Time and Time Again

Chapter Three

I ran after Alice and Time, trying to catch up. "You haven't answered my question," Alice says as she catches up to Time. "One minute. Why do you carry that fallen soldier in your pocket? Reveal him now." Time turns to look at Alice and I tilt my head in confusion. I watch Alice pull out father's pocket watch and I frown, missing our father more than ever. 

"He is broken. Kaput," Time states. Alice smiles softly, "It was Adrian and I's father's. I could never part with it." "Everyone parts with everything eventually, my dear," Time states softly and then continues walking away. Alice looks at me sadly and puts the watch back in her pocket, then we follow Time. 

"Behold. The magnificent Grand Clock of All Time." Time shows us and I whistle in amazement. "That is a big clock." Alice rolls her eyes fondly at me and smiles. "He is me and I am he and all that was or shall be," Time says showing us his chest. I scrunch up my nose, "That's not cute." 

"I thought up that poem," Time says proudly as Alice and I look at each other in concern. I hear clocks squeaking in the background and I turn to look at them, "I want one. Their cute." "Ah, Wilkins!" Time says as he walks over to the clockwork creatures, "How is, uh, my invincible machine, hmm?"

Wilkins gestures behind him, "Well it is-" Time cuts him off, "Silence, you will speak when you are spoken to." I sneer and glare at Time, "You did ask him, asshole." Time waves me off, "Nonsense. The machine, Wilkins. How is it?" Wilkins doesn't speak for a moment, kinda confused, "Umm???" 

A clockwork creature squeaks at Alice's feet and she smiles, "Hello. And who might you be?" Time waves to them all, "These miniscule artisans are my Seconds." Alice smiles, "Curious. And I suppose every Second counts?" I snort as Alice playfully glares at me. 

"Count? I wish. They are rather stupid," Time said in exhaustion. A Second whimpered as Alice glared at Time. I stood behind them all with a grimace and whistled like I wasn't there. Time picks up the Second, "That was rude of me. I am sorry." Time then kissed the Second's forehead, to please Alice's glare no doubt. 

"I told you. Imbeciles. Come on." Time said as he set down the Second and walked away, with both of us following him. 

We both sat down in his office and I looked around, amazed. "So, your question. What is it? You have exactly one minute." Alice takes a deep breath, "It's about the Hatter. Tarrant Hightopp. He's a great friend of mine and a great uncle to Adrian's children. And recently, he's convinced that his long-deceased family is still alive." Alice rants as I try and tell her that they are alive, but Time yawns in boredom.

"And of course, his family can not be alive because you see, the Jabberwocky killed his family on Horenvendush Day and I killed the Jabberwocky on the Frabjous Day and I would like your permission to borrow the Chronosphere," Alice says faster as Time speeds up time. 

"The Chronosphere." Time looks up in an expression, I'm not sure what it is. Alice complains, "That wasn't a minute." "You want to borrow it? Loan it? Purloin it?" Time raises his voice. Alice takes a deep breath, "Yes." 

Time stands up, "You ask to disintegrate history. The Chronosphere powers the Grand Clock." Alice frowns, "But I need it. Without it, the Hatter may never get better. And I-" Time just stares at Alice and me, "Wilkins!" Wilkins comes into the office as Time kept repeating his name. "Did you call sir?" Wilkins asked as he put his arms behind his back.

"Wilkins, please remove this yellow-haired kindergartener and the White King here," Time said without even looking at us. I roll my eyes in anger. Wilkins seems to smirk at us, "Immediately sir. No interlopers!" Alice huffs, "Thank you for your you, sir." Alice walks off as I follow her snickering at Time's confused face, "My what?" 

Alice turns around and sneers, "For your Time." Time looks apologetic, "Young lady, you cannot change the past. Though I dare say, you might learn something from it." Alice doesn't respond and walks off. I bow in respect to Time, even if he's a jerk, and he returns the gesture. 

"Now, back the way you came miss. All the way to the end. Auf Wiedersehen," Wilkins stated. I sneered at him. "You better pay respect to my sister before I make you turn into a millisecond. Wilkins shrieks and shakes in fear. "Wilkins! She's here! My liebchen is here!" I look at Alice, "Why does that not sound good?"

Alice turns to me and we nod, walking over to find out who is here. I see a heart-shaped head and I pale. Alice gasps softly and yanks me into the side of the wall to avoid Iracebeth's eyesight. We watch Wilkins and the Seconds greet Iracebeth, "Your highness." I flinched as Iracebeth screamed, "Your majesty!" 

"Your majesty. My lord is expecting you in the parlor. Shall I announce you?" Iracebeth scoffs, "Oh, no mind. I'll announce myself." She blows a horn as a vegetable creature follows her, "Tick tock! Where are you? Tick tock! Where are you?" All of them leave our sights as I take a deep breath, "How can he ever think she loves him?" Alice snorts, "Yeah. Especially if she saw you, she'd immediately go for you." I shudder in horror and Alice giggles.

Alice and I walk into the Grand Clock as Time is busy with Iracebeth. I awe at the inside as Alice looks around. I look out in the middle and see the Chronosphere, "There Alice. In the middle." Alice and I practically play frogger to get to the middle, "He's got to seriously make a better way to get to this." 

Once Alice and I land on the gear for the Chronosphere, I sigh in relief, "Thank god, none of us fell." "Adrian, can we have one adventure where you don't narrate everything?" Alice snapped at me. I raised my hands in defense and zipped my mouth shut. 

Alice runs up to the Chronosphere and takes it off the stand. Everything stops and I look around in a panic, "Well that's not good." Alice nods quickly, "That was unexpected." Alice and I look over to the seconds that start piling together to make Minutes and they roar at us. "Seconds into Minutes," Alice gasped.  

The Minutes start heading for us and I usher Alice to run the opposite way, "That way!" We run as the Minutes get closer and I look behind me, "That is so unsettling!" Alice and I get cornered at the edge by a ladder, "Go now!" Alice and I slide down the ladder quickly. 

Alice falls and the Chronosphere falls out of her pocket, rolling away and expanding. I help Alice up as I hear a gasp and I look to a balcony to see Iracebeth.  Alice and I run to the Chronosphere as I hear Time calling out to the Minutes to stop us. "Adrian! I've never given up on you! You will be mine!" I groan to Alice as Iracebeth screams out, "This woman. She never learns to give up huh?" 

Alice chuckles, "Nope." She then looks up and sees a 'pull me' chain. "Alice, don't you think we should talk about this?" I say nervously. Alice pulls the chain, "There isn't any time!" We rise up in the air and I grip onto something, "Alice, are there some instructions or anything?" Alice rolls her eyes, "Just like last time. You're not being helpful!" 

Alice starts pushing and pulling levers as I panic, not really trusting her to work this. We face Iracebeth and Time and I pale. "Alice, don't do it." Alice looks around and pushed a lever forward, making us rush toward the duo. Time and Iracebeth scream and cover themselves as I throw my hands to cover my face, praying that I don't die and I can see Mira and the twins again after this.

Alice gasps and I lower my hands, looking around, "What the fuck? Where are we? Where did those two go?" I turned around in every direction, noticing that we were not at Time's castle.

"Alice, where are you taking us?" I asked nervously. Alice grinned at me from over her shoulder, "To save Hatter."