Disclaimer, the usual

It had taken two more lollipops to restore Dorothy's speech to what it had been, and she had ordered the scepter to never do something like that again. It had pinged in compliance.

Glinda had gone to check the book of records again and withheld the information she had gleaned from everyone. And that was that she couldn't get any, the text on the pages was scrambled and had become incredibly hard to look at. She knew what that meant, and it really heavily implied that she had in fact signed that contract. But whether it was due to her deal or something else she was unsure. She knew the consequences would find her eventually however.

the next morning, Dorothy was on the prowl. She had taken the form of a cat and found herself up In some of the trees heading towards the clearing. That morning Ozma had requested her presence to help with some royal duties. Alex felt the urge to go for a run and had asked dorothy to meet him at the clearing afterward. She and Ozma had checked the crystal ball in the chambers and had found him in his wolf form in the clearing. The scepter floating around him. She assumed that once she was nearby, he would hide in the covering of the trees then come out and playfully pounce her. She decided, however that she wanted to get the drop on him for giggles.

As she ran from branch to branch as they were cluster close together, she heard what seemed to be the scepter, pinging, slowly, like a bell choir almost. She continued on. She eventually neared the entrance to the clearing. The scent of the wolf entering her nostrils. She found alex still in his large wolf for, just standing there. After a few seconds and counting down in her head. She pounced, meowing as she did so. She landed on his back, but this was a rather short-lived victory due to the scale difference between the two. She was a normal sized cat, and he was a very, very large wolf. Unable to maintain balance, she quickly fell of his back. Landing on her feet and shaking her head to get out of the daze that had put her in, she looked up to find Alex staring down at her. The scepter suddenly started pinging in the way that the two of them usually interpreted as laughter. For a moment dorothy found this odd as the reverberations, the slow, almost choir like chimes were still going on. The scepter fell silent, and she realized she could still hear them.

"You hear it too?" Alex asked curiously, turning back to human form.

Dorothy nodded, Alex took a moment to remove the collar from her and within moments she was in her normal form again. However, the sounds seemed to stop once she was.

"We noticed it after we transformed, thought it would be funny to do what you just did…just not from a tree branch." He said taking a leaf out of her hair.

"I figured as much, thought it would be funny to get the jump instead, had I stuck the landing better I probably could have balanced on your back for quite a while." She replied, "any idea what's making the sound? Because I genuinely thought it had been the scepter."

Alex shook his head, "at a guess, something underground, what gets me is that it only seems noticeable in animal form"

"it's more noticeable when you're closer to the source." Came a familiar voice.

The two of them turned to find the girl standing behind them. Diary in hand she scratched something out and placing her thumb in center, shut it so that she wouldn't lose her page immediately.

"so, you know what's causing it then?" Alex asked curiously.

"I do." She replied with a nod.

"I suppose you aren't allowed to tell us though?" Dorothy asked in response.

"Actually, for once, I can." She said holding out her free hand.

The scepter pings and flew towards it. the smoke in the orb swirling rapidly again. She joined the two of them in the center of clearing and smiled.

"despite the fact that you 've done this here at least once, it was during a time you weren't fully ready to accept this an object of power, so it didn't work." She said raising the scepter and bringing the end down against the ground. The was a bang and suddenly a rush of wind. magic seemed to be forming, swirling around them. And within moments they found themselves no longer where they had been. But in what appeared to be an underground cavern. The girl giggled and let go of the scepter. Alex immediately held out his hand for it. it immediately flew to him.

The first thing the two of them noticed was that the sounds had returned. The girl took a step forward and there was a sudden ringing sound. The floor below them, dorothy had observed, not wearing the slippers or any footwear when she had turned into a cat. Was made out of what was either very smooth stone, or rough crystal. The piece of floor the girl had stepped on had lit up. Taking on a bluish hue. Revealing that the floor was made mostly of squarish shaped tiles. She hopped to another skipping over one and the one she landed on lit up a pinkish color letting out another reverberation.

"Leaving this place long enough causes the lights to fade, they never light up the same color twice in a row however." The girl said.

"But what is this place?" Dorothy asked as she and alex followed after her.

"basically, a sanctuary, but its also the reason the clearing is a great place to sit and meditate, Tugg knew because he was once a tree and had a connection to the underground, Glinda knows about this place as well, but without Roquat or one of you two would be entirely unable to access it." the girl responded, touching a wall.

Immediately it lit up a greenish color, reflecting them in it for a moment, the girl moved on, jumping to different squares. Chuckling as she did so.

"Wait, Roquat knows…or knew about this place?" Alex asked curiously.

The girl nodded.

"and Glinda knows about it as well?" Dorothy asked in response.

She nodded again.

"Dare we ask why us? Or does that qualify as info we cant have?" he asked sounding rather amazed.

"that's something you two will have to eventually work out on your own. This place is a great place to come if you want to be perfectly isolated, the probably being that it is again, isolated and unlike a construct doesn't really produce anything other than…well I suppose the best will always be music." She said opening her diary to where she left off and scratching something out.

Alex looked around, as the two of them followed. It seemed to be a vast expanse of caverns that created rooms.

"if I had to take a guess" Alex said as the room was lit up in multicolored light from the stones they stepped on "Roquat or possibly his predecessor assuming he definitely had one, created this place."

The girl chuckled but said nothing, never lingering in one spot too long. Soon they came to what seemed to be a large crystal table.

"Ruggedo doesn't know about this place does he?" Dorothy asked curiously, "I imagine he would have destroyed it, just on principle."

The girl nodded and scratched something out of her diary before shutting it and putting it away.

"what does us finally accepting the scepter have to do with it?" Alex asked curiously.

The girl snorted and giggled.

"not as much as you'd think, but still enough to make a difference." She said

The scepter pinged and sounded rather confused.

"you two had always looked at the scepter as more a hinderance at the end of the day" she went on, "as something you had to use because if you didn't, the odds of the worlds coming to their premature end went up exponentially." She added

"couldn't have phrased that better myself." Alex said.

Dorothy took a moment to move on the tiles like someone playing hopscotch. Alex chuckled and watch her continue doing this. He leaned against a wall which lit up. There was something however, about that which made him feel uneasy. When he eventually turned around he noticed what it was. Between two of the crystals now lit up behind him, was a suspended image. Himself and the beast when they were separated, in front of Madeline's typewriter. Dorothy looked and tilted her head curious at this. Then looked to the girl.

"this area was the original inspiration behind memory orbs, its, temporar…" she blew a raspberry and tried that again "TemPORally sensitive." She said getting up and walking over to a wall and touching it "you just don't have a choice as to what your shown unlike the memory orb"

"so theoretically this place could show you your future on accident?" alex asked after a moment.

"in theory, and only in specialize circumstances" she said as the wall lit up.

It showed what appeared to be an older Alyssa and Terrance, Kissing, Alyssa appeared to be far along in pregnancy. She tapped the wall again and it changed to Ellie and Jude, they were sat together at what appeared to be a desk at an office. Papers and cards everywhere. Ellie wasn't dressed in any way they were accustom too. Her outfit was what appeared to be a dull dark blue. Not bright enough to be classified by any other shade, but not dark enough to be navy. On her right hand were two rings. One appeared to be an engagement band. She couldn't tell what

Out of pure curiosity dorothy touched the wall nearest to her, the panel lit up. She was looking at herself, curled up on something. It took her a moment to realize that was her breakdown in the hall of time. Alex came over to check out which image she had gotten and immediately wrapped his arms around her when he realized what it was.

"it will show you any memories" the girl said taking out her diary and scratching something out, "Good." She said thumbing to the image of ellie and Jude "this is shortly after their engagement, as you can probably guess."

The two nodded looking at it.

"Bad." Dorothy said referencing her image.

Before the girl could say anything, the scepter let out several pings. They seemed to say to be fair, you do have a lot of those.

"yes, but we wouldn't say that aloud." Dorothy and Alex said in unison.

"and indifferent…I guess would be a good word for that." The girl said referring to the image of the beast and alex.

"painful would also apply, separating hurt" Alex said, his eyes flashing yellow for a moment

"Fair." The girl said scratching another thing out, "though I must add, on the looking at your future thing, a little foreknowledge is a dangerous thing, don't try to pursue it, or at the very least not often the only reason you get to glimpse this." She said thumbing towards the image of ellie and Jude "because the events demand it, if I told you when it happened, then it might change it"

"A little foreknowledge is a dangerous thing, so omnipotence must be lethal." Came the unmistakable voice of the beast.

Both the girl and dorothy shared a glance and rolled their eyes.

"We heard that." They both said.

Dorothy couldn't help but giggle at this. However, the scepter seemed to be acting rather strangely now. It began glowing brighter, drawing energy from the crystals. It suddenly let out a burst of energy.

Immediately Dorothy found herself looking at a scene. The two of them, sat on a couch in what appeared to be the lounge area of their dorm. Her feet were on Alex's lap, but something was strange, it felt too quiet, too empty. She was reading from a book. She couldn't make out the title from the distance she was looking in on the scene

"so" the future version of Alex said, his voice echoing, his hands going to her feet and beginning a massage.

this caused her to look over the top of the book for a moment, tilting her head slightly upward and looking at him.

"So?" Dorothy heard herself ask in return, her voice sounding rather flat, drained.

"Kitten, what do we do, about what happened today? I mean, apart from check on Glinda?" he asked checking his watch.

"Apart from that, I don't think there's really anything we can do, its not like this wasn't coming." Dorothy said

And she suddenly found herself blinking, her vision clearing. She shook her head, which immediately started pounding, something streaked across her vision. White as chalk, and fast as a lightning bolt. She staggered a bit and found herself a seat.

Alex found himself looking at himself from the back. He was messing with the controls of what appeared to be the finished version of the new rainbow mover. He didn't seem to be paying attention in the scene before. Moving mechanically, almost robotically.

" but why is this necessary?" he heard The Wizard ask from out of the scene.

That version of him didn't look up, he just get flipping the controls. Setting them.

"Alex?" he heard Ozma ask, her voice sounding very worried.

"Because…" the future echo said, "I've already seen it happen, so now, we have no choice." He said pressing one more button.

the last thing he heard was the sound of the machine whirring to life. Before his own vision cleared. He shook his own head. But it hadn't started pounding, the beasts voice suddenly got very loud in his mind, however. He couldn't make it out. He blinked and something flashed into his vision. A figure, white as chalk. He couldn't make out any discernable features. It was barely faceless. The face blank, almost expressionless. Its outfit looked almost like a mix between mummified, and a soldiers outfit. He blinked again and immediately it was gone, the spot in his sight where it had been, now occupied by the scepter.

"Future echoes aren't fun" the girl said, her eyes closed. "Just that little glimpse is enough to make the timeline ripple a little, though, not enough to the temporal flux any worse." She added scratching another thing out.

"I'll say" Dorothy groaned, squeezing her eyes shut.

"They affect everyone differently" The girl added before turning to alex, "the beast gets rowdier for you"

"How do they affect you?" alex asked curiously.

"oh, I'm used to it, though I never chase the echoes intentionally" she says "this place does have other purposes though, which you two will discover in due time, consider that a puzzle to work out." She added.

They stood there in silence for a moment before dorothy said something.

"Speaking of puzzles, I'm sure this was prepared for, but I may as well ask." She said, "you wouldn't happen to know when Alex's birthday is, would you?"

It was Alex's turn to share a glance with the girl.

"I have a note for that actually" she said flipping to the far back of the book and pulling out a folded lavender sheet of paper.

She brought it over to them and handed it to her. She unfolded it with alex glancing over her shoulder, when they read it. dorothy rolled her eyes, alex couldn't help but snort and chuckle. On the paper, in dark purple ink, in handwriting dorothy recognized as Alex's. it was just a simple note, with a few words written on it.

Nice Try, Kitten.

-Alex, XOXO

"Yea, the fact you thought that would work is amusing to quite a few of us in the future." The girl said with a giggle, "some of us more than others, but credit for trying."

"Good to know I don't manage to lose my sense of humor." Alex said, "the hugs and kisses are nice touch, adds a sort of…snark to it He said.

"I'll probably be just as annoyed with you then as I am now." Dorothy said, before giggling and pecking his cheek.

The girl giggled and started mouthing a count down from 5. Suddenly as she got to one alex felt as though he had been slugged one to the jaw. His head began pounding, he staggered back and fell against the wall. An image of dorothy and him kissing for the first time appeared. Dorothy was down at his side in a moment.

"Reading notes from your past self is just as bad, occasionally worse." The girl said sighing, tsking and shaking her head, "I honestly don't enjoy having to do that, only ever HAD to one other time, and it nearly backfired miserably."

The two of them looked at her but didn't even bother asking. They guessed it probably had something to do with Glinda. Dorothy attempted to help alex to his feet, but alex staggered and was back on the floor in a moment.

"he'll be fine in an hour or so." The girl said still tsking.

"Question" Alex asked pushing himself into a sitting position, "I assume because you're showing us this, that we'll actually remember this encounter?" he asked before slumping back down.

The girl tapped the side of her nose, smiling. She giggled and took the diary up, scratching something else out.

"The scepter will ensure you two never forget, aided by Maddie off course" the girl added, taking a few steps back from them "the scepter will take you two back to the palace, but this'll be the only time it works like that directly." She added.

Her hand began glowing and for a moment so did the orb on the scepter. Alex watched for a moment, but his head began pounding, and within moments he had blacked out. A piece of paper fluttered to the ground and landed in front of dorothy, it took her a moment to register what she was seeing. Her own handwriting, in the same purple ink on Alex's note.

Do we ever really come out unscathed?

Dorothy

The girl sighed followed by a satisfied giggle as she watched dorothy pass out. The scepter began glowing bright, energy swirling from it. soon in a whirlwind of energy both dorothy and alex were gone. As was the scepter. The girl was left alone, she walked over to the notes on the ground. Holding her hand over them, it began to glow with the same magical energy.

"usually, one comes out more scathed than the other, its rare that they both get hit the same way." She says looking at the pieces of paper.

Staring at them for a moment, she blew on them and the fluttered off her hand, vanishing. she chuckled and scratched one last thing out of her journal before snapping it shut. And in a moment, the chamber was empty.