Chapter 52: (A/N: …Sooooo…did you guys just not read the last few paragraphs of the last chapter? I'd recommend perhaps rereading them before reading this chapter. They were the most important part and…well…nobody really commented, so I can only assume you guys didn't understand it or whatever. Well, maybe you'll have a bit better comprehension after this chapter.

I promise to respond to all reviews after this chapter is posted. I start school on Monday, so I really wanted to get this out before that started. Review replies I can write in class, chapters not so much.

This chapter has been rated M+ for EXTREME VIOLENCE, GRAPHICALLY DISTURBING IMAGERY, INTENDED AND DESCRIBED VIOLENCE, and LANGUAGE.)

Ace stared at Hare for a long moment, the whole universe seemingly suspended in frozen silence. Everyone was staring at Ace, but Ace seemed to only care about Hare, his eyes locked solely on his face.

He giggled.

It started off quiet, but soon bubbled out of his chest, cleaving the silence like a razor. "You've done it!" he crowed. "Congratulations! You chased the little bitch off my throne, you unlived all the Inhabitants! There was no one to stop me!" Ace's fingers were contorting horribly, strangely, at his sides. "Thanks, my dear, dear friend. You've given me back the chance to do as I promised I would!" The giggling, intermittent between his words, stopped abruptly. Ace's head dropped, tilting horribly to one side. His grin never faltered, and his eyes seemed to widen even further.

"It's rabbit hunting season!"

When Ace moved, it was so sudden and so fast, the space so short between them, there was no time for dodging or avoidance. Ace – still grinning, eyes still huge – leapt at Hare, grabbing the arm that held the knife, using his momentum and bodyweight to drag it out and away from Marco. It passed within a hair's width of Marco's neck and the three of them were sent spinning, reeling, all sense of balance destroyed by Ace's sudden weight. There was a hideous pop, accompanied by a grunt of pain. Hare's arm had been dislocated.

Hare released Marco's arm, reaching for Ace, but Ace scurried up his dislocated arm, the one that had held the knife, wrapping his legs around Hare's shoulder, using his hands to cling to his hair and back. He dragged Hare's head to the side, further wrecking their balance, but seemingly uncaring. In the same fluid motion, he dropped his head. He sunk his teeth into Hare's exposed ear.

Hare shouted, finally managing to grab Ace, and threw him off, across the hallway. Ace landed on his hands and feet, still grinning messily, face stained with blood. Clamped between his teeth was the majority of Hare's ear.

Without even a moment's hesitation or any flicker of doubt, he swallowed it.

Marco and Whitebeard could do no more than stare in horror.

"You know, your subordinate tasted a lot better. I had to crush his ribcage to get him to fit between the cell bars, and I couldn't just let him scream. He would have attracted attention." Ace didn't lift a hand to wipe the gore from his face. "I couldn't have as much fun as I wanted to – tight timeframe and all – but I assure you, his eyes were delicious." His eyes narrowed. "You though…I'm going to savor your death, I've waited long enough for it."

"Ace-" Marco's voice was breathless, stunned. Ace didn't even turn to look at him.

"Stay the fuck out of this, Marco. If he did anything to Luffy, you're next." Despite the grin on his face, the words were said in a serious, unflinching tone. His eyes flicked to Marco for the briefest of instants. "Believe me, you'll have wished the little imposter fucked up and got you killed." Ace's attention shifted fully back to Hare. "Now, back to business. I'm sure you're curious, to see how it all turned out, how I finally snapped, right? Sure. I'll give you the tour. See the world that I made!" Ace threw his arms out to the side and a massive wave of Haki surged outward, knocking even Marco and Whitebeard to their knees, knocking out almost everyone else.

When the darkness had faded from his vision, what he saw took Marco's breath away.

It was disorienting, unnaturally bright color smashed against the once-familiar wood of the Moby Dick. The air had that same hanging, stagnant, ever-present heaviness to it that Wonderland's air had. Tree roots of some kind punctured the wood of the ceiling, winding along the top of the hallway. The walls were spattered with blood, a trail of it leading down the hallway, as if someone had been running from something after being heavily injured.

Ace's gaze remained firmly fixed on Hare, who had recovered from the burst of Haki by now as well. "Go on!" he snarled. "Go explore! Go run, little rabbit! Give me a chase! See what you made of my mind! I even reawakened the Inhabitants for you!" Hare's gaze flicked for an instant away from Ace, to the arm that hung limply at his side. Ace giggled. "You know you could reset that if you got far enough away from me that I'd let you. Better run fast!"

Hare didn't hesitate, turning and sprinting down the hallway. Ace laughed, instantly darting after him, scrambling on all fours. "Yes! Yes!" he shouted. "Faster! You need to run faster, or your own Mr. Savage will catch you!" They rounded a corner, quickly moving out of sight. Marco and Whitebeard, the only two still standing after the Haki blast, stared after them. They were both silent, neither able to conjure words in response.

"I tried to tell you. I tried." Marco and Whitebeard's heads whipped towards the source of the noise.

Hatter reclined against the wall, staring despairingly down at his hands. His eyes looked dull, all light burned out of them. Whitebeard still seemed at a loss for words, but Marco's voice slipped breathily out of his mouth before he could stop it.

"How did Cheshire get control?" he asked quietly. Hatter's face turned to a snarl and he spun to face him directly, hands clenching into fists.

"How can you of all people, the one who he was controlling, still not get it?!" he snapped. "You might as well call him by his fucking real name. Oh wait. You were too idealistic and idiotic to see he was lying to you!"

"Whose real name?" Whitebeard asked, face still holding that stunned, horrified expression. Hatter shifted to glare at him.

"Cheshire's of course."

"And what is it?" Marco asked. Hatter turned his glare on him for a moment, then seemed to deflate, slumping back against the wall. He looked resigned. Defeated.

"We did everything we could. I swear we did. We taught him everything we could, we kept Cheshire away from him, didn't ever let Mr. Savage chase him off the throne. We did everything we could. We taught him how to behave. But we fucked up. Because Cheshire hated Hare enough and Mr. Savage and Hare scared our little protégé enough that Cheshire tore him down anyway." Hatter looked up at Whitebeard and Marco, something like regret in his eyes. "You want to know Cheshire's real name?

"Portgas D Ace."

Hare rounded another corner, darting through a doorway. After his several weeks of hiding aboard the ship, he had a perfect mental map of the place. He knew his best bet to lose Ace was in taking a complex, winding path, to get out of his line of sight and stay hidden long enough to reset his shoulder and put himself back at full combat capability.

He'd torn a piece of fabric from his shirt and had it clutched to his bleeding ear, preventing himself from leaving a traceable trail. He knew he wasn't bleeding enough for it to be life-threatening, but with even non-lethal bloodloss came symptoms like lightheadedness, dizziness, sluggish reaction-time…he wanted to conserve as much blood as possible to avoid these symptoms. They could definitely lead to lethal slip-ups.

As he passed through the threshold, he felt his boot collide with something, sending it skittering and clattering across the floor.

It was a pair of silver, blood-soaked scissors.

"Oh, you've finally come to see the baby!" Hare's attention snapped up towards the voice.

The creature before him was pale, paler than any human. It was entirely naked, hermaphroditic. It's stomach had a massive, still-bleeding gash across it, deep enough that Hare could see bared muscle and ruptured organ. The creature didn't seem to care at all about this, its arms cradled to its chest, holding another creature.

It was a piglet, its skin just as colorless as its apparent mother. It was perfectly still in her arms, neither breathing nor moving. Hare tried to keep moving, to walk over to and pass through the next door on the other side of the room, but found himself paralyzed, frozen in place.

The piglet, in a slow, perfectly smooth movement, turned its head to look at him.

It had a human mouth.

Its lips parted, revealing a perfectly human set of teeth and tongue as well, and it screamed. Its voice was hideous, like metal grating on metal, piercing and deafening. The noise went on far longer than its tiny lung capacity should have allowed, ceaseless, never pausing.

The larger creature stood, walking towards him, careless of its intestines spilling out of the gash in its stomach. It was smiling faintly at him, eyes wide, hopeful.

"Don't you want to hold your baby? He looks just like you!"

"You're confused, yes?" Hatter asked, looking resignedly between Whitebeard and Marco. "You shouldn't be. Not if you'd really, really think about it.

"We'll start at the beginning. When Wonderland was created, it was because Ace had broken. He couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't deal with what Hare did to him, and he snapped. But in that last moment, in a desperate attempt at self-preservation, his mind created us, the Inhabitants. One for each personality trait of the old Ace, the one before Hare. We aren't the originals. Each of the actual personality traits is still bound in Ace's – Cheshire's – psyche. It's not like we were strained away and separated out. We're all still a part of him. He just doesn't listen anymore. We knew that this Ace couldn't go back to the real world. He was destructive, impulsive, violent, horrible. He'd tear apart anything that moved, believing it to be some kind of threat to him or his family – that being the only lasting remnant of who he was before. You don't have to worry, Whitebeard. Ace will never harm you or your crew. He knows you to be family. He'd tear apart the rest of the world for you, but never you with it." Hatter tipped his head slightly. "…Well, excepting Marco. You have lost your privileged, safeguarded place as Ace's brother. If you get in his way, he will kill you, Marco." Hatter shook his head.

"In any case, when we fragmented off, Ace created Wonderland. His paradise. Didn't it ever seem strange that the one you know as Ace never seemed to fit in there? If the place had truly been created as his refuge, it should have been suited far more to his likes and needs. But the original, it's perfect for him. Competitive, violent, brutal. It's everything he wants – the chance to kill, to tear apart, to ruin as he'd been ruined, endlessly. So…" Hatter sighed. "…he stayed down there. We knew someone had to take control and that it couldn't be him. So we chose an Inhabitant. Selected one to be the new Ace. He had to be selected very carefully, if we wanted the end result to be any kind of balanced person. After much debate we settled on one.

"The Knave of Hearts. He represented Ace's empathy. He was the perfect choice because above all else, he was impressionable. We taught him how to be human, or at least the basics of normal human behavior and thinking. Just the basics. Everything else would take longer. Then, when he was ready enough, we battled Cheshire for him. We bound him to a different form, forcing him to not look like Ace, forcing him to look the furthest from Ace – the furthest even from human – of any of us. It was of the utmost importance that the Knave – Ace – not recognize him for who he really was. The old Ace was rechristened Cheshire, the Knave his new, unbroken surrogate. We stole the key from Cheshire, passing it to our new Ace. The Caucus Race had begun.

"We carefully deleted the Knave's memories of the training. We left the implanted lessons, but deleted his recollection of learning them. He awoke next to 'his' body. It's why the men who raped Ace weren't there – they'd been gone for days. It's why he subliminally recognized us, even if he didn't remember our names. And as he passed through Wonderland, we taught him a little more about being human, about being independent. It came as a slight surprise when Cheshire played along, but Cheshire desired to stay in Wonderland. He needed someone to take care of the body, though. If the body dies, Cheshire dies with him. So he was willing to let Ace take his place.

"The Caucus Race concluded, as you know, with Ace's victory. The Jabberwocky was a bit of a hiccup – Cheshire was letting Ace use the Haki however he pleased, and the way he defined the Jabberwocky, as the guardian of the Location, safeguarding it from all the Inhabitants except the original Ace almost got him destroyed, but Cheshire ultimately helped him pull through unscathed. So Ace woke up. And we kept teaching him what it meant to be a functional human being." Hatter looked between Marco and Whitebeard seriously.

"And so, over the next years, we taught him to be a perfect replica of Ace before what Hare did to him. The fact that the memories of the torture weren't technically his own was enough disassociation to spare this Ace the same breakdown his predecessor suffered. Ace, as you know him, is everything Cheshire would have grown to be if Hare hadn't destroyed him. As time passed, we taught him how Ace would respond to different situations. Personality is just the differences, from person to person, in response to all the stimuli the world provides. After us reinforcing who Ace was through reactions for years, he's grown to almost entirely accept that role himself. We very, very rarely need to advise him anymore. By the time you know him, he is, essentially, his own individual." Hatter looked down.

"…There have been…incidents, though. The original doesn't want to die. Won't let Ace die until he decides it's okay. And on top of this, he did incite Ace to track down the members of Hare's crew, particularly those who had raped him. And when he found them…well. Cheshire has always been the one to mete out the punishment for that. Messy, gruesome business. Massacres at Marine bases. Violence to a degree the news wasn't sure whether to blame a human or an animal. Marco remembers, he almost figured it out in Queen's palace before Cheshire stopped him. When Ace – the adult – saw Hare again, it would have been his first regression in nearly two years, if you hadn't stopped him. You've been a massively positive influence on him-"

"But it isn't the personality he was born with," Whitebeard said, cutting Hatter off. His mind was still fighting to absorb all of this. Hatter had stated the facts of it plainly enough, but to wrap his head around the fact that his own son had been suppressed inside his own mind?

"No, not your own son," Hatter said vehemently. "The Ace you know is your son. The original – although he's accepted you now – never would have joined your family. Ace is your son. And Cheshire was never 'suppressed', he elected to remain in Wonderland. It's paradise for him." The fact that Hatter could hear his thoughts was somehow nauseating. "I know you find the fact that maybe 'Ace' hasn't technically always been Ace upsetting, but you're being ridiculous. This is the first time you've ever even met the original in reality! The original isn't the son and brother you all love and want back!" Hatter's gaze turned darker. "The original is someone who would crush a man's ribcage so he could pull him through the bars of a cell. The original is someone who would eat out a man's eyes purely for the pain it induces. You just watched the original bite off a man's ear without hesitating or flinching. Does this sound like your brother, your son to you? The original is not your brother. The original is not your son. The original might not even be logically considerable as human anymore. Wonderland is the only place the original can ever belong now. Don't be conflicted about bringing Ace, as he was always meant to be, back." Hatter pushed off the wall, moving to walk down the hallway, away from them.

"Don't ever tell any of this to Ace. If he's ever made aware that he's not technically the one who should be in control of the body, it will destabilize his rule. If you want to see so badly exactly who you think your son is, the personality he was 'born with', which you seem to attribute so much value to, head up to the deck. The original is herding Hare that way. Watch the show, and see if you believe - truly believe - that it's your child performing it."

Hare had managed to gain enough ground to have time to relocate his shoulder, but now he was directly in front of Ace. They were on the deck now – the larger space made dodging and maneuvering easier. Hare had drawn his sword, which occupied his left hand, and a wicked-looking dagger, which occupied his right. Ace had drawn no weapons – neither carrying them nor Synthesizing them, though he was surely capable of it. Instead, weaponless, he stood before Hare, grinning.

They faced off, silently assessing each other.

Ace moved first, darting across the deck, not even trying to get in Hare's blind spot. Hare reacted instantaneously, strafing left, using the length of the sword to keep Ace at a greater distance. Ace merely dropped to all fours again, sliding just beneath the skilled sword strike, leaping up, getting too close to Hare for him to effectively use the sword. The knife was still a threat, though, and left a thin, bleeding line along Ace's shoulder when he lunged at him.

Hare dodged back, putting distance between them again as Ace surveyed the damage to his torso, pressing a hand to the wound and lifting it away bloody. He giggled, raising the hand to his mouth and licking the blood off his fingers. "I'm glad you're making this fun, rabbit. It would have been such a disappointment if you had just keeled over like everyone else has." He pressed his thumb to the top of the shallow gash, tracing over it. Behind his thumb's progress, fresh, undamaged skin followed. Metamorphosis really was a handy trick. He turned his grin back to Hare. "Too bad you and I don't operate on the same level." And he was off again, moving so fast it was almost unbelievable.

This time, Hare was more careful. Ace saw how his eyes tracked every movement, how perfectly he was able to predict every move based purely on the tensing of his muscles before he acted. Hare was able to keep him at bay with the sword this time, the length of it keeping him out of attacking range. It was a rapier, which meant it was light and quick, darting out to intercept him perfectly every time he tried to attack.

Ace hated it fiercely.

He stopped himself short in the middle of a lunge headed towards Hare, saw how Hare reacted to the move, anticipating Ace to continue attacking regardless of threat until it was nearly life-threatening, as he had been for the last whirl of attacks and parries. This time, when Hare stabbed at him, Ace didn't move to dodge it.

He lifted his arm to intercept it.

The sword slid flawlessly through his forearm, with him jerking his head to the side just in time to avoid being stabbed through the skull. It had gone right between his radius and ulna bones, impaling his arm almost dead center. His own blood sprayed hot and sticky on his face as he turned his face to Hare, still grinning.

"I'll be taking this now."

And before Hare could pull it back, Ace grabbed the front end of the blade, the part protruding from his arm, and twisted away, pinning the sword between the bones of his arm, using them to lever the sword out of Hare's hand.

Now it was his turn to dodge back. Hare looked uncertain, looking Ace up and down analytically as if he were trying desperately to figure out what in hell was going on. Ace pried his hand off the blade, having to pull a bit harder since the force of his grip had embedded it in his phalanges and metacarpal bones. His blood smeared on the silver hilt of the rapier, dousing it in crimson, as he grabbed it. He ripped it out of his arm, unflinching, uncaring about the pain.

His arm had been mangled by the disarming maneuver. It was bleeding heavily, the skin and muscle between the two bones mangled horribly. This would have been a fatal injury to anyone else, the severe bloodloss leading to death in a matter of minutes. It's why Hare hadn't expected the move. But Ace merely stared down at the injury, lifting it up as if to show it off, and watched as, through will alone, he stitched it back together, repeating the process with his hand. Once he was done, he moved his eyes to Hare.

"Do you see how fucked you are yet?" he asked, grinning hugely. Hare didn't respond.

Ace didn't keep the rapier. He tossed it uncaringly over his shoulder, hearing it splash into the sea. "I think it's time to end this little game. I'm anxious to tear you apart." He extended the forefinger of his right hand, lifting the thumb, making a gun shape of his hand. He closed one eye, pointing it at Hare's leg.

"Bang."

Hare screamed, collapsing back against the railing of the ship. His leg burst as if he'd been shot, fragments of bone and muscle shooting out the back side. Ace cocked his head, grinning. "You know, this looks terribly familiar. I won't be throwing you off the side this time, though. No. I'm doing the job right this time. Now," he pointed the gun at Hare's other leg. "why not take a seat?" Hare only had time to widen his eyes. "Bang."

Hare screamed again, collapsing to the deck, back against the railing. Ace was before him in an instant, grinning wide enough to show his gums, and Hare slashed at him with the knife, Ace effortlessly catching his wrist, halting the blow. "My reality, my rules. How does it feel to have your legs shattered, hmm?" Ace was slowly tightening his grip on Hare's wrist, the bones creaking under his grip. Hare scrabbled instinctively at his arm with his other hand, but it had no effect on Ace. Hare tried to hide the pain behind a snarl, but when the bones finally shattered and Ace continued to cinch down, grinding them horribly against one another, Hare couldn't repress another scream of agony, the dagger falling from his hand. Ace grabbed for it instantly with his other hand and, in the same motion, stabbed it through Hare's palm, pinning his hand to the railing. Hare reached for the knife with his other hand, to draw it out, but Ace grabbed this wrist, pinning it down to the deck with one of his own hands. He moved fluidly, driving the fingers of his other hand into Hare's shoulder and unhesitatingly moving down and away, ripping an enormous swath of skin off his arm. Hare's eyes widened and he screamed again, Ace flippantly tossing the enormous strip of human skin away.

"Checkmate," Ace sneered gleefully, repeating Hare's earlier word.

He drew his arm back only slightly before driving his bare hand into Hare's chest, just below his sternum. Hare's back arched as he shrieked, inarticulate, poignant agony expressed perfectly through sound. Ace didn't flinch at all, not at the screaming, not at Hare's blood spattering his whole face and chest. Instead, he bowed his head, sinking his teeth into the exposed meat of Hare's arm as he tried to lift it to push Ace away. He ripped a chunk of muscle from Hare's arm, not even chewing before he swallowed it, his hand still stirring around in Hare's guts.

He pulled his face back from Hare's arm, his hair, face, shoulders, hands, and chest completely stained with gore, still grinning from ear to ear. "You know what I'd do if I had all the time in the world?" he asked. He didn't wait for a response. "I'd eat your liver. Well…half of it. I'd leave enough so that you'd still be alive when I pulled every tiny bone from your hand. And then fed you your other eye. And then scalped you, and packed your hair into your eye sockets. And…well, a whole lot of things. But unfortunately, I don't have all the time in the world. See, we've got this audience. And I don't think they're enjoying the show too much. So we've got to cut it short. But don't fret, I've found quite a lovely way of killing you." Ace giggled. "Stomach acid does such lovely things to the other internal organs when it's released! I'm sure you'll agree!" The muscles in Ace's arm flexed, his hand embedded in Hare's chest obviously doing something. He removed it quickly, everything below his wrist stained pure crimson.

The screaming only lasted about a minute. By the time it stopped, Hare had lost so much blood that pain wouldn't really be felt anymore. Ace had done no more than sit there and watch, unmoving, gaze fixed on Hare's face, watching every minute agony pass over it gleefully. Now, on the verge of death, outside of pain, Hare fought with himself, mustering the power to speak one last time.

"I should have fucking known," he murmured, too weak to speak any louder.

"Oh! The rabbit can still talk! Got some last words, do you?" Ace asked, the edge of a hysterical giggle in his voice.

"You were never…special. You weren't some…something new or…interesting." Hare's eyes, free of pain, were sharp with hate. "You broke…just like the damn bitch…you always have been." Hare's lips pulled back into a tiny, weak grin. "And I'll be there…when you finally choke yourself on your collar."

And just like that, Edward Hare was dead.

Just like any other man. He stopped breathing. His heart stopped beating. It wasn't beautiful or unique. It was commonplace. And just like that, even knowing the atrocities he'd committed, even knowing he undoubtedly deserved to die, Edward Hare became human again in Whitebeard's eyes. Human, as he'd always been. Fucked up and cruel and vindictive and not worthy of life, but human.

He'd just watched Ace mercilessly torture another human being to death.

Ace, after staring for another few moments at the corpse, stood, turning to face Whitebeard and Marco, who had come onto the deck just in time to see Ace shoot Hare's legs from under him. His hands were dripping blood, just about every part of him spattered and stained with it.

"So, did you enjoy the show?" he asked, grin as wide as ever. Whitebeard felt nauseous. Ace raised his eyebrows. "I'll take that as a no, then." He looked at his hands, rubbing them against each other, smearing the blood around absent-mindedly. "I'm guessing Hatter explained things, like I told him to?" Whitebeard didn't even have it in him to nod. Ace chuckled. "You're so stupid. You could have seen this coming if you'd paid enough attention. Well, anyway." Ace turned, voice nonchalant.

"Hare's dead now, so I'm heading back to Wonderland. I'll give you your little replica back. I'll even use Metamorphosis once I'm back in Wonderland to return to my actual age. I'll give him back the memories, too, so he doesn't wake up and flip shit. All in all, things will go perfectly back to normal, and there will be no mention of any of this to my surrogate." His voice had gone sharp in the span of the last sentence. He grinned back at Whitebeard and Marco.

"Like Hatter said, I prefer Wonderland. Don't fuck it up for me so that I have to come back up here. Such a betrayal…well. My father would never be capable of such a thing. So don't kick yourself out of my family, hmm? Bad things tend to happen to those I don't care about." He turned his gaze to Marco.

"As for you, the only reason you're not like that," he gestured to Hare's mutilated body, "is because my sensory Haki says Luffy's still in East Blue and that Hare's crew are on their way here, without him. Clearly they were going to pick me and Hare up first before going to get Luffy. You lucked out, Marco." His gaze shifted to menacing, but the grin remained firm. "But if you ever put a toe out of line again, don't doubt that I will murder you. You're no brother of mine, not anymore."

He looked between the two of them. "I'm sure you two can take care of Hare's little underlings. I took away all the illusions of Wonderland I put on the ship already, and the rest of the crew will be waking up soon. They'll have serious headaches, at worst. I was careful with my brothers' fragile little minds." Some mix of dread and resignation was stirring sickeningly in Whitebeard's gut.

How had things changed so very, very much, in the span of so little time?

"The little fake will be unconscious for a little while. It always takes some time for him to come back after I unlive him. But he should be back before sunset." He looked between Marco and Whitebeard before turning his gaze across the deck, staring at Edward Hare's body for a moment, eyes narrowing in triumph and delight.

"…Well, I'll be off now." He turned back to Marco and Whitebeard, grin identical to his feline version. "I don't think I'll be seeing you again for quite some time. So before I go, let me give you one last piece of advice." His eyes flashed with some unnamed emotion.

"Kill Marshall D Teach."