“BUT YOU ARE DEAD,” Mouse continued, “We all saw you die in the game.”

The Hatter had a strange gleam in his eye, “One cannot believe everything that they see, especially in Wonderland. One would think that a man who could change into a fire-breathing beast might know better.”

The tips of Mouse’s ears pinked, and he fell silent.

“And not then,” Hatter gave a toothy grin, “We shall have some tea.”

Alice looked around the kitchen. The breakfast table had been set with a cheery tablecloth, seats for everyone and piping hot scones. Her mouth began to water, and she didn’t hesitate to grab Jay’s arm and pull him over there.

The rest of the group followed uneasily, but the greatest surprise was yet to come. With a merry tune, the March Hare entered into the kitchen carrying another tray of sandwiches and cakes.

Alice screamed, and Carlos nearly fainted from shock.

The large tray fumbled in his hands, but the March Hare was able to control it.

“I dare say,” he grumbled, no longer wearing a pleasant face. “You could scare a man half to death!”

“Are we dead?” Mary Ann asked quietly.

The Hatter looked offended, “Does it look like I am dead? My dear girl, think about it if you will. Would your brother really sell you out to the Red Queen?”

She blinked, “I hadn’t thought so.”

“Quite right!” the March Hare interjected, “However, we needed a good disguise that would fool the evil queen. I could not very well come as myself. We had to convince the queen that Hatter was truly mad and not just reasonably mad.”

Hatter beamed at his friend, “What a lovely thing to say!”

The March Hare blushed, and his nose twitched like the hare he often shifted into, “Not at all, old chap, not at all!”

“How can you shift into my brother’s form?” Mary Ann demanded, her voice taking a firmer edge.

The March Hare shrugged as if to say it wasn’t more than a trifle and then before their very eyes he shifted into the spitting image of Mary Ann. It was uncanny to see two replicas of Mary Ann staring intently at one another.

When the March Hare spoke, it was with Mary Ann’s voice, “The Red Queen had tried to capture me several times. It is not well known that I am truly a chameleon. My preferred animal is a hare and that is what I have formally identified with. When she wouldn’t relent I devised a plan with Hatter.”

Hatter scoffed, “One that you lot nearly ruined with your interfering. I was trying to lure the Red Queens soldiers to follow me that day in the Woods with no Name. I knew that I needed to lead them back to our fake crime scene to prove that the March Hare was dead.”

Alice wrinkled her brow, “What were they doing in the Woods with No Name?”

Carlos spoke up, “There is another with the gift of the chameleon, the Mock Turtle. But Marty is something of a recluse and difficult to find.”

“The Red Queen must have discovered him,” Alice accepted her cup of tea from the Hatter. “I do wonder if it was Marty that we saw today acting as Lilly’s mother the White Queen. How many more chameleons are there in Wonderland?”

The March Hare answered, “No more than three or four of us I should think. It’s a genetic mutation that doesn’t occur often.”

“Where does that leave us?” Lory asked.

“You are still playing the game,” the Hatter replied. “It is not finished until one of the queens is destroyed.”

“But we had checkmate?” Mouse expostulated, “How is that possible?”

The Hatter shook his head, “I am not talking about a game piece. The evil queen has had the entire kingdom at her fingertips moving us about like pawns.” He turned to Lilly, “No offense, my dear.”

The child shook her head, “None taken, sir. But if what you are saying is true, then the Red Queen has to die, or my mother has to die.”

There was a feeling of foreboding that fell over the group. The Hatter took the child’s hand into his own. “I am sorry, little pawn. You are innocent in all of this. I tried to protect you from her as best I could.”

“Lilly, who kidnapped you?” Jay insisted.

The little girl hesitated before pointing to the Hatter.

Jay growled low in his throat, a menacing sound that has meant death and destruction in the past. “Explain yourself, Hatter!”

Hatter smiled sadly and if anything, it made Jay angrier, “It wasn’t me. When I was first accused of taking the girl I immediately went to the March Hare because of his special abilities. I wondered what kind of trick he had been up to.”

The March Hare sat up, “It’s wasn’t me either, but shortly after that the soldiers began to try and trap me as well.”

“The Knave of Hearts,” Alice said softly as if thinking it over. “He has to be a chameleon as well.”

“He is a very bad man,” Lilly shivered.

“Which is why we must stop them,” the Hatter stood abruptly, and his chair fell back against the wall with a clang. “It is not time to be sitting about drinking tea! It is time to be changing, err, time.”

He began to stalk away from the table and everyone else scrambled up after him.

“What is he talking about?” Lory whispered.

At the same moment, Mouse muttered, “He is insane.”

The Hatter led them back into the main part of the kitchen and opened the pantry, “Well, in you go!”

It was dark and smelled of disuse. Alice wrinkled her nose, “Why would we go in there?”

Hatter shook his head in exasperation, “We are losing precious minutes!”

Then he pulled out an old-fashioned timepiece that Alice had not seen since she was very small. She had been playing in the garden with her cat when a little white rabbit happened to go racing past holding that very same timepiece.

It was with horror and trepidation that Alice viewed the watch with its Roman numeral face and broken arms. It had never worked properly, but that was something that she hadn’t learned until she finally caught up with Harry.

This timepiece changed every aspect of Alice and Lory’s life.

Black dots began to crowd her vision and she slumped against Jay.

The Hatter grew more agitated, “We have less time than I thought.” He tapped the broken face of the watch and lifted it to his ear. “If you don’t come now, Alice will be dead in moments.”

Jay didn’t hesitate, he picked up Alice and raced inside of the pantry. The smell of earth and dirt overwhelmed him and to his surprise, the floor dropped out from beneath him and they began to fall—Down, down, down the rabbit hole once again.

Jay wasn’t sure how long they fell. To him, it seemed like an eternity, but perhaps it was only minutes or seconds. His stomach twisted and turned at the helpless motions and he didn’t have enough room to shift into his beast so that he could fly out of there.

Alice huddled against his chest, her fingers digging into the skin on the back of his neck.

The fall began to slow and there were able to see the walls of the hole before it opened up and they landed gently on the grass just outside of Alice and Lory’s café, Treacle Tarts. Gone was the destruction and smell of death and in its place was the familiar sound of the flowers singing and birds twittering in the trees.

Mouse and Lory followed next, along with Mary Ann and Carlos. Then came the March Hare and last was Hatter holding Lilly in his arms.

“Harry!” Mary Ann cried out and they all turned to see Harrison, the white rabbit, looking none the worse for wear standing in the doorway of the café.

“I have never been happier to see you all,” his voice was thick with emotion. “I didn’t think that you would make it out.”

Mary Ann embraced her brother firmly, “I am sorry that I doubted you.”

He gave her a confused look, “What?”

Carlos’ lips twitched, “Perhaps that is a conversation best held inside.”

They all nodded and went into the café to plan their attack.