AN: Yeah! We survived the end of the world! High fives all around! Thank you! Thank you all for your generous reviews!

By the by, this chapter introduces Alice and it is mainly centered around the aftermath of the second Alice game. It's also the only chapter to take place in Wonderland for quite a while. This story does primarily take place in the real world. Sorry to disappoint. However, later down the road there are a couple of chapters that take place exclusively in Wonderland so don't be too sad! That's something to look forward too.

RECENTLY RE-EDITED (1/13/16)

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.

I invite you to a world where there is no such thing as time
And every creature lends themselves to change your state of mind
And the girl that chased the rabbit, drank the wine, and took the pill
Has locked herself in limbo to see how it truly feels

Her Name is Alice ~ Shinedown

~O~

A hundred and thirty-nine years ago, Alice Liddell was nineteen years old when people stopped seeing her and she became invisible to the world around her.

Even after all these years, she could still recall the day of her "disappearance" with stunning clarity. It was the sort of thing one never forgets. It was the day she had confronted her family's killer at the Moorgate Train Station in jolly Ol' London, England. Alice exposed Dr. Angus Bumby for the grotesque monster he truly was, the dark part of him that he so effortlessly hid from his fellow patrons.

Oh yes, he was quite the actor. Remarkably good at hiding that less than savory side of him from the public's eye. But despite his best efforts, he couldn't prevent Alice from eventually uncovering the truth, and when she did, she made sure he paid for what he had done. Not just for her and her family's pain, but for the pain of all those innocent children whose lives were ruined by that wicked man's selfish actions and complete disregard for human life.

There was a brief investigation of Bumby's death, but it was over before it could really began. There was a considerable lack of evidence to suggest a crime had been committed and an even larger shortage of public outcry for Bumby's supposed killer to be brought to justice. When it came to East End murders, the London police force turned rather apathetic, regardless of who was involved. They concluded very early on that the doctor must have been standing too close to the tracks when the train was approaching the station, and had inadvertently lost his balance and fell. They ruled Dr. Bumby, "dead by misadventure".

The irony almost made Alice laugh.

Unfortunately, the truth about the fire and Dr. Bumby's illegal activities disappeared along with Alice, and she was immediately labeled as a runaway after the constable cleared her as a possible murder suspect. There was a small search for her since she was still considered an unstable mental patient, but it didn't last very long. Everybody assumed she either left the city, or was rotting in a gutter somewhere speaking nonsense. Only her nanny bothered to keep looking for her, a sentiment that flattered Alice greatly when she found out, but when the old ladybird eventually gave up too, she didn't blame her. Nan Sharpe had already been descending into an advanced age when Alice disappeared, so it didn't come as a surprised when the woman finally grew too tired to keep searching. Her death followed only a few short years afterwards.

The Houndsditch Home for Wayward Youth was closed down soon after Dr. Bumby's death and the children were sent to other orphanages throughout London and the surrounding countryside.

Occasionally, Alice would still look back on the children she used to care for at the orphanage and hoped that they were able to get some real help and live out the rest of their lives in peace. The truth may still be buried underneath countless lies, but at least Angus Bumby wasn't able to harm another child again. With time and proper care, his many victims would heal.

As for Alice, even after seemingly disappearing into thin air, she slowly started to become a local legend around London. Bits of gossip about a mad, young woman who saw and heard things that weren't really there, somehow turned into something else entirely. Stories of a curious little girl who fell into a rabbit hole and landed in magical place called Wonderland, started to surface. Then one day, many years after Alice had disappeared, a writer by the name of Charles Dodgson, overheard an old woman telling a group of children a story about one of little Alice's adventures. The stories intrigued him and he was inspired to write more, further changing Alice's true appearance and tragic backstory into a series of more pleasant and whimsical tales - forever cementing little Alice as one of history's most iconic pieces of literal ever created.

As time moved on, and the books of "Lewis Carroll" were published, everyone eventually forgot about the real Alice Liddell; the small, dark-haired girl and the tragedy she went through when she was just eight years old. Understandably, no one wanted to read a story about a girl who lost her family in a horrible fire and went insane because of it. Her real life story was much too dark and gruesome for children. It was evidence of a darker side of history and the real Alice Liddell was an unpleasant remnant of Victorian London during the Industrial Revolution.

Yes, it hurt tremendously, having to watch the true memory of her family and herself be forgotten so easily, but Alice knew it was all for the best.

The moment she had turned back around to face Dr. Bumby for the last time, before pushing him on to the train tracks and avenging all the lives he had ruined, Alice became invisible to the real world. For awhile, she tried to get people to see her, even though it was obvious no one ever would. The girl was invisible to everybody in London, and quite possibly, the whole world as far as she was aware. But somehow, Alice found herself content with that. She didn't like other people very much anyways.

Without the ability to change her situation, Alice could only sit back and watch as her story was turned into something loved by many children, and she came to realize that she didn't mind that at all. In fact, she believed it was better that way. The books just served as a reminder that her life as a human wasn't completely pointless. Something very good came from it all.

Her Wonderland was able to become good again in the hearts of millions of children, just like it was before the fire destroyed everything.

After about ten years of wandering aimlessly around England, unseen by everybody, Alice descended back into her Wonderland and planned to never return to the real world. She had outgrown her birth realm and the people inside it. There was nothing left for her there and she failed to see any point in lingering in a world that only ever caused her pain and misery. She was given a new existence, one that she believed belonged exclusively to Wonderland.

And now, here she stood, facing her oldest friend and the only connection she had left to the outside world.

"Mr. Bunnymund?" Alice blinked curiously.

She wasn't expecting a visit from the Easter Bunny so soon. He usually came much later in the year.

The gray pooka quickly whipped around in surprise at the sound of the woman's voice. Alice stood across the way in her classic blue, Wonderland dress and white apron. She didn't have any of her weapons on her that he could see, but Bunny knew that they had a habit of materializing out of nowhere when Alice needed them. She could never use them on him, though. He was the only friend that Alice had who wasn't a product of her wild imagination, and that was one of the many reasons why Bunny meant the most to her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. "A spontaneous visit like this isn't very characteristic of you."

"Do I really need a reason to visit my favorite lil' ankle-biter?" Bunny asked while crossing his arms. "You don't sound very excited to see me."

Bunny tried to look insulted but they both knew he was only joking. The only time Bunny was ever truly upset with Alice was when the girl purposely put herself in harm's way. During those situations, the pooka acted more like a furious father rather than a disappointed friend. He couldn't help it. Alice could be very reckless sometimes and she nearly gives Bunny a heart attack every time she gets herself into trouble. Which of course happened a lot in Wonderland.

"You know I am always happy to see you," Alice smiled as she placed her hand over her heart to show her sincerity. "But this isn't just a social call, is it? You are a very habitational creature, Mr. Bunnymund. You rarely ever pay me unexpected visits unless something is bothering you."

"I wish it were just a visit, but I have some news for you," Bunny sighed. He had almost forgotten how observant Alice could be, of course she would pick up on his unease and suspect something as soon as he showed up. She would never miss details like that.

"I certainly hope it isn't bad news."

"Oh no! Of course not," He insisted, not completely sure if he was telling the truth or not. "It's just news. Could be good or bad, dependin' on how you look at it, I guess...can we go somewhere else and talk? This place is kinda depressin' me a little."

Alice's sharp, green eyes slowly scanned the scorched and stained area around them. Her pink lips pursed in thought before she nodded her head in agreement. Her heart clenched with guilt due to the state her beloved train station was in. She felt terrible for not restoring the Looking Glass Line sooner, but because of that Infernal Train, Alice still wasn't entirely comfortable around trains, even after a hundred and thirty years. And to be perfectly honest, she never really liked trains to begin with.

'Perhaps the Looking Glass Line will be my next clean-up project. It'll certainly be a challenge,' She mused. 'Father loved trains .'

"I agree," She said out loud, this time to Bunnymund. "Let's go."

~O~

When Alice returned to the Red Kingdom soon after defeating the Dollmaker, she found it empty. Supposedly after the Dollmaker's demise, the Red Queen fled from her kingdom and went into hiding. Alice had her suspicions that the queen fled mainly because the Wonderland heroine stomped on her almighty executioner to death. The queen must have believed that she was at risk now that her wicked giant wasn't guarding the Red Kingdom anymore. Or maybe perhaps Alice had outgrown the Red Queen as well and the unpleasant creature finally took the hint and buggered off.

Regardless of the queen's motives, Alice decided to occupy the empty kingdom and make it her own. All the red tentacles disappeared along with the Red Queen, but the kingdom was still in ruin. Insidious ruins and black ooze still lurked around the land when Alice moved in and she quickly had them disposed of. The kingdom walls still had their scars, however as a whole, the castle was a much more pleasant place to live and it quickly became Alice's home and headquarters in Wonderland. She even took down most of the kingdom's previous red decorations, and replaced them with blue ones. She was contemplating on renaming the land, the Blue Kingdom, but she hadn't gotten around to officially changing the name yet. It wasn't exactly one of her top priorities at the moment.

The past one hundred and thirty years were mainly spent clearing away the black ooze pollution. Reconstruction of the different sections of Wonderland didn't come until later. Places like the Hatter's Domain and the Dreary Lane Theatre were taken care of personally by their owners. The Origami Ants were also doing a good job of cleaning up their land on their own with only a little help from Alice, and occasionally, Caterpillar. After Alice had freed them from the tyranny of the samurai wasps, the ants insisted on learning the ways of self-reliance. She was quite proud of this decision and supported it wholeheartedly.

Alice and Bunny walked down a long corridor that led out into the old garden labyrinth. Alice's blue wonderland dress had shifted and changed into her black and red royal dress the moment they stepped off the Card Bridge. Bunny looked around at the most recent improvements that were made to the Red Kingdom.

"Are these new?" He asked, referring to the mosaic windows with playing card decorations on them. They lined along the corridor and gave the newly blue, carpeted floor a beautiful glow.

Alice turned to look back at Bunny, but didn't stop walking. She was a little apprehensive about the pooka's sudden visit. Normally, she would be delighted to show off her kingdom's most recent renovations to her oldest (if not her only)friend, but she had an uneasy feeling boiling in the pit of her stomach. At the moment, Alice just wanted to reach her beautiful garden, not chat about the bloody windows that Bunny failed to notice the time he visited.

"New enough," Alice said tautly. "The garden is just up ahead."

Five minutes later, the two friends were deep within the garden's labyrinth. The tall hedge walls were alive and green again and covered in both red and white roses. The garden was certainly looking better than it was before, when every plant was either dead, or on the verge of dying. Alice had everything restored almost immediately when she took over the kingdom, filling the maze with an array of different flowers, making it look like a near reconstruction of the Garden of Eden. Animal and bug life had followed swiftly after, populating the area with butterflies, bumblebees, and hybrid species of squirrels and bluebirds.

Bunny smirked as he saw a couple of undead Card Guards watering a patch of over-sized daisies. The gruesome creatures looked almost ridiculous, but he supposed he should count himself lucky that they weren't trying to attack him, like they used to when he first started visiting Wonderland, before Alice told them that he was off-limits.

They stood there growling in their own, fragmented language, occasionally shoving each other as they watered the flowers. Alice once told him that when she returned to cleanup the kingdom, she came across a whole deck's worth of leftover card guards, trapped deep within the ruins of the Red Kingdom. When they weren't under the heavy rule of the Red Queen, the stoney creatures were actually quite passive. They lacked a purpose though, since their former queen abandoned them, so Alice allowed them to helped her run the kingdom. They were the same to Alice as the yetis were to North, except only ten times more creepy looking.

"So, what is this news that you are choosing to be so cryptic about?" Alice asked while holding her arms behind her back.

Bunny took a deep breath before slowly exhaling through his nose. The pooka was trying think of a good way to tell Alice about what had happened at the North Pole. If he didn't handle the situation carefully enough, she would never agree to come back. Usually, she wasn't very difficult to deal with. The dark-haired spirit only went on the defensive whenever he tried to talk about her returning to the outside world. Not that Bunny could blame the girl, her old world treated her like garbage.

"The Man in the Moon chose a new guardian," Bunny said, cautiously testing the waters.

"Yes, you told me already," Alice smiled even though she was starting to get annoyed.

She hated it when Bunny tried to pretend everything was alright when he was around her. She wasn't stupid. Alice knew that Bunny didn't act like that around anybody else except for her. In his world, he was blunt and brutally honest with others and she hated that the pooka felt he had to censor his attitude just because she was too sensitive and needed special treatment. Alice was a big girl. She was more than capable of handling rough treatment and biting insults. "That boy who makes a mess of your Easter egg hunts every year. What was his name again?"

Alice stopped next to a large rosebush and started picking dead leaves from it. Bunny's nose curled up and his ears twitched in annoyance at the thought of the white-haired troublemaker.

"Jack Frost," He mumbled, but not with as much distaste as he would have used two years ago. "But that was a while ago. I meant the Man in the Moon chose a new guardian just recently...and when I say recently, I mean he chose one...today."

Alice halted her movements and shifted her eyes towards Bunny with a dead rose stem held between her gloved fingers.

"And you rushed over here so quickly to tell me this, why?" She said in a near whisper, knowing exactly where this conversation was headed. She wanted him to stop talking now. For once, she didn't want to hear anymore of what he had to say.

"Because...the Man in the Moon chose you, kiddo," Bunny sighed in defeat. "He wants you to be the new guardian."

"So, you've come here to bring me back?" Alice asked with forced calmness. "Is that your intention?"

Bunny's ears dipped down as he noticed how her fingers tightened around the dead rose stem in her hand. The thorns bit painfully into her palm. She didn't want to be angry with her friend, but he should know better than to say such things to her. Alice has always dreaded that one day, something beyond her control would happen and she would be forced to leave her Wonderland and return to the outside world. And she had the distinct feeling the day had finally come.

"Now Alice, calm down," Bunny spoke gently.

Outwardly, she didn't look too upset, but one didn't exactly have to know Alice Liddell very long to figure out that she could change moods faster than he could hop, which was pretty damn fast.

"It is, isn't it!" Alice snapped. "Well, you can forget about it! I won't be leaving my Wonderland, so you go tell your "Man in the Moon" to pick someone else to do his slop work because I'm nobody's labor mule!"

"Alice, it doesn't work like that," Bunny shook his head. "And he's not just my Man in the Moon. He's responsible for all our existences: me, North, Tooth, Sandy, Jack, and you too."

Alice shook her head against his words as she tried to block out the horrid voices that begun to echo inside her head. She wasn't listening to Bunny anymore. That stupid rhyme had started playing inside her head again, dominating all other sounds. That stupid rhyme the children at the orphanage would recite like a bloody mantra!

"The train is coming with its shiny cars. With comfy seats and wheels of stars. So hush my little ones, have no fear. The Man in the Moon is the engineer."

Alice tried to push away the painful memories by remembering how she had the Dollmaker's Workshop torn down after she had returned to Wonderland. How she stood off in the distance, watching as the God forsaken structure crashed to the ground and burned uncontrollably until there was nothing left except for a broken mountain of scorched and rotted wood.

Whenever Bunny brought up the Man in the Moon, Alice's mind immediately thought of the Dollmaker - not of the kind and powerful entity that watched over and guided the guardians.

"Alice, please come back with me," Bunny implored. "At least come meet North and the other guardians."

Alice shook her head again and turned her back to him, as if that would make him go away. "No. Absolutely not. I refuse to return to that wicked world!"

Bunny reached out a paw to touch Alice's shoulder in comfort, but stopped short when an unpleasant shiver ran down his spine and he suddenly felt several pairs of eyes on him. His tall ears perked up in alertness as he glanced around to see the card guards glaring at him through empty eye sockets, not looking the least bit happy with him. The cards guards weren't very smart creatures, on account that they were literally brain dead, but they could clearly see that the outsider was upsetting their kind new queen.

Bunny shifted uneasily while his paw slowly reached for his boomerang, just in case the creatures decided to charge him. Alice turned back around when she noticed the sudden rising tension. She raised her gloved hands at her guards and gestured for them to calm themselves.

At her signal, the card guards growled among themselves and went back to tending the maze garden, occasionally throwing empty glares in the Easter Bunny's direction.

"Bunny," Alice sighed, dropping the formalities. "There must be some mistake. The Guardians protect and bring joy to children. I don't bring joy, and I'm most certainly not anybody's protector."

"What do ya mean you don't bring joy to children? What about your books?"

"Their not my books, Bunny. Not entirely. I inspired them, but I didn't not create them," Alice argued, she hated it when the Alice in Wonderland books were brought up in conversation. "And that's all they are - books. Fairytales do not dictate my thoughts and actions, just as they don't dictate yours."

"Alice, the Man in the Moon doesn't just randomly pick someone to be a Guardian," Bunny tried to explain to her, needing to make her understand. "Each guardian has somethin' special inside of them, somethin' that makes them a Guardian. Now, I'm not gonna lie. I have no idea why the Man in the Moon chose you, but this very important, Alice. I need you to come back with me. You know I would never ask you to do this unless it was serious."

Alice looked down at her boots in thought before walking towards a nearby gazebo. She crossed her arms and leaned against the railing of the small structure, ignoring the gray pooka as he came up behind her.

"If you can't even figure out why he wants me, then how am I supposed to? How is that supposed to convince me to do anything? What make me so special?" Alice asked while staring off at something Bunny couldn't see.

Bunny couldn't hold back a surprised bark of laughter. It amazed him every time that the girl couldn't see just how wonderful she truly was. She could see the wonder and beauty in so many things, except in herself. When she turned that attention to detail and that eye for beauty towards herself, Alice could never see anything worthwhile.

"Are ya kiddin' me? Look around you, sheila!" Bunny exclaimed, gesturing to the world around them by spreading out his arms. "Look at all this! You created it all with pure imagination and you're askin' me what makes you so special? We seriously need to get your eyes checked, mate."

Alice didn't say anything, but Bunny could tell that his words were starting to work. He chuckled and shook his head. Alice could be the sweetest girl around, but get on her bad side, she could be someone's worse bloody nightmare. And despite being over a hundred years old, she could still throw child-sized tantrums sometimes.

Bunny's internal clock started to tell him that it was getting late at the North Pole, so he decided to throw caution to the wind and hope it didn't blow up in his furry face.

"Look," He started gently. "Come with me to the Pole and meet the other guardians. We'll just be goin' to the North Pole and I'll be behind you every step of the way. If you don't like it, then...then I'll bring you back here. I promise."

"I thought I couldn't say "no" to being a guardian," Alice smiled softly.

Bunny laughed, sheepishly scratching the back of his head. "Well, that's not entirely true. No one can force you to take the Guardian Oath...but it would certainly make all our lives easier if we could. It's a decision you have ta' make on your own."

"And what if something bad happens while we're up there?"

Bunny placed both paws on Alice's shoulders and turned her towards him so he could look her in the eyes. Alice blinked at the pooka as a deep sense of determination and promise filled his forest green eyes.

"I will never let anything bad happen to you," He swore. "Not ever again."

Alice's own green eyes immediately softened and her hand came up to fondly pet the pooka's muzzle, and Bunny responded by leaning into the touch. Memories of those happy Easter Sundays when she was still an innocent child, flooded her mind.

"The fire happened during winter, nowhere near Easter. You couldn't have realized what was happening and come to our aid quick enough for it to have mattered," Alice whispered. "It wasn't your fault."

Naturally, the bad memories followed quickly behind. They always did.

"It wasn't yours either," Bunny added.

Before any tears could escape her eyes, Alice wrapped her arms around Bunny's chest and buried her face in his soft, gray fur. Bunny smiled and returned the hug. Even before becoming a spirit, Alice rarely displayed such acts of affection to anyone, but the Easter Bunny was always special.

"So, what do ya say, kiddo?" Bunny asked with a smirk. "Are you ready to meet the craziest bunch of wallabies ever?"

AN: Gasp! Cliffhanger! Just kidding. If you have any common sense, you can probably figure out Alice's answer. Otherwise, this would be a very short story.

Okay, I'm not looking to pick a fight with any die-hard Lewis Carroll fans out there, but I wanted to try and incorporate the existence of little blonde Alice into this story and this is the best way I could come up with. I didn't mean to make it seem like Carroll couldn't come up with Alice in Wonderland by himself.

I always liked the idea of the scene at the train station (right before Alice pushes Bumby) being the moment where Alice is turned into a spirit by the Man in the Moon. You know, where she turns around and she's suddenly in her blue dress. And Bumby has that amazed expression on his sick mug.

~Scorpiofreak~