Okay, as nice as it was in Hatter's head, back to Alice, limping her way through the casino.

Alice stumbled her way down the stairs from the roof, bursting out of the door at the bottom and nearly falling on her face. A quick glance around showed her the lift up to the Royal airship and the familiar bank of elevators. Good, at least she knew where she was. Better, it gave her an idea of where to go. Caterpillar would have all the valuable information the Queen would need to snuff out the Resistance once and for all. The logical place for him was the Truth Room. She headed off that way.

The halls of the casino were strangely deserted, no diamond workers milled about for her to hide from. It was convenient, but disconcerting. Where was everyone? Even Shaquella wasn't at her desk when the girl reached it. A sparkle just at the corner of her vision caught Alice's attention. By a row of picture windows, the receptionist stood staring out at the grounds. The woman suddenly turned and spotted her. The girl tensed, ready for fight or flight, but Shaquella looked absolutely horrified.

"What's happening?" she asked, her voice small and frightened. Alice blinked, shaking her head. The dark-skinned diamond looked back out the window. Whatever was out there was terrifying her and if it was bringing that reaction out of one of the casino's own workers, it was something worth having a peek at, so far as the oyster was concerned. She limped over to the window and peered out.

"Holy…" she breathed. Hundreds of suits of armor glinted in the sunlight. Infantry, rows upon rows of them. Every sword, every ax, every piece of armor that had been contained within the cathedral in the Kingdom of the Knights was now on the sloping hills surrounding the Happy Hearts Casino. This would have been an awesome enough sight in and of itself, but what made Alice's eyes grow wide, what made Shaquella shake in her bright red go-go boots, were the soldiers themselves. The great Knights of the realm had shaken off their burial shrouds for fiercer garb, bony fingers now clasped around the hilts of their longswords in abandonment of wilted funeral flowers. And there, on his noble steed, shining brightly even in his much patched armor, was the White Knight himself.

"Way to go, Charlie," Alice whispered. Shaquella grabbed her arm.

"What do I do?" The girl pulled the acrylic-clawed hand from her limb and leveled a serious gaze on its owner.

"Run," she told the frightened woman. "Get the Hell out of here before it's too late."

She didn't have to be told twice. The receptionist raced off down the corridor, her red heels clacking loudly on the tile floor. Alice didn't stay to watch her leave. She kissed her hand and pressed it to the glass, silently wishing Charlie good luck, then made her way towards the casino room. Through there and down the hall, to the left was the Truth Room and, hopefully, Caterpillar. He would know where Jack was being kept and how to get him out. He must.

Her progress wasn't fast enough in her opinion, the damned ankle and her ribs slowing her down dramatically. It wasn't so bad when she was just trying to get to where she was going and keep out of sight.

"Hey! You!" However, that was only so long as she wasn't spotted.

"Shit!"

"Stop!" Alice pushed herself as hard as she could, fancying she could feel the edges of her cracked ribs grinding against each other with each painful stride. The group of Suits that had caught sight of her would catch up in seconds, but the doors of the casino room were so close. If she could just reach them. The fates were on her side. The girl only made a small sound of agony as she wrenched the heavy door open, leaning heavily on it to make the thing close faster. Now, what? There was no way to lock it. No where in the room to hide. She had to think fast.

There! Beside the entrance stood a set of velvet ropes. She quickly unscrewed the metal pole and slapped it against the door, sliding it down to bar the twin vertical handles on the double doors. No idea how long it would hold though. She spun back to the room, starting for the opposite door. The fastest way that she could see, since the area was crowded with catatonic oysters, was across the stage. She ran up the stairs behind the diamond backdrop and shoved her way between the dancers, intent on hopping off the far end. Maybe not hopping, given the state of her, but maybe sitting and scooting off the side.

"Hey!"

"Shit!" Turns out the fates might not have been on her side after all. Two Aces stood in the middle of the room, a security detail that had not been there before. They raised their guns, pointed directly at Alice. She screeched to a halt. Damn it all to Hell!

"Get down from there," one of the men ordered, motioning her off the stage with his weapon. The showgirls scattered like roaches, leaving her alone on the platform. Her mind raced as she tried to calculate the odds of knocking the gun out of his hands. Pretty good. Getting the second Ace disarmed before he shot her? Not so good. Really bad actually. She stepped to the edge of the stage and, taking a fortifying breath, hopped down off it. When her feet hit the tile floor, pain shot up her leg, her ribs jarred horribly and she crumpled to the ground with a little cry of pain. The Aces were unsympathetic.

"Get up," the same one who had told her to get off the stage now demanded. Mentally crossing her fingers, Alice didn't move. His impatience came through for her and the Suit huffed in annoyance, stalking forward to grab her by the arm. Ignoring the pain - and Jesus, was there pain - the girl thrust her flattened palm upward, right into the underside of his chin. The man's teeth clacked together loud enough to be heard over the crap lounge music still playing in the room. She followed the hit through, surging to her feet.

A small sound slipped passed her notice, but some small part of her mind could have sworn it was a whistle. One of the diamonds impressed by her attack? Didn't matter, her strike wasn't hard enough to knock the man out. He reeled back, but recovered, lifting his gun once more. Before it could be leveled on her for the second time, a fist came out of nowhere and crushed the Ace's orbital bone like an aluminum can.

Alice instantly forgave the fates for every wrong they had every dealt her as she followed the arm attached to the fist and came to a pair of deep chocolate eyes under wild black hair poorly contained by a ridiculous straw hat.

"Hatter!" The name passing her lips was part squeak, part gasp, and wholly awestruck. "You're okay."

"Yeah," he acknowledged, not even looking at her. The man who should have been dead at that moment bent to retrieve the fallen Suits' pistols. "Okay" was both an understatement and an overestimation of his current state. He was alive, breathing, standing there barely two feet away. He also had a massive black eye, a scabbed over scratch along his right temple, a couple bad abrasions on his forehead and lines of partially dried blood tricking from his nose and right ear.

"Oh, my God," she exclaimed softly taking in the injuries. Her hands came up of their own accord, hovering just above his skin. The urge to touch, to heal was undeniable, but she didn't actually know what the Hell she could do about the damage, so her fingers traced the air over his wounds impotently.

Hatter pushed her hands away, insisting, "It's just a few cuts and bruises; I'm fine." Fine? Hell no, but, dear saints, he was alive. "I'm-"

Alice pulled her hands away and threw her arms around his neck, cutting off his words, unable to stop herself. As though that were an option. Tears filled her eyes and she didn't care how badly it hurt when his arms came around her in return, squeezing her tightly against his body.

"I thought you were dead," she told him in a hoarse whisper. But he wasn't. She could feel his heart beating, fast and strong against her breast as she pressed against him. In that instant, Queen, Resistance, Looking Glass be damned, all was right with the world.

Hatter let out a little huff of air, his arms tightening just a bit more. "Oh, that feels good." It really did, despite the horrible pain his wonderful embrace was causing. Eyes closed, she pressed her face to his throat, inhaling the warm, spicy scent under the blood and sweat and leather. His hands gripped her hips then, firmly pulling her back from himself.

"We should save that until we're safe," he nodded, clearing his throat. Shit, right. They were still in mortal peril weren't they? Good thing he was thinking clearly, because all Alice wanted to do was be back in his arms and let the world fall apart around them. Of course, it wouldn't be around them; it would be on top of them. She nodded in return.

"I shouldn't have left with Jack," she told him. It was equal parts apology and admonishment. He had told her to go, so it was his fault, but she had listened, which made it her own fault.

"Do you trust me?" he asked her, his eyes locked on hers, filled with the need for her to say "yes."

She did him one better. "Always."

Something flickered across the man's gaze, like he wanted to do something very much, but it was chased away by the familiar steely determination she had come to expect - depend on - from him. He pressed one of the pistols into her hand. "Follow me. I'm getting us out of here."

He started back the way she had come. Alice followed for a step before remembering. "No."

Hatter stopped and turned towards her. "No?" It was eerily reminiscent of their argument on the beach, but this time Alice was fully aware of the facts.

"I came in that way. There were Suits after me and I blocked the door. We can't go that way," she explained quickly. Undeterred, he immediately switched his game plan, heading for the other set of double doors. Again, Alice started to follow and stopped. Something wasn't right, she could feel it. "Wait!"

He wheeled around again. "Yes?" Eyes flashing a soft accusation: what happened to the trust?

"Something… Cheshire Cat told me to do what I think is right," she told him.

"And what is that?"

"Find something to block the door," Alice said, turning away from him and looking around the room. Why shouldn't they leave? There was nothing here that could help them, just oysters. Oysters. There were maybe fifty people in this room, all waiting like cows to the slaughter. Hatter moved off to do as she asked while the girl's mind spun. How could she help them? They were prisoners of their own minds, trapped inside their own sensations, emotions. How could she break them free?

Break them down. "Something… something Turtle said."

"What?" her friend asked, wedging a push broom across the door handles.

"Mix the wrong emotions and you get a complete breakdown," she told him what the obnoxious little stoner had said.

"So?"

Alice looked at him, her own determination rising to rival his own. "I've got an idea. Follow my lead." For once. He nodded, ready and waiting. Okay. She ran back to the stage and climbed up on it, looking out over the crowd. What's the easiest way to get the attention of a captive audience? She pointed her gun up towards the ceiling and pulled the trigger. The thing kicked back and she almost dropped it. Two more gunshots rang out as Hatter took up her mantle.

"Oi!" he shouted from his new vantage point inside one of the go-go cages, aiming his weapon at the few remaining diamonds in the room. Alice did the same. The music and gaming sounds stopped, leaving the room in dead silence.

"Deal another card, spin another roulette wheel and it will be your last!" she bluffed the warning. She was sure the games had something to do with the oysters' trance and didn't want it to interfere with what she was doing. Unfortunately, while the diamonds scattered about cowered from their new captors, the people from her own world didn't react at all. "Hey!" she called, as though that would work better than the gunshots. "Wake up!"

Nothing. Not even a blink. There was nothing else to do, she had to keep trying. "Come on! Look at me! I know you can hear me! This isn't a dream, you have to snap out of it!"

"Alice, what-"

She kept going, ignoring the question she knew Hatter would ask, because she had no answer. If she could stir the people up, cross their wires enough to short out the hold Carpenter's mechanisms had over them, they might wake up. "Think about it; where are your families? How long have you been here?" Her eyes cast frantically about the room. Had she been stupid to try this? Was she just going to get herself and Hatter killed? Please, no. Please - There! A tall black man in a police uniform blinked, turning his head slowly one way, then the other.

"Where did I leave my keys?" Not quite what the girl had been going for, but a start.

"Come on!" she tried again. "Think about where you are! Your name. Do you remember your name?"

"Taylor." An older gentleman frowned in confusion. "No, that's my son." His eyes cleared, the fog lifting. "My son…"

Others around the room were waking up, more and more, looking about themselves in bewilderment. They were scared, they were confused, but they were alert. This room was for anticipation and excitement, not the emotions she was bringing out of the oysters now. It could be enough to break them free completely.

"Try to move," she urged them. "Try to step back from the tables."

They tried, but it wasn't working. "I'm stuck!" one woman hollered. "I can't move my feet!"

Shit, it wasn't good enough. She needed to do more, but she was out of time. Someone slammed against the double doors from the outside. With only a wooden broom head to hold them closed, there were only a few seconds left before more Suits would flood into the room.

"They're trying to break in," she told her fellow oysters, growing frantic. "They don't want you to wake up, to get out. Come on! We have to-"

Too late. The doors burst open, the broken broom clattering to the side. A dozen Aces streamed into the room, immediately opening fire on Alice and Hatter. She dropped to the stage and crawled over the side, dropping to the floor behind one of the craps tables.

"Hatter!"

"Alice!" She tried to creep along the ground to get to his voice, but there wasn't enough cover. They were done for. Two guns between them and she didn't know how to shoot, the Suits had at least twelve and probably extra clips of ammo. It would all be over in a few minutes She just wanted to get to him before the end. "Stay down!"

How did he do that?

"Stop!" a familiar voice shouted, bringing the gunfire to a halt. Her ears were ringing in the sudden quiet. "You're scaring the oysters. I'll deal with this."

Her father. Alice peeked over the edge of the table, seeing the man approaching her hiding place. She aimed her gun up at him, hands shaking. "Stop!"

He did, thank God. She didn't think she was capable of shooting him, but was terrified she was wrong. "Put the gun down," he ordered, his voice far softer than when he'd addressed the Suits a moment ago.

"No," she shook her head, backing away from him until her spine hit the side of the stage.

"It's me, Alice," Carpenter said, his voice cracking ever so slightly. "It's you're father."

The girl shook her head again, denying the lie. "You don't remember me," she insisted. "You're lying." It was all a trick so he could get her gun and give her over to the Suits.

"I'm not," he insisted, touching the watch she'd given him. The watch he was still wearing. "Thanks to you, I remember everything."

"I don't believe you!" she shouted, levering herself up into a standing position, gun still trained on her father's heart. "You didn't care whether I lived or died!"

"Alice-"

She cut him off. "Just like all of you," the girl told the oysters, who were cowering on the floor around the tables. "He's the one who brought you here and when he's done taking and taking, he'll get rid of you!"

Her vision was blurred with tears, heart aching all over again. It was fair for him to keep hurting her. She lashed out, like the child she was so long ago, at the father who broke her heart. "Isn't that right?" Alice demanded of the man before her. "Daddy, isn't that right?!"

"Please, listen to me," Carpenter implored, taking a step towards the shaking girl. She jerked her gun at him threateningly, but it was an empty warning. "You… you were seven," he began haltingly. "And Carol was at the store, so it was just the two of us. I was in the kitchen, making you lunch. … Peanut butter and honey, your favorite. And a bowl of Lucky Charms."

He chuckled softly, eyes taking on a far off cast. "Because I was never very good at balancing meals and you said please, and looked at me with those big, beautiful eyes and I couldn't tell you no. I thought you were watching television, but you'd snuck off into my study to look at the ships in bottles."

Alice's heart lurched in her chest. Her father's favorite hobby, the reason he'd gotten into the business in the first place and opened his shop, was building miniature ships in bottles. And, since it was her father's favorite thing, young Alice had found it endlessly fascinating. She knew the day he was talking about, remembered like a lifetime had not passed between then and now. Seven year old Alice Hamilton had wanted to get a closer look at one of the bottles, high on the shelves behind her father's desk. So, as any child would, she climbed the shelving to reach it. And the whole thing came crashing down on her.

"The crash scared me half to death and I dropped the milk and ran. I saw the mess, glass everywhere. I was so afraid you'd been hurt," he went on. Carpenter… Hamilton smiled, eyes glittering to match her own. "But, there you were, sitting on the floor in the middle of the room and not a scratch on you, crying and crying because you'd broken all my ships. Every last one."

She sniffled and nodded, the gun shaking so hard it rattled now. "And you… you picked…"

"I picked you up and hugged you and wiped away your tears and said it would all be okay. And we'd rebuild them all together."

And they had. Maybe some of the masts were crooked, maybe some of the paint was smeared and the sails lopsided, but every ship had been recreated. They'd done it together.

"And I told your mother-" he chuckled, smile growing wider. "I told her it must have been an earthquake that brought the shelves down."

The girl let out a sound that was both a sob and a laugh, remembering the preposterous lie her father had told.

"I should have known you the moment I saw you," Hamilton lamented, his eyes going from fond memories to sorrowful regrets. "Please, forgive me."

Another sob spilled from her lips, the gun lowering under the weight of her emotion. He was her father, really her father. He remembered her, he knew her, he loved her. All the years of pain and loneliness and abandonment faded away as he stepped towards her and finally, finally, pulled her into a warm, loving, fatherly embrace.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. Alice wrapped her arms around him in turn, unable to answer as her heart was slowly becoming one piece again after so long. "I love you, Jellybean."

"I love you, Dadd-" BANG! Her father jerked against her, his weight suddenly dragging against her hold. Her eyes flew open and he was staring at her in bewilderment. What happened? He slipped from her grasp, slumping to his knees before her. Alice was eye to eye with a huge bald man sporting a scrub brush mustache, wearing a wool turtleneck under a grey, vinyl jumpsuit and galoshes. He was holding his sizable stomach, blood running from a wound there. She vaguely remembered him from the last time she was in the throne room, the man had been with Carpenter. Now, he was pointing a gun straight at her after having shot her father. She hadn't expected death to look so much like a Maine fisherman.

BANG! Alice jerked at the gunshot, expecting the bullet to slam into her chest and tear her heart asunder one final time. Instead, three more shots rang out and with each one, the walrus-like man jolted backwards before finally falling to the tiles. Her right ear was ringing, which was the only thing that prompted Alice to look in that direction. Hatter was standing close by her, arms extended, gun in his hands. He'd killed that man. Killed him, when he'd all but sworn to her that he would never kill anyone again. He'd killed him… to save her.

Her father grabbed her leather pants, bringing her attention back. She dropped to her knees, the pain inconsequential. He fell back onto the tiles, blood pouring out from the wound in his back.

"No! Daddy!" she cried, hands fluttering uselessly from his face to his shoulders, chest and back to his face. The world tilted and shook, coming apart at the seems as she watched her father's life spilling onto the white tile beneath him. It took one of the slot machines falling over for Alice to understand that the building really was quaking and it wasn't just her world falling apart all over again.

"It's okay, Jellybean," Hamilton insisted, lifting a hand to cup her cheek. "I messed things up, but you'll be okay."

"No, it's fine. You're gonna be fine," the girl insisted.

"You have to get out of here. You have to leave me."

"Don't say that!" she shouted at him, grabbing his yellow vinyl coat and shaking him, despite the bleeding gunshot wound. "Don't you say that to me!"

"Alice…" It was the only thing that could have made her look up from her father at that moment - not the shaking walls and falling ceiling panels, the screaming oysters finally freed from their invisible restraints running out the doors - Hatter's voice. He was at her side, looking down at her, pleading silently and then not so silently. "We have to go."

"No," she shook her head. Looking between the two men. "You hear me? I didn't wait fourteen years and travel into another fucking dimension to find you and then lose you now! You're not allowed to die on me, you son of a bitch. Do you understand? You owe me!"

She pulled away form her father's touch, grabbing his arm and yanking him into a sitting position. Hatter followed her lead and took Hamilton's other arm, pulling it around his neck as she did the same. Together, they lifted her father and the three hurried from the room as fast as they could manage, just as the florescent lights started to crash down from above.

Yeah. It really, REALLY bothered me when her father died like that. I remember you, yay! BANG! Oh, oops. I'm dead now. Seriously, wtf SciFi?