Alice and What Came After: Between the Glass
Disclaimer: The original characters belong to me. Everything else either belongs to the folks at ITV/Impossible Pictures or SyFy and Nick Willing.
Chapter Twenty-six: Past, Present, and Future
After a good night's sleep behind a barricaded door, Alice Hatter was ready to do battle once more. She dressed for the day in jeans and boots with a long sleeve shirt. They would be traipsing around in the woods for most of the day trying to find the new palace. They would need to study their opponents.
"Chase, we need to do something about your hair. You're too blond."
"And you? You're very recognizable, my Queen."
"Not for much longer." Alice held up a pair of scissors. "But you're going to be hard to disguise."
"No one knows me without a suit on. I never was very well known."
"We can't count on the past, Chase. Not with Sarah and Connor at risk. Just because you weren't well known in the past, doesn't mean you aren't known now. It's too risky. Maybe someone's got hair dye. Or a hat. Yes… a hat might work."
He smiled at her. "Now you sound like Hatter."
Alice turned away, trying not to let her sadness show. She missed her husband and after learning of her own murder as well as his, she really wished Hatter was with them. Wonderland wasn't the same without him.
"He would probably have eight or nine you could pick from."
"He would." Chase unzipped a backpack. "But I think I've got a hat in here somewhere. Probably that one Sarah gave me for a joke…"
Sure enough, when Alice looked up from the pile of shorn locks, Chase had found a hat. It was a knit cap that covered his blond hair. It was a dark color, not a bright neon cap like her daughter had joked about getting, but it was totally out of character for him. When combined with a worn, torn t-shirt and blue jeans, Chase looked like a lower class citizen instead of a high-born prince.
He'd learned to dress like his peers in New York instead of wearing a suit and tie as he had most of his life in Wonderland. He enjoyed dressing in jeans and t-shirts. He got to be young and casual there. No one was staring at him in New York. No one expected a prince or a future king. He got to be just plain old Chase Heart there.
Here he was, dressed like a typical twenty-something, standing in a motel room in Wonderland. This was the Chase Heart who stole her daughter's heart and later broke it. Or was it the other way around?
Alice fixed her drastically shortened locks, looking a bit like her husband, except female, and sighed.
"Mrs. Hatter, you look… wow…"
"Stop staring, Chase. I'm not Sarah."
"I know, but she does take after you. In looks. God, it's so weird being here without her."
Alice nodded. "Wonderland isn't the same without her or Hatter. The sooner we find them, the happier I'll be."
"I agree. And this time, I'm not letting her push me away."
They turned left and right at various times, trying to out run their pursuers more than trying to escape. Of course escape didn't matter if the Suits were right behind them.
"Stay!" Kyle hissed, pushing his younger self against a tall hedge.
They both pressed against a separate piece of hedge after a sharp turn. There was a dead end ahead.
Two Suits turned the corner and passed them.
Kyle and Connor jumped them, knocking them out with a few well-placed punches and kicks. The two Suits went down hard, giving them a chance to arm themselves with guns and backtrack a few turns.
Together they knocked out several more pairs of Suits. Once the Suits were dealt with, the two brothers focused on escaping the maze. They went through several more dead ends in their search. But after another thirty minutes, before reinforcements could reach them, they managed to exit the maze.
Panting and bloody, they emerged in the woods. By that time, Kyle was half-carrying, half-dragging Connor.
"C'mon, you need to hang on a bit longer…" Kyle said.
"I…I can't."
"Yeah, you can. Buck up, little brother. We're almost there…"
"Go without me," Connor said, leaning against a tree. "You don't need my help."
"What you talkin' about? This was all your idea!"
"Really. You can do this. You don't need me."
"You're my only family. I don't care if you're me or not. You're the only other… Hatter left. My sister's dead, my mother's dead, and so's my dad. You're it."
Connor snorted. "I'm bad luck. You don't want me around."
"You took my place, played me, and survived Damon. That's no easy feat."
"I didn't…"
"What you mean?"
"The Truth Room. It changed me."
Kyle frowned at him. "The blood… how much of it's yours?"
"Enough. The rest…" Connor shook his head. "I killed them."
"Don't beat yourself up. They deserved it."
"With my bare hands…"
Kyle slung his arm over his shoulder. "I don't care. You did what you needed to do to survive. They'd have killed you. Now are you gonna walk or should I carry you back to camp?"
Helen Cutter stood in front of a mirror. Grass came up to her knees inside the strange office. The two men sitting guard on the building were dead. She'd been quick and merciless before dragging their bodies to the nearby barn.
Now she stood in the tea shop's office, where she had been told by her employer, she would find the girl. Sarah Temple would be coming through that mirror along with her twin. Connor.
She held out her opener, making sure the proper coordinates were in. Traveling through various dimensions in anomalies caused rifts and alternate timelines. One of those rifts was the future, where Predators roamed. Another was the wasteland of Wonderland, where a pompous blond kid ruled with help from his grandmother.
Helen had run into them accidently before. When she realized that Temple had a daughter, Helen returned to this alternate place with a plan in hand. This Queen of Hearts readily agreed to help her locate Sarah Temple, if she would fix their mirror-based travel system.
The mirror would allow them to remove people from earth, changing the course of evolution just the way Helen wanted. It was a perfect arrangement.
She clicked a few buttons on the device as a hand stretched through. It didn't matter if Connor already snatched his daughter. She didn't care. She would kill him soon enough. She just needed to make sure Sarah Temple landed in London.
Helen pressed a button just as a person stepped through the mirror. Before he could see her, she vanished into a waiting anomaly. As she disappeared in a pool of light, the mirror shattered into a million jagged pieces, stranding one family in two different worlds.
In the past, Stephen Hart and Nick Cutter stepped through an anomaly and into the future. Mer creatures howled as lightning crashed in the distance.
The rocky terrain proved to be an obstacle in their search. Connor and Abby were long gone from sight, as was Hatter. Nick couldn't help but curse their stubborn natures. None of the missing team members were known for their patience.
The two men split up, each carrying an automatic weapon. Tranquilizers weren't an option this time.
"Hang on! Abby!" Connor shouted in the distance.
"Let me go!"
"No!"
"Please…!"
"No! I love you!"
Nick stopped, trying to follow their voices on the rocks.
"Oi, enough with the drama," another voice drawled. Hatter. "C'mon, grab his hand, luv. Let's get you outta there."
Cutter went further down the rocks until he could see the trio. Abby was hanging from Connor's arm, dangling over a cliff. A Mer loitered below them, trying to get Abby's leg. Hatter was beside Connor, helping pull Abby over the edge.
The older man was bleeding, but his cuts didn't seem to bother him.
"Stephen! Down here!" Cutter shouted, taking aim at the creature below.
Abby, Connor, and Hatter fell together in a heap as Nick opened fire, joined moments later by Stephen.
"I need to find Abby first," Connor Temple insisted.
"Fine. Give me a gun. What? I'm a good shot."
He shook his head. "You're something else, Sarah."
"I'm going to take that as a compliment…"
"Armory's this way," he said, leading her further into the ARC. Unlike his last visit to his workplace, the ARC was full of people. However, there was still no sign of Becker, Danny Quinn, Dr. Page, or his wife.
Sarah picked a handgun and a knife. She also located two sets of thin body armor. She tossed one at him. "Trust me. You'll want to be wearing that."
"Why?"
"Let's just say I get shot at. A lot." She pointed at the area of her scar. "This one right here? It killed me. Just trust me."
Connor slipped into the vest and tugged his shirt back down over it. "You died? Like really died?"
"Yeah. My brother brought me back. Between him and Chase, I hung on just long enough. I should be dead."
"But you're not."
"I'm living on borrowed time, Connor. I've died since then. I'll probably die again."
He frowned. "Are you immortal?"
Sarah scoffed, tucking her gun into the small of her back. "Not in the slightest. Just lucky I guess. Or maybe not. Depends on how you look at it."
"Who killed you? The first time?"
"A man named Damon Heart shot me. He'd taken over Wonderland. That's where I'm from. At least, that's where my da's from. I'm half-and-half. Connor and I are the only ones of our kind. Which is why I died the second time.
"Wonderlanders aren't supposed to be with Oysters—humans. My mum got lucky. I didn't." Sarah sighed. "You know, it doesn't matter…"
He touched her arm. "Go ahead. Tell me."
"You don't—"
"I do. Sarah, tell me."
"His name is Chase. I used to love him. Anyways, I ended up pregnant. I didn't know it at the time, but I was still traveling a lot between Wonderland and New York. Between the traveling and the weirdness of being a half-breed, I was dying. The doctor was about to perform an abortion… then I miscarried. Even being in the hospital, they didn't think I was going to make it."
"But you're so young…"
"It doesn't matter. Really. All that matters is fixing things. I need to find my brother. You need to help your family. Let's focus on that."
Connor nodded. "I promise I'll get you home. No matter what."
"I know."
Back at the ARC, David Hatter, Connor Temple, and Jessica sat in front of Connor's latest techno gadget—an anomaly opener.
"That's a serious piece of kit," Hatter remarked, staring at the compact device. "How did you…?"
"A bit of this, bit of that…"
The opener looked a bit like an iPod with serious modifications. It even had a port that allowed a cable to run in to the USB port on a laptop. Connor currently had the two hooked up and was playing with a program.
"I input all these different readings from past sites, plus timelines, and all the data from Cutter's little timemap/model thing. And this is what I've got. I also used some magnetite, like the sun cage, in the device. Not to mention the radio frequencies—"
"We get it, Connor. You're a bloody genius," Hatter said with a smirk.
"Thank you, but there's still a few kinks…"
"Doesn't matter. We need to try it."
"Do you have a death wish? Cutter would kill me… and then sic Lester on me. No way," Connor said, hands in the air.
"Listen, we don't have the time. If we can give you more data, can you at least try?" Hatter wheedled.
"I don't know… it's still very experimental…"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
The ADD went off in the center command area. All three of them went running, Jessica not even bothering to ask questions. Connor skidded to a halt in front of the trio of monitors, his fingers flying on the keyboard as the rest of the team gathered.
"Where is it?" Cutter, the leader, asked, trotting in from his own lab down the hallway.
"I dunno, it's almost like it's here…"
The keys clacked, the screens continuing to narrow in on a red dot.
"What is that?" Jessica asked her father.
"An anomaly. Like the one you fell through. We're tracking the location."
"Oh. Then what?"
"Depends on where it is."
"Uh, Cutter… it's umm… it's coming from one of the labs…"
"Here? In the ARC?" the older man asked, his accent growing thicker.
Connor nodded.
After a quick reunion with a shocked Abby, Connor shooed his wife and daughter into hiding, as well as leaving messages for the rest of the ARC to beware Helen. Abby had begged him to stay or to let her come with them. He'd stayed firm, insisting that he was coming back.
"I love you, Abs. That's why I have to do this. I have to stop Helen."
"But anomalies? You're jumping into unknown anomalies!"
"It's the only way. If we wait for her to come to us… I watched you die, Abs. In my arms. Helen shot you down."
"No."
He touched her cheek, holding her face in his hands. "I'm sorry. Just get outta the flat. Lay low. I'll find you. I'll fix things and I'll find you."
After a quick kiss, he stepped away from her, despite the urge to hold onto her and never let her go. If he wanted Abby and their daughter to be safe, he had to go.
And now, here he was, in the past.
"Lemme guess… the ARC?" his traveling companion asked, picking herself up from the concrete floor.
"Yeah… before Helen made it go poof."
"So this Cutter fellow… where do we find him?"
"With any luck, he'll find us."
Becker's men entered the lab first, keeping Cutter, Connor, Abby, Hatter, and Jessica all back. It wasn't long before Becker gave the all clear and summoned Cutter.
Cutter stepped into the lab, not sure what to expect. Instead of creatures or even an open anomaly, two people sat casually in chairs. One was a dark-haired girl who bore a striking resemblance to both Connor and Hatter. The other was Connor himself. An older, more mature Connor in dirty, torn clothes.
"Cutter! It's good to see ya," Connor said, standing up to hug his confused mentor.
"Connor? What—?"
"There's not much time. Helen's on her way. She's got a bunch of clones. She's going to kill you."
"How do you—?"
The older Connor shook his head. "I'm from the future. Yes, I came through an anomaly. I need your help stopping Helen. Oh, and this is Sarah Hatter. I found her in the future—the far future. She was almost lunch for a few Predators."
"Hatter? Your surname's Hatter?" Cutter asked the girl.
She nodded, extending a hand. "Sarah Jessica Hatter, at your service."
"Your father… his name's David, right?"
"You know my da? Where is he? Da!" Sarah said, moving toward the hallway.
Hatter appeared, sweeping her into his arms. "Jabberwock, oh, my little girl…" he muttered, holding her tight. Tears seemed to fill both their eyes.
Cutter stared at the pair, then at Connor, in disbelief. "What has Helen done?"
"She killed Abby in my time. She's trying to destroy the ARC. That's why I'm here—to stop her in her tracks. She's got an opening device. She's controlling anomalies. When she comes here today, she won't have the device yet. She'll have an artifact. It's a timemap. The knowledge in the timemap combined with the opener will allow you to control anomalies," Connor said. "If you help me and well, myself, then we might be able to stop her."
"Of course. Anything I can do," Cutter agreed.
A while later, while the two Connor Temples worked in his lab on the opening device, Hatter and his two daughters sat in a separate lab. Jessica had taken to her double rather well and Sarah hadn't seemed at all fazed.
"So… Damon's taken the throne?" Sarah asked her blonde double.
"Yes. He's unstable. He's bloodthirsty beyond what his grandmother was. He beat me half-to-death, then left me in a shallow grave. I'm afraid what he's done to my brother, Kyle."
"He's alive? In your world?"
Jessica nodded. "I saw him when I escaped the palace. I can't go back there. He'll be waiting for me."
"What happened?"
"I killed the Queen of Hearts. Damon will have a warrant for my arrest by now. He doesn't know I'm alive. He thinks I'm a distant cousin. Ana of Diamonds."
Sarah smiled. "Then he's in for a shock. A bit of blood and dirt and he'll be seeing ghosts."
"Jabberwock…" Hatter started, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. "You aren't…"
"Of course I am. I have to find Connor."
"But it was Kyle I saw," Jessica protested. "Not your brother."
"But where there's one, there's the other. If Connor's in Wonderland, he's in a lot of trouble. He can't help it. Especially since he's the one who killed Damon before."
Hatter cleared his throat. "Sarah, luv, settle down. We have no idea what's happening in Wonderland at the moment…"
"I highly doubt he's collecting exotic pets with all of us missing."
His temperamental daughter was pacing the room. It hurt to see her all worked up. Hatter had become used to be trapped in the past over the last few years. To run into an alternate version of his daughter and then his real daughter in the same day was a bit daunting.
"You're right, Jabberwock. But we can't just jump into this without looking. We could all get killed."
"He's right, Sarah. I don't know what will have happened by the time we make it back. It's possible Kyle could be dead, too," Jessica said softly.
"And doesn't that bother you? He's my brother!"
Hatter touched Sarah's shoulder. "Did you try the little thing…?"
"Of course! It's been dead since I fell! I can't reach him at all!"
Jessica opened her mouth to speak, then closed it.
"He's stronger than he looks, luv. I'm sure he's fine," Hatter said softly.
Sarah stepped into his arms. "What if he's not? He didn't even want to go! This is all my fault. I pushed him through the mirror…"
He rubbed his daughter's back, letting her cry. She melted further into his arms, dissolving into tears. Hatter knew no words would comfort her. He knew it because there was nothing anyone could say to him to quell his own fears about his wife and son. It was his job to stay strong.
But standing there, in the ARC, with Sarah in his arms, Hatter no longer felt strong.
Night fell in the forest. Connor and Kyle had rejoined their remaining allies at a small campsite. A fire roared, keeping away some of the night chill, as the Resistance fell asleep one by one.
Kyle and Connor were the only ones awake. Using a bit of water and a rag, Kyle had helped wipe the worst of the blood from Connor's skin. The younger man still seemed to be in shock from his actions. Kyle couldn't blame him.
"Don't worry. Soon we'll get rid of Damon. Then this nightmare will be over."
Connor didn't respond. He hadn't spoken much in the past few hours.
"Your sister would be proud of you."
Connor turned his back to him, curling up into a small ball against a tree. Kyle sighed, laying down on the forest floor. "Good night, little brother," he whispered.
Author's Notes:
I'm not too happy with this chapter, but I had to start getting everyone together for the big finale. Anyways, thanks for reading, reviewing, and voting! Sarah will be reuniting with Chase in the next chapter and there's going to be a Helen showdown coming up.
Thanks!
