[[A/N: Well, currently I'm watching the VMAs 2009 and I have the swine flu!!! Ugh! Apparently, my school has an epidemic of it and I caught it. What does that mean for an aspiring writer? One-shot out of boredom! This has nothing to do with the anime. But what happens to everyone when Oz's seal makes a full revolution?]]
[[2nd A/N: I don't own the Pandora Hearts characters. I own the plot.]]
--
Two people watched from the safety of the roof as the street before them became a warzone. Oz watched placidly as Alice attacked the fifth Chain that night. His chest beat painfully with every pound of his heart. But he didn't show it.
The Vessalius heir knew that Gil probably knew something was up. But he wasn't going to put a burden on his best friend's mind.
"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Alice screamed, whipping her scythe in a whirlwind pattern, her blood red rabbit eyes glinting with a devastating bloodlust. The Chain growled, skittering back on hind legs resembling something from a horse and a kangaroo. A man stood several feet behind it, a tortured, maniacal glare focusing on Alice.
"Stupid rabbit!" Gil yelled over the noise of crunching bricks. "DOES IT HAVE A SHARD OF YOUR MEMORIES OR NOT!?"
Alice chuckled, but in her Chain form, it sounded more like a gargled squeal. She studied her opponent for a second. "NO!" she shouted. "YOUR USELESS!" She leapt forward with a renewed vigor. "USELESS PIECE OF S%&#!" Her speed picked up until Oz was barely able to see her movements. She tackled straight into the Chain, digging the tip of the scythe into its head.
Oz stiffened. The pain in his chest suddenly increased.
"Oz? What's wrong?" Gil asked worriedly, clutching his master's shoulder protectively.
Ugh. Not now. Please. Not now, Oz thought desperately. But to Gil, he smiled just as he would any other day. "Nothing is. It's just really late."
Gil's eyebrows scrunched together. He knew his master well enough to see a lie and a truth. But he didn't press.
"ARGAHHHHH!"
Oz and Gil looked down over the roof to see the illegal contractor collapse in shock, his hands clutching his chest. Before him was a large, black hole. The deformed Chain's body was already half submerged into the Abyss. Black tendrils coiled around its limbs, writing upward. Oz shuddered. His mind drifted back to the flower girl he had met so many months earlier.
Will it hurt? She looked like she was in pain, Oz mused to himself.
"This is so frustrating," Alice complained, tapping her foot impatiently against the broken cobbled street. It was almost comical to compare her small, dainty foot to the massive rabbit footprint embedded into the sidewalk next to her. "We haven't found anything yet!"
Oz nodded, his grin easily masking his pain and fear. He had to admit: it wasn't hard. He had a lot of practice in hiding his own sadness.
"Shall we go back then?" he suggested, tugging Gil towards the fire escape down. "Back home?" He turned towards the edge of the roof.
A wave of pain spread sharply through his chest and to the tips of his fingers. Oz coughed harshly, tripping. The ground got closer and closer…really, really fast. Then there was darkness.
--
Oz groaned. Had it really happened? Had he really been sucked into the Abyss? He shuddered to think about what he would encounter again.
"Oz, you're awake!" Ada Vessalius put her small hand on her brother's arm. She sat calmly beside his bed in a chair. "We were so worried."
At first, the boy didn't know what to feel. He could feel relief his time as a contractor wasn't up, but also the anger that all that pain was for nothing. But for Ada, he didn't express any of his feelings. "Where are Alice and Gil?" Oz smiled and propped himself up against his pillows. The pain in his chest was still there – like a someone had drilled a hole in his ribs or something.
Ada got up and walked over to the vanity in the corner. A large, silver bowl with the Vessalius crest emblazoned onto the side was filled with water. "They're in the parlor. They seemed very worried about something." She took a towel off the wall rack and wet it gently. She sighed and returned to her brother's side.
"Oz, is something up?" she asked nervously. She handed the cloth to her brother. "They…were talking about the illegal Contractors."
Oz froze. So maybe they are catching on, he thought softly. "Ada, can I have some time to myself?" he asked innocently.
Ada nodded. "Of course, brother." She gave Oz a look that he couldn't read. It looked like…sadness and disappointment.
The instant the door clicked shut, Oz tossed off his covers and ran over towards the mirror. He quickly unbuttoned his shirt enough to reveal his chest.
Right above his heart was the black, intricate clock design; his Contractor seal. The pattern was completely filled in. The needle pointed at the top. Oz frowned. Why hadn't he been pulled into the Abyss?
Oz touched the mark gently but immediately pulled his hand back, recoiling in surprise. The seal was vibrating.
"What is going on?" Oz wondered, mystified by his seal. He squinted down at the needle. "Whoa." The tip of the needle was tilting back and forth between the second-to-last and last notch on the clock, like a weight scale that wasn't quite balanced.
"Oz?"
Oz spun around. He hadn't even heard Alice and Gil come in. His eyes widened in shock. His friends were looking at him in shock, their eyes flickering between his face and the clearly visible seal.
"Your seal," Alice whispered. Her mouth twitched with anger. "You didn't tell us how far it had moved."
Oz opened his mouth to speak, but Gil cut him off. "Oz, why didn't you tell us?" The servant's golden eyes were shining with guilt. "Why?"
Oz shook his head. "I don't know."
There was an awkward silence between the two.
"THAT'S IT!" Alice exclaimed, startling Oz and Gil. "I just won't use my powers anymore."
Oz shook his head, astounded at the idea. "No way. You have to find your memories."
"I can find them without turning into B-Rabbit," Alice scoffed. Her usually cold eyes gazed warmly into Oz's. "So please don't stress about this."
--
A couple months went by. Oz, now sixteen years old, laid in bed. His emerald eyes skimmed over the book in his hand. He wasn't really reading it. Something about a girl trying to fight her fate.
"This is depressing," he muttered. The window across the room let the summer breeze float in. Oz smiled. He could smell the warm scents of pine trees and tonight's dinner from the kitchen below.
"Oz? I'm coming in." Gil entered the room. He looked exactly the same: golden eyes, "seaweed head," and a pitch-black gun and duster combo.
"Hey, Gil," Oz said. "What's up?"
"Just visiting. Alice sent a message. She says her search hasn't turned up anything in the east, but she is still trying."
"That's good…"
Gil looked off towards the window. The city could just be seen over the foresty horizon. He sighed. "Look I know you may be bored with this, but you'll be safer longer."
"Why? Is it worth it? " Oz's voice was wispy with wonder. He had asked himself that question every day since the confrontation in the bedroom.
Gil didn't understand. "What do you mean?"
Oz smiled his usual carefree grin. He hopped up off the bed. Gil moved quickly to support his master. Oz pushed him away. "I'm a fully grown, male teenager, Gil. I should be out there with Alice."
"Don't push yourself too hard. It can start the revolution cycle again," Gil warned.
Oz laughed. "This is so…I want to help again."
"You know you can't. Alice won't let you."
Oz frowned. "She doesn't exactly have a choice in this, Gil." The dark haired servant looked down at his left hand. Oz tapped his chest. "It still hurts. Everday."
"The needle will finish the revolution if you release even a bit of the stupid rabbit's power."
"Perhaps, that's what I want."
Gil stiffened. "You want to go to the Abyss?"
"Maybe if I do, I can finally find the answers to my questions," Oz snapped.
"And the Will of the Abyss?"
Oz smiled. "She holds the answers." He inhaled deeply and strode over to the window. He hopped onto the ledge and swung his legs over. His bright, green eyes scanned the forest below. "Can you please let me rebel a little, Gil?"
--
Oz ran fast. Thank god there was a fluffy bush to break his leap.
"OZ COME BACK!" Gil shouted from the window.
"I'll be right back!" Oz called. "Just going out for a run! I need to stretch!" The smell of pines wafted up his nose. "Being cooped up in the house really does something…"
His heart pounded hard. After ten minutes of constant running, Oz leaned back against the tree. His face was red with exhaustion. But he felt good. Relatively.
"It looks like this is it," Oz murmured. "Time is up."
"OZ! WHERE ARE YOU!" Gil shouted somewhere in the distance.
Oz looked down at the ground. A large, purple ring flashed around his feet – just like the ceremony. The pain in his chest was the worst he had ever experienced. It spiked in his chest and his head as well. It was like someone was stabbing his body with large needles. He clutched his heart.
"Save me," Oz whispered. He frowned. Why had he said that?
"OZ!" Gil screamed. He ran over to his master. Oz was already up to his waist in the void. "LISTEN TO ME! I'LL GET YOU OUT! I'LL GET YOU OUT SOMEHOW!" His golden eyes were brimmed with tears. "DON'T LEAVE ME MASTER!"
Oz shook his head. "Bye bye!" he said cheerily, refusing to show any sort of negative emotion. "The second 'bye' was for Ada and Uncle Oscar, by the way."
With that, he plunged completely into the deep depths of the Abyss.
--
Alice groaned. So the idiot Oz had actually done something to move the needle. One minute she was wandering through a small, trading town on the coast and the next she was in the Abyss.
She looked around. It was different than she remembered. She was standing on clear, black glass.
"Alice?" It was Oz. He stood there, looking completely mystified.
"OZ YOU IDIOT!" Alice cried. She rushed over and gave him a huge kick in the face. "What did you do?"
Oz laughed. "I…rebelled."
Alice glared at Oz incredulously. "REBELLED!? YOU ARE SUCH A—"
She paused. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a flutter of white cloth. Her eyes widened.
Oz must've seen it too because he whirled in place. His eyes searched the darkness around them for the telltale, bloody white rabbit.
There was a soft laughter that drifted ominously through the air. "You've come back!"