Chapter Text
At any other time, Max might have been able to successfully sneak away from the team. As the son of the most hated person in the realms, he learnt very quickly how to step softly and how to fade into the background so as to avoid anyone who could hurt or stop him.
But, despite the HKs and VKs getting along better since the chess board battle, everyone was still on edge. Even the drama between Chloe and Red, and the tension between Luis and Red couldn’t distract them, although if he waited just a clock tick more he might have been successful in reaching his family's old home alone. But he hadn't, so it didn't take much for someone to spot a hat disappearing into the darkness and raise the alarm.
Hazel did try to stop them from following, but truthfully, she didn't try the hardest. She never did the best sitting still and had her doubts that Max would be able to pull off grabbing his father's machine alone anyway. Most would say that Max was technically the leader of this band of weirdos they called Hat Trix. But, to Hazel, he was more the loyal first mate of her personal crew, as she was his co host of the bizarre party they called their lives. Because of this, she knew Max better than the others. She knew Max could be too soft hearted, too eager to please at times and that meant he could easily be led astray.
No one could say whose plan it was to sneak instead of confronting the young dark Wonderlander in the forest. Nor whose idea it was to listen at the door as Max had a conversation with a voice only Red and Pink recognised as Chessy.
However everyone knew it was Red and Chole who burst through the door as Max gave into temptation, shouting and pleasing him to not listen to the mischievous cat. Who startled the VK into stumbling into the table, knocking the currently active machine to the floor alongside bubbling potions and other bits and bobs that quickly became entangled and merged together. Who was part of the catalyst of the blinding light that transported the group to a place weird even for Wonderland.
Red woke up first.
Blinking hard she looked around the void she found herself in. For a moment, she thought she was back in the rabbit hole, as kaleidoscopic colours twirled and danced with mirrors and time pieces following in their wake. There was a strange audible sound, a kind of ticking interlaced with falling sand that did not sync up with any of the clocks, watches or timers. But no, whilst she was floating, she wasn't falling or tumbling downside up. This was somewhere new.
She spotted everyone fast asleep, including Robbie, Felix and the missing Smee twin. She didn’t have time to wonder why the three previously missing members of the team had magically returned when she glimpsed familiar red hair of a rose clad form just beyond them.
‘MOM!’
Her shout woke the rest of the group, heroes and villains like jolting up and instantly forming ranks as memories rushed back and the arguing began.
‘I knew you couldn’t be trusted. What did you do Hatter?' Luis spat at the young Wonderlander. He couldn’t believe that he had started to believe that maybe Max wasn’t exactly like this father. He should have followed his gut and made Red ditch Max and his band of villains, not everyone was just misunderstood like his Tío.
Max scowled as he leaned close, choosing to ignore the grinning, amused cat winding its way through his legs. ‘Me! I was finally getting answers why my Father was so obsessed with an impossibility. I wasn’t the one who burst in like they had something to hide, no that was your Perfect Princesses.’ He let Hazel push in front of him, trusting her to have his back with the muscle bound idiot as he pivoted to face said princesses, ready to demand his own answers when he too spotted the Red Queens group.
It wasn’t said Queen of Hearts who made his own heart thump with a familiar fear. It wasn’t even the blue hued Cinderella being fussed over by her confused daughter that made him realise that something was really wrong.
‘Max! I’m so disappointed in you’ Maddox Hatter tutted at his frozen son, finger wagging mockingly like a pendulum.
No one moved for a clock tick. All the bickering between VKs and HKs, the princesses fussing over their mothers, the loud beating of the young crafter’s fearful heart froze into silence as father and son, legend and legacy locked identical eyes. No one wanted to break the tension, wanted to set off the firework in their midst.
But like in all things, the clock ticked again and the moment was broken
‘Maddox! What have you done now? This is beyond the even power of the cards. Release us and surrender.’ Bridget shouted, regal baring drawn close to attempt to gain the upper hand now the situation has changed.
Red tried pulling her back, scared of the broken mirror version of her friend and what he was capable of. She sensed more than saw Chloe back her up, dagger drawn defensively, ready to hold Maddox off if necessary. She also became aware of most of the rest of the crew standing behind them as well, and felt a momentary surge of happiness that she actually had something she wanted since she was a child, no matter the strange tension that was developing between her and Chloe.
The only ones who didn't join the formation were Max and Hazel. Red couldn't blame either of them. She remembered the fear of being confronted by an angry deranged parent and hers hadn't even tried to kill her (she chose to ignore the purring voice whispering ‘It was because she needed an heir to continue her tyrannical work, not because of any affection for you, who could truly ever love you’). He was trying to hide it but it was clear as an Auradon day that he was rooted with fear and confusion.
Despite only having a couple of days' memories of this timeline, it was also obvious Max and Hazel were incredibly loyal to the other, despite what either pickpocket would say otherwise. She saw it in the way the pirate was almost always ready to gut anyone who so much as brushed against her but let the male Wonderlander sprawl all over her without blinking. In how Luis was the one doing most of the bragging about his deeds (and she really should find that more of a turn off but the boy was cute and could be earnestly sincere when the act was down), yet Max didn't hesitate to back his captain up and remind everyone about some Tinkerbell incident with a proud voice. She couldn't, no wouldn't judge the girl for backing up Max over her.
The madman threw back his behatted head as he cackled.
‘Oh your most marvellous of Majesties, this wasn't my doing, no, no, nooooo. This is the work of our precious babies. Aren't you proud, their first trans dimensional transportation. They grow up so fast’ He wiped a fake tear from under dark eyes.
Robbie scratched his head, mentally lost instead of physically for once. ‘Transdimemmy whatsit?’
A new voice answered, young and old all at once. ‘Trans dimensional transportation. Specifically to my home. Now, why is it always you Hatters involved with messing with me?”
By the hearts, now what.
Maddox laughed, and cackled, and sobbed, and screeched. He couldn't believe where he was or who he was about to meet.
Back when he was kid, during one of the times his own mad father was dragged from the table, before the mercury and the curse and the bloodline that made all Hatters perform the Futterwacken along the gossamer line between genius and madness retook The Famous Mad Hatter back to his Tea Time, he was told of his Father's old friend Time.
His father told him that Time would often join him for tea, and once he was invited to the avatar's own home. This was before the previous Red Queen, Bridget's own mother, made the fateful comment about Hatta’s singing, and caused the incident that made Time curse his father to be stuck at the table. The table where it always 6pm, unless the eccentric man was physically removed from his revelry, though he would always be compelled to return to the party.
And now here he was in front of him! One of his motivations and dreams, albeit one he added to the spare teapot to brew slowly whilst he focused on his revenge.
He continued to giggle as the jingley girl his wonderfully unwonderful son clung to like a limb teabag to a broken cup (what was her name? Nasal, Harriet, Book? Focus Maddox, this was important. Why was it important??) waved her hook at the clockwork and sand figure, demanding names and explanations like the pirate he thinks she is.
The newcomer was tall, but not giant. His skin glittered like sand, and flowed oddly, his features seemingly being erased and recarved as his eyebrow rose up at the girl's demands. Any hair he may have had was hidden underneath a top hat, one adorned with more gears and clocks than both his own and Max’s hats, with a simple painted wooden bird where the buckle would be and a sundial peaking above at the top. A hat Maddox recognised as his father’s work. He was dressed in long robes in the walnut brown of an important longclock. Embroidered throughout, though never stationary, where numbers and numerals, dates and names and times that appeared and changed between one tick of a watch and the next. At the figure's joints, gears clicked and whirred.
One long finger reached out to push aside the hook. ‘I am Time. That is my name and what I embody. And I do not appreciate me being wasted so let’s get on with it.’
Tick
Everyone was suddenly frozen in a different place. Maddox was next to Red, who stood side by side with Chloe, both girls visibly frightened. The ungrateful source of his pride was on their far side and Time stood opposite them. Everyone else was arranged in a circle, facing the four, as if they were spectating a twisted trial.
Time reached forward and gripped Max’s chin between his long long fingers. With the labyrinth of Maddox’s mind, he begs and pleads for the figure to leave his beloved son alone, his calls battling with the Walrus beseeches that the betrayer should be punished.
‘You, boy, are lucky. I enjoy curiosity and this little deviation from the thread has saved you from potentially performing actions that could have made me quite upset.’ The deity twitched his fingers, forcing Max’s head to tilt as he stared deep into his eyes. ‘And it is quite remarkable really. The madness is there with your cleverness, lurking in your blood but you are the first who is actively trying to suppress it completely, trying to deny the Wonderlander you truly are. I wonder. Yes I wonder if what is about to happen will tip you over the edge. It seems to be inevitable when a Hatter encounters Time but only I will tell if you manage to escape it with any marbles left’
Max’s eyes widened as he was released. This was his greatest fear, that the madness that his grandfather, his father was known for would consume him. He hoped whatever this creature was in front of him was lying. But what if he wasn’t? He managed to flick his eyes over to Hazel, trying to communicate to her, to remind her of what she had promised so many years ago.
Time ignored this exchange as he turned to the eldest of the four, lips thinning as he gazed at the madman.
Tick
‘Maddox Hatter. You are more entangled in this even you can believe. I should be angry at you, no I am angry. But punishing you at the moment would be a waste of time, and you know my feelings on that! You don’t know what you have done and your mind is already mostly shattered glass, so any punishment and lessons would just be shredded apart on its jagged edges, But that doesn’t mean you won’t suffer more.’
Said Hatter blinked, surprised. What could he have possibly done to tick off Time. Sure there are periods he doesn’t remember, days where he blinked and the day was over, but Maddox was a genius! It was rare he couldn’t figure out what he had done in those blank spots, though often he didn’t care enough to fix anything that occurred. All his experiments in time manipulation failed, his Oraculum coming closest but that dealt with what-is-now-True, not what-will-be-True!
A stray idea fluttered past him like a bread-and-butterfly. Maybe Max would know, but he swatted that thought away like the annoying pest it was. That useless boy was often able to help him remember his actions (and wasn’t he glad for such a helpful son!) but anyone with eyes could see the boy was getting overwhelmed. He loved his son, he wouldn't hurt him on his own.
Tick
Done with males, Time spun on the two girls. ‘Now you two on the other hand know exactly what you have done! Little Miss Red, so desperate to change things, to make things the way you wanted them to be without listening to the warning of your dear friend and teacher.
And Princess Chloe. Oh your quest was true, saving the life of your dear mother. But your still not happy. Your best friend hasn't thrown away 16 years of conditioning in acting a certain way, has reverted to listening to only herself and a Hatter. She should be acting like you, VKs don't deserve validation. Who cares about the other changes.
But now remind me, what did you both say?’
Time paused as he leaned in the princesses’ faces as he deadpanned
‘“Uh-oh, best of intentions but big consequences. Not what you expected now?” Well I don’t think you really comprehend what you have done.’
Time lent back, hands coming together in a click then a clap. ‘Howe er young curious young girl once told me, I am a gift, so I want to give one to you. To you all.” Times voice rose at that last part, to ensure it was clear he was addressing the entire group before dropping back to normal “But this is also a punishment, yes. So I think I need to bring a couple of old friends here as well. So everyone can see what you have done.”
Time step back, clockwork arms spread wide as his form started to dissolve, until, with one final
Tick
He was gone and two figures appeared as if pulled from a fun house mirror.