First a warning: Any complainers regarding this chapter will be bluntly ignored, if not rude comments will be laughed at. Thank you and enjoy the story!
It had been many years since she returned to Underland, that much he knew. But The Mad Hatter was not quite sure how many years in the Overland it had been since Alice last journeyed to Underland. Underland's time is quite strange. Everyone did not believe Alice would return, not even she herself. But nomatter what, the Hatter always believed. The Hatter stayed hopefull that his Alice may one day return. That is why everyday when he woke in the morning, he rushed out into the foggy dim light just to check if Alice was there. She never was.
At the layer of Time, the man himself was busy doing work only Time would understand. He then stopped suddenly. He felt it again, the same as everyday. He felt another mortal who's time had run out and stopped. Time felt as if they were Underlandian, but something felt oddly out of place. But Time let the feeling drift away as he briskly walked down to the section of the Living Underlandians.
Once there, Time began to surch through the watches to see wich had stopped. After surching through all the family names, Time could not find who's watch had stopped. Then he thought he my as well check the Overlands Section of Living.
'But who would have such a strong connection to both the Under and Over lands to confuse me as such?' Thought time.
When Time reached the hall inbetween the living sections of the Under and Overlands, he noticed a room that he was sure he had never seen before. There was a large sign above the room's door. Time read the sign and gasped.
"It can't be!" Time whispered.
Time entered the room, where he saw many long chains, waiting for new life to come and bring them watches. There were two watches, but there was one hanging chain that glowed electric blue. This ment that there would soon be a new watch in that place.
Time looked at one of the two watches, the one that was not ticking in particular. Time took the watch in his hand and read the name. He did the opposite of what he was supposed to do and did not close the watch. Keeping the watch open would keep the person alive for a small mount of borrowed Time, one hour to be precise.
"I must get to the Queens!"
It was currently a bright, lovely day. The White and Red queens were now at a tea party with The Mad Hatter, Bayard, McTwisp, Earwhicket, The Tweedle Brothers, Mally the Doormouse, and the Cheschire Cat. The crown that had once divided them had now divided itself. This let them both equaly rule the Underland.
The teaparty was going splendidly. The Hatter was as lovebly insane as always, and miraculously nothing had been broken by the Spring Hare yet. By some miracle Iracebeth's head had even shrunk down a bit! This is when Time himself appeared befire them.
"Tick-Tock!" Iracebeth shouted, suprized at Time.
"Hello." Time muttered back to her.
"Time! Why are you here? You know you are not to leave your layer unless dire circumstances befall!" Mirana almost shouted, but then composed herself.
"This circumstance is completely dire, dear queen-" Time was cut off by a small cough from Iracebeth.
"Pardon me, Queens. But this is quite dire. You see, today I felt that someones time was up, so I went to surch for them. I, of course, found them." Time said, pulling out the still open watch.
"Now who could be so dire that you have rushed here? What name does the watch read?" Half asked/shouted Iracebeth.
Time looked down at the watch in his gloved hands. After reading the name once more, he spoke aloud.
"Alice Kingsley." All cheerfulness at the table died, everyone was silent for a while.
"The Alice?" Softly asked Bayard. Time nodded grimly.
"No. This can't be." Said The Hatter. Struggling to keep his voice out of Outlandish.
"Time. Why do you tell us this?" Whispered Mirana.
"Yes. Why not let us discover that the girl is dead on our own?" Continued Chessur, having a hard time staying sane himself.
"Because right now she is living on borrowed me. Well, borrowed Time. I found a room with this stopped watch in it that bears Alice's name. This room was between Under and Overland. The sign on the room bore the word Kingsley, so I investigated. There was also another watch in there that was ticking, also a glowing chain. The chain means that a new child will soon come into the world. I assume the other clock was who Alice married, although I do not understand why they took her name." Time paused and gasped at his own sentance, he had never been one to like long sentences. When Time mentioned Alice's marriage, the Hatter Choked on the tea he had been trying to sip. Then Time continued.
"I assume this is quite shocking for all of you, but don't become grim just yet. There is a way I can save her. If she is as important as I have come to believe I will do it. But I only have an hour after her clock has stopped to do so." Time stated.
"Exactly how is this done?" Asked a Tweedle.
"How is this done, exactly?" Asked the other.
"I would need to get to the Overland. I would have to keep the watch open and-" But he was cut off.
"Aye, ye' heard the man! Now we split up an' check every exit of Underland, the Lookin' glass an' the Rabbit Hole!" Hatter had let his Outlandish voice slip through to ralley the people. They all were reminded of the Hatter they knew during The War. They wwrw all about to follow the Hatter when...
"STOP!" They heard Iracebeth yell.
"What?!" Hatter yelled back.
Iracebeth turned to Time and her sister. "So you are telling me that The Alice, the champion, the only on that can stop me, is dead?" She asked wild eyes.
"Yes, that is what Time's saying... Wait what?" Stammered Mirana. But she was to late, Iracebeth had already stolen the crown of her head.
"Sorry sissy, but you were never ment to rule. I am eldest after all!" Then as she cackled, Iracebeth raised the two crowns above her (completely back to full size) head. The crowns joined eachother, giving off a burning ray of red energy. The energy split into two beams heading in oposite directions. These beams turned the once blue sky a deep blood red, covering everything in its hue. When the beams disapeared, everything was still red. Iracebeth was left standing there smirking, the enormous conjoined crown atop her head.
"Everyone say Fairfarren to their new queen!" With that, Iracebeth vanished.
"Who taught her to vanish?!" Urgently asked Mirana.
"CHESSUR?!" Acused a very mad Hatter.
"Don't look at me!" The cat said as he disapeared.
The group sat there in firey anger for a second then Time spoke.
"There is still Me to save Alice!" He said, but the group looked confused.
"Time. There is still Time to save Alice." Time clerified.
"Ye' heard the man. FOR ALICE!" Hatter yelled.
"FOR ALICE!" They all chanted as they ran into the woods to find a way out of Underland.
But soon the group faced a problem, the Rabbit Hole exit of Underland had caved in.
"Bloody Big Head." The Hatter mumbled under his breath, still in Outlandish.
Then they all rushed to the sight of the Looking Glass, they had almost no time to spare. When they reached the entrance of the looking glass (wich was quite hard due to it being in the sky) they promptly shrunk themselves. The Hatter threw open the door and stepped into the room. But his features twisted in horror as the sight reached his eyes. There was glass everywhere, with a dark magical residue covering most of the area. The Looking Glass was shattered.
"What do we do now?" Asked Mally.
"The only other way out of Underland is with the blood of a Jabberwocky, and we don't have any of that do we?" Said Mirana in a tone that was suggesting she slipping slightly out of sanity herself.
"And I fear we are out of Time." Grimly said Time. The hour was up, and the thin strand of borrowed Time Alice was living on had been cut. Alice's watch had then shut on its own, disappearing with Time along with it.
The Hatter had felt as if his world had been shattered. The man dropped to his knees and raised his face to the ceiling, letting his hat fall off his head. From his mouth came only three words-
"BLOODY RED QUEEN!"
Lightning cracked and a giant gust of wind spread over Underland from that point. It seemed to drag most of the lands depleated Muchness along with it. Turning Underland into a place that was completely unrecognizable.
Meanwhile on a boat somewhere in a sea in Overland, Alice Kingsley had literally just given birth to her new child. It was a girl. The father, the former Mr. Harcourt now Mr. Kingsley, had their new healthy daughter in his arms.
When he and Alice relized their love for eachother, they were married. Although Alice insisted that she keep her name, and that he take hers. And well, whatever Alice wants she gets! The new Mr. Kingsley had been the only one to believe her stories of what Alice called 'Wonderland.' He has also been the one to tell her to write down her adventures for future generations.
But something happened. Suddenly there was a lot of blood and Alice's vision was blurry. But she chuckled. Mr. Kingsley tried to help her, but she quieted him.
"Listen to me. My time is almost up so you need to listen." She said with a whisper. "Only our daughter may know of Wonderland. Her and her first born daughter and her first born daughter and so on. These are the only people that may know of Wonderland. Each of these first born daughters, including ours, will keep the name Kingsley; even after marriage. They will also keep the name Alice. Only the first born daughter. This is how it must be. Will you do this for me?"
"Of course Love." He whispered. Then, still holding their daughter, took Alices icy hand in his own and kissed her knuckles. Only letting a single tear roll down his face.
Alice gasped. "My time," she paused, "is up." Then she went limp, dying in her husband's hands. Mr. Kingsley stayed by her side for a while, but then his daughter started to cry.
"Hush, Alice." he said in a soothing voice as he layed her down in her crib.
Then he went out onto the deck and informed the crew that Captain Alice had died during childbirth. Alice's mother, who was her daughters business partner, gasped. She cried forthe loss of her daugter, but then composed herself to adress the crew.
"A great captain has died tonight, but her memory and daughter lives on. We will burry her properly when we get to the New World. Dismissed!" She stated. She would now have to step into her daughters position as captain, seeing as her husband was not much of a sailor.
Then a blue butterfly descended from the sky above and flew in Mr. Kingsley's chambers. The butterfly flew to the newborn child and landed on her head, as if trying to bless the heritage of this on small child and the children that would come after her.
Back in Underland...
"Wait, where is Absolem?" Asked Mirana quietly.
"Wait. Didn't we send him to Overland to get more information on Alice's... absence." Slowly squeaked Mally through her rare tears.
"It looks as though we have other matters to deal with." Said Mirana, gesturing toward the Hatter who now had his head in his hands. His hat besides him long forgotten.
Later that night in Overland, Mr. Kingsley watched his daughter as she slept. Alice's body had been moved to another cabin, but he still refused to sleep in the bed she died in. So, with the light of the moon as his witness, he wrote down her final wish.
'From now and forevermore, the first born daughter of the Kingsley family will inherit not only the Kingsly name, but also the name of Alice. Any other children will take the fathers name and any other chosen name besides Alice. Furthermore, the first Alice's journal will be passed down from first daughter to first daughter. These women are not allowed to share the contents of the journal under no circumstances.'
Then Mr. Kingsley signed his name to the scroll, bound in with a red silk ribbon, and secured it with the Kingsley seal.
More chapters coming soon.