A/N: Sorry about the long gap, you guys. I'm studying abroad at the moment, and I'm using all my free time to explore instead of write. I'll update every now and then, I promise - I'm not going to let this story go unfinished! For now, just enjoy this chapter. ^_^ Thanks for all the support and nudges to update - it helps me get my butt in gear!

..

The first thing the Duchess did after locking Jack in the Dining Hall was promptly trip and fall flat on her face while trying to run in her heels. Brushing her concerned attendants aside, all of them barely able to hide their curiosity over that night's events, Duchess bustled past them and down the hallway leading to her room.

First things first, she thought, kicking off her shoes and nestling her aching toes deep into the plush carpet of their bedroom. She rang the summons bell on her dresser and flung open the double doors to her walk-in closet. "Nine," she called out when she heard him approach. "I need some food from the kitchens in a knapsack. Enough for… let's say three days. Bread, water, some fruit, cheese… you know, travel food."

"Yes Ma'am," she heard distantly, busily yanking on her one and only pair of pants. Duchess didn't like pants in general, but these were made of a shiny, black Momerath hide that she particularly liked. It looked like leather, fit like a glove, and wore like iron. She threw a matching black vest over her red top and big, sturdy boots normally used for supervising major Hedge Maze maintenance. She was putting the finishing touches on her hair, fixing the voluminous waves into a tight French braid, when Nine returned with her knapsack.

"Thank you," she said curtly, grabbing the bag from his hands and slinging it over her shoulder on her way out the door without missing a beat. "Send word to the stables to have Diamond ready. I'll be there shortly."

..

The Duchess had only ever been to the armory once before – when the "Knights" had been attacking the palace and she'd grabbed a weapon in case her rescue of Jack went awry – but it stood out in her memory. Also, even if she hadn't been there physically in months, she had recently needed to have the whole place reorganized and inventoried, so she was intimately familiar with its contents. She knocked on the door loudly, hoping the attendant would be in there so she wouldn't have to search for him.

She was in luck. The Three of Spades opened the door and jumped in surprise upon recognizing her. "Y- your Majesty!"

"I need something compact and automatic," she said, forgoing the normal formalities and striding past him purposefully. "Quieter than a gun, but just as powerful. Would you recommend the crossbow or harpoon gun?"

It took a moment for the Three to catch up with her train of thought. "You need… um, well…" He coughed and pointed toward the rack of compact hunting crossbows. "These are probably what you're looking for, Majesty. The harpoon guns have more force, but the chain…"

"Only good for short distances," the Duchess muttered, taking a hunting crossbow off the rack and examining it carefully. Her fingers were trembling so violently that she could barely hold it without dropping – she forced herself to take a deep, steadying breath. Part of being Queen was keeping up appearances. It wouldn't do to let the staff know how terrified she was.

The crossbow was elegantly constructed and extremely compact, perhaps only a little bit longer than her forearm. "Great," she said. She tossed him her knapsack. "I'll be taking this with me; fill it with ammo." As an afterthought, she added, "And put a couple exploding ones in there, too."

..

She let Diamond carry her as far as the Lake before she finally stopped running. The last few rays of light from the sunset were just clinging onto the horizon, and Duchess knew that in ten minutes' time she'd have only the meager moonlight to guide her. She dismounted right on the shoreline and sat on a flat-topped rock, watching Diamond drink and trying to come up with a plan.

She wasn't doing very well—her thoughts were scattered, frazzled, trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. She couldn't shake the image of Jack from her mind: pale, pathetic, angry…in pain… When they had met, she recalled with a sigh, she had been so sure that he was going to make her happy forever.

..

It had been a pretty simple proposal, which, considering the two of them, was something extraordinary in itself. The Duchess had often wondered in the following months how odd that, given they had lived their lives in glitz, glamour, and theatrics, something so monumental should be so quiet, so effortless.

She had been re-puffing her hair to its normal volume when she heard a knock on her trailer door. "Come in," she called.

Jack walked in, filling up her tiny trailer and, it seemed to the Duchess, taking all the oxygen along with it. She struggled to keep her composure calm and unimpressed – the key to controlling men, she had found, was to make them feel like they needed to impress you.

"Duchess," he began, first folding his hands in front of them and then putting them to his sides where his fingers flickered nervously. Duchess' eyebrows drew together – Jack was anxious about something. "You do know that I love you. Very much, in fact."

Duchess' composure slipped, the baited hitch in her breath a betrayal of her excitement. She stood up to match him and took his slightly shaking hands in hers. "I know you do, Jack," she said.

"But you know that someday I will be King." His tone was cautious, but Duchess did not waver.

"Of course I know that," she said, smiling teasingly and moving to kiss his cheek. "But you are a good man, Jack, and you will be a good King."

He relaxed visibly, even smiled, a real smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes ever-so-slightly. "Then," he said, dropping down to one knee –

-the Duchess' breath literally stopped in her throat—

-"Duchess, you are as intelligent and kind as you are beautiful, and I want you by my side when I create a new Wonderland." He took a deep breath. "Will you please do me the honor of being my wife?"

And what else could she say?

The Queen was as short as rumors had whispered, with a wide face and a wider body. She peered critically at Duchess from the dais across the room, settled in her enormous throne and not saying a word. The Duchess just stood there and waited to be addressed, trying desperately not to fidget and instead look as cool and collected as possible.

(Her whole life, she would never forget the feeling of fear that shivered through her when Jack finally said, "Of course, you know my mother will have to give her approval."

"What?" she had asked him sharply. "I—I mean—"

"Don't look so surprised," he said smoothly, as though he were surprising her with something actually pleasant, like jewelry. "You will be her immediate successor, remember. Besides, it's tradition: the reigning Queen has to approve the Royal Jack's choice of wife."

"She won't like me." It wasn't an opinion she was voicing: it was a fact.

The two of them looked at each other with equally stubborn expressions (hers slightly more terrified). Eventually Jack came over and took her hands in his.

"She'll like you," he comforted. "She will. You've landed every audition you've ever had, haven't you? This is just another one of those, and the rules are the same: be confident and don't give in.")

In the throne room, seconds ticked by in an excruciatingly slow and deafeningly silent manner. Almost a whole minute had passed before the Queen finally stood up and said:

"You're a pretty little thing."

Duchess didn't quite know what the proper response to this was, so she just settled for a little bow and continued to stare calmly at the opposing wall as the Queen advanced.

"Stupid, though," she continued, her voice dripping with disdain. "And weak, too, that much is obvious."

The Duchess' eyes snapped to the Queen's face in shock. She couldn't believe… "Excuse me!" she spluttered.

"Oh, she speaks!" the Queen said in a mocking tone, stopping her advance within an arm's reach of the Duchess. "It doesn't matter, you know. I can already tell you'll never be a good Queen. It's just not in you, my dear." She leaned forward, smiling slow and cat-like. "You're too soft. Positively gutless."

"I want to marry your son," the Duchess declared, and even though her face and posture remained relaxed her voice sounded shaky. "And he wants to marry me."

"Jack doesn't know what he wants," the Queen dismissed, turning away and walking back to her throne. "Fortunately, I do."

The Duchess stayed a careful five steps behind as the Queen moved back to sit on her throne. Her mind was running wild with the possible outcomes of this meeting, but she tried not to dwell on any of them… particularly the ones that ended with her headless. She reached unconsciously for her throat at the thought.

"I think you'll make a good wife for Jack," the Queen said suddenly. The Duchess only barely managed to keep her jaw from dropping in shock. The Queen didn't give her a chance to respond, saying, "I know you will, because you'll do what I tell you. Jack is as young and stupid as you are – a wildly romantic love affair will do wonders for his public image, and I need someone to keep an eye on him."

The Duchess paused. "What makes you think I'll do that?"

The Queen smiled. "Because you want to be rich and famous and comfortable. You want have an easy life and the freedom to be a silly, pretty thing. In short, you want to marry my son, andiI know that in order to do that you will do what I tell you to do. Everyone wins."

The Duchess gulped and pursed her lips together, trying her best to meet the Queen's glare with one of her own.

But the Duchess was no match for the Queen of Hearts—her eyes flickered down to the floor obediently.

"I expect weekly reports," the Queen said. "We'll announce your engagement tomorrow. You may go."

And before Duchess could utter a sound of resentment, or opposition, or even surprise… the doors to the throne room slammed shut behind her, the two very nice Clubs at her elbows escorting her out of the palace.

..

Now, three years older and ten years wiser, the Duchess was feeling an acute sense of sympathy for her former self. She had so badly wanted that kind of life… she had justified her betrayal by thinking that, once she was Queen and Jack was King, they could put the past behind them. The two of them would be kind and powerful and just, and they would have the resources to take on anything that threatened them.

And then everything had more or less hit the fan, leaving her back at square one: feeling completely out of her depth, drowning in uncertainty, alone and scared. Scared for her husband, scared for her kingdom… and, sitting here on the steadily darkening lakeside with only her horse for company, scared for her own personal safety.

I'm tired of being scared, said a small voice in the back of her head.

The last vestiges of the sun slipped beyond the horizon, and the world faded away.

I'm tired of being scared, the voice said, a little bit louder. A feeling of resolve settled in the pit of the Duchess' stomach, and she sat up a little straighter on her rock. The Queen said I was stupid and weak, she thought. Well, by God, I'm not that girl anymore!

She stood up and, feeling energy pulsing through her every pore, grabbed a rock and flung it out into the Lake. "I am Queen!" she yelled into the night, letting the sound bounce off the Lake's surface and echo oddly into the thin night air. "And I make the rules now!"

She felt like she was on fire, like she could fly, like she could climb a mountain! It almost made her laugh out loud, this feeling of invincibility. For lack of a proper audience, she grabbed Diamond's reigns and pulled the horse's head closer so she could look straight into her big, brown eyes. "Diamond," she said very seriously, "We are DONE being scared. We are going into that forest, and we will find Alice, Hatter, and Charlie, because if anyone in Wonderland can help us it's them, and we are going to save my husband!"

And with that, she climbed aboard and galloped off into the night.

..