Authoress Note: Okay folks, I apologize for the extremely long delay. I went through a huge bout of writer's block, but I think I'm back now. I wanted to get back on track with the story because I truly wanted to finish it. I never exactly finished the other stories that I've written on this series because, well frankly, I thought they all sucked diddly squat.

Enough about that: point is, I'm back. Yay! Let's move on!

I'll respond to reviews next chapter. I don't have time to answer them all for this one. Heheh, Sorry guys. Promise, next chapter. I haven't forgotten about you..

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Disclaimer 1: I do not own the Legacy of Kain series or its characters. Legacy of Kain is owned by Crystal Dynamics, Edios, and Amy Hening.

Disclaimer 2: If you note an idea of Alice in Wonderland hinting in this fanfiction, it does not belong to me, it is owned by Lewis Carroll.

Disclaimer 3: I have my own original characters that belong to me (Madame Hatter, Mistress Hare, and ect). Please do not steal them.

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The travel through the rest of the fortress proved utterly challenging. Kain had not felt his hunger so greatly before. Each time he moved to kill another warrior that damned cat had dispatched them before he could.

Chevalier would often lick his fingers clean of blood and grin at Kain. "Oh? I'm sorry, did you want to kill that one?"

"If it has not occurred to you all ready, I will have to feed at some point." Kain grit his teeth and clenched the Reaver very tightly in his hand. "I am a vampire after all."

"Aww…but that's not any fun." Chevalier meowed. "You see, to me, the need to feed from these weaklings is pointless. Now, Mr. Kainy-kins-"

"Stop. Right there." Kain said, pointing the Reaver at him. "I will not answer to such absurd names bestowed upon me as such." He growled. "Do not do it again."

"Or WHAT?" Chevalier hissed, pressing his chest at the blade's tip. "You'll cut my fucking head off again? Oh! Oh! No, no, no. You don't think that will do any good. Why I'll just pull myself back together again." His tail was swishing back and forth in a taunting manner.

The foully annoying beast was right. If Kain tried to slay him again, who knows how often he could pull himself back together. Hacking Chevalier up seemed like a pointless idea, but…

That tail…

Kain glanced at it and his brow cocked. "Your tail…it's an interesting shade of lavender." His compliment was false but Chevalier seemed dumb enough to actually believe it. Kain seemed surprise.

"Oh?! Really! Do you like it? It's my pride and joy really-YAAAH!"

With one swipe of the Reaver, Kain had sliced it off and suddenly pulled it back towards him with his telekinetic pull. "Now!" He snarled. "You will stop these silly games of yours and let me kill and feed as I please. Should you fail to do so I might do something…terrible to your pride and joy."

"Not…not Sasha…" Chevalier's eyes widened and he plopped down on the floor, yowling and rolling around in an immature fashion. "Ohhh! You bully! Don't you dare hurt my baby! That's mine! OHHH! You'll be so sorry if you even-"

"Oh? Will I?" Kain tightened his hold on it and the appendage writhed frantically in his claws.

"AAAAH!" Chevalier whined. "Sashaaaaaa!"

"Now…will you allow me to feed without anymore hassle? I'd rather the blood be spilt by my hands and consumed than scattered and splattered for naught."

Chevalier sat up and crossed his arms in front of him. "Finnnnnne. Be that way. Now gimme." He held his hand out.

"Oh no, I think 'Sasha' will have to overstay its welcome until I am satisfied with my feeding."

"YOU BASTARD! I HATE YOU! OOH! You're not any fun at all!"

"Fun is nowhere within my vocabulary." Kain smirked.

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When all of the members at the table were seated once more, Raziel was continually glared at from Harlequin Hatter at the head of the table.

"Oh don't look that way Madame…" Reginald said softly. "It really was for the best. We all had to agree." He insisted. "You were being quite brash and-"

"Silence. More tea." Harlequin's cup was held up in the air and her scowl remained. Henrietta was scratching the top of her head.

Reginald immediately obeyed, rushing out of the room and returning a few moments later with an extremely large tray with several ceramic teacups and kettles all set on the table.

Vorador looked on with uncertainty. The incident had left him stunned into silence and he preferred to not speak unless he wanted to risk his head again. Vorador was all too aware that the Mad Tea Party members were by no means mortal.

"You know Harley, as much of an asshole as this guy is," The Hare woman jabbed her thumb in Raziel's direction. "I think he did the right thing in kind of stopping you. Haha. I mean, yaou didn't want me drop kicking you through a wall." She joked.

"As if you could…" Harlequin seethed.

"Let's not start." Henrietta said through clenched teeth.

"Mr. Raziel, you wanted some tea?" Delmont offered, picking up a sugar bowl instead of a cup.

"Wrong object, Del." Reginald corrected him politely.

Delmont ran his fingers over the sugar bowl and laughed softly. "Oh, my. So it is."

"Are you sure you should not be worried about your sight, Mr. Dormouse?" Vorador asked curiously.

"Well, everybody makes mistakes." Delmont explained, picking up a spoon and felt Reginald set a cup in front of him. "Oh! Is today 'Find the Spice in the Tea' day?" He asked.

"No…" Harlequin muttered.

Delmont's ears twitched and they drooped slightly. "Oh…that is so much fun. I do like that game."

"Ahem." Raziel said to get the party's attention once more. "I'm not one that has too much patience here. Could you explain in more detail of what exactly you are doing here?"

"Well…" Reginald set a cup of tea in front of Raziel, and watched as Raziel pushed it away.

"Hm? But…it's chamomile." The rabbit man said, somewhat confused. "It's delicious."

"No…thank you. I…don't consume human amenities." He explained.

"Oh…sorry." Reginald apologized, picking the teacup back up. "Mr. Vorador?"

"What do you think?" The elder vampire asked, arms crossed and brow cocked.

"Oh. Almost forgot." Reginald's ears drooped and Henrietta snapped her fingers several times.

"Hellooooo! Been waitin'! Why don't we give me the damn cup instead of the guys that don't want it?" She snapped.

"She's always like this. We're cousins." Reginald grinned at Raziel. "Bless her heart."

"Oh please…" Harlequin still seemed to be in a bad mood.

"You don't take losing well do you?" Raziel asked her.

"Hm. I can handle losing just fine…I don't appreciate being told I'm being a poor host." Harlequin stirred her tea around, her scowl still evident. "I'm a very good host I'll have you know."

"You suck." Henrietta joked.

"Oh come off it!" Harlequin hissed.

"Jesus, take a joke." Henrietta laughed, Delmont shaking his head. And his ears twitched again.

"So, Mr. Raziel…shall we get back on the topic of what we are doing here?" Delmont asked.

"That would…be helpful." Raziel said, awkwardly because Delmont had his head directed towards the ceiling.

"How's the weather?" Vorador asked.

"Oh…the same as it was when we started the poker game. Rainy. Thunder. Occasional showers throughout the rest of the day and part of the evening." He shrugged.

'So…he is a seer of sorts.' Raziel pondered.

"Oh. I am." Delmont turned his head in Raziel's direction and winked. "I'm wonderful with occasional thought reading too."

"How did you-" Raziel seemed baffled.

"Well, these ears aren't just for show." Delmont chuckled, touching one of them. "Of course, Mr. Vorador's are."

The elder vampire grit his teeth. "Oh. Ha. Very funny."

"I thought it was." Delmont chuckled, in good humor. "Come now, humor is a good thing to have."

"I don't like jokes very much…" Raziel muttered. "May we continue?"

"Ah, yes."

"No." Henrietta said sarcastically, sipping her jasmine tea.

"Who asked you?" Harlequin snapped.

"Harley, we're not gonna fight about this. You're just pissed because we all told you like it was."

"Well, I didn't appreciate it very much-"

"ENOUGH!" Raziel pounded a fist on the table and made a reasonable dent in the wood.

"AH!" Reginald jumped back slightly. "Oohh. That's such fine wood too." He whimpered.

"Well, Mr. Raziel, I must say, you're temper is quite…ah. It's of no importance." Delmont waved a hand dismissively of the topic. "Anyways, our presence here is quite unexpected. You see we're…unusual mercenaries of sort. We've apparently got ourselves an agenda of revenge."

"Small world." Raziel mumbled somewhat in reference to Kain, cracking his claws slightly. "Do go on."

"Well…at least in Madame's perspective it is revenge. Etta's too you see." He explained. "As to who we are after, I'm afraid they have yet to reveal themselves yet. Obviously it is too soon for me to tell. I may be a seer of sorts, but I'm not one that can tell the future all the time."

"But you foresaw my arrival." Raziel said, cocking his head to the side.

"Far away future is what I cannot tell, not the near future. Your arrival was inevitable anyways." He stirred his tea around and turned his head towards Raziel. "I'm brilliant, but not that brilliant."

"He's great at poker." Vorador grinned.

"My poker face is wonderful." Delmont sighed in fondness of his ability.

"He cheats and he knows it." Henrietta frowned.

"It still doesn't answer my question to your group being here. I didn't expect your…'party' to be so small." Raziel said, looking upon the party members.

"Well…there is one other…" Harlequin sighed. "He's never on time. Lazes about like he has all of the time in the world."

"Meow." Vorador mocked.

Harlequin glared at him. "He is my cat to treat him as I please. You will not refer to him in such a manner." She warned.

"Well he certainly is…something." Vorador scoffed. "He's whatever he feels like being."

"So one of your members is missing in action?" Raziel questioned. "Why has he not introduced himself yet?"

"He's in another time." Reginald explained. "I…had to transport him." He cleared his throat nervously.

"Time travel?!" Raziel rose to his feet immediately. "You have the ability to time travel?"

"Well…um…" Reginald scratched the back of his head. "Yes and no…I-"

"I assume this is the device?" Raziel grabbed at Reginald's pocket-watch attachment at his collar. He looked on in fascination of the instrument.

"AAH! Please! Don't touch that! I've got to be on time for everything and I can't have it removed!" He pulled it away from Raziel and hid behind Delmont's chair.

"It's…very complicated to explain my need and use of it. I…don't know how I use it very well really. I just know that I do use it and it's one of my special abilities."

"He turns the times on the table and the table turns upside down on the hourglass." Delmont sang softly before shaking himself back to the current situation. "Sorry about that. I seemed to have been out of it briefly. Hm."

"But, only Moebius the time streamer has that ability and the capability to do such a thing." Raziel informed. "Have you been allied with him?"

"Pffft! AHA! Ahaaahaaa!" Henrietta began bursting out in obnoxious laughter. "That old coot?! Are you fucking serious?! AHAHA!!"

"Etta, your vocabulary is terrible." Harlequin sighed, disgusted with her friend's use of language.

She looked back up at Raziel and rolled her eyes at Henrietta. "To answer your question, we are in league with no one and certainly not one that we have heard so much about. Deceitful creature really."

"I thought little old people were supposed to be nosy and annoying, and they gave you cookies when you came to visit them if they were your neighbors." Reginald assumed innocently.

"What?" Vorador and Raziel said in confused unison.

"No, stupid. This guy's like the pedophile next-door that you want to stab to death until you feel good enough to stop over killing him." Henrietta composed herself.

"But that's not how I remember old folks." Reginald said softly.

"Oh…you're not so familiar with Nosgoth standards of old fools are you?" Vorador asked him.

"Can you tell Harlequin knows more than I do?" Reginald laughed in embarrassment.

Raziel found nothing humorous in reference to Moebius, and Henrietta's interpretation of what she could have planned to do with him seemed little more…than what Raziel could think of.

He was staring at her again and Henrietta balled her fist and held it up so that he could see it. "You wanna eat fist?"

Raziel didn't answer her, only turned his head back to Harlequin, who was more or less still in a very unpleasant mood. Well, better her mood than that…rabbit-eared woman.

Despite Henrietta's foul and unpleasant demeanor, Vorador's interest in her was clearly the same as it had been during the poker game. There was really no change.

Vorador's attention was quickly drawn away when he suddenly felt something hot and unpleasant being poured over his head. Harlequin had deliberately stood from her seat, grabbed one of the teapots on the table, and poured it over Vorador's head.

Reginald's jaw dropped and Delmont pursed his lips in silence.

"Ohh…that good tea." Reginald whimpered.

"Ahe,. Well played Madame." The seer cleared his throat nervously.

"GRAAAH!"

"Eyes forward, Mr. Vorador." She said coldly, slamming the teapot down and strolling back towards her chair.

Vorador's patience was wearing thinner by the moment and the fact Harlequin had so boldly insulted him in such a way was not helping to lighten his mood.

Raziel mentally noted to not stare at either one of the two females even if it was in the event of dazing off. "You were…continuing, Madame." He said in reminder of the situation.

"I'm aware." Harlequin said in a steely tone. She picked up the same teapot she had dumped over Vorador's head and added more of the liquid substance to a cup in front of her.

"What…are you exactly?" Raziel questioned, watching her movements cautiously.

"We are…what we became. How we became what we are…well, that's beyond us." Harlequin explained. "We are human in some aspects, yet we are not in others." She sipped her tea.

"But you are not vampires?"

"No. But I suppose we must have been associated with them at some point. At least…that's what fragmented memories of mine are able to piece together. Something about 'enemy race will never know what hit them'." Delmont shrugged. "Either way, Mr. Raziel. Do you like poker?"

"That's not relevant to the topic…" Harlequin grumbled. "Why ask him that Delmont?"

"Yes, why ask that of me?" Raziel looked at Delmont quizzically and his response was a smirk from the little man.

"Well, your own origins fascinate me. You're not vampire but the same genetics run through your body; like us in a sense. It's intriguing. I'll tell you what, why don't you and I play a little game of poker. You tell me information about yourself. I'm intrigued and I like learning new things. I seem to be more and more disinterested in Mr. Vorador's library every day."

"I don't trust your intentions. I have no reason to trust any of you." Raziel seemed apprehensive.

"Well, tell you what. You can ask any questions of me and I'll be happy to answer."

"You believe that will my mind about your intentions?"

"No. I'm merely asking…that you enjoy just enjoy yourself for even a short amount of time. As the saying goes…"

"Saying?"

"Carpe Diem. You must seize the day for what it is worth. Even for the little moments that seem insignificant."

Delmont's words had some wisdom to them and he did seem to be only one out of the group actually willing to answer his questions. So…

"Deal the cards…"

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Authoress Note: Well that was certainly an interesting chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed it after such a long wait. Thanks for your patience. I truly appreciate it and I once again apologize for it. Read, Enjoy, and Review. Thanks!