Well since I really have little thanks to give beside to the super awesome people who're with me right now for the triple upload how about we get on with it? ;D


Chapter Eleven

Between Love and Hate


The instant my eyes fluttered open and the sunlight hit my field of vision, I groaned audibly. Hiding my eyes behind my arm, I tried getting myself out of my grogginess. After a few seconds, I realized that I wasn't even in my room but in Sharon's. How the hell...?

Sitting up and holding my head, I tried hard to remember how I had ended up here. What I last recall from last night was leaving after we arrived here with Vincent and Echo. I even talked to Break about how I felt in concerns to Oz. And then I went to my room to sleep.

So...what happe—

A painful ringing came to my head when a faint memory of a girl's voice singing came to me. The words weren't in our language. They sounded strange too. Yet somehow, I think I understood what they meant.

Shaking the uneasiness, I got up and walked to my room to change. Once done, I met with Sharon and Break up at her parlor like always. But when I came and greeted them, they simply stared a bit odd.

"Is...is something the matter?" I inquired a bit thrown off by that.

Sharon shook her head and gave me a warm smile. "G-Good morning, Claire." I went on to sit with them but the instant the sunlight hit my eyes again I felt an irritating pain. So much so that I reluctantly raised my arm to block it and apparently got noticed my Break.

"Feeling all right?"

"Y-Yeah. My head hurts is all. Probably a migraine," I explain before digging into the spare breakfast they got used to getting me. "By the way, how come I slept in Sharon's room?"

Both turned towards each other as if silently debating whether to tell me or not. I tried figuring out why they didn't want to tell me in the first place but by mere face expressions it was hard to. Sharon was the first to speak and break the silence. "You mean you don't remember what happened last night?"

I shook my head as an answer. "Why? What happened?"

They shared stares one more time before returning to normal with Sharon giving me another smile. "Would you like seconds?"

"Oh, sure!" I called out enthusiastically holding my plate out as the maids came into the room and restocked the table with more food and sweets.

"On another note, would you like to accompany me for a walk around town?" Break's sudden and out of the blue question caught me off guard with my fork and food in my mouth.

"With you? How come?" I questioned with my mouth full.

"He'll be going to search for Oz-sama and the others," Sharon explained and briefly told me about the story of going to look for Gilbert's hat. "But it's if you would like to go with him."

I shrugged my shoulders and agreed and before the hour came, we left and were in the middle of the streets of Reveille looking for a loud group of kids.

As we walked, I kept trying to recall what had happened last night all the while following Break around. All the time, I had my eyes down watching my feet as I walked.

"You do remember something about last night, don't you?"

My head snapped upward with my eyes wide open at Break's comment. I blinked a couple of times before understanding what he was talking about. Unconsciously, I smiled; nothing got past this man. "I don't remember exactly what happened but I do remember a song."

"Song?" he repeated curious, resuming his walking as did I.

I nod before starting to say the words I heard to him. Somehow as I spoke them, I became aware that my voice became a bit higher and I found an accent to it that I hadn't been aware I had or why I used it when speaking those words. After telling him that, I glanced downwards, "I know somehow that it talked about gray fields at sunset, and a moon leading to some path." Shaking my head, I massaged my forehead as the headache increased. Without warning, I stopped briefly as I spoke. "I don't know why I understood them but I did."

"That is interesting." Break stopped briefly to glance over his shoulder towards me and gave me a faint grin. "I'll look into it when I have the time." Nodding my head as answer, I gave him a small smile as thanks.

Out of the blue, I felt something grab me by my arms as it clutched me in a tight grip. Letting out a shout and getting Break's attention, I manage to squeeze out one of my arms and reach towards Break's extended one. Yet, before either of us could reach, a darkness swallowed me whole making me lose all semblance of my surroundings.

Describing what I felt when going through that void is hard. I couldn't breath, couldn't move, couldn't scream. All I could do was hold my breath as nothingness crushed me. But just as soon as it had gotten me, it let go and I fell onto hard, tiled floors.

Air came to me when I took in a deep breath. Rolling over on my stomach, I stood up slowly as I quickly took in my surroundings. It was so...colorful. Almost fantasy like. There were so many toys and flowers and other crazy stuff. All distorted. Wherever I had been taken to, I knew it wasn't in the human realm anymore.

"Where am I?" I whispered slowly turning about and grasping every bit of space about me. The only other way to go was through a door up ahead while everything else was barricaded by those toys and flowers.

"Cheshire's lair."

"Cheshire?"

"The Cheshire Cat. I don't really know much about him but from what I've heard he is somehow connected to the Will of Abyss."

"Then...maybe he could give us some answers about that too." From behind me, I begin hearing some shuffling and turn to find the flowers and toys starting to move. Teeth showing and claws out, they were heading towards me and fast.

"Run!"

Not thinking twice about Chronos' advice, I headed for the door that laid before me. Running with all I had and with all the might I possessed, I yanked the door opened and closed it right behind me. It wasn't long before I began hearing the noises of the things on the other side starting to bang against the door.

"There's stairs up. Head that way. I'll hold the door close for as long as I can."

"Please do!" I call and let go of the door that stays barely closed. Running, I head and slightly trip up the spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever. But soon enough it ended leaving me on open space before yet another door. A double door, this time.

"No going back, I suppose," I murmur under my breath and push one side open letting me into another room. This one took me a bit by surprised. The walls were nothing but mirrors, all from ceiling to floor and of a certain width defined by gold-rimmed frames. "This needs a serious makeover."

Le'veiru garvelio no zuro

Ichi kaedio

I l'una kuru so

Rei voz lea catio

The singing caught me off guard and made me turn towards one of the many mirrors that covered the walls. This one, though, wasn't showing my reflection like the rest. Instead what I could see through it were the faint shapes of two young children in the distance holding hands and dancing around while chanting that melody. The same one that I had heard last night...from that thing that freaked me out.

Without really knowing why my hand reached out towards them. I have know idea why but I wanted to reach them. To be with them. They looked...so happy.

"You're that girl."

The slightly purring voice made my hand flinch and my whole body pivoted to find a tall figure crouching before me. Apparently having climbed from the ceilings, it stood up tall letting me see that it stood a good foot taller than I. As I looked at this thing, I saw the cat ears and tail along with the freaky red eye that reminded me of something.

"You...must be Cheshire," I assumed a bit nervous of suddenly meeting him. In the distance, I could still hear the kids singing the song and it seemed he could too for his ears kept twitching back and forth.

"That was the song you and that boy would sing all the time. Cheshire remembers Alice saying that she wanted to play with you both. That cursed merry-go-round."

"Cursed?"

"You must not remember." His glance lowered as if in thought and came up once again as he began to lick his paw. "That man did something to your memories after all. Because of that boy."

"Boy?" Even though that was the only thing that got out of me and I still had much else to ask, I had no time to for strange, cold hands grabbed me from behind and began pulling me backwards into the mirror.

"You don't matter to Cheshire. You'll be eaten by your own past soon enough." His ears twitched once more. "It seems Cheshire has new guests too." With that he disappeared amidst his ribbons and I was left to be swallowed whole by the morphing glass.

Once inside, I felt my feet touch ground and my nostrils caught the whiff of the nice summer flowers. From what I could gather, I wasn't in Cheshire's lair exactly. I was in the outside, a patch of grass bordered by forest on one side and by a lake on the other. The wind blew and I had to catch my hair from being blown into my face as petals came from the cherry blossom trees planted nearby. I reached my hand to touch one but it slipped from my hand. No, it didn't slip. I couldn't touch it. Bending down and reaching for a pebble, I reassure my assumption. I couldn't touch it. Even though I can feel it with every other sense, I couldn't touch anything around here.

A bundle of giggling took my attention off my discovery and made me turn towards the lake were the two children from before were now sitting down near a flower bed.

Walking up close to them, I noted how they paid no attention to me and how even though I was this close to them I still couldn't make out the boy's face. But the girl...it was way too clear for me to mistake it anymore.

Those dark, shinning cobalt eyes. That mess of straight ebony strands. That high-pitched voice.

It was me.

But, then again, it wasn't. This must be...the me I don't know about. The one I forgot about.

"Here you go!" The little girl let lose a rain of flowers at the boy who giggled at her as she sat down before him. "I brought all of them!"

"Nice." That soft, somewhat high-pitched voice was new. But what I found if the slightest bit familiar was the tiniest tinge of a lilt to his voice. "What color do you want yours?" he asked while picking a couple of flowers and beginning to put them together by their stems.

"I want them the same color as yours!" she chirped immediately throwing her hands up. With a laugh, he began working on it and within minutes finished it and held it up.

"All done." He reached out and gently placed it a top the girl's head.

She took some more flowers and began making another one. She giggled at the bit of a mess hers was compared to the boy's and showed it to him. "This one's for you." She reached up and placed it a top of his. At her doing that, it made something on her dress gleam in the sunlight.

What the—

Then I saw it. That girl...she had my broche on the ribbon of her light pink dress. And that boy...he had a similar one attached to his own clothes. Yet his was of a sapphire color.

"Found you!" A man called out cheerfully, startling me, while picking both kids up from their waists with them chuckling gleefully. "We've been looking all over for you two."

That voice... It was that man. The same one from Alice's memory and the one that had stopped me from stopping Oz with Grim.

"Sorry we didn't tell anyone," the boy answered with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah! We just wanted to have a little fun!" the girl replied with joy.

The man laughed at their replies and simply placed them down to face him. "Well, some fun never hurt anyone. But how about we head back now?" Giving his hand out towards them, they each went to either side of him and held onto his hand. "You two are such a handful—"

"Claire and Cloude."

Out of nowhere, a bright, blinding light took over my sight making me close them and hide them from it. Once I felt it gone, I opened my eyes but was surprised that my surrounding had changed. I wasn't in that flower bed anymore. I was in another garden. It was familiar in a way as well. It seemed to be the one that Break had described to me, the one that he said Oz and the rest of them had seen in the old mansion.

"You're here safely."

That deep voice made me turn on my heel towards it. And when I did, this time, it didn't go away. Instead what faced me, was a man sitting on the parapet of an outdoor hall. He reminded me a lot of Oz; golden hair in a plait and bright, emerald eyes. What made me even more wary was that the pocket watch that he held was the same one that Oz had and that the melody it played was the same one I had heard drifting in my room that day at the Nightray's.

He closed the watch and stood up with a gentle smile. "I'm glad, you didn't get hurt."

Out of habit, I took a stance ready to attack if necessary. For all I knew this could be another illusion by Cheshire's place. "Who're you?" I demanded through gritted teeth.

He chuckled a bit which somehow made me feel a bit embarrassed to have done that. "You've become somewhat ruthless, I see."

Ignoring the giddiness he provoked on me, I barked out my question this time. "Answer me!"

Not seeming fazed one bit, he made eye contact with me and smiled. "My name is Jack. Jack Vessalius."

"Jack...Vessalius?" He had Oz's name. But...why? I didn't understand any of this. Instead of showing my confusion, I built a wall that kept me strong and collected on the outside. "You're the man from before and the one from that dream I had about that little girl."

"You're still talking in third person." He began walking towards where I was making me step back each time. But for some reason, I didn't want to walk away. I yearned his touch. When he finally was close enough, he reached out and placed his hand on my head, patting it soothingly. With that one movement, all wariness escaped me. I was left vulnerable and bare. Like the child I had seen so happy, my heart suddenly was filled with warmth. "Why can't you accept that the little girl that was so happy back then, was you, Claire?"

At that, I slapped his hand away and stepped back while glaring at him. "You're wrong!" I bellowed out at him with his expression just becoming a bit more calm. "I may not know who I am but that's not me! I've never had a family, much less a brother!"

His face sullen with that and his eyes darted downward. "That would be because of my doing."

"W-What?"

He came closer to me until he stood face-to-face but I was too stunned by what he had said to do anything about it now. "Cloude, he was heading down a perilous path. And he intended to drag you down with him. That's why I had to protect you. If I hadn't you would have ended just like them. That wasn't something I could allow to happen. So I ended up shielding you by erasing those memories; unlinking the chains."

"No!" I yelled with all my might. This was crazy! Insane! He was wrong! "That isn't me! That isn't my life! My life's always been what I know and the people I've lived it with! Leo, Elliot, Vanessa, Break, Sharon, Gil, Oz, and Alice!"

"That hole that has existed in your heart for eight years— have you never wondered the reason why I gave you both those broches?"

I remained quiet as all the information sunk in but I didn't seemed to have time since everything suddenly shook making me stumble a bit. "What's happening?!" It shook again and this time brought me to my knees.

"B-Rabbit's powers are being released." B-Rabbit's? So, Oz and Alice are here! "Oz must have lost it from witnessing such scene. But, hopefully, Gil will be able to stop Oz and his tirade." With that, he came and knelt before me, a few meters away. What took me completely by surprise was that he came up and held my head against his shoulder and began to stroke my head. "Before that...I need for you to remember something. The reason why I had to protect you from him."

"W-What..." I stammered a bit feeling my heart at my throat and my cheeks hot as I listened to his words and his quiet, strumming heartbeat.

"I will warn you, what you are about to see won't be easy for you and it isn't with any pleasure that I am doing this. Whatever happens, don't let that darkness swallow you whole or you'll lose yourself to it. What I am about to show you— it is the last memory you had of Cloude and yourself. After all this, tell Oz and the others what you saw." The floor trembled again making me flinch. To this, he only chuckled a little. "Don't worry, I'll have you home safe and sound. All you have to do is not lose against that darkness and all will be well. After all—" he took me by my shoulders and made me face him. Briefly from behind him, I caught a glance of Chronos in his original form curling his tail around the gem that began gleaming red. But my attention quickly returned to see his own gleaming emerald eyes. "Edea left you and Cloude to my protection."

Suddenly, my eyes were shrouded by darkness and silence. In seconds, it all changed and brought me away to a new scenario. When my senses caught sight and whiff of the place, I had to hold back from heaving. Blood was sprayed everywhere, along with entrails and other innards of humans. Fire scorched the whole building as it quickly fed from the despair inside. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Everyone was...dead.

"Cloude!"

I didn't have to even glance over my shoulder to see who had called out that name before my younger self—surely the age I was when I came to Fiona's care—darted past me with a dark, red cloak cladding her and swaying about in her sprint. Light formed her body and danced around her as she ran. I couldn't tell where she would lead me but I wasn't about to stand around here another second. Trying really hard not to think where I was stepping, I ran after her.

She was yelling out the boy's name and checking every room in the burning down place. No matter who she would stumble upon, may they have been dead or the ones killing, she would ignore them and keep searching.

Finally, after what seemed forever, she pried open a heavy double door into yet another common room and inside found whom she had so frantically searched for. Yet not the way she wanted to.

"Cloude!" she caroled in joy with tiny tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She ran up to him and didn't recognize anything else as she spoke to him. "Thank goodness! When the earthquake hit I came looking for you. And when all I found were people dead...I was worried sick about you. Hurry! We have to find Jack and the others and leave. This place is aflame!" She tried pulling his arm for him to move, but he wouldn't budge an inch. Just then she looked at him completely and gasped at seeing him covered in sputters of blood. Fresh blood. At that, she noticed that he hadn't been looking at her, he was staring down. Following his gaze, she gasped once more and let go of him to put her hands on her mouth to keep from screaming. Those big, round eyes widened at seeing what the boy was looking at. And truth be told, so had mine.

Before him were a couple of corpses. I could tell they had been just killed because they were still gushing out with blood. What had shocked both of us was that the basket hilt sword he held in his hand was pierced on a young child's throat, beheading them. "C-Cloude..." she whimpered a bit grabbing the boy's blood-stained sleeve. "W-We have to leave."

"There's no use. It won't change anything." He turned to leave but she had stopped him in his tracks by holding her hands over the one of his that held the sword.

"What's happening?!" she shouted making him turn towards her. The empty glare in his eyes made even me flinch.

"We have been given orders. Master said to kill everyone in this town. No matter woman or children."

"But I don't want to kill people!" she cried out shaking his arm. "And you don't have to either!"

"Yes I do!" he yelled startling both of us as his glare suddenly found a target in her. He shook away her grip and stood fully to face her. "If I don't...what happened to mother will happen to you too! I don't care who I have to sacrifice. I don't care how many innocent I have to kill. With this, it will have enough power...I'll have enough power to finish it off. The life of that which steals your own!"

"What are you talking about, Cloude!" she shouted trying to make him come back to his senses.

"You'll see—" he suddenly brought his sword up to a stance. "The sacrifice must be done. And for it all not to be in vain, that power must be returned to the Abyss." Out of the blue, he charged toward her but he didn't have a chance to land a hit because of the field that took the hit instead and drew him back.

Glancing at her now, my eyes widened at seeing her holding a staff in her hands. The staff itself was of a dark color and three heads taller than the little girl. On the top of it was a crescent moon facing upward, and it was cradling a bright white sphere with an eight-point star inside of it from which the light emanated. Three glass tears with the same stars hung around and underneath the moon, each of a different dim lighted color: red, blue, and green.

"Why?!" Cloude bellowed swinging his blade away. "You're nothing but a nuisance, Astrovylia!"

"Stop saying such nonsense!" Claire finally shouted to him. "Astro's the one that protects us!"

"Did it protect us when the village slaughtered mother for treachery!?" he barked out with the more vicious glare ever. "Did it save us from losing her and father! All it has ever done is deny us our happiness and granting us pain!"

"Our mother had her duty! She was the White Sage, Edea Florence!"

"And it was her duty that brought their undoing, my burden, and your curse," he spoke coldly. "But I won't make the same mistake she did. With this, my Christ, I will now bestow judgment and rid you of your inheritance."

"Cloude..." she murmured, brokenhearted as tears stained her small face.

The rage and sadness in his face suddenly vanished and were replaced with an aloof and cold stare that made the little girl flinch. "Kill everyone in this town. Master's orders are absolute." His voice, too, had turned gelid and with no emotion. "I have to make sure that no other sage is born."

"Are you...serious?"

"I never wanted to see you hurt. All I wanted was to see your smiling face, Claire. But..." He held Christ up before his face. "I have an obligation to uphold." Without warning, he charged at her. Instinctively, she brought the staff before her for protection but the moment both collided, a strange energy went about everywhere around them. The dark energy surrounded them and opened a dark void beneath their feet and pulled them both into darkness. And with them, I went along.

Darkness swallowed us whole once more but before long, a warm, bright light shone before my eyes. This...feeling. It must be Jack. With that in mind, I followed the light until I began falling again.

This time, instead of softly landing, I landed on top of a coffee table. That crash hurt my back and ribs greatly. At opening my eyes, I noticed that countless of black petals had been blown about because of my arrival. Not only that but I saw Break who was buttoning his Pandora uniform's jacket in a haste.

"B-Break?"

"Finally, you're here." He called grabbing his scabbard and headed for the door while fixing one of his sleeves. "While you were still absent some things occurred. Must I fill you in?"

"On the way, but you seem to be rather more in a hurry," I reply getting off the table and catching the glimpse of a black knight. "Although—" I quickly bent down to pick it up and clicked my tongue. "I can probably guess what's happening right now."

"I was surprised. Wasn't really expecting you to get out of Cheshire's by your own."

"I didn't," I assured him as he finished changing. "Someone helped me."

"Someone?" he repeated confused.

I waved his confusion away and played around with the chess piece in my hand. "I'll fill you in later. For now, I have to speak to Sharon about something."

"About Milady, would you mind accompanying me? It would seem—" He grabbed the piece out of my hands, "A sewage rat got a hold of her."


Part two of my three chapter upload. I would have uploaded all three in one day but I accidentally fell asleep cx

But the other chapter won't take long to proofread so hopefully it will come out soon c: So please stayed tuned for that :D