マッジ、あなたは何をしましたか？

This is when it all started, she just had to do some wacky-tobaccy experiment that would send us into the past and, now, just about everything we knew is gone. When we returned to the present, the neighborhood was pretty much in ruins, with the exception of Toki's house, which was covered by a large metal dome. Madgie, what did you do?  Madgie looked around frantically, as if understanding for the first time her errors, realizing she did something that resulted in this. I walked into what was pretty much left of our house. I called out for IdiotPants and Lightbulb, knowing they can hear their names and respond, but I did not find them. Had we lost them in time? I thought. I found no evidence of their existence, not even a single photo, surely we had lost them in time.  

I called out for my pet cat, Stinky. I loved him with every last ounce of my being and  was partially relieved when I found him but I was quite upset because he was emaciated and seemed close to dying, as if he had been like that for years.  How long were we gone? 

I wanted to ask someone what had happened and what lead to things being the way that they are.  I took Madgie's hand and lead her through the neighborhood, until I and Madgie came across a destitute old woman. "What...happened...here?" I asked, stuttering. The woman looked at me with empty eyes and said "I have no answers for you, only she does." Madgie lightly shook the delirious old woman and asked "Who's 'she'?" The old woman blinked her empty eyes and said "The Seamstress..." It did not take long for either of us to realize she was talking about Toki. Toki is the well-known Madame Seamstress and she might be still around. 

With very much hesitation, I lead Madgie to the dome. It had a sealed hatch that seemed to not have been open in years. I knocked on the hatch but I received no answer. However, there was trapdoor underneath our feet and we fell in. We awoke in what I believed to be a basement with someone familiar standing over us. She looked like Toki, except with glasses. I figured she had to be Doki. She seemed to have changed and seemed unusually cold (not cruel nor harsh but emotionless).  She said not even say one word.  The rosiness had vanished from her cheeks. Something must have happened that made her this way. She motioned for us to get up and go up the stairs.  

We went upstairs and found ourselves in the kitchen. The blonde-hair was sitting at the table, her eyes were sad. "Toki?" I asked. She looked down and said "She's in the crystal room." A girl that I assumed to be Antoinette appeared and led us to the room. Everyone was silent. I opened the door. The room was glowing and light reflected off the crystals. "So we meet again, Bunny. I was quite expecting you." Toki was sitting on a large velvet pillow, wearing a veil and a black and white loose fitting flowing dress. She seemed to have been here a very long time.  "Do you know what happened?" I asked. Madgie remained silent.  

Toki closed her eyes and said "Yes, when you and your sister went back in time, she did something that caused society to collapse. As a result, wars ensued, lives were lost,  your cousin and adopted brother have been taken from existance by time and I have chose remain here for the remainder of time.  As fate have had it, Madgie caused this but she had not intended for it. You must go back into the past and reverse that error."  I looked at her and asked "How?" Toki opened her large eyes and said "There is a time portal on the other side of town that was brought into existence by Madgie. However, it opens and closes every two days and I cannot escort you there myself because an accident partially paralyzed me down my left side, rendering me partially immobile but perhaps Antoinette can escort you. She has terrible vision but she knows where the time portal is, however, if I lend her to you, you must protect her and you must get there by the next sundown (tomorrow night) because that is when the portal will start to close. Understood?" 

Madgie nodded but I was unsure. How did a bare-footed albino near-blind Parisian girl know where a time portal was and how to find it? My guess was that she sees the world without her eyes and knows her surroundings better without seeing them. Toki rang a bell and Antoinette appeared. She looked different than the last time I saw her, explaining why I could not recognize her earlier. She no longer looked cheerful as I last remembered, instead her eyes looked like dull rubies and she only wore black and tan. Her once beautiful snow white hair was now messy dull and lifeless.  "Are we going to just stand here or are we going to dze time portal?" she asked, her voicing sounding harsh.  Just as we were leaving, I asked "Why is Doki emotionless?" Toki sighed and said "She was only emotionless because she knew you and your sister came here looking for answers."

When Antoinette led us through what was left of the town, Madge remained silent and Antoinette's coldness deterred me from any questions. She wanted to have things reversed and was not going to take any nonsense as to why they couldn't be or she wasn't going to take any crap out of either one of us and proved that she was not to have her time wasted. Seeing what had happened and how things were, being so full of regret I just wanted to break down and say "I am so sorry!" but I couldn't. It seemed Antoinette didn't want to waste time speaking and was silent throughout the walk. It was long and our feet hurt but not hers, her feet were indestructible and seemed not to feel any pain, as if she had already been walking on this sort of terrain. 

"We have at least till dze morning to get to dze portal. Once, we are very close, you are on your own, so what happens to you is what you decide. Whedzer you live or die is your choice. Also, if you waste my time, you and your sister will find dze portal yourself." Antoinette spoke, finally. Even her once kind heart turned cold. Things really did change for the worst.  Madgie's eyes had turned empty, she looked as if she was losing her will to live.  Her hand was limp and she showed no emotion. She looked like a broken ivory vase of multicolored flowers. As much as I had been wanting to reveal her to world and have her taken away, I wanted to see the 'old Madgie' again, at least once. 

We traveled on, in neverending silence.  Antoinette was going to run us ragged and had us travling in the night. We had crossed the great earthcrack and we had gotten decently close to the time portal. However, Antoinette had quite vanished suddenly. I  turned around to look for her but she had already gone. We didn't see nor hear her leave. Her absence puzzled us.  Why did she not say she was leaving so soon? I thought. Madgie picked up her raggedy tan scarf and looked at me as if to say "The world is ending and everyone is disappearing, being taken by time." It had dawned had left us to complete the journey on our own. The portal was only three miles away but Madgie didn't want to continue. She would have preferred to let the dust hold her in a final embrace but I was not going to allow that to happen. She got me into this and  now she's going to finish it with me. 

With the last ounces of my strength, I dragged a near catatonic Madgie to the time portal  and jumped in it. However, what Toki didn't tell us, is that just  jumping through the portal would permanently reverse the damage and set time back to the way was. I and my sister awoke in a hospital room but Madgie had no memory of what had happened and neither did everyone else, except Toki, or so I think.  I assumed that maybe it was really a dream and it never happened. Everything was back the way it was and my adopted brother and cousin were in existence and my beloved cat, Stinky, was perfectly normal. I wonder...Was it all a dream?