Origins of an Archenemy

Quickly shutting the door behind them, Hatter and Marcie dashed through hallways and out through the building they were in before Hatter quickly opened up a portal to another universe and they all hopped through it without question or concern for where they may end up.

Even once the portal closed shut behind them, they continued to run until they were safely locked inside a room. As they were all catching their breaths, Marcie turned to look at Hatter with both concern and confusion.

"Who the heck was that Hatter," she inquired breathlessly, "I've traveled with you for most of my life and I've never seen them before now, but they seem to know a heck of a lot about you."

"He is...my archenemy," Hatter answered; though he looked right at her as he did so, he seemed to have a far away look, "it's a bit of a long story."

"Well, I'm quite sure that we have time now though sir," Edric stated, clutching his sides as he was out of shape and the running had left him exhausted.

Hatter shot a look at Edric, "I told you not to call me sir, you seem forget that I can just open a portal and shove you in it any time we get tired of you being around," he snarled.

Marcie gave Hatter a look he knew all too well; he sighed and sat down, beckoning them to do the same, "His name is Tsuro and I have known him since before I met either of you."

He waited for them to process this, sighing as he did so. He always knew he'd have to talk about his greatest foe eventually, he had just wished he never would have. He had hoped that all the universe hopping would have lost him. Sighing again, he then began launching into the story.

"As you know, I was five years old when my powers first manifested and ended up leaving my family behind in the universe I was born in purely by accident. The place that I ended up in...was not a nice place. It was a very creepy, dilapidated house that had long been abandoned through the march of time in that version of the world. My portal snapped shut behind me and I was trapped there. Alone, frightened, unable to escape except by going through the house because I didn't actually know how to use my powers. As I wandered through the house, I found myself some clothes to wear and then eventually came to a room that was once a living room of sorts. It had all manner of furnishings covered with sheets to protect them from dust and whatever else those sheets are supposed to do when used in that way.

The only thing in the room that wasn't covered was a full-length mirror. I don't know why, but I was drawn to it. I suppose it was the magic spell or perhaps curse that was cast on it, for that is surely what it must have been. I cleaned the mirror so that I could see myself in the clothes which I had taken from one of the rooms, but as soon as all the grime from across the years had been cleared away and I had stepped back...my reflection disappeared and was replaced with the image of a dark rabbit. I was of course shocked and confused and I spoke to the image in the mirror. I asked it who it was.

It told me that he was me, a wide wicked smile spreading across his face as he told me.

I of course told him that that was absurd and impossible because I was a fox and he was a rabbit.

He seemed completely unconcerned about this fact and told me that he was what I could be, what I may even wish to be.

This was of course ridiculous to me, I had no desire to be a rabbit and to be honest, he scared me and I had no wish to become something so frightening. So I attempted to leave, but found myself unable to do so. Perhaps trapped by the spell. Who knows.

I ended up spending what felt like a great deal of time conversing with him as I waited for the spell to wear off or something so that I could escape and end up as far away from him as possible. All that I managed to glean was the fact that though he seemed foreign to me, he was certain that in the future his appearance would make sense to me. That I would see that he truly was a reflection of me."

"Have you," Marcie inquired, sipping from her tea that she had made while Hatter had begun his story.

"I..." he trailed off and then gave out a slight huff of a sigh, "I still don't believe that he is a reflection of me, unless by reflection he means complete opposite. Although, there is perhaps one aspect that does make sense to me now if what he said is true."

"What's that?"

"I may have at some point entertained the idea of being a rabbit," Hatter replied, winking at Marcie, "Needless to say, I like being a fox a bit more."

Marcie giggled at having received a wink from Hatter, she could tell he was trying to lighten the mood, but also that he was attempting to avoid explaining things. She was about to ask him why he had thought about becoming a rabbit, but she was beaten to it.

"Why did you ever want to be a rabbit anyway Sir Hatter," Edric asked, causing Hatter to roll his eyes at Edric's continued insistence to be formal.

"Let's just say I had my reasons and leave it at that," Hatter replied, shifting uncomfortably under everyone's gazes. There was no way he was going to say the real reason, not with the reason right there next to him listening to every word he said.

Said reason leaned over and gently nudged him, "You can tell us Hatter, it's okay. If not all of us, you can certainly trust me. I certainly understand what it's like to wish you were something else," she gave him a warm, friendly smile before sitting up straight again.

Hatter's heart fluttered, yet he remained reluctant to divulge the information. The way she looked at him though made him yearn to say it though, so he took a leap of faith, if nothing more than to get them to stop looking at him that way so he could finish telling them about Tsuro.

With a deep sigh, he confessed his reason, "I fell in love with a rabbit and I thought...I thought that if I was a rabbit as well she'd be more open to hearing that, wouldn't think that it was weird for me to love her," he shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to look at anyone, "I eventually realized that if I found a way to turn myself into a rabbit, it wouldn't be right. I mean, what good is it to have someone love you when you're not yourself anymore?"

Unexpectedly, he felt a set of arms wrap around him and hug him, it was Marcie. He blinked in surprise before returning the hug, which was when he heard her whisper the most unexpected thing, "It's okay, I wanted to be fox for awhile myself for the same reason."