As Jervis walked down the wet, concrete streets of the Amusement Mile, he couldn't help but berate himself.
"I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then, and probably for the worst," he said, shivering from the cold, biting rain. Oh, how he wished he had his coat.
But being cold and miserable didn't excuse his actions against her, just as it wasn't an excuse for her to accuse him of being the way he appeared: like a creepy stalker offering candy to children.
"'I can't explain myself, I'm afraid, sir,' said Alice, 'because I'm not myself you see,'" Tetch replied, talking to himself. He just knew Alice would be embarrassed to see him like this.
He knew his reactions were unjustified, and he didn't need to try to attempt to use violence to illustrate his point. Sometimes, he would suddenly black out, somewhat, in his mind, and it felt like his body was operating by itself. It had happened many times since he was around his late teens, and had gotten monumentally worse after he thought he had lost Alice to Billy. The scariest part after these blackouts were waking up from them, and finding what you loved smashed into pieces.
Most of his crimes had been committed that way, and he would often wake up in his cell at Arkham wondering how on earth he had gotten there, and what he could have possibly done.
He breathed in, and then out, in, and then out, trying to calm himself. His mind was going three million directions at once, and probably three million miles per hour to boot. He just needed to take a moment to collect himself.
So, he did, leaning against a signpost, just breathing in and out.
"Alright, Tetch, get a hold of yourself! Alice is out there somewhere. She wouldn't just leave without some sort of notice," Jervis reassured himself, starting to walk again. "And she would not appreciate me sitting there feeling sorry for myself! She would want me to be brave, to keep going."
He began to walk faster, starting to become more confident in himself by his self-assurances. Yes, he would find her. Of course he would find her! He was the Mad Hatter, for Pete's sake! He would find her even if it took all night.
If he was being honest with himself, he was very lucky for her to still have stuck around him. He knew that sometimes, he wasn't the most pleasant to be around, nor someone people would feel safe with. He knew what he was, what he looked like. He didn't blame Becky, really, for accusing him of all those things. Frankly, he would have thought the same thing, if it were he in her place.
Alice, though, she understood. She looked past his exterior, past his oversized overbite and smarmy outfit and somewhat creepy smile and looked within him, to what he tried to be underneath: an honest, creative, if a little anxious and maybe just a little bit mad, man.
She was his angel, his light. Before he had met Jonathan, she had been his only friend, his only confident in a world full of people that just didn't understand. Sure, she didn't always understand what he was trying to say or what he was doing with his inventions, but she would try to listen as best as she could, even if it was a bit inconvenient for her. She was the most beautiful, compassionate, and lovable person he had ever met.
And that was why he had been so angry when Billy, one of her boyfriends that she had been seeing on and off during that time, had proposed to her. He knew those types of guys, the rich ones, who seemed to use woman for their own personal gain, then dump them when a prettier one caught their eye. When she had showed him the ring, he had felt a surge of anger run through him. How dare he take her away from him! How dare he do something that he knew, in the long run, would only cause ruin!
The rest of the night passed in a blur, with only a few moments here or there that he remembered. It had only hit him later when they had shared a look with each other, with him trapped underneath the Jabberwocky's massive paw that he had given up his ultimately futile attempt to win her over then, and had resigned himself to a life as a criminal.
But when he heard that Jonathan wanted him to play act as the dean of the University and that Alice might be there, he quickly agreed. He had never apologized for his behavior during that night, and had wanted to personally tell her he was sorry for all those things.
He was so focused on his thoughts and memories of their time together that he didn't notice when someone had grabbed him from behind, pulling him into a nearby alleyway.
"Come with us," they growled, their gravely voice frightening the poor Hatter.
They were the same men who had been going into one of the University's buildings. He could make out the discolorations of their skin, and could see where, on the discolorations, feather and scales were starting to develop.
"W-Who are you people?" He asked, his self-assurances and happy thoughts suddenly sounding hollow in his ears. He reached into his pocket, about to grab and throw his cards.
The goons would have none of that, however, as they grabbed his hands and wrenched them out of his pockets.
"Heh, my guess you don't want to see my card trick, did you?" he chuckled nervously, trying to make a joke.
"Shut up! And stay quiet! The Mistress wants you brought back alive, and if you don't stay quiet, I might be tempted to shut you up immediately."
Tetch rolled his eyes. Typical of these buffoons, he thought, all bark and no bite. They don't even have any weapons on them, he noted, scanning their sides. Maybe if he could get them talking, they might reveal where my dear Alice is or who this "Mistress", whoever she is, could be.
"Really? And wouldn't the Queen of Hearts want me alive in order to execute me?" he retorted, quite tetchily.
He quickly regretted those words when he got a good look at one of the goon's hands around his neck. The nails had curled and grown out into long, vicious claws, claws more befitting of a dinosaur than a man.
"Who says that I don't have to execute you her and now, freak? The Mistress might want you alive, but I'm sure delivering your brain to her personally would be just as good. Now, zip your lips and get walking, lunatic."
Jervis mimed zipping his lips with a nervous smile as he started walking, a goon trailing behind him to "encourage" him to get moving.
After a few minutes of walking silently, Tetch soon saw that he was heading towards the Gotham shipyards. Even though he couldn't see the docks, per say, Jervis could hear the splashes of the water and the creaky swinging of the cargo being delivered. Distantly, he could hear the faint sound of a ship's horn as it came into the docks.
He didn't have long to make note of his surroundings, as the henchman behind him, growing impatient with him, had shoved Jervis forward roughly, causing the smaller man to stagger forward. "C'mon, we don't got all day, Hatter. Get a move on!"
"'The hurrier I go, the behinder I get,'" Jervis mumbled crossly, picking up his hat from the ground. It seemed that he was nearly there, wherever there was, as the goon behind him slammed the door shut, locking it tightly with a bolt.
It was completely dark in the building, save for the luminous lines on the ground pointing towards another door farther down.
"Wait here," one of the goons grunted, slightly opening the door and scurrying quietly inside.
Both Jervis and the rest of the goons waited in anxious anticipation of what was behind that door.
For the goons, they waited for the screams to start before running from the door. They knew if screams were heard that their Mistress was very displeased, and they would need to make a run for it before she decided to subject them to more torturous experiments with either her fear toxin or with different animal DNA, which she would test on whoever she could get her hands on.
This time, however, all they could hear were mumbles coming from the door, which they took as a good sign that things had gone well.
Jervis, however, knew no such thing, and was currently sweating through both his vest and his shirt. He had no idea where he was, and for all he knew, there could be any sort of creature in there, be it man, beast, or some kind of strange, eldritch abomination. He wouldn't even be surprised if even Cthulu or Azathoth was in there. He had certainly seen stranger things in Gotham, and he might as well add that to the list. All he knew was that one man-like monstrosity went in, and hadn't come back out yet.
He dearly hoped that Alice was safe. He couldn't stand the thought of something happening to her. She didn't deserve to be drawn into this mess, not when she hadn't done anything wrong in the first place.
It wasn't long before the goon came back, whole and uneaten, which reassured the Hatter, somewhat, as he gestured for him to enter.
Knowing he had no choice, he nervously entered the Mistress' inner sanctum.
Despite the warehouse's size, this room was huge in scale. Everywhere he looked, he could see high walls and a high ceiling. Everywhere he looked, he could see machinery clanking away, as well as the buzzing of the dozens of monitors near the center of the room.
Jervis let out a sigh of relief. Well, it certainly didn't look like the end of existence or some part of the space-time rip he was looking into, fortunately. He chuckled. This wouldn't be so bad. Maybe he could survive.
That is, until he heard a whisper near his ear. "Hello, Tetch."
He jumped in fright, looking around furtively. The shadows cast by the light seemed tangible, as if it was about to crush him and suffocate the air right out of his lungs.
"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" the voice continued, moving around him.
"W-W-Who are you?" he asked, his eyes drifting to the shadows around the room.
"Did you forget me already, dear Tetch? I certainly haven't forgotten you." The shadowy figure of a woman appeared, seemingly dissolving from the very shadows themselves.
As she came closer to him, enough for him to recognize her figure and voice, the Hatter's eyes widened as he finally placed her in his mind. No, not her, he thought, starting to shiver, anything but her.
Really, he would prefer any of those Lovecraftian horrors that Jonathan had often told him about. At least they only caused permanent insanity to him, something he could totally live with. She, however, would take no mercy on him. She could cut through his insanity like a knife, smashing any sort of thought or belief he may have had left. It was only the thought that Alice was in here that he didn't immediately flee for the door and away from this cursed place.
"I see you still recognize me, don't you?" she purred, chuckling. "Good! That will make things a lot easier."
Jervis felt like he was paralyzed. He couldn't move an inch, could barely form a breath. He didn't know what that Jabberwocky of a woman wanted, but he knew that it could never be good.
Finally, he found that he could move his lips, but just barely enough to get out words. "W-Where's Alice?" Jervis asked. "I-I need to find her! To see her!"
The woman frowned for a moment, before her mouth formed into a malicious smile. "You would like to see her, then? Very well."
She clicked a button on her remote. Automatically, one of the screens that had formerly been a bunch of static suddenly became crystal clear, showing Alice in her casual clothes, tugging fervently at her bonds.
Jervis, suddenly gaining the courage to move, immediately ran to the monitor. "Alice! Oh thank God, you're alive! I was so worried!"
Inside her cell, Alice looked up. "Jervis? Is that you?" she asked, perking up at the sound of his voice.
He smiled. "Yes, it's me, love! I'm here!"
Suddenly, Alice seemed to realize something important. "Jervis! You need to get out of here! That woman is planning to…" the feed cut out.
"Ah, ah, ah! Spoilers," she said, a cruel sneer on her face as she watched the Hatter frantically banging on the monitor. "We wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, do we?"
"W-What do you want?" he mumbled, wringing his hands together. He knew that it would be all too easy for the woman to manipulate him now that she had Alice. He was too scared to even quote Alice in Wonderland, as he feared that she would tear out his throat if she didn't get a straight answer.
She chuckled, a dark, cold sound that reminded Jervis of the howling, cold, icy wind. "Isn't it obvious, dear Hatter? I have need of your technological knowledge in mind control."
"Why?" he asked.
She smirked. "Let's just say that I have a certain…someone I would like to control."
Jervis instantly made the connection in his mind. "No! I will betray the March Hare. Never!"
She tisked. "Oh, I didn't want to have to do this," she said with mock sympathy. She switched on the intercom. "Kill the girl!"
The Hatter instantly panicked when he heard the order. "N-No! Please! I'll do anything! Just please don't hurt her!" he pleaded, practically screaming. He couldn't let her be killed. It would destroy whatever sanity he had left if she was killed.
She smiled. She finally broke him. She closed her eyes, savoring the sweet feeling of a breaking spirit. It was a bit before she finally said something. "Anything? Then you will make me my controller?"
Jervis looked down. Forgive me, Jonathan, he thought, a tear coming to his eye. But this is for Alice. " Yes, I will. Just don't hurt her."
With a satisfied smile, she called off her goons, who had been moments away from pulling the trigger and ending Alice's life.
The Hatter was taking deep breaths, trying to calm his nerves. She's safe! She's safe! He thought, trying to reassure himself that she would be fine.
"Very well, I won't. As long as you make me my device, then I'll make sure your precious little Alice is safe and unharmed. And since I've decided I'll be a little bit generous, I'll even let you both go once everything is said and done."
He nodded, resigning himself to his fate. He had no choice now. But maybe…"Alright, I'll do it. But I will need to go back and get my supplies…"
"No need. Everything has been provided for you to work with."
Drat! He thought. I can't warn Jonathan or Becky, then. "Oh, okay, then. Brilliant! I-I'll get started right away," he said, a nervous smile on his face.
She grinned a grin that would make Cheshire cat proud. "Excellent!" She snapped her fingers. "Fang! Needles!"
Instantly, two new goons were at her side. "Yes, ma'am," they said in unison.
"Take Mr. Tetch to his invention room," she ordered.
"Yes, ma'am," they repeated, grabbing Tetch by his arms and leading him away.
The woman grinned. Everything was going according to plan. All that she needed now was the final piece.
She couldn't help but let out a maniacal laugh. Soon, he would be hers. And no one, not the police, not the Batman, his little robins, or even the little pest Becky could stop her now.