"I stopped being your Alice a long time ago, Hatter." She spat, rage coloring her voice.

He grinned, running his fingers through his mess of orange hair before looking back at her with madness in his eyes. "You'll always be my Alice. You can never escape that, love."

Alice readied her sword, narrowing her gaze and almost growling at the man she'd once adored. "You forfeited the right to call me your love when you betrayed us." 

He scowled then, her mentioning of his past betrayal angering him but not wiping the look of insanity from his face. "Don't be so melodramatic, dear."

She genuinely growled then before flinging herself into the clearing and lashing out with her sword. He easily parried her attack and stepped back to smile at her with that infuriatingly insane expression. "Remove your helmet so that I can see you."

She snorted, taking her own step back but continuing to hold her sword at the ready. "Since when do you order me around, Hatter?"

His expression grew sad as he nodded in agreement. "Yes...you always were obstinate."

She knew he was pushing her buttons, that he was goading her into reacting irrationally, but she couldn't fight her urge to attack him once more, driving him back and drawing him into a breathless back and forth where they were both far too absorbed with their combat to speak. Alice didn't want to admit that she was reminded of old times, of the Hatter and her sparring just after she first arrived here and when she was still learning to defend herself.

That's when she'd fallen in love with him.

When Alice recalled her memories of him, her footing faltered, and she fell flat on her back. Hatter was on her in a minute, pinning her to the ground as he removed her helmet, freeing her hair to flow loosely onto the packed earth.

When he saw her face, she saw the fondness seep into his gaze before he schooled his expression so that she could only read his hatred for her. She fought against his superior strength and planned to keep fighting, but a cry of rage coming from the woods nearby drew their attention to the Knave, clad in his armor and yelling as he launched himself angrily at the Hatter.

"No!" Alice screamed, but it was too late. The Hatter, moving with his characteristic unnatural swiftness, expertly plunged his sword into Jack, aiming for the gap in his armor where his neck was left unprotected. The Knave paused eyes widening in shock as his mouth opened and closed while he bled out. The Hatter, snarling, pulled his sword from the man. Alice felt tears sting her eyes as she watched Jack collapse to to the floor of the clearing, twitching in his death throes.

With an inhuman cry of her own, she threw herself from the ground and flew at the Hatter, drawing him into combat once more. She managed to land several attacks, eventually even slashing him across the face with her weapon, which caused the man to pull back as they both panted.

"He was important to you."

The Hatter's words were a statement, not a question, and Alice blinked her tears away while she fought desperately to ignore Jack's body lying to the side. "Yes." She said simply.

Hatter looked at the body sadly for a moment before hiding the expression. "Do you ever wonder how we ended up like this, Alice?"

She growled. "Because you turned on us."

"What was I supposed to do?!" He screamed, breath coming out rushed from his physical exertion as well as his emotional agony, "We couldn't win. There was no way we could win against her."

"So you betrayed us? Went to her side at the drop of a hat? Didn't even consider the implications of you turning you back on us...on me?"

He looked grief-stricken, tortured by his desire for her to understand. "I was trying to do what was right! Trying to protect you!"

Alice snarled. "And now our daughter is dead, and it was your fault. Tell me again how that was protection?"

He howled before throwing himself at her, and Alice sensed the change in his fighting style, felt his desperate attempts to hurt her as the blood flowed freely from his injured cheek.

When they paused in their fighting, he spoke with pain in his eyes and agony in his voice. "I loved you. I worshiped both of you."

She snorted before retorting, "Yet you turned on us."

"To protect you two."

"She killed her! Our baby girl! And, it was all your fault. If our daughter had been with me, if you had never taken her from me..." Alice was crying as trailed off and resumed her attacking him, fighting with her own tormented desperation to finally end the hurt he'd caused.

As their swords crossed, he spoke, "And, I live with the consequences of my choices every day. It drives me insane, Alice, but I thought I was doing what was right."

"Yet, you stayed with her?" Alice's voice broke as continued, ignoring his pleas for her to believe him. "Even after she killed Emilia, you stayed with her!"

The Hatter's expression grew more agonized. "I believed her. She tricked me into believing in her."

Alice grinned evilly before replying. "So, how did it feel when I won?"

Hatter frowned. "You haven't won yet, Alice." With that, he redoubled his efforts, threatening to drive Alice back once more as her own exhaustion began creeping up on her. Eventually, though, Alice took the upper hand, pushing him back onto his heels and driving him back with enough force that he paled as she pinned him against a tree with her blade.

The injuries she'd inflicted seemed to have visibly exhausted him, and his eyes met hers before he slumped in defeat. "Just...do it, Alice. End me. I can't live with the torment anymore."

She wanted to stop, wanted to take his face in her hands and kiss away the sorrow like they should have done for one another after their daughter had died, but they were both in too deep by this point, the Hatter on his side and her on hers.

With tears in her eyes, she gave herself over to her urge to kiss him, and he leaned into her touch, returning the kiss with a hungry passion as she raised her weapon, aiming it for the gap in his armor near his abdomen. He smelled as she remembered, tasted as she remembered. Those thoughts threatened to ruin her resolve, but the thoughts of their daughter gave her strength.

He barely reacted, only grunted as she drove the weapon home while he continued to kiss her. Eventually, he grew weak, slumping against her and breaking the kiss. With a cry, Alice removed her weapon from his torso and collapsed to the ground, taking his fast-weakening form with her and cradling his head in her lap.

As she gazed down, his own blood began leaking from his mouth, mingling with her lipstick that had transferred to his lips as they'd kissed. As he died in her arms, he said, "Fix this world, my queen." When he took his last breath, she cried out in anguish as her tears fell on his still perfect face. 

As the Queen of Hearts, she may have won the war, but she'd lost the only battle that had given her life meaning.