Recently in "DEFENDERS": Nighthawk, a demon nightly, and others join a new group of Defenders to save those in Alice's power. Valkyrie is brought to a Hel witout rule, where Odin warns her of coming conflict. In Hell, Daimon Hellstrom gathers a captive audience of high entities. And now the heroes have been sent to Alice's Wonderland by the Man-Thing, leaving Regina and Mark Garney in the Nexus with its keeper.....

Citrusville, Florida. The Nexus of All Realities.

For an hour -- Maybe less, but it seemed like longer -- Regina Garney had sat perspiring and naucious in the seat of a stuffy Avengers Quinjet. She would have never thought herself to be in one, certainly not here.

The weight on her lap was her son Mark, tiny and frail as he napped. His sleep had been motionless, and his mother had checked more than once as he breathed so lightly.

At the same time, in that past subjective hour, Regina had found herself actively watching the vessel's darkness, waiting for any signs of movement.

The taker was there somewhere, she believed. He would not have her son, she had silently vowed to him.

More had captured Regina's view in that time. Through the thick window, outside the metal hide of the ship, stood the keeper of this place -- The shambling creation of plant and the macabre she heard called the Man-Thing.

He'd simply stood there since they went away -- Regina's own defenders, who left her and Mark with this silent, unmoving totem of the swamp. Its bloody, melancholy eyes penetrated the Quinjet's thick exterior, even when she looked away.

It chilled her as much as the thought of the shadows stealing her child.

That was all that mattered to her.

The moon's paleness was hidden by a canopy of muck and trees, and the darkness pervaded the Garneys' sanctuary. A drowsy humidity didn't drift through it but simply laid there, like her son, still and stiffling.

Her seat had grown comfortable. She hadn't seen anything yet, after all -- And if something happened, that creature was there. Thoughts were injected into Regina's mind, and even if she subconsciously fought them, her eyelids grew heavier, and heavier...

Finally, an unnaturally dense slumber fell over her, and all was still for a time.

Regina's sleep was so heavy that she didn't feel the fidgeting upon her lap, or the weight that left it. She didn't hear the opening and closing of a mechanical door that, by all means, shouldn't have worked.

She couldn't see, out her shielding window, the small figure standing innocently before the swamp-keeper, or the quick flare that rushed through its unblinking eyes.

She didn't hear the voice of a young boy in the blanketing bayou silence.....

"Can you take me to the fireworld, please?" He asked.

Gently, the Man-Thing responded by extending its trunkish arm, hair-like moss hanging off its sides. Its wooden fingernails touched the boy's own outstretched hand.

At once the Man-Thing felt a burning at its hand and recoiled as quick as possible.

It eyed this boy with a look of pain, who asked staring back, "Please?"

The Man-Thing pondered, in its own way. Then it turned its wide back on the frail boy and gestured with its hands in the air. From the almost nervous gestures came a rift, from it eminating a unique heat all its own.

Mark came to the creature's side, looked at the rift, and then up at the keeper, smiling. "Thanks, Teddy."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Mark stepped towards the infernal rip and looked back. "Sorry I scared you." He passed through it. Reality healed itself as his body dissapeared from the Nexus with a weak sucking noise.

The swamp lay silent again afterwards.

And this thing of a man shifted back to its former enrootment, staring ever vigilantly at the slumbering chrome vessel that had intruded on its swamp.

Wonderland.

It began with darkness. And they supposed that it would end that way, too.

For the man named Matt Murdock, called Daredevil, it was always black. He could feel the void around them though he couldn't see it. Even his sonar found only the bodies of his equally flustered friends.

"So...Uh.....Whatta we do now?" Hawkeye looked around from his own invisible platform. He saw all the others standing as well, scattered about on seperate levels.
"It's not like the Man-Thing would take us to the wrong place," Hellcat said, and added, "...Would he?"
"We didn't really tell him where to send us. Maybe he didn't even know where -- Or how."

Black Widow's words spread out and seeped into nothing. She, like the others, became distracted by a nagging feeling -- That they had somehow made a mistake.

"Well, he's like -- The Man-Thing, right? Burns the fearful, feels your pain?" Iceman let his thoughts trail him along, and the Widow commented.
"Empathy doesn't tell where we need to go."
"I know that -- But he's...Whatever he is, so I think he'd do it right."
"He wouldn't be the first one screwing up..."

"'Tasha, can you back off? Just a little bit?" Daredevil finally asked. "It's really not helping."
"Maybe you need a break from weird crap like the rest--" Hawkeye was shortly interrupted.
"Oh, what would you know about what a woman needs?" Natasha bursted. She tried to get away from both men but was frustrated to find something unseen hindering her.

"...Was she like this with you?" Hawkeye said quietly to the horned vigilante.
"Barely ever. Something's just bothering her.....I think I know what."
"That's probably 'something' you should handle then, leader-man."

"I'm -- Not the leader. This isn't anything close to a team."

Close by, infernal eyes strained to make out something in their native element. They still found nothing -- And Kyle Richmond almost preferred it that way.

"Kyle?" Asked Hellcat, looking Nighthawk's direction. His fleshy wingspan blocked part of his face. She frowned. "...Kyle -- Do you see anything yet?"

He didn't answer.

"Kyle, come on..."
"No," He stated.
"No what...?"
"No nothing. I don't see anything."

"Oh....."

Patsy waited, then turned back to see the others actively looking their own ways. Her frown deepened, and Hellcat felt cold. Lonely.

Not a word was uttered as they thought on other things, pretaining to their own and this pit that they found themselves in. When Patsy looked at Daredevil, his horns -- The thought of his name -- Made her remember what togetherness felt like.

Something she missed terribly.

"Predictable."

"...Uh?" Hellcat grunted. She cocked her head up.
"Did.....Did anyone else hear that?" Asked Daredevil. No one noticed Iceman's body glisten in otherwise pitch dark when he spoke.
"What's predictable?"

"You," It said. "All of you."

There was no question that they all heard it. And Nighthawk wasn't concerned so much with that. "Patsy...?" He asked. Everyone looked his way, and their eyes nearly hurt from the sudden contrast.

It began as an long oval of white, joined by another, larger than anyone present. The pair moved upwards, followed by an outline filled with paleness. The twin ovals twitched, and wrinkles appeared within them.

".....I see something."

The eyes opened. The face was painfully apparent. And massive lips painted black spoke between a smirk. "And that's what makes you all such amusing prey. However, the hunt is over.

"You're in Wonderland. Now the fun begins."

Natasha, wide-eyed and mouth gaping, noted softly to herself.

"...I wish I was an optimist....."

Elsewhen.

Have you ever had one of those dreams? Everyone has.

You know you're dreaming. You wake up, and whatever miracles or horrors hiding there seem to be gone. Then another one pops up -- Reality is invaded. You rouse again, knowing for sure that you're among the waking.

You aren't. And soon you can't trust yourself to know the difference between what is dream and what is reality.

Dane Whitman knew this dream. He found himself, time and again, walking across the continent of time. From a modern day New York City to where he kneeled groggily, accented voices approaching.

"Who...Who's there?" He asked through his haze. He couldn't stand, his armor an unliftable weight in his weakness. Sight was returning, slowly. The surroundings they would find was a familiar shock.

"Sir Dane?"
".....I..." He struggled even to breathe.
"Sir Dane, thou art unwell. I am afraid Merlin's traveling is less than...Impeccable."

"Who is, mine lord, aside from thyself?" Asked a much older voice with underlying snydeness.

"Where...What's happening? The Quinjet-- The others..." Dane rambled as he felt strong hands on his shoulders.

He was outside. His senses were quickly returning, only adding to his confusion. The hearty laughter almost eased him.

"Ha! I can assure though I know not what thou speakest of." As Dane was helped to stand, the bright, bearded face came into view. "I have no doubt that there is little time for explanations...Nor thy rehabilitation, truly."

It was early morning, Dane could tell. The moon was beginning to set. He saw great stone walls and a clear, starry sky.

"...Okay. Who are you? Both of you."
"Why, Sir Dane -- Surely thou jest," Said the younger bearded man, with thick brown hair and a crown on his head. The other was much older with wrinkled skin and thin, white hair in excess.
"Sire, the spell could have disoriented him..."

"Even so, a knight would always know the face of his king -- Certainly of Arthur Pendragon."

Dane looked back and forth between the two men.

"Pendra..." He began and stopped. The laughter welled up from inside him. "Hahaha! Man -- Okay, okay, I've got it. King Arthur, Merlin...All a dream."

The two men looked at each other from the corners of their eyes as Dane studied the expansive courtyard they stood in. When he looked back up, Dane noticed.

"...What? What is it?" They only stared at him. Quietly he said, "Dreams don't give each other looks like that behind your back."

They all knew how true this was.

Wonderland.

Bobby Drake hated hearing people scream; someone suffering that much. It made him feel guilty, to hear that and not be able to help. He knew it wasn't his fault, told himself so, but since Patsy began screaming, he had felt worse.

And it just kept getting hotter in there.

"...EEEEEIIIII! Ei! Ah......A-hugh.....P-pl -- Please....." Hellcat came down from another scream and began weeping again. She was dangling upside down, a puppet in Alice's white hand. His eyes were so close to her, peering into her every inch of being, that she could feel it.

"Stop, dammit!" Nighthawk pounded with rage at the wall around him. He dug his dirtied claws in and scratched down its side. The sound was inaudible him -- But Daredevil clutched his ears in pain, almost falling to his knees.

"Don't be absurd," Said Alice, on the verge of giggling.

"Nnnnnnn...Ni-- Kyle, please....." The skreeching continued.
"Nightha -- Whoever you are, you're hurting him!" Black Widow almost pounded on her own entrapment but stopped herself.
"What d'you mean...'Whoever you are'.....?"

Kyle halted and looked over. Daredevil was slowly rosing again, with the Widow watching carefully. He noticed that Hawkeye was still looking straight ahead.

"...A-heh.....Ha. Heh. Hahaha....HaHA! HahahaHAhaHaHA! TEE HEE! Haha..."

When he looked again, Kyle saw a wide, crooked grin on Patsy Walker's sweating, tear-stained face. The uncontrollable laughter didn't seem her own.

In fact, her smile reminded them all of something.

And then, with a gesture, Hellcat was tossed into the abyss. She fell freely until she just hung there, suspended from nothing. Still grinning, still snickering under her breath, still crying. She had gone mad, for the second time in her life, and they all had witnessed it unable to act.

"Jesus!" Bobby watched her, watched Alice keep smiling, and naturally changed into the Iceman. He felt warmer. "Don't you have anything better to do, than to screw with people like this? Good people?" Alice was looking directly at, or into, him.

"No. Of course not. What else could I do?"

"How about just leave us the Hell alone? That ever cross your mind?" Hawkeye said. He wished to God for just one fault in his prison, for one shot.

"That I could never do, I'm afraid."

"Why?" Iceman asked in his discomfort. Alice was still staring at him. "It's like anyone who thinks they're gonna do it different than all the other bad guys in the universe -- They make it their life to be hard on everyone else. I don't get it."

"Why? Alice asked. Suddenly his giant face was closest to Bobby, who could swear it felt like he was sweating. "Because your fear, your pain -- You, the 'heroes', with your pride and everything you represent -- Is all that will satisfy me. It's sweet like nectar and bitter like dung. The fear of the mighty, not the average.

"Now tell me, Bobby, my dear, dear boy -- And this has been a popular one, recently," Alice continued immediately. "Tell me, do you you enjoy circuses?"

Bobby's icy brow furrowed. "Not unless they're British and flying." The heat was intensifying and he couldn't tell where it was coming from -- Everywhere at once or nowhere at all.

"Honestly...You don't enjoy the exotic food, and the animals? All the smells? So many wonderful people there to see the sights?"

"I..." Bobby felt dizzy, too.

"And they watch the freak shows under the afternoon sun. Families and circus-folk, pointing and laughing and whispering in the dry heat of summer in some Southern country town."

The words were omnipresent and they painted a picture around Bobby. Not Bobby -- The Iceman.

"You're sure you wouldn't enjoy that?"

The Iceman stood there in the light of the afternoon sun, praying for more humidity in the air. He could feel his skin -- No, more than that, his body melting into thick slush. It was getting harder just to raise his arms, or his head. He had told Old Chuck that the freak show should be inside.

As his own person came down in drops before his eyes, he looked around. First, in a murky view, he saw the mass of onlookers. Their bodies were all one in his sight. He heard their harsh, one-sided babble.

He looked over at the sign nearby and read it silently to himself. "THE ICEMAN - A MUTANT FREAK TOO COOL TO BELIEVE!" it called him. Then something as mushy as his body hit the Iceman in the head.

Red dripped down into his eyes. It wasn't blood, he knew. It was a tomato, and there were more -- And worse -- where it came from. Someone yelled something in a Southern drawl, an the Iceman wished he would waste away on the hot ground.

Back in the dark, where it was much colder, Bobby's body was limp and melting. Nearby, Hellcat amused and horrified herself, spasming. Her eyes were wide and dialated, drool dripping off her lips into nothing. She was still cackling and sobbing, weakly.

Daredevil sensed it all, quiet among the others. For once, he was glad he didn't see it. Alice passed over him and to the leather-clad body of Black Widow. She backed away slightly, defiant with an underlying nervousness, and felt him examine her head to toe.

"Don't -- Don't look at me like that!" She said, both sure and unsure of herself.

"Why, m'dear? You're OH so beautiful..."

"I...But I'm--"

"You DO agree, don't you?" And Natasha had to hold herself as she slid her back down the slick invisible wall. It felt like cold glass.

"Just because you've been with so many men, nothing lasting? Sometimes men you didn't even know the NAME of, or that repulsed you, for the sake of information?"All at once the many faces of men she has known, well or barely at all, horned or plated or unfamiliar looking at her, cringing, and turning away.

She wasn't as beautiful as they believed, at first. Not inside. "Unclean" they mouthed. Natasha believed this and shivered, wanted to close her eyes and cry. But she she had none. She was faceless. She was no one. Just a body.

Daredevil heard her every whimper. He expected to taste the distant salt of her tears, but didn't.

All of his muscles tensed. He wanted to act -- Ached to. But Hawkeye covered the job for him, yelling angrily from his place. "I'm not scared of you. I'm not! You don't have anything on me, pal. You're just make up and talk..."

"Of course it's not me you fear, Clint. I'm not myself -- I'm not anyone at all. I'm just a mask to be worn, to see the sigts and do my work. And at the same time, I'm the pretender -- Everyone is my own puppet, my own set of eyes to look through."

Hawkeye saw Alice's face dissapear and knew well where it was when it spoke again. He didn't even want to turn around, though he wouldn't admit it.

"Anything to get what I need, Clint. I've been at this a while -- Believe me, this little visual facade I put on hasn't scared people in a while. I wouldn't expect YOU to be afraid of me. You're a bit more complicated than that.

"You're a brave man, Clint. Strong of body and will. An Avenger. You're even helping out these Defenders, or whatever they are. Good for you -- Always willing to help the LITTLE guys. Of course. But I'm wondering...Do YOU remember another little guy?

"A frail young orphan who wasn't even accepted well among the OTHER outcasts? You might like him, though I have to warn you, he DID end up as a criminal for a while, later on. Hasn't always played well with others, I'm afraid -- Although he's shaped up a bit. It's too bad about his late WIFE...Just like his mother.....

"Who was looking after THAT little guy, Hawkeye? Who's to say that he even really grew up? That he didn't just put on a big boy's longjohns to hide from the cruel world?"

No one was to say anything at all, at the moment. Alice grinned, and Nighthawk was the only other one to actually look at Clint in the dark. His costume was half-empty and wrinkled. The mask still had a face beneath, but it was round and small, too small. His quiver had fallen to the ground, and little grubby hands tried vainly to grip his bow.

Matt Murdock heard a faster heartbeat for a smaller body, interrupted by the faintly familiar voice of a child.

"Guys...?" Clint said in a voice high with youth. "Help me."

Things were silent again for a while. A strangely comfortable silence, the type that comes when one either has no idea what happens next or exactly what is to come. Nighthawk felt the stare on him, and saw it from a far. But Alice kept his distance.

"What? Go on -- Do it," Kyle almost growled through sharp canines. "I know you're going to, so just -- Just do it and be done."
"Do what?"
"Scare me, dammit! What -- Whatever you did to Patsy, and to everyone else. We know it's coming, so just...Do it."

Alice's lips were so big that Nighthawk could see each wrinkle in the ethereal skin of his face as he smiled. It looked like black features on pure white to him.

"Kyle, Kyle -- You're so wonderfully frightened of yourself that I don't think I'd have anything to add to the job. Now go be a dove and brood for a moment."

Kyle did as he was told, alone and quitely.

Alice's face faded into darkness, not that Daredevil could really see or sense it correctly. He could just barely tell when a figure formed and stepped in beside him. He no longer felt constricted, half-squatting for comfort there.

"You don't have to stay here, you know," Alice said. His voice sounded much more concievable now. Daredevil didn't look up.
"So the nickname really means something?"
"Yes. Without fear -- In other words, useless to me."
"You won't even try?"
"I already did, remember? Your apartment? I didn't like it, and neither did you. I can send you back if you like. I'm basically done here and there's nothing for you."

Daredevil was quiet. "...No. I think I'll stay." Alice's already accented eyes got large and stared intensely at the red man.
"And why would you want to do that? You seemed like maybe the sentimental type..."
"Actually, I'll level with you -- I've been sitting here for a while trying to figure out what scares you."
"Ha!"Alice laughed pompously way. "Me? Frightened?"
"Yeah," Daredevil said, standing up very gradually. "And I think I have it now."

Alice unconsciously backed off slightly. "I can leave whenever I like," He said. "This is my place..."

"No, Alice. You can't. I know what you're scared of. You're scared of what you can't control, what you can't manipulate. Your heart -- Whatever works as that inside whatever you are -- Is beating like jungle drums. You're sweating something foul. Something like fear."

The Devil took a step closer, Alice another back.

"You're afraid of me, Alice. So this is my court now." Again, there was another step, and Alice opened his mouth to say something worthless. It was interrupted by Daredevil's gloved fist.

Alice fell back on his hands and rear and looked up at Daredevil this time. "You're powerless. You're nothing anymore if I don't want you to be -- And I don't."
"Please -- It's only my function. I -- I need it to live!"
"You're not alive -- Maybe something about what you can become, but what's inside isn't."

A crimson boot kicked matching blood from Alice's mouth. It fell into the black and puddled like there was ground. Alice whimpered like an infant, but even Daredevil's heart felt no sympathy.

"Now that we have things figured out, I want you to do two things for me. First, I want you to return everyone and everything you took -- Superhero, normal, whatever, whoever -- To normal. Bring the Defenders here with me, and send everyone else back home."
"I..." Alice began, and seeing Daredevil's straight look, stopped. He stood very painfully, looked around, and blinked.

"Well?" Daredevil asked after a time.
"Just a moment..."

Luke Cage.

"C'mon -- Let's string 'im up and get it over with!" The man's voice was rough like a coal. Another, obviously younger though he could barely be seen under his white sheets, stood on a stool and tied rope to a thick tree branch, testing it. It had to support weight indefinitely.

After he had decided it did, he gave the signal, and the struggling man was brought up by the other white-covered people. They were all males, and even though he was stronger than each, their sheer number over-powered him.

"Damn boy's a fighter..." One of them said, giving him a sharp hit in the side. He was carried to the stool and noose, where he was dropped on the ground and kept still under the others' tough boots. It was hot out. He sweated.

The first hurried them again. "Hey! Hey! Let's get this done, okay?"
"'Bout to be done and done," said another.

The body was stood on the stool, beaten into stillness, and the noose was fitted around his thick neck. He looked down at them, saw the hatred in their eyes, and knew his reflected it.

"On mah count, fellas," Was called out. Someone was standing beside him but he couldn't turn his head. "One...Two.....Three!"

Foot kicked wood and the stool fell. The constriction on his neck began right away and didn't let up, only increased with each passing second. It was already getting hard to hear, to focus, but he knew they were laughing, cheering.

Looking out into their hateful eyes again, he stopped trying to fight the loss of breath. What was it, through the holes cut into their sheet-masks? The eyes, so dark, and the skin...So black.

Luke Cage gasped as well he could. He struggled, grapping the rope slowly killing him. Again his heart skipped, and this time he wasn't sure if he wanted it to begin again. He stared at his own hand, saw its skin in the moonlight.

Pale, pale skin in the night. They left soon after that, and the dizzying end was nearing. Luke thought he was hallucinating or finally passing when it all started fading away. But he could breathe again, and the it felt like the rope wasn't even there...

The Klan members wouldn't find their victim the next morning, hanging and lifeless, but from their word it would still be the small town's joy to think so.

Wonderland.

"There," Alice said, gesturing behind Daredevil, who already knew they had appeared. Nine very unhappy and tired people, including Doctor Strange, Hulk, Luke Cage, and Namor -- All recently appeared.
"So you didn't take the Knight..." Daredevil said offhand. He couldn't help but listen in on their confused conversation as he turned back to Alice.

"Okay. Now the second part."
"Please, don't..."
"Shut up. Shut. Up." Daredevil was almost shaking. "I'm being more than fair here, more than can be said for you and those poor people back there.

"Now, you're going to take us all safely back to the swamp in Florida, and at the same time you're going to leave this body you've taken and never, ever come near any of us. Again. Do you understand?"
"Yes...Yes." Alice recoiled and looked down at his fancy shoes. "I'll do it. I don't have any choice."

Doctor Strange's body levitated over from behind, Daredevil not turning to greet him. "Daredevil...? I'm assuming you're with Patsy and the others..." He partly trailed off when he saw the timid look of Alice.
"Yeah...Yeah, I am."
"...Devil, what's going on here? Is--?"
"It's over. It's all over now. I'm just arranging for us to go home."
"I can easily provide everyone--"
"I know you can. But he owes us. Just...Please go tell everyone that everything's okay and that they're going home."

Stephen hesitated, nodded, and flew away again. Alice stared at Daredevil curiously. "...Why?"
"Because I don't know how to destroy you, and as much as we all hate you -- I don't really want to. I'm sure you play some sort of role that I don't understand, so it's not my place to judge that. This is all I can do is free whoever's life you've ruined and try to salvage ours."

"So I'll be--?"
"Don't remind me. Yes, you'll be free. But, God help me, if you even look at me, or Natasha, or any of us again, I'm going to find out and I'm going to come here and then I won't make any promises. Okay?"
".....Okay. I get it."
"Good. Ready to say goodbye?"

"Yes."
"Then let's go. And no tricks...Or I'm coming back."

Citrusville, Florida. The Nexus of All Realities.

In the earliest morning light, Nighthawk's membrane wings retracted painfully. His skin returned to its normal hue, and his face lost its demonic features. Kyle Richmond was himself again. Few had time to say anything.

"Bastard!" Luke Cage kicked a pale body hard enough to cave in a tree trunk. There was a thin red mark across his neck. The Hulk and Namor both grabbed his arms to hold him. "Stupid, stupid, stupid sonofa mutha--"
"Jesus, Luke, it's not even him, buddy," Hulk said to deaf ears.
"Gonna learn what that's like..."
"...Cannot believe I am holding him back..." Namor mumbled.

Doctor Strange walked over to the body. It was more than familiar -- It was their tormentor's body, or rather the husk he left behind, who was just now waking. Stephen helped him up, but couldn't help noticing just how much we looked the same, simply without the make up. He kept the same attire as Alice and looked rather dazed.

"...God," He croaked hoarsely, and then looked around to see those looking on. He shook his head. "Where and what?" Is all he asked.

"A Florida swamp just outside of Citrusville," Said Strange, "And as to the 'what' -- You were a victim of something as old as time, that used you as its medium."

"You knew about that thing?" Iceman asked in shock, before remembering who he asked. Stephen nodded.
"I've encountered it brifely before."
"And you didn't destroy it then, Doc?" Hawkeye asked.
"No. It exists for a reason just like you."
"What the Hell could it be around for but to torture good people?"
"It needs us as much as we need it, to show us our fears and to define our strengths in turn."
"...Gotcha..."

"I'm sure this is all very confusing, mister...?" Hellcat asked.
"Furnier. Damon Furnier. And you'd be surprised what I've seen on the job..."
"We know what that's like. Anyway, we'd be glad to take you somewhere if you--"
"You know, I really appreciate it," He said, already stepping away and eyeing them all. "And please don't take this the wrong way, but -- Uh...I think I'd rather handle it myself."
"You're sure?" He looked them all over again and nodded.

"Yeah -- Yeah. I, uh -- I know some people in Citrusville. I'll be fine." He left sight quickly. Luke had stopped fighting a while back, and when they let go of him, he kicked a rock into oblivion, cursing over and over.

"Luke. Luke, c'mon!" Hulk put a hand on his shoulder. "It's over, man. Just like a bad dream. We all had it."
"You didn't have mine."
"And you didn't have mine."
"...I don't care! The suckah's gone. I -- Listen, man...Guys, I didn't get into this for this. I didn't want this crazy nightmare. I just wanted t'help."
"You did," Patsy assured him, but he shook his head and distanced himself from them.

"...Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I'm not gonna be around to do either anymore. I'm gone."
"Cage, that is no way--" Namor began. Luke turned sharply.
"You got somethin' to say, fish king?"
"No, guys," Hulk kept them far apart. "Not now."

"...Y'know, screw it. It's not worth anything anyway. I'm gone." Luke kept walking away while Patsy called out hopefully.
"Can't we at least give you a ride?" He paused, just for a second, and then was lost in the depths of the swamp.

There was quiet again, until a door opened and slammed shut. "Oh my God -- Ohmygod!" It was Gina, running desperately out into the muck and falling before them all.
"What's wrong, Gina?" The Black Widow left Daredevil's side and helped the woman up. Her eyes were bloodshot and she looked extremely tired. "You don't look--"
"My baby," She cried in Natasha's arms. "M-Mark! They took my baby!" The Widow looked at Daredevil more than the others.
"Anyone...?"

"We'll find him," Stephen assured. "I can promise it. I believe some answers are in order, though -- You would agree, Kyle?" Kyle Richmond nodded.
"Yeah. It's good to see everyone though." He liked the day.

"Hey, guys?" Iceman spoke up. "Val, Black Knight, Patsy, Mark -- We just got out of Wonderland and brought everyone back, but they're still missing."
"It's not Alice," Daredevil said. "I know it's -- Wait a minute. Patsy?"
"Huh?"
"You said Patsy's gone, but she's...She was just here."

Red, reflecting eyes watched a firey rift close in the air from the thick of the swamp.

Elsewhen.

"I fear we are much more than dreams, Sir Dane," King Arthur told his knight, looking grim. "Merlin, you really must work on thy weaving..."
"Magic is an art, Arthur. And art is untamable. Still, this sets things back a bit..."

"What are you two going on about?" Dane asked, slightly annoyed.

Merlin seemed to loom over him. "I have had visions, blackest knight. They have plagued me night in and out for some time. This is why we conjured you here before -- Something you obviously don't remember."

"Visions of someone centuries after your time?"
"You are misinformed, knight. This era will end, but I will not join it. All of time is mine to see, when needed. And such a talent is why you were brought here in the first place."
"So you know that Guineviere will bunk with--"

"Merlin knows, as have I, since he initiated my lordship," Arthur quickly said. "It is not something I'm fond of discussing. 'Tis the destiny of Camelot, and it must come to pass."

"We speak, however," The wizard said, "Of something that can be averted...With the correct care.

"I have seen a group of heroic vagabonds from your time, many strangers to each other, led by a man closer to my legacy than one would realize. They are saviors, though -- Defenders. And I have seen them battle the Pit itself, on the side of seraphim."

"Seraphim," Dane half-asked. Merlin closed his eyes and sighed.
"...Angels. High angels. These defending knights and agents of Heaven are fighting a losing battle.

"I revealed these visions to Arthur. And, the good Christian that he is...He decided we must help."
Atrhur nodded. "And I could think of none finer than bearer of the Ebony Blade, the descendant of the first Black Knight himself."

"Okay, here's the problem," Dane told them. "The Ebony Blade -- It isn't mine anymore. It's curse has been passed onto the Bloodwraith now..."
"Such events happen far in times hence," Merlin revealed, then pointed to Dane's waist. "Unsheathe your sword."

Dane reached to grasp the cold handle in doubt. As he pulled it out, he recognized its weight immediately, and felt an uneasy rush. It was then, as he held the sword upright, that the sun's first rays were cast out.

The weapon was revealed. It's dark metal was like a shard of night in the newborn dusk, unnaffected by lumination. It was the Ebony Blade, and Dane found himself speechless.

"This is the Ebony Blade of old," Merlin answered the unasked question. "And it will be your salvation once more. Yours, and the whole world's."

"What..." Dane was stupified. "What do we do with it?"

"You will know when it is right. For now, we wait," Merlin revealed. "Morning has come, and the magicks that brought you here work best in the flow of night. You will be sent to the right time tomorrow."

"Until then, you will resume thy guest room at the castle Camelot," Said Arthur.

They motioned for Dane to follow them. He sheated the Ebony Blade, and in his thoughts, didn't hear anything they said.

He lagged behind for a moment and pinched himself. He couldn't decide if the pain was welcome or a bad omen.