AN: There are no words to say how sorry I am for my absence. Shakespeare, essays and stress took over my life for the last month. I blame them and my great talent for procrastination for all the time I didn't update. At least it's now over... until January. I'll try to complete this new story arc soon, and finish the fic somewhere around next May (I'll try!)

Thank you so much for your patience and support! I love you, my readers and fellow writers.

Enjoy!

The White Queen's royal coterie.

Seven members.

Bayard led the way with his gifted nose and acute hearing.

Mc Twisp's knowledge and sensibility kept the objectives clear and the members focused. However, his twitching whiskers and the constant glances he gave to his pocket watch altered everyone else's nerves.

It was fortunate that one of the Tweedles was there to lighten up the mood, be it willingly or not. Even in the absence of his twin, he always found the way to put a smile on the others' faces.

The other Tweedle was fulfilling his position as the Red Queen's manservant.

Whatever errand she imposed, he had to comply.

Maybe he was looking for the pig with the warmest belly to soothe her royal feet; maybe he was making sure nobody ate her tarts; maybe he was bored to death; maybe he was just standing around like an idiot.

Unbearable as it sounded, the Tweedles seemed to like their new roles as Iracebeth's personal lackeys.

One more than the other, but to tell which one enjoyed it the most was difficult.

Returning to the coterie, the last four members were far more interesting than the other three.

Among them, the newest member was worthy of mention.

He was brave and strong.

Underland had never seen a man so courageous. Even the most legendary of the White Knights would pale in comparison.

The White Queen had been so impressed with him that she had offered him a place among her army, but he had refused.

A bold move, some may say, but for this young man, no action was too daring, no mountain too high, no river too deep…

"Bim, is this the story of what happened, or a ballad about yourself?"

"Can't be both?"

"No. Besides, that whole thing about Mirana offering you to become one of her knights didn't happen, did it?"

"Yes. Well, no. Come on Alice, I was just trying to spice things up."

"And I don't condemn your imagination, I'm just telling you to save it for later. For now, try to stick to the facts of what happened."

"The facts are boring. I'm not writing a history encyclopedia."

"Bim."

"Fine, fine, I'll tell you the boring version. Grown-ups, seriously… Anyway, we were searching for Tarrant near the skirts of the Outland's mountains. You don't know what 'cold' is until you spend hours there, wandering around in circles like mindless borogoves. Now, it's not as if I can't put up with a harsh weather. Boredom, on the other hand…"

"You had the others. Bantering with them is always interesting, and it could have helped you kill some time. Not literally, of course."

"Not with the mood they were in! Bayard was too busy following the trial to pay attention to me; Mc Twisp was so tense that I thought he would break into pieces if I say a word to him, and the Tweedles are fun, but if any of them speaks more than five seconds in a row, I get the sudden need to smack them."

"I don't think the Queen or the others would have liked that."

"Who cares about what they'd liked? The point is that I was bored out of my mind. When Zanik told me the Queen had accepted me in the coterie in charge of finding Tarrant, I thought I would finally have some excitement in my life. But the searches were no more entertaining than being at home. At least there I was comfortable, not freezing to death with a group of grumps who didn't truly want me with them."

"So you were fed up. I get that, but then what happened?"

"Ah, that's easy. I got an idea. Mally tried to stop me; she's always whispering in my ear like a gnat, but as long as she doesn't poke me with her pin, she is easy to ignore. You remember the Bandersnatch? Well, he was part of the coterie too, though at first I thought he was just the pet of the group. He was walking behind us, covering us in case of an ambush or any sort of danger. He was rider-less, and I was cold and tired…so the idea just came to me. Mally wasn't happy about it, not at all. I still remember how she screamed into my ear…"

"Bim, no!"

But it was too late. Hanging from his shoulder, Mally could only watch how the lad jumped on the Bandersnatch's back. He held on to his fur, trying to make him yield to his command.

The white beast growled in confusion, but it wasn't until Bim dug his heels on the Bandersnatch's sides that it went on a rampage.

It dashed forward like a stampede. Mc Twisp gave out a high shriek as he dodged the Bandersnatch's giant paw just before it crushed him.

The Tweedle, unable to decide where or why he should run, became paralyzed in the middle of the road. It was only out of sheer luck that he was spared from being rolled over by the Bandersnatch.

Bayard heard the chaos and put himself out of danger before it reached him.

"Now this is an expedition!" exclaimed Bim as he pulled the Bandersnatch's fur as if it were reins. The beast roared and kicked.

"Now I'm free to go wherever I please. Let's see who dares to get in my way while I mount this thing!" His words came out mangled and rushed. The only one who could hear his boasting was Mally.

With great effort, the brave dormouse made her way from Bim's shoulder to the Bandersnatch'eye.

"Enough!" She screamed. She was so close to his yellow eyeball that she almost touched it with her nose.

Her glittering unsheathed pin was enough to calm the Bandersnatch.

"Good boy." Mally patted his nose. She then climbed to his head and gave a killer look to Bim.

He kept kicking the Bandersnatch in hopes of making him move again.

"What's going on here?" Demanded Bayard. "Why has the Bandersnatch attacked out of a sudden?"

"It didn't attack." Mally replied dryly and pointed at Bim. "This stupid child provoked. Bim, I've told you before. You can't ride the Bandersnatch unless it has given you his approval, and for that to happen, you need to earn his respect first, not treat him like a wild animal."

"You won't win anyone's respect if you keep this up." Added Mc Twisp. He held his pocket watch close to his ear; it had a small fracture in the middle. "Oh dear, for a moment I thought it was broken. You should be glad it isn't, or else the Queen would hear of your behavior."

Bim rolled his eyes and shrugged. The Bandersnatch glared at him from over his shoulder blade, but Bim gave to him the same importance he had given to the complaints of the others.

"What are you yammering all about? Nobody got hurt; you need to take a deep breath and relax. Am I right, Chess?"

"Indeed, young Hightopp." A gray cloud materialized into a cat on top of the Tweedle's head. "These kind of royal groups always overflow with tension, and try to find an outlet to it in the most trivial of matters."

"Don't humor him, Chessur. He almost hurt us all." Said Mally with little patience. "And mind your words, or should I remind you are part of this group as well?"

"Of course you can remind me, as long as I remind you that I never formally accepted to be a member." Chessur smile accentuated to the point his face almost rips into two. "My membership is a wavering thing."

Mally unsheathed her pin again.

"If finding Tarrant is not of your concern, then leave. We needn't deadweights."

"Come now Mally, the last thing we need is conflict among us." Appeased Mc Twisp. His ears flickered at the rhythm of his blinking.

The cat laughed and departed from the Tweedle's head. Bim looked at him with an amused grin.

"Well, aren't we in an ungrateful mood." Chess sneered at Mally. "And I had thought that my little meddling in the crowning would gain me some indulgence. Do you know how long it took me to guide that flock of borogoves to the castle? More than any other cat would be willing to accept, I assure you."

"That was the best part of that stupid ceremony. Besides my uncle's performance, of course." Bim chuckled. "The only way it could have gone better is if he had beheaded the bloody-"

With a single jump, Mally landed on Bim's ear and stung his lob with the tip of her pin. He screamed in pain and surprise.

"Think before you speak, boy. You can't take your words back once you say them." She folded her arms and went back to her rightful place on Bim's shoulder.

Mc Twisp tried to express his opinion about Mally's treatment of the lad, but Bayard stopped him.

"So much violence." Sighed Chessur with faked indignation. "It's time for me to go. Goodbye."

His body began to vanish like smoke against the breeze.

"You will stay." Mally ordered.

"Not if I don't want to." His face darkened with his last words. "Just like Tarrant didn't. If that's the case, why are we even looking for him in the first place? Is bringing him back home our noble mission, or just our selfish wish? Two interesting questions, aren't they?"

Mally gasped.

Chessur disappeared.

The echo of his laugh hung in the air even after he was gone.

"Where's the cat gone?" asked the Tweedle as he scratched his head.

"Who cares about where he's gone. It's his vanishing skill that matters." Bim commented and then looked at Mally. "I hope he is willing to teach me."

"Hush, Bim." Mally jumped tack to his ear. "Now it's not the time for those silly thoughts. It's your uncle we are searching for. Show some concern and behave as you must, or I shall pierce your lob and put an earring on it to make sure you don't forget."

"That won't be necessary at all!" Urged Mc Twisp when he saw the dormouse more than ready to carry on with her threat.

"Actually, that would be great." Said Bim with enthusiasm. "I've always wanted an earring! Mother wouldn't be too pleased, though. But that's alright, I'll just have to take it off once I bring her back home. What you don't know can't hurt you, right?"

Slowly, Mally put her guard down.

"What's with that look?" asked Bim with annoyances. "Stop it, Mally. I don't need coddling! I'm not a child."

"Is that so?" Replied Mally with a smug grin. "Well, you sure fooled me."

"Be it with that darn pin or with your words, you always have to find a way to sting me, don't you? You've got some gall, considering I could defeat you in a fight in just one second." Said Bim with playful arrogance.

Mally laughed at the suggestion.

"You wouldn't defeat me even with my eyes closed, boy."

"My feet say otherwise, dormouse."

"That wouldn't be an honorable fight."

"True, but it still would be a victory."

"Those are some great ideals, Bim."

"Thanks."

"Is your mind so witless that it is as immune to sarcasm as it is to discipline?" Mally brushed her whiskers and didn't waver when Bim returned to her an angry glare. "Luckily for you, that's not something without a remedy. I could teach you the art of the sword, so you may fight like a warrior and not a mindless brute. Who knows, it could also help become something more than a brat, as impossible as it may sound."

Bim's eyes widened.

"You're jesting me."

"I jest you not."

Bim raised his hands up in the air. He laughed like a maniac until he suddenly stopped and looked at Mally with very serious eyes.

"I will use a sword and not a dressmaker's pin, right?"

"What? Of course you'll use a sword." Answered a confused Mally.

The positive answer allowed Bim to continue with his celebration. It didn't take long before the Tweedle jumped to the Bandersnatch back to join the uproar, much to the beast's grief.

Bayard and Mc Twisp watched the scene from afar.

"I think I'm beginning to see the nephew's resemblance to the uncle." Said Mc Twisp as he covered his ears. "Though I wish he would dance the Futterwacken instead of doing all this shouting. I will go deaf for sure."

"Tarrant can take care of mending that flaw once we find him." Bayard cocked his head and pointed north with his stout. "Let's keep going. The day grows old and we-"

A lighting in the sky blinded the coterie. Immediately, an earthquake made the ground crack and the trees shiver.

The Tweedle shouted when he fell off the Bandersntach.

Mally would have suffered the same fate had she not grabbed one of Bim's red locks in the last second.

He managed to stay on the Bandersnatch back only by digging his nails deep into the fur. He did it with so much strength that he pulled of various threads of white hair.

After a moment of disconcert, the group recovered their senses.

"What… what was that?" Asked Mc Twisp, his eyes wide open and his ears up in alert.

"Something fell. A shooting star, maybe?" Bayard shook his body and licked a small wound on his paw. He sniffed the ground. "Whatever it was, we must investigate. It fell on the other side of these mountains."

Mc Twisp gasped.

"You can't be serious! We cannot simply rush into—"

"THE OUTLANDS! YES! EVERYONE, FOLLOW MY LEAD! BIM HIGHTOPP AND HIS LOYAL BANDERSNTACH, AWAY!"

"Bim, no!" Shouted everyone.

"Bim yes!" He replied.

He dug his heels on the Bandersnatch's sides again, this time stronger than before, and soon they disappeared into the freezing mountains, with Mally bouncing on Bim's shoulder as she tried in vain to stop them.

Mc Twisp and Bayard looked at each other, but knew words would no longer be of help, and instead decide to chase after them before they got out of sight.

As for the Tweedle, he was left behind, and spent various minutes looking at the clouds before he remembered his duty and went after the rest, with a ghastly gray smoke following right behind him.

"That was the best day of my life. I swear I would have ridden for all time across that empty wasteland if Time himself hadn't appeared. Meddling fool…"

Alice shook Bim by the shoulder before he got too lost in his memories.

"Focus!" She ordered. "Are you saying that Time was in the Outlands? That you simply found him there? Bim, I swear, if this is another of your 'additions' to the story…"

"You just saw Time, didn't you?"

"But I thought… I thought you had gone to him and ask for his help. You know, that you had gone through all that ordeal to enter his realm in Mirana's grandfather clock." Alice pondered, biting her thumb's nail. "How could he be out of his castle if Mirana has him locked inside? And why would he even go to the Outlands?"

"My uncle convinced the Queen to let Time come to Witzend, only from time to time, of course." Said Bim, with an amused grin at his wordplay." I don't know why he did that, though. Don't get me wrong, Time is... interesting, I guess, but he treats us as if we were mud on his boots! The looks he gave to my family when we had tea time with him at Thackery's still make my blood boil."

"And that's very hard to accomplish…." Alice muttered to herself.

"Those tea parties were stupid, I know, but…he didn't appreciate them at all! Not one bit. We put a lot effort in them, you know? Especially my uncle and my mother. He could have at least say thank you to them once in a while."

"Time is not one to be thankful, Bim. Especially not directly."

"He's a blabbering scut."

"No! Well, maybe a little. Look, he's spent only he knows how many years all by himself. It's only natural if social skills are a bit rusty. We can't judge him too harshly."

"He's a blabbering scut."

"Who's a blabbering scut?" Asked Time. He closed the wagon's door behind him and removed his heavy hat from his head. The Second rubbed against his cheek and made him sneeze with the touch of its feathers.

"Look in a mirror, then you'll know the answer. That's if your reflection doesn't break it first…"

"Silence! Kicking those pesky passengers out of my train depleted all my patience. I'm not in the mood for your jabs." Time cracked his neck and forced one of his gears to get back in place. "Ah, that's much better."

The sound it made reminded Alice of the occasion Harper had dislocated his shoulder in the middle of a storm, and how James had pushed back in place with all the weight of his body.

"So, are you done telling her all she needs to know?" Urged Time. "Hey, don't doze off when I'm talking to you!"

Bim gave out big snore before waking up.

"I told her my part, now you tell her yours. I'm not your personal story-teller, Time. Now shut up, that little expedition into the Tulgey Woods really tired me up." He folded his arms and leant his head against the wall. "Wake me up when you're done."

Bim fell asleep before Time could complain, as if someone invisible had knocked him unconscious.

Alice gave tried to wake him up with a gentle nudge, but either he was a quick sleeper, or very good at pretending to be one.

"Amazing, just what I needed. Now I have to be the bed-time story teller of the kindergartner. How low have I fallen." Time grunted as he roughly sat down next to Alice, who glared at him in reproach. "Alright then, where did he leave you? Did he even say anything relevant, or just wasted his breath with his invented, self-flattering tales? Every time is the same, I swear…"

Alice told Time everything about Bim's tale.

He listened in silence, twirling his moustache as if in deep thought.

"He told you many things." He commented in disapproval. "And very few were relevant. And he calls me blabbering…"

"So it's true then?" Asked Alice. "Time, were you really wandering the Outlands?"

Time scoffed.

"I wasn't 'wandering', child. I had a reason to be there. Unlike you mortals, I don't waste myself in banal activities like 'wandering'."

"Well, your Usefulness, what is this glorious purpose you're talking about?" Asked Alice, imitating the uptight voice of Lady Ascot.

Time mistook the jab for respect, and his voice mellowed with arrogance.

He told Alice with great detail about all the troubles Tarrant had caused him. His humor was good enough to answer to Alice's questions, but only in monosyllables. Pleased or angry, Time's annoyance for interruptions remained the same.

Alice felt her heart grow heavier with every word.

Tarrant had searched for her.

He longed to see her, just as she longed to see him too.

But now…

"But…he is fine, isn't he? Tarrant is safe." Alice stuttered, grabbing Time by the arm. "Time?"

He wavered and looked away.

"I …I have no way to know." He accepted shamefully. "I can't give you an answer."

"Nonsense! I remember… in your castle. The rooms of the dead and the living." Alice demanded. Her memories rushed before her eyes. "You are the one who keeps the departed away from those still alive. If something happened to Tarrant, you'd know, Time. You could have checked; if you didn't, is because you didn't want. Don't try to fool me."

"Indeed, if I had been in my castle, in my rightful place, I would be certain." Time looked down. "But how am I supposed to know when I haven't been there for so long? Not ever since the Hatter dragged me out with his pitiful stories and his cursed stubbornness."

He then looked at Alice. His sky-blue eyes shone like sapphires in the grayness of the wagon.

"If I didn't go back, it's because I couldn't. Trust me, child, I tried... but my failed attempt to bring you and the Hatter together came at a high cost."

He didn't look behind him.

He had to keep moving forward.

That was, in essence, his nature.

"Not so fast…" Begged the fruit soldier. She held her tiny sprout child close to her chest.

"Silence!" Time held her other hand tightly. He too had a burden to carry: the unresponsive Second was as light as a feather on his arm. "Just keep moving."

The speed was normal to him, but to the fruit soldier it felt no different than a free fall. It could only be worse for the tiny sprout in its pot.

Time was aware of their situation, but he couldn't let it interfere with his goals.

They had to reach Iracebeth's castle before the strangers catch up to them. Time didn't know who they were, but he knew nobody would be pleased to see him.

Time felt the same way.

He had seen enough of Underland.

It was time for him to go home and never return.

He stopped abruptly at the castle's entrance and pushed his way to the entrance. Many of the fruit people were already trying to measure the damage their home had received after Tarrant's failed flight.

"Hey, you." One of them tried to stop him. "What's going on?"

Time escaped his arm and sneaked into the castle before they could try to catch him again.

The fruit soldier gasped in shock at the sight of her destroyed castle:

The walls were cracked, with many of them reduced to shambles. The decorations and memorials her people have built to honor those who had perished under Iracebeth's command were now just piles of crumbles on the floor.

The worst of it all was the crimson scar on the ground. It was a perfect circle, as if someone had buried a full moon.

The earth looked freshly dug.

It was the same size as…

"Wait!" Time felt how she escaped from his grasp.

She ran and fell to her knees next to dark mark.

"He's not here." She said in dismay. Her child imitated her grief. "He should be. Why isn't he? How? Unless …"

She caressed the wounded ground with her fingers, as if she was tracing a sentence.

Time felt a nervous shock of energy travel his body.

"It swallowed him." She said, and unknown to her, she accomplished what few ever had: she made Time shiver. "He's underground now."

"I don't care." Time couldn't stand the sight of the scar on the ground for one more second.

He pushed away the memories of the Hatter and leapt towards the fruit soldier.

This time, he held her hand with more gentleness, but not less firmly.

"It's done. He knew the risks." He explained as he guided her upstairs through the remnants of the stairs. "I'm not to blame. He knew."

"But…" she started, with anger showing in her tone.

"But nothing!" Time shouted. "I did what he asked me. I owe him nothing. I have no reason to be here anymore; I'll go back to my realm and you'll never see me again."

"But what about him?" She said in a hushed whisper. "He didn't go up, he went under."

"Irrelevant! It's not about him." Declared Time as he kicked the grandfather clock's room open with a kick. "Not anymore."

He took a step inside, and felt a twist in his stomach as his foot found nothing but empty space. He would have fallen through the hole where the floor had once been if the fruit soldier hadn't grabbed him by the wrist.

Time lost his balance and fell on his back. The Second escaped from his arm.

It rolled away to a distant corner.

Before tending to it, Time's attention was fully fixed in the destroyed room.

The accident had transformed it into nothingness, and gone with it was also the grandfather clock.

Nothing remained of it, apart from tiny shattered pieces incrusted on the wall.

An overload of energy made Time's nape sparkle.

"No." He knelt ,and small grabbed a small remnant of his former way back home. "Now what? Am I trapped in here? No, no. That can't be right!"

His imminent breakdown was cut short when the noises of the intruders came from the castle destroyed entrance. They had arrived too quickly.

How could that be?

No mortal feet could match Time's pace, except maybe the Turtle.

Or the Bandersnatch.

"No." Time got up and took a peek to the broken doors of the entrance. "It can't be them."

He saw a white mountain with some fools riding on its back talking to the other fruit folk.

His clock-heart skipped a second when he saw the recognized the distant figure of the Hatter.

Quickly enough, the more normal features of the lad gave him an identity of his own.

At one moment, he had been peacefully talking to a fruit guard, and suddenly , he was jumping off the Bandersnatch's back with his fists high up in the air, prepared for battle.

The rest of the intruders revealed their identities shortly after his outrage:

The hound, the rabbit and one of the annoying pair of meatballs. They tried to separate the Hatter doppelganger and the poor scared fruit guard.

Lingering above them, Time saw a small cloud of gray smoke that irregularly shapeshifted into a cat.

Finally, he heard the squeaky voice of the dormouse.

Her words made no sense for Time, but they fueled his despair.

"Those idiots again." He gritted his teeth and threw his hat to the floor with disdain. "They'll blame me for this… like they always have. Those mindless, oversized vegetables will them everything!"

"We will not." Reassured the fruit soldier.

Time scorned at her suggestion, and asked her with cruelty how she could be so sure.

"Because I promised him. He made us promise." She answered. "That we would not tell anyone that he was here, or what he was doing, not even to the White Queen herself. He may be underground now, but I'll keep my word. We all will."

Time was at loss of words, and regretted with a wounded pride not having done the same. They would protect the Hatter, but why would they protect him?

They feared him at best, and despised him at worst.

They owed him no loyalty or consideration.

Then again, given the simplicity of their minds, Time knew they probably wouldn't mention him if the intruders didn't ask anything related to him first.

"Curse it!" Time hissed, still a little stung by the fact the Hatter had shown more sensibility than him.

He punched what remained of a wall, and his fist became tangled in the red creepers. It took him several attempts before he could free it.

The creepers clung to his body as hungry leeches. He couldn't understand how the Hatter had willingly use that rotten infestation to sew his clothes, even less eat them.

That idea was beyond mad.

A spark made his eyes glitter.

He couldn't remember having thought of something so ridiculous before.

Yet, he didn't have a better plan.

Time smiled with bitterness, and wished the Hatter's madness, if it had rubbed off on him, wouldn't linger for long.

"Wait." He said calmly to the fruit soldier. She stopped and sighed. She had been so close to escape and leave him behind, but Time wasn't one to be fooled so easily. "It's only a matter of me before those fools enter, and I… I need your hel—"

Time bit his tongue.

"Huh?" She asked. One of her expressionless eyes was wide than the other.

"Just go along with what I'll say! Nothing more." Time proclaimed as he started to pull several creepers from the wall and putting him all over his body. He hesitated at first, but decided it was necessary to cover his face too.

After some thought, it was obvious that it was the most important part that should remain unseen.

Time shivered in discomfort at he damp feeling of the creeper extending to the back of his head, though it left his gears untouched.

The fruit soldier stared at him with disgust, with her child in the pot imitating her every motion, though she seemed to enjoy the show more than her mother.

"Have you become mad?" She asked Time.

Time took his eyes off his creeper-covered hat and glared at her.

"It's the Hatter's fault." He said. "All of this is."

She nodded in disagreement, but the echo of the doors of the palace being slammed open became more important to her than a retort.

Time clenched his teeth and made sure his hat covered his nape in its totality.

Had it beaten like a mortal heart, the clock of his chest would have marked the seconds at the pace of a fleeing rabbit.

The steps of the intruders became louder and closer. They were already halfway through the destroyed staircase.

"Leader of the Green Folk, surrender! Bim Hightopp and his loyal coterie will not show mercy if you —Shukm! Mally, that one really hurt." Cried a young man.

"Silence! This isn't a battle."

"You drew blood! You better have the earring you promise or else… I'll be really disappointed."

Time ignored the rest of the conversation and braced himself for the inevitable encounter.

"Remember." He said to the fruit soldier, who was no better prepared than he was. "Just play along with my charade."

"No." She said, much to Time's surprise. "You're scary."

"Listen!" exclaimed Time. "I need you to follow my lead one more time. I need…I need you help."

Something inside Time, most likely a chunk of his pride, fell apart with those words.

The fruit soldier didn't answer.

Time's fate now rested in the decision of a compilation of sentinent fruits and vegetables.

Had Time known this was what expected him in the world outside his realm, he never would have left.

And it all was thanks to the Hatter.

'Well done, you fool.' Time thought without emotion just as the intruders entered the room. 'Well done indeed.'

Time yawned.

The feather-covered Second had jumped to Alice's lap at moment of the story, and wasnow deeply at rest.

Bim snore loudly, his head resting on one of Alice's shoulders as if it was a pillow.

"And then…" He yawned again. His eyes flickered. "Things happened, many of them were stupid, and now I'm here… The end."

"Hey, that's not the right way to end a story!"

"It's not the right way, but it's still a way…"

"Time!"

"Hush, child. Let me sleep." Time rested his head against the wall and closed his eyes. "Being the conductor of this cursed train… is not easier than being me."

"You can't leave me hanging like this." Alice protested. "What about what happened? What about Tarrant?"

"Yes, yes…" Time whispered. "I'll tell you later. Not now, no… For even Time needs time to rest now and then."

Alice wondered when he had become so lazy, but Time fell asleep before she could ask him.

She tried to wake him up, but accomplished nothing.

Soon, the snoring of the three sleeping beings became one single sound that resembled a song.

Its melody trapped Alice in a heavy drowsiness.

For Alice, it felt wrong to be in such a lax state when the status of Tarrant was something unknown to her. With the power of all of her will and mind, she tried to stay awake.

But the exhaustion of her body overcame her, and Alice fell asleep without noticing.

A moment later, her soft breathing joined Bim's snoring, Time's sleep talking and the Second's ticking, and it transformed the song into a more peaceful tune.

One that almost sounded like a lullaby.

Tick, tock…

Tick, tock…

The pocket watch still worked.

Wilkins pressed it until creaked.

Then, he left it hanging in its rightful place.

It had been just a shallow hope, but he felt disappointed that it wasn't the interloper's watch the one that had stopped.

Without enthusiasm, and with the help of several Minutes, he reached for the watches hanging in farther places amidst the endless sky of the living.

He kept searching for the right one.

Time was able to finish that eerie task in a heartbeat, but he wasn't around.

Until he returned, it was Wilkin's duty to do so in his place.

"Sir." He said to himself. He found the broken watch. The golden chain that connected it to the sky collapsed at his touch. "Come back."

The watches kept ticking.

Tick, tock…

Tick, tock…