Hello all! I want to apologize for disappearing, I had a nasty case of writer's block and I just couldn't figure out how to continue this story. But I'm back, and hopefully what I came up with will be worth the wait. I'll try and make sure this is longer than the rest to ease your pain. Anyway I'm really sorry and thank you so much for your patience. Chapter Twelve let's go!

"When a caterpillar reaches the stage of its life in which it encases itself in a cocoon, it is both secure, and utterly vulnerable. Any outside force has the capability of destroying the precious organism. It is tucked away in a shell of delicate leathery material, inside it squirms within the juices of its primordial soup. Warm. Peaceful. Ever still. It began its life as an ugly reminder of the beauty of patience. Fat, shapeless, dumb and harmless. Eating away at the wonders Mother Nature has to offer. Finally when fully satisfied, it's prepared to repay Mother Nature with the radiance it so rightfully deserves to adorn its forests. This is the meaning of all life."

-Roy Alexander Jenkins

But what if that caterpillar never flourishes into the butterfly it's meant to become? What if, it emerges too soon? Its wings aren't fully developed? They are unable to fly? What if...

Are you considered a failure? Are you a thief for not repaying Mother Nature for her gifts in becoming big and beautiful? Are you a disgrace to life itself? What do you become if you're not good enough?

Depends on the queen's preference. If her demands are not met, you will burn along with the whole forest. That is the meaning of all life in Wonderland. Or so it seems.

...

"Fight them off Jenkins!" Alice called out desperately dodging the bishop's attacks. A couple more hits and she was as good as dead.

"Don't worry about me! Save yourself!" the pawns were closing in on them, a couple more emerging from the ground like reanimated corpses. There was no way they were going to make it out alive... not unless..

While dodging the bishop's attacks as best as she could, Alice dove into her apron and dug out her shrunken Hobby Horse.

"Jenkins!"she called out to him again. He was too busy fighting off the approaching pawns with his arrow sword. As majestic as his new crossbow was, the shells of the pawns deflected his arrows. Fighting with his sword was the only way to slow them down. Upon the sound of her call Jenkins turned his head to see her as she tossed the pen-sized horse towards him. Losing sight of the pawns Jenkins turned to catch it, and once it made contact with his hand, it grew back to its normal size in a matter of seconds.

"Agh!" overwhelmed by its shear weight he let the head of the horse plummet to the ground as his arm wasn't strong enough to lift it. The pawns were inches away, snarling their ferocious teeth.

"Your sword won't be able to penetrate them, you have to use my horse!' she shouted.

"I-I can't!" a pawn lunged at him and bit down into his plated arm, barely making a dent into the sturdy metal. Frantic, Jenkins swung his arm around trying to pry the pawn off of him, screaming.

"It's too heavy! I can't lift it!"

"Just focus on-AHHGH!" the bishop managed to hit one more critical blow to her right side as she was distracted. Down to her last remaining petals, Alice fell on the ground too weak to stand back up.

"NO! ALICE!" he shouted seeing her knocked down with brute force. The bishop inched closer and closer, holding it's long powerful staff in the air ready to give the final strike.

There was no time to lose, in a brief flash, the world around Jenkins seemed to slow down. Not missing a beat, the inevitable doom of his beloved mistress gave him the strength he needed to lift that horse. With both hands Jenkins took a hold of the sturdy ebony handle, clutched it tightly, and as the following pawns lunged at him to bite his face off, gathering all the force he had in him, Jenkins swung the massive horse around and up like a cricket bat and knocked those pawns away, shattering their brittle shells like glass.

Observing Alice's movements and technique when wielding the Hobby Horse, he learned and memorized the flow of her attacks. Swinging down in a smashing clobber he drove a pawn into the ground crushing its head within in, Swinging upwards again he knocked several more into the air, and finally, swinging the horse around in a circle while at the same time leaping into the air, his arm upraised in a killing pose, smashed down into the ground sending waves and cracks into a five feet radius, killing anything that was within its reach.

Groveling backwards desperately trying to get away from the bishop, Alice stared up at it with shear terror in her eyes, already feeling the cold fingers of death reaching out for her. Finally destroying the last of the pawns Jenkins turned back to see Alice about to be struck with the bishop's mighty staff.

"ALICE!" he shouted as he picked up the Hobby Horse again and charging towards them in a sprint of rage. The bishop raised its staff now above Alice who couldn't escape its locked aim.

So much glory in seeing your prey just waiting to be destroyed, but alas, it was always out of its reach.

SMASH!

The bishop was sent flying off into the far off wall, crashing against the concrete surface, and its shell crushed to smithereens. Jenkins was panting uncontrollably, finally the rage within him settled, and he dropped the heavy weapon as his strengths depleted. Alice had her arms up covering her face as she expected to die right then and there. She blinked her eyes open realizing that wasn't going to be the case.

"Are you.. *pant* alright? *pant*" he weezed. She looked up at him like he was some sort of saint from above.

"You... Y-You saved me..." she murmured under the great pain she was feeling from how weak and beaten up she was. He too couldn't handle fighting another monster. He reached down to pull her up, but she was too damaged to stand.

"Here, I'll carry you." kneeling down he brought his hands underneath her and lifted her up. She leaned on him like a dead weight and wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulder for support.

"Finally it's over... let's get out of here.." she whispered past the pain in her chest. The bishops must have broken a couple of ribs. Jenkins nodded and carried her away, as the space around them finally settled and became quiet once again. Old black vines disintegrated to reveal the next set of doors that led to the next area of the castle. Limping slightly, Jenkins carried his battered mistress to their destination.

...

The back of my throat was coated with the metallic taste of my own blood, I felt my lungs being coated in mucus and my internal organs about to burst. I have never felt such pain in so long. Not since my battle with the Dollmaker. I was thankful Jenkins was here with me, otherwise I would've perished even before we arrived at this infernal castle. Walking up to the great doors before us I spotted something fuchsia glowing in the distance just on our left. I barely managed to whisper my thoughts.

"J-Jenkins.."

"Yes? What is it?" he stopped to ask, looking at me with worried eyes.

"Over there... the light.." I heaved pointing to the corner of the crumbling room where not too far from us sprouted a large vivid violet blossom.

"What is that?..." he took me to where I pointed. As he saw what gave off that alluring glow he turned to me and said, "Is that another magic artifact?"

"It's a violet blossom, it heals injuries.." I responded. His eyes brightened in amazement almost as much as the flower.

"We can heal our wounds!" he exclaimed, gently setting me down beside it. "What do I do? Do it pluck a petal and wring out it's nectar or..."

"No no.. just.. stand back..." I spoke hoarsely. He did as he was told and, careful not to shift my insides by moving, I shifted close to the blossom and shrunk. I whimpered slightly at the feeling of my body contracting to the size of a small shoe as my ribs poked my tissue more prominently. Rolling over to it, the stigma of the flower which was shaped like a hand, grabbed a hold of me and yanked me within its soothing petals. The blossom pulsated with every pump of health it offered me. It's miraculous healing powers began to melt away the pain, my muscles became invigorated, my skin lost its cuts and bruises, and my insides were no longer throbbing with agony as they were being healed exponentially. My bones which were either cracked or completely broken were shifting back to their original positions and growing back together, joining with their severed parts. My ribs no longer prodded me from the inside out. After several minutes of rapid healing I felt ready to grow back to normal size, so once the last few pumps of life were given back to me, I offered a thank you to my flower friend and grew back, breaking free from the flower's motherly arms. It soon disappeared.

Jenkins watched in amazement at my wondrous healing process, he stared in awe at how invigorated and empowered I appeared. I smiled at him.

"I'm feeling much better now." I said sweetly. He kept staring. My gaze turned to a worried glance. "There isn't another flower here for you..." I said in lament. He shook his head and smiled.

"Not to worry. I feel fine."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. A bit bruised on my left side and my leg is a bit sore but nothing a little walking won't fix. I'm just glad you're alright." he reassured me. I felt relieved to have such a helpful companion like him.

After healing myself we headed back to the doors, where our next trial awaited us. However, Jenkins was still jittery from the fight.

"D-Do you really think we should go in? We almost died back there, maybe we should rest.."

"No! We rested too many times, we are running out of time. I'm sure that whatever is awaiting us behind those doors won't be as bad as the ambush we just escaped."

And with that I pushed the doors open. Creaking like ancient reminders of a monarchical glory, the doors opened to reveal a wide and spacious atmosphere. It wasn't a room, more like a broken off section from the castle. The ceiling was nowhere to be found, and there where many floating pedestals that rose and fell in a pattern leading to flat ground before a set of gates. On that large piece of ground I spotted something.

"Jenkins, look over there, do you see that strange pattern of tile in the center?"

"Yes... perhaps it's a switch to open the gates. Let's go investigate." he said as we made our way to the floating pedestals that led to it. One by one we hopped each one until we reached the ground. Looking behind me I noticed Jenkins was getting progressively better at jumping surfaces, it seems his fear was beginning to wear off.

Finally reaching the tile floor, we noticed the strange pattern we discovered was actually a puzzle embedded in the ground. Some pieces were missing.

"We need to find the missing pieces, maybe then we can get the gate to open for us." he said inspecting the mismatched puzzle. Looking all around us I found doors and openings that could lead to them. I turned to him and said with a sly smile.

"Whoever can find the most pieces wins."

"Alright, deal." he said smiling back. "what does the winner get?" I pondered the question for a moment and then had an idea.

"Whoever wins, gets to keep all of the loser's teeth." he looked at me like I had gone truly insane.

"What?! What in Tartarus are you proposing woman?!"

"...n-no not YOUR teeth, these." I reached into my other apron pocket and dug out a handful of small glowing teeth. They shined and shimmered like small gold doubloons.

"Where did you find those?!" he asked dumbfounded.

"Weren't you collecting them while you killed monsters or cracked open containers that lay to waste?" I asked. It seems I have forgotten to tell him about the teeth that are dropped for commercial use.

"You used the teeth to make your weapons stronger, Jenkins. The more you collect the more you can upgrade them." I explained. He blinked, feeling almost offended that I hadn't shared that piece of information with him sooner.

"I see... well unfortunately I can't make this wager as I have no teeth to bet with." I smiled and dug out more teeth from my pocket.

"How about I give you half of mine to wager. If you win, you can have the other half, but if you lose, I get it back and use it to upgrade my weapons." I said offering him my handfuls of teeth. He offered his palms and I sprinkled the mounds of riches into his open hands.

"Thank you. With this the game will be fair." He said with a smile as he tucked the handfuls of teeth away in his own pockets.

"Alright now, on the count of three we split up to find those puzzle pieces!"

"Right!" he nodded, preparing to sprint away to find them.

"In Three!...Two!...One!...GO!" On my command we headed our separate ways to find the missing blocks. Jenkins headed for the left and I the right. Up ahead was a small cave-like opening that most likely led to the first piece, and ahead of me was a bouncy mushroom. As I hopped onto it and propelled into the air, I heard the same noise coming from Jenkins's side. I stopped and turned to face him, he did the same. We were about five or so meters apart.

"I don't know about you but I think I'm going to win this one Alice!" he called out to me from his spot.

"I highly doubt it! However I wish you the best, my good rival!" I called back.

"And I you my worthy opponent!" He called back before running away to find the pieces. I smirked and made my way to win my teeth back from that cocky snipe.

Okay maybe it wasn't as long as I anticipated but it was still a pretty good chapter, I hope. Anyway thank you all once again for being so patient and staying loyal to this story. I know there are times when I become absent but don't fret my friends, I won't give up on this story! Alice: Madness Returns is owned by American McGee and Spicy Horse, this fanfic is for entertainment purposes only. Hope you all enjoyed this delayed chapter, and I'll see you all again soon!

UPDATE: This fanfiction will be separated into three separate volumes. Alice Madness Returns Revisited: You are Not Alone will be volume 1 of 3. There will be a total of 15 or 16 chapters in this volume, I haven't decided how much exactly yet but look out for that. I realized this story was going to be quite long and I felt this volume alone couldn't contain all those chapters so if you want to keep following the story, just look out for a new volume after I'm done with this one. I'll let you all know by the time I write the last chapter of this volume.