(A/N)

I know it's been a bit of a wait and you must hate me for the cliffhanger I left on the last chapter, but it's here now so no one has to loose their heads... It's a little bit short, but that's because I think the next one will be kind of long.

Enjoy and please review!


Maybe he should have waited until morning or a least left straight away when he realised that Alice was busy, but he couldn't. Poor Tarrant Hightop found that someone had snuck glue under his shoes and he was unable to move from right outside Miss Kingsly's living quarters. To make matter worse he could feel his sanity slipping and it was the first time since the knew Alice arrived; how rude of him.

But through all the insanity that swirled in Tarrant Hightop's mind; the many voices, the strange sounds and images, through all the madness he was sure he had heard something that he could not un-hear. Was what he heard even possible? Certainly not, for it was improper and unlikely and just not… right. But he was sure and he wasn't sure of a lot of things.

A little while after Alice had left the main dining hall with Ilosovic Stayne, the Hatter remembered that he had made the miniature top hat she had requested and it was sitting under his chair and not on her head. Feeling a bit silly about forgetting, Tarrant excused himself from dinner and slowly made his way towards Alice's room. He had taken his time because he had noticed a shooting star and stopped to admire the night sky's beauty with the sun setting far in the distance. After doing this the Hatter started back on his way the give Underland's champion her hat, but once he got to her quarters there were voices behind the door.

For a moment he thought that the voices were inside his head and he tried to shut them out, but when they continued he decided to try and make out what they were saying only to hear moans and grunts.

"How odd." He had thought to himself.

As he went to knock on the white wooden door a sound came clearly through barrier that sent shivers down his spine. It may have been muffled by the heavy wood, but to him it was as clear as daylight. Tarrant heard Alice begging and moaning Ilosovic Stayne's name over and over and each time she said those words it hit him like a tonne of bricks.

There was a darkness growing in the pit of Tarrant Hightop's stomach, a darkness that had only reared it head, but never broken its chains. The monster inside the mad Hatter began to growl and snarl as silence fell in the room in front of him; this could not be happening. Had he had lost his Alice to the Knave? Did she feel for him or did he force her?

No longer able to control the now enraged monster beneath his skin, Tarrant stormed towards his room, leaving the hat and a path of destruction behind him. Once in his own room, hell was unleashed upon his many possessions, destroying most of them. Tea cups and their pots lay in shards on the floor, hats and material torn to shreds and nearly all the beautifully hand carved, wooden furniture was crushed into mere splinters. Tarrant's eyes were a deep yellow, burning with hatred; his hands trembled as he stood on the middle of what was once a beautiful room.

Eyes wide, chest heaving and blood trickling down from the various cut in his flesh, the Hatter stood rigid and unmoving for hours; it was only when the darkness consumed him did he fall to the floor and finally rest. If only he knew that the beast inside had taken charge and was now using his body as a vessel, maybe he wouldn't have closed his eyes.

Morning in Alice's room smelt of sandalwood and sex. Alice woke with the presences of someone behind her; the person was tall with long limbs and shoulder length hair. The person made a groaning noise as they stretched and rolled over, taking the blanket with him. Cold air froze Alice's naked body and caused her eyes to snap open. She looked around to find that her blanket was gone and tried to retrieve it with little success; instead Alice decided that it was time to get up.

The stone floor was cold and uninviting as usual, but it felt colder today. Soon Alice was dressed in some everyday clothes and went to check the time only to find that the clock was gone, and then she remembered her wrist and why it was throbbing. She rubbed it gently, but it hurt too much to continue; inspection showed that it was slightly swollen and very red.

Alice thought that she might skip breakfast and make a trip to the Hatter to get more of that cream instead, but something in her stomach told her that it was a bad idea. She shook it off as hunger pains and went to the dining hall for breakfast after all.

The dining hall was alive with chatter as usual, some of which stopped as she walked by. Once Alice made it up to the head of the table she bowed to the Queen before piling food onto her plate and began to eat. She was halfway through her meal when the hall fell silent' Alice didn't take any notice at first until she noticed slow footsteps filling the room. Quickly finishing her mouthful, Alice looked up to see the Knave walking towards her with a worried look on his face.

It must have been slightly unnerving to have every pair of eyes on you as you tried to walk anywhere, but Alice had to admit that Stayne was taking it a lot better than she would have. He eventually sat in the chair the Hatter normally sat, grabbed a plate with some eggs and bacon on it and began eating. No one had moved or spoken for a long time.

"Oh honestly people, you all saw him last night' there's no need to stare." Mirana's voice echoed through the silent hall, but once the words left her mouth the volume in the room crept higher.

"Thank you, Your Highness," The Knave nodded his head, "I apologise, I didn't wish to draw this much attention."

"No need to apologise Ilosovic, these people need to learn to keep their noses out of other peoples business." The Queen smiled.

The rest of the meal was eaten with light conversation' McTwisp had come and gone, although Thackery insisted on staying to thank Stayne again for his present and Mally had enquired as to if anyone had seen Tarrant, but none had.

"He might be in his quarters." Alice suggested.

"Already been there and he ain't there, although it looks like the Bandersnatch might have been." Mally said before taking a sip of tea.

"What do you mean? The Bandersnatch slept in my bathroom; he hasn't even woken up yet." Alice looked at Stayne then back to Mally.

"His rooms are trashed; everything's on the floor, even the furniture's broken." She leaned closer and had a serious look on her face, "I reckon he's had a breakdown, it's that time of the year you know."

"I can't say I do know." Alice crinkled her nose in confusion.

"This is the anniversary of when…"

"When I was ordered to retrieve the Vorpal sword from the White Queen, many of the Hatter's family members were killed; the ones who weren't, left and vowed to never return." Stayne interrupted, "I watched as the Jabberwocky destroyed the houses and their inhabitants; knowing I could do something to stop it and yet I just stood there, I…"

Suddenly Ilosovic slammed the table making a few people jump; he stood and walked briskly toward the dining room door, but was stopped by a rather distressed McTwisp who ran right into his legs. The rabbit was out of breath and was more frantic than normal; he quickly apologised then made his way to the Queen. Ilosovic's interest was peaked and decided to hang around to see what was so important.

McTwisp rushed to the head of the table, bowed deeply and breathed even deeper before he announced his message.

"Your Majesty," He took a few more deep breaths, "Iracebeth is dead."

Mirana gasped and stood, "How? She was in isolation. No one was to make contact with her until tomorrow; we were going to question her."

"It looks like a suicide." McTwisp answered.

"That's impossible." The Queen turned pale.

"Then it's bound to be the right answer." Alice said mindlessly and with that Mirana fainted.

Stayne, who had been walking closer throughout the conversation, was able to catch her before she hit the floor; his face burned with anger.

"There's more," McTwisp continued, "She left a message for Alice."

Ilosovic almost dropped the Queen, but managed to keep a firm hold on her; instead of risking it again he placed he in her chair and signalled a servant over to tend to her. Glances were shared between a couple of people and Alice knew it was her duty to inspect the situation, but she really didn't want to.

As if sensing her discomfort the Knave spoke, "I'll come with you, she got off too easily."

Alice nodded and walked back to her rooms where she quickly changed into her armour, grabbed her sword and woke the Bandersnatch up to take her down to the dungeons. She met up with Stayne halfway through and together they walked deeper into the belly of the castle to the seldom used dungeons. Alice's heart was beating fiercely in her chest; she would have never had to deal with something like this at home. They were standing in front of Iracebeth's cell and the stench on stale blood infected the air, burning their nostrils.

"The body has been removed for an autopsy, but the message is still there." McTwisp was shaking terribly.

"Thank McTwisp; you may leave if you wish." No sooner had Alice spoke, the rabbit was nowhere to be seen.

Taking a deep breath, Alice stepped inside the lowly lit cell, followed by Stayne and two chess pieces who agreed to stand in as guards. She looked around the cell to find the message on the side wall; it was written in blood that had long since dried. As Alice walked closer she tried not to think about the fact that her shoes were sticking to the floor. Signalling to one of the guards, they brought over a candle and held it up to the wall so that the message was better lit.

The writing was smeared and blood had seeped into other letters; Alice felt this little bit of breakfast she had eaten, threatening to show itself again as she leaned closer to the wall of death. The message took up the whole wall, which didn't say much about the miniscule holding cell; with four people in there, there was little room to move if any at all.

Alice read it aloud, "Dear Alice, I hope you have had fun in Wonderland and Will continue to enjoy you days Here. I do wish we could have chatted and maybe Even gotten to know each other better, but that was not the case. Please Remember that your friends are special and your Enemies are dangerous, watch them So that you have a better insight into How they work.

I don't Apologise for my actions in The past, I only hope That you know that I had my reasons and Stayne had his. Both of us were Evil in a way; me for killing and him for following me through the darkness. I would have Rather died fighting or at least wearing the crown, but I saw no other way to Give you this message and make sure you received it in time. There is Only a little bit of time left and you must hurry if you wish to prevent this war; just because I'm gone does Not mean that things are okay and everything is over. It's not. Don't ask why I'm helping you; just know that Every minute that goes by is another minute closer to your end.

I have a riddle for you: the answer is home, what's the question?

Sincerely yours, Iracebeth."

Silence followed Alice, but it was soon broken.

"I don't understand, why would she give us the answer to a riddle instead of the question?" Stayne almost pushed Alice out of the way to get a better look at the message, he was clearly annoyed.

"Because she has given us the question." Alice stated still staring at the message.

"That is a long message to write in your own blood." One of the guards commented and the other nodded his head.

"It's not like she could ask for a quill and ink well," Alice's gaze still didn't move.

"You red it aloud, we all heard you; she never asked us a riddle Alice, it was probably a joke to confuse us." Ilosovic put his hand on her shoulder.

"Please just trust me, look at it more carefully." Alice pleaded, "It's in here somewhere."

An hour ticked by with Alice and the Knave staring at the blood soaked wall. It was hard to read the message because the blood had dripped down before it dried, but that didn't mean Alice was going to stop looking. Suddenly her eyes went wide as a light bulb in her head illuminated itself; the answer, or rather the question, to the riddle was right there staring back at her. It wasn't in fine print, big print or even a direct question; instead it was written within the actual message.

"I found it!" Alice yelled, startling the guards and Ilosovic.

"Well? Don't just keep it to yourself." Ilosovic grabbed Alice; tearing her gaze away from the wall.

"Look carefully," Alice started pointing out singular letters, "There are unnecessary capitals throughout the whole thing."

Stayne leaned into the wall and followed the capital letters that didn't belong; he counted sixteen. "What does it say." He asked.

Alice slowly sounded out the letters as she saw them, then spoke, "It says: where's Hatter gone?"

They both looked at each other and said, "Home."

"But where's the Hatters home?" Alice asked.

A stabbing pain shot through Stayne's chest, "I know where it is, but it's not going to be pretty."


(A/N)

Cliffhanger! Do you hate me? Because I wouldn't blame you... Please don't hurt me... 3

Next chapter will be longer and more action packed, I promise, but for now feel free to rage at your screens and dream of chopping my head off!

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