Hello! 3 years is a long time, heh. I got renewed interest in the series somehow, I don't even know how.

I've also stopped using most of the Japanese honorifics so sorry for the sudden shift! I'd go back and edit the past chapters, but I am too lazy for that, haha. Oh, and speaking of which, my writing style seems to have developed into something not really suited for humor? I guess that's why my humor has downgraded to the 8th degree sigh.

-.-

Maze of Deceit

Alice let out a small breath, her eyes rising to meet with Peter's once more. Her lips pursed out for a moment as she seemingly contemplated her options and not a second later did she open her mouth as though to speak, and when she did, the group role holders hiding not too far off all held their breaths in anticipation.

However, just as quickly as she opened her mouth, it closed again and the female let out a moan, her eyes closing as she apparently went into deep thought.

"W-we'll come back, right?" She curiously inquired after a few seconds of silence.

Peter nodded reassuringly, his face moving forward to cuddle against her chest warmly, "Of course! Any time you want to come back, we will!"

Alice let out a sigh of relief, "I really, really want to… But I don't know…"

"Please, please, please!"

"I feel like we need something else." Elliot muttered lowly as he watched the scene unfurling before him. Immediately the others crouching near him spared him a glance of questioning that he shrugged at, "I don't know! It's like Peter's not enough! We need something, like more reinforcement or backup!"

Boris nodded, "You're right. It's like he's 99% there, we just need the last 1% push and we're home free."

Blinking his eyes, Ace rose up his mallet, "I can just lower her into a false sense of security, push her down and hit her with this? If we're lucky she won't just fall into a coma, she may also wake up normal. If she doesn't, we can just tie her up."

His suggestion was enough to the make the four others stare at him blankly while he smiled as though in a daze,

"What?"

"Okay, the coma part aside, Dee and Dum, when we saw her before behind the tent, you guys were in your adult forms, right?" Boris questioned skeptically, earning the attention of the two twins that slowly nodded in response.

The March Hare immediately perked up, his mind catching onto what the cat had to say, "That's genius, Boris!"

"Wait, what is?" Ace inquired in curiosity as both Tweedles appeared to understand.

However, after glancing over at one another they turned back to their friend unsurely, "Are you sure that's going to work though?" The red eyed twin asked with a cringe, "If it doesn't, we may end up ruining the White Rabbit's plan."

Ace let out a whine, "Don't exclude me from the plans!"

Groaning, Elliot gave the Knight a glare, "It's not that difficult to understand! She's seen the brats in their forms right now, but in their younger form, she may trust them more because they're closer to her age than us!"

"Ooh!" Ace snapped his fingers, "That's pretty smart! But I think you're forgetting that she rejected the dormouse, and he pretty much had the appeal of those kids when they look young." He cracked a grin though the knowing glint in his eye was unmistakable, "You're right when you say you'd ruin Mr. Peter's plan, it's best you don't act on it."

"Alright, then what exactly do you expect us to do!?" Elliot growled out lowly causing the male to shrug with his hands up while he released a laugh, "No clue!"

Suddenly, Boris let out a gasp that caught both of the older role holders' attention, "They're on the move!"

"Shit, what happened!?" Elliot frantically questioned as he and the others scrambled to move from their hidden spots back out into the crowd.

He couldn't believe he seriously just let everything slip by his notice. He should have been paying attention. Just one little mistake would be all it took to have Alice lost forever. He already messed up before with his reckless gun slinging…

The thought brought qualms to his stomach.

"Well, considering she didn't drop Peter, I'd like to think maybe that was enough for her?" Boris stated as he stood on his tippy toes and began looking around the crowd in search for the bouncy brunette.

"If that's the case then everything should be good then, right?" Dum rhetorically asked, though the apprehensive undertones of his words were far too easy to pick out. His twin sent him a reassuring gaze though it did little to actually ease him.

Ace held a hand to his chin, "Looks like this just got a lot more interesting." He watched as Elliot, the twins, and Boris all began running off in the same direction.

His gaze looked back to the booth they'd been hiding in as his thoughts trailed back to the mallet once more.

-.-

"Dupre."

Hearing his name, the raven haired man glanced over his shoulder.

His gaze was ultimately met with Julius' plain stare and the said nothing more as he stopped his steps and awaited for the navy haired man to catch up in step with him.

The question wasn't spoken, but Blood was able to catch on fast enough to speak out his answer smoothly, "I saw her earlier but she ran off."

In left hand he still held the stuffed bear prize he'd won for her not too long ago and when Julius' eyes momentarily fleeted to it, the Mafioso found himself clutching at the brown furred toy a bit tighter.

"A toy bear isn't going to be enough to win her over."

His tone was flat and held an air of offensive within it, so much that Blood had to scoff, "Obviously." He swung his cane to his side leisurely while offering the clockmaker beside him a brief look, "I was close the first time, all I need is to see her again and I'm sure I'll have her coming back with me."

Julius' eyes closed and his expression threatened to erupt into a scowl, but it appeared he fought away the action as his face remained calm and impassive, "You sound confident."

"And I have every reason to be." Blood easily retorted, his eyes moving back ahead to scan the upcoming crowd for the familiar short and energetic brunette, "She already called me nice. I have her trust for the most part already."

"You say that and yet she ran away from you. I wonder exactly how 'nice' you are in her eyes."

Blood's eyebrows inclined downward while he gave Julius a distasteful look, "Surely nicer than how she sees you, or rather how she will see you considering the fact you've failed to even get as far as I have."

He couldn't help but let his words come out harsher than he originally intended, but it appeared as though it was enough for him to get his point across to his companion.

The mortician said nothing more and it wasn't a second longer before he changed paths from the direction the Hatter was taking.

Snorting and seeing it as a means of him backing down, Blood kept his stride ahead in determination to find the female once more and become the one to bring her back, especially after he'd already made two mistakes too many before in regards to it.

The fact that this was all ultimately his fault gnawed at his stomach guiltily, but he ignored the feeling, his thoughts more focused and set on covering it all up and getting the stupid girl that always seemed to be in the heart of trouble for whatever reason.

After a while of walking, his eyes came upon Elliot, who seemed to be scouting the area around him vigilantly from among the passing crowds of people.

When he spotted his Boss, he eagerly waved over at him.

"Blood!" He exclaimed, almost as though he were relieved to see him, and the moment his eyes came upon the bear in his hands, his eyes widened, "You—"

"I'd met up with her, however our encounter was short lived and she escaped." He answered simply while turning his eyes toward the crowds in a similar attempt to spot her, "Did you have any success?" He questioned curiously.

Elliot sighed, "Unfortunately, not really… Peter managed to get somewhere earlier, but the Twins, Cat, Knight and I only watched from afar and before we knew it the two of them were gone. We split up to try and look for them, but it's as though the circus is bigger than ever now."

The Hatter gave no verbal response, instead only taking the last part of his words into consideration.

It really wasn't that farfetched to think Joker was making everything up in his area into that of a maze, just trapping them all and only occasionally baiting them with the sight of her… For all they knew, when they saw her, it probably wasn't even her… It could just so easily be an illusion.

"I'm growing bored of this." He voiced out after a few more moments of him and Elliot simply standing and looking around. He wasn't saying it to anyone in particular, but that small feeling and chance that Joker was watching this all happen to each of them was lingering and he hoped if he was, the redhead would realize he wouldn't participate in the game much longer without any progress.

Elliot turned to him in worry, "Yeah, I understand… This is kind of tedious… But it's for Alice's sake, so we have to endure it."

"I understand that. I never said I was giving up, I simply said I was getting bored." Blood corrected with a tilt upward to his hat. Elliot cracked a smile at his words before the two of them found their eyes turning to where most of the crowd's own attention was going.

"You're absolutely useless!"

"Hah! And We suppose you think of yourself as any different?"

"I do, actually! Unlike the rest of you parasites, I've actually made progress and now it's all gone!"

"You'd be wise to shut your mouth, White. Lest We have your head rolling on a platter soon."

Blood and Elliot watched as both the Queen of Hearts and White Rabbit approached, the green haired and feeble King of Hearts trailing behind them nervously as he attempted to calm both of them to no avail.

"Such a loud woman." Blood lightly remarked to the purple haired Queen that now came to notice his presence.

With a pulsing vein, she gave him a heated glare, "It's best not to try Our patience at such a time, Hatter."

"None of you have Alice, why am I even wasting my time here!?" Peter growled out angrily as Vivaldi shot him a leer, "Because the circus is closing and we can't afford to stick around and receive a penalty."

"But I need to get her back!"

"We've made Our decision and you are to follow it regardless of your opinion, White."

Peter seethed, though it was clear he wasn't going to make any efforts to walk away, something that caused Elliot to grow frantic, "Whoa, what happened!? You had Alice earlier! Where'd she go!?"

Both Mafiosi watched at him expectantly as he scoffed, "This damned circus is filled with so many pests, she ended up getting bumped into by so many people she dropped me and by the time I was back in this form, I couldn't spot her." He took his intense gaze elsewhere, "I'd have shot everyone there but I didn't want to scare her off."

Elliot groaned loudly, "Just great."

"So it's safe to assume neither of you have had any luck this round either." Vivaldi remarked with a hand to her chin as the ravenette scowled and the blonde sighed.

Peter growled, "Useless. Every last one of you."

Waving him off, Vivaldi gave Blood a thoughtful look, "There is always the next visit when we come back. For now, we don't risk any penalties, so it's in our best interest to leave." She pointedly gave Peter a look that he huffed at.

With a roll to her eyes, Vivaldi folded her arms over her chest neatly, "Honestly, We're almost positive that Alice isn't the only one that's mentally five at the moment. Come along now, White. We still need to find that foolish Knight before we go."

As the three role holders began to leave, Elliot couldn't help but let out another sigh of defeat, "I feel so bad… If I hadn't scared her the first time, I might have been able to do something…"

Blood shrugged his shoulders, "Perhaps. But there's no point in dwelling on past mistakes… Put your focus on correcting them. We still have another round, so this is far from over." He turned to give the master tent a stare, "For now, let's just get the twins and go."

-.-

Alice honestly had been having such a fun time playing the game.

She thought for sure she was going to win.

It seemed like she was close to it too.

But then everything just seemed to go downhill when she tripped over a stray stone that had been more than enough to send her skidding to the ground, her knee in particular taking the brunt of her impact and becoming scrapped, enough so to draw bits of blood.

It was as though no one even saw her plight or even cared enough to stop and assist her. She only received a few quick glances from the circus attendees but that was about it as she stood on the ground wordlessly, her hands at her knee.

She clutched at her knee, her eyes brimming with tears that were on the verge of falling while she felt the pain begin to fully reach her throughout her whole body. She trembled only a few seconds before she let out a loud wail of pain when it became too much for her to keep in.

Her eyes for the most part remained shut and she couldn't help it when one last wave of pain from it caused her tears to erupt from her face like a burst dam.

She wished she had her sister there to help her. Lorina always helped her whenever she got cuts.

The more she thought about it, the more she really discovered that she really missed her sister...

Suddenly, she felt the presence of another being appear beside her and amid her tears; she managed to pause her weeping for a moment while she allowed her eyelids to flutter open.

Her breathing hitched for a slight moment while she found herself watching in amazement as a man knelt down beside her, one of his hands moved and rested on her back as though to straighten her upward and his other hand fell to the bottom of her scrapped knee.

With confusion embedded in her eyes as well as a pooling amount of tears, Alice found her cries lowering downward as the stranger kept his gaze fixed on her knee and he gently spoke, his voice rough and deep, "Don't be so loud, it isn't even that bad."

His words caused her to hush down her weeps and she gave a hiccup while she wiped at one of her eyes miserably, "B-but it hurts!" She tried to defend herself as the man turned to look her in the face, his long, dark blue hair seemingly moving perfectly with each motion he made.

Gazing into his eyes made the young girl slightly speechless as his dark colored irises plainly watched at her, "I know, but crying so loudly won't make it feel better, will it?"

Sniffling, she shook her head causing him to sigh before he removed the hand that had been to her back and lowered his hand that held up her knee. He allowed both of his hands to go to the back of his head where Alice watched his bundled locks of hair suddenly become free against his back while he pulled out a yellow ribbon that had been keeping it all together.

Alice remained silent as she watched him begin to wrap the thing fabric around her knee over the area of the cut.

When he tied it, she felt herself give out a whine of pain as it was constricted too tight and he immediately voiced out his apology, his eyes turning to look at her straight once more.

"All better now?" He questioned the still teary eyed girl that could only watch at him speechless.

Slowly, she found her senses coming back to her.

He managed to safely bandage her knee and he even knew how to tie a bow in a fashion similar to how her sister always did.

As she got a better look at his face, she could only scoot backward, one of her fingers pointing at him in accusation.

"You!" She exclaimed loudly, her words instantly caused his expression to falter, if only for a slight second but she persisted, "A Prince!" She gasped out in wonder while she kept her gaze steady on his face, unwilling to look away just in case he decided to disappear, "Are you a Prince!?" The brunette managed out with wide eyes.

After hearing her question his facial features nearly seemed to falter in a way that only confused her, almost as though her suggestion that he were royalty was a bad thing.

"You have to be! A prince! You are!" The brunette insisted a big smile coming to her face with her earlier pain forgotten.

"Actually—"

Before he could finish, Alice let out a squeal of joy, "My name is Alice! Aaah, this is so cool!" Her eyes began to sparkle in glee, "My big sister always told me stories about princes! You're like one from her stories!" Just as she started, she found herself becoming slowly dejected, "She should be here, Lorina always loved prince stories."

The man appeared entirely dumbfounded for a moment before he brought his fist to his mouth and released a dry cough, "That's very interesting," He raised up from the ground and held a hand down to help the female up as well, an action that caused her smile to slowly return. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Julius."

"However, I'm sure your Mama told you that telling lies is wrong."

Alice nodded obediently and Julius folded his arms over his chest, "As such, I won't lie to you. I'm not a prince."

"E-eh!?" Alice questioned in near horror, her expression close to that of a heartbroken puppy.

Julius sighed, "I don't understand how you thought—"

"Because Julius is handsome, nice, and a gentleman!" Alice interjected quickly, a purse to her lips as she watched up at him longingly, "He also has shiny and pretty hair, like a girl!"

Looking down at her with a slight twitch to his eye, Julius groaned, "I'm not exactly sure if that's a compliment or not, but I apologize for the misunderstanding."

The little girl glanced down at the ground and pouted, "Even if you're not a prince, Ali still thanks you!" She glanced upward and gave him a big smile.

As an afterthought she kicked some of the dirt under her shoes, "If it means anything, Julius is a prince to me!"

He seemed to take positively to her words as he smiled though it was incredibly short lived, Alice couldn't help but grin even harder at the fact.

"I may not be a prince and live in a castle, but I do live in a Tower."

His sentence caught her attention and she perked up, now attentive to his words before he continued, "I don't really understand the hype, but it snows a lot and people are always outside building snowmen and having snowball fights or they're inside drinking hot chocolate and warming up with the dozen of little kittens that are in the building."

Alice found her eyes growing wide and her mouth going agape at the description.

"Hm… I was just on my way back there." He stated with a plain glance to her face.

Unable to contain herself, with a gasp, Alice ran up to him, both of their chests practically rubbing against one another while she bounced up and down, "Can Ali go!? Please! Please! Please!" She begged out excitedly.

Julius hummed, "I don't know…"

Alice pouted, "Pleaseeee!" She pleaded, "This game White-kun set up is so boring now, I don't want to play it anymore." She sighed out tiredly as she stuck out her tongue in distaste while pointing one of her index fingers to her knee that still held Julius' yellow hair tie around it, "It's his fault my knee got hurt!"

The bluenette watched on at her silently before she found herself returning her attention to him, "So can I pleaseee go?"

"I'm not so sure. You probably wouldn't like those kittens anyways. They're so small and love cuddling; you'd probably think they're not worth your time."

"Julius, no!" Alice whined while lightly hitting his chest, "Please! You have to let me go!" She turned her head upward to give him a frown and when his expression didn't seem to budge to her liking, she took her hands over his and began to swing them, "Julius, Julius, Julius, Julius, please, please, please," She chanted out over and over.

Julius, finally seeming to take mercy on her sighed, "I guess if you're going to be so persistent, I have no choice but to take you along with me."

"YES!" Alice immediately shouted, her face erupting into nothing but pure excitement and joy, "Yay! Thank you, Julius! You're so nice~!"

Clearing his throat, Julius took her by the hand and now began leading her away, "We should leave now before it gets late."

With a giggle, Alice nodded, "Right!"

She followed after him, her steps practically becoming skips while she swung her hand that was still held by the taller man. Her humming with each move forward they made seemed to becoming that much closer to breaking out into a full blown out song.

It was obvious that by this time a majority of the occupants of the circus were gone now, and Alice found herself watching those remaining with the slightest bit of curiosity.

She'd never actually been able to stay out and watch it all occur from outside the tents. Seeing all the families and couples having fun was nice.

As they began dawning toward the exit and they were queued in the line that seemed to be gradually moving out, she tilted her head to the side when she saw the masked man ahead giving out balloons. When she saw him give two red ones to a couple, she found her eyes widening.

A thought struck her and she allowed herself to stop her steps while she looked ahead at Julius expectantly, "Oh, oh! Julius!"

Her words caused his steps to pause for a moment and he turned to look at her from over his shoulders while she smiled at him sweetly, "I'm sure White-kun and Black-chan would really like to go too!" Her proclamation instantly made the man's expression take a turn for the worse.

Obliviously, she continued, "White-kun would probably really love the kitties and Ali also thinks Black-chan would love to play in the snow! They should come with us!"

Julius grunted, "Alice, I don't think—"

"Oh, would you look at who it is."

He halted his words and both he and Alice found their attention looking up ahead at the exit gates where the line of people leaving was now nonexistent and the only other person stood was the jester holding a single black balloon.

The white mask came off, revealing Joker's familiar single padded eye as he smiled at the pair politely.

"White-kun!" Alice exclaimed in surprise whereas the male ahead of her instinctively tightened his grip on the brunette's hand.

The redhead laughed lightly, "I see you lost our game, Ali."

Pouting fiercely, Alice released a huff, "It wasn't Ali's fault!" She gestured down to her knee, "My knee, it really hurt! But Julius helped me! He isn't mean, he's actually really nice!" She informed him happily.

Joker's expression turned into that of wonder, "Did he now?"

"Yes! Look, the bow is so cute!"

The Ring Master smiled at her sweetly, "Not as cute as you, of course." He then turned to Julius, a smirk now erupting to his face calmly, "I hope you enjoyed my little game, clockmaker."

Julius remained silent, his eyes glaring at the redhead dangerously who only smiled his warmly.

Completely oblivious to the tension, Alice now shook her way out of Julius' grip and the moment she did, Julius' expression nearly faltered into that of despair before he collected himself as quickly as possible.

"He was going to take me to his Tower because it's snowing there and they have kittens!" Alice explained brightly, "I wanted to see if you and Black-chan could go too because it sounded like fun! Black is always stuck in the depressing time out place, he should get out more." She remarked with a hand to her chin in wonder.

"Oh, that was considerate of you." Joker lightly chuckled, "Say, why don't you go back to the prison and ask him if he wants to go?"

Alice perked up and nodded her head, "I will! Good idea!"

Before Julius even had a chance to stop her, she was already running off excitedly.

Berating himself for reacting so slow, he clenched his fists and turned his attention back to the sole man ahead of him that smiled sincerely, his visible red eye completely passive, "She really is such a sweet little girl, always thinking of others."

Openly scowling now, Julius intensified the leer he held over him impatiently, "So when exactly do you plan to stop this little game of yours?"

"When I get bored of it, obviously." The man honestly responded, his smile becoming that much more wicked, "Though I don't think I'll get bored of this for a long time."

As an afterthought he couldn't help but let out a laugh, "It's actually so funny that you all think you have a chance of winning."

"You can laugh all you want, but we're going to get her back eventually and you'll only be left looking like a fool." Julius said, his tone incredibly cold, though it only caused the Joker to crack a smirk.

"I don't think you and the other role holders fully understand exactly how much control I have at this point." The look of superiority he offered the dark haired male was lasting and he only received a hateful glower in return, "Unfortunately, the circus is now closing and I know a bunch of other role holders are still scrambling around looking for her, however I won't be able to give them each a balloon, you wouldn't mind sharing, would you?" He inquired while offering the black balloon in the other male's direction.

Julius narrowed his eyes and didn't make any attempt to catch hold of it after the redhead released it.

Glancing up at the sky, Joker tilted his head to the side slightly, "Aw, what a waste."

Without another word, the clockmaker brushed past him out of the circus and down the path that ultimately led into the forest ahead of it.

Watching his back Joker rocked on his heel, "Be sure to tell the others I'll be ready for Round 2 during the next event!" He waved off gleefully, not at all affected when Julius brought his hand up with his middle finger stuck up right over his shoulder.

"My, my, he'd be a terrible influence on little Ali with that kind of impulsive behavior." He couldn't help but chuckle out as he began walking back toward the master tent while he moved to pull his mask from his side to place over his face once more.

-.-

This probably has a bunch of mistakes, but if you love me you'll forgive me. If you don't love me, you'll still forgive me.

To be honest, I can see this having like 5 more chapters at the most, oh man. I was actually sad I didn't get to more Black/Alice interaction this chapter, they're my favorite tbh.

I also wanted to start an old fic idea of mine called Underland haha. Probably try to do it for NaNoWriMo to kind of compensate for the time I've been gone, idk I reread all my stories and I pretty much just puked everywhere, I don't know if I can handle writing more with the first chapters looking so icky. So we'll see what happens, yayyyy.