Vivi bit back a groan as she came to. Her head pounded something fierce. She pried open her eyes and took in her surroundings. She was lying on the ground of a dirty cell. It was illuminated barely by a small bared window.
"HEY! LET ME OUT!" Vivi screamed as she shot up off the ground and started to shake the bars of the cell violently. "I SAID LET ME OUT OR FACE MY WRATH."
"You can do that all you want, but no one is going to listen so you might as well give up." Drawled a tired voice.
Vivi sharply turned around and came face to face with none other than the Knave of Hearts, but it couldn't be, could it?
"Who are you?" Vivi asked in shock, although she had a feeling that her initial thought was correct.
"Ilosovic Stayne or at least what's left of him." He stated.
Now that Vivi got a good look at him it looked as if he had seen better days. He was covered in bruises, gashes, and dried blood. All in all he was an awful sight to behold, but luckily, in her opinion, he didn't look like the guy they got to play him in the movie.
His face was more angular instead of rounded, his eyes were blue not brown, and his nose was straight not hooked although if you looked closely you could see it had been broken a time or two. The only thing that was the same between him and the actor was their hair and height which was a good thing in Vivi's opinion since the actor gave off a kind of creepy, perverted vibe.
"But why are you here?" Vivi asked remembering that Allie basically said she was sent by the Red Queen and he was the Knave of Hearts after all. "What happened to you?"
"This is what happens when one tries to kill the Red Queen. The moment she had outlanders under her thumb she sent troops to find me after I escaped her and I was thrown into a prison cell only to be let out for the Queens entertainment from time to time. She brought me along after taking out the White Queen." He stated as he shifted slightly from his position on the ground to get a better look at her. "Why are you here? You don't look like any outlander I've ever seen."
"That's because I'm not." Vivi said.
"Then you are from Underland or some other country of Lapudis." He said.
"Nope, I'm from, I guess, what you would call above land. Some weird blonde chick kidnapped me and brought me here." Vivi said as she slumped against the bars. "My names Vivian Scarret call me Vivi."
"An above worlder, how interesting." He said, but before they could continue talking a horrible looking guard appeared at the cell doors. His skin were scales, his teeth were pointed and yellow. He was wearing black armor and had red eyes.
"The queen wants to see you knave. She's grown bored." The nightmarish guard opened up the cell and dragged Ilosovic out. Vivi tried to stop them, but one of the other similar looking guards pushed her back. He didn't even fight against them as they pushed him down the hall. As he was being dragged away he met Vivi's eyes and she saw just how defeated he truly was.
"We'll be back for you." A guard said with a sneer and then slammed the cell shut.
"I'll be waiting." Vivi shouted at their retreating backs.
Vivi sat back down on the ground and tried not think about what was happening to Ilosovic or what was going to happen to her. She was alone now. There was no one else in the other cells, which only served to scare Vivi even more. She kept trying to divert her thought from what had happened to their occupants.
She fingered her ring as she sat there and studied it in the waning light. It was a silver band with a sea foam green stone sat in the middle and on either side of the stone was an engraved capuchin monkey. She sat there for quite a while contemplating her predicament and how to escape it, but wasn't having much luck.
'I can't do this on my own. I need help.' Vivi thought desperately. Then all of the sudden her ring started to glow and a light shot out of the ring and landed in front of her. The light glowed and then took on the form of a capuchin monkey.
It had white fur, a sea foam green face, hands, feet, and around his neck was a small red scarf. Vivi sat in a stunned silence as the small monkey sat in front of her.
'Hi, I'm Hasin.' Vivi blinked twice before speaking.
'How are you speaking in my head?' Vivi asked.
'I'm your familiar. You see I am in a sense an extension of yourself I've been with you since birth, but have lain dormant until you had need of me. This ring your friends gave you allowed this to happen. They gave me to you as a form of protection.' Hasin went on to explain Aimee and Priscilla's involvement in this world.
'So that's what they've been hiding. So how are you going to protect me? No offense.' Vivi asked.
'Like this.' Vivi was covered in a blinding flash of blue light and when it receded she was wearing a black sleeveless Chinese style top with sea foam green accents, a black pair of pedal pushers with a sea foam green monkey on the right leg, a red sash was tied around her waist, on arms were a pair of fingerless gloves that went to her elbows tied together with a sea foam green ribbon, and on her feet were a pair of black ballet slippers.
'Ok, you can change my clothes. How does this protect me?' Vivi asked.
'I can increase your acrobatic abilities, and I also give you the ability to control energy in the form any weapon of your choice or blasts of pure energy, plus the knowledge on how to use your new powers.' Hasin explained.
'Well let's try this out.' Vivi put her hands in front her and pointed them at the lock on the cell. A ball of sea foam green energy appeared in front of her hands and the shot out. It shattered the lock.
Vivi sprinted down the hall toward the way the guards had taken earlier. She had to duck around a corner when that same group came back dragging a limp Ilosovic behind them. Vivi chewed her lip for a moment then sprang into action.
'What are you doing?' Hasin asked.
'I can't leave him here.' Vivi said.
'You do know he's the bad guy, right?' Hasin said.
'He used to be the bad guy. I'm pretty sure that after the treatment the Red Queen has dealt him he won't want to work for him anytime soon, people change. Maybe he has. Either way I'm getting him out of here.' Vivi said.
She flipped between the guards and hit their nerve points causing them to crumble to the ground.
'Thank you acupuncture course.' Vivi thought happily.
She then tried to lift Ilosovic to his feet, but couldn't. He was just too big and his unconscious weight was just too much for her.
'Now what?' asked Vivi to no one in particular.
'Here, let me carry him.' Vivi was about to ask how when Hasin was engulfed in light again. When it cleared Hasin was now a mountain gorilla. 'My battle form.'
Hasin picked Ilosovic up while explaining about his battle form and carried him on his back as they ran down the hall. The few guards that they did meet on the way were easily taken care of thanks to Vivi's new powers.
In no time they were out the doors of the black, red castle and making their way across the barren wasteland that was once the flourishing country of Underland.