Chapter Text
Maddox couldn’t believe he had lost. He had the pocket watch in his clutches and the next thing he knew, his son was turning his back on him and Red was running away with his pocket watch. It had been clear that Red didn’t realize that he remembered the other timeline as well. She had started monologuing to him about how he was her friend before. He regretted ever giving her the pocket watch, what was he thinking? He should have known that if Red turned her mom good, she would no longer be so focused on herself and her dictatorship that his plans flew under the radar. He was so close to taking over Wonderland (with a fast track to take over Auradon after), that he thought giving it to her would be harmless. Clearly not, the Queen of Hearts realized what he was doing and had him sent to the Isle of the Lost and though he escaped, having to live in the shadows slowed things considerably.
He had almost done it, taken over Wonderland. The pocket watch was just the icing on the cake at the time. Now he actually needed it to get back to the original timeline, where he still had plans and the Queen of Hearts didn’t have so many loyal supporters to protect her. He would be on a first-class trip to the past right now if it weren’t for his ingrate of a son. That was his first mistake, trusting someone, even if they were his own flesh and blood. Now those kids were on their way back to Auradon with the pocket watch while Maddox was forced to slink into the darkest depths of wonderland in order to avoid the queen’s guard who were now pursuing him. He ran through the woods, feeling his skin get torn by brambles and tripping over half-decomposed logs. The bottoms of his feet started to burn and he nearly lost his hat a number of times.
After what felt like days trekking through the wonderland wilderness on foot, he finally found what he was looking for. Maddox knew he was confident in his plan, but, luckily, he wasn’t so arrogant that he didn’t have a backup plan if things went south. He had managed to hide supplies in a cave he had found when wandering the woods as a child. It was miles away from any marked civilization and he wasn’t likely to be bothered here. Of course, he would have preferred it if a backup cave weren’t necessary, but he was glad to have it all the same.
The entrance was covered with branches, moss and leaves, still wet from a recent rain storm. He pulled them away from the hole and peered inside. The air was wet and cold, but there were no obvious puddles inside. He cautiously crept inside and felt for the candle and matches he had left for himself and watched the space fill with light. After that, he was quick to start a fire and set everything up for he knew the sooner he finished, the sooner he could plan his revenge.
He knew he had to get to the past. He lost the pocket watch and he was more likely to be arrested at this point than he was to successfully retrieve it. But wait. Not many people knew that Hatters carried magic, they don’t often use it, and when they do it’s not in a typical way. But their family’s magic was as old as Wonderland itself and deeply shaped by the land. Hatter magic didn’t follow most magical rules and they could do things that most other magic users could not. It was his family’s magic that had created the pocket watch in the first place. Hatters were the only ones in history ever known to be able to use their magic to distort time in any way. Maybe he didn’t need the pocket watch after all.
First, he would need something to concentrate the magic into, like the pocket watch. He didn’t even have a normal one of those now, but he did have a monocle, stolen off the white rabbit himself, it would suit his purposes nicely. He placed his hat on the ground in front of him and placed the monocle inside. He could feel his magic building in his core and dancing around his fingers. The flames around him started to flicker and a light purple mist began pouring from his hat. This was it, it was working! Maddox couldn’t believe it was this simple all along. The magic tightened around him before giving out in a dramatic sigh. The flames returned to normal and when he reached into the hat, the monocle remained the same.
“Ahhhhhh!” He yelled in exasperation. “I need more power!” But where could he get it? He would need a very specific type of magic for this to work and that magic could only be found in a…Hatter… Of course! It seemed Max would be getting another chance after all to prove his loyalty to his family. But how to reach him. He was in Auradon, after all. He couldn’t risk leaving and getting caught, so he would have to bring Max to the cave. That could be arranged. He may not have enough magic to create a time piece, but he certainly had enough for this.
—
Max wanted to throw himself out of the carriage. Reds mom, the Queen of Hearts had thanked them all about ten times each before insisting they take the royal carriage to get back to school. He heard Red ask her mom about the car her and Pink had taken to school, but her mother brushed her off and called for the carriage.
The carriage itself wouldn’t be so bad, it was large and comfortable and seemed to glide across the bumpy path as if it were going across a smooth sheet of glass. No, the carriage was fine, but the people on the other hand, were another story entirely. Max somehow ended up seated between Luis and Hazel and despite the fact that they had just worked together to defeat his father, he could feel them glowering at each other over his head. Hazel had even tried to bring him in on her side a couple of times but he quickly excused himself from any conversation between the two. It didn’t help that for the past few days, any time he saw Luis, his words would get stuck in his mouth and he would feel his face get hot. He didn’t understand why that was happening, but it was happening a lot, considering they had been traveling together.
The other side of the carriage wasn’t a picnic either and he didn’t envy Pink, but at least she wasn’t in the middle. Red and Chloe had been acting weird ever since school began, not that he knew them all that well before all this happened, but they seemed to work well together. But now that they won, Max could feel the tension between the two, he saw them glance at each other while the other wasn’t looking and noticed that they had this annoying habit of starting to talk to each other at the same time, pause, apologize, blush and go silent until the cycle started again.
Max also avoided making eye contact or talking to anyone besides Hazel, he was frankly scared to see distrust or betrayal in their eyes. He had sided with them in the end, but he had almost helped his father succeed, and there was no changing that. A part of him also felt bad for turning on his father the way that he had. His father had escaped the isle when he was little so Max hadn’t known his father well, but he was still his father and Max cared about him and he knew, deep down, that his father cared about him too. He would make it right one day, once his father stopped trying to take over the world.
They were almost done with the four-day journey, just five minutes from Auradon Prep, when a letter slipped into the carriage. The outside simply read “Max Hatter” in swooping cursive. Max grabbed in and inspected it for a moment before breaking the generic red wax seal and opening the letter. Inside, he found nothing. “Weird,” he muttered.
The next thing he knew, Max felt the world tilt and suddenly he was standing before his father in a dark, wet room, with only a fire lighting the space. “Father?” was all he could say while he tried to get his bearings.
“If it isn’t my traitor son.” his father sneered.
“I’m sorry, father, we couldn’t let you destroy everything.” Max dipped his head.
“I expected you to be loyal to me, not the whole freaking world. What did the world ever do for you? I’m your father, doesn’t that mean something to you?”
“Of course it does! But-”
“Bup bup bup… The past is in the past, I have a new job for you. So you can prove your loyalty to me once and for all. You are loyal to me, right?”
“Father, it’s not that simple-”
“Yes! Or no! It’s as easy as that.”
Max debated his options and his answers in his head for a second. “What do you need from me?”
“Simple.” His father replied, “I need your magic.”
“My magic? We don’t have magic.”
“On the contrary, through your veins runs magic and mysterious as Wonderland. Our family created the pocket watch and I’m not powerful enough to create a new one on my own. I need help from a Hatter.”
Max took a moment before an “I’m sorry” escaped his mouth. “I can’t help you.”
“Yes you can.” His father stood up, angry, “and you will! You owe me boy!”
It took all of Max’s willpower not to flinch back, “I can’t help you do the very thing we just worked so hard to prevent you from doing.”
“You ungreatful little..” His father’s vocabulary seemed to short circuit for a moment.
“Father, I am loyal to you but I won’t-”
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Get. Out.”
“But-”
“If you won’t help me, I don’t want to look at your face anymore.”
“Okay, but… I have no clue where we are. Can you send me back?”
Max watched his father contemplate his request before he saw something click behind his eyes. Suddenly his father grumbled out a “fine” before grabbing a piece of paper and writing something on it in what appeared to be invisible ink. Without facing Max again, he passed the paper behind him with a clipped “here.”
Max looked at the paper, “I won’t tell anyone I was here or where you are, not that I know for sure myself.” He then grabbed the sheet and felt the world tilt again and found himself standing in the middle of his dorm at Auradon.
—
Maddox couldn’t believe that he had raised a son like that. No loyalty whatsoever. And who had taught him to care about other people?
No matter, Maddox had found a way to get enough power for the time piece and a way to get revenge all at once and all he had to do was wait.