AN: Ugh, this chapter was a nightmare to write, and not just because of the events going on. I always feel funky when I try to write drama or tragedy. I just don't think it ever turns out how I want it to.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.

November 5, 1863

It was almost like a sixth sense that hit him that night. A shudder down your spine when someone steps over your grave, or the feeling of your insides curling into themselves as if you had just received a punch to the gut.

As a rabbit (or rather, part of the rabbit family, technically), Bunny was always on edge. There was always the feeling of his muscles twitching nervously, readying himself to either fight or run at the first sign of trouble. There were always foreboding sensations crawling along his skin, underneath his grey fur, but none so much as the crippling one that ripped its way through his flesh and rattled his bones that night.

It was unexplained, the sensation, and nothing he had ever felt before. He wasn't entirely sure what it was, but a voice seemed to scream in his head, screaming at him to "go, go, go!". It screamed that something was very wrong, but with what, and with whom, the pooka didn't know.

It wasn't until a random hot flash erupted underneath his fur, that a small sliver of clarity finally chimed in.

Alice. Go check on Alice.

There was no other convincing needed. That horrible sensation of danger and death was more than enough to jar Bunny into motion, forcing him to shoot up from his bundle of blankets where he had been peacefully dozing, and spearhead out of his warren without a single notion of what he was doing except that he needed to see Alice. Right now. It didn't matter if Oxford was two continents away, or that it was past midnight and Alice would've already been asleep for hours. He just needed to get there and he needed to do it now.

Nothing in his many centuries on earth, both as a guardian, and among his own pooka kind (lifetimes ago, it seemed), could've prepared him for the nightmare he suddenly found himself in when he finally reached the end of his tunnel. The first thing that came to his attention was the smell of thick, polluting smog only a few precious feet from where he knew Alice's home lay. He already knew something was wrong, but it didn't fully register just how wrong until he looked up above the tall trees around him and saw the sky.

Even in the dead of night, the toxic fumes could be seen floating high into the air, polluting the midnight blue sky and blocking out the shining moon. The breath immediately drained from Bunny's lungs, leaving him gasping for breath as realization dawned on him.

Fire

He broke out into a mad dash, weaving in between the trees that surrounded Alice's home, but stopped short and cried out when he broke through the foliage and saw the looming house set ablaze, drowning in roaring wildfire. The conflagration burned unbelievably hot. The heat licked intimately at the tips of Bunny's fur, even from several feet away. The glow was brilliant and undeniably beautiful, in a morbid, bittersweet sort of way, even as it threatened to swallow the home, and the lives within, completely whole.

Bunny stared in utter shock, unable to move or think as wood and brick cracked and burned in front of him. It was only when a small explosion erupted from somewhere within the home, spitting more flames and smoke from the blown out windows, that Bunny finally snapped out of it.

"Alice!"

He bounded all around the house, calling out Alice's name. Cruel voice in the back of his head just laughed at him.

'Are you stupid? Look at this place! There is nothing you can do.'

Bunny shook his head rapidly.

"Oh no, no, no, no! This isn't happening! This isn't happening!"

But it was, and no matter how many times he tried to blink away the nightmare, the burning house was always there to greet him when he opened his eyes again. The harsh truth of it forced him to stare straight ahead, into the burning inferno before him. The house was blazing through and through, but Bunny's mind still lagged several paces behind, still grasping at thin air and unable to fully process what was going on. He wasn't prepared to handle the tragic heartbreak he knew was coming.

In his denial, Bunny circled Alice's home several more times.

At the front of the home, there was a gathering of people; nearby neighbors drawn out by the flames that engulfed the Liddell's home. Spectators stood around silently on the sidelines, whispering in stunned voices and watching with grim faces as the two-story, Victorian home continued to burn. Sirens began to howl in the distance, announcing the approaching fire brigade, and they parted like the Red Sea when the fire officials jumped into action.

Bunny stared wide-eyed and short of breath as the firemen broke out their hoses.

With only one look at the burning house, it was obvious to anybody that every inch of the building was well on its way to becoming a charred crisp, regardless of how much water was poured on it. If there were any people trapped inside, they were probably already dead. The firemen seemed to be aware of this because they had stopped trying to find a way inside when the front door collapsed off its hinges. Instead, they focused more on putting the fire out before it had a chance to spread to the surrounding trees and cause even more harm than it already did.

In a blind trance, Bunny moved away from the humans and back behind the house, but stopped short again when his eyes landed on an ash-covered mound, laying in the snow several feet away from the burning home. It did not go unnoticed that the tiny steps leading up to the smoldering figure, were directly underneath Alice's bedroom window.

"No," The pooka breathed.

Almost stumbling over his own feet, Bunny ran over to Alice and fell to his knees next to her. His paws hovered over her, flexing and twitching as he whined softly to himself, unable to make his limbs work how he wanted them to. Alice laid in front of him with black scorch marks staining her grey night dress and her face covered in thick ash. Angry, red burns decorated her pale arms as they clutched her singed rabbit tightly to her heaving chest. Her eyes were closed and her small mouth hung open slightly, making the dark strands of hair that clung to her face puff in and out in a distraught rhythm.

Finally, Bunny forced his paws to cooperate and gently weaved them behind Alice's back before picking her up. She flinched away from his touch and let out a pained mew that almost made the pooka drop her.

"Alice?" He said softly, as if speaking too loudly would break her completely.

When she didn't respond, he shook her gently, jostling her back into consciousness.

"Ma...Papa..." She croaked out in a hoarse, fragmented voice as tears streamed down her ash-stained cheeks.

Bunny shook his head, refusing to look back at the burning house behind them as he pulled Alice closer against his furred chest. He was torn between leaving Alice in the snow to soothe her burns, and holding her tight against his body to ward off the freezing winds that started to pick up around them. She was just a tiny thing, still so fragile and vulnerable to the elements.

"It's alright, Kiddo. I'm here, I gotcha now."

Alice's eyes remained closed as she called out for her mother and father again, instead of acknowledging him. He made sure not to take it personally.

With the girl held firmly in his arms, Bunny looked around them, his nose twitching nervously as he tried to think of what to do next. As much as he wanted to do it all himself, he knew he couldn't. He wanted steal her away from her forsaken home and keep her sheltered from all the pain, but he knew he wasn't skilled enough to deal with her burns. He knew basic first aid, but her injuries ran deeper than that. He would have to travel to Santoff Claussen and take her to North's medical wing. There was nothing left for her here in Oxford, Bunny reasoned. It would be so easy to just run away with her. The fire was going to obliterate everything anyways. They would just assume Alice burned in the fire along with her family, and nobody would think otherwise. The hard part would be explaining what happened to her and dealing with the aftermath, but he and the guardians would find a way to make things better. She'd be sad and heartbroken over her lost family and home, but they would take care of her, give her a new family and home.

They could make it work. He could make it work.

This could be fixed.

A quiet hiccup from the smoking bundle in his arms pulled Bunny from his thoughts, making him look down and see that Alice's eyes were open; half-lidded and hazed over with pain and confusion. He forced a calm smile on his face as he tactfully positioned his body so Alice wouldn't be able to look past him and see her home. Though, he didn't doubt the black cloud of smoke still drifted high in the sky, far taller than he would ever be able to hide.

"Don't worry, Alice," He spoke softly. "I've got ya. Everything's going to be fine."

Clover green eyes bore deeply into forest green with unreadable irises. Her small mouth moved without a voice, gently releasing a soundless name into the smokey wind before the precious light in her eyes slowly dimmed and her eyelids slid shut.

"Alice?" Bunny whispered her name, panic bubbling in the pit of his stomach when Alice's rigid form suddenly went completely limp in his arms. "Alice!"

Then, the worst thing that could ever happen, happened.

Bunny's eyes widened when a faint wisp curled around his arms and Alice's body slowly started to sink through his arms; his fur and skin becoming intangible against her own flesh. His heart plummeted into his stomach as he scrambled to get a hold on her, but his paws passed right through her before her body fell back in the snow with a soft thud.

"Oh no...no, no, no...not this. Don't do this! Alice!" He called her name, not sure whether his cries were for her to believe in him, or for her to breathe. Either way, he wanted her to open her eyes. She didn't have to look at him. She just needed to open her eyes. "Alice! Wake up, darlin! Don't do this! Open your eyes and look at me!"

He tried to grab her, but his paws passed through her every time. He never felt so useless in his entire life, unable to hold and comfort his little ankle-biter, or call out for help. This night had become worse than a nightmare. Bunny couldn't even put a name on it. It felt like his whole world was caving in around his ears, tearing up carefully laid roots and mercilessly ripping out his heart. It felt like all the hope inside him was dying along with Alice. It felt like agony. It felt like hell. And there was no relief. It thrashed relentlessly in his chest until he couldn't even breathe or see straight. His eyes were clouded with unshed tears and his senses burned from the smoke. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. He couldn't scream.

He was only pulled from his despair when the sound of approaching voices reached his sagging ears. Some of the firemen had made their way around to the back of the burning house and spotted Alice laying in the snow. They shouted loud to their comrades for help before running towards Alice's prone figure.

Bunny's demands for the men to leave them alone went unheard and his presence unnoticed. He cringed and growled as each human passed through his intangible body. Their stink and unwelcomed intrusion forced him to back away from Alice as more firemen joined them. That ghostly, pass-through sensation was far too overwhelming in such a large crowd, he couldn't take it.

"Sargent! This girl is badly burnt!"

"Someone, call for a doctor!"

"Will she be alright?"

Bunny watched helplessly from the sidelines as the firemen crowded around Alice's unmoving body. The apparent chief of the group pushed his way through and ordered the others to step back as he kneeled down next to the smoldering child and started checking her vitals, suddenly alert when he realized she wasn't breathing. The pooka watched with a thundering heart and bated breath as the fireman begun to do chest compressions. He felt so useless, unable to do a thing for Alice except yell out to her. That's all Bunny was ever good for. Yelling.

"Come on, come on, come on. Don't you dare do this to me, half-pint!"

There was no response from the girl, but the fire chief kept at it, trying to will the tiny soul back into the land of the living, just as Bunny did desperately in his head.

'Come on, work with us! Show everybody that fighter I know's been hidin' in ya. I know she's there!'

The fireman continued to do the compressions for several more seconds, determined to save the child's life, until one of his teammates laid a hand on his shoulder, tugging on it firmly. The chief cursed loudly and pulled his hands away, begrudgingly accepting defeat.

Bunny shook his head as the fireman gave up. He wanted to wring the human's neck for even thinking about giving up on his Alice. Did he not realize who she was? Did he not realize how special she was? Of course not.

"No!"

'No, no, no, no, no! Please come back! Please, please! It's not your time, Alice! It can't end this way! North was right! The Man in the Moon brought us together for a reason! I need to know that reason. We can figure it out together, but you have to breathe!'

There was a heavy silence as the firemen and otherworldly spirit stood around and slowly begun to mourn the loss of the little life in front of them, with her family and home still burning behind them. It all became too much for the Easter Bunny to bare as he stared at Alice's unresponsive body laying in the white snow.

'Half-pint...if ya leave now, I won't ever get to see your Wonderland.'

Above them, for the briefest of moments, the thick cloud of smoke shifted long enough to let the full moon shine brightly down on earth once again, bathing the tragedy below in its soothing glow. And then suddenly, Alice's body gave a tiny jerk and the hollowing silence was broken with small coughs, surprising everybody standing around her. The once stagnant atmosphere buzzed alive again as the firemen were jarred back into action, breaking off from the crowd and running to fetch medical help.

At the beautiful sound of Alice coughing, of her breathing, Bunny felt his body go limp in relief - boneless with unbridled, melancholic happiness. His legs folded beneath him and he collapsed backwards on to the snowy ground as the fire chief scooped up the whimpering and sobbing girl in his arms with as much gentleness as possible and carried her back towards the front of the house.

"That's my girl," Bunny breathed softly.

The pooka watched as Alice was carried away from him, knowing deep down this was for the best. He couldn't help her anymore, no matter how much he wanted to. He could only pray that when she woke up - if she woke up, that she would be able to see him again. Her passing through him just now - that had to be some mistake. It had to be the fire's doing. The smoke must've distorted her thinking - twisted her mind and clouded her belief. Everything would be well again when she woke up.

From the ground, Bunny stared directly into the full moon. It shined brilliantly overhead before it was once again covered by black smoke.

"That's my girl."

AN: Well that was depressing. This isn't the end of the story though! So don't worry! Let me know what you guys think. Reviews are always greatly appreciated.

~Scorpiofreak~