In the Rough, chapter 27/40
Title: In the Rough (27/40)
Author: alittleoddish
Rating: Mature
Characters: Alice/Hatter, Jack/Duchess, Charlie
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Syfy's Alice.
Summary: "But this is starting to sound like a quest! Quests are such a pain, Alice, they really are. All horseback and food rations and traveling in groups and no truly hot tea, with significantly less sex against trees.”
A/N: Hope you all had a happy holiday season! Hard to believe it's been just over a whole year since "Alice" first aired. XD This is the longest I've ever stayed writing in a fandom... it's really a special little fic community, and it's because of sweet readers like you and all the other talented authors on the 'net. X3 Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five,
Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight, Chapter Nine, Chapter Ten,
Chapter Eleven, Chapter Twelve, Chapter Thirteen, Chapter Fourteen, Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen, Chapter Seventeen, Chapter Eighteen, Chapter Nineteen, Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One, Chapter Twenty-Two, Chapter Twenty-Three, Chapter Twenty-Four, Chapter Twenty-Five, Chapter Twenty-Six
***
Alice felt hopeless, helpless, to do anything but watch as Hatter reached the edge of the cliff and suddenly collapsed in a pool of his own blood. “No,” she whispered under her breath, her voice hoarse from all the futile yelling and pleading she had done in trying to get Hatter to save himself. ”No, nooo…”
What was wrong with him? She thought with sudden heat, seizing the anger and concentrating on that rather than the fear that was fighting for dominance. Stupid, recklessly brave shows of chivalrous idiocy… you’d think he would have learned from that whole thing where he tried riding in on a horse, and got himself captured and tortured, that IDIOT. Didn’t he trust that she could take care of herself in the meantime? While he came up with a decent plan?
Didn’t he know how much more she had to lose by him dying?
Well, she tried to convince herself, still fuming, Charlie will take care of him. Charlie isn’t going to let Hatter die. He won’t. He’s going to be FINE, he’d better be fine, and in the meantime I’m going to get out of here, and then I’m going to kill him myself for doing this to me.
With renewed vigor, Alice turned her anger at Hatter towards pounding the Scree’s claws with all the strength she possessed, squirming madly in its grip. “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” a deep voice called out to her with relish. “It’s a long way down from here, and I’d hate to lose you. I’ve got a delivery to make, and I’m afraid the instructions were to take you in one piece.”
Alice squirmed a little more, trying better to see her captor. Eventually she twisted herself around enough to see his face and arms through the flapping wings. Her first thought was that she didn’t recognize him at all - the business suit reminded her of Mad March, but this was definitely a different man… if he was a man. The red-feathered body made it difficult to tell if he was man or beast.
Her second thought was that, whatever he was, he was in very. Big. Trouble.
“Where are you taking me?” she yelled. “Who are you taking me to?” He didn’t answer, which was just what she’d expected.
She tried a different tactic. “Why did you do that to Hatter?” His head tilted in her direction, indicating his interest. “You could have just swiped me up and carried me off,” she continued. “Why did you have to fly so low to the ground? Were you intending to kill him!?”
“Well, I can’t have anyone trying to rescue you now, can I?” he replied with a cocked eyebrow and the barest hint of a smirk. “Heroes are so bothersome. Besides, I’ve been trying to kill him for ages now. That little roach just won’t quit, will he? Anyways, it was fun, you know - giving him that last little parting shot. Like old times.”
Alice was practically seeing red by this point, and she focused on that anger to keep from noticing how very, very high she was dangling and moving at very, very fast speeds. “I’m going to make sure you pay for this,” she yelled up to him. She could hear a deep, throaty chuckle in response.
“On the contrary,” he said, “I think you’ll find that I’m being paid for this. Which reminds me…” Alice could feel the vibrations of his footsteps as he climbed down to where she was held. She renewed her struggles, knowing that if she could just get a good grip on him… but the Scree held her fast. No matter how desperately she squirmed, the red bird-man still tied a blindfold around her with the laziness of a person gift-wrapping a present. “I don’t mean to make you unnecessarily uncomfortable,” he said with a hint of irony, and his voice was so unexpectedly close to her ear that Alice winced. “But don’t worry,” he continued, “We’re almost there.”
Alice needed a deep, calming breath at this ominous statement, relieved to feel his footsteps climbing away from her and returning to their previous position on the Scree’s back. The blindfold did little to help her nausea - in her mind’s eye she could still imagine surface of the lake whooshing past, the pointed treetops of forest burring in a green smudge along its perimeter, making her feel like she was going to vomit, or faint, or both. She clamped down on those thoughts as quickly as she could - she needed all her wits about her if she wanted to think. For all her squirming and fighting, the bird and its rider did not seem fazed in the slightest, so the rest of her trip would have to be spent trying to come up with a plan.
But before she could even collect a mental list of any bargaining chips she had in her possession, he could feel the shift in the wind that marked their descent, and her stomach lurched. Wherever it was the beast was taking her to… they had arrived.
***
The Prince paced where he was, circling briskly around the large fountain in the center of the Hedge Maze. He knew this was the best place for the drop-off, which was why he had suggested it the morning Lory had left for his commission. After all, now that he was riding the Scree, the two of them could no longer meet in the Great Hall without causing something of a fuss. Jack checked his watch irritably, impatient to have his hands washed of the whole situation - he had more important things to worry about than an insubordinate assassin and a target who refused to die.
A sudden gust of wind against his neck was all the warning he had before the Scree swooped down and landed neatly on top of the fountain in front of him, its huge body perched as neatly as if it had been weightless. Lory climbed down with the speed and agility of practice, plucking a large blue bundle from the Scree’s claws and tucking it under his arm as he descended.
At the sudden release, Alice wriggled and kicked wildly. One of her booted feet connected with the back of Lory’s right knee, and when he cried out and buckled under the impact she managed to break free from his grasp, roughly shoving the blindfold away from her eyes. She instantly broke into a run, going as far as two strides, three… but Lory rebounded from the ground after only a single second’s recovery time, and with one eerily superhuman leap, he managed to lay a hand across the back of Alice’s neck, at that knobbly place where the spine meets the neck. He was moving too fast for Jack to see what he did, but a moment later Alice crumpled to the ground with a small cry - she lay there, limbs askew, perfectly still.
The whole time, Jack did nothing but watch, his mouth twisted in distaste. “Care to explain that little display?” he asked coldly. “I hope you haven’t gone and killed her, after all the trouble I went to to bring her here.”
“Oh, she’s alive, just unconscious. Easier and quicker for Scree to just pick her up than it is for me to stop and bind her. Too troublesome. She’ll be back to normal in about twenty minutes or so,” he said, dropping the bundle - Alice - on the ground a few feet away. “Let it never be said that I didn’t think of the details.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “Indeed.”
“Yes. Might I mention, I found your wife stumbling about the woods?”
Jack’s nostrils flared as he sucked in a wary breath. “The woods? You’re certain it was her?”
“Of course I’m sure,” Lory answered dryly. “She headed straight for miss Alice and her companions - unsurprising, really, she probably thought they were her only remaining allies.”
“Go back and kill her,” Jack ordered with an impatient wave of his hand. “She betrayed me, and as a traitor to the crown she is sentenced to death, effective immediately. Kill the companions, too,” he added. “They’re just potentially bothersome distractions, now.”
Lory smiled and inclined his head. “Yes, sir. And then I’m free to go, like we agreed?”
Jack’s eyes narrowed. “Remember, now, if you relinquish my service you have no longer have any immunity from the law.”
Lory quirked an eyebrow, but the smile remained on his face and he said nothing. Jack sighed reluctantly. “Other than that, yes,” he admitted. “You are free to go once you kill the rest of her group.”
“Consider it done,” Lory said. A moment later, he and the Scree had both vanished into the skyline, leaving the Hedge Maze without so much as a ruffled leaf in their wake - only his single, signature feather sitting innocently on the ground. With some measure of satisfaction, Jack ground it into the dirt with his foot as he made his way over to the fountain. He casually reached over to a cherub with outstretched arms and rang the bell that hung there -- a Spade would be summoned directly to escort him out of the center of the maze. While he waited…
Jack folded his hands and looked down at Alice. Her dark blue top and jeans were scuffed and dirty, her black hair hopelessly tangled in its ponytail. Even with her face smudged in the dirt, he still thought she was somehow beautiful. Unable to resist, he walked over and knelt down, brushing his fingers over the sliver of exposed skin on the back of her neck. He sighed and shuddered a bit at the sensation rocketing up his arm, calming his nerves and energizing him all at once.
Too long, he thought. It’s been far too long.
A Spade came around a corner and jumped a bit in surprise at finding the King kneeling there on the ground. “Sire,” he said, but his gaze shifted over to Alice in obvious confusion.
“Take the Lady Alice back to the Palace and make sure she’s kept comfortable,” Jack ordered briskly, sidestepping any opportunity for questions. “No one is to go in… or out… of her room until I speak with her, do you understand me?”
The Spade nodded, eyes wide, and scooped Alice up in his arms. “Of course, your Majesty,” he said. “No one in or out. I’ll make sure of it. Would you like me to send for another escort for yourself, your Maj--”
“Go!” Jack shouted, and the Spade shut his mouth with an audible click and scurried away. Jack rubbed his temples tiredly with the tips of his fingers, trying to compose himself. After a minute, he started his own way back to the castle - Lory said she wouldn’t be out long, and he didn’t want to be late for their meeting.
***
Back at the edge of the Tulgey Wood, Hatter and Duchess didn’t even notice Charlie slipping off into the forest - they were far too embroiled in their own conflict.
“I still can’t believe that Jack would let the Scree go,” the Duchess was saying, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Well, is there any way the thing could have escaped?” asked Hatter.
Duchess shook her head sadly. “No, but Jack would never… not in his right mind… I mean, as far as I know we’ve got no way to control it, that’s why we locked it up.”
“Well then, who’s that red-feathered bastard?” Hatter asked the Duchess, as though the thought had just occurred to him. “The one riding the Scree, the one controlling it. Who is he?”
“What? Red feathers…? I have no idea,” she said honestly. “Jack always told me there was no one who could control the Scree, no one.” The confusion was starting to overwhelm her and, with a mournful cry, she buried her face in her hands. “I can’t believe this is happening, this shouldn’t be happening, I’m the Queen, goddammit!”
“You’re expecting me to believe that you don’t know anything about any of this?” Hatter tried to make sure every word in that sentence dripped with sarcasm.
Duchess dropped her hands and glared fiercely at him. “Yes!” she yelled. “Don’t you see, Hatter? We have both been being lied to! How has all of this been happening right under my nose?”
But whatever Hatter had been about to say in response was interrupted by a loud, piercing shriek that shook their bones and rang in their ears. He felt the bottom of his stomach - or what was left of it - sink.
“It’s the Scree, it’s come back,” he shouted at the Duchess, shaking his head to try and make the residual dizziness stop. “We’ve got to hide!”
“Where?” she asked, looking like she was having a harder time than Hatter at shaking away the side effects of the screech - she was bent over double, a hand at her forehead. “We can’t move you when you’re like this, not without opening your wounds for a third--!”
Hatter groaned. “Forget the wounds, I can handle it! Charlie will just seal them shut again, we’ve got to get out!”
Duchess looked like she was going to argue, but just as she opened her mouth the ground underneath them rumbled and cracked, the trees of their sides bowed against the force of the wind - and the huge, silver bird landed next to them with a thud and a hungry, vicious look in its eye.
***
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Author: alittleoddish
Rating: Mature
Characters: Alice/Hatter, Jack/Duchess, Charlie
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Syfy's Alice.
Summary: "But this is starting to sound like a quest! Quests are such a pain, Alice, they really are. All horseback and food rations and traveling in groups and no truly hot tea, with significantly less sex against trees.”
A/N: Hope you all had a happy holiday season! Hard to believe it's been just over a whole year since "Alice" first aired. XD This is the longest I've ever stayed writing in a fandom... it's really a special little fic community, and it's because of sweet readers like you and all the other talented authors on the 'net. X3 Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five,
Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight, Chapter Nine, Chapter Ten,
Chapter Eleven, Chapter Twelve, Chapter Thirteen, Chapter Fourteen, Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen, Chapter Seventeen, Chapter Eighteen, Chapter Nineteen, Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One, Chapter Twenty-Two, Chapter Twenty-Three, Chapter Twenty-Four, Chapter Twenty-Five, Chapter Twenty-Six
***
Alice felt hopeless, helpless, to do anything but watch as Hatter reached the edge of the cliff and suddenly collapsed in a pool of his own blood. “No,” she whispered under her breath, her voice hoarse from all the futile yelling and pleading she had done in trying to get Hatter to save himself. ”No, nooo…”
What was wrong with him? She thought with sudden heat, seizing the anger and concentrating on that rather than the fear that was fighting for dominance. Stupid, recklessly brave shows of chivalrous idiocy… you’d think he would have learned from that whole thing where he tried riding in on a horse, and got himself captured and tortured, that IDIOT. Didn’t he trust that she could take care of herself in the meantime? While he came up with a decent plan?
Didn’t he know how much more she had to lose by him dying?
Well, she tried to convince herself, still fuming, Charlie will take care of him. Charlie isn’t going to let Hatter die. He won’t. He’s going to be FINE, he’d better be fine, and in the meantime I’m going to get out of here, and then I’m going to kill him myself for doing this to me.
With renewed vigor, Alice turned her anger at Hatter towards pounding the Scree’s claws with all the strength she possessed, squirming madly in its grip. “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” a deep voice called out to her with relish. “It’s a long way down from here, and I’d hate to lose you. I’ve got a delivery to make, and I’m afraid the instructions were to take you in one piece.”
Alice squirmed a little more, trying better to see her captor. Eventually she twisted herself around enough to see his face and arms through the flapping wings. Her first thought was that she didn’t recognize him at all - the business suit reminded her of Mad March, but this was definitely a different man… if he was a man. The red-feathered body made it difficult to tell if he was man or beast.
Her second thought was that, whatever he was, he was in very. Big. Trouble.
“Where are you taking me?” she yelled. “Who are you taking me to?” He didn’t answer, which was just what she’d expected.
She tried a different tactic. “Why did you do that to Hatter?” His head tilted in her direction, indicating his interest. “You could have just swiped me up and carried me off,” she continued. “Why did you have to fly so low to the ground? Were you intending to kill him!?”
“Well, I can’t have anyone trying to rescue you now, can I?” he replied with a cocked eyebrow and the barest hint of a smirk. “Heroes are so bothersome. Besides, I’ve been trying to kill him for ages now. That little roach just won’t quit, will he? Anyways, it was fun, you know - giving him that last little parting shot. Like old times.”
Alice was practically seeing red by this point, and she focused on that anger to keep from noticing how very, very high she was dangling and moving at very, very fast speeds. “I’m going to make sure you pay for this,” she yelled up to him. She could hear a deep, throaty chuckle in response.
“On the contrary,” he said, “I think you’ll find that I’m being paid for this. Which reminds me…” Alice could feel the vibrations of his footsteps as he climbed down to where she was held. She renewed her struggles, knowing that if she could just get a good grip on him… but the Scree held her fast. No matter how desperately she squirmed, the red bird-man still tied a blindfold around her with the laziness of a person gift-wrapping a present. “I don’t mean to make you unnecessarily uncomfortable,” he said with a hint of irony, and his voice was so unexpectedly close to her ear that Alice winced. “But don’t worry,” he continued, “We’re almost there.”
Alice needed a deep, calming breath at this ominous statement, relieved to feel his footsteps climbing away from her and returning to their previous position on the Scree’s back. The blindfold did little to help her nausea - in her mind’s eye she could still imagine surface of the lake whooshing past, the pointed treetops of forest burring in a green smudge along its perimeter, making her feel like she was going to vomit, or faint, or both. She clamped down on those thoughts as quickly as she could - she needed all her wits about her if she wanted to think. For all her squirming and fighting, the bird and its rider did not seem fazed in the slightest, so the rest of her trip would have to be spent trying to come up with a plan.
But before she could even collect a mental list of any bargaining chips she had in her possession, he could feel the shift in the wind that marked their descent, and her stomach lurched. Wherever it was the beast was taking her to… they had arrived.
***
The Prince paced where he was, circling briskly around the large fountain in the center of the Hedge Maze. He knew this was the best place for the drop-off, which was why he had suggested it the morning Lory had left for his commission. After all, now that he was riding the Scree, the two of them could no longer meet in the Great Hall without causing something of a fuss. Jack checked his watch irritably, impatient to have his hands washed of the whole situation - he had more important things to worry about than an insubordinate assassin and a target who refused to die.
A sudden gust of wind against his neck was all the warning he had before the Scree swooped down and landed neatly on top of the fountain in front of him, its huge body perched as neatly as if it had been weightless. Lory climbed down with the speed and agility of practice, plucking a large blue bundle from the Scree’s claws and tucking it under his arm as he descended.
At the sudden release, Alice wriggled and kicked wildly. One of her booted feet connected with the back of Lory’s right knee, and when he cried out and buckled under the impact she managed to break free from his grasp, roughly shoving the blindfold away from her eyes. She instantly broke into a run, going as far as two strides, three… but Lory rebounded from the ground after only a single second’s recovery time, and with one eerily superhuman leap, he managed to lay a hand across the back of Alice’s neck, at that knobbly place where the spine meets the neck. He was moving too fast for Jack to see what he did, but a moment later Alice crumpled to the ground with a small cry - she lay there, limbs askew, perfectly still.
The whole time, Jack did nothing but watch, his mouth twisted in distaste. “Care to explain that little display?” he asked coldly. “I hope you haven’t gone and killed her, after all the trouble I went to to bring her here.”
“Oh, she’s alive, just unconscious. Easier and quicker for Scree to just pick her up than it is for me to stop and bind her. Too troublesome. She’ll be back to normal in about twenty minutes or so,” he said, dropping the bundle - Alice - on the ground a few feet away. “Let it never be said that I didn’t think of the details.”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “Indeed.”
“Yes. Might I mention, I found your wife stumbling about the woods?”
Jack’s nostrils flared as he sucked in a wary breath. “The woods? You’re certain it was her?”
“Of course I’m sure,” Lory answered dryly. “She headed straight for miss Alice and her companions - unsurprising, really, she probably thought they were her only remaining allies.”
“Go back and kill her,” Jack ordered with an impatient wave of his hand. “She betrayed me, and as a traitor to the crown she is sentenced to death, effective immediately. Kill the companions, too,” he added. “They’re just potentially bothersome distractions, now.”
Lory smiled and inclined his head. “Yes, sir. And then I’m free to go, like we agreed?”
Jack’s eyes narrowed. “Remember, now, if you relinquish my service you have no longer have any immunity from the law.”
Lory quirked an eyebrow, but the smile remained on his face and he said nothing. Jack sighed reluctantly. “Other than that, yes,” he admitted. “You are free to go once you kill the rest of her group.”
“Consider it done,” Lory said. A moment later, he and the Scree had both vanished into the skyline, leaving the Hedge Maze without so much as a ruffled leaf in their wake - only his single, signature feather sitting innocently on the ground. With some measure of satisfaction, Jack ground it into the dirt with his foot as he made his way over to the fountain. He casually reached over to a cherub with outstretched arms and rang the bell that hung there -- a Spade would be summoned directly to escort him out of the center of the maze. While he waited…
Jack folded his hands and looked down at Alice. Her dark blue top and jeans were scuffed and dirty, her black hair hopelessly tangled in its ponytail. Even with her face smudged in the dirt, he still thought she was somehow beautiful. Unable to resist, he walked over and knelt down, brushing his fingers over the sliver of exposed skin on the back of her neck. He sighed and shuddered a bit at the sensation rocketing up his arm, calming his nerves and energizing him all at once.
Too long, he thought. It’s been far too long.
A Spade came around a corner and jumped a bit in surprise at finding the King kneeling there on the ground. “Sire,” he said, but his gaze shifted over to Alice in obvious confusion.
“Take the Lady Alice back to the Palace and make sure she’s kept comfortable,” Jack ordered briskly, sidestepping any opportunity for questions. “No one is to go in… or out… of her room until I speak with her, do you understand me?”
The Spade nodded, eyes wide, and scooped Alice up in his arms. “Of course, your Majesty,” he said. “No one in or out. I’ll make sure of it. Would you like me to send for another escort for yourself, your Maj--”
“Go!” Jack shouted, and the Spade shut his mouth with an audible click and scurried away. Jack rubbed his temples tiredly with the tips of his fingers, trying to compose himself. After a minute, he started his own way back to the castle - Lory said she wouldn’t be out long, and he didn’t want to be late for their meeting.
***
Back at the edge of the Tulgey Wood, Hatter and Duchess didn’t even notice Charlie slipping off into the forest - they were far too embroiled in their own conflict.
“I still can’t believe that Jack would let the Scree go,” the Duchess was saying, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Well, is there any way the thing could have escaped?” asked Hatter.
Duchess shook her head sadly. “No, but Jack would never… not in his right mind… I mean, as far as I know we’ve got no way to control it, that’s why we locked it up.”
“Well then, who’s that red-feathered bastard?” Hatter asked the Duchess, as though the thought had just occurred to him. “The one riding the Scree, the one controlling it. Who is he?”
“What? Red feathers…? I have no idea,” she said honestly. “Jack always told me there was no one who could control the Scree, no one.” The confusion was starting to overwhelm her and, with a mournful cry, she buried her face in her hands. “I can’t believe this is happening, this shouldn’t be happening, I’m the Queen, goddammit!”
“You’re expecting me to believe that you don’t know anything about any of this?” Hatter tried to make sure every word in that sentence dripped with sarcasm.
Duchess dropped her hands and glared fiercely at him. “Yes!” she yelled. “Don’t you see, Hatter? We have both been being lied to! How has all of this been happening right under my nose?”
But whatever Hatter had been about to say in response was interrupted by a loud, piercing shriek that shook their bones and rang in their ears. He felt the bottom of his stomach - or what was left of it - sink.
“It’s the Scree, it’s come back,” he shouted at the Duchess, shaking his head to try and make the residual dizziness stop. “We’ve got to hide!”
“Where?” she asked, looking like she was having a harder time than Hatter at shaking away the side effects of the screech - she was bent over double, a hand at her forehead. “We can’t move you when you’re like this, not without opening your wounds for a third--!”
Hatter groaned. “Forget the wounds, I can handle it! Charlie will just seal them shut again, we’ve got to get out!”
Duchess looked like she was going to argue, but just as she opened her mouth the ground underneath them rumbled and cracked, the trees of their sides bowed against the force of the wind - and the huge, silver bird landed next to them with a thud and a hungry, vicious look in its eye.
***
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