First chapters are always so exciting! Also a bit crazy to think I'll have to keep up on this. ^-^; Don't worry, I've got people bugging me to keep this going so this will be finished someday! I'm excited to write this about Elliot because he is a very much loved character of mine and I still cry over his death everyday. This story has been in the making for over six months at least(wouldn't have been working on it sooner, but it took me a long time to even say his name. lol)

Readers, please be aware that this story is full of spoilers. You should be at least up to chapter 50 of the series unless I post otherwise in a different chapter. I'm not sure if there will be anything else, but that is how far. The main reason is because of Elliot's death and the actions that happened before it.

As for my story, I know Elliot died and that was the end. But in my story, it was only his new beginning. I wanted to write a story that would seem somewhat plausible to happen in Pandora Hearts. What I mean is, I wanted it to keep flowing from the plot as if this could actually happen. I've put a lot of effort into this and I hope that everyone will enjoy it and to those who are a fan of Elliot to be glad to see him alive again. :)

Thank you for reading and enjoy! And I don't own Pandora Hearts. ^-^

Chapter One

"Humpty Dumpty...I reject you."

He could feel it, the pain of the chain being forced out of his body. The two split from each other, the chain crying out but only Elliot was able to hear it. Chains were unstable without a contractor and would die, but rejecting your chain also meant the contractors death as well. Elliot knew he was going to die, but at least he could go out on his own terms. He was Elliot Nightray after all and he wasn't going to let someone else remove his sins from this world.

I will not die...And you will suffer

The words were soft, but venom laced each word as the chain spoke. Dozens of chains shot from the ground, wrapping them around Elliot. Slowly, the chains pulled Elliot downward in the shadows they came from. Elliot pulled against the chains trying to break from them, but the chains didn't budge even the slightest.

As the chains pulled Elliot down further and further into the darkness, it was like staring into a tunnel and moving further away from the exit. Elliot was being pulled further into the darkness, but he was also staring at himself still lying on the ground at the end of the tunnel. He could feel himself losing touch with his own body, his mind being pulled apart from the rest of him.

Elliot watched Vincent move towards his nearly lifeless body, unable to hear anything his step-brother was saying to him. Elliot could make out Vincent talking to him, but he couldn't focus on that. He needed to tell Vincent something before he was completely gone, the last connection he had to his body lost. With what little energy Elliot had left he managed to get his short message out to Vincent, hoping that Vincent could hear him.

"Tell Leo...I'm sorry..."

With those final words, Elliot completely lost his connection to his body. The chains dragged Elliot down deeper into the darkness. Elliot tried to keep himself conscious, but slowly the darkness took full control. Darkness consumed Elliot as he lost conscious, unsure of what was to come next.

o.O.o.O.o.O.o

"Oz? Did you hear me?"

Oz snapped his attention back towards Gilbert, lost in the scenery passing by them as they rolled along in the carriage. They had been traveling for a few hours by now with nothing to do except listen to Alice and Gilbert have one of their usual fights. Oz usually found their fights to be entertaining and fun to watch, but lost interest rather quickly this time. "Sorry Gil, I didn't catch that."

Gilbert sighed, shuffling the papers around to place them back into the correct order. "I said were almost there. And we need to make this as quickly as possible. Break needs us back at Pandora as fast as possible." Gilbert finished organizing the pages and handed them over to Oz.

Oz skimmed through the papers, locating the important information before moving onto the next page.

This mission seemed to be a fairly easy one. They were heading out to Sablier towards the House of Fianna. They were to make sure all of the children that lived there were gone before the building was to be destroyed. After the incident at Isla's mansion, Pandora began its investigation at the House of Fianna to gather evidence and to save the children that were living there.

"Why did Break need us to come out here and clear the area?" Oz asked, skimming over the last page before handing them back to Gilbert. "Couldn't anyone else from Pandora have come out here? If Break has something else he needs us to do, why would he have us do this too?"

"Only a select few in Pandora actually know what happened out in the House of Fianna. Since we were the ones most closely related to everything, Break wanted us to close this up." Gilbert said, folding the papers and tucking them into his coat.

Alice snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah, that's such a fantastic excuse. All those brats were moved weeks ago. And now suddenly we have to go clear the house?" Alice turned her head, focusing on the scenery passing outside. "I'm not bothering with this, it's pointless."

Gilbert opened his mouth to argue with Alice, but Oz stopped him from starting. He wasn't in the mood to hear another pointless argument. If Alice didn't want to go check the house, she didn't' have to. She had made a good point after all. All of the children had been moved weeks ago and it wasn't until yesterday that Break decided they needed to clear the house.

The carriage rolled to a stop in front of the Fianna house. Gilbert stepped out of the carriage, Oz closely behind him. Gilbert waited a moment to see if Alice was going to insist on staying in the carriage. When she made no move to follow them, he shut the door and followed Oz towards the empty house.

Many of the windows on the house has been broken, most likely caused by what villagers remained raiding the house for anything worth value. The inside of the house wasn't in any better condition, obvious signs that the place had been torn apart. Shattered glass and furniture coated the ground. Oz left Gilbert to finish searching the downstairs as he made his way towards the second floor.

The second floor had six rooms, three to each side. Five of them contained beds where the children that used to live here must have slept. The sixth room was quite large, but filled only with shelves that were packed with books. Oz grabbed one of the books nearest to him, brushing off the layer of dust it had.

"Holy Knights..." He brushed his fingers across the gold lettering on the book. A book that once brought joy to him seemed to do very little. After all that had happened, he wasn't sure he would ever be happy again.

He set the book down on the shelf again, glancing over the whole series. It seemed to be complete except for the first and last book were missing. Oz frowned, knowing that the series is pointless without the first book. Why have the rest of the series if you don't have the first book?

"...He moved...across the room..." Oz spun around, searching the room to find where the voice had come from. "Taking his spot...next to his...master..." Was that a child? Could Break's information to clear the place actually be correct?

Oz moved towards the back of the room where two oversized chairs were. Sitting in one of them was a small boy, the book taking over most of his lap. He was dressed in an oversized white dress shirt and black pants. He glared at the page as he struggled to read it, oblivious to Oz approaching him.

"Edgar is weird." The boy said, slamming the book shut and inching himself to get off of the chair finally noticing Oz. "Did you want to read this book?" He held the book out to Oz, his pale blue eyes glaring at the book. "It's got too many words."

Oz reached for the book, unsure of what exactly he was looking at. No, that wasn't correct. He knew what he was looking at, but couldn't believe it. "Yeah, this book is one of my favorites." The boy moved past Oz towards the bookshelves again. "What are you doing in a place like this?"

"I don't know." The boy reached to grab another book, stretching his arms and legs. "I woke up here." After a few more seconds of trying to reach the book, the boy gave up and moved off to find another book that would be easier to reach. "I don't know anything else."

"Well…What is your name?" The boy seemed unusually calm about this whole situation, despite being lost in an abandoned place with no one around. Oz wondered if maybe he had amnesia or if he was just that carefree about everything. "You must remember that much at least?"

"Elliot."

o.O.o.O.o.O.o

"And you're sure he said Elliot?"

Oz sighed, nodding his head. It was the fifth time Break had questioned him about what had happened back at Sablier. Other than finding a six year old Elliot sitting alone at the house, nothing else was out of the ordinary. No signs of Baskerville, the abyss, or anything else. Of course, Break already knew that much. His information told him that someone was living on the grounds again. Of course, this little detail Break failed to tell them before leaving. None the less, none of them expected to find Elliot as the intruder.

"That can't be Elliot though! We all know he died back in Isla Yura's mansion." Gilbert stood off in the back of the room, glaring through the window into the room that Elliot was being kept in for the time being. "And Elliot was sixteen, not six." Gilbert ignored Oz's glare, knowing his master wasn't happy with him treating what looked like his brother in such a manner. But he still refused to believe that Elliot was actually sitting in a room next to them.

"Real Elliot or not, we can't be sure." Break strolled across the room, standing next to Gilbert and starting into the room as well. Elliot was sitting quietly in a chair, kicking his legs back and forth, with Alice sitting across from him. "Until we can do a few simple tests~"

"You aren't experimenting on him Break." Oz said his expression dark as he stared at both of the grown men. Gilbert continued to ignore him, turning his attention back to the room where Alice and Elliot were now having a conversation, but he couldn't tell what was being said. It seemed like they were actually talking, not arguing or anything that Alice was well known for.

"I never said experiments Oz~" Break said, strolling back over to the table. Emily muttered something into Break's ear, laughing as she finished. "Oh no dear Emily~ we can't do that to the poor boy. Just a few simple tests for him."

"What kind of tests?"

o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Gilbert sat across from Elliot, watching at the kid continued to swing his legs under his chair. It was all thanks to Break that he was sitting here now getting ready to test the kid. He was the only one who had grown up with Elliot and would know him the best, but Gilbert didn't want to bother. His brother was dead; his whole family was dead except for Vincent. Setting these thoughts aside, he went to work knowing that both Oz and Break were probably watching him.

"What is your name?" Gilbert asked, knowing that this was the obvious question to start with. He knew the answer the boy would give, but since Oz was the only one to hear it before. He wanted to hear it for himself first before he even bothered to move on with the other questions.

"Elliot." The boy stopped swinging his legs, scooting around in his chair. "My name is Elliot."

"How old are you?" The group had guessed him to be around six but couldn't be sure. Elliot shrugged his shoulders. "Okay. Why were you in Fianna?" Again Elliot shrugged his shoulders. The questions went on, asking him who his family was and who he was. Elliot was unable to answer any of the questions, only able to provide the group with his name. "You don't know anything else? You only know your name?"

Elliot nodded his head, obviously frustrated by his own lack of knowledge. He sat glaring at the ground, searching himself for the answers as Gilbert left the room. He returned back to the others, shaking his head. "It can't be Elliot. He doesn't know anything that Elliot should know."

"He could still have amnesia or something. He wouldn't remember anything if he had that, right?" Oz protested, still determined to make Gilbert believe that it was Elliot. There was no proof, but Oz just knew by looking at the boy that it had to be Elliot. His decision was purely based on instinct and his stubborn self to refuse to let Gilbert be right even once.

"He didn't smell like Elliot, Oz." Alice chimed in, staring into the room where Elliot appeared to be yelling at nothing. "Not entirely. Elliot smelled like the abyss and his chain. This brat just smells like the abyss." Gilbert glanced at Oz, obviously trying to say that wasn't Elliot without saying it. "He could very well be a chain. The contractor might be around her somewhere."

"But the chain was killed. It wouldn't make sense to have the chain still attached to him." Oz argued, feeling that he was losing this battle. "And we can do a test to prove if he's a chain or not!" Oz spun around to face Break. "You can do that seal that you used on me and Alice when we first got out of the abyss. If he's a chain then he'll react to it, right?"

"That would prove if he was a chain or not. Or an illegal contractor." Break nodded, smirking as he spoke. "But depending on his reaction to the seal, we'll be able to tell if he's a chain or contractor."

Oz spun around towards Gilbert and Alice again. "If he's a chain, we'll leave him here. But if he's not a chain," Oz clanked over towards the window. "We take him with us. I'm not leaving him here at Pandora's if he's not a chain." Gilbert opened his mouth to protest, but Oz glared him down. "I'm not leaving him."

Gilbert remained silent, ignoring at Oz and Break planned where to set up the seal and how long it would take. Oz was being delusional about this whole thing. Alice had said the boy smelled of the abyss, he had no memories other than his name was Elliot, and he wasn't even the same age as Elliot. There were too many things that didn't add up making Gilbert skeptical about this whole situation.

Once Break left to go set up the seal, Oz turned his attention back to Gilbert. "Why is it so hard for you to accept that it's Elliot? You of all people should be excited to see he's okay." Gilbert didn't reply to Oz. His reasons were obvious; he was just being overcautious about everything. Was that so wrong? So much had already happened and he'd lost so much already, was it wrong of him to want to prevent anything from happening to Oz so he wouldn't lose him too?

Oz stormed out of the room when Gilbert didn't answer, irritated at how his servant was behaving. When he had returned from the abyss, no one questioned that it was really him. Was this really any different? Sure he was younger, but the abyss had done much weirder things to people before, right?

He found Break, already setting up the seal in the center of the room where it would be easy to get Elliot to step into. Actually seeing the seal being set up made Oz's stomach knot with anxiety. He had to be right about Elliot not being a chain, but until the boy set foot onto this seal they wouldn't know. And even if it did turn out to be a chain, Oz knew he was going to hurt knowing he might have to watch a friend disappear for a second time, even if it wasn't actually him.

He returned an hour later to fetch Elliot, Gilbert already guarding the door to the room with Alice. Oz didn't say anything as he pushed the door opened and walked up to Elliot. "Remember me? I'm Oz. I don't think I told you that earlier." He smiled at Elliot, offering his hand to the younger boy. "Want to go for a walk? You've been in here for a while, you must be bored."

Elliot nodded, taking Oz's hand and walked out of the room with him. He smiled at both Gilbert and Alice as he past them, neither one returning the gesture. Oz led Elliot through the halls, pointing out things along the way to distract the boy. Elliot didn't need much encouragement though; he was mesmerized by all the things in Pandora, everything being new to him. Gilbert followed behind Oz and Elliot, Alice bringing up the rear to make sure she was furthest from the seal when it was going to be activated.

They turned the corner to the hall that held the seal, Break already standing on the far edge of it to activate it once Elliot was within it. Oz walked Elliot wards the center of the seal, pointing towards the ceiling to keep him occupied. It was a risk for Oz to even be in the seal as well, since it also restricted illegal contractor's movements, but it was the only sure way to keep Elliot in the circle.

Once both boys were in the center of the circle, Elliot's attention drawn up to the ceiling to find something that wasn't really there, Break activated the seal. The seal began glowing, Oz feeling his strength leaving him. He dropped to his knees despite his attempts to keep standing.

"Oz? What's wrong?" Elliot knelt down next to Oz and stared at him with his pale blue eyes. The seal was having no effect on him at all! This was Elliot and this was all the proof Oz needed, nothing anyone else said would matter anymore.

Break released the seal, the glowing lights slowly fading away and releasing Oz. Gilbert raced next to Oz, offering him a hand up. Oz took Gilbert's hand and stood, his green eyes locking with golden. "A deal's a deal. This is Elliot and he's coming with us."

"Oz," Gilbert said, ready to continue this protest. Oz glared at him, a warning that if he tried to refuse he was surely going to face a punishment worse than anything he's had before. "We can't take him with us. What if someone recognizes him and news spread? We very well can't walk around with someone who is supposed to be…" He let his sentence trail off, not wishing to say the last part.

"We'll just give him a new identity then." Oz said, turning his back to Gilbert. "We can lay low for a while at your place Gil. And if people ask who he is, we can say he's my little brother." Oz knelt down next to Elliot, pressing his face against the small boys. "He'll pass as my brother better than you or Alice at least."

Gilbert rubbed his hand across his face, knowing he was losing this battle. "And what about his appearance?" He still looks like Elliot." Gilbert said, gesturing to the hair and mole that sat just below his left eye. "Elliot didn't change much growing up and anyone who saw him at this age will recognize him."

Elliot stared at Oz in confusion, wondering what they were talking about. "Do I look like someone else?" He brushed his hands through his hair, messing up what was left of his neat look.

"Yes, but that's okay." Oz said, grabbing Elliot's hand and standing back up. "You also forget most people who knew that Elliot, are also gone." Oz turned, intent on finding someone to help him get the paper work he needed filled out to release Elliot.

"Well, seems your young master has no intentions to listen to you." Break said, strolling over to Gilbert. "But we can say he's neither a chain nor a contractor. But," He paused, watching Oz and Elliot disappears around a corner. "That still doesn't explain why Alice could still smell the abyss on him."

Gilbert ignored Break, heading down the hallway after his master and the brat. Having to take this kid back home was bad enough, the fact that Oz wouldn't listen to him and now Break was pestering him was just agitating him more. He just wanted to get out of here and go home, prepared to sleep this whole mess off.

"Oh Gil~" Break called out. "I'd watch the kid if I were you. I think he's hiding things."

Gilbert gave no attention to Break's comment. That was already on his mind from the second he saw him. Something felt wrong with this whole situation and he was going to figure out what it was.