Finaqua Palace
Oz (The Outer Zone)
It was decided that little Dorothia would have no contact with her parents prior to the double eclipse. As difficult as it was for them, they knew they had no other choice. Dorothia would never be safe as long as Bastinda held Azkadellia's soul and her bondmate was unable to anchor her to her humanity. They retained the services of two cyborgs named Emily and Hank to raise DG as their own daughter, instructed to return three days before the eclipse with a travel storm token they'd given to Elmer Gulch, the tin man that would travel with them. Elmer would act as DG's guardian on the other side.
Lavinia stood on the gazebo beside the lake, the heart shaped stone her daughters had hidden for the perfect day clutched tightly in her hand. She waved her hand over it and began to speak.
"DG. If you are seeing this message then you have overcome much on your journey to find the Emerald. The emerald of the Eclipse contains the power to bring either light or darkness to the OZ. As you now know, the evil witch of the dark now lives inside your sister. That is why she knows not of my plan and why I could only entrust the emerald's power to you, my angel. Make haste now…South to the Realm of the Unwanted! There you must find a man called Ahamo. He will help you on the final leg of your journey. To save the Oz. To the Grey Gale. To the emerald!"
Her message complete, she returned the rock to its hiding place where DG would find it. Her heart's memories would begin to unlock as the day of the eclipse grew closer.
The cyborg Emily cradled her sleeping daughter in her arms, a small portion of the child's arm swollen from the spot where Jeb Mysticos injected her with the blood from the female dragon but she would be able to take dragon form until she reached maturity at twenty annuals. She wouldn't even need to. She could call on the dragon's strength and its rage when facing an enemy. Wyatt Cain born a similar mark, the blood of the dragon's mate flowing through his veins. Lavinia and Tyler gave their child one last kiss goodbye before Emily, Hank and Elmer stepped through the funnel cloud that would take them to a small farmhouse in Kansas.
"...WHY WASN'T I TOLD?"
Jiminy rose from his bed in the Healer's Ward, his eyes glowing green as he stalked toward the queen and her advisor, objects flying about and strking the walls while he unleashed his rage at the news he'd been given that morning when he finally awoke from his slumber.
"You were too ill...there was nothing you could've done..." Lavinia protested.
"I should've been here!" he raged. "You know my duty is to protect Azkadellia and yet recently all you've had me doing is cleaning up your damned messes. I WARNED you that your indifference toward your subjects would lead to disorder as would your foolish plans to alter the succession. Azkadellia is the rightful heir!" He gestured and a rolled parchment appeared in his hand. "Just as your sister Ekaterina would've been the rightful heir had your mother not altered the succession in YOUR favor!"
Lavinia whitened. "How...how did you...?"
"You forget what I was before I became the advisor to Snow White. I know where to find someone's valuables or in your case, secrets. Now you're gonna help me find a way to get that bitch out of Azkadellia!"
"We can't. Only DG can..."
"So you're not even going to try?" Jiminy asked bitterly.
"My light is not strong enough to conquer the darkness within her. She must remain at the Northern Island until her sister returns."
"You...you left her there alone?!" Jiminy sputtered. "You left a thirteen year old girl in the coldest part of the realm alone? Well, if you are not going to do anything then I will!" He vanished in a puff of smoke.
Lavinia leaned against the wall and pressed her hand to her heart.
"Are you all right, Your Majesty."
"Pray that he succeeds Ambrose," she murmured.
"We should've told him the full truth Your Majesty...that he is her bondmate."
"He would not have accepted it now. She is too young. Only time can strengthen their bond."
"So that's why you sent her there alone!"
"It was not an easy decision to make Ambrose but I am unable to reach her and Jiminy is right. I only have myself to blame. I favored DG and Bastinda took full advantage of it. He may be the only one who can reach her now."
"And Cain's bond with DG is broken."
Lavinia's eyes filled with tears. "Just as it was in their first lives."
"First lives! What do you mean?"
"My daughter is Dorothy Gale...reborn as Wyatt is Nick Chopper, the first Tin Man. I wasn't aware of it until I went back into the Book of the Ancients and saw a new entry on my family tree. Their bonds must be reforged before the third double eclipse or..."
Neither could bear to say any more.
Northern Island
Oz (The Outer Zone)
"They left you for dead but I will never leave you," Bastinda said to her vessel from the other side of the mirror in Az's suite. "There's no need to fight me child. Work with me and we can make your dreams of a new OZ a reality."
"I...think...not!" she heard a familiar voice snarl and the mirror shattered. Az spun around to see Jiminy standing there, his hands clenched into fists.
"Jiminy..." she began, her lips trembling. "I didn't kill DG...I didn't..."
"I know. Dellia, how did this happen? How did you find Bastinda's prison. Tell me the truth. Did you go looking for it?" His eyes met hers.
"Not intentionally. DG...she heard a voice and wanted to find out what it was...I begged her not to...but we kept going until we found the cave."
"Her adventures have a way of getting you into trouble," he mumbled.
"That...that's exactly what I said..."
"She heard the voice and you didn't?"
"Yes."
He frowned. "When did you start hearing it?"
"Once we were in the cave. We found this terrifying face and DG put her hand in it. I tried to help her pull it out..."
"Oh gods...your combined magic unlocked the prison!" Jiminy groaned. "Where in the name of Lurline was your mother during all this?"
"At a council meeting with Daddy."
Or in the royal advisor's bed, he thought angrily. He'd discovered their illicit affair a few months earlier and had given Ambrose a sound scolding over it yet it did little to discourage him from continuing his secret rendezvouz with the queen under the consort's nose.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and raked his hand through his hair. "I should've been there, dammit!" he moaned. "I'm sorry Dellia. I'm so sorry."
"You're here now," she said softly. "Promise me you won't leave me Jiminy. You...you're all I have now..."
"I gave you my word the day I became your Guardian that I would protect you with my last breath and my word is my bond. I'm gonna find a way to get that bitch out of you Dellia."
I love you Jiminy. I only wish I could tell you, she thought sadly and took his hand. She felt stronger knowing that she was no longer fighting alone.
"My sister...she's safe?"
He nodded. "They didn't tell me where and it's better that I don't know. There has to be a way we can break this possession ourselves."
"I don't know how!" she sobbed. "I'm frightened Jiminy. You heard what she did. She...she killed DG...she made Mother surrender most her life force. She's going to try to take the OZ..and it's all my fault!"
"No, no it isn't Princess," he soothed.
If anyone is to blame it's that woman who gave birth to you for being more interested in her own pleasure than her daughters' safety!
He could see his young charge shivering and grabbed the comforter to wrap around her. "I am not leaving you here alone in case she tries to break through again."
Az placed her hand over her chest. "She's always in here, taunting me, telling me things I don't want to believe. I can't make her stop...but once you came...I couldn't hear her anymore."
"The only voice you need to hear is mine, Dellia and as long as I'm here, she's going to say in there and shut up until we find a way to get her out!"
"Jiminy, could we access your construct's memories?"
"Why would you want to do that?"
"Because I want to see what life is like on the other side. I won't be queen here now."
"I'm not giving up hope that you will be and don't you either." He waved his hand over the mirror in the parlor and they sat and watched a day in the life of his construct. It seemed that the construct, that had been given the name Archie Hopper had very little to do when he wasn't seeing patients. He loved music and the moving pictures, romantic and science fiction ones his favorites. He also shared Jiminy's love of reading.
Accessing his construct's memories was one of the ways they passed the long days in the deserted castle. Once in a while they would go outside and fight a snow battle or two and once a week they would travel to Central City for supplies, Az glamoured as an older woman, not knowing the tall, attractive brunette with brown eyes would be the woman she would blossom into at nineteen. Many of the people who encountered them mistook Az for Jiminy's mistress, something that didn't suit well with him since his charge was not yet a woman and even if she was he wouldn't feel right thinking of her in that way. In the back of his mind he could still hear her telling him that she wished he were her bondmate but he simply passed it off as a young girl's fancy.
The years passed slowly and the many efforts the pair put into finding a solution to Az's possession were useless. She could still sense Bastinda's presence, the witch only being able to take control of her during the times she was depressed, those times coming only when she thought of the family that had abandoned her. For his part, Jiminy did try to convince Lavinia to try to visit her daughter at least once but when the Queen arrived at the Northern Island the fall of Az's ninteenth annual it was to ask for Jiminy's assistance in quelling yet another rebellion. Jeb Mysticos would visit from time to time to bring them supplies or books but he never stayed long.
"If it were DG you'd be climbing mountains to get to her," Jiminy accused, unaware that Az was listening from the staircase above.
"I..."
"You would!" he shouted. "Five years. FIVE years she's been here with no one but me for company. She needs her family too but you and your husband seem to have forgotten that. And I still want to know where the HELL you were when she and DG were at Finaqua alone. Don't tell me it was a council meeting because it's a damned lie."
"How dare you...?"
"I dare because I know the truth, Your Majesty! You were in your advisor's bed while your daughters were trying to stop that bitch from being unleashed."
"How did you know..?" Lavinia whispered.
"I found you out months before it happened. I've told you before: any threat to Dellia's well-being has always been my concern and her mother being an adulterous tart threatened her well-being. And before you ask, no I haven't told her. She's been hurt enough."
"You've lost both of your daughters. Soon you'll lose your crown!" Bastinda laughed, now in control as Az despaired over her mother's deception. Then she turned to Jiminy. "And you, Commander, will have a choice to make. Serve me or serve her."
"I'll never serve you, bitch! My loyalty is to Dellia, and ONLY to Dellia."
"You can't keep me away all the time."
"What have you done?" Jiminy demanded.
"Begun my revenge against this wretched family! Enjoy your crown Lavinia. You won't have it long."
"That monster is not my daughter!" Lavinia growled and summoned a travel storm as a distraught Az regained control.
"Mother...MOTHER! Come back!" she screamed. "Come back!"
"She's gone. Dellia, I'm so sorry..." Jiminy said.
"Jiminy...we have to free me or she'll destroy the OZ," Az sobbed.
"We'll find a way. There has to be something we haven't tried." he said and hugged her. She buried her face in his shoulder, the only place she felt safe.
The next morning they doubled their efforts to search for a solution. Jeb Mysticos had graciously allowed them to access his vast library of books but nothing in his library or the great library at the Emerald Palace in Central City offered any clues.
"The Book of the Ancients," Az murmured, slamming one of her mother's books shut and tossing it aside. "I thought Mother had it but it's not there. There are only two of them in existence. Mother has one and the other...my cousin had it. Jiminy, do you think it might still be there?"
He looked up from his own book. "You want to try to go back to the Enchanted Forest? Dellia, it was probably destroyed when Regina cast her curse."
"We have to try," she insisted. "And I think I know how." She ran upstairs and into her mother's old bedroom and began searching through drawers until she found what she was looking for. She went back downstairs to find Jiminy still reading and tossed an object onto the table.
"A travel storm token. Where did you find that?"
"Mother's room. She's always kept one hidden in case of emergencies."
He closed the book and summoned his satchel and umbrella. "All right Dellia but I doubt there's anything left of that castle and if there is, I think Alemedia would have made certain his copy of the book traveled with him to Storybrooke and we can't go there or we'll be cursed like the others."
"His curse is inactive there, isn't it?"
"Not quite. Alemedia has no magic but she's still in him and still takes control every chance she gets so get any thoughts of going there out of your mind."
They went outside and tossed the travel storm token, Az clinging tightly to Jiminy's arm when the funnel cloud pulled them in. Jiminy wrapped his arms around Az protectively while the storm spun through the void and broke a few feet away from the entrance to the castle, now ravaged from the effects of the curse.
"Told you it was still here!" Az taunted.
"Yes but not the way I remember it," Jiminy muttered. "Stay behind me. This place might still be warded."
"I'm not afraid of a few wards."
Jiminy reached for the doorknob and turned it. To his surprise, the door simply opened.
"Maybe the curse deactivated the wards," Az mused.
"We're not taking any chances." He pulled a lantern out of his satchel and lit it with his magic. As they walked down the hall they caught the scent of rotting food. Az leaned down and picked up bowl filled with bones and rotten apple cores.
"Jiminy, there's someone here. These were eaten recently."
"Cloaking spell," he advised. They waved their hands and made themselves invisible to everyone but each other. As they continued down the hall and into Rumple's dining room they saw a group of men sleeping in various spots on the floor. "Oh Rumple would have a fit if he found out there were squatters in his castle...and I think I recognize one of them." Jiminy kneeled where a bearded man wearing a green tunic and tan breeches slept, a young boy curled up beside him.
"Who is that?"
"Robin of Locksley. He was a knight in Regina's army..and her lover for a time until he married her lady-in-waiting, Marian. After she died he started robbing the carriages of the nobles under the name Robin Hood. Come on...not sure if they can hear us or not but don't wanna take the chance. Let's find the library. He has to have one."
They found the library in the west wing of the castle, the thousands of books within it covered with dust from years of neglect. They started pulling books from the shelves, discovering many of the other side's classic novels that the Ozopov library held but few on magic.
Jiminy closed one of the books with a frustrated sigh. "Nothing! He must've taken the rest of them with him during the curse. I'm sorry Dellia."
She reached across the table and took his hand. "We'll find another way. I won't give up if you don't."
"I'll never give up," he vowed.
It had been so easy for him to see her only as the young girl he'd taken an oath to defend until his last breath in the early years of their exile but his conscience was at war with itself and had been from the day she turned eighteen and he'd begun to notice that child he once knew transformed into the beautiful, intelligent young woman she often glamoured herself to be during their supply excursions to Central City. Now the thought of her bondmate being someone other than him disturbed him greatly.
He loved her, the will of the OZ be damned.
As they sat in the grand library of the Dark Castle, their hands joined and their eyes meeting in the candlelit room Az made her decision.
She loved him and always would, the will of the OZ be damned.
Storybrooke, Maine
It was a minor setback, the girl being able to resist Bastinda's control but Alemedia and her daughter were patient. Few knew Bastinda had been her child. She'd impregnated a simple peasant girl through magic and the girl and her husband passed the twins she bore off as their own. The youngest, Nessarose, had been the weaker of the two of them, killed when that meddling Dorothy arrived via a travel storm and crushed her beneath her house but she'd managed to curse Dorothy's intended bondmate Nick Chopper before she met her own untimely end by making him chop off all the human parts of his body and replace them with tin. Lurline had walked right into her carefully baited trap when she chose their despised second sister's mortal lover to become Dorothy's bondmate. Nick Chopper's heart belonged to Ozmalita and it always would no matter what name she called herself. Now all she needed to do was darken the heart of the North Guardian and both would be under her control.
Queen Regina's curse brought nothing but boredom for the goddess in these early years though she did enjoy learning about this new land's wonders through him. Television, the cinema, the books, the music! Ah, if she could only walk the realms in her true form.
"I'll find a loophole through your punishment Father," she hissed.
"Good luck with that," Hades taunted from his prison in the Realm of the Forgotten.
"And when I do...I'll destroy you and that whore you lust after from the other version of Oz!"
"Harm Zelena and I'll shove the Olympian crystal through your heart, daughter of mine or no!"
Alemedia laughed. "It's nothing but a worthless piece of glass in your hand without your magic."
"I'll get my powers back. You'll see," the god sneered.
"You'll be too late. The Guardians will never be united in time for the final eclipse. I will see to it."
"Your arrogance will be your undoing. Just like that bitch you call a grandmother."
Alemedia heard the tinkling of the bell above the door in her vessel's shop. Another customer had arrived and it was time for him to do his work. Little did he or they know that every time they came to him for a favor, she would gain possession of another soul to add to her growing collection. Ephesis would have a little population explosion on the day of the final eclipse with more toys for her mobat demons.
Central City/The Northern Island
Oz (The Outer Zone)
Az still insisted on being glamoured when they entered the city for their monthly supply run, still fearful that the people believed she had been responsible for her sister's 'death'. Jiminy purchased some food and clothing that he stored in his enchanted satchel.
"I'm going to go look at some dresses," she said to him.
"Don't wander too far," he cautioned.
"I won't."
She stopped at one of the stalls, admiring a beautiful jade satin and lace nightrail. "How much for this, madam?" she inquired of the merchant.
"Twenty platinums dear," the lady informed her with a smile. Az opened her purse and handed her the coins and tucked the nightrail into her own satchel then started walking down the street.
"Ahh you're a pretty little piece aren't you. Give us a kiss, love!" she heard a man say before he spun her around and kissed her roughly, dragging her into the alley.
"Take your hands off me!" she growled, recognizing Captain Hook, her cousin's mortal enemy.
"Oh now don't be that way. Let's be friends."
"I'd never be friends with you, Captain Hook!" Az shoved him back.
"Yes you will," he said, seizing her arms and pulling her to him. "Gonna give you a nice poke with my sword, love."
"You disgusting pig!"
He backhanded her and pushed her to the ground, tearing at the front of her dress.
"JIMINY!" she screamed.
"Give us another kiss..."
"The only thing you'll be kissing is the blade of my sword unless you take your hands off her!" Jiminy snarled, appearing behind them.
"You don't want to cross swords with me mate. I'm Captain Hook," Hook said haughtily.
"I don't give a damn if you're Captain Obvious. Get off her!"
"I'll handle this!" Az yelled, her fingers glowing with dark magic.
"No, don't let her take control!" Jiminy warned.
"I won't let him hurt you."
"And I am not going to let him hurt YOU!"
"You want her mate, fight for her." The pirate laughed. The last time he'd challenged a man to a duel for a lady's honor the crippled spinner wept, pissed his drawers and went home. He hadn't counted on the bastard becoming the Dark One either but he'd still enjoyed putting the coward that he was back then in his place. He expected the same from this tall, lanky ginger.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with," Jiminy growled and attacked, sending the pirate stumbling backwards into the street. A crowd began to gather, the pirate's crew cheering him on while the people in the town cheered on the man they'd seen put down dozens of rebellions in the last five years, be injured to the brink of death and get back up again.
"Mount his hide on the city walls Commander!" yelled the baker.
"Run him through Cap'n!" hooted Smee.
Az was terrified yet thrilled at the same time watching the man she loved fight for her honor as she'd read and seen countless heroes do in the books and movies they were able to watch through his construct's memories.
Hook could feel himself tiring as he dodged the stranger's blows, the man's skill rivaling his own. Seeing his opportunity, he threw a pile of dung at his opponent's face and ran down an alley. Jiminy waved his hand over his face to clean it and chased the pirate through the streets until he had him cornered in front of the main gates to the Emerald Palace.
"Commander, the Tin Men are coming!" one of the townspeople informed him. Jiminy yanked the sword of the pirate's hand and threw him to the ground.
"You bastard!" he yelled and began punching him in the face. "You were going to assault a girl! A nineteen year old girl. Well, do you know what I'd like to do with scum like you?" He flicked his wrist and threw the pirate against the gates of the Emerald Palace.
He wanted blood, Pirate blood. The thought of Azkadellia being violated enraged him. He stalked toward Hook, his hand clenched into a first ready to rip the pirate's black heart and crush it in his fingers. As he was about to do just that he felt someone seize his wrist and pull it back.
"No! He is NOT worth darkening your heart over!" Jeb Mysticos cautioned. "Giving in to your dark side never accomplishes anything. You must remain in the light. SHE needs you to. Listen to me Jiminy."
"Do you see what he was gonna do to her? Do you?"
"Yes, but he didn't."
"Get him out of my sight before I change my mind!" Jiminy hissed.
"All right you, let's go!" Wyatt Cain grabbed Hook's arms and shackled them. "Round the rest of them up," he ordered his fellow Tin Man. Jiminy leaned against the gates panting heavily. "You okay, Commander?"
"I...want...to...kill...him!"
"Yeah so would I and a lot of others but it's the Queen's decision what to do with him."
"I want to see him hanging from the end of a rope or his head on the block!"
"Jiminy, calm yourself." Jeb advised.
He glared at the pirate while Wyatt led him away. Jiminy staggered over to where Az was sitting.
"Are you all right?" he asked gently and waved his hand over her dress to fix it.
"I'm all right. Jiminy!" she cried and threw her arms around him, fighting the urge to kiss him.
"Come on. Let's go back to the Northern Island." Jiminy took her hand in his and teleported them back to the cold, dark castle. Once they were inside he sent their supplies to their proper places and picked Az up and started to carry her upstairs.
"Jiminy, what are you doing?"
"You've had a traumatic experience and you need to rest," he said, sounding very much like the therapist his construct had been cursed to be.
"I'm fine."
"Don't argue with me."
"But..."
"Dellia!"
"All right Jiminy," she said resignedly. He laid her down on the bed and drew the blankets over her then lit the fire. She was asleep a few minutes later. He made himself comfortable in the chair beside her bed. Several hours later he was awakened by her terrified screams.
"Dellia...Dellia, it's all right, it's all right!" he soothed as he crawled into the bed beside her and held her protectively. "He can't hurt you now."
"He..he...he was going to rape me!" she gasped.
"But he didn't...and I'd kill any other man who tried!" He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly. "I love you Dellia, the will of the OZ be damned!"
She burst into tears. "And I love you, I always have...the will of the OZ be damned! Oh, Jiminy maybe this is the answer we've been searching for!" She stroked his cheek. "I've always believed you are my bondmate and I'll never stop believing it!"
"Oh, I'd take you to the Temple of Lurline for a proper wedding if we weren't exiled in this damned dark castle."
"I don't need to go through a ceremony. I've been your wife in my heart for a long time." She drew him closer. "Don't go back to your room tonight. Stay with me."
"Dellia, do you know what you're asking me?"
"Yes."
"Are you certain this is what you want?"
"Yes."
"You know...ahhh...it will be...uncomfortable at first...?"
"Yes, but I know you will be gentle with me."
"Always," he vowed and lay her down on the bed, hearing the words Aggie spoke to him long ago in his mind. You're going to be a fine lover to a lucky woman someday Jiminy. You know now what you need to do but the rest has gotta come from your heart.
Holding Azkadellia in his arms, he felt like he was the lucky one. Though they were decades apart in age, part of her soul was possessed by the spirit of a wicked witch, the love they felt for each other was strong enough to shatter the barriers and give off its own light, light as white as the snow that covered the mountains and lakes outside the walls of the cold, dark palace they'd called their home for the past five years. Jiminy had been true to his word, making their first joining as gentle as possible, this new bond they'd formed driving the witch further and further away until she was nothing more than an unpleasant memory.
"Dellia, maybe we should send for a doctor," Jiminy said worriedly one day when Az emerged from their suite after a vicious bout of nausea.
"There's no need. I won't need one yet."
"Are you mad? You've been nauseated every morning and exhausted for the last two months. And you ahh...have quite the appetite. Something is wrong."
"No darling, something is right." She smiled.
"Dellia, how can you be so calm about this?"
She took his hand and pressed it against her belly. "I am with child, Jiminy. Our child."
"A child? Are...are you certain?"
"Are you angry?"
"Angry? Why would I be angry?" He scooped her up in his arms and kissed her "We're having a child, Dellia! The light of our child's love and ours for each other will send that bitch back to Ephesis where she belongs!" He kissed her again and carried her back into their bedroom. "Oh I've longed to be a father!"
"I know...and you will make a wonderful one."
He laid her back down and crawled into bed beside her and took her in his arms again. "But we can't stay here."
"Jiminy, I can't cross realms in my condition."
"Then we'll wait until our child is born but we are leaving this place."
"Where will we go? We can't go to Storybrooke. We'll be cursed and parted and I can't bear to be parted from you."
"We'll find somewhere safe to go."
"But the will of the OZ..."
"The will of the OZ be damned! I love you and you are going to be the mother of my child. Nothing else matters now. We could go to the other side and you could be a politician."
"No, I don't care much for politics anymore. I've seen enough corruption in our own government. Maybe I just want to stay at home," she said, moving his hand to her swollen belly. "I don't want our child to ever feel like her parents never have enough time for her."
"You inherited your father's artistic ability. Maybe you could do something with that…or even teach. You certainly have the patience for it."
"Not until our daughter is old enough to go to school."
"You know for certain it's a girl?"
She nodded. "Her aura is strong, stronger than mine is. I can feel her protecting me, protecting both of us."
They chose the name Ambrosia as their daughter's name because in Greek mythology legends Azkadellia read the goddess Hera used the nectar to purify her body from defilement. In their minds it was little Ambrosia that would banish Bastinda's taint from her body and soul.
They never spoke of the Oz's choice for her bondmate again. It no longer mattered as far as they were concerned. For Az, there was only enough room in her heart for one man and that was Jiminy Ozopov and the daughter they would soon have.
Jiminy was increasingly concerned as Az's due date approached. Every midwife he asked refused to attend to the exiled princess. When he was saddling his horse to ride back to Finaqua he was approached by Gregory Zero, whom he trusted as far as he could throw, which wasn't very far.
"I heard you were looking for a midwife for the princess. My mother would be more than happy to help out. We…don't buy the story the queen's giving out about her murdering little DG and if you want my honest opinion…off the record, Azkadellia should be on the throne," the tin man said smoothly.
Jiminy couldn't argue with that. He like many other members the high council were stunned when Lavinia changed the succession and named DG as her heir before the attack at the Northern Island, objecting strongly.
"Your Majesty, Azkadellia has been in training since infancy to take the throne when the time is right. Why this sudden change of heart?" he demanded.
"Azkadellia will serve as her sister's advisor. I feel…DG will best serve the needs of the people."
"Not when she barely pays any attention during her lessons!" Toto protested.
"Your Majesty, please reconsider..." Ambrose pleaded.
"The succession will stand as it is. My daughter Dorothia will take the throne with her sister serving as royal advisor."
"This will come to no good, I promise you!" barked General Bridegton of the Western forces barked and stormed out of the room followed by two other generals. They had as little faith in the younger princess as their people.
"…There is no chance of that now, officer. If your mother is willing to offer her services, I will be eternally grateful. I know nothing about delivering a baby." Jiminy admitted.
"I'll go fetch her and ride out to the palace. Don't you worry about a thing. The baby will be taken care of."
Jiminy was not aware that Gregory Zero's family had been part of the Order of Shadows for three decades, his mother already aware that soon she would be approached to tend to Bastinda's vessel.
"That child must be eliminated before it takes its first cursed breath!" instructed the high priestess. "It has the power to banish Bastinda from the princess's soul and return her to Ephesis. The goddess's wrath will come down on us all if we fail!"
"I will not fail Mistress," Catherine Zero vowed.
"See that you don't!"
Az went into labor a week later. Though she wanted Jiminy by her side during the birth, Catherine ordered him out of the room. She couldn't take the chance of him interfering once they made their move. It was a difficult birth, lasting six hours and shortly before dawn, Ambrosia Ozopov was born.
"You're exhausted, Your Highness. Let me give you something to help you relax," the midwife said, taking a syringe out of her bag.
"My baby….where is my baby…?" Az demanded groggily.
"You'll be able to hold her in a bit Your Highness. You must rest first." Catherine plunged the needle into the princess's arm.
Az gasped in horror when she noticed a familiar blue glow spreading across her limbs that were now unable to move. "Squid ink! What are you doing!?" she cried. "Jiminy! Help me!"
"He can't help you now," Catherine hissed. "Gregory…quickly…!"
He lifted the child off the table with the umbilical cord still attached and wound it around the baby's neck, squeezing tightly until the child lay lifeless in his arms.
"NOOOOOO!" Az screamed, the last of her control shattering.
"Dellia! What's happening? DELLIA!" Jiminy howled. "What are you doing to her you bastards!?" He conjured a fireball and was about to throw it at the door when it opened.
"The goddess will be pleased with both of you," Bastinda said to the pair.
Jiminy burst through the door and sank to his knees when he saw his daughter's lifeless body and her mother no longer in control of her own. He ran over to Amber and took her into his arms, kissing her cold cheek.
"I'm sorry baby….I'm so sorry," he moaned.
"You're too late Jiminy. They're both mine now."
"BITCH! I'll find a way to drive you out! I swear it!" he howled.
"Zero, dispose of that! Now you are mine too!" the witch said fiercely and tossed a bottle of squid on him.
"Nooooo! Dellia, Amber!" Jiminy sobbed as his daughter's body was yanked out of his arms and thrown into a sack like trash while two guards seized him and dragged him away.
"The Queen's reign ends today," Bastinda declared gleefully. It was just a matter of time before she would be saying those very words to the woman's face.
Later that night a meeting was held with the witch and the four generals of the royal forces. If the queen would not surrender the throne, they would take it by force.
"What of Commander Ozopov?" General Lannot inquired.
"My husband is ill at the moment," Bastinda replied. "And for the moment you must continue to show your loyalty to the Queen until we reach Central City."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Sorceress," she corrected.
"Yes, Sorceress."
Bastinda teleported back to the Northern Island palace to find Jiminy lying on Azkadellia's bed in the fetal position clutching the blanket she made for their child. He raised his head and glared at her through tear filled eyes. "I would rip your black heart out and crush it if I didn't think it was hers I'd be destroying!"
"And I could crush yours easily...but I'm not going to." She reached out and brushed her fingers against his cheek.
"Bitch! You may have her body but you are NOT my Dellia and I would NEVER touch YOU!" He yanked her hand away.
"I have no use for a lover. But you, Jiminy Ozopov, ahh the potential for darkness you have within you, that is what I need."
"And what makes you think I would ever ally myself with the bitch that killed my daughter?"
"Such a change from the timid former thief you used to be!"
"Yeah well life in this hellhole has toughened me up!"
"Let's see how strong you are when I take the OZ."
Jiminy sat up an energy ball in his hand, wanting to throw it and incinerate her until he gazed up at her face, the beautiful face of the woman he loved.
"Dellia, please...don't let me fight her alone," he pleaded.
"Azkadellia is dead."
"No! She's still in there. I got her back once and damn you I'll do it again!" He seized her by the arms, forcing her to gaze into his eyes. "Dellia, help me push her back..."
The hands clenched into fists and he could see sparks of dark magic within them.
"You took my baby but you can't take away my love. It's stronger than you ever will be."
The facial features softened, the hands relaxed.
"Jiminy," he heard in Az's anguished voice.
He released her arms and waited. She leaned forward and buried her face in his shoulder.
"She'll never let me go," Az sobbed. "She'll never let me go...she killed our baby...our baby..."
"She will...and I'll go as far as it takes...even into darkness if I have to."
He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair, sobbing brokenly for the hope that had been lost when their daughter took her last breath.
Two days later they were stunned when one of the queen's messengers arrived at the palace.
"Her Majesty requests Commander Ozopov's assistance in Central City," he informed them when an exhausted Jiminy opened the door.
"What's happened?"
"A rebellion commander. General Bridgerton's army has defected and is marching toward the capital."
"Where is General Lannot?"
"On the march to intercept."
"The fourth brigade. My brigade?"
"Awaiting your orders, Commander."
"Excuse me for a moment." He closed the door. "Dellia."
"We must defend the OZ, Jiminy. She's fighting for control again. Go!"
"Remember who you are," he pleaded and kissed her. "You are Azkadellia Ozopov. You are the North Guardian...and you are my only love."
He summoned his sword and opened the door. "We go to Central City."
Ambrose raced through the queen's courtyard, wringing his hands both in terror and despair. Just when it had seemed victory was within their grasp it was quickly snatched away the moment the fourth brigade was defeated at the hands of General Lannot who marched his troops into the city not to assist Commander Ozopov but to destroy him. The soldiers had also been unprepared for the attacks by a flock of mobat demons. The Commander himself had been immobilized by squid ink and taken prisoner, his whereabouts unknown.
"Majesty I bring bad news. The Princess Azkadellia has seized Central City."
"Have our men pull back. Set up positions to the south."
Ambrose sighed.
"What?" The queen asked angrily.
"The fourth brigade has fallen. General Lannot has defected."
The queen gasped in shock. "He was our most loyal friend." she whispered. She turned her head away, not wanting her only friend to see her grief.
"I'm so sorry. There is no law other than Azkadellia's. She tried to steal the plans for the sun seeder but I was able to destroy the blueprints."
The queen gripped his arm, frightened. "She'll come after you Ambrose." They both understood what the princess intended to use the machine for and could not let it fall into her hands. Using moratanium, an element that could conduct magical energy, it would focus the power of Lurline's emerald to lock the moons Nero and Neru behind the sun and open the gates of Ephesis, allowing Alemedia to no longer need a vessel to walk the mortal realm.
He nodded. "Is there nothing you can do? Majesty?"
"It is too late. The darkness is too deeply rooted in her," she confessed brokenly.
"But your light. You are the most powerful being in all the OZ!" he reminded her, making one last attempt to inspire hope in his former lover.
"Was old friend. I gave my power and my light to save someone very special...my angel." she whispered.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Azkadellia approaching with a dozen soldiers. He rose to his feet. "Show some respect!" he demanded, placing himself before the queen.
"The queen's reign ends today," Bastinda proclaimed, a malicious smile on her lips.
Lavinia rose from her seat, placing a reassuring hand on Ambrose's arm and facing her daughter, now a stranger to her.
"Do you have any idea of what you are doing?" she demanded in a soft but firm voice.
"I do. You need a long rest, Mother. Take her away," she instructed her troops. "And take him to the alchemist. If you won't tell me what you know I guess I'll just have to reach in and take it myself." The troops surrounded him and the queen and escorted them to separate wagons. Her heart was breaking yet Lavinia would never dare give her enemies the opportunity to see her weak.
Bastinda was waiting for them when the troops and the truck carrying the queen arrived at her tower palace. Two guards seized the fallen queen's arms and escorted her through the halls to her daughter's conference room. Az, now in control focused her magic on her mother and the queen began to shrink. Once she was merely a few inches tall, Az picked her up in her hands and clapped them together. Despite all their differences, Az wanted to protect her mother the only way she knew how, Bastinda wanted her alive to see her suffer.
Lavinia found herself trapped on a strange island, with only dead trees, sand and little water. A few seconds later her daughter appeared.
"I hope you enjoy your new home Mother," the younger woman said with a smirk. The queen did not answer her. She kept telling herself that the woman standing before her was not her daughter yet she could not deny that she'd seen with her own eyes this daughter use dark magic to try to murder the sister she'd once loved so much. Bastinda, now in control again, clapped her hands and vanished, leaving Lavinia alone.
As she thought of her the husband she could no longer hold or touch, the daughter she'd been forced to send away for her own protection and the daughter who had destroyed them all, Lavinia sank to ground and wept the tears she'd held back for so long.
The witch closed the metal dome lid to the prison that now confined one of her mortal enemies. She controlled the first. The second was in her grave, the third under her mistress's control and the fourth would be eliminated. Then there was the tin man, chosen by Ozmalita to be Rumplestiltskin's replacement. He was still a threat that needed to be taken care of.
"Corporal Zero," she called to one of her strongest commanders. He appeared before her, saluting. "Return to Central City and take command there. I have a special duty for you."
"Yes Sorceress?"
"You are to observe and report the activities of a Tin Man by the name of Wyatt Cain. You are familiar with him, yes?"
"We've been on the force together for years. He's just a dressed up cowboy from the western guild. Nothing to worry about," Zero said arrogantly.
Blithering idiot, the witch thought.
"Nevertheless, you will watch him. If he acts in any way that is in defiance of our authority, you are to arrest him."
"Why not just kill him?"
"No. I have something else in mind. Come."
She led him down the hallway and into a storage room housing hundreds of iron suits. She opened one of them. "This, Corporal Zero, will be our punishment for traitors." She began to explain how the suit worked. It would keep the victim nourished with fluids, filter out waste and maintain breathable air but only someone on the outside would be able to open the suit. Zero smiled. It was ingenious. Thinking about that fumbling cowboy Cain locked in one of those suits brought him immense pleasure.
"Cain locked in one of these things...I like it."
"No, Corporal. I have a special suit in mind for him that I know you'll be even more pleased with."
When she had first taken command of the royal army, Zero had his doubts that Azkadellia would be a much better leader than her mother but she was quickly proving him wrong. It was better for the leaders of a country to be feared then loved and with these nifty little devices, the people of the OZ would be pissing their drawers and bowing down to them like dogs to their masters. At first glance this new suit looked the same as the others but when she opened it, several spikes shot out, dripping water that quickly froze.
"You're going to freeze him in there?" Zero asked gleefully.
"That is one modification, yes but the other is that this suit cannot be opened by any other way than the touch of someone who possesses strong magic. And I am the only being in this realm with that ability."
"You never cease to amaze me, Sorceress."
"You will be richly awarded as long as you remain loyal to me Corporal Zero," the witch promised. "And as long as Wyatt Cain remembers his place and stays in it, we will have no need of this suit, will we?"
"No, but I'd disappointed because nothing would make me happier than to see that son of a bitch get what's coming to him."
"Have patience Corporal. You may have your wish after all," the witch said with a smile. "You are dismissed."
Bastinda gazed up at the suit. She had no doubts that Wyatt Cain would perform according to her expectations. A faint trace of the light still lingered in him and that light would pull him toward a course of action that would put him in her carefully baited trap. All she could do now was wait for her prize to come to her. And he would. It was his destiny.
She teleported into the dungeon of her old tower.
"Bitch!"
She smiled at the only occupant in its cells. "I believe I gave you a choice years ago Commander. Serve me or serve her."
"I serve her. I will always serve her," he sneered.
"But we're one and the same now."
He lowered his head.
"She wants this. All of it. After all, it was rightfully hers until her mother decided to take it all away and give it to her 'angel.' Where is her precious angel now? Cold in the ground and rotting away."
"Like our daughter."
The cell door opened and she entered the cell, kneeling beside him. "I was so afraid you'd been killed."
"Dellia," Jininy whispered.
"It's getting harder to break through. She's taken Ambrose and Mother. I've tried to protect Mother as much as I can but Ambrose...oh Jiminy...they removed his brain!"
"For what?"
"The sun seeder."
He exhaled sharply. "To lock Nero and Neru behind the moon. A permanent eclipse. She's going to enact Aramon's prophecy with Ambrose's invention and use the mortanium here to conduct the energy from half of Lurline's emerald to do it. Your half. That's why she went after you!"
"But I don't know where it is!"
"Your mother does and hopefully she's cloaked her memories enough that Bastinda can't get to them."
"She has."
Even know he could feel Az's control weakening once again. He rose to his feet, his eyes meeting those of his captor.
"Have you made your decision, Commander?"
"Go to Ephesis and rot, bitch!" he growled.
"I'll give you a little more time to think it over," she said and vanished.
He'd been many places throughout his adulthood but Wyatt Cain was not a man to forget his roots. Of the four guilds, he knew the strongest fighters came from the west because they loved the land and their families and those two things were worth fighting and dying for. The southern guild was made up of similar people but most of them were criminals and lunatics, not entirely dependable.
Although Queen Lavinia kept up the facade that there was peace throughout the realm, the westerners knew better. They watched in silent rage as merchants from the northern and eastern guilds marched into their villages like armed troops and built their factories and opened mines that destroyed lands that had been untouched for centuries to make goods in the fastest speeds possible and to maximize their profits. They shed bitter tears as loved ones were taken from their homes to work in the factories and mines for very little pay and long hours, many of them falling ill and dying.
But an animal will let itself be wounded so many times before its fury is unleashed and damned be those who have fueled its rage. The people of the western guild were angry, and willing to fight. All they needed was a brave heart with a strong hand to lead them. They never expected to find it in the boy who was raised in poverty in the west and lived in comfort as a man in the east.
Wyatt could feel the disgust as he rode through his village to his father's cabin, the disgust that began when he was eighteen and married Adora Kantrine, a woman who represented everything the westerners hated about the east. She may have given the poor farm boy an education but she loved him enough that she never asked him to forget where he came from.
"What're you doin' back here Wyatt Cain?" Delbert Grimes demanded angrily from his rocking chair on his front porch. "Old Del" as people in the village called him, was their version of the town wise man. Nothing escaped his notice and he always had sound advice for those who needed it.
"I came to see my pa," Wyatt answered, surprised at how quickly his western accent was coming back. He dismounted his horse and approached the porch only to find the barrel of Old Del's shotgun pointed at his forehead.
"You don't belong here anymore, city boy. So you just saddle up and ride outta here before you find yourself sportin' another hole."
When he was still a boy a threat like that like would have made him shake in his boots and piss his drawers but after dealing with the worst criminals the southern guild and Central City offered, an old man with a rusted shotgun was just a minor annoyance.
"I'm not here to make trouble Del. I just wanna see my pa," Wyatt said gently, pressing his hand down on the barrel of the gun and pushing it away from him. It was then that Del's gaze was focused on the tin star Wyatt wore on his duster.
"You're an officer of the law now?" he asked.
"Yeah," he answered.
It was the code in the western guild that no man deserved more respect than an officer of the law. Del set the gun down.
"What's all the damn commotion over here, Del?" Wyatt heard Garret "Grumpy" Brimely demand of his best friend as he approached them.
"Wyatt Cain's back."
"So? He's a city boy now. Don't belong here."
"He's an officer of the law."
"That so?" Garret turned to the younger man and froze when he too noticed the tin badge. "Well...looks like you aren't so city after all, are you boy?"
"No, sir. We got convicts in Central City that need a good ass whipping just like they do here."
"Only we don't got ourselves someone brave enough here to whip 'em."
"What do you mean?" Wyatt asked worriedly. "Where's Jimmy Boggs? He was our sheriff when I left home, not much older than I am."
"Jimmy got hisself shot up in a bar fight with some eastern bigshots three annuals ago. Everybody else is too damned scared of the rich folks to take the job so they run the town and now that the Sorceress is in charge, well...she makes 'em push the workers hard here."
"Like hell," Wyatt grumbled. The two older men looked at each other with a gleam in their eyes. They remembered well what this boy now a grown man was like when he got angry and nothing spread fear through Elba than an angry Cain.
"We need a new sheriff around here Wyatt and although you may have been in the city all this time, you're still an officer of the law and a Cain to boot."
"One who's gonna get lynched the minute everyone knows I'm back in town. They practically chased me and Adora outta here."
"You're still married to the Kantrine girl?"
"Yeah... and we have a boy named Jeb."
"Where are they?"
"Back east. We had to leave Central City once the troops came. Since they were the law, they didn't want my kind of law there."
"Well we don't want the Sorceress's kind of law here. People may wanna lynch ya at first Wyatt Cain but you're a tough boy, always have been. We need you here. Can we count on you boy, or are you gonna be as yellow as everyone else around here has become?" Garret demanded.
Wyatt's blue eyes narrowed to slits. "Call me yellow like that again and the only yellow you're gonna see is yours when you piss it out your mouth," he threatened.
Garret howled with laughter. "Looks like we got ourselves a sheriff."
"One without a posse. Not gonna be much of a sheriff without one, am I?"
"Hell boy, we'll be your posse!" Old Del exclaimed.
"No offense but you're too old to be running around the guild chasin' convicts and keepin' the Longcoats out," Wyatt pointed out.
"We can still shoot the balls off any man Wyatt Cain so don't you be tellin' us we're too old. You won't want anyone to be tellin' you that when you get to be our age, do ya? Besides, you need our support to be the new sheriff or you will get lynched."
"No, I don't think I would. Where is my pa, Del? I really do need to see him."
Del and Garret looked at each other. "He's laid up, Wyatt." Del said.
"From what?"
"Them new eastern folks who took over the mines have been working the men to death. Sammy...well, he got tired of it and like you Cains have a habit of doin'...he picked a fight with the foreman and got shoved down one of the mineshafts. One leg and arm are broken."
Wyatt's face paled. "Take me to him."
"Sly Fox" Samuel Cain still lived in the run down cottage that had been Wyatt's home until he was six years old. Then his mother woke him up in the middle of the night and the two of them went to live with the new man in her life, the drunken, abusive son of a bitch who made the next ten years of his life a living hell until the goddess finally showed mercy on him and made his stepfather kill himself by falling down a flight of stairs while he was drunk. His mother was the only person to mourn him even though she'd gotten her share of beatings from the bastard.
When they rode up to the house a woman came out the door holding a shotgun, lowering it when she spotted Del and Garret.
"Who's with ya, Del?"
"Sam's boy, Marielle."
"Wyatt? Oh thank the goddess!" she cried. "You probably don't remember me, do you, Wyatt?"
"Um, no ma'am."
"Well, don't just sit on that horse like a dead tree stump. Come here and greet your aunt properly!" she scolded.
He jumped off his horse and swept his aunt up in a fierce embrace. Marielle wept tears of joy as she held tightly to the man who was more of a son to her than a nephew.
"Little 'Wild Wyatt'," she said softly.
"No one's called me that in a long time," he chuckled.
"Nor will they when they see you sportin' that badge. An officer of the law. Your pa is gonna be so proud!"
"How bad is he, Aunt Mari?"
"It's bad honey. I hope you bein' here can lift his spirits a bit. You plannin' on stayin a while?"
"Yeah, I got business here."
"Mari, who the hell is out there!" he heard his father yell in slurred speech that made a chill race down his spine. It was the way his stepfather sounded after he'd had too many drinks and was looking for someone to take his wrath out on.
"Dammit, I thought I hid it all!" Marielle moaned.
"Let me deal with this," Wyatt said firmly, now back in his Tin Man mode. He'd hauled more than his fair share of drunks out of the bars in Central City but it wasn't going to be so easy to handle his own father.
"He doesn't get like..."
"Like Bart? Maybe not now but if he keeps drinkin' like this he will. Whose idea was it to give him the stuff in the first place?" He turned his icy gaze to his father's best friends. Del and Garret lowered their heads guiltily.
"He was only takin' nips to kill the pain." Del said. "The doc doesn't have the medicine he needs."
"He's takin' more than nips and you know it! I catch either one of you bringin' him anymore booze and you'll be the ones sportin' extra holes. Got it?"
He took a deep breath and walked into the house. As he feared, his father was trying to tear the place apart as much as he could with his working limbs looking for the bottles of whiskey Marielle had been trying to hide from him.
Samuel Cain looked up at his son with bloodshot eyes, his gaze focusing on the star on his duster.
"Jimmy? You ain't dead? I thought you got shot up three years ago."
"Pa," Wyatt said softly as he kneeled down beside his father. "It's Wyatt."
"Wyatt? Naw, you ain't Wyatt. He's a city boy now that he married that Kantrine tramp."
"Pa, I'm gonna try to remember that's the booze talkin but you know it pisses me off when you call my girl a tramp."
"You turned your back on your roots boy!" Sam yelled.
"You and the rest of the folks in this town ran me and Adora outta here!" Wyatt yelled back. "I made something of myself Pa and what're you doin? Drownin' yourself in booze and turnin' out to be a mean, miserable son of a bitch like Bart. You think I want to go through that again? You think Aunt Mari does?"
"You watch yourself boy or I'll skin your hide."
"How you gonna do that with a bum leg and arm, Pa?" Wyatt challenged. "Go on and do it if you think you can."
Sam braced himself on his good arm and leg and tried to stand but quickly collapsed on the floor howling with pain.
"I'm getting' you back to bed."
"You're getting' me nowhere. I'll get there myself."
"No you're not." Wyatt placed his father's broken arm over his shoulder. "We're gonna stand up slow on your good leg. Come on Pa, help me out here!" Wyatt cried when his father started to fall again. "You're too big for me to carry you."
"And you ain't gonna either," Sam grumbled. "I don't wanna be havin to use my son as a damned cane for the rest of my life."
"Then you're gonna have to stop feelin sorry for yourself and do something about it," Wyatt ordered as he helped his father back to his bedroom. "You're not getting up until you sleep it off." He walked over to the old chest his father kept some of his tools in and opened it, scowling when he pulled out several bottles without labels and opened one of them. "Should've figured Amos was still in business."
"Yeah well that rotgut you get in the city probably doesn't taste half as soon as Amos's homebrewed whiskey."
"Yeah well, you won't be having any more of it," Wyatt said as he opened the window and started dumping the bottle out.
"You idiot! You realize how much money you're dumping out!?" Sam snapped as Wyatt removed several more bottles from their hiding places and emptied all of them, ignoring his father's insults until Sam finally grew tired and fell asleep.
He found Marielle in the kitchen cooking his favorite soup. She ladled some of it into a bowl and handed it to him. "You don't know how glad I am to have you back home, Wyatt. Sam's been driving me out of my mind first with his accident then with the drinkin'."
"Well, he's taken his last nip Aunt Mari. We got bigger problems."
Adora,
I'm sorry it took me so long to write but there was so much going on here all at once that's kept me pretty busy.
I'm the sheriff now. Jimmy was killed in a barfight three years ago and no one else took the job so they offered it to me. You can imagine how angry some folks were about it at first but they're coming around.
Pa wasn't in good shape when I came home. He was pushed down a mineshaft after he got in a fight and had some limbs broken. Worse, he started drinking. Aunt Mari and I have him sobered up now and he should be getting up and around soon.
I don't know what the Sorceress and her troops are looking for but they've been tearing apart other villages and torturing people to find whatever it is. I want to be ready for them when they come here but there is only a small group of us willing to do anything about it.
I was hoping on bringing you and Jeb out here with me but right now it's not safe. I don't know how long it will be, but I'll come and get you soon. I love you both.
Wyatt
"Here they come, sheriff!" Garret cried from their post on the top of a hill on the outskirts of the village.
"How many?" Wyatt asked.
"Bout fifty or so?"
"Alright, listen up! We need to make every bullet count. When you shoot, you shoot to kill, got it?" Wyatt glanced up at his small army comprised of his aunt, Del, Garret and at least sixteen more men and women from the village, armed only with their shotguns and a limited supply of ammunition since trade within guilds had been cut off.
"Put em right between the whites of their eyes!" Marielle ordered.
"Get ready," Wyatt growled as the sound of over a dozen hoofprints carried on the breeze. He pulled his pistol out of its holster. The sounds grew louder. "Take your aim..."
Shotguns were raised, fingers poised over triggers.
Men in long leather coats rode into sight.
"Fire!" Wyatt shouted and aimed his pistol, firing a shot at the leader, hitting him in the chest. A volley of shots rang out. Six longcoats fell from their horses onto the ground. The others, recovering from their surprise, pulled out their guns and returned fire.
"Fire at will!" Wyatt commanded. The small army started down the hill, firing at the nearest longcoats they saw.
"Wyatt, there's a group that's broken off and is headin' toward the village!" Marielle cried.
"We have to cut em off! Billy, Morgan and Curt come with me!" Wyatt ordered. The small group mounted their horses and rode off in pursuit of the stray pack of troops while Marielle and the rest of their army killed the last of the troops that had surrounded them.
"Wyatt's gonna need some help. Saddle up!" she commanded. "I just hope to hell we can get there in time," she muttered.
The longcoats had already reached the village by the time Wyatt's party arrived and people who had been awakened by the commotion were fighting back with anything they could get their hands on. One woman had used the huge pot of soup she'd been making all day as a hot cauldron and doused several longcoats when they broke into her home. A group of boys formed a small firing squad armed only with slingshots and rocks. Two women used their their laundry lines to knock riders off their horses. The patrons of one of the bars locked a small band of longcoats inside and set it on fire. Necessity was the mother of invention and the citizens of the small western guild village of Elba were quickly proving to be a force to be reckoned with. When the last longcoat fell from a fatal shot from Wyatt's pistol the crowd cheered loudly only to gasp in shock as he collapsed on the ground from a bullet wound in his shoulder.
News that the sheriff and citizens of a small western guild village had managed to fend off a large army of longcoats with little ammunition and common household items spread throughout the OZ like a wildfire. Wyatt Cain was a name frequently mentioned. Armed with only a pistol and wounded, he killed at least ten longcoats and made sure all the longcoats dead before he passed out from pain and exhaustion.
Adora, sitting across from him in their kitchen knew she couldn't love him more than she did at that moment. He'd saved their village and inspired the people to stand up and fight for their freedom. As soon as she'd heard what happened at Elba she asked a friend to take her and Jeb out west to join him.
"We have to find a way to get a hold of more weapons, Pa," he was saying to his father as he, Sam, Marielle Del and Garett were studying a map. "There's a fort with a legion of longcoats stationed here," he said, pointing to an area on the map. "We can't hold em off forever with what we find around here."
"We need to start settin up some kinda line of defense in the woods," Sam suggested.
"Traps," Del spoke up. "We got plenty of animal traps we can use. Hell, everything we used in town worked, we just gotta think bigger this time."
Wyatt chuckled. "I don't think Annabelle will be happy about us askin her to cook more of her soup to waste."
"Are you kiddin? She calls it 'Longcoat Stew' now and just the other day she was saying she's itchin to try out a new one on em if they come back."
"She'll need a bigger pot," Marielle advised.
"Hell, we'll make her one and carve 'Boiling Belle' on it for her."
"Adora, can you go house to house and let everyone know there's gonna be a meeting?" Wyatt asked to his wife.
"Do they need to bring anything?"
"Just their heads. If they've got ideas, we need to hear 'em."
"I'll be back in a little while," she said and kissed her husband and son before she headed out.
"What do I do, Daddy?" young Jeb asked from his place on the floor. Wyatt glanced down at his son. "I wanna help fight those bad guys too."
Sam howled with laughter. "That boy's a Cain all right!"
"Jeb, you can't fight the bad guys yet." Wyatt said gently although in his heart he couldn't be more proud. His son was growing up to be more and more like him every day.
"Yes I can!" he pouted. "I can hit em with rocks like those other boys did! C'mon Daddy! I wanna help."
"He's not gonna let up until you give him something to do, Wyatt," Marielle reminded her nephew. "And whether we like it or now, our kids need to know how to defend themselves too."
"I don't know..."
"Please, Daddy!" Jeb begged.
"Me and Del can take him with us when we go set traps. He's gotta learn how to set 'em anyway if he wants to hunt," Sam suggested.
"His mother's not gonna like it," Wyatt muttered. "She'll skin me alive..."
"None of us like havin' to do this Wyatt but we got to," Del spoke up. "C'mon boy," he said to Jeb. "Time ya learned how to be a hunter."
"Quiet as a tomb in there, Wyatt," Garret said to him as they waited in the woods not far from where the fort stood.
"Okay...Billy, Curt...you two take out the guards on the ground. Pa, Marielle and Del, can you handle the ones in the tower?"
"We'll get em."
"Belle, how's the stew coming?"
"First batch is hot an' ready. Just need some help gettin it on the catapult. It'll make their eyes cry an' their noses burn."
"We'll get it on there for ya Belle," two men said.
"I'm almost done with the second batch, Belle." Adora said to her.
"You add my special sauce dearie?"
"I sure did."
"Okay boys, let's go check it out." Annabelle said as they went back to the firepit where a large pot full of stew was cooking. The men gasped and held their noses.
"Ozma's ghost, Belle!" Wyatt cried. "What'd you have her put in there...smells like cow shit!"
"That's the idea boy. I'm callin' this one 'The Sorceress's Outhouse!'"
"You didn't really have them put...that in there, did you?" Wyatt asked, horrified.
"Well it wouldn't be called 'The Sorceress's Outhouse' without it, now would it?" Annabelle asked with a wicked grin. "Was your woman's idea."
"Adora!" Wyatt glanced over at his wife. She was smirking.
"What? The Longcoats have been giving us shit for over a month now and I think they deserve to take a little of it courtesy of Elba's finest cattle."
"I love you, you know that," Wyatt said, laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes and kissed her. "Okay, let's get moving but for Ozma's sake while you're haulin that stuff, cover your noses and don't get any of it on ya! We don't want em to smell us coming!"
"They did what?" the witch screamed.
General Lannot backed away, having never seen the Sorceress so furious. "The resisters in a small village called Elba captured our fort there, captured or killed everyone there and emptied the armory. Now they're going to the other guilds to get others to join them."
"That fort was heavily guarded. Do you want to explain to me how they got in?"
"They...ahh used a catapult and threw several pots of what I'm guessing was soup at the guards inside and shot the guards on the tower."
"Who is leading this little army?" she demanded.
"An ex Tin Man named Wyatt Cain. Apparently they just made him their sheriff."
"Zero!" the witch yelled.
"Yes Sorceress?" he asked as he walked into the room.
She smiled. "It looks like you're going to get your wish after all. I want you to take a small group of men and go to the western guild village of Elba. Wyatt Cain has been leading an uprising there."
"Am I taking the suit?" he asked, unable to contain his excitement. He was beginning to worry that he would have a long wait before he saw Cain ruined.
"You are. Traitors must be made an example of. As for his family, it seems that they are all involved. Kill them."
It would take him at least a week to reach the village but this was one trip Zero was looking forward to making. His nemesis would be put in his place once and for all.
Gregory Zero's hatred of Wyatt Cain began when they graduated from the Tin Academy. He'd never understood why a cowboy from the western guild had graduated at the top of the class while he, born into one of the wealthiest families in the Northern guild was within a hair of failing out.
Making matters worse when the Mystic Man was searching for one more Tin Man to join his protection detail, he'd narrowed his choices down to Zero and Cain. According to their captain the Mystic Man was looking for a protector who possessed certain attributes but the captain hadn't bothered to tell him what they were. When Zero had been told Cain was chosen he was furious and he spent too much time brooding about it that he hadn't realized his wife was getting ready to walk out on him. When she did he no longer cared. Now his second marriage was on the verge of collapse for the same reason...his hatred of Cain and destroying him dominated most of Zero's thoughts that there was nothing left for anyone else.
The witch watched him leaving with a smile on her lips. There was no other soul as dark as that of Gregory Zero. It was why she had chosen him to be her hunter. She would use him to seek out all traces of the light of the OZ and extinguish them. He naively assumed his target was Wyatt Cain but she had another in mind...Dorothia Gale. All evidence suggested the girl was dead but she wasn't certain. She never would be until she either saw a body or killed her herself while the goddess took care of the Strogoff line. All they had to do now was capture the one person who would bring Dorothia to them. Her mate.
Wyatt and Adora stood face to face, he in robes of black silk, a golden dragon emblem engraved on the back, the symbols of the dragon master, she in robes of white, the apprentice. Her Katana sword in her hands, she kneeled down, her head bowed as a show of respect to her teacher.
"Adora Kantrine Cain," he began. "Your quest for knowledge is at its end. You must now face the dragon's wrath to earn the right to call yourself a master. Do you accept the challenge?"
Adora looked up at her husband, her eyes warm with love. Yet she would have to set those feelings aside for the time being for now he was not her husband but her teacher. "I do," she said firmly.
"Rise and let us begin," he commanded, sword in hand, assuming his attack stance. Adora stood up, her own sword poised. The opposing blades crossed.
Wyatt's heart was filled with pride as he watched his wife meet his every attack with equal skill. He'd pushed her hard in the first few months of training, often reducing her to tears yet her courage never faltered. All her life she'd been desperate to prove that she could be so much more than a wife and mother and when she learned Wyatt had been made a Talon, she begged him to train her even though a Talon was not to take an apprentice until granted the rank of master.
For several days he'd been plagued by nightmares that something was coming for him and wanted Adora to be prepared for the worst. As the last of the Talons, it was now his duty to name his successor in the event of his death but first she had to earn it by defeating him in a test of strength and skill. It was the challenge he should have faced with the Mystic Man. He fought hard, pushing himself and her to their limits until she finally seized her opening and forced him to the ground, her sword poised over his throat.
"Claim your victory," he commanded proudly. She raised the sword up and thrust the blade into the ground barely inches away from the side of his neck and kneeled beside him.
"Victorious in my quest, I ask for the right to be called a master. Will you give me your blessing?"
Wyatt rose to his feet and swept his wife into his arms, tradition be damned. "How could you doubt it?" he asked as he kissed her passionately. "And you told me you didn't think you were ready."
"You had me worried a few times," she admitted. "Pushing me harder than you ever had before."
"I had to even though I hated every minute of it but I knew you could do it. I always have."
She cupped his face in her palms and kissed him. "I know this isn't appropriate behavior for a student..."
"Neither is this, but do you think I give a damn?" he said seductively as he carried her into the house to their bedrooom.
"Wyatt Cain, what do you think you're doing?" she giggled as he dumped her on the bed. "The Mystic Man would be so upset with you that you're not following tradition."
"Tradition later," he said as he silenced her with another kiss. "Right now the only tradition I'm interested in is making love to my wife."
Adora looked up at him and held out her arms. "You won't hear an argument from me."
They rarely had moments like this while Wyatt had been part of the Mystic Man's protection detail because he had always been exhausted from his training and once the uprising started, even less time.
"Wyatt, sweetheart, is something wrong?" she asked him.
"No. It's nothing, nothing at all," he lied.
Adora's eyes glistened with tears. Hadn't he realized by now that she could always sense when he was lying to her? She wrapped her arms around him and pushed him back against the pillows, pressing her lips to his, willing all the love she had in her heart to push away his dark thoughts.
"Don't think about anything right now," she commanded softly. "It can't touch us here..."
"I love you, Adora," he whispered as he pulled her beneath him.
She came into his life like a light in the darkness when he was an angry, abused child of ten and made him into the man he now was. If this was going to be his last night with her, he wanted it to be the kind of night that would be engraved on his heart when he made his journey into the afterlife.