#corrupt!claire

Let his blood leave no stain - Jim's wounds begin to knit themselves back together.

Though they beat him / Let him feel no pain - Jim is shocked at the transformation but continues to fight back against the knights.

Let his bones never break - A mildly gruesome scene of Jim's hands changing shape

And however they try - Each knight hits Jim in the head, and from those wounds horns grow.

They try to destroy him - Jim grows in height to his half-troll height

Let him never die, - The sun comes out, and the knights look relieved.

Let him never die! - The knights' relief turns to fear as they realize that Jim isn't dying in the sunlight.

Eleka nahmen nahme - Jim's transformation completes with his hair and tusks

Ah tum ah tum eleka nahmen / Eleka nahmen nahmen / Ah tum ah tum eleka... eleka... - Cut back to Claire pacing around Morgana's cave, with multiple shots of the scenery and Claire growing increasingly frustrated.

Ugh! What good is this chanting? - Claire looks up from the book

I don't even know what I'm reading - Claire throws the book to the ground

I don't even know what trick I ought to try - Furious at herself, Claire kneels next to the book

Fiyero, where are you? / Already dead or bleeding? - Claire picks the book up once more, hugging it to her chest before opening it back up to read.

One more disaster I can add to my generous supply? - Claire looks around the room.

The chorus portrays Claire and Jim's relationship up until this point, albeit in an AU version where despite it being the modern era, the knights of Camelot still rule, and Claire has been looking into the occult as a way to fight both Gunmar and the Pendragon dynasty.

Nessa - Enrique and NotEnrique can be seen on-screen

Doctor Dillamond - Claire's friends can be seen

Fiyero / Fiyero! - Claire smiles softly to herself, but tears form in her eyes, and she ends up screaming to the sky.

One question haunts and hurts - Close-up on the shadow staff

Too much, too much to mention - The shadow staff glows and we watch it travel to Claire's hand

Was I really seeking good - Claire sitting at a table with Jim, Toby, Blinky, and AAARRGGHH!!!

Or just seeking attention? - Claire is in the same pose, but now she's at her family's dining table

Is that all good deeds are - In the present, the shadow Claire casts has Morgana's silhouette

When looked at with an ice-cold eye? - Claire blinks, and when she opens her eyes they are the same purple they were in the ultimate portal scene.

If that's all good deeds are - The hand holding the shadow staff gains cracks

Maybe that's the reason why - The other hand makes a beckoning gesture, cracks appearing on it as it does.

No good deed goes unpunished - Claire steps over the grimoire, and as she does so she begins to levitate.

All helpful urges should be circumvented - Claire's armor forms around her, not unlike Jim's magical girl armor transformation.

No good deed goes unpunished - All the armor rushes to meet Claire. Do note that she is not wearing a helmet.

Sure, I meant well - Claire flips her hair. As she does so, a cape appears and unfurls from her shoulders

Well, look at what well-meant did - Close-up on Claire's face as cracks form.

All right, enough / So be it, so be it then - A crown forms in the air, and Claire catches it in her hand. The crown resembles a combination of Claire and Morgana's helmets, at least if you squint. When Claire puts it on her head, it turns her hair fully white.

Let all Oz be agreed / I'm wicked through and through A few shots of Claire walking through the cave. No longer does she look panicked or stressed. She looks regal, now.

Since I can not succeed / Fiyero, saving you - Jim dusts himself off to show the irony of the lyric. He looks at a picture of himself and Claire, and then he gazes into the distance.

I promise no good deed / Will I attempt to do again / Ever again - A throne forms on top of the skull, and Claire sits in it. The scene zooms out, and we can see purple and golden lights twinkling around her as her shadow looms larger and larger.

“I chose this for myself, Jim.” Even if she hadn’t known all the consequences, she had made her choice.

“I know, but it’s not too late to change your mind and go home. I mean, it’s not like I don’t want to be with you, but don’t feel like we’d be disappointed in you if you wanted to go back to Arcadia.”

“I got Merlin to give me a magic lesson,” Claire said. Jim huffed; he thought she was changing the subject. And it would be so easy to change the subject, to not talk about what was going on with her. But she was tired of Jim’s second-guessing.

She reached out her hand, palm up and cupped. She raised her hand up slowly, before quickly jerking it downwards. A small ball of purple flame appeared in it, and Claire quickly retracted her hand to let the flame float in the air.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Jim’s jaw drop a little as he saw the small black cracks splinter across her fingers. Claire waved her hand, dissipating the fireball, and the cracks slowed their conquest. Give it several minutes, and her hand would return to normal.

“Merlin called me, well, it sounded like the word ‘corrupt’ but not exactly, it might’ve been in Latin?” Jim growled. “Oh, don’t be like that. For once, he’s not just being an insufferable douchebag. We both know it’s true; we both heard Blinky warn me about the Shadow Staff. He told me it was made of dark magic, and that overuse would kill me or corrupt my soul. And, well, I’m still alive.”

“I thought corruption would just be limited to your possession.”

“If that were true, don’t you think Blinky would have said so?”

“If you don’t do magic, though, you’ll be okay, right?”

“I don’t think it’s that simple, Jim. Not when, well, I got startled in a public bathroom and broke a mirror two feet away by flexing my fingers. My hand cracked then, too.”

“Wait, are you okay? Did anyone…”

“I blamed it on an earthquake and got out of there quick. But no, two women entered and I got startled. No one tried to hurt me.” One of them chuckled as she told a story about her child, though. The other had green eyes and wore a shiny gold shirt.

“Is there… is there a way to get you uncorrupted?”

It would be cruel to ask him if there was a way to make him fully human again, but the answer would probably be the same.

“I doubt it,” Claire said instead. “I tried to ask Merlin, and I’m not sure if he truly didn’t know or if his silence was him being an insufferable douchebag.”

“Does anyone else know?”

“Unless Merlin told anyone, no.” Or if any of the trolls suspected something about her based on the giant portal and how many cracks she had then.