Chapter Four: You Should Be Afraid
"Trespassers," Rollo spat. "You think you could take me on? You want a piece of me, Straw-For-Brains?" Rollo lunged towards Vince, who shrank back in fear. He turned from Vince and whirled menacingly towards Peter. "How about you, Mr. Roboto? Shall we find out how tough you are without your armor?"
"You do know that's Peter Fleming you're threatening?" Orwell piped up on a hunch. Rollo stiffened immediately.
"Peter Fleming, as in… Holy shit," he started backing away. "Oh god, I'm so sorry! I meant no disrespect. I didn't know; I swear!"
"Why, you're nothing but a coward," Vince surmised, no longer frightened. How could he fear someone who was scared of Heartless?
"You're right," Rollo nodded. "I am a coward. I was kicked out of my gang because I was too afraid to work certain jobs."
"Let me guess, you didn't want Fleming catching you stealing from him," Faraday shook his head. "Am I the only one in KOZ that's not afraid of him?"
"Don't forget you're also the only one in KOZ that doesn't have a brain," Peter drawled. "I doubt that's a coincidence."
"Alright, Da—I mean, that's enough. Don't start now," Jamie sighed. Why did the yellow brick road have to be so long? "Rollo, we're going to the Emerald City so Vince can ask for some brains, I can wake, I mean, I can go home, and so that he," she jerked her head in her father's direction, "can ask for revenge. You want to join us? You can ask the Wizard for some courage."
"Do you think that would work?" he asked.
"Hold on. Putting aside the fact that he threatened to attack us a minute ago, aren't you forgetting to warn him about someone?" Vince pointed out.
"…I was getting to that… There does happen to be a witch after me…"
"Is it Raia?" Rollo asked warily.
"No, it's not the Good Witch of the North," Jamie replied. If this Rollo was too afraid to face Raia, maybe he wouldn't be joining them after all. "It's Gregor Molotov, the—"
"That witch?" Rollo asked, his hands curling and uncurling. "Count me in."
Finally, the four people (and Frodo) came to the edge of the forest. Jamie smiled at the sight that greeted them.
"At last, we're almost at the Emerald City! Come on guys, daylight's wasting," she called as she darted ahead across the field that separated them from their destination.
"JAMIE!"
"LOOK OUT!"
She wondered what was wrong as she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. A moment later, she felt a sting before everything went dark.
Resigned to at least hearing the man out, Lucifer had taken Peter Fleming upstairs to his apartment. He had left behind a disappointed crowd that had been waiting to make deals with him. He did so hate to disappoint, but he promised that they could catch him another time.
"Let me see if I have this right," Lucifer began summarizing, "you came to me for help finding your wayward adult daughter, who left your home years ago. You haven't heard from her since and you've already tried sending trained professionals to find her, none of whom have had any luck. Has it occurred to you that she does not want to be found?"
"That's not the point," Fleming answered.
"On the contrary, that is precisely the point. If the young lady doesn't see eye to eye with dear old dad, wants to go her own way and have nothing more to do with you, who am I to interfere? No doubt she's better off without you in her life," the Devil pronounced.
"You're wrong about that," Peter insisted. "Look, I don't know whether you have any children, but a father knows when his child is in danger. Wherever Jamie is, she needs my help. I can feel it!"
Lucifer frowned. Was that possible? Had Dad given the humans a supernatural ability to sense something that, logically, should be beyond their powers of perception? Only one way to find out; he pulled out his phone and began composing a group text.
"You have to help me locate her—I'm sorry, am I boring you?" the CEO snapped as he saw the other typing on his phone.
"You don't want me to answer that," Lucifer replied, while reminding himself he had to use words in his text. For some reason, no one seemed to understand when his messages only consisted of a string of emojis. 'Can humans sense when their offspring are in danger?' he added to the emojis he'd selected before pressing 'send.'
"Don't I?" Peter gritted out.
"No, you don't. I never lie, you see and apparently people find telling the truth to be an obnoxious habit. More to your point, I'm trying to verify something, ah, there we go." He read the incoming texts. Aside from 'how the hell would I know?!' and 'why are you asking?' the gist was 'yes, and not just with children' and some examples that he couldn't be bothered with right now.
"Well, that checks out," Lucifer looked back up at the billionaire. "Very well, I think we can come to an arrangement. But bringing your daughter back to you is not part of the deal. This is only about making sure that she's safe, understood?"
"Agreed," Fleming held out his hand and they shook on it.
"Now then, we're going to need help. I usually consult on homicides and this is a bit different. Luckily for you I happen to know just the demon that specializes in finding humans that don't want to be found," he punched a button on his phone's speed dial and waited for her to pick up.
"Hello Maze, I need your help with something… What do you mean, what if you were busy with other things? Maze, Maze, don't hang up! I need you to locate a human… Yes, I know you don't work pro bono. Don't worry, the client will pay your fee, he's quite loaded."
"Ugh," Jamie groaned as she regained consciousness. She felt like she'd been drugged, which, she reminded herself, was exactly what had happened to her. She looked around. She was still in some version of Oz. Still not awake then. Frodo licked at her face before she gently pushed the dog back and sat up. "What happened?"
"Cain happened," Peter fumed.
Cain, as in the world's first murderer? Cain from the bible, Cain? Why would he be in her hallucination…? Oh, of course. Getting drugged must have confused her for a second. "Raimonde LeFleur? I didn't realize you had Tarot here." Tarot was a secret society of assassins. She had had the dubious pleasure of meeting one of the members of its Tower branch, LeFleur, a/k/a Cain, when he tried to carry out a hit for her father. "He poisoned me?" Orwell asked.
"He did," Vince confirmed. "Three guesses who sent him after you."
"Fortunately, the Good Witch of the North showed up. She saved your life," Peter explained. He didn't explain how it had gutted him to see a woman who was the spitting-image of his daughter convulse before his very eyes.
"Right; remind me to thank Raia when we see her," Orwell pushed herself to her feet. She didn't sway; good. She was starting to feel better already. "Now then, let's get to the Emerald City!"
"Maze, Peter Fleming. Fleming, Maze," Lucifer introduced them. "Now, Maze, I want to be clear up front that you're not bringing the human in once you find her. There's no bounty on her head; she's not a fugitive. All we're doing is making sure that Fleming's daughter is safe and sound, so that she can continue to live her life uninterrupted and he can have some peace of mind."
"Ugh, dull. Fine, understood, but I'm charging extra for this one. Is this what your group text was about? Why did you add me to the group? It's not like I would know whether humans could sense that sort of thing."
"Ahem," Peter cleared his throat to get her attention. "Here's everything that my investigators were able to find," Peter held a USB stick out to Maze.
"When was the last time you saw your daughter?" Maze asked as she accepted the drive.
"He hasn't seen her in years," Lucifer answered. "Never mind cold, the trail must be frozen solid by now."
"Actually, I saw her about a month ago on the Monte Carlo," Peter corrected him. "There was a masquerade on the train," he grimaced, remembering how ridiculous he'd looked in the cowboy getup one of his then-underlings had gotten for him. "She was there. I saw her; she was wearing a mask, but I know it was her. She'd called out to me…" Well, more like she'd lobbed a rather pointed question at him, "but then she disappeared into the crowd when I tried to approach her."
"That's a good place to start. I'm guessing this party was pretty exclusive; you must be able to get your hands on a guest list and—"
"My investigators tried that already," he interrupted her. "We accounted for every name, real and fake, on the list. She's not on there."
"We'll see about that. The list is on here?" she held up the USB stick he'd given her.
"Yes, but—"
"Then let's start there."
When they finally reached the city's gate, Jamie grabbed the knocker and knocked as loud as she could. A window opened and a guard appeared.
"Marty Voyt," Vince grinned at the sight of his old friend. "Are you a sight for sore eyes?"
"Vince Faraday," Marty beamed back, "as I live and breathe! I thought Dana had you stuck on that post."
"She did," Vince's smile dimmed.
"I was starting to wonder if I'd ever see you again, man. What are you doing here?"
"We're here to see the Wizard," Vince replied.
"Vince," Marty's face fell. "It's not that simple. No one gets to see the Wizard. I'm one of his senior guards, and I've never seen him. If that's why you're here, you may as well turn around and go home now."
"I can't go home, that's why I need to see the Wizard," Jamie protested.
"Who's your friend?" Marty asked.
"This is Jamie," Vince introduced her. "The Good Witch of the North sent her to the Emerald City to see the Wizard."
"Look, I don't care who sent her. I told you that no one—"
"Enough. Open the gate, Voyt," Peter commanded. Marty finally noticed him standing there.
"Peter Fleming, sir, I didn't see you there! Of course, come on in," Marty hastened to open the gate. "Welcome to the Emerald City!"
Jamie tried not to grumble as they entered. It was just her luck that no matter what world she was in, people would always remain terrified of her father.
They continued on through the city, dragging Peter away when he tried to detour to go shopping for some clothes "that weren't made of bloody metal."
"You'll have plenty of time to go shopping after we've seen the Wizard," she assured him.
At last they made it to the Wizard's palace. Another locked door lay before them. They knocked again and this time Ruvi answered the door. He eyed them suspiciously.
"What do you want?"
"We're here to see the Wizard," Rollo informed them.
"No one gets in to see the Wizard, suckers," Ruvi told them.
"She does. Raia sent her," Rollo explained.
"Oh, did she? Oh, well in that case…hm, no, still don't care. No one—sees—the Wizard," Ruvi repeated, getting ready to retreat back into the palace.
"Screw this," Vince muttered, before hypnotizing Ruvi into letting them enter.
Jamie, the three men, and Frodo started down a long, green hallway towards the throne room.
"COME FORWARD!" a voice bellowed. Suddenly it clicked for Jamie—why Rollo, the supposedly cowardly Lion, still hadn't expressed any fear about going to see the Wizard; why Ruvi was guarding the palace and why Raia had sent her there.
Max Malini was the Wizard of KOZ.
"What about this name?" Maze asked, tapping a fingernail against the printout of the list. Peter Fleming peered at the name she was pointing to.
"No," he shook his head. "That's the alias that was used by the blogger sent by Orwell Is Watching. It's a blog dedicated to bringing me down or at least tarnishing my reputation. This Orwell, whoever he is, had a blogger on the train. They posted a video to the site afterwards. Before you ask, there's no point in watching the video. I've looked at it carefully dozens of times. My daughter isn't in there."
"What if that's because she was the one behind the camera?" Maze asked.
Author's Note: Just in time for Father's Day, we have a chapter with some rather interesting father-child relationships.
Well done, Lucifans! We did it! #LuciferSaved. #LuciferonNetflix. And not a moment too soon, I gather. Cape fans, let's try not to dwell on whether "The Cape" could have been saved, too.
Chapter title comes from Friends in Tokyo's "Call Me Devil."
As usual, let me know if you want to see another chapter. And feel free to let me know what you thought of this one, but as always, criticism should be constructive. Flames are Lucifer's province. ;)
