Disclaimers, Feather and Lewis are still mine :P
Dedication, I dedicate this chapter to...um...-_-? Aha! The reviewers! ^_-
GhostOfYoda, I hope to make the Cheshire Cat's speech even less coherent as I continue...
--- --- ---
Chapter 3: I should have...
The heart guard motioned for his loyal men to rise, and looked up at the alcove, directly at the three children.
"You there! I have an offer for you!" The guard motioned towards Lewis.
"An...offer?"
"Yes, an offer. Hand Alice over to us and we will forgive you for your crimes against the Queen of Hearts and let you live out your life undisturbed."
Lewis looked thoughtful for a moment, and glanced at Alice.
"Well? What is your answer?" The guard called up.
"My answer? Here's my answer!" Lewis sent a card flying towards the guard, who jumped back, avoiding it easily.
"Very well, we gave you your chance," Alice Liddell, Lewis ..., this room shall be your grave!"
Alice jumped from the alcove, throwing her knife as she fell and felling one of the guards, as she landed she rolled aside, dodging the shower of cards aimed at her. As she finished her roll the knife reappeared in her hand with a burst of shimmering blue light, she ran forwards, ducking, weaving, jumping, slashing and stabbing as she went, heading inexorably for the heart guard.
"Bring it out now!" The heart guard yelled to his underlings, who dragged a large black box into the room.
Lewis stayed in the alcove, firing down on the guards as Alice cut through their ranks towards the heart guard.
"Lewis....look!" Feather directed his attention to the box.
"That's....that's...we buried the two who returned in there...."
"Death is not always necessarily the end." The Cheshire Cat said from one of the beams above the room.
"Wont you help us?!" Lewis yelled at the cat.
"It would be madness to face the might of the red queen directly." the cat smiled and vanished.
"Are you saying we're mad?!" Lewis shook his fist at the retreating cat.
"Alice!" Lewis yelled, "Don't let them open that box!"
Lewis shot one of the two guards attempting to remove the lock on the box with his spear, but was forced to take cover as a hail of cards from the heart guard came his way.
Alice had reached the guard working at the box, and quickly sliced him in two. The guard's blood spilled onto the box, and sunk through the wood into the inside. The box began to shake violently.
"Retreat!" The heart guard yelled as the lid flew open, two ragged shapes shooting out of it.
"Boo-jum..." Feather breathed, "Vengeful spirits whose screams can tear flesh from bone."
Lewis looked down at the chaos below, the guards had scattered, the Boo-jum swooping down and screaming at anything living. He watched as any card guards unfortunate enough to have not escaped were cut apart by the ghost's screams.
One of the Boo-jum floated up to the alcove, staring at Lewis and Feather.
It appeared to be a floating bundle of rags, two skeletal claws floating by it's side, and the skull of the long-dead children, yellowed by age and twisted with evil, fire burning in it's hollow eyes.
The spirit turned to face Feather and op[ened it's mouth to launch a scream at the helpless girl. Lewis jumped in the way as the Boo-jum's scream tore through the air, the force of it caused him to drop onto one knee, thousands of tiny cuts covered his body.
The creature screamed again, and again, Lewis struggling to stay standing, his clothes torn, blood flowing from the millions of little cuts.
Below in the room Alice stood amongst the bloody remains of the card guards, trying to get a clear shot at the nimble spirit with her knife.
As the ghost sped towards her again she saw her chance, she jumped, wedging the knife in the spirit's eye as it passed over her head.
The ghost clawed at its eye, trying to remove the knife, but failed, it's head bursting into flames. It cluched at it's burning skull and let out a shriek of pain, shattering the nearby windows. Alice stared at it for a moment, watching as the Boo-jum's remains burned, b u r n i n g...
Alice shook herself, looking up at the alcove where she could see the other Boo-jum launching scream after scream, it floated forwards, out of her view. Grabbing the knife from the pile of ash that had been the Boo-jum she began climbing up to the alcove.
Lewis had collapsed, the Boo-jum's scream flinging his tortured body at the wall, he hit it and fell in a heap, twitching slightly. The Boo-jum closed in for the kill, hovering above it's prey triumphantly.
Lewis looked up through the haze of blood, his fingers reaching for the broken spear. The Boo-jum swooped down to finish it. Lewis grabbed the creature's cloak and pulled as hard as he could, dragging the ghost to the floor, he slowly stood up and smashed his foot into the Boo-jum's fragile skull, then collapsed again, blood pouring from every wound.
Alice rushed over to him, grabbing the meta-essence from the fallen spirit and pressing it against his heart.
"Come on...don't give up now..."
Feather dragged herself across the alcove to her brother and held him in her arms, her tears mingled with his blood.
"He'll be okay....won't he Alice?" Feather looked up at Alice, not even daring to hope.
"I..." Alice stopped, she couldn't lie to this girl, "I don't know...."
Alice looked back down at the meta-essence scattered below, left by the guards that had fallen to the Boo-jum's scream.
She climbed back down again, grabbing some for herself before she too collapsed, then made her way back up again.
Lewis opened his eyes, his whole body was burning with pain, a million knives criss-crossing his skin, that's what it felt like. He looked up to see Feather and Alice straing at him anxiously.
"Urgh...what..." Lewis started to rise, but they pressed him down again gently.
"Rest."
Feather suppressed the urge to hug him, should her touch cause him pain.
"You saved me...brother I love you so much...will you get better soon?"
"Even with the meta-essence, he'll be feeling pretty rough right now. He was in pretty bad shape, it hasn't finished it's job yet."
Alice sat near the edge of the alcove with the knife in her hand.
"I'm not getting caught by surprise again. I'll keep watch so that you two can rest. Okay?"
Feather agreed, and Lewis was too tired to argue, so Alice sat there while they slept.
Feather sat up and glanced towards Alice, she'd fallen asleep, dangerously close to the edge of the alcove. Feather managed to drag her lookalike further in, then sat gasping at the exertion for a while.
"Cat." She whispered.
The Cheshire Cat appeared next to her.
"You called?"
"brother said he'd have to leave soon, to go with Alice."
"It's a fact I was already aware of." The cat yawned, "Is that all?"
"Will....will brother leave me behind?" Feather's voice shook, she stared at the Cheshire Cat, a terrified look on her face.
"Can you follow him?"
"Hey...that's...you can't answer a question with another question..."
"I can't?" The cat exclaimed in mock-surprise, "How did I do that just now then?"
The cat paused for a moment.
"One rarely takes the scenery with them when travelling."
"Brother is...going to leave me behind, isn't he cat?" Feather said, tears framing her eyes.
The cat stayed silent, looking at Feather's crying with contempt.
"Is there anything left in that head of yours apart from fluff?" The cat snapped, "All you have to do is get up and follow him."
"B-but...I...c-caan't!" Feather cried, "I can't walk properly..."
"It's not very nice of you to keep him here." The cat said lazily.
"W-what?"
"Oh you thought I wouldn't notice? Your mind has rejected the meta-essence's healing powers, in some insane belief that it will keep him here."
"But...but this is our home!" Feather wept, "We can't leave....we can't...I wont let brother be hurt. She can go away and everything will be alright again and we can stay here together forever."
"Brother, why are you being so mean to me?" Feather hugged a ragged little doll to her chest, reminding the Cheshire Cat of Alice and her one-eyed rabbit.
"Their age counts for nothing, they're all children inside." The cat said to no-one in particular, then faded away, leaving Feather to cry herself back to sleep.
Alice gave a start and woke, berating herself for falling asleep, then looking around. Luckily the other two were still asleep, Lewis had to be able to trust her and that wouldn't have been a good start.
She jumped as several grapples flew up and lodged into the floor of the alcove, looking down she saw the remaining card guard forces climbing up.
She shook Lewis lightly, in case his wounds hadn't healed properly yet. He groaned and sat up, rubbing at his eyes.
"Now what?"
"They're back! They've got ropes and they're climbing up!"
"It's too early for this..." Lewis grumbled and grabbed the reamins of his spear as Alice went to wake up Feather.
Lewis looked down at the approaching guards, then with one simple movement severed the rope they were climbing up, moving onto the next one and doing the same, the guards on the other ropes began climbing back down again as fast as they could as he cut them too.
As he did this the guards climbing up the beam had reached the top, and he turned to face the first of them. He swung his spear at Lewis, he managed to block the blow but his spear snapped in two under the force, leaving him weaponless. He jumped back to avoid a swing from the guard's spear and joined Alice at the back of the Alcove. As they watched new grapples were flung onto the edges and the guards re-commenced their climb.
Alice slowly pulled a pack of cards from her pocket.
"Too many for the knife now..."
She pulled the top five cards from the pack and threw them, they turned in mid-air, slashing through the nearest guard and severing his limbs. Lewis quickly ran forwards and grabbed the spear, swinging upwards and decapiting another guard as he did so.
"Hold it right there." Lewis stopped in his tracks and turned around to see the heart guard, by some impossibility behind him and Alice, holding his spear against Feather's neck. A strange creature dropped down from the celing, looking like the face of a china doll on legs.
"This is my nightmare spider." The guard said lazily, "In case you were wondering how I got here."
The spider bound Feather with a thinck black web and the heart guard placed her on it's back.
"We're taking Feather with us now. Queen's orders. Pull back men, the queen has other plans for these two." The card guards retreated back down the ropes and left the room, so that only Lewis, Alice and the heart guard were present, the spider having scuttled off somewhere in the rafters, taking Feather with it.
"We'll let you leave the skool freely, but if the thought of raising as much as a finger against us should cross your mind. Remember, we have your sister."
Lewis sat and clluched at his head.
"What...what have I done?" He trembled, "I should've..."
"It's not your fault!" Alice knelt down by him and put her hand on his shoulder, she glared at the guard.
"Do you have a name guard?" Alice said suddenly.
"Me?" The guard seemed taken aback, "Why?"
"I can't curse your name if I don't know it."
The guard laughed.
"You are, as the queen said, quite mad, Alice Liddell. You can call me Niar."
"Curse you, Niar of Hearts."
Alice sat by Lewis' side and wrapped her arms round the sobbing boy, directing a glare at the guard.
"Leave us...now!"
"As you wish, Alice." Niar gave a mocking bow and the nightmare spider dropped down again, he climbed on and disappeared into the rafters.
"Don't worry Lewis...we'll get her back. I promise."
--- --- ---
Hmmm....I wonder if Niar would count as my own character? He is only a card guard thjough so he'll look like all the others ...
Damn, trust me to give cannon fodder a name O.o
Dedication, I dedicate this chapter to...um...-_-? Aha! The reviewers! ^_-
GhostOfYoda, I hope to make the Cheshire Cat's speech even less coherent as I continue...
--- --- ---
Chapter 3: I should have...
The heart guard motioned for his loyal men to rise, and looked up at the alcove, directly at the three children.
"You there! I have an offer for you!" The guard motioned towards Lewis.
"An...offer?"
"Yes, an offer. Hand Alice over to us and we will forgive you for your crimes against the Queen of Hearts and let you live out your life undisturbed."
Lewis looked thoughtful for a moment, and glanced at Alice.
"Well? What is your answer?" The guard called up.
"My answer? Here's my answer!" Lewis sent a card flying towards the guard, who jumped back, avoiding it easily.
"Very well, we gave you your chance," Alice Liddell, Lewis ..., this room shall be your grave!"
Alice jumped from the alcove, throwing her knife as she fell and felling one of the guards, as she landed she rolled aside, dodging the shower of cards aimed at her. As she finished her roll the knife reappeared in her hand with a burst of shimmering blue light, she ran forwards, ducking, weaving, jumping, slashing and stabbing as she went, heading inexorably for the heart guard.
"Bring it out now!" The heart guard yelled to his underlings, who dragged a large black box into the room.
Lewis stayed in the alcove, firing down on the guards as Alice cut through their ranks towards the heart guard.
"Lewis....look!" Feather directed his attention to the box.
"That's....that's...we buried the two who returned in there...."
"Death is not always necessarily the end." The Cheshire Cat said from one of the beams above the room.
"Wont you help us?!" Lewis yelled at the cat.
"It would be madness to face the might of the red queen directly." the cat smiled and vanished.
"Are you saying we're mad?!" Lewis shook his fist at the retreating cat.
"Alice!" Lewis yelled, "Don't let them open that box!"
Lewis shot one of the two guards attempting to remove the lock on the box with his spear, but was forced to take cover as a hail of cards from the heart guard came his way.
Alice had reached the guard working at the box, and quickly sliced him in two. The guard's blood spilled onto the box, and sunk through the wood into the inside. The box began to shake violently.
"Retreat!" The heart guard yelled as the lid flew open, two ragged shapes shooting out of it.
"Boo-jum..." Feather breathed, "Vengeful spirits whose screams can tear flesh from bone."
Lewis looked down at the chaos below, the guards had scattered, the Boo-jum swooping down and screaming at anything living. He watched as any card guards unfortunate enough to have not escaped were cut apart by the ghost's screams.
One of the Boo-jum floated up to the alcove, staring at Lewis and Feather.
It appeared to be a floating bundle of rags, two skeletal claws floating by it's side, and the skull of the long-dead children, yellowed by age and twisted with evil, fire burning in it's hollow eyes.
The spirit turned to face Feather and op[ened it's mouth to launch a scream at the helpless girl. Lewis jumped in the way as the Boo-jum's scream tore through the air, the force of it caused him to drop onto one knee, thousands of tiny cuts covered his body.
The creature screamed again, and again, Lewis struggling to stay standing, his clothes torn, blood flowing from the millions of little cuts.
Below in the room Alice stood amongst the bloody remains of the card guards, trying to get a clear shot at the nimble spirit with her knife.
As the ghost sped towards her again she saw her chance, she jumped, wedging the knife in the spirit's eye as it passed over her head.
The ghost clawed at its eye, trying to remove the knife, but failed, it's head bursting into flames. It cluched at it's burning skull and let out a shriek of pain, shattering the nearby windows. Alice stared at it for a moment, watching as the Boo-jum's remains burned, b u r n i n g...
Alice shook herself, looking up at the alcove where she could see the other Boo-jum launching scream after scream, it floated forwards, out of her view. Grabbing the knife from the pile of ash that had been the Boo-jum she began climbing up to the alcove.
Lewis had collapsed, the Boo-jum's scream flinging his tortured body at the wall, he hit it and fell in a heap, twitching slightly. The Boo-jum closed in for the kill, hovering above it's prey triumphantly.
Lewis looked up through the haze of blood, his fingers reaching for the broken spear. The Boo-jum swooped down to finish it. Lewis grabbed the creature's cloak and pulled as hard as he could, dragging the ghost to the floor, he slowly stood up and smashed his foot into the Boo-jum's fragile skull, then collapsed again, blood pouring from every wound.
Alice rushed over to him, grabbing the meta-essence from the fallen spirit and pressing it against his heart.
"Come on...don't give up now..."
Feather dragged herself across the alcove to her brother and held him in her arms, her tears mingled with his blood.
"He'll be okay....won't he Alice?" Feather looked up at Alice, not even daring to hope.
"I..." Alice stopped, she couldn't lie to this girl, "I don't know...."
Alice looked back down at the meta-essence scattered below, left by the guards that had fallen to the Boo-jum's scream.
She climbed back down again, grabbing some for herself before she too collapsed, then made her way back up again.
Lewis opened his eyes, his whole body was burning with pain, a million knives criss-crossing his skin, that's what it felt like. He looked up to see Feather and Alice straing at him anxiously.
"Urgh...what..." Lewis started to rise, but they pressed him down again gently.
"Rest."
Feather suppressed the urge to hug him, should her touch cause him pain.
"You saved me...brother I love you so much...will you get better soon?"
"Even with the meta-essence, he'll be feeling pretty rough right now. He was in pretty bad shape, it hasn't finished it's job yet."
Alice sat near the edge of the alcove with the knife in her hand.
"I'm not getting caught by surprise again. I'll keep watch so that you two can rest. Okay?"
Feather agreed, and Lewis was too tired to argue, so Alice sat there while they slept.
Feather sat up and glanced towards Alice, she'd fallen asleep, dangerously close to the edge of the alcove. Feather managed to drag her lookalike further in, then sat gasping at the exertion for a while.
"Cat." She whispered.
The Cheshire Cat appeared next to her.
"You called?"
"brother said he'd have to leave soon, to go with Alice."
"It's a fact I was already aware of." The cat yawned, "Is that all?"
"Will....will brother leave me behind?" Feather's voice shook, she stared at the Cheshire Cat, a terrified look on her face.
"Can you follow him?"
"Hey...that's...you can't answer a question with another question..."
"I can't?" The cat exclaimed in mock-surprise, "How did I do that just now then?"
The cat paused for a moment.
"One rarely takes the scenery with them when travelling."
"Brother is...going to leave me behind, isn't he cat?" Feather said, tears framing her eyes.
The cat stayed silent, looking at Feather's crying with contempt.
"Is there anything left in that head of yours apart from fluff?" The cat snapped, "All you have to do is get up and follow him."
"B-but...I...c-caan't!" Feather cried, "I can't walk properly..."
"It's not very nice of you to keep him here." The cat said lazily.
"W-what?"
"Oh you thought I wouldn't notice? Your mind has rejected the meta-essence's healing powers, in some insane belief that it will keep him here."
"But...but this is our home!" Feather wept, "We can't leave....we can't...I wont let brother be hurt. She can go away and everything will be alright again and we can stay here together forever."
"Brother, why are you being so mean to me?" Feather hugged a ragged little doll to her chest, reminding the Cheshire Cat of Alice and her one-eyed rabbit.
"Their age counts for nothing, they're all children inside." The cat said to no-one in particular, then faded away, leaving Feather to cry herself back to sleep.
Alice gave a start and woke, berating herself for falling asleep, then looking around. Luckily the other two were still asleep, Lewis had to be able to trust her and that wouldn't have been a good start.
She jumped as several grapples flew up and lodged into the floor of the alcove, looking down she saw the remaining card guard forces climbing up.
She shook Lewis lightly, in case his wounds hadn't healed properly yet. He groaned and sat up, rubbing at his eyes.
"Now what?"
"They're back! They've got ropes and they're climbing up!"
"It's too early for this..." Lewis grumbled and grabbed the reamins of his spear as Alice went to wake up Feather.
Lewis looked down at the approaching guards, then with one simple movement severed the rope they were climbing up, moving onto the next one and doing the same, the guards on the other ropes began climbing back down again as fast as they could as he cut them too.
As he did this the guards climbing up the beam had reached the top, and he turned to face the first of them. He swung his spear at Lewis, he managed to block the blow but his spear snapped in two under the force, leaving him weaponless. He jumped back to avoid a swing from the guard's spear and joined Alice at the back of the Alcove. As they watched new grapples were flung onto the edges and the guards re-commenced their climb.
Alice slowly pulled a pack of cards from her pocket.
"Too many for the knife now..."
She pulled the top five cards from the pack and threw them, they turned in mid-air, slashing through the nearest guard and severing his limbs. Lewis quickly ran forwards and grabbed the spear, swinging upwards and decapiting another guard as he did so.
"Hold it right there." Lewis stopped in his tracks and turned around to see the heart guard, by some impossibility behind him and Alice, holding his spear against Feather's neck. A strange creature dropped down from the celing, looking like the face of a china doll on legs.
"This is my nightmare spider." The guard said lazily, "In case you were wondering how I got here."
The spider bound Feather with a thinck black web and the heart guard placed her on it's back.
"We're taking Feather with us now. Queen's orders. Pull back men, the queen has other plans for these two." The card guards retreated back down the ropes and left the room, so that only Lewis, Alice and the heart guard were present, the spider having scuttled off somewhere in the rafters, taking Feather with it.
"We'll let you leave the skool freely, but if the thought of raising as much as a finger against us should cross your mind. Remember, we have your sister."
Lewis sat and clluched at his head.
"What...what have I done?" He trembled, "I should've..."
"It's not your fault!" Alice knelt down by him and put her hand on his shoulder, she glared at the guard.
"Do you have a name guard?" Alice said suddenly.
"Me?" The guard seemed taken aback, "Why?"
"I can't curse your name if I don't know it."
The guard laughed.
"You are, as the queen said, quite mad, Alice Liddell. You can call me Niar."
"Curse you, Niar of Hearts."
Alice sat by Lewis' side and wrapped her arms round the sobbing boy, directing a glare at the guard.
"Leave us...now!"
"As you wish, Alice." Niar gave a mocking bow and the nightmare spider dropped down again, he climbed on and disappeared into the rafters.
"Don't worry Lewis...we'll get her back. I promise."
--- --- ---
Hmmm....I wonder if Niar would count as my own character? He is only a card guard thjough so he'll look like all the others ...
Damn, trust me to give cannon fodder a name O.o