Hatter's been taken prisoner. Alice attempts rescue. Tim Burton's version.

Been playing with Alice x Hatter concepts…trying to see how I feel about it. I love Depp and am terribly excited for the movie. A possible scene if…things became ridiculously tragic.

…I'm a sucker for tragedy. Especially for characters I really love.

"Hatter."

The girl started to sob.

"Please," she begged, "Please! Don't hurt him…please! Please, I beg you!" Her words turned to screams and suddenly the sword she'd gripped so tightly fell to the floor with a crash and a clatter.

The Hatter's green eyes went round. The sword. The sword was everything.

"No."

"Hatter!" she shrieked.

Blood was streaming from his temples.

"Alice. The sword," he implored in a whisper.

She did not hear him. Alice could only stare in horror as the brace clamped about his head. Lines of pain split across his face as the red smeared down either side of his head. The Queen was going to literally drive him insane and she was powerless to stop it.

"No," she whispered. The girl bowed to her knees before him—him sitting motionlessly in the horrid chair with the chains and the braces. "Is it not enough that she poisoned you in my absence? Now she wants to cut into your poor brain…"

His fingers scrabbled at the arms of the chair he was strapped to. "Alice," he pleaded.

Her eyes went wide as she glanced back to the sword, glimmering faintly against the grimy dungeon floor. Alice scrambled for it with tears stinging in the back of her eyes, and without warning she leapt at the Hatter. The steel screamed as it hacked into the brace about his head and neck. The girl's frustrated sounds grew into screams while all the while the Hatter winced beneath her furious attempts at freedom.

With a great crash the thing finally gave way and the Hatter cried out as the pressure suddenly faded way. Next Alice jammed the blade against the metal encasing his chest and it too bent in time. The girl then scrambled so feverishly over the binds securing his wrists that she almost couldn't muster the strength to free him—and finally when she undid his legs the man stumbled forward, smashing to his knees before his arms wrapped around her shaking form.

"Alice," he choked. Tears streaming from his eyes were lost in her blonde waves.

Her twitching fingers locked around his back and she too found she was sobbing into his jacket. "I cannot lose you, Hatter—"

"—you are the one friend I have," he concluded for her.

She shook in his arms and though he meant to offer some words of comfort, he couldn't open his mouth without fear of audibly crying.

"Such a beautiful weapon…." An unfamiliar voice purred.

Alice's head whipped over her shoulder and suddenly the Hatter was gripping her to his chest.

The Knave had found her.

The scar squinted behind his eye patch. His opposite eye was smiling wickedly, though his lips were slanted in just the slightest fashion. The blade shimmered darkly in his hand. It threw a eerie light into his eye.

Alice shook. The Hatter growled.

"Such a touching scene it will destroy…" the Knave mused.

Then the Hatter moved, and Alice screamed in protest. She lunged forward but the Hatter kept her at bay—forever her protector, standing between the girl and the Knave as he threw the blade forward.

Tears fell soundlessly as the Hatter staggered. His hand was clamped around the man's neck, but soon went slack, especially so when the Knave withdrew the blade from the Hatter's middle.

The mad man fell instantly.

Alice knelt over his figure, but he pleaded that she run.

Though he strove to protect her, and she knew it was all for the sake of Wonderland—she could not bring herself to leave him.

And the sword was already swinging down.