A/N: It's a new chapter! Yay! Not sure when next I'll update. Trying for Wednesday, probably will succeed.

Disclaimer: I do not own Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Warning: By now you should remember the essential bits of the warning, because if you don't then you obviously either read past it or just started reading it-which would be strange.

Chapter V

~•~ Mirana ~•~

She looked at the girl lying on the bed, they were so near and yet so far. So much like Alice that at times she thought it possible that Celia was Alice, but it was not probably. The Oraculum did not for tell of Alice's return for at least another week, and until then she'd be left wondering. Mirana hoped that with the return of her champion, the gentle tug on her heart would be overcome. Until then, she was content to watch and wait and learn. Her hands quivered in the air as she stood there, though, for she longed to moved the girl's hair off her face and unfold her arms-which still lingered and hugged Celia's own body. The younger woman had been having nightmares the night before, and woken several times screaming before being brought in to Mirana's chambers where the queen kept a watchful eye over her while writing letters and such things at her desk nearby. Busy as a bee, was the lithe queen.
Her hands fluttered about, wishing to do something she knew would cause Celia pain, and she forced herself to walk away. Heading through the door in her wall into her champion's chambers, the very room which Alice had stayed in during her last visit to Underland. Once inside, Mirana felt completely at peace and began to recall everything that had happened since Alice had left. Not everything though, just what she'd done when the young woman-her champion-had left, back to her own world. So far away. Mirana wasn't one to admit her weaknesses, and typically hid them behind the image of someone of strength and knowledge. The truth was, though, that she hardly knew herself anymore. She hadn't known herself when Alice had returned to slay the Jabberwocky, but that had been her pivoting point. For when her champion returned, she taught the queen about herself. Taught Mirana that she could love and feel emotion, that she was not just a figure to the people: but her own respective being. Mirana hadn't realized just what she was feeling, for Alice, until it was too late. The girl had gone long before the breakdown which had resulted in Mirana weeping beside the empty bed in the room. The bed which, to that day, still smelt so very faintly of her love. It was that day which Mirana had realized why Alice had been such an easy teacher to her, it was that day she realized that she loved, and it was that day that Mirana realized she didn't want a king to rule beside her. Only a Kingsleigh.
From that day forth, whenever the young queen was distressed or upset, she'd come into the room. And she'd feel all the more better walking out of it. Taking several deep breathes, the queen cleared her mind, and thought about the situation. When the answer became obvious, with the solution being that there was none present, she left. For the room had given her an answer, even if the answer was not what she had been looking for. Besides which, she was almost certain she'd heard Celia waking in the other room. Mirana was almost certain that her guest knew of the door, but hoped the girl did not know of the room within. Something in her hoped that, something in her didn't want the girl to find the room. Perhaps it was because Celia's reaction to the objects-Alice's armor and the Vorpal blade-within would either prove her to be Alice, or complicate things even more so then they were. A foul position the latter would be indeed.
Sighing, Mirana left the room and headed off to question the Hightopp clan. A gentle feat, though it would likely take the next three to four days to complete if not longer. For in attention to questioning the Hightopps', Mirana also had to interview the other people brought back. Many of whom were wandering the castle, disorientated and generally confused on the affairs at hand.

~o~ Alice/Celia ~o~

She wandered the gardens of Marmoreal, where the flowers held their own whispering court. The place was familiar, but in such a way where it was more of a matter of having seen it before then been there before. Celia had grown tired of searching the empty suit of armor, in the room next to Mirana's, for answers which it was so clearly not going to give up without a considerable amount of pain. Knowing that Mirana was in important meetings though, and the seal on her chest separating them considerably, made her feel it unacceptable to talk to the queen at the time. Mainly, though, it was the first bit involving Mirana's meetings. After all, a queen's business was a queen's business and Celia was just a commoner. Commoners were not meant to take up the queen's valued time... were they? Celia did not know, but she knew enough to let Mirana do as she pleased, and that was why she wandered the rather lonely gardens. Wishing there was someone to talk to, for she knew well that she couldn't speak to the flowers even if she knew how. They were far too busy for her, besides which, even she knew flowers only liked to consort with other flowers and the occasional shrub and herb. So she wandered, walking the noon time sun away, until she came upon a great lard tree in the center of the garden portion of the grounds. She couldn't help but wonder how long it had grown there, what it felt, how it felt, if it felt. She was certain, though, that it was majestic. What with it's many hundreds of branches spread apart and deep green leaves growing upon them to cast shadowed light upon the ground. The rich brown of its bark, the frail red-head sitting beneath it... A human, another person, someone Celia could speak with. Evidentially, the girl beneath the tree had seen Celia, and how could she not when the raven haired girl was standing in the light before her.
"My brother always wonders why it is a raven is like a writing desk, I myself find him quite mad, do you agree?" Empth asked, reading from the little book lodged between her hands, her voice monotonous.
"Half-mad, really," Celia replied, "Though I don't know him, I should think that, for all the best people are mad."
"How very true," Empth said, looking up from her reading at Celia before standing and looking at the girl very carefully-her eyes inquisitive in nature, though mad in appearance, "You're a bit younger then I expected you to be."
The statement, the sound and roll to it, sounded very familiar to Celia. But, alas, not knowing where before she'd heard someone say something like that to her: she dismissed it to the far back reaches of her mind.
"I could say the same, but I haven't a clue what your talking about," Celia replied quietly.
"Nothing," Empth replied with a grin large enough and bright enough to put Chessur to shame, "Or perhaps everything. I haven't a clue which, you see, I'm really quite mad- Runs in the family, I fear."
The two circled each other, one supposing who the other was, the other unknowing of either. Say what they may, insane as she was, Empth knew things. Horrible little secrets, people, things of such nature. It was she who suspected who Celia was, though she was unsure, and it was Celia who was ignorant of her own self-though that was not through her own doing.
"They call me Empth Hightopp, and I know I am," Empth said out of the blue after minutes of their staring contest, "But I'm not entirely sure who you are."
"I'm not sure either Empth," Celia had wished to say, but bit her tongue, instead saying, "I'm Celia."
As soon as the words tumbled from her mouth she regretted them, for the name was most certainly incorrect. Without a name, without a face: she had no identity. This, Empth quickly figured out. Her insane mind seeing much of what was there, though unable to comprehend completely what was going on. She so wished to correct Celia, but found her tongue tied-stolen rather. By none other then Chessur. Soon she found it though, and grinned brightly. Forgetting her thoughts.
"Blue's your color," She said, walking off with Celia, "You should wear more of it."

~•~ Mirana ~•~

She looked over at Celia, the girl was sitting on her bed with a bright expression. Her eyes were shining as she told the White Queen of her latest memories, which included a strange cat, which could only be Chessur, and many people she assumed were the girl's family. She certainly knew no Lord Ascot, unless the girl was confused and speaking of Absolem, in which case Mirana had not seen the caterpillar since before Alice left. Alice...
"I love her, even if she doesn't love me, and I will await her return: even if I am married before then," Mirana thought to herself as she wrote down the day's findings and listened half-heartedly to Celia, "I could love Celia, I'm sure of it, but I can't marry her. Not when I know I love Alice more then life itself, to use Celia-such an innocent girl-as a means of escaping an arranged marriage is not an option... even if Alice doesn't return..."
"She's thinking again, I can tell. She's worried, about what I don't know, but I can wonder," Celia thought to herself at the moment, having said everything which needed to be said, "I wish I could touch her, just to hold her hand. So I could walk with her through the gardens, through the woods, anywhere really! So long as I'm with her... I think... I think that, in my past, I gave up something important: and I did it for her even if she doesn't know it. I won't tell her though, I simply won't. Not yet. Not unless she asks, she's already doing so much...I wonder why... I wonder why..."
"Is something wrong?" Mirana asked, pausing and looking up from her writing for a moment, her eyes catching Celia's and sending a shiver down the other girl's spine, "You've stopped speaking."
"I was just-" Celia began before faltering, she tried again, though her voice didn't seem to want to work around Mirana anymore, "I was just wondering... why?"
"Why what?" Mirana asked, her sentence seeming oddly incomplete to Celia-whom was slowly regaining her memories in little bits and pieces.
"Why are you helping me?" Celia asked, feeling stupid, "Why bother helping me?"
"Because I love you in a way so very close to the way I love Alice, because I love how like her you are, how strange and mysterious you are: and because I want to return you to your home, where you can truly be loved, for I know I cannot," The queen bit her tongue and at first did not reply, her eyes gained a haunted look, then she snapped from her daydreams and gave answer to Celia, "I made a vow never to hurt any living being unless they wanted to be hurt, and now that I know that leaving you alone would likely result in your being hurt against your will, I cannot leave you alone and must help you."
"But you didn't know that when you first found me," Celia replied, pointing that out, wondering still as she always did: her curiosity never sated.
"There's nothing to say about that," Mirana countered, "You needed help and shelter, and I could not very well leave you there alone."
"You could've," Celia replied, remembering a tidbit of a memory, "Iracebeth would've."
"You may be surprised, perhaps my sister will have changed her ways now," Mirana replied softly, "I can only hope she has..."
"Your majesty, if you think she's changed her ways, then why do you leave her exiled?" Celia asked, surprised when Mirana stood and walked to her before hugging her tight and whispering in her ear: subconsciously surprising both that Celia was not seizing from the touch and her seal.
"Because it's safer there," Mirana whispered, breathing in Celia's scent which smelt so familiar though she could not name it, she buried her head in the girl's dark hair, "Because she's still my sister and I wish her no harm no matter how hot-headed we both may be."
Celia was about to say something in response after remembering something huge, unfortunately the binding seal on her chest seized her with it's force and jolted enough pain into her-while glinting the same amount of light from itself it seemed-and froze her. Mirana quickly let the younger girl go, and helped her locked body back onto the bed. The queen longed to take control of the situation by kissing Celia, but found herself yet again unable to do such a thing to the girl. She could not even bare to touch her when she knew she caused such harm. It was hard for her, it was hard for the queen for she often forgot that her touch caused Celia pain which could be seen as breaking her vows if she did it intentionally. This time she'd been lucky in that it was unintentional, but who was to say the next time's results would be the same? With that thought heavy on her mind, Mirana tore from the room. She couldn't bare to leave Celia in the grip of her binding and alone, but she couldn't stay for fear of forgetting and causing the girl more pain as she'd almost done. Just seconds after the queen had so taken her leave of the room, Celia regained enough control over her body to lift her hand and half-shout one word.
"Wait," She said, panting for nearly a minute afterward while getting over much of the pain of her curse and standing to go after the queen.
Mirana, however, was running and knew that Celia would likely not be able to catch her. This hurt the queen for she knew she was likely hurting Celia's feelings, but she knew her staying away from the girl was for the best at that moment. Since she couldn't guarantee Celia's safety around her. It wasn't like some other times, Mirana didn't want to hurt Celia-she couldn't. She wouldn't. Not even if Celia begged her too. Her feelings, which she'd thought she resolved earlier, confused her ever so much more greatly then before. For the first time in many, many long years and horror filled nights, Mirana broke down and cried. She cried like she had as a child, living while knowing that she was insane and would one day hurt people or hurt her sister. She cried like she'd wished she could the day Alice left.
"Alice," Mirana thought to herself, sobbing as she hid in the twisting mazing outside the castle, "Alice, where are you?"
And while Mirana cried under the stars and heavens, Celia cried inside. Inside the castle, inside the queen's rooms, inside herself.

~0~ Empth ~0~

Empth knew she was insane, of course, but she knew she was only half-insane. Much like her brother, though it seemed their insanities differed in kind. A shrugable little detail. Being half-insane, the girl was prone to dreaming and hallucinating. More often then not, things of that nature showed no great truth and she ignored them. Even in her second life. Still, it was that she could not shrug her most recent hallucination. It seemed so real, so true, so fitting. She'd seen, in those moments with Celia, a completely different person all together. A champion. A woman in the noble color of blue. A woman who loved Mirana every bit as much as the dear queen-blessed be her and Underland!- loved her. This troubled Empth. Deeply so, for had Raven not seen Celia's past? Had the Witch of Wastings not gone into the bound mind of the girl? Should she not know? It befuddled Empth to no end. For it was clear to her that when two loved each other as much as Mirana and Celia-or Alice, as Empth had come to know her as-was it not cruel to keep them apart? The simple answer, to her own simple question, was yes. For she knew they both cried, she'd walked past the fleeing Mirana and seen tears in her friends eyes. And she saw the same tears and the same heartbreak in Celia's-or Alice's, rather-eyes.
Still the question lingered, burned more accurately, in her shattered mind. Why, when Raven so obviously knew, was she not telling Mirana? It was for the answer of that question which Empth now walked the halls, so far from her brother and kin. Seeking the truth. Seeking the light with the eyes of one untainted even by the bitter hand of cruel and young death, and left untouched by the gravity of the situation as it stood.