"I still don't understand why I had to come along on this little excursion," Time mumbled as he walked alongside Alice and Bayard through the forest with Chessur floating behind them. "This is really just a waste of, well, a waste of me."

"I agree that Tarrant would have been much better company," Alice replied, briefly glanced over at Time before averting her gaze ahead again. "But I'd prefer to have you within sight." If Time did manage to vanish from her while this rescue mission went about, it would tell her that he had been lying about the extent of his powers and she would not hesitate to use a blade on him again. "Besides, this gives us a chance to know one another more."

"What is there to know? You are fond of Ilosovic, whom I don't care for, in particularly, you are in a position to put Mirana back into her place, which I am for, and we are on a temporary truce. But above all else you are able to change people's minds which is the most dangerous skill of all. That's all that matters to me," said observing the woman who smiled back at him all the same.

"We'll I would like to know why you are so eager to spite Mirana," Alice began, her inquiring mind curious about the relationship between Time and the White Queen. "You clearly had a preference for her once, so what changed?"

"She changed-" Time muttered quickening his step in hopes of losing Alice and her questions but met his pace.

"I suppose I am to blame for this then?" Alice responded. The statement made Time stop in his tracks, and not expecting the halt, Alice collided with his back. Stumbling back Alice looked to Bayard and Chess to make sure she wouldn't hit them, but they were a reasonable distance away still.

Time took in a deep breath and shook his head.

"Truthfully, no. I mean, yes, you have caused a bit of mayhem to these lands with each time you visit but maybe Mirana would not have descended so low had I not pushed her," Time confessed thoughtfully. "Though she has always carried the capacity to do whatever her mind desired I fear that I have lifted the floodgates." Time whispered, turning his gaze to the canopy above them. "Perhaps if I had just kept my mouth shut, you and Stayne would have ruined each other and I would have had what I desired."

Alice frowned and remained in place. Whatever Time wanted was his own concern and she didn't wish to be included into his plans any more than she needed to be.

"What did you desire, Time?" Bayard inquired with honest interest. Memory loss or not, he was truly the best friend any man, woman or child could ask for.

"I had hoped I would have been able to do as I please," Time grumbled looking at Alice with contempt. Alice held no issue glaring right back at him.

"Well, you said it yourself, Time. Had you left us alone we may have sorted each other out in the end," Alice said marching forward and Time smirked walking after her.

"Yes, though I can't claim all the credit. I would say that the true culprit for sending us down this path would be our Mad Hatter, no?" Time asked and Alice spun around at the mention of Tarrant, catching Time's knowing smile. "Had he not run off to rescue you, I imagine that we would not be having this conversation, nor would you be so intent on rescuing the Knave. Perhaps instead you would be pinning, or even sharing a bed with the Hightopp-" Time mused making Alice's forehead crease even more as he circled around her. "Do you deny this possibility?"

Chessur and Bayard looked from Time and then to Alice who hesitated on a response. The delay in speech made Time grin even more.

"Whatever nonsense you are talking about, it doesn't matter. The past isn't important- only our current predicament and the future along with it," Alice said firmly before digging into the satchel Time had provided her and took out the bottle of pishsalver he had brewed and held it out to him. "We are close enough to Mamoreal, drink this and we'll have Bayard bring us to Stayne and we can be done with one another." Alice muttered.

Time smiled as he wrapped his hand around the bottle, gripping her hand in the process as well.

"As you command, your highness."

…..

Alice was thankful to have had Tarrant on her side again, especially for his skills with fabrics. The clothes that she had worn from her London home were abandoned in the road and she was now wearing a blue and gold peasant dress. Time did not need the change of clothes that Tarrant had made for him, as Time could conveniently shrink and grow his clothes on his back. Alice almost suspected that Time could control his entire size whenever he pleased but Alice didn't care enough to test her hypothesis at the moment.

Together they rode on Bayard's back, they were smaller than Mally now, and remained quiet as they sat in the forest of fur. Overhead, Chessur was still in sight, carrying the satchel that held the pishsalver and upelkuchen, along with a simple gray shift dress and slippers for Alice to throw on once the rescue was complete and they were safely away from the White Kingdom.

"We are approaching the castle now," Bayard said lowly, though his voice boomed for the very small people. "Keep quiet, stay low and I will let you know when I've found the source of Stayne's scent."

Alice looked up to Chessur but the cat had already vanished into thin air. Sighing heavily, Alice rested her back into the patch of fur and eyed Time who was disobeying the hound's request.

"Did you not hear Bayard? He told us to stay low," Alice scolded, making the man scoff.

"He also said to keep quiet," Time replied without looking back. "It's been ages since I've been in the castle, and I just want to see if Mirana has changed the decor to match her new personality."

Alice folded her arms and looked away in frustration. She had been here only yesterday, yet so much had happened since she had passed through the looking glass. She had been told of Stayne's murder, reunited with her friends, confronted Time in his own home, met Death, was informed that her husband still lived, defeated Winthrop and a Griphon as well. Still, curiosity got the better of her and she joined Time in the sightseeing.

"Anything stick out to you?" Alice asked softly and Time shook his head.

"No. All is still bright and white. Simple and clean," Time mumbled watching as people and objects alike passed by. He was prepared to sit down again when Bayard came to a sudden stop, nearly throwing Alice and Time off, but each of them had a decent grip on his coat. Looking up to investigate for the untimely halt, Time's eyes went wide seeing the giant that had stopped them.

A little girl who had snow-white hair and dark brown eyes stood before Bayard with a morsel of food in hand.

"Bay! I've missed you!" the child shouted gleefully as she offered the food and proceeded to wrap her arms around the hound. Both Alice and Time had to duck in fear of being spotted or crushed by the child. "Will you walk with me in the garden?"

"I will seek you out later, Lily. First I must attend to a promise I made, but I will see you soon," Bayard pledged as the girl released him and pouted at the news but nodded. Without another word she ran off, Time clambering back up to see her retreating figure turn a corner.

Alice examined Time's face and it was a familiar expression that he wore. A touch of pain and a bit of longing.

"She's your daughter, isn't she?" Alice asked. The question struck Time in a way that made it hard for him to recover. "Mirana said that she doesn't have a father, but that's not true," Alice continued. Time smiled sadly as he glanced back at Alice and shrugged.

"Depending on who you ask in this world, everyone is a child of Time. I am, after all, a god," he jested but Alice didn't buy it. Seating himself down, Time sighed gave a shrug of his shoulders. "That child was part of the deal I had made with Mirana, a deal in which she had clearly not met her end on," Time said bitterly and given the tone of voice, Alice suddenly feared for Lily's wellbeing.

"You won't hold it against the little girl, will you?" Alice inquired.

Time looked at Alice with disgust but quickly calmed his face and closed his eyes, thinking carefully over the words he would choose to respond with.

"The child is innocent. I won't harm a hair on her head," Time assured but Alice was still wary.

"There are more ways to hurt people than with just physical pain," Alice whispered. Time chuckled and nodded in agreement.

"Yes, I suppose that is true," Time said, looking at the surrounding walls again. "I swear, by both of my hands, I do not wish to bring harm to the child."

"Because she is your daughter," Alice pressed but Time did not have to entertain the conversation any further as Bayard's voice came up again.

"This is where the scent ends and begins," the dog whispered lowly, triggering the pair to climb up to the top of the hound's head. Alice had been expecting a prison cell, or a door to a dungeon at the very least, but instead she was met with a very large portrait of what was presumably the once royal family, a man adorned in a white uniform standing beside a woman who was dressed in a red gown who was seated. On both sides of the chair two girls stood with their hands clasped in front, both dressed in similar pink gowns. It was unmistakable, the children in the portrait were Mirana and Iracebeth.

"But… this can't be it," Alice breathed as she walked down the bridge of Bayard's nose to observe the giant painting in detail. "It's just a picture!"

"Never judge a book by it's cover nor a door for it's frame," Time mumbled coming up behind Alice and folded his arms. "The White family has always been good at hiding things and I am willing to bet that there lies a room behind that painting. Now if only we had some naughty little invisible kitty to open the way for us!" Time shouted, worrying Alice and Bayard of the potential of Time alerting the kingdom to their presence, but the painting frame inched forward, revealing that there was indeed a secret passage behind its picture.

Bayard stepped around the corner of the frame and dipped his nose to the hidden step in the wall, allowing Time and Alice to climb down. Alice looked back to Bayard expectantly but the dog shook his head.

"I have led you to the location of the Knave, but I can venture no further. I cannot risk any more involvement with you for it may jeopardize my residency here as well as the wellbeing of my family," Bayard said and Alice nodded.

"I can't thank you enough Bayard," Alice replied as Chessur made himself visible again. "Please be well and look after your family." The hound nodded before backing away and trodding off to seek out the princess no doubt.

Looking down the dark corridor, Alice steeled herself for what could lie ahead. She had seen the horrors that the Red Queen had bestowed upon Ilosovic long ago from the scars that he wore. How Mirana's cruelty would look she did not know.

Alice was prepared to scale down the steps of the hall but Chess did not possess the patience to wait for her to climb down the staircase. Without warning, the cat picked up the two tiny folk and glided down the staircase. All three shielded their eyes when they came to the mouth of the room as the transition from darkness to white was intense and sudden.

Chess's eyes took the longest to adjust to the change, but Alice managed to squint through the change, searching for what they came for. The room appeared to be empty, barren even aside from a sink, two buckets and a marble altar. A few discarded bottles also laid on the floor which she wanted to investigate but before she could bark the order Alice saw the outline of a pale foot.

Fear and anticipation began to strangle Alice's throat as she patted the cat's paw. She didn't even need to speak her intentions as Chess saw what had drawn her attention and he quickly hovered around the rock slab, moving low enough to the ground to place the pair down on the ground.

While Ilosovic towered over her even in normal circumstances, even as she was hardly the size of a thimble currently, something about Ilosovic's state made him seem so much smaller. The vulnerable state he was in, laying on the cold hard ground, his dark raven locks swept over his face, the color of his skin that resembled the stone prison he was kept in, a sickly pale gray. Stepping closer Alice wanted to cry out to her husband but she couldn't find the words. Would he even hear her?

Chessur summoned the brown satchel again and pulled out the bottle containing the phisilver. Uncorking the bottle, the cat moved closer to the man's face and pushed the hair from Ilosovic's face, revealing Ilosovic's pale blue lips. Without question, the cat poured a short stream of the potion into Ilosovi's mouth, which went to work on the incapacitated man.

Alice quickly bounded closer to her shrinking husband, entering the shirt's sleeve to seek out Ilosovic. Alice struggled against the weighted fabric but eventually found herself in the center of the shirt to find Ilosovic's unconscious and naked form. Kneeling besides Ilosovic, Alice examined the man for any new scars, but the only obvious wounds she could make out was the missing finger and a few dark bruises that were on his limbs.

"Ilosovic?" Alice whispered as she placed a hand onto his hollow cheek. "Ilosovic, wake up for me, please," Alice beckoned and the man began to stir at the command.

Ilosovic opened his heavy and dark lid, his light blue eye threatening to roll into the back of his head again as Alice held his face. He didn't feel like he was dreaming, but hearing Alice's voice told him that sleep was the place he was in.

"Ilosovic, can you sit up for me?" Alice asked desperately and a smile cracked on the man's lips.

"I'd fly if you asked me to, Wildflower," Ilosovic replied, still in sleep's hold.

Alice sighed knowing that it was beyond his ability to walk himself out, her mind on the empty and discarded bottles in the room. Whatever this muiriled stuff was, it was clearly potent and still within Ilosovic's system. There was no time to wait for him to get better as there was no telling when a guard could be making their rounds. Standing up again, Alice began to grab and shake the cloth that shrouded over them.

"Chess?! Can you cut us out?" Alice called, and immediately a claw began to tear into the fabric. Cutting out a jagged square, the cat peeled the cloth away but dropped it beside Alice for her to wrap up the once-was Knave of Hearts.

Kneeling back down, Alice shimmied the material underneath Ilosovic's body and quickly fashioned a makeshift toga to cover Ilosovic before looking to Chessur again for help before setting her eyes to the floor in search of Time.

He was nowhere in sight.

"Oh that conniving,-"

"Please, finish that sentence," Time's voice called as he rounded the corner of the marble slab with a tiny bottle in hand. It was filled with a blue liquid, the very same shade that stained Ilosovic's lips. "I only wanted a sample of whatever it is that our mutual friend has brewed for your husband. Now come along- we can't afford to waste anymore of me, can we?" Time asked as Chessur scooped up Time in one paw and Ilosovic and Alice in the other and without another word, the cat took them out of the hidden prison and out of the first window they came across.

While in flight, Alice continued to press her hands to the incapcitated man's form, unsure if she should pinch him or herself to end this dream, but it was still far from over regardless. "You're safe now Ilosovic, you're going to be alright," Alice whispered, but no response came from the man, nor from her travel companions as Chessur placed distance between them and Mamoreal.


"Mother, tell me the story of how I was born again," Lily requested as she was tucked into bed. Mirana smiled down at her daughter fondly, having lost count how many times she had told this story.

"Well, many years ago, a great battle was waged between our kingdom and the great and horrid Black Crown," Mirana recited. "The Black King and Queen threatened to ruin our way of life, so to protect Underland, our knights and myself had to bring the fight to them first," Mirana said, recalling the screams that echoed in the Outlander city as it burned bright.

"To prevent unnecessary loss of life, I proposed that each side would offer up a champion to fight for us," Mirana cooed as she laced lies with parts of the truth. "But the Black Queen cheated in this duel, it is why Winthrop can't see your pretty dresses. Tarrant Hightopp came in to save Winthrop from a fate most foul, and together they helped defeat the Black King and we drove the Black Queen from the land once more."

Lily nestled deeper into the pillows behind her head as she listened to the story for the umpteenth and a half time. Her eyes wide with wonder as she pictured a monstrous beasts with crowns on their heads.

"Once the evil was purged from the land, I knew I wanted to bring something good into the realm," Mirana said, tapping her daughter's nose who giggled at the touch. "So I asked Time to provide me with a little girl, one who would be as sweet as sugar and pure like a fresh spring flower," Mirana said leaning in close to press a kiss upon Lily's forehead. "And he gifted me with you, a fortnight after the battle with the Black Crown, you were brought into the world, Lily, and the world has become so much better since."

"Goodnight, mother," Lily beamed before giving a yawn and clutched the blankets closer as sleep began to claim her for the night. Smiling, Mirana moved from the bedside and out into the hallway, the memories of battle coming to mind as she roamed the castle...

The White Knights burst into the shop that Ilosovic and Alice had taken shelter in, the soldiers quickly surrounding the Black King with their weapons drawn as Time and Mirana made their way into the semi-circle. A small pool of blood forming underneath the defeated king, but there was no sign of Alice.

"Where is she?!" Mirana seethed looking around the room, turning her attention back to Ilosovic when the dying man began to laugh.

"She's out of your reach, witch," Stayne chuckled as he raised his head. "You'll never be able to harm her again."

Mirana paled at the statement and looked to Time fearfully, but he was already out the door, going off to search for the runaway queen. If Alice wasn't delivered to him, would she be denied her bargain with him? Her eyes grew dark with the possibility of losing the only thing she desired now.

"Leave us," Mirana ordered, and the knights exited without hesitation. Once alone with Ilosovic, Mirana knelt beside him, examining the quickly fading man. "It seems that Winthrop has bested you once and for all Ilosovic. What a pity," she whispered as she dipped her fingers into the pool of blood.

"I hardly see this as a defeat, Mirana," Ilosovic smirked as he rested his head back, there was nothing left for him to do but wait for Death to claim him. Closing his eye as he pulled his hand away from the critical wound, letting his life spill from him. "Alice made fine work of crippling Winthrop, a man as stubborn as him may prefer Death's presence over that of having to rely on others... But the true victory is that Alice will live. If I should come across your sister, are there any words you wish to pass on to her? Because I for one am surprised at how quickly you lost control of your kingdom and had to resort to your potions," Ilosovic said with a grin. "I think Iracebeth will be glad to hear it all.

Furious with the man's obvious delight, the White Queen jabbed her fingers into Ilosovic's wound, triggering a cry of pain from him as well as a temporary halt to his bleeding out.

"Listen to me well, Ilosovic Stayne. You have won nothing- We have both agreed that we owe each other no kindness. In this particular moment, I see your travel arrangements with Death to be far too decent for me to allow," she hissed as she twisted the fingers inside of him viciously as her other hand began to dig into a small potions bag she carried on her. First she pulled out the Forget-Me-Please elixir she had given to Tarrant and the others- it would be cruel to take away the man's love from his mind, but ignorance is truly bliss. Mirana wanted so much more for the man who had humiliated her and dared to defy her at every turn.

Pulling out another two bottles. With her mouth, Mirana uncorked the one labeled with an anatomical heart drawn on it and lathered the liquid into the wound. The magic quickly took effect on the injury, closing up the puncture wound to a point that it would be survivable. The next bottle had three z's on the label. A deep sleep potion that she reserved for herself from time to time when she wanted to experience dreams. The potion was so efficient that Mirana would have to block off three days following its consumption as she would be unwakeable until the magic wore off.

"If I must live with the knowledge that Alice had robbed me of having a child, then I shall burden you with a life without true comfort or safety," Mirana warned. With her bloodied hand, Mirana grabbed Ilosovic's jaw and squeezed it tight, pouring the sleeping potion into Ilosovic's mouth. The man struggled to stay away but lost the battle within a few minutes and his frame slumped over. Still as stone, Ilosovic passed more for dead than living.

Putting the bottles away, Mirana paused surveying Ilosovic's face briefly. Regardless of what Time wanted, Mirana wanted to make Ilosovic suffer more than ever- but she did not wish to provide evidence of her deception. Removing the leather spade that laid over Ilosovic's lost eye, Mirana exited the shop and ordered the guards to cart the man's body back to the Mamoreal. Her morbid obsession with the dead was no secret to anyone and would not be questioned by anyone, least of all by Time.

When he returned to Mekhane empty handed, Mirana was prepared to fight him for what was promised. She held out Ilosovic's eye patch to the miserable fellow and raised her chin.

"Ilosovic is dead," she lied. "And while Alice may have lived she doesn't have a single thing to stake in our world now and should not pose any threat to your will. Deliver me the child that was promised, Time."

Time glared at Mirana and was considering asking to see Ilosovic's body, but he was tired and knew that the woman likely already began to spend his body parts in her head. Taking the eyepatch from her, Time placed a hand over Mirana's lower abdomen and a burst of light emitted between the two.

Mirana gasped backing up, resisting the urge to vomit, but she could feel it- no- her. The baby girl she had longed for was growing quickly within her. Resting her hands over her stomach, Mirana smiled honestly at Time and back down at her body.

"I suggest you get home quickly, the child should be due within the next week or so," Time mumbled as he pocketed the war trophy and turned away but stopped short. He had given blessings to have children before, more times than he could count, but this case felt different. He had been intimate with Mirana just last night. The child would surely possess more of her qualities than his, but he wondered if the girl would hold anything from him. He opened his mouth to make a request to be at the birth, but remembered that he was Time and could see when she would arrive into the world.

Only he began to lose his powers after a few short days of the battle and could no longer tell today from yesterday…

Mirana's pleasant memories continued to play out in her mind as she opened the secret passage to Ilosovic's prison. She wasn't particularly in a vengeful mood, but she was bored and her last interaction with the man proved to be most entertaining.

She wondered if he would be coherent enough to grovel for Alice's safety, to try to offer the flesh he did not own anymore. It would be delightful to see some fight return to the man, to hear his pleas again. She longed to make the man beg her for life once more. This time saving Alice's rather than a wish for his to end.

Mirana swiftly walked to the farside of the room expecting to see Ilosovic huddled against the marble slab but was instead met with an empty chain and the white wool clothes on the floor. Mirana stared at the empty space in disbelief.

His escape should have been impossible- but she was fighting a war with someone who believed in six impossible things before breakfast.