So I figured I should start this the same way I started the notes for the 20 kisses fic:
*takes in enough air*
MY GRANDPARENTS BOUGHT ME A $600 LAPTOP!
*breathes again*
Unfortunately, I won't have a modem until tomorrow. I'll try to have this done by then, and hopefully a few more chapters of it done, too.
And now it's the next day and I should really get my ass in gear. Here's some shout outs before I start, though:
-To Suchan or whatever she decides to call herself this week, because she is awesome and writes awesome fanfiction even though the majority of it (all of it, really) is Zelda-bashing. She was one of the first great CB writers and I'm glad our friendship has survived three years through neither of us updating very much.
-unexpectedrevelations, for her M/Z stuff being much better than my first M/Z stuff. And for being fucking awesome at making me cry, particularly when I'm menstrual and emotional and watching sad parts of General Hospital.
-xx d o t for her amazing not-quite-crack pairings and for writing amazing M/Z stuff
-The Bunnies Will Kill Us All for giving me stuff to read when I'm on a sugar and/or depressed.
So, fic. Here you guys go, you earned it!
Chapter 5
Father's Keeper
Every Sunday morning at 5:30 AM sharp (or as Asa liked to call it, the "ass crack of dawn), Manfred descended his tower (because let's face it, his room is at the top of this fucking tower) to the grounds. He carried his switchblade with him, solemnly, as he crept behind the ruin. He wasn't meeting Asa, nor was he looking for trouble.
No, Manfred was going to practice.
He did not see his father upon entering the ruin, so he assumed that the man was having trouble getting out of bed. Manfred sighed as he thought about his father, who was getting to be considerably advanced in years.
Let's see…if I've just turned 19, then Father must be…fifty-four.
The number surprised him, as Harold looked much older. His poor dad…wait a minute.
A rock near the entrance was overturned. It had not been when he arrived, and he had made sure that he didn't disturb anything. The constant Sunday lessons with his father had made him either paranoid or extremely alert. He looked around but only had a split second before someone lunged at him. Manfred turned in the blink of an eye and grabbed Harold's earlobe, shoving the switchblade against his throat. Manfred was quick but Harold had experience. The younger Blood swore softly as he felt the cold blade creep up under his shirt, slicing it open. Manfred grunted, clearly annoyed, and pushed his father backwards, only with too much force, as he would learn in horror. Harold flew back and smashed his head and back against a wall.
"Father?" No movement.
"DAD!" Manfred roared, rushing to his father's aid. He regained his composure when he saw his father was seemingly unharmed.
"Father, are you all right?" He asked, trying to bite back the worry in his voice. Dr. Bloor was panting heavily as he sat up…no, crying…
"Dad?" He felt it was safe to let his guard down now as he watched his father cry.
"Manfred, I am going to tell you something that might rebuild everything that my wretched grandfather destroyed in you." Manfred nodded.
"I want you to forget Alveriola, OK? I married your mother for the wrong reasons and only grew to love her when it was too late. You and Zelda have something that Ezekiel thus far has not broken. I want you to take her and Asa and the twins and the boys and run. Ruby already has a safe place. Go stay with your mother for a while until she gets you a place to live. Then marry Zelda so that you guarantee your safety from your great-grandfather. Don't do what I did…don't make my mistakes…" His father, rambling now, was sweaty and delusional. Something was clearly, obviously wrong. The headmaster needed help. Badly. Manfred knew he couldn't move the man on his own. He closed his eyes to think. He could make a Pathfinding Spinner with the strength he had now. But would it be enough to keep his father warm in the cold December air?
"OK. This is easy. OK, let's make some fire." He could feel the panic monster crawling up his throat. He slammed his hand on the ground, where a small fire wheel began to spin. It began to pick up speed, and as Manfred looked at his hurting father, he cleared his throat of the emotion. If he couldn't move Harold on his own, he would have to find the one person that could help.
"Show me to Zelda." The coals stopped spinning and began to drop to the ground, forming words.
APARTMENT #571, CARLISLE APARTMENT COMPLEX, THE CITY.
Manfred rolled his eyes. At this ungodly hour, she would probably still be sleeping. It was Sunday, after all. So he would have the effect of poking a sleeping beast in the eye, essentially, which he has done before, and it didn't end pretty…
"Please, keep him warm while I'm gone." The hot embers circled around Harold as Manfred broke into a powerful run, knowing his long legs would be the only thing helping him get his father help. He ran through the city opposite the Cathedral. He was halfway to the Carlisle Apartment complex when he felt something warm hit him in the back of the head. He turned around angrily.
"What?" He asked irritably. The coals fell into place on the ground again.
INGLEDEW BOOKSHOP. He paused.
"Why?"
TALKING TO EMMA TOLLY
"Why?"
PEACE TALKS
"Paton Yewbeam, Emma's new uncle-in-law, killed her brother last month. Now that I think of it, all three of us have lost family in the last few months. Angelina went on a werewolf rampage and killed Beth's family and then lay down to die in…" His voice trails off as an incomprehensible lump begins to form in his throat.
"And then Damian last month…and…" He tries to clear the lump.
"And Gerard before them all. But yeah, Paton killed Damian."
ACCIDENT. THE BOY JUMPED IN FRONT OF EUSTACIA WHEN EUSTACIA WAS TRYING TO KILL JULIA INGLEDEW.
"He was trying to protect Zelda, who happened to be about two feet away!" Manfred felt kind of stupid arguing with his endowedment, which was really partly the good part of Borlath in fire form, but he knew had no time to lose.
IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH POOR EMMA. Manfred sighed, annoyed.
"Fine, whatever. But. One more thing. What's keeping my father warm, hm?"
CATS. THEY KNOW YOU WANT TO HELP. Manfred blinked back tears, understanding.
"Thank you." He turned the other way and sprinted toward the other end of the city. He rushed past the Cathedral…Lyell Bone with a blank look on his face and he wouldn't see his son again…the Pets' Café…the night Beth started staying with Zelda because Angelina Pike had found out about Gerard and slaughtered Beth's entire family outside the café and just lay there next to Gerard's bloody body in…the alleyway, the dark, depressing alleyway that no one goes near anymore because of the awful murders that took place there that night…Ezekiel had said that it was Gerard's choice, become a part of the family that had completely ignored him for sixteen years when his endowedment showed up…his plants…and Gerard chose to protect his Angelina, the only one that cared about him, and there he was with a hole in his stomach where Ezekiel had blasted him, lying in a pool of his own blood until Angelina arrives and rocks them both to eternal sleep…why was the bookshop so bloody hard to find? At last he finds it, and Zelda peers out the window down at him. She knew…she somehow knew he would be here. Oh, yes, her mother, the empath…Zelda had inherited both telekinesis and empathy. Somehow she knew Manfred was in a great amount of stress and pain and she had stayed up to wait for him. Seeing him, she rushed down the stairs to meet him.
"What's wrong, Manfred? Shh, shh, darling, stop, it's quite all right." Manfred had fallen into her arms, crying, but still marveling at the composure she kept. She had loved her brother so much and she was staying in the shop of the wife of the man who killed him…my God, she's so beautiful…
"My father…the ruin…delusional…you have to help!" Zelda nods.
"Take me to him. Is your great-grandfather awake yet?" Manfred can't answer, is sobbing, and this is the most vulnerable that Zelda's ever seen him.
"Calm." The one word rings in Manfred's ears and he knows that Zelda's presence, her command, the fact that she knows she has to be Cook's successor and uses her command of respect to help, has to relieve him at least a little bit.
"All right. No, Grandpa isn't awake yet, Zelda." Zelda closed her eyes and nodded.
"Well, all right then. You look extremely tired. I shall go ask Julia if we can borrow Paton's car." She quickly walks back into the shop for a few minutes that feel like a few hours to Manfred. Finally she walks out, dressed more appropriately, with Paton and Emma.
"They want to help, Manfred. Mr. Yewbeam suspects that your father has been hexed by your great-grandfather." Emma looks up at Manfred firmly.
"I can create a distraction." Manfred shakes his head.
"It's too dangerous, Emma." Emma crosses her arms angrily.
"Bollocks." Everyone is shocked at the language. "I'm plenty useful and if you want to help Dr. Bloor into the castle undetected I'm the only thing you've got right now. Uncle Paton is going to blow up the lights in the main hall so that Weedon is preoccupied, too. It's all under control." Manfred looks at the small girl in front of him. She's twelve, not much older than Zelda was she and Manfred met. He looks at the man in front of him, only seven years younger than his father but looking twenty years younger. And then he looks at the remarkable young woman standing by his side, her tussled hair and her face that has already had the etching from concern and worry. He knew that was who he had, and he trusted them.
"We need to go now."
Paton did about 90 in the city knowing that no one would be up so early on a Sunday. Down the street from Bloor's, he suddenly pulled over.
"Hey, man, why the hell did you stop?" Manfred asked angrily. Zelda squeezed his hand and he immediately apologized.
"We've stopped, young man, because this car is recognizable, and also obnoxiously loud." Paton sits back in the seat a minute.
"We'll walk down the road quietly and into the ruin. We probably won't be detected doing that. But just to make sure the youngest member of our rescue squad is safe…" He said, eyes lingering over his new niece, "I want Emma to turn into a raven now." Emma nodded.
"OK. It's something I haven't tried yet, but if I've managed a tollroc, this should be simple." Emma closed her eyes. She concentrated hard until she felt the release that usually meant she was a bird. Upon opening her eyes, she discovered that she was, indeed, a raven. Paton's eyes brightened.
"Positively Poe-like! Brilliant job, Emma." She bobbed her black head in appreciation.
"All right, now, my dear, feathered niece. I want you to go wake up old Ezekiel. I will go cause random chaos and debauchery in the Great Hall. That leaves you two," He looked firmly at Manfred and Zelda.
"To go rescue Harold. Bonne chance, mes amis." Manfred and Zelda nodded as they headed into the direction of the ruin and Paton headed in the other direction.
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"Zel." He said softly when they reached the exit to the ruin. He took her hand.
"If anything goes wrong I want you to run. Got it?" Zelda gave him an oddly determined look.
"I won't leave you here to end up like your brother, Manfred!" Manfred sighed exasperatedly.
"Zelda, you take care of all of us. You have ever since Cook's been too old to do it anymore. Imagine if we lost you. Where would Billy and Beth go? Who would all those girls come and talk to? Who would I…" He trailed off, biting his tongue.
"Say it." She said sharply.
"Who would I get married to?" Zelda punched him in the arm.
"Don't talk nonsense like that when it's very likely one or both of us won't see the end of this! Besides, Manfred, I'm only seventeen. I can't marry you now. I'm too young." She led the walk into the ruin Manfred wasn't disappointed…she was being realistic, of course, and she was absolutely right…
He couldn't help feeling sorry for himself.
They ran the ruin course backwards all the way to the entrance where his father lay babbling and delirious.
"I feel lost, Manfred. Your father is very lost. Probably a botched hypnotism." She closed her eyes. The emotion had been a bit much for her.
"Stop Empathizing. You'll hurt yourself! Just sit and rest for a few minutes."
"Manfred, no. I'm fine. Mr. Yewbeam only gave us a limited window of time. We need to get your dad help." She came to her senses and stared at Harold. She looked at him in utter concentration until, finally, the headmaster began to float, shakily.
"Don't strain yourself!" Manfred's voice shot through the air like a bullet, causing her to nearly lose balance.
"You're going to make me drop him!" She sounded furious.
"I'm not the little girl I was when I left Bloor's, OK? Just shut up and let me help your father." Manfred sighed, finally accepting his girlfriend's determination. Slowly, she carried Harold, who was now sobbing, out of the ruin. She gasped upon looking at the castle.
"Oh no…oh no…oh no…" She was going to cry.
"Zel, what's wrong?" Zelda gave a shriek of anguish and pointed up at the castle.
"Emma." She whispered.
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Emma was in a spot of trouble. She was dangling from a birdcage at the top of the tower. An old, gnarled hand was sticking outside the window holding some sort of poker. When he would poke her with it, it would shock her and she'd squawk. Zelda dropped Harold and fell to her knees, weeping bitterly.
"You sick bastard. You don't do that to a child…" Manfred grasped her shoulder. If he hadn't gotten a passionate telling-to from her in the ruin he would have reminded her that she, too, was a child. She stood.
"I need to do this." She looked into the windows of the Great Hall, which were flashing.
"So the Great Hall's a no go, and we can't use the tower entrance." Manfred stroked his chin slowly.
"Wait. I know a way."
He led Zelda around the castle to a cellar door poorly covered in sticks and leaves. Fumbling through his pockets, he suddenly realized that he hadn't carried the key to his brother's room (his cell) since he died. It wasn't as if he went to visit him ever. For sixteen years, since Manfred was three, he liked to pretend he didn't have a brother, especially after six years passed without any sign of an endowedment. He had never spoken to his brother until Ezekiel had found out that Gerard could manipulate plants and flowers. Gerard had used the grass outside his little coop to escape.
"Shit. I don't have the key. And there's no way we can get it."
"Well I guess we're shit out of luck, then." Manfred began to panic. Suddenly he heard glass breaking. Mr. Weedon had flown through the window onto the grounds.
"ZELDA! HURRY UP AND GET HAROLD UP TO HIS ROOM! OR BETTER YET, TO COOK!" Zelda acknowledged Paton, mustered up her strength, and bolted, Harold whizzing behind her. Manfred, beginning to lose sight of Zelda's bun, which had been falling out, started to sprint behind him. They managed to get into the castle and slam the door while Weedon was still disoriented, but Zelda didn't stop running. She bounded all the way to the blue kitchen.
"We need Cook! COOK!" She screamed. The woman walked out in a white and blue bathrobe.
"What's wrong? Oh my God, Dr. Bloor!"
"Please, Cook. Please take care of him while we go help Emma and Mr. Yewbeam." Cook nodded.
"OK, Zelda. Can you handle this on your own?" Zelda took the elder woman's hands.
"Yes, Treasure. I can do it. You should be able to relax now. Just do this one more thing for me and I promise I can take over and preserve the balance." Cook had tears in her eyes.
"All right, Zelda. Be careful. I will give you luck." Zelda had already taken off.
"You, too, young man. Don't make her a widow before you even marry." Manfred rolled his eyes and was off.
Manfred caught up with Zelda when she was half way up the stairs to Ezekiel's attic. Both of them were running frantically.
"Go help Mr. Yewbeam, Manfred! I'll deal with Ezekiel." Manfred knew, however, that he had this one chance to keep everyone safe, this one chance to personally destroy the man who destroyed his real family and was out to destroy the family he had created himself.
"Zel, I need to do this myself."
"But Man-"
"No, Zelda He tried to hypnotize my father. Go help Paton out. I'll be fine dealing with Granddad." Zelda looked at him worriedly.
"Fine." She turned around to rush to the Great Hall while Manfred continued ascending the stairs to Ezekiel's miserable room. Rage filled him to the top as he listened to his great-grandfather's cruel laughter and he kicked the door open.
"How dare you." He wanted to lunge at him, break the evil magician's face. "HOW DARE YOU HYPNOTIZE MY FATHER!" He screamed. He noticed that Matron Yewbeam was also in the room, and she turned Zeke around to face his great-grandson.
"He tried to meddle. He got his punishment. He's never done this before, and he's never been hypnotized. He most certainly won't do it again, so he won't be hypnotized again." He cackled madly.
"Right now the little birdie's getting hers, and shortly my dear brother and that little slut of a girlfriend of yours will pay dearly for destroying our Great Hall." They were both laughing now. Manfred was taking heavy breaths to prevent himself from punching his great-grandfather in the face. Ezekiel stuck his hand out the window again and Manfred suddenly remembered what he was really up there for.
"Let her go, Ezekiel! You're hurting her! That's child abuse. You know. That little term that could describe what you did to me when my mother left while my father looked on!"
"Tut, tut, great-grandson. This should be nothing compared to the mental pain you put her through for ten years." He shocked her again.
"I did those things because I was afraid of you. I was young. I was stupid. Part of me kind of enjoyed putting other things in pain because of how I was treated. Then Zelda left. You made her leave. Then you killed my brother. Now you've given my father permanent brain damage because he finally intervened in my life. SO NOW WHAT? DO YOU REALLY EXPECT ME TO LET YOU LIVE WHEN YOU MADE THE LAST NINETEEN YEARS OF MY LIFE A LIVING HELL? I AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU IN THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE! LET EMMA GO! IF YOU LET HER GO NOW I MIGHT WAIT A BIT LONGER TO LET YOU GET YOUR AFFAIRS IN ORDER OR WHATEVER THE HELL AN OLD IDIOT LIKE YOU HAS TO DO!" He bellowed.
"Temper, temper, Manfred. Of course I'll let her go. Wait a little bit longer. I will let the girl Emma Tolly go."
"Why can't you do it now, old man?"
"Because if I did that she could just fly to keep herself from falling to the ground completely. No, we're going to wait until she outgrows that little cage I put her in, then we'll let her go."
"I can't believe you. I can't believe you're going to kill another kid like you killed Gerard."
"I didn't kill your brother, Manfred. Your brother made a choice that led to consequences. Sort of like if you chose to walk in front of a bus." That one sentence made something completely snap in Manfred.
"Fine, old man. Don't say I didn't warn you about this." A flash of red permeated Manfred's usually black eyes.
"You wouldn't have the guts to set this place on fire. You still have too many memories of the fire two years ago." The desk in front of Ezekiel burst into flames.
"Try me, old man." Ezekiel started yelling at Matron to do something, but as the desk was in front of her, she couldn't. They were, essentially, trapped. Manfred darted across the room to the window and climbed out, beginning to undo the cage door, setting Emma free. She could barely fly. Manfred watched as Emma sort-of soared back down to the ground, then climbed back into the room, where the desk fire was beginning to spread.
"You don't have to do this, Manfred. I swear if I live through this, which I will, you will be extremely sorry." Manfred smirked before he slammed the door.
"I don't have anything to worry about then." Quickly, as the fire spread, he bolted down the stairs, grabbed Zelda and Paton by the hand, and rushed outside.
Zelda looked puzzled.
"What happened that you needed to drag me out like this?" She saw the spreading fire that was causing the Music Tower to crumble.
"Oh God, Manfred. What have you done?" For the first time in a long time, she looked genuinely terrified.
"What? I burned the witch and the magician, too. It'll be fine, everyone'll think it's accidental." Paton shook his head.
"No, Manfred. Did you know that Lord Grimwald is here? Thank God Cook left because of it…but still…he's probably already on his way up to put the fire out." Manfred's eyes widened.
"Oh God…oh God, no…what have I done? He said I'd pay for it…oh my God…" Zelda looked up at Manfred with tears in her eyes. He noticed she was taking shaky breaths.
"Well, Manfred, you said you wanted out of the family. Yet you were too scared to just leave. Now you've not only guaranteed that you're out of the family, you've probably also put your life in danger." Manfred took her hand.
"It's all right. I do what I have to in order to be a good keeper."
"Keeper?"
"One who keeps things. In my case, one who keeps people safe." Paton had a flash of anger on his face and out of nowhere punched Manfred in the face.
"You foolish boy! Can't you see that none of us are safe?" He looked sadly at his niece, who was turned back into a girl but covered in burns from where she was shocked.
"Especially us meddlers."
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All right, so here's just what in the hell happened here.
While I was writing this it all of a sudden decided it should have a real plot. I didn't plan this at all. It went from the light father-son humor to extremely angsty to full-blown dramatic action. It's a bit late in the story for plot, but I think the sub-plot with Manfred dealing with all of the death around him works into the whole keeping people safe thing. He couldn't keep his brother safe so he has to keep everyone else safe, you know?
So basically, I started writing this intending it to be chapter 4. Then it got all dramatic and I decided that Manfred needed to deal with the fact that he was still a puppet before he went all vigilante justice on Ezekiel's ass. I went back, wrote a chapter 4, and then finished this.
If you guys don't like that I suddenly threw plot in your face, please let me know so I fix it. As hard as I worked on this, I do it for you guys to have something to read, so if you don't like it, tell me, and I'll scrap it and write two new ones.
Finally, I should probably let you know that I still haven't read Shadow, so the plot of this obviously reflects that fact. I actually got it four days early today and I plan on starting it tonight while I watch the Rock of Love Charm School finale.
So, there's one chapter left of this, which will most likely be started at school so I can come home and type it, which is what I did for most of this.
ARR and ARR, OK?