Chapter Fifty-Four: Reminiscing
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The puppets left the kitchen and were in the old dining room where one of their past masters had dead psychics at the dinner table, taking their time back to the attic room. Tunneler wanted to remain in the kitchen to help out the mice and rats but he was dismissed, the head nurse saying they had everything under control. So, he wandered around with his brothers, going over everything the brother had said.
"I don't really like coming in here." Jester said. "It still gives me the creeps."
"So you didn't forget them, either, huh?" Blade asked.
"How could we? It's hard to when their faces are the last things we see before killing them." Tunneler said.
"It's not like they were exactly good people anyway." Pinhead said. "Even Neil's wife eventually turned against us."
"Such a shame too. We don't get many female masters." Blade said.
"You know, I think you hang around the brother too much." Jester said with a chuckle.
"S'pose I am." Blade chuckled. "You know what else?" he asked.
"What?" Jester asked.
"We've never been sent out to kill anyone. Just these totems. We've been with the two brothers for six months now and we haven't killed a single soul." Blade said.
"That's right. But then again, the brothers can take care of their own business." Pinhead said.
"Yeah, remember one of the brother's hobbies was a Mob Boss?" Jester asked Blade.
"Yes, I do remember that." Blade answered.
"The brother's a Mob Boss? Really?" Pinhead asked.
"Yeah, what do you know about them?" Blade asked.
"Mob Bosses are like hard-core top-gun criminals." Pinhead said.
"Like a puppet master?" Blade asked.
"Yeah, like a-" Pinhead began but stopped abruptly when Blade said that.
"But the brother said they frown upon puppetry." Jester said.
"Like I said, who knows what goes on in those brains of theirs. They say one thing but manage to mean another." Blade said. "The whole thing was giving me a headache so I left it alone."
"They are rather confusing, aren't they?" Tunneler said. "Putting a room where none is suppose to be."
"They hate humans yet take on human form." Pinhead said, adding to the list.
"They have a different definition for humans though and call the people Terrans." Jester said. "Maybe they have a different definition for the word puppets than what it usually means." he suggested.
"So, what other definition could the word 'puppet' mean for the two brothers other than what it usually means?" Blade asked.
The other three thought for a moment. "That is the question." Jester finally said.
"Well, the usual definition for puppets would be us, entertainment-wise." Tunneler said. "Another reason could be the way Albus Dumbledore manipulates people."
"Who?" Blade asked.
"Albus Dumbledore." Tunneler repeated.
"You know, the old man in the Harry Potter books." Jester said.
"Old man?" Blade questioned.
"Yeah, an old wizened wizard who believed in some prophecy about Harry being the Chosen One to defeat the bad guy." Jester said. ". . . Why do you ask?"
Blade tapped his fingers against his hook for a few seconds. "Who is Ginerva Molly Weasley?" he asked.
"Ginny Weasley, Harry's supposed wife. At least in the books she's his wife." Jester answered. "Why?" he asked.
"When the brother first entered Six's mind after we watched their old war movies, I heard him conversing with someone else. It was a one-sided conversation, but he did mention an old man who used children for his wars." Blade said.
"Sounds like Dumbledore." Jester said and started giving brief summaries of the books, focusing on the old man and answering Blade's questions the best he could.
"So this Dumbledore character used emotional black mail and guilt against Severus Snape to make sure he did his bidding?" Blade asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Jester said.
"Maybe that's the different definition the brothers meant about puppetry." Blade suggested.
"Could be, Emotion is the third level, isn't it?" Jester asked.
"Yeah, and the highest crime should you commit emotional harm." Blade said.
"What's the second?" Tunneler asked.
"Stupidity and Idiocy." Blade answered. "And with the examples the brother gave I agree with him."
"There's a difference?" Pinhead asked.
"Oh yeah, but I don't want to go into it, just thinking about it is giving me a headache." Blade said and rested against a window near the entrance doors. The same window he had spied through when Rick Myers used to live at the Inn. "So, the terms 'human' and 'puppetry' have different meanings for the brothers." he said, crossing his arms. "They don't like being called masters,"
"They haven't sent us out to kill anyone." Jester said.
"They don't call us puppets." Tunneler said.
"They gave us additional and useful skills." Pinhead said.
"They cured Six Shooter from a possessive girl demon." Blade said and chuckled when he remembered Six's reaction when he learned about that.
"And Torch has a brand new body and was given the chance to be loved and cared for." Jester said.
"Not only that, but the kid can go head to head with Six. The brother can scare him to death if he wanted to." Blade said.
"And the kid has trunks that have whole entire rooms inside them." said Tunneler.
"And he can talk to animals. One of his professions was an animal trainer, wasn't it?" Jester asked.
"Yeah, and he knows potions, chemistry, anatomy, is a doctor, an engineer, works in mechanics, knows his metals and can control the earth." Blade said.
"These brothers have been very kind to us compared to all of the other masters we've had." Jester said. "Father only referred to us as puppets when there were other people around." he added.
"He did, didn't he?" Pinhead said.
"He did?" Blade asked.
"Oh, that's right, you're the second youngest out of all of us. I keep forgetting that." Jester smiled and squeezed Blade in a hug.
"So who's the oldest?" Blade asked in a grunt. The hug caught him by surprise and he had the air squeezed out of him.
"Uh, . . ." replied Jester.
"Me and Jester are roughly the same age." Pinhead said.
"The brother said Six was the first born brother." Tunneler said.
"Yes, but he was also with the Retro Puppets so his body could have been remade." Blade said.
"Still makes him the oldest." Tunneler said.
"How do you know?" Pinhead asked.
"Because I was also with the Retro Puppets." Tunneler answered. "I was Drill Sergeant."
"Say what now?" Blade asked, still being held by Jester.
"I don't want Six to know, ok? Andre gave me a different name and different clothes when he re-made me. I was also there when Six's magic was bound." Tunneler said.
"Why would Father bind Six's magic? Did he know how to do that?" Jester asked, still hugging Blade.
"No, I couldn't see who it was, but I do remember a voice very much like the brother's talking to Andre." Tunneler said. "As for binding Six's magic, it was because he tried to take us over. He muttered a spell that made us obey him instead of Andre and he nearly had us kill Andre so he could be turned into a puppet as well."
The other three gasped at this.
"But Blade and Dr. Death stopped him before we did any harm to Andre. Though in order to do so, me, Pinhead and Cyclops had to fight them. Cyclops was taken out first, Six striking him in the face and removing his head. Pinhead snuck up behind Six and bound his arms giving the rest of us the time to fight him off. Six kicked me away, and managed to wrestle Pinhead off, and then had Blade and Dr. Death stab each other. Blade and Dr. Death had done damage to Six, cutting four and a half of his arms off. And then Six shot Pinhead in the neck and me in the back." Tunneler said and sat down on a table's limb.
"Cor," Jester breathed.
"I thought Six would recognize me once he woke up in his new body and try to attack me again, but Andre spun a lie saying I was a slave in the salt mines he'd befriended before I 'died' and put my soul into the newly Drill Sergeant design, calling me Tunneler to connect with the salt mine lie. But I was in a military uniform. I got promoted, I guess." Tunneler chuckled softly.
"From Sergeant to Colonel, eh?" Jester smirked.
"Yeah," Tunneler smiled and brought his hands up to his face and started crying over the loss of his old friends.
The other three gave him a hug to help ease his grief.
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