Disclaimer: I own Abby, Cillian, Griffin, Samuel, and Samantha and nothing else.
Abby had slept unusually well for not having a bed. She had slept so well that she was a bit disoriented when she woke up. "And she lives" came a voice. It wasn't one that she recognized and so she bolted upright. It was only then that she realized that something was wrong. Her hands were bound together.
"What?" She asked, confused. Samuel was already awake and didn't look happy.
"No one ever finds out that we were both tied up in our sleep by a single little girl." He grumbled to Abby.
"What's going on?" Abby asked.
"You're getting to your feet and you're coming with me." The girl said. "And I'm not a little girl." She added. She was wearing black pants and a white tank-top. She had a rather large gun strapped to her left leg and a backpack was hanging from one of her shoulders. Her white hair was styled into long pigtails which she had draped over her shoulders. Her voice was a bit deeper than Abby would have expected and she had an accent that Abby couldn't place. She sounded almost like Griffin. If she had looked anything like Griffin Abby would have suspected that she might be Griffin's sister. However, they looked completely different. "What are you two waiting for? On your feet. I'm late." She demanded, her hand obviously itching to grab her gun.
Abby immediately scrambled to her feet while Samuel took his time. "You're making a big mistake, little girl." Sam said.
"I'm not a little girl and no I'm really not making a mistake." She said.
"Oh yes you are. I'm the Queen's brother. She's not going to be too excited when she finds out I've been taken prisoner." Samuel said.
"You've mistaken me for someone who cares. All I care about is what the Resistance will pay for you." The girl said.
"Resistance? But the Queen is good now. She was just….it's hard to explain but she's good now. So, you can let us go. There's no reason for the Resistance to want us or to even exist" Abby said.
"Best I get you to them quickly then. Make no mistake. I'm on no one's side. I just want to get paid." She said, motioning for them to walk ahead of her.
From that point on they walked in silence. Whenever Abby would try to say anything the girl would shush her. Abby hadn't realized just how close they were to the city until they arrived. It was still morning when the girl rapped on a door and said some things that really didn't make sense to Abby. It was something about a library book and the Nile.
She then had Abby and Samuel walk in ahead of her. They were on some kind of bus which Abby was surprised to discover was actually an elevator. "Get a move on" the girl snapped at them as soon as the doors opened. They were led down an open hallway to a rather large office.
"Ah, you brought me a surprise, Weiss. You really didn't have to." A rather large man in a black coat said.
"Oh, I really did." Weiss replied.
"We don't have much room for prisoners. Might as well have fed them to the Jabberwock." The man said.
"You really wouldn't want to feed the Prince of Wonderland to a Jabberwock, would you Dodo?" Weiss asked with a smirk. Abby's eyes widened. This was Griffin's grandfather?
"The Prince of Wonderland?" Dodo asked, his expression changing to one of excitement. He hadn't even looked at the two prisoners until that moment. When he saw Abby, his face changed again. "You look rather familiar." He snarled at her.
"You don't." she replied.
"What do you want for them?" Dodo asked, turning to Weiss.
"Three times my normal price." She said.
"Did you bring the supplies as well?" Dodo asked. Weiss responded by taking the backpack off of her shoulder and dropping it on Dodo's desk. "Then we have a deal. Help me get them to the cell." He said, a smirk crawling across his face.
"You're going to regret this." Sam said, staring at Weiss as she grabbed his arm to pull him along. Dodo had already reached out and snaked a hand around Abby's arm. She absolutely did not like having him touch her and struggled to get her arm free, but it was no use.
"No, I'm really not." Weiss said with a smirk.
"When I'm released I'm going to hunt you down and lock you up." He said.
"I'm sure you will." Weiss said in what Abby thought sounded like a teasing voice.
They reached a room that had one small cell in it with handcuffs attached to the side. Weiss led Sam into the cell first and attached a handcuff to his wrist before untying his arms. As she was about to leave, he reached out and clamped his hand around her wrist. "I'm giving you one more chance to let us go." He said.
Weiss didn't seem all that alarmed that he had a hold of her. She actually smiled at him. "You know, I don't mind you. I might have to come back for you." She said. She then slipped her wrist out of his grasp and exited the cell before he could try to grab her again. Dodo then hooked another cuff around Abby's wrist and was about to leave when Weiss demanded he give her back her rope. The old man struggled to undo the knot that Weiss had tied, but eventually got it off. He then locked the cell and left with Weiss, probably to pay her.
Samuel let out a shout and then kicked the cell. "Calm down" Abby said, glad that she had a free hand as she was able to take a hairpin out of her hair. "I'm going to try to remember how this goes." She trailed off as she started to try to pick the lock with the pin.
"I'm sorry, Abby. I didn't…I mean. I don't even know how she managed to take us prisoner without even waking us up." He said. Abby wasn't even listening as he went on. She was just working at trying to remember how she'd picked a lock with Griffin's assistance a month earlier. She worked on her cuff for what seemed like forever before she finally heard a click and the mechanism released. "You did it!" Sam said suddenly. "Get the door." He said. She had been going to try to pick his lock first, but nodded and turned, reaching through the bars and trying to pick the lock on the cell door. It took even longer to pick that one than it had to pick the lock on her handcuffs.
She had just gotten it open when the two prisoners heard a noise coming from the hallway. It sounded like…singing? Yes, Dodo was definitely singing and the noise was getting louder.
"Go" Sam said.
"I can't just leave you." Abby said.
"We're not talking about this. The cell is open and you're not going to be able to get my cuff off before he gets here. So, get out of here. Get to Samantha and have her send some suits here. I'll be fine. Go." He said. Abby looked around, but there was only one entrance to the room. She ended up standing off to the side of the door and waiting for Dodo to come through. When he did, she quickly punched him in the stomach and ran around him and down the hallway.
He recovered quickly, though, and Abby heard the familiar sound of gunshots. She ducked instinctively and continued running. She remembered how to get back to the bus, but once she got in, she had no idea how to get it to work. She just started pressing buttons and pulling levers. She only turned to glance at the hallway once and saw Dodo rushing to try to catch her. "No, no, no, no…" she trailed off as she frantically continued trying to get the bus to go when finally it started. She didn't even know which button she'd pressed, but she was soon out of Dodo's sight and slumped into the seat, relieved.
Her relief didn't last long, though. Soon, she was off of the bus and running through the city. She knew that she had to get back to the castle as soon as she could. She didn't even feel like she could waste a moment as she ran, trying to find a quick way out of the city. That was when she saw it, a boat. She rushed to it and, without even a single thought as to who might be the owner of it, started it and steered boat out onto the lake.
She forced it to go as quickly as it could and was soon on the other side of the lake. The only issue with this was that she had absolutely no idea how to get back to the castle from there. She ended up wandering in the forest, hoping to run across some landmark that she would recognize. It wasn't until late that night that she did find just that. She found the Kingdom of the Knights. She contemplated stopping and asking the White Knight Charlie for help in getting to Heart Castle, but the decision was made for her when the man came, seemingly out of nowhere, running at her and shouting nonsense.
"Woah" Abby said, raising her hands. The old knight skidded to a stop, his hand on the hilt of his sword.
"Just Alice?" he asked. "No, Abby." He corrected with a smile. "What brings you to this place?" he asked.
"I need some help." Abby said.
"Ah, you've come to consult the spirits of the beyond…" he trailed off, put his fingers to his ears and started talking nonsense.
"Charlie?" Abby asked, but Charlie just continued. "Um, Charlie. I just…" Charlie then interrupted her.
"You have a follower. The rabbit is trying to catch you." He said with his eyes still closed.
"Actually, I was hoping you might know how to get to Heart Castle. I need to get there and soon." Abby said. She didn't think much about what he had said. He just tilted his head a little.
"Why would you want to go there?" he asked.
"It's a long story. I need the Queen's help." Abby said.
"The Queen is back on the throne? How could this have happened? Come, I'll…"
"No, no. The new Queen. Queen Samantha. I need her help. The Queen of Hearts is not ruling Wonderland again. She's never going to rule Wonderland again." Abby said.
"Oh, I see. Well, I think I remember where the castle is…" Charlie trailed off, turning and squinting as if he was trying to see the castle. "Ah, yes…we have to go in the morning after you've gotten some sleep." He said.
"No, we should go now." Abby said.
"No, it's far too dark to wander around in the forest. Come on." Charlie said. Abby was tired and hungry. She sighed.
"Okay, but we have to get up early." She said.
"Of course." Charlie replied.
After a fairly large meal of something that Abby had never heard of before, Abby went to sleep. The next morning they headed out early on horseback. It was early afternoon when Abby started to wonder if Charlie actually knew where they needed to go when she saw the castle ahead of them.
"You did it, Charlie!" she said happily.
"Well, of course I did!" the knight exclaimed.
Some suits greeted them and took their horses so that the two could enter the castle. Abby immediately found her way to the throne room with Charlie behind her. Samantha was exactly where Abby had hoped she would be.
"Abby…" Samantha started.
"Sam and I were taken prisoner. I escaped, but he's still being held captive." She said quickly, interrupting the monarch.
"Taken prisoner?" Samantha asked, concerned. She seemed to have forgotten what she had been going to say in light of this new information.
"Yes, he's being held in the city by Dodo." Abby replied.
"Do you know where?" she asked.
"Yes." Abby said.
"Could you lead suits there?" she asked.
"Yes." Abby answered.
"Then you and some of my suits will leave for the city at once." Samantha said. She then turned to a suit and gave him orders.
"But the Scarab isn't here…" the suit replied.
"Oh, that's right…send a suit on flamingo to bring it back. I'm sure that they will be fine with coming back either that or they can just wait for the Scarab to come back to them." She said. She then turned to Abby. "It will probably be a few hours before you can leave. Tell me exactly what happened." She said.
Abby said that they had been trying to dig through one of the rabbit holes all day at her request and that when night came they just slept in the forest. Out of respect to Samuel's wish that no one ever know that they were taken captive by a single girl, she left out all details of their captor. "When we woke up, our hands were tied." She said. "We were led into the city and to Dodo. I only escaped through sheer luck." She said. Samantha nodded.
"You should rest." She said. She then looked at Charlie. "I will have accommodations made for you as well." She said. Charlie gave the Queen a bow as the two were escorted from the throne room. Abby immediately went to find Cillian because she knew that he would probably want to know about what had happened. However, he wasn't in his room. She spent the next hour or so wandering around the castle looking for him in places that he could usually be found.
"That's strange" she said to herself. Charlie had already been taken to a room that had just been fitted for him. "Where would Cillian have gone?" she wondered as she continued to wander the castle. She couldn't find him anywhere she looked. She finally ended up asking one of the suits who didn't know. When the Scarab finally returned, Cillian still was nowhere to be found.
Samantha had come to see Abby and the suits off. "Where is Cillian?" Abby asked her. Samantha looked at her as if she was surprised.
"Oh, I didn't tell you. He and the others went to the city earlier." She replied.
"Oh." Abby said.
"They've obviously stayed behind. Make sure they come back as well when you and the suits have retrieved Samuel." She said. Abby nodded.
"Okay." She said, assuming that she meant that Cillian had left with some suits. She nodded and then boarded the Scarab along with about a dozen suits.
Meanwhile, Hatter, Griffin, Cillian, and Samuel had just escaped the Library and split up. Hatter and Griffin automatically rushed toward the docks to try to follow in Abby's footsteps. They knew that Weiss would be on either their trail or Cillian and Samuel's within minutes and so they didn't waste any time in running as quickly as they could.
When they reached the dock, though, there was a problem. No boats were tethered to the dock. Hatter looked behind them, but didn't see Weiss following. "We need to get going. Abby has quite a lead on us and it looks like we'll be taking the long way around." He said, motioning for Griffin to follow him.
They made their way through the edge of the city and into the forest without any hint of Weiss following them. "So, what are we going to do?" Griffin asked.
"We'll make our way around the lake until we find the boat that Abby took. Then we'll try to figure out where she went from there." Hatter said simply. Griffin just nodded and followed Hatter silently through the forest. It was late that night before they stopped to sleep. Griffin was apprehensive because he knew that they might be ambushed in their sleep. However, they passed the night in peace and continued their search in the morning.
"I hope that Cillian and Samuel got away from that girl, Weiss." He said simply.
Hatter nodded briefly. "They probably did. We at least had better hope they did. If not, she'll be on our trail." He said.
Cillian and Samuel had run in the opposite direction from Hatter and Griffin as soon as they got out of the bus. Cillian was leading the way to the Scarab. It hadn't been too long since he, Griffin, and Hatter had left it, but he was surprised when he couldn't find it.
"Where is it?" Samuel asked as they ran.
"It should have been here. I…I could have sworn it was here." Cillian said as they rounded a corner and he slowed to a stop. "It should be here." He said, taking a few steps forward.
"Aw, poor boys can't find their way?" a taunting voice called from behind them. Both men turned quickly to see Weiss. "Come on, let's make this easy for everyone." She said with a smile, putting a hand on her gun. Samuel's eyes narrowed.
"Neither of us are going back to that man." Samuel said.
"So serious…" Weiss said with a shake of her head as she slowly walked forward. "Put out your hands like a good boy." She said.
Cillian was farther away from Weiss than Samuel and around the corner of a building. Samuel moved slightly so that he would be more in Weiss's way. "Run you idiot." He finally said. Cillian didn't argue, he just ran off and Samuel stayed, facing Weiss.
"Alone at last…" Weiss said with a smirk as she reached for a rope with her right hand. Her left was still on the handle of her gun.
"You're not going to take me in that easily." Samuel said.
"Pity." Weiss replied before drawing her gun. "Now, put your hands out. I'll even agree to not chase after your little cousin if you play nice." She said, aiming at the Prince.
Samuel looked like he was contemplating her offer. "You wouldn't shoot me." He said.
"You sound fairly confident about that." Weiss said, taking a few steps toward him. "You'll put your hands out." She said.
"Look who's confident now." Samuel countered as he took a step back, finding himself on the edge of the walkway.
"We both know that you have nowhere to go. It's either you come with me willingly or you try to run and I shoot you." Weiss said, suddenly turning serious. "So, come away from that ledge and you'll be able to escape again later. Don't forget, you still need to hunt me down and lock me up." She added, the smirk returning to her face. Samuel looked at where Cillian had been and sighed, his gaze moving back to Weiss.
"You won't go after him?" he asked.
"I give you my word." She replied. Samuel's head dropped, and he took a few steps toward her, holding out his hands. Weiss's smile grew. "That's a good boy." She said as she holstered her gun and tied his hands, starting to lead him back to the library.
Author's Note: If you hadn't noticed, yes Abby just missed Griffin and Hatter again…and she's totally the reason why Cillian and Samuel didn't find the Scarab. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a review and tell me what you liked/didn't like about the story so far.
Kelleyj: Weiss is a very good tracker indeed. Yet again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as all of the others.