AN: Let me know what you think, and please enjoy!

Chapter IX

Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised to see Charlie following behind Alice and Jack. He wasn't, really, but he'd been surprised that it took him so long to spot the knight. His glittering armor should have been well-visible much earlier.

The pair of them had trotted behind Alice and Jack for a long while in relative silence. They were done sending barbs back and forth, jabs about following after Alice when they'd both said they wouldn't. Hatter genuinely wondered if Leah was somewhere around, too. She might have said she needed some time to herself, that she wanted to go back into the woods, but he knew it was a lie the moment the words left her lips. He'd never be able to explain how, but it was no different than when he looked at Miranda's face. It was a lie, and he could tell.

The hair on the back of his neck bristled and rose on end when he thought about Leah. He'd never met a Mystic before. They were already gone by the time he was born. Unlike Charlie, Hatter was a post-war child. He never knew Wonderland as anything else, so he only had stories. By then the Knights and the Mystics had been turned into legend.

But there she was, white hair and glowing skin, doing everything she could to kill the prince of Hearts. He'd been with her the whole time she and Alice had been in Wonderland, and he never knew it. He only knew something about Miranda wasn't right, that she was off in some insubstantial, hard to pinpoint way.

Hatter drifted into his memory of her reveal. He didn't know how else to describe it other than 'magic'. In truth, Hatter didn't know how to describe her, either. He only knew how he felt when he saw her: stunned. How else was someone supposed to feel when they saw a creature of legend?

Everything made sense, though. Everything that had bothered him had finally fallen into place. Now, Hatter knew why she'd flinched when she met him, why she looked so surprised when he said they were in Wonderland. Now, he knew how she knew Wonderland was broken and why she cried at the Great Library. She was tied deeply with their world, a physical part of it, and coming home to find it in tatters must have been a heartbreaking.

Hatter didn't envy Leah. It must have been a hell of a shock to her system when she tumbled through the Looking Glass alongside Alice only to find out the place she'd grown up was entirely foreign to her.

Leah was suddenly shaken from his thoughts when Hatter saw the Suits finally emerge from the building where Alice and Jack had vanished. He began to vibrate as adrenaline pumped through his system with the fight. He tightened his hands on the reins.

He counted down, told Charlie to be ready and then charged. Hatter swung his sword and cut down one, maybe two Suits. He called back for Charlie, for aid in their fight, but his heart sank when he looked over his shoulder. The "White Knight" atop his "noble steed" was charging alright –in the opposite direction.

Hatter was stunned into immobility. It might have only been a moment, but it was more than long enough for him to be grabbed and yanked down from his saddle. Hatter's shoulder slammed into the unforgiving ground. He heard a pop, felt a fiery burn throb in his shoulder, and knew in that moment that it had been dislocated at least, broken at the most.

No matter how he tried, Hatter couldn't quite catch his breath. A Suit grabbed an arm a piece and heaved him up. Hatter cried out in pain. It rocketed through him. His vision blurred, but he couldn't tell if it was the horrible agony he felt in his shoulder, or tears that gathered as a result. Probably both, honestly.

"Hatter," The rabbit chuckled as he approached. Hatter narrowed his eyes on the autonomous person. There it was again, that flash of almost-recognition. He felt like he knew who the rabbit was, but he couldn't be certain. "Don't remember me, do ya?" His accent was strange, like what the Oysters considered either New Yorker, or Bostonian kind of accent. The digital twng made it hard to pinpoint. "Ya should. We use to work together."

And then he knew. He knew who the rabbit was and cold swept through him as a result.

"Mad March," His voice shook as he spoke. The rabbit chuckled.

Mad March and Hatter had been partners on one single job. That was all it took for Hatter to realize he wanted absolutely nothing to do with the man. A long time ago, when he was still kissing the Hearts' collective asses, Hatter had been told to help March find a branch of the Resistance because, being the owner of the Tea Shop, the Hearts knew he had contact with the unsavory of Wonderland.

Hatter was uncomfortable around March from the moment he met him. The guy's eyes (because he still had a head back then) were empty. There was no spark of life, no emotion, no anything that let you know he was an actual human being. Even though they were bright blue and should have glittered at least a little, Hatter had seen more life in the rabbit head March currently had than he did back then.

It had been the longest day of his life and he was the happiest he ever was the second he was away from the madman.

A Suit screaming jerked Hatter back into reality. March spun as well, moving just enough out of the way to show Hatter what had happened behind him. A Suit had slammed into an exterior wall. Another pair were suddenly lifted into the air and sent flying over the giant chasm between them and the buildings across the way. They landed hard and didn't move again when they had.

"Randy!" Alice chimed happily.

But it wasn't, not really. Hatter saw Leah approach. Her eyes were focused with laser precision on the men surrounding him, Alice, and Jack. With a hard expression, she twisted her hands in those same delicate motions he'd seen before, the motions that held power. Hatter felt the air shift just before another Suit was thrown violently out of the way. She was picking her way easily through them because, like Hatter had been, they were too stunned by her appearance to do much about it at first.

"Mystic," March growled hatefully.

She continued forward, her bare feet landing softly on the grass while she picked off the nearly comatose Suits. Hatter grinned a little, but the grin was wiped away quickly.

March produced a handgun and aimed it directly at Alice's head. Leah immediately went still. Hatter struggled against the man left holding him, but with his right shoulder practically useless, he couldn't do much about it.

"Stop right there, Mystic." March said. "Or I'll shoot."

Hatter's heart thundered as seconds ticked by at an agonizingly slow pace. But she wasn't afraid. In fact, he saw Leah arched a brow and smirk sarcastically at him.

"No you won't." She said.

"No?"

Hatter's eyes darted from March to Leah and back again. He wanted her to fling March off the edge of the building, to throw him so far away that he could never come back, but at the same time he was glad she didn't. Hatter was afraid that, somehow, March would manage to shoot Alice first.

"The Queen needs her. You won't shoot."

A wave of relief, albeit a small one, swelled within Hatter. She was right. The Queen wanted Alice alive. March couldn't-

Something cold and unforgiving was suddenly pressed against Hatter's temple hard enough that it forced his head to the side. His jaw clenched. He already knew without looking that it was March's gun. The click of March thumbing back the hammer was simply further proof.

Hatter's eyes drifted shut and his heart beat faster than he thought humanly possible. March would shoot him without a second thought. The madman would gladly kill him. Hatter was expendable. Hatter was shaking, both from fear and the pain still radiating from his shoulder. He was going to die if he so much as flinched in the wrong direction.

He took in one shaking breath through his nose after another before he gained enough courage to open his eyes again. Leah was staring at him in what was perhaps the most terrified expression he'd ever seen. Her lips were parted, her brows furrowed, and a very real panic reflected in her eyes. He could tell in that moment that she was just as aware that March would kill Hatter as Hatter was.

But it didn't matter, and he said as much.

"Get Alice outta here." He said. Even his voice shook. "Get her and go."

"You move," March said to her. "I'll paint that wall with his brains."

Hatter flinched and Leah did, too. Something told him March was being incredibly honest. He wasn't a Truth Seer like Leah, but he didn't have to be. If her reaction was anything to go by, March had every intention of shooting him if she so much as twitched.

Leah met Hatter's gaze. He saw her silently pleading, as though she was desperate for the slightest hint as to how she was proceed. The best he could offer was a small, halfhearted smile that hurt him to force. She wasn't put at ease like he'd hope.

But as they looked at one another, obviously trying to figure out how to get themselves and everyone else out of the situation alive, Hatter saw something that filled him with fear. One of the Suits had come up behind Leah with a gun raised. Hatter opened his mouth to warn her, but words never emerged.

The crack was sickening. It turned his stomach, a feeling made all the worse when he saw Leah's eyes roll back into her head. She collapsed, landing on the ground hard. Hatter heard Alice call out, but her cries fell on deaf ears. Leah laid on the grassy ground. Through her silvery white hair, Hatter watched as a spot –crimson and bright- pooled beneath her hair. It grew and grew until it was all he saw, like a drop of blood in the snow. They'd hit her so hard.

"Grab the Mystic," Mad March said carelessly as he stowed his gun. "Let's get out of here."

"No!" Hatter shouted as he fought against his Suit. Two move approached Leah. They hooked their arms beneath hers and lifted her. Her head hung limply. "Let her go!"

But no one listened. No one even looked in his direction as they were all led away.

Her body was heavy and her mind slow to act. She could think clearly, command her arms to move, her legs to lift her, but the connection wasn't there. She knew what she wanted to do, but she couldn't actually make herself do it.

Leah's head bobbed up and down, up and down, and each jostle made a spot throb painfully. She felt the tops of her feet drag against carpet, felt it burn into her skin and knew they either were raw, or would be soon. There was a faint buzz, murmuring or people talking –she wasn't entirely certain.

Without warning, Leah fell and a split second later landed hard on the ground. She'd been dropped, left to crumble because she had no strength to catch herself. Her lip smashed into her teeth. She tasted copper.

Leah tried to push herself up, pressed her hands in the plush surface of the expensive carpet beneath her, but her arms trembled. She couldn't even lift herself onto her knees.

"Well, well, well," A voice cooed. Leah continued to struggle to get herself up. Somehow, she managed to bring her knee under her. It helped her raise, but she was slow to do so. "If it isn't the Mystic…" The voice paused. "Which one had the white hair again?"

Leah continued to attempt to get herself up and eventually managed. She sat on her knees, but she was slumped over. Lifting her head too high caused the wound on the back of it to ache enough that she wanted to vomit. Leah knew she'd been pistol-whipped and could only guess that she had a concussion as a result.

She looked up through her lashes and saw the slightly out-of-focus images of the King, Queen, and the rest of the Court lingering in the background. She turned just enough to see other bodies, people wearing something slick and shiny like lab coats. There was a golden woman and more Suits. To her left, Leah saw a large orb and something inside it. She saw Jack standing with two Suits on either side, very close to her, and behind her, she spotted Hatter. He was close enough she could see something that looked like sadness, maybe guilt. She wasn't coherent enough to tell.

"I'm not certain, dearest." The King said. Leah looked forward once more and saw them staring at her from their spot less than six feet away. "They all began with a C, didn't they?"

"Unusual names, I know that much." The Queen scowled at her. "Cali-something-or-or-other."

"Cordelia," Leah growled hatefully. Her voice was twisted, but she didn't know what by –either rage, or some other intense emotion. "My name is Cordelia, you murderous cow."

People in the background gasped, but she didn't care. Leah stared only at the Queen, who stared only back at her. She expected to hear the red woman bellow her favorite phrase, to command someone to lop Leah's head from her shoulders, but she didn't. Instead, her painted lips curled into a knowing, evil smile.

"Defiant to the end." She mocked in a sing-songy voice. "Your kind never did know when enough was enough, did you? Such a nuisance." She grimaced as she looked over Leah briefly. And then, for whatever reason, she leaned forward. She looked at Leah while she rested her hands on her knees, like someone might when they called for a dog. "You're useful though, aren't you?" She asked in a tone to match. "Yes, you are." The Queen straightened her back again. "Do you know what's going to happen to you, girl? The same thing that happened to your sisters." Leah clenched her jaw so hard it hurt. "We are going to hook you up to a number of machines and they're going to drain every bit of magic from you." Her unnerving smile returned. "Have you ever seen what happens to your kind when the magic's been siphoned away? Ghastly business, really." The Queen stepped closer and made sure she had Leah's eye. Leah was shaking. "You wither away until, poof!" Leah jumped at the suddenness of the sound. "You cease to exist."

The Queen chuckled, seemingly happy with her plan as she returned to the King's side. She was beaming, her smile so wide that Leah could almost count her teeth.

"Take her away." She said with a wave of her hand.

Leah knew she only had a moment to act. Despite how heavy she felt, how badly she ached, Leah knew she had seconds at best to react otherwise it would be too late.

She pushed herself to her feet, and promptly stumbled. People mobilized around her. Someone grabbed her. Leah felt the magic flow through her. She called on everything she could, no matter how much it hurt. She felt the floor tremble beneath her, heard a few people gasp, heard glass or something delicate clinking, and then something stab into her neck.

Before she could unleash whatever chaos she'd been trying to raise, something pierced her neck. It was a needle, a theory given credence when a man –bulbous and round with odd facial hair- stepped away with a spent syringe in his hands. The room instantly began to spin.

"What'd you-" She couldn't get the word out before she stumbled.

Like before, a pair of arms looped beneath hers and held her up as best she could be. Leah was led away. She heard Hatter shouting from behind, but his voice faded into the buzzing that had returned to her ears.

Leah had been drugged, heavily. It wasn't enough for her to pass out, but more than enough to rob her of her ability to fight back. She couldn't focus, couldn't weave her magic. She couldn't even stand.

Every hall looked like the last. Her feet would drag over carpet and then along the painfully hard tile. There were no words to express how much it hurt for skin to drag across tile when there wasn't anything to lubricate it, like soap or water. With her feet already raw from carpet burn, it hurt even more.

The journey didn't end until Leah was surrounded by churning machines. Things beeped, people talked, and there were blinking lights. It was sensory overload and caused her head to ahce more than it already did.

"Oh, wow," Someone said in astonishment. "Is that what I think it is?"

She tried to focus on who was speaking, but she had no luck.

"Yes," The Suit to her right said. "The Queen wants you to drain her. Where should we put it?"

"Over here." The first voice said.

Leah was taken somewhere to the side and then shoved against something hard. She was held in place while her arms, legs, torso and neck were strapped down.

"Stop," She said. In her mind, she screamed in. The sound that met her ears was little more than a grumbled whisper. They didn't listen.

A series of sharp pokes caused her to wince and look down. She was being hooked up to something, wires and tubes. Someone else placed a breathing mask over her head. She jerked from side to side, but she couldn't shake them.

A door was closed and the world was suddenly silent. Leah tried to see, tried to separate the images around her.

There was rushing water.

The air in her breathing mask tasted off.

Nothing.