Author's Note - This chapter involves a character, and scenes my best friend Jess thoroughly enjoyed helping me create. Love ya' Jess!


Maeve was shocked when the stone gryphon spoke to her. When she heard his voice, she noticed how it was a low and gravely kind of voice. Maeve always like those gravely voices, they just seemed more comforting to her.

"What?" Maeve asked.

"Welcome, child of Alice." He said again.

"Child of Alice?"

"Yes we have been looking for you."

"Why?"

"We need you to help us. We have been fighting against the Red Queens for a long time now. But no matter how hard we try we have not been making even the smallest of dents in their forces."

"Dents? Dents? If you want dents why not take a hammer and smash em'" says a large, round bald fellow wearing a red striped shirt, black shorts with red suspenders, and black shoes.

"Don't you remember Tweedledum, we already tried that." said another large, round bald fellow, also wearing a red striped shirt, black shorts with red suspenders, and black shoes.

"We did? Well why not try again?"

"'Cause we got her here now, idiot." he said pushing Tweedleedum

"But she's so small. Will she make a big enough dent if we use her?" said Tweedledee pushing back Tweedledum

"Maybe if we throw her?" Tweedledum kicked Tweedledee

"Yeah, we got a catapult, why not throw her?" Tweedledee punched Tweedledum

"But I do not wish to be thrown anywhere." said Maeve watching the two fight each other

"But it's fun!" they both cried at her as they stopped fighting

"Not for me!" Maeve cried back "I would break if I was thrown."

One of the twins reached out and pulled her arm, seeing that it was like a stick he and his brother had played with before. The stick had been broken very easily and it wouldn't go back together so they stopped playing with it.

"You would break. Your no fun." he whined

Maeve rolled her eyes and sighed. She knew that being small and skinny had their advantages, it's just most people made fun of her because she was small and skinny, or didn't take her seriously because they thought she was still a kid.

As Tweedledee and Tweedledum walked back to where they once were the stone Gryphon spoke again.

"Please, come and sit." The stone gryphon said pointing to a chair that was placed to his left, at the corner of the table.

"Okay."

Maeve started to walk down the long room, seeing that most of the creature were staring at her as she kept going. The

room seemed to grow longer and longer, making Maeve walk a little faster to her destination, so she wouldn't hold these creatures up any more than she already had.

Finally she made it to the chair next to the Gryphon, and sat down, noticing the table was high above her head. The chair's legs grew longer at a quick rate, to when it stopped growing Maeve went a foot higher in the air, and then fell back onto the seat with a light thump.

Maeve looked up at the Gryphon next to her and he nodded. He looked up and gazed at the crowd.

"Now that we have Maeve by our side we will be able to set out on our ultimate plan. We have learned from Graver, that the gems that the Queens are mining can produce and conduct electricity.

And also from the reports he has stolen from the Queens, personal barracks, tell us that the other kingdoms also have these gem deposits somewhere in their kingdoms. The Queens wish to have these gems so that their scientist can work on them and figure out how to use them to their own advantage.

The other kingdoms have held out, keeping the gems under their own rule but the Red Queens are getting very close to taking over.

Graver has heard from the Red Queens scientist that he has found some type of device in the old White kingdom. A device that involves using the gems. We do not know what that device looks like, nor where it is in the old kingdom. We will

have to send a few to infiltrate the Queens Castle and find the diagrams of the device, during that we will let a group of people, journey to the Caterpillar to ask what we should do about the device."

"Who will be the ones to infiltrate the Queens Castle?" asked Dee-Dee

"It will be you, and your group. You will try and find the diagram as quickly as possible. The ones I will send to the Caterpillar will be, Maeve, Dodo, and Gilda."

"Oh, Come on!" cried a smaller golden Gryphon to the right of the Stone Gryphon "I'm sick and tired of doing these boring reconisants, I want to fight some guards! Make a dent in the forces!"

"GILDA!" yelled the Stone Gryphon "You are to be with Maeve as you go to the Caterpillar, I don't want you fighting. No arguing."

Maeve made eye contact with Gilda and smiled, but Gilda looked away with a huff.

"That is the end - " started the stone gryphon

"It seems that we have an intruder." said a deep purring voice next to Maeve

Maeve looked where the voice originated and saw a tall mangy, emaciated cat, with a hoop earing in one ear, his left eye a sickly-yellow color, and if the right one was a different color she would not know, because for the moment it was missing leaveing an empty socket, but she noticed his most prominent feature was his extremely wide grin.

"Who is the intruder Corkscrew?"

"A certain . . . Hatter."

"What?"

At that moment the door burst open and there stood an extremely tall man who seemed fit for the position of being a scarecrow. At the top he wore a black top hat with red fabric wrapped above the rim, with a few colorful pins in it, a piece of yellowed paper that had the fraction 10/6 on it, and a black tailcoat that curved into points behind his knees. Underneath the tailcoat was a lime green vest, and a burnt orange ascot. He also had pinstriped pants, that made his long legs seem even longer, and brown pleaser shoes.

He jumped onto the table not caring about the things he stepped on, and started to run down it. One of the creatures also jumped onto the table but lunged for the man, making him jumped to the side, stepping on Tweedledee and Tweedledum, making there heads dissaper into their bodies. Then jumping into the air, and making a flip he landed on the corner of the table that Maeve sat.

Taking his hat off he gave a deep bow to the girl who sat in front of him.

"Thankyou for saving me, Princess." He says with a smile

Maeve suddenly remembered "You're the man in that shop." she said smiling, happy he was okay

The Hatter's smile widened as he nodded.

Maeve opened her mouth to speak but the stone Gryphon quickly used his claw to swipe the bowing man off of the table to the ground across from Maeve.

Maeve gasped as she saw the creatures pulling the Hatter over to a guillotine, that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Maeve quickly looked at Corkscrew, who looked at the Hatter with a sad look in his eye.

Just as they put the Mad Hatter's head into the guillotine Maeve stood up, and the chair also rose, getting her taller than anyone else in the room.

"STOP!"cried the small child

Everyone did stop, but the look of hatred they all gave her made her flinch.

"What?" yelled Gilda

"He said I saved his life, correct?"

"Yeah what of it?"

"If I saved his life dosn't that mean it is mine to choose to end or continue?"

The group glanced at each other, and at the same time thinking That's true, but she dosen't know what he did.

"You don't understand. He deserves this!" cried the stone Gryphon

"What did he do?" asked Maeve

"MMLPHM!"

Maeve looked over her shoulder where she heard the muffled sound and saw Tweedledee and Tweedledum running around like chickens when they got their hads cut off.

Then they finally bumped into each other, and at impact their heads popped back out.

"He's a traitor!" cried Tweedledum

"We had a plan that would have taken down the Red Queens!" yelled Tweedledum

"We would have been able to get rid of all the forces against us!"

"But he gave the Queens information on the plan!"

"Completely destroying any chances of use defeating the Queens!"

"So that's why he deserves it!"

"Yeah!"

Maeve understood where they were coming from. They had a good plan that was ruined by somebody. But she also knew that there were two sides to each story, and so far she only heard one.

"Let him go. I control his life, not you." said Maeve defiantly

Everyone looked at her as if she had been the traitor, but she wasn't, she was their last hope. Slowly but surely everyone moved away from the Hatter, allowing him to remove his head from the guillotine, but while the Hatter's gaze was still on the ground, Corkscrews head floated up with the Hatter's hat on his head.

Maeve took it giving Corkscrew a knowing smile.

He still cares, even if it's just a little, he still cares.

"Corkscrew, take them to an empty room." said the Stone Gryphon as he walked out of the room down a hallway

"Will do." replied Corkscrew

The Hatter walked over to the girl who held his hat, and when she smiled at him he couldn't help but get a warm feeling in his heart. He bowed his head to her and she placed his hat on his head pushing it down with a little tap on the top.

Then the chair slowly decreased in height, enough for her to jump off of the chair to land next to the Hatter. When she looked up she was a bit shocked at his height.

"You seemed alot shorter at the shop." she said, a little blush forming on her cheeks

The Hatter shrugged his shoulders "I always seem shorter when I sit down, as do most people" he said

Maeve sighed, and looked at Corkscrew.

"Thankyou for the distraction." she said reaching up to pat him on the head

"You're welcome." he purred out

This girl is strange, she always seems happy with that smile of hers, and she's polite at well. I wonder if she's twisted enough to last in Wonderland Corkscrew thought as he enjoyed her patting his head.

"I need to bring you two to a room." said Corkscrew

"Alright. Lead the way Sir Cork." Maeve said saluting

What? Corkscrew wondered Maybe she's mad enough afterall.


Disclaimer - I do not own Alice in wonderland in any way at all, not the books, the movies, T.V. shows or the games . . . sadly :(

But I do own this story.