Blood's brows knitted together, leering at the papers he had been working on. Dee and Dum had just come to inform him of how Kiana went missing. One second we were playing with her, then the next she was gone! He rubbed his temple, placing the documents down onto the desk and standing up. He would just have to find her himself. "Elliot! I want you to help me search for Kiana, Dee, Dum, keep an eye on the mansion." He barked at a few of the faceless servants to search too, making his way out towards the vast land between the territories.

Having a much clearer head, Kiana's eyes widened, quickly pulling away from the knight underneath her. "I shouldn't have done that," she began repeating, flustered and confused. She was angry, too, but mostly at herself. How could she have let herself do that?! Ace just laughed, pulling her back to rest on him. "Y'know… I'm a little jealous." Her brow arched thoughts still partially on the topic from before. "Um, why?" He grinned, forcing her to now be closer to him. "To know that someone like you likes me in this other world. If you weren't screwing with everything here, I'd just kill off Blood and keep you for myself!"

She deadpanned both from his words and thinking about Blood. What was he going to do? He clearly didn't want her near him… What was she to even do about him? She wanted to make sure she didn't forget again, but how was it possible when he was keeping her like a caged rabbit? Her thoughts were interrupted, feeling his warm breath against her. "I enjoyed our little kiss earlier, so I'm stealing another~" She let out a short squeak, pulling back with a short murmur of, "bu-but, Ace…" He only leaned further in, responding, "I am Ace. Besides, if you say, it won't matter and if you don't he won't need to know…3" His smirk furthered, pulling her into another kiss.

This one was only stopped by the sound of rustling from outside of the tent. He pulled away from her, unzipping it to see exactly who it was outside. "Huh~? What're ya doin' out here?" Blood's leer was almost impossible to match. She could feel it from inside the tent and it wasn't even directed at her. "The more important question is why is Kiana here? If you want toys to play with, there are plenty of servants at the castle," he hissed through gritted teeth. If there wasn't a possibility of hurting her, he would have shot the tent up and not cared what happened afterwards.

"Let's just say I have a more personal reason that I can't tell you," he smirked. "Now, if you don't mind, we're talking so you can leave." He gave a rather displeased look, whacking Ace's hand as he attempted to zip back up the tent. His green eyes looked up at the Mafioso with curiosity. "Oh? What's wrong? Jealous that she'd rather spend time with me than you?" He made his way out of the tent, standing up with his arms crossed. Somewhere in the midst of their discussion the time had changed again. Kiana shielded her eyes, following the lead of the knight to stand next to him. It was the middle of the day and it was way too bright for her taste.

"Let's go, Kiana." She froze up, staring between the two. She didn't want to, but he obviously wasn't in a mood to play around. "Hey! That's really rude, y'know. We were just talking. You never answered my question, are you jealous?"

"What's there to be jealous of, knight? She lives with me. She's dating me. Not you. Whom she spends her time away with is her choice. I do know however that it's not what you're making it to sound like."

"Oh, really? Is that what you think? You think she loves you?" he paused a bit to laugh. "You don't even know half of the truth, hatter! She doesn't love you. She loves me." Her eyes widened, astounded at his words, so much so she couldn't even mutter an audible noise. Why would he say that?! Was this how strongly Ace felt about her…? She deadpanned. There was also the off chance that Ace was just egging Blood on. He did like to fight… He probably found it amusing that the Mafia leader was squirming slightly underneath the irritating grip of his words. "You don't know what you're talking about," Blood retorted, finally regaining his cool.

"I don't? I don't think you quite understand what's going on here. She. Doesn't. love. You. Understand?" Finally she had calmed down from the shock enough to talk, hissing towards him. "Ace! You shouldn't say things like that!" Blood's eyes were narrowed, an obvious scowl laced over his features. Ace looked calm and rather pleased with this scowl. "Oh, because you know her so well? Because you weren't the one trying to kill her since she practically got here?"

"I do. I know that this entire world she is in right now is a world where she doesn't belong. This was a world created to fix something in her world. This was simply to help her come to terms with the fact that she loves-"

"I've heard enough," he spat, changing his cane into a gun. "I didn't want it to happen in front of her, but you've left me no other choice, knight." Ace just stared at the gun with his brow arched, almost ready to laugh; she on the other hand was slightly panicked. "You think you can kill me? Really? Go on, try it." Her eyes widened. This world may not be right, but she still didn't want anyone to die… "Ace! Don't go saying something like that!"

"If he's so sure of himself, let him get killed."

"But!"

Bang.

Things had begun calming down, just a bit. It was enough for people to start going back to their normal everyday lives. Nightmare was working day and night, but it seemed to be less stress on him as it had been the previous times. Ace was nowhere to be seen, seriously lacking on his knightly duties beyond the normal. Alice was preparing some food for the group, happily putting it onto plates before walking out and handing it to everyone accordingly. Everything was certainly alright, she couldn't complain about anything.

"How are the clocks coming?" she asked cheerily, getting a rather grim and slightly annoyed sigh. Of course he had been backlogged for quite a while now and was still trying to catch up, slowly doing so every day but not as much as he would have liked. She gave him a nervous smile before taking the tray back and heading to her room. She wanted to get some fresh air, so she wanted to pull her hair up before going outside. After pulling her hair up so that it was out of her eyes, she told Julius where she was going and headed down the long stairway.

Her eyes glanced around. The weather was decent, as usual. It wasn't too surprising. She began wandering away from the Clock tower, curious as to what the twins might be doing. They were always in the mood to play a game and lately she had been thinking about accepting their offer to play. She smiled and began turning on her heel, deciding that perhaps she should pay them a visit. The sound of rustling grass caught her attention. Not many of the bigger animals stalked around during the day, so surely it had to be a person. Who was it? She turned her head to glance in the direction of the noise, catching a glimpse of red.

Is that Ace? She thought, tilting her head. It had been a while since anyone saw him, so she was slightly worried. She began to follow the trail he had recently made. It was about ten minutes or so and quite a bit away from the clock tower before she was able to really tell whether it was him or not. Indeed, the red flash was the knight that had disappeared overnight. "Ace! Where have you been?" she called out. He turned around, giving his usual innocently seeming look. "Oh, hey Alice. I suppose you haven't had time to look, have you?" There was a bit of bitterness to his tone.

What was he talking about? She tilted her head. Looking? What were they looking for? A shiver ran up her spine at the small leer she received. It was worse due to the fact that he was still smiling that usual smile he had. "You've forgotten, haven't you?" This was the last straw! Now he was accusing her of things! "Forgotten what?! What exactly have I forgotten, Ace? Why are you acting like this?"

"Acting like what? Being worried about a good friend and someone I care about? I would think you should be more concerned than I am, after all she is supposedly your best friend." She winced upon hearing this statement, staring at him like he had gone mad. She bit her tongue as a realization had come upon her. She had forgotten someone very important to her… She took a step back, not liking the look he held. "I… how could I possibly forget?!" Her mind was now held all sorts of guilt over this fact. He just shook his head, being too used to it by this point in time. "Everyone slowly falls into the exact state. Everyone has forgotten, except Nightmare. You even forgot. Can't you see? Something's not right here…"

It took her a moment before glancing down at the ground, slowly thinking everything that had happened over. The scenes seemed to play out through her mind like it was a book or a slideshow… Just as things fell into place into the current moment, something crossed her mind. There was always that one person… In every good mystery there was always one person who was behind it all! "Ace! You just said it yourself! 'Except Nightmare', why wouldn't he forget when the rest of us have? What is making us forget?" He slowly blinked, harboring a much less hardened look than he had been bearing since they met up.

The two wasted no time in returning to the clock tower, pursuing a certain dream demon that they needed to have a word with. Once the two entered his room, it was clear to them that he had not been looking for her at all. This caused Ace to be even more livid than he already was. "So, all of that time searching for her was a lie?" Nightmare sipped his tea, looking at him. "I was watching her, yes; did I need to search for her? No." Alice proceeded to leer at him, hands balled into fists. This was beyond anything she would imagine him to spring up! How could he?! "Is this not what you wanted?" He wasted no time in allowing for her thoughts to be made public, looking soon to her. She took a step back, staring at him. "What do you-?"

"Were you not getting jealous of another outsider in this land? Was it not you who wanted for her to no longer be here? Aren't you upset that your best friend is being taken away by the one person you couldn't change?" A smirk played on his lips, watching her reaction in full as it slowly changed; first being livid to slowly shock then finally into realization. "But I-" He ignored her with another sip of tea. "You did. Some things you think subconsciously are quite powerful, Alice." She nervously swallowed, staring harshly at the ground. This meant… This was because of her? She gritted her teeth, shaking her head. "No! While I may have been a bit envious… I would never want something like this to happen!"

His lips played into an 'oh?' whilst still smirking. "Is that how you want it?" She held a stern look, not letting their eyes disconnect for a moment. "So be it, then." Before another word could be said the world around her started dispersing, like a paper house being burnt to the ground. She covered her eyes, flashes of red, orange, and yellow clouding her vision. Just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. The world grew black with bits of color here and there. It was almost like when she was asleep. Wait a moment… "What the hell is going on…?" The sound of another voice came clearly but muffled. The figure sounded hurt. What was going on now…? She ran to it, surprised to see Kiana there.

It was exactly like a dream, she didn't doubt it anymore. Her eyes stung as she really saw Kiana, the warmth stinging her cheeks as she moved to hug her tightly. "O-onee-chan, I-I think this is all my fault," she sobbed pitifully, angry with herself for allowing a feeling like that to even become so strong. Kiana's eyes widened, relaxed as she felt the other's arms around her, and lightly patting her head. "There, there, I think I had a hand in this situation, too," she responded softly.

"What do you mean?" Alice questioned, rubbing the tears from her eyes. "I should have told Ace how I felt a while ago, but at the same time this conversation should have happened much earlier, too. I kept pushing Ace away, like I didn't care or something. I'm just so happy that he's…" she pondered for a moment, trying to think of a polite way to say it. "Whatever the hell Ace is," she giggled, "but I'm sorry that you felt jealous. I guess part of me could sense that, but the other wanted to believe it not to be true? I should have just come to you."

Alice pulled her into a tighter hug, giving a few more sobs as she simply held onto her. 'This is why I admire you, Kiki; I wish I could be that forgiving and understanding…' Her hands gently smoothed out Alice's hair, letting her have her moment as she held onto her. 'You're so strong, Alice; despite everything you tried to bear a smile. I wish I could do that.' Another figure came into view as they pulled a part. It was Nightmare, and thank god, it was male.

"You know, you two really are disgusting. Alice, you're far more forgiving and understanding than you know and Kiana you're strong too. I mean, after all, you managed to deal with this little dilemma. Now would you two stop with your sob story?" He wasn't exactly one to be 'nice', but he figured if he got it out of the way now they might feel a little better and move forward with the situation at hand. "Why are we sleeping?" Alice questioned. "Everything is being set back into place. It takes a toll to move a body from one place to another like this… that's why you got a cold before," he explained.

"So that's why I randomly had a cold," Kiana hummed in interest. "No more of this bullshit, okay? I don't think I can deal with it again…" Alice nodded in agreement, obviously feeling the same way about the situation. He rolled his eye. "Then stop having such negative emotions and maybe I won't have to force you to fix it this drastically again," he retorted rather unhappily. There was a momentary pause before a shrill screaming sounded as Kiana fell to the floor.

"Kiki! What's wrong?! Nightmare!" Alice shouted desperately, hoping to get some answers. Nightmare tapped his forefinger to his chin. "I could have sworn I had gotten her out before-" … "Before what?!" Alice shrieked at him. "Before Blood's bullet pierced her torso," he stated rather nonchalantly.

Author's Note;

Wowza balooey. THIS STORY IS STILL NOTE DEAD. YIPPE.

So like um stuff. I'm sorry I'm lazy I've gotten my hands full of writing other stuff… and stuff… and yeah. So, uh, I'll work on this when I can. College is coming up, so more slowness to be expected. I've got like 5+ chapters ahead, can't upload them all because nope. I'll slowly add them in, though.

Previews:

"Just focus on me, don't let anything distract you. You'll be fine, okay? You have to be fine,"

"d-don't… l-lea-ve…" She shook her head, confused by her statement.

"I won't leave," she spoke just before the world around her started to fade.

"I thought I might never see you again…"

"Kiana told me to meet you here? She said it was an emergency," Elliot spoke in between breaths.

"Well, you do remember I said there was a punishment I needed to give you, right?"

"Damn pervert," he muttered before they walked away.

A small smirk played on the figure's lips as a soft, "so that's what they look like," erupted the silence.

"A-Ace, you left a mark,"

"I think I'll pay this country a visit!"

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," the male spoke up, "my name is Ezekiel and I am the King of[censored]." He gave a short bow before looking at the woman across from him. "My name is Genevieve and I am the Queen of [censored]," she said with a short curtsy. [kept secret just in case you guys can't figure it out, might as well tease. You probably know those.]

"Does that mean," Genevieve started, "you're foreigners?" Ezekiel finished.

"I'm afraid it's time for you to go,"

"We're not leaving without them,"

I am making the order for you to leave, or you will be removed by force,"

"And if we don't? I'm not scared of some guards,"

"If you don't, then I might fear for the safety of your companions. They are, after all, at our merciful hands. If I so wish, then I could have one or both of them killed this very instant, wouldn't that be rather unpleasant?"

"You wouldn't,"

"Oh, but wouldn't I? Guards,"