Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me, I'm just borrowing
Notes: I've yet to actually fully delve into this fandom but I enjoy it very much. This particular short piece was written for the quarterly challenge at the new_wonderland community at LiveJournal. Feedback is appreciated.
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He can't exactly remember when they have arrived back in Wonderland, he just knows, the moment he ceased to be Jack Chase, a free man; and returned to being Jack Heart- Prince of Wonderland and Future King. And he realizes, as he is recovering in the sanctuary of his bedroom or so he claims so he can be left alone, that he is more than likely back for good. Trapped within the glass and steel cage that is the Happy Hearts Casino.
Irony at it's finest, Jack Heart thinks with slight contempt, that his prison should bear the name Happy Hearts.
He is not happy here, even with his status cemented and his future bright, he can not be happy here- not when his mother is still in control.. But he has to be happy here or at least play the part until the time is right. And he's good at that, playing the part, pretending to be something he's not, he did it so well outside of Wonderland that maybe.. Jack Heart should cease to exist so Jack Chase can live on.
But Jack Heart is the Prince of Wonderland and a Resistance Fighter... dare he say, the Future of Wonderland. Jack Heart is needed here.
Jack Chase is just a nobody who can't make a difference in Wonderland, who can't help free the people. Jack Chase is only needed by Alice. Or was, he realizes. But there's still a chance, still the possibility because she didn't reject him entirely..
And for the briefest of moments, Jack entertains the notion, what if he were to go back.. to drop the role of Jack Heart and permanently resume his life as Jack Chase, with nary a second thought to the future and people of Wonderland. Because it is tempting, to return and make things right with Alice.
But his conscience won't allow it and so he stays, Jack Heart on the outside with Jack Chase living on in his memories, because that's how it has to be. Besides, Jack thinks with the very slightest of smiles, if he knows Alice at all, she'll be in Wonderland soon enough. Even if the circumstances are entirely different now, she's still Alice and he is still Jack; just not the Jack that she had come to know.
And Jack is fairly certain that Alice will not like Jack Heart nearly as much as Jack Chase, if she likes Jack Heart at all. But that's how it needs to be until the time is right.
Because he is Jack Heart, even if he wishes to be Jack Chase; Wonderland requires him to be Jack Heart.
-fin-