Love is weakness, she had always known that. That had been the one thing that she had repeatedly told herself, so why had she made this once mistake that had cost her everything? Why had she believe that she needed more than just power to be happy? Why had she given into what she knew could destroy her? What had destroyed her.
She had let herself believe that she could have the one thing that she was born to live without forever. She had made a fatal mistake, and she told herself that, if she survived this fall to the land beneath Wonderland, she would never make that mistake again. She was a fool to think that she could actually have the one thing that every living being is entitled to. Love had been her downfall.
Hatter had only ever placed her trust in one person. He was the only one that she just couldn't picture betraying her. As the years went by, he became more than just her second in command. The fact that she could actually feel affection for him was the reason that she didn't think that she was evil. She would do what had to be done to get what she wanted, but she wasn't evil. Evil can't feel love.
Everyone called Morris "The March Hare", but he was as human as Hatter was (if not more, considering the fact that Hatter was a mirror image of another person). Many residents of Wonderland names were types of common animals. Hatter had thought that this was funny at first, but found that having to call someone "The March Hare" every time that she addressed them could become very tiresome. That was the same with her name, although she was The Mad Hatter, some found it easier to just call her Hatter.
Hatter had been working almost since she had been brought into existence, on a way to over throw The Queen of Hearts. Although many agreed that The Queen's reign of tyranny had to come to an end, Morris was the only one who shared Hatter's urgent need to kill The Queen. They knew that Hatter would need to be high enough in the social ladder for her to be able to take the throne, without having to make a fuss. Lucky for them The Queen was very trusting of the people that she did not decapitate, and Hatter was a smooth talker. It took years for everything to be in place, but when it was Hatter was certain that there was no way that she could fail.
Then Alice came.
The tea party was Hatter's way of giving the people of Wonderland one last chance to join her. She had to admit that everything was going smoothly, before she noticed the uninvited guest. She had known that they day for her to meet Alice was approaching, but she had to give fate credit for choosing the worst time possible.
Alice was Hatter's only true enemy, and Alice didn't even know it. She didn't know who Hatter was, but that didn't matter because Hatter had known her for her whole life. Hatter hadn't completely lied about the reason that she had decided to destroy Alice, she said that it was because Alice was a threat to her, which was the truth. However, Alice wasn't a threat because The Queen had taken a sudden liking to her, although that didn't help her chances of getting in Hatter's good books; Alice was a threat because, as long as she was alive, Hatter would never be her own person, she would never be more half real.
Maybe it had been unwise for her to try to kill Alice at the same time that she was trying to take The Queen's throne. She should have known that fate wouldn't be kind enough to let her eliminate both of her enemies. She would have won if she had been able to let Alice go, but she wasn't able to make that sacrifice. She had been convinced that she could have everything that she wanted if she worked hard enough for it.
In the end all of the cards had been in her favor, and she had been sure that there was no possible way for her to loose. She hadn't thought that the prisoners would be able to escape, and, even if she had know, she probably wouldn't have thought them able to ruin her plan. In the end they hadn't been the one to ruin her.
She had trusted Morris with the execution list and he had betrayed her. He had given it to her enemies in exchange for his own life. Never, not in a million years, would she had expected him to do such a thing. She knew that if she was in his situation she wouldn't have. She would have died for him, but apparently he was not willing to give up something as precious as his life, even if it meant saving hers.
Now that it was all over, now that she was falling to her doom, she didn't feel the painful sting of regret. What she felt was much worse. There was a pain in her chest, in her heart, that seemed to be ripping her soul in half. Her vision was blurred by a cool liquid that she no longer saw the point in holding back. She had always told herself that she was to strong to cry over losses, but now she realized she had only thought that because she hadn't lost anything worth crying over.
The worse part was, after everything that had just happened, she still loved him. Part of her was convinced that she was mistaken and he hadn't betrayed her, but the part of her that knew how harsh the world really was knew that she had been wrong about Morris. If he had loved her, he had been smart enough to overlook that when he truly needed to. Love is weakness, and he had known that.