Reunions 2 part 8
REUNIONS 2 [PART 1] [PART 2] [PART 3] [PART 4] [4.5] [PART 5] [PART 6] [PART 7]
Alice pulled up in front of the Gotham City Community Center and fed the parking meter urgently. She climbed the small flight of stairs, skipping several steps along the way, as she moved hurriedly inside. It was a stretch to assume anyone at her support group would know anything about what was going on. It was a stretch to assume they would remember anyone coming in that seemed suspicious. But she had to try.
She knew these halls well. Several years of her life were spent here, it seemed. She remembered every spot she collapsed, leaning on the walls for support as she struggled to find the strength to carry on. She remembered which bathroom stall she locked herself in when anxiety and panic forced her to her breaking point. For the longest time this place was all she had... And maybe part of that was her own doing. She could have tried harder to make her Marriage work... She could have kept Billy and stayed with him no matter how miserable it made them...
But she wouldn’t be that selfish. Her decision allowed them both to grow as people. Now Billy was happily remarried and Alice was a stronger person than she’d ever been.. Though whether her strength was in her confidence or the growing, seething anger that was ripping her apart from the inside out. It could go either way, really.
Alice rounded a corner down another white tiled hall and in the distance she saw the door. Where her support group always met. There shouldn’t have been any meetings since it was supposed to happen yesterday but it seemed the room was in use. She’d hoped that she could talk alone to her councelor but it seemed the world had other plans. Maybe she’d missed a memo since she hadn’t attended yesterday’s meeting... For obvious reasons.
As she peeked into the room she was shocked to see her support group fully assembled and looking... More melancholy than normal. Alice saw the woman she’d gone to the movies with the night this all started with her head in her hands, seemingly weeping into her palms. Geez. It was like a funeral in there.
“Is... Everyone okay?” Alice asked hesitantly, putting her own worries aside to make sure this wasn’t an absolutely terrible time to stop in. She mustn’t forget that these people were also all victims. And their struggles were as real as her own.
“Alice?!”
They all seemed to say in unison as their attentions snapped over to her. They looked a mixture of relieved, shocked and horrified all at once upon seeing her and a great sense of unease swept the blonde.
“Oh, my god! It is you!” The crying woman leaped from her seat and practically threw her body onto Alice’s, “You’re okay! This is a miracle!”
Another woman approached, scarred from an unfortunate run-in with the Riddler and his contraptions. She looked puzzled- no pun intended- and concerned as she gently put her hands on the weeping friend’s shoulders and pulled her back, leaving Alice free but confused.
“Sorry, did I miss something? What’s a miracle?” Alice asked, looking between all the horrified faces in the room.
The scarred woman, Isadora frowned, guiding the other woman back to her chair, “What’s a- You’re alive!”
... They officially had lost her.
“Of course I’m alive. Why wouldn’t I be?” Alice asked, stepping further into the room, “What’s going on?”
The counselor stepped forward, his expression severe but a trained sort of calm. “A woman stopped by this morning. Said you’d been attacked.. Told us you’d been killed!”
Alice’s body ran cold.
“It was horrible-!” Isadora added, “Said the Mad Hatter finally got you. She came to us, told us that we deserved to know since you spent so much of your time with us over the years...Said we, fellow victims, should get to mourn one of our own.”
No... No. This... This wasn’t good. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. In some ways this was great because this meant that the person behind the attacks was under the impression Alice had, in fact been slain. They didn’t know that the mind control tech was glitchy and broken. But this meant that whatever the next step in their plan was.. They were about to start it.
And Alice left Tetch by himself with her father!
“This woman, who was she?” Alice asked, addressing the room, “What do you remember? How did she know about me?”
“Well.. She was small.. Rosy face.. Curly brown hair.. Wore a bow in it.” Her counselor began, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, “Had a white coat, maybe a lab coat, draped over her arm. Must have been on her way to or from work.”
Lab coat... That could mean anywhere in Gotham.
“Okay but how did she know me? Did she say?” Alice pressed further.
“She said she worked with you.” The crying woman spoke up again, wiping her eyes with a well used kerchief.
“But-” Isadora interjected again, “-you said you work at Arkham now, right?”
“.. Yeah. I do.”
“She was wearing a Wayne Enterprises badge on her purse.”
“It must be so strange to be back after so many years, Dr. Tetch.”
Jervis glanced out the corner of his eyes at the woman hovering over his work surface. When the woman introduced herself as Alice he had never expected her to be as friendly as the one he’d known in the past... Or more so. She seemed intensely interested in what he was doing and eager to help. He’d been hesitant to share details but when he told her he was working on a special project she practically jumped at the opportunity to help him.
Well it was about time someone appreciated his work!
“It is, miss. I can’t say I ever imagined I’d be back.” Tetch mused as he looked back down at the circuit board he was putting together. Being in his old lab was a kind of haunting comfort.. But it was also salt in an already sore wound.
“Mr. Wayne must have really seen real potential in you.” This new Alice inferred, her fingers drumming musically on the surface of the table. She bit her lip, glancing around the room before she inched ever so slightly closer. He couldn’t help but lean away at the sudden invasion of space. “Can I just say something? It has been a treat working for this company. When they told me I was gong to be studying someone else’s work instead of making my own projects I was against it. But your work? It’s incredible!”
Jervis smiled, glancing between his work, that he was trying very hard to focus on, and the friendly woman at his side.
“Ahm.. Thank you, miss. Very kind of you.”
She grinned, rosy cheeks wrinkling the corners of her eyes. Her hands found the rough draft sketch of what he was building. He didn’t expect her to be able to read his rushed chicken scratch but she read it like it was clearly typed. Like she’d perfectly memorized his terrible penmanship.
“A brainwave scanner, hm? What do you need one of those for?” She asked, curls bouncing as her head fell to once side curiously.
Again he was hesitant to share details. If only because his Alice might inflict physical harm should he say something meant to be private. ... So a little white lie wouldn’t hurt.
“Mr. Wayne asked that I continue my work for him and this is the first step.” He said curtly. Little did the woman know that this was just one part of a device he was building with Wayne’s resources. With it he’d be able to track the signal that this impostor Hatter was sending to control their drone puppets.
“Right. Right. Makes sense.” She stepped back a bit and he was thankful for the room to breathe.
‘Alice’ as she wanted to be called, wandered away to his bookshelf, letting her fingers trail tenderly over the leather spines of the book. As Jervis’ hands worked his eyes followed her, watching her practically sashay in her stride as she seemed to know exactly where to walk to get to the book she wanted. And just as he would have done she found the well worn, and well loved copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and plucked it from the shelf. He opened his mouth to ask her to please put it back when she spoke and cut him off.
“If it’s okay to ask: Why Alice in Wonderland?” She asked, flipping the book open and looking over the pages before looking over the edge at him with a slight flutter of lashes, “Of all the stories with magic and wonder.. Why this one?”
“...Why not that one?” He answered with a question of his own, “What is so wrong with wanting to escape into a world of your own creation. Where there’s nothing wrong with not understanding how the world works, or being mad because it’s all madness...” His smile fell with his gaze as he looked back down at his work. “ No one is weird or out of place in Wonderland..”
“Wow...” She breathed, letting the book fall closed as she held it to her chest warmly, “That’s a lovely sentiment.”
Jervis tried to focus on what he was doing but he felt that itching, anxiety driving feeling of another person’s eyes on him. He worked through it, ignoring that he was not alone in the room until the book in her hands dropped on to the table. The various glass instruments rattled but she didn’t even seem to notice.
“Can I just say, It’s an honor to watch you work.” She said suddenly, leaning across the table, resting coyly on her elbows, “For the last two years I’ve done nothing but study your work and... Gosh, it’s just finally nice to meet you in person. You were truly ahead of your time.”
“Heh... Thank you.” He smiled across at her, “It’s not very often my work is praised like that.”
“I’ve noticed... Minds like yours are so underappreciated in this city.” She sighed, chin falling to rest in her hands. “But I think your work is genius! Even if no one else thinks so.”
“There are others.” Tetch pointed out. “I’m here again aren’t I? I doubt Mr. Wayne would invite me back if he didn’t think I had something to offer.”
“That’s true.. I mean, you’re better at this than I am.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do well enough, miss.” He chuckled, giving in slightly to her fishing for compliments.
“I mean, I managed to recreate your technology on a very basic level but it didn’t have nearly as much finesse. Your control cards are works of art.”
His hands paused, one hovering over the box of tools at her words. His control cards... This is who they assigned to recreating his mind control technology? When she said she was studying his work he assumed she meant his published works. His thesis. His years of unrelated research. This changed things.
“There are some who would disagree...” He hummed, fishing for copper wire, “Otherwise I wouldn’t have ended up in a dreadful place like Arkham.”
He walked away from his project, opening cabinets in the hopes of finding an attachment for the brainwave monitors. Couldn’t do anything unless you could actually get it to hold on.
“Oh, but, that’s not your fault.. You were just born.. Different. And there are people who just don’t understand that.” Her voice was soft, melodious and he could feel her stepping back into his personal space as she spoke. He moved away quickly and pulled open a drawer looking for wire cutters.
It was so long ago that he worked in this lab. He couldn’t remember where he put anything.
“Though, I guess it is a shame what happened to that girl..”
Tetch pause mid stride as he walked to the shelving by his books. His blue eyes found her and his brow furrowed quizzically. Girl? Did she mean Alice? His Alice, rather. Not her. Oh, this was confusing.
... Oh. She must have meant the original incident. After all, Dr. Kates had just discussed it with him as well. Must have been a big topic of conversation before he arrived.
“I... Suppose so.” He cleared his throat, swallowing down the bitter memories and the pain in his chest. He didn’t like to think about his dear one in pain. And the longer he spent here, the longer he stayed among the memories of happier times, the more he wished he could take it all back.
“Gotham is such a ruthless city though. It warps people. Makes them do awful things.” This new Alice continued, following him back to the work station as he found the cutters. He nodded his agreement, agreeing that it must be something else to blame for his actions. After all, he would never hurt anyone he loved.
“But still... She must have been so scared, how things happened.” New Alice mused, sighing listlessly, “No one deserves to go out like that.”
......
What?
He looked up, eyes locked on her and brows raised. He tied to quickly hide the shock and confusion on his features and perhaps it could have been passed off as remorse or grief.. Did this woman just imply that Alice was... Dead? That she’d been killed?
But... She hadn’t.
Something wasn’t right here.
“... Forgive me. It slipped my mind to ask: How did you know I was here today?” He asked, pretending to not be bothered by this new information. Everything felt wrong. There were red flags raising all over this room and the woman slipping in and out of his close personal space suddenly seemed less charming.
“Oh. Sorry.” She giggled, “Dr. Kates told me you would be here. Since I’ve been working in here it only made sense that I come and supervise. Make sure you don’t ‘tamper with evidence’.” Her teasing jab at the end did nothing to ease the tense coiling of his nerves.
It was all wrong. Alice called Dr. Kates personally this morning. If Dr. Kates knew Alice was alive, then why would this woman think otherwise? And where was Mr. Pleasance? Kates was supposed to escort in back by now.
“Right... Terribly sorry to interrupt this delightful talk, but I have an associate who is supposed to be meeting me. I think I best make sure he didn’t get lost in the facility some place.” Jervis smiled tensely but politely as he moved around the edge of the table toward the door.
“What? Get lost? In this lab? There are signs everywhere!” The woman laughed openly, cutting around the other side of the table and stepping into his path, “You’re so funny! Just like your journals. Speaking of which I wanted to ask you about-”
“My dear, this has been delightful but I really must go check on my-”
“No, you don’t! He’s fine! He’s with Dr. Kates right?”
...
He narrowed his eyes, frown wrinkling his features. “How do you know that? She said that before you showed up.”
The New Alice’s face froze up. Like a child caught stealing money from their mother’s purse. Perhaps she got caught up in her ‘cleverly’ constructed lie and didn’t realize the things she shouldn’t have known. She’d slipped up.
“I-... Well.. I heard from down the hall.”
“And you stood out there for several minutes before coming in? When you’re supposed to be ‘supervising’ me?” He pressed harder, stepping once more toward the door. And again she remained in his path. “Miss, I would like to get past you.”
“No. Please. Stay. I have so much more to talk to you about! Just a little longer!” She practically began to beg, hands joined together in front of her chest and eyes large and pouty. Her long lashes fluttered in a pathetic attempt to manipulate a man known for his ability to control others. But he had heard more than enough.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I have much more important things to do right now.”
He sidestepped around her, making a straight line for the door and he heard her speak up once more as he reached for the handle.
“Fine. I didn’t want to have to do this.-”
... “I beg your pardon-WAGH!”
He turned and immediately began to hack and cough as a cloud of vapor assaulted his face. His eyes stung and his throat burned as a semi-sweet chemical invaded his mouth and nose. Despite waving it away and wiping the moisture away with his sleeve almost immediately he felt a drowsiness overcome him. The room around him began to spin and his body became heavy.
“What-... What did you-...”
The next thing he felt was the impact of the floor against his knees as he fell. He knelt there on all fours, fighting a sleep that was yanking him toward it. His eyes were getting steadily heaver and into his blurry view he saw New Alice’s dainty little feet walk up.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you, sweetie.”
Jervis tried to speak but it came out thickly muddled as he struggled to support himself on heavy limbs. He barely heard it as the door behind him slammed open and his attacker screamed shrilly.
“No. You won’t.”
“You?! You’re supposed to be-”
And everything went dark.