Hollow Victory part Two

Red breezed into Victor's office and stopped. She hated finding it empty, especially at a time like this. She bit her lip and whirled around in a circle several times before stopping, facing the door. A moment later, Victor walked into the room. "There you are," she said, dropping her hands to her sides and letting her shoulders sag with relief.

"Where else would I be?" Victor asked.

"Sorry. I'm on edge."

"Don't worry. I fully understand."

"Everything okay?"

"We had to relocate Rumpelstiltskin, but other than that, there have been no other disturbances." She nodded. "Is there anything you'd like to discuss while we wait for the end of our world?"

Red shrugged. "I dunno, anything, really."

"Alright, let's talk."

OUAT

D turned to Emily's coffin and shoved the lid aside. You can do this, she told herself, her sense of urgency restored. She tried to calm her nerves again, and she took hold of Emily's shoulders. Her mind still active and her body still tingling with the sense of power she had when she tried to stop Glinda, and she exhaled slowly, forcing away the magic coating and changing Emily Gale.

Two minutes later, dizzy, D lay Emily back down and waited, waited for her light-headedness to pass, waited for Emily to breathe again, waited for something to happen, something beyond what was going on around her. Cesar approached her and reached for her shoulder. She shook him off, and he backed away. "Emily," she whispered, again reaching for her sister's shoulders. "Emily? Talk to me, Emily. Please." She pressed her fingers under Emily's nose and waited for several agonizing moments. In vain. She cried out and shoved the wall of the coffin away from her, and then she turned away and collapsed to the floor, where she gave herself over to weeping.

The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion, Toto, and the Flying Monkeys all watched and waited, unsure of anything beyond the fact that the woman in the center coffin was well and truly dead, and that apparently devastated their beloved Dorothy-D, as she now liked to be called. Finally, the Tin Man approached her and gingerly extended a hand. He knelt beside her and touched her shoulder. He was soon followed by the Lion and the Scarecrow, and D recovered herself long enough to look up at them. "We have to go," she rasped. "She has a widower. We have to tell him."

"Do you think you're up to it?" the Tin Man asked.

"I have to be." He helped her to her feet. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

OUAT

Again with the help of the Wicked Witch, whom D's companions were becoming more and more convinced was a decent person, the four of them managed a voyage to the Enchanted Forest, specifically a village where a man named Jefferson was known to be establishing himself as a mushroom salesman. She gestured for the three Ozians to stay back while she approached what she was sure was his door, and she knocked. "Yes?" Jefferson asked when he opened the door, and then he took in D's disheveled appearance. "Dorothy...what happened?"

"Emily's dead," D replied. It was the only thing she knew how to say.

Jefferson gasped and pressed a fist to his lips for a moment, his eyes squeezed shut. Then he took a deep breath and said, "Come in. I have tea."

"Thanks, but these people I came with and I...we really should be getting back home. Emily's in Oz, in Glinda's castle, in the middle of the second rotunda. It's in that city in the north no one ever goes to. She's there, if you wanna find her and bury her properly."

"Thanks." He took another moment. "Come in anyway, and your friends, too." D nodded, and she, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion followed Jefferson into the hut. A crib caught D's attention, and she walked over to it and stared inside at the sleeping one-year-old girl. "Her name's Grace," Jefferson said softly.

"Nice to meet you," D whispered. "I'm your aunt Dorothy, but I want everyone to call me D now. People change as they grow up, and I just grew up a lot. But you, I want you to take your time. I want you to enjoy being a little girl for as long as you can, okay? You take all the time in the world."

"I'll tell her that every night."

"Okay. You take care of her, alright? You make sure she's okay."

"I will."