Pure: And here is the next chapter up of Shatter Reality!

Alice: At least you're posting up faster now.

Pure: I told you I was trying shesh; can't a girl have a break now and then?

Alice: In your case…no…

Pure: And you're still mean, disclaimer!

Sebastian: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice. Only me and my father.

~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~

"Of course, my dear Alice; anything for you," Sebastian said as he released his arms from around her waist.

Alice moved away from him, and then shuddered at what he had called her. "Don't call me that," she responded, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Right, I'll start with how I came to be, then how your sister came, as I do so. Although she came like any other foreigner to Wonderland, I wouldn't find it a surprise. But since you asked, I'll explain."

The brunette crossed her arms as she waited for him to continue.

"I don't have to explain the whole baby and sex thing, do I?" he asked, a small smirk appearing on his face.

A light blush made its way to Alice's face, not going unnoticed by the others.

"I didn't think so. Let's start with the most obvious of things; you already know of my father, correct? As you know, he was the previous role-holder of the Looking Glass—a portal of sorts that could take anyone to another dimension that was created. It was mostly used as a prison, but was more effective than the Circus one. Others, though, feared his power of being able to create another world; it was a bit unheard of in most times."

"How come they used it as a prison? Couldn't the mirror be used for anything more?" the girl interrupted the man. Her curiosity got better of her already.

"The mirror was used to trap someone in another world. It was also used to see into one's hear—er, clock, per say. But it was nerve racking to others of how much power it had potential for. My father was able to unlock most of its power, but there could be much more we still don't know about."

Alice looked at him oddly. "I don't understand; how could something so small hold this much power? Let alone another dimension in itself."

Sebastian sighed as he took a seat on a nearby log. "Sit, this may take longer than how I originally planned it." He waved over to a blanket that was on the floor—provided by Lorina, no doubt.

The brunette walked over and sat down on the log, her legs tucked in as she wrapped her arms around them.

"Now I'll answer your questions. The mirror was first created to, basically, be a prison, since the Circus Prison was still being developed. Over time, more qualities were added; like the one to see into someone's clock. But it got out of control. The experiment was bound to be a failure, though somehow it was able to be saved. It's still quite a mystery on how exactly, or why the mirror was created for. It's clearly still feared now."

The brunette nodded; some of her confusion was lifted, but not so much.

He went on with his explanation, seeing that she didn't interrupt him again with her questions. "My father was the first role-holder of the Looking Glass; he worked for Heart Castle under the late Queen of Hearts. I guess you could say he was the Prime Minister before there was actually one to begin with. I will say this now that all this happened quite a long time ago, right about the time the first few games were being played."

"Wait….so how exactly old are you?" Alice asked, starting to guess what age the man was.

"I'm twenty-five years old," he replied as he pushed away the bangs that fell over his face.

"How are you so young, then?"

Sebastian's eyebrow twitched at her remark. "I will get to that. May I go on with the story?"

The brunette nodded once more.

"Thank you. As I was saying, my father did work at the Castle, but wasn't….trustworthy, as others would put it. Not that he gave them reasons that he was; it's true that he was sneaky at times, as he tried to figure out the mirror's power. Most of the time he would be reported missing for days on end since no one would know of his whereabouts. Marcel would also exclude himself from others, which allowed him to be treated as an outcast. All and everyone rejected him, but the Queen of Hearts herself."

"Wait, Marcel?"

"Yes, that is my father's name, Marcel Ocegueda."

"Oh…continue."

He gave a small chuckle, amused by her sudden realization before he continued on. "This surprised both him and herself that she would take an interest in him—it wasn't hard not to, in her case. Marcel was her adviser, and he did do all that he was supposed to do without complaints as any good employee would. What they both didn't expect was to fall in love with each other."

Alice sat up more as she let her legs fall down to the ground, placing her hands into her lap. She never heard of two role-holders falling in love before; was that even possible?

"It's quite possible actually," he said, guessing her next question. "But it wasn't allowed, more forbidden than anything else. As their love grew stronger, people started to notice that something wasn't right—mostly the higher ups. That's when they did the most forbidden thing any role-holder could do: The Queen got pregnant."

Sapphire eyes widened at his last statement. Not only was it not allowed to fall in love with another role-holder, but it was also a taboo to have a child!

What a cruel world she'd stumbled into.

"I'm sure you can guess where this will be heading: They, themselves, knew that it was forbidden, but didn't dwell much on it; my father made sure to keep his distance to not allow any suspicions to pop up around them. Over time, it was getting difficult to hide the Queen's large stomach. Then they found out; Marcel was already hated enough, and this just killed it, but he wasn't going to lose so quickly. Now that the higher ups knew about their relationship, things got ugly fairly quickly."

"People were sent after them, meant to bring them in for what they had done. It's funny though, how things have played out in the end." He chuckled at his own hidden joke. "But I'm getting off topic here.

"Marcel and the Queen fled, determined to keep hidden until they could figure out what to do next. They didn't expect for the others to find them so quickly, so they got cornered. You remember me telling you that the mirror can send others to another dimension?"

She nodded her head as she pulled her legs back into her chest, head now rested on her knees.

"Well my father took a risk, he open up another dimension identical to this one; with the many years of practicing, he could do it naturally. They crossed over and landed in this place—he was able to bring the mirror with him so no one could follow. After that, everything was perfect, no one to harm them, no one to take each other away… And what best way to end it but with a child of their own... But things just couldn't be any crueler than that fateful day."

Sebastian clenched his hands as he glared at the floor.

Lorina—who had been quiet during the whole conversation—came over and placed a comforting hand on the man's shoulders. She knew very well that this next part was going to be hard for him to speak of.

He looked up at her as he placed a hand over her hand; a small smile crept up on his lips. "It was time for the baby to come; they seemed to know what they were doing. Everything was going perfectly, flawless…but at the same time not so much. There was a lot of blood, too much for my father to handle. He…he was able to save me…but not my mother. She died giving birth to me."

Alice's eyes widened: He was like her, motherless, but at a much younger age then she.

"Things changed after that. At first, I didn't even know I had a mother, let alone I'd come from one. Well, you know children at such an age; Marcel did everything he could to hide the fact that I had a mother. It didn't take long for me to find out—it was very obvious. He then explained everything to me. I wasn't as devastated as I thought I would be or how my father thought I would. After he told me…he started to act differently around me."

"He would be more distant—I'm guessing remembering my mother—and I would be forgotten as if I never existed." Sebastian chuckled once more as he slowly shook his head. "What's even funnier is that he beat me, saying that it was my fault that the Queen died. And then apologized saying, 'I'm sorry Sebastian, I never meant to hurt you, please forgive me,' and as he said that, he would hug me. Haha…he was a twisted old man, wasn't he?"

'Why did this happen? None of this makes any sense, I know I shouldn't be sorry for him, but… it's kind of hard not to. After everything he went through, it makes him seem like the victim here,' the brunette thought. She didn't know if he was talking to her, Lorina, or just plainly himself with that last bit. All in all, it was quite frightening to see.

"Now your sister comes in: Seeing that I was all alone, Marcel wanted to make it up to me for all that he had done. So when a foreigner had come to Wonderland, he went to meet her."

A mirror appeared as its murky surface showed a scene from the past.

Marcel walked up to what believed to be a young girl around the age of twelve. He smiled happily at her.

She looked up at him, just barely noticing that he was standing there.

"Hello, young one; what is your name?" Marcel asked as he bent down to her eye level.

"Lorina Liddell. And your name as well, Sir?" Lorina replied with a small curtsy.

"Marcel Ocegueda, Miss Liddell." He bowed as he took her hand and gently kissed it. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"The same goes for me, Sir Ocegueda. I'd hate to bother you, but could you tell me where exactly I am?"

"Certainly. You are in Wonderland, my dear. A place where the unthinkable can happen."

Lorina nodded, her sapphire orbs staring back into andalusite ones. She watched the older man stand back up; now, he towered over her smaller form.

"Would you like to meet my son, Lorina, dear? I believe he is around your age; if not, a few years younger."

"Really? Someone around my age? Of course! Lately, I've only seen older men around here; it would be nice to meet someone my own age."

"Then let us go, my dear."

Marcel took the young Lorina's hand as he led her back the world he created.

"As you know, he came and introduced her to me; we became friends, blah, blah, blah. Nothing new there, so now we come to the part of how there are duplicates of your friends and sister here."

Alice sat up, fully intending to listen very closely to the next part.

"When my father unlocked more of the mirror's power, he was able to find a way to take certain emotions from the ones that he wanted to duplicate, and create counterparts of them."

"Counterparts?" she asked, not too sure if she wanted to hear the rest.

"Yes, just as the word implies. You have seen the lack of emotion your friends possess, right?"

The brunette nodded in agreement, though she always thought that had been their personality to begin with.

"Well, those emotions were taken in order to form their counterparts. Marcel did all of this in order to make me happy. Of course he wasn't one-hundred percent accurate with the results. He first tested it out on your sister—she allowed him of course—but as you know, it's a very painful process, don't you agree?"

She was indeed aware of how painful it could have been, seeing that she was explained of the process by Gray.

"After he had completed it, the first duplicate was created. Since it wasn't as developed, this one here has some of your original sister's qualities, along with some hidden emotions that Lorina had managed to hide before," Sebastian said as he pointed at the replica Lorina.

"And why exactly did your father have to do all of that?"

He sighed as he slightly shook his head. "I just said: To make me happy, although I only needed your sister, since she was the only one that I knew at my age."

"That also reminds me, how come you're so young when this had happened so many…games ago?" she questioned.

"I was getting to that. The reason why I'm young, or why a lot of people in Wonderland are fairly young, is that we age differently than where you came from, Alice, dear. So yes, I'm twenty-five years old, though in you world I would be…reasonably, fifty years old, if I'm not mistaken."

"How did you get the mirror?"

"After my father died of old age, there was no one else to take it. Since I was his only blood heir, the mirror allowed me to accept it. Weird, but I think it thought I was my father. Interesting at most how it could seem to think on its own, not that I'm complaining. There are still many more things even I nor Marcel knew about this thing, so I'm not totally surprised."

"How come there is a duplicate of me?"

"That is something I cannot answer."

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "I don't know why there is, probably when you came over the mirror was able to make a copy of you; minus the painful process. Then add memories of itself to everyone else in this Wonderland to seem as though it already existed."

She nodded her head in response, then another questioned popped up in her head. One she was afraid to ask. "W-What are you going to do n-now?"

She mentally hit herself for stuttering at the wrong time.

Sebastian smirked as he stood up; he walked over and roughly lifted the girl up by her hair. "Honestly, I can't let you leave, now that you know."

"What could I possibly tell anyone about this conversation? No one can come here if you don't allow it!" Alice shouted as she pulled at his hand.

"But that's where you're wrong," he whispered into her ear. "The lizard was able to cross over, and if the higher ups find out that I'm still alive… Well, things won't be looking to good for either of us."

"All I want is to return home, back with my friends! Is that so hard?"

He chuckled as he threw her to the floor. "So sorry, Alice, but I still can't allow you to leave. For you see, I still need you."

~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~

Vivaldi watched the young brunette, taking in her form. "We didn't know that you had returned, Alice."

"You, too? Look, I'm not your Alice, if you couldn't tell from the clothing."

"Then you are from that other world, we assume?"

"Yes! Man, it's like you're all dense, or something," she mumbled the last part as she crossed her arms over her chest.

The Queen's eye twitched at her remark. "We don't like this Alice's attitude. Get rid of her, White," she said with a wave of her hand.

Peter sighed. "Of course."

He pulled out his gun as he shot the other Alice.

Alice barely dodged the bullet, which was able to take some strands of her hair with it. "Shit, man! No warning whatsoever!"

Both castle residences' eyes widened at her vulgar language, not once seeing that coming.

"There you are, Alice!" Ace shouted as he popped out of the rose hedges.

Peter faced palmed at the knight's stupidity. "You worthless germ…" he mumbled as he readied himself for another shot.

'Uh oh,' Alice thought. She quickly pulled out her whip as more bullets came her way.

She knocked the bullets away, but soon transformed the whip into a short blade as Ace bought his sword down on her.

He continued his onward attack, swinging his sword around aimlessly.

'How the heck can he continue to do this and believe he could actually win? I'll admit that he is strong, but that can only take someone so far.'

Alice was able to knock him back as she back flipped, landing on top of the rose hedges. "As much fun as this can be, I hate to say that I must get going. I still have three more territories to visit before I take my leave from this place."

"You can't leave just yet, Alice! We haven't even started yet!" Ace called out. He jumped onto the hedge, which shook in the process.

"Oh, yes, I am! I'm not going to stay with a psycho like you!" She jumped off the hedge and ran back into the maze.

Alice made her way out of the Heart Castle and into the forest before it.

"Don't leave yet, Alice! I haven't had a good fight in a while now!"

'Damn! He's too persistent! What will it take to get him to leave me alone?' the brunette mentally shouted as she broke once more into a run.

After many twist and turns through the forest, the girl believed to have finally lost the knight. "Thank God, this Ace gets lost easily…now…where am I?"

"Onee-san?" a voice called out.

"Huh?"

"Hey, brother, I think that's Onee-san!" the voice said again.

"I believe you're right, brother! Onee-san!" another voice shouted.

Alice turned around, only to be face to face with the twin gatekeepers of the Hatter's Mansion: Tweedle Dee and Dum.

~~~~~~~xxx~~~~~~~

Pure: I really like how this is coming along, if I do say so myself.

Sebastian: Marcel? Where did you get that name from?

Pure: Where else do you think I got that name?

Sebastian: I don't know that's why I'm asking you.

Pure: Uhhh…just nevermind, next time it's the Hatter's Mansion and we find out what Sebastian here is going to do with Alice!

Marcel: Please review.