Angel - In Dreams

Of course it was essential to keep such emotions under control. Hate had a way of taking over and inevitably controlling its host. The product of such an event stood before him. She was not the first though. No, there had been and would always be many others. Snow White’s stepmother and even Virginia’s own mother stood among those who’d fallen to the darkness of this emotion. It was even worse in Virginia’s world. Wolf had watched the news once. He’d been horrified to discover what went on in that world every single day. The Nine Kingdoms could be brutal, but it still paled in comparison to the cruelty of some people in the Tenth Kingdom.

“Release them,” he said at last. Unfortunately it came out not quite as aggressive as he’d planned.

“Excuse me?” asked Andraia, as a slightly amused smirk played over her lips. “Why should I? Because you came falling in here? Because you were brave enough to stand before me? I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to give me a better reason than that, Wolfy.”

A low growl released itself from Wolf’s throat. “I said let them go!” roared Wolf.

“Funny, I remember saying no,” was Andraia’s reply.

“Fine,” growled Wolf, his eyes flashing green. “Have it your way.”

Andraia gasped as Wolf lunged at her. The force of his blow caused her to fall backwards and she felt the familiar metallic liquid engulf her. Andraia and Wolf (who hadn’t managed to stop himself in time) fell through into Wendell’s mirror room.

“Wolf!” shouted Virginia as she watched her husband fall through the mirror behind Andraia. She jerked at her chains with all of her strength. Still, freedom refused to come. “Dad, help me get unchained!” she yelled to her father who was watching Wolf continue to fight Andraia on the other side of the mirror.

Tony rushed over to her. “How am I supposed to get you out of these?” he asked frantically.

“I don’t know!” she yelled back starting to lose her patience. “Just do something! Wolf needs our help!” Virginia was about to say something else when she felt herself fall into the wall. A mirror had suddenly appeared behind her, and she’d fallen through.

Tony looked around the room for something to break the chains, but the cavern-like room was bare, save for the large mirror. “Virginia, I can’t find anything to...” he said turning to face his daughter again, but stopped when he realized that she was no longer there.

Virginia looked around the room she’d tumbled into. It took a second to realize that she was no longer chained. “Where am I?” she asked aloud, not expecting an answer.

“Virginia,” said a familiar voice.

“Snow White!” Virginia cried turning to a mirror that had appeared in the wall behind her.

“Virginia, I freed you from your chains by bringing you here, but you must listen to me. Time is running out. Andraia will soon have all the mirrors, and then there will be no limit to her power. She will also possess the traveling mirror. If she can travel to another dimension then...”

“I understand,” Virginia finished grimly for her. If Andraia was able to go to her world there was no telling what the apparently bored psychopath would do. “But how do I stop her? I can’t fight her. She’d simply will me through a mirror to who knows where.”

“Virginia, you cannot beat her by fighting or overpowering her, but there is another way. You’ve already started and now you must finish. Andraia was not always this cold. She was driven to be this way by a terrible occurrence in the past. Without knowing it, you’ve begun to make her feel confused. She’s losing her control of her anger and hate, and if pushed enough, you may be able to break her further.”

So that’s why she started to act strangely, thought Virginia.

“There,” said the dead queen, pointing to another mirror that had appeared on the opposite wall. “I have learned how to manipulate Andraia’s mirrors, but my powers are limited. That mirror will take you back to the room that contains your father and Andraia’s main mirror. I will take control of that mirror, but I can only do it for so long. The rest is up to you. You see, not everyone can control mirrors and harness their power. You, Virginia, have inherited some of your mother’s abilities. This will enable you to order the mirror to show you Andraia’s memories of that fateful night while I have seized control of it.”

Virginia took a moment to take it all in. She could control mirrors? She brushed the thought away. She’d have time to think about it later. There were more important things to do now.“Thank you…” said Virginia before walking through the mirror leading back to her father.

To say her father was confused to find his daughter had disappeared from the room in the split second his back had been turned was an understatement. Tony wore a shocked expression and paced the room muttering something that Virginia could only make out as a few choice curses and the statement “I really hate this place,” which he repeated several times before realizing that his daughter was once again in the room.

“Where were you?!” he cried.

“I was getting help from Snow White. I don’t have time to explain now. There’s something I have to do,” explained Virginia as she rushed over to the mirror. She could no longer see into Wendell’s mirror room. She prayed Wolf was all right. “Okay, mirror...” Virginia stopped. What should she say? She didn’t exactly go around commanding magic mirrors to do her bidding. Oh well. It was never too late to start something new, right? “Mirror show me the memories of Andraia.” As she said this she reached out a hand to touch the glass. It hesitantly rippled under her touch, then shimmered to life.

Virginia gasped as a flood of images entered her mind. She watched the shifting memories as they played through her head. She didn’t just see the memories of that night, but Andraia’s entire life. The rush ended seconds after it had begun.

Virginia now understood. She knew what had happened to Andraia, what had driven her to be what she was. She’d seen her memories of a happy childhood, then the memories of the night her village was slaughtered by madmen. She’d seen her slowly go colder and angrier and more full of hatred as time went on and her power over the mirrors had increased. Andraia had slowly developed into a monster. Virginia had also witnessed Andraia’s crimes over the centuries. She’d watched the way she’d tortured Wolf with images of his dying parents, the way she’d sent them all terrible dreams. Of course they weren’t the first. Andraia had destroyed many lives in her lifetime.

Virginia turned to look at her father, who now appeared even more confused than before. “I know what I must do now. I know how to defeat her,” was her only form of explanation.

Wolf struggled with Andraia on the floor of the mirror room. He lunged for her shoulder in an attempt to bite her, but was stopped when, with surprising strength, Andraia through him off of her, causing him to fly into the nearby wall.

“I grow tired of this,” she hissed in a voice full of venom. Andraia got to her feet and walked over to where Wolf had landed. A smirk appeared on her face. “This ends now, Wolfy.” She glanced around to discover that the mirror leading back to her home had vanished. Her fight with the half-breed had caused her to lose control of it. It didn’t matter, though. She could always create another.

Andraia placed her hand on the wall behind Wolf, and a mirror appeared. “Time to go through the mirror, Wolfy.”

She was about to kick Wolf through the mirror, but instead was surprised when he caught her ankle midair. “Ladies first,” he said before jumping up and throwing her through. He took one glance around the room, then jumped through himself.

“What exactly do you have planned?” asked Tony. He was about to ask more, but was cut off when Andraia came flying through a recently opened mirror. Shortly after, Wolf stepped into the room.

Andraia moaned as she tried to get up. Her hard collision with the floor had caused her some pain. Virginia walked over to her slowly. “Andraia, this must stop,” she said in a gentle, but commanding voice.

The mirror mistress just glared at her, and rose to her feet. “Stop? No, little Virginia, this will not stop. Not until all of you are dead. Can’t you see? I am more powerful than all of you put together! More powerful than your precious Snow White! Maybe not physically,” she said throwing a glare at Wolf, “but what I cannot match in strength I more than make up for in magic. So you see, whatever you do to me, you will never be able to stop me. No, this will not end; well, not until you finally give up.”

Virginia simply stared back at her. A look of almost confidence played on her features. “I know what happened to you, Andraia. I know about the night your parents were killed.”

Andraia, who had begun to walk over to her mirror, stopped dead in her tracks. She turned towards Virginia, partly shocked and angered at the same time. What game was the little heroine playing now? “What are you talking about?” she demanded angrily.

“Snow White helped me see your memories through the mirror. I now know what happened to you, and why you are what you are.”

“You don’t know a thing about me!” roared Andraia, who was now enraged.

Virginia’s face grew more serious. “Look at yourself, Andraia! You have let your hate and rage take over. You no longer feel the loss of a life. You’ve actually come to enjoy it. That’s right, I saw all of your memories. I saw what you’ve done to people over the years.”

“Do you honestly think I care what you think of me?! I’m going to kill you anyway.” Andraia’s face now softened to a look of evil amusement.

Virginia ignored her comment and continued, “Andraia, when your village was slaughtered, you released a power from inside of you. A child should never have to suffer through what you did that night. You were too young for such power, so instead of using it for justice and good, you used it for revenge. Your hate fueled your power, but it also made you cold. It ate away at your soul until there was just hate and emptiness left. You no longer held remorse. You couldn’t even cry for your dead family! Is that what you want to be?! Someone who’s so cold and hollow inside that they can’t even feel the loss of those they love?!”

Andraia’s face once again filled with rage. “What do you know?!” she demanded. “You don’t...can’t possibly begin to understand what I felt that night! Sure you lost your mother, but look at all you have left. I had nothing! I was alone. A little girl all alone with nowhere to go. I had to shut out my feelings! I had to become cold! I would have died from the pain, and loneliness otherwise!”

Virginia just looked at her. Could she possibly be right? Virginia recalled some of the memories she’d recently experienced from the mirror. No. No, that was no excuse. No excuse for the pain she’d inflicted on others. “Maybe you had to shut out the pain, but that was no excuse for what you’ve done. Take a look in your precious mirrors, Andraia. You’ve become what you once hated so much!”

The shock of Virginia’s words left Andraia speechless. Was what this girl said true? In what was left of Andraia’s heart she knew it was. She’d long ago felt herself falling farther and farther into the darkness, but had been unable to stop. Her pain and hate might have started with the murder of her friends and family, but in the end she’d inevitably created her own hell.

Andraia turned away from Virginia, the rage in her cooling. She walked slowly towards her mirror. Clutching the edges, she stared into its dark depths. “Mirror, show me,” she said quietly. Nothing happened. “Mirror, show me!” she yelled. “Show me the truth.”

If the manmade object of silver and glass had been alive it could have been described as hesitating, as if not wanting to bring the pain of what was to come to its mistress, but after a moment it shimmered and Andraia stared at its surface. Stared at the image of herself.

The mirror mistress gasped, almost pulling away. Cold, emotionless eyes stared back at her. Those eyes, however, were not what shocked her the most. No, it was the blood. The crimson life fluid covered her.

She backed away, but her image merely smiled back at her evilly. For the first time in centuries, terror came to the one known as Andraia. The horror of seeing her true self, covered in the blood of the innocent lives she destroyed - lives that had been like her own when she was a child. She dropped to her knees, but could not look away from the horrible image.

Virginia walked up behind her. “Mirrors never lie, Andraia,” she said calmly.

Andraia simply continued to gaze at her reflection. What have I done? she thought to herself. What have I become? All this time I thought I liked it. Thought I thrived on the pain of others, but now...now I realize that I...don’t. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Andraia wailed. Her fists collided with the smooth glass with hate-filled force, but this was not hatred for Virginia, or even hatred for those that had murdered her family. No this was hatred for herself.

The mirror shattered from the impact. Shards of glass fell around Andraia, and a bright light filled the room as the power of the mirror was released. The light quickly dimmed, though, until the room was once again dark. Andraia looked around at her destroyed mirror. Her empire lay in pieces on the floor. An unfamiliar emotion entered her heart. What was it? She couldn’t be sure. It had been so long since she’d felt this emotion. Could it be sadness? If it was it was not because of the destruction of her mirror. No, it was something else causing this alien feeling to stir inside of her.

She slowly reached and picked up a large shard of glass. She studied the reflection in it. The previous image no longer smirked back. It was now her regular reflection. As Andraia continued to look at the image, she noticed a small drop of water appear on the surface of the glass. She studied it curiously. Another shortly appeared, then another. Before long they began to fall to the glass in a steady stream. Her eyes burned, and that’s when realization hit her. They were tears. Her tears.

Andraia hugged the mirror to her chest and felt the gentle weight of Virginia’s hand being placed on her shoulder just as the floodgates opened and the tears began to flow. There, for the first time, Andraia was able to shed tears for the death of those she’d loved.