I do not own Pandora Hearts in any way!
Speech Key:
"The" – Oral/Normal Speech
'The' – Thoughts
'The' – Telepathic Speech
AN: This chapter was already posted, but I took it down and fixed it up a bit before re-posting it again. After this, it's only another two or three chapters, possibly four until this is officially done! GAH! I'm getting depressed now!
Enjoy the chapter!
The Altered Rotation
oO~A Situation at Pandora~Oo
-Pandora Headquarters-
As Oz and the others braved the strange dimension created by Glen Baskerville, Oscar Vessalius sat in a meeting with the other three Dukedom Heads and a few other chiefs of Pandora as they discussed the matter of how to obtain the final gate to the Abyss from the Baskervilles.
Suddenly, Ada burst through the doors, cheeks flushed from exertion. She wore a simple light-turquoise dress with pale-green trim and floaty sleeves of the same shade while a white ribbon held her hair back in its usual style.
"Uncle Oscar!" she panted. "We're under attack! It's a horde of Trumps and Trump Cards! They've surrounded the compound!"
"What?" Oscar asked in urgency. "But why now? The Baskerville's couldn't be planning something, could they?"
"There is no time to figure out how," Rufus Barma announced, "We must go out and eliminate these Chains before anything happens." He turned to one of the Pandora Commanders. "Inform all divisions to summon their Chains and ready the weapons for the fight. Send guards to each of the Gates leading to the Abyss."
Saluting the Duke, the Commander and the other heads, with the exceptions of the Dukes and Ada left the room to do as Duke Barma had commanded.
"The rest of us must hurry before those Chains begin to tear down these walls!" the crimson-haired duke ordered as he ran out the door with the other three Head of Estates flowed and Ada followed behind.
"God Almighty," Oscar breathed out in shock and fear inspired awe, "There's so many of them…Dear Lord help us all. We'll need it."
One by one each of the four Dukes began calling out their Chains.
(AN: Alright, I'm going to give names to each of the Chains the Dukes are going to call out. Most will probably be French words that mean something else, but don't penalize me for that! Oh, and I realize that many believe that this is going completely by the manga. Unfortunately, as much as I'd like that, I haven't read the entire series, only watched the anime, so I know that some of the Chains in the manga are either in my story, just in another way or form, or they're not in the story at all.)
"Dronte. Assistance," Duke Barma said quietly, having no need to shout, unlike some Chain users.
(Dronte [French] = Dodo)
"Baissier, your turn!" Oscar said just a touch louder than the eldest Duke.
(Baissier [French] = Bear; for further notice, this is the Bandersnatch.)
"Duchess, darling, time to play," Duchess Elizabeth Nightray cackled, but disguised it with a chuckle.
Pandora~Hearts
Elizabeth Nightray was a woman in her mid-forties or so, but looked much younger than she was.
(AN: Just as a heads up, I don't remember if this was mentioned or if I've ever bothered to write this, but the legal Contracts approved by Pandora cause the non-again process.)
She had mid-back-length deep black-brown hair that was slightly curly but wavy; her bangs were splayed across her forehead, just touching her eyebrows. She had fair skin and deep grey-blue eyes that glimmered with intelligence and insanity.
She wore a simple black gown with a high collar and elbow-length sleeves; there was deep-blue trimming as well. And on her feet were a pair of simple black lace-up boots.
Pandora~Hearts
"Chevalier, front and center," Duke Daniel Rainsworth called out to his Chain.
(Chevalier [French] = Knight)
Daniel Rainsworth was a man in his late-thirties, early-forties, but once again, like Duchess Nightray, he looked younger than what he truly was.
He had dark-sandy-brown hair that hung just past his shoulders with a simple, but slightly messy fringe; the hair splayed across his forehead. His skin was slightly fair, but a bit more of a light-peachy tine to it though and he had reddish-pink eyes. And his ears were pierced with rubies hanging off of silver chains connected to hooks from his earlobes.
(AN: I'm not going to go in detail as to what he's wearing, so just imagine the types of coats Jack wears only in a violet-grey color with gold trim, a black slacks and black shoes)
Pandora~Hearts
Dronte shimmered into existence behind Duke Barma.
He had deep-violet-crimson feathers, a hook shaped bill covered by what seemed to look like a mask of silver armor covering his bill and over to just a bit before reaching his deep-red-black eyes.
He stood at least ten times the size of Duke Barma himself.
Pandora~Hearts
Baissier suddenly tore through the air, leaving quite a large rip in the space behind her, but that disappeared just as quickly as it came as she went over to settle behind Oscar with a mighty roar. Oscar who may I add was about a third or so of his Chain's height.
She had white-blue-grey fur with black spots littering the lighter color. She had large silver claws and sharp white teeth and a very long tail. Her deep-amber eyes looked on eagerly. Overall, she looked like a very large dog.
(If any of you have every watched InuYasha, Baissier looks like Sesshomaru in his True form-the huge white dog- but with the features I gave her.)
Pandora~Hearts
Duchess stepped out of the portal regally as she stepped over to stand next to Elizabeth, who was only a few inches shorter than the Chain.
Duchess had pale, sickly looking skin with what looked like stitches made of thread on her face and hands; she had wild and curly hair that stopped a touch after her shoulders and deep magenta eyes that held glee and a definite glow of insanity.
She wore a dull-violet gown that had patches of other random fabrics stitched here and there all over it, a pair of worn loafers were on her feet and a red cap with a long tattered veil hanging off of the back of the hat. All in all, she looked like a psychotic and ugly hag. (Sorry! I just had to put that in! XD)
Just as the Dukes and Duchess were about to command their Chains to begin attacking, something unexpected occurred.
"Let's go, Albus!" Ada shouted, causing the Dukes and Duchess, bar the crimson-haired duke, to look at the young girl in confusion and shock.
A black portal opened behind Ada as a Chain burst through it to land behind his Contractor.
Pandora~Hearts
As his named suggested, this Albus was the very same Chain that had once Contracted with Break when he was Kevin Regnard. However, he didn't look the same.
Albus surprisingly appeared as a young man around his late twenties. He had pale skin that glowed and silver hair that was tied up in a high ponytail that trailed to mid-back with a red feather sticking out of the base of the ponytail. His silver and red eyes watched the area about him blankly; his left eye was covered with an armoured eye-patch. He stood at a good 6' in height.
He wore a pair of black breeches tucked into steel boots. His top only consisted of a tight black shirt with quarter-length sleeves. Covering his shirt was a silver-white iron breastplate was strapped on his chest while on his shoulders were a pair of light-iron armor plates. On his right arm was a band of chainmail. His left arm from below the elbow and down was a long lance. His knees were covered with steel knee-guards, he wore a pair of black gloves with fingerless steel gauntlets over them and a silver-white sword was strapped to his waist alongside a large shield strapped to his back.
Pandora~Hearts
"A-Ada," Oscar sputtered, "W-When did you make a Contract? PLEASE DON'T TELL UNCLE THAT YOU MADE AN ILLEGAL CONTRACT!" By now, as you can guess, Oscar Vessalius had begun crying, with Baissier looking on at him, sweat-dropping and shaking her head at his antics.
"Uncle Oscar…" Ada sweat-dropped, "I'm not an Illegal Contractor. I met Albus a year or two back and Duke Barma granted us a Legal Contract. The age halt will begin when I turn twenty."
Oscar had stopped crying and started to compose himself and looked around to find the oldest of the Four Dukes.
"Where's Rufus?" Oscar asked.
"He could be right behind you with the other two Heads, fighting the Trumps and Chains," Ada commented sarcastically.
Oscar looked at Ada curiously before turning around to see the three House Heads doing exactly what his niece had said they were.
"GAH! What am I doing standing around?" Oscar shouted. "I can't let them have all the fun!"
Ada, Albus, and Baissier all did simultaneous anime-falls, while the other three House Heads that were fighting alongside or commanding their Chains, just sweat-dropped at the over-dramatic Duke.
With a loud command, Oscar and Baissier leapt into the battle as Ada and Albus followed.
-Pandora Headquarters; A Long While Later-
Oscar Vessalius, Daniel Rainsworth, Elizabeth Nightray, Rufus Barma, and Ada Vessalius panted as they each slumped into a seat in one of the [miraculously] untouched conference rooms.
"It's finally stopped," Ada puffed.
"But for how long?" Elizabeth wheezed, the insane glint in her eyes dying down a bit.
The five of them had been taking out every Chain that had appeared from the Abyss nearly nonstop up until a few moments ago when the flow of Trumps and Trumps Cards began to slow until it halted completely.
"This can't be a coincidence," Oscar said seriously, once he caught his breath. "Whatever Break, Raven, and Jack are doing must have caused some sort of reaction."
"Just what have they done to warrant an attack of this magnitude?" Daniel exclaimed.
"I can explain that," Sharon's voice echoed around the room.
A shadow from a corner of the room became distorted as it formed a portal of sorts, from which Sharon and her Chain, Eques, stepped through into the room.
"Sharon? What on earth are you doing here? Since when have you been Contracted?" Daniel said, surprised to see his daughter. "And just what do you mean when you say you can explain?"
"I am a member of Pandora, father. Though I don't partake in anything too dangerous, as per Break's instructions. And I've been Contracted to Eques since just after my 16th birthday with mother's permission, though how you dismissed the age-halt so quickly is something only you can explain." Sharon told her father patiently. "As for what I said, I meant it. I can explain what I know about hat those three are up to."
"Then explain Rainsworth-san," Duke Barma demanded.
"It's simple," Sharon gave an unsettling smile, "the three of them and their Chains have gone to put an end to Glen Baskerville once and for all."
A bientôt,
TsukiyoTenshi