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

Author's Note: Thank you all again so much for your kind reviews, faves, hits, and mostly, your patience with my sporadic updates. Right now between real life and the explosion of ideas in my head, I'm having less time than usual to write, and when I do, I'm having to arrange things to try to get as much done in the time I do have to write, especially since I've picked up a new fandom on top of Alice and the Pirates and Hatters series I have going. But don't worry - I will not be abandoning this story, no matter how long I take between updates! I'll be quiet now and let you get on to this chapter, wherein the plot thickens even more... Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

-Chapter 13-

Storm Clouds

Tarrant woke up the morning after the ball with the overwhelming feeling that everything was right in the world. Granted, he had seen Time talking and dancing with Alice the night before, but he had determined not to be jealous, despite how charmed the Champion looked. Time was a tricky fellow, anyway, and liked to think he was quite the womanizer. Besides, Alice didn't seem that enamored by him, so he wasn't going to be worried about him.

He hummed under his breath as he dressed, bumping it up to cheerful whistling as he made his way to the kitchen. Marmoreal's halls seemed brighter than usual, he was seeing colors he'd never noticed before, and everything seemed sharper.

"Yer late fer breakfas'!" Thackery shouted, throwing a bowl at him as he entered the kitchen. He ducked, chuckling, as he went to sit at the counter.

"Good morning to you, too, Thackery," he said.

At that moment the doors burst open again, startling both the Hatter and the Hare. The latter was so shocked at the unexpected intrusion that he didn't even throw anything or yell. Tarrant turned to see who had come in, not at all expecting who it was.

"I'm late!" Mirana gasped out. She turned pleadingly to Thackery. "I need a cup of tea and a scone," she said. "I don't have time for anything else."

Tarrant couldn't stop himself from staring. The White Queen was never ruffled, just as she most certainly was never late. And yet here she was, standing in Marmoreal's kitchen afflicted with both dishevelment and tardiness. "My Queen?" he stammered.

She winced when she caught his gaze. "I'm afraid I'm terribly out of sorts this morning," she said apologetically. "I did something today that I have not done since I was a very young girl - I overslept." Her cheeks were tinged peach with obvious embarrassment.

A strange feeling manifested itself in his chest. Reaching into his pocket, he snatched out his pocket watch. Holding it up, he scowled at it, dunked it in his fresh tea, then looked at it again.

"Why - that - slurvish little-!"

"Hatta'!" Mally, who had just entered the kitchen, shouted.

Tarrant's mouth snapped shut. "Thank you." Turning back to Mirana, he held up his pocket watch. "Time's done it again," he grated. "Only this time the guddler's scut has twisted himself all over Marmoreal, and probably even Underland."

Mirana's dark eyes narrowed, almost seeming to glow slightly with an angry fire. "When I saw him at the party last night, I thought he was just out for a little frivolity," she said. "If I had known he was planning a stunt like this…"

"There's nothin' we can do about 'im," Mally pointed out mournfully. "'E's one of th' mos' powerful bein's in Underland. We can't touch 'im."

The White Queen's fury abated a bit. "True," she conceded. "But still…" She shook her head.

Once more, the kitchen door opened, this time to admit Alice. "Good morning, everyone," she said cheerfully. Then she seemed to catch on to the general mood, and her good-natured smile faded. "What's wrong?" she asked cautiously.

Tarrant held up his watch and shook it slightly. "Time," he ground out from between his teeth. "He's got himself in a twist again, and this time it's more than just me and Thackery included."

Alice stepped forward to look at his watch. When she saw it, her eyes widened. "Is that really the time?" she gasped out.

"I'm afraid so," Mirana said. She cradled her cup of tea in both hands and sipped a little faster than her usual genteel way.

"So - we've all overslept this morning?" Alice ran her slender fingers through her blonde hair, her face adorably wrinkled with confusion. "I thought I was just tired from the ball last night."

"No, it wasn't jus' you," Mally growled. Her little paw flexed around the hatpin sword strapped to her waist, as if wishing she could use it on Time.

Alice warily glanced around. "I'm guessing since everyone is reacting this way, nothing like this has ever happened before?"

Mirana set aside her cup, her usual smile noticeably missing. "No. Usually Time will take a liking to or have a spat with one or two persons, and things will be different for them for a while. But he's never done something on this grand a scale before." With a slight curtsy, she excused herself and rushed as gracefully as possible from the room.

"Something is going on here," Alice declared. "There are too many coincidences for this all to be nothing. First Fate came for a visit, then Time, and now this?"

"Bad things come in threes," Tarrant offered. "This would be the third thing..." He was doubtful that it was the last, though.

Alice looked about as hopeful as he did, which wasn't very. "Both Fate and Time gave me warnings that things were going to start changing soon. And Mirana told me about something in the Oraculum, and-"

"Wait, wha'?" Mally's ears perked up a bit. "She saw somethin' in the Oraculum about all o' this?"

"I don't know if it's directly related," Alice informed her.

Tarrant wanted desperately to ask her what it was, but he knew better. Oftentimes knowing what was in the Oraculum before it happened brought about nothing good. He was a very painful example of that. "Let's hope it's not," he said. "Because we have enough to worry about already without something else landing in our laps."

Thackery served them breakfast with even more frenzy than usual. Since he, too, had overslept, he was in a tizzy to catch up with breakfast, then his preparations for lunch, then brillig, then the evening meal. The already mad Hare, it seemed, had just become a little madder.

As soon as they finished eating, Alice, Tarrant, and Mally escaped the kitchen. Once Thackery was by himself again, he would calm down and be better able to concentrate.

Alice nervously ran her hands down the front of her blue sundress. "I feel like I should be doing something to prepare for what's coming, but I don't know how to do so. At least on the Frabjous Day I knew a bit about what I was preparing to do. With all these jumbled warnings, I know next to nothing. How do you prepare to do a battle with Nothing?"

"There's no' much," Mally declared from her perch on Tarrant's Hat brim. "Th' bes' ye can do is try to b' prepared for anythin' tha' comes at ya."

Hatter nodded in agreement. "Mally's right." He wished he had even the slightest hint of Knowledge to impart, but he was basically useless. If only Time (blasted fellow), Fate (conniving witch), and the Oraculum (vague parchment) had been more specific. What was the point in once more calling upon Underland's Champion, if she didn't know what she was up against? It made no sense, even by Underlandian standards.

"Good morning, everyone," Chess drawled. He misted into existence between Tarrant and Alice, making the couple have to jump away from each other to make room for him. "Or should I say 'Good afternoon'?"

Tarrant violently fought back the Madness hovering at the edge of his mind. For some reason Chess was always able to rile up a reaction just by being in the same room. "I'd rather ye said nothin'," he snarled. "Else Ah'll make ye intae one of me hats."

Chess's grin widened as he stretched languorously. But the gleam in his big turquoise eyes made it more than clear that his careless attitude was a sham. "As long as I get to wear it, Tarrant." Turning to Alice, he said, "Now what's this about Time, Fate, the Oraculum, and warnings?"

Alice's voice was slightly stiff when she replied. "I have been given several warnings as of late that things in Underland are changing, and it all has something to do with me," she said. "All of those warnings are infuriatingly vague, however, so I have no idea how to prepare to fight an enemy I know nothing about."

"Hmm. Perhaps you are supposed to fight Nothing himself?" Chess thoughtfully tapped a paw against his chin, then shook his head. "No, no, that makes no sense."

"'Alf th' time, Underlan' makes no sense," Mally growled. "Wha's yer poin'?"

"I have one?" The Cat faked shock, then dropped the façade and turned back to Alice. "You know I never get involved in politics, dear."

"You do know something!" Tarrant accused.

Turning back to the Hatter, Chessur grinned so widely it looked like his face was split in half. "I always know something about what's going on," he said derisively. "The question is, what do I get in return for imparting such wonderful nuggets of Knowledge?"

Tarrant lost his already tenuous control. "Ah won' turn ye intae a Hat, ye-"

"Hatter!"

"Tarrant!"

Mally and Alice's mingled warnings quickly snapped him back to himself, but his meaning had been more than clear. Chess floated a little higher and, making sure he was out of reach of the infuriated Hatter, turned back to Alice. "There have been some stirrings in the Outlands," he said. "Reports of some - unusual things."

"The Outlands are already unusual," Tarrant pointed out. But he knew immediately what the Cat was hinting at. There could be no other explanation for what was happening.

Chess blinked his huge eyes lazily. "Unusual even for the Outlands," he clarified. "Besides, can't you feel that in the air?" He arched his back and shuddered slightly.

"Feel what?" Alice asked, clearly puzzled.

"Ah can."

Three pairs of eyes turned to Mally, who was suddenly interested in studying the seam along the shoulder of Tarrant's coat. Hatter hadn't even noticed her moving from his Hat brim, so focused had he been on the Cat. "There's somthin' in th' air," she said.

"An electricity," Chessur agreed. "There's a storm coming."

It took great effort for Tarrant's jaw not to drop. "A storm? In Marmoreal?" While it did rain sometimes, just to keep everything blooming and healthy, it never stormed with wind and lightning and the like. It usually stayed sunny throughout the rain, which painted the sky in beautiful rainbow colors during the daytime.

"Precisely," the Cat whispered as he evaporated into grey smoke, and then nothing.

Alice scowled at the last place Chess had been seen, then turned to the Mouse perched on Hatter's shoulder. "Mally, why didn't you say something before?" she asked gently.

"Ah was afrai' tae," she admitted. "Ah was afrai' tha' if Ah di', it woul' become true."

As if in testimony of her words, a deep rumbling echoed through the hall, lasting a few seconds before fading out. Tarrant and Alice rushed to the nearest window, both freezing in dread when they saw the black clouds building on the horizon. The occasional flicker of white light inside showed the true magnitude of the storm coming straight for Marmoreal.

Underland was falling apart at the seams, and it seemed no one knew how to repair it. And the few who did would tell not a soul - not even the one person they seemed to be depending on to save them all.

~To Be Continued~

Thanks again for your patience and kind words, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reading!