Disclaimer: I do not own The 10th Kingdom. This is merely a fanfiction.
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Swords clanged and soldiers screamed. Wild beasts roared. The battle to end all battles had come to the Nine Kingdoms. Torrents of rain soaked the combatants, wind lashed at their battle standards, lightning illuminated the barbarity going on the valley.
Blabberwort parried a blow, then punched her combatant out. Another soldier collapsed before her, arrows protruding from his chest. She stepped over him, inserting her blade through another foe. She snarled, her eyes focused, her will bent on only one objective and one objective alone.
The complete annihilation of the man who had ruthlessly murdered her brother.
The Lord Protector laughed maniacally from his black horse, his Horned King outfit striking terror into all who opposed him as he used his sword in one hand to parry enemy attacks, and his battle axe in the other to cleave his foes down. He bridled up his horse which reared back on its hind legs as he cackled, bashing a Resistance fighter in the face and then lodging his axe into his skull.
Blabberwort spit out blood. She braced herself, then took off running. She leaped on a boulder to give her a lift, and flew high in the air, tackling Wallace right off his horse. The horse neighed and galloped into the fray, vanishing between the battle armies. Wallace rolled along in the mud and dirt as Blabberwort found herself on all fours. She panted and looked up – Wallace rose to his feet like a nightmare. The lightning illuminated his skull mask and the horned antlers as he held out his sword and axe. "So," he asked. "You've thrown your lot in with the Resistance to avenge your brother?"
Blabberwort spit again. "I will wear your skull on my head! Your guts will be turned into my royal bedtime slippers! You will pay for what you did to Burly!"
"Let's get on with it, then. I have a whole Resistance army to slaughter."
The troll screeched and the two charged. Wallace cleaved his axe and sword down – Blabberwort raised her own sword and their weapons met with a clang. The two stared at each other between their crossed blades; Wallace's eyes stared into hers through the sunken eye sockets of his skull mask and for the first time, Blabberwort could see the fullness of the madness that was consuming the Lord Protector.
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"Where are we?"
Virginia looked around. There was only white as far as she could see. No walls, no ceiling. She was in an empty void.
"The Mirror World. I control our surroundings – the past, the present … and the future." The Snow Queen materialized behind Virginia and waved her arms. Virginia watched as flooring and ceilings took shape around her, flowers sprouting – then the flowers died, covered in frost.
"Why did you bring me here?" Virginia demanded.
"You wanted to know why I became the Snow Queen, did you not? Why – we – became her?"
"You did it for power – because in your timeline you lost Fen -."
"No. That is the wrong answer. The loss of Fen was what started me seeking answers – but it wasn't until I saw the world that would be – the world as the year 2001 rolls to its end. The Devil's Mirror showed me the future of the world – our world!"
The Snow Queen waved her arm. Their surroundings morphed. They were in New York City. People around them were screaming and running right past them, as though they were invisible. Virginia reached out to touch a screaming man – her hand went right through him as though he were made of air.
"They can't see us nor hear us," the Snow Queen admonished. "We might as well be ghosts to them."
Virginia couldn't understand what they were all running from. "What's going on?"
BOOOOOMM!
She jumped at the explosion and the panic only grew. Sirens blared. The Snow Queen pointed ahead. And Virginia could see it – smoke. Thick, black clouds of smoke ascended as far as the eye could see. The World Trade Center – the two giant towers that were forever considered a part of the New York Skyline – were smoking. People screaming, jumping from the top of the towers.
"What is this?" she asked.
"The future. Your future. September 11, 2001. Terrorist Osama Bin Laden hijacks four planes. Two crash into the twin towers. Another crashes into the Pentagon. And the fourth targeted – well, anyone's guess – most likely Congress. But the passengers rise up and gain control before it crashes in a field in Pennsylvania. This is only the beginning …"
"I don't understand -."
"You thought you would return to a normal life in New York City with Wolf after you returned from the Nine Kingdoms? No – there is no normal after the events of September 11, 2001. One year from your future, Virginia, everything will change. This will be your generation's Pearl Harbor, your generation's Kennedy assassination."
Virginia could only watch as the terror increased. The sirens and the screams were growing more intense, tearing into her mind. Women carrying their crying children –
The Snow Queen waved her hand. They were no longer in New York. They were in a Middle Eastern City. "Baghdad," the ice witch commented. "The War on Terror begins – the first harbinger towards the inevitable World War III."
Their surroundings morphed – battles in Iraq, Afghanistan. Assassinations on political leaders.
She was in New Orleans watching in horror as a massive hurricane stormed the shores, the levy's breaking, the city flooding.
More wars. More mayhem.
She was horrified to see an Ebola breakout.
ISIS beheadings.
Genocides increasing.
Now, another outbreak. She watched as television news reports appeared before her – they're calling it COVID-19.
Russia invading Ukraine.
More wars. News of natural disasters, climate change … in just a little over twenty years, the world will be unrecognizable from 2000. She fell to her knees, tears running, feeling suddenly exhausted. "How … how could so much … so much evil and horror exist …?"
The Snow Queen stood over her, arms folded. "The Mirror showed me all these things as well. And of course, the Nine Kingdoms and the Tenth Kingdom are connected. What happens in one has bearing on another – however small, however subtle. The destruction and mayhem you witnessed across Earth will manifest in its own ways here in the Nine Kingdoms. So you see – disaster will befall both worlds. You think of me as the villain – but I became the Snow Queen out of necessity. I can bring order to the Nine Kingdoms … and I can bring order to our world too. Temperatures will rise – the ice caps will melt. But I can use my powers to stop it all – to stop the world we know and love from collapsing. So you see – this is much bigger than us! This isn't about you and me! I became the villain because there was no other way. I can use my powers to force order on both worlds! Avert all the disasters and wars and terrorism before any of it can rear its ugly head!"
Virginia stared ahead into the void, the horrors running through her mind.
The Snow Queen stood in front of her. "You are supposed to be the Savior of the Nine Realms! This is what it will take! A frozen heart with the power of ice and snow to enforce their will on all others! Bend the universe to your will!"
"And lose my soul?" Virginia asked, looking up at her future self.
"Sometimes – to be the hero – sacrifices must be made. The difference between a fall and a sacrifice is sometimes difficult. The world will fall if you do not become the Snow Queen. I did not fall – I became the villain, the heart of all evil, for the greater good! You are the Hero of the Nine Kingdoms – what greater act of heroism is there than to become the villain, become the one able to make the hard decisions?"
Virginia remained silent. The faces of the little children on 9/11 ran through her mind. "I –"
"You were always willing to do what needed to be done to be the hero," the Snow Queen said slowly. "You must make that choice now. You are at the crossroads. Will you turn away from your destiny at the final hour? Will you turn your back on the world for your so-called virtue? Or will you be the hero the world believes you to be?! Will you make the sacrifice for the greater good? The world's contempt in exchange for countless lives saved? Tell me, Virginia! What say you?"
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Wallace pressed the attack on Blabberwort, driving her back. She let out a cry – he nicked her leg. She limped backwards as he hissed in glee under his skull mask. He charged, his sword and axe dancing brilliantly. She struggled, parrying each cleaver-like attack with skill.
But even a defense is still just a defense.
She jumped backwards, hoping to put some distance between herself and him, hoping to see an opening for a counterattack.
There was a yell – a Resistance fighter was charging the Lord Protector. Wallace slashed him across the stomach with his sword before burying the blade of his axe in his chest. Grinning, not stopping, he pulled the axe free from his fallen foe's chest cavity. And he kept coming.
Blabberwort limped forward, charging, hoping to overwhelm him with brute force. Wallace laughed as he showed amazing speed, dodging her attacks, blocking, parrying spinning, his red cape fluttering like a bird. He got under her guard and his blade pierced her thigh. She screamed as he yanked it out.
She backed away again. And he still kept coming.
This had been a mistake. She had underestimated the Lord Protector. There was no flaw to his technique, his defenses impenetrable. He was indestructible, unbeatable.
Lord Protector Wallace - was invincible …
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"It wasn't easy you know … having to make the tough decisions." The Snow Queen was walking around Virginia, taking her time, her hands pressed together thoughtfully. "Every step you've taken, every path you walked, every event in your life – was carefully, masterfully, orchestrated by me. To bring you here – to show you your destiny! To show you how to save the world!"
"By enslaving it?" Virginia asked.
"Better a slave population than a dead one."
"I don't agree – and neither does most of the world!"
The Snow Queen pointed furiously – they were in a wasteland in the future, the dead bodies piled up from war, terrorism, disease, famine, natural disaster. "Stand on the graves of the dead and ask them if they see a difference!" the Snow Queen snarled.
Virginia stared at the corpses – lined up as far as the could see. She turned away, eyes closed.
The Snow Queen was becoming insistent. "You – me – we are the only ones now who can avert all this!"
"The ends don't justify the means!"
"So you would throw it all away? Everything? The lives of countless children? You would spit on all the sacrifices I already made?"
"You made those sacrifices – I didn't!"
The Snow Queen chuckled. "You have no idea the things that I had to do to save the world. To bring you to this point of decision. All the nasty backstabbing, conspiring, assassinations, wars I've had to orchestrate from my icy throne – and of course, the lives of those close to you – the ones who could have thwarted you in your destiny to save the world – well, sacrifices had to be made …"
"What are you -?" Virginia was confused.
The Snow Queen waved her hand and their surroundings morphed. They were in Central Park one cold night. There – Virginia could see a young, twenty-something year-old redheaded woman sitting alone on a bench. "Mom!" She rushed to her. "Mom, Mom -."
The young Christine Slevil sat wordlessly, hands on her jeans, checking her watch.
Virginia was on her knees, trying to get Christine to see her. But she might as well have been a ghost.
"Like I said – the Mirror shows the past as well as the future. She can't see or hear you."
Virginia saw the tears in her mother's eyes and then spun around to her future self. "What is this?"
"This is it," the Snow Queen said slowly. "The night that destroyed your mother forever. The night her one true love – Jack – never kept his promise."
"One true love …"
"Oh, you thought Tony was the love of your mother's life?" the Snow Queen laughed. "Sorry to break it to you. He was the rebound! Her heart always belonged to Jack!"
Virginia stared up at her mother's heartbroken face. Virginia could feel her own heart break with hers. "What happened to him?" she asked.
The Snow Queen sighed. "As I said … certain events in the lives of those closest to you had to be … manipulated."
Christine and Central Park vanished around them. They were in a dingy New York bar. A middle-aged man – already inebriated – was laughing. A beautiful, middle-aged, busty blonde was flirting with him, touching his arm, playing with her hair, laughing at everything he said. She turned to the barkeep. "Another round!" More drinks. The blonde laughed, doing a sexy hair twirl. The man drunkenly howled. "Shots!" she yelled. "More shots!" The man laughed as he did a line of shots – then the blonde woman did something unexpected. She lay flat on her back on a table, her belly exposed, pouring a shot into her belly button. The drunken man laughed as he drank the shot up. The woman grabbed his head – and licked up the side of his face. "Go home," she said. "I'll meet you there."
"But I –" he stammered.
She reached into his pocket and pulled out his car keys, jingling them. She put them down her shirt, raising her eyebrows. "A little foretaste – come on, it'll be fun. Like a race – first one to your apartment gets to undress the other …"
The man laughed as he grabbed the keys from her blouse. "You're on," he slurred as he turned and staggered through the crowded bar.
The barkeep called after him. "You can't drive!" The man waved him off, staggering out the door. The barkeep turned to the blonde woman – but he no longer saw her. For a moment, for the briefest moment – the Snow Queen was standing where she had been, a wicked smile on her face.
Then she was gone.
The scene changed. They were at a busy intersection. Virginia saw a handsome young man – Jack, she knew – crossing the street. And then –
The drunk man from the bar at the wheel of an out-of-control car, crashing into Jack, his body flying. He was dead before he hit the ground. Virginia spun her head, unable to stomach the scene.
"Do you understand what I did? I sacrificed our Mother's life to save these worlds! I took away her Happily Ever After! I made her into the Evil Queen! All to get you here in the first place. It was always about you."
Virginia wiped her eyes. "You've sacrificed so much …"
"She wasn't the only one, unfortunately …"
Virginia could see Leone standing there, mesmerized, at the Evil Queen's orders to murder his own family. She watched as he - with no free will – slew them as though he were nothing more than a robot.
Once again, the scene changed. Virginia could see a young Wolf, very uncomfortable, with a young Fiona, a mad grin on her face. Wolf's Dad was negotiating the marriage contract with Fiona's father. The she-wolf's Dad grinned as he struck paws with Wolf's Dad. They turned and went their way, the marriage contract all but done. Wolf had a forlorn look on his face … and Fiona's father looked into the trees. The Snow Queen was walking between the trees, smirking at him, gloating that she had implanted the idea in his head for the marriage between Wolf and Fiona.
Virginia now saw Tony sitting alone in an office, a glass of scotch in his hand, the fingers of his other hand rubbing his temples as he stared out the window. An economic downturn had shut down his business and his bouncy house proposals. He sat silently, sipping his scotch, as men in white uniforms removed items from his office – debt collectors, Virginia realized, until night fell and Tony was now sitting on a bare floor by himself with a bottle of vodka, nothing remaining of his office or his assets.
And in the window, an icy reflection of a wicked, ice pale woman …
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"You ruined everyone's life …" Virginia breathed.
"We ruined everyone's life," the Snow Queen replied quietly. "After all the things I've done, the people I've had to hurt – you would turn your back on your destiny to save the world? You would make their sacrifices be in vain?"
"I would never have sacrificed them to begin with!" Virginia spat.
"Then why am I still here?" the Snow Queen retorted.
Virginia fell silent. She had no answer.
"I'll tell you why," the ice witch continued. "Because you will do all those necessary, terrible things! I'm still here, because you are still going to make the same decision I did. I'm still here, because you will still choose to become me. So what if the past changed? So what if Fen survived?! Don't you get it – it was never about him or Wolf or any of that! It was always about the greater good! Just make this easy on yourself! It's useless to resist! Your destiny is set! It is inevitable. I am your destiny!"
And Virginia shrunk in the dark shadow of her future self …
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