A/N: I know I say this every time and you're probably sick of hearing it by now, but I am sorry for the late upload. I will try to get the next chapter uploaded soon, but as you probably know by now, I cannot make any guarantees. Thank you for sticking with this for so long, I truly appreciate it. Thank you for all your reviews, they have been really encouraging. Enjoy this latest installment.


"Oz!" Alice screamed, collapsing as her powers rushed back into her and were sealed tight. Alyss held her up, shocked by the sudden stream of blood running down Oz's back where the bullet had exited. She felt the Way begin to open as Gil and Sharon summoned their chains, and knew that Alice could sense it, too, could sense that she was about to be left in the Abyss.

Oz pressed his hand to his bleeding chest, and turned to face the twins, a huge smile on his face.

"Alice!" he shouted, triumphantly, "Make a contract with me!" he held out his hand towards his precious chain, and was knocked over as two small bodies crashed into him, and two sets of lips pressed up against his, forcing their blood into his mouth, forming a contract with him. His eyes widened and then closed, and he stopped thinking, unable to compete with the power rushing into him.

"Thank you, Oz, for once again becoming my hands and feet." Alice whispered as she disappeared with her win, flowing with her power into his heart.

Sharon paced up and down her study, anxiously waiting for them to come through from The Abyss. By staying in the human world and using her chain to pull them back through, she provided and anchor, so they would appear back in the present, not the future as Oz had originally done. She held her hand up to shield her eyes as a blinding white light flooded the room. Lowering her hand, her eyes widened at the amount of blood before her. Echo's dress was red, with small blue spots showing through occasionally. Vincent's shirt was also dyed red, which wasn't surprising as he had her clutched so tightly to his chest. Gil's shirt had a long trio of scratches running down the front, which were coated in thick red blood. Break's hands were red where he had been coughing into them. Oz had a small gash on his cheek, but his on chest where the seal should be was a ragged circle, with blood running down his shirt. Alice did not seem to be among the group.

"Oz," Gil said, asking an unspoken question to his master. Oz smiled and nodded. Gil breathed a sigh of relief as Liam and about twenty other members of Pandora burst in. Quietly and efficiently, the group took Oz, Echo and Break away to treat them, followed anxiously by Vincent, Gil and Sharon.

Five long agonizing hours later, spent watching the clock go slowly through each second, Liam came out of the room where the wounded three were resting.

"Xerxes' condition is critical, and he has not yet regained consciousness. We hold very little hope that he will even make it through the night." He looked sadly at the floor as Sharon's eyes flooded with tears.

"Echo-chan is stable. Her injuries were serious, but we have been able to close the wounds, and she will be able to get up from her rest in about three days or so." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small see-through bag filled with broken pieces of glass and black blood. "It's a blood sealing mirror. Apparently whatever contract Echo-chan held has been broken, which placed a lot of additional strain on her body." Putting the bag back into his pocket, he stated simply, "Oz-kun has recovered well." He turned to go, and asked "Did we obtain the Will of the Abyss?"

"No." Gil said sharply, opening the door and storming in.

Oz was sat up in bed, grinning as Gil ran over to him.

"Gil!"

Say 'hi' for me! Alice's voice echoed in his head.

Me, too! Alyss's voice echoed back just as cheerily.

"Are you all right, Oz?"

"SHUT UP!" Oz shouted, covering his ears, "Not you," he smiled sheepishly at Gil.

"Vincent-sama?" Echo tried to lift her hand as Vincent came to sit beside her bed. Vincent took it, and kissed her gently.

"Shh, Echo. I'll be right here." He smiled as she drifted back into unconsciousness, never letting go of her hand.

Sharon said nothing as she walked towards Break's bed. His breathing seemed to be nonexistent, and his face was the same ash-white as his hair. Carefully, she took his hand and squeezed gently. He didn't respond as all. Tears burned down her cheeks as she squeezed his hand even harder, but he didn't wake up.

What the hell do you want to say 'hi' to Gil for when you love Oz now?

What? Am I not allowed to be friendly? Even if he is my ex!

What? Do you want to sleep with him again? You're fourteen! He's twenty-four! Technically, you are both over a hundred years old, which is even more disgusting!

Screw you, bitch!

I'd say the same, but Seaweed Head over there has already screwed you!

Well at least I had a real boyfriend instead of some emo chain!

Well, Cheshire did a better job of protecting me than Gil did protecting you!

When?

Why the hell do you think this started? Because your ex is scared of cats! Who the hell is scared of cats?

Well Vincent already killed Cheshire once. Maybe if I ask nicely, he'll do it again!

You wouldn't dare!

Wouldn't I?

No, because Cheshire knows the REAL truth of a hundred years ago! He knows who REALLY killed you! And it wasn't Vincent!

...

What do you have to say to that?

Go back to the Abyss and play with your dolls, freak!

"Will the pair of you-"

SHUT UP! Two voices screamed back at Oz, who sighed and turned to Gil, trying to block them out.

"Can you make them come out, like Break did after I first got back?"

"No. Due to there being two chains of such immense power, you have to wait at least two days to for your body to stabilise so it will be able to cope with the absence of the chains."

"Two days?"

What are you whining about? You're not trapped with this bleached freak.

"I'm trapped with both of you, now shut UP!" Oz shouted. Gil couldn't repress a smile.

"What happens now?" Oz asked.

"Now that we've obtained the Will of the Abyss, we have to keep it a secret." Gil said seriously, "So we need to silence the Baskervilles in order to do that."

"Does this mean..."

"Yes, there's going to be a lot more danger from this point onwards."


A/N: The original storyline I conceived has ended here, but I think I actually might go on a bit further, I'm seeing a few other ways this could go, plus I'm enjoying the double contract between Alice, Alyss and Oz. I think that I might end the official AlicexGil pairing here (even though it truly breaks my heart), although there may be a few casual pairings with them later on. Thank you again, everyone, for all your support :)