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CHAPTER 4: A CLOSED-OFF HEART

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After Aria's words, Peter White, the prime minister, immediately pointed his gun at her with astonished disgust. –"Even for the likes of you, that is too vile to yourself."

Her eyes narrowed and she sneered. – "You will put down your weapon and not threaten me, Prime Minister."- She commanded, and as she had ordered, he was forced to lower his weapon.

"How!? What is happening!?"- Peter yelled as he felt the burning power over his role engraved on the back of his hand.

"You all made a deal with me in the name of your Roles. I have made effective that promise."- She didn't care to explain further.-"To demonstrate and since your presence here is unwanted, White Rabbit … Change to your other form now and go away from here."

Peter transformed and ran away while the king stood up from his seat and looked sadly at her –"Yes. There is a way to close a foreigner's heart. But such is too dire. Surely the consequences of such are not in part with whatever has caused this decision on you?

Aria looked at him with a tired but emotionless expression. –"The decision is taken."

Vivaldi grabbed the voluminous skirts of her blood-red gown tightly and growled. –" Reconsider then. You can still change your mind. Do you know what will happen. All the consequences for you? "

"At the very least it will make things interesting for a while, Queen of Hearts. It's not as if any of you Role Holders care about how it'll end." – She hissed back- " Now lets get this over with. It's a rule regarding on what a foreigner wants. You can't deny that."

The king nodded and took of one of his golden rings and held it out for Vivaldi, who took one of her own ring and put it inside the one from the king. The joined rings gained a glow and then transformed into a little rounded vial that contained some thick red liquid. Aria took a step towards them, clearly demonstrating what was needed, and took out her own vial of the game of hearts, took the rounded one held out to her by the royal pair, and drank the red liquid.

Aria grimaced and took a hand over her chest right above her heart as if she was feeling a deep pain in that spot. She let her own vial drop and it glowed. Before it reached the floor, it transformed itself into a golden key that disappeared into thin air.

Without a word, she went away while the royal pair watched helplessly her disappearing form. The rules stated they couldn't do anything.

"I fear the worst, my Queen." – the king didn't bothered with the royal 'we'.

"Now only the cause of this can make that key appear and reopen which has been closed."- Vivaldi replied with a frown. "We pray something is done before the worst comes."

A few days passed, and meanwhile in the circus grounds White was preparing the acts for the imminent "April Fool's Season"; but truth be told he was not very motivated. The jester side of Joker couldn't think of an awesome act or even new business ideas. He was distracted and had no motivation, but he wasn't the only one.

Down at the prison Black was grumpier than ever. He was bothered and had been in a very nasty mood since the incident with his only real friend. It had bothered, even affected him, more than it should. Once the warden was physically up to it, he had taken his ire and frustration on all the prisoners left at his domains; so much, that at the moment there were very few inmates remaining and they would surely not last long due to the warden's horrible mood.

He was very frustrated. Things haven't gone his way at all, and to top it, during the gap of time from when he was off at the other side of the mirror, something had happened; the general population in both Heart and Clover countries were lower than ever. It also seemed as if something was being brewing in the underworld, for few rules had been broken lately. He needed to go and investigate, but he didn't felt like it. He was grumpy, moody and hadn't even got out of his underground domain at all since waking up. All because of that fucking piece of a mercenary that he couldn't stop thinking about.

He was angry with her and he was angry with himself. He already had her, he had practically captured her when his counterpart brought her here after she fell from that portal (What the heck had been that?) , but he had angered the unstable idiot so much that she had gone away like a prickly drama queen. How dare she!? She was HIS friend. She had no right to go away and leave him here!... Still, he couldn't help feeling just the slightest tint of pity and comprehension because he knew what she'd passed through before she fell into Spades.

Black cussed and hit a wall upon remembering what he saw happened in her world and what she'd faced in this damnable world. Her stay in wonderland hadn't been a stroll in the park. She had gotten hurt in one way or another at every single event. It was natural that she was very wary and careful with whom she trusted, and he knew that he had fucked up big time with what he'd done. That only gave him more reason to get her and permanently trapped her in a secure cell, but he wasn't just going to bite his own pride and try to apologize. She wouldn't accept it anyways. She only gave people 1 single chance if any at all.

He growled. It wasn't as if this was completely his fault either, right? She had said that she was his friend, so she should be the one to come back and apologize.

The warden angrily strode down a corridor when a headless body came flying from a side route. He moved aside to let it impact on the wall as the head rolled on the floor, and another figure that hadn't appeared in a while came into view.

"Oi, Boss. It seems that you ran out of prisoners." - Ace appeared in the intersection wearing his Executioner's uniform and his trademark smile. However it was obvious to Joker that something was off... strained...

"What the hell, Executioner! You haven't been around for twenty time changes and now you wanna do all the work in one go? – He said while kicking the head on the floor.

Ace closed his eyes as his smile remained in place and lifted his sword towards Joker. – "Not really. I just happened to use the chance to train against your prisoners while I was looking for the key to Aria's pretty foreigner heart. You wouldn't happen to know where it is would you?"

"What the heck are you fucking talking about?"- Joker's eye narrowed. Ace wasn't trustworthy… What was the idiot really talking about?

"Oh? You didn't know Mr. Joker? Weren't you supposed to be her friend or something? – Ace opened his red eyes and looked funny at the warden –"Aria had her heart sealed away and there is supposedly a key somewhere in the country that can open it again but no one had a clue where it might be."- He then sheathed hi sword- "But it seems it isn't here either."- He turned around and walked away.

"What happened to that dimwit of a foreigner, Executioner?" – Joker called. His clock suddenly felt cold, she wouldn't do something like that, would she? No one could be that stupid, right?

Ace didn't stopped his pace as he walked away- "If you can find her, ask her yourself, boss."

Black cussed once more and this time he didn't know if it was because he was worry, because he was angry, or both. He transported himself to the circus to meet his counterpart, who was already the entrance waiting for him to leave.

"She is a fucking idiot! Did she even knew what would happen to a foreigner that has her heart sealed in this world?- He was growling and practically frumius.

"Knowing 'my friend', she did."- White's smile looked feral. Joker knew that with her heart sealed her time and memories here in wonderland would slowly fade and be replaced by those of her world. And with her heart sealed, not only was she truly unable to feel (not that she could before), but also all she had experience here would cease to exist for her until she reverted to the time line of her world. In her case, an inhuman war machine with no sense of who she had been.

Both Joker headed out.- "It seems that I'll have to go and take care of my friend."- Both Jokers said at the same time and it sounded like a single voice.

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