Chapter Text
Hatter makes Henry some tea while everyone else tries to protect his grandfather from his grandmother. "It'll be fine, kid," she tells him. It has to be fine. He's one child who still believes. So much so that he let her see the goodness in herself, and so she can't let anything happen to this kid. Hatter soars. She knows what this means. It means she's free. But then again, she knows what this means. It means she's doomed.
Henry sips his earl grey. He sees Aunt Maddy smile like a prisoner who sees the sun for the first time, and then a cloud passes over her face.
When she gets the news that Cora is gone, she feels a soaring sensation in her chest – she can finally go home – and then wonders why she is on the ground with her face covered with tears and gross snot. Everything hurts and the quality of light through the window has changed. She has no idea how long she was out of it, but it can’t have been as long as the first time she tried to die. She lifts herself from the floor and even that feels like something breaking. The queen is dead. “Long live the queen,” she says quietly.
But this isn’t the end that either Edwina or Cora deserved. She should have been facing a worthy adversary, not poisoned by a part of herself she finally got back.
Hatter walks to the mirror, cleans her face, and puts on her favorite hat. She stands with her palms about an inch from the surface of the glass. The Ultimate Decree is revoked; this will work. She can feel the magic crackling around her hands. Wonderland wants her back, and oh how she wants to meet it again! But there’s something she has to do first. Regretfully, she lowers her hands and walks away from her ticket home. She has a memorial to attend.