Oz (The Outer Zone)

Seven days prior to the Double Eclipse

Twenty-three days prior to the Final Eclipse

As DG poked her head around the tree she could see a small cottage in the distance. A man was on his knees with two Longcoats holding his arms stretched out. Another approached him with a silk ribbon around his fingers and punched him in his already bloodied face. Another held a woman who was screaming.

"Those guys are everywhere!" she cried, horrified for the couple who obviously didn't deserve the hell they were going through.

"Yeah, that's life in the OZ these days. Tough and tougher," Glitch muttered.

The man being restrained by the Longcoats gave a howl of animalistic rage as a young boy was dragged out of the house and charged the leader and the woman continued to beg for her man to be left alone. The leader backhanded the child, knocking him to the ground.

"Oh!" Glitch cried. "But I can tell you that even with half a brain that we gotta get out of here!"

This is going to stop now,

DG thought as she picked up a long stick and ran down the hill. She didn't care if there were more of them than her but dammit, the poor guy had suffered enough! It was time to put all the working out she'd done to the test.

"Oh cripes!" Glitch cried. Was she insane? She was grossly outnumbered. "DG this isn't your fight!"

The man had managed to free one of his arms and punched the leader but was quickly restrained again.

"Leave him alone!" she screamed and swung the stick. The scene vanished with only an old, run down cottage remaining. "What just happened?"

Glitch could see a small metal device attached to a stump and switched it off.

"What is it?" DG asked.

"A TDESPHTL," he answered. "A transdimensional energy stored projected holographic time loop. Nifty little thing. Hey...I think I invented it." he said with a smile as a memory came back to him.

"So it was all fake."

"No, it happened. Sometime or another," Glitch said sadly.

"Why would they have it playing over and over again if there was no one here to watch it?"

"Well, I think it..." He paused. DG glanced over by the back porch and saw what looked like an old fashioned diving suit. She ran over to it and knocked softly. They heard three faint taps in response.

"There's someone in there!" DG gasped.

"Or something..." Glitch muttered timidly. He stepped up to the metal suit and gazed into the window, a grey face with blue eyes staring back at him. "Ooh!" he cried and backed away.

Find my prison and release me...

She had no idea where those words had come from or who kept speaking them but she understood now what she needed to do. DG spotted a neglected hammer resting on an anvil and returned to the iron maiden as she now knew it was and started pounding the pins out of the latches. Glitch waved at the man inside assuring him that he would be free shortly. She opened the door and a blast of cold and a horrid smell seeped out. She and Glitch jumped back.

The man inside was as pale as death with long, dirty hair, and wearing a white shirt and pants coated with dirt. As he took his first step out he fell to the ground. Glitch held DG protectively while her heart went out the the man.

"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

Stupid question Deege, she scolded herself.

This guy's been trapped in there for God knows how long. Do you really think he's okay?

"W...Where are they?" he asked hoarsely.

"I...I don't know," she answered, wishing that she did. This poor man had been forced to watch over and over again while he and his family were being beaten by the Longcoats.

The man rose to his full height and started toward her. A image of a black dragon breathing fire popped into her mind. Glitch pulled her behind him."What do you mean you don't know? Who are you! Are you one of them?" he demanded.

"No, no! We just found you here but we saw what happened through that." DG pointed at the time loop. The man walked over to it and stared at it for a few minutes, his body shaking. He grasped it in his hands and yanked it out of the pole, tossing it onto the ground.

"I'm gonna kill him," he growled. He started toward the house.

"Sir..." DG began.

"The name's Cain. Wyatt Cain," he muttered as he slammed the door behind him.

"Grouchy isn't he?" Glitch asked.

"You would be too if you were locked inside that thing," DG reminded him. She ran up to the porch and knocked softly on the door.

"Oh...right. Sorry, glitching again." Glitch muttuered

"What do you want now?" she heard the man ask from the other side.

"Ummm...I was just seeing if you were okay."

"I'm fine," she heard him say faintly.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I want to be alone for a few minutes!" he cried.

"DG, maybe we should just leave him alone," Glitch suggested. "All we seem to be doing is making him angry and I don't know about you but I think he'd rip us apart with his bare hands."

When the dragon's mate calls to him, he will always answer.

"I'm not going anywhere until I'm sure he's okay," DG said firmly as she entered the house wondering why she was hearing these strange voices in her head...again. "Mr. Cain," she called softly, not seeing him in the kitchen. She noticed that the bedroom door was slightly ajar. As if he sensed she was about go in, he pushed the door shut.

Normally her patience would have run its course but something was telling her that she needed to stay. She could hear water splashing.

"Mr. Cain?"

The door opened again Wyatt emerged fully clean wearing a wrinkled blue and white striped shirt, a brown leather vest and tan pants. His long blond hair was still wet. For a moment DG thought he looked like the OZ's version of Sammy Hagar, one of the rock group Van Halen's singers.

"You still here?" he asked her.

"Yes...umm...is there anything you need." Those voices in her head had to stop since she had no idea what they were trying to tell her.

"To get rid of this," he said, indicating his long hair. "And a shave."

"I can cut your hair for you."

"I can do it myself," he said and sliced off a chunk of it with his razor.

"Mr. Cain, you won't be able to cut it right with just a razor. Come on," she said as she took his arm and led him into the kitchen and made him sit down.

"Kid..." he protested.

"Mr. Cain, please just let me do this. It'll look better."

He sighed. "All right."

"I'm going to need some scissors, combs and a brush."

"In the bedroom."

"I'll be right back. Now, don't you move," she ordered and returned to the bedroom to retrieve the items she needed.

He may not want me to help him but I'm going to do it anyhow. He hasn't had any contact with the outside world in years.

He was still sitting in the chair when she returned. She picked up the comb first and started working on untangling the knots in his hair.

"Ow!" he yelled as her comb caught on a thick knot.

"I have to get the knots out," she said softly.

"Can you do it without trying to rip my scalp off?" he demanded, wincing while she worked the comb through another knot. It was a difficult process but she eventually had the hair straight enough to cut it.

"Need any help DG?" Glitch asked as he walked into the house.

"No, I'm fine." she murmured as she worked. Up until that point she hadn't worked on actual customer yet had an image in her mind of what he would want his hair to look like.

Fine? Wyatt thought. Fine! What the hell is she doing travelling with a convict anyway?

Another tug on his hair interrupted his thoughts.

"Almost done," she said. "There! Now for your shave."

Wyatt reached up and touched the top of his head. He had to admit the kid had done a good job cutting his hair. She was about to pick up the razor when he shook his head and took it from her. "I can do that myself," he said as he stood up and went outside. He held his razor in his hand and walked down to the lake to begin shaving the beard and mustache from his face.

"I didn't know you can do that." Glitch said.

"I was training for it," she explained.

"How is he?"

"Not as snappy but still distant."

"The suit...he's the only person I know of who has survived in it a long time. And the time loop..."

"So he just had to stand there and watch while his family got tortured over and over again?" DG asked Glitch.

"The most imaginative tortures are saved for those who resist Azkadellia," Glitch answered in a monotone as if it had been drilled into him.

"How long were you trapped in there?" DG asked Wyatt as he passed them.

"Since that was a sapling," he said, indicating a tall tree that grew in his yard.

Oh God, that is a long time, she thought as she glanced up at the tree. She heard him expel a long sigh.

"Much obliged for the help." he finally said after a long silence.

"You're welcome Mr. Cain. Umm...I'm DG by the way and this is.." DG said she followed him to the rear of the house. Wyatt kneeled down and started digging in the grass.

"I know...a headcase."

Glitch laughed nervously. "I have a proper name, you know! And when I remember it I will tell you."

Wyatt pulled out a small metal box containing a leather holster with pistol. He slung the holster over his shoulder.

"What's a headcase?" DG inquired.

"It's what the state does to reeducate criminals. They rip out their brains and make them prisoners of their own minds."

DG turned to stare at Glitch. He didn't look like a criminal, or at least she hoped so. Glitch was offended.

Wyatt reached into the box again and pulled out a small toy horse with faded paint and a shining silver badge with a star in its center that looked like an old west Sheriff's star. On it were the words CENTRAL CITY. He tucked the toy horse into his breast pocket and the star badge in his pant pocket. "Ain't that right, convict?" he asked Glitch.

"Hey! Whoa! I ain't no convict and just in case I am it was a bogus charge, a frame job, I'm sure of it!" Glitch exclaimed to him as he disappeared around the corner.

Wyatt reappeared now carrying a grey fedora hat and wearing a long grey duster jacket. "Yeah, well...I'll see you down the road," he said gruffly as he donned his hat.

"Oh...actually a road is what we're looking for," DG said as she ran over to them."We're looking for the brick route that leads to a place Central City," she and Glitch said in unison. "Do you know of it?" she asked Wyatt.

Wyatt was loading his pistol. "Yeah. It's where Zero was headed after...It's where I'm headed now." he added, tucking the gun back in its holster.

"Great! We'll go with you." DG said excitedly.

"I got business. Besides I don't travel with kids or convicts."

"Um, I'm not a kid and the people who came to your home came to mine and I'm just looking for my parents."

"And I'm looking for my brain," Glitch piped up.

"And maybe we can help each other and..."

Wyatt spun around, his blue eyes blazing with bitterness and anger. "And maybe we can do what? And find what? My wife? My boy? They're gone! Probably just like your folks are." He started walking a few steps and sighed again when he realized she was still following him. "Look, nothing personal kid, but look at ya. First sign of trouble you're just gonna cut and run."

She glared at him. "Nothing personal but when we found you you were in a tin box! You don't know me! C'mon Glitch, we'll find the way ourselves."

The kid had spirit, he had to give her that but she had no idea what she was getting herself into. "The way? The way leads through the Fields of the Papay." If that didn't scare her, nothing would. He knew the Western guild like the back of his hand and it was no place for a kid and headcase to go trapising through on a whim.

"Papay..." Ambrose whispered in fear.

At least the convict is using his brain. What little he has left of it anyway, Wyatt thought.

Glitch shook his head in warning. DG threw up her hands in disgust. "What! I've been tossed into a storm, trussed up by lawn gnomes, chased by madmen on horseback. How bad can Papays be?"

What the hell were lawn gnomes? You asked for this.

"I've seen 'em gnaw people in half inside thirty seconds," Wyatt answered. He rolled his eyes and expelled a frustrated sigh. Neither one of them would make it out there without his help. He could almost hear Adora scolding him to the netherworld and back if he left them to their own devices. "Zipperhead, keep your mouth shut. Kid, you stay behind me," he ordered.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" she asked softly.

"Believe me, heart's got nothing to do with it," he mumbled. DG stared after him as he walked away. What had made him want to go with them then?

He probably feels obligated since you let him out.

Let him. He could grump and grouse the whole way to Central City but she didn't care as long as they found her parents.

"Psst!"

Glitch was motioning for her to follow. She hurried after them. What an odd group they made: a waitress from Kansas, a man with a zipper on his head and half his brain missing and a grouchy ex-tin box resident who looked more like an old west gunslinger. One thing was sure, she'd sure have some interesting stories to tell once she got back home...if she ever got back home.

There was something oddly familiar about the kid but Wyatt couldn't place it...even if he wanted to. She didn't dress like anyone from the OZ and would have known to avoid the Zipperhead if she was.

Now if I can just avoid her...

He could feel her trying to reach out to him but he couldn't let her in. He couldn't let anyone in anymore. Everyone he ever cared about was taken away from him and died a violent death. No, as soon as they got to Central City he was getting the hell away from her and not looking back!

As they were walking through the field Wyatt suddenly stopped and kneeled down tracing a patch of dirt with a stick, a memory coming back to him.

You have now accquired the dragon's tracking skills. Your eyes will see beyond what is visible, hear beyond silence and smell from a distance. Look and tell me what occured here.

He and the Mystic Man were standing in a field, Wyatt kneeling on the ground, his hands touching a spot of dirt.

"You came through here about two hours ago...but started dragging your left leg when your gout kicked in."

"Very good. What else?"

He caught the faint scent of jasmine perfume and something else that made him scowl at his tutor. "You and Marie were heading southeast to The Raven's Nest. What did I tell you about using booze as a painkiller?"

"I only had a small nip."

"More than one and your chewing on mint leaves isn't hiding it from me. When we get back to the manor I'm going to tear your room apart until I find all the bottles you've been hiding..."

Wyatt smiled as the memory once again helped him connect with his inner dragon for the first time in years. "Footprints. Only a few hours old." He caught the faint scent of drying blood. "One of them's hurt. Right leg's dragging."

DG was astounded. She hadn't seen a damned thing yet he was able to pick up all that just by looking at a patch of dirt. "That's my dad! One of those guys shot him," she exclaimed.

"Hey, kiddo!" Wyatt called as he lept to his feet and tossed the stick away. "A little heads up before you lose yours: runners hate water. Probably why they smell so bad." He looked over at Glitch too. "So keep your noses peeled. When it's time to run, you'll know."

"My sinuses are flaring..." Glitch whispered in fear.

Although Wyatt couldn't see any runners in sight he still kept his hand on his holster, ready to fire. DG spotted something blue and slimy on a nearby tree. "What is that?"

"What's what...ahh don't touch that! Its a predigestive enzyme Papay runners use to tenderize their meat. C'mon, let's go."

DG could see what looked like a gigantic cocoon with an animal trapped inside on one of the other trees. She and Glitch walked over to it. Wyatt was frustrated. The Fields of the Papay were not a place to go exploring unless you were looking to explore options on how to become the main course of a Papay banquet.

Damn kid. Can't leave well enough alone.

"There's someone in there!" DG cried as she leaned down, hearing a male voice groaning as he thrashed about.

"An advance hunter party must've snared it. We better get out of here before their friends get back."

"We can't just leave him here!" DG protested.

How can you be so cold? You who spent so many years trapped, left alone to die! Are you honestly willing to do that to someone else?

"You snatch a dinner from a runner, you best be prepared to become its replacement. Let it be," Wyatt cautioned.

I'm not leaving him here.

"But the poor thing must be scared to death..." she said softly.

"All right. Come on. Let's go." Wyatt said firmly.

Not without him. I don't care what you say, we're not leaving here until we get him out.

"Hey, can I borrow your razor?" she asked and held out her hand with a sly grin on her face. Their eyes met in a silent clash of wills.

Hand it over.

You're not backing down from this are you?

No, I'm not now give me the damned razor!

Stubborn brat!

Cold hearted bastard!

She was still smiling when against his better judgment he reached into his pocket and took out the razor. Instead of giving it to DG, he opened the blade and made a long slash in the Papay runner's trap, freeing the creature inside. The creature jumped to his feet and roared at them. Wyatt wasn't in the least bit afraid of a Viewer trying to act tough but seeing the kid back away from it, sheer terror in her eyes, was pissing him off. He pulled his gun out and pointed it at the viewer.

"You want that bad attitude dripping out of your ears?" he threatened. The viewer instantly cowered.

Ooooh, why am I suddenly having an image of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry in my head? I'm half expecting him to say: "Do ya feel lucky?" or "Go ahead make my day, punk."

Unfortunately at that moment the Papay runners decided to make their presence known and for a greeting one of them bit Wyatt on the back of his leg. He howled in pain and fired a single shot to the beast's head, killing it instantly. Shouting at the others to run he tried to hold them off with his pistol but he was running out of bullets, having to stop and reload. He may not have wanted the company on his own trip to Central City but he wasn't about to let the kid get eaten either.

DG, Glitch and Raw found themselves at the edge of cliff with the river below them. "Wrong turn!" Glitch exclaimed.

"Go!" Wyatt shouted.

"But the fall might kill us!" Glitch protested.

"Well they definitely will!" Wyatt hollered back as he kept firing.

You got any better ideas, Zipperhead or should I just wait around to collect the body parts?

The viewer took one look back and made his decision. He leaped off the cliff while a terrified Glitch and DG watched. Wyatt took off his hat and grabbed Glitch and DG. They jumped together, Glitch and DG screaming all the way.

This hurts worse than going off the high dive at the pool!

DG cried as her body hit the water.

"...She searches through the east." Lylo was saying after he was once again connected to the viewing tank, the locket Zero had discovered in his hands.

"Looking for what?"

"Love. For those she loves."

"We need to go DG! The Longcoats are after you." Bastinda heard the cyborg Hank saying to the young girl before they jumped into the storm.

"DG! Get a shovel." Bastinda and Zero went out to the family plot and Zero began digging into the grave that was supposed to be the final resting place of the child she'd murdered years ago and opened the coffin to find it empty, playing her part as Azkadellia perfectly. She clapped her hands together and appeared inside Lavinia's prison.

"You lied to me. She's alive. How could you do such a terrible thing? Well, it won't work, you know. She's still a child." Bastinda raged.

"She's here, isn't she? In the OZ?"

"Tripping over her pigtails as she wanders in circles."

"Oh, thank the stars!"

"What else do you have planned? Hmm?"

"Nothing, I there is no plan."

"My prison is obviously a little too comfortable for you." Bastinda snapped her fingers, making it rain. Lavinia hugged herself in a vain attempt to keep warm.

"I'll send out my best spies," Zero said once she reappeared in her throne room.

"No." I'll send out mine.

DG felt someone reaching out for her and found herself in Wyatt Cain's arms, her hands clutching his shoulders, Glitch behind him.

"You okay kiddo?" he asked.

"Y...Yeah," she gasped. "Those guys were even uglier than Xenomorphs!"

"What?"

"Nothing," she mumbled and broke away from him when she felt him tense. The Alien movie reference would have sounded like a foreign language to him. Judging by the scenery so far, she doubted they had movies in the OZ, or anything else modern. They swam to shore and found the viewer sitting on a log, barely moving.

Wyatt led a shivering DG over to a small rock and sat her down while he gathered up some wood and started a small fire with the flint and steel kit he carried in his duster.

"You sit here and warm up. I'll be right back."

She stood up. "Where are you going?"

"We'll need more wood if we'll be here a while," he said.

"I can't believe we survived...that!" she cried as she walked toward the lake, her eyes wide with fear.

"Those runners would've done worse, kiddo. Go on. Last thing we need is for you to get sick." He started up the hill.

"I don't ever want to do that again!" Glitch cried as he covered himself with his torn overcoat.

"Me neither. Hey, you want to come closer to the fire? Warm up?" she asked the viewer when she was sitting in front of the fire again.

"Should've left me to die..." he mumbled.

"Oh great. A basketcase," Glitch said sarcastically.

No, just lonely and afraid, DG thought as she approached him. She reached out and touched him. he tried to back away, growling softly. Suddenly he took hold of her arm. Glitch jumped up with Wyatt coming up behind him, both of them ready to do what it took to protect her. Wyatt drew his pistol.

"Stay right there!" he warned.

DG held up a reassuring hand. "It's okay...we're all friends here."

The viewer took her hand in his, her memories flowing through him. He could see her parents, feel how much she missed them. In her heart he saw something else, something that she didn't know but only he would see.

Once he loved me with all of his heart

But a dark curse has taken hold of us and torn our love apart

Destined mates are we

With your help we must unlock that memory

For the only way for this curse to be undone

Is for our two hearts to become one

The viewer was taken further into the depths of DG's heart memories and saw her, two years younger with the man who now held a pistol on him, both of them in agony as they were being separated. He heard another voice speak to him.

In seven days the double eclipse will darken the sky

Do not let this chance of salvation pass us by

Awaken for now the time has come

For you to leave this place and seek out the two that must become one

This is your task and you must not fail

For the OZ can only be saved by the light and love born in the union of Cain and Gale

"You are sad. Miss mother, father. They miss you." he said softly. The other information he'd gleaned from her heart he was forbidden to tell her.

"My name's DG, what's yours?"

He picked up a stick and wrote his name in the dirt.

"Raw. Well, it's certainly to the point." Glitch said. The viewer glared at him.

DG noticed a bruise on the back of his head. "You're injured."

A memory flashed through Wyatt's mind. He saw himself strapped onto a table with probes running from his brain and heart to a device where this very viewer was connected, trying to uncover secrets he was willing to die to protect.

"He's a viewer," he explained.

"Viewers are like psychics. Instead of seeing with their minds, they see with their hearts," Glitch added while Wyatt walked away. The last thing he wanted was a viewer tagging along with them, especially one that had been used to try to get him to tell the witch what he knew. "Azkadellia abducts his kind. Gets her alchemists to suck the second sight right out of their heads." He touched the bruise on Raw's head.

"He could be a big help," DG suggested.

Out of the question! You do not want these things poking around in your head!

"Look, I don't know where you came from but if you have any interest in staying alive in the OZ you better get one fact straight real fast. Trust no one!" Wyatt advised and groaned with pain as he fell over. Glitch rushed over to his side and pulled back his duster to reveal the bite marks from the Papay runner.

"Let's hope those runners don't have fang pox!" Glitch panicked.

DG gazed at the bite marks, terrified. All this time he'd been injured too and kept quiet about it? Stubborn man! What if those runners did carry some sort of disease? They had nothing to treat it.

Raw kneeled down beside him. "Heal wound. Soothe."

Wyatt began to protest knowing well what would happen the moment the viewer touched him but when he saw the girl pleading silently with her eyes to let him help, Wyatt gritted his teeth and muffled the sounds of pain that threatened to escape.

Raw could see images of him fighting off armies of Longcoats, a loving father to his son, a devoted husband to his wife, a loyal bodyguard to his employer and a dedicated policeman. His heart, protected by a strong lock forged by magic opened slowly revealing a secret only he was permitted to see. It was the same image he'd seen in the girl's heart...lovers torn apart.

Through my mistake was our bond undone

Now we are two when we should be one

Her forgiveness I must now earn

To make a single flame between us burn

I am the lock, she is the key

Uncovering lost memories is the only way to set us free

"Brave man...good man...Tin Man." Raw murmured.

"Oh, I might've known you were a Tin Man. well, with that attitude!" Glitch scoffed.

"What's a Tin Man?" DG inquired.

"It's what they call policemen in Central City. At least I think it is."

"You're a cop?"

Why am I not shocked that my travelling guide happens to be this place's version of Elmer Gulch?

"I was. Until Zero found out I was part of the resistance. You saw the rest," Wyatt panted. He looked down at his leg. It was actually starting to feel better. "Thanks," he said to Raw while DG helped him stand up. "I picked up your parents' trail to the west."

Perched in a nearby tree was the mobat demon Zora, her orders clear, track DG and Wyatt Cain. Now that the witch knew DG was alive and that Cain was with her it was time for her destroyer to act. The demon flew back to the castle and handed the witch a branch from a tree.

"She's near the Fields of the Papay." She didn't tell him about Cain yet. He would find out soon enough. The man was itching to put an end to his nemesis. Once Zero was out of sight, the witch gazed out at the sky, her lips curling into a sneer.

"Enjoy the presence of your precious heart while you can. My destroyer will crush him until he is nothing but dust under his toes."

They'd been walking for a while. The others were exhausted but now that he was feeling better, Wyatt wanted to keep moving.

"How about a pit stop Cain," Glitch asked.

"No time."

"Oh, come on Tin Man! Have a heart! I'm a thinker not a hiker."

Not much of anything except a complainer right now, are ya?

"Yeah, we could all use a rest," DG spoke up.

No matter how hard he tried, every damned time that kid turned her pleading blue eyes on him he couldn't resist giving in. And he hated it. Hated her for making him too weak to stand up to her.

What the hell is it about her that she makes me obey her like a damned dog to its master?

DG suddenly seemed interested in a small statue Glitch was resting on. She closed her eyes and saw herself drawing it and even adding the words Central City underneath it and her father's words just before she was tossed into the storm.

"All of life's answers are found along the old road..." she murmured.

Wyatt turned around. "Did you just say 'old road'? That's what the locals call the brick road. I thought you said you'd never been here before?" he asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"I haven't been here before...but I know this place," she said as she started running down the road.

Haven't been here my ass. What else are you hiding?

His Tin Man instincts now at work, he chased after her bound and determined to get answers whether she wanted to give them to him or not.

DG ran down the hill, shocked when she saw another image from her drawings...a sign for Milltown, her parents' home. "All my dad's stories. My parents were from here!"

"What happened here?" Glitch asked softly as they surveyed a once beautiful town now in disrepair.

"Milltown's been erased. Azkadellia's term for cleansing history," Wyatt replied, worried when he noticed a sign with a skull on it crossed out with a red x and the letters NHA under it. "Uh oh...we shouldn't be here. No humans allowed. DG!" he cried.

"What?" she asked, holding up her hands in surrender.

Doors opened and people who looked more like they belonged on the set of

Terminator

than a town started coming out. Although they had human skin, various robotic parts poked out through the flesh.

"Hey guys...we were just passing through!" Glitch exclaimed nervously and kept repeating himself until Wyatt smacked him in the chest.

"

Shut the hell up

," he muttered under his breath.

Another door opened a man who looked like a giant floating kettle came out. The only thing human about him was his head and shoulders.

"Stoke the pyre!" he commanded.

"Pyre...can we talk about this?" Glitch pleaded.

"Azkadellia's invaders must be made an example of," the kettlebot declared.

"What? This is ridiculous I don't even know this Azkadellia!" DG protested. The bot looked at her.

"You who spoke, what is your name?"

"DG."

"Your voice patterns are familiar."

"I've never been here before."

"Hey don't let him confuse you baby girl, he's just a crazy old cyborg!" Hank called out as he and Emily emerged from a house nearby.

"Dad!" DG screamed and rushed into their outstretched arms.

What the hell?

Wyatt glanced at Glitch and Raw. How did two cyborgs have a human child...or was she one of them? Still he wasn't about to interrupt their reunion.

DG felt as if her whole world was crashing down around her. Her parents were not her real parents at all but robots and she was actually from this odd looking world. Hank and Emily explained that the dreams she'd been having were signs that she had to return and find her real mother.

"What about the rest of it?" she demanded.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"You know damned well what I mean! What really happened to me after prom night, Mom? All everyone ever told me was that I was having hallucinations but they weren't...were they? I saw something from here and instead of telling me the truth, you made it look like I was crazy!"

"We were just trying to protect you..." Emily protested.

"Just tell me the truth now, Mom. Please," DG begged. "Does what happened to me on prom night have anything to do with this?"

"We're not sure," Hank spoke up. "It's possible someone else other than your mother tried to contact you."

"Who was it?"

"It was a man. That's all we know. You kept saying that you would find him." They decided it was best not to mention the rest of what she said.

Find my prison and release me.

DG suddenly felt the ground spinning as she recalled the male voice she'd been hearing recently. She hadn't heard that strange voice since she'd released Mr. Cain from the suit. Was it possible?

"It was him..." she gasped.

"Who, honey?"

"T...The man I'm travelling with, the one with the hat. I found him trapped in a tin suit. I was having dreams where I heard a man calling to me, telling me to find his prison and let him out. I always ended up at a cottage...a cottage that looks

exactly

like the one he lived in before he was locked up!"

Emily and Hank looked at each other. The man in question was at least twice DG's age yet the things she was saying while she was in a delirium suggested they were lovers.

"Why is he with you?"

"I asked him to take us to Central City to find you. He's an ex-Tin Man."

"Then he's protecting you?" Hank asked.

"Not happy about it, but yes."

They took her to see the kettlebot whom they called Father Vue. As he played a video of his meeting with her mother she was shocked when she recognized the woman from her dream.

"Upon your return, your mother tasked me to give you something." Father Vue imprinted the House of Gale symbol back on her hand. "She wants it to guide you on your journey. Let it connect you to the light. Connect you to her.

Wyatt burst through the door. "Longcoats are coming! We're running out of time." He looked out the window to see Zero riding up with a group of men.

"Where can I find my mother?"

"I know not," Father Vue answered. "But there is a man in the Central City who has all the answers. He's smart, magical, powerful. Some even say he's a wizard."

"The Mystic Man!" Wyatt declared.

"Yes!"

"You know him?" DG inquired.

"I worked his protection detail for a time. He's a good man. C'mon!" Wyatt said urgently. He felt guilty when he had to make her goodbyes to the nurture units a quick one but if Zero caught her, there was no telling what he'd do. They ran out of the house and took refuge in the woods.