A/N: Remember, remember, the fifth of November … The gunpowder, treason, and plot … I know of no reason the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot … So … It's been a while, huh? … ^^;; Yeah; apparently, this chapter's been done and ready for … About a year xD. Yeah. Please don't tar and feather me … I completely forgot that I hadn't posted it yet … Also, I know I said I'd post on Fridays, but it's Guy Fawkes Day, so I figured … rather than wait a year so that Guy Fawkes Day falls on a Friday … I figured I'd just post a day early. Oh; and please read the note at the end :)

Disclaimer: Again, not that you didn't already know, but I neither own Alice nor Alice's Adventures in Wonderland nor Through the Looking Glass; they belong to American McGee and Lewis Carroll, respectively. I own none of the plot, nor the characters mentioned herein; everything, (at least as of right now, I'm pretty certain; I do hate OCs, so for the most part, there shouldn't be any) belongs to one of the gentlemen previously mentioned.

Chapter dedicated to Helloween, SuperMargarita, and Wile E Coyote 3

The Fortress of Doors …

When Alice woke, she was surprised at first that she was still riding in the strange basket attached to the balloon and bicycle, powered by that elder gnome. She hadn't any idea how long they were riding, of course, because she'd been away for so long – but then, did time pass the same way in the real world as it did in this Wonderland? Alice had never known the answer to that before, because she had never really thought to ask the question – and now that she did, she was quite sure she neither had the answer, nor would she obtain it any time soon … Not that it particularly mattered, she supposed. Sitting up, Alice smoothed out her dress and noticed something strange – very strange indeed. The last time she'd checked, she had had rips in her skirt from when she'd dispatched the card guards in the mines, and she had certainly had bloodstains all over the blue and white fabric as well. But now … the cloth was clean and neat, as if she had just taken it out of a closet and put it on. Fingering the soft fabric lightly, she stared at it, slightly baffled, before she picked up the knife she had put next to her in the basket. The small amount of light in the area glinted off the edge of the blade, and Alice could see her reflection in it – there was no blood on her face at all. Absently, she brushed a few of the dark strands out of her face so she could see a little better, and her attention was caught by something she hadn't noticed before – on the metal, very near to the handle, something was etched. Eyes narrowing just a little, she looked at it more carefully, forgetting about her reflection, which was suitably clean anyway. 'Vorpal Blade …?' she wondered to herself, for those were the words that were neatly carved into the knife, which was clean and free of blood as well. 'Well, since none of me is bloodied … perhaps it was just some kind of dream …? Perhaps I didn't kill anyone at all ..?' she thought to herself, which was actually a very comforting thought really, though even Alice wasn't particularly sure she was going to trust that delusion …

"There is a skool inside the fortress, where you'll find certain items for creating a concoction that will make you small …" the elder gnome spoke to her, sounding slightly out of breath, but she supposed he might've had good reason. After all, Alice didn't know how long he'd been peddling for, and so, he very well may have been quite tired indeed. Of course, she couldn't really find herself caring much either. She was still rather annoyed that she was supposed to be some sort of savior to this world, and that he wouldn't help her without making her do some rather ghastly things in return. (If she had in fact done them; it may have all been some sort of dream.) He was the reason that she'd had to kill more of those guards to retrieve that blasted key; he was the reason, ultimately really, that she had decided she didn't want to return to Wonderland. Why she had felt so abandoned, and wanted nothing more to do with her make-believe world, which no longer seemed quite so make-believe to Alice Liddell.

"What items, exactly?" she said in a rather terse manner; she knew it was impolite, but she really couldn't help it – she didn't expect much help from this elder gnome when she got there (however, to be fair, Alice had only requested that he take her to the Fortress of Doors, and had not asked him to actually make her small) and so, she supposed that she should probably try to get as much help as she could while she was up here, and en-route to the Fortress of Doors. It took him a while to answer, which was fine by Alice, so long as he did so; she assumed he was simply drawing breath so he could speak. However, what was less than with alright with Alice was how he spoke to her next. He almost seemed exasperated with the question – as if she had asked it while fully knowing the answer, and had done it only to annoy him.

"Items, items girl. You'll know them when you see them." Alice fought the urge to call him something along the lines of daft, or perhaps senile in his old age, and instead remained silent – nothing was as straight forward in Wonderland as he made it seem, not even normally. And this Wonderland was a far cry from the curious-yet-familiar one that she remembered – she wasn't anywhere near naive enough to assume that the things that she needed for this 'concoction' would be labeled as 'needed for getting small', or anything of that sort. The closest she'd ever come to something like that had been when the tarts had said 'Eat Me' in the hallway the first time she'd come to Wonderland, and couldn't go through the little door to the garden. At the very best, it would be labeled something mundane such as that, but it would give no more description, and though she could check to see if it was labeled poison (because anything labeled 'poison' was certain to disagree with one sooner or later), she couldn't really expect it to be labeled if it changed one's size … So, she also could not assume that it would not be labeled if it didn't do something to one's stature.

"Speaking of seeing things," ah – Alice had stopped paying attention to the Elder Gnome, but it seemed that he was not done talking to her, so she had probably better listen once again. "We should avoid the Card Guard's notice. Hang on …" Alice looked around a bit and saw what she assumed was the Fortress of Doors below – it was a large compound it seemed, with many doors on the inside and a great wall around the outside. However, it was also covered in Card Guards, and the brunette was slightly confused, considering what the Elder Gnome had just implied. If they were to be stealthy, shouldn't they not fly in direct notice of the walls, where all the Card Guards were patrolling? It didn't exactly make good sense (never minding the fact that nothing in Wonderland always made 'good sense', or even tended to ever make 'good sense') to do something so contradictory to what one's goal was, and as their goal was remaining unseen, unless there was some sort of magic that made this rather large, bicycle powered balloon invisible that Alice simply had not noticed before, well …

" Ahhh – Dammit! We've been seen …" And, evidently there was not. 'I could have told you that would happen …' she thought to herself, crossing her arms, frustrated; apparently he hadn't said that he 'wasn't wise, just old' in jest. She had thought that he was being modest before, but obviously --- before she even realized what was going on she was suddenly bracing herself against the side of the basket, letting out a little shriek as the balloon pitched to one side to avoid whatever it was that the Card Guards were throwing at them. It appeared to be something that was either on fire or glowing – most of them were too far away for Alice to identify, and when they did get a little closer, she was focusing on holding onto the basket, because the Elder Gnome would tip the balloon in such a way that they would avoid being hit. A good thing, all things considered, for when Alice did look down – completely on accident, mind you – she realized with a sudden sinking feeling, that she couldn't even begin to see the bottom of the cavern that they were flying through. It would be a rather unpleasant fall to make, and so she rather hoped that she wouldn't have to make it.

"Eventually, you must break through such walls," he said; apparently he was paying enough attention to her to know that Alice was looking at the large wall around the fortress, and wondering exactly how she was to get around that fortification, and consequentially she was only half paying attention to what he was saying. That was, until he got to the next part of his sentence. "But for now, jump!" And the first thing that Alice thought to ask was: Was this Elder Gnome completely batty? He wanted her to jump down to that tiny little ledge from this height? If she didn't break her neck from the fall, she was certain she'd miss the landing and fall down into all that blackness. She might even fall forever – perhaps that darkness spanned deeper than even the rabbit hole she'd gone down, and that had felt like a long time – she remembered fancying that perhaps she'd fall right through the earth and land on the other side. What a queer little fantasy to have, but – perhaps it wasn't so strange, because that deep darkness seemed rather unforgiving, and rather deep indeed …

However, before she had a chance to argue with what the Elder Gnome had directed her to do, there was a sudden weight behind her in the basket that hadn't been there before, and it rather unceremoniously pushed her out of her seat so that she fell through the air, having to push at her skirts to keep them from flying up around her face. Savior or not, indecent exposure was not something she particularly needed to be identified with. She managed to keep herself from screaming as she went down, and looking around, she suddenly knew exactly what had happened up there.

"Cat!" she yelled angrily as she saw the Cheshire Cat, sitting a few feet away, doing what she supposed was intended to be innocently cleaning his paw off. But she knew better – he wouldn't have been there if he hadn't been the one that had pushed her out of the basket, because then there would be no reason to gloat at her. Crossing her arms over her chest, this wasn't the first time that she would want to level her blade in the feline's direction, she knew, and it most certainly wouldn't be the last either. After a few moments, he looked up at her with his painfully stretched grin, and said simply,

"Observe." 'Observe …? Now what exactly, do you suppose, is that supposed to me---', Alice's thoughts were cut short as she heard just in time frantic footsteps, and turned in time to move out of the way of a Card Guard and his spear. She didn't have time for his silly riddles right now; obviously she had more pressing issues to deal with than thinking about what that mangy cat was getting at. Attempting to jump forwards to stab the card, she realized she couldn't do this because its weapon was too long for her to get close enough to him to land a blow. She barely dodged out of the way of his counterattack and avoided falling off of the edge of the path; he had struck her, but by the same token, she had stabbed him, delivering a shallow wound to his side that didn't look like it would kill him. The cut that she had taken was also a shallow one. There was a sudden pain in her side, but she ignored it, pushing herself to move out of the way and avoid the next strike the Card Guard tried to make.

"Learn." She barely heard the cat purr this out at her as she tried to figure out exactly what to do; she had completely forgotten that she had that deck of cards in the strangely marked pocket of her pinafore at her disposal … They were a long ranged weapon, and would have made this job much easier. But, as she had forgotten them, she was now trying to figure out how to use a knife against a spear. Dodging out of the way again, she backed off, shying away from the Guard for a moment as she thought, or at least tried to, in a calm way. Which was difficult to do … You try thinking when something is thrusting something long and pointed at you with such precision that your dodge still causes your dress to be ripped … And after a moment, a sudden idea came to her. 'Obviously, Alice – if you want to stay away from him and hit him with the knife, throw it, silly girl', she nearly scolded herself, and that very good advice had come not a moment too soon, because the card had Alice backed into a corner.

"And react." Alice nearly turned to look at the cat when he spoke; his voice made her jump slightly, which gave her wrist an extra sharp twist as she flicked it, aiming the knife as best she could at the card's throat. The weapon surprisingly hit home – she wasn't exactly sure how, to be honest, as she certainly had never done anything of this sort before, but … Blood began to spray from the card's neck as he slid down, and she just stood there looking at it – best to leave quickly, before more of them come … … She meant to go and get her knife, of course (she wasn't about to leave it) when suddenly she realized as she reached out with a hand to grab the Meta Essence that sprung up from the card's body, that she didn't need to – it was already in her grasp. 'Curiouser and curiouser …' she thought to herself as she tucked it into the waist of her pinny, which seemed to have become its comfortable little home.

Turning back to where the Cat had been sitting, she wasn't surprised to find it gone – she hadn't expected it to still be there, really. Sighing, she decided she'd better start looking for that 'Skool' the Elder Gnome had mentioned, so that she could find these mystery 'items' to make her small and allow her follow the White Rabbit. Starting down the path, she ducked around what appeared to be a large tentacle protruding from the wall, pausing to look at it, unable to help herself: What on earth …? Deciding she'd rather not know, Alice backed up, instead turning right and wandering around the path a bit slowly and cautiously; it looked rather treacherous, and she wouldn't want to fall into that blackness – it simply wouldn't do, you know. 'If I am to be a savior of this world, I simply can't fall for the rest of my life – what would happen while I'm wasting time falling all that way?' Alice thought to herself as she picked her way down the path. It was crumbling and old, and in desperate need of some sort of repair. Like when she had been small and the stone walkway to the house had been cracked – and a man had come and mended the damage. It was like that, only it was much more than a few bricks that needed to be replaced – it was most of the walkway, some of the walls … …

It took Alice a moment to realize that she had wandered into a new area; it looked similar to if she had been shrunken down to the size she would like to become, and were standing underneath the bureau that used to be in her room. There was a sort of overhang with columns, and the floor was suddenly made of wooden planks, like the parlor used to be, instead of smooth, damaged stone, like the last room had been. Glancing around, she saw that it opened up into a larger room … Strangely enough, the planks disappeared somewhere in the middle of the room, and left another gaping hole … 'My, but this place is fond of it's holes in the ground', she thought presently … And Alice was quite certain if she looked down it, she would see no bottom whence she would careen if she were to fall down there as well. And, as she wasn't particularly fond of the notion of falling at all really, she thought that perhaps she would avoid that at all costs.

However, it seemed that something had a different idea, because as she walked towards the opening to check and see if that was indeed the case – she was curious, after all – she suddenly heard a sort of … swishing noise behind her, like the wind, whiffling through the wood … (though surprisingly, it did not burble as it came …) And it was a good thing that she'd heard that and turned around, because she had just enough time to move out of the way as something suddenly came down at her. Alice shrieked, rolling out of the way and away from the hole in the ground; ultimately a very good decision, more like than not. She pulled her knife out of her pinafore and held it out in front of her so that she could more readily face whatever it was that was throwing itself at her. And quite honestly, Alice Liddell didn't particularly fancy fighting what she saw. It reminded her of those horrid stories that her older cousin would tell her to scare her, about the grim reaper, who was supposed to be a skeleton, that wore a long, ragged black cloak, and came to take bad little girls away who didn't share their toys …

"That savage shriek is just the tip of the iceberg that is the Boojums' repulsive personality." The brunette jumped when she heard that mangy creature's voice. So this was a Boojum? Well, it wasn't much to look at – she didn't really see what was so intriguing about them, and she was instantly annoyed at the Cheshire Cat for telling her about them and trying to pique her interest, when clearly this wasn't something that was particularly interesting, or even very frightening, when it came right down to it. 'But, what does he mean, "savage shriek …?"' this, had honestly confused the girl, because it hadn't made a sound yet – in fact, she was inclined to think that boojums were mute, or at the very least, didn't often make noise. But then, she found that she was very sorely mistaken …

There was a sudden, blood curdling screech, much worse than even when her tutor would scratch the chalk the wrong way on the chalkboard when she was having her lessons … That is, when she still took lessons. It was so loud and high pitched … It was all that Alice could hear, ringing through her mind, and taking over all her thoughts – or at least, what thoughts she managed to formulate – which were mostly singularly focused on one thing: Make that noise stop. The brunette didn't even notice when she was screaming along with the creature until her throat was stung – and she barely remembered what she did next, as she took the Vorpal Blade in hand, throwing it as hard as she could in the direction that the sound was coming from – but still, it didn't stop. She was starting to get dizzy now; Alice barely noticed that the knife was back in her hand a few moments later, and even less did she take in when she threw the knife again. But still, the screaming continued, and now, her vision was doubling – doubling so badly that the brunette didn't notice the first Boojum go up into flames and burn. And that one was the first boojum specifically, because there were two – Alice hadn't seen the second one, because she'd been too distracted by that blasted, flea bitten cat and his words, which had been little to no help at all to her. So this was all his fault – despite the idea that perhaps the Cheshire Cat was trying to warn her about what was to come by telling her about the boojum and it's horrific scream …

None of this mattered much to Alice though, because suddenly the most painful thing that had ever happened to her happened all at once, and the poor girl nearly went into shock. There was a terrible pain on the sides of her head, sharp and throbbing, worse than any headache that she'd ever had before (at least, that she could recall) … So distracted was she by the pain that she didn't notice the small mercy of the boojum stopping it's vile shrieking. Which is actually not at all what happened – it would have just seemed like it to Alice Liddell, had she cared to notice; in actuality what had happened was that her eardrums had burst. This disoriented her so much that she fell to the ground almost immediately, and the side of her face hit the planks on the ground so hard that she rolled a bit. However, this teenaged girl was extremely lucky, because she happened to fall just near enough to where the first boojum had been finished off, and moved just close enough to the meta-essence that had sprung up from it that it sunk into her, and the pain in her head slowly ebbed.

Immediately after that, it seemed that it didn't particularly matter, because the other Boojum came after her, for the moment not screaming (for one reason or another). But Alice knew that it wouldn't be long now before it began again … And she didn't particularly want to give it the chance. She was on the ground, and had dropped her knife – it was a few feet away from her, and a little behind her, just out of reach from where she was. And so, she slowly started to slide backwards on the planks of the floor, which she just realized were moving, splitting back and forth from the center of the ground, sometimes closing up the open chasm before it reopened. (She hadn't thought to wait just a few moments so that the knife might return to her of its own accord, as it seemed fond of doing) The sudden movement of the floor made the girl slip slightly, and Alice then noticed that something was under one of her hands. It had fallen out of her pocket, it seemed, and she had chosen then to notice it. 'Oh! The cards! Silly girl; you'd forgotten all about them, hadn't you?' Alice again scolded herself as she picked up the one on the ground, and, reaching into her pocket, took out the rest of the deck.

"Well there then; since you eat everything, Sir Boojum, why don't you have a taste of these?" Alice's wrist flicked almost wildly as she threw the cards, one after another, hitting the horrid creature that flew around above her – it began screaming again, to be sure, but the brunette hardly noticed. She was not pleased with these things; because of its disgustingly improper manners, she had gone deaf for a few moments and felt as though her head might rupture, and it had been something she had rather disliked. No, hadn't liked it at all. This wasn't to say that she dispatched the Boojum quickly, or that her head didn't ache by the end of it, because it most certainly did – it took a bit of a while really for her to dispatch this Boojum as well. Many hits with the cards were needed to even do a little damage, and she was glad for the meta-essence when she had completed her task and it was gone along with it's poor manners.

"Oh no; now this will never do …" she said, sounding worried. The girl had put her cards away when the deeds were done, and her knife had been in her hand instantly. She was looking down at it now, once again spattered with a thick coating of blood. "Not at all." Alice murmured this under her breath as she began to clean the knife off on her skirt carefully, which made the fabric a good deal more stained than it had been before. Alice simply failed to realize that the blood she was cleaning off, while partially the Boojum's, was mostly her own. It had poured out of her ears when the drums had burst, and stained her Vorpal Blade red.

"There –that's much better, now isn't it?" the brunette asked with a smile as she put the knife in the waist of her pinny, which was becoming its customary place. And then she looked about, seeming to just realize that now she had a new task at hand: getting into the Fortress of Doors, of course. Which, suppose, was probably her ultimate task all along, but smaller tasks along the way, such as clearing the path of nasty Boojums and all of that, had come up, and of course she'd had to take care of those as well. Yes; that's all they were, after all. Tasks. Tasks set before her by Wonderland. She wasn't a murderer, or anything so crude as that; she was simply performing tasks so that Wonderland could be sure that she was their chosen one – their true savior. It all suddenly became much more clear to her. If she had to prove herself to Wonderland, then so be it – she would rise to whatever challenge beset her.

The floor had stopped moving after she'd defeated the two Boojums, and so now the large chasm was between her and the other side of the room and was stable. Which would have been fine, if she had had no need to go to the other side of the room; unfortunately, upon greater inspection of the room after she had collected her meta-essence, she realized that there were stairs on the other side. And she was quite sure she couldn't get anywhere if she went back outside the room – so it seemed the only option was to go up. So Alice walked to the edge of the rift in the floor, and looked down into the swirling vortex that was the chasm below. It was as she suspected; she couldn't see anything that looked even a little like the bottom of the darkness below the floor. In fact, looking around, it seemed almost like the room she was in was floating amidst nothing at all, except swirling gray and black clouds that looked like those things she had read about once – what were they again? 'Hmm … It was sort of like a thunderstorm, but there was more wind, and it looked a good deal more like those things that you use to make sure you don't spill when you pour through them … A flannel? Is that what it's called …?' Alice thought that maybe that was it, but she couldn't be sure, and she didn't have time to waste considering silly things like she had the first time she had come to Wonderland anyway. She had far too many tasks to complete, and she wasn't sure how much time she had.

Deciding that the only option was to jump across, she noticed a small floating piece of floor boards in the middle that she thought might have made crossing a bit easier, and so instead of trying to make it across the chasm directly, she thought she should probably jump first there, as it was a shorter distance, and then continue crossing to the other side. And this plan worked perfectly fine – soon she was across the chasm and walking up the stairs on the other side. 'And of course; there would be more jumping, now wouldn't there?' Alice was exasperated when she reached the top of the stairs and realized that there wasn't anywhere to go but across to the other side, where there seemed to be some sort of door – something she was sure she'd be seeing a lot of, as this was the Fortress of Doors.

'Ah well; come now Alice – it's only a short distance …' she coaxed herself as she backed up a few steps and jumped across to the landing that zigzagged across the room in an 's' like shape. However, when she stood for too long on the platform, it began to slip, as if it sought to throw her from it and out of the huge rip in the wall that exposed the room to the strange, swirling storm that was raging outside of this place. Quickly, she moved down the path further – if it was going to twist, then she was going to have to climb on top of it and keep going before it really did throw her off. Curiously, however, when she went towards the middle, it began to tip back the other way; convenient for Alice, because she could then stand without fear of falling off. That is, until she got to the other side and it began to tip more in the opposite direction; obviously the problem here was the fact that she weighed anything at all, and was tipping the scale. The question was, what scale? There was nothing she could see that was holding this strange pathway up, she realized after she had jumped to the landing she had been trying to get to all along. 'But, it can't simply float there … Well, I suppose that perhaps this is Wonderland, and everything is rather curious, now isn't it?' she thought to herself as she looked at the platform she'd come from, before she turned toward the strange little portal that stood before her, almost as if it were a door, or perhaps a picture, with a wooden frame about it.

Not wanting the cat to suddenly show up and reprimand her for 'dawdling', as the white rabbit had the last he'd spoken to her, she stepped through it, wondering where in the world it would take her …

--- --- ---

And just now she was in a room with stone walls and a checkered floor. 'How curious indeed; it looks just like a chess board!' she thought to herself as she drew her cards from her pocket – she would not be caught by any of those dreadful Boojums off guard again, of that much she could be certain. Slowly, she began to make her way this way and that between the walls, but at first she didn't notice any cards at all, which was strange, certainly – this was a fortress, after all; you'd expect that there would be guards, now wouldn't you? And then, she saw a raised pedestal after a little bit of walking, and there was something sitting on top of it. 'Strange … Now what do you suppose that could be? And why would someone leave it out in the middle of nowhere up there …?' Alice thought to herself, confused and of course, curious, as she climbed up to investigate.

It was what appeared to be a tall red bottle, a sort of … far oversized perfume bottle, like the ones her mother used to have in her boudoir. And in fact, when she managed to climb up to the thing and took a step or two forwards, it suddenly sprayed out a cloud of reddish pink mist; it was thick and hot and burned her lungs and throat when she inhaled it, and she tried to bat it away, as it was a most unpleasant feeling, however … It was far too late for all that.

"Time to raise some havoc! The dogs of war are loose!" Alice didn't hear the Cheshire Cat say anything at all, because suddenly, she couldn't breathe… She couldn't breathe, and the world was suddenly turning a dark red before her eyes – she couldn't think straight, couldn't remember what she was doing … All she could do was stand where she was for the moment, covering her eyes and face, which burned, before arching her back. It felt as if segments of her body were tearing themselves apart and rearranging themselves, but instead of pain, it was a strange burning sensation that filled her up. All she could think of was the fact that her parents had died, she was left in Rutledge's, she had been abandoned by Wonderland, the Red Queen was being a right berk about her crown and abusing her power worse than normal … All of these things and more suddenly hit Alice at once, and they inspired only one emotion inside the young teenage girl with the much younger mind.

Rage.

And then, there were card guards suddenly surrounding her below the platform; Alice nearly screamed with the anger that consumed her – it was all their fault. Her pain, her suffering, her anguish … … And she would make them pay. The knife was suddenly in her hand, and she was throwing it, running with it, cutting down her enemies piece by piece as if they were blades of grass next to the river and nothing more. If her skin hadn't already turned red, it would be now, stained with the blood of the guards as she killed card after card after card until there were none left … … But it wasn't enough; she was still angry, still looking for blood – still unable to think of anything but the fact that she wanted to kill

Alice headed towards a door that she almost failed to notice, still intent on destroying as much as she could; she was so angry it boiled up under her skin so that her blood felt like it was on fire; it was all she could think about – how she had been hurt and betrayed and every time she had ever thought she had been wronged – and even times that she hadn't. Through one door, then the next and the next she went, knife at the ready to cut down card guards in a single slice. Her breathing was quick and sharp, and the grip on her Vorpal Blade was white knuckled.

However, by the time Alice made it through the hallway, she had yet to come across any more enemies, and her rapid breathing slowed … The fire in her veins seemed to die down … Her heart beat calmed down slowly, and she looked down at the hand holding her knife, which was no longer red from the underneath of her pale skin … There was, of course, blood splattered on it, but other than that, nothing else was turning her that unnatural color. The sudden ebb of the deep rage left her feeling light headed for a moment, and Alice needed to lean against the wall that was beside her to catch herself before continuing on to see what was ahead.

'I think I shan't be trying that again anytime soon … ' Alice told herself with certainty, 'it leaves me far too woozy … and disoriented … ' and that was something that she didn't like – what if she had just met up with more card guards, or worse still, Boojums? She would have been in trouble now, because she would have had to pause before she dealt with them, and any pause would have made her too late … Shaking her head, Alice stepped through the last door, and out into an open area that still had some checkered ground standing, but was once again suspended in a dark, swirling mass that made one quite giddy to look at – she found that she was doing so and quickly chided herself to stop. It wouldn't do to get caught up with cloud-watching, now would it?

"Cling closely to the path, Alice. A fall will dash your head along with all our hopes." She jumped when the Cheshire Cat's voice caught her attention, (he was another thing that made one quite giddy, if she could say so) but she didn't see the mangy feline. Putting her Vorpal Blade in the waist of her pinafore, she glanced around; what path? There was nowhere to go except back into the place where she'd come from, and there was certainly no merit in going anywhere but forwards, at least in Alice's mind. Narrowing her green eyes, she moved forwards – perhaps the path he was talking about was lower than the platform she was on …? However, her question was answered when she walked up to the edge and suddenly, more squares from the chess board, which seemed to have been cut up to make the ground, appeared hovering over the cavernous darkness. Cautiously, Alice stepped forwards – and waited.

Nothing happened.

'Oh dear; well, perhaps I could ask for directions … …?' the only problem with that thought was that she had no one to ask; except perhaps the Cat, and his cryptic advice wasn't something that Alice wanted at the moment – it would only disorient her. But, she needn't have worried – the path suddenly became a little clearer – more of it fell down before her after a few moments of waiting, and she stepped onto it. The brunette wasn't sure where it was coming from, but she would take what she could get from the strange place that was now her Wonderland.

Alice was less than pleased when the next platform that showed up was one that was a great deal away from her, which meant that she'd have to jump to it and hope that she could make it … And not fall into this strange, swirling void. 'It would be improper, I think to fall while jumping and fly sideways, because then, how would one's dress stay down and keep your legs covered?' she thought to herself; for deeming her it's savior, Wonderland was certainly making this difficult for her. This was the second time that she would have to hold her dress in place if she were to fall down. … None the less, Alice backed up a few steps, and jumped towards the platform just as what looked like a very large door floated by. Another piece of floor fell down, and she stepped onto that too; the platform that she had to get to next was another far jump away, and it seemed to continue in this pattern, two platforms coming down next to each other before Alice needed to jump to get to the next one, until she made it across.

'There, see now Alice? That wasn't so hard, now was it?' she thought, and then, since she was a curious child who was very fond of pretending to be two people, answered as well, 'No, I daresay it wasn't too difficult at all, Alice.' And, very proud of herself for managing to get across the void without too much difficulty, she continued on her way and through the next Door in this Fortress, watching the green and purple swirls as they surrounded her as she stepped through what looked rather like a picture frame. She was more inclined to call it a Door though, considering the namesake of the place she was in. Presently, she became aware of something that sounded like bells chiming; three different ones, but she didn't have much time to dwell on that, because suddenly, there were two Boojums in front of her, and they didn't seem like they were too obliged to wait for her to muse over a few sounds she might or might not have heard.

They were difficult for Alice to kill; the cards didn't seem to hurt them as much as her Vorpal Blade, but when she threw it, (as she had to, because how was one to hit something that was flying when one had no wings of their own?), it took a while for it to come back to her, and she didn't know which hand it would return to – so she couldn't start using cards while she was waiting, because what if she dropped them? Suffice to say it took her much longer than she would have liked … Though Alice did notice that they always seemed to drop larger pieces of Meta-Essence, which did help, because when two of them screamed at once, it was more than enough to make the brunette ill …

Glancing around, it seemed like she needed to go down to a lower platform to continue progressing, though Alice paused before she went down the stairs. There was something like a small dais that was standing to one side of the stairs, and she paused before she passed it; it held a statue, a bust really, made of some strange green material, ('Jade or marble,' Alice said to herself, reasoning that, 'they make statues out of marble, and jade is green.'), and Alice felt like she ought to know whom it was a bust of … But he looked so unfamiliar to Alice that she couldn't really place his face, and she didn't have time to 'dawdle'; she needed to get to the skool so that she could find her ingredients, become small, and follow the white rabbit. And so she continued on her way past the bust and down a small set of spiraling stairs, where sat the Cheshire Cat waiting for her, and what looked like three levers.

"The proper order of things is often a mystery to me. You too?" Proper order? Nothing was 'proper' in Wonderland; she thought that if the Cheshire Cat had to get along in the other world, he would be completely beside himself, having to understand and abide by 'the proper order of things', which he had just said was beyond him. Which made Alice consider the fact of there being two Cheshire Cats, because of course, if he was to be beside himself, there would have to be two of him, right? But then, he was gone, which drew her out of her musings, and Alice paused, looking at the levers. Of course, she would probably need to pull them, but the question was, which to pull? Perhaps that was what he'd meant when he'd said that he didn't know the proper order – maybe he didn't know what order to pull them in? Was there a special order? … Well, suppose there was only one way to find out …

Stepping up to the first lever and pulling it, Alice started when she heard a sudden chiming noise, sort of like a bell. And a high pitched bell, at that. Hmm; where had she heard something like that before …? Walking over to the next lever, Alice pulled that one back as well, and heard another chime; this one was a little bit lower than the first one had been. She moved to the last one, it also seemed familiar to the girl, as it made a chiming sound that was even lower than the first two. But then, all three of the levers sprung back into their original positions so suddenly and sharply, that Alice jumped a little bit and turned around, expecting something to attack her. When nothing did, she looked back to the switches that were before her, and considered them extensively: What did those sounds remind her of? They sounded almost exactly like bells chiming, really.

Wait.

Bells chiming.

Hadn't she heard bells chiming when she had first come into this place? She supposed that she had, and so, she also supposed that if she could remember what order they chimed in, and could pull the levers in that order, then she would have figured out this riddle. And Alice did so enjoy figuring things out all on her own. Standing back a moment to consider a little bit more, she pulled the farthest lever first to make the lowest sound; that sounded right. Now – maybe the highest? The brunette thought so; which only left the middle chime after those two were finished.

And then, Alice suddenly heard a great loud creaking noise, and she chanced a look upwards, and at the other side of the new chasm that she stood before. The girl could just see what looked to be a door opening across from the platform that she had first come in on, before she'd come down the stairs after dispatching those vile Boojums … 'Hmm … Perhaps I'd better go up there so that I can see …' she mentioned to herself as she started back up the winding staircase, and ended up back on the level where that strange bust that she should probably recognize, but since so many things in Wonderland were so different and just plain strange, it was likely that she wouldn't realize who or what it was.

It appeared as if she needed to jump across platforms again, and she was getting to be a right professional at doing so, so there was really no problem for Alice, and soon she was across. It was actually even less trying than she would have thought; Wonderland seemed to take at least some form of pity on its Champion, because she only had to jump once, and then Alice simply had to wait for more platforms to show up. A simple task, until you factor in the card guards on the other side; they were diamonds again, so they could throw the red projectiles of that shape at her, and if she wasn't careful, they would probably run her right through. Even this didn't really slow her down, though it was quite troublesome. She threw her Vorpal Blade twice at each, finishing them without difficulty.

She didn't realize it, but she was slowly becoming better at this.

Now it was actually sort of … fun.

Walking past the Meta-Essence that had come from the Cards, (she didn't need it, so she left it where it floated), she stepped through the three doors that had opened, and found another diamond standing at the end of the hall. She made short work of it with her cards this time, which went farther than her Vorpal Blade, so she could attack it sooner. There was nothing there but more essence when she finally got to the swirling black and green picture-door that would take her into the next area.

Entering the next room, the floor, which looked once again like a large chess board, suddenly turned itself over, and pieces of it started to float up into the air. Alice almost went after them, shouting for them to come back, but stopped when she saw that they weren't really going anywhere … They were raising up out of the ground almost like stairs that moved so that she could get up to the platform where the next door was. 'Very considerate of the floor,' she thought, 'getting up so that it can make sure I get through.' Once again, jumping proved to be simple, as she was growing ever more efficient at doing it with accuracy. She could predict almost where she was going to land, looking at the platform that she was going to next. If it looked to her like she could make it, she imagined little footprints that were her own just about where she would probably land – and if it didn't look like she could make it, then she didn't try to tell herself she could, and there was no little marker that told her just about where she'd land. Eventually, Alice made it to the higher platforms. She walked through two white columns and into another doorway – there were a lot of those, weren't there? But then again, this was The Fortress of Doors; a great deal of them were to be expected, weren't they?

Through the door, and into another room – there was a door right in front of her, purple and green swirling, bigger than the other doors that she had gone through; it was the easiest one to get to yet. Or at least, it would have been, if it weren't for the Boojums. Suddenly, the door closed and split into three different ones just as a Boojum swooped down to attack her. She threw cards at it, but it was taking far too long … Again, Alice didn't have time to dilly dally all day long; she had work that she needed to be done, and so she aimed her Vorpal Blade, wincing as the Boojum screamed when she threw it. It seemed that she was getting used to the horrid sound though, because it exploded into a pyre, and Alice Liddell scarcely flinched. She finished off the second one with much the same amount of difficulty; they just seemed to need something more to be hit by – the cards and knife took too long. They didn't kill nearly fast enough.

But, whether or not it did didn't particularly matter, because they were both gone now … But now, Alice had a problem … She didn't know which door was the right door, and she didn't know what would happen if she were to attempt to go through the wrong door. Would she go to the wrong place? Would something, like more Boojums, come out? … For once it wasn't a question that the curious girl wanted answered, but … Keeping her knife at the ready, Alice selected a picture-door, the one on the farthest right, and attempted to go through it. She thought she had chosen correctly when it opened, but then she saw that the swirl inside of it was red and gold; not purple and green. Immediately, the girl backed away – she didn't know where it led, other than somewhere she didn't want to go.

It did some sort of acrobatic trick, a somersault, Alice thought it might have been, up into the air, along with the one in the center, which had apparently not been the correct door either, and they rejoined the door on the far left. And, as it hadn't been the door that was now in front of her, they redistributed themselves. It had been the one that was farthest from her … So, Alice was willing to bet that it was the door in the center that she wanted now. And, when she managed to get over there and approach it, she saw she was correct; when it opened, it revealed a swirling green and purple vortex, which she gladly walked through.

(End Chapter 3)

A/N: So, what do you all think? Should I write the next chapter in Routledge's, or should I write another gameplay chapter? I can't really decide … So I figured I'd leave it up to you :) Just leave it in a review. I'll tally 'em up before I write the next chapter, and write whatever you want.