A long chapter finally. It would have been even longer, but I wanted to put it out tonight and I wasn't nearly done so I just left off. This chapter was oddly inspired by the display name Lunatic Pandora1. I'm not really sure why, but I had been reading Alice in Wonderland and afterward went to read some reviews. Upon looking at the name I immediately got the idea to throw some bits and pieces of adventures in wonderland into the mission. I do hope it came out alright. I'm rather pleased with it.

Cat and Cat

Cat walked around to the back of the truck still laughing with the soldier. Seras and Alucard were just hopping out and Dallas was getting more comfortable on the bench.

"So are you all ready love? I guess you don't need much aye? You want me to pull a bullet proof jacket out of ze back just in case?"

"No, I'll be fine, guns are the last things I'm worried about," she tightened her holster and pulled her socks higher up in her boots.

"Well zen, we'll be waiting 'ere when you get back. Be carful love," he shook her hand for luck and tousled her hair before he jumped into the back of the truck and closed the canvas.

"Come on," Alucard began briskly walking across the grass towards the building.

Cat had to jog to keep up with his pace and when she looked over she saw that Seras was keeping up with no problem. Cat pushed herself to run faster so she would be running with them rather than behind them.

When they got to the door Seras phased straight through it leaving Cat with Alucard.

"Are you quite frightened?" he looked at her and smirked.

"I'm never quite frightened. Just anxious," she reached out for the door knob and was surprised to find it unlocked. She pushed the door opened and peered inside, "Well that was easy. Maybe the whole mission will be like that."

"You humans always wish for impossible things," he stepped into the gloom of the dank building.

"You vampires are always being so pessimistic about everything," Cat stepped in after him and flinched as the door slammed behind her, "Did you do that?"

"No, I did not," he quietly looked around the building. They were in a foyer with no doors. The only way to go was down a hall that was directly in front of the door they had come in through. Alucard started down the hall quickly, eager to find out what lay in the depths of the building.

Cat followed closely behind him feeling more and more anxious about the mission. Things seemed much too quiet. Though she had only been on two missions before she thought that things were usually full of action from the very beginning. They always knew what they were getting into and what kind of monsters they would be fighting and even where all the monsters were. This building was dead quiet. It did not even have the moaning and groaning sounds that many old deserted buildings had. The only sound that could be heard were Cat's own footsteps and the annoying clunk of Seras' cannon and bullet case tapping together.

After a seemingly long time of silent walking they came to a fork in the hall. A three pronged fork to be exact.

Cat turned around to see if the front door was even visible anymore after walking so far and gasped, "Look at that!"

Alucard and Seras turned around to see what she was in awe over. Seras gasped as well, but Alucard only chuckled, "How very interesting. Things are getting more and more exciting every second."

Though they had been walking for at least five minutes the front door seemed a mere fifteen feet away.

"But how is that even possible!" Cat grabbed onto Alucard's sleeve in excitement and shook it.

"How should I know something like that? Aren't humans supposed to embrace the impossible?" he shook her hand loose of his sleeve and turned back to face the halls.

"Enough with the human crap, jeeze. It's getting ridiculous," Cat turned back to face the halls as well and crossed her arms in annoyance.

"What should we do?" Cat jerked her head sideways, surprised to hear Seras speak up.

"We split up. I'll take the left, Seras will take the middle and Cat can take the right," he looked at the two to be sure they agreed.

"We can't split up are you mad!" Cat dropped her arms to her sides and stood rigid and aghast.

"Very mad," Alucard laughed evilly and took no notice to her outrage.

"Well I don't want the right! Why does she get the middle?" Cat could see Seras looking at her but she chose not to notice.

"You can have the middle Cat I don't mind," Seras offered kindly.

Cat shot her a look when she used her preferred nick name. She only preferred hearing it from people she was friends with. "Alucard, why don't you take the middle?" Cat did not feel like being in the hall next to Seras. If something happened and she was in trouble she would rather it not be Seras that came to her aid.

"Fine, may we just go? I don't see what difference it makes to you," Alucard shoved her towards the right hall and started down the middle one without a look back. Soon he was not even visible through the dim lighting.

"Well, good luck. Yell if anything happens okay?" Seras looked at Cat kindly and smiled.

"I've been on missions before, I know what to do," Cat turned down the hall and walked away. She looked back a second later feeling bad that she had snapped at Seras, but Seras had already disappeared down her hall.

"Well so much for making friends with her. She probably thinks I'm a jerk now," Cat walked down the hall slowly. She was not sure what she was supposed to look for and there was only the option of walking straight so she trekked on down the hall for around five minutes. She turned around abruptly to see if the same phenomenon that happened with the foyer would happen with her hall, but all she could see was the dark length of it.

When she turned back around she noticed one of the lights that ran along the hall ceiling were out. It left a dark area about five feet long on the floor before the next light came along and lit things back up again.

"I could have sworn it was lit just a second ago," Cat stood staring at it curiously, waiting to see if it would flicker back on, but it did nothing. She shrugged her shoulders and started walking again without much thought to how very dark the floor was.

The moment she stepped into the darkness she was plunged into icy cold water. She shrieked in surprise for a moment, but was cut off when her head went under. She kicked around frantically in the water trying to find a bottom, but there was not one so she kicked as hard as she could and finally burst to the surface. She gasped as her face hit the air which seemed suddenly warmer than it had been before. She splashed around in the water trying to make it to the lighted area on the other side. She struggled until her muscles were sore, but finally reached it. The light began in a hard line rather than fading from dark to light gradually. She gripped this seemingly false edge and pushed her feet forward thinking there would be a wall just like in a swimming pool. She gasped again when her legs and torso slipped right under the floor and she had to struggle again to straighten herself out. She finally managed to kick half her body up onto the ledge and pull herself the rest of the way out.

She laid dripping on the floor with her eyes closed, gasping and sputtering for breath. "How…is…that…even…possible!" she managed to choke out to no one in particular. She pulled herself up into a sitting position and stared at the dark water. It had already stopped rippling and looked like smooth black glass. "Why didn't it look like that before?"

"It surely did," a small voice spoke directly behind her.

Cat screamed and nearly dove back into the black pool to get away from the unknown voice. She managed to keep on the edge of the floor and slide further to the wall. When she turned around to see who had spoken she saw a small boy who looked no older than five. He had very dark brown untidy hair that reached just below his ears and his eyes were a brilliant blue and looked much too large for his face just as a deer looks.

The small boy stood looking at her for a long moment as if he was waiting for her to respond to what he had said. Cat remained silent with her eyes growing larger every moment so he saw fit to continue before they popped out of her head, "Are you searching for something?"

Cat nearly gasped to hear him speak again. She was sure that she was only imagining him and that if she blinked or tried to talk to him he would vanish. He continued staring at her very intently so she thought she must answer him soon lest he become upset and cry, "Yes, I am looking for…something."

"By what name?" the boy inquired.

"I don't really know," Cat pushed herself up on her knees so she would be more level with him.

"Then what kind?" he tilted his head side ways the way some puppies do when they are curious.

"I'm sure I don't know that either," she was beginning to feel uncomfortable with him so stood up against the wall.

"How will you know then, when you find it?" he put one of his small hands in his pocket and fumbled around with something inside.

"Well, I don't know that either. Perhaps I will just know," Cat stepped towards him thinking that this was no place for a child and that she should take him back outside immediately.

"Perhaps you have found it already," and then he turned and ran away from her as fast as his small legs could go.

"But wait! You shouldn't be here it's dangerous!" Cat sprinted after him, but he seemed to be moving faster than his legs were touching the ground. She chased him for about twenty yards before he turned down a corner. But before he did so he pulled his hand out of his pocket and tossed something down. It slid back towards Cat and then stopped against a wall. She ignored it for the moment and ran around the corner where the boy had disappeared, but it was a dead end after only about four feet of hall. She looked frantically at the three walls enclosing it, but there were no doors or any seam lines from hidden ones. She stood gasping for breath and from shock for a moment before she turned back around and went back down the hall a ways to find what he had dropped.

After a moment of searching she found the small thing against the wall. It was a small skeleton key about two inches long. It was a bright gold color and glistened even in the dim hall lights.

"I wonder why he threw it away so violently," she turned the key over in her hand and then stuck it into her pocket just in case she should see the boy again.

After a few deep breaths to calm herself down she started walking again down the hall that seemed to never end. She wondered if Alucard or Seras, who could teleport and run faster than a bullet, had reached the end of the hall or maybe another room. "At this rate they are going to finish the mission while I'm still walking along this hall and someone will have to come and get me," she frowned and kicked at the wall, leaving a black boot scuff on it.

Further down the hall Cat noticed smears on the walls. There were hand prints that were smudged and some that were perfect, there were drag marks from fingers and bigger smears that were made by who knows what. Even further down there were splatters and drips and chunks missing from the wall. And even further than that the walls began to turn red entirely.

"And all in red paint," Cat made a gulping sound in her throat and closed her eyes for a moment.

When she opened them again the walls had returned to their clean white state, only now they were lined with many shelves that jutted straight out, seeming to not be held up by anything. Cat looked at the things on the shelves in awe. There were many jars full of all kinds of things. Some were filled with toys and some with different colorful fabrics. Some had jams and jellies in them and some had loaves of bread and silverware. Moving further down the hall again the contents of the jars began to change. They were filled with broken toys and bits and pieces of porcelain dolls. Some of them were filled with odd looking fish and frog spawn. One jar had lost its lid and Cat could see the skeleton of a goldfish inside and covered with dust. The further she walked the more grotesque the things in the jars became. There were fetuses of animals and rotten eggs. There were preserved organs and even some whole animals like snakes and mice. One rather large jar contained the head of a lamb with the top of its skull removed so the brains could be easily seen.

Further down the jars changed again and were much less terrifying this time. They contained many substances that Cat knew no name for. Some were filled with sparkles, some had liquid that looked light and airy and had a pearly sheen to it. Some jars had different colored vapors that swirled around inside of them like they wanted to be let out. Cat considered opening a very small jar full of pink vapors that swirled around very rapidly, but she changed her mind when she thought about what poisons it might contain.

As Cat walked by and admired the glowing sparkling things in all the jars she noticed something hanging off a shelf with a very large jar of purple and pink vapor. She stepped a little closer and saw it was a striped brown tail and was twitching back and forth. She walked even nearer to the shelf so she might see behind the jar to find the owner of the tail. She was quite surprised to find a cat sitting there and staring at her good naturedly.

"Why, you're a cat," Cat giggled at the furry creature which seemed quite amused at the sound of her voice.

It pushed itself up further on its haunches and curled its twitching tail around itself, "Why, so are you!"

Cat stumbled back in fright, for she had not ever heard a cat speak before.

The cat seemed amused by the fright on her face a ginned very widely showing a great many sharp glistening teeth.

Cat recovered quickly, thinking there was no reason to be shocked since so many odd things had happened already, "Yes, but I'm quite a different sort than you are."

The cat grinned even wider at this remark and settled himself back down on his shelf.

Cat waited a moment to see if the cat would say anything else, but it only looked at her mildly and swished its tail to and fro. "Could you tell me please, where exactly am I?"

"You are exactly in the right hallway, the same one you took on your way in I should think," the cat lifted his paw and scratched his chin.

"Well, yes I know that much. What I mean to say is where is this hallway taking me?" Cat looked back down the way she had come and saw that all of the shelves had disappeared except for the one the cat was on.

"Well then, you should have said that. You should always say what you mean. And you should mean what you say too," at this the cat laughed and Cat (it's all so confusing isn't it?) had to wait until he had quieted down before she spoke again.

"Shall I be getting anywhere if I continue to walk down this way?" she was beginning to feel like the cat would give her no real answers.

"Oh yes you're sure to get somewhere if you only walk long enough," the cat giggled again and rolled onto its back, hanging its head over the shelf and staring at her upside down.

"Well yes, anyone could have thought of that. What lies at the end of the hallway then?" she crossed her arms and tried to look firm.

"Well first off, you're sure to find the people you came here with. That yellow topped girl and that man with the hat. He did try and shoot me you know? You should tell him how very rude that is when he was not invited in the first place," the cat flipped back over and scowled at her menacingly.

"I'll be sure to tell him. And second off what shall I find?" she inched back slightly from the cat in case he grew cross and decided to take a swipe at her.

"Well, the children of course! Everyone knows that," the cat grinned at her again and jumped nimbly onto the floor where it sat down and began to clean its face like a normal cat.

"What sort of children? Like the boy I saw earlier? Are you listening cat?" she crouched down towards the cat and waved her hand around it to get its attention.

The cat looked up at her slowly, "Meow."

"So you're now just a regular cat?" she reached out and scratched him under his chin and he sat still and purred nicely. "I suppose I should get going then, huh cat?" she gave him one last scratch and then stood up and started down the hall once more. She had gone about ten paces when the cat spoke up again.

"Oh, Katherine," she turned around and the cat was standing on its legs like a man and was wearing a tail coat of purple and pink stripes the same shade that had been in the large jar of vapors which had now vanished.

"Yes?" she walked back towards it.

"You wouldn't want to forget this," the cat held out its paw facing upwards and on it sat the little golden key.

"But, I know I didn't drop it. It was right here in my pocket," she felt in her pocket, but the key was gone.

"It's better not to question things here," the cat dropped the key into her opened hand, "It's best to find what you're looking for very quickly and leave just as quick before you or your friends turn into something else."

Cat closed her fist tightly around the key for fear it would find its way away from her again.

The cat buttoned the middle button on his tail coat and then smiled at Cat before he turned towards a door knob that was sticking out from the wall. He gave it a tug and a cat sized door popped opened in the wall. Before he shut the door he gave Cat another large toothy grin, a wink, and snapped the door knob off the wall. When the door shut it left no trace that it (or the cat) had been there at all.

"Things just get more curious every moment," she straightened herself up and continued down the hall which now seemed much brighter than it had before.

Soon she could see an end to the hall, "Finally!" She started to run towards it and as she got closer she could see that it led into a great room. In the room she could see the entrances to two more halls which she was sure would be Alucard's and Seras'. Sure enough, just as she thought this she saw Alucard come into view in the archway of the hall next to hers. She ran faster and could barley contain her excitement, though it had not been so very long since she had seen him. She had become tired of the odd hall long ago and was ready to be back with people she knew and felt safe with.

When she got closer and was sure he would hear her she called out, "Alucard!"

She saw him turn towards her hall entrance, but he only stared at it. "Right here!" she waved her arms at him and laughed, but he still seemed to only look past her.

She slowed her pace to a jog and studied his face. He looked confused and even a bit worried.

"Alucard?" she took the last few steps to the entrance into the great room and upon reaching the threshold, collided with something very solid.

REVIEW! Pease. This was tough.