Title: Darkness and Fears to Appease
Rating: PG
Pairing: Cain/DG, slight mention of unrequited Glitch/Queen
Disclaimer: Don't own anything curses Frank L. Baum and Sci-fi do. The title comes from the Vienna Teng song "Eric's Song".
Spoilers: All three parts.
Summary: Takes place a few months after the end of Tin Man. Glitch has his brain back, Raw is living in peace with his own kind, Cain is off helping put the O.Z. back to rights, and D.G. is in Finaqua learning what life is like for a princess.
Everything had happened so fast afterwards. Her mother, Queen Glinda as DG found out was the lavender eyed woman's name, quickly took back the reins of power. She was not as she once was, Glitch informed DG, her inner light now entirely belonging to DG. But the Queen knew what had to be done.
Glitch had his brain restored, though you could barely call it that. Putting the brain back proved just as difficult and frightening as extracting it. He still forgot things and sometimes repeated himself but he was different from the Glitch he had been before. Everyone, except DG called him by his true name, Ambrose.
"He's in love with mother," Azkadillia stated a few weeks after his brain had been returned to him.
"What?!" The two sisters were at Finaqua, taking some "much needed rest" as the Queen told all inquiring minds.
"Don't tell me you haven't noticed, little sister," Azkadillia smiled.
Sure, Glitch was attentive to the Queen, to all three of the royal women in fact, but really.
"Oh my god," DG said. It made sense. The way he looked when Glinda gave him the slightest compliment. That sadness in his eyes whenever the Queen retired to her quarters with Ahomo. "Poor, Glitch," she whispered. Azkadillia heard her though. She heard her even when she said nothing at all. The two girls' bond had grown stronger everyday, just as DG's memories did.
"Yes, unrequited love can be so sad," Az nodded. "Of course I wouldn't know first hand." Az gave DG a knowing look which the latter ignored. The two were walking by the great surrounding the "special place". DG picked up a stone and skimmed it across the surface. She kept her eyes on the water until the ripples slowly died out. "We might both find out soon enough though," Az stated. DG looked up.
"What'd mean?"
"As soon as Mother has everything just right she's going to properly introduce us into the O.Z. society, for the sole purpose of marrying us both off and securing the future of the royal line." Az said this very calmly, like she had known forever, which maybe she had. She had so much more knowledge about courtly manners and life than DG, even if she had been trapped with the witch for so long.
"That…she wouldn't…She just got us back!" DG rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes. Being royalty was not as neat and easy as all those fairy tales and Disney movies made it seem. "Well, at least I won't have to worry about it," DG reasoned aloud. "You're the crowned princess, next in line for the throne. It's your job to secure the line. I should have a little leeway in who I marry…If," she added quickly. Brilliant blue eyes popped into her head, eyes she hadn't seen in moons, and she quickly banished them. Az let out a laugh, like a thousand tiny bells.
"Well, I may feel that my time is better spent with more important matters than marriage and babies. Perhaps I shall leave the throne to one of my little nieces."
DG had learned through her many lessons with Toto that the O.Z. royal line passed through the females. Her father was not in fact King, but held the title of Royal Consort.
DG was about to shoot back some witty reply to her big sister, at least in her mind, when the two turned simultaneously back toward the road leading to the Finaqua Palace. Toto, in human form, was making his way out of the maze.
Az smiled. "Time for your lessons," she said in a sing song voice. DG rolled her eyes. Az took lessons as well, but not as many it seemed as DG. DG had to relearn the whole history of the O.Z. as well as its custom. She had to spend hours looking over maps of the different territories of the O.Z. as well as its bordering zones.
"It's time for you to rest isn't it?" DG retorted.
Az showed signs of her old self, was really worse than she would let on. Years of being a host to the witch's soul had wrecked havoc on both her psyche and body. Some days she could barely stand up from pain. DG's presence helped, as did the emerald which kept permanent residence around Azkadillia's neck. Over the last few months she had regained most of her strength and level-headedness as a result of the emerald, the nearness of DG, and several potions concocted just for her. Azkadillia refused to show any weakness, knowing that many in the O.Z. were just burning with wanting to be able to denounce her right to the throne, to her very right to breathe even. The Queen refused to allow any prosecution take place against her eldest daughter, knowing full well that Az's actions over the last annuals were not of her own doing. Her families faith in her was helpful with her recovery, but still the guilt hounded her.
Since the first night Azkadillia had become herself wholly all those months ago she was plagued with nightmares. DG, who had refused to sleep separate from her sister, had been there to wake Az up and to wipe away her tears. DG had repeated over and over how it was not Az's fault, holding onto her big sister until morning, a faint glow emitting from both of them all the while. The nightmares still plagued Az, not as frequently as they did in the first few months, but DG could tell when her sister had had one.
Three hours later DG retired to her quarters, right across the hall from Azkadillia's. She had been using these rooms for almost two whole months, yet she had hardly done anything to make it her own. The walls were painted an egg's bird blue. Everything was white, the tables, her bureau. The only thing that really showed that this was DG's were the numerous sketches thrown about the room and hung up on the walls.
DG threw herself on her bed and closed her eyes and concentrated. She knew now, through her lessons with Toto, that she could locate anyone in the O.Z. using her magic. Rarely a day went by that she didn't look in on her birth parents, busy with restoring the palace in the north, or Glitch, who had completed his Sun-seeder and was overseeing the restoration of the farms throughout the O.Z. She even looked in on Raw once every few days. He was with his own kind in the east, apparently where his people had originally come from. There was just one person she never looked for. The one she most desperately wanted to see above all others.
"You could just ask him to come back."
DG sat up to see her sister in the doorway. She loved Az and normally loved how close their bond was. How it was like they could read each others minds. Now though she found it irritating.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, looking out to the balcony. Anywhere but into her sisters dark eyes.
"Please DG." DG looked at her but refused to answer.
Three weeks after the eclipse Cain had come to her, asking permission to leave her service to accompany his son to Central City to restore some semblance of order. He had already received permission from the Queen, asking DG was really just a formality.
Cain had immediately been made head of the young princess's security detail. He followed DG everywhere, or if he couldn't made sure the best man around could, which was usually his son Jeb, but DG never thought of him as a bodyguard or a Tin Man. He was her friend. She used the times alone with Jeb to learn more about the young man's father. Jeb himself knew so little about the man who helped bring him into the world, but he shared what little he could. Childhood memories, anecdotes that made both young people smile.
Then it started. DG's world ripped apart again just as badly as it had once she passed through that storm. Raw was leaving with his own kind. She would miss him, but knew what family meant and did not begrudge Raw for leaving. She hardly saw Glitch at all. Doctors and wizards were working around the clock to restore his brain. When he did get his marbles back he spent all his time with the Queen or fiddling with that machine of his. His loss stung DG a bit, but she understood Glitch had duties. But Cain….her Tin Man….
"Like it would matter." DG's throat felt scratchy from the force of will to hold back tears.
"He would come back," Az said reassuringly.
DG had been speechless at Cain's request. He was going to leave her too. Of course he wanted to be with his son. He had a whole life before her. It was childish to hope that she was such a paramount in his life. It was his job to protect her. His stupid sense of honor, though he didn't admit it, that kept him from letting her wander off to find her own way to Central City. His Tin Man view of justice to stay beside her, to free the O.Z. from Azkadillia's supposed tyranny.
Dry mouthed she gave her permission. And he just walked away. She had thought he would wait. Let them have a proper goodbye. But the next morning she found out that he had left with Jeb at first light.
She had gone through the rest of the day, hell the week, in a trance. Seeing, but feeling blind, hearing but deaf, able to speak but it hurt to form any words. Her mother had looked on worried. Thankfully she only thought it was latent posttraumatic stress from everything that had happened up until the eclipse. She offered her two bruised daughters a safe haven to retreat to at Finaqua which both gladly took.
"Leave me alone, Azkadellia," DG laid back down on her bed. She knew the words would hurt her sister and felt a little twinge of guilt hearing Az leave.
"It's a shame." Leave it to big sis to get in one last shot. "You're so alike. Both satisfied to completely disregard your hearts."
He would come back if she asked him to. For his duty and honor. She was nothing but a kid to him after all, right?
I'll see you down the road, Princess.
That's what he had said before leaving the room, leaving her life. Though Cain was hundreds of miles away, maybe thousands, she had never felt closer to him. Him walking away from her had been the first steps in her creating her own tin prison around her own heart.