Pure: These should be coming up a bit faster, but school hates me now. So it might take longer then I wanted it to be.

Alice: Is Peter going to die?

Peter: Alice my darling you don't mean that!

Pure: Yeah Alice! So cruel! I would never kill Peter; he's too cute for that!

Alice: Y-Yeah…

Pure: On with the disclaimer!

Blood: Pure doesn't own Joker/Clover/Heart no Kuni no Alice.

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

All eyes rested on Alice, her sudden outburst clearly caught everyone's attention, the announcer blinked as he just stared at the girl. "What do you mean by no, Miss…?" He looked down at his clipboard, then back up at her. "Alice Liddell?" Her eyes darted from side to side, seeing the remaining participants' stare bore in to her.

"Uhhh…I-I mean by that why do we have to kill the white rabbit? ! It's a rare creature isn't it? S-So it's an endanger species…right?" The words that left her mouth weren't so reassuring to her or the others around her.

"It was spotted on this land, therefore belongs to the owner of this forest. No more further questions! You have until sundown to complete this last event! Once you hear the gun shoot off in exactly 10 minutes, begin!" Everyone left to make the final preparations; Peter looked down at the huntress, a sad look appeared on his face.

"Hey, what was all that about?" Black said as he and White made their way over to their new partners.

She glanced back up at them, seeing that she was looking at the ground a moment ago, "Why not? We must show respect for our prey, have you already forgotten what we learned all those years ago?" Her voice came out small and slightly timid, she was afraid, afraid that she would lose a close friend.

The way her voice came out, how she was acting, confused both men before her. An uncommon sight they usually never see. "Of course we haven't forgotten, but why the sudden interest in this type of animal?" White replied Peter remained quiet, not so sure on how to help in the given situation.

Alice slightly bit her bottom lip, quickly thinking things over, but decided against her current thoughts. "Just that it was an endanger species, that's all, these people can be cruel to the animals here sometime." She managed to say in a more confident tone, but was still hardly good enough for both Jokers. None of the less, they let it side, guessing they won't get much more out of her.

Black came over to the girl and ruffled her hair, "Try not to worry about that, worrying is beneath you. That and its plain creepy to see you all depressed you dope." He then flicked her nose, lightly, but still hard enough to make her yelp.

Alice was going to reply, but the hunter started to walk away. "But it is true Alice, quite a rare sight to see with you. Do try and not make it a regular habit of yours." White said, following his twin, both leaving her to just stare.

"Come find us before the 10 minutes are up!" Black hollered back once more. The huntress watched them disappear into the trees; she gave a heavy sigh, wondering if she can now keep up with their weird mood swings. One minute they seemed to despise her, the next all friendly like.

It was rather interesting to see at most though, 'Were they always like that?' She thought, but found that she couldn't remember. Looking up, the girl saw that Peter had been fairly quiet since it was announced that he was to be hunted. 'But as long as he stays in his human form then there's nothing to worry about right?'

Of course, the huntress did not know of the young man's limits, and he was surely reaching them. Alice then poked the man; he flinched at the little sudden pain in his side. "Cheer up also Peter; nothing is going to happen to you." A small smile came on her lips, the white rabbit returned it, but it looked more force than anything else.

"Yeah….I know." The girl suspected something was a mist, though she couldn't figure out what. Letting it slide, both started to find the Jokers since their time was almost up and the final event was about to begin.

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

A deer lay on the forest floor, as blood oozing out of its motionless body; its eyes stared off in to what seemed like empty space. "Nice catch Black." White commented his twin, moving to collect the fallen prey.

The teen smiled as he put his bow away, "Too easy actually, it was just sitting there, really helpless out in the open like it was." He turned to face Alice. "The next one is yours."

She nodded her head. "Okay."

"This is the 8th one right? Good progress so far and it's barely noon. I'm going to go put this with the rest of our catches." With that, White left to go off to their stash of fallen prey.

Black rolled his eye before looking back at the other two, "So after this next one, the Peter dude will catch us our 10th one." Peter looked over at the sound of his name, eyes growing dreary from the lack of energy.

"Alright…" He managed to say in a relatively normal tone, but wasn't too convincing. The hunter eyed him carefully, as if trying to see what the rabbit's problem was; not finding one he gave a sigh.

"Let's try to stay focus; the other team out here with us could be planning to do something in order for us to lose. And I'd be surprised if they didn't, mostly nobody here plays by the rules sad to say. So keep your guard up all the time."

"We don't need to hear that from you, I already know that from years of experience. But he's right; we need to keep a look out for things out of the ordinary." Alice responded.

Walking over, Black roughly, yet gently, ruffled the girl's hair again. "Thanks for some credit short stuff." The huntress's cheeks held a tint of pink on them as she shooed the older teen's hand away from her head. He gave a soft chuckle, looking around; he saw that his twin hadn't returned yet. "Where the hell could White be? I'll be right back….Yo White!"

The hunter then disappeared behind some trees to find his brother, alone; Alice looked back over at Peter who had been silent most of the time. Actually…all morning to be exact if one thought about it long enough. "Hey Peter?" She asked him, walking over to his shaking form, seeing this got her scared, she lightly touched him to gain his attention. "Are you ok?"

He shook his head, "No Alice…I'm not." Just as he said that, a sudden pain came to his chest. The young man fell to his knees as he clenched his shirt, the girl was getting even more frighten, falling down next to him; she tied to see what was wrong.

"Peter! Peter what's wrong? !" The rabbit looked up; he gave her the best smile he could muster up though it still appeared force.

"I'm sorry…Alice…but I can't hold out any longer. I've already reached my limit…staying in this form for long periods of time has drained me completely…since I haven't been in this form in a long time. I must return to my rabbit form."

"What? But you can't!" Peter gave her one more smile before a light engulf him. Alice shielded her eyes, opening them; she saw that he had returned to his rabbit form. She picked him up, and saw that he was now asleep. "Peter…I guess it was more my fault now that you're like this. I shouldn't have pushed you so hard, but I didn't know. Or at least not bothered to notice."

The girl was tempted to cry, cry all of her problems out, but what help would that do? Sucking it up, she wiped some tears that manage to fall from her eyes, before the Jokers returned. "Alice! Peter dude! We need to get a move on!" Black said as he and White reappeared, they saw the huntress sitting on the floor, back facing them. This confused them, but slowly made their way over to her.

Getting up, Alice turned to face them, zircon orbs widen at what she held in her hands. "It's the White Rabbit!" Black shouted a finger pointed at the rabbit's sleeping figure.

"Did you kill it already?" White asked his eye still big as it looked back up at the girl then back at the creature.

"No! I would never kill him! He is my best friend!" The girl snapped back at the two, her stare hardened towards them.

White and Black blinked, looked at each other, then back at the girl who shouted at them. "Right…okay…" They said together, silence ran between the three of them, either not sure on how to break it.

"Anyway…what happen to the Peter guy? We need to get a move on." Black finally said his gaze never left the rabbit's form.

Mouth slightly open, going to answer him, but couldn't for she manage to dodge an arrow that passed by her. A small shriek escaped instead as she landed on the floor, clutching the rabbit closer to her body.

"Man, I missed." A voice said from up in the trees.

The three of them looked up to where the voice came from; the other group was looking down at them, watching to see what they would do next. Black pulled out his bow as White helped Alice up.

"Is something wrong?" The one that shot the arrow asked a smirked seemed to form on his lips.

"What do you think you're doing? ! You could have hit her instead you bastard!" The harsher hunter was more than pissed, no, he was frustrated. This whole competition was frustrating to him, he didn't know why, but it was. And this guy wasn't making it any better for him.

"But I didn't, I was merely going after the main prize. Killing that rabbit will assure our victory."

"You will do no such thing! I won't allow you to kill him!" The huntress screamed she blinked back a few tears, calming herself down before she lost control.

"And why's that? You were perfectly fine doing so in the past, this creature here is no different from the rest." He was going to say more, but an arrow that landed on the tree bark fairly close to his face made him think otherwise.

The Joker brothers were not amused by this other party messing with them, and for reasons unknown to even them were they mad that the opposing party was going to hurt Alice to just win some stupid tournament. Both brothers looked at one another; a silent agreement rang through them as they gave the other a nod.

"Let's go." White whispered to the girl, he dragged her along as they broke into a sprint.

Before the other group could respond, Black shot multiple arrows their way, careful not to hit any of them, but enough to get them focused. He didn't wait for their next move for he took off after his twin; with the other group right on his tail. The hunter caught a glimpse of the pair about a few yards ahead of him; he swiftly caught up and fell into stride with them.

"We need to lose them." Black said as the threesome looked for anyway to hide from the upcoming party that was getting closer to them as they spoke.

Knowing the terrain, Alice got out of White's grip, leading them off somewhere. "This way!" She called back, ducking into what looked like a cave covered over with some moss like curtains.

The remaining two ducked in with her, it was dark in the cave, no light shone in through the entrance or were there any cracks in the ceiling to provide that afternoon glow. They were quiet, waiting to catch any slight movement on the outside. When it was deemed safe, they all let out a sigh of relief, glad, for the most part, that was over with.

"It's dark in here, does anyone have a light?" The girl asked her protective hold still on the sleeping rabbit.

A flicker of light soon illuminates the dark cave they were in, though small, it provided enough so they could see the other's face. "The best I've got, we left all of our stuff back where we got ambushed, so it seemed anyway." Black snorted, his eye looked dully at the wall next to them, his hand held a small lighter in which the light came from.

White noticed a stick laying on the floor right beside him; he picked it up as he motion for his twin to give him the lighter. Black handed him the lighter, curiously observing what his brother had in mind. Alice was as well, watching with great interest as to what the other twin was going to do with it. The young teen held the stick away from him, the lighter in front of his mouth, he blew at it, which caused the flame to fan out and hit the stick. The stick then caught on fire, allowing more light in to the cave.

"Really White? You still remember all of that?" Black commented, a small half smirk on his lips, as he lazily lies back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest.

"Of course, it comes in handy, and it makes for great entertainment for others." White replied his orb trailed over to Alice's awestruck gaze that rested on the stick still in his hands.

She noticed that he was staring at her, staring at the stick, she shifted her gaze away as a small tint of pink came on her cheeks. "Anyway…I think we should stay in here until the close is clear." She finally said, looking back down at Peter to make sure he was okay.

"Fine, but we would like some answers first." Black deadpanned, now sitting up, but with his arms still crossed over his chest.

"What would that be exactly?"

"First, why care so much about this rabbit, and second, what the hell happen to that Peter guy?"

That caught her off guard a bit, though she should have guessed that they would want some answers eventually. "I care so much about him is because he is my friend. I found him here in this forest a few weeks before this tournament, he is special, and I don't want any harm to come to him."

Both Jokers waited for her to answer the other question, she bit her bottom lip, trying to find some way to explain Peter's absences. 'This is bad, how am I going to explain why Peter is not here? I don't want anyone finding out yet…but they will keep asking until I give them something…what though?'

After what appeared like ages, the huntress drew up all her courage and carefully chose her words. "Once you left I sent Peter off to see if he could try and find where we were. In all honestly I didn't think we even knew where we were, and if we could find some familiar ground, we would be able to get back quicker. I'm guessing that Peter got lost or is looking for us now." She held her breath, waiting for their response to her lie; it wasn't obvious as she thought it was believable. Silence once more, it was agonizing, to her, but then one finally spoke up.

"I see…and are you sure that's what had happen to him?" White asked his eye watched her attentively.

"Yes I'm sure." It got quiet again; sweat fell down the back of her neck, once more waiting for their reaction.

Black grunted, which broke the silence. "Man, what bad timing, just when we actually needed the dude."

"It is true, his assistance would have indeed helped our situation, but we can make do without him this time." White gave the girl a reassuring smile.

Which in turned, she released a small sigh. "What are we going to do now?"

"We're going to need a plan, I'm sure those assholes are going to still be looking for the rabbit. And if you're that sure on protecting the thing, then we're going to need one." The harsher hunter stated his legs crossed Indian style.

"Do either of you have one?"

"I do actually." White commented.

"Of course you would, always one step ahead, aren't you White?" The young teen answered, rolling his eyes towards his brother.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Right…anyway, the plan would have to be quick, dusk could come anytime now. We still need to find Peter, collect all of our prey, and avoid the douche bags."

"Calm yourself Black, don't want to lose any little brain cells you posses left."

His eye twitched at that last statement, turning, Black faced his brother. "What was that? Don't forget who can beat you to a pulp."

"Ah, what I lack in strength, I make up for with intelligence."

"That's it!" Black pounced on White sending them both to the ground, already struggling with one another.

Alice softly set Peter down as she made her way over to the twins. "Hey! Cool it you two! We need a plan here so stop it!" She soon broke them up.

The harsher hunter scoffed, while the nicer one sighed. "Right, well here is what I had in mind."

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

Alice took a deep breath, with the plan now explained it was to be put in to motion, she stepped out of the cave. Dusk was approaching and quite fast at that, they needed to hurry. With Peter in hand, she bolted from the cave and ran in any direction, hoping to find some familiar land mark along the way.

"What's wrong Alice? Did you think you could get away that easily with the prize?"

Her head whipped to the sound of the voice, the group was before her, all starting to surround her. She gave them a smirk, dropping the white bag that held a rock in it, which was starting to hurt her now after she just ran with it in hand.

"What prize?"

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

Pure: Finally got it done! Though I wish they would be able to come up faster, but due to my hectic schedule and school hating me, they will come up a lot slower than originally intended. But next month when school is over, they will surely come up much faster!

And made this event in to two parts, kind of, the first part of the next chapter will be the end of the tournament. Then everyone can go home finally!

Alice: Poo…Peter didn't die…

Pure: You are so mean to Peter Alice-chan!

Alice: Meh…

Pure: You're lucky I can't do anything bad like I did with the Jokers!

Alice: Wait what?

Gray: Please review.