Chapter Text
“I found someone!”
Bucky tried not to sigh. There was no way of measuring time in Wonderland, not really, but it felt like they’d repeated the same events over and over and over again for eons. Every time, Steve sent Phil out to find someone who would be able to slay the Hydra, and every time, Phil came back with utter faith that this time, this person, would be the one. The Alice.
It never was.
Still, they kept trying, hoping there would be a way to save all of them from the Red Skull’s reign. And as much as Bucky admired their tenacity, he was too tired to cheer with them.
He listened, fingers working on the threading of yet another hat, as Phil told them about a young man named Anthony that was smart and inventive and the one that would be able to make a difference.
As much as he would like to believe it, he couldn’t help the way his first thought was ‘wonder if this one will leave before trying, or die doing so’. Because that was always the way it went, over and over and over again, until Bucky just wanted to yell at Steve and tell him it was hopeless, they were never going to be free. They had lost, and they were trapped, and they forever would be.
Viciously, he stabbed his needle into the felt of the hat. He didn’t know how the others could still do it, could still think that this would end well. They called him the Mad Hatter, but they were the ones who were really mad, trying the same thing over and over and over and failing every single time.
Always with the same end result.
“He sounds like a great candidate, Phil,” Steve told the rabbit with a smile that was so much more genuine than Bucky would be able to manage. A smile that said he actually believed.
It was a miracle that he still did, to be honest. Every time an Alice failed, Steve used all of his leftover magic to send them back to their own world and reset things so they could try again once he was strong enough again, big and muscled and full of magic.
They didn’t discuss it, but Bucky wondered if Steve noticed that he grew skinnier and smaller every time it happened.
At some point, it would become impossible for him to deal with another loss and they might lose Wonderland forever. And every single time, the Alice that Phil had found turned out not to be enough. And it wasn’t like Bucky didn’t know that none of them owed the inhabitants of Wonderland a single thing, and it wasn’t like he didn’t know that most of them thought their adventure was a dream at best.
It might be unfair of him, but he still couldn’t help but hate them just a little.
So when Phil managed to lure in this ‘Anthony’, Bucky stood himself to the back of the room, watching everything warily and readying himself for yet another disappointment.
“So, what’s your bet?”
He looked beside him - Natashalie might not be small, but she always managed to find herself a good vantage spot. As weird as things could get in Wonderland, most still failed to pay attention to a mouse. Which was their mistake, really, since Nat was one of the strongest and most threatening of them.
“Considering Phil’s descriptions - probably will manage to get the Vorpal Sword, but won’t make it past the Hydra,” he told her with a shrug.
“I think he might not even try.” Bucky gave her an inquiring look. “I have seen Phil’s pick - even in his own world, he seems selfish and arrogant. Not the kind of person to get dedicated to helping other people out when there’s nothing in it for him, I think.”
“Phil seems to believe in him.” It wasn’t a counterargument, not really. Bucky hadn’t ever met Anthony, after all, and he’d be lying if he said he trusted Anthony to be the Alice they needed. He was far too jaded for that.
Nat, just as jaded, sighed. “He seems smart, for sure. But I’m not sure he’ll be a good Alice.”
And just as she spoke those words, the doors opened to Phil, followed by a young man Bucky had never seen before.
Their newest Alice.