She walked around for a bit, until she heard a strange whirring sound. She turned, and saw a peculiar machine flying towards her. She grabbed her knife and threw it, but it glanced harmlessly off the hard shell. She stared at it blankly, until it started shooting little circular saws at her, and she dived with a strangled shriek.
"Jeremy!! Where the hell are you?!"
"Uh... how can I help?" he asked, staring at the thing.
"Distract it while I figure out how to kill the damn thing!" she yelled, evading more saws and climbing up onto a pedestal that housed a bust of Hatter.
"Oh yeah. He's dead, he can't feel it," Jeremy said grouchily, and jumped in front of it. "Hey, you! Get your poky little saws AWAY from my sister!" It started chasing him around, and she watched it, looking for some type of weakness.
There seemed to be a small crack just behind its 'eye', and she grabbed her jacks. For this type of thing, she needed something that would enable her to aim. She directed her will to where she wanted them to go, and threw them.
They headed straight for it, and succeeded in creating a gaping hole. "Awesome!" Jeremy yelled, diving to his left to avoid the saws. "Kill it again!"
"But it's not dead yet!" she yelled back.
"Then CHANGE that!" he yelled, jumping backwards. She nodded and took out the ice wand.
"Jeremy! Get it close this way!" He jumped towards her and the machine followed, rather slowly. She fired at it, and it shorted out as the ice hit its gears. It crashed to the floor, and Jeremy climbed up and sat. Faith dropped into a sitting position as well, and they stared at the ruins of the nasty little machine. "That was a bit close," she said. He nodded. "Got any idea where that key would be? It'll be shaped like a gear about this big," she said, holding her hands about six inches apart.
He jumped down and rifled around inside the machine. "Nope, these are all too small," he said calmly. "Shall I zoom around again?"
She shook her head. "You're tired. Go ahead and retreat for a bit. It shouldn't be too difficult, anyway. Gryphon said that it would be in this tower."
He nodded and vanished.
Faith started climbing the staircase, watching for any more small, flying machines. That first one was probably a fluke; Hatter seemed too careful to allow his machines to be cracked like that. She sighed and came to the first doorway and opened it. It was dark inside the room, and she closed the door as she looked for a light. She took out the jackbomb, opened the door, and tossed it in. Once it reappeared in her hand, she searched for a stick of some sort. Relieved as Cat would be to discover her back in Wonderland, she doubted that he would appreciate her using a piece of the eye scythe as a torch.
She poked around, and finally grabbed the knife and hacked away at the thin wooden banister, until the end of it came off, then checked to see if she still had any of the card guards' rags. She was lucky in that aspect, and she doused it in the very remainder of that alcoholic drink, and tossed the jackbomb some ways away and held the stick up to it. It caught easily, owing to the alcohol, no doubt, and she walked into the room.
It seemed rather a trophy room, filled with the heads of various successful experiments, and she gagged. So many heads... she saw Ray and the other little dwarf she'd met in the maze, and moaned. Their blank faces stared sightlessly ahead of them, their mouths open and slightly askew. She shuddered and turned away, deciding that the key was definitely NOT in there. Then she saw it, at the far end. Hatter probably had to walk in here every time to get it... which was probably the point, she realised. To get to it, she had to pass probably every single head. As she got nearer, she saw a head that seemed a bit... Ogod, and she threw herself back. Del...
She buried her head in her knees, horrified and trying to clear out her mind... Del's face still lingered in her head, though, now alive, now dead, now alive again.
She shivered and stood, making her way to the key as quickly as she could, determined not to look left or right. God, what a sicko he'd become... She grabbed the key and rushed out, flying down the stairs, and out into the fresh air, where she promptly retched over the side of the bridge. Then she heard a strangled, disgusted, masculine-yet-girly scream, and realised that she had just thrown up all over Maggot some twenty-thirty feet down.
She couldn't help but chuckle at that, disgusting as it was, and she wiped her mouth and spit, hoping to clear her mouth of the bad taste. "Ulgh..." she grimaced, as that strategy helped, but didn't entirely work.
"Who did this to me?! Some trespasser, no doubt!" Maggot yelled. As Faith didn't want him to be the next one to know that he was in Wonderland, she ran across the bridge and shoved the key in the hole and turned it. The gate clanked open and she dashed inside, grabbing the key, which came out the other side. There was a lever next to it, in the 'up' position, and she jumped up, pulling it down. The gate clanked closed just as Maggot reached it, and she pressed herself into an alcove. "Hatter! Is this your idea of a JOKE?!" he yelled, left eye twitching. Faith smirked, rather amused at seeing him so irate.
"Yes, dear Maggot?" Hatter asked sarcastically, coming out from the tower. Faith's legs buckled, realising that they had been in the same building.
"Did you throw something on me?!"
"Of course not. I've been in the tower, examining my latest creation. Now, why don't you leave and clean up, and return my key to me?"
"I don't have your bloody key," Maggot snarled. "Someone is in your arena!"
Hatter glared, the rage in his face incomparable to that in his eyes. "Nobody could have entered without my knowing," he hissed. "You're lying."
"I am not! I came up here to see who had done this to me and the gate closed just as I reached it!"
Hatter growled. "Leave us," he said. "I will deal with the intruder."
"How, the gate is locked!"
"I am not the master of this place for nothing," Hatter snapped. Maggot nodded slowly, and at a glare from Hatter, departed to go clean himself up.
Hatter turned to the gates. "Open," he snapped, and they obeyed. He stalked in, moving quickly despite his limp, hunting for the intruder. Faith pressed herself into the shadows, more than a little nervous. Frankly speaking, she was terrified.
Hatter turned, a bit confused, and upon finding no one at cursory glance, decided to give Maggot the benefit of the doubt by sending in some of the automatons to check.
Faith saw him leaving and jumped out. "Hatter!" she called. Her voice cracked. He turned to face her.
"Faith," he said, stunned. "You've returned..."
"Yes; neither your little serum nor Reynald's hypnosis could keep me out forever." She didn't feel half as brave as she was pretending to be. He nodded.
"I didn't expect them to - I'd more expected it to be your age. But I'll confess, you're much stronger... and cleverer than the Queen gives you credit for."
"Or you give me credit for," she snapped.
"Of course. Won't you join me for a cup of tea? We can talk then... and the inevitable afterwards. You're just in time, after all." Faith nodded.
"Why not?" she shrugged. "Not many of my enemies have ever given me the opportunity to speak a few words with them."
He courteously took her arm and guided her to the tower at the opposite end of the arena. They climbed the stairs to the top, not speaking a word to each other, and Hatter opened the door to the tearoom, giving her the left end of the table. Faith glanced out of the large window. The view was amazingly vast, and equally depressing. The sky was a deep purple-grey, and the deep red sun shone through where black clouds parted, creating deep orange-red beams that gave an unnatural tone to the diseased-looking world below. A walking teakettle served the two, and Faith sniffed hers carefully before tasting it. It was hot, but not acidic.
"Well. How did you spend your six months in exile?" Hatter asked politely.
"Quite well, thanks," she replied civilly. Each regarded the other, never taking their eyes away. Watching for sudden, untrustworthy movement.
"More sugar in your tea, my dear?"
"Yes, thanks." The sugar bowl hopped over, dropping two lumps in. "What have you been doing lately?" she asked him. Besides trying to get everyone I love killed, she mentally added.
"Merely a few experiments," he said with a smirk. "I have created the most accurate clock in Wonderland. I'm quite proud of it."
"Oh really? I shall have to look at it sometime."
"It is located in the arena," he said, and they were silent for a time, thinking of what would happen once they returned. "Well, I trust that your many friends are pleased that you're back?" Faith uncomfortably stirred her tea, unable to meet his keen stare.
"I have few friends here," she said finally. Hatter looked up.
"Count me to be among them. Accurately. Oh, pardon. Honestly, I mean." Faith raised an eyebrow. He went on. "Oh, sorry again, I quite forgot. You and the truth are not on speaking terms."
"That stung," she said bitterly. "But you aren't the first to use that argument."
"And I won't be the last. Do you fear that?"
"I've given up on fear," she said shortly. "It's done nothing for me."
"A lie, as per usual," he said. "There is much that you fear, simply have not remembered. You dread a return stay in the asylum. You fear killing me."
"Why would I possibly fear that?" she asked coldly.
"Many have warned you that I am an enemy, but deep down, you still think of me as a friend. You remember the fun we all had in your days of innocence and wish them to return. You pretend that they will."
"I do not," she said.
"You do." He leaned forward. "You fear failure, and all it entails. Letting down your friends. The Cheshire Cat's head hung on a wall."
"No," she said quickly. "Cat's smart, he wouldn't let that happen to himself."
"Rabbit's then." Faith froze.
"You won't catch either of them," she whispered.
"Ask them how it ended 200 years ago," he said quietly. "They will tell you of how their speed and craftiness failed."
"No they won't," she muttered. Hatter grinned, put down his watch, and leisurely sipped his tea.
"And why not? They don't want to dishearten you, perchance? No, that cannot possibly be the case. They don't want to tell you of their weakness, and expose you to the truth. Allow me then, as they won't bestow on you that courtesy." Faith covered her ears, but his voice was hypnotic. Slowly they fell back to her sides. "Rabbit abandoned stealth for speed - the very thing that you said would save him was his downfall. He ran across a clearing and wound up on the bottom of someone's shoe... what did you think he meant when he told you that the results 'were very messy'?"
"No..." she groaned. "You could hear us?"
"Every word, until you threw the snark up my trousers," he said, his voice pained. She looked up abruptly.
"You tried to kill us," she hissed. He nodded.
"Mostly Rabbit; a nice little memento. But you were a target."
"Then how can you dare call yourself my friend?" she asked furiously, standing and kicking back her chair.
"Now my dear, do calm down. Sit." She sat but drew her knife, holding it at the ready underneath the table. "And the Cheshire Cat. He made the mistake of sitting in clear view of the Queen's throne room. A huge tactical error on his part. His craftiness... or lack thereof, in that instance, was what kicked his bucket." Faith's head sunk into her hand. "Stop deluding yourself that your friends are infallible," he said softly. Faith was silent, thinking of nothing to say in return. Satisfied, he tinkered with his watch.
"It is almost precise," he said, holding it up. "But it is still not accurate enough..."
"You're obsessed," she said disgustedly.
"Ah, but who's fault is it that I got that way? Are you going to blame everyone but yourself again?"
Faith was silent again. "You're horrible," she said. Her voice broke.
"No, I'm not," he said. "I'm mad."
"You're sick!" she burst out. "You walk through that... that trophy room of heads every day to get in here, you experiment on these people and murder them when they're of no more use; you're disgusting!"
He held up his cup. "Cheers," he said mildly. She stared at him, unmoving.
"No," she said icily. "There's absolutely nothing to cheer about."
"Quite right," he agreed. "Wonderland is not completed, and my clocks are not as precise as they should be."
"Perhaps you could tinker with mine," she said, removing a watch and sliding it across the table. "I'm afraid it's almost forty seconds off." He recoiled and stared at her.
"That's not very nice," he said, glancing down at it. "Giving a body an inaccurate watch."
"The entire point is to see if you can fix it," she said dryly. He looked up at her.
"Oh."
He tinkered with it for a few minutes, and slid it back to her. She held it up to her ear, hearing the now-rhythmic tick, tick, tick. She looked at the face and compared the time on it with the teakettle's. They matched perfectly.
"Impressive," she said.
"Not terribly," he said dismissively. "It took me many hours to program the one in the arena."
"I can imagine, if it's the most accurate clock in Wonderland as you said." He smiled, pleased.
"You remembered."
"You only said a moment ago."
"Ah, but the unassisted human mind with a good memory is terribly hard to find these days. More tea?"
"Just a bit," she said. The teakettle walked over and refilled her cup halfway.
"Cheers," he said, holding his cup up.
"To what?"
"To Wonderland, and whatever may befall it in the future. Do you have something you'd care to add?"
"No," she said, and held her cup up.
Hatter raised his. "My dear..."
"Yes?"
"I must confess, you do know the reason you're here?"
"Of course."
"Then you do know that I must kill you." There was a dark light in his eyes.
"You can try," she said, gripping her knife.
"I intend to," he said, and pulled a lever by his chair. Faith heard the sound of a mechanized saw and instinctively dived out of her chair. It was in very neat halves a moment later, and she jumped up. A circular saw had just sunk out of sight through a narrow gap in the floor.
Her teacup wobbled precariously on the edge of the table and fell, landing with the sharp clink of breaking china. Hatter looked over at her.
"You realise what we must do now," he said. She nodded.
"Teatime's over."
"Jeremy!! Where the hell are you?!"
"Uh... how can I help?" he asked, staring at the thing.
"Distract it while I figure out how to kill the damn thing!" she yelled, evading more saws and climbing up onto a pedestal that housed a bust of Hatter.
"Oh yeah. He's dead, he can't feel it," Jeremy said grouchily, and jumped in front of it. "Hey, you! Get your poky little saws AWAY from my sister!" It started chasing him around, and she watched it, looking for some type of weakness.
There seemed to be a small crack just behind its 'eye', and she grabbed her jacks. For this type of thing, she needed something that would enable her to aim. She directed her will to where she wanted them to go, and threw them.
They headed straight for it, and succeeded in creating a gaping hole. "Awesome!" Jeremy yelled, diving to his left to avoid the saws. "Kill it again!"
"But it's not dead yet!" she yelled back.
"Then CHANGE that!" he yelled, jumping backwards. She nodded and took out the ice wand.
"Jeremy! Get it close this way!" He jumped towards her and the machine followed, rather slowly. She fired at it, and it shorted out as the ice hit its gears. It crashed to the floor, and Jeremy climbed up and sat. Faith dropped into a sitting position as well, and they stared at the ruins of the nasty little machine. "That was a bit close," she said. He nodded. "Got any idea where that key would be? It'll be shaped like a gear about this big," she said, holding her hands about six inches apart.
He jumped down and rifled around inside the machine. "Nope, these are all too small," he said calmly. "Shall I zoom around again?"
She shook her head. "You're tired. Go ahead and retreat for a bit. It shouldn't be too difficult, anyway. Gryphon said that it would be in this tower."
He nodded and vanished.
Faith started climbing the staircase, watching for any more small, flying machines. That first one was probably a fluke; Hatter seemed too careful to allow his machines to be cracked like that. She sighed and came to the first doorway and opened it. It was dark inside the room, and she closed the door as she looked for a light. She took out the jackbomb, opened the door, and tossed it in. Once it reappeared in her hand, she searched for a stick of some sort. Relieved as Cat would be to discover her back in Wonderland, she doubted that he would appreciate her using a piece of the eye scythe as a torch.
She poked around, and finally grabbed the knife and hacked away at the thin wooden banister, until the end of it came off, then checked to see if she still had any of the card guards' rags. She was lucky in that aspect, and she doused it in the very remainder of that alcoholic drink, and tossed the jackbomb some ways away and held the stick up to it. It caught easily, owing to the alcohol, no doubt, and she walked into the room.
It seemed rather a trophy room, filled with the heads of various successful experiments, and she gagged. So many heads... she saw Ray and the other little dwarf she'd met in the maze, and moaned. Their blank faces stared sightlessly ahead of them, their mouths open and slightly askew. She shuddered and turned away, deciding that the key was definitely NOT in there. Then she saw it, at the far end. Hatter probably had to walk in here every time to get it... which was probably the point, she realised. To get to it, she had to pass probably every single head. As she got nearer, she saw a head that seemed a bit... Ogod, and she threw herself back. Del...
She buried her head in her knees, horrified and trying to clear out her mind... Del's face still lingered in her head, though, now alive, now dead, now alive again.
She shivered and stood, making her way to the key as quickly as she could, determined not to look left or right. God, what a sicko he'd become... She grabbed the key and rushed out, flying down the stairs, and out into the fresh air, where she promptly retched over the side of the bridge. Then she heard a strangled, disgusted, masculine-yet-girly scream, and realised that she had just thrown up all over Maggot some twenty-thirty feet down.
She couldn't help but chuckle at that, disgusting as it was, and she wiped her mouth and spit, hoping to clear her mouth of the bad taste. "Ulgh..." she grimaced, as that strategy helped, but didn't entirely work.
"Who did this to me?! Some trespasser, no doubt!" Maggot yelled. As Faith didn't want him to be the next one to know that he was in Wonderland, she ran across the bridge and shoved the key in the hole and turned it. The gate clanked open and she dashed inside, grabbing the key, which came out the other side. There was a lever next to it, in the 'up' position, and she jumped up, pulling it down. The gate clanked closed just as Maggot reached it, and she pressed herself into an alcove. "Hatter! Is this your idea of a JOKE?!" he yelled, left eye twitching. Faith smirked, rather amused at seeing him so irate.
"Yes, dear Maggot?" Hatter asked sarcastically, coming out from the tower. Faith's legs buckled, realising that they had been in the same building.
"Did you throw something on me?!"
"Of course not. I've been in the tower, examining my latest creation. Now, why don't you leave and clean up, and return my key to me?"
"I don't have your bloody key," Maggot snarled. "Someone is in your arena!"
Hatter glared, the rage in his face incomparable to that in his eyes. "Nobody could have entered without my knowing," he hissed. "You're lying."
"I am not! I came up here to see who had done this to me and the gate closed just as I reached it!"
Hatter growled. "Leave us," he said. "I will deal with the intruder."
"How, the gate is locked!"
"I am not the master of this place for nothing," Hatter snapped. Maggot nodded slowly, and at a glare from Hatter, departed to go clean himself up.
Hatter turned to the gates. "Open," he snapped, and they obeyed. He stalked in, moving quickly despite his limp, hunting for the intruder. Faith pressed herself into the shadows, more than a little nervous. Frankly speaking, she was terrified.
Hatter turned, a bit confused, and upon finding no one at cursory glance, decided to give Maggot the benefit of the doubt by sending in some of the automatons to check.
Faith saw him leaving and jumped out. "Hatter!" she called. Her voice cracked. He turned to face her.
"Faith," he said, stunned. "You've returned..."
"Yes; neither your little serum nor Reynald's hypnosis could keep me out forever." She didn't feel half as brave as she was pretending to be. He nodded.
"I didn't expect them to - I'd more expected it to be your age. But I'll confess, you're much stronger... and cleverer than the Queen gives you credit for."
"Or you give me credit for," she snapped.
"Of course. Won't you join me for a cup of tea? We can talk then... and the inevitable afterwards. You're just in time, after all." Faith nodded.
"Why not?" she shrugged. "Not many of my enemies have ever given me the opportunity to speak a few words with them."
He courteously took her arm and guided her to the tower at the opposite end of the arena. They climbed the stairs to the top, not speaking a word to each other, and Hatter opened the door to the tearoom, giving her the left end of the table. Faith glanced out of the large window. The view was amazingly vast, and equally depressing. The sky was a deep purple-grey, and the deep red sun shone through where black clouds parted, creating deep orange-red beams that gave an unnatural tone to the diseased-looking world below. A walking teakettle served the two, and Faith sniffed hers carefully before tasting it. It was hot, but not acidic.
"Well. How did you spend your six months in exile?" Hatter asked politely.
"Quite well, thanks," she replied civilly. Each regarded the other, never taking their eyes away. Watching for sudden, untrustworthy movement.
"More sugar in your tea, my dear?"
"Yes, thanks." The sugar bowl hopped over, dropping two lumps in. "What have you been doing lately?" she asked him. Besides trying to get everyone I love killed, she mentally added.
"Merely a few experiments," he said with a smirk. "I have created the most accurate clock in Wonderland. I'm quite proud of it."
"Oh really? I shall have to look at it sometime."
"It is located in the arena," he said, and they were silent for a time, thinking of what would happen once they returned. "Well, I trust that your many friends are pleased that you're back?" Faith uncomfortably stirred her tea, unable to meet his keen stare.
"I have few friends here," she said finally. Hatter looked up.
"Count me to be among them. Accurately. Oh, pardon. Honestly, I mean." Faith raised an eyebrow. He went on. "Oh, sorry again, I quite forgot. You and the truth are not on speaking terms."
"That stung," she said bitterly. "But you aren't the first to use that argument."
"And I won't be the last. Do you fear that?"
"I've given up on fear," she said shortly. "It's done nothing for me."
"A lie, as per usual," he said. "There is much that you fear, simply have not remembered. You dread a return stay in the asylum. You fear killing me."
"Why would I possibly fear that?" she asked coldly.
"Many have warned you that I am an enemy, but deep down, you still think of me as a friend. You remember the fun we all had in your days of innocence and wish them to return. You pretend that they will."
"I do not," she said.
"You do." He leaned forward. "You fear failure, and all it entails. Letting down your friends. The Cheshire Cat's head hung on a wall."
"No," she said quickly. "Cat's smart, he wouldn't let that happen to himself."
"Rabbit's then." Faith froze.
"You won't catch either of them," she whispered.
"Ask them how it ended 200 years ago," he said quietly. "They will tell you of how their speed and craftiness failed."
"No they won't," she muttered. Hatter grinned, put down his watch, and leisurely sipped his tea.
"And why not? They don't want to dishearten you, perchance? No, that cannot possibly be the case. They don't want to tell you of their weakness, and expose you to the truth. Allow me then, as they won't bestow on you that courtesy." Faith covered her ears, but his voice was hypnotic. Slowly they fell back to her sides. "Rabbit abandoned stealth for speed - the very thing that you said would save him was his downfall. He ran across a clearing and wound up on the bottom of someone's shoe... what did you think he meant when he told you that the results 'were very messy'?"
"No..." she groaned. "You could hear us?"
"Every word, until you threw the snark up my trousers," he said, his voice pained. She looked up abruptly.
"You tried to kill us," she hissed. He nodded.
"Mostly Rabbit; a nice little memento. But you were a target."
"Then how can you dare call yourself my friend?" she asked furiously, standing and kicking back her chair.
"Now my dear, do calm down. Sit." She sat but drew her knife, holding it at the ready underneath the table. "And the Cheshire Cat. He made the mistake of sitting in clear view of the Queen's throne room. A huge tactical error on his part. His craftiness... or lack thereof, in that instance, was what kicked his bucket." Faith's head sunk into her hand. "Stop deluding yourself that your friends are infallible," he said softly. Faith was silent, thinking of nothing to say in return. Satisfied, he tinkered with his watch.
"It is almost precise," he said, holding it up. "But it is still not accurate enough..."
"You're obsessed," she said disgustedly.
"Ah, but who's fault is it that I got that way? Are you going to blame everyone but yourself again?"
Faith was silent again. "You're horrible," she said. Her voice broke.
"No, I'm not," he said. "I'm mad."
"You're sick!" she burst out. "You walk through that... that trophy room of heads every day to get in here, you experiment on these people and murder them when they're of no more use; you're disgusting!"
He held up his cup. "Cheers," he said mildly. She stared at him, unmoving.
"No," she said icily. "There's absolutely nothing to cheer about."
"Quite right," he agreed. "Wonderland is not completed, and my clocks are not as precise as they should be."
"Perhaps you could tinker with mine," she said, removing a watch and sliding it across the table. "I'm afraid it's almost forty seconds off." He recoiled and stared at her.
"That's not very nice," he said, glancing down at it. "Giving a body an inaccurate watch."
"The entire point is to see if you can fix it," she said dryly. He looked up at her.
"Oh."
He tinkered with it for a few minutes, and slid it back to her. She held it up to her ear, hearing the now-rhythmic tick, tick, tick. She looked at the face and compared the time on it with the teakettle's. They matched perfectly.
"Impressive," she said.
"Not terribly," he said dismissively. "It took me many hours to program the one in the arena."
"I can imagine, if it's the most accurate clock in Wonderland as you said." He smiled, pleased.
"You remembered."
"You only said a moment ago."
"Ah, but the unassisted human mind with a good memory is terribly hard to find these days. More tea?"
"Just a bit," she said. The teakettle walked over and refilled her cup halfway.
"Cheers," he said, holding his cup up.
"To what?"
"To Wonderland, and whatever may befall it in the future. Do you have something you'd care to add?"
"No," she said, and held her cup up.
Hatter raised his. "My dear..."
"Yes?"
"I must confess, you do know the reason you're here?"
"Of course."
"Then you do know that I must kill you." There was a dark light in his eyes.
"You can try," she said, gripping her knife.
"I intend to," he said, and pulled a lever by his chair. Faith heard the sound of a mechanized saw and instinctively dived out of her chair. It was in very neat halves a moment later, and she jumped up. A circular saw had just sunk out of sight through a narrow gap in the floor.
Her teacup wobbled precariously on the edge of the table and fell, landing with the sharp clink of breaking china. Hatter looked over at her.
"You realise what we must do now," he said. She nodded.
"Teatime's over."