Hatter checked his superautomatons' progress - and was thoroughly less than thrilled. Faith had already beaten one; the second was malfunctioning... and destroying the third! He ground his teeth and clenched the head of his cane until it snapped. He stared at it with disdain for a moment, and reached for a switch that would turn them off for the time being. The fourth was conveniently hidden, but he would take no chances of her beating it, too.
"Seems you underestimated little Faith," Maggot said from behind. The smirk was all too evident in his voice. "I expected more from you than a room full of scrap metal and a few little machines that do nil."
Hatter glared at him. "Speak one more word about my creations, and I swear that you will be the one I test the next batch on!"
"What next batch?" Maggot was immediately interested. "Do tell me that you've actually concocted something better than these layabouts."
"As a matter of fact, I have," Hatter said sniffily. "I haven't discovered their full capabilities, but I can assure you, they're quite deadly."
"Then... why don't you test them on her? After all... you don't know what they're capable of."
Hatter leaned forward, interested.
"After all... you know them better than anyone, am I right? These deadly little toys of yours." Hatter nodded slowly. "And if you don't know just what they can do..." he let the sentence trail off. Hatter grinned.
"True," he said thoughtfully. "Very true."
"So let them loose. Let them do their worst," Maggot purred.
"Ah. General. How good of you to come." Hatter appeared far from pleased, though. Maggot snorted in contempt.
"I love having warm welcomes like this," Samien said dryly. "They make me feel so... fuzzy inside." There was silence.
"What do you want?" Maggot finally snapped.
"The Queen wants to know your progress with Faith, Hatter. But it doesn't seem to be going too well." He grinned, but there was no good feelings conveyed in it.
"It's going along fine," Hatter snarled.
"Tell that to all of your scrap metal," Samien retorted. "I'm sure that they would beg to differ, at least if they had brains."
"They have brains," Hatter spat. "Perfect, computerized brains. Nothing is superior to them!"
"Nothing but a malnourished shorty with some toys."
Hatter's hand crashed down onto the table. "SAMIEN!! I DEMAND THAT YOU LEAVE THIS INSTANT!!"
Samien laughed. "I would, but I have one thing I must say." He turned to Maggot. "You have quite a bit of explaining to do. In Dementia, a contingent of over 300 of my card guards was caught in a tunnel, and subsequently drowned in the acid water in the mines," he said grimly. "Dementia is your province, and the Queen is very angry that you left it unattended."
Maggot had gone white, even whiter than his usual shade of pale; if that was possible. "HOW??"
"Apparently, someone let her get away alive, with that information in her head. It was later sent to whatever rebels may be in Dementia, and they trapped the card guards. Then the dams broke and water poured into the only escape route. They ALL drowned." He gave a quick bow, and vanished through a quickly summoned portal.
"I-HATE-him." Maggot was trembling in his rage.
"As do I," Hatter said bitterly. Maggot looked up at this.
"Then we can do away with him," he said, giving the equally furious Hatter a sly, sidelong glance. "We can figure out a how, and a when."
"I would..." Hatter said, thinking. "But I hate Faith more - she's the one that gave him reason to ridicule my precious automatons in the first place. But after she is done away with... definitely."
"Then we must be the ones to do away with her," Maggot said determinedly. "For if it is Samien, then we will certainly be executed, and if it is none of us-"
"Then we still have a higher risk of retribution," Hatter finished. "I'm not stupid, you know." Maggot nodded.
"In the meantime," he shuddered nervously, "I have some explanations to make."
Rabbit grabbed Faith's sleeve. "I have searched all over this maze for you!" She jumped, startled, but glad for the renewed company. He hopped around until he finally turned to her. "Where's Cheshire?"
She shrugged. "We were attacked," she explained. "I told him to get away." Rabbit nodded in understanding.
"Another of those..?"
"Two more," she said, scowling. "One of them short-circuited and began attacking the other. Then they just sort of... slumped."
"Hatter must have shut off the power then," Rabbit said cheerfully. "That should mean that we're safe for the time being, at least from them."
"How can you be cheerful here?" Faith asked, looking around. As the corridors became more twisted, more winding, the atmosphere became more and more close, more oppressive. "I don't think that I could smile now if I tried."
"Don't try to show an emotion your heart is not feeling, Faith," he chastised gently. She smiled at that.
Their cheerfulness was then broken by Cat's arrival and the news that came with it. "The power is back on," he said grimly. "The other two have been taken away, it seems... but there may be more, and not only them, besides."
Faith shuddered. "I just want to get out of here," she groaned. "Are we nearly at the end?" Cat and Rabbit exchanged guilty glances with each other, then quickly turned away. "What?" she asked. An exchange had been there, she knew. It didn't bode well. "Cat, Rabbit, what?"
"We don't know," Rabbit finally said. "Hatter never specified a definite end."
"But doesn't he have a secret entrance somewhere?"
"Hence the word 'secret'," Cat purred dryly. He walked around, examining everything. His brow furrowed with concern. "This part is unfamiliar to me," he confessed.
"It's recent," Rabbit said. He hopped around. "Is there no end??"
Cat looked up suddenly, ears erect and alert. "Whatever we do, we must do it now, and fast," he said. "I hear something."
Rabbit apparently heard it too. He started shaking, and got very fidgety. "Agreed." He turned and picked a direction, and started running. "Follow me!" he called back.
They had been going aimlessly for a while, when Cat called for Faith to rest. She agreed, and sat down against a mirror. He drew Rabbit aside. "What have you discovered from Caterpillar?"
"I found what that serum did to Faith."
"What did it do?" Cat was genuinely worried, and when that happened, he got very snappish.
"Faith is now apparent to the Real World, although..."
"In a coma?" Cat asked. Rabbit nodded, and looked suspiciously at Cat. Cat didn't return it. "Rabbit, I've been keeping something from you."
"What? Why?"
Cat hung his head slightly, but raised his eyes slightly to meet Rabbit's now down-turned ones. "To spare you some worry, at least. But that is not possible now. Reynald has been working with hypnotic drugs the last few weeks since she vanished." Rabbit's head shot up.
"What exactly are you saying?"
"I'm saying that he's going to try and wake her up."
"Oh dear Alice," Rabbit said, in a high-pitched squeal. Faith looked up confusedly, but neither acknowledged her, so she put her head back down to her chest. "I must alert Caterpillar... oh, there is NO TIME NOW!!"
Cat nodded. "Tell him," he said. "And hurry."
"They are gathering strength, you know. They are preparing for offence."
"They are offensive enough individually, without being in one big group."
"What shall we do? They are not as weak as they once were. The Cheshire Cat and the Caterpillar are strong leaders."
"I know that! But our spy will aid us greatly as well. What do we have to worry about with it on our side? I will set to creating an adequate offence... for dealing with the others."
"What of Faith?"
"Don't worry," Hatter's voice sounded. "The Queen will take care of her... very shortly."
Faith hesitated in front of a mirror. All of the others had twisted her into sick, grotesque shapes and she had no real idea of what purpose they served anymore. Then again, they confused her; she couldn't figure out what was left or right, or any direction when she looked into one. They made her dizzy. Several times she caught sight of one of those awful automatons reflected in the glass, but when she turned to face it or threw her knife, there was nothing. Sometimes she ran into one anyway, but some of them were weak.
She knew that Cat and Rabbit were getting awfully worried; more so than usual. Rabbit was in more of a hurry, and he rushed to guide her through the maze of mirrors, although he wasn't always certain of where he was going. She had only just lost him again now. Cat was awfully worried, and he frequently snapped at her to hurry for reasons she didn't know - and he wasn't telling.
Since that little talk of theirs, neither of them had really looked at or talked to her. In fact, it seemed as though they were preparing for her imminent departure. But when she asked them about it, they snapped at her not to ask questions at that point, and sped up. It was exhausting.
Something reflecting in a mirror caught her eye. It was not in the dark, red tones that the rest of Hatter's "Funhouse" was in. It was sterile, white, and people crowded in it. Cat and Rabbit were gone. Suddenly, strangely afraid, she looked closer. The people were surrounding a bed, and a small figure rested on it, unmoving. Another figure stalked around the room, near the door.
"This, ladies and gentlemen," Reynald began, "is the most advanced technique of hypnosis known to modern psychologists today."
Halden waited pensively near the door, trying not to watch. Faith had come back abruptly, comatose, in her room. Her hair was dishevelled and all different lengths - as though she'd been fighting with a pair of scissors. She'd been bruised, bloody, and her clothes had been torn. But she'd been strangely fit - as though she'd spent most of her time gone running, or doing some other type of athletics. She'd given Lucy quite the scare. Now, she was tiny in the hospital bed, surrounded by all of these people, and the monitoring machines. He didn't want to watch. But he forced himself, thinking, crazily, that if he kept his eyes on her, nothing would happen.
Reynald fiddled with his watch, so that the hands spun alarmingly fast. A bright red second hand twirled in the opposite direction that it was supposed to. He held it up to the doctors. "After I administer the medication, and perform this simple act of "buffoonery," as one of my... colleagues called it, Faith Maras will be completely cured." He gave Halden a rather nasty sidelong glare.
Cat hissed from atop a counter, and Reynald turned to get the medications. Instead, he found a strange, disgusting... talking cat with a wide grin staring him in the eye - and glaring menacingly. "Do not do this if you value your sanity," Cat hissed. "Faith means a great deal to us and we will not have you destroy her. She belongs to Wonderland, just as Alice did! Alice, the one your ancestor ruined back in the 1800s."
"I don't believe in you," Reynald whispered back. Cat hissed at him again and placed a muddy, bloody paw on the lapel of his lab coat, raking it down, making a small tear in the fabric.
"You don't need to." Somewhat shaken, Reynald turned back, two syringes in hand.
"Now, as you can see, I am about to insert the fist syringe directly into the blood vessel. This is to lessen the shock that the second brings, which I will administer three minutes afterwards, and after less than five minutes the medic-"
"Pardon me, Doctor," Halden interrupted. Reynald nodded briefly, and only Halden caught the vicious glance. "Wouldn't these drugs that you're using cause addiction, or some other negative consequence? There seems to be somewhat high concentrations of barbiturates and Benzodiazepines inside. If you use them on a patient that has been 'seeing things,' then wouldn't hallucinogens of any kind be bad for her?" There was a murmur of assent from the other doctors.
"I am afraid that you are misinformed, Doctor," Reynald said coolly. "There are a few of them, I'll grant that, but not only are they vital to the formula, they are nowhere near the levels at which you seem to be talking about. They will not cause addiction."
Once again, he lowered the first syringe into her arm. Halden, trying a last-ditch attempt at getting Reynald thrown out, stepped beside him. He had a quick excuse that it was only to check on her vital signs. Once he was close enough to Reynald, he pretended to only just notice the stain and tears on his coat and said,
"Forgive me, but why is there a paw print on your coat? This is a sanitary area, and you're working with instruments that are supposed to be especially so." Reynald drew the now-empty syringe out, stood without a word, put the syringe down, tore off the lab coat and thrust it at Halden, who let it fall to the floor.
"Get me a new one," he told an orderly. In the meantime, Cat sat on Faith's chest protectively, almost daring Reynald to come closer. As Reynald drew near, be belted out with an impromptu version of "The Walrus and the Carpenter," almost knocking Reynald back and startling his colleagues no small degree. Struggling to keep a calm expression, one of the doctors stared at him, with an expression of bewilderment and something along the lines of disdain.
"Why, Doctor Reynald. I didn't know you... sang," she said at last. Reynald turned to her apologetically.
"I really have to see about getting the speakers here fixed," he finally strangled out. She nodded sceptically but did not press him.
He approached Faith again, and Cat bared his claws, forgetting that he was sitting on someone. He looked down for half a second, then raised a bleeding claw to Reynald, menacing him. Reynald swung the overhead light, and it caught Cat in the shoulder. He fell off of Faith and swore to make Reynald's life miserable from that moment on. The moment Reynald had the second lab coat on, he bent over Faith, who watched herself through the mirror, not fully aware of what was happening. She felt pricks in her chest, and saw a little blood, and knew that Cat had tried to protect her.
Then she saw the second syringe go into her arm and felt a pricking there, and she started pounding on the mirror, screaming. She heard Jeremy's voice; loud at first, but getting quieter as the ticking the endless ticking filled her head. "Faith, you've got to fight this. You promised that you would save Wonderland, you promised that you would get better. This isn't better. Faith! Listen!"
She knew what was happening, deep in the back of her mind, and she was frantically trying to fight the numbing effects. "Faith!" she shouted. Finally she saw Halden and Cat. "Dr. Halden! Cat! Don't let him do this!" Her voice rose, and her throat was sore from shouting. "Reynald, don't touch her!"
"FAITH!!" Jeremy's voice screamed. She heard the laughing of Maggot and Jeremy's yelling and that ticking... make the ticking go away!
On the other side of the mirror, Faith's eyes opened, and stared blankly at the ceiling. Reynald instructed an orderly to sit her up. Cat turned to Halden. "She's one of us," he hissed. "We tried to reach Alice, and now we tried to protect her and save her, but people like you or him wouldn't let us."
"It's not my fault." Halden told him. Cat glared at him with utmost hatred and refused to listen.
In the meantime, Reynald started swinging the watch, back and forth. On all of the mirrors around her, Faith saw the watch, swinging. Her vision grew hazy, and she soon found herself floating, but still the watch was clear, hands twirling, pulling her in. "FAITH!!" Jeremy appeared in front of her, trying to grab on, but just passing through. The hands of the watch grabbed her and held on, pulling her everywhere, but mostly in. Her eyes closed as a void appeared, sucking everything in its path. Its unrelenting force grabbed at her prone form, and she felt herself being carried away, yet offered no resistance. "FAAIITH!!"
The pendulum swung around in her head, the second hand went round and round and she felt herself growing dizzy.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Seems you underestimated little Faith," Maggot said from behind. The smirk was all too evident in his voice. "I expected more from you than a room full of scrap metal and a few little machines that do nil."
Hatter glared at him. "Speak one more word about my creations, and I swear that you will be the one I test the next batch on!"
"What next batch?" Maggot was immediately interested. "Do tell me that you've actually concocted something better than these layabouts."
"As a matter of fact, I have," Hatter said sniffily. "I haven't discovered their full capabilities, but I can assure you, they're quite deadly."
"Then... why don't you test them on her? After all... you don't know what they're capable of."
Hatter leaned forward, interested.
"After all... you know them better than anyone, am I right? These deadly little toys of yours." Hatter nodded slowly. "And if you don't know just what they can do..." he let the sentence trail off. Hatter grinned.
"True," he said thoughtfully. "Very true."
"So let them loose. Let them do their worst," Maggot purred.
"Ah. General. How good of you to come." Hatter appeared far from pleased, though. Maggot snorted in contempt.
"I love having warm welcomes like this," Samien said dryly. "They make me feel so... fuzzy inside." There was silence.
"What do you want?" Maggot finally snapped.
"The Queen wants to know your progress with Faith, Hatter. But it doesn't seem to be going too well." He grinned, but there was no good feelings conveyed in it.
"It's going along fine," Hatter snarled.
"Tell that to all of your scrap metal," Samien retorted. "I'm sure that they would beg to differ, at least if they had brains."
"They have brains," Hatter spat. "Perfect, computerized brains. Nothing is superior to them!"
"Nothing but a malnourished shorty with some toys."
Hatter's hand crashed down onto the table. "SAMIEN!! I DEMAND THAT YOU LEAVE THIS INSTANT!!"
Samien laughed. "I would, but I have one thing I must say." He turned to Maggot. "You have quite a bit of explaining to do. In Dementia, a contingent of over 300 of my card guards was caught in a tunnel, and subsequently drowned in the acid water in the mines," he said grimly. "Dementia is your province, and the Queen is very angry that you left it unattended."
Maggot had gone white, even whiter than his usual shade of pale; if that was possible. "HOW??"
"Apparently, someone let her get away alive, with that information in her head. It was later sent to whatever rebels may be in Dementia, and they trapped the card guards. Then the dams broke and water poured into the only escape route. They ALL drowned." He gave a quick bow, and vanished through a quickly summoned portal.
"I-HATE-him." Maggot was trembling in his rage.
"As do I," Hatter said bitterly. Maggot looked up at this.
"Then we can do away with him," he said, giving the equally furious Hatter a sly, sidelong glance. "We can figure out a how, and a when."
"I would..." Hatter said, thinking. "But I hate Faith more - she's the one that gave him reason to ridicule my precious automatons in the first place. But after she is done away with... definitely."
"Then we must be the ones to do away with her," Maggot said determinedly. "For if it is Samien, then we will certainly be executed, and if it is none of us-"
"Then we still have a higher risk of retribution," Hatter finished. "I'm not stupid, you know." Maggot nodded.
"In the meantime," he shuddered nervously, "I have some explanations to make."
Rabbit grabbed Faith's sleeve. "I have searched all over this maze for you!" She jumped, startled, but glad for the renewed company. He hopped around until he finally turned to her. "Where's Cheshire?"
She shrugged. "We were attacked," she explained. "I told him to get away." Rabbit nodded in understanding.
"Another of those..?"
"Two more," she said, scowling. "One of them short-circuited and began attacking the other. Then they just sort of... slumped."
"Hatter must have shut off the power then," Rabbit said cheerfully. "That should mean that we're safe for the time being, at least from them."
"How can you be cheerful here?" Faith asked, looking around. As the corridors became more twisted, more winding, the atmosphere became more and more close, more oppressive. "I don't think that I could smile now if I tried."
"Don't try to show an emotion your heart is not feeling, Faith," he chastised gently. She smiled at that.
Their cheerfulness was then broken by Cat's arrival and the news that came with it. "The power is back on," he said grimly. "The other two have been taken away, it seems... but there may be more, and not only them, besides."
Faith shuddered. "I just want to get out of here," she groaned. "Are we nearly at the end?" Cat and Rabbit exchanged guilty glances with each other, then quickly turned away. "What?" she asked. An exchange had been there, she knew. It didn't bode well. "Cat, Rabbit, what?"
"We don't know," Rabbit finally said. "Hatter never specified a definite end."
"But doesn't he have a secret entrance somewhere?"
"Hence the word 'secret'," Cat purred dryly. He walked around, examining everything. His brow furrowed with concern. "This part is unfamiliar to me," he confessed.
"It's recent," Rabbit said. He hopped around. "Is there no end??"
Cat looked up suddenly, ears erect and alert. "Whatever we do, we must do it now, and fast," he said. "I hear something."
Rabbit apparently heard it too. He started shaking, and got very fidgety. "Agreed." He turned and picked a direction, and started running. "Follow me!" he called back.
They had been going aimlessly for a while, when Cat called for Faith to rest. She agreed, and sat down against a mirror. He drew Rabbit aside. "What have you discovered from Caterpillar?"
"I found what that serum did to Faith."
"What did it do?" Cat was genuinely worried, and when that happened, he got very snappish.
"Faith is now apparent to the Real World, although..."
"In a coma?" Cat asked. Rabbit nodded, and looked suspiciously at Cat. Cat didn't return it. "Rabbit, I've been keeping something from you."
"What? Why?"
Cat hung his head slightly, but raised his eyes slightly to meet Rabbit's now down-turned ones. "To spare you some worry, at least. But that is not possible now. Reynald has been working with hypnotic drugs the last few weeks since she vanished." Rabbit's head shot up.
"What exactly are you saying?"
"I'm saying that he's going to try and wake her up."
"Oh dear Alice," Rabbit said, in a high-pitched squeal. Faith looked up confusedly, but neither acknowledged her, so she put her head back down to her chest. "I must alert Caterpillar... oh, there is NO TIME NOW!!"
Cat nodded. "Tell him," he said. "And hurry."
"They are gathering strength, you know. They are preparing for offence."
"They are offensive enough individually, without being in one big group."
"What shall we do? They are not as weak as they once were. The Cheshire Cat and the Caterpillar are strong leaders."
"I know that! But our spy will aid us greatly as well. What do we have to worry about with it on our side? I will set to creating an adequate offence... for dealing with the others."
"What of Faith?"
"Don't worry," Hatter's voice sounded. "The Queen will take care of her... very shortly."
Faith hesitated in front of a mirror. All of the others had twisted her into sick, grotesque shapes and she had no real idea of what purpose they served anymore. Then again, they confused her; she couldn't figure out what was left or right, or any direction when she looked into one. They made her dizzy. Several times she caught sight of one of those awful automatons reflected in the glass, but when she turned to face it or threw her knife, there was nothing. Sometimes she ran into one anyway, but some of them were weak.
She knew that Cat and Rabbit were getting awfully worried; more so than usual. Rabbit was in more of a hurry, and he rushed to guide her through the maze of mirrors, although he wasn't always certain of where he was going. She had only just lost him again now. Cat was awfully worried, and he frequently snapped at her to hurry for reasons she didn't know - and he wasn't telling.
Since that little talk of theirs, neither of them had really looked at or talked to her. In fact, it seemed as though they were preparing for her imminent departure. But when she asked them about it, they snapped at her not to ask questions at that point, and sped up. It was exhausting.
Something reflecting in a mirror caught her eye. It was not in the dark, red tones that the rest of Hatter's "Funhouse" was in. It was sterile, white, and people crowded in it. Cat and Rabbit were gone. Suddenly, strangely afraid, she looked closer. The people were surrounding a bed, and a small figure rested on it, unmoving. Another figure stalked around the room, near the door.
"This, ladies and gentlemen," Reynald began, "is the most advanced technique of hypnosis known to modern psychologists today."
Halden waited pensively near the door, trying not to watch. Faith had come back abruptly, comatose, in her room. Her hair was dishevelled and all different lengths - as though she'd been fighting with a pair of scissors. She'd been bruised, bloody, and her clothes had been torn. But she'd been strangely fit - as though she'd spent most of her time gone running, or doing some other type of athletics. She'd given Lucy quite the scare. Now, she was tiny in the hospital bed, surrounded by all of these people, and the monitoring machines. He didn't want to watch. But he forced himself, thinking, crazily, that if he kept his eyes on her, nothing would happen.
Reynald fiddled with his watch, so that the hands spun alarmingly fast. A bright red second hand twirled in the opposite direction that it was supposed to. He held it up to the doctors. "After I administer the medication, and perform this simple act of "buffoonery," as one of my... colleagues called it, Faith Maras will be completely cured." He gave Halden a rather nasty sidelong glare.
Cat hissed from atop a counter, and Reynald turned to get the medications. Instead, he found a strange, disgusting... talking cat with a wide grin staring him in the eye - and glaring menacingly. "Do not do this if you value your sanity," Cat hissed. "Faith means a great deal to us and we will not have you destroy her. She belongs to Wonderland, just as Alice did! Alice, the one your ancestor ruined back in the 1800s."
"I don't believe in you," Reynald whispered back. Cat hissed at him again and placed a muddy, bloody paw on the lapel of his lab coat, raking it down, making a small tear in the fabric.
"You don't need to." Somewhat shaken, Reynald turned back, two syringes in hand.
"Now, as you can see, I am about to insert the fist syringe directly into the blood vessel. This is to lessen the shock that the second brings, which I will administer three minutes afterwards, and after less than five minutes the medic-"
"Pardon me, Doctor," Halden interrupted. Reynald nodded briefly, and only Halden caught the vicious glance. "Wouldn't these drugs that you're using cause addiction, or some other negative consequence? There seems to be somewhat high concentrations of barbiturates and Benzodiazepines inside. If you use them on a patient that has been 'seeing things,' then wouldn't hallucinogens of any kind be bad for her?" There was a murmur of assent from the other doctors.
"I am afraid that you are misinformed, Doctor," Reynald said coolly. "There are a few of them, I'll grant that, but not only are they vital to the formula, they are nowhere near the levels at which you seem to be talking about. They will not cause addiction."
Once again, he lowered the first syringe into her arm. Halden, trying a last-ditch attempt at getting Reynald thrown out, stepped beside him. He had a quick excuse that it was only to check on her vital signs. Once he was close enough to Reynald, he pretended to only just notice the stain and tears on his coat and said,
"Forgive me, but why is there a paw print on your coat? This is a sanitary area, and you're working with instruments that are supposed to be especially so." Reynald drew the now-empty syringe out, stood without a word, put the syringe down, tore off the lab coat and thrust it at Halden, who let it fall to the floor.
"Get me a new one," he told an orderly. In the meantime, Cat sat on Faith's chest protectively, almost daring Reynald to come closer. As Reynald drew near, be belted out with an impromptu version of "The Walrus and the Carpenter," almost knocking Reynald back and startling his colleagues no small degree. Struggling to keep a calm expression, one of the doctors stared at him, with an expression of bewilderment and something along the lines of disdain.
"Why, Doctor Reynald. I didn't know you... sang," she said at last. Reynald turned to her apologetically.
"I really have to see about getting the speakers here fixed," he finally strangled out. She nodded sceptically but did not press him.
He approached Faith again, and Cat bared his claws, forgetting that he was sitting on someone. He looked down for half a second, then raised a bleeding claw to Reynald, menacing him. Reynald swung the overhead light, and it caught Cat in the shoulder. He fell off of Faith and swore to make Reynald's life miserable from that moment on. The moment Reynald had the second lab coat on, he bent over Faith, who watched herself through the mirror, not fully aware of what was happening. She felt pricks in her chest, and saw a little blood, and knew that Cat had tried to protect her.
Then she saw the second syringe go into her arm and felt a pricking there, and she started pounding on the mirror, screaming. She heard Jeremy's voice; loud at first, but getting quieter as the ticking the endless ticking filled her head. "Faith, you've got to fight this. You promised that you would save Wonderland, you promised that you would get better. This isn't better. Faith! Listen!"
She knew what was happening, deep in the back of her mind, and she was frantically trying to fight the numbing effects. "Faith!" she shouted. Finally she saw Halden and Cat. "Dr. Halden! Cat! Don't let him do this!" Her voice rose, and her throat was sore from shouting. "Reynald, don't touch her!"
"FAITH!!" Jeremy's voice screamed. She heard the laughing of Maggot and Jeremy's yelling and that ticking... make the ticking go away!
On the other side of the mirror, Faith's eyes opened, and stared blankly at the ceiling. Reynald instructed an orderly to sit her up. Cat turned to Halden. "She's one of us," he hissed. "We tried to reach Alice, and now we tried to protect her and save her, but people like you or him wouldn't let us."
"It's not my fault." Halden told him. Cat glared at him with utmost hatred and refused to listen.
In the meantime, Reynald started swinging the watch, back and forth. On all of the mirrors around her, Faith saw the watch, swinging. Her vision grew hazy, and she soon found herself floating, but still the watch was clear, hands twirling, pulling her in. "FAITH!!" Jeremy appeared in front of her, trying to grab on, but just passing through. The hands of the watch grabbed her and held on, pulling her everywhere, but mostly in. Her eyes closed as a void appeared, sucking everything in its path. Its unrelenting force grabbed at her prone form, and she felt herself being carried away, yet offered no resistance. "FAAIITH!!"
The pendulum swung around in her head, the second hand went round and round and she felt herself growing dizzy.
"What's going on?" she asked.