Hatter

B A N D E R S N A T C H

"Are you ready?" Absolem whispered, handing Hatter the tranquilizer syringe.
Everyone nodded. Below them, the Bandersnatch quivered as it shook its repulsive head. Hatter couldn't help thinking there was an almost sorrowful quality to it; its fretful frantic movements conveyed a sense of loneliness, the sort that accompanied a lack of purpose.
What did the Queen even do to it?
He clenched his fists. Everything he did, everything they did, was to fight back against the tyranny and injustice that plagued their world, and he wouldn't stop even if that meant death. Aether was his home. It was where he belonged.
He needed to protect it. They needed to protect it.
His eyes fixed his vision on a spot right in the Bandersnatch's neck, and he stretched his arm as far as it could go, letting fury and wrath seep into his fingers.
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
The syringe landed precisely on the invisible bullseye; the Bandersnatch let out a heartwrenching screech and fell to the ground. Everyone landed cautiously, checking to see if the beast was truly unconscious.
Absolem lifted one of its heavy eyelids. "It's out alright."
The twins exchanged joyous glances. Hatter's eyes rested on Cat's body as it rested between Absolem's shoulders. Though he looked away quickly, his brother noticed.
"Don't worry." His tone was warm and soft. "She'll be fine, I promise."
Hatter bit his lip. "It's my fault. If I hadn't run off and overworked Cat so much, this wouldn't have happened. She tries the hardest out of all of us; I should've taken her health into consideration- it's natural she'd be exhausted after getting us through the castle boundaries. I just made everything worse for her."
Absolem drew closer. "You have a knack for doing that, don't you?" He sighed. "Maybe that'll teach you to follow your big brother's advice in the future."
Hatter glowered. "You're still in no position to lecture me, Mr. Solemn Guy. I got us the staff, alright? Operation Riddle worked."
"Operation Riddle, the operation that I came up with. The improv plan, remember? Last resort in case things go haywire? We discussed it literally last night- I was the one who suggested it, not you."
Hatter gave a small smile, his mind sinking into memories. Absolem wasn't just the one to come up with the operation; he was the one to come up with the riddle itself. It had been a while back, a few years ago, actually.
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" Absolem shouted at him from the branches, leaning against a tree trunk twirling an apple in his fingers listlessly.
"I don't care. Come down from there," Hatter pouted back from below.
"Not till you answer my riddle."
Hatter collapsed onto the grass in frustration. For half an hour he called out every single answer that entered his mind, but Absolem shook his head at all of them.
Finally, Hatter gave up.
A sigh. "I don't know, dammit."
Absolem smiled. "That's it. You got it."
"You're kidding."
"I'm not," Absolem laughed. "That's the answer. Sometimes all you have to do is admit you don't know- it's that easy." He stared off into the distance. "There are always going to be things you don't know the answers to. Instead of pretending to be all high and mighty like you were this morning, just be honest." He wagged his finger mischievously. "That's your lesson for today."
Hatter scowled. "So this whole thing was just to tell me off?"
"If I don't tell you off, you won't learn." His brother jumped down, brushing dust off his shirt and biting into his apple.
"Hey- wait!"
Absolem paused.
"So there really isn't any proper answer to the riddle?" inquired Hatter.
There was a moment of silence. "There is," Absolem said finally. "A raven and a writing desk both help carry messages."
"I don't get it."
"And that's the point. The answer is that you don't know, and that's all you really need to know."
Hatter tried to punch him jokingly. "You're really mad, you know that?"
Absolem laughed, his voice warm. "You're madder than I am." He looked around, then leaned in and whispered: "But let me tell you a secret. All the best people are."
Then the memory warped and changed, and there was a little girl in front of him with her finger in her thumb. Hatter's mouth was moving, saying the same words his brother had said to him a long time ago, and the girl's eyes widened. She giggled; then she was in his arms in a comforting embrace.
"I love you, Daddy." Her words soared by his ears like leaves in the summer breeze, and he had the urge to grab them and hold them close to his chest so that he would never forget them, never forget her. There was a blissful moment of peace as he closed his eyes.
But then the world around him began to break again. The Queen of Hearts sat in front of him, her eyes soft and sad just like the eyes of the Bandersnatch. Her face seemed to be ripped clean of the maliciousness that usually lined her features, and there was a raw look on her face that radiated emotion.
He felt pity.
"June," she whispered under her breath, her voice breaking.
And at that moment it hit him: the Queen of Hearts, the monster of everyone's nightmares, the cause of everyone's suffering, the harbinger of chaos and misfortune, was just like him- broken, hurt, forever stretching her hand out to catch the memories floating past her, wishing she could fix things despite her powerlessness in the face of fate. Every beast had a heart, no matter how deep it was buried inside them, no matter whether it was charred black from hatred and malice, no matter whether it had stopped beating a long time ago- that heart was what made every monster human.
"Hatter. Come back. Come back."
Someone shook him awake, and he was transported to the castle hallway again.
"Your episodes are getting more frequent," Absolem said, his eyes full of concern.
Hatter sat up, staring at him and then into the face of the unconscious Bandersnatch.
"What's wrong?" inquired his brother.
Hatter stood up quickly. "We need to- we need to stop."
"Stop what?"
"Stop everything. Don't you see it? The Queen of Hearts is-" Hatter's voice broke. "She's not the tyrant we thought she was. She's not the tyrant I thought she was."
The twins exchanged anxious glances. "Hatter-"
His eyes stared straight at them. "We need to save the Queen of Hearts."