A/N: For starters sorry of the delay by like almost a year? I hadn't forgot about the story but I was in a serious funk about ALL of my writing on ALL platforms so I needed a brain break. As for the story here is chapter two but I do have to point out a few things. In this is a flashback and how the hatter and time get in an argument or whatever and time stops a tea time well something similar has happened but I changed for this story.
Italics mean thoughts and emphasis or flash backs while bold/italics are the other sides of hatter talking in his head or out loud.
Disclaimer: i saly do not own alice in wonderland in any shape or form just this brilliant story idea.
ALSO PHOTO CREDIT TO THE LOVELY kara-lija from deviantART
Chapter 2: Too Late to Turn Back Now
"You can't just leave and go to Upperland Tarrant that is not how things work around here and you know it clearly." Absolem scolded me as if a simple rule would change my mind the way it would change his.
"Absolem we come from different worlds I am a Hightopp and you are a hookah-smoking blue butterfly. We do not think the same, so I'm sorry, but your words have no effect on me. I'm going" Go shove that up your hookah pipe you stupid insect. The small creature was determined though I'd give him that. So, there was no way he'd let me go so easily. (A complication on my part and something like this should have been expected but in the rush to get to the edge of my world and to my Alice I didn't think about anything else. Boy was I regretting that now.)
"You mad fool! Do you really think things would happen so easily? That you could just leave and everything would be fine? Well Mr. Hightopp you are sorely mistaken." Absolem flapped his blue iridescent wings in my face.
"Get off my hat you pesky thing!" I waved my hand vigorously in front of the brim of my hat to deter his efforts with success. The nuisance flew off into the night sky out of my sight.
"That stupid thing always sticking his nose in places they definitely didn't belong. It is infuriating to no end!" I shouted into the night. I didn't have to look in a mirror to know my eyes had gone from their natural green to a piercing orange-red. Most of the time I could get along with Absolem just fine, but on other days - like tonight - he was nothing but a pain to my aching mind.
He's gone now, Tarrant you must relax, before...
Before wha' lad? Are ye so scared o' ye'self ye can't le' i' show...even te ye'self now?
You are NOT me!
That's wha' ye' 'hink lad.
I needed to breath, and relax. Red eyes meant a completely different hatter. A version of me I didn't quite like being brought along with my anger. In my head it was quite the mixed up place to be honest. I guess as mixed up as "Wonderland" is to Alice; not right at all. All wrong. I knew it too, that was the worst part about it - and in my opinion it's what made it a million times worse. To be crazy is one thing, but to be crazy and know just how crazy you truly are is a completely different other-side-of-the-coin kind of thing.I could even feel it coming - when my eyes were going to change that is - just like someone could feel an emotion bubbling up from deep inside their core. Yellow eyes, blue eyes, red eyes, purple eyes, orange eyes, they were all the same to me. If they weren't my natural green then they just weren't me. Every Hightopp for as far back as I know has had some sort of 'problem' with their eyes; some big and some small. The price we paid for having eyes that truly showed our emotions for all to see; for all with a brain to decipher. The prices we've paid for our 'mood ring' eyes.
Red eyes me was the worst of the 'me's' that could ever be imagined if you asked me. My enemy even it seemed. Green was me; calm, confident, self-assured in most situation. But, red eyes? They were a whole different side of me, a whole different me like a complete stranger. Not an opposite me like the word enemy would imply but a me that I just didn't like to be at all. Red eyes were rude, and antagonizing, and selfish to say the least. Most definitely not the Tarrant I wanted to be, far from it to tell you the truth. For months I had been able to keep that version of me under-wraps but now with me going to see Alice all my feelings were jumping around and exploding inside of me. And, well, to be honest if anyone else gets in my way of getting to her I might just lose it completely.
That couldn't be allowed for obvious reasons.
Plopping myself down on a nearby rock with a sigh I took a look around at my surroundings. A deep blue sky with clouds that swirled around bright white stars like the smoke of a candle that had just been blown out. Everything was silent except for the wind blowing through the Tumtum trees. Everything else was peacefully calm, I pulled out my watch out of the inner chest pocket in my coat.
My thumb brushed over the lock that kept the cover secured in place quickly forcing it to swing open. Ten minutes till eleven. I slid it back into it's home when the memory of how it had become my possesion run through my Alice filled brain.
It was a cold night not much different from the one tonight actually, the stars seemed duller then if any difference begged to be pointed out; though it would be merely just another insignificant footnote in the story that was my life. But it could have just been my memory of the night too. I hadn't really been focused so much on the stars as the scene unfolding before me.
"But Time listen to me, please I-" I rushed stumbling and tripping over everything in my path as I tried my darndest to plead with a very stubborn floating cloud of light.
"Tarrant, I've made my decision, it has become too late to change. I'm sorry." Time scolded me like a child who had just been caught in the act of miss behaving.
"Time Iracebeth got it wrong! Weren't you the one who always accusing her of making up false accusations of people and forcing them to subcum to a punisment to her own made up crimes? This is merely that and nothing more I swear to you, my friend I beg of you to listen to my words without emotion! A work of fiction by her own hand and lips all tracing back to that woman I am sadly forced to call my queen! And nothing more for she is a crazy women of mad decent!" The light that was the ruler of time, Time himself was ignoring me to great extents. And to be blunt, it was quite infuriating on my part and I said a silent prayer that my eyes would not betray me. For if they went red it would change my plight completely to convince him, and all hope I had gained for his change of heart and mind would be lost forever. All thanks to my deep hatred of one woman.
He's thicker than the Red Queen herself! My brain thought much to my agreement with myself even though I shuddered at this thought that my head had concocted. "Time I am begging you as a friend, and as a human being who has been wrong to the ends of the Earth that someone could be wronged to for that is me! And, for that being I am begging you to change your position on this so called 'case' against me!"
The light stopped, and shifted and grew brighter before it spoke - if you could even call it that. It's words were more like that of looming things that filled your head and held you down with a mighty force every second that had ventured out of it's body of light and into your ears. "The queen thought it and you know just as well as I that to every lie uttered on this great Earth has a hidden truth to it. I will not allow that hidden truth be one where you are trying to 'murder' me. Metaphor or not, I'm sorry Tarrant." I tried to explain my position to him but before I could even get a word in edgewise he silenced me with his echo of words. "No Tarrant, and before you say it I know we are friends, and I truly hope after this altercation is over that we can return to that in some sense but for now that just can't be." The light of Time started to shrink in size: I had to say something before it was too late.
"She talks in metaphores," - I started referencing his words from earlier - "it was only a metaphor! I wouldn't kill you my dear friend even if such a thing were possible we musten be ridiculous now. She was only upset - like always I might add - that I was wasting her time, you? I don't know but I wasn't she's impatient and stubborn she is. She merely thought I was using up all her time and in turn murdering you, but that didn't happen for you are obviously alive you see?" I hoped beyond hope that Time would see the error in its ways that I was right and wretched Iracebeth was wrong.
Time's light seemed to soften around the edges as he took on a softer tone. A great sigh was heard from somewhere deep inside the center of his being, "Tarrant, oh Tarrant how your words have moved me," - my heart fluttered with it's new grip on hope - " but not to the point of which you wish. But I can help you in one way I guess." My heart had dropped a step lower but it was no where near it's spot at the start of the night. Whatever it was it couldn't be any worse. "I have a gift I can offer you to lighten your troubles without completely lifting your new found fate."
I sucked in air, I knew Time more personally than most and I could guarantee two things about his way of working.
First off he never lied per say - yes he could be known to talk in riddles and rhyme but if was broken down, in the correct way, you'd find the perfect truth.
Secondly, he did enjoy his rhymes and riddles very much so it became a sort of game to him. In hindsight I should have expected this when asking for Time's time. Far too late for any backing out now though: I had no other choice but to listen.
A golden watch appeared in front of me in a cloud of thin white smoke. I opened my palm and the watch fell into my hand without a sound, a mixture of hesitance and gratefulness was spinning inside my lungs. I brought it up to my face to examine my new 'salvation' and noticed immediately all of the intricate design work that had must have taken ages for who ever made it. The gold of the chain and watch itself glowed in the moonlight, but if I had to bet on it I would guess that contraption didn't need any light to make it glisten. I could hear the gears turning and see some of them in action through the hollow parts of the cover. I brushed my thumb over the release and the cover popped open without any fuss - it had been used little I presumed. The inside was not what I expected - even for Underland it was not a normal looking time-telling device.
"Time will shift and stop and turn all whilst going forward and so far back as well for you, Tarrant. But it will most likely never truly stop for you, and by this I mean you will most likely never die - see this as you will - by old age of any other sickness. Some years you will look forty years of age while others eighty-two. Lastly," - he must have saw the look of horror on my face - "oh don't worry Tarrant my boy you will never look younger than you do now.
"Do not lose this watch, for it will be the last item that can show you the true time of the world. All other clocks, calendars, and other devices will relay to only you the state of time your body perceives it is in. Here you have the time along with the date in both Underland and Upperland when you do go there you will be covered. When Alice needs you."
His long monologue was not over yet for he had only taken a pause to what I assumed would be to catch his breath. Or maybe he was pausing for dramatics. "As for others around you they will be seen by your eyes as their true selves. To them, you will just be the ever constant Tarrant Hightopp." With those final words of warning and rules uttered the clouds of Time seemed to shrink and cave in on themselves and just as soon as he appeared my friend Time was gone.
I held the pocket watch in my palms it still twinkled and shined as I turned it around and around like the day I had first received it.
Just before it meant nearly nothing to me, it had no importance in my life. Everyone saw me for me and I for them - it was only my body who felt the differences. Now it was practically my everything outside human connection.
While the memory racked it's way through my brain an odd thought struck me. Time had said when I went to Upperland I would be covered. The problem being I had never had the intent before and for certain I had never travelled up and out before.
The Hightopp clan hadn't left the confines of this little 'Wonderland' since we had arrived hundreds of years ago, tracing far back into my lineage. We were content here in "Middle Earth" as we had called Underland then while it was still so unfamiliar. They had escaped the perils of war, where portals between the two worlds were becoming less frequent and even dangerous. People were being killed if caught using one and all the ones found by the King's men were ordered to be destroyed. In fact very few are even still usable today. And of course it was over now as I had heard, but this was are home now. So why go up?
One answer only fit; to see dear Alice.
I froze as Time's words came back to me, a sentence I had not noticed until now. Time had said when Alice needed me. My first thought was to wonder how he could have known about Alice before we had even met for the first time but of course it was Time and he knew almost all. That tricky devil.
But what in Underland did he mean by "When Alice needs you."? Was the lovely golden haired hero of prophet and story in trouble? She being the one who could always save herself for as long as I had known her finally in true need of help from someone else's hand? And, if so what could have been so diverse and extreme that it would force Alice to her knees - metaphorically - and in need or possible want of help? If this was true then it seemed impossible and odd to me but what would Alice be to weak to fight?
Whatever it be - small or big - she apparently must be assisted with by me according to my friend Time. A very daunting task to make light of the situation at hand.
Not only did I desperately want to see my sweet Alice but she may be in some sort of danger.
With no time to waste I stood making my way as quickly as possible to the exit of Underland.
I could see the buildings now that lead out of here, each door opening into a different room that would drop the poor soul's head first into underland from all over different parts of the world. 'With a renewed amount of energy I quickened my pace to a rush.
Sadly something: or more accurately someone had come to stop me with friendly back up who were blocking my path.
"Absolem," I muttered in a furious anger under my breath as I approached the living barricade.
Okay so thank you all for reading and this will be getting updated on a more regular basis now. Please read my author notes about time and how I changed so you don't yell at me in the comments for getting it wrong to the series. Please tell me what you think and any ideas or suggestions you may have it makes my day (: