A/N: I'm back! Thank you so much to everyone who left encouraging comments/messages while I was gone. It still amazes me that people read and enjoy my work, especially in such a small fandom as this. I'll be uploading more regularly from now on, so feel free to subscribe for updates, or just keep checking back. ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ

Blood perched in the window seat and gazed out across the mansion's front garden. His legs were crossed, one foot tapping absent-mindedly to the rhythm of a song he vaguely remembered from his childhood but couldn't for the life of him name.

Sat at the table nearby, Elliot muttered to himself as he rifled through the mess of papers in front of him. Usually, the noises he made while he worked annoyed Blood to the point where he'd tell him to keep it quiet, but he was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to care today.

He and Elliot had worked on the woman for almost an hour and received nothing in return. No matter how much they'd pushed her, she'd refused to even give them her name, let alone spill the reason why she'd attacked Alice. Now he was left with nothing but the memory of the experience playing over and over in his mind.

Despite what Alice probably thought, he rarely got any pleasure from inflicting violence upon others. He was just very good at it. Then again, that was likely why he still held his role after all this time. Where others were afraid to pull the trigger, Blood never hesitated, neither did he care that his hands were perpetually stained.

So, why did he have such a bad feeling right now?

"You okay there, Blood?"

He looked around to see Elliot eyeing him from the table.

"Fine," he said with a sigh.

Elliot raised an eyebrow as though unconvinced, but decided not to press the matter further. Holding up a bunch of papers, he asked, "What should I do with these old invoices."

"If they're old, throw them out."

"Right." Elliot tore the papers in half and jammed them into the wastebasket by his side while Blood returned his attention to the window.

There was another thing on his mind, too. It had been a while since Alice had left the mansion to visit the Amusement Park. She hadn't told him what she'd gone for – not that he could stop her from visiting other territories, either way – but for some reason, his stomach tied himself in knots when he thought of her walking through Wonderland on her own.

Perhaps it was simply him being overprotective after the the recent attacks. On top of that, it was still daylight. She was probably fine.

How strange, he thought, that not so long ago, he couldn't have given a damn about where Alice was or what she was doing. Now the thought of her leaving his side for just a few time periods was enough to make him anxious.

His eyes followed the path to the gates that Dee and Dum were guarding out of sight, then scoured the forest beyond. Hopefully, it wouldn't be long before he saw a little figure dressed in blue and white emerging from those trees, and he could relax once again.

Come back safely, Alice, he thought to himself. Please.

When Alice opened her eyes, she was greeted by total darkness.

For a few moments, she simply lay on her back, trying to work out where she was. Her head ached with a pain that got worse the longer she thought about it, almost as if she were having a repeat of her hangover.

But she hadn't drunk anything since that night with Blood, had she? In fact, the last thing she could remember was walking through the forest to the Amusement Park. Then someone had tackled her from behind and held a cloth over her mouth...

How strange that she could remember the events directly leading up to her blackout when everything before was so fuzzy. Not that it mattered much now. All she knew was that whoever had attacked her had likely brought her to this place, which meant she was probably in danger.

Raising her head ever so slightly, she looked around the space. Her eyes had adjusted a little to the darkness, meaning that she could pick out a few details. The walls seemed uneven and pitted like the skin of an orange, and a coolness hung in the air, making the hairs on her bare stand on end.

That was when she realised. She was inside a cave.

Alice frowned. Even in the deepest parts of the forest, she'd never come across a cave entrance before. Was she even still in Wonderland? Unless she was in a dungeon of some kind, like the one beneath Heart Castle. She shivered at the thought. Wherever she'd been taken, all that mattered now was getting out of here and finding her way back to safety.

Trying her best to ignore the pain in her head, Alice sat up on the bed and made to swing around. Something rattled at her feet. She reached out to find a pair of thin metal shackles tied around her ankles.

Her heart dropped. She was chained to the bed.

Desperately, she tried to pull her feet away. When that didn't work, she felt around the cuffs for some kind of release, but found only a tiny keyhole on each. It soon became apparent that she wasn't getting out of here without the key.

The sound of footsteps made her jump. She lay back down against the bed a mere moment before a pair of figures entered the chamber from her right. Through the smallest crack under her eyelids, she watched them walk towards her. The taller of the pair carried a lamp, which threw long shadows against the walls and illuminated the blank sockets of their eyes.

Alice held her breath. So, it was faceless she was dealing with, was it? She supposed it made sense. None of the role-holders she knew would treat her like this.

"Is she awake?" said the taller man in a gravelly voice. "I thought I heard the chains moving."

They came to a stop above her and looked down. Not wanting them to know she was conscious just yet, Alice closed her eyes all the way and tried to keep her breathing natural.

"Not sure," said the other man. "She could have just been moving in her sleep."

"Only one way to find out."

Something hard flicked Alice on the nose, making her grunt involuntarily. The taller man chuckled. "Just as I thought. Wakey wakey, sweetheart."

Now that there was no use in faking sleep, Alice opened her eyes. The two faceless peered down at her like she was some kind of specimen in a cage. She tried to sit up, but the shorter one grabbed her arms and pushed her back onto the bed.

"Relax. We're going to set you free." His voice was surprisingly soft.

Alice didn't bother struggling as the other man took a key from his pocket and unlocked the manacles one by one. Even if she ran, she knew nothing about this cave system and how to find her way out. Best to play along with them for now.

"Do you have any water?" she asked hopefully.

"The boss'll have some, if you can wait a few minutes."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "Boss?"

"Don't worry. We're taking you to him." The taller one offered her his hand, but Alice slid off the bed of her own accord.

So long as I comply with what they say, they should let me go, she told herself. After all, they'd let her out of the manacles the moment they'd realised she was awake, hadn't they? If they'd wanted to hurt her, they probably would have done so already.

They walked in silence through the winding passages and chambers of the cave, lit by the lamp that the taller man carried in front of her. The more turns they made, the more certain Alice grew that she never would have been able to find her way out of here on her own. Eventually, they entered a long natural corridor, at the end of which glowed a bright light. Her heart leapt. They were going outside.

Yet what awaited her at the end of the passage wasn't daylight, but something else entirely.

The cavern was as big as a ballroom and twice as high. Alice immediately thought of a beehive. The wall on the left was covered with wooden bunks, stacked one on top of the other and propped up by a network of stilts and ladders, while the other supported a series of platforms that ran all the way around the chamber. Everywhere she looked, faceless carried boxes around, or lounged in the bunks, or sat talking in groups on the floor, their cheerful voices ringing against the walls. There had to be at least a hundred of them.

"Wh-what is this...?" Alice was too astounded to say much more. The whole scene was like something from a fantasy book.

The taller man opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted as a figure called out from the centre of the room. He waved at them as he approached.

"Ah, Alice, you're here. Excellent. I've been waiting to meet you for so long."