Author's Note: This is IT, folks. The ending of my small little first fanfic ever. My first completed series. *sniffles* So maybe I'm getting a bit emotional. Eh, not really. But I do feel a special attachment to this story, no matter how dorky the story is. ^^'

His ears twitched. "Yes, I do. I think we found Terror again, Hazel dear."

Terror? We had finally found Terror? I felt a wave of emotions at once. Two being curiosity and fear—I had no idea who he was talking to. I felt relief. I felt anger, finally, because he had left without so much as saying anything. But I didn't let the anger get to me. Mainly, it was the relief that overpowered all the rest.

"I have power over you, Terror. We had an agreement—" the woman's irritated voice hissed and was cut off.

"—not anymore," Terror's voice said. He sounded… furious. And firm.

The Cheshire Cat started padding towards the direction of where we were hearing the voices. He motioned silently for me to follow. I did so, but I was lousy at keeping my steps as silent as his. Finally he came to a stop and I saw past a cluster of the tall giant roses (or whatever you called those things in the Rose Wood). I spotted them. And I clenched my fists.

Terror's back was against one of the large roses. One of the thorns was piercing his left arm. And there stood Chaos, pinning him against it. She was glaring at him, obviously angry that he wasn't cooperating.

"Do it now," she said. "You know what I've got at my disposal. If you don't do as I say I can always call upon a Jabberwock."

Terror said nothing. He glared right back at her. Chaos turned away from him quite suddenly.

"…Come on, now. If it's from you, Hazel can't resist..."

My eyebrows pulled together. What did she mean by that? Still he did nothing. She turned around, her expression furious once again. "Fine," she snapped. "Have it your way."

I didn't know what she was about to do (something bad, obviously), so I did something extremely stupid—I walked out of where I had been hiding. Terror caught sight of me. His eyes widened.

"Stop," I said. Quite calmly actually. Maybe Wonderland was doing me good. I was able to look Chaos in the eye. "It's too late. The Hatter is dead."

She didn't seem to like that. She gave out a screech. It didn't look right coming from such a beautiful lady's mouth. Then she froze and broke out into a smile. "Lies."

The Cheshire Cat appeared beside Terror, just like that. "His back door can't be found anymore, Chaos dear. He's dead. You know what that means, right?" He purred and grinned.

At that, Chaos began to shake. At first I thought it was because she was so angry, but instead I watched as she transformed into something hideous, something dreadfully familiar. Her scarlet dress turned darker and darker until it was black, her body crouched down so her hands and knees were on the ground, her skin grew dark black as well… fur sprouted all over her and her face elongated. She opened her jaws, those terrifying sideways-opening jaws, and let out an eerie high pitched whine.

She had turned into (A/N: A werewolf. O.O) a Devourer.

She… it… whatever it was, it lunged straight towards me. Nobody had time to react. Her sharp teeth were at my throat before I could blink. Terror yelled, Chess' eyes looked frightened for once.

But she just passed through me, melted into the shadows of the woods, and she was gone.

There was a period of silence.

"There aren't many times when I fear for people's lives," Chess said, twirling his tail, a thoughtful expression upon his face. "However, this was one time where I honestly thought you were going to die, Hazel dear."

My right hand was resting on my knife, I noticed. I hadn't even realized I had done so. I was shaking. "So did I." I turned slowly to face Terror, who appeared to be looking rather guilty. Chess did the same and gave him a very reproving look. He looked uncomfortable under our gazes. He ran his hand through his black hair, looked down at the ground, and gave a sigh.

"I'm…" he began and promptly trailed off.

The Cheshire Cat grinned. "Apology accepted, my dear friend."

Terror looked up in surprise and then arched his eyebrows. "Chess, since when have I been a 'dear friend'?"

The cat shrugged. "I decided it just now." He let out a purr. "You know what that means, right? When I feel like it I might follow you around just to annoy you…"

I must say, I felt kind of bad for Terror. Chess was known (as you all know) for being quite the mischief maker. And undoubtedly a prankster. But Terror seemed happy enough anyway.

I, meanwhile, was wondering what I should do. Part of me really wanted to do something to him. The angry part of me wanted to slap him. The other forgiving part of me wanted to leave him be.

He was looking, now, in my direction, a hopeful expression in those silver eyes of his.

I walked up to him angrily (Chess seemed quite amused at this). But then I stopped three feet away from him and sighed. Dang. The forgiving part of me won over. However, the Mad part of me told me to prod him a tiny bit…

"You could have said something to us," I said. "We wouldn't have killed you if you just said you'd been working with Chaos."

He grimaced. "Like I said, I'm really sorry. I'd been working for her for a long time, but it's not like I wanted anything particularly bad to happen. I just know Chaos well. She's just another troublemaker around here."

My thoughts came to a halt. "Just a troublemaker?"

He nodded. "Chaos is actually part of the essence of Wonderland."

My mind tried to wrap around that, but it refused to. Chaos, that woman who had been whispering in my ear, had been the one to put reach out her clean hand to take my stained one to make me feel guilt, Chaos, that person who didn't care about the Hatter, really, or Alice, or even Wonderland… she just wanted to rule. After all… "When nobody rules, Chaos reigns." And yet she is part of the essence of Wonderland?

Chess saw my confused expression. He was suddenly right next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "Something you ought to know about Wonderland, Hazel dear, is that you can almost think of everything that happens here as part of a game. There always has to be conflict. Wonderland is almost never at peace with itself."

Terror's face lit up into a grin. "Something's wrong with Wonderland if everything is going right. Does that make any sense?"

The narrow-minded Outsider part of me exclaimed no. And yet… I realized the Outsider part of me had grown quite small in comparison to the part of me that accepted Wonderland and was beginning to know of its strange nonsensical ways. I smiled. "Yeah," I said eventually. "That makes pretty good sense."

Terror smirked. "It makes sense, she says. Perhaps she's been staying here too long."

Chess gave a sigh. "Oh dear, Terror. It appears you are right."

An icy cold hand was finding its way to my heart. "Too long?" I echoed. "What does that mean?"

All joking ended. Chess looked rather sad and Terror looked downhearted as well—he couldn't meet my eyes.

"If an Outsider stays in Wonderland too long, there is a risk that they will become one of us. The Outsider in them grows too small, and they won't be able to return to their world," he said. His hands gripped his cloak and he finally looked up at me. He gave a cheerless smile.

It was when he gave me the sad smile that it actually hit me… Never had the thought of turning home occurred to me. Never the thought of leaving this nonsensical, idiotic, demented, wonderful place plant itself into my mind.

But they were right. Even though it seemed like I fit in perfectly now, I was still an Outsider. I had to go. At least for my family's sake.

I don't want to go.

That voice, that part of me that always let me know when something was about to go wrong spoke to me. I felt kind of sick.

Terror looked nervously at me. "Are you all right?"

I nodded. I couldn't really explain it right. "I feel like I've been tied to some web of things, and if I leave it something very wrong will happen to me."

I couldn't go home. I had changed too much. For goodness sake, I had killed people here. How could I possibly explain that to anybody? It was something that kept me up at night. Terror just nodded.

"That's understandable," he said. "It's natural for an Outsider to feel this way, Hazel. It will most likely fade when you get back."

I felt a jolt. "I…" I bit my lip before I could finish my sentence.

They both looked at me expectantly. I looked down at my feet.

"I don't want it to fade," I said. It felt as though I were confessing some deep, dark secret. I went on listing reasons in my head, not saying them out loud. I like Wonderland logic. I like things that make no sense….

I like being with you two.

But I didn't say that.

Chess looked actually in low spirits for once. "I'm very touched, Hazel. But after we give Alice the Felix flower, it's best you leave."

At that, we all walked aimlessly through the Rose Wood for a while, making our way slowly to Alice's castle. Part of the glorious Kingdom of Hearts.

I don't want to go.

(O.O)

"Hazel," Terror said, smirking at me, "this is where you singlehandedly killed the Devourer with my knife. Remember?"

I looked up at him. We were currently in the Queen of Heart's garden. I must admit, my severe hatred of roses still lingered with me and I refused to stare at them for long, no matter how beautiful they appeared to be.

Somehow the memory did make me smile. "Oh yes. And you went completely Mad."

He shrugged. "Well, so were you."

"Touché."

It was nice, just being able to talk. Being in the process of restoring peace to Wonderland.

And there we stood, in front of those marble steps. I grimaced. Last time I had been here, it had not been a happy occasion. And Ace happened to be standing at the two large doors, staring down at us. When she saw me, she frowned.

"And what, pray tell," she said, eyes flashing, "are you doing here?"

I opened my mouth. "We were—"

"—Do you perhaps have a suicide wish?" she asked. "The Queen of Hearts has ordered me to bring you to her on first sight so she can kill you, you realize."

Terror looked sideways at me and asked the silent question, "Just what did you do to Alice?"

Oh, just tried to kill her.

I answered Ace, "I do realize. But we've got some business to do with her. Please."

Ace arched her eyebrows. "Business, you say? What sort of business?"

That is when the Cheshire Cat pulled the Felix Flower out of nowhere (he can just do crazy things like that). "This sort of business," he said and grinned.

She nearly dropped her sword. "The Felix Flower?"

Obviously she got finally got the gravity of the situation. I sighed. "Yes."

She was silent for a moment and looked at us with calculating eyes. Then that hard thing in her eyes seemed to melt away. She looked in that moment… tired. If only I could stay, I felt myself thinking. I could get to know this person.

She opened the large doors. "Go on in."

We did so.

We walked on those strange smoky grey tiles and I caught sight of the two twins. Dee and Dum they called themselves. And there, sitting on her thrown, dressed in royal clothing, and looking as though she wanted to murder us was Alice.

It occurred to me for once that she was very young.

"Ace," she snapped. "Why did you let them in?"

Ace sighed. "They said they had business to discuss with you, Your Majesty," she said. "And the Outsider is here as well."

Alice's eyes softened a bit. "Yes, yes, I see that. Thank you, Ace. You may leave."

Ace tossed her hair over her shoulder, turned abruptly around, and left, her shoes making clacking sounds upon the hard floor.

As soon as she left, Alice stood up from her throne, her eyes blazing. "What sort of business do you say you have with me?"

The Cheshire Cat stepped forwards. "Alice, be calm," he said, purring. "We brought you a special sort of tea. One that I daresay the Hatter would approve of."

The next thing I know he has pulled out a teacup and saucer with hot water steaming. And laying inside the water was the Felix Flower. It was so bright pink it seemed to be glowing. He held it out to her. Something in her eyes changed when she saw it.

"Why, Chess," she said. "You've caught me a star!" For one shining moment, she sounded exactly like the Alice I had seen in those memories. Memories that I am sure now came from the essence of Wonderland itself.

His grin became more of a smile, a smile shared between friends. "Yes," he said. "It tastes better than it looks."

She smiled back and took the cup. She took a good, long sip. She put the cup back into the saucer and was in the process of giving it back to Chess when her eyes suddenly widened. It was as though something had turned on. Or off. Or something. But her eyes looked clear all of a sudden. Not confused or hidden behind some mask. She dropped the cup. It shattered.

None of us moved. "Oh," she said momentarily in a shaky voice. "I think… I think you were right, Chess. I never should have made the Bloody Oath."

The Cheshire Cat looked quite mischievous. "Well, I'm always right, Alice. You should be used to that by now."

I took a small step forwards. "Does this mean that she's an Outsider now?"

Terror was the one who answered. He shook his head. "No. She is still a Wonderlander. She has stayed in Wonderland far too long to ever be able to go back to the Outside world."

He looked me in the eye. It was clear what he was trying to tell me:

It's time to leave.

(O.O)

To this very moment, I wish I had the time to have said goodbye to the Cheshire Cat. However, he stayed with Alice. He had to explain to her what had happened. He had to explain to her everything about Chaos and the Hatter. I felt sympathy for her. Goodness knows she'd feel guilty. But… everything hadn't been her fault.

Instead it was me and Terror, walking out of the castle and standing there in the rose garden, saying our goodbyes.

"Terror," I asked, "how does one get back to the Outside world?"

He stared at me and threw up his hands in exasperation. "Come on, Hazel. You should know this by now. In Wonderland a door will always appear when you need one. Wonderland knows you need to go back."

I stood there and thought, I need a way to get back home. I felt kind of like Dorothy. Click your heels three times and say, "There's no place like home." However, I didn't want to go home. I just knew that I needed to go home. There is a big difference between the two.

Plus it was hinted that Dorothy had been dreaming. I was certain now, this was not some dream. This was real. Wonderland was real.

It had to be.

Even if it did exist in only dreams. That didn't mean it wasn't real.

Sure enough, something did appear. Though it wasn't a door. It was a wide gaping hole. I looked down in it. It was all black inside and I could not see the bottom.

Oh dear. Now I really didn't want to go. "Despite everything," I said, "I don't think I shall ever get used to Wonderland's mode of travel."

Terror grinned. "I'll miss making fun of you."

I swallowed, suddenly holding back tears. And I knew that I would miss everything.

"Yeah," I said, my throat tight. "I'll miss that too."

And with that he stopped smiling. "There will be a next time," he told me. "Stay in the Outside world for a year or two. And if you feel like you need to come back, Wonderland will welcome you. And you can stay forever if you like next time."

I don't know if Terror has any idea now how much those words meant. It was true, then. I could come back. I hoped that I would.

"Thanks," I said.

He nodded. "I'll be the one to come and get you next time. Instead of Tane."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah," I said. "I'd like that, definitely."

With that we both stared at the hole, a sort of awkward and heavy silence ensuing. He suddenly turned to me, confused.

"Aren't you going to jump now?"

I looked sheepishly up at him. "Well, I was going to, but…"

A ghost of a smile was on his face. "But?"

I said it in a rush. "I'm scared to."

He sighed. "I've no choice then."

He came up behind me. For one short moment, he gave me a hug. And then, without warning, he pushed me. Terror pushed me. He. Pushed. Me.

Déjà vu.

Only I heard his words as I fell.

"Good bye."

(O.O)

Alice jumped through the looking glass

Into a world so grand

She fell, fell, very fast

And found her Wonderland

I fell, but I wasn't really falling. I wasn't scared. I think, to be honest, I was falling upwards. To someplace.

Home.

The familiar lullaby played itself in my ears and I welcomed it. I held onto it. For one moment I closed my eyes, going through each and every memory of Wonderland. They would have peace, now, wouldn't they? I wished I could see it. All of them, happy. Even that strange girl Alice. For some strange reason, I felt like it had been her Wonderland after all.

But a bit of me said that it was my Wonderland now, too, that I had somehow been connected to it and nothing could change that.

When I opened my eyes, I was staring at a familiar ceiling. I was under covers. I was in bed, on my side. I turned over onto my back. I felt something prick me.

"Ow," I muttered, and sat up. And there was a white rose.

I smiled.

Author's Note [YOU MUST READ THIS]: So there you have it, the end of Nightmare Dream: Tales of Chaos. It has been a joy writing the whole thing. I might write an epilogue, so stay tuned for a while.

There will be a sequel, I'm sure. And no matter what, Terror and Hazel will be very good friends. ^^ Still wondering about the romance. Part of me is v-e-r-y tempted. It's almost as if they're begging me.

"PLEASE, NATALIE, DO SOME ROMANCE!" – Hazel.

Terror- *hides behind pillow*

… See? O.O But I'm a bit nervous to do so.

Anyway, THANK YOU to all of my reviewers. You all get a shiny gold metal. If you have been reading this story and you have not yet left a review, please, please leave one. Just so I hear from you at least once. I'm now writing a series for Alice in Wonderland called Outcasts of Reality in which I'm trying a different writing style and I'd love for you to read it and give it a review. The first chapter is up.

And if somehow you have stumbled upon this story and it's been completed for a long while and you have gotten this point, still, please leave a review and tell me what you thought. I always go back and check even if it has been completed for a very long time. ^^