A/N: Thanks everyone for being so patient! Our family is in the process of moving, so updates may be a little slower for a few weeks. Thank you so much for all the reviews, they are all deeply appreciated!

"I'm out here alone, just trying to get home
to tell you I was wrong, but you already know.
Believe me I won't stop at nothing
to see you, so I've started running.

All that I'm after is a life full of laughter,
as long as I'm laughing with you.
And all that still matters is love ever after,
after the life we've been through -
'cause I know there's no life after you."
-Chris Daughtry

Lizzie woke early in the morning, without remembering having fallen asleep. Her hand still clutched the piece of paper beneath her pillow. She got up, feeling unrested and fairly sure she had been crying even in her sleep. Dragging herself from the bed, she went and opened the window, letting the natural light filter into the room. She slipped on her shoes, took the brush from the vanity and tried to untangle her hair. Her eyes glanced momentarily at the mirror above the basin of water, but then stopped and stared. The brush fell from her fingers.

"No...," she whispered. "No...No! NO!..."

She ran to the door and threw it open, looking for anyone. A footman stood outside.

"Please, sir," she said, flustered, "I need to speak to Mirana. It's very important."

"Certainly, m'lady. Please, follow me."

The footman led her through the corridors until they came to the Great Hall. Mirana was talking with a woman Lizzie hadn't seen before, but as they approached she looked up and smiled and excused herself from the conversation.

"Lizzie! Did you sleep well?" she asked. Mirana's eyes narrowed as she observed her distress. "What's wrong? Is there something the matter?"

"It was there," she blurted out. "I know it was there! I saw it when I was here before, and now it's gone!"

Mirana was puzzled. "What's gone? Whatever are you talking about?"

"My reflection...in the mirror! It's gone, just like in my world...it's gone here, too, now!

"Your reflection has disappeared? How long ago?"

"I don't know. It was there before, just a few days ago!" Lizzie though back to the last time she'd seen herself. It hadn't been here – it had been in the cavern. She'd seen her reflection in the rock. "No, wait – I saw it in the Crystal Cavern the evening before last!"

The queen was silent a moment. This was highly irregular. "I think I need to know what happened...in your world, Lizzie. Tell me from the beginning, the first time you noticed that something was wrong."

Lizzie told her the story of when she'd woken up in her mother's yard, when no one had been able to see her. She told her how she was able to pass through doors and walls and how Fred had taken her to Elphyne, and how she was invisible there as well. "But everyone could see me here! I don't understand..."

"Things sometimes work differently here in Underland," said Mirana. "Not everything is always as it seems. If you've been dreaming, you can still appear to be 'real' here, but if you're fading as your reflection has, that means that wherever your body actually is, something isn't right. You should have woken up in your world before that happened."

"What do you mean "wherever my body actually is"?" cried Lizzie. "Where am I? I don't want to go back to my world, I want to stay in Underland!"

Mirana looked at her sadly, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, Lizzie, but you're going to have to return. If your body isn't waking, you'll need to go back to it yourself with the blood of the Jabberwock. The next thing that will happen is that you will begin to fade. If you fade completely from here, your body will perish in your world as well. I don't think you'll have more than a few hours, in fact I'm surprised you're still here at all."

Lizzie was overwhelmed. Everything here, was it all a dream? The implications of that were staggering. "Was none of it real?" she whispered, frightened.

Mirana smiled kindly and shook her head. "No, it was real. As I said, things work a bit differently in Underland. Your spirit, your soul is really in Underland, just not your physical body."

Lizzie's face clouded. "But...if I go back...Fred...he'll think I left him! I swore I wouldn't leave him! I need him to know... I need to tell him, but I don't know where he is."

Mirana wondered just what had happened between the two on their journey. She hadn't had a chance to talk to Tarrant since yesterday in detail, only long enough to learn that Freddie was gone again. She herself had no way of finding him, in fact, she only knew of one who did...

"Chess!" Mirana called. "Chess, you're always drifting about, are you here?"

The cat suddenly materialized in the corner of the room. "Well, it's not as if there's anything else going on." he said, lazily. "I don't usually get involved in personal matters...however, I do owe him a favor." He hated being indebted to anyone and he was certain this would at least prove to be interesting. The cat flipped over slowly in mid-air and disappeared before Lizzie had a chance to thank him.

She turned back to Mirana. "If I wake up in my world, how would I get back to Underland?"

"I'll show you. Come, follow me."

Mirana led them down the corridors until they came to a small room, not much larger than a walk-in closet. Inside was a mirror. It was about 6 feet tall, and 3 feet wide, in an ornately crafted gold frame.

Mirana turned to Lizzie. "There are looking-glasses in your world that connect to this one. There are many of them, but they are sometimes hard to find, and are indistinct from normal ones unless you know what to look for." She then addressed the courtier who had followed them in with a lamp to light the room. "Please, bring the lamp over and hold it close to the mirror. Lizzie, come and look and I will show you what a connecting mirror will look like."

Lizzie followed her over. "I don't see anything different."

"Place your face against the glass and look into the mirror."

She did as Mirana directed. Looking sideways into the mirror, she could see what the difference was. There was no reflection. The light did not bounce off the surface, but seemed to light something behind the glass...about an inch inside was the surface of a different mirror. "There's another one inside!"

"Yes, from a mirror in your world, you'll be able to see the surface of this one. When you find one, you won't be able to come straight through, you'll need to concentrate very hard to make it work. It can be difficult for one who has never traveled by mirror before. "

"But what if I can't find one? Can't someone else come through and find me?"

"Unfortunately the mirror only works in one direction. As I've said, though, there are many magic mirrors. If you look, you'll find one."

Freddie didn't think he'd every felt so wretchedly horrible as he did that morning, stiff and sore from the rocks and exhausted from having slept no more than a few minutes between the hours. He stood up, leaning against the rocks and stared at the door that had mocked him last night. He picked up the claymore where he'd laid it yesterday and buckled it about his waist and walked over to the door, drawing the sword before he cautiously opened it. Nothing met him on the other side save a small hedgehog which squealed at him, frightened, and ran away. He shook his head, feeling like an idiot, and sheathed the weapon.

He'd come to a conclusion during the long, dark, sleepless night. First, without Lizzie, he might as well be dead. Second, a sure way to accomplish that was to take out Iracebeth. She was a queen, after all, and exiled or not there would be plenty of those still loyal to her, Stayne included. If he could get close enough to succeed in killing her, he was fairly sure someone would return the favor to him rather quickly. It wouldn't be difficult for him to find her after he'd crossed the Outland Mountains.

He made his way to the second door in Crims, only a fifteen minute walk away. That one took him to Southern Witzend where he had an hour's walk north to Iplam where he found the third door which led over the mountains into Eastern Outland. It had been a long time since he'd been here and he'd not found many doors on his travels. He'd need to be sure where she was first...he had a long walk either way.

He looked into the trees. "Where is she?" he called.

The leaves rattled as though in a breeze. "Whooooo...?" came a whisper.

"You know who I'm looking for! Iracebeth," he spat with loathing, "...where is she?"

"We...do not see...," came the whisper of leaves again. "not...our...concern..."

He raised his voice and played the only trump card he had. "You would protect the one who destroyed the Forest of Crims?" he shouted. "Who poisoned your brethren?"

A great sound of rushing wind filled the forest around him and the trees shook as though a mighty gale buffeted them. Little by little the noise subsided to many whispers which gradually joined as one voice.

"Follow us..." A path of rustling trees appeared above him, leading through the forest.

He followed.

Chess materialized in Witzend, where Freddie's cabin had once stood. It was the most obvious place to check. He saw the fresh scrapes by the door from his boots and grimaced. He'd missed him. Chess went through the door to Crims. There were two doors very close together here. One led to Witzend further to the south, the other close to the Tulgey Wood. He'd tried to memorize the paths of the doors when Freddie was younger, when Chess would occasionally accompany him. He thought of the two paths he could have taken and which doors they would be close to. The Tulgey Wood door would be useless unless he was merely wandering aimlessly. The Witzend door on the other hand was an hour's walk to an Outland door. He had no doubt which door he had taken, nor why he would have taken such a path. Freddie's claymore had never tasted blood as far as he knew, but he was reasonably sure if he didn't find him quickly, Iracebeth's would stain it today. He bypassed the doors and went straight to the where the last door opened into the Outlands. He would have had to walk from here and Chess could sense him close by.

Chess had never been fond of people in general, but Freddie had been one that he tolerated more than most. Like himself, the boy was a loner – a rare breed amongst Underlandians, though the cat could hardly blame him. Chess spotted him ahead, moving quickly through the forest, following the trees. He disappeared and reappeared behind Freddie.

"And just where might you be going?"

Fred jumped and spun around. "Chess! ...If Tarrant sent you, tell him I've made my choice," he said, "and I don't want to talk about it."

"What you do with your time is your own business, Freddie," said the cat, darkly. "I'm merely here to deliver a message. What you choose to do with it does not concern me."

Fred glared at him, "So...what is it?"

"Lizzie would like you to know that she's not really here and that she must go home. She says she'll try her best to return."

"What do you mean 'she's not really here'?"

"Apparently something happened to her in her world and she's been asleep all this time. Her reflection disappeared today, and Mirana's ordered her to drink the Jabberwock blood before sundown and wake up."

"Good," said Fred sadly. "She'll have no choice than to be rid of me."

The cat looked perplexed. "You know, I don't like to get involved... but I am curious as to just what is wrong with you."

"I'm crazy Chess, mad..."

"Yes, yes, I know...we're all mad here," he interrupted. "If this is about Iracebeth..."

"You don't understand."

"Don't I? There are things I know that no one knows..."

Freddie gave him a long look. "If you know, then you understand. I won't share the demons inside me with Lizzie. She doesn't deserve that."

"You fool!" said the cat. "There's nothing inside your head now that wasn't in there last week. You simply chose to ignore it then because you wanted to be happy."

"What are you saying?" he asked, indignant. "That I don't want to be happy now?"

Chess did not indulge his question with a simple answer. "Do you remember what I told you when you first came through the door in the Tulgey Wood?"

"That seems like a long time ago."

"Sometimes the things we seek are not always what we wish to find, and sometimes we find that which we did not wish to seek."

"Did you know then, Chess? What I would find?"

"I knew that you had found happiness. The question now is what are you seeking?" He didn't answer, and the cat continued. "I will tell you, the road you travel on does not lead to peace. Whether you want to listen or not, your brother is right – there is a choice to be made between living or dying. Dying is the easy choice, but slaying Iracebeth will not kill your demons. The only cure for that is time..." Chess paused a moment. "Do you remember, Freddie, what the Forest of Crims used to look like?"

"You mean the Dead Woods," Fred said bitterly.

"I want to show you something. Take my paw and see what I can see."

Reluctantly he placed his hand on the cats paw. In an instant, he found himself transported into a vision, flying high over Underland. The entire realm spread out before him in green and gold, except for a huge brown scar upon the land which marked the region once under command of the Red Queen.

The Forest of Crims used to be green and beautiful, like the Tulgey Wood, until the evil of Iracebeth's reign leached into it's very soil, killing all life there. Like the Valley of Iplam, there were only memories left of what it once was. The vision flew closer and closer, skimming over the trees of the Tulgey Wood, over and over, faster and faster, until the woods ended and he was flying over the crossroads which he and Lizzie had passed only a few days before. The trees here were broken, gnarled, and dead. He didn't want to be reminded of this, but the vision pushed on until it was flying over the Dead Wood of Crims. The flight now slowed, until he was barely crawling over the trees. It took him a moment to see what Chess had wanted him to see. In the tallest branches of the tallest trees - dry and twisted for so long...grew tiny green shoots. No longer than his fingertips, new life struggled up from out of the dead. And now that he had noticed it, he could see it everywhere. The Forest of Crims was healing.

"It's alive," he whispered, amazed.

"Yes, Freddie, even Crims and Iplam will live again. Don't you want to be here to see it?"

Fred smiled, but shook his head. "Not without Lizzie."

"Then I suggest you tell her that..."

"Don't let her leave before I get there!"

And then, he ran. For the first time in his life, running home instead of away. He made it to the first door, threw it open, and disappeared into Iplam. He had to stop there and think about which combination would be the quickest back to Marmoreal - he'd never been in a hurry to get there before. Unfortunately, he hadn't been thinking of ease of return on the way here and he now realized he was probably at the worst place he could possibly be. Any way he went wouldn't get him there quickly. His best bet was going to be to go straight east across the bottom of Iplam until he came to Hightopp Hill and then to the door on the other side which led directly to the first door at Marmoreal. He balked at the distance. It was a six hour walk at least, and it was nearly mid-afternoon...who knew how much time he had.

He threw his pack down and ran through the dry, dead fields of southern Iplam, faster than he'd ever run before. He didn't stop until he reached the edge of the Tulgey Wood where he was forced to slow down or drop from exhaustion. Nearly three hours later, he passed a door, but the wrong one. It would lead him to the Outland Mountains where there wasn't another door anywhere within a day's journey (at least not that he'd found). He started running again and less than an hour later was finally crossing the Hill and down into the valley beyond to the door that was his goal...the door to Lizzie. The closer he came to it, the more worried he became. What if she wouldn't forgive him? She had every right not to. Still, she'd sent Chess to find him... He slid more than ran down the valley, and finally his hand touched the knob of the door. He pulled it open into Marmoreal with only ten more minutes to go to the front gate of the castle.

Lizzie sat on a bench in the courtyard with Alice and Mirana nearby keeping her company. She'd rather just be alone, but she knew they were only trying to help so she said nothing. In her hand she held a small vial of florescent purple liquid. Her fingers were sweaty around it, and she hadn't looked at it since Mirana had given it to her three hours prior. She'd tried to hold out as long as possible, waiting for some news from Chess that he might have found Fred, but the sun was sinking lower in the sky and Mirana had told her she'd need to drink it before nightfall.

"If you fall asleep again here, it may be too late. You might not be here to wake up at all. It's better to do it sooner than later," she'd said.

She took the blood and held it up, catching the evening sun shining through the glass. She sighed sadly and flipped open the top. She turned to Mirana, willing herself not to cry, and said, "If you find Fred...tell him I didn't want to go..." She put the vial to her lips and...

...a cat appeared in front of her. "Chess!" Lizzie cried. "Did you find him?"

"You might not want to do that, yet," was all he offered before he disappeared.

She didn't notice Mirana look past her to the outer gate and smile, but she heard her say, "Alice, I have some things I'd like to go over with you for tomorrow. Would you be so kind as to accompany me?"

Lizzie looked up to catch Alice's smile and say, "Of course Mirana, I'd be happy to."

"Lizzie, remember, you need to drink that sooner, not later," Mirana admonished as she and Alice walked back to the castle, leaving a confused Lizzie alone.

About ten seconds later, she heard the footfalls of someone running down the path of the inner courtyard. She turned around in time to see him round the corner and fall, exhausted, to his knees.

"Fred?" It took her a second to shake off the shock before she jumped up and ran to him, dropping to her own knees before throwing her arms around him. Neither spoke, only clung to each other for what seemed an eternity. Finally, Fred moved back to rest his forehead against Lizzie's, and both looked with tear stained faces at each other.

"Save me...," he pleaded.

"Anytime," she whispered, before his lips crashed into hers.

He tasted like tears, reminding her of the Crimson Sea and she pulled him closer, his touch erasing the heartache of the last two days. She forgot where she was, forgot the castle, forgot Underland, forgot the Jabberwock blood, forgot about leaving. There was only him, and his arms, and his kiss, and her love for him, and his for her.

At last, he broke the kiss and stood, helping Lizzie to her feet. She noticed the dark smudges beneath his eyes. He looked as though he hadn't slept in days, and she thought it very likely that he hadn't. His hair was damp with sweat from running. He took her face in his hands, smoothing the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs as he gazed at her.

"Lizzie," he whispered. At the sound of her name from his lips her tears seemed to multiply, though she felt nothing but relief and happiness. "Lizzie...oh Li..." He shut his eyes tightly for a moment, loosing the battle against the tears that filled them. He drew a ragged breath, opened his eyes, and tried again, his voice catching on his words, "...I'm so terribly sorry. I'm so sorry...I never wanted to hurt you...you're everything to me, you're my life, you're my world...and I know...I know I don't...deserve for you to forgive me. But I love you...I love you so much and I swear, I swear...I'll do anything to make you happy."

She ran her fingers through his wet hair, smiling up at him. "You make me happy, Fred. You've always made me happy. No matter what else happens or has happened, there's no one else who could ever take your place."

He wrapped her tightly in his arms and they stood together, both feeling, for the first time since they left the cavern, whole and complete...and happy. She'd almost forgotten the small vial she'd stashed in her pocket - how unfair could life be to her, that she would have to leave just when he'd come back?

"Fred," she said, anguished, "I have to go. Mirana said if I didn't, I'd die in my world and this one both." She looked at him. "She said there were mirrors...mirrors that lead back here. She showed me how to tell the difference."

He nodded an affirmative. "There are mirrors. There are lots of mirrors, but they're hard to find."

"What if I can't find one?" she asked with worry.

He stared at her fiercely for a moment before he said, "I'll find a way to get you back, Lizzie, if I have walk every realm between mine and yours."

She shook her head. "Don't leave Underland...give me a chance to find the way back first. I don't want to come back and find you've left to find me."

Fred grimaced. Being patient wasn't his strong suit at even the best of times. "You have a month," he said. "A February month - and not leap-year, either...28 days. That's it...that's all I can stand. Any longer than that and I'll assume the Mega-bitch is holding you captive. Understand?"

"Understood," she said smiling.

He gave her a quick kiss. "Come on. Chess said you had until sundown. There's somewhere I want you to see. " He took her hand and ran with her back through the courtyard, and into the woods where his door stood. He opened it and pulled her through with him.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Why do always ask me that when you know I won't tell you?" he laughed. "There's another door, not very far..."

A few minutes later, he found it. He turned to her, smiling. "I assume it hasn't changed much in fifteen years. It's on top of a mountain, after all."

Lizzie stepped through with Fred following behind her. They were on top of a mountain, to be sure. All around them, Underland spread out like a huge checkered quilt, sewn in greens and golds in the last rays of the setting sun.

Fred put his arms around her from behind. "You can see forever up here," he whispered.

Lizzie leaned against him. "The sun is setting..." She felt in her pocket for the Jabberwock blood. There was something else in her pocket, too, and she smiled, remembering what it was.

"I have something for you," she said, turning towards him. "so you won't forget me..."

"I hope you're not worried about that."

She pulled the rings out of her pocket and held them up.

Fred did a double take. "Where did you get those?" he asked in a low voice.

She looked at him, puzzled. "Don't be silly, you know perfectly well where I got them. I picked them off the tree in Queast after you told me not to." Why was he looking at her so strangely?

"Do you know what they are?" he asked, quietly.

He was making her nervous. Had she missed something here? "Um...they bind the giver to a promise made to the receiver?"

"Who told you that?"

"No one told me that," she said defensively, "I looked it up in your journal. What? Have you used them before?"

Fred looked taken-aback and blushed furiously. "Of course not!"

Lizzie was throughly confused. "Okay," she said shaking her head, "I've obviously missed something here. What's the deal with the rings?"

"What did my journal say? It's been awhile."

"There wasn't much...just that they bound the giver to a promise made to the receiver, that they had to be used together, and a bunch of technical stuff about the tree."

A slow grin spread across Fred's face. "Oh...well, that explains things."

"Explains what? Quit being so mysterious and tell me! The sun's going down."

"My journal seems to be a bit...um...incomplete and nebulous."

"You think? ...So, do you want them or not?"

He could tell she was getting frustrated. "That depends," he said, stepping closer to her.

"On what?"

He leaned over and whispered huskily in her ear, "On what you want me to promise you."
He didn't wait for her answer, but kissed the spot just below her ear softly, moving down the side of her neck, across her collarbone. She groaned softly and wrapped her arms around him. "What do you want from me, Lizzie?" he murmured.

"I want you," she said, breathlessly. "All of you, forever." She felt him smile against her skin.

He pressed a kiss to the hollow of her throat, and then moved back to look at her. "That's the idea..." His eyes, usually a lighter shade of blue, were as dark as sapphires. "They're promise rings, Lizzie... the promise of a more...binding promise."

Lizzie's addled mind muddled slowly through his words until she grasped the meaning of them. "Oh!" Her heart began to race as she finally understood what she'd offered him and found herself at quite a loss at to what to say.

He put his cheek lightly against hers and ran his hands down her arms until they found Lizzie's, intertwining his fingers with hers and whispered, "The question isn't whether I want them..." He paused, bringing their hands in between them. Locking his eyes on hers, he knelt before her and said, "The question is do you want them...and me...forever?"

"Are you serious?" she asked, skeptically.

He scowled at her. "What in the world could possibly make you think I'm not serious?" he asked, irritated.

"Sorry, old habits die hard, I suppose." She pressed her lips together, unsuccessfully trying to hide her grin, and he realized she was teasing him.

He stood up and grabbed her by the waist, swinging her around. "Who taught you all these nasty habits?"

She put her arms around his neck and smiled at him, "Well, you see...I used to have this imaginary friend with crazy red hair and strange green clothes..."

"Whoever could you be talking about?" He closed the distance between them, his lips touching hers as he spoke. "Marry me, Snot-face."

She barely had time to say "Okay," before he kissed her.

"Here," he said, holding out his hand, "give me the rings."

She handed them to him and he held the smaller one between his fingers. "Take the larger one...hold it tight." He pulled quickly and the rings parted with a small snap. He took her left hand in his. "You have to make a promise for them to work." He slid the smaller ring onto her ring finger, though it was much too large to fit properly. He looked into her eyes and said. "I promise, I'll never leave you again."

She gasped as the ring suddenly shrank until it fit perfectly around her finger. She mimicked what Fred had done and took his left hand in hers. Placing the ring on his ring finger, she said, "I promise, I'll come back to you." As hers had done, the larger ring shrank until it fit.

And then, two even more unexpected things happened.

First, Lizzie became aware of a wave of emotion that gently washed over her, subtle and not her own. Like one blind since birth and suddenly seeing, she found it impossible to describe other than in what she had ever known – in taste, and smell, and feel, and color. As at a loss as she was to define it, it was distinctly Fred...and Freddie. The two halves of himself that her mind had separated into neatly confined compartments now merged and mingled with each other until one man stood before her, and she felt him in her mind. The second unexpected thing was that Lizzie could now clearly see the door they'd come through, standing at the edge of the summit.

Fred, for his part, felt his connection with Lizzie intensify until it was as strong and clear as it had ever been when she'd been his charge. Her determination and courage flowed through him, banishing the still lurking darkness from every corner of his mind.

He looked at her. "Lizzie..." he thought.

"I heard that!" she said. In her mind, she asked, "Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I can hear you."

"Wow," she said. "That's pretty bizarre." No sooner had she said it than she felt something...wrong. Her vision turned to black. "Fred..."

He caught her as she fell, even as he could feel her slipping away. He realized belatedly that Time must have stood still for them while they'd been up here. The sun was no lower in the sky than when they'd arrived, yet it should be fully dark by now. He searched her frantically for the Jabberwock blood she'd had in her hand. He found it in her pocket and drew her head into his lap. She'd already started to fade, her skin was deathly pale and nearly translucent. Flipping the cap open, he poured the vile liquid into her mouth.

"Lizzie, wish to wake up!" He saw her swallow reflexively, but there was no sign that she heard him. "Lizzie, wake up! You have to wish it, listen to me...," and he concentrated as hard as he could, inching his way across time and space until he touched her mind. "Lizzie," he whispered, "wish to wake up..."

His voice ceased her panic and she listened to it as he whispered to her. "I wish to wake up..." was her last conscious thought – until she did.

A/N: It's so much easier to write Fred/Lizzie than each of them apart!

A bit of Trivia - I made Freddie's Map of Underland before I ever started writing Chapters 17 and 18. I basically just started drawing doors in and connecting them. Instead of changing it, I used it as a basis for this chapter. When I had to have Freddie leave Iplam to get to Marmoreal, I looked at the map and realized I'd put him into the worst possible place. He balked at the distance...so did I, lol.

Part 3 of the story starts next chapter!