The Jester of One Thousand Years

Everything hurt. Teddie felt like he was jammed through a small pipe and popped out on the other side. His arms had twisted in ways he didn’t even know they could twist, and he didn’t even know his head could fit through such a small crack.

Yet, he wasn’t actually harmed. It hurt, but that pain would pass eventually. This was odd, normally no person could be squeezed like that and come out okay. He looked to his sides, and saw Adelyn and Ed also lying about. The two of them were dazed. He didn’t see Cozy, Liana, or Custos, however.

“Are you guys okay?” Cozy’s voice shouted from behind them. Teddie turned around and saw the crack that they were pulled through.

“Nngh,” Adelyn slowly got up and looked around, as did Ed. The room they were in was quite dark, with the only light coming through the crack.

“We’re… okay!” Teddie shouted back, hoping that the other side could hear him. “We’re just stuck!”

“We’re going to try and get you out.” Cozy responded. “Just hang tight!”

“Okay!”

As Teddie and Cozy were conversing, the boy felt a nervous chill down his spine. As if something was behind him.

“That’s… not normal,” Ed said. Teddie turned around to see what he was looking at.

Teddie, Adelyn, and Edward all ended up face to face with one eerie occurrence. The darkness that shrouded this room was split apart by a single, massive eyeball. The eye darted back and forth before staring directly at them.

“What in the…?” Adelyn said, taking a step back.

Ed however, walked forwards and created an orb of light, before tossing it in the direction of the eye. It shone bright on the darkness, and revealed…

A boy. Seemingly around their age. His face was horribly disfigured because it was stretched to make the massive eye. He was dressed much like a jester, with a red and blue clown outfit, a hat with two large pom poms at the end. He had a purple vest with a cute flashy bowtie on it, with massive brown boots that covered up to his thighs.

“Howdy!”

The boy said, his eye still outstretched.

“Hello…?” Adelyn responded, with a small wave.

The boy eventually pulled the eye back, returning his distorted face to normal. He floated in the air with a cheerful smile.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a soul in this cell! I can’t count how long, really!” The boy responded. “Who are you? What brings you here?”

“We ought to be asking you that question!” Ed responded. “Who are you? Why the hell are you spreading disgusting roots everywhere?”

“Ohhh, you’re here for that,” the boy responded. “Well, it’s not fun if I just explained everything like that. Let’s start with introductions!”

The boy began to rise into the air slowly, before stopping suddenly. But then, an awful feeling overtook the group. Like they were losing their stability to the ground. Suddenly, all of them fell.

“AAAAH-” Teddie shouted, expecting to hit the other side. But he never did. He was falling, but it felt like he wasn’t going to hit the ground.

Then he felt his momentum change, as he began to fall in the other direction. Then another. The space around him kept on throwing him around, tossing and turning, making him sick to his stomach.

He could see Adelyn and Edward flying through the air too. They were spinning around a center, which seemed to be the boy. Though, Teddie also looked at the surrounding walls. They were spinning too.

The entire world was spinning. All around this boy.

“It’s great to meet you!” He said as the kids all flew around him. “We haven’t met, but my name is Kaos. I’m the owner of the circus! The world is my audience!”

Teddie was getting bleary from all of this vertigo, desperately trying to find something to grasp but was unable to.

“It’s been thousands of years since I was able to perform for an audience, I hope that I’m not too rusty!” Kaos continued. “I mean, being stuck inside a dark sphere for thousands of years isn’t fun! I’ve seen this place get transformed so many times while I’ve been stuck here. I think they’ve incorporated it into a part of a prison? That’s right, a prison! Me? Stuck in a prison? Impossible, I just want to perform for the world!”

Teddie was having a hard time trying to parse what he was attempting to say. He couldn’t even hear his own thoughts right now. Luckily, Edward seemed to have a better handling of this scenario.

“You still haven’t answered!” Ed responded, even despite also flying around like a lunatic. “Why the hell are you leaking black sludge everywhere!”

“I need to spread the word, somehow! Being stuck in here makes marketing really hard, you know?” He answered. “But since you four came here, Things might be different!”

Four? Was he talking about Cozy? She wasn’t in there with them, though.

“Well you’re clearly upsetting the animals!” Adelyn shouted. “I don’t think you’re a very good performer!”

“The audience doesn’t know what they want, sweetie!” Kaos said, suddenly dashing in front of Adelyn. “The entire world misses me, I’m just building hype for my grand return!”

“Agh-!” Adelyn said, and she seemingly instinctively reached out to her chainsaw and slashed at the boy. As a response, the boy split in half as the attack went through him before sticking himself back together.

“Feisty one! I love a rowdy crowd!” Kaos said. “Lets have some audience participation, I use your souls to bust out of here and you can share the stage with me!”

“““What?”””

All three of them said, as the boy laughed a little bit at their reaction.

“I sense three plus one powerful souls at once. Now that they’re finally in my sights, I can burst out of this cage!” Kaos smiled. “All you need to do is… hand it over!”

In a massive burst of speed, Kaos moved towards Edward and struck at his chest. However, as he did that… a burst of light shot out of him and rejected the attack!

“Huh, you’re also feisty. I do love an audience that participates in my show!”

“Get away from me!” With a shout, Ed summoned a blade of light and swung it at the boy, who simply moved to the side. With a blast, Ed shot a light beam to give himself some momentum and get next to Teddie.

“Teddie, I can’t keep up with this guy,” Ed told him. “I’m going to need your help.”

“But how are we supposed to get out of here?” Teddie said.

“I’m sure the others are working on a way! Give me some strength!” Ed responded, before putting on his mask.

“Right!” Teddie said, as he began to sing a song. A song that would boost Ed’s strength to heights even beyond his regular power.

And it was just in time too. A blur appeared right in front of them and struck directly at Ed, who managed to block it with his sword.

“AAAGH-!” Ed shouted, it looked like his arm nearly gave out at the blow. But he managed to hold against the jester.

“Maybe I am a bit out of practice,” Kaos said. “It’s been 1000 years, once I’m free I can be so much more…”

“Hey!” Adelyn shouted. “Stop attacking my friends!”

With a glowing light, a burning flame appeared within the cell. Teddie remembered she referred to this spirit as Igna, the Caller of Flames. A massive burst of fire overcame the jester, as Ed and Teddie backed off from the attack, watching the boy go up in flames.

But then, all of the flames began to contract in on itself. They swirled around a single focal point in space, converging into a small black ball. Out of it came Kaos, skin and clothes completely untouched by the flames.

“I haven’t seen this kind of magic before. You must not be from here, that’s why your soul looks so different too!”

He moved the black orb in front of him, and then the entire world began to push towards Adelyn. Flames began to burst out of the small orb shoot in a burst towards the girl!

“Adelyn!” Ed dashed over at a ridiculous speed, more than Teddie could even track and created a shield around her. The two of them got engulfed in the massive flame, but eventually it dissipated… and the two survived, under the scorched golden bubble.

Teddie was about to speak, but then he felt a strong pressure on his mouth. He couldn’t open it, as Kaos stood directly in front of him.

“You have the weakest soul here,” Kaos said. “But, I suppose you always need an opener before you get to the main course!”

Kaos’ hand held over his mouth. He was muffled, he couldn’t scream if he wanted to as the hand gripped onto his face. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see both Adelyn and Edward flying towards him!

A blade in Ed’s hand, and a chainsaw in Adelyn’s own. The two of them moved to strike at Kaos’ but with a glance, a pulse of energy came out of his body, and knocked the two of them back!

The two of them screamed as they were thrown into the wall. Teddie felt helpless as Kaos lifted him up, before he pulled back his other hand and grabbed at his chest!

Teddie could feel something begin to tear from his body. It wasn’t his heart, but it most certainly felt like it. It was his soul. Desperately trying to cling onto his body and prevent itself from being taken. It felt like it was a tug of war between the two bodies, which he was losing.

In one last desperation move, Teddie sang a song.

A song that calmed him down as he was being torn apart. A song that would at the very least make the pain go away. A song that reminded him of the friends he made.

And he screamed it out.

“AGH!” Kaos released his grip on Teddie’s mouth, being pushed back into the center. “What the hell?”

Teddie caught his breath, he didn’t know how he did that at all. He’s never thrown a single punch in his life. Yet he somehow did that. He looked at the jester, and he noticed a few cracks in his hand, before it fell apart and crumbled into dust.

It didn’t last long though, as a new hand regrew from the ashes.

“I never would’ve expected something like that to come from your kind of soul,” Kaos responded. “Well, let’s finish this first act quickly, then.”

With a snap of his fingers, Teddie felt a tendril wrap around his leg and immediately pulled him closer to Kaos. He came face-to-face with the jester, who had a wicked smile on his face. With two more darkness tendrils gripping both of Teddie’s arms, Kaos raised his hand and attempted another strike towards Teddie’s chest!

However, before he did that, Ed immediately flew from the side with a giant golden hammer and struck the jester, sending him flying!

Adelyn floated next to Teddie, her chainsaw flying around and cutting apart the darkness tendrils that were holding him down. Following that, Adelyn summoned a spirit that was pure darkness. Its red eyes and smile glowed as it spread across the room.

The darkness spirit created an orb that surrounded the jester, engulfing him in a world of pitch black. It seemed to hold, for now.

“That basically throws him into a pocket world. I hope that can hold him for a little bit,” Adelyn said. “Speaking of which, Teddie! What happened? That was actually really cool, but I’ve never seen you do anything like that before!”

“I… I don’t know,” he responded. “I just sang a little bit and… I screamed, and it worked?”

“Whatever it is,” Ed said. “Keep doing it. I need to know the progress on getting us the hell out of here.”

Edward used his beams to blast himself towards the crack, which was still spinning around in space. Even still, he managed to grab onto it.

“COZY? WHAT’S THE SITUATION?”

Teddie and Adelyn also gathered by the crack, attempting to hear anything from the outside.

They heard the earth rumble from the outside, and the sound of multiple blasts being fired. Eventually they heard a familiar voice.

“We’re working on something! As I said, we should be able to drag you out and patch this hole up,” Cozy responded from the other side. “We just had… some other issues to deal with! I know you’re dealing with someone crazy in there, just hold on for a bit longer… AGH!”

Another rumbling sound came from the other side.

“Right,” Adelyn said. “We just need to trust in her. Teddie! We’re counting on you! That song is what’s going to keep us in this!”

“Me? I’ve never… used this like this before… it’s the song I used when calming the hydra…” Teddie responded, clutching his bear in nervousness.

“Don’t worry,” Ed said. “We’ll have your back. But it’s clear that you’re the most effective against him. We need you.”

“Okay,” Teddie said, taking a deep breath. “I’ll try.”

The dark sphere that was containing the monster began to break apart. Cracks of light began to form, and a massive burst expanded outwards into the air. Standing from the brightness came the jester.

“Yeah, we definitely need you, Teddie,” Adelyn said.