Finally! After four years, I'm finally uploading new content to this story TwT This makes me so happy! :D But I'm getting awfully close to the manga cx I have a general outline but I still want to see the next chapters of PH to see how it's going c:

For now I have some thanks to give:

-LightandDarkHeart: Yes, dearie, hell just freaking broke loose here x3 And I'm not so sure about the headaches being over yet ;D And I say again, let the fun begin!

-SashaPayne56: Thanks so much for following and giving me a favorite! :D I love it when people give me these just as much as reviews. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

-Tris PhantomEvans: Yay! I'm so glad to hear from you again! :D Thanks for the great compliment -w- That's the future plan too so wish me luck. And I'm glad you liked the box of regrets twist c:

Now, let's get this underway :D


Chapter Forty-One

Breaking Free


My head was killing me. All the memories that were rearranging themselves—the ones locked away by the box—were slowly reconnecting themselves to the chain of my memories.

"Nii-san!" Vincent's voice made me turn up to them and see Gilbert letting go of Glen's head only to stand up. "You can't! Even if you've remembered—" A big sound butchered my hearing and cut Vincent's words short from my ears.

It wasn't until I heard Break's voice that I noticed I had my hearing slightly back. "Gilbert-kun! What happened here? Where's Oz-kun? Isn't he with you?!"

"Oz..." I heard his quite voice murmur.

"Break!"

"That's enough Hatter!" Duke Barma suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked Break, pinning him to the ground with Dodo's claw. He stepped on Break's injury and recovered something that he had taken. I tried getting up and helping him but my body was hurting much more than before. It was as if the pain from my head had extended all over my body.

At noticing Glen's head, Duke Barma spoke. He began by saying that what we all saw was prove that Jack Vessalius wasn't the one sealed in the stones. That it was just a made-up story to blot out his existence.

Then he said what I already surmised with the bits of memories that had cleared up. "Jack Vessalius is no hero! He was the cause of it all! He was the man pulling the strings behind the tragedy of one hundred years ago!"

"W-What?! This can't be!"

"This can't be possible?! Then...your memories! The box! Why would he—"

"For his sake." "For his sake."

Both Lachesis and I knew exactly why. What Barma was saying was the truth; the one responsible for the tragedy had to be Jack. With him as the culprit, everything else made sense.

A sudden noise and tremor hit the place hard but what surprised me was when Vincent exclaimed. "Liar! Jack...would never...have asked me to do something like that! Never!"

"But you know better, don't you, Clarice?"

A sudden shiver went through my whole body. What the hell is this...? This was...completely different from before. This wasn't the pain from my headaches or memories rushing into my head. No, this was completely different. It felt like someone how doused me with ice cold water. My body felt numb, like I was being severed from it.

I stood up without meaning to. And what scared me most was that it didn't just feel numb, it felt like strings holding it aloft. But it all went away the instant a pillar of light parted the skies and an even greater earthquake hit. It was like some kind of explosion that suddenly bathed us all in its light but at the same time broke something. Something brittle that was hacked through and shattered into insurmountable pieces.

And then I saw it: pieces of light falling from the sky. Like glittering pieces of broken stars.

"Nii-san!" My body turned just in time to see Gilbert dash away. Without thinking or intending to, I ran after them. My body was exhausted, my mind completely broken, and yet it continued to function. Just by itself, it dragged my tired feet after them. We went out and through the outer garden back to were we had left Oz and Alice.

When Gilbert arrived, I was right behind him. But just as we arrived. my already depleted body fell to its knees when the hold from before let go of me. The only thing holding me up were my arms. Gilbert charged up to protect Oz who suddenly grabbed him by the back of his coat. He was frantic, wanting to say something but before he did Leo shouted.

"Gilbert. Shoot him!"

The loudest bang followed and Oz fell to the ground. Alice shouted and I could only gape, more than baffled. Gil...he shot Oz.

"Good job Gilbert," Leo—no, Master Glen. There was no mistaking that voice. It was him using Leo's body even with how badly wounded it was. Then again, his body was like mine: quick to regenerate. "No matter how much time has passed...I am still...your one and only master."

"Master...Glen..." my voice murmured quietly.

Shortly after, I heard scuffling from behind me. At turning to face it, Break stumbled out of the forest. He must've followed us here. Alice kept shouting and suddenly started running towards Oz's direction. A few Baskervilles intervened but Break quickly stopped them and let Alice pass. She knelt there before him. And then Oz said words that I never thought I would hear him say.

"Alice...you...can't...stay with me anymore..."

Suddenly, my eyes widened when I noticed that Alice's body started fading away. How—Why's Alice disappearing?! She protested all she could but before she even said his name, she disappeared in a burst of light that headed skyward.

How...? No, it can't be...

Alice is gone...?

Out of the blue, my body froze over, this time colder than before. I couldn't feel myself.

"Cla—"

All their voices were suddenly insulated. They were there but I couldn't hear any of them anymore. It was like I was sinking in deep murky waters. My body felt so heavy and torn apart. What...is happening to me...?

"….om..."

Who's...calling for me...?

"Come...Clarice."


When I woke up, my eyes fluttered open, my lids felt very heavy, my vision was blurry and my head was aching. Where...am I? I was laying on hard rock and I was facing what seemed to be a cell door. When I tried moving my hands, I noticed they were tied behind my back. When I tried moving, my body felt heavy. What...happened?

"You're awake..." My vision finally returned a bit more to normal, enough to show me that Doug was standing on the other side of the cell I was in, watching over me.

My throat was dry and I was completely parched. But somewhere in me I found the voice to ask the question that knocked in my head. "Where...am I?"

"Pandora's dungeons. The Baskervilles took over Pandora after the siege. We were ordered to seal you so that you wouldn't be able to do anything if you reverted back."

"Reverted...back?"

"Have you no recollection?"

"Doug—" My voice cracked from the heaviness I felt on me. But that didn't keep me from asking again. "What are you talking about?"

"Back when Oz Vessalius was shot down by Gilbert..." He sighed when he saw my perplexed face and continued. "Then maybe if I tell you, it'll make more sense—"


A fight broke out between Barma and Break shortly after Alice disappeared and Break attempted to go save Oz. Some of the Baskervilles were heading towards Oz's unconscious body, intending to capture him. Knowing she was there, Break called out to her. "Claire!"—Clarice—"Get to Oz-kun!"

Quicker than he thought possible, Claire stood up and charged towards Oz's direction. Skirting past the Baskervilles, she stood between Oz and them and summoned Radiant Dawn. She went on and drew them back just as Sharon and some of Pandora's agents arrived at the courtyard. Hearing this, Break called for her to get Oz out of Pandora with Eques.

But the instant that Sharon shrieked out Claire's name, Break couldn't understand what was happening. Not until he listened and started hearing the anguished cries of the men falling to the ground, dead. Claire...was killing the Baskervilles that came close to Oz. Not only them but also the Pandora members that had gone forth to attempt and take Oz to Sharon.

And yet none reached the young heir. Because all that stood in their way was the girl that rampaged against them and was killing any who came anywhere near.

Before Break had a chance to do anything, Barma threw the earrings to the floor and ordered Dodo to destroy them and with it the link that tied all Chains of the Rainsworth's to their contractors. The Baskervilles quickly took hold of Sharon and Break now that they were unable to fight.

"It's nice to see you like this, Mad Hatter. Actually—" Barma stood before Break while the latter sneered back at him. "That name isn't fitting to you anymore, since you no longer posses the power of the Mad Hatter." Lottie raged against him for destroying the key to the Rainsworth's door but Barma begged to differ. "A quick and brilliant decision on my part, don't you agree, Head of the Baskervilles?"

Glen didn't reproach, but thought it odd until screams took away his attention. "M-Master Glen!?" They all turned their attention back to Claire who stood protectively over Oz, her expression stoic and lost in nothingness. Her left hand held Radiant Dawn, threatening any who approached. And since none had come close after the first batch she had killed, she simply stood there, waiting. But they knew—sensed—that if they took even a step beyond the imaginary line she had drawn, they would be minced within seconds.

Glen approached her but she quickly held onto Radiant Dawn, her eyes glazed over and her expression stoic.

"Claire! What are you waiting for?!" Break yelled over them. "Take Oz-kun away!"

"Claire!" Lottie called rushing over to Claire's field of view. At noticing her coming too close, Claire instantly summoned Legion in one hand and threw it. Doug was fast enough to divert the trajectory of the spear that had been directed straight at Lottie. "Claire... What's the matter with you?!"

"It's useless," Glen declared with a peeved glare to his demeanor. "Where she is now...Clarice can't hear you."

"What?" Lottie exclaimed.

"She's being controlled." Glen came closer but felt as Claire summoned both Chronos and Lacrimosa in their animal forms: the glistening doe and the huge-tailed monkey. Lacrimosa caused the gravity around them to increase while Chronos stopped the Baskervilles in their tracks. Glen held tightly to the sword he had hidden away and to the one other thing that could stop their attacks. "That is as far as either of you will go."

Claire groaned, one of her knees caving in, before the two Chains became engulfed in a black void that swallowed them whole. Finding a gap, Lottie left Doug's side and headed to Claire, ignoring his calls. She was about to help her when Claire summoned Radiant Dawn and attacked Lottie, getting her shoulder.

Lottie scowled but instead of drawing back, used her whip and wrapped it tightly around Claire's arms enabling her from attacking anymore. But seeing as she was thrashing about trying to liberate herself, Lottie decided that the best course of action was to knock her out.

"Good girl..."

"H-How—"

"This must be Jack's doing as well," Glen said coming close behind her and kneeling before the unconscious girl. "Sometime, somehow, without us knowing, he must have done something to Clarice. After all, we left him enough of a leeway to do so."

Glen then gave his orders: lock them all up. Restrain Oz and Claire with a sealing spell. And Barma would tell him what happened with Jack Vessalius after his death.


What...?

"I...killed people...?" My voice was shaking and I couldn't believe that I didn't remember what he just told me.

"Some from both sides. You had no regard of whom you were slaying, you were just blindly attacking them."

I don't understand. Why...can't I remember any of this?!

Chronos! Lacrimosa!

But even when I called them, they didn't answer me. What's the matter? Talk to me?!

"They cannot answer you, mia Dominia. They are no longer here."

That made my heart stop. "What?"

"Claire?" Doug's voice reached my buzzing ears and I heard the concern in it.

"Doug—" my voice was ragged now and hysteric. But I didn't care how I sounded. Right now all I cared about was finding out what had happened to them. "What happened to Chronos and Lacrimosa? Why can't I talk to them anymore...?"

"Master Glen... He severed the contracts you had with your Chains with the Nightray and Barkerville's keys."

What...?

"No..." You're lying.

"They..." Were all I had left.

"I—" Didn't want to lose them.

Then how come you're still with me, Lachesis?

"You and I formed a contract as comrades in arms. We are not connected by the Keys of the Doors of the Abyss. You and I formed an alliance through our own will."

Then could you tell me...what happened a few hours ago?

"...if that is what you wish..."

"Show me..." I murmured and then suddenly something came over me.

It was like I plunged into cold water and couldn't breath. But just as soon as that feeling came over me, it disappeared and left me in the scenery that I recognized from a few hours ago. I was inside of my body but I wasn't in control. It gave me that same numb feeling from before and this time the strings I felt pulling me along were way stronger. They were actually making me move. I don't know how I got in between the Baskverilles and Oz but I do remember a voice calling my name.

"Clarice."

I know that voice. That voice...it was Jack's.

The Baskervilles and Pandora agents suddenly started approaching me all the meanwhile Break and Barma fought. When they started getting too close, I heard his voice again.

"Don't let them come any closer, Clarice."

Those words...I've heard them before. He's said those words to me before but...when? Before I had anything else to think about I saw them get too close and my body suddenly reacted on its own.

I started attacking them—killing them. One after the other, my body moved on its own swiftly cutting down any who approached. Without noticing I had started screaming inside. I hate this. Why am I doing this again?!

Again...?

That's true... That time too, I did...the same thing. My head suddenly started hurting, the same piercing pain hit my head as a memory surged into me. It was that one memory from before, the one that I never knew what it was. The one that came in scraps. But this time it came as a whole.

It was right after I had reentered the mansion after Lottie had told me to run but didn't. The time when Chronos told me what Glen had ordered all Baskervilles to do. And I knew that I had gone to search for Cloude and found him quickly.

"No..." I muttered feeling the pain increase. "That's...not true." I...hadn't found him right from the start. Something had happened before I found him. Something had happened.

Something...very, very...wrong.


That night, I was running around the manor searching for Cloude when I found something else. That's right. I found Jack about in the manor, alone.

"Jack?!" I called hysterically and caught his attention. Immediately I threw myself and hugged his legs tightly. "Jack, what's going on?! I can't find Cloude, Vince, or Gil! I'm scared, Jack! What's happening?"

"We've found him!" We both turned to find some of the Baskervilles had surrounded us. "Master Glen has ordered for you to be stopped."

"W-Why would Master say that?" I murmured under my breath not understanding what was happening.

That's when Jack grabbed me suddenly by my shoulders and squeezed them way too tightly. I turned to face him but the expression he had...it scared me. It wasn't outright fury like when he had found me in the piano room. No, this showed some kind of horrible intention hidden behind an apathetic smile. It was the same one that he always showed us but then it wasn't, because this time I saw it for what it was. A fake.

"I can't fight them as I am now. Oz hasn't recuperated from severing the chains yet."

Oz? What is he talking about? What chains?

"So, please, Claire, get rid of them." When he said those words something happened in me. My body—just like it had before—became numb and ice cold. It was like I was being detached from my own self. Just like...when Siva had taken over me. I could see and feel and hear what was happening around me but I just couldn't stop what my body did. Those invisible strings that I had felt before were stronger now. Jack turned me over to face the Baskervilles and whispered in my ear, "Don't let them come any closer, Clarice."

At hearing those words, it was like my soul completely separated from my body and all I could do was watch while I killed them. It was hard to fathom how easily I overpowered the others of the household. But what was more shocking was that no matter how much I screamed for myself to stop, nothing happened. I just kept killing and killing and killing...until no one else was left.

Now I understood why when I found Cloude my dress and cloak were drenched in blood. It wasn't because I had walked through so much carnage, it was because I had actually caused some of it. And against our brethren.

"Good girl...my White Knave."


Those words snapped me back into the cell with my breathing ragged and my head hurting.

That night—I had killed people, Baskervilles, because Jack had ordered me too. Then that time at Yura's and again at the sealing stone when I saw them and that carnage, the memories that were trying to surface were the ones that Jack tried to hide the most.

But...how was he controlling me...

drip—

My eyes were forced to blink when a drop of water fell on my lashes. My eyes itched from the sudden contact but I blinked it away. I turned over to face the ceiling and noticed the drops that now fellaw on my cheek.

Out of nowhere, the floors from above began to shake and rumble. The loose gravel from the ceiling came down in strings of sand that made me turn away so that they wouldn't hit my face. Something...was happening up there.

A sudden chill went through me and this time I recognized it. It was my soul, it was trying to detach from my body. Then I heard him calling me.

"Clarice, come. I need you. Come, my Knave—"

"Shut...up..." I hiss under my breath. When I knew what was going on with me, it gave me an edge to fight against it. But it still left me dumbfounded. Through my stupor I hear some of the other Baskervilles come and tell Doug about what had happened. He made his leave while the two others took his place in guarding me.

I felt the distinct chill and another tug on my gut. Shit, holding my soul and body together was harder by the second. Jack's voice was getting way too strong as well. The louder his voice became, the harder it was to literally keep myself together.

The ground shook again, even more than before. Damn, the earthquakes have been many and some heavier than the others. —drip— More water poured from the ceiling and hit my cheek while falling down my neck.

Water... Why is it...so heavy...?

Heavy...water! This is—

"ARBEL!"

As if on cue, the water that had pooled underneath me swiftly moved out of the cell and darted at the heads of the Baskervilles. The water then wrapped around their heads and became a bubble filled with it. They gasped trying to grasp away the bubble around their heads in vain. Soon they fell unconscious on the floor with a heavy thump.

The water comes up from the floor and forms the body of the guy that I couldn't be happier to see. "Finally found you," Arbel muttered while hardening his arm into an ice blade and broking the lock of the door. He turned his head towards the entry hallway and nodded his head my way. From the corner of my eye, I saw Galen wearing a red cloak. That's how he must've sneaked in.

"How did you find me?" I murmur when Arbel comes to my side and helps me sit up.

"Wasn't easy. Had to slip through crooks and crannies to find you here. Quite literally."

The thumping from before returned with a vigor like no other. Something was happening and Jack wanting me to do something about it. My mind suddenly detached from my body and the instant Arbel cut the ties on my hands, my body summoned Radiant Dawn and attacked him.

"Stop this!" But my body wouldn't listen. Galen tried stopping me but he was swept away with a brandish of my sword. I had to stop this and stop Jack from controlling me. There has to be something that he is using to take control of my body but—

I...know...

For that mere second, I let the sadness leave me and instead willed myself back into my body. It was like trying to draw the same parts of a magnet together. Something kept repelling me back until I grabbed ahold of my own shoulders and pulled myself together.

When I finally placed myself back, I had to take short, ragged breaths. Whatever Jack was doing was really getting to me, trying to pull me apart. But I wouldn't let it anymore because now I knew how to stop it.

Arbel's call to me came to my ears but it was muddied. I was still deep underwater, my soul having a hard time trying to stay connected to my body. But if I only had a few seconds...that's all I need!

Reaching my hand under my skirts, I grabbed ahold of the small oval shaped jewel that clung to my garter belt right beside my dagger. I snatched and threw it aside only to catch a glimpse of it for the first time in a while.

My emerald broche was glimmering a bright red and every time its light flickered I felt my body pound more each time. This was it. Turning Radiant Dawn over and holding it by the hilt, I crawled over to it and brought the sword up high.

"Enough is enough!" I yelled and brought down the hilt against the jewel with enough force to shatter it. The whole thing broke into pieces and the red shine dissipated into a red haze. The moment the haze disappeared completely, I felt myself surface from the murky waters.

I could finally take deep breaths. I could finally will my body to move. And I could finally let the tears that had welled up in me fall down my cheeks.

It was hard not to keep myself from weeping. Even though I hated Jack for what he had done...he had still been a friend to me when I was a child. He still held me close like a father would and still cared for me like a mother would. If he had been faking it or not, to the me that had been suffering it didn't matter. He showed me kindness when I most needed it. And that broche had been a token of that kindness.

And even though now I knew what he used it for, I still felt so much grief at losing what drove me to follow after my past in the first place. Had it not been for him, I would have never found Leo. I would have never met Elliot. Never would I have become part of Pandora and met Break, Sharon, and Reim. And I would've never become friends with Oz, Gilbert, and Alice.

So even though he was an evil, evil man, I owe to him all that I have now. My hands wiped away the broken pieces and picked up the small picture of Cloude. "Thank you, but..." I wiped the tears away from my face and pocketed the picture. "I won't need it anymore."

The silence that had come over us was broken when Galen placed a hand on my shoulder. I turned to face him and saw the sullen expression we shared. "There's no time to waste. We need to get out of here." He picked me up from the floor and us three faced the inside wall of the cell.

"Well, then, Mister Arcadios, mind making us an exit?"

I stared perplexed at Galen from what Arbel had said. "Making us?"

"No problem," he said and pushed us back a bit before he took a stand. Making a motion with his hands I felt the atmosphere become warmer. Then the wall that had been opposite to the cell door began melting and soon burst down into a pool of lava. This startled me until Galen motioned away making the lava hardened over. He must have noticed my expression because he grinned smugly. "I wasn't the late Lord of Fire for nothing."

He grabbed me by my wrist and pulled me out of the cell with Arbel right behind. We high tailed it beyond the walls surrounding Pandora and outside where a couple of horses waited for us. Galen helped me up on the larger one and climbed on himself, right behind me. Arbel took the other and we headed out on full speed.

Consciously, I kept looking over my shoulder towards Pandora. "What will happen to Oz!? We have to go back for him!"

"Oz escaped with Gilbert!" Arbel called over the wind that crashed against us as we rode on to goodness knows where. "I saw them while trying to look for you!"

"What about Break and the others!?"

"No time!" Galen growled over the noise. "We have more pressing matters to see to."

Hell, I couldn't imagine what more pressing matters there were. As we galloped through the vacant streets of Reveille, more earthquakes shook all around.

"There's been one every other few minutes, and growing more constant," Galen started explaining as we headed to the nearby outskirts.

"It's the chains," I explained knowing from what Lachesis told me. "Jack broke them using B-Rabbit's power." A bitterness hit me when I realized something. Back in my memory Jack spoke of 'Oz' not being able to break the chains holding the world together. Now I understood something.

Oz was B-Rabbit.

He was what abled Jack to shatter those chains back then and now, too. I crunched my eyes shut before opening them with new determination. Whatever Oz may be, it didn't matter. Oz was still Oz, and that's how he ought to stay. He's my friend and that won't change.

Arbel and Galen stopped the horses not far from the sewer conduits that led beneath Reveille. I stared perplexed at the entrance when Galen helped me down. "What are we doing in the sewers?"

Arbel turned to me and placed a finger over his lips to hush me. Keeping my thoughts to myself for the moment, I watched as he passed through the barred entrance as a liquid and open it for us on the other side. Arbel nodded for us to follow before he sprinted away. Galen grabbed my wrist and again we followed quickly after him. The more we ran, the more I noticed that smoke had started clotting up the air and making me cover my mouth and nose with my sleeve. When we finally caught up with Arbel, I saw him perched over the exit of the tunnel that led somewhere with light and where the smoke was coming from.

"How bad is it?" Galen asked coming in front to stand beside Arbel.

"Major bad," Arbel growled and reached out his hand for me.

Taking it, I walked over to look at what they were seeing and when I did, my eyes almost came out of their sockets. "W-What in the...?!"

"It's Kein and her outlaws. They've declared war on us." He said this with an acerbic tone that said much as we three looked down upon the Court of Miracles as it was engulfed in a living inferno.


Oh no! D: What's going to happen now!? Well, I have some news. Because I am waiting on the new PH chapters to release, this will be the last upload for a while. It'll be a small and temporary hiatus -.- I know it's bad since I already made a four year one before but I promise, it won't be that long. I just want PH to progress a little bit more before writing out the rest of the chapters.

I will be starting another PH story sometime soon, so maybe you can look forward to that while the hiatus for this one goes on.

So, for now, have yourselves a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year! And as always stayed tuned for the next chapter! :D