A/N: Back with another oneshot! I have to say that A:MR is just a wonderful game, despite a bit of disappointment in some parts. The ending is just beautiful, so SPOILERS! ahead for those who haven't finished the game. I've always had this fantasy of Wonderland inhabitants made human out of Alice's longing for good company (e.g. and possible scenario, Rutledge's), so here's my first attempt. I might even try a sequel to A:MR despite the NO-POSSIBLE-SEQUEL trick they pulled in there xDD

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Copyright goes to EA Games/American McGee's/Spicy Horse Studios (all of them just in case XD)

Reality and Dreamworld: One and The Same

An Alice: Madness Returns fic.

"Wonderland is safe in memory… for now."

And yet despite the Cat's reassuring and calm words, Alice couldn't fight back a very odd sense of paranoia. There she was, in front of the orphanage… but in Wonderland? Maybe she was still there? Maybe she had become trapped in her own world? Alice's nervousness spiked. Her world, London, fused with Wonderland? Was she so mad she could not discern dream from reality anymore? Alice wished the Cat was there to throw her some kind of bizarre or nonsensical advice, but he was nowhere to be seen. How to return to reality now?

Which one was reality to begin with?

But never mind where she was, overcoming her feelings, Alice decided to enter the orphanage again. It was a cradle of bad memories for sure, but she was not afraid of remembering anymore. In fact, she could still see John, with his dorky smirk, and Anna, the girl of the plaits, playing by the window, and then Anna leaving for another session with the doctor. She couldn't help a smile. After all, and as the doctor had always incited her to, the past had been paid for: her past of suffering and torment and self-blaming… It had all been left behind. Alice was free again.

Back in her room, she had a good look at it, but she could not fight back the emptiness that swept over her like a tidal wave. There, perched on the wall and framed, was the picture of her family… the complete Liddell family. Slowly, Alice approached it, her green eyes fixated upon said picture, admiring the faces of her parents and sister. The emptiness in her chest reached her heart, which ached and was crushed under the weight. She ran her fingers over Lizzie's face, then her parents', then her own. The cause of everything.

No. Such thoughts are gone! That bastard Bumby did it! I'm-I'm not to blame!

"I'm not to blame…"

It had been years since the last time she cried and since she'd vowed she would not ever again, but tears came flowing freely either way. First one, then every single one she'd held back along the years, and Alice truly cried as she fell to her knees, hugging her chest in hopes of offering herself some consolation. Whoever had sent her that photograph deserved the best the world had to offer, and Alice hadn't even seen them once. It was because of them that she'd preserved a small fraction of her sanity, and said person was lost in the vastness of the world.

"I thought I would never see such a scene again."

Alice wiped her tears in her apron, unable to cease her sobbing. "Well… here you have it…" Her snappiness was overcome by her sorrow and so, her voice trembled. "It's not… pleasant… but it's necessary."

"And pleasantly necessary?"

Alice sighed, eyes skyward, then chuckled bitterly. "Perhaps," she replied, standing. "I just wish… I just wish I knew who sent me this picture, Cat. I spent years at Rutledge's without any sign of my past save for the nightmares: no letters, no pictures, no visits… And years ago, my second day at this orphanage, I get this picture and there's no sender written on the envelope. Though now that I think of it, I don't know which effect it had on me."

"A different effect than what it was to be expected, I'd say."

"Neither good nor bad, isn't that how it goes?" Alice turned in the direction of the voice and found the Cheshire Cat perched upon her bed, his ever-present grin instilling some tranquillity in her. "I don't suppose you know anything about it, do you?"

"Wonderland has its king and as it happens in all kingdoms, certain inhabitants have… special privileges," said the Cat, enigmatic. "I happen to have one of those."

Alice cocked an eyebrow. "You have a gift for ignoring questions, one that you usually misuse, Cat," she snapped, crossing her arms.

"Starting from the beginning doesn't always mean the road to the end is endless," the Cat replied. To Alice's dismay, he vanished, though his voice could still be heard. "Search your memories and tell me, Alice: have you ever seen puzzle missing one piece and that said piece was unable to fit?"

"Of course."

"And two?"

"No, but if I did, then I would say that puzzle needs to be remade," said Alice, following the Cat's voice. "Or find those two pieces a different puzzle."

The Cat purred in satisfaction. "You're getting there; you haven't lost your knack for progressing swiftly."

"Where are you getting with this?" asked Alice as she realized she was back outside. "Stop confusing me: what's this about memories and puzzles and privileges? I do have a fondness for puzzles, but only those who have a solution."

"This one also has it."

The voice came from behind her, more vivid than usual. Alice turned but saw no-one. "Blast it, Cat, I know that was you!" She shook her head, telling herself all the snappiness was uncalled for: she knew the Cat would know better than give her a straight answer. "Just… just give me a clue, at least this once."

"Some obstacles are overcome with our mind; others, with our heart," she heard him say. "Remember, many years back, that you asked me who I was?" Alice then could've sworn something brushed past her cheek, like a thin and pointy nail, but she paid the Cat more attention. "I, like Wonderland, have many faces; which one would you like to see?"

Alice grew pensive for a moment, stole a glance at the key she held in her hand. She remembered: all those years in solitude at Rutledge's with nothing to console her but the thought of her Wonderland, of those who she befriended when she was just a young girl.

I wish they were like me.

Suddenly, it clicked.

Alice searched for the Cat, but he still wasn't there. "If I tell you I have the answer, would you show yourself… as both my young and current self want?"

Silence. While she waited patiently for an answer, she walked to the corner and remembered with grim fondness the countless times she'd put her Jacks to work the last time she was in Wonderland. "A simple game that can turn nasty. Actually, it was my favourite when battling the guards. Never play alone, isn't that right?"

With a brief nostalgic smile, Alice turned around, and then her eyes grew wide. In front of her stood a grinning young man: black hair, amber eyes and a golden hoop on his left ear. Bizarre? Yes. Familiar? Absolutely.

"The face of relief before the heart of longing," he said. At the lack of response, he scoffed, "Cat got your tongue?"

"Not that; my sanity, most likely," she replied. "Though I think I've left no more of it."

His grin widened, his eyes sparkling with life. Alice's features lit up with a smile, her first true smile in years.

"No matter; we're all mad here, after all."

If not, she wouldn't have smiled in the presence of a madman.