This was It

by mercurymadness

Alice has fallen…killed by the Hatter himself. Now her replacement, Emily, is sent to complete the job of cleansing Wonderland…but will she survive this fight? Rated R for violence and swears.Disclaimer: I own none of the characters in American McGee

This was it......

It was time.....

Time is waiting.....

I crossed the line.....

Hmmmmm......

I stepped warily into the arena, expecting a trap of some sort. There was none. The ticking of the clocks were making me paranoid, again. I hated the clocks. There were so many here, all ticking at a precise time, not one second out of place. Something floated in the center of the arena, in a softly glowing light. My prize: the next piece of the Jabberwocks Eye Staff. The piece that poor Alice never collected, that was almost within her grasp, until someone snuffed out her life with a cruelty that startled even me. How foolish to incur my wrath, the mad little son of a bitch.

But he wasn't the only one that had been foolish. When I had first seen him, it was after I had defeated his two revolting henchmen, Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum. I was a bit shocked to see him at first, but, despite his twisted appearance, his manner was exceedingly charming. In fact, I didn't even know that he was the Mad Hatter. Until it was almost too late....

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry for destroying your hired help," I said to him. "They were very crude and vile creatures. I'm surprised you could associate yourself with the likes of them, if you don't mind me saying...."

"Reliable help is so hard to find these days, I'm afraid," he told me in a well-cultured speak. I love men with accents, though I didn't tell him that. "They were extremely wasteful with the time, though. I was thinking of ridding myself of them well before you came here. Pray tell," he started, taking a step towards me, "why is a young lady such as you wandering around in such a place as this? Indeed, your beauty contrasts quite startlingly with my inventions, and it was very hard not to notice you."

I blushed at these words, hoping with earnest that he didn't notice. Then through the fog I remember the words.......my inventions.

My inventions.........

My inventions.........

My inventions..........

The words echoed in my head with a startling clarity, mostly amplified by shock. This IS the Mad Hatter..............

"You are the Mad Hatter, are you not?" I asked him with a hard edge in my voice. I was remembering what he had done, in Wonderland Woods, the horror of watching rabbit trying to outrun the giant heel that sought to crush him. How it succeeded.....

"Why, yes I am," he said with a bow, "and may I be the first to welcome you to my Asylum."

I was tempted to cut his head off with the Vorpal blade that I clutched in my hand, behind my back, where he couldn't see. I fought the urge, and I forced a smile as he straightened himself out to face me. He's using flattery to get on my good side, I thought. Well it's not going to work. Not on me. Never.

"I have come here to ask you if you have been involved in the murder of a White Rabbit," I said, forcing the hard edge out of my voice and replacing it with as much politeness as I could muster. "He had quite a twitchy nose, shifty eyes, and almost always consulted his pocket watch. He had a phobia for being late, you see."

The Hatter kept the look on his face as pleasant as possible, but something cold entered his eyes, as the realization of who I was entered his mind. He knew that I was Alice's inmate friend, the only one that ever talked to her in her asylum. He knew why I had come. I was Alice's savior, and I was determined to keep it that way.

I turned my head sideways at him, smiling pleasantly into his glassy eyes. "I am quite anxious to find out," I said, letting a cold glint enter my wide eyes, "who has murdered him. And I'm afraid, Hatter, that you are on my suspect list."

The Hatter stared down at me, trying to break my gaze with the coldest glare he could give me. I was not one to be bullied, however. I had experienced quite a bit of it at the asylum already. So I stared back at him.

"I'm afraid that I don't have the slightest idea what you are talking about," the Hatter said quietly. He turned to leave, cane tapping on the stone floor, almost in a hurry to leave me and my inevitable vengeance behind him.

A few seconds before he reached the doorway, I threw my blade. It lodged itself in the doorpost, inches from the Hatters head. He stopped walking, and with an almighty wrench he pulled my blade out of the doorpost. He inspected it warily. I knew he recognized the patterns on the blade. It was Alice's old knife.

He turned slowly towards me, cold fury etched on his face. "What is the meaning of this?" he snarled. "I have answered your questions, and now you are wasting even more of my time. And none of us want that."

He's trying to worm his way out, is he? I'll just have to do something about that..."Hmmm, yes," I agreed. "Time is a cruel mistress." The Hatters eyes widened at the comment. I held in my mirth as he tried to speak in controlled tones, and still trying to be polite with me at the same time.

"Time....is.....a.....he. Not a she, you stupid child"

"I quite object. Time is a she, no doubt about it. Why, you probably have never met her before, haven't you?"

"For you're information, you ignorant witch, I have talked with Time many times before. Time is NOT a she!"

I was getting him pissed off, and I loved every second of it. Soon enough he would toss his politeness to the wind and we would fight. And I would win, I was sure of it.

"Ah yes, Alice has told me about how you got her upset with you. The queen accused you of murdering her, did she not? She became quite upset with you, and she made it so it was always six o'clock, didn't she?"

The Hatter was breathing quite heavily now, enraged at my insults, yet knowing better than to insult me back. Good.

"Why is it that you insult me here? I've done nothing to you or your little rabbit friend. Why don't you just leave!?"

"You know why, Hatter! You recognize the patterns on the blade, you know who the white rabbit is, and you know that you are the one who killed him!" I stood, shaking with rage and pointing an accusing finger at the Hatter. "Fight me, you coward! Fight me and die like the dog you are!"

The blade appeared in my clenched fist, and I held it up for him to see. I let him see the madness in my eyes that wasn't just because my sanity was low.

Much to my surprise, the Hatter spread his arms in a gesture of helplessness, a look of pure innocence on his scarred face. He was staring back at me with pleading eyes. He had somehow swallowed his rage that he had felt just a few moments ago. Impressive.

"Emily, have you ever heard of the saying 'innocent until proven guilty?' What proof do you have that I was the one who killed your friend?"

He had me there. I was just so sure that he was the one who did it. Now I wasn't so sure. Goddamn it...he did have a point. The day that a crazed psychopath has a better point that I do...I thought that I would never see it come. Until today.

"I......don't know. I...I just thought that, well, you being a Mad Hatter and all...that you would have something to do with it..."

"A name can oft be more deceiving than the nature of one, don't you agree?" the Hatter said with a disarming smile, "True, I may be mad, but aren't we all? Is that so bad?"

My left eyebrow started twitching. Oooh, damn his scabberous hide. In his last words, I could tell that he was purposefully extending his accent. He had seen me blush, the evil bastard.

I lowered my blade, the trembling subsiding momentarily. He was backing me into a corner that I couldn't get out of. Doubt began to encircle my mind, like choking, oily black smoke. Maybe he is innocent...

"No......" I said carefully, "I suppose not. I'm half mad myself, and I'm the only one among the rest of the inmates that actually seems to enjoy it." I looked up at the Hatter. "Is that normal, do you think?"

"Perfectly," he answered. He began to slowly walk towards me. "Perhaps, in one way or another, you belong here. We're all mad here, you know..."

He came to stand a yard or two in front of me. "I hope, since you're list of allies and friends are critically short, that you would count me to be among them. Who knows what we could accomplish, you and I?"

He offered me his arm. I shrank back from it at first, not wanting to touch the slightly bloodstained glove, but, mustering up my courage, I accepted his offer.

"Let me show you a few of my inventions," he said as we began to walk out the door, "and perhaps, if it pleases you, I could make you my newest assistant. Would you like that?"

I nodded my head, and relaxed a bit more as he guided me into the hallway. Perhaps I had found a friend here, in this murderous psyche, which wouldn't abandon me at the first sign of trouble, or would run away when I needed him most. Everything seemed alright again....

Ah, I was a naïve fool to trust the likes of him, however. Soon enough I would see what he really had planned for me...

He showed me almost every part of his asylum, patiently explaining everything from the numerous inventions that he had constructed, to the insane children inhabiting the many padded cells. I had asked him why the little children were insane, and why they were confined here, and not anywhere else. That's when the son of a bitch turned on me.

"They dwell here because no one wants them," the Hatter said, and, for the first time, a hint of cruelty entered his voice. "Many of them are the subjects of my experiments."

"That seems rather cruel, Hatter," I said to him, "What kind of experiments do you perform on them? And do they feel anything?"

"The insane are past the ability to feel pain, Emily. As for the experiments..." He pushed open a door at the end of the hall. "I've saved them for last."

I looked around the room with, at first, mild curiosity, like I had with every other room that I had toured. Then the curiosity turned to terror as I realized what it contained.

The room was paneled with sterling silver plates, bloodied and covered in god-knows-what else. Clocks were ticking in all corners, out of reach from the flying body fluids. But what horrified me the most was the operating tables, and what was strapped down to them.

The first creature I saw was a large mouse, a dormouse to be exact. But it was a horribly mangled thing, with plates of metal covering its body in random places. The skin on its torso had been cut through the center and stapled down on either side of the operating table, and the entrails that were supposed to be there were replaced with a wide collection of assorted gears, springs, and pistons. The things eyes were fluttering, as if it was caught between the horror of reality and the dark grip of sleep. They finally closed, though my eyes were wide in terror of the sight.

As I walked further into the room, there were two other experiments. One was a hare, strapped to the wall above a small pool of water. His appearance was also horrifying, as it could have rivaled the dormouse. His torso was also missing, and was replaced by nearly the same gears, springs and pistons that the Dormouse sported. His lower lip was stretched out, pulled down, and stapled cruelly to his chest. His eyes were crusted over with some kind of film, like the kind a dead fish has. Apparently he could not blink his eyes. One of his legs was missing, and was replaced by a blade-like piece of metal. This could not stop twitching.

I turned my eyes to the last table, but not before I felt a sharp pain. I looked down to see a large syringe protruding from my side. I felt the stomach-turning feeling of something being injected. I looked with shocked eyes to the Hatter. He was slowly pushing the medication, or whatever it was, into me. I knew better that to move. God knows where that needle could be lodged...

"Why... Hatter?" I choked out. His face was impassive as he did the deed.

"You'll see," he whispered into my ear. "I have plans for you, Emily."

I felt my knees buckle, and then crumple out from under me. And the last thing that I could remember was hitting the ground in a dead faint, his face leering over me.

I don't know how long I was out. I mean, that was a huge friggin' syringe, and god knows what was in it.

As I began to wake up, my vision was clouded and blurry, and I was tempted to go back to sleep. I fought against it, even though I didn't really want to know what the Hatter had done to me while I was unconscious.

Emily, you idiot! Why did you trust him in the first place?! I scolded myself. I really thought that he was my friend...maybe he still is. Maybe this is just one big mistake...

My vision began to clear up a bit more, but it came with a price. A massive, throbbing headache invaded my senses, relentlessly hammering away. "Oh, man..." I moaned, as I tried to raise a hand to my face. There was resistance, as if my hand was caught in something. I looked down to see that I had been strapped down to an identical operating table, just a few yards away from the Dormouse.

I raised my head up to get a better look at my body. Luckily, there was no blood on the table I was laying on. My clothes were untouched, thankfully, only a bit rumpled from my fall. My side was bleeding a little from the needle wound, the blood making a little trail over the side of the table. The relentless headache forced me to lower my head back onto the cold metal table. Stupid fucking clocks, I thought miserably. The tick tick ticking of the clocks was amplifying my headache to an unbearable level.

I noticed that the Hare was staring down at me. I stared back at him, trying to make eye-contact through the film on his eyes.

"Is this to be my fate, Hare?" I asked him.

"Unless you have a plan of escape, then I'm afraid so," answered the Hare. "But you need not worry about that for long. Soon you won't be able to escape no matter how hard you try."

"How would I not be able to escape?"

"You still have legs..." he said wistfully. He looked down at his own mangled ones, and exhaled a long, melancholy sigh. "What I wouldn't give for legs again. I'm surprised the Hatter hasn't done away with them yet, you must be very special indeed."

"Special? How am I special? And I'm really not quite sure that the Hatter would do that to me. He's my friend."

Oh, yes, he tells everyone that. He lured us in with the promise of tea and friends. Now look where we are."

The Dormouse echoed his last few words sleepily. "...tea and friends, tea and friends. Pass the tea please. Oh, thank you..." Then he was silent.

"The Hatter is a good friend!" I snapped at him. "I'm sure that this is all a big misunderstanding..."

The Hare shrugged wearily. "Suit yourself, miss, but can you explain what those little trinkets are for?"

He jabbed an ear to the other side of my table. I turned my head to see another smaller table, harmless, except if you counted the things that covered it. Scalpels of all sizes were sticking out of it at odd angles, saws flashed a rusty red, and bottles and jars of miscellaneous chemicals and concoctions lined up in neat rows. There was one thing, though, that caught my eye the most. It was a small list of some sort, words written in dark red:

Hare---Near Completion

Dormy---Near Completion

Alice---Half Completed

Emily---New Experiment

I stared down at the list in numb shock. I nearly forgot to breathe, until I gasped for air.

"No....NO!" I screamed. "He's my friend! He wouldn't.....he just couldn't...."

"He will," said the Hare matter-of-factually, "believe it or not." He paused to let me absorb the awful piece of information. "It's not so bad, miss..." he said in a gentler voice, "you're going to be asleep most of the time. And if you're good, you might even get a spot of tea at tea time."

Everything was going so fast. The realization...the horror...the pounding of my massive headache...

"I need to get out of here," I decided. "I'll go ask the Hatter what this is all about."

I looked down at the straps that bound me. They were leather, faded with age. I could feel that the fibers in the leather had lost their elasticity many years ago. The metal fastenings that connected the leather to the table were rusted and old. I snickered. The Hatter had seriously underestimated my upper-body strength.

I pulled at my right hand and wrist, trying to pull the metal fastenings so that they lined up with my wrist. Then all I would have to do was give a strong jerk to break it. The Hare had laughed at me when I explained my plan to him.

"You can't possibly be that strong," scoffed the Hare. "The Tweedle brothers were strapped down to that very table when the Hatter was torturing them. That's how he got the stupid brutes to work for him in the first place. They couldn't even break free. What makes you think you can?"

"Never underestimate the strength of a woman," I told him in between jerks, "especially one who does two hundred pushups a day out of sheer boredom."

That shut him up for a while.

About ten minutes later, I was ready for the final jerk. I gathered up my energy, concentrating as much as my now receding headache would let me. "One...two...three!"

Snap! The strap broke with a satisfying crack. I raised my arm and stretched my sore muscles, just before the Hare went into ecstatics.

"Oh, lackaday, lackaday, dee! Emily has done it!" he cried out.

"Shhhhh! be quiet! The Hatter might hear you!" I scolded. He seemed to not have noticed my reprimand.

"Three cheers for our savior!" cried the Hare.

"Be quiet, Hare!" I yelled at him, "He's probably on his way thanks to you and your big mouth!"

He went quiet, which was a relief. I unstrapped my left hand, then my legs. I stretched sore muscles, and wished that I could have a nice, hot bath. Something to relax me physically and emotionally. I had the sudden urge to curl up in one of the corners of the room and die. The shock at the sudden betrayal, or at least the disbelief, and the aftermath of the medication left me suddenly very suicidal. I looked thoughtfully at my blade, how sharp it was, and wondered if, with enough force, it could penetrate my breast and end my life...

I put the point to my chest, and tested it warily. It would kill. Why should I continue living if I have to endure the suffering of others? Why?

I really thought about going through with it. The Hare, bless his soul, noticed it.

"I'd suggest before you do that you would open the door," he said to me. He jabbed an ear at the other door that lead out of the room. "You might find something there that will give you the rage to continue fighting. You won't regret it, trust me."

I looked at the door with blank eyes. Oh well, I thought wearily, I might as well look before I die.

I got down from the table, and nearly collapsed. My legs seemed to have been effected by the medication as well, since I could barely control the shaking. So, one step at a time, I made my way to the door and pushed it open.

It was much like the room that I had walked out of, except that it only had one table, right in the center of the room. There was something, or someone, strapped to it. Someone with a blue dress...long brown hair...and black, knee-high boots. The dress was nearly red with blood, shredded, and I could barely tell its color until I got close. The hair was knotted, matted with grease in a few places, and with blood in others. The body was pale white, and I could tell that it was a corpse that lay on the table. But whose?

"Oh my God..." I choked back a sob as I realized who lay on the table. It was Alice's body, but yet it wasn't fully a body anymore. Gears lay inactive in her cold flesh; plates of metal covered her legs and arms. She was beginning to look like the Dormouse, and this was only half completed?!

For an instant I delved deep into a shocked sadness. She looked so frail there, a twisted remnant of who she once was, what she once fought for, and who she succumbed to.

Why? Why would the Hatter want to transform those who he loves into these horrible, twisted things? Why would he betray a possible friend in these dark times? And what kind of ideas does he have for the rest of Wonderland?

The questions spiraled around and around in my mind, like a maddened merry-go-round. Some sane, but some more insane than others, and some that stayed in the middle.

How did she die, I wonder? I looked about her still frame, searching for anything that might have killed her. Then I noticed that her head was bent at an odd angle, compared to the rest of her. Something was jutting out from under the pale skin on Alice's neck. I felt the bulge warily. It was her broken spinal cord or her neck if you don't want to be technical.

A flashback of some sort pushed into my mind. I gasped and tried to push it away, but it resisted, and I found myself looking through Alice's eyes moments before she died. I was sitting on the floor of some sort of arena, terrified out of my wits. Something hot and sticky drenched my back, as if I was leaning against someone's bleeding chest I looked down to see a mechanical arm holding me tightly across my chest, against the frenzied beating of my terror-driven heart Something was resting on my shoulder, and out of the corner of my eye I could see the left side of the Hatters face. Something was stroking my hair gently with a gloved hand. He was whispering into my ear...what was he saying?

Shhh...don't...be...afraid...

There was an instant that the pain climaxed on my chest, the terror reaching its utmost point, the feeling of the Hatters hand stopping on my neck...

Then there was nothing.

As the flashback ended I found myself sitting on the floor, leaning up against Alice's table, gasping quite heavily. A great weariness consumed me, not caused by the fading medication. I felt tears welling up in my eyes, and I was powerless to stop them this time. I sobbed, and wept brokenly into my shaking hands. Feelings of despair encircled me; sorrow, loss, and utter loneliness were my only companions in those few moments.

My fit of sobbing only lasted for a few moments, as I remembered the flashback. Hatter...must...DIE...Hatter...must...DIE...Hatter...must...DIE...Hatter...must...DIE......

My eyes began to twitch as my anger rose in a torrent of rage, consuming my senses and turning what was left of my sorrow into pure hatred. I smiled, and laughed a little in my insane way. The Hatter was going to die...how that thought amused me so. And better yet, I was going to be the one to carry it out.

I got up from my little place of mourning, determined to move on to bigger and better things. Thoughts of weapons and sharp little things whirled around and around in my mind. ................................ Cutriptearknivesdeath to wheels and gears....

I began to search the numerous cupboards and drawers in the room, laughing a bit as I did. Insane joy, somehow fueled by the remnants of my rage, gave me increased speed as I searched. Alice had to have more weapons than her blade, I thought with a mad little trill. I know she couldn't have gotten this far with just her blade, oh no no no...

Soon, my search was rewarded with a wealth of weaponry. Deadly jacks, cards, Alice's old Ice Wand, and her old Croquet Mallet were stuffed into one of the largest drawers. But the thing that fascinated me the most was the Blunderbuss.

Longer than a shotgun and with a barrel like a trombone, the Blunderbuss was one hell of a gun. I was surprised that I could lift the goddamn thing; it was lighter than it appeared. The ammo lay nearby, dusty and unused, except for one shell. This, I came to discover, was modified ammunition that the Hatter had made for himself. He had laced the shell with hallucigens and a deadly amount of toxins.

I noticed that the Blunderbuss was loaded...or was still loaded. Was Alice prepared to fire this at him before she fell? Or was the Hatter planning on using it? And on who? The Queen......or me?

I unloaded the plain shell and loaded the toxic shell into the Blunderbuss. It made a satisfying chick-chick as I loaded it. I threw my head back as I laughed again, long and loud, a truly evil laugh that would have given anyone chills if they were to hear it. I was consumed in insane glee, knowing that the Hatter would not live to see another day!

I searched around a little more, and I found syringes of every kind. Toxins and hallucigens, hallucigens and toxins, every one of them was the same. I took them all, even the experimental ones marked DANGEROUS, DO NOT MIX WITH blah blah blah... Screw the labels. I was out to kill, and I needed everything I had to kill my prey. And in one extremely small drawer, I found dusty vials marked ANTIBIOTICS and CONCENTRATED META-ESSENCE. I packed those along as well, careful not to mix them up with the toxins.

I took out a larger needle, and held the point experimentally. I threw it with a practiced hand, and to my delight I discovered that they actually threw better than my blade. Better yet, they injected on impact, so I didn't have to go in close to inject them myself. I knew, somehow, that I was ready to challenge him.

Before I left, I went into the other room to show the Hare how I had outfitted myself. He was extremely pleased with me.

"Spot on, Emily! You'd make Alice proud!" he cheered. I smiled tenderly at him. The poor thing...

"Hare..." I started, "well, since I'm off to defeat the Hatter and, well, you're in so much pain...and no one will be here to take care of you. And I can't take you with me afterwards, you can't even walk..."

"I know where you're going, Emily. You're wondering if it's ok that you put us out of our misery, aren't you?"

I nodded. "Please, Hare, you know that I don't really want to do this. You're the one that showed me the truth about the Hatter; you're the one that gave me the strength to go on. But I don't want you to be here all alone in so much pain..." I walked up to the crippled figure on the wall. My head came up to his midsection. Perfect. "I was wondering if I could give you and Dormy overdoses on the Hatter's toxins. It will be painless if I give you enough, you'll just die in your sleep."

I took out a large syringe that was filled with one of the stronger toxins. "What do you say?"

"Oh, miss..." It took a few seconds, but I realized that he was crying. "Oh Miss, that would be the kindest, most generous thing that I would ever experience here. Please, miss, please go through with it."

I slowly inserted the needle into the Hare's side, secretly thanking myself for watching the nurses give shots to the orderlies. The Hare groaned as I pushed the toxins in. But when I finally pulled it out, I could tell that he was dying. His eyes were even more glazed over than usual, and the clockwork was going slower and slower in his exposed torso.

"Thank you, Emily..." he said with a wheezy breath, "thank you..." The clockwork stopped, and the Hare's head fell forward, dead. A tear trickled down my cheek, but I didn't wipe it away. I had already cried more than I usually had allowed myself to cry, and I still had Dormy to do.

Dormy's death was quick, since he was already half drugged in the first place. I looked at my two dead friends, and wondered...did I do the right thing? Could they have still survived?

I knew, however, that they would have never survived if I just let them go. They were suffering way too much to live. And that it wasn't my fault that they had been transformed in such a horrible way.

I heard padding footsteps behind me. I turned to see Cheshire leaping up on the table I was strapped to, observing the scene with sharp eyes.

"Well, where have you been?" I asked him, slightly annoyed that he had chose to show up now instead of at the time that I needed him.

"I've been...around," he said in an oily voice, "the Hatter's on his way back. You'd better make haste and leave this place before he discovers that you killed his two main experiments. He'll be most...unpleasant with you."

"Have you seen Alice? What she looks like?"

He closed his eyes, as if the memory hurt him. "Yes, yes, I have seen her shattered state. But there's nothing that we can do now about it. You must leave, and leave quickly, before the Hatter discovers that the dogs of war are loose."

"I want to challenge him, Cheshire. I want to kill him for what he did to me, Hare, Dormy, Alice, and everyone else in Wonderland. I WANT HIM TO DIE. And, as you can see, I've suited myself up for it as well."

Cheshire shrugged his lean shoulders. "You may do what you wish; I'm not your keeper. But who says you're strong enough? You might be weaker."

"I know that I'm strong enough, Cheshire. Heck, I'm taller, stronger, and faster than Alice ever was, and probably will ever be. I know I can do this."

"Well, make you're decision quickly," he said as he was about to disappear, "The Hatter cometh, and he is in a very foul mood. Certainly not in the mood to play petty games..." He disappeared completely.

I felt more than I heard the thunderous footsteps that were coming towards the door. I, however, remained unfazed. I sat myself down on my table, waiting, waiting, waiting for him. I gripped my blade, the appetizer for my first attack, in my right hand, the jacks, as the second course, in the other. Bring it on, mother-fucker. Bring it on...

The doors opened, and the Hatter walked in. He stopped as soon as he walked in, however, when he saw me sitting on my table.

"Hello, Hatter," I said sweetly, grinning insanely up into his drawn face. "What took you so long?"

"What are you doing loose, you little wrench?!" he yelled at me. In the few strides he took to reach my table, I was already standing on it, face to face with him.

"You underestimated my strength, Hatter. Some women take that as an insult, you know. You should be...punished for that."

I reached forward swiftly and grabbed him by the neck. He gasped as I hauled him forward a step, surprised at my strength. I whispered into his ear... "Shhh...don't...be...afraid..."

The Hatter tried to pull away from my iron grip, but I pulled him back with such ferocity that he almost fell. I raised my blade to his neck, testing the edge along the tender skin, knowing that underneath was metal, not bone. He gave another gasp, and froze as I pressed the blade down slowly. I knew that he could feel it.

"A life for a life, Hatter? A neck for a neck? You know the old sayings, how they go. Feel how my blade seeks out your flesh, Hatter. It knows that you killed its previous owner. It knows that it is destined to kill you, you gutless worm. Were you thinking that when you killed Alice? Hmmm? Were you, you son of a bitch?"

"NO!"

His cane darted out, throwing me across the table and into the wall. I laughed up at his shaking form, ignoring the pain in my back. Blood flowed from the cut on his neck, tinged with oil floating at the surface. I crossed my legs, and licked the trace of blood from my blade, knowing that much more would be shed before the night was through. This merely served as a relish for my bloodlust, increasing it significantly. But I knew how to control my killing cravings, after killing so many things here.

"How dare you, child! How dare you waste my time with such trivial matters?!"

"How dare I!? It's more like the other way around, if you ask me! How dare you assimilate your companions and friends! How dare you plague this place with your foul inventions and you meaningless obsession over time! How dare you..."

"MEANINGLESS!? MEANINGLESS, SHE SAYS?! You selfish, misbegotten, and unnatural child! If you knew time as well as I, you wouldn't dream of wasting it!"

I got to my feet, shaking once again with rage. "Let... me... FINISH, you talking pile of rusty mechanisms! You ill-oiled, out-of-date, pawn-shop worthy piece of scrap metal!! I know what you fucking did to Alice's body, and not only are you a sick piece of twisted-up welding scrap, YOU ARE A FOOL TO THINK YOU CAN BRING LIFE BACK INTO A BODY WITH A FUCKING BROKEN NECK!!!!!!!!"

Raising my head in a challenging cobra pose, I pointed my blade at him. "I challenge you, Hatter, to the duel that Alice never finished! Having all intentions to finish it for her, of course. And I vow, Hatter, that even if you don't accept my challenge, your top hat will be added to my ever-growing collection of trophies that I've collected in this god-forsaken piece of shit land! WHAT SAY YOU, COWARD!?"

The Hatter paused a moment, eyes shinning with pent-up rage. But then, with surprising swiftness, the light in his eyes vanished. He gave me a strange, twisted up smile, and gestured to the open door.

"Let's see if I can make you choke down those impudent words, Emily. You, and only you, are the only one who has ever dared to insult me in such a manner. Your death, I warn you, will be slow.......painful......excruciating, even."

He gestured to the horrors around him. "This is but a taste of what I can truly achieve. I can do things to you that would seem impossible to live through, but yet you will still be alive, screaming and pleading with me to end your wretched life. Like tearing the wings off a house fly, you will still be alive to watch yourself come undone. Not even Unconsciousness will be able to save you from the pain I will inflict."

I rolled my eyes. "You are a very good teacher, Hatter, but you're not so good at intimidation. Let's just get on with it, shall we?"

The Hatter gave me a fake bow, and an even faker smile. "Then come, and follow me, Emily."

Yeah, and that's why I'm here, in this accursed arena of ticking clocks. Of course, it was up to the Hatter where we fought, and something told me that he wasn't in the mood to argue. I certainly wasn't.

The circular area that was the arena was quite large. At the center, resting slightly under the floor ticked a giant clock that was protected by a thick glass shield. I noticed that it was scratched up quite a bit. Was it from the battle that Alice never finished? I pondered this, until I saw the second piece of the Jabberwocks Eye Staff waiting for me, floating in a glowing white light.

I walked out to the center of the arena, and gently withdrew the second piece from the softly shimmering light. As I fitted it into the first piece of the staff, Cheshire appeared next to me.

"The staff only lacks the Jabberwocks Eye. Though he has two, I understand he's quite fond of them both. I doubt Time will change his mind..."

"Then I will have to do the changing for him, now won't I?" I said, taking out the Croquet Mallet and giving it a few experimental swings. I've handled better, but this would have to do. "Are you going to stay and help me fight, Cheshire? Or are you just going to watch?"

"Neither of course," he said with a sniff. "In fact, if you weren't here, I wouldn't be here in the first place."

"Yeah, neither would I if I had the choice not to be here. But I guess there's no time to argue my point," I said. I looked about myself, puzzled that the Hatter had not showed himself yet. "Speaking of which, what on earth is keeping the Hatter so long? He said he'd be here shortly..."

An earsplitting ringing, like the sound of a gigantic grandfather clock striking an hour, pierced the silence of the arena. I covered my ears, hoping to block the noise out. Failing, I fell to my knees, hands and arms pressed over my ears in a vain attempt to keep out the deafening blare. I don't know how long I was kneeling there in the arena. But when I opened my eyes, the Hatter was standing just a few yards away from me.

I scrambled to my feet, croquet mallet in hand. "What took you so long, Hatter? You weren't...stalling, were you?"

"Accusing me of wasting time is a grave insult, Emily. I'd take it back if I were you."

"Yeah, whatever," I said, brushing aside the threat without much ado. "Anyway, I suppose that there are rules for this duel?"

"Yes, and I will be the one to set them."

"Ah...no. No way. Both you and I will be setting the terms. There's no way that I'm going to let someone like you set all the rules, not while I'm still alive."

"Then we'll just have to do something about that, now won't we?" He took a step towards me. I backed up a bit, not wanting to start the fight just yet.

"Wait. We better make the rules before we try to kill each other like civilized people. We don't want to be in a position where we're at each others throats ungoverned, now do we?"

"I suppose not," the Hatter said, with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "Well, hurry up. I don't want to waste any more time than what we've already wasted."

"Right," I said, crossing my hands behind my back. I began to pace a bit as I thought "Our duel will be as long as it need be. We can use anything as weapons, and fight in any way. There really is no cheating, and if you find that there is, well, there's going to be Hell to pay. And the simplest rule of all: whoever dies first loses. Agreed?"

The Hatter didn't answer. Instead, he studied his pocket watch intently. I waited a bit for his answer.

"Let's make things a bit more interesting. Let's set a time limit of...oh...two hours." He snapped the case to his pocket watch shut. "The rest of the rules I agree to."

"What happens when the time runs out?" I asked suspiciously. I didn't like where he was going with the time limit shit.

"It is now exactly five past four o'clock. In a little less than two hours from now, it will be six o'clock, which is, undoubtedly, tea time. And I must check my experiments, which I could be doing now, thanks to your tiresome shenanigans. I must admit that you've annoyed my quite a bit."

"That's nice," I said, faking boredom in my voice. "I'm willing to make a bet with you, Hatter. If I haven't killed you in the time limit that you have set...you can...oh...cut me up a bit, providing that you don't kill me in the process."

"You'll let me? Are you honestly that cocky to think that you can defeat me in only two hours?"

"Yes, I will let you, and yes, I am that cocky. You don't know me very well, do you?"

"I suppose not," said the Hatter. He grinned, and it was anything but friendly. "I'm afraid that you won't like what I have planned for you, Emily. You're going to wish that you had never been born!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Right now you don't look so good yourself! You have no allies except for the ticking of your petty clocks."

A dangerous glare entered the Hatters eyes. "You don't think that's sufficient?"

"Well, no. Unless you can somehow amplify it to such a pitch that my eardrums burst. And you can't really do that...can you?"

"You underestimate me once again, Emily!" The Hatter pointed a finger at me and launched a missile, catching me completely off-guard. It knocked me off my feet and sent me flying backwards. My vision blurred as green and purple swirled around me. The ticking was amplified to an unbearable pitch. "Make it stop!" I cried, as I covered my ears. The Hatter laughed down at me. He ran forward, brandishing his cane like a mace.

I saw, and struggled to my feet. I ran towards the center, dodging the blows with a cat-like agility.

"You're going to pay for that, you little bastard!" I yelled at him, as the poison effects wore off. I gripped the croquet mallet, and ran forward. The Hatter launched a tea bomb from his hat, but I ran to the side and it hit the ground beside me. I swung the croquet mallet, and struck him in the chin. He retaliated by smacking me with his cane, sending me flying. I hit the ground, and saw him launch another missile.

I rolled to the side, but not before I breathed in some fumes from the explosion. I staggered to my feet and kept running, choking on the fumes. I reached the center, gasping for air. Vaguely I saw the Hatter preparing to launch another missile. This time, I was ready. I held the croquet mallet like a baseball bat, and braced myself for the impact.

"You want to play, Hatter? Fine, I can play! I call this one..." The Hatter launched the missile, and with all my strength I hit it back at him. "...HARDBALL!!"

The missile spiraled towards the Hatter, and it hit the wall beside him. The smoke from the explosion hid him from view as I leaned on the croquet mallet, waiting for him to reemerge. "How'd you like a taste of your own medicine!?"

The Hatter walked out from the smoke, completely unfazed. "It suits me just fine, thank you!"

He ran forward cane in hand. I charged forward to meet him, croquet mallet raised. We met with weapons crossed, the vibrations sending a painful shockwave through my arms. We exchanged blows, once, twice, thrice. The Hatter, knocking the croquet mallet up into my face, struck the left side of my head, then the right. I was sent sprawling backwards onto the floor of the arena.

The Hatter stabbed his cane down, inches away from my face. "So much for a long fight," he said sarcastically. "I'm quite surprised, but unless you get up I'll have to end the fight earlier than planned. Care to surrender?"

"Oh, I'm just warming up!" I swung my body around just as the Hatter stabbed the cane into the floor where my head once was. As I rolled, he kept stabbing, again and again and again. When I finally found a space of time where he paused for an instant, I rolled to my feet. Unfortunately, I was backed up against the wall.

The Hatter swung his cane at me again. I ducked, and threw the Jacks up into his face. Blinded, he didn't see me run around him to the center of the arena, bouncing the ball to keep the jacks going. When he did figure out that I wasn't there, he reeled about and blindly pointed his finger at me. The lucky bastard.

I stopped bouncing the ball and ran, dodging the missile. The Jacks reappeared in my hands as the Hatter faced me. His face, neck, and chest were covered in long scratches.

I kissed the Jacks, careful to avoid the blades. "I love these things, Hatter. I'm sure you don't though. My goodness, you don't look so good, Hatter. Maybe you should give up!"

"You'll be regretting those words by the time I'm through with you!" The Hatter launched two tea bombs at me in rapid succession. I dodged both, but not before I was hit by some of the ceramic shrapnel

"Fuck!" I screamed. I pulled a long piece of shrapnel from my calf, and ran as another tea bomb flew my way. I took out the Ice Wand, and quickly made a shield.

I sat down and fumbled in my pack for a fresh needle and some concentrated Meta-essence. I also took out a syringe full of super-concentrated toxins, and dowsed the Playing Cards with the volatile liquid.

I heard footsteps as the Hatter approached. "Hiding, are we?" he snarled. "You won't win that way..."

I quickly injected the Meta-essence, and I watched the wounds heal before my eyes. Hmmm...strong stuff. I just hoped it lasted...

I grabbed the Playing Cards, and fired them at the Hatter from behind the ice shield in a continuous stream. I didn't see them hit their target, but I heard the Hatter gasp. I fired as much as I could, but soon I began to tire. I couldn't hear the Hatter anymore, but I knew that he wasn't dead.

I stood, and looked out cautiously from behind the ice shield. There was no one there. That entire side of the arena stood empty, and quiet. Too quiet.

"What the..." I looked around once more, expecting some kind of trap or an ambush of some sort. There was none. I stepped back behind the ice shield, pondering. Until I heard a noise close behind me.

I looked to see the Hatter standing just a few feet away. Before I could do anything, he grabbed me by the throat and slammed me against the wall. I tried to loosen his grip, but it was to strong. I raised the croquet mallet, but he saw, and knocked it out of my hands. It landed a few yards away.

"It seems that we can start operating a bit early," he cried. Ignoring my struggling, he pointed his finger. A small circular saw emerged, light shining off its steel surface. I gasped, and stopped struggling. The saw whirred to life, making a high-pitched whine that sent chills down my spine. I looked everywhere, trying to find a way out of this predicament. So far, I could find none. I would have to bide my time until I found a way out of this.

"You tried, Emily. You tried, and you failed miserably. Just like when Alice failed. Do you see, Emily? You cannot overcome a madness that is not your own. It is utterly and totally impossible. It just doesn't compute, you see."

He slowly brought the saw down to my torso, where I couldn't see it. "Let's open you up, shall we?"

"No..." I reached for my pack, hoping that I had enough time to grab another weapon. The Hatter observed this, and brought the saw closer. I stopped, and went limp. There was nothing that I could do now.

The Hatter slowly brought the spinning saw to touch my skin, and guided it agonizingly slow in a diagonal line across my torso. I screamed over the Hatter's laughter, which goaded him on to make another slow cut. I screamed once again as he slowly cut his way across, leaving a giant, bloody X across my torso.

The Hatter brought his face close to my ear. "Give up, Emily," he whispered. "Take back what you said to me. Admit that you were wrong. Admit that you have no chance against me, and that you never will. That you are a weak, gutless whore who doesn't deserve to live. Go on, admit it."

"Never..." I said between clenched teeth. The Hatter, none too pleased at my response, made a straight cut through the X on my torso. I groaned, but I refused to scream this time.

The Hatter brought the saw up so I could see it. It slowed, and then stopped. I could see the blood covering its surface, the bits of flesh stuck between the teeth.

And if that wasn't sick enough...the Hatter licked the blood off one side of the saw, like a cat lapping up spilled milk. "Very nice...very nice indeed," he said. The saw whirred back to life. "But we haven't even touched muscle yet..." He brought the saw back to its original position. "And I can't wait to taste that..."

"You sick, twisted freak!" I cried. I quickly reached into my pack, even as the Hatter saw and started to make a horizontal cut through the X.. I grabbed anything that I could find, and brought it out. It was my Vorpal blade, shining with readiness. The pain left me. I knew what I had to do.

I grasped the handle of the blade, and plunged the blade upward into the Hatter's stomach. His eyes widened in surprise, and as he loosened his grip on my neck I found more strength. I ripped upwards in strong jerks, cutting aside the occasional gear that got in my way. I stopped below his chest, and twisted the blade sharply. He cried out in pain, and swatted at my arm with his cane.

I wrestled out of his grip, and ran back to the center of the arena. I immediately switched weapons, putting away the bloody blade and arming myself with the loaded Blunderbuss. I took aim as the Hatter faced me, rage running rampant across his bloodied face. I was finally seeing what he really was underneath the courteous behavior and flattering comments. It's about time....

I braced myself for the blast as I squeezed the trigger. "That's it! No more miss nice pussy! You're getting yours!"

I fired the Blunderbuss, but at the same time the Hatter launched another missile at me. Time seemed to stand still as the two shots hurtled toward each other. They hit simultaneously, creating a loud explosion as the flames from the Blunderbuss's shot ignited the fumes from the missile. A huge cloud of black smoke enveloped the arena, turning the darkness of Alice's mind into a pitch-black Hell.

I was knocked off my feet from the blast, and I screamed as the Blunderbuss's handle gouged into the cuts. They already burned like hellfire, as if the Hatter had put a sort of toxin on the circular saw. I didn't hold any doubt that he had.

I forced myself to my feet, and reached into my pack for another shell for the Blunderbuss. I was alert while I was doing this, since the Hatter could have been anywhere in the thick smoke. I quickly reloaded the Blunderbuss, and reached back into my pack for a vial of meta-essence. This time, I was in too much of a rush to use a needle. Instead, I bit the top off the vial and poured the meta-essence directly onto the wounds. Too soon, the vial was empty. I narrowed my eyes in disappointment. The cuts had only healed by the smallest percentage, merely scabbing over. That confirmed my suspicions. He had put something on the blade....

A massive ringing interrupted my thoughts, bringing me back to sub-conscious reality. Oh fuck five o'clock!!!

"Five o'clock, my dear!" I heard the Hatters voice above the din. "Your time is running rather short, I think!"

I gripped the Blunderbuss, pain-induced rage coursing through my frame. "Not if I can help it!"

I stalked through the smoke, one hand on the wall to keep myself from getting lost. "Where is he...?"

I heard a faint sound, and as I turned my head I saw the head of the Hatter's cane flying towards me. I ducked, and the cane hit the wall with a metallic ring. I stood back up, groaning a bit because of the pain. I could barely see the outline of the Hatter's frame in the smoke. But his eyes...his eyes glowed evilly, like a demon spawned straight out of Hell. And indeed he was a demon, and I was the archangel sent to fight the evil creature, to perform the bloody exorcism to cleanse this world.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the croquet mallet, staring at me with a yellow flamingo eye. I ducked once again to avoid the Hatters cane, ran forward, and grabbed it, at the same time jamming the Blunderbuss back into my pack. Now that took talent.

I ran at him, croquet mallet raised, and we once again met with weapons crossed in a fury of violent movement. I struck at the Hatter, but he parried most of my blows with an agility that stunned me. He tried to knock the mallet up into my face again, but instead I jumped over the incoming blow, and ducked under the next one, catching him by surprise. I swung the mallet and struck the left side of his face full force. He staggered, and I swung back to strike the other side of his face.

I was screaming like a wild thing now, like a beast had been released within me. The pain I felt, both emotional and physical, was excruciating. My bloodlust and rage seemed to have no end. I knew that I was so close to killing him, oh so close...Just one or two direct hits from the Blunderbuss would do it. Yes, two more shots...but where could I find a place to shoot? Wherever he was, I was, and vice versa. But I was running out of time...the Hatter wasn't lying about that.

I struck the other side of his face with all my strength. He cried out in pain and annoyance, and fired a missile at me. But it was aimed too high, and it flew past harmlessly into the arena wall.

We continued fighting with melee weapons, me with the croquet mallet, and the Hatter with his cane. I soon came to discover that he was a very skilled fighter, almost as skilled as me. I tried every trick in the book, from circle striking to feats of agility, most without success.

Our weapons were soon caught in a strength lock. My strength equaled his as we pushed against each other, each trying to gain the upper hand.

"Do you honestly think that you can win this way?" he asked me, pushing down harder with every word.

"Why yes I can! I've won against harder foes before, so what the hell makes you think I won't win this?!"

"Well, you look in pretty poor shape to me! Honestly woman, can't you feel it?!"

"Well look who's talking? Those slashes must hurt quite a bit! Honestly man, can't YOU feel it?!"

"Well I'm not the one who only has thirty minutes left for time!"

"What!?"

He laughed into my shocked face, taking the opportunity to push down a little further. "Yes, thirty more minutes," he sneered. "And I'm already thinking of ways to...hurt you, my dear. The rest of my experiments can wait!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?!"

He grinned. "You'll see soon enough!"

He broke out of the lock abruptly, and fired a tea bomb at me. I dodged it, and ran back to the center of the arena. I was still trying to figure out what he was talking about by 'hurting me'. Maybe it was just regular torture. I almost hoped it was...

I switched weapons, loading another shell onto the Blunderbuss. I knew that I had to end it here and now, before my time was up. I honestly did not want to know what the Hatter had planned for me. I really, really didn't.

The Hatter began launching missiles at me in a continuous stream, hoping to avoid the blast from the Blunderbuss like he did last time. But I ran forward, dodging the missiles as I ran. He tried to knock the Blunderbuss aside with a swing of his cane, but it was a clumsy swing that was done in desperation. I pointed the Blunderbuss up to his face. At the same time, he lowered his missile launching finger to my forehead.

I looked up into the Hatter's eyes, or what was left of them, at least. The pale pools of faint yellow disguised most of his emotions, but it didn't keep the rage from shining from them. The rest of his adjustments left him barely human, both in mind and in body. Mercury...that tasteless, odorless, accursed substance. It's finally cracked him...along with the foul tick ticking that was spawned from the heart of Wonderland all those years ago...

"How much time do I have left?" I asked him quietly, the sweat running down my face.

The Hatter smirked. "Ten minutes, my dear. I would be rather worried if I were you."

I pushed the Blunderbuss closer. "Don't...call...me...DEAR. You should be begging for your life right about now."

"So should you," said he. The metal launcher began to warm up against my forehead.

"You can't torture me if I'm dead, you know," I reasoned with him. It was a foolish action, however. You cannot reason with the insane, no matter how philosophical they are...

"I've never fancied the quick methods of killing. I prefer them to be slow and excruciating, as you would know by now."

"You say that you've never fancied the quicker methods of killing, and yet you forced yourself to use them...on Alice."

"Shut up!"

The launcher burned hot against my skin. I gasped at the sudden temperature change, and then curled my finger tightly around the trigger of the Blunderbuss.

"It's none of your business what I do here!" the Hatter screamed at me.

"Well, guess what?! You made it my business when you killed Alice in cold blood! And she's one of my best friends, so yes; I'm going to be QUITE agitated if she loses her sanity!"

"She's already lost her sanity! You saw the remnants of it in my workshop!"

"Cheshire told me that if I kill the Queen, she, as well as the rest of Wonderland, will come back to life."

The Hatter spat beside me, pure hatred in his words. "Do you honestly believe that scrawny, ill-kept, disease-ridden walking corpse of a cat?! Leading you into the greatest of perils, and disappearing every time you need help?! Giving advice that almost kills you every time you use it?! And all this time he was leading you right towards the Red Queen herself, and giving you no reason why! And do you KNOW why, Emily?"

"Yeah, so I can kill her!"

"That is utter nonsense! You can't even kill me, let alone take on the Queen herself! What do you think she'll do, surrender and beg for mercy right when you show up at her door?! I don't even like her!"

Well, we could have been allies, Hatter! Friends, even, if you hadn't tried to make me into one of your brainless automatons! Doesn't the Queen want you dead?"

"Yes, yes, she ordered my head off, just like all the others living in Wonderland. The red bitch had the colossal nerve to accuse me of murdering Time! Stupid wench, how very wrong..."

He pushed his finger down harder against my skin. "I have another object in mind!"

Right when he said those words, I pulled the trigger. The blast knocked me off my feet, and the Hatter's missile flew harmlessly over my head in a crazy spiral.

The Blunderbuss handle gouged into the cuts on my torso once again, and I screamed as I was sent flying from the blast. My scream was mingled with the Hatters cry of pain, as the round plowed into him.

I lay where I had landed, exhausted and wearied from the blast. My cuts were bleeding profusely throughout the fight, and I began to wonder how much blood I had lost so far. I looked down at them. They were red and raw, the scabs having been torn open soon after I had tried to heal them. I knew that they were going to be infected if I didn't clean them soon...but I couldn't reach into my pack for the antibiotics. I suddenly realized that I was too weak to do much of anything. Panic shot through me, coupled with the fact that I was running out of time...

I heard footsteps, staggering and irregular; dragging, almost. The thing was stumbling every few steps, and I realized that the thing was the for me. It wasn't time yet...was it?

The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. My mind was screaming at me to get up. You can't let yourself win like this, Emily! You have to get up!!!

I raised myself up on a trembling elbow, and I looked as the Hatter staggered towards me, leaning on his cane for support.

"Paying the price for the Blunderbuss, aye?" he sneered.

"We both are," I groaned. "Time. What time is it?"

"A few more seconds, my dear. Just a few more."

He chuckled, and it was anything but friendly. I listened in silence. The ticking was incredibly suspenseful, as I raised myself into a sitting position. "No..."

Then it happened.

The clock began to strike six o'clock. As the thunderous ringing filled the arena, the Hatter walked forward and grabbed me by the front of the shirt. Once again, I was slammed up against the wall.

I struggled feebly in his grip, but to no avail. The Blunderbuss fell out of my hands and hit the floor with a clang, mingling a bit with the ringing of the clocks.

The Hatter undid the straps to my pack with no great haste. He tossed it aside without taking his eyes off of me. "You won't need those by the time I'm through with you."

"Lovely," I said sarcastically. "How long is this going to take?"

"As long as I need it to be, my dear. As long as I need it to be..."

The Hatter grabbed both of my arms, and forced them above my head. He held them there with one hand, while his other hand strayed down to my torso, just barely touching the cuts.

"What are you doing?" I asked, fear evident in my voice.

"You'll see..." he whispered. A thin stream of blood ran down the side of his mouth and onto his chest, which seemed to be almost dented in by the shot from the Blunderbuss.

The Hatter's fingers began to dig into my torso, right at the intersection where the cuts met. I took a sharp breath, and gasped in pain as the gloved fingers pushed in. His whole hand covered my torso, if not more, and the fabric was none too gentle with the movements he was making.

I screamed as he went farther in, tearing and ripping his way through the layer of flesh. I couldn't stop myself from writhing and convulsing in pain, even as the tips of his fingers touched muscle. I felt myself going into some sort of shock, the ripping jerks of his hand increasing as he went in a little more. He was skinning me alive as I felt the flesh rip away from my muscles; the six pack that I had worked so hard on. Would that also be ruined before the night was through?

Tears were streaming down my face as I thought of my fate. He would kill me before he was through; he lied when he said he'd keep me alive. I began to almost wish that he would kill me. No one deserved such pain...

What have I done to deserve this?! What is my crime?! What is my sin?! I've done nothing...nothing but standing up for a friend in need! Is that so bad?! Why must I go through such horrible pain when I was sure that no one in Wonderland was suffering as much as I?! WHY?!

I was wishing that, back in the Hatters workshop, I had killed myself when I had the chance. That when I had saw Alice's shattered state I would have given up and killed myself right there and then. At least I would have been with her...wherever she was.

I was swallowed up in the sound of my screaming, the Hatters laughter mingling with it. The pain was beyond unbearable, beyond belief. I knew that if he kept this up, my sanity would snap into thousands of little shards. He knew that, too, as the rips increased even more. His gloved fingers touched muscle, and he laughed over my screaming, caressing them with a none-too-gentle hand.

Just when I thought I was going to pass out from the pain, I heard a snarling, growling cry. I stopped my shrieking to listen. The Hatter stopped digging in, surprise showing on his face.

It soon turned into a grimace of pain, as the Hatter staggered backwards, swatting at something clinging to his back. I collapsed, pain engulfing my senses. I didn't want to get up. I wanted to die right there on the floor of the arena, curled into a pathetic ball. But I knew that, somehow, I had to go on. He had his fun with me....

Now it was my turn.

I grabbed the Blunderbuss that lay just a few feet away from me. Then I began to laboriously crawl towards my pack, clenching my teeth to keep from screaming. Luckily, the Hatter was too preoccupied with the thing that clung to him to pay much attention to me.

I collapsed a few feet away from my pack, the blood making a small puddle around me. I reached out and grabbed the strap to my pack, dragging it towards me. I reached in and grabbed a shell, at the same time counting how many vials of meta-essence I had left. Five...would five heal all this damage?

I loaded the Blunderbuss, knowing that this had to be the final shot. I dragged myself into a decent sitting position, and aimed at him. But wait...what was that thing that was slashing at the Hatters back with sharp claws and teeth?

The Hatter turned to the side, and I saw that it was Cheshire that was clinging to his back. My eyes widened a bit, and for a minute I was thoroughly convinced that I was hallucinating. But no, the gruesome appearance of the Cheshire cat stayed the same. He was fighting with a fury that I had never seen before, not that I've ever seen him fight before. This was a most unusual, if not slightly humorous, action for him. But don't get me wrong; I was very grateful for what he did.

The Hatter's cane scored a blow on Cheshire's ribs. He snarled in pain, and leaped off, droplets of blood running from the wound. He ducked as another blow came his way, and then made a gigantic leap up towards the Hatters face. I saw a single clawed paw lash out, digging long bloody furrows in the Hatters cheek. The Hatter cried out in pain, and stumbled to the side as the same paw scored more furrows in the Hatters chest.

Cheshire landed nimbly on his feet. He came racing in my direction, claws tip tapping on the arena floor. He stopped at my side.

"Cheshire?" I asked faintly. "This is most surprising..."

"No time for talk," he said. "Quickly, you must shoot Kill him, Emily, before he does any more damage."

I saw the Hatter collect himself as he looked in my direction. I knew that I needed to get up...but how?

Emily, don't be an idiot. You got legs, Emily. USE THEM...

I struggled upwards on trembling legs, nearly falling over. The Hatter was stalking slowly towards me, cane in hand, thinking that I wouldn't be able to get up. I stared at his right hand, drenched in my blood. I knew that he wasn't through with me yet...

But I was determined to get up, no matter how painful it would be. I would not be one to give up without a fight. I wouldn't.

Cheshire pushed up against me, which helped me a little. But I would have to hurry. The Hatter had quickened his pace. Any second now he would be close enough to grab me.

I aimed at him, still trembling a bit from exhaustion. The Hatter stopped. He regarded me with amusement in his eyes, and he snickered at me.

"Do you really think you're strong enough to even pull the trigger of that thing? Young ladies like you really shouldn't be playing with guns..."

He reached forward to grab the gun out of my hands. I laughed a bit in my throat. He really thought that I was too weak to even pull the trigger of the thing. A foolish mistake...

I fired full into the Hatters chest. He screamed, the shock etched on his face as he fell backwards, the fireballs from the blast burning his flesh. I was thrown backwards into the wall with a scream of pain.

I lay where I had landed once again. But this time I wasn't the only one who had been crippled.

The Hatter lay where he had fallen, just about seven or ten yards away from me. He was gasping like a fish out of water, the blood and oil welling up around the burns on his chest and face. The lower part of his torso was exposed, the gears turning slowly, in time with the ticking of the clocks in the arena.

I fought the urge to fall asleep, knowing that if I did I would die. I had lost a hell of a lot of blood.

I beckoned to Cheshire. "Cheshire...my pack...please..."

Cheshire bent down and grabbed one of the straps in his mouth. He dragged it towards me quite easily, like it weighed nothing at all. I reached in and took out a vial of antibiotics.

I struggled with the top, and then pulled it off. I poured the whole thing onto the cuts, and cried out in pain. The antibiotics stung like hellfire, but I knew they were necessary. I threw the empty bottle over the edge of the arena.

"Do you think he'll get back up?" I asked Cheshire, as I took out another bottle of antibiotics.

"I don't think so..." Cheshire growled deep in his throat, the volume rising a bit as he closed his eyes. I took it to be some sort of distorted purr, like he was contented with himself. Hell, I didn't blame him. If I had sharp teeth and claws I'd be damn pleased with myself if I scratched up the Hatter with them.

"You saved me, Cheshire. I thought you didn't like fighting. Why did you do it?"

Cheshire opened his eyes, and the volume of the purr dropped down to a mere whisper of sound. He sighed. "I've seen suffering here, Emily. We all have, whether we run from it or embrace it. But I, in the ten years that Wonderland has been like this, have never seen anything remotely close to what the Hatter tried to do to you. Do you know what he was trying to do to you?"

I shook my head, that slightest movement even painful for me.

"He was trying to assimilate you while you were still awake."

I shrugged. "So? He has that big machine that he puts the insane kids through to change them into automatons. What would be the difference if he just put me through there?"

Cheshire shook his head. "That process only takes about three minutes to completely turn someone into an automaton. If I hadn't stepped in and stopped him from trying to disembowel you, the process would have taken about...five hours."

My eyes widened. "Five hours? That slow?"

"He would have made it a slow as possible, as painful as possible. And who says that he would be in the process of assimilation all that time?"

I stared. "I really don't want to know, do I?"

"No, you don't. Trust me."

I sighed, and closed my eyes. A second later I felt something warm and rough against my cheek. My eyes shot open.

"Did you lick me?!"

Cheshire shrugged. "I thought you were falling asleep."

I stared at him, and took out a vial of meta-essence. The pinkish liquid swirled within it, giving off a healing pink glow. I looked back down at the rips on my torso. I knew that with enough meta-essence I would heal. But with a price...?

"Cheshire, will I have scars from these?"

"Unfortunately, yes. They will stay with you for the rest of your life, I'm afraid. And not just here..."

"What do you mean 'not just here'?"

When you awake from this dream, those scars will come with you and will transfer onto your physical body, Emily. That is what I mean."

"Is it possible?"

"Yes. Your mind makes the scars real, Emily. So I'm afraid that you'll have more than one battle trophy to take away from here."

I poured the meta-essence onto the wounds, and watched as the shimmering liquid stimulated new cells to grow. I poured four vials of meta-essence onto the wounds, watching as they filled out the cuts with new skin and mended veins. Soon there was nothing left but silver scars. I reached down a hand and felt them almost hesitantly. They felt knotted and tough, the exact opposite of the rest of my skin. The scar tissue had lost the ability to feel as well.

I put my head back down, trying to absorb the shocking piece of information. I was scarred for life...deformed, almost. And it was all the fault of the thing that lay just ten yards away.

I sat up slowly, the new scars making it difficult. I was stiff and sore, with bruises covering my back and stomach in large splotches. Exhaustion crept up on me, and I steadied myself warily. Cheshire sat behind me, holding me up. He gave me a nudge forward, the top of his bony head pushing against my battered back.

I picked up the Blunderbuss, and noticed that half the handle was slippery with my blood. I put it down.

"Cheshire, something tells me that if I use this again I think I'm going to die of exhaustion."

"I noticed," grunted Cheshire. He left my back abruptly, and I almost fell over. "But you must finish it, before the Hatter gains his strength back."

I looked over at the Hatter, and saw that he was staring at me. Blood ran freely from his half open mouth, and his eyes were starting to turn a sort of copper color as blood clouded them. His gasping had quieted down to a choking wheeze that he emitted with every breath.

He watched me still as I got to my feet, by myself mind you. I wrung my shirt out, adding more blood to the puddle that had already formed. I bent down and touched my toes, stretching the muscles in my legs. Cheshire watched me with a slightly impatient look on his face.

"What on Earth are you doing?"

"Stretching," I said. I straightened myself out, and saw spots as the blood rushed to my head. I stumbled, and fell to one knee. Cheshire walked to my side.

"Cheshire, how am I supposed to kill him if I can't even wield a weapon, let alone stand straight?"

"Oh, he'll die soon enough. He's dying now, if you can't tell already."

"Is he in pain?"

"A little," said Cheshire. He studied my face intently for a moment. "If you have something to say to him, Emily, I suggest you say it now, when he can still hear you."

I stepped towards the fallen Hatter, kicking aside broken shards of tea cup and walking over the explosion marks left by ill-aimed missiles. He stared up at me still, the choking quieting down even more as I drew near.

Another flashback entered my mind. I saw through Alice's eyes the Hatter, in nearly the same state as he was in now. Except that he wasn't choking...the bastard had plenty of life left in him. He was tricking Alice to come close, dangerously close to the Hatter's outstretched arm. She thought that he was dying, that he was completely helpless. I leaned in closer...and I felt him grab my arm in a vise-like grip.

I gasped as I came out of the flashback. I realized that I had been walking slowly towards him all through the flashback. I was standing just a few feet away from him.

I froze. The Hatter stared up at me, emotionless eyes now a darker shade of copper as the blood continued to flow. I backed up a step, and the Hatters arm shot out. He grabbed my leg, pulling me down. I screamed, and tried to roll away, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him.

The Hatter pulled me close, my back touching his bloodied chest. Another flashback rolled my way, and I saw Alice in the same position. Shit! I was going to die!

Cheshire came running towards me, but he stopped a yard or two away.

"Cheshire! Help me!"

"Stay calm, Emily, he doesn't mean to hurt you."

I struggled fiercely. "Yeah, fat chance of that! Help me, Cheshire!"

"I told you, be still!"

I stopped struggling. I had never heard Cheshire yell at me like that before. I closed my eyes and went completely limp, letting the Hatter close an arm around the new scars that ran across my torso...

Closer still did he bring me to him, the blood starting to soak into the back of my ruined shirt. The feelings that I felt were...odd, to say the least. The position was incredibly awkward, and the panic that I was feeling mixed with it, creating a sharp feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. My left eye was twitching a bit. I generally don't like physical contact with much of anything, except if it was someone that I loved. And the last time that I had felt something like that was a long, long time ago...

"He's a puzzling fellow, the Hatter. His riddles are nearly incomprehensible, as well as anything else he says, I suppose. Ever since he got in that argument with Time a while ago, it always stays at approximately six o'clock. But he doesn't mind. In fact, he's quite a gentle soul. All he really wants to do is drink tea, ask riddles, and make merry with his friends. I should have you meet him someday..."

"He sounds very nice indeed. But how can I meet him? It's almost impossible...is it not?"

"Oh, everything is possible if you believe in it. That's what mummy tells me. Perhaps it will work with you... "

I opened my eyes. The remnants of the conversation drifted away from me, the conversation that me and Alice had before the fire. Yes, we go back many years, me and her. What a coincidence that we both eventually went insane, and ended up in the same asylum together. What a coincidence...

"What's happened to you, Hatter?" I asked, breaking the ticking silence of the arena. Sorrow edged into my voice, though I tried my best to keep it out. "You were such a gentle soul before all this happened. You were everyone's friend, from Alice's to the Tweedles, both who now lay dead. Everyone loved you..."

The Hatter stopped moving to listen to me speak, which was unusual to say the least. Did he know that he was dying? Or did he think that it was suitable to let me say a few last words before I died?

"Why is a raven like a writing desk, Hatter? Why? Tell me. Or do you not remember? It was such a long time ago...ten years, is it?"

"Ten years, one hundred and eighty five days, five hours, thirty minutes, and forty-eight seconds," rasped the Hatter quietly. He fell into a fit of wheezing coughs, blood splattering onto the arena floor.

"Ah, so you do remember. But do you still remember the tea parties, the riddles, the time that stayed forever at six o'clock? Or are they gone from your mind? Were you too preoccupied with mastering Time to realize what you were becoming?"

Silence. "I don't think that Wonderland had intended to turn you into who you are now. And Alice certainly didn't want you to turn out this way either. It's you, Hatter. You are the one who made this happen. You are the one with the twisted will to make this all happen. The gears, the oil, the clockwork, the blood and tears...it was all your fault, and no one else's. I don't even think the Queen gives a shit about whether you live or die anymore."

More silence. "Answer me, Hatter. Do you remember?"

I looked into his eyes to see if he was dead. He was coming close, but no, he still held some spark of life in his eyes, now turning a bittersweet sort of color. His gasping had nearly stopped.

I reached out to touch the side of his face. He began to recoil a bit. "I won't hurt you this time, Hatter. I give you my word."

He stopped. I touched the left side of his face, my fingers touching his temple and the tips touching the brim of his hat. I turned his head a little to the side, studying the slash marks. His greenish skin was cold, almost waxy, much like the texture of my scars. He winced when my hand got too close to a slash mark.

"Sorry," I muttered. His eyes held a strange sort of look to them, a 'what the hell do you think you're doing!?' look. I ignored it as my hand made its way down his face. I grabbed his unshaven chin and lifted it a little, exposing the cut that I had made back in the laboratory. It was still bleeding, but it had been shallow, so it wasn't bleeding very much at all. He tried moving his head away, but my grip was firm.

"Oh, no you don't," I said. "Don't even try it."

"What on earth are you doing?" he asked me, a nervous edge forcing its way into his voice.

"I'm curious, Hatter. Merely curious. Curious that, after all these adjustments, you are somehow still alive. Curious that, after two shots from the Blunderbuss, you're still living."

My hand moved down onto his neck, the tips of my fingers pressing in. The skin was softer here, but the metal underneath was still evident. I felt for a pulse, but there was none. Only the movement of the clockwork inside of him greeted my fingertips.

The Hatter let me move to a kneeling position against him as my hand moved up onto his left shoulder. I felt the locks on his straightjacket. They were rusted shut; no key would be able to unlock these. Some of the straps were burned in two from my attacks, but the rest were incredibly tight against him.

"They're so tight, Hatter. So tight...are these the only things that are holding you together, I wonder..."

"...yes," he answered me quietly, resentment in his voice. "They are the only things that are holding me together. And yes, if you must know, I've long forgotten those meddling riddles. Tea time still lasts, mind you, but only for moments at a time. I have no intention to waste time with such petty things..."

"You weren't always like this, were you?"

"Of course not," he snapped at me. "When Wonderland first began to change I fled from it, and fought it like I had never fought something before. But little did I know that I was fighting the inevitable..."

He gestured down at himself. "This is what Time hath wrought against me. This is what I have become, and I and the Truth have been on familiar terms for as long as I can remember."

"Maybe a little too familiar, I think," I said, kneeling down to come at eye level with the Hatter. The blood and oil now soaked both sides of my shirt, but for some odd reason I didn't care. It had been a long time since I had a conversation like this, and having one with a figment of Alice's twisted up imagination was extremely interesting.

"Emily!" called a voice. I turned to see Cheshire pacing impatiently a few yards behind me. "We must be going, before the night is through."

"Right, hold up a second," I called. I turned back to the Hatter. "Well it was nice chatting with you, Hatter, but I have a Wonderland to save and a Queen that needs a righteous ass-kicking. Perhaps we'll see each other again when this is all over. Then you can ask me that riddle of yours, hmm?"

To my slight surprise, the Hatter smiled. He chuckled a bit. "I'd love to see the Queens face when you start insulting her. Trust me, Emily, she's capable of much more damage than I've inflicted tonight."

"Honest to God, I don't care very much, Hatter. You should at least know that about me by now."

"Rightly put," he answered me. "Before you go, however, I want you to have this."

He dropped a large, silver pocket watch into my hand. I stared down at it, the skull and crossbones gracing the face of the watch, making it appear slightly ominous.

"That is the Dead-Time Watch. Be careful with it; it's still in its experimental stages. And I swear, if you break it, you will die a slow, most excruciating death."

"Right, I've heard that before" I said. I carefully placed it into my pack. "Now if you'll excuse me..."

The Hatter moved his arms out of the way. I stood, stumbling a bit as the blood rushed to my head. Then something hit me.

"Waaaaait a minute," I said, turning back towards the Hatter. "Why are you helping me all of a sudden? I thought you hated me with a violent and terrible vengeance."

The Hatter leered up at me. "This is merely a test of the powers of my invention. Not that you'll get very far with it, that is..." He cackled, but it soon turned into a hacking cough. More blood splattered the arena floor.

I sighed. Then I started laughing a bit. "Ah Hatter, time and time again you underestimate me. First it was in the Lab. Then when you thought I was too weak to pull the trigger of the Blunderbuss! And now you think that, after all this time, after all the people I've met, the things I've killed...you still think that I won't last the rest of this nightmare! Ha! That's amusing Hatter, really amusing, you know."

With those words and one last fake smile, I turned on my heel and walked towards Cheshire. He stopped pacing as I drew near.

"About time," he snarled. I ignored it as I slowly withdrew the Dead-Time Watch. Cheshire eyed it with mild curiosity.

"This unique watch stops time... for a time."

"Oh really," I said. I felt the top of the watch warily, not wanting to set it off just yet. "Well...if it stops Time, can it halt Death?"

"Unlike death, time moves on. Those who stood still with time move on also... unless they're dead."

"...mmmkay," I said slowly. It was then that I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that the Hatter was slowly getting up. The bastard was still trying to kill me. I knew that I would have to be the one to kill him. So I slowly withdrew the Vorpal Blade from my pack, and held it in front of me. I wouldn't want the Hatter to know that I knew that he was still alive. Then he'd really start attacking, and right now I wasn't up for that.

I looked back to Cheshire, but he had disappeared. Good kitty...he knew that I was going to be the one to finish this. I looked about in fake surprise as the Hatter drew near. Just a few more steps...

The Hatter raised his cane, intending to use his last ounce of strength to bash my head in. But I was ready. In a flash I turned around, jumped as high as I could, and plunged my blade into the Hatters chest.

I locked my legs around the Hatters torso as I clung to the handle, pulling down on it as hard as I could. The shock etched on the Hatters face was sweet as I forced the blade down another inch. Before he had time to try and push me away, I had made a deep, foot-long cut into the Hatters chest.

I pulled out the blade, pulling out a large gear with it. Blood went everywhere, the oil spurting out at random moments. I let go of him and slid down onto my feet, a little shaky but still as steady.

The Hatter stumbled backwards, face twisted in shock and pain. He stopped on his enormous clock, swaying in time to the ticking. For a few moments he stared at me. Then he fell to his knees, still trying his best to keep the oncoming darkness of Death away from him. But in the end, Death closed his eyes as he fell forward, the ticking finally halting. It left the arena deathly quiet.

Cheshire appeared next to me. "Gryphon should be here any moment now to take you away from this place. He knows that the Hatter has been vanquished."

"Yes..." I said softly. "He had to die with his precious clocks, hmm?"

"You would want to as well if you were obsessed with them," said Cheshire.

"That's true."

"You're uneasy with this death," said Cheshire. I nodded. "Do you think I did the right thing, Cheshire? What's your opinion?"

"It needed to be done, Emily. You know that."

I nodded once again. "It's a pity that he had to become this, Cheshire. It really is."

"Then pity us all while you're at it," he snapped. I was quiet for a while, reflecting a bit on his words.

My thoughts were interrupted with the sound of wings flapping. I looked up to see Gryphon making his way through the dark clouds above the arena. He landed a few yards away, the wind gusts from his wings creating a small dust storm.

"Gryphon here, reporting for duty," he said. "When I felt that a battle had been won for good, I came as quickly as I could. What happened?"

I pointed to where the Hatter laid, the last of his blood streaming over the face of the glass shield. "I killed him, Gryphon. I'm sorry that I couldn't save a bit of the action for you; I was very, very busy trying to keep him from killing me."

Gryphon shrugged. "Ah well, at least he is dead. That's all that matters right now. By the way, did you find the second piece of the Jabberwocks Eye Staff?"

I took the uncompleted staff out of my pack and showed him. He nodded his head, satisfied. "Good, good, very good. Now all we need is the Jabberwocks eye. When the staff is complete, you'll be able to breach the gates to the Queens kingdom."

Gryphon knelt down on his front legs. "Get on. I'll take you to his lair."

I was about to get on, when I remembered something. "Wait here, Gryphon. I'll be right back."

I walked over to the fallen Hatter. Behind me, I heard Cheshire mutter, "Oh good Lord, here we go again..."

I ignored him as I knelt down in front of him. "I told you, Hatter. I told you that I'd be adding your top hat to my little collection of trophies. So now I shall follow through with my promise."

I eased the top hat off the Hatters head. It came easily. I stood upright, clutching the stovepipe part of the hat to my waist, though it went up to my chest easily. I studied it. It was stiff with mercury, or at least I thought it was mercury. The designs of different chemicals, like Alum and Caustic Lye, filled most of the squares in the chessboard pattern.

I folded it carefully, and placed it in the trophy part of my pack, next to the Duchesses pepper-shaker and a tip of the Centipedes spiked helmet. Three down...two to go. I also wrenched the gear off the Vorpal blade, and placed that in as well.

I stood, staring down at the Hatters corpse. A single tear made its way down my face, softening the dried blood on my face.

"I'm not crying for you, Hatter. I'm not crying for the evil, the blood, the gears, and the hate. No, I'm crying for the Hatter that you once were, the one that Alice talked so fondly of she might have been talking of an angel. But when angels deserve to die...like you...oh God..."

I turned around and walked away, determined not to look at him. Another tear rolled down the other side of my face, and I wiped it away hurriedly. There had been enough sorrow for one day...enough for me, at least.

I mounted Gryphon quietly, refusing his offer to help me up with a paw. I clung to the feathers on his neck. "Let's go, Gryphon."

He took off without saying anything, and with a few flaps of his mighty wings we were airborne. We circled once around the arena, and I wondered how the battle would have looked if someone had been up in the air. Then, with a rush of feathers, we rose above the black clouds and the arena disappeared from view.

"Sleep Emily," called Gryphon over his shoulder. "You've had a trying night, and it will take a while to get to the drop-off point. I won't let you fall, don't worry. I know that you're exhausted."

He had a point. So I laid my head down onto his feathery neck, and fell into a deep sleep. But before the grip of Sleep embraced me, I remembered the last words that the Hatter had said to me...

...Not that you'll get very far with it, that is...

I will get far, I thought to myself. For Wonderlands sake and for Alice's. No way am I going to give up, now that I've gotten this far. No way...in...hell...

And the last thing that I could remember was the steady beating of Gryphon's wings, which was far more comforting than the ticking of the insanity-provoking clocks which belonged to the recently deceased Mad Hatter...