Sorry about the previous chapter. I don't like leaving off with cliffhangers. Oh well. Here's the chapter you've all been waiting for! Enjoy! (OMG I LUV U GAIZ SO MUCH- UR REVIEWS R MAKING ME BLUSH)

Commencing: Fanfiction: Wonderland: Chapter 7


Chapter 7

This went against everything I had been taught. The Mad Hatter and the Cheshire had trained me back when I was still a new recruit. The Mad Hatter was in charge of my history lessons (yes, I took history lessons, though it was mostly because I wanted to see more of them). The Mad hatter had taught me that the Queen of Hearts had started the War between Wonderland and the Order of Hearts because he disagreed with the White Rabbit's belief that the broken world needed a cold and strict monarchy in order for it to survive.

But the White Rabbit murdering the Queen's family… Did this mean I had been fighting on the wrong side this entire time? So what have I been fighting for this entire time? I was working for a villain who had slaughtered, maimed, poisoned and tortured his way to the very top, and was now training innocent, clueless people to become as heartless and cruel as he was…

"But…" I stammer, desperate to find a reason to prove that the Duchess is lying. "You're the Queen's brother! The White Rabbit didn't kill you! So… You're probably just lying, right? There's no way that…" I lose my confidence as I realize that my suspicions were true about the White Rabbit. "You could…"

"We're not blood brothers," The Duchess says. "Ace and I were abandoned by our parents, and we lived, fought and played together until we were ten. Then we met Luffy, who snuck out of his family's house every day to come and follow us on whatever it was we were doing. We tried getting rid of him but he stuck like tape. He eventually left his family, deciding that the life of loners and rogues was his life and joined us. We grew so close that we swore an oath to become brothers and protect one another forever."

"SHUT UP!" I feel hollow and I clamp my hands over my ears, trying to shut out the pain of the truth. I won't accept this! I never will! I assassinated all those people for the good of Wonderland, not for a psychopathic, sociopathic murderer! It was all for the good of the world… Those people needed to die…

There's a sudden, loud piercing noise that fills my head, drowning out everything else. My brain feels like it's swelling inside my skull and it hurts so much and I vaguely hear the Duchess yelling:

"It's the drug! It's reacting to your negative emotions! Block it out! Don't let it-"

"STOP!" I crumple, clutching my head and I'm screaming, trying to forget all about the pain and the truth and everything and it's almost relieving when I feel the world dim as the drug takes over.

Immediately, the pain stops-though there's still an odd ringing in my ears, and I exhale, managing to sit up.

"You're lying," I say.

The Duchess meets my gaze. "No, I'm not. I'm not trying to turn you against Wonderland. It's just, the truth. Some people are okay with it, some people not. It is just, merely, the truth. You don't have to believe me if you don't want to."

"Lies!" I don't realize it, but The Vorpal Sword is already in my hand, loaded and pointing at the Duchess. "You're lying!"

The boy eyes the gun. "No, I'm not."

"Shut UP!" The gun goes off and he leaps to his feet, avoiding the bullet. He pulls a metal pole from his back and points it at me, grinning. "Come on and I'll prove to you that I'm telling the truth!"

I watch from the darkness of my mind, distraught and confused as my drugged body takes a step forwards and fires shots at the Duchess. The boy deflects some of them before blurring and disappearing. Then there's a large weight that lands on my back, pushing me downwards and pressing my face down into the ground.

The sudden jolt and impact knocks me back to my senses and the Duchess crows triumphantly from his position on my back.

"The almighty Sabo has conquered the monster Alice!"

I can't help but smile as I flip him over and kick him away as he throws himself at me again.

"Yield, thy fearful monster!"

I catch him as he overshoots a bit and fling him up into the air. As I catch him, I frown slightly as I notice that he is missing his right front tooth. Weird. In the pictures I've seen of the Duchess, he was missing his left tooth, not his right one. Unless…

"Ah," says the Duchess when he sees me looking. "I didn't think you'd notice."

"Duchess," I say. "Where's your counterpart?"

"Dead," he says.

"What?!"

"After the war started, both Law and Luffy wanted the original Sabo on their side, since he was a skilled strategist and an amazing fighter. The only person who could barely best him was Ace, and Ace went with Luffy. Naturally. Ace had always hated Law for being so cold and 'boring', as he put it, but I… I didn't want any of this to happen. I'm like the Caterpillar: I just wanted peace. But the original Sabo… he knew that if he chose a side, the opposition would hate him forever. He couldn't bear knowing that either way, he was going to lose his friends. It was painful, and horrible. He was torn in the middle."

"So what did he do?"

"He hung himself."

"And what about them?"

"Luffy and Ace were distraught. Law didn't care because he said that he had found better recruits. That really pissed both of them off, but they didn't want to fight anymore since it was because of the War that Sabo killed himself."

"So why are they still fighting?"

"Law wouldn't let them. He bombarded them day and night, killed all the innocent people who crossed his path-he did anything to get on their nerves…

"And then what?"

"And then Luffy snapped. The blood and gore and pain were too much for his poor mind. He was already unstable with the death of his family, but one time Law captured him as an experiment and killed people and made him watch, and then forced the weapons into his hand and used the Dodo's skills to manipulate the poor boy. It was an experiment to see if he could create an entirely different personality through mind torture and stress.

"And it was too much. Law kept Luffy as a hostage for over half a year, breaking into his mind every single day, and then Luffy snapped. His mind broke and a new personality emerged- one that was created by all the torturing and killing Luffy was made to do.

"The new Luffy was sadistic and cruel, cold and ruthless- Law had succeeded. The Queen of Hearts sealed away the painful memories and took control, leaving the King of Hearts to recover. And so Luffy broke out of his cell, massacred everyone present-save for the Dodo and Law, and when he strode out of the torture chamber, he swore to kill Law and win the war. He swore that he was going to kill every agent of Wonderland, and burn the organization to the ground."

"…"

"Luffy went back to Ace, and Ace was very happy to see him. But he knew something was wrong the moment Luffy walked through the door. His eyes, I remember him telling me. They were stained red with blood. His fists were dripping were the red liquid and he had a maniacal grin on his face. And Luffy was never the same since."

"The same?"

"Then they raided the castle Luffy was held captive, drove Law and the Dodo out, dumped the corpses onto the field of pikes that surrounded it and claimed it as their own. That is now the Headquarters of the Order of Hearts."

"…. I-I don't know what to say…." I quickly take out a cigarette as I feel the drug begin to push at my mind and light it, inhaling the nicotine to calm myself.

"Then don't. Just listen. Ace managed to contact the Red Queen- Luffy's old mentor and the reason why he has that small scar under his left eye, and the Red Queen brought a Looking Glass. Well, originally it was for Luffy, to revert him back to normal but Luffy refused to. Instead, it was used on my dead body, and here I am. But because Sabo was fourteen years old when he killed himself, I'm stuck in this state. Kinda sad, 'cause now I can't get chicks.

"Luffy learnt his lesson, and he allowed me to choose neutrality. Anything else you want to know?"

"Yes, in fact. Those… experiments…"

"Ah, right. The White Rabbit experiments on people. He wants more powerful recruits. Some people, like you or me, are just strong enough to avoid surgical altercation. Others aren't so lucky. Just think mutants.

"He spends years crafting the perfect nano-byte and plants it into the person's bloodstream, and it affects their cells, mutating and altering them so that the person is giving special abilities. Sometimes, when the nano-bytes have to alter the physical form, the patients are put into a long, plastic tube filled with the obedience drug that nulls the pain of altercation.

" Luffy and Ace were the first of his experiments, and Law spent more than two years crafting their nano-bytes. Ace has the ability to become and manipulate fire while Luffy can stretch and bend his body like rubber. Trust me, Alice, you don't want to have those nano-bytes. It's a horribly painful process.

"Ah, right, Alice. I haven't told you about why Law killed Luffy's family."

"….."

"I suppose you don't want to know, but I'll tell you anyway.

"Well, let's start with how we met Law.

"He was an outcast, like Ace and I, and one day while sneaking around in the city, we came across him. He was a thief like us, and a really good one too. This was before Luffy joined us, and he was the original third member. He left after a while, to set off on his own, and then Luffy came along.

"Now, a few years after that, Luffy had already left his family by then, Law came back. He had studied under Vegapunk, one of the greatest scientists of all time, and he got this idea where he could mutate your cells so they gave you special powers. Ace and Luffy loved, obviously, but I wasn't very sure.

"And you know, they undertook surgery, and it came out successful.

"It was a miracle. I didn't know how they survived. By the way Law talked, it sounded like it was just an idea he thought up and wanted to try out. I thought he was new to it, so I didn't like it. But the surgery went surprisingly well, and Luffy and Ace became the two of the first mutants. I didn't know why, and Law himself said this was his first time doing it, so it really was a miracle.

"I let it go, but I should've known from the start that Law was hiding something."

I feel my face go pale. "Oh, no…. He didn't…."

"He did.

"One day, Law invited us to spend the night at his house. He gave us a tour around his laboratory, showing us inventions and experiments. It was the most fun I'd had in ages, but then Luffy came across a small, locked room. Law changed character immediately, and he practically screamed at us to stay away.

"But we wanted to know. So at around 1:00 am, when Law was asleep, we crept down to the lab and opened the door.

"And we found bodies. Mutated bodies, failed experiments of Law. Law had tested the nano-bytes on other people before applying it to Ace and Luffy. If you think of it in another way, Law had tested it for years to perfect it for Ace and Luffy, but he had murdered innocent people.

"Luffy got really scared and Ace was furious. He stomped right up to Law and yelled at him. Law wouldn't confess, and Ace got really, really pissed.

"And then, with his new powers, Ace burned down the house and the laboratory, and the three of us escaped. We thought Law died, but then a few days later we saw him again. This time he ignored us, and the next day, we saw him again while sitting on one of the trees in the forest. He stopped in front of us, climbed up to the branch Luffy was on, and he whispered something to the poor boy. Luffy started shaking and screaming, and Law left.

"Luffy later told us that Law said he was going to kill his family.

"We rushed to his house, but it was too late. Law had done his work and was nowhere to be seen, and Luffy changed forever. He changed from happy-go-lucky to determined and wrathful. Luffy told us that Law wanted a full-out war, and he said Law was going to get it. Everyone listened to the apprentice of the greatest scientist ever, so they listened. The world was already pretty broken back then, so it took no biggie to control the forces. By the time Luffy and Ace formed the rebel group, Wonderland had already taken over half of the world, but they kept on fighting.

"And you know the rest, Alice."

"…" I let the Duchess go and sit down and bury my face in my hands. "I can't believe the White Rabbit…"

"I know," the Duchess says. "And I'm sorry you had to find out this way. Many Wonderland Agents know all of this, and they chose the escape way." He glanced at the green mushroom that was lying on the ground. "They swore loyalty to the White Rabbit and took the drug voluntarily- the question is, Alice, what will you choose?" He bends down and picks up the mushroom, handing it to me before walking away.

When he reaches the edge of the clearing, he pauses and looks back at me. "I'll be seeing you, Alice. And remember, it's your choice." He turns around and walks towards the small hut. I'm left alone, holding the green mushroom and pondering over the Duchess' words. I really did just get a life lesson from a fourteen year-old.

I look at the mushroom. I can either keep it and remain immune to the drug, or throw it away and become the White Rabbit's slave. But then again, the drug erases all memories of horror, pain or grief, and I don't want to go on living, knowing that my entire life has been a lie.

Then I turn and walk away, throwing the green mushroom over my shoulder as I trudge away in the opposite direction.


End of Chapter 7


Nothing much to say. Reviews please!

-Veratican Justice