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CHAPTER 4: DECISIONS

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Julius' clock seemed to tick harder for a second and he felt anxiousness butterflies in his stomach but at the same time he felt some kind of unknown relief at her presence. He could hardly believe that this person in front of him existed. A second foreigner… he could have never guessed it; much less that this person had somehow gotten such power over his role but it seemed to be the case. Which was implausible. No roleholder would ever make a deal by their role without an utterly extreme cause and for Wonderland to accept and validate such thing, like a deal regarding the clocks, was inconceivable.

Her olive green eyes were deep and intriguing and fixated on him. Her hair had multiple shades of blonde that framed her pale skin and her expression was unnaturally impassive. A second alter she turned her gaze away with something that could have passed as disappointment.

Quite attentive, Ace grinned.–" And where did you stayed last time Miss mercenary? If you have such deal with the clock master then you two were close, right?"- The knight dug into the obvious and Julius understood where the knight was going with this.

"I also have a deal with you Ace. Two in fact. But I never used it…"- She vaguely said, clearly not about to share the truth. -"Since you don't remember it doesn't matter. "- After having proof that even looking at her didn't immediately triggered any memories she needed need to think things more carefully .- "Where I stayed? Everywhere and nowhere. But now that you mention it…"- She once again turned away to leave. - "I shall be on my way. I'll come back later to settle the details."

She walked towards the door. But Ace grabbed the braid that ran from the base of her nape and reached below her butt, and tugged on it. In a second, she turned around as she unleashed one of the blackened hidden blades in her forearms and did an upper cut. Ace let go of her braid, having noticed that there was a something like a wire inside it, and evaded with a bright smile on his face. He hadn't expected that. "Wow! That was nice! Maybe we can practice later. " :D –Ace was quite happy. She did have more skills than merely evading.

She slowly sheathed her blade. Shifting her eyes between the door and the roleholders or the window, calculating scape routes. – "Sorry. But I'm kinda on edge right now..."- She managed to sound calm - "Please don't touch me."

Julius saw the exchange this with initial confusion, but he understood that this was probably very hard for her. Foreigners could have a hard in time in Wonderland because of all they lost in their world, and she had lost things twice. Once from her world and then when everyone forgot. Still, he felt as if this was familiar but also as if there was something wrong besides what was obvious. He just couldn't put the finger on what. -"It's too late to go out. You can stay here"

Aria considered her options but didn't look at the guys when she finally nodded. "Alright. I'll stay for the night. I'll be taking a bath in the spare room. "- and with that she went away and towards the stairs with a slow and obviously tired pace.

Both guys stood there, and when Ace considered she was out of hearing range, he turned to Julius with excitement in his voice. – "This is so mysterious and exiting. A mysterious lady full of secrets. Should I kill her before she orders you around or would you like a foreigner to do that+ " X)

"Don't be ridiculous"- Yet he did though about it. Someone with such power was dangerous… but why hadn't she used it immediately? - "It's obvious that she is hiding it and is not willing to tell us what really happened."- Julius said the obvious to no one in particular and then he finally figured what was the "off" vibe he had been feeling. – "She was too calm. Too controlled and rational about this."

"She's probably in shock or something"- Ace dismissed it and then he perked up at another detail -" I wonder how far has her game gone; now that Alice is already taken…"

Julius didn't need to answer. They knew what that meant. This was another round and another chance.

Up in the bathroom, Aria was already submerging her tired body into the hot water. A luxury she hadn't got in a long while.

She had doubted staying for the night. After all, roleholders were the biggest treat for her and right now they didn't even remember her; and if they didn't then her own faction, "The lullaby", wouldn't remember her either. Staying had been a calculated risk. Julius knew of her having the power to control how, when, where and any detail regarding clocks. That was very dangerous. He could decide easily that she needed to be eliminated before she decided that clocks couldn't be repaired at all… something that already happened once. And then, if Ace decided to kill her she stood no chance.

("Maybe it's good that they don't remember after all..")

Yes, it was dangerous staying anywhere near them, but the truth was that she was utterly tired and still hurt, barely at 40% of her capacities. She didn't know how safe were her safe hidden lairs or if they even remained. She didn't know if anything had changed or how much, and she would not be able to defend herself properly if engaged.

She held her breath and submerged under the water; she came out a few seconds later. This situation wasn't on any of her plans or projections and that leaved her confused as to what to do. She concentrated on cleaning herself and on checking on her wounds. Most were only blunt hits thanks to her armor, but she also had some deep and long gashes where the connective needles of the suit had being pressed to much on her flesh from the hardest impacts. None would cause a permanent handicap, but using the suits abilities would hurt for a while and her own body's responses would be less affective.

Aria sighed. Despite the hot bath, she was too tense and that wasn't good. She needed to calm down and analyze things in a rational way. Her specialty was thinking and applying knowledge, so that's what she needed to do. Identify the factors on this situation and plan according to them. However, she had very limited info on those factors.

Her hands skillfully undid, cleaned and braided her hair over the wire again. She was once again on step zero as when she arrived first into Wonderland, right?

"No."- She shook her head and her fingers tapped on the edge of the tube as she processed this. The situation had changed and so had she.

(" But how?")

First she though on the situation. No one remembered her. Which meant that all her alliances, jobs and truces had become null and most likely everyone would see her as a treat; and she truly was one but no one knew just how much, while she already knew how everything worked, everyone's strengths and weaknesses, their resources and their behaviors. Mostly because they had hired her for high administrative management and improvement in basically all the territories. That set the surprise and knowledge factors highly in her favor.

Then came her own resources. She was carrying all she had, but she had hidden more of her stuff in some secret places along with a bunch of money. It was possible that those were still intact. But those resources were meager. Her intel was her triumph card. The amount of info and knowledge she had was monstrous. All those years of formal education and science geekiness had paid off, and she could always count on the digitized libraries she carried in her hard drives. And that was just for her own world. She had discovered and unraveled a lot of how Wonderland work in a scientific way. She knew what the game was really about and how, what was the real value of a foreigner, how rules affected the roleholders and territories, how to meddle and redirect mana energy… she knew too much. And that, although an advantage, was a danger to herself. If anyone knew just how much she knew, she would be targeted for the info and then would surely be targeted in order to be taken advantage off and use her as the power source she was because of being a foreigner. In that sense, keeping her anonymity was the safest for her.

There was also to consider that the rules still applied no matter what. As long as she didn't attack anyone directly she was considered an official neutral force. And she still had an undeniable request from all of their roles and could use it in case of real necessity. A deal she had gotten when they sent her into a suicidal mission to get Alice back or out of the way. Something she had done by getting her out of the conflict zone and sending her straight to the prison. She smiled lightly, thinking that her dear and only friend, Joker, had probably gotten some fun with that. Then she frowned. He probably didn't remember her either.

She got out of the tube and began drying herself.

In any case, if they learned that they owned her something so big, something that could potentially be world ending serious, like what she had done with Julius, they would surely try to eliminate her before she did anything. Sure, she could voice things or transmit them neurally to the processor and speaker or her suit and really fuck everything up in a second; but that was not her intention.

She went stiff for a second. What if they remember some of the worst parts of what she had done or caused but not all the interactions they had with her!? Under that assumption she was fried.

There was also the game of hearts to consider. Her game had been going on for a while and because she was unable to love on a biological scale, it would go on probably until she died. But if the roleholders learned that the game going on around was her's and not Alice's then they would center their attention on her and the worst possibilities could happen.

She just couldn't risk it. Not until knowing what had happened and decided on what to do. She would have to use Julius and Ace as test subjects to see if constant exposure to her made them remember her, if memories came back or the amnesia was permanent. She would also get time to research how had it been that a "storm" caused them to lose the memories, all while she pondered on a longer plan. She was unable to go back to her world anymore and would never be part of this. So for now it was just survival.

….

The next morning Aria was already in the kitchen preparing coffee when Julius came down. She was wearing just a very tight t-shirt and small hot-pants shorts, both were fitting perfectly over her body and leaved practically nothing to the imagination.

The first thing Julius did was stare with wide eyes in her direction. She caught his gaze and immediately jumped to the side to evade any possible attack before noticing that nothing was behind her.

"Why did you did that!?" – Julius was astonished by her reaction.

Aria face palmed. This was a déjà vu- "Once again… If someone in front of you looks like there's something behind you, you don´t stupidly turn around to see what will kill you. You get out of the way." – She explained in a dumb tone as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, but she had now figured what he was gonna say – "You may not remember it but we already passed through this. So I will save us time and get on with this briefing. My clothes are not indecent and they are the only thing I have besides my suit. I do know how to cook and last time my coffee got 87 points."

To Julius was no doubt anymore that he used to know her. The only person he had taken the bother to rate the coffee was Alice. If this girl received a grade, and such good one as 87, then there was no doubt that she had gotten to know him in the past. Before he could say anything in retort she continued.

"And don't even start comparing me to Alice. That's annoying Mr. god of life. I am not your average foreigner. "- Aria knew that he didn't remember, so she had to at least mention things again to avoid getting annoyed later.

"And that is something to worry about or something to enjoy?"- Ace appeared in the doorway and took a seat as if this was normal. However his eyes got fixed on her big chest.

Julius took a seat besides the knight.

"Good thing you are here Ace, that way I don't need to repeat things."- She served 3 cups of coffee and passed them theirs before taking her's. Her expression changed a few times as if she wasn´t sure which expression was appropriate, in the end it settled into awkwardness. – "There are various things. First… I will not tell you what happened. If you don't remember that's your issue and it might be for the best."- She looked at Julius harshly and then calmly to Ace-"I know you will try to compare me to Alice, but you must understand how fundamentally different I am from her… " – She returned her attention to Julius, silently making him shut up and listen –" She managed to survive only because someone was always there to help her. A burden to others."- She said it as a fact without any ill intent- "Compared to her I am stronger, way more capable and far more resilient and self-sufficient. But compared to her I am also far more vulnerable. I know it perfectly well, no one understands it better than me." –Her gaze hardened -" I´m far more vulnerable because I don´t have anyone to help me, I have nothing but my own resources. I can´t trust anyone and I doubt anyone can trust me. I can and will only depend on myself"-Her grip on her coffee mug had gotten stronger and her eyes tingled with indescribable burning cold emotion- "I know I will never fit anywhere, It had always been that way and I. don´t .care. You don't remember me or anything and I may know you well, but I am well aware that to you I'm nothing that a weird stranger right now. I will do my work as I state it. But don't count on anything else."- Then she took a quick sip of her coffee- "Also I'd like to remain anonymous. Anyone knowing about a second foreigner for the time being would be detrimental to my health."

Both guys were surprised, Ace was more amused than anything while Julius was confused as to why she would be thinking that her situation was so dire. He was beginning to really want to know what the hell had happened to make a foreigner act like this. Had it been because of something they did?

Ace smiled an put his arm over Julius's - " That's all right Miss Mercenary foreigner. You can be our own little secret."- He was apparently quite pleased with the situation. He happily took a sip of his coffee.- "But of course to keep it that secret better you should stay at the tower."

Aria took another sip of the hot beverage and considered it. -"Fine. A least until I finish helping with my pile of clocks or until I need to"

Julius wondered what was really going on.

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