A/N: Ok, it took a different route than even I had planned, but I think it worked. Please let me know what you think!

As soon as I saw the look on Alice's face, I knew she was forming a plan.

"Alice? Just what is going through that beautiful head of yours?"

"What if we did save them?"

I paused. What if we … "Wait, what?"

"No, it could work! If we got more blood, popped back in time again, snatched them up and brought them back here!"

"Alice, I love the idea, but as much as I would love my family here again, we couldn't change the past. It could risk the future. I hate to say it, but the loss of them gave me the madness and the motivation to form the revolution. Mirana might not be in power now. I might not have you and the children."

"Ah, but that's if you know they live."

"Come again?"

"Think about it. During the chaos, you left with Mirana, right?" I nodded. "So you wouldn't be around to see us anyway. You would come back and find the village charred and still assume them dead."

"Yes, but –"

"Did you ever find any bodies?"

"No."

"Then you still won't! Tarrant, it could work!"

"Well, I suppose so…"

"Just think on it. It's not like we need a decision tonight."

"That's true. Thank you again for today, beloved. It was amazing." I kissed her gently and smiled. "I love you, mo gradh."

"And I love you, mo bhilis."

That night, I dreamed of a big family celebration. Not sure what the occasion was, but everyone was there: Helen, Margaret, Brandon, Jacob ... and my family as well. All of them were beckoning me to join them with bright smiles. How could I not?

"How could I not?" I panted as I sat straight up.

Alice quickly sat up with me. "What's wrong, darling?"

"Alice, my love, if you have a plan, let's get it into motion."

She smiled and I knew she had just the plan.

Two mornings later, we went to see Mirana. She was as reluctant as I expected.

But then Alice explained the plan. And it was a good plan. A solid one. Failure was always an option, but this seemed to be able to work. We jump in right after I leave with Mirana. And then we save them.

"And if you get killed in the process?" Mirana asked.

"A fair question," Alice replied. "But I've had a talk with Time. And while, yes, he and Tarrant aren't the greatest of friends, he does hold a certain soft side for me."

"He does still see you as that little girl, yes," Mirana said.

"And he is willing to slow down for all but us if there is something drastic about to happen. But I've watched the Oraculum closely, and while I'm sure it doesn't show everything, I know where to be and when. I've seen each of them. I'm ready."

Alice stopped and waited for the reply. This was going to be a tough one.

"Alice, I worry about this. More than I can tell you. So much can go wrong for it!"

"I know. I have concerns as well, but I know for certain that it can work – that it will work."

"You looked ahead, didn't you?" Mirana said, knowing she didn't need to ask.

"The scroll may have slipped and rolled further and I might have looked … it is a possibility … maybe," Alice mumbled.

"Oh Alice. What did it show?"

"It showed a strange repeat of that day, but of Tarrant – this Tarrant – and I running around grabbing them. And then it showed a great family celebration. Everyone was there, my family and Tarrant's."

"It did?" I asked.

"Yes, it did," Alice happily replied.

"But, I thought it was just a dream…"

"A dream come true!" Alice said, not understanding my meaning.

"No, cricket, the night you began to explain your want for this, I dreamed of such an occasion."

"How curious," Alice replied.

"Did you get these earlier, Tarrant?" Mirana asked.

"Just a few. It was my mother who always did. But I haven't had one since they were gone."

"There has been no one to see, so you haven't needed to."

Alice raised her hand. "What are you two talking about?"

"Poppet, Mirana thinks I had a familial vision," I answered. "They're foresights about your family. They used to be common in Underland until the Red Queen."

"Iracebeth killed a lot of magicks in Underland," Mirana confessed sadly.

"So …" Alice said, knowing her answer already.

"Yes, Alice. You may have the blood to save Tarrant's family. But only if you swear to me that you'll be careful."

"I swear to you! I have too much to come back to!"

The decision was made to make the journey in a week. During that time, I researched flame resistant materials and made garments out of those. Mirana had us fitted for excellent armor to protect our bodies and our identities. We did physical training to be as fit as possible. And we had a meeting with Time to plan out the intricacies of the final plan.

Before I knew it, a week had passed. After a painful farewell with the children, Alice and I collected up the vials of blood and went to the courtyard.

"Remember the plan," I told her. "If one of us falls, the other hurries back to the children."

"I remember. We won't need it. After we save them, I'll see you back in your workshop, right?"

"Right."

She gave me a kiss "for luck." We drank the blood and wished ourselves back to that tragic day.

Suddenly, we were surrounded by flames and screaming people. Alice yelled to me to find my sisters and she would find my parents. I figured my sisters would go with me much easier than with her.

We ran off and I tried to be so careful to avoid myself. I saw past me grab the reins of Mirana's horse and run off. Perfect, one less distraction.

"Briallen!" I screamed. "Gweneira!"

Never was I more glad to wear armor … well, not that I had ever done so in the past, but now was a very good time to start. It was chaos everywhere. I said a quick prayer that Alice was safe and felt somewhat secure that Time was doing his best to keep her safe. I wasn't entirely sure if he was keeping an eye on me, so I stayed on my toes.

The smoke and the flames were more than I expected, and I began to worry that thing's could go badly. But then, finally, I caught sight of Gwen.

"Gweneira! Come here!"

She darted towards me. "Tarrant?"

"Aye, tis me. Where's Bri?"

"I don't know. I've lost everyone!"

"Come with me. I have to hide you until we find them." I took her to a stone storehouse that I knew survived the devastation. "Stay here. Do not come out until I tell you to. Do you understand?"

She nodded rapidly.

"Good girl."

I shut the door and began to search for Briallen.

** Quick POV change to Alice **

I sprinted through the anarchy around me, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of Moibeal or Macbean. The smoke was making it harder to see than I expected. But then I heard her.

"Mac! Gwennie! Bri!"

"Moibeal!" I cried. "Moibeal, come here!"

She hurried over to me. "Alice?"

I knew she didn't drink that tea!

"Yes, it's me. We've come to save you all. No questions, just follow me."

She hurried behind me and we made our way to a designated safe house. I opened the door and was so relieved to find Gwen already there.

The two embraced and I told them to stay put. I needed to find my father-in-law now.

I darted back into the pandemonium and tried to find him. I looked and searched, but couldn't find him in the place I expected to. Then I realized I turned left at the fountain instead of right. I double backed just in time to see a flaming pillar falling right for me. I held up my arms to try to brace for impact but it never came. I looked up and saw it frozen above me. In fact, everything was frozen.

"Thank you, Time!" I shouted as I ran around the pillar and went to find Macbean.

Once I was back on track, I found him yelling desperately for his family.

"Macbean! Macbean Hightopp!" I screamed.

"Aye?"

"I need you to come with me!"

"But my wife, and my daughters, I must find them!"

"I know where your wife is and your daughter Gwen. Someone else is looking for Briallen," I explained.

"Do I know you, good knight?"

"You will. We have no time for questions now. Please follow me!"

"Aye. Take me to them!"

We ran to the storehouse. 'Three down and one to go. Please find her, Tarrant,' I thought as I opened the door. Still just Moibeal and Gwen were inside.

** Back to Tarrant's POV **

After I found Gwen, I rushed off for Bri. She wasn't supposed to be far from where I found our sister, so I ran back into the craziness. In my haste, I stepped off the path Alice planned for me and found myself right in the path of the jabberwocky's tail. Before I could grab my sword, the world stopped. I looked around.

"Thank yeh, Time!" I yelled and quickly got back on track. I found my sister huddled behind a cart full of straw.

"Briallen! Briallen! Come here!"

"Tarrant?" she cried.

"Aye, quickly, we must get out of here!"

"But, where is Mathier and Faither? Gwennie?"

"I think I know, but we must get away from this before it catches fire."

I pulled her to her feet and ran with her just as the cart burst into flames. Too close for comfort! We ran as fast as we could to the store house. I prayed that Alice and my parents were already there.

Just as we approached, I saw the door open and Alice walked out. She looked like she was ready to run and probably find us.

"Alice!" I screamed. "Stay there! I have her!"

She spun around and ran to us. "The other three are inside. Let's get out of here!"

The rest of us squeezed into the little room. I removed my helmet, since they would at least somewhat recognize me.

"All right. We are here to rescue you, but we have very little time. I need you each to drink this potion. It comes straight from the White Queen herself. I will explain everything to you once we're all safe."

I got skeptical looks from everyone but my mother.

"Do as 'e says!" she instructed. "I think I can help 'im explain as well, but we definitely need to get out of here first!"

Everyone drank their vial and shuddered. "Aye, sorry. Tis nasty stuff," I admitted. "Now, everyone hold hands tightly. Close your eyes and hold on."

Alice lifted the visor of her helmet and winked at me. We both wished as hard as we could to be home and poof!

Before I knew it, we were back in our chambers. I glanced over and saw my father and Briallen, but no one else.

"Good God, where's Alice? Where are Mathier and Gwen?" I desperately asked no one in particular. They looked at me with such confusion. Of course, they had no idea where they were, let alone where (or who) Alice was.

I raced to the door and threw it open, the empty hallway my only vision.

What had happened? Did they leave? Were they still back there? I was just about to run to Mirana for more blood when I saw Alice and my mother and other sister charging towards us.

"Tarrant! I thought we agreed on the workshop!" Alice said as she clung to me.

I froze. She was right. "Alice, I'm so sorry! You're right of course, we did say the workshop because here in our chambers would be a bit jarring and the workshop would be much more familiar, but as you can see we're all here anyway and now it's a bit late for the original plan but I am so glad to be seeing you and –"

She shook her head and whispered, "Tarrant." She grabbed my face and kissed me right out of my ramble.

Finally, my mother cleared her throat to bring us back to reality.

"Alice, we did it," I said softly.

"Yes. We actually did."

Mother walked over to us. "Alice, Tarrant, I cannae believe what yeh risked to save us. Yeh've given us a new chance at life. A new chance to see our family. Our grandchildren!"

"Mathier, you didn't drink your tea that night, did you?" I asked, knowing the answer already.

"What, and forget about yehr visit? Goodness no! Couldnae do that!"

"Excuse me, but could someone fill us in?" Briallen asked.

"Well, your brother and his beautiful wife just came back in time to save us. Is that the short version?" my mother said with a bright smile.

"Aye, the very short version," I replied. "My wonderful wife Alice convinced me that it would be possible to save you. And we have."

"So, where are we?" my father asked.

"In the future," Alice explained. "We pulled you from that terrible day to our own time. Now you are free to live here, get to know your son, your daughter-in-law and your grandchildren."

"We have grandchildren?" he asked excitedly.

"Aye, and Mac, they're beautiful!" Mother told him.

"How do you know?"

"I'll explain it all later," she said with a laugh.

I looked at my family. We did it. My sisters and father were still very confused, but alive. Very much alive.

"Well, for now, let us all go to Mirana. I know she wants to see you," I said.

"Tarrant! Manners! This is the queen you're talking about!" Mother chastised.

"Mathier, it's fine. A lot has changed. We're very good friends with her now. Alice and Mirana are like sisters."

"Much has changed," she said with awe to her voice.

We took my family to the throne room. I thought Mirana was going to launch out of her chair, in spite of her growing belly.

"Good God, you did it!"

My family instantly bowed to her. She asked them to rise and leaned to me. "I'm going to be formal for now. We shall tone it down later."

I nodded.

It took a while, but after many questions (Nae, yeh're not dreaming. Nae yeh're not dead.), we finally convinced my family to get some rest. Mirana had them set up in a lovely set of chambers and they went off with Nivens to see them.

"Alice, I must apologize," Mirana began. "You did it. You rescued the Hightopps and apparently didn't change anything because here we all are."

"And here's some more," I heard a deep voice from behind us say. I turned to see Bayard and our other friends with the children.

"Mummy! Daddy!" Charlotte cried as she ran towards us.

"There's my buttercup!" I said as she flew into my arms.

Alice ran over to Will's carriage being pushed in by Thackery. It was amazing how he could be so calm around the babies, but once out of his little range, he was back to being the same mad hare.

I looked around again and smiled. It seemed like that was all I was doing lately: smiling at my surroundings.

"Come on, darling. Your family is sleeping, perhaps we should do the same. I could do with getting the rest of this armor off," Alice said.

"I could certainly do with helping you with that," I said, waggling my eyebrows at her.

"Tarrant, you'll never change," she sighed.

"And you'll never want me to," I said with a giggle.

And with that, we went back to our chambers and got the children ready for bed. I did help Alice out of her armor first. But after the children were in bed, Alice wanted to watch them sleep for a bit. I couldn't argue with her there. Though, once we finally did get back to our bedroom, we followed through with my plan as well.

It was a momentous day for our family and one that could have gone terribly wrong, but it didn't. And all because of my Alice.

End note: Did anyone catch my surprise with Mirana? *wink*

Ok, so it wasn't what I originally planned, but I think it worked. Please let me know your thoughts!

Also, I forget who suggested Time's help. Whoever it was, let me know so I can credit you!