Alice and What Came After: Between the Glass

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Alice – no rights, no claims, nada – it belongs to SyFy and Nick Willing. Rex, Sid, and Nancy belong to ITV/Impossible Pictures. Sarah, Connor, Damon, and Chase are my own creations.

Chapter Twelve: Ana of Diamonds Revealed

She looked around the luxurious suite, pleasantly surprised that after fifteen years, she'd returned to her old station. Fifteen years of bowing and scraping her way back to health. Fifteen years of fighting for survival on both sides of the Glass.

She didn't look the age she was—not after spending ten years of Wonderland time on the other side. She no longer resembled the naive girl left to die in a shallow grave.

Jessica Heart stared into the elaborate mirror on the wall. Her dark locks had been bleached blonde. She also straightened them to remove her natural kinks.

Getting back inside the palace after her exile had required years of planning and preparation. In the end it was worth it. She would take back the throne from her psychotic half-brother. She would take it back—along with her life.

Jessica chose Ana after her near-death because of what it meant. She couldn't wait to throw the information that she was still alive in Damon's face.

She smiled, planning the day she would have Damon arrested for treason and the day her twin brother would be welcomed back. It had been too risky to trace Kyle. If the wrong person had seen her, her plan never would have worked. It took her fifteen years to fully recover.

The damage done to her body took several surgeries and years of physical therapy for her to walk properly. Several bones in her face had been destroyed, as well as in her hands. Her legs were badly mangled and her spinal column affected by the beating.

She dug herself out of the shallow grave with her broken hands, clawing her way to freedom. The former princess pulled herself along the ground until she got help. She lost several pints of blood along the way.

Jessica was found later by allies of the Resistance—a Duck and Owl—who took her to the Great Library. They nursed her back to health for several days, even having a doctor stitch her up and set her bones.

The doctor insisted that she be sent through the Looking Glass to be attended to. The trio knew how much trouble they would be in if they were caught helping the disgraced princess.

Her stitches were removed, her bones sloppily set as if she'd done it herself, and she was smuggled through the Looking Glass. One of her traveling companions called an ambulance, which took her to the hospital and saved her life.

Of course, there had been police standing by when she woke up.

Jessica claimed amnesia until after she was released. Then she set up a new identity—one of Ana Diamonate. Or, in Wonderland terms, Ana of Diamonds. Her blonde hair was a nod to her stepmother's family. It had taken a lot of paperwork and time to get her fictitious past in order.

Plastic surgery remodeled her face, covering the worst of the damage. Her bones healed and she learned to walk again once the swelling around her spine went down.

All of the doctors were impressed with her progress. But then again, they didn't know why she tried so hard. They didn't know about her plans—they had no idea that revenge drove her.

No one knew.


Across the vast area of Wonderland, Connor continued his search for clues about his past—about what happened in Wonderland while he was gone. What became of his parents and his sister? How had a simple trip through the Glass landed him in this familiar, yet changed world?

He left the graveyard.

In this other version—this alternate Wonderland, he supposed—his name was Kyle. Sarah was Jessica. But was their father really Jack Heart or was it David Hatter?

Try as he might, he couldn't see his mother with anyone but his father. They just fit well together. The Mad Hatter and his Alice having a never-ending tea party with friends and family using mis-matched china in a wildly decorated tea shop… that was the parents he knew. Not someone who was a King or Queen.

Of course, his mother was still the Queen of Wonderland, and his father the King, but no one bothered with the formalities. They didn't behave like stuck-up royalty. Both his parents worked hard at the tea shops and his mum still worked part-time at a martial arts studio.

His mother was too down-to-earth to be traditional royalty. She was all wrong for Jack Heart.

Connor trudged down from the graveyard, his eyes looking out into the distance.

"Sarah, where the hell are you when I need you?" he muttered, his brown eyes scanning for a direction.

He needed to find the palace, find whoever was King, and find out what happened to the mirror he'd stepped through, not to mention learn what fate befell his parents and sister.

Connor didn't get far before he was struck over the head and grabbed by a rag-tag group of Wonderlanders.


Damon Heart watched from his seat at dinner while his younger brother flirted with Ana of Diamonds. The two made an attractive couple. Too attractive.

He could just see the little blond-haired munchkins the pair would have. Little perfect royal children who would take his throne away from him. That could not happen. Not while he lived. No, no, this would stop.

One of his most loyal Suits approached him. He crooked his finger, motioning for the man to lean in.

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Retrieve the Vorpal Sword. I want that bitch's head on a platter."

He would stop this nonsense before it got any further.

Author's Notes:

I know it's short, but oh well, there's a lot going on.

Enjoy! Please, please review!