Masked (A Hat In Time)

A Major Setback

I'm kinda in hiatus now, but this is one last chapter I can squeeze out before officially logging off for the summer.

And then we start the next arc! I'm sorry that Moonjumper had to be delayed for a few months, but there's nothing I could do. I'm sorry.

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The two girls arrived back in the spaceship, both solemn and thoughtful. Hattie couldn't help but think again and again about what Jaide had said.

She didn't just freeze me in my son...Vanessa was trudging through Halcyon, looking for me...I was too late. Levi was already half-frozen by the time I found him...and Vanessa was LAUGHING.

The mere thought of it made her feel sick. She knew Queen Vanessa had done horrible things, like locking the prince away in the dungeon. She knew about the weird, petty, obsessive things, like banning bacon from the manor and cutting the prince's hair. But...Hat Kid still couldn't fathom how she'd frozen an entire kingdom. Purposely. And...hunting down Jaide, using her child as bait, and murdering the both of them?

Her hands clenched into fists.

The worst part was that this had happened hundreds of years ago. There was no way for them to fix what had happened. Even if they managed to reverse time with the timepieces, the rift they created could be unstable, and who knew if they had enough to even go back that far? This was a fight that'd been settled long ago.

But how had it been settled? The consequences of Vanessa's horrible actions were equally as horrible. The prince had become Snatcher, an evil, soul-stealing ghost. The kingdom had become divided into a forest and a frozen wasteland. And Jaide was an anxious and hateful spirit.

No matter how much they wanted to, Hat Kid and Bow Kid couldn't help anyone. They were even leaving! It wasn't fair. They were leaving so much hurt and unhappiness behind them, no matter how much comfort and hope they tried to give.

Hat Kid sighed, lowering her head in defeat. This was the problem with making friends on other planets. You had to let them go in order to go home.

...Scratch that. This was the problem with making friends in general. You can't fix their problems. You can't fight their battles for them. And...in the end...eventually....no matter what...you had to leave them behind.

Feeling down and dejected, Hat Kid made her way out of the library. She plodded through the attic and let the elevator take her down. She made her way over to the massive screen that tallied the number of timepieces there.

59 timepieces.

They'd only found three in Halcyon.

Wait a minute.

There...were supposed to be 60 timepieces, right?

The realization struck her in the face like a hammer striking a nail.

The Outlander had the last timepiece.

According to Bow, he hadn't let go of it when she beat him. He'd just disappeared with it!

PECK!

That evil little peck neck!

What would he do with that timepiece?! Who knew what twisted fantasies were conjured inside that demon brain of his...if demons even have brains. Even though it was just a single timepiece, what could he do with it? He might be able to cause a good amount of destruction.

Then again, the Outlander didn't seem like the type to just run rampant and cause chaos. No, he was deceitful, patient...she could bet he was lying in wait somewhere out there, waiting for a good time to strike.