Disclaimer: I own neither the Hatter nor the Goblin King. What a pity…

Summary: The Mad Hatter is (obviously) quite mad, so that does not leave much room for forethought. When he is desperate to get Alice back into Wonderland, he makes a deal with the devil. But when he is informed of the fine print, Hatter will go to any lengths to save the girl that he needs in more ways than he can understand.

Warning: The M rating is for future chapters that include violence, language and/or sex/sexual situations/innuendos.

Author's note: So I do realize that Sarah and Alice both are from very different time periods. For the ease of this story, I am pretending that Sarah was born in an earlier time period than Alice.

Jareth lounged lazily on his extravagant throne, one leg thrown over the side, a crystal in his hand holding his attention. In the depths of the magical glass ran a girl, always running, always winning. The crystal was thrown across the room and exploded into shining dust as it shattered against the wall. Frustration knit the man's brow together. How on earth had she won? Twenty five years had not brought any more clarity to exactly how he had been bested by a young, foolish and sheltered fifteen year old child.

His jaw tensed visibly at the last word. No. If there was anything that Sarah wasn't it was a child. Even back then he hadn't seen her as such. She may have had the imagination of a child, but there was a sharp intelligent mind of an adult just screaming to be let out. There was a moment of regret in which Jareth almost felt bad that where Sarah lived she was not expected to use her head for much of anything that did not involve a pretty hat. In all honesty, women weren't expected to do much else than look pretty and stay silent unless their husbands spoke to them. The Goblin King shook his head. At least that was one area that he knew Sarah wouldn't have to worry about.

Though she was not a quiet or subdued girl in any respect, she was incredibly gifted in the looks department. Long dark hair complemented her creamy skin, her dark green eyes shone like the first budding leaves of spring. Her smile was a rare pleasure that fairly blinded him, and if it had ever truly been aimed in his direction Jareth felt he might have died for joy. Of course then he would have come back to claim what was his. This thought brought a scowl back to the king's fair face. Sarah wasn't his.

Twenty five years had changed his Sarah. She no longer had the shine that lit her from the inside out. The world had crushed her spirit until she was no more than wife and mother. Though, Jareth noticed with slight interest, her husband was gone and that seemed to strengthen the once incredibly stubborn girl. All that she had left was her grown daughter. The daughter who shone like Sarah used to, and was as stubborn as Sarah used to be, quite possibly even more so. The man watched the girl with interest as he never had before. She looked like her mother, except her shine was of a lighter color. She was gifted with ringlets of blonde hair and deep blue eyes in which her thoughts were often set on display for the whole world to see. If they bothered to pay attention. The stubborn set of her chin she must have inherited from her mother, however the natural thirst for real adventure instead of what resided only in storybooks she must have taken from her deceased father.

As he watched Alice, he seemed to remember an incident… It nagged at his memory, and it seemed to him that it might have included a distant cousin. He shook this away, his dusty golden hair that was so similar to Alice's drifting around his head. The past was of no importance to him, it was now that mattered.

The Mad Hatter was exceptionally mad at the moment, and very unapproachable. Now, this was not the normal 'a little bit off his rocker' type of mad, this was the complete, full-out, orange-eyed, Outlandish-speaking, throwing-teacups across the table mad. No, the Hatter was beyond mad by now. The Hatter was absolutely, irrevocably, irrefutably furious. And he couldn't stop himself. He was locked into a rage that could not be controlled, so beyond any form of help that even the March Hare and Mallymkun the dormouse had fled, fearing his wrath.

Through his fog, underneath the anger and the fury, there was pain. This pain was deeper than he cared to venture, and hurt more than he remembered feeling anything ever before. Even as the world burned down around him as the Red Queen destroyed his home…this pain was greater than that. He could not handle this pain, he didn't have the capability, leaving him only with rage to attempt to soothe his savage inner beast. He screamed at the sky, words he did not remember seconds later. How could he possibly cure this horrible ache? This was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

"I hate you all! You made her leave! You did this on purpose! How can you do this to me?! Don't make me live without her! Don't ask me to live! I hate you all! I need her! Why did you let her leave?!" His screams were raw by now, throat throbbing from his constant yelling. He did not hear a footstep behind him, soft and hesitant. The figure approached him slowly, as if approaching a wild animal.

"Hatter?" The man whirled around with hope in his gaze. It died as his eyes fell upon the White Queen, the color fading back to his normal vibrant green as sorrow washed over his rage, smoothing out the edges. The queen stepped closer to him cautiously. "Hatter? Please. Please calm down." The man looked at her with empty eyes; he couldn't summon up that rage again, only surrender to the pain.

"What is it?" He could not even summon up the energy to attempt politeness. The White Queen glided to him with easy steps, finally just wrapping her arms around him. She held him for a long moment before he dropped his head onto her shoulder, his own shoulders drooping.

"This is not healthy.. You must try to stay calm.. Or you will undo yourself." The White Queen stroked his wild orange hair, murmuring gently. The Hatter shook his head.

"I cannot. I needed her to stay. I needed her in order to be able to be mad. Without her I am quite sane and it is rather less disturbing than usual. I find this sanity is quite irritating as it lets in all too many conflicting things that I understand are called emotions. Whenever I think of her I cannot be anything but sane. I didn't mind it when she was around. But without her I find it quite vexing." The Hatter had lifted his head and stepped back. "I do believe I must get her back. This is not how it is supposed to be. Underland needs her back. She is its champion. Your champion." The White Queen smiled and shook her head.

"She could only have stayed if she chose it. You cannot force her to stay. It is not how things are done. It is not the right way of things." The Hatter looked at her firmly, determination blossoming within.

"And since when do I do things as I should?" He picked up his hat, which had fallen on the ground, and dusted it off and set it back in its rightful place atop his head of insane orange hair. "I will get her back. No matter how I have to do it." With those words he turned and marched to the little hut at the edge of the clearing and entered, slamming the door behind him. The White Queen shook her head sadly.

"Oh Hatter, please do not do anything foolish…"

"Miss Kingsley! We are about to make port, do you wish to go below?" The captain hardly needed to ask the woman, having full knowledge of her answer at this point. By now he only asked as a formality, being that she was a woman. Most women would prefer to go below while making port, as it could be rather bumpy sometimes and most women would not like the chance of being splashed. Alice, however, was a completely different type of woman. Only just now had she put on a dress for the first time since leaving home on her voyage to China. The moment the ship had been out of sight of her weeping mother on the dock at home, Alice had gone below and come back up wearing an old pair of her father's trousers that she had stitched up to fit her snugly. The crew, while slightly shocked, had not complained at the view of the woman's shapely legs. Alice had not noticed their scrutiny. For all her pluck she really was still a child at heart. And an innocent and rather naïve one at that.

"Captain, I have no wish whatsoever to be cooped up in a small room that smells of fish." While she sounded as if she was scolding the captain, her grin contradicted her words. She knew very well the captain meant nothing by it, he was a kind man only trying to be polite. The man smiled back at her as he returned to the wheel, shouting orders at his crew. The ship docked fairly quickly, finally allowing Alice to get off and hug her mother. "Mother! I missed you so much!" She mumbled this into her mother's shoulder as the woman hugged her like she would never let go.

"Alice darling. I cannot even believe how much I missed you. Two years is entirely too long to be separated from you. I shall never let you go again." At these words, Alice pulled away from her mother with an alarmed expression only to relax as she saw the tears in her mother's eyes. "Oh Alice. I don't care what you do now just say you won't leave me again." Alice felt her heart jump. She was worth something to her mother. As more than a tool to marry off. Finally. Alice smiled back at her mother happily.

"As long as you untie my leash, mother, I would be more than happy to stay home for awhile. Granted that I am allowed to explore the gardens on my own." Her mother appeared to take her seriously, not recognizing the teasing tone in her daughter's voice.

"Of course darling. Just don't leave me." Alice hugged her mother again, smiling through her own gathering tears at the state into which her mother had driven herself.

"Alright mother. I won't leave."

Sarah really had changed. She clung to her child as if she were a lifeline, someone to save her from drowning in loneliness. Something within Jareth stirred at the sight of the weeping woman, but it was ever the younger girl who truly drew his eye. He had watched her in her travels, nearly cheering aloud each time she made a profitable deal, or discovered something she had never seen before. His attention was grasped as it had been while watching Sarah play in her imagination. Yet now, this girl was a step further than Sarah could ever be.

Perhaps not everything was despair and sorrow. Not quite yet.