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Red and Chloe felt as if they were falling just-everywhere, no p or down, right or left, just-falling, slowly and too fast all at once. “I’m gonna puke!” Chloe yelped as she twisted in the air as they traveled through the rabbit hole-Red grabbed her hand-righting her in the ‘air’.
“Hold your breath!” Red said as they were booted forward and came out the other side of the rabbit hole, both landing pretty harshly-since wonderland magic was being extra unstable due to it invading Auradon. Chloe groaned, sitting up, flipping her hair-which was now in a very long blue sparkly braid-their clothes had changed as well.
“Ooooh, cute.” Chloe gasped, tugging at the sheer half-skirt around her waist, Red didn’t even look at her clothes, brushing off her hands and pants, getting to her feet-grabbing Chloe’s hand.
“Come on! We don’t have time!” Red said as Chloe looked around the topsy-turvy world of Wonderland and Chloe quickly followed, her other hand instinctively grasping her sword-which she thankfully still hand-the two racing down the checkerboard path to the red-bricked castle of the queen of hearts.
Red led them in the back way, going through the hedge maze gardens, sneaking by any card soldiers that had remained at the castle-though thankfully there weren’t many thanks to the queen wanting most of them for her coup and believing no one would be dumb enough to go back to wonderland while a coup was in action.
Unfortunately for her, teenage girls were quite dumb and reckless, and her daughter was twice that-with a friend who was willing to be just as such to help save Auradon.
Red and Chloe snuck past some guards who weren’t paying attention, entering the castle through the garden doors. “come on,” Red whispered, waving Chloe to follow her-the two sneaking through the halls of the castle towards the invention room where Maddox Hatter resided during the day. Chloe looked at the portraits, so unlike the ones from her home-not a smile in sight.
“Hey-stop!” Red and Chloe are spotted and Red scrambles up from her sneaking position to book it down the hall-Chloe close behind.
“Run!” Red yelps as a few guards give chase, attempting to lose them using her intimate knowledge of the castle but somehow they either keep up or more block their way. “this way! The workshop main doors should be just on the other side!” Red said, the two running down a corridor of past queens of wonderlands, statues of hearts lining the wall.
They skid to a stop-faced with a horde of guards, all wielding weapons from swords to halberds and maces. “traitor to the crown!” the front guard said, hoisting his halberd up. Red huffed.
“I am the crown-let us pass!” Red ordered, standing tall-the card soldiers didn’t listen, on orders from the queen, who had suspected her daughter hadn’t been as keen to the coup as she hoped she’d be.
“I don’t think we have a choice red,” Chloe said, drawing her sword, Red swallowed. “I think you’re right-we’ll have to fight through them, get to the pocket watch, it’s our only chance.” Red murmured, looking around for a weapon to grab-but there were none extra.
Several guards stepped forward, ready to stop them-Chloe met them, smirking-ready to take down these guards, to show her skills and get that pocket watch. “stand down-by order of the queen!” one guard ordered but Chloe didn’t obey.
It was time for the fight of her life.
It was instantaneous-guards rushed her-she spun her sword into a defensive position and began the battle. Two swung at her torso-easy parry and she arced her sword up and then slashed to the left, the guards leapt back-not expecting such strength from her.
One with a halberd attempted to spear her but she jumped to the side while blocking the blow-locking the pole part of the weapon with her arm and kicking the guard away-tossing the halberd to Red-who had been dodging swipes from swords this whole time.
Red caught the halberd and began to fight back, blocking blows and spinning the halberd to get the bladed side towards the guard, slashing towards the guard-knocking a sword from his hand-she spun the halberd again and pummeled the guard in the stomach with the butt of the weapon.
He grunted and fell to the floor-winded.
“Sorry-“ Red winced, jumping over the guard to go help Chloe.
The two girls fought relentlessly against the card soldiers, thankfully most of them were in Auradon so they didn’t just keep coming endlessly. When one girl was cornered-the other jumped in to help-fighting back to back, working seamlessly together-showing the bond they’d created after months of being roommates.
When the final guard fell(but they were still active-getting up already)Red dropped the halberd-Chloe sheathing her sword-following Red as she ran towards a set of double doors at the end of the corridor. “Come on! The work shop is just right-here.” Red slid to a stop, the head guard, Jack of Diamonds, now was guarding the door, stoic before the two girls.
“Stand aside!” Chloe demanded, drawing her sword but Red stopped her. “Wait-he's a friend-“ Red said, looking at Jack who pressed his lips together, his hand on his sword. “Jack-please, you know what my mother is like-she’ll ruin Auradon-please, just-let me fix this.” Red begged and Jack stared at her for a very long moment.
“Please,” Red begged again, clutching Chloe’s hand.
He stepped aside, unlocking the door-the guards Red and Chloe had temporarily defeated already on their tails. “Go! Don’t let us down Red.” Jack said, the two girls rushed into the work shop-the doors slamming closed behind them, Jack captured by the guards for betraying the queen.
Red locked the door from the other side with a classic wooden beam-allowing them time as the guards tried to open the door-slamming at it with some sort of battering ram. “Okay-what are we looking for?” Chloe asked, already rummaging through the shop-it was a mess, tools, papers, tea pots, tea cup’s, hats, and gears everywhere; making it hard to find anything if you weren’t Maddox.
“A pocket watch! The white rabbits pocket watch-it’s uh-big, gold, looks like a pocket watch.” Red said in a rushed voice, out of breath as she began to look for the pocket watch with Chloe.
“Ugh I can't find anything in this mess!” Red said frustrated as they both searched through the horde of inventions and papers. “Thought you liked organized chaos,” Chloe quipped-but was still helping look-the two girls flinging papers and anything lightweight to find the pocket watch.
“There's a difference between MY organized mess and THIS! Maddox you infuriating-YES!” Red exclaimed-pulling a large golden pocket watch from underneath a top hat-it was connected to a long golden chain. “Found it!”
Chloe rushed over and Red wrapped the chain around their hands, both holding the pocket watch. “How does it work?” Chloe asked-worried-jumping as the door began to break open. “Red!”
“Don’t know-here goes! Hold on tight!” Red said, pressing the crown at the top of the pocket watch and the magic worked instantly-gold shimmery time magic bursting out from the face of the pocket watch-the guards burst in at the same time-but the girls were already on their way.
To where?
The past, or they hoped at least.
The hands on the pocket watched spun backwards, Red watched as the workshop slowly deconstructed-seeing visions of Maddox and herself roaming the workshop once in a while. Then the pocket watch stopped-Chloe stumbled into Red.
“I’m gonna puke,” Chloe groaned and Red made a face-slowly pushing her towards a curved table instead, looking around. It was a hat workshop now, instead of a inventor’s workshop.
“It worked,” Red said, the guards were gone, the door was repaired-not even locked. “don’t know how far back we are but,” Red crept forward, slowly opening the door, then she fully opened it.
The castle was…bright, the darkness that had haunted the corridors was gone, the portraits bright, and the red that decorated the castle was more…pink. “I think were really far back.” Red said, stepping into the hallway, Chloe close behind, handing the pocket watch to Red, who put it in her jacket pocket.
“Woah, it’s a totally different vibe,” Chloe said with a tone of awe, looking up as she walked down the corridor with Red, spinning to get a look at everything as Red suspiciously walked down the corridor, reaching back for Chloe’s hand as she lagged behind.
She pulled Chloe to hide behind a wall as footsteps echoed from down the hall. “Shh,” Red hushed as Chloe made a small noise, the two carefully looking from around the wall.
It was…a girl, wearing a flowing white puffy shirt, a pink bow with a rose on it, a pink-red skirt with a pink sheer skirt flowing over it, holding a tray with blue sparkly cupcakes on it, skipping down the hall, her dark brown hair that matched Red’s hair color-streaked with pink and a small crown on her head. She passed by without noticing either Red or Chloe, heading outside.
“No. way.” Red whispered-recognizing that girl, she'd seen her before, in the looking glass and portraits. “No way what?” Chloe asked, Red turned to her-eyes wide with shock.
“That’s my mom.”
-end-