The Past, the Present, and the Future

Disclaimer: I sadly don't own any of the characters, nor do I make proffit out of this.

Chapter 2

"Mirana. Mirana! Wake up Mirana!" the Wight Queen turn to her left, covering her head with a pillow.

"Racie, what time is it?" the Red Queen jumped to her sister bed, taking away her pillow and grabing her face, forcing her to open her eyes.

"Time for you to wake up! We have a lot to do today! The others are all ready!" It wasn't totally true, but just because that infernal blue cat had fallen assleep on the kitchen table. Iracebeth grabed her sister by the foot and took her to the bathroom. "Now, you take a bath and get ready. I want you at breackfast in fifteen minuts, alright?"

With that, the Red Queen left her sister's room. It was six in the mornig, still no sun outside. It had been a week since they had seen Alice for the last time, and the changes had been most obvious. All of them missed her. All except Iracebeth. She didn't look afected by her departer. But a big deal had hapenned during that week.

However, the most important one had been the plans for the knew Castle. The Queens had agreed to built a knew one, because in Marmoreal Iracebeth stood out too much, in Salazar Gum Mirana was the one who stood out too much, and their parents' house brought up to many memories. So, one afternoon, they sat in the gardens trying to figure out what to do.

"We need a main colour." Racie was surounded by papers and more papers, full of numbers and scatches.

"Uhm..." Mirana sipped on her tea. "What about pink? It's wight and red mixed. It would be nice."

"What about no, ãh? Pink is too... Pink!" she bit her pencil.

"Why not?! It's perfect!"

"I thought white was perfect..." she said, smirking and her eyes never leaving the papers in front of her. "We need something stronger! Something thet shows power. Somet-"

"Not black for goodness sake!"

"I wasn't going to sugest black!"

"Really?" Mirana looked at her pouting sister "Than what were thinking to do?"

"Well... I... uhm... I was... GOING TO ASK YOUR FRIENDS! Yes! That was exacly what I was going to do! C'mon!"

With that, the Wight Queen was dragged throught the gardens by her sister, until they finally found two of them sitting around a table, having tea and scones. When they saw their Queens coming, one trying to hide her laugth, the other busy talking and gesturing madly, they half frowned half smiled. It wasn't being easy to accept Iracebeth back, principally because they hadn't actually talked. Or been in the same room. It seemed that the Red Queen was trying to avoid them.

And with all reasons. That day still tormente her. How could one forget the humiliation. It was supposed to be her special day, and it had all been ruined. And her parents... She had promessed herself she would make them proud, but instead, her father took away her crown. But it had always been like that in reality. She could think of many times that had hapenned. Or worst. But it hadn't been allways like that. There had been times when she craved her parents attention, when she wanted to feel loved by them.

To everyone, they were the Rulers of a country, kind, wise and fair, but for the litle ginger girl, they were the two faces of a coin. They were her parents, the person she wanted to impresse. They were her parents, the ones that could never see the good in her actions, or praise her by anything. They were the ones that molded her personality, made her be the women she was today. But she had been stronger. She had made her weaknesses her strengths, so she couldn't be afected by them. And she had shown them proudly. No one understood her why she was so obcessed with hearts, but it all had a meaning. All of it. That day. The day she adopted the heart as her symbol. The day she had taken the red as her colour. The day it all changed...

Flashback...

It had been a long time ago. A time before Alice, the Jabberwocky or any pop-tart accident. Iracebeth was seven, and Mirana five. At that time, they were with their tutor. The old woman was talking about how they should behave when some Noble or important person visited the Castle or something like that. The younger princesse was paying attention, drinking each word the old woman said. The red-headed one, however was looking out the window.

All she wanted to do was go outside, run freely. As an oposite to her sister, Iracebeth was nothing of the princesse she should be. She was wild and full of emotions. On a moment she could be the happiest everyone had seen her, in the other she could be screaming bloody murder. She simply couldn't stay still. But there was one thing that had allways atracted the older heir: creatures.

Not the simple ones that lived among the other citizens. No. The wild ones, the dangerous, untamed. Those were the ones she loved to observe. To study. To bond with. However, those were the creatures that gave her scratches and wounds, those she had to hide from her parents.

When the class ended, Iracebeth said she had something to show her sister. They went by horse to the forest. Once there, she led her young sister to a cave. Inside was a litle dog with wight fur. He run in circles, happy to see Raice. She held him in her arms, showing it to her litle sister.

However, Mirana got scared by its many teeth and run away, crying. She climbed to the horse who took her back home.

Iracebeth knew she could trust her horse to take good care of her litle sister. The red head was both sad and disapointed. And a litle ofended. It hurt to see Mirana scared by her litle Bandersnatch. That's how she called him. She had hoped her sister would see how cute he was and help her take care of him.

Her father was allways saying she never did anything with her sister. That was because they liked very diferent things.

After feeding her pet, playing with him and prepare him for bed, Iracebeth left and went home. It was a long way home without a horse. When she arrived it was dark already.

She tried to enter the Castle without being seen, but a big hand grabed her ear and draged her to her bedroom. She tried to get free but the grip only got stronger. She was pushed inside and fell hard on the ground. The man towered above her.

"Mind to explain me what did you have on your head to take your baby sister to see that freak?!" her father was angry. Very angry!

"You're allways telling me to do stuff with Mirana. I just wanted to show her Ban-" a hard slap left a red handprint on her face.

"Not this! You and your weird obsession with monsters!" slaped her again. "Why can't you be normal?! Why can't you play with dolls like you're sister?!" that did it for Iracebeth.

She had been trying to behave herself. She tried not to scream, to control her temper, to be nice and sweet! But did anyone saw that?! NO! No one ever saw the good in her... Whatever she did, it could only be something bad. Like when she had tried to make a cake for her mother's birthday but accidentaly set the kitchen on fire. It wasn't on porpuse but her father had punished her severely.

"Because I'm not her! I'm not Mirana! I hate playing with dolls! I like my creatures and they are not monsters!" she was finally stooding to her father. And it hadn't been a good.

In his anger, he punched her jaw sending her flying across the room. Iracebeth hit her head on the bookcase. She felt blood running down her forehead. Something hit her across the face macking her yelp with surprise and pain. The man hade taken his belt and was hitting her everywhere. The litle girl cried and scream, begging her father to stop, but he was blind by anger.

The door opened and a woman came rushing inside.

"Stop! Please dear, stop! She is just a child!" her mother's voice ripped throught her father's anger. He imideatly threw the belt away and kneel near his daughter.

Iracebteh flinched at her father's touch. She couldn't believe the things he said. She knew he liked Mirana more. She had allways known. But hearing him say it, comparing her to her younger sister. It was much worst. He said he wasn't normal... Did he saw her as a monster too? She already knew the answer. She had allways known. She knew she was not the best, but was it to much to ask for some love from her own familly?

Seeing her reaction, the man stood and left the room. Her mother asked a servant to run her a bath and told her to get into bed. She didn't got the confort or love she needed after such a traumatising experience, and her heart acked. No one came to see her that night. Iracebeth didn't judge her sister. The blond girl was scared and surelly had run to her father to be conforted.

That neve hapenned to Iracebeth, thought. She was never good enough. That night, when she was finally laying in her bed, tears streamed down her face. The bruises and cuts were painfull. She could barelly move without feelling like she was being riped in two.

However, what pained her the most was the lack of love. She had a knot in her throat and her chest was tight. That only made the sobs worst. She couldn't breath. In that moment she wished she couldn't feel, she wished the red handprint on her face wasn't there...

That night, Iracebeth promessed herself she would never make such a mistake again. She had wanted their love and instead she got a broken heart. She would never suffer that again. If her weakness was her heart, than it must became her strength. If her father had marked her with a red handprint, than she would wear it like a badgeof honor.

The heart would be her symbol and red would be her color.

End of Flashback...

The Red Queen was so lost in her thoughts that didn't even see that she was already near the table, and if it wasn't for Mirana holding her behind she would have colided with it.

Iracebeth had yet to talk with her sister's friends. And if it depended on her, it wouldn't happen so soon. However, thanks to her short temper, there they stood, Mirana greeting and hapilly talking with her friends, and she, trying not to have a heart atack.

There, was the Hatter and the White Rabbit. They were just two, but she didn't felt ready yet. Or any time soon. Or ever. Luckily, they weren't paying her much attention.

However, to her displease, Mirana decided to introduce her. Of course the Wight Queen was just trying to help her sister, but the other could do well without such a... chance.

"Everyone, I would like you to meet my lovely sister, Iracebeth." Lovelly?! Is she serious?

No one said anything. The atmosphere was tense. Neither knew actually what to say. It was getting really awkward.

Tired of the silence, Iracebeth reuned some courage and finally broke the silence.

"Good afternoon." they just stared at her. The Wight Rabbit started to shake and faint. Tarrant only looked at her curiously.

"Hello." he was staring at her weirdly. At least he didn't faint.

"Iracebeth as something to ask you." oh, her litle sister must have an evil rib.

"Really?" he looked excited, bouncing in his sit, his eyes expectants and shinning with anticipation.

"Well... Uhm, yes... You see, we are building a new castle an-"

"Ooooooohh! A new castle! Can I see it?! Can I?! Can I, can I, can I?! Oh, pleeeeaaaase, can I?! Are you going to make a party on there?! Am I invited?! Do you need a hat?! I can make you a hat! Do you like hats?!" he kept going on and on and on...

Iracebeth wasn't used to the Hatter's way of speaking, or to the quantaty of words that he produced in a minut. The Red Queen looked over her shoulder to ask her sister for some help, only to find her gonne. Of course she would do this! Leave me alonne with one of her friends... Soooo typicall! She took a deep breath and prepared herself.

"Yes, you can visit the castel. In fact, I think Mirana will want you to live there. I suppose we will have to make a party to officialize our decision to rulle together and of course you're invited. I don't really have an opinion about hatts, and if you want you can make one it's fine for me, but it might be a bit dificu-"

"Because you're head is huge!?" Iracebeth did not believe he had asked that. She didn't believe at all. But when she looked in his eyes she didn't saw malice, only curiosity. She knew he had a dark side, but this didn't seem to be the case.

"Yes." she tried to keep the emotions out of her voice but the red haired man was more atentive than she thought.

He was sitting on the other side of the table. The Hatter stood up and walked on top of the table, smashing scones and breacking already broken tea cups. He also accidentally step on a loaf of bread that got suck on his foot, not that he seemed to mind. He sat on the end of the table, very near her.

"Why do you have that look on your eyes?" his question was so inocent that Iracebeth couldn't answer without being honest.

"Because your question hurt my feelings." her voice was low and full of embarecement. Her face was red like her hair, but thanks to the make up he couldn't see that. That was one of the reasons why she wore so much. Believe it or not, Iracebeth of Crims blushed very easely.

"How?" Is he trying to make me talk or just being anoying?!

"Because I don't like to have a huge head! Because you laugth of me and you call me Bloody Red Head! Because that's what everyone does and I don't like it!" once again, she lost her temper. She knew that Tarrant would probably leave now. That's what everyone did.

"Uhm. Ok." he grabed tea cup full of tea and poured it on a tea spoon, starting to drink from it.

"Ok? That's all you have to say?" she was shocked he hadn't left.

"But of course. You don't like people to call you those things. It's seems reason as good as any to have that look in your eyes." he poured the rest of the tea in is pants. Seeing her look of confusion, he said "It's for later."

" Don't you hate me?" she felt weird being so direct, but strangely, she felt she could be herself around him.

"I did. A lot. Like a really big lot. But you kind of helped my familly in some weirdly weird way when you kept them in their litle small form... And I like to watch you work." his answer surprised her.

"When do you watch me work?"

"When you grab stuff and destroy them and then make another one. It's really funny. I never know what you are doing. I really liked that litle music box you did with that blue hat. Not so much when it exploded, but it was incredible. You're fingers are like litle needles that work really fast. Scone?" Iracebeth couldn't stop herself from smiling at the Hatter's answer. He really was a good company.

"Thanks. For both the scone and the compliment." she took a bit. Mhummmmm... Chantilly... Wait, I still need a colour! "What's your favorite colour?"

"I like MSU green, magenta, mint, magnolia, mahogany, maize, Majorelle blue, malachite, manatee, mango tango, mantis, mardi gras, maroon, mauve, mauvelous, may green, maya blue, meat brown, medium aquamarine, medium blue, medium gandy, medium carmine, medium champagne, medium eletric blue, medium jungle green, medium lavander, medium ruby, medium sea green, mellow apricot, mellow yellow, melon, metallic Seaweed, mexican pink, midnight blue, mikado yellow, mordant red, mulberry, mustard and myrtle."

"Uau. That's a lot. What would you think if me and my sister used some of those colors in the knew castle?"

"I think it would be an honor! With one condition." Tarrant eyes turned dark and his face very serious. "I want to share a working place with you, so that I can see you work and make hats at the same time." he gave her a toothy smile, showing his gap.

"Alright. But you have to teatch me how to make hats then."

"Deal."
They spent the rest of the afternoon together, talking about everything and anything. Iracebeth had never imagined she would one day be speaking with the so known Mad Hatter like and old friend, but she couldn't be happier about it. That night, her dress seemed easier to come off.

In the end, the Red Queen chose mordant red for her bedroom, the Wight Queen chose magnolia, and they decorated the castle with mahogany, corn, mango tango, mantis, may green, meat brown, medium carmine, medium eletric blue, medium ruby, medium vermilion, mint cream and antique wight.

And the reason why Iracebeth ahd woken up Mirana so early was that the day had finally arrived. They would move to the castle and make their anouncement. And the Red Queen couldn't be more nervous.

To be continued...

A.N.: Hey everyone. I hope you like it and sorry for any mistakes. Please tell me your opinion about the story. I would really love to read it. The chapter ended a litle bigger than I had previous planed, but I hope you don't mind. Adeus.