Green Arrow wearily came too. There was a stinging pain at the base of his boiler and a numbness that permeated his entire being.
"Welcome back my friend," he heard the voice of the little steamworks engine. "How are you feeling?"
I feel… sore.
Arrow instinctively flashed his lights in response and he heard a chuckle. He blinked to get the sleep out of his eye and focused on the blue blur in front of him.
It slowly focused down into a familiar shaped engine. He beamed when he saw him.
Thomas! Hello.
Thomas laughed and smiled at him.
"Your voicebox is reinstalled, you should try it!" The blue tank engine encouraged.
Green Arrow looked at Victor who gave him a big smile.
"Yes, yes, my friend," he confirmed. "And while you were out, we took the time to refit you with a new boiler and a full tune up. Hopefully you will be the best you have been in many years."
Green Arrow stared at him before reflecting on his body.
Despite the soreness and the deep aching pains he felt in his boiler, he felt stronger, the parts that had creaked and started to rust felt clean and new. His boiler was new and felt better than his last.
He had all new cylinders and he'd been given a thorough clean.
He felt as good as new.
He cleared his throat, winching as a sharp pain ran through his boiler.
"If it hurts you don't have to," Victor assured him. "But it's good to hear that it can produce sound."
"No…no it's-" Green Arrow rasped out but stopped as pain exploded in his smokebox.
"It's okay," Thomas quickly said, rolling towards the bigger engine. "You can use your lights if it's too painful."
Green Arrow winched and paused to let the pain fade before looking at Thomas.
Thank-you Thomas. I am just glad to have my voice back, even if it is painful to speak.
"We were worried that it may have affected your speech or not work at all," Victor said. "But time will tell. We must wait for your parts to wear in and settle. I am happy to inform you that you will be able to be put back into steam tomorrow."
"So soon?" Thomas asked, surprised.
"Green Arrow is a surprisingly resilient engine," Victor said. "Despite his overly sensitive front wheels-"
Don't talk about my bogey wheels!
Green Arrow suddenly interjected angrily blushing bright pink to which Thomas giggled.
It's not MY fault that tracks are poorly maintained!
Victor cleared his throat and continued.
"Your overall form is extremely durable," he said to Arrow. "You were remarkably intact despite your boiler bursting. A credit to your designer. When Gordon's boiler burst he was not in good shape."
That's because you put him in a hideous streamlined shell.
Victor frowned and glared at Arrow.
"He's just teasing Victor," Thomas said with a pointed glance at Arrow. "Arrow didn't mean it."
He did mean it but he decided to heed Thomas' glare of disapproval.
Victor had just completely restored him to his former glory.
I apologise, Victor. That was out of line.
Victor could tell the apology was not genuine but accepted it anyway.
"I accept your apology," he said curtly. "The Fat Controller will want to look at you before you are sent back into service, but for now you can rest."
Without another word Victor left, still clearly insulted about Arrow's comments about the streamlined Gordon incident.
"I think you upset him, Victor still feels guilty that Gordon burst his boiler," Thomas said and Green Arrow felt a little ashamed.
That's a shame. I'm sure it wasn't his fault.
"It wasn't, Gordon was just impatient and didn't go through his final safety check."
Arrow rolled his eyes.
Those Pacifics often are Idiots.
Thomas gave a soft chuckle.
How long was I out exactly?
"A bit over a month ago, Ms Olivia had her baby while you were out! It's a sweet little boy named Scott," Thomas cooed.
No doubt named after her precious favourite.
Arrow said with a look of annoyance. It disappeared when he saw the look of despair appear on Thomas' face.
That was insensitive, I apologise. Is he… gone?
"We don't know, they tried to save him but… we haven't heard anything about what happened. Gordon refuses to talk about it," Thomas said quietly. "Tornado's been pretty quiet too, she won't even tell Rebecca and she tells Rebecca everything."
Green Arrow looked thoughtful.
Given the nature of how secretive anything to do with Gold dust is, I imagine that those involved wanted them to not say a thing.
"I guess, but, Scotsman is our friend," Thomas said quietly. "We want to know if he's okay."
Arrow looked thoughtful.
Logically you would have heard if he died by now would you not? They would have made an announcement that the rebuild came too late to save him. Flying Scotsman is famous, people will question why he no longer has a face.
Thomas looked up at the bigger engine.
"Huh, well, I guess you have a point there," he said, going over Arrow's words. "I wonder what happened to him."
Time will tell Thomas
The heart of Ulfstead Castle had a strange supernatural hum.
Godred was humming to himself softly as he walked alongside the Flying Scotsman as he was pushed deeper into the castle by handcar.
The famous engine said nothing clearly, very nervous and anxious.
It was understandable. There was a high chance that the Flying Scotsman was going to succumb, the Gold Dust would take back what it had given.
Godred wasn't optimistic. He'd seen numerous engines go down this road, some of them had died instantly. Others had survived being pulled into their strange new form however hadn't been able to adjust or the form had been damaged in some way.
They stopped as they came to a huge circular chamber almost like a round house but with no berths around the 'turntable'.
Where the turntable would have been was a deep pit that sunk into the ground before a huge old circular metal door that was shut.
"Put him on the hoist," Stainer ordered from behind him and several of Sir Robert's men obeyed him.
The Flying Scotsman was terrified, but he didn't show it. He sat strong and proud. He ignored the fact that there were dozens of people, Victor, his crew and even a group of paramedics, a doctor and two nurses setting up their equipment.
His tender had already been removed and he was carefully attached to the hoist.
Before they lifted him off the ground Godred placed a hand on his buffer and spoke to him.
"If you are given a human form it will be overwhelming," he explained. "It will be unlike any pain you have ever felt before. The human body is soft, fragile and sensitive unlike our engines which have only mute sensations. It will amplify your senses such as sight, sight and sound. The pain you will feel will be unlike the burn of a cutter's torch."
He saw the worry and fear in the Flying Scotsman's eyes flare and burn.
"In those moments I want you to hold on to those closest to you," Godred said. "Hold on to them because your life will depend on it. Do not lose sight of your reason to live."
The Scotsman seemed to swallow nervously as Godred let go of his buffer and walked away from him. He turned and took his place beside Stainer, Olivia and Sir Robert who stood watching over the proceeding anxiously.
The order was given to lift and Flying Scotsman felt his wheels lift off the ground and placed above the pit in the ground. He stopped inches from touching the huge metal door beneath him.
No one made a sound for the longest time.
It seemed like an eternity before he heard someone call out to open the door.
There was an enormous crack as the door opened.
Instantly Golden Light flooded from the cracks and a golden mist began to rise from out of the pit.
The Flying Scotsman winched as he felt the golden dust suddenly surround him, its presence curious but invasive as it began to force its way into his boiler, his pistons and tubes, drowning him in gold dust.
He fought back the urge to scream. He held fast and steeled his resolve. He thought of Truro. His precious, most beloved engine. He thought of his brother and the Young Iron, Tornado.
The Gold Dust suddenly began to burn and he felt a sensation of something yanking him backwards. He yelped in surprise and struggled.
The thing yanked him again but this time he suddenly felt his very sentience suddenly be pulled backwards, like something was grabbing it and trying to squash his very being into something small. Something strange.
The Gold Dust seemed to become impatient and it suddenly felt like a vice grip had grabbed him and with a sharp pain sliced his connection to his engine.
To his sheer horror, he saw the face on his smokebox disappear, replaced by a blank door like those who had been preserved.
He let out a scream of horror as he felt himself being compressed and shoved into something small and completely alien to him.
He barely even noticed that they had shut the door.
Everything hurt.
His strange new body felt like it was on fire, he was lying on something, he was… he didn't understand…
He felt something touch him as he swam in his confusion.
Everything was too bright. Everything was too loud. Every time he touched something it felt overpowering, alien and painful.
This new body struggled and his consciousness began to drift.
He… didn't understand…
"Help me!" He cried out, but even that caused him to freak out as the sensation of talking in this form was so strange to him.
He struggled for air, his strange new body trembling and panicking.
He felt something grip him, a person perhaps? He couldn't tell. Every single touch, sound and sight had been so amplified that nothing made sense anymore.
He felt something pressed into his hand and Olivia's voice whispered to him reassuringly.
"It's okay just focus on your brother," her voice called to him. "Focus on Gordon. Nothing else matters except Gordon. Stay for Gordon."
"Gordon," Scotsman croaked out weakly still confused and the pain overwhelming him. "...Gordon…"
He began repeating his brother's name obsessively, his thoughts desperately turning to something that made sense.
"Gordon…"
He began to lose consciousness.
Everything began to turn dark.
He could hear a lot of people around him but he ignored them, instead gripping the thing in his hand, which he somehow knew was a model of his brother, tightly reaching deep into his memories.
"Gordon."
He grit his teeth and gave a growl of determination.
He couldn't let his brother be the last of them.
He just couldn't.
He gripped the model tighter, feeling its tiny wheels dig into his hand.
"I will defeat this," he suddenly heard himself declare angrily. "No matter what."
Still gripping the model of Gordon in his hand, the Flying Scotsman in this new form lost consciousness and went limp as Paramedics swarmed around him.
Before he completely lost all consciousness he thought he heard a soft voice speak to him at the very back of his mind.
'Find Lady'
"My name is Gordon, what's your name?"
"... I don't have a name, just a number, 1472."
"Well, I hope you do well today. Not all of us get to be useful and go out!"
"Oh, well I hope you get to be really useful one day."
"I'm just a prototype, so it's quite unlikely. I'll probably be sent to the scrapyard after Sir Gresley is done with me."
"I'm sorry, that's awful."
"It's just how it is. Good luck 1472."
"Thank-you Gordon. I'll do my best."
To be continued…
Next story will be called 'A Golden Soul' and will continue the series and story of Green with Envy.
For updates, to ask questions or discuss the fic, you can find me on tumblr at tornadoyoungiron or on twitter as BakunawaArt