Chapter 10

Touching the Heart Crystal, that bringer of creation, that symbol of glorious eras in that Wonderland, images transmitted themselves into the mind of the Jabberwock, a strange sea of faces and creatures cascading right in front of his eyes.

First, images of his Wonderland threw themselves right at him, starting off as a tolerable place, yet still with an air of thin menace lurking around every corner. The Hatter drunk tea with his friends. The Duchess rocked her baby. The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle danced. The Cheshire Cat smiled. The twins fought.

The Queen barked and ordered executions.

Then the ticking of a clock filled the air, with the imprint of the clock in his mind's eye. The ticking grew faster, faster and the clock's hands spun around like a typhoon, until the clock disappeared and became the Wonderland the Jabberwock was more accustomed to.

The Hatter made robots, tore out creature's organs and replaced them with makeshift machinery, believing it an improvement. The Duchess screamed and sliced her baby into ribbons. The Gryphon lay behind bars and the Mock Turtle wept at the fractured state of the new world he wound up in. The Cheshire Cat still smiled. The twins still fought.

The Queen still barked.

The Queen monstrously roars and lies to you.

Then came a flurry of the images from the Looking Glass Maze; grinning malicious Alice, insane children, the Hatter again, and the white-haired Hatter and the tomato-nosed Hatter…

Then a single image from the other Wonderland…

Both Alyss and Redd may have been strengthened by their proximity to the Heart Crystal, but Alyss could see that she was the stronger of the two. It must have dawned on Redd too because, frustrated and annoyed beyond all measure, she gave up on her fancy imaginings and ran at Alyss with sceptre raised.

They brandished their sceptres like swords, two powerful warriors engaged in good old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat. The space above and around them glittered and popped and sizzled and smoked with the thunderstorm of their imaginative powers. Then, with the speed of a gwynook's flapping wing, Alyss hooked the white heart of her sceptre and yanked the latter to the floor, where she exploded it with a jolt of white hot imaginative energy.

Do I kill or…but what's to be done with her if I don't? She'll pose a threat as long as she lives. What should I do? What should I –

Kill her Alyss, just kill her. KILL HER LIKE YOU DID ALICE.

Redd balled her hands into fists, making fleshy clubs of them.

"I'm stronger than you are, Redd."

"You will not defeat me!" Redd screamed.

Alyss braced herself for another attack, realising only too late what was happening. She watched with disbelieving eyes as Redd launched herself into the Heart Crystal.

Krrrrrkkkkchsss! Hissszzzzll! Krrrch! Zzzzssszz!

Those sounds, the hissing, the crackling, they were alive, and the Jabberwock heard them clearly. Not through the strange imagery the crystal gave him, but the sounds, whatever made them was happening right now.

Queen Redd appeared.

Oh yes, that's it. Ha ha ha. This confirms it. The appearance of her arch-nemesis confirms it all. Everybody likes to laugh at the Jabberwock. He only exists to be mocked.

Ah. If it isn't my copy. I was almost hoping you would join us.

Redd smiled.

I suppose you want to fight me and take control of this world so you can run it into the ground.

Although a grisly smile lit her face, exposing her black fangs, her voice sounded somewhat serious. "Actually, yes. But first I would like to have a few words with that dragon over there."

The minute she said those words time froze.

Fine. I'll wait.

The Red Queen's body stopped jiggling as she turned away from her counterpart in this world…

Who wanted the Jabberwock.

Why?

To exploit him and his powers? No, no, that can't be it, it can't be. To apologise? Maybe she learnt her lesson, yes, please. Wait if she did learn her lesson, she could do something to him for killing Alyss, or perhaps she's angry because she didn't get the chance to kill Alyss herself and she wanted to oh no oh no help …

"Thank you."

What?

"You have allowed me to take my intended position in this world, and have spared it of that obnoxious brat."

The Jabberwock shuddered in anger. He wanted to kill her right on the spot, to feel her blood drip on his claws. Both Red Queens should feel his pain.

He restrained himself though. He was curious.

"The Heart Crystal gave me immortality. It gave me power. The only problem was how to get out. I was given a chance to escape, but the problem was I had to choose someone to do it for me…"

"Why me?"

"The Heart Crystal gave me power, but it was limited, so its power could only affect the person I chose…"

"Why me?"

"So I got you to fight for me by impersonating Alyss, putting you through a Looking Glass Maze, making you organic…"

"Why me you…"

"Calm down." I actually do as she commands. "I chose you because you and I were the closest…"

The Jabberwock snorted. "What do you mean?"

"I have more in common with you than I do with that giant blob thing. Both of us have suffered and are ridiculed for enduring it. My birthright was taken from me and they expected me to just accept it! The nerve!"

He had suffered. He was ridiculed. Why not listen to her?

"You and I. We are seen as monsters, when the true monsters are the ones who gain respect, the ones who are revered and do away with those who should rule."

She pointed directly at the other Queen, the one who had her back turned, the ferocious beast who only wanted them to suffer.

Are you two finished?

"Give us some more time."

Very well.

Redd turned to the Jabberwock, and the ballroom disappears.

I am in a battlefield, one without a battle. One after a battle. People lay dead, their bodies torn in two, heads separated from bodies, what should be corpses are gory piles.

I place my finger into the blood. I love it. I love the way it drips from my fingertips and how it runs down into my palm like a snail. I love its taste, the way it explodes on my tongue, the way it feels so alive.

"Yes," said Queen Redd, "we want our enemies to perish. It's their own damn fault they died; they now have to face the pain we endured due to them. You murdered the entire Wonderland army, they deserved to die, didn't they?"

The battlefield disappeared. Redd moved closer to the Jabberwock and ran her fingers across his recently-attained ribs. Rubbing against his stomach, she felt his heartbeat.

"You are a truly beautiful creature."

She brought his head closer to hers, her warm fingers wiping away wet saliva.

"We can defeat her…

"Together."

He turned towards the other Queen. "We're ready."

Good.

In a matter of a millisecond, she turned to face her two opponents with her fiery yellow eyes, opening her mouth to allow a thick beam of energy to escape. They leapt from it immediately and somersaulted on the floor.

What do you intend to do?

They were the conduit, the vehicle designed to unleash the great energy that flowed from the crystal.

Wonderland's saviors.

Both of them work to defeat the Queen by unleashing hordes of roses, their vines trapping her, wrapping around her, pricking her gelatinous skin, as ripe blood dripped slowly…

She screamed in pain. She roared angrily. She wanted the pain to stop, she wanted the torture to end, she actually thought she didn't deserve this.

How hilarious.

Both of them guffawed insanely at what she went through, how she finally gained what had been coming to her, how she learned the price of her actions, how there was finally an iota of justice in the world at last.

The vines contracted, yes, they wrapped tighter and tighter and tighter, the thorns elongated and pricked her deeper, the vines squeezed, they tightly clenched the Queen as if she were a giant frog, her blood, her blood began to leak from her body, her screams grew frailer and more high-pitched.

Music to their ears…

Nooooooooooo

She shrunk.

She eventually shrunk away into a worthless little nothing. A tiny little bug just cowering on the floor. As the vines, the thorns, the flowers evaporated into thin air, her former minion approached her. He smirked.

Please please pleasepleaseplease don't do this Redd's evil

Splat.