The elevator was actually a decent size, and mirrored so that it appeared larger, which did wonders for Carol's nerves. On the other hand, it was a fairly long elevator ride, with music provided by Charlie's humming, as Alice and Hatter had a conversation with each other's reflections using mainly their eyebrows, leaving Carol to stare at Darrel's hat.

Yeah. Elevators deserved to be hated for more reasons than just the fact that they were enclosed spaces.

"It's part of the uniform," Darrel said suddenly.

"Huh?"

"The hat. It's part of the Club's uniform," Darrel elaborated.

"Oh."

Thankfully, the doors then slide open, revealing a wide open lobby, with an entire wall of windows set on the far side. Carol gaped out at the skyline, and, visible just beyond that, the lake they'd flown over, sparkling in the mid-afternoon sun. She was so busy staring that she didn't notice that she was being left behind until her daughter tapped her on the shoulder.

"Ready to meet Jack again?" Alice asked, gesturing towards the double doors at the other end of the floor.

"Might as well," Carol replied, turning away from the windows a bit reluctantly.

~*~

She'd been picturing a throne room from out of a medieval castle; instead there was something which looked a bit more like an upper-class lounge. If it weren't for the pair of occupied, overstuffed thrones at the head of a long table, she'd have thought they'd taken a wrong turn.

Well, them and Charlie.

"Your Highnesses," the old knight said. "I have traveled from the Autonomous Region of the White Kingdom in order to bring you a message. And that message is: hello!"

There was a beat of silence.

"I believe she may have had a premonition that my presence would be required alongside Lady Alice and her Harbinger," Charlie added.

"Yes, well," said the man who was clearly Jack- although, was his hair always that blond?- as he rose from his chair. "Thank you for delivering the message promptly, as always Charlie."

"My pleasure, sire."

Darrel coughed. "I've instructed my men to make up your usual rooms."

"Oh, thank you!" Charlie said brightly.

"You must be tired," Jack offered. "If you like, you could retire to your rooms."

"Oh, stuff and nonsense," Charlie cried. "I'm as fit as a violin! As a cello, even."

"And it's not like we won't tell him what's going on anyway," Alice intervened. Charlie's brow furrowed.

"Still no patience for politics, I see," Jack said, fondly, smiling in a slightly deprecating manner.

"I know. Can you believe it?" Alice replied, smiling slightly. They hugged; Hatter exchanged long-suffering looks with the seated woman who appeared to have just been beamed down from Captain Kirk's quarters.

"You remember my mother," Alice said.

"Yes. Carol, right?" Jack asked, holding out his hand.

"And you're Jack," Carol confirmed, shaking it.

"This is my fiancé, Duchess," Jack said. She rose from her chair and held out a hand as well.

"It's nice to meet you. Alice has mentioned you often," Duchess said.

Carol blinked. "She has?"

Alice nodded. "If we have time, I have to show you some of the nicer bits of Wonderland. You'll love the snapdragon- flies."

Carol smiled and took Duchess's hand. If her daughter was comfortable enough with this woman who was affianced to her ex-boyfriend, then she was probably a friend.

"And everyone here knows who I am, so," Hatter clapped his hands together. "To business then."

They all sat down at the table, and then Alice and Hatter took turns explaining what had happened. Jack was frowning deeply by the time they got to the part where they'd all gone through the Looking Glass, and Duchess was giving Darrel a deeply concerted look.

"So you didn't tell them?"

"No, he didn't," Hatter said. "What is it we need to know?"

Jack opened his mouth, and then frowned, his eyes flicking towards her.

"I know nothing about anything," Carol told him.

"Oh don't say that," Charlie said. "You know plenty- just about that dratted underground railroad system, instead of Wonderland."

Carol smiled. Jack look deeply concerned, and Alice gave him a no-nonsense look as Hatter shook his head. Carol frowned at them. So they met and became revolutionary heroes in Wonderland- what else could they have done that they didn't want her knowing about?

"You are familiar," Jack began haltingly. "With the memory-modification techniques my mother employed, of course?"

Alice stiffened. Hatter shifted ever-so-slightly towards her. "Yeah," he said roughly. "We've got the general picture of what that entails."

"Memory modification," Carol repeated, horrified. What the hell happened?

"Metaphorical beheading, or so the gallows humor went," Darrel said, shrugging slightly. "Although it was always a bit-"

"The details of how the memories were modified are of no concern to us now," Duchess interrupted him. "The point is, we've discovered that the technique was used more widely than we previously assumed.

Both Hatter and Alice were looking as horrified as Carol felt now.

"How widely?" Alice asked.

"As far as we can tell, it was never used on general members of the Wonderland populace, but rather on those who were considered useful or dangerous, or some combination of the two. Several were- and still are- installed as members of the Court. Others were sent through the Looking Glass, given ordinary lives and backgrounds as Oysters, and unconscious desires to collect information for the White Rabbit."

Hatter nodded slowly. "And that's what's on the list: all the people who were brainwashed and planet on the other side."

"It's even more complicated than that, I fear," Jack said.

"How?" Alice demanded.

"Most of the names of on the list," he nodded to Darrel, who withdrew a folded piece of paper from inside his robes, "Are of people who were once members of the Court, several very high ranking, who also turned out to be moles for the Resistance. There are also more than a few members of the Chess Courts- including two potential heirs to the Red King's throne."

Hatter let out a low whistle as he took the list. "No wonder they were so eager to get their hands on it. This is more explosive than gunpowder."

"Indeed," Jack commented. He winced then, exchanged sidelong glances with Duchess, and then turned back to where Hatter had opened the list and placed it between himself and Alice. "It has been pointed out to me that I owe you an apology. In addition to what, admittedly, could not be anything but strict monitoring on your end, my Suits have confirmed that no unauthorized personnel have used the Looking Glass. Whatever means of travel the men who tried to kidnap you used, it was not that, and the fault does not lie with you. I shouldn't have implied otherwise."

Hatter opened his mouth, closed it again, and then, with great effort, muttered. "No problem, apology accepted."

"Well, now that we've had our moment of awkward male bonding, what are we going to do?" Carol asked, startling a smile out of Alice.

"Before we do anything else, we've got to figure out where the other Looking Glass, or Rabbit Hole, or tornado or whatever it is that they're using is," Hatter said. "Without that, we're stuck fighting an enemy that can disappear from this world into Earth and accumulate a force there at will. There's no way to fight that without getting the Earth governments involved, and as we've already decided not to even bother going down that route."

Carol opened her mouth to ask why not, but Alice got her words out first. "How could we do that?"

"I have no idea, I just think that's where we should start," Hatter said.

"Until recently, the possibility of there being more than one Looking Glass had never occurred to me," Jack admitted.

"If we're assuming that the other criminals who've unexpectedly shown up on Earth, then we should have some intelligence reports that could narrow it down," Duchess suggested.

"I can get those easily enough," Darrel said. "I can also inquire with the technicians, about what conditions a Looking Glass needs to operate."

Charlie's head hit the table with a loud thump, and he jerked up, shouting "I'm awake! I'm awake!"

There was a beat of silence, then Jack said "On that note, I think we should adjourn. Please, get that information, Ten. There's going to be a meeting of the Court tomorrow morning, partially to discuss this and the implications therein: Alice, Hatter, you are welcome to attend but-"

"Dodo is going to be there, and as we're liable to get into a sniping match…" Hatter interrupted tiredly.

"We'll take the cliff notes version," Alice said, before turning to Darrel. "Does my mom have rooms ready?"

"She should, directly next to your usual one," Darrel replied. There was a general scraping as everyone pulled up and away from the table. Jack and Darrel hung back, quickly engaging in more discussion.

"Well, goodnight all," Hatter said, adjusting his cap slightly as he turned to leave. Alice followed suit, so Carol did as well.

"Goodnight. And welcome home," Duchess replied.

Carol though Hatter might had stiffened a bit at that, but by then the door to the hall was open, and there was too much sunlight in her eyes to be sure.

A/N: I'm sorry updates have slowed: schoolwork is starting to pick up, as is the word count of the one-shots I'm turning out. I'm still alive and working, though!