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Earth-1699
The loud jail buzzer echoed against the concrete walls, followed by clanging metal as a guard heaved open a heavy metal gate.
Through the opening entered a modestly dressed Amunet Black. Her black jacket and simple matching floor-length skirt bore a striking contrast to the ostentatious fashion she had formerly donned as Queen Automata. Other than a matching purse, Amunet carried with her a pencil and notepad.
The guard led Amunet through the quiet corridors of the prison. Other than a few soundless ruffians, the majority of the cells were empty. Once they reached their destination, Amunet stopped in front of the occupied cell, the guard holding position behind her.
Amunet regarded the scene in front of her. What little accouterments had been prescribed to the inmate were scattered across the floor: a notebook, several print books, a dinner plate with scattered food particles, and a broken tablet computer in the corner. Other than the scattered mess, a small dirty mirror sat above a sink, next to a toilet bolted into the cell. A single barred window in the back of the cell beamed a stream of light into the room. In the far center, a wooden chair sat facing away from the jail cell door. The prisoner sat stilly, not moving as Amunet spoke.
"How are you doing?" Amunet began tentatively. "Ms. Snow?"
At the sound of her surname, the prisoner shifted in the chair, her long brown and grey hair swaying slightly at the movement.
"I do apologize for the unsatisfactory accommodations," Amunet spoke as she surveyed the mess on the floor. "Of course you understand why it wouldn't be prudent for us to allow you out."
Amunet paused waiting for a response, but when none came she continued.
"I'm here to see if you might fancy a conversation to lift your spirit," Amunet offered. "Perhaps if we could get to the root of your melencholy, we might make your stay here a touch more bearable."
"I don't want your help," Crystal Snow's bitter rebuke was icier and harsher than ever. "Go away."
"I can understand thinking that there is no way out, no way to feel better," Amunet pressed on. "I've been in your place, quite literally. But you musn't give up hope. Your counterparts helped me see the error of my ways. And I believe that together, we can help you to see yours. You need not keep yourself in cold isolation forever."
"Fuck those weak imitations!" Crystal shouted, standing up and turning around, throwing the wooden chair across the floor. "They only defeated me thanks to an eleventh hour intervention of an unforseen ally. I should have been victorious. You should all be serving me."
Crystal stalked viciously towards the bars separating her from Amunet.
"Deep down, I don't believe you feel that's true," Amunet tried to empathize. "I used to think I wanted everyone to serve me. It was heart-wrending what I went through to learn to be a helpful part of the community. I just don't want you to have to go through all I did."
"You have no idea what I've been through!" Crystal squinted her eyes sneeringly.
"Truly, I don't know everything," Amunet admitted. "Which is why I'm here. If you tell me what led you to this darkened place, maybe together we can find a way out of it."
"I don't-- want-- a way out," Crystal breathed angrily. "I am who I want to be."
"I don't wish to change you, only to help," Amunet beseeched.
"Go help someone else," Crystal crossed her arms, turning away from Amunet.
Crystal walked back to the back of the cell and picked up the wooden chair off the floor. She turned it facing away from the cell door and sat back down in her original position.
"I'll be back in a week," Amunet offered positively. “Just in case you change your mind.”
Crystal listened with hostile pleasure as Amunet and the guard’s footsteps retreated back to the prison’s entrance.
“I don't know why you bother with that one,” the guard’s gruff voice echoed against the walls. “Our therapists havent had any luck, don’t know why you would.”
“It's my karma that I help her,” Amunet’s distant voice explained to the guard as he opened the heavy gate for her exit.
Crystal’s breaths came heavy and deep, hot air pouring from her nostrils.
How dare she try to help me, Crystal fumed to herself. Feeble, they’re all so feeble. Nothing they can do will ever undo the damage I’ve endured.
Crystal got up from the chair, marching angry circles around her cell as she huffed.
Finally after several laps, Crystal came to a stop in front of the meager bathroom area, slamming her palms onto the sink, her gaze turned downward.
“Goddammit!” Crystal cursed aloud.
Even trapped in the cell, Crystal refused to admit defeat. Her hands trembled as she gripped the sides of the sink, futility willing the white ceramic to crumble in her hands.
“You should listen to her,” the calm, pleasant voice echoed in Crystal’s ears. She spun her head, looking for the speaker but finding no one. The voice sounded close, but she was alone in the cell. Or was she?
“Over here,” the smiling vocalization sickened Crystal.
Crystal turned to the source of the sound: the mirror. Crystal eyed her reflection.
Crystal saw what looked like herself. But it didn’t *feel* like herself.
She was smiling. Benevolently. Kindly. And her hair. There were no grey streaks. Instead, her reflection’s dark brown locks terminated in dark blue tips.
“Why are you so mad?” the reflection asked empathetically. "Amunet just wants to help you."
Crystal grunted dismissively.
I must be going crazy, trapped in this cage, she thought to herself.
"You aren't going crazy," the reflection responded gently to Crystal's thought. "At least not any crazier than you already are," she added, stifling a smile and looking down.
Crystal instinctively reached a hand to her own chin, the smile she saw in the reflection was so utterly foreign that she couldn't believe it was her. In fact, she was right. She wasn't smiling. But the reflection still was.
"Who the hell are you?!" Crystal barked angrily.
"Don't you remember?" the altered likeness asked. "Or have you truly forgotten?"
Crystal squinted her eyes, disbelievingly. "Caitlin and Frost?! No! I killed them!"
"You tried," the kindly alternate corrected. "You tried to crush the parts of you that were Caitlin and Frost. But you couldn’t ever totally get rid of them. I am that which remains of them. Their goodness. Their love, their loyalty. No matter what you do I am a part of you. The part that our dad so long ago wanted to know. I am Khione."
"NO!" Crystal slammed her right fist against the sink, sending sparks of pain racing up her arm.
"It doesn't have to be this way," the double beseeched. "Come back to the light. Let your hate and anger go."
"I am what is needed!" Crystal boomed at the glass pane. "They gave in to me. I was born when their grief crystalized! They needed someone strong to take charge and I did!"
"They were wrong," Khione admitted. "But now it's time to turn a new page. I feel your anger burning through you. But it's time to let go. Be at peace now, Crystal."
A swirl of supernatural light engulfed the jail cell, completely obscuring both the prisoner and her reflection.
"Don't give up hope," the voice echoed through the cell. "You can find joy again."
When the swirl of light subsided, the woman standing in front of the mirror was the one with the calm expression, brown locks with dark blue tips, and a thoughtful visage. Her angry counterpart had replaced her former location, reflected in the mirror.
"LET ME OUT!" Crystal screamed futilely, though no sound escaped the mirror.
Slowly, Khione took a step away from the mirror, turning towards the small cell window to the outside. Looking up at the sunlight streaming through. Feeling the warmth on her face, smiling.