Kage

Kage is a Jackie Chan Adventures and W.I.T.C.H. (2004) crossover fanfiction by chaotic9, and a part of Project Dark Jade. The author has another project story called A Frog in Arkham Asylum

The premise of the story is that Drago, during his defeat and banishment at the end of the final JCA episode, cast a spell so that Jade, who he viewed as an Arch-Enemy, was cast out of her world, to an entirely seperate universe.

She then finds herself in Meridian at the start of the second season of W.I.T.C.H., her Queen of the Shadowkhan persona partially reawakened, and gets caught up in the battle between the Guardians and Nerissa, with circumstances forcing her to ally with the crazy sorceress in her quest to return home.

Now with a Character Sheet

Official Description: Sometimes even the heroes greatest victory can be tainted. And that cost Jade her place in her Universe. Now in another Universe watched by a place called Kandrakar and its Guardians, with some of the power she once possessed, Jade will try to find a way home, by any means necessary. But can she prevail in an Universe where Light seems to always beat Darkness?

While this story has sadly become a Dead Fic, it now has a Recursive Fanfiction in Shadows over Meridian.

This fic provides examples of:

• Accomplice by Inaction: Caleb is determined to punish all of Phobos' loyalists. Unfortunately, his definition of "loyal" extends to anyone who didn't try to fight against the tyrant. To Caleb, choosing to obey and live for fear of your life and the lives of those you care about doesn't matter. If you weren't willing to fight and die, then you're a traitor to the crown.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • The Rebellion as a whole receives this. While straight up heroes in canon, here they're shown to not be above their own share of distasteful acts, such as the events that led to the destruction of Sonder Hill. And post-victory, their pride from defeating Phobos and resentment towards his followers is only making them undertake more morally questionable actions.
  • In canon, Caleb was a standard hero, but here he's got a borderline Black-and-White Insanity view of things that causes him to take such extreme actions that the Knights find him no different from Cedric.
  • Likewise Vathek, who shows a cruel streak towards Phobos' minions that wasn't present in canon. Also, while canonically he showed some remorse for framing Raythor to cover his own tracks as The Mole, that is completely absent here.
  • Also Aldarn, a straight hero in canon, shares Caleb's anger and aggression towards anyone who might have served Phobos.
  • Frost is given a slightly sexist attitude which wasn't apparent in canon.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Tracker is considered pure evil in canon, but here he shows some civility towards Jade due to Sniffer, who was portrayed merely as a ferocious hound in canon, taking a liking to her.
  • Unlike her canon counterpart who wasn't given any explanation for her evilness, Miranda has a traumatic Freudian Excuse to give her a deep-routed hatred towards Elyon, the Rebellion and Phobos. While she's still not very nice, at least some of her behavior seems to be a result of her playing her jerky moments up on purpose. For example. the thing about Passlings being her favorite food turns out to be mere scaremongering.
• Adaptational Sympathy:
  • Raythor is made far more sympathetic over the fact that he was framed and how callous the Guardians and Rebellion are over his fate.
  • Miranda is also made more sympathetic by being given a tragic backstory that explains her bitterness and hatred towards Elyon and the Rebellion. She also has a kind side she keeps hidden, and some of her crueler canon actions are just an act to better blend into Phobos' court, such as her rumored eating of Passlings turning out to be just a lie.
• Adaptation Distillation: The author has referenced details from the comic continuity a few times.
• Adaptation Expansion: The story has expanded upon some details, like Phobos overthrowing his parents.
• The Ageless:
  • Jade believes that this is the type of immortality Tarakudo and his Oni Generals have, based on Tohru's research about them and the other Youkai. It's later confirmed in a memory of the Crab Khan General the Queen shares with Jade who also wonders if she's immortal in this way as well.
  • Shapeshifters don't age after the age of twenty, but they do die after living from 400 to 500 years.
  • Miranda speculates that Sandpit and Tracker, who are both unique beings, might be this trope.
  • During a long-term study session in the Kandrakar library, Tibor wishes that Sages got this instead of simply aging at a slower rate.
• All Myths Are True: It seems that most creatures from Earth's mythology were inspired by beings from other worlds like Meridian and Arkhanta that one way or another ended up there, like Passlings and Gargoyle's kind.
• Alternate Self: The W.I.T.C.H. universe Earth has its local version of Jackie Chan and his niece (Stacie instead of Jade), who are actors like in our reality, albeit ones doing a TV show that's basically JCA with some of the details changed.
• Alternate Universe: In that Jade gets banished by Drago during the JCA Final Battle. That said, the W.I.T.C.H. universe appears to be a separate one from the JCA universe, judging by the Oracle's comments when feeling Jade's arrival on Meridian. It's confirmed that the W.I.T.C.H. Earth is different from the JCA Earth, as on the former, Jackie Chan is a famous actor, and his niece is a young woman named Stacie. Jade is in denial about this.
• The Antichrist: According to N'Ghala the First Oracle's prophecy, Jade (or the Queen of the Shadowkhan) will spread darkness across all the Known Worlds. Yua shares with Ari another prophecy regarding a being whose description Jade matches bringing about the downfall of Kandrakar:
  "From another realm, another place; comes a dark child of a long forgotten race; from thrive to trial she will reach her throne; the light of the sky will be darkened by her will alone."
• Anti-Villain: Jade, who has the ultimate goal of getting home, and is only with Nerissa because of circumstances.
• Arch-Enemy: It is revealed that Drago views Jade as this.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When the Queen asks Jade if she wants to turn back to a normal human because she really wants to or because Jackie would want her to, Jade cannot come up with any retort for a change.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Nerissa is following her canon plot, while also plotting to steal Jade's powers for herself. Meanwhile, the Queen is trying to corrupt Jade so that she can perform a Split-Personality Takeover, while Kur is plotting from the sidelines to manipulate Elyon into aiding his anti-shapeshifter plans. And then there's Yua and Ari, currently closer to Greater-Scope Villain status as they watch events unfold on Meridian, waiting for when they can step in and help Jade to fulfill the prophecy that she'll cause Kandrakar's downfall.
• Big "NO!": Miranda wakes up from her Flashback Nightmare in Chapter 10 with this.
• Big "SHUT UP!": During their first meeting, Vathek all but shrieks Jade to be quiet when she attempts to defend herself against the "Mage's" lies about her.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • The other Guardians have this reaction when Irma points out to them that Jade's attempting to escape by jumping over Taranee's wall of flames.
  • Jade shouts this when "the Mage" first starts sprouting her lies about the girl being one of Phobos' monsters.
  • This is Elyon's reaction to being told that some of Phobos' supporters are still out there. It’s so loud it feels like the entire castle is shaking. This happens again later when she's told on her first visit to Kandrakar of Miranda and Jade's escape (though luckily there isn’t any castle shaking this time).
  • Vathek has this reaction upon learning of Raythor's return from the Abyss of Shadows. He has another one when Raythor surprises him by agreeing with him about something during their debate in Chapter 9.
  • Jade has an internal one upon learning that the Guardians caused Raythor to be banished under false charges of treason.
• Black-and-White Morality:
  • Caleb is shown as having this, bordering on Black-and-White Insanity. Especially when he claims he will have any village who sided with Phobos from the mayor to the villagers punished, and not caring about their reasoning.
    "This guy was really pushing Jade's buttons. Either he was a hero of this… place or thought himself to be one; either way, she never had encountered someone so shortsighted. Maybe Jackie followed a very strict code of morals and tried to drill that into her, but at least he was not that intolerant to others that didn't follow his beliefs. Even with Viper, he was at most annoyed by her lifestyle than truly condemning her, not to mention he and Uncle gave Tohru a chance when others, even Jade herself at the time, were not that forgiving. And of course, there was Jackie's infinite patience when dealing with her misdeeds.
    But this guy resembled one of those comic book heroes with a much too narrowed view that only saw black and white, with no grey in the middle. And to think, she thought that was cool once."
  • In a later chapter Will lampshades this by admitting they shouldn't have assumed Jade was evil on sight just because of her powers and appearance, and that Raythor is merely following his code of honor. The others agree after a talk, but say they should still capture them.
  • Jade, while believing that there is a firm line between good and evil, albeit one that can be stepped on or even crossed a little, is finding that things are blurrier than she's used to, especially with the Noble Demon Raythor and such.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: When the Knights attack Sonder Hill, Jade forces Tynar and Drake to drop their swords by throwing shuriken at their hands. Fortunately for them, the resulting wounds are merely scratches.
• Blatant Lies: "The Mage" tells the good guys that Jade is a shapeshifter with a default form that borders on Eldritch Abomination so she'll be falsely imprisoned, allowing Nerissa to promptly "rescue" her when she comes to free Miranda.
• Brain Food: Whenever the Queen is in control of Jade's body, she threatens to eat her opponents' brains, much to their shock. Jade actually eats a rat's brain off-screen. It disgusts the other Knights and makes many others view her to be more monstrous than they thought previously. It's eventually revealed that Jade and the Queen gained this trait from the memories of the Crab Khan General.
• Call-Back: Many events from both series are referred to.
  • When Jade first sees the Guardians, she wonders if they somehow got demon chi, even asking if they are "Fairy Sorcerers".
  • When Raythor reassures Jade that killing Shendu doesn't make her a monster, she realizes her capacity towards empathy, pity and mercy when she remembers how she helped Xu Lin escape the Lotus Temple and taught the bully Maynard self-restraint.
  • Jade first uses her ninja suit to glide when she remembers how she first saw the ninja Shadowkhan doing that.
  • The Queen's knowledge regarding the Shadowkhan and shadow magic are gained from the time Jade wore half of an Oni Mask, giving her the Crab Khan General's memories.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Jade's claims about not being a threat, especially after the actions of the Queen, and once Nerissa (disguised as the Mage) feeds the rebels a story about her being a shapeshifting monster.
  • When the Veil is lowered, Jade sees the sky turning purple and alerts the other Knights. When they look up, the sky's back to normal, and they assume it was a false alarm despite Jade's insistence. It's not until the Guardians first defeat the Knights that they learn from Nerissa that Meridian's sky turning purple for a brief moment was a sign that the Veil is no more.
• Casting a Shadow: Jade can enter shadows now, and while the Queen nearly manages to defeat Caleb and the Guardians with shadow-based Combat Tentacles, which she later teaches Jade to use, she has yet to figure out how to summon Shadowkhan.
• Catapult Nightmare: When Miranda's Flashback Nightmare where she relives her parents' murder ends, she finds herself awake and in a sitting position.
• Ceiling Cling: As Miranda waits for the Interpol agents to finish their first interrogation of the Guardians, she has to avoid several teachers. One of them almost catches her before she shakes him off by hanging from the ceiling.
• Celebrity Paradox: On the W.I.T.C.H. version of Earth, Jackie's niece is Stacie Chan instead of Jade, who aspires to be an actor like her uncle. In the JCA cartoon, the real-life Stacie was the voice of Jade. In addition to that, Stacie and her uncle are doing characters in a show that's basically JCA with the serial numbers filed off, called James Chen Mysteries.
• Cerebus Retcon: Several W.I.T.C.H. events have been reworked to make them Darker and Edgier, like the battle of Sonder Hill.
• Combat Tentacles: The Queen uses her Casting a Shadow powers to create some while fighting the Guardians, and later shows Jade how to do it.
• Combo Platter Powers: Jade's transformation has granted her Casting a Shadow powers, a Hyperspace Arsenal of knives and shuriken, enhanced speed/agility and strength, and Super-Toughness.
• Commonality Connection: The shared pain of becoming banished from home and framed of a crime they hadn't done further strengthens Jade and Raythor's Intergenerational Friendship.
• Dark Is Evil: Elyon seems convinced that Jade is evil mostly because of her shadow magic. And given the Queen's actions when in control of her body, Elyon may have a point. The author has this to say on the matter: "Let us all hope that Jade can get through this, but sometimes the greatest threat to anyone can be themselves, and we don´t need an alternate personality to understand how dangerous is the Darkness Within. For itself it is not evil, but it helps."
• Dark Messiah: It seems Jade is the focus of a prophecy of some kind, detailing dark forces spreading across the Known Worlds.
• Dead Fic: Hasn't been updated since 2017.
• Death Glare:
  • When Jade refuses to drop her Cassandra Truth about seeing the sky turning purple in Chapter 8, Raythor makes her shut up by giving her a look much more stern than any Jackie, Uncle, or her parents could give her.
  • While arguing with the captive Tynar and Vathek in Chapter 9, Raythor gives Tynar a penetrating glare that actually makes Tynar flinch along with Jade who watches unnoticed. He then directs that look upon Vathek, but the also hatefully glaring Galhot is unfazed by it.
  • When the Queen opens her mouth during Jade's meltdown that follows the latter's failure to contact by phone anyone she knows, Jade grabs the computer monitor where she sees the Queen's face and gives such a hateful look at her alter-ego that the latter is actually shocked.
    To the Queen, Jade's angry expression had really caught her off guard, considering that she was directing all of her anger and hatred against the Queen herself. It felt strange being on the receiving end of such a gaze instead of being the one to express it, as she normally would (anger and hatred were two of her favorite parts of Jade).
• Designated Hero: Jade comes to have this opinion In-Universe about the Guardians and the former rebels due to their Good Is Not Nice attitude.
• Don't Create a Martyr: "The Mage" advises Elyon to postpone a trial for Phobos and his troops because several members of his court are still at large and could convince people to view him as a martyr should he be put on a trial.
• Downer Beginning: The story starts with Drago banishing Jade to the Shadow Realm shortly before he himself is banished to the Demon Netherworld. The scene is a massive Tear Jerker.
• Eldritch Abomination: Nerissa (as "the Mage") says, lying though her teeth as she does so, that Jade is a shapeshifter with a default form similar to this so that the rebels will mistrust and try to imprison her, allowing Nerissa to easily recruit her.
• Emotion Eater: The Queen (and Jade by extension) seems to be able to gain power from the negative emotions Jade can now sense. Just a few days among the Knights has given her enough strength to partially manifest in Jade's shadow.
• The Empath: Jade has developed the ability to feel negative emotions ("darkness within") in other people.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Jade was a cunning Guile Hero and Badass Adorable with Waif-Fu and even a little magic. Now she has shadow powers on top of everything else.
• Enemy Within: The Queen, reawakened by Drago's spell, wishes to overtake Jade's mind and reduce Jade to her shadow.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Miranda's relationship with Cedric, who she bemoans leaving behind when escaping.
  • The Queen grudgingly admits to Jade that their family has always been important to her.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Raythor loudly objects against Jade becoming part of the Knights of Vengeance since he doesn't want an innocent child to be involved in their war and is disgusted at the heroes for dragging her into it. Lampshaded by Jade:
    Jade: Wow, a bad guy with honor? Now I have seen everything.
  • Also, Miranda thinks Tracker is a monster, even compared to herself.
  • Raythor states to Vathek that the reason he hates him and the Guardians for framing him is not because he ended up in the Abyss (for killing him or throwing him there is something he'd expect from his enemy, for he'd do the same), but because he'd never frame someone of a crime they're innocent of.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • While a Combat Pragmatist and Guile Heroine, Jade is still disgusted to learn how the Guardians framed Raythor for treason.
  • Even with as extreme as they've become in rooting out Phobos' remaining minions, Caleb and Aldarn draw a line on Kur's attempts to enact another purge on shapeshifters, and are working to keep him from influencing Elyon.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Miranda is completely baffled when Tracker lets Jade get nice with his dog, and the only way she can understand it is that Jade must have used a spell on them.
• Evil Costume Switch: After Jade is knocked out by Elyon and locked up, some shadows (possibly controlled by the Queen) cover her and replace her wannabe spy outfit with a set of shinobi robes. It's practically identical to the ones ninja Shadowkhan use, save for a mask or a hood. It even includes the tissue that's useful for gliding. After the Knights have been formed, Nerissa creates for Jade a belt with the sorceress' emblem on it. And later Jade makes a point by creating a makeshift bandana out of some orange cloth in order to at least partially replicate her original outfit (the orange hoody).
• Evil Is Petty:
  • Drago cast on Jade the spell that landed her to Meridian just so he could taint her victory, even if it still meant he and his father would become Sealed Evil in a Can. The chapter is even titled as "Sore Loser: If I have to go down, then so does she".
  • Phobos mocks the rebels for letting Nerissa free Jade and Miranda, even when it's pointed out that he's been left to rot.
• Eviler than Thou:
  • Jade feels this way about Phobos when she mentally compares him to Shendu, noting that while they both oppressed their subjects, Shendu was a draconic Demon Sorcerer, unlike Phobos, whose subjects were the same species, so he didn't even have Fantastic Racism as an excuse for his cruelty.
  • Miranda considers Tracker to be an even bigger monster than she is.
  • Whenever the Queen manages to briefly take over Jade, Miranda comments that the darkness she sees in her eyes is somehow worse than both Phobos and Cedric.
• Extreme Omnivore: After her transformation, Jade has no problem eating just about anything, it would seem.
• Family Theme Naming: Names from religion and mythology, especially Greek, seem to be common in the Meridian royal line. One of the old princes was named Kronos and had a mother named Gaia and a sister named Rhea, in addition to the modern Phobos and Elyon (Elyon's name can be translated to mean "most high", and is used multiple times in the Bible to refer to God).
• Fantastic Racism: This seems to be becoming one of the major themes.
  • Shapeshifters are generally despised by the rest of Meridian. There was a general purge of them 200 years ago, and Kur — whose attitude is a scarily extreme example of this trope — led another during Phobos' reign, even going so far as to also kill the normal people (such as Miranda's parents) who birthed and raised them, and he seems to be planning another based on Nerissa's lie about Jade being a shapeshifting experiment of Phobos.
  • There is also much disgust towards the Lurdens.
  • According to Luba, many people mistrust the Passlings due to their obsession to shining objects and sometimes annoying habit of trying to trade. Their smell may also have an effect on it.
  • Galhots are sometimes called Drakes, which they find insulting. Vathek once nearly broke a human in two for calling him a scaly Drake.
• Fantastic Slurs: Galhots ("scaled people" in the ancient language of Meridian) are sometimes called Drakes. Many of them find it insulting.
• A Fête Worse than Death: It's revealed that Phobos had all of Meridian's other nobility murdered during a ball shortly after he came to power.
• Foil: Jade and Elyon to each other in more than one way. Their elements are shadow and light, respectively. The Light of Meridian's power rivals the power of the Heart of Kandrakar, and according to ancient legends, this can also be the case with shadow magic. They also contrast each other in the way they handle their powers. At the moment, Jade has far less raw magical power, but uses effectively those she currently has. Elyon in turn has a lot of raw magical power, but only little control over them. However, Elyon is on the way of subverting her status with the lessons she's having from the Oracle, and if N'Ghala's vision is of any indication, Jade's status will also be subverted by some sort of a power source. While Elyon is Meridian's ruler by birthright, Jade will — according to Yua — become a queen through thrive and trial. Elyon was prophesied to end her brother's tyrannical rule and claim her rightful throne, but Jade is apparently prophesied to end Kandrakar's influence and spread darkness across the Known Worlds. Elyon is worshiped by most of Meridian's population and Jade is feared/hated by most of them. Elyon is a Naïve Everygirl and Jade is a cunning Guile Heroine. They could also be a Tomboy and Girly Girl pair. Unlike girls of her age, Jade has a thirst for adventures and eagerness to prove herself. She also has never been much into admiring boys, finding it to be too stupid and girly. Elyon in turn laments the loss of princess excitement of being a queen (like a masked ball, Prince Charming, a castle on a cloud...).
• Foreshadowing: The vision had by Himerish (and before him, the first Oracle N'Ghala) paints a pretty good picture of what's coming, if the reader is smart enough to decipher it.
• Frame-Up: Jade almost uses the trope name when she hears Miranda's plan for the Guardians.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Miranda's lying to and betrayal of Elyon is part of the reason the young queen is so mistrustful of Jade.
  • Miranda is revealed to be mistrustful of others and mostly concerned with her own survival because her parents were killed by Kur in front of her eyes and she had to serve Phobos afterwards. She also holds strong hatred towards Elyon because the Light of Meridian didn't appear to save her parents despite her prayers.
  • Many of the former rebels — like Caleb and Aldarn — are young, with their short lives having been spent fighting against Phobos' tyranny. Even after the tyrant's downfall, they hold resentments towards anyone who served Phobos.
• Full-Circle Revolution: The Rebellion is starting to show signs of this with the somewhat extreme measures they're taking to hunt down the Knights of Vengeance and any other of Phobos' remaining loyalists. These methods include wanted posters, high bounties, reinforced patrols and nightly curfew on the streets, but Caleb also announces that anyone helping the Knights or refusing to assist the New Royal Guard will be arrested on sight. Frost, spying on one of Caleb's public announcements, even comments how similar to Cedric he seemed for a moment.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Nubian, a human/Galhot hybrid with numerous ideas who visits Elyon's court in "Changes that Corrupt", has been inspired since he briefly crossed the Veil as a child and saw Earth technology, even buying a few things from Blunk to study.
• Game Face: When the Queen takes over Jade's body, Jade's eyes turn solid red (as opposed to having red irises with pupils, as in the picture above) and she grows fangs.
• Generation Xerox: Phobos to his ancestor Kronos, who also tried to usurp the power of the Light of Meridian.
• Ghost Memory: The Queen reveals that when Jade wore one of the two halves of the Crab Khan Oni Mask, the General mixed his mind with Jade's to take control of her body and shared memories and subconscious traits as a side-effect. Only the Queen remembers them because Jade subconsciously blocked them out, but the former is able to share them with the latter when Jade complies.
• Glamour Failure: Jade was able to notice that "the Mage's" shadow didn't match up with her physical appearance (something that happened occasionally in canon), though she hasn't managed to figure out what it means yet (as she's been a little preoccupied).
• Go Mad from the Revelation: At one point Tibor expresses the belief that Althair's actions and descent into madness was because he couldn't deal with the knowledge of N'Ghala's final prophecy, specifically the possibility that anything could challenge Kandrakar's reign, since the Sages had come to believe it was invincible.
• Good Is Not Nice: The Guardians, Elyon, and the rebels, at least towards Jade. And it seems that the rebels are slowly extending this towards the common people.
• Graying Morality: The story is subverting the canon Black-and-White Morality viewpoint of W.I.T.C.H. through character expansion and Jade's interactions with the Knights of Vengeance, the Guardians and the (former) Rebellion. Kandrakar is also grayed with its past including Althair the Mad Sage and the ruthlessness Yua says N'Ghala to have practiced.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Galhots and humans are compatible, with Aldarn and Nubian both being examples (with Elyon noting that the latter could probably pass for human with a bit of effort).
• Hammerspace: Jade can summon a seemingly limitless number of kunai and shuriken out of her sleeves. Both she and Miranda lampshade this:
  "Seriously, how the heck does this thing work?" Jade thought as for the hundredth time a kunai slid from her sleeve directly into her palm the moment she wanted a weapon. And when she didn't want one, the kunai slid back into her sleeve and even more amazing was the fact that she didn't feel it when touching the sleeve.
  "Where in the world does this outfit keeps its weapons?" Jade thought again as she closed her right hand and imagined a few shuriken in it. And once she opened her hand, a handful of the throwing stars were there.\\
  [...]
  "How many weapons do you have?" Miranda asked, having spent several minutes watching the blue girl making that strange knife appear and disappear several times, and now those star shaped objects she imagined would be used by throwing.
  "As many as I want," Jade responded while still looking at the shuriken.
  "I think," she added mentally as she closed her hand and then reopened it with the shuriken gone.
• Healing Factor: One of Meridianite shapeshifters' natural abilities is an advanced healing capacity. After falling from a great height, Miranda needs only one night to recover fully.
• Henchmen Race: Meridian didn't have any other shapeshifters than the Mogriffs until one millennium ago. By the time Prince Kronos stole the throne, he had his sorcerers study the Mogriffs' shapeshifter abilities and instill them into members of Meridian's other races. The first created shapeshifters helped Kronos rule with an iron fist until his downfall. Those not imprisoned scattered amidst Meridian's population, with most of them living as recluses these days, though some people like Kur are convinced they're all servants of Phobos.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Jade in Meridian.
• Heroic Sacrifice: When Jade realizes that her family and friends cannot stop Drago's curse from dragging her through her shadow, she says a tearful goodbye (cluing Viper into what she was planning), then releases Jackie's hands before anyone can stop her, so that they wouldn't suffer the same fate.
• History Repeats: Prince Kronos, one of Phobos and Elyon's ancestors, also killed his mother and tried to steal the power of the Light of Meridian for himself. He also forced his sister into hiding for years.
• A House Divided: There is still some mistrust between Phobos' former guards and the rebels, who up until a few days before the start of the story had been at war with each other for years.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Miranda calls Jade strange when discussing her Hammerspace abilities, despite being a shapeshifter with the ability to become a giant spider-like creature.
    Miranda: You are a strange one.
    Jade: (in her thoughts) So says the girl that can turn into a spider like creature.
  • When Vathek tells Phobos that being defeated by six teenaged girls makes him look pathetic, Phobos quickly retorts that the mighty Rebellion seems to fear Jade, who is even younger than those aforementioned teenagers.
  • When Jade and Miranda witness Will talking to her calculator, they believe she's going crazy since they're unaware she's a Technopath. Earlier that same day, Miranda argued with Jade who was in her shadow at the time, confusing the students who only saw a teenage girl yelling at her own shadow. Furthermore, Jade regularly talks with the Queen when she sees the latter on reflective surfaces, which she admits makes her look mad.
• If Only You Knew: When Jade first sees Will talking to her calculator, it briefly passes in her mind that she's a Technopath before she dismisses it as craziness.
• Ignored Epiphany:
  • Justified. Elyon and the Guardians quickly assume that Jade is a minion of Phobos and chase her to interrogate and imprison her. But when she's knocked unconscious, they acknowledge they made mistakes and Elyon orders that she's to be treated as a guest and her wounds be tended to. Unfortunately, after Caleb disobeys those orders and Nerissa uses her position as the Mage to lie about Jade's origins, the situation is made so that the girls lose any sense of guilt about how they treated Jade, now viewing her as a monster.
  • Downplayed. After Jade calls out Will for how Raythor was framed, Will discusses it with her friends and admits Jade's point, but her friends tell her she was right and that there's nothing they can do to change it. While Will still feels guilty, she comes to agree with the others.
• Immortality Begins at Twenty: This happens almost literally with shapeshifters, who age normally for the first part of their lives, then stop aging entirely at about 18-20 years old, and can live for four to five centuries.
• Informed Attribute: In-Universe, many of the Sages of Kandrakar have come to believe that the fortress is invincible. Tibor believes that Althair found N'Ghala's vision of something that could challenge Kandrakar — or even overthrow it — so disturbing that it prompted his turn to madness.
• Innate Night Vision: Both Jade and Miranda have enhanced eyesight that enables them to see well in the dark.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Jade and Raythor seem to be forming one. She's a 12-year-old child and he's nearly 100 years old (still middle-aged for a Galhot).
• Jerkass Ball: Miranda. Her talk about eating Passlings turns out to be mere scaremongering. She's still a Jerkass, but she purposely acts like she's worse than she is.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • When Jade refuses to become a killer, the Queen points out that she already is by bringing up the time she killed Shendu with the Dragon Talisman, and stating how — regardless of Shendu coming back afterwards — at the time they thought (and for all intents and purposes had) they had killed him. Jade's very disturbed by this realization.
  • Kur, of all people, is the one to point out how blindly everyone is following "the Mage's" advice.
  • The Queen later makes a good argument for them being stuck in another universe, and tells Jade that she fears the Shadowkhan because she's afraid of turning into the Queen, but at the same time she's drawn to them and their dark powers.
• Katanas Are Just Better: As shown in the picture above, Jade eventually gets a shadow katana (a gift from the Queen).
• Kick the Dog: In Miranda's Start of Darkness, Kur had her parents ready to be burned at the stake and manipulated her into giving herself in with a false promise of letting them live. He then forced the five-year-girl to watch as her parents and other apprehended shapeshifters burned alive.
• Knight of Cerebus: Kur seems to be gradually becoming this, with him being the most extreme member of the new Meridian government, a vehement anti-shapeshifter Knight Templar and one of the biggest factors regarding Miranda's Start of Darkness.
• Knight Templar: Some of the rebels somewhat come off as this, especially Kur's faction.
• Life Isn't Fair: This is Miranda's opinion, as she tells Jade in "Changes that Corrupt".
  Miranda: The only justice that I know is the one that people create and enforce. Everyone has their own definition of right and wrong, but only strength determines which set of rights and wrongs prevails.
  Jade: I don't believe in that. There is right, and there is wrong. As much as there is good and evil. It's how the world works.
  Miranda: Then you are as naïve as Elyon is. Or the Guardians and the Rebels, for that matter. There is no evil, just as there is no good. Life is cruel and ruthless, not wrong. Or right. It simply is.
• Lingering Social Tensions: There's still a lot of tension between the victorious Rebels and the former Guards.
• Living Shadow: The Queen soon gains enough power to partially manifest in Jade's shadow and even take a physical form while still being bound to Jade's shadow.
• Logic Bomb: Jade manages to do this to Miranda when the latter tells her that you can't trust anyone.
• Lost Technology: Shadow magic has apparently not been practiced at all in the W.I.T.C.H. universe for centuries (if not millennia), and although it is said that a few spellbooks on the subject and the "sources of darkness" probably remain, Kandrakar itself has next to no information on it, save that it can consume whoever uses it. This is because Althair, a mad Sage from Kandrakar's early days, purposefully tried to get rid of all information on it. Legends say this power can rival the Heart of Kandrakar, which is why Nerissa plans to claim Jade's abilities as her own in addition to Elyon's.
• Manipulative Bitch: Nerissa, disguised as the Mage, tells the rebels that Jade is a monster and a servant of Phobos, knowing that they'll turn on her, leaving her no place to go but with the Knights of Vengeance.
• The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: The Queen can speak to Jade like this.
• May–December Romance: Miranda (who's 14) and Cedric (whose age is unknown, but he's at least in his 20s).
• Meaningful Name: "Kage", Jade's alias, is Japanese for "shadow".
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • This is Jade's reaction after the Queen takes over and nearly kills Caleb and the Guardians. And then Elyon has this reaction when she nearly kills Jade in a fit of rage in response.
  • Jade's downcast when she can't deny the Queen's point that she did kill Shendu willingly. It takes a You Are Better than You Think You Are speech from Raythor to make her feel better.
  • The next day following Jade's What the Hell, Hero? speech to Will, the latter is conceding her point that framing Raythor was dishonorable, but she's talked out of her concerns by the others.
• Never My Fault: Lampshaded and defied by Raythor when Frost blames the failure of his plan for Vathek and Tynar surviving unscratched. Raythor admits his plan failed, but justifiably so because none of them could have foreseen the increase of the Guardians' power, and Nerissa agrees with that reasoning.
  Raythor: What do you want me to say? That it was your fault, or the others?
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If the Guardians hadn't been so quick to attack Jade when she arrived in Meridian, or if Elyon hadn't nearly fried her with her powers after the Queen briefly took over, or if Caleb hadn't countermanded his queen's orders by practically ordering Jade to be locked up immediately, she might not have ended up with Nerissa.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Raythor comforting Jade when she's being crushed with guilt over realizing she's killed before is able to temporarily derail the Queen's attempts at taking over.
• No Cure for Evil: Averted. After Jade receives serious burns from Elyon's rays, some shadows that are possibly controlled by the Queen cover Jade and heal her wounds without leaving so much as a scar.
• Noble Demon: Raythor, to Jade's surprise. Among other things, his first reaction to meeting Jade is to refuse to let Nerissa force a child to fight their war. It's only when Jade herself insists on fighting (due to her own new vendetta against the Guardians and Elyon) and proves she can fight, that he backs down.
  Jade: Wow, a bad guy with honor? Now I have seen everything.
• No-Sell: Elyon's "teleport them to the jail" trick doesn't work on Jade. Nerissa explains why in Chapter 8; that spell only works on beings native to Meridian, which Jade is not.
• Not Me This Time:
  • When Jade is unable to contact any of her family or friends by phone while in Heatherfield, she accuses the Queen of magical sabotage, only for her to truthfully deny it.
  • Nerissa weaves a lie of Phobos using Jade as one of his test subjects to create more monstrous minions for himself.
• Not Quite Flight: When Jade uses her ninja outfit's tissue to glide for the first time, this trope is discussed by some of the amazed onlookers.
  Irma: She can fly?
  Hay Lin: I think it's gliding, not real flight.
  Irma: Same difference.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Raythor notes that Jade is more noble than the other Knights, even comparing her to the Guardians (though due to their Good Is Not Nice attitude towards her, she denies it).
  • Jade mentally compares Raythor and Tohru at one point.
  • Raythor and Frost both compare Caleb to Cedric when the former gives a speech about the means being taken to hunt down Phobos' remaining loyalists.
  • When Jade notices how many of the rebels are holding onto their old bitterness towards the Guard, she thinks about the irony of how that makes them not that different from the other Knights. She also expresses the belief that if the Meridianites could, they would wait for centuries to have their revenge, like Shendu did for nine hundred years.
• No, You: Jade (or the Queen) delivers this to Caleb when he and the Guardians are bound by her Combat Tentacles.
  Caleb: YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!
  Jade: No, you are the ones who won't get away with pursuing me, insulting me, and humiliating me.
• Off the Rails: According to Yua, the longer Nerissa attempts to force Kage into her plans, the greater the disruption to them she will cause. The timeline changes are already slowly becoming more visible, and of course this will only deepen further in.
• Oh, Crap!: The narration uses those two very words to describe Raythor's reaction when he realizes that what Jade saw in the previous chapter was the lowering of the Veil, and that he dismissed it.
• Older Than They Look:
  • Jade is briefly surprised when Will looks younger than she did in her Guardian form, with Miranda explaining that the age a Guardian is when transformed is constant, making it a combination of this trope and Younger Than They Look.
  • Galhots/Drakes like Raythor and Frost live for around 200 years on average. Raythor himself is about 100, much to Jade's surprise, and Frost is about 70.
  • Shapeshifters stop aging around 18 or twenty and can live for four to five centuries afterwards. Jade briefly assumes this about Miranda, but it turns out she's only 14.
  • Yua was apparently alive before the reign of the first Oracle of Kandrakar, and that was centuries (if not millenia) ago.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Though Jade acknowledges that Miranda's plan to frame the Guardians of Elyon's disappearance is harsh, she goes along with it so that the Guardians would learn how Raythor felt when he was framed as a traitor by them.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Raythor's kindness towards Jade, especially when compared to the treatment she has received from the Guardians and the rebels.
  • A literal example involving Tracker and his dog, Sniffer — Tracker helps him adjust to Jade so that she won't get attacked by him.
• Pinned to the Wall: Jade traps Drake with a kunai this way when the Knights capture Tynar.
• Pragmatic Hero: When Will discusses her guilt over framing Raythor, the others assure her that she made the right choice at the time. Even Yan Lin thinks that while it's horrible to frame a innocent, it was the best option they had.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • Jade does this when Miranda first questions her identity.
    Jade: Do I have to repeat what I said to those hardheads? I! Don't! Work! For! This! Phobos! Guy!
  • The Queen does this while truthfully denying Jade's accusations of hampering with her efforts to contact her family.
    The Queen: Read my lips. I! Didn't! Do! It!
• The Purge:
  • 200 years ago, Elyon's grandmother Queen Lysanna ordered a mass purge of shapeshifters. More recently, Kur carried out a smaller-scale one early in Phobos' reign, and is trying to manipulate Elyon into ordering another massive one.
  • Centuries ago, Althair the Mad Sage and his followers carried out the Great Purge across the Known Worlds, killing thousands (especially children) to try and prevent the "Incoming Darkness".
  • Shortly after coming to power, Phobos had the entirety of the rest of Meridian's nobility killed in order to prevent any rival claimants to the throne.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Himerish is willing to give Jade the benefit of a doubt rather than automatically assume that the prophecy is to be taken as inevitable.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Phobos delivers one to Caleb, telling him that it was the Guardians and Elyon who defeated him, not the Rebellion, which he considers a bunch of armed peasants. Vathek then points out that Phobos was dethroned by a group of teenage girls, causing everybody there to laugh at him. Phobos still gets the last laugh by pointing out how the mighty Rebellion seems to fear Jade, who is even younger than the Guardians and Elyon.
  • Jade delivers a scathing one to Will after she learns of the Frame-Up the Guardians pulled on Raythor and his resulting banishment to the Abyss of Shadows, saying that such an act makes the Guardians unworthy of being called heroes. The following day, Will is actually conceding Jade's point before her friends push her concerns aside.
• Ret-Gone: On the parallel Earth W.I.T.C.H. takes place in, Jade does not exist. Instead, a girl named Stacie is Jackie Chan's niece, a young girl aspiring to follow her uncle into acting.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Rebellion has been made more ruthless than it was shown to be in canon:
  • Nearly two years earlier, some rebels stirred up the population of Sonder Hill to revolt openly and violently against Prince Phobos to the point of murdering tribute collectors. Before the army arrived to punish the village, the instigators fled, and the Rebellion didn't show up to stop the slaughter that took place in the village.
  • Kur was already a member when he committed his purge of shapeshifters that cost the lives of Miranda's parents.
• Running Gag: Jade referring to the Guardians as fairies and Elyon as "crazy blonde", "blonde chick" or "blonde psycho".
• Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Kur, a village elder and rebel leader, has no problem speaking his mind, however rude it might be.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: After helping Miranda set up the frame job on the Guardians, Jade runs off, determined to prove that she's still on her version of Earth and reclaim her life.
• Secret Identity: Jade goes by "Kage" in Meridian.
• Secret Test of Character: Jade quickly figures out that the reason she was sent to spy on the castle and find out where Tynar was going to be (so they could capture him) instead of one of the other Knights wasn't just because of tactics (though Raythor's reasoning was pretty sound in that Jade's power to enter shadows would be ideal for the task); it was because Raythor wanted to gauge her loyalty to the cause and let her dispel any doubts the other Knights have about her.
• Seen It All: When Jade sees the Knights of Vengeance all together in one place, she notes to herself that she's seen weirder. She makes a similar comment when Raythor proves to be a Noble Demon.
  Jade: Wow, a bad guy with honor? Now I have seen everything.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Himerish feels that the way he handled things with Nerissa and Cassidy only made things worse despite meaning to do the exact opposite.
• Serial Numbers Filed Off: In-Universe, the show the W.I.T.C.H.-verse Jackie and Stacie are in is basically Jackie Chan Adventures with mostly cosmetic changes. Stacie's complaints about the Big Bad Akuma's Orcus on His Throne status leads to a comment by Jackie that implies they're even going to include an equivalent of the Shadowkhan as minions, partly because there's no time for more sophisticated magical servants.
• Shout-Out:
  • Himerish's thoughts on greatness sound a lot like Mr. Ollivander's words from the first Harry Potter book:
    "Unfortunately greatness is neutral in itself. It can serve the greater good or bring a great evil instead. It all depends of the person in question."
  • Also, according to the author, Jade's banishment scene was partially inspired by another Dark Jade fic, Her Shadowed Realm.
  • According to the author, the idea to have Miranda's appetite for Passlings be a false rumor came from another W.I.T.C.H. fanfic.
  • At one point, the Queen sarcastically suggests that Tarakudo has been visiting Jade in her dreams, something that actually happens in a number of other Dark Jade fics.
  • While in Heatherfield, Jade complains that Miranda would make the Grinch look like a Nice Guy.
  • Miranda's comments about how you can't trust anyone sound suspiciously similar to another character voiced by Grey DeLisle.
  • When Jade tells Miranda that she can teach her everything about Earth, she calls the other girl "little grasshopper".
  • The Queen calls herself Jade's "friendly neighborhood Queen of the Shadowkhan" at one point.
• Snake People: Viperinin are sentient serpentine Meridianite beasts, with most of them being shapeshifters like Cedric.
• Sneeze Cut:
  • The Chapter 10 scene with the Guardians ends with Cornelia talking lowly about Jade, followed immediately by Jade sneezing. She lampshades this trope by thinking that someone is talking about her, like Uncle would always say when he sneezes.
  • We get to Alternate Jackie this way during Chapter 12.
• Sore Loser: Drago. It's even lampshaded by the chapter title!
• Spanner in the Works: Yua foresees Jade as being this to Nerissa's plans in the long run.
• Squick: In-Universe, this is the collective response from the Knights when Jade eats a dead rat, including cracking open its skull to slurp its brain.
• Staged Populist Uprising: This story gives details on how Nerissa was involved in Phobos' rise to power and the rebellion against him.
• Stop Worshipping Me: Elyon is very uncomfortable with being worshipped by Meridian's population. She's told her ancestor, Queen Elyon the First, felt the same and even prohibited forming any sort of religious communities both because of this and due to witnessing religious extremities on Earth.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Raythor was, and is still, very respected by the Royal Guard he used to command, so when Tynar is captured by the Knights, he tries to convince Raythor to renounce his loyalty to Phobos and is devastated to learn the Guardians caused him to be banished to the Abyss of Shadows.
• Tantrum Throwing: After failing to make a call to any of her family or friends while in Heatherfield, Jade breaks the phone by throwing it towards a wall.
• Tempting Fate:
  • When the Guardians start chasing Jade when she first arrives on Meridian, Irma proclaims nearly arrogantly that they couldn't possibly lose to her and Caleb can probably beat her by himself when Yan Lin tells them not to underestimate an enemy they don't know. The chase ends with the Guardians, Caleb and a dozen Guards trapped by Combat Tentacles made of shadows and Jade ready to eat their brains under the Queen's influence. All they can do is stare helplessly in fear, and they're saved only by Jade restraining herself.
  • When Caleb complains about his lack of success at capturing the remaining Phobos' minions, he wonders if Phobos, Cedric, and Miranda would escape the dungeons of the Infinite City. Immediately he hears a horn signaling that yes, somebody has escaped from the dungeons. He also wonders if Raythor would return from the Abyss, which he later learns to be the case as well.
    Caleb: I had to jinx it.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The dynamic between Jade and Miranda, though Miranda says that, if it wasn't for Raythor, the entire group would be at each other's throat. Jade lampshades this in Chapter 9 when Miranda and Frost argue.
• Title Drop: Jade calls herself "Kage" when Nerissa asks her name.
• Token Good Teammate: Jade to the Knights of Vengeance. Raythor lampshades this trope by stating that Jade is far more noble and less evil than the rest of the group. According to Blunk, all the Knights smell very bad, except "Kage". Much to the Passling's confusion, he finds her smell to be "half good and half bad".
• Tongue-Out Insult:
  • Jade sticks out her tongue at Miranda behind the latter's back following their confrontation in Chapter 6. She later does this again to taunt Caleb when the Knights retreat with Vathek as their captive.
  • Stacie does this playfully to Alternate Jackie in Chapter 12.
• To the Pain: When Miranda corners Jade and questions her motives, Jade (or possibly the Queen in another moment of temporary control), threatens to rip off her limbs, gouge out her eyes, and eat her brain.
• Two Girls to a Team: With Jade/"Kage" joining the Knights of Vengeance, they now have two female members instead of just the canonical Miranda.
• Unexpected Successor:
  • Centuries earlier, the power of the Light of Meridian was lost for a time when Prince Kronos killed his mother Queen Gaia before she could transfer it to Princess Rhea, only for it to eventually manifest in Weira the First, Rhea's daughter and Elyon's great-great-grandmother.
  • Phobos eliminated the rest of Meridian's nobility to avert this trope and make sure there was no one left to challenge his reign.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Elyon is powerful, but she was never taught by her brother how to properly control her powers.
• [Verb] This!: When Irma and Hay Lin laugh at Jade during their second confrontation, she mutters "Laugh at this, dorks" before she begins throwing shurikens at them.
• Villainous Breakdown: Drago appears to be in the middle of one when casting the spell that banishes Jade, Laughing Madly as he does so and even as he and Shendu get banished themselves.
• "Wanted!" Poster: Each Knight gets one to be spread throughout Meridian. Jade's poster shows her when the Queen controls their body.
• Water Wake-up: Aldarn gives his first impressions to Jade by waking her up this way.
• Weak, but Skilled: Jade, at least when compared to the Guardians and Elyon. She has nowhere near their raw power (yet at least), but uses what she does have to great effect.
• We Are as Mayflies: Non-magical humans are short-lived when compared to most of the other species on Meridian, sapient or not, though magical humans can extend their lifespan, with Elyon's family being one of the notable examples.
  • Drakes/Galhots usually live to be about 200 years old. For example, Raythor is about 100, and is considered middle-aged for his race.
  • Lurdens live about as long as Galhots.
  • Gargoyle's people can live to be about a thousand years old.
  • Shapeshifters age normally for the first 18-20 years of their lives, then cease aging entirely for the rest of their four to five hundred year lifespan.
• We ARE Struggling Together:
  • There's a lot of tension between the rebels and Phobos' former Guards, while even among the rebels themselves there is a lot of disagreement and arguing.
  • According to Miranda, this is the Knights of Vengeance's situation as well, or it would be if it wasn't for Raythor.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Long ago, a disciple of Kandrakar, Althair the Mad Sage, led a crusade across the Known Worlds, killing thousands (especially children) in order to prevent Oracle N'Ghala's vision of the "Incoming Darkness" from coming to pass.
  • Nerissa believes that she is one.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Jade gives Will a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech over framing Raythor as a traitor.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: Unlike Raythor, Nerissa didn't think that Frost would be stupid enough to attack the Guardians on his own, but she changes her mind after she uses a tracking spell that shows him doing exactly that.
• Who Would Want to Watch Us?: The alternate Jackie finds the concept of his new show (JCA with the details slightly changed) ridiculous.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Miranda is quite the hateful being, but it's revealed that this is because when she was a child, she was Forced to Watch Kur kill her parents in front of her as part of his purge of shapeshifters, telling her the whole time that it was her own fault that it happened.
• The Worf Effect:
  • When the Queen manages to temporarily take control of Jade, she very nearly defeats the Guardians and Caleb entirely by herself.
  • Kur says that Cedric's canonical Villain Decay was a case of this; he could beat a company of Guards on his own and is likely to strongest shapeshifter to have lived on Meridian, and the Guardians were able to prevail against him as many times as they did mainly thanks to their elemental powers.
• You Can't Fight Fate: In Chapter 8, Himerish and Tibor briefly discuss if this trope is valid. Himerish is willing to give Jade the benefit of the doubt before judging her and remembers how he could only foresee the outcome of Nerissa and Cassidy's tragedy, not the events leading to it. He admits that perhaps his attempts to prevent the tragedy put Nerissa onto her path and is open to the possibility that maybe the outcome could have been avoided by a different approach. Tibor thinks that the tragedy could have happened regardless of anyone's interference.
• You Have Failed Me: Averted. Nerissa is quite calm after the Knights are first defeated by the Guardians, which sets off alarm bells in Jade's head, since in her experience, villains tend to react less rationally towards defeats while often blaming everyone around them.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: This is Jade's reaction to the giant rose Cornelia creates to defeat the Knights.
  Jade: A GIANT FREAKING ROSE?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
• You Rebel Scum!: Raythor, Miranda and Frost refer to the (former) rebels this way.