I went to see the movie again and I enjoyed it a lot more than the first time. That made me happy, and gave me a good amount of feels and inspiration for this story.
Thank you all for reading!
Dark and boring.
If Tarrant had to describe Time's castle to a curious stranger, those would be his first choice of words. It was an enormous place, much bigger than any other castle in Underland.
One that, at first, he thought would hold many strange mysteries to explore and secrets to discover.
But as days passed , he realized it was mostly an empty castle of monotony. Beside the eternally moving gears and the always worried Seconds giving them maintenance, not much happened around there.
The Seconds surely worked hard.
Did they ever go to sleep?
And if they did, did Time had to kiss them all goodnight, as if they were his children?
And if that was the case, would that make him Father Time?
Oh well.
As he was saying, the most interesting thing about the place had to be that infamous Chronosphere.
And yes, it was a curious artifact, and it looked pretty, with its golden color and strange mechanics.
A very complex machine indeed.
Best of all, if Tarrant's memory didn't fail him, it did a toilet sound every time some pulled the chain to start it up.
Why was that?
Had the Chronosphere, at one point, served another purpose?
That was disgusting, but funny.
So yes, the Chronosphere was a curious thing.
But it lost much of its appeal if someone….
"Stubborn clown, shut up already! Your nonsensical blabbering is driving me insane!" Time stopped walking and looked over his shoulder. "And how many times must tell you to stop tailing me while I'm at work? Or at least be quiet while you do. You aren't being very stealthy if you are breathing all those stupid questions on my neck."
This came as a surprise to Tarrant.
He hadn't realized Time knew he was behind him, or that he was so close to him.
Spacial awareness worked in funny ways in that castle.
But that didn't matter.
He had Time's attention at last!
He'd better be careful not to offend him.
"I'm sorry, your Timelessness. Sometimes, the filter between what I think and what I say gets a little confused when I'm nervous. Your hat is out fashioned …see?"
Time gasped and touched his hat. That wasn't true, he was just mocking him.
"What can you possibly know about hats? You are a Hatter." He asked, closing his eyes with an air of superiority.
"I think you just answered your own question." Smiled Tarrant.
Time tried to argue back, but much to his anger, he had to grant the victory to the Hatter.
That fool was more intelligent than he looked.
Damn him.
Tarrant tried to lessen Time's humiliation and patted him strongly in the back.
"Don't worry about that, my friend. I can make you a new one if you wish. One covered with gears, hourglasses, watches, all that stuff you like."
"You know what I really wish for?" Inquired Time with a much gentler tone. "Here, I'll whisper it to you. It's a secret."
Tarrant's curiosity sparked.
Time was going to share a secret with him.
That was a good sign.
After days of chasing after Time as he ran away from him, after getting lost in the endless corridors for hours until a Second guided him back, and after almost getting stuck in the gears more than once , Tarrant finally had the chance to talk with him.
With happiness, Tarrant put a hand behind his ear.
Time leaned closer to him, grinning.
"What I want…" Time's voice went from a hushed whisper to a thunderous shout that almost made Tarrant's head explode. "IS FOR YOU TO LEAVE ME ALONE! AND STOP STEPPING ON MY CAPE!"
Time pulled his cape away from under Tarrant's feet. The Hatter lost his balance and fell to the floor on his back. Time wasted none of himself and took the chance to escape.
"Wait! Your Timelessness." Said Tarrant, trying to get up, but his brain and ears were still too shaky for him to run after Time.
"It's your Timeliness, you fool." Screamed Time without stopping. "Timeliness!"
Time eventually disappeared in the immensity of the castle.
Once Tarrant managed to pull himself together, Time was nowhere to be seen.
He had lost him again.
"No, this has gone long enough." Said Tarrant. That was the closer he had gotten to talk with Time and he was not going to let that chance amount to nothing. " Tarrant Hightopp will not waste more of his time with Time!"
Screaming as if he was charging into a battle, Tarrant ran in the same direction Time had taken. He climbed up hundreds of stairs, ran across dozens of corridors and jumped from pendulum to pendulum for hours.
He found nothing.
He was lost again in the tricky endlessness of the castle, with only the creaking of the gears and the whistling of solitude to join him.
"Time, I just want to talk with you." He screamed, hoping Time would be nearby. "Please, just listen to me."
Only the echoes of his voice answered him.
Frustrated and tired, he fell on his knees.
"Shukm!" Tarrant punched the floor , and felt how the negative emotions that had been festering inside him began to overflow inside his body.
It all came back to him like a giant wave: his fruitless expeditions in the castle of dreams, the pink celebration of the queens, his father kneeling before the Bloody Big Head, his family cowering in fear, his father crying, Alice's departure.
He pressed his head with his hands, and felt more lost in that abyss of resentment than in Time's castle.
A faint ticking dispersed his rage. Tarrant came back to his senses in the same manner he woke up from a nightmare.
Standing next to him was his Favorite Second, rubbing against his leg and ticking in a sad manner. Though its eyes were emotionless, Tarrant knew the little fellow was worried, and could only imagine the dreadful expression he had on his face.
Not without effort, Tarrant let go of his anger and recovered his usual temper.
The Seconds, Tarrant had noticed, were very sensitive in spite of their metallic nature.
"Hello, little one." Tarrant gently picked it up. It kept ticking with sadness. "Why the long face? Did you have a bad day? Don't' tell me Wilkins scolded you again. Well, if it brings any comfort, know that my day wasn't any good either."
The second ticked again.
His conversations with his Favorite Second left much to be desired, but it was always a welcome and loyal companion. It sometimes reminded Tarrant of Mallymkum, and together with the memory of the dormouse came the memories of all the people dear to him.
The castle's silence allowed old memories to flow like a river, be them good or bad.
And when they were good, Tarrant didn't mind being lost in the everlasting corridors.
Sometimes, when he spent hours wandering alone before a Second came to his rescue, the idea of going back home grew deeper roots inside his mind.
He feared he wouldn't be able to rip it off one day, and that it would end up replacing the plan he had come to treasure with the same intensity he missed Alice.
"Tick." His Favorite Second escaped from his hands and moved as if it was a dog waging its tail.
It jumped a couple of times and ran off towards a corridor with a tiny entrance.
"Wait for me!" Tarrant had to run with all his speed to keep up with the Second.
It led him through corridors he hadn't explored before; many of them were so small he had to crouch and crawl to get through them.
"I could use some pishsalver right now." Tarrant grunted as his hips got stuck at the entrance of a corridor. He tried escape, but it was in vain. "Maybe I should have eaten all those red creepers."
He felt a cold liquid streaming down his back. His Favorite Second had come to his rescue. Once it felt it had poured enough oil on the Hatter, the Second jumped on Tarrant's hat and ran off again.
Tarrant managed to slide free, but now he looked as if he had sat on a giant ink jar.
In any case, he was free again.
The chase continued through Time's him-shaped corridors and near the entrances of the Living and Deceased Underlandians Chambers. Tarrant had seen those rooms before, but he dared not enter either.
He had no desire in knowing his lifespan or those of his friends, nor he had interest in visiting the dead.
Not to mention Time had taken special measures to keep him out , and had ordered two Minutes to guard each entrance.
Tarrant doffed his hat as he passed in front of the brutish guardians.
The minutes growled, but didn't mind him otherwise. Still, Tarrant wished his Favorite Second wouldn't make him get so close to them.
The Minutes had never attacked him, but he doubted they would hesitate to do so if he got too near.
The next destination was the Grand Clock. Tarrant had visited it only once, and he had no intention to get close to it again.
The Seconds were nice, the Minutes were grumpy, but the Hour guarding the Grand Clock and the access to the Chronosphere was nothing like the rest of its kin.
Its savage temper sent shivers down Tarrant's spine.
The Hour did nothing to its fellow Second when it passed running infront of it, but it became feral at the sole sight of Tarrant.
The hatter had to dodge a colossal metallic hand from squishing him like a bug.
"If you don't like me, you can just tell me. " Said Tarrant, looking back as he continued to run away from the gigantic entity. "There's no reason to get so defensive."
Then again, it wasn't long ago since all Underland almost rusted away into oblivion because the Chronosphere had been removed.
Under that perspective, Tarrant had to admit that all the new cautions Time was taking weren't all that unreasonable after all.
Tarrant was so immersed in his thoughts he didn't see when the Second stopped. He tripped over him and his face landed flat on the floor.
It hurt him a bit, but Tarrant was more concerned about calming down the scared Second, who ticked as if it was crying for having hurt its friend.
"There, there, it was just an accident. No need to get sad about it." Tarrant gave a small kiss to the Second, and it immediately became happy again. "But next time, how about you slow down a little? And the farther you take me from the Hour, the better. I don't want to tick my last tock just yet."
Tarrant put the Second down and looked around. He was in and narrow corridor he had never explored before. It was warmer than the rest of the castle.
At the end, there was a wooden door. It was half-opened.
Tarrant could hear voices coming out of it.
The Second pushed his leg forward and made him take a step closer to the room.
It was the first time a Second led him there. The rest of the occasions, they simple took him to the castle's entrance or back to the grandfather clock in red heart-shaped room, hoping he would take the hint and leave.
But Tarrant had decided not to return to Underland until he had spoken to Time, and the Seconds wouldn't make him change his mind.
"I shouldn't be here, should I?" Tarrant said to the Second. "You are a rebellious one. I knew you were my favorite for a reason."
The Second jumped to his arms.
"Well, it's now or never." Said Tarrant, bracing himself and walking towards the entrance of the room.
Time wouldn't escape him now.
The closer he got to the door, the warmer the corridor got. Soon Tarrant could smell the scent of burning lodges and cinder.
It had been quite a while since he had last felt the soothing heat of a chimney's fire.
"He just won't go away."
Tarrant would recognize that accent and voice anywhere. More than angry, Time sounded tired.
"He will desist eventually, sir; don't worry. And if he doesn't, we can have the Hour to throw him out for good."
Tarrant held his breath and rested an ear against the door. The Second is his arms ticked once, but he hushed it before it could do it again.
"I don't understand. Why does he insist in staying here?"
"For the same reason every other interloper has ever dared to enter the castle and interrupt your duties, sir: for his own selfish reasons."
"Truer words have never been spoken, Wilkins." Agreed Time. He was working in a new trinket, judging by the tingling of cogs and screws. "I am the keeper of life and reality as they know it! I thought that would make them understand I cannot waste none of myself with their petty, insignificant problems. And especially not in idiotic tea parties full of loons."
"Indeed ,sir."
So it was true, after all.
Time had never enjoyed the tea parties.
Inviting him in the first place was originally Tarrant's idea.
Tarrant did it as a way to make amends for treating Time with so little respect in their first meeting. It was a formality, one Mirana had permitted simply because Tarrant was her friend and savior.
She also agreed to no longer keep the clock that gave access to Time's castle all chained up, as a symbol of her good faith.
Nevertheless, the White Queen had some fears about allowing Time to wander around free in Underland, so she established some conditions for his visits:
First, Time could only access Underland if Tarrant came looking for him.
Second, the hatter was only allowed to do so when Mirana granted him her sporadic permission to access Time's castle.
Third, Time was not to interact with any other person in Underland other than Tarrant, his family and the hatter's usual group of friends.
Fourth, Time's visits had to be brief and supervised, with at least one of Mirana's royal knights keeping an eye on him at all moment.
And last but not least, Time and Iracebeth were forbidden from seeing or talking to each other under any circumstance. As an extra precaution, they couldn't be in the same place at once.
If any of these conditions was overlooked, then Time's free access to present Underland would be history.
The whole process had been manufactured at first, as if they were all representing a farce to establish what little cordiality could ever exist between Time and the Underlandians.
But as the tea parties went by, Tarrant had come to consider Time a friend. Not the kindest or the most patient, but a friend nonetheless.
And yet, it all had been a joke for Time after all. Tarrant saw no other explanation for his indifference and disdain.
He couldn't deny he felt embittered by Time's cold words and ingratitude. He had thought Time would come to appreciate their company eventually, as annoying as he found it at first.
Or didn't he ever feel lonely living in the middle of a barren wasteland inside a forgotten dark castle?
"They are all a waste of me." Stated Time.
No, apparently he didn't, thought Tarrant as he clenched his jaw.
"Indeed, sir."
"No matter what they do, it all amounts to nothing in the end."
"It's not in their nature to do otherwise, sir."
"They have so little of me to live, and what do they do with it? They waste it away in meaningless matters and idle activities that gain them nothing."
"That's their fate, sir." Wilkin's voice was so mellow it appeased Tarrant too. "It's the way it always was and always will be."
"And still, they…"
Tarrant stopped hearing the sound of metallic parts being handled. He heard the low jingling of a chain as it swung between Time's fingers.
"Sir?"
"They want to waste it with me." Time 's voice was little more than a whisper. "Without asking nothing in return."
Steam blew out from Wilkin's head like a boiling kettle
"It's just a matter of time before they do, sir."
"But-"
"When has it been any different? You should know better by now, sir."
Time knocked the chair down when he stood up. Tarrant had to hug his Favorite Second to stop it from running away in fear.
He dared to take a peep inside the room.
He saw Wilkins and Time facing each other , with the chimney's fire reflecting its orange light on their metallic joints. Something shun with greater intensity on Time's hand.
Tarrant thought it was the Chronosphere, and hoped Time would return it to its place before the rust overtook reality again.
"How dare you talk to me like that?" Time spoke with the same authority of the superior entity he was supposed to represent. "You are out of line, Wilkins."
Wilkins, if scared, was brave enough to keep himself from cowering. He stood still as a statue.
"It is affecting your judgment, sir." The leader of the Seconds took a step towards his boss. He spoke without emotion. "Dispose of it."
Time said nothing and moved his hand away from Wilkins.
"What?" He asked, impressed by the gall of his butler.
"It doesn't belong here."
"That's not up to you to decide."
"But you know I'm right, don't you sir?"
Time lost some of his confidence. He looked at the thing he was holding and covered it gently with his other hand.
Tarrant didn't know Time could hesitate too.
Wilkins sighed with sympathy.
"Let me do it for you." He offered. "It's the right thing to do. You know I'm right, sir."
The Second in Tarrant's arms was now in a ticking frenzy. He begged it to keep quiet, but it wasn't working.
Wilkins looked in their direction.
Tarrant barely managed to hide behind the door, but he didn't know if The Second had seen them.
Wilkins took a step foward to the door.
Tarrant had no place to run. If he fled, the only way available would lead him right into the Hour's hands.
"Who's there?"
Tarrant's tongue was stuck to his palate. He knew he had seen and heard too much for Wilkins to leave him walk away freely this time.
He thought of answering 'Nobody', but he doubted Wilkins would fall for that.
"Tick."
Before he knew it, he was blinded by a shot of oil.
He screamed and rubbed his eyes, and too late he realized what he had done.
"Favorite Second." he muttered, with his eyelids still closed.
All he could do as he tried to clean his eyes with his sleeves was to listen to the scandal his Favorite Second was causing inside Time's chamber.
Tarrant could hear Wilkins ordering it to stop as it knocked clocks and other of Time's souvenirs off the walls and counters.
One of the clocks fell on Time's head and then hit him in the face with a cuckoo. Perhaps if he had been wearing his hat, it wouldn't have been so painful, but alas, he hadn't taken Tarrant's hattery criticism lightly.
Meanwhile, Wilkins chased after the Second, and they left a trace of chaos along their way.
Chess pieces were soon scattered all over the floor, along with Time's tools and spare pieces. Ceramic figures broke into thousands of pieces as they touched the ground, while books fell from the shelves and had some of their pages ripped apart.
"Stop at once!" Wilkins threw himself to catch the Second, but it ducked and turned around in the opposite direction, making Wilkins crash against Time's wardrobe instead . "Uh-oh"
The door submitted to the impact and opened, letting free the many curiosities Time had collected throughout Underland's story, with a Dodo, a tove and a borogove among them.
The Favorite Second approached Time and snatched something from his hand.
"Stop, you thief!" Tarrant heard Time scream.
His sight was blurry but it was better than being in total darkness. He barely had any time to recover when something bumped against his chest.
It was the Second, with something shinny hanging from its pourer.
Tarrant took it.
To his relief, it wasn't the Chronosphere.
It was a pocket watch.
There was something written on the cover.
"Cha—Kin. What a good name." That was all he was able to read before a hand on his shoulder forced him inside the room.
He needn't see clearly to know who was the man standing in front of him. Time glared at him with so much rage Tarrant was surprised his eyes didn't turn from blue to red.
The Second trembled in Tarrant's arm. Wilkins looked at it with equal contempt as he tried to put the Dodo back inside the wardrobe. It was bitting one of his metal eyebrows.
"You ungrateful worm." Hissed Time to Tarrant. "I let you into my castle, allow you to wander around for days, send you a Second every time you got lost … and how do you pay me? You turn them against me."
Wilkins saw from the distance. He didn't intervene.
"Was this your plan all along? You wanted to steal my gift to sell it back in Witzend, didn't you? From hatter to robber, just like that!"
In other occasion, Tarrant would have found Time's crazy imagination hilarious, but it was hard to have a sense of humor when the person in front of you had the power to age you back into non-existence.
Or leave you forever frozen in a tea party, again.
"And you." Time snatched the Second from Tarrant's arm. It was too scared to explain or do anything else than ticking and crying. "How dare you betray me? Of all my Seconds, I'd never thought it would be you!
Now Time sounded as if he was about to cry.
Wilkins rolled his eyes, but was happy to see his master behave as he should.
Sort of.
His smiled diminished when Tarrant meddled once again.
"I am no 'Evil Master of Seconds' and this little fellow is not a traitor, your Timeliness." Tarrant spoke as if he would to a friend in a party. "It's my opinion he simply brought this watch to me so I could repair it. Busy as you are, I'm sure the Second just wanted to free you from this chore so you could focus on more important duties. It is a thoughtful Second, it really is."
Time looked at Tarrant, and then to the Second, and then to Tarrant again.
The back of his head was starting to overheat.
"And it is right! I can make this watch tick tock again in the blink of an eye. I may be a hatter, but my skills as a clock repairer are not too shabby. See it as my way to repay you for letting me stay in your castle all this time." Tarrant went to the desk where Time created and repaired his trinkets and slammed the pocket watch on the surface.
The cover opened as swiftly as a catapult.
Time gave out a little scream and put his hands on his head.
Free at last, the Second tried to escape, but Wilkins seized it before it could reach the door.
"Now, let us see…" Tarrant said, scratching his chin and taking a closer look. "Ah! Yes, this clock is several days late. A serious malfunction better known as the 'Mad Watch Disease', but don't panic, I have the perfect solution. "
Time was pulling his hair.
Wilkins just watched.
"It is a cure that's been passed down among the members Hightopp's clan for generations!" Continued Tarrant, raising a finger. "I will need some butter, tea, jam, sugar, two spoons, not mustard because this is not a sandwich, and lemon of course. Guaranteed to make it work again! And if it doesn't… I don't suppose you have a big hammer somewhere inside that wardrobe, do you? That's the only way to stop an incurable Mad Watch."
"Let me get them for you, sir." Offered Wilkins in a good mood.
"Why, thank you Wilkins. "
Time punched the wall and a wave of blue energy spread across the room. Everything slowed down for a second, and for Tarrant the sensation was too familiar for him not to become scared.
Wilkins didn't put on brave attitude this occasion and he backed down in terror once the flow of time went back to normal. The Favortie Second clung to its leader's coat and both retreated back into a corner.
"Enough!" Ordered Time.
With just two giant steps, he made his way to the desk and picked up the watch. He guarded it in his hands, keeping it away from Tarrant as if he was an enemy of clocks.
"This is my gift. I will not let you destroy it. "Said Time, with a very overprotective and menacing attitude.
"Destroy it? No, I'm just trying to fix it for you." Tarrant wondered why he had given that impression, but realized that didn't matter. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to mistreat it."
But it was too late.
Time had taken offense, and now he had to pay.
Or at least listen to his ranting.
Either way, it wouldn't be pretty.
"What, do you think I don't treasure it just because it is a gift from the kindergartener? I never think ill of a gift, no matter its origins." Continued Time, talking faster than Thackery after having too much sugar in his tea. "Am I right, Wilkins?"
"Well sir, considering this is the first gift you've ever gotten, it's hard for me to make an average of your reactions to them."
"Such impudence, and honesty." Time became a little sad, but he recovered instantly and continued to talk about things Tarrant didn't begin to understand.
The only thing constant about Time's rambling was the much referenced kindergartener.
"Is that Cha-Kin's nickname?" Asked Tarrant, folding his arms.
"Who?" Time asked, not knowing what the hatter was babbling all about.
"The owner of that watch. That's his name."
Time look at the watch's cover and laughed.
"It says Charles Kingsleigh, you fool." Answered Time, finding great amusement in mocking Tarrant's pronunciation. "How do you even misread it?"
"With oil." Answered Tarrant naturally.
Little by little, the name started to resound in Tarrant's memory, and then it all came to him.
She had only told him her last name once, the first time they met when she was a girl.
He had never thought about it since then.
For him, she was and would always be Alice.
The rest of her name mattered little.
"Did she give it to you?" Tarrant was in awe. She had left something behind.
That was enough to give him hope.
Time stopped talking.
"That's what I've been saying, hatter! Put attention."
"Let me see it."
Tarrant reached his hand for the watch without waiting for an answer.
Time pushed him away and stretched his arm as far as he could.
"No, it's mine."
"Just a quick look."
"What part of No is so hard for you mortals to understand? It's one syllable, two letters, a simple word, one with the same meaning in more than four languages."
"Let me see it."
"No."
It was so close and so far, just like Alice.
Tarrant needed to hold it in his hands once more.
If he could, then his dream of seeing Alice again wouldn't seem so unreachable anymore.
But Time didn't give in.
Tarrant desisted against his will.
At first he felt angry at Time, but after some thought, he concluded he couldn't blame him for being so protective over the only gift he had ever received.
If he was in his place, and if that gift had once belonged to Alice, Tarrant wouldn't be more sharing than Time.
"As you wish." Accepted Tarrant, managing to keep calm. "But promise me to take care of it always. I get the feeling it meant a lot to her."
Time blinked, and his expression mellowed.
"It did." He smiled and gently put it inside his pocket . "I will."
The Favorite Second ticked, and Wilkins frowned.
"Thank you." Tarrant, though upset about the watch's departure, found comfort in knowing it couldn't have a better keeper than Time himself.
It would be on good hands for all eternity.
He wondered if Alice had seen it that way too.
He wished he could know.
"I can… and I will!"
That was the perfect moment.
The time had come, Tarrant thought, to talk of important things.
He had ink in his eyes and on his back, and he hadn't eaten for days, even less slept.
The chamber was a mess of feathers ,spare pieces and broken clocks.
Wilkins was harshly scolding the Second, who looked down in shame.
Time had a melancholic face that no doubt matched his mood.
Unfavorable circumstances all together, but it was still the perfect moment.
"Time, I need to talk to you." Tarrant spoke with the seriousness his father had always wanted to see in him.
Time became wary, if not as defensive as before.
For now, he would listen.
The rest was unknown.
"It's about Alice." Tarrant continued. "She always came to me, and now I will go to her. Rest assured, your Chronosphere has no appeal to me because it is not through time I want to travel to."
Time raised an eyebrow. He seldom had felt so confused.
It could also be the very first time the Chronosphere wasn't the main subject of a petition.
The heart of all Time... ignored?
It all felt so uncommon it was almost offensive.
"Through space." Tarrant pointed up, and imagined a clear blue sky he could soar. "Help me build a machine that can travel through space, one that can take me to her world, back to my Alice. I ask nothing more."
It was true.
Tarrant felt it all would fall into place once he was with Alice again.
If they couldn't be together in Underland or in dreams, then they would be together in Upperland and in reality.
In the end, any world they chose was irrelevant.
If he was with her, he knew everyday would be worthy of waking up in the morning.
Each day an adventure, each day bright and fun.