Chapter Text
When Chloe opened her eyes again, she wasn't sure where she was. Even though everything seemed strange to her familiar , Chloe was sure she had never seen a place that was so neglected and destroyed.
Then, memories of what had happened began to come flooding into her mind. The war, her father, her brother, she had run as far as she could, and when a guard had found her...
The supposed Princess of Hearts had rescued her.
As she stood up, she felt a pain run through her leg, causing her to groan lightly in pain, but she tried to ignore it. It wasn't important, first I had to…
"Chloe!" Turning her head, Chloe found her mother's face. An immense joy invaded her when she realized that she was at her side and well, and a mischievous smile formed on her face.
"Where are we?" She asked her mother, still trying to identify where the stone walls that towered above them were from.
Chloe looked around curiously as she tried to process where she was. Although the stone walls and grand Gothic arches of the place looked vaguely familiar, they were worn and cracked, overrun with vines and damp stains. The torches that would once have illuminated the room were unlit or hung askew from the walls.
And then, when she looked back at the old throne that stood in the center of the place, her brain was finally able to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. She turned to her mother, unfocused and amazed, surprised at what she was seeing.
"This seems... no, it can't be. Are we at home?" Chloe asked, trying to move through the place, "What happened? Did the guards do this? At what time?”
Ella, for her part, shook her head. Bridget's words were still echoing in her head, and the clock they had activated was proof that they had been teleported somewhere else.
That place could very well be a trap. Plus, Bridget and her daughter were nowhere to be found, and that was even more suspicious. She was sure they had traveled with them.
Furthermore, seeing her daughter's condition, it was best that she not move. Chloe had wounds all over her body. And it was only a matter of taking a quick glance to realize that Chloe was completely soaked, and her shivering body was just proof that the cold was taking its toll on her.
"Chloe, don't move too much. You are badly injured. You need to rest," she told her firmly, standing up as well, but only to make her daughter stop moving.
Chloe frowned, gently pushing her mother's hand away, before pushing it away.
"Don't worry, mom, I'm fine." She lied, but it wasn't the time to worry her mother. "We just... we need to know where we are. Dad! Dad and Chad were in their room when…”
Ella, however, tried to stop her. Bridget's words about only saving them and not her husband, still echoed in her head. She felt a stab of pain in her chest, but tried to contain it. Death was already something she and Charming had talked about, and they had both accepted the fact of that possibility.
She just never expected it to be so abrupt.
"Chloe, listen," Ella said with a sterner tone, trying to keep her in her place. "You have no idea what's happening or how we got here. And I'm not going to let you," she insisted, placing both hands on her daughter's shoulders to make sure she didn't try to move again.
Chloe looked at her in frustration.
"Mom, I can't sit still. There's something here that's not right. Also, where is the Princess of Hearts? She…”
Before she could continue, the door of the place opened suddenly, and Chloe and Ella, when they turned, found a girl with red hair, with a sword in her hand, and completely bathed in blood.
"Chloe!" She exclaimed, and the blue-haired girl immediately moved her hands towards her sword, unsheathing it with effort, but ready to fight.
She wasn't going to let them hurt her mother. And she definitely wasn't going to allow herself to be knocked unconscious again.
"Stay away from us!" She shouted, putting herself on guard. "If you think you're going to be able to imprison us, or worse yet, kill us, you're very wrong."
Red bit her lip, thinking about how to make Chloe see that the last thing she wanted was to lock her in a dungeon. Of course, she knew it had been a terrible idea to arrive in that outfit, but she had no choice.
Those were the problems with arriving in places other than time travel. As soon as she realized that Chloe and Ella were not with her and her mother in the woods, she had run out to find them.
"I don't want to do that" She assured, approaching slowly, "Please, let me explain everything to you. We start off on the left foot and…”
Red had to dodge Chloe's sword attack to escape completely unscathed. Chloe's sword cut the air just millimeters from Red's face, and the latter quickly backed away, raising her own weapon to block the next attack.
Chloe's strength and determination were impressive, considering how badly injured and exhausted she was. Each blow of her sword echoed through the room, a declaration that she would not give up easily.
"Chloe, listen! I don't want to fight you!" Red shouted, trying to dodge the attacks without responding with one of her own.
"Lie!" Chloe responded, her eyes full of anger and adrenaline. "You are from Wonderland! All of you only know how to bring death and destruction! I will never trust someone like you!”
Red gritted her teeth, blocking another blow. The force behind the attack caused her to take a couple of steps back. It was there that she realized a reality.
Chloe was extremely good with a sword, a professional swordswoman, and Red didn't even know it. Memories of the first times they met came flooding back to her, and how she had once accidentally attacked Chloe.
For anyone, that attack would have split her face in two, disfiguring her. But Chloe had barely been scratched, a wound on her cheek. That was just proof of her skillful reflexes, which she had not paid attention to before.
"I'm not like them! Please listen to me!”
But Chloe didn't seem interested in her words. Her sword swung at Red again with astonishing speed, and this time, Red barely managed to get her own in the way of deflecting the attack.
"By Merlin... You're good with a sword!" Red said, almost out of breath, as she dodged a cut aimed at her side.
The words were not just a compliment. Chloe was skilled, incredibly skilled. The fluidity of her movements and the precision of her strikes were natural, as if the art of the sword were an extension of her body.
Red was forced to block another attack, this time with a firmer movement. Their swords crossed, and both stood face to face, a few centimeters apart.
"Please, Chloe, let me explain," Red insisted, panting. "I am Red of Hearts. The daughter of the Queen of Hearts, yes, but I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to save you.”
Chloe narrowed her eyes, not letting her guard down.
"Save me? About what? Of yourself?" she said sarcastically, pushing Red back with a sharp swing of her sword.
Red stumbled, but managed to keep her balance, raising her weapon just in time to deflect another attack.
"From death, Chloe!" she exclaimed, desperate. "I traveled back in time to find you! You... you were going to die that same night!”
The words made Chloe hesitate for a brief moment. Her sword stopped halfway, but her eyes were still filled with distrust.
"What kind of trick is this?" she asked, although her tone was less aggressive.
Red took advantage of the moment to lower her sword slightly and raise a hand in a sign of truce.
"It's not a trick," she said sincerely. "Look around you, Chloe. This place… this is your castle, but from the future. It is destroyed. Let me explain, please.”
But when Chloe finally looked like she was going to give in, someone else appeared in the door. Someone who made Chloe's barriers go on alert again.
"Ella!" The cry of the Queen of Hearts was heard, and Chloe took up her sword again. If she had died, if all that was happening... It was because of the Queen of Hearts.
"You!" Chloe spat with a fury that not even fatigue could extinguish. "This is all your fault! Your people destroyed my home, my family! You are a monster!”
Bridget turned to look at Chloe, completely enraged, and then at Red. Apparently, it had been a bad idea to tell Red to go ahead to find the two Charmings. It seemed like a battle had been fought, and that, for a couple more seconds, Red would have ended up the loser.
She figured then she was in trouble. She raised her hands in a sign of peace, trying to smile kindly at Chloe, but that didn't help anything.
"Chloe, please listen to me," she began, trying to sound calm. "I'm not here to fight with you.”
"I already told her that," Red told her. Trying to think of a way to calm her down, if only she could take away her sword...
However, Chloe was not willing to listen to a word of anything the royalty of Wonderland might say. She took a step forward, even though it felt like the heaviest step she had ever taken, the adrenaline finally leaving her body.
"Not one more step!" she shouted, aiming directly at Bridget's heart. "I'm not going to let you come near us. I am going to rid this world of your existence, which will be a favor to all of us.”
"No!" Red shouted, grabbing the dagger of her sword tightly. She didn't want to attack Chloe, she had never seen the girl so angry and irascible, but if she had no other option, then…
"Chloe, stop it!" Ella intervened, holding her daughter by the shoulders. "This is not the time for this. We need to think clearly.”
Chloe turned her head towards her mother in disbelief.
"Are you really going to defend her!? After everything she's done to us!”
Ella swallowed, struggling with the words she wanted to say. She knew that Bridget had responsibility for all of this, but she also knew that if they were alive at that moment, it was thanks to her. Not that that made her hate her any less, but she knew that letting Chloe follow her impulses wasn't the best of ideas. Her daughter needed to rest, she needed someone to take care of her wounds, they needed to know where they were, and all that, only Bridget and... Her daughter could give it to her?
Bridget didn't have a daughter, of that she could be completely sure.
"This is not about defending anyone," she responded firmly. "It's about surviving. Please, Chloe… put the sword down.”
Chloe hesitated for a moment, but before she could decide, Red took a step forward, putting herself between her mother and Chloe.
"Chloe, stop it," Red said, with a firm voice, but full of pleading. "Don't let this end worse than it already is.”
Bridget took advantage of the distraction to take her daughter by the shoulders and gently push her back.
"Red, back off," Bridget said with a stern tone, her eyes seeking to control the situation. "Let me handle this.”
However, Chloe saw the opportunity and took it. With a sudden movement, she released her mother's grip and ran into the adjacent hallway.
If she couldn't fight the Queen of Hearts at that moment, if she couldn't kill her at that moment, she had to escape to fight another day. And escape to find the truth about the reality of everything that was happening to her.
"Chloe!" Ella shouted, moving to follow her, but Red was faster.
"I'll bring her back," Red promised before disappearing after Chloe.
The room fell into a tense silence. Ella, her eyes filled with suppressed fury, turned to Bridget, who remained motionless.
"This is your fault," Ella whispered.
Bridget opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't get the chance. Ella crossed the distance between them and gave her a hard slap that echoed through the room.
"You've ruined my life!" she screamed, tears streaming down her face. "What right did you have? What right did you have to decide who lives and who dies? It wasn't your decision!”
Bridget didn't react to the blow. She looked down, fully accepting each of the mistakes she had made. She had, once again, let Madness take over her, just to hurt Ella.
"Ella, I... I'm sorry," Bridget murmured, but her words sounded empty even to herself.
"Sorry won't fix anything," she snapped. "You've ruined my life, Bridget. Are you now happy with what you have formed?”
Bridget could do nothing but look away. Deep down, she knew Ella was right.
With each step she took, Chloe realized that the hallways were becoming more and more familiar, that the stairs were familiar, that the living room was strangely familiar.
In her head, she only had to continue denying the reality that was presented before her eyes. It was in the remains of what had once been her palace.
No! That couldn't be true! Their home couldn't be in that state, that was completely unacceptable, it couldn't be true!
Her castle couldn't be in that state.
The cold began to fill her lungs, and she had the urge to cough. But if she stopped, something told her she wouldn't be able to get her rhythm back.
She had to get out and get lost as quickly as possible. She had to know what had happened to her dad and her brother, to all her people, and then… Then she had to think of an idea to defeat the Queen of Hearts.
She was going to fulfill her father's promise, she was going to make her legacy last. She was going to protect what little they had left, even if her life depended entirely on it.
However, when she finally reached the main doors and opened them, she was completely stunned. The cold of the snow that was falling penetrated her to the bones. The air finally disappeared from the eyes, and her eyes became unfocused.
In the distance, she could see a small town that seemed to have lost all the splendor it once knew. The patio of the place no longer left her doubts; Chloe could remember the times when she would play a snowball fight with Chad. The snow angels that she had made with her father and mother.
Chloe now had no doubt that she was in her castle, that she was in her kingdom, Cinderellasburg. But when she turned her head, she found nothing but a pile of old ruins, destroyed by the passage of time.
Where were they? What had happened? If that was her reality, that meant… Did that mean she had failed? Had they lost? They... Had she really lost everything?
"Chloe!" Red shouted, running to catch her in her arms when she saw that the girl closed her eyes and began to lose her balance.
Finally, the pressure had gotten the better of her.