Mad spent two days preparing for his return to Alice, Maris and Cheshire. He used the guise of Sota healing to avoid going any sooner. When he could no longer postpone, he set out with Sota, confident that Maris would take much longer than himself to get very far.

Mad had grown up in the forests of the Rocky Mountains. By comparison, the forests of Wonderland were well groomed gardens, making it very easy for him to move quickly. Sota, however, was another story. The boy had hardly been let outside, much less spent time traipsing about the woods, so he slowed them down a bit.

As they walked, Mad wondered how he was supposed to just come back. Especially after everything he had said to the others. He grimaced and paused to adjust the strap of his bag, which was digging into his good shoulder. Something about facing Alice and Cheshire again made him nervous in a way he'd never been before. He didn't like the feeling and wasn't overly anxious to rejoin them. 

He looked back at Sota and saw that blood was seeping through the bandage over his eye.

Mad sighed and dropped his bags, turning back to help the kid. his eyes widened at what he saw and then he was yanking his gun from its holster. Sota turned to see what had caused this, then gasped as they both looked at Rakta. 

Mad clicked the hammer back and said, "What are you doing here, Rakta?"

The Ace looked at Mad with bored disdain. "Retrieving the Queen's dear brother." Rakta turned to Sota. "Come with me, Sota."

Sota just shook his head, his remaining eye very dark in his now deathly pale face. Rakta sighed, the sound long-suffering. "Don't make this difficult, Sota. I grow weary of constantly dragging you back to Heart Castle."

"You're not taking him anywhere, Diamond. I won't allow it." Mad growled the words, then froze, hardly daring to breath as he felt the cold muzzle of a gun press into the skin just behind his ear. The pressure increased, forcing him to tilt his head forward slightly.

"I suppose we're just out of luck then, Rakta. Maddy's not going to allow it," a voice sing-songed from behind Mad.

Only one person in Wonderland besides Cheshire could sneak up on him like that and, if the Heart's Ace hadn't changed his preference, Mad would be willing to bet the gun currently pressed to his head was a .45 revolver. If the trigger was pulled at this proximity, it would leave quite a mess. 

Among other problems.

He exhaled very slowly, still not moving. Tamsus Heart had a notoriously twitchy trigger finger and Mad wasn't really feeling up to testing if he could get out of the way fast enough. 

"Why don't you just lower that auto, Maddy? Slowly." Tamsus chuckled as Mad complied. "Thank you!" he added brightly.

"If you're here, Tam, we all know you aren't taking the kid back just to be reunited with his bitch sister," Mad said, voice even.

"Language, Maddy." The barrel tapped lightly against Mad's skull. "That's my Queen you're talking about there." 

Then Tamsus laughed. A strange, unhinged sort of sound. It made Mad want to flinch. It hadn't always sounded like that.

"You're right, of course! You always were such a smart one, Maddy. Mavros says I get to have a little fun with the bastard. I suppose that's what I get for being a good boy!" Again that crazed laugh.

Sota's breathing had become very rapid at that, knowing exactly what Tamsus Heart considered fun. Mad felt Tamsus move back slightly and raised his gun again, not thinking about what he was going to do next. If he did think, he'd never be able to manage it. He'd be lucky if Tamsus didn't stop him first.

Mad saw as Sota's remaining eye widened in surprise. It turned to shock when he pointed his gun at the boy. He didn't blink as he pulled the trigger, sending a bullet through Sota's head.

Tamsus howled in fury and Mad turned to him, gun still raised. He didn't shoot though. There was a very delicate balance between himself and the Aces and he could not afford to upset that balance just yet.

Tamsus looked the same as he ever did. Pale. Cheekbones and jaw sharp as straight razors and twice as cruel. He cast Mad a look of betrayal from eyes like crystallized blood, his hair like arterial spray as it flew about his head in his rage.

Tamsus stalked toward Mad, curling his lip back in a snarl to show slightly exaggerated canines in a row of teeth like pearls. "What the hell, Maddy?" 

He asked this like Mad had just bumped into him instead of having killed someone. Like Mad had stolen a new toy, rather than ended a life.

Suddenly Rakta appeared, stopping Tamsus. 

"Can't touch," Rakta reminded the other Ace, his face peppered with Sota's blood. He'd been standing close enough to Sota that when the bullet had passed through the kid's head, Rakta had been misted by the spray.

Tamsus twisted his mouth into a pout and both he and Rakta stared at Mad like hungry, rabid dogs.

By order of the Queen, they were not allowed to kill Mad. They could injure him on her order as Rakta had so amply demonstrated four days ago, but otherwise, the Aces were not allowed to touch Mad under any circumstances. The only exception was if he attacked first. And while this had been tempting on more than one occassion, Mad knew it would only end with himself dead.

Tamsus had disobeyed that order only once before. Mad had always wondered how Mavros had made him pay for that.

These orders made the Aces crazy. Or... crazier. They weren't allowed to kill Mad, and someone they weren't allowed to go after was like a forbidden cookie to a small child. If they couldn't have it, it just made them want it more.

Mad shoved his gun back into its holster, then tipped his hat. He started to walk away, but was stopped when Tamsus said, "She'll tire of you eventually, Maddy. And I'll be there when she does."

Mad whirled around, intending to kill Tamsus rules be damned, but he and Rakta had already vanished. He shivered, knowing that someone like Tamsus didn't waste time with idle threats, then walked over to where Sota now lay. His heart weighed heavily in his chest as he looked down at the boy's body. 

He couldn't have been more than sixteen. 

Mad crouched down and used a finger to close his eye. He ran a hand over his mouth and, tossing his hat on the ground nearby, put his head in his hands, fingers gripping his hair.

He had promised the kid that he wouldn't let them take Sota back to Heart Castle. He swallowed hard, fighting against the urge to be sick. When Tamsus had come up behind him, Mad hadn't seen any other options and had tried his best to keep his promise. Killing Sota had been a kindness compared to what Tamsus would have done with him.

At least, that was what Mad kept telling himself.

This was how Maris, Alice, Dinah and Chesh found him. Mad looked up at them, then rose from his crouch, putting his hat back on. He tugged the brim low over his eyes, unwilling to truly look at any of them.

He was a killer, he knew it. He just didn't like the idea of Alice knowing it now, too.

"I was wrong," Mad said woodenly. "I'll help."

Chesh smiled at him tentatively but his eyes were worried.

"What happened here?" Dinah asked, pulling Alice farther away from Sota's body, wrapping her arms protectively around the other girl.

Mad looked at Maris when he answered, "The Aces. Both of them."

Maris' eyes widened in shock. Aces were solitary creatures by design. They didn't exactly play well with others and it was rare that they worked together. Practically unheard of.

"Who?" Maris asked, eyes flicking to Sota to clarify his question.

"Me," Mad said, the single syllable sharp and condemning in his throat. For reasons he couldn't quite understand, his eyes flickered up to Alice, but she wasn't looking at him. She was looking at Sota.

Then picking up his bags, he started forward, leading the way south to where they would find the most Black Deck settlements.

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Tamsus means Dark in Lithuanian