Chapter Text
Spiral into Chaos
(Chapter 1)
Death of a Lord of Chaos
Child was disappointed. After all her brother had promise one upon a time. Now he was just a whining brat who was too assured of his power to be any challenge. Especially against the full extent of the remaining Chaos Lords. And then whining constantly about it not “being fair” when that was brought to light. He really was annoying and pitiful. Having Flaw kill his anchor with such ease was delightful to behold. It only highlighted just how weak her brother was in comparison to the rest of them. How useless he was without them.
The fire of Chaos bleeding through Klarion's form was amusing. She was looking forward to seeing his true form again. The lines of his sides, the glow of his core, and the flickers of his flames if only for a few moments before he went back to the Scales. The Lords of Chaos had no need for such a pitiful sibling on the mortal world anyway.
But something went wrong. Klarion did not change back into a flaming diamond. He remained in this human-like form, crying out in dismay before collapsing onto the ground.
Child glanced at the anchor. It was dead. Truly dead. She, like any Chaos Lord, knew what death looked like.
So why hasn't her brother returned to the cosmos? To the Scales? To them?
The humanoid body stirred. Black eyes slowly opening and her brother sat up reaching up towards his head in a mortal gesture of confusion and pain.
“My head.”
He looked up. Those black eyes held the tint of Chaos like a proper lord but something was wrong.
“TEEKL!!!”
He got up shakily and rushed over to the dead anchor. His long fingers were soft in their movements as they pressed into fur.
He looked panicked. How strange. He should remember what happened.
“Teekl...”
The anchor shrunk back down into the smaller form from earlier. Its neck moving back into place from where Flaw twisted it. It was lifted so carefully into her brother's arms that it tasted of affection.
Pitiful. Child narrowed her eyes as she watched her brother pet his anchor. His black eyes slid over to her.
There was no recognition in those eyes. Nothing in those eyes spoke of familiarity. Of knowing who she was.
What is going on? This shouldn't be what happened to her brother once she broke his anchor...
At least, this was getting interesting at long last.
Child smiled and sent a blast of fire towards her brother. He barely blocked it earlier. Was he going to do that again?
Red eyes widened in glee as the fire was forcefully split and made to circle around Klarion and was sent back to her.
She dismissed the fire before it hit her.
This was new. Klarion never showed off such talent before. He didn't even gesture or speak and her spell moved as he wanted!
“Now you're showing what you can actually do? Well now, brother. If I knew you would get serious like this I would have had that anchor of yours killed sooner.”
Black eyes filled with rage and her brother's face was pulled back into a sneer. Not a hint of the more demonic shapes he liked when acting out Chaos to be seen. How strange.
Their other siblings were intrigued by this development. Child could feel their amusement bubble in their powers coursing through her.
Long pale fingers of her brother's left hand lifted up and snapped.
The magic circle from earlier formed around her. She gave a dismissive look to it. Really? Some pitiful spell circle? Just when they thought Klarion stopped being boring.
She sighed before casting a new spell.
Only her spell didn't form.
Red eyes looked down at her hands. She tried again. Nothing. She could feel her power but it would not form as she wanted.
Child looked up at Klarion just in time to see the cat's lungs lift with air and the twitching of whiskers. This was new. An animate anchor being resurrected has never happened before.
The cat woke up and purred at her brother. Who, by Chaos, was sentimental about it! The cat moved onto his shoulders and Klarion met her eyes.
His head tilted far too naturally for it to be practiced. His whole body flowed in its movements in such a way that it did not exist for millenniums before.
He moved like a naturally born mortal. It was sickening.
“Hm... So you are one of them.”
Child tilted her head in response.
“One of whom, dear brother?”
Black eyes darkened and a flicker of magic over his skin occurred.
“One of the so-called Lords of Elements.”
Their title was said so dismissively it stung.
“Oh? My dear brother, have you forgotten you are one as well?”
She could not blast his head off but she could mock him.
He laughed at her. Soft and giggly, the raspiness of his voice from earlier falling away the more he spoke.
It almost sounded like his actual voice from before he left the Scales.
“Am I? How fascinating. Well then, sibling.” She has never heard such a mock from him before. It was new and interesting. Yet for some reason it stung in such a way it made no sense.
“May I have your name?”
Something about that question rung as wrong. Before they leave the Scales for the mortal world none of them have names. They only gain names after coming to the mortal world and began playing around.
Klarion was the only one who had a name for so long it was only natural to call him by it. Everyone else is “Sibling”, “Brother”, or “Sister” depending on how anyone was feeling that day. So having a name to give...
It was new.
She giggled and met his strange black eyes which still did not have the right about of red in them. She was starting to get pissed about that.
“Child. I am now Child.”
His smile was sinister. Something inside her screamed in glee. How long has it been since she had such fun?
“Child~.”
Something pulled inside her.
She looked into those dark eyes as her breathing quickened in an emotion she has never felt before.
All she could see was her brother. The world around them faded out till all she could see was the glow of the circle below her and her brother's standing form with his anchor on his shoulders.
He turned his head away just a bit, his eyes still on her. His smile wide and his teeth sharp.
“Shall we see how much you love your friend here?”
What was he talking about?
The sound of crystal shattering and the feeling of her connection to the mortal world breaking broke whatever spell she was under.
Child turned around to Flaw, her hands moving from behind her back in surprise.
Her anchor!
“What have you done?!”
Her body flickered. Chaos burned. She lost her form and reverted back into a diamond once more.
Something stopped her from returning to the cosmos.
Klarion stepped onto the circle. The power in it rippling as he walked closer to her true self.
“Well now Child. Shall we see how much fun we can have?”
Something is very wrong.
Long fingers moved across her sides in a soft caress. Her fire did nothing to deter him. But he was no mortal so it really shouldn't. They normally don't have a need for physical affection or touch so why would he be doing this?
Why did it make her core feel so gleeful?
Black eyes looked down at her before she felt herself move down into the circle.
She was so tired.
Why was she so tired?
“I'll come and get you later sibling.”
Klarion's laughter echoed through her as she left the mortal world once more.
What was going on?
~~~
The feeling of the Balance shifting made the Lords of Order look at the Mortal World in shock.
Lords of Chaos were always known to be vicious in their work. Klarion the Witch-boy has been moving on the mortal plane for millenniums and it was easy to see how chaotic he was. Although, he lessened in his chaos lately. Which is good news for the Lords of Order, but the Lords of Chaos would be worried no doubt. After all, a Chaos Lord had to be chaotic, it was in their nature. Should one stagnate into a more orderly way of doing things something had to be wrong.
But to think the Lords of Chaos would try to force Klarion back to the Scales.
They must be really worried about what that mortal has been doing to their sibling to do that.
Not that those sporadic fools would ever admit that was their reason for sending down one of them powered up with the combination of all the remaining Lords of Chaos' power. They always made no sense to the Lords of Order. If they were so worried why not talk to Klarion about it? Why go down and beat their sibling up until he lost his form and was forced back to the Scales?
Mad the lot of them.
But Klarion did not lose his form. His anchor was resurrected from death. Something had happened to cause him to be more grounded to the mortal world.
He barely felt like a Lord of Chaos now. He felt more like a mortal. But yet not at all.
This was something that has never happened before.
The ripples of Chaos in the Balance made the Lords of Order worry. The Balance rocked and swayed like it never has before. There have been dips and peaks before. But nothing like this.
Something was wrong.
And Klarion was in the center of it.