"Should we start again now? It's been two hours."

March looked up from his plate, surprised, "But it's still tea time!"
Glaring at his comrade, Hatter huffed, "But if we wait and we win the game, we'll have to wait till the morrow before we can eat White."

Alice sighed, trying to keep herself from puking all she had eaten for breakfast and lunch, which was severely hard after you had watched two murderers eat your mom's boyfriend to the point that the boyfriend was barely more than a bundle of cloth and scattered bones. "You guys are such…monsters…"

Hatter jerked to glare at her, "Monsters?"

Echoing his cry, March whined, "We're not monsters! We're assassins, if anything!"

"You just ate someone!"
"So?"

"Yeah… so what? It's tea time."

Alice rubbed her forehead furiously, "You don't eat people! Especially at this- this 'tea time' of yours!"
Glancing at each other, March and Hatter fell silent at this odd little tidbit of information. March tried to restore their fallen glory a bit, "But… there's nothing else…"

"Than go get something else, you moron!"

Hatter interjected, "We can't. We're here just in case the Jabberwock needs us. So we eat what we can find nearby, namely passer-bys."

March put his head on his hands cheerfully, "And the ordinary traveler is many times better than tea or cakes!"

"But Dormouse? Uh! He was horrendous! Horrible after-taste, if I remember right!"

"You're thinking of the Dodo. We didn't eat Dormouse."

"Huh?"

"He's still in the kettle."

Hatter stared at his partner, stupefied, "Still in the kettle?" Raising a trembling forefinger, he pointed at the large teapot at the end of the table, "That kettle?"
Nod.

Hatter jumped up and jogged down to the pot. Ripping the top off, he peered inside and smiled triumphantly, "Ah ha! I've found a rat!" He reached inside, struggled for a hold, and pulled out a struggling mouse about the size of a large cat.

The Dormouse squeaked, brown fur at end, "Stop it! I want to go back to sleep!"

Ignoring the creature's pleas, Hatter tossed the rodent over to March, who watched it crash into the bones in front of him, "Let's eat him and we can save the darn rabbit for tomorrow!"
March slowly turned his gaze to Hatter. He whined, "But I wanted to eat cousin…"

Recovering, the Dormouse bounded off the table, using White's chest as a small trampoline before racing away on the ground.

Snarling, Hatter drew his thin dagger and chucked it after the small figure's fleeing back.

The dagger hit the Dormouse right in between the shoulder blades, and the small poor rat fell down, dead.

Alice stared in horror, "But! But! You can't do that!"

Strolling over and scooping up his prize, Hatter turned towards her, frowning, "Yes I can. And I did." He slammed the dead Dormouse down of the table and glared at the March Hare, "There you are. Eat him instead. White is for tomorrow."

"But I thought you wanted to eat Dormouse."

"I do. But you have the knife."

March smiled and raised his cleaver. But then he paused, glancing at Alice. "Should we get some regular drinks for our guests? I think there's some in the packs we got from the travelers."

"Sure. Just cut him first."

March slammed down the cleaver, grimaced as crimson blood splashed all over him, and slid the corpse and lodged cleaver to his partner, "There! Hope you're happy! I'll have to clean myself up again!" Stomping away, he ripped aside a blanket on a tree, revealing numerous packs in the hollow inside.

Hatter grabbed the cleaver and finished the job with disdain, inadvertently throwing blood on a horror-stricken Alice as he jerked the cleaver out of the decimated body. He ripped a chunk of flesh and popped it past his metal teeth.

Alice had had it. Kicking out, she caught him in the back of the leg and sprang up, ready to sprint away.

But Hatter wasn't having it.

Reaching back and out, he grabbed Alice's calf and yanked her down, metal fingers digging deep into her skin. Snarling, he dragged her back, "Darn it, Alice! I thought we had it understood that you wouldn't try to escape!"
March came trotting back over, gripping two bottles of wine, "Ooh… Bad girl. Want me to get some rope too?"

Hatter nodded, drawing Alice closer to himself.

Setting the bottles down, March sprang back over to the packs and drew some rope out of one. He came back over and handed it to Hatter, who quickly looped the rope around her wrists and legs. Tying it off, he thrust her back into her chair, livid.

March grabbed a wine bottle, smiling slyly, "She can't run if she's too happy."

Nodding, Hatter grabbed the wine and uncorked it, "Help me make her drink this."

March grabbed Alice's head and jerked it back, forcing her mouth open, and Hatter tipped the wine down her throat. Alice tried coughing the red liquid out, but Hatter clapped a hand over her mouth and hissed, "Drink it!"
Swallowing so she could breathe, Alice immediately felt light-headed.

Hatter tipped another bout of liquid down her throat.

Alice's head lolled to the side, the girl almost asleep as the alcohol invaded her system.

The wine may have had that affect on her, but it certainly didn't on the two assassins.

They had started out sipping the wine over quiet whispers about their master. But the alcohol had grasped their systems.

Hatter slammed a fist against the table, laughing uproariously, "Ah ha! And remember the card troupe? Oh! That was fun!" He glanced at his upper half of a Dormouse, nearly picked clean of meat, and grabbed another piece from a rib.

Smiling, March took a sip of his wine, "And remember we couldn't pick a piece of meat off them? And we're were so mad!"

Laughing.

Alice blinked rapidly, trying to stay awake, "No… no eating… anyone…"

March and Hatter glanced at her, eyes widening with surprise, and than Hatter chortled, "Hey! Remember that song I sang when she was here last? The 'twinkle, twinkle, little bat' one? Sad thing that Jabberwock outlawed poems pretty much."

"Why…?"
Hatter changed the subject, clasping his hands together, "Yeah… Cards are pretty bony… But they have rich blood."

A pause as Hatter glanced at Mariah, a bit hungry, "I wonder when Jabberwock will come to get her? If it's much longer, I might have to start eating her myself."

March sighed, no longer feeling cheerful. Turning to White, who still lay still on the chair beside him, "Same as me. But White's not off-limits, so I don't have to worry."
"I hate you."

"So do I… But not really."

Glares from the assassins at each other, and moody silence descended.

White finally huffed, "I have a riddle."

Immediately, March and Hatter leaned forward, excited, "What is it?"
"The storm cloud's a coming,

You better all run!
The cumulus's purple,

Behind a black-lavender sun.

White lightning flashes,

And maybe some red,

But better run now,

Before you're all dead!"

Hatter frowned, "You're talking about Cheshire?"

"Not even talking about him. He's behind you."

Hatter spun around as March leapt forward, both gripping their weapons in sudden surprise.

A purple shadow sat watching them from the trees, yellow eyes narrowed in sullen hatred. But its body was striped with dark purple-black stripes on a light lavender. His backbone was exposed, vertebrae forming small spines to run down his spine. His neck fur fell down the length of the muscular neck till it suddenly fizzed out to make way for a dull-white ribcage that was on the outside of its owner's skin. Flexing his 3 claws on each of his thick paws, Cheshire padded forward, tail swishing angrily behind him, "I was wondering what happened…"

March twirled both of his cleavers with a steady hand, gazing at Cheshire in a alcoholic anger, "They're ours, kitty! You can't have them!"

"Oh really?" Pausing, Cheshire crooked a paw up, grin widening to reveal all the white pointy teeth.

At the motion, a troupe of soldiers stepped in from the forest. They were decked in white, large hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds emblazoned on their breastplates. Swords quivered, ready in their hands.

Hatter hissed at the sight. Gripping his daggers, he snarled, "Relying on card rebels now, Cheshire? I thought you'd be alone."

"I'm not here to kill you two. I'm here to take Alice and the White Rabbit back."

March leapt over the table, growling as he grew level with Hatter, "They're ours!" Lowering his voice, he sneered to his comrade, "How many do you want for tea, Hats?"

Hatter spat, forked tongue hissing out between his metal sharp teeth. Lone eye narrowing, he stepped forward, "All of them." He lunged forward, followed closely by the March Hare.

Leaping up to meet the two assassins, Cheshire and his rebel troops loosed a deafening battle cry: "For Alice and Wonderland!"

Immediately, the two forces collided and the tea party lawn was thrown into mayhem.

The card soldiers were expertly trained in group battles, but, against two singular very fast murderers, they were finding themselves decimated. A card swung a heavy broadsword at March, only to have the Hare leap over the blade and crush both cleavers down into the soldier's exposed shoulder.

Hatter dropped another soldier with a quick stab to the neck and lunged at Cheshire, eyes flashing maniacally.

Rearing up on his hind paws, Cheshire clawed at Hatter and flickered around as Hatter ignored his bleeding arms and stabbed forward. He sped to the table, a purple lightning bolt of fur. Quickly, he bit Alice's restraints to ribbons.

Alice stared up at her rescuer's face, eyes blinking in surprise. But she broke out of her reverie as she saw the March Hare leap towards them, raising his bloody cleavers to slam them into the cat trying to make away with their prize. "Watch out!" she cried.

Cheshire was whirling round just as March's deadly butcher knives began its descent toward the purple tiger's exposed spine. But White Rabbit hurled himself against his cousin, knocking the crazed murderer down to the ground underneath him.

Hissing, March struggled against White's hold. He grabbed White's head, and, snarling, bit deeply into his cousin's neck. His forked tongue flicked at the blood that spurted out.

White fainted with a yowl.

But his effort had saved Cheshire. Throwing Alice on his back, he ordered with a scowling grin, "Hold on!" He ran for the Hare, who was staggering back up. Before March could react, Cheshire batted him with a heavy paw and sent the assassin clear across the clearing to crash into a tree.

March slid down, still.

Hatter turned from his fight, eye widening in horror. The card slashed at his open back, but Hatter leapt forward before the sword made contact. Sprinting to his fallen comrade's side, his rage disappeared to worry, "March? March? Are you okay?" He bent and felt his partner's pulse, shivering with fearful care.

Cheshire picked up the unconscious White gently with his teeth and nudged the unconscious rabbit onto his back, "Hold him, Alice! We're running!" Back legs bunching, he sprang forward for the trees. The cards followed him, their objective complete.

As they ran from the cursed tea party clearing, Alice felt her blood run cold as a pained yell sprouted from behind them, "March? Wake up! March!"

Cheshire kept running.