Alice and What Came After: Between the Glass

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for a stack of DVDs and tons of handwritten notes, sadly.

Chapter Nineteen: The ARC Team

"Come with me, Sarah. I need your help," Connor said, taking her hand. His fingers had blistered from his early burns, but he ignored the pain. There were more pressing matters than a bit of first aid.

"What are we gonna do?"

"You and me… we're going to get the opener back online. Then, we're going back. We're going to stop Helen Cutter."

"But what if we disrupt the time line?"

"Sarah, if you ended up here, in the past, instead of in your…home, then the time line's already been mucked up. We're going to fix it. But I'm going to need your help to find the right anomaly."

She nodded, her face grim. "I'll help you. But what about Becker? He needs help. I'm a good fighter. I'm the fighter—my brother is the nerd."

"I know, but trust me. You'll be more help to me than Becker."

Sarah sighed. "I don't know anything about anomalies."

"But you know how to travel through them. Please, Sarah, I'm begging you…"

Brown eyes stared into brown eyes. Sarah knew she couldn't refuse, especially if they stood a chance at stopping Helen and saving her family and Connor's. As much as she wanted to fight, her place was with Connor. If the anomalies were like the Looking Glass, she needed to fix them. She needed to get back home.

"I'll help you, but if things get dicey, Connor, I need you to run. Jump through an anomaly or whatever. I don't care, but you need to get out alive. You're the only one who can save my family. If it comes down to one of us dying, you need to get out. For my family and yours."

He nodded solemnly. "I promise."

"Then let's get to work on this machine of yours."


"Yes, Wonderland!" Hatter said, staring at his son and the blonde girl. "Where else would we go? Your sister is missing."

"I don't have a sister…not one that I know about."

Hatter closed his eyes, pushing his headache away. "We need to go. Your mum is still there. If we don't get going, there's a chance she could die. We need to find Sarah and get back home."

"My mum? She's fine… don't you rememb—" Connor started, then stopped. "Wait. You're not… you're not my dad, are you?"

He winced, trying to sit up in the hospital bed. "O' course I am. How could you even ask that?"

"But I don't remember you."

"Oi, this is like a bloody nightmare." Hatter swung his legs over the side of the bed. He moaned. "I'm getting too old for this time and space jumping."

"What?" Abby, the girl, asked. She seemed interested in him.

"The Looking Glass—honestly, what do they teach you in those schools?"

"Arithmetic," Connor said sourly.

"Shakespeare," Abby added.

"It's a miracle you two can even read or write, isn't it?" the older man marveled. "Even Connor here can't seem to write a halfway decent thesis. No matter how many revisions he does, it rambles off and stops making sense by page three."

Hatter smirked. That sounded like his son, although Connor was better at writing papers. It was Sarah who would ramble.

"You've never read past page one!" Connor insisted.

"I don't need to."

"Can we finish this another time? If this… if Hatter is right, then time's important. Professor, there has to be something we can do," Abby said, pleading with the other man.

"Like what? Buy a copy of a children's storybook?"

Hatter slipped off the bed, rummaging in a tiny closet for his clothes. They smelled a bit funky, but considering he'd been on the run and then been attacked by some crazy creature, he didn't care. He just wanted to find his family and get back home alive.

He slipped into his trousers as the trio continued to argue.

"Professor, please. He's obviously confused. We need to help him," Connor insisted. "What if he's just out of place, like Helen was? Or what if he's… he's been changed, like what was her name?"

"Claudia," the older man said softly. "Claudia Brown. She was there, then she wasn't. And now we've got Jenny Lewis, her spitting image, but not her."

"Exactly!" the young student said. "What if he's like you—and I'm his Claudia?"

"What are you talkin' about?" Abby asked, frowning at her flat mate.

"What if I'm a version of his son? What if someone changed something all those years ago, changed the course of evolution, and changed me? What if I did have a sister? What then?"

"Connor, did you hit your head or somethin'?"

"No, I… I'm just thinkin'… what if he's tellin' the truth?"

Hatter couldn't help but smile at his son's words. He shrugged into a shirt, still listening to their conversation. He didn't know this Claudia person, but her name seemed to have meaning to all three of them. Whatever worked to get him back home to his family.


Connor's flat-paneled console was wrecked. It seemed similar to a computer to Sarah's untrained eyes. Connor insisted it was more than a simple computer.

"It's a time map of sorts," Connor explained, a screwdriver in hand. "It shows every single anomaly there is—every one that ever will be. It's a predictor of sorts."

"So this… machine can help get me home?"

"If we can get it fixed, then all we have to do is find the proper anomaly. Upload the coordinates like songs into an iPod, and volia… instant anomaly."

"How hard is it gonna be to fix?"

Connor sighed. "The trouble is… I smashed it up a good bit for Helen."

"Does the device store all the possible routes on it?"

"Nah, I haven't gotten that far."

Sarah lifted up a crate of spare parts. "What if we input the information on another computer? Used that to load the map up. Then we could pick a route, transfer it to the device, and get outta here."

He looked up, smiling at her. "Splendid! Why didn't I think o' that?"

"Umm, how about I dig out the piece… while you do the computer, yeah?"

He handed over the screwdriver. "It's like a memory card of sorts. A little data chip. It's blue in color."

"Easy enough to find. You just work your magic on the computer. I'll have this dismantled in no time."


Captain Becker called all of his troops to the armory. After getting them all armed up with vests and guns, he ordered them to sit.

"As many of you already know, two of our own were murdered earlier today. Dr. Sarah Page and Abby Maitland-Temple were gunned down by Helen Cutter. All of you are aware of Helen Cutter and her vendetta against the ARC. She has her eyes on Connor Temple. In addition to murdering his wife, Helen has stolen his daughter."

Murmurs swept through the assembled group of men and women.

"You all have seen little Sarah Temple from time-to-time with her mum and dad. She was born in an anomaly and spent the first years of her life there. Now that little girl's life is on the line. Her father's life is on the line as well. Helen Cutter won't stop until she sees everyone connected to the ARC destroyed."

Becker took a deep breath. "It is up to you—all of you—to protect the ARC and those who work here. We are the last line of defense against Helen. We are going to stop her before she kills again."


Hatter faced the group in his hospital room. He was dressed once again. "It's the truth. The truth as I know it. If I had proof, I'd give it to ya. As it is, all I have is an old photograph."

He took out his wallet. In a plastic sleeve, crinkled and worn, was a family portrait. There were four people in the picture—Hatter, a dark-haired woman in a blue dress, a young man who looked like Connor, and a girl with a hat perched sideways on unruly dark hair.

"Connor, it's you!" the girl cried, taking a hold of the photograph. "And that… that must be Sarah."

"Blimey, it is me!"

Hatter suppressed a smile at his son's enthusiasm.

"Where are you from?" the Scottish man asked. "Time and place. What's it like?"

"My home is in New York City. It's 2030. Sarah and Connor just turned twenty. Alice and I own a set of tea shops. A Taste of Wonderland, it's called. We have an employee from Wonderland as well—a Chase Heart. He's traveling with my wife. The three of us separated after Connor and Sarah vanished."

"So you're like, from the future!" Connor sounded very excited. "Wicked!"

"I guess. But I need to get back to my family. I need to get back to Wonderland. I think your anomalies have happened there as well. I mean there's Rex and Sid and Nancy. All kinds of other wondrous creatures. What if Wonderland's just been another anomaly?" Hatter said.

"We can't open the anomalies. We can't control them," Abby said.

"Then I'm stuck with you until you can. Maybe there will be an anomaly leading to my home…"

Hatter looked excited at the prospect of getting home. He'd always enjoyed traveling, even if it was just between worlds.

The Scottish man cleared his throat. "Are you saying you want to join us?"

"I guess so. I mean, this isn't really my world, is it? If I got back to New York right now, is there going to be two of me? Or will I fade?"

"No one knows."

"The Looking Glass sent me here. I don't know why. Something's gone wrong between the worlds. I think if we work together, we can fix it. I can help you understand the anomalies. Then you can help me get home."

The older man took Hatter's hand, shaking it. "Then it's a deal, Mr. Hatter. Welcome to the ARC team."

Author's Notes:

Here's hoping this chapter makes sense! I'm on a Doctor Who kick and I have a mild sinus infection (again…sadly). It's getting closer to merging some of our scattered heroes together. What's everyone think of Hatter joining the ARC… as well as Sarah and Connor Temple working together? Interesting mix-ups, huh?

Anyways, please, please review!