73

Legal disclaimer: I tend to liberally "borrow" character profiles and art from the Earth-27 wikia created by Roy Westerman with art principally coming from digital artist Phil Cho. Other creators and artists are found there as well and will specifically list any creations with creator citations as I utilize them. In short, this the single most comprehensive retelling of all things DC and beyond I have encountered. In short, it's worth your time to explore.

That having been said, the properties, and their variations belong to DC and its parent, AT&T, with notable exceptions. More on that in the epilogue. I do not own DC characters or their interpretations and reimaginings. My own characters are implied Public Domain since I have not included a copyright notice as required by the 1974 revisions of the copyright statutes and regulations. While an intellectual copyright is implied without the due symbols and language, all such considerations are voided under CC-BY-SA unless duly noted otherwise


Portals resembling Looking Glasses opened at strategic sites across the globe. Black garbed soldiers surged through them in hordes. Each individual horde was comprised of various creatures of myth and legend. Trolls, goblins, gorgons, harpies, griffins, manticores, furies, and finally, led by humans. Each threat and many feared soon to be threats were countered and/or secured by various superhero teams.

The Justice League Unlimited was dispatched to Paris to liberate the city and safeguard the Dome where the United Nations General Assembly was meeting. The Justice Society battled the invaders in New York City. The New People's Heroes fought in Moscow. The Outsiders worked to free Tokyo. Young Justice worked to do the same in Seoul. The THUNDER Agents were dispatched by the UN to safeguard Mexico City. International Operations, led by Black Adam and Isis, moved to battle over Beijing, Jakarta, and New Delhi. Task Force Z was sent by the United States to hold London and repulse the invaders.

In the United States and Canada, similar measures were taken for potential second waves of attacks. The Agents of SMASH and the PATRIOTS patrolled Washington DC. The Freedom Fighters and the Americans assisted in Toronto's security. The Mighty Crusaders held Los Angeles. The Birds of Prey worked to insure Seattle's liberty. The Shadow Crusaders quietly worked inside Gotham City. Although deputized federal law enforcement agents and therefore immune to the anti-vigilante laws of New Jersey and Gotham, they didn't wish to offend the state and local government's sensibilities. But Police Commissioner Barbara Gordon was more than relieved to be working alongside them.

In the end, after pitched battles in every invasion site, the enemy simply withdrew after sustaining minimal losses. They once again employed Looking Glass portals to do so. And world leaders and citizens alike wondered just what the hell had just happened.


As the ranking member of the JLU available to answer the UN's demands for answers, General Glory reported to a special session of the Security Council headed up by the Secretary-General herself. The Pakistani native looked to her devout faith in Allah for answers but a few from the Justice League would be welcomed.

"While I'm certain we're honored to host such a great American, one has to wonder why you would allow the bulk of the Justice League to leave Earth with an enemy combatant to deflect a supposedly impending invasion. Seems to me the invasion just occurred," the US delegate pontificated.

"To which enemy combatant are you referring to?" General Glory knew but he wanted to council to hear it so he could rebuff the claim.

"Maxima, man. Maxima," the delegate treated General Glory like he was an idiot.

"I see. If you were to ascertain the facts and not the accusations hurled by Lex Luthor and Sarge Steel, you'd realize the reason Earth has only been invaded by Thanagar and Apokolips alone is because Almerac, the planet Maxima was empress of, has been shielding us ever since Kalea-El's own abortive invasion. And surely you won't be blaming her for Atlantis' unilateral actions. That threat came from our own oceans," General Glory reminded everyone, "Recently, Maxima came to us to assist us against Darkseid. And afterward, Gen. Latham and Col. Trevor granted Maxima probationary status as a JLer."

"You will refer to Pres. Luthor by his proper title!" the delegate snapped like a rabid dog.

"That's your takeaway?" General Glory was bitterly disappointed.

"The members of the esteemed council just feel it's no coincidence Earth was attacked when the majority of the JLU was off world," The Secretary-General shared, "This could be a long abiding threat that has just now made its presence known."

"Agreed. Owlwoman has taken the precaution of enlisting Dark Justice, the former Justice League Dark, in investigating the origination point of so many mythical creatures. She'll be running point on this," General Glory revealed, "Pres. Luthor has laid the blame squarely on Olivia McKay. Trajectory, Azrael, and I have been tasked with finding and terminating her."

"I demand a retraction. The President cannot legally order an assassination," the US delegate sputtered.

"You're right. He had Sec. Waller do it for him," General Glory referred to Amanda Waller, the Secretary for Meta-Human Affairs, "Yet Sec. Bones of Homeland Security vehemently disagreed. And since the Justice's League's domestic charter is derived from, and overseen by, the MLJ Initiative in cooperation with Homeland, my compatriots and I have told Waller to eat it."

The blatant, willful violation of Pres. Luthor's orders further agitated the delegate. General Glory cut him off before he spouted more rhetoric, "In short, A joint JLU-Dark Justice team will pursue these invaders back to their origin point and sabotage further aggression. Meanwhile, my team will locate former-Pres. McKay and Agent Liberty's location and remand them to MLJ custody."

"General Glory, has the joint task force determined where the invaders came from?" the Secretary-General inquired.

"From another realm of existence. As it has been explained to me, there are Twenty-Seven Realms of existence. The ones best known to us being Heaven, Hell, The Realm of Order, the Realm of Chaos, Limbo, the Fourth World, Purgatory, and our Multiverse. Outside of these exists the famed Rock of Eternity," General Glory described.

"It's never been proven that a multiverse exists," the irritating delegate sputtered. The council members gave him pained looks when the existence of parallel Earths had been proven beyond doubt.

"Denizens of four Realms participated in today's attack. And we know of an additional fifth," General Glory explained.

"Do go on," the Secretary urged.

"The Looking Glass portals are derived from Wonderland. But beings from the Realm of Fairy, the Realm of Fables, and Oz were also present," General Glory told them, "We know Neverland exists but all contact was lost a few years ago."

The delegate broke into braying, mocking laughter, "Bwah ha ha ha! You've lost it."

The rest of the council voted unanimously to have him removed for conduct unbecoming. He screamed and shouted as the UN Police removed him from the chamber, "You need me! You need me to protect you all from his blatant lies! You need America to save you from yourselves!"

"Now that that's over," the Secretary-General sighed, "Give your task force our blessing. Whatever the outcome of their mission, we are convinced it will have been performed at the highest caliber of proficiency."

"Thank you, Madame Secretary," General Glory was dismissed at that point.

After the JLer left the chambers, a discussion began. The French delegate spoke to an aid, "Tell Mr. Darhk his mission is a go."

"In addition, inform the Crimson Queen that she too is authorized." the British delegate decided,

"And do not forget the Disco Mummy," the Secretary-General enthused.

"And International Operations will police the non-Western world," the Russian and Chinese ambassadors agreed.

"That should be enough killers to make our point," the American had returned, "Now, about this fabled 'multiverse'..."

Everyone groaned. Why was Luthor so determined to debunk a proven fact? No one denied Luthor was the actual head of the Legion of Doom. Fu Manchu simply served as its daily chieftain. But Luthor hadn't been elected by a landslide because he was virtuous. It was precisely because he was the super villain.


"It's good to work with you all again," Owlwoman admitted, "And for the first time safor a few of you."

"Friends in low places," Zatanna chuckled.

"Very low, luv," John Constantine quipped, "What say you lot?"

Enchantress glared. Nightshade was annoyed. Black Alice looked uncertain. And Madame Xanadu was the epitome of confidence. Of course, millennia ago, her name had been Nimue Inwudu. Vivian Lachlan had been her sister "Vivienne" and the third sister, Morgaine was now called Morgan le Fey.

The new blood was Kitty Claus who was Kris Kringle's daughter and her magic allowed her to "sort" out the naughty from the nice. And Cabala was Guinevere and Lancelot's illegitimate daughter sent to Palestine with Jewish mystics to protect her from Arthur Pendragon. She practiced light, numerically and name based magic. Only Madame Xanadu and Vivian were currently more powerful. But Xanadu had seen that change in the cards. A member of their entourage would transform into the mightiest witch on Earth Prime before this ended.

The Justice League were members though appropriate for peacekeeping rather than quelling violence on Rann, which threatened to spill over, via zeta beam, to Earth. Facing a reprieve from centuries of hostilities from alternating between either Thanagar or Gordania, Rann turned on itself. And so Maxima convinced Steve Trevor to dispatch the bulk of the Justice League to Rann to broker a peace accord.

General Glory, Azrael, and Trajectory were already assigned a domestic duty to fulfill. Sister Lilhy would coordinate the intelligence with Shayera Hol and John Stewart on leave to care for newborn Kenra. Sue Dibney was Ops Director and oversaw the daily grind of the missions. Trevor oversaw the entire JLU program. And Elongated Man was their designated investigator. Kilowog had received a replacement Green Lantern power ring and returned to the Corps.

Silver Sorceress and Blue Jay had volunteered for the incursion duty. Fire and Ice had just returned to the JLU in time for an invasion. Man-of-Bats' older brother, Chief Man-of-Bats joined the JLU while his nephew, Raven Red, enlisted in Young Justice. Fortunately, despite seeing heavy action, no members of Young Justice had been seriously injured.

Jack O'Lantern was attached to Owlwoman's hip when volunteering for assignments and after hours activities. Unbeknownst to the Jlers and Justicers, two figures hung nearby observing the investigation.

"Ahem, You're thinking about this all wrong," Saturn Queen announced from where she floated above them, "The Looking Glass portals are classic Wonderland but that's just the starting point of where you should go."

"And you would know this how?" Owlwoman asked."

"I 'interrogated' a few prisoners. Citizens of Oz were also spotted in Bangor, Maine. They're looking for someone specific," Eve Aries informed them, "And I really wouldn't make any of the attempts at capturing me that you're thinking about. I come from the future. Magic is still a thing there. If you want real answers, ask Nimue."

Her purloined Legion of Superheroes flight ring lifted her away and across the sky.

"Did anyone else lack the ability to even think about capturing her?" Constantine asked.

"Who's 'Nimue'?" Owlwoman asked.

Madame Xanadu sighed, "I am. I'll answer any questions after we proceed to Wonderland. Vivivian, take the Claus with you to Bangor."

"I need Cabala as well," Vivian replied.

"Done," Madame Xanadu agreed.

"Part of a 'joint mission' is actually working together. Chief Man-of-Bats and Blue Jay will accompany your team to Maine," Owlwoman didn't ask for permission.

"Easily agreed to," Xanadu allowed.

Silver Sorceress opened the Looking Glass portal. The seemingly last to go through paused and Constantine observed, "I don't hear screaming."

"You're such an ass," Black Alice complained.

"I really am, luv," Constantine had amused himself.

As the portal was closing, Hawk and Dove went through as well.


"Yeas, it is true. They are looking for you. But also for me so that I won't be free. If I am unable I shan't turn the table. And no matter what is at the core there certainly will be war. And as a plus, they're looking for all of us," Alice the Mad Hatter declared to the milling crowd in Goldilocks' apartment watching the developing news footage.

"You brazen shit!" Psycho Pirate dove at Alice.

An ebon blade formed before her exposed throat, "Steady on, Regina."

"You're defending her?" Psycho Pirate asked.

"I don't agree with everything she does or represents, but she's a member of the Injustice Society. Just as long as you've been," Shadow Thief explained.

"Natalie, could you open a portal to Wonderland?" Goldilocks asked.

"Alice has explained well enough for me to," Wizard replied.

"Then I'll go across with her and Tinker Bell, because I assume you won't be left behind," Goldilocks stated.

Of course, no one understood Tink but the melody of her chiming voice and facial expression complete with body language plainly said, Are you effing kidding me?

"Should I come with you?" Mist was torn.

"It's all right, Andy. Watch over Solomon for me," Goldilocks requested. She knew Mist liked spending time with Solomon Grundy.

"Why are you doing this?" Clock Queen sharply inquired.

"The others went on a drinking binge when the news broke. Alice and Tinker Bell can probably do something about this mess. I won't abandon them because they're my friends. And apparently, Tempest, I have few and far between," Goldilocks led Alice and Tink out to the balcony. Wizard followed.

"This should be smooth but it's also my first attempt," she warned them all.

"In order to dare to receive try to share to conceive," Alice prodded Wizard's memories of her instructions without Wizard realizing it.

"Oh! I remember now," she opened a Looking Glass. Alice gave Goldilocks a smug look. Tinker Bell snickered. Even that tinkled.

"It is true we must scurry and make a hurry. We have no time to waste but we must make sudden haste. For we must leave this house even quieter than a mouse," Alice prompted the immobile Goldilocks.

Goldilocks had been warned by Alice and Tinker Bell that factions from different Realms would seek them out. Some to use them as destroyers. Others sought them out as saviors. And, the invaders wanted them dead.

As they were stepping through the portal, Goldilocks advised Alice and Tinker Bell, "You should tell the others what truly happened in Neverland and why."

"Why provoke greater fear than is already here?" Alice and the others stood in Wonderland.

And all of Goldilocks delusional fairy tales came to life.


Damien Darhk called a three-way truce. The Shadowmages met with the Crimson Queen and Disco Mummy. A danger fraught meeting between Amomodat Ashtad and her sister Suri, or commonly, Scarlet Rose and the Disco Mummy, recently revealed to be Princess Erishkigal Narayana of Sumeria. Amomodat was a mortal queen who'd lost her throne. Erishkigal had been heir to the Fertile Crescent that would later contain Assyria, Chaldea, Canaan, Midian, Edom, and proto-Turkey and proto-Greece.

The curse that made Erishkigal immortal was intended as a punishment. And it confined her in a tomb for five thousand years. And admittedly, her mind broke. But with it canme a singular clarity. Erish loathed and hated the living. And she could mummify any living creature and control it or simply raise existing mummies and bind them to her will.

Erishkigal had offered to exorcise the succubus out of Amomodat when Suri begged her to. The price was eternal mummification for Suri if her sister refused. She didn't comprehend that Amomodat was dead and the succubus had possessed her body. It was a fool's bargain to begin with. "Amomodat" was dead and the demon rode out her memories. If the demon did depart Amomodat's body it would return to being an inanimate corpse.

The clincher was that Erishkigal mummified Suri before confronting Amomodat with the choice. And the pathetic truth was, Erish could mummify the living. She couldn't restore them to life. Like herself, she could create a pseudo-life where they appeared normal. But internally, they were a shriveled and dried to death. Suri appeared normal but she was immortal and lacked all biological needs. Needs but not cravings.

The single most insidious part of Erishkigal's plot was she maintained absolute mastery of Suri's will and at any time could be fully aware of Suri's actions and sensory input. And that slavery would endure until the heat death of the sun. And Suri believed she'd been released from service. All the better to spy on Amomodat and destroy her through the real Amomodat's very kin.

"Why is she here?" Amomodat demanded to know.

"She's extremely powerful," Darhk replied, "And you are not. You're here as a courtesy. Most of my associates are remaining on Earth while we seek the ruler that ordered these attacks and assassinate him. If you make a power play, you will be destroyed, demon."

"And who do you imagine can accomplish that lofty goal?" Crimson Queen laughed.

"I believe I, or a conflagration of my associates, can," Tsaritsa, the Queen of Fables revealed herself.

Amomodat actually gulped. Tsaritsa's smile grew even colder, "Let's a take a walk, little succubus."

"I think Maimie and I should investigate Oz's involvement or lack thereof," Dorothy Gale spoke for both her and the Neverland survivor, Maimie Mannering.

"Do what you want. Just open the portal to Wonderland," Darhk was feeling impatient.

Dorothy gestured and a Looking Glass appeared. Twirling her finger, a green tornado swept her and Maimie off to Oz.

"After you," Darhk pretended to be chivalrous. Erishkigal refused to play along, "No. I have your backs, remember?"


"Why are we standing on the sky?" Owlwoman asked.

"Wonderland borders four Realms. Chaos, Fables, Oz, and the Multiverse. It's most akin to Chaos," Madame Xanadu explained, "It's a normal occurrence in a strange Realm. Anything, and I stress anything, can occur here and be normalized."

"And whatever you do, for God's sake, don't drink anything labeled that you do, eat anything labeled that you do, and for eff's sake, don't eat the mushrooms," Enchantress added.

"Are we ever getting to the ground?" Black Alice worried.

"Follow us," Dove said as she and Hawk revealed themselves, "Sorry about this but we needed to be here with you."

"That's debatable," Dove's sister grumbled.

Dove reached a point and put one foot aimed down and began to walk towards the ground as though there were a path there. She did the same to get to the actual trail parting the forest. Everyone tentatively did the same except for Owlwoman and Jack O'Lantern who flew down to the trail. Constantine wasn't so graceful as he landed like a sack full of rocks.

Constantine rose, dusted off his already filthy trenchcoat and fished a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket. Black Alice gave him a baleful look, "Again? Really?"

"As often as is humanely possible," Enchantress advised.

"Then gimme one," Black Alice received the cigarette, had it lit, and took a deep drag before exhaling.

"Thou dost protest too much there, princess?" Enchantress asked.

"Hey, I was having a nic fit," Black Alice protested again.

"Whiner," Enchantress accused the sixteen-year old.

"There dozens of living creatures approaching. Most are...somewhat wild game. Others are on mounts, flamingo to be precise," Owlwoman reported, "And there's a living...vapor. It's flitting in out of my tracking senses."

"Why 'it' and not 'who'?" a fanged smile appeared in midair.

"Cheshire," Nightshade said.

"I could be or not," a tail twirled in the air. Then a purple cat with deviously clever eyes and that fanged grin appeared, "It depends on who is asking."

"I'm Eve Eden of the Land of Nightshades," she announced.

"The runaway princess. Sorry, that credential doesn't plead your case. Especially now that you've drawn unwanted attention," the cat evaporated, "If you survive, we might have a conversation. Ta ta for now."

"And...it's gone," Owlwoman was beleaguered.

"Bloody Wonderland," Constantine fumed, "Hell makes better sense."

"What is going on?" Ice was horribly confused.

"And who is spying on us?" Fire was aggravated.

"Those are just scouts," Hawk explained. As the Avatar of War, Holly Granger understood better than almost anyone else, "They'll send back riders and then surround us."

"But what if they don't want to fight?" Ice asked.

"Tora, these people just killed over two thousand back home. And those were still preliminary casualty reports," Fire chided her best friend.

"But Beatriz, not every soldier wants to fight," Ice protested.

"Ice does make a point," Dove reasoned. But as the Avatar of Peace, Dawn Granger was expected to say as much.

"I'd begin preparing defensive spells while someone explains the damn rules around here," Silver Sorceress was already prepping.

"Nightshade," Zatanna urged.

"Most of you know my mother is queen of the Land of Nightshades. Fewer of you know I abandoned my claim to the throne. No one would realize that the Land of Nightshades has extensive trade ties with Wonderland. Until a few years ago when there was some kind of political upheaval," Nightshade explained, "Wonderland has been ruled by a dynasty longer than living memory. It passes along matriarchal lines. The recent rulers were the Red and White Queens with Red being dominate. The Red Queen was a powerful sorceress but eschewed using her magic. She was also quite insane and abused her political powers and her people."

"The White Queen was a low level adept and a high grade alchemist," Nightshade continued, "But she was scandalized when it was learned she had a daughter by a favorite, the favorite actually, courtesan known as the Mad Hatter."

"No effin' way!" Black Alice blurted.

"Rumor had it there was a second daughter as well that the White Consort had put to death. The known illegitimate daughter was known to have been threatened and displayed an inborn talent for mind control," Nightshade regaled her audience, "Unsurprisingly, the White Consort committed suicide within minutes of meeting with Alice the Mad Hatter, named after…"

"We get it," the group said as one. Even Ice.

:A rider on horseback is being escorted by flamingo riders," Owlwoman cautioned everyone.

"I sense approaching power," Black Alice said lustfully. Lori Zechlin's ability was to absorb a person's magical abilities and power for a short duration. The drawback was that it immunized that victim from a second grab. Constantine and Enchantress were working with her to create tether by which she drew a small portion of the power and kept the link for an indefinite period of time. That, and to draw from multiple sources all at once.

"Horse riders are invariably military leaders of the highest grade and a magic user denotes a commanding general or similar rank," Nightshade warned.

"We need to question a scout," Zatanna opined.

"On it!" Hawk rushed into the trees.

Dove facepalmed, "We'll be right back."

A scream erupted in the distance and Dove rushed, "Very much right back!"

"Dove's sister seems nice," Jack earned a withering glare from Owlwoman, replete with a balled up fist.

"Not that kinda nice, Wenonah," Liam McHugh tried to soothe her jealousy.

Wenonah Littlebird wasn't having it. She pointedly ignored him while she coordinated the next move with Silver Sorceress, Madame Xanadu, Zatanna, and Enchantress. Nightshade arranged Fire and Ice in a defensive triangle. Constantine sidled up to Jack.

"Problems with the the missus, mate?" he asked.

Jack ignited his power and eldritch flames formed a pumpkin head over his and sidhe fire licked at his fingertips, "I don't need or want yer help, Hellblazer."

"No one's called me that inna...yeouch!" Constantinme backpedalled while patting the flames eating at his coat, "Bollox, ya bleedin' wanker!"

Black Alice couldn't help but laugh. Constantine turned her, "What's so effin' funny?"

"Give me another cigarette and a light and nothing will be," she blackmailed him, "Where do you get all these?"

"They're hand rolled by condemned Cubans in Purgatory. This case keeps `em comin' for all eternity. Or we die of cancer. That's the give, luv. These sticks are guaranteed to cause cancer."

She looked at her cigarette, "Eff it."

She pointedly took an ever deeper drag and held it before blowing it out. Constantine had never looked prouder of someone, "Words I live by."

"First you contribute to the delinquency of a minor now you're condemning her?" Nightshade disapproved.

"Never said the cancer would kill her," he smirked.

"It's your choice, Lori. Just don't bitch about it when the price tag comes and needs to be paid," Nightshade chose to ignore them after that.

"Prig," Constantine snickered.

Nightshade gave him the finger.


"So this really is it," Goldilocks was in awe. Stretched in the valley below them was the Chessman Castle. One main turret tower was vertical. Another horizontal, and a third diagonal. With the diagonal and horizontal towers suspended in midair. Giant chess pieces littered the landscape between one- to three-story dwellings and bunkers.

Metal playing guards replete with arm and legs and guided by beetle-like heads patrolled the hillsides.

Tinker Bell had take extra caution because as a pixie, even a human sized one, she glowed. Goldilocks had never seen Alice so full of wrath and vengeful intent. She was to learn that was merely scratching the surface at Alice's feeling about coming home.

"Is that your cousin's castle?" Goldilocks innocently asked.

"Yes, it's true she lives in a nest like a shrew," Alice grated.

Once upon a time, an officially and realistically dejected Alice was approached by her cousin, the Red Princess, and her older half-sister, the White Princess. They'd concocted a plan whereby Alice would use her mind control magic to overthrow the Red Queen and the Princess would establish a "benevolent" kingdom.

The Red Queen died resisting Alice's coup and the self-promoted Blood Queen charged Alice with her murder. Alice's sister offered her sanctuary in change for ousting their mother from the throne. Alice had been naive but she was quick to learn and refused.

The Queen appeared to die at Alice's beckoning and her father, the Mad Hatter, expired under a similar compulsion. The duly self-appointed Silver Duchess banished Alice and steered the Blood Queen's soldiers after her.

Alice escaped to Neverland inches before the Blood Queen's Knave of Blood would've had her head off of its shoulders. And there she met Tinker Bell, distraught over the changes in Peter Pan. Changes that allied him with Captain James Hook. And Pan's sorcerous powers were growing.

Alice fell in love with Tink and she with Alice. And then they purged Neverland and left, freed from Pan's barrier, to seek out similar infections of the blackest magic and build fire breaks by testing Realms to see if they could repel the coming invasions.

"She hides in fright from the coming blight," Alice nearly spat, "But she and her master cannot stay apart because the rot and evil in her heart. It wasn't just yesterday that she began to stray. One doesn't have to be a devil to gaze at hope and joy and love and then swivel."

Goldilocks understood why Alice didn't talk about her family. The recent history was just as tragic as her own life. The Blood Queen had cost Alice her family, her home, and her center of balance.

There was a torrent of rage beneath Alice and Tinker Bell just as she herself was a fount of unprocessed anger. It was little wonder the three got along. But she noticed the usually overconfident Alice shied out of sight with Tinker Bell every time a card patrol stomped by.

"You can't affect them, can you?" Goldilocks realized.

Tink chattered away in a symphonic bell ringing ceremony thanks to her now unique voice.

"Or you, I gather. You've been back here before. That's how you know," Goldilocks deduced, "So where do we go from here?"

"I need to deliver a message to the Court of Silver," Alice declared.

"Your sister's kingdom?" Goldilocks inquired. Alice's glower said "yes".

"If we're as quiet as a mouse we can reach the Silver house," Alice had to whisper as the patrol continued on its way by, "Through the forests we must go so as to not present a show. And when we arrive I shall rain down the pain. And when my sister's life is forfeit I shall greatly profit."

Goldilocks was pleased the others had remained behind and avoided this blood feud.


"Why are we in Maine?" Cabala's disappointment was palpable. She mostly lived in worked in Brazil these days.

"The Munchkins are here. In that apartment," Kitty Claus announced.

"You know that?" Blue Jay didn't buy into it yet.

"Sure, I know where everyone is and whether or not they're not or nice. Half the Injustice Society is in different apartments and the others are downtown at a bar being extra naughty," Kitty shared.

"Only the Munchkins matter and why they chose to be here," Chief Man-of-Bats focused them, "The Injusticers are a problem for another day."

Vivian was impressed with his clarity of purpose. She'd met few men and women since Arthur that met that criteria. And Arthur had been betrayed by her sister, Morgan. Nimue, Vivienne, and Morgaine had left Avalon to discover their mother's half-human son. And they'd performed a profane ritual to deny Arthur his sidhe heritage and to retreat to the Realm of Avalon or the Realm of the Courts of Greater and Lesser Faery. But Merlin sensed the rite underway and interrupted them before cursing them to dwell in the moral worlds from that point on.

Vivian agreed to assist Lucifer Morningstar's son's mission to thwart his father's plan for humanity. Born and aged to extreme old age in seconds, Merlin aged backwards. At the end of every epoch, he became ten years younger. She'd met his current guise and found Toby Merlin to be a stereotypical twentysomething.

Morgan had betrayed Arthur, mortally wounded him, and crushed Camelot. Nimue remained detached until Merlin bonded the demon Etrigan to Jason Blood's soul. For a thousand years she helped steer Etrigan's lusts towards performing good even if by accident. Eventually, Nimue parted ways from Jason and became Madame Xanadu just as her sisters became Vivian Lachlan and Morgan le Fey. Merlin's final task for Vivian was to guard Excalibur, the sword from the stone, and Merlin's own talismanic staff. These were to be held in trust for Arthur's return to Albion and for Merlin's successor.

Merlin laid a dark curse upon Morgan. The darkest of curses from the throne of Hell. Madame Xanadu had helped found the Demon Knights. Later it was the Justice League Dark and now it was Dark Justice. Vivian had recruited agents as well. Scarlett Dalton in Salem where she'd been burned at the stake centuries ago. She watched over Dr. Fate. Michelle and Jack in Crossroads monitored Toby Merlin.

"Blue Jay, go airborne. Chief Man-of-Bats, I want you on the roof. Caballa come from the western approach. Kitty, you're with me from the east," Vivian instructed.

No one argued with her.

"Stay behind me and try to look threatening," Vivian advised.

"I left the North Pole to sort out the naughty from the nice. I have lumps of coal for these bounders," Kitty replied.

Vivian groaned. Two Munchkins stepped out of the apartment they'd broken into and then they scurried back inside. Four fully sized humans stepped out and Vivian watched their edges as they exited.

"Something's amiss," she observed. And she saw that Cabala agreed.

"They're rock trolls," Kitty announced.

Cabala thrust a palm towards the burly quartet. A white light, the purest white, shone upon the "humans" and the glamour disguising them sheared away to reveal four rock trolls. Quite diminutive for trolls but each as large as Solomon Grundy. No one, except Kitty, was pleased with this discovery.

Chief Man-of-Bats landed atop and destabilized it so that it pitched over the railing towards the parking lot below. The JLer rode him down the entire way. Blue Jay pushed one off as well and alighted to prevent his teammate from being overwhelmed and outnumbered.

Eight Munchkins emerged from the flat and headed for Cabala. Four leapt atop the railing and ran past her and the others ran up upon the wall and ran over and past her. But a rock troll thundered towards her.

"I got this," Kitty threw a lump of coal softball pitch style at the troll nearing Vivian. The mineral detonated and knocked the troll out. A second pitch did the same for Cabala's attacker and then the to below. The Munchkins made a getaway and Chief Man-of-Bats and Blue Jay left to monitor them. The three magicians would remain behind to determine what was sought after in the apartment.


Erishkigal arranged for appearing in Wonderland in a different location than the Shadowmages. Her spell disrupted the portal and hurled the mages out amongst a one mile stretch of shrubby field. Erish gloated over Darhk's impotent rage over her trickery. He'd been a fool to believe he could control her. Disco Mummy had a singular goal in her undead life: the destruction of all life on Earth Prime. She would rule over a planet full of mummies and even grant them a false semblance of independence.

She realized she was at a crossroads with a signposts with signs pointing in ever direction, even skyward, except for one ill kept trail. She found the sign on the ground and its information was rubbed away.

Erishkigal smiled, "Someone wants their privacy."

So that was the direction she headed. In the trees above, a cat with purple and black striped fur tsked, "My, oh my. She's chosen the wrong path for her and the right one for those she seeks."


"Damn her!" Darhk snarled, "Disco Mummy screwed us."

"I've recalled the others," Nora Darhk reported to her father, "What do you see, Galigantus?"

"Mushrooms and trees. More mushrooms," the giant replied.

"The mushrooms are the trees," Darhk sneered,"So yes, very helpful."

He reflected on Dorothy Gale, who was currently risking her very life to petition her jailers for information regarding the attacks on Earth. The former girl from Kansas who'd wandered the Yellow Brick Road accompanied by her faithful dog, Toto. They'd quickly discovered that Auntie Emm's prized cow and chicken had survived the tornado that swept them all into Oz. Dorothy had enjoyed butchering the now-talking animals. Toto in particular enjoyed the beef.

Dorothy's adventures in Oz lasted four decades, whereupon she'd become a witch at Ozma and the Wizard's behest. But Dorothy slid closer to being a Wicked Witch with each foe she'd vanquished. And finally, the lust for power drove her into become the remaining Wicked Witch of Oz.

Dorothy, having enchanted her immortality when she turned eighteen, returned to Kansas pursued by Ozma's allies. Auntie Emm was on her deathbed and rejected Dorothy screaming she was a demon and should return to the Pit where she'd escaped from. Dorothy, enraged, cast hellfire upon her aunt. When Glenda and Tick Tock found her, Emm had been burning for three days and still screaming. Glenda extinguished the flames and mercifully allowed Auntie Emm to die.

The battle between Dorothy and her former friends cost Jack Pumpkinhead, the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the formerly Cowardly Lion their lives. Glenda had never killed a foe, that had been Dorothy's job, but she'd never come closer than that day fighting Dorothy's infernal rage. Dorothy. She'd simply become another Realm's problem. So the compromise between him and Ozma was imprisonment in a void.

But even then, news of Alice and Tinker Bell's rampages inspired Dorothy's release. Her parole contingent on accomplishing or assisting, in Alice and Tink's destruction. Dorothy was met with Maimie Mannering seeking Tinker Bell. So the two formed a partnership. And learning that their quarry had traveled to Earth, they returned to the lands of their birth and both found the world had become a strange place over the last century.

Meta-humans and other costumed ilk shook the planet. An ilk Alice and Tinker Bell could easily hide amongst. Dorothy had a glimpse of the beginning of this world in 1938 when she'd torched Auntie Emm and the radio and newspapers were full of the news of the emergence of the mystery men and women. Green Lantern, the Flash, Wildcat, the Sandman, Wonder Woman, Hourman, Dr. Fate, the Specter, Hawkman, and Hawkwoman along with Black Canary filled America and the world's imagination.

Maimie had last been in the world in the midst of World War II. Found by Peter Pan in1865, she was taken to Neverland to be the first and only Lost Girl. Maimie fought pirates and Amerinds as well as Lost Boys and Mermaids and befuddled crocodiles. But she felt a need to say farewell to the parents whose very neglect had driven her out into the streets. But Neverland had changed her as it changed Pan.

She was immortal now and possessed elfin ears. She could fly, alone among every person in Neverland, save Pan and the pixies. She found on her return to London that time warped entering and exiting Neverland. She'd returned not in 1875 when she'd left but rather in 1941 during the London Blitz.

And it was then that she first heard the name Wendy Angela Darling. Wendy had written a series of "fanciful" novels that Maimie knew to be true. Novels regarding her adventures in Neverland and stealing Peter's heart. A heart that belonged to Maimie alone. Pan had waited twenty years for Maimie to return before he sought out Wendy. So at least she had that cold comfort. Her next was killing Wendy, her daughter Jane, and her son Daniel. And then Maimie returned to Neverland to find everyone and everything dead. Almost. Capt. Hook's dying whisper told her Tinker Bell was responsible. The stubborn codfish had clung to life long enough to point someone towards his revenge.

As Maimie traveled through Realms she heard vicious tales of Tinker Bell, now attached to Alice the Mad Hatter's hip and in her bed, wreaking havoc. Not quite the genocidal campaign on Neverland but enough to put everyone in the Realm on alert and gearing for war. Every time after their first excursion into the pocket universe of Angor. There, their first effort beyond Neverland, things spiraled wildly out of control and only three survivors of the holocaust remained. One died after coming to Earth Prime. The other two had joined the "Justice League Unlimited".

Darhk snapped out his reverie. Turning to their pet ogre, he asked, "Cormoran, what do you smell out there?"

"Man flesh. Flesh is approaching," Cormoran answered.

"Do you sense them, Norzima?" Red Orchid inquired.

"No, I don't. Diana?" Green Sorceress answered. Which surprised Darhk. Red Orchid's power was Blood Magic. She should sense the approaching people if they were alive. Green Sorceress was tapped into flora and fauna.

"Perhaps I should take a look," Green Jinn asked. Ever since she was freed from the lamp she'd been ruthless.

Metal playing card troops marched in from every side. A man on flamingo back led them. He was one of two Tens of Blood. He also missing large portions of his body and an eye. All of which were replaced by enchanted metal like the cards.

"Okay, now I sense him," Green Sorceress had been worried.

"Me too," Red Orchid happily announced.

"This is a misunderstanding," Darhk assured the Ten.

"No, it's a mistake. And you've made it," Ten of Blood replied.

Darhk began mentally preparing death hexes.


"The bloody Yellow Brick Road," Maimie breathed.

"Quite literally," Dorothy was amused.

"Whut the effin' `ell `appened `ere?" Maimie's Cockney accent thickened under stress.

"Somebody invaded, as these elite Winkie Guard corpses attest to. That smoke in the distance? That is where the Emerald City is. Looks like someone sacked the capital," Dorothy assessed the situation.

"You!" A burnt, battered, and blooded Witch of the North staggered out of the tree line.

"Me!" Dorothy gasped and found it hilarious as Glenda passed out. Dorothy collected Glenda's wand and used it as a conduit to drain the witch's magic. Then she snapped the wand in half before Glenda died.

"This is why you should never carry trinkets," Dorothy chided her former mentor.

"I `ould fly `ead," Maimie offered.

"It's best if we stick together in case of a rearguard. My little power grab wasn't half as satisfying because Glenda was half drained already," Dorothy warned Mainie, "So despite my best effort, we could get overwhelmed."

Maimie knew enough to know that Dorothy's own magic was powerful but nowhere near as powerful as she could become. Her secondary core gift was the ability to siphon magic from others and store it like a battery, repurposing the mystical energy as needed or desired.

"Who d'ya think did it?" Maimie inquired.

"A Blood or Silver army. Maybe both together. The Silver Duchess does lick the Blood Queen's ass," Dorothy snorted.

"Bloody `ell," Maimie dismayed.


Blood card soldiers surged out to attack the JLers and Justicers. The Knave of Blood rode in on horseback with her red wolf. The Knave was the most formidable warrior in all of Wonderland and her fame and success earned her the tile of Knave, or commander-general of the Blood armies. It also broke the gender barrier isolating the Knave, or "king", role in the playing deck of the Blood military.

The Silver Duchess still held to tradition and only allowed men to serve in a military capacity. In fact, no women served in any capacity except for servants in the Silver Kingdom. Of course it would take a single Bloody army to eradicate the Blood Queen's fawning cousin. She'd be dead already but she knew where the literal bodies were buried. And that Alice the Mad Hatter had been duped. But any threat against the Blood Queen and Blood Prince was a threat to the Knave as well. And she didn't respond well to threats.

Ice liberally froze card soldiers. Fire and Owlwoman went airborne. Fire's Green Flame derived powers were weakened away from Earth Prime. She could heat the Cards' metal bodies but she couldn't fuse or melt them them. Owlwoman's talons proved equally useless. Jack's pumpkin nimbus leaked energy as his hands belched sidhe sourced flames at the cards. Only his slagged card bodies.

Silver Sorceress attempted to use mystical chains to restrain soldiers. Madame Xanadu employed wards she wasn't supposed to have the acumen for while defending Black Alice. Lori was panicking because she couldn't latch onto Knave's mystical tether to steal her magic with.

Hawk and Dove had seemingly vanished. Constantine uselessly attempted death hexes against the metal foes. Enchantress couldn't directly harm Knave but she could shatter three to four cards at a time with a single spell. And she bogged down Knave's horse by creating a literal bog beneath it. Knave dismounted and drew her sword.

Nightshade's nightforce constructs sliced cards in half or dismembered them so the flailed about unable to rise. Zatanna was attacked by the wolf.

"Peels lliw uoy," she cast a reverse spell and the wolf slumbered.

A hardball sized metal orb struck Zee's temple, knocking her out. The Knave of Blood went into action. The hilt of her sword struck down a leering Constantine. A left hook dropped Ice. Distracted, Fire got skewered by Knave's enchanted blade and reverted to her human state. Silver Sorceress fell to a magical garrote that choked her of its own accord.

"Take her!" Madame Xanadu demanded of Nightshade, "Go!"

Nightshade withdrew with Black Alice into the Land of Nightshades. Enchantress disappeared in a swirl of green smoke after a nod from Xanadu. Owlwoman conceded the battle had turned against them for now.

"Jack, we're exiting," she instructed.

"Bloody effin' hell," Jack groused as he went airborne to join Owlwoman in ascending away from the ambush site.

"Surrender. I won't offer again," the Knave of Blood had her sword time to Madame Xanadu's throat.

"Very well," the seer held her hands out.

"That was...easy?" Knave was confused.

"It was destined," Madame Xanadu enigmatically shared. Knave had her remaining troops chain the fallen JLers and Justicers. The reserves brought forth flamingo mounts to drape prisoners over.

"I will find your cowardly allies," Knave vowed.

"Fear not, they'll come to you," Nimue at least got to ride a bird.


Tinker Bell chimed a warning. Her largely upswept ears gave her greater than human hearing. The three Injusticers left the trail again as another patrol marched past. But the card soldiers had halted their advances some miles back. Now human patrols dressed in a silver livery had taken over. Goldilocks could assume they'd entered the Silver Kingdom.

The sight of the soldiers was greatly agitating the already volatile Alice. Goldilocks had been startled to learn that the Alice Liddel Alice was named after was still alive and imprisoned by first the Red Queen and now the Blood Queen. And she'd been condemned to confinement by Alice's mother, the White Queen.

Just as it had startled Goldilocks to learn Alice and Tink's campaign had begun during Earth's Second World War. So they'd been "testing" various Realm's defenses for 64 years. And the truth was, Pan had succumbed to an evil greater than any the Realms had encountered until them. The Blood Queen and Silver Duchess had been seduced by that same evil. And each of the Twenty-Seven Realms were being assaulted as well. Angor's and the Time Traper's, now Glorith's, pocket universes had been test cases to learn how far to push while testing a Realm. Angor and Pocket Earth had each been devastated. Alice and Tinker Bell had unleashed the Extremists on Angor and Zod, Non, and Ursa on Pocket Earth. Angor was a dead world. Glorith had restored Pocket Earth through using her temporal magic to "trick" time into righting what had gone wrong. Including restoring Superboy to life. A Superboy from Pocket Krypton and already more powerful that Superman. And so Alice and Tinker Bell had enlisted Glorith as a fail safe. And Saturn Queen had been recruited as a secret weapon.

After the troops marched past, the trepidatious trio moved on with Tinker Bell's natural glow providing more light every minute as the sun sank under the horizon. Goldilocks stopped them.

"We need rest, food, and water," Goldilocks insisted.

Alice nodded at Tink who pulled out a previously unseen dagger and she disappeared in the woods, glow or no glow, "If you choose to follow we're near a sheltered hollow."

As promised, there was shelter in a small clearing amid the thickly wooded forest. A long abandoned cave provided shelter. Tinker Bell quickly returned with three hares and began skinning them while Goldilocks gathered firewood and Alice retrieved long stashed supplies. Inside the cave were mats laden with fresh straw and jars of rain water that someone continually gathered and refilled. Probably under Alice's compulsion.

But Alice produced matches and military issue meal kits and canteens. So her return had been planned well in advance.

"You need to tell me what happened with your cousin and your sister," Goldilocks finally insisted.

Tinker Bell chimed at Alice as well. Alice visibly relented at her lover's chiding her, "The Silver Duchess will soon be on crutches."

"But I thought she's your older half-sister," but Goldilocks could understand hating an older sibling. Her relationship with Godiva had been friction-laden until Dorcas was killed before her eyes. A transformative moment to be sure, "And I thought the lot of them owed you their thrones."

"They both had to be shown how to steal a throne," Alice stated.

"But they were the heirs, weren't they?" Goldilocks inquired.

Tinker Bell verbally prodded Alice again. She heaved a heavy sigh. "Very well. Welcome to my private hell."

And she revealed everything.


"As the dear girl said, curiouser and curiouser," Erishkigal remarked upon reaching the Mad Hatter's former house and its expansive grounds. Dozens of tea parties were underway even at dusk. Tents overcrowded the remaining space. Sentries, professionals versus the rabble that were ostensibly a volunteer militia, were unmistakably royal guards.

The "militia" hadn't spotted her yet and she was in plain sight. And her pants suit was hardly local custom. Although her raven hair was with its faux hawk and braided sides with long chunks of hair framing her face even as it cascaded down her back. She'd been a princess but she'd also been a warrior. Her gray eyes were wild and she'd admittedly lost her mind for four thousand years before she was liberated from the tomb she'd been cursed to inhabit five thousand years ago. She also was forced to admit that her desire to destroy all life was probably still a sign of madness.

Still a world full of mummified servants bound to her will and enslaved to do her bidding was undeniably appealing. She'd literally been born to rule. Her delay was the limitations found in the range of how many people she could affect at once. At the present the scope of how many people she could mummify at once came within a hundred mile radius. Hardly sufficient to transform the planet all at once. And if she couldn't accomplish it all at once, Earth's defenders would make her undead life hell.

The Royal Guard began yelling for the militia to apprehend her. Erish decided to play nice until she knew who was in the house. The volunteers watched her raise her hands and panicked. Three crossbow bolts and a spear were subsequently embedded in Erishkigal's torso. She very purposefully pulled each one out of her. A shaky fourth crossbowman fired his quarrel. Erishkigal caught it in midair and snapped the shaft in half with her fingers. A portion of the guardsmen finally arrived to take over.

Disco Mummy considered slaying the entire camp at that point but her curiosity was insatiable so she withheld. And finally her patience was rewards when a pale woman with silver hair marched to her position. The other woman wore outlandishly bright stripped leggings to go with a black bodice and leather shorts replete with a hat she carried in her hand.

"The White Queen I presume?" Erishkigal grinned in triumph.

"Who are you and why should I care?" the White Queen demanded to know.

"You may wish to order refreshments for this tale," Erish boasted, "I'm Erishkigal. Some call me Disco Mummy. I think you might call me Erish. We've lots to talk about."

She was delighted to see the unflappable White Queen was totally flapped.


Card soldiers cut the giant named Galigantus down to the ground and flayed him alive. The ogre called Cormoran was hacked to pieces by cards with battleaxes. Red Orchid decided to pit her blood magic against Ace of Blood. Green Sorceress was quickly subdued by the metal cards. Green Jinn was also shackled and rendered impotent. The Darhks simply whiffed themselves away in swirls of black smoke.


"Trolls. Why did it have to be trolls?" Kitty lamented, "They're totally immune to holiday cheer."

Vivian gave Kitty a completely horrified look. They were split up and surrounded on the third floor by revived trolls.

"Fine!" Kitty huffed and pulled a rotary toy gun from the bag attached to her belt. Then she opened fire and coal shards exploded on one troll's flesh then another. They quickly bailed off of the landing to burrow into the pavement and further beneath.

"That was...effective," Cabala sounded as surprised as Vivian felt.

"Boo-yah! I'm a bad mother effer," Kitty celebrated her victory. Vivian and Cabala each gave her pitying looks.

With the JLers in pursuit of Munchkins, it was up to the Justicers to investigate the apartment. Vivian reached for the empty space left by the open door and was jolted back into the railing. Cabala studied the spell.

"A nasty protective ward," Cabala observed.

"I hadn't noticed," Vivian was cranky.

"This space is filled with brutal curses and maiming spells," Cabala continued her study.

"I can get in," Kitty promised.

They looked at her in disbelief. She thrust her fists akimbo, "I'm a Claus. Twenty Realms agreed to give Poppa unlimited access to living spaces. The whole family is included. How else do you think we cover twenty realms overnight? Even with time dilation magic?"

Cabala rolled her eyes while Vivian coughed to clear her throat, "Be my guest."

"And put our service to the test?" Kitty snickered. She saw the reference fell flat. So she simply walked through the doorway with no impediment or harm befalling her.

"Filho da puta," Cabala complained in Portuguese, her adopted language since moving to Brazil eighty years before.

"How does she keep doing it?" Vivian was beyond irritated, "What do you see?"

"I know who generated these curses. Theodora and Ephinora, the Wicked Witches of the West and East," Kitty called back.

"They've been dead for over a century," Vivian scowled.

"But their spell books have been littering the black market for twenty years," Cabala replied.

"Who ffycin lives here?" Vivian demanded.

Kitty was studying the photos displayed on a corner shelving unit, "I know who they are but you won't believe it."

she brought one frame in particular, "Alice the Mad Hatter and Tinker Bell live here and they look extremely happy together."

The photo was one of Tink and Alice cuddling. They exuded bliss. Cabala shook her head.

"That explains the trolls. The Dark Lord Saron killed the Evil Queen of the Realm of Fables. Everywhere these two go, the Dark Lord's armies invade shortly thereafter. But, the defenses are always on high alert after Alice and Tinker Bell's mischief," Cabala explained.

"So they're doing folks a favor?" Kitty guessed.

"Maybe. Maybe not. People still lose their lives to these delinquents," Vivian noted, "So the trolls weren't with the Munchkins, or so we'll presume, but how did the Munchkins get past those wards and curses?"

"The magic is from Oz. And it's broken there. So they probably had a key spell," Kitty offered.

Inhuman shrieks sent chills through their minds and bodies. Vivian swore in Welsh again, "Duw ffycin damn!"

"Wh...what was that?" Kitty stammered.

"Wraiths, and their riding hard," Cabala scryed the scene, "I'd hate to learn what happened to the biker gang they stole from."

"Nothing that doesn't involve eternal damnation," Vivian assessed.

Secondary horrifying shrieks split the air. Vivian made the call, "We need to leave. Now!"

"Get in my bag," Kitty detached it from her belt and it grew over ten times its original size, "Nothing in the known Realms can open it when I seal it and it'll take us where we need to be."

Vivian doubted veracity on every level. Cabala snarled, "Just do it."

The blonde practically shoved Vivian down into bag. Cabala followed. Kitty began to descend as the wraiths, mounted on Harley Davidsons rode into the complex. They shrieked again as she clasped it shut and before it shrank away.

Inside, the spacious interior shuddered. Kitty smiled, "We're there."

Kitty led climb out. Cabala followed her, "Well, we're not in Maine."

"Nor are we in Wonderland," Vivian griped.

"Nope. We're where we need to be: Oz," Kitty happily announced.


A whiff of swirling smoke teleported Dorothy and Maimie into the heart of the Emerald City. Dorothy recognized the fallen purveyors of the carnage surrounding them, "Damn. The Dark Army finally arrived. I always admired their handiwork in the past but now they're the competition."

"Oi! That building there took a right bloody beating," Maimie pointed out.

"The palace," Dorothy snorted, "Ozma and her pet Wizard would've been inside. But there are tunnels beneath the city to escape through. Not that the civilians escaped anything. Let's go see if the ruling class really is exterminated."

Maimie was beginning to realize Dorothy's hatred for Oz and its peoples easily rivaled her hatred for Tinker Bell and Alice. But Maimie wanted to justifiably kill two women. Dorothy was cheering the genocide of a Realm.


"Is that the famed Emerald City?" Kitty gasped at the sight of the ruin.

"What's left of it anyway," Cabala grimaced.

"Are we too late?" Kitty quietly asked.

Probably," Vivian snorted, "The war began without us."

"Can we focus on what's left of the big, smoking green city?" Cabala urged.

"We need to know who did this," Kitty insisted.

"For once we're in agreement," Vivian relented.


Owlwoman and Jack were high aloft over the company strength caravan assigned to escorting the Justicer prisoners back to Chessman Castle. The JLer pair blended in with Wonderland's extremely odd birds. Below, the Knave was having a conversation with her horse and the horse was actually replying. Other previously unseen riders rode flamingos and pigs. Knave had only attacked with a platoon and while nearly every card soldier had been destroyed, there were still nearly seventy-five troops left herding the Justice teams onward.

Just as Owlwoman's enhanced vision and tracking senses allowed her to spy on the Knave's formation, they also allowed her to follow Hawk and Dove as they rushed through the woods to keep pace with the Knave's force. So it seemed the sisters hadn't abandoned the teams but rather uncannily predicted the outcome of the skirmish and poised themselves to assist in the breakout.

With variable gravity at Chessman Castle, the Justice teams were in for a rude surprise.

Hawk, as the Avatar of War, and her sister Dove, the Avatar of Peace, had known the bulk of the Justice team would fall before the enemy and be captured. They couldn't stop that. But they could charge in with the other escapees to free their comrades.

Another caravan hauled the captured Shadowmages along another highway to the Chessman Castle. The Darhks abandoned their team and their mission and returned to Earth Prime. Nora worried about Green Sorceress and Red Orchid but she wouldn't argue with her father. Darhk almost regretted the loss of those two but he was gloating over Green Jinn's capture.


"Show some fear. The White Palace is near. My sister shows only malice for those she can't drown in her chalice. Under her dominion you must fall even as the Blood Queen has her under beck and call," Alice warned her companions.

"Bloody royals," which said a lot since Goldilocks had grown up a member of the British nobility.

Tinker Bell launched herself into the air and chimed an advisory. Alice rolled her shoulders, "It seems we'll be met in force. Which is a standard event, of course. Stay behind me and let me deal with their fury."

Tink landed behind her everything as the patrol captain confront Alice, "Where do you hail from? Pixies are extinct. What is your business here?"

"Captain, fall under my sway. It's simply easier that way," Alice lunged forward and gripped his wrist attached to the hand attempting to draw his sword. He relaxed at once.

"Men gather `round. These are not foes but rather dearest friends."

And Alice snared all of their minds.


At Alice's familial home, the White Queen had been organizing an insurgency out of the Mad Hatter's home. The deceased Hatter, the White Queen's true love, had been a central figure in Wonderland. Even more that the White Queen herself. Her sister, the Red Queen, only exerted influence through intimidation, fear, and violence.

The royal guards escorted Disco Mummy to the Queen's seat.

"I'd say you don't fit in, which says a lot in Wonderland. But then again, I can't imagine you fitting in anywhere," the White Queen observed.

"Perhaps the same is true of you, except for here, your Majesty," Erishkigal replied.

"You seem insightful," White Queen stated.

"I know contentment in one's surroundings if not your situation," Erishkigal remarked.

"Who are you? Where do you come from?" White Queen inquired.

"Earth," Erish told her.

"I'll warn you, the Blood Queen holds Alice Liddel captive but my fight is not with her. I've saved my anger for my whelp of an eldest daughter, the presumed Silver Duchess. I'll reclaim my kingdom and then my daughter Alice will get her reward," White Queen declared.

But Erishkigal noted the Queen left the nature of that reward undisclosed.


"So this is it?" Maimie asked, looking at the swathe of destruction behind the toppled throne and torched curtains.

"The Wizard's private workshop of lies and chicanery," Dorothy said with disgust.

"But didn't people always turn to the…" Maimie was cut short by Dorothy's sharp reply.

"If you say 'wonderful Wizard of Oz' I will rip your entrails out through your nose," Dorothy angrily warned. Seeing the girl's downcast expression, Dorothy recalled that while Maimie was older than she was, she was still physically and emotionally a thirteen-year old girl. Whose elfin ears seemed to be detecting something. Ears that had been shaped by her decades in Neverland.

"Cor blimey, someone's `ere," Maimie warned, "Oi, China Plate, it's time to duck and dive."

Many of Maimie's Cockney expressions still baffled Dorothy but the context was clear, "I want to see who...or what...this is."

Maimie sprinkled the last of her excess pixie dust on Dorothy and then flew her up against the vaulted ceiling. The Dark Justicer trio entered the throne room, looking sickened by the carnage.

"Cunnies," Maimie whisper-snickered.

"Well?" Vivian asked crossly.

"There's a concealment spell in effect. But someone is here," Kitty stated.

"And you call yourself a Claus," Vivian snorted.

"Now waitasec! I've done nothing but be nice to you and you poop on me," Kitty huffed, "And I've saved our butts more than once."

"She makes a damn fine point," Cabala agreed.

"Thank you," Kitty threw her hands up, "Um…"

"Drop me," Dorothy said upon being spotted.

Maimie looked at her like she was crazy, "Before we cop a flower pot, let's give them a penny-come-quick. Then we can yet to be."

"Um...guys?" Kitty pointed at the ceiling. Cabala and Vivian were to busy arguing over Kitty's contributions.

"Just do it," Dorothy insisted. So Maimie released her and Dorothy enjoyed a controlled descent thanks to the dust.

"Guys!" Kitty shrieked.

"What?" the others yelled in unison.

Dorothy landed and slapped her palm on the ground. A wave of magical forces blasted the Justicers of their feet.

"Just that," Kitty said weakly.

"Who the hell are you?" Cabala asked as she regained her footing.

"I'm Dorothy Gale the Wicked Witch of Oz. And yes, the stories are wrong. You're in my house. Now get the hell out," she declared.

"Do you know who we are?" Vivian asked.

"You're sidhe, she's a Kabbalist, and she's...whatever," Dorothy was dismissive.

"Hey!" Kitty pouted.

Green magical energy crackled around Dorothy's fingers and eyes, "Let's dance."


Blue Jay followed the boosted pickup truck crawling with Munchkins. It took four in the cab to drive and four in the bed to hurl insults at Blue Jay. He radioed Chief Man-of-Bats.

"Chief? These just drove a massive square and returned to the apartment complex." Blue Jay reported.

In a taxi following the Munchkins' course, Chief Man-of-Bats replied, "Follow them but do not engage. We need to finally learn why they are here."

"Copy that," Blue Jay dutifully replied.

"Please return me to the address you picked me up from," Chief Man-of-Bats requested of the driver.

"All due respect to your ear and all, but you're driving in circles," the cabbie warned.

"Most days," Chief Man-of-Bats agreed.

"Look, not to be rude, but you got money in that Halloween costume?" the driver inquired.

Chief Man-of-Bats knocked on the separator and passed a debit card through. The driver glanced at it as he pulled back into the apartments, "Justice League? You effin' kiddin' me?"

"No. That's a prepaid debit card with no PIN. Consider it a tip," Chief Man-of-Bats stepped out of the taxi as the cabbie ran the card, "This thing's legit. How much is on here?"

"Five hundred...minus your fare," Chief Man-of-Bats answered.

"Look, take my card. If you need anythin' for the rest of your stay in Bangor, call me," he told the JLer, "Name's Joel. Joel Kinnemen."

"I have been pleased to meet you, Joel Kinnemen," Chief Man-of-Bats was grateful to say before he touched the comm unit in his ear, "Take them."

Blue Jay streaked out of the sky through the unlocked protection ward guarding Alice and Tinker Bell's apartment. But with Blue Jay knocking the doorman out of the way, the ward resealed. So Chief Man-of-Bats found his egress blocked at the door frame.

"Yeah! Big man!" a Munchkin taunted Blue Jay. The crack of knuckles on flesh could be heard, "Ow!"

"Get out there!" Blue Jay roared.

Munchkins scurried only to be blacked by Chief Man-of-Bats, "Going somewhere?"

He braced the head of the vocal Munchkin and held him back while the diminutive creature swung his fists at him.

"These guys are small but still a pain in the ass," Blue Jay complained.

Unholy shrieks made every hair stand on end. The Munchkin spokesman began to wail, "Please we need to leave."

"What is that?" Blue Jay felt stabs of fear.

"Wraiths created by the Evil Queen. But the Dark Lord seized control over them when he killed her. Now, can we go?" the Munchkin pleaded.

"Will they harm the residents?" Chief Man-of-Bats asked.

"Only someone that's penetrated that living space. You can come with us. You want answers, I can tell. We have to be alive to answer questions," the Munchkin negotiated.

"Do it," Chief Man-of-Bats agreed to Blue Jays eternal relief.

"Tornado in a can," the Munchkin pulled a pin and threw a can to the ground and a green tornado formed out it. "Jump in!"

The Munchkins did to a man. Twelve wraiths riding in on motorcycles told the JLers they were outmatched. The tornado vanished after they jumped into it. And the wraiths howled their displeasure. The couldn't go anywhere until the Dark Lord Saron enabled them to. Edging the Justice League and Dark Justice ever closer to a confrontation with Saron.


"Guards! To arms!" the Watch Commander shouted as he exited the Silver Palace. His Palace Guardsmen ranked beside him, "Surrender, Alice the Mad Hatter, and prepare to stand trial for the murder of the White Queen and the Mad Hatter."

Goldilocks knew the lie behind the accusation. Alice had confessed her part in absconding her mother to safety. And Tinker Bell had vigorously confirmed other parts of the truth. Just as Goldilocks had learned that Tinker Bell as well as Goldilocks herself were immunized against Alice's mind magic. Immunized by Alice herself. Tink was her happily-ever-after and Goldilocks was her one, true friend. So, Alice hadn't put the hooks into her mind she'd requested but rather a fail safe spell her mother had taught her to permanently block a mind from her control.

"What say you, Alice?" the Watch Commander bellowed.

Tinker Bell's glow increased and she was preparing to take flight. Goldilocks' enchanted hair lengthened and took on a life of its own. Alice waved them down.

A lifetime of indignities, abuse, pain, and sorrow had broken Alice as a teen and child. But as a young woman, those factors made her indomitable. So she marched forward to face the commander and his halberd alone.

"Your lies make me blue for they simply aren't true," Alice remarked.

"Will you yield, Alice the Mad Hatter?" the Watch Commander demanded to know.

"Would you now, if you were me, not do everything to stay free?" Alice asked as she marched up to him.

"It...it's a trick," he complained.

To assert permanent control over a mind, even if given limited release and independence, Alice needed to make physical contact. But, at a short distance she could apply psychic pressure to befuddle or freeze a foe. But he broke the spell and charged her. Alice stepped aside and grabbed hold of the shaft and planted the halberd's blade in the gravel and twisted the shaft out of his hands and spun the neutral end into his mouth.

He staggered back and witnessed a display of manual of dexterity as Alice spun the halberd over her head and around her body to assume a threatening posture.

"Witch," he spat blood as he snarled.

"You seem to twitch when you called me a witch but what you really mean to say is I'm a bitch," Alice held him off, "I may seem a novelty rather than royalty but Lily is alone on a throne because she stole what had been whole."

"But they think Alice killed her mother," Goldilocks reminded herself. Tink vigorously nodded.

Alice had found Peter Pan and his entire Realm infected by Saron's black magic in their hearts. Tink alone had managed to resist but even she was incrementally losing heart because Pan wouldn't release her from Neverland's "borders". So the two of them performed surgery. And then they set out across Twenty Realms and two pocket universes testing the strength of each Realm's defenses. Of those they visited, they only spared Glorith's pocket universe and her champion, Kal-El the Superboy Prime.

Glorith was necessary to defend time. The Anti Monitor threatened existence in the Muliverse but Saron threatened time itself should the Anti Monitor succeed. It was Saron who would bring about Zero Hour and complete the Anti Monitor's victory. And then they would each attack the remaining Realms from different directions. The Anti Monitor sought destruction and Saron sought conquest. And the final confrontation would determine if the past, present, and future would ever be restored if reshaped.

Wonderland had been corrupted as well. The Blood Queen and ultimately the Silver Duchess owed their reigns to Saron. And the slightest disruption in his plans and the Dark Lord would invade as he had the Realm of Fables, a portion of which was where he dwelt, and the incursion into the Realm of the Courts of Greater and Lesser Faery. The goal there being the destruction of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts of the fey. The fey, elves, gnomes, and the thousands other inhabitants were spared in battle but the most powerful race, the sidhe themselves were always the primary targets and ruthlessly butchered in battle or upon capture. Not one had ever been taken prisoner.

The Watch Commander had taken twin swords from a subordinate and fought a pitched battle against Alice with the halberd. It was becoming embarrassing for the commander because she was displaying superior skill even against twin weapons. And she continually used the flat of her blade to deliver senses shocking blows to his head, helmeted or not. And finally she knocked him flat on his back after yet another blow to the head and then a leg sweep with the halberd. She planted the shaft in his chest and held out a hand to help him rise.

"This means nothing. Your mercy only bought you death," he growled. But both swords were out of reach. The Guard was on alert as were Alice's scout patrol.

Finally, the commander relented and grasped her hand.

Goldilocks snickered, "And there it is."

"I have great need, you can even call it greed. I want access to the Duchess," Alice proclaimed.

The commander's expression changed from aggression to acceptance, "Stand down, men. She's no longer a threat. Gather `round to escort the prisoner to the Silver Duchess."

As they surrounded her, Alice laid hands on each and every one. They formed ranks with the Watch Commander leading and the patrol escorting Goldilocks and Tinker Bell in safely.


Courtesans and counselors gasped at the sight of Alice arriving in the throne room, where the Silver Duchess was due to arrive. Goldilocks congratulated Alice, "Subtle work,"

"There is no need to borrow increased times of sorrow," Alice opined, "Lily may have had much to gain when I inflicted Wonderland with great pain but even she must put to rest the old wounds that are our test. She used pain and regret to acquire what she could get. Despite looking like a clown while she wears the crown."

A shrill scream broke through the audience chamber, "Kill her! Off with her head!"

"You are not our aunt but still, you're as annoying as a gnat," Alice scolded Lily White.

As the Royal Guard went into high alert, only to find their way blocked by the Palace Guard and a scout patrol.

"Kill them all!" Lily shrieked again.

"Go ahead and dare and see how well you fare," Alice warned the Royal Guardsmen, "No matter how much you pout and frown you can't deny that you owe me your crown."

Seeing her half-sister's look of abject horror, Alice began a litany, "Don't fret and worry. I don't want the bloody crown so don't scurry into a flurry of fury. But I know you realize that for the crown belongs to another because neither you or I killed our mother."

The implications drew a very loud and horrified gasp from the audience. Alice continued her revelations, "Though I give you credit for trying you just have to see that mother isn't one for dying."

"It's not true," Lily wailed, "She killed our mother and the Red Queen."

"I did indeed kill the Red Queen. But it was at your and our cousin's behest that it should have been. Our cousin swore an oath she'd be beneficent but she spectacularly failed to be magnificent," Alice shared the truth of the events, "Instead she is capricious and quite vicious. Her only thought is how conquest can be sought or murder be bought. Usually through her Knave who has become her slave."

"Why did you invade Earth?" Goldilocks demanded to know.

"I didn't order an invasion. But we border the Realm of Fables and the Dark Lord used Wonderland as a bridge to your Multiverse. I owe my allegiance to the Blood Queen but she, in turn, owes everything to the Dark Lord," Lily proudly proclaimed, "Forays into the Multiverse and Oz were undertaken. Now Saron is assessing the chances of success while his forces wage war on the Fables and the Sidhe. If called, we will dispatch troops to assist the Dark Army in conquering your Realm as well."

"Be warned, her complicity is only matched by her duplicity," Alice warned the Court, "While it's true our cousin is a blight and reshaped the Red and White, it is also true that Lily White craves power the way bees crave a flower. The White Queen was steady and true but her love my sister outgrew."

"Mother was a whore!" Lily screamed and the Court collectively gasped again, "She had you and your bitch sister starting four years after I was born. Father was still alive and endured the public humiliation until his death."

"Sister?" Goldilocks asked Tinker Bell. The pixie merely smirked.

"Yet you sided with she who was probable that made that death possible. It was not I or mother that made the fret and bother to rid you of your father," Alice revealed.

"And why would the Blood Queen kill father?" Lily scornfully asked.

"Lo and behold, he was her cuckold," Alice uncovered one of the family's literally buried secrets, "Rather than risk exposure, cousin dearest sought closure."

But the Silver Duchess still refused to listen.


The Justicers had fully recovered from Dorothy's initial surprise attack. Maimie made herself known, "Make the bottles and stoppers coals and coke until they are brown bread."

Vivian had replaced Merlin as the royal counselor until the 1800s where she returned to England. So the former Lady of the Lake understood Maimie was demanding Dorothy break the "police" until they died from it. Maimie superficially mirrored the tween Pan became after he left Neverland for some years in search of someone special. And like Pan, Maimie was volatile, temperamental, vindictive, egotistical, and slightly delusional.

But Maimie was also impish, loyal, recklessly brave, and caring. But she'd lost everything. And she blamed Tinker Bell for it all. The only other survivor from the destruction of Neverland. She had no idea of how her perceptions had been corrupted by Saron.

Vivian, Cabala, and Kitty could sense the darkness festering within her. Just as Dorothy always had. Vivian took charge once again.

"Cabala, deal with the flyer," she requested.

The Kabbalist currently known as Vanda Emmanuelle readily agreed. She netted Maimie in a construct composed of numerical magic. And it grounded the girl.

Now they had to deal with a very determined and very wicked Dorothy Gale. She hurled hexes and curses nearly faster than the intrepid trio could defend against them. Dorothy had spent her childhood learning dark magic in order to "combat" it and memorized thousands of spells . Instead she embraced it and pretended to be on Ozma's side long enough to obliterate her competition. Her betrayal had staggered Ozma, Glenda, and the Wizard and nearly sundered the entire Realm from reality.

Dorothy raised the fallen Winkie Guards as Revenants. Vivian and Cabala fought them. One of the gifts Kitty had inherited from her father, Santa Claus, was the ability to "sort" out the naughty from the nice. Subjectively the word "sort" had many denotations and each of those yielded myriad connotations. So Kitty just selected her options as she threw the sorting spell at Dorothy and she was sorted out by debilitating cramps, partial paralysis and temporary blindness. She was also separated from the others by a barrier field.

Cabala dragged Maimie over and pushed her through the field. As Dorothy's screams of agony died out, Vivian finally respected Kitty. She conjured mystical chains and bound the erstwhile Shadowmages hand and foot. Dorothy snapped her fingers and the chains shattered. Vivian was unsettled. That had been her strongest binding spell.

"Don't worry, I don't have much left to fight you with," Dorothy assured them.

"Yet you just evaporated my strongest chains," Vivian was accusatory.

"I said I'm weakened not dead," Dorothy retorted.

"Cabala, help me erect protective spells in this interior so they can't escape if they manage to break free of Kitty's snare," Vivian instructed.

Dorothy checked on Maimie, "They'll pay for this."

Streaking Maimie's cheek with her forefinger, Dorothy subsequently sucked on the finger and her eyes glowed, "Ta ta!"

The Shadowmages whiffed away. Vivian attempted to follow and Dorothy's protective wards entrapped her, "Cachu, ffyein, damn!"


"We shouldn't have left the others," Nora was still arguing.

"Nora Doll, that was the most opportune time to leave Wonderland. That place is toxic with Saron's magic. I can't believe I didn't see it earlier," Darhk complained.

"So what do we do about it?" Nora asked.

"We cut a deal," Darhk said in a defeated tone.

Nora couldn't believe it.


The Ten of Blood presented the battered trio of Shadowmages to his queen. The Blood Queen looked languid but she twirled a broadsword between her thighs and an ogre stood vigilantly by her side. The envoy from the Dark Lord Saron had persuaded the vainly ambitious Blood Queen that her mother needed to die prematurely in order for her to ascend the throne.

Blood Queen's innovation had been to use the dejected Alice the Mad Hatter to do it. The equally ambitious Lily White opted in to persuaded her loathsome sister to remove the Red Queen from the mortal coil in exchange for fabrications and lies of liberating the kingdoms and being heralded as the savior. Instead, Alice was framed for the murder. And Lily sold her kingdom, her mother, and her subjects for a title.

Saron harvested villages of humans and non-humans alike for slaves and experimentation. And the Blood and Silver Armies were subordinate to his will.

Green Jinn was immediately bound to a new lamp despite her screams of protest. Blood Queen whirled in on the others, "Who are you and why do you defile my lands?"

"I'm Red Orchid and this is the Green Sorceress. We came to halt your attacks on Earth," Diana answered.

"The stench of Dorothy Gale permeated their portal entry," the Ten of Blood reported.

"Where did she go?" Blood Queen hissed.

"Oz," Green Sorceress shrugged.

"Find her. Kill her. And I'll halt the attacks," Blood Queen lied,. She hadn't launched the attacks and had no authority over them.

"We'll do it," Red Orchid promised.

"We will?" Green Sorceress was baffled.

"We will," Red Orchid insisted.

"You have one day and then I destroy your Realm," Blood Queen said haughtily. She gestured and a green tornado appeared. It sucked in the two witches.

"Follow them and kill them after they complete the task. If they complete it," she instructed the Ten. He leapt into the tornado and it dissipated.

The ogre was snickering. Blood Queen dismissed her toadies, "Beast! Pleasure me, foul creature."

It knew if it did so it would receive human flesh to eat so he enthusiastically defiled Blood Queen. Penetrating her vagina and anus until they bled. He even penetrated her clitoris and labia with his fangs and she loved every moment of it and demanded they do it again as soon as she could employ healing spells and rested. A kitchen aid was fed to the ogre.


"So your Majesty, I consider it a truism that forming a government-in-exile is extremely difficult. How can I assist?" Erishkigal asked the White Queen.

"Why do I detect a mercenary motive?" White Queen asked.

"I wish to insure that my Realm is secure from continued attacks," Erish stated.

"Neither the Blood Queen nor the Silver Duchess mounted those attacks, "White Queen explained, "They too are but servants of Saron, the Dark Lord who dwells in a hellscape within the Realm of Fables bordered on the Realm of the Courts of Faery."

"Still, it is my world and I will secure its future," Erishkigal declared.

"You make it sound so proprietary. Alice Liddel stated otherwise," White Queen countered.

"Alice is dead," Erishkigal knew the legendary Alice would be close to one hundred and fifty-years old.

"Time hardly flows here as it does in the Multiverse," White Queen explained, "The legend that is Alice is a young woman my eldest daughter's age. Owing to a faulty peace treaty I signed, Alice has been a prisoner since she was a child. The Blood Queen holds her captive for her own amusement. We need both the Silver and Blood armies united to push Saron's Dark Army from Wonderland."

"I will dethrone the Blood Queen as you diffuse your daughter," Erishkigal simply stated.

"How can you do this?" the Queen asked.

Dead humans, non-humans, and animals clawed their way free of the dirt entombing them and they surrounded the Hatter residence, "That is how."

"Dark sorcery," the White Queen breathed.

"The darkest," Erish agreed.

"How do you do it?" The White Queen inquired.

"I animate the dead with the above mentioned sorcery. I also do this," Erishkigal snapped her finger and White Queen's entire giuard regiment mummified, "Now they're mine and the process is irrevocable."

"How?" White Queen was mystified.

"I was cursed with the power. And despite this dazzling exterior, I'm actually one of them. The mummification curse I was subjected to had all sorts of unexpected benefits. I'd like to think my demonizers are being tormented in Kur by my namesake goddess. Otherwise, the hell with her. But the process is simple. I draw a shadow of the former soul out and fill the vessel," Erishgikal explained, "But to practical matters, while I 'persuade' your niece to cooperate, you need to reclaim your kingdom and rein in your daughter."

"Which one?" the White Queen was feeling snarky.

"How many do you have?" Erish had to ask.

"Four," White Queen revealed, "One of whom is here." announced

"Could I meet with her?" Erishkigal asked, "I won't harm her."

"Ilyria, you can come out now," White Queen announced.

Ilyria the Mad Hatter revealed herself. She had her mother's silver eyes and Alice's bone white skin. But the blue hair was distinctive within the family confines. And Ilyria was a teenager replete with a rasta cap, wildly colorful shirts and leggings topped off with a pack with a skateboard hung from it. Erish decided skaters were universal.

"She's filled with powerful magic," Erishkigal could sense.

"Like her father and her older sister. Ilyria has a singular talent but Alice's power is nearly infinite," White Queen saw Disco Mummy's amusement, "Yes, we named Alice as a homage to our lost friend. My lost friend. Hatter had felt as though young Alice was family."

"So you made another Alice to fill the void," Erishkigal sighed, "I understand."

"The White Consort and I had a loveless marriage. We had two daughters together and he despised them both. Lily White despised me for my forever affair with Hatter. She despised her younger sisters even more. Even her direct biological sibling that the White Consort and I conceived shortly before the Blood Queen had him killed. My youngest daughter knew no other father than Hatter. And Lily locked her away when I was forced into exile."

"Lots of captives in this tale," Erishkigal observed, "I was entombed for five thousand years so you're just motivating me."

"You are committed to our cause," White Queen said hopefully.

"I'm dedicated to my cause. Which happens to coincide with yours...for now," Erish said gruffly.

"Of course," White Queen wore a gentle smile.

"Now we go to war," Disco Mummy decided.


Lily smashed off of a marble wall and wiped the blood streaming from her lips and nose. And Alice was barely even angry. A secondary right cross drove Lily into the floor where she spat blood this time. She knew she'd find no help. The Court was terrified and her Royal Guards had laid hands on Alice and succumbed to her magic. And unlike her mother, Lily had no inherent magic of her own. She'd taken after her very mortal father in that way.

"Alice, please stop. I beg you. I don't know anything," Lily pleaded.

"I'll grant this token, truer words have never been spoken," Alice kicked her sister into the wall.

"Alice! Bloody well stop. You can find your sister but she's too terrified to talk," Goldilocks intervened, "And you have a younger sister! Does she have your magic?"

"No, she's far, far worse. She crushes minds and puts people in a hearse," Alice revealed, "She can't be left alone or she'll strip everyone to the bone."

"Hos bad can it be?" Goldilocks wondered.

"Without words or pretty patter, Ilyria reaches in and makes the mind to shatter," Alice told her.

'The perfect weapon. Like you. But she also slipped the leash before the Dark Army could occupy Wonderland. That's right! Saron's forces are at our border and they'll invade any minute now. Our cousin and I will serve him and you'll all die horrific deaths," Lily cackled.

Alice kicked her across the mouth, "Hold fast, hold dear and prayer my sister doesn't hear."

"And Wonderland is the bridge between this Saron and Earth?" Goldilocks asked, "So the invasion is really meant for us."

Tinker Bell vigorously agreed. Goldilocks made a decision, "I need to go back and rally whomever I can. I pray you find your mother and your sister."

Tinker Bell opened a Looking Glass. Alice confronted Lily on a separate topic, "Is Cloud under a shroud?"

"She isn't here so she's safe from you," Lily boasted.

Alice didn't bother debating who was the greatest threat to their youngest sister. She knocked Lily out at long last, "Lily has busted her right to be trusted. Ilyria would go to no other than our mother. And without a bother they'll reside in the home of my father."

Tinker Bell urgently prodded Alice to move on and leave the palace to her servants. Alice relented, "You're right. I've lost sight. There is no another than both my sister and my mother. The guards will make the palace secure or Lily will have a lifetime of agony to procure."

And so Alice and Tink set out for the Hatter family homestead.


"So this is Oz," Red Orchid sneered at the carnage and ever present soot and ash, "So where do we go?"

"Try following the Yellow Brick Road," Green Sorceress snickered.

"I so hate you," Red Orchid decided.

The Ten of Blood was within range of them so his wolfin senses could track them.


The Knave of Blood's formation was within sight of Chessman Castle. The JLers and Justicers pulled at wrist cuffs slapped on them while they were unconscious. None of them could access their magic and the wrist cuffs were the only addition. But they couldn't be removed by themselves or their teammates.

"These are waaay above and beyond any magic we've detected here," Zatanna complained.

"Because they're dark sorcery from the Dark Lord's forges," Silver Sorceress explained. Angor was attacked by Dark Army raiders with identical arm cuffs. Fortunately we had enough heroes that were science based to repel them. Afterwards the Extremists were hell bent on destroying everything."

"And even Fire and Ice are affected because their powers are magical," Zee got it.

"I wouldn't worry about it much longer, luv," Constantine smirked.

"What?" Ice asked.

Madame Xanadu looked up and then over. Jack volleyed sidhe spawned flames that melted card soldiers. Owlwoman dove and extended her talons and she tried to gut Knave as she knocked her from her horse. Hawk shattered card soldiers as she bowled out of the tree line. Dove caught cards as she flipped over them and threw them into others. As thought, the flat surfaced soldiers had no means of getting back up.

Enchantress whiffed in and her eldritch flames melted the cards Jack missed. An ebon portal opened in the shadows of the trees and Nightshade led Black Alice into the fray. Her nightforce constructs slicing cards in half.

The Knave stabbed Owlwoman through the side but Hawk nearly broke her jaw. Madame Xanadu slapped a wrist cuff on the dazed Knave. The new arrivals were liberating the prisoners from their decimated captors.

"Now, let's see whay a woman earned the title 'knave'," Madame Xanadu and Constantine joined their spells together. Enchantress healed Owlwoman as Jack fussed and fretted.

"Oh my," Nimue gasped.

"Heh," Constantine leered at the Knave.

"She's a hermaphrodite that skews largely female," Dove explained to the others.

"And you knew this how?" Black Alice wondered.

"I saw her pee," Dove shrugged. Hawk facepalmed.

"She's pregnant," Madame Xanadu announced, "But you knew that, didn't you?"

"Of course I did," Knave snorted.

"Just as the Blood Queen is carrying your child," Xanadu's spell was nothing if not thorough.

"This just officially got weird," Black Alice complained.

"She can impregnate and be impregnated. A valued commodity for a shaky monarchy demanding legitimacy," Nightshade assessed.

"And it gives John a boner," Enchantress scowled.

"Take it the trees, perv boy," Hawk snarled at him.

"Anyone else coming?" Constantine asked. No one accepted his offer, "Suit yourselves."

"Ksalf ruoy em evig," Zee incanted and Constantine's flask appeared in her hand.

"Excellent," Madame Xanadu enchanted the gin, "Feed it to our former captor."

"Um...the baby?" Dove worried.

"Is probably ready to tend bar," Enchantress snorted.

"I made it safe for the child," Madame Xanadu promised, "Hawk?"

"Jack, a hand?" Hawk enlisted her sister and Jack to hold Knave down while Hawk force fed the liquid down Knave's throat and then forced her to swallow.

"I will kill you at my first available opportunity," Knave vowed.

"A truth, now a negative. What is the Blood Queen's hidden name?" Madame Xanadu knew the Knave would try to lie out of the question.

"Ruby," the Knave gasped after losing the battle to lie.

"An effective truth potion. Now we can get underway," Madame Xanadu was very pleased.

"Why did your queen order an attack on our Realm?" Zatanna asked.

"She didn't," Knave replied.

"I thought she had to tell the truth," Black Alice complained.

"She did. Rephrase the question," Dove suggested.

"Who ordered the attack?" Fire angrily asked with her hand ignited.

"The Dark Lord Saron. One of his Dark Armies sits on Wonderland's border to transit to your Realm," the Knave hated to confess.

Why does your queen allow this?" Nightshade inquired.

"She serves Saron," Knave grated.

"Then why warn us with the raids?" Ice asked.

"To find and kill Alice," Knave struggled but continually lost.

"Shouldn't she be dead by now?" Black Alice asked.

"Not Alice Liddel," now Knave knew for certain humans were idiots, "Alice the Mad Hatter is the threat Saron fears."

"Why?" Enchantress knew Alice.

"She can unite the Realms against the Dark Lord," Knave gasped as the answer was ripped from her.

"And who is this 'Alice'?" Silver Sorceress asked.

"You should know. She and her pixie friend destroyed your world as a test to see if you could complete a fight against the Dark Army after nearly losing your world to a scouting raid," Knave gave a guttural laugh. She wanted to dance on all of their graves.

Owlwoman stifled Silver Sorceress' intended line of questioning, "Why is Alice such a threat?"

"She has unlimited mind magic. She gets into heads and can control them at any time from any distance. Her crusade is to isolate the Dark Lord than amass a cross-Realm army to crush him. She began in Neverland."

"What happened there?" Nightshade asked.

"Neverland was permeated with Saron's dark sorcery. Pan and Hook were his slaves along with every living creature. Except for Tinker Bell. She enlisted Alice on a genocidal campaign to purge the Realm and allow it to regrow. In the process, Tinker Bell and Alice lost their hearts to one another. Tinker Bell joined Alice on her crusade."

"Tinker effin' Bell? Ya gotta be shittin' me," Black Alice exclaimed.

"Look where you're at," Dove advised.

"`Kay. Point taken," Black Alice subsided.

"True words," an ultimately feminine voice spoke from nearby.

"No! You can't let them speak!" Knave wailed before being silenced.

Everyone turned around too see three intertwined women. Sisters to be precise. But they gazed and caressed one another as lovers. The were the Three Graces of Wonderland and they were unlike any other.

They announced themselves collectively and individually. The raven haired sister spoke first, "I am Sapphic."

The blonde spoke next, "I am Love."

And the redhead concluded, "I am Beauty."

Love explained, "We have a bounty of gifts to bestow. Without them you can contend with Saron. With them you can bring him to final justice."

"And defeat him you must. The Anti-Monitor can destroy the Multiverse but Saron can destroy time," Beauty warned.

"Nimue, step forward," Sapphic requested and handed her a scroll, "Do not read this or speak it aloud until you confront the Dark Lord."

"Zatanna Zatara, step forward," Love insisted and handed Zee a mirror, "When the time arrives, this will reveal the true threat that you face."

Beauty concluded the gift giving, "June Moone, step forward. This wand, when used in your darkest peril will lift your curse and liberate your full might and rid yourself of your power mad addiction. But the charm works only under the gravest circumstance."

"That...that is so wow," Enchantress was speechless.

The Graces laughter faded longer than themselves. Madame Xanadu faced down the Knave of Blood, "You will get us to Saron."

"I can point you to him but I must secure my family. You know the Blood Queen carries my child. I carry the Blood Prince's. Saron's ogre actually rules our kingdom. I kill it and the queen is free to make the right choice. Or the wrong choice. But it will be her choice once again," the Knave offered.

"Good enough, mate," Constantine gave Xanadu a pointed look. Further explanations would come later.


"Well, that was disappointing," Dorothy fumed standing at a crossroad in the Yellow Brick Road.

Maimie was awake now, "But now we're short of a sheet. And when is day's a-dawning? We need to helter skelter."

This time Maimie's euphemisms were obvious. They were homeless on the side of a road. It was getting dark and she wanted to know when dawn was. And they needed to hurry and find shelter. Things Dorothy could get behind and push.

"I know a nearby shack. It belonged to a tin woodsman who was a friend until I crumpled him and buried the pieces that made up his body," Dorothy offered, "Ozma keeps it like a shrine."

Maimie wasn't certain of how to reply until Dorothy added, "Not that Ozma ever had a choice. I sealed the protection spell over the shack with blood magic. Just in case I needed a hideaway."

Maimie decided Dorothy was bloody brilliant.


The rear of the palace and its adjoining outer city wall exploded outwardly. Cabala snapped at Kitty, "Support her as she faints.
Kitty caught Vivian just in time. Cabala recited numerical sequences to launch a tracking spell. A glowing orb went forth and would pulse faster when it reached Maimie Mannering. The only Shadowmage she'd been in personal contact with.

Kitty shouldered Vivian until she recovered enough to at least walk alone. With her exhaustion, all pretense was gone. Vivienne of the High Sidhe stood revealed. Vivienne, Nimue, and Morgaine had stained their souls with the foulest magics of Hell, they couldn't be allowed to return to Avalon where the High Sidhe dwelt. And they had been kissed by the presence of God.

Vivian found her magic to be bolstered the rigid confines of Oz. Just as Madame Xanadu had found the chaos of Wonderland constraining. As High Sidhe, even corrupted ones, they were inherently more powerful than the Seelie and Unseelie Courts of Sidhe.

"What happens when we catch our delinquents?" Kitty asked.
"We observe and follow," Cabala answered before Vivian could.

"Precisely," Vivian smiled.


The tornado in a can delivered the group to Munchkinland where Tinkers and Quadlings had brought Toto to celebrate their return...only they'd brought back Chief Man-of-Bats and Blue Jay rather than their targets. Toto was blind, mangy, had no remaining teeth, breathed in moist rasps, and couldn't even walk. A gift from Dorothy. She cursed him so he aged but couldn't die.

He was the first loved one she lashed out against but hardly the last. As she killed wicked witch after wicked witch, she herself became evil personified. She torched the Scarecrow, pulped Jack Pumpkinhead, dismantled Tick Tock, crushed the Tin Woodsman, flayed and skinned the Cowardly Lion, ripped the wings off of Finley, pulverized China Doll, killed every good witch save Glenda who was saved for last, and even committed genocide against the gnomes. Their once feared king now trapped in a pebble inside an enchanted glass prison. And her reign of terror had nearly destroyed the entire Realm.

It took the approaching Dark Army to convince Ozma to override the Wizard's counsel and parole Dorothy to find Alice the Mad Hatter. Dorothy believed she was on a search and destroy mission when she was actually scouting Alice's location for the Munchkins.

And the Munchkins were explaining this to the JLers.

The Munchkins did a rap, "The army that attacked you belonged to the Dark Lord Saron. The Dark Army also invaded us to the bone. We paid to seek Alice the Mad Hatter's aid. The say she alone knows the secret to defeating Saron."

"I'd say you were Lord of the Rings addicts but I'm standing in Oz," Blue Jay relented.

"Why did this 'Sare-rone' invade from Wonderland?" Chief Man-of-Bats asked.

"There's no direct portal from the Dark Lord's subrealm to your Realm. He's within the Realm of Fables but barriers prevent him for portalling out beyond a single Realm. And Neverland, Oz, Wonderland, and the Realm of Greater and Lesser Faery are the bridges between his territory and yours," the Munchkin leader explained in a free verse musical poem.

"We've heard rumors that Alice and Tinker Bell attack Realms. Why is that?" Chief Man-of-Bats inquired.

"Angor failed the test just like as some of the rest. They're building a trench to keep Sarone on the bench," the Munchkins chorused together.

"Alice destroyed my world?" Blue Jay yelled the question.

"Yes," a Munchkin led.

"They," another followed.

"Did," yet another sang.

"Indeed," the fourth followed.

"But," the fifth paused.

"Only," another progressed.

"In," the song was nearly over.

"Great," the final Munchkin warbled.

"Need," they sang together and doffed their caps and hung their heads.

"Where is she?" Blue Jay snarled.

"We don't know despite that being a blow. We failed before the wraiths came and we quailed. We ran away to be here today," they sang as a chorus line.

Blue Jay hefted one off of his feet, "Stop singing!"

"Without lyrics or music, explain why Alice is attacking Realms," Chief of Man-of-Bats calmly requested even as he eased Blue Jay into releasing his captive.

"The Dark Lord must siphon energy and life essence to maintain his vitality and magical power. That was how he destroyed the Fables' Evil Queen and usurped control over her kingdom," the lead Munchkin explained, "Alice and her pixie friend test Realms to see if they can resist the Dark Army. If they can, they're left to face him. But if the Realm fails, they destroy it to create a fire break around the Dark Lord so he has no essence to draw from while portalling his army in every conceivable direction. Oz passed the test as did the Multiverse. But Wonderland and Neverland were complicit in his nefarious schemes."

"How far do his ambitions go?" Blue Jay was feeling constructive again.

"As far as the Fourth World, Limbo, the Shadow Realms, the Realms of Chaos and Order, Avalon, the Realms Beyond, and even Hell itself," the Munchkins explained in unison.

"Why not Heaven?" Blue Jay asked in reply.

"Even a Dark Lord knows when he's outmatched," the Munchkin leader grinned.


"Dorothy has been here," Red Orchid reported, "The Justicers are tracking her and one is a High Sidhe."

"Wonderful," Green Sorceress groaned, "They're nearly impossible to kill."

"This one is cursed. And how would you know?" Red Orchid asked.

"I wasn't always green," Norzima reminded her...again.


Lily had her horse saddled and she rode for the Chessman Castle. It was time for the Blood Queen's ogre to signal Saron to launch the invasion. The Silver armies had received riders with instructions to marshal for war...against the Dark Army. Lily didn't care about "her" troops. She just wanted to sit on a throne. Her subjects be damned.


Alice and Tinker Bell's path was illuminated by Tink's ambient glow. Cheshire spoke from above them, "Hullo, Alice. I was told to expect you someday. I guess someday is today."

"If it isn't a bother please warn my mother," Alice requested, "I want to see my sister dear before she has reason to fear. And tell her please that I'm finally bringing home the forest for the trees. And I wish I may, I wish I might, tell her I should be dressed in white."

"I'm certain she'll understand the obvious code," Cheshire rolled around in the air, "Hullo, beautiful pixie."

Tinker Bell gave him her name.

"Tinker Bell, how lovely," Cheshire replied before vanishing.

Alice squeezed Tink's hand for encouragement. It wasn't everyday a woman introduced her wife to her mother.

Alice knew Cheshire's next stop was the sole oasis left on Neverland. Where the Mad Hatter was very much alive and awaiting the day to liberate Wonderland. The ruse that Alice had killed him was to insure the Blood Queen couldn't. The Hatter was a tremendous symbol in Wonderland. United with the White Queen, everyone not sworn into the Blood Queen's service would harken to rebel against her. Just as they had against her mother.


Erishkigal watched as the White Queen rewarded her "wayward" daughter, "Alice! You played your part so well even I believed the lies."

"Mother, meet the woman I will share my life. This is Tinker Bell, my beloved wife," Alice gushed over her recent bride.

White Queen happily embraced Tink, "I'm so happy for you both. You've been put through hell but obviously one good thing came of it. Alice, I'd been curious as to why you rejected every suitor. Just remember, you can adopt and still give me grandchildren. True love is the rarest commodity in Twenty-Six Realms."

"I greatly fear Ilyria isn't here," Alice lamented. And her sister rushed into her arms. Alice eagerly introduced her younger sister to Tinker Bell. A top hat fell from the sky and the White Queen couldn't breathe. The Mad Hatter emerged from it and they had a spectacular reunion. Even Cheshire had a tear.

The Queen was sobbing out of relief that she'd finally seen him again. The Hatter chucked her under the chin, "My dear, my dear, why did you fear? It was your plan that we part for such a span."

"Oh, my heart reaches further and farther and the sight of mother with our beloved father," Ilyria gushed.

As a volatilized pixie, Tink felt one with the family. Alice held her and Tinker Bell was happier than she'd been in decades. They'd finally been able to come home. And she'd been embraced as one of their own.

"I hate to be a bother but there is another who is missing today, mother," Alice was concerned.

"Lily imprisoned Cloud ostensibly for her own safety. She's in your cousin's custody," White Queen trembled with rage.

Alice was already plotting multiple murders. Erishkigal revealed herself, "And this is where I come in to the play."

Alice probed the mummy's intent and Erish chided her, "How forward and rude. And in front of your wife. You should at least buy me dinner first."

"She may not have brought her customary crew but how can you vouchsafe any of her words are true?" Alice asked her mother.

"I have no interest in conquering any Real but my own," Erishkigal replied, "But I will safeguard what is mine. And do that effectively I have to unite your two kingdoms and defeat the Dark Army. Okay?"

"It's upon your approval, Alice," the White Queen pledged.

"You may indeed be the one. But betray us and I'll see to it that you're done," Alice vowed.

Erish thought Alice might even stand a chance of fulfilling her oath. How delicious.


"So this is a border?" Jack asked.

The swirling miasma of colors denoted the barrier between Wonderland and Oz. The border between Wonderland and the Realm of Fable was hundreds of miles away. It was a shorter transit to cross over through Oz into the Fables. And they had teammates located in Oz to collect.

"Um...is that tooky-tooky bird spying on us?" Black Alice asked.

"Gulp...I'm done for!" the bird flew off.

"Okay, get me the hell outta here," Black Alice demanded.

"Shh...we're almost there at the end of our quest," Xanadu focused.

"C'mere, kid," Enchantress held Lori's shoulders.

"My weird-shit-o'-meter is pegged out," Black Alice lamented.

"Me too. Well, that's a lie. Feel better though?" Enchantress asked.

"No," Black Alice griped.

"Me neither," Enchantress confessed.

"Jump into the torando," Silver Sorceress ordered.

"What tornado?" Zatanna asked.

A green whirlwind appeared at the wave of Laura Neilsson's hand. Portal spells being her specialty. Xanadu had given her the target destination within Oz.


When the winds died, they found themselves between Chief Man-of-Bats and Blue Jay as they were catching up with Vivian, Cabala, and Kitty.

Owlwoman began negotiating Dark Justice's absorption back into the Justice League. Madame Xanadu was quite relieved to hear the offer. Vivian was testy.

"We tracked two Shadowmages to this shack. We need to go in and kill them for what they did to the populace."

"Hold on. This destruction was all caused by the Dark Army and thew Dark Lord they serve. His name is Saron," Chief Man-of-Bats explained, "And this information is from eyewitness accounts."

"Saron," Cabala shuddered. Kabbalah prophesied the coming of two destroyers. One of the Multiverse and the other of time. One would be thwarted and the other would not.

"Still, they should pay," Vivian demanded.

"Really?" Dorothy and Maimie marched to their location from the shack. Dorothy crammed her witch's hat onto her white haired head. Blue Jay openly stared at her.

And she stared at him, "Hell-o nurse!"

"So we're to believe you didn't slaughter the countrysides?" Vivian was still unwilling to forgive, "Then what were you doing in the Emerald City?"

"Investigating who actually did the crime," Dorothy jutted out her lower lip, "And I'm wicked, not evil."

"We'll see," Kitty thrust her hand in her bag and received a gift. Upon opening it revealed a shard of coal mounted in an exquisite gold pendent and chain, "Uh...it's never done that before."

"It's never met me," Dorothy boasted.

"War is breaking out across the Realms. Fables and the Courts are already besieged. Oz has been attacked, Earth is a prime target. And Wonderland needs to be swayed to no longer serve Saron but to renounce him and join in the defense," Xanadu explained, "We need to speak with Ozma and the Wizard."

"On it," Dorothy whiffed her and Maimie away.

"Oddly enough, I think she told the truth," Vivian realized.

"She did," the human lie detector that was Kitty announced.

"How will that kid know whee to go?" Enchantress asked.

"Ozma is Dorothy's best friend," Glenda appeared, "And her greatest foe. We forged Dorothy into the Wicked Witch. For reasons she is unaware of and at great personal costs. Dorothy doesn't know hatred like a true villain. But she is malicious to a sharp edged point."

"So why create her this way?" Owlwoman wondered.

"She must unite with Alice the Mad Hatter and Glorith to defend the past, the present, and the future," Glenda described the why.

Silver Sorceress bristled as Blue Jay informed her of Alice and Tink's part in the destruction of Angor.

"Farewell," Glenda vanished. Green Sorceress and Red Orchid had caught up.

"Where's Dorothy Gale?" Norzima demanded.

Silver Sorceress made a dismissive gesture and a tornado whisked them back to Earth Prime, "Peasants."

"You've spared me the work," the Ten of Blood nastily chuckled.

Lightning struck him and Cabala was unabashed, "What?"


As the Hatters led the White Queen's militia on the Silver Palace, Alice directed her loyalists to secure the city-stater and insure that the armies remained faithful.


Disco Mummy walked the highway to Chessman Castle. She literally raised an army as she did so. The Blood forces were subdued and terrified rather than butchered because of the need for them and she'd agreed not to mummify the Blood Queen's defenders, rendering them useless to anyone but herself. The gates to the castle fell to the literal weight of the bodies crushed against it. The advantage of a mummy army is it couldn't feel pain, it couldn't die, and it never questioned orders.

The subjects fled as a million mummies reached the castle and tore the gates down. Erishkigal sent them in before her. As her card soldiers were upended and her human commanders fled, the Blood Queen and her ogre stood their ground.

The ogre was a challenge as it was the enormous size of a rock troll and was crushing mummies into uselessness. And its mystical, inhuman nature defied her power to transform it. But the Knave of Blood made her appearance then and while the ogre was distracted, she eviscerated it. Its foul smelling guts spilled out and while it cradled them, she took its head off.

"Nooo!" the Blood Queen screamed and took up her sword against the Knave's.

Lily still hid behind the throne while the Blood Prince watched his family disintegrate, "Ruby! Don't do this."

"I'm not. She did. She condemned us as the Dark Army marches through Wonderland they'll destroy everything and kill everyone," the Blood Queen grated.

"But…" the Blood Prince began.

The Queen pinched two fingers together, "Shh!"

"Excuse me, but you need to release Alice Liddel and Cloud White or I will take this castle down to the ground," Erishkigal warned.

"Who are you?" Blood Queen testily wanted to know.

"I''d listen," Knave advised her.

"You don't have a right to speak to me anymore," the Queen hissed.

"Oh, for goddess' sake," Erish complained. Mummies crowded every opening and made a number of new ones.

"Wh...what?" the Blood Queen stammered.

"Eloquent," Erish retorted as the mummies swarmed the Queen and took her prisoner., "Where do you want her?"

"I...I'll guide them and release the prisoners," the Blood Prince offered.

His sister lanced scathing glares his way and spat at him, "Do what you do best: be useless elsewhere."

"The Silver Palace has been reclaimed by the White Queen and the Mad Hatter. I'm assuming she'll want her daughter back," Erishkigal informed Knave.

"Of course," the Knave was distracted.

Erishkigal snapped her fingers, "Hey! You have a war to win and a kingdom to repair. If you can't cut it I'll fill in and win the war but ultimately someone has to sit on that throne and that boy won't cut it."

"Of course," the Knave was galvanized, "I'll dispatch riders to deliver Lily and Cloud. May I assume that the White Queen's armies will march beside mine?"

"You may," Erish was pleased the Knave was already possessive over the kingdom.


Alice sent the armies out as she and Tinker Bell prepared to mount a two-woman invasion of the Realm of Fables. The riders delivering her sisters reported the effort the Justice League and Dark Justice were making against the Dark Lord. So while he was distracted they could retrieve a weapon that might save the Greater Reality.

The Knave led both armies. Erishkigal rode alongside her and the Ten of Silver. Mummies and other corpses rose from the grounds they passed. In Oz, The last of the Winkie Guards united with Tinkers, Quadlings, Munchkins and beings of various description. Glenda's magic and the Wizard's designs were their only advantages. Dorothy and Maimie had stuck to Dorothy's parole and left Oz for Earth. Ozma was bitterly disappointed despite her having set the terms.


The JLers and Justicers arrived in Fables to find a border war stretching out across the span of the Realm edged against the Dark Lord's. The Courts of Sidhe, of whom the enemy gave no quarter, no mercy, and specifically targeted were dealt genocide pure and simple. But the Seelie and Unseelie Courts of Faery, in all their breadth, width, and diversity, were spared non-combat related deaths. Obviously they were intended to survive. The rest of the fables folk fought and died traditional deaths owing to warfare.

Snow White and her sister, Rose Red, were the generals of the fable folk. The Fey came across from their own Realm. The High Sidhe were unwilling to sully themselves.

"This war began where Saron killed the Evil Queen, the most powerful sorceress in the known Realms. His power exceeding even hers," Snow White explained to her unexpected allies, "We've shifted the center of the battles to provide a narrow opening we intended to slip assassins in through. My sister and I can get you through the wasteland and into his kingdom to reach his castle. We'll provide all of the hand's on intelligence can because we're coming with you. That's not negotiable. Or you can wander the battlefield trying to recognize your opportunity. And you can't magically teleport there. Only the Dark Lord can move through our Realm that way."

Enchantress tested the theory, "Damn. She's right."

"Do you honestly think you can win?" Rose Red asked.

"We know we can," Dove answered.

"We hope," Ice stammered.

"Tora!" Fire chided her.

"No, a healthy dose of fear is a good thing. Why are you so confident?" Snow asked.

The gifts given by the Three Graces were described to them.

"But how do they work?" Rose asked.

Madame Xanadu unrolled her scroll but as she pronounced the first word, it turned to embers and ash.

"Shit! They weren't kidding," Black Alice exclaimed.

"What did that just cost us?" Silver Sorceress inquired sharply.

"I have no idea," Xanadu admitted.

"Nothing good just happened,' Vivian opined.

"Look, we can get you into the Castle of the Blackest Heart. But no one has been in there for hundreds of years or survived to report back. And Saron's magic infuses it the way the Evil Queen's did. He'll know when and where we enter," Snow warned.

"Still up for it?" Rose asked.

"Of course," Nightshade answered.


The war against the Dark Army would've been lost in the first hour except for Disco Mummy's undead soldiers. The Card soldiers were the next most effective. But heavy losses of every description threatened the campaign. Finally, out of desperation, Erishkigal mummified every creature except the Knave and threw them at Saron's forces. But even with another ten thousand mummies, she'd already lost two million and counting. Unless the Dark Army was recalled, the battle would ultimately be lost.

Oz faced a bleaker picture. Only five thousand troops had been sent by Saron to overcome Ozma's pitiful forces. Which meant they were outnumbered five to one. And most of her "grand army" had already been killed. Ozma bade farewell to the Wizard and converted herself into pure magical essence before unleashing herself against the Dark Army. It was a one-off sacrifice that could never be reversed or recovered from. Silence reigned over the battlefield after her decimation.


The cries of death and the din of battle permeated the air. But as the sisters had promised, there was a narrow gap between the fighting. But the troupe needed to use glamour and concealment spells to pass unnoticed. Ravens and...tooky-tooky birds? They flew over the battlefields accompanied by buzzards and other carrion feeders patrolling for the next steaming hot meal. The smell of offal and feces sprinkled with urine dominated the atmosphere. Fear and rage being tangible ingredients to the smell.

The wastelands were well named, but as they escaped the ever present smoke and wafts of charred flesh, the sun didn't brighten the scene. Instead, a palpable shadow clung to the air.

And then the Castle of the Blackest Heart loomed suddenly as though just appearing from nowhere. The air became charged with the concealment spell overlaying the grounds and a bright and forested territory was revealed in the midst of devastation. It was here the tooky-tooky birds and ravens congregated amongst orchards and clear brooks. A forest of maples and pines stretched across a vast dominion.

"How the hell does he hide all of this?" Hawk asked.

"As stated, the sorcerer draws his power from the life force of others. When he's tapped in to someone, he shares their gifts. He was a mere necromancer but he stole these abilities from the Evil Queen. We let our guard down when she died not imagining a worse plague was arising in these lands," Rose unhappily admitted, "If he wasn't immortal before, he was after sucking dry the Queen."

"How so exactly?" Constantine broke his long silence.

"The Evil Queen was of the Unseelie Court of Faery. A princess banished for conducting transformations spells to convert her enemies into her troll, ogre, goblin and so forth servants," Snow explained as they cautiously moved to the open front gate.

"This is a disaster waiting to happen," Fire muttered.


Erishkigal pitted the last of her millions against the last thousand of the Dark Army. And it seemed too little too late. The Knave sensed it too.

"I will not finally die here," Erish vanished in a whiff of smoke.

The Knave was just grateful her mummy forces were still fighting on automatic.


Up the front stairs led into an audience chamber-slash-ballroom. And standing by the singular throne stood an occupied suit of armor, "Well, it certainly took you long enough to get here."

He gestured and Chief Man-of-Bats and Blue Jay slumped, "Delicious."

"Snow White and Rose Red, it certainly has been a while," Saron stated.

"We've never met, monster," Snow snarled and let an arrow fly. It stopped inches before Saron and dropped.

"Really? My mistake. Archnemesses all look alike," Saron chuckled.

His hollow, echoing voice was crafted of deception and Zatanna decided to aim the mirror at him. And the armor sheared away as the physical illusion it had been. A fey woman was left behind.

She had the most stunning violet eyes accentuated by an ornate tattoo sweeping from beneath her left eye and then into her cheek and outcropping by her nose. Her jewels and lipstick all accented her eyes. Her gown was split high above her waist and her open laced "eff me" boots were black. Power radiated from her.

"Renfri!" Snow and Rose shouted as one.

"Who?" Ice inquired.

"The Evil Queen," Snow growled.

"Is that anyway to greet your infinitely older stepmother?" Renfri laughed, who appeared to be a decade younger than Snow White. Of course as a faery, even of the Lesser Court, she was nearly ageless after reaching her twentieth year., "Snow and Rose, I'm glad you came. We should catch up."

"How did you survive?" Rose wanted to know.

"There was no necromancer, luv," Constantine explained, ""Saron' was a ruse intended to buy her time to reinforce her strength."

"Absolutely correct. I don't like you anyway but you're quite clever, Hellblazer," Renfri confessed, "I faked my death and created a wasteland no one wanted to cross so I could stock my Castle of the Blackest Heart and summon a Dark Army. It only took hundreds of years of isolation."

'Time we gave you," Snow was dismayed.

"Admit it, Mommy knows best," Renfri was delighted that the truth was finally revealed.

"Strike her down!" Xanadu commanded.

"High Sidhe with a delicious taste of the purest evil," Renfri laughed as she absorbed the spells cast at her. Owlwoman was drained and passed out. Fire and Ice fared no better. Hawk and Dove reverted back to Holly and Dawn. Even Black Alice found her power used against her.

But Renfri savored Jack, Silver Sorceress, Nimue, Vivian, Cabala, Nightshade and Enchantress' magical life essence. Enchantress remembered the wand and cast its spell upon herself. And suddenly her curse lifted. She wield any magic against any person and never overstimulate on the amount of power she summoned. So the interdimensional witch bonded to June Moone lashed out with all of her fury against Renfri.

And briefly it was a fair fight. But Renfri fed off of the whole of the Justice League and Dark Justice to be found there. Even Constantine fell before her as Enchantress faltered. Rose and Snow were seemingly helpless. And then Alice and Tinkerbell brought help.

Glorith phased Renfri's victims one half second out of time, cutting off Renfri's food supply. Glorith was immune to Renfri's appetites and her temporal magic was an effective countermeasure. In fact, Renfri began to weaken. She whiffed away in a swirl of violet smoke.

The others began to recover and Glorith boasted, "You may thank me now. I'm accepting tribute."

"Who the eff are you?" Constantine was grumpier than usual.

"I'm your savior. Fine, don't thank me but you will thank me later," Glorith took Alice and Tink with her when she vanished.


"Scrounge what we need to recover," Owlwoman insisted, "We need to return to Earth."

"Actually we can send you there now. Just think of where you want to be," Rose offered.

"Hall of Justice," Owlwoman determined for the JLers.

"Hall of Justice," Madame Xanadu decided to open merger discussions with Col. Trevor and Sue Dibney.

Snow threw golden sand that swirled about and the mortals vanished.

"Okay, I'm still about the scrounging before we head back," Rose admitted.

"Me too," Snow wanted to explore Renfri's castle anyway.


The Knave was amazed as the Dark Army, on the cusp of victory, suddenly retreated. She didn't know why nor did she care. She had to discuss her wife's status with her husband, the Blood Prince. Knave felt she was about to become the new Red Queen over a restored Red Kingdom. And the Blood Prince would officially become the Red Consort.

The White Kingdom rejoiced at the return of the White Queen and the Mad Hatter but sorrowed over the complete and total loss of the Silver Armies. Lily White faced imprisonment. Cloud rejoiced at her freed and that of Alice Liddel. Alice, the original Alice, agreed to stay on with the White Court government. The Hatter, was formally acknowledged as the White Consort. Ilyria was made an official princess. As was Alice the Mad Hatter. Who was determined to return to Earth Prime anyway.

"We cannot part from the family chosen by the heart," Alice informed her parents. Tinker Bell agreed.

Alice held up the glass case she'd purloined from the Evil Queen's castle. It contained a single, energized rose slowly losing petals. When the last petal fell, Zero Hour would begin. And an all out war against Renfri would be needed. And so Alice and Tink's destinies would be fulfilled.

"And you're preparing for this end?" the White Queen wanted verification.

"There is not a one to find with a more captive mind," Alice promised.

A Looking Glass appeared, "Go then with our blessings."


The couple returned to Bangor to find the Injustice Society moving out. Goldilocks had clipboard, "Good, you're back. The Justice League rooted us out. We need to be gone before they return."

She received a kiss on each cheek and the couple happily went to pack.

The Evil Queen appeared suddenly and decided to shift a castle slightly into a pocket dimension. Renfri created a viewing window and discovered where she was. Dresden, Germany on Earth Prime would be her new base of operations.


Real Name

Cabala

First Appearance

BIO47 #2 (1998)

Created by

Miguel Rude and Leandro Silva