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

Drawing Attention

Ace shuffled his deck one-handed, remaining silent as the Alyssians around him celebrated quietly. The rest of the leaders of the Alyssians were having a strategy meeting, but as Alyss was very far from ready for any form of combat, Ace had elected himself as her bodyguard alongside Hatter, freeing Hatter to go to the meeting and deal with any issues that required his skills, or likewise freeing Ace in the reverse if his own abilities were a better fit for the problem.

Finally, Bibwit Harte walked over, holding out an Alyssian uniform for Alyss, and Ace accepted it, walking inside and handing it to her.

"Bibwit and I will be waiting outside once you've changed," Ace said. "Once there's free time, I'll help jog your memory about this plqce and who you are, if I can."

Alyss nodded, and Ace headed back outside, looking around in silence. They wouldn't be able to stay much longer. Not with that rat Jack of Diamonds knowing where they were. After a moment, Alyss emerged, Bibwit nodding and leading her to a seating area consisting of old, weathered ammunition cans and crates. Bibwit sat down, his brown robe pooling around him like the ground of a volcano with a pale white head sticking out of the top. An Alyssian wearing a Homburg Hat brought Alyss tea, nervous for the first time Ace had ever seen her. Her name was Homburg Molly, and she was a very skilled warrior. Seeing her nervous was almost comical. Almost. As she darted away, Bibwit explained about the Alyssians and about the many, many changes that had come from Redd's rule.

Once he was done, Alyss explained about how things had been in the other world, briefly. She'd been thought insane for her memories of Wonderland, so to survive in that world, she'd repressed them. She asked what would happen to the family she left behind, and Leopold, the prince she'd been about to marry, and Bibwit assured her they'd provide for her family, but brushed Leopold's feelings aside. As soon as her marriage had come up, Ace's eyes began to sweep the camp, looking at anything to ignore the conversation. Bibwit began to explain to Alyss that the Looking Glass Maze would turn her into the Warrior Queen she was meant to be, only for Alyss to deny that being her destiny. She clearly wasn't ready for a fight now, and she didn't see how a maze no one knew anything about would help. In truth, neither did Ace, but that wasn't important. Even if it couldn't help Alyss, he'd be her weapon. That was the purpose behind his own powers from the beginning. He was a weapon to be wielded for the duration of the war. He had known the cost of becoming such. Alyss asked Bibwit about Dodge, but Bibwit evaded the question by saying everyone had changed, and that she should figure out who Dodge was now on her own. Then, he left to prepare for a lesson he said they should have begun thirteen years ago. Likely controling her Imagination.

For a long while, Alyss remained silent before turning to Ace. "Your powers. How did you get them? You never had any when we were young."

Everything for a price," Ace said. "You could say I bought them."

"What price?" Alyss asked.

Ace was silent for a long while. "The price was neither as high as to be unpayable, or as low as to be negligible."

"What does that mean?" Alyss asked.

"It means that the price is equal to the value of the thing being bought," Ace said.

Alyss frowned, but nodded. She set her untouched tea aside, and walked away, Ace following at a respectful distance. They drifted through the camp in silence, the Alyssians gathered within the camp bowing to Alyss and proclaiming their loyalty and hopes for her success in leading them. Finally, they reached Dodge's tent just as he was stepping out of it, and Ace hung back to give them privacy. As they did, Molly walked over quietly.

"I expected you to be happier," Molly said.

"So did I," Ace said, staring at the ground before smiling wryly. "Looks like I got my powers cheaper than I thought. I thought I was trading a potential future for them, but I was only giving up a pipe dream."

Molly gave him a sympathetic look. "Did you tell her?"

"No," Ace said. "And I don't want you telling her, either."

Molly opened her mouth to argue, only to sigh, nodding. "Alright. I need to go. You should tell her. She has a right to know."

Ace remained silent, so Molly sighed again and walked away. Ace walked over to Alice and Dodge as Alyss's face fell. She was doubting herself again, and Dodge, cold as he'd become and professional in his role of Guardsman as he'd been when they were young, was doing nothing to comfort her. Ace set a hand on Alyss's shoulder, and she turned to look at him.

"You don't have to fight, Alyss," Ace said. "Not really. You can lead us from behind, aiming our attacks. I'll fight anyone if you ask me to. Even Redd. I swear to you that I'll protect you."

Alyss smiled, nodding, and Dodge waited a moment before speaking.

"There's something you need to see," Dodge finally said.

Alyss nodded, she and Ace following him through the camp. They left the camp, and left the forest, heading through the ruins of their once home city until they reached the ruins of Heart Palace. At Alyss's request, they went inside, and Ace could instantly see Alyss losing herself in her memories, just as Ace himself was. This was his first time being back. He had heard Dodge's description, heard that the poor and homeless used it as a shelter sometimes, but it did little to prepare him for the desolate, corpse-like feeling of the once-beautiful palace. They passed skeletons left from that horrible day, and eventually stopped as Alice found the Jabberwock Tooth necklace Dodge had given her.

"I never thanked you for saving my life through this necklace, so...thank you," Alyss said.

He winced, as if the thanks physically hurt him.

"Dodge, I know it's hard seeing each other after all this time," Alyss said. "So much has happened. We've both grown into adults we never imagined becoming. But I would have expected a friendlier reception from you, of all people."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you."

"That's not what I'm saying," Alyss said, almost aounding hurt. "It's just...we were friends, Dodge. We were more than friends. Wasn't that why you risked your life meeting us at the Pool of Tears?"

"To defeat Redd, to face The Cat, I would do anything," Dodge said.

Alyss turned away, staring at her reflection in a shard of looking glass left in a frame on the wall. "Then why did you bring me here? How does this help you defeat them?"

Dodge was silent for a long few moments. Ace barely kept from glaring at him as he spoke again.

"I brought you here to remind your heart of what Redd's done. To spark your vengeance. You're the agent by which I'll have my revenge. That's what you mean to me now. That's all you must mean."

Alyss's eyes narrowed, and she ripped the tooth from her neck, breaking its string, and cast it aside. "I was wrong, Dodge. You're not the boy I was once friends with. My friend never would have described anyone, much less me, as a tool for revenge."

Dodge opened his mouth, only for Alyss's image to ripple in the looking glass shard, then be replaced by Redd's. "So glad you could visit us. Now off! With! Your! Head!"

Instantly, Ace hurled off his trench coat, exposing his decks fully for the first time in a long time. He had decks running down the front of his leather vest, which sat over a chainmail vest, in sets of five to either side of the vest's straps, all of the decks angled upward in the middle, where the pouches were open, then two more rows of five to the outsides of those, angled upward and open on the outsides. His forearms each bore five decks along the outsides of his steel vambraces, each deck angled outward and overlapping the next deck closer to his hands, forming a sort of scaled pattern, and all pouches open on the end closest to his hands. His hips were similarly armed with two rows of five each on the outsides of his leather hip harnesses, overlapping the next higher deck and open at the top. Alice's eyes went wide as she saw the sheer number of cards he carried. However, rather than the attack he'd been expecting, or Redd emerging from that fragment of looking glass, the looking glass instead exploded into dagger-sized shards, which Dodge only barely pulled her out of the way of. Then, the palace began to shake itself apart, and they all fled. They made it out barely seconds before the last of the palace came crashing down, but they were alive.

"She destroyed everything," Dodge breathed, staring at the pile of rubble.

"Not everything," Alyss said defiantly.

"We need to get back, now," Ace said, staring at a card, which was flashing. "Doppelgänger burned his distress card."

Dodge swore and they began to run, ignoring the glances and stares it earned. They didn't have time to worry about them.

Leave a review.