I do not own Pandora Hearts in any way!

Speech Key:

"The" – Oral/Normal Speaking

'The' – Thoughts

'The' - Telepathic Speech

The Altered Rotation

oO~A Different Dimension~Oo

"He's back," a voice whispered, "He's really back…"

"But how?" Vincent exclaimed, burying his face in his hands. "I saw him! He was completely covered in blood! He wasn't even moving!"

"How did he survive?" the blonde-haired man whispered once more.

-Grand Estate-

"What was so important about that grave?" Gilbert asked, as the trio walked back into the mansion, where Break and Sharon were waiting. "And why did you need to know the name of whoever was buried?"

"I think you'll recall me telling Alice the origins of the song playing from the pocket watch?" Oz asked his dark-haired friend, watching Alice as she bounced along ahead of them.

Gilbert nodded.

"Well, if you recall, I said that Lacie was a very important person to Glen Baskerville," the gold-haired man explained, "The watch I found on her grave played the melody of the song she sang, composed by Glen himself."

Oz and Gilbert stopped in the garden and sat underneath a cherry-blossom tree, while Alice ran around playing.

"Glen loved her," Oz continued, causing the dark-haired man to look at his friend in shock, "He truly did, and his affections were returned. But just as it was written on the grave, she was an 'unfortunate sacrifice'."

"What do you mean by that?" Gilbert questioned. "You can't mean that he…" he trailed off when he saw his gold-haired companions, eyes close in silent confirmation. "You're kidding! Why? Why do that to someone you care about?"

"Did you know that he kept a young girl locked up in a tower all because she had a special connection to something powerful and almost sinister?" Oz asked suddenly. "The Baskerville's goal is to obtain the Will of the Abyss. Glen was so obsessed with this goal that his obsession blinded him from the things he once loved. So when he was executing his plan, he killed Lacie without a second thought, though he felt remorse for killing the one person who loved him as he did her. So he gave her a proper burial and left the music box, or the watch more specifically, at her grave, where it remained for over a hundred years, until I found it and took it.

"Blinded by obsession, Glen killed anyone and everyone just to try and reach his goal," Oz finished.

"He killed off someone he loved all because of a stupid goal?" Gilbert exclaimed, aghast.

Oz nodded sadly.

"You know something else don't you?" Gilbert accused. "You're not telling me everything, but you didn't tell Break or Sharon everything, either. What are you hiding? When will you tell us everything?"

Oz closed his eyes and turned his face towards the sun. "Someday. I hope to reveal everything someday, but no earlier than needed."

Pandora~Hearts

"Well," Break said, "What do we do now?"

"The Baskerville know that Jack Vessalius is back," Sharon stated, "Is that a wise decision?"

Oz did look at them, but rather out the window as he spoke. "If they knew that Oz Vessalius was back, then we would have a much bigger problem. Jack Vessalius isn't a large problem for them, since they won't bother with someone thought to be dead. But they attacked Oz Vessalius for a reason," Oz turned to looked at the other four in the room, "They believed that since Oz was the one to fulfill the prophecy of the Silent Clock Tower, he might have some kind of power that will stop the Baskerville."

"We understand all that, but what do we do now?" Sharon asked once more.

"We go ahead and search for more of Alice's memories," Oz stated.

Sharon and Gilbert were about to protest as Break stood there against the wall with a calculating expression painted on his face.

"Searching for Alice's memories will bring you all closer to your goal," Oz said, effectively cutting both people's protests, "My mission is to defeat the Baskerville and find Alice's memories, while yours is to find out the truth of what happened a hundred years before. You may not know it, as I do, but our quests are intertwined. The more of Alice's memories we find, the more you shall discover."

"Is Alice-chan involved in what happened a hundred years ago?" Sharon asked carefully.

Felling everyone's eyes on him, Oz sighed. "Yes."

A tense silence befell the group.

"Break," Oz said, suddenly, breaking the silence, "You want to go t the Cheshire Cat, do you not?"

Break looked surprised before nodding. "Very good, Oz-sama, you've figured it out, but I don't suppose you'd know why?"

"I do," Oz stated, "But I rather not say. That is your little mission."

"How do we get to the Cheshire Cat, then?" Gilbert asked.

"Eques can take you all there, but I can't go," Sharon spoke up, gaining everyone's attention, "Eques can bring you all to the Cheshire Cat's dimension, but I have to warn you, since there will be four of you going, I can't guarantee that you'll end up together."

"What do you mean by that?" Gilbert asked.

"She means that since more of us are going, while traveling, we might be separated," Oz explained, "Eques can only bring two people to the same place, but any more than that, and there is a chance that we might be separated, and land in different parts of the dimension, but if luck is on our side, we will all end up in the same spot together."

"Well, then, shall we head out to see him?" Break asked cheerfully.

Sharon just nodded and told the quartet to stand together.

A ring of black and violet erupted from underneath their feet before it became a large column of black enveloped the group before it morphed into a sphere, containing the four and disappearing all together.

-Nightray Manor-

"If Jack's told them anything, they're most likely to go to his place soon," Vincent said, "After that, it's only a matter of time till they find out…"

He looked up with a determined expression. "No, they won't. Not if I have anything to do about it."

"Echo!"

-Cheshire Cat's Dimension-

Gilbert crashed to the floor in a heap, but just as he was getting up, he once again, ended up on the floor, due to the fact that Oz had crashed down right on top of him.

"Okay, that wasn't exactly how I thought this would go," Oz said sitting up, not knowing he was sitting on his friend, until he felt squirming underneath him.

The Gold-haired man looked down to see his friend, face-down upon the floor. "Ah! Gilbert, sorry! You okay?"

Gilbert just lifted his face from the tiled floor with a vengeful look on his face. "Oz…" he growled out slowly, "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"Huh?" Oz sweat-dropped, before seeing Gilbert's expression.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Oz shouted as the black-haired man ran after his gold-haired companion.

'Gah! What do I do now?' Oz thought apprehensively as he continued running from his friend. He thought about anything that could probably distract Gilbert, when a thought hit him. 'I have no idea if this'll still work even now, but it's worth a shot! I never really found out, either, why he's afraid of cats…'

"CAT!" Oz shouted. Stopping and pointing to something behind Gilbert.

The black-haired man froze at that and turned around with a panicky look on his usually bored face. He quickly spun around to see nothing but air, and heard soft snickering behind him. Gilbert turned around to glare at Oz, which made the snickers become a full-blown laugh.

"I'm sorry!" Oz said laughing. "But it was the only way to make you stop! I didn't know you hadn't gotten over your fear of cats!"

Gilbert flushed a bit in embarrassment all the while glaring at his friend and master.

"Where are we?" Gilbert asked, quickly changing the subject.

"If my suspicions are correct," Oz said, "We have arrived in the Cheshire Cat's dimension. Though, it seems that we've been separated from Alice and Break as well as little Emily."

At that, the black-haired male looked around to see that Break, his annoying doll, and Alice were, indeed, not there.

(AN: I'm not going to bother describing the Cheshire Cat's dimension. If you've watched the anime, then you'd know what I'm talking about. If not, then BOO HOO for you!)

"Let's go and find our Cat," Oz said, starting off in a random direction, Gilbert walking in step with him, beside him.

"Oomph!" Alice grunted as Break landed on top of her.

"Well, this is quite an interesting place to be hiding," Break commented, looking around at their surroundings.

"Get off of me you stupid clown!" Alice shouted.

"Oh dear," Break told Emily, "It seems I've made our little bunny angry!"

"Bunny's angry! Bunny's angry!" Emily giggled on Break's shoulder.

Alice only growled, causing Break to chuckle as he got off of her.

"Oh my," Break said after a moment's slience, "We've lost both our companions as well."

Alice looked around to see that he was completely correct; Oz and Gilbert were nowhere to be seen. "So now what, Clown?" she asked in a bossy tone.

"I suggest we run away," Break said with a smile.

"Huh?" Alice asked, completely lost.

Break then pointed to something in front of them.

Alice looked in the direction the white-haired man pointed, only to come face-to-face with rose bushes with sharp, thorny vines ready to attack, and demented chess pieces with their weapons poised for attack.

Alice blanched at that and was still, until Break scooped her up into his arms and ran in the opposite direction, the abominations flowing them.

"Let me down you Clown!" Alice shouted.

"Ah, but that would mean that you would have to walk or run and that would only slow us down," Break whined lightly, before his face shifted into a thoughtful expression. 'It's quite amusing, really, to see this young girl, the legendary B-Rabbit acting like an innocent young girl with Oz-sama and hostile with others. I wonder if this has anything to do with her past? Or even the Tragedy?'

Just then Break let Alice down and looked around to see that they had run into a hall with mirrors in the walls.

Alice then felt what seemed like s shock run through her head. Her eyes widened as she looked away in another direction, completely forgetting about Break for the moment. 'A shard! A shard of my memory is here!'

Break noticed the glazed over expression was about to try and shake her out of it, only to look into the mirror beside him and see a haunting image.

Pandora~Hearts

The figure break saw in the mirror was a spitting image of him, only he had longer hair, about mid-back, and bandages were wrapped over his left eye and around his head.

He wore a pair of dark-grey loose-fitting slacks, a white long sleeved shirt with long bell-sleeves that had ruffles at the ends of the shirt which stuck out of the sky-blue justaucorps coat he wore. The coat itself was sky-blue with gold lining and gold fastenings. He wore a pair of dark-grey, almost black, dress shoes.

Pandora~Hearts

The image's mouth twisted into a wicked grin before it reached out of the mirror and wrapped on arm around Break's waist while the other wrapped its hand around Break's mouth, muffling whatever the white-haired man wanted to say. The image dragged Break to the mirror until he was close enough to it and dragged him inside of it.

Alice finally snapped out of her trance and looked around for Break and Emily.

"Stupid Clown left me!" Alice told herself incredulously.

Another shock ran through her head. She shook it off and walked in the direction she felt her memory calling, completely forgetting about Break and Emily once more.

A bientôt,

TsukiyoTenshi