Sing for me {SMB BowserxOC}

Chapter 24 - The final Battle Part 1

Chapter in two parts, otherwise it would be far too long.

My only advice: imagine yourself in a Mario game, and the effect will follow.

Chapter 24 - The final Battle Part 1

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock

The sound of the clockwork was the only thing that broke the silence in which she was always immersed. Over and over again, it repeated itself in an infinite loop of ticks and tocks, enough to make you lose your mind. Time flew by like a star across the galaxy. She couldn't stop it, couldn't fight it... Couldn't even hope to escape it. Because no matter where she went, it would always catch up with her and lock her in its eternal loop, far from reality, far from everything she had come to know and love. It was a never-ending battle... No one could escape time or its influence.

Huddled in the corner of her cramped cell, Cinder was depressed. Imprisoned at the top of this tower overlooking the castle of her worst enemy, Time, she was prey to her thoughts and to the heavy solitude that sometimes-played tricks on her. Her heart was in pieces since she was locked up here again... Isolated, where no one could ever find her. At least, that's what her Tick-Tock tormentor liked to repeat, to crush all her hopes of ever regaining a semblance of freedom. He had made her hope, he had made her believe that she could be free and have control over her own life... But this was just another manipulation by a King who was particularly fond of mental torture. She felt so stupid to have had the faint hope that he was sincere, to have thought she had seen a glimmer of benevolence in him for just a fraction of a second. But her gift of clairvoyance had been cruelly lacking.

"You're too stupid..." She moans between sobs after resting her head back against the wall.

Tick-Tock excelled in the art of manipulation, he was the embodiment of evil, as she had learned the hard way after all those long years of servitude. Trapped within these walls, she had seen many of his subjects chastised in the most horrible ways for no reason at all. Some had lost faith in their monarch, while others had lost their minds altogether. Yet he'd never physically harmed her before, which gave Cinder hope that maybe he wasn't so bad after all... Always looking for good in everyone she came across. Unfortunately, she'd been sorely mistaken about him. Because, contrary to what she thought, not everyone deserved redemption.

It was a judgment that now had a detrimental effect on her, as she languished once more at the top of this tower, forever a prisoner of the endless ticking and whims of a King as deceitful as he was malevolent.

Running her fingers slowly over the many lines she had marked on the white wall to situate herself in time, Cinder recalled the day he had granted her a wish. One wish, and one wish only. Tears filled her green eyes as she relived that powerful moment, still feeling the happiness that had enveloped her when he had offered her freedom. Something she had never experienced before! She didn't even know what it was, having lived in this kingdom for as long as she could remember. Without a name, without an identity. The red-haired girl knew absolutely nothing of the outside world apart from the little stories she had managed to obtain in exchange for a few songs for Tick-Tock. Stories that had allowed her to dream during these moments of solitude, to imagine what the world outside these limits was like... Until this famous proposition.

A freedom that he had, of course, conditioned, otherwise what was in it for him? He had to get something out of every deal. The King never gave anything away. So the deal was that he would give her a certain number of hours to discover the other territories, a world that had been totally unknown to her until then, to discover other landscapes, other sounds and see new faces. In exchange, she was to swear eternal loyalty to him and become his personal singer, forever imprisoned in these cursed places. His Star... His treasure. A most difficult dilemma, but in the end she'd signed the contract out of a thirst for freedom, hoping he'd show a little leniency by giving her a little more time.