Alice wasn't surprised to find Ilosovic still sleeping when she awoke, nor was she shocked to discover that he had yet to be freed from his fever. If they were lucky he would be more 'conscious' today, but as Tarrant warned, this muiriled potion might linger longer than the poisons of her world. Additionally, it was clear that Stayne had suffered more than poisoning.

She rose from the bed of hay and quietly left the half barn without disturbing Ilosovic from his slumber. Peering out to the tea table, Alice found that Thackery and Tarrant were seated at the table along with Winthrope. She expected that Mally was with them as well, but her thoughts turned to Time, hoping that he would change his mind on calling upon his brother or if he could paint her a more clear picture of what Ilosovic endured.

She didn't want to know, but she didn't see a way of helping him without knowing what was ailing him.

Alice marched towards the house but stopped as she felt the gaze of her friends upon her. Turning her own eyes to the tea party she focused upon Tarrant and moved to stand at his side.

"May I ask you a favor?" Alice whispered and Tarrant tilted his head with a smile. He did not show his teeth and Alice knew instantly that he wasn't going to be pleased with the request.

"If it's to dress your knave, I've already stitched up something for him to wear," Tarrant said before turning his head away. Alice could no longer read his face, but based upon the laughter from Mally and Thack, Alice assumed that the garbs Tarrant had put together were something quite hideous, fit for the grave or something that would only fit him if he was shrunken again. Regardless, as long as the out fell in one of the first two categories she would not fight, and she doubted that Ilosovic would hold much of an opinion on his wears until he was well again.

"Thank you," Alice replied, which was not the reaction the tea party was expecting. "Now, has anyone seen Time?" Alice asked.

"Innit he over by the Knave?" Mally shouted, making Alice spin around in concern but found that Stayne remained alone. Hearing the table roar with laughter again, Alice stormed into the house, finding Time in the kitchen enjoying a cup of tea with Nivens who both turned their attention to the woman.

"Ah, Alice, good, you are awake! Is the knave ready to travel?" Nivens asked.

"I would very much prefer it if everyone could start calling him by his name. When he is well again he'll take less offense to that than the use of his former title," Alice warned as she rounded the table to address Time who waited for her demand expectantly. "Please, I ask that you call your brother here if you are still not strong enough to summon Ilosovic's past," Alice asked with an innocent tone, but Time stood up in defense.

"I'm strong enough to do a great many things, Alice! We discussed-"

"It's okay if you aren't capable of using your powers. I know that these last few years have drained you painfully so," Alice mocked, feigning concern. If he would not see to her requests out of kindness she would have to make it seem like a challenge rather than a good deed. "You must be struggling to keep track of what is going on as we speak, so I should just let you be."

Time's jaw dropped at the accusation and shook his head as he closed what little distance there was left between the two. Alice was playing to Time's impatience and it appeared to be working, and while consequences would surely arise Alice figured that she was already on his bad side. What else did she have to lose?

"I think you should tread with caution, Alice. Else I might demonstrate what your beloved was subjected to," Time stated but Alice didn't shy away.

"Whatever you feel that you can handle," Alice said as she turned her head away and motioned to leave the room but as soon as she took a step away Time took her by the wrist and the pair were suddenly no longer in Tarrant's cottage, but they were somewhere quite familiar. The shop that she had last seen Ilosovic in.

She turned to Time in question but he placed a finger over his lips before pointing away, Alice following the finger in curiosity before her eyes fell upon Stayne and herself.

Alice watched in surprise as she saw her own image trying to hold the fresh wound that Ilosovic had received from Winthrop, a wound that should have been fatal according to Hamish's father. Alice watched in sadness as Ilosovic knocked her unconscious and Grail carried her away. They did have to find whatever happened to that sly wolf, but this was Ilosovic's timeline. She paled upon seeing the White Queen enter the room.

"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," Alice heard Mirana warn and 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.

Time grabbed Alice by the sleeve and pulled her as the room changed again. Ilosovic laid upon the altar that they had found him curled up beside with a hooded figure and Mirana standing over him. As Mirana picked up the chizzle Alice rushed forward to stop the sacrilege but Time had pulled her back just as Mirana severed his finger.

"These events have already passed. There isn't anything you can do to prevent them," Time said gently looking upon the scene as it changed again. He was giving her a speedy rundown of what the man lived through. To sit through all the years would be terribly gruesome, yet oddly boring. That's all that Ilosovic had. Potions, pain and isolation.

"Is there anything you can do?" Alice asked in a horrified whisper as they watched Ilosovic being forced to consume a bottle of the brilliant blue liquid they found him with. Time shook his head.

"I could, but not much would change for the Stain," Time said, watching with a pinch of sympathy as he sped the timeline up to a waterboarding scene. Alice did not remain still here, her instinct was to attack his torturer, but Alice rushed right through him like an apparition. "Pull him out and bring him to my home? I hadn't the energy to do such a feat at that time, and Mirana would come for us both, and that would mess up everything after that point."

Alice watched the history play out painfully. Alice was normally more reserved in her emotions, at least when it came to those concerning sadness. She hated to cry in front of others, but Alice wasn't hiding the tears that fell from her now. The routine of Stayne's imprisonment was so routine that Alice barely noticed the passage of time until she saw his hair growing before her eyes.

Waterboarding,

Murilied potion,

Sleep,

And sometimes, Mirana would visit for her own pleasure.

Alice couldn't watch that. Fury and sorrow swelled within her as she looked to Time, wanting to get back to the present but he willfully ignored her gaze as he approached a sleeping Ilosovic, admiring the terrible state he was in.

"I'm quite glad you insisted on seeing this," Time spoke looking back to the woman and smirked. "He's dreaming about you right now, more specifically however it's a nightmare. He's watching you and that hatter take company with each other. Care to make that a reality for our poor boy?"

Alice furrowed her brow and Time chuckled in response before snapping his fingers and then they were back in Tarrant's kitchen. Nivens had only seen them flicker in place but that alone sent the rabbit on edge.

"Goodness me! Where did you go?"

Alice didn't respond. She instead moved to the next room to seek out the clothing that Tarrant had made, and it wasn't hard to miss. A three-piece suit made of patched pastel colors was draped over the guide rail of the stairs. It was a hideously beautiful thing, but Alice didn't have the capacity to think about it. She only wanted to get Ilosovic out of Under.

The trio laughed wildly seeing Alice emerge with the suit and as she passed them she told them to get ready to leave. She didn't know how she was going to get Ilosovic out. She'd carry him if she had to, but she wasn't going to risk his falling into Mirana's hands again.

Alice dropped down beside Ilosovic's side, pulling the blanket away to quickly dress him. He stirred from sleep but only groaned at the burden of being awake. A great misfortune it was waking without muiriled in his system.

"Please Ilosovic, we have to get up," Alice pleaded as she dressed him in a pink, blue, yellow and purple ensemble. This was already turning out to be one of the more odd nightmares of his. There was terror on his wife's face, but he felt no fear of his own, no unsettling dread, only confusion and nausea of having to move. When he sat up the world began to spin and he regretted moving. As Alice threw a white peasant shirt over his head the man questioned when the last time he awoke was. Maybe he had finally overdosed upon the vile and wonderful potion.

"Where are we going, Alice," Ilosovic asked as he put his arms through the sleeves taking an extra look upon his left hand to where he would normally still have his ring finger in his dreams. Sometimes his mind forgot that he had lost it. He turned his lazy gaze to Alice as she began to dig in her bag and she produced something that he knew he had lost but always had in his dreams. It was his spade eye patch.

"I do believe this belongs to you," Alice whispered offering it to him. "I wanted to give this to you earlier, but-"

Ilosovic felt fear overtake his system and it did not mix well with his nauseous state. Turning over the man retched what little he could from his stomach. His body wanted to purge more but the painful contractions of his insides began to set the pieces in place for him. He wasn't dreaming, and he wasn't dead- if he were, Ilosovic expected Death to be kinder to him than life and he hadn't felt this awful in many days, months even.

Alice cursed something under her breath as she got to her feet, leaving his eye patch on the floorboards as she walked away. Ilosovic silently prayed that she wouldn't return. That maybe this was all some sort of illusion and that he was imagining it as he waited for his next dose, that Alice was still far from Under, but the last encounter with Mirana was clear in his mind. Alice had indeed returned for him. Turning back to the artifact of his past, Ilosovic placed it over his dead eye and with his good eye he saw Alice approaching again with a glass of water and half a loaf of bread. Kneeling beside him again she held out the items of consumption and waited for him to take them but he couldn't find the will to reach out and he moved his eyes moved to the floor

"You need something else in your stomach," Alice whispered. "I know that eating might be the last thing you want to do, but you should."

"... You're really her. Aren't you?" He asked not wanting to look at her. When the question was met with silence rather than a lie Ilosovic knew that he was dealing with the real thing. His wildflower. "You shouldn't have come back." He whispered looking up to see Alice staring back at him in disbelief. "You were safer in your world. You were better off without me," he confessed as he let his head hang lower again, able to see that she placed the water and bread to the side.

Stayne wasn't sure what he was expecting from Alice, but it certainly wasn't the hard slap she delivered. The pain confused him. He didn't know what he had done to deserve the assault. His hand motioned to tend to the place where Alice struck but had to react as she was going to deliver another hit. Catching her wrist, Alice threw her free hand well but Stayne also managed to grab hold of this wrist as well. If he wasn't sure before it was painfully clear to him that he was not dealing with Almost Alice. The dream version of his wife only gave him kisses and other feelings of pleasure. She was real. And while part of him wanted to smother the woman in kisses he feared that she would seek to deliver more harm upon him.

"Alice, what the hell are you doing?" Stayne growled as the woman managed to break free and got back to her feet. Her fists were still clenched but she wasn't in a striking position. "If you meant to do me harm why bother rescuing me at all?!"

"Because you have no idea what you put me through when you sent me away!" Alice shot back making the man pause briefly before he clenched his jaw at the unjust accusation. He steadily managed to make it to his feet but he had to use a beam of the barn to support himself still.

"What I put you through?! Alice, I made that call to save your life! To save our unborn child! To give both of you a fighting chance! We were doomed from the start, getting you out was the only option," he reasoned as Alice suddenly changed course, turning to retreat but his reach managed to grasp her arm and pull her back to him. Instead of attempting to pull away, she motioned to push him. She didn't account for the possibility of Stayne pulling her with him, and the man took full advantage of the transition by pulling Alice close to his body, locking her in place but still she struggled as Ilosovic moved his back to the beam that held him up.

"Alice, please listen to me," Stayne pleaded, frustrated that the first conversation he would have with his wife in years was an argument.

"You don't know what I've been through!" Alice shouted again, her voice cracking. "You do not know what my world is like! I understand that you sent me away to protect me, to save Charles, but you don't have a clue what that life was like!" Alice cried as she slammed her fists against her husband's chest. Ilosovic winced at the blows that he once would have taken in stride, but he didn't retaliate nor did he release his hold.

"You made me a queen, treated me as your equal. In this realm I'm regarded as a Champion, worthy of respect, but do you know what I went home to?" She asked looking up at him. "I was treated like a harlot! A foolish girl who allowed some brute to take advantage of her. I had to deny your existence altogether, and that wasn't the worst of the request either. I was advised to claim that I was raped, to prevent the birth of our son by means I cannot explain- I had been asked to give Charles away for the sake of appearances!" Alice continued, her voice and blows waning quickly until it was just her hands clinging to the freshly stitched shirt. "You wanted to know what my world is like, well it is a cruel one, Stayne! No matter the deeds that I accomplish, or the titles I held, the first thing anyone sees me as is a woman. A second class citizen in the world of men- meant to be seen seldomly and heard much less than that, yet you are the talk of the century if you are a woman with child and no husband in sight," Alice stated bitterly as tears continued to ebb their way down her cheeks and she buried her head into his chest, shaking her head in frustration as she began to shift her weight into him. "You sent me away without my permission after I promised repeatedly that I would not leave you. It wasn't fair Ilosovic… It's not fair that I had to live without you, and it isn't right that Mirana kept you locked away and tormented you all these years. I understand why you did it. I am happy for that sacrifice being that I was able to see our son grow up, look more and more like you each and every day, but I would have gladly died beside you that day, Ilosovic Stayne, because I love you!"

Stayne froze at hearing the final words from Alice's mouth. He had told her on numerous occasions that he loved her, had taken comfort in Almost Alice singing those exact words in his dreams but they never felt quite right. But this was the first time she declared that emotion for him. Things began to fall into perspective for the fallen King.

Initially, the statement of him having no clue about the trials she faced seemed laughable. He had spent the last six years prisoner to Mirana. Tormented by that witch, but Stayne was also familiar with the cruel reality of being an outcast in society. It was a slow but constant pain, it's wounds festering with time rather than healing. Furthermore, he hadn't a clue what her realm was like beyond what she told him, but never before did she mention that women were not valued as citizens. In Under, women were heralded as the givers of life, being that it was so rare that Time allowed a new life to come into play, nearly any child that was produced was worth celebration, their mother given praise for bringing new blood into the world,

Looking down to his sobbing wife Stayne loosened his hold and a hand moved to lift her chin, which she allowed.

"Alice, I am sorry that I sent you away, it was never my intention to place you in harm's way nor to make you feel unworthy," Ilosovic whispered, as he slowly slid down to put himself on his knees before her. "If I could undo that decision I would, or at the very least I would have included you in on it. I wish I could take on the damage I've exposed you to, and I deserve all of the rage you deliver to me now but I need to ask you for a single kindness before I can swallow that hate. Can you repeat what you just said to me, Alice? Please?"

Having been able to get all the pent up bitterness off her chest, Alice was calm as Stayne spoke. Apologies were so rare in her life, even when she was the one wronged it seemed as though she was the one who had to ask for forgiveness. Alice had to pause to recall what the last thing she said to him was. All that she had confessed had been boiling inside of her for years- but the last sentence had been a sudden realization for her as well.

"I love you," Alice repeated before bringing her hands up to her husband's face. "I love you, Ilosovic Stayne."

Ilosovic treated the declaration as an invitation. Rather than rising to meet her he hooked one arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap, their lips crashing into one another. Joy was rather infrequent in the man's life, but at that moment he believed he had enough of the feeling to last him a lifetime. Yet he was already stirring with greed and desire for more. He shifted downwards towards the hay pile again.

Alice's hands moved back of his neck, fingers entangling themself into his raven hair as she broke the kiss to come up for air. Her eyes first met Ilosovic's happy features before her eyes caught glance of the audience that they had acquired. Time, Tarrant, Thackeray, Mally and Nivens all stood a few paces from the reunited lovers and Chess hovered just above them. Alice hid her face in the crook of her husband's neck.

"We have company," she warned in a hushed whisper.

"Is there anyone there that I can tolerate?" Stayne asked gently and Time scoffed at the question.

"That is the shortest list I know of," Time taunted, making the rest of the group giggle. "And as much I enjoy watching a romp in the hay, I'm here to give you fair warning that Mirana is on her way and should arrive before midafternoon tea. So unless you think you two can make it quick, you should get going," Time suggested.

Alice sighed and pried herself away from Ilosovic and approached the gathered group. The journey to Deces would still be too much to bear on Ilosovic, and if they had any hope of getting Winthrop to come alive they would need to rely on Time's ability once more. If she could twist his arm at least one last time here, they could get away.

"I know you can travel long distances with just a swing of a door," Alice began with caution. "Can you make us a clear path to Deces?"

"And pray tell, Alice, why would I do a thing like that for you?" Time asked raising an eyebrow.

"If you want Mirana to fall off her high horse you'll have to give us some leverage you know," Alice replied. He did not seem to enjoy that answer and Alice balled her hands into fists, trying to find a more civil way to respond. "Please Time, I promise not to ask you for another favor once we are in Deces. At least not for another day or two."

Time rolled his eyes as he produced a gray door in the yard and looked back to Winthrop who remained bound to his chair still. "I still suggest that you drop the dead weight while you can. Mirana won't barter for the fool, and he certainly isn't going to be doing any favors for you," Time urged. This conversation wasn't lost to Ilosovic as he stumbled to his bare feet and looked out to the table where Winthrope sat.

"I can arrange his death now," Stayne muttered moving to step forward but Alice stopped him by hugging him, rooting him to the spot where they stood. He looked down in mild annoyance and Alice shook her head.

"He's not a threat to us now," Alice whispered as Tarrant gave a snicker walking towards the table.

"I think I would give my best tea stash to see that fight. A blind man fighting a half-blind and half-dead man," Tarrant chuckled looking back over his shoulder. "Wouldn't be much of a fight at all, would it?"

Stayne growled but Alice nudged him towards the door, an arm of hers was wrapped around his back as they walked to the door and Time opened the door for them. Before them was the castle that was their rightful claim and would hopefully still be fortified enough for Ilosovic to recover while they came up with a definitive plan on how to stop Mirana once and for all. Alice eyed Time and nodded to the door in effort to get him to go through first but he simply smirked.

"I'm afraid that this is where we part ways, Alice." Time said without a hint of remorse. "Mirana will know that I've aided you. Her hounds will lose your scent here and it will be clear what has transpired. I would prefer her to hear of my involvement from me," Time said and Ilosovic narrowed his eye.

"How very noble of you," the Black King muttered with suspicion and Time laughed.

"Goodwill has nothing to do with it. Had she listened to me in the first place we would not be having this conversation at all. I simply want to remind her of that fact. Now if you would please leave my sight before I change my mind."

Alice wasn't entirely fond of leaving Time, especially if he would be having a meeting with Mirana but there wasn't much of a choice it seemed. Looking back up to Ilosovic, they exchanged nods of approval to each other and entered the doorway, locking their hands with each other, followed by Alice's childhood friends and the White Knight.