Chapter 5: To Become Heroes
When Cheshire finished his tale Alice took off her shoe and threw it at him. He was caught off guard and the first one hit him right in the face, but he was prepared when she threw the other and easily dodged it. She then ran after him to punch him but he simply floated high above the air out of her reach. "You little cretin," She said furiously. "You knew this whole time how to send me home and you never did, or even told me."
Cheshire was about to say something when Hater handed Alice her shoes back and said, "So now that you know how to go home your just going to abandon us is that it?"
Alice grabbed her shoes from Hatter and said, "Hatter that's not what I-"
"You know what its fine," Hatter said interrupting her. "We don't need you to slay the queen you would just get in our way so why don't you run on home and write us off like we were nothing more than a dream; or some characters in your favorite book. Yeah White told me about that, how in your world were just characters in your favorite story."
Hatter was on the verge of tears as turned away from Alice transformed into his Paladin form and quickly ran away. Alice called out to him but he did not respond; only continued running. Alice put on her shoes hastily and started to run after him when White grabbed her by the arm and stopped her, saying, "He just needs some alone time to think."
Alice pushed White away and proceeded to chase after Hatter but she quickly lost sight of him. She looked around everywhere in the ruins of the chess kingdom but found no sign of him and reluctantly had to give up knowing that he did not want to be found. Cheshire appeared to her shortly afterwards and said, "White is heading back to the cottage; I suggest you do the same. I will inform Hatter of your whereabouts as soon as he is ready to return."
Alice sighed but headed in the direction of the cottage walking alone. Cheshire offered her a ride but she declined it even if it was a day's walk for her.
March led the dodo birds on the same road nonstop until nightfall where he made camp far away from the road, with no fire, food or shelter. He went in search of water on his own leaving the dodo birds behind. After a while he found a nearby small stream of fresh water running off from the mountains. He then returned to the dodo birds and led them to the water to drink.
When the birds and March had their fill of water March gathered them back together in a huddled group and rested with them. He awoke at the break of dawn, stomach empty and still tired. He searched around the area until he found some berry bushes that he recognized would be safe for eating and led the birds t them as they all started eating every berry in sight from the bushes.
March would have searched for more food but when he heard the sound of horses galloping not too far away he hopped up on a dodo bird, rounded the rest behind him and set off again. He started out fast but gradually slowed down so he wouldn't exhaust the birds, and made it a good distance more when the road abruptly ended at a massive rock wall.
March knew nothing about where either path from the wall would lead. He sat there judging both paths by what he could see when the sounds of horses galloping caught his attention. March gave each path one last look then went to the left unknowing of what lay ahead.
When Alice finally returned to the cottage a day and a half later she was exhausted and only wanted to sleep. She went to her room, changed into her pajamas then crawled into bed and slept, absent of dreams of any kind. She woke up the next morning starving and went out to the table partially expecting to see every one there like normal but it was just her and an empty table, not even tea cups were on it today.
Alice sighed then sent back into the cottage to grab some food and water. She ate outside alone until half way through her meal Hatter returned. Alice ran up to him and hugged him tightly and he hugged her back. Then the two broke their embrace and Hatter said, "Alice I'm sorry for yesterday. I had some time to think and I realized I was being completely selfish. If you want to return home when all of this is over or stay here in Wonderland with us it's your decision, and I will support it."
Alice crossed her arms, gave Hatter a smug look and then said, "You jerk as if I would abandon you and March just like that. Cheshire maybe but not you guys." Hatters face brightened and he smiled after Alice finished speaking. He wrapped his arms around her again and spun her around a few times before putting her feat back on the ground.
"You know Cheshire is going to have to take us to visit my home and family one of these days so I can let them know I'm fine, and to introduce you to them all."
"That would be nice. But first I must go grab some food before I kill over, I haven't eaten since yesterday."
Then Hatter ran inside as Alice took her seat at the table again and slowly finished her food. White Rabbit, and Cheshire returned shortly afterwards taking different spots at the table. Cheshire disappeared to grab White some food from inside the cottage and Alice sat in silent eating while White sat patiently waiting. Hatter returned before Cheshire did with his own plate of food and some water, and he took a seat next to Alice.
Cheshire returned with a tray of food for White and sat at the end of the table in prefect silence with his eyes closed waiting for every to finish eating. After they were all done Cheshire opened his eyes and said, "Now that everyone has had their bellies filled I would like to talk to all of you about my plan to slay the queen and restore Wonderland to its former glory."
Alice, White, and Hatter all gave their complete attention to Cheshire listening to what he had to say. "I'm sure I already know the answer to this but White, and Hatter I would like to ask the both of you to aid me in this task of slaying the queen."
Neither White nor Hatter hesitated when they said, "Yes we will help you."
"Hey what about me?" Alice asked, mad that she was left out.
Before Cheshire could respond Hatter quickly turned to her and said, "There's no way we are taking you with us." Alice was about to speak up but Hatter stopped her and continued talking. "Besides what help would you really be, you can't fight you would only get in our way its better if you just-"
"I can train her." White said interrupting Hatter. "I can train Alice to sword fight and she can help us fight the queen."
Hatter glared at White then said to him, "I'm not going to let Alice risk her life, no matter how much training you give her."
"White is right Hatter, Alice needs to be trained, and so do you for that matter." Cheshire said cutting into the conversation.
"Hey now don't I have a say in any of this." Alice said to the group.
Both Hatter and White said, "No" to her simultaneously and Alice was going to continue arguing when Cheshire stepped in and said, "None of you have a choice in this matter."
They all stopped looking at each other and turned their attention once again to Cheshire. "Now if you will all shut up and listen I can finish. Hatter, Alice, despite how much I hate to put either of you in danger I'm going to need both of you to play your roles if were going to accomplish this mission. White will have to train Alice as best he can and as soon as we can because were on a time limit here.
My sister will be waking up in two months tops and I'm going to need all that time I can get to train Hatter. Right now I'm running on the assumption that March will not make it back to us in time, so White is going to need Alice's help fighting the queen he cannot take her alone and I will be entirely focused fighting my sister to aid him at all.
Now Hatter I'm afraid you're going to hate this but you will not be with Alice to protect her. You're going to have to fight the dark paladins on your own. If those two are with the queen then they will have the advantage, Alice and White can take the queen but those dark paladins will tear either of them apart and you know you cannot keep both of them completely under your control.
Hatter you're going to have to find those twins and defeat them all on your own, Alice and White will be relying on you. Because if you can't defeat them then even if Alice and White kill the queen and walk away without a scratch they will not be able to fight even one of the dark paladins."
Hatter grit his teeth and clenched his fist as he thought about it, Cheshire was right but he absolutely hated the idea of letting Alice fight the queen even with White by her side. When Hatter calmed down Cheshire continued talking.
"Do not fret too much though I have the best armor and weapons in Wonderland for you two. Inside the cottage behind the room I always keep locked is a small armory from the chess kingdom I salvaged in case I would ever need it. It is made by Jabberwocky and I can resize it to fit Alice and White perfectly.
I will give you all today to relax and spend as much time together as you can because starting tomorrow we must all begin training. Alice, White meet me in the locked room inside the cottage when you're ready to be fitted and find your weapons, the door will be open."
Then Cheshire disappeared leaving them alone to talk. Hatter went to say something but Alice spoke up first, "I know what you're going to say but if we all train hard enough then we can do this and all of us will make it out alive because this table is too big to have even one of us missing.
Now then we all need a bathe so how about you go grab some soap and swimming suits for me and you and then head on down to the river ahead of us. I will be behind you shortly and we can spend the day swimming and having fun okay."
Then Alice smiled at Hatter stood up and walked with White into the cottage. Hatter watched her go then slammed his fist into the table angry. Reluctantly Hatter did as Alice said, gathered some soap, their bathing suits, and headed out to the river.
Alice and White arrived at the room and saw inside that it was filled with dozens of weapons placed on racks and four white and shiny full body armors, the only parts that were missing were the helmets. As Alice and White admired the armors and weapons Cheshire said, "Put on any suit of armor and I will shrink it down to fit you perfectly, then as for the weapons that will be up to White's decision."
Alice and White pulled out two of the armors at random and once they were on they began rapidly shrinking and stopped as soon as they were tight as a glove. Alice was surprised to see how light they felt on her, she thought they would weigh her down at least 100 more pounds but this armor only added what felt like an extra 20 to her.
"This armor is amazing." White said "It's incredibly light but feels impenetrable."
"There's not much that can penetrate it no, but the queen does have the same armor and weapon of Jabberwocky forge does she not?" Cheshire replied.
"Yes unfortunately she does."
"Than her weapon if she gets a good attack on you will pierce the armor so keep that in mind, however your weapons shall be able to do the same."
"Alice I want you to pick up every weapon here, swing them around a few times each then take the one you were most comfortable with." White said.
Alice was still adjusting to moving around with her armor on but she did as White said, and tried out every weapon. All of the weapons felt awkward to her considering she never held any of them before in her life, but eventually she found a pair of one sided twin swords. White smiled when he saw her choose them and said, "My exact same weapon choice, training you might not be as difficult as I thought."
Hatter arrived at the river alone and started to bathe; then he put on his trunks left the soap and Alice's bathing suit lying around for her and walked down to the calmer part of the river to wait. After what felt like a few hours Hatter saw Alice jogging towards him in her bathing suit. Hatter stated jogging as well to meet her half way.
Alice and Hatter spend the entire day together just the two of them; swimming, laughing, just having fun. Both of them wished that the day wouldn't end, that tomorrow would not come but the sun began to set and the two had to head back to the cottage. They held hands on their way back home, and walked at a slow casual rate even as the sun set and the night gave a cool breeze.
The two of them returned to an empty table with a tray of food left out for them, the food was cold but they were t hungry to care. After they finished eating they retired to their room where Alice slept in Hatters bed with him again. They cuddled up with each other and stared at the ceiling enjoying its beautiful painting until finally they fell asleep.
The next morning Alice and Hatter took their time getting out of bed and when they arrived outside White and Cheshire were waiting for them at the table. "Now that you two are finally awake you can eat breakfast then after some time we will begin." White said.
Alice and Hatter sat next to each other at the table eating, while White and Cheshire sat in complete silence. When Hatter and Alice were finished eating Cheshire opened his eyes which had been closed since the two arrived outside and said, "Now then, while you two were sleeping in me and White were talking about the best way we could train you two. And we decided that the best way would be to separately train you in distant locations; this way you're not distracted by each others company."
Hater stood up from his chair and approached Cheshire at the end of the table and said, "Now how to you suppose your going to separate us, huh?"
Cheshire gave his old mischievous smile to Hatter then without warning transformed. Purple smoke began appearing out of nowhere from Cheshire as he swiftly grew bigger and bigger and his body transformed more into a lizard. Cheshire stopped growing when he resembled a dragon with wings that had three razor sharp claws at the tips. His neck stretched several feet from his body and his head had webbings around tendrils reaching to the back of his neck. Cheshire's hind legs were covered with spiked all around them and his tail had similar spiky armor that looked like it would cut your finger off just from touching it; his skin had also turned from purple to a dark green and grey tinted color all around.
For the first time in Hatters life, he was truly frightened of Cheshire; this form was massive and could eat him in one bite. Hatter leaped back and transformed into his paladin form as Cheshire said, "I had hoped you would say something like that."
Then faster than anyone could even blink Cheshire lunged at Hatter wrapped his three claws all around Hatters body and then threw him into the air aimed for above the mountains. Alice creamed with terror and shrieked, "Hatter!" Cheshire began to chuckle then said, "Do not worry Alice Paladins can survive much worse than that; which is what I have in store for him." Then Cheshire began slowly disappearing in a strange smoke the same color as his skin, he laughed mischievously as his whole body slowly disappeared in the smoke and then was silent when it faded and he was gone entirely.
Alice still terrified set out towards the mountains where Hatter was tossed when White suddenly jumped in front of her kicked her to the ground. "Do not worry, Cheshire won't kill Hatter he will only push him to his extreme limits during training as I will to you. Now then go grab our armor and weapons and suit yourself up we will begin training shortly as soon as your food has had time to digest."
Alice glared at White with anger as she clenched her fists. For a moment she considered fighting him right now but knew she couldn't take him and reluctantly did as he said. When she got to where their armor and weapons were she put her armor on grabbed her weapons, then grabbed White's armor and weapons as well and hauled them outside. She threw down Whites armor and weapons in front of his feet when she came outside then he said, "Good now give me a minute to put on my armor and we will begin walking."
"Walking where?" Alice asked.
"Just to a more open area only about five minutes away so we don't destroy the table while we train."
After White was in his armor he grabbed his swords and the two of them began to walk away from the cottage. As White had said it was a short walk way from the cottage and into a barren but emptier area. Alice took a seat in the dirt and waited in silence for what felt like hours to her when White finally said they would begin. Alice went to pick her swords back up but white told her to leave them for a few minutes. Then the two started to stretch as Alice followed his instructions on how to stretch properly. Finally when they were all done stretching Alice and White picked up their words and began to train.
Hatter was spiraling through the air uncontrollably as he soared over the mountains and quickly lost altitude heading for the Chess kingdom. Hatter was unable to straighten himself out at all when he hit the ground with his back and continued to pummel to ground with his body like a rag doll. Eventually he stopped bouncing around the ground and just slid through the dirt digging it up until he hit a massive statue base and stopped.
Hatter stood up and started to shake it off when he saw Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in their dark paladin forms standing only five yards away from him. He was so surprised by their appearance that he did not have enough time to react as the first one charged at him. Hatter was hit hard in the face with a right hook, and then he was punched in the gut with an even more powerful left fist.
As Hatter tried to recover the dark paladin, whom he could not make out if it was Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum because they looked exactly the same grabbed his head then brought his knee up and smacked him with hit. Hatter fell to the ground as the other dark paladin showed up now and they both started kicking him everywhere. After several kicks Hatter managed to grab one of their legs and sweep the dark paladin to off his feet, then he grabbed the other one who was still kicking him, by the leg and threw him onto his back several feet away from him.
Hatter backhanded the dark paladin closest to him as he started to stand back up. Hatter didn't waist time he ran to the dark paladin who he threw and leaped into the air with his foot out in an attempt to kick him. The dark paladin easily dodged the attack and swiftly grabbed Hatters ankle then smacked him against the ground before throwing him into the wall, cracking it. Hatter barley managed to land on his feet as he put his hand on the ground to keep himself from falling down.
Hatter quickly got himself up when he saw the dark paladin he backhanded a few moments ago come at him. Hatter managed to dodge or block most of his incoming attacks but still got hit by some fists or kicks, that weren't as bad as the initial ambush on him but still hurt. As the other dark paladin was coming after Hatter again, he managed to dance around the one he was engaged with, so he wouldn't have his back against the wall.
And as the fight progressed Hatter realized that the twins were stronger than he was but he was faster than they were. Still despite his advantage in speed the Hatter could not land a single blow on either of them. He was starting to acquire the hang of his powers but all he could do was dodge or block and after a while he was becoming exhausted. Every time he dodged one attack he would be forced to block another and with their strength the twins were wearing down his defenses even while he blocked them. Soon enough the twins got in a good shot on Hatter which distracted him long enough for one of them to get behind him as they started beating him from both sides.
Finally Hatter was too tired to fight back and could barely move when the twins, who seem to never run out of energy, jumped up into the air spinning with one leg in and the other out, hit him hard on the head and knocked him down to the ground. Hatter was too weak to stand back up as he started changing back to his normal self. For a moment he though this was the end for him when the twins stood side by side then started fusing together into one. "Not bad for your first training session. Not great but you will improve." The now single dark paladin said.
Hatter recognized the voice but could not believe it. He coughed a couple times then said, "Cheshire?"
The dark paladin swiftly shape shifted into a purple cat with no fur, and glowing eyes. Cheshire smiled at Hatter then nodded. "I don't understand, you're Tweedle Dee, and Tweedle Dum?" Hatter said.
"No but the best way for me to train you is to assume their form since they are the ones you will be fighting. Today's first training session was a test of your endurance, I threw you all the way here to the chess kingdom to weaken you then ambushed you as the twins to see how long you would last when you were not at full energy. I'm hoping that we will be able to fight our enemy with us fully ready but on the chance we are ambushed after we are weakened for some reason then I needed to see if you would be capable of fighting back." Cheshire said.
"So are you going to throw me across the mountains everyday then train me until I can win?"
"No this was just a test for me to see where your skills, stamina, and mind were at. I needed to see your status from the worst perspective to train you more efficiently."
"What do you mean by that last part, where my mind is at?"
"I had to make sure that during the fight you would not be thinking of Alice, since she is your primary distraction. You can think about her on your break but during the fight your mind ahs to be completely focused on your opponents otherwise they will take the advantage quickly and you might not be able to recover. Anyways I will give you a an hour break in which time I will show you varies combat moves I have seen from other paladins fighting, and when the hour is up you will practice these moves until I tell you to stop."
Hatter rolled onto his back and tried to relax as much as possible to help him regain his strength faster; And as he lay there staring up at the sky he wondered how Alice's training was coming along.
Alice was bruised, tired, and beaten by lunch time. She spend hours sword fighting White Rabbit with very few and short breaks in between. Her goal was to hit White once in any way but she couldn't land a single scratch on him, and when she made to big of a mistake and left herself way to open White would retaliate and punch her or kick or, acting like the enemy would with the same force.
Alice had a small break after lunch so she could finish digesting her food then it was back at it again. On occasion white would hit her armor with the sword or tap it to shower her the openings she was leaving but after a full day she showed no sign of improvement. When night was upon them Alice and White removed their armor for the last time that day and ate dinner. After they finished eating Alice went to bed exhausted and fell asleep right away.
The next day Alice was woken up by White, and when he led her outside she could see that it was still dark outside. The sun was slowly rising but she still had a little difficulty seeing, so white helped Alice find the river where they took turns bathing, for privacy reasons then they returned to the cottage as the sun finally started to show and ate breakfast. It wasn't too long after breakfast that White pulled out the armors and weapons and they geared up.
Today Alice was on defense and did even worse than yesterday. She was still tired form the other day and White moved fast as lightning to her. When the day was over she was even more beaten and bruised than ever before in her life.
After a week of straight training Alice showed little sign of progress and wanted to give up all together. She wanted to get Hatter back to the cottage cuddle up with him in bed and never leave. But still she persisted, and after taking an entire day off for nothing but rest and relaxation she felt much better.
Soon enough as the days passed by Alice was getting better and better White was showing her new maneuvers and at the end of every day she was less exhausted and every morning she woke up on her own in time to bathe and eat before training. As days continued Alice felt she had made no progress at all and came to White with her concerns. It was then that he revealed to her that she was indeed making progress despite the fact she never landed a single blow on him and took many hits from; it was that he was holding back less and less and would soon be going all out on her.
The information gave Alice new hope for her progress and at the end of the first month of training Alice was landing over ten blows total at the end of most days and even countered some of Whites attacks; and now he was no longer holding back on her. Despite Alice's wonderful progress both she and White worried if it would be enough by the time they had to face the queen.
As the days went by Hatter lasted longer and longer in his battles with Cheshire shaped as the twin dark paladins. He mastered all of the moves Cheshire taught him and used his speed to his advantage. Hatter also learned to never block an attack with direct force always to redirect it and if possible counter it.
Hatter fought with everything he had against Cheshire but never won a single match against him. Despite how much progress he had made Cheshire was to powerful for him to beat, most of the time he didn't lose by normal means he just simply ran out of stamina and could no longer maintain his Paladin form. When that happened they would normally stop and let Hatter rest but sometimes Cheshire would continue attack him forcing Hatter to full blown retreat until he was completely out of stamina.
After several weeks Hatters stamina increased greatly he was able to fight from when the sun rose to hours after the sunset, however he did not become much stronger. He was still powerful being a Paladin but his primary strengths were his endurance and speed; it was then that he and Cheshire realized there were probably many types of Paladins.
They still had a couple more weeks until Cheshire's sister would be awake but as far as Cheshire was concerned Hatter was at his best, or at least at his best for the amount of time and type of training he had. Cheshire decided that it would be enough for Hatter to defeat the twins and wanted to conserve and restore his strength as much as he could in what little time they had left. Cheshire could already feel his sister's presence becoming more and more conscious so they did not have more than 10 more days left; so the two went back to the cottage to see how Alice was doing.
After many weeks of training Alice had become much better at sword fighting and had completely adjusted to the extra weight the armor put on her. She was never able to defeat White but he was always as tired as Alice by the end of their fights. Alice could not keep up with White's immense speed and natural maneuverability so she compensated by constantly drawing him in extremely close forcing him to go on the defensive so she could slip past him.
Whites greatest weakness was his defenses, he was tremendously difficult while attack but when defending he made several mistakes, not big ones but enough for Alice to slip through and scratch his armor. One day while Alice was training with White and almost had him beaten for the first time ever when she saw Hatter and Cheshire watching them from not to far away. Alice was so surprised and distracted with Hatters appearance that she lost all focus and White turned the tables on her completely and in less than a second had her on the ground with his blade pointed at her throat.
Alice learned form her critical mistake that day and never made it again, never let anything distract her like that. And While Cheshire rested, still never sleeping, Hatter trained on his own some distant away from the cottage, pummeling rocks trying to become stronger. Hatter would meet back up just outside the cottage for meals with or breaks with Alice but as soon as they were over he would go back to training again. Most of the time he maintained his fighting forms so as to not get even a little rusty in the short time they had left.
Eventually the day they were training for and the one they hoped might never come arrived; Cheshire pulled them all out from their practices and told them that his sister was awake and tomorrow they would assault the house of cards. They spent the rest of the day relaxing and going over battle plans. Cheshire would fly the three of them to the house of cards and he would blow a hole in the queen's castle where the queen most likely was to be where Hatter, Alice and White would entire the castle and either fight the queen there or search for her and then fight her. Hatter would go his separate way immediately and keep the twins at bay long enough for Alice and White to slay the queen. Finally Cheshire would battle his sister far away from the house of cards.
The night before the assault on the house of cards Alice and Hatter slept in the same bed just like before and starred at the ceiling trying to empty their thoughts until sleep came. The next morning they were totally focused on what it is they had to do, and though White wished he could train Alice more she was not to far off from being a sword master and with her help they would be able to finally slay the queen. Everyone ate breakfast silently, not having much to say to each other, and when they were done Cheshire transformed into the same form he had taken on the first day of training except with a smoother back for them to ride on.
Alice and White put their armor on, while Cheshire repaired all the damage to it and their swords during training. Then they all climbed onto his back and they were off, heading to the house of cards to free Wonderland.