I don't own Alice. Sadly. *cries*

So everyone, I have a problem. The end of this fic is not what I wanted it to be. It's just not…right. So review and leave me opinions on how to make it better, kay? Just no flames. Thanks very much and enjoy!

SSS

"Alice? Why did you leave?"

There are two of them in her dream tonight, standing on either side of a pair of formidable black gates, moonlight catching on their caps.

"Yeah, Oneesan?" the boy in red demands, leaning forward against an axe taller than himself. "Why'd you leave?"

"Did I…leave?" she hesitates, and they exchange looks, expressions she's seen a thousand times and never.

"Yeah." The two straighten at their posts, and then they're gone. "You left."

"Did you hate us, Oneesan?" the voice is older now, and she turns, spinning on her heel to find herself staring into the crystal eyes of the boy in blue, a boy no longer. His eyes still hold the boy's curiosity, but he's grown, gone from boy to man in the span of seconds. "Is that why you left?"

"I could never hate you." She doesn't know them, but the words are still true somehow.

"We miss you, Oneesan." The boy in red is also grown, standing at his brother's shoulder, scarlet eyes glinting. "Won't you come back?"

"Don't you miss us?" the blue-eyed boy's grip on his axe is hard, but the fingers he brushes along her cheek are surprisingly gentle, somehow familiar. "Don't you… remember us?" For a second, his eyes bore into her, awaiting an answer, and she feels tears start to well. Then he relents, wraps his arms around her, an embrace almost too tight for comfort, and when his brother hugs her too she closes her eyes and tries to breathe. They smell like blood, but also like soap and metal and home.

"Why don't you remember us?" the boy with red eyes murmurs, his nose brushing her temple. "Why did you forget?"

"We love you." The blue-eyed twin's voice is little more than a whisper, his face buried in her hair. "Please remember?"

"I don't know what I've forgotten." She sniffs, trying to hold back the tears. She doesn't even know why she's crying.

"We'll help you; won't we brother?"

"Yeah. We'll make you remember."

They pull back just enough for the blue-eyed twin to put two fingers under her chin and tilt her head up, and then he kisses her, gentle and slow, coaxing.

"Remember?" the red-eyed boy's question is soft, murmured against her ear, and between his voice and his brother's kiss, she almost thinks she does.

Then they're both gone, and the night sky spirals down around her, obscuring the black gates and leaving her utterly alone, the names she thought she remembered flitting from her mind like butterflies.

Daylight fades into her eyes, banishing the last of the dream's shadows, and she sits up in bed, clinging to the memory of red and blue, of blood and soap, scraps that are all that remain of a life she once might've dreamed. For a moment she gazes out the window at the dawn, and then she lies back down and closes her eyes, chasing a dream she can't quite recall. A life she's never known and misses.

In another world, a nightmare smiles a smile like victory and opens a way.

She can't remember loving them. Knowing them. But she wants to. And that's all the invitation they have ever needed.

SSS

So? This is only my second Alice fic, so I'm still working on perfecting personalities. Anyway, if you liked, please check out my 'Spider-Webbed' to, yeah? Thanks! Don't forget to review!

~Seeker