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Chapter Text

The reaction hadn't been quite what Alice was expecting, if she was expecting anything at all.  When she found herself arriving in Hatter's Domain in a curious outfit/form that made her feel partly amused, partly horrified, and partly fascinated (mostly the last bit), Alice found herself curiously comfortable in this form.  Maybe just because her hair didn't fly in her face when she was jumping around, but maybe because she was fascinated with her new shininess.

"My, my, Alice," Cat purred when he saw her, his infernal grin widening as it had when she killed Dr. Bumby in that painfully ironic way.  "What a curious choice in costume."

"Not mine, I assure you," Alice absently said, examining and flexing her left arm curiously, "although I suppose it will do."

"Yes, it will do...but do what even I'm not sure.  Teatime is coming.  Be on your guard."

Rolling her eyes at the typical half-riddle response, Alice just turned and walked into the Domain, specifically the area where Hatter had set up his new tea table with the help of the mostly restored Dormy and Hare.  He himself was little changed from his last appearance, sitting near to the head of the table in a spindly stool, although he was shorter and his features were less grotesquely out of proportion.  On one side was Dormouse, sporting only her old wind-up as a sign of her time as an experiment; on the other was Hare, morosely staring at his tea with a misshapen lip and mechanical arm still in place.

Her footsteps attracted the trio's attention, perking up Hare and causing Dormy to blink rapidly so she was slightly more awake, but their eyes went wide and whatever greeting Hare was preparing to shout died before it was uttered when they took in her appearance.

"Oh dear, sweet tea trays and biscuits," moaned Hare in his faint Scottish accent, dropping his head to the table with a thud, "not another one...!"

"Hatter...did you clone yourself...when we weren't w-w-watching?" Dormy yawned even though she looked suitably impressed, frightened, and drop-dead tired all at once.  Quite a feat for a mouse, it should be said.

"No, not recently," Hatter absently replied before looking up and going wide-eyed at the sight of Alice's appearance.  His gaze dropped to her feet, clad in her normal boots, then rose up to trace green tights with thigh-belts and a torn, greying white skirt of a dress held together with black straps, golden buckles in place, a split golden gear protruding like two parts of a bow, then lingering on her golden robotic-arm.  Eventually he managed to tear his own wide blue eyes to lock with her green ones--which changed along with the rest of her appearance so that her pupils were shaped like gears, twirling slowly as if they were truly working.

"It's rude to stare," Alice said simply, quirking a brow when Hatter finally seemed to notice her normal-sized checker top hat hiding most of her hair.  "Is there no room again?  Or have I done some grievous misjustice of which I was not aware of...well, other than the obvious, of course."

A wide, unhinged grin suddenly split Hatter's face, and before Alice could say more she was being poked and prodded and examined and raved at with all of Hatter's usual slightly mumbled nonsense.  She sighed and resigned herself to the scientific mind of her once-enemy, now-again-friend.

Well, at least Hare hadn't completely broken-

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"

...never mind.

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"You're joking," Alice said in a complete deadpan to her world at large as she realized what Wonderland had decided to dress her in this time.  When she had thought just before arriving that she felt like the cat that caught the bread-and-butterfly, she hadn't meant it quite so...well, literally.

"Why would I need or for that matter want this," she added, pulling awkwardly at her newest appendage and wincing.

"What you want seldom matters in life, and what you need even less so," Cat said as he faded into view.

Then he stared at Alice, specifically because of her grey fur-like dress with eerily familiar markings, feet that were now paws, a long and spindly tail, glowing yellow eyes, and of course the twin pointed ears placed carefully on top of her head.

"Not one word, Cat," Alice said warningly.  A slow and familiar silky grin spread over Cat's face, light glinting off the blood on his teeth eerily.

"More than one is needed here, so no need to worry," he literally purred.  "You know, when you said so long ago that there was more than one way to 'skin a cat,' I never thought you would actually go through with it.  At least you have good taste."

"Better than pink with purple stripes."

Cat's ears flew back at the reminder of his form before madness descended and narrowed his eyes, his grin more of a baring of teeth.  Alice merely smirked.  For once, she had won.

Then a glance down at her state of dress made the smirk fall into a scowl of annoyance.  Well, she had almost won.  In a way.

Kind of.

Yeah.

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Alice appeared in the area where she had fought the Dollmaker not so long ago, and for a moment all was fine.

Then she realized what outfit Wonderland had graced her with.

And after admiring the bloodstains on her legs, Alice returned to London...if for no other reason than because wearing the flesh of another was no way for anyone to live.

Too bad it took far too long for most to realize it.

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By now used to the peculiar garments Wonderland put her in, Alice was surprisingly unsurprised upon arriving in Wonderland Woods by what she found.  A little upset that her feelings of being “bugged” were taken so literally, she decided absently that while the wings were rather appealing and the fur was a nice touch (and rather soft and comfortable, as well), the split sections and antennae were a bit much.

Not to mention the annoying red hat that kept slipping and likely would have fallen off if it weren’t for the fact that Alice was in Wonderland and physics made little sense if any most of the time.  And the stockings with the annoying little twirl at the end that kept snagging while she was trying to jump.

Needless to say, by the time she left that day, Alice had a little more respect for what her old friend Caterpillar/Butterfly had to deal with on a day-to-day basis and was a little less likely to be “bugged” by small things.

Pun, of course, intended.

Chapter Text

She was breaking again.

Sitting in her old room at the so-called “Hospital,” rocking back and forth, head shaved, arms tightly crossed over her torso, only covered in tight white white ohgodwhywasitwhitewhynotbluelikemamaandlizzie’seyesorredlikethefirethatkilledthemallwhythecolorofnothingnothingshewasnowpartof itchy cloth that barely hid what was needed from sight yet somehow constrained her so thoroughly, she thought and thought about what she had possibly done to deserve what she had now

The screams of other patients drilled into her ears as blood seemed to seep down the walls in little rivulets, but disappeared in a blink of her glazed green grasstreesnaturehowlongsinceshehadbeenoutside? gaze

Burns and cuts and little injection holes appeared on herself her room her false

The form of Dr Bumby suddenly appeared with a sick little grin, a familiar twisted grin, glasses flashing and hiding his horrid eyes from view as he advanced wasthishowlizziefelt?can’tmovecan’tyellcan’tthinkcan’tSCREAM with a needle in hand

Silent tears ran down her face and she hung her head, aware she deserved it, aware it was her own fault for killing her family, for not being more careful, for not protecting them protecting her protecting Lizzie from this monsterhorrorDollmaker

“Alice…it’s only a dream,” a voice purred softly.

Between one blink and the next Cat was in front of her, giving a distasteful look at Dr. Bumby, then turned to her with a familiar sardonic grin.  He spoke again:  “You’re not alone now, Alice.  You won’t ever be alone again, so long as you let us help you.”

Others faded into the room.  Hatter, cane clutched in one hand, menacingly glaring at Dr. Bumby from his impressive height; Rabbit, fur bristling under the fluids of his decomposing body, held a pocket watch in a ready position to fling; Dormy and Hare; Caterpillar (or was it Butterfly now?); the Gryphon; the Tweedles; the Insane Children, all holding various instruments that had once been in their own bodies, twisted grins in place; as one, the group advanced on Dr. Bumby, whose agonizing screams echoed long into the night as she watched with sickly satisfied eyes and the Cat continued to grin.

She had forgotten, Alice mused as the world around her faded and she began to return to the “Real World,” that she had so many friends once again.  Alice wasn’t alone anymore.

Chapter Text

As was customary upon arrival in Wonderland, the first thing Alice did was open her eyes, take a deep breath, and look down at what her world had decided to grace her with that day.  A faint smile crossed her face at the familiar blue fabric, strange symbols, and bloodstained apron that bestowed the only outfit that felt truly hers.  Whistling a soft tune, she skipped off to find her Wonderlandian friends.

Sometimes, the Classics really were the best.