CHAPTER 10

"You promised that my friends would be safe if I joined you…," Aain whispered, the Jabberwock holding him in its tail. Still, the creature's grip was tight, as if it was just waiting to snap Aain's back. Aain paused, scanning the gloomy dark room that the two were locked in. The Jabberwock watched him with its shining amber eyes, licking its deadly fangs with a forked tounge.

"...Hatter...Rabbit…,"Aain murmured, and he closed his eyes tightly. Then there came a burst of silver white light from Aain's body. It flooded the dark room and went outside into the throne room. The light shined onto the Queen, and she shrieked with pain as some unknown thing was slashing at her and making her unable to move. The light clouded around Mad Hatter and White Rabbit, and started to heal the two at a record time. The White Rabbit and Mad Hatter only had a moment to breathe deeply and bask in the wonderful feeling of not being on the verge of death before they quickly rushed at the immobile figure of the Queen, seeing their chance. There was no time to wonder where that light had come from and why. Fight now, ask questions later. The Queen growled, glaring daggers at the on-coming White Rabbit and Mad Hatter. Deep inside, a tiny part of her that wasn't affected by the Jabberwock, felt relief. She would die soon, her doom met at the end of these charging heroes.

..It pleased her. She would be reborn along with the others once the Jabberwock was killed by Aain. "I wish you luck, Savior," she thought, and she smiled lightly. The White Rabbit struck from the right and the Mad Hatter struck from the left. It happened in an instance, yet it seemed to happen in slow motion as well. The Queen slowly fell back, a faint smile crossing her lips before she disappeared. The two stared at the spot on the floor where she would have fallen.

"Now what?" the Mad Hatter said expectantly, feeling pumped after being completely healed. They stood for a second, not quite sure what the answer to that question was.

"Aain!" the White Rabbit said suddenly.

"Oh, NOW you think of him!" the Mad Hatter said as they rushed off to the nearest door.

" 'Now what?' Like that's any better?" the White Rabbit retorted. He kicked open the door they had found and ran inside. A low mist was filled the room, the Jabberwock's low growl echoed inside of the large room. The slamming of the Jabberwock's tail mixed along with the growl.

"So the Queen has fallen. How pitiful. It seems that I only have you two to finish off now. ..Mmm. I never did get to eat my March Hare lunch. I guess you'll have to fill my stomach!" the Jabberwock snarled, his glaring eyes shining in the darkness.

"Where is Aain, you creepy son of a banshee??" the White Rabbit snarled, drawing his sword.

"You're going to pay for what you did to the March Hare!" the Mad Hatter shouted, running towards the Jabberwock. The White Rabbit caught him by the collar though and pulled him back.

"Where-is-Aain?" the White Rabbit repeated, emphasizing each word as if they were weapons themselves. The Jabberwock held up an unconscious Aain wrapped in his tail, the savior looked like he wasn't hurt though.

"He fainted after that strange light came from his body. Still…I would love to eat him. I bet he tastes sweet…," Jabberwock murmured, tasting Aain with its forked tongue.

"You sick, little worm, I ought to have you drawn and quartered, chopped up into little bitty pieces, and then I'd stomp on every single one of them!" the White Rabbit barked.

"And your spleen ripped out!" the Mad Hatter concurred.

"How would you rip out his spleen if I've already chopped him up into pieces?"

"Does it matter?"

"No," the White Rabbit turned back to the Jabberwock. "If you return him, we promise not to hurt you…much."

"Actually, that's a lie," the Mad Hatter said. The White Rabbit gave him a long look before turning back to the Jabberwock.

"That's true."

And they both rushed the Jabberwock.

Jabberwock snarled, stomping onto the floor and cracking the floors a little. Aain was in his tail, not knowing of the danger around him.

"Come at me then! I always love a good fight before lunch!" He snarled, and then large pale purple vines came up to guard Jabberwock if the two heroes attack him. As the vines sprung up, the two didn't hesitate as they cut them down, not caring that the thorns cut them as they passed through. They exchanged looks and the Mad Hatter darted toward the front of the Jabberwock, swinging his jump rope like mad as the White Rabbit sprang toward Aain, bringing his sword down on the Jabberwock's tail, hoping that he would let go of Aain. The tail was cut in half and black blood sprayed out of the wound on the creature's tail. Jabberwock cried out in pain, and tried to stomp on White Rabbit. It ignored Mad Hatter, the jump rope barley hurting it. The White Rabbit dove out of the way as the tail barely missed him, blood spattering his already blood stained clothes. They were more red than white now.

Aain's eyes slowly fluttered open, his whole body feeling numb.

"...W—White Rabbit?"

As the White Rabbit tensed, waiting for another attack, he heard Aain's voice. Startled, he turned and saw him lying there, still in the grip of the maimed tail. Running over, he pried open the tail and put Aain down on the ground.

"Aain! It's me! Are you okay? Can you walk?" he said rapidly, his heart pounding. He turned to look over his shoulder momentarily to make sure the Jabberwock wasn't about to seek revenge right away. He saw the Mad Hatter dancing about the Jabberwock, snapping the jump rope with a manic grin on his face.

"Come and get me you slimy coward! Yeah, that's right, you heard me!" the Mad Hatter shouted.

"..I can move. What's going on? Are you safe? Please…tell me that no one else died because of me…,"Aain whispered, looking heartbroken. The White Rabbit sighed.

"No one's died yet. Well, if you don't count a couple of cards, the Queen, and the Mock Turtle. And safe? Hardly. If you can move, then move before we eaten by the Jabberwock," he said, pulling Aain up quickly, but gently. "All right," he said, pulling out Aain's pocket watch. "Remember you gave this to me? If you help me out, it'll become your weapon. The weapon to defeat the Jabberwock once and for all. It takes a lot of magic though, so I'm going to need all of your help to keep me alive until the transformation is complete. Do you think you can do that?"

Aain got ready to keep watch over White Rabbit while the pocket watch would become his new weapon. Without a weapon, the most that Aain could do was be a human shield. Oh well. Better than nothing, huh? Aain kept an eye on the Jabberwock, scanning for a weak point somewhere…

"Okay, I need you to hold it like this," the White Rabbit instructed, placing Aain's hands on both sides of the pocket watch so that only a bit of silver glimmered between the cracks of his fingers. "When I count to three, you have to concentrate really hard on what Alice told you about what Wonderland was like before. I need you to believe that this simple pocket watch can become something great. I need you to believe that I have the power to help you."

Of course, the White Rabbit didn't NEED to have Aain do all these things, it just made it easier to get the power out of him if Aain was concentrating on actually giving it to him. And that was everything because right now, they didn't have a lot of Time, and the White Rabbit wasn't going to risk asking any more favors of Time. The White Rabbit put his hands over Aain's.

"All right. One…two…three!" A light shone through their fingers like it had when the White Rabbit had done it alone, but when the light subsided and the White Rabbit brought his hands away slowly, it wasn't the silver rapier that the White Rabbit had used. Aain remembered what Alice had told him about Wonderland. She made sure to get in every detail. How the tea parties were with Mad Hatter and March Hare. How the Cheshire told her that everyone was mad in the crazed world. Every color, every blade of grass was important to Wonderland...Aain remembered every word that came out of her mouth. Aain opened his eyes, and held the newly made weapon in his hands. In Aain's hands was a thin blade that was worthy of being in the hands of the savior. It had the same aura as the rapier did, cutting the air like hot knife to butter. Aain felt so at ease with this sword in his hands, like it was a part of him.

Vorpal Sword.

Jabberwock turned to face Mad Hatter, licking his fangs lightly.

"My,my,my. You're just as useless as the March Hare was. He died like a weakling. You can barely put a scratch on my hide. Looks like you're about to see him again…," Jabberwock whispered, his glaring eyes looking deep at Mad Hatter. Like he was staring into his soul…

"Yeah? Well before I go, why don't you see if you can feel THIS?" retorted the Mad Hatter with the manic grin still planted on his face and lashing out again. As the Mad Hatter futilely struck the Jabberwock again and again, the Jabberwock turned, remembering the White Rabbit and Aain. Snarling, the Jabberwock made for the two, but just as he was about to swing his tail, something golden flashed and buried itself into the Jabberwock's eye. It was an arrow. The Mad Hatter looked up and saw the Gryphon hovering in the sky.

"I don't suppose now's the time to be asking silly questions?" the Mad Hatter shouted up. The Gryphon grinned.

"You read my mind. Let's just say that I don't appreciate it when my meals are interrupted," he replied. The Mad Hatter smirked.

"Food grudges are the worst, aren't they?"

"You're telling me!" the Gryphon laughed, and suddenly, his body shifted. There weren't any flashes of light or mysterious glowing. It just happened. First there was an, apparently, human form, and then there was The Gryphon. His true form. With a click of his saw-like beak and a swish of his lion's tail, the Gryphon dived at the Jabberwock. The White Rabbit could feel the darkness closing in on him, spots threatening to multiply and cloud his vision danced in front of his eyes. But he shook them away momentarily. Aain had given him a lot of power, more than he had expected, and so could probably hold out for a while longer before…

"All right, Aain, you have no Time to lose," the White Rabbit said sternly, trying to keep delirium away. But when he looked into Aain's eyes, he saw hope and a future. Unconsciously, the White Rabbit leaned forward slightly before catching himself centimeters from Aain's face. Now was definitely NOT the Time. Straightening up, he grabbed Aain and gave him a rough push toward the Jabberwock.

"Now go! We'll distract him!" he shouted, pulling out his own sword and leaping at the roaring creature along with the Mad Hatter and the Gryphon.

Aain looked back at his friends, and hoped that nothing would happen to them as he searched for a weak point. The Jabberwock didn't see Aain so far with the Vorpal Sword, so the teenager was able to get a close view of his whole body. The only tender area that wasn't protected by scales was the creature's neck, so Aain sneaked closer to the front of the Jabberwock.

Jabberwock snarled, growing annoyed every minute this battle passed on. It raised its claws and slashed at the three attacking its body, hoping to pick at least one of the heroes off.

The Gryphon shrieked as the Jabberwock's claws grazed his wings and using the momentum from the knockback, transformed momentarily into his human form, took three arrows from his quiver, and fired them straight back at the Jabberwock before resuming his true form. The Hatter was batted into a tree and fell a long way to the ground, making sure to hit every branch on the way down, but still alive if not having an incredibly sore behind. A few claws caught the White Rabbit across the chest, but he plowed on as if the blood wasn't gushing from the wounds. He was too close to dying to die from that. He brought his sword down on the Jabberwock's arm, slicing it off, but only to have a new one grow up in its place. Well, it was the thought that counted. The White Rabbit chanced a glance toward Aain who was steadily sneaking up on the Jabberwock. Aain was getting closer and closer, still unseen by the creature. After all, one of its eyes was wounded, so it couldn't see very well…

Aain climbed up the Jabberwock's back, the creature still didn't know that he was there. Slowly standing up, Aain raised the Vorpal Blade above his head. In one moment, the Savior stabbed into the creature's neck. Jabberwock shrieked with pain, trying to throw Aain off of its back.

Aain held on, and stabbed deeply in once more. Black blood sprayed out of the Jabberwock's neck. The Mad Hatter and the Gryphon stared in wonder as Aain drove his sword into the Jabberwock, doing the thing that they had only dreamed of doing. The White Rabbit, blood spattering his robes once more, forced the Mad Hatter up and turned to the Gryphon.

"Get up! Both of you, quit gawking and keep at it!" he shouted. All three of them rallied together and sliced, scratched, and whipped the Jabberwock as Aain held on desperately. Aain raised the blade up once more, and sliced at the Jabberwock's neck. In one swipe, the creature's head came off and blood flew everywhere. Aain gasped as a bright light flooded the room, and then everything went dark…