Hello again, readers! Time for the next chapter! 10 chapters in, that's something to take note of, right? Let's see if we can get 10 more!

DISCLAIMER: 'Alice: Madness Returns' is owned by Spicy Horse and EA, including all beta content for the game. The 'American McGee's Alice' series belongs to their original creators. The author owns his OC, and all custom content introduced in the story.

Onward to the Chapter!

We enter a small corridor that turns to the right, and then goes straight again. Another metal door lies open, but we pause as the Cheshire Cat emerges in a small space to the left.

"Flip the lever to cool the metal," is all he says before he vanishes off. I look at Alice, but she doesn't seem to realize what he meant. Is the Cat actually giving applicable advice this time? Alice shrugs her shoulders and moves through the door, and I follow behind.

We enter a large chamber with another stream of molten metal inside. The stream moves through the chamber's center, and bubbles out of two cauldrons that hang by the upper left. Pipes stream across the ceiling and lead to a few more loudspeakers. These speakers play the exact same message as before.

I glance to the right and see several more circular platforms, or columns, rise and fall against molten geysers. To our immediate right is a poster showing more of the crazed rabbit from before; his finger points at me, the words "All Aboard For Progress" printed below the picture.

The familiar sounds of scuttling metal and groaning voices alerts me to an Eyepot, and more Insidious Ruin, that emerge on our platform. One Eyepot also stands in the darkness of a higher platform. It doesn't matter right now; a barbaric thought, perhaps, but I don't want to overthink things.

Battle is joined. Alice swiftly teleports and runs by the Insidious with slicing Vorpal Blade. I charge the closest Eyepot with the Hammer. I angle my swing down as I thumb the Hammer's power switch, and knock the creature to the ground while cracking the edges of its single eye like glass. I draw the Hammer back for another swing… and lose all concentration as I feel burning tea scald my skin once again. That second Eyepot did this, the cheating bastard!

I roar in pain-fueled anger as I swing again and again at the downed Eyepot. Each bash against its metal body helps me withstand my pain. The Eyepot breaks into pieces under my assault; each swing makes a small explosion that rings like music. Teeth and rose petals fall from its body as its eye, still unbroken, rolls away from the carcass and into the molten river below.

I turn to the distant Eyepot and shout, "Payback time!"

Alice moves to my side as I harshly pull back the 'Mode Switch' to 'RM' and aim it at the shrouded monster. I fire a charged shot as Alice shoots several pepper bullets at the same time. Our combined assault makes the Eyepot explode into bits.

"That's what you get, cheating scum," I shout to where the Eyepot once stood. "Don't mess with us unless you stand in the light and face us!"

"A worthy challenge to these enemies," Alice says after a moment's silence. "But, some acts are better done in the shadows. Don't let your anger get to your head, like before."

I look at Alice. She stares at me with that discontent gaze from when I said the Dormouse and March Hare took the initiative on a leadership opportunity. I guess my taunting isn't a good idea after all. Is this another 'barbaric' trait of mine that should be corrected?

Alice moves to the right with no further comment. I follow her as she jumps across the rising and falling columns, avoiding the liquid geysers that spring up every few seconds. Once we reach the far right end, we cross over two more platforms that smaller geysers propel up. The geysers don't splash the molten metal through the platform's surface and onto our feet, but the heat is still quite strong.

Our next obstacle is two metal slabs that rise above the river. Molten metal pours onto them every few seconds. I mentally time the number of seconds the metal streams down, and move almost as quickly as Alice across them when a clear point presents itself. The plate's heat makes my feet sting as I move off them, but I manage to keep my pace alongside Alice.

The fear of molten metal turning my skin into a burning corpse, is much stronger than my worry about burnt feet.

We then reach the snow globe and lever. Up close, the lever is actually a valve. A few boxes rest along the right wall, which Alice slashes apart to get their contents. One Slithering Ruin jumps at Alice from within a box, but it doesn't harm her. I note the myriad of pipes that connect the snow globe to the surrounding area, and beyond my sight.

Alice moves over to the valve and turns it with a heavy grunt. The temperature drops so suddenly the air in my lungs feels solid. I see my breath rise in front of me as all the molten metal turns gray, drains down to a much lower level, and then stops moving. The draining process reveals a couple of vents that instantly start to emit steam that leads back to the first platform we entered in.

Unfortunately, a Menacing Ruin emerges on the first platform. Seconds later, a Bolterfly flies into my sight, and I swear I hear the high-pitched gurgle of an Insidious Ruin from below. I try to move my cold limbs again; the Automaton Hammer's throb gives me some warmth as I quickly thumb its power switch.

"Take out the Ruin on the floor below," Alice commands from very close to me. "I'll deal with the Bolterfly nests above."

I stare at her, my mind as slow as my body right now. She stares me dead in the eye and shouts, "Move!" That gets me going.

I move to the left and jump down to one of the metal platforms we crossed over. The cold surface now makes my feet throb inside my boots; I don't know how long I have until they go numb. One Insidious looks at me from just below, its mask frozen in a sad expression as fire streams from the pipes on its back. I narrow my eyes as I jump down.

My jump doesn't go as I plan; instead of landing next to my target, I land on top of the Insidious and crush it beneath my boots. The Ruin bubbles and oozes around me, but the cold numbs any pain from the impact. I shudder as the smell of burnt skin reaches my chilled nostrils. More Insidious shamble towards me, their little legs moving across the frozen liquid metal with ease.

I let the momentum of the Hammer's swings carry me forward and into the fray. Luckily, the Insidious don't dodge very well. Unluckily, their strikes hurt just as much as before. I feel too cold to focus on teleports, and instead just move from point to point with each swing.

After what feels like several minutes of swinging, dealing damage, and taking damage, all the Insidious are smashed back to the puddles they rose out of. White mist flows over my lower body and back as I take a momentary reprieve. As I look at the pools of my enemies, I notice a small corridor beneath where the Menacing still stands and loudly grunts. I move over here, the Ruin's snorts louder as I slide against a wall.

'Wait…' Even my thoughts are slower because of the cold. 'Those snorts sound very close.'

I take a careful look around me, and spot a Snout mounted on a wooden board up above me. It snorts every few seconds, despite the cold. Come to think of it, was the Snout submerged under molten metal when we first arrived in here? How did it survive?

'No, no,' I remind myself. 'Don't think too hard about Wonderland, remember? It isn't your world, anyway, it's Alice's. If anyone should be thinking about small things like this, it's her.'

I make a mental note to inform Alice about the Snout, and then move back out and to the right so I can see how she is doing.

The Menacing is focused solely on her. It tosses fireballs her way as she wipes out a Bolterfly nest that I can barely see near the darkened ceiling. I switch the Hammer to 'RM' and prop it on my shoulders as I take a knee. My tired eyes make it hard for me to get a good shot. If I miss this, I'll get its attention, but I won't have dealt any damage. But, I should probably do something.

I fire my shot at maximum charge, when the Menace's masks are in plain sight. Even so, the shot hits its upper body instead of the masks. The explosion still blows one mask off, and the creature cries out as it shields its remaining masks with its small arms. I switch the Hammer back to 'MM', pump my legs over to the nearest vent, and ride the air it provides towards the enemy.

Alice jumps down from above at the same time, Pepper Grinder in hand. The Menace roars with sudden fury and launches something new at us both. I feel a sharp object pierce my suit and puncture my chest as I fly back off the platform. I land hard on my back. A loud, "Oof!" from Alice tells me she also got hit.

"Ruin darts!?" Alice sounds pissed off as we both stand back up, me slower than her. "It's never done that before. Must be a new trick, bloody bastard! Take that side!"

The ending sentence is directed to me as Alice points to the same vent I just used. She runs to another vent that I see leads to the same place. I run over and ride the steam up again, just as Alice rises with Vorpal Blade in hand.

We skirt around the Menace in a tight circle, slashing or smashing whenever we can, and duck, dodge, or teleport when we get attacked. The Menace tries to swipe at us both, but it moves too slowly to keep up. It soon melts into its base form with a bubbling scream. Alice instantly absorbs the teeth and rose petals it spits out.

"Well," Alice says after a few deep breaths. "That was… complicated."

"I don't think 'complicated' describes that fight as much as 'against overwhelming odds'," I reply with a small smile. I also feel happy because this room's cold no longer slows me down.

Alice flashes a smile back, but then turns to the frozen cauldrons with the words, "I saw a Liddel memory over there; I'll be right back. You just stay and rest up."

"Yes, mother." Alice rolls her eyes at my snarky comment, but shows no other emotional reaction.

"Hang on," I then say before Alice starts to move. "There's a Snout below us, in a small corridor. Pepper it up before we leave."

Alice looks at me for a moment, and then nods and heads down there first. She vents up to my location a short while later, and then jumps and twirls over to the right. I watch the route she takes, and realize that she's going the same way we just went.

Alice's movement, as always, is elegant and precise as she leaps between columns, and runs across the platforms. She executes a three-point twirl to reach the highest cauldron, but almost falls off the edge. A swift grab at the cauldron's edge is all that prevents her from crashing down to the floor far below.

It takes a second for Alice to climb to the cauldron's top, and she doesn't fall inside. The voice of Alice's father reaches my ears, but quieter than before, which I reason to be distance from where the memory is; "Remember, Alice, don't curse the dark or the cold when you're in the library at night."

'Alice's father, and her family as a whole, seem to have treated her well,' I think as I stand up and slowly move to the right side of the room with no real purpose in mind. 'I can see why she is having so much pain with them no longer being around. Do I want to be an equal to them, or is that impossible? Alice respects some parts of me, but how much respect do I want? How much respect do I want from this world, actually?'

As I walk along the far right columns, and the frozen metal beneath them, something fades away to my right. I stop and look at what changed; there's a small keyhole where there was once metal. My mind flashes back to that covered space in the Vale of Tears, beside the waterfall. That place had been hidden by a rock. Why, then, would the Hatter's Domain not have things hidden by metal?

I use my Shrink Sense to walk through the keyhole. I plan to just look around and report what I find to Alice. If there's a memory for her, or a Snout she can pepper up, all the better. She does need every chance available to get stronger, right? This is, once again, her Wonderland under threat. I hiccup twice as I think this through.

I come into another small corridor, frozen molten metal in piles along the corner of each wall. I grow back to normal size and take careful steps forward. The air grows warmer until I cross the final corner. I now stand before a massive open space within the Domain. More of the giant teapots with blinking eyes stand to my right. They pour molten metal out of their spouts and into the river below.

A Snout with feathery wings flaps beside a series of pipes to my left. Sparks fly in the air as I notice the hypodermic needle from Alice's Nan Sharpe floats in the back of the room, next to some metal boxes like the ones Alice smashed apart before.

Then, I notice something very different. On the pipes stands what looks like a brown-and-white clock with human limbs. Its hands are metal claws that look built to grab things and crush them, and its feet seem a bit too large for its size. Its face is like an actual clock, hands and all.

I realize it sees me when it waves at me with its left claw-hand. I freeze up, stunned at this walking clock and how it's saying hi againt this hellish backdrop.

The walking clock reaches behind its back, and pulls out some kind of stone. Then, to my surprise, it throws the stone to me. I reach out with my hands, and actually manage to grab the stone without falling to my death.

I draw back to more solid metal, and take a look at what's been given to me. The 'stone' is actually a long and flat piece of something that reflects the light around it in a crystal-clear image. I tilt it in my hand, and see my face for the first time since I arrived in the Domain. My eyes shine a bit darker than before, like they've adapted to the darker surroundings. I look back to the creature, who stands there like it's waiting for something.

Wait, how are you supposed to respond when you get something? Oh, right, you thank them!

It takes me a few moments to shout, "Thank you," to the creature, even though I have no real idea as to what this reflective stone is for. It salutes me with one of its claw-hands, and then climbs up the pipes. I look at the stone again; it fits in the palm of my hand and doesn't hurt me as I hold it. I pocket it and go back to the main area.

Alice's first words to me when I come back to the main room are, "Where did you go just now?" She isn't as angry as I imagined she'd be; rather, she seems more curious.

"There are some extra things through here," I explain as I stay close to the keyhole to reveal it to Alice. "However, there was… something else there, as well, that's gone now; some kind of clock with hands and feet. It gave me this stone, but I'm not sure what it's for. Do you think this is for you, actually?"

I give Alice the stone as I finish this, and she carefully looks it over.

"I don't recall this type of stone having any effect on my past," Alice says. "But, I advise you to keep it."

She then hands it back, and a beam of light bounces off it to a nearby wall. I pocket it as Alice continues with, "I'm more surprised that some denizen of Wonderland gave me something. Perhaps this place is trusting you?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," I reply as I shrug my shoulders. "But, I like the idea that Wonderland, and its people, are accepting me like they know me."

"Speaking of knowing things," Alice says as she steps toward me, "have you remembered something about your past, yet? It sounds to me like you have, and you have been separated from me for a while."

I sigh, and nod my head slowly as I raise the Automaton Hammer.

"I saw a flashback when I first touched this hammer," I explain. "I saw myself running through something like this Domain, wanting to escape the Mad Hatter. Apparently, the Hatter was planning some crazed experiment that I was a subject for, but I was able to get out of his clutches. I wandered into a room full of potions, and was attacked by a spider with a human mask for a face."

"A Nightmare Spider…" Alice's statement stops my explanation; she strokes her chin in thought, her eyes glazed over. "The Hatter did keep those when he was the ruler of the Domain. They guarded the Insane Children Hatter had captured for his experiments." She then turns to me with a, "Sorry, please continue."

"I think the spider bit me before it threw me into the potions," I continue with a shaky voice. "The potions, or maybe the spider's venom, caused my body to turn into white dust before my eyes. I don't recall anything after that, but what I did see explains how I got this power."

I raise an arm up as I say this. Small trails of white mist move up the limb in response to my words.

"That's a good start," Alice reassures me. "But, do you know how you learned to use them? Do you know their underlying purpose? Think about that for a bit while I fetch whatever's behind this keyhole."

I nod to Alice before she shrinks down and walks through the keyhole. Once she's gone, I dismiss the Automaton Hammer with a thought, and pace back and forth across the frozen metal. My thoughts jumble together, pull apart, and scramble back together in a loop.

Alice returns a few minutes later and unshrinks with a smile on her face; whatever Nan Sharpe said to her back there must have lightened her mood. Her smile shrinks when she sees my tight-lipped expression, but I shake my head and smile back after a moment. I don't want to make her any more upset about my problems.

We move on, using the vents and hanging cauldrons to reach another oval door that leads into an open pipe large enough for us to walk through side-by-side. The door slams shut behind us after we take a few steps.

After a brief diversion on a dead-end, we reach a small platform that broadens out to a large cylindrical open space. A central pipe keeps the whole thing together, while several smaller pipes provide additional support. A few steam vents float between the pipes, none of them near enough for us to use. As an extra fear factor, the space below us is covered in dense shadow.

I look up as the Cheshire Cat materializes on a platform above us, and near a switch. His ears give a quick twitch as he tells us, "Steady now. Gather your nerve. Jump to the first vent, and ride the currents up."

"I assume there's a safer way to do this," Alice asks the Cat. "But, you're not going to tell us?"

"Please," the Cat scoffs with a wave of its paw. "You two are more than clever. Steam provides locomotion!"

He vanishes before we can say anything more, but what he said does make sense; we can use the vents to travel from platform to platform. Alice seems to think the same idea as she peppers the nearby switch, which causes a vent to rise from the dark abyss beneath us. She rides the steam up to the next platform, and I catch Alice's surprised look as my lower body turns to mist when I ride up to her.

"I guess that trick replaces the buoyancy I get with my dress," she comments as I land with reformed legs on solid metal. "But, it still looks quite odd to me. In fact, the whole reason you got this control over mist still sounds odd. Not that that's going against you as a person, I mean."

"It's fine, Alice," I say with a wave not so unlike the Cheshire Cat's wave to us seconds ago. "Let's just keep moving."

Alice and I move up more vents, pepper switches, and cross platforms for several minutes. Our speed is hampered by the fact that only one of us can be on a vent at a time. We stop only once to break a weaker wall and go through a small keyhole behind it. This brings us to a breach in the outer metal walls of a narrow corridor that's on level with those giant blinking teapots, and a flying Snout. The Snout leaves a bread basket when it gets peppered; said bucket has three golden teeth for Alice to absorb.

After more vent-hopping, as I call it, we reach what appears to be the highest platform. Another Pressure Pad rests here, and a group of narrow beams connect to another oval door that leads outside. Alice places a Clockwork Bomb on the Pad, and I follow her as we rush out to open sky and what the Domain considers fresh air.

The sky is now a darkish-red as we step onto a checkered platform. There's a valve right next to us. Gears move in horizontal patterns in front of us, or are bunched together and connected to a large platform to our far left. Several small buildings with glowing red windows float beyond our reach, some of them below us and others above. Alice slices open a few boxes nearby while I note these things; she's probably seen stuff like this before, so it doesn't concern her as much.

The Cheshire Cat appears before us on the same checkered space, his grin as wide as ever. He looks to me, and then at Alice, but doesn't speak until Alice breaks all the boxes. He then says, "They say a cat has nine lives, Alice. I hope you both have as many."

He vanishes before we can utter any sort of word against him; he's learnt from last time, which makes me all the more nervous about his 'help'.

Alice moves to the valve and turns it on her own. This causes a steam vent to rise up and activate, which in turn lets us reach the moving gear. Alice then shrinks down for a second, then grows back and leaps into thin air. A second later, I gawk as she stands on nothing I can see.

After a second of mute surprise, I use my Shrink Sense for a moment. I now see the purple path Alice stands on, invisible to my bigger self. The Cat's advice really does pay off.

The gear soon reaches close to the other checkered platform. I see several Madcaps, one of whom is shielded, patroll among two large teapot-like sculptures made of rusted metal. Piles of scrap and stone block off all but a single path to the left, but that can be dealt with later. The gear starts to move back to its former location, and Alice jumps on from the invisible platform when it gets to her.

"Madcaps up ahead," I report to her as I summon the Automaton Hammer into my hands. "Ready to test our new weapons against them?"

"More than ready," Alice replies, a wild grin on her face as she draws out a Clockwork Bomb. As we jump to the large platform, I notice an Eyepot scuttle into view, as well. Alice quickly tosses the Clockwork Bomb towards it, which keeps it distracted while we target the weaker Madcaps.

To my joy, the Madcap's bodies crumple before the Hammer's wrath. The shielded Madcap proves tougher; when I smash against his defense, I freeze up as the shield shatters. Two other Madcaps charge me, and I have to teleport back from them. No sense in going berserk against one enemy, like I did against that Eyepot from earlier.

An Eyepot cries out, but I focus on the Madcaps as I run back towards them. A new attack idea comes to mind, and I try it out. I thumb the Hammer's switch as I let its motion carry me into a whirling spin across the platform.

I spin again and again in a slow forward direction. It takes all of my focus in order to not fall off the platform's edge. I hit a few Madcaps on the head and break their helmets. When I force myself to stop, they're out of my range.

Blue butterflies fly by as Alice teleports in front of me. She reforms long enough to decapitate a Madcap with the Vorpal Blade. She moves like a storm as I raise my Hammer up and follow her. The last few Madcaps fall to our combined assault; I smash bone and break skulls as Alice slices skin and rips holes in green-skinned chests.

Then, suddenly, all the enemies around us are dead, rose petals and teeth lying around for Alice to collect. I feel satisfied with my effort, and Alice also looks pleased as she absorbs the remaining items on the platform.

Alice walks onto a small connecting beam to reach a few more boxes while I look over our next path. The only logical path I can see, even after I shrink down, is to jump onto a toadstool spring that lies between us and another small platform that leads back indoors.

"We have a spare moment," Alice says as she approaches me. "I'm going to upgrade the Vorpal Blade again. The Pepper Grinder is indeed serviceable, but I prefer to get up close and personal to my problems."

Alice summons the weapon and focuses. Hundreds of teeth move down her arms, and into the blade, as a bright light makes me shield my eyes. When the light clears, the Blade looks the same. Alice gives it a test swing, and she executes a vicious four-slash combo in just a few seconds. The trail the blade leaves behind is now blue with a red edge, a darker shade to my eye.

"See if you can upgrade the Hammer as well," Alice says to me after she finishes her tests. "Now would be a good time to do so."

"I'm not sure the Hammer can be upgraded," I say as I look at the Hammer still in my hands. "The Hatter said the design never made it past prototype stage, and it's already quite powerful as is."

"It doesn't hurt to try," Alice insists. "Just focus on the weapon's energy and see how it could be improved. That's what I've been doing with the teeth I've been collecting; they're a cost I pay to make the changes I want."

"I'll give it a shot," I doubtfully say. I move to look at the open expanse of floating buildings below me, the Hammer in both my hands. I then close my eyes and focus on the Hammer's throb, the sensation that conveys to me that the weapon is ready to use.

I slow my breathing as tingles of heat and energy flow through my body. Unfortunately, I don't feel anything beyond heat and power. After many, many seconds of this feeling, I open my eyes and let out a deep sigh.

I don't feel disappointed, or upset, at this failure to unlock anything new, but it is a bit of a surprise to find I've already tapped the most potential I can get.

"There's nothing," I slowly say as I turn back to Alice. "I've gotten all I can from the Hammer." I then step towards her with a sudden idea; "If you want to use it, like I used your Vorpal Blade for a time—"

"No, no," Alice quickly says with a raised hand. "I'm fine using the weapons I have now. Besides, you are probably more attached to that hammer than you realize; it would be a bad idea for both of us if I take it away. Let's just get moving."

Alice brushes past me as she finishes; I follow with a slow step as we leap down to, and bounce off of, the spring I saw earlier. We move through yet another corridor that angles to the left, and enter a chamber that makes the other ones look small by comparison…

All right, that'll be all for now. People who have played the game should know what's coming next. I just didn't want to spoil it right now.

Please review, comment, constructively criticize, and suggest ideas as you wish.

Draconos is taking off!