Chapter Text
Whoever came up with the saying, "Time heals all wounds", clearly never had the misfortune of meeting a Hatter.
Time. Ordinary people love to romanticize it, treating it like some miraculous remedy to be taken in daily spoonfuls. "Time heals", they say with knowing smiles. "Time fixes everything. Just give it time". What a beautiful, hypocritical, and comforting lie.
Time doesn't heal anything at all; it simply buries. It works like a silent sandstorm, covering old scars and buried traumas beneath layers of dust thick enough that you eventually stop looking at them. You move on, believing you've healed, until one ordinary day, someone brushes that dust away. And suddenly, the wound opens again. It hurts with exactly the same intensity as it did the very first time.
Trust me. If there's one family in all the fairy tale realms that knows a thing or two about the tyranny of time, it's ours. And apparently... I was foolish enough to challenge it.
I'd love to lie and say there was some brilliant, meticulously crafted plan behind everything that happened next. But there wasn't. There was no strategy, only the prelude to chaos.
When Headmistress Uma's invitation arrived in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts accepted it without a second's hesitation. That alone should have been my first warning. Her Majesty never took a single step without a hidden purpose. Even so, fate has a twisted sense of humor: I was the one who placed that cursed invitation into her hands.
Not long afterward, I watched Red step through the Rabbit Hole beside her mother. And against every ounce of common sense I possessed, I allowed myself to hope. A foolish, dangerous spark of hope. I thought that maybe Auradon could change her. Maybe, away from the shouting and the oppression of Wonderland, Red would finally find the freedom she had always deserved. Maybe...
No. I should have known better. Hope has always been the most dangerous and the most expensive currency in Wonderland.
That's why I didn't think twice before following them.
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Auradon was exactly as the storybooks had always described it. A kingdom bathed in everlasting sunlight-bright, peaceful, and annoyingly safe. Everything Wonderland had never been and never dared to become. For one brief, almost imperceptible moment, the scenery convinced me. I truly believed that this clash of worlds might actually work.
Then, Her Majesty smiled. It wasn't a polite smile. It was the smile of a predator that had just cornered its prey.
With one fluid motion of her enchanted deck of cards, the welcoming ceremony descended into absolute terror. Playing cards sliced through the air like sharpened blades. Card Soldiers, marching in perfect formation, stormed the pristine courtyard. Students scattered in every direction as screams echoed against the school's stone walls. Within seconds, the illusion of safety crumbled. Auradon now belonged to the Queen of Hearts.
"Stop, Bridget!" Cinderella pleaded, stepping forward. "You're better than this!"
"Let her through," Her Majesty ordered the guards with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"This has gone too far," Cinderella insisted. "I know what happened was painful, but it was a long time ago!"
For one brief, frozen moment, the Queen's cruel smile vanished. A flicker of raw vulnerability and bitterness crossed her face, exposing a wound that time's dust had never truly managed to bury.
"It feels like yesterday to me," Her Majesty replied coldly.
"It was just a stupid prank," Cinderella said, trying to lessen the weight of the past. A fatal mistake.
"'Stupid?'" Her Majesty repeated, her voice dropping into something dangerously calm. "If it had been stupid, perhaps it could have been forgiven. But humiliating a girl at her very first school dance? Turning her into a monster in front of everyone? That was cruelty."
I lowered my gaze, feeling the weight of her words settle in my chest. She wasn't wrong. At least, not about that. That prank had been the spark that created Wonderland's monster.
"You're right..." Cinderella began, realizing her mistake.
"You didn't care," the Queen cut in, her voice dripping with mockery. "You were too busy with your prince. But you'll care now... All of you will show me the respect I deserve!"
She raised her gloved hand with the absolute authority of a queen. "Kneel."
"I will never kneel before a tyrant," Cinderella declared, lifting her chin with unwavering dignity.
The Queen tilted her head, studying her resistance with cynical boredom.
"She has defied a royal command," she observed before turning those cold, calculating eyes toward Red. "Now then, my dear... what should we do about it?" Red froze. The weight of the world crashed down onto her shoulders all at once.
Red turned to Cinderella, desperation shaping every word she spoke. "Look... you just have to swear your loyalty. Is it really that hard?" she asked, her voice trembling.
"If it means betraying everything I believe in..." Cinderella held the young rebel's gaze. "...then yes. It is."
Silence returned, sharp enough to cut. Her Majesty turned back to her daughter. "Where does your loyalty lie, Red? With these strangers... or with your mother?" My heart stopped. I knew exactly what the Queen wanted her daughter to do. "Make me proud... just this once." I saw the panic in Red's eyes as I watched the entire scene unfold in horror. She could barely breathe. My stomach sank.
No. This can't be happening.
"Please, Bridget..." Cinderella pleaded, clearly seeing the terror on the girl's face. "Even your own daughter knows this is wrong. She can't do this." I wished that were true. Red looked at me... Then back at her mother. She knew there was no way out.
"Treason..." Red whispered. "She's guilty of treason." The words had barely left her mouth before instant regret washed over her face. I let out a quiet sigh, desperately searching for a solution. Around us, whispers spread through the crowd.
"Like mother, like daughter."
"She's just as cruel as the Queen."
Idiots. Not even we Hatters are foolish enough to openly defy the Queen's will.
"Exactly, my dear..." Her Majesty said proudly, making my stomach churn. How had everything come to this? "And therefore... Off with her head!"
The entire courtyard erupted into a cacophony of horror. Chloe rushed forward, only for the Card Soldiers to move like a wall of steel, blocking her path. Cinderella stepped between them, shielding her daughter. Everyone was shouting at once.
"I knew it was in you all along," Her Majesty said to Red amidst the chaos, her voice filled with pride. "After all... you will make a magnificent Queen."
I wanted to stop it. I wanted to step forward, to shout, to interrupt the sentence, to say anything that would break the spell of that impending execution. Anything. But my legs felt like stone. So I stood there. Frozen. Watching history unfold exactly as the gears of fate had decreed.
Red turned toward me, desperation written all over her face. I watched her glance at my coat... then back at me.
It was obvious what she was asking. My right hand instinctively slipped into the inside pocket of my coat. The watch. The time machine. The only solution to this chaos.
I took a deep breath... I looked around at the madness unfolding before me... I have to go back... Go back... To before I handed the acceptance letter to the Queen. Even if that means Red has to remain trapped in Wonderland... It's better than carrying the weight of helping this coup succeed.
Yeah... Either this... Or we're all going to lose our heads.
Click.
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The click of the trigger wasn't followed by the familiar silence of my workshop in Wonderland. Instead, the world around me was violently torn apart by a vortex of golden light and hot-pink smoke. Reality itself ripped open as gravity yanked me downward, sending me crashing toward the ground as though I were falling through the Rabbit Hole itself.
My mind desperately clung to the destination I had programmed. The palace. The letter. Wonderland.
But the watch ignored my thoughts. No... Of course it didn't. I knew its mechanism better than anyone. More importantly, I knew the one rule, the fundamental law, I had carved into the very heart of its gears. "My time machine... it takes you to the moment in time that can give you what your heart wants most."
...Damn it.
When the dizziness finally faded and the cold night air filled my lungs, I didn't hear the Card Soldiers. Nor the familiar silence of my workshop.
I heard music. Laughter. A prom...
I opened my eyes and looked around in confusion. I was standing in a garden, the icy breeze making the perfectly trimmed trees sway gently. My gaze followed the stone pathway until it landed on an old wooden sign.
Merlin Academy.
No.
My heart dropped.
No, no, no...
I looked down at my hands. They were smaller. My fingers brushed against my face. My body... Lighter. Thinner.
I was back in my teenage body.
I was at Merlin Academy.
I had returned...
To that cursed night.
The night of the prank.
"By my hat..." I muttered under my breath. "What the hell am I supposed to do now?"
I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Damn it. A stupid school prom...
Wait... Maybe...
My heart began to race. If the music was still playing... If people were still laughing... Then...
Without thinking twice, I bolted toward the ballroom. I shoved the massive wooden doors open, desperately searching for her.
Not the Queen of Hearts.
But Bridget.