Chapter Text
“I’m late!” Princess Red of Wonderland slammed her fist down on her alarm clock to silence it.
She hopped out of bed, red comforter sliding off to reveal that she had slept fully dressed. After slipping into combat boots and a hooded leather jacket, she ducked through her window and clambered down to the palace grounds with the help of a handy drainage pipe and the ease born of trial and error.
Red then tiptoed around the edge of a croquet lawn and snuck through the thicket of the rose garden to where it reached the outer wall. She unlocked the first of the Spade side doors with her key (replicated by her compatriot Maddox after she’d lifted the original from a gardener to get wax imprints, only to return the “dropped” key with a smile), and slid into the small tunnel within the wall.
Hidden between the identical doors set in either side of the wall were messy mounds of gardening supplies, and Red retrieved her bag of spray paints from under one such pile, alongside her respirator mask and earpiece, which were all too risky to stow in the immediate vicinity of her room.
Slinging the bag over her shoulders, she donned the mask and lifted her hood to cover her bright red hair, before exiting the wall through the second door and leaving the royal palace behind.
Her earpiece crackled as she jogged across the moat bridge into the capital city, and Maddox could be heard giving a resigned sigh.
“You’re going to get caught one of these days,” he said, amusement coloring his voice.
“What difference would that make?” Red asked. “No beheading sole heirs. I’d be in the same prison, just several stories beneath my current cell.”
“Jailbird, jailbird, fly from your home,” Maddox singsonged. “Your mother’s a tyrant, one you wish to dethrone~”
“Right…” Red said, electing as always to move past his absurdity rather than derail the conversation. “Let’s get down to business. I noticed there’s a new spray paint in my repertoire. Care to elaborate?”
“Ohhhh,” he said. “You’ve found the acidic one. It’ll eat into stone, and also be handy for self defense in a pinch. More cautious minds than mine would suggest not using it indoors.”
“Maddox, you’re a treasure,” she said.
“So long as my head is attached to my body,” Maddox agreed. “I’d be much less effective if convicted of treason. So if you get caught-”
“I don’t even know who you are,” Red rolled her eyes. “I know the drill, Madcap.”
“Then by all means, carry on,” the Hatter’s son said gallantly. “Paint the town, Red.”
She skidded to a stop at a crossroads, in front of a large mural of the Queen of Hearts.
“Oh, I plan to,” she said, and shook the acid container with a Cheshire-sized grin.
Red had been summoned from her bed at the crack of dawn, bleary-eyed and yawning, to the checkerboard courtyard sprawling from the front doors of the palace, where the Court of Cards had convened.
When she spotted the two relatively reclusive Jokers, her heart sank.
They were playing today with a full deck (as full as one could be when the current monarch trusted none but her sole descendant with the rank of a Heart).
As Red drew level with her mother, a long-haired blond came into view, on his knees with his arms restrained by low-ranking soldiers.
“This knave failed his duties,” the Queen of Hearts informed Red conversationally. “A rebellious vandal that he, of all my thirteen Clubs, was given the honor of detaining, is running amok among us.”
She turned towards the crowd.
“And would you believe that he is no closer than ever to catching the culprit?” she asked them.
The kneeling military commander gulped, his armored reflection gleaming in the freshly scrubbed marble beneath their feet.
“Princess Red,” the queen said. “My Knave of Hearts. Step forward.”
Red reluctantly approached the prisoner, wishing for the anonymity of her hood and mask as the gathered deck appraised her.
“This man must face justice,” the queen said from behind her. “It’s time you learn to do what is necessary. Sentence him.”
Red bit her lip, hesitating as Diamond courtiers whispered to each other from behind their bedazzled fans and kidskin gloves.
“Go on,” her mother prompted.
“I decree…” Red paused, looking at the downcast eyes of the Knave of Clubs.
The two Court Jesters, masters of entertainment, hefted their sharpened battleaxes in preparation, the bells dangling from their executioners’ hood jingling at the slight motion.
“Yes, child?” the queen prompted.
“Banishment,” Red said quickly. “Erase his identity and his purpose by making his bloodsworn fealty null and void, and remove him from his homeland.”
“And give him a one way ticket to freedom in Auradon?” the Queen of Hearts flared her nostrils. “I think not. You know better, daughter.”
“Your majesty-” Red started.
The queen lifted her hand, silencing her.
“Knave,” she said. “For your crimes, your life is forfeit. Off with his head .”
Twin axes sliced through the air and Red closed her eyes.
The servants would need to scrub the courtyard again.
Red was to be confined for the day’s duration after her defiance during the mockery of a trial.
As her bedroom door was barred behind her, a scroll resting on her pillow caught her eye, due to the dim glow it emitted. The light’s golden hue was reminiscent of the magic sealing the borders of Wonderland, and Red sensed a similar energy from it, albeit with a slight undertone akin to the tang of sea salt.
Fairy Godmother’s wand had cast the spell to send this missive, but another had wielded its power.
Red put on her thickest leather gloves and, using two iron daggers, carefully pried open the wax seal and unrolled the scroll.
Princess Red,
We are honored to invite you to the upcoming academic year at Auradon Prep.
Red’s eyes immediately skipped down to the signature.
Signed,
Headmistress Uma of the Isle.
P.S. This letter will serve as a one-person portal that is tied to your magical signature, should you choose to accept.
“No way,” Red whispered.
Auradon news still trickled its way to Wonderland, and everyone had heard of the rebels themselves, the first to truly shake off the paths their parents had laid out for them, the legendary Villain Kids, and all knew of their rise into power.
Maybe they could help Wonderland with its little despot problem.
After sending a quick message to Maddox, Red packed her backpack as full as it could get, before picking up the invitation once more.
“I accept,” she said, then found herself suspended in a tunnel of gilded light, feeling a gentle warmth roll over her, before she abruptly fell down the hole at breakneck speed.
Red landed on her knees with a painful crack, completely disoriented by her dizzying transport and disconnect from the magic of her homeland.
“Who the hell are you?” someone stood above her.
Red looked up to find a dark-skinned girl with blue box braids glaring at her. The girl had her wrapped fists raised protectively, her downturned lips and fierce eyes promising Red’s swift defeat should a fight arise.
“Where am I?” Red asked, taking in wooden paneling resembling a ship’s cabin, a small porthole-like window on the wall letting in faint light, and a sturdy desk piled with paper.
“The headmistress’s office,” the other girl said in a tone that indicated how little she thought of Red’s intelligence. “Do you just teleport about willy-nilly?”
Before Red could answer, a woman with a pirate’s hat walked into the room.
“Chloe,” she said. “I hope you haven’t gotten into any more fights?”
“I heard something dumb about assigning me a roommate,” the girl, Chloe, scowled at her high-tops.
The woman then took notice of Red, who was still kneeling on the floor.
“Who the hell are you?” she said. “And what are you doing in my office?”
“Headmistress Uma,” Red said, scrambling to her feet.
“That’s my name,” Uma said. “Now, who are you?”
“I’m Red,” she said. “You sent me an invitation.”
“Oh, the transfer student,” Uma dropped her frown in favor of a welcoming smile. “Perfect timing. Chloe, say hello to your new roommate.”
Red sneered at the glowering girl.
“You have got to be kidding,” Chloe said.
In Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts sensed a disturbance in the barrier, and zeroed in on the weakened point, throwing her magic against it and preventing it from resealing.
Her crimson lips curled into a cruel grin.
Auradon was closer than ever, and with it, the realization of her sweet dreams of revenge.