"1000 years"

The voice bounced on the empty space and came back.

"Is it really? Does it take that long?"

Xandra looked at the empty spaces that were normally occupied by her colleagues. She moved with an ease that comes with spending hours at a place. Her stomach growled as she pulled out her chicken sandwich from the fridge and grilled it over the Bunsen burner.

"Has it been a thousand years since those fragments were found?"

"Humm, I smell something yummy." Cad wore the exact same green uniform that Xandra did with the exception that he preferred not to wear his Lab coat while Xandra preferred not to take it off.

"Cad it's a thousand years today and still we have not unlocked its secret." Cad sat opposite her and watched her grill.

"Well, you have to agree your research is complicated. I mean it's the motherload of complicated. There have been so many researchers and they have had no success. At least you seem to be making some progress." Cad was now eying the cheese as it melted out of the sides of the bread.

"I know! It's like the fragments have a mind of their own! They blast or shatter...it's so strange." She tossed him half a sandwich in a Petri dish.

"Don't forget they aren't any old fragments."

"100 pieces"

"What?"

"I said a 100 pieces. Only a 100 pieces were found at the original excavation site."

"Humm" Chad mumbled. Xandra stared at him in disgust. He was more interested in the sandwich then the fragments.

"Have you had any success? You know in proving it's the real deal?" he looked at her putting down his last bite.

"You mean in proving that it's really hers."

"Yes?"

"So far nothing concrete but everything ties up perfectly. I am sure it's..."

"It's what?"

"Alice's Mirror"

"And you really think you can make it work?"

"Well I had better make it work or I wasted a hell of a lot of time!"

Cad took in the determination in her eyes.

"You can't be so emotional about your work" he said.

"What? So emotional? Aren't you?"

Cad knew she was right. His research meant the world to him and he was out of line. He couldn't help it, he was not interested in her work but as a friend supported her.

"Listen, I didn't mean that. I am just not interested in your field, you know that."

"10 years"

"What?"

"You all were chosen for your projects. I wasn't just chosen I made sure I was picked."

Cad kept quiet. He knew he had made a mistake. It was never a good idea to question a researcher about their project let alone a determined, strong willed woman who was the head of her department. He let her continue even though he knew what was to come.

"My grandmother used to read those stories to me. They were my mother's favorite and mine too. You can't imagine my amazement when I found out that the fragments actually existed. They actually existed. I was seven then and promised my mother I would be the one to unlock them. I am so close I can feel it."

"You will." Cad said plainly and changed the subject "Why is your lab empty?"

"Everyone's gone home. It's the thousand year anniversary plus we decided today"

"What! and you didn't tell me! When is it?"

"1 month"

She put away the instruments and cleared up her work space.

"Will you be ready by then?"

"Yes. Definitely"

"Woah. Wonderland. Do you think it's changed much from the stories?"

"I don't know if wonderland is there or not but it will be the breaking development in teleportation and even time travel.

"It would be the most important discovery of the millennium." Cad had finished his sandwich and walked over to door.

"It's getting real late. I had better go. Meet you at the cafeteria tomorrow? Lunch?"

"Ok"

He smiled at her and left. Xandra walked over to the specially designed case containing the fragment and stared at it. She felt a heavy weight on her shoulder.

"0 pieces"

"You're the last pieces of the mirror."

She took a deep breath and walked to the door.

"The last of my work. I cannot fail."

There was not response from the empty room only silence as she walked out and closed the door.