A/N: So what are you all thinking so far? Have I botched everything with the last two chapters? Am I on the right page? Do you need clarification or does my grammar suck?
I was running out of things to say for my author notes, so I decided I could ask pointed question for you to either ignore or review…totally up to you – no pressure.
Also, I believe I said Glitch had his part in this chapter…I lied! Next chapter though, I promise.
Disclaimer: If I owned Tin Man there would definitely have been a duel between Cain and Zero…
No duel? No own…
DG was remembering.
.
"Two little princesses dancing in a row;
Spinning fast and freely on their little toes;
Whither the light will take them;
Nobody ever knows…"
.
DG did not want Cain near her. She jumped up from her seat as soon as she heard him walk up behind her.
That was not true though. She just did not want him to touch her or she would shatter into a thousand pieces.
She had told her companions the story, relaying it between her gasping tears. They knew now that she was responsible for their suffering of fifteen annuals. Cain insisted she was a child, but she knew what she was doing. She chose to walk into that cave – she chose to tamper with the stone face even though Az had read the ominous warnings on the cave wall.
She knew that trouble followed her like the plague. Only this time, her choice released the plague onto thousands of innocent lives.
"I ran."
She was not running now because she had to fix the mess she had made. She had to restore some of what the locusts had eaten even if she could never fully repay the blood debt she owed. She could not take back the lives that were lost already, but she sure as hell could save those she loved from further annihilation and despair.
Because she loved them. All of them.
Glitch, her first friend, and the man who had taught her to dance. She could not remember how she knew that, but she did. He had let her play with his chemicals in the lab while he and Az worked on a project together.
Raw, the fearful viewer who had – in his own quiet way – begun to ease the pain of her lost past from her mind. He may have been afraid, but he was no coward.
Her parents, even the father she still did not know. Somehow, he had been somewhere in the periphery, teaching, loving, and living. She could not see his face, but she had felt his presence quietly in the back of her memories.
Azkadellia, her older sister. Before the witch, they had been the best of friends. Az taught her loyalty, love, and how to let her light shine through her.
Even Tutor had been a friend to her, teaching her to control her magic and praising her in her successes. He had not always had the best methods or the most patience, but he cared about her welfare. She could remember that.
And Wyatt Cain. Her Tin Man. The man who held her heart even before she realized that he was a part of her former life. She could release him from an iron suit, but he had released her from her fears. He was brusque, well armored, and her protector.
She could not let him close; he had every right to despise her for what her choices cost him. It was him most of all she could not face. Seeing him grieve by his wife's grave and later finding out that she had put Adora Cain in the ground.
The Mystic Man's words suddenly broke through her downward spiraling thoughts. Wake up DG, you are never going to fix things by just standing there moping.
"Your light must brighten a place that is dark. It is where you will find a message about your future and your past."
She had another hunch that he was talking in double entendres as he had throughout their short acquaintance. The first answer came to her rather quickly. She put the second answer on the back burner for a later time.
Her mother's message would bring her to the next phase of the salvation of the OZ. She just had to know where to look.
DG was remembering.
Azkadellia was remembering.
.
"Flat rocks fly; and round rocks die"
.
The witch was dragging her body all over the OZ in search of DG. Az had been saving up every last bit of energy since she found out that DG was searching through the past to find out the truth. Her mother's words gave her hope that not all was lost even as she struggled with self-loathing and doubt. The eldest princess intended to join her little sister on her path of discovery, using the witch's control to do so. In order to conserve her light – which merely sparked briefly at its best times – she remained silent and unintrusive on the witch's spirit.
Little cracks were forming in the witch's shields, and unaltered memories were slipping through. Az liked to think that after all of these annuals, the fissures in her magic were from her constant niggling, but she knew that the witch's fears more than likely played the significant role.
Her dreams were painting pictures in her mind of a happier time that had nearly faded in the possession annuals. She saw herself with DG picking apples, skipping rocks, dancing at parties at the palace in Central City. Az remembered chasing after her little sister on one of DG's adventures. She had to protect the youngest princess from the trouble she got into, but Az remembered secretly loving the fact that DG trusted her enough to know that her older sister would always be there to get her out of trouble.
The witch was incensed. She could feel her hold on the princess weakening. As she traveled the OZ in search of the younger Gayle daughter, Az could sense the witch's anger grow. There was no warning when her rage lashed out in a magical backlash that left Az stunned and weak.
She watched again in her mind as Finaqua was razed to the ground by the witch's fire. The raging inferno left the lakebed bone dry and the palace disappeared into ashes and dust. The home of her magical prison had been the first victim of the witch's fury and Az had struggled hard against her bonds the day her family's summer retreat was destroyed with the intention of remaining so for the rest of eternity. Somehow, her magic had managed to mingle with the witch's and a reworking spell had settled over the land making it possible for the reconstruction that DG had performed.
"We need to find the perfect stone."
It seemed her mother had found that spell and used it to leave DG a message. Az remembered that stone as Finaqua was razed and it must have been touched by her magic. The former Queen was nothing if not resourceful. She had not the power to return life to the magical waters, but she had used Az's spell with a small twist of her own.
"We will hide it for the perfect day."
Azkadellia was remembering.
