They won't stay long. I needed their help in order to reach you. We should thank them, don't you think?"
The little girl shook her head vehemently:
"They are mean!" she hiccupped. "Vincent killed Cheshire! Gilbert tried to kill me!"
"That's all in the past," Jack hushed her softly. "They are all grown up now, see? They won't hurt you again."
The Will of the Abyss peered over his arm like a shy child who didn't dare move away from the safety of her parent's embrace to go and play with the other kids. She flinched visibly when she saw the murderous glare on Vincent's face, and her face dissolved into more cries. With an exasperated snarl, Alice punched a squeaking teddy bear out of her way and stepped forward, beckoning everyone's attention:
"I told you I'd be back, Alice," she told her twin. "No one will hurt you as long as I'm here, so stop crying already."
The tears did stop, but the expression the Will of the Abyss was wearing didn't reassure Oz in the least. Her snow-white hands were still digging into Jack's back like claws. She made him turn around with surprising strength in order to face her sister:
"You are going to take him away," she sobbed, her amethyst eyes defiant in spite of the wet trails on her cheeks. "You came to take Jack away from me, didn't you?"
'Bad girl! Bad girl!' the toys chanted among the clatter of disarticulated wooden limbs and snickers. A few bounced off Oz's large body. The rabbit shook them off and came to stand behind the two brothers to shield them from the raving toys. Alice stomped her foot on the floor:
"Be quiet, you!" she told them indignantly before turning back to her sister: "So what? That's what you wanted, wasn't it? That bastard messed you up enough as it is!"
"Stop it!" the Will of the Abyss shouted, the sobs creeping back into her voice. "How can you be so cruel? You already have the world all for yourself! You got out of the Abyss and left me all alone! Jack is the only one who… the only one…"
Her voice broke and she buried her face in Jack's shoulder once more, her whole frame shaking with distressed cries:
"Don't leave me," she begged him, her voice muffled by the clothes and tears. "Make them go away… Please stay with me forever, Jack..."
The ghost was making small soothing noises as he caressed her white back and hair comfortingly. His gestures were smooth and gentle, but Oz could see an odd glint in his vivid green eyes, the first signs of impatience. The rabbit got scared. One wrong word, and it all could come crashing down.
"Alice, that's not true!" he said impulsively.
The Will of the Abyss started. Slowly, she turned towards him, her stare uncertain and somehow cold in her distress. 'You spoke out of order!' the toys guffawed close to his ears, and Jack raised a questioning eyebrow at him, but all Oz could see was the terrified little girl in his arms.
Memories were rushing in the rabbit's head, of endless days in the dark place the Abyss had morphed into, spent watching the smile disappear from Alice's face. His lonely, fragile, miserable Alice, who so desperately wished for a friend, but was too scared to go out and face the world like her sister had. She had only ever had Oz and her sister before Jack came along, and after that, she had drifted further away until even they had become unable to reach her.
"It wasn't only Jack who came to visit you," Oz told her, struggling for the right words. This Alice was mad. She was desperate and unstable. But Oz couldn't forget the little girl he had watched over for so long. He couldn't bear to see her like this.
"There was another man called Kevin Regnard. He made a promise to you, remember?"
To his relief, there was an immediate spark of recognition in her tearful eyes. Oz heard a ruffling sound and looked down. Gilbert had come to stand beside him.
"That's right," he told the Will of the Abyss, slow and wary, but surprisingly gentle, like a man trying to coax a mistrustful wild animal. "He sent us here. We came to grant your wish in his stead. He is waiting for you on the other side."
"Kevin…sent you?" she repeated uncertainly, her voice roughed from too much crying.
"The clown sent him because he's dying and too much of a wreck to come himself," Alice pointed at Gilbert with a thumb and shrugged. "Whatever. You're coming with us."
The Will of the Abyss' eyes widened in sudden fright. Her grip on Jack slackened. Her hands were shaking wildly.
"Kevin is dying…?"
The rabbit was surprised to find such deep concern in her eyes. The Will of the Abyss quivered and seemed to close up on herself, her thin fingers twining the ribbons on the front of her dress and getting tangled up in them. She didn't seem to realize she was doing it. Jack put his hands on her shoulders:
"You should go," he whispered to her, but Oz's long ears caught the words right and clear. The girl's small hands wound tighter in the silken bows.
"I'm scared," she said in the same tone. "Everyone hates me outside..."
"Of course not. They don't even know you yet. Besides," Jack leaned forward to rest his chin on her naked shoulder and winked at her. "I'm sure you remember everything I told you about the outside world. Gardens, balls, operas… Don't you want to see them for yourself?"
Her white cheeks turned a bright red. She looked down, away from Jack's knowing eyes.
"…Will you be with me?" she asked feebly. Oz suspected she knew the answer.
Jack's smile turned despondent. He embraced the frail girl from behind in a tight hug. Much like the ghost had hugged Oz every time he wanted to use his powers.
The rabbit felt his fur stand up on end. He had seen his fair share of Jack's talent for winning people over, and this Alice had always been the most receptive to it. It was part of the plan. Oz had counted on it. He had been desperate. Now that he saw it at work, it was getting unbearable to watch.
"I'm sorry, Alice," the murmur sent a shiver down Oz's spine. "I have a last request before we part."
"No!" the Will of the Abyss tried to cover her ears, but her left hand remained tangled in the ribbons. It waved helplessly like a trapped white bird and came to land on Jack's hand instead. It was shaking like a leaf. "Don't go… You promised!"
"That's why I have to do this," Jack smoothly pried her other hand from her right ear and held it in his. "I have to go back. Otherwise, it will be like we had never met."
"Good riddance," Oz heard Alice grumble next to him, but it got lost in the clicking of the curious toys that surrounded them.
The other two humans stayed silent. They were straining their ears, Oz guessed, anxious to find out what the plan was about. Doubts were creeping like insects under his bestial skin. The Chain prayed to whatever deity there was – the Core of the Abyss? Could they even trust Him? – that he had been right; everything would work out in the end…
"Go back?" the Will of the Abyss asked, intrigued in spite of herself. "But where?"
Just then, Jack lifted his head to cast Oz a conniving glance. The sick feeling in his stomach only got heavier.
"A long time ago," the ghost told the little girl, "I was attacked by thugs. They beat me up badly; I would have died then, if it weren't for the help of a young girl and her Chain."
As before, the mere mention of her was enough to cast a heavy shadow over Jack's eyes. Nonetheless, his patient smile remained on his lips.
"Her name is Lacie. Her Chain is the Blood-Stained Black Rabbit."
Gilbert gasped. Oz didn't dare look his way. The Will of the Abyss was still clutching Jack's hand, looking lost and confused. Her violet eyes drifted over Oz and Alice like she had just noticed them:
"But… that's…"
"Well, not quite the Black Rabbit," Jack hummed, looking amused. "I almost didn't recognize him; and he didn't seem to have his powers in their entirety. He only used chains instead of his scythe."
"What does that mean?" Gilbert asked, his voice tense with agitation. It sounded like his patience was wearing thin. Oz still couldn't bring himself to look him in the eye. Jack only smiled:
"It means that the destructive powers of the Black Rabbit had been fragmented, as they are meant to be. They are too formidable to be contained in a single body for a long period of time, you see. Rather fittingly, the original twin rabbits, who went by the name of Oz, had the power to switch bodies."
"Naturally, the same goes for Oz's powers," Jack's expression almost looked hungry. Oz was grateful for the fact that the Will of the Abyss couldn't see it. "In the past, your sister was able to steal them for herself, until Oz borrowed my body in order to make a contract with her. When Gilbert contracted them both, he and I became the contractors of the current twin Chains known as B-Rabbit: Oz and Alice. Now, Alice…"
Jack's tone was even and sweet, but the little girl shuddered all the same. Oz couldn't tell whether it was from fear or pleasure. She chanced an unsettled glance back at Jack. Oz held his breath.
"I want you to give me Oz's powers," the ghost susurrated. "I will become the Black Rabbit whom Lacie contracted."
He could barely keep the excitement from his voice. Jack took a deep breath to calm himself, and added smoothly:
"This way, I can save myself, and our pasts won't change. But if you don't," he said, voice syrupy as he caressed her cheek, "my past self will die, and our meeting will be erased."
"That's enough, Jack," Alice snapped, startling them both. She made her way through the crowd of booing toys without sparing them a second glance, and held out her hand to her twin. "Let's do it, Alice. I know how to transfer Oz's powers, I'll give you a hand."
"But," the Will of the Abyss hiccupped, "Jack… What will happen to you…?"
"I will stay by Lacie's side," the ghost answered without missing a beat. "Until the very end, when she was cast into the Abyss."
The Will of the Abyss brought her hands to her mouth in horror. She made to get away. Jack only tightened his grip. He placed a chaste kiss on her temple:
"It's okay, Alice," he told her. "If this is the price for the chance of meeting you, I will happily pay it."
Her eyes welled up with tears. Unable to hold back, she broke down in loud, desperate cries, her pallid fingers digging into Jack's arms as he held her. Her twin couldn't contain a grimace at the sight. Oz felt awful.
He could see the truth beneath Jack's lies. This was the fate he had always wished for: to be together with Lacie, even in death. It made no difference to him if he had to take on the appearance and powers of a monster in order to reach this goal. Jack was happy, genuinely happy to run to his doom. He was only leading the Will of the Abyss on with white lies.
Oz knew all this. Had planned all this, taken advantage of both Jack and this Alice's weaknesses in a desperate attempt to have his own wish granted. But he couldn't go back, not as long as Gilbert and Alice were trapped here with him. So he swallowed his guilt and doubts, and spoke:
"Alice," he told the Will of the Abyss, hating how scary his voice sounded. "You can't stay here. This place is driving you mad. We will show you the way back. Kevin Regnard will be there, and so will your sister. So will I. You won't be alone anymore. So…"
She was looking at him now, still shaking from her ear-piercing cries. She probably couldn't even see him through the onslaught of tears that she couldn't bring under control. Seeing her so upset, it suddenly struck Oz that he meant every word. Deceits and pretty lies came naturally to Jack, who had been manipulating the Will of the Abyss all along, but Oz couldn't see past the helpless little girl who used to hold him in the dark. An insignificant plush rabbit, yet her only comfort in her timeless prison before the Tragedy.
"Please… don't cry."
The Will of the Abyss sniffed audibly. She looked from him to her sister, then to Jack, who nodded. Alice beckoned her with an imperious wave of her extended hand. Her sister gulped uneasily and, at long last, took it.
"Wait!"
'Gil...'
Both sisters turned questioning gazes towards the man. The Will of the Abyss was wiping her cheeks with her free hand.
"What about Oz?" Gilbert asked. "What will happen to him after you take his powers?"
The Will of the Abyss frowned at him like he was the most stupid person she had ever met. The toys burst into a chorus of hollow laughter:
'Didn't you know?' the rag doll of a jester asked among jingles from its hat. 'The Abyss can turn humans and objects into Chains!'
'And Chains make pacts in order to go back to the other side,' a rocking horse added. 'For a chance at being human again!'
'Even Cheshire wanted a human body,' the crowned doll in the red dress snickered.
'You have to pay the price!' a plush dodo cawed at Jack.
"It's the least I can do," the ghost laughed good-humouredly. "I don't have a use for this body anymore. Once B-Rabbit's power is shared between me and Alice and I take his appearance, Oz can have mine as payment."
Even as the monster he was, Oz felt strangely small and exposed among the mocking toys. The truth was out. The selfish reason why he had insisted so much on fulfilling this plan when he couldn't come up with a better solution.
"Really?" Gilbert asked in a hushed voice. "You can make Oz human again?"
Against his better judgement, Oz let his eyes wander to him. Gilbert looked giddy with joy, his pale cheeks flushed a bright red over a wide, almost boyish smile. It felt like forever since Oz had seen him so effusive. The Chain felt a fond laugh bubble up in his chest, only to remain trapped there.
The rabbit shook himself. For his servant's sake, Oz tried not to think about the people he had used in order to get there; tried to forget about all the contracts that had gone wrong in the past. He had thought this through. They weren't changing the past. There should be no repercussions.
All the same, Gilbert noticed his lack of reaction. A cloud crept over the man's face. In the same moment, the Will of the Abyss turned to Oz and held out a delicate hand:
"You were late," she told him, mildly reproachful. "But you did bring Jack to me in the end. So come along, Mister Rabbit."
Before he could take a step, Oz felt a human hand on his arm. He looked down and met Gilbert's eyes. Once again, Oz was stricken by how open they looked. No matter how they had narrowed over the past ten years, they were still the same bright gold, full of warmth and undisguised concern.
"Oz..."
Gilbert couldn't form another word. Yet there was so much in that name, in the way he said it and looked up at Oz, laden with a love that Oz had always seen and craved, but never dared believe in. 'You don't have to do this,' Gilbert's face said, bare before him like an open book. 'You don't know what might happen. I don't want to lose you. Not again.'
Oz could have wept then, would have kissed Gilbert right there and then if he had a human body to do so. To have this gaze directed at him, whether he was human or a Chain, to know that Gilbert didn't and would never see the difference, it was almost enough to make him change his mind.
The rabbit attempted a smile, but stopped himself when he realized he couldn't manage anything but a feral grin in this form. He couldn't even give Gilbert that much as reassurance. Oz ducked his head to be level with his:
"I have to do this, Gil," he told him in as gentle a growl as he could manage. "I don't want to hurt anyone anymore. I never wanted this power in the first place... Jack can have it. Lacie won't use it to destroy the world, she loves it too much for that."
Gilbert's fingers sank in the rough fur and hung on like he was terrified to let go. He, too, looked torn between the temptation of hope and the urge to throw himself at Oz and never let go.
"Let me do this, Gil," Oz asked, all too aware of his sharp teeth and claws, of how inhuman he really was, no matter what Gilbert saw beyond. "I want to go back to the way we were."
As much as it seemed to cost him, Gilbert did let go. Oz crawled on all fours towards the twins and forced himself not to look back. Seeing Alice's confident grin eased some of his fears.
Jack came to stand beside him. To the rabbit's surprise, the ghost turned to look at the brothers. There was something akin to an apology in his smile:
"Vincent… Your red eye reminded me of Lacie. This is the reason I rescued you and Gilbert, all those years ago. I simply couldn't stand by and leave you to die. It was this eye that saved your life and your brother's."
Oz heard a soft gasp behind him. Jack's grin widened:
"It really is beautiful. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
With these parting words, the ghost turned back to the Will of the Abyss. They hugged one last time. Then Alice pulled her twin away and clasped their hands together. The Will of the Abyss rested her forehead against hers obediently. There were tears on her cheeks, but her lips were pressed together into a determined line. Alice's expression mirrored hers.
A blinding glow erupted from their joined hands. It expanded until it swallowed the entire room and its cheering toys. Oz heard the broken grandfather clock strike twelve in the background before his sense of hearing was taken along with his sight. He felt small and naked in the raw light, like it was about to swallow him whole. Oz was dimly aware of another presence, very close, someone familiar and scary all the same.
Jack.
Something was being taken from him, dragged away by that presence. Something strong and intimate, ripped straight from his very being, or so it felt like. Oz wanted to cry. He couldn't move. He was drained dry, all his energy leaving his body like sunlight – did he have a body? – until there was nothing but cold and emptiness, nothing but Oz.
Suspended in this bare state somewhere between time and space, Oz heard a familiar tune in the distance. A young girl humming a song.
Lacie.
Jack's presence was drifting away, in the direction of the voice. "Hey. My name is Lacie." Oz felt an overwhelming joy that wasn't his own. "My name is B-Rabbit. Will you make a pact with me, Lacie?"
Their voices flickered and died.
Suddenly a sharp pain pulled him down. Everything came back at once: weight, smell, sounds, colours, everything too bright and cold for him to endure. It had to stop, lest he would go mad. Oz. Someone was calling. His limbs felt like they were made of lead, the angles looked too sharp, the reds and whites too vivid. Oz. Someone was calling him...
Oz opened his eyes to chaos. The room was breaking apart all around him in a rain of red and white rocks. The blast tore the sisters apart. The Will of the Abyss clutched her chest and opened her mouth wide in a mute cry when a bright glow was pulled from her body. She was falling backwards into the darkness. Only then did Oz realize he was falling too.
Small arms embraced him from behind – human, Oz realized with a jolt, I am human again – and he heard Alice's voice in his ear. He tried to reach for her hands around his chest, but his whole body was quivering. Darkness was closing in on them, weighing him down. He couldn't move.
"Oz!"
Oz's eyes widened. His body was shrinking. In his panic, his eyes looked all over the collapsing room for the source of the voice. He saw black wings and a glint of metal. At last his lips were unsealed:
"Gil! Call… my name!"
Those were Oz's last words before his voice got sucked into the darkness.
