Previously:
"Huh? It was empty, but… now there's something in there!" Alice said.
"I suspected as much." Said Julius. "First Peter White, then the Hatters, then myself. The fluid level increases as you interact more with this world's inhabitants. That is the key to the gate of your world. And the rule of the game is… 'When the bottle is once again filled… the time will come when you can return to your home.'"
"Oh, so that's what you meant by 'you can't go home alone.' It's because she has to meet more people here?" Sarah asked.
"Is that all? That sounds easy enough." Alice said, relieved. "Maybe I can get home sooner than I thought."
"… I wonder about that." Said Julius. Something told him it wasn't going to be that easy.
"Just you wait, Alice of mine." Peter said, watching the clock tower from a distance. "You'll be here 'till the end of time."
Chapter 3: On the Way
"That Peter guy's the prime minister of Heart Castle?" Alice asked incredulously, shocked. "You're kidding, right? He's a pervert… and rabbit!"
"All the same, it's the truth." Julius said calmly. He had been telling the girls a little more about Wonderland while he worked on repairing some broken clocks. Sarah sweat-dropped. This world was really strange.
'Well, I suppose a corrupt politician is nothing new…' the maid thought a bit cynically. It was just the rabbit part that was odd.
"That place must be run by a group of psychopaths." Alice said, sweat-dropping. "At least now we know where he is."
"Were you planning to go see him?" Julius asked.
"I wanted to ask him why he dragged me here." Alice replied loftily as she headed for the door. And kick him in the crotch, hopefully. It was daytime again, so they should have no problem finding their way there. It shouldn't be that hard since there was only one road to the castle.
"Are you sure it's wise to head straight into a nest of possible psychopaths, Miss?" Sarah asked, following on her heels.
"It may be dangerous out there… But I'll be darned if I can't walk around in my own dream." Alice answered confidently with a smile.
'Uh… but, from my point of view… this should be my dream...' Sarah thought wryly, sweat-dropping.
"… Please be mindful of your safety." Julius said.
"Hm… I guess getting hurt in dreams can cause real pain." Alice mused.
"I've heard that if you die in a dream, it's possible you could die in real life too, Miss." Said Sarah.
"Eh? Seriously?" Alice asked nervously. That would be terrible. She definitely didn't want that to happen. "Thanks for worrying about us, anyway." Alice told Julius. "We'll come back when it's night again."
"Do as you wish." Julius replied, and the girls excused themselves, closing the door behind them.
"Will we be needing a shovel, Miss?" Sarah asked with a touch of dark humor.
"Hmm… not today." Alice said after taking a brief moment to consider it, only half joking. "By the way, how did you get to be so pretty? What happened to the tomboy I used to know? And where did those things come from?" she asked, eyeing her maid's full bosom with no small amount of envy. Did all the nutrients from the food she'd been eating since coming to live in their house go straight to her boobs?
"It's the magic of puberty, Miss." Sarah replied with a straight face and mischievous sparkle in her eye. It was a small consolation for having her vertical growth stunted by years of malnutrition. She was lucky she hadn't developed rickets.
The two girls hadn't been walking along the road to the castle for very long when they heard something moving in the bushes nearby.
'… What's that rustling?' Alice wondered. 'An animal?'
'That sounds big… I hope it isn't a bear.' Sarah thought warily.
"!?" the girls exclaimed in surprise when an attractive young man suddenly burst forth from the bushes.
"Ah!" Alice gasped, stumbling in her surprise. The young man reached out to steady her, but Sarah beat him to it.
"Whoa! You're fast." The young man said with appreciation. "Sorry, did I scare you? Are you okay?" He asked Alice with a friendly smile.
"I'm… fine." Alice said as she straightened up, a little embarrassed.
"Good." He said, smiling even brighter. Both girls stared at him.
'Why'd he come out of the bushes?' they both wondered, sweat-dropping. Sarah couldn't help but feel that there was something a little off about this guy.
"Can I ask you something?" the young man said on a slightly more serious note. "Do you know where the clock tower is?"
"Sure… we just came from there." Alice replied. "It's right over there."
"You can see it from here, sir." Sarah added as they both pointed to the tower, which was visible above the treetops.
"Hey, yeah!" he said, pleasantly surprised. "I guess I was closer than I thought."
"Are you looking for Julius?" Alice asked.
"And you know Julius!" he exclaimed with a smile. "We're buddies, him and I."
"Stuff happened, so now we have to stay at the tower for a while." Alice explained. Fortunately Julius had eventually agreed to let them stay with him for a bit while they figured things out, because the girls definitely did not want to get involved in the ongoing turf war.
"You're friends, huh? What are your names?" he asked.
"I'm Alice Liddell." Alice answered with a smile.
"And I'm Sarah Smith, Miss Alice's maid." Sarah introduced herself humbly with a small curtsy.
"Well, nice to meet you, Alice and Sarah." He said with a smile. "I'm Ace, a knight from Heart Castle."
"You're from Heart Castle?" Alice asked, surprised.
'Well, that certainly would explain the hearts on his uniform and his sword.' Sarah thought.
"We're headed that way!" Alice said. "Do you think I can talk to Peter there?"
"Peter? You mean that guy has friends!?" Ace exclaimed, shocked.
"Not… exactly." Alice replied, exchanging a glance with Sarah. They probably shouldn't mention their desire to pop him one. "I just have to talk to him about something."
"Hmm. Well, he's pretty much always at the castle." Ace said. "But if you go alone, the soldiers might not let you in."
"Really? Although I guess normal people can't usually waltz into castles…" Alice said, disappointed.
'Right, even if Miss Alice belongs to a wealthy family, they're still only upper middle class…' Sarah thought. And she herself was so low on the social strata that she was practically scraping bedrock. "Is there any way we can get permission for an audience?" she asked aloud.
"I can escort you there, if you'd like." Ace offered.
"Would you really?" Alice asked excitedly. "But you have an appointment with Julius…"
"I think I still have some time before then." Ace said. "Really, it's no trouble."
"Thanks! We'd really appreciate that!" Alice said gratefully.
"Yes, thank you very much." Sarah said with another curtsy.
"…" After a while, Sarah glanced between Ace and Alice. The knight had been leading them on for some time, and she was beginning to feel that something wasn't quite right. 'Uh… is it just me, or does it feel like the castle's getting further away?' she wondered warily. Looking at Alice, she could see her mistress was beginning to wonder the same thing.
"Ace?" Alice said as the two girls stopped. The knight paused to glance back at them. "I thought the castle was in the other direction." She said, pointing to the path going opposite the way they were headed.
"Nah, it's this way! No worries." Ace reassured them with a grin.
"Hm. Okay." Alice replied a little skeptically.
"Okay is right!" Ace said cheerfully, moving forward.
'Maybe this is a shortcut or something?' Sarah thought as the three of them continued on. He was awfully chipper. But the scenery was starting to look familiar. 'Wait, isn't this the way to…'
"Crap—this is the Hatter mansion!" Alice exclaimed when they caught sight of the mansion's unique gates.
"Huh?" Ace said, surprised. "Wait a second. Maybe you're right… weird. But we're still good." He said, stepping forward to open the gate. "I think we can get to1 the castle if we cut through here."
"No disrespect, sir, but I think the only thing we'll be 'cutting short' if we try to go through there is the length of our lifespans." Sarah quipped a little nervously. She was pretty sure the mafia wouldn't be too thrilled with them if they were discovered intruding on their territory for a second time in row.
"Nonsense! Now, c'mon!" Ace said with a smile, urging them forward.
"Wait, Ace! Sarah's right! This place is really dangerous!" Alice said anxiously. The twin gatekeepers didn't seem to be around, but…
"Not you again, Ace." They heard a voice say from behind. The three of them spun around to see that it was the trigger-happy guy with curly blonde hair and rabbit ears that had tried to shoot Alice before. "Those brats are slacking again." He grumbled. "What makes you think you're welcome here?"
'Elliot March!' the girls thought warily, recalling his name.
"Huh?" Elliot said when he noticed them. "You've got those outsider girls with you."
"You're outsiders?" Ace asked the girls, surprised.
"I-I guess." Alice replied hesitantly.
"Whoa! Really!?" Ace exclaimed in excitement, grabbing their hands as if he wanted to make sure they were real. "I've never seen one before! And there's two of you!"
'The men here are really extreme…' Sarah thought, sweat-dropping. So far they either couldn't get rid of her and Alice fast enough, or they had a hard time keeping their hands to themselves.
"Sorry about earlier girlie. And don't worry, I don't feel like shooting you anymore." Elliot apologized(?) to Alice. "… Plus, Blood won't let me."
'Well, thank God for that!' Sarah thought with a deadpan expression.
"Blood… huh." Alice said. The hint of blush on her mistress's cheeks as she said the gangster's name made Sarah wonder if she should start to worry about her.
"Anyway, Ace." Elliot said, getting back to business. "Are you finally here to face the Hatter?" he asked gravely.
"No. Why?" Ace asked innocently, dumbfounded. He was completely clueless as to how Elliot could have possibly come to that conclusion. "We're just headed for the castle."
"Son of a—you've got the direction sense of a blind lemming!" Elliot sighed with exasperation, face-palming.
'Huh!?' the two girls thought, taken aback. Sarah sweat-dropped, feeling chagrined. A blind lemming? Seriously!?
"This is our territory and the only thing past here is the mansion. How many times do I have to tell you that!?" Elliot scolded the directionally-challenged knight for the umpteenth time.
"But there's a road to the castle past here—" Ace tried to insist.
"There isn't! Get that through your thick skull!" Elliot retorted sharply.
"Wait." Said Ace, stopping to think for a moment. "Did I go the wrong way again?" he asked sheepishly with a smile, rubbing the back of his neck.
'Again!?' the two girls thought, twitching. So he really was lost! 'Then… that explains why he was wandering in the bushes!' they realized, sweat-dropping.
"You're ridiculous." Elliot growled with a vein throbbing on his forehead. "I'd like nothing more than to put a bullet through your brain, and the cute act is only making me madder."
"Really? I don't mean to be cute." Ace said with a laugh, smiling brightly. "I'm grateful to you, man. You led me out of here last time too!" Sarah sweat-dropped again. He had to be doing that on purpose. No one was that oblivious. "Honestly, getting lost isn't so bad—it leads me to nice guys. Like you!" A shadow fell over Elliot's face as he snapped.
'Uh-oh…' Sarah thought.
BANG!
"!?" Alice gasped when Sarah suddenly leaned back, pulling her with her, as Ace held the girls out at arm's length and leaned back to dodge the bullet that had just grazed the lapel of his coat.
"You dodged that. If you never wanna get lost again, I can fix that—don't dodge." Elliot barked angrily at the knight, pointing his pistol at him again.
"But that's dangerous, man. You could hit the outsiders." Ace said calmly.
"Shut up!" Elliot snapped furiously, cocking the pistol.
BANG!
"Ack!" Alice cried as Ace and Sarah helped her dodge the next shot.
"Go to the shade of the trees." Ace told the girls.
"C'mon, Miss! It's dangerous here!" Sarah said, taking Alice by the hand to lead her to the relative safety of the tree-line. At this rate, they would just get in the way. Besides, her first priority was to protect Alice.
"Eyes over here, space case!" Elliot yelled, thrusting his gun in Ace's face. "Dodge this." He said with a smirk.
'He's so close!' Alice thought anxiously as she ducked behind a tree with Sarah. 'Ace is gonna—' Sarah tensed, wondering if she should intervene (or if she even had time for that), but it proved unnecessary.
"!?" Elliot said, taken aback when Ace swiftly ducked and removed his sword from his side, using its handle guard to hit the butt of Elliot's gun to parry that hare's attack as he pulled the trigger, pressing the end of the sword's handle against the hare's throat as the bullet fired harmlessly into the air.
"Hmph… I guess I should've expected this from a knight of Hearts." Elliot said, stepping back as a bead of cold sweat dripped down the side of his face. "I'll be more careful." He had to dodge when Ace took a swipe at him with his sheathed blade. "This is so annoying! Hold still!" the hare yelled, furrowing his brow. Ace's face, half cast in shadow, was eerily calm. A shiver ran up Sarah's spine. It had been a long time since she had last felt such intense killing intent. Even though Elliot appeared to be the more reckless and violent of the two at first glance, Ace was definitely the one to fear.
BANG!
CLANG!
"Yikes! Someone's gonna get killed!" Alice fretted while she watched from behind a wide tree with Sarah as Ace deflected another bullet with his sword, which then hit their tree with a loud crack.
'… Maybe us!' the girls thought, paling slightly, as they eyed the smoking hole. That had been dangerously close to Alice's head!
'Somebody stop them!' Alice cried internally. She flinched when Sarah started rolling her sleeves up with a dark expression on her face, getting ready to join the fray and clobber the idiots for endangering Alice. "Not you!" Alice cried aloud, grabbing hold of her angry maid to prevent her from getting herself killed.
"But someone has to stop them, Miss!" Sarah said with a frown. "This's gettin' way too outta hand!"
"Well, well… Someone's causing trouble for the ladies again." A deep, velvet voice purred. Ace and Elliot stopped what they were doing immediately, and the hare flinched in shock, sweating nervously like a naughty child that had just been caught misbehaving by a parent, as they all looked over to see Blood strolling calmly onto the chaotic scene taking place just outside the gate of his mansion.
'Blood Dupre!' Sarah thought with mixed emotions about his sudden but timely appearance. She was glad that he had stopped the fight for now, but she wasn't sure how safe they would be after causing yet another disturbance in his territory so soon.
"Are we forgetting who makes policy here?" the suave mafia boss asked the hare in tone that was not to be argued with, holding his cane. "Elliot, we've already talked about this."
"B-But Ace… fury… argh!" Elliot stammered nervously, trying to protest his own perceived innocence in the matter. "Him! This is all his fault!" he insisted, whipping his hand through the air to point at the knight. "He can't keep his sorry ass from wandering in here!"
"Just show him the way and save a few bullets." Blood told him coolly. "Honestly." Sarah was relieved to hear that he could be reasonable.
"I've tried that!" Elliot whined. "He just keeps coming back, and it's driving me insane!"
"Elliot!" Blood said sternly, causing the hare to flinch as a bead of nervous sweat rolled down the side of his face. "I haven't assigned you anything a half-wit couldn't do."
"… Sorry." Elliot apologized, visibly wilting with his long ears drooping.
"…" Blood stared at him for a moment before turning his attention to Ace. "My apologies, Sir knight." He said politely. "Please forgive the rudeness of my subordinate."
"No worries. Ha ha!" Ace said with a laugh, suddenly brightening as if nothing had ever happened. "It's not like I'm mad. And he didn't actually land anything, so we're good!"
"…" Elliot grit his teeth as a vein popped on his forehead while one of his ears twitched at that last remark. 'Calm. Stay calm…' he told himself.
'He is so doing that on purpose…' Sarah thought, sweat-dropping.
"At any rate," Blood continued, "it's true that you shouldn't wander around here. Elliot and I will guide you to the castle. Now… Miss outsiders." He said, moving to approach Alice and Sarah, who were still peeping out from behind the cover of the tree. "I keep putting the two of you in dangerous situations, don't I? I'm very sorry. It won't happen again." He apologized smoothly with the hint of a sly smirk, offering them a hand. "Please believe me."
'I'll believe it when I see it.' Sarah thought jadedly. "…" Her brow creased slightly with concern when she noticed the way Alice was staring at the handsome mafia boss and how she blushed as she accepted his hand. 'Oh boy…' Sarah thought warily, a little chagrined.