Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc.

Author's Note: This is it! It is aspects of this chapter that inspired this story. Over the course of this part, I'll delve quite deeply into my vision of what Underland's pasts and part of what her Magic is like. Anyway, I'm really excited about this chapter and hope you all enjoy it! Thanks for all your all your reviews and support, and thanks for checking out this chapter!

-Chapter 9-

Progress

Over the years, Mirana had learned to make many potions. She had invented even more, ones only she knew how to make. She planned to pass her knowledge down to someone, eventually. But for the moment, she had decided to keep the recipes to the potentially dangerous potions to herself. At least until she could find someone trustworthy enough and interested enough to whom she could pass on the recipes.

It was a Remembering potion she was hard at work on that day. She'd sent Chess out earlier to gather the remaining ingredients she needed since he could cover more distance faster than she or anyone else. When he'd returned, she'd gotten straight to work.

If at all possible, she preferred her research to answer her questions. But, when that failed (which, obviously, it had), she had to turn to her potions. She doubted it would provide her with the full answer, but hopefully it would help lead her back to where she had first heard or read what seemed so familiar about Alice and Tarrant's story.

Finally Mirana decided the potion was as good as it was going to get. She made a slight face at the smell (despite how excellently the potions worked, most of them emitted a rancid odor and even fouler taste) and held her breath as she dipped her spoon into the concoction bubbling away before her and then took a cautious sip.

As most did, the Remembering potion went to work immediately. Mirana's mind was drawn back in time, to when she was a young girl. Back when her parents were still alive and Racie was still halfway easy to get along with, though signs were beginning to pop up about her attitude problem, as her father had referred (albeit fondly) to it.

She stood in the Library, which was a good bit smaller than it would be in the future. She loved escaping her Lessons and going there to read, or just run her fingers along the spines of the books. Sometimes she would spend hours just pacing among the shelves, examining the titles until one finally caught her eye.

On this day she was particularly frustrated. Her Coronation Day was almost upon her, and she didn't feel ready. So she had escaped to her friendly books and their whispered promises of Adventure, something she had no doubt she'd never be able to experience.

She was wondering whether to go for an Adventure or a Romance when something new caught her eye. It was two or three shelves above her reach, so she had to fetch a ladder before she could reach the shelf and the book that had captured her attention. Hitching up her skirts slightly so she wouldn't trip, she ascended the first three steps and pulled the leather-bound tome off the shelf. Then, leaving the ladder where it was so she could put the book back later, she headed for the nearest chair.

Sitting down, she ran her fingers over the bold golden letters embossed on the cover. For a moment she was almost afraid to look upon the hidden pages, but shook the feeling off. It was just a book, after all.

Mirana sighed in frustration as the Remembering potion wore off before the rest of the memory played out. But she had the most important piece of the puzzle: the title of the book. It probably wasn't in the same place as it was before, since the Library had been rearranged several times over the years. But she knew the general area in which to search - History.

Several people stopped her between the kitchen and the Library. None of the problems were particularly urgent, but she honestly cared about the people she ruled so she listened to everything they had to say. She had hoped one of the people who had stopped her would be Alice or Tarrant, but she saw neither of them. Oh well, she would see them either at tea or the evening meal, and hopefully by then she would have something definitive to tell them.

Entering the Library, Mirana headed straight for the Historical section. It was the largest, and since she didn't remember from which time period she'd pulled the book the first time, she had to search carefully as she went for the correct title. Occasionally she'd see a word from the title and her heart would leap, until she read the rest of it and realized it was not the correct book.

For two hours she kept searching, clinging to her Memory as she looked. She hoped Chess would come to help, but he never showed. It really was no surprise, since she had dismissed him after he had gathered the missing ingredients for the Remembering potion.

There!

Mirana was still too short to reach the shelf on which the book she desired rested, even after all these years, so she was forced to go retrieve a ladder. When she returned, she wasted no time in snatching up the book and scurrying back down the ladder. Heeding neither decorum nor propriety, she dropped down right where she was and cradled the book on her lap.

Once more that tingling chill she'd felt the first time she'd touched that book shivered through her. The Chronicles of Alice. Even the title was enough to require a certain reverent silent and respect as she carefully opened the cover to reveal the pages beneath.

Each was yellow with age, and the print was fading horribly. But the book was in remarkable shape otherwise, suggesting that it had not been read often. Wondering why not, considering it was a tome dedicated to Alice (maybe not the Alice, but at least an Alice), she eagerly allowed her gaze to sweep across the lines of neat, handwritten script.

It didn't take long for her to realize the book was not about the Alice. Mirana had known other Alices had visit Underland before for one reason or another, since Underland tended to lean toward girls with that name when something dire put the land in danger. The illustrations, also hand drawn, showed a woman of remarkable resemblance to the most famous Alice, however. But there were subtle differences in the lines of her face and the shape of her eyes and nose that clearly differentiated the two women.

Mirana tried to skim the pages, but kept getting drawn in by the story. This Alice had also fallen down the rabbit hole, arriving in Underland just out of her teens with the same confusion and lack of muchness that the Alice had had. The friends she had made then were quite different, and not too far into the story Mirana began to realize why she had attempted to wipe the story from her memory. More and more of the story was coming back to her as she read, and as she reached the final words, she realized her horrible feelings about the ending were right.

Oh no!

Alice sat quietly on a stool in the corner of Tarrant's workshop and watched him work. Now that things were back to semi-normal for them, they felt more comfortable being around each other. She was amazed every time she saw a new headpiece being assembled by Hatter's quick, skilled fingers. Each one was lavish and perfect, and he often let her try them on and model them.

He'd been working for several hours when McTwisp arrived. He was shuddering nervously, for once without his pocket watch as he said, "The Queen wishes to see you both immediately. She said it's urgent."

Exchanging a quick glance with Tarrant, Alice saw the same thought in his eyes that immediately occurred to her. She's found something. They hastened to follow the White Rabbit, each anxiously wondering what it was the White Queen had uncovered. From McTwisp's reaction, it didn't seem to be good. Then again, he was a naturally excitable sort of fellow, so they couldn't necessarily go by him.

Mirana was in her Quiet Room, a small space just off the Throne Room where she went to have some time to herself, or hold important meetings with foreign dignitaries. She motioned immediately for Alice and Tarrant to sit upon their entrance, then nodded for McTwisp to close the door behind him.

Alice noticed a small, worn-looking leather-bound volume in the queen's hands. Her folded hands covered the title, but even looking at the tome made a little shiver go up her spine.

The White Queen waited until they all had tea before she got started. "I made a Remembering potion this morning," she said. "I focused on the aspects of your story that sounded familiar, and that helped me to recover the memory of what I had read as a young woman." She shifted her hands, holding up the book so they could both see the title.

The Chronicles of Alice.

Alice's first thought was that the book was about her, but from the looks of the leather, the book was very old. She knew those in Underland had the Oraculum, but she was pretty sure the earlier inhabitants of this wonderful land wouldn't have had access to events so far into their future. There was only one other conclusion she could reach.

"Another Alice," Tarrant breathed. Obviously he'd had the same thought.

Mirana nodded. "She was much like ours." A quick motion with her hand gracefully acknowledged Alice's presence in the room, softening any insinuation that the Queen was trying to ignore her presence. "She fell down the rabbit hole at a time just out of her teens. Confusion was her predominate emotion - she also believed Underland was a dream for a long while. She made several friends here, though their time with that Alice was - regrettably short."

A tight knot of apprehension welled into Alice's throat. There was only one interpretation of those words that she could see.

"But like you, Alice, the Other Alice had her responsibilities, as well. The Oraculum had foretold her coming, and she…" Here Mirana trailed off, her gaze falling back to the book. She opened it to one page and turned it around so Alice and Tarrant could see the illustration.

The obviously hand-drawn image bore a remarkable resemblance to the style of the Oraculum. It, too, was moving, the likenesses moving in slow-motion before looping back and repeating itself. But what was most striking about the picture was the fact that it was almost a carbon copy of the one that had foretold Alice's return to Underland - a woman in armor, wielding a sword, the Jabberwocky screaming down at her with claws and teeth flashing. The only difference was the ending, which was so chilling Alice had to look away.

A soft growl from beside her drew her attention to Tarrant. He was staring at the image, visibly shuddering, his eyes flaming bright red. His hand contracted around his teacup so tightly it shattered, spilling hot tea everywhere. He didn't seem to be able to feel the burns or the shards of the china that had become embedded in his hand.

"Tarrant!"

"Hatter!"

Alice's and Mirana's cries were simultaneous. The former was the first to reach him, and she cupped his face in her hands, forcing his eyes to focus on her. "Tarrant, it's all right," she whispered. "I'm here."

His great heaving gasps, whether done in fear or anger, she couldn't tell, eased away. The fire slowly cooled from his eyes, though their color remained a strange greyish-green. "Alice?" His lisp was even more pronounced than normal. "Ye all righ'?" Tarrant's uninjured hand lifted to touch her face.

"I'm fine," she whispered, though it wasn't entirely the truth. She was still shaken from what she'd seen in The Chronicles of Alice. "But you're not."

Tarrant looked down, seeming surprised to see the blood on his hand. "Sorry," he whispered.

It took Alice only a few minutes to attend to Tarrant's hand. Mirana had offered to call for one of the nurses to do it, but Alice had firmly insisted that she'd rather do it herself unless it was too serious. Once the pieces of china were out and she was able to get a good look, she saw that the cuts on his hand were rather shallow and not in need of stitches. Once she'd gotten his hand wrapped up and Tarrant had poured himself some more tea, they both refocused on Mirana.

She had set the book aside and seemed disinclined to reach for it again. "As you could both tell from the image in The Chronicles of Alice, it did - not end well for the Other Alice. But, despite what you might think, that isn't the end of the story." Mirana's hand was visibly shaking as she reached for her teacup. After a few sips, she seemed a little more composed. "During her time in Underland, Other Alice had found - companionship of a certain sort with the most popular hatter of the time, one by the name of Alastair. They grew quite close over her stay, and it was one of Alastair's kinsmen who crafted the Vorpal sword for Alice to use to slay the Jabberwocky."

Alice felt her eyes go wide. She had known that the Vorpal sword had been crafted a long time before she'd come to Underland even the first time, and that it had been used futilely on several occasions to try to defeat the Jabberwocky. She still didn't understand the mechanics of it, seeing how the Vorpal and the Jabberwocky had been enemies for so long, but she had realized that the sword had had many bearers before her. Now she began to see that the sword had been created for an Alice, for the sole purpose of defeating the Jabberwocky, though many not-Alices had tried to wield it with disastrous results.

Tarrant seemed confused. "What does all this have to do with Alice's and my predicament?" he asked.

Mirana smiled kindly. "I'm getting to that part, Hatter." Her dark eyes flitted briefly back to the book before returning to them. "Anyway, Alice and Alastair grew close - very close - over her time, short though it was, in Underland. Over the years, a lot of knowledge about the Ancient Magic of Underland has been lost. Some of it was not written down, some secrets were never passed from generation to generation, and some had no descendents to whom to pass down their knowledge, and their secrets died with them." Her hand was still slightly trembling as she reached out to touch Chronicle's cover. "My mother once told me of a legend of a certain Bond formed between two people whom Time and Fate, the two most powerful creatures in Underland, had come together to gift."

A suspicious look crossed Tarrant's face, but he didn't speak. Alice wondered what he was thinking.

"The two of them decided to gift Alice and Alastair, not knowing what was going to happen to Other Alice. It had been foretold since the Jabberwocky's rising that an Alice was going to end its reign of destruction, but no one had any way of knowing when that would happen, or even which Alice would bring those events to pass," Mirana continued.

Alice felt another twisting sensation in her stomach. She was glad she hadn't known about the Other Alice when she'd come to Underland to slay the Jabberwocky. She would have been even more terrified of going up against that beast than she already had been. "What happened?" she whispered.

Mirana's gaze drifted between Alice and Tarrant. "Once Bonded, a couple cannot be freed of their gift by any means whatsoever, because it is said that Fate can See when two people are destined for each other, even across worlds. After Other Alice was slain by the Jabberwocky, Alastair sank into such a deep depression he quite literally went mad. Everyone thought he was just missing Other Alice, that it would eventually pass once he'd had time to mourn and come to terms with her passing. But when Time continued and Alistair only got worse…" She shook her head. "Since the Bond cannot be broken, even by death…" She halted her narrative again, her gaze dropping to her clasped hands. "Alastair suffered greatly in the short time he lived after Other Alice's death. Besides the madness, he had what he described in his few lucid moments as skull-splitting headaches. Since one Bonded person cannot live without the other, at least not for long, Alastair eventually died."

It finally clicked in Alice's mind. She and Tarrant turned toward each other at the same moment, mirroring looks of shocked understanding in their gazes. Now it all made sense - the headaches, the madness Tarrant had openly suffered from and Alice had felt simmering inside her, the fact that all those symptoms had vanished instantaneously when they had once more been in each other's presence once again.

"Apparently the same thing happens when a Bonded couple is separated by a great distance," Mirana continued softly. "If you had stayed away much longer, Alice, there is a great chance both of you would have died."

~To Be Continued~

I have been so anxious to get to this chapter! It was actually the scene of Other Alice fighting and being defeated by the Jabberwocky, and Alastair's descent into madness and eventual death, that inspired this story. Plus, I've always felt that there must have been other Alices that wielded the Vorpal sword - I can't say what it is exactly in the film that led me to that conclusion, but I just got that feeling. And I wanted to play around with the idea a bit and see where it led me. Obviously you can tell where I ended up… Anyway, thank you so much for reading this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it!