"Really, I don't enjoy you wasting my time. Just tell me Mummy dear," Hatter asked, it wasn't begging, no, as far as she was concerned she did not beg.

Jervis, Erin, and Laine had since become desensitized to her sitting outside the locked door and badgering them. By Jervis count it had been for the past hour, by Erin's two, Laine had stopped at a half hour.

"I'll be good, and all that. or do you wan t to end up like the knave of hearts?" She passed the obituary from the Gotham Times under the door. One in particular had been circled and hearts and cartoon playing cards had been drawn idly in red marker around it.

Laine bent over wincing slightly from a wound in her side where she had been shot on that ill fated day at the bank. Skimming the article a sort of half smile came across her face.

"I was wondering if you were going to get around to killing that bastard." she muttered.

"Yes , yes every one hates Tom. The point is; answer my question."

"I don't even remember what the hell you were asking in the first place anymore." Erin said finally giving up on keeping track of the time," and really is a clock to much to ask for?"

Hatter frowned, "I asked about how you were intelligent enough to manage every thing. You obviously had some plan and I want to know."

"I believe there was a file that would explain everything on the computer itself,. I fixed the hat so you should be quite capable of finding it yourself." Jervis retorted still managing to keep his count of time.

Hatter rolled her eyes, certainly she could do that, if she liked. She would much rather pick their minds for it though. Of course with an hour and, she glanced at a clock on the wall, fifteen minutes pestering them about, she was doubtful they would tell her on their own. Seeing as the basement was currently occupied, and she didn't want to blood any where else for the moment she wasn't left with much of a choice in the matter.

"I don't think you're very good parents, sending me to go hack computers. You're not encouraging healthy habits. I'll have to kill you lot and get new ones." Hatter replied, only half sarcastic, as she pushed herself up off the floor and walked off to go find the laptop.

Erin ground her teeth against each other. She hated that girls sense of humor, if it was humor. And without being able to see her, you could never tell, which was probably why she hated it so much. In retrospect however she figured it would have been funny if it wasn't directed at her.

"Remind me what's on the computer again?" Laine asked settling on the bed with her head against the floor and her feet against the wall.

Erin smiled, several times when Ellda, being bored out of her mind, had done the same thing.

"Lets wait for it, shall we? I want to enjoy this moment."

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!

While her programming sifted through jeremiahs files, at what she thought was an agonizingly slow pace, Hatter tried to amuse herself as best as she could in her room. She certainly wasn't going to leave the room while that computer was out, who knew what any of those wssc girls would do to it. And she was by no means was going bring any one up to talk with her, she was not going to pretend to be interested in brands of greasepaint for the sake of 'friendship'. She had tried it once, with the little Radoe girl, Ilia? Lily? Lucy maybe, she didn't particularly care any more. It had been interesting for a while after that it had mostly been because Alice enjoyed having some one around. Hatter usually ended up getting bored by people, unless they were special, like Rabbit for instance. She wanted that one dead so badly it-, So just kill her already! Move on to bigger prospects. Damn those pestering little thoughts she came up with sometimes. Interrupting her whole train of thought. It did have to be admitted however that these thoughts did seem extremely rational at times. She had thought of simply killing the sweet rabbit never as something she would actually want to do. Not that she would have given much thought as to why she didn't want to just be done with it. It couldn't be that she was attached to any of them. And she, as a separate entity from Alice, had never met them in person before, so she couldn't have any past experiences to make her want them to suffer. Alice was certainly attached to them, not that Hatter approved in the least. Then again Alice, might have something to do with all of it. Hatter loathed that she might ever say it aloud but there had been a time several years before, when, dare she even think it, she had cared , at the very least, for Alice. A new personality with no experience of the world and yet memories of all of it. Lonely and unable to do anything except think about everything she did know, it had been weeks? Days? Months? Before she had finally realized there was someone else there. She had wanted someone to talk with, if only for the firsthand experience of actually being able to communicate with someone. Alice had only wanted to talk about her sister, March will come home, march is alright, march isn't dead. Hatter took what she got, she certainly didn't like it. She had only wanted a little attention, instead all that stpid clueless girl had seemed to care about was a sister who was supposed to be dead in the first place.

Some two bit psychologist up at arkham would have a field day with all of this, a report, maybe a book, a spot on the 11 o'clock news. Vengeance, schizophrenia and a confirmed case of multiple personalities. That was if they could pick through her head to get there in the first place. Hatter laughed, as if any of them could, call it vanity those who will but she had confidence that she would get their life story before they got hers.

Thinking about arkham brought her back to the laptop, how many files did the man have? What was he doing with the thing writing programs? Why in the name of all things holy couldn't they have just told her how they-

" Dammit! I'm cant believe I didn't realize what…'" Hatter reached to grab her hat and stop the scan of the Jeremiah's laptop.

A white hot pain exploded at the back of her neck and spread through her nervous system. She whimpered biting back a scream, convulsing as the pain blinded her. Don't you dare scream! They cant know they fooled you even once! By a bloody computer virus nonetheless! They arent allowed to beat you! Don't you d-

Hatter lost it, she screamed. They were all good as dead. To hell with any stupid half formed sentiments she might have, she was going to kill them for this! Quickly, not to spare them a pain, but to get the hell rid of Alice's deranged little family!

A thousand different ways to kill them flashed through Hatters mind. She thought she heard whimpering cry of, "Hatter make it stop, it hurts!" at the back of her mind, but that could be. No her chips had been designed to perfectly for that, no Alice couldn't talk. But if that was the case then maybe she was going truly mad…. Then the pain became to much and, as they say, every thing went black