Up From Wonderland
Summary: Everyday, people go missing. Sometimes they return and sometimes they do not. Sometimes people ran away of their own accord and sometimes people were kidnapped. Just this one time, this person was found. She was found by a Hatter, and he was in a place that he truly did not belong in. AxH
A couple of years have passed since Alice's last trip to Wonderland, and she has managed to accept the hand of a business man who is much more to her liking than Hamish. But what happens if, closer to their wedding day, Alice starts acting 'curiouser and curiouser' before completely disappearing? And why does her fiancé keep seeing flashes of orange and a bedraggled-looking hat after the announcement of their engagement?
A/N: Wow guys, you're amazing! I was in my bio exam for less than two hours, I came out and my Blackberry had over one hundred e-mails from . Not all of them were reviews, of course, but many subscribers and those adding this fic to their "Favourite Stories" – thank you. :3 My inbox was also recently flooded with messages asking some questions about the story, and I thought I'd let you all know you can pop me a message if you want a response, but I do try to respond to reviews that ask me questions. Thanks for all the well-wishes on the bio exam guys!
To Adririn, thank you for the critique. I will do my best to try and keep them in better character. :3 Sometimes I wonder how the Hatter would deliver a particular line I have in mind, but then I realize I don't have the movie to study the character further. Auuuggh! xD Wish it was on DVD already. The Hatter's violent side will show in this chapter but towards the end his usual self shows a little more. Let me know how I did. I'm trying my best. :)
To xBlackRabbitx, wow, I completely did not realize I used the word 'mum'. Thanks for letting me know and I'll be sure to avoid such slang regarding relatives in the future xD I'll go back and change it when I have the time.
And as a few notes, I went back and edited Chapter 6, changing it from Chester to Chessur. Seems I made a mistake. In this chapter the Cheshire Cat will be referred to as Chessur. My bad, guys!
All right, enough with that. Here's Chapter 7!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Alice in Wonderland characters; just my OCs.
Chapter 7: A Hatter You've Never Seen
"Albert!"
Alice pushed past the Hatter and ran towards him. Her blue eyes were wide with confusion, but he caught her and drew her to his side, keeping his arm out protectively as though shielding her from the Hatter. The Hatter did his best not to show the hurt on his face. This was how it would always be:
Alice and Albert together, on one side, and the Hatter completely alone on the other.
"Nice to see where you've been taking my dear Alice. I knew I was right to follow you – I knew you were up to no good!"
"Albert, how did you get down here?" Alice asked, but Albert wouldn't look at her. His glare was fixated on the mess of a man in front of him.
"Didn't you hear me? I followed you both! I could barely believe it when I saw Tarrant jump into a tiny hole! Then I saw someone shoot you, and you fell in and I- I have no idea what's going on Alice, I have no idea how we managed to fit down a very small rabbit hole, but we need to get out of here! I came, I followed, I watched as a cat took a bullet out of you before evaporating into thin air - now I want to leave."
"Why didn't you chase after the shooter?" asked the Hatter suspiciously. Then you wouldn't be here right now, you old- Wait. Albert fell down the hole? Why hadn't he seen him fall or even emerge from the door? He had just… appeared. The Hatter blinked.
"Hmm, Tarrant," Albert said, tone of voice dripping with disdain, "Should I chase after the shooter or after my dying fiancée? What would you choose?" He turned to Alice and brought her roughly against his chest, burying his face in her blonde hair. The Hatter's eyes flashed orange again.
"Alice, sweetheart," Albert whispered desperately, kissing Alice between his words. The Hatter glared.
"I don't know where we - are and I don't know - what's going on, but I want out. Let's go – together."
It happened all at once.
In one fell swoop, the Hatter and Albert were on the ground. Alice was pushed aside from the impact, and she had to take a moment to clutch at her stomach from the pain in her ribs. Damn bullet. She was still somewhat weak; easily hurt. She could hear an uncharacteristic snarl come from the Hatter as he delivered a heavy blow to Albert's face. He was even muttering in that thick accent as struggled to hit Albert, words of incomprehensible hate.
"Stop!" Alice gasped, reaching an arm out towards the two figures fighting vigorously in the grass. "Stop, please!"
But they didn't. Albert rolled on top of the Hatter and kneed him between the legs. He even grasped at his shirt and shook him violently back and forth. The Hatter groaned, releasing Albert and doubling over in pain. Albert let out a triumphant laugh, scrambling away. He got to his feet, and within a few seconds, the Hatter slowly did too, a wince etched onto his face.
"Got a little anger problem, do you?" asked Albert in a low, quiet voice so Alice couldn't hear. "Got a little problem with Alice choosing me over you? I saw you – I saw you over there by that tree! She wouldn't even kiss you. But who would? You're a freak! You have weird eyes and weird skin and awful hair! How could anyone, let alone Alice, even try to love y-"
The Hatter punched Albert again with that snarl, and the fight resumed. Alice ran up to them, yelling for them to stop. Why were they fighting in the first place? She placed her hands firmly on either man's chest, pushing them apart. Albert stopped struggling against her hold, but the Hatter kept trying to reach him. Days of pent-up jealousy and anger towards this Albert man were finally being released. Days of seeing him fawn over Alice, kissing her in public. It wasn't enough, was it? Alice wasn't enough, now he had to be in Wonderland – the one place Alice and him shared without Albert being in the picture. Now even that place was taken away. Albert was everywhere. The Hatter had no idea why he felt so strongly, but he did! He was muttering, still muttering-
"I said, stop! Hatter!" Alice exclaimed, grabbing at Albert's and the Hatter's shirts and giving them one final shove away from each other. The Hatter remembered himself, and as if a light switch had been turned on, he slipped out of that furious state. His eyes flickered back to green, and Albert took a step back at the change. What the-?
"Right," the Hatter said, panting. "Right. Sorry. Very sorry." He cleared his throat and looked to Albert with a pleasant, awkward smile.
"Are you all right?" he asked, as though they had simply run into each other rather than engaged in a fight. Albert just stared. Alice, however, still hadn't removed her hand from the Hatter's chest. He had something in his breast pocket.
Something was wrong, and he could sense it immediately. He glanced at her as he felt the warmth of her hand leave his chest. She was looking at her own hands now. She was, he noticed for the first time, holding something.
"This," Alice said, "was in your pocket." The Hatter's face melted into one of confusion, and Albert watched to two of them suspiciously.
"Sorry?" said the Hatter, confused. "I-in my pocket?"
"Hatter…" she whispered again in disbelief. His gaze flickered to her face. She was worrying him.
"Alice? Did I do something wrong?"
Alice took a step back, her eyes now round with incredulity and anger. The Hatter reached out for her but she staggered backwards, almost falling in the process. Albert caught and stabled her easily despite the bruises from the fight.
"I don't underst- Alice. What's wrong?" The Hatter tried once again to reach out to her, taking another step towards her, but she held one arm out to keep at a distance, tightening the grasp of what was in her other hand.
"Don't touch me!" The Hatter stopped, looking as though someone had scolded him. Albert watched through one black eye, making sure the Hatter wasn't trying to cause any trouble. Alice, the Hatter observed, did not cry nor scream. Alice was calm in her anger. Instead of an outburst, Alice – the Alice – sent him a steely glare that made him feel as though he were just stabbed in the heart.
"You will never touch me again."
She threw the object at him, and it hit his clothes with a sickening splat. He fumbled to catch it; Alice ran off after one last glare at Hatter, and Albert immediately chased after her.
"Wait!" the Hatter could hear Albert call after her.
But the Hatter paid no mind. He looked down to the object in his hand:
A white rabbit's severed paw freshly covered in blood - and knotted tightly around it was the chain of a golden pocket watch, the actual clock swinging back and forth where it hung in the air.
No.
"No! Alice, wait! I didn't, I swear--"
The Hatter watched, sadness expressed on his face as Alice ran as fast as her legs could carry her. He couldn't move. He was in shock. None of this made sense. Where had the paw come from? Why was it still warm and half-drenched in blood? Could it really belong to the White Rabbit? Was the White Rabbit—
The Hatter gulped. No. The White Rabbit couldn't be dead. He just couldn't be. This wasn't his paw. It was another rabbit's, yes. Another rabbit that owned a pocket watch. After all, Chessur had said the Rabbit was taken already. Alice had this all wrong. He couldn't have cut off the White Rabbit's paw if he was in confinement. No. The White Rabbit wasn't dead, this wasn't his paw, and the Hatter certainly did nothing to obtain this paw! Yes. It was all very logical and made perfect sense. But where had it come from? Someone purposefully slipped it into his pocket while he wasn't looking, that was for sure. But who?
… Why did he ask questions that he knew the answer to?
He looked up as he heard Albert yell for Alice again. Despite his panic regarding both Alice and the White Rabbit, he noticed something peculiar. Albert was running after her, but then he stopped and looked over his shoulder at the Hatter.
Albert grinned.
The Hatter heard one loud bang and knew nothing but darkness.
"Alice! Alice, darling, wait! We're running away from the door. We should be heading towards the door!"
Alice kept running. She ran and she ran and she ran until she could run no more. She collapsed on the ground, fighting for air. What was happening? Just a week ago she had been more than happy, engaged to Albert up in London. But now she had spent the last few days hiding a Hatter, healing a talking White Rabbit and finding a dead Dormouse!
"Alice, really. I've had enough of this terrible place and I really just want to go back to London."
"Door," Alice gasped between attempts to recapture her breath.
"I'm sorry?" said Albert, reaching for Alice's hand and stroking it.
"Door. Over there." Alice pointed, and Albert turned to look. There was a tiny, gray door sitting atop a stone. It was completely out in the open, with no trees to hide it.
"… Why are there so many doors in really odd places here?" He looked left and right as though something was about to jump out at them, but after assuring himself that no creature was there, he turned back to Alice. She was sitting on a rock, her eyes red.
"Is this why you've been acting so odd lately?" Albert asked, sitting beside her and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She closed her eyes, and the Hatter's face flashed through her mind. How could she have trusted him? Let him stay in her closet, let him stay in her house? He turned out to be a cold-blooded killer of Wonderland creatures. But it… it just didn't seem like him. But why else would he have Rabbit's poor, still warm, bloody paw with him?
"I just thought that maybe you were having second thoughts about the marriage…"
"Oh, Albert, no. That's not it at all. Um… I'm sorry. I really don't want to talk about that right now. There's a lot on my mind." Albert nodded understandingly as Alice silently looked at her lap. He took several moments to survey the surroundings before looking at her. He had to say something.
"When I followed you… there was a cat that could talk. He said… you were wanted. What are you wanted for?"
"I don't know," Alice sighed. Was she starting to find Albert a little annoying?
"But… shouldn't we hide or something?"
"We'll hide in that door, if anybody comes," Alice said passively, nodding to the small grey door.
"But can we even fit through it?" he asked, squinting. "It's bloody tiny."
"Oh, right," Alice sighed. "You need a small bottle of potion that shrinks you."
"… Please tell me that I'm not mad. Or that I'm dreaming," Albert sighed, wistfully dreaming for London again. Alice sent him a weak smile before squinting at the dirt by their boulder.
"Hey. Wait a second." She reached down and picked up a small, clear vial, with a tattered label that read "Drink Me" tied to it.
"That's odd," she said, glancing up. "Why is it on this side of the door?"
All of a sudden a loud, high-pitched squawk sounded from above. The couple looked up to the sky, and flying down at them at an amazing speed was a terribly large and hideous eagle. Albert screamed and pointed.
"What is that?!"
"Duck!"
"That's not a-"
Alice rolled her eyes and pushed Albert's shoulders down, bringing them both to lay flat on the dirt ground. The eagle swooped over them and continued flying towards the door. Alice gasped.
"No! Wait! Don't-"
The ground shook slightly as the small, stone door crumbled to pieces due to the eagle's attack. It flapped its wings and glided smoothly, turning and heading right back towards Alice and Albert.
"Run!"
The other door inside the tree by the tea table: it was their only chance.
All he could hear were words. He could see a door. Amidst all the darkness was a single, solid, oak door. He recognized that door. It was from Alice's house. He walked up to it. It was slightly ajar, and he spotted a figure standing by a vanity, talking to the mirror.
"Things are going exactly as planned. At this rate I should have her and the freak there in a couple of days. Yes I'm sure." There was another sound, like tiny footsteps. Quick, quiet footsteps of a small creature running about on wood.
"Don't worry. We'll have that pretty blonde head on a silver platter in no time. And that ugly hat from the freak, too. Ah- what the- what is that?!"
"I won't let you hurt Alice and the Hatter!" The sound of a small sword being unsheathed. A few seconds passed and then a high-pitched squeak could be heard throughout the room, followed by the opening of a window.
"Good riddance, rodent."
"I must say, you really know how to get yourself into trouble."
What a pleasant voice. Not a nice sleep, though. Terrible sleep at that. Very uncomfortable. I wonder where I am.
"You were here what, not even an hour before you were caught? Good show."
Who is that? Oh wait. I know the answer to my question. I'd recognize that voice anywhere. It's Chessur, my long-time disappearing friend. What a nice cat. A very nice Cheshire Cat indeed.
"Open your eyes, lad, you look like a fool."
The Hatter's eyes fluttered open. He had to blink several times to get his vision in focus, but once he did, his lips curved upward in a sleepy grin. Was it all a dream terrible dream? Was Alice back in Wonderland again?
"Hullo, Chessur. Where am I?" The cat floated haughtily above the Mad Hatter's head.
"Welcome to prison. You are officially terrible at getting the girl and living happily ever after."
"Prison?" The Hatter sat up, taking in his surroundings. It hadn't been a dream?
"We're in prison?"
"No," said the Cheshire Cat, rolling his eyes. "You are in prison. They cannot put me in prison. I evaporate!" The Cat disappeared in a flash of mild smoke, then reappeared, to prove his point.
"See?"
"How very odd. What happened?" the Hatter asked, trying to remember, scratching has hat with confusion as though it were his head.
"You think you could avoid prison? You murdered the Dormouse and cut off the White Rabbit's paw. Things like that don't cut it in Wonderland."
"I did?" The Hatter took a moment to think about it before looking at the Cat. "No I didn't."
"You're right. You didn't. But the person who did is very good at framing you. According to the legal documents of Wonderland, you are a murderer."
The Cheshire Cat grinned.
"My, my. Where's Alice?" the Hatter asked, sitting up in a sudden haste. The Cheshire Cat shrugged uncomfortably.
"Chessur, how long have I been in prison?"
"A night and a day."
"What happened? How did I get here?"
"Some guards," the Cat said. "They found you unconscious in the field."
"Oh. How did I become unconscious? Was I shot?"
"Heavens no. No one knows, but they took advantage of the state and arrested you."
Strange… I thought I heard a gun shot.
"And where," Hatter asked again, "is Alice?"
The Cat looked around the small, barred cell. Everywhere you looked there was cement and metal. Eventually he floated outside of the bars and motioned to the cell across from the Hatter's. Blonde hair fell over the face of a young girl, shackled to the wall. Alice! Hatter realized only then that he was shackled too.
"What's she doing here?" he asked. "Why isn't she in London yet?" His eyebrows furrowed with worry. She left him behind in Wonderland, wouldn't come back when he came up to London to ask her to, and now, for Heaven's sake, without accepting any other explanation she thought he was a murderer! Why did he care so strongly about someone who clearly cared very little for him? He felt his heart sink a little in his chest at the thought of their almost-kiss. No, he convinced himself. Alice would never care for him the same way she cared for—
"Albert!" The Hatter exclaimed suddenly again. "Where's Albert, Chessur?"
"They brought them both in a few hours ago. Separated them. Albert's in a separate wing," the Cat said in that cocky murmur. "They were trying to run from the eagle guards. Naturally. I think everyone's instinct is to run from a gigantic eagle preying on them."
"We have to get her back to London. She doesn't want to be here. With me. …W-With us, I mean. She doesn't want to be here with us. Yes. We have to get her back up to London. Where she wants to be- where she's safe--" He tugged at his chains, only to notice something in the corner of his cell. He squinted.
"When you're done rambling, do you fancy a run with us?" asked the Cat. The Hatter's squint turned into a full, wide-eyed stare as a limping, three-legged White Rabbit in a waist coat – with no pocket watch - came out from the shadows to join them. His ear looked better, at the very least. He looked timid, even nervous, but he genuinely smiled upon seeing the Hatter. The Cheshire Cat grinned again.
"I was thinking of helping you both out of here in exchange for that delightful hat of yours."
A/N: So? Was it terrible? *o* A lot is happening right now and it seems confusing, but it will all be explained later. xD If you have any questions you want me to answer in the next chapter, please feel free to ask!
PS Chester = Chessur for those of you that didn't read my above author's notes. Went back and edited when I realized the name was actually Chessur, not Chester. xD R&R for the next chapter and let me know what you thought. Thanks guys! ^_^