Hello, readers! Here is the next chapter, with Alice and Kyle moving from one place to another.
Page 7 of the full game walkthrough for Alice: Madness Returns. This guide will show you how to earn all of the achievements.
Not much else to say, really. I've been a bit sick over the past week, but I think I've mostly recovered. It didn't affect my writing ability too much, but I'm trying to be careful. After all, if I'm sick, I can't write as best I can. Sorry if I'm rambling.
DISCLAIMER: 'Alice: Madness Returns' and the 'American McGee's Alice' series are owned by Spicy Horse and EA Games, including any beta content not used in the final game. The author owns their OC, and any custom elements they choose to introduce in the story.
Onward to the Chapter!
I don't want this moment to end. The two of us hold each other, a moment of peace amidst the Vale of Doom's chaos. It's too peaceful to leave. But, Alice eventually pulls away from me. I silently plead for her to stay, but she doesn't look back. She moves over to the broken section of wall in the clearing, and stops at the edge of a ramp.
I force myself to move to Alice's position. If I don't, neither of us will get what we want. I'll be left without my memories, and Alice's Wonderland will fall apart before her eyes. My mind wanders as we move to a nearby ramp, and Alice gets some teeth. It seems like I have some connection to Wonderland, if I care about it like this.
I filter back through my memories, try to put the pieces together. I was some kind of subject in the Mad Hatter's experiments. I escaped him, and the Queen of Heart's soldiers. Then, I found the Cheshire Cat. I became his student, learned his powers. I joined some kind of resistance against the Queen of Hearts. Then, I left Wonderland behind, and woke up in London.
That last part confuses me the most as Alice and I walk up a rocky slope. How did I go from Wonderland, a place where I had power, to a powerless form in London? Why would I do that? Unless… I was forced to? But, if that's the case, who would force me down that path?
My thoughts pause as Alice moves over to a third hookah on top of a ramp. She smashes the Ruin off it as I look around on our current path. Then, I see a wall of Ruin that glows behind us. I tap Alice's shoulder to get her attention, and she notices it very quickly.
She shoots it apart with the Teapot Cannon, and we enter a small alcove. Inside, we find some teeth, and a Radcliffe memory. I still feel some contempt for that man as Alice touches the memory.
'Catastrophe may strike even the best regulated families, Ms. Liddel,' the doctor explains. 'Of course, one family's disaster may be another's opportunity. And the same goes for a surviving family member, if you know what I mean.'
'I know all too well.' Alice mutters as we move back to the hookah. Alice takes a slow puff of the smoke. I don't feel any emotion for that stuff. It probably sparked my senses, got me addicted to it, which Alice said she hated.
'I'm devastated,' Alice says as another misty platform emerges from nothing. 'Look what's become of my beautiful valley!' I don't need any reminding, that's for sure.
'All things change in the fullness of time,' Caterpillar states as we take the platform onto a narrow path between two giant islands. 'Often, not for better.' Again, no need to be reminded of this when I can clearly see it going on around me.
We take the platform up to a higher island. There's a Menacing Ruin with some Insidious Ruin on a nearby island. Alice and I look at each other, and I swear the same message passes through both our minds. She readies the Cannon as I summon the Hammer and switch it to 'RM'. Then, we bombard the Ruin from a distance.
The Insidious melt away, or get blown apart. The Menacing's fireballs are deflected back via Alice's umbrella, and it melts back into the ground without damaging us. Once the island is clear, we quickly jump, or leap, to it. Alice absorbs all the teeth and rose petals she can, while also avoiding the small streams of black lava.
My ears pick up the familiar snorts of a Snout. Alice hears it too, but we can't see it. Alice moves to a nearby platform to smash some boxes, and then uses the Pepper Grinder from her new location. After I hear the Snout's loud sneeze, a floating gear moves over for us. We both take it up to a keyhole, and shrink down to go through it.
There's another Radula Room past the keyhole. The last Room we were in, back in the Depths, was quite challenging. What will this one have? Another survival round with the Hatter and that rabbit watching us? A riddle with the Cheshire Cat? What will Hysteria Alice say to us, once we win? Will we win, this time?
Alice grabs my hand and pulls me inside before I can ask her my questions.
A sob escapes my throat as I see we're in the Vale of Tears. Or, what's left of it. Compared to the Vale of Doom, it looks so serene and beautiful. The water that laps against my boots is much better than Ruin-covered lava. The cow-birds in the air remind me of the Mock Turtle. Even the night sky brings a tear to my eye, since it shines like Tundraful's aurora-filled horizon.
The Cheshire Cat appears on a small rock inside the lake. His ears fall flat to his face when he sees my sad appearance. I try to calm my emotions down as he turns to face Alice with a happier tone. The Cat said I was too emotional, before. I should try and change that, now.
'Alice, I know of your fondness for all manner of puzzles.' He says with a quick wave of his paw. 'So, riddle me this. We welcome the arrival of a phantom at sunset, only to rue its departure at sunrise. What is it?'
Alice places a hand to her chin and closes her eyes. I take another look around us as she thinks of her answer. The Cat silently waits, not looking away from her. Soon enough, Alice opens her eyes again.
'The answer is 'a dream',' she says.
'Purrrrrrrrfect,' the Cat replies, rolling his 'r's' like they're the greatest syllable ever created. Then, he turns to me. I don't want to answer a question, but I guess I have no choice.
'Consider the following, Kyle,' he says as his tail trails through the water behind him. 'I know of something that brings tears to the eye, resurrects the dead, turns back time, and makes people smile. It is formed in an instant, but it lasts a lifetime. Do you know what it is?'
This is a lot to think over. I sense Alice looking at me as I close my eyes and clench my fists. I try to keep calm; the relative silence of this place helps with that. What doesn't help aremy chaotic thoughts. I've had so many highs, and lows, over the past few days. I've seen a bright side, and dark side, to a lot of things. What's there that can last a lifetime, and do so many inhuman feats?
Wait. Could it be…? No, no, it can't be that simple. Can it? Could the very thing I'm searching for, the one thing I lack, be the answer? It doesn't sound right. But, the more I think about it, the more I think that it's true. I guess I have to try.
I open my eyes, look into the Cat's own eyes, and quietly say, 'It's a memory.'
His ears twitch, but his grin doesn't fade as he replies, 'Excellent.' Then, he vanishes. Two more vials of Rose Paint float where he sat, and Alice quickly takes them.
'Don't try to take back your past,' Hysteria Alice whispers to us as our vision turns to black. 'You should carve new futures in the blood of your enemies. It's the only way to truly overcome the madness!'
We find ourselves by the black lava; the Vale of Doom's storm crackles around us like before. I look at my body to see my shoulders have turned to mist. Just the latest side-effect of my rampant powers, I suppose.
We jump, or leap, across several close islands, and take out Drifting Ruin along the way. They are simple enough to defeat, if you keep track of them. Plus, their teeth and rose petals only fuel Alice's power.
After finding some bottles, Alice blows open a wall with the Cannon. We then go through that wall mid-jump, and land on a checkered island straight out of the Hatter's Domain. Its authenticity is further confirmed when several Madcaps, and two Eyepots, emerge from clouds of white smoke to fight us.
I switch to the Ice Wand as Alice instantly peppers down the closest Eyepot. The Madcaps try to split up, but I catch them off guard with an arcing blast of cold. I power through my fatigue as I switch to the Automaton Hammer, ready its 'MM', and let loose a spinning attack. They all shatter to pieces from my force.
As I slow myself down, I feel elated that plan worked. It seems my regeneration, and teleportation, don't work properly anymore. However, I am able to attack faster than before. Could this be some kind of balancing effect?
I glance at Alice as she swings the Hobby Horse into the last Eyepot. The weapon snorts on the first swing, and then grunts on the second. It seems to know that it's spending more effort with each swing. The Eyepot certainly feels the impacts, and it breaks apart after two full sets.
As Alice collects her reward, a familiar snorting alerts us to a Menacing Ruin on a lower island. We easily dodge its fireballs, and bombard it to bits from our current higher ground. We jump down there after it dies, and an ambush of four Drifting Ruin is easily dealt with. Their grunts and snorts give them away.
We soon pass by the desolated Looking Glass Line Station. The railroad car has rotted away, and black lava streams through what remains of the track. Insidious Ruin rise up from the lava in waves, and we deal with them every way we can. It's not much of a fight; I don't keep track of what I do, or how many of these little creatures I kill.
After the last of these Ruin fall, we move across even more broken platforms of rock and checkered tiles. More Madcaps and Drifting Ruin try to stop us, but we just kill them without slowing down. These foes are simple enough for us to fall into a pattern.
Alice and I cycle between melee and ranged attacks. My shoulders return to normal in the midst of combat. I then lose all sense of smell as my nose turns cold and wet. It doesn't affect my combat, but it does feel quite weird.
Alice stops me as she looks over a large open space ahead of us. She shrinks down, and then starts walking on what I assume are invisible platforms. I shrink down, and follow her across. I don't care to track the pattern; I just match her steps. That's much easier right now.
As we reach a large steam pot after we grow back to normal size, I see another solid path that leads to a darker space. A sudden feeling of determination makes me stop. I reach out and touch Alice's shoulder. She stops, and looks back at me in confusion.
'I think we're moving too fast.' I say. Alice raises an eyebrow as I continue. 'There might be something we've missed.'
'Something we missed'?' Alice slowly repeats my question. 'What do you think we missed? Don't you want out of this place?'
'I do want out,' I respond. 'But, what if there's some shred of hope we passed by? I don't want it to be lost, forever.' Alice looks deep into my eyes without saying a word. Then, she slowly pulls back.
'Fine,' she finally says. 'We'll take a look down the other path. I can see you're determined enough to see this through.' We move along the new path, and find a Liddel memory between two broken slabs of stone.
'I've smoked a cigarette, Alice,' Lizzie comments after Alice touches the memory. 'No fun at all. One day I'll try a clay pipe.'
That sounds kind of funny, considering Caterpillar's hookahs seem like pipes. But, I disregard it as we continue to move across move invisible platforms and vents in a long loop back to where I stopped Alice. Alice gets a lot of teeth from our journey, which she seems to like.
Once we get back on track, we arrive at a space with several large root arches. The arches have mostly rotted away. A large rock stands in the center of the flat, open space. The Cheshire Cat appears next to that rock with a timely rumble of thunder.
'The sight, the stink, the sinister sound!' he comments with a wild gleam in his eyes. 'What have you imagined, Alice?'
Alice looks down at the ground in silence, and the Cat vanishes before I say a word. She takes a few seconds in silent reflection, and then whirls around and draws the Pepper Grinder. I duck down as she starts to shoot pepper right at me.
Actually, she shoots pepper over me, at an invisible Snout I hadn't heard. Then, I realize I can't hear anything. I pat around my face and realize that, to my disgust, my nose is back at the price of my ears. They give the same cold and wet feeling as my nose did. But, the loss of my hearing puts me more on edge.
I look around me, in almost every possible direction. With my hearing gone, I feel a dull ring where my ears would be. I smell bits of pepper in the air, and I can't hear my own sneeze. Even a sneeze feels weird, without the accompanying sound.
I see Alice leap up to a series of small platforms that lead to a larger platform. I don't know what's up there, but I feel content to see her get her effort's reward. I turn from her to double-check my surroundings one more time.
I then silently scream as something slashes me along the face. I fall to my knees as my eyes water over. I can barely see Insidious Ruin nearby, one of them quite close to me. I only have a second to fight them, or run away.
I crawl back as quickly as I can, and then stand up and break into a sprint to the far end of the platform. Drifting Ruin rise up to meet me, their doll masks moving to make sounds I can't hear. I turn around and keep running away from all these enemies. If I stop and try to fight, I won't be able to hear them come up to attack me. That's not a factor I want to contend with.
Luckily, Alice soon arrives from the other platform to help me. I stick close to her and use the Hammer to pound any Ruin that gets too close. She, in turn, bombards the faraway Ruin with tea grenades. That weapon's impact matches the Hammer's Ranged Mode, it's so powerful.
We soon beat back the wave, but I place a hand on the ground as it shakes wildly. A Colossal Ruin rises from beneath the farthest arch. I don't hear its roar, but I still feel intimidated by its presence. It lurches toward us with outstretched arms, and we split up to attack it from either side.
I swap to the Ice Wand and shoot a face with bolts of cold. Each face freezes up, and then shatters, under continued fire. I don't see what weapon Alice uses, but I suspect it is dealing damage from the opposite side. I run when the Ruin gets close; I don't want to get swallowed by it again.
Soon, the Ruin transforms into its second form. This time, we are both far away enough that it has to pick one of us to move towards. It literally moves like the Infernal Train does, with fire from its front end and smoke from its pipes.
I look to Alice, and she fires a tea grenade at the Ruin's front face. It doesn't seem to slow it down, but I join her attack with an ice sphere. The Ruin eventually does take enough damage on its face to stop moving. It slumps to the ground, stunned. Vulnerable.
I charge forward without thinking of the consequences. Anger fuels my strength as I jump forward and stab the Ice Wand into the Ruin's mask. I don't hear the sound it makes, but the shudder it makes tells me it was painful. Alice teleports beside me to hack away at the face with the Vorpal Blade. We cause it to crack, but that's all we get before it rises back up again. I pull the Ice Wand out just in time.
This time around, we know how to beat it. But, the Ruin seems to move faster than before, like it's angry at getting hurt. I feel the heat lick at my back when I run away from it, and I'm sure Alice gets hurt as well. When we finally stun it again, we go all-out in our attacks. Alice cries something out with an angry expression as she finally shatters the mask with the Hobby Horse.
The Ruin melts apart, and I step back to avoid its body from covering my boots. However, I still feel a surge of victory from the fact we can actually beat this thing without relying on our most powerful states. The pain on my face doesn't block this feeling. The aching of my limbs doesn't block this feeling.
What does block it is when my hearing comes back. It feels so overwhelming, I just have to bask in the noise, there's no other way for me to handle it. I lose my senses in the Vale of Doom's noise. It comes to me that I hated it, before. Now, I can let myself go in it without harm, without any major emotional loss. Is that normal?
I come back to myself once I feel the pain on my face fade into a low throb. I move towards the arches as Alice emerges from inside a Shrinking Violet. She's healed back up from the battle, but stays beside me as we go through the arches. She places a hand on my back, but I feel it phase through my spine. So, that's what's gone, now. At least I can still move.
We soon reach another Ruin-covered hookah. Alice smashes the black tar off before she takes a puff. Another set of mist-covered platforms emerges for us to walk across. These ones lead to a larger rocky space, but this space has a waterfall that seems right out of the old Vale of Tears.
'It's not only about you, Alice!' Caterpillar urgently states as we move toward the platforms. 'Look at the destruction around you! Consider its cause. Then, come join me.' I blink at this last bit; maybe we can finally get some proper information from this character?
I take a look back at the hookahs, and notice another glowing wall behind us. Once again, I tap Alice's shoulder and point to the wall. She sighs and shakes her head, but I also see a smile on her lips. This time, I blow the wall apart with the Hammer's Ranged Mode. We get there via a narrow slope of invisible platforms, which Alice notices first through Shrink Sense. She really seems more used to that power than me.
Once we go through the wall, we find a small cave with checkered tiles. A Pris memory is easy enough to see, and release. However, Pris's comment makes me shudder: 'Skin burned by fire or scalded in steam looks wrinkled, like a toadstool in winter.'
A bit farther into the cave, a single Eyepot, and a few Madcaps, guard several metal boxes from us. Since they most certainly contain teeth for Alice, we take this chance to fight them. These foes are old to us, so it doesn't take long to beat them. They don't try any new tricks against us, either.
At the very least, I get the chance to vent out some anger when I stab the Ice Wand into a Madcap's green-skinned head and freeze its body like some demented treat. I hear Alice laugh for a moment, and turn to see the Eyepot's 'eye' leak copious amounts of blood as the creature writhes in its death throes. That certainly looks painful.
We go back out the same way we came, and then take a final vent to the island with the waterfall. As we approach the stream, we notice one large rock with fresh, green grass around it. Smoke drifts from the very top of the rock; it turns out the smoke comes from some kind of small tower.
'This must be Caterpillar's grove,' I hear Alice quietly say. 'Figures he'd set a place of contemplation amidst so much catastrophe.' I have no answer for her, and Caterpillar speaks up before I could think of an answer, anyway.
'You are familiar with the saying that, 'Smoking stunts your growth'?' He asks this to Wonderland's guardian.
'Adults assault children with that adage,' Alice responds as she finishes a brief examination of the grove. 'Usually while they've got a pipe stuck in their mouths.'
'Too true, I'm afraid. As for you, Kyle, I trust you now understand the consequences of having your emotions control your thoughts?'
I jump when Caterpillar mentions me, and knows my name. Does he remember me from somewhere? Will I learn more about him after we meet? It sounds like he's seen what happened here in the Vale, at least.
'I understand, Sir,' I reply with a quick nod, and an affirmation to his apparent superiority. 'But, I can't just remove my emotions altogether. They help make me who I am.'
Chapter 5 Thesis
'That is also true. You have unwittingly stumbled into the eternal conflict of logic versus emotion. Those who start it must choose the lesser of these two evils, or risk a fight against themselves they can't win.' Those aren't very comforting words to hear, but I don't get the chance to argue before the smoke spreads around us like my mists normally would around me.
'I won't ask you two to inhale,' Caterpillar tells us. 'Let the smoke envelop you.' Alice spreads her arms out while I choose to actually take a breath of the smoke. Tingles run through my skin, turn my blood electric, catapult my senses to a new high. Everything feels so much more… alive.
If this is what addiction is like, I see what Alice means by it being hard to let go.
I close my eyes as I feel my body begin to shrink down, farther than ever before…
A distant chime resonates in my mind. It sounds familiar, but I can't picture where I heard it before. I open my eyes to see we're in a new area. It's kind of like Tundraful, but the air is much warmer.
The water here is a dark green, and large fish with red-and-white scales jump into the air every few seconds. Unlike the Shipwreck Sharks, these fish are actually kind of pretty to my eye; they don't have sharp teeth, to start with.
Small stone islands are connected by floating tiles with images of faces, plants, or animals. The sky is light gray, black characters streaming down to the far horizon. As I look at these characters, a matching definition for each of them instantly appears in my mind.
I quickly find the characters for 'sky', 'water', 'mountain', 'fish' and 'fire'. This confuses me, since I didn't recognize any spot of the other places in Wonderland when Alice and I arrived there. Had I lived here, before I lost my memories? I turn to Alice to ask her about this, and pause at the new clothing she wears.
She has the same boots and tights on as before, but she now wears a strange dress that reaches to her upper legs. It has a dark blue base, with blue, pink, and teal patterns along the edges and front. Several flowers and butterflies of these colors are sown into the fabric. The very edge has several squares of pink silk that fold over one another.
The skull on Alice's back is mostly the same, except it is now green against a pink bow. The necklace on her neck is a green gem. A pink collar covers her neck, with the same pattern of folding pink silk squares. A small covering of pink-and-white fabric covers both of her upper arms. Her eyes are the same color, and her hair still hangs down. Two new alchemical symbols are sown into the fabric, as well.
I look myself over, and see I now wear a gray long-sleeved robe with white pants. I blush at the fact the robe slides over my left shoulder, which leaves my right shoulder bare. The robe is tied to the pants by a grey belt. My feet are bare, like Alice's were in the Deluded Depths. The stone beneath me feels hard, but not painful.
'That's an… interesting look.' Alice comments. I see her look me over with raised eyebrows. I blush even more as I see more of my skin is exposed than her. My arms don't look that muscular when revealed, but I know how much strength I can give in a fight. I ask Alice about the symbols, and she quickly explains.
'The symbols on this dress represent Pluto and Uranus. Pluto is the ruler of death, and represents the mind moving past matter to reach a divine spirit. I suppose that matches the fact we have to find Caterpillar. Uranus represents violent upheaval and revolution; that could be Caterpillar himself.
'As for your clothing,' she then says as she points at my new appearance. 'You seem to be wearing a variant of a monk's robe. I heard there are warrior monks, and peaceful monks who seek spiritual enlightenment. I'm not sure which one you're supposed to be.'
'Either one works in my head.' I say as I take a few steps around the small island we stand on. I don't feel any major pain on my feet, just a mild irritation. I summon the Hammer, and then the Ice Wand, to my hands. Then I focus on the mists which were once under my control.
To my joy, the mists are back to normal; I feel them move to my will once again. I teleport across the small island several times in quick succession, and revel in the familiar sensations. However, I quickly regain m senses when I hear the same chimes strike again.
Alice hears them, too, as she turns her gaze to an island in the distance. To get over there, we'll have to cross several small islands, walk across the floating tiles, and jump over open gaps. However, none of these challenges don't look so difficult to complete. It's almost like this is an easy section of Caterpillar's grove, for us to regain our bearings after the Vale of Doom's open chaos.
Whatever the reason is for this calm state, I welcome the chance for some apparent relaxation. I dismiss my weapons, since I don't notice any enemies around us. As I look at the sky again, I recognize more of the same characters as they flow down. I then realize that Alice might know what language these words are, so I ask her about it.
'Those words in the sky?' She looks up to where I point, and stares along with me. 'Those are Chinese characters; traditional, I believe, since some of them look quite complicated to write out.' She then turns to me with the words, 'Fancy you knowing some of them. I guess you have visited Caterpillar before?'
'If I did,' I reply as I crouch for a jump to a nearby stone island. 'I don't remember it. We'd better get to Caterpillar, to figure that out.'
'Oh, I'm sure we can figure some of it out before we get to him. After all, if this is the 'Oriental Grove', as I think it should be called, then there are many secrets here waiting to be discovered.'
'I hope we can find them without getting sidetracked,' I think as we both leap to the nearest stone island, and begin our journey towards Caterpillar.
Alright, that's all for now. We have arrived in the 'Oriental Grove', aka 'Mysterious East'! What will happen here?
As usual, reviews, comments, constructive criticism, and feedback are well appreciated. I do want to know how you all think this story is going.
Draconos is taking off!