A/N: As I'm looking over the way I plotted this story… the Bascule seems a lot like a Keyblade xD Isn't that funny? …I thought it was… (= 3 =) oh, one final thing before I leave you to read my…whatever this thing is: Mushrooms can be very erotic. That is all. I welcome you all to the long (very, very, very, very, very, very long) awaited update to Down the Fyulong Hole! Ta-Da! -throws confetti up in the air-

Chapter 5

Monsters One and Alike

After hours of walking through a kaleidoscope forest, Teito Klein soon began to grow nauseated by the scene. The bright neon colors were causing him headaches rather than fascination. The jump in his step soon vanished and his optimism plummeted. After their encounter with the Blue Caterpillar, Labrador, the brunet had been the one who had taken the lead. Now, he was dragging behind, Frau Hatter had taken the position of line leader. Feeling slightly irritated with that fact, seeing that the blond wasn't even paying attention in the direction he was going, Teito shouldered his Bascule and took initiative to walk along side the larger male.

"Hey, Frau," the teen called out once he reached the other, having to trot just to keep up.

"You know, brat," Frau replied in a bored tone, his sights kept forward, "it's disrespectful to address your elders with their given name."

"Pfft." Teito shifted his Bascule onto his other shoulder. For such a small object, it was rather heavy. "So, how do we get out of here?"

The Hatter sighed, pulling out another cigarette and slipping it into his mouth before replying: "I have no idea."

Teito stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the blond as if he had just grown two heads. His mouth gaped, unsure of what to really say but feeling that he needed to say something. They had been walking for who knows how long and the blond didn't even know where he was heading?

"Frau!" Was all he managed to say without it being stuttered.

The blond stopped, turned to the brunet, let out a puff of smoke from the corner of his mouth and turned to continue forward. The teen scoffed and ran to catch up with Hatter, annoyed beyond all reason.

"How do you not know where we're going?"

"I never know where I'm going," came the simple, almost automatic, reply. The blond slipped his cigarette out of his mouth and turned to the wide-eyed boy beside him. "Knowing which way, following a path: it's never that simple here. The roads shift constantly, not wanting to lead to the same location everyday of their lives. Landmarks move too, unless human made. But even those, the land, on most occasions, refuses to allow them stability."

"So…the land is basically," Teito swallowed, "alive?"

Frau nodded, replacing his cigarette back between his lips. "Basically."

"Then…" Teito shifted the Bascule onto his other shoulder, "what are we going to do?"

"We walk," Frau pointed forward, "until we find something. Once we get out of here, it'll be simple to find the Basburg Empire."

"What Empire?" Teito turned his attention up to the Hatter.

The blond allowed a cloud of smoke to escape from the corner of his mouth and the teen watched in half-fascination as the smoke turned into a shower of single colored leaves, dancing towards the ground as real leaves would do. Still walking, Teito turned his head and watched them fall.

"Basburg. Bah-z-b-ur-gh. Well, thinking better tragedy, we best go to the CatHouse Café. Get information."

They continued steadily forward, each in their own musings.

Teito's sight was on the ground; glaring at the pebbles he passed by. Everything had seemed so simple just a few minutes back; he had collected two of seven pieces in a single day. Now he was trapped in a kaleidoscope forest of giant fungi, with equally giant insects, with a man (if he was a man) - Teito asserted the Hatter through the corner of his eye - who knew very little of where he was going. Or better yet, cared very little about where he was going. And why was Teito given the heaviest item first to carry? He had rightfully assumed that the "Key of Truth" would be just that, a key. Not an oversized…whatever it was. Seemed the only way the thing would be useful was to swing it around and hit things.

A soft rumbling disrupted the silence, causing Teito to turn his attention towards the man beside him. He was surprised to find Hatter looking at him already, an eyebrow raised.

"Geez, hungry much?" Frau asked as he flicked his burnt cigarette somewhere to the side of him.

Teito returned Frau's cocked eyebrow with one of his own, shifting his heavy Bascule to his other shoulder.

"What are you talking about? I thought that was you."

The two males refrained from advancing further, standing as still as they possibly could as they waited for the sound to return. Seconds ticked away and everything remained still, quiet. Frau advanced towards the brunet and took the Bascule from him. Running his gloved hand over the glittering stone etched into the silver oddity, the Bascule shrunk in size, fitting in the palm of his hand.

"That should be easier to carry," the blond said matter-of-factly.

Teito watched as Frau dropped the item into his open palms, glaring down at the small key-sized thing. If the stupid oaf could have done that since the getgo, why did he wait until now to do, what appeared to be, such a mediocre task? He mumbled a 'thanks', uncharacteristic of him but decided that if the man had bothered to help him at all, it should deserve an expression of gratitude. Though he had only just met the man, it seemed that if Frau so wished it, he wouldn't have helped Teito at all. He slipped the small item into his pocket and straightened his disheveled frockcoat, refusing to allow himself to appear improper in any way.

Emerald eyes scanned the area after a moment when it was obvious Hatter would not be moving any time soon. He found nothing different with the Mushroom Forest. It all appeared as it had, rainbow-y and very hurtful on the eyes. He looked up to the blond and followed his line of sight: it was pointed towards the sky.

"What are we looking for?" The teen asked when he began to feel ridiculous from staring at black nothingness.

"We…are looking for a way out of here… they are looking for you," the man growled before taking Teito by the wrist and dragging the boy behind him as he sprinted through the overgrown fungi.

"Who's they?" The teen shouted.

"Jabberwocky," came the curt reply, almost a snarl, as the beasts made themselves known.

The rumbling returned, only with more force, shaking the earth beneath them.

With his free hand, Teito grasped the blond's arm, his footing slipping with the combination of the unreasonable speed Frau was asking of him and the constant vibrations running through the ground.

"Keep running, and don't look up!"

Curiosity fought with his better judgment, almost forcing Teito's unwilling eyes upwards.

Dozens of beasts, flying on wings beating too quickly to be seen, hovered over the tops of the mushrooms, their jagged, yellow claws scraping the fungi's head. They were large in size, having four elongated arms, two thick powerful legs and an equally powerful whip of a tail. At the end of their long necks, Teito could see their pressed-in faces, but most importantly, he could see their slobbering mouths, filled with crooked sharp fangs.

They buzzed above in utter chaos, and Teito watched as a pair of them crashed into each other, taking each other down into the unforgiving ground. Almost immediately, more of those beasts were upon them, ripping and tearing at their fallen, but still alive, comrades.

Teito turned his sights back to Frau's back, wondering how they could possibly escape so many ruthless, feral creatures.

At that moment, a jabberwocky landed on a mushroom feet from them. Teito's grip on Frau tightened when it was obvious the man was not stopping. They continued at full speed while the thing tried to squeeze its large head through the spaces in between the fungi.

"Frau…?" Teito whimpered, his legs trembling with the overexertion.

"Keep running! And don't look up!"

Just as they were close to passing right under the thing, the jabberwocky succeeded in pushing its head through. Teito roughly pulled his hand out of Frau's grasp and retreated a few steps back as the monster's head lowered closer to the ground, it's slits for nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air around it. Teito was paralyzed on spot as he stared into the creature's eyes, or lack-there-of. The Jabberwocky's disfigured eyelids were forcefully stitched closed; the eyeballs could be seen moving behind the closed eyelids, darting left and right, left and right, up and down.

"Teito!" Frau shouted from under the mushroom the beast was currently occupying.

At the sound of his voice, the creature roared, startling the teen and causing him to fall over. The creature swiveled his head toward the sound, baring its fangs. With a swift kick to its slobbering mouth, Frau dodged its bite and ducked under its neck. He ran towards the brunet but the clear fear on his face told Frau that the monster behind had recovered more rapidly than imagined.

The jabberwocky's fierce scythe-like claws smashed into his side, ripping through Frau's clothing and flesh. He was easily tossed aside, scraping along the ground until a nearby toxic green mushroom stopped him. Frau placed a gloved hand to his wounds, pulling it back to see red smeared against the white fabric. He cursed silently when the monster roared, struggling to raise himself to his feet as the Kor threw his head towards Frau like a battering ram. With slightly difficulty, Frau was able to dodge the attack but not for long once the Kor caught wind of Frau's sickly iron scent.

It followed after him like a shark caught onto the stink of blood though had difficulty trapping Frau once the man hid beneath the mushroom the creature was currently perched on. The Kor threatened to fall onto its back if it dared reach any farther for the blond.

Convinced that the jabberwocky could not reach him, Frau turned his sights to Teito. The brunet looked terrified and astonished, still unable to get on his feet.

"Brat, run over here before the rest start smelling the blood!"

"I can't!"

"Why?" Frau overlapped Teito's reply, confusing the jabberwocky as it swiveled its head from the direction the brunet was at back to Frau, sniffing at the air all the while. It was trying to find them with its hearing, but the stench of blood was obviously keeping it preoccupied.

Teito bit his bottom lip, eyes forced closed.

Frau cursed quietly to himself, his glare now directed towards the monster that still snapped at him. He raised a fist and directed it firmly onto those forcefully closed eyes. The monster roared in pain and Hatter took that opportunity to run towards the boy. Without bothering to be gentle about it, he gripped the boy's wrist, hauled him upward, and threw him over his shoulder.

The Kor was quick to recover but Frau was quicker at retrieving his top hat. With a flick of his wrist, the hat flattened into a black disk, its edges sharp. He flung the item towards the oblivious beast. The visible silver rose on the item exploded in a shower of petals as Frau's hat made impact with the Kor. It howled and shrieked, a gruesome gash indenting its pressed-in face even further. As Frau rushed past, he snatched back his bloodstained headwear and with another flick of the wrist, it popped back open, a harmless accessory once more.

"Frau, Kor!"

Teito pointed towards a jabberwocky as it clawed its way through the dense forest of mushrooms, thrashing about to fit its oversized body.

"I can't run like this anymore," Frau hissed, not even bothering to look for the Kor currently pursuing them.

"Frau…" Teito grasped the man's ripped coat. He felt so utterly useless being carried but he couldn't run. His legs wouldn't let him.

"Why are there so many fucking Kor?"

It happened so quickly, Teito couldn't be certain of what he saw. One moment he was watching a group of Kor nosedive to their location – the one that had been following them left behind in a tangle of mangled mushrooms – the next, he was spun around dizzily, a flash of black and silver before the bone-chilling sound of glass shattering and bones snapping echoed loudly.

Frau jerked forward instantly and seemed to fall as Teito's already unstable balance tilted off to another direction.

Teito hit the ground first, the back of his head making impact. Soon followed the blond, landing on top of him. The air shot out of the teen, and as he gasped and wheezed, he desperately tried to remove said blond from atop of him.

Finally succeeding in rolling the man off, Teito sat up, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He turned his attention to Frau, who was equally out of breath, his eyes forcefully shut as if he was having difficulty breathing. But what caught Teito's attention was not the blood soaking Hatter's frockcoat; it was the large black scythe attached to a black vine that emerged from inside his right sleeve.

Teito grasped the man's arm, turning his attention to their current location if only to occupy his thoughts elsewhere but from the demonic item just feet away.

Nothing but white. White up, white down, white in front, white beside. Everything was white, they didn't even cast shadows. It was impossible to detect where anything ended, let alone height, depth and whatnot.

"Where are we?" Teito whispered, afraid of speaking too loudly. Just moments ago, he and Frau had been running through a forest of neon colored mushrooms, now nothing.

Teito jerked as Frau's hand clamped over his wrist, he looked down to see hazed sapphire, almost looking as if the blond did not understand the world around him. Teito shook the man lightly.

"Frau," something thick and heavy was stuck in the teen's throat, choking his words, "Please, are you alright? Tell me you're going to be fine."

Frau opened his mouth to speak but only a strangled noise emerged. He forced his straying eyes closed, trying to focus on a single thing at a time. As he winced, a stream of blood spilled from the sleeve of his coat, soaking his white glove crimson. He pulled his arm away, dragging the scythe inches closer. Teito immediately released him and watched as the scythe began slithering towards Frau, a blob of black as it ripped through Frau's coat and into his skin. The man suppressed a yell, throwing his head back against the floor until the pain in his skull matched the burning pain in his arm. He sighed, pulling up the mangled sleeve of his coat as he forced himself to sit up.

"What was that?"

Frau turned to Teito only to see the teen looking to his bleeding arm, the markings where his scythe hid appearing nothing more than a disfigured tattoo. He said nothing, waiting to see how long he could keep quiet before the teen demanded answers. But seconds passed and Teito only hesitated for a moment before taking Frau's arm, smearing the blood across the markings. He continued with the action, peeling off Hatter's glove. There was another odd mark but Frau jerked as Teito tried to skim his fingers across it.

With a small cough, Teito released him, cleaning his hands on his pants.

"What – what happened to your wrist?"

Looking to his wound, the blond grasped his wrist in hand. "The, um, the vine, the one attached to the scythe, it attaches to my wrist whenever it comes out. It'll heal, don't worry about it." Frau stood to his feet, eyes scanning the area. He forced himself to take a deep breath, his chest feeling heavy.

Teito frowned at Frau's staggering walk, and frowned even more when the man almost fell over trying to recover his discarded hat. "Frau, is something wrong?"

"W-well," Frau pinched the bridge of his nose, his eyes screwed shut. "J-Jabberwocky t-tend to…" his left knee gave out, almost bringing him down to the ground but Frau worked quick to straightened himself out again. "They tend to…um, h-have poisonous claws."

Teito was on his feet in an instant, rushing to the blond as the man threatened to fall again. With difficulty, he pushed his form against Frau's, trying to keep the man upright. "F-Frau, we need to get out of here," he growled, Frau's weight too much for him to support.

"I d-don't know wh-where we are," he swallowed, "T-the scythe, it made some sort of r-rip and I j-just jumped through."

"What do you mean the scythe made a rip?" Teito's eyes darted left and right uselessly, everything was the same.

Frau shivered, as if cold, sweat lining his brow. "Th-the scythe belonged to the C-Clock Keeper, Verloren. He controlled time, th-the scythe was his…"

"The Scythe was his medium?" Teito finished for the man who certainly looked ill.

Frau nodded in the positive.

"Maybe we can use it to get out?"

"I don't know how," the man slumped, forcing himself and Teito on their knees. "Th-the first time was an ac-ac-."

"Accident."

"Yeah, that" Frau closed his eyes, too tired to continue talking.

"Frau! Stay awake," Teito elbowed the man, earning a hiss when he realized that he had elbowed the blond's injury. "Sorry," he mumbled but succeeded in startling the man awake. "Come on, Frau, there has to be a way out. You need medical attention, there has to be an antidote for the Kor's poison."

"Th-there is b-but," Frau grinded his teeth, the pain becoming almost unbearable. "I-I can't…"

"There has to be something I can do! Come on, Frau! Don't give up on me now!"

"I-I'm not, I won't. J-just, fuck, I'm so…tired."

Teito shook the man, Frau managed to keep his eyes open for all of two seconds before they threatened to close. He was dying, and slowly.

Kid," the blond pulled his weight back, looking down to the frightened teen through blurring vision. He placed both his hands on the teen's shoulders, barely keeping himself upright. "There's something you gotta do for me. Wh-when it's over, you won't remember, but I need your permission. Otherwise, I can't do it."

Lips kept in a straight line, Teito regarded the blond critically. Frau was shivering like mad, his sweat-soaked blond hair was sticking to his forehead, and his eyes didn't seem to really see anything. The entire left side of his coat was drenched in blood, dripping onto the white floor; the visible wounds still seeped blood, the flesh torn open and exposed. What could Teito really do but agree?

"…Okay."

Frau looked ready to protest against his answer, as if he was hoping Teito would say no, would never agree to such vague demands, but the teen didn't. He trusted blindly. Frau cursed silently, tearing his sight away from those innocently childish green eyes. He had been given permission, even if it was indistinct. The boy was going to get himself killed if he was left on his own in Wonderland.

"I-I swear," the blond forced through his jagged breathing, "I will never ask this of you again."

Before the teen had time to question, or look at him directly, vicious claws formed on Frau's fingertips and ripped through the collar of Teito's coat and shirt, exposing the skin. He parted his lips, his breathing ragged as he sunk filed incisors into the base of the teen's neck, just under the metal collar.

Teito struggled, suddenly realizing the danger he had willingly walked into. He could hear the sound: the slurping and guzzling sound coming from Frau. He pushed against Hatter's chest, his eyes wide with fear. The teen's breathing turned erratic, every instinct to flee turned on. Strong arms wrapped around him, pinning him against that stone chest. He strangled a cry but sounded more like a wounded animal than a human being. Teito, however, did not stop. He continued pushing against the man-turned-creature before him.

Frau forced his deep-sea-blue eyes shut, tormented by the very act he was doing. And the teen fighting against him did not help matters. But he had to do whatever it was required to survive, and the thing that he was needed this. Needed blood in order to satisfy its wishes – an offering.

His grip on Teito tightened, his strength was returning. He immediately pulled back, only giving himself enough to dissolve the poison. That was all he needed. His wounds would heal, if given time.

Finally able to move his arms, one hand flew over his bleeding neck; the other was pressed against Frau's chest, as if to keep the man away. Teito stared at those pitiful sapphire eyes, at his blood smeared mouth. He opened his mouth to speak, he was preparing himself to run away, but Frau placed his palm on Teito's forehead.

"Rest well, child," was all Teito heard before any conscious thought vanished from existence and his world turned black.

A/N: These will be my closing words.