Terror struck the hearts of the queens as well as their recruited warriors after Alice’s declaration of war. More of them were baffled by the beast that emerged from the Tulgey wood, painting the sky to a dark purple color. Not only has the beast tweaked atmosphere’s appearance, it also changed its behavior. Lightning spits kissed the ground every once in a while which made it difficult for them to move freely in the marsh.

“My queen, the war has begun and the beast had flown to the Clockwork town. How ever are we going to get there in time?” Baeley approached Mirana.

Iracebeth caught their attention, pointing to the spacecraft that was piloted by the small dormouse. “There, sister!”

Mallymkun arrived just in time the warriors were rallied. The small dormouse too was terrified of Alice’s sudden declaration of war. Frabjous day was now. Mallymkun veered the ship to approach the ground though not completely as it would get swallowed by the marsh.

He opened the base and laid out ropes which the warriors could climb on.

In lines, the warriors climbed until each and every one was boarded. Baeley and the queens went inside last. To the pilot’s area, the queens and Baeley headed.

“Where to, your majesties?” Mallymkun asked. “Should we gather the Tweedles?”

“No, Mallymkun,” Mirana said, “We go to the Clockwork town.”

Iracebeth protested immediately, “Sister, we must not! It’s risky!”

Baeley seconded, “I agree with the red queen. We’ve no weapons to fight off the beast yet.”

Mirana thought for a while, looking out of the ship’s windowpane that revealed the beast’s figure spitting lightning against the houses of the town. “Drop me off to the clockwork town, Mallymkun and thereafter take the rest to the Tweedles’ coordinates.”

“Sister!” Iracebeth protested. “You cannot simply face the Jabberwocky alone… unarmed!”

“I cannot, Racy,” Mirana swallowed, “and I will not. I am only going to salvage as many people as I can. You and Baeley are to lead these men into war once they are equipped with weapons.”

“My queen, if you are to let me, I shall accompany you,” Baeley offered.

“You must not, Baeley,” Mirana said. “These men believe in you. They look up to you and if you’re not there to lead them… what good would the weapons they’ll have be?”

Iracebeth breathed. “Then let me come with you, sister.”

Mirana was about to protest but Iracebeth didn’t give her the chance.

“Most of these men do not recognize me as a leader,” she said. “Most of them think I executed their comrades and it would do them no good thinking a villain is fighting on their side. At least you’ll be able to save more people with me around.”

After Iracebeth’s reason, Mirana simply nodded to agree.

The ship flew unusually. It wasn’t the dormouse’s veering that had them off their balances all the time. Lightning spits would sometimes strike them and the clever little pilot was keen on evading.

When they arrived at the Clockwork town, the two queens got off the ship.

“Though we don’t have the power,” Mirana said her last words, “We will try what we can in weakening the Jabberwocky.”

Thereafter, the ship ascended back into the sky and glided away to as far as their eyes could see.

The queens turned to their backs and nothing more than shock and awe met their faces.

The metallic houses were destroyed. Those made of wood were set ablaze as hundreds of people perished in the distance. The Jabberwocky was always somewhere in the sky, swooping down to grab an unsuspecting victim and flinging him to the air. The victims would either land dead or severely injured.

The robotic citizens of the town had their eyes glowing red and turned against anything Alice set to destroy. Those very servants that created music boxes or baked breads or woven cloths now had their tools as their weapons, slashing fleeing citizens. The agonizing sound of cries was now what made the town distinct not the ticking sound anymore.

The Jabberwocky vanished into the sky after a successful spit of lightning. Thereafter it swooped down on the ground once again and the queens had to bend down just to evade its tackle. It breathed lightning, striking ten people at a time. It gave no mind to its robotic allies. It too was destroyed in its wreaking of havoc.

“Sister…” Mirana swallowed, trying to fight the paralyzing fear creeping up on her. “Supposed you would have preferred the previous resets than this one?”

Mirana nodded to disagree. “Do not think of such things, sister…it’s what Alice wants us to think so we would surrender. Waste no more time… we must save as many people as we can.”

Mirana sprinted towards the destruction zone but was grabbed by her sister on the arm. “Be safe…” Iracebeth let go and then went to split up with her sister so they would be able to save more people.

***

From the infirmary’s window by Marmoreal, the Jabberwocky’s destruction could be witnessed vividly. Thackery’s playtime was interrupted when he witnessed the grey sky turned purple, masking Wonderland with darkness. He’s been watching for quite some time now—face pressed against the glass pane, googly-eyed—as he watched the Jabberwocky wreak havoc on the clockwork town.

“Tea time?” he mumbled over and over again to himself.

Not long after Alice’s declaration of war, citizens of Marmoreal began crowding inside the palace’s courtyard. Different people—cyborg and animalistic—all wearing white gowns and dresses, white tunics and jumpers claimed sanctuary to the white queen’s abode.

Thackery watched as the people increased in number, counting them with his quivering finger. “One… two…three…four…ten…twenty…fifty…” then remarked to himself. “We won’t have enough teacups for the crowd!” He pulled his ears down as it was the biggest dilemma he faced.

The palace’s gate and drawbridge was closed and the white palace’s guards cornered the citizens, compressing them to a circle. Cries of anguish filled Marmoreal palace as the ivory citizens began ‘turning red’, according to Thackery.

“Tea…time?” Thackery whispered to himself as he watched the palace guards poke their spears and one ivory citizen would fall on the ground, coloring the marble floor with crimson.

He witnessed as other people began to flee but was shot down, if not, impaled by a palace guard which robotic eyes glowed a bright red.

Thackery’s nose stopped twitching as the last standing citizen fell to join the pool of blood. Thackery watched the pile of bodies fill the marble flooring with red liquid. It ran to the garden of white rose bushes. Oh how a white rose could be colored terrifyingly with just a few splashes of red.

The infirmary door was locked. Mctwisp locked it before he left but it was forced open by the palace guards. As the wooden door parted, two columns of guards marched inside with long lances, surrounding the exit.

Thackery trembled, looking quietly outside the window then he turned in an instant. “You’re all late for tea!”

One horse-guard marched over to Thackery and held his lance with two hands. He poked to stab but the March hare side stepped and grabbed the wooden body of the lance. With one strong pull, he disarmed the robot and used its weapon to skewer its head with one strike.

More guards approached with lances and Thackery tossed his own weapon like a javelin to the closest one. He jumped against its body to set it off balance and grabbed another disarmed spear on the ground.

Two guards stabbed downward at the same time which Thackery evaded with a high jump. Once landed on the floor, he climbed on top of one of the guards and pulled its head off. Livewires sparked as the robotic guard ceased to function.

From the infirmary’s entrance, came in guards with guns much to the mad hare’s amazement.

“Pretty guns…” he remarked and the guard shot him.

Thackery evaded and jumped in the air high and random, taunting the guard to shoot and with every electric projectile shot none hit the March hare. Thackery then approached the guard and dismembered him with a quick ride on the back. He grabbed the energy blaster thereafter.

He backtracked slowly, shooting one projectile at a time which hit every approaching guard. More and more corrupted robots approached until Thackery already reached the other end of the room which was the gigantic glass window.

He chortled.

As the guards closed in, he shot the window behind him. It rained glass, some scratched the hare as it fell but Thackery didn’t mind. Without a full grasp of reason, he jumped out of the window, landing on a hedge that cushioned his fall.

Palace guards shot him from the window but the hare was too unpredictable—moving in ways always too curvy to have a clean shot.

The mad hare made his way in the garden of white roses, not minding the pile of bodies just to his left. He noticed blood when his foot squelched in crimson mud. He continued to the wall of the palace and began shooting a hole in the wall. It took him few projectiles but he was able to escape before the guards with spears closed in on him.

And towards the clockwork town, Thackery went for the arson fading to the sky was calling him.

***

Rocket didn’t know where he was going. Nor did he know where he was in the first place other than it was the Tulgey wood’s border. He kept on running the opposite direction where he saw the army of cards approach until he noticed that the land began to dampen.

Distances more, his hands and feet weren’t just running on dirt. He was already squelching on mud. The fog lessened but the environment became wetter. The sight of gigantic trees in the distance became clear and Rocket headed towards it.

There was much difficulty in trying to move through the quagmire and Rocket began panicking in fear that he might get caught. He was able to move out nonetheless. He hid behind a mossy tree and sat, back against its trunks.

He breathed deeply and rested the back of his head against the wood when he hit something hard. He caressed his head and looked behind him to whatever bulky structure hurt his head. Camouflaged in the moss was a nailed plank. He traced above it and found another one and another one on top of the other.

It didn’t take him long before he realized that it was a ladder leading somewhere.

He peered above him but failed to witness something other than the leaves rustling with the wind. Taking his chances, he climbed just to escape whatever army was about to approach. Each steps on the ladder took him higher until he was at level with the leaves and shortly after, above it.

He rested on the platform where the ladder ended where just about everywhere structures of treehouses were. There were few people—too few in sight. And Rocket was dumbfounded as he walked around. Carefully, he walked on a plank leading toward another platform that housed a gigantic building.

There was the faint sound of bells ringing in side and Rocket followed the sound with his eyes. The jingles emanated from thin, metal wires glimmering with the faintest light. Rocket then approached the biggest building.

He parted the tassels of vines and came in a saggy-looking bloodhound sitting on a chair.

The bells inside the structure rang simultaneously, never ending but the bloodhound was idle on his chair—too idle. Rocket had to peer on the old dog just to see if he was breathing. He was… but that didn’t eliminate the doubt if he was conscious or not.

“My son…” the bloodhound spoke, “Went to fight a war he’s going to lose…”

“D’ya said something?” Rocket asked.

The bloodhound opened his eyes just to look at the raccoon and then closed them again. “Hurts losing him… hurts losing all of them.”

Rocket sat on the wooden floor. “If you’re gonna talk in puzzles, don’t talk at all. I already have a lot going on inside my head and I don’t want you to add more of it.”

The bloodhound just kept on talking. “If you knew he’s walking straight to his demise, would you not stop him?”

Rocket groaned and rolled his eyes. “It’s not the first time he’s ever done that to me,” Rocket said to himself. He and the bloodhound were totally on different matters but he found that their situations were somewhat similar.

Rocket said out loud, “There’s nothing you could do more if he wants to die. Just grant him his wish.”

The bloodhound whimpered. “Do you think it’s just right to let him die?”

Rocket sighed. “I tried stopping him…” he wrapped his arms around his legs and buried his snout on his knees. “Of course it’s not right to let him die even if it’s what he wants but… what can I do? What can we do?”

“I tried too hard in stopping him… now he’s out there, probably dying…”

Rocket shrugged. “Maybe your son doesn’t have to die if you go to him.” Rocket’s own words got to him and as he continued, he realized that he’s also giving himself advice. “Perhaps he’d listen if you show him that it’s not just about him or you… it’s about both of you—all of you.”

That was it. That was what Rocket lacked. He only thought too much of Cheshire for his own benefit—so that he wouldn’t be alone. He never thought about Cheshire’s part combined with his. He was too selfish to see it.

“You should fight alongside your son,” Rocket got up in a hurry. “Protect him… protect each other.” He went out of the building and climbed down the same ladders he used to get up.

He knows where to go and what to do however… it wouldn’t be as simple as he thought.

By the edge of the Tulgey wood, glowed lines of red dots with the silhouettes of marching cards. Rocket took out his bazooka and calibrated it.

“No stopping now…”