Dear readers,

Welcome to this Dark Light Tales songfic.
Before starting the story I would like to share a bit how this story came into being.
Some weeks ago I send Anna the text of a song that particularly reminded me of Dark Light Tales. She not only agreed with me but actually challenged me to write a songfic with it. Saying that I could borrow one of her characters if I wanted to. Quite a challenge indeed but it sparked my interest and as you can see I accepted it. I wrote this songfic and I think I would never had dared to do this, for many reasons, where it not for the fact that she (and a couple of my best friends...so this one is dedicated to them and there ongoing support and friendship :hug: ) believed in my ability to write. I still think it is quite a challenge but I hope I won't disapoint in what I made of it.

Disclaimer: I do not own the song I used. Which is called Deceiver and from the band: Stream of Passion. Nor do I own Dixie or the whole Dark Light Tales setting. The girl and the plot are however my own. Do not steel.....or all hell will be unleashed on you :devil:

Rating: PG

And now on with the story (apologies for the grammer and spelling mistakes)




Mirror images (Dixie and the mirror girl)

The tavern was empty, only haunted by the ghost of memories. A ghost all the others had tried to escape yet she had not and while she stood there in that small bar she could feel the ghost reaching out for her, its ice cold hands delving inside her mind. Yet all it found was a mind just as cold as its hands and a heart that had been long gone.

Yes they where all mourning for little Lillith. She smirked, to bad that little Lillith was not so innocent anymore, that she could not claim the position she had last night with her infuriating righteousness and morals. Her light was not shining so brightly now, revealing to everyone else how dark their lives where. They all had been affected by it, all but one. She smirked again and looked at herself in the mirror.
“No one can touch me,” she whispered.
The blood red surface of the mirror reflected her own image back at her. She touched it and traced the lines of her face in the mirror, while she softly whispered with her cold smile: through water and flame, paper and stone, I command thee, lest come undone."

The image in the mirror rippled like water and the reflection of herself became distorted. For one short moment she saw a completely different woman peering back at her. Then the mirror returned to it’s immobile state again and the image she saw reflected was that of herself again. Her cold eyes bore into the reflection she saw, wondering what had happened but she couldn’t see any difference. Slowly she took a step back and there perched on the barstool sat the woman she had seen looking back at her from the rippled mirror image. Now she sat behind her and the woman peered at her through the mirror.

For long
I have been hiding
And all the pain I hold within
Sends shivers down my spine

Slowly she turned around to observe the woman. There was nothing extremely remarkable about her save for the straight blue, green hair she had and the fact that she was covered from head to toe in black leather.
“Where did you come from?” she asked annoyed.
“Where all people come from,” the woman said with a soft sad voice.
Dixie crossed her arms in front of her chest and observed the newcomer with detached curiosity. She couldn’t detect a trace of anything extraordinary, no magic or hidden powers. No demon, angel or beast lurking inside this one. She was just another human and probably on a quest for answers and a search for uniqueness.
“What do you want?”
The woman smiled intimidated at her, “what everyone wants”.

For long
I have been waiting
For a reason to arise
Was it all a waste of time?
I am not who you think I am,

She narrowed her eyes and leaned back against the wall. Images of the last night inside her head provoked by the ghost of memories that was still lingering in the bar. Seeing it’s way to make another attempt in luring her to take a trip to the past. It’s soothing voice filled with promises that meant nothing to her. She had left it all behind just as a butterfly leaves the cocoon behind having no need for the mundane anymore now it could fly. Mundane as the woman in front of her, no matter how many colours her hair or how much dark leather she wore. These creatures where behind her, below her and she had no need for this one at all. She pushed away the ghost, having no more need for it that this woman in front of her.
“So you stumbled in here, looking for answers and hidden things. Hoping that it will teach you something,” she hissed, boring her eyes into those of the woman in front of her.
“You will find no answers here, nor am I in the habit of teaching people. The last time I did that it didn’t turn out so well,” she smiled menacingly, “the only thing you are bound to find here is death. So you better run little one before it comes for you”.
“Death is no stranger to me,” the woman said softly and only now she took of one of her black leather gloves. The revealed skin was not smooth and cream-colored like her own but blackened, wrinkled and cracked.
“I was burned alive in the fire by someone who had no need for me anymore,” the woman said almost in a matter of fact voice.

A little bit surprised she observed the woman before her, then saying, “all right I will listen to your tale. That is what you want, isn’t it? That is why you came busting in here, dying for someone to hear your tale and see how remarkable you are. Isn’t it?”
“Oh yes,” the woman said back, “I would like for you to hear my tale indeed but I want something in return for it”.
Amused she stared at the woman, “do you really think you stand a chance if I really wanted to have your story. That you could deny me anything if I wanted to?”
The woman shrugged, “probably not but I don’t think you are going to refuse me”.
She shook her head and then laughed her mirthless laugh, “you humans never seize to amaze me. Always thinking the best of others while the world is filled with evidence of the total opposite. Ah but I will grant you this; you do have courage little one. That is why I will hear your wish and maybe I will even grant it”.
Slowly the woman slipped her hand in her glove again before extending it and saying, “my name is Dee-ace”.
“I did not ask for your name Dee-ace. I asked for your wish”.

Soon I’ll be letting you down
I am not who you think I am
I’m everywhere

The woman Dee-ace smiled, “it is a simple wish. You have a drink…something you only make for certain people and for a high price. I want to have it for free. I want enchantment”.

She glanced at the woman than shrugged “It is a small wish and you can have a glass of it if you want but you are proving to be more foolish than I had given you credit for. It only works under very special circumstances. For instance there has to be another on whom the drink is supposed to work.
“I know this,” she said smiling mysteriously, “all I want is your word that you will give me this in exchange for my story. The required circumstances under which it is supposed to work are known to me. Your blood in the drink will form the enchantment once there has been a free exchange of something important between me and the person I want to form a connection with. The bond will be sealed when the transaction has been completed and the drink has been completely consumed by me. Isn’t that right?”
“That is right,” she said indifferently before smiling maliciously, “but should you fail you will belong to me. And I think you won’t find that amusing at all”.
“I know this,” the woman said, “and I am taking my chance since I have nothing to loss in any case”.
She cocked up one eyebrow, “Well this should prove to be interesting,” she said with cold amusement before turning around to get the required drink.

You think I have been lying,
There are secrets
That lie frozen in my silent stare
If you go through my fears
You will see I’ve lost control
All the faith I had is gone

On the polished wooden shelve between different sized crystal bottles, filled with all kinds of drinks, stood a small crystal vial. The contend was dark red and swirling, clashing angrily with the small black treads in it. Carefully she picked it up and poured a small measure of it in a tiny glass before pushing it to Dee-ace. “I would say enjoy but that would be to much to ask,” she said thoroughly enjoying the fact that she was giving this hope-deprived woman a drink that was nothing short of being pure poison.

Step back,
Watch me closely
As my crimson wings unfold

Tentatively the woman picked up the small glass, biting hard on her lip before bringing it to her mouth. She saw how the glass touched Dee-ace’s lips and a small drop of her blood fell into the drink, making it swirl like a hurricane in a glass. With folded arms and a smile on her lips she saw how the woman took her first sip. Almost immediately the woman doubled over, the drink sloshing in the glass because of the abrupt motion and the jerky way in which it was put down on the bar. The woman coughed and clutched her stomach. Tears streaming over her face and little beads of perspiration appeared on her suddenly very pale face.
“I warned you, didn’t I,” she said in a voice that could have sounded sympathetic where it not from the obvious glee in it.
With one hand clutching the bar the woman reclaimed herself and righted herself on the barstool.

You’ll see me as I am
I know, it won’t be easy
But in the end you’ll understand
My instinctive need to fly

Her voice was a little shaky but she spoke nonetheless, “it was betrayal,” the woman said peering into her eyes, “which made me who I am now”.
“I was burned, sacrificed on an altar to a force that would give what was wanted but only for a price. And I was the price that had to be paid. I died in that fire but in some ways it was also my resurrection. Till that time I had been alive but mostly in a state of ignorance. I knew that I existed but I served a purpose that the one to whom I belonged had no use for. I was hated but only in those moments in which I burned did I learn the extend of that hate,” the woman said with a horrible croaking voice. Slightly convulsing from the drink that was wreaking havoc in her body.

“So you escaped in the end and came back for revenge?” Dixie said mockingly. Slowly the woman took another small sip, her hand gripping the bar more tightly, her knuckles became more pronounced in the leather glove but she remained upright. For a small moment she closed her eyes. She shook her head faintly before looking at Dixie again.
“Revenge is not what I seek,” the woman said smiling lightly. “I have come back to restore the balance. Revenge means nothing to me. I have come back to fulfill my purpose”.

Soon I’ll be letting you down
I am not who you think I am

She sneered, “And here it comes again. The absolutely infantile human reasoning for compassion and understanding. Or aren’t you about to tell me that you came back for justice and to safe other innocent souls. To tell me that you believe that this person has had reasons to justify what they did. You think they deserve your compassion even after all they did to you”.
“Yes I do believe this but I have a much more simple reason to believe this than you expect or assume. You see as long as I was alive I was the slave of this person. I was forced, and denied. I had no will, no power of my own. I was hated and shunned and in the end sacrificed but this sacrifice made it possible for me to become an acting agent. I cannot be denied anymore. I have burned for endless years in the consuming power of the force that granted the wish of the one who gave me up. But in the fire the spell of ignorance was lifted and I was freed from the person who had subdued me. I am something that is linked to the soul and contains a part of the soul. And that part of the soul was awakened, given consciousness in the fire. I learned to manipulate the force that is called magic and to whom I was sacrificed. Cause just like you, I knew that magic can be controlled and used by those who have knowledge and power. And since I was intimately linked to a person who had this I could use this for my own use”.
The woman smiled serenely at her while taking another sip of her drink, which was almost consumed now. Her hand still clutching the bar.

Dixie stared at the bar, it shimmered and flickered in front of her eyes. She could hear the ghost of memories laughing mockingly at her. It danced away from her groping fingers, a warning was ringing in her head, she needed to remember but this time it was the ghost who moved away from her grasping fingers. She tried to took hold of something she knew that was important. Disorientated she clasped the bar just like the woman did who was sitting on the other side.

Grasping for some way to regain control she managed to look at the woman on the other side of the bar. She had an amused smile on her face, in one hand she held the glass with the drink enchantment and she swirled it around. There was only one more sip left of it.

“You know they where right,” the woman said conversationally to her, “I mean your patrons of yesterday evening. Betrayal is indeed the only solely human emotion. But how would you know. You who are without emotion. You who gave your heart up without the blinking of an eye,” there was a vicious smile on her face. “You should have known that the heart contains a part of the soul and that the soul knows. And when you destroy the carrier you destroy the barriers that contain the soul”.
Stumbling she moved to Dee-ace, clutching the bar to hold herself steady, in a final attempt to knock the glass out of those hated black leather gloves. In the hope that the content would spill over the floor to break the spell that had been placed over her.
“You should have realised,” she heard Dee-ace say from far away, “that I mirror everything of you and the effects of your drink are bounced back. Just like mirrors bounce everything back. That the blood I spilled in the glass re-established a bond that was broken”.

Finally it dawned on her and only now the ghost of memories gave in. But it was to late. Clarity was only horror now because all it did was grant her a vision of what was to come. Oblivion would have been mercy in these final moment and though she knew it was to late she still made one last desperate attempt to get to the woman. She stumbled and swung clumsily at the class but with a horrified look she saw how Dee-ace dodged her assault easily, giving her one last glance before she tipped the glass and emptied it. She screamed while all the lights seemed to go out. Time was slowing down and all she could hear now was the voice of Dee-ace.

“I am back dearest and I am the one in control this time. And you will find that you do have feelings after all. I was the one who had to suffer them all this time but things are about to change”.

Let the evening air in
And dim the lights
Reality’s fading

I love it.
Although you seem to be really stern with your heroine... more strict than the author of DLT.
I like the atmosphere and the way you portray the Dee-Ace... I might be extremely stupid or weirdly naive, but does it stand for Death? I mean, the name... it reminds me of the Ace that is used to symbolize Death in tarots... can't tell it in English...
Okay! I'd better shut my mouth up and stop making a fool of me... :meh:

Well done, Dana! Your writing skills have really bloomed, as well as your control of the language...


:love:

In one word amazing.......

The setting is perfect and with every word you created more suspicion.
My words fall short.

It flows so well and you have such a great grasp of the language.
But is Dee-ace the soul of Dixie.??? I mean the bond that was broken.... she was given away when not needed.
Am I reading this right???

I am really curious.

but it was perfect, you accepted the challenge and you did more than right by it

Love, Moon

weeee! I'm super pumped you decided to post this. I was hoping you would so everyone would have the chance to read this gem!

I loved this image because if you know Dixie as a character it really fits. The coldness and emptiness she has inside, this line displays it well.

And, this is the part that makes you sit up and say, hey, wait a minute, that sounds familiar! My brain started spinning.

Squee! So wickedly cool! It made me shiver in my wee boots. I love the idea of the positions being swapped and everything changing for Dixie. Awesome work, babe!

I am finally here to reply. I apologize for being so late, I have been into finals and the s***rs just wouldn't let me go.

Anyway, I am so super excited you posted it, for various reasons. one, it's a great story, with a kickass idea supporting it, and it's remarkably well written, and I thought it was fair everyone could share the treat of reading it.

Two, i thought it was also fair everyone could get the opportunity to tell you how good a writer you are, because it's true: I knew you were a bit unsure about this, that you always are about your writing, and this time even more. Still, some compliments would do you good, or that was at least my opnion. :shine:

Third, well, I am flattered and excited beyond words! I mean, it is such a honor that someone likes a character I made up enough to associate it to a song, and it's even more a honor if that someone happens to be a friend. You made my day when you accepted my little challenge, and you made my day when you sent this to me.

Now, to the story.
ursi is right, your style has improved so much, there are some kickass descriptions in here, and some bits made me shiver, really.

I am not an educated replier like you are, and I know I cannot say anything new to you. i am glad that out of all comparisons you could make about Dixie, you chose the mirror, the mirror as a physical space and barrier, and mirror also as a gate.

It depends on the points of view, wheter gates are there to prevent someone from entering a space, or someone else from coming out of it, and in this case, it was the second option.
the mirror here is the gate, but also the link... and it's not a coincidence that this story occurrs right inside the tavenrn, that is the space equivalent of Dixie herself, a place where she feels home, and she is free to show herself for what she really is.

The image of the mirror appears also in the simmetry of the two women sitting on the opposite sides of the bench, and towards the end, also their moves are similar. Just they don't look alike, they are exactly the opposite, like a negative and its picture.

they are opposite in their appearence, and also in their essence. reason and emotion, and also, revenge and lack of feeling. it is also cool that at the end, right when Dixie is loosing control and letting her 0feelings' show, Dee-ace becomes more and more controlled and smooth, like they always had to keep a balance and oppose each other's everything to keep a primal equilibrium.

I love how you hint that nobody can escape a part of themselves, and there's a balance to be kept in nature, and that the ghosts of our deeds will haunt us. It rocks so much!

I must quote at least one thing, the one that shocked me the most and made me sigh 'brilliance' aloud:

The part of the burnt flesh really did it for me... it is something that always scared me deeply, the main reason why I cannot even think of things like cremation. *shudders*
and you know what's cool? that even thought the sacrificial fire was in the original plot, I never thought deeply about the moment of gap between the fire and the last enchantment, for dixie. I never pictured the burnt sight of her until you showed me!

And the part about drinking and bargaining is super clever. The fact blood and words make the magic together, it's so logic... powerful and ancient magic that is, right?
gee, Dixie should have known better, but she was too full of herself!
:lol:

What more can i add? I rambled quite enough, and I am pretty sure I said a bunch of silly things. :blush:

I guess 'thank you' is the appropriate closing line, then, so, thank you, my dearest!

:blush: Gosh girls this is to much praise.
I am really flattered and I sure feel proud that you all like it so much and think I have improved so much.
Never expected this but I sure as hell do like it!!!

@ Ursi I don't think it is a stupid idea at all. There sure is logic to be found in that thought...and especially when you consider the writer :devil:
I think it is great that you could actually see something in it I never was aware of.
I think you might find it interesting to know that the name Dee-ace is the phonetically spelled word Diez (as I recall you do know Spanish so I think figuring it out won't be to difficult *grins* where as I had to look it up) but I must say that I think your explanation is a whole lot cooler.

Thanks so much babe :hug: (I did notice that you still are fond of the word Bloom :devil: )

@ Moon;

Je hebt zo goed als de spijker op z'n kop geslagen *grijns* Let me tell you what I had in mind since there won't be a follow up and I certainly don't want you to die of curiosity :noangel: Dizie said in DLT that she had no feelings because she cut out her heart. Her heart is thus the emotional part of her.....and Dominic said that there are 3 organs who are most closely connected to the soul; the brain, the heart and the soul......guess that solve the riddle doesn't it :noangel:

@ Amber; thanks so much for the sweet things you said.

*grins* I really had hoped for some shivering and I am uber proud that you think it is so good. I am happy you really think this is Dixie...she is a pretty tough cookie.

Now last but certainly not least Anna. I really gasped when I read your reply and I am not ashamed to admit that I read it several times because it made me feel so happy and good!
But first; you may never ever say again that you are not good at replying or picking out the deeper meanings...or else you will see my bad side :devil:

It is really hard for me to reply on all the amazing and sweet words you said (cause that would basically mean copy and paste the whole thing) but I will make an attempt. You point out things I never noticed and you made me aware that I put more into this than I thought or imagined. Things I believe in but never put consciously in this fic. Funny how the mind works.

:blush: thanks so much. You have no idea what it means!!
I am fairly uncertain about my writing skills and to hear from you that you think I am doing great is pretty special for me. Because you are my friend and because I am such a big admirer of your writing.

*nods* It is one of those things I really really believe in. And it is so weird cause I never realised I put it in there at all.

Yes it is ancient magic...very ancient.
Blood ties bodies and words tie souls. In there own way these two things are very special and surrounded with power.

Thanks to you all for your sweet and great replies
I love you guys!
:hug: :love: