Page 44 of Knot My Wonderland: Part Two
I took a deep breath, feeling the pattern beneath my skin pulse with anticipation. Through our bonds, I sensed Heart's reluctance to let me go alone, Chi's curious fascination with the temporal magic, and the Tweedles' careful monitoring of the archway's stability.
"I'll be careful," I promised, stepping toward the shimmering threshold. "If something feels wrong, I'll return immediately."
The moment my foot crossed into the archway, reality fractured around me like shattered glass. The silver meadow vanished, replaced by a kaleidoscope of possibilities that shifted too quickly for my eyes to follow. The pattern beneath my skin flared brilliantly, anchoring me to my own timeline as alternate versions of my life played out in crystalline fragments around me.
The first vision solidified with jarring clarity—myself kneeling in the Red Queen's throne room, but this Alice wore crimson robes and a crown of twisted gold. Her eyes—my eyes—glowed with the same ruby light as the Queen's, and when she spoke, her voice carried the cold authority I'd come to fear.
"The pattern serves willingly now, Mother," this alternate Alice said, silver and gold light flowing from her fingers in configurations that made the air itself recoil. "Shall I demonstrate on the prisoners?"
I watched in horror as she gestured toward a group of chained figures—Heart, Chi, and the Tweedles, their faces gaunt with despair. The crimson Alice's magic wrapped around them like chains, eliciting screams that echoed through my soul.
The vision shattered, replaced by another—myself standing in an empty field under Earth's familiar sky, but older, wearing ordinary clothes and staring at nothing. This Alice's eyes held no trace of silver or gold, no hint of magic or wonder. The pattern was absent from her skin, her soul, her very existence. She moved through her day with mechanical precision, trapped in a life where Wonderland had never touched her.
"I used to dream of other places," this Alice murmured to herself, her voice hollow with resignation. "But dreams are for children. I know better now."
The vision twisted again, showing me a third possibility—myself wielding the pattern's full power, but alone, isolated on a throne of crystal and light. This Alice had mastered everything the pattern could teach, but the cost was written in her solitary existence. No Heart, no Chi, no bonds to anchor her humanity as she rewrote reality according to her will.
"Balance must be maintained," this solitary Alice intoned, her voice resonating with power but empty of emotion. "Even at the cost of connection."
I recoiled from this vision, feeling the pattern beneath my skin pulse with warning. This was a path it feared—power without partnership, knowledge without love. The archway sensed my rejection, shattering the vision into fragments that dissolved like mist.
More possibilities flickered before me, some fleeting, others lingering: myself as the Queen's assassin, crimson and silver light flowing from my hands as I hunted those who opposed her rule; myself dead on a battlefield, the pattern transferring to another bearer as my life faded; myself married on Earth, livinga normal life with occasional dreams of a place I couldn't quite remember.
Then came a vision that made me pause—myself standing in a restored Wonderland, the pattern flowing freely through reality as it was meant to. But I wasn't alone. Heart stood at my right, Chi at my left, the Tweedles behind me, and Seth before me, his shadows intertwining with my light in perfect balance. This Alice glowed with contentment, her power tempered by love, her choices guided by wisdom earned through connection rather than isolation.
"We did it," this future Alice whispered, her voice carrying joy I'd never heard from myself before. "We actually did it."
The vision felt more real than the others, less like possibility and more like destiny. The pattern beneath my skin sang with recognition, showing me that this future wasn't just one option among many—it was the path it had been guiding me toward all along.
But even as hope bloomed in my chest, the vision shifted one final time. I saw myself facing the Red Queen in her throne room with Heart by my side, but this time I stood confident and unafraid. The pattern flowed around me like liquid starlight, not just responding to my will but dancing with it. The Queen's crimson energy crashed against my defenses like waves against stone.
"You cannot have me," this future Alice declared, her voice carrying the weight of absolute certainty. The pattern beneath her skin blazed with silver and gold fire, creating barriers of pure light that the Queen's corruption couldn't penetrate. "I chose my path…and it isn’t to help you.”
The Red Queen's perfect face twisted with fury, but beneath the rage I glimpsed something else—recognition. This Queen saw what I was becoming, understood that the frightened girlshe'd captured was gone forever, replaced by someone who could match her power with power, will with will.
The vision began to fade, but not before I caught one final detail that sent chills through my soul. In the background of the throne room stood a figure I recognized—myself, but wrong somehow, her eyes empty of consciousness, moving with puppet-like precision. The Queen hadn't given up on having me; she'd simply found another way.
The temporal mirror released me suddenly, sending me stumbling back into the silver meadow where the others waited. I fell to my knees, gasping as reality reasserted itself around me. The pattern beneath my skin pulsed erratically, processing the cascade of possibilities I'd witnessed.
"Alice!" Heart was beside me instantly, his hands steadying my shoulders as I swayed. "What happened? What did you see?"
I couldn't answer immediately, my mind still reeling from the temporal echoes. The archway behind me had dimmed, its opalescent light fading to a gentle glow as the mirror powered down. Through our bond, I felt Heart's concern wash over me like a warm tide, anchoring me back to this timeline, this reality.
"So many possibilities," I finally managed, my voice hoarse as if I'd been screaming. "So many ways things could go wrong."
Chi crouched beside us, his teal eyes flashing with concern as his tail wrapped protectively around my wrist. "And ways things could go right," he prompted gently, sensing my turmoil through our silver bond.
I nodded, focusing on the last vision—the one where we stood together against the Queen, where the pattern danced with me rather than simply obeying. "I saw myself facing her. Not afraid, not running. Standing against her with all of you beside me."
The Tweedles approached, their silver eyes studying me with analytical precision. "The temporal mirror shows thepaths of highest probability based on current trajectories," Vee explained, his devices humming as they processed data from the archway.
"What else did you see?" Dee asked, his expression unusually gentle. "Something disturbed you deeply.”
I shuddered, remembering the empty-eyed version of myself standing like a puppet in the Queen's throne room. "She's making a copy of me," I whispered, the realization chilling me to the bone. "A shell with my face but none of my will. That's her contingency plan if she can't have the real me."
Heart's ruby eyes darkened with fury. "A blood golem. More sophisticated than her usual constructs, but the principle would be the same."
I pushed myself to my feet, the pattern beneath my skin pulsing with renewed determination rather than fear. "But she can't replicate the bonds," I said, understanding flowing through me from the pattern's ancient knowledge. "No matter how perfect the physical copy, it couldn't host the connections we share…and it couldn’t replicate the pattern."
