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 I'm like wicked busy sometimes, and because of that, very tired. Now in this chapter, I've added in a new character based off of an already known one, so I hope you like it! Enjoy the chapter!
The Altered Rotation
oO~Reenactions & Unknown Peices~Oo
The group sat in silence, waiting for someone to break it, though the only sounds heard were the soft snores of Alice and Cheshire.
"So, then, how did your meeting with the Baskerville go?" Break asked in his usual happy-go-lucky attitude, but you could tell that he was quite serious about the question.
"Fine," Oz said after a pause, "Though I believe that I may have put him into shock with the information that I'd revealed about myself."
At this, everyone sat up straighter.
"You did what?" Gilbert all but yelled; eyes wide in shock and disbelief.
"I. Told. The Baskerville. Who. I. Really. Was," Oz slowly enunciated each word.
"WHAT!" the black-haired man shouted, somehow managing not to wake Alice or the Neko-Chain.
"Oz-kun," Break began, "Why tell something important to an enemy?"
"Maybe because the enemy I spoke with is my father," Oz said with venom in his voice.
"Father?" Break questioned with a raised eyebrow.
'It looks like it's finally time to tell them, huh?' Oz thought to himself before speaking.
"Yes," he said, "My father. A Baskerville. The same Baskerville who'd sent me into the Abyss in the first place."
All was silent.
Not a word was said.
That is, until a strangled, choking noise came from Raven's throat.
"Zai Vessalius sent you to the Abyss ten years ago, Oz-san?" Sharon asked.
Oz nodded. "I don't know exactly the reason why, although at the time, he'd said that it was because I'd committed what was considered the 'ultimate sin'. But other than that, there is one more thing that he may have something to do with, though I'm not entirely sure if my assumptions are correct, as I still don't have a few pieces of the puzzle that I need."
"Exactly what else was your father involved in?" Break asked curiously, though an underlying tone of seriousness could be detected as well.
"That," Oz told the white-haired man, "Is for me to know and you to maybe find out eventually."
"Cheeky little brat aren't you?" Break's eye twitched.
"I am," Oz gave a cheeky smile in return.
"Ahem," Sharon coughed.
Oz flushed slightly as Break coughed to try and bypass his embarrassment.
"Well, what are we going to do now?" Oz asked. "I mean, between stopping the Baskervilles and finding Alice's memories there's not much I can really think of! I know that Alice's memories are usually found in specific things or even Chains possibly."
"Then it's simple as to what you should do now," Break said.
"What?" Jack asked cautiously, slightly fearing the white-haired man's response.
"Just keep on trying to find Alice's memories," Break said simply, "As you find Alice's memories, you just might find a way to stop the Baskervilles."
Jack mulled the thought over in his head for a while before agreeing. "It's true. From what I've been able to find out, the Baskervilles want to gain control of the Will of the Abyss. And in order to do so, they need Alice, but they don't want her to remember anything, as her remembering everything would just end up messing their plans up to the extent where they would need to 'disappear' once more to find another way to claim the 'other' Alice."
Break, Sharon, and Gilbert looked surprised.
"Hmm," Sharon said, "I didn't really think of it that way."
"Well, then, what are we going to do?" Gilbert asked. "It isn't like Oz can just redo everything to find the answers to his problems!"
Everyone blinked at the exclamation before they all broke out into simultaneous grins.
"Gilbert," Oz said as said man turned to him, "You are a genius."
"Huh?" Gilbert said, not realizing what he'd said to elicit such a reaction.
"Oz-kun can go back to the Chapel of Legend and re-perform his Coming-of-Age Ceremony," Break explained, "By doing that, we might be able to find a few more answers to this mystery."
'And if things happen accordingly,' Oz thought, 'I might just be able to find about a bit more about my mother's death. Well, that, and I can finally "Come of Age".'
-Elsewhere-
'He's…back?' Zai thought in disbelief as he sat atop a building, hidden from everyone, anyone and anything around him. 'But how? Once sent to the Abyss, there is no escape. So…how?'
'He dares to blame me for Rachel's death,' the Duke Vessalius clenched his fists, 'He has the nerve to blame me for my own wife's death!'
'Ah, but then again, you know that it is somewhat true,' came a voice.
'Griffyn?' Zai questioned before realizing just what his Chain had said. 'What are you talking about!'
(AN: I know this isn't the correct way to spell Griffin, but I want to go about it my own way.)
'You'd already joined the Baskervilles by the time your wife was pregnant,' Griffyn replied, 'You knew they were going to test your loyalty by doing something soon, but what it was and when you never knew. Then, about five years after the birth of your son—'
'That abomination of a sinner is NOT my son!' Zai growled at his chain.
'—it was finally time to test just how loyal you truly were,' the Chain continued as though his Contractor had never spoken, 'They gave you two decisions; stay to protect your family from the Nightray invasion or go and heed the call of the Baskervilles.'
Zai remained silent.
'You chose to heed the call rather than to protect your family,' Griffyn told his Contractor, 'that choice resulted in your wife's death and the abandonment of the young Vessalius.'
'Abandon?' The Duke thought to his Chain. 'I never abandoned him! What nonsense do you speak of!'
'I speak only the truth Zai,' Griffyn said sternly, 'You know as well as I do that the day you'd left you wife to die, you abandoned your family. From that day on, you've never taught your son a thing, making him strive just to have his approval of you.' Griffyn slightly growled before continuing. 'And when you'd gotten word that the young Vessalius was the one of the Prophecy, the one who had committed the "gravest of sins", you isolated him from yourself. You left only to appear once more to send him to the Abyss where you'd thought he'd meet his end. And now that you've found out he has come back, you plan to find a way to destroy him, don't you?' it wasn't a necessarily a question nor a statement, but rather a combination of both.
The Duke said nothing as he pondered over the words his Chain had just spoken.
-Chapel of Legend-
Oz walked down the aisle, proud and tall, though wary as well. He began think of the what they'd planned.
Break was to take the place of Oscar in this little recreation, Gilbert was to retain the place he had ten years before, and Alice along with Sharon were to take the places of the two maidens besides Oscar at the original Ceremony. Cheshire was to sit at Alice's feet like a good little kitty.
Jack snickered mentally when he remembered Cheshire's reaction to his place in the plan; the Chain's mouth just dropped open before he threw a hissy-fit, eventually plopping back down on the couch with a huff.
"O, Light of Truth, illuminate thy path," Break recited by heart with the correct gestures, "O, Wind of Truth, grant us thy intelligence. O, Holy Water, grant us thy remedy. In the name of Vessalius, allow the one before us, Oz Vessalius, to become of age."
Break removed his hand, as he turned to Sharon to receive a sword from her hands. "O, Baptismal Sword of the land that supports us, rid this young lad of the impurities that inhabit him. And grant him thy eternal blessing," the white-haired man said, tapping the sword on each of the kneeling twenty-five-year-old's shoulders. "Now the impurities hidden in thyself are gone."
He gave the sword back to Sharon and stepped aside. "So now, please recite thy oath."
Oz stood and walked up the stairs to once-silent clock tower, giving a brief, imperceptible smile to Gilbert.
The gold-haired man knelt in form of the Clock Tower in the position he was in ten years before and began his oath. "Until the day that the fiery pound within me stops, I shall protect the name of Vessalius and its honor. I, now, to this land, my family, and friends, solemnly vow—"
But just like the last time, his oath was interrupted, and coincidentally, in the very same place as it was ten years ago.
A large, bright light erupted from the floor, blinding the group in the chapel.
When the light diminished, there in the place of the light was a Chain of some sort.
Pandora~Hearts
It appeared to be female with short, messy deep-crimson hair that fell just past its shoulders; her hair was parted on the left side of her head, while her bangs swept to the right, only managing to cover a sliver of her right eye. She had deep, soulless grey eyes and appeared as a thirty-year-old woman.
She wore a red mid-thigh length dress that flared out at her waist into a tattered pleated skirt with a deep v-neck. In the top portion of her dress, right where cleavage would have shown through the neckline was black ruffled (though ragged) fabric. That same fabric traveled down from where the neckline ended straight down to the center/middle-front pleat on the skirt where it was the same kind/color of fabric. The dress had one (left) red elbow-length sleeve with black ruffled fabric coming out the ends to about 1½ inches from where the sleeve ended; it had slashes and whatnot through the fabric in various places. The other (right) sleeve, or at least what was to be the right sleeve, looked as though it was torn right off of the dress. It had a slight high black Medici collar, the skirt was decorated with single columns of black diamonds running down each crimson pleat and white tissue-fabric ran underneath the skirt as well.
She also wore a pair of black knee-high heeled lace-up boots, a pair of wrist-length crimson fingerless gloves, a gold crown with a single ruby embedded in the center, and her lips were painted a bloody-crimson. She held a staff-like scepter that was also gold that was about the height from her the top of her neck to the ground.
Pandora~Hearts
"Who…?" Break choked out, baffled by the appearance of the unknown Chain.
"What the…?" Gilbert whispered, looking at the being with wide eyes.
Cheshire, now back in his humanoid form, and Alice stood looking at the Chain in obvious suspicion and wariness.
Oz's eyes widened almost imperceptibly. "La Reine Rouge," he breathed, "The Red Queen."
"What business do you have here?" Oz called out to the Chain, now known as the Red Queen, regaining his composure first.
Both grey orbs slid over to the gold-haired man and stared at him calculatingly.
A few moments of silence passed and although the Red Queen's stare unnerved the emerald-eyed man, he kept up his, strong, emotionless appearance.
"You are the reincarnation of one who was close to the Mistress," the Red Queen finally spoke.
Knowing what she was talking about, Oz only nodded while everyone else, save Break, who had a somewhat knowing expression, looked at him confusedly.
"State you business," Jack ordered.
"I only come of my own will to inform you that another is being sent while one you know is coming," the Red Queen explained.
"Where and when?" Jack only asked.
"One shall appear a few hours from now a little ways from here," the Red Queen informed, "and the known is coming without his Contractor's knowledge shortly."
Jack only gave a curt nod.
"Then I bid you adieu…Saviour," the Chain bowed her head to the gold-haired male before using her scepter to open a portal of sorts and stepping through it.
"What was that all about?" Gilbert cried out in disbelief.
"That, my friend," Jack said, "was the Red Queen. It seems that she had come on her without orders to tell me that there will a Chain appearing somewhere nearby a little lat er and that another Chain is coming to see me without letting its Contractor know."
"A Chain acting of its own will?" Break mused. "Uncommon and rare, but definitely not impossible."
"Indeed," Oz said before a black vortex opened before the twenty-five-year-old.
From the black current, a shower of black feathers spilled out of it only to spin into a twister that was surrounded by a violet light as it formed a shape. Then, when the shape or form was complete, the feathers erupted once more to shower down all over the chapel to reveal Griffyn.
"Griffyn?" Oz asked before dunning his emotionless persona. "What business do you have here?"
'I have come to inform you that which you need to complete the mystery of your mother's death,' Griffyn responded, projecting the information straight into the gold-haired male's mind. 'There is something else you must know, young Vesslaius.'
'What?' Oz asked.
'The Elder Duke Vessalius, my Contractor has become indecisive. He knows not which path to follow any longer,' Griffyn explained, 'I believe you may need to step in soon and help him.'
'I shan't give you any promises,' Oz told the Chain, 'But I will tell you this: if he ever sincerely needs help in choosing the correct path, know that I will only show him the paths he may follow and what will become of him, nothing more, nothing less.'
'As you wish, Young Vessalius,' Griffyn bowed his head once to the emerald-eyed male before disappearing in a shower of black feathers.
Before anyone could say anything, a large black feather with a violet sheen to it appeared in Jack's hand.
'If my assistance is ever needed, use this to call for me and I shall come whether I am occupied or not,' Griffyn's voice echoed in his head.
"Was that…?" Gilbert asked quietly.
"It was," Jack nodded before faint screams of fear reach the group's ears, "But that also means that our other Chain has arrived."
And with that, the entire group ran out of the church and towards the place where the screams originated from.
Links:
Medici Collar: katerina . purplefiles garb/diaries/pics/lace%20Maria%20di%20Cosimo%20Alessandro%20allori%20detail . gif
Red Queen's Crown (This is the design, but imagine it in the way I described it): dancecheer spiritmall/images/T/RoyalDuchesse_400 . jpg
Red Queen's Sceptre: www . royalexhibitions BCJ%20photo%20Sceptre%20with%20dove%20web . jpg
A bientôt,
TsukiyoTenshi