Bonds that Kill (Alice, Joker, and Isaac)

[Isaac Azure]

Today had been quite the productive day for Isaac, and he was eager to let Alice know how busy he had been. He wondered if she would like some late night tea with him, he remembered how much she liked tea last time. This time he had planned to make her a special kind of tea that Isaac's sister was pretty much addicted to. He smiled, he was certain that Alice would love this tea and he was anxious to see the look on her face. Some might say that all Isaac wanted to do was spoil her and he treated her too much like a flower but he was working on not being so protective with her.

Though he felt that she would start being protective of him if he told her what he had been doing today. When Isaac had said that he would get the base ready in three months he meant that and was working diligently on it. He had been meeting plenty of people on the list in the journal he was given and was setting things up so that things would go perfectly. His methods of doing so were a bit questionable but he was getting things done.

Ever contact he met would probably never forget him. Isaac came to the all with the same smiley face and was extremely kind. He'd tell them the situation and let them know what he needed. If some were being difficult or weren't going to be able to fit Isaac's strict schedule he'd have to switch to his more…serious side. There were some words said and some threats made that would probably come back to bite him but he didn't care. He doubted it though, some of the people he scared so much that his name was probably getting spread around.

That was probably not a good thing though, he'd have to be more gentle and kind with these people. Isaac badly wanted to fix up the base as he wanted to give Alice a wonderful place to live and operate from. He had his nice apartment but he wasn't exactly sure what Alice's living conditions were. If she was living in that dump, Isaac would definitely have to speed up his process or get her out of there. He'd have to ask her when he met her in the base. Perhaps she'd like some ice cream, he was sure there had to be an ice cream place open around this time.

Isaac continued to walk toward the gang's base but he stopped in his tracks. "That smell…" Isaac unclipped the sheathe of his blade and began to ran toward the warehouse. Why did he smell blood?! What happened?! Did the Falvadin find out where the base was? If any of them touch Alice he'd tear down this entire damn city until he had the president's head mounted on his wall. Just thinking that something terrible happened to her made him run faster, he had to get to her.

When he finally arrived to the warehouse he stared awestruck at the scene he was seeing. There were dead wolf like creatures on the ground and Alice…..she wasn't moving. "Alice!" He called out to her and ran over to her dropping down next to her. "No, no, no, no!" This was his fault, this was all his fault! He left her alone, he took his eyes off her and she got hurt. He quickly leaned down, his head close to her chest to try and hear her heart beating. It was, but it was beating slowly, so slow that he was starting to worry more.

"Don't die on me Alice…I can't go on without you," He was panicking, he had to calm down. He took a deep breath and composed himself, examining the room. The dead wolves had to go but Isaac needed to get her to a hospital quickly. "Alice, please hang on for me," Isaac took off his suit jacket and turned it into a pillow for her. He then ripped the sleeve on his collared shirt and then used it to try and stop the bleeding. Next was the wolves, Isaac wasn't sure exactly what to do with them besides perhaps burning their bodies.

A fire in this part of the slums wouldn't exactly be that farfetched and no one would really care. Isaac started gathering the wolves bodies outside of the warehouse (which took him longer than he thought) and inside of a dumpster, making sure no one saw him. Now he needed something to start a fire, which there were plenty of alcohol bottles laying around for him to start one. He poured a few bottles into the dumpster and then looked for something to start a fire. There had to be someone, anyone the slums that had a lighter or something around those lines.

It didn't take him long to find someone and Isaac basically had to pay the guy for a crappy lighter. He ran back to the dumpster and tossed the light, which was on, into the dumpster. As the fires began to consume the bodies Isaac stared at it, a devilish smirk on his face as he was happy to see them burn. He then ran back to Alice and checked her condition. Now he had to get her to a hospital and he'd have to come up with a good excuse. They were both covered in blood, himself covered in dead wolf blood, and it would be suspicious but he came up with a excuse. "I'm so sorry, Alice….I'm so sorry," He picked her up and made his way to the closest hospital.

[Deleted]

Alice hadn't had a nightmare in a very long time. She wasn't even sure what was so frightening about it. Dark figures talked just beyond her range of hearing and... Joker was there? She didn't know what was going on but it scared her. The figures were just dull shapes. She thought they looked vaguely humanoid. The only one she could clearly make out was Joker. She seemed to glow with some sort of inner light. Alice felt alone and very, very cold. She saw one of the abstract figures approach. Alice ran. She looked back and...

Ow! Bright light flooded her vision as Alice opened her eyes, but that wasn't the only thing that hurt. She felt like she had been hit with a tractor, no, mauled by a bear! Her bones ached, her head hurt, her midsection felt extremely itchy! Alice squeezed her eyes shut again and turned away from the source of blinding light. What happened? She had felt great a moment ago! A moment ago...

The events of that evening(?) came rushing back to her at once. Leading the Falvadin named Joker to the base, getting attacked by nightmares, forming a pact... Alice continued to lay there with her eyes closed for a long moment. What had she done? What... how could she have done something like that? How could she have been so stupid?! How could she betray her dad and poor Lotus by forming a... a- contract with a demon?! ...What about the gang? Did she still have the right to even call herself a rebel let alone rebel leader? What about Isaac?

Alice opened her eyes. Was she crying? When was the last time she did that... the Incident? She didn't have the right to cry. This was all her fault. The room slowly began to swim into focus. Fluorescent lights, white walls, white curtains. After all that happened so far, it took a few minutes for Alice to start to panic. Where was she?! Had the nightmares come back and kidnapped her?

She sat up sharply. Pain coursed through her abdomen. She flopped back down on the surprisingly comfy bed clutching her side. It was a bed. White blankets and white mattress. Reaching under the white gown/apron she seemed to be wearing all of the sudden, she felt the edges of three deep cuts sown up in some sort of thick twine. The wound she had gotten from the nightmare wolves... She didn't remember anything after she told Joker to leave. Had they reopened somehow? Who had stitched them shut? She didn't feel nearly as great as she did... yesterday? It looked as if it were morning judging by the sunlight peering in through the window of wherever she was. Maybe when she asked to borrow Joker's powers for a while it really was just a while.

She tried to sit up again. Slowly this time. She looked around the room. It certainly didn't look like a dungeon. It was a lot nicer than the places she was used to seeing anyway. She wondered where her cloths went and her rifle. She wondered if she could escape in the condition she was in. As she was about to leave the bed Alice saw someone familiar enter through the open doorway.

"Isaac?"

[Isaac Azure]

The walk, or run in Isaac's case, toward the hospital was probably one of the most nerve wreaking moments in his entire life. The entire time he was afraid of losing her, afraid of losing someone else he loved. More than a few people had given Isaac weird looks or tried to come up to the man and say something or try and help. A couple of people were dumb enough to try and stop Isaac, thinking he was responsible for Alice's condition somehow. Isaac quickly got rid of them, by either being too quick for them or physically moving them out of his way. The man was not in any sort of mood to play.

When he finally reached the hospital he started yelling and shouting for people to come help. Isaac had to come up with the excuse that the two of them were attacked by some kind of crazed animal that Isaac managed to scare away but she got hurt. Luckily they believe the story and took her in right away, reliving Isaac of some stress. He had to wait a longer than he'd like while they were treating her, pacing around the room they put him in until he could go see her.

Once he was able to, Isaac didn't leave her side until one of the nurses forced him to so he could change his clothes. They also tried to check Isaac for any kind of damage but he was perfectly fine…physically anyway. Mentally the man was in all sorts of turmoil and pain. Part of him was concerned with Alice, while another was furious at the situation and was thinking of ways he could topple the city…most ideas had the use of explosions and a lot of death in them. Once he saw that she was peacefully sleeping he calmed down and ended up falling asleep in her room.

When he woke up he made sure to check that she was alright and still sleeping before he had left the room. Isaac had made the tea that he wanted to make earlier and was planning on bringing it to her and serving it once she awoke from her slumber. As he walked into the room he was happily surprised to hear her wonderful voice. "Alice!" He quickly placed the tea down on a table in the room and ran over to her. "I'm so happy that you're awake!" Isaac gently hugged her, knowing that she was probably still a bit banged up so he was careful but still held her close to him.

"I was so worried that I was going to lose you," Isaac was starting to lose his cool, and was even holding back tears. "I'm so happy that you're alright….I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," He pulled back from the embrace and smiled, walking back over to his tray that held the tea and cups. "I'm sorry…this is my fault. I should have stayed by your side. I should have never let myself drop my guard and move my eyes off you," He was pouring the tea but his hands were a little shaky so he spilt it a bit. Isaac then took the cup and placed it on the nightstand next to the bed, leaving it there for her if she wanted it.

"What happened?" Isaac wanted to know exactly who was responsible for this so he could go hunt them down and get revenge. There was no way he was going to let someone get away with hurting Alice. He didn't care if he had to fight endless amount of people to get to the president if he was behind this. Someone was going to pay for this, Isaac was going to make sure of it.

[Deleted]

"Alice! I'm so happy that you're awake!"

Alice flinched a bit when Isaac moved to embrace her, not because it hurt, but because she was reminded of another hug she had received very recently. Isaac's embrace was completely different however. His was gentle as opposed to Joker's vice grip and the warm feeling was not the same. Alice began to relax and even managed an uneasy smile. She knew she wasn't allowed to feel at ease with what she had done, but Isaac had a weird effect on her. She wondered what that might mean. She really cared about Isaac, but was it more than as a friend and close ally? She didn't know. Isaac was her only friend afterall.

She watched as he poured some tea. Alice wasn't feeling up to ingesting anything right now. In fact, she felt like she might throw up, but she didn't say anything. She pretended as if she didn't notice his nervousness. She didn't need to ask. What was the proper reaction to finding your so-called "leader" nearly dead in your own base of operations? Well, Alice thought she knew how she would react, but Isaac was different.

"I'm sorry…this is my fault. I should have stayed by your side. I should have never let myself drop my guard and move my eyes off you. What happened?"

Alice felt the overbearing shame crash back down on her. She couldn't even get annoyed at Isaac for once again acting as if she needed his constant vigilance. Really she had no ground to stand on. After what happened... really it would be better for everyone is she never left that cellar. Still, there was no way any of this could be construed as Isaac's fault.

"Stupid, what are you even saying? How could any of this be your fault." Alice had been forcing a smile, but she suddenly became serious. "Isaac, I- I did something incredibly foolish."

She looked away to stare intently at the cup of tea sitting on the nightstand. Despite still being nauseous, that felt more comfortable than meeting Isaac's gaze. She wondered if he would get mad. She hoped he did as that was the proper reaction. She just hoped he wouldn't hate her too much or that his disappointment wouldn't cause him to leave.

"Yesterday... I left the base to gather information. I was curious about some rumors I had heard about the Falvadin. It was sensitive information, but I wasn't careful enough. I must have drawn some attention. I was so stupid that I ended up leading the enemy right to our base! You must have seen them, right?... those wolf creatures... I don't know who sent them, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the Falvadin itself."

It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth. She couldn't tell Isaac the whole truth. She couldn't tell him that she had purposely led a member of the Falvadin to their base and formed a pa- contract with them. She couldn't! She felt tears come to her eyes again. That was the second time just that morning! What was she even crying about? Alice tried to discretely brush them away with her sleeve.

"I'm really sorry Isaac."

[Isaac Azure]

Isaac sat down in a chair next to the bed and tried to fend off any thoughts that were not helping the situation. He kept flashing back to when he found her lying there and when he thought the worse. It reminded him of so many situations in his life where someone he cared about got hurt or died because he couldn't do anything. If he could go back in time he would and stop all those events but he couldn't and it was a constant reminder of his weakness and failure. Just thinking about it made Isaac want to punch a hole through the wall.

Despite Alice trying to say that this wasn't his fault he couldn't think otherwise. He cared about her too much to think that something like this wasn't his fault. He should be faster, stronger and protect the things he loved with his life. When she sounded serious Isaac looked back at her with a worried face. He then began to think about the situation at hand. She was attacked at the base so that meant if it was indeed the Falvadin they could possibly know where the base is and that wasn't good, wasn't good at all.

Why?! Why in the world did she go alone?! She could have at least called and told him what she was up to so he could help somehow. If she had called then maybe he could have fought off those creatures with her. That entrance to the base was compromised, there was no way Isaac would allow her to ever use that entrance again. They'd have to find another one and seal this old one off but Isaac didn't want to do that until he got everything together and made the place nice and livable for her.

"Silly Alice," He said as he noticed that she was trying to hide her crying. Isaac got up out of the chair and leaned over and planted a gentle and loving kiss on her forehead. "Don't be sorry. Your safe and sound now so everything's alright, that's all I want," Isaac smiled as he stared into her eyes when he said this before sitting back down. "I don't want you going back to that entrance ever again though," His tone was serious but his face was still smiling. "If it was really the Falvadin then that entrance is compromised and we'll have to use another one," His eyes left Alice and stared at the tea cup.

He was trying to put together a sound plan for their next move, one that would allow them to get things back running but keep out of Falvadin sight. "I'll find a new entrance while I'm bringing in the supplies and making the place nice. In the meantime I want you to stay with me in my apartment until I'm done and you're fully recovered. This way I can keep my eye on you and make sure nothing……I'm sorry," He was doing it again, he was being overprotective and was probably making her upset.

"I'm being overprotective again aren't I?" He laughed a bit but it was nervous one. Isaac wasn't sure why but he felt like he was about to break down crying but he couldn't do that in front of Alice. Not because he was a guy and they're not supposed to cry, due to some made up rule, but because he didn't want her to worry about him. "You know how I feel about you. You're not just some friend or leader to me, you're more than that and when I saw you …I thought the worse. I thought I was going to lose someone else I love…" He stopped and looked toward Alice, his eyes meeting with hers.

"Please come stay with me for a while, just so I know it's safe for you to start moving around again. I don't want the Falvadin getting to you again and I feel this is the best course of action to fall on!" He would be persistent with this and would probably end up dragging her even if she didn't want to come live with him. Isaac couldn't see her like that again…never again.

[Deleted]

Alice had expected some yelling or at least scolding from Isaac. She hadn't known him for long, but she had accidentally witnessed occasions where he was genuinely angry. It had never been directed at her, in fact he probably didn't know she could see it, but she knew Isaac had a dark side somewhere in him. It was a bit frightening. When he moved closer she didn't know what to expect. Would he hit her? She didn't think he was capable of doing that, but she wouldn't blame him if he did. If Isaac wasn't there she would probably hitting herself right about now.

He didn't hit her. Alice turned a bright red as she realized what had just happened. Had Isaac kissed her? On the head, but still. Was this some weird passive-aggressive way to get back at her?

"Don't be sorry. Your safe and sound now so everything's alright, that's all I want."

No way... Alice felt a mixture of relief and and regret. Isaac didn't hate her then, but... she didn't want to get away like that. She shouldn't. Should she tell him about Joker after all?

She couldn't.

"I don't want you going back to that entrance ever again though. If it was really the Falvadin then that entrance is compromised and we'll have to use another one."

Alice just nodded. She didn't like it. This wasn't his responsibility, it was her's as the gang leader and the perpetrator of this mess. Gathering supplies, cleaning up her messes... Alice seemed more like a hinderance than a member of the gang.

"You're so smart... maybe you should be the leader of the gang." She said it under her breath in a joking tone, but in her head she meant it. She hadn't done much for the Ashoka Gang so far. She had made plans to revive the gang, found Isaac, found a base and then immediately compromised it... It wasn't a good start to her career. Isaac seemed far more responsible. Maybe the gang would be better off in his hands.

Upon mentioning his apartmentment Alice began to blush again. She had never actually asked Isaac where he lived. She knew he was relatively more wealthy than she was. She wasn't sure by how much, but he often brought her treats and tea which she figured had to be fairly expensive, at least in comparison to the crackers she tended to buy herself when she felt she really should eat something that day. Alice actually had a fair bit of money saved up, but it was barely enough to buy the base supplies needed for the gang, so she hid it in a lockbox within the base and hardly ever touched it. She had told Isaac about where it was, but when she broke down and decided to use some of the funds to buy a few personal supplies for the cellar, she found that the cache hadn't been touched. Did that mean Isaac was using his own money?

It wasn't that Alice hadn't been curious about Isaac, but she had purposely stayed clear of personal questions. She didn't want to tell Isaac that her house had been burned down in the Incident, that she had been living in the sewers for about three months fighting off bums and perverts until she had finally found the old smuggler's den they now called a base. She actually liked the cellar. It was warm and rain couldn't get in, but she could tell that Isaac wouldn't approve. There were also things about her past that she didn't want to talk about and those brief "dark side" moments she had witnessed told her that Isaac probably had a past he didn't want to talk about as well.

"I'm being overprotective again aren't I? You know how I feel about you. You're not just some friend or leader to me, you're more than that and when I saw you …I thought the worse. I thought I was going to lose someone else I love…"

So... she wasn't just a friend. Alice knew she shouldn't be surprised by this, but she was. What was so great about her exactly? She was curious, but she wasn't going to ask about "someone else". She had also lost a lot of loved ones.

"You're not being overprotective. Shouldn't you be saying something like, 'Alice, you're so stupid! You are no longer allowed outside!' Wouldn't a normal person hate someone for doing this? You have worked so hard for the gang and I have jeopardized the entire thing. If you still want me to stay with you though... I won't argue. I need to get some things from the base. I can also pay you rent if you want, but not much... Where are we anyway?"

[Isaac Azure]

Isaac had overheard her comment and shook his head. There was no way he could be the leader of the gang. Granted their gang was small and so far nothing was really going their way but Isaac couldn't do this. It wasn't because he didn't think he could lead a group of people but not this group. Isaac wasn't from this city, he wasn't someone who grew up in the slums or experienced the cruelty of the President (well not much of it anyway). Alice was someone who grew up here, she knew more about this place than he did and that's what made her the suitable leader.

"Don't kid yourself Alice, you're the one who should be leading this gang not me," Isaac faintly smiled at her. He wanted her to know how important she was, not just to him but to the future of this world. She needed more confidence in herself but this incident wasn't going help that. He'd help her though, she had so much potential to not only be a great leader but a great fighter as well. Isaac needed to see what she was truly capable of, she was able to take out those wolves but what was she really able to do.

A thought popped into Isaac's head, something that he was dreading a bit. If the Falvadin was behind this and sent those wolves they could know what she looks like. That thought was making the man start panicking a bit. If they knew what she looked like then they'd have to be much more careful moving about. Even getting out of this hospital would be something that could be extremely dangerous if they were alerted about Alice's identity. So far there was no one that was giving them weird looks or asking Isaac really personal questions so he figured he was just overacting.

Isaac couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at Alice. "Alice, you don't keep a beautiful bird locked up in a cage all day when all it wants to do is spread its wings," He paused for a moment and gently took one of Alice's hand in his own. "I would never hate you, no matter what you do. It's not your fault this happened, don't blame yourself please," His grip on her hand tightened a bit at the thought of him losing her. "Of course I want you to stay with me but there's no way I'd ever make you pay rent!" He laughed a bit and continued.

"You'll stay with me free of charge, all I ask of you is that you don't hesitate to ask for anything. If you need or want something, even if it's something small like a snack or something just ask and I'll get it for you. And don't you dare not ask for anything just because you think I'd be spoiling you, I want to," He smiled before patting her hand and letting go. Isaac got up and looked out the window for a moment before looking back to Alice.

"We're in a hospital just outside the slums. These nice people were kind enough to take you in and get you all fixed up!" He was referring to the stitches that were keeping her wounds closed. "They even got a bit worried about me when they found me passed out next to you in this char," It didn't look like Alice was going to drink the tea but he left it there and started to head for the door. "I'm going to talk to the doctors about paying for all of this and getting you out of here. Which you'll leave once you're ready," He said as he looked back and smiled at her.

Isaac then left the room and went to go find the doctor that had been taking care of her. The doctor was quite a nice person and was even willing to keep Alice here longer than she needed and they wouldn't charge Isaac much. The red haired man had no issue paying for as long as Alice needed to be here, though he was pretty sure that she could leave whenever she wanted. Even at the apartment Isaac had some supplies to take care of her. Now all he had to do was talk to the doctor.