The two stood in the arena, not speaking. Suddenly he moved, faster than she thought possible, and tried to strike her head with the grip on his cane. She sidestepped and lost her footing, but rolled back and leapt up. He laughed and she threw the knife but he swatted it away. "Is that the best you have, my dear?" She leapt closer, evading his swinging cane and slashed at him, but his other hand suddenly whipped at her from her right and smacked her away.
She fell and rolled, trying to evade his cane, which he was using like a sledgehammer. Thwack! Thwack! Its head crashed onto the ground and she jumped up and caught hold of it as he was raising it. She was propelled over his head and landed relatively safely behind him, crouching. Then she turned and threw her knife at him again. Again it was swatted away.
"You honestly think you can beat me?" he asked, cackling maniacally. "You're wrong there. Quite wrong."
"Like hell I can't," she snarled and took out her ice wand. He threw a teacup at her and she formed a wall of ice in front of her. It crashed against the wall and acidic tea splashed around. Some of it arched over the wall, splashing around her and eroding tiny canyons in the ground and eating through the ice. She jumped away from the splashes and threw the knife yet again. He moved, surprisingly quickly and was on her side of the wall in no time.
"Your knife is no use against me," he mocked. "I can easily figure out exactly where it is meant to hit and hence, use my cane to block it."
She gnashed her teeth in frustration and dived to the other side of the wall as he shot a missile at her. "You're not going to survive this," she warned him, hands searching for another weapon.
"Then why is it that I'm on the offensive?" he asked, grinning. She yelled and threw the two dice. A new demon came out this time, spitting fire. It attacked Hatter, and Faith ran back, trying to figure out how to beat him.
Hatter's clock struck and Hatter looked up. "Sorry dear girl. It's teatime." And vanished. But she wasn't alone with the demon, fortunately. Two automatons appeared and started attacking, and she dived, trying to evade their attacks. It was Hatter she wanted, not them. Bothering with them would be a waste of energy.
She suddenly looked over at a mirror Hatter had mounted in an odd place and threw her knife at it. It shattered, as did the machine behind it.
"Your knife is no good," his voice rang in her head.
The clock chimed again and the automatons collapsed suddenly. Before she could react it struck again, and Hatter dropped from the clock, hitting a button on his cane. Rockets shot out and landed around her. Faith was caught in the middle, and the ground beneath her rocked from the force of the explosions. She fell and he aimed at her and fired again.
Using a last-ditch effort, she threw herself out of the way. The jacks' ball flew out from inside her sleeve, and even as she reached for it, the jacks followed, zooming around wildly. They flew at Hatter, pummelling him from every angle, every possible direction and he screamed in horror. "Nasty little cheat!" he yelled. "Now you're going to kill me, just as you did everyone else dear to you!"
She didn't call off the jacks for a little while, but eventually they zoomed back of their own accord. Hatter staggered back. "Just like everyone you ever loved," he hissed. "You're going to be the death of your friends; the Cheshire Cat, the Rabbit... me. You were the death of Del, of your family."
"Try something new, it's everything I've heard before," she snapped.
He launched another teacup at her. "Destroy me, Faith, and you destroy the order that you have worked so hard to create. The ordered world that means so much to you will be nothing if I die." Then he vanished once again. Faith whirled around and looked at the clock. Six o'clock, on the dot. That was fast... she hadn't fought him all that long. Then she saw that it was going faster than usual, six times as fast. He probably anticipated on this being a fast fight, she realised. Well... she wasn't going to give him that satisfaction.
"Six will end early today, Hatter." A rocket whistled past her ear and she dodged as an automaton rolled quickly towards her. She ran to the other end and waited, crouched in the alcove, until Hatter returned.
She looked up and through a window just above the giant clock, she saw him, sipping his tea leisurely and checking his wounds. "Coward," she muttered.
"Destroy me, and you destroy the order that you have worked so hard to create..." she shook her head, trying to force that thought out. But she thought back to how routine she had made sure her life had become. Always went to bed at a certain time, stayed up until a certain time, woke up at a certain time. She had a schedule, as well. If there was anything to do on that day, it would be written inside of it. It would be followed carefully. If something was unexpected or unplanned, she bore it, but generally afterwards there would be a panic attack of some sort.
Her visit with Halden had been spontaneous, impromptu. And it had turned her world upside-down. Suddenly she had missed her set dinnertime, her bedtime... and she'd been up most of the night in a daze, with nightmares. No. She needed order, and if Hatter was speaking the truth... she couldn't stand a world without order. It had to be there, plain and simple.
But Hatter was evil, she reasoned with herself. There could be no truce. If he didn't die, she did, and living as a vegetable the rest of her life would be worse than living day to day spontaneously. And maybe, maybe if he was evil, the order in her life was evil too. She looked up at him again, and glared. She would beat him.
Hatter reappeared and saw her, lost in her musings, and smiled. Now was the time. Now was the time to wipe Faith out once and for all, and to make sure that his world stayed perfectly ordered. She had caught him by surprise with the jacks, they had been so unpredictable and so... disordered. He shuddered slightly. Such a thing was not supposed to happen.
He readied his rockets, taking careful aim. Three... two...one...his watch stopped. He stared at it in disbelief and started tinkering with it, until he got it to work again. He looked up, prepared to fire, but Faith wasn't there. He looked wildly around. There she was, wandering aimlessly at the edge. He fired and they went through her and she shattered, and he froze, seeing the mirror break.
Hatter whirled around, looking for the source, and Faith leapt down at him from another alcove, shoving him to the ground, using her knife to knock away his cane. They hit the ground, harder than expected, and she somersaulted over him and landed, standing over him. He grabbed one of his teacups and threw it at her, but she jumped away, and he was left, covered in his acidic tea. He howled, and saw Faith contemplating his giant clock.
"Most accurate in Wonderland," he had bragged, she remembered that. She looked over at him and coldly repeated what he'd said, but inwardly she was nervous. This would either destroy him or push him over the edge. She was willing to take that risk.
She took out her knife and threw it, shattering the glass that covered it. Hatter froze. She looked at him again and took out the jacks. Now was the time. She looked up at the clock, held her breath, and let the jacks fly. He screamed, and it sounded like a wild animal, barely even human. He looked up, and his eyes were slits... and they were beyond homicidal. She read his thoughts clearly, and knew that unless she killed him, her death was likely to be very slow and painful. She'd pushed him over the edge.
He stood, crouching slightly, and took up his cane, his finger firmly on the rocket-launcher button. Then it pressed down. Again and again, and Faith found herself very hard-pressed to avoid them. One exploded at her feet and she flew back twenty feet, crashing in to the wall. She groaned and tried to get up, but was too breathless for the moment.
She let the jacks loose, and they pummelled him, over and over again. He broke off his attacks to bat them away frantically, screaming whenever one touched him in an unexpected place, at an undeterminable angle. When they stopped, however, he advanced on her with renewed fury and she backed up nervously. "Oh god..." she muttered, and shoved the jacks back into her sleeve. Were they hurting him at all?!
Keep using new attacks. Adapt. He's totally mad now, and mad people adapt easily, she reminded herself. Reynald's case files were coming in handy after all, she thought with an ironic grin, but was soon on the run again as he lobbed teacup after teacup full of acidic tea at her. Finally she took out the ice wand and ran closer, and fired.
He groaned with pain and she flew back as his cane connected with the corner of her forehead, but was up and ready soon again. Looking around in her arsenal, she saw the jackbomb. She took it out, cranked it, threw it, and waited between it and Hatter. It started, belching out flames, and Hatter walked through. "Bitch," he growled, ignoring the flames scorching him. "You destroy without feeling, without comprehending how much work went into something!"
"Stop your whining!" she snapped. "It's only a damn clock."
"Damn clock? No!" he roared and swung his cane at her as hard as he could. It was lucky for her that he missed. "That was my life's work!"
"Even back when you thought that putting butter and jam in a clock's gears would fix it?" she asked in disbelief. Seeing him now, and recalling those memories, brought a sting. A really big, painful sting.
"My new life," he hissed. "When my strength came out, when my obsession began!"
"Yeah? Here's a trick that you can do," she said, evading his cane again. "Square the circle for me."
"Stupid girl," he hissed. "I don't have time to pull off tricks for you. Do it yourself."
"After you're dead," she shrugged. She knew it full well to be impossible. He growled and she leapt away, grabbing the dice. How much did it take to kill this thing?! She rolled it and the lightning demon came out. When it saw Hatter, it gave a shriek and flew back inside. She stared at the dice in disbelief and started yelling all sorts of curses at it, even as Hatter advanced. Finally she held it close to her face.
"If you don't get the hell out here and start doing your bloody duty, I'll bless you!"
It was out in a flash and fighting Hatter for all it was worth. Faith grimaced in exasperation and shook her head.
Hatter was having a tough time defending himself against the weak, but unpredictable demon. But it tired rather quickly and she threw the dice against the floor in frustration at its incompetence. The fire demon shot out, and she wordlessly pointed to the Hatter. It grinned and attacked.
She joined it, using the mallet. Hatter staggered back, severely weakened.
She fell and rolled, trying to evade his cane, which he was using like a sledgehammer. Thwack! Thwack! Its head crashed onto the ground and she jumped up and caught hold of it as he was raising it. She was propelled over his head and landed relatively safely behind him, crouching. Then she turned and threw her knife at him again. Again it was swatted away.
"You honestly think you can beat me?" he asked, cackling maniacally. "You're wrong there. Quite wrong."
"Like hell I can't," she snarled and took out her ice wand. He threw a teacup at her and she formed a wall of ice in front of her. It crashed against the wall and acidic tea splashed around. Some of it arched over the wall, splashing around her and eroding tiny canyons in the ground and eating through the ice. She jumped away from the splashes and threw the knife yet again. He moved, surprisingly quickly and was on her side of the wall in no time.
"Your knife is no use against me," he mocked. "I can easily figure out exactly where it is meant to hit and hence, use my cane to block it."
She gnashed her teeth in frustration and dived to the other side of the wall as he shot a missile at her. "You're not going to survive this," she warned him, hands searching for another weapon.
"Then why is it that I'm on the offensive?" he asked, grinning. She yelled and threw the two dice. A new demon came out this time, spitting fire. It attacked Hatter, and Faith ran back, trying to figure out how to beat him.
Hatter's clock struck and Hatter looked up. "Sorry dear girl. It's teatime." And vanished. But she wasn't alone with the demon, fortunately. Two automatons appeared and started attacking, and she dived, trying to evade their attacks. It was Hatter she wanted, not them. Bothering with them would be a waste of energy.
She suddenly looked over at a mirror Hatter had mounted in an odd place and threw her knife at it. It shattered, as did the machine behind it.
"Your knife is no good," his voice rang in her head.
The clock chimed again and the automatons collapsed suddenly. Before she could react it struck again, and Hatter dropped from the clock, hitting a button on his cane. Rockets shot out and landed around her. Faith was caught in the middle, and the ground beneath her rocked from the force of the explosions. She fell and he aimed at her and fired again.
Using a last-ditch effort, she threw herself out of the way. The jacks' ball flew out from inside her sleeve, and even as she reached for it, the jacks followed, zooming around wildly. They flew at Hatter, pummelling him from every angle, every possible direction and he screamed in horror. "Nasty little cheat!" he yelled. "Now you're going to kill me, just as you did everyone else dear to you!"
She didn't call off the jacks for a little while, but eventually they zoomed back of their own accord. Hatter staggered back. "Just like everyone you ever loved," he hissed. "You're going to be the death of your friends; the Cheshire Cat, the Rabbit... me. You were the death of Del, of your family."
"Try something new, it's everything I've heard before," she snapped.
He launched another teacup at her. "Destroy me, Faith, and you destroy the order that you have worked so hard to create. The ordered world that means so much to you will be nothing if I die." Then he vanished once again. Faith whirled around and looked at the clock. Six o'clock, on the dot. That was fast... she hadn't fought him all that long. Then she saw that it was going faster than usual, six times as fast. He probably anticipated on this being a fast fight, she realised. Well... she wasn't going to give him that satisfaction.
"Six will end early today, Hatter." A rocket whistled past her ear and she dodged as an automaton rolled quickly towards her. She ran to the other end and waited, crouched in the alcove, until Hatter returned.
She looked up and through a window just above the giant clock, she saw him, sipping his tea leisurely and checking his wounds. "Coward," she muttered.
"Destroy me, and you destroy the order that you have worked so hard to create..." she shook her head, trying to force that thought out. But she thought back to how routine she had made sure her life had become. Always went to bed at a certain time, stayed up until a certain time, woke up at a certain time. She had a schedule, as well. If there was anything to do on that day, it would be written inside of it. It would be followed carefully. If something was unexpected or unplanned, she bore it, but generally afterwards there would be a panic attack of some sort.
Her visit with Halden had been spontaneous, impromptu. And it had turned her world upside-down. Suddenly she had missed her set dinnertime, her bedtime... and she'd been up most of the night in a daze, with nightmares. No. She needed order, and if Hatter was speaking the truth... she couldn't stand a world without order. It had to be there, plain and simple.
But Hatter was evil, she reasoned with herself. There could be no truce. If he didn't die, she did, and living as a vegetable the rest of her life would be worse than living day to day spontaneously. And maybe, maybe if he was evil, the order in her life was evil too. She looked up at him again, and glared. She would beat him.
Hatter reappeared and saw her, lost in her musings, and smiled. Now was the time. Now was the time to wipe Faith out once and for all, and to make sure that his world stayed perfectly ordered. She had caught him by surprise with the jacks, they had been so unpredictable and so... disordered. He shuddered slightly. Such a thing was not supposed to happen.
He readied his rockets, taking careful aim. Three... two...one...his watch stopped. He stared at it in disbelief and started tinkering with it, until he got it to work again. He looked up, prepared to fire, but Faith wasn't there. He looked wildly around. There she was, wandering aimlessly at the edge. He fired and they went through her and she shattered, and he froze, seeing the mirror break.
Hatter whirled around, looking for the source, and Faith leapt down at him from another alcove, shoving him to the ground, using her knife to knock away his cane. They hit the ground, harder than expected, and she somersaulted over him and landed, standing over him. He grabbed one of his teacups and threw it at her, but she jumped away, and he was left, covered in his acidic tea. He howled, and saw Faith contemplating his giant clock.
"Most accurate in Wonderland," he had bragged, she remembered that. She looked over at him and coldly repeated what he'd said, but inwardly she was nervous. This would either destroy him or push him over the edge. She was willing to take that risk.
She took out her knife and threw it, shattering the glass that covered it. Hatter froze. She looked at him again and took out the jacks. Now was the time. She looked up at the clock, held her breath, and let the jacks fly. He screamed, and it sounded like a wild animal, barely even human. He looked up, and his eyes were slits... and they were beyond homicidal. She read his thoughts clearly, and knew that unless she killed him, her death was likely to be very slow and painful. She'd pushed him over the edge.
He stood, crouching slightly, and took up his cane, his finger firmly on the rocket-launcher button. Then it pressed down. Again and again, and Faith found herself very hard-pressed to avoid them. One exploded at her feet and she flew back twenty feet, crashing in to the wall. She groaned and tried to get up, but was too breathless for the moment.
She let the jacks loose, and they pummelled him, over and over again. He broke off his attacks to bat them away frantically, screaming whenever one touched him in an unexpected place, at an undeterminable angle. When they stopped, however, he advanced on her with renewed fury and she backed up nervously. "Oh god..." she muttered, and shoved the jacks back into her sleeve. Were they hurting him at all?!
Keep using new attacks. Adapt. He's totally mad now, and mad people adapt easily, she reminded herself. Reynald's case files were coming in handy after all, she thought with an ironic grin, but was soon on the run again as he lobbed teacup after teacup full of acidic tea at her. Finally she took out the ice wand and ran closer, and fired.
He groaned with pain and she flew back as his cane connected with the corner of her forehead, but was up and ready soon again. Looking around in her arsenal, she saw the jackbomb. She took it out, cranked it, threw it, and waited between it and Hatter. It started, belching out flames, and Hatter walked through. "Bitch," he growled, ignoring the flames scorching him. "You destroy without feeling, without comprehending how much work went into something!"
"Stop your whining!" she snapped. "It's only a damn clock."
"Damn clock? No!" he roared and swung his cane at her as hard as he could. It was lucky for her that he missed. "That was my life's work!"
"Even back when you thought that putting butter and jam in a clock's gears would fix it?" she asked in disbelief. Seeing him now, and recalling those memories, brought a sting. A really big, painful sting.
"My new life," he hissed. "When my strength came out, when my obsession began!"
"Yeah? Here's a trick that you can do," she said, evading his cane again. "Square the circle for me."
"Stupid girl," he hissed. "I don't have time to pull off tricks for you. Do it yourself."
"After you're dead," she shrugged. She knew it full well to be impossible. He growled and she leapt away, grabbing the dice. How much did it take to kill this thing?! She rolled it and the lightning demon came out. When it saw Hatter, it gave a shriek and flew back inside. She stared at the dice in disbelief and started yelling all sorts of curses at it, even as Hatter advanced. Finally she held it close to her face.
"If you don't get the hell out here and start doing your bloody duty, I'll bless you!"
It was out in a flash and fighting Hatter for all it was worth. Faith grimaced in exasperation and shook her head.
Hatter was having a tough time defending himself against the weak, but unpredictable demon. But it tired rather quickly and she threw the dice against the floor in frustration at its incompetence. The fire demon shot out, and she wordlessly pointed to the Hatter. It grinned and attacked.
She joined it, using the mallet. Hatter staggered back, severely weakened.