AS A DISCLAIMER chaos-dark-lord wrote this with me. We are cowriting this series so enjoy the twisted madness :3
Jackie mindlessly trotted through town with a heavy bag of new parts for the ferris wheel. Something was off with it, nothing too major but some idiot cut the power cord so now she got to spend the rest of her day shelling the wires and entwining them together. She grunted in annoyance and trudged on, feeling her arms tremble from the heavy bags.
"Hey Jackeline!" From the shadows of an alley Jackie saw a weird figure clad in dark tactic gear. The figure seemed familiar but something was blocking her thoughts and she could feel a headache coming on. Then the figure moved the gas mask aside to show her face and motioned for Jackie to follow her.
… uh, no. Jackie turned and kept walking, keeping in the more crowded areas of the sidewalk. She knew better than to follow a stranger into some dark alley.
A couple blocks away Jackie had practically forgotten about the stranger when an explosion went off nearby, making people scatter around because that meant that a shooting was about to start. Despite her tiredness, Jackie's fingers tightened as she ran into a side street to get a away from the bullets that would be flying. When she was in a smaller street someone grabbed her from behind and forced something sweet in her mouth before passing his or her hand over Jackie's throat to force her to swallow.
Her nails immediately dug into the attackers arm, using her tongue to block the back of her throat and pin the candy precariously near her throat. What in the hell-?!
"I'm just trying to prevent Nightmare from blocking your memory Jackie!" The person said with a digital distorted voice and dug her fingers at the base of Jackie's jaws to force her to open her mouth. "You would remember the other foreigner from last night but Nightmare is blocking things from you! Don't force me to take more drastic measures! Don't you wanna go back to New York?!"
Jackie's head slipped out of the attacker's arms for a brief moment without even listening to the persons digital voice. The sharp edges of the metal clad arms scraped up her face and ears as she heavily breathed, stumbling back and glaring at the stranger before spitting out the candy. She wobbled on her feet, disorientated for a moment as she got a handle on the situation. Was I just jumped? Crap! Oh to hell with it, those parts were cheap anyway.
Jackie turned around and took off running, seeing that her attacker was wearing straight a heavy coat and tactic clothes that barely let her see the armor underneath. There's no way she could beat those defenses without getting really hurt and if that person had armor like that Jackie bet she would have scary weapons too. Is it one of Griffin's? He's the only one she could imagine that would have armor period on his men. -
"Maldición Jackeline! Tu me obligaste!" The person chased after Jackie with a speed that shouldn't be possible for someone wearing something that looked so heavy. Very soon, the person was getting close to Jackie, almost a couple steps away, and Jackie knew that it wasn't a good idea to let the person grab her. -
Jackie made a sudden turn into the street and sprinted down the sidewalk, praying she'd run into a Role Holder or better yet, Gray. If she stayed near the explosion sight he'd show up pretty soon. Jackie sprinted past a bunch of boxes and grabbed some of the heavy crates, throwing them over top of her pursuer before taking off like her life depended on it. -
The pursuer jumped to the wall and ran a couple steps over it to bypass the crates, and then used the impulse to jump to intercept Jackie, but the engineer did a jump of her own to the side and saw that the person's palm was open just where she had been a second before. The palm of the glove was tick, as if there was something below, and that was probably very bad. This stranger was persistent, and she could ponder why that digital voice was familiar later, because soon she'd be where the explosion happened.
Jackie ran into the street where the smoke was coming from and luckily for her, Gray was there. When he saw her running frankly towards him he looked behind her and to the side street she had come from. His eyes widened and he ran towards the place
"Stay here Jackie!" He told her as he passed by her side. Jackie turned to see if her pursuer was still there but only saw the tail of the strangers jacket disappearing behind a building. W-What the hell? Who was that person and why were they chasing me?
10 minutes later Grey was back and his gaze looked hard, troubled even.
"Did you get the person?"- Jackie asked. The waiting time had served her to analyze her little encounter and all the person said. Such a weirdo … hope I never have to see that person again.
"Don't worry about it Jackie," he responded, short and curt.
After that, Grey offered to escort her to the amusement park. Jackie followed Gray, knowing that his presence alone should scare off the attacker. When she got to her apartment she thanked Gray and went inside.
Jackie opened the door of her apartment and closed the door with a sigh. Just to be safe she put on the double lock, and once she did so, she felt herself being pinned against the wall with force by a hand on her neck. Jackie's heart leapt into her mouth as she craned her head back, seeing her attacker standing in her house and pinning her to the wall like all those horror movies she saw growing up as a kid.
"I can electrocute you. Don't move." A digital distorted voice growled and Jackie knew that this was the same person from earlier that day. And if this person had escaped Gray, then he probably was someone dangerous and skilled who would not hesitate to do as he said.
"Get the hell off me-!" She snarled, pushing back against her slowly and steadily, afraid that any sudden movements might encourage the person to attack her.
"Look. Nightmare is going to intervene and make you forget again. I rather avoid having to do presentations once more," the person charged more weight onto Jackie and prepared to act.
"I said get the hell off!" Jackie snapped, whipping her elbow around and catching the attacker in the temple through the helmet he was wearing.
The person grunted and smacked the palm of his hand on Jackie's back; an electric current strung the engineer and Jackie was immobilized as if she had been struck by a taser. She let out a scream as her muscles locked up, making movement impossible for her.
Jackie was temporarily paralyzed as the person moved behind her. She only heard something small hitting the floor behind them before she was tossed around to face the person with awful rudeness. Jackie was stricken by HER. The mask had come off from Jackie's attack and now she could see the attacker's face and the annoyance in her olive green eyes. She was definitely a girl; a girl that didn't waste time and kissed her to pass some sweet liquid into her mouth, using her hand over her throat again to force her to swallow, this time managing so.
"Gack-!" Jackie gagged and tried to shove her away, feeling the liquid sliding down her throat.
The seconds of paralysis ended and Jackie tried hitting the person in the stomach but she hit solid armor, almost immediately, the pain of her self inflicted pain was blurred by a bunch of images and memories coming back to her as if some mist had been dispelled from her mind.
Aria's face flashed in her mind as she sucked in a startled breath, remembering everything that's happened with meeting Aria before and then suddenly having a powerful headache swing her way and she … fell unconscious.
Jackie was against the floor on her knees, panting. It took her a minute to notice that a glass of water was being offered to her. "Aria?" She looked at the empty bottle in the floor, "what did you give me?"
"Finally…" the other foreigner said with a tint of exasperation in that digital voice, "I just gave you the potion that cuts off Nightmare's abilities to mess at a distance with your mind and a couple other things. I tried to give you the candy nicely, y'know?" The armored woman was apathetic, "then the explosion worked but you had to go and force me to be more forceful."
"W-Wait, you were the one that caused the explosion?" Jackie asked, suspiciously glancing at the water and weighing her options.
"I had to. I was easier than assaulting you on the street. That would have gotten people killed," Aria was emotionless in this, however she noticed Jackie's gaze on the glass, "don't worry. It's just water. If I wanted to kill you or anything I would have done so days ago. Now can we speak up? Now that Nightmare is not meddling you can get more input into the game and your life here. Did Gray say anything?"
"Say? No, he didn't say anything. Why, does he know you?" She asked, taking a cautious sip of the water. If this girl wanted to hurt her she could have done so a while ago. Multiple times. "And what are you talking about Nightmare meddling?" She asked, curious.
Aria sighted and sat down on the floor near Jackie's but still away enough to act if she needed. She looked down to the ground before answering, "they all know me. I was here for months even before you came, more precisely the months they can't remember. In fact, the game currently going on is not Alice's, it's mine. I am the current "star". But my case is different than Alice's or yours. They wished for a foreigner that was different from Alice because they didn't want to be remembered that they had lost her game," Aria then seriously looked at Jackie, "and they had a lot to answer to you. Nightmare has been blocking your memory and mind so that they have another chance at a game. Now you'll be able to remember... if you want."
"Lost her game?" Jackie breathed, bothered by her word choice, "How is it possible for her to lose the game? She's still here," Jackie pointed out.
The armored girl shook her head, "Alice didn't lose the game. All the Role Holders except for Blood did. Blood is the one who 'won' Alice's game when she decided to stay with him and accept his connector; while I won mine by other situations. However 'win' is a very relative term and some might say that everyone merely lost in my game."
" … so, win as in that the foreigner won. And that would make the other Role Holders lose the game?" She asked, puzzled by her explanation. Wait, that doesn't sound right. How could they lose the game?
"No. Win is when Wonderland wins, and Wonderland wins when a foreigner decides to stay, normally so by choosing a Role Holder to stay by his side. This world wants foreigners to be happy because such happy and nice emotions power up this world. Or at least they were the only thing that did before I came along," Aria's words were clear yet mysterious, "the Role Holders lose the game because they lose the foreigner," her expression was unreadable, making Jackie uneasy, "Can you please tell me about you? A bit of yourself before you came here, how did you arrived into Wonderland, what your experiences had been like…. everything please."
Jackie sat in stunned silence for a little bit, rethinking everything Aria just told her. Jackie had suspected there was something deeper to this 'Wonderland' but never looked into it too much. It was just a place for her to live out until she was able to go back home. So how in the hell could it all seem so complicated?
Jackie took a deep breath and began her story when Peter had abducted her so that Alice would have a bit of foreign company. How she had being given the potion of hearts and how she had ended up as the park's engineer. During her retell of things Aria had remained with a poker face and had just interrupted to ask seemingly unimportant questions not directly regarding her but like: "Which territory did you landed?", "Have you experienced a land move?", "How did the holders act during last event". But Jackie was suspecting than Aria's inquires were related to all she hadn't told her yet.
After Jackie finished telling the other girl about her adventures in this world, Aria got up and put her hand on her chin seemingly thinking about it. "That should be all. Thank you Jackie. What questions do you have? Just be mindful that I will answer honesty to exactly what you ask."
"Good hell where do I even begin?" Jackie breathed, running a hand through her hair, "ok, ok just generalize everything you just said but just the parts pertaining to me getting back to my home," Jackie said, still struggling to wrap her head around everything, "and dumb it down a little more for me."
Aria opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly, her gaze hardened and she went to the back of the room to the bathroom. "Don't tell anyone of me but ask them questions. I'll catch up with you later!" Then she opened the window and grabbed the pipe outside to slid down to the floor and disappear in the shadows of the night.
Jackie was left with her mouth open when half a minute later someone knocked at her door. She went to answer, "who is it?"
"Good night Jackie! It's just me, Boris"
" … you came just to say good night?" She repeated, annoyed at his ignorant stupidity that chased that other girl off. Ugh I wanna kill him … she paused as he lifted his head into the air a bit, sniffing the air. He leaned in towards Jackie, sniffing her a little bit in confusion.
"Uh, something wrong?" She asked, pushing his head away.
"Yeah. What smells? It's … weird, but familiar." He said, stepping past Jackie and sniffing around where Aria was standing. "It's almost like a machine… no. It smells like the air before a storm and a bit of metals and plastics?... Ozone? Technology?"
Jackie was surprised that Boris knew what ozone was, or at least what it smelled like. However he did seem to recognize the smell, "and where have you smelled this, Boris?"
"Huh … not sure," he said, looking all around the room now as he tried to find the location of this odd smell. His ears perked constantly and his tail lashed one side to another. He seemed either distressed or very interested. Probably both.
"Boris, get out. I want to sleep." Jackie was getting very suspicious of the Role Holder and this world. Aria was a strange woman but she was a foreigner too, right?
"But Jackie, this smell is… I don't know, but it seems important," Boris protested Jackie pushing him outside.
"I don't care. It was a hard day and the explosion and chase in town didn't help. I'm tired. Now out! good night," she finally sent him outside and closed the door behind him. He sometimes was just so nosy…
She sighed and went to take a bath before she went to sleep. This was getting too strange and Aria's words just raised far more questions than answers. Next time she saw the other girl she'd have her questions ready for the other female.
Still, there was something more than weird about Aria. It was not the armor. Seriously, who would blame her for wearing protection in a world where everyone shot first and the minimum chance? No. It was something about her that just seemed off. Why was she staying clear of the Role Holders and how did she knew all she claimed to know? She also had said that she was the culprit of that explosion but she had done so to avoid casualties, yet she hadn't hesitate to attack and even electrocute her. Well, she hadn't cooperated but that was to be expected. yet Aria had been totally cool all the time. And why didn't anyone remembered her?
Jackie wondered if it would be fine to trust her.