The Most Unwelcome
A Tea Called Alice
Chapter 3
The Most Unwelcome
He wanted to scream. To shake her and tell her just what a bad idea this was. But it was his word against the Prince of Hearts.
Rated M
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor have any rights to, the 2009 Syfy mini-series Alice.
Let's take a moment
I need to spoil who you are
I played your game once
You sold me out with no regard
"Who's your friend?" Jack asked Alice, arrogance rolling off him like a dense fog.
Hatter scowled. Jack Heart very well knew who Hatter was; but he wouldn't want Alice to know that, would he? It would be a scrap of truth in the web of lies Jack had spun to earn her undeserved loyalty.
Alice glanced back at Hatter quickly. Her underdog champion had rushed to her defense with nothing more than a stick to use against the Prince of Wonderland's sword. If that wasn't friendship, Alice wasn't sure what friendship was.
"A friend," Alice stressed. Someone she trusted. Someone that Jack, at this moment, was not. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"Yes," Jack said stiffly. "You two looked pretty friendly."
Alice's eyebrows shot up, "You jealous, Jack?"
"A little."
"Did I hear that right?" Alice lifted her chin and fixed him with a haughty glare, "The guy who's engaged to a Duchess is worried about me?"
"You know that was just an act," Jack defended, feeling quite put out by all this scrutiny.
"No," Alice shook her head and sadness washed across her face. "I don't."
And she waited, hoping after the beat of silence there would be an explanation. More than anything, Alice wanted closure, to know why the one man for whom she had finally dropped her guard was the same one to lie and betray her.
Jack did not deliver any clarification, choosing instead to dismiss her comment completely.
"Come, I brought you a horse," the Prince offered, motioning away from the fortress with an outstretched arm. "Let's get out of here."
Hatter stepped in front of Alice, physically separating her from Jack with his body. "She's not going anywhere with you," he protested.
Jack scoffed, "You know she can't stay here."
"Stop it, both of you," Alice scolded like a mother with two mischievous sons. She turned to Hatter and explained quietly, "I need to find my Dad." She gave his shoulder a quick squeeze, hoping he would understand. This was the only way.
Alice turned back to Jack, "Is he here?"
"Yes," Jack confirmed. "He's alive and well and if you let me, I will take you to him."
"You are going to take me to him..." Alice demanded.
Hatter's jaw fell open. He couldn't believe, after everything he and Charlie had done, that she was going to follow Jack. She was just going to waltz off into certain danger without them. Again. Blindly follow Jack over some very convenient story of her missing father being alive and held in the Casino. He wanted to scream. To shake her and tell her just what a bad idea this was. But it was his word against the Prince of Hearts, her beloved boyfriend. She hadn’t listened to him yet since arriving in Wonderland, why would she start now?
"...but you're going to answer some questions first," she finished with an air of authority.
Jack shook his head, "Alice, we don't have time - "
Ignoring him, Alice's eyes fell on the old White knight, whom Jack had left tied up on the ground. "Jeez, Charlie," she cried softly, and kneeled down to start untying his hands.
Without being asked, Hatter joined her, working on the rope around Charlie's feet. Hatter adeptly loosened the twine and couldn't help but smile at the line that Alice had drawn. He and Alice were united in this, or so he felt. Charlie was their friend, they cared about him together, and Jack had no part in that. His smirk grew when he saw Jack growing antsy. Well, if the Prince was so keen on her, he'd have to show some patience with Alice. Hearts knew, Hatter had done as much over the past few days.
Jack looked on, dumbfounded by their lack of urgency. "We better get going," he pushed. "We don't have much time."
"Where is my father?" Alice asked, interrogating Jack with her eyes. A question that demanded an answer.
Jack looked away. "We're moving him to the city," he answered ambiguously.
"What do you mean 'moving him?'" Alice wondered, confused as to what that signified. She had assumed Jack handing her the watch meant he had some semblance of control over the situation. Did this mean her father was in danger?
"I have people helping me," the Prince said, dodging the intent of her question.
"What people?" Hatter jumped in, already fed up with Jack's obscure non-answers.
"Do you want to see your father again, or not?" Jack snapped at Alice. They were wasting precious time arguing when they should already be on the way to the city by now.
"Yes, of course," Alice said, keeping her unwavering stare. "Tell me about the Carpenter," she ordered, looking up at Jack over Charlie as she finished her work on the knot that bound the knight’s wrists.
"The Carpenter?" Jack repeated, visibly shaken. "Where did you hear about him?"
Alice tried again, "When a Wonderlander wants a baby, they go to the Carpenter. Why?"
She stood her ground on this. Parts of her conversation with Hatter were still weighing heavily on her mind. An open-ended question about rare Teas and the true nature of these 'babies' that Wonderlanders took home and raised as their own children. It might have been nothing. She might just be grasping at straws. But the idea just…bothered her. And if Alice was anything, she was curious. Now that the doubt had grown, she had to know. And Jack was going to tell her.
The Prince shook his head, making it clear he was at a loss as to where these questions came from.
"Alice-" Jack warned harshly.
She cut him off, "You show up here out of nowhere. Tie up my friend. Tell me nothing and expect me to just follow you 'right now' because there's 'no time.'" Alice tossed aside the detangled rope and rose to her feet. "I am not going anywhere until you tell me what I want to know."
Alice wanted to know the answer, but in some small way, she felt this was also about trust. She had to assume that everything she knew about Jack before he slipped her the watch had been a lie. If he expected her to follow him, it was time for the Prince to start giving up the truth.
Charlie, now free from his bonds, sat up and worried his wrists. Hatter stood and watched the stalemate unfold. Something about Alice proudly standing up to the Prince stirred up feelings in Hatter that made him really wish he had gotten that kiss.
Jack took a deep breath. He knew Alice well enough to know she would keep to her word. She wouldn't budge until she got what she wanted. So he started talking, "Before the looking glass, there was another portal connecting your world with ours."
"The rabbit hole," Hatter supplied helpfully. This much he knew already.
Jack nodded tightly, "Long ago, before History was recorded, the first pilgrims from your world settled here."
Hatter shook his head, confused, "Wait - you're saying the first Wonderlanders were Oysters?"
Jack continued, ignoring the disruption, "By the time Alice Liddell arrived here - "
"Alice of Legend," Charlie chimed in from the ground, nearly forgotten once again.
"Yes," Jack confirmed, growing irritated with the interruptions. "The inhabitants of this world were no longer recognizable as human. We had forgotten the old ways. Adapted to this strange new world by replacing emotion with logic. However, as you know it is our nature to feel, and when my mother came to power, she desired only to feel the good."
"Where are you going with this, Jack?" Alice cut in, halting his lengthy explanation. "I asked about the Carpenter. What is his role with the children of Wonderland?"
Jack regarded her seriously, his lips forming a thin line. "There are certain... activities required to produce the most rare and desired Teas in the kingdom," he explained somberly. "These actions sometimes have unintended consequences."
Hatter's face deflated. Wherever this was headed, he knew he wouldn't like it.
Alice nodded slowly in grim acceptance. Her suspicions were confirmed. "You're giving away the orphaned children of people from my world to be raised by Wonderlanders as your own."
Alice and her comrades stared at the Prince for a long moment, waiting anxiously for confirmation or denial of Alice's heavy allegation.
"That is the sad reality, yes," Jack agreed, clearing his throat. He fidgeted uneasily under the pressure of three accusing stares.
"Damn," Hatter cursed, overwhelmed. "All those kids." People he knew in the city. Refugees in the Library. Tea junkies and even aristocrats in service of the Queen. If Jack was telling the truth, all Wonderlanders born since the rise of the Carpenter and his Casino were the stolen children of the Oysters. He turned away from the Prince, shaking his head and covering his mouth with a scarcely trembling hand.
“We can help them, Alice,” Jack rationalized calmly. “And save your father. If you come with me now.”
"Don't be fooled by this," Hatter implored. He didn't want to play around with the Royals, but he couldn't let Alice walk into a trap either. "He's working for his mother." It was plain as cream to him. Jack kept insisting she leave with him. By herself. How did she still not see it?
"Then why am I alone?" Jack reasoned, throwing his arms out for emphasis. "Why aren't there five hundred suits at my back? And how did I find you here in the middle of the forest? You think I just followed my nose?"
"How did you find us?" Hatter wanted to know. This whole business sounded fishy to him and it seemed Jack was leading them from one suspicious explanation to another.
"You sent for me," Jack said simply.
Alice and Hatter looked equally befuddled. They certainly never remembered putting a call out for the Prince of Wonderland. Hatter wondered if this was another creative lie to regain Alice's trust.
"Come again?" Hatter blurted.
"I'm the agent who's supposed to escort you to Caterpillar," Jack stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Alice's eyes widened, "You know Caterpillar?"
"Very well," Jack started, grateful for a chance to finally explain himself. "Caterpillar recruited me into the Resistance. That's why I stole the ring and escaped to your world. It was supposed to trigger a coup. Unfortunately, well... you saw what happened. But if you give us back the ring, we could give it another try."
"You want to overthrow your mother?" Alice asked, a little skeptically. Jack had torn down everything she thought she knew of him right in front of his mother and tossed Alice aside as a subject for the Queen's whim. That was some bad blood she couldn't just forget.
"I've seen what she's done here - and close up. And I know, perhaps better than anyone, if I don't stop her, she'll destroy Wonderland." Jack stood up to his full height, and if Alice didn't know better she'd have thought he puffed out his chest as well. "So who are you going to trust to get you and your father back home? A Resistance insider and future King, who has already scheduled your return trip through the Looking Glass, who cares for you more than anyone else in the world..."
Jack gestured to Hatter disdainfully, "Or a half-breed who doesn't know what side he's on?"
The air left Hatter's lungs as though he'd been punched in the gut. There it was, out in the open and plain for Alice to see. Just a half-breed, discarded by Wonderland and scorned by both Royalty and Resistance. He wasn't Hatter, he was nothing.
Thankfully, Alice didn't dwell on Jack's vague insult to Hatter's heritage. She stalked forward, anger rising in her chest. "Hatter is coming with us," she spat.
Sweet, stubborn Alice. She didn't know when to give up. Jack had reduced Hatter to ruins with a few words. What use would he be in a real fight? Hatter came up behind her and spoke softly. "I don't think I figure in the future King's plans," he told her rather bitterly.
Alice whirled around and looked at him strangely. It wasn't like Hatter to give up. Hatter, who had spent the past few days stubbornly trying to convince her to give up on Jack, even when they thought he was just Jack Chase, 'random oyster'. Who had fought her and argued with her every step of the way. He might not think she noticed, but she had. She wasn't leaving him behind. She couldn't. After so long with him, it was hard to imagine navigating Wonderland without a cheeky remark or a charming smirk. Her inner musings were interrupted by Jack's abrupt refusal.
"Caterpillar was very clear," Jack reinforced calmly. "The Resistance will only help you on their terms. You must come alone."
"I don't know Caterpillar," Alice pointed out. "I know Hatter. He's stood by me."
"Hey," Hatter offered, whispering in her ear. "I wouldn't want to go with this guy anyway."
Alice paid no mind to him. This wasn't Hatter's choice. He was stuck with her whether he liked it or not.
"Hatter comes with us," Alice laid the ultimatum down. "Or I stay right here."
The forest was quiet again for a moment. Charlie and Hatter watched as Alice obstinately stared down the Prince of Wonderland. After a while, it became clear she wasn't backing down. Not that any of the men there had thought she would.
Unfortunately for Jack, Alice held all the cards at the moment. The Prince sighed in resignation but it came out more like an irritable huff.
"As you like," Jack grumbled. "But we must leave now. We've wasted enough time as it is."
Hatter furrowed his brow, clearly vexed. He supposed it was a small success that Alice had defended him but was not sure how pleased he was to be volunteered. While he wanted more than anything to stay with her, he had rather hoped it would be under their terms, not under the Prince’s authority.
Alice nodded triumphantly and began walking in the direction Jack had indicated earlier. The Prince stopped her with a hand on her arm.
"Where's the ring, Alice?" Jack asked sternly.
Hatter rolled his eyes heavenward. This was proof. If that didn't seal it, he didn't know what would. "Tell me you don't trust this guy," he groaned, exasperated. "After all that, he'll say anything to get his hands on the ring." Besides, every time Hatter so much as mentioned the ring, she'd blow up about the damned thing being his only motive for helping her. Now Jack had made the same mistake and Hatter waited for the Prince to receive a proper Alice lashing.
"We need the ring to get you home," Jack said logically. "The Looking Glass won't work without it."
Alice looked to Hatter. "He's right," she told him. Hatter had told her as much himself. Jack wanted to use the ring to conquer his mother. Hatter could use Alice to bargain his way back into the Resistance. Alice was using Jack to find her father. All that was left was a neat little bow. She searched Hatter's eyes for acceptance.
Hatter found himself without words on this one. Least, none that he felt were proper for him to say just then. He felt cheated. The very same point he’d played on repeat to no avail since they met and now she just accepted it, as long as it’s Jack feeding it to her. It didn't sit well. He noticed her staring, searching him for…what? An answer? Was she asking his permission? She hadn't asked if he'd like to tag along with Jack Heart on a suicide mission back into the city. He'd have liked to have a say in that too thankyouverymuch.
"This is your fight too," Alice continued, as though she'd read his mind. Scary thought, that. "Isn't it, Hatter? You said you wanted to join the battle."
"Yeah, with Caterpillar and the Resistance," Hatter confirmed. And you, his mind added. "Not with - " he waved his arm up and down, indicating Jack. Even with his misgivings, however, he had the sinking feeling this decision was already made for him.
"We're wasting time, Alice," Jack muttered impatiently. "The ring?"
"It's where it belongs," Alice spoke solemnly, turning her gaze to the skeleton of the old king on his throne.
Jack stepped over to the throne quickly, plucking the ring from the dead king's bony finger.
"Ah," Charlie piped up after his long silence. "Under my very nose."
Chapter 3
The Most Unwelcome
He wanted to scream. To shake her and tell her just what a bad idea this was. But it was his word against the Prince of Hearts.
Rated M
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor have any rights to, the 2009 Syfy mini-series Alice.
Let's take a moment
I need to spoil who you are
I played your game once
You sold me out with no regard
"Who's your friend?" Jack asked Alice, arrogance rolling off him like a dense fog.
Hatter scowled. Jack Heart very well knew who Hatter was; but he wouldn't want Alice to know that, would he? It would be a scrap of truth in the web of lies Jack had spun to earn her undeserved loyalty.
Alice glanced back at Hatter quickly. Her underdog champion had rushed to her defense with nothing more than a stick to use against the Prince of Wonderland's sword. If that wasn't friendship, Alice wasn't sure what friendship was.
"A friend," Alice stressed. Someone she trusted. Someone that Jack, at this moment, was not. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"Yes," Jack said stiffly. "You two looked pretty friendly."
Alice's eyebrows shot up, "You jealous, Jack?"
"A little."
"Did I hear that right?" Alice lifted her chin and fixed him with a haughty glare, "The guy who's engaged to a Duchess is worried about me?"
"You know that was just an act," Jack defended, feeling quite put out by all this scrutiny.
"No," Alice shook her head and sadness washed across her face. "I don't."
And she waited, hoping after the beat of silence there would be an explanation. More than anything, Alice wanted closure, to know why the one man for whom she had finally dropped her guard was the same one to lie and betray her.
Jack did not deliver any clarification, choosing instead to dismiss her comment completely.
"Come, I brought you a horse," the Prince offered, motioning away from the fortress with an outstretched arm. "Let's get out of here."
Hatter stepped in front of Alice, physically separating her from Jack with his body. "She's not going anywhere with you," he protested.
Jack scoffed, "You know she can't stay here."
"Stop it, both of you," Alice scolded like a mother with two mischievous sons. She turned to Hatter and explained quietly, "I need to find my Dad." She gave his shoulder a quick squeeze, hoping he would understand. This was the only way.
Alice turned back to Jack, "Is he here?"
"Yes," Jack confirmed. "He's alive and well and if you let me, I will take you to him."
"You are going to take me to him..." Alice demanded.
Hatter's jaw fell open. He couldn't believe, after everything he and Charlie had done, that she was going to follow Jack. She was just going to waltz off into certain danger without them. Again. Blindly follow Jack over some very convenient story of her missing father being alive and held in the Casino. He wanted to scream. To shake her and tell her just what a bad idea this was. But it was his word against the Prince of Hearts, her beloved boyfriend. She hadn’t listened to him yet since arriving in Wonderland, why would she start now?
"...but you're going to answer some questions first," she finished with an air of authority.
Jack shook his head, "Alice, we don't have time - "
Ignoring him, Alice's eyes fell on the old White knight, whom Jack had left tied up on the ground. "Jeez, Charlie," she cried softly, and kneeled down to start untying his hands.
Without being asked, Hatter joined her, working on the rope around Charlie's feet. Hatter adeptly loosened the twine and couldn't help but smile at the line that Alice had drawn. He and Alice were united in this, or so he felt. Charlie was their friend, they cared about him together, and Jack had no part in that. His smirk grew when he saw Jack growing antsy. Well, if the Prince was so keen on her, he'd have to show some patience with Alice. Hearts knew, Hatter had done as much over the past few days.
Jack looked on, dumbfounded by their lack of urgency. "We better get going," he pushed. "We don't have much time."
"Where is my father?" Alice asked, interrogating Jack with her eyes. A question that demanded an answer.
Jack looked away. "We're moving him to the city," he answered ambiguously.
"What do you mean 'moving him?'" Alice wondered, confused as to what that signified. She had assumed Jack handing her the watch meant he had some semblance of control over the situation. Did this mean her father was in danger?
"I have people helping me," the Prince said, dodging the intent of her question.
"What people?" Hatter jumped in, already fed up with Jack's obscure non-answers.
"Do you want to see your father again, or not?" Jack snapped at Alice. They were wasting precious time arguing when they should already be on the way to the city by now.
"Yes, of course," Alice said, keeping her unwavering stare. "Tell me about the Carpenter," she ordered, looking up at Jack over Charlie as she finished her work on the knot that bound the knight’s wrists.
"The Carpenter?" Jack repeated, visibly shaken. "Where did you hear about him?"
Alice tried again, "When a Wonderlander wants a baby, they go to the Carpenter. Why?"
She stood her ground on this. Parts of her conversation with Hatter were still weighing heavily on her mind. An open-ended question about rare Teas and the true nature of these 'babies' that Wonderlanders took home and raised as their own children. It might have been nothing. She might just be grasping at straws. But the idea just…bothered her. And if Alice was anything, she was curious. Now that the doubt had grown, she had to know. And Jack was going to tell her.
The Prince shook his head, making it clear he was at a loss as to where these questions came from.
"Alice-" Jack warned harshly.
She cut him off, "You show up here out of nowhere. Tie up my friend. Tell me nothing and expect me to just follow you 'right now' because there's 'no time.'" Alice tossed aside the detangled rope and rose to her feet. "I am not going anywhere until you tell me what I want to know."
Alice wanted to know the answer, but in some small way, she felt this was also about trust. She had to assume that everything she knew about Jack before he slipped her the watch had been a lie. If he expected her to follow him, it was time for the Prince to start giving up the truth.
Charlie, now free from his bonds, sat up and worried his wrists. Hatter stood and watched the stalemate unfold. Something about Alice proudly standing up to the Prince stirred up feelings in Hatter that made him really wish he had gotten that kiss.
Jack took a deep breath. He knew Alice well enough to know she would keep to her word. She wouldn't budge until she got what she wanted. So he started talking, "Before the looking glass, there was another portal connecting your world with ours."
"The rabbit hole," Hatter supplied helpfully. This much he knew already.
Jack nodded tightly, "Long ago, before History was recorded, the first pilgrims from your world settled here."
Hatter shook his head, confused, "Wait - you're saying the first Wonderlanders were Oysters?"
Jack continued, ignoring the disruption, "By the time Alice Liddell arrived here - "
"Alice of Legend," Charlie chimed in from the ground, nearly forgotten once again.
"Yes," Jack confirmed, growing irritated with the interruptions. "The inhabitants of this world were no longer recognizable as human. We had forgotten the old ways. Adapted to this strange new world by replacing emotion with logic. However, as you know it is our nature to feel, and when my mother came to power, she desired only to feel the good."
"Where are you going with this, Jack?" Alice cut in, halting his lengthy explanation. "I asked about the Carpenter. What is his role with the children of Wonderland?"
Jack regarded her seriously, his lips forming a thin line. "There are certain... activities required to produce the most rare and desired Teas in the kingdom," he explained somberly. "These actions sometimes have unintended consequences."
Hatter's face deflated. Wherever this was headed, he knew he wouldn't like it.
Alice nodded slowly in grim acceptance. Her suspicions were confirmed. "You're giving away the orphaned children of people from my world to be raised by Wonderlanders as your own."
Alice and her comrades stared at the Prince for a long moment, waiting anxiously for confirmation or denial of Alice's heavy allegation.
"That is the sad reality, yes," Jack agreed, clearing his throat. He fidgeted uneasily under the pressure of three accusing stares.
"Damn," Hatter cursed, overwhelmed. "All those kids." People he knew in the city. Refugees in the Library. Tea junkies and even aristocrats in service of the Queen. If Jack was telling the truth, all Wonderlanders born since the rise of the Carpenter and his Casino were the stolen children of the Oysters. He turned away from the Prince, shaking his head and covering his mouth with a scarcely trembling hand.
“We can help them, Alice,” Jack rationalized calmly. “And save your father. If you come with me now.”
"Don't be fooled by this," Hatter implored. He didn't want to play around with the Royals, but he couldn't let Alice walk into a trap either. "He's working for his mother." It was plain as cream to him. Jack kept insisting she leave with him. By herself. How did she still not see it?
"Then why am I alone?" Jack reasoned, throwing his arms out for emphasis. "Why aren't there five hundred suits at my back? And how did I find you here in the middle of the forest? You think I just followed my nose?"
"How did you find us?" Hatter wanted to know. This whole business sounded fishy to him and it seemed Jack was leading them from one suspicious explanation to another.
"You sent for me," Jack said simply.
Alice and Hatter looked equally befuddled. They certainly never remembered putting a call out for the Prince of Wonderland. Hatter wondered if this was another creative lie to regain Alice's trust.
"Come again?" Hatter blurted.
"I'm the agent who's supposed to escort you to Caterpillar," Jack stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Alice's eyes widened, "You know Caterpillar?"
"Very well," Jack started, grateful for a chance to finally explain himself. "Caterpillar recruited me into the Resistance. That's why I stole the ring and escaped to your world. It was supposed to trigger a coup. Unfortunately, well... you saw what happened. But if you give us back the ring, we could give it another try."
"You want to overthrow your mother?" Alice asked, a little skeptically. Jack had torn down everything she thought she knew of him right in front of his mother and tossed Alice aside as a subject for the Queen's whim. That was some bad blood she couldn't just forget.
"I've seen what she's done here - and close up. And I know, perhaps better than anyone, if I don't stop her, she'll destroy Wonderland." Jack stood up to his full height, and if Alice didn't know better she'd have thought he puffed out his chest as well. "So who are you going to trust to get you and your father back home? A Resistance insider and future King, who has already scheduled your return trip through the Looking Glass, who cares for you more than anyone else in the world..."
Jack gestured to Hatter disdainfully, "Or a half-breed who doesn't know what side he's on?"
The air left Hatter's lungs as though he'd been punched in the gut. There it was, out in the open and plain for Alice to see. Just a half-breed, discarded by Wonderland and scorned by both Royalty and Resistance. He wasn't Hatter, he was nothing.
Thankfully, Alice didn't dwell on Jack's vague insult to Hatter's heritage. She stalked forward, anger rising in her chest. "Hatter is coming with us," she spat.
Sweet, stubborn Alice. She didn't know when to give up. Jack had reduced Hatter to ruins with a few words. What use would he be in a real fight? Hatter came up behind her and spoke softly. "I don't think I figure in the future King's plans," he told her rather bitterly.
Alice whirled around and looked at him strangely. It wasn't like Hatter to give up. Hatter, who had spent the past few days stubbornly trying to convince her to give up on Jack, even when they thought he was just Jack Chase, 'random oyster'. Who had fought her and argued with her every step of the way. He might not think she noticed, but she had. She wasn't leaving him behind. She couldn't. After so long with him, it was hard to imagine navigating Wonderland without a cheeky remark or a charming smirk. Her inner musings were interrupted by Jack's abrupt refusal.
"Caterpillar was very clear," Jack reinforced calmly. "The Resistance will only help you on their terms. You must come alone."
"I don't know Caterpillar," Alice pointed out. "I know Hatter. He's stood by me."
"Hey," Hatter offered, whispering in her ear. "I wouldn't want to go with this guy anyway."
Alice paid no mind to him. This wasn't Hatter's choice. He was stuck with her whether he liked it or not.
"Hatter comes with us," Alice laid the ultimatum down. "Or I stay right here."
The forest was quiet again for a moment. Charlie and Hatter watched as Alice obstinately stared down the Prince of Wonderland. After a while, it became clear she wasn't backing down. Not that any of the men there had thought she would.
Unfortunately for Jack, Alice held all the cards at the moment. The Prince sighed in resignation but it came out more like an irritable huff.
"As you like," Jack grumbled. "But we must leave now. We've wasted enough time as it is."
Hatter furrowed his brow, clearly vexed. He supposed it was a small success that Alice had defended him but was not sure how pleased he was to be volunteered. While he wanted more than anything to stay with her, he had rather hoped it would be under their terms, not under the Prince’s authority.
Alice nodded triumphantly and began walking in the direction Jack had indicated earlier. The Prince stopped her with a hand on her arm.
"Where's the ring, Alice?" Jack asked sternly.
Hatter rolled his eyes heavenward. This was proof. If that didn't seal it, he didn't know what would. "Tell me you don't trust this guy," he groaned, exasperated. "After all that, he'll say anything to get his hands on the ring." Besides, every time Hatter so much as mentioned the ring, she'd blow up about the damned thing being his only motive for helping her. Now Jack had made the same mistake and Hatter waited for the Prince to receive a proper Alice lashing.
"We need the ring to get you home," Jack said logically. "The Looking Glass won't work without it."
Alice looked to Hatter. "He's right," she told him. Hatter had told her as much himself. Jack wanted to use the ring to conquer his mother. Hatter could use Alice to bargain his way back into the Resistance. Alice was using Jack to find her father. All that was left was a neat little bow. She searched Hatter's eyes for acceptance.
Hatter found himself without words on this one. Least, none that he felt were proper for him to say just then. He felt cheated. The very same point he’d played on repeat to no avail since they met and now she just accepted it, as long as it’s Jack feeding it to her. It didn't sit well. He noticed her staring, searching him for…what? An answer? Was she asking his permission? She hadn't asked if he'd like to tag along with Jack Heart on a suicide mission back into the city. He'd have liked to have a say in that too thankyouverymuch.
"This is your fight too," Alice continued, as though she'd read his mind. Scary thought, that. "Isn't it, Hatter? You said you wanted to join the battle."
"Yeah, with Caterpillar and the Resistance," Hatter confirmed. And you, his mind added. "Not with - " he waved his arm up and down, indicating Jack. Even with his misgivings, however, he had the sinking feeling this decision was already made for him.
"We're wasting time, Alice," Jack muttered impatiently. "The ring?"
"It's where it belongs," Alice spoke solemnly, turning her gaze to the skeleton of the old king on his throne.
Jack stepped over to the throne quickly, plucking the ring from the dead king's bony finger.
"Ah," Charlie piped up after his long silence. "Under my very nose."