Author's Note: Longest chapter title in the history of the world. ^.^ (Well, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration.)

The Insanity of Power

Chapter 3: "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"

Alice's mind did back flips. She could barely recall the events that happened just seconds ago. At the moment the only certainty in her world was her hand in Hatter's. Her legs ran on auto-pilot, taken wherever Hatter led, and for a reason she couldn't remember her whole body was numb. A shot rang out behind them, followed by two more. These brought her back to her senses.

They skidded to a halt just before a sudden lack of terra firma. No one in the lower city would hear the gun shots, and by the state of things she doubted anyone would much care. She instinctively froze at the sight of the great distance between them and the ground, but training her eyes on Hatter she found she could be rid of most of the fear.

"Where are we headed?" She demanded shortly. His teeth were clenched so tightly he couldn't speak, so he jerked his head to their left. Alice saw their hiding place, an abandoned tea shop. "Their?" she pointed to the shop and Hatter nodded, letting go of her hand and using his to grasp his right shoulder. They took off and reached the building in seconds. Hatter dropped to the ground inside of the vacant shop and Alice joined him.

"Are you hurt?" Alice asked, rising to her knees.

"I just got shot!" Hatter's tone was higher than she had ever heard it. "What the hell is going on?" He asked as if she might actually know the answer. She was baffled.

"My mother... Hatter we have to go back!"

"Alice," he held his hand to her face, trying to convey his sympathy "can't. I'm so sorry." His words were irregular and tense though. He reluctantly turned his attention toward his right shoulder. He tried to take off his jacket one-handed while his head swam with questions, and fear for Alice, and regret, and an all encompassing pain and then, nothingness.

Alice tapped Hatter's face experimentally, he was out cold. Tears of frustration came now, not of mourning. She couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that they couldn't go back and get Carroll, so her mind created the idea that her mom was at home waiting for her. Every last inch of her tried to make her believe this was a nightmare, and in this dream-like situation she could forget about what just happened and focus on what had to happen now.

*****

Hatter awoke to find Alice curled around herself in a corner of the tea shop. She had pilfered a few musty carpets from the back of the store to use as a bed. He realized, slightly shocked, that his jacket and shirt had gone missing and all that replaced it was a tightly wrapped strip of cloth around his shoulder. He surveyed Alice once more, unsure of how to react. With a shrug he retrieved the bag of clothes he had brought with him out of Wonderland and found a (almost) clean set of clothes to change into.

They would eventually have to leave the city and find a way back to Alice's world, if anyone could help it was Jack Heart. Once Alice had rested they would have to risk it outside, but first he wanted to know just what had happened to Jack's plans of restoring Wonderland to its former fantastic-ness.

Hatter cautiously walked outside, three long stretches of land forked in front of the tea shop. He took the one to the right, knowing that about five feet below him was a newspaper vendor. Newspaper vendors in Wonderland were a concrete box with one thin slot that could produce a current newspaper through the use of flash-printing and automatic daily radio waves. The papers where practically self-efficient, when the Queen was on the throne papers were frequently filled with fanciful-looking advertisements for extracts and an occasional article on the dangers of taking emotions that was illegally slipped in by a gutsy journalist. If things had turned around at all since Jack was on the throne he would get a good idea of it from the paper.

The paper that he retrieved from the slot was a single page, the only ink on it was the elaborate header that held the title of the paper and the date. 45 years after he had left Wonderland. He raised his head and closed his eyes, letting out a sigh so huge that it made his wound sting. The blasted looking glass was faulty. He let the paper fall to the ground, it was swept up by the wind and carried to the lower city. Rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand, he returned to the shop. Alice was still asleep.

When she became conscious she was greeted by Hatter, who had casually propped himself up against a grey wall near-by.

"Morning sunshine. Sleep well?" he tried to sound positive, twirling his hat between two expertly swift fingers. He replaced it with his left arm, careful not to disturb the other.

"Hatter? Hatter!" She sat up quickly, perplexed at his presence. "How's your-"

"Shoulder?" He interjected, "Never been better." He lied flippantly as he stooped to help her off of her bed of carpet. She stared at him sadly.

"You're lying." He rolled his eyes lightly and strode towards the door, they had to get to Jack as soon as possible. "Thanks." Alice added as she followed behind him.

"For what?" He didn't stop. In his opinion she had nothing to thank him for.

"Lying." He almost smiled as she latched onto his left arm with her right. They exited the tea shop and Hatter took an immediate right. "Don't you have any idea what this is about? Who would shoot at us?" He stopped walking and pivoted to look at Alice.

"Je ne sais pas! The looking glass took us 45 years in Wonderlands future then closed and I just don't know why." Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of silvery movement. Alice saw it too and slowly they both turned their gaze towards its source. "But he might." Hatter's tired eyes gained a sparkle, this was progress.

To Be Continued…

Author's note: On the word grey/gray. I looked it up because I wasn't sure which to use and it appears that both are variants on the exact same word. I.e. color/colour, customize/customize ect. Grey is the older (and more British) spelling while gray is the American version. So since Hatter is clearly British I will use grey in this particular story ^.^ And about the bit of French… I figure Hatter's an eclectic guy, and we ARE in Wonderland… why not?