AN: Well here we go again! Some overlap from the teaser, but that's ok, haha. Sorry this is a couple of days late, but this weekend has been busy!

Enjoy! And please leave reviews! I've got an outline finished for the story, but if you guys don't review, I won't have the inspiration to change it into chapters!

Chapter Nine

Spirit

The sound of a crow's distressed cries woke Hatter from his uneasy dreams the next morning. The sudden movement as he startled into wakefulness aggravated his many injuries, making him wince as pain rippled through him from head to toe. It felt like he'd been tied up and then dragged behind a team of horses in his sleep.

"What was that?" he demanded irritably as he struggled to his feet, muscles crying protest as he did so. The echoes of the many pieces of junk that Charlie called an alarm system giving the younger man a headache to add to his list of pains.

"It's the early warning system," Charlie said as he got to his feet after a tumble out of his hammock "someone has broken through the perimeter!"

At the knight's words, alarm flooded through Hatter, clearing out the last of the cobwebs left over from a restless night's sleep. His mind automatically went to Alice, and his head snapped around towards the bed where he had left her sleeping the previous evening after their argument. Hatter felt his heart stop when he did not find her there.

Turning to look at Charlie, he demanded "Where's Alice?"

The old man panicked, and Hatter felt on the verge of doing the same himself as he crammed his hat onto his head and started forward, his eyes scanning the camp, praying that Alice had simply woken first and was somewhere nearby.

"Battle stations!" Charlie cried as he stumbled up the incline, grabbing up an oversized ladle as he did so "Drum the ordinance of the seraphim!"

Hatter didn't hear the rest of the old knight's fearful cries; barely even noticed when he collided with him. His eyes had been caught by a flutter of purple, and were inexorably drawn to the purple velvet coat that hung from the rung of a ladder nearby. Hatter's heart stopped at the sight of it there, fluttering innocently in the morning breeze. He felt nauseous as the implications of it being left there so carefully, where he would be sure to see it, sank in through the panic.

She had left. Alice had left him and gone off all alone to make a doomed attempt to make a deal with the devil for the life of another man.

"No...NO!" he cried as anguish, fear, and anger welled up within him as images of Alice being tortured by the Queen's mad henchmen flashed behind his eyes. Why? Why hadn't she trusted him? Was going alone to certain death really so much more bearable than his company?

Hatter's heart pounded in his chest, causing his blood to thunder in his ears so loudly that he barely heard the words that escaped him next .

"I need a horse."

Charlie's wild cries suddenly stopped and he wheeled around to face Hatter, who snapped around to glare at him, dark eyes daring the old knight to refuse his demand.

"I-..."

The hesitation was all the answer Hatter needed, and he was in too much of a hurry to wait for permission. Instead, he ran headlong back up the path to where they had left the horses the previous night. Maybe, just maybe, she hadn't gotten far. Maybe he could catch up to her and bring her back to safety before Mad March caught her. Hatter had no doubt in his mind that allowing herself to be captured was Alice's plan. After all, she had no way of knowing how to get to the Queen. However, if she was captured...well, that would be the first place they brought her.

Hatter cursed the girl even as he skidded to a stop in the clearing, startling the horses. Luckily, Guinevere was a docile as ever, for she soon settled and allowed the over excited man to throw her blanket across her back and saddle her without complaint.

As he worked, Charlie hurried up behind him, still barefoot and in his pajamas, but obviously worried "Which way should we go?" the old man asked.

"You don't have to come, Charlie. This isn't your fight." Hatter said firmly, hoping the old man would simply let things be. He'd travel faster on his own.

Charlie scoffed and said "You couldn't be more wrong!" hobbling off past the horses before rounding on heel to chastise Hatter, something the young man was in no mood for "You led the Alice of legend to me for a reason!" he insisted "Call it what you will; divinity, fate, an alignment of forces beyond mortal understanding...It's time you understood that I am the true paladin here, and you are mere a harbinger!"

Hatter ignored the tirade. The faster he could get on Alice's trail, the better. With every moment that passed, he could fee hope slipping away, and in the darkest parts of his heart, he had a feeling that it was already too late.

"Besides," Charlie began again, his tone less condemning and more petulant now, as he was forced to hunch over from the pain in his back "you'll never find her without my help. Remember, I'm also well versed in the...black arts."

There was that faux-mystic tone again. Hatter wondered just what had given the man the idea that he had such powers in the first place. No one had actually practiced the black arts in generations.

"We shall be guided by my psychic connection to the mysterious sinews that bind man kind to the outer realm..."

Finally finished, Hatter mounted the stalwart Guinevere just in time to see Charlie in one of his 'trances', letting out a sigh of annoyance as the old man proclaimed "You're going the wrong way, habringer! We should go West."

Hatter tugged on the reigns, holding the horse up a moment as he turned back over his shoulder and said "You go West, I'm going east."

"Why?" Charlie asked as he turned, seeming baffled by this reply.

"She's gone to the Heart's Casino." Hatter replied grimly, then turned his back on Charlie and urged Guinevere down the path at as quick a pace as they could manage.

He didn't wait to listen for a reply, but he none-the-less heard Charlie's quiet, disbelieving "But that's certain death...Why would she go there?"

Hatter set a fast pace for Guinevere, his fear a constant torment as he chastised himself over and over again for not being able to stop Alice from throwing herself so carelessly into danger. If he'd been more circumspect in his request for the ring, if he had simply explained it's importance more clearly; hell, if he'd just promised to try and get that stupid Jack of hers out of the casino, then this wouldn't have happened.

As the woods thickened, and the way became narrower, Guin was forced to slow her pace to pick her way carefully along the uneven path. Hatter had to fight the urge to kick her forward into greater speed, knowing full well that something so foolhardy could be the death of both mount and rider. None-the-less, the man's patience was beginning to wear dangerously thin when his mount suddenly came to a complete stop.

Frowning fiercely, Hatter clucked encouragingly at his steed, tugging the reigns gently to get her attention. When she didn't budge, he nudged her sides, lightly at first, and then harder.

"C'mon, we don't have time for this!" Hatter growled, leaning around to see if there was something in her way. Seeing nothing, he dismounted lightly and went around to Guinevere's head, tugging hard on the reigns to try and lead her through the small clearing they had entered. It was to no avail, though, and Hatter found himself on the verge of violence in his desperation to keep moving so he could catch up to Alice. He could leave the stupid horse here and continue on foot, but he knew his chances of catching her dwindled sharply if he did that.

Looking back at the obstinate horse, Hatter grit his teeth and tugged the reigns again. For the first time, Hatter noticed that the creature didn't even budge an inch under his increasingly rough hand. With the treatment he was giving her, she should have pulled back, or swung her head, made a noise...something. But no, she stood there like a particularly convincing taxidermy specimen, unnaturally still, and frozen mid-stride.

The hairs on the back of Hatter's neck stood up and he looked at the forest around him, feeling as though something was watching him. Turning in place, Hatter slowly backed away from Guinevere, and put his back to the very large stump in the middle of the clearing. It was taller than he was, and it would take at least three men to get their arms around it's girth. It wasn't a wall, but at least something wouldn't be able to come at his back while he was unawares.

"Who's there?!" He demanded, guard up and ready to fight as he watched the treeline. Hatter's fists trembled, ever so slightly, as a presence seemed to fill the clearing. It was powerful, and oppressive, making his arms and body heavy with it's very existence. It was as though the world itself had woken up and turned it's entire attention onto this one tiny, insignificant man.

Hatter gasped for breath, starting to panic as he fought desperately against the crushing sensation that he was inexplicably experiencing. Just as he felt on the verge of blacking out, he felt the rough surface of the stump that he had put his back against fall away, sending him tumbling over backwards into darkness.

When Hatter finally regained consciousness sometime later, he found himself somewhere so dark that he experienced a brief moment of panic, thinking he had somehow gone blind.

'Do not be afraid.' a voice said from the void.

Light appeared, making the man blink furiously and shield his eyes with one hand. After a moment, Hatter climbed slowly to his feet, surprised to realize that the pain he'd been experiencing since his beating from Dodo was gone. Peeking surreptitiously under his shirt, he noted that the terrible bruises he'd received had vanished, making his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

Bringing his attention back to the situation at hand, Hatter's brow furrowed and he clenched his fists tightly at his sides, scanning his surroundings "Who's there? What is this place?" he demanded. Except for the red and white tiled flooring that he stood on, Hatter was surrounded by vast emptiness. The floor seemed to go on forever before eventually disappearing into the murk of infinity, something that the man had to quickly avert his eyes from before he became nauseous. The light seemed to come from nowhere in particular, for he cast no shadow, but could see perfectly well.

Hatter was startled out of his examination of the area by the return of the voice 'This is everywhere, and nowhere. It is a place of possibilities.'

"Uh-huh...Okay then." Hatter said, eyebrow arching skeptically as he looked around for the voice. It was a very strange one; almost like it didn't come from a single person, but thousands of them, all speaking at once in perfect harmony "So how do I get out?" he asked warily.

'Through the door.'

"Where?" Hatter demanded, spinning around to look, and seeing nothing.

'You need only open your eyes to see it.' The voice said enigmatically.

Hatter took a deep breath to calm himself. Clearly, this called for a different line of attack "Where are you? Why can't I see you? Pretty rude, you know, hiding from a guest." he commented, crossing his arms over his chest and trying his best to look nonchalant.

'We are here, but mortals cannot see us, for we have no corporeal form.'

"We? Who's 'we'?" Hatter asked charily, turning once again, and still seeing nothing but red and white marble floor. Still no sign of that door, either. How long had he been in here, anyways? His heart fell sharply as it occurred to him that this little detour had probably cost Alice her freedom.

The voice cut through the nausea that threatened to swamp him, and caught his attention again when it answered his question 'We are the spirit of Wonderland. All living things that have been, are, and will be in Wonderland, are a part of us. We are Wonderland.'

Hatter was too baffled by this answer to reply immediately. He fumbled inwardly, looking for some reasonable response to that statement. What did you even say to something like that? Finally, Hatter fell back on the old stand-by..."What?"

If it had lungs, the spirit would have sighed. As it was, there was a pause that implied one before it spoke 'All living things have a soul, a spark of the divine that gives them sentience. How much sentience depends on the species. Humans harbor the largest sparks. All souls are connected on a higher plain, their strength giving the land life, time it's steady flow, and the natural world it's laws.'

Hatter very nearly said 'What' again, but managed to restrain himself. He didn't know what this thing really was, but that didn't mean he wanted to look like an idiot in front of it. Instead, he fell back on old habits, and decided to be suspicious "That's nice and all, but what has all that got to do with me? And how do I even know you're telling the truth, anyways? You could be anything! I've never heard of any 'Spirit of Wonderland'." Hatter challenged, making sarcastic finger-quotes at the voice's self-given title.

The spirit's voice sounded pained when it replied 'Once, everyone knew of us. Once, they held us as sacred.' It fell quiet for a moment, and Hatter shifted from foot to foot, wondering if it had left, abandoning him here in this lonely place. He was quickly disabused that notion, though, when it spoke again, this time in a grimmer tone 'Regardless, Wonderland needs you. If proof is what you need to fulfill your destiny, proof you shall have.'

Hatter was just about to open his mouth to demand an explanation, when he was suddenly slammed with images, feelings, scents, experiences; none of them his own; all coalescing into a kaleidoscope of memories that battered at his mortal mind. The collective recollections of every thing that ever lived in Wonderland pouring into him caused Hatter to double over in agony, then fall to the ground writhing. He clutched his head as the barrage of memories of times long passed streamed past his mind's eye in a blur. It came so fast and so powerfully that he could only catch brief glimpses of the whole, a single atom in the universe of memories.

He saw a beautiful woman all in white on a throne, a man dressed all in blood red armor, he saw war, famine, rebellion, retaliation; he saw the Queen of Hearts at her wedding. He saw Alice, not his Alice, but the original Alice, who had come to Wonderland for the first time 150 years before.

Funny, no one ever mentioned that she had only been a child.

More memories bombarded him, and though he closed his eyes tight, he could still see them "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he cried, curling up in the fetal position against the onslaught of visions and sensations experienced by so many different people, all of them trying to cram their way into his skull. The flow of memories across time had come closer to the present, and now he saw himself, first as a boy, from his mothers point of view, then from so many others. He saw other people he didn't recognize, some he did. He saw himself as a man, so very lost on the road of life, but driven to do what he could all the same.

Then he saw Alice, just as lost as he was as she tumbled head first out of the mirror, glimpsed just briefly before the tides turned and he saw her from his own point of view, then others. Then he saw Mad March from her perspective. Felt her terror, so delicately balanced by her indomitable spirit as he grabbed her, pushed her to the waiting suits who closed ranks around her and dragged her away...

"Stop! Oh gods stop, I believe you! I yield!" Hatter screamed, his heart feeling as though it were breaking.

The deluge stopped as suddenly as it began, and Hatter was left gasping in agony on the cool marble floor. It was a few long minutes before he could breath regularly again, and force himself into a sitting position.

'We are sorry.' the voice said quietly, sounding penitent 'It was necessary. You need to believe us. So very much weighs on you and Alice.'

"What-" Hatter's voice croaked and he had to clear it before he could speak again "What do you know about Alice?"

'We are the ones who called her here, like her predecessor before her.'

"That's not possible." Hatter said, frowning "She came here by accident looking for her boyfriend." the man spoke the last word like it was a curse, then blinked in surprise at his own vehemence.

'She was needed here, and so we bent the lines of fate so that she would come here, to this place, at this time, just like her predecessor over one hundred and fifty years ago, and the Alice before that, and the one before that.'

Charlie's words when they had first met him came to mind when the spirit spoke. What had the old geezer said? 'It is meant to be...this time, this place, this meeting in the woods...' Hatter shook himself "Wait just a second. You're telling me that there have been more than two Alice's? My- This Alice is like the last one? That little girl I saw?" Hatter asked, mind whirling.

'Before 'The Alice of Legend', as she is currently known, it had been over three hundred years since we were forced to summon an Alice.'

Hatter's hands went to his temples and he rubbed them in an attempt to dispel his growing headache as he tried to process all the new information "So, what you're saying is, that you call girl's, named Alice, from the other side of the mirror when...what? When the world is in danger?"

'In times of great turmoil, it is tradition that we call an Alice to aide us. They bring with them the potential for great change from the other side of the mirror. We do not like to call them. The change is not always predictable. Calling these women is always our last option in the defense of Wonderland.'

"Well, why did you take so long to call the last Alice?" Hatter asked curiously. That had been before his time, and he had only stories to go off of "It was hundreds of years that the Queen of Hearts had been ruling by then. Without anyone else, why didn't you call her sooner?"

There was a brief hesitation from the spirit, before it answered 'We did not call her because we could not. When the Queen of Hearts conquered the Red King, she took from him the Stone of Wonderland. This stone is not a stone, but rather, a key to the higher plain in which we exist. It opens a door and collects our power, and pulls it into the corporeal world. It is with this key that she was able to lock us away here, in this purgatory.' The voice sounded bitter.

"But why? I understand her wanting the power...but why do this to you?" Hatter asked, brow furrowed in thought.

'Because she desired a life far longer than most mortals are given.' The spirit explained, it's many voices sounding tired 'She envied the White Queen and her people their longevity, and the beauty that came with it. Long life is the gift that the Stone of Wonderland gave it's protectors in the Kingdom of the Knights. The Queen desired this power for herself, and so she defeated the Knights and stole the stone for her own. Unfortunately...' the voice hesitated.

"It didn't work for her? Did it?" Hatter asked, eyes narrowed "It wasn't hers, and so of course the Stone wouldn't give her what she wanted."

'Yes.' the Spirit said quietly 'So, to get what she desired, she and her suits used the stone to control us, the Spirt of Wonderland itself. By locking us away, the natural laws have become unbalanced, leaving time to move slower, if at all. It has caused the people to weaken as well.' again, there was a silence that indicated a sigh 'Locked away so, we were forced to save our strength and send out a desperate call for help, for an Alice. It took us nearly three hundred years, but we finally managed to do our duty to Wonderland. The Alice had the desired effect, initially. The Queen's power weakened, and we were able to gather power more readily, but before we could escape and return balance to Wonderland, she and her suits discovered a new way of keeping the people under her thumb...'

"Tea." Hatter said, the word falling from his lips as an expression of horror crossed the man's face.

'Yes. Just as keeping us imprisoned weakens the people, keeping the people docile with her chemicals has weakened us.'

Hatter buried his face in his hands, feeling a fool. All these years, he'd thought he was helping the people. Selling Tea had been bad, he knew, but he had always thought the ends had justified the means. After all, he had used most of his profits to buy food and other supplies for the refugees in the Great Library. And yet, as it turned out, he had been hindering more than helping.

Guilt still gnawing at him, Hatter finally spoke again "So, I'm guessing you got enough strength to call for another Alice. An older one this time."

'We do not choose the age, we send only the call, bending the events of the world just slightly, to make it possible for her to come at the right time, to the right place. But, yes, we did call again, and now there is a new Alice. Already she has affected change in the world.'

"How so?" Hatter asked. Sure, she had the Stone, but that had technically been given to her by her boyfriend, Jack.

'By returning the stone to Wonderland...and awakening you, Hatter.'

"What?" the man asked, startled.

'Your efforts in this are just as important as the Alice's. Without you, she will fail.'

All of a sudden, the red and white checkered marbled flooring wasn't just flooring, but a tremendous chessboard, where the squares were full of man sized chess pieces. Looking at the pieces on the white side, which were closest to him, hatter was startled to see Alice standing on the King's square. She wore a serene expression that he had seen on her only when she slept, and was dressed all in white. The space for the Queen piece was vacant, though all the other pieces were represented. They were, he realized, also represented by people. Charlie stood as one of the Knight pieces, unsurprisingly, and an unfamiliar old man and a handsome young blond one stood in place of a Rook and a Bishop respectively. Dodo stood as a Knight as well, and Hatter spotted Doormie and a striking blond woman amongst the pawns. The others he was unfamiliar with.

"You're missing a piece." He said, nodding to the empty Queen position even as he glanced over at the red side. The Queen of Hearts stood for the King, with Mad March as her Queen piece. The king, Hatter was surprised to note, was only a Knight, and the rest of the pieces were represented primarily by suits.

'Are we?' the voice asked.

"Yeah, the Queen. It's a little hard to play without her." he said with a snort.

'Indeed. Well, if you would hurry and take your place, then we could start the game, Hatter.' the spirit said calmly.

Hatter gave a start "What, me?" he asked, completely aghast at the idea.

'You are more important than you realize.'

"But she doesn't even want my help." Hatter said, heart beating fast now.

'You must do what is necessary. Wonderland needs you.' the Spirit replied firmly, and Hatter realized that, in the end, he didn't really have much of a choice.

Not that it mattered, he would have done it regardless of his own objections. Still, the Spirit had given him new information, and new things to consider. Finally, he nodded and climbed to his feet "Right, so we bring down the Queen, then, get rid of the Casino and the Tea, and then you'll be free, yeah?" he asked, dusting himself off, giving small start as he noticed that the Queen's spot had been filled since he last looked. A mirror image of himself, dressed all in white, now stood at Alice's side.

'Correct. Do this, and balance can be restored to Wonderland for the first time in four hundred and fifty years. When the crucial time comes, you will have our help.'

"What about the Stone of Wonderland?" Hatter asked "We can't just leave that laying around."

'No. It shall be returned to where it belongs.'

A regular sized white knight chess piece suddenly appeared in front of Hatter, floating gently, waiting for him to take it "What's this?" he asked, distracted from the questions he had been about to ask. He took the piece from the air and examined it. To all intents and purposes, it looked like a mundane chess piece.

'When the time comes to use it, you will know. You will have a time of great need, and we shall answer.'

"Well, alright then." Hatter said, stumped. Shrugging, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of string. Tying it around the base of the chess piece, Hatter made a crude necklace and then hung it around his neck so he wouldn't have to worry about losing it. Tucking it into his shirt, he looked up, and spotted the door that he had presumably come in through. It stood just off to his left, as though it had been there the whole time. He looked around suspiciously, and the voice of Wonderland herself chuckled at him.

'Your eyes are open now, brave warrior; go forth and fulfill thy given destiny.'

"Yeah, well, we'll see about destiny." Hatter remarked a little skeptically as he walked out the door. Outside again, he glanced back just in time to see a door swing shut and meld flawlessly with surface of the tremendous stump behind him.