A short trip back to Wonderland to see old friends had seemed necessary when they'd found that they could. Alice had asked why they could when a Club had come popping out the Looking Glass. Hatter hadn't. He'd been far too busy being displeased that Alice had brought the wondrous logic that she wanted to see it now that Jack had been king for a while, but he'd agreed, wanting to go. As much as he loved her and enjoyed her world, he still missed his good, old, crazy home. The trip back would be short, the Club had said; it didn't matter. They hashed out a time ('soonish', since time was a malleable element, as Hatter tried to explain to Alice). The Club had left and then so had they, soonish.
Being greeted by Charlie grinning down at him after he'd woken up on the other side of the Looking Glass hadn't been the most pleasant experience, but he was glad enough to see the White Knight once Alice had done some concerned peering over him herself.
Someone had tried to stop them. He didn't remember who. He simply grabbed her hand, and then they were off. He had momentarily faltered outside. Everything looked different, shrubs clipped and buildings scrubbed. Then he had realized it was much the same, just cleaner. Ew. Alice had faltered too, but at the sight of being so close to an edge and so high, not from surprise. He had grinned at her, and she had smiled back. Then he'd been off, dragging her along as he ran for somewhere.
Some of the buildings were still abandoned, empty and forsaken inside even if they were cleaned up outside. He ran for a while, ignoring her protests and paying her no heed. If she didn't want to come, he knew she could kick his ass. He peered into buildings, hat askew, but he didn't stop.
The only point at which he ever released her was when they stumbled across a porch lined with roses. With a mischievous grin, he plucked one. He twirled it in his fingers, enjoying seeing her mild amusement at his tricks. He handed it to her with a silly little bow. She took it, so gently and with great refinement. Once she had it in her fingers, he grabbed her other hand, and started off again. He grinned at her with an odd kindness when she spluttered more protests. She never really asked him to stop, and he loved her for that and everything else too.
Again, he peered into buildings. There was a pretty one, a boring tan outside but a faded pinkish shade on the walls inside to match the ratty old shirt he'd was wearing. He'd dressed up in his getup from Wonderland from back when they'd first met for the occasion. He pushed open the door and pulled her inside. He finally set her free, but she hung by him, which made him grin wider.
Having no plan to his escapade, he kissed her. She kissed back. It felt perfect. He was home, not in her strange world, and they were someplace random, kissing. Not a better day. She almost dropped the flower. It pricked against his fingers and he caught it, drawing away. Passing it to her, he ambled deeper into the empty building, twirling.
"Where are we going? We were supposed to go see Jack. And Charlie;" she said, hurriedly adding the White Knight so he couldn't go get snippy about the king.
Her efforts didn't keep him from making a slight face, but he hurriedly grinned at her. "On an adventure;" he told her. Away he spun, deeper into the space, away with her following after him, her laughter in the air.
Hatter disappeared around a corner, his askew hat the last thing visible. With some caution, she followed him. It wasn't enough, that caution. He kissed her quick, again, grinning while he did it. She laughed at him. He liked her laughing at him, a personality quirk of his. He drew back. Then he kissed her again, a deeper kiss that she reciprocated.
Eventually, he drew back. His eyes never left her, still grinning with cheekiness. Then the pounding of feet came, and an odd slithering, whispering shuffle. She turned first, so quick, and he turned more slowly. At first, there was nothing. Then the hall was flooded with a flurry of people. They weren't Suits. Some of them were girls. Some of them were boys. Some of them were things he didn't recognized, the most common that he saw being something rather like a humanoid sheep. Most were dressed in solid red or solid white. He saw one in blue, and a few in a shimmering black.
The first blow hit him. He struck back. Someone fell. There were more attacking him. He punched, once, then again. He fought to see Alice, but she was holding her own, having been pulled away by one until she smacked the adversary down. He fought for himself, efforts to get to her made in vain. Much of the random group who had swarmed them fell without much of a fight, falling under a single blow. The dozen or so that had tried to take him became only three with only a fair number of bruises on him to show for it, the rest of the bodies lying groaning or silent on the ground around him.
The ones left posed a challenge, though. One of them was in the shimmering black, another in blood red, the third in snow white. However, they were quicker, more nimble, having survived the first wave with an ease though he hadn't noticed the distinction of them before. He struck at one, but found nothing where he punched. The red soldier kicked at him. He hurriedly dodged, sparing a glance towards Alice. Only three remained fighting her too. Two of them looked much the same as two as him, both nimble and quick men, one dressed in red and the other in white. He didn't get a good look at the third. He only got a clear picture that the darkly clad figure attacking his girlfriend seemed to stand back while the others danced about and looked a lot bigger.
Hatter dodged another kick. He punched one, making a bit of contact with some flesh. Whichever one he hit, because they wouldn't stop moving and he couldn't tell, winced. He tried to surge through an opening, to move and get to Alice. However, two of them blocked him off, pushing back with a flurry of kicks of which he managed to dodge a few. White and black faced him. He must have hit the red one. Faintly, he felt curiosity. He hadn't even hit the red one that hard, with his bad hand, but the soldier was gone, somewhere amongst the others on the floor that weren't getting up despite their minor injuries.
In the end, it wasn't as if he was given much time to think on it. They kept kicking. He kept swinging. He brought another down. Only the black one remained. The darkly clad soldier moved like a dancer, if dancers could kill, which he supposed some of them could, not that he was doing much supposing. He swung, his better hand, his hammer hand, without a thought. He got a swift kick in the ribs as a reward.
Stumbling back, he half straightened. Then he ducked. Finally, he managed to stand properly. He punched. The soldier moved too slowly, for once, and fell, and a scream rang out. It hadn't been the silent soldier.
Whirling, Hatter stared, trying to fight against time and a killing weight as he saw Alice fall. Only one of the attackers was left, the burly dark one he had only glimpsed before. Dressed in odd, clinging armor, the soldier, more a knight in appearance, had a sword. He hadn't noticed it before. She hadn't called for help.
Screaming, he charged the knight. He didn't think. It hardly registered when he observed that the features of the killer's face were oddly like those of a horse. He punched and punched, over and over, with either hand, even more wild than before. He felt bone crush once, a sickening snap, as he shattered an arm. He didn't stop until the knight collapsed.
Then he turned to Alice. Kneeling beside her, he pressed his hands at the injury it took him no time to a find - a stab wound in her chest. However, she gave no response. He felt no breath. "Alice;" he whispered. "Alice!"
It took a while for the reality to set into his mind. A lot of blood, her blood, was on his hands by the time he started to sit back.
Alice was dead. His Alice was dead. What had happened? No war. No sense. No heroine's valiant funeral in sight. Just a random attack he'd led her to that he hadn't been expecting. It was his fault. There was nothing. She was just dead. It couldn't be real. It was a dream. Clinging to desperate thoughts, he held her tightly to his chest.
As he was, clinging desperately to her, not crying but more senseless than he normally was, he didn't notice the rose he had plucked for her lying nearby, somehow only a little disturbed by the fight and abandoned near a wall. He didn't notice it begin to fall apart. He didn't notice the knight begin to stir, reaching valiantly for his sword. He didn't notice when there was a quiet noise, a flurry of motion, and the knight was laid peacefully to rest, one death amongst the mostly unconscious bodies, one death of two, while a new figure appeared in the wide, littered corridor behind him.
Hello everyone! This is Linny, the author of this story!
First off, the majority of the characters in this fanfiction can be either credited to those behind Syfy's Alice, Lewis Carroll, or rare mythologies of several cultures. I only lay claim to the writing within this, with thanks to filmgrl13 for beta reading.
Now, I'd like to welcome you all, and give a couple of quick bits of information. This is the first fanfiction I've done in a while, and one of a few I've ever done. For the most part, I do original works. However, I quite like this story.
Despite that, I am rather busy, and I will not be able to constantly update. For the sake of any readers that are attracted to this, I will try to update once a week with new chapters. Anyway, thanks for reading! This is just the start, and someone's already dead, oh my!
