One For All, And All For One
They stumbled their way down the dark corridor in single file, chains jangling, Flynn leading, Clara bringing up the rear, Ezekiel shuffling inbetween them. Circe was nowhere to be seen, and neither were any guards, but everytime they tried to run, they were pushed back into place by an invisible force. Driven to desperation, Flynn tried to dash forwards, only to be suddenly shoved backwards, nearly crushing what was left of Ezekiel out of existence.
"Show yourself, minions!" he bellowed, trying and failing to shake his fist at the empty air.
"You're showing yourself up," Clara muttered, trying and failing to blow a stray curl out of her eye.
"I'm a showman, that's what I do," Flynn retorted.
"Do you leave people off the payroll as well?" Clara spat back.
"That wasn't me!" Flynn boomed over his shoulder. "That was Jenkins's idea of a joke!"
Clara did another dramatic double-take. "What!?" she squeaked.
"He admitted it to me," Flynn said, "that he'd played a prank on you and Jacob as payback."
"Payback for what!?"
"For breaking his best porcelain plate!"
"That wasn't us though!" Clara cried, casting her mind back. She, Jacob and Ezekiel had been doing some exploring in the Annex, only to stumble across Jenkins's china collection, Ezekiel getting up, close and personal with one particular specimen, only to break it.
"Then who did it!?"
"It was Ezekiel!"
"But he told Jenkins it was you and Jacob!"
"He's a lying little worm!" Clara spat, trying and failing to boot Ezekiel's backside.
"It doesn't matter now, anyways," Flynn said hastily. "You're all on the payroll now. I personally made sure."
"I was barely getting by!" Clara exploded. "And Jacob was kipping on his ex's kitchen floor!"
"Your old job was still open, then?" Flynn queried politely.
"Luckily for me it was," Clara said, deciding not to mention that she'd had to go on all but bended knee to get it back. The only reason they'd kept her job open for her was because nobody else was mad enough to work for such a low wage. She had been working all hours, not just waiting tables, but everything inbetween, cooking, cleaning, whatever was asked of her, even babysitting her boss's baby daughter for a few extra dollars. The little Clara had scraped and scrimped to save up had gone on paying for her hotel room, the price wiping her bank account out.
"Well, it all worked out in the end" -
- "So says you," Clara said, rolling her eyes.
"You have a lovely luxury apartment now," Flynn pointed out.
"You try coming home to an empty bed night after night," Clara pointed out in return.
"I have tried that, actually," Flynn flared up, "and this is not the time to be talking about our tangled love-lives."
"What about our trust issues instead?" Clara snapped.
"Or is it more your trust issues?" Flynn said astutely, stumbling on.
"I don't trust Cassie," Clara said abruptly, "and I can't, not after what she did, anyways."
"What about Stone?"
"Jake's caught somewhere in the middle," Clara said tiredly. "He and Cassie do a lot of fieldwork together, going out and researching stuff and things, but he still doesn't trust her even if he personally likes her. Ezekiel, however, is her biggest fan, but hey, that's no surprise, because he roots for the bad guy doesn't he, being one himself."
"Cassandra isn't bad," Flynn said quietly, "she just got a little... lost that's all."
"Only to end up on "Let's Get Clara Stabbed Street'," Clara spat. "She's got a nice sense of direction."
"If you've got a problem with Cassandra, you need to sit down and talk about it," Flynn said, his shackles chafing him in earnest now, "or even better, go and discuss it with Eve and Jenkins. They're meant to be your mentors after all."
Clara just scoffed at this, Flynn resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Becoming a Librarian took time, and it would all come together in the end, if Clara would just co-operate, instead of rebelling against the rules at every turn, trying to do Eve's job for her. But then again, he sensed her defiance stemmed from the storm within her; that shades of Guinevere could be found in her folly.
"Oh, look what the cat dragged in," Jenkins said dourly, startling them to a stop, even Ezekiel. "The Three Musketeers."
"And you are here because?" Flynn flung back, raising an eyebrow at Jenkins's choice of attire, being clad in nothing but a loin-cloth.
"Because of Bunty," Archie said from somewhere out sight.
"Archimedes?" Flynn said, glancing around him for the unseen goat.
"Above you, buffoon," Archie instructed.
Flynn looked upwards, Clara doing the same, only to see the goat peering through a grating at them, imprisoned somewhere in the ceiling. "Bonjour," Flynn said formally, inclining his head.
"This is not the time to use the language of love, my crazy Carsen," Archie said acerbically. "We need to perform some Jailhouse Rock."
"If we can get in, we can get out," Clara said quickly, trying and failing to formulate a fantastic plan.
"We came in through the back door," Jenkins said, "only for Circe to stumble across us in her private privy."
"And that was so not the time to take a bubble-bath," Flynn admonished Archie, who hung his horned head in shame.
"Did you use the back door as well?" Jenkins asked, adjusting his loin-cloth to a more modest angle.
"Yup," Flynn said. "Guilty as charged."
"So what do we do?" Clara asked. "If this back door isn't a viable option, what's our next move?"
"I don't know," Jenkins said, pulling at his chains. "These manacles are magical; I can't just use a hairpin to pick the lock."
"So we're screwed," Ezekiel croaked, startling them all.
"Well, at least you got Shifty Eyes back," Archie said from above. "That's a plus - I think."
"What about Stone?" Flynn asked urgently, ignoring Archie.
"He's probably still running wild and free in Reference," Jenkins said, his nostrils flaring with disdain at Jacob desecrating the Annex so.
"Next stop, nudist's colony," Archie sing-songed.
"Eve and Cassandra are MIA," Jenkins continued, also ignoring Archie. "Last I heard, they were cornered in a cornershop."
"I hate that Minotaur," Archie said pettishly, "he's always stealing my thunder - literally. That's why Zeus flung him out our flatshare."
"And we really need to escape," Clara reminded him, "instead of standing around, gossiping about gods."
"We're only here because you decided to fling yourself headfirst into a curiosity cabinet," Jenkins reminded Clara in turn. "And nice perm by the way," he added, jerking his head at her curly head, "you look like you stuck your finger in a socket."
"And you look like you're wearing a nappy," Clara said, deliberately attacking Jenkins's dignity.
"We're co-ordinating actually," Jacob said from behind them, making their heads jerk up, only to see him standing there in his boxer shorts, clutching a sparkly fairy wand of all things.
"Oh, God, not the wand," Flynn said, backing away.
"Please God, no," Jenkins said, falling to his knees, Flynn following suit.
"What's with the wand?" Clara said, bewildered.
Archie just shook his head, as much in the dark as her.
"I found it down the back of a sofa," Jacob explained, eying it reverently.
"Just put it down, Stone," Jenkins said gently. "You don't need to do this."
"He's right," Flynn said just as gently, "you don't."
"I will wave the wand," Jacob said in a monotone, and before anybody could stop him, he waved it.
Flashing lights and we, took a wrong turn and we
Fell down the rabbit holeā¦
