Chapter 34

Watching from their little hiding spot, Marik and Bakura saw the Queen descend from his throne and greet the King of Spades, who knelt before him and asked to play against him in the final game. They couldn't see, as they could only see the back of the Queen's tri-coloured hair, but Marik knew there would be a disgusting sickly sweet and mocking smile on the bitch's sharp face, saying that of course the King could play against him, but to play nice. The lion growled. Play nice indeed.

"Come on, that's our cue." Bakura tugged on the broken belt loop of his shorts to get him to move, and the blonde followed his friend as they sneakily crept around the palace, trying to find a better angled balcony to try and throw knives at the Queen.

"Wait." Marik suddenly stopped them from going any further. "How many knives do you have?"

Bakura searched about his person and came up with four daggers; two from his boots, one in his waist coat and one in his shorts. "Four. Not enough really." He frowned, red eyes gazing down at his favourite instruments of torture. "We should steal some more from the kitchens."

"Just what I was thinking." Marik nodded, turning around to back track their steps and return to the kitchens that they passed.

A few cooks were milling around carelessly, concentrating more on catching up with each other's gossip than the two young men who crept in and left with three butcher knives. The two in question then tiptoed back to their original path and came across an open door leading out to get another balcony, this one in perfect view of the field where the Queen of Hearts and the King of Spades were facing off in their mad game of croquet. It was also low enough to the ground so they could jump and only get pins and needles shot through their legs instead of broken bones.

"Ok, lets run over the plan." Bakura turned to Marik and explained, crouching low behind the wall again.

"But we don't have a car." Marik joked, earning a flick on his ear from his friend.

"Hah hah, very funny, fuzzy." The white haired man grinned when the lion glared at him for calling him 'fuzzy'. "Try and be serious."

"I am serious. Its just... too serious not to be not serious." Marik rambled a little, getting himself yet another ear flick, which made him yelp.

"Right, I'm gonna throw the knives, and when the guards are all confused and rushing towards the Queen, we jump and race to the cage." Bakura explained, going over all the steps in his head. "You unlock it, since I don't have my kit and you have claws. Then we drag the Ringleader away from everyone. I only hope the others catch on to the plan and help." The two performers looked down at the field, picking out all four of their allies in the crowd, thankfully stood together. Their fifth ally was invisible, but judging from the way the March Hare stood the Cheshire Cat was on him or near him in some form.

"Ok, on the count of three." Marik nodded, Bakura returning the gesture.

"One." Bakura stood, taking aim with his own knives between his fingers.

"Two." Marik adjusted the butcher knives in his hands, bending his knees and preparing to jump at the right moment.

"THREE!" The two shouted, throwing their weapons and managing to hit the Queen and around him, startling the dramatic man into making him shriek indignantly and the guards immediately coming to hid aid.

Marik and Bakura jumped from the balcony, landing swiftly with little pain and quickly darting in the direction of the Ringleader's cage, almost invisible amongst the chaos.

The Cheshire Cat noticed what the two were doing and grinned widely, too wide to be natural but that was his charm. He looked around from his perch on the March Hare's shoulders and cackled at the beginning of the disorder, launching himself into the heart of it to trip up and hinder as many guards as possible.

The King of Spades also noticed what was going on, and shared the Cheshire Cat's smirk even though he didn't know it. He suddenly began to call out various things like 'Isn't that them over there!' and 'Oh my lord, there's ten of them!' and 'Quick! Someone tried to murder the Queen!'. His calls were heard by everyone, guards and guests alike, and thus created even more havoc as people rushed forwards and back, trying to get away and trying to help.

The March Hare wasted no time in rushing to his new friends' help, darting around the screaming people with the grace of the hare he was. He knew for a fact that Marik and Bakura would need his help, either in getting the Ringleader out of the palace gardens, or by distracting the people around to get them out of their way. When one of the guards nearly spotted the two performers' plans, the March Hare quickly high-kicked him in the face, knocking him out cold with a little satisfied smile.

Lady Isis began ushering the people, both competetors and guests, in the direction of the exit, working jointly with the Duchess who was making them go in the other direction, causing even more chaos and disorder as people had no idea where to go. The soldiers and guards didn't catch on, too busy protecting their precious Queen of Hearts.

Alice just stood there, a smile on his face as he watched everyone. They were all avoiding him, lest they suffer the Queen's wrath for hurting him. He supposed that was one good thing that came out of Queen Yami's unrequited love for him, however much he tried to deny it. He walked, slowly, towards where the Queen was hidden behind his guards with a smug smile on his face. Everything was going to hell.