The pyres that the Shadowlanders constructed around the castle, heaped the dead, and burned the bodies sent waves of sickening stench across the battlements. Many cards puked at the smell of burning flesh, hair, and bone.

Demeric huddled against the wall, cursing silently. Sometimes, pieces of rock would rocket over the walls and crash into the courtyard. One barrack already lay in ruins.

Hard black boots stopped in front of his down-cast eyes, and he slowly looked up into the Jabberwock's face, "Greetings, sir."

Extending a hand, Jabberwocky ordered gently, "Come. I'm sending everyone inside."

A faint smile played on Demeric's lips as he accepted the hand. Standing with the help of his King, he asked, "Where's Alice?"

"She's inside with the wounded as she has been."

Meanwhile, inside, Alice frantically ran from wounded guard to wounded guard, helping to dispense painkillers the maids turned nurses gave her. She felt horrible for these poor wounded people! The guards smiled as she came to them, a light of hope in the darkness. Most of them realized that they fought for her.

As soon as Jabberwock brought Demeric in, he returned to his own duty as inspector. Striding through the cots of men, he pointed out where infection settled in and ordered medication. Finishing his rapid look about, he stalked over to Alice and murmured glumly, "How are you doing?"

Alice knelt tending a man whose grievous head wound burdened him down with dying hallucinations. Glancing up at her 'father' with teary eyes, she cried, "It's horrible! I don't want people to die!"

Jabberwock gazed at the man silently, inwardly tormented as he watched the imagination gush out of the man's head. Kneeling slowly, he sighed, "This one won't make it. Leave. I'll put him out of his misery." Tenderly putting his claws on the man's forehead, he slowly began to pull imagination into himself, careful to cause no more pain than need be. Alice shuddered and turned away, knowing his actions stood with reason, but in such a horrible way… She sobbed quietly. Slowly, Jabberwock straightened behind her, meal finished, eyes closed grimly. He said in a sober voice, "I'll be outside… Stay and help…" Stepping away, he couldn't bear to look at Alice, his daughter crying at the heartlessness and pain of war. Taking up a discarded bow and quiver, he morosely exited the room of the wounded.

The moment the Shadowlanders saw Jabberwocky atop the battlements, they leapt up and called out alerts. Coming together into their perfect lines, about fifty soldiers in five lines, they hefted their weapons in salutation as they broke into their full-throated national anthem. As the chorus ran on, they began to accent the beat with the banging of their weapons against their shields and armor.

Stony-faced, Jabberwocky glared at them.

The Imagineers just watched the display of faithful of patriotism in awed silence. The Shadowlanders swelled as more came rushing to join. Even without music, the tune took shape through their lilting and harsh voices, their stomping, their banging, their cheers.

Eyes twitching as they turned a metallic gray, Jabberwocky brought his bow up and shot an arrow straight to the exposed neck of a singing Shadowlander. The troop fell, the anthem wavered, but then burst back in renewed, hopeful vigor. Snarling, Jabberwock shot another arrow, this one glancing off the breastplate of an officer. The song swelled to a deafening crescendo. Furious, Jabberwock threw down his bow and stalked away from the wall.

As suddenly as it began, the anthem stopped.

An outbreak of sickness in the sick room forced Jabberwocky to order Alice to stay in his quarters, and the healthy guards took refuge in the halls. He had sent instructions down to the kitchens to begin rationing water and food.

It was the next day, morning hours.

Bander stood grumpily in front of the graaff, eye to the spyglass and ordering, "Put on three point… two degrees on." The graaff responded by creaking and groaning as Shadowlanders pulled it into place.

Hatter leaned on the lever, ready to pull it as he dusted off his top hat, "Hmm… never heard a decimal in a war operation before. I like sticking with big, solid numbers."

Bander ignored him and waved a hand, "Launch."

The graaff's center beam chucked the rock upwards, sending the huge piece of metal up and away. Seconds later, it crashed against the fortress's northern wall with a sickening –BOOM!-. The army stood silent in hope as they waited for the ensuing plume of rocky dust to clear. As it faded, they saw the castle leaning dangerously outwards, foundation severely damaged.

Instantly, Bandersnatch roared, "I WANT ALL GRAFFS ON THE NORTHERN WALL! NOW!" Turning, he swept Hatter up into a huge hug, smiling joyously, "We've nearly breached the wall!" He glanced at March, who still wore his helmet, and said in Wonderlandish, "Rabbit! We've nearly breached the wall!"

Hatter muttered, "He's not a rabbit."

Bander released his son and bowed deeply to March, "My apologies, than, cottontail." Spinning around before March could argue that he was not a 'cottontail', he howled, "Prepare the army! Today is the day!"

Jabberwock stalked down the stretch of decimated wall, furiously horrified. Another shot from a graaff slammed into the wall, and Jabberwock snarled as the wall rocked beneath him. They'd be in by midday! Hurrying down the stairs, he felt his eyes glow black, and the terrible rage claw inside him. He quelled it forcefully.

He'd wait till the enemy came.

The wall fell at midday.

As soon as it crumbled with a dull roar, the Shadowlanders and Imagineers surged forward with a joyous battle cry. Inside, the black cards waited determinedly for death. Boudning throught the gap, the first line of the Shadowlander and Imagineer army fell, pierced by the Jabberwock's men's arrows. Bander came galloping in on his horse, howling in assertive triumph as he drew his sword, leading his men in with confidence. Behind him came Hatter and March, their faces covered in their terrifying masks and their familiar weapons ready to hack through any black card. Jabberwock rushed forward with his troops, snarling as his eyes changed to a sinful black.

The final and decisive battle began.