(An: Dreadfully sorry this is so late, but since I've got two chapters for it, y'all shouldn't complain. This one's a bit surreal, so that's the reason; I'm not good at surreality unless I can joke about it. Once again, I'm playing with the game's structure. I know there's not a portal behind the Vale of Tears' waterfall, but having a portal appear out of nowhere is a little too weird even for me.)

(Rogue)

I sit and hug my knees a distance off from the others.

I don't like being here. That sums everything up. I'd like nothing more than to be home again, even though there I can't touch. Besides, who would I want to touch anyway? Certainly not anyone here. Alice and Cheshire seem all right (if rather insane) but Remy... well, him I'd rather not think about.

God, Remy. It's not that I don't like him- when he's not flirting with me he's actually pretty nice- but... God, I don't know. I'd rather not touch him if I could avoid it. He confuses me too much.

And then of course there's the whole "Eye of Ages" thing. Thought I'd staked that particular vampire. But, then again, nothing else in my past has ever stayed quiet; why start now?

(Cheshire)

I rise and step away from Alice. I join Rogue, already awake and watching the sun rise. "Where are we going?" she asks.

"The Village," I reply. "Hopefully the Rabbit hasn't moved house since last we met."

"This is ridiculous," Rogue says, but without much conviction.

"Isn't everything?"

"Cheshire, don't confuse the girl," Alice mumbles sleepily.

"Bit late for that," Rogue mutters, and falls silent.

Remy stands up. "We goin'?" he asks.

Alice stands up as well, and spins her blade on her fingers. Remy and Rogue shudder at the exact same moment, neither seeming to notice. "No time like the present, I suppose," Alice says. She sticks her knife in her pocket and leads us off.

We walk in silence until we reach the section near the waterfall. At the foot of it we can see something scrambling down the ledges. Alice shades her eyes and squints. "Is that... the March Hare?"

"Nothing else in Wonderland is so brown or so easily spooked," I reply. As I do, the Hare finally makes his way all the way down and nearly rams into Rogue.

She grabs it by the scruff of the neck. "What the hell...?"

The March Hare bucks and jerks in her grip, his eyes rolling in abject terror. "The Guards! The Guards!"

Rogue sets him down, blinking. The Hatter runs into Alice, this time. "What is the matter with you?" she asks, bending down so she's on eye level with him.

"The Guards! The Village! The RABBIT!" With that cryptic response, he runs around Alice, jumps the river bank, and scampers off on the other side.

"Ok..." Rogue says, looking confused. "What the hell was he going on about?"

Alice shrugs. "Perhaps the Guards have taken over the Village again," she replies. "Wouldn't be the first time the residents gave up without a fight."

"Dat was jus' odd," Remy says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"We're not going to figure out what's going on just standing here wondering what's going on," Alice says. She points up at the spot where the ledge breaks and it's possible to duck behind the waterfall. "I think he came from behind there. Perhaps there's a portal." She begins to make her way across the ledge and we follow again.

Then another brown spot comes streaking from the waterfall, followed by a Club Guard. Alice shudders as the Club Guard catches up.

"The life expectancy ain't long 'round here, is it," Rogue mumbles, biting her lip and ducking her head.

"If you're one of my friends, no," Alice agrees. "If you're not... still no." Alice takes the knife from her pocket again and throws it at the Guard, hitting with her usual unerring accuracy.

"Yuck."

Alice ignores this last comment and scales the second ledge, going up higher. "Almost undoubtedly a portal," she says.

(Rogue)

I am extremely weirded out by the calm response Alice has to the death of her friend. I suppose she might be used to it, but that doesn't make it any less creepy. She didn't even blink, just responded to my comment and took out the threat.

Like I said, extremely weirded out.

(Alice)

I can tell that Remy and Rogue think I'm either cold and uncaring or completely insane. The latter may be somewhat true, but I do feel the loss of a friend. Now isn't the time to respond, though. Right now, there are many questions to be answered, and crying for lost ones won't answer them or bring them back.

We walk across the ledge when the strangest of all newcomers arrives. Not White, nor brown; no, this one's blue, springing from the waterfall (and the portal behind it) with the speed of fear and purpose. We are only a level beneath him, so it's easy to see who he's supposed to be. It's the Rabbit, but different. He's still got his waistcoat and long ears, but he's wearing a clock on his wrist instead of having a pocket watch, and he's not White. He's a dark shade of blue, and his eyes are yellow. And instead of his normal rabbit's tail, a long, skinny blue one with a spaded tip trails out behind him. He hops down the ledge and approaches us. Some things, like I've said, haven't changed. His movements are still twitchy and his eyes never settle. "Hello, Alice."

Rogue finally gets a good look at him, and sways on her feet beside me. Remy steadies her, but he seems shaken as well, and she seems to neither notice nor care. Her attention is fixed on the not-quite-White Rabbit.

"My cousin escaped, did he?" Rabbit asks, his eyes never settling on anything for more than a second.

"The dormouse wasn't so lucky," I reply.

"Oh! Oh..." the Rabbit says, looking dismayed and even more twitchy.

"Rabbit, what happened to you?"

The Rabbit's frightened yellow eyes finally settle on me. "Isn't it obvious Alice? Wonderland is changing, again, and not for the better..."

"Well I knew that," I snap, "but why is it changing at all?"

Rabbit doesn't say anything. Rather, his eyes flick to Remy and Rogue, still standing there looking rather shocked.

"That can't be a good sign," Cheshire comments.

The Rabbit speaks now. "I don't know, Alice. No one does. The only one with any idea, as usual, is Cattipillar."

"Everyone keeps pointing us to him," I mutter. "Such an annoyance."

"Annoyance it may be, but it's the only clue we've got," Cheshire points out.

"I'm afraid that's all I can tell you, beyond that there's a portal behind the waterfall," Rabbit says, now hopping from foot to two-toed foot.

"We knew that," I reply. "Are there Guards?"

"Yes, unless they've moved on in the five minutes I've been gone," Rabbit snaps, showing unusual annoyance and impatience. He looks at his watch. "Late, late, late," he murmurs, then pushes around Rogue and Remy and hops on.

Rogue stares after him, her green eyes bugging out of her head. "Oh gawd... was that who Ah thought it was?" she mumbles.

"If you mean the White Rabbit, then yes," Cheshire replies. "If you mean someone else, then possibly. He didn't quite look like himself, did he?"

"No," Rogue says. "He looked like Kurt."

"Oui," Remy agrees, shaking his head as though to clear it. "C'est fou."

"Meaning...?" Cheshire asks.

"It's nuts," Rogue says. "Don't need ta know French ta see that."

"It always has been," I say, tapping my foot. "Do you two need more time to be shocked, or can we get headed for the Gryphon?"

"I feel redundant, what with all this seesawing back and forth," Cheshire mutters. "We go one place, only having to come back to where we began, and then back to where we went. It's making me dizzy."

"Well, at least it doesn't take long," I retort.

"Kurt's mah brother," Rogue says abruptly, seemingly in response to my question. "That... thing looked like him. Too much like him. What the hell is going on?"

"Exactly what we'd all like answered," Cheshire chimes in. "And I believe the Gryphon may know. So if we may proceed...?"

Rogue shakes herself briskly. Remy is watching her nervously. "Let's go."

After this, we walk the paths we've been walking for the past few days.

"Tell me that whenevah we get wherevah we're goin' it means we won't havta come back here," Rogue says.

Then the ground shakes. Cheshire and I haven't forgotten how vulnerable we are at this size. We run for the trees, but it's a bit late for that. The feet of a full-size Card Guard stomp across the flat, unstable ground and Remy and I fall down a new hole into the ground. I have time to think Down the rabbit-hole once again, Alice? before we hit the ground.

(Cheshire)

I lean over the edge of the hole, careful not to fall in myself. It goes down deep.

"Does that happen a lot?" Rogue asks.

"When evil passes much is possible," I murmur, stepping away from the hole.

"Oh yeah, that's a lot of help," Rogue snaps. "So what do we do now?"

"Do exactly what we've been doing," I reply. "We keep going in search of information."

"What about them?" Rogue asks, thumbing at the hole.

"We let them work it out themselves. Alice always finds a way."

"Hope yer right," Rogue mutters, as she follows the path into the forest.

(That would qualify as a cliffhanger if the next chapter wasn't already posted.)