Alice in the Country of Spades... ENJOY

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Heart no Kuni no Alice or any of its characters but I do own the made up characters =)

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Spade no Kuni no Alice

"Julius?"

With a solemn face he looked up at Alice whose face was only inches away from his own. "Eh?" Julius backed up. Alice leaned on the edge of Julius' work desk with a bored expression on her face.

"I've been wondering for a while. How long do I have to stay in Wonderland?"

With a blank look in his eyes, Julius slumped in his chair and began stirring his coffee with a screwdriver. "Not sure." Julius mumbled picking up another box of clocks for repair.

Sighing, Alice turned around and looked at Julius' small bookshelf. "Clock Repair, Afterimage, Inside the Clock…" Alice placed books in her arms as she skimmed through the spines.

"Is there anything on this shelf that DOESN'T have to do with your work?"

"Nope."

Julius stuck the screwdriver in a small delicate screw of the clock's interior. He received a short shock from the coffee drenched tool.

Alice giggled as she slowly placed the books back in the shelf. "I guess I'll be going to the Hatter Mansion for now. He has a whole library in there!"

She shut the door slowly and wondered, "What kind of books will I read today?"

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In the Hatter's large library, Alice skipped through the shelves skimming quickly at the spines. Right after skipping past another shelf, Alice halted.

The March Hare looked up from his book to see Alice curiously staring at a book higher up on the shelf. He smiled and stood up, leaving his book about carrot desserts on the couch.

"Is there something you'd like Alice?" Elliot smiled cutely as Alice jumped back surprised.

Pointing at a book high on the shelf, Alice smiled back gently. "If it's not too much trouble, could you get that book for me?"

"Sure!"

Elliot reached for the book on his tippy toes. After pulling the book by its corner and slipping it into his gloved hands, he handed it to Alice. It was pretty worn out, a few pages were sticking out and the cover was wearing away.

"Eh? Are you sure about this one? It's really worn out. Maybe we can find a nicer one for you!" Elliot suggested as he stuck a hand out to Alice.

Already engrossed in the first page, Alice waved a hand as she walked away. "No thank you, this one's fine."

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Alice put her hand up waving shortly at the twins guarding the mansion's front gate. She concentrated deeply on the book while walking towards the forest.

It was a book of relics and historical fairytales on the early beginnings of Wonderland. Whether it was real or not didn't seem to matter to Alice. Alice was captivated. She had already burried her nose through the first chapter.

"Reading fairytales makes me feel so nostalgic!" Alice smiled as she continued walking deeper into the forest reminiscing in her childhood. Finally noticing the absence of Blood's twin guards, Alice began to read aloud.

"…northern land…spades…eternal winter…Wonderland…" Alice mumbled reading a tale mentioning the existence of another country in Wonderland.

"war…blood…border? AH!" Alice's book was swiftly lifted up by someone in a hooded cloak.

The hooded theif wore a mask that covered his eyes. He stuck his tongue out. "Fufufufufufu…I see foreigners really enjoy fairytales!" The theif skimmed through the page and shook his head slightly, still dangling recklessly from a tree branch. He spun around and landed on his feet. "Come, I'll show you something good."

"Hey wait! That's Blood's book! Do you know how much trouble I'll get into if I lose that?" Alice shouted but the theif turned around and sprinted. Alice followed. "Moreover, it's already pretty wrecked! If it breaks anymore…"

Tripping on a tree root, the mysterious theif caught Alice by the wrist. "Don't worry, we'll get there." The hooded person pointed and ran that direction. Alice panted as she tried catching up with him.

Not knowing which direction was which, Alice kept running though she had lost track of the hooded theif. A few sharp branches left several scratches on Alice's arms. Nevertheless, she continued running knowing she would be in much more pain if she lost something of Blood's.

Directionless, Alice could no longer hear the hooded man's footsteps. "Ah I'm lost…" Alice looked grimly and spun around hoping to find an exit. The sky was starting to darken. "Just my luck. It's already becoming night, I lost Blood's book, and I'm lost…"

Alice's stomach grumbled. She let out an exasperated sigh and fell to her knees. In a lower position, Alice barely saw past a thicket. A dim light shone behind the bushes. Hoping it was Ace who had also gotten lost and was spending the night in his tent, Alice crawled towards the light. She ducked her head under a low branch.

Alice sighed. "Oh, great! A wall, a lamp and a book." Alice crawled towards the book which was opened to the page she left off.

At least I can read for now, Alice thought as she noticed the hooded theif left a small ripped piece of paper with an arrow that pointed to the picture on the page. It was a picture of 'The Border.' The picture showed faded symbols and microscopic carvings. Alice quickly swiped her finger past the corner of the page and got a paper cut.

"Ow!" Alice held her right index finger with her left hand in an attempt to let the blood flow out. "What should I do? The lamp is running out of oil, this book will be useless by then!" Alice leaned on the hard wall.

"Cold…" Alice felt the wall with the back of her neck. She flipped over the small slip of paper. 'I hope this helps with your research Alice!' the note read.

"Tch. Like getting me lost is gonna help anything." With her back facing the wall, Alice pushed herself off the wall in an attempt to get up.

She turned around and looked at the wall. "The Border…" Fascinated, she stared at the wall. Shaking her head, Alice showed an angry expression. "Why the hell would that guy lead me to the border?"

In her anger, Alice refused to believe she was led to the border. She turned around, but found her eyes gazing back at the marvel. Finally giving in to her curiosity, she turned around and wiped off dust covering a few carvings and stared with delight. "Wow, this is the real thing!"

Skimming through the various carvings and symbols, a few familiar words caught her eye. Alice picked up the book and lamp behind her. She held up the lamp and looked back and forth at the book and the carvings. "snow… war… blood…"

Alice wiped off more dust and translated the carvings. "Contry Hart." She mumbled the badly spelled words. "War the hart…Victry spade…" A large symbol of a spade that was placed all over the wall caught Alice's eye.

The moment Alice's blood stained finger had contact with the insignia, ripples spread from it to the rest of the wall. The carvings glowed an eery black that spread all across the border.

"Ah!" Alice shielded her eyes as the glow grew stronger, but darker. She dropped the book at her side as several swords seemed to stab her body.

The ominous black glow surrounded her. Alice was no longer sitting on grass. Everything around her had become a still, frightening void.

The blood of a foreigner is the key. Blood…is the key to spade…

Distorted whispers spilled into Alice's shaking ears. She covered her ears and felt her surroudings shake violently.

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When the shaking had finally stopped, Alice slit an eye open. Sighing, she opened both. It was dim, but nothing like the void she had experienced. The black dead trees, the fruitless black bushes and the ground were covered by a thick fluffy layer of snow.

White flakes fell down slowly into the palm of Alice's hand. "COLD!" Alice shivered. After all, she was only wearing a summer dress.

"WHY IS IT SNOWING?" Alice shreiked into the hazy night air.

As if it were a reply to Alice's shreik, a warmly dressed black fox walking on its hind legs walked towards Alice with a mug filled with a steaming substance. The fox curtsied. "Foxes can curtsy?" Alice thought aloud. "Ah woops-"

"Charmed I suppose. A pleasure to meet you. I, am Louie Noir." The fox greeted. Alice covered her mouth, fascinated. The polite black fox seemed to constantly remind Alice of a certain white rabbit. "Please feel free to call me Luu."

"Ah, umm, I'm Alice Lidell. Nice to meet you." Alice nodded her head as a greeting. "Where is this, umm, Luu?" She shivered.

"Before I answer that question, may I offer you a drink? You seem cold." The suspicious black fox approached Alice and handed her the steaming mug. "Don't worry, it's only hot chocolate." Alice put the mug to her lips and noticed the fox's eyes glitter. "You look quite cold yourself! Why not take a sip first?" Alice suggested.

The fox gave a sigh and put the cup to its lips. Luu looked at the 'hot chocolate' in a sick manner. "No need to be shy!" Alice lifted the mug and the contents spilled into his mouth. After one sip, a puff of smoke enveloped the two.

Alice was no longer with a small black fox, but in its place was a taller black haired man with fox like ears and a tail wearing the same style buttoned overcoat and scarf. "BLECK! You wretched woman making me drink this crap!"

The man looked at Alice's sneaky smirk. "But I thought it was just hot chocolate, isn't it, Luu?" Alice's eyes gave an innocent shine.

"Tch. Quit with the eye thing. Let's get to business." Luu smirked as he fished something in his pocket. It was a container filled with a strange looking liquid. Alice shuddered at the sight of it. She already had one bad experience with a suspicious container carrying a suspicious liquid.

While Alice was frozen in her thoughts of her last encounter with suspicious liquid from strangers, Luu drank the liquid, and lifted Alice's chin. This time, Alice attentively slapped his hand away. Luu gave her a glare that could be on the same level as Blood's glares and pulled out pistols from his back pocket. He threw the chain connecting the two around Alice's neck and caught the pistols aiming at her ears. Alice stood motionless as Luu brought her face closer.

Now now Alice, no need for disobedience…

As soon as their lips met, Luu forced the liquid into her mouth. He immediately took out a flask of water and gargled, spitting out the remainder of the liquid on the snow. Alice threw her hand over her mouth panting.

"What kind of poison was it this time?"

"THIS time?" Luu aimed his pistol at Alice. "You will find out soon."

BANG!

Alice fell to the snow holding her pained shoulder. She gave Luu an ice cold look as she held the area where the bullet had landed. Luu smirked as he brought his face closer to Alice's.

"Now Miss Alice, allow me to officially introduce myself. My name is undoubtedly Louie Noir." Luu smirked evilly. "That crap I gave you was a pretty strong pain killer and it really helps with healing too. I don't want to kill you just yet~"

Alice panted holding her wound as she shot a glare at the sadistic fox skipping around her. He lifted her chin.

"Opposed to the idiots of Heart, we of Spade are rather sadistic. Because of this," the sly fox pointed a pistol at her head. "You are the most hated person in this country!"

Instead of shooting straight through Alice's forehead, Luu cocked his gun to the side and shot a tree. With an eery happy smile on his face, Luu threw his overcoat on Alice and walked the opposite direction, snickering. "Nice meeting you Alice Lidell. Welcome to Spade Country!"

Feeling the pain killer kicking in, Alice almost cursed herself for not bleeding to death right away. She kicked a tree that dropped snow on her foot. Retracting her foot and rolling into a ball, Alice lay in the soft snow glaring at the man's coat less back slowly dissapearing into the fog. She felt her eyelids getting heavy.

Louie…Noir…

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Covered by fluffy warm blankets, Peter White quickly sat up on his bed swetting and panting like he had woken up from a horrible nightmare. He put his hand to his chest. His clock ticked in half seconds.

"Alice!"

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Uh ohh! Peter White's Alice senses are tingling!

Thanks for reading, please review!