/AUTHOR'S NOTE:
/Yeah, yeah, I haven't added a new part in a while. I've been procrastinating, busy with other things, and ideating what's happening next. I believe it's time to take one more step forward.
/I'm hoping this chapter isn't boring as hell, because the fun comes after this. Stay tuned.
All past experiences told Alice that bursting through walls was never a good thing. The accompanying madcap, however, had no such experience. Even though the door to the workshop was just a few meters to the left, a large hole in the brick wall was forcefully formed. It would also appear that a hole of the same size had affected the parallel wall as well, with the madcap nowhere to be seen. It would seem that, despite all of its strangely uncharacteristic intelligence, it did not take momentum into account, falling to who knows where and slamming head first into every branch on its way down. When Alice climbed over the rubble to look, there were bends in the pipes that looked fresh and suspiciously madcap-head-sized.
"Well, that is unfortunate."
"Quite."
Alice recoiled, and felt embarrassed upon learning the source of the voice. Of course the voice came from the Cheshire Cat, who else could it have been? Dormouse? March Hare? No matter how badly the Mad Hatter wanted to believe that those two were still alive, they were, in all actuality, not.
"Could you have been less discreet in your arrival, Cat?"
"Mistaking my intentions again, Alice? If I wanted to ambush you, I would not have said anything. I would have merely pushed you off." The Cat climbed over the pile of bricks that Alice stood on, and gazed down. "It would have been cruel, anyways. I'm not sure landing on my feet would save me, were I in that position…"
"Cruel would have been an understatement. Now… why are you here?" Alice asked.
"I'm curious. I will admit, I directed you to the Hatter without truly knowing if he would deliver for once. And though this ordeal was a bit… substandard, compared to what I was hoping for, it is a step in the right direction. Do you think the documents are here?"
Alice stepped down and began searching through the many, MANY drawers, lockers, and closets. "There wouldn't be anywhere else they could be. This place seems to have gone untouched."
"You would have had me fooled." The Cat responded, looking at the debris up and down.
For a workshop, there seemed to be a deficit in tools and machinery. Sure, there were a few hammers and chisels, and even a lathe of sorts, but not a whole lot else. There was a chance it was all buried under the rubble, or perhaps the madcap from earlier took some of the machines with it, but… nothing else that screamed this was a workshop. That being said, there were plenty of blueprints to see here. Some of them would have been quite interesting to read at a later date, such as one describing exactly how the damn teapot cable cars worked, but Alice needed something else. Just as she was about to give up, she could hear the sounds of shifting rubble and heavy sliding.
"Alice…" The Cheshire Cat said through his teeth, "I… found… something!"
It was an odd-looking box. Made of wood and wrapped in twine, with a strange sign written on it in black ink, its presentation seemed… ritualistic, in a way. As if the process of creating the box had some sort of emotional baggage that Alice was unaware of. Maybe it didn't have a meaning, and either the Dormouse or Hare purposefully made it look out of the ordinary? It wasn't any of the astronomical symbols that she was familiar with. It could have been Venus, but the circle had a section of its arc missing, rendering the shape incomplete.
Outside of the box itself, there was not a single splinter of wood to be found around the workshop. It gave credence to such an idea, but it wasn't like she could ask. Whatever the case may have been, none of it dissuaded Alice from crouching down and lifting the lid, scoring the twine with the Vorpal Blade on one side, and in one brief cut.
Underneath laid two… peculiar things of interest. The blueprints were all rolled up, the drawings of the portal and its design perfectly preserved. Laid alongside them, however, was something that Alice had nearly forgotten. A long stick of wood that curled at one end, with nails that held a perfectly round, amber orb. The Jabberwock's eye, and the staff which held it. One of Alice's most powerful instruments of war, one that she had inexplicably lost, and one that had inexplicably made its way here. Somehow. The idea of holding the damned staff was intimidating, let alone using it.
According to the blueprints, there wasn't a whole lot of technical finesse to create the portal. An arch about three meters in diameter, with a half-meter circle at its top, spikes lining the inner perimeter of the arch, and all abilities to move through it being removed, given a wall of brick blocking it. Oddly specific, and it was anyone's guess as to how those two figured this out in the first place, but it seemed simple enough to build. Of course, Alice had no such means to do it, but perhaps the Hatter did.
The path back to the Hatter was somber. The madcap's machine made quick work of anything that got in its way, it would seem… but it wouldn't be the last time Alice would see it.
Because for whatever reason, the madcap was back to where the Hatter was! Beaten and battered, but still standing. Like the Hatter, except literally standing instead of figuratively.
"Welcome back, Alice! I take it that our friend here wasn't much help. He just fell from the sky, without a trace of you in sight!" The Mad Hatter pointed a finger at the madcap with accusatory intent. This supposed loop back around from the bottom of the drop to the top was… not one Alice wanted to test.
Despite the bad blood between the Hatter and his henchman, the tea party that Alice promised to have was being set up quite fast. Multiple pipes were dragged out of the way, which expanded the clearing, and a table, if you could call a pile of hastily stacked tiles and bricks a table, was being set up in the middle of it all. So eager to start this tea part of his… but in Alice's eyes, the Hatter still needed to hold up his end of the bargain.
"I ask that our builder pause for a moment." Alice implored, before handing the papers off to the Hatter, who leaned in to snatch them and take a closer look. "Smart ones, those two are. Of course, this would have all been easier if our friends just PLAYED THEIR PART!" The Hatter barked at the Dormouse and Hare, the latter's head falling off of its body and into the already contaminated lake of tea. He still didn't realize that they were dead.
"Could you build it?" Alice prompted.
"Why, no, Alice. I could not. But he could! You, there!" He pointed his finger at the madcap, asserting his authority this time around, "Come, come, put your project on hold and start this one!" He snatched the papers out from her hands. Puzzlingly, the Mad Hatter had taken up the second, more widely known definition of mad. That description was more often used for more egregious actions, like betrayal, and not… whatever this sprouted from.
"Could you please stop being so-"
"Why, no, I cannot, Alice!" The Hatter predicted what she was going to say with ease. "Ohh, everything could be a lot better, and it is quite annoying! These two oafs…" He barked, pointing at the corpses, "...refuse to work! They are surrounded by all the luxuries brought upon them, festivities to take part in, and yet… They refuse! Nothing! Arrrgh…" Had the Hatter kept his legs, he would have been stamping them. And probably do something to ruin or damage the blueprints!
Instead, they were put to good use. The madcap sprung into action, taking the blueprints out of the Hatter's hand and beginning to piece together all the materials. It wasn't that hard, really. There was an abundance of scrap metal, and this particular madcap was crafty. Within a few minutes, the arch came together… surprisingly imposing. Something about it felt almost too artificial, as if it didn't exactly blend with the surrounding landscape. It was probably something Alice felt resulting from self doubt, she figured, but the portal felt out of place. There wasn't anywhere in Wonderland where this thing could fit, nor was there any sort of objective thing she could point to as the culprit. It was just… its own thing. Something that could never be a product of Alice's mind.
At least, that's the best way that Alice could put it, if prompted. Nothing she could say could describe the particular type of uneasiness she felt looking at the thing. In all likelihood, it wouldn't have even made sense!
"Alice, why are you gawking? You look like you have seen a ghost!" The Hatter chided, his tone returning to something more sympathetic.
"I'm afraid you wouldn't get it, Hatter." Alice replied. If he couldn't comprehend the fact that his former friends were desiccating and decomposing right before his very eyes, then there was no way she was going to be able to describe her current emotions. She could barely describe them to herself.
"Hm. Very well, then! Continue gawking."
Alice did precisely that… and then got on with it. There was work that needed to be done, and it was apparently going to be overseen by the damn Cat.
"You won't be the only curious observer, Alice. I, for one, need to see this happen. You don't know the full implications of this action, and to be frank, not even I know."
"I wouldn't claim to know, Cat. This is uncharted territory."
"Uncharted for us. It's time to change that."
"Agreed!" Alice nodded and smiled, before turning to the madcap. "Is there any specific way to open this?" She asked, correctly foreseeing that he would opt to hand the blueprints to her, rather than saying anything out loud at all. Alice scoured these papers for a good few minutes, before reading over some of the fine print with… hesitance.
"I must use the staff? Oh… oh, oh d-dear…" Alice looked up from the blueprint, wide-eyed. It had been long since she had used it, but Alice remembered exactly what using it felt like. Its sheer power had to come at a price, after all. Clutching the staff, she could almost feel its sickening energy. She took a deep breath, and then the Cheshire Cat spoke.
"Delay the inevitable enough, and a far worse outcome will be in store, Alice. Do not make that mistake."
"Very well."
Without further hesitation, Alice recalled the instructions on the blueprints, aimed at the brick wall of the arch, and fired a continuous beam. The recoil was surprisingly immense, given it was only releasing energy. The action made her upset and exhausted, but behind the purple light was promising. The wall was giving way to the same black cracks that she saw not too long ago; the same ones indicative of the place unlike Wonderland. It gave her enough reason to keep going with the procedure.
She dragged the beam up over the top of the arch and into the very dead center of the circle on top, before the beam ceased, and a ball of energy struck the circle. Immediately, it turned black… and the procedure was finished. Just to let it run its course.
At first… not a whole lot happened. The cracks grew slowly, and Alice was tempted to speak up about it. However, the process seemed to… bubble up, in a way. Grow exponentially in spectacle. A low rumbling emanated from the portal, causing Alice to back up. The sound of rubble giving way could be heard, growing louder, and louder, and louder…
Until it happened.
The wall exploded, sending chunks of brick outwards in all directions, striking the Hatter in his side, and almost striking Alice in the head. And when she finally looked up, the portal was lit along its spikes with purple flame, and the wall was entirely gone. In its wake was a soft dusk light, a chilling breeze, and the sound of tea draining into the now opened portal. Alice couldn't see much, but all signs pointed to this explicitly being not Wonderland.
"Well then. I recall you doing a similar thing some time ago with that same staff, Alice, but it was considerably less dramatic." The Cheshire Cat gave his own anecdote, which she briefly acknowledged before casting attention back to the staff. The wood felt warm to the touch. "I'm glad that is over. I would rather not have to use this again." Alice said as she walked back over to the makeshift table to set the staff onto it, before confronting the Hatter.
"I'm unfortunately going to have to alter the deal, Hatter. Could you keep that staff out of prying hands and unwanted third parties?"
"Unwanted third parties?! Since when are parties are unwan- oh, my mistake! My mistake!" The Hatter cleared his throat, trying to amend the mistake, "If you are to alter our deal like that, then I suppose it's only fair that I do the same." He leaned in as best as he could. It was a miracle that he didn't tip over and fall onto her. "Would you, could you, keep track of all your tribulations through this new land? It would be the perfect way to resume our tea party! And I assure you, this shall be entirely done by the time you get back!"
Alice shrugged. "I cannot say for certain, but I will certainly try. Until we meet again, Hatter."
"Good luck, Alice!" The Hatter waited for Alice to turn around and get a bit further ahead, before hastily crawling to slurp up what tea he could before it was all drained. As if he could, anyways.
Alice stood at the very edge of the portal, her boots holding strong against the current of tea. She turned to see the Cat, perched on land. "I will be accompanying you on this journey, Alice. My curiosity is so high, it's almost lethal." He said, before disappearing.
"I'll take your word on it, Cat." Alice responded.
She turned, facing the wind. No use in turning back now. One foot forward, and just like that… Alice fell.
Alice found herself falling at terminal velocity, and then subsequently slowing down just in time to take in her surroundings as she fell.
These lands were lit in an odd way. The sky was blue the more she looked directly up, yet turning into a yellow, almost orange-ish hue on the horizon, all at the hands of a constant, total solar eclipse. It stung to look at, and Alice chose not to stare directly at the light source. Off in the distance, Alice could see many vague, massive shapes. A mass of pipe, a large figure who slowly moved with its hands over its ears, multiple pyramids of impossible size… and that wasn't accounting for what she couldn't see. Everything that was too blurry or vague to determine.
Closer to her, not quite reaching the horizon, was a vast forest of densely packed trees. They were broken up by rocky hills and rivers which cut them in two, and there were a few partings in the trees that Alice figured were clearings. Some of them seemed empty, while Alice could swear she saw a few stone structures. Buildings, perhaps? Maybe they were statues of Levy himself, which wouldn't have surprised Alice, given how prominent her own statues were in the Vale of Tears. With that said… was that necessarily going to be the case? This wasn't Wonderland, after all. This world did not have to strictly follow the same logic, despite a few parallels Alice could already see. The details could be solved later, when Alice was on stable ground.
Speaking of, where was Alice going to land, exactly? She looked down.
"Oh dear…"
Oh dear was right. She was on a collision course with the roof of a central building, radially surrounded by what she assumed to be gravestones. There wasn't enough time to steer out of the way. Alice braced herself.
KA-BRRRRRGH!
Right through the roof. Fantastic.
Alice laid there for a moment. It was the harshest landing she had in recent memory. Nobody could blame her for it. Before she could get her bearings straight, an unfamiliar voice rang out and echoed off the stone walls, posh and nasal.
"...Well then! Now THAT right there is something you don't see every day!"