Chapter 11; Friend or Foe?

~P.O.V; Nightmare~

How curious it was to see Peter return with November –in one piece that is. Alice had started worrying the moment her injured cousin came through the door.

I must say her acting is brilliant… November had told me thoughts on the White Rabbit and I don't think that she would be so 'buddy-buddy' with him until he had a few teeth missing.

Once she was finally patched up, November grabbed a chair and placed it as far into the corner as she could put it, and looked into the growing crowd with suspicious eyes.

Her eyes then locked with my own.

'An A.S.O agent managed to get into the castle. If your assistant makes one move to suggest anything, I'm gonna assist him to his grave.' Why is she always so negative!? But she is right though, why are the A.S.O here?

I ask Ace to keep an eye on November for me, to make sure that she was okay, and then I head over to where Grey is stood pondering on the evenings events. After explaining to him what November hat told me, I felt his aura grow cold.

'They've found me.'

~P.O.V Change; Grey~

They finally decided to hunt me down. I knew it was only a matter of time before the figured out my location and came to silence me!

That also explains November's injuries. The man who tried to kill her was the same guy who kicked the shit out of me for failing to do so, and, let her get away.

It seems only right to have my only friend figure to put me in the ground.

'Cruncher… You brought that on yourself.' As I reflect on the A.S.O had slowly corrupted the poor lads mind to the point of madness, I hadn't noticed that one of my old team mates had snuck up on me until he had attacked.

But I was quicker.

I sliced deep into the back of his knee and watched him tumble to the ground. It wasn't long before another assassin had come flying at me from the shadows.

'Of course they'd send back up. I'm not exactly a one man job…'

Duck. Move. Duck. Move. Duck. Move.

'Damn it! This one's quick!' My back hit a tree and gave me the chance to attack as his weapon had become stuck in the thick trunk.

Blood sprayed into the air as his body slinked to the floor with his neck sliced open.

I wasn't given any time to celebrate my victory, as the rest of the assassins team had appeared. I had counted them off –There were six of them- each armed to the teeth.

I was trying to sort out strategies in my head but either way I was pretty screwed. They had completely surrounded me and had, no doubt, formed a line up that worked there strengths against me.

"It really is a shame Lizard. You were a great asset tour team." This was 'Giant'. By the look of it, he had been promoted to team leader.

"Yeah well, I found a better way to live my life."

"What, by babysitting that worthless 'boss' of yours?" Giant howled at his own comment and his team mates laughed along with him.

"Nightmare-Sama saved me, saved me from the likes of you!" I took up a defensive position as Giant took a step towards me, blocking the others from view.

"That piece of shit only postponed your funeral!" His laughter bellowed out again, but no laughter from the others followed. Giant noticed this as well and took a step back before turning to look.

"You know, you shouldn't judge a person by looks alone. For example, even though Nightmare is all sickly and stuff, he would have noticed that I was here before I had a chance to blink." It was November; she was sat on a rock with one of her legs pulled up and her arm rested on it. She had also pulled her dress up and tied it by her waist using her hair band, leaving it to flout in the wind. (Luckily she was warring shorts underneath)

The assassins laid unconscious on the floor in front of her and her smug grin grew when she saw how enraged Giant was.

"You little bitch!" The giant brute charged at her, but not before ramming a couple of knifes around my collar and arms –pinning me to the tree. He smashed into the rock as November jumped up and rolled over his back. She then kicked him in the hip when he turned around.

Because she was so small compared to Giant, November was able to move around him with such agility that even I was impressed.

Giant did manage to kick her pretty hard in the stomach which sent her flying backwards.

"Come on Rose! Get up!"

"That little brat will never get up again once I'm done with her!" He ran at me, there was a glint of metal, blood spattered on the floor… But it wasn't mine…

"You should really be sure that your victim is unable to move before you turn your back on them!" She pulled the knife from Giant's chest and watched him go down, no emotion shown, neither on her face, nor in her eyes.

"Lizard, *gasp*… keep… an eye on this one *gasp*…she may… be the end of you…" The last words from this monster –No!- this lost soul… was a warning for me?

The girl turned to me, a glint of sadness in her eyes.

"See what you turned me into… Can you see what I am becoming!?"

*SLAP*

"Don't think that just because I saved you, that makes us friends. 'Cuz it doesn't. I wanna know more about my parents… about my brother." She yanked the knifes out of my flesh pretty damn hard, if that didn't make her clear enough, then the tears certainly did.

"W-what's wrong… are you hurt?" She just pointed towards the castle, and when I looked, I saw Alice stood there… eyes wide and terrified.

~P.O.V Change; Alice~

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me away from the scene.

"Alice… Alice please wait!" November had caught up to me already and had a hold of my wrist.

"Explain to me; just what the hell was that all about back there!?"

"That guy came to kill the Lizard; I stopped him, that's it."

"How can that be it!? How can you be so calm after slicing a man through W-what the hell happened to you?" Her grip loosened and her eyes fell.

"After you throw an egg into a wall it cracks… it will still be an egg, but it's a mess of what it used to be and it's never the same again. I guess I'm Humpty Dumpty, and I fell off that wall –not out of my own clumsiness- but because somebody pushed me… and no matter how hard I try to pick up the pieces and pull myself back together again, it just won't work. I'm a mess of what I used to be."

Wow… That was so deep…but what exactly did she mean; She's a mess? How is she a mess? Who pushed her over the edge to become a killer!?

"T-that doesn't tell me what happened November…" Her eyes shot up and she seemed to freeze. I get the feeling that she doesn't want to tell me, but I've got to try.

"You used to tell me everything… why are you keeping something so big from me?"

"It's for your own good Alice. The less you know, the safer you will be." She had completely let go of my wrist now and had adverted her eyes again. Her eyes seemed to soften when they locked onto her bracelet.

"Do you remember what my brother Edward said when he gave me this?" She smiled as she shook her charmed wrist in front of me. She didn't wait for my answer as she chuckled painfully at the memory.

"He told me that a rose is a symbol of love and a circle is one of eternity, meaning that my bracelet was to show that he would love me for eternity…"

"Yeah, then you cried for hours when you broke it!" We giggled softly together before her face quivered.

"He's gone now… Edward was killed." I froze up and watched a single tear slide down her face. Feeling my own eyes watering up, I pulled my cousin into a tight hug.

And that's how we stayed for a while, crying and hugging. She won't tell anything else about it, and I don't blame her for it, but I still don't understand how Edwards's death turned her into a killer.

~P.O.V Change; November~

Okay. So I may have gone a little over board with alcohol, but hay, if Ace didn't go and challenge me to a drinking game then I wouldn't be in the state that I'm in now! And I was a little depressed that Alice found out about Edward, and the whole, I kill people, thing.

Ace had also declared that we were gonna play hide and seek and that I was 'it'. Now knowing Ace, he would have gone into the dark and creepy forest to hide, so like any normal person would do in my situation…. I'm gonna win this fucking game!

I trouped myself through the forest looking in the most 'Ace-like' places to hide so, in a bush or, up a tree, or maybe in that suspiciously colourful tent that looks just like the big top from a circus… Oh shit…

I stood there glaring at the hell presented in front of me for a few moments, wondering if the knight would have been stupid enough to go wondering into satins home… Yes, yes was the answer to that question and there was no way I was gonna go in there, so I think he wins this round.

I turned around to leave but nearly had a heart attack as I backed away from two little brats in clown costumes. Little shits…

"Hey who are you and what are you doing here?" The boy growled at me.

"Yes yes, what are you doing here? No one is allowed to interrupt practise!" The girl frowned.

Practise… At night? What are these brats practising for anyway, horror movies?

"Maybe she's here to steal our techniques Mary."

"So you think Joker would mind if we got rid of her Timmy?"

The little brats think they're gonna take me down do they? Well, I simply can't just let them win, can I? I smirked at their flimsy little knifes, (not that mine was any better) as they got into fighting stances.

"That's cute, are you gonna cut up an apple for me?" I teased, making them loose there temper. I ran up a tree and flipped over the little girl who had ran at me, then twirled my foot in a circular motion to take out her feet, but surprisingly she dodged it and kicked me in the jaw!

'What the fuck!? I'm losing to a brat!' Now don't think that I was going all out on her, cause they're just kids, but when that kid turns out to be rather good, I'm gonna kick her fucking ass!

I grabbed her by the hair and held her in a lock while taking the weapon off of her, but her little friend had sliced me on the hip with his own knife.

"Your gonna get it kid!" I gritted through my teeth at the little bastered but he just laughed in my face. He ran at me and I pulled a nasty little trick. I pushed 'Mary' at him, causing them to collide and for 'Timmy' to cut into his friends skin.

She sat there crying and he kneeled down next to her panicking, I all the while was leaning against a tree twirling Mary's knife in my hand and feeling quite amused.

'Serves you right you little clown demons.'

"What's going on out here?" Tall-ish guy with wine red hair and eye (yes eye, he had the other covered by a cool looking eye patch) had came out of the circus tent to check out the commotion. His eye landed on the two brats on the floor then it trailed to me and I immediately stopped spinning the knife.

"My my, what do we have here?" He asked me in a sugar coated voice that made me want to vomit. "It seems like you've bulled my poor little underlings…"

"Yeah well, maybe you should keep your 'poor underlings' on a leash." He looked a little taken back at my snappy attitude but followed this with another smile.

"Oh dear, I hope they weren't any trouble Miss…" He ushered the brats back into the tent and gave me his full attention.

"They tried to kill me…. Now don't get me wrong, I know they're only kids, but I don't let 'potential death' go that easily." I snapped.

"Ooh, she's feisty Joker, you've got your work cut out for ya~" What the fuck? His lips didn't move but that was defiantly his voice!

The clown king chuckled at my confused face. (Yes I said clown king - Get over it!)

"Look Joker, now you've gone and confused the little Miss." He seemed to drift his eye to the little mask on his belt and- wait a minute!

"Hey! Who that hell are ya calling little!? Ya royal clown bastard…" His smile was replaced by a look of slight sadness and the voice that I thought was his ventriloquism act howled with laughter.

"Royal clown bastered, oh that's precious!~"I noticed the mask rumble as the words flowed from no ware, I was more than a little bit curious.

"That's not very nice Miss, and I didn't mean to offend you…" The guy tilted his head cutely to the side… what the fuck!? I called a CLOWN cute… Okay so maybe we was slightly cute, but only a little bit.

"And I'm a Jester, not a clown." He had noticed my shift in posture after his cute tilt and intended to use that to his advantage by drooping his shoulders and side glancing at me like a scolded child.

I inhaled sharply through my nose and tried to shift my gaze away from the man. I couldn't help it though; I couldn't resist it when a man is sad, it's too fucking cute!

"Oh for fucks sake, you had to go and ruin it didn't you!? You were nearly in my pant's toots but if ya gonna be sucked up by this fuck face's act then you can fuck off~" My cuteness over load was crushed and I glared fully at the stupid mask that I now realised was a communicator.

"Excuse me? What makes me think that I want to be in your pants you fucking retard?" The 'Jester' seemed shocked at my choice of words but smirked and looked down at the mask when he noticed that I was speaking to it and not him.

The mask however shook with anger at being called a retard.

"Don't get fucking sassy with me you little bitch! Who the fuck do you think you're talking too? I'm Joker, and don't you fucking forget it!~" I huffed at the mask's arrogance.

"Sorry, I didn't know I was facing Batman's nemesis, and who's the one getting sassy? Nobody ever turned the magnificent Joker before? I'm November Rose, dick head, so don't even think about forgetting it." I smirked at Joker's silence then realised how close I had gotten to the clown king during my rant.

Blushing, I slowly looked up into the man's eye. Who exactly are these two? Are they my friend, or foe?

LGAHD: Annnd That's it for this chapter, hope you all enjoyed it!

November: You had to leave me with the clown king didn't you? (-_-)

LGAHD: Yep!~ :3 Now, please R+R and remember, I don't own HnKnA!

Joker: We HoPe To SeE yOu ThErE...