Chapter 3: Take My Picture (of my Distorted Image)
'Darcy announced that she will be putting on one of the best shows Newtopia has ever seen! What will that show be exactly and what part will Anne be playing?'
Previously
The Core's Chamber
The helmet above the chair continued descending on Anne as her calamity powers appeared to assist the guardian with escaping, but just as quickly weakened under the core's control. Anne felt herself becoming exhausted with each attempt to fight against her bonds as Darcy observed with a wicked grin.
"Resistance is futile my dear." Darcy calmly stated to Anne as the helmet was a mere two centimeters away from landing on the teen. "Once you become one with the us, you won't have felt a thing. You'll even have forgotten all about those silly childhood friends of yours!"
"You leave my friends out of this you ancient dung beetle!" Anne snapped as she felt her eyelids become heavy from exhaustion, but continued to fight against it. "Sasha and Marcy will always be better than these soulless robots you call your army!"
Running her left index and middle fingers under the girl's chin, Darcy darkly chuckled in response.
"You are so cute when you're angry." Darcy continued chuckling.
Darcy's laughter was suddenly cut short when a voice within the helmet grabbed Darcy's attention. Closing all ten eyes on the helmet, Darcy erupted in a maniacal laugh at what the voice stated to her. Darcy then gathered herself as she turned her attention back to the thai teenager.
"Well, it appears your friends are smarter than I gave them credit for." Darcy stated as the helmet above Anne stopped just mere inches from landing onto her hair. Noticing the helmet was no longer a threat to her, Anne released a heavy sigh of relief. "They may have escaped the castle, but they left behind something very valuable that I know they will return for and when they do."
Placing a hand on each side of her helmet, Darcy removed the contraption with ease as her shoulder length hair gracefully landed in place on her shoulders and her eyes' glowed a brightly muted orange and red. Staring at the hollow shell that was her childhood friend Marcy, Anne felt all color drain from her face as the souls of depraved demons occupying the vessel stared back at her.
"They'll be in for not just one, but two surprises, especially if the price is right." Darcy continued as she placed the helmet under her left arm. "I DO believe it's time to put on one of the best shows Newtopia has ever seen! Don't you agree Savisa?"
Currently
Song played: The Veldt by Deadmau5
Angry muted orange and red eyes scanned the document in Darcy's hands as the core released yet another throaty growl, that being the third since reading the document and those before it. Darcy then released an angry growl as she angrily pulled the document apart and tossed both halves on the floor at her feet, those halves adding to the previous drafts she reviewed.
"What did I just waste my time reading?! Can't you imbeciles get anything right?!" Darcy screamed as she jumped to her feet while turning to the frobot that stood behind her with a pile of documents in its hands. "That was the most insulting and demeaning coordination plan I have EVER seen! My Savisa deserves the best wedding this pathetic city can provide and that is all you can come up with?!"
The frobot's eyes blinked green and red in response to Darcy's frustration and question.
"What do you mean Andrias helped write that plan?" Darcy screamed, her shrill voice reverberating off the walls of her study office. "What would he know about a wedding or even planning one for that matter?! He never knew who his mother was and if she ever met him, she would have seen what a huge disappointment he was to the entire Newtopian Kingdom!"
The frobot's eyes changed red as a response to Darcy. Darcy then grabbed her hair out of frustration, but just as quickly gathered herself as she ran her right hand through her short raven colored hair. Taking a long deep breath, Darcy turned to the frobot.
"I want you to fine tune those plans and bring me a final draft in ONE HOUR!" Darcy instructed as her muted eyes shined a lighter orange out of anger. "If my bride to be does not have the dream wedding I planned out, I'm turning all of you frobots into scrap metal to light my personal fireplace! And send for Andrias! I need him to answer for that pathetic excuse for a coordination plan!"
The frobot's eyes changed to green checkmarks as the booster pack in its back fired up, assisting the frobot's mobility towards and out the door of Darcy's study. Shortly after requesting his presence, Andrias arrived at Darcy's study, panting and out of breath as if he ran a marathon to the study. An evil smile crept onto Darcy's face as she eyed the giant newt.
"Well, well, well." Darcy began as kept her eyes on the giant newt. "Look what the swamp dragged in."
"You called my lord?" Andrias inquired as he did his best to gather himself to look presentable.
"Why yes, but first, why are you sweating and out of breath?" Darcy inquired as she watched the Newt get to one knee to bow to Darcy while still trying to catch his breath.
"I was doing my very best to keep your betrothed in her quarters my lord." Andrias answered as he met with Darcy's sinister vision. "She insisted on escaping and I did all I could to keep her where you wanted her to be."
Inhaling a deep breath so to keep from losing her cool on the newt, Darcy closed her eyes and pinched the edge of her nose in frustration.
"How could you possibly lose a 13-year-old who is no taller than I am?!" Darcy inquired through gritted teeth as she opened her eyes and looked down at Andrias. "How?"
"My lord, she has a lot more energy than she appeared to have." Andrias confidently answered as he rubbed his left elbow with his right hand, trying to calm the area where Anne attacked him, giving the giant newt the blow of his lifetime. "And when she is upset, she is uncontrollable. Tiny, but angry and certainly uncontrollable."
"Speaking of uncontrollable, would you mind answering for that sorry excuse of a wedding plan I just wasted two minutes of my life reading?" Darcy inquired as Andrias got to his feet while not breaking eye contact with Darcy.
"That, my lord, was a plan I wrote based on a chapter in the book of the new Cynthia Coven novel." Andrias giggled as he recalled the intricate details of the chapter that he reads night after night. "That plan made her so happy when she walked down the aisle to her beloved. I figured you would like to have that for your bride to be."
Darcy then clenched her teeth and grinded them together as her anger began bubbling to the surface.
"That trash you call reading will never find it's way into MY wedding plans!" Darcy barked as she hastily picked up the torn plans from the floor, gripped them in her fists, and angrily shook them in Andrias's vision. "Wake up you pathetic excuse for a king and get with the program! I want an unforgettable ceremony! Not some slop you call leisurely reading!"
Darcy's eyes then glowed a bright orange as Andrias's father came forward.
"You've been nothing but a disappointment to all of us Andrias." Andrias's father's voice spoke from Darcy's lips, which made Andrias flinch at the sound of his father's baritone voice. "But if you want to redeem yourself, you will listen very closely to what I'm about to say and you cannot afford any missteps."
Andrias swallowed the lump in his throat as he listened intently to his father's next words.
Castle Hallway
Having gotten away from the chambers Darcy requested Anne be placed in, the thai teen ran down a dimly lit hall with hopes of finding her way out of the castle. From Anne's POV, the further down the hall she traveled, the longer and darker the hall became. Despair and defeat was beginning to creep into the teen's mind, but her determination to escape the castle before Darcy could enact any of her promised plans kept Anne moving. She wanted no part of Darcy and escaping was certainly going to make that statement!
"I didn't think this castle would be this big!" Anne whispered in a huff of frustration as she leaned into the crook of the hall she was in as a frobot flew by, having been given the instructions by Darcy to find Anne at any cost. "I have to get out of here and find everyone!"
Looking both ways to ensure the path was clear to continue, Anne took three steps forward and leaned her back against a door to try to formulate a quick plan of escape. Placing her left hand on the lower corner of the door, that area of the door lit up in gold with the barrier opening behind the teen with a soft whir, causing Anne to stumble backwards into the room. Falling onto her back rather roughly, the door slid shut and encased the teen in the room that was completely pitch black. Sitting up into the seated position, Anne blinked to adjust her vision in the dark room as she looked around.
"Man, what is with this place and darkness?" Anne spat in frustration as she got to her feet and dusted herself off. "And to be a variation of Marcy, I'm surprised Marcy isn't trying to take over and put a light in every room."
Continuing to look around the room, a chill quickly ran up Anne's spine as the room slowly lit up in a muted orange nearly paralyzing the teen with fear. Whispers mixed with evil chuckles quickly filled the room, further spiking the rising fear in the thai teen as she looked cautiously around the dimly lit room. The whispering voices around Anne became clearer in their dialogue, one sentence came in clear that caused the teen's ears to prick up.
"We've been waiting for you Anne Boonchuy!"
Feeling the fear taking over to the point of shaking, Anne did her level best to push the fear back and not let the scent become evident to what was surrounding her.
"M..me?" Anne questioned as she spoke back to the voice in a shaky tone. "W..why me?"
"You are our salvation Anne!" That particular voice eerily paralleled Aldrich Leviathan's deep baritone voice. "Save us from her!"
Beads of sweat formed on the teen's face, the fear she tried so hard to stifle quickly bubbled to the surface.
"Save you?" Anne continued fumbling over her words. "Save you from what? Darcy is harmless!"
Anne nervously laughed, trying to quickly dismiss what she stated regarding the terror that was plaguing the newtopian castle at current. Darcy? harmless? Was she actually convinced of that herself?
Another voice chimed in that caught Anne's attention as the girl whipped her to behind her.
"We want you to lead us!" The voice spoke. "You are the one we've been waiting for! You are the chosen one!"
"You know I've been hearing that a lot lately." Anne stammered to the voice. "It would be nice if I could just take a break from saving the world just once."
The floor to the room began shaking uncontrollably as the right wall of the room lit up with ten large, muted orange eyes appearing. The eyes focused on Anne as the teen quickly took three steps back from the wall. The inaudible voices spoke quicker and louder to each other around Anne as she looked to the eyes on the wall. Cyan blue met with muted orange as an image appeared in the pupil of the biggest eye on the wall that caused Anne's pupils to shrink to tiny cyan dots at who the image portrayed. Anne's cyan powers appeared and swirled around her feet as she looked closer into the biggest eye on the wall. The image was of Anne wearing a black outfit with matching low-heeled boots. Black leggings that ran up the side of her upper outer thighs while covering the entire leg starting above her knees down; black lower leg plates similar to Darcy's that connected to her boots; black arm sleeves that covered her arms down to the back of both of her hands; a halter top that covered her upper body; a black cutout that covered her belly that flowed into the cape of the outfit that hugged her hips, and a black choker around her neck. Finally, on her head was a crown like Darcy's helmet with a single muted orange eye in the middle with two protruding horns on both sides of the crown. The teen's hair was tied into a high ponytail as her eyes shined the color of Darcy's, a mischievous smirk on her face as the image looked down to Anne.
Anne felt her heart began to race as she took in the image that was her submitted to the core, the darkness in her heart explored, and the outcome being who she was seeing before her. The thai teen began to feel lightheaded as the image gazed upon her and she gazed back in horror, her powers quickly de-escalating.
"This is your destiny Anne Savisa Boonchuy!" The image of Anne spoke to the teen, further frightening her as Anne shook her head furiously. "Embrace the darkness within you like Darcy has! Who says there must only be one queen of Newtopia?"
"NO!" Anne shouted back to the dark image of herself. "I AM NOTHING LIKE DARCY AND I WILL BE NOTHING LIKE YOU!"
The image broke into hysterical laughter as dark Anne placed her hands on her hips and threw her head back as she continued to laugh manically. Her laughter slowed down as dark Anne looked to the original once more, her muted orange eyes shining brighter as their gazes locked.
"There is no escape!" Dark Anne spoke cynically to Anne. "Once you embrace who you are, you will never turn back and those childhood friends of yours will never look at you the same! Who will need them anyway when you will have unlimited power at your fingertips!"
The light-headed feeling continued as Anne fell to her knees, feeling as if the wind was knocked out of her. The teen began trying to catch her breath as with each breath she took, two to three more escaped her lungs just as quickly. The eyes on the wall blinked simultaneously with the image of dark Anne appearing in the pupil of all ten of the eyes as they spoke to her simultaneously.
"Your destiny."
"No escape!"
"The darkness in your heart is hungry! Embrace the darkness Anne!"
"Join us!"
"This is your home!"
Hearing those images speak to her, Anne felt her fear consuming her entirely. No matter how hard she wanted to fight back, she knew she would lose to herself in a matter of seconds. Closing her eyes, tears began to escape as Anne felt her body shaking from overwhelming fear and anger at seeing what Darcy wanted her to become. Heartless, power hungry, cold, lonely, controlling, and deceiving just like every being that was cumulative of the core!
"No, I won't become like you!" Anne choked through gritted teeth as she clenched her hands into fists, tears continuing to pour out of her eyes and onto her hands and wrists. "I won't become like her!"
"Once you embrace your destiny, you will embrace your future!" The image of dark Anne in the largest eye on the wall spoke as her grin grew wider. "See you on the other side!"
Dark Anne crossed her arms across her chest as she began laughing manically. The beast within the wall closed its eyes as the door to the room suddenly whirred open. The dim light from the hall poured into the dark room along with Darcy, who placed her helmet back on. Staring at the trembling teen in the middle of the floor, Darcy's smirk grew wider as she approached Anne from the right. Having heard the menacing maniac's footsteps approaching, Anne did not bother to look up to see the look Darcy had on her face, the look she always had when she was able to break someone's spirits.
"G…go away." Anne stammered as she slightly glanced to her right to see Darcy's left boot not too far from her right wrist.
"My dear, I have been searching all over for you." Darcy sang in a faux concerned tone. "The last place I expected you to be was here. The quarters I placed you in are way nicer than in here. Any reason why you did not want to be in there instead?"
Anne turned her vision back to the ground, not bothering to exchange words with Darcy. Darcy stood in silence as Anne's body trembled once more as hot tears streamed down her cheeks, the image of herself in core form played back in her mind.
"Is…is that what you really want?" Anne finally spoke as Darcy's ears perked up. "Is what I saw what you really want from me?"
"I have no idea what you speak of dear." Darcy calmly replied, doing her best to hide the cynical smile that was trying its best to creep onto the hivemind's face at Anne's discovery. "I only want a life with you and if that is what you mean, then yes."
Anne's residual fear quickly turned to anger as she shot to her feet. Anne's cyan powers were summoned as her eyes and hair changed to the color of her gem. Branches and leaves protruded from her cyan hair, indicating that her powers were at peak levels. Clenching her fists tighter, cyan flames surrounded Anne's fists as she locked glances with Darcy. Seeing the sickening smirk on the face of what used to be one of her best friends, now possessed by depraved souls, further pushed the teen's anger over the edge! It's one thing to hold her hostage, but to lie to her face was something she was not going to stand for!
"Temper, temper my love." Darcy happily sang as Anne shot death daggers in her direction. "We did discuss this."
"You planted that image for me to find, didn't you?" Anne demanded as she approached Darcy. "DIDN'T YOU?!"
"Anne, please calm down." Darcy continued to speak to the enraged teen. "Such behavior is not becoming of a future queen."
With no words spoken and tired of hearing Darcy's voice, Anne raised her right fist and swung it in Darcy's direction. Before her fist could hit Darcy, the supercomputer caught the teen's fist without flinching and tightly closed her hand around it. Feeling the core tightly holding her fist in her left hand, Anne tried to pull her fist away, but couldn't.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk Anne." Darcy nonchalantly spoke as she tightened her grip on Anne's fist. Muted orange and red flames then encased Darcy's hand and Anne's fist, the thai teen feeling the immediate sting of the flames on her compressed skin. Anne felt her knuckles beginning to scrape together under Darcy's death grip, further exacerbated by the intense heat of Darcy's defenses. "Do you think that was such a smart move?"
The sound of bones cracking was heard as Anne was brought to her knees, her powers de-escalating by the second as Darcy continued to tighten her grip on Anne's fist.
"We should be able to speak to one another without demonstrating violence, don't ya think?" Darcy continued as she further tightened her grip on Anne's hand, the knuckles in the thai teen's hand continuing to crack under the pressure. "If we're going to live in this glorious castle together forever, we need to be able to communicate am I right?"
Anne was completely back to normal as her powers fizzled out. Due to the supercomputer's strength and defenses, Anne was quickly weakened and could not defend herself. Being at the hivemind's mercy was the last thing she wanted or needed!
Releasing the teen's fist, Darcy sternly looked down at Anne who began nursing her right hand in her left. Seeing her victim broken and helpless before her was always a delightful view for Darcy.
"Alright, we've wasted enough time." Darcy calmly, but sternly spoke. "We have a glorious performance to put on for all of Newtopia and lucky for you, you are the shining star that will be center stage."
Looking up to Darcy, Anne's teary eyes caught with the vision of ten muted orange eyes as Darcy extended her right hand for Anne to take. Looking to the computer's hand, Anne looked between it and Darcy with caution.
"I promise I won't bite this time." Darcy smirked as she continued holding out her right hand for Anne to take.
Feeling defeated at the hands of her captor, Anne slowly extended her left hand and placed it into Darcy's right as the hivemind helped Anne to her feet. Pulling the teen against her, Darcy's eyes immediately fell to Anne's lips, but just as quickly caught back with her vision.
"You're shaking badly Savisa." Darcy stated in a loud whisper as she loosened her grip on Anne just a hair. "Come, lets get you into something more comfortable so you'll be ready to perform."
No words were spoken between the pair as Darcy escorted Anne out of the dark room and back into the hallway. A frobot passed the pair in the background as it carefully carried a burgundy pillow with one big and two small control collars sitting atop it….
A/N: My apologies for the wait on this chapter. Life has been very interesting to say the least this past month, but hopefully the wait was worth it and see you all next chapter!