Chapter X - A Strange Kinship

  A row of stone limbs burst from the elemental. They swept down, looking to fling her off the gigantic limb she was scrambling up. A row of impacts behind her, stone thumping into stone. She used the roots of the limbs as footholds to leap higher.

  Below her the city tilted as the elemental shifted slightly. The limb bend backwards, folding towards her at a rapid speed. Rapunzel quickly jumped off. She once more stabbed her sword in, this time at an angle. The diagonal tilt of the sword carried her further, the sword carving through the stone like paper and sliding her downward and sideways, away from the limb folding over itself with a deafening rumble.

  Silence held for a moment as dust obscured her vision. Above her, the faintly glowing outline of the elemental blacked out the stars. She stabbed her second sword in and started climbing again. Pebbles rained down as the limb unfolded, strangely quiet for it's size. Rapunzel moved more towards the back, hoping that, even though the elemental could sense her, it would have more trouble finding her if she was out of sight.

  She made it to the back of the limb and jumped over to the main bulk. The mountain of stone was less steep here, and she could climb faster, especially using her power to take large leaps. Again the stones around her shifted, and smaller limbs appeared. She readied herself to cut through them when a shudder went through the elemental. Loose debris tumbled to fall down the steep form, like the precursor to an avalanche. The limbs around her froze, then retracted back into the body. Seems like Red was doing her job.

  Rapunzel didn't waste time. Luckily she didn't need to damage the elemental too much. She began by cutting through any outcroppings near her, any stone that stood out. She went through them like a scythe, leaving smooth flat stone. She ran across the back of the elemental, shaving off jutting pillars, boulders that weren't fully absorbed, and any debris that pocked out of the surface. While she did so, she pulled the power in her hair in time with her intentions. Cut away what was not needed, discard the excess. Controlled, deliberate strokes of her blades that did not intend harm, only to perform the function of a tool to its illogical extreme.

  She slowly climbed higher and higher, trying to imprint her will upon her magic. Her swords flowed eagerly, trimming away any stone that did not fit on the rugged body of the elemental.

  Once she reached the top of the elemental, she heard a steady thumping and cracking sound coming from the other side. Red was clearly busy. Rapunzel gently slid her sword across the elemental's head, leaving nothing but a shallow cut, but a cut that did not immediately close. She traced lines across the elemental, more concerned with precision than damage. She left patterns in her wake. Curves, flowing ribbons and complex edges now decorated the rough stone. She almost had it.

  The elemental shook, jerking to one side, and the sound of something huge crashing into the earth sounded from far below. Rapunzel caught her balance, and saw the elemental's left arm crumbling into the city below. A vibration shook it's entire body, and Rapunzel sensed a feeling suffocate the entire area. Rage. The elemental was shaking, and the stones below her feet started to flow in grinding whirlpools.

  This was her chance.

  Rapunzel ran to the edge, then jumped. Her hair glowed with the power she had been building up and she felt it carry her along. She turned back towards the elemental, and pulled off her hat. Not just a lock or two, everything. Hair streamed behind her in a golden halo that lit up the city.

  The power hit Rapunzel and she almost blacked out. She hovered in the air, held aloft by the sheer amount of magic coursing through her. For a few moments, all she could do was try and stay conscious under the onslaught of feelings and sensations. Her hair felt everything. Every rock and stone, breath and bone. The solid core that was the real elemental, and deeper still, inside a hollow, gentle, a glowing line. Mine.

  Her missing hair that even after all those years unbalanced her. The severed follicle on her head sparked and jolted as it failed to contain the power, but she managed to get it under control.

  Twin locks of hair held her swords aloft, turning them with the guards to the outside, like a pair of scissors, the double edge straight on the inside. With trembling fingers, she undid a clasp on her belt, pulling out a two part metal cylinder. She had traced down the creators of the swords, years ago. One had been silenced by the Wheel, but the second she got to in time. In thanks, he completed the original design of her swords. She pushed in the hinge and locked it in, creating the scissors that were the true form of her swords.

  Swords were the tools of soldiers, warriors... They cut, yes, but mainly they hurt, damaged, severed. Scissors on the other hand, were the tools of tailors and dressmakers. They separated what was needed from the excess, they divided things, they cut things down to the right size. The average tailor wielded their scissors with more skill than the average soldier did their sword.

  Magic poured into the scissors, across the core of dryad heart, cruelly taken, and Rapunzel grasped each one by the handle. In front of her, the elemental was pulling back an arm for a blow that would obliterate her. Rapunzel felt the magic, and pushed her intent through it, and into the world.

  Scissors divided the world into what was needed, and what was not. She tilted the blade diagonally, aiming slightly above where she still felt her missing hair. Yeah, about half the elemental. The rest... was not needed. She started to squeeze the scissors shut, her arms straining to move the blades that had become a tool to alter the world.

  The elemental's arm swung forward, a force of nature, not to be denied.

  Snip.

  The scissors closed. The elemental's arm kept coming, but seemed to veer off course as it approached. A line was made visible as it's entire top half kept it's momentum and rotated off, sliding across a perfectly cut slope bisecting its middle section. The perfect cut was in fact too perfect, the slice so fine that it should have easily been regenerated. But that would go against the current state of the world.

  The cut was there, the elemental divided. That was imprinted upon the world and thus it would remain while the power lasted. Slowly, like an ice shelf sliding into the ocean, the top half of the elemental slid across the cut and crashed into the city below. A billowing cloud of dust obscured it, and nothing moved inside.

  Rapunzel felt her arms tremble with weakness as the magic running through them faded. She gave herself a boost towards the perfectly flat plane that was the bottom half of the elemental and the last place she had felt her missing hair. She landed heavily in the cloud of dust, and slipped, falling to the rock and sliding a bit. The surface left after her attack still had pits and holes, as the core of the elemental wasn't completely solid, but it had been cut to a glass finish.

  She could still feel her hair somewhere in front of her. The ribbons of golden hair flowing behind her like a banner coiled up lethargically and slipped into her hat as she put it back on. Even exhausted, her hair was a strain to leave free.

  She slowly walked through the now blinding dust, reaching a pit in the flat plane. It was some sort of hollow space or room inside the elemental. Her cut had shaved off the roof, exposing the room that would normally be at the center of the elemental. She jumped down the still obscured drop. She landed heavily, but the drop had only been about her own height. Trembling fingers held her two swords. The Alchemist would be here, controlling the elemental. One stroke, and all this would be over.

  The dust lifted, revealing only a small girl, huddled against a wall. She wore rags, the remains of what once might have been a beautiful blue dress and white shirt. Dust and dirt clung to her, her bare feet callused and scratched. Eyes stared straight ahead. She didn't seem to have noticed Rapunzel.

  A thin loop of gold was tied around her throat; Rapunzel's missing hair. It stretched behind her and disappeared into the wall. She could feel the enormous amount of magic channeling through it. Judging by the lack of spontaneous mushrooms and reality warping, every scrap of power in Alice was being vented into the elemental.

  Of the Alchemist there was no trace. Rapunzel slowly approached the walking calamity in the form of a girl. She still did not react. Hugging her legs, Alice stared ahead. Her eyes had dark bags under them, indicating a chronic lack of sleep. The black eyes darted to the corners every now and then, in the familiar pattern of a prey animal. Rapunzel raised a sword, and plunged it deep into the wall where the hair was attached. The stone parted like water, and closed back just as quickly. The sheer amount of power flowing into this part of the elemental made it completely immune to physical damage. The same went for the hair itself. The power running through it made so that Rapunzel could barely approach it, let alone cut it.

  Rapunzel turned her eyes back to Alice. There was something unusual lying on the floor next to her. A half-eaten cupcake. It lay there, covered in dust, but still looked fresh. Crumbs on Alice's mouth. Curious. Rapunzel stepped in front of Alice, then knelt down to her eye level.

  "Hi there." she said, feeling like she was pocking a dragon. "Alice?" No response. She waved her hand in front of the little girl, but she just looked through her.

  Rapunzel thought back to her first encounter with Alice. She had somehow summoned her, a feat she had never been able to replicate, and that had won her her freedom. A storm that so happened to, instead of drowning, carry her to safety.

  "We met before, do you remember?" Alice's eyes flickered up to her face, then back down. Unclear if she had actually seen her.

  "You saved my life. I owe you for that."

  The elemental around her shifted and the stones along the edge of the cut began to push against the magic keeping them severed. It began where Alice was connected to the stone. Rocks began to break through the cut, and grow upwards. The ceiling above them began to close. The elemental was putting itself back together.

  Rapunzel turned back to Alice. "Where is the Alchemist?"

  At the mention of the Alchemist, Alice shuddered, but spoke for the first time. "He will keep me safe. I feed him and he keeps me safe."

  Rapunzel leaned into Alice's field of view. "Where is he? Where did he go?"

  If she could find him, then this whole thing could be over. Alice pointed at the wall. "He's in the wall? In another room like this?"

  Even as Alice started to respond, Rapunzel's tired brain put the clues together.

  "He needed to be strong. To protect me." .

  Ah, shit. Rapunzel looked at the ceiling closing in above them, shutting out the night sky and plunging them into darkness. Only the hair binding Alice gave a faint purple glow.

  The Alchemist was the elemental. There was no way to kill him while he had Alice feeding him power. Rapunzel looked at the little girl tied to the wall. How long would she survive here without food or water? With her power, she had lived for years in the depths of the Schattenwald. Now, with all her power going to the Alchemist? A few tortuous days maybe? Alice had saved her life as a child. Letting her suffer a slow death only played into the Alchemists plans.

  Rapunzel drew her sword.

  ~

  Red felt a tingling sensation as the nerves in her spine reconnected and feeling returned to her legs. She shook herself like a dog. "Eugh." she hated that. It was like her arm falling asleep, but ten times worse. She slowly sat up from the pile of debris she had fallen on. She had sadly missed Rapunzel's big show, being unable to move her head for a few minutes. She had felt the impact of a large chunk of the elemental crashing down, luckily not in her direction. The shockwave that had followed had thrown her down the side of a pile of rocks that had once been the elemental's left arm.

  She cracked her neck as she surveyed the scene. She gave a low whistle. Damn, Blondie had really done a number on the thing! A diagonal cut had caused the top half of the elemental to slide of to the side. Half a mountain worth of stone was dumped across the north part of the city.

  Red couldn't see over the still standing part of the elemental, but the subtle shifting of the rocks was giving her a bad feeling. Whatever kept the elemental from regrowing snapped, and suddenly the remaining half grew a gigantic arm that crashed down on it's fallen top half and started dragging it back towards itself.

  "Ah, shit."

  Red started sprinting back to towards the stone pain-in-the-ass as more and more stones flowed back along the bridge the limb had formed between the two halves. Even the arm she had fought so hard to break was being dragged back into place. What could she do? She had seen Blondie land somewhere on top of the elemental, and she was probably still there.

  Possibility 1: Blondie was dead, crushed by the reforming elemental.

  Possibility 2: She had found the Alchemist and was locked in deadly combat. That gave them hope at still beating this thing. That also meant that her role hadn't changed. Distract the thing while Blondie delivers the finishing blow.

  Easy peasy.

  New limbs grew, shoveling the remaining mass onto the elemental, which absorbed it to rapidly gain it's absurd height.

  Easy... Peasy.

  The titan of stone righted itself, and the missing limb gradually resettled its shape as it was remade from the pieces of the last one. Its head looked down at her, making the hair on the back of her head stand on end. Instinctively, her teeth lengthened, and she gave a low growl.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  A distant explosion announced that the canons were operational once more. Cannonballs started raining down, some missing the elemental and heading towards her.

  "Oh for- come on..." she said, dodging a cannonball that left a crater as it landed.

  "Easy peasy." said Red and charged through the bombardment.

  ~

  Rapunzel lowered her sword. She couldn't do it, at least not as the first resort. She sat down in front of Alice, crossing her legs and leaning forward.

  "Hi there."

  Again, no response.

  "You said the Alchemist is protecting you."

  Alice nodded fractionally, her eyes scanning the corners of the room as she chewed her lips. Rapunzel's hair softly glowed, shining a warm light on the cramped space. Alice's eyes occasionally caught on it, but she quickly looked away. Hoping this wasn't a horrible idea, Rapunzel released a lock of hair. There wasn't much power in it, so there wasn't much of a change for her, but the golden glow illuminated the room slightly more.

  Alice looked at it with wide eyes. Rapunzel offered her the silky hair. "Do you want to feel it?" Rapunzel tensed as Alice reached out with thin fingers and clutched at the lock of hair.

  "Soft." said Alice, like remembering a long forgotten word. She just held on to it gently, unmoving, a child afraid of breaking something precious.

  Rapunzel recalled what she had learned at the Hunters. As far as anyone could tell, Alice could manifest or change reality around her to suit her whim. She left a procession of monsters behind her, nightmare-twisted plants and occasionally eerily beautiful places.

  Rapunzel thought back to her childhood, flashing back to that day in the Wheel laboratory. Alice had walked through like an unstoppable monster, but when Rapunzel had seen her up close, she looked just as terrified as she had felt. What if she couldn't control her powers? She looked at the little girl desperately clutching at her hair like a lifeline. Something soft and warm and beautiful, which she couldn't twist into a horror with a stray thought.

  "Alice?" Rapunzel spoke softly, but Alice flinched at the sound, glancing at the dark corners again.

  "Do you think you could stop feeding the Alchemist your power?"

  Alice shook her head. "It doesn't matter." she mumbled, still staring at the lock of hair, her scratched and dirty fingers gently stroking it. "It's all a dream."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "I'm in a nightmare, but one day I'll wake up. If I'm good, one day I'll wake up."

  "Alice, you're not dreaming, I'm here."

  Alice shook her head again. "It's all nightmares, crawling out of the shadows. And no matter how long I walk, I can never find anyone to wake me up."

  Rapunzel's heart cracked a bit at that. Alice had been wandering the deep forest for over fifteen years, creating her own nightmares. They would need to find someone to take care of her once this was done. ...If this finished with either of them alive.

  "I'm going to help you ok Alice? No matter what, I'm going to help you." she looked Alice in the eyes, but she didn't respond. The entire room shuddered as a shock went through the elemental.

  ~

  Red dodged a pillar of stone whipping past her face. She was halfway up the elemental, and not doing well. Though she made an act of being immortal, she was anything but. The power keeping her together only had so much juice in it. True immortality was basically impossible, though the elemental was giving it a good shot.

  Red's earliest memories were fractured. She had flashes of lucidity as a human, then disjointed impressions as a wolf. It took whatever magic had created her a few months to establish continuity between her forms, so that she was aware and a single person no matter what her shape was. It had taken a few years after that to learn to control it.

  She imagined it like a set of scales inside her. On the one side the Wolf, the other the Human. Push down on one side, and the scales tipped over, flipping her form, push only slightly, and she went through various stages in between, the magic trying to find intermediary forms that could still function as a living thing. Red punched a stone limb that was menacing her, scattering the remains far below.

  However, in recent years and after a few close calls, she had figured out something new. She could push on both sides, becoming more human and more wolf. The excess power trying to shift her body suffused her and could be manipulated. It took precise control, otherwise the form created was pretty much unable to function. But, for a short time it was possible to become more than a hybrid between man and beast. It was also very tiring, dangerous, and hurt like hell.

  Ah well, "C`est la vie" as the people in eastern Schattenwald said; though she prefered the phrase "Give life half a chance, it'll kick you in the teeth."

  She pushed at the power, her body growing taller, stronger and tougher. Her arms lengthened and bones thickened. She pulled back an arm. This move she had learned from a witch that studied sea creatures of all things. Her shoulder joints fused together, locking her arm in place. Her muscles swelled in size, pulling forward at the locked joint. She strained and the muscles pulled against the bending bone, which was on the brink of snapping. She released the joint. Her hand exploded forward faster than she herself could process and then she was flying backwards, leaving a crater on the side of the elemental, the core exposed with cracks running through it.

  Red landed heavily against the side of a half-collapsed building, denting the wall and falling down the side to bounce off a bent streetlight and finally thump into the remains of the street below. She got up, shaking the spots out of her eyes. In front of her, the elemental was slowly approaching, ignoring the barrage by the cannons, one gigantic fist raised high. Her right arm wasn't done mending and lay limp at her side. Good thing she had two.

  She pulled it back and fused the joint, preparing another bonebreaker punch. The elemental swung low, sweeping away debris and the few standing buildings on its way to her. Her legs could barely carry her, let alone dodge. Her fist exploded forward, an explosion of stone as the gigantic fist cracked, and she went flying back again.

  This time she blew right through the house and rolled to a stop on the other side. Stray rocks had clipped her legs and she couldn't stand. Her right arm was almost usable, her left was nothing more than dead weight. She felt simultaneously numb and throbbing with pain. A huge stone limb blotted out the sky above her, then fell downwards, a thousand tonne fist seeking her annihilation.

  ~

  Rapunzel felt more tremors go through the elemental as she tried to convince Alice to stop feeding it. The elemental still hadn't noticed her. Clearly Red was still distracting it, or rather the Alchemist. Though faint, she was picking up Red moving outside. Then she stopped, and something large impacted her location.

  Rapunzel tried to get her exhausted mind to think. Alice was being controlled somehow. Simply tying her up with one of Rapunzel's hair would, at best, immobilize her. The Alchemist must have had a way to...

  Rapunzel looked down at the small piece of cake. She had heard of cakes in connection to Alice before... No, not Alice, Wonderland. What little information there was, somehow always mentioned cakes. They seemed to hold some significance in that place of madness, and the alchemist they had interrogated had mentioned an artifact from Wonderland. Could it be? Rapunzel bend down and picked it up. Alice's eyes tracked the small piece of confectionary.

  ~

  Red regained consciousness with most of her bones broken. Everything hurt. She felt her chest expand and she took a lungful of air, then coughed loudly as even breathing felt heavy. Above her, a giant fist was descending once more.

  ~

  Rapunzel sat in front of Alice, one hand extending the cake towards her. "Is this what the Alchemist used? Did you eat this?"

  Alice leaned back from the cake, eyes wide. "That's where the nightmares come from."

  Rapunzel let a strand of hair touch the cake. A quick check with her poison testing puppet also didn't reveal anything dangerous, but she got the same feeling of strangeness as she did from the hair Alice was holding.

  "Can you eat this last piece?"

  Alice shook her head. "Mister Alchemist promised to protect me. I ate the cake and now he will keep the nightmares away."

  "He-" Rapunzel stopped. What good would it do to tell a traumatised little girl that she was only being manipulated? Rapunzel scooched closer. "Listen, a friend of mine is outside, fighting a monster. You can help her by eating just this little piece of cake. Could you do this? Can you be brave and eat it? I promise I'll protect you from the monsters."

  Alice looked past Rapunzel, at the far wall. "She's dying." she said sadly.

  Rapunzel's heart thundered in her chest. "You can help her... please?"

  ~

  Red came to in a world of pain. Her legs weren't healing anymore, her arms lay useless by her side. One bruised eye was open, just enough to see her death winding up for one last blow.

  Strange that. She had lived most of her life close to death, living as it each day was the last and she didn't care even if it was. But now, facing it, it all felt a bit empty. She had killed a lot of things, been attacked, chased and ambushed; always travelled, never had a home. Her earliest memories were of fleeing fire and pain. It felt a bit of an empty life. Maybe that was for the best. She had entered this world lost, without an identity, and was about to leave it with barely anything more.

  She could rest. She could be at peace.

  She no longer had to avoid mirrors for fear of seeing her own face.

  She could finally rest.

  She could rest...

  Rest...

  ...

  Fuck that!

  She knew you were supposed to die with dignity, but she wasn't done with life! She would cling to life, and struggle and claw on every second because she wasn't done. She was NOT DONE! Her hand reached out, grabbed on something solid and pulled. She managed to shift a little to the left. Abandoning the rest of her body, she concentrated her power on that one arm and started dragging herself across the ground.

  ~

  Alice saw something through the wall, her eyes going wide, and turned to look at Rapunzel.

  She reached for the dirty piece of cake. Her eyes were tearing up and she looked terrified of the thing she was putting in her mouth. Perhaps she saw something else, or perhaps it was Rapunzel who didn't see the real thing.

  As soon as Alice's mouth closed over the piece of cake, her grip over Rapunzel's lock of hair tightened. Rapunzel jerked back as power began to course from her to Alice in a violent stream. Alice's eyes were changing colors. Blue, violet, pale green streaks chased each other, the color of the aura that normally surrounded her. Rapunzel's power surged between them, but it wasn't being absorbed exactly, it was being used to form a connection. It roared and asked of Rapunzel to declare her intent.

  "Stop feeding the Alchemist!" Shouted Rapunzel through the flashes of color now surrounding them. Blues and purples mixed with her own gold. Nothing happened. "Stop feeding the elemental!" Still nothing. Alice's eyes were once more scanning the corners for unseen nightmares.

  ~

  Red dragged herself further, swearing all the way. She could hear the elemental behind her, stones grinding against stones.

  ~

  Rapunzel tried every wording she could think of to get Alice to cut her connection to the elemental. None worked. The effects of the cake were wearing off and she couldn't think of anything else. Through her connection with Alice, she felt Red fading away, as the elemental wound up a final blow. The connection faded, then snapped shut. Alice returned to normal, and sat opposite her, eyes glassy. The light in the room faded as even her hair lost some of it's shine.

  Her hair gave her one last impression, one last clue. She had misunderstood something, she needed to declare her will, but not impose it. She thought of what Alice had said, that the elemental was protecting her. But Rapunzel had already promised to protect her! Well, she had said it...

  Rapunzel drew her swords. Time had run out, it was now or never.

  ~

  A stone fist descended for one final time.

  ~

  Rapunzel threw her swords to the side, and embraced Alice. Her hair enveloped her in a warm embrace. Rapunzel said all the things she had desperately wished someone had told her when she was in the hands of Wheel.

  "Alice. I swear to you upon my power! I will protect you, I will look after you, and no harm will come to you. No nightmare will approach, no monster cross your path and no evil will dare cast it's eye upon you. No more pain, no more loneliness. You can wake up. You are safe."

  Blinding power coursed between them as Rapunzel made her oath. Blue and violet swirled around Alice as her power and Rapunzel's mixed, sealing the Promise. The lock of hair that Alice was holding on to glowed golden, then white, then blue.

  Sudden darkness fell upon the small room, as all the power vanished.

  Stillness.

  Nothing moved. Nothing.

  Even the elemental had stopped. Rapunzel squeezed a flicker of light out of the dregs of her power, and found Alice clinging on to her, eyes closed. She wouldn't let go, so Rapunzel picked her up. As she did a lightly glowing thread fell from her throat. Rapunzel's missing hair.

  With a pull, it easily came loose from the wall. It swayed in the air, then jumped up and reconnected to the severed hair on her head as if it were never cut. A wave of calm went through her as the power that had been unstable for over 10 years stabilized. Rapunzel took a deep breath and cast her senses outwards. They were deep in the inert elemental, but she felt two people moving outside.

  One was climbing out of a higher point in the elemental, the other, presumably Red, was crawling against the ground a fair distance away. The one on the elemental slowly climbed down its side, slipping and sliding on it's way down. Over the next few minutes it made it down to the ground, where Red was staggering towards them. The two figures met, then only one continued towards them.

  Vibrations carried through the stone and marked the progress of someone digging their way towards them. About a quarter of an hour later, they were getting really close. Rapunzel had gathered her swords, though she could only wield one with Alice still hanging off her.

  Thump, Thump, CRACK

  A claw punched through the wall, and ripped out a chuck of stone. Red's sweaty, bloody, grimy but still grinning face appeared in the opening. "Hiya slacker! Finally done here? I was getting bored outside."

  She ripped out another chunk. "Found the Alchemist dude by the way."

  "What happened?"

  "Oh, he's, like, really really dead. Like, super- Like, I'm not sure I ever killed anyone as much as I did him." said Red with a strange sense of pride, or maybe relief.

  "How did you find us?"

  "There were tiny air holes leading here. It's how I could smell them before." Red stuck her head through the growing hole and leaned closer to Alice, who stared back with wide eyes.

  Alice's eyes had flickers of violet surfacing out of pale blue, her clothes and hair were a mess, but she was doing pretty well for what she had been through.

  "You're... strange" said Red after giving Alice a sniff.

  "Red!" admonished Rapunzel.

  "What? It's true. So.. no walking calamity anymore?"

  "Not at the moment it seems." said Rapunzel staring daggers at the indelicate warewolf.

  Alice whispered something. Rapunzel leaned down to listen. "What was that?"

  "I'm strange." said Alice.

  Rapunzel threw another look at Red. "No, no. Don't listen to Red, she's just being... ehm." Rapunzel jerked her head at Red to speak.

  Red pulled out another piece of wall and kicked her way through the rest of the way. She sat down to eye level with Alice. "Kid, I'm going to level with you. You're strange." Then she smiled wide. "And that's great! It's the best!"

  Alice mirrored her smile. "I'm Strange!" she said with confidence. Neither Red or Rapunzel noticed the inflection she said it with until much later.

  They crawled out of the tunnel Red had dug to a scene of shocking quiet. The missing sound of grinding stone and booming explosions was deafening. The trashed city spread before them, dark. To the relatively intact south, street lanterns dotted twisting roads and thoroughfares. Above, a clear sky glowed with a scintillating display of stars. The Farmer's Scythe, a dense cluster of stars curved above them, competing with the moon for brightness. Rapunzel, Alice and Red slowly made their way down the hill of stone. Mounds of stone piled high stretched across the north city, seeming to protest they were ever part of the disaster that had struck.

  Rapunzel spotted something behind a boulder. It was the Alchemist. She would recognize that face anywhere! As she took a few more steps and more of him was revealed, she quickly turned Alice away and she herself averted her gaze. As Red had put it, he was really really dead. She imagined Red had been annoyed, irritated, one might even say piqued at almost dying. What was the phrase? Pull a wolf's tail, it's your own damn fault if you get mauled? Something like that...

  Rapunzel walked through the rubble, and couldn't keep a smile off her face. She stretched her neck until it popped. She felt good. Whole in a way she hadn't since that fateful day at the laboratory. She held Alice's right hand, Red holding Alice's other. Sure the city was thrashed, but that wasn't her problem. She wasn't a hero. Let them who want to deal with it.

  "So, where are we headed?" asked Red. "I recommend leaving before anyone tries to make us pay for the damages."

  Rapunzel hummed in agreement. "Hey Alice, do you want to come with me and Red?"

  Alice looked up at them, a thoughtful expression on her features.

  "We're going on an adventure!" said Red with a big smile.

  Alice smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

  The three figures walked around the ruins of a manor and were gone. The city sat, quiet and peaceful. The residents would soon return, and the rebuilding would be a massive undertaking, but for now, the city of Thyrsusstein was silent, under a million brilliant stars.

  I wrote the first draft using the sailor hocoro dip pen and different inks depending on the chapter.

  Inks

  Ch. 1: Sailor Studio 123, which has the colors of Alice's shimmer, blue, purple and green.

  Ch. 2: Oxblood by Diamine, a deep red, for obvious reasons.

  Ch. 3&4: Helianthus by Rohrer & Klinger, a light yellow, matching Rapunzel's hair.

  Ch. 5: Cherry Blossom by Robert Oster. Wanted a fresher feel to the chapter, as a contrast to the drama of the previous chapters. The pale purple is a nice relaxing color.

  Ch. 6&7: Writer's Blood by Diamine. Things get violent again, and the dark purple is a nice progression from the lighter purple of the previous chapter.

  Ch. 8: Master of Puppets. Not being subtle here. A dark red with a yellow shimmer.

  Ch. 9&10: November Rain. Dark green-blue with a red sheen, it's a refreshing and calming end to the story, yet still tinged by the violence.