Mable: Sorry that this took so long! I meant to post it this morning and got a little lazy and distracted. Anyway, I don't own 9, Enjoy!

The Sanest in the Asylum

Chapter Ten: The Penalty for Sanity

The forest they were in was certainly closer to the Heart Kingdom than they had expected and Six felt himself grow cold as they saw the deep crimson walls of the kingdom appear. He only struggled a bit and found that it was hopeless against the grip of the Guard who was much larger and stronger than Six. Then again, Eight always had been stronger than Six, especially when he was at the end or his rope. Which he was now after hunting Six for so long without being fruitful.

Six didn't exactly want to look at Eight at the moment, less he look absolutely pitiful in the optics of the larger and that would only add insult to injury. As they entered into the red Kingdom Six's optics tried to study the area. It wasn't like the White Kingdom; it was mostly an enormous castle and instead of a thriving town outside the walls there was merely a set of barracks for the guards themselves. It unnerved Six as he started to count the sheer amount of card guards that were all working under the one who had taken Two and now wanted him as well.

Seven and Five were clearly distressed as well. Their wrists were bound, but at least they were allowed to walk on their own while Six was carried around under Eight's arm like a bag of rocks. The interior of the King of Hearts' castle was lined with guards and red drapery that hung to the floor below. Large windows of stained glass lined the various halls and corridors. An enormous castle that only lacked actual occupants other than the guards themselves. It was very unnerving and as they entered the main hall the smaller felt his nerves begin to overtake.

The throne room was put together in a much different way that the White Kingdom's was as well. The throne was on a pedestal and along the walls were places where a court could sit, though there was no court. The entire room appeared to be more like a courtroom than an actual throne room and the shades of red tended to make Six's pulse race in an way that he could not recognize. Then he saw the King of Hearts himself, sitting upon his crimson throne, wearing a towering crown and staring down at him with a belittling gaze.

Though Six had always expected it to be One so he was not too surprised to see those slanted optics staring down at him. He did feel just as unnerved as if it was some majestic beast perched on a throne of metal and was abruptly dropped onto his feet. Even though he was unbound he knew that he couldn't escape and watched Eight wander over beside the pedestal where a chair waited for him. It was more of a stool and nothing compared to the throne, but it clearly pointed out that One held Eight at some significance.

Five and Seven were lined beside Six and he glanced to see them. The Hatter had a fearful look and past him Seven held a look of strength and anger at the current events. The King stared down upon the three before speaking, "Which one of you, you vagabonds, is the messenger?" Six didn't even have time to speak before Eight spoke, "It's the striped one, Boss. The one wearing the dress." The last comment was said with clear confusion as Eight suddenly seemed to recognize that the smaller was wearing odd clothing.

The King didn't exactly care what he looked like and instead beckoned him to come closer. The short slowly crept forward and was stared down. It was only then, though, that he noticed something strange. As he looked at One he noticed odd things about him. His optics were more slanted than usual and his fabric was a grayish color. Something was clearly off with the male and Six noticed, his mismatched optics widening in recognition. "How dare you get involved in matters that do not concern you." He began to scold and Seven suddenly spoke.

"In my kingdom, we are immediately concerned when Stitchpunks begin to go kidnapped." He glanced to her and responded, "The White Queen herself. I should be honored, but I am not, instead I am greatly offended that you would dare rival my Kingdom's authority when I have mercifully left your own be for so long." Then he looked back to the group as a whole, "If there is one thing that I cannot and will not allow it is treason." He firmly stated and Five willed himself to speak, not wanting to make things worse but having to speak, "Where's… Where's Two?"

"The White Rabbit is none of your concern." The King insisted and Six suddenly came to his own conclusion to this strange behavior, "You're not One." There was a short pause before the King asked quietly, "Excuse me?" The striped one stood tall and repeated, "You're not One and you're not the King of Hearts. You're something else. You're not them." Both Five and Seven were staring at Six in confusion, the guards in the back of the room didn't seem to understand, and One himself was absolutely silent.

It was unnerving, but Six knew he was right, he knew this thing before him was not One. Then the King of Hearts spoke with a quiet, gritty voice.

"Off with his head."

Six's mismatched optics widened incredibly and even Eight did a double take, "What?" The King lost his temper, "Off with their heads! All of them!" The guards came forward to take ahold of the dolls. Seven pulled against them while Five nearly pleaded, "Wait, no! No- you can't!" The King of Hearts was fully convinced that this was what he wanted. "Throw those two into the dungeons." He beckoned to Seven and Five before turning to Eight, "And take him," He pointed to Six at this point, "out of my sight until the executioner arrives."

Eight actually looked absolutely taken aback and Six looked to him desperately in hopes that he would rebel. "Eight, no, please, don't listen to it, don't listen…" Eventually the Guard exhaled and pulled his helmet down over his face again, "Got it, Boss." He strode forward and the striped male could only stare as he grabbed ahold of his arm in a tight grip. He didn't even bother bounding the small one because he easily overpowered him. The Artist didn't allow his legs to move and soon was being forcibly dragged along by the Guard who merely grunted, "Don't make this more difficult than you already have."

"Six!" Seven called out to the Artist before turning on the King, "You're mad!" The King of Hearts scoffed, "We are all mad here." He dismissed before he turned away to head down the pedestal's stairs before disappearing through a curtained doorway behind said throne. The Artist watched him leave before turning to his companions, "Five, Seven!" He called, now practically laying limp on the floor as he was being dragged along the carpet, kicking around as he called out, "It's a lie! He's not One! You have to find Two!" Then he was out of sight.

The next thing Seven and Five knew they were taken to the dungeons on the far side of the castle and soon sharing a cell. The inside was nice enough as cells went, the King of Heart being too precise about his Kingdom's appearance to even be willing to leave a dungeon looking in poor condition. The cells were all empty and filled with nothing except a single bench. High above was a barred window that allowed sunlight to filter through, but it was too small to even give the illusion to being an escape for them.

The Hatter dropped onto the bench with dread, "What are we going to do?" He asked before adding in, "Creator, what if he's already beheaded Two?" The White Queen insisted, "Two's too charismatic. He would have been able to talk the King out of anything. He's probably being kept in another room, but someone acting that off the handle will not admit that to us." The Hatter nodded, top hat bobbing, "You're right… Two always said that he could get the good side out of One… I hope he's alright, and Six."

Seven sat down beside Five and rested an arm around his as he let his face drop into his hands. This was the last place she expected to be and the last place she wanted to be. Helplessly trapped inside a cage, dressed in bird armor, she found it too ironic that she was becoming a caged bird. But she had to be strong; just like she was with her people, she had to be strong for Five who was beginning to falter, and merely closed her optics as she waited for something, anything, to come.

"How are we going to get in there?" The March Hare asked himself as he stared at the crimson dyed stronghold before them. The entrance doors were wide open and there were hundreds of guards wandering around inside. It was obviously dangerous and he turned back to the three with him, "I don't think we can climb the wall." He pointed out before Child spoke, "I can. If you remember right I am a freak of nature." He explained flatly and Nine smiled a little, "Haven't forgot, actually. Maybe we should try climbing the wall beside the actual castle and bypassing these guard huts in the front."

He looked over at the wall before adding in, "We need to make a distraction." At that moment, Dee and Dum perked and made chattering noises as they volunteered themselves for the act. "Are you sure?" Nine insisted and they both nodded before he exhaled, "Okay… Don't go inside too far and we'll head back to the wall that's closer to the castle and hop over." Child raised a brow, "When you say 'hop'-?" He was cut off by the Tweedles dashing off towards the front entrance of the kingdom while Nine and Child hurried along the wall.

Only a few minutes later they were met by a loud, shrill, shrieking noise vibrating through the air. "What in the- what was that, a banshee?!" The Jabberwock questioned, ducking down and looking around as though he was awaiting something to appear. Nine shrugged it off, "It's just the twins. That should get most of the Guards moving in that direction." The other just stared at him in disbelief before the March Hare beckoned, "Come on. I think I see something up ahead."

Indeed, he did see something. A random door was situated in the large and thick wall, made of metal and strangely out of place. "Why would someone put a door- Let's just consider ourselves lucky." Nine insisted before looking at the door, "It's locked. We'll need to find a way to get it open." Now Child stepped forward, drawing the Vorpal Sword free and wedging it into the crack of the door before beginning to pry. He was clearly using all his strength, but was failing, and eventually started trying to knock it open more aggressively, with his more Machine-like parts.

Nine decided that the wiser solution was to find a rock and try to break the knob off when suddenly the door slammed open, sending Child to the ground on the other side. The March Hare eagerly approached the door, "How'd you get it open?" he asked in excitement only to receive a clear glare from the Jabberwock, "I turned the doorknob." He explained with an annoyed growl as he stood and brushed his front off, "You said it was locked." Nine felt a bit embarrassed and retorted, "Why didn't you try it?" there was a short spell of bickering between the two.

Child eventually stopped talking to Nine completely while the March Hare stormed through the doorway and into the castle grounds. Oddly enough, they were let into some section of a garden, and could see some sort of hedge maze nearby. That wasn't their goal; their goal was to make it inside of the castle and the two hid in the lines of rose bushes. The Jabberwock noticed that some of the roses were dripping red and pointed it out, "If this is some sort of blood…" He began as he touched the mixture; Nine giving a weird face in response of the other actually touching it.

It got even weirder when Child tasted it and Nine's optics opened wide; the last thing Nine wanted was for the other to get a bloodlust and start hunting down the creatures in Wonderland that actually could bleed. Thankfully he announced, "It's… paint. He literally painted roses." The two stood there contemplating the oddity of the situation before Nine spoke, "I heard rumors that the roses were accidently white so they painted them red, but why did they paint them again?" The Jabberwock answered, "Bad luck." Then began to search out a door to get inside.

The March Hare never even received a full answer of why the roses were bad luck or even a remark on how Child knew, but instead was met with a second of alarm as thundering footsteps passed. He recognized them as belonging to the King of Heart's main guard, he had certainly heard them enough before. Child hurried back over and got ahold of Nine's arm, "There's a way inside. Let's make haste before he comes back." The March Hare snapped into realization and the two hurried to another entranceway.

They were large, regal doors, like what would be found in the front of the castle which suggested that this was one of the main entrances. Nine pointed this out, "There might be other guards coming through here. We have to hurry." Then he pushed the door open and dipped inside. The back foyer led to two sets of stairs that led to a second floor where there was an open second floor. Neither seemed to actually think that they needed to climb to the second floor. It was believed by both that the king would have, by now, put them somewhere much different.

"Where would he put the dungeons? In the basement?" The Jabberwock seemed hesitant, "Either on the first floor or there. I prefer having mine on the first floor as I keep my supplies in the cellar." Nine blinked, "Why do you have a-?" He cut off as he heard movement from the stairs. They immediately headed down one of the halls and began to search. Thankfully halfway through their search something began to happen outside and most of the guards could be heard taking outside.

While Nine was jumpy enough to hide behind whatever he could find he had a feeling it was because of his Rabbit reflexes as Child didn't hide once. Though, he has a feeling it could also be because Child frequently refused to do things that were necessary just because he didn't feel like it. Nine was just about ready to point out that they could be seen they managed to stumble over what looked like a differently designed wing. The overwhelmingly red décor had receded and there stood three doors of heavy iron.

There were drag marks along the floor outside two of them which suggested that they were the ones that were opened most recently. They hurried inside to see that it was, in fact, the dungeon. "Not much of a dungeon." Child retorted and Nine pointed out, "It doesn't look like it's used a lot." The other recited, "Of course it's not. The King has too tight of a hold for anyone to turn against him." That was when the March Hare put his arm back to stop and silence him as he heard speaking up ahead. His optics landed on the thick bars of a cell and he rushed forward, "Guys?"

He looked inside and immediately gaped. Either because Seven and Five were there, sitting inside, completely alright, or because they were sitting there, completely alright, in a tight embrace. It was a little disorienting and Nine felt incredibly disturbed. They looked over and Five gasped, "Nine!" he then stood to his feet and beamed, "You- You've come back! You've come for us!" Nine forced himself to smile, "Yeah. You guys are alright." Child spoke then, "Why is Six not with you?" Seven stood and came closer to the bars, "The King had him taken somewhere else and is planning to have him executed."

Both Nine and Child looked taken aback by the comment. "What?!" Nine cried out and Five insisted, "He told the King that he wasn't the real king and now the king wants to behead him!" Before they could continue speaking, the White Queen pulled them back to reality, "They couldn't have put the keys far. The card guards aren't smart enough to hide them away." The March Hare went to go find the keys; hoping Six, wherever he was, was alright.

The only noise that echoed through the cell was the sound of Six's own muttering. Unlike Seven and Five's relatively uncomfortable, but not too dreary cells, the Artist himself had clearly been taken into the only section of the dungeon that was actually used. There was another bench, but it had half rotted away, and the stone walls were thick with grime while the floor was coated in straw that was moist and grotesque. The door was of heavy iron and the only type of window was on the wall that was against the ceiling.

In poured sunlight from outside and the promise of escape, but Six knew better. He made a mistake and now he and the others were going to die. "I should have never came." He scolded himself, "Shouldn't have followed Two down here." He lifted his face from his hands and stared at the room he was in, trembling as a slight bit of claustrophobia that began to set in. It was damp and smelled terrible while reminding him home much he wished this was just a dream. He wanted to wake in his warm bed and not be sitting in a cell waiting to die. But he wasn't a fool; he knew this was too real to be a dream.

"What now? Do I die?" He asked himself quietly before a voice spoke, "If you stay here much longer than that would be the inevitable, wouldn't it?" His mismatched optics blinked and he looked upwards towards the window to see none other than the Cheshire Cat. His arms hung through the bars limply and his claws scraped at the wall, one holding a bottle tightly in its grasp, and its mouth in a wide smile. "It's you!" Six cried out and jumped to his feet with a clear smile or relief. "Can you help me? They'll be back for me soon."

The Cheshire Cat tilted his head a bit, "I might be able to do something. I owe you a favor after what you did for me." The Artist blinked a bit, "What I… Did?" The Cat's smile faltered, "You were the perfect distraction. The Duchess is wanted over here and they would've been so willing to take her away if I didn't have a bargaining chip. I told them where you were, but I didn't exactly expect that they'd get ahold of you. Thought they'd lose you out in the nothingness." The striped one understood what he was saying and couldn't help but feel hurt, "You told Eight where we were."

The Cat seemed apologetic, "Didn't have a choice. The Red King's had it in for the Duchess since their falling out. Playing croquet; he said she cheated, she threw a mallet at him." That's when he gestured the other to come closer and the Artist got under the window before the bottle was dropped in his hands. "See if this does something." The striped one looked at the small bottle before opening it. The liquid inside smelled bitter and held a thick, green look. He hesitated for a second before tilting back the bottle and drinking it down. Immediately afterwards he coughed and sputtered.

It was nothing like the shrinking liquid, it tasted incredibly sharp and unappealing, and right after he was done it left a bad taste in his mouth. He then waited for a reaction of some king, but for some reason it didn't respond and he blinked before looking at himself. "Am I… Any different?" He asked and Cat shook his head. Immediately Six felt his mood plummet and clutched his face as his body began to tremble. He couldn't control the outpouring of emotion, he was going to die, and he felt himself beginning to start crying.

It was somewhat bizarre because he didn't exactly feel like he needed to cry. After all, he could have asked Cat for more help, but his body seemed determined to let out the stress that he was dealing with. That was, until something wet hit his hands, and pulled them back to see that they were coated in ink. "What?" Six asked with a choke until he realized that the liquid was all over his optics and on his cheeks. He touched his optics and realized that the ink was leaking out through the lens. Large tears of ink that were leaking out and dripping onto the floor.

Every time Six sobbed, the tears came faster, and soon a growing problem was emerging. Soon the ink was actually covering the floor and beginning to rise towards his ankles, then higher. Immediately Six took refuge on the bench, like when he had retreated to the wardrobe in the Beyond Lands, and soon the same occurrence as before occurred. He was teetering on a floating hunk of wood while the room steadily filled, and as he covered his optics to struggle and stop the flow only for it to fail. Cat seemed more optimistic, "Paddle over here and you can get out."

Six clearly noticed the bars blocking his way, but didn't exactly have another choice, and managed to shove off the wall and float over towards the window. The Cat's claws grabbed ahold of Six's shoulders and the Artist was met with a bizarre rushing feeling before being pulled straight through the bars. As the Cat seemed to vanish and reappear at times the Artist guessed that he had been teleported through. Now laying on the grass safely outside the cell he was more than relieved. He noticed the tears had stopped and lifted the apron to wipe his face clean of the dark liquid.

"Are we on good terms again?" The Cheshire Cat asked casually and Six smiled at him from his seated position, "I think so. Thank you." That's when he noticed something strange resonating through the air; some sort of loud shrieking noise. Six looked around in confusion, "What is that?" The Cheshire Cat tilted its head before suddenly looking towards a window, "You might want to start running about now." The striped one's head shot upwards, "What?" But the Cat was fading and a new noise filtered from deep inside the castle.

Luck was again against Six as he heard the heavy footsteps that belonged to none other than Eight. He jumped upwards and stumbled along the grass as he sought out a place to hide. That was when Six's optics landed upon the entrance to the hedge maze. He wasn't too sure what it was or what it was for, but it looked like his last chance to escape, and began to sprint towards it. He was soon heading into the depth of the maze. Twisting turns of greenery and hedge work. He hadn't got inside too far when he stopped to brace himself and try to figure out where he was.

Confused and delirious, he thought he heard footsteps coming, he tried to actually climb through the hedge itself, using his sharp fingers to claw a hole. Unfortunately, halfway through the act he heard a cry of, "Hey!" The voice was immediately recognizable and he knew it was Eight. He jumped back to hide once again as though it would erase the fact that he was just seen. For a few seconds he saw nothing and heard nothing except a little movement. "I'll just… I'll just run the other way to which he goes."

Unfortunately, Eight was a step in front of him, and suddenly a metal blade plunged through the hedge and stopped at only a few inches before Six. The Artist gasped in surprise before moving out of the way, only to watch as the knife started to move and slice through the hedge. Eight was planning to cut his was straight through and Six knew that escaping again would rely fully on a miracle. All he could do was turn and run.

So he did.

Mable: Why do I keep rushing the ending? Well, because I have been getting a bit lazy I assume. I just haven't been able to focus, which is such a shame since we're so close to the end of the fic. Next chapter will be a bit more solid, I promise. I hope everyone enjoyed!