Kindred

Goodbye, My Queen

Danny opened his eyes to see a familiar room full screens revealing numerous timelines. Sitting up, he looked around to find the elusive Master of Time. He found the ghost sitting at table with tea and snacks, watching him with his eerie solid reds. Danny flew towards him before taking the chair across from him. Odd. He felt nothing but calm before this powerful ghost that he suspected was an Ancient.

Clockwork greeted him, "You're growing into your power well, Your Majesty,"

Danny blinked, "What are you talking about?"

Clockwork summoned a mirror, revealing Danny's new image. His eyes had lost any semblance of humanity, his hair moonlit white with trails of ice floating off the surface like snow and stars, his skin looked pale with hints of blue where in life it would be blushed red, his barely seen freckles glowing like constellations across his cheeks, the scar from the bullet that brained him was a single bright star over his right brow, his ears long and sharp jutting out from his hair, fangs peeking between his bruise colored lips; he saw all these and he was surprised to find that he's not shocked by the sight. Rather, it was what was floating over his head like a halo that took his voice away and numbed his brain.

He croaked, "Clockwork...what is this?"

Now that he's looking over himself again, there was this strange stone on his chest, right over where his scar from when the Red Huntress ran him through were. This was what Elsa was touching. When she did that, it felt like she was touching him in the most intimate manner. He blushed at the memory.

Clockwork explained, "You forgot...just as you wished, when you defeated Pariah Dark and claimed his throne,"

Danny frowned, "Forgot?"

Clockwork nodded, "You begged me,"

The burning core pushed down his throat. He didn't want it. He didn't want it but he could not stop his next action. As if controlled by instinct, he cracked down on the molten core of the Ghost King, claiming his throne and his power as his own. Absolute conquest. Absolute domination.

"Stop it. Change it. Clockwork, please!"

"I don't want this! I don't want this stupid crown! Clockwork, I'm scared of what I'm becoming!"

"I destroyed the world once...with nothing but grief. What do you think I will do with this much power? Please...please, take it away. Give it to someone else! I'm scared!"

"Stronger than anyone...no one could defeat me. With Pariah's might added to my still growing power, who could stop me? No...no...NO~!"

"Please...erase this from my mind...erase this from everyone's recollection..."

Danny gasped as the memory rushed through his mind. He looked at the crown with fresh eyes. It had looked so small on Pariah's head. But on his, it was wide and large, the spikes more pronounced and intimidating. It burned still but instead of the molten green heat, it burned with an almost invisible white flame that flickered all over the black surface of the crown that reminded Danny of iron. But instead of smokes, cold mist lifted off the black surface like he just picked it out of liquid nitrogen.

He knew that he cannot get rid of it. However...

"I thought it's around my neck?"

Clockwork hummed, "The Crown reflects your state of mind. When you saw it as nothing more than a collar, it resembled that. But now you are accepting your power. It reflects that too,"

He brushed an armored claw over the stone on his chest, "And this?"

Clockwork looked at it, "That was once the Ring of Rage. It is now the Amulet of Terror,"