I do not own The Looking Glass Wars or any of its characters.

Passage

Ace narrowed his eyes as the card soldier patrol began to pass. Three Sixes, two Fives, and eight Twos. Finally, Generals Doppel and Gänger gave the signal, and the rebels charged. They were a small group. The two generals, Ace, the guardsman that had escaped with Ace, Dodge, and a handful of chess pieces loyal to Alyss.

Redd's card soldiers spun as the attack began and charged, clashing with their attackers. the generals both met a Six, as did Ace. Ace hurled a fan of cards, but only one struck, and only in the arm. It was as much a testament to the card's skill as it was to Ace's lack of aim, because Ace's aim had actually increased dramatically in the time since Redd's invasion. The card lunged and stabbed at Ace, but he spun around it and hurled a card at point blank range. The card's head spun into the air, then reversed direction in a gentle breeze, returning to Ace, who caught it, also retrieving his other cards. Just as he did, the generals finished their cards just as several cries of dismay rang out behind Ace. He spun, seeing two of Redd's card soldiers were still standing, a Five and a Two, and both were withdrawing their spears from the guardsman's torso. Ace's arms swung up, a dozen cards stabbing into both before they could react, dropping them instantly.

As they fell, Ace walked over, retrieving his cards, then the guardsman's sword. It was a sword with a curved, golden, single-edged blade and a black hilt with a cutlass or sabre-styled guard. The blade was about two feet long, and behind his cards, it was the only weapon Ace could wield well. He took the sword for it as well before looking to the others. Doppel and Gänger both nodded, and the remaining soldiers turned, heading for Blaxik, the work camp they were raiding. Four years had passed since Alyss's death. Dodge had rapisly proven himself a very violent and dangerous fighter, as well as having a death wish. The Cat had left four scars on his right cheek, but he'd acquired very few scars since then. Ace, on the other hand, had gained only one. A stab wound in his gut aa a result of running out of cards. He'd corrected that mistake by now wearing a harness with eight card decks arranged on it, fout per side under his arms. He, like Dodge, had grown up a lot, their rigorous training granting them more strength and muscle gone than someone oc their age would typically have, especially Ace, being only eleven. Like Dodge, his style of fighting was far more agressive and risky than the rest of the rebellion's, but not so much as Dodge's. Ace had the benefit of ranged weapons to keep him a bit safer, and unlike Dodge, he was not a loner outside of battle.

"Attack on my signal," General Dopple said.

"And be careful about it," General Gänger said, looking to Ace and Dodge.

General Dopple sent a flare over the camp, and a wave of explosives flew down to greet the guards manning the front gate, as well as the gate itself. Within seconds, the rebels had flooded into the courtyard where Redd's cards were still dealing themselves. Most of the fights were fairly even, with Redd's cards being better fighters but the Alyssians, as the rebellion had been named, bearing righteous fury, or vengeful fury, in the case of Dode and Ace. As a result, battles and skirmishes that should be obvious victories for Redd were losses as often as not.

This time, the battle quickly leaned toward not. Dodge broke away from the Alyssians quickly, slaughtering any card he met, and Ace kept stride with him a few paces to his left, using a mixture of cards and his newly claimed sword to slaughter any cards near him. Soon enough, Dodge sent a cannonball spider into the front doors of the factory and the pair converged their, slaughtering their way inside, the other Alyssians not far behind. Within minutes, Blaxik had fallen. Ace set about collecting his scattered cards, each Cards back being a different collor according to its deck so as to make them easy to put away without his OCD requiring him to rearrange them so that each deck would have the proper card totals in them. A few others helped to expedite the process, each of them keeping the cards separated by deck as well. Then, finally, they all left the work camp with Redd's slaves as reinforcements.

"You did well, Ace," General Doppel said.

"But you're still taking too many risks," General Gänger said before they merged.

"You're not the only soldier," General Doppelgänger said. "You don't need to fight alone. Doing that, or you dying, won't bring her back."

"Fuck you, Deppelgänger," Ace snapped, glaring. "You have no idea what it's like from my side. She was my best friend! And for months after, everyone tried to get me to believe she was alive! And then, just as I start to hope, suddenly everyone else decides that the Pool of Tears ia a death sentence, JUST LIKE THWY WERE TRYING TO TELL ME IT WASN'T!"

Doppelgänger's face fell. That was exactly how it had happened. And it had been Doppelgänger's steadfast refusal of Alyss's death that had begun to win Ace over, so when Doppelgänger had drunkenly snapped at him for bwing naïve enough to think she could be alive, the once time Ace had ever voice such a hope, it had cruahed Ace almost more than Alyss's death had initially. The cruelest thing a person could ever do was hope.

"We're heading to Wondertropolis," Dodge said, indicating himself and the White Rook. "Wanna come?"

"No," Ace said, shuffling his last deck, which he'd been cleaning and sharpening. "The only thing that made living in that city worth it is gone. There's nothing worth seeing there now."

"It's to reminisce," Dodge said.

"I don't need the place for the memories," Ace said, picking up a King and Queen of hearts, these ons decorated with blank faces, and shuffling them into the deck.

"Are you..." Dodge trailed off.

"Unlike you, I wasn't old enough to understand how I felt, but that doesn't mean I felt any differently," Ace said. "Eventually, you and I would have been enemies."

Dodge nodded and left, Ace putting the last of his cards away and heading for a campfire nearby where other Alyssians were playing poker by fire light. He sat down, the others instantly dealing him in. He didn't care that they were adults any more than they cared that he was a child. They oy cared that he beat them horrendously by counting the cards. Finally, Doppelgänger walked over.

"There's someone here for you," Doppelgänger said.

Ace raised an eyebrow and set his hand down, the others playing groaning and throwing their cards onto the table as Ace followed Doppelgänger away from camp. A short distance away, the Red Caterpillar sat curled into a circle with his head and upper body, if you wanted to call it that, raised and his hookah set up in front of himself.

"What?" Ace asked.

The Rlue Caterpillar cleared his throat before speaking slowly. "Everything has a price, and there is a price for everything."

"Great," Ace said, rolling his eyes. "Glad you came all the way here to tell me that."

"How much would you pay to save the long lost princess?" the Red Caterpillar asked.

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