Assault, Battery, and Cheshire prt 2

Battery blinked in the flash of renewed lighting that blasted the stage, the slight whine of overpowered electronic lights low and constant on the air. She glanced at her husband, who was staring enraptured at the stage.

Cheshire, the Taylor with with the purple and black striped ears and tail stepped forward, this time dressed to nines in well fitted suit, and with the deepened voice of an announcer declared,

"Well folks, we have for you tonight a special treat! Quite literally the fight of a lifetime! This is for all the marbles!"

With one dramatic, sweeping gesture, Cheshire pointed to one corner of the stage, from which out stepped the unnervingly perfect Taylor, a disturbing version of Alice, dressed in a copy of the same dress that the original Alice was reported to wear, her grin widening as the Dark Alice stepped forward, Cheshire continued.

"In this corner, we have the proverbial id, the dark side, you know all those times you were tempted to kill the boss, or to take a short drop and a sudden stop, well, this is it! The Dark Alice!"

The glaringly beautiful Alice took center stage, her face smoothed in to a careful non- expression, the likes of which wouldn't be amiss on the face of a porcelain doll. Cheshire just smirked wider as she seemed to glide backwards and out of the lights.

"Remember Alice, you have 15 minutes to speak, and then you're less… polished counterpart speaks."

Alice nodded as Cheshire seemed to fade away into the background. She turned towards the heroes, and inclined her head the barest fraction of an amount, as though recognizing the heroes presence, and thanking them for that, but nothing else. She smoothed her powder blue dress for a long moment, her hands making a rasping sound against the antiquated fabric that made up the dress. And then she spoke, her voice, smooth, too smooth, too sweet. Like the taste of arsenic and sugar.

"Hello Heros. I am here to convince of my the rightfulness of my duty. Of my need to become the driving force behind our Taylors subconscious."

Alice spread her arms, palms out, a slight frown of disapproval on her face.

"Our Taylor has been though much over the past two years. Her mother passed away."

A ghostly, faded image appeared behind the still speaking girl. A faded woman, with fair features and long, curly brown hair and a matronly expression.

"And then, her father, the man who supposed to look after her, to help his daughter put herself back together after the death of his wife, and mother of his child, instead he fell apart, and drifted away, throwing himself into futile effort and pointless work that only served to prove just how useless of a man he really was!"

Another image materialized itself behind visage of manic perfection, a tired looking man, with a head of balding brown hair and glasses perched on a slightly growing nose, his body, thick with youthful vigor, going to seed slightly seed with age.

"And then, after she began the slow process of recovering herself, of building herself back together! Then her friend."

And again, another image materialized behind her. This time a much younger girl, rather beautiful with red hair. What was strange, was her expression, it seemed to almost flicker between love, pity, adoration, scorn, and absolute hatred. Alice, the Darkest version of Taylor, becoming more, and more frenzied as she continued speaking, her gestures become ing more and more manic, the darkness seemed to pulse, shift and thrum.

"Her friend, someone who she had been raised with, someone who she considered her sister in all but blood, turned on her, and began a vicious program of assault, humiliation, and betrayal, every secret that our Taylor told her, revealed in the most hurtful way possible. Every little thing, every tradition held between the two, suddenly a dagger in the back!"

Suddenly, she froze on stage, her right arm held outstretched, fist clenched, but then, still standing stock still, her face smoothed away again, and her arms slowly fell to her sides, and then she took two steps forward, the lights brightening as she did, until the lights blinded Battery with a shout of discomfort, when she opened her eyes again, Alice was in front of her. Her eyes, sold chips of ebony that glinted and shown with an inner fire.

"But do you know the worst part?"

Assault and Battery both shook their heads, the cords of their muscles tightening as they prepared for a fight, twitching as their brains sent spikes of adrenaline through their body, Alice smiled. A smile that seemed to stretch wide over her face, from ear to ear, threatening to take off the top of her head as she continued speaking, her voice insanely calm.

"The worst part is that the worst offender of the lot, the one who beat, who poisoned, who tried to murder our Alice, is a ward."

Batteries eyes widened as beside her, as Assault cursed.

Behind Taylor, another wraith manifested, this time, it was a young, black teen girl, her face screwed up into a rictus of hate and anger.

It was Sophia.

Battery couldn't help herself, a whisper escaped between her clenched lips.

"Oh god…"

Alice spat to one side.

"God isn't here. Only I am."

End of Assault, Battery, and Cheshire prt 2