Chapter 35: Revelations and Reckonings
Chapter 35: Revelations and Reckonings
Slowly walking over to Alice, a faint limp, he reached down with his hand to help her up. "Well, that was something, but couldn't you have brought your medieval friend sooner? Or was he busy with a Renaissance fair?" She says with a small laugh and a slight wince, the blow from the fight seemingly hurting more than they thought. "Well, let's not keep him waiting, off we go to Wonderland through the mysterious door that seems to belong to the boss of the asshole that kicked our ass and so probably much stronger! What could possibly do wrong?" She says with a cheeky grin, knowing full well that exact line often jinxes things and getting a smirk from John.
"Hopefully, it will be more in our own weight class this time, well your weight class. If it was from mine, we would probably be crushed under the weight before we can even fight," he says with a laugh getting a small laugh from Alice with some concern as the darkness from earlier and this new side are ones she wasn't used to, not to mention how he didn't seem to be suffering right now from the soul injury causing a large amount of confusion but choosing to follow for now well vowing to herself that she would get strong enough to destroy the red being and anyone else in the future.
Slowly going through the door chains connected to Dave and Greeny dragging them behind but right before they were dragged through the door it seemed to snap shut, slicing through the chain like a hot knife through liquid butter or though soft tofu, the chains wrapping them, now no longer connected to John turned to partials of light drifting and floating away freeing them. Not wasting this opportunity, the both of them quickly fled, one with plans to build their empire once more with the desire to change the future and rule it, the other with thoughts of finding a safe place to hide to build her force up well planning revenge against the humans John and Alice for treating a higher species like they had.
Right after passing through the door, it seemed to vanish behind them, a long hall trailing behind them now with the Jester in front of them, seemingly having waited, the red being still being held by a leg but no longer struggling, seemingly resigned to his fate. "Come along now, my office is just up ahead, we will be sorting this out along with figuring out what to do with the two of you, surprised you're still alive though if I am to be honest, or rather your host," the Jester says as he leads them forward, giving a slight look back over his shoulder as he said the last part getting a eep noise from Alice as she once more pulled her knife from somewhere but now pointing it at John.
"I knew it! You've been acting really different since this morning, first how dark and edgy and cool you seemed and then that joke a bit ago, who are you! Bring back John or so help me I will end you to bring him back!" She proceeded to yell at him, her knife now pointed at his throat.
"Now now children, you can have your spat later, don't go wasting my time now, or else," the Jester says as he kept walking, his voice taking a far darker tone at the end. "Let's not anger the guy who is easily handling the other guy who kicked our asses, also me and the others have been with John for years, unlike you who has only been around for a few days little girl, not gonna lie though you are quiet cute and easy on the eyes, he could definitely do far worse for sure," John says, or rather the person currently acting as him with a wide smile as he pushes the knife away from his throat lightly.
"My name is Braedon, someone who's been up top with Johnny boy for a long time, one of the oldest ones, not the oldest but definitely not the newest, pleasure to meet ya, now let's keep up with the scary guy who could cut us down really easily if annoyed," Braedon says to her with a small wave, a taunting and teasing smirk on his lips as he followed the Jester, Alice following after them well trying to process what she was just told.
"Wait, what do you even mean? I don't think I understand at all. Are you some kind of different split personality or something like that?" Alice asks trying to make sense of who or what Braedon is. Thinking for a moment he calmly and carefully tried to answer her.
"I suppose it could be something like that, I will try to explain all of us once we're back but if you're worried about John don't be, I'm just as much a part of him as the others he has in his head, I am just the most stable and calm one, so I came out. The changes actually made it easier for us to force ourselves out, normally there were requirements and consent needed, but I'm getting off track, John is resting while his soul recovers but to prevent anything from happening to him well we forced him to his subconscious I'm out and in control. Can't say it's comfortable though but beggars can't be choosers," Braedon says to her as they walk into what seemed like a regular business office, a bookshelf to one side, a desk with a computer with a chair behind it and two in front of it, everything about the room screamed mundane except for the rack against the wall that the red being was strapped to and pulled tightly by its shackles with the Jester standing in front of him.
"I'm rather disappointed, I knew you lot tend to do your own thing from time to time, I overlooked it because it never impacted us here who control the events and if it ever did cross too many lines or would have a negative impact on us you lot where often smart enough to ensure it could never be linked and only be speculation and never proof or evidence," the Jester says to the red being, his tone cold as ice and visibly restraining himself before turning to face Braedon and Alice, his eyes carrying a pressure to them when it lands on the pair carrying with it a palpable pressure that weighed down on the pair even without it being directed at them.
"Hmm? You two, go sit down I'll be with you in a moment, I first need to finish with this failure," He tells them turning his focus back to the red being, his anger and rage visibly coming off him in waves at this point like an aura slowly pulsing out of him.
"So why is it instead of handling things the usual way and in secret you instead pulled this shit and openingly showed such a bad side! Do you have any idea how bad of a image you set for my department! Worked hard to get to this point and to be in charge of this area! And then you just had to not only break the rules but openly show such a bad image that reflects on me and puts my position in jeopardy! I now need to put out the fires that will come from your actions along with defending myself from the others, so tell me what you have got to say for yourself!" The Jester yells at the red figure, pulling a lever making the rack pull tighter, the red being clearly beginning to feel pain as a popping sound is heard before the Jester pulled the lever again stopping the pulling. Alice watched as this happened, feeling satisfaction and glad the red being was suffering painfully but also rather upset that it wasn't her inflicting the pain on him and wishing far worse would happen than a simple rack pulling. Braedon though seemed entirely indifferent to it all, just watching on calmly with a blank look seemingly in his thoughts not caring much about what was currently happening.
"Them! It's their fault! They should have just died at the start! Then none of this would have happened and my precious Giga Tanteract would still be around, and things would have flowed normally! They broke the regular way of things!" The red being screamed frantically, his eyes burning with fury as he glared at the pair past the Jester, wishing his stare could kill them.
"And yet you where the one to break the rules and you are the one with a big mouth who has made it so my section will be in deep shit after finally having things go smoothly not them!" The Jester roared back; Alice seemed to want to say something if the smirk on her face was any indication, but Braedon put his finger over her lips getting a annoyed look only to shake his head at her.
"Rather be quiet and listen, sometimes the smallest most seemingly pointless words can give you all the information you need, and this gives us a bit of insight to the backstage of our own changed world," Braedon tells her, moving his finger off her lips and patting her head seeing she will be quiet now.
"But they-" The red being started once more only to be cut off. "Nothing wrong! The Giga Tanteract was left as a regular creature to grow and procreate, it wouldn't be the first time a creature met its end right after being introduced to an event world early! Its why the raid beasts are kept secured and grown before being allowed loose for events! You had no right to interfere at all you damn idiot! You imps are meant to keep things flowing and interesting, as I said I don't care if you lot take chances and push your luck as long as you don't get caught and cover things up properly!" The Jester growls out, his tone now going colder, the baron tone now growing more monstrous and gravely as his entire form seemed to bulk up and grow larger almost ripping his suit, the porcelain mask cracking slightly as a pair of large, jagged and broken horns forced their ways out above his eye holes where only a deep orange color remained visible well the area where a mouth would be seemed to crack and poke forward forming into large vicious looking teeth. His clawed fingers now like razor blades on log-like arms slowly stabbed into the red being's chest before slowly dragging them down causing the red being to scream in immense pain, once they reach his stomach the Jester seemed to press in deeper and pull out a rough-looking stone-like object with various markings on it. The red being seemed to scream even worse before going silent, some blood trickling from his lips showing he had destroyed his vocal cords and damaged his throat before he began to smoke, his skin pulling tight and ripping as his form seemed to change, his arms and legs ending up being ripped off his body as his form shrank leaving nothing but a mess falling to the floor, the Jester leaning down over the broken form of the red being. "I will make sure to continue your punishment later." He growled out before seemingly taking some deep breaths shrinking back to his regular form taking his seat in front of Alice and Braedon.