Yuma rubbed the spot where Alice had smacked him, "Is violence your answer to everything?"

Alice ignored him as she continued to lead him towards Caterpillar's sanctuary. Her head was hurting enough having to explain why Caterpillar was still called Caterpillar despite being a butterfly now. He did eventually get the point but it was still aggravating her. She sincerely hoped that Caterpillar would have the answers they were looking for and not be sent on a ridiculous quest to find answers. She was tired of those after her two trips through Wonderland to regain her sanity. Speaking of her sanity…the talking wasps were still on her mind. Granted it was a minor change but it was nagging at her brain for some reason.

I can ask Caterpillar later about it…now we just need to find Yuma's friend so I can send them home. Then I'll see if their presence changed Wonderland at all.

She rang the bell that rested outside of Caterpillar's sanctuary opening the stone door revealing the slide, also known as the safer way to enter. Alice didn't think Yuma would appreciate being dropped fifty feet inside with no real means of landing. Though the mental image of Yuma in a dress was rather funny.

Yuma let out a whistle, "Just like the ruins my dad and I used to explore."

Alice felt a small twinge of pain in her chest when Yuma mentioned his father, but passed it off, "Remember to be polite and…" Yuma dove head first into the tunnel yelling Kattobingu all the way. "Can you just sit and listen!?"

Yuma whooped as he slipped down the slide. He heard Alice yelling something from behind him but he really didn't care. He was having too much fun. He saw a dim light at the end and leapt off before landing, looking up realizing how big the caterpillar…er butterfly…thing was. He was nearly as tall as the cavern he was in with a green body, white hair that formed a furry collar around the neck and a long thin beard. The most striking about him was the massive wings in red, white, and black forming a face. Caterpillar sat rather complacent on his rock smoking his hookah observing the newcomer, "Interesting guest we have Alice."

"Interesting indeed," Alice said as she landed giving a glare to Yuma, "We were hoping you would know where his friend is and who brought them to Wonderland as you know as well as I do that it wasn't me."

"Everything here that happens does connect to you in a way I remind you Alice," Caterpillar took another puff, "And outsiders to Wonderland aren't to be taken lightly."

"But I'm not here to cause trouble! I just want to find Kotori!" Yuma protested.

Caterpillar's expression remained unchained, "All who enter Wonderland make their mark somehow, some more than others."

Alice mussed over that, could that be referring to the talking wasps?

Yuma on the other hand was becoming impatient, "Do you know where Kotori is or what?!"

Caterpillar blew out a cloud of smoke, "The Red Queen has taken an interest in your friend. She was the one responsible for your arrival."

Alice's eye widened at this, "What…is…she…doing?"

"You should know that better than anyone Alice."

"Red Queen? Who is that? What does she want with Kotori!?" Yuma demanded.

Caterpillar took another puff, "Fear not, your friend as escaped the clutches of the queen. But she is not out of danger for the queen will continue to seek for her."

"I will cut her tentacles before she can grow them again…." Alice clenched her fists.

Yuma shivered and rubbed his arm which once sported a nasty bruise, he had nasty experiences with tentacles.

"Seek out your friend Yuma but take great care for Wonderland will grow and adapt to the both of you. And you will face things that you would rather not see or admit."

Yuma stared at Caterpillar in surprise, his name had never come up in the conversation. And what did he mean by things he would rather not see or admit?

Alice had a different question in mind, "What is Wonderland changing for them? Am I not its ruler?

"You are one of the two," Caterpillar said with a tone of voice that sounded like he was correcting her, "The Red Queen has accepted Kotori, you've accepted Yuma by touching the key, it does hold a mysterious power after all."

"Key?" Alice question but looked at Yuma's pendant, he had called it a key at one point. She cursed at herself for a bit, she had rather casually picked it up back at Hatter's place. How was she supposed to know that is contained power?

"It's time for you to regain your normal size. And Alice," Caterpillar's gaze focused on her, "It might be time to accept the outside again." He took a deep breath from the hookah and covered the two in smoke.

"Wait!" Yuma coughed having breathed it in again, "Where's Kotori right now!?"

There was no answer for when the smoked cleared, Yuma found himself staring at the miniature mountain again. He felt Alice place a hand on his shoulder as if in comfort but then forcibly spun her around seeing her angry face.

"Listen closely…" Yuma was worried that she was about to scold him, "If you are really changing Wonderland then know this…be open."

Yuma stared at her in confusion as her expression soften a bit.

"This world has forced me to face parts of me that I ran away from twice, things that I turned a blind eye too. And if that's happening to you, those aspects will come after with lethal force. The more you reject them, the stronger they become."

Yuma gulped, "What sort of things."

"Everything here is based on something I knew in the real world or based on my emotions. In fact it should be getting stormy soon due to my stress." Alice said.

"So…does that mean I could meet alternate versions of my friends?" Yuma asked.

"More like characters based on your friends."

"And the monsters we've been facing?"

Alice sighed, "People that I hated and negative emotions."

"So….who's the Red Queen?" Yuma just had to ask that question.

"Someone who's should be dead by now….I'll just have to speed up the process." Alice started walking back to the train station, "The Red Queen resides in Queensland, if we search the surrounding area we'll find your friend. We'll find her then I can send you two home, after that I'll deal with the Red Queen myself."

"Hold on…I want to help!" Yuma protested.

"No! I've dealt with her once already…I can do it again!" Alice shot him down.

"But I want to help."

"And why is that?"

"Because you're my friend Alice."

Alice froze, "How can you say something like that?"

"Well….you helped me out…and we fought together…so that makes us friends!" Yuma said with a stupid grin.

Alice just stood there eyes wide and mouth open, "Are you that naïve?"

"What does that mean?"

Add uneducated to that…Alice thought.

The wind picked up bringing in a storm as Alice just stood there trying to figure out what to say to Yuma to dissuade him from staying. But it brought a smell all too familiar to Alice…smoke.

"You okay?" Yuma asked upon seeing her shocked face.

"Fire…." She breathed. Franticly she searched for the source seeing an orange glow further down the train tracks from the station. She bolted going so fast that she turned into butterflies to cover more ground.

"Wait up!" Yuma gave chase. He really wanted to know how she pulled that trick off and he was also worried about what had gotten her worked up so bad.

….

Kotori watched the scenery as the trained rolled on polishing the Blunderbuss with her apron. For her sanity's sake she hoped that she would see at least one landmark from the Alice in Wonderland books. Running through unfamiliar territory was starting to wear her down. Though she wondered how the Mock Turtle got to working with trains.

SCHHHRRRREEEEEEEE!

The train shook violently as the breaks locked knocking Kotori off of her seat. Gathering her weapons she peered out the window trying to make sense of what was going on.

"What an earth?!"

The train had come to a stop on a bridge over a river. Blocking its path were several, large, fleshy, tentacles wrapped around the bridge structure with such a force that the wood was starting to break. Kotori immediately started running through the carriages hoping to escape through the caboose. If the bridge did give out, she did not want to be trapped inside the carriage. The car shook again as the sound of crunching metal got closer. Kotori kept running for the carriage door but a tentacle pierced through the wall blocking her path. More tentacles were wrapping around the carriage with such force Kotori was seeing their indentations in the metal roof. The tendrils started rocking the carriage side to side as to dislodge it from the tracks. Kotori gripped a rail trying to keep her balance using the ice wand on the tentacle that had gone through the carriage while it did freeze the flesh, it refused to let go of the car.

The tentacles curled up on themselves removing the train car from the tracks and sank down into the river, taking most of the train and most of the bridge down with them. As well as Kotori still trapped inside the train car.