Broken Mirror... Shattered Reflection
Jaune screamed in absolute agony as the crystal shards shredded the left side of his torso. The brilliant crimson of his blood splattered the floor and wall behind him. He could hear her mocking laugh, his insane cackle, and the vile purr of that beast.
How many times was it this time? Jaune thought to himself as darkness closed upon him. There was no escape. Jaune had tried, to no avail. No all he could do is attempt to survive. To last a little longer each time. To exist and land a blow against his foes.
<***> Jaune wasn't sure when everything began to change. Was it on his hundredth death? His five hundredth? Thousandth? Ten Thousandth? He had lost count. However he was well aware of something else building up inside him. A darkness. Feelings of absolute rage. The want to revenge.
"Nooooo!" she screamed from her seat upon her crimson throne. Jaune had bested her chosen champion. Jaune using his shield blocked and evaded the grinning maniac's assaults, long enough to close the gap.
To survive long enough to get the fool with in his grasp. With an armored hand, he latched on to the leering madman's throat, and squeezed. Jaune heard the sound of snapping bone over the gurgling gasps of his victim. Still holding the limp and twitching form of his accoster Jaune glared at the figures on the raised dais.
A feral grin twisted his lips, as a black mist rose from the floor to coil about him. She rose from her throne, hefting a massive two-handed pole axe. Stepping down to the main floor her smoldering red eyes never strayed from the twisted figure now standing before her.
"This can not be." she spoke aloud as she circled to the side. Her weapon chambered and ready. "Not possible..."
"Oh, it is possible... your majesty." Jaune replied, the hard edge of his voice cutting through the expansive room.
<***> She raced through the various domains of this strange world. She knew something was off, but only now did she understand the severity of that feeling. Someone was changing... transcending... metamorphosizing... without the help of the tree. Without her guidance and gentle touch.
"NO!" she screamed out as she breached the barrier separating this small reality from the rest of the EverAfter. It was a twisted and corrupted pocket realm. A prison for the Queen of Hearts and her abominations of followers.
She was too late. The figure wreathed in black mist was changing, twisting and evolving... becoming the anthesis of what they once were. Axe met sword in a clang of steel upon steel. The wreathed figure twisted to the side and before the Queen could react. Before the Blacksmith to intervene... the blade severed the Queen's head from her shoulders.
"Jaune?" the Blacksmith whispered to herself in horrific understanding. The young man that she had watched fall. The would-be knight was gone.
The twisted and changed figure that was once Jaune Arc stepped up on to dais, and took his/her seat upon the empty throne. A malicious, devious, and vengeful look in his hear eyes. Materializing from the shadows his/her new servants. Twisted mockeries of once heroic entities.
"Hello." Jaune spoke, his/her tone dripping with barely contained rage, as he/she addressed the Blacksmith. "Are you here to congratulate me... or..."
"Or?" the Blacksmith responded.
"Challenge me?"
"Neither." the Blacksmith answered, as she steeled herself for the task at hand. "I'm... I'm here to restore you. To cleanse..."
"I don't think so." Jaune replied, as he/she slowly rose from her newly acquired throne, sword in hand.
"But..."
Jaune said nothing in response. Instead he/she charged forward, followed by her newly gathered companions. In panic for her own safety, and that of the realms she oversaw... the Blacksmith jumped backwards. With a wave of her hand she opened a portal directly in the path of the on rushing group.
