I am hurrying so no long speech thingy! Just read! Enjoy!

"Now?" Alice asked, looking around for a brief second before standing up and gesturing over to the darker ally between the tea shop and Mrs. Moon's flower shop. And once there, McTwisp continued his story.

"She'd broken in last night." Nivens explained, his eyes still darting between Nicholas and Alice quickly and his ears twitching with nervousness. "Its been about three days since you've left, and we haven't been able to track the ex-red queens whereabouts since she'd left the outlands. And…" The rabbit now stared back down at his hands. "Tarrant's whereabouts have been a mystery to us as well."

Alice could hear Nicholas' in take of breath beside her, but all she could think about was the person that had just been in the tea shop with her and told her to call him Thomas.

That's why he didn't want me calling him Hatter or Tarrant. Alice thought, surely. Because Chessur or Nicholas could recognize him and he would have to go back.

"-and now she's being held under lock and key." Nivens continued, notifying Alice that she'd missed most of the things he'd been telling them. "Though, she's not the same as the Iracebeth you faced on the fraptious day."

"Then we'll leave at once!" Nicholas stated, standing up straighter and looking down at Alice and the rabbit who were still crouched near the ground. "Alice?"

"What about Chess?" Alice asked, blinking and standing up quickly, but not looking at Nicholas or the white rabbit. We can't leave without him, and…" and what about my mother? Alice wanted to say. The last time that shed fallen down the hole was on accident, but this time she was purposely leaving, and possibly for good. Or the Hatter, who was probably hiding somewhere, trying to pass for an average English gentleman.

"I've already told him." Nivens said with a small, twitching smile. "I saw him before I found you two. He's probably already halfway to Underland as we speak."

"We have to go, Alice." Nicholas told her, and when Alice looked into her eyes she could see that he was probably wishing that he could say goodbye to his mother too. "They need you."

It was one of those moments, the kind that you would think about later, remembering it for the rest of your life, that Alice realized that Nicholas seemed much wiser then Alice. He reminded her of Aboslum, but Nicholas also had a mad side that he would love to be all the time, but he wanted to protect Alice.

"You're right." Alice said with a nod, running down to the edge of the ally before turning around, and giving both friends a brave smile. "But, Nivens still has to find someone first."

. . .

"I can't believe he came here." Nicholas said for the hundredth time, as they pushed a tree branch out of the way on the Ascot estate.

"He did, Nicholas." Alice told him, also for the hundredth time. "I knew it was him because I saw him in my dream."

"But, how did you recognize him?" Nicholas asked, with a small smile as if he was glad to watch Alice struggle with thought, which knowing Nicholas he was. "You told Nivens that he looked nothing like himself."

Alice shrugged, hopping over a log and continuing down the path of rabbit tracks that Nivens had left, making sure that this time they wouldn't get lost. "I just did."

Nicholas rolled his eyes and kept going towards a patch of sunlight that Alice knew could lead to the clearing of trees and eventually toward the dead tree where the rabbit hole would take her back home.

"I think it's weird." Nicholas said after while, once he and Alice were walking side by side, her blue dress being plucked by stray branches and bushes as they walked down the path, leaving only the sound of rustling leaves and crackling twigs in their wake.

"What is?" Alice asked, pushing a blonde curl behind her ear to keep it out of her peripheral vision.

"What Nivens said," Nicholas continued, as they finally entered the clearing which looked remarkably like the way it had when Alice had fallen down the hole at the day of her almost engagement party. "About Iracebeth being different from the day you fought her. What do you think he could have meant?"

Alice shrugged, and at, swinging her legs into the open hole of the rabbit hole, and letting them swing in the darkness while Nicholas got don next to her and did the same thing. "I can only imagine what she's like now." She smiled and turned to Nicholas, who was beaming back at her. "Ready?"

Nicholas nodded. "Always."

Then they jumped, letting go of the grass and the world behind them into the darkness of the rabbit hole, ready for what was to come where the rabbit hole ended.

Hatter's cover is blown and there off to Underland yay! Who wants to guess how Iracebeth has changed? Come on, you know you want too!