Chapter 24: And Just What has Wonderland Been up to?
Strolling through the hallway to the Tea Room, the blond self-appointed captain of the ship hummed to himself, and grinned. "The Rabbit, the Queens, the Knights and the Hare! Everything is coming to get her so nicely!? What shall I do to waste my time? The Dormouse has seen to it that nothing is boring! Good morning my Queens!"
He burst through the door, as though stepping out to greet a crowd of admirers. The long table filled with steaming cups of unknown brews, most toxic, some not, and garishly colored with odd angles and sloped seats. At one end, bound to her chair with springs was the Pirate Queen, dressed in a white taffeta gown that bulged unflatteringly around her swollen midsection. The other end, in an equally ugly but red taffeta dress Kaya sat quietly, hands folded in her lap. There was a glare on the ginger's face and it was obvious that were it not for her bindings she'd have been on her feet attacking the psychotic Hyena, heavily pregnant or not. Around the table to either side of the 'Queens' were the others that Bellamy had captured. Kalifa, with ridiculous rabbit ears on her head and a gag fashioned to look like a muzzle complete with whiskers was held by a pair of springs impaled through her elbows into the wood of the chair. Kaku was across from her in a suit of armor, painted white and welded into a sitting position. The blond was delighted by this scene.
"Any minute now we'll have the others joining us! Won't that be fun, my sweets?" He stepped deliberately across the exposed back of the one person who didn't fit his plans, grinding his boot heels into the man's spine in a show of dominance.
The wolf refused to whimper, instead his ears laying back as he growled and snarled. He ground the teeth of his muzzle—for he had not been permitted to shift back to human form, and was still bound with Haki-infused springs—as his slitted, swollen eyes tracked the goddamn feline-half-dog, tail bound to one leg to keep it down. He'd used it, when it was free, to wave like a flag, unwaveringly rejecting the damn blond's pseudo-dominance.
Bellamy hadn't liked it.
The Hatter's eye twitched horribly, his pupils dilating and shrinking again. "NO ONE LOOSED YOUR TONGUE!" He spun and jammed his foot into Jyabura's ribs at full speed and Haki-reinforced. "Doormats are to be walked on! Not heard! Since you had to intrude on our game, the least you could do is participate without being rude!"
The wolf-man snarled again, body bucking violently. It would be so worth it if he could knock this little bastard right on his ass... or better into the table. Maybe he'd dent his head again.
Kaya's shoulders were tense. She'd gotten an idea, but she really... really wasn't sure if it would be well-received. Bellamy was increasingly volatile, now that he'd found a 'piece' that didn't 'fit'. Still, if this went on much longer, she wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut. It just hurt, so much, to watch the dog-man struggle so hard, hurt himself so much...
"Aw, give it a break would you?" One of the few at the table who was not restrained, the blond's second in command, Sarkies, and at the moment known as—
"March Hare! When I want your opinion I'll give it to you!" Bellamy roared, planting his foot on Jyabura's head, pinching the spring around his muzzle. "You're supposed to sit there and entertain the Red Queen! The last thing we need is time being murdered again!"
The purple-haired man rolled his eyes, but said nothing else, opting to try his luck on a teacup. That seemed to mollify the Hyena and the captain made his way to his own seat, a throne-like chair halfway between the two Queens and across from an even more elaborate, cushioned place much larger than any of the other settings around the deadly table. It was flanked by two other seats, just like Bellamy's, but at the moment, as they had been since Nami arrived, they were empty.
The ginger growled around her own gag, a delicate looking lace thing that was only necessary because she hadn't stopped cursing him in spite of Kaya's warnings. Truth be told, her anger kept her going. If she didn't hold on to that, she'd have lost herself in the knowledge that there was no way she'd be rescued. Luffy didn't want her. He'd made that painfully clear, and it didn't matter how many times her fellow captives tried to change her mind, the pit of her heart was certain that she'd been given up for good. Feeling the edge of her fury slipping, she growled again, and met Kaku's worried eyes through the visor of his helmet.
"The White Queen is a hunter, didn't you know, Hatter?" Kaya took her cup and sipped.
It was simple, actual tea. She knew, because he always made sure of it. Rule Number One after all. She didn't know what it was, but it seemed to cover an awful lot of things, especially connected to Nami and herself. She couldn't help it, maybe finding a 'place' for the wolfman would ease Bellamy back into contentment. She had to draw his interest first. He was, like almost any man, prone to be obstinate if she didn't lead him into it, and carefully.
"That was why the White Queen had him, you know."
The blond stared at her, head tilting painfully to the side, and an eye squinting so that he appeared to have two different sizes. "Had who? The cur? The Mongrel? The MUTT?! NO!" He slammed his hands on the table and threw a cup at one of the Cards ringing the room. It exploded and the poor soul fell to the ground, clutching his face and screaming. "He's NOTHING but a KNAVE! A—AH!" He rushed out of his chair and grabbed up the bleeding wolf. "SO YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STOLE THE TARTS!"
"No, he's not. That would be me. I got a craving at midnight. Again. And were he a knave, he'd be a footstool, not a doormat. But no, he is neither, he is what you have mentioned. A mongrel, a mutt. He is a Hound." She'd been on this ship too long, she knew sort of how to speak in his riddles, and, she prayed, how to fit into his delusion. She found it so much easier to keep her stomach down if he was content.
Jyabura bared his teeth, but said nothing, ears flickering as he hung limp. Too much pain, too much Haki messing with his system.
"Mongrels should be put in the trash!" Bellamy shook the dog. "But no. No. The Jabberwocky wouldn't like it. He wants to have things just so. No wasted meat, no thrown out garbage. Wouldn't want him to beat us again since we lost the Cheshire Cat." In a strange and tender gesture the blond brought his captive to his chest and stroked his ears. "Shh. Shh, now. There, there. You'll not be trashed. Jabberwocky wouldn't like it. He'd send us to the Dormouse and the Caterpillar again. No, must please the Jabberwocky."
He continued mumbling in Jyabura's ears, whimpering slightly and twitching every so often. He was so much worse than what he had been only a few weeks ago. Either his delusions were growing or there was something about this 'Jabberwocky' fellow that kept him from returning to even the illusion of sanity he once had claimed. It was almost enough to draw pity from his prisoners. The Hyena, once proud servant of the Joker, was now truly as mad as a hatter, just like his title said.
At the table, Sarkies sipped his tea, trying not to look at the shell of his former captain, and found himself meeting eyes with the others around him. He couldn't keep any of their gazes long, and it was obvious that whatever loyalty he had to Bellamy, it did not extend to whoever the Jabberwocky was. Just as he was settling into his chair for a moment of thought, a Card burst through the door.
"Hatter-sir! They're coming! The Unicorn and the Lion!"
The blond's head snapped up, fear and excitement dancing in his eyes. He screeched, "And the King!? AND THE KING!? THERE MUST BE THE KING! THE JABBERWOCK DEMANDS IT!"
"Yes, Sir. All three! And their army." The Card saluted.
The wolf hissed and his tail attempted to curl in protectively as Bellamy's swinging about caused his broken bones to grind viciously against each other, a long, low whine slipping out without his permission as his vision darkened on the edges.
Kaya's heart broke. Whatever Bellamy had done, the 'Jabberwocky' had done terrible things to him. She knew. She'd had to assist with patching him up afterward. He was the only line of defense between the two pregnant women and the Jabberwocky, and she definitely did not want that line of defense removed. Whoever he was, he was brutal. No mercy.
She couldn't help but feel bad for Bellamy, being around him this long had, in a twisted way, let her sort of get to know him. He was loyal enough. He'd even been solicitous, charming on occasion. Until the Jabberwocky started interacting with him so closely. Then he'd entered this terrifying spiral that made her worry if he would even remember his own "rules" if it got much worse.
Across from her, Nami bit her gag and whimpered barely audibly. The King? Did he really mean who she thought he meant? Kaku snagged her gaze, and hope flickered between them that the ginger refused to acknowledge. No, she couldn't give in now. She only had to wait it out. Internally she cried out, but her mask was firmly in place, keeping her inner turmoil locked away. If he was coming, it was for Kaya, and the others, not for her. Never for her. As the thought crossed her mind, she felt a small pop somewhere deep inside her, and her eyes went wide. 'Not yet. No. Not yet.' Again she exchanged a glance with Kaku, and while the Hyena-Hatter and his subordinates were milling about behind them, the long-nosed man tried to pass the message on to the woman in red, though he couldn't speak.
Kaya's eyes darted to Nami's belly, and she went nearly white. Oh. Oh no. Not now! Oh god, this—not now, oh, no! No no no no! This couldn't be happening, could there be a more inopportune time for a birth than on the announcement of a war?!
She carefully kept quiet, but her breathing was a little abnormally quick as she tried to keep a sharp eye on the other woman. Labor could go on for up to three weeks as long as… surely she wasn't about to start dilating... right?
There was an undercurrent of noise as the Cards rushed about in the background. Bellamy was shouting. Someone else, a strange man with an elongated nose that came to a sharp point and dressed in a labcoat, was laughing in an odd 'fosh fosh fosh' type way while he typed away at the keyboard of a computer that had somehow folded down from the wall. But all of this was backdrop that faded as an instinctual pulse struck those at the table. All of them, every single one, and Jyabura from his broken heap on the floor felt it.
Silent, and pleading, with the rhythm of a heartbeat, words vibrated through the air. Nami's eyes were closed and her hands curled in to fists. There was a small crease in her brow, and her hair moved with an invisible breeze.
'Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.'
Kaya, hands folded, joined in the silent prayer, her quiet chimes, just as silent and yet still just as pulsing, joined in.
'Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.'
Heart in his throat, Jyabura added his own aura to the growing plea.
'Not yet, little cub. Not yet. It's not time, not yet.'
Bolstered by the four around the table with her, Nami breathed deeply, her fists more relaxed, but still her eyes were closed, the long tresses of her ginger hair falling down to hide her face from the on-lookers.
'Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.'
Kalifa, in her delirium, smiled under her muzzle and mumbled, "The Queen's Haki."
Then all Hell broke loose. "NAAAAAAAAMI!"
Her trance was broken and she stared, wide-eyed at the now gaping hole in the side of the ship. "Ruuffy."
He was there, panting and already in Gear Second. The rubble of the wall he'd broken through crushed several of the cards, and he glared around the room.
"NO! NO NO! NONONONO! You AREN'T supposed to be here yet!" Bellamy wailed, jumping onto the table with such force that the cups scattered.
"NAMI!" Luffy growled again, and it was like a pair of titans crashing over the Earth as the two superpowers collided mid-leap above Kaku's head.
Their force drove them to the side, thankfully, and burst out onto the deck of the Wonderland, Bellamy trying desperately to wrap the rubber man in his Haki-infused springs, and Luffy squirming away to pull back for a full force Jet Pistol. Neither was able to accomplish their goals very well and wound up in a tangled mess of rubber and springs as they literally bounced across the deck.
In the distance, and gaining on the enemy ship-turned-stronghold, the refurbished Thousand Sunny led the combined fleet. On the prow, behind the lion's head, Coby stood to one side and Dragon stood to the other. The Strawhats had their weapons ready and aimed at the giant floating mushroom that was the Wonderland herself.
"KAYA!" Usopp bellowed as soon as they were in range of his Kabuto, firing Shuriken Stars faster than anyone had ever seen him go before, and with more deadly accuracy. Every blade impaled a Card.
Kaya jolted out of her unknowing Haki daze, looking to where she thought she'd heard… but he couldn't be… surely he'd died… but...
"USOPP!"
The wolf's support dropped off as well as all the noise disrupted his concentration, overloading his sense of hearing so hard he passed out, a pile of broken bones and matted fur.
Zoro and Brook were cutting their way through the ship, leaving diced Cards all along the way as the skeleton did his best to lead the demon of death towards the tea room where Kaya and Nami would be being held.
Robin was smiling her coldest, meanest smile as she went to work on the few that the swordsmen missed, each falling victim to a new torture she'd dreamed up for Bellamy as she serenely watched Luffy whale on him.
A mostly-healed Lucci came barging in and promptly began tearing apart the bonds on his Nakama, starting with Kaku and Kalifa before working on Jyabura, trying to coax the whimpering dog awake while he worked, and at the same time shield the two most vulnerable females from the worst of the fighting.
Sarkies tore himself from the scene as fast as he could go, knowing only death lay behind him. The army bearing down on their home was more than he could stand. So, like the rabbit he'd been portraying he dashed down the darkened hallways of the interior of the ship. If he could reach the connection to the island he could get away. He panted, trying not to think about the friends who were dying, and the madness that was going on above his head. Looking over his shoulder he just ran... straight into a wall of flesh.
"Well, well, well, what have we here? Tired of your part so soon, March Hare?"
"J-J-Jabberwocky! I... I... I..." The much smaller man stammered, scrabbling away from the massive leader.
"Why leave the party so soon? The fun's just beginning." A taloned hand reached down and grabbed a hold of the shivering form to make his way down the tunnel that connected ship and stronghold. "Come, we've someone to intimidate."
The large man in shadows stuck out his hand, much to Sarkies' terror, and opened a Door in thin air. He smiled in a dangerous way over his shoulder at the smaller man, and it was obvious that he was to be accompanied through the tunnel of 'not-world' that existed between Doors. It was twisting, self-contained space outside of time, and it was the Jabberwocky's favorite playground. When Bellamy had failed to bring in the Cheshire Cat, the man who was behind the whole thing had locked the Hyena in that 'not-world' for a week. Where the wounds and scars that had been inflicted on the blond came from no one knew. The implications suggested they were either done by creatures that were native to the space between places, or the Hatter had done them to himself in his attempts to escape. In either case, he'd returned far more damaged than he'd been previously. So, Sarkies had good reason to be hesitant to follow his captain's master.