When Rafferty woke up, she was hanging; her arms were in chains. Her first thought was not exactly settling.

Great, I'm back in Wonderland.

Maybe I never left.

"Sparkles, you're awake," she heard a voice say.

Rafferty looked up and saw Alex with Malice standing in front of her. Behind him was the strange girl with the blue hair and the cracks in her skin, the one he called Calamity J.

Oh yeah, right.

This isn't better.

'Do you know what this is?" Alex asked.

He was holding something in front of her face. It looked like a transparent shotgun shell, only it was pale yellow inside.

Rafferty grunted.

"It's a bean bag round. It inflates and slows down, so it won't quite kill you, just hurt like hell. And if I hit you just right, which, of course, I did, it'll knock you right out,' he said.

Great. Knowledge is power.

"You know, people says that times are tough, this world is harsh, nobody cares about each other…. They talk about Before. Before was nice. Do you know how many different ways the people from Before invented to hurt and kill each other? Do you have any idea? The numbers of hours, the number of generations they spent getting all the nuances just right…. The people from Before, they were messed up. I mean, really, what must their mothers have done to them?" Alex said, pacing as he talked.

Rafferty wasn't really paying attention. Her eyes were fixed on Calamity J, at the back of the room. The girl was staring at her, had been the whole time, and she was swaying back and forth.

For just a moment, Rafferty had a powerful memory, of a message sprayed onto the side of a building in Wonderland.

Hey Beautiful, I don't think you're going to find your girl.

But when it's time, I think she'll find you.

Rafferty couldn't move her hands, so she gestured toward Calamity with her head.

"How?" she asked.

"Isn't she wonderful?" Alex asked, practically beaming as he turned around and looked at Calamity.

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Alex reached up and grabbed Rafferty's right hand, pulling it tight against the slack in the chain. The hand was still warm, and red, and weird. He looked at it for a moment, and tapped each of her knuckles in turn, before he spoke.

"It hurts just to touch her, doesn't it?" he continued. "We had no idea that was going to happen. Imagine our surprise. But that's how science works, isn't it? You know, a lot of the biggest discoveries from Before were accidents. Some of them even killed or crippled the people who discovered them. That's how you could tell the really important ones."

He talks a lot and doesn't say anything. He's like an evil Vincent.

"How?" she repeated, and pointed with her head again. According to everything the Hunters had ever been told, Calamity shouldn't exist.

"I had been wanting to get my hands on some God material for a long time. I knew I could make a profound impression on this world if I had some. We had people out there waiting, just for that, for ages. Finally, a few months ago, someone helpfully left this really big one lying around out in the Breaks, and we were off and running. And once we got started tinkering, we just knew we needed to keep going, and the ideas really started rolling in, and that led us to Calamity," he said.

Wait? A really big one? Does he mean my Class Four?

"Cover your ears, Calamity," Alex said.

The girl obeyed, but she didn't stop staring at Rafferty, and she didn't stop swaying back and forth.

"Truth be told, Calamity J is a work in progress. She's beautiful, don't get me wrong. She's a pioneer… an angry, angry pioneer. But she's far from perfect. Really just a vessel. No control. I need something more," Alex said quietly.

"Ok, darling, you can listen now," he said louder, and Calamity took her hands down from her ears.

"I'm still alive. You want something," Rafferty said, trying to sound as tough as she could.

"I want everything," he said proudly. "Once you get to know me, you'll understand that. Right now, Sparkles, at this very moment, you and I are in the middle of something, and when that something is done, you're going to look me in the eyes and you're going to say yes. As soon as I saw you pull out that sword I knew it was going to be yes. But that's not today. Today is a learning day."

When he finished, Alex stepped forward and punched Rafferty in the stomach. She grunted as the air was forced from her lungs. Rafferty coughed, and then looked backed at him.

"You should know, I suck at learning," she said, and spat in his face.

Alex wiped himself off, and rolled up his sleeves, the smile never leaving his face.

"That's ok. I'm a good teacher. Just ask Calamity J. I mean, why do you think they call me Alex with Malice?"

"Because you told them to?" Rafferty asked, and risked a little smile.

The smile remained, but Alex stopped, and the corner of his lip flared up, so it was more a sneer. Rafferty thought she had gotten to him, if only for a moment.

Alex walked over to a small table, picked something up, and came back. In his hand, he was holding a small pin. He was still for moment. He looked at the pin, and then at Rafferty. Then, all in one motion, he stepped forward and shoved the pin into the skin under Rafferty's right eye, as far as it would go.

Rafferty gritted her teeth to keep from screaming. Alex stepped back and looked her, apparently pleased with himself. The room filled with a loud, strange sound, and Rafferty realized that Calamity was howling.

"Don't be afraid of pain, Sparkles. Pain is how we testify," Alex said.

Rafferty was brave for a long time. Near the end she was screaming, and when the corners of the world started to go dark, she was glad for it.