'Glad you could make it.' Cain muttered to his son, as the younger Cain began to usher people through the large door. The sisters were at the back of the growing crowd, their eyes closed in concentration as they created a shield to stop anything falling on the screaming people.

'I had to think about the other sister as well.' Jeb muttered in reply. He noticed his father's gaze shift to the younger sister behind them and didn't know what to think. Adora only died a year ago- but then he may be over reacting. 'How are we going to get these people out of here?' Jeb finally asked, his voice changing from bitterness to soft desperation.

'I'm not sure…' Wyatt replied, apparently looking around for someone. Once he had found the head full of zipper and dark curls he called out.

'Did someone say my name?' Glitch asked the viewer next to him, as they inspected the rest of the crowd for injuries. The few people who did survive the direct blast were already lying down, having the majority of their skin injuries healed.

Raw simply nodded his head, and made the shape of a hat brim before closing his hands around the woman's ankle that was bleeding from a broken table she had tripped over.

'Oh! Cain.' Glitch said happily as he recognised the voice as it came from a closer distance to him.

'Zipper head, we need to know if there are any tunnels or anything out of this castle.' He said once he had come close enough to look threatening. He decided it must have worked when Glitch gulped and nodded his head in understanding.

'I think…' he began, trying to remember something- anything- that would stop the Head of Military looking at him like that. 'There has to be some.' He told himself, tapping his forehead in frustration. Though he had been connecting more with Ambrose recently, Glitch still hadn't been prepared enough to have the operation- that and the other facts of all the Alchemists (which DG was surprised to find was an actual species) being faithful to only the witch and Glitch still wasn't sure whether he wanted to turn into the stuffy man he used to be.

'Mr Cain?' A nervous voice twittered from behind them. They both span on their heels to see the elder princess- there was no mistaking her for the witch. Where she was too confident, Azkadellia was nervous and extremely self-conscious as she thought that everyone was against her.

'No need for Mr's here, highness.' Cain muttered, and looked briefly for DG over Azkadellia's shoulder to see she was talking to her parents, with an extremely annoyed look on her face. He quickly looked back to her elder sister as DG looked over at him- presumably for support about whatever argument she was having.

'Yes… well.' She cleared her throat nervously and looked at his face, though clearly avoiding his eyes. 'I might be able to help you finding the secret tunnels. The ones the long coats don't know about I mean…'

Cain was struck by the way the princess talked. So far the depths their conversations had gone to were her giving orders (kindly) to him, and asking where DG was. Her sister had explained how she was slowly building up confidence and had helped her to write her speech for loyalty to the O.Z., for the coronation. But here… she behaved as if he was demanding information from her, threatening her.

True he hadn't been all that friendly to her- her's was the hand that practically signed Adora's death warrant. He knew also that this was the one thing (at the moment) the DG could not abide- she kept reminding everyone around her that Azkadellia was not the one who tried to bring eternal darkness, it was the witch of the South.

'Wonderful!' Glitch exclaimed after a momentary awkward silence. 'Isn't it Cain?' The royal advisor hit the other man on the shoulder with surprising strength, snapping him out of whatever kind of trance he was in.

'Yeah, that's good highness.' He could never bring himself up to calling her "princess"- that was reserved as one of DG's nicknames. 'I need to go talk to your sister about something, but could you show Jeb where all of these tunnels are.'

Jeb, hearing his name turned his full concentration to the conversation he only had one ear to previously. 'Father?'

'Jeb, I want you to listen to where all of these tunnels are. I'm going to go get the on duty soldiers that are still stuck downstairs, and when they come up you are going to organise them to block off the tunnels the Long coats know of, and take the crowd down the tunnels they don't. Three soldiers in front of the crowd, two behind. Split the groups up remember.' Much of what he said, Jeb didn't bother listening to- he was a soldier too and knew the procedure.

Giving a small tap of his hat, he walked off to the princess that was now having an argument with one of the nobles. The old man seemed to think he was the superior one in the conversation, medals tinkling slightly on his chest.

'Is there a problem here?' Cain asked, not sure whose side he was meant to be on.

'Ah, Cain. I was hoping you could please explain to this young woman-' Cain stiffened slightly at the informal reference to the princess. The old man did not notice. 'The problems with this plan of hers. She seems to believe that she will be distracting the people outside, herself.'

Cain turned to DG, opening his mouth to argue with her about whatever plan she had concocted, but realised it would be simpler if he got rid of the old soldier first.

'General Reeve, as much as I agree that the princess has some issues with understanding her place in the greater scheme of things-'



'What?' DG interrupted loudly. Cain glared at the girl, who just stood where she was, her silk covered arms crossed over her chest and broke her gaze.

'-I have to protest to you referring to her in such a manner. She is your leader, and not someone you call "young woman" and certainly not someone you argue with when you are no longer part of the Ozian Army. Remember, I only call you "general" out of respect.' Cain noticed the man's indignant expression was growing slightly more red, but remained monotone.

'Mr. Reeve,' DG interrupted, clearly not caring about respecting the man with a false title that she was just arguing with, 'Would you please excuse Cain and I?'

It seemed the man was waiting for an excuse, and after a few moments it was clear he was not going to receive one.

'Of course your highness.' He replied, his head and voice lowered at her continuous glare.

'Okay, before you say anything I think you should listen to the plan.' DG started, her confidence starting to shrink as all of Cain's fury could be directed onto her. Everyone who was listening in onto Reeve and the princess's conversation was now fully turned away. Arguments between the princess and the Tin Man could be heard from miles away and were never pretty. Besides, they normally heard both sides of the argument later anyway, as the two complained about each other. It was as if they had no idea that both of them hardly ever complained about the actual subject, but mainly the stupidity of the other person.

'What the hell are you thinking? "Distracting" them yourself?' He demanded, fury growing with every word.

'Cain! Just listen to me!' When Cain had calmed down enough for him to be able to listen to her properly, DG realised that the General had given pretty much the extent of her plans.

'Well?'

'Well, I spose he pretty much summed it up.' She replied, nodding her head towards the retreating General.

'You don't have a further plan?' He rolled his eyes at the girl, ignoring her glare. 'Well I do.' He grabbed her wrist, taking her with him to the on-duty soldiers.

DG's arguments had no affect on Cain as they ran down the steep stairs, careful that neither of them tripped over the dress that had began to tatter.

'What's this plan of yours then?'

'I get you out of here.' He replied simply, knowing that she will have something to say about his hypocrisy. She opened her mouth to say something, but his glare kept her silent for the time being. 'Hopefully they'll be a couple of Seethers on-duty.' He muttered, and DG nodded, not bothering to ask what a Seether was. There was still a lot she didn't know about Ozian creatures and military positions, and was known to often mix up the two.

When they reached the stone hall each man and woman stiffened to attention and gave a salute to their General. The closest soldiers gave a stiff bow to the princess, but she just shook her head slightly before anyone else could.

'We're under attack.' Cain put bluntly, and DG was surprised by the lack of information the soldiers accepted as they began to file into lines, leading out of the door they just came through. 'You are to listen to Commander Cain. No one else's instructions are higher than his, than mine or the King-consort or Queen. If either princess gives instructions make sure that either Jeb or I okay it too.'

DG gave a quick glare to the back of Cain's neck, knowing exactly why he said that.

'I can be trusted.' She hissed, and crossed her arms over her chest at his laugh.

'No, you can't.' He replied, his voice still full of amusement, and he ordered the men and women to fall out.

These soldiers were not there for decoration- though many were not armed they were extremely dangerous and DG saw a few who looked more so than the others. She guessed these as the Seethers Cain mentioned, and their pupiless eyes made her slightly nervous. You couldn't be truly sure what way they were looking, but it always looked like they were staring at something.

'It's odd to see women in the guard detail.' DG muttered to Cain as they walked back to the hall behind the rest of the group.

'I thought there was no guard detail on the other side.' Cain replied stiffly.

'Well no, but in movies and such.' She explained. The man grunted slightly, not bothering to ask what movies were at the moment. He would ask Glitch when- if- this whole thing was over.

When they reached the hall, DG felt something heavy slam into her and lost balance, falling to the floor. She heard a slight yell of 'Princess', but simply smirked at the concern that showed at the most inconvenient of moments.

'Sorry Deeg.' Azkadellia muttered, and lifted herself back up, offering a hand to her sister. She took it, and waited for the elder sibling to explain what she was so excited about. 'We think we know what's outside.' Azkadellia said, a buzz of excitement invading her voice.

'We?'

'Ambrose and I. Can you please stay focused on the important parts of the conversation?' She asked, slightly annoyed. DG didn't bother to hide her smirk, but nodded apologetically.

'Sorry. What's outside?'

'The sisters.' DG's blank expression encouraged her to continue, but she was interrupted by the man who was suddenly standing beside them.



'The witches of the East, West and South.' Glitch told them, and grinned at DG's continual blank face. 'I found in one of the books of history that there are the four witches of the poles. The fourth is Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. She helped the first slipper, Dorothy Gale the first. But since she's pure of heart and helpful, the other sisters don't include her in things such as this curse they put on themselves.'

'Well, not so much a curse.' Az explained. 'A protective charm is more like it.'

'Yes, well…' Glitch stammered, his face turning an unnatural shade of pink. As much as DG was glad to hear her sister's laugh as she giggled at the man, she cleared her throat, hoping to understand what was keeping them inside.

'Sorry Doll. Well, the thing is when the witch of the South was killed, it activated the charm.'

'And what exactly does this charm do?' Cain asked fiercely, starting to get sick of the suspension.

'It brings them back as one.' Azkadellia replied. 'Well, not as strong as they were but still enough to be threatening. Especially since they get stronger when they evoke fear. Everyone's screams are feeding them.'

A yelp from a woman interrupted them and Cain grabbed the arm of a soldier who was passing them.

'Stop everyone screaming and calm them down. Not a word from anyone until they get out of this building unless it's to warn everyone else.' The soldier's eyes widened as they realised what they had just been asked and how impossible it seemed. How would they calm everyone down if they themselves could not speak?

'Tell us more about this.' DG asked her sister and her friend as Cain suddenly ran off with an Ah ha!.

'We're still trying to figure out how to defeat them, but I was thinking maybe a combination of their deaths.' Glitch replied. 'I think I'm beginning to form a plan.' The pride in his voice made both girls smile, but DG felt an unnatural calmness pass through her.

'Raw?' She asked and saw the viewer walk through the crowd, silencing them with simply his presence. The smaller viewer next to him was tapping people's wrist, presumably needing contact to do the same thing. A fedora bearing Tin Man came out from the crowd as they were began to be ushered through a tunnel that had opened moments before, and was wearing one of his smirks. DG stuck her tongue out at him, not sure what was going through her at the moment, and putting it all down to the bliss she was feeling thanks to the viewers grabbing ahold of her hands.

'What's happening?' Cain asked as he reached the small group and DG turned to the royal adviser.

'Glitch here, has a plan.' She replied happily, her voice surprisingly confident.

And without waiting for an insult from the Head of Military, Glitch filled them in.

Hey everyone. Thank you so much for all those who are reading and reviewing. I'm sorry I didn't update last weekend, but I was so sick I couldn't get out of bed. I had been hoping to update every weekend at least, but it's coming up to the end of the term so I'll be needing to do assignments and studying a fair bit more and such.

But anyway, please review, it'll be much more encouraging to give up my study time if I know people want to actually read my work. I really can't wait to write the next chapter, I hope it turns out better than this one. This was mainly a filler between this and the next one.

I think this will be a fairly short fic, but I promise the sequel (which I also can't wait to write) will be much more plotty and have a fair bit of Cain/DG. But I'll bring some in fairly soon for you.

-B