"I beg of you… My slave who lives somewhere in the universe! Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar spirit! I desire and here I plead from my heart! Answer to my guidance!"
For such powerful magic words they are quite vague are they not? The universe has long since been proven to be far more massive than can be measured and the reflections even more infinite. Beautiful and strong can be defined in numerous ways and differ by one's own views of strength and beauty. However, a plea that comes straight from the heart fueled by a desire created from years of emotional torment by one's peers? That is a voice heard by any who are willing to listen.
The Familiars of Zero is a series of one-shots featuring a plethora of what-if's consisting of a large cast of characters ranging from the unique to the downright bizarre. However, while the cast of familiars will be diverse a few key little details will remain in effect. All familiars will be sentient and will, at the very least, be chaotic neutral. I may include an "evil" familiar or two but I'm not really into writing horror all that much…
All one-shots shall be followed by an explanatory note regarding the new familiar (the who's, the why's, and the what's), a brief summary of what could continue, and finally explanations towards an "OCness" on the pre-established characters. With that said, I hope you enjoy reading:
The Familiars of Zero
By Corvus no Genmu
"Clarity of Madness"
Professor Colbert looked over the crowd of students and their various familiars, counting them up in pairs as he went and found himself frowning. He recounted, slowly this time, and found the same result. Either a student was absent from the class, which he doubted as he took a headcount before the start of the ritual, or said student was doing her best to keep out of the spotlight for as long as she could. He repressed a sigh, wondering once again how much of Karin was in her daughter to be so skittish and yet so brazen all the same. "Miss Vallière, please step forward and summon your familiar."
The other students started whispering amongst themselves and though he could make out what they were saying, he could do no more than offer a mild glare in protest of their words to their fellow classmate. It was a sacred ritual and one he dare not interrupt with necessary lecturing of propriety and honor so he would settle for better punishment later, perhaps a pop quiz or extra homework would do, Founder knows half the children here needed the extra work if the gossip mill ran true.
Young Miss Vallière herself kept a calm and determined façade though inside she was a trembling wreck. Her pink eyes were narrowed with determination to prove her late night proclamation true, and to better prevent herself from little even an inkling of control slip lest this spell fail like all the others before it. She stepped forward and, taking a deep breath to steady herself, began her chant as she slowly raised her wand high into the air. "I beg of you… my servant who lives somewhere in the universe!"
Montmorency, holding her little frog familiar in the palms of her hands, blinked at Louise's words having never heard such phrasing before from any of the other students, herself included. "What kind of chant is that?"
Standing beside her with all the pride borderline on sheer pompousness, Guiche was at least complimentary in his reflection, "It is rather unique."
Even Tabitha, whom was secretly and not-so-secretly called many names herself regarding her sheer apathy towards everything good or bad and whom never took the time to take her nose out of a book save for lessons, did so now and was giving Louise her full attention.
"Oh sacred, beautiful, and strong familiar spirit! I desire and here I plead from my heart! Answer to my guidance!" Louise brought her wand down in a quick slashing motion and with a vicious crack of magical power, the air before the young mage-in-training exploded, sending those not prepared for it to be knocked off their feet. More than a few students complained of this, shooting vicious remarks at the cause but Guiche was busy kneeling beside his primary girlfriend to listen to their words.
"Are you alright, Montmorency?" When she didn't immediately respond he thought the worst but seeing her eyes wide and aware just not looking at him, which to him was a most sordid crime, Guiche turned to find what had captured her interest so and found himself mimicking her shocked expression. "Wh-What?"
It was not just the shock that Louise the Zero had managed to successfully cast a spell, though still with the explosive result, but precisely what she had summoned to be her familiar.
A human, but more than that… a scullery maid…
Her clothes were positively filthy, from the tattered apron to the black-and-white sleeves of her shirt. Were her skirt not already black, it would have been colored it by the soot that splotched in erratic patterns on her person. Her skin was such a sickly pale of white, she almost appeared more dead than alive with her gaunt face, her dark hair short and cut into messy curls but her eyes… Oh her eyes were circled by rings of black and their color was a strange shade of pale green, as though she hadn't slept for such a time that even awake she appeared lost to the depths of her subconscious mind.
"My sacred and beautiful familiar… is this…?" whispered a horrified, with an equal share of scandalized, Louise.
"This makes what you said last night worth it!" laughed Kirche, starting the crowd in their jeers.
"Only the Zero would summon a maid!"
"An ugly one at that!"
Louise grit her teeth and turned her back on the young woman she had summoned to appeal to her professor, "Professor Colbert!"
"Yes, Miss Vallière?"
"Please! Let me try the summoning once more!" she begged.
Colbert shook his head. "I cannot allow that, Miss Vallière."
"Why not?" asked the girl.
"It is strictly forbidden. When you are promoted to a second year student, you must summon a familiar which is precisely what you just did." He allowed a small pause as he stared at the strange commoner and could not quite suppress the quiver that shot through his spine. Eyes like those… what could this girl have endured, the atrocities she had seen, the pain she had experienced, to have the eyes of a veteran of misery, horror, and death?
"But I've never heard of taking a plebian as a familiar!"
Colbert shook his thoughts loose and caught back to the task at hand. "No matter how unorthodox it might be, you cannot simply change the familiar once you have summoned it. Whether you like it or not, you have no choice but to accept him as yours, so please just continue with the ritual."
"But she's—and I'm—!" Her face was turning darker with redness, not quite from anger.
Colbert frowned before he realized and saw some opportunity. "Many have summoned familiars of the same gender before you. Do you think Miss Montmorency had any problems in kissing her frog?"
Louise bit back the first response that Montmorency had already plenty of experiencing with kissing a big-mouth but, for once, bit back the scathing remark and turned to face her familiar that still remained silent and unmoving as stone. She steeled her nerves, steadfastly refusing that she was blushing, and raised her wand into the air once more. "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; grant your blessings upon this humble being, and make her my familiar."
She stepped forward and tapped the maid upon the forehead with her wand and, leaning just a bit on her toes as the girl was only a few inches taller than herself, kissed her on the lips. The result was almost as instantaneous as it was comical.
SMACK!
Louise jumped back, a hand pressed against her slapped cheek with her mouth hanging open, too stunned for words as her familiar suddenly came alive with narrowed eyes and a small scowl, the same hand raised for another slap when the magic finally took root, so to speak.
But something was wrong.
The magic understood the command and had taken to marking the maid as Gandalfr easily but, like a child presented with a new toy, magic inspected the girl from the top of her head down to her toes, from the recesses of her heart to the shattered fragments of her mind and something occurred that was equally good as it was dangerous. Magic, on general principle, is not kind or cruel, nor is it good or evil; it simply is, no if's, ands, or's about it. Magic is a force of controlled chaos, a fragment of impossibility harnessed in such mediocrities as wands and staffs, to be commanded like soldiers on the battlefield, servants in the kitchens, and so on and so forth. Not even in the onset, in the beginning days of Founder Brimir's rise to power, did something occur such as this, for this child of a different world, nay two worlds, had accomplished a miraculous tragedy.
She had earned the interest of magic… and so became more than what she was meant to be.
The binding of will remained just enough as a faint calling, a voice of conscience almost buried beneath a score of people and creatures who all had their own voices and opinions but the augmentation remained and became something different, something more. Gandalfr, the Left Hand of God, is meant only to be the Master of Weapons from the smallest dagger to the largest cannon, anything created with battle in mind but then, what greater weapon was there in existence than the mind, which conceives such things and gives to them form and function? A sane mind is a dangerous mind but imagine, just for a moment, the workings of an insane mind.
Magic could and it liked what it saw.
Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière… had no clue what she was in for… or how much Halkeginia would change from it, but whether that change would be good or bad was yet to be seen. For now, let us settle with the small, yet enormous, change taking place before the young noble.
It was as quick as the blinking of the eye but the changes being so large, it was not difficult to imagine that it should have taken a longer time. The maid's clothes, and the maid herself, had changed as much as a caterpillar does to a butterfly and she appeared no less beautiful for the change. Her complexion had become much healthier, her hair now long enough to fall past her shoulders and neatly combed into long, dark locks. Lipstick the color of freshly plucked peaches colored her lips and her eyes were outlined in black with a dash of pinkish shadow beneath and above. She had traded her shoes for a pair of knee-high black boots with stripped stockings and her shirt and skirt was now replaced with a blue dress that fell to just above her knees with short, puffy sleeves with an apron that was white, for the most part.
The blood stains were rather hard to miss after all, particularly around the pockets upon which were sewn the astronomical signs of Eris and Jupiter. The pendant hanging from a silver chain was made in the representation of Omega, the End sign, and where once her eyes were dull and empty, there was a sudden severe intelligence in them as she glared down, for she now seemed just a few more inches taller than before, upon Louise.
"I don't care for whatever assumptions you might make of me, but I am not the kind of girl that goes about kissing another without so much as a by-your-leave!" She blinked and seemed suddenly aware that she was not where she had expected herself to be, or at least not with those whom she had expected to meet. "This isn't London nor is it…" She turned to regard a surprised Professor Colbert. "Tell me sir, where exactly am I? Is this New Zealand or Australia?"
New what? Professor Colbert blinked and shook his head. "I've never heard of such countries but your are currently in the country of Tristain Miss…?"
"Alice Liddell."
Given the awful state she was in when she was first brought to this not-quite-Earth and not-quite-Wonderland, Alice could almost forgive Louise for considering her as a house maid rather than a true familiar but even the richest of lords and ladies, nay even the royal family of England, did not stoop so low as to have themselves dressed and undressed by the servants, at least when the attire did not require a few extra hands or for the youngest of children that could not be trusted even at the best of times to keep their clothes in a prim and proper state.
She said as much to her "master", whom she never referred to as such though she could not help the sarcastic quotations of her mind, and promptly received a temper tantrum as a result. She walked out on her then, leaving to explore the halls of the castle, finding it to be rather wholesome if a bit dry and dusty but then considering it was made of stone and mortar than bloodied flesh and slimy tentacles…
Rather boring now that she thought about it.
Even now, in the early hours of the morning, the little girl was still stewing mad though her reason for ire was vastly different than it had been with Alice's own transgression (however minute or reasonable it had been) was all but forgotten and the Englishwoman's opinion of the young girl had changed just the slightest bit. It had been a short skirmish between Louise and a red-haired harlot, for the tanned girl's attire was a step below the average wear of the profession, named Kirche who insinuated that Alice's service as a familiar was well-paid if a little overly dramatic.
The only reason that a fight hadn't broken out between the two family rivals was that Alice herself had suddenly found herself in a staring match with a revolting beast of crimson flesh and a tail which burned with fresh flames at its tip. The beast did not appreciate her contemplation of skinning him where he stood, especially with the blade in her hand that was still wet with the blood of its victims and had made a hasty retreat for his life with his mistress chasing after him as he proceeding to run down anyone who stood between him and salvation.
It brought a bit of a smile to Louise's face but the next argument between her and her emerald-eyed familiar was quick to make it disappear.
"I've already told you before, I only take tea with friends Miss Vallière." If the familiar was a reflection of the master, than Alice was doing a splendid job in mimicry of Louise's stubbornness. Though the tea smelled pleasant and the treacle tart looked positively divine, Alice had refused to seat herself across from Louise who was starting to look quite murderous though, to Alice, the expression seemed rather cute than alarming.
She had seen far worse after all.
"I will not sit here and be talked down to by my own familiar!" She turned to stomp away without another word but there was a strangeness that Alice had almost missed were her eyes not accustomed to the strange and bizarre. A salty droplet of water, a tear, that had fallen from Louise's eye as she turned away from her. Alice's frown deepened and she wondered again what that strange feeling in her heart was, one she had not felt often these last several years…
She looked away from the retreating form of her "master" and tried to find some method of distraction for herself and discovered it in the form of the maid she had accidentally frightened last night, one whom had, for whatever reason, seemed to think of her as a friend though she knew next to nothing of Alice save perhaps that Alice had been a maid herself before she had been summoned as a familiar. Siesta, poor overworked girl, was hurriedly trying to deliver cups of tea and plates of finely cut pieces of cake and pie, her arms laden with more than she could carry. With a reproachful sigh, Alice stepped up behind her and grabbed a couple of plates.
"Wha-Oh! Miss Liddell, really you don't—"
"You were kind enough to direct me to the kitchens, Miss Siesta, I can only repay the favor in kind." Alice walked over towards the nearest table and set the slices of cake down before a boy and girl, neither of whom spared her so much as a passing glance as the blonde boy continued to praise the girl across from him.
"Your familiar spirit really resembles you in how cute it is, Montmorency."
Alice took a glance at the familiar in question and found herself smiling for the first time since… well, it was a humorous thing for a girl to be compared to a frog. She turned away, covering up her small bit of laughter with a cough which had the unfortunate effect of catching the lad's attention. "You're that plebian summon of Louise the Zero."
Alice looked over her shoulder, one delicate eyebrow raised in question. Was it to be some sort of insult to be called a plebian? Obviously the boy needed some lessons in the art of cruelty in words and phrases. "And you're that little boy playing pretend at maturity with that younger girl I saw you with last night."
Guiche's eyes widened at the insult. "H-How dare you address an aristocrat in such a manner?" He demanded, angry and shocked that he was being put down but what he perceived as a mundane commoner, and by a girl who appeared no older than he at that. "I shall—"
"Guiche." He froze like a statue as Montmorency's brow furrowed, glaring at him with clear suspicion in her eyes. "What is she talking about?"
Guiche looked more concerned with Montmorency than he was with Alice, a mistake she made sure to rectify even as he tried to cover up the truth. "Nothing but lies I assure you, Montmorency. After all, I—"
"Cannot tell lies in front of your eyes? A rather bad show at poetry but one cannot expect more from a novice I suppose." Alice stated. "Though its continual use makes the phrase lose its credibility." Noting Montmorency's confusion, she elaborated, "I heard him say just as much to that younger girl in regards to the flavor of her… well, need I really say more?"
Confusion was rapidly being replaced with anger and Montmorency's hand started to clench tightly, the once playful frog in her other hand now puffing up like an angry toad to match its master. Both turned narrowed eyes upon a sweating Guiche who rapidly proclaimed his innocence and how aggrieved he was to be facing such accusations from a familiar when Alice interrupted him once again.
"Perhaps I may have been mistaken," she admitted, much to Guiche's relief. "My mind is not what it was and I suppose it's better to ask her yourself wouldn't it?" She gestured at an approaching girl wearing a brown cloak. "Here she comes."
"What?" Guiche squeaked, yes for certainly something in that high an octave had to be called a squeak, turning a stark white.
Satisfied with her work, Alice casually walked away just far enough to not get caught up in the ensuing shouting match. Taking a seat at an unoccupied table, Alice took a sip of tea and watched with a small smile as Guiche buried himself deeper into the grave with both girls double-teaming him with questions and demands too quickly spoken for the boy to answer let alone try and deflect away with more rosy words of praise.
A crowd was starting to gather and they laughed as Guiche earned a pair of slaps from the girls who angrily stomped away, making vows to never again take flowery praises at face value. Alone and his pride hurting, Guiche tried to salvage the remaining scraps as he rose to his feet, struggling to find anything, anything at all, to help him get out of this humiliating situation. He thought that he found it in Alice and the fool had already started to speak before thinking of the consequences though, to be fair, he never could have imagined what they'd be even if he were to be given prior warning.
"Looks like you don't know the manners you should show towards nobles." Guiche accused her.
Alice's brow rose again and she set her cup down on her saucer. "So sorry, am I to curtsey now that you've been given your dues?" The honesty in that response did not appease any of Guiche's shattered pride.
"I shall show you what it means to make a mockery of a noble such as myself, commoner. I, Guiche de Gramont challenge you to a duel."
Alice did not seem to hear him or, if she did, was ignoring him as she took another sip of her tea before answering. "Is it not a man's thing to try and fix their shattered pride with senseless fighting? Either way, I refuse."
"W-What?"
"I have little interest in wasting time playing with an incompetent boy." She set her empty cup down and rose to her feet with all the imperiousness of a queen, turning her back on the stunned Guiche and walking away from him.
"You-You coward!" yelled Guiche. "You're nothing but a coward!"
"Is that the best you can do?" She asked in kind, still walking away from him. "Hurl second-rate insults?"
Guiche ground his teeth, trying to think of something, anything, to get her angry enough to accept his challenge. "You're nothing, familiar! You hear me? Nothing! You're just as worthless as your master, the Zero!"
Alice did stop then and Guiche smiled thinking he had caught her in his trap but he could not see her face and so did not realize precisely what he had trapped was not something to be caught for long. "You say that you would teach me of respecting one's betters? You say that you are worth something while I am worth nothing? You are wrong on both counts. Are you ready or do you need time to make out a last will in testament?"
"Thirty minutes hence, at Vestry Field." He declared hotly, ignoring the barb and stomping off to prepare, believing the sweat on his brow was from the day's heat and nothing to do with the temperature of the familiar's words.
Annoyed that she'd have to wait, Alice wondered briefly just where this Vestry Field happened to be when Louise finally managed to shove her way through the crowd to stand before her with as fierce a glare as the night previous when she tried to make a launderer out of her. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I would think it fairly obvious Miss Vallière." Alice responded. "You are not so small as to be hearing impaired."
Louise flushed redder at the insult but kept her anger focused in trying to make her hand grasp her familiar's wrist but that same damnable dread would not leave her alone! Honestly, she had only been slapped once by her familiar, it was not like the girl could do any worse to her!
"Don't call me short!" she snapped as she struggled with herself to no avail. "You are coming with me to Guiche and you are going to apologize to him! He might forgive you and call off this farce of a duel!"
Alice frowned at that and crossed her arms. "I admit to this duel being a farce Miss Vallière but I will not apologize to that flowery-mouthed twit for speaking my mind. I've as much right to voice my opinion as anyone."
"You don't understand. A commoner can't hope to win against an aristocrat! He'll kill you!"
Alice's left eyebrow rose, as her right had been doing all the heavy lifting as late and it was due some rest. Was it mad to believe that she had heard actual concern buried beneath the hot words of the pink-haired girl? Louise had hid it well but Alice need not shut up like a telescope to see the hidden emotions behind the girl's convictions. Her answer was just a tad warm as she voiced her opinion on death.
"Do you think to save me from death, Louise? Is that why you've brought me here? I'm not afraid to die. At times, I've even welcomed death." With a sad shake of her head, Alice turned away from the stunned Louise and started making way towards where she assumed Vestry Field lay, never seeing how the eye sockets of the skull that adorned the back of her apron gave a reassuring wink to Louise for though Alice may well be ready to die, those whom she carried were not so readily inclined and would fight for her if need be but they needn't worry.
She was ready, but never did she say she was willing.
"I compliment you for not running away." Guiche smiled, closing his eyes as he ran a hand through his golden locks. He whipped the rose-tipped wand in his hand, allowing a petal to fall to the ground. There was a bright flash of magic before a metallic suit of armor rose up from the ground with such speed that earned more than a few awed whispers from the crowd. "I am known as Guiche the Bronze, therefore the bronze golem Valkyrie shall be your opponent."
Alice blinked once and that was enough to show her surprise as distaste became clearly evident. "That's it? All that talk and the best you conjure up is a tin soldier?" There was a strange light slowly making way in the emerald depths of Alice's eyes, a kind of madness beginning to take hold of her mind. In her hand appeared a blade that was as much a knife as a pen was a sword. Longer than a butcher's blade and covered in fine carvings of intricate design, the blade's sharp edge dripped wet with blood.
The golem charged and brought its sword down upon a clouded mist of blue smoke and azure butterflies that flew a short distance and recombined behind the golem's back, forming a whole and unique Alice whose clothes now seemed more like what one would find in an elaborately decorated playing card, specifically one for the queen. The blade flashed forward with a trail of bloody red edged in oblivion black and the golem's head was sent flying through the air with a louder snicker-snack! The body crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut and, hardly satisfied, Alice turned and regarded the stunned Guiche with a bored expression.
"Well?"
The blonde, nay the entire crowd, were shocked by her actions for while there was no mistaking the magic in her dodging the golem's blow, though none present had ever heard of such teleportation spell, there was an awkward strangeness to her weapon, which even now still glimmered with that same maddening light, the same kind that shone on the back of Alice's left hand. There was almost a… not quite sentience more like awareness to the blade, an awareness that was eager for its work to resume once more on a different kind of battlefield.
"If you're just going to stand there catching flies, I've better things to do with my time…"
Guiche's mouth snapped shut and, with a snarl, he waved his wand once more, summoning a trio of golems each armed with swords of longer blade than Alice's own Vorpal one but she did not quiver in the face of these odds for though she seemed frail, she was anything but. Dismissing the Vorpal Blade, Alice turned tightly on the spot as a new weapon answered her unspoken call with a ferocious neigh.
Freshly carved ivory and polished gold shined as a massive equine-shaped club appeared in her dainty hands and the Hobby Horse roared once more as its massive frame was swung into the three golems, piercing them through the breast with its golden horn before Alice raised them up high to slam them into the unforgiving earth. She twirled the Hobby Horse like a baton and set its diamond tip gently into the ground before patting its snout, its glimmering golden eyes still set in a glare upon the horrified Guiche.
"Do you need further demonstration of what I can do with the right toy? No? Then, I bid you a good day, Mr. Gramont." Alice dismissed the Hobby Horse with a delicate wave of her hand and turned her back upon Guiche who was so driven by desperation that he did the unspeakable. Calling forth one more golem, he set it to attack her turned back, uncaring that it broke the rules of conduct his father had instilled in him since birth. All that mattered to him in that moment was to regain what little dignity he had left, no matter that the price for it was his honor.
Alice turned, her hand readying to grasp a weapon but it was already too late.
The golem collapsed, the sword in its hand falling just close enough to cut a few strands of dark, brown hair. Its back was a mess of shredded bronze, the work of some decidedly wicked, feline claws and Alice once again found herself surprised as a grin manifested above the downed golem before a pair of amber eyes set in viciously cruel mirth.
"Well, I must say I'm surprised. Finally pulling your own weight, Cat?"
"Hasn't your time spent in Wonderland taught you nothing or is it that you've forgotten yourself again?" He asked in turn. "When I told you to confront what offends, to challenge insulting talk I did not state for you to be as reckless as the fool who spouts nonsense. Never turn your back on anyone, especially the weak; you would be surprised at the claws they have." What appeared in drifting shades of golden light was what could be called a cat, if a cat had been starved to the point that little muscle mass remained and the short gray fur did little to hide the bones beneath the tattooed flesh. A golden ring glinted in one ear as the Cheshire Cat examined a paw full of claws sharp enough to rend through bronze like bread.
Alice scoffed at that and crossed her arms. "Do not try and bully me, Cat. I'm not that same simpering little girl following a white rabbit down a hole into a realm of madness or traversing through looking glass. I forgot myself once. Never will I make that mistake a second time."
"Forgetting pain is convenient. Remembering it, agonizing. But recovering the truth is worth the suffering, and our Wonderland, though damaged is safe in memory… for now. For you come to this world, without question or concern for the markings on your hand or the result from it? You are branded like a cow and yet you do not think to wonder Why? Perhaps the Carpenter was right in asking whether you are an idiot or a practiced fool. The rules of the game have changed again, Alice. More than you can even begin to realize." Before she had chance to say anything in response to his words, the Cheshire Cat disappeared from tufted tail-tip to his malicious grin and was gone away from the perceivable.
"Hmph. Stubborn feline. Though I suppose he has a point." She turned and started on her way towards the academy, heedless or perhaps just ignoring the stares sent her way as she stopped in front of her stunned "master". "Do you know the way to Professor Colbert's office Miss Vallière? I think it's high time we find out what these runes mean for us." She raised her left hand, where the dull light of the runes had now faded completely with the Cheshire Cat's departure.
Louise's brain was still refreshing itself from one shock after the other. "We? Us?"
"Of course. You were the one to mark me as your familiar so you have just as much right as myself." There was a strange smile on Alice's face now, a small one that didn't seem right on her face only so much that it seemed she couldn't quite remember what that kind of smile meant for rarely did she ever have the feeling that originated it.
Camaraderie.
Gandalfr… The Left Hand of God… Shield of the Void… Master of Weapons… In a way, it was almost flattering if the perks were not outweighed by the drawbacks. The sword that Louise insisted she needed in case Vorpal or her other weapons would not heed her call, was cheaply bought but proved to be a diamond in the rough. Capable of speech and containing an actual self-awareness, the sword thought her strange and wondered what her story was. She told it only when they were alone, no one else privy or necessary to hear the history save for a weapon that, however much she'd deny, brought the same gleam to her emerald eyes as the Vorpal Blade.
That the sword seemed to take it to heart that making her happy was its one solemn duty was somewhat odd to say the least. No matter the oddness of its jokes or stories so long as they brought even a glimmer of a smile to her pale face, it was satisfied. Though Derflinger was in effect another positive for in her grasp she too learned of its true abilities as she had the Vorpal Blade and the Hobby Horse.
Devourer of Magi, an apt name for its ability to consume magic and launch it back with its own force added to the blast.
Of course, Derflinger was only one voice, she had an entire world of them to deal with on a daily basis. She blamed the Cheshire Cat for it. He had to go and show them the way, however unintentional it might not have been, and those who carried her flag nearly overrun the academy those first few weeks though thankfully those few were easy to control… alright, perhaps not quite the right word for it. Coerce maybe? No, too cruel sounding… Well, regardless, the likes of the Hatter and his biomechanical crew was easily dealt with by offerings of tea, the Caterpillar (how he had reverted again she had no idea) some tomes for his collection, and the rest in similar fashion but those were they who were ally-turned-enemy-turned-ally-again or those who were ally-throughout.
Those that weren't were a bit harder to deal with…
The Tweedles, Dum and Dee, had been the first to show and their appearance couldn't have been more inconveniently timed. Right in the middle of the Exhibition of Familiars and had taken to the show as a couple of oversized and under-brained hecklers, calling foul to the human mages for their stupidity in their acts and praising the beasts for their brilliance in their attempts of taming their human pets. Alice was only able to dismiss them back to Wonderland with a threat of invitation to the Queen, the only denizen they feared, to hear their witty repartee in person and they left so fast it was enough to make one's head spin. Unfortunately, by the time she had managed to get rid of them, her chance at showing off had come and gone.
Real pity that.
"Those-those-those morons!" yelled Louise as she stomped away from the exhibition stage, a veritable cloud of thunder and lightning hanging over her head which did little to improve her mood any as she batted it away. "Couldn't you have stopped them from showing up?"
"Were it so easy, I'd have done so gladly but this is not only different but a new experience for me Louise. It was never Wonderland coming to me, it was me going to Wonderland. Be thankful that those two buffoons are at least somewhat controllable."
"Somewhat is right!" piped up Derflinger from where he rested upon Alice's back, the iron clasps of her steampunk-styled dress holding the sword securely in place. "I can't believe you threatened them with her! Do you really think she could come here, to this side of the Looking Glass?"
She didn't answer for there was no answer she could give. As things were, the changes in the denizens of Wonderland were varying from the minute to the extreme and though last she knew, the Queen of Hearts was still contained within the ruins of Queensland, there was no guarantee that she, like some of the others, had also been changed but whether it was good or bad remained yet to be seen. Still, the chances of her coming here willingly were as much so if—
The ground trembled from a massive force of a giant's footstep and indeed there was no better word to describe the living mountain of stone with whole trees serving as coverage for its creator riding atop its head. Easily the size of a small hill with trees larger than a man was tall, it was almost impossible to see the cloaked figure with pale, green hair but it was one that, thanks to her mother's strict teachings, Louise recognized easily.
"W-What the heck?" exclaimed Louise. "That-That's Fouquet of the Crumbling Earth!"
"Looks like you're out of luck." Fouquet commented as her golem pulled back an arm, a hand blending into a huge boulder ready to crush the girls flat.
Alice was already moving as it started coming down, grasping Louise's wrist, she tried to dodge the strike but the ability was limited only to herself and extending it to include the shorter girl would decrease its range dramatically. The fist came crashing down and released a cloud of dust and debris into the air and Fouquet smirked to herself, thinking that she had succeeded in slaying the Void mage and Gandalfr until her mountain golem pulled its arm back to reveal a stump where its hand had been.
Sickly orange light glimmered in the dust cloud before a massive beam of lightning shot forth and sent her golem tumbling back and away before massive claws reached out and took hold of the construct by the shoulders. Another pair of equal size but bearing the membrane for wings reached out and grasped her golem's thighs and with surprising quickness, lifted the golem high into the air.
The wind blew away the last clouds of dust, revealing Alice standing protectively over Louise with Derflinger in one hand and Vorpal in the other, both blades shining with their power though their glows were but the light of fireflies to the markings of the Gandalfr runes that marked Alice's hand which were now aglow with the same hellish light that powered the metallic behemoth standing before her as an enemy-turned-champion.
A massive form of tempered ironworks and molten steel hardened into emerald scale, given liquid mobility to be a metallic mimicry of life. A recreation or rebirth of a monstrosity better off dead than alive with claws large enough to grasp a man and crush bones and flesh into a gory mess of blood and sinew with wings that were now merely a second pair of arms that also bore the same crushing hands, stretched wide with lightweight metallic membrane pulled taut. At the breast, where once a grilled chamber of fire lay, was now a glistening orb of nightmare's light, a globe of liquidized fear shining with power barely contained as great tubes jutted forth from the spine, four in all and all filled to the brim with that same nightmarish concoction with bubbles churning into a hellish froth. Atop a serpent's neck was a head naught but a pair of jaws with knives for fangs and though tightly clenched, sulfurous smoke still flowed upwards with every artificially rendered breath. It possessed no eyes to see and yet there was no mistake the sheer loathing in its gaze upon Fouquet.
It tore her golem apart, ripping whole limbs asunder and causing the construct to collapse into rubble before snatching the falling Fouquet out of the air and slamming her down into the earth. Though the clawed fist absorbed most of the blow there was no silencing the sound of bones snapping or the scream of agony that followed as the motion was repeated three times in all, one for every life Fouquet had attempted to extinguish for her avarice. Carelessly dropping the crumpled, but still living thief, for death was a release never a punishment; the massive mechanical monstrosity turned its gargantuan body to display the prominent marking on the shoulder-plate of its arm, a stylized insignia that could be as much a spade as it was the letter "A".
The head turned to display a scowling mouth upon the frightened Louise who stood quivering behind her familiar for fear of this newest arrival from the nightmarish realm of Wonderland for even Alice herself was trembling at the sight of the creature not for fear's sake, though there was a good portion of it pounding away at her heart, but for the sheer rage in her breast at seeing what she thought was a monster long since vanquished, whose very bones had the Vorpal Blade returned to her hand.
"The Jabberwocky…"
On the next Calling...
"His Father's Son"
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
American McGee's Alice and it's sequel Alice: Madness Returns are a prime example of taking a childhood storybook and turning it entirely upon its ear, awashing sweetness with disgust, wonder with horror, sanity with madness. An unofficial continuation of the Wonderland stories, Alice starts off with our titular heroine going mad when a sudden fire takes the lives of her family, leaving her as the sole survivor to endure the pains of recovery of both her body and mind in a tortuous asylum. Following the white rabbit back down the rabbit hole, so to speak, Alice soon discovers that she is more connected to Wonderland than she presumed and that her madness has infected it and turned it into a horrible nightmare. With the "death" of the Queen of Hearts, Alice's sanity is, somewhat, restored and she is freed from the asylum to start her life anew.
Or so she believed…
Taking a job as an aid for a doctor for orphans of traumatic events such as herself, Alice finds that Wonderland is again under attack by madness not of her own making. Something, or perhaps someone, is trying to make her forget the events of her past, particularly the fire that started it all in the first place. As she traverses through a changed Wonderland, Alice discovers the truth for herself that it was no mere accident, that she was in fact innocent of the crime of her madness but guilty of others, and that the true murderer was far closer than she thought…
That is the basic rundown of both games really and there's not much more to say to that other than Alice herself is armed with a different array of weapons depending upon the game in question. The first game took some original liberties with weapon designs and the only "pure" Wonderland weapon in Alice's arsenal was the Vorpal Blade and some razor playing cards, the rest were a little over-the-top but still somewhat reasonable. Madness Returns introduced weapons that Alice had as toys in her childhood and a few that were "gifts" from some characters as well.
I chose Alice as a "dark" Gandalfr because… well, she is not really light but she isn't dark either, just a sort of gray. If anyone's played the games, they know exactly what I'm talking about but to those who haven't, Alice has made it a point to kill her enemies and spare her allies and/or potential friends. Heck, when she regained her sanity and control over Wonderland, she brought everyone back save for the Jabberwocky of course but then, that was when the Madness returned that he stayed dead but with the added magic of the Void?
He's baaaack… Though admittedly his version is based on a piece of fanart I found but then, when Wonderland went through the "mental reboot", a lot of characters changed from the first game, the Queen and Mock Turtle primarily but there were several others as well.
The interactions between Alice and Louise would be somewhat… strained… at least in the beginning. Alice would not care for Louise's attitude and would not be hesitant in delivering the proper dues but the words of the Caterpillar haunt her still, that she is guilty of the crime of allow others to come to harm before her eyes and that is something that Alice would not allow herself to do a second time. When she begins to realize the difficulties that Louise has faced, and those yet to come, she slowly but surely begins to change her tune.
As for Alice's abilities… thanks to the magic of the contract, her mind has become a weapon, including the byproducts of it. Basically, she can use all the same skills and abilities she has in Wonderland as well as bring objects/people/whatevers into the real world. This idea came mostly from the ending of Madness Returns, which leaves much to interpretation I'll admit though it is faintly obvious that Wonderland and the real world are overlapping but whether it is limited to Alice remains unknown.
This story would be interesting only so much that the lines between reality and madness would eventually become so blurred it would be almost impossible to determine the truth from the fictional. As Alice's control over Wonderland would steadily start to slip, Wonderland would begin to "bleed" over into Halkegnia until the two become almost as one but whether this would be good or for ill… well, that lies currently in the realm of possibility but that's a realm even I dare not tread without the right toys…