Missing

Duchess woke up with a niggle in the pit of her stomach. She wasn't sure why really. She rolled to find the other side of the bed empty and cold. It looked like Jack was already up for the morning duties. But why did that bother her so? Why did she feel like something was a miss? Why was that niggle nagging her? She didn't know. Something pulled her out of bed and into her bathrobe. It was the niggle, it was nagging, and it was intolerable. Before she knew what was happening that niggle was dragging her toward her son's room. It had been five years (wonderland time) since Alice had come and set them free, and in that time Jack and Duchess had had little Harper. Harper was four and a half now. Which he loved telling people, adding the half as if he should be counted as an adult regardless of the previous low number. In other words, he was your average four year old who just wanted to be a man in small boots. No, Duchess and Jack's relationship hadn't become perfect once Alice left. But they functioned on some dysfunctional level, and Duchess didn't really think about it too often, she was always busy with Harper. The door to little Harper's room creaked open, and the scream that protruded caught her by surprise. It was loud, shrill, and pained. Duchess didn't realize she was the one screaming until her mind finally registered that Harper's bed was empty. No, not just empty, his room was ransacked. Not ransacked like a child had been playing here, but like someone had come in and there had been a struggle.

One of the clubs came running down the hall his face disturbed, and confused. "What is it your majesty," he asked out of breath and worried.

"Harper, where is Harper? Where's Jack? Bring me Jack now! Go fetch him from whatever meeting he's in, NOW!" Duchess hadn't demanded much of Jack's men since she became queen, but this was a life or death situation.

The club looked more and more confused, "His majesty didn't have any meetings this morning. He said he was going to be taking a day off to spend with you and Harper. Are you saying he wasn't in his bed?"

"No! Dispatch a search party immediately. If they're in this palace I want them found," Duchess screamed and number ten ran off to do as told. Duchess herself ran back to her bedroom for any signs of them. She needed to know immediately what had happened to her husband, and son. It wasn't like Jack to just disappear. And it sure wasn't like Harper to run off someplace without coming to wake his mother first. This wasn't right this was most definitely not right. Duchess felt her heart pounding in her chest the longer she spent in their empty bedroom. She needed a sign, a note, a sock, anything! She would settle for anything to prove to her that Jack and Harper were in fact alright. Anything at all. Instead she found a note scrawled with handwriting so pretty it had to be a woman's, and she began to hear that screaming again. Moments later she realized it was her, again and quieted. She flopped onto the bed her eyes wet as dark makeup ran down her cheeks, the letters on the page blurred. Duchess took a long ragged breath trying to calm herself, she needed to calm, she needed to do something. She needed help. Real help. Not Jack's men, but people who could handle this. As much as she hated to say this, she thought she needed Alice and Hatter. Her eyes ran over the scrawling letters once more. It wasn't even a ransom note, the woman didn't want money. The woman just wanted to gloat, and tell Duchess that she had Jack and Harper. She had them and she'd fix what had been broken. Duchess knew she mean the house of cards, the royal line that supplied instant gratification. Jack had ended it, and this woman wanted it back. It was merely signed Aceline Heart. Heart, like it was her last name, like she was related to Jack. Duchess didn't think Jack had a sister, for all she knew Jack was an only child.

One of the Ace's returned to the room to see how she was, and report in. He was the only one brave enough to deal with Duchess when she was in a rage. "Your majesty, we've found nothing. They are not on the grounds anywhere. We have started a party to search the city, and they will depart moment....." he broke off when he saw the crinkled note in her hand. Could it be? "Your majesty, might I enquire as to what that says," he could only hope it was a note from the king himself saying he'd just taken Harper on a hunting trip or something else simple. Then this all could be chalked up to Duchess lunacy. But the broken look on her face told him otherwise.

"Does Jack have a sister," She asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

"M'lady," he asked looking perplexed. The king? A sister? Had this woman lost her bloody mind?

"Does Jack have a sister," she screamed at him, sitting up quickly and whipping her head to look at him.

"N-no, I don't believe so m'lady," The ace said stunned out of his very wits, and more than a little frightened that Duchess would turn that wrath on him. She was well known for her ruthlessness, of course none of it had been experienced as of late since the queen had been imprisoned. But that didn't make anyone less wary of her mean streak.

"Then who the devil is Aceline Heart, and why does she have my husband and son?!"

"I-I don't know," the man stuttered with a frown. "Perhaps we should speak to the elders, I believe they'd know best. They do keep record of those things, although if no one were meant to know... I really don't know m'lady. But that search party has been dispersed and we will find them, we will find them immediately." He was reassuring himself as much as he was reassuring Duchess. The ace just wanted to really believe that the King and the Prince were fine and would be returned safe and sound.

Duchess doesn't believe it. She read the words herself, and she knows that they mean. This Aceline woman wants everything to go back to how it was before Alice. She wants the world to be back in the dark times. She wants power. And Duchess knew better than anyone what a power hungry woman could do. She'd been one once, and she had been capable of anything. She would have done anything just for a little slip of power. Jack had changed all that. With his winning smile, and his passion. Before he went through the looking glass she'd never once seen him uncontrolled, never once seen behind his mask. When he returned his emotions were raw, and he was passionate. It was what had changed her. Of course she hadn't made him that way, and that was more than slightly irritating, but she benefited from it. "Have the looking glass opened." She commanded. She didn't realize the ace was still rambling on trying to make them both feel better. He couldn't make her feel better. This woman was serious, and Duchess knew there was one person who could help. Just one. As much as Duchess hated to think it, she needed Alice. Her rival for Jack's heart. She needed that confounded slip of a girl, and her mad boyfriend.

"Wh-what," the ace stuttered. Had he heard her right?

"You heard me, start the looking glass. I will be going through tonight to retrieve Alice and Hatter. When I return we will put this whole business to rights. Now, off with you." She waved him away and rose from her spot a very different woman than the one who had flopped onto the bed. Yes, she was still distraught at the loss of her family. The difference now was that she could do something about it, and she would. She would retrieve Alice and her Hatter, and they would put this all to rights. Duchess would give anything to see her family back safe and sound, and if she had to do this then she would. She walked over to her wardrobe and changed from her nightdress into a sturdy pair of pains, and a button up blouse. The woman tied her hair back, and pulled on a pair of riding boots. She meant business, and she would not run around half clothed doing what she knew she'd have to. A small dagger was slipped into the top of the boot, she had no intention of coming back to the palace once she got Alice. She would not walk back through those doors until she had Jack at her side, and Harper safely in her arms. This Aceline woman didn't understand who exactly she was fooling with. Duchess had acquired strength, and a will of her own in the years that passed, and she would do anything for her family. She'd die for her family.