#now i get ready for work ill reply to things spoaradically maybe

[lockedtowers]

From Predator To Prey

or, essentially, why cassie cannot remember that transition period between escaping the castle, and meeting hatter, because thanks to mad march (mine specifically aka @familiarache ) she can’t. Until she did also because of him in the main story.

because there’s a lot to unpack there, and ofc i get the inspiration to write this before work, so i’m not spell checking or anything i’m just throwing the thoughts out into the void and we’re dealing w it. again, these are based on my characterization with my version of these characters, and would not affect anyone elses versions, in fact this mostly just affects her behavior with non sy/fy alice characters in general unless you say you want to do something with this storyline in those verses with your sy/fy alice chars. what i write for my character outside of our interactions is not me godmodding you, please don’t think otherwise, i’m not gonna force it

a quick toss in; cassie does not know her mother, has no idea she’s the princess of spades, doesn’t know why cheshire cats are considered ‘dangerous’ (because theyre pmuch all faeries and QoH wanted to annihilate them), and have never knowingly met her father. she was raised by her uncle who works under the Queen of Hearts as her right hand. He ensured that neither she nor Miseris would learn the truth, and because Cassandra was the older twin and the girl, meaning by wonderland law she would have inherited no matter what because she’s the girl, he had to ensure she was unaware. That did not stop him from making sure Jack knew, which is where Jack’s (also mine, also @ familiarache.) obsession grew from. She held the power to take away his right to a throne that never should have belonged to him in the first place and even though she didn’t know that, he did. But if he married her, he’d be seen as the hero, and even if people found out about her, he would already hold the crown and could just.. make her disappear, basically.

other important things to note: when the Queen of Hearts agreed to hire cassie on as an assassin, she put march in charge of her. march is older than hatter, older than their other sib, he is the eldest overall. he has powers, he can talk to shadows and even control them to a point, but people hear him talk about it and… it doesn’t go well. cassie heard him talk about it, and she didn’t judge him for it, she didn’t care, she didn’t even know she was ‘supposed’ to (as she put it when he asked her about it). in march’s mind, he owned her the second the Queen of Hearts gave her to him. and that solidifies a lot over the course of their partnership and… otherwise. but it’s important to note all the negatives first; he’s a lot older than her, which yeah wonderland theyre all over 100 years old it doesnt matter as much but its important to note, he’s older than her by a decent chunk. He was her tutor. he decided she was his property. and she honestly didn’t know any better because all she knew was people weren’t hurting her when she was with him, which made her grow extremely attached. but the massive power imbalance is still there and still important to note even then when maddox/march isn’t ‘that bad’ yet.

now, for the actual focus of this. when cassie was pulled aside by the ten of clubs, (shortly after she personally refused a kill. a kill march finished. so she assumed she was in trouble for that, despite already being punished for it before.) and told that she would be pulled out of the ‘team’ so to say, because the queen of hearts wanted to put her in training before officially marking her as jack’s fiance… she did not have a good reaction. even pointed out like ‘i’m not a royal, i’m not a noble, i can’t do that’ to which 10 just said the queen will make her what she needs to be, and she does not get a choice.

and believe me, march was pissed when he found out. because she belonged to him. and while he was thinking over ways to still keep her; just take her away between times she has to he with jack, figure out how to manipulate jack into letting him keep her, etc, she was just trying to figure out how to get out of it.

but, the queen, at the time as she still trusted her son then, left jack in charge of what training cassandra needed. and rather than actually put her in any training, he had the suits bring her into the prisons below the vices tower (it was not the casino yet, but still held the same operations.)

now, jack had her imprisoned in a specialty made cell. unbreakable glass where he could see in, she could not see out. water filled the bottom of the cell, and an electric current could be turned on at any time. the queen thought cassandra was just in training (when she even remembered her), march didn’t know where the hell she went. jack would come see her, and in his true manipulative form, claim he had no idea his mother would do that to her when he expressed his interest, nor that march would out her weaknesses. he’d promise that she’d be freed when he could figure out how, meanwhile he was the one who put her there. and to make matters worse, he’d eventually get March to be the one watching her.. with three other suits at all times, as jack was in fact aware of what was going on between them.

the issue, though, is they also had the jabberwock locked up a few cages down. the jabberwock they caught anyways when cassie told them they shouldn’t. and the jabberwock that is very protective over her. and the jabberwock, no matter how much they thought it could be, could not stay imprisoned for long. coincidentally, just as cassie had found the weak point in her cell while the guards were distracted.

it broke out, at the same time cassie broke out, and the jabberwock destroyed nearly the entire prisons with it. it found cassie in the rubble of her cell, along with four suits (as march wasn’t there at the time), and took her with it when it left. the underside of the tower was compeletely destroyed, and as the jabberwock got out, it destroyed multiple halls and walls in its path. whilst the structure was mostly still there, the lower half was truly struggling. so although they continued their operations, after a short break due to the fear the people started exhibiting making it too dangerous until carpenter ‘fixed’ them, they still were able to continue draining oysters a few days later. whereas the structure had to undergo massive rebuilds for weeks, which they refrained from letting the public be aware of.

while the queen didn’t know cassandra was imprisoned, she did hear that she broke out and escaped, and that was enough for her. she told march to kill her and bring her back cassie’s heart, and march was ever the loyal killer for her. even if that was the last thing he wanted to do.

jack sent suits with him, claiming she was ‘too dangerous now for march to go alone’, all whilst also alerting the resistance that a ‘tool’ of his escaped the imprisonment ‘his mother’ placed her in, and that she’d need to be kept somewhere safe when she was found; which is when dodo would start looking for a shoe in.

and of course, march would find her; she had woken up and wandered off, not knowing what to do about the jabberwock, but knowing she couldn’t stay in one place too long because jack would find her. she didn’t trust jack at all. she didn’t like jack at all. she didn’t like how he’d touch her, how he’d look at her, or anything of the sort, and despite being trained her whole life to be loyal to then, her time with march sort of cut that mentality away from her despite the fact he was loyal to them himself.

but march couldn’t do it. he almost did, the blade was at her throat, and she even held her hair up by the end telling him to just get it over with. she didn’t want to run anymore, she didn’t want to have to hide, but she’d rather die than have to be in the tower anymore.

but march couldn’t do it. he loudly claimed ‘she doesn’t want your head. she wants your heart.’ when he dropped the knife; but used his gun to shoot the three suits that accompanied him. whilst cassie was panicking, he pulled her up to her feet, pushed her back against a tree, and held her still while he looked at her eyes. he demanded a deal, told her he can’t let her go until she agrees; she had to forget about him, specifically. everything they were, everything they had, everything about him: until he came back to make her remember, and that he’d ‘kiss her or something’ to make her remember. but the second she left that clearing in the forest, she had to forget everything about mad march, everything about maddox madigan, she could not remember him and put him at risk, too. when she agreed, he kissed her, and shoved her away while he turned his attention to one of the suits, aiming to get his heart instead.

she escaped from the tulgy wood into the forest of wabe, becoming lost rather quickly, until she fell and hit her head. the jabberwock came to find her, and picked her up, carrying her to a withered down cabin within the forest. when it set her down, it laid down, looking directly at her as its eyes grew black.

when she woke up, it wasn’t her in her body; her father took control of her conscious. a natural at the magic she didn’t know how to control, he used water to make a mirror as he overlooked her; saddened at how much of her life he truly missed, he took a glance over at the jabberwocks resting form. with a sigh, he held her hand up, crystalizing a knife. she was never going to be able to tap into her full power if he didn’t do this, but that didn’t mean he wanted to hurt her. but by taking control of her form, he could at least ensure she wouldn’t remember it, even though she wouldn’t know what all had happened the last several days.

by the time she woke up properly, almost three weeks later, she saw a crystalized mirror in front of her, and a large scar over her neck. she felt weird, and confused, and alone. but the jabberwock nudged her with its head, and she came to realize it’d been watching over her this entire time. she didn’t know what happened, or why, just that jack heart wanted her, and she couldn’t let him get her.

she’d be found by her twin brother, who only told her he had a short amount of time, and gave her new clothes and a map on where to go. she listened, and found the tea shoppe: and ultimately, hatter, who’d recently gained his position, recently lost a brother (by his own hand), and was charged by dodo to watch over her and make sure the hearts don’t find her. but she doesn’t remember much, and everytime she mentioned ‘a tutor’ of hers, she’d seem to be in undeniable pain. something was blocking her ability to remember, but he didn’t have much options with her anyways. she couldn’t go to the resistance, and they didn’t tell him why, but he had to keep watch over her. make sure she stayed safe, even when she annoyed him.

and of course she’d grow attached to him, too, because he took care of her. how was she not meant to see him as a friend, and want to protect him, too.