Gilbert and Peter popped into a room that was like any other room in the palace. There was a larger bed with a blue silk blanket on it with large pillows, a desk with jar of ink with a quill laid next to the jar and stacks of papers sat there forgotten. A oak wardrobe that was on the far left of the room, and finally there was shelves filled with books.

Gilbert walked over to the bed and gently placed the teen on the bed while Peter looked around the room before looking at Gilbert and Matthew. He placed Matthew's bag at the end of the bed before walking closer to them.

"I wonder way he fainted?" Gilbert muttered.

"Easy. He just got overwhelmed." Peter said.

"Yeah but... never mind." Gilbert said.

Peter nodded and the two left the room and wondered around the halls deep in thought. Gilbert sighed before pulling out his necklace and looked at it. The necklace had a spade charm on it, the charm was light blue around the end and darker in the middle.

Peter saw the other joker looking at his necklace and sighed.

"I don't know why but... Why do you still have that? Why not give that necklace to the king or queen like you always said you would?" Peter asked.

"It was something that my father gave me... but... it looks different then before." Gilbert said, looking at the necklace like it was something girly.

Peter stopped walking at looked at Gilbert.

"What do you mean it looks different?" Peter asked.

"It was a dark blue gem now there is light blue at the end surrounding the dark blue. It never looked like this ever!" Gilbert explained.

/With Matthew ten minutes later\

Matthew slowly woke up in a nice looking room, he looked down to see that he was placed on a soft bed over top of a blue blanket. The blond sat up and saw his bag and crawled over to it and grabbed it. He sighed as he looked inside and found his parents necklace and ring along with his necklace. Matthew put on his necklace, tucking it under his shirt, placing his fathers ring onto his mothers necklace and he put it on.

With a sigh Matthew got off the bed and looked around the room before walking towards the door. He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway blinking a few times.

Where the heck am I and what the heck happened!? Matthew thought to himself.

"Oh your awake!" a man said.

Matthew jumped a bit before looking to his left to see the man from earlier, Yao smiled at the teen.

"Uh... what happened?" Matthew hesitated on asking.

Yao sighed before walking up to Matthew and placed a hand on his shoulder and started to guide the teen down the hall way.

"You fainted, and the king sent me to see if you were okay or not.. but seeing that you are up I just it was just from shock." Yao said.

Matthew looked shocked before nodding. Yao noticed the necklace that was around the teens neck and smiled.

"Is that necklace you mothers?" Yao asked.

Matthew gently touched the necklace and nodded.

"The necklace is my mothers the ring was my fathers that has been in his family for years." Matthew said, looking ahead with a dazed look in his eyes.

"I'm sure that your mother and father are happy that you are safe and that you are able to warn use about the Dark trump cards attacking villages." Yao said.

Matthew just nodded. They eventually walked into the throne room to see the royals and the Jokers sitting at a long table. Matthew looked at the floor as he and Yao walked up to the table.

"King Alfred, Matthew is here." Yao said and everyone saw Matthew.

The King of Clubs frowned seeing as the teen had a hood on keeping parts of his face hidden and had a scarf wrapped loosely around his neck. A satchel was hanging off of his left shoulder, his clothes were covered in dirt and soot, while his boots looked worn and old.

"Why is this boy hiding his face? I think he could be a spy!" the King of Clubs stated.

Matthew looked at the King with shock. Gilbert and Peter glared at the Clubs King.

"Oh and a spy who let himself get shot by an arrow no less is here to spy on us... wow and I  thought that you were smart. King of Clubs." Gilbert said, glaring at the tall man.

"Then why is this boy hiding his face?" The Kings Jack pressed.

Matthew sighed before looking at Yao, who looked at the king and queen who nodded. Yao nodded towards Matthew to go a head and speak up.

"The Dark trump cards were chasing after me, they know what I look like so I had to keep my face hidden and I'm not a spy, I'm a black smith." Matthew said, crossing his arms and looked at the royals and the Jokers with a slight glare.

The Clubs looked shocked before their ace stood up and pulled out a knife and growled.

"Are you threatening our king?" she growled. "How dare you speak that way towards the king!"

Before anyone could do anything, the ace jumped over the table and rushed towards the teen and Jack. Peter popped right next to Matthew and Yao, grabbing them and vanished before appearing next to the Spades royals.

"Ace Natalia stand down and sit! You aren't killing Matthew and he isn't from Clubs! He is a citizen of Spades!" Gilbert snapped.

Matthew started to tremble, Arthur glared at the Clubs ace before turning to face the teen and started to help calm him down.

"Matthew your okay?" Arthur asked, looking at a pale teen.

Gilbert growled as he brought a chair over to the teen, but when he touched the teen a bright light surrounded the room. Everyone shouted in protest while Matthew felt to his knees clutching his chest where his necklace was burning.

In the middle of the room was a symbol of all the four Kingdoms individually before they all started to spiral together and the colours of blue, orange, red, and green slowly faded into black and greys. A new symbol appeared.

A clover that had the four symbols of the four kingdoms that made up the leafs.

"Wait... That is the symbol that I found while I was looking into the Shadow kingdom."Yao said, looking at the symbol with shock.

Alfred looked at Yao waiting for him to continue.

"The Shadow kingdom? That's a myth! Your lying!" The clubs queen shouted.

"No, it isn't. The previous Queen of Hearts mentioned in her notes that King Ludwig-san wants me read." The Queen of Hearts said.

"Why haven't we hear of this Kingdom before?" The Queen of Clubs asked.

Arthur looked down and saw Matthew clutching his chest and his head, tears falling from his eyes. Gilbert was trying to keep the teen up right will his chest felt like it was on fire.

"Matthew lad... are you feeling alright?" Arthur asked kneeling down next to the teen.

Matthew shook his head.

"They... killed... her.... ace of... s-spades!" Matthew choked out.

This caught the attention of the others.

"Did Matthew just..." Alfred started before trailing off.

"Matthew?" Gilbert asked, "Who's they and what do you mean that they killed her?"

"Was it the new ace?" Peter asked.

"N-no.... old... Ace... Madeline! I'm... s-sorry!" Matthew gasped.

Gilbert released Matthew's shoulder, the teen felt warm like he was running a fever. Arthur caught the teen and notice the heat rolling off of the teen.

"Crap! Your running a fever!" Arthur said, getting Matthew to lie down on the ground.

Yao and the Queen of Hearts rushed to the teen and notice how sweaty the teen was.

"His cloak and scarf need to come off." Kiku said.

"We can use them as a pillow for his head." Yao added.

Arthur nodded and the scarf and the cloak came off and the King of Diamonds gasped in shock.

He looks like the Queen and Ace of Spades! the King of Diamonds thought.

/Somewhere else\

A man sat on a dark throne looking through plans that have been on hold for 19 years. Suddenly the doors flew open and two guards rushed in.

"Your highness, we found the Ace of Spades!" One called out.

"Yes, if Alex didn't shoot him, then we would have had him!" the other growled.

The king raised his hand and looked at the two with a small frown.

"Are you sure? Because last time you two idiots said that it turned out that the 'ace' as a little boy with no gift from the clock. Where you even looking at the right age group?" The King growled.

The two guards nodded.

"Yes King Night-lure!" the first guard answered.

"If this boy that you idiots found is the ace then I want him found! I have a feeling that Alex didn't kill him! So find me that ACE! Or so help me Alex.... Mark.... you two will be thrown into the dungeons for the next two months without food! Now get out of my sights!" The king demanded. 

The guards bowed before fleeing the room, leaving the king to look at his plans and a sick smile grew on his pale lips as his brown eyes flashed gold.

"Soon.... soon there will be only one kingdom to rule over this land and not those card royals with their stupid Jokers. I will get that boy and when I do he is going to wish that he was dead." With that dark promise, the king rose from his seat and walked over to the window.

As he looked out he could see the horrors of his kingdom. People being robbed, murdered, beaten and the guards didn't even lift a finger to help them.

"Soon this and all of the future lands will be mine and there will be plenty of riches to find and take. There is nothing to stop me, not even that delay from the Queen and Ace of Spade. I'll find the boy if it is the last thing I do!" he chuckled with a cruel smile and look in his eyes.

~

..... Okay Matthew has met the Royals, not officially yet, and nearly gotten killed by the Clubs ace. We also got to see the necklaces that both Gilbert and Matthew have, if you don't remember what the necklace that Gilbert has then go back to the first chapter or wait until I post the chapter that will explain about the necklace.

Oh! I can't forget! We got to see the shadow kingdom! The kingdoms symbol is pretty much a mash up of all of the Card kingdoms in one kingdom which is the shadow kingdom. The idea off having a kingdom with all four kingdoms as one came to me when I was reading 'Absorbing the deck', though in this story royals aren't killing each other. But there being one kingdom made me think of there being a shadow version of the four kingdoms that are in total chaos.

Anyways there will be more info of the shadow kingdom further into the story! I really hope that you all have enjoyed this chapter and continue to read!

Well peace!