I do not own Pandora Hearts in any way!

Speech Key:

"The" – Oral/Normal Speaking

'The' – Thoughts

'The' - Telepathic Speech

AN: I'm really sorry about not updating for so long, but you readers must understand that after a long day, one does get tired. And unfortunately, weekends are just as busy as weekdays for me, it seems. Though it hadn't been that way before. So I may just have to wait until I have an actual rest period of time to be lazy to write. Enjoy the chapter!

…Even if it is a bit on the short side…

The Altered Rotation

oO~Honest Truth~Oo

Oz tuned out whatever Break was saying as he looked out the window of the carriage, thinking about what had happened only moments before.

-Flashback-

"Hello father," Oz greeted sarcastically.

"How did you escape you filthy brat!" Zai demanded with his eyes narrowing into slits.

"What no 'how are you' for the son that has been gone for so long?" Oz taunted.

"Silence and answer me this instant!" The older man commanded.

"Let's just say that a little rabbit and a legend helped me," the gold-haired man told his father.

"What do you sp—," Zai began to shout before he realized what his son had just said. "Rabbit?" he whispered. "You of all people used the B-Rabbit's power to help you escape?"

Oz said nothing as he looked at the man who was his father through piercing emerald eyes.

"How did you age?" Zai asked in disbelief, for he knew that one cannot age in the Abyss because of the time warp that occurs in the place.

"That is none of you concern, Zai," the emerald-eyed man stated.

"How dare you, you insignificant, ungrateful child!" Zai roared. "I've done more for you than you know! I'd given you a home when I should have thrown you out into the streets very moment your mother birthed you! Ins—"

"That's right," Oz murmured before raising his voice to address Zai, "You were never there the night mother died. You were away on 'buisness' or so it was said. But I knew that you had something to do with mother's death. Although I don't have all the information I need to prove my accusation valid, I have quite a bit that will help shed light onto the age old mystery."

"You suggest that I killed Rachel?" Zai's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Maybe I am, and then again maybe I am not," Oz said before he snapped his fingers, creating a bit of a light show as he disappeared.

-End Flashback-

"Oz-nii?" Alice called, waving her hand in front of said man's face. When she gained no response, she smacked her Contractor upside the head.

"What the—?" Oz muttered before turning to his charge. "What was that for?"

"You weren't listening to me?" Alice shrugged. "What were you thinking about anyway?"

"It was nothing," Oz told the violet-eyed girl.

"Was it by any chance a lady friend?" Break asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Oz blushed at the insulation before telling the white-haired male to 'kindly shut-up'.

-Rainsworth Manor-

"Ada?" Oz asked as they all stepped out of the carriage. "What are you doing here?"

"It's my spring holiday," Ada explained, "So I decieded that since you and the others came to visit last time, I'd visit this time!"

"Ada?" Gilbert said as he stepped out of the carriage behind his Master.

"Huh?" Ada murmured before a dreamy look settled onto her features once she glanced at the black-haired man.

Just then, Oz and his valet felt a disturbingly dark aura behind them. Turning around, they found Oscar Vessalius standing there, a piercing glare locked onto Raven as said man began sweating profusely.

"Ada," Oscar drawled sweetly, "Why don't you come with Uncle and tell him what's been going on in school?"

Gilbert sighed in relief as Oz just sweat-dropped.

'Oscar seems to be a funny fellow,' Jack commented.

'He can be a bit…eccentric at times, but his heart is in the right place,' Oz told his incarnation, before remembering a few of their past and present escapades,'Well…mostly at least.'

"Actually, Uncle," Oz spoke up as said man began dragging the poor girl away, "There is something that I must speak with Ada about, and no this cannot wait." He gave a glare to his Uncle before gesturing to his little sister to follow him.

He left behind once fuming Uncle, a confused and afraid valet, an oblivious girl with a sleeping cat, and a suspicious man.

Pandora~Hearts

"What did you need to tell me, Onii-chan?" Ada asked once they reached the room Oz currently occupied in the manor.

"I know that you are in love with Vincent Nightray-Ada blushed-, Ada," Oz told his sister straight out, not looking at her, "That's why you stare at Gilbert so much, isn't it? I admit that the both of them do share a resemblance, but they both have very different personalities."

Oz turned and sat on his bed next to his sister. "Vincent isn't as innocent and good as you may perceive him to be. He is involved in more than one occurrence, but one in particular that he hopes that no one will find out."

"Do you remember when I'd told you Alice was a Chain?" Oz asked and received a nod in return. "Believe it or not, but Alice was never a Chain to begin with. She was originally a young and innocent girl with a strange and mysterious, and some may even call it dark, secret. She was somewhat of a normal girl that lived happily, albeit her strange nature…until her murder along with Cheshire's nearly one hundred years before."

"Murdered? One hundred ye—" Ada began questioning before she realized what her brother had just said. "Nearly one hundred years ago? Then that would have meant that Alice was…"

"Yes," Oz said gravely, "Alice was there one hundred years ago at the Tragedy of Sabrièl. It was there and then that her life as a 'normal' girl ended."

"Alright," Ada said, still in a bit of shock, "But what does this have to do with Vincent?"

"Tell me what do you know of Vincent other than the fact that he is Gilbert's younger brother?" Jack inquired.

Ada blushed. "Well, I know he's smart and specializes in information about the Abyss," she said trying to defend herself.

"Do you know why he does or anything else about him?" the elder male pressed.

"…no…" Ada muttered.

"Ada, do you remember when Gilbert came to Vessalius Manor?" the gold-haired man asked.

She nodded.

"Do you remember that no matter what, he would never speak of his past, claiming to have lost it?" he asked again.

Once again, she nodded.

"It was also around that time that Vincent was found in the Nightray Gardens just as Gilbert was found in the Vessalius Gardens," Oz told his sister, "Did you know that?"

Ada shook her head in negative this time.

"Ada, Vincent and Gilbert aren't from this time," Jack began slowly, "They, in fact, are from nearly a hundred years in the past. They lived in Sabrèl during the Tragedy. Gilbert had died, but Vincent had still lived, though he had gone a bit mad in the end and did horrible things."

"Vincent…was from…a hundred years ago?" Ada said slowly as she processed what her borther had just stated. "What did he do?" she asked in a quiet whisper.

"Do you remember when I told you a few moments ago about Alice's and Cheshire's murders during the Tragedy?" Oz asked before continuing without waiting for an answer from his sister. "As I'd said before, Vincent had gone a bit…mad after Gilbert had been killed, trying to protect the Master that they had then from a fatal blow. Someone, I won't say whom, but someone told Vincent that there was a way to save both him and his brother. And being loyal to his brother to a fault, he took that person's advice and did something that caused the entire balance of this dimension during the Tragedy to go haywire. He killed Alice.

"He'd killed Cheshire first to make Alice, for the lack of a better word, sad and angry. After that, he'd killed Alice, causing the entire town to be sent into the Abyss."

Jack looked down at his sister to see her crying with a heartbroken expression painted on her features.

"I'm sorry that I told you all this," the elder male said as wrapped an arm around his sister puling her to his chest, "But if I hadn't and you'd gotten involved with him, he either may never have told you or you might have found out in a cruel and unexpected way."

Oz held his sister as she wept over her first heartbreak until she slumped against him, asleep.

He picked Ada up into his arms and laid her on the bed and tucked her in before walking out of the room.

"I'm sorry, Ada," Jack whispered sadly before shutting the door.

Oz opened the door to the room where everyone had gotten drunk once-upon-a-time, and entered to see Break sitting on the armrest of the armchair Sharon sat in, Alice lay asleep across a couch with Cheshire splayed over her stomach, and Gilbert sat on another couch just across from Sharon and Break.

The white-haired man raised an eyebrow in question at the emerald-eyed male.

Seeing the look directed at him, Oz sighed and just said, "There was just something I needed to take care of before things got too out-of-hand."

Break stared at the twenty-five-year-old for a few moments before nodding.

Oz, then took a seat, awaiting the inevitable conversation he knew was going to come sooner or later.

A bientôt,

TsukiyoTenshi