Back Through the Rabbit Hole
By Batman008
Summary: The Red Queen is trying to rise back into power, and Alice is called once again to return to Underland to fix things for its residents. One problem. The Queen has captured the Hatter. Hatter/Alice
Rating: T
Warnings: Maybe a few curse words, and violence, as well as pretty dark themes.
Ｄｉｓｃｌａｉｍｅｒ： Ｉdo not own Alice in Wonderland
A/N: Loosely tied into my musing oneshot, He Loved Her.
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Mirana was watching her kingdom fall to flames. Again. It didn't take but a year after Alice went back above before The Red Queen convinced a shady blacksmith to remove the chains. Once they were removed, she again found a way to use power and riches to seduce the Knave over to her side once more, and already several of the members of Mirana's court were dead.
They had found the first one two weeks ago. He was hanging naked by a tree outside the White Queen's castle, with the words "She Shall Return" written in red on his bare chest. Mirana had called up the White Army to guard the castle at all times, but two more court members were found within the past seven days, both with the same unsettling message scrawled on their naked corpses. Within another week, they were in a full-fledged war, classic red versus white.
Tarrant had tried to help, but he had never been excellent in battle. He fought more valiantly than expected, but he was captured by the red army within a couple of battles. Mirana sometimes wondered why they didn't kill him; it wouldn't be under her sister's level of morale to do it. Not that she wasn't grateful; Tarrant was one of her closest friends, and she supposed that him being captured was far better than him being dead.
Tarrant hadn't really been himself since Alice left anyway. He had been sad, very, very sad, and he never futterwackened or made tea or even discussed the letter M. Instead he focused totally and completely on the problems and the trials of Underland, helping the White Queen to rule to the best of her ability.
He now sat in a dusty jail cell, waiting for the prodigal hero to return.
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Alice sat in her study, trying to write a negotiation letter for a difficult trade with China. She couldn't work, though. She was too busy thinking about her friends, her friends from Underland. She had started to forget. She knew it was coming, but she hadn't fully expected it when she woke up one morning and couldn't remember the White Queen's actual name. She had to return to Underland. She knew it. She no longer felt at home in the Otherworld, no matter how hard she tried. She missed all of her friends, and she was afraid of forgetting more. She was especially afraid of forgetting him.
She loved him. She realized soon after she left, that he was more important to her than anyone else, in either world. But she was too afraid to go back. Her mother had fallen ill shortly after her return, and died only a couple of months ago. Alice had done her mourning. It was her mother's time, and to tell you the truth, they had never been close.
Margaret had stayed with Lowell, much to Alice's displeasure, and now a bun was in the oven and the happy couple couldn't be happier. There was nothing left for her in this world, so why did she stay? Was it because she was afraid to go back? Well, she could just put that behind her. She was going back down the rabbit hole. Tonight.
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