The Doctor remained slouched between the metal railings and the glass floor, and looked dejectedly at the girl. "Alice, eh?" He pressed his lips together and sighed. "I'm the Doctor."
The young woman slowly furrowed her brows, "Yes, you've already said that, actually."
"Have I? Oh, brilliant." And his weary eyes slowly drifted to the console.
"Are you all right, might I ask?"
His eyes blinked back at her, and a sincere smile spread across his face, "Alice what?"
She hesitated a moment, "Kingsley, Alice Kingsley."
With an immediate motion, he thrust himself off the floor, twirled in place, and seemingly dusted off all the self-loathing parasites that he felt chewing through his tweed coat. He slid to her and reached out his hand with that smile.
"Hello, Alice."
As she took his hand, he swept her back on her feet and twirled over to the console, beginning to fiddle with various levers and buttons. She watched him, and faintly smiled at his familiar mannerisms, from speaking gibberish to himself and to muttering some irritated huff, he swung back and forth the levers and handles and doodads and knickknacks, sweeping his fingertips along each other, almost appearing confused as he continued muttering.
"Ah!" His outburst somewhat startled her, yet less than she would've expected of herself.
The Doctor reached his hand in his coat pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, with his eyes beaming, he looked to her and she again saw a familiar face in his overcoming madness.
"I can trace it, yes." He muttered to himself and slowly reached out to point at her. "Whatever it was that pulled her out and you in, you're the connection, doubtlessly. It's you, Alice."
She swallowed nervously as his eyes grew wide and almost hungry. He wiped his tongue across his chapped lips and his maddening smile spread even more…maddeningly. Yes. She had definitely seen that face before. And it wasn't long until his voice overlapped with that of her companion's.
He began waving his arm in front of her, with the screwdriver jostling in his palm, up and down, in long strokes and then in slower ones, and at times it appeared as if he was just shaking the device with no idea of what to do next. He unexpectedly paused, and stared at the side of it as its metal claws jolted out. The Doctor's mouth somewhat contorted together, anxious and frustrated, he darted his arm back at her and resumed waving.
Alice watched, standing as still as she possibly could think to, as the sharp green light ran over her eyes and the whirring sound grew louder and then altogether silent. He brought it back to his face and squinted.
"You each were torn out of your own reality at the exact same moment in each of your own time. B-But, how?" He quietly murmured, and shot her a worried glance. "Temporal energy. You seem freshly painted in it."
He glanced at her again, and forced a comforting smile, "Picture being covered in paint. Well, the girl who was in your place had a few nice dry layers already on her, while you only have one and it's still wet. You're freshly painted. Actually never mind, it's nothing like that at all. " He quickly slapped his palm against his forehead and sighed.
"Is this a dream?" She uttered quietly, taking another curious look at the shiny copper walls.
The Doctor darted his head to her and smiled intriguingly, "You're one for dreams, are you, Alice?"
She faintly nodded and brought her hand to brush self-consciously against her arm. "I used to have them all the time when I was little. Dodo birds, blue caterpillars, a rabbit in a waist coat, and a smiling cat."
"What sort of dreams are those?" He slightly frowned. "I can take you to twelve different planets in the Tsuliar system that has each one of those things, except not really at all. Forget I said anything."
"My dreams were always the same, and they always took me to the same, wonderful place." She whispered, almost just to herself, and her hand lightly touched a spiraling contraption on the console. "I could've sworn I was there only a moment ago."
As her brown eyes slowly drifted to meet the Doctor's face, she somewhat flinched at his immediate episode of hitting himself again.
"Oh, I am really very thick!" He groaned and exasperatedly tugged on his bangs. "Of course!"
He turned to her in a huff and motioned vigorously with his arms as he spoke. "There was a moment, a brief second, where I saw her burst into light. In that moment, that brief second, she was being taken whilst you were being….sort of….given. Which means, assuming you're not as mad as you should be, 'cause really it's very quite fun, you were then sleeping. Which means, Amy was taken, not only from this time, but also from this reality. And that's just assuming you were just dreaming of your world!"
She took his excitement as almost anger, yet when he paused for her mind to catch up, he smiled that wide, childish smile. "You understand, yes?"
Alice shook her head, and he excitedly bounced in his place, "I'm assuming that your world-" He paused and looked at her expectantly to fill in the blank.
"…Wonderland."
"Oh, Wonderland!" He said with a deep, thrilled voice and thrust his arms in the air. "Beautiful name!" He spun in place and leapt up off the glass floor, clinging to the railings to somewhat stop himself from becoming too ecstatic. "Now I'm more of desperately hoping it's real!"
The Doctor twirled back around and slid towards her, taking her hands in his and he smiled as wide as his sore cheeks would allow, "Don't you see, Alice?"
She felt his hands tremble with such excitement that she had never seen, and altogether, he looked like he was about to explode as his hairless brow rose so very high in expectation of her guess.
"….What?" She spoke quietly, squinting her eyes in anticipation of his oncoming, very painfully loud, outburst.
He squeezed her hands tightly and began to lightly bounce on his toes.
"We get to go to Wonderland."
The Doctor twirled around the console and shoved his sonic in an open slot, flicking forward a few small levers and pulling round a few dozen knobs. "Oh, but Pond is so lucky!" He bellowed as he carelessly clackered on the typewriter, pulling the scanner closer to him as he adjusted its dials, and with a huff, he darted back around the console, shoved his foot up against one of the dangling levers, and he took off back around to clutched down the lever that sent the TARDIS violently shaking.
"She's already there!"
His roaring laughter faded in the silence of the thick cover of fog and the sweet chirping of crickets. Amy groggily brought her hand up to her ear and muttered.
"Doctor, I'm tryin' to sleep."
As her consciousness slowly bled through her 'dream', she felt herself faintly stir at the seeping dampness of the cold ground. The hand that wasn't clutching her ear dug its nails into the moss-covered ground, mistaking it for a blanket and tore it up over her shivering body. She sighed and her lips smacked together from the strange taste of dirt that had smeared across them.
With a quiet groan, she slowly opened one of her eyes, and stared at the grey-ish blue blades of grass that surrounded her. For a brief moment, as she felt herself finally waking up, she could hear the quiet screams that seemed to come from underneath where she lay. Realization set in and she leapt onto her numb legs, only to stagger back to her knees.
"You're killing our brothers and sisters!" shrilled the grass and she glanced back to see her body's imprint and its crushed victims.
It screeched louder as she steadied herself against a tree, oblivious that she was now stepping on the fresh patches that surrounded the base. She frantically darted across the small field and stumbled up on a large rock, staring down at the grass as each blade turned to her direction and screamed of her murderous actions.
Amy tried to hush them with her apologies, yet they only seemed to scream louder, and as they paid her "I'm sorry"s no mind, she decided how not-sorry she was.
"Fine." She muttered, biting down on her lip, "You want to bitch, I'll give you somethin' real to bitch about."
Her eyes immediately darted to the smaller sister rock that leaned up against the one she had staggered up on, and she reached down and wrapped her hands around it. The grass lightly shivered with fear as she grunted in picking it up, yet their murmurs quickly turned to rioting laughter as she groaned at the unexpected weight of the rock.
With an embarrassed grumble, she leapt from the boulder and began stomping the grass as she smirked with a taste of justified evil on her lips. Each patch that trembled in screams was the next for her to jump to and stomp on violently, and it wasn't until the small field was torn and mangled that she realized perhaps she had a slight error in herself and battling against helpless (albeit, annoying and provoking as hell) grass was probably something she could've refrained from doing.
A tiny patch had evaded her merciless feet, and she stared down at it sympathetically.
"…I'm sorry." She uttered, hanging her head in guilt.
The several blades lightly quivered, "Just leave."
An awkward chuckle escaped her mouth and nervously scratched the back of her head, "Leave." The bunch looked to her, quite confused and rather unimpressed, as far as expressions from grass go, and her awkwardness only seemed to grow. "It's kind of funny….because you're like….leaves of grass…"
"Go away."
"Yeah, got it."
Amy tried her best to casually turn around, yet she was instantly startled by the face of an eye-patched man that hung behind her. She released a reflex of a scream and fell backwards to the ground, and she quietly groaned to the muffled cries of the patch as its life suffocated from under her arse.
She glanced up for a second look to the stranger, and as he opened his smirking mouth, a screaming woman leapt from behind the boulder and lunged for Amy.
"Kilit! Kilit! Kilit! Kilit!"
The long arms of the man shoved the madwoman back, "Majesty!" He breathlessly howled, and lifted a finger to her face. "The Oraculum."
Mangled strands of pure-red hair hung like spider-legs down the sides of the woman's large head. As best as Amy could see through the gloomy light, her face consisted of smeared white make-up that had almost entirely faded away, with a stained splotch of red that pressed together with the folding of her thin lips.
"We'ls may b' not." The woman said snobbishly, folding her short arms together, and raising her nose in the air as she looked away.
As the man turned back to her, Amy glanced at each worn feature of his clothing, and despite it looking a bit filthy and old, he seemed in better shape than the woman. Her once-red dress was torn every which way and mud had been viciously smeared into strange parts, with only the ghosts of ineffective repairs loosely clinging to each gaping hole. It looked like the rest of her body grew to match the size of her head and ripped through before sanity could revert it all back. Or perhaps, and more likely with the faint tint of red brewing on her face the longer Amy stood silent, she went into some sort of fit and took the scissors to her clothes, so to speak. Though if by 'scissors', her disgustingly long nails would entirely suffice.
Amy slowly pulled herself up off the ground and dusted off her pants. "Uh, who are you?"
The stranger reached down his arm and scooped up her hand with a strange smile on his face, "I am the Knave of Hearts." He said very quietly, his eye sweeping over every feature on her face. "Ilosovic Stayne."
She nodded uncomfortably and tried to pull her hand out of his grip, yet he only tightened and attempted to pull her closer. Almost immediately, the red-haired madwoman shoved the Knave aside and it was then Amy noticed the chains that linked around both of their wrists.
"I am the W'ed Queen, ruler of Underland." She said proudly, lifting up her chin as far as it could tote her bulbous head backwards.
"A-Actually," uttered the Knave, and he gently clutched the woman's shoulder. "You see, she used to be the rightful ruler of this once glorious land. However, young traveler whom fell from the sky, she was betrayed and beaten and left here to die."
Amy gave the 'Queen' a second look, "Is that why she seems a bit mad?"
The Knave leaned down at her with a curious twinkle in his eye, "Don't they say all the best people are?" He asked softly.
"Yeah, but there's good/mad and bad/mad. Well, I've seen the good, but she just seems…"
"A bit misunderstood?"
Before Amy could reply, he swept an long arm around her and motioned her to look at the Queen.
"Not only was she betrayed, but by her own family, the people she loved and protected. Yet despite it all, they tore her up and threw her out; like a used, dirty cloth. She lost the one thing that gave life to her soul, now who wouldn't go a bit 'round the bend after such loss?"
His eye slowly drifted down to her and he faintly smiled as he saw a wave of relative sympathy bleed down her face. A rush of thoughts, all running around rampantly inside of her head, seemed to make sense of the words that he said.
"Who betrayed her?" She asked quietly, swallowing down whatever withered emotions that had sprung up without warning.
"Her own sister, a witch who stole the affections of everyone closest to her, and she convinced them to despise her. Her sister concealed a soldier, waiting for the perfect time to destroy her and take the throne." He bore a mask of regret, "I'm afraid she is quite mad, just from the sheer trauma of it all."
Suddenly, and yet quite slowly, the image of the Red Queen changed in her eyes, and she nodded an understanding to the Knave.
Amy quietly cleared her throat and quickly uttered, "I'm sorry that happened to you."
"I dun' want your pity." said the Queen, and the Knave glared at her to play the part. "B-But, I wuld a-appreciate yer' help." The vulnerability of her voice took all three by surprise, yet he swiftly guided Amy to walk with them while she was off-guard.
"What can I do?" She asked and reluctantly sat on one of the rotted stumps that surrounded the fire pit of their worn-down campsite.
"Nothing too dangerous, of course." said the Knave and he faked a sincere smile as he reached for a small leather bag. "We have some berries to spare if you're-" His eye darted down at the shriveled bag and again he faked the raw emotions. A quiet sadness as he allowed the empty skin to slip to the ground. "So they have taken everything." He murmured, though an internal smirk came as Amy shuffled in place.
"Who?"
He paused a moment, his face lightly twitched with emotion and he glanced up at her, "The trio of miscreants who work for the White Queen."
"And the White Queen is your sister, yeah? The one who did this all to you?"
The Queen gave only an acknowledging sniffle, Amy turned back to the Knave as he still stared with a pitiable expression. "You see, they are thieves who steal what little food we have. It's not enough that we're already suffering…" He allowed his voice to trail off into sadness, and slowly hung his head.
Amy felt a rush of anger and she darted up on her feet, "Well, where are they?"
"Oh, they're nearly impossible to catch." He said dejectedly, and turned to frown at the Queen, who awkwardly joined in.
"W-We've bin banish'd to the outskwirts of Underland." She pressed her smeared lips together in a frustrated huff. "They run 'cross the line, we kan't chase 'em."
"Well, I can." Amy blurted, and then she shook her head at her hesitance and looked at the poor, tired faces, letting them feed that impulse.
The Knave insinuated on opening his mouth to speak, yet he allowed her another outburst as her fists clenched up and her eyes grew bright.
"No, I can. I'm not from here, so I'm not banished." An exhilarated smile came upon her, "I'll go out and catch 'em and make 'em pay."
"N-No, it'd be too-"
"Hell, I'll go all the way to the stupid White Queen if I have to!" She nodded triumphantly to herself at the idea, and shooed them off as they tried to hand her a small bag of food for her journey. "I plan on eatin' soon anyhow. Tell me about them, the three morons."
They exchanged a confused look and then look back to Amy, "One is a dormouse, white w'ittle devil thing." said the Queen, glancing to the Knave.
"The other, a hare. Brown, and mangy with a stupid waistcoat. "
"But the final one, the leader."
They both looked to each other again, feeding off whatever show they felt themselves apart of, their eyes slowly drifted to her proud face, "He's a man. And he's mad. His orange hair is somewhat disarming, and his top hat is quite the fool's buy. But, and this is truest of all, he'll kill you first chance he gets."
Amy shrugged, "Not if I can kill him first, I guess." She gave a grand salute, and with a questioning point to which direction she needed to go, she set off on her way in a vigorous stride.
The Queen and Knave paused a moment until she disappeared inside of the dead woods, they frantically fished through one of the bags and retrieved a scroll.
"Hurry up and unravel it!" ordered the Queen and he cringed at the sound of her voice.
The one and a half set of eyes watched as it twirled around the ashen fire pit, until it finally ceased to roll out any further. They eagerly leaned down at the last image, and smiled. There was a faint picture of a girl standing in blood-red armor, wielding a sword of blood-red steel, as her mess of hair rode on the breeze. Scribbled all around it were two lines in written Underlandian.
A girl with hair, fire-red
Shall face the foe and kill it dead