They entered the room. Inside, she saw many rows of beds - small, uncomfortable looking cots. But not nearly so uncomfortable as the occupants. Insane children were in there, hundreds, and sleeping. IVs in their arms led to a large vat in a corner. "Sleeping draft," Cat said, gesturing. "Hatter uses these children for his experiments. But come and follow me, there is more."

He led her up the room, until they stood at two beds. Two creatures lay there- one alive, one dead and rotting. "Hatter won't take out his own trash," Cat mocked bitterly. "That corpse in front of you is that of the Dormouse. But the poor living thing beside you is the March Hare."

She looked down at the two. "How did the Dormouse die?" she asked quietly, angry.

"The two were kept alive, and simultaneously being killed, by two lines with two separate potions contained therein. The Dormouse's plug was pulled."

"By who..?" she was horrified.

"By your friend Hatter, traitor to the rebels and loyal Duke and servant to her Majesty the Queen of Hearts," Cat hissed.

She shook her head. "No. Not Hatter." He nodded. "No!"

"Faith. He killed the Dormouse. He has killed our forces. He creates the automatons, and has been made a Duke just recently. He has captured our leader."

"Who is that?" she asked, still trying to fight the idea that Hatter was not her friend.

"Gryphon. Hatter has him locked up somewhere. The trouble is, that room is only accessible at a certain time. Other times it just... disappears."

"But... Hatter? He was my friend," she whispered.

"He was friend to many; most of all to these two. Now look at them."

Faith looked down at the corpse sadly. "Dormy..." she whispered, feeling the tears well up.

"Don't pity him," Cat said quietly. "His suffering ended long ago. If you must pity someone, Faith, pity the ones that live in this hellhole, whether they are aware of it or not. Pity the Hare. He is awake, but has been dying inside for a very long time. And he feels everything."

"What is there to feel?" she asked dazedly, looking at his prostrate form. Cat walked closer to her and looked into her face.

"Fear, anger, confusion... hopelessness. He begs to die, Faith, but there is no one to relieve him from life. No one can hear his voice, but it is plain if you look into his eyes. Now, come with me."

Faith turned, reluctant to leave. Quickly, she bent over the Hare. "There's still hope left," she whispered, and then quickly followed Cat.

As she turned to go, however, her gaze flew about the room, until a flash of red caught her eye. There was writing on the wall; writing that looked like blood, but could not have been anything more than red paint. "You're next," it said.

The next room had automatons by the hundreds, and a machine that made them. It also contained many mad children, lined up on a conveyor belt that led to the machine. A child went in, and a machine came out. Faith gasped.

"The automatons are all asleep," Cat assured her. "But they are being packaged to be sent to the Red Queen."

"How do you know all this?" she asked quietly.

"I have seen it before, while spying on Hatter." He shrugged.

"Can't we do something? Is there any way to destroy the machine?" Cat looked at her thoughtfully.

"I suppose."

"And all these sleeping... automatons, as you call them."

"Well, have you thought of a better name?" She shook her head, embarrassed.

"I just call them 'things', actually. Anyway; can they be destroyed?" Cat nodded.

Faith smiled. "How?"

"How am I supposed to know? You're the brains behind this little venture." He hopped up onto the machine and started looking around. Faith looked as well, and found a plug with a few wires leading from it. She followed it, and was rewarded with the knowledge that it was the plug that led to the machine.

"Cat... I think we've found something."

"Oh?" he asked, jumping down. She held up the cord.

"This."

Cat looked interested. "And what do you intend to do with it?"

"I'm going to cut it, of course."

Cat looked annoyed. "That's all? He'll just be able to reattach it with a bit of twisting."

"Not if it's too short," she said, and took out the knife. "Unplug it, if you can? I don't much care for electrocution."

He nodded grumpily and padded over to the plug, and began struggling with it. Faith waited for him to finish, back to him, and wondered what was taking so long. She finally turned in impatience and saw that he'd got himself entangled in it, and was viciously biting and scratching at it to get it off. She would have laughed if he hadn't looked so ticked.

"Shall I get it instead?" she asked, struggling to maintain her composure. She bent over him and started untangling the cord. "Keep still!" she scolded, after one too many scratches.

"Yes, do get it instead... And please do think about who you're asking the next time you require something that involves opposable thumbs," he snapped, and the moment he was disentangled, leapt up to the machine to sulk, tail twitching impatiently. Faith, meanwhile, unplugged it, and pulled the wire taut. That way, she could understand why Hatter could always just reattach it- there was at least three feet of extra cord. She sliced it, and walked eight paces, and cut it again. "Now what?" Cat's voice sounded.

Faith slid the wires out of the cord and wrapped them around a sleeping automaton's neck. "Now I destroy it with the rest of the automatons here," she said simply.

"You're going to be exhausted if you use the ice wand on all of these," he warned. She sighed, thinking. "You're right. But what shall I do?"

She walked over next to him and sat down. The very next moment, she was up with a yelp of pain. Cat's head snapped over, and he looked at her in curiosity and some alarm. She bent back, wincing, and felt the floor where her bum had been, and felt something very sharp. It was a jack; like the one in the game. She sat down again, and shot back up, and felt the floor again. Once more, she turned up with a jack - but this one was a bit far away for her to have sat on it.

Realisation then dawned, and she reached upwards, and pulled the third from her rear. Cat winced, thinking about how close to those things his tail had been. Faith, meanwhile, had ideas. "I wonder what these things do?" she said presently.

"Experiment... the jacks are quite useful. But don't ever play alone."

She tossed them into the air, and they began bouncing around the room, wreaking havoc wherever they went. Bang! One pummelled an automaton's chest. Crack! Another crashed into a glass dial. Faith watched them zoom around with relief, and took cover with Cat behind the machine. "I suppose we just let them do their work," she whispered.

He nodded, impressed. "I hope they're worth the price of a sore arse?"

She scowled briefly, but nodded. "Certainly."

It was somewhat later in the evening when Hatter decided to check on his automatons' progress. His cameras had shorted out sometime in the early afternoon... sometime after Faith had begun the maze. He imagined a great battle fought between the woefully outmatched Faith and his automatons. He imagined coming to the room to see bits and pieces of little Faith strewn out among the room, and his automatons standing dutifully by. There would be maybe a missing piece or two on a few of them; he was willing to make that exception. But they were invincible, and she was definitely not.

He reached the workroom, beaming as he opened the door. That smile immediately melted away when he saw the destruction. Little bits of his automatons lay carelessly about the room - not one of them stood. His cane dropped out of his hand, clattering onto the floor. Over fifty of his creations had been in that room. Now there were hundreds of thousands of pieces. He felt the rage boiling up inside of him, close to the breaking point... that came when he saw his machine. It too, was battered, though maybe still workable. He staggered closer, and tried to plug it in. Just that little reassurance, that lingering prayer that Faith was, in fact, as dumb as he'd thought she was...

The cord was still there. Thank the Queen. He plugged it in, waiting expectantly for the hum, that lifegiver. None came. Panicking, he unplugged it and tried again. "No, no!" he yelled, and frantically jerked it up to check it. The cord was there, yes. But two tiny slits... the wires!! He threw it down and fell, not having his cane to support him. Still, he crawled over to it, black rage consuming him. "The bitch, that nasty little girl!" he hissed. "She'll regret this... she'll regret crossing me LIKE THIS! AAAARRRGGHH!!"

He gripped the handle of his cane, until his green knuckles shone white. It slipped on a coil, and he fell to the ground again. He threw himself up, feeling the maddening strength ripping through him. Faith was going to die.

Meanwhile, the object of his loathing dashed through the maze, with Rabbit (reluctantly) guiding her. He seemed to know where he was going, and besides, Cat was there as well, giving additional pointers. She slid down a flight of stairs, almost falling, catching, and dashing once again. "Why are we-" pant, pant, "going so fast?"

"Hatter is mad," Cat said in a fairly singsong voice.

"I know that," she protested.

"No," Rabbit said, glancing briefly behind him. "Hatter is not mad. He's livid."

He turned a corner abruptly, and Faith nearly fell over herself in following. As such, her feet flew out from under her, and she landed on her side with a thump. Cat nudged her up, and the three were off again. There wasn't even time to think, as Rabbit was constantly turning in unexpected places.

"Rabbit!" Cat called sharply. "We're going the wrong way!"

"Are we?" Rabbit appeared a little dazed. "How so?"

"We should have gone left about three turns ago. At this rate, we'll be at the Trap two turns from here."

"But I had thought he moved it," Rabbit protested.

"He did," Cat snapped. "Over here."

"Oh. Perhaps you should lead for now, Cat. I'm getting rather confused here."

The entire place shone with an evil red light. From windows up above, moonlight and starlight shone through faintly, and from the ceiling, yellow and green lights played across the mirrors and floor, giving everything a surreal, living... though almost dead appearance. The lights playing across the walls gave it the effect that the surfaces themselves were always changing; always moving. Faith just wanted to get out of there. Cat then took the lead, and soon they were off again.

Hatter stormed to his secret workshop. Nobody knew about it - not the Queen, not Samien... not even Maggot knew about it. Here was where he kept his best work- his very best. He hurried down the spiral stairs, until he reached a great set of double doors. They were wood, though grimy, and had fungi growing on the sides and hinges. They were tall, and locked by a huge chain and padlock that hung from the long handles. Hatter took the key and unlocked the doors, throwing them open.

Four automatons stood there- but they were not just the ordinary, boring types. In place of swinging and slicing arms, they had an almost Swiss army knife variation of weapons: chainsaws, an old-fashioned spiked mace and chain, heavy club and giant scissors. In addition to steam vents, they had a flamethrower implanted near their middle. And in place of grenades, they had homing rockets. He grinned maniacally.

"I have an assignment for you all! I want you to hunt down Faith, and KILL her!"

They filed out, each one raising a various weapon, their 'eyes' gleaming red. Hatter watched them go, laughing evilly to himself.