Ding! Dong! The witch is dead! Which old witch? The nasty one with the bad breath. Oh, her. Sweet!

PS: there is no PS.

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Azkadellia gave a broken cry and threw herself at DeeDee. The younger princess caught her sister and held her close. Kady laughed and cried simultaneously. "It's over!" she exclaimed. "It's really over."

"I'm so sorry, Kady," DeeDee said, crying as well. Azkadellia shook her head.

"It's not your fault," she told Dee. "I don't blame you. I never blamed you."

"Never?" DeeDee asked, unable to believe it. For fifteen years her sister had been trapped in her own body, watching the witch commit unspeakable acts of cruelty. Azkadellia took Dee's face in her hands and looked into her eyes. The elder princess's eyes shown a cloudy gray in the shadowed light of the ongoing eclipse; they were clear and sincere.

"Not for a second," she insisted. A weight lifted off Dee's chest, spilling more tears from her eyes.

"Mother!" Azkadellia gasped.

"Do you know where she is?"

Az nodded and pulled DeeDee back into the tower, lifting up her skirt and running out of the chamber and down the hall. She stopped short before a tall set of doors, her expression uncertain.

"The things I've done…" she worried aloud. DeeDee gently brushed a stray hair behind her sister's ear.

"It wasn't you," she said. "They know that." Azkadellia looked visibly comforted by this, but her eyes retained the fear. Dee lifted their joined hands and smiled. "Besides. I'm still with you."

Azkadellia gave her a watery smile and nodded with a sniffle. Dee pushed the door open and led her sister inside. Ahamo and the Queen were standing on a tiny balcony across the room, hands joined, watching the sky. When they heard the girls enter, both turned. Their mother's mouth fell open in shock, their father's split into a wide grin. He quickly crossed the room, arms out, intent on embracing his children. Azkadellia took a step back, bringing him up short. For a moment she looked like she might bolt, but instead launched herself into her father's arms.

He pressed his lips to her hair and swung her around, feet off the ground, as though she were still a child. Perhaps, to him, she was. He laughed tearfully and rained kisses on her face and hair. Dee watched with a lump in her throat.

"My beautiful little girl," he whispered, adoringly. He turned to DeeDee and held out a hand, beckoning her close. Azkadellia held hers out as well. Dee had never been one for group hugs, but if there was ever a day to make an exception, this was it. She joined them and found it was not nearly as unpleasant as she might have thought. She even enjoyed it a little, she conceded.

"Mother!" Azkadellia cried, with a choked sob. She pulled away from her father and sister and rushed for the Queen, who welcomed her with open arms.

"Oh, my Azkadellia. Is it really you?" she asked, smiling as she wept. Ahamo stood, arm around Dee's waist, watching the other two. When the Queen finally looked up at her younger daughter, Dee was oddly not surprised to see her gaze hold no adoration or even joy.

"DG?" her mother said, only puzzled. "You're alive."

DeeDee did not know what she might have said in response to that. Luckily she was saved from having to respond at all. The door flew open the rest of the way and Glitch came bounding in, followed by Raw and Cain. Her father's lips twitched in amusement as he released his youngest and swept his arm towards her friends, indicating she should go to them, dropping a kiss on the top of her head that warmed her heart in a place she'd not realized had been cold. He turned to Azkadellia and the Queen as DeeDee went to her friends.

Glitch and Raw both bowed grandly and even Cain removed his ubiquitous hat, making her blush in embarrassment. Glitch then darted forward and hugged her close, laughing with glee.

"We did it!" he shouted, smiling from ear to ear. He had barely slackened his grip when Raw pulled her away and lifted her off the ground with his embrace. The Viewer set her on her feet and ruffled her hair affectionately. She turned to Cain. He was smiling. Actually smiling. She hugged him as well.

Dee had been so focused on that first real smile that she had completely missed that something was wrong. Until he winced under her embrace. She pulled back and saw that her shirt was stained red.

"You're hurt!" she gasped. There was a hole in his coat, blood tinged the edges.

"Yeah," glitch said cheerfully. "He got shot."

"You got shot?!" she shouted in outrage. Cain's ears actually flushed pink as though he were embarrassed.

"It's nothing," he told her. She looked at him like he had just sprouted another head.

"Nothing?" she demanded loudly. "You're bleeding all over the place!"

She ignored his protestations and peeled back his coat so she could get a better look at his shoulder. The sleeve and most of the right side of his pale blue shirt were soaked with blood. She pulled the coat back into the place and pressed the heel of her palm to the wound to staunch the bleeding. He grunted in pain. "I need a doctor," she told her family.

It was Azkadellia who answered first. "The alchemists are on level four."

"Those creepy scientist guys?" DeeDee balked. "No, thank you."

"There must be someone who can patch him up down with the Resistance fighters," Glitch piped up.

"That's usin' your noodle," she said. Then realized, just because they had defeated the witch, did not mean her troops automatically gave up. "Kady, you have to call off the Long Coats!"

Her sister's mouth fell open. Apparently, she had forgotten all about the fight raging below as well. She nodded and hurried over to a small intercom set into the wall. She commanded all Long Coats to cease all fighting and law down their arms in surrender. Dee led Cain from the room, the tin man emitting little hisses and grunts of pain as they went. Glitch and Raw followed, along with a furry little boy Dee had never seen before.

"Serves you right," she admonished.

"How do you figure that?" he asked, incredulous.

"If you hadn't gone and gotten yourself shot, you wouldn't be in this mess," she told him. It all sounded very reasonable to her. "This is the second time, you know."

"That I've been shot?"

"Yes." He snorted.

"I've been shot more than twice, kiddo," he informed her. She glared at him in a way that said he should have kept that little fact to himself. At least he had the good grace to look apologetic. "I'll try not to do it again."

"Damn straight!" she barked.

At the base of the tower, the Resistance was rounding up the Long Coats into neat little groups for easy management. They found Jeb easily enough; he was standing on a cart giving orders. Dee marveled at the huge gash her twister had left on the landscape, guiltily realizing she had not though about people when she'd come up with her grand idea. Jeb assured her, however, that none of his men had been caught in the funnel and that it had actually caused the fighting to cease for a while.

"People tend to stop and take notice of a giant wall of wind and dirt coming at them," he told her. She was vastly relieved. He directed them towards the medical tent and one of the doctors had Cain patched up in no time.

The Long Coats were taken down into Azkadellia's prison cells in the bowels of the tower, which had been quickly emptied of their former occupants. Most of those people rushed off back to their homes and families. Several of the alchemists were also locked away below, though some were deemed trustworthy by Raw, who had taken up the task of reading Azkadellia's subordinates.

The daylight lasted for an incredibly long amount of time; the suns did not set until well after midnight. Through the Viewer, Ambrose indicated this was a temporary condition caused by the Sunseeder and would pass within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. DeeDee had no idea how the solar system in the O.Z. functioned, so she took his word for it sans explanation.

Night was inevitable and people need to sleep. Herself included. Azkadellia slept in a small bedroom adjoining their parents. Dee's bed chamber, a huge suite, was down the hall and around two corners. Glitch, Raw, and Cain each had their own rooms somewhere on the same level. Jeb and his men were invited to sleep within the tower, but declined, preferring to remain outside for the time being, in case of any stray Long Coats.

Dee lay in her bed, still in he same clothes she had been wearing since she fell into the O.Z., and stared at the ceiling. The tower was quiet. So mush so, it felt creepy. Or perhaps she was just uncomfortable being alone. She sighed in resignation and kicked back her covers, padding silently in her bare feet to the door. She didn't know how she would find any of the other's rooms, so that was out. Maybe she could find a library and at least have something to occupy her mind until dawn came.

She opened her door and almost shouted in surprise. Glitch was laying on his side on the floor before her threshold. Raw was sitting, his back to the wall opposite her door. Cain, the only one to have thought to bring a chair, was lounging to the left of the frame, his hat pulled over his eyes. She smiled tenderly at them.

"You could have knocked, you know," she said with a snort. Cain grunted and rose from his chair. Raw stood and stretched. Glitch rolled to his hands and knees and crawled passed her into the room. The other two followed in suit and she closed the door behind them.

Raw curled up on the chaise lounge that sat under one of the tall windows. He yawned mightily once and was still.

Cain dropped onto the sofa, kicking his boots off and resettling his hat over his eyes. He'd removed his coat and vest and wore a clean white shirt. His arm was in a sling and she had a suspicion his pistol was tucked away in it, since he no longer wore the gun belt.

Glitch, clad in only his pants and red and black striped shirt, had made his way, on all fours, to her bed and was now climbing into it. She shook her head, smiling softly, and slipped in after him. He snuggled down under the covers and pulled her close, sighing in contentment. It occurred to her that this might be a highly inappropriate sleeping arrangement for a princess. She really couldn't care less.

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PS: okay, i lied. there is a PS. this is NOT the last chapter. What? you think they are gonna just jump right into the fornication? child please! plus.. there's other stuff that needs to be resolved. Sheesh. haven't you been paying attention?