History Fanfic / AgesOfShadow

[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10014215/1/Ages-of-Shadow Ages of Shadow]] is an ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' fic by [[https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1645311/Eduard-Kassel Eduard Kassel]], and a part of ''Fanfic/ProjectDarkJade''.

* BodyToJewel: [[spoiler:Jade's damaged eye does this after she removes it]].

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Jade takes an interest in Alonso, since he appears similar to Boaz. He, however, is sufficiently (and understandably) {{squick}}ed out.

* AddictiveMagic: The card game Brenner creates is designed to be addictive, even as it channels fragments of the souls of the losers as sacrifices to Jade. In fact, according to Domino, it's the very loss of those soul fragments that makes the game so addictive, and makes long term players so eccentric (at best).
** After the final battle, this no longer applies, as [[spoiler: the soul fragments are returned, and Jade's influence on the game is cut off due to the seal]].
* AfterTheEnd: Jade believes this is why the world appears to have regressed to Bronze Age levels of technology. However, it's implied, and later confirmed, that she may have instead stumbled on an AlternateUniverse.

* AlternateUniverse: It's ''heavily'' implied that Jade has stumbled onto one.
** Seemingly confirmed by the fact that the third part of the story takes place in modern times. Fully confirmed later on.

* TheChosenOne: Boaz, the Third Himinion, was specifically chosen and secretly trained personally by Jade for years before taking over the Shadow Walkers.

* ExactWords: [[spoiler: Zaben said he'd release Mildred if Trace defeated his servant. He didn't say anything about not blinding her...]]

* EyeScream: [[spoiler: Zaben gouges out Mildred's eyes after his minion loses a duel with Trace.]]

* GoldFever: When the Shadow Walkers start offering Jade tribute, this is all that she really cares about, since it's one of the only things that doesn't decay in the Shadow Netherworld.

* HeroicSacrifice: Jade put on the mask of Tarakudo in order to defeat a foe called the Magus King who had captured Jackie, but lost herself in the process.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: This is how Jade was originally imprisoned in the Shadow Realm. Tohru realized that absorbing the combined power of all the Oni had oversaturated her with shadow chi, enabling him to cast a spell that permanently fused her into the Shadow Realm.

* LoopholeAbuse: Using the Sun Souls, Jade intends to exploit a flaw in the seal holding her in the Shadow Netherworld -- [[spoiler: she can't permanently escape to Earth, but there's nothing stopping her from dragging the Earth in with her]].

* NoSell: When Jade first encounters the Shadow Walkers, one tries to attack her with a spear. Tries being the key word here.

* OneSteveLimit: Brenner names his card game after Yade Khan, which Alonso realizes is kind of confusing for those in the know.
** [[spoiler:This turns out to be {{Foreshadowing}} about how Jade actually uses this to her advantage, using the fact that she and the game share a name to set up a loophole in the rules so that she could decide the outcome of a duel if she wanted to]].
* OurSoulsAreDifferent: The Shadow Walkers wager pieces or the entirety of their souls during their magic duels with each other.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gracia apparently gives one to Alonso in Chapter 4, complete with a "flashback recap" episode. While it doesn't cause a HeelRealization, it does [[spoiler: talk him out of killing Zaben for [[YouHaveFailedMe failing Jade]]]].

* TheSacredDarkness: When Trace is channeling all the elemental magics for his final fight with Jade, he notes that that includes the true power of shadow, not the corrupted version used by Jade.

* TakeOverTheWorld: Jade tried to cast the world into shadow, apparently by [[TotalEclipseOfThePlot pulling a rogue planet into permanent orbit]], before being stopped.
** And via her Shadow Walkers, she tries to do again the old fashioned way.

* VillainousBSOD: After [[spoiler:Boaz dies, Jade lapses into a five-year depression]].

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:It starts after Trace nearly beats her in a duel, with Jade only using cheating to win, gets worse when the Sun Souls are freed and Brenner stands against her, and peaks when the seal is nearly complete, Jade screaming that she doesn't want to be alone in the dark anymore]].
* VillainousLegacy: [[spoiler:Jade's sealing doesn't stop Zaben from enacting several more plans, the final one being the resurrection of Boaz]].

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler: After Brenner loses his duel to Trace, Jade doesn't hesitate to take his Sun Soul, since thanks to the Shadow Walkers and Alonso, he's now redundant.]]

* YourHeadAsplode: [[spoiler: How Jade kills Domino.]]

** [[spoiler:Jackie's spirit convinces Jade that the second LotusEaterMachine isn't real by asking her the name of her and Paco's child (who didn't exist in the real world. The shock of realizing she doesn't know is what makes her accept.]]

* BullyingADragon: When cutting ties with Jade, Alonso gives her a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech on why he would have never become her new lover. Naturally, this pisses her off.

* HeroKiller: Zaben apparently mows through everyone on the heroes' side who faces him, and even [[spoiler: blinds Mildred for no reason]], altogether making himself the biggest threat other than Jade. By the FinalBattle, however, Trace no longer has time to his shit, so easily kicks his ass.

*** He also notes that Jade appears to have a monument to the ''UsefulNotes/{{Superman}}'' franchise in her palace.

* YourHeadAsplode: [[spoiler: How Jade kills Domino.]]

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: [[spoiler:When Brenner's Sun Soul sides with Jade during the final battle, Trace asks if Brenner's LostLenore would want this. She wouldn't]].

* ThatManIsDead: [[spoiler: After being permanently sealed, and taking on the role of mother to her new children, Yade Khan is forced to fully admit to herself that the Jade Chan part of her is long since gone.]]

* GeniusLoci: [[spoiler:The possibility is brought up that Yade's become essentially the heart/brain of the Shadow Universe, and the rest of the realm and its contents her body]].

* BizarreAlienBiology: Jade, as she transforms herself into Yade Khan, giving herself extra arms, hair tendrils, and body pouches, and loses her genitals. And then more changes seem to happen on their own, as while she's recovering from [[spoiler: her final sealing]], she idly notes that at some point she grew two extra hearts, and her brain moved out of her head. She also mentions that her body temperature is fairly patchwork in nature.

* FloatingContinent: By the time time she encounters the Shadow Walkers, Jade has expanded her OminousFloatingCastle to the point where she estimates that it's slightly larger than a circular Manhattan.

* LizardFolk: All of [[spoiler: Jade's children]] have varying degrees of reptilian traits to their biology, though Hebi also has insectoid attributes.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: King is given one when he has to choose between letting Trace fall or gaining a chance to return to flesh. He chooses right, and is rewarded with his memories.

* InnocentFanserviceGirl: [[spoiler: Jade's daughter]] Hebi never bothers to wear clothing, as it makes it easier to observe her evolving body.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: Jade takes an interest in Alonso, since he appears to similar to Boaz. He, however, is sufficiently (and understandably) {{squick}}ed out.

Long ago, Jade Chan fell to darkness after a desperate bid to save her family from their worst enemy. Afterwards, they had no choice but to seal her away in the Shadow Realm. Now, countless centuries later, Jade has been forced to adapt to her new environment, in both body and mind. And then one day, she once again makes contact with the mortal world, setting in motion events that will see Jade take on many new roles, in order to take her rightful in the new Ages of her existence.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Jade, as she transforms herself into Yade Khan, giving herself extra arms, hair tendrils, and body pouches, and loses her genitals. And then more changes seem to happen on their own, as while she's recovering from [[spoiler: her final sealing]], she idly notes that at some point she grew two extra hearts, and her brain moved out of her head.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Trace lampshades this when he's told of Yade mourning Boaz.

* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler:After Jade's defeat, Zaben looses it, believing that all life goes badly eventually, and devises a plan to use the Omega: The End card, the Elemental Seal, and three Sun Souls to destroy the universe and put everyone out of their misery]].

** After the final battle, this no longer applies, as [[spoiler: the soul fragments are returned, and Jade's influence on the game is cut off]].
* AfterTheEnd: Jade believes this is why the world appears to have regressed to Bronze Age levels of technology. However, it's implied she may have instead stumbled on an AlternateUniverse.

* BadBoss: [[spoiler: Boaz completes his resurrection by draining the life of most of his remaining Shadow Walkers, even though he could have just waited for his powers to restore themselves normally; he just didn't want to wait a few years.]]

Official summary: "Years after falling to the darkness, Jade Chan has finally been defeated by the J-Team and their allies; and been banished. In defeat and isolation Jade Chan must face a challenge like nothing she has ever encountered before. What lies in wait for the fallen hero in the millennia that stretch before her? What shall she loose and what will she become, in the Ages of Shadow?"

** After the final battle, this no longer applies.

* DarkMessiah: Boaz was personally trained by his religion's goddess in order to lead his people to greatness. This would sound pretty good, except that it's a ReligionOfEvil, the goddess in question is an insane FallenHero-turned-EldritchAbomination, and "leading to greatness" means conquering the world.

* FashionVictimVillain: Apparently a consequence of the soul shaving from the Yade Khan game is poor fashion sense.

* RetGone: [[spoiler:The Omega: The End, the third Forbidden Card, goes this, even to the point of making the memories of people and locations vanish entirely, though the impact remains, and the memories can apparently be regained via prompting, and sealing away those erased by it]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Fanfic/HerShadowedRealm'', complete with an {{Expy}} of [[Anime/YuGiOh Duel Monsters]] names after Jade's new persona.

* WhyDontYouJustShootThem: Suggested for [[spoiler: Boaz's monster army]], though it's explained that it wouldn't work.

* CreatingLifeIsAccidental: [[spoiler:Jade's power reacting with the energies released in the FinalBattle seeds the Shadow Netherworld with simple life, as well as four infants]].

* PromotedToParent: [[spoiler:Jade to the four babies born as a result of the combined energies Trace used in the final battle mixing with

* WhyDontYouJustShootThem: [[spoiler:Suggested for Boaz's monster army]].

** Seemingly confirmed by the fact that the third part of the story takes place in modern times.

* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: [[spoiler:As it turns out, Jade had a loopfole built into the Yade Khan game that Brenner never knew about, allowing her to decide the victors of duels]].

* ExactlyWhatIWasAimingAt: [[spoiler:Trace fakes attacking Jade to strike the Well of Souls without her noticing]].

* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: [[spoiler:As it turns out, Jade had a loopfole built into Jade Khan that Brenner never knew about, allowing her to decide the victors of duels]].
* SealedEvilInACan: Jade is sealed in the Shadow Realm by her family after her FaceHeelTurn.
** She was imprisoned before more mundanely, but escaped.

* SympathyForTheDevil: After learning about her past, [[spoiler:and after having to seal her away again, with her final words before the seal is completed is that she doesn't want to be alone in the dark anymore]], Trace can't help but pity her.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: The reason Brenner is willing to serve Jade in exchange for immortality is to live long enough to conquer death, apparently for the good of all of humanity. He considers helping Jade take over the world a necessary evil to accomplish this.