I...have no witty author's note this time! Thank you for the reviews, they have helped and made me smile on many the occasion. True, the story does seem to have an end in sight now. I'm thoroughly enjoying writing it and glad that those of you still reading are too. This is one of the longest fan-fiction pieces I've ever written, and I am fairly proud of the fact I've managed to stick to it. I'm also realizing I probably won't be writing many more Alice fanfics any time soon, though I do have at least one one-shot in mind after this has finished (because I've run out of options on incorporating it into this run).

Anyway, happy reading :)


The horrid battle continued to rage, unaware of their sudden absence, as the group tore off into the woods. Too much too bear and too few of them remaining, the Hatter lead them away from it all, determined to slip away into the darkness and be forgotten entirely. The Gryphon took to the forests as soon as the Jabberwocky fell, and now stood as the low-flying lookout. Behind them, the battle would rage so long as Red forces remained standing, and Ilosovic Stayne, their commander, had not been slain despite however badly he had been injured. The burning anger locked in the Hatter's chest reassured him of this fact.

However, they were only a few hundred yards into the forest before they were forced to stop.

Alice, wholly silent up until that moment, turned and vomited; she dropping from the beeline as a hundred things suddenly struck her at once. Tears rolled from her face while her knees shook beneath her. The armor on her shoulders seemed to weigh a hundred times more than she recalled, and it felt as if she'd been taken by a bad case of the chills.

"Hatter!" the White Rabbit called, he having been the closest to the girl when she started having her fit. Though the animals had stopped running, it took the Hatter a bit longer to come to a halt.

His eyes were round as he glanced the scene, poor Alice shaking and her stomach seizing, but he did not step closer nor offer his assistance.

"What's wrong with the girl?" Mallymkin cried.

"Seems reality's left a bad taste in her mouth," a suddenly solid, albeit bony, Cheshire sneered.

The White Rabbit scrambled halfway up the tree she stood beside and pushed the golden curls from her face and soon whispered to her ear, "What is it, dear girl? Has the Jabberwocky thrown you off-kilter? Just put it out of your mind…think of it as a bad dream!"

Alice at first began to nod, but with another sniff and a short sigh she shook her head. She hadn't the strength to stand up straight but she was done being sick—whatever it was had already evacuated her thoughts. Yet her eyes were pressed shut tight and she refused to move.

The Rabbit's words echoed darkly in some far-off corner of her mind. Put it out of your mind…

She fell to her knees and retched again.

"Oh dear," the White Rabbit squeaked. He wrung his hands together nervously and whimpered, "There, there…"

The Cheshire then dropped out of his tree branch perch and muttered, "Best make camp here, the girl will need rest and a decent meal after that bout." The animals scurried about after the Cat's suggestion, scrambling for materials for fire and shelter, while Alice and the Hatter remain motionless, frozen on the spot.

She was sobbing. It took all the girl had to not curl into herself and collapse on the rugged floor. Meanwhile the Hatter's face was painted up with sympathy, but he could not find the means of conveyance.

As the White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat moved away, Alice mustered in a small voice, "Where have I been, Hatter?"

He took two steps towards her and replied, quite honestly, "I do not know." It was like he was seeing her for the first time all over again. The woman who he had fully believed to be the Red Queen revived on the battlefield had faded away and revealed herself to be Alice instead.

Absolutely abhorrent visions floated behind Alice's closed eyes. Surely she could not have dreamed it all up. They were impossible to push away, yet she wanted nothing to do with any of them…the Knave was a commanding force in each scene. Alice shook as she recalled running to the Knave over the Hatter's embrace, the way she imagined her face as the Knave kissed her goodnight… And then, dear God—her stomach seized again—the black knight undressing her, as fits of her own laughter smothered out all remaining thoughts.

She did not speak a word of it aloud. She needed to destroy the fragmented memories herself, and she did not need their looks of pity. But even so, she could not quite grasp how the situation had twisted itself so—she could never find one starting incident or one scene where the Knave had managed to possess her so. Her heart dissolved, leaving a terrible, burning hole in her chest as she came to realize just how long he had held her under his spell.

But she could never understand how he did it—why she would be possessed to choose the damn Knave over the dear Hatter.

He was still frozen behind her, his body inclined as though he was trying to draw nearer or offer a hand, but he could not bring himself to move.

Alice then opened her eyes and shakily stood, turning to him a bit too quickly, as she fell back against the tree she'd been clinging to. "And where have you been?" she pried, "I needed help…I needed rescue…and…you did not come."

It was like an arrow to the heart.

He replied quickly, "It was not like that."

"Then how was it?" she barked. "You were just going to let me be victim—"

"Alice," he interjected softly, "I thought you'd been killed. I had no earthly idea you were in Wonderland." He took the several steps closer to her, reaching for her hand.

Tears were welling in her eyes as she continued staring, expecting some other answer. Something along the lines of how he did not care for her, how he had simply up and left her.

And then she stormed away, taking off into the surrounding woods without a second thought. Alice felt tears stinging at her eyes but forcibly blinked them away as her feet carried her through the shadowy maze of trees. Birds squawked and leaves rustled, but no sound could shake her. The Hatter's explanation left her livid and trembling, but ultimately she was affright. Why on earth would the man think her dead?

Considering this and rubbing at her eyes, Alice was suddenly dazed and confused when they opened a mere moment later.

"Absolem…." Alice uttered, "Oh, dear, Absolem!"

The girl found herself in a great grove, once a bright, cheery, green and blue-painted place. Today, the leaves of the forest floor had turned black and were splashed with blood and carnage. Of course, it was on a much smaller scale than say, the field out in front of the Red Queen's castle, but even still it was a gruesome scene.

The pipe still spewed little wisps of smoke though the hookah had been knocked from its high place on the last remaining mushroom. The little Blue Caterpillar was no where to be found, Alice soon discovered, but she suspected that the little bits of blue she found every so often were parts of the smoking bug that once was.

Though she found him quiet crude and mean, Alice would have never wished for the Caterpillar's demise.

"Who's done this to you?" the girl whispered, kneeling beside the mushroom, her eyes wide in disbelief. "Who would have wanted such an innocent Caterpillar dead?"

Something rustled quietly behind her. The girl quickly turned as she rose to her feet, gingerly pushing through the branches and the brambles until she found the source of it all—a massive colony of little things moving all too quickly. It wasn't until several moments later, when the little soldiers slowed to the sound of someone's shouting, that Alice realized it was a colony of centipedes. Decked in shining armor and sporting jagged spears, the girl put a hand over her mouth as a horrible, sickening feeling came over her.

These creatures had not existed before, she was sure of it. Just as the Jabberwocky had reappeared, Alice's warped mind had fashioned these dark insects that ultimately destroyed the prophesying Absolem.

Overcome with terrible guilt between Absolem and the White Queen's deaths, Alice ran until she found an old hollowed tree that she could curl inside and hide away in. Hugging her knees, she gently rocked herself before tears eventually took over and lulled her to sleep.

X X X

"Alice!"

They'd been looking for her for hours.

"…can't…leave her!"

"…what else…?"

"I'll…for her…"

The voices were very far away. Alice was still dozing in her tree.

"I'll look for her up here," the Hatter repeated; the White Rabbit nodded shortly and bounded off in a southerly direction. The man, sword at his side, ran north.

It was too much. The heartache was immense. All consuming.

Alice woke to the sound of something heavy dragging in the dirt, and then something making heavy thudding sounds. She groggily stood, cautiously treading from the hole in the tree into an extremely bright patch of sunlight. For an instant, the grass looked green and the trees weren't so gnarled and bent.

And there was the Hatter not too far away, his hair still a mess of orange and his clothes shabby and wrinkled from another restless night.

She began to smile, comforted by his presence being the first in her day, when her face twisted to one of pure horror. His back had been to her. She barely caught the gleaming silver he hoisted high in front of himself. The blade was already smudged with red.

"Hatter, no!" the girl shrieked, flying towards the man and the sword.

Her mind torn between fright and anger, the girl rushed around the Hatter and reached out for the sword; she missed the hilt but indeed managed to grab it around the blade and wrench it away from him. Though red marred her palm, she could feel no pain. At least not until the Hatter tried to turn the sword in his hand for a better grip—a second attempt, where Alice screamed from how deeply the blade cut her hand. Her mind was reeling before it began to swim from the sight of all the red, so she did the only thing that seemed logical to do.

Alice put herself between the Hatter and the blade. Her thin arms locked tight around his back and she buried her face against his shoulder, quivering slightly as she waited, and waited, for the blade's strike. She was left breathing so hard that all she could hear was the sound of her heart beat, and all that seemed to register was that she felt too cold for how fast her blood was rushing.

The blade hit the ground with a soft thud.

Finally her mind began moving again and she was backing away, shouting, "What…what were you doing, Hatter? What on earth were you doing to yourself?"

He said nothing.

"You're supposed to be my protector! Do you realize that you just hurt me? Quite badly, in fact… Dear Hatter," she huffed, not allowing him a word in edgewise, "what on earth were you doing? Why won't you speak?"

"I am sorry, Alice," the Hatter whispered. But he had no words prepared for her. He truly was not expecting to find her.

"Sorry for what?" she barked.

"For hurting you. I honestly did not mean for you to intrude—"

"Intrude on what, Hatter?" She edged closer to him with a dark determination hidden in her eyes.

A sigh escaped him when finally his green eyes lifted to her figure. "I have caused you more harm than comfort, Alice. Wonderland has not been kind to us. I cannot forgive myself for my mistake on the battlefield. If my absence would increase your chance of life…" He hesitated. "It is worth it."

Her mouth slipped open in disbelief. "No!"

"Alice," he murmured dejectedly.

"N-no…no!" Alice shouted. She was shaking her head furiously.

The Hatter tried to step around her. She jumped in front of him, shoving her free arm at his chest and not moving the Hatter and inch. "No, Hatter!" she cried, this time her voice cracking to desperation, "No. You are my dearest friend, you cannot do this. Please, Hatter!"

He touched her shoulder.

"Please, I love you, Hatter," she choked, still shaking her head while her voice broke to pieces in favor of tears.

"Said the Walrus to the Carpenter, and I to the thee… You simply cannot be in love with me, Alice, for that's just madness…"

She lifted her head and met his eyes once again, startled by the nonsensical response. Alice opened her mouth several times but could not find a way to respond. She ached so badly and felt as if the world was about to explode, or perhaps that was just her head. So many thoughts raced about in her spinning head that she couldn't make sense of them all. The Hatter's hand curled tighter around her shoulder to ensure she didn't fall. He didn't like it when she fell, it made his knees hurt.

"I don't understand, she breathed. Her hand slipped from his coat and to her side as she straightened up.

"Why, this is Wonderland, and you are Alice and I am me," he spouted.

She stepped away.

Why would the Hatter dare take a blade to his own being? She looked him over frightfully—red stains seeped through various points on his jacket, all botched attempts at severing his ties to the world. When Alice had said she loved him, that he was near and dear to her, she truly meant it. She could no longer imagine herself here without the Hatter, and dared not think about what the world would be like without him.

But if this were true, and the White Queen's prophecy of Alice being the longevity of Wonderland was true, shouldn't the Hatter be rejoicing at her healing memories rather than wallowing in his own self-loathing?

Did this mean that the Hatter, perhaps, was his own being?

That maybe, this wasn't just a dream?

These were real creatures and real people?

Alice choked back a surprise sob. A watery smile wriggled its way onto her face.

Never in a million, not even in billion years would Alice wish for the Hatter's death.

Thus, the Hatter had acted on his own accord.

This made this man impossibly real.

"What…what is it, Alice?" he quickly inquired.

"I've j-just realized…I've made the most horrible m-mistake."

Said mistake was not vocalized, for in that moment a shriek split the air and the two bowed away from the clearing as the Gryphon came crashing down where they had stood. Flaming spears were lodged in his chest. Alice choked back a yelp and rushed to the beast, with her good hand she tugged at the hot thorns and cried out a string of reassurances to the beast. The Hatter pushed her aside as she struggled with the flames, he smothering the fire with one of the various pieces of linen hanging from his tatty jacket.

"T-they are close," the Gryphon grunted as he struggled to regain proper footing, "You must move, quickly!"

Alice looked at him with her brow drawn with concern. Her hand still rested against his great feathery chest, somehow believing that her little being would steady the bleeding beast. A frown cut across her face as she listened to his ragged breathing, when she suddenly looked to the Hatter and murmured, "No. No…we must stand and fight. They will chase us forever if we keep fleeing like this."

Her heart missed a beat when he looked to her, not uttering a word, simply knowing in his heart that she was right. They could only run from her fate for so long.


A/N: Bah, I saw the movie again today and realized that Absolem was set to transform to a butterfly at the end. For this story, pretend he didn't yet. I'm borrowing the Centipedes from the computer game as well, for those who've not played it.