"Alice," his voice echoed throughout the now quiet forest, "this is the world you live in now." The man in the red coat stood high over the injured cat that lye motionless on the dark and damp ground, where mass amount of blood soaked itself into it. The knight himself was even covered from head to toe in blood, a small scratch on his cheek his own. "This is Wonderland, Alice—this dark and cruel place."

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Boris quickly extended his hand out in front of the young foreigner. His eyes narrowed at the man who had just shot him.

"Don't worry," he laughed, "I won't hurt, Alice. She's interesting, so I won't kill her. You, however, Mr. KittyCat, are a completely different story. You are neither necessary to me or interesting." His sword was now firmly in his tight grip, it's fangs already barring, ready for the bloody fight that would lye ahead.

It really didn't matter if he was going to hurt Alice or not, because he knew that even this would hurt her. Boris knew, even if she wasn't aware herself, that she was much closer to the knight than to him. He was sure that if he had asked her she would wave her hand, laughing, and tell him he was much closer to her. But, in this situation, he didn't care, because he was going to stop him—stop him from hurting Alice anymore than he already had.

"Here, Kittykitty," the knave taunted, with a smirk.

The dark side of the world in Wonderland, even he was hesitant in showing Alice this. But, what needed to be done would have to be done. He wouldn't spoil the girl like Julius would.

Ace tightened his grip on his sword, positioning his feet to charge with only the slightest movement. Boris' ears twitched, signaling that he had heard the small movement, forcing the knight to have to make his move sooner than he had anticipated. "I take that back, KittyCat—you are quite interesting." He smirked at the roleholder, his blood lust slipping though his barrier, making it even more obvious of the airs he puts on.

Boris took the chance and quickly grabbed for his gun. He grabbed Alice with one hand and used the other to shoot. The bullet flew quickly in the air—turning and spinning as a football would when thrown—straight for the knight.

It took him by surprise that the cat would do something so daring, that it made him able to move for the slightest of seconds. Those seconds, however, made all the difference, because when he went to move his head out of the way, it was only a second too slow. The bullet grazed his cheek. A little blood oozed out of the now open wound.

"Ace!" Alice screamed, pushing Boris' arm off her.

"See? Even now Alice can only think of me because I'm hurt. Nativity like yours is lethal to you here."

The knight charged forward with a smile on his face. His foot landed in front of one of Boris' feet as he tried to back away from the charging man. However, it was too late. As Ace swung his sword, Boris swung his gun. The sword sliced through Boris' skin and stuck itself three inches into his side. Blood splashed out form the sides of the sword where the cut was deeper.

Ace flinched, releasing the grip of his sword and grabbing his arm. He pulled his sleeve up to reveal that now a large black bruise filled his arm where the other roleholder's gun had struck him. The pain felt as if he had broken a bone, but it made him laugh. "What a witty little cat," he chuckled.

Boris clutched his bleeding wound, the blood-stained sword lying beside him. Ace bent down and grabbed his sword, ignoring the pain he felt in his arm. "Don't worry," he began, as he started to rise up, "I didn't kill him. But, Alice, this is Wonderland—a dark and cruel place that you can't change." Without looking back, he, along with his sword, headed west toward the direction of the castle.

Her legs wobbled, then gave way as her body collapsed onto them. "...I know," she whispered, looking terrified at the man lying on the ground, looking as if he was dead from the amount of blood that surrounded him. "I know... I know!"

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Julius put the phone down and sighed. Quietly he walked over to the girl who was sitting on the couch, wrapped fully in a large, white blanket. "He's fine. The wounds appeared bad, but they weren't as severe as we first thought, though he did receive a lot of damage." He stopped and glanced down at the girl—motionless with no sparks of life illuminating her blue-pearl eyes. Without knowing what to say, he looked into the window she was staring into also.

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"You should let her see the darker side of the world once in a while... But, you see, I can't do that... She's just a kid... You understand what it means, right?"

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Julius sighed. He knew what would happen all along, but he didn't try to stop him. Indeed, the foreigner called Alice Liddell was simply just a child, but she was a strong child, able to endure so much. "Come, it's time for bed."

Alice looked over at him. Though her eyes remained emotionless, her voice had returned to normal form the mute status it had taken. "But, Julius, it's still only evening," she protested, pointing to the orange colored sky with light shades of pink and purple clouds. "I'm not a little kid that needs to go to sleep early." She smiled slightly. "I'm fine. It was a shock seeing Boris like that, but I feel like I've been use to this for awhile now. He's safe, so it doesn't really matter anymore."

"No—"

"I'm going to go take a look around outside for a bit." She jumped off the couch and let the blanket slide off of her, putting back on the couch. "See you in a bit, Julius." She waved and ran out the room.

"A—" He stopped himself, knowing better. "Come back safely."

She ran until she reached a flight of stairs—part going down, part going up. She wasn't positive it was him, but she know she had seen a dim shadow cast from above the tower. With a quick breath she began her climb to the top of the tower.

The stairs, without any light, were dark and damp—the girl feeling mold stained into the wall from no one ever using the passageway. Finally, after what seemed like hours and many, many stairs, only a few stairs up from where she was, was a light shining in through cracks in an old wooden door.

Alice pushed the door open, and what she saw left her speechless and in wonder.

Ace sat between two small ridges of the tower wall, his face showing a saddened smile.. The glowing orange sky reflected off his face, and it was then that she realized how young he really looked. The blood-stained cloak made him seem distant, but in this case, she was already use to it. One minute he would be there the next he would be gone.

He looked over at the girl standing mute in the doorway. "Alice isn't scared?" he asked, with a slight unamused chuckle. Just like her, his eyes seemed to be lost somewhere far way.

"No," she replied firmly and without hesitation. "No, Ace, I'm not scared. Rather, I'm the one feeling sorry for you."

He quietly sighed, looking her up and down. "You're... really not a kid." He jumped down off of the small ridges and walked over to the girl.

She puffed her face up in anger. "I told you that I'm not a kid!"

Ace bent down, his hands grabbing both of Alice's arms. His lips brushed her ears, and as he spoke his breaths breathed down her neck. "Say, if Alice isn't a kid, then what is Alice? Because you're not an adult by far."

The foreigner tried to struggle free of his grip, but it was no use.

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"Come back safely."

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"Ace, let go of me."

"But you don't want it, do you?"

She starred at him; he was staring at her as well. "I told Julius I would come back safe," she replied.

"What do you think I'm going to do to you?"

The girl paused for a second to think. "Anything if you wanted to."

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"And I want Alice."