Chapter 14
The death of hope
As Alec, Bluefire, and Anthony headed South to continue their mission, The Emperor Apostle was becoming impatient.
"Sire, you have waited long enough! The time to strike is now, if we wait any longer they may find your lair!" Bael yelled. The Emperor paced in the Black Halls; angry but torn. He had options.
"No I have a better idea, Ozma deserves Royal company," hissed the dark Ruler. Bael slithered at his feet following closely. They teleported from the Black City down to the depth of his Lair under the Death Marshes. Ben, Argy, and Julia all lay motionless on the dark stone floor. They were just barely alive. Evardo had moved to Glinda's former cell, he too was stiff.
Ozma was the only one who was conscious. She was laying on the floor on her stomach, in tears, unable to speak. As the Emperor entered the room, Ozma let out a scream. The mere presence of him caused any with a heart emotional pain beyond comprehension. She was too good a soul to be near such black miserable wickedness. The Emperor allowed Bael to enter as well.
Bael slithered through the air but low to the ground, and looked closely at the earthlings. Bael chuckled deeply in his strange accent and low raspy voice, seeing the three humans laying ontop of each other as if they were already dead. The humans wished they were dead for it would spare them the unrelenting pain they were in. They were in so much pain, and had lost so much blood, that they could not even move. They had noticably grown pale in the tremendous bloodloss, and very thin in their preserved but starving state. The weight of the three humans resing ontop the other, sparked nerves in each of their hands. Suddenly the three of them twitched their fingers, and then returned to being still. Ozma looked up from the floor seeing this, and smiled through her batterd appearance, and crownless head.
"Coleane Tipetarius. The Savior of Oz they said. Impressive admittedly," The Emperor knelt down suddenly to her level and grabbed with aggressive force her chin. "You have slaughtered nearly every member of my family. Did you seriously not think I would know? You worthless, piece of trash, you will never amount to anything! Your life is meaningless! YOU KNOW NOTHING OF LIFE!" He back handed her with his armored fist. "YOU HAVE FAILED TIP!" he punched her again. Still she said nothing, only continued to smile.
"Are you not listening? I AM GOING TO KILL EVERY SINGLE OZIAN IN THIS FUCKED UP WORLD, ALL BECAUSE YOU FAILED! YOU ARE A WORTHLESS, WEAK, LYING WRETCHED CUR!" The Emperor kicked her in the chest rolling her across the floor. Ozma was helpless, having not eaten for months, only her incredible magic kept her alive, and even that was beginning to fade. The absence of love did more than kill the nature in Oz. And the Emperor wasn't finished yet.
"OZ IS MINE COLEANE. I WILL NEVER STOP, NEVER. DO YOU HEAR ME? ARE YOU FUCKING LISTENING? FOR THE WIZARD! FOR NESSA! FOR THE NOME KING! FOR LANGWIDERE! FOR MOMBI YOU WILL DIE WITH THE REST OF THIS PATHETIC COUNTRY! And as for THOSE EARTHLINGS: eaten alive!" With each name the Emperor listed, he bashed her across the face on the stone floor with his ebony armored hand. He then activated his Amulet of Death, and the jaw of the large black skull opened wide, consuming her soul and magical essence. Ozma took the bullet for everyone in the room. Had she resisted him even in the slightest, the Dark Emperor would have either killed them all, or everyone except Ozma. Both of which she did not want, and so she lay motionless, taking the fatal blows for her loved people. Once the skull of the Amulet was full, he shoved her so her lifeless face was looking up at him from the floor.
"Most sincerely, for Elphaba Almira Thropp. Bael, feed my pretty" The Emperor gave the order and Bael druled behind his fanged mouth, and did what his master told him. He fed on Ozma's body, as barely alive as she was. As Bael ate the true Queen of Oz, the ground shook.
"Alec! What's wrong?!" I said, he was writhing in pain on the floor, moaning with misery and shouting in helpless protest. He was aware of the sudden death of his mother. What little light there was in Oz, yielded to darkness. The clouds disappeared and the skies turned pitch black. Mountains turned into Volcanoes, dead plants into vicious animal eating plants. The world wasn't just dead, it now had killing features. Alec was seemingly, having a seizure.
"Anthony what do we do?" Shouted Blue, panicking.
"Keep watch, don't let anything approach! I know what to do," I answered.
As I held Alec down keeping harmful objects out of his reach, I placed a charm on him, to slowly calm his adrenaline and heart rate, and rapid body movement. I looked up at Blue, who had engaged in a dogfight with more of Shell's Dragons. Different colored fire rained down in thunderous explosions. Blue shot different forms of firepower. Instead of his typical blue fire, hence his name, it was white.
Anthony continued trying to ease Alec going through whatever it was he was going through, and simultaneously put up an enchanted barrier to protect Blue.
"How did you do that?" Asked a voice beneath Anthony.
"Just a little something I picked up from Lady Glinda. What the hell was that?" I asked, leaning back giving Alec breathing room.
"My mother, Ozma Tipetarius, was murdered just now," I dropped my jaw, and more uncontrollable tears fell. Blue had just finished off the remaining Dragons by pouncing through the air and slicing the abomination's throat.
"Everything ok? How's Alec?" Blue asked. Seeing us both in tears, Alec told him the news.
"The true Queen has been killed,"
"No! How- It cannot be! We have no time, come on, on my back, I'll take you to the Death marshes now, we've waited too long, this was not supposed to happen. Light must prevail," Blue cried. Anthony and Alec were flung onto his back by his tail, and then they flew high and fast through the black clouds towards Quadling, errr The Death Marshes. Though Anthony and Alec had been told what happens when more than one person are in it together, no one has entered and lived. So he thought to himself, these must just be rumors then. Sure it's gonna be hell, but what in Ozma's beautiful name does that mean? Hell how?
He thought about it more, and concluded that hatever happens, it will surely be at least two things. First its going to try to weaken him. Using whatever means it can either emotionally, physically, or something else, it will try to weaken him because remember, the Emperor wants to maintain his rule and now that Ozma is dead, his focus shifts to Anthony and Alec. The other thing it will try to do is destroy the teamwork and collaborative spirit, the camaraderie between him and Alec. Together we have a chance to take back our friends, but alone, neither me nor Alec may singlehandedly be strong enough to do it. The Emperor knows this, has planned for it, and now just waits and watches with his spies overhead, to report back the progress of his plans. But maybe he thought, just maybe, those spies (his Dragons of course) will have to report back a failure of The Emperor's own plans.