Malcolm
When the dust cleared, Roy was kneeling, hugging his son. The cell laid around their feet in a million pieces, and for a moment, all was quiet and peaceful.
Then the alarms began to sound. Walls appeared along the corridor, sealing them in.
"Now you've done it!" yelled Sketchbook. She tugged angrily at her face. Hooking a few of her fingers under her left eye, she tore off a strip of paper from the eye to the bottom of her face, screaming in pain and anger. Tony watched with horror as the strip gently floated to the ground.
"Stop, you're hurting yourself!" Tony reached out a hand, but Sketchbook swatted it away.
"You made me fail a direct order from Emperor Shrignold! King Malcolm will have my cover for this!" she shrieked, beginning to grasp at her right eye as well.
Suddenly the alarms stopped. Her grip loosened from her face and her eyes began to glow red.
"I am...disappointed." The voice was calm. Though it was emanating from Sketchbook it was clearly not hers. Tony had no doubt who it belonged to.
"Nonetheless, I suppose you simply don't understand yet, but I can fix that. Follow her, she will lead you." There was a pause. "And don't even think about disobeying, or she will tear herself to shreds." Sketchbooks eyes returned to normal, and she sunk to her knees. Tony approached cautiously.
"Sketch, you… alright?"
She looked up quickly, her eyes glistening, her face embedded with an all too familiar smile. "I have been forgiven." she sighed. "Come along now, we must go." She got to her feet, kissing Tony gently on the cheek before turning to one of the walls, which disappeared before her.
Tony wiped his cheek gently. He was still annoyed with Sketchbook's brainwashed antics, but he was glad she wasn't freaking out any more.
He followed her with uncertainty, with Yellow Guy and Roy trailing behind. None of them wanted to follow her, but all of the other walls had sealed off, and Sketchbook's life was in forfeit if they disobeyed. They had no choice.
The walls disappeared before them, and reappeared behind them. Finally one of the walls opened to the outside. It had grown dark during their time in the building, the sky now a more of a deep purple. Outside was a alleyway lined with a tall barbed wire fence. On the other side was another, much smaller building.
Sketchbook stopped suddenly. "I'll lose my legs when I go outside." she turned to Tony and batted her eyelashes. "Carry me."
Tony took a step back, uncertain on what to do. They could not progress without Sketchbook, but he did not want to be subjected to carrying her in her current state. Roy glanced between them. Between his knowledge of the talking objects and what he had learned from his time on Himeros, it didn't take him long to silently connect the dots. He stepped forward and picked up Sketchbook, moving beyond the outside barrier before she could object.
"Fine." she pouted as her legs disappeared. She turned to grin at Tony. "But I'll get you yet my sweetie!"
Tony shivered, not just from the cold. It was a long silent walk to the other building, and Tony dreaded to see what was inside this one. If Shrignold was so adamant to get them there, it was probably not a good sign. Several times, Tony found his eyes drawn to Sketchbook, but he always regretted looking at her. If she caught him looking, she would give him a 'cute' wink. If she didn't, Tony would see what remained of the left side of her face blowing in the wind. Both sights filled him with disgust, and guilt.
Far too soon, they reached the other side of the alleyway. Roy carried Sketchbook forward so she could touch the building. Unlike in the others, the door did not simply disappear, but instead noisily lifted with the grinding of pulley and gears. Once they were inside, the door crashed down behind them.
The room was dimly lit, and Tony squinted to try to make out the shape in the distant darkness. Suddenly the entire room lit up at once. Everyone except Sketchbook shielded their eyes from the intense yellow light. A single ancient intercom speaker crackled to life, the calm and frighteningly gentle voice of Shrignold echoing through.
"Welcome, to Malcolm's throne room!"
Across the room on a there was a few stairs up to a small stage, on top of which sat Malcolm. The stone head was idly chewing on a mouthful of gravel, and paying no heed to the four newcomers. He didn't even look at Sketchbook who, with her legs returned, had jumped from Roy's hands and flopped face first on the ground in front of him.
"Get up, Shrigbook, and sit on Malcolm's stairs." Sketchbook obliged, crawling up a few steps and sitting contentedly.
"Now for the rest of you." said Shrignold nonchalantly, as if he had done whatever this was many time before (and in deed he had).
All of the lights in the room turned red, causing the remaining trio's eyes to squint again. They turned yellow once more, then back to red. Yellow, red, yellow, red... The pattern continued. Tony realised that the rapidly changing light was starting to leave dark imprints in his eyes, like cloudy black smoke.
In an unusual turn of events, Malcolm actually took notice of the changing lights, grunting along with the rhythm. Yellow (grunt), red (grunt), yellow (grunt), red (grunt).
Tony's eyes widened with fear when he realized what this was. It was a pattern, a rhythm, four beats in a measure of a song, the beating of a heart, the ticking of a clock. The pattern, the rhythm.
The only way to fight was to break from the rhythm. Tony did the first thing that came to mind.
"Time is a tool you can put on the wall, or wear it on your wrist!" He made an effort to sing just a little bit faster than the tempo of the room, creating a momentary disconnect between the two. He continued to sing as he tried to quickly think up some way for them to escape. The large door behind them was shut tight, and judging by the complicated rigging system, I was likely very heavy.
Then there was Sketchbook. He would have to try and grab her before they left, and he couldn't even convince his feet to move. He reached out in her direction, but she didn't seem to acknowledge him. He had to save her, she had followed him into this mess in the first place. He just wanted to be back home, he wanted to be sipping tea in the living room, or annoying Red Guy, or sitting on the porch watching the sunset kissing Sketchbook, doing anything, being anywhere but…
He paused in his thoughts. Watching the sunset with Sketchbook? Yes he had done that, but now that he thought about it, he didn't recall kissing Sketchbook afterwards…
He snapped out of his thoughts in a panic. "Time...can...be...told...by..."
He was still singing, but somewhere along the way he had began singing in the much slower tempo of the room. It was starting to get to him, it was affecting his memories. Long walks on the beach, swinging in the park, watching a romantic movie, all with Sketchbook. Things that his fading logic told him had never happened. He had to do something to distract himself.
"Reh Reh Reh!" he began to yell, a last ditch attempt at defiance. "Reh Reh Reh!" The black smoke covered most of his eyes, the only thing still visible was Sketchbook, who smiled warmly at him. "REH REH REH!"
Soon his yelling began to slow down. It was over, his last bit of defiance draining. He looked once again at Sketchbook. "Look how beautiful she is, how I l-love her…"
Somewhere behind him, Roy yelled something to Yellow Guy, though Tony didn't catch it. He felt someone grab his hand, and then he felt his body being sliced to pieces by cold shards of ice.