"When I said 'plan', this isn't quite what I had in mind."
"Try not to speak. And look miserable."
Chessur grumbled something under his breath as Alice pulled on the black mask – it covered the area around her eyes so she wouldn't be recognized. Then again, considering the amounts of black robes she had on, no one would recognize her. Chessur had stolen them from one of the guards that patrolled the area around the prison. Mallymkun and Thackery were remaining with the horse in a clearing not far away, while Chessur and Alice continued with their rescue plan.
"Oh, boo hoo. I'm so miserable. I've been caught." Chessur said in a flat tone, and Alice looked at him. It was like looking in a mirror, except the odd green cat eyes that had replaced her blue ones. Chessur had taken on her form, and pulled on the dress she'd been wearing. He was playing distraction, while Alice attempted to find the Hatter.
"I don't sound like that." She wrinkled her nose. Chessur merely chuckled. Attempting to look rough, Alice grabbed his arm tightly, jerking him closer toward her as they began to march forward, stepping out onto the path. Just ahead, between the trees, a small one-story building sat. Chessur had assured her that it was only a front, that the real prison was underground, in the mines.
"Stop!" A rough voice called – it was one of the guards standing at the front of the building, dressed in the same clothes she was.
"I'm escorting our latest prisoner to high security, on orders of the Queens." Alice said in a deeper voice, trying to sound better than a frightened woman. She was actually nearly trembling, her fingers shaking as they clutched Chessur's arm. "It's Alice." She added, and this finally sparked a reaction from the two guards.
"Alice? Well then, I guess you better lock her up good and tight. They've got a vacant cell in high security."
"I'm also to check on the Mad Hatter, and the Tweedle Twins. I'm to question them to see if they have anything to do with helping this girl back into Wonderland." She said, hoping they wouldn't notice the way her tone faltered.
"No one is allowed to see them."
"I have orders from the Queens." She stated a bit more firmer. The guards exchanged glances, before finally nodding.
"Fine. Those idiots are in high security is well. I'm sure you know the way." The other grumbled as they opened the doors to let her pass inside. She gave Chessur a rough shove, and the doors closed behind them.
The room was large, and white, and looked nothing like a prison. Just a big empty room. Alice frowned, stepping forward. Her foot sunk down in the tiled floor a bit, and she was surprised when it acted as a trigger, opening a trap door in the floor that led to a set of stairs.
"Down there?" She whispered and Chessur only nodded, forcing Alice to watch her own blonde curls bob up and down with the motion. She nodded, and tugged Chessur along, but still trying not to hurt him as they descended the stairs.
She was greeted by a nasty smell, and rows upon rows of cells. Guards patrolled the hall, but paid her no mind. The stairs kept going down, so she continued down them, surprised when they started to curl. They passed more and more halls of cells – just how many people had the Queens locked up? It seemed to be plenty.
The walls grew darker and rougher looking the more they descended, and by the sounds of grinding and machinery, she could guess they were close to the mines by now. She glanced around, and Chessur tugged slightly.
"To your left." He whispered and Alice glanced left – the cells she was looking at were in the darkest part of the place, actually built into the rock itself. There were no guards here, except on either side of the landing she had stopped on – it had been like that at each landing above as well. Without a word, she stepped forward, shoving Chessur ahead of her as they continued toward the cells.
"Alice?"
Faint voices whispered on either side of her as she pushed Chessur past the cells, and familiar animals and creatures pressed against the bars. Her heart reached out to them – as soon as she could, she was going to try and get them all out of the horrid place.
"Which one?" She asked softly and Chessur tugged her toward the end of the line of cells. She glanced back – the guards weren't even paying attention. Some security they had around here.
They approached one of the cells, and Alice relaxed slightly when she saw the twins sitting on the ground, looking as if they'd been crying, stuck in their tattered clothes.
"Tweedles?" She whispered faintly and they looked up, their gaze lifting toward Chessur, believing him to be Alice. Their eyes widened.
"Alice!" They chorused, standing and coming toward the bars – they looked even worse up close. One had a black eye, the other had several cuts along his face.
"I'm not Alice, dimwits." Chessur grumbled as Alice gently tugged the mask aside for a brief moment.
"I'm Alice."
"What are - -."
" - - you doing here?"
"I'm here to rescue you." She said and they smiled sadly.
"There's no way - -."
" - - out of here."
"Then we'll find one. I told them I was to take you in for questioning, to find out if you'd had anything to do with Alice's," She paused, grabbing Chessur tighter. "return to Wonderland. So I'm sure we can figure a way out of here. I've just got to find -."
"Alice?"
The voice was hoarse, almost a whisper so Alice wasn't sure if she'd heard it properly or not. It had come from the cell next to the Tweedle Twin's cell, so she directed her attention toward it, briefly glancing back at the guards to make sure they still weren't watching – they weren't.
A pale of pale hands had wrapped themselves around the bars of the cell, and Alice's heart fluttered in her chest for a fleeting moment, until she caught sight of the Hatter, pressed against the bars. Her heart felt like it was snapping in half after that. He looked pale – even more than usual – and his eyes had lost their characteristic spark. He was shallow, and obviously underfed, and new bruises were appearing along his cheek, underneath barely healed cuts.
"Tarrant . . . ." Alice murmured, pulling away her mask to reveal that it was indeed her. She reached a hand through the bars and brushed it against his cheek, and he visibly flinched as she accidentally brushed one of the cuts.
"Alice . . . is that really you?"
"Of course. And my answer is Edgar Allen Poe."
He looked confused.
"Answer?"
"To your riddle – why a raven is like a writing desk. Edgar Allen Poe wrote on both of them." That time he managed to crack a grin. Without waiting another moment, Alice fumbled with the keys Chessur had grabbed off the guard when he'd grabbed the clothes. She grabbed one of the keys at random and tried it in the lock, but to no avail. She went through several more keys, until one of them finally unlocked the door and she swung it open. She proceeded to free the twins, silently shutting the cell doors back.
"Just follow my lead." Alice murmured, tugging her mask back on. She gently forced the three forward toward the stairs.
"Halt! Just where do you think you're going?"
"I'm on orders of the Queens to take these four into questioning about threats to the throne, and the location of other rebellions against the Queens." Alice said, standing a bit straighter as she tried her best to look intimidating. She usually wasn't the type to look as such, so she was struggling with the look. The guards glared at her.
"We've received no word about that. This lot is supposed to be under maximum security."
"It's on a need to know basis, so you two obviously didn't need to know." Alice stated, coming up with it all off the top of her head, feeling much like she was in front of the Red Queen again, saying her name was Um from Umbridge. "And they're going to be under the best security once I get them to where they're going." She assured.
"Where might that be?"
Alice faltered slightly, and the guards raised their weapons – long swords that looked rather dangerous.
"I don't think so."
One of them reached for her mask, but instead Alice felt a tugging on the sleeve of the clothes she wore.
"Run!"
She wasted no time in running. Chessur had disappeared, and Hatter and the twins now ran along on either side of her. She tripped and stumbled in the clothes, but managed to keep her balance as they headed for the other end of the hall – she could hear the guards calling in for reinforcements and she mentally kicked herself for not having thought it all the way through.
There was another set of stairs at the end of the hall of cells, this one much narrower and forcing them to go up one by one. Hatter was leading the way, his hand firmly wrapped around Alice's wrist and tugging her along. Whatever pain he had been in before had apparently disappeared as they climbed higher and higher in the stairs.
"Where do these lead? There was only one stair case in the building I entered from!" Alice called.
"This set of stairs run from the surface to the marble mines – the tunnels are just on the other side of this wall." Hatter muttered. "The stairs should emerge in the forest, and we can hide there."
Alice could only nod, her legs screaming in pain because of the amount of stairs they were running up, the sounds of the guards only steps behind them. So maybe this hadn't been the best plan.
The dim light suddenly changed as Hatter shoved open a trap door and Alice's eyes flooded with light from the sun. She blinked at the rapid change of light, but Hatter still tugged her forward.
"Wait!" She cried, jerking him to a stop. "Mallymkun and Thackery are this way. We need to get back to the White Queen." She said.
"Lead the way."
Alice turned and began to run toward the west, crashing through the trees and pushing branches and leaves from her face as she ran. She stumbled and tripped over the roots of trees, but managed to keep her speed as they emerged into the clearing where the others waited.
"Tarrant!" Mallymkun cried, but Hatter cut across her.
"No time! Let's go!" He said as Alice climbed up onto the horse. He scrambled on behind her, scooping the dormouse up in one fell swoop and putting her on his shoulder to ride. The twins ran ahead, in the general direction of the White Queen's castle, urging the horse in the same direction with Thackery running along side, yelling words she couldn't quite make out – not that she was sure she wanted to.
. . .
Alice's head lolled against Hatter's shoulder as she drifted in and out of consciousness, her hands limply gripping the reins of the horse. They were nearing the White Queen's palace, having outrun the guards – for now. He knew it would only be a matter of time before the Queens sent people to recapture them.
He shifted slightly on the horse, carefully managing to hold Alice's limp form up at the same time. He smiled ever so slightly when he realized the horse was wearing his hat – he gently reached around Alice and grabbed it, replacing it on his head with a little flourish.
"I have to say it looks much better on you than it does her." The dormouse muttered from her place on his shoulder and the Hatter let out a little laugh – the image of Alice in his hat that his mind had procured sure seemed like a rather funny image. He winced though, realizing that laughing hurt. He was almost sure that one of his ribs had been cracked, not to mention the bruises and cuts along his body. His clothes covered a lot of them, and he was glad Alice could only see the few that marred his face.
Bayard ran ahead suddenly, barking loudly as the torrents of the White Queen's castle appeared. Alice jerked, awaking with a loud yawn, her wide blue eyes blinking as she tried to clear her thoughts.
"We made it." He heard her murmur.
The White Queen greeted them at the gate, ushering them inside. Alice was nearly dead on her feet as she walked along, tripping and stumbling sleepily over the clothes.
"Maybe you should head to bed, Alice. You've done quite a lot today and deserve it." The White Queen murmured, but she shook her head.
"I need to see Caroline."
"She's sleeping."
Alice glanced between her and the Hatter, frowning when she realized that he was still hurt.
"Can I have use of your kitchen and access to some first aid things?" She asked, suddenly much more awake and alert.
"Of course. I'll have Nivens bring you some things." The White Queen nodded. "Just make sure you get some sleep." She added to Alice, who nodded in return. She grabbed Hatter by the sleeve of his coat – which was torn in many places now – and began to lead the way toward the kitchen. She sat him down on a stool, surprised to find there were already first aid things waiting for her on the counter.
"You don't have to do that." Hatter muttered as she tugged off his hat to get it out of her way. She pulled a stool up after grabbing some sort of cream that was labeled as some sort of disinfectant.
"You don't want them to get infected, and there's no Bandersnatch around here to lick them clean." She murmured. "And I doubt Chessur will lick you."
He chuckled, which turned into a hiss as she spread the cream across several of his cuts. She frowned, giving him an apologetic look.
"Sorry."
He only nodded, jaw clenched as she continued to rub it gently across his cuts along his face and neck, being especially careful when she came to the ones that overlapped the bruises.
"It's horrible they did this to you." She said after a long moment of silence. He shrugged.
"It's nothing compared to what they could of done." He said in a dark tone, his eyes reflecting a dark red for the briefest of moments. It didn't go unnoticed by Alice, who tried her best to ignore it.
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Not coming back sooner. Maybe if I had, none of this would have happened."
"If you would have come back earlier, they probably would have already captured and killed you." He said. It was odd, hearing him speak so seriously – usually when he did he was about to fly into one of his fits. But he didn't and remained perfectly still as she finished rubbing the cream across his cuts.
"Aunt Alice!"
She looked up, but it was too late as Caroline had already attached herself to her leg, nearly making Alice fall into the counter. She placed the container of cream down and wiped her hands along the robes she still wore before lifting Caroline up into her arms.
"Hey. You okay?"
"Yep. Queen Mirana played with me in the garden while you were gone."
"Well, that was very nice of her. Did you thank her?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Good girl." Alice pressed a kiss to her forehead and Caroline giggled, before looking over at the Hatter. Her grin slipped into an even bigger one.
"Are you one of Aunt Alice's friends from her story?"
"I don't know. Do you know why a raven is like a writing desk?" He asked in return and Caroline shook her head with a small giggle.
"Caroline, this is Tarrant Hightop, otherwise known as the Mad Hatter." Alice introduced. "Hatter, this is my niece, Caroline."
"She looks like you when you were little." Hatter said and Alice smiled.
"As I've been told." She murmured.
"Mr. Hatter, will you play with me?" Caroline asked suddenly. Alice frowned.
"Caroline, I don't think -." She began, but Hatter cut across her.
"Depends on if you like tea or not, Miss. Caroline."
"I love tea!"
"Well then, I think you and I will get along quite fabulously. You see, I knew your lovely aunt when she was younger, and she didn't like tea as much as you seem to." He said and Caroline giggled. Hatter looked at Alice. "Go get some rest. I'll look after her for a while."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite. And in the meantime, I'll see if I can't find another riddle to stump you with."
