Descendants: The rise of red

Everything is so different

They began to fall slowly into a vertical tunnel that seemed to have no end. "What's happening?" asked Naveen, his voice full of fear.
"We're not at the Merlin Academy anymore. We're in Wonderland," Bridgette answered calmly.
As they fell, gravity seemed to reverse, causing them to float gently. Strange and random objects appeared around them: furniture, books, mirrors, and clocks drifted along the tunnel walls. Eventually, they landed softly on a pile of leaves, despite the long fall, and found themselves in a room with many doors.
Naveen looked around, finding himself in a dark, mysterious chamber, surrounded by numerous doors of various sizes. "Since when is there a room at the end of the rabbit hole?" asked Red, puzzled.
"As far as I know, always," replied Bridgette.
In the center of the room was a small table, on which lay a pile of glittering golden keys. Bridgette picked up a bunch and began to sift through them one by one, running her thumb along the teeth and edges. She knew it by touch. It was smaller than the others, with a slight curve to the handle, and the gold was scratched from use, dull compared to the newer keys.
"It can't be far," she murmured to herself, feeling the weight of familiarity in her hands. She kept searching, ignoring the ones that were too big or oddly shaped. Then, her fingers brushed against something familiar: the smooth, slightly cold surface of the key. She turned it between her fingers, inspecting it. Yes, this was the right one. She'd used it so many times, she could recognize it even with her eyes closed.
With a sigh of relief, she approached a tiny door hidden behind a curtain and opened it with a soft creak. Naveen frowned, peering at the tiny opening in bewilderment.
"How are we supposed to fit through here?" he asked, shaking his head. "It's impossible."
Bridgette, unfazed, calmly rummaged in a hidden pocket of her dress. "It's not impossible if you know how," she said with an enigmatic smile. After a moment, she pulled out a small glass bottle, the faded label reading in thin, worn letters: "Drink Me."
"And what's that supposed to do?" asked Naveen, eyeing the bottle suspiciously.
"It will make you smaller," Bridgette said as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Handing him the bottle, she invited him to drink. Naveen, with a look of both curiosity and disbelief, took it and sipped a small amount.
Immediately, his body began to shrink. His feet, his hands, everything about him shrank until he was no bigger than a toy soldier. He looked around in amazement. The room now seemed like a vast cathedral, with colossal doors and an impossibly high ceiling.
"This can't be real..." he muttered, staring at his tiny hands.
Bridgette drank from the bottle as well, shrinking quickly beside Naveen. Red also stepped forward and took a sip, exchanging a knowing glance with Bridgette, laughing at the dizzying sensation of her shrinking size.
As soon as Chloe saw everyone drinking from the bottle, she reached out with her scaly paws, making guttural noises and moving nervously.
"Chloe, wait!" Bridgette called, trying to calm her. But Chloe began to panic, stomping her feet on the floor, making the room vibrate with her frenzy. Her massive hands stretched out toward the bottle, grabbing for it clumsily.
"Chloe, you have to drink just a little, or you might shrink too much!" warned Bridgette, trying to keep control of the situation. But the creature kept pushing and grasping wildly until she finally managed to grab the bottle with her long claws.
With an exaggerated gulp, Chloe started shrinking, but in an irregular way. Her large front paws shrank too quickly, leaving her unbalanced while the rest of her body reduced more slowly. In the end, she became as small as Red and the others, her expression confused by what had just happened.
"Now we can go through," said Bridgette, pointing to the tiny door, which now seemed large enough for all of them.
One by one, they approached the door, ready to step into the unknown. Chloe, now calm, followed closely, still fascinated by her new perspective on the world.
Crossing through the door, they found themselves in front of strange and distorted landscapes: meadows and forests with bizarrely shaped plants, flowers that seemed to have a life of their own, and grotesque creatures watching them from afar. The colors were intense and saturated, but often dominated by dark shades of blue, purple, and gray, creating a dreamlike and sometimes eerie atmosphere. The trees were twisted, with gnarled trunks, often bare of leaves, giving the place an almost spectral look.
The Red Queen's Castle, Bridgette's mother's stronghold, loomed menacingly in the distance, a massive structure of red and black stone, surrounded by a desolate, barren landscape. Its towers were massive, decorated with hearts and symbols reflecting the Queen's personality.
Red stopped abruptly, staring at the gloomy and distorted landscape before her. This was not the Wonderland she remembered. The cold colors and dark shadows dominating the new scenery were a stark contrast to her memories of a world completely drenched in red—a place where her mother's tyranny reigned supreme.
"This doesn't make any sense..." Red whispered, looking around in a mix of confusion and unease. "Wonderland... the Wonderland I knew was entirely red. It's my mother's domain. Everything belongs to her. This place is... wrong."
Red's eyes were locked on the castle in the distance, its black and red towers standing stark against a leaden sky. The landscape exuded tranquility, unlike the terror that would haunt it in the future. Memories of the world she had grown up in, entirely consumed by her mother's oppressive power, filled her mind.
"Red, are you okay?" Bridgette asked, noticing her prolonged silence as they walked. Naveen looked around, distracted by the peculiar landscape, but Red never took her eyes off the castle.
"Yeah... it's just not what I expected," Red replied, choosing her words carefully. She couldn't reveal the truth. Not yet.
As they walked, Red's thoughts returned to the future she came from. Wonderland's streets were deserted, the trees withered, and its creatures reduced to submission. No one dared to oppose the Queen. The resistance, once alive, had been crushed. The color red, which once symbolized only the Queen's power, had become the color of blood spilled to maintain that control.
Bridgette was the key to everything: her sister, though from a different time. She didn't know yet that their mother would unleash total dominion. Naveen was nothing more than an unwitting ally but a trusted one, whose loyalty would mean much more as they uncovered the truth about Wonderland.
"We can't afford mistakes," Red murmured to herself, staring at the castle's towers. If they failed, that dark future would become an inescapable reality.
"What?" Naveen asked, stepping closer. "Did you say something?"
Red shook her head. "Nothing. Just... thinking about how important it is for everything to go as planned." Her gaze briefly settled on Bridgette, thinking about how to protect her from that cruel fate.
"Don't worry," Naveen said with a smile, trying to lighten the mood. "With Bridgette leading, we'll make it."
Bridgette, completely focused on their mission, nodded. "We have to be ready for anything. The Red Queen isn't someone to be underestimated."
Red took a deep breath, knowing that soon, she would have to confront Bridgette's past and her own future. She just hoped she could change enough to prevent the horrors she lived every day from repeating themselves.