Priority
Ambrose has 2 secrets that can destroy the O.Z. He can only keep one
Dedicated to Midnight022 on Youtube, My collaborator and artistian muse (Electro-rebellion of diviantart)
I crouch by the fire and watch in melancholy satisfaction as the last few notes burn. I stir the charred paper in the grate.
Now there was no way for the Sorceress to get the plans for my sunseeder...
Until she headcased me.
I run a hand fervently through my short curls. She would defiantly make me a headcase. I just hope I can stop her from getting the sunseeder.
In the last month or so, I had read as many books about headcases as I could find.
(One fellow even went out into the wilderness to find a few and get a first hand account on being a headcase Needless to say, he wasn't very successful.)
Several experts claim a headcase can hold onto one idea or memory beyond the process. Most chose their name.
I shudder. It had always seemed barbaric really. To pull someones brain clear out of their meninges. And now, it was soon to be my turn.
I look out the small window of my work room. I'm not strong and brave like the Tin men and generals. So I fight the war from here, using my brain.
With my queen
At home.
"Lord Ambrose"
I start and turn, facing the desk the voice came from "News from the front line!"
I hurry to the H.L.D.C.D. (Holographic Long-Distance Communication Device)
"What news?" I ask, hoping despite the odds for something good.
"Sir" My heart sinks. My scout is pale and shaking visibly. "It's over sir.
We lost'
"We can't lose! Not unless we give up! How-"
General Lynot. The princess promised him....many things...he-he was greatly intrigued. The city has fallen. There is no one else"
"The resistance fighters" I rally. There's a way, always a way. It's my job to find it.
The scout shook his head "We're locked in the city. We can't get word out to anyone. Except you."
Oh
"Oh." I blink rapidly recovering myself over this latest blow. "There was a camp just to the south of here, if I go now-"
"That won't work sir. That's why I made contact. The sorceress is heading that way sir, to the northern palace. Our spies report- "
I stop listening and run as fast as I can.
The queen. The sorceress was coming for the queen.
My Queen.
My friend.
I hurry to the garden. I slow to a brisk march as my energy drains. Some with exhaustion , but mostly relief floods me.
She's still there. In the chair by the lake. Where she always sits. She sits by the lake and thinks of things that weigh heavily on her mind.
My own mind is reeling as I give her the news. I wonder how she sits so still, not running. Not panicking. Just sitting there with a melancholy face.
"She'll come after you, Ambrose"
I nod, knowing what she really means.
Run! Run now!
"Is there noting you can do, Majesty?"
Not without you.
"Too late. The darkness is too deeply rooted in her"
She will hunt you if I come
"Buy your light; you are the most powerful being in all the O.Z."
Is all lost, as they say?
Was, old friend. I gave my light to save someone...My angel."
Angel? That -That's DG!
I look up in surprise. DG's alive?
Before I can ask anything, I catch movement from the corner of my eye. I stand as Azkadellia and her long-coats approach.
"Show some respect!" I demand, blocking her from the queen.
If I start now, I can probably have three long-coats down before I'm killed.
The queen stands, resting her hand on mine, protecting me.
Even now she prefers I not fight.
Not lay my life down at her feet. Though I would in a heartbeat.
"And take him to the Alchemist. A pair of Long-coats grab me. "If you won't tell me what you know, I'll just have to reach in and take it."
But she won't take my brain out.
Not yet.
The witch wants me to know pain first.
Azkadellia had history with me. I showed her how to tie her shoes. I built exquisite toys for her on her birthday. Explained how magic worked to her and DG when all Toto would give them was 'concentrate.'
Azka-d would fight the witch. At least a little.
But she would lose.
In the end, she would lose.
She will fight harder for her mother. The queen is relatively safe.
I worry about her anyway.
I worry about myself as well
I won't lose my brain just yet.
But eventually.
They won't have any other choice.
I stall and block with everything I can. The most effective is an old nursery rhyme
The majestic queen of the O.Z.
Had two lovely daughters she.
One to darkness, she'll be drawn
Back to light, she'll be shown
Double eclipse it is foreseen
Light and dark and the stillness between
Neither one shall stand alone
Both hold the emerald and share the throne
Should one leave before her time
Darker shall the two suns shine.
Until the day of her return.
Azkadellia and the witch fight long after.
The witch hides her doubts.
"He is a man of Logic and reason. What would he know of nursery rhymes?"
"But if he's right"
"He's not right. I'm right!"
"He might be right. He is right a lot. He has a really big brain."
"Lets see how big a brain he really has"
I struggle against my restraints.
But it's futile and I know it. I knew since that day I walked down to the queen in her chair at the palace.
Something hits me from behind and the world starts to swirl. The colors blend together to one bleached white light.
I read in a book once most headcases can retain one memory.
The sunseeder.
Or DG.
The world goes dark, as will all of the Zone if I make the wrong choice.
I awake feeling groggy. They already administered the Anastasias.
"Count backwards from 100"
I'm in trouble.
"No please don't do this"
I need more time. Time to think, to figure it out.
DG needed time. Time she would lose if I gave up the sunseeder.
But what if she weren't coming back? What if she was completely satisfied with her life in Kansas?
She wouldn't remember the OZ or any of us. Surely she had a loving family there?
The witch had killed her once, she would do it again. Without question. She would go there herself and destroy all of the Other-side. If I gave up the sunseeder DG was safe If I gave DG over, The O.Z. wouldn't fall as fast
I can't hold my eyes open. They fall closed.
"Please" I whisper on last time.
Sometime in the black abyss I make my choice.
I just hope I made the right one.
Let them take the rest
I awake in a cage.
Am I an animal?
What was that? What was that?
What what what..
I repeated that thought
What thought?
I don't remember.
Am I an animal?
No.
Why?
Oh I'm in a cage.
Animals live in cages.
I'm not an animal.
But I'm in a cage.
Animals live in cages.
I'm not an animal.
So why am I in a cage?
My head hurts.
Or is it my purple?
No it's called a head.
I made a funny.
I look myself over. I'm alright.
A few bruises.
And my coat is scuffed up.
It's a nice coat.
My coat is scuffed up.
I walk to the bars and try to push them open.
They stay closed.
I'm locked in a cage.
Am I an animal?
Animal ?
My thought repeated itself Must be a synapse misfire
Do I get that a lot?
Synapse misfires?
What's a synapse?
Synapse:A region where nerve impulses are transmitted and received, encompassing the axon terminal of a neuron that releases neurotransmitters in response to an impulse, an extremely small gap across which the neurotransmitters travel, and the adjacent membrane of an axon, dendrite, or muscle or gland cell with the appropriate receptor molecules for picking up the neurotransmitters.
Ah thats a synapse.
How did I know that?
I try the door again. I tried it before and it was locked. I remember trying the door earlier. Not very long ago. But I don't remember anything from before that.
Still locked.
I must be a dangerous animal.
Is that why DG left?
I remember DG. But not much else.
"What what what what"
What was going on?
My synapses misfire again.
"What was going on?"
Someone hits my cage .
I jump back.
"Not so smart now are you?" Leers the cage hitter.
"I was smart?"
"Not anymore, headcase"
"Headcase?"
Headcase headcase headcase
Headcase: A mentally unstable person who acts irrationally or foolishly; an eccentric person. Result of removal of the brain for criminal nature.
I was a terrible dangerous animal!
No wonder DG left!
A mentally unstable person who acts irrationally or foolishly; an eccentric person. Result of removal of the brain for criminal nature. Trapping subject within own consciousness, erasing any connection or memory to the past
I can't be a headcase. I remember things.
I can't remember what I can remember
But I remember things.
"Zero!"
I'm jolted from my musings as another man comes to my Cage.
"General Lynot." My cage hitter replies to the newcomer.
"There's trouble in the east. A resistance fighter by the name of Cain."
"Nar I know him. Trouble." Zero spits
I blink.
N
Na
Name
Name! They have names. I must have one.
Have one
Have one
Have one
"What's my name?" I ask the man called Zero.
"Shut it brainless." Zero growls at me and turns to the one named Lynot.
As for Cain, I took care of him already. Two annuals ago."
"Jeb?"
"No Wyatt. Jebs just a kid, how much trouble can he cause? And anyway -"
They walk out arguing, leaving me with whatever thoughts my half-brain can retain.
Wyatt and Jeb. Two more names.
I must have a name. But what is it?
It'll come to me. But in the meantime I need something to call myself.
Call myself.
Call myself.
I could probably think better if I didn't glitch so much.....