A/N:IT HAS BEEN NEARLY TWO FREAKING YEARS SINCE I LAST UPDATED. BUT HAVE NO FEAR, TWO WEEKS OF READING PANDORA HEARTS HAS MADE ME HAVE ALL THE PLUNNIES RETURN! SO REJOICE, READERS, REJOICE! WHILE I AM STUDYING MY BIOLOGY TEXTBOOK, I WILL UPDATE THIS FANFIC!

I've forgotten how addicting the story is, and at the time when I first wrote this story, there were some things I only knew about it, like we didn't know Noise and Echo existed at the time that Sablier happened, that Alice and Alyss lost each other's memories, etc.

It means that now I can incorporate the new information into this story. After a nearly two-year hiatus, this story is now back in business! I am also rping Oz on tumblr, anyone who's interested PM me and I shall send you teh link. Now, back to business!

TLDR, COLLEGE SUCKS, BUT HEY, YOU GET BREAKS, SO WHATEVER.

Chapter 21 Echo and Noise

She can hear someone crying; someone crying inside her mind.

They are soft, gentle sobs that break her heart; those of a kind soul forced to commit crimes that broke her, forced to hurt others, even when it's not what she wanted, or what she would ever want.

Over and over again, the white-haired girl asks her partner if this is really what's necessary, after all she is but a disposable puppet, a disposable tool created to protect Noise, her contractor.

Is it really worth it to hurt all these people?

Noise does not answer.

Duldee hisses in her ear, "You are just a toy, Echo. Do not get more emotions than you need, you are just a tool."

"I know this, Duldee," Echo responds in a low tone. Echo knows that she is worthless, as that is what Duldee has always told her. She just serves to protect Noise from anything and everything-but for a while, if she closes her eyes, she can imagine a world where there was Vincent-and Gilbert, two boys who were nice to her, or was it Noise?

And then, there was one other, right?

She can recall it if she looks down into Noise's memories.

Noise was going to go see Vincent today, and she couldn't be happier. Her long white hair cascaded over her shoulders as she walked, looking like freshly fallen snow. Noise's blue eyes shone with an innocence that no one else could see, and yet one could also tell that she was utterly broken.

"I wonder if Vincent-sama will like these flowers I picked for him." She whispered to herself. But before she knew it, she'd collided with someone who was running very fast and before she knew it, the flowers, were tipped upside down.

"How could you do that? All those flowers I got for Vincent-sama! They'll be ruined! How could you ruin them like that?" She screeched.

"I'm very sorry about that. Let me help you with those naughty flowers."

She knew that voice. Noise looked up into a pair of emerald eyes and jumped back.

It was that man who hung around with Glen Baskerville.

"You're Jack Vessalius!" She exclaimed, alarmed at the sight of an outsider. Had he been sneaking out here? She knew this, and yet...

"Were you coming to meet Vincent?" Jack asked.

When Noise nodded shyly, he smiled.

"Then let's help you with those flowers-"

"Does Onee-san need help?" A higher voice interacted.

Suddenly, another blond appeared beside Jack, who was looking up at Noise with confusion in his big green eyes.

"This is my son, Oz."

"Nice to meet you!" The boy chirped.

Noise could tell there was something odd about this boy. She didn't really like him.

"Onee-san's really pretty! What if I were to put these flowers in your hair?" 'Oz,' chirped, hopping like a rabbit towards her.

Noise slapped his hand away. What if she were to hurt both of them?

"I don't want to touch either of you! I'm an aberration, I hurt everyone around me!"

Jack softened. "I met someone once who told me that same thing. I don't think of you as an aberration."

The only person who could tell her such things was Vincent.

"I don't trust you!"

"What's your name, Onee-san?" Oz chirped, looking at her curiously, the boy showing no signs of fear of the aberration before his eyes.

"Noise," she whispered.

"Noise is a pretty name!" He chirped, "You're as pretty as Alice!"

"Alice?" Noise repeated. She'd heard rumors about this Alice person from Vincent, who disliked her very much and always complained about her. He told her that she was stupid and cruel and that she didn't know who she was.

But wasn't Noise the same as well? Noise shook her head. She shouldn't question Vincent.

He was the only one who was kind to her.

"What's wrong, Noise?" Echo whispered in her ear. "Let me take over your body!"

Then everything changed to black.

When Vincent wasn't around, Oz would occasionally visit her and pass her flowers, drawings and candy in exchange for Noise's drawings of Oz back, and they shared an unstable friendship, Noise unsure what to do if Vincent found out about her and Oz knowing each other.

Then one day, the blond boy approached; carrying some flowers.

"Hey, Noise-oneesan, I got you some nice flowers and some nice pickup lines from Daddy!" He chirped.

"Who are you?" Noise snapped. "I've never seen you before!"

"I-I'm Oz, your friend!" Oz muttered, very bewildered.

"Oz, you say? That's a very strange name for a chain!"

"I'm not a chain, I'm a human!" Oz cried.

Echo came over and sniffed him. "You seem very unusual! I am Duldee! I take possession of my contractor's body to keep her safe. I can use other people as puppets!"

"That's so cool!" Oz cried.

"It is not cool! You are very, very rude and ill-mannered! Get out of my sight!" Echo cried.

"But you're the same old Onee-san, right? I don't really think I'm afraid of you."

"Everyone's afraid of us!" Noise snapped. "It is only I who can protect my contractor! Now stay away!"

"She's right, you know, stay away from Big Sister Noise!" Vincent snapped.

Oz whirled around to see Vincent standing there.

"But I'm Noise's friend, too!"

"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS TAKE EVERYTHING FROM ME? FIRST, YOU TAKE AWAY JACK, THEN GIL AND NOW NOISE? I WON'T LET YOU TAKE ANYTHING OF MINE!" Vincent reached out and pushed Oz, sending him flying to the ground.

Oz punched Vincent and shortly afterward, a fistfight occurred.

"Please stop!" Noise cried, "You two are both my friends, so please don't fight!"

Vincent and Oz stopped, looking at each other with horror on their faces before Vincent shoved Oz away.

"No one wants someone like you around!" He screeched.

"That's enough, Vincent!" Jack said, having witnessed the entire ordeal.

"Jack!" Vincent cried, trying to look innocent enough, but Jack saw through it and glared at him.

"You apologize to my son this instant." He demanded. "And Oz, what have I told you about fighting?"

"Not to do it." Oz whimpered, sticking close to his father.

After that, Oz never met with Noise again. Vincent had strictly been told off by both Jack and Oswald for his behavior.

Noise never seemed to meet with him again.

"Noise, do you remember that boy?" Echo asks Noise, who looks at her in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" Noise asks.

Of course Noise doesn't remember. The Noise who used to be so gentle and kind now no longer exists, and her heart is no more.

That boy, Oz, what had become of him?

What if that boy was still around today?

At that second, while she was out running errands for Vincent-sama, holding a plate of meat in her hands, suddenly the meat disappeared off her plate.

Echo naturally went looking for it to see what had happened to it, and that is where Echo found a girl with long brown hair, devouring the meat.

"This is really good meat!" She cried out.

"That is for my master Vincent-sama, how dare you eat it!" She cried.

The girl looked up at her, her mouth full of meat.

"Open your jaws up and give me that meat, right now!" Echo cried. "Vincent-sama will be angry!"

"You sound just like Seaweed Head!" Alice cried. "Always calling my master this, my master that! Why don't ya shut up?" Her violet orbs blazed with fury.

Echo did not like this girl one bit.

"You smell like a chain." Echo observed.

"I'm the B-rabbit, ya gotta a problem with that?" Alice cried.

"The B-rabbit! You're the most dangerous chain! I will destroy you for Vincent-sama's sake!" She pointed her blade at Alice, who didn't even flinch.

"No, no, no, no!" A sharp voice called out. "Alice, get back!"

A flash of blond suddenly pushed the brunette backwards.

It was a boy with blond hair and green eyes.

Was this the same boy from before?

"Are you...?" She began.

"I know you from somewhere!" He cried. "Little Red Riding Hood!"

Echo just stared. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Echo will go now."

"Wait, Echo? I thought your name was-ok, nice to meet you, Echo-chan! Let me give you these flowers!"

He was still the same.

"You are very annoying. Who do you think you are, bothering me like that?"

"Echo-chan, flowers!" He cried before placing them in her hair.

She flushed scarlet.

It was him.

But if she leaned forward, the smell of chain was all around her.

She sniffed forward. The B-rabbit was behind her, munching on flowers.

"Alice, don't chew flowers!"

"But they taste good." Alice replied.

"You did the same thing back then!" He cried.

"When?" Alice muttered, looking confused.

"Never mind."

The B-rabbit smelled like a chain, yet if she looked at this boy, he too smelled like a chain. Could it be that these two were contracted?

'No, there are...two B-rabbits,' She thought, 'Duldee, what do you say?'

'The B-rabbit is right there,' She said, pointing at the boy, 'She is but a replica, carrying his powers.'

'What do you mean?' Echo asked, 'There can only be one version of B-rabbit, right?'

'No, that is not the real B-rabbit.' Duldee stated.

'I see, then he can make clones of himself! I will eliminate both of them!'

"Echo-chan!"

"Stop right there, B-rabbit!" Echo cried, pointing a blade at Oz. "You are the real B-rabbit!"

"Ha! That's not true! I'm the B-rabbit, you're challenging my measly servant, I shall challenge you in his stead. Because he's too pathetic to do otherwise!"

"Alice..."

"Oz, stupid rabbit, I found you!" Gil cried. "Echo, what are you doing?"

"Master Gilbert, I was about to eliminate the B-rabbit."

"My master's not the B-rabbit! And you're not killing the stupid B-rabbit!"

"Why can't I kill the B-rabbit?"

"Because you don't have the courage to!" Alice laughed, enjoying every scene of this.

"Echo, please." Gil said.

"Echo will go now, but thank you for the flowers..." She muttered, stammering a little, still unable to believe that she'd been outmaneuvered by the B-rabbit, of all people.

"Echo, what happened? Did you run into a chain on your way here?" Vincent asked.

"I ran into the B-rabbit."

"Alice, huh?"

"Yes."

"She always gets in the way of everything." Vincent muttered.

"And Oz-sama, and Gilbert."

"Gil, my brother?" Vincent said, smiling. "So he's taken a liking to that thing."

"That thing?" Echo repeated.

"You know, the B-rabbit. She ruined our lives. I won't let that happen again. And that Oz..."

"Is Oz-sama important?"

"Oh, yes, he's important! He's the reason everything happened in the first place!" Vincent snapped.

"Echo does not believe Oz-sama is entirely a bad person."

Vincent glared at Echo and struck her.

"You do as you're told," He said sharply, "Forget all about having met Oz."

"I would not like to."

"You're being defiant, I wonder what Noise would have to say about that."

Echo flinched. Noise was not someone she wished to anger.

"Get out of the way, Echo, you're disposable."

"No-"

Before Echo could do anything, Noise, or now Zwei, took over.

"Hey, the B-rabbit was there! How come I didn't kill her?"

"Echo is way too naive. But you could do it, Zwei." Vincent said.

"I tried already and I got shot at," Zwei said, "What do I do?"

"You could try and take down the enemy of the Baskervilles, Oz Vessalius."

"Oz Vessalius?" She sneered. "I could take him down."

Of course she could. She could do anything for Vincent-sama.

"Anything for you, Vincent."

"Anything?"

"Yes, anything, I'll do anything I can for you."

"First, go to sleep." He had his Dormouse make her go to sleep.

"Oh, my dear Echo, you've changed so much. And Oz..."

Why had Jack loved such a child more than he loved Vincent?

Vincent was jealous. He thought that he could be Jack's son and then Oz came and took everything away from him. He took Gil away, too.

"I won't let you take Gil away from me, Oz. I won't let B-rabbit take anything away. Neither of those two, Alice or the Will of the Abyss. I hate those three so much!" He hissed, taking a plush rabbit doll and plunging his scissors into it. "This will be you, B-rabbit!" He hissed, picturing Alice.

"And as for you, Oz!" He pronounced the name like it was venom, "I won't let you have your hands on Jack-sama anymore. I won't let you have either of those two!" He held a brown rabbit and ripped it in two.

Oz suddenly felt a sharp pain go through his chest.

"Oz, are you all right?" Alice asked.

"Nothing," He muttered.

"And then, once that happens, you yourself will be gone, like an insignificant toy that no one cares about!"

Whenever they got back, Break, Sharon and Jack were waiting for them. Sharon decided to amuse the man by playing tea party with him. At first, Jack had refused, but upon seeing the scary lady's chain, he'd given in. She was a lot like a black-haired, red-eyed girl he'd known in the past.

"Jack-sama, do you remember anything else of your past?" Sharon asked.

"I remember a girl named Lacie and Alice...the brown-haired girl. She doesn't seem to like me."

The kick Alice aimed in his direction made him shudder.

"Uh, yeah."

"So Alice-sama doesn't like you, she doesn't like me much, either." Sharon sipped her tea, "But you know something, Jack-sama, you could reach out to her, like Oz-sama wants to do with you."

"What is Oz?"

"He is your son. Were you not aware?"

"My...son?" Jack muttered.

"Yes, he is...the son in your life!"

"Oh," Jack said, not getting it.

"Break, Sharon-chan, I'm back! Fatherrrr, er Jack-san." Oz muttered.

Jack looked at him, he felt a strange sense of regret go through him when he saw the boy's sad face. "Oz-san...are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Father, as long as you're here!"

Upon seeing Gil and Alice look at him blankly, he shook his head.

"Oz," Gil began, tugging the boy by his sleeve and dragging him into the hallway, "I know you see Jack-san as a father figure since that man is not your father, but-"

"Like I told you before, Gil, he is my father!"

"Then why doesn't he remember you?" Gil cried.

"He lost all his memories, but I'm determined to help him remember." Oz muttered.

"And what if he's moved on? What if he doesn't need you anymore?" Gil challenged.

"I, you don't know what you're talking about! He's still my father even if he has no memories! I care about him!"

"Oz, are you sure this is what he would want?"

"I'm definitely sure, if I had lost my memories, Father would help me!"

Whenever they returned, they saw that Jack had been watching them.

"You're my child?" He muttered, walking over to Oz, who stood, dumbstruck.

"You heard...everything?" He stammered.

"That lady wasn't lying. I am your father?" Jack mumbled.

"Yeah, you are." Oz said, chuckling slightly.

"How can I have a child I don't even remember having?" He said, looking utterly confused.

"Father, we can help remember it together!"

Jack looked at him awkwardly before extending his hand, which Oz took.

"I feel like I should know you, yet I don't. But maybe I-"

"You can stop being so damned boring!" Alice yelped, kicking Jack.

"You don't like me no matter what I do, do you, you scary girl?" Jack whimpered.

"WHO'S SCARY? I'M THE B-RABBIT!" Alice screeched.

"Alice, don't shout!" Oz scolded.

"Why can't we?" Alice said.

"Because it's suppose to be quiet in here." Break explained.

"You clown bastard!" Alice cried, trying to kick Break and failing.

"Break, can we have some quiet in here?" Sharon said.

"Oh, my lady, I just wanted to have some fun." Break explained.

"I said, can't we sit down and have some tea?"

The ominous aura around her made all of them flinch.

"She's scary," Oz whimpered.

"Did you say something, Oz-sama?" Sharon whispered.

"N-No!" Oz cried.

"Oz, this is why you should give in to Sharon."

"Why is she scary?" Alice asked.

"She just is." Jack muttered.

"Oh, and Jack-kun, I heard you and Oz-kun are making up, much like lost lovers, hm?"

"Break! I'm not into incest!" Oz whined.

"Oh, Oz-kun, it was a little joke!"

"Break, how could you taunt Oz-sama at a time when he's so needy and deeply lonely, and starts getting emotional." Sharon started mocking Oz.

"No, you don't understand. That's not it at all!" Oz said.

"I was wondering, Oz-sama, if you wanted to see your sister." Sharon began.

"Sister?" Oz wanted to say his adopted sister, but he couldn't reveal anything about his heritage.

"And what of Alice-san?"

Alice flinched.

"I don't have a sister. She hates me and I hate her."

"That's not true." Oz argued.

"That's the truth. The last time we met, she tried to kill us, Oz! Did you fall for her?"

"No," Oz muttered.

How could he tell Alice that she was missing her memories?

Everything here was so wrong.

His father was missing his memories, he should be smiling and greeting Oz.

Gil, too.

And Alice.

Everyone was a stranger here.

He almost felt like crying, but he couldn't.

"Oz-kun," Break said, "You know, you told me all you did in your past. You can't change it."

"You talk...as though you tried to do that." Oz said, "Is it possible?"

Break looked stern as a sad smile came to his lips. "You can't change it. You want to make it so your father knows you? You have to know him now. He's not the same and neither is Alice-kun, correct?"

"Yeah, when I knew her, she was more gentle, kind-"

"Is that the you now talking or the you of the past?"

Oz stared at Break.

"I-"

"Oz-kun, I think you should be there for your father, but you should be there for your own sake. And am I not correct in presuming that you are looking for your rabbit friend from whom you were parted?"

"Yeah! I really miss him!" Oz cried.

"Ah, but Oz-kun, your rabbit friend has gone nowhere, he is inside Alice-kun, see? As long as she is there, you shall find him."

"What does that mean? Alice is a girl."

"Someday you will understand what I mean, Oz-kun."

Break chuckled to himself. He was aware that Oz was the B-rabbit. It seemed like even though Oz-kun did remember everything else, he was in denial of that fact.

Oz smiled as he met with Alyss again.

"Hey, Alyss, Alice hates you."

"I don't hate Alice, I just hate B-rabbit. But please, Oz, help Jack remember who he is, what he means to us! To me!"

"I'll try my best!" OZ cried.

But then the image of Alyss disappeared.

"What can I do?" He muttered, sitting up in his bed. "I'm powerless. I have nothing to call my own."