DISCLAIMER: AMERICAN MCGEE'S ALICE IS AWESOME. But I don't own it. T.T

Just realized I'd never asked for this before, but they say it's never too late to start...please R&R? Thank you so much!

Chapter Four: Provisions

"Why did you—" I stopped short at the gloved finger he raised for silence. His other hand busy fiddling with the disks of whirring machines, Tarrant looked pityingly at me.

"You and Razerious have something in common. You think…" Snick-snick-snick of a cog. "…that with superior strength, or ability, you can triumph in every challenge you face in life." He let a door scan his vivid eyes. Both eyes had to be scanned before it slid open, revealing the ponderous pistons of a new machine dominating most of the basement level.

"So speaks the one who directs his automatons miles behind the front line."

"Hey." Suddenly I was staring down his ebony staff pressing lightly against my neck. "I didn't do too bad in our duel, if I remember.

Smiling thinly, I pushed away the end, relatively blunter than the edge I'd faced last. "I'm quite sure. But Razerious was so—"

"Overconfident in his abilities and achievements. Not that they are trivial, I agree, but the Red Queen is a devious opponent of the highest order. One small slip, whether tactically or psychologically…I paid the price, and I'm still paying."

The rattle and clanking of the gargantuan addition smothered the silence. Tarrant did not speak, resting both hands lightly on his cane as he watched his creation chug.

"What is that?"

"Never thought you'd notice. But now that you mention it…I'd say it's not the time to talk about it. Yet," he smirks, eyes twinkling in rare mirth. Put a hand on my back and led me up the wire stairs. Seeing my raised eyebrows, he patted my shoulders lightly. "It's nothing for you to worry about, see. All of us have our lives, despite what I've said about…anyway, leave the machinery to me, and I'll be quite fine with letting you and Gryphon risk your necks…Deal?"

I snorted. "I don't happen to be doing all this fighting for fun, you know. It's all about saving everyone's sorry asses, so that I can restore my…own…mind…" My voice trails away, and I can feel that my lips are sore. Probably because my teeth are clamping down on them so hard the skin almost breaks. My throat tightens and threatens to make me heave as, recalled from the deepest recesses of my mind, the Liddells cry in their burning hell.

"Alice?"

Tarrant is calling out to me, his green eyes questioning and concerned.

So far away.

The irony is intriguing. He's the Mad hatter but I'm the one with pathetic voices moaning for my help, cursing my total helplessness, wondering aloud why I hadn't gone back to their aid.

"Alice!"

"Spoon!"

"Ow!"

I spun, eyes flashing, blade out and ready to shred the guts of the surprise attacker who'd just clocked the back of my head and—

"Thackery?" I exclaimed, seeing the jerking quivering animal/cyborg at the end of the corridor Hatter and I had traversed.

"Oh, Heart, I was so worried. Don't do that, Thackery!"

The March Hare spared his former tea partner one glance, taking in the individual who'd strapped him to a grimy table, ripping out and arm and a leg, as well as a better part of his lower torso to experiment and put in machinery as part of what the crazed Hightopp would have called "improvement". Not surprisingly his ears began twitching at even more maniacal angles, while the mechanical leg slammed against the floor incessantly, sending numbing clangs that echoed through the factory.

Alarmed, I was about the step up and comfort the distressed creature, but Tarrant was past me and by Thackery's side in a flash—who squealed, gnashed his teeth and lodged his other foot in Tarrant's chest.

While the Hatter was slammed against the railings and tried to catch his breath, I rushed forward and picked Earwicket up in a tight bear hug. He muttered savage curses at Tarrant, mixed in with quite a few utterances of "Spoon!", and all the while his uncontrollable half-machine body bucked and jerked so hard I thought my bones would be shaken to dust if I held him much longer.

Then Tarrant stood shakily and pointed his cane at the March Hare, who abruptly gave one last jerk before falling limp.

"So…you're telling me you will locate the Hatter for me. And…forgive me for pointing out the painfully obvious, but how would that benefit you? In any way?"

"In so much as saying how that helps me, you should be pointing out how that helps Wonderland. Not everyone pursues such narrow ideals, and I wouldn't have anything to do with you were it not for the fact that your…miserable plans for this country mesh with mine. Thus.

"I'm sure you've noticed by now that the obnoxious Upper Air Girl Alice has returned and regained the affections and aid of the Mad Hatter, and—"

"I beg your most miniscule pardon? The Hatter's affection belong to me, and me alone! No pathetic meddling girl, Upper Air or no, simply steps in and takes him from me!"

Absolem eyed Iracebeth with a lazy look that stated quite clearly he couldn't care less about where the Hatter had chosen to take his fancy.

"Tarrant Hightopp," he continued with a long drag on the repugnant hookah, "is a very dangerous—and useful individual, depending of course on where he stands with respect to you. The tactical advantages that his skills offer are innumerable, as—"

"If you won't get to the point, cut the mindless chatter and vanish back to whatever despicable hellhole you came from!"

The Red Queen seethed—at misty plumes of blue smoke that were already fading away, while Absolem himself was shuffling nonchalantly by her Arcane map.

"Don't touch."

In response Absolem swept a wriggling appendage over the shimmering board, waving away her indignant, half-formed protests with a small shake of his pipe. Thus before Iracebeth could recover from the virtual slap of insubordination (was it appropriate to describe it that way? His grasp of the Arcane was equal to, if not better than hers, and in any case, she had never been able to keep the Caterpillar under her legal jurisdiction despite the ten-year man/worm hunt she'd held to secure his loyalty or, failing that, his death. It was probably nice that he'd come of his own accord but that did not matter he was) "messing up the BOARD! That construct is more important than you, you DISGUSTING! INSIGNIFICANT! GRUB!"

Absolem merely looked borderline annoyed.

"Shush, impatient biped!" he hissed, waggling a limb in front of his mouth while gesturing at the swirling board with his pipe.

Trying—for her own and the worm's good—to ignore the horrid shade of sky-blue staining the red-and-white hued auras, she glared. And quite without warning the smoke coalesced onto an enormous structure second in height only to Mamoreal and her own fortress.

"How did you find him?" Iracebeth breathed, mildly impressed.

"Superior Arcane skills compared to yours, obviously. You're right about the board, though—it is a work of art that contributed in its small way to my tracing spell," the Caterpillar murmured, shrugging his numerous shoulders. "So. The Hatter's Factory is outlined in clear view, now it is up to you to make your move, although how your army can hope to bring down his Automatons is anyone's guess."

"I will crush them like I did the Borogroves," snarled the Red Queen, twisting the ruby on one of her ornate rings to reveal a Royal Flush pikeman and an equally expressionless Ten Spades Commandant on holo-feed.

"You requested us, your Imperial Viciousness?"

"Quite obviously, fools. I've located—"

Questioning glance from the Caterpillar.

"…managed to locate the Hatter's factory, and things are quite out of order, seeing how it is not under my control as it should be.

"Therefore to win my Imperial pleasure I decree that both of you direct half your troops to these coordinates…posthaste. Something on your mind, Beraxus?"

The Ten Spade General hesitated, eyebrows still locked in deep frown.

"I would think that…all our chances would be better if we focused on whatever objectives we've been given before—"

"And before you continue with that line of thought, would you prefer to listen to me with your head fastened securely on your shoulders…or with it off?"

Beraxus fell silent.

"Good. Also, I've changed my mind. Again.

"Beraxus, I shall generously grant you the honour of making amends for that slight by leading all your card troops to the factory instead. Take it down, and it will be forgotten. Fail and…you should begin praying that you're dead by then, so I don't have to spend my time getting irritated at your excuses while hauling your ass back. Suffice to say, my irritation and me don't mix well…for you. Got the message?"

In a rare move the Queen abruptly exit in a dramatic eruption of black smoke, presumably to command her vast armies.

Absolem mulled for a while in the empty chamber.

"Better safe than sorry, I think."

With a puff he sent a cloud of red smoke rushing out of the nearest ajar window.