Author's Note: This is the final chapter. I'm sorry! There's an author's note at the end you might want to skim over. Sorry I took so long to update. Been working, working on cosplay, had a wedding to attend, etc. Blah, blah, blah, I'm making up some lame excuses. Feel free to throw things at me. -DM6

Chapter 5

Alice followed the newly shaped Mad Hatter and Tweedle Dum from the Red Queen's castle. They had left the Red Queen's body for her own servants to take care of, along with apologies.

Alice wasn't quite sure if they would actually do anything with the body, seeing as most were fleeing as far from the Mad Hatter's lands as possible when they heard word of the invasion. She didn't know if running would save them or not, but she hoped it was giving them a chance. She hoped this evil would be wiped from her Wonderland, and that things would return to normal. . .That she could help rebuild and stay with her Mad Hatter.

She swallowed thickly starring at the naked backside of the Mad Hatter. She almost couldn't breath past the pain at the though of losing him. He was hers, and she was his. There could be no other way. Not anymore.

"I'll go where ever you go." She whispered so softly, she knew he wouldn't hear. But she had to say the promise out loud. She needed to know that she meant it.

Inhuman sounds began to reach her ears the further they traveled. At first, she thought the enemy must have been close. After more walking though, she found that the sounds were at ear piercing levels, and was carrying on the wind.

"What an awful noise." Tweedle Dum grunted.

"The Cheshire Cat is fighting." The Mad Hatter said. "They are screaming in pain."

"Not all of them." Tweedle Dum said wryly. "There is laughter in those screams."

"Is he okay?" Alice asked, running up a few steps to keep up with the giants strides. "Should you not hurry ahead to help?"

"We are getting their in plenty of time. Our most important goal is to protect you Alice." The Mad Hatter told her, turning the blindfolded gaze to her. "The Cheshire Cat is an excellent fighter, and is holding his own well. The thing about our enemies is that they are all dead, remnants of what they used to be. Partial memories, partial emotions, partial speed, partial abilities, and almost no free will anymore since they are so blinded by a collective rage."

"We're almost there!" Tweedle Dum said.

Alice looked around. "We're nowhere near the Mad Hatter's home."

"You are not going with us Alice." The Mad Hatter said, taking her wrist in his large grip and pulling her off the road and through huge shrubbery.

They walked a good five minutes before they came to a clearing with a huge mirror.

"No!" Alice screeched, digging her heels into the ground and trying to get away. "You are not sending me back, not unless you are coming with me! I refuse!"

"I'm not giving you a choice in this Alice." The Mad Hatter said, lifting her by her arm into the air. "I love you to much for anything to happen to you. And if you follow, you will surely die. Then we all die. This Wonderland, your Wonderland, has lived a long and beautiful life. It has survived far longer than any other Wonderland, but it is time to come to an end. You must return to reality Alice. I want you to be happy."

"I can't!" Alice sobbed, kicking at him. "I can't be happy without you! You are my life! If you leave me alone, I'll kill myself! I swear it!"

"You've watched your father grieve for you through a mirror once, with me at your side. Would you really leave him to grieve for real now? I thought you were less selfish than that Alice." The Mad Hatter sighed. "Killing yourself won't bring us together either Alice. You will go to be judged by whatever deities may exist in your world. We just disappear. Your life will be forfeit for nothing."

"Killing yourself will only bring victory to those other Wonderlands as well, Lady Alice. It will only mean that other Alice's in the future will have to deal with their evil stench, and corruptive nature. We can end this, here and now and make sure future girls are safe. Maybe you'll go on to have a daughter one day, and you'll name her Alice, or maybe you'll no someone with a daughter named Alice that you could guide. . .But wouldn't you want them to be safe?" Tweedle Dum whispered. "Think hard Lady Alice. The choice seems clear to me."

Alice sobbed openly, a rag doll within the grips of the man she loved. A man about to send her away.

"When you go through the mirror Alice, you won't be able to watch the battle. I don't want you to see what happens, to feel that kind of pain." The Mad Hatter told her.

"I will watch if I want." Alice snapped, settling for anger instead of hurt.

With his massive other hand, the Mad Hatter deliver a blow to Alice's temple that rendered her unconscious immediately.

Gently, he pushed her through the mirror, aiming carefully so she landed on her bed.

He turned away from the mirror and removed the blindfold carefully, and forced himself to not look back.

"Why remove your blindfold now?" Tweedle Dum asked as they walked away.

"So I wouldn't have to see." the Mad Hatter whispered. "Not the pain etched in her face and eyes, not the tears she cried. . .And I knew if I seen any part of her at all, I might change my mind."

"Be proud. You mastered yourself for her safety and future. No man can do his lover any stronger justice." Tweedle Dum told him.

The Mad Hatter took off running toward the battle field that was his home. As he ran, blades appeared in his hands and he began slicing through the enemies as fast as he could, Tweedle Dum right behind him.

Hoard after hoard came through.

The injuries were becoming grave as the enemies began focusing on already existing wounds.

Blood littered the ground.

The world became darker as more of the people of the past Wonderlands laid dead.

The Cheshire Cat was the first to die. His neck gaped wide open in a sick joker smile.

Hours later, Tweedle Dum was laying close to death, all his limbs having been severed.

The Mad Hatter lasted through the battle until the bitter end. Killing off the one last past member of a Wonderland laid to waist and the end of his broken blade. His other sword had been lost at some point, and he had no idea where to find it.

He lost all visibility at that point, as the darkness of their own Wonderland came to claim them.

"It was worth it all." He whispered, blood pouring from his mouth. He dropped his blade to the ground and sank to his knees, relief rushing through his body. "It's over Alice. Future Wonderlands are safe. . .and so are you."

He collapsed backwards, his knees folded painfully beneath him as he struggled for air. The darkness was crushing him.

Tears poured down his face. "I love you." He whispered, conjuring her image to his mind. "And I want you to be happy."

He closed his eyes against the darkness and let out his breath.

Death claimed him silently as he shivered in the cold.

The Wonderland was no more.

FOUR YEARS LATER. . . .

Alice sat in a daycare with a book in her lap, reading to her class. She was the pre-kindergarten teacher, and had started the job shortly after her apartment was discovered broken into. She was unconscious on the bed, apparently receiver a severe blow to the head that had rendered her unconscious for hours.

Her fiancée was no where to be found.

After two years of investigation, the police closed the case, ruling that he must have been dead.

"I'm late! I'm late!" Alice read on, smiling as she did so.

She read until four o'clock, when the parents came for their kids.

One little girl ran up and said, "Ms. Alice, is the Wonderland real? Could we go there?"

Alice smiled. "Yes, Alice, you can. You just have to pretend it is, and it will be. You have to dream about it, and be good to the people in it. And never, ever forgot them. For it is a real place, and the people are real. If you forgot about the Wonderland, then they become hurt, and disappear."

Little Alice smiled, showing her missing from tooth. "Will they love me?"

"They will." Alice answered back.

"Do you have a Wonderland?" Little Alice asked.

For a moment, the light died in Alice's eyes as dark events played through her head like a bad dream. "Yes, I did."

"Did they love you?" Little Alice asked.

"A lot of them did."

"Who loved you the most?" Little Alice asked.

"The Mad Hatter."

"Did you love him?" Little Alice asked.

"More than anything in this world." Alice answered with a bittersweet smile. "Your parents are here, go with them."

As Little Alice ran to her cubby and got her stuff, Alice watched. The little girl smiled and told her mother of what she had said, and her mother encouraged her, saying dreaming was good.

As the family left, Alice looked around the room, relieved everyone was gone.

"I love you more than anything else in this world." She whispered, glaring down at the wedding band on her finger.

She grabbed her things and closed the class room door, and left the building, waving goodbye to everyone.

She drove away, her fingers drumming away on the steering wheel. Her mind turned and turned.

She stopped at a stop light and glanced around at the pedestrians walking about. Three men stopped in front of her car and she glared up at them.

Like always, the faces hunted her, especially the last man who would stare at her for moments longer than the other two, and continue walking.

They weren't really here. . .

But no one needed to know that.

They were her crutch, despite her hating them. For they left her alone.

Left her with a husband who cheated on her with his secretary, though she turned a blind eye because she honestly didn't love him. There was no need to get jealous. Gave her a beautiful child. . .But it wasn't the man's she wanted to have.

She grabbed her cell phone and dialed her father.

"Hey Dad. I'm about ten minutes away. How is the little monster?" She said when her dad answered the phone.

The conversation was rehearsed, like always. A chess game played to get her through another part of life.

Nothing was more cruel then living in the Real Twisted Wonderland: Life. Missing all the key players, yearning for what was lost.

"It was worth it." She said to herself, thinking on Little Alice.

Author's Note:

I admit it, I cried when I wrote the deaths out for Cheshire, Hatter, and Dum. -sobs-

So ends the tale of Alice and Mad Hatter. I don't really like that I kept them apart as a tortured Romeo and Juliet type story. . .But in the end, my logic won out over the love the two had. I'm a horrible person.

I've contemplated doing a prequel to the series, covering the span of what happened before Real Alice came into the Wonderland. Basically, all her dreams from Childhood and on about the Wonderland. Showing the slow changes, and the way Mirror Alice interacted with everyone.

Let me know if you guys think I should do it.

If not, I will work on my book. ^_~