The Mad Hatter could barely believe his eyes, but it was indeed Eracabeth of Crims, the Red menace herself. Banishment didn't look as though it had treated her so well in the past five years. She seemed to have aged more than she should have, and she looked half-insane herself as she stared with a cruel smile at Tarrant, her hands on her hips, her bulbous head seeming only to grow in the small space. "You, Hatter, interfered with one too many of my plans while that crown was on my beautiful head," she said matter-of-factly in her high pitched voice. "If it hadn't been for you and that blasted sword of yours—" Tarrant vaguely noticed its absence, "—my dear Jabberwocky would've killed that stupid little girl where she fell!"

Anger stirred in the Hatter and once again his eyes flared orange – if there was anything that could make him truly feel anymore, it was Alice, and he had been trying so desperately to quench those feelings and forget her but the sound of someone else speaking ill of her thoroughly enraged him. "She's not stupid!" he shouted, straining against his chains.

"Oh my," the Red Queen tittered, taking a step back, "someone's got to learn to watch his temper." Her tone grew colder. "Not that it matters. I'm going to kill you anyway," she continued, glaring at Tarrant. "But not without making use of you first. My dear sister Miriana no doubt sees some kind of value in you – she'll surely relinquish the terms of my banishment to keep that ugly head of yours properly attached to your shoulders. And once she makes the Royal Decree, it will be off with your head!" she hissed, leaning close to the Hatter. His anger was beginning to subside though and he only shrugged. He didn't really care what she did to him, he didn't really care if he died.

The Red Queen was not altogether surprised at his lack of concern because in her mind, he was a bit too daft to really understand the situation, but she was frustrated because she wanted him to suffer greatly before he died and apparently the threat of death didn't cause any kind of anxiety in him at all.

She stomped her foot and screamed, "STAYNE!" and to the Hatter's minimal surprise, Ilosivich Stayne came into the room behind the queen, bearing the Hatter's own sword. Tarrant's eyes watched the blade, remembering when he'd nearly plunged it into the heart of the Knave of Hearts and thinking savagely that he should've just done it but the anger quickly faded away again. Nothing really mattered. Alice wouldn't come back and he was going to die. Her voice kept repeating his name in his head and he tried to block it out for the sake of his heart but it was so hard.

"Stayne," the Red Queen continued, "now that we know the castle at Salazen Grum is unguarded, we'll return there with the rest of the Red Rebellion force. I want you to send one of our soldiers to Marmoreal with a ransom note. Tell them that if I do not receive a Royal Decree of the lift of my banishment at Salazen Grum in three days, the Hatter will lose his head."

"Already lost it," the Hatter mumbled quietly out of sheer habit.

The Red Queen aimed a kick at the Hatter leg and he winced when it connected with one of his wounds. "Then," she said, "when we've transferred him to the dungeon there, you may do whatever you want to him short of killing him. And Stayne," she said, looking up at the knight with a simpering voice and girlish pout, "make sure you make him suffer."

Stayne, who was apparently over his aversion to the Queen or else hiding it very well said, "With pleasure, Red Queen," and smiled evilly at the Hatter who only stared at the floor with uncaring eyes.

The two exited the room and plans were made to move to Salazen Grum. A card knight came into the Hatter's cave and he vaguely realized that some of the card knights must have retained their loyalty to the Queen after the battle of the Champions. The knight knocked out the Hatter with a swift blow and unchained him, so that he could be dragged off the dungeons of the remains of the Red Queen's castle. Another knight was charged with bringing the ransom note to Marmoreal while the forces of the Queen's rebellion began the quick journey to her old stomping ground.

Alice and Mallyumkin traveled as quickly as they could, the blood trail staying easy enough to follow as it led them into lands and scenery that Alice did not recognize. They traveled for hours until Alice was exhausted. Her lungs were burning – more so than they normally did after this kind of exertion – and her stomach felt strangely sick but she continued on with Mallyumkin who was feeling exhausted as well but not so ill as Alice.

The amount of blood they were following made Alice worry more and more about whether the Hatter was even still alive or not but she refused to let herself think contrawise about it. He had to be alive, she believed it. She was certain she'd have felt his pain if he had… she couldn't even think the word. They continued walking and Alice contemplated what she would do if they found the Hatter. For one thing, if he was still with or trapped by whatever had attacked him, she'd have no way to fight – she didn't have any weapons. But that wouldn't stop her. But secondly, how would he respond to her being there? He didn't want to see her… but she still had to save him. Even if she had to leave Wonderland forever right afterward, she had to make sure the Hatter was ok.

They finally reached a river but after wading through, the trail was entirely lost on the other side. The water must've washed the blood from the Hatter's wounds, they figured, and try as they might they couldn't locate the trail restarting on the other side. Aside from that, they were both exhausted.

Mally collapsed on the bank of the river and reached out to cup water in her little hands, lifting it to her lips and drinking deeply while Alice went a little ways downstream and wretched violently before returning to Mally's side and sitting on the riverbank. "What do we do now?" she asked weakly. Mallumkin shrugged.

"We can't stop," she said with a forced energy, but Alice looked down at her, eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"There's no trail, Mally," she said quietly. "We don't know where we're going, I'm entirely lost… We'll never find him at this rate," she said, starting to cry softly.

"We have to," the dormouse said angrily. "We can't stop. We'll find him eventually."

"We do need to rest first though," Alice mumbled, laying down on the bank, reaching out to touch the cool water. Mallyumkin nodded and sat, pulling one of the Hatter's hat pins from her belt. She grabbed up a small stone from the bank and began using it as a sort of whetstone, honing the blunt edge of the hat pit so that it was more of a cutting blade then a stabbing blade. It wasn't long however before the pair heard a sound behind them.

There was a low growl and a rustling of the bushes. Mally jumped to her feet and held her hat-pin sword at the ready, and Alice too stumbled to her feet, facing the noise, unsure of what she could do if it was another of the scary beasts of Wonderland…