Hatter

T U R N I N G T H E T A B L E S

Hatter stared at the Queen of Hearts and March Hare. There was something different about the Queen, almost as though she had transformed into a different person; the expression of shock and concern on her face didn't suit her. He hadn't exactly been sure what he had been expecting when he had abandoned his group, but this certainly wasn't it. A small part of his heart whispered he was wrong, that he was walking into a trap like Absolem thought he was, and the farther he went the more he began to doubt himself. But now he stood looking at the woman he had pledged his life to fight against, and he realised that he had made the right choice.
"I was wrong about you two," Hatter spoke, fixing his gaze on them. "I was wrong about a lot of things."
The Queen of Hearts stared back at him, her face like that of a child's with her wide eyes and flushed cheeks. Her angled cheekbones no longer looked so sharp, and her gaze no longer felt so cruel. Hatter's vision blurred slowly, and he saw not one but two people in the same body; the Queen's clothes flickered for an instant, her resplendent dress melting into a collared top and skirt before her royal attire appeared once again, except that her face looked exactly the same. Hatter didn't know what was going on, but he felt like Aether was slowly vanishing. For an instant, the aroma of tea filled the room, and he looked down to see a teacup in his hands before he handed it to the Queen. It was like he was in a dream, with bits and pieces of different worlds and different realities floating past him in a whirlwind of emotions and feelings; he kept trying to latch on to something constant, something real, but everything kept slipping away from his fingers till he didn't know where he was anymore. The only thing he was certain of was that the Queen was not cruel, and that she was oddly, strangely, trying to help him.
He closed his eyes. When he had first joined the White Queen's army, things had been so simple.
"Hatter," the White Queen had said. "Remember this one thing: always work as a team. Our army is made up of people who have been hurt, who have been broken, by what the Queen of Hearts has done to us. We have all suffered. But, in your suffering, remember that we will always be by your side, and we'll always help you no matter what. We'll be the support you need, and you'll be the support we need. Understood?"
He had nodded vigorously in response. For him, the White Queen and her army was everything. Even when the world had abandoned him, he had Aether, and he had friends which kept him going through the darkest times.
Now he felt that everything was a lie. He didn't know why, but Absolem had drifted further away from him, and his sworn enemy had drifted closer.
"The Bandersnatch is dead," he told them, his voice trembling slightly.
The Queen's eyes grew distant. She stayed silent.
"My brother Absolem gave me a poison dart instead of a tranquilizer syringe, and-" He lowered his eyes to the ground. "I didn't mean to kill it. I'm sorry."
There was an eerie sort of quietness.
He swallowed. "I don't want to be with my group anymore. I can't fight you."
The Queen of Hearts stared at him for a few minutes. She finally cocked her head to the side and whispered softly: "Why not?"
Hatter didn't have an answer. When he looked up again, he was in an office, surrounded by familiar faces and trays of tea. There was Dormouse wolfing down on a slice of cake, and a weary but rapt eyed Cat leaning forward in her seat, and the Queen of Hearts and March Hare sipping at their teacups.
"Why can't you fight me?" the Queen of Hearts asked again. There were bags under her eyes, and her frame was unnaturally thin.
Hatter faltered. "Because..." There was a moment's hesitation as he considered what to say. Because I keep seeing people and hearing people and sensing people outside of Aether, and the voices tell me what Absolem did was wrong, and that you're not what everyone thinks you are, he thought.
"Because you deserve a chance too," he said.
The office drifted once more into the Queen's palace, except now Cat and Dormouse stood there alongside him.
"Hatter, you little dumbas-" Dormouse began to say before Cat gave him a withering look. He scowled. "You missed literally everything back at camp."
Hatter blinked. "What?"
"After you ditched everyone, White Rabbit, Absolem, Cat and the twins returned to headquarters with the staff. The White Queen was hella pissed at your brother- it was the first time I've ever seen her that mad at him. He's usually the guy she gets along with the most, but-" Dormouse shrugged. "She asked him where you and March Hare went and he told her the whole thing. He thought she'd be mad at you two for ruining the plan and betraying her, but boy was Absolem wrong. When Absolem told her how he killed the Bandersnatch, the White Queen looked positively terrifying- you oughta've seen her face. She told him about how he'd forgotten basic morality and principles yadda yadda because our goal is to overthrow the Queen of Hearts and not to senselessly kill things just for the heck of it and Absolem lashed out at her and there was this huge fight. Cat woke up by that time and she made up her mind to go back to the castle because our team was practically falling apart and she needed to see you, and I sorta tagged along so-"
"White Queen got mad at Absolem?" Hatter said incredulously.
Dormouse nodded, then looked at the Queen of Hearts and March Hare as they stood to the side.
"So you're with them now, are you?" His face twitched.
Hatter swallowed. "I promise I would never hurt the two of you- or any of the White Queen's army for that matter. I know you guys will think I'm making a terrible decision and I'm getting myself killed but I promise I'm not-"
"We're here to join your side." Cat's eyes were bright.
A blink. "You... what?"
And then he was back in the office again for a split second, staring at his wife holding his hand in her lap. She gave him a smile, locks of hair curling round her tired cheeks.
"We're not your enemy, Sebastian," she said softly. "We want to help you."
There was a heavy silence. Hatter put down his teacup with shaking fingers, stirring the brown liquid into a milky swirl and dusting off cake crumbs from his shirt.
His mouth twitched upwards in a grateful, delighted beam.