Chapter 6

"This can't be a joke?" Was the first thing Alice's mouth managed as her mind numbed with realization. "It is not funny."

"I wasn't trying to be funny." Her Cheshire Cat replied leaning his man shaped costume against room's door; his grin becoming more familiar with every passing second.

Taking as much time it would for a clock hand to tick Alice's tongue found its lacking sharpness; several emotions readying to come out in one breath. Her voice so mixed with feelings she couldn't entirely identify which was the most dominate.

"You blasted Cat! What have you done? Actually wait. Don't answer that. At this point I'm not sure if I want to know what exactly you have polled off, let alone how. I'm not even sure which reaction I should be addressing first! Confusion, rage, or relief that it's only you and not one of my more terrifying demons."

Even though he appeared to be very much a person Alice had to shake her head once, almost certain she had seen a tale whisking in entertainment behind creature fashioned like an attorney.

"Let's start with the option that is the most likely to not get me skinned. That way your curiosity is satisfied and I get to enjoy all of my remaining lives for a bit longer."

Just like she always did, whether she liked it or not, Alice's subconscious heeded her cat's advice. Relief intending to struggle its way to the front of a line of emotions her brain was attempting to manage.

"Don't every do that to me again!" The teen girl ordered with her eyes slit dangerously. Showing beast across from her an expression, she hoped, looked like a pair of tea pots boiling acid. "You had me so terrified for a moment, I was concerned that Bumby had risen from the grave. Something I wouldn't put my imagination past doing."

"How fine you look dressed in rage."

"This is not rage! This is relief!" Alice demanded, only hearing her tone after Kier raised a dark eyebrow and folded his arms in an argumentative gesture. "Fine. I'm dressed in rage. I apologize for skipping over calmer moods, but I have every reason to do so. How else am I supposed to respond to knowledge that you've been playing with me sense I first heard of Kier Cheston? You've been laughing at me this entire time, haven't you?"

"You know that's not my taste in humor Alice. If it's any comfort to you what I've been doing hasn't been for amusement, although there are elements of your reality that I am alarmed to admit I have enjoyed, but has been out of necessity."

"What necessity?" In her mind curiosity began to wrestle with anger. Sentiment more thrown into emotional battle by nature then desire to steady her thoughts.

"Did I not mention to you at the start of this adventure that I would not allow you to take it alone? Come now dear Alice, what use would a cat have been in a courthouse? "For Miss Alice Liddel I am Kier Cheston. Or anything else she needs me to be." Were my words, if I recall them correctly."

Alice only glared at Kier Cheston. If only to give herself time to decide what to do next. Hoards of emotions fought for control over all others. Of course she wore rage as well as she wore red; yet Alice kept reminding herself she could look just as well in other colors.

"Why did you do this? I was fine the way I was. I didn't truly need your help or my inheritance. I could have scuffled by on my own."

"You could have." Although Kier nodded his head in agreement his smirk weakened a bit. "But your inheritance was never my primary goal. No doubt your family's money is a nice result of my work. However, I had something more important on mind while securing myself in London."

"What?"

The man, or cat depending on which mood was at Alice's controls when she eyed him, only continued to grin at her in response. Alice glared back with silence as well. Scoffing and furrowing her brow at his look.

"Go easy on the poor thing Alice. He's been through a lot, not just inside your mind, but outside it as well." Kier finally voiced a minute or two later.

"Excuse me?" Alice asked following a nod he produced.

Nearly having forgotten about the stuff rabbit she'd been clinging to downstairs Alice realized she'd sense started to suffocate plush creature against her chest with one arm. The girl flushing in an apologetic way forced herself to loosen her grip on beloved toy. A light went on in her head an instant later.

Lifting stuffed doll to meet its button eyed gaze Alice let out a quiet "oh."

"You might have noticed Rabbit's be absent from wonderland sense your most recent trials there. But he should be returning now, considering your reunion with object that inspired him. If you feel a need any time soon, pay him a visit. I'm sure Rabbit's his same jittery, schedule obsessed self."

"Th- that cannot be it." Alice found herself saying as she lowered her rabbit into a snug embrace. The teen actually feeling a bit hopeful about revisiting her head's domain, with the promise of long lost companion waiting for her there. "At the start of all this there was mention of a foe. One that was completely of this world. I have yet to identify one. And you can't have meant Radcliff. He didn't even put up much of a fight!"

"I didn't."

"Then whom?" The look Cheston gave her was familiar enough that Alice knew she wasn't going to get a straight, puzzle-less, answer from him. Sure enough a riddled soon fallowed up her inquiry.

"Tell me Alice, what can you have but cannot hold; gain and quickly loose? If treated with care can be great, and if betrayed will break?"

Reasoning an answer for the Cheshire cat's rhythmic inquiry wasn't too grand of a task. He had been taunting her with trick questions sense she was a child; but admitting to meaning behind riddles answers proved to be more difficult. The delight teen girl had felt at potential of seeing Rabbit quickly imploding; sinking as a weight to the bottom of her stomach. Her face falling, as well, to match Alice's new unpleasant mood.

"A foe rooted in this reality like my infernal train and doll maker." That was a bit misleading don't you think? You had me believing I'd be facing off against a person, or a monster. Not something as simple as "trust" issues."

"If you think back, dear Alice, I did say this would be "one of those everyday adventures." What kind of enemy would you expect?" As her cat argued Alice though she caught his smirk falter into a frown for a fractioned second, yet soon forgot moment as Cheston continued to, for once, made sense. "Need I remind you of what reality on this side of your mind is like? We are in London, not wonderland. You were not destined to take on an enemy shaped like a warped queen with a fondness for decapitation and tentacles or a deformed marionette oozing oil. At least not for an exploit on this side of your mind."

"You're only making me more psychotic then I already am."

"No Alice. I am walking you through what has been accomplished in the past few weeks; and I'm doing so with as little rhyme and rhythm as possible. Why you and London have tastes for more blunt and unsophisticated manners of speech then I am used to I fear I will never understand."

The teenager couldn't help but let out a snort, that was the closest she had come to a laugh in years, at expression her humanoid cat wore. Disgusted features mixed with his constant grim yielding to be a rather comical appearance.

As if feeding off her entertainment Kier's expression came to parallel Alice's; momentarily stirring a light, yet awkward feeling behind girl's breast.

"Will you be returning to wonderland now?" Alice coughed, trying to distract herself from odd sensation playing with her chest. "Your mission accomplished and this endeavor over and done with. It is over and done with, isn't it Cat?"

"Yes, dear Alice." Kier purred a chuckle to meet determination in her last words. "This venture is ending. Not only have you recovered Rabbit, if you can learn to have faith in someone as suspicious as me I think your damaged trust has begun to repair. As for what I will do, that is really up to you. As it always has been. Is my guidance still needed, or even wanted? Or would the presence of a man that grins like a cat be too much of a londerland element? The last thing Kier Cheston wants to be is confuse an already fanciful girl."

"No doubt my Cheshire cat in a human outfit will be as confusing to me as Londerland." Alice found herself quick to respond. "Yet I think I'm happiest when I'm curiously confused."

~Fin~

Um hellos to those of you who have made it this far! Thankies for reading the story! My apologies for being slow and erratic with updates. My roommate tends to get me addicted to EVERY video game she plays/brings home; serving as a pleasant distraction from several other things I should be doing. Also please forgive spelling/grammar errors. I do edit, I'm just not very good at it. And finaly I will mention I am planing to write a sequal to this, more for fun then actual plot perposes. Be warned, though, I'm not sure when I'll get around to it!

Thanks again!