A/N: Hello, peoples. I'm back with another chapter!
Disclaimer: Me no own.
Iracebeth
Iracebeth stood in front of her long ranks of card soldiers, slowly pacing back and forth, as if daring one of them to move.
She said softly, "The last time we tried to retrieve these stones, we sent the Bandersnatch to destroy the Kingsleigh's vessel. And can anyone tell me what happened?"
She paused, as if waiting for an answer, but instead was greeted by stern silence.
She continued with a more dangerous layer in her voice, "It did too good of a job. It destroyed the ship, and the chest with it."
She paced some more, then continued, "But, thankfully, we found out that the chest on the ship was a fake."
She said louder so that her voice resounded through the chamber, "We have found out that the stones are going to be somewhere in Marmoreal Paradise. And we are going to find the real chest, along with the stones."
She paused, then yelled, "Go find those stones!"
Tarrant walked into the plane station, Ali close behind him.
Ali's brilliant brown eyes widened as she observed every single detail of the large chamber they found themselves in.
She said to him, "Very, very large room!"
Tarrant smiled, and reminded her, "You still have your boarding pass?"
Ali pulled her bright blue pass from the pocket of her black shorts, and read, "Multi-pass."
Tarrant nodded, and led her up to the ticket window.
The assistant in the window smiled a wide cheeky smile, and said, "And I assume you are Tarrant Hightopp?"
Tarrant nodded, and said, "And this is Ali Hightopp."
Ali snapped her pass in front of her face, and said, "Multi-pass."
The assistant just smiled, and said, "Yes, the multi-pass allows you to be seated in the higher class cryo-trans-section."
Tarrant handed the assistant their passes, and she stamped on a large ink mark, then handed them back.
Ali grabbed her pass, and smiled at the assistant in the window as she walked away on Tarrant's arm.
The assistant just smiled back, and said to the next person at the window, "Can I help you?"
Standing in front of her was a tall man with stringy black hair, and a heart-shaped eyepatch over one eye, with a tall, skinny woman on one arm.
He said in a slightly high voice for a man, "I am Tarrant Hightopp, and I would like to redeem my tickets."
The assistant's cheeky smile faded a notch as she said, "Well, I just spoke to a Tarrant Hightopp, and he's already boarding."
The man frowned, and said, "Are you sure?"
The assistant frowned, and said, "Yes, sir, I'm sure."
The man walked away, and whispered to the thin woman on his arm, "Time to divert to plan B."
The woman nodded, and pulled an enormous gun out from her jacket.
She pointed it at the ceiling, and let off a few rounds.
Tarrant and Ali were walking through the hallway towards the loading decks, when a short, dark man wearing a leopard print suit walked up to them, and automatically shoved a large microphone at them.
He said in a rapid-fire, high-pitched voice, "So, here we are, with the two winners of the tickets to Marmoreal Paradise! So, this is Tarrant, and this is Ali, and they are both traveling together, one happy couple, so, how long have you and Miss Ali been married here?"
He shoved the microphone in Tarrant's face, and he said, "Um... three months?"
The man snatched back the microphone, and said, "Yeah, you heard it here first people, married for three months, and I bet it's their honeymoon, isn't that sweet? Well, they're heading to Marmoreal Paradise, where they will experience all the delicious elements this cruise has to offer, along with an exclusive performance by Diva Plavalagoona! What does the lady think about this special performance, just for them?"
Ali found the microphone shoved in her face, and she stuttered, "I-I'm excited-"
The man snatched the microphone back, and said, "There, well isn't that sweet, she's excited for her first big trip out of the city with her beau, and now after this extremely long commercial break, we will be giving you a live broadcast from Marmoreal Paradise itself!"
The cameras that had been following them through the hallway shut off, and the man shut off the microphone.
He walked over to Tarrant, and said, "Well, that was a pretty good show, but we need a little more pop, a little more pizzazz, I mean, come on, you're on the show with Ruby Rhod, the least you could do is act like you have more than a ten-word vocabulary? Are we green?"
Tarrant tried to say something, but Ali frowned, and slammed Ruby against the wall.
She got really close to his face, and growled, "We are here for a vacation. Not an interview."
She dropped him, and walked away, still sending a withering glare his way.
Tarrant nodded, and followed Ali on the way to the loading decks.
She smiled, and looped her arm through his again.
She said in a lower voice, "That little man was getting annoying."
Tarrant smiled, and said, "Come on, it's getting close to the final boarding time."
Ali nodded, and started walking a faster.
Back in the ticket area, the man with the heart eyepatch and the thin woman (who were secretly card soldiers in disguise) were still gunning down passengers.
Suddenly, the man with the eyepatch heard Iracebeth's voice over his implanted mike, "Are you onboard yet?"
The man squeezed off another round, and said, "No, we've reverted to plan B."
Iracebeth's voice screamed, "No! No, I told you not to revert to plan B at any cost!"
The man protested as he began to be surrounded by guards, "No, please, your majesty, don't-"
But it was too late.
With a touch of a control at her end, the man imploded into a pile of flaming mechanism parts.
Tarrant and Ali were being escorted through the aisle to their cry-trans-sections.
The attendant opened a small door in the side of the wall, and gestured inside, "This is your dual-section. Please, enjoy your shortened flight."
Ali smiled, and climbed into the compartment.
Tarrant climbed in after her, and said to the attendant, "Wait, what happens-"
The attendant just smiled, and closed the door as she said again, "Enjoy your flight."
Tarrant started to feel his eyes turn orange, but he felt Ali's hand on his arm.
He turned to face her, and she said softly, "Don't worry, Tarrant. I am perfect being, I am fifth element. I will protect you."
Tarrant smiled, and felt the anesthetics lull him to sleep.
A/N: How did you like this chapter? I know, Ruby Rhod is not a Wonderland character, but I just couldn't replace... his... annoyingness... Or Diva Plavalagoona.