“You’re his brother. Do you really believe he’d hurt you?” Crim scoffed.

“Yes.” Clover’s expression was bleak. “I believe he’s capable of killing me if the whim ever crosses his mind, and I make him lose his temper.”

Crim’s eyes were wide. “But, you have magic.”

“My magic is nowhere near as powerful as Diamond’s.” Clover put his hands out before him in a helpless gesture and shook his head. “Besides, he wields dark magic, and I wield light magic. Diamond feeds the darkness inside of himself by performing dark deeds. And I…I’m trying to keep the darkness at bay because like you said I want to be a hero.”

“A hero? You?” Crim gave Clover an incredulous look. “Your mother is a villain!”

A sad, crooked smile formed on Clover’s face. “I’m well aware. But, I don’t intend to live in this Kingdom forever. I plan to leave this place and create my own Kingdom once I have the power to do so.”

“You’re going to leave?” Crim’s voice cracked, betraying how worried he was about Clover’s departure. Without Clover as a sort of buffer between him and his brothers things would only get worse for Crim. Morosely, Crim wondered if he’d be able to survive.

Clover’s sad expression turned thoughtful and he offered Crim a warm, hopeful smile. “Crim, why don’t you come with me? Leave this place!” Clover’s voice began to rise in volume due to his excitement about his new idea. “Together, we could forge our own destinies!” He spread his arms wide at his sides.

Crim arched an eyebrow at the young prince. “Why would you want a lowly stable boy tagging along with you, Your Highness?”

“In my Kingdom everyone will be treated as equals,” Clover declared.

“Everyone?” Crim gave the prince a skeptical look. “Even the Cheshire Cat People?”

Clover opened his mouth and hesitated to respond. “Perhaps,” he said softly.

“Then…you will become the Queen of Heart’s direct enemy.” Crim realized with mounting horror. “She enslaved their entire race. It’s because of her that the Cheshire Cat People lost The Cheshire Cat Wars.”

“Slavery is wrong,” Clover said firmly.

“Give me that.” Crim grabbed the canteen out of Clover’s hands and drank deeply. “Ah!” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You’re crazy, but I wish I could go with you. Unfortunately, I can’t leave my mother behind.”

“You mean Catara? Your adopted mother?” Clover asked tentatively.

“To me she is my real mother,” Crim growled angrily. “And I won’t abandon her to the Red Queen’s twisted whims.”

“That’s very noble of you,” Clover praised, a twinkle in his pale green eyes. “You have the makings of a hero inside of you, Crim!”

Crim flushed. “Yeah, right.” The two boys smiled at each other awkwardly and laughed.

***

Years passed, and Diamond and Spade continued to bully, tease, and torture Crim on a daily basis. Crim felt like Diamond and Spade treated him worse than even the Cheshire Cat slaves. Sometimes, he wondered why Diamond seemed to hate him so much.

Crim didn’t think that the magical experiments they performed on him could get any worse than they already had, until one day…

Diamond and Spade forced Crim to accompany them to the croquet field. The entire way there Spade was snickering evilly, and Crim had a bad feeling about it. “Why have you brought me here?” Crim asked uneasily.

“I would have thought that’d be obvious given where we’ve taken you,” Diamond drawled condescendingly. “We’re going to play a nice little game of croquet.”

Crim raised a wary eyebrow at Diamond. “We are?”

“Indeed,” Diamond smiled sharply. “And you’re going to be our ball.”

Crim grew befuddled. “I’m going to be what?”

Using his magic, Diamond summoned an enchanted battle-axe from a pocket dimension, and it materialized in his hand. Without hesitation, Diamond swung the axe at Crim’s neck and cut his head off.

“Ooo!” Spade giggled madly and clapped his hands together in a gleeful manner. “That was brilliant, Brother!”

Crim’s head was severed from his shoulders and fell to the grassy ground. His body toppled over to the ground next. Crim was thoroughly surprised that…well, he wasn’t dead.

Diamond casually strolled over, picked up Crim’s head, and turned it so that Crim’s gaze met his. “Yo, still alive?”

Crim glared at Diamond fiercely. “Yes…Your Highness,” he said through gritted teeth.

Diamond was incredibly pleased with his handiwork. “It worked.” His voice was slightly tinged with surprise. “Well, of course, it did. I’m amazing at everything I do. Mother will be so proud of me when I show her how good I am at decapitating people, and at reattaching their heads.”

“I’m sure she’ll be ecstatic,” Crim said in a dry tone.

Diamond started to nonchalantly toss Crim’s head up and down through the air one-handed. “Now, if you’re an obedient little croquet ball I may just consider reattaching your head to your body. What do you say?” He stopped tossing Crim’s head so he’d be able to respond.

Crim was forced to literally bite his tongue to stop himself from uttering the words he really wanted to say. Instead Crim had to be satisfied with cursing Diamond in his mind only: Fuck you, you bastard! A trickle of blood trailed down Crim’s chin and he remained silent.

Diamond’s vicious smile widened at the sight of the blood. “That’s what I thought, Coward. Now, let the game begin!” Diamond carelessly tossed Crim’s head to the grassy ground and it rolled a few feet after it hit the ground.

A group of lords and ladies hurriedly went to fetch their live flamingos, which they would be using instead of normal croquet mallets. The Wonderland nobility were dressed in their finery for the grand occasion of having been invited by the handsome and eligible princes to play a game of Wonderland croquet - a style of croquet where the rules were made as one went along.

The ladies were wearing dresses with puffed sleeves and bell skirts while the men were dressed in Victorian-style suits. All of the Wonderland nobility were wearing feathered or jeweled masks on their faces. Hats were another popular Wonderland fashion trend, and top hats, bowler hats, fascinators, and all kinds of other hats sat upon the heads of the lords and ladies.

Diamond grabbed a blue flamingo, forced it to straighten itself out, and holding it by its legs swung the flamingo towards Crim’s head. The flamingo’s head collided with Crim’s head, and sent it flying across the lawn towards an arch.

Crim’s head landed face-first on the ground, and he broke his nose, causing a whimper of pain to slip past his lips. He wondered morosely how long their rather macabre game of croquet was going to last, and if he’d still be conscious by the end of it.

“You’re up next, Spade,” Diamond said cheerily.

“Oh, goodie,” Spade said impishly before grabbing a purple flamingo and skipping over towards Crim’s head.

“Crim!” a panicked female voice called out.

A wave of fear washed over Crim as he recognized that voice as belonging to his mother Catara, and even though his head wasn’t attached to his body he could feel his heart squeezing painfully inside of his chest out of worry. No. He thought. What the hell is she doing here?

For eighteen years, Crim had managed to keep it a secret from Catara that Diamond and Spade bullied and tortured him on a regular basis. This was something that Crim never wanted Catara to have to witness because he knew that it would hurt her to see him in pain like this.

Catara raced across the lawn towards Diamond, Spade and Crim’s head, her long pink hair trailing behind her like a flag.

Diamond gave the Cheshire Cat slave an irritated look. “Who let that animal out of her cage?”

Catara tried to get closer to Crim’s head, but Diamond smoothly stepped in her path. “Prince Diamond, please, you can’t do this,” Catara said as she wrung her hands together. “He’s my son.” Her voice cracked on the word ‘son’.

Diamond arched a skeptical eyebrow at her. “Your son?” He glanced down at Crim’s head and then body pointedly. “I don’t see cat ears or a tail, so really he isn’t your son. Crim is just some abandoned orphan who nobody wanted. A peasant. A nobody.”

Catara’s pink and purple striped tail started to swish back and forth behind her out of anger. “No. You’re wrong. That’s not who he is at all. And if you knew the truth about who he really is you wouldn’t be treating him this way. In fact, you’d be appalled by your actions.”

Diamond instantly grew curious. “Is that so? Then do tell me who Crim really is.” He gave the cat slave an expectant look.

Catara hesitated. “I…I can’t tell you.” Her ears flattened on the top of her head.

Diamond’s dark eyes flashed in anger. “Can’t? Or won’t? No matter…I’ll just make you tell me the truth!” Diamond’s hand shot out, and he reached into Catara’s chest to rip out her heart.

It happened so fast that Catara was barely able to react.

Crim’s eyes widened in horror as he watched what happened. “Mother! No!”

Diamond held Catara’s glowing, red heart up to his lips and spoke to it. “Now, tell me Catara…who is Crim?”

Catara struggled not to answer, but was compelled to by the magical hold Diamond now had over her heart. “He…he’s your brother.”

“My…what?” Diamond gawked back at Catara in shock, but then a dark scowl formed on his face. “You lie!”

Catara raised her chin in a defiant manner. She knew that there was no use trying to lie anyways now that Diamond had her heart. “I’m not lying. Crimson was named after the blood moon that appeared in the sky over Wonderland eighteen years ago. Crimson is Queen Cordelia’s firstborn son, and your older brother. He’s first in line to the throne of the Red Kingdom!”

Shock, anger and disbelief warred on Diamond’s face. “But…that’s impossible.” Diamond glared down at Crim’s head. “You expect me to believe that that pathetic, magic-less worm is my older brother? If what you’re saying is true…he’s the son of Mal and Cordelia. There’s no way he can be magic-less! He must have some magic. Or maybe he’s been hiding it all this time?” Diamond shot Crim a suspicious and wary look. “Have you been hiding your true power from me all this time, Crim?”

“No. I swear…” Crim swiftly denied.

Diamond held up Catara’s heart for Crim to have a better look at it. “I don’t believe you.” He started to squeeze her heart, and Catara gasped in pain and hunched over. “Now, if you want to save mommy dearest here…you’re going to have to use magic to stop me!”

Crim’s eyes widened in horror and he began to panic. “No! Wait! Please! Don’t!”

Diamond clenched his fingers around Catara’s heart slowly. Catara’s legs gave out and she sank to her knees in pain. Tears filled her golden eyes and she looked around the lawn for Crim’s head. Their gazes met and locked.

Diamond laughed cruelly. “You’d better stop me, Crimson.” He used Crim’s full name mockingly. “Before it’s too late. Don’t forget magic can’t bring back the dead!” A sinister smile curled his lips.

“No! Don’t do it! Please!” Crim begged pathetically. But there was nothing he could really do. Tears filled his eyes and his vision started to blur. “Mother…I’m sorry.” A crunching sound filled the air as Diamond mercilessly crushed Catara’s heart to dust. “Mother!”

Catara stared at Crim, and he watched as the light slowly left her beautiful golden eyes. “I lo-” Catara fell over onto the grassy ground, dead.

Crim’s mouth opened abnormally wide as he screamed loudly in despair. Hot tears streamed down his face and his vision blurred completely.

Diamond and Spade snickered cruelly at Crim’s distraught state, and the lords and ladies joined in.

Laughter.

Catara, his kind, sweet mother had been killed right before his eyes, and these people were laughing at him.

Crim’s despair quickly turned to anger. And this anger ignited something deep within him. Something that until that very moment had been lying dormant.

Crim’s scream of despair changed into an outraged yell. A dark aura resembling black flames surrounded Crim’s body, and then his severed head. Tendrils of black fire reached out across the lawn and connected his body to his head, and started to pull his body back together again. The laughter started to die down as everyone watched what was happening.

Once his body was whole once more, Crim pushed himself up off the ground in an eerie manner, and stood. With an aura of black flames still surrounding him, he locked gazes with a shocked looking Diamond.

Diamond’s laughter had abruptly died in his throat at the sight of Crim miraculously managing to pull his body back together using magic. Diamond had never heard of a mage powerful enough to still be able to perform magic when his body was in pieces.

Crim cracked his neck from side to side, and approached Diamond with menacing, predatory steps.

“You…you used magic,” Diamond stammered out in disbelief. “But, how?”

“You killed my mother,” Crim drawled coolly. “That was a mistake.” Crim’s hand shot out towards Diamond’s chest, but instead of passing through Diamond’s chest it hit some kind of magical shield that flared to life.

Diamond laughed triumphantly in response. “Did you just try to rip out my heart? Mother taught us how dangerous it is if your heart falls into the wrong hands. Did you really think I wouldn’t take precautions to protect my own heart? I cast a protection spell on my heart ages ago. It’s unbreakable!” Diamond’s demeanor was oozing confidence.

Crim prodded at the magical shield thoughtfully, and then smiled sharply. “Unbreakable?” Crim summoned his new dark magical power and in seconds managed to shatter the protection shield.

As the golden-tinged energy shield shattered into flakes of light, Diamond’s expression grew alarmed. “Impossible!”

With nothing left to stop him, Crimson reached inside of Diamond’s chest and ripped his heart out. He inspected it curiously, turning it this way and that. Diamond’s heart was mostly a glowing, red color, but parts of it were black. The sight made Crim smile crookedly. “As the saying goes: it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And you are definitely lacking, Diamond.”

Diamond’s shoulders started to shake with rage and he clenched his hands into fists at his sides. “You would dare?” he snarled, spit flying out of his mouth. “I am to be King!”

Crim’s blasé expression grew thoughtful. “I’m older than you, remember? Which means I should be King.” A smug smile curled his lips.

A vein at Diamond’s temple throbbed in irritation. “Over my dead body!”