A/N: This is the last chapter, although a short epilogue is forthcoming.
The day of the battle dawned bright and happy, as if the fate of Underland wasn't hanging on the strength of a silly little Overland girl. Alice felt slightly betrayed, putting on her armor, gathering her sword and watching as the troops lined up. Mirana, however, thought she was being ridiculous.
"Why, this is a happy occasion, Alice dear. We are free from the prison of Salazen Grum, and you are about to slay the Jabberwocky and liberate Underland once and for all!"
Alice privately disagreed, positive Mirana would chicken out at the last minute and be unable to kill her sister. But she said nothing, and signaled for the march on the castle to begin. It was now or never.
Neither she nor Mirana were riding this time, but Alice found that she missed the presence of the Hatter far more than the comfort of the Bandersnatch underneath her. She spared a curious wondering as to where said Bandersnatch was, but refused to dwell long on that particular unpleasant train of thought.
The march to the castle was short, especially considering Iracebeth, Stayne, and the Red Army were waiting for them in front. While she had never thought they'd be laying siege to the castle, Alice didn't quite think they'd be calmly waiting for the rebels, either.
"I see your champion has returned," the Red Queen said conversationally, all traces of her lisp now gone. "Better late than never, I suppose."
"I should have done away with you when I had the chance, sister," Mirana said sadly. "I thought you would have realized the error of your ways in the Outlands."
"The Outlands!" Iracebeth shrieked, turning red and taking a step towards her sister. "How dare you presume to tell me what I would find there! You have no idea - "
But the Knave placed a hand on her shoulder silently, comfortingly, reassuringly, and the red melted from her face. She stepped back and took a deep breath before saying calmly,
"I will slaughter you all."
"You will not," Mirana replied confidently. "Alice?" she added, signaling for her champion.
Alice gripped the sword with two hands, then stepped up into the empty space between the two monarchs."Where's your champion, sister?" she asked, echoing Iracebeth's own words from the last battle.
Iracebeth sighed, as if resigned, then raised an arm. A loud horn then blew at her signal, and suddenly the top of the highest tower flew off. The Jabberwocky was not being kept in his egg-like home underground, but in the very castle. Many of those who had been imprisoned paled at the thought of being in the same building with that creature for months.
What was even more horrific, however, was that already demonic-looking monster was deformed. Green slime was oozing from every possible pore, bits of rotting flesh falling off every limb…It looked as if it was about to fall apart at any moment.
How had Iracebeth learned this magic? And more importantly, was it possible to slay something that was already dead?
Unlike last time, the beast didn't address her or the sword, and instead immediately began to attack. She was taken slightly off guard, and jumped back to dodge a particularly viscous bite.
She dodged a blast of purple fire, and began to doubt her ability to slay for the first time since her return.
"Tarrant, where are you?" she whispered, ducking and rolling underneath the Jabberwock. It let out a mighty roar, turning around and nearly crushing her underneath its feet. She grabbed on to its tail as it turned, avoiding another blast but piercing her hand on a sharp spike.
She let out a swear, but held on, even as it swung back and forth furiously, trying to shake her off. She wrenched her pierced hand off of the spike, and slowly began to climb up the angry Jabberwocky. She nearly slipped many times, the slime making it quite impossible to hold her grip. But finally she reached the top of his head, and with a shake, he tossed her off so she flew through the air, sword in hand.
It looked almost exactly like the last battle, and Alice briefly thought that this was all too easy. She raised her sword to chop of his head –
And he moved aside.
How did it learn, if it was dead? How did it remember? She railed against fate as she flew to the ground, falling just like she had after she Remembered. She hit the ground with a thud and let out a muffled sob, punching the ground angrily. She almost didn't want to get up again, to just let it kill her. How could she really defeat this creature? She had Tarrant's help and a stroke of amazing luck last time! There was no way she could do it again.
She rolled over anyway, laying on the ground on her back, looking up at the most frightening sight she'd ever seen. The Jabberwocky raised a claw to swipe at her, and she closed her eyes and raised the sword in a half-hearted gesture to defend herself, sure that Death was imminent.
Then, the roar turned into a angry shriek of pain, claw flying up to his eye to clutch at the arrow sticking out. Alice's eye's flew open in time to realize that the surprised gasp was attached to the White Queen, whose magic had sent the conjured arrow flying towards the beast that had endangered her champion.
Everyone, even Iracebeth, turned to stare at Mirana in horror and confusion. Even the queen herself looked terrified at her own daring.
"My vows…" she whispered.
"It's not a living creature!" Alice cried, rising to her feet and calling out to rally the troops. "It is Death!"
The Jabberwocky resented the reminder of its zombie-like status, and made to attack Alice again. She was ready for him this time, though, and made a strike of her own, slicing open the side of his face.
With Mirana's attack, the two armies began to battle each other, no longer complacently watching Alice and the Jabberwocky fight the war for them. But Alice couldn't focus on this other than as a general note, and began to fight in earnest.
A slash to the left, dodge, slash to the right, duck, parry, stab to the right, dodge, stab again, slash back to the left, duck and roll…
She heard Tarrant's voice in her head, shouting in Outlandish. If she closed her eyes it could almost be the first battle again… But no, she had to focus, and the reality was that he wasn't here right now. Stab to the left, and there! The Jabberwocky had made a slash with his right claw, and she grabbed onto it with her good hand. He swung his arm upwards, but she refused to let go until he brought his arm down again. Then the momentum brought her flying through the air underneath his chin.
She let the sword guide her, sticking it out in front of her so it pierced the soft tissue underneath its neck, and through the jaw, completely impaling the creature's head on the sword.
The sword remained lodged there, and Alice held on, swinging from the sword as the force animating the dead beast's body left it, and the head fell off.
She crashed to the ground, victorious.
She lay there for a moment, panting with exertion in the space between the head and the body, covered in green slime and blood. As soon as she got her breath back, however, she noted that the Red Army didn't give up like it did last time. Despite the Jabberwocky's death, the battle continued, as if her efforts were for nothing. She took a deep breath, and stood up shakily to assess the situation.
The battle hadn't stopped, but the rebels were quite obviously winning. Somehow the Red Army seemed to have lost their skill and enthusiasm for a fight. They were simply being slaughtered. While sheer numbers had overpowered the rebels at first, once they began fighting back, it was a massacre.
Alice turned to look for Iracebeth, to see how she was accepting her eventual defeat. But the Queen was nowhere in sight, and when Alice turned around again, the last card was killed.
All that remained on the battlefield were the rebels, and the Knave of Hearts. He was quickly surrounded, and even though he tried to keep fighting, subdued just as easily. The rebels looked to Mirana for the signal – for now there could be no talk of letting the Knave and the Queen get away, lest this happen again – and she closed her eyes, but nodded.
The White Knight raised his sword, and the Knave closed his eye in preparation, but just before the blade struck him, a voice from the wall of the castle screamed,
"Stop!"
The rebels froze, and looked up to the castle wall to see Iracebeth, holding a chained prisoner with a knife to his throat. Alice's heart stopped.
"Hatter…" Mirana breathed nervously.
"Let Stayne go, or your General will die!" the bloody big head shrieked, pressing the knife hard against his throat. Tarrant looked beyond caring, exhausted, defeated, barely able to struggle against the psychotic queen.
"Let the Hatter go, or your Knave will die!" the White Knight replied, holding Stayne at swordpoint. Mirana signaled for him not to do anything rash, and addressed her sister.
"You are defeated, sister. Your Jabberwocky is dead. Every one of your knights is dead. Your consort has been captured. Give up."
A flash of white caught Alice's eye, and she watched as a little mouse scurried up the wall, unseen by any but her, apparently.
"Why should I give up?" Iracebeth screamed. "So you can kill us? Let us go, or this will be last you see of your precious Hatter!" She pulled him close to the edge of the wall, so that the slightest movement of hers wound send him falling to his death, if the knife didn't kill him first.
"No…" Alice whispered, horrified, praying that Mally could do something, anything, for Alice was quite frozen in fear, all muchness frightfully fled.
But Mallymkun saved the day, and scuttled up the rest of the wall, up Iracebeth's arm, to stick her in the eye with her hatpin.
The Red Queen roared in pain, flailing about. She flung Mally off of her, and the little dormouse went sailing through the air, off the wall. Thankfully, Mirana caught her before she hit the ground, but the Hatter was another story. He teetered dangerously on the edge, and Iracebeth just managed to stab in the chest before collapsing to the ground herself.
The stab threw him off balance, and the chained man fell.
"Tarrant!" Alice screamed, running towards the falling man, all of her worst fears coming true in that instant. He hit the ground with a sickening crack, and she reached his side a second later.
"No, no, no…" she cried, cradling his head in her lap. "It'll be okay, it'll be okay…"
"Alice…" he choked out, blood flowing freely from his deep wound and bones twisted at unnatural angles.
"Sh, darling, it'll be okay," she cried, tears streaming from her eyes as freely as his blood. Mirana reached them momentarily, glass vial in hand.
"Alice, my champion, you must be strong for him," the White Queen said, examining the fatal stab. "He doesn't have much time left."
"No! Your majesty, please! There must be something you can do," she sobbed, clinging to the dying man.
"It's alright, Alice…" Tarrant whispered. "Underland is safe again. You're home at last."
"It's not home without you," she whispered back, squeezing his hand tightly.
"Alice, if you are to save him, you must act quickly," Mirana said, handing her the vial full of purple liquid.
"J-Jabberwocky blood? But I can't go back; I've just returned here! And Tarrant, he…"
"You must listen, and listen well. The trip between Underland and Overland is magical. Animals, for example, lose their voice in Underland, while humans lose their memory. The trip between is also restorative, healing all wounds, even ones as large as this. Because time runs differently between the worlds, however, and because it is incredibly difficult for humans to return, very few chose this route of healing. Tarrant, however, has no other choice."
"We must return to Overland, in order to save him?" she confirmed, taking the vial shakily.
"Yes. But you will remember nothing," Mirana said sadly.
"Will you… will one of you," she corrected, turning to look at her non-human friends. "Come and find us? Bring us back as soon as you can?"
"We will," Nivens replied. "But you must stay in that city of yours, London, for it to be possible."
"I'll do anything," she swore. "Just lead us back home."
"Alice, you must go now," Mirana interrupted, seeing Tarrant's heavy breathing. "Drink half, and give him half, you will return to the place where you were when you Remembered."
Alice quickly uncorked the vial and pressed it to his lips, tipping it slowly down his throat. Then she kissed him, drinking her half from his lips, determined not to be separated again.
"I love you," she whispered, wondering how much they would Remember as he began to fade.
"We will come for you," she heard Mirana's voice reassure her, Underland beginning to disappear before her. "Don't give up."
Alice woke up entwined in Tarrant Hightopp's arms, in his bed, in his house, in some remote village on the coast of Scotland.
"Tarrant?" she yawned, sleepily, sitting up.
"Mm?" he asked, eyes fluttering open.
"I feel like we're forgetting something," she replied, frowning.
"The carriage!" he exclaimed, jumping up. He winced immediately after that, not sure where the sudden soreness had come from.
"Be careful," Alice said, rising slowly and touching his arm lightly, also feeling an ache in her left hand.
"Alice…I…" he looked at her, confused. "What happened last night?"
"I'm not sure," she replied honestly. "I think you must have been having a nightmare, because you woke up and starting yelling about some nonsensical things, and…"
And you kissed me, she wanted to say, but faltered.
"And I kissed you," he remembered, looking at her guiltily. "I'm sorry."
"Don't apologize!" she protested vehemently, unhappy at the prospect of him regretting it.
"Don't apologize? For violating a lady?" he asked, looking at her curiously.
She laughed. "You didn't violate me. And I'm not a lady," she told him seriously.
"Oh, well, that changes everything," he joked, but there was a serious light in his eyes when he moved closer to her, slowly, so that she had the chance to pull away if she wanted.
She did the exact opposite, however, and closed the distance between them. They both closed their eyes, and rested contentedly in the chaste kiss that promised so much more. When they broke apart, Tarrant looked at her with such emotion in his eyes that she had to kiss him once more, and gave him another small peck before walking out of the bedroom.
"Come on, Mister Hightopp. We have a train to catch."
"I didn't know you were so eager to get back to London," he said, raising his eyebrows as he picked up their bags.
"I wasn't before. Now I have this strange feeling about it. Like the sooner I get there, the better it'll be for both of us," she explained, opening the front door and walking out into the early morning.
He closed the door behind them and locked it, then offered Alice his free arm for the walk to the inn.
"In that case, let us make all haste," he said, smile still on his face.
And looking at him, Alice felt like the Something She Had To Remember could wait a little awhile, after all.