'Hey there, neko-kun. I don't have any friends, would you like to be mine?' As a girl stroke the purring cat's belly, she smiled. The cat stood up and tried to grab the ribbon she wore in her hair. 'You do? That's amazing! Let's be precious friends from now on, okay? Let's promise to always be with each other!'

'Nee-san, where are you? Nee-san!' The little girl with the purple ribbons in her hair looked in every direction, hoping to find her older sister. 'Nee-san, everyone is worried, please come out!' As the girl proceeded her search in the backyard, she suddenly heard a bell chime. With enthusiasm, she walked in the sound's direction, as she heard the bell for a second time.
Behind a tree, before her eyes, there was her sister, Alice. Alice was sitting against the tree, holding a purring cat in her lap. As soon as the cat noticed the younger sister, it showed its claws and hissed towards her.
'Nee-san, everyone is looking for you, come back, okay?' The young one laughed sincerely, looking at the bigger sister she admired so much. 'I'll be there soon, go ahead without me.' Alice sounded different from her usual self. She sounded... Like her soul had been darkened.
'I hate you so much.' Alice only had the courage to whisper the words after her sister had left. 'I hate your smile so much, it makes me want to take it away.' As she said it, the cat made itself more comfortable and started to spin. 'You agree with me, don't you neko-chan? She needs to die and lose her smile. If you can do that for me, do it, I'll love you forever for it.'

'Are you okay?' Break's right hand rested on my shoulder as he crouched beside me. His crimson eye seemed to stare beyond my own, right into my soul. As if he tried to read my thoughts. 'Yes, I'm fine.' I nodded exuberantly and stood up, grinding my teeth. 'I was just reminiscing, don't mind me.' Break let out a slight chuckle and got up as well. 'Then there is nothing more to do than to find that scaredy-cat. Are you ready for this final fight?' Again, I nodded and our eyes met once more. 'Let's execute that cunning plan of yours then, milady.'

'Ha, how foolish of you to return.' Cheshire was sitting in Alice's tiny room, surrounded by the creepy dolls they both loved so much. 'Now you're going to experience what's it's like to not only lose your eye, but your life as well. What to do with your head, I wonder. Maybe I'll make another doll out of it, in celebration of Alice's return.' He was seriously thinking hard about it, that arrogant cat. Break's eyes shot wider as he looked from Cheshire to me and I instantly knew what he was wondering about.
'Alice has returned?' I didn't know if asking this would hurt our battle position, but I had to know. It would make all the difference if Alice had already returned to this place, it would make our fight much tougher and my plan futile. Cheshire didn't seem aware of this fact, or he had forgotten about it, because he answered us with a smile. 'Not yet,' he purred. 'But she will return shortly, I'm sure of it.'
It took me a second to realize what my vocal chords were doing. As I listened to my own mocking laugh, I could hear Cheshire grinding his teeth. 'What's so funny?' He seemed sincerely angered and that anger quickly turned into rage. 'Don't you dare mock Miss Alice! I'll kill you!'
Before the cat could fully swing his claws my way, Break had already interrupted. As he held of Cheshire with his bare hands, a black tornado emerged from behind us. 'What the-' I quickly jumped aside and stared at the chain that had appeared from inside the tornado. The white skulls decorating it looked ready to devour and as I looked over to my left, so did Break.
The black tornado turned into a being I had never seen before. Not that I had never seen Chains, but I hadn't come across one so vicious-looking as this one. And as I pointed my attention towards Cheshire, I noticed that he was taken away by the chain too. Maybe he didn't know this one either, or maybe he did and he was scared. Both would be to our advantage.
'M-Mad Hatter!' Cheshire took a step backwards and landed his back against a shelf with dolls, which came falling down one by one. It took the cat quite some seconds to recover from this apparent surprise, but as soon as he looked at the dolls, he regained his fighting spirit. 'Get him!' He yelled. As the dolls came flying our way, I looked over at Break, knowing they would try to take him out first. The white haired one wasn't intimidated one bit, though and I would soon find out why.
A single swing to the right had been enough to wipe out all the dolls at once. I could feel my jaw drop and a second laugh escaped my mouth before I knew it. 'You know, I should thank you.' Break slowly approached Cheshire, who now stood with his back against the wall. 'If things hadn't gone the way they did last time, I would have never been able to seal a contract with the Mad Hatter. If you think about, you have dug your own grave the second you took my eye. So thank you, you dense cat.'
'I-I can't. I can't lose. I can't lose!' Cheshire's scream seemed like that of a stray cat, one who's desperately trying to find a home. Even though I wanted him to die, it still broke my heart to hear him be on this level of despair. 'I will not lose! I will fight!' The cat now randomly slashed away at Break, who dodged without ever really trying. At one point, Break intercepted a slash and grabbed the cat's arm tightly. 'Now, let's see how you like it if I take something of yours.'
With the least bit of effort, Break undid him of his left arm. As Cheshire cried in pain, Break approached him once more. When he seemed ready to deliver the final blow, I saw something that could only mean bad news; the smirk of a vicious cat. 'Break, watch out!' Before the white haired one could respond, he had already been cut. Cheshire laughed it out as I rushed over to Break, hoping that the blood coming from his chest wasn't connected to a serious wound.
'Ha! See, you mortals can never defeat me, for I am Alice's most precious friend, Cheshire cat!' 'Hmpf.' I let out some air through my nose and stood up, knowing Break would survive the attack. Cheshire seemed surprised, but didn't lose his composure this time. 'Foolish girl, what do you think you can do against me? Your one hope of escaping this place lies there on the floor, bleeding. This is it for the both of you.' He really seemed to enjoy this, that stupid fur ball. I would end that euphoria of his soon enough. I would take away the one thing he held dear and destroy him.
'You dumb cat, you still don't get it, do you?' 'Hm?' Cheshire seemed intrigued, thinking there was nothing left that could cause him to lose. He was wrong. Dead wrong. 'Wouldn't it be a waste if it turned out that Alice would never return to you?' The hiss Cheshire let out gave me the hint that I had struck a chord. 'You do know she never intended to stay with you, don't you? Of course you know that, you called yourself her most precious friend.'
'Shut up! You don't know anything! You're just Alice's little sister. The one with the terrible smile, the one who has to die! Alice and I made a promise when she was just a kid, she will always be with me and she will come back as soon as she can! Just shut up!'
Cheshire looked as if he wanted to devour me, rather sooner than later. He would never get the chance, though. 'You know, you have a great memory there, but you forgot one important detail.' The cat's eyes shot wider and as I looked behind me, I saw that Break had been quietly listening to my story this whole time. He hadn't interrupted me once and he didn't intend to attack Cheshire anytime soon. Maybe he knew that my plan would succeed.
'You never made that promise with Alice, you made it with me. She would never be able to really love someone and so she made you the empty promise of loving you forever if you took my smile away, whereas the promise of always being together was one we made. I could never tell you because you had taken away my ability to speak or smile. Maybe if you had seen me smile like I did when we first met, you would've remembered. Isn't that right, neko-kun.'
Cheshire fell to his knees and started to mumble to himself as his eyes started to look more empty by the second. 'Neko-chan, neko-kun. Alice, it's a lie, right? You were the one who loved me, weren't you? She's just trying to mess with my head. But, you never called me neko-kun, you called me neko-chan. I don't know! I don't know! Help me! Somebody!'
The cat started to scream harder and his body seemed to slowly disappear as he swung his arm around. As I looked at it with big eyes, I felt a hand on my shoulder. 'Break! Are you okay?' He nodded and stared at the place where Cheshire had been a few seconds ago. 'Wh- what happened?' I looked at Break and he smiled quietly. 'You know what this place does to you if you give in to insanity?' I shook my head. 'You get turned into a doll. It's the fate of those who fall to despair. So never try to give up on the light, even if things seem rough. You don't want to end up in a place like this, do you?'
No, I didn't.

We were almost ready, we just had to await the completion of the gate which Break had said wouldn't take longer than a few minutes. With the cat-like doll in my hands I looked at Break and smiled like I had done so long ago. 'Thank you, for everything.' He nodded and patted my head, putting something in my hair. As I touched it, my eyes nearly filled themselves with tears. I had both my ribbons, my smile and my precious friend back, all thanks to Xerxes Break.
It would be scary to return to the surface after so many years, things would probably be a whole lot different. That didn't matter, though. For now I had a place to stay and get everything together. Break had said I could stay as long as I wanted and I gladly accepted his offer. Thanks to him, I had the strength to overcome everything and live towards tomorrow.
As soon as Sharon opened the gate of course.

~ The End