Author's Note: Hello new fandom. I hope you enjoy reading this. It's an idea I had after the first season and only just got round to writing down. Ezekiel has become much less 2D this season but while everyone revealed things about themselves he's still a mystery. Here's my idea for why.

...

For once everyone, including Flynn, was in the Library at the same time and everyone, including Flynn, was messing about in the annex, primarily because Jenkins was there trying to get some cataloguing done and they wanted to make sure he would miss them when they were away on the next mission.

Ezekiel could see it building, the tiny twitch right before the older man forcibly pulled himself upright and shouted at them. The young thief nudged Stone and nodded in their caretaker's direction, giving him a wide grin that was met with a more concealed smirk. The moment was broken by a loud thump, followed by several more which proceeded to become banging which shook the back door in its frame. They all stared at the ornate doors unsure about what to do.

"Someone is knocking on the doorway?" Eve asked. "Can people do that?"

"The door yes, it's just a door, but knowing which door to knock on? That's a different matter entirely." Jenkins said frowning.

"Well let's not keep them waiting. How often do we get visitors who are polite enough to knock?" Flynn declared as he bounded to the doorway.

"Wait," Baird shouted but she wasn't fast enough. Flynn threw open the door and found a petite woman glowering at him. She looked to be somewhere around her mid thirties and had dark wavy hair twisted up into a tight bun. She had a complexion that wouldn't look out of place in the Mediterranean and her face had a pointed nose and chin. Faint lines appeared at the corners of her eyes as she squinted into the room.

"Hello may we help you?" Flynn asked her breaking out his friendliest grin. She barely acknowledged his presence.

"Ezekiel, time to go," she said, her voice made Casandra shiver, it was like a hundred angry teachers and her parents scolding all rolled into one. She felt Stone stand straighter next to her, his hands forming fists unconsciously. They all turned to look at Ezekiel and were shocked to see him frozen in panic, not once in the face of any of the incredible foes and dangers they had battled, had they seen had his carefree facade broken. Cracked, maybe, but dropped completely? Never. However, one look at this tiny woman and he was terrified. Baird stepped between between the woman and her charges, protectiveness surging through her.

"Who are you?" She demanded. The woman didn't even flinch, as still as a statue she stared at Baird's chest right where she'd been looking at Ezekiel, as if she could still see him through her, or as if Baird was so inconsequential that she was rendered invisible.

"Am I going to have to repeat myself?" The woman asked. The threat in the warning was so palpable Baird immediately reached for her gun, which was not on her hip because she was in the annex, it was in her desk.

"No." Ezekiel's voice was barely above a whisper.

"I'm sorry, which statement are you referencing?" The woman asked, her voice dripping sarcasm.

"I'm not coming back, father can do without me. I have my own life." His voice gained some strength as he spoke but the fear was still there. Horrifyingly the woman threw back her head and laughed, it was harsh and insincere and when she dropped her face back there was nothing but cruelty on her features. Flynn took a step back and held his hands up as if to calm her down.

"I think he's given you his answer," he said.

"Yeah, so leave," Stone added showing his fists. The woman finally scanned them all, it made them feel like lobsters in a restaurant fish tank.

"Ezekiel," her voice became softer but the condescending tone remained. "We can't have lives, we are only fragments of a whole. Father wants you back and you cannot deny him, you are not meant to be alone."

"I'm not alone. I'm a Librarian Sonya, the Library chose me," Ezekiel said, the others silently cheering him on sending him supportive smiles.

"The Library collects magical entities and hides them away from the world," she replied.

"But-" Casandra started.

"It's also not above using those items for its own purposes," the woman, whose name was apparently Sonya, continued. She pointed a perfectly manicured finger at the dial up device by the door and raised an eyebrow at them. Flynn's mind was spinning, was she saying Ezekiel was a magical entity and not human? He looked at the young librarian and tried to see what he'd missed, some sign that he should have picked up on immediately.

"He is a person," Cassandra said firmly, not liking what she was suggesting anymore than the others. She moved closer to Stone and Ezekiel so they bunched together.

"No, he's mischief, jokes and selfish childishness. He is a being made from our father's naughtiness, that is all." Her announcement was like a hammer falling. How many times had they asked him why he couldn't take things seriously? How many times had his attitude just irritated and got them scolding him for being inappropriate. You just can't help yourself, can you?

"And you?" Jenkins asked.

"Wait, wait let me guess," Flynn cut in circling Sonya like an appraiser at an auction. "Scorn."

"Disappointment," Cassandra added quietly.

"Irritation," Stone said joining in.

"Scorn?" Eve asked, stepping closer to study the woman. She looked normal, but she had to agree with the others, there was nothing nurturing about her. Whatever she was, she was sorely mistaken if she thought revealing their nature was going to make them abandon Ezekiel.

"Who better to send after a misbehaving child?" Sonya asked them with a shrug. "I must admit I am surprised, I was certain you would run and hide, but here you are standing bravely with your... compatriots. Almost makes me wish I could feel anything but contempt for you. Now, I'm going to count to three." They had all been on the receiving end of that threat at some point in their lives. They closed ranks around Ezekiel so focused on Sonya that they didn't see the look of surprise and amazement at their actions on his face.

"One," Sonya said her eyes on Stone and Baird. "Two." The eyes shifted to Jenkins and Flynn. Her tongue curled slowly against her teeth starting to form the last word as her eyes fixed on Cassandra.

"OK." Ezekiel stepped out from the group. "I'm coming."

"No," Baird said grabbing his arm tightly. She thought about the Ezekiel she met in the other reality, how he spoke of her like a mother. She wouldn't let him down now.

"It's OK really," Ezekiel said as he gently removed her hand. "She doesn't handle it very well if she doesn't get her way." Despite their protests he walked over to Sonya who wrapped her arm around his chest and turned him to face them.

"Say goodbye Ezekiel."

"Goodbye Ezekiel," he said, cheeky to the last. The door behind them went dark, the dial up machine stuttering as it fell silent.

"What?" Sonya demanded turning sharply to find Jenkins smiling at her.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "But if Michel Mauvais wants the fragments of his psyche back he can come and get them himself." She swung a fist at him snarling but Baird was already there and pounced on her exchanging a few strikes and knocking over a side table before getting the upper hand and restraining her arms tightly behind her back.

"What are you doing?" Ezekiel asked them.

"What were you doing?" Cassandra returned, shoving him in the chest.

"Going back to where I belong." They all knew a lie when Ezekiel told one, he never really tried to hide it, reveling in blatant falsehoods instead, a trait that made more sense now.

"You thought you were protecting us," Stone said. Ezekiel shrugged noncommittally.

"What would happen to you if you went back?" Cassandra asked.

"Depends what father wants, I think I was responsible for him making some mistake so he removed me to stop it happening again." The wrongness of that whole statement had them lost for words for a moment. "I guess he wants me back, can't be having much fun without me," he finished lightly. Sonya snorted and Baird gave her a shake to remind her to shut up.

"And by back, you mean...?" Stone asked. Ezekiel made an odd gesture that looked like a mix between I don't know and I have heartburn.

"You'd go back inside him? You'd stop existing?" Baird asked horrified. Ezekiel and Sonya shared a look and said nothing.

"So," Flynn said tilting his head and poking Ezekiel's arm with a finger. "You're not really real?"

"I think therefore I am," Ezekiel replied, his familiar smart arse smile stretching across his face, although the others all saw the hurt in his eyes and noted the unusual absence of his full name in the sentence.

"We're basically human in flesh and blood," Sonya clarified. "We eat, we sleep, we die, our consciousness is just made from a piece of father rather than coming from wherever minds and souls normally come from. Not that he gave us souls." The bitterness in her voice actually made Baird feel a little sorry for her.

"So your father is this Michel Mauvais?" Stone asked them both.

"Michel Mauvais was one of the few alchemists to ever achieve the great tasks of alchemy." Jenkins announced.

"Wait, I know this," Stone said wagging his finger as if to jump start his brain. "Lead into gold, eternal life and artificial life."

"Ta da!" Ezekiel said waving his hands by his face.

"Life is one thing, sentience is another," Sonya sneered. "But it turns out even empty meat puppets have their uses." Ezekiel sniggered at the term meat puppets and Cassandra gave him a smack on the arm at his inappropriateness.

"Hey, I can't help it, it's my nature," he moaned.

"You are not making jokes about this," she groaned.

"But that's who I am."

"No, who you are is my friend. Our friend. That makes you someone, not just a piece of someone."

"You're wasting your time. He's not capable of complex emotions. None of us are, aren't you able to comprehend? A true person has combinations of emotions and drives that we just don't have, no regret, no lust, no sadness... no love," Sonya growled, frustrated with their conversation.

"That's not true," Cassandra said, refusing to give up.

"She's not lying Cassandra," Ezekiel said softly trying to get her to understand. He was amazed they weren't more angry about it, he had kind of lied to them for months, about something pretty fundamental too.

"No I've seen it. You're capable of more than just, just..."

"Mischief?"

"Yes!"

"No," Sonya sing songed.

"You shut up," Baird warned.

"You did it just now," Flynn said.

"Did what?" Ezekiel asked.

"You were willing to go with Scorn over there and essentially stop existing just to protect us. That wasn't very mischievous, it wasn't even a bit naughty," he said triumphantly. Ezekiel looked confused.

"I didn't want you guys to get hurt. I'm not cruelty or maliciousness," he defended.

"Ah, ah. That was compassion, not something Mauvais put in you either is it?" Flynn asked. Ezekiel and Sonya both went still before sharing another look. They had some sort of silent conversation before Sonya rolled her eyes and shrugged out of Baird's grip.

"It's OK," Ezekiel said, nodding to Baird, who reluctantly let his "sister" go but stayed tense and ready to fight if necessary.

"Alright I can see I won't get anywhere here and I can't be bothered to argue about it. I'll just go and tell father you're not coming back," Sonya said dismissively. "Get your stupid door thing working."

"Anywhere in particular you'd like to go?" Jenkins asked with forced civility.

"London, somewhere in Bloomsbury," she replied. The door flashed as he input the direction and she stood in front of it arms crossed as if she'd already been kept waiting.

"Wouldn't it be something Sonya? If we could be whole people?" Ezekiel asked the back of her head.

"Careful Ezekiel," she replied over her shoulder. "Your hope is showing." Then without another word she jerked open the door and left. Ezekiel waited until the door powered down again before he blew out a long breath.

"Father will not be happy," he said turning to his team. "If it's time to go back I should probably go."

"Do you want to go back?" Baird asked.

"No! I love my life, I was just wandering around stealing whatever for the fun of it, then bam, I join you guys, become a Librarian and I started to feel like a real person." He looked embarrassed. "Not that I know what being a real person feels like."

"I think you'd be surprised," Flynn said dropping an arm around his shoulders. "Now before anyone says anything else you have to tell us, how old are you really?"

"Ten."

The room exploded into questions but Ezekiel Jones only laughed.

….

Author's Note: Michael Mauvais was a real alchemist I found in a quick internet search.

We still know the least about Ezekiel's past, so what if he doesn't have one? His character development has been really interesting this season (even though the most significant got deleted) and some of his lines: "I'm not your friend, but you're mine." "My anonymity, I have no ties to anything or anyone in the real world." were pretty heart breaking, also both the devil and his happy ending mentioned wanting to be free and see the world, so that must stem from something. Here's hoping for next year.

Thanks for reading. Please leave a review and let me know what you think, it's truly amazing to hear from readers.