In the dim, fractured remains of a city frozen between the dream world and reality, Alice C. Gale—now Alarm Clock Girl—stumbles backward, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her alarm clock, once a beacon of time and energy, lies in her hands, its face dark, the hands gone, and the familiar ticking silenced.
Night Terror looms over her, radiating an aura of dark energy as the space around them trembles. Her eyes glint with malice and amusement as she regards the weakened hero.
"Pathetic," Night Terror sneers, her voice carrying an echo that reverberates through the warped air. "You thought you could challenge me with this?" She gestures disdainfully toward the broken alarm clock, now nothing more than a useless relic in Alice's hands.
Alice winces, gripping the clock tighter, struggling to stay on her feet.
Night Terror chuckles darkly.
"Do you even understand what time is, child? You wield it like a toy, like a weapon you barely comprehend." Her voice grows cold, laced with venom.
"Time is not your ally. It's not some convenient tool you can call upon whenever you wish. Time is relentless, merciless. It devours all—memories, lives, even worlds."
She steps closer, her shadow swallowing Alice whole.
"And you... you dared to challenge me? You, with your pathetic 'Waking Hour'?" Night Terror raises her hand, and Alice feels an invisible weight pressing down on her, pinning her to the ground.
"Time is mine now, Alice Gale. I am not bound by it. I am its master!" Night Terror's voice rises, her form flickering with dark power as she draws the last remnants of Alice's time magic into herself.
"You, however, will never wield it again."
With a slow, deliberate gesture, Night Terror snaps her fingers.
Suddenly, the world goes still.
The wind, which had been howling moments before, halts in mid-motion. The dust hanging in the air freezes, suspended like particles of a broken mirror.
Alice's heartbeat slows, her limbs frozen, her body stiff and locked in place. Time itself has stopped.
Night Terror moves freely through the frozen moment, pacing around Alice's immobile form with a cruel smile.
"You feel it, don't you? That stillness, that weight... it's the absence of time. You can't even blink. No thought, no movement, no hope of escape. This... is your reality now."
She bends down, her lips near Alice's ear. "I could leave you like this forever. An eternity of helplessness... watching the world pass you by." She laughs softly.
"And what a fitting punishment for someone who thought they could wield the power of time."
Night Terror rises, her voice dripping with triumph.
"You've lost everything, Alice. Your powers, your purpose... and soon, your world. The timelines are mine to control. And you—you're just a speck of dust in the wind, forever trapped in this frozen moment."
She turns away, her dark robes billowing behind her as she prepares to leave. But before she vanishes into the folds of time, she looks back over her shoulder, her eyes gleaming.
"Maybe, if you had truly understood time... you would have seen this coming."
And with that, Night Terror vanishes, leaving Alice trapped in a motionless world, her mind screaming, her body unable to respond, as time itself slips further from her grasp.