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Chapter 7- The Fall of Hearts.
Both Joker's were around the surface. While Black was trying to capture some faceless for interrogation, White went to check went to check on some vital information. He needed to know how long she had before her time caught up with her, and the only one who knew it was the mortician. However, when he arrived to the territory, everything was in flames, with smoke and ashes blotting out the time of day.
He began making his way, the scent of ashes and gunpowder ticking his nose. He couldn't sense anyone around. Buildings had their doors or windows broken, and in some cases, bloodied. As he made his way to the clock tower that he couldn't see in the distance, he noticed that the building, the closer to the tower they had been, the more destroyed they were; and what remained of the clock tower was no exception.
Even on the other side of the plaza he could see that no smaller side tower remained standing, the bridge that connected them to the central tower had collapsed, and the central clock tower itself had been practically demolished - or rather it had been exploded from the inside out and what remained was in flames. The whole town was ablaze and whatever happened this was the aftermath.
Joker had his guard up against the eerie silence, broken up by the occasional noise of collapsing structures. The crackling of fire was more unsettling than the possibilities of attacks that should have happened already. It seemed as if there was absolutely no one left. He finally arrived at the entrance of the clock tower and then he saw it.
As the clock tower burned down, a head was impaled on a pike. Its eyes had been plucked out.
He frowned, approaching to check and determined that the head had been here for some time already. Far longer than it should have; way more than it would have taken for it to disappear and for a new mortician to be found. Long enough for everyone to see it and know the mortician was dead. He had no idea how this had been achieved … but there was one person that could twist things so that erasion in wonderland would be postponed or canceled. After all, that person had saved one part of Joker recently.
Joker knew it had to be her. He wasn't sure how, but Aria had found a way to make it so that this body would last long enough without disappearing into darkness, and she surely knew that until his body dissolved and a replacement were chosen, no clock would be fixed in Wonderland.
"What are you planning?" Joker narrowed his eyes and made his way as he could inside the tower, confirming what he feared. There were no clocks left inside the burning remnants of the tower.
This was dire. By now everyone probably knew about the attack on the clock tower and the mortician's fall. The silence was deceiving; there was chaos brewing. He was sure of it. And worse, this was surely the start. Aria didn't act randomly or meaninglessly. This was merely a link of a chain he could not discern yet.
Joker went back outside and stared at the head, he had looked peaceful apparently, weirdly so. Accepting even. Joker could not get more information out of this. He could not see into the past of the eyes that had been removed and he could not foresee what kind of batshit insane plan the foreigner had. If anything it was going to be grand, she didnt work on a small scale and he had no idea what she was seeking. Messing with Aria was bad and she had been greatly messed up with.
If only he knew her objective …
At the very least he knew his own objective. He had to hurry up and quickly give her heart back. That would reverse the effects since the sealing of her heart.
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After her plans had been set in motion, Aria was on her way to the castle of hearts. She estimated that by now the knight was finishing killing everyone that had survived the riots and explosions in the clock's tower territory, and was busy chasing the next trails left over for him to pick and chase.
Her plans were rolling into motion and now she needed to get rid of the next obstacles and get information.
She approached the castle by one of the back entrances and as soon she came into view the guards smiled. The faceless let her pass like nothing, their mad grins welcoming her as she went her way through the suspiciously empty corridors, and soon more and more faceless began approaching the castle from all sides.
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Inside the castle Aria made her way silently across suspiciously empty corridors towards her first destination. It had been so easy that she hadn't needed to use her equipment until now. Once she was at a distance close enough for the to act but far enough to not be heard by the sensible ears of her prey, she activated her penetration sensors and detected exactly 1 clock inside the prime minister's office. As expected, Peter White was alone.
She didn't bother smiling as she touched her sound modulators around her neck.
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From his office Peter heard footsteps and then Alice's voice in distress. He stopped what he was doing and looked up towards the door. He could not distinguish what had been said but the voice of his beloved Alice was unmistakable. The nervous skirmish of footsteps and those of someone following made him stand up to check it out.
The faint scent of Alice was in the air, but it was thin. He perked his ears and heard footsteps on some nearby corridor followed by a distressed little yelp from his Alice. He headed towards the sound and came to the corner just in time to see Alice's dress rounding the end of the corridor while the sound of extra footsteps went in another direction. He quickly followed after her; she could be in danger.
From above, Aria was stealthily clinging to the roof's ornate moldings, ready to follow Peter towards the trap she set for him. In a minute the rodent would get into a small solar that had a fountain inside.
When Peter reached the door at the end of the corridor close behind Alice's back. He followed and the door closed behind him. The figure was about to reach the only other exit of the room when it was shot down by Peter.
"You are not Alice." He stepped closer to the center of the room and shot the fake Alice some more, but the body merely dissolved into darkness, leaving Alice's clothes on the floor.
Peter came to see that indeed these were Alice's old clothes, the ones she had left at the clock tower. He touched them and it was too late. Darkness hidden under the shadows of the fabrics grabbed him, making motions to cover him and keep him in place while looking as if it was trying to attack or drag him away towards the door, causing Peter to pull back towards the fountain.
Outside the room Aria smirked. The zyklon B pellets that her shadow dropped on the fountain's water were filling the small room with gas and it just wasn't any kind of mild gas. One breath of the hydrogen cyanide would be enough.
There were some shots towards the doors, then the sound of something falling and then the sound of something being dragged and finally window breaking. A second later she received a confirmation signal from her suit's A.I. and she turned around. Her eyes changed color to red for a moment as she sent a silent signal to inform every card that the rat had fallen for the decoy. Very soon people would see his corpse hanging on the wall outside and it would last enough for it to be confirmed. The real show could commence now.
Aria hummed, heading back towards the prime minister's office to pillage it. Without Ace or Peter nearby, the rioting mob that had entered the castle could move freely now that all other cards had been persuaded to join or be destroyed. Anyone who supported holders was going to be murdered and their afterimages trapped in their clock to be of her use later anyways. It hasn't been hard to persuade most cards.
But before she went away she stopped and turned around, deciding to test something. She made a deal with the roles and she wanted to test how powerful it really was. Initially she was planning to use the riot inside the castle as a distraction, but why not take out more pawns from the board while she was here? If anything she would be able to determine if she could render the holders unable to do anything to defend themselves. And it could prove to be double useful for her. After all, surely the rioters would love to behead them and achieve some karmic vengeance.
That would be funnier and would fuel the flames against holders far more now that it was proven that holders could and would be killed, even important ones. If it was clear one of the most powerful territories had fallen, then the chains of chaos would spread faster and anarchy would spread, furthering her plans.
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