One shot request/idea. Sorry there is no lemon but I hope you like what I did otherwise

Alice breathed heavily as her feet slapped against the hard pavement road. From behind her she swore she could hear someone chasing after her but she was too scared to look. Instead she forced herself to run even faster as her left hand attempted to stop the flow of blood from rolling down her right arm. Her legs ached for a rest and her lungs burned for fresh air but she knew she couldn't stop now. If she stopped they'd catch her; the ones responsible for all this.

Being kidnapped wasn't a new thing for Alice. In fact she stopped being surprised after the fifth time it happened. It was always for the same reasons, too; revenge against one of the role holders. More times or not it was either against Blood, Ace or Julius. This time it was from a deal gone wrong with Blood. The faceless that kidnapped her believed they could use her as a hostage and bargaining chip to get what they want.

Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst when Blood didn't show up to save the girl. He had to know that she was taken; he came every other time she had been kidnapped. So why not now? The leader of the faceless had even made sure to send a ransom letter to the Hatter residence. So why hadn't the mafioso come to save the precious foreigner? Was it possible he stopped caring about the girl or had the random letter just not make it to it's destination?

Whatever the reason the faceless became angry and hostile. They began threatening Alice as if she was somehow the reason the Hatter hadn't come. The smarter ones in the group realized that the letter must have gotten lost or destroyed; especially if the Bloody Twins got to their delivery man first. That didn't stop one of the faceless from taking out a knife on Alice, though. If a letter wasn't enough to convince the mafioso to come get the girl than maybe one of her fingers would be.

Alice couldn't exactly remember what happened next as it all happened way too fast. She could remember a struggle, a sharp pain in her upper arm, people shouting and then running down the street. Everything else in between had been a blur. The girl wasn't sure how she escaped but she wasn't questioning it and continued to run. If Alice had to guess, though, she probably caught the faceless off guard with her unexpected strength. After all, just because she was well protected by the role holders and didn't like to kill, it didn't mean she was necessarily weak.

Without much warning Alice's vision began to fade and her head began to swim. She knew it wouldn't be long until she'd pass out from exhaustion and possibly blood loss. Yet she also knew she couldn't pass out in the middle of the rode where those faceless could easily capture her again. Perhaps if it weren't the middle of the night a kind, brave, faceless could help her. Unfortunately, the only ones awake at this time of night were either inside working or causing trouble of their own.

So the girl forced herself to push on, stumbling as she did so. By this point her body had grown numb from the cool night air. The only warmth she could feel was her blood that still dripped down her arm. Worst of all Alice began to lose all feeling in her legs which, combined by her fading sight, nearly caused her to fall a couple of times. She didn't know how much longer she could keep going until she could no longer keep running. She only hoped she'd make it to her destination before that happened.

Clock Tower

Julius frowned to himself as he looked up from the clock he had been fixing, bothered. It had been a good three time changes since Alice had left to go shopping in town and he was starting to worry. He didn't know why, though; being gone longer than expected was normal for Alice. Most of the time it involved either Ace dragging her off or Blood inviting her for tea, which was something she could exactly say no to. Although this time felt different for some reason and Julius felt his clock tighten in his chest.

'Stop it, Alice is fine.' He scolded himself and looked out the window to see it was night. Ah, it seemed the time period had changed while he wasn't paying attention. That made four time changes Alice had been gone.

Sighing heavily Julius took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Despite telling himself that Alice was fine and that he should stop worrying he couldn't. If anything the feeling that something was wrong only became worse as seconds went by. He knew for a fact that Alice was more capable of taking care of herself than she was given credit for. He also knew that any role holder she was with would take good care of her. So what was there to worry about?

'Perhaps now would be a good time to take a break and get some fresh air.' He thought to himself and sighed again, though this time not as heavily. Giving himself no time to rethink his decision Julius stood from his seat and made his way out of his office.

It wasn't very often that Julius would take breaks, especially if there was no one around to suggest or force him to. When he did take one, however, he preferred to have it during a evening or night time period. The air was always cooler during those two time periods and he found it helped him think as well as relax. He especially enjoyed taking his breaks, when he took them, on the roof of his tower where he could over see the town and be alone.

That is where Julius was heading now. Or at least that is where he planned on going. Before he could make it very far he heard the door to his tower open and close. Unless Ace had decided to visit again that should be Alice returning now. In the worse case scenario it was just another customer bringing him a clock, which meant his break was over before it started. Either way the man couldn't stop the sigh that escaped from his lips as he looked behind him. Who ever it was, they were sure taking their sweet time coming upstairs.

"Alice, is that you?" Julius called after a moment of silence. He frowned as his only answer was more silence and made his way downstairs.

Not even customers were this quite. At the very least he could usually hear them walking up the stairs but this time it was too quite. If it weren't impossible he'd think that maybe a strong wind forced the door open. That would explain the odd silence but it just wasn't possible. The wind wasn't strong enough to do such a thing; especially not to a door as heavy as his. So, unless he was hearing things again from being over tired, Julius knew someone had to be in his tower.

"Hey, I know you're in here and if you don't answer me I'll-" he called as he neared the bottom of the tower, only to stop and stare in horror at what he saw. There, laying just half a foot from the door, laying in a growing pool of blood, was Alice.

"Alice!"

...

...

...

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock

'Where is that coming from? Nightmare, is that you?' Alice thought as she looked around the darkness for the dream demon. No matter how hard she searched, however, she could find no trace of the man; nor any of the normal colorfulness that usually consumed the dream realm. She was in complete darkness.

'Why is it so dark? Where am I? This can't be the dream realm... could it? But then where is Nightmare and where is that ticking coming from?' Alice continued to think and frowned as a uneasy feeling crawled down her spine. Something was very wrong here.

No matter how much she tried to look around all she could see was blankness. Not one ounce of color or light was anywhere to be seen. It wasn't just sight that was failing her, though, but sound as well. She could hardly hear herself breath and felt little strength to try talking. The only thing Alice seemed to be able to hear was the ticking of a clock. Yet, oddly enough, that seemed to get quieter the more she tried to focused on it.

Lastly, and maybe worst of all, Alice realized that she could barely feel her own body. That scared her more than the fact that she couldn't see or that her only source of sound was getting quieter. Without being able to feel she had no idea if she was laying down, sitting down or even standing. She had no feelings in her legs and felt no strength to try to lift her arms. The only real sense of feeling she had was a slight tingle through out her body; especially in her arms and legs.

'But then why do I feel so... relaxed?' Alice thought and her frowned deepened. It was true that the lack of sight and feeling scared her but there was something preventing her from panicking. Alice felt so relaxed, in fact, that she felt like she'd fall asleep.

...

Tick... tock, ti... ck to.. ck, t... ick t... ock,

Alice inwardly sighed as the ticking finally ceased to exist. However, instead of being left in complete silence, a soft hum took its place. Much like the ticking she was unable to tell where the hum was coming from. In actuality it sounded as if it was coming from all around her, almost as if the tingling feeling itself was making the sound. Alice knew that was impossible though, even for Wonderland. Even if it was somehow possible the tingling feeling had begun to die down so there was no way it'd be that loud.

Yes, much like how the ticking had died down so was the tingling feeling. In it's place Alice could feel a weird warmth on her cheek. It was such a odd feeling, almost as if something, or someone, was touching her. Sadly, while the girl seemed able to feel and hear again her world still remained dark. Alice felt as though the touch should have scared her but it didn't. She still wished she could see where the feeling was coming from but, if anything, it was making her feel safe.

"Alice, I'm so sorry." A familiar voice whisper from somewhere nearby. If she could Alice would have blinked in surprise. That sounded like...

"Julius?" She whispered weakly and fluttered open her eyes. Instantly the darkness got replaced with a blur of colors and a bright light shinning over her head.

The man in question flinched in surprise at the mention of his name. He was indeed the one that spoke a mere moment ago but had not expected to be responded to. Nor did he expect to see Alice open her eyes only after one time period had passed. The wound she had received had been small but deep and, as such, she had lost quite a bit of blood. So, at most, he had expected her to be out for at least another two or three time periods at most.

Julius frowned as he looked down at the girl, feeling perplexed. He wanted to hug her, to scold her and to force her to go back to sleep all at the same time. He wanted to hug her because he was relieved she was alright, scold her because she got so badly hurt and force her back to sleep because she obviously still needed it. He supposed he could do all three yet, with how weak Alice seemed, he didn't want to risk hurting her with a hug. Maybe he'd save the hug for later and just start with asking if she was alright.

"Yes, Alice, it's me." He confirmed with small nod and pulled his hand away from her cheek. "How are you feeling?"

Alice frowned when she easily heard the worry in Julius's tone. Had... had something happened to her? Was that why she had little feel in her body? What about the fact that she barely had the strength to turn her head to look at the man? Her sight and sense of hearing might have come back but even they were still weak. So it was possible that something might have happened to her but than the only question remained on what happened.

"I... I don't know. What happened?" She asked, her voice just as weak as before. Julius frowned and his brows furrowed together.

"I was going to ask you the same thing. You can't remember?" He asked. He was unsure if he should be happy or worried about that. Obviously something happened to Alice so had the trauma made her forget or did Nightmare have something to do with it?

Alice tried to shake her head but the attempt only made her feel dizzy. Even just trying to turn her head to look at Julius made her feel dizzy. She was stuck looking up at the ceiling where she saw the ceiling fan spinning. It was making the light humming sound that she heard earlier and now threatened to lull the girl back to sleep. Well at least she know knew where that was coming from but what about the ticking?

"Remember what? Julius, what's going on?" She weakly demanded, her own tone filling with worry. Sighing heavily Julius stood from the chair he was sitting in and bent down so he could better make eye contact with her.

"Don't worry about it, Alice; just go back to sleep. I'll be here if you need me." He told her kindly and bent down further to kiss her forehead. Too weak to argue Alice sighed and her eyes fluttered shut.

Frowning heavily Julius stood back up but did not move from the bed. His hand traveled to her girl's head and he began to gently stroke her hair as she quickly fell back to sleep. He didn't need Alice to tell him what happened to know she got attacked. There was no way she'd be clumsy enough to get such a bad cut on her arm. A kidnapping gone wrong, if he had to guess. After all only the faceless with grudges would bother try to hurt her.

Julius suddenly blinked as he sensed a presence behind him. His eyes grew cold and his free hand twitched as it balled into a fist. He didn't have to turn around to know who it was. He didn't even have to look back to know he was wearing his cloak and mask. Julius had been expecting him for hours and, even though this had been the quickest he had ever arrived, he still managed to be late.

"Find them." He ordered darkly as and his eyes flashed with hatred. He heard Ace give a low chuckle and the ruffle of his cloak before the bedroom door closed behind him. Yes, Ace would do his job; Julius just hoped Ace would do it quickly.