Alternate Title: Raven's Wonderland Adventure
   Summary: Raven is the daughter of Alice (Alice In Wonderland) and looks just like her mom except for her black hair. One day, her mother mysteriously goes missing so Raven ends up in Wonderland.
  Created with: ChatGPT
  Dedicated to: DamonHoyt0 and my alter Pandora who loves Alice In Wonderland.

   Raven had always felt like her life hovered between dream and memory. With skin like porcelain and eyes the color of storm clouds, she looked so much like her mother, Alice—except for her thick black hair, which fell in waves like the midnight sky. Alice used to say Raven’s hair reminded her of the darker parts of Wonderland—the forgotten corners, the shadowed woods, the hidden truths.
   But her mother hadn't spoken of Wonderland in years.
   On her seventeenth birthday, Raven awoke to an empty house and a single note on the kitchen table. It read:
  “Forgive me, my darling. I had to go back. —Love, Mum”
  There were no clues, no signs of struggle. Just the note… and a silver pocket watch ticking on the table beside it. A watch Raven had never seen before.
   She picked it up. The moment her fingers touched the cold metal, it clicked. The hands spun wildly. The second hand stopped—and pointed directly at the hallway mirror.
   The mirror shimmered.
   Raven leaned closer, and before she could gasp, it pulled her in like a breath held too long.
                               * * * * *
   She fell through a sky of kaleidoscopic color, tumbling through fragments of clocks, teacups, rose petals, and the faint echo of her mother's laughter.
   When she landed, it was in a garden where the flowers whispered her name.
   "Raaaaven..."
   She stood slowly, brushing dirt from her ripped tights. The place felt wrong—like it had aged and cracked since the stories Alice once told her. Wonderland was still surreal, but darker. The sky was tinged with violet, and the trees leaned in as if they listened.
  She wandered until she found a signpost nailed to a crooked tree:

→ Queen’s Maze
← Ticking Forest
☼ Up: Nothing
Down: Maybe

   “…Classic Wonderland,” Raven muttered.
   A rustling nearby. She turned sharply.
   A cat grinned at her from the shadows. But this one wasn't the Cheshire Cat she’d imagined. He was older, his stripes ragged, his eyes tired but cunning.
   “You’re her daughter,” he said. “I can smell the starlight on your skin.”
   “Where’s my mother?” Raven demanded.
   “She came back,” the cat said, “to fix what she broke. But the Queen didn’t forget. Or forgive.”
   “The Red Queen?”
   “No,” he growled softly. “The Clockwork Queen.”
   He vanished, leaving behind a small, ticking gear.
                              * * * * *
   Raven’s journey took her through places twisted by time. A tea party where the Mad Hatter sat frozen in place, trapped in a loop of laughter. A field of black roses that bled ink when she stepped on them. A river that flowed backward, whispering regrets.
   At the edge of the Queen’s Maze, Raven found a looking-glass, cracked but glowing faintly. Her mother’s face flickered within it—older, wearier—but unmistakable.
   “Raven,” the reflection whispered. “You must not let her turn back time... She wants to erase me. Erase everything.”
   Then the image shattered.
                          * * * * *
   In the heart of the maze, the Clockwork Queen awaited: tall, silver-eyed, and draped in gears and lace. Her heart beat like a drum of metal.
   “You are your mother’s shadow,” she said. “A mirror, but darker. Perhaps… better.”
   Raven stood her ground. “Let her go.”
   “I cannot,” the Queen said. “Alice broke Wonderland when she left. Time fractured. I became necessary. She came back to fix it, but only blood can turn the hands of time.”
   Raven looked down at the pocket watch. It ticked slower now… like a dying heartbeat.
   “What if I offer myself in her place?” Raven said.
   The Queen tilted her head. “Would you give up your time?”
   Raven nodded. “To save hers.”
                             * * * * *
   The Queen reached out, touched the watch, and it stopped. The world slowed. Wind froze mid-breath. The maze turned gray.
   But then something unexpected happened.
   Raven’s shadow… stepped out of her body.
   And fought back.
   “You cannot erase what’s already become real,” her shadow snarled.
   With a scream of tearing metal, the Queen shattered—into gears, smoke, and silence.
                              * * * * *
   Raven awoke in a field of wildflowers. Her mother lay beside her, breathing softly.
   When Alice opened her eyes, she smiled through tears. “You found me.”
   Raven smiled back. “We’re not the same, Mum. But we’re stronger together.”
   They returned home through the mirror, which cracked behind them and faded forever.
   Wonderland had changed—but so had Raven.
   She kept the silver watch, though it never ticked again.
   And sometimes, when she couldn’t sleep, she’d look in the mirror… and see a flash of violet sky.
  And just for a moment… she’d smile.