Alice and What Came After: Between the Glass

Disclaimer: Nada. Just my original characters.

Chapter Twenty-five: Mirror Mix-up

She stepped through the ball of light. The anomaly closed behind her as she arrived in an old military building. Helen Cutter sighed, slipping the opener back into her bag. She was back in the present in London, not too terribly far from the ARC.

She walked into a command center filled with computers. She logged in, using Christine Johnson's old passwords.

Helen ran a background search on Connor Temple, trying to determine whether the girl with him in the future was a sibling or a child. After less than a half hour, Helen had her answer.

Connor was an only child. He had no cousins or other close blood relatives. This meant the girl was either a stranger… or his future daughter. Another search revealed a birth certificate in the name of Sarah Temple, the daughter of Abby Maitland-Temple and Connor Temple.

"Well, well, well. Another generation of geeks playing with toys they shouldn't have…"

Helen checked a pistol she sometimes carried. The clip was full. She smiled at that. She also had a very sharp knife.

Now all she had to do was make sure Sarah Temple fell right into her clutches, and with her, the rest of Nick's team. It was time to put the ARC down for good.


When the wall opened up more, Connor crawled through to embrace Abby. Cutter followed a moment later, consoling the teenager who stood near Abby.

"You okay?"

The kid nodded. "Yeah, Abby's mate showed up just in time. He drew that thing away…"

"What thing?"

He pointed further into the warehouse where an anomaly pulsed. "He called it away from us, trying to give us time. I don't know where they went…"

"It's okay. I want you to go outside. There's a silver truck out there. I want you to grab the mobile in the front seat and bring it to me. Okay?"

The kid nodded, taking off as fast as he could through the half-broken wall.

"Abby, was Hatter here?"

She nodded, still hanging onto Connor's hand. "Yeah, he stepped between us and the creature. He… where is he?"

"Gone. They're both gone."

Connor leapt into action. "Stay here with Cutter."

"No way!" the blonde protested.

"Why do you—later. We'll talk about this later," Connor said, heading straight for the open anomaly. Abby followed on his heels.

Cutter sighed. He wanted to drag them both back by the scruffs of their necks, but he was too tired and someone had to call for reinforcements. Plus there was no way Connor would stay put with either Abby or Hatter in danger. And Abby wouldn't stay if Connor was in trouble.

"I'm getting too old for this," he muttered as the teenager returned with his mobile.


"Where are we?" Sarah asked as she settled into a chair on the other side of an anomaly. Connor—who looked just like her brother—sat across from her.

"This is the Anomaly Research Centre or ARC for short. And yeah, we sometimes keep animals in the ARC."

She half-smiled at him. "So how did I end up here? Why was there two of me?"

"Well, you ran into a future version of you. Time is in flux right now. As far as I can tell, your future changed to the point that the new you couldn't exist side-by-side with you. So, she—you disappeared. Because that wasn't you. Not anymore."

She frowned. "What?"

"Two identical people can't occupy the same space at the same time. When the future changed, there were two of you with the same future. So you merged together."

"Okay. But why didn't you… change or merge?"

"I wasn't supposed to be there. We just jumped through an anomaly to avoid Helen. It happened to be the one you fell into. Instead of Helen finding you, I did."

"So what's that mean?"

"We have a lot of work to do. I need to go back into the past to get help. My mentor knows more about anomalies than anyone else. He can help us fix this mess. But finding him isn't going to be easy."

"Why not?"

"Helen murdered him."

Sarah's jaw dropped a bit. "Who is Helen and why is she so dangerous?"

Connor sighed. "She's crazy. She wants to wipe the human race off Earth. She's dangerous. She'll kill anyone in her way—even her husband."

"Your mentor?"

"Yeah. Professor Nick Cutter. She blamed him for the Predators. Shot him in cold blood. I was there."

Sarah went quiet. It made sense now why both herself and Connor hated Helen and why they were warning her about the other woman. If this Helen had murdered Connor's friend—and her husband—then it made sense why everyone was wary. She didn't seem like someone Sarah would want to run into without some warning.

And here I was thinking being in Wonderland was dangerous…

"Why am I here?" she asked.

Connor shrugged. "This mirror of yours… it's like a controlled anomaly. It malfunctioned and dropped you in the future. That's all we know."

"So just reverse it!"

"It doesn't quite work like that. I need to stop Helen first. She killed my wife and my friends. She kidnapped my daughter…"

"Then let's go find her."


Across town, a few years in the past, Jessica slipped further down the hallway. She peeked into several of the empty rooms, searching for more of the military or some indication as to why they were there in the hospital.

She turned another corner and froze. She could hear voices. Several voices.

"Stay calm, I've done this loads of times…" a female was saying.

"How many humans?" another female asked.

Jessica snorted. She inched closer to the open door, trying to hear more of the conversation.

"Don't worry, she's very experienced," a man with a Scottish brogue promised.

"Who are you?" another man asked, stepping in front of her.

She looked up, taking in brown eyes, dark, unruly hair, a hat and a vest. "Uh, I'm… I work here?"

He looked her up and down. "I can see that. What are you doin' over here? This section's closed."

"I got lost. First day and all that…"

The stranger grabbed her by the arm, leading her away from the one room. "Who are you? And don't say a nurse. I know you're not."

"But—"

"Who are you?"

"J—Ana. Ana Diamonate."

He frowned at her. "Okay, Ana, who sent you? Newspaper? TV?"

"What?"

"Who are you working for?"

"No one!" She tried to pull her left arm free. Her hand was in his face.

"What is that?" he asked.

"What's what?"

The strange man touched the ring on her finger. "That. Where did you get that?"

"Why do you care?"

He held onto her hand. "This ring. Where did you get this ring?"

Jessica pulled away. "It's none of your bloody business."

"It is. That ring belongs to my wife. Where did you get it?"

"What? Who the hell are you?"

"David Temple. You can call me Hatter. Now where did you get that?"

Jessica looked down at the ring. "A man gave it to me."

"Who?"

"You wouldn't know him."

"Ana, I know a lot more than you imagine. Now who gave you the ring?"

"Caterpillar," she admitted, staring right at him. There seemed to be something familiar about him. She didn't know if it was the face, the hair, or the accent. Wait… his face. She knew that face… it was her brother's face. "Wait… did you say Hatter?"

"Yeah…"

"And this ring… you said it's yours? Caterpillar said my father would know it…"

Hatter, this stranger, moved closer. "Sarah?"

"No, no. My name's Jessica…"

"You're blonde? Jabberwock, what happened?"

"Jabberwock?" She raised her eyebrows. "Is that like a nickname?"

"Luv, do you feel okay?" He touched her forehead. Her father was standing in front of her. He was alive—and he knew her. Or someone like her.

"No, I… It's Jessica. Alice's daughter. From Wonderland?"

"Umm, Sarah, did you hit your head?"

"I don't know anyone named Sarah…" She took a step back. "Really."

"Wait… did you fall through the Glass? From Wonderland?"

"Yeah…"

"Something's wrong. You're Sarah… but you're not her. You're different. Older. Why didn't I see it before?"

Hatter touched her face again, gently. Jessica couldn't help but smile. This was her father—not Jack Heart—her real father. Hatter. The man who loved her mother.

"I don't know. I—it's just… I never met my parents…"

"Your mum…?"

"Died when Kyle and I were born. We were raised by mum's husband, Jack."

"Jack? Jack Heart married your mum? Where was I?"

"Dead. Everyone thought you were dead. That's why mum ended up with Jack. And then the Duchess. And my jackass half-brothers…"

"So in your world… we're both dead?"

Jessica nodded. "Yeah."

"Something's rotten in Wonderland. Really rotten," he muttered.

"You're telling me," she muttered.

Author's Notes:

Now we've got some more mix-ups going on. There's going to be more mix-ups coming and Sarah will be in Wonderland soon. If you have any questions, please let me know. And keep those reviews coming! I'm going to extend the poll until Friday at midnight. Please vote – vote twice if you can. Thanks for reading!