Author's Note: First off, I own nothing. Second off, thank you to all my reviewers. Clairina, I owe you everything. And everybody else, I seriously would not be writing this fanfic without the knowledge that somebody was reading it. That's what reviews are for. Oh yes, and MegartXD thank you so much for reviewing as well. It's good to know you're reading this. :D

If you are a random visitor and or are feeling lazy or something, please do not feel obligated to feel the need to write a very long review. Even one word will do the trick. ^^

This chapter is a longer chapter than usual. The minimum chapter length for me is six pages going by word documents. This one happened to just barely reach nine. So yay for longer chapters! And that's not even why this update took so long! I simply had to wait for inspiration to strike. And I'm also working on this other fanfic for The World Ends With You. So yeah. I'm juggling.

I felt a prickling at the back of my neck and felt something dig its teeth deep into my right leg and felt it hit bone. That's when I screamed.

I remember the pain very vividly. I remember seeing Terror's eyes growing red and his hand tightened its grip on mine. The Cheshire Cat, I think, lunged out and was the one who ended up finishing the Devourer off. I never passed out, but the pain in the wound seemed to mask everything.

"Hazel," Terror said. "Are you all right?"

"... Hurts," I said. "I'll manage." The Cheshire Cat's tail brushed lightly against my wounded leg. I winced. It burned where he touched it.

"It's poisoned, I do believe," he said. "Nothing serious, though."

Poisoned, but nothing serious. Wonderland logic. Terror sighed with relief.

"Oh, that's it," he said. "Don't worry, Hazel. There's medicine in the lower levels for that."

With that little bit of comfort, I passed out. There's something about being Mad and dreams. Generally you just don't get normal dreams. You get strange faces and people and lullabies. The dream I had then was exceptionally weird.

"Did you know that on Tuesday 1+1 = 5?" a twelve year old girl in a blue dress says. She stands in a field underneath one large tree. Next to her sits her sister in the shade. She happens to be reading a book.

"That's impossible," she says. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Anything's possible," the girl says. The girl goes to bed at night. She wakes up at midnight to see a rabbit in a tuxedo.

"Ah, so the dreamer has awakened. Welcome to Wonderland, Alice," he says. The girl smiles.

"And what's your name?"

The rabbit bows. "You may call me Tane." The girl giggles.

"But that's such a funny name!"

(O.O)

The girl gives a little scream when a smile floats in the air. It's just a smile, nothing else. And then a whole body appears. It's a teenage boy with cat ears and a cat tail. She gasps.

"Why, you remind me of my cat!" she says. The cat grins, ear to ear.

"Nice to meet you, Alice," he says. "Welcome to Wonderland. I'm the Cheshire Cat. If you need help, call on me." Alice beams.

"Nice to meet you, Chess."

(O.O)

The girl and the rabbit are walking through a beautiful garden full of red roses.

"Tane," the girl says, "Where are we going?"

"To find the Hatter's back door. Come!"

The girl stands before the Mad Hatter, who smiles down kindly at her. "Would you care for tea?" he says.

"Yes please. I do hope we can become friends."

(O.O)

The girl is standing in front of a terrifyingly large castle with the rabbit and the Hatter.

"Please don't die," she says to the Hatter. "The Queen of Hearts won't kill you because you ate her tarts, will she?"

The Hatter shrugs. "Perhaps. Most likely yes."

The girl weeps bitterly. The Hatter crouches down to her.

"Don't worry, Alice dear," he says. "I'll find a way out of it." With that, the guards take him away into the castle.

Alice clutches at Tane's tuxedo. "What can I do to help?" Tane gives a wide smile.

"Oh, Alice dear," he says. "You must renounce your Outsiderness and become a Wonderlander."

"How can I do this?" she asks.

"We must find the Hatter in the prison and perform the Bloody Oath."

"And then what?"

Tane laughs. "Why, my dear, you must become the Queen of Hearts, the Ruler of Wonderland."

So be it, the girl thinks. She does not notice the floating smile all by itself that is following her.

The Hatter is in a very damp prison cell and not enjoying himself at all. That's when Alice comes in, and she's holding a knife.

"We must perform the Bloody Oath for you to live," she says. The Hatter blinks in surprise.

"Why does it have to be me?"

"I don't know. But Tane said it, so it has to be true," she says.

"I wouldn't do that, Alice," a familiar voice says. Alice turns to see the Cheshire Cat standing before her. She huffs.

"Chess, you aren't supposed to be here."

"I am wherever I am," he says. He crosses his arms. "If you do that, Alice, you will change."She shakes her head.

"I have to do it, Chess."

The Cheshire Cat smiles sadly and disappears.

With the knife she runs the knife down the underside of her left arm up to the elbow. The Hatter does the same. They press their cuts together. A faint golden light goes from the Hatter and enters in Alice. She blinks. Something feels different. When she looks in the mirror, she sees her eyes are red.

The Hatter stares at her. "We're all Mad here, Alice."

Alice stands up and puts a finger to his lips. She doesn't know why, but suddenly she feels a burning attraction towards him. "Be quiet now," she says in a voice unlike her own. "I must become Queen of Hearts."

She leaves the dungeon, knife in hand. The Hatter is left with the feeling that Wonderland will never be the same again. Neither will his Alice.

(O.O)

Alice is standing in the middle of thick, swirling mist.

"Can I trust you, then?" she asks.

"Yes," says a haughty female voice. "I am the essence of confusion. I can lure Outsiders into Wonderland. It's such an easy thing to do. But you must pay the price."

"What is that?" Alice asks.

"If you are ever killed, then I will rule Wonderland. Understand?"

Alice giggles. "Well, yes, of course. That does make sense. When nobody rules, Chaos reigns."

The voice also laughs. "Yes indeed. Then we have an agreement."

(O.O)

A boy is wandering through the Rose Wood, wondering where he is and how he got there. He tries to remember his name. What is it? Oh right! His name is Felix. That's when a shadowy figure jumps out of nowhere. It's a girl in a blue dress. She's very pretty.

"Oh, hello," he says. "What's your—" but he's cut off. The girl pounces at him and holds a knife to his throat. Her eyes are red, he sees.

"Sorry about this," she says. "But without you I can't become Queen of Hearts."

The knife slicing across his throat feels like a fine cold blade. When she lets go of him, he falls to the ground. He tries to get up, but he can't. In fact, he feels like he's drowning. He tastes blood in his mouth. Tears prick his eyes.

"Why?" he manages to say. The girl turns around.

"For the Hatter," she says. He remembers seeing the profile of her back as she walks away, and the sharp knife she's holding at her side. And he remembers a teenage boy with cat ears leaning over him, a sad look on his face. He wants to ask who the cat may be, but he cannot speak.

"I am the Cheshire Cat," the stranger says. "I'm sorry. She's usually not like that. Don't worry. When one dies in Wonderland, one becomes reincarnated into some other person or thing."

(O.O)

Alice giggles. She did it! She killed and Outsider, and she has become Queen of Hearts. The old Queen of Hearts had died as soon as the Outsider died. It's just how things worked. Now the Hatter would see her for the grown up girl she was. He would love her. Surely, he would love her.

But on her ceremony as she is being crowned, as her eyes slowly turn blue again, she catches sight of him talking with a group of pretty girls… no… she must tighten the rules around Wonderland. She uses the Madness to her advantage. When everybody is Mad, they love only her. And by doing that, the Hatter loves her too.

The Hatter must love her. He must.

When I woke up I had a curious taste in my mouth and I was staring at the ceiling of a little house. I sat up and looked about me. I was in what appeared to be a little cottage and I was sitting in a small little bed. But my mind was mostly on my strange dream. I had the most curious feeling that the things I had seen in my dreams had actually happened.

The Cheshire Cat was sitting in a chair in the far corner of the small room, reading. Terror was sitting on a stool right next to my bed. He was holding a bar of chocolate. I realized that that's what the taste in my mouth was.

"My leg feels better," I said. Terror was smiling.

"Chocolate," he said. "It's the number one antidote to anything in Wonderland."

I stared.

"Chocolate? Really?" I said. I suddenly wished that this was also true for the world I lived in. The Cheshire Cat was suddenly leaning over me as well.

"I'm beginning to get the impression that the Outside world is very depressing," he said. I laughed. But then I stopped. I remembered something that the Cheshire Cat had said.

"Homesick are you, Hazel dear? We can sympathize."

"Chess," I said. "What did you mean when you said you could sympathize with me being homesick?" The Cheshire Cat tilted his head sideways and purred.

"Oh my, Hazel dear," he said. "Wherever did you hear of that nickname?"

I looked down at my hands—they were clean and white again thankfully—and realized that I had inadvertently called him the name I heard the Alice in my dream say. "Well," I said. "I had a dream. But it seemed more like a bunch of memories. Memories about Alice."

Terror looked intrigued. "What happened?"

I thought for a second. "Alice started out fine until she took the Bloody Oath with the Hatter, and then she started doing all these weird things for the Hatter and she became the Queen of Hearts. But she wasn't the same."

The Cheshire Cat looked sad. I didn't like to see him like that. His ears and tails drooped and he didn't smile at all.

"I saw her when she first met you," I said to him. "That's when she called you Chess."

"Yes," he said. "I knew that Bloody Oath was a bad idea from the beginning and still she did it." He sighed. "The truth is, Hazel dear, we all miss the old Wonderland, and little by little, Alice is killing it. I'm afraid that what's going on with Alice is irreversible. There's only one thing that we can do."

I felt a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. "And what's that?"

The Cheshire Cat fell silent. His ears drooped even lower. It was Terror that answered. "We kill Alice."

I grew angry. "You know, if you guys are so wound up on killing her, why haven't you done so already?" I asked. Terror grimaced and the Cheshire Cat grinned once again.

"Hazel," the cat said. "You know how the Madness here affects us Wonderlanders. If we were to try and kill our Queen, the Madness would overtake us and we would turn into a creature of darkness."

Terror added, "So the only one who can kill Alice is…" They looked at me.

"Me?" I said. "No way."

"Why not?" Terror said. "We're treated horribly here, Hazel. Please." The Cheshire Cat looked pleadingly at me as well. They really missed their Wonderland. But…

"I can't," I said. "Alice can't help the way she is right now. I swear I'll try to help you some other way." The Cheshire Cat purred.

"And how would we do that?"

It was a no-brainer for me. "We figure out how to cure Alice. You said it was irreversible, but that was just on your intuition. We've got to find out for sure."

The cat grinned. "I was hoping you would say that. I happen to know of somebody who can give us spot on advice."

I felt better. I wouldn't have to kill Alice. At least, I would try to avoid doing so at all costs. And my friends appeared to be agreeing with me. I hopped out of bed.

"Let's go, then," I said. That's when I noticed something. "Where's Terror?"

The Cheshire Cat looked about the room and then wrinkled his nose in a reproving way.

"Oh dear," he said. "I knew he wouldn't be able to follow through. I told him this would happen."

I was puzzled and I wanted answers. "What would happen?"

That's when we got a knock on the door. The cat sighed. I walked over and opened the door and standing there was…

"Ch-Chaos," I said. I was surprised. I hadn't been expecting her. Then again, I hadn't been expecting any of this. She smiled warmly at me and stroked my cheek with her hand.

"Hello, Hazel dear," she said. "I'd love to stay and chat and have some tea, but I got wind that things weren't going according to schedule. I'm sure you know the feeling."

Acceptance, I thought. Even though I was confused I'd accept what was going on. I held a teacup out and gave it to her. I didn't notice until two seconds later that the teacup had virtually appeared out of nowhere.

"Ummm… Just one cup'll do?" I said, staring at the cup. The Cheshire Cat laughed. Chaos beamed.

"Oh my," she said. "You're a very fast learner for an Outsider. You should see the look on your face. How charming!"

I honestly couldn't tell you why I was acting how I was acting. There was just a strange feeling in the air.

The cat took a teapot out of thin air and poured tea into three cups—one cup being the one that I had provided. We all sat down at a small round table. Chaos sipped at her tea. She was dreadfully beautiful and elegant. Then there was the Cheshire Cat. He was just his own self, impressive in his own special way. I figured that I looked pretty plain in comparison. I sipped at my tea as well.

"Chaos," I said momentarily. "Terror disappeared just now. He knows you. Do you know where he is?"

"Oh, Terror," she said, sighing. "He's a helpless case. I think he must be drowning himself or something."

"Drowning himself?" I said. Deep in the back of my head I felt alarm, but for some reason I couldn't think straight then. Chaos chuckled.

"Yes, he's very upset with himself at the moment," she said. "I'm sure you know why, though. How do you like the tea?" I took a sip of the tea again. It had a very distinct pungent smell and the taste was like nothing I'd ever had before. The taste reminded me of autumn and falling leaves and apples. But the taste faded after I sipped it and it was impossible to remember the exact taste once it faded away.

"It's kind of nostalgic," I said. Chaos smiled again at me. She had a nice smile. It was very sweet.

"That, darling, is the taste of dreams," she said. I smiled back at her.

"It's very good."

"Wonderland's finest," she said and dabbed her mouth with a napkin.

The Cheshire Cat who had been silent before spoke up. "My dear Chaos," he said. "I was under the impression that you were on a tight schedule."

Chaos chuckled. "But when Hazel, the sweet girl, offered me tea like that I couldn't help but accept."

The cat grinned. "Oh yes. But what was that about us knowing why Terror's so upset with himself?"

Chaos looked mildly confused. "Did I say that? I don't recall saying anything of the sort."

That's when I began to break out of whatever strange mode I was in. I blinked a couple of times and realized how bad it was that Terror was missing. "Wait, I remember. You did say something."

Chaos stood up from her chair and sighed. "I knew I wouldn't be able to hide it for long. Oh well. Hazel dear, you should know that I've been very busy doing lots of work behind the scenes."

I just looked questioningly at her.

"Let me explain, then," she said. "The Cheshire Cat isn't the only one who can talk to people in their heads. I'm also one of the golden few. I've been the voice beside you all this time."

I gasped. "Then you were the one who sent me those memories…"

She raised her eyebrows. "Memories? No, Hazel dear. I did not send you those. But I have sent you a couple of things in the past. You know those Devourers? A couple of them were presents from yours truly."

The Cheshire Cat grinned at her, not looking very surprised at all. "You have been rather busy, haven't you?" Chaos smirked.

"Like you wouldn't believe."

I found my voice. "What does Terror have to do with this?"

Chaos frowned. "But Hazel dear, I know how much you like Terror. You wouldn't want to hear what I have to say."

"Yes," I said. "I do." I felt my hand unconsciously creep towards my dagger. Chaos noticed and smiled.

"Oh, so you've got a violent streak," she said. "I should've known when you killed that guard…"

I felt a pang of guilt in my heart.

"That wasn't her," the Cheshire Cat said. "You know that as well as I."

"Hmmm," Chaos said. "Maybe. Anyway, here it is like you asked. All this time, Terror has been working for me, Hazel."

I didn't really want to believe it… but it did make sense. And yet he had looked so surprised whenever the Devourers came. And he had wanted to protect me.

I smirked at her. "You were using him."

Chaos waggled her finger at me. "You shouldn't use an accusation without proof, friend." The Cheshire Cat grabbed my hand and laughed.

"You're proof enough," he said. "We'll be going now."

Chaos laughed. "See you later, then. But remember, Hazel dear. When nobody rules, Chaos reigns."

There was a sudden blackness and I felt the rushing of wind in my ears. The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the cold hard ground in the dark. It was night. The moon was full and appeared to be blue. The stars were pretty and the brightest star I could see was pinkish in colour. Once again, the constellations were moving. I realized that ahead of me lay a very menacing looking jungle and that underneath my feet was ash. The whole ground was covered in ash. It didn't give me good feelings. The jungle up ahead was full of dead trees by the looks of it.

The Cheshire Cat appeared next to me. "Sorry, Hazel. We needed to make a quick escape." Despite the situation, I gave a small smile and patted him on the head between his ears.

"That's all right, Chess," I said.

He purred. "Thank you." His spirit brightened my mood.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"It's not what it seems," he said. "This is where I spend the majority of my time." He laughed at the astonished look on my face. "It's also where we'll find some help, I do believe."

Something you should know about Wonderland is that it's never silent. The wind was whistling through the jungle and gently stirred up some of the ashes. I heard a strange bird's call. It was low in pitch and sounded frantic. It called out a few more times.

"The Jubjub bird," the Cheshire Cat said in explanation. "Fierce bird. Don't go near it."

I heard the sweet sound of something I didn't expect to hear out where we were.

"Is that a Barricanna?" I asked.

The Cheshire Cat's ears twitched and he nodded.

"A Bene Placito is above us. That's what you hear."

We were silent for a while once again. I heard a strange snapping and thwacking noise coming from the jungle and heard a roar.

That'd be a Jabberwocky.

I glared at the Cheshire Cat. "Stay out of my head, won't you?" He laughed. Then I said momentarily, "Do you think we'll see Terror again?"

The cat smiled at me. "Oh don't worry. We'll see him soon enough."

I looked to the sky and found my pink star. The next few days would be interesting.

If you could and you feel up to it, tell me in your review what your favourite chapter so far is. :) And tell me who your favourite character.