Summary: A few years after Alice saved Underland, she begins to feel depressed. She wrote the book Alice's Adventures In Wonderland as a way to hold onto Underland. However, as more time goes by, she misses the place more and more. Besides that, her sister Margaret begins to think she is a bit mad. With the promise of being sent to an asylum, Alice decides that it is time to go back to Underland, and finds that she can do so by traveling through her looking glass.
When Alice arrives in Wonderland, she realizes that she has feelings for the Hatter that are more than friendship, and confesses to the White Queen that she loves him. The Hatter also begins to discover that whenever Alice is around, strange things happen to his heart and his stomach. The White Queen throws a ball for Alice in order to give her the proper time to express her feelings to the Hatter. However, just as the Hatter realizes that he is indeed in love with Alice, a Moment is ruined by Stayne.
Stayne decided that he wants revenge on Underland, and wants to take over by tearing Underland apart. He kidnaps Mallymkun and Thackery. Alice and the Hatter decide that they must go after their friends after a brief encounter with the Red Queen, who insists that she has nothing to do with Stayne's revolt.
While traveling to retrieve Mallymkun and Thackery, Alice finally confesses to the Hatter that she loves him. He responds with a kiss and assures her that he loves her as well. The next morning, the two are captured by Red Knights. They are brought to Stayne who lets them leave to save their friends. To their dismay, the dormouse and hare are being guarded by another Jabberwocky. They four of them manage to escape, thinking that they had foiled Stayne's plans. What they did not know was that Stayne had intentionally let them see the Jabberwocky and return to the palace. That way, the White Queens followers would begin to have doubts about their own Queen.
The world begins to go back to normal, then the Queen discusses something very important with the Hatter. She gives him a ring to give to Alice, and he is planning on proposing. However, just as he is getting ready to do so, the two of them are interrupted by Margaret, who has accidentally made her way into Underland.
Margaret does not feel very comfortable in Underland. She tries to convince Alice to return to England with her, however, Alice is content. Alice tries to convince Margaret that she should stay in Underland with her.
One day, the Jabberwocky comes to the castle, warning the white court that the White Queen will fall. Alice scares the Jabberwocky away, and everyone is more convinced that they are safe, as long as they have the Underland Champion. Stayne realizes this and tries to find a way to make Alice give up. He finds out that she has a sister. After a fight between Alice and Margaret when Alice confesses that she knew Lowell had cheated, Stayne, pretending to be a friend of Alice's goes to Margaret, and kidnaps her.
"I just can't understand how he got in in the first place," muttered Chessur, his usual smile gone.
"There were four guards dead at the gate," muttered the White Queen, looking stressed. Her arms were drooping. "No one else noticed him because everyone had already settled in for the night."
"That doesn't matter now anyway," said McTwisp, shaking his ears back and forth. "What we need to figure out is where he's taken Alice's sister."
Words flowed around the Hatter, but he wasn't actually listening to them. Alice slept on and knew nothing of her missing sister. The Hatter wanted to keep it that way for just a little longer.
"I'll go to the Red Palace," the Hatter said, speaking for the first time in nearly twenty minutes.
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"I'll go get her," he said easily. "I'll go right now."
"Tarrant," said the Queen quietly. "We don't want to make any rash decisions."
"Your majesty, I don't want to put anyone else in danger," said the Hatter quickly.
"Especially Alice?" said the Queen lightly.
The Hatter didn't answer.
"Tarrant," said the Queen softly. "Saving her sister is not going to make things any easier for you and Alice."
The Hatter angled his eyes at the floor trying to look as though he was very interested in the marble floor. For a moment, in fact, he was distracted by it, after all there were some very interesting patterns. But then he remembered that he was only pretending to be distracted by the floor.
"Your majesty," he said timidly. "I don't want to save Margaret to prove anything to Alice."
He could feel the Queen's eyes burning into him. "I understand," she said finally. "But I still don't want you to go off alone, especially in such circumstances."
"In fact," she continued. "I think I'd rather send two of my knights after her straightaway. I don't want you or Alice rushing after her. I'll need you here, just in case Stayne is planning another attack. After being granted access so easily to the castle, I can imagine him rushing back to try and attack."
The Hatter said nothing, even though he would have liked to explain that obviously he had better plans in mind, otherwise why would he have kidnapped Margaret. However, he said nothing, he was merely biding Time. He was sure Time would fully understand.
"Someone must go wake Alice, we need to at least tell her of what has happened."
Everyone looked at the Hatter, but his head was reeling. He realized that he had to go after Margaret himself, but he wasn't sure how he was going to do it. Suddenly, he realized with a start that everyone was staring at him.
"Sorry, what was that?" he said with a start.
"Hatter, would you go wake Alice," said the Queen calmly. "I will organize my knights so that they are gone before she knows what has happened. I'd rather she not jump to any rash decisions either."
"Oh, of course," said the Hatter quickly. "After all, she is in my study, so I suppose I should be the one to wake her. Unless the sun has been the one to wake her, sometimes he can be such a fickle friend when one wants to sleep in in the mornings."
Everyone looked at each other with raised eyebrows. The Hatter knew why. He wasn't angry at all. He was completely calm and normal.
"Perhaps I could use some company," he said softly. "My thoughts make terrible company when their all jumbled like this. Mally?"
"Of course," said Mallymkun cautiously. She quickly rushed after the Hatter, running to keep up as he took long strides out of the Throne room.
Mallymkun rushed to keep up with the Hatter. He barely noticed her as she piped in little words here and there. He barely even knew what she was saying. All he knew was that Alice would be devastated when she found out her sister had been kidnapped, and that, not for the first time, he was going to bend the rules a bit.
He took a sharp left heard Mally yell "Hatter!"
He turned back to look at her. "Oh yes, sorry Mally. I'd like you to go wake up Alice and tell her I'm going to Salazen Grum."
"The Queen told you not to!" cried Mally, chasing after him. "Have you gone mad?"
The Hatter smiled, thinking of Alice. "Have I gone mad?" "I'm afraid so." "Oh yes."
Mallymkun stopped dead in her tracks and watched the Hatter exit the palace, then turned to find Alice.
Alice sighed softly as she felt a tiny finger poking her face.
"Alice, please wake up," muttered a small, worried voice.
Alice opened her eyes and looked up at Mallymkun. "Mally?" she asked, seeing Mallymkun's worried eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Well, I'm afraid I have some bad news…" Mallymkun said, twisting her paws nervously. She took a deep breath and said in a rush. "The knave kidnapped your sister last night, and the Queen told him not to, but now the Hatters gone to get her."
Alice stared at Mallymkun. For a moment, she hoped that this was a bad dream, but she'd learned long ago that dreams in Underland were often the reality of things.
She jumped up, and Mallymkun toppled off her. "Where you going?" she called after Alice.
"To find the Hatter," Alice called over her shoulder, rushing out of the workshop.
"Not without me you ain't," muttered Mallymkun, jumping to the ground and running after Alice.
A/N: Ok everyone. I am soooooo sorry that this took like two months to get out, and I'm also sorry that it's shorter that usual. I just went through a point in my life where I was not feeling at all creative. So, yes, I've been working on this chapter basically one paragraph at a time for the past two months, and I apologize. I'm going to try a lot harder for you all, because I know how it gets when you're totally into a story and the author just stops writing. I'm working on the next chapter now, as well as another story (not Alice in Wonderland, sorry), so I'm sort of getting back into the writing groove.
As usual, I'd like to thank my wonderful and awesome fans: Auua Ytjoml, BlackRose15, twilight245, Dani585, bleukitty, kgfan, Terriah, Molleyn, blueeyedbookie, Hermine Jane Granger, Kactus Wrynn, thegypsy, Hats-For-Alice, KittenCeez, 0lovely blossom0, Falon-Jareth101, Captain Anemone, blackrose606, spotlightonCat, darkbangle, miss-catarina, BookwormAvey, SilverLunarStar, Lily1992, Atlandim, Ngoc Chau, cullingofthefold, cutejellybean132, chirp chirp, niphuria, Green-eyed Tulip, Wake me up when September ends, Dontgotaclue88, smiley1994, vamp1987, flynfreako, Nancy sikes, smiles4100, and of course, laserai (of course I didn't forget you, and congratulations.). Wow, so many of you! I love you all! Thanks!
Aras