Shadow and the persona (open)

[jade]

Jade heard the voices of Jean and Carol m. Her mind felt like the sound of T.V. Static as the voices continued on. Jade tried to focus in on what was being said, but words didn’t really make sense with everything else going on.

“I have an X Gene?”

Jade stayed crouched into herself as the wounds now produced tiny scars where the metal had been in her body. She would have used her key to heal, but right now she didn’t have the energy to do much. Something within Jade felt different. She felt different without Shadow, yet her power grew on stronger then before without being repressed by shadow.

“What do you mean?”

Jade sounded weaker for some reason her body wasn’t recovering the same way it had when Shadow possessed her. Was shadow a construct of her own mind? It didn’t make sense that shadow had just vanished. Jades
Memories filled her thoughts again. She was watching them like a movie, not like reality a young child similar looking to herself as a child was being scooped up by a women who looked like Jades mother. It was then she remembered why they left Cuba. It was to escape those hunting them, she was young and didn’t fully understand what was happening. Jade was exhausted and barely staying awake as she spoke again.

“H-how do I have these memories? Why did I not know who I was? Was I thy weak? Did I just throw it all away with Shadow?”

Jade held her face in her bloody hands and lowered he head onto her knees. She said just above a whisper.

“I failed, I was weak, and I failed. I should have been stronger. We are warriors I should have fought harder.”


Jades mind flashed back to ancestral memory one of a dark night when she was home. The Jack boots sounds rang through the land like the stomps of a well structured machine. Jade remembered it well they came on the night terrorized her people and took whoever they could find. Jade remembered fleeing with her family the fear of the night the adrenaline that pumped through her veins. She remembered the sounds of engines reviving. She remembered escaping into the night.


“A man is dead a bad man, but still he’s dead. I killed him because I knew I had the ability to see what he could not.
Momma and papa I want you to know I love you both and I’m scared of my powers.
I’m afraid one day my big mouth will get me burned.

Jades mother look at her and told her.
“It’s time for the truth, for all of us.
You have great good in you,
But those that hunt us may have been good at one point in their lives, but sometimes power corrupts and makes you do evil acts. It is not what we have done in that moment of realization it is what we choose to do moving forward. Jade never forget the blood of the ancestors runs through you, but you have a great light inside you, one that can burn out any darkness that comes. However with every light comes shadows and darkness. You must chose my dear one you can be that which helps you find balance.”

Jade sat now in front of her mother.
Under a sky of stars that looked as though god himself has painted it. Her mother’s out stretched hands held two short sword blades. Jade said an ancient enchantment as she picked up the soul reavers as her people knew them and placed them on the holster on her back.

“I will honor the ancestors and keep balance of the light and dark. I will only take the souls of those deserving of the blades
wrath. We are warriors we will protect those who need protecting. In this life and the next.”

Jades Mother embraced her and spoke gently.

“Blood of my blood flesh of my flesh in this
Life and the next.”

[John Kilroy]

Jean and Carol let Jade finish her vision before talking to her. This time neither one of them peeped into her mind, this was something very personal for her almost sacred. In the meantime, the wheels in the minds of both the Shadow King and the Phoenix were turning, something about Jade was familiar to both of them. Something about her activated a primal memory within them, a memory of an ancient civilization of a powerful warrior culture on par with the Norsemen and the Celts.

When Jade's vision was over, Carol cleared her throat and clarified what they were referring to.

"What Jean means is that well...you're one of us. You have powers just like we do."

"To be more specific, magic is something anyone can learn so long as they have the willingness, but you have a special genetic makeup that gives you a natural affinity to it. And no Jade, you are not weak, you were violated, and you were desperate. Shadow took advantage of that. Even as strong as she was, you held her off far better than anyone would expect. You do your family proud."

Shadow king in the meantime showed a physical like projection of himself sitting on a chair, rubbing his chin with his hand.
Jean turned to look at him. "What's on your mind?"

he simply said two words. "She's Taíno."

[jade]

"What Jean means is that well...you're one of us. You have powers just like we do. To be more specific, magic is something anyone can learn so long as they have the willingness, but you have a special genetic makeup that gives you a natural affinity to it. And no Jade, you are not weak, you were violated, and you were desperate. Shadow took advantage of that. Even as strong as she was, you held her off far better than anyone would expect. You do your family proud."

Jade looked up from the floor as Jenna Carol spoke to her. They weren’t wrong she had held Shadow fairly well. Hearing them
validate her abuse made it some how easier to handle. They understood Jade on different level. Jade spoke with a certain conviction to her voice.

“What do you mean I’m just like you? My genetics have always played a role in my magic it’s what’s connected me to my family. Are you meaning like magic that is my genetics is something different?”

Jade was going to continue on when Shadow king projected himself into the room. She was about to address him
When Jean spoke to him and he addressed the native Cuban tribe her family descended from.

“Shes Taíno.”

Jade spoke and attempted to stand up again her blood soaked hands touching the back of the couch she was near. Jade leaned up against the couch slightly.
She realized that with the limited amount of food and water intake combined with the blood loss her body was very weak at the moment.

“Yes I am Taino, why does that matter? I haven’t been referred to as that for a very long time.”

Jade slowly made her way to the small black backpack she carried and placed it in front of her as she leaned on the couch again for stability. Jade said an enchantment in an ancient tongue revealing her back held two short swords with ebony handles. As she withdrew them
From the holsters built into the bag. The Damascus blades shimmered a super natural glow as she placed them in front of her and slowly lowered herself to the ground crossing her legs under her as the blades now laid on the floor in front of her.

“These are the blades I always carry they are are part of my people. Some call them the soul reavers. My people were a warrior tribe, but we fought evil and brought those souls to justice. They always know who or what they seek. I will avenge my family, justice will happen. For justice is no longer blind. You are right I didn’t fail, the evil in this world is just unbalanced.”

Jade meditated for a moment contemplating her next moves trying to hone in on her inner Chi.

[John Kilroy]

"No what I mean is that you're part of a much you've become part of a bigger universe; you just don't know it yet."

"There are several people like you out there in the world. People woth powers like you that a part of the fight against evil. Some are like you are born with powers, through a means called the X-Gene, that gives different people all sorts of different features and abilities, some good and helpful...others not so much. Others like Carol got thier abilties from external factors. Alien technology, calling upon supernatural forces."

"falling into a vat of toxic waste." Carol added. She was trying to be tongue in cheek about it, but it was scary how common that method of getting super powers was.

"The point being, we're all united by this shared experience. BUT that doesn't mean that just because you have powers like us doesn't mean you are drafted into some kind of superhuman military. Being a Hero is a calling not an obligation contrary to what Spider-Man may think. If this is not a path you want to walk down there is no shame in turning away.

As soon as Shadow mentioned Jade's tribe Jean's memories proceeded to get jogged.

The Taino were a powerful tribe of warriors that lived in modern day Cuba. Thier culture was in a similar vein to what modern people would call the Vikings and Celts. They Worshiped both Phoniex and Shadowbird (Or the Raven as they called her) as gods. When Jade showed the blades, Jean shifted into a form the Taino would have recognized as glowing tribal marks began to appear on her body and her costume changed jnto a wolf pelt.

While Phoniex adored the Taino, Shadow King did not and he remained standoffish.

[jade]

Jade listened to what was said to her. She had understood what super powers were and other worldly experiences.
The part that was confusing was she had one. If she was a person with an X-Gene did that mean her entire family plus ancestors did too? What they considered magic was it a combination of magic and X-Gene, but they had lived in their tribal world for so long they never considered themselves to be something else? Jade pondered this for a moment as Phoenix transformed into something more familiar. Jade blinked a few times looking up at Phoenix, she knew the Phoenix felt familiar just didn’t fully understand why. Phoenix was the very one her ancestors had worshipped, did that mean that Shadowking was the other entity of her tribal history, The Raven? Jade analyzed Shadow Kit for a moment and saw clearly he was not pleased with her heritage. She understood persecution far too well and chose not to address this as she didn’t know how, he had been the one to free her and the last thing she wanted to do was anger him. Jade knew what the wrath of a scorned god felt like and that was the last thing she needed in this moment. She drew her attention to Phoenix in all of her beauty. The words of Carol echoing in her head, “being a hero is a choice”. Jade hadn’t realized it but her inner Chi was glowing a star like glow giving her body a slightly blue Aurora. She was healing without her key, how was this even possible? Was Shadow suppressing something in her? No that couldn’t have been the case, this wasn’t her normal healing this was something different it was like her soul was finally able to be its true self. Seeing Phoenix in this form awakened something deep in her DNA. Jade calmly spoke as she took an inward breathe.

“I don’t know if hero is the title I carry.
I want to do right by this world. Save others from the life I lived. I don’t think I’m Spider-Man or a villian. I do know I can’t sit by idly while the world descends to chaos and madness. I want to help those I can unlike those who went after my people. I want to help make the change empower those who feel they can’t fight, all of it really.”

Jade paused for a moment closing her eyes and breathing in deeply. As she opened her eyes she produced a golden holster for her backpack and placed it on her back. She then placed her swords in it and stood before Phoenix, Carol, and ShadowKing.
She appeared taller than she was just in her strength and new found friendships.

“If you will accept me, I’d like to learn more about how to hone my X gene and help where I can. I understand now Phoenix why you were familiar to me so understand now the bond we share. Carol your words are more wisdom than you know. Your strength even with your past. You are a warrior like myself with a god who guides you. For the first time in a very long time I feel I belong somewhere.”

She sighed sharply not knowing how to address Shadowking. Her words came out in a humble tone.

“I know you are not pleased with my ancestors. You though helped me to heal, I am not sure what happened between you and them. That is your story to tell,
I will listen if you are willing to share, if not I understand, I just hope you see that my ancestors blood may run through me, I however am different then them in my beliefs.”

Jade was not fully healed. She was attempting to hide the exhaustion and need for food, drink, maybe even some rest. Jade waited the next moves of the ones in the room.

[John Kilroy]

Shadow King just stared at Jade with a stoic glare. He had seen the true hearts of Jade's people and it disgusted him, in fact it was them unintentionally or not, that corrupted the Shadowbird Into the Shadow King in the first place and Shadow King felt a lot of Darkness in Jade even without Shadow's influence. She had the makings of an anti-hero. The types of heroes Shadow king had the least patience with, in his experience. They were quick to act cruelly, even quicker to justify it, and the easiest to manipulate. They were weaklings pretending to be strong but he was also aware. That if he did interact with her and judge her as such, he'd sabotage what Jean and Carol would try to do. If Jade became a full fledged villain because of his judgment then the blood she spilt would be on his hands, and Phoenix's wrath would be swift and absolute. Again, he did not want to spend the next ten thousand years regenerating.

"For your sake. I...do not. I will say this and I do so speaking only for myself, not Carol or my sister. Whether you are or are not like your ancestors I hope also for your sake you are right. Even without Shadow's influence I still sense great darkness in you. It would be wise to head the words and teachings of Carol and my sister and take them to heart."

He then looked to Jean and Carol "For Jade's sake I will not take part in her training. My experiences blind me, and I would sabotage you and drive her away. I shall remain dormant during most of your interactions with her. So I leave the rest to you two."

With that, he vanished back into the darkest recesses of Caro's mind. Not giving any influence over her even mildly, much to the confusion of Jean and Carol both.

"Wha...what just happened?" Carol asked.


"I was hoping you could tell me," Jean replied. 

[jade]

(OOC done with permission of @johnkilroy )

Shadow King pulls her aside privatley. "You want to know what i see fine. But know this is me and me alone. Not Carol not jean got it?

Jade felt Shadow king enter her mind and Nick off Jean and Carol. She didn’t fight him, she understood why he was there.

Jade: I already know what you see, you are not the first to judge me from what my people have done. You are just the first the first to help me first then try to tell me how Evil I am. All who born into my role are told the same exact thing. I chose a different path as did my family, yet we are still persecuted for our past mistakes.

Shadowking responded sharply.

“You wish not to be judged by the actions of your ancestors and yet you carry thier swords and thier mission. Judge jury and exicutioner of those whom you think are morally inferior to you. You who made a deal with a dark enity, you whose soul is not even your own. Who are you to decide whom is beyond saving and deserves enternal damnation? Phoniex, myself, we have that by right of power and divinity, you? You're a child, not even of 30 years.”

Jade listened to Shadowking, to some who time did exist to she would seem young, but to her Jade had already loved four life times.

“I was weak when I made that packet with Shadow, I am not even entirely sure how that pact fully took place, I wanted death not shadow. I got Shadow and life. The land of the dead sent me back and returned the soul blades to me. It is not that I make the decision. It’s is that I see beyond the veil I see what they are beyond their earthly forms. You are right you and Phoenix are gods in a sense. I am but a servant of the gods making those who escaped eternal damnation return back to the underworld”

Shadowking came atJade with the precision of a laser, the acquisition in his voice.

“and how many of those people do you truly know. How many of those could have been redeemed if given a secound chance at life Like we gaver you? I gave you? How many of them were minding thier own buiesness before you and your swords hunted them down like Hellhounds?”

Jade sighed he truly did not know her and mistakes her for carrying her ancestors ideas. She pauses in her words a deep weight fills in the air showing the heaviness she carries

“I have thought about that many times, even while Shadow did what they did.”

Jades eyes appear to tear up for a moment.

“I was naive then I believed the world to be only evil and good. I can not change what I did or Shadow had me do under her control.”

Jade then says an enchantment under her breathe revealing the scars throughout her body and some Sidgils included.

“I know what corruption can do I know what evil lurks in this world. Some may be redeemable but others cause more damage and feel no remorse and do not care. Crimes against children in my book are unforgivable.”

Shadow King softens a bit.

"I'm not asking you to give the likes of sex trafficers or the like the benifit of the doubt. But not EVERYONE is the worst of the worst. As for intentions. The road to hell is paved with the best of intentions. Without works, they are useless.”

Jade stood before Shadow deflecting her true emotions as she continued on the anguish growing in her every word.

“Hell didn’t want me either, so I’m here to help those I can and stop someone else from facing the trauma I did. I am here to break generational barriers. I have stood alone in this world longer then you know, my family was forced from their country, then my family disappeared. You say I am young, yet you have no faith that I am not the darkness that lives inside me. You believe I let that darkness guide me.”

Shadowking continued to badger Jade, as if to break her.

"do you suck the air out of the room you enter? do you spend most of your life harbiging the darkest of thoughts? How often do you stare down at the Abyss? Answer me these."

“I have worked with my light in me to not do those things” *eyes tear up* I didn’t harbor these dark thoughts until…*single tear falls down cheek* he took everything from me…I had love once, he killed him and made me listen to his tortured screams.”

Shadowkinas words seemed to be more convicting every time he spoke.

"You're still alive are you not? Or have I been talking to an hooka-based hallucination the whole time?"

Jade stood her ground stronger then before
As she spoke back with deeper conviction.

“I am and like I said I am judge every day. Told I am something I am not! I..I…don’t want to be this way, I wanted to be different, but my path is now what I have chosen.”

Shadowking spoke again his words hitting slightly harder this time.

“"Then he's not taken everything from you. You can reclaim what you once were. Carol has done this and both Marcus and Rogue took far more way from her than the puppet master took from you, and even at her lowest point when given the oppertunity...she let go of the abyss. She chose to. You also have that choice. You say you were naive by thinking the world is black and white, but you were not. You can try to live in both worlds by living the life of an "anti-hero" but in the end your either a hero or a villian, a savior or destroyer. Good or Evil you cannot serve two masters, there is no Gray, no in-between. Your choice is on you."

Jade paused for a moment taking his words.

“I am no one’s hero, anti or not I can let go of my trauma, but it still resides in me. I can try to heal I have never been given that choice”

Shadowkings words grew sharp like daggers as he spoke.

"Then do it. You have people willing to help you, you have a support network now. If you don't take advantage of it. That's on you."

Jade returns words with a volley of fierce fire as he spoke to her again.
“I was willing to trust them before you accused me of being by ancestors”

Shadowking showed his true colors as he spoke and tried to transform the landscape again.

*Grins* "You forget I'm the bad guy, I am not Carol Danvers. I do not even influence her beyond her eating habits. If I did you'd be dead. I'm the villian here...so what better goal than to prove the villian wrong?"

Jade looked at Shadowking with conviction in her eyes and spite on her tongue.

“I have nothing to prove to you or anyone else for that matter, I don’t need to redeeem myself to you, I never forgot who you are, you just thought I was someone I am not. “I thought I was protecting the world from Shadow, I thought I was strong enough to contain them. Once they corrupted a key I felt I had no choice. I..I didn’t understand that’s what it was, I was lost in my own fight”

Shadowing continued with his acquisition

"So at the first bit of pressure, you crumpled and you think you’re capable of saving anyone? So were your ancestors. "They thought they truly were saving the world, bringing enlightment and with thier keys. They brought terror and destruction in thier wake. If you want to not be your anscestors, then be better. do it...or don't. there is no try.

Jade felt the weight of the word as tears in both worlds streamed down her face.

“this is why I said I failed”

Shadowking became softer this time as if he wanted to give Jade some sort of favor.

“"Not yet you've not. They are dead. You are not. You have two ways to reedem yourself, one way to redeem your ancestors.

Jade spoke quietly.”Death wouldn’t take me, I will be different in this life”

Shadowking almost appeared on intrigued for a moment.

"To be fair...Death comes up with all sorts of excuses not to take supers for too long. You'd think she's allergic to them the way they keep coming back. So that may not have been just because of Shadow."

Jade continued back and forth with Shadowking.

“I’m not super hero, I am just me. Death wouldn’t take me as punishment for my ancestors actions. Shadow has nothing to do with deaths rejection. Shadow just happened to come at the same moment I was returned”

“"Are you so certain about that? Death...has been known to...lie by ommition.”

Jade: “I’m not even sure death was aware of shadows presence. I use to walk freely between both worlds even before death sent me back, one of my well now abilities. I could see and talk to the dead”

Shadowking: "Perhaps she sent you back because she knew you had a life to live. Maybe blaming your ancestors was just a covinant excuse."

Jade: “I told you I was chosen long ago for my role, I chose not to make it a dark role, I wanted to help others redeem save them unite people for a final good bye with their loved ones. I never wanted to become what I did. She also said something to that affect I had more life to live and I didn’t deserve the fate of where I was. It was almost as if death was showing me some kind of mercy

Shadowking: "I'll tell you a secret. Just because someone chose ypu for a role, does not mean you have to play it. "Fate is a demanding mistress, but she's not a respected one. Especially in America. "Fate demanded that the colonist, lose, that that axis powers win. That hummanity be enslaved by the Ilum;inati...yet hummanity defied her every...single time. "Like Carol said. Being a hero is not an obligation it's a choice. If you want you could give up your powers alltogether, and just be jade. live your life as a circus performer."

Jade:
“I am learning that I don’t understand America customs. I am learning I need to understand more. “I was not taught in American schools I was raised by my family we were travelers, how do I know you are not misguiding me like the others?”

Shadowking:” "oh please. your will is more limp than a wet pasta noodle right now. If I wanted to control you I'd just possess you directly. "You folded to Shadow, I am the very embodiment of the darkness she came from. If you couldin't even stand to her just how long would you stand to me. All I'd need to do is make you see through the eyes, heart and minds of your victims in thier last dying moments and you would fall. Or...maybe I've akready been inside this whole time."

Jade stood her ground to Shadowking she was nowhere near the level of weak she was when Shadow took over. Even as the room faded to black and Jade brought them to reality to show Carol and Jean, just what was taking place. Her words had conviction like never before as she spoke.

“No I want to do something with my powers help those who are vulnerable like I was. Do not mistake my tears for not having a strong will do not think I will not fight. I have no desire to have anyone in my head again.”

Jades inwardly sighed as
“she spoke your parlor tricks won’t work on me. Shadow already went this way once. You are only were I allow you to be.”

With those words Jade blocked Shadowking from her mind and revealed they have been in the room they were always in.

Jade was very weak from kicking Shadowking out of her head. She stumbled
For a moment answering Jean and Carols question.

“He tried to go into my mind, he is angry at what my ancestors did. I do not blame him for his anger. As I told Shadowking I wish to be different than my ancestors.”

Jade was now struggling to stay upright or even awake she was dangerously close to taking a turn for the worse.

[John Kilroy]

Carol cocked her head to the side. "Huh, Ah was wondering where he went."

Jean couldn't help but shake her head when Jade mentioned the Shadow King being mad a Jade's acestors.. "I was wondering if it had somthing to do with it."

"What do you mean?" Carol asked.

"It's a long story." Jean said. She then looked over to Jade.

"I know you are not like your ancestors. You have your rough spots that come with your experiences. We just have to help encourage you to keep from going to the fark end. If nothing else Carol can help you with that. She can be an absolute Pollyanna at times."

"Hey! Ah'm NOT a Pollyanna You've seen my Dark Side."

"True...but compared to Logan?"

Carol opened up her mouth but nothing came out. She then close it and simply nodded.

"Well Ah mean, that's kind of a low bar."

Jean chuckled and looked to Jade. "Look whatever happens we'll be with you. That is...if you are willing." 

[jade]

Carol cocked her head to the side. "Huh, Ah was wondering where he went."

Jean couldn't help but shake her head when Jade mentioned the Shadow King being mad a Jade's acestors.. "I was wondering if it had somthing to do with it."

"What do you mean?" Carol asked.

"It's a long story." Jean said. She then looked over to Jade.

"I know you are not like your ancestors. You have your rough spots that come with your experiences. We just have to help encourage you to keep from going to the fark end. If nothing else Carol can help you with that. She can be an absolute Pollyanna at times."

"Hey! Ah'm NOT a Pollyanna You've seen my Dark Side."

"True...but compared to Logan?"

Carol opened up her mouth but nothing came out. She then close it and simply nodded.

"Well Ah mean, that's kind of a low bar."

Jean chuckled and looked to Jade. "Look whatever happens we'll be with you. That is...if you are willing." 

Jade heard the conversation taking place between Jean and Carol. Jade pondered for second who the Logan individual was they referenced as she looked at both of them.

“I am more the willing to accept your offer of friendship and guidance, but I have one small request in return. My body has been through too much and my mind needs rest. Do you have a place where I can recharge for a bit?”

Jade felt herself falling weaker and wanted to stand up longer but she couldn’t. Her body was finally giving into lack of sleep, rest, and nutrition. Jade fell to the floor her mind flowing into the dreamscape as her soul seeked out truth and regeneration

(Continued in new thread “seeking truth”)