Chapter 3

Queen of Diamonds - Part 1

Loud noises filled his ears. People walked in the narrow street inside the building, they bumped and pushed against him. He was back at the market and beside him stood Paul who was looking at some warm clothes which he was unable to purchase for himself.

He knew who he was, this time the flooding memories wouldn't confuse him. He knew what happened, he knew what he had to do.

"Paul," he began and turned to him. "I need to leave."

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"There's something I need to do, it shouldn't take too long."

Paul nodded and Alfred left immediately. He went to the elevator and the same crew with the same containers were there. He sneaked in again and went up to the next upper level. The motorbike also stood at its place and he took it again and drove off into the center of the city.

The town looked different than in the previous timeline. It looked well kept and people were driving and walking everywhere. It almost seemed like his own timeline but it wasn't, not when he lived down in the subcity.

He left the motorbike and walked to the palace to sneak in. He wanted to go straight to the throne room with no distraction whatsoever and sped up his pace. He was glad that it was night time and most of the servants went to bed and wouldn't walk around to spot him. Still he needed to be cautious.

Loud noises echoed along the corridor and with confusion Alfred came closer to the foyer only to see small groups of people wandering about. They were all dressed very nicely and the entrance to the palace stood wide open, letting the people get in and out easily.

Down to his left was the corridor to the ball room and most of the people came and went from there. It confused Alfred for a second because in the last timeline there were no people around and there was definitely no ball. He wouldn't even know why there should be a ball.

He couldn't just go into the throne room when all those people were around and he had to find a way to distract the guards. He looked around and grinned when he remembered a little button that stuck in the wall.

It was a special call button, not to call a servant or a guard but to alarm a fire. The palace was too big to yell or ring a bell for everyone to hear and those buttons were connected with the watch tower that would go off in the event of a fire. Pretty neat and Alfred always wanted to hear those bells. Now was his perfect chance to try it out. People would hear the emergency bell, guards would come to this place and Alfred would have a chance to sneak into the throne room in all that panic.

The next closest button was not too far away and covered by a vase under a painting. He pushed the golden button and after some seconds the alarm bells from the tower began to chime.

Alfred proudly chuckled to himself but when he turned around, a servant stood some feet away staring at him.

"Oh, um. There's a fire in that room," Alfred said simply and walked past her while she looked confused after him.

The alpha was sure she went into the room and saw no fire anywhere because she started to scream the word intruder, instead.

He hurried down the stairs in the foyer and people fled through the front door to which Alfred took the situation of the chaos and went through the corridor that led to the throne room. As he thought, the guards left their position to help the guests and he went inside only to be met with more people?

Since when were people allowed to be in the throne room during a ball? It's not just some room one can go into, there are sacred things and only for special occasions. Although, this ball could've been a special occasion only Alfred didn't know what it was.

The servant who saw him followed him into the throne room and yelled that he's an intruder. Two guards who had been ordering people in the throne to go out marched up to him.

"No, I'm not," Alfred said with his special fake genuine smile.

"He's got a 3 on his neck!" the servant yelled.

Alfred immediately covered his tattoo with his hand. He forgot to hide it and the guards have already seen it. He couldn't go back and needed to run for the thrones in the back. As he ran, some people parted away and fled through the corridor out of the room.

The guards however were faster than him and tackled him to the floor. He was sadly no big fight for them and they arrested him.

-

The room he was in was his own King's office but it looked slightly different. The books in the back were different and the tools on the table neatly arranged. The curtains were a darker shade of blue and looked heavy while the comfort chair he sat on had a moor green to it.

The door to the office opened and Alfred fully expected to see Alexander again but it wasn't him. A much taller brown haired alpha strutted into the room and he looked quite familiar.

"Who are you?" he asked as he sat down in his chair at the desk.

"My name is Alfred Jones and who are you?" he asked bluntly. He was sure this guy had never been in the Selection but somehow the frown on his face looked similar to someone else he knew but he couldn't pinpoint it.

"You don't know who I am?" he asked surprised and Alfred shook his head. "Let me introduce myself to you then. I am King Scott of Spades."

"Scott," Alfred mumbled to himself and then it hit him. The familiar frown and the eyebrows, it was Arthur's older desceced brother, only that he wasn't dead in this timeline. "Oh."

"Now that you know who you speak to. I'd like you to explain yourself, Mr. Jones," he said seriously.

Alfred wasn't sure how much Arthur's brother would believe him but he could try. "A man named Alexander Johnson used the Time Stone to change my life and I came to change it back."

Scott leaned back with his arms crossed and mustered Alfred up and down, possibly wondering why anyone would change something for a Card Number 3. "Why would he do that?"

"Because he wants to become King and prevent me from becoming it," Alfred said but then asked himself why Alexander wasn't King in this timeline, too. "I know you might not believe that I am King of this kingdom but I really need to get back to the original timeline."

"An original timeline doesn't exist," Scott said.

"What do you mean?" Alfred asked, not understanding it.

"The Time Stone was used in the past so often that no one knows what the actual original timeline is, what our world should look like," Scott explained. "It doesn't matter what you change with the Stone, every human being has lived their lives in this time, that's all they know and for them it is the original timeline."

"But this is not my timeline, I have to go back. I have to stop Alexander from even coming close to the Stone."

"These are just pure memories. Memories of a life that could've happened for you but didn't. You have lived all of your life in this timeline and you know it because you remember it. What you recall are just memories from another time but they are not yours. The timeline you remember is still going on, there's still an Alfred who's King and lives. The memories can confuse people but you have to understand that it's not your life, only memories that could've been."

"But, but I remember it. I married Arthur and I became King, these can't be just memories, I am from there," Alfred said, more desperate than he wanted to.

Scott shook his head and Alfred sighed frustrated and laid his face into his hands. These couldn't be just some memories that didn't belong to him. How was the timeline he came from still going on when his mind was here, when he was here.

His thought process was disturbed when Arthur barged into the room.

"What happened?" he asked, worried. "And who's the intruder?"

"Your husband," Scott said with a shrug.

Arthur glared at him and frowned, making him look like his brother. "This is no time for jokes. The turmoil can wake up Victoria."

"I tell the guards to be more careful around the guest quarters," he said and gestured to a guard at the door who walked out.

"Thank you," Arthur said seriously.

"And I wasn't joking. He claims to be your husband and the King from another timeline," he said.

Arthur looked over at Alfred and a form of disgust crossed his face which hurt Alfred but not as much as finding out that what he remembered are memories that aren't his. "Nonsense, he's probably an occultist."

"I don't think he's lying," Scott said, which gave Alfred a little bit of hope. "Someone changed his life, someone who wants revenge."

"It's not the first time. He's done it twice," Alfred added.

"I don't believe you," Arthur said and his gaze seriously fixated on Alfred. "But if it is, then we'll catch the criminal but I won't allow you to touch the Stone or come even close to it. Is that clear?"

Alfred could only nod and watched him walk away with an aching and hopeless heart.

-

Everything seemed to be more colorful when Alexander awoke in this timeline. He sat at a white and long breakfast table with a load of food, not as much as when he was King but enough.

This time he thought to himself who else was at fault for his crumbling future and the one person who came to his mind was Lewis Wright. He let him get killed and was unsure what's gonna happen but he knew, without him he would never be in the Selection.

In front of him sat an omega not much older than him and memories flooded in his brain reminding him that he was married but he didn't remember his name yet. The headache brought him out of those memories and he held his head in pain.

"Are you alright, dear. Do you need something?" his husband, Theo asked.

Alexander shook his head. "I feel fine."

The pain released him for a little while and he started to remember more and understood that he was about to lead his father's industry just like it was supposed to be. Everything seemed fine in the memories he saw and perhaps that should've been his life all along. Just living his normal life of a Lord and taking over his dad's industry when he's older. Nothing complicated and no people who thought the worst of him and didn't understand him.

-

The trees swayed their leaves in the warm summer breeze and the flowers grew beautifully in the vast garden. Alfred went for a little walk after King Scott gave him permission to stay and catch Alexander. He wanted to imprison him for using the Time Stone and told Alfred to let go of those memories and get back to the life he lived here. But Alfred couldn't. They might be not real for Scott but for Alfred they were and forgetting them was more than impossible, they were already ingrained in his brain as his own and he couldn't shake the feeling off that there was more behind it.

The path he walked along led him to the old tree with bright green leaves and white flowers with a purple tip at their blossom. At the tree was a white bench and to his surprise, Arthur sat on it. He smiled when he saw him sitting there in a yellow-white suit and reading a book but his gut told him that he won't be pleased to see him and should go away. His legs however kept on walking towards him until he stopped in front of him.

"Hello, my Queen," he said with a smiley voice.

Arthur lifted his head and frowned. "What are you doing here?"

"I went for a walk and saw you." He kept on smiling but Arthur turned his attention back to his book. "That's actually the tree where we first met in my timeline," Alfred proceeded to say and Arthur only glanced up at him for a second, unimpressed and stayed silent. It squeezed in his chest when Arthur ignored him. He knew he wasn't his and Arthur was suspicious of him and his statement but he still wanted Arthur to acknowledge him. "There's someth-"

Alfred was cut off when a small girl not older than three years old in a white summer dress rushed around the tree. She skipped excitedly towards Arthur with her hands grasped together, holding something in her palms. Her little hands put colorful stones in green, red and brown on the bench beside Arthur, some of them fell down through the split and she kneeled down to get them from underneath.

"They're pretty, Victoria," Arthur said to her.

"I found them in the bush," she said when she stood up and laid the others on the bench, then pointed to the bush behind the tree.

Arthur pulled out a white handkerchief from his pocket and laid his book to the side. "You're a lady, don't crawl around in bushes, now look at your dress," Arthur said and noted the dirt on her dress.

"I'm sorry," she said quieter and looked at her stones and down on the ground when Arthur wiped her hands from the dirt.

"You have a child," Alfred said more in a whisper but Arthur still heard him.

"Of course I do," Arthur said in an annoying voice but Alfred wasn't sure if that voice was more annoyed at his daughter for being dirty or at Alfred saying something that obvious.

Once again it squeezed in his chest and he asked himself with whom he had this child. He looked at Arthur's neck seeing a mark peeping out of his white ruffled collar. It seemed to be a number 10 but without a 1 in the front and Alfred frowned. That didn't make sense. It looked more like a 'Q' but Arthur couldn't possibly be Queen of Spades, not if his brother was King.

"To whom are you married to if I may ask-" Alfred started to ask but his question was cut when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"There you are."

"Oh..." Alfred said disappointed. He didn't need to turn around to know who that voice belonged to but he did it anyway to be polite.

The man's expression lit up with surprise when he saw Alfred. "Ah, you must be the stranger who claims to be from another timeline as King Scott told me this morning. I've been curious to meet you."

Golden wavy hair hung gracefully over the alpha's shoulders and a generous smile rested on his face. His orange suit partially hid the letter 'K' on his neck and Alfred didn't have to guess that Arthur was married to Francis.

"What a pleasure to meet you, too, Your Majesty," Alfred said but his eyes didn't mean it.

"That's quite intriguing, right Arthur?" he said and looked over at his Queen but Arthur only gave him a quick glance before turning his attention back to his daughter. "I can't imagine living in another timeline where things are different. I hope I'm still King in your world." He laughed and Alfred managed to put on a fake smile.

"Don't worry, you're still King."

"I'm curious, how did you become King?" Francis asked.

"Arthur had a Selection and chose me," Alfred said proudly.

"You allow him to call you 'Arthur'?" Francis asked and grinned at him to which Arthur glared in his direction.

"No, I don't."

It seemed to Alfred that Arthur was annoyed at everyone in this timeline and it was relieving to know it's not only him at whom he glared. Maybe he could impress Arthur and make him trust him a little bit more.

"I've only been King for three years but I've already done a lot of things even in my time as the Crown Prince," Alfred began. "I opened schools in the lower Card Levels, constructed a machine for factories to increase productivity and help reduce the overworking and pollution. Recently I started a new law where people can get a promotion and rise to another CL."

"Astounding." Francis nodded his head and Alfred smiled proudly, feeling better when he could brag about his achievements to King Franics. He looked back at Arthur to see his reaction but his face was still serious and he watched over Victoria who played with the stones on the bench.

"I'm having a lot more projects going on but the most important is of course the 10th anniversary of my marriage with Arthur."

Francis looked over at Arthur with a teasing grin. "Maybe you did marry the wrong alpha. You've lost so much."

"Don't be childish." Arthur scowled. "I don't care what he has done, it won't change my mind."

"But why? I just want to go back where I belong and your brother said that these are just memories, so why won't you allow me to use it and, I don't know, let those memories transport back?"

"My brother's theories about time travel have no proof. People who have used the Time Stone all say different things about their travels and the theory he believes in is hardly true." Arthur's eyes were fixed on Alfred, wanting him to understand what's on his mind and his reasons. "What happens with the timeline when you leave it and change the outcome? Do they still exist and go on as if nothing happened? Does time just stop for them? If you change time, you change everything. You don't jump from one timeline to another, that is nonsense. The timeline you're from is gone. There's nothing left but memories. If you change it again, this world that was established will disappear. It's the world that I was born in and this is the world I remember and I won't allow you to change it."

A heavy feeling set in Alfred's stomach. He hoped his theory wasn't true but it felt more realistic than Scott's. The little girl still played with her stones and her eyes beamed excited at the colors. Alfred understood why Arthur wouldn't want to change his time if he owned everything he wanted.

Arthur noticed Alfred looking at his daughter and spoke again. "Do we have children?"

"Uh, no. We wanted some time for ourselves," Alfred explained and let out a breathy chuckle.

"I was right then." Arthur stood up, taking Victoria into his arms who complained because she wanted to play with the stones. "I didn't lose much."

That hurt Alfred, a lot.

-

It was difficult to sleep in the bed when his mind couldn't rest. For hours now, he tried to think of Alexander. He knew if he thought of a person long enough, his visions would show him their future but without his visions being fully controllable this task was much more difficult.

Another reason was Arthur. He knew it wasn't his Arthur and that he didn't remember him but it hurt when he said those words. It hurt when he looked at him with those irritated eyes and didn't see him, didn't remember him.

Sometimes Alfred wondered if Arthur regretted his choice by choosing him. He couldn't even give him a child to love. How should he be a good King if he can't be a good spouse and give his husband what he wished for.

He sighed heavily and thought of giving up and just relax for a bit. He felt the sleep take him slowly when suddenly a wide grin with thousands of teeths spread in front of him, laughing and grinning. Red blood eyes opened up and stared at him intensely.

Alfred awoke from this vision with a heavy breath and felt sweat on his forehead. He had wished to never ever dream of this creature again but had a feeling that it meant something. He sat up and wanted to reach over to the night stand to take a glass of water when he saw a dark figure standing at the end of his bed.

He tensed up and the creature opened its eyes revealing red blood pupils which started to smile alongside the wide grin. "Rise and shine!" the voice chirped happily and she clapped her hands together.

"Joker," Alfred muttered.

"You remember me, how awesome!"

Alfred frowned at her sentence. "You remember me, too?"

"Of course I do! I always remember everything, no matter what timeline I'm in," she said proudly and twisted her long white hair with her fingers.

"Why are you here? I doubt you came to say 'hello'."

Joker jumped on Alfred's bed and squatted at the edge of it, still grinning with her smile that could swallow him. "I'm here for our deal."

"I've never made a deal with you," Alfred said seriously.

"You did but in your past life."

"I don't remember my past life, ergo, I don't have a deal with you."

"I knew you'd say that," she said and crawled at Alfred and over his body. She was so quick that Alfred didn't have the chance to react to her movements until she was far too close to his face and he had to lean back. "Let me remind you."

She put her hand on top of his forehead and a void swallowed his mind into a black hole.