Jack remembered what his mother, aunt, and grandmother had all told him, that he was to succeed Morgan and help bring dark to the world to help keep it in balance. He'd been shocked when his family had told him he was adopted, and more shocked when they'd given him the memories of his past life. Learning he, or at least his former life had a daughter was shocking. It was ironic, Jack didn't feel any emotional endearment to his former life's family, but in spite of himself he still felt endearment towards his former self's child.
Too bad his former self's mistress hated his former self and thus hated him. He honestly wondered what his former self had been thinking though, being able to take in and care for his daughter would have resulted in the truth being exposed in one way or another anyway, so the black mail in of itself made absolutely no sense. Coward.
However, he still had a responsibility starting today. Bring dark to the world in the name of balance. To be honest, he wasn't looking that forward to it. He wasn't even sure if it was right to call his family 'evil', after all, they were doing only what was their nature.
Best get started...
Maaya did not fit the stereotype of the oriental beauty at all. If anything, she was incredibly plain in appearance. Short, dull eyes, dull hair, dull skin. And in spite of her glasses, her grades were in reality only a little above averages.
Her mousy appearance and lack of social grace had earned her the hated nickname 'Mausu' among her peers. In spite of this, there was more peace to be found after school than at home, and she found as many excuses as possible. But she had her ways of blowing off steam...
"You hate them don't you?"
Maaya startled. There had been no one else in the classroom a minute ago. "Huh? Who are you?"
"My name is Jack, and I want to be your friend. And I want to give you what you want."
"I've heard that line before, and I'm tired of being strung along." Maaya snorted.
"Well, I know that you take photos of every pretty girl in school who hurts you, then burn them, shred them... "
"Are you some kind of stalker?!"
"I assure you, I've never looked you up online, nor have I been stalking you, but I do have means of gathering information looking like minded people like me and my family. We're not cult before you say it. Tell me, who could possibly know that in fifth grade you pushed the school bully down the stairs, they lost two teeth, and no one ever found out it was you."
"That's... that's... uh, I have no idea what you're talking about!" Maaya lied.
"Hey Mausu! You in your mouse hole-" One of her bullies, Brunhilda, stuck her redhead head inside and stopped. "Hey! Whose the hottie? Why are you spending time with this mouse when you can have a tigress?"
Jack sighed. "I'll admit you're good looking. And you have a sadistic streak that's interesting to be sure. But sadly the shallow, tasteless anger of overgrown children whose parents tried to buy their love because they were always too busy with EVERYTHING ELSE in their lives to spend any time with you isn't what I'm after."
"HEY! What do you know about-"
Jack snapped his fingers, the clock stopped, so did Brunhilda, so did the clouds outside, so did the dust falling... Maaya gasped.
"Who... WHAT are you?"
"Warlock. A very powerful one. Morgan le Fay, yes that Morgan le Fay, effective met her end, but for free will to exist, monsters like her, and me, have to... But things have recently fallen out of balance... I know this is a lot for you to take in. But I can see it in you Maaya, boiling inside you, seething, churning. You hate your tormentors, you hate your teachers for ignoring your cries for help, you hate your parents for caring more about your grade than you, you hate this school, you hate your childhood friends for abandoning you to spare themselves the bullying... I'm giving you a chance to turn that hate into power... if you WANT IT. You become something more than human. You can continue to live this life as much as you want, but you also become something with the POWER to DO something about your life. And that is that, you won't owe me anything other than your gratitude. If you want to be hang out after that, then that's your call... Interested?"
Maaya looked around, wondering. "... Will I get in trouble?"
"A smart girl like you knows how to cover her tracks."
"... I'M IN!"
"Take my hand and it's a done deal!"
Maaya took Jack's hand, and ceased to be human. In the bubble of distorted time, her clothes caught on fire, but she wasn't burned, her skin turned bright red, her eyes pitch black with licking flames within them, she grew taller than Jack, her body filling out, becoming muscle toned, and also having a figure many super models would murder for, her breasts holding themselves up. She lost her belly button. Then a pair of long horns grew from her head, her glasses melted, her ears became pointed and sharp, a pair of draconic wings sprouted from her back, her fingers and toes became black claws, her tongue became formed and silver colored. A ropey spade shaped tail grew from her rear and snaked around her. Her hair grew long and black, becoming a waterfall of darkness that flowed around her. And anything within her that had been human melted away, she was no longer a child of Adam and Eve, she'd been adopted into a different legacy.
What had been Maaya looked herself over. "OH me, oh my..." She touched her body in awe. She knew what she was, she wasn't just sexual attraction, she was LUST given physical flesh, shallow, mindless desire with no concern for the other person's wants or needs. She grinned. "So this is what it's like higher up the food chain!"
What had been Maaya smiled seductively at Jack. "I've got to say... THIS is an improvement! Want a kiss as a thank you?"
"I like my life-force where it is, thank you very much."
"Oh you're no fun! But hey... if you want to hang out... I don't think I mind... you like anime?"
"I've seen one or two shows. Mind meeting my family some times?"
"So fast! I LIKE IT!" What was no longer Maaya laughed.
"I hate to spread darkness and run, but I've got someone else who I think would be fun to be friend with who wouldn't mind joining a new circle."
"It's alright, I'm sure I can keep myself busy." In a swirl of flames, Maaya's form (complete with her clothes) replaced the succubus'. But Jack could tell, this was a facade, a farce, a costume of what once was, this wasn't Maaya shifting back and forth between forms, this was what had been Maaya putting up a veneer of still being human.
"Later." Jack walked by Brunhilda. "Oh right." Jack snapped his fingers, and time move again.
'Maaya' got up with her books.
"Hey! WHere's the hot stuff go?"
"Screw you Broom-Handle, he's out of your league." 'Maaya' said off handedly.
"What did you say to me you little-!"
'Maaya' pushed her hard into the door frame, knocking the wind out of her.
"I said 'Screw you Broom-Handle' your hearing as broken as your pathetic home life? Get out of my way."
And 'Maaya' walked right past her with a sway and confidence in her steps. Brunhilda was left stunned... and why did she feel so scared of MAAYA suddenly?
+++
Rex shorted, every day it was the same thing. The damn kids made a mess. And he cleaned it up. No one looked at him, like he didn't exist. He'd been laid off, rejected by several businesses, and needing to eat, had taken this horrid little job. His best years had come and gone as the same computer business he'd gotten in on the ground floor threw him out like it was bailing water in a futile attempt to keep from sinking, which it inevitably did.
The teachers, and students treated him like a non-entity. They only noticed him if he hadn't done his job. Never mind this place would look like Hell if took a day off, in particular the bathrooms. All those brats, treating the school like it was their personal property, wild and free, and he was the one stuck maintaining their personal kingdom. He wasn't looked at, he wasn't spoke to. If he wasn't terrified of losing his only source of income, he was tempted to LEAVE a mess just to spite this school!
The worst part was, as a stupid teenager, he'd wanted more well, interesting times in the world, thinking they were fun to watch 'from his first world ivory tower' his classmates would say. And as a child he'd loved pulling pranks... Until fear of punishment spanked that out of him.
"What if it was your purpose instead?"
"Huh!? Where'd you come from!?" Rex looked around to see everyone had stopped moving but him and this kid.
"Name's Jack Rex. Want to be friends? Yes I'm talking to you. I can sense it all over your soul. You want to be MAKING messes instead of cleaning them up. You always have. You hate order and structure, it's why that programming firm threw you out, they called your chaotic style 'wasteful', they couldn't understand your creativity."
"Who are you? The devil!?"
"Not really. Just a warlock really. The devil wants to see the world burn, I want to keep it balanced. Light and dark both need to exist for free will to exist. And things have gone out of wack due to one of the major players being taken off the board. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. So Rex? What if it was your PURPOSE to make messes? To cause trouble? Prank? Confuse? Misled? How does that sound? It comes with its price, everything does. Not gonna lie. You're gonna become something else, something that isn't human, or mortal, but I promise you won't be commanded or bullied into anything, all that will be expected is for you to follow your true nature and to be grateful. Maybe be friends? I'm offering you a chance off this boat that fate has put you on. After that? No idea. But that's you want isn't it Rex? Unexpected? Chaos? Fun and games? All yours to begin? Big or small, your choice. But if you're not interested, then that's that. I walk away, and you continue on with your life like nothing's happened. You can even continue on in this life if you want afterwards, except now you'll be the bad luck in the shadows no one thinks to look at."
Rex sighed... looking at his old hands, his old clothes, the old broom in his hands. A family that had practically disowned him with his failures, friends who never spoke to him... What did he have to lose?
"You want me to just prank people for the fun of it? Big and small? I'm in."
"Take my hand and it's a done deal."
Rex and Jack shook hands.
Jack shuddered, and his back, skin and clothes and all, split open, revealing metal teeth like a zipper... inside was no guts or inside, just inky darkness, his entire form flopped down like a costume, revealing something else inside. They were the size and shape of a child, had rubbery red skin, ghostly white hair, and black horns, they also lacked a belly button or anything on her chest beside flat rubbery skin, and their rear and between their legs was nothing, they were like a child's doll really. Their eyes were yellow within darkness, shaped like a cat's. Their hands and feet had tiny black claws. A long ropy tail ended in a spade whipped behind her. She wore a white diaper of sorts with a pin.
She hopped into the air, and stayed there in direct defiance of the law of gravity. She giggled to herself. "Look at me! I'm hot stuff aren't I? HAHAHAH!" The imp hugged her stomach at her own joke.
Still standing in mid-air she made a dramatic pose. "SO LONG REX! SO LONG AND GOOD RIDDANCE! You don't exist anymore! My name is Rexie! As in wrecking stuff! HAHAH! I've never felt so free! I was just born! HAHA! So long old life, long may it rot!" She reached into a locker like it wasn't there, and pulled out a candy bar and began munching on it, eating the wrapper and all. She looked casually at Jack. "Oh right. Guess I kinda owe this to you right? Welll... " She smirked. "If you make it interesting, sure, I'd LOVE being friends with you!"
"I've got some nice ladies who I know will find you adorable, innocent sin. Child of chaos."
"And best imp at this school, wait, I'm the only one, heh! Well! I hope they're fun too! Just me know when and where, and if I feel like it, I'll show up!"
"Happy to hear it, you might want to put your costume on again before I start time again."
"Ahhhhhhhh! Do I have'ta? ugh! Well, okay!" Rexie slipped into the costume of Rex, and that was all it was, a costume of her former life, and reanimated it. "There." 'He' said.
Jack snapped his fingers and went on his way.
Rexie in her costume smirked as a teenager complained about her candy bar missing.