Chapter Text
With the twins (Yuna and Yuma)
“Well that would be a first…” Yuna said, looking at the direction Ace left. “I was hoping he would fall for it.” He continued.
“Maybe he is the right Alice.” Yuma said. They both looked at each other for a few moments before shrugging it off and began to wander in the forest again.
—
At NRC
It felt strange. Not having Ace around, it didn’t feel right. It almost felt dull, like there was nothing there anymore. At least, that’s how it mostly felt for the first years. But, no one could really blame them. Ace is who created most of the chaos and trouble with the first years. But they all still appreciated him, even if he was mostly the one getting all of them in trouble.
They had fun, and that’s what matters, right? And, sure, Riddle did get angry and annoyed a lot with him, but he still liked him. He enjoyed the presence of the unbearable first year.
But without Ace, everything felt…
Empty.
—
It was now after classes and the first years, Cater and Trey were looking through the library to see if there was any way to find Ace or at least contact him. Riddle wasn’t able to join due to a Housewarden meeting.
“Nothing, nothing…” Deuce groaned. He roughly put the book back in its place and went to sit down on one of the desks.
Trey saw that he was frustrated and put the book he was reading down and went toward him.
“Deuce, I promise we’ll find something that will lead to Ace. I know he’s your friend and that you care a ton about him.” He smiled at Deuce while putting a hand on his shoulder for comfort.
Deuce looked at him with a frustrated and stressed expression. Ace was his friend. Maybe even more if possible. They may have had their ups and downs and they fought a lot, but they still cared for each other. Yes, Ace was a complete dick and ass, but he had his own reasons. Even if he did act like that for no reason, he knew when he was in the wrong. Ace may not admit it but he is self aware.
And Deuce admired that, that Ace was just able to speak his mind without a care. He even punched the housewarden. Not worried of the consequences that would happen. If deuce ever got frustrated or someone got him annoyed, he would just let his anger take over and fight to prove he was right. But, he promised himself he wouldn’t do it ever again. For the sake of him. For the sake of his mom.
“I’m just worried…” He answered back. “What if Ace is in danger? What if he gets injured? Or worse, what if his life is at risk.”
Trey stopped smiling and looked at Deuce with concern.
“He’s strong, I’m sure if there was anything heading toward his way, he would take care of it.” Trey was at least trying to get Deuce to become optimistic.
Soon, the library door was being opened. Everyone turned and stepped over to see who had entered.
“We have some visitors that would like to see you.” The red headed housewarden said.
Deuce got up quickly and Trey sighed.
Everyone began to follow Riddle to the front of the school.
—
As they walked out, they saw two figures standing in front of Crowley. The taller one was practically yelling at the crow, mostly out of frustration.
The other figure saw the group and tapped the other’s shoulder.
“Mr.Trappola, these three are my dorm mates, and these are first years, also friends of Ace.” Riddle introduced.
One had walked up to the group, specifically closer to Deuce.
“You’re Deuce Spade, right? Ace liked to talk about you a lot y’know.” The older smiled, almost the same way Ace had. “I’m black Jack, you can just call me Jack if you’d like. Or whatever works best.”
Deuce nodded and gave a small smile.
“I’m Ace’s older brother. That’s our dad, Baccara.” Black Jack motioned to the man next to Crowley.
He calmed down and waved to the group. He and the head aged walked over.
“I need someone to explain this situation to me. Someone who saw it firsthand.” He said, looking at the students.
“Uh, I can explain. I was there when Ace disappeared.” Deuce began to explain exactly what happened with a few nods and sounds of agreement with the first years until the part where they ran into the forest.
Baccara nodded. “If only I had known sooner.” He muttered to himself.
“I would like to mention that Ace was practically acting #strange the entire week.” Cater chimed in.
“Kinda runs in the family, always got some sort of nonsense happening in our brain.” Jack laughed.
Bacarrá just sighed. “He likes to say that but really it’s just how Ace was. Always so curious and thought about a world of his own.”
“I have a question, how did you know about the problem?” Epel said, raising an eyebrow.
The two older men look at the shorter.
“We got a letter in riddlish and mentioned something about Ace and his disappearance.” Blackjack mentioned.
“In riddlish?” Jack questioned. He didn’t quite understand what BlackJack had meant by “in riddlish.”
“It’s an old type of Queendom of Roses language that was sometimes used from the people during the Queen of Hearts rule. Mostly used by the Mad Hatter and the March Hare.” Trey explained. “I’ve heard it before but never took the chance in learning. You could say it’s similar to Morse code in a way.”
Jack nodded, understanding the concept now.
“Yeah, I’ve heard it’s pretty hard to learn since a word could have a #huge ton of meanings.” Cater wrapped his arm around Trey’s shoulder, smiling. Trey just nodded in confirmation.
“My mother had me study its origin and history but never took the time for me to learn it as it would get me behind in my studies.” Riddle mentioned.
“Yeah, it can take a while to learn but it isn’t as hard as some make it seem. You just gotta know how to word it correctly.” Blackjack advised.
“If we are done speaking of riddlish, I would like to get back to Ace and his disappearance.” Bacarra said sternly.
The other Trappola shrugged.
“We actually got a note as well, though I don’t think it is Riddlish but it does have a riddle on it.” Deuce mentioned. “Sebek, you took it with you to show Lilia, do you still have it?”
“I CERTAINLY DO!” Sebek yelled out.
“Be quiet, or else it’s off with your head!” Riddle said, irritated with the loud one.
“DO NOT TELL ME TO QUIET DOWN, HUMAN!” Sebek snapped back.
“Sebek, the note!” Deuce yelled, not wanting to be kept waiting.
The green haired glared at him and gave the note.
Deuce grabbed it and gave it to BlackJack, who began to read it.
“Why is a raven like a writing desk…” He read out loud. He narrowed his eyes and continued to reread the question.
“Well,” he looked at the group of students. “Why’s a raven like a writing desk?” He repeated, smiling.
They all looked at each other and began to think.
“It isn’t possible to answer such a ridiculous question.” Riddle crossed his arms.
“If you’re adding logic to it.” Black looked at Deuce.
Deuce looked at the ground trying to think of any possible answer. But Riddle was right, there is no answer.
“If you’re adding logic…”
That replayed in his head until it finally clicked. “They both make notes. That’s the answer.” Deuce said out loud.
Blackjack clapped his hands. “Wonderful, now where is the nearest writing desk that makes notes?”
They all looked at Yuu.
They just sighed. ‘Why is it always my dorm with all the weird stuff?’
“I have an old writing desk in my dorm. The ghosts said before I moved in, the area around it used to be really noisy and active.” Yuu mentioned.
“Wonderful! Lead us to your dorm then!” Bacarra said.
Yuu nodded and led them to Ramshackle dorm. Trey, Riddle, and Cater need to leave due to dorm duties and the unbirthday party happening soon.
As they all entered the dorm, BlackJack looked around and saw how different it looked than from when he was in NRC.
“I see you’ve cleaned the place up. Last time I was here, it was all dusty and there were cobwebs everywhere.” He smiled and looked at Yuu.
“I’m wondering why you wanna even go to that writing desk, all I know is that it is older than the dorm itself.” They questioned.
“Well, it’s not specifically the writing desk. Another thing when I was here, all third years that were graduating would grab old stuff from their dorms and leave ‘em inside a closet or room in this dorm since no one used it in years.” Jack began to wander the dorm and found the room the desk was in.
Yuu raised an eyebrow and looked at the first years who shrugged. They just decided to not ask and just figure out later.
Bacarra was look at Black Jack search through the desk, making sure he wasn’t also snooping into other private things.
“Found it!” He exclaimed, holding a diary of some sort.
“What is that?” Epel asked walking closer and taking it in his hands. He opened the book seeing a name on the first page.
“Jack Heart?” Epel raised an eyebrow. “I thought your last name was Trappola.”
“It is. That’s my cousin, he went here before me, pretty sure he is four years older than me or something.” Black took the book back and began to skim through some pages until he stopped on a page.
“Here we go. When he was hired to work in the amusement park!” He smiled reading through the entry.
“What does a stupid park have to do with anything!” Sebek yelled, thinking all of this was complete nonsense.
“He was only there for like what? Four years? He completely left after, saying something about having to return home.” Jack continued reading the entry and then the next.
“I found it in the house warden's room when I became a housewarden. I decided to leave it here for Ace to read, but I guess it never crossed my mind about a magicless student coming and fixing the whole place.” He laughed to himself.
Yuu felt uncomfortable and slightly offended by the statement. But, it’s not like anyone would’ve ever guessed either. Considering everyone’s reaction in the beginning of their time here, it’s practically a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“Jack was from his mother’s side of the family.” Bacarra smiled, remembering how much fun it had been with his wife.
“He was the one who usually was the entertainment for Black Jack’s and Ace’s birthdays.”
“Where’d he get his bitchy and ass personality from then?” Epel said, grinning. Jack elbowed him, being replied with an “Ow!”
Bacarra looked at him and raised an eyebrow. Blackjack bursted out laughing.
“Ace probably got that from Jack, too. Jack always had some sort attitude with his friends and stuff.”
Bacarra grabbed the diary and skimmed through the pages that Jack was reading. “The last day.” He read out loud as he was reading.
“Today was the day me and the other recruiters would leave. It’s kinda sad how we had to leave so soon. It was fun interacting with new people, messing around with Veil, and more. And, I will miss my cousins after I leave. Maybe one day I could find them again. But for now, it’s good to say I will most definitely, with the other recruiters, come back to twisted wonderland. This world of nonsense is my home, but that other world is where I want to be. And of course Ms.S̶c̶a̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ and the other hosts as well.”
He finished reading the entry and closed the book, putting it back on the desk.
“That didn’t help at all on where Ace is.” Jack sat down and sighed.
“Well, maybe it did, maybe it didn’t.” Yuu said, trying to at least give some hope.
Deuce sat down and groaned in annoyance. He thought that all of this was stupid. The letter was stupid, the book was stupid. Ace was a complete idiot.
“Place of nonsense, huh? Sounds like a place that Ace would want to be in.” Epel said, remembering how Ace would sometimes mumble stuff about a world of his own.
That’s when it clicked in Yuu’s head. Ace was Alice. He was the one who followed the rabbit and fell down into a rabbit whole of nonsense. That place of nonsense that was mentioned in the diary was “Wonderland!”
Everyone looked at them in confusion.
“Wonderland, that could be where Ace is. It’s practically a whole entire kingdom of nonsense. Are there any books related to that name or its history?” Jack smiled and nodded.
“There were only very few books in the Heartslabyul dorm on that sort of history though. It was during the Queen of Heart’s reign that I believe that it has the most history.”
“Then, let’s at least try and find something that could lead us to Ace.” Deuce looked at Yuu, a bit of doubt still in his eyes.
Yuu looked back, a stern expression with hope to give. Deuce sighed and stood up.
“Let’s hope you’re right.” Deuce gave a soft smile and so did Yuu in return.
—
“Painting the roses red, painting the roses red…” He sang as he was holding a wet paint brush that had red all over. Painting roses that were white into red as to not anger the Queen.
He stopped as he heard two bird beastmen coming through the rose maze. He turned and saw Jillian and Joe.
“Jillian! Joe! What brings you to the Queen’s rose maze?” He asked the two.
“The new Alice has arrived. He’s already finished the first few challenges.” Joe explained, a grin on his face.
“Another Alice already?! It’s been forever since we had another Alice.” He laughed.
“I’m quite sure he’s already headed across Mary Ann’s house.” Jillian said.
“As a matter of fact, he looked quite similar to you. Maybe taller though.” Joe snickered.
“Haha, very funny.” The other stopped smiling and rolled his eyes.
“Wait, he looks like me?” The other raised an eyebrow as he looked at the two winged people.
“Yea, he even had a heart mark on his right eye just like you.” Jillian put a hand on her hip.
He narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment. He then began to smile again.
“What a coincidence! Well, you both might wanna report to the Queen now, while she isn’t in one of her temper tantrums.” He whispered the last part and all three laughed.
“Bye, Jack!” “Have a good day!” They both said before going back on the path to the Queen’s palace.
Jack waved back and got back to work.
“Looks like me…I wonder…”