It was strange, really. The darkness seemed absolute, but if that had been the case, Jade wouldn't have been able to see anything. Yet she could see himself, as she slowly drifted down in slow spirals, still a bit fuzzy headed. What was going on? Where was she? And why did…
And then it came back to her: the possession, the beating, the agony…and Darcy smirking down at her as she unleashed her fire…and then…
"HUUUAAAGHHHHHHHH!" Jade yelled, as she tried to stop her movement in the absolute-yet-not blackness…and found herself doing so. She blinked, trying to clear her head and figure just what…
"Well, see you finally put it together."
Jade turned at the voice…and recoiled in surprise.
"What?" Said the figure…her/Ot. The Winx version of her that is. She looked rather amused. "I'd ask you if you'd seen a ghost, but that seems rather beside the point, wouldn't you say?"
"Uhhhhhh…" Jade said, still trying to process everything. "What, huh, who…who are you?"
"Isn't it obvious? I'm YOU." Jade Ot replied. "Well, sort of. I'm the part of you that was brought into existence when that idiot put me in your body. Actually I'm Ot Goddess of fire, but a part of me was always within you through the phoenix force."
"What? Huh?" Jade said, looking around. Though she could see no light, she could see herself clearly, as well as her alter ego, who8m we will call Ot. And seeing Ot, as well as the strange place she was in…a sudden, terrible thought occurred to Jade.
"Oh god, am I dead?" She gasped.
"No…no, not exactly." Ot replied.
"But…Darcy…she shot fire down my throat, I…how can I be alive?" Jade asked. She didn't want to be dead, but now that she remembered how the battle had gone, she really had to wonder why.
"You didn't want to die." Ot replied with a shrug.
"Oh great. Are you going to give me nothing but cryptic nonsense? That's not what I would do, me! Come on!" Jade complained.
"Remember I'm mostly Ot within you. Despite your pain, your desire to live was immensely strong, especially since what Darcy did to you involved Yusuke. The way it was hurting him, perhaps even more then it was hurting you…that helped. And you are aware that in your Winx form, united with me, you can form shields."
"But…I didn't…"
"Your conscious mind didn't. It was too wracked with pain. But your subconscious mind could read your desire to survive, for your sake and Yusuke's…and when Darcy shot her fire down your throat, it acted accordingly. Your power…me, you might say, formed a last second shield inside your lungs. Darcy's fire may have been a physical gift, and physical in and of itself when she was alive, but as a spirit, the very act of keeping her power imbued it with a supernatural aspect…an aspect that allowed you to block the flame and keep it from destroying your lungs. Not that there weren't consequences to Darcy's actions, of course. Doing such a delicate operation at the last possible moment has its penalties, not to mention that the air ignited in your lungs and sent a shockwave through your body. Basically, your unique physiology suffered the equivalent of a power surge, knocking it "offline". The state, for you, manifests itself like death. But you're not dead. Your body is basically rebooting itself. It takes a little while, but once it's finished you will return to the land of the living. You won't even suffer any brain damage from the whole not breathing thing, as a bonus. Unless, of course, Darcy burns you to ash while you're helpless, but hey, such special things like preventing your own immolation are never without cost, or risk." Ot said, crossing her arms. Her rather unconcerned look at the possibility that after she had managed to save Jade, Darcy could just roast her body and finish her job of killing her shocked the teen…and Ot seemed to read that from his expression.
"What? You think I'm worried about death? That's your job Jade. I've never BEEN alive. I suddenly just existed physically, and not in a way like you. I may be a part of you…but it's not a part connected to your normal side. How can you be concerned about death when you've walked through death's valley?" Ot pointed out.
"But…if I die, you'll go with me!" Jade stammered.
"Perhaps, but I never asked to be created. I just was. My end will be the same: I can fight it and delay it, but it will come to me eventually. So why worry about it, especially when I CAN'T prevent it? For now anyway."
Though the seemingly callous attitude still chilled Jade, she had to admit she had a point.
"How long until I finish, er, rebooting or whatever?" Jade said, looking around.
"Why?" Ot replied. Jade looked back at Ot, incredulous.
"Why? You should know! If I'm still alive, I can still fight!"
"No, you can't."
"WHAT?"
"Your body's a mess. Your power is still exhausted. What, you thought that coming back from the brink would offer an instant recharge on top of the whole not being a vegetable thing? Forget it Jade. You just barely escaped death's grasp. Operative word being BARELY."
"But…but…"
"And even IF you could recharge your power, it's not like it matters. Darcy is beyond your abilities."
"NO! I have to save Yusuke! I have to fight…!"
"How are you going to save Yusuke? Overshadow her? Darcy's essence extends far deeper now, like a cancer in every part of Yusuke's body. He's trapped in Darcy's grip, most likely forever unless you kill him since there is no spell to release him."
Jade stared in horror.
"And even if you could figure out a plan…you'd never carry it out Jade. Darcy's just too powerful, too angry, too out of control. Bloom said she was pure chaos force, and she was right. You've only escaped so far because of luck. If you decide to engage her again…this little mercy won't be the result. Not again. The result will be your real, final death. Darcy will blow you out like a birthday candle. No Jade. There won't be any comeback for you. You've already lost."
Explosions blasted across the rooftop, as Timmy ran for his life: trying to leap out of the way…
He escaped the flame, but not the shockwave, as it smacked him and sent him flying, out of control. And he found that since he was above open ground, there were no buildings to grab onto (he had actually been tossed back into the campsite)…and no Tecna or Bloom to catch him as Darcy had just knocked THEM down before she had attacked Timmy. In terms of landing, he was up shit creek without a paddle.
But then again, why was that so surprising? This whole battle was that. No matter what they did, the only thing they accomplished was making Darcy angrier. And that just resulted in…
Timmy crashed down onto the tool shed Darcy had appropriated her rake and firewood from, the structure shattering under her and burying her in debris and paraphernalia.
It resulted in things like that.
Timmy groaned, trying to collect himself and see if anything had been stuck through body parts that wouldn't do well to be ventilated.
"Damn…how…in the hell…can we win?" He muttered in his daze.
Stella flew in, a giant flash of bluish white energy freezing Darcy…but only her lower half. Then again, that was enough to disrupt Darcy's forming of the white fireball…but not enough to keep Darcy from retaliating, as she turned and fired another blast of fire at the attacking faerie. It took her in the shoulder before she could properly defend, and Stella yelled as she lost her hold of her staff, which flew from her hands and down into the flaming buildings below. She glared back at Darcy as the fire spirit melted the ice on her lower half away, like it had never been.
Stella yelled, and thrust out her hands as she fired a bombardment of Sun bolts, which crashed into Darcy.
"Sun bolts? SUN BOLTS?" Darcy yelled, not even budging. "You stupid faerie bitch, HEAT ENERGY SUSTAINS ME!" She yelled as she flew from the explosion, zapping up and grabbing Stella by the throat before the girl even knew what was happening. "Your Sun bolts, pathetic as they are, merely make me STRONGER!"
And Darcy proved it, as she hurled Stella down into the concrete street like a meteor, sending a wave of force out that sent smoking shards of stone and other granites spraying everywhere. The impact rang through Stella's body, dazing her…and then she recovered, started to get up…and screamed as a massive blast of flame came down on her. Darcy's previous massive blast of flame against Remy had reduced the buildings on the street to flaming, sagging hulks, and the blast Darcy brought down on Stella finished the job, as the burning buildings around the faerie shattered from the explosion, collapsing around the ruined street as Darcy laughed and laughed…
And then red energy swirled into being around her, enveloping her before she knew what was going on, the red power forming into the shape of a dragon. Bloom had pulled out a new move she rarely used: her soul self, a red power that took all the negative and poisonous things that a being had done and fed them back to them…at least if it worked. Which it didn't, as the shadowy Bloom shape only existed for a few seconds before light streaked from it, and then the energy was blasted into nothing as fire shot out and consumed it. Bloom was sent flying back, shrieking, as Darcy reappeared in the middle of her own fiery bird shape, a true phoenix come to life, except this phoenix wasn't interested in life, but death, as Bloom spiraled down to the ground and Darcy went after her.
Bloom got control of herself and landed…and then a blade of flame slashed down. Bloom zapped to the side, she barely avoided the deadly controlled fire. And she wasn't out of the woods yet, as her dodge brought her towards a lashing flame whip. Bloom vanished into her with her power, as the whip ripped up the ground where she had just been. The faerie reappeared higher up in the air…and screamed as Darcy slammed into her from above, a powerful arcing kick slamming into her spine and sending her crashing down into the dirt with a powerful thud.
Bloom tried getting back up…and found Darcy had floated down in front of her, her hand snapping out, seizing Bloom with terrible strength, lifting her up easily as the hand contracted even more, crushing the faeries throat as she tried to get air into her lungs.
"You're the one who sent me to hell. I want you to see what that's like, right up close." Darcy said, as she continued to squeeze…
Another sun bolt hit Darcy as she let Bloom slip from her hands and she turned on Stella.
WHAT!" Jade finally said. "What do you mean I've already lost! How can you, a part of me, think that?"
"I'm just a part of you Jade, not you in and of yourself." Ot replied. "But I am the part that is separated from your emotions, and hence sees the truth behind them. Darcy can't be stopped. She's too strong."
"Bull! I fought her before, I didn't fight… because I didn't want Yusuke to die."
"Your first battles were with a spirit that was readjusting to her newfound state. That is why you were able to survive: she wasn't fully sure of what she could do. But Darcy's fully adjusted now. And her rage has only grown since her failure to kill you…grown, mutated, turned into something so ugly I can barely believe it. And it's pushed her to a peak you can't touch. She's too powerful for you to beat. That is simply the way it is."
"So what should I do? Run away?"
"If you want to live, I would suggest it."
"NO! If I run, Darcy could slaughter thousands! How dare you suggest such cowardice against something like her!"
"If you don't run, you will die, and she will slaughter thousands anyway. How dare you suggest such abject stupidity against something like her?" Ot replied with an raised eyebrow.
Jade stared, his eyes filled with a sudden despair. So, when all the chips were down…she WAS just a useless rookie, little more then a target for a psychotic destroying force…
………….NO. She was not that. And she would not believe it.
"…All right then. I don't need you. Let me out of here!" Jade yelled.
"You tell me to be gone? Jade, the only reason you could fight her was because of me, of what we become when we combine. I have told you that that is not enough. You alone…that is hopeless." Ot replied.
"Screw you! Screw you and your heartless rationale! I won't run away! I won't! I'll fight her with my bare hands if I have to!" Jade said, as she whirled and stomped off.
"You'll die." Ot said.
"If I run now, I'll die every day." Jade replied. "If I die now…I may not live in a physical sense, but in the way that counts, I will live forever."
"Hmmmm." Ot said. "Noble sentiments…but in the terms of harsh facts and reality, pointless. You can't beat her. You don't have the power."
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT POWER!" Jade screamed. "I care about my friends, my family, my kingdom, all the people Darcy hurt in her nihilistic sickness! She has to be stopped, and even if I can't do it, even if I die, I'm not going to give up and go quietly into the night! If someone had stepped up and helped Darcy before, when she was young, maybe all this could have been avoided, but no. They all took the path of least resistance. And look what it got the world. Well, I may be the only one who is willing to stand up to her, and even though it may kill me, I'M GOING TO DO IT ANYWAY!"
Jade spun and stalked off, leaving Ot behind.
For a moment.
"Jade."
Something in the voice gave Jade pause, and she turned back around. Ot still stood there, her arm still crossed…but her expression had changed. Just a tiny bit…but it was noticeable.
And Jade realized that Ot never wanted her to give up and run away. She, or herself, just wanted to be sure that Jade didn't want to.
"…I understand." Jade said, as she realized she had just been tested, and passed.
"I thought you would." Ot replied, nodding slightly. "But Jade…there is something else you must know."
"What?"
"I cannot say it in words. But I can still tell you. Come." Ot replied, offering her hand. Jade blinked, and then she got the idea, as she walked forward, reached out, and took Ot's offered hand.
And froze as it bolted through her.
As images poured before her eyes, a stream of pictures and sounds that threatened to overwhelm him…terrible things. Death. Destruction. Ruin. Human beings slaughtered or worse. An endless stream of catastrophe and horror.
This was bad enough…but what was worse was that underneath it was the knowledge that this had not been caused by Darcy.
"You must understand this." Ot's voice said in Jade's head, as Jade looked upon all the atrocity she saw with alarm and dismay. "Power plays no favorites. It is but a tool to be used. And while magical beings can create wonders…it is not in their nature to do so. Your species says power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely…"
And the images finally came to a giant castle, a grotesque thing that was the size of a small city, as Jade panned through all its rooms in an instant and came…
Her eyes widened as far as they could go.
It was her. Sitting on a throne. Except it wasn't her. It was an older her, perhaps in her late twenties or thirties, festooned in a magnificent yet terrible costume, in a court full of prone worshippers or horrible monsters, and at his hand was a rope, a rope that let to a man…Yusuke, older too, wearing virtually nothing…and their eyes…Yusuke's eyes were dead, slack, lifeless, a man trapped in a reality he had finally tuned completely out of, and her eyes, her jade green eyes, filled with such a horrible corrupt decadence…
Jade let go of the hand, recoiling back and falling on her rear, gasping for breath, not believing what she had seen…and yet knowing the reality of it.
"You may walk a path, and seek a goal that you think is noble…but your nature…human, are forever caught between animal and god, and the combination is rarely, if ever, good. That is the price of bearing power. Do you wish to pay it?" Ot asked.
"What…what…was that my future?" Jade asked.
"No. Just a possibility. That is life as well: possibilities. But I am only showing you what your kind is prone to lead to. Many have sought to bring about ideals higher then their base nature…some were mad, and some went mad. It is the flaw you can never exorcise, Jade. If you wish to return…you may win. And in doing so you may unleash something more monstrous then Darcy ever was. It is only a possibility…but humans…" Ot said, and let the last word stand for itself.
Jade knew why, and how it tied into his vision. Humans. They could be such terrible creatures, destroying each other and themselves, or worse, doing their appalling little horrors until they created something like Darcy. All because they wanted power, in some form or another…
But…
If she was being shown this…
Ot had said there was no way for Jade to beat Darcy, and when Jade had refused to give up she had shown her that dreadful vision. But there was a message in there…
Jade looked up at Ot, who looked back.
"What are you?"
"You. Something else. Possibilities. Inevitabilities. Dreams. Nightmares." Ot replied. "In the end…it all comes down to you Jade. I am only…what I am. It is up to you define such a thing."
Jade slid over to his knees, as she let the last few images play over her head, such sights, such destruction…and what would be needed to do such a thing.
"Is that what you are?" Jade asked, not needing to verify her question: Ot was a part of her, and Jade was sure Ot knew what she meant.
Just as sure that Ot would remember Jade's fear from the story of the half-demon and the darkness within her she was never aware existed until it was too late, and what that darkness did. How it had made Jade afraid of her own power, and what it could do to her. And if she continued on, and took what she believed was possible, even though she had no idea how or where such a thing had come from…what might come of it.
It was another test.
And in the end, Jade did the only thing she could.
"If that is what you are…" Jade repeated.
"I am that. I am other things. I am a paradise. I am a hell. I am a key. I am everything. I am nothing." Ot replied. "I am only what I am. Do not forget that if you make this choice."
Jade's eyes narrowed.
"This is what you are?" Jade said.
Ot nodded.
"Then by god, LET'S TURN YOU LOOSE." Jade declared, as she reached out and took Ot's hand again.
And the darkness exploded in brilliant, magnificent light…