Title: Illusions & Destinies

Rating: R-M. I love a bit of strife :-P

Author's Note: On the whole, I've decided that this working 2 jobs thing? Highly overrated, screws up my time for chapter took a lot to get out to the beta as I kept tinkering and tinkering. Till I was ordered to quit it.

Chapter Ten: Past Tense

It had seemed like a simple enough plan to find North Abel but it quickly became clear that Alice had no idea where the Drawling Master was hiding. Which, as Hatter pointed out several times, was not a good sign for her directional guide capabilities. Had she not been so pleased to hear him trying to make a joke, Alice might have been offended by that slight but she let it go. She was tired and needed his occasional lapses into his old self to make herself go on. The house was only so large and she went to almost every floor, shadowed by Hatter. The walking still caused him pain but when she'd tried to insist that he should go back to his room, he'd merely kept walking and ignored her.

Which was a vast improvement on the fact that hours before he'd have obeyed her out of sheer fear and guilt.

Alice was still careful though to not let him go into Abigail or Pidge's rooms with her as she looked. Something told her that this complacent Hatter would still be dangerous around his newly returned mother and the man who had just come on to her rather heavily. He kept outside anyway without being asked and waited patiently, often seeming half-asleep when she came back out. Abigail had been no help and Pidge had been no where in sight, hardly surprising to Alice but still disappointing.

Hatter said nothing to the lack of help, now and again pressing his hand against the deep wound in his side to test the bandages. When his hand still came away clean from blood, he'd rest his head back and yawn. Yet he showed no signs of leaving Alice to find his bed; if anything, he was more like a shadow than before.

It was when they were in the kitchens again that Hatter started talking to himself; a fervid argument between two changed voiced. It unsettled Alice so much that she was ready to try to escort him back to the third floor and go to bed herself. It wasn't worth risking a relapse for the sake of chanced information. For all she knew, the old man would be long gone until the morning and she wanted some sleep. When she glanced at Hatter, Alice knew that his exhaustion was creeping up on him; his gaunt face seemed set in tired lines and his limp was worse.

Moving to the door, she started up the stairs and was half-way to the second floor when she realized that she was walking alone. Alice huffed, rubbing at her sore neck in irritation, and made her way back down the stairs. Her head hurt from a lack of sleep and too much tension and her eyes actually stung when she tried to look through the dim light. Highlighted by soft shadows, Hatter was standing at the rear counter, leaning over one of the sinks with his attention on the overgrown garden. Alice leaned against the door-frame and stared at him for a moment, the restless way he fidgeted telling her that something was up.

When she noticed his right hand clenching on the edge of the sink, Alice quickly came to his side and stared out with him. Hatter's attention didn't waver even when she hesitantly went to touch him. But before her hand made contact, she saw his arm jerk a bit and she quickly moved her hand to rest on the sink beside his.

"What is it?"

"What's he doin' out there?" he asked, his voice losing some of its inflection as he stared. His head tilted on the side and, before she could think to stop him, he was half-walking, half-jogging out into the garden. He seemed determined to see if something was real, his attention like a bloodhound on the trail.

Guinevere and Arthur both looked up as he passed them and whickered and he glanced at the mare. As Alice watched while she struggled to catch up down the garden stones, Hatter and the mare stared at each other. He paused mid-step and turned toward the horse. She jerked her head up higher, her ears strained forward as her nostrils flared to take in his scent. Hatter tipped his head on the side and gave a soft whistle. The horse snorted and then lowered her head a bit, whickering again.

Watching them, Alice had the impression that they had come to a strange understanding in those matter of seconds. Then he was moving again and the horses went back to dozing in the rain. Hatter continued down through the garden, nimbly avoiding the jagged stones and overturned flower beds as he went, and lifted his hands defensively to his sides. Over his shoulder, Alice finally saw what he'd been headed for and she slowed down, keeping several paces behind him.

Long before Alice had even glimpsed it, Hatter had noticed the iron table and chairs set beside the tiny sapling Soultree. He hadn't been surprised to see that that was were the Drawling Master was sitting, looking for all the world like a nobleman of leisure. The old man was flipping through a holo-book, occasionally using a dial to bring maps and pictures up and then changing the page. He clearly knew Hatter was there by the way he kicked one of the other chairs so that it was away from the table.

Hatter stood, not sure he trusted himself to be this close to a man he had just weeks before been ready to kill. He was even more suspicious that Abel likely knew why the Resistance had wanted to penetrate the protective layers of Hatter's mind to find what his family had hidden.

But his mind, ever constantly moving, set on the subject he wanted to know about the most right now.

A silver haired woman with green eyes.

"I was wondering when you'd come around," Abel said as he adjusted one of the pages of his book and then held the book up on an angle. He took in the new landscape view carefully and then turned the page with disinterest.

Flicking his eyes over at Hatter, he smirked. "So. What do you want?"

"Bit late for you to be up, isn't it?" Alice asked from behind Hatter and Abel arched a brow.

"I believe that you are up later than you should be, my dear. And you have far more to worry about than I."

"Nothing she can't take care of herself, stop deflectin'," Hatter ground out between clenched teeth.

Abel looked them both up and down with a smirk.

"Clearly we are both feeling better," he remarked with a pointed look at both of them which made Alice blush. Hatter's own expression didn't change, his eyes focussed on the Drawling Master intently. Alice let herself have the luxury of a few seconds to look at them both sitting there together.

Now, standing so close, she could see the slightly similarities between the two men. Hatter did resemble his father more than his maternal grandfather - at least, from what she remembered of Grey Hatta's ghost. Yet, there was a similar purpose of mind, of the way they both seemed to let their eyes do the talking, that let Alice know that they were related..

Though Abel was long past the age of roguish carelessness that Hatter seemed to be permanently experiencing.

"We need an answer and Alice thinks you're the one that has it," Hatter began and Abel rolled his eyes.

"So you are on better terms. Speaking terms, that is, and likely other additional ways of communication. How... interesting." He looked at Alice and saw the faint bruising of a bite mark on her neck. "I'm surprised her mark let you that close."

Hatter glanced over at her and noticed the mark as well. When Alice went scarlet red, a colour that showed even in the dim garden, he smiled. "I might be a bit senile but I'm not blind, children."

Hatter refused to be embarrassed though it was clear he was not comfortable looking at Alice so steadily. Clearing his throat, he tried to focus on the subject at hand. "You're a historian of Wonderland, so everyone tells me."

The old man scoffed. "Historian? No. I've just lived long enough in this world to know some things. That comes from a long life, my boy. You get to be a fount of natural knowledge, not a locked safe like your mind is."

"So you can tell me why Alice and I are being haunted by the same ghost," the younger man snapped.

Abel, to his credit, did not react outwardly, though his eyes glinted a little. Hatter did not frighten him; he had, as he had just said, been alive too long to be scared by much. But the young man did possess a way of carrying himself that made Abel feel a bit of pride to see how he'd turned out after such a strange, adverse life. He'd always looked forward to meeting his grandson, though he'd always denied that to his own daughter. Not the shadow of a man he'd seen the past few days but this one that he could see simmering just beneath that skilful mask of blandness. The one that gossip had said was as outwardly deceptive as any good Wonderland con-man and yet deep-seated in integrity.

The one that, for a moment of nostalgia, almost reminded Abel of how he'd been before time and grief had made him what he was.

He looked back down at his book and turned it over, his eyes on the holo image that popped up. It was Wonderland City in its infancy, the old hedgerows that lined what were now the tunnels high and already overgrown, the buildings not as high and the Heart Palace was still the centre of the city. The map then whirled out and expanded, showing a 3D map of the City and the paths that had once led across the Lake. He traced a pathway with one finger and then turned the book to Hatter.

"You don't recognize this, do you?" he said, ignoring Alice's curious look as he focussed on Hatter. Hatter's eyes were intent on the page. He reached out and touched the diagram hesitantly.

"I... I don't know," he admitted.

"You've seen them in your dreams if you've talked to her. She carries it all with her," Abel pointed out and Hatter frowned, fingers trailing over the holo-tree tops.

Alice stepped behind Hatter and glanced at the book over his shoulder.

"You know we've been seeing a woman. A pale-haired woman with green eyes," she accused and the Drawling Master leaned back in his seat. He crossed his legs and began to tap his fingers on his knee.

"I know." His eyes lingered on the page Hatter had just turned to, a holo-image of the Checkerboard Taiga with its different coloured squares, and he sighed. "I just thought I'd not see her myself 'till I was dead."

He flicked the edge of the book's cover with his finger. "Which, in truth, has been a long time coming."

Despite his melancholy words, Alice didn't really notice the sudden change in his mood. She was focussed on Hatter; his tension was so intense that it was nearly crackling off of him. Reaching out, she stroked her hand down his shoulder and felt him relax a little. Abel saw the touch and noticed that Hatter didn't flinch as badly. He raised an eyebrow and stared at his grandson.

"You know who she is, Hatter. You've seen her," he persisted and Hatter tipped his head on the side so that his dark hair swung into his equally dark eyes.

"I've only suspicions and guesses. And bein' that I'm of a suspicious nature, that's not proving much," Hatter answered finally. He reached up and tugged one of the knotted strands of his hair impatiently. "I don't... can't trust everything I've seen in the past few weeks."

Abel shrugged and gestured with his hand at Alice.

"It, like many things in Wonderland, is too painful to remember and too painful to retell. So I made sure that someone or rather, something else, remembered for me." He waved a hand when it looked like Hatter might interrupt again. Looking at Alice, he clicked his tongue and then gestured beside him. "Touch the sapling, Alice, and think about your own memories of this world."

She looked at the sapling that shivered nearby and made a face as if expecting it to bite her. Abel smiled but there was no warmth in it this time.

"You want answers that I will likely refuse to give you?" When they nodded, he gave the sapling a pointed look. "Then you need a history lesson. Tear off a piece of the sapling and picture a mirror, a memory of one."

Hatter and Alice looked at one another and finally she sighed, wiping her palms on her skirts. Hatter scooted his chair back and stood behind her as she approached the tiny sapling. It shivered at her approach, branches unfurling as if beckoning her closer. Yet she had never felt less like approaching it.

"Be sure to ask it first. No use risking more damage if it takes offence," Abel said as he flipped his history book closed. Hatter looked over his shoulder at the Drawling Master, a warning look that threatened damage if anything bad happened. Abel merely smiled back and tapped his fingers on the book impatiently. He seemed content to wait for them to discover things on their own.

Alice stroked her finger down the sapling's branch. The leaves unfurled into her palm and felt curiously warm.

"I'm sorry but I need to ask a favour," she whispered, feeling more than a little foolish talking to a tree. She remembered how silly she'd felt talking to the Crows though and the memory made her smile. As if in answer, one of the tiny branches wrapped itself around her hand and travelled up her arm, resting just above the gryphon mark on her neck. "I need one of your leaves. He said you can tell me who she is..."

She didn't finish the sentence as the sapling branch retreated down her arm again, leaving a small silvery green leaf in her palm. The sapling retreated further and stopping shaking, as if content that it had completed its purpose. Alice poked at the leaf curiously, feeling its slippery surface scratch at her skin and a slight coldness that went from her hand to her shoulder. She knew almost instantly what to do and she trotted off down the garden path with Hatter close on her heels.

Abel watched them and sighed.

"Children."

Alice continued quickly down the path until she came to the grimy pond and its fetid smell made her wrinkle her nose. It smelled so heavily of algae that her empty stomach roiled at it and she staggered back. She bumped into Hatter and she looked over her shoulder at him to apologize.

He wrinkled his nose as well and coughed at the smell. "Could have been a better place to come to. Especially in a garden."

Alice shrugged and stepped up onto the cement ledge that lined the pond's edge. She braced on hand on a fountain statue of a large jabberwock and leaned over the pond. Her eyes were only for the grimy surface and she remembered seeing the woman in the water. Her skin glowed in memory, as did her mark, and she shut her eyes at the warmth that flooded up from her toes to her nose.

Watching her discreetly, Hatter knew that something was happening and he wisely stepped back.

Without opening her eyes, Alice brought the leaf to her mouth and blew gently over its surface. The leaf sprang into the air and then fell onto the still pond, its thick green surface rippling the moment the leaf touched it. Instead of floating on the surface, it started to sink immediately below until its silver edges were no longer visible beneath the thick layer of scum. Alice opened her eyes and exhaled again as she looked at the surface of the pond.

For some reason, she had a vivid memory of the White Queen in the Taigan Manor and the way she'd used a mirror to plunge Alice into an illusion. That memory was still painful, remembering how Alice the First had used a mockery of her father to inflict the most pain to her when she was vulnerable. Alice swayed on her feet and brushed her damp hair away from her face absentmindedly.

"I'm still a memory, my dear. I may be flesh and blood to you but to some I will remain just a shade," the Queen said.

"Memories," Alice whispered and she knelt on the ledge, reaching out with one hand. The surface of the pond began to ripple with silver light and deep beneath the grime Alice started to see something glowing. Intent on seeing what it was, she leaned so far that she started to lose her balance. She heard Hatter saying her name and felt his right hand grab her arm. But she was too off-balance for him to jerk her back and together they fell into the water.

Thick algae and brackish water filled their lungs as they sank, the pond astonishingly deep. Alice felt Hatter twist her around and in a moment's panic she fought his grip, opening her mouth to scream. Sinking just as quickly as she was but not panicking, Hatter managed to cover her mouth with his hand to keep her from swallowing any water in her panic. She blinked in shock, realizing that she could see him clearly even though the water should have been dark. It was like he was highlighted by a pale blue light, the same as she, and Alice fought down panic as she stared at him.

It as an oddly peaceful moment, ruined when the water around them seemed to shift with a new current.

Something wrapped around her leg and tugged her down and Hatter plummeted with her, his hand gripping hers loosely as they were dragged into the blue light. A haze of green and blue filled the water and Alice shut her eyes, prepared to sink to oblivion...

Only to open them to find that whatever had dragged her down had brought them to a place void of any water or darkness. She was in a large pathway lined with mirrors, one that she quickly recognized as the Mirrored Tunnel. As she turned her head and noticed Hatter beside her, she realized that they were both bone dry and the water, and the smell, had disappeared completely. He stared back her, blinking owlishly as if he was thinking something over. It almost a relief to see him as confused as she felt.

But before he could speak, they both saw the darkly shrouded man coming down the tunnel path. He was walking toward Hatter and before he could move, the man walked through him without any hesitation.

Alice went to cry out but Hatter's body didn't seem solid, only shimmered as the man walked through him again in his pacing. Alice lifted her hand and stared at it, realizing that her hand was just as translucent as Hatter seemed to be. He looked at her and cocked his head on the side, looking a bit disgruntled at being walked through.

"A memory," Alice whispered and without thought she followed the man walking past all the mirrors and strangeness of the tunnel. Hatter was close behind her, muttering about the insanity of dreams. His presence was a comfort and blindly she reached back to take his hand before drawing him close beside her.

"We're stuck in a memory, a dream." She tried not to sound too wondrous at it all, her eyes on the odd visions in the mirror. Flamingos, card towers, tea sets, everything she would have remembered from her reading of Lewis Carroll's books seemed to be dancing inside the walls. Not at all like the stillness she had seen when she had been in the Tunnel a while ago.

"Been stuck in better places," Hatter grumbled, shaking his head. He frowned and looked around as the tunnel began fade and change. Alice clutched his hand tighter as the ground beneath their feet shifted fiercely, the path itself transforming until it was gone. In its place was a massive cavern; a strange place of iron and fires. Massive iron vats suspended on chains hung from the ceiling and there was a smell of smouldering metal that almost overwhelmed the odour of algae that still lingered in the air. The man they'd followed was standing on a metal grating just over the lip of one of the vats, leaning over the railing and staring into its iron belly.

"Vats are conduit makers," Hatter muttered and Alice looked at him, wondering how he knew that. Hatter shrugged and gestured around. "Just a guess. Why else would we be in a place like this."

She wasn't sure she believed he was as ignorant as he was pretending, so she only nodded.

"Good guess," she answered and they followed the man up onto the temporary balcony. Alice stared at the back of his head and Hatter looked into the conduit.

"I don't like the looks of these," he whispered. As if hearing him, the man turned around and they both jerked back.

The man they'd followed was a very young and athletic looking North Abel, the wrinkles and grey hair gone but the set of the eyes and the set to his face was the same. The familiarity struck Alice first and she looked at Hatter, seeing that he recognized him as well. He was focussed on the contents of the vat below him, and as they watched he pulled out a thick notepad. It was filled with scribbles and drawings of every kind, coloured in some patches and splattered with water stains in others. He was jotting something down with a desperate scratch of his pen and after a moment he looked up.

"None of it is working," he whispered. "I'm going to die."

He flicked the book shut. "Guess it's what I could have expected taking this job on."

"What are you doing in here still, love?" a soft female voice asked from behind them and in almost comical unison they all turned around. The woman approaching them was dressed in almost all black with a thick red scarf tied around her throat, but it was her eyes and long pale blonde hair that was more stunning. Her eyes were like emerald jewels in her very pale face but this time she was smiling. The smile changed her face, made her seem warm and motherly, and yet she was walking with a slow and seductive pace.

A walking contradiction, Hatter thought to himself.

"Darling," the young Abel answered, smiling a crooked smile that spoke volumes as he looked at the woman. She drifted up the gangway and Alice gasped when she walked through her. Hatter looked at her curiously and she shook her head, not liking the chill that had gone right to her bones.

"You should be in bed. You've been working too hard."

"I've got to finish this, Unda."

Hatter's hands tightened into fists at his sides and Alice glanced at him in concern.

"The Conduits? I thought you had weeks," Unda questioned, slipping her arm through his. He held up a pocket-watch that told the date instead of the time and dangled it before Alice.

Beside Alice, Hatter stiffened as if he recognized the watch.

"That was last week." He put the watch back. "And I've run out of time."

He put his hands on the railing and sighed as he leaned a bit. "And I'm not a step closer. The Royals will be... upset."

Unda's eyes roamed over his tired face and she bit into her lower lip. As if not sure what she could do, she tugged on his arm. "You should come to bed, love. The children were asking about you. Daniel wants you to help him with his butterfly collection, and Mary Ann has been fighting with Abigail. Mary Ann doesn't like Abigail's latest interest in the Mad Hatter stories, you know. But then, twins are never fun, no matter what the world or how they're raised."

As she spoke of her children, she seemed to glow. She looked over the conduit with her husband and Alice saw the black and green mark of a unicorn on her forearm. Alice put her hand to her mouth, realizing what it meant immediately. Unda was an Oyster who had come to this world the way Alice had, and the way she almost vibrated with a strange power made it clear that she was just as strong as the White Queen had been.

Hatter had noticed glow but showed no surprise at it.

"The girls will be fine, Unda. I just... I need to present myself to the Queens, Matilda and Temperance, shortly." Abel arched his back a little and then put his head in his hands. "I think they knew I was doomed to fail from the start."

Like a tape being fast-forward, the scene suddenly spliced quickly, swirling with black mists and blue lights. Alice grabbed hold of Hatter's hands to steady herself and he drew her close, watching the vision before them warp and change. When everything settled again, the Drawling Master still stood above the conduit vat, but this time he held a knife in his hand that he held just above his wrist. Unda stood to one side, looking as bruised and battered as her husband. The bodies of soldiers lay to either side and whose blood it was that was spattered around the floor was unclear.

"We need to finish this," Abel whispered and Unda shook her head, grabbing his arm and tugging on it.

"We can't, love. Look what's happened just from us trying! You cannot control Wonderland like this!" she yelled at him above the roar of water in the vat. The Drawling Master didn't seem to be looking or even listening to his wife, his jaw set with purpose. Alice and Hatter stared, horrified, as Abel slit his wrist and held it over the vat. Blood dripped quickly from the small cut, a wound not deep enough to kill but deep enough that the blood flowed freely.

Almost instantly the entire room seemed to rumble and shake, the water in the vat bubbling over. Unda and Abel stared into it as if expecting some sort of miracle. But nothing happened and Alice leaned over the edge to watch as well. The water seemed to be straining to do something, occasionally solidifying only to start moving as water again. When the water still again, Alice noticed that there was a mirror-frame suspended in the vat, held down by a heavy set of chains.

"That's the Looking Glass," she told Hatter and he nodded but his eyes did not leave the sight of the other couple. Abel had collapsed to his knees and Unda was wrapping her red scarf around his wounded wrist.

"It's no good. I can't do it. I'm too frightened," he said aloud, his dark eyes staring sightlessly into the conduit. Unda put her hand in his hair and held him tightly against her.

"My love," she whispered but he didn't seem to hear her.

"This means my execution date is set." There was a flat yet accepting tone in his voice that sent a chill up Alice's spine. "There was just so much still to do."

Unda's hand tightened in his hair before she slipped down to her knees in front of him, cradling his face in her hands.

"I told you when I came here that I would find a way to keep you all safe." She kissed his mouth gently, a kiss he returned as if it was the only thing keeping him alive. When she broke away, she stroked his cheek and smiled. "And I think I know of a way. I've always known. We've just backed ourselves into a corner and I won't have my children lose their father when they are going to need him so badly in the future. When Wonderland will need him in the future."

Before he could move, she struck him hard on the face so that he fell dazed and hurt to his stomach. Standing gracefully and tossing her hair over one shoulder, she looked like a regal queen about to give a command. She slid her coat from her arms and picked up the knife gingerly. She closed her eyes and slid her fingers around the hilt of the knife.

"It is the right of those with Oyster Blood, when they come to Wonderland, to change its history, to change its very landscape."

The voice, hauntingly clear and sexless, made Alice jerk in her place, wondering if she was hearing things. But the way that both Hatter and this past-Unda also jumped made it clear that they'd heard the voice. Unda's eyes were shiny and wet with tears as she tilted her head back and bit into her lower lip. Abel, lying on the ground nearby, got to his hands and knees and whispered her name.

Unda turned slowly and smiled at him. "I do this for our children's children, my love. You and I will have our time."

He screamed her name then, a desperate agonized sound torn from the depths of him, as Unda raised the knife and plunged it into her stomach. The only sound she made was a faint whimper, as if she'd just been pinched, and she exhaled slowly. The knife clattered to the ground as her hands numbly released it, blood dripping down the blade of it. She stared at her blood-soaked hands before raising her eyes to Abel.

"It will be worth it," she whispered and her eyes raised to where Alice and Hatter stood, as if she saw them there. Then she closed her eyes and toppled backwards over the railing into the vat below, the splash of water filling the air and covering Abel's scream for her.

Hatter grabbed Alice's hand as the world around them began to tremble violently and she tried to pull away, pity making her want to comfort the man on his knees nearby. She didn't feel the dreamscape dissolving but Hatter, having been in worlds like this before, could feel the warning signs already. He wrapped his arms around her tightly just as the roar of falling water overwhelmed Abel's screams and immediately they were plunged under water once more.

They surfaced, breaking through the water like submerged buoys, and Alice gasped desperately for air, supported by Hatter's arm. Together, they swam to the edge of the pond and Hatter half-boosted her out of the water onto the ledge before following her up and then rolling to his back. Coughing up brackish water and struggling to see through the haze in the air, they both still heaved for breath.

Unable to help it, Alice cried out at the pain she'd just witnessed, a pain almost parallel to what she had felt once upon a time. Lying on the other side of her, Hatter put his hand over his eyes and shivered.

"I was wrong," he whispered. "But it didn't feel like I was wrong. She's more than I thought."

"She killed herself to create the Looking Glass," Alice thought aloud, "oh God, that's how it is done."

Alice rolled to her stomach and pushed herself up onto her knees. She saw through her dripping wet hair that dawn was breaking over the city roofs and there was no question that they'd been underwater for too long. Her own lungs burned badly even when she sucked in more air to try to feed them, and her limbs felt numb with cold.

She heard the snick of boots on the cement and looked up to see Abel stand just before her. At his feet was Chesh, the cat curling his tail around his own body as he stared at her. Abel looked at her and then at Hatter with a solemn type of amusement.

"So. Did that make it easier for you both to understand how much trouble we could all be in?" He turned his eyes to the lightening sky. "My wife will have died in vain if this world destroys itself and I will be damned if I allow that to happen."

Before either of them could answer, Pidge came running down the paths, his long coat flying behind them. Ignorant of the two dripping wet people still lying half in the water, he reached out and impatiently shook Abel's shoulder.

"We..." He took a deep breath. "We've got a problem."