A/N: Sorry about the long wait! The timeline of my next several chapters is really confusing, and I wanted to make sure I had it all straight before moving on, so I could shuffle things around if I needed to. I've had this chapter done for EVER in the meantime, but I figured that taking a pause of yet-undefinable length on such a cliffhanger would be cruel. ^_^ Enjoy!

..

All she could do was lean down and take his lips in hers in a hungry, delirious kiss. "Yes," she finally remembered to whisper as their mouths met again and again. "Yes, yes."

Hatter's shout of relief was quickly muffled by kisses that deepened with an almost frantic pace, and it was only with extreme reluctance that Alice forced herself apart from him some minutes later.

"You're still wounded," she reminded him breathlessly, face still flushed.

"I'm sure the important parts of me still work," he teased, waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively with a lascivious grin. Alice smacked his knee and he cackled, grabbing the hand before she could reclaim it and kissing the back of it with a loud smacking sound.

"I love you," she said without even thinking about it. The words just rolled right out of her mouth.

Hatter smiled shyly, which was a rather uncommon look for him and one Alice quite liked. He kissed her hand again, softly this time. "I am never going to leave you," he promised, with his big brown eyes locked on her face and his lips ghosting against her fingers as he spoke.

Alice waited as the full meaning of those words sunk in, and found herself sniffling before she even realized that her cheeks were streaked wet with tears. "God, why can't I stop crying?" she half-laughed, half-moaned, wiping at her eyes. Hatter chuckled and swiped a thumb across her cheek.

"It's been a rough coupl'a days," he admitted.

"No sleep," Alice hmphed.

"Breaking up."

"You almost dying."

"And I've always been under the impression that women were supposed to cry when proposed to. Social graces, and what have you."

"Well, it ends here," Alice said, wiping the last evidence of tears from her cheeks. "I mean it, no more crying. It's too exhausting." In an effort to distract herself and unable to stop touching him at the moment, she picked up his hand again, shaking her head at the gauze. "You really punched a tree?"

"And then Charlie tried to give me advice on women."

"He didn't."

"He did."

"Well, I guess that's two things I have to thank him for, then."

Hatter frowned suddenly and craned his neck toward the back of the cave. "Where is that crazy old goat, anyway?" His eyes widened, suddenly realizing something else that had gone missing. "And my hat!"

"Charlie's napping and your hat's over by my sleeping bag," Alice snapped irritably, pushing him back down again. "And I told you to stay down! It's only been a few hours, your wounds could still open up again, and I'd like to have a 24-hour gap between near-death experiences for once, thank you."

Hatter rolled his eyes dramatically and opened his mouth as if to comment, but then his mouth snapped shut and his head whipped to the mouth of the cave. "Did you hear that?" he asked sharply.

Alice immediately went tense and followed his gaze, with the sinking feeling that her simple request for peace was not in the cards. They hadn't heard a thing from that bird the entire time they'd been in here, but what she was hearing now wasn't the head-splitting sonic waves they had run from. It sounded more like the rustling of bushes and branches, underneath which she could halfway make out a rhythmic, clopping sound like horse hooves. She put Hatter's hand down and moved as if to stand.

"Alice!" he whispered urgently, fidgeting desperately trying to hold her down. "Don't—"

"Don't you dare move a muscle!" she scolded with a wild look in her eyes, carefully sidestepping over to the campfire where Charlie's sword lay next to his drying armor. "I just need something to defend—"

But she wasn't quick enough. A final, louder rustling noise and a large, Palomino horse came into view. Alice could see a rider sitting tall, but couldn't make out the details as her eyes struggled against the bright lights of the outside world. The rider dismounted with a huge sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank God," the Duchess' voice echoed back to them, with no small sigh of relief. "I finally found you!"

..

From his hidden perch, Lory watched with keen interest as the Duchess found the cave and carefully crept inside, her hands up in front of her in supplication. Scree fidgeted, eager for her first kill since captivity. Lory was inclined to give it to her, but he reigned himself in and nudged her gently with his foot. "Not now," he cooed. "We don't have the girl yet, remember sweetie. Besides..." He nodded at the place where the Duchess had last stood and smiled. "I want to see what the little Queen is up to."

..

"I've been riding for two days looking for you," the Duchess' voice echoed back to them, with no small sigh of relief.

Alice blinked rapidly, still squinting into the daylight. "…Duchess? Is that you?"

"Yes, it's me," she said, holding up her hands in a classic I'm-not-going-to-hurt-you gesture. "No tricks, I swear."

"What are you doing here?" Alice asked, stepping forward and bringing her into their circle of campfire. "Are you all by yourself? Where's Jack?"

The Duchess' expression tightened. "Jack's the reason I'm here, actually. I think… I think something's gone wrong." She moved as if to sit by the fire, but caught sight of Hatter and jerked away, making a strange sort of wheezing noise. "Oh God, Hatter, what happened to you?"

"Nice to see you, too," he said with a raised eyebrow, somewhat insulted by the way she kept inching away from him. "I got hurt, that's all. What's wrong with you?"

"I have a… thing… with blood," she said, sounding quite faint.

Alice sighed. She looked at Duchess with obvious disbelief. "Really?"

"Well, it's not like I've had much exposure to it!" Duchess snapped. It was true – the only blood Duchess had ever really seen was the fake blood they used on movie sets, or when she occasionally cut herself shaving, or from a papercut. Seeing evidence of such a large quantity of it… she could feel her stomach turning. "I don't suppose he could… go somewhere else?"

"No," the two of them said in unison. "He's got to stay in one place for the Liffaleaf to heal," Alice explained. "Duchess, can't you just… turn your back on it?"

Duchess shook her head frantically. "No. Now that I know it's there… ugh, I can smell it…" she looked pleadingly at Alice. "Can't we go to the front of the cave or something? Where the fresh air is?"

Alice sighed and looked down at Hatter, who was looking at the Duchess with an exasperated look she knew well – it was often pointed at her. "I need to hear what she's got to say," she explained.

Hatter nodded. "Fine. Fill me in when you get back. I'll still be here," he mumbled with a sour expression.

Alice's mouth tilted in a smile and she leaned down to tousle his hair again. He caught her hand briefly in his and let it slip through his fingers.

(When her back was turned, he propped himself up on his forearms so he could shuffle over to the side just a few inches. It wasn't much, but it was just enough to grab his hat where it lay and plop it back onto his head with a satisfied smirk.)

..

"Okay, Duchess," Alice prompted, now all business as they walked slowly away from the campfire and towards the cave's opening. "Fill me in. You've come too far for this to be just a social call."

Duchess took a steadying breath, organizing the facts in her head. "Something is definitely wrong with Jack," she said firmly. "Ever since you all left, he's been… well, it's like he's been possessed."

"Possessed?" Alice frowned. "By what?"

"I don't know, that's the problem. And it's been getting worse and worse every day, some of the things he's said… and Alice, he looks so old now." She gripped Alice by the shoulders and looked her square in the face. "Alice, whatever it is, I think it's killing him. And I think it has something to do with the Glass breaking."

"Why didn't you just send a letter?"

"It's too dangerous for me to stay at the palace – he's gotten violent, Alice. I locked him in the dinner hall so I could get away on Diamond."

"Is he still there?"

"I don't know. I doubt any of the staff would have released him since I was the one who locked him in, but he is still the King. He might have persuaded one of them to let him out by now."

Alice groaned and rubbed her face roughly, turning away and taking the few extra steps into daylight. It felt good to feel the sun's warmth on her skin after so long in the damp, dark cave. She turned back toward the Duchess, mouth open to ask a question—

But she never got to finish. A giant metal claw had gripped her around the stomach, stealing the breath from her lungs and lifting her into the air quicker than she could gather the breath back to scream.

..

"ALICE!"

The Duchess' scream ripped through the cave, echoing off the rocks and raising Hatter instantly upright. He ignored the shooting pains in his side as he bolted to the mouth of the cave, where the Duchess was rising shakily to her feet.

"Where…" Hatter started to ask, but he followed the Duchess' upward gaze and saw Alice's black wave of hair fluttering in the sky, growing ever smaller in the claws of….

His blood turned cold, his gaze turned steely, and he didn't have time to think. He just ran.

..

The Duchess hadn't even seen the thing coming – Alice had just taken two steps away, the trees behind her had rustled as though blown by an invisible wind, and then in half a second a giant, silver blur had appeared out of nowhere and whisked Alice up to the sky. The buffeting wind in its wake caught the Duchess by surprise and threw her backwards, knocking the side of her hip hard against the ground. She looked up to the sky in shock as Alice was carried away, growing ever smaller. "ALICE!"

And then Hatter had shown up and run off, leaving drops of blood in his wake like a morbid trail of bread crumbs. She moaned and turned away quickly, limping her way over to Diamond with as much speed as she could manage. Diamond had reacted instinctively to the sound of her mistresses' scream, standing there alert and ready to be mounted, stamping the ground as if impatient to move.

"Wait!"

The Duchess jumped in surprise, adrenaline still pumping through her system – it had taken a moment to recognize the voice as Charlie's. She'd forgotten that he was even there. "Charlie!" she called to him. "I'll be back in a minute, I've got to—"

"What happened?" he asked. "Such a commotion—"

"Alice was snatched," she said quickly. "I didn't see what did it, I think it was invisible. Hatter went chasing after her, he's… bleeding everywhere, I've got to go—"

"I'm coming too." Charlie's voice was low and clipped, and even though he looked ridiculous climbing up onto Diamond's saddle in his jim-jams, she waited for him to settle in before galloping off.

..

Pain had been forgotten. Reason, unheeded. Logic had completely fled Hatter's brain. All that mattered was catching up to that silver monster. Trees flickered past him, rocky terrain flying under his feet like he wasn't even touching it. Hatter didn't notice any of it – he was focusing only on Alice's face slowly coming into view as he ran ever faster.

She looked at him with horror as he came closer and closer. "Hatter!" she screamed. "No, Hatter, no! You've got to stop!"

"No!" he shouted. "I'm not going to leave you!" She was definitely closer now, he could tell – he could see her face, hear her voice. If he kept up this pace, he'd catch up to that red, half-bird bastard and he'd be there when he landed and…

It was becoming hard to breathe. "I'm not… I'm not going to…" He hurt. Everything hurt.

"Hatter!" Alice cried. "Your wounds! Hatter, stop, you're going to die!"

Hatter spared a glance down at his legs and realized that warm, sticky blood was flowing freely down from his sides, running down his legs and staining the dirt even as it rapidly moved under his feet. He shook the sight from his head and kept running. He was close enough to see the whites of her eyes now.

She was scared. Not, he realized, looking at her pleading, terrified expression, for her own personal safety. Even as she was being carried away by a horrible monster, she was only scared for him. Against his will, Hatter's vision started to blur and slide. He shut his eyes against the sensation and shook his head. "I don't care!" he bellowed in response, as though he could send away the inevitable with just his voice. "Alice… I'm not…"

"Please," she pleaded. "Please, Hatter, you need to let me go!"

Her face was growing dark, and the pain was growing sharper and stronger. His head… everything was spinning… his fingers were growing numb… Hatter kept trying to run, but his feet were so heavy, and air came so reluctantly… The blood against his cold legs now felt hot enough to burn… And Alice… he had to keep running. That was the only thought he could hold on to. He had to keep running. He'd run until he died, if that was what it took.

"Alice…" One foot in front of the other, run, run, run, run, the blood between his toes squishing against the ground. "I promised I would never leave you! And I'm not, I'm… Alice…"

"Please," she begged. "Please Hatter, I'll be fine and… You're going to die, if you keep running like this!" She make a choking sort of sound. Hatter strained to see her face again, but it was all blurry. "You've got to stop!"

There was a roaring in his ears. He fixed his gaze on her face, swimming around in front of him, and tried to yell out. She should know better, he thought. She should know that he would always fight to the death, she should know how he'd never stop running, she should know that he'd always meant to teach her how to throw a proper punch, she should know how much he lov—

But the line of trees ended abruptly, the ground in front of him emptied out, and Hatter kicked up clouds of red dust as he stumbled to a stop at the edge of an impossibly steep cliff. Several hundred feet down he could hear the tumbling rush of water, or maybe that was the noise in his head, drowning out all thought as he watched Alice shrink smaller and smaller, flying away in the clutches of that evil, silver bird, and the little red speck on top of it.

Without the movement of relentless pursuit, Hatter's lack of blood caught up to him at a speed he could not fight. He sank to his knees as it hit him like a bullet train, feeling the heat of his own blood against his cold skin as he kneeled in a rapidly expanding puddle of it. "No…" he muttered to himself. He blinked away the oncoming darkness, trying to find Alice's figure again within it. She was in the sky somewhere. He needed to find her, he needed to find out where she was going. "Nooo…"

He screamed.

And then everything went dark.

..