A LOT OF THANKS to Allora22701 .

Allora22701 pointed out to me a few (tons) of details that I managed to correct and some things that I wasn't even aware (English is not my mother tongue so those were invisible to me).

Now I think I'll be able to deliver my stories in a way that the mental movie can keep going on without problem. :)

If at some point your mental movie stops because something is not clear or because you have to read that again, please tell me where.

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Text cues :

Plan text

"dialog"- text

-("mental speech")-

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CHAPTER 10: Finder's Keeper's

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From the open door at the side of where the faceless doctor stood, a man came bustling inside the room and ran amongst the broken furniture, flying papers and fallen office supplies caused by the fight to communicate his urgent message. -"Sir Gray! The foreigner in the infirmary disappeared!"

"What?!" How can she be gone?!"- Nightmare exclaimed with incredulity.

"We don't know sir."- The man was panting. Obviously he had come running all the way from the infirmary in the lower floor to this office at the top as soon as the foreigner's absence was detected. - "She was left in the infirmary so she could rest and when the nurse went to check on her and prepare more bandages she was gone. We looked around but we couldn't find her."

Julius crossed his arms and felt a clutch in his chest. - "So it was like whatever happened that time in hearts?" – He had immediately connected the dots. -(Damn troublesome woman!) - The chances of anyone entering the tower were slim, so it was easier to think that she had gotten out. And That woman had showed signs of doing exactly that; like when she went away immediately after Alice's wedding, how she tried going away from the clock tower, or how she had ran away from the restaurant after leaving Ace behind. Chances were that she was roaming around somewhere despite her wounds and that made his stomach flutter in anxiety.

"Well..." – Ace grinned and kicked a broken chair towards Gray, who sliced it midair as he got ready for another embattle of the red clad menace, however, Ace used the distraction to turn around and run out of the room with his sword high in the air in a very (un)knightly way while scaring the faceless, who barely had time to move aside and get out of his way, as he yelled. - " FINDER'S KEEPERS HA,HA,HA!" XD – On his way out before the tip of his ragged red coat disappeared from the door's frame as he took the wrong turn at the left outside Nightmare's office.

Gray cussed and followed after the psychotic knight but took the right corridor outside the room that would lead him to the main staircase of the tower. He was unsure of his own quick reaction to the knight's challenge and to the situation, but he was suspecting that maybe he had known this foreigner before. Thus he was confused about if he was running because he wanted to get the outsider before she ended up dead, or because he simply wanted to beat Ace.

Julius saw the men run away from the unsightly disarranged office acting like troublesome children, and pinched the brick of his nose in utter annoyance that could not overpower his worry.

" Go and search for her yourself if you are so worried mortician."- Nightmare said as he jumped out of the huge window frame to float down towards the main street and towards the plaza that surrounded the tower, and scaring the peasants away in his process to be the first one to find the mysterious runaway outsider. This was very uncanny and somewhat exiting. Another foreigner... and one that had been here all along but that had abstrusely disappeared from their memories from before the storm.

People got away from him as he landed safely over the floor tiles of the plaza. He pondered about what had changed after the storm or what may have happened before that. For example, he had lost the ruling of the nightmares part of the dream realm, not to mention that his work load and the bureaucracy processes had lessened in Clover... Maybe she held answers to that. At least this gave him an excuse to get away from work... But why did the words "Slacker's club" came to his mind?

Back in Nightmare's wrecked office at the top of Clover tower, Julius face-palmed and clenched his jaw at being surrounded by so many idiots. He then turned to the speechless faceless that had seen everything and still remained fixated in place with uncertain perplexity.

The faceless personnel flinched under the mortician's calculating gaze when Julius decided to act himself and turned his frown towards them with long hurrying steps while holding himself with stern dignity, unlike the running idiots, and stopped in front of the wary medic. -"Is the doctor from Hearts still here?"

"Yes sir. She is just waiting to hear if Lord Nightmare or Sir Gray knew anything."- The woman fidgeted on her feet at the mortician's proximity.

"Good. Please tell her to first get to the clock tower the appropriate supplies for attending this foreigner"- Despite his attempt at appearing calm, his continuous look towards the door and the corridor beyond made it look as if he was ready to run outside too.

"Yes Sir."- The woman bowed politely after hearing the clock master's request.

Then Julius turned to one of the men. –"Please go and tell the director from the new "Rapa-Nui" clinic in the Clock's tower area that I will take him on his offer."- Then his gaze hardened and seemed to become icy cold when he collectively looked at the three– "And I don't think I need to tell you and the rest of Clover's staff that this foreigner's presence is to remain at silence, do I? "

The woman barely muttered a short "of course sir" while one of the men gulped and the other, shocking his head 'no', pressed his back even further against the wall.

Without any other glances at the faceless, Julius was off, and not but a few minutes later he was on the streets and participating in the silly game to look for the wounded and troublesome foreigner, that was most likely crazy and scared enough to dare disappear from the medic ward.

Why would she have done that? She had actually accepted the medical help she needed back in the clock tower. Did it have to do with what happened at hearts? Or had there been more and worse incidents? Would she even tell them? He gritted his teeth and without knowing it, he clenched his firsts. No. She probably would not, given how things seem to be going so far with her. He frowned and found himself walking towards the side streets.

Another though crossed his mind. What if she was kidnapped?! A foreigner was quite the valuable hostage to have; even if no one knew about her, as soon as the rumor about a second foreigner being in wonderland was dispersed, things would get complicated.

He hurried his pace and went directly down to the black zone of the city. Dark slums, Shady looking roads and streets connected by thin alleys with occasional open lots amongst old buildings and storage navels no taller in height than two or three floors at much. Ace was probably lost already and halfway towards the next territory; the lizard was probably looking among the open main streets and parks; and the incubus was most likely violating people's minds to find clues. However he had the certainly that she would try to remain out of sight and away from people.

Soon he was roaming the darkest and dirtiest back streets all cramped into a maze of alleys. He didn't bother to look over his shoulder. He knew that he was being followed already, but he was busy thinking where she could have headed too. Admittedly he had no clue. Ace had mentioned her going to some dark and abandoned building in the Clock tower's area away from inhabited streets. Somewhere calm and secluded. And she had said that she had stayed everywhere and no-where, roaming and working in all the territories. So there was just the remote possibility that she had some similar refuge here or in various territories. But how could he find her? Did such a place even exist?

Unknown to him, the person he'd been looking for, had been moving through the rooftops to avoid being noticed and had seen him enter the back alleys towards the direction she was heading to. Being too tired and hurt to even considering changing her destination, she had continued on her way with caution, sure that the clock master would go into another direction at some point.

It hadn't taken long for her to see rowdy characters emerge from the shadows of the lonely and unsafe streets, and quickly organized their movements to tail the mortician.

This had put her at odds. She could remain hidden and wait for them to kill or capture Julius and then continue on her way. However she was 'feeling' apprehensive about it. She scolded herself and attributed it to her shell-shock from Spades, and what happened before and after it. How else could this 'feeling' sensation be explained? Instead, she performed a rational analysis: If nothing else, Julius was a useful ally with interesting resources and she had to consider the possibility that in the future she could need to use him, his territory, or his role abilities; and if Julius was killed it would make things harder for her.

She stopped her advance when the soon to be attackers positioned themselves to aim at Julius, who was nearing the back corner of an old brick building. When the first bullets came his way, he unsurprisingly jumped aside towards the corner of the building to avoid the barrage of lead, and Aria's eyes digitally lit to analyze the battle. From her position the trap was obvious. When Julius tried using the corner of the building to take cover, more bullets came to his position. Aria zoomed in when he took out his wrench and transformed it into a gun to deflect some of the shoots before he rolled ahead him into another side alley to avoid the next barrage from yet another direction that hit where he had just been.

From up in her elevated position she saw this and barely registered the fact that she was tightly pressing her lips together. The shooting was forcing Julius to slowly back off until he tried jumping into the next street, the one she was. He tried looking for an exit, but there were too many foes and he had already been cornered against a wall that had but a small spaced corner at the end of an open lot, too small to even be considered a dead end alley.

Aria's optic implants showed her the battleground's conditions, her own status and the success estimations of the calculated scenarios. Maybe Julius wasn't as trigger happy as everyone else, but he had no aversion to shooting either, and despite managing to take down various assailants, right now he was heavily outnumbered, completely surrounded by 20 or more people and didn't have any more bullets. She was conscious that she wasn't in a good condition either. She was quite hurt, exhausted and had been exerting herself beyond reason. But she also knew that if she was going to do something she needed to act fast ...But why should she? It wasn't as if she had any plan after reaching a safe place, and helping Julius would expose her completely. She clenched her tired firsts. What the hell! She was a mercenary and at moment she had absolutely no reason for living or dying. She could charge him for the help later if they survived.

She took out the remaining pieces of her arsenal, and without wasting a heartbeat's time she ran to the edge of the building right over Julius and readied herself.

In the street below, a man from the crowd neared Julius with a gun readied in hand – "Let's see what happens when an 'official' is killed"

As the clock master, Julius was an 'official', his role had bigger responsibilities and certain immunity. Even so, it was obvious that he could not survive this one. Another version of himself from another country would end up being the last and only clock master. He wasn't the most liked person in wonderland, and although his role was needed, not many would pass up a chance to try taking him down. He knew that he was screwed and could only feel bad for Ace, because despite the executioner's attempts to keep him alive, he was going to finally die here.

"How funny! You won't be able to repair yourself mortician!" – Another man mocked.

It was over. Julius had nowhere to run and his back was practically against the brick wall. Then, from right above him a deep female voice yelled.

"Julius! CATCH ME AND GET DOWN!"

He looked up in the direction of the voice and saw a certain wounded foreigner reaching for the edge of the building, her long sinuous braid moved wildly with her fast movements, and unwrapped bandages with blood stains flared over her skin and onto in the wind as she held a couple tin-cans in each hand, one red and another blue. She threw the blue one towards the attackers while falling down right over him, avoiding some shoots directed her way as she did so, and throwing the other can during the mid of her fall a few seconds before the mortician barely caught her full weight before she reached the floor.

A second later, an explosion of light and sound from the flash grenade she had thrown blinded him and almost made him loose his balance. He lost it completely when she moved her leg behind his knee to trip him on purpose and force him to fall to the ground, hugging him during the fall to force him to roll towards the corner of the building's wall, right before the head of another explosion caused by the second device went off right into the middle of the attacking crowd.

The next few seconds were chaotic. His ears ringed from the explosions, and the sound of screams, either from pain or from anger, were muffled by the deafness caused by the explosion. He tried to move her and he saw that when she tripped him and rolled she ended up hitting herself in the head and was now unconscious.

Another barrage of bullets came their way too close and too fast for him to evade. He couldn't even blink while holding her and expecting the killer impacts, but somehow right in front of his eyes, a shadowy thing that looked like rags of dark mist that came out from somewhere under his and her shadows solidified into a barrier that covered her form from the shots, and because he was behind her she served as a human shield before whatever that thing was, disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving Julius with a sense of dread at it worse than the worry for the remaining attackers or the burning sensation from the impact on his skin.

Julius, shocked and riddled, looked down at her to see her unharmed by the lead shower while he barely registered that a bullet had hit him in the shoulder. And when he thought it couldn't be more hectic, a rampaging red blur came down from a side street to made prey and carnage of the remaining assailants.

"You're having fun with Aria without me again Julius!? That's mean!" – Ace was busy chopping down those who were still close while the ones farther in the back that weren't too dead or mutilated from the explosion tried to run away and scattered into the labyrinth of streets and buildings.

Julius barely saw anything of the fight, but Ace was definitely doing a dirty job. Mutilating people and letting them die in pain from the shock and blood lust. Instead, he concentrated on the unconscious foreigner. Now she had a bump on her head to add to the un-pretty collection of wounds and scars she was displaying.

Very soon it was over. The attackers that didn't manage to run away were dead and their corpses, or what little was left of them after the explosion or Ace's rampage, were scattered around in a gory scene. Aria was wounded and thankfully unconscious from the heavy exertion. Julius had a wounded shoulder and some scrapes and passing-by shoot marks but was in general fine unless you counted how his mind and clock were racing. And Ace was grinning madly at it all. 'Madly' being the key word for his state.

"Oh? Seems like we found her Julius. So we get to keep her" :) – Despite Ace's cheerful demeanor, the knight was still clutching his sword tightly and his smile kept slipping into a grimace. -"Next time you want to play Julius, invite me first."- The knave looked at his shoulder and down at the girl. – "Ary is taking a nap? It wouldn't be knightly if we don't let her rest in a more comfortable place, right?"

Julius was very aware that Ace was equally shaken and excited; and he also knew that the knight would go on a killing spree as soon as he could. He didn't mind it.- "Let's take her back. "

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Was that enough action and drama for'ya? :D

Uhhh... Mysteries solved and mysteries unveiled. Clock tower has their kitten back... or do they? Is there anything they can do or say that will ensure that? After all, a foreigner is free to come or go as she pleases, and now that her presence has been revealed her paranoia won't let her stay put.

Gezz, someone should put a stop to Aria's run away tendencies XD And we all know who at least will try to. But is she really in shock or is there more to it?

What could that mysterious materialized shadow was? And what about the slacker's club? What will Clover do? or Hearts or anyone...

Anyone like the faction called the 'lullaby' ...

THANKS A LOT TO SLEEPINGMOON too :)

5 reviews for next update.

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ABOUT THE MATURE ONE-SHOT:

Yeah. I'm working on Julius's.

Thank you 'zeldatwilightfreak' :) Don't worry about the critic. It was not without reason and it was the kind of critic that I like. The one that points out my mistakes so I can correct them and improve. But more importantly, because of your suggestions, I included those factors that you were talking about in the M-shot and it gave far more spice to all their actions and reactions. Thank you a lot :)

To the second 'Guest': There is already one for Ace, in fact it was the first. But I suppose if people asks for it I'll do another or perhaps even a trio.

If there's anything you'd think it be hot to add, something you want to see or somewhere you want the action to take place, tell me.

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