-previously-

"...You're right, Epel. I've done reckless shit before, and I'll do it again if I have to!....I'm going after the guys....and I won't let my superiors or Sol and Luna stop me!...."

......

"What's the point....in having magic...If I can't protect the ones I love....?"

.....

"It is not your fault they're gone, it all happened too fast for you to accept it."

......

"When a wizard overblots, the overflowing power that couldn't be sealed within their body merges into an incarnation, a sentient monster. I mean, you have to have seen it sometime, no? The monster that was bonded to each of you?"

........

"You don't understand what it means seeing people you've grown close to being taken away from you right in front of your eyes and you're too powerless to save them! It's your fault I couldn't get to Jamil or the others in time! If you didn't hold me back I would've stopped the STYX guards from taking them!"

.......

"So then, that is why you're afraid of being alone after witnessing your parents die?! You just want to save them as a means for coping?! You're hopeless! You don't even realize what's at stake here! You're life is on the line! And if you die here and now, your mother would never forgive herself since she's alive and trapped away in limbo and you're the key to freeing her!"

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"Looks like your game's over. Wonderboy is hitting every curve you throw at him." Meg smirked as she passed by her boss who was watching from the veranda in the mountains down on Hercules in the arena. Hades eyes widened as he suddenly had an

idea.

"Oh, yeah." He chuckled as he slid up beside his underling. "I wonder if maybe I haven't been throwing...the right curves at him, Meg, my sweet."

"Don't even go there." Meg sneered as she pushed herself away from him, knowing what he was planning, but Hades continued,

"See, he's gotta have a weakness because everybody's got a weakness! I mean, for what? Pandora, it was the box thing. For the Trojans, hey: They bet on the wrong horse, okay? We simply need to find out Wonderboy's."

'I've done my part. Get your little imps-"

"They couldn't handle him as a baby. I need somebody who can handle him as a man." Hades emphasized.

"Hey, I've sworn off manhandling." Meg warns subtly.

"Well, you know, that's good because that's what got you into this jam in the first place, isn't it? You sold your soul to me to save your boyfriend's life. And how does this creep thank you? By running off with some babe... He hurt you real bad, didn't he, Meg? Huh?"

It didn't take long for the sassy girl to crumple under the harsh reminder. "Look, I learned my lesson, okay?" She looked away, trying not to cry.

"Which is exactly why I got a feelin' you're gonna leap at my new offer: You give me the key to bringing down Wonder Breath..." Hades dropped the vase with Hercules' visage on the front and whispered into her ear. "-and l give you the thing that you crave most in the entire cosmos!: your freedom." Meg's eyes widened as her grip on the vase catered and it broke with a shattering crack.

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I felt like hell, swallowed in the darkness of my own mind. The cold ground making my arms, my body, hurt with how I laid on one side. Lifting my head, I pushed my torso up and sat with my knees to the floor. I looked up, only seeing glassy mirrors surrounding me. Barely any light strewn in from places around me. It....was confusing....

'What happened when I got knocked out....?' I thought, my head throbbed in pain. I rubbed my temples to massage the pain away, but the sound of footsteps caught my attention. I looked to see three sets of feet walking by me: two pairs of dress shoes and one pair of red sneakers. My eyes looked up....

"Ace....Deuce!" I got to my feet in a millisecond, calling out, but.....they kept walking like I wasn't there. "O-Oberon!" I reached a hand out to them. Then the weirdest thing happened....

Each of them began to flip in and out of my vision. One second they were there, and the next they weren't. "Wh-What the hell?! What's going on...?!"

'You don't get it, do you?' I heard....myself speak.....but it didn't sound like me! I looked around wildly until I saw.....me looking at me. My reflection. But it's like she has a mind of her own.... she smiled back at me with mirth. 'You left those two to die and abandoned Malleus.'

"What?! No! No, why would I do something as horrible as that?!" I argued to my reflection.

'Because you care about no one but yourself. You're becoming just like them: arrogant, conceited and selfish, putting your magic over everyone's lives!'

"That's a filthy lie!" I was getting angry.

'And who's supporting THAT statement, sweetie? Think about it: all those times you got caught up in the mayhem of those bastards you consider friends, we're you really doing it for your own sake or just like your true nature, you went by the rules? And by 'rules' I really mean, being a pawn under the headmaster's thumb?!'

"I-I didn't have a choice! I'm in the middle of nowhere and I had to do something to save myself!"

'And that is the motto of each student: putting oneself above all else. I don't see YOU being any different than they are~."

"I said I'm NOTHING LIKE THEM!!" I threw a fist towards Mirror me, but the reflection shattered on impact but the next thing I felt was fucking excruciating:

Razored cuts stabbing into my arm like actually shattered glass. I felt a scream leave me before I knew it and winced with pain. I clutched my arm, the pain numbing all feeling in my muscles as Mirror Me giggled everywhere and nowhere all at once around me. Further away she appeared, but this time, she wore my everyday look when my school uniform wasn't involved

'Why are you trying to deny it?' She sneered as she walked to me slowly, taking her time to torture me. 'Seriously, every time you got involved in deep shit, SOMEONE had to suffer! But not you. You said you were just an ordinary girl....YOU said you thought you had no magic, blah blah blah, but look where all those red herrings got you to!' From the shadows, all of the overblotted stood before me, the incarnates still as statues. "Every one of them fell at the hands of YOUR power. You think it's just the guys doing the job, but you're the trump card to defeating all of THEM! Liberato Magia: used twice!" Azul and Riddle were swallowed into the darkness. "And your high enchantments, the three gifts you found during your mission! It was always you! You and no one else!" Leona, Jamil and Vil were the last to disappear...She snapped her fingers and soon I was surrounded by more images of me dressed in different outfits: all the dorm clothes to now, school uniform, lab gear, PE gear. They all stood in a circle looking down at me with disgust and they all spoke as one. "And besides....aren't you even aware of the truth?"

"The truth?! What are you talking about?!" I demand, getting confused.

"Of two things: Number one: how magic became a primary part of this world? It's like back in your world: how the universe was created through the Big Bang. But what if it was actually real and was altered to make it so magic was a reality instead of a concept? How one prime object can create a web, a myriad, of various things! And Magic is that Prime object!" I saw the Big Bang explosion before me in the mirrors where would've been the lookalikes of me.

"....Wait...are you saying....my magic....is the origin of all magic...?" I hesitated to connect the dots.

"Bingo. Like all things in life, they start from humble beginnings and branch out like trees of a great number! You power is the prime origin of magic where all other kinds of magic have stemmed from it when the Bang happened in this world. Think of the inextinguishable Dragon's Flame and Sun Breathing: all different kinds of breathing styles and magics have formed from one lone source in the beginning. That's what I'm saying: this universe which was forged through that same light.....and it will be destroyed by it as well."

I felt my heart stop at that. "W-What??"

"Oh yeah. And this leads me to Number two: It's like scientists theorize: the universe was created through a surge of light and in the end it'll be destroyed by it as well." I heard Me speak. "Actually, lemme rephrase that: YOU are meant to destroy the world."

"...Me?!...no! Destroy this world?! Why would I do such a thing?!" I felt my head shaking back and forth.

"It's your fate!" I heard Mirror me Sneer. "It's quite obvious: a bright flash of light was what made the universe, yours, what it is. But that's only by normal world standards. In THIS world, it's flipped on its head. And the Big Bang is represented by a person. And the flash of light which created Magic is really yours. YOU are the holder of one of the first magics in Twisted Wonderland. And you are the one who'll destroy it in the end! It is fate you destroy a world that has complete darkness in it and you alone will rise from the aftermath....oh yeah, and before you ask: no. Everyone can't be saved. Including your so called 'boyfriends'."

"You can't just expect me to accept a fate I have next to little knowledge about!" I shout back in defiance. "And even if I wanted to destroy this world, which I won't, it would've been done first thing!"

"And why didn't you? It's because you didn't know what this school was like until those dreams of the 'Great' Seven began. You said it yourself: these boys are seeing the Seven as Martyrs! But YOU see behind the veil of lies! YOU know what they REALLY are! So why don't you tell them the truth? You can't, because they won't believe you! Their versions are different than what you know!..." Mirror Me declared as each began to merge one by one into a single figure. "I don't think you know what's real. I mean, look at yourself: you may seem like the average Mary Jane Girl-next-door. But you're the truth bringer. You're someone that people are to believe in! You control the truth! You know the truth! You ARE the truth! You can't hide it forever, because like they say 'the truth will come to light'!" Before I knew it, I was face to face with that same pixelated figure who tried torturing me before. I backed away out of fear as 'she' narrowed her one eye at me, walking closer to me.

"And maybe...if you were good enough....your parents would still be alive." I felt my heart lurch in my throat and tears burn my eyes as I saw the graves of my parents appear behind her, and she vanished leaving me to stare at the headstones with a sick stomach. "Deep inside, you know I'm right. You could've made a better choice! And all you had to do was initiate it. But now....you are stuck between what's right and wrong when it's so easy to make a decision. It's easy to fool these losers when they're already fooling themselves with the lies they're being fed each and every day! You can't save them when it's their destiny to fall. And you'll only continue to fail!"

"No! That's not true! The guys, Malleus-!" I tried to run only to feel myself getting pulled back to the ground by a gravitational force.

"You can't go through life trying to deny this is the real you! What happened to you all those years ago~? You used to be so content with life as it was: with mommy and daddy and broseph and sissy, now you're stuck in a world you're starting to try and connect the pieces to. Putting fear into all. Pushing aside those who stood in your way, now letting us take what we want?"

"That's not me....that's not who I am!" I grit my teeth into a snarl looking up at Her, pushing my torso up.

"Then tell me something I don't know: back then, shouldn't it have felt right?" She glowered at me.

"It was NEVER the right way."

"And how do you know? You think this Good girl act of your will last? There's no glory in being the hero: ask the others! You're incomplete without me, Charlotte. But the spark is still there....merge with me....and we can destroy these fools!" I saw her hold out a hand to me, which began to take more of a human shape. I looked up and saw she was starting to look more human than I thought! Instead of a pixelated mess, she had more defined features, a body shape like mine, and the fixtures of her face were starting to be in their proper position.

I had to do something. Stall for time till I woke up or could find a possible escape route. "Every time I fell into the dreamscape, I have had to fight people who were my adversary once. And I won't fight them again...looking at you, though...it only means one thing."

"And what's that?"

"It means I finally get to destroy a darkness within me." I lunged forward and tackled her to the floor, grappling with her for control until I felt her shove me off, but I slid to my feet and crouched, ready for another attack.

"You can't destroy me! I'm the strong one, and I've always been the strong one!"

"No...you're a dark reminder of the fear that stayed there! If you were that strong, you'd have left me, but you came back like a rash...so if we're taking strength, who's the weak one here!?" I taunt back.

"....then have you considered how the others see you? Why don't you look through their eyes then?" I saw her eye turn white for a minute and suddenly, I felt it. Saw it. Experienced it.

All the excruciating pain they felt. It was a true nightmare.

Darkness.

Bloodshed.

Anguished Hearts.

Cries of terror.

Screams of help.

It was torture.

"STOP!!!" I cried out, pulling at my hair with hysterics. I didn't realize I was curled into a ball, my forehead on the floor and tears had pooled beneath me.

"You take for granted all your gifts, talents and attributes. Everything you are now is because of me! Every single spark that made you the stronghold leader you are today....the strength that made even the strongest of wizards fall to their knees at your presence. Don't you see it?" The glitch was taunting as I looked up at her in the eye.

"See what?!" I sneered.

"I am you...and you are me." She morphed before my eyes into a lookalike of me to my utter horror. She had everything down: from the crinkle around my eyes to the curve of my lip when I smile. "Or you could say....your Inner saboteur~" Then suddenly, a crack formed in the glass, splitting her image into two. On one side was how she looked like as me. But on the other, her features had changed. Her eyes were dark blue like a night sky. Hair spun a shiny silver, bangs were parted to the opposite side of mine.

"What the hell?!" I leapt to my feet in anger-like surprise. "You're not me! You can't be part of me!"

"But I am, Sweetheart~! And I'm here to stay, whether you ask for it or not!" She sneers.

"If you so much as hurt the others, I will-!"

"Me? Hurt them?!" She gasped, looking absolutely surprised. "No, never! am not going to hurt them....." She smirked suddenly. "are."

The glass lunged at me. I screamed, shielding my face. But I felt like....like something phased through my body like...a ghost?! I felt my body hit the ground. I tried to stay upright on my hands and knees as a black pool swirled around me...the blackness them began to climb up my arms and deep into my skin like a second layer of clothing. I screamed, clawing to get it off, but it merely stretched like elastic putty. The blackness climbed further and further up my skin until I felt it on my neck.

I felt my joints lock up.

My heart was thrashing in my body.

It took over my sight.

And I was gone.

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Charlie panted as she caught her breath. But upon opening her eyes, they were dark blue now.

"Huh...Who would've thought it worked~?" The Saboteur and Charlie's voice overlapped one another. "Perfect! The first step has been finished and everything will go according to plan~!" Her eyes shift back to amber. "For now I'll rest easy and wait for the moment to strike and the rest of His plan to be carried out~!" Her head hung limp and the Saboteur was gone.....

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I jolted awake, back in the blackness of my own mind. What happened?! Did she...did she overtake me?!

"Charlie!.....wake up!.....please!"

Epel! I have to get up! Get to the light! I'm running to it....

Wait....the fight, and I got knocked out! But....was what Luna said true?!

My mom's actually alive?!

I should feel happy but....now I'm just confused.....HOW is she alive and WHY haven't I seen her?! What's really going on behind my back?!

Am I.....being deceived by my own family....?

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Epel hovered over prone form, fear in his eyes. "Please, Charlie! Don't do this to us!!" He was met with silence as tears began to prick his eyes. A small gulp of air and a few coughs later, Charlie's eyes cracked open.

"E....Epel....?" She croaked, eyes going to his teary ones.

"Oh thank goodness!" He hugged her, careful not to hurt her more than she was before. "I thought we lost you!"

"Why, what.....what happened....?" She asked, still feeling weak from whatever stunned her.

"You were promptly knocked out from the fight, but we saved you at the last moment." Rook came into her field of vision with a warm smile. "They did the same to us, but it must've been a mild dose compared to what they gave you non-lethally, that is."

Yea, she remembered: they tranquilized her, putting her out of commission for a few moments. But if that was the case, and the others got knocked out like her, where were they-

"Charlotte!" Luna shoved Rook aside and hugged her , sniffling quietly. "Don't do something like this again! We could've lost you!"

"Luna....you know it's gonna take more than a tranquillizing dart to finish me...." She chuckled dryly.

"If that's how you see it, then you're not gonna like what's next...." She heard Sol's voice speak up as Luna, placing an arm around her back, helped her sit up. Charlie's vision began to clear the more she got air into her brain. Their surroundings were different. Much different. No mile of ocean to be seen, but.....blue skies? Marbled floors?

"Unlike games, you don't get instant revives in real life...." She heard Idia speak. "So don't do anything stupid. I may be deputy, but that doesn't mean I can take control of the situation if I can."

"Wait....where....where are we....?" Charlie asked.