"Ugh…" Rio groaned when she landed from her fall, or rather the pleasant push Kirkland gave her. She landed on grass, thankfully, if not it would have broken her bones. She could only see the ground, plain dirt and grass. The place was literally polluted with smoke – it was everywhere. But it wasn't black smoke, it was blue and instead of smelling like tobacco, it smelled like tulips. Just her luck, Rio was sensitive to that flower.

"Hello? Anybody here?" Rio coughed as she got on her feet. She was sure she was in her world. The world full of humans and impossibilities. "Where am I?"

"You're dangerously near me, stupid girl." Rio jumped at the sound of another unexplained voice. It was deep, and its tone was rude.

"Who are you? Show yourself!"

"Don't you know who I am?"

"Well, I can't see you!" Rio snapped. "Not with this fog!"

"Turn around, stupid girl." Rio turned, and saw the figure of a human. A normal person. Though, she could still be in Wonderland. What kind of smoke would be blue and smell like tulips? She could only see his shadow. She ran towards the human, but the nearer she was, the less possible it was for her to finally be home.

"What do you call yourself?" The man said. He had pale blonde hair and green eyes. He was wearing a blue suit and blue top-hat which matched the smoke he was smoking from the pipe in his mouth.

"Rio." She said. "And you are?"

"Stupid girl. I'm the wisest of the wisest, Lars Aafjes." He said as he blew smoke into Rio's face, making her cough. "You're sensitive to my tulips. You must be Rio, the White Witch."

"I am Rio, but I'm not some White Witch." She coughed.

"You might be correct. I did not remember the White Witch being this daft."

"Hey, would you stop calling me an idiot? At least I'm not some fancy snobbish jerk walking around in a shiny blue suit and blowing his girly flower gas in others' face while acting like a know-it-all."

"I called you daft, not an idiot, stupid girl."

Rio rolled her eyes. "Anyway, where am I?"

"You're in Wonderland, stupid girl. Didn't you know that before?"

"I meant where I am in Wonderland."

"You're in the training grounds of Wonderland." He said. "If I wasn't smoking, this place would look exactly like the park where you found the entrance to Wonderland. The Mad Hatter did all this and I, as the wisest magician in Wonderland, am supposed to train you in wisdom. By the way, where is that lunatic?"

"I told him I wasn't the White Witch and he said he'd take me home!"

"Stupid girl. The only way for you to do that is to drink the blood of your opponent, Arthur Clarkland. And since you're not home and here with me, you are definitely the White Witch."

"But the Mad Hatter, he-"

"You will settle that with him at another time. I am here to train you, not to listen to your stupid whining. Once you surpass me, you will move on to your next trainer."

"What? I'm not even ready for this!"

"Don't worry. Wisdom can be earned easily and I can promise you, it is a much more useful skill than strength."

XXX

The day was nearing noon as the morning began to end. The light was getting brighter and Roderich had no choice but to roll out of bed and get its lunch – food fit for a spoiled, domesticated cat living in luxury. He was born a kitten in the Axis clan, but the raised in the white queen's palace and her favorite pet. His family lived in the cat house right next to the palace. They were not ill-treated, but they were given less freedom and less luxury. Roderich could play whenever he wanted to play, sleep whenever he wanted to sleep and eat whatever he wanted to eat.

That noon, he could already smell of the aroma of braised fish and warm potato salad from the kitchen, coupled with a bowl of cold milk. He rolled off the bed that Francine slept in, but before he could happily trail off to the kitchen, he heard meows from outside, right opposite Francine's bedroom. It was the three leaders of the Axis clan, whom he called obnoxious as they were not as domesticated as him. There was Feliciano, a spotted auburn and white breed with a small hair curl on its head, Ludwig, a plain grey breed and Kiku, a spotted black and white breed.

Feliciano was a rather dumb cat who preferred pasta over fish and had a twin brother in the clan who sort of hated him. Ludwig was alright to Roderich, but he had anger management problems and would scratch people over the smallest thing. Kiku was the most civilized to Roderich, but he was rather antisocial and spent most of his playtime with Feliciano and Ludwig only. Kiku was also a bit odd as he did not enjoy playing with yarn. He was the oddest cat in the clan because he expressed no interest in yarn. But really, who could possibly resist yarn?

The three of them was standing outside the white palace, opposite Francine's bedroom. Ludwig was continuously scratching Feliciano who was continuously crying while Kiku was meowing for Roderich. "Roderich-san, we're going to play with some Allies cats at the fish pond. You want to come with us?"

"Of course not! Why would I go there? I absolutely despise the Allies!"

"Oh…alright then. Suit yourself. See you again, Roderich-san."

"Wait, guys!" Roderich cried as he saw the three cats slowly disappearing into the forest. "Can't we play indoors? In my playroom? Don't you think that's more fun than playing at the dangerous fish pond? You can invite the Allies if you want!"

"So, is Roderich coming? I was too busy scratching Feliciano for eating up my fish pasta breakfast." Ludwig asked Kiku as he continued to glare at Feliciano.

"Ve~ it's not my fault! I was too hungry and you were still asleep!" Feliciano whined.

"No. Roderich-san said he dislikes the Allies."

"Oh well. I guess it's just the three of us, again." Ludwig sighed. "He's always like that. One day, he's going to end up with no friends."

The three cats sighed in unison and continued on their way to the fish pond to meet their friends. The Allies clan was another clan of cats living with the red queen. They originally stayed with the white queen, but the red queen kidnapped them and kept them when the war began. They were badly treated and unpopulated as most of the cats get their furry heads chopped off for trying to run away. They were allowed to wander about the red district, but they were not allowed to go over to the white district and they had an early curfew. Thankfully, the fish pond was smacked right between the two district.

Suddenly, they heard something in the bushes. They were still in the white district.

"You hear that?" Ludwig said as he stopped Feliciano and Kiku.

"Ve~?"

"It can't be…"

"Boo." The cats all hissed in shock when they saw Kirkland standing right in front of them. They remembered how much they hated him when he was still the white queen's hatter, when he always scared the crap out of them and used magic to turn them into all sorts of things just for his amusement.

"It's you!" Ludwig screeched.

"You should have seen the looks on your faces!" Ludwig felt his brows furrow as Kirkland laughed manically at them.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Ludwig hissed as he rose in an attempt to pounce onto Kirkland and scratch him until he bleeds to death, but Kirkland grabbed the ribbon around his neck and stopped him with ease.

"Aw, Ludwig, you're still the most adorable!" Kirkland said as he tickled Ludwig's small nose.

"Ve~ I thought I was!" Feliciano whined.

"Anyway, why are you here, Mr Kirkland? The white queen will not be happy to hear that you're here." Kiku said.

"I came to look for you! Oh, I've missed the three of you so much!"

"You know we're not going to believe that!" Ludwig hissed. "You hate us to the core."

Kirkland sighed. "Fine. I came to ask you three for a favor."

"Ve~ does that mean you really hate us?" Feliciano cried.

"No." Kirkland said. "I need you three to train Rio, the White Witch to become the white queen's champion for the final battle between the queens."

"Did you receive the white queen's permission to train her?" Ludwig asked. "I thought she had been banished to the human world ten years ago when you brought Wonderland into this state?"

Kirkland rolled his eyes. "She's back. I brought her back."

"Yes, but the white queen wants her back home. She put that into your responsibility. Why are you holding her back? How could you disobey the white queen?" Kiku said.

"It's for the white queen's own good. The final battle will only be a fight between the two champions. Any interference from even the weakest knight will be considered as a message to continue the war and lead the final battle into a bloody, never-ending fight. The white queen cannot defeat Arthur Clarkland and I know she will never let me or her precious felines fight. Rio may have been exiled and has no memory of being the White Witch, but we have enough time to train her. That's why I need you three to be her trainers."

"We would do anything in advantage of the white queen, but does the girl want it? Does she know what she's in for?"

"She doesn't have a choice."

XXX

"Wisdom can be earned easily, like I said, from having a strong mind." Lars said calmly as he continued to suck the tulip gas from his pipe, much to Rio's disgust. It had been almost a day into the training and all Lars wanted Rio to do was to mediate.

"And a strong mind is earned from mediating?"

"Mediating is a practice done by magicians to strengthen their thinking."

"I can tell." Rio coughed when Lars blew smoke into her face again.

"Nothing can be solved by tears or violence. That is what I find most tragic about the stupid war between the two queens."

"Speaking of that, you're for the white queen for the crown, aren't you?"

"I am for no one, though I am leaning towards the white queen. This unnecessary war is caused by the red queen, most immature and unwise."

Rio raised a brow in inquiry. "Is the red queen really that horrible?"

"It will take longer than the length of time for me to describe her negatives. Why do you ask? I was told she set her pet on you just because you tried to flirt with that notorious pirate Arthur Clarkland."

"I did nothing to him! He tried to take advantage of me!" She protested.

"Now you see."

"But I pity her…in a way. I mean to have such a husband, and she's still so obsessed with him."

"I find her husband more reasonable to pity." Lars said, but suddenly his proud and loud voice began to soften. "He used to have an affair with the white queen."

"Excuse me?"

"That's it for today then." He blew the smoke from the end of his pipe. "Your body's so oily. Why is that?"

"It's because you made me mediate in the sun for the whole day?"

"Oh, right. Go take a bath then."

"Where?"

Lars rolled his eyes and groaned. "Stupid girl. There's a lake right over there."

"Isn't that pool, like, right next to a volcano."

"You know, I don't really enjoy hearing a 'like' in between every phrase you say. Is that a human thing to do? It's very irritating, please stop it. And that's not a volcano, stupid girl, it's simply a water hole." Lars nagged as he trailed away. "Humans…"

"Wait! Don't just leave me here!" Rio groaned, but Lars had already disappeared.

She walked towards the small steaming pool of water. It looked like a hot spring, just that this was Wonderland, the world full of impossibilities of the human world. She could enjoy herself in the water and suddenly, the water would have a mind of its own and drain the pool. If not, she would start to hear unexplained voices again coming from the water. Nevertheless, Rio still felt oily and disgusting, so she removed the dress the red queen gave her and jumped into the pool. The water was warm and good enough for her skin.

As Rio continued to stay in the water that somehow healed her wounds and did not prune her skin, she noticed an animal figure walking towards her in the fog. It was blonde cat with the same green eyes as Lars'. A cat that was not scared of water.

"Where did you come from, little guy?" Rio asked as she rubbed the cat's head lovingly. She giggled at its purring, but realized it was not scared of water and looked rather familiar. "Wait a minute, you're not scared of water?"

"Of course not, stupid girl, it's me." The cat said.

"Pervert!" Rio shrieked. She grabbed the cat's neck viciously in an attempt to strangle it. "That must be why you insisted on me trying the bath!"

"L-let me g-go. Wh-who would w-want to s-see y-you na-naked?" The cat struggled as it moved its furry head around Rio's fingers.

She tightened her grip on the cat's neck. "Perverted know-it-all. You sure have a developed mind from all that mediating!"

"St-stop it! Y-you'll k-kill me!"

"Fine! But don't ever call me stupid again!" Rio's hand shook a little and she finally let go of Lars' neck. He fell into the water and hissed at it. He climbed out of the pool and panted.

"Stupid girl! You could have killed me!"