Chapter Text
The following hours pass in fragments. Telling her mother’s soldiers- her soldiers now- to stand down. Looking down at her mother’s body, dress still glittering in jewels, while someone tried to gently guide her away. Someone stitching up her arms as she sits on the edge of the stage.
At one point, there is someone’s head in her hands. She thinks she was trying to find the body it belonged to. She has an image of Chloe bent double, vomiting in the grass.
The Ace of Hearts follows her around the entire time, a silent guarding shadow that keeps people away. Or it’s the mere image of her, bathed in blood, that keeps them back. She’s not sure. She can’t find it in her to care.
At another point, she’s staring at the masked visage of her shadow, and she pulls a loose pin out of her hair. She steps forward, shoving it into the locked strap under his chin, and after a moment, it comes loose. Red tears the helmet off and stares into confused, vaguely familiar but mostly foreign eyes.
The hazel gaze blinked at her. “R-Red?”
“Hi, Ace,” she had responded, and then he had lunged forward to yank her into a hug. It’s different from the last time she was in his arms, because years have passed and he’s grown. Red’s head cranes back uncomfortably under his crushing hold, but she doesn’t fight it. She stands limp. Numb.
She floats away.
There is her principal, alive, in front of her with only a bandaged arm, mouth moving without sound, for a moment, and then she’s at a distance, giving orders in the next.
The days are just as fragmented. One minute, she’s standing in the Tourney field surrounded by bodies, the next she is standing in a bathroom, staring at the tile that runs pink under her feet, with gentle hands running over her. She closes her eyes and turns her head up into the spray because it feels nice.
Then she’s in her room for a while. The principal’s office. A room she’s never been in before with a long stretching table in which a bunch of adults argue around her. They are like annoying, buzzing, bugs in her skull. Something about her. Something about her mother.
She’s not sure if she sleeps. If she does, it must be dreamless, which almost makes it worth the gaping holes in her memory.
She doesn’t know who she will be when she starts feeling again. Surely someone who still killed her mother. Still someone who is woefully unqualified to lead anyone, much less a kingdom she has always wanted to escape (a kingdom she feels no attachment to).
The only thing she does know for sure, when she eventually comes back to herself, is that there is a comforting weight enveloping her hand through everything.
There’s nothing really momentous when she suddenly finds herself existing again. It’s a slow process, little things trickling into her awareness. That it’s dark. That she’s laying down in bed. The gentle throbbing in her arms kickstarts her brain, reminding her of the mess that happened. Graduation, her mother, the army. The blood.
Red sits up, sliding out of bed, before the back of her shirt is caught. And then she becomes aware of the other person in her bed. Chloe sighs, gently tugging on Red’s shirt without opening her eyes. “Come back to bed, baby.”
“I need to- my mom’s soldiers-”
“You already took care of that. Come back to bed. It’s okay. Everything is okay,” she mumbles, and Red doesn’t know how accurate that is. There was… arguing. About Red. About Wonderland.
“Did I send them back to Wonderland?” Red asks, trying to remember, but it’s blank.
Chloe is quiet for a moment. Then she abruptly sits up and flicks on a lamp to stare at Red. Red flinches at the sight of her girlfriend’s face, the dim light casting it into harsh shadow that highlights the line of stitches cutting across her right cheekbone.
“Red…?” she breathes as Red’s almost-trains-of-thought take a sudden detour off a cliff. She sinks back onto the bed, reaching out to hover a hand over the wound.
Chloe was hurt. Her mother hurt Chloe. Her mother was going to-
That’s when her emotions finally surface. Mostly guilt. And overwhelming grief. Tears quickly pour out of Red’s eyes, blurring her vision, and she lets out a sob. “I’m sorry,” she gasps out, staring at the injury, “I’m so sorry.”
Chloe’s eyes well up and spill over, too, as she reaches back, attempting to brush Red’s tears away despite them almost instantly being replaced by new ones. Red wants to wipe Chloe’s, too, but the drops get caught in the stitches, following the line down her cheek, and Red doesn’t want to hurt her further.
“It’s okay,” she says wetly, pressing their foreheads together and almost petting her. “It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault. None of this was your fault. You did so well, baby, I’m so proud of you.”
“I killed her- I killed-”
“It’s not your fault. You saved me. You saved so many people.” Red gets a dozen damp kisses pressed into her face, the side of her head, down her neck.
“You’re parents-” Red chokes, fear going down her spine, like she’s facing her mother on that stage once more. Will she ever not be scared? “Chad-” She can’t remember seeing them in her flashes of memory.
“They’re safe, baby. We’re all safe now.”
“Who all… I mean, how many…” she doesn’t know if she wants to know a number.
“The only deaths were members of the guard. A little under two dozen on Auradon’s side. The casualties are much higher, but most of the civilians are pretty much unharmed.”
Red breathes out, and it’s snotty and gross. She tries to stem it with her sleeve, only to discover she’s in a t-shirt. A blue one. Her eyes catch sight of the line of stitching on her own arms, angry and red and long. She remembers the fire that was along her bones. The feel of the blood slick stage and the cold numbing her fingertips. She doesn’t know how she managed to curl them around the hilt of the sword.
Red gets a dozen more kisses. “Are you- are you okay,” she gets out as Chloe’s tears continue falling and she continues sniffling while touching Red like she’s afraid she might disappear.
“It’s just,” Chloe hiccups, “it’s been days, Red. And I wasn’t sure… I was worried that… you wouldn’t come back to me.”
“Oh,” Red murmurs, guiltily accepting another bombardment of touches in the form of Chloe crawling into her lap and fisting hands in her shirt. “How many days?”
“Four,” she sighs, pressing her forehead into Red’s shoulder. Red very carefully starts carding her fingers through her hair. “There’s been a lot of meetings. Mom and dad are staying in Fairy Godmother’s cottage, but Uma thought staying somewhere familiar would be better for you to… recover. We’ve all been worried.”
Red holds her tongue for the amount of time it takes for her girlfriend to stop sniffling into her neck. She’s been the one to comfort Chloe only a handful of times, and it’s… weird, honestly. Unnatural feeling- not like how natural Chloe seems to react when she’s the one calming Red down. But Red… enjoys is the wrong word. She despises when Chloe is upset, but she wouldn’t trade them. She’s glad to be the one to offer her comfort. Glad that she can (treasures- that’s the right word; she treasures the moments she feels like she can give back a fraction of the comfort Chloe always gives her).
So Red doesn’t hurry Chloe along to just be suddenly better. Putting yourself together, in any real way outside of barely functioning, takes time.
Red just holds her until the sniffling stops. Until the lazy sun starts to shine through the window and Chloe starts to draw little patterns into her back. Only then does she venture to ask, “What happened after I killed my mother?”
Chloe pulls away, sliding off of Red’s lap to sit on the edge of the bed by her hip. She doesn’t try to hide the fact that she’s wiping off old tears. She’s never tried to hide the fact that she’s cried. Even when Red is the one who made her.
“The battle was over after that. All the card soldiers switched their allegiance to you, declaring you the new Queen of Wonderland, and you ordered them to stand down. Since then, they’ve just been, um,” Chloe gestures at the window, “camped out on the lawn.” Red stands from her bed, crossing to the window to peek out. A makeshift sort of camp has been set up outside the dorm building. “Queen Mal has them being watched, but, since they’re not really doing anything, she’s leaving them be. But they’re refusing to go back to Wonderland without your orders.”
“I don’t know how to be queen,” Red mumbles, looking out at the army that blindly followed her mother’s orders all her life. Those same soldiers who hunted her, and dragged her to the dungeons, and whipped her under the old queen’s orders. They never blinked, never hesitated. Now they’re waiting for her orders? “I don’t want to be queen.”
“I know,” Chloe murmurs, “but, Red, this is a good thing. Things for Wonderland can be different now. You can make them different.”
“I don’t know how,” she growls, glaring out the window.
“There’s another meeting this morning with the arrival of the other kingdoms that weren’t present for Graduation, about what’s to happen to Wonderland. You should be there.”
“Let them decide. I don’t care.”
Chloe comes up behind her, touching her shoulder. “Yes you do,” she says softly. “What about Ace?”
Red stiffens. “What about him?”
“He’s part of Wonderland. And Chester. And Maddox.”
“Yeah, and how’d me caring turn out for them?”
“Red,” she sighs, and wraps her arms fully around her. “It’s different now. It’s okay to care. Bad things will happen, but it’s not because you care. The world as a whole isn’t out to get you.”
“No, just my mom,” Red sighs, leaning back against her girlfriend.
“And she’s gone,” Chloe confirms gently. Because Red killed her.
A knock sounds at the door, and Chloe pulls away. “That would be Maddox with breakfast,” she says. “He’ll be glad to see you’re feeling better. And Ace, if you’re up for it. He’s been hovering anxiously since you pulled his helmet off.”
Red startles again. “What?”
Chloe pauses on her way to the door, looking back at Red, and her expression crumples. “Oh, you don’t remember.”
But Red is remembering, now. Reaching for a bobby pin and pulling the helmet away from sweat soaked hair. Confused eyes blinking at her.
Chloe pulls open the door, ushering in Maddox and that very same boy.
“How is she this morning; any improvement?” Maddox asks, carrying a tray full of a variety of foods. Half of them seem to be sweets, but Red feels no craving for them. She doesn’t feel hungry at all.
Chloe tilts her head in Red’s direction with a large smile. “Ask her yourself,” she says.
Both gazes whip to her, and the younger of the two springs forward. “Red!” He says, reaching for her. Red stiffens at first, then quickly clings back. Her cheek presses against the hard plates of his armor. For some reason, he’s still wearing his armor.
“Ace,” Red murmurs. “You’re… you’re you.”
“Yeah, thanks to you, Princess. Or, er, my Queen? That’s gonna take some getting used to.”
“Do you… remember anything?” Red asks slowly. She feels strange when he pulls away. Slow to react. Slow mentally. Her arms hover, unsure what to do before they finally drop to her sides.
“Nothing.” He lifts his hand to rub at the back of his neck- a nervous move she’s seen him do numerous times during their short friendship. But his gauntleted hand passes by Red’s face, and she flinches away from it. He freezes, and slowly lowers it back down. “Sorry,” he says, looking so mournful. “Maddox has filled me in about the past few years. Seems everything's gone spades up since then, huh?”
“You could say that.” She feels weird. She feels… still. Not like she isn’t here- just- still. Lost.
“But, hey, things won’t be so bad now that you’re in charge. We can find Chester and get the Party Planning Committee back together and… wake everyone up.” He sounds so enthusiastic, but there is something about it that rings as false. Fake. There is a wrinkle in his forehead that becomes deeper etched the longer he looks at her. Like- he’s trying to figure out who she is.
That’s fair. It’s been years. She’s not the same person she was when they met.
Chloe clears her throat, drawing both of their attention. “Red needs to eat before the meeting.”
Ace straightens. “Right, of course. I’ll be at my post if you need me.”
“Post?” Red asks, following Chloe’s prompting into the chair at her desk. It should be bare. Chloe packed away all her things- her pictures and trinkets- days ago, before the Graduation ceremony. So Red falters at the small collection of items sitting on one of the edges.
“Just outside the door. He’s been standing guard.” Red reaches out a shaking hand and touches the sparkling rubies inlaid in the tall crown. Chloe notices, and her hands flutter nervously. “Oh, they brought your mother’s personal effects the other day. I didn’t… really know what to do with them.”
Red’s hand drifts down to touch the necklace. Then her eye catches something else. Something heart shaped and jeweled- something she’d only ever seen once before- and she snatches it up. The last time she looked into it, it showed Red standing beside her mother with her own crown and dead expression. A future where they looked exactly alike.
But that can’t happen now, right? Or will she just be standing alone, now, still the perfect copy of her mother?
“What’s that?” Chloe asks.
“The Looking Glass,” Red answers, and flips it open. “It shows the futur-”
Her throat abruptly closes, cutting her off.
She can feel her girlfriend’s heat as she leans forward to look into the mirror over her shoulder. “Is that us?”
Red reaches out with a finger, gently tracing the curve of the magical artifact. Her mother’s words, “They stole you from me!” ring in her ears. Did she mean Red’s heart, or this- the future, she wonders.
“Yeah,” she breathes, heart racing. Looking back at them, in the image, is Chloe and Red.
Red looks… very royal sitting in Wonderland’s throne room and dress as fancy as any queen’s. That is the only similarity to the last time she saw herself in this mirror. Because in this refracted image, her hair hangs as free and wild as it always is, and she’s smiling. Smiling at Chloe, who stands tall beside her chair, as if she had just said something witty and knows her companion is trying not to laugh.
Chloe is in a uniform Red has only seen in old portraits- a military one that was worn back before Red’s mother took the throne and did away with anything formal to ensure her troops were always battle ready. The only ceremonies they would be in attendance for, would be as guards.
There are a lot of details in this one image that Red could spend hours observing, but the one that draws most of her focus, are the matching crowns resting on their heads. Not the extravagant, tall, crown that Red has seen her mother wear all her life, but delicate and small with clear heart shaped diamonds instead of blood red rubies. They are undeniably part of a set.
As Red observes the two equals in the image, she thinks that being queen wouldn’t be so bad if she had Chloe with her. She exhales as she closes the mirror. “Okay,” she murmurs. “Let’s go to the meeting.”
Chloe kisses her on the side of the head before straightening. “Eat something first. We have time and I need to call my mom.”
The first thing Chloe’s parents do, when they see Red just outside the council meeting doors, is hug her. Ella in front of her, pushing her hair out of her face and cupping her jaw, and Christopher’s hand on her back as Chad hovers somberly nearby. Red had asked Chloe, once, how she could still love her brother when he gets on her nerves so entirely.
She had simply said, “Siblings fight, and get on each other’s nerves, and no one can hurt your feelings more than an older brother can. But there is also no bigger supporter. Chad is an idiot a lot of times, but he’s there when it counts. Like, he’s the one who pushed for the rule change to allow girls on the Swords and Shields team in Ellasburg.” After the events at graduation, she can see what her girlfriend meant.
“How are you doing, Strawberry?” Chad asks, more careful than usual.
“Fine,” Red says, offering him a small smile. He had tried to protect Red that day, too, shoving her behind him. It was stupid and useless, but it’s strange to learn that he cares that much.
Red gets many looks as she settles into her seat, and she finds her expression automatically smoothing out into something unreadable. She recognizes hardly anyone at the table. She gets a nod from Mal and the king. A small smile from Evie. A few other people offer her small smiles, while others look at her distrustfully.
Chloe’s hand in hers is a soothing presence, as is the rest of the Charmings surrounding her.
“Shall we get started?” Queen Mal asks, addressing the room.
One royal immediately leans forward to ask, “Why are there Wonderland soldiers still sitting outside the school.”
“They are reluctant to return home without their queen,” King Ben informs calmly.
“So give them the Queen of Heart’s body and send them on their way.”
A throat is cleared and eyes darted pointedly at Red. “I believe his Majesty means their new Queen.”
“So send her away, too. This little experiment was clearly a mistake. A dozen guards- dead- at Graduation. This could have gone so much worse. It was only luck that no civilians were killed. Our kids.” His narrowed eyes turn to Red briefly, before glaring around the room in challenge.
“I wouldn’t call a dragon, or all that over-the-top security, luck,” someone else mutters.
“May I remind you that Red is a kid, too?” Mal breaks in warningly.
“A kid raised by that tyrant-”
“A kid who defeated that tyrant-” Chad mutters on Red’s other side.
“-Who, from all reposts, practically behaves just like her. Yelling, screaming, threats. I understand, your majesty, that you have a soft spot for broken things-” Several voices raise in protest at that, but nothing screams louder than the cold look Mal levels on the man. Chloe’s hand is constricting around hers, and when Red glances over, her face is painted in fury.
“Okay,” King Ben speaks up, placing a calming hand on his wife’s shoulder while looking over the table. “Let’s steer away from that kind of language. We have to remember the kind of backgrounds different people come from. We have the experience of how that can look, and I have received the same reports as you have. And what you seem to be disregarding is the way Princess Red’s behavior has evolved since being granted asylum.”
One woman raises her hand slightly, shooting Red an apologetic look. “I was in attendance at Graduation, so I saw first hand this girl’s bravery in standing up to her mother, but I think the question needs to be posed on if she’s fit to take on the mantle of Queen of Wonderland. She has undergone a great deal of trauma, not just at Graduation, but likely her whole life, and Wonderland will need someone experienced and sure to lead it away from what it currently is while controlling the chaos that comes from an abrupt change in power.”
Red resists sinking into her seat, unable to help the agreement turning in her gut. The pit of dread grows at the chorused murmurs of agreement. Despite that, her spine stiffens and straightens under the sympathetic glances.
“Perhaps that is precisely why it needs to be Red. Wonderland would accept no other leader. Despite Bridget…” Ella takes a deep breath, eyes falling closed for a moment of visible grief before they flicker open as she corrects herself, “...the Queen of Hearts… being as cruel as she was, she was theirs, and Wonderland was hers. Besides, we have no right to say Red is not fit, when Wonderland is not even part of the United States of Auradon.”
Red stares at her girlfriend’s mom.
“Be that as it may, Auradon still has a responsibility to her highness, Red of Hearts, and her wellbeing.” For the first time the entire meeting, Red is addressed directly as Mal turns to look at her. “Red, do you have a regent, or anyone who can take the throne until you are ready?”
If Red doesn’t, are they going to appoint one of these people, who know nothing of her or Wonderland? They’d get lost as soon as they stepped out of the rabbit hole. Wonderland isn’t like Auradon- the people and the customs that even her mother respected and left alone.
Chloe squeezes her hand again, and Red glances over. And then she looks past her girlfriend to her girlfriend’s mother, who is giving her an encouraging smile, and who has always been kind to her. Who knows things about Wonderland because she was once close to a girl who was from Wonderland. Who might even have known the real Wonderland, before her mother warped it.
Red turns back to the high queen. “Ella Charming,” she says, ignoring the startles around the room, including from the woman herself.
Mal’s lips twitch. “Does anyone take issue with Queen Ella’s ability to rule?” she asks the table at large, and not one person moves to protest. Ella and Christopher exchange looks, and then the king’s hand moves to grip hers, and he gives a small nod. “Then for the next two years, she will act as queen regent to Wonderland. While my husband took the crown at 16, he was adequately prepared to do so and had an abundance of support. Princess Red, you are welcome to continue classes at Auradon prep, while Queen Ella continues your training during the summers. Is this way forward agreeable to you?” Mal asks Red.
It’s… the best that Red could have asked for. Time.
Mal again looks at the others around the table. “Does anyone else have anything to add?”
“Does this mean Wonderland will be joining the United States of Auradon?” someone asks.
“That is something to be discussed at a later date. Once Wonderland is stabilized and their rightful ruler is ready to take the throne. For now,” she says, glancing at Red again, and it does feel like she’s talking directly to her, “allies.”
King Ben stands from the table, and there is a flood of everyone else rising as well. It takes Red a moment to realize it’s some formal custom before she follows suit a moment behind. “Meeting adjourned,” he says.
Red winces as Ella immediately turns to her. “I’m sorry,” she says hurriedly, pleadingly, “I know it’s a lot, I know I didn’t ask, it’s just that I didn’t know what else to say and I trust you and I-”
“Sweetheart, it’s okay,” she says, reaching out and smoothing her hands down Red’s arms. “It’s okay. Whatever you need from us, we’ll work it out. We are here to support you any way we can, especially if that means giving you more time to just be a kid.”
“We got you kiddo,” Christopher says, placing a hand on top of Red’s head. “1000%”
“Red,” a voice calls before she can do something stupid- like start crying again- and Red turns her attention to the dragon queen approaching them. She smiles a surprisingly soft smile. “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better.”
“Thank you, your majesty.”
“Just Mal is fine,” she says. Her eyes flick around the group of Charmings, lingering almost fondly on Red and Chloe’s entwined hands, before looking back at Red. “Fairy Godmother is working on a more permanent key to access the rabbit hole. Unfortunately, until Wonderland is stabilized, the barrier will have to remain in effect to control access in and out. You should have it by the end of the day. Do me a favor, though, would you? Before you go, stop by and visit Uma. She’s been… irritable the past few days.”
“Why would a visit from me help? I’m the one that usually irritates her.”
Red flinches as a fist lightly knocks against the side of her head. “Idiot,” Chloe says fondly. “It’s because she cares about you.”
“Charming’s got the right idea of it,” Mal says, pleased. She takes a step back. “I’ll leave you to your preparations, then. And if you need anything at all, let me know. Seriously. Have your girlfriend call Evie. No matter what I’m doing, she can get in contact with me.”
Mal takes her leave, leaving Red a bit lost on why she cares at all considering the mess Red has brought to her kingdom, and that this is only their second time meeting.
“Come on,” Chloe says, tugging on her hand and bringing her out of her staring. “Sounds like it’s finally time for you to actually start packing.”
“Yeah,” Red agrees softly. She knew she wouldn’t be going home with the Charmings after graduation.