Hi again, here's another chapter just for your enjoyment. I saw the movie yet again last night…I really do love it. I also love the Almost Alice cd, it's great inspiration!

As for this chapter, my apologies if things are getting confusing, I do realize I'm not writing in the clearest manner possible but I feel that it's permissible for this fic because it is based on Alice in Wonderland, and the Hatter's a major player and he is a bit off his rocker…

If it wasn't obvious, flashbacks are in italics, but they aren't necessarily in order (dear God, I probably get that from watching too much Lost). The one in this chapter happens just before the events of the first chapter.

Happy reading, please review, I love reading them!


Last I had seen her, she had been poisoned.

Today, she was struck with crying fits.

She sobbed in my arms so long that my feet went numb and she had tried to slip to her knees, though I wouldn't allow it. The sky slowly turned from sun to clouds, painting the grassy knoll a vivid green and then a sullen jade. Alice shook as she cried. I could not help her.

No matter what I did, no matter what I tried to say, she was always in tears. It made me physically ache. I could not breathe. My throat twisted into knots and I could have sworn I felt tears on my face at one point or another. I wanted to run for my own sake, yet the girl left me entirely immobile.

This would prove problematic if I could not fix the current situation.

It took several long minutes of repeating her name and insisting that the hour had grown late to even get her to acknowledge I was speaking. I myself was rather parched from merely watching her cry, and I knew that she, doing the crying, must have felt all the worse. She still would not tell me what bothered her, just that she was hurting and confused and needed help of some kind.

"Alice, I do not know what you want from me. I cannot even begin to help you unless you speak to me." Reason had a nice taste to it. Foreign. Sweet. Bitter.

She finally sniffled, sucked down a breath and whispered, "I want to go back."

"The Queen said—"

"I want…to go back. I want to go back or I want to forget it all."

The ultimatum stung.

I could only stammer in response. "Surely you don't want to forget it, Alice…"

She nodded her head adamantly. "I would much rather be there, even under the Jabberwocky's terror and the Red Queen's tyranny than live in this world where I do not belong…no one understands…"

I thought I understood, yet her words were suspicious. "But you slew the beast. The Red Queen fell beside the Jabberwocky."

Once again, Alice didn't even realize I was speaking. She shook again as if the cold was nipping at her when I suggested she return home. It took me holding her at arms length and practically barking to her to get her to look in my eyes. "Alice, I am real. All of Wonderland—your flight there and your victory, it was all real. I brought you here, to your true home and some how tripped into this realm on the way. Why do you cry? What is hurting you?"

The girl shook her head. As true as I looked, I was not real to her.

"Then what is it that you fear?" I continued in a lowered voice. She looked ready to break in two. I feared what my questions would do to her.

It took her a long while to answer. Another breeze cut through the trees and shook her little frame, leaving me feeling helpless. "I've gone mad, Hatter."

Somewhere within me that struck a nerve. I drew a long breath as the words fell into a familiar pattern, as if I'd heard them before.

"No, Alice," I breathed. She edged away from me.

"It was a terribly good dream but it should be over… I feel ill thinking of home but when I think of Wonderland I feel scared. Every time I close my eyes I see the beast and I cannot face it. I…I don't think the Jabberwocky is dead."

"Don't say that," I could barely utter. It felt as if the world was closing in again. A roar echoed in the distance and it was all I could do to simply shut my eyes and shut the sound away. I couldn't make top or bottom of Alice's accusation. I had seen the felled beast myself! We had all watched with wide eyes as the Red Queen fell dead on the spot. Alice had won, had she not?

Sniffling gently, the girl hugged her sides. It was hard to believe she had donned an entire suit of armor and slain a dragon, given her current state. Alice could not make a decision on what she wanted to do nor where she wanted to go. Trapped, a victim of her own mind, she stood frozen on the spot and simply looked to me.

I shook my head. "Home."

She continued staring, devoid of objection and emotion.

"You need to go home."

I'd meant Wonderland. But her family would enjoy seeing her and nursing her back to happiness as well.

Several days passed in which I would occasionally see Mrs. Kingsley by the market or I would chance by the older Kingsley girl in the garden. But Alice, oh Alice, she had stowed herself away inside the house and as far as I know, she did not come out for days on end. I slowly withdrew from the family, fearing what I had done to Alice but at the same time feeling far more frightened of what would happen should I completely dissociate from her.

Mrs. Kingsley said she told Alice of each of our encounters, speaking of me politely and with a smile, no doubt. But there was never any response. Soon enough our meetings stretched to few and far in between, and it was easy to see that something, something was taking a toll on Mrs. Kingsley. It wasn't that she was aging drastically, it was just that her age had become more apparent. The fact she was a mother of two young girls and not merely a socialite became clearer to me. I always wanted to say something, anything to comfort the woman, but could never think of the proper words until we had said our goodbyes.

Then, one day, when Mrs. Kingsley looked quite gray and downtrodden, she told me that her daughter was ill. Alice had not left the house for two weeks straight. She evidently hadn't left her room for the past five days. She proposed the thought that I should stop by and visit but I politely declined, giving some excuse about an important date. She nodded and went along her way.

Alice was ill.

Wonderland was surely suffering without her.

And where was I? Parading these streets in attempt to keep Alice—and Wonderland—safe. I was doing a hideous job.

But I could not leave. It was not a matter of choice. I had sworn to the girl that I would protect her and she was not safe yet.

Every so often I had dreams of the place, though they grew more hideous as time went on. I myself often woke feeling ill and parched. Then there were days in which I could swear that I had seen the Queen herself—revived and well—cackling about a crown. The few times it had happened my heart stopped until I managed to blink and clear my vision.

The Red Queen was dead.

Alice was ill.

I decided to visit one Wednesday afternoon when the skies were cold and gray. I wasn't feeling like myself, but thought the company of the old friend would do me good, if anything.

Much to my surprise, she had another visitor.

He wore black and had long curls just as dark. I thought he resembled a raven upon first meeting him. The thought of a large black bird bent over Alice distracted me so that I did not catch the man's name.

But it only took a moment of pondering for me to realize who the gentleman was.

And then I rushed to Alice's side, concern and an attempt at comfort painted to my face. My attempt at distancing myself, and consequently Wonderland, from her was turning out positively disastrous.

She was indeed very ill, but she was still able to speak, thank heavens.

"Have you met Ilosovic?" she murmured.

I bit my tongue. Why had I been so foolish?

"Yes."

Alice nodded against her pillow sleepily. Though she looked pale and sickly, her eyes were still bright. "He's a nice man."

"Surely you remember him as well, Alice."

She looked at me inquisitively. "What do you mean, Hatter?"

I glanced over my shoulder to ensure that her mother wasn't sneaking around the hall. Then, leaning a bit closer, I whispered, "Ilosovic Stayn is the Knave, Alice."

Silence reigned for a whole minute before she giggled and replied with, "Oh, Hatter. You must be late for tea, you're talking nonsense."

My eyes grew wide.

"No, Alice, Ilosovic is the Knave of Hearts, the black knight. I don't…I don't know how but he must have some how stumbled across the line between Wonderland and this land. Alice. You are not safe if he is here."

She shook her head. "No. Hatter, don't you remember? Such a long time ago he tried to kill you and I saved you. If anyone, it's you he's after," she mused.

I felt as if someone had struck me. The way the words danced off her lips as if she didn't care frightened me. She would not listen. I began to fear I would no longer be able to reach her.

"Alice," I pleaded softly.

"Please don't," she murmured. Suddenly her eyes were wide open and she was looking me in the eye, whispering, "Ilosovic has proposed."

It was like the floor had slid out from under me and knocked me down to my knees. I couldn't be sure, but I felt as if I'd gone unconscious.

Alice had said yes to wed Ilosovic.

But hadn't proposal been the thing to drive her back to Wonderland?

I began to miss her sorely, and she was lying not two feet from me. And she herself looked honestly sorry, but I could not find words to express my shock. I had not been out of her mind that long. And knowing Alice as deeply as I did, I knew she would never allow herself to be swept up by a man so quickly. Immediately my mind was jumping ahead of itself and yet at the same time it was digging into the past…

"Hatter! Oh, dear…I'm sorry…please…"

Alice was struggling through a crowd. I could see her from the corner of my eye. The chessmen and the cards were slaughtering each other all around her, and blotches of bright red splashed across her shoulders and her neck. She was wielding a sword but appeared to have even less experience with the weapon than I did, but when it did strike, her blows were devastating. She, or rather the Vorpal blade, diced three cards before she managed a clear path to me.

A clang beside my ear brought me back to reality.

The Knave snarled. "Die, you damn hatter, die!"

I bowed low and swept the blade over my shoulder, but it was met with another sword and the jarring crash rattled my arms. How I wanted this fight to be over…

I heard Alice cry out again. I wished she wouldn't, for I couldn't distinguish her concern from fear anymore.

"Hatter! Look out!"

The Knave had a go at my neck with a shorter blade he'd produced from who knew where, but Alice's alarm had allowed me to jump away in just enough time. The Knave growled to himself again. He took a quick look at the girl and I saw the grimace shrink only slightly before he started after me again.

Swords rattled and soldiers screamed as the fight drew on. The Knave nearly had my head, and then the White Queen appeared beside me, holding a rusty blade from a felled knight. The Knave looked particularly disgruntled but grimaced and kept on none the less. Mirana screamed as the man's sword struck her side and soon she'd fallen back, her eyes watering as she uttered a thousand apologies. I watched her retreat for too long, and the Knave kicked me too the ground.

It was then, when I'd fallen over my own feet, that I saw it coming.

"ALICE LOOK OUT!"

I'd never felt anything so imperative in my life. Just as the Knave jumped at me, sword flying over his head, I lay helpless a dozen feet away as Alice shrieked. The Red Queen's staff pierced her side and she fell on the spot.

"No," I breathed. "No, Alice…"

Without a thought the sword turned in my hand, slick with blood as it gleamed against a rising sun in the background. The Knave groaned. The blade was through his chest, his blood pouring all over my being as his sword hinged just above my shoulder. He fell dead not a minute later.

The chessmen had stormed the Queen, but she ended their lives as easily as she had Alice's. While others screamed in retreat, I heaved my sword up once more and strode towards her. She was screaming—so much screaming, as I'd slain her only companion.

But I only felt it fair.

Just as I swung my blade back in preparation to strike, the Queen called her beast. The Jabberwocky swiveled and threw a shriek to the sky while the Queen's card guards stormed the field. I was ready to tear them apart when Alice pulled herself to her knees. I remember I about dropped my sword due to how startled I was.

The Jabberwocky was closing in on the battle, jowls open for either myself or the White Queen who was hovering some distance behind me, when Alice, a mere girl, suddenly turned away from the Red Queen to strike down the beast she commanded in one swing. I hacked away a few cards to keep her safe, but Alice had fought on her own. We all watched the beast's life drain away and then turned to the shrieking Queen, who now stood silent. Blood ran down her front from a long gash that suddenly split across her neck. Soon after the Red Queen fell dead; Alice had ended the life of a tyrant and had claimed Wonderland as her own. The cards erupted into flames when the Queen was vanquished, and our entire fighting forces dropped to their knees in the face of their savior.

But I stood, smiling, with tears in my eyes as I looked to Alice to see who she had become. Though sprayed with blood and struggling under now botched, heavy armor, she looked absolutely stunning.

Because she was finally free. We were all free.

But then she had fallen. The weight of the steel had pulled her small frame down, and she hit the chessboard battlefield with a crash. Everyone on their knees gasped, and I, the Cat and the White Queen rushed to the girl.

We had won. We could not let that Queen take our girl with her.