CHAPTER NINE: A Different kind of Madness

"He knew."

Alice glanced up from Squirrelbeard's still form, shaking with sobs.

"P-Percy... what?"

But her friend didn't seem to hear her. He just kept shaking his head, his eyes wide.

Eyes that, to Alice's horror, were black as night.

"HE KNEW!"

"Percy-!"

But he was beyond recall, his face twisted with terror, grief, anger and a thousand darker emotions Alice couldn't place.

And that was when he finally lost control.

Before anyone could stop him, he had hurled himself at the nearest rack of hats, sending it crashing to the ground. But he didn't stop there. Percy turned his rage and grief on the shop- tearing fabric, reducing chiffon and lace to tattered shreds, and upending tables. He roared and screamed like...

...a madman.

"Percy! STOP!"

But there was no stopping him now. Oblivious to Alice's pleas, he continued his onslaught- scissors crashed to the floor and mirrors shattered under his bloody fists.

"HE KNEW! HE KNEW THE WHOLE TIME!"

For the first time in her life, Alice was afraid to approach him. Not because of his manic rage, but because when his eyes suddenly locked onto hers, she could not recognize the man she saw there. Whoever stood there, shaking and staring, couldn't be her best friend.

He couldn't be.

"He knew."

The tears fell fast down his face. He was frozen in place, staring like a child woken from a horrid nightmare. How long Percy and Alice stood there, neither of them knew. But finally, Percy's strength deserted him. He swayed dangerously and the black in his gaze began to fade.

Alice didn't think about what she was going to do- she just forced her way through the wreckage and wrapped her arms around him, trying to calm his choking sobs. They sunk to the floor, curled against a nearby wall. But Alice didn't let go. It wasn't simply to stop him from raging further- she felt she had to hold onto him, lest he let go of himself.

For several minutes, they stayed there, crying and holding each other.

"He knew." Percy finally managed to whisper. "He said he had guests. He knew it was coming. He knew. That's why he kept me away."

Alice held him closer, ready if he should spring up again. "He wanted to protect you."

He shook his head. "I c-could have helped him. Gregory, too. They both k-knew."

She cupped his face in her hands, forcing him to meet her eyes. Both sets were blue, and wet with tears.

"You would have been killed, Percy. They knew that. In the end... the choice was theirs."

her lips twisted into a bitter smile. Squirrelbeard's words were already repeating themselves.

"He would want us to carry on."

It was then that a series of bangs and curses rocked the shop. Percy didn't even flinch, but Alice glanced up just in time to see Marcus Raine descend upon them, sword drawn and face alight with rage.

"What the blazes is going on here? Is-"

His eyes stretched wide as he surveyed the shop. Alice could actually see the color draining from his face.

"Fates above. Squirrelbeard..."

"Dead."

She didn't bother to inform him of the old Hatter's last words- there would be time to talk later. She didn't know when, or where, but she no longer cared. Frankly, Alice was so emotionally and physically drained, she found it impossible to think about anything but the immediate present.

They could tell him later. Right now, they had more pressing issues.

Marcus finally managed to drag his eyes away from Squirrelbeard's body and rest them on Percy.

"That explains the state of the shop." he breathed. "He didn't take it well, did he?"

Alice shook her head. Percy was oblivious to all talk about him- Alice didn't think he could hear them anymore,

"His eyes went black, and then he..."

She shuddered at the dark memories. "He couldn't handle it. I still d-don't think he's all there yet."

Marcus sighed, and sunk down beside them.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Alice just listened to Percy's labored breathing and retreated deep into her own thoughts- erecting a flimsy shield from the torrent of grief and pain. It was too much... too much to handle. She had never attended a funeral before- let alone watched a man die a gruesome death in front of her. She should be screaming. She should be beside herself with terror and grief.

But she wasn't. She was only lost in a blank, numb sea of shock. She just wanted to curl up and sleep for a thousand years and cry the ocean of tears that would no longer come from her eyes, but throbbed inside her aching head.

"He's only done that once before."

Alice barely registered Marcus's words. But he continued doggedly.

"The riot at the race was nothing. A few months after... when Tibbarin made fun of his parents...."

Marcus's gaze was distant, as if the scene was replaying itself in the little section of the floor he was staring at.

"Percy would have killed him if Squirrelbeard hadn't showed up. As it was, he broke three of the lardbag's ribs."

In any ordinary circumstance, Alice would have gasped, demanding to know how gentle, silly Percy could have done such a thing. But after all that had happened, Alice felt incapable of emotion.

"We shouldn't talk about him like he's not here."

Marcus shrugged. "After everything that's happened, Alice, I don't think he really cares."

And that was when Alice understood. Marcus had grieved as much as he could bear today. He needed to find something- anything- but death to talk about. He laid a red and black scrap of fabric on the ground before them.

"Recognize that?"

Shock was lost on Alice now, but she winced a little as the pieces clicked together in her mind.

"The Knave of Hearts."

Marcus nodded. "The Queen ordered this attack."

His tone was blank- he could have been discussing something as mundane as the answer to a math problem.

But Percy stiffened, and Alice tightened her grip on him again. Marcus's eyes narrowed. But both of them visibly relaxed when they saw Percy's eyes- blue, not black- and Alice let him pull away from her and get to his feet. Without speaking a word to either of them, he picked his way through the wreckage and left the shop. Marcus and Alice followed. They already knew what he was going to do, and wasted no time in helping him.

He was going to bury the Knight and the Hatter. The three of them set upon the grisly task wordlessly, and, slowly but surely, new trowels appeared beside their own. The White Rabbit and Banthrope came with a host of weepy rabbits, the Dormouse and the March Hare plowed earnestly with spoons- even the flowers dug in their roots.

No one spoke. But everyone cried.

Only Percy seemed to be without tears. His face was set into a mask of determination, and while his eyes were still bloodshot and blue, they were completely dry. Some great internal struggle had finally been resolved, and Alice could only guess what that would mean. He had always been unpredictable. But now that she had witnessed his, a new kind of madness, she realized just what "unpredictable" meant. Percy was no longer a childish, laughing being darting from one fancy to another.

He was a young man who had just lost the closest thing to a father he'd ever had. A few minutes ago, he'd been ready to kill someone. Now.... Alice didn't know what he was feeling. The blue in his eyes was fiery- intense. Like he was angry. But he couldn't have been- there wasn't a single speck of red in his gaze. Or was there?

Even a human mood ring can be unreadable sometimes.

Before long, they were finished. They laid a slab of stone between the two graves, reading simply,

Here lay Alexander Squirrelbeard and Sir Gregory Trystall, friends to the end.

They had buried the two of them side by side, beneath Squirrelbeard's favorite oak tree. Alice couldn't count the number of times she had seen him sitting in its branches, swinging his legs like a naughty child and calling riddles to those below. Squirrelbeard was old enough to be her grandfather.

He looked old enough, Alice corrected. Age, like so many other things, was not always definite in Wonderland. But it didn't matter now. He was dead. Sir Gregory was dead- the Knight she never knew but who had sacrificed himself for her sake. For all three of them. Dead.

And Alice could not help but think that a part of her had gone with them. She was barely aware of the White Rabbit's tremulous speech- something about courage and learning to move on. The sugary-sweet, stuttering eulogies spoken whenever anyone died. Curious, how everyone's faults and shortcomings vanish instantly upon their death. No one dares to speak of anything less than their undying heroism after they are gone. What comfort is that? What use is it to only remember Squirrelbeard's sacrifice, and not the lyric, magical strains of his life? His whimsy and madness?

There was so much about him that Alice never knew. Now, there would never be a chance to ask.

Finally, the last Dodo and Dormouse trooped back into the woods. Only the March Hare and the three teenagers stayed, standing stiffly in front of the oak. Time seemed to have been mourning the deaths as they did- no one knows just how long they stood there.

But they did know that, at some point, Percy disappeared. After a moment's panic, he emerged from the shop.

His old, eclectic clothes were gone. Instead, he wore white gloves, Squirrelbeard's distinctive hat, and a purple-toned suit. It was not the same one the old man had always worn- that lay in the ground with him. But the hat was his. And so were the gloves. But it was not just Percy's clothes that had changed- he looked... taller, somehow. And more gaunt. Like in that one afternoon, he had been forced to grow up. He had changed, in a way Alice couldn't quite describe.

"My master is gone." he said flatly. "I have come to take his place in every way- I am the Mad Hatter. I am the owner of the shop."

His fists clenched.

"And I am the sworn enemy of the Queen of Hearts."

Never before had a silence been so complete as the others realized exactly what he meant.

"You're going to the Resistance." said Marcus simply. It was a statement, not a question.

Percy nodded. "I am. The Queen of Diamonds lost her best man, and it is only right that she receive another in his place. But you do not have to come with me." he added quickly. "It will be incredibly dangerous-"

"I'm going." said Marcus instantly. "I'll not let you throw yourself into the lion's den without me."

"Lion?" squeaked the March Hare. He had been stunned into shocked, trembling silence for hours. Percy flashed him a quick smile.

"Yes, Marchy. Lions. It's just as dangerous within the Rebellion as outside of it, so I can't let you go with us."

Marchy's ears drooped. "Marchy... no..... go with Percy?"

Percy. It was the first time the hare had used his real name.

"No, Marchy. You're not a fighter- it's not safe for you there. I need you to find the Warrenmaster, Banthrope. Ask him for work, a place to stay, anything- just keep yourself safe. Take the Dormouse with you."

He nodded and slowly shuffled into the woods, tears littering the ground in his wake.

"He'll be fine, Perce." Alice choked. Her voice was scratchy from disuse and the constant crying over the past few hours. Her friend only sighed.

"I wish I could believe that."

Alice's heart gave an involuntary start as he met her eyes- he hadn't looked anyone in the eye in hours. Not since his... fit.

"Are you going with us, Alice?"

It was her choice. She knew the danger, she knew that the last Alice that challenged the Queen had lost her memory, and she would likely not survive the ordeal. She had never killed anything with her sword, let alone engaged in the bloodshed required to overthrow a Queen. By all rights, she should go home. But a life without Wonderland?

Without the ones you love, life is no longer worth living.

She had made her choice. This was her home, and she would give every last breath in her body to defend it. To defend her friends.

"I'm in."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Indeed, Alice learns that madness is not all fun and games. The gang is ready to set off! :D Sorry if this story is moving too slowly- there will probably be about 20 chapters in Book One, when all is said and done. Then there's Book Two! (I'm cutting out Book 3- too repetitive for me. It just drags the story on too long.) But I hope I've jam-packed both books with enough adventure to keep you guys going. Thanks to KJ, Becca, and Myuumay, my threatening but awesome reviewers. XD I'm not going to 'avoid cliché too hard,' but the romances might not work out the way people expect. And thanks to the rest of my lovely reviewers/readers- your support is what keeps me writing more crazy, bloody, black-eyed-fit-filled chapters. XD More to come soon! And thanks also to my beta, .Queen.