Disclaimer, the usual.
It had quickly been agreed on that having Lady Cassandra around would be a decent course of action to take. What they did not except was for her to show up with Emma, as they had not mentioned her in the letter that they had sent her.
"She said it was an emergency, so I came." Emma said with a giggle as she looked around, "and boy is that not an understatement."
It didn't take either of them long to learn the whole story of what had happened. The first thing Lady Cassandra did was to go and take a look at the barrier around Ozma's bed. Alex, Ozma, Polly and Dorothy recounted the story of how they got Ozma out of it. She chuckled, to them this meant one of two things. One that she had seen this kind of thing before. Or two, that they had all missed something terribly obvious. Though in this case it had probably meant both. Emma had been partaking in the events by doing the same thing that the Imp did, going through thoughts. Alex and the Beasts were the most disorganized so she spent some time trying to piece things together.
"Well, for starters, you at least got something right." Cassandra said as she poked at the barrier with her stick.
"And that is?" Alex asked curiously.
"that this barrier is some kind of fairy magic" Cassandra replied dragging her walking stick across the surface of it, "Cloud or sky fairy if I'm not mistaken." She added turning to Polly.
"Yes, the Beast and I had rather assumed that, based off some of the books in the western castle." Alex said pointing to his double who was leaned against the back wall, "We just weren't sure which."
"Is there any way to dispel it?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Oh yes, but that requires some older magic, magic that none of you are qualified to do." Cassandra said turning and hobbling towards the door.
"which I assume you'll try to teach us next year at the university?" Alex asked curiously.
Cassandra stopped and turned to look at them, and she did something they all felt that she never really did. She grinned, it made Alex and the Beast feel rather uneasy.
"what made you accept?" Cassandra asked curiously.
"there are a few factors involved." Alex and the beast said in unison.
"being here on a more permanent basis being one of them I'm sure." Cassandra said looking at the beast.
"well, that was part of it." Dorothy admitted, "but there are other things, but this discussion is best left for another time."
Emma, had taken to looking at Dorothy's thoughts now. As far as that was concerned, she found Dorothy's reasons behind accepting the invitation rather well thought out. But she agreed this discussion was best left for later. She had learned how to read thoughts from her mother, and she had felt that she was putting that skill to a good, and what she considered rather secretive use.
Eventually they all found themselves in the chambers again. Cassandra had conjured a table, a pot of ink, and a quill pen. On orders, Alex brought a large sheet of paper from Scarecrows workshop. Immediately Cassandra set to working on the calculations. She explained that it would take a few hours and she needed quiet. the Imp promised to see to that, and sent everyone out of the chambers.
They went to Madeline's room where she seemed to be working on some calculations of her own. Though she wouldn't admit to what it was.
"And there's no use in trying to read my thoughts Emma." Madeline said teasingly.
"What?" Emma asked curiously.
"Emma, I could feel you poking at Dorothy's thoughts, I can feel it when the Imp is doing it as well." Madeline said looking up from her work, "you may think you're being clever but that is an invasion of privacy."
"All things considered Mads, because of you, Dorothy can't really have any privacy." Alex said rather pointedly.
"She could block me out any time she wanted, she has done so many times, usually unintentionally." Madeline said turning on her stool to look at them
"Emma, were you reading all of our thoughts?" Polly asked curiously and worriedly.
Emma shook her head
"no, just Dorothy and Alex's" she said reassuringly, "and I guess the Hatter's in a way." She added with a shrug.
"Emma, if you're going to do things like that, could you at least ask first?" Dorothy asked curiously, "it feels weird to say this but I have to side with Maddie, it may seem clever, but some people might find it offensive."
"Who taught you to do that anyways?" Alex asked curiously,
"Mother, some time ago, she decided I was old enough to learn." Emma said with a grin.
"I'd advise keeping that to yourself." Madeline suggested, "it's a useful power to have, ill grant you that, but it can also be dangerous if someone else finds out about it."
"though, it's not like the Imp isn't aware." Alex and the beast said in unison.
"Right." Ozma added, "the Imp has been going through our thoughts on a regular basis."
"I know." Madeline said with a nod "she's trying to see if, through looking through our thoughts she can come up with a decent plan of action."
"so far that plan has mostly been sticking to whatever you all agree on." Polly chimed in.
"yes, well, at least we've made some progress." Dorothy said as she plopped herself down in one of Madeline's many Arm chairs.
"Well, Fixing the two of us isn't exactly progress, it helps immensely, but we're a bit of a package deal, just like Alex and the Beast." Madeline said shrugging.
"well, we did learn one thing for certain." Ozma said turning to Polly, "and that's that we have a much better idea of what you are,"
"But we still have idea Who I am." Polly said sighing.
"well." The beast said cutting into the conversation, "What do we have so far?" he asked
"she's either a sky or cloud fairy, Glinda's great book says nothing about her, that book in my dresser doesn't either." Dorothy said starting to count off facts,
"her memory was purposely modified so she has no idea who she is, or even what she can do." Madeline added.
"and the rainbow mover malfunctioned massively as she arrived." Aislynn said coming into the room, "which it can be concluded that the rainbow mover was hijacked for the purposes of sending her here."
"but who would send a sky fairy through the ceiling of the medical wing?" Madeline asked with a giggle.
"I don't think that was intentional." Aislynn said shaking her head, "we were busy working on it again as it had started making a rather annoying rattling noise when switched on, the rainbow mover wasn't in peak condition so odds are they probably meant to put her in like, the chambers or something but lost control when the entire thing blew out." She added.
"but then why hijack the rainbow mover?" Polly asked curiously, "why put me through that?" she asked curiously.
"no clue…" Madeline said trailing off
"Emma?" Polly asked curiously and hopefully
"no." Emma said shaking her head, "that block is beyond my ability, "
Polly let out a sigh and plopped herself down on a sofa.
"Perhaps the Rainbow mover is the key in all this?" Aislynn suggested.
"how so?" Alex asked curiously.
"well, even though it was in a partially taken apart state, it was still usable." Aislynn said, "like had we wanted to, Dorothy could have safely used it to get to Kansas."
"and you would put money on that working?" Annabella yipped as she jumped on Dorothy's lap.
"yes, Annabella I would" Aislynn said assuredly.
Dorothy sighed and scratched Annabella behind the ears. For a wolf pup she was rather heavy, heavier than Toto by at least a few pounds. she had left her two pets at the manor to help Aislynn keep things afloat but with Aislynn here at the current time, she wondered how things were going there.
Back at Diggs manor.
Toto and Pockets were still keeping things running smoothly with those who had been changed into Animals whilst Aislynn was not around. They had help from Pockets' siblings and Eve, her mother. Betsy had mostly Acclimated at this point to her situation, sticking close to trot. Now, however the two were watching Zeb who was sitting in the parlor, working on some school work. He had isolated himself from the others, and no one was really sure why. He was just barely aware of his Cousin's pets sitting on the floor watching him, rather interested. When he did eventually notice them however, he looks back at them with as much interest as they were looking at him.
"have you two been standing there for a while?" Zeb asked curiously
Toto barked in confirmation.
"Why?" he asked.
Toto didn't answer he simply walked over to the chair Zeb was occupying and jumped onto his lap. Pockets followed suit and jumped onto to the arm of the chair.
"what?" he asked looking at them curiously.
"they're worried about you." Em said coming into the room with Eliza.
"Why would they be worried about me?" Zeb asked curiously.
"because you've done what Dorothy usually does when she's rather worried about something, you`ve isolated yourself and given yourself some busy work." Eliza said walking over and scratching Pockets behind the ears.
"what do I have to be worried about?" he asked curiously.
"I don't know, what do you have to be worried about?" Em asked walking over to Zeb.
"Auntie Em, please don't do any interrogations, you too Eliza." Came Dorothy's voice from a nearby mirror.
"how long have you been watching?" Zeb asked curiously,
"Long enough." Came Alex's voice as he came into view,
"Oh, right, did it work by the way?" Zeb asked curiously, quickly changing the subject
"Yes, Maddie and I are completely back to normal now, and protected." Dorothy said turning to look behind her for a moment, "Though I cant say I approve of what Maddie did whilst the spell was breaking." She added.
"what did she do now?" Em asked sounding a little bit concerned and annoyed,
"She began absorbing excess magical energy from me, then threw me into a dreamless sleep, followed by pulling me rather rapidly into the dreamscape." Dorothy said sighing, "I mean, on one hand my complaining isn't all that justified." She added.
"because while expelling magical energy like that, you've been known to have some pretty awful nightmares." Em said nodding.
"but on the other hand, in caused her a great amount of pain to do so." Dorothy added.
"and she did that for your benefit?" Eliza asked curiously.
"Both of ours, actually." Madeline said, appearing in the room causing everyone to jump in their usual way.
"Maddie, really?" Dorothy asked, now sounding annoyed.
Madeline giggled.
"why not?" Madeline asked teasingly.
Toto barked a few times drawing the attention of Madeline, Dorothy, and Alex.
"Ace and The Imp will be back once they find out if Emma can help with reversing the transformations on Scarecrow, Tin man, the China Princess and hopefully Marshall mallow." Alex said assuredly.
"You brought Emma in to help?" Eliza asked curiously.
"Well, we had been thinking about it," Alex said sighing, "Lady Cassandra beat us to it."
"in case we needed any more proof to believe that lady Cassandra knows more than she's actually letting on." Madeline said smiling, conjuring a cup of tea.
"Glinda and you fall into that category too." Alex said firmly.
"oh, I know." Madeline said winking at them.
"we're getting off topic though." Alex said trying to change the subject back, "Eliza, wanna come back to Oz, and bring Zeb with you?" he asked curiously.
"Zeb, you could use a break from this routine of yours" Em said walking over to him, "and what kind of aunt would I be if I didn't take an interest in your wellbeing?" she added placing a hand on his forehead.
"anyways, Why not?" Eliza asked curiously, as she turned to the mirror. "you sent me home to help ace, and now she's back in Oz with you guys, doing what exactly?"
"Well the imp at least is helping Cassandra work on a spell dispel the barrier 'round Ozma's bed." Madeline said taking a loud sip from her cup
"She's here with us." Dorothy said turning to look at her.
Well, how 'bout it, Zeb?" Eliza asked looking at him,
"does it really make a difference if I say yes or no?" Zeb asked curiously
"not even remotely." Madeline said the cup vanishing from her hand.
"just figured it was fair to give you the option" Eliza said pulling him to his feet and forcing Toto off of his lap.
Immediately Madeline placed a hand on both of their shoulders and in moments they were off. The mirror had faded leaving Aunt Em alone with Toto and pockets. She looked down at the two animals, and they stared back at her. She smiled and walked over to the chair Zeb had been using, picking up the work book, she marked Zeb's page with a pencil, shut it and set it on the coffee table.
"you know, I do have to wonder what was going through his head." She said sitting on a nearby couch and allowing toto and pockets to sit next to her,
Toto let out a whimper, one that Em knew incredibly well, it was one that showed concern. She knew Zeb was worried about something. Really everyone in the house knew it, but no one was quite sure what.
