Chapter 1
"FROST!" came the yell that echoed around the Easter Bunny's Warren.
Jack Frost the Spirit of Winter and Guardian of Fun swooped between a pair of egg sentinels laughing his head off. He had just witnessed the end results of his latest prank on his fellow Guardian, E. Aster Bunnymund (Bunny for short), and was now running for his life to avoid the Pooka's vengeance.
He'd gotten the idea for the prank from North a few days ago. He'd managed to talk North into telling him how he had met his fellow Guardians all those centuries ago. Nicolas St. North had been more than happy to fill Jack in on his old days as a bandit, before finding the enchanted village of Santoff Claussen under attack by Pitch Black, thus putting him on his journey to becoming a Guardian.
Jack had been captivated by the story (though he had a hard time picturing jolly old North as a cold-hearted Cossack) until North reached the description of his first meeting with Bunny.
"Wait, Brown? Robe?" Jack had asked raising one of his eyebrows at North.
North gave a deep belly laugh. "Ho ho, yes. As Tooth said, ve vere all different before ve became who ve are today. Vhen I first met Bunny, hes fur vas brown, and he wore this green robe like outfit vith egg shaped pockets and buttons and egg shaped eyeglasses on his face." North's eyes twinkled in amusement as he recalled his first meeting with his friend. "He also acted much different back then as vell."
"How so?" asked Jack, still trying to picture a brown furred version of Bunny in the clothes North described, and chuckling at what he conjured up.
"You complain he is uptight now," said North merrily, "but you did not know him as he once vas. Compared to that, our Bunny is very laid back, and much less, shall ve say, odd."
"He's a talking Kangaroo with a basket of pastel painted eggs. How can he be weirder than that?" Asked Jack, sensing a story behind those words.
North gave Jack a wide grin. "Let's just say, he has good reason to not wish to talk about his early Guardian personality."
The Christmas Giver had then delighted in telling Jack all about how Bunny used to be, which had sent Jack howling with laughter, and inspiring his latest prank.
Jack glanced back to look at his handy work. He'd done his best to make Bunny look like he used too based on North's description of his early days. Borrowing some of Bunny's own egg dye he had turned the Pooka's fur brown and dressed him in a green robe and glasses he'd gotten from a costume store while Bunny had been asleep via dream sand (courtesy of Sandy, who had wanted pictures of the result).
The robe was giving Bunny trouble in his chase to catch the winter spirit, as the once grey rabbit was trying to kick it off as he ran after his teammate. The glasses had been discarded long before.
Jack, knowing the Guardian of Hope would be hot on his tail once the robe was off, ducked into a random tunnel and bolted for what he hoped was the surface of somewhere that wasn't the Warren.
Bunny finally escaped the tangled robe, all the while muttering death threats towards Jack, as well as North for no doubt telling the boy about it. He then darted into the tunnel he'd seen Jack go into. He ran pell-mell down the tunnel until he reached a section where the tunnels branched out into all directions.
"Where are you, ya bloody Snowflake!" he yelled, glancing at all the tunnels trying to figure out which one the winter spirit might have taken.
He kept his ears pricked for the sound of Jack's laughter, and looked at all of the tunnels for a hint of footprints or frost, any sign as to which direction Jack had taken.
Seeing nothing he frowned. "Get out here Jack!" he yelled loudly. He crept closer to the entrances of the tunnels testing if any were colder than the others, while maintaining caution in case Jack planned to pop out with a snowball.
Finding nothing he went back to glaring at each of the entrances as he yelled again for Jack.
"You really shouldn't be messing around in my tunnels!" He called. "Ya neva know where ya might end up! Even I don't know where all of them go!"
His only answer was silence.
Bunny sighed in exasperation and turned to make his way back to the Warren. He needed to get a bath and wash the dye out of his fur. He figure he just have to wait till the next time he saw Jack to rip him a new one.
Meanwhile Jack heard every word from down the tunnel he'd chosen. He didn't think much of Bunny's warning, and continued to fly along it. No matter where he ended up he was confident he could find his way home by flying on the winds.
As if summoned by these thoughts he spotted an opening out just ahead. He grinned and raced through it and out into the open air, only to stop short at the sight before him.
Bathed in a yellowish green glow of smog-polluted clouds was the strangest looking factory he had ever seen. He called it a factory, because what else could it be? The whole structure seemed to be floating in midair not far off the cliff Jack was standing on. The buildings were all metal and most were shaped like teapots with gears and clocks attached at every place it was possible to attach them to, and even in some places that weren't. Even from a distance he could hear the banging and clanging of the factory doing its work, whatever that work was.
Jack glanced around at the rest of the area around him. Behind him looked to be a village made from giant teacups, pots, and gears nestled into the rocky terrain. Though he couldn't see any inhabitants there.
He glanced back down at the tunnel he just come out of, half hoping Bunny would show up and explain the strange place he'd just found. But the Pooka never made an appearance, and Jack was left to wonder where the heck he'd ended up.
"I guess this is one of those 'I don't know where they lead' tunnels," he muttered to himself looking around again.
Seeing nothing familiar, and getting more curious by the minute Jack finally decided that since he was here he might as well take a look around. The tunnel didn't seem to be going anywhere, so he could always come back.
He was completely unaware that his every movement was being watched by a pair of glowing yellow eyes accompanied by a bloodstained grin. Nor did he see when they faded away as though they had never been there.
*A*A*A*
Alice Liddell was having an ordinary day (or as close to ordinary as one can get in Wonderland). She had beaten up some Madcaps that had gotten too rowdy, had once again been stuck doing favors for Carpenter and the Mock Turtle, and had sliced through some of the few remaining Ruin forces that still plagued her Wonderland to this day (though they were getting much rarer with each fight). All she had left to do was check on one final thing before she was done for the day.
With practiced ease she maneuvered her way through the Dollhouse section of Wonderland. Though she had done this so many times before, the area still made her very uneasy. It was by far her most hated section of her world, trumping even Queensland in disfavor.
But it had to be done, so she squared her shoulders and marched on till she reached the center of the section, where the twisted and rusted remains of the Infernal Train still sat in a blacked heap from when she had derailed it.
As she took in the sight she had to suppress a shudder that threatened to creep through her. It would not do to show any form of weakness, especially not here.
Creeping slowly up to the heap, she climbed up to the top and peered through a small hole in the train's exterior. As if sensing her presence the prisoner contained in the heap looked up at her with his empty dripping eyes.
Like all the inhabitants of Wonderland, the Dollmaker could never truly be killed forever. Even if Alice struck him down in the most brutal of fashions (which she had been tempted to do more than once), he would simply re-spawn later on and plan his vengeance.
So as much as she hated him and wanted to give him and agonizing death, it would be better to keep him locked away in a place she knew where he was, rather than kill him, and let him come back and plot where she couldn't stop him.
So now the Dollmaker was her prisoner, trapped in the remains of the very train he once attempted to use to destroy her. She considered this ironic justice.
The Dollmaker eventually looked away from her with disinterest. A fact that irked Alice, but it was not like there was much else he could do.
Inside the train all his limbs were pined under heaps of metal that had been molten when they'd gone in, and had long since cooled and fused into place keeping him from moving an inch. And even if he did move that inch he would be stuck with the jagged bits of metal that aligned the wall of the prison. None of them would dig deep enough to kill him, but they would cause great pain. And finally, the Dollmaker had been rendered unable to speak long ago, when his goading of Alice had led her into a fit of temper, causing her to fire off all her long-range weapons solely at his face. This resulted in the Dollmaker's mouth being so badly damaged he had not uttered a sound since, much to Alice's relief.
Satisfied that her prisoner was no more likely to escape then he was the last time she had come by, Alice jumped down off the train and made her way back out of this retched domain.
She had few worries of any of the other inhabitants of Wonderland coming and trying to free him. All the Wonderlandians hated him nearly as much as Alice herself for trying to destroy them all. And no one wished to face Alice's wrath for assisting him. They knew if they did there would be no mercy. Still it was always safer to be cautious, which was why she always returned to check he was still in his cage.
She was half way out when she caught sight of the Cheshire Cat grinning down at her from the upper level of one of the many smashed dollhouses that littered that section of Wonderland.
She sighed, knowing she was about to walk right into one of his cryptic messes of a message, but still she said, "Yes, Cat? What is it?"
"While stopping by the Hatter's Domain, I happened to see an odd patch of winter blow though." He said with his usual wicked grin.
Alice rolled her eyes. Cryptic as ever, but the Cat was one of her most loyal and trusted companions, so she was willing to listen regardless. "Did Hatter lose control of one of his cooling snow globes?" she asked, continuing on her way.
"It was not any winter that originated from Wonderland." He said as he faded away. His work there was done.
Alice froze in mid step as that sunk in. It had been years since anything not originally from Wonderland had come to her world. She immediately began jogging in the direction of the Hatter's Domain. Whatever or whoever had shown up she would deal with it accordingly.
*A*A*A*
A/N And the story begins. A lot of foreshadowing in this chapter if anyone cares to look for it, it's not like it'll be hard to spot. Next chapter we see what kind of trouble Jack gets into in the Hatter's domain
Comments and criticism are welcome.
Disclaimer: I own nothing