Chapter Text
Max Hatter woke up in the woods. He knew where he was immediately. He was a ways behind his father’s cottage in Wonderland. The thing was, he wasn’t sure how he got there. He wasn’t even sure how he was alive.
…
Max remembered the fear in Luis’ eyes as Maddox held him suspended in the air with magic. There had been no doubt, Maddox was going to kill Luis. Max couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t lose the love of his life. Luis had done what Hazel never could, he got him to stop hating the world, but he didn’t want to live in it if Luis wasn’t there with him.
He couldn’t lose his father. Maddox might survive the encounter, but Max knew that if he killed Luis, there would be no saving their relationship. He may not lose his father to death, but he would lose him in every other way possible.
Looking between his father, Luis and their friends running towards them, too far to help in time, Max made a decision. He had found a spell in one of his father’s spellbooks. It had the potential to restore his father’s mind, but it was risky. It required a lot of power. Like kill you if you’re not careful kind of power. He had been saving it for a rainy day, knowing its risks. Well it was pouring so Max got to work.
His hat had always helped him control his magic. He took it off his head and felt his magic pull at his stomach. He looked at Luis, “I love you.” he promised before he started to chant the words he had memorized all those years ago. His stomach twisted as the spell drew more and more magic.
He felt himself getting weaker but he kept going. He kept going even when his knees buckled and he was forced to the ground. He kept going when his father charged after him, unable to pass through the power of the spell. He kept going when he heard his friends yelling in the distance. The thing that almost made him stop was Luis. When his pleas managed to make it through to him, Max hesitated for a moment. He didn’t want to hurt Luis, but this was the best course of action. If he continued, Luis would be safe and his father would be sane. So even then, he kept going.
He kept going until the world tilted and his eyes closed without his permission. The last thing he remembered was the feeling of being shaken by large hands on his shoulders and Luis’ voice begging Max to stay with him.
…
Max had been ready and willing to die in order to save his father and Luis. He wasn’t a fool, he knew what happened when you used too much magic. That said, he couldn’t help but feel grateful to whatever had caused him to survive. He wondered how he ended up behind his fathers cottage. He wondered how long he had been asleep. And he wondered where his friends were.
Had the spell failed? Was Luis dead? Had his father killed everyone? But that couldn’t be, Max remembered how close Luis’ voice had sounded right before he passed out. Surely if the spell had failed, he wouldn’t have been able to get that close to Max. Maybe he was hallucinating. Maybe the spell had caused his father to lose control briefly but he had killed Luis right after Max passed out.
Max decided to stop spiralling. He picked himself up, noting that his limbs felt stiff and weak. He figured it must have been a result of the toll the spell had taken. He made his way towards his father’s cottage, slowly at first, leaning on trees to support him. Slowly he started putting less wait onto the trees and walking faster. Feeling better, more alive. Until he reached the cottage, walking at an almost normal pace.
The outside of the cottage looked like no one had taken care of it in a while. The paint was peeling, plants climbed the sides and circled the dust-covered windows. The lawn outside was overgrown and covered in weeds, slowing him down again. New trees had started to creep towards the cottage, despite being young, the branches were thick, looked dead and twisted around each other as if trying to prevent him from leaving.
The whole place felt deprived of life. Max couldn’t see through the windows so he went up to the door. He knocked loudly, hoping someone was there to clue him in on what happened. “Dad? Anyone? Hello.” He wasn’t surprised when no one answered.
It took some force, but Max was able to push open the door. Inside, the air was stale and the room was dark, the only light coming through the door. It was clear that no one had been here in a very long time.
Realizing he needed to go somewhere else, he decided to search for his father’s stash of teleportation paper. It wasn’t usually his preferred method of travel, but it certainly was the quickest way to basically anywhere. He found a small stack of it in a cupboard in the corner. It smelled of must and rodents but it would do.
Max reached for his magic, hoping for enough to activate the paper. To his surprise, he found it just beneath the surface, as full as ever. How could that be, he had just used enough magic that he should be dead. Something wasn’t adding up.
Deciding to figure that out later, Max let some of his magic flow into the paper, picturing the woods that surrounded Auradon Prep. Even if his friends weren’t there, there had to be someone who could tell him what happened.
Max felt the familiar pull in his stomach before he was falling.
He, surprisingly, found himself exactly where he wanted to be. The woods beside Auradon Prep. He figured it would be better to appear in the woods and walk onto campus than just pop out of thin air in the middle of a class.
As Max walked toward the picnic benches where students were known to have lunch, he found himself pause. Right there, surrounding one of the tables, were his friends. Hazel, Squeaky, Squirmy, Felix, Robby and Pink. Red and Chloe seemed to be absent. It wasn’t their presence that made him pause, but their actions and attitude. They seemed happy, not a care in the world. They were all laughing and having fun, save for Luis, who seemed deep in thought, writing something down. Max was happy that his friends were happy, but a part of him wondered if they didn’t even care that he was missing. Did they think he was dead? Were they all the better for it?
The sight of Squeaky and Squirmy walking towards him pulled him out of his thoughts. Play it cool, he told himself. As they approached, he called, “hey guys!”
They looked at each other and Squirmy replied with a hesitant, “Hey?”
“What happened? I woke up and no one was there.” Max asked.
They looked at each other again, confusion showing in their expressions. Finally, Squeaky replied, “do we know you?”