Disclaimers: All recognisable characters are property of...um...someone who isn't me...
Lewis and Feather are mine...MINE I TELL YOU! *cough* ahem....
This chapter is dedicated to Emma for telling me that Feather was a proper name in Victorian times XD
Thanks to my reviewers, I love you peeps.
Kat23a, thanks for the heads up on the review thing O.o
Arghhh now I'm under pressure...*crumbles into dust*
Nautical Acronym, eh-heh, thing is I've only played the demo of the game, I'm waiting to get the real thing soon tho' which would be helpful before I attempt to go any further with writing o.O
--- --- ---
Chapter 2: Enter Alice.
Lewis found himself creeping along the corridors of the skool yet again, his fight with the diamond guard must have been observed, because ever since then the guards had begun moving around in threes, two spade guards commanded by a diamond guard. Although he was now armed with the spear he still hadn't mastered it's powers, and was hesitant to test them in a battle where losing would cost him his life. Although at least he would stand more chance than he had using his previous unreliable methods.
Now that he was forced to avoid the guards he had to search much further out from his hiding spot than before, seeking the naturally occurring Meta-essence that appeared randomly throughout the skool.
He rushed towards the library, hoping to take a short-cut through it. To his dismay as he opened the door he found himself about to run into a group of card guards.
Lewis backed away, hoping to leave before they noticed him. Unfortunately one of the spade guards turned towards him at that very moment, and alerted his comrades.
The diamond guard levelled his spear at his target, but Lewis had already darted to the left, aiming for the nearest spade guard. The guard parried Lewis' thrust and, turning it aside, delivered a kick to the boy's stomach. Lewis staggered back, gasping for air.
"I'm...not...giving up...." Lewis tried to steady himself, but was forced to roll aside clumsily as the diamond guard fired the lethal cards from his spear.
"If I could just do that I could finish this fight...that's it!"
Lewis ran between one of the spade guards and the diamond, then stopped. The diamond turned towards him and smiled, then fired at him. Lewis dodged aside, the cards hitting the spade guard behind him.
The guard looked down at the tear in his stomach, then toppled over slowly, the smouldering card still embedded there, eating away at his remains.
The diamond looked in horror at the corpse of one of his own team-mates, so he never saw Lewis running behind him, only felt the spear's blade tear him into two. Lewis steadied himself and turned to face the remaining guard.
The guard ran.
Lewis watched the guard for a second then pointed the spear at him as he ran for the doorway.
"I can't let you make it."
He tried to envision the card in his mind...he already knew he couldn't do it in time.
Lewis blinked, staring in confusion as the guard's head slowly slid off it's body.
The guard slowly fell backwards, revealing a figure standing in the doorway.
"Hello. I'm Alice."
Lewis stared at the girl, her clothes matched those the Alice he remembered had worn, and she had the same long dark hair, but there the similarities ended.
The girl's frame was almost as skeletal as the Cheshire Cat's, her dress not merely splattered but drenched with the blood of the guard she'd just slain, a vicious looking knife in her hand. Most striking however, was her vivid green eyes, which were far too wide, and seemed to glow from within, a stark contrast to her outward appearance, which seemed almost dead.
". . . You're . . . Alice?"
The girl nodded, and smiled at him, he relaxed slightly, there was warmth in that smile.
"We've been waiting for you." Lewis said wretchedly, "But...there's only two of us who haven't..."
"Gone mad?" Alice said softly.
Lewis nodded, noticing as well that Alice's voice, surprisingly, still held a childlike innocence.
Alice moved closer to him, staring into his eyes for a moment.
"I don't see madness in your eyes." Alice said finally, Lewis sighed, and allowed himself to breathe again.
"Cat!" Lewis jumped as Alice yelled the word. A moment later the Cheshire Cat appeared before them, looking, if possible, even worse for wear than he had last time Lewis had seen him.
"You told them to wait for me?" Alice demanded.
"Maybe." The cat stretched lazily.
"If you hadn't told them to stay here!" Alice began.
"They would all be dead or mad." The cat replied, "It was all that could be done to save two of them. We had no idea you would be prevented from returning to us for so long."
Alice sighed and shook her head.
"I'm sorry it took me so long to get here, now I'm here I hope I can help put things back how they should be."
"Easily said Alice." The cat said, "Lewis I'm sure you're sister will be wondering where you are. Now if you'll both excuse me!" And with that last word the cat faded from sight.
Lewis hastily gathered the meta-essence from the fallen guards, thankful that for once he'd gotten through an encounter without getting hurt.
Alice and Lewis began making their way to where Feather lay, Alice wasn't bothering with stealth, instead running down every guard they saw. Lewis fought the urge to be sick, she delighted in tearing the guards apart, causing them as much pain as possible.
He missed the Alice he remembered, where was that sweet little girl? She'd been like that in the library, but faced with the queen's minions she was like a demon. Lewis looked on as Alice continued her one-girl massacre, he hadn't needed to worry about meta-essence, it was flowing as freely as the blood.
Alice finally stopped, her thirst for violence quenched.
Lewis led her to the room where Feather was hidden, he motioned to a beam in the centre of the room, handholds and footholds notched into it so that you could climb up to the little alcove above.
"I'll go up first so that Feather knows it's safe."
Alice nodded.
Lewis climbed up with the ease that came of long practice, gently shaking his sleeping sister.
"Feather! It's Alice! Alice is here!"
Feather looked up at him, a little fuzzily.
"Evrythin's blurr...ed Lewis..."
Lewis remembered why he'd been looking for meta-essence in the first place, and placed the crystal in Feather's outstretched hand just as Alice finished her climb.
Her eyes widened in shock upon seeing Feather.
Feather was less focused, an amiable, absent look on her face, compared to Alice's serious one. But she could still be looking at her twin. The resemblance was almost perfect.
Alice could see that Lewis had noticed it too, now that he was seeing them both in the same place at once.
Alice stared into Feather's eyes, as she had with Lewis, her incandescent green eyes met with Feather's soft, faraway gaze.
"She's not mad...but, a dreamer right?" Alice turned to Lewis with a smile on her face.
"I wish this was the strangest thing I've seen since I came to wonderland."
Alice waited for Feather to drift off to sleep again before motioning to Lewis to join her.
"We need to leave the skool soon," She said simply, "Unless I can reach the queen's castle Wonderland will never be returned to the way it was. And if you stay here sooner or later you and your sister will get found, and I know you don't want that to happen."
Lewis started to protest, but sighed, he knew she was right.
"Continue." He said eventually.
"If we can find somewhere where Feather will be safe, would you help me?"
"Huh? Well...of course, that's why we've been waiting here for so long."
"You're sure you don't mind leaving your sister in someone-else's care?" Alice looked at him questioningly
"I don't want to leave her...where could she go?"
Alice sat in silence for a moment, just thinking. After a moment she opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again.
"That's no good." He heard her mutter.
"Aha! I've got it!"
Lewis jumped back slightly.
"Please, Alice...don't shout like that..."
"Oh...sorry...Anyway. We can take Feather to the Village of the Doomed in Dementia."
"Village of the...Doomed?" Lewis' eyes widened, "Are you sure that's a good idea? It doesn't sound..."
"There's no need to worry," Alice said calmly, "Mayor Elder can take Feather to the place where he was hiding from the queen, and if he's been safe there all this time she will be too."
"What about meta-essence? If she goes too long without it she'll go insane."
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that...Mayor Elder is very old so he must be extremely clever."
"Um...." Alice looked thoughtful again, " There is one problem though...I got here on Mayor Elder's balloon, but I don't know how we'd get back."
"Dear me Alice," They both turned to find the Cheshire Cat lying next to them, "Have you forgotten where you are?"
"...The skool?"
"Well....yes.." The cat swished it's tail irritably, "But where is the skool?"
"...in wonderland."
"Your answers, my dear," The cat snarled, "Are either too big or too small. Try once more, where is the skool?"
"The Fortress of Doors," Lewis interrupted, "I can't remember if it's always been that way, or just since the fire, but I think that's what the cat refers to."
"The...fire?"
"...yes...about ten years ago...a fire passed over all of wonderland. That's when everything changed."
"Ten years?"
"Yes, more or less ten years." Lewis noticed a strange edge to Alice's voice.
"Anyway! As I was saying!," The cat growled at them, "All you need to do is find the right door."
"And how long will that take?" Alice asked.
"It all depends on where you start looking." The cat replied, "After all, if you picked the door that would take you to Dementia first it wouldn't take very long at all."
"You're not going to tell us anything....are you?' Alice said to the cat.
"I can tell you lots of things," The cat smiled, "They just might not be very useful, that's all."
Alice turned back to face Lewis as the cat disappeared.
"If we can find the right door, will you come with me?"
Lewis paused for a moment, thinking about having to leave Feather on her own, and not see her for who knew how long, maybe never again. Then he thought about the way wonderland had been before the fire, and the chance to make it that way again.
"Of course I will."
Alice smiled happily, losing for a second the air of seriousness.
"Thank..you..." Alice lay back against the wall and yawned, "We can talk more tomorrow, but right now we should sleep."
Lewis was woken by Alice's frantic shaking.
"What's going on?" He yawned and starting drifting back to sleep again.
"There are card guards down there!" Alice yelled at him.
He sat bolt upright, rushing to the alcove's edge and peering down.
"How did they?!"
"It was my fault..." Alice admitted, "they must have followed a trail of blood to this room."
Lewis thought back to yesterday, and Alice's blood-soaked dress, leaving a dripping trail behind her as she walked.
"Something's happening, they're getting into lines." Feather was also awake, and looking down at the assembled guards with no sign of worry whatsoever.
"How can you be so calm?!" Lewis twitched slightly.
"Wait...I want to know what they're doing too." Alice lay on her front and peered over the edge at the card guards, as Feather was doing.
Lewis followed their example, but grabbed his spear from where he'd left it propped up before doing so.
The card guards had lined up on either side of the doorway into the room, the spades lined up on one side, and the smaller numbers of the diamonds on the other. As the three children watched the guards all dropped onto one knee as the door opened and their leader walked into the room.
Lewis and Alice exchanged shocked looks, Feather remaining totally oblivious.
"It's a heart guard!" Alice whipped her knife out from wherever she'd been hiding it and began running her fingers along the edge of the blade in anticipation.
Lewis sighed.
"I should never have woken up this morning..."
Lewis and Feather are mine...MINE I TELL YOU! *cough* ahem....
This chapter is dedicated to Emma for telling me that Feather was a proper name in Victorian times XD
Thanks to my reviewers, I love you peeps.
Kat23a, thanks for the heads up on the review thing O.o
Arghhh now I'm under pressure...*crumbles into dust*
Nautical Acronym, eh-heh, thing is I've only played the demo of the game, I'm waiting to get the real thing soon tho' which would be helpful before I attempt to go any further with writing o.O
--- --- ---
Chapter 2: Enter Alice.
Lewis found himself creeping along the corridors of the skool yet again, his fight with the diamond guard must have been observed, because ever since then the guards had begun moving around in threes, two spade guards commanded by a diamond guard. Although he was now armed with the spear he still hadn't mastered it's powers, and was hesitant to test them in a battle where losing would cost him his life. Although at least he would stand more chance than he had using his previous unreliable methods.
Now that he was forced to avoid the guards he had to search much further out from his hiding spot than before, seeking the naturally occurring Meta-essence that appeared randomly throughout the skool.
He rushed towards the library, hoping to take a short-cut through it. To his dismay as he opened the door he found himself about to run into a group of card guards.
Lewis backed away, hoping to leave before they noticed him. Unfortunately one of the spade guards turned towards him at that very moment, and alerted his comrades.
The diamond guard levelled his spear at his target, but Lewis had already darted to the left, aiming for the nearest spade guard. The guard parried Lewis' thrust and, turning it aside, delivered a kick to the boy's stomach. Lewis staggered back, gasping for air.
"I'm...not...giving up...." Lewis tried to steady himself, but was forced to roll aside clumsily as the diamond guard fired the lethal cards from his spear.
"If I could just do that I could finish this fight...that's it!"
Lewis ran between one of the spade guards and the diamond, then stopped. The diamond turned towards him and smiled, then fired at him. Lewis dodged aside, the cards hitting the spade guard behind him.
The guard looked down at the tear in his stomach, then toppled over slowly, the smouldering card still embedded there, eating away at his remains.
The diamond looked in horror at the corpse of one of his own team-mates, so he never saw Lewis running behind him, only felt the spear's blade tear him into two. Lewis steadied himself and turned to face the remaining guard.
The guard ran.
Lewis watched the guard for a second then pointed the spear at him as he ran for the doorway.
"I can't let you make it."
He tried to envision the card in his mind...he already knew he couldn't do it in time.
Lewis blinked, staring in confusion as the guard's head slowly slid off it's body.
The guard slowly fell backwards, revealing a figure standing in the doorway.
"Hello. I'm Alice."
Lewis stared at the girl, her clothes matched those the Alice he remembered had worn, and she had the same long dark hair, but there the similarities ended.
The girl's frame was almost as skeletal as the Cheshire Cat's, her dress not merely splattered but drenched with the blood of the guard she'd just slain, a vicious looking knife in her hand. Most striking however, was her vivid green eyes, which were far too wide, and seemed to glow from within, a stark contrast to her outward appearance, which seemed almost dead.
". . . You're . . . Alice?"
The girl nodded, and smiled at him, he relaxed slightly, there was warmth in that smile.
"We've been waiting for you." Lewis said wretchedly, "But...there's only two of us who haven't..."
"Gone mad?" Alice said softly.
Lewis nodded, noticing as well that Alice's voice, surprisingly, still held a childlike innocence.
Alice moved closer to him, staring into his eyes for a moment.
"I don't see madness in your eyes." Alice said finally, Lewis sighed, and allowed himself to breathe again.
"Cat!" Lewis jumped as Alice yelled the word. A moment later the Cheshire Cat appeared before them, looking, if possible, even worse for wear than he had last time Lewis had seen him.
"You told them to wait for me?" Alice demanded.
"Maybe." The cat stretched lazily.
"If you hadn't told them to stay here!" Alice began.
"They would all be dead or mad." The cat replied, "It was all that could be done to save two of them. We had no idea you would be prevented from returning to us for so long."
Alice sighed and shook her head.
"I'm sorry it took me so long to get here, now I'm here I hope I can help put things back how they should be."
"Easily said Alice." The cat said, "Lewis I'm sure you're sister will be wondering where you are. Now if you'll both excuse me!" And with that last word the cat faded from sight.
Lewis hastily gathered the meta-essence from the fallen guards, thankful that for once he'd gotten through an encounter without getting hurt.
Alice and Lewis began making their way to where Feather lay, Alice wasn't bothering with stealth, instead running down every guard they saw. Lewis fought the urge to be sick, she delighted in tearing the guards apart, causing them as much pain as possible.
He missed the Alice he remembered, where was that sweet little girl? She'd been like that in the library, but faced with the queen's minions she was like a demon. Lewis looked on as Alice continued her one-girl massacre, he hadn't needed to worry about meta-essence, it was flowing as freely as the blood.
Alice finally stopped, her thirst for violence quenched.
Lewis led her to the room where Feather was hidden, he motioned to a beam in the centre of the room, handholds and footholds notched into it so that you could climb up to the little alcove above.
"I'll go up first so that Feather knows it's safe."
Alice nodded.
Lewis climbed up with the ease that came of long practice, gently shaking his sleeping sister.
"Feather! It's Alice! Alice is here!"
Feather looked up at him, a little fuzzily.
"Evrythin's blurr...ed Lewis..."
Lewis remembered why he'd been looking for meta-essence in the first place, and placed the crystal in Feather's outstretched hand just as Alice finished her climb.
Her eyes widened in shock upon seeing Feather.
Feather was less focused, an amiable, absent look on her face, compared to Alice's serious one. But she could still be looking at her twin. The resemblance was almost perfect.
Alice could see that Lewis had noticed it too, now that he was seeing them both in the same place at once.
Alice stared into Feather's eyes, as she had with Lewis, her incandescent green eyes met with Feather's soft, faraway gaze.
"She's not mad...but, a dreamer right?" Alice turned to Lewis with a smile on her face.
"I wish this was the strangest thing I've seen since I came to wonderland."
Alice waited for Feather to drift off to sleep again before motioning to Lewis to join her.
"We need to leave the skool soon," She said simply, "Unless I can reach the queen's castle Wonderland will never be returned to the way it was. And if you stay here sooner or later you and your sister will get found, and I know you don't want that to happen."
Lewis started to protest, but sighed, he knew she was right.
"Continue." He said eventually.
"If we can find somewhere where Feather will be safe, would you help me?"
"Huh? Well...of course, that's why we've been waiting here for so long."
"You're sure you don't mind leaving your sister in someone-else's care?" Alice looked at him questioningly
"I don't want to leave her...where could she go?"
Alice sat in silence for a moment, just thinking. After a moment she opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again.
"That's no good." He heard her mutter.
"Aha! I've got it!"
Lewis jumped back slightly.
"Please, Alice...don't shout like that..."
"Oh...sorry...Anyway. We can take Feather to the Village of the Doomed in Dementia."
"Village of the...Doomed?" Lewis' eyes widened, "Are you sure that's a good idea? It doesn't sound..."
"There's no need to worry," Alice said calmly, "Mayor Elder can take Feather to the place where he was hiding from the queen, and if he's been safe there all this time she will be too."
"What about meta-essence? If she goes too long without it she'll go insane."
"I don't think you'll have to worry about that...Mayor Elder is very old so he must be extremely clever."
"Um...." Alice looked thoughtful again, " There is one problem though...I got here on Mayor Elder's balloon, but I don't know how we'd get back."
"Dear me Alice," They both turned to find the Cheshire Cat lying next to them, "Have you forgotten where you are?"
"...The skool?"
"Well....yes.." The cat swished it's tail irritably, "But where is the skool?"
"...in wonderland."
"Your answers, my dear," The cat snarled, "Are either too big or too small. Try once more, where is the skool?"
"The Fortress of Doors," Lewis interrupted, "I can't remember if it's always been that way, or just since the fire, but I think that's what the cat refers to."
"The...fire?"
"...yes...about ten years ago...a fire passed over all of wonderland. That's when everything changed."
"Ten years?"
"Yes, more or less ten years." Lewis noticed a strange edge to Alice's voice.
"Anyway! As I was saying!," The cat growled at them, "All you need to do is find the right door."
"And how long will that take?" Alice asked.
"It all depends on where you start looking." The cat replied, "After all, if you picked the door that would take you to Dementia first it wouldn't take very long at all."
"You're not going to tell us anything....are you?' Alice said to the cat.
"I can tell you lots of things," The cat smiled, "They just might not be very useful, that's all."
Alice turned back to face Lewis as the cat disappeared.
"If we can find the right door, will you come with me?"
Lewis paused for a moment, thinking about having to leave Feather on her own, and not see her for who knew how long, maybe never again. Then he thought about the way wonderland had been before the fire, and the chance to make it that way again.
"Of course I will."
Alice smiled happily, losing for a second the air of seriousness.
"Thank..you..." Alice lay back against the wall and yawned, "We can talk more tomorrow, but right now we should sleep."
Lewis was woken by Alice's frantic shaking.
"What's going on?" He yawned and starting drifting back to sleep again.
"There are card guards down there!" Alice yelled at him.
He sat bolt upright, rushing to the alcove's edge and peering down.
"How did they?!"
"It was my fault..." Alice admitted, "they must have followed a trail of blood to this room."
Lewis thought back to yesterday, and Alice's blood-soaked dress, leaving a dripping trail behind her as she walked.
"Something's happening, they're getting into lines." Feather was also awake, and looking down at the assembled guards with no sign of worry whatsoever.
"How can you be so calm?!" Lewis twitched slightly.
"Wait...I want to know what they're doing too." Alice lay on her front and peered over the edge at the card guards, as Feather was doing.
Lewis followed their example, but grabbed his spear from where he'd left it propped up before doing so.
The card guards had lined up on either side of the doorway into the room, the spades lined up on one side, and the smaller numbers of the diamonds on the other. As the three children watched the guards all dropped onto one knee as the door opened and their leader walked into the room.
Lewis and Alice exchanged shocked looks, Feather remaining totally oblivious.
"It's a heart guard!" Alice whipped her knife out from wherever she'd been hiding it and began running her fingers along the edge of the blade in anticipation.
Lewis sighed.
"I should never have woken up this morning..."