Title: Illusions & Destinies

Rating: R for the most part, M for select chapters

Author's Note: Thanks everyone for the great reviews. I took a bit to recharge my batteries of recent. I've got some upcoming writing projects that are a bit consuming but thankfully Illusions has its layout all done so they shouldn't take too too long. Nothing beyond the normal time I'd say.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Deceiving a King

He'd picked better places to keep watch but there was little choice now. Many of the buildings surrounding the Palace had suffered some severe damage and wouldn't be safe for more than two or three men. Leaning against the balcony railing of the old factory, Pidge didn't turn his eyes from the side doors that dotted the brick and glass of the massive Palace. His gaze was strictly on the building and he wasn't about to be distracted into looking away. Not when the electrical lights above him flickered, not when Charlie started rambling about seeing some female ghost and not even when one of the fighters whispered wanting to know what was going on. To anyone watching, he was completely focussed on the doors.

But inside his mind, every thought and scheme was whirling with possibilities and frustrations. It had all felt so wrong to be left here and what made it worse was that there had been few alternatives. He hadn't like sending Hatter in there, especially with Chesh, but there hadn't been much choice in companions. The Drawling Master was too valuable, Abigail not valuable enough, and Pidge didn't know the interior of the Palace. Pidge hated when Hatter was right so thoroughly and so far everything had happened as Hatter had figured out. He'd known that the Queen would take him prisoner, that there would be no getting back out and that she'd start trying to gather her people for a strike. It had been part of his plan.

Still, Pidge had been hard pressed not to mount an immediate rescue team when he'd watched through the Scarab floor as Hatter was taken down. Even Hatter's signal to stay put had not convinced him until he noticed Alice standing nearby Hatter. It wouldn't be worth risking their lives for such a foolish move. He'd flown away and gone to the building with Charlie and a small group of men.

His cousin had given him a job and that alone kept him from joining Alicorn's army when they would attack in the North side of the Palace. There would be more action up there but Hatter had warned him that his role was more important. He was to wait.

"I say, how long do you think this will take? I still need to return the Jabberwock egg before they rip apart the East side completely," Charlie suddenly asked as he leaned up beside Pidge and propped his chin in his hand. He still wore his ridiculously cumbersome armour and that odd satchel that Hatter had given him and both of them made the space between them tight. Pidge didn't turn his head to thoroughly check the White Knight; Charlie had an odd way of just barging in on his thoughts.

"Who knows? Hatter thought not long though and I'll go with his guess for now. Not much choice."

Charlie huffed and his armour jingled when he did so. "I do so wish that Hatter had taken me. He really should have. I am absolutely necessary"

That took the younger man's attention away from the Palace.

"What? Why?" Pidge looked at him, a black brow arched. Looking at the Knight, he could tell that it wasn't from conceit or self-righteousness that Charlie believed it; he simply did. Charlie cleared his throat and straightened up to look at the taller man.

"Because of all of us, I am most in tune with the vastness that is the misty other worlds. To perceive danger before it arrives."

Pidge blinked and gave him a confused look before smiling in a patronizing way. "Sure thing, Charlie."

Charlie shot him a look that spoke volumes about Pidge's sarcastic tone.

Pidge turned back to the Palace and chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully, worrying at it until his lip started to bleed. He wasn't certain why he worried so much but there was so much just riding on the outcome of what Hatter was up to. His plan hadn't been that detailed and it was clear that it had been all spur of the moment though it had been... deviously intelligent. The Drawling Master hadn't even added to Hatter's 'plan', just gathered his men and split them all up with the exception of Pidge and his tiny band. The other sections of the Resistance were staggered around the building, waiting for a sign to attack. What exactly the Drawling Master had in mind he didn't know but Pidge hadn't had the mind to question the older man. Even his aunt had been rather quiet about the subject. She'd barely spoken since Hatter and Chesh had left.

Pidge had never seen Abigail look so disturbed.

"Come on, Hatter. Give me a sign. Anything," he murmured and at one of the windows he caught a glint of light. The fresh surge of hope that went through him made him feel strangely clean and warm despite the mists still rolling through the City. He felt as if he'd been waiting ages for that signal and now that it was here he could hardly believe it.

Grinning, he gave Charlie a clap on the shoulder.

"Buck up, old boy, I think they're doing okay in there."

Hatter held the tiny shard of metal up into the light and flicked it around a few times. He'd broken it free from the railing and it took him several precious moments to get just the right angle to reflect the dim sunlight. Outside the window he could still hear the electrical currents surging on and off, the light show it produced giving him some extra light to work with. He just hoped Pidge had followed his orders and was seeing the message he was sending.

Still catching her breath up as they paused on the long staircase, Alice gave him a puzzled look. "What are you doing?" she asked, running her hand over her stomach in a protective way.

Hatter grinned but didn't look at her, eyes watching the buildings for anything. "Oh you know... making sure we get a way out."

"Comforting, considering we're going higher in the building and not lower. I do so hope we're not going to have to jump through this 'escape route' of yours. Cats may land on their feet but I doubt it works miles down," Chesh grumbled as he passed him with the ease of a cat. Alice gave him a dirty look that he ignored but Hatter was still staring out the window.

When it became clear that he was waiting for something, Alice sighed and leaned against the wall beside him. Higher on the stairs was Jack, carefully scoping out the next floor and apparently finding it not to his liking. They'd been climbing the back stairwells for over an hour, following him around the maze of the Palace like absentminded sheep. Jack explained that part of the old Heart moniker was that servants should rarely be seen or heard. But such passages had long since been abandoned and were rotted through.

Only keeping a careful eye kept any of them from plummeting down the gaping holes in the hardwood flooring. It seemed like there was no end to them and it made them wonder if Jack really knew where he was leading them.

Hatter had been strangely complacent about following the King, which had made both Alice and Chesh question him. How could he change so abruptly, especially since he'd taken such masterful control of the Resistance? He'd become used to giving orders not taking them, Alice had thought, and yet he'd only smirked at their questions and shook his head. He simply followed Jack with his hat pulled low over his eyes and with a casual swagger to his step. Alice almost thought that he was doing this deliberately. That he was humouring Jack and there was something so cold and calculating about it that she'd nearly blurted it out but he never gave her time to stop him. It was like he wanted to waste time, wanted to delay something, and was not caring what might happen if he did.

It was so unlike him that she wasn't sure if she actually wanted to know what it was he was planning to do.

Alice jumped when Amelia suddenly touched her shoulder. "Are you okay?" the taller woman asked, her wane face and large eyes exhausted but concerned. Alice frowned at her and shifted irritably. Amelia had been like a shadow on her ever since they'd been released.

Her words caught Hatter's attention and he looked at Alice with such concern that she bristled.

"I'm fine!"

Hatter looked her over, ignoring her annoyance.

"You look... pale."

She rolled her eyes. "Have you ever seen me look tan?" she snapped. Hatter put his hands up in the air to feign surrender. "I'm not tired or drained or anything else you're thinking. Can we go?"

She shoved by them both, distracted from her thoughts about Hatter's odd calculating manner.

Which was why he'd agreed with Amelia.

Hatter wisely kept quiet and let her climb a few stairs ahead of him but he didn't move. He watched her walk and pretended not to see the second shadow starting to follow her, keeping pace with her own natural shadow. His eyes twitched with the effort it cost him to look. For his own sanity, he looked back out the window and saw the answering glint of a light being reflected back at him. Grinning, he tucked the piece of metal back into his coat and thanked Pidge in his head for being so precise.

Beside him, Amelia stretched out her sore legs one at a time like a dancer working out a cramp. Weeks of inactivity was making her feel rubber-legged and she was dying for a rest. Not that she would have asked for that if she could. She needed to be with them and Jack's presence had simply made her believe that all the more. He was not going to leave her behind.

Especially when she had more than a few choice words she wanted to give him.

"Will she be okay?" she asked Hatter to distract herself from Jack and he shrugged, licking his lower lip and turning his head a bit.

"Alice says she is and she's been much... stronger than any of us realize," he answered. His voice dropped. "Thank Wonderland."

"Hatter, what exactly is going on?" She reached out and touched his shoulder. "Because I have never seen you this... focussed and yet secretive. You're... you're hiding something."

Hatter looked at her, his face not betraying a thing. "I just have something that needs to be done."

"There's something about the way you say that," Amelia whispered and she removed her hand, "that sounds so very final."

He was amused by how perceptive she was; amused but not surprised. She'd been raised in deception after all and it was clear she thought she might get an answer from him. Hatter didn't answer, didn't have time to when he heard tromping feet overhead. He put his hand on Amelia's shoulder and moved her back a bit before stepping out. They'd only gone up the stairs for a short time so something had to be wrong.

Like a train of motion, Alice and Chesh came barrelling down the stairs with Jack just behind them. Alice tripped up beside Hatter and grabbed his hand, gasping for breath and unable to tell him why she was running so hard. Chesh was braced against the railing, looking up with his wide cat-black eyes and clearly hearing something. With a final bound, Jack jumped to the rotted stair beside Alice and looped his arm through Amelia's.

"We need to move."

"I've figured that out," Hatter snapped, his eyes flicking over Alice as she gasped for breath still. He put a hand on her shoulder to steady her. "But why?"

Jack bent over and lifted his pant leg to reveal an ankle holster. He pulled out a small handgun and rolled the barrel over to keep it clicked into place. When he straightened up, he gave Hatter a false smile that was made more terrible by the scars decorating his face. "It would seem that they've figured out that you've all escaped. There's a group headed this way down the back stairs. So... move out now."

He yanked Amelia after him despite her protests and they followed him, the narrow steps and rickety rails being ignored for the sake of pure speed. Chesh vaulted himself over the railing ahead of Jack, his body starting to glow as he prepared to change his form. But he stayed in his human shape, though he still seemed to glow and shimmer. Alice followed in Amelia's shadow while Hatter kept several paces behind, distracted by the voices shouting overhead and by what he kept seeing in Alice.

Like Chesh, her shape seemed shift between blurred and distorted and her normal svelte figure. The harder she ran, the worse it became until Hatter had to really focus on her to see her properly. Where her blouse had slipped he could see her gryphon mark shimmering on her neck, rippling back and forth in a green wave. It had been moving so much now that it almost didn't phase him until he saw the way her glow seemed to... leak down her skin. Like rain drops, it glistened and then dripped off her, leaving puddles behind her that he was sure he was the only one to see.

It unsettled him and now it almost looked like there was almost forming a new third shadow for her thanks to her glow.

He was lagging too far behind when Jack shouted at him to keep up. Caught up in his own thoughts, he swore aloud and narrowly dodged a bullet when one of the guards overhead fired a random shot down the stairs. Hatter launched himself forward down several steps and whipped around the landings, startled that he was that far behind. They had made a few landings when the one door leading to the stairs popped open to reveal four very startled Suits.

Jack and Chesh leapt first with hesitation, catching two unawares and tackling them back into the hall they had come from. Alice whirled under the arm of one that went to grab at her and wrenched his arm behind his back, twirling him using his own forward motion. Hatter had just made the door when Amelia surprisingly struck the last Suit in the throat with her fingers, sending him choking and gasping back into the hall.

More than a little disgruntled that he wasn't getting to do anything, Hatter looked at Amelia and she shrugged. "Feel free to finish up if you'd like."

He struck her Suit down with a right hook but something about it was rather dissatisfying. Shooting Amelia a look of annoyance, he put a foot on the now unconscious man's chest and leaned as he watched the others. She joined him and smirked at the sight of her husband fighting with a Cheshire.

Alice had her man on the floor and she kicked out sharply, knocking her heel against his skull and with a crack of bone he was unconscious. Her body ached from the sudden rush of adrenaline and she rubbed at her side to ease the cramp that she was feeling. Something glowing caught her attention and she turned to see Chesh's hands slicing through the air. It sent both his attacker and Jack's flying through the air and into the wall. They made a sickening bump against the plaster and brick before they slid down to the floor.

Jack wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth and looked at the Cheshire as he gulped for breath. "You've come in handy."

Chesh licked at his own lips free of blood and grinned. "I have my moments."

Giving everyone else a cursory once over, he bent at the knees and rummaged over the Suits' clothing, disarming them quickly. He scattered the tiny items he found before finally pulling out a baton and dagger from the holster of one guard. Amelia glanced at Hatter, wondering if this unnerved him as much as it should, but he seemed unconcerned by the thought of the Cheshire arming himself. Chesh tested the weight of the blade and then tossed the baton to Hatter, who caught it with a flip of his fingers.

Alice winced and shook out her now sore hand while she looked back at the stairs. "They're still coming down the stairs."

Muttering under his breath, Hatter shut the door behind them, flipping the small lock before he shrugged. "Not much is going to hold that closed."

Jack looked at him and then at the hall. It was one that ran the length of the Palace to the deeper levels, and he struggled to remember just where it led to. If he was right, then it could take them to the Queen's private apartments where he had no doubt his son would be. It might also lead to the rooms he'd been hearing rumour about. But with the Suits at their back, they wouldn't get far.

He led them through part of the small hall to a very tiny mezzanine and then stopped, hearing the door being banged upon several yards back. The mezzanine let them have a guarded view of the floors far below the railings and he could see that there were Suits and mercenaries alike all crawling around. Someone had alerted them and he had a very bad feeling that they were on shoot to kill orders. He stroked his finger over the trigger of his gun and shook his head, a bit torn about what to do. The others milled around him and brought him back to the moment.

He'd been so used to his own company for the past few months that he had forgotten what it was like to be part of a group.

"I can hold them off here. Go." There, it was said and he tried not to look at Amelia though he could just feel her utter shock.

"What?" Alice and Hatter both exclaimed.

"I don't need to repeat myself. Go," Jack snapped and Hatter grabbed his arm. His strength startled the taller man and Jack gaped at him as Hatter forced him still.

"We're not leaving you here, Jack. Not when we just found you. You can lead us through the Palace but you are not staying here. Do you understand?" he snapped and Jack could only stare. Where once Hatter might have shown signs of backing down, especially when it was his own skin at risk, the young man staring at him was very much in charge. His eyes were dark and furious with Jack's decision, but also something conniving lurked there. It was like seeing a green flicker in darkness and it gave Jack the impression that Hatter had been fooling him all along by being so quiet for the past hour.

"And I won't leave you," Amelia said softly.

Jack tried to harden himself against both the imploring look she gave him and Hatter's obvious control of the situation. "Amelia, Hatter, please. They'll catch up with us. You can still find our son, get him to safety. Hatter and Alice can find her mother and get her out before they finish whatever it was they started. But I can hold them."

"Most of the ones here are mercenaries, Jack," Alice said from where she stood behind Hatter. "They won't recognize you and even if they do, they won't be interested in holding back. They'll kill you."

Jack glared at Hatter and the dark haired man removed his hand, but not his gaze. Discomforted, Jack made a face. "What choice do we have? We need to hold off the ones coming down that stairwell. We need time."

Alice looked at Hatter and he sighed when he saw her asking him to do something to convince the King otherwise. He knew they needed time; the plans he'd set would still be just building momentum.

"I'll do it."

Chesh's rough voice broke their silence and they all turned slowly towards the Cheshire. He was leaning against one of the walls, twisting the knife blade between his fingers casually and watching the door being pushed upon. It looked like as if for all the world he was ready to have some entertainment. Feeling that their attention had shifted to him, he looked back around and arched a brow.

"What?"

"Can we trust you?" Jack demanded. "Of all the creatures in Wonderland, you are suggesting we trust you to guard our back?"

Chesh merely grinned his awful grin. "What choice do we have?"

"We can trust him," Alice stated suddenly and her eyes went to the oddness of his. Chesh looked at him and he blinked before turning his eyes to Hatter. The younger man was watching the doors again.

"I don't think that this is a plan," Jack started and Alice shook her head.

"Jack, we don't have a choice. And Chesh has been... helpful. Mostly," she admitted.

"Thanks for the glowing review," Chesh said, his eyes dancing with sarcastic humour.

Jack groaned and tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. It was only seconds before he nodded and looked back at Chesh, his eyes hard and warning. "Very well. But I swear, Chesh, if you betray us, I'll skin you alive."

The Cheshire's grin simply widened. "You'd have to get in line. I'm losing count of all the people threatening me."

He began to bounce the knife from hand to hand. "Well, go on then. I'll catch up with you."

His obvious confidence in his abilities made Alice pause and stare at him. "How are you going to do that? This place is massive."

Without turning his head, Hatter dangled the control bracelet from his fingers. The eight charms still gleamed and twinkled mockingly, as if being pretty hid what their real purpose was. Chesh's eyes fixated on the bracelet and he shuddered because he knew, knew in the depths he tried to hide, that Hatter could very easily destroy those with no thread of conscience.

It was why, even with a cold and threatening King nearby, he only really feared death from Hatter's hand.

"He'll find us. As much as it tracks him, Chesh can track this," Hatter said bluntly before wrapping the bracelet around his wrist once more.

Chesh muttered something under his breath and with a false smile on his lips, he moved towards the hallway to block it. Hatter stepped away from Jack and put his hand on the Cheshire's shoulder to stop him. Both men clenched up at the contact but Hatter leaned in anyway, ignoring the way the other man felt ready to bolt under his hand. They stared at each other until Chesh broke the eye contact first. Hatter leaned in closer, to keep his voice low, while his eyes went to the wall just behind them. Chesh's head tilted and he bent closer to listen as Hatter whispered something in his ear.

It was something that made the Cheshire grin wickedly in such delight that Alice recoiled. Hatter let him go with a nod and then turned to them. "Let's go."

He waved his hand at Jack and the King gave one last unsure look at Chesh before taking Amelia's hand. They started off down the hall and Alice stared at Chesh as well. He was facing the door and tossing his knife from hand to hand, apparently to some odd rhythm still in his head. It reminded her of him in his deadliest of moments and it made her skin crawl.

Hatter took her by the arm and she twined her fingers around his, squeezing to get his attention. When he looked at her, she tried to read his expression but saw nothing.

"What did you tell him?" she asked instead and Hatter took a breath. "Hatter?"

"I told him it was time for him to have some fun. And to only find us when he was done having... fun." He looked away from her horrified expression when she caught on to his meaning. "Come on. We don't have too much time to stay here."

Author's note: as my beta said... very to the point.

And I feel like I spend the majority of my time arguing with and trying to format. But it looks like things are better now... here's hoping.