Chapter Text
“What did you just do?”
Those were the first words out of Chloe Charming’s mouth, her eyes darting around frantically like a wild animal. She still had her sword drawn, and she held it out at Red, as if expecting an attack.
“I… I think we went back in time.” Red spoke with awe, surveying their surroundings. All the decorations and terrified royals were gone, replaced by the tang of the autumn breeze and crisp leaves beneath their feet.
The old building– not that it looked old now– towered above them, somehow cold beneath the midday sun. It couldn’t be later than September.
“That’s impossible.” Chloe shot back, tip-toeing closer to Red, circling her like a fencing match. “You did something. What did you do? Where’s my mother?” Her voice ricocheted off the imposing walls and bounced around the pavilion until it faded to nothing.
“I don’t know.” Red said calmly, holding up her hands to try and negotiate a peace. They were way too exposed out here, and she was worried that they would be discovered at any moment. She needed Chloe to calm down before they could assess anything.
“Why would you do this?” She asked, her voice quivering with poorly masked fear. The sword seemed to be more of a comfort thing than any actual threat to Red’s safety. Red took a step closer, her hands still raised. The time travel device had fallen into a bush or something, but she put it on a mental to-do list after ‘calm down the crazy princess’.
“It wasn’t me.” She whispered, taking another hesitant step closer. Tension buzzed in the air between them. The world seemed to be holding its breath. “It was my mother.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” She all but demanded, swinging her sword as if putting out a warning shot. “Send us back.”
“Chloe.”
“ Send us back!” Tears were brimming in her eyes, and Red could tell she was seconds away from breaking.
“Chloe… I need you to take a deep breath.”
“ Don’t tell me what to do! ” She screamed, tripping over her own feet and sprawling onto the ground. The sword clattered to the ground.
“Hey…”
Red approached Chloe as one does to a feral cat; with careful steps and soothing words.
“Get away from me.” Chloe mumbled weakly, her head cradled in her hands. She didn’t protest when Red kicked the sword away.
“I don’t know why the watch sent us here. My friend, Maddox, his technology is unreliable at best.” Red explained, feeling herself begin to ramble on. This seemed to calm Chloe a bit, so she continued. “He’s like, the only person I ever get to actually talk to so I try to be nice. I didn’t mean to send us back really, but maybe there’s something here that can help us. Y’know, butterfly effect and all that. We just need to figure out what year it is, and work from there.”
Chloe didn’t look up as she spoke. “Your friend invented time travel?”
“Yeah… I guess he did.” Red laughed despite herself. She couldn’t help it. The entire thing was so ridiculous, there seemed to be nothing logical left to do except to laugh.
“How do we get back?”
“I don’t know.” She jogged over to the bushes where the watch had skidded across the cobble, and pulled it out of the prickly bushes with a grimace. The thin chain seemed to snag on every little branch and leaf, and the rough bark of the wood scraped against Red’s hand irritatingly, drawing blood from thin cuts across her skin.
“It looks… broken.” Chloe Charming’s voice betrayed any genuine concern in favor of some mild air of disgust at the contraption. Yes, it looked exactly as it had when Red had received it, and there didn’t seem to be any glaring issues besides the exterior appearance.
“It’s just a unique look.” Red said quickly, pocketing the watch with a self-conscious huff. This princess had difficult standards, and she doubted that Maddox Hatter could satisfy any of them. “It’ll still work.”
Chloe shrugged. “If you say so.” She wiped her eyes and sniffled in a distinctly un-princesslike fashion before straightening up to get her sword.
“You’re not gonna try and stab me, are you?” The question seemed more insecure than she’d intended for it to come off, but after the entire fiasco it didn’t seem to be an unreasonable one.
“No.” Chloe spoke dejectedly, the fight seeming to have drained from her body. “You have the watch anyways. I’d rather not get stuck in the past.”
Before Red could form a response– some olive branch proposal of teamwork and cooperation, perhaps a truce– the school bell rang and the pavilion was flooded with students from all directions.
“Stay close.” Red grabbed Chloe’s arm and led her through the sea of people, fighting against the current of what must be a lunch rush. Students bumped past them, and Red bustled by all the “sorry”s and “watch where you’re going”s.
They were spat out into a long hallway that seemed more or less deserted, and Red dropped her grip on Chloe’s wrist with a sigh.
“What do you say we wait out here until we can come up with a plan?”
“How are we going to find out what year it is if all we do is cower and hide?” Red didn’t want to admit what a good point Chloe had, but before she could protest, the sound of footsteps echoed through the hall. The girls froze.
“Well, well, well… look what we have here.” One of the students had broken off from the crowd and was walking towards them, a silver hook gleaming on his right hand. “Little rascals think they can have our spot, eh?”
Red’s mental alarm was blaring at the sight of this stranger, and she took up a defensive position as Chloe Charming approached him with an eager smile and outstretched hand.
“Hi, I’m Chloe Charming and I was wondering if you could tell me what year it is.” She spoke amicably, her hand awkwardly falling to her side when the stranger eyed it suspiciously.
“The year?” The stranger scoffed. “Did you not hear me, Ms. Charming? I said this is our spot . And Uliana doesn’t take kindly to strangers.”
“Who’s-”
“Look.” Red interjected, stepping between the two of them with a phony smile and an air of hostility that Chloe Charming was seriously lacking. “We’ll give you your little lunch corner if you can tell us what year it is and where we are.”
The stranger chuckled, not at all intimidated by this show of defiance. “And what’s your name, my crimson intruder?”
“Red.” Her tone was flat, not at all amused by his show of grandeur and exaggerated reenactment of regality.
“Hook. Captain James Hook. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Red .” He bowed deeply, his sly brown eyes never leaving hers. Everything he did felt like a mockery of something else, every action an attempt to unsettle and disrupt.
“ You’re Captain Hook?” Chloe asked incredulously, staring at him with unfiltered awe. He whipped around to face her.
“Ah, so you’ve heard of me, have you?” He circled them slowly, surveying them as a predator does its prey. “I suppose I do have quite a reputation.”
Red scoffed, reaching over in one fluid motion to draw Chloe’s sword and brandish it at Hook. “Cut the theatrics and answer the question.”
Hook only chuckled, raising his hands in mock surrender. Red sensed that he wasn’t nearly as intimidated as she was hoping he’d be. “Feisty, are we?” He snagged the sword on his hook, the tip of it as sharp as a dental tool. “You should watch your tone, Ms. Red.” He chuckled. “I have some very powerful friends.”
“I don’t need friends to take you down.”
With a graceless jerk, Red pulled the sword out of Hook’s grasp and kicked him hard in the chest, causing him to trip over his own feet. She kept the point of the blade at his throat, glaring down at him.
"It's 1997. You're at Merlin Academy." He smirked up at her, the simple answer enough to send Red deeper into her rage. “And you’re going to regret this.”
"That was all you had to say. Let's go, Chloe." Red straightened up and dragged Chloe with her, though the princess's feeble protests weren't lost on her.
"Wait..."
Red walked until they reached the back of the school, and only then did she turn to face Chloe.
"What was that?" She demanded, her hands planted on her hips.
"What was what?"
Her naivete was almost sickening.
"What was what ? Hook is a villain, and you're treating him like some aristocrat. The only language these people will listen to is violence. I thought you'd understand that."
"Well I think you're wrong about him."
"Wrong?" Red clenched her fists, fighting to keep them at her side instead of swinging them at Chloe Charming. "If we want to have any chance at saving your mom, you need a serious reality check."
The reminder of her mother's fate seemed to sober her up, and for a moment Red actually felt bad.
Chloe was silent for a moment. "So what, you think we should have threatened him until he caved?"
"It worked, didn't it?"
"Only because you didn't let me try doing it peacefully!"
"It wouldn't have worked!"
"You don't know that!"
Neither one of them spoke after that. The silence hung heavy in the air between them, and Red listened as the breeze whistled through the building.
She wasn't ready to admit it out loud, but there was a good chance the time machine was broken. They were stuck here until she could find someone to fix it, or at the very least conduct a thorough inspection.
"I'll take the first watch tonight." Chloe finally said, her hand reaching for the sword.
"What?"
"I think we should make a plan tomorrow." She said softly. "We need a day to get our bearings and we can figure out how to save my mom tomorrow."
Red processed these words, then slowly nodded. "Okay, yeah. We can look around the campus today, then come back here?"
Chloe nodded. "I know a bit about Auradon Prep but I'm not sure how much good that'll do. I haven't really ever... gone here."
Red chuckled. "I've lived in Wonderland my whole life, I'll be just as lost as you."
-
The rest of the day was spent exploring the campus and narrowly avoiding the wrath and attention of Merlin Academy's esteemed students.
They hid in broom closets, hallways– and one unfortunate time in the bushes– until they'd confidently navigated across the school.
In that time, very little was actually said besides the occasional observation and urgent comment about hearing footsteps. The school had yet to invest in carpets so anyone's arrival was announced a full minute in advance.
A comfortable silence had overtaken the girls, and they worked as one, ducking in unison and taking wide, quiet steps so as to avoid detection. By the time the sun had set, the two had a near perfect mental map of Merlin Academy.
"You still want first watch?" Red asked as they prepared to sleep outside the school. They'd "borrowed" two comforters from one of the supply closets they'd hidden in, and had full intention of returning them per Chloe's request.
"Yeah. Still not feeling particularly tired." She slid down the wall into a sitting position and watched as Red spread her comforter out on the grass. "So, you've really never left Wonderland?"
Red froze at this question. The two had tacitly agreed on a completely functional relationship, without the bells and whistles of personal connection. Chloe wanted to save her mother. Red wanted her mother to have some sense. This was the first time they'd had conversation for the sake of it.
"Yeah." Red spoke hesitantly. "It's a lot different than I thought. Plain."
Chloe chuckled, her sword tucked in its sheath. "I can't imagine. I've heard so many stories about Wonderland, but it seems so... out of reach."
Red shrugged, turning over in the comforter. "Maybe they'll open it to Auradon like they did with the Isle. Or I could like... take you there sometime?"
"And beeline for the Jabberwocky?"
Red froze before her face cracked into a smile. "Was that supposed to be a joke?"
Chloe chuckled shyly. "If it wasn't funny, then I guess not."
"No I just..." Red sat up in their makeshift sleeping bags. "I didn't expect the Princess Charming to start doing comedy."
Chloe smiled sheepishly. "My mother usually values integrity and kindness over being funny." Her face fell slightly at the mention of her mother.
"My mother values revenge and public image above all." Red said with a roll of her eyes, trying to lighten the mood.
"I've noticed." The girls smiled at one another before Red laid back in her 'sleeping bag' and Chloe leaned back against the wall, settling in for the night. “But you were right about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re not like your mother.”
-
When Red awoke, there was a strange girl standing over them with an intrigued expression. Chloe had fallen asleep. Red didn't blame her.
"Um... excuse me?" The girl asked meekly. "Are you... students here?" She was clutching a pile of books to her chest, and a familiar looking wand in her hand. Her eyes darted between the two girls with a sort of friendly confusion.
"Yeah, we're students here." Red said confidently, leaning over to jostle Chloe awake.
Fairy Godmother– though she probably went by a different name– was clad in traditional preppy clothes that seemed to be an earlier version of her current– future?– garb.
“Hm?” Chloe stirred awake with a groan, rubbing her eyes and blinking up at Fairy Godmother. “Wait a second… you’re…”
“One of our classmates!” Red interjected. “I think we might have some classes together.”
“Um, maybe.” Fairy Godmother said with an awkward smile. “Are you new? I haven’t seen you before…”
“Yeah.” Red spoke with a big smile, showing too much teeth and not enough genuine care. “We’re transfer students.”
“Wow.” Fairy Godmother spoke with awe, looking between the two with a newfound excitement. “In that case, welcome to Merlin Academy!”