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CHAPTER 5: MADNESS ANS DARKNESS

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Joker, both of him, had been walking around the parts of town where he might get information but now he was practically at the other edge of town and nothing. It had already been a while and it was obvious that things were strangely empty and slow no matter where he looked. There were few people on the normally busy streets and many small businesses were closed. Something was up and he just had a hunch about it. Still, this was not the time to check on that, his top priority was to find that greedy moron of a foreigner.

He had "asked" about and around, but so far there were no clues as to where Aria was. After she had gotten away from the castle no one had seen her or had been willing to say anything, not even to Joker, and if there was some information that not even Joker could find, then that something didn't exist or was very amiss.

"What are we going to do once we find that little stupid runt?"- Black growled. His little patience had run out already, however it was obvious that he eagerly wanted to find her. If she truly had been so stupid as to seal her heart, then there was no way of knowing how many days she had left. Despite himself, Joker was just maybe a bit worried.

White stopped his pace. -"I actually haven't thought of that, but we can drag her back to my territory and…"

"And wait for her to order us to get the fuck away? " – Black interrupted and stopped by his counterpart's side. It wouldn't be as easy, not when she commanded the power to order his role around. That made her a big threat and her inner paranoia she knew it and what it meant.

"Mmhh.. true. Why don't we tempt her with an easy job and a huge payment? Her shallow greedy nature will do the rest and have her come back to us." –White considered that such bait would be enough. The mercenary could be extremely greedy and she was normally willing to negotiate.

"Pff! Don't you remember how angry she was? Last time she was so angry, no clock could be repaired and the Jabberwocky got released." – The warden was obviously not convinced a mere bait would work, at least not anymore. What if her anger was far bigger than her greed? That seemed to be the current case. What could he do then? He really didn't want her to be angry with him. He didn't want the idiot to go away from his grasp.

"I didn't think you could be so susceptible to a girl's mood, Joker."- White dismissed his counterpart's worry. It bothered him. No person should be allowed to cause Joker such rush. – " We can simply attack her, gag her so she can't speak ,and set her nicely immobilized in one of our cells until we fix this mess and fix her."

"Sounds like a good plan." – That was something that he could do, and probably the only way he would be able to try and set things right without her causing hell.

Both Jokers agreed on that. They had been ready to go to the next area of town when, coming out of a small side street, a panicked man came running away from something. The weird thing was that when he saw at both sides of the streets and pinpointed both Joker's, instead of running the other way he went straight to both of him.

The man dared to grab White by the clothes -"Joker! I broke the rules, please take me to the prison!"

Black blinked and then hit him aside to the ground while White raised an eyebrow at this. Both Jokers looked at each other. Someone asking to be taken to the prison was new.

"HE CAME THIS WAY!"

The shout had come from the same street that the man, and not a second later, a few thugs , all wearing light armored clothes, came into view. They were obviously chasing the guy, but unlike him, they did stop when they saw Joker, and Joker saw that at their belts, bloody clocks hanged in plain view.

The man in the floor tried standing up but Black kicked him besides the knees to make him fall again. The man grabbed the warden by the shoe-"Please Joker, take me to the prison or kill me now. It's better than what she'll do!"

The response the man got was a kick from Joker. Black would have say something else, but a digitally distorted voice rumbled in the air. A voice that Joker immediately knew who it belonged to.

"Why did you stop? Get him!"

Aria appear on the street and walked in front of the thugs. She was wearing her full combat attire. Her face was covered by some sort of thick goggles and her mouth was hidden by a sort of gas mask, all below the hoodie of the leather coat she wore over a tactic vest and pants that surely hid well her armored suit below. When she saw Joker, without a single regard or hello, she pointed her finger towards the desperate man at Joker's feet.

"That one there is my prey "- She claimed.

"Then get him"- Black kicked the man in the floor once again, and the man tried to get up and run away in some other direction, one of the men besides Aria stood at the side, aimed, and shot the escaping man in the legs to make him fall.

"Step aside Joker" –Her voice half growled, half chirmed. However, it wasn't meant as an order. It had been said as a warning.

Ignoring this, White addressed Aria-"My dear, please don't tell me that you really were stupid enough to seal your heart away?" – White was expectant. Bloody mercenary or not, Aria was still a foreigner and valued life, even if it was only to save ammunition and keep herself hidden, or because she liked clean and fast jobs. She always went straight for the kill. Getting this man shot in the legs was not her style.

"What if I did?" –She motioned to the men behind her while raising her hand to make some signals – "I was emotionless already, so it doesn't make a difference now."- She took a step forward while the men behind her hesitantly began dispersing.

The man in the floor was clearly terrified of her, so much that he crawled towards the warden to pull on his leg -"Please Joker, kill me! Don't let her get my clock! She already got everyone else here!"

White saw the man's despair and turned to his (probably 'ex') friend- "This one's desperate. I wonder what he did to anger you... or what you intend to do with him to have a man to plead be taken by me?" – He really was starting to wonder what kind of horror could cause someone to run to Joker's feet and plead to get killed.

"Far less than what you intended to do to me or what the other holders have done"- Her digital voice held no inflexion and the distortion made it sound hollowed. –"But that is irrelevant. I'm going to use him for a little experiment and he'll be of more use than merely a time consuming instance for Julius." – He could not see her face behind her equipment, but he could image that her eyes had taken upon that circular reddish digital glow around her pupils that sometimes appeared when she was locking on a target.-"Stand back, Joker."

That had been an order.

Joker, both of him, took a few steps back from the wailing man to let her get close to her prey. She chuckled in a perfectly evil way that sounded hollow and cruel, before she began singing a small tune in unknown words that somehow captivated his ears with their dissonance but that felt like a chill over his clock. It was as beautiful as it was ghastly.

That was when the incomprehensible horror began.

The shadow below the foreigner mercenary, in a formless mobile mass of flat swirls that moved apparently on it's own, extended from her along the floor in the direction of the wailing faceless and sank into the floor like waves on water on the man's shadow before jumping up and penetrating into his skin causing him to let out a scream of agony as the shadow threads moved clearly below the flesh like thick guitar cords that were being pulled between the skin and muscles cutting them like band saws. Then, in the next couple of seconds, the darkness tendrils inside the man inflated the skin, and with a bloping sound that got mixed with the screams, hundreds of spikes made out of solidified darkness punctured through the skin before angling and moving in fast dancing waves cutting the flesh and ripping the body from inside while splats of blood and flesh were expelled around and slashed over Joker's clothes and face.

To Joker's horror and amazement, the fleshly remains of the man immediately dissolved into an after image that retained far more mass and form than they usually did. It still resembled the man it had been. But that wasn't all. What came next was even more horrible. The extended shadow retreated for a second as if to prepare a strike to the after image, but the after image was sucked into the clock that had been it's heart before the darkness hit where it had been, letting the darkness sink into the floor once again and become a shadow on the floor.

Aria took even more steps forward and kicked the clock towards Joker with utter disdain to let him see that the mechanical imitation of a heart was still tickling.

Joker's eyes widened in disbelief as he truly took a step back in shock. The last time he had seen shadows move like that was by the Jabberwock's command. The killing method had been horribly impressive, but to deny the possibility of life to an after image and a clock ... For an after image to be trapped into its clock like that... This was terrible even for him. In all his existence he had never seen something like this.

"What are you planning, Aria?"- . The Jabberwocky had almost given Joker a fate worse than dead. She had saved him, but she was dealing fates even more horrible. He wondered if the clocks that were in possession of her men were tickling… A chill went past his spine. This... this was just the worst thing possible. To trap an after image in that way... This was beyond horrible.

She chuckled again and removed the mask from her face to show her expression changing to one of dementia and derangement. The clear face of 'madness'. -"So beautiful. So terrible. So powerful..."- She sing sang.

"Aria… You stupid foreigner!"- The other Joker yelled at her while his fists trembled from the force he was putting in them. The madness had gotten to her, just like in Diamond, but in a more dangerous way. The warden side of Joker gritted his teeth. She had been lost once again. With her heart off, so was her mind. She never did things that didn't power a bigger goal, and this was surely no exception. Seeing this and thinking how she had hugged him out of happiness that he was alive not so long ago made him realize how bad it had turned out to her. Even if she was his friend he could not overlook this. But what was she planning? He growled. It didn't matter. Even if she was a foreigner and not subjected to the rules, even if he had actually come to regard her as not a simple toy for him, but as a sort of real 'friend', he could not allow this. This messed the game and the balance. He would have to do something, such was his duty.

"Evil Overlord List, rule # 7: "When my adversary asks about my evil plan, I'll say, 'No.' and shoot him. "- She raised a handgun in his direction while her other hand went behind her back -"No, no. On second thought I'll shoot him first, and then say "No." – She agitated her weapon but didn't shoot him.

"Evil overlord? What do you think you are? Some stupid Lord of Chaos and Darkness? HA!" - White laughed with equal derangement.-" You're just a stupid crazy foreigner, my friend."- The jester was as affected as his counterpart to resort to direct petty insults.

Her body tensed and her whole demeanor hardened. -"Stupid? No. Crazy? Yes. Friend? No more. You fucked that up"- She put away the gun and her hands reached below her hoodie for the happy and scowling masks that were her earrings, and that looked like smaller version of the masks on his belts and that were actually the connector of a past joker and a relic with the power of excluding Joker from his duties regarding the wearer as long as there was an agreement, allowing Joker to freely act as he wanted towards the person who had the relic.

"Let's make this point a funny warning, si?"- The derangement and total lack of compassion was clear in her face and her accent showing up. - "Just a little order. Joker known as White. You will take care of the duties regarding the prison. And Joker known as Black. You will take care of the duties corresponding to the circus."- She didn't give him time to react and threw three items at him with sneering scorn. Two of those items where her earrings, the symbol if their weird friendship. -" Unless you still want me to kill you, don't get involved, Joker."

One Joker scowled and the other smiled feraly at her. But both of him caught one earring each in the air while the third thing she had thrown towards him exploded, it was a flash grenade that temporarily left him blind and deaf but screaming profanities. When he regained his senses, she and the ticking clock had already disappeared, clearly leaving no trace behind.

The warden cussed madly every profanity he knew while the jester breathed hard. Joker lifted his hand and saw the earrings. His eyes narrowed as he closed his firsts over the little masks. He knew well what this meant. It meant war. She had thrown their so called friendship away and had defied him openly. She had dared threaten him and it was obvious that she was doing stuff that that threatened the game, the rules and the entire balance of Wonderland. Were she an inhabitant of this world, this would warrant her the heaviest of penalties. He knew what he had to do, but for some reason he wasn't excited about this, and he couldn't but to cradle the horrible suspicion that this was, at least partly, his own damn fault. But one way or another, this had to be fixed.

With the earrings tightly clutched in his hands, he returned to his territory and both of them headed for the prison, where they went straight to the warden's room to lay on the bed and think on what they would do. No conversation was issued. No ideas came for either of them. Just a horribly tight weight on his clocks could be felt. For now neither Joker wanted to think about it, not at the moment. Joker didn't wanted to think that he had lost the only friend he had ever had, that he had pushed her to beyond the edge of madness and that he had unleashed a horror almost as terrible as a fruming beast into this side of the mirror. He didn't want to think about the few times that he had leaned on her, the times she had crashed at this place, helped him out at either of his territories, supported him and asserted their friendship to the other holders with pride, her occasional cooking, or their few laid down times that made him feel as if he had already captured the foreigner. He didn't want to think on how if she wasn't stopped soon, things would not end well for anyone before her time and the affright events of her world caught up to her, nor did he want to acknowledge yet that this was a dire race against time.

They couldn't sleep, not after what happened. So they left the earrings over the bed and went to check on their new assigned duties.

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I'll be honest. This chapter got me excited. If Aria didn't have empathy or sympathy before now she has no restrains, but she seems to have a goal and that is probably very dangerous when it comes to someone like her. And Joker may just have realized that making her get loose and go postal, maybe wasn't a good idea.

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