Broken Fairytales part 7
by Phantaz-Magoria

A/N: Alright, so it seems that an explanation might be in order. The trouble with having four stories in progress at the same time is that IF by any chance your hard drive happens to fail and IF you have no backup for the forty or some odd pages of material that are in the polishing stage and are on the verge of being posted, the confluence of these circumstances can be a little heart-wrenching. I think if it was just one story that I'd lost a finished chapter for, I might have been able to bounce back quicker, but the fact that I lost FOUR of them… let's just say that every time I tried to rewrite any of it, I tended to stare at the screen in abject despair. Fortunately, it seems like my period of mourning may have finally run its course and I was able to rewrite this one at least. Hopefully, I can get some momentum going and get some more chapters posted soonish. If ANYBODY is still interested in reading this, you have my undying gratitude for continuing to send me friendly nudges every once in a while and my promise that I have not given up on it. I know a year is a long time to not update, but I hope this chapter makes up for it, just a teensy tiny bit. I love you all, I really do and I am so repentant about the hiatus it's not even funny.

Present day…

Glitch blinked his eyes in confusion. He was embarrassed and he couldn't remember why. He tried to hide it with a smile. "I'm sorry, I must have glitched again. Have we met?"

The man that sat in the chair beside his bed didn't seem to be angry with him. He had warm dark eyes and somewhat shaggy blonde hair accenting a bronze complexion. His neat goatee framed an easy if somewhat bemused smile.

"It's quite alright, Glitch. You don't need to be ashamed. You don't need to be afraid. Just take a deep breath and relax."

Glitch nodded his head quickly, nervous in spite of himself, in spite of the steady calmness that seemed to be radiating from the man sitting next to him. "Oh… okay."

His voice would have been soothing if Glitch hadn't been so on edge, "Take your time. Do you remember my name?"

Glitch bit his lip and squinted, hoping that if he tried really, really hard something would come to him. Things were distracting him. The beeping of the heart monitor, the way the needles in his arm itched and demanded to be scratched, the mild pain in his head, the notion that he was forgetting something again… Glitch laughed to himself, not sure if it sounded more sad or hysterical. What was the sad irony of not being able to focus properly on remembering something because he was certain he was forgetting something else?

It didn't help that he was starving. He could feel his stomach twisting uncomfortably with every second that passed. What he wouldn't give for a tasty, yummy, crunchy taco right now. Or a steak. Glitch's mouth watered. A nice, juicy, yummy, raw…

"Raw! Your name is Raw!"

The man grinned. "That's right, Glitch! That's good, that's very good. My name is Doctor Raoul. Do you remember why I'm here?"

Glitch rubbed his forehead, wishing his headache would go away. "Yeah. Yeah, I think so… You wanted to talk to me about my drug problem, right?"

"Yes, that's right."

It wasn't until the needles and tubes jerked in his forearm that he realized he had been trying to tuck his arms around his chest in a self-conscious hug. "Look, I know drugs are bad and I was really stupid to get involved in them, I KNOW that…"

"Glitch, I'm not here to judge you. I'm here to help you. I'm here to help you remember."

Glitch shook his head, not sure whether to smile in supplication or frown in embarrassment and ended up doing a sad mixture of both. "Remember? Remember what? I seem to have forgotten… forgotten whatever it was I was supposed to remember."

Doctor Raoul didn't seem upset. Glitch was grateful for that, but he still didn't quite understand what was expected of him. Fortunately, the doctor seemed to pick up on his distress. He leaned towards him and rested his hand just barely against Glitch's arm, a gesture that surprisingly conveyed more comfort and warmth than Glitch would have thought. "Glitch, you mentioned some things today at various times and Doctor McKenny believes that you know how Erebus is made. I'm going to help you remember."

Glitch chewed his lower lip for a moment while he thought about that. He wished that his voice didn't sound QUITE so timid. "Is it going to hurt?"

Doctor Raoul smiled and the last traces of fear and unease seemed to melt away from Glitch like a chunk of ice sitting too close to a flame. "No, it isn't going to hurt. I just need you to relax."

He stood and walked to the doorway and turned off the lights in the room. Glitch's breath hitched before he realized that even with the lights off, the room wasn't totally dark. Raoul returned to his chair beside the bed and held out his fist. He was holding a long chain and a penlight delicately with his fingertips, letting the chain hang down so the green jewel attached to the end twisted lazily around. Glitch laughed softly. "Isn't that supposed to be a pocket watch or something?"

"Ah, but can a pocket watch do this?" Doctor Raoul clicked a switch on the penlight and the green jewel sparkled dazzlingly as it became the single point of illumination in the darkness.

Glitch was instantly entranced. "Ooooohhh… sparkly…" The jewel began to drift slowly back and forth and back again. Glitch couldn't resist the instant compulsion to watch it sparkle in the darkness.

"Just relax and concentrate on the light. Don't struggle, don't force the memories. Just let them come as they will. Just relax and concentrate on the light and the sound of my voice."

"Yeah…"

"Imagine that you're nothing but a stick of butter on a counter on a hot day and as you watch the light, all the tension in your body is melting away, just melting away on a warm relaxing day when you have nothing to do and nowhere to go, you're free to just relax and melt away into perfect peace and relaxation. Keep watching the light."

Glitch couldn't respond. It was too much trouble to make words in his head and to get them all the way down to his mouth.

"When you feel as relaxed as you can be, I want you to imagine that you're sitting in a room on a very comfortable couch. In front of you is a television. This is a very important television because it can show you any memory that you want to look at. It's your own personal home theater system. Can you see the television Glitch?"

"…Yes…"

"That's good. Remember, there's no rush and nothing to be afraid of. As soon as you're ready, I want you to turn on the television and tell me what you see…"

Two years ago..

Ambrose had to restrain himself to keep from sprinting down the front steps of the high school to the parking lot. He'd just finished his last class before the spring break and he was more than ready to get the hell out of Dodge. Tonight, his family… he could never get over how amazing it felt to think of them that way… his family was going out for pizza and ice cream at the arcade center to celebrate the almost end of the school year. Ambrose secretly suspected that Wyatt… Dad… was just making an excuse to go out and have fun. He hefted his bag to a more comfortable position on his shoulder as he took the stairs down as rapidly as he could.

He smiled wide as he hit the parking lot. Today was also the Corvette's inaugural solo trip. Wyatt… DAD… had only just yesterday given his car a clean bill of health. They'd driven it more than a few times this week, but DAD had wanted to make absolutely certain that it wasn't going to give him any problems when he drove it by himself for the first time.

Ambrose couldn't suppress his grin as he indulgently trailed his fingertips over the hood of his car as he walked around to the driver's side door. He tossed his book bag into the passenger seat and sat for a moment with his hands resting on the steering wheel, grinning with joy as he could practically feel the electricity of mutual affection tingling in his palms.

"Hello, girl. Did you miss me?"

Ambrose turned the key in the ignition and the Corvette rumbled to the life.

"Yeah, I missed you, too, sweetheart. Let's go pick up Jeb, what do you say?"

He pressed the gas petal lightly and the engine roared in response.

"Yup, sounds good to me, too."

Ambrose giggled then. "I can't believe I'm talking to a car."

The engine sputtered for a moment.

"No, no, no, honey, that's nothing against you. I didn't mean anything against you sweetheart."

The engine smoothed out and purred soothingly in idle.

Ambrose let out the breath that he'd been holding, sighing in relief. "Don't scare me like that."

He put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot.

Present day…

Glitch gasped and jerked out of whatever dream he'd been having. There was a man sitting in the chair next to him. "Oh, my! Hello, do I know you?"

"It's alright, Glitch. Don't be alarmed. My name is Doctor Raoul. Take a deep breath, everything is alright."

Glitch nodded. "O-okay. If you s-say so."

The man looked closely at him, gold eyes intensely scrutinizing. "Are you alright, Glitch?"

"Y-yeah, I feel f-fine." It wasn't true. He didn't feel fine at all. "May I ask what happened?"

The doctor shifted in his chair. "You were in a hypnotic trance and your brain must have misfired and pulled you out of it." The doctor must have seen the confused look on Glitch's face, because he clarified, "I was using a form of hypnotherapy to help you remember events from your past."

"Why? I won't be able to remember them."

"I'm hoping I can help you remember how to manufacture Erebus."

Glitch laughed, "Oh is THAT all?" His face darkened and he glared at the man looking at him from the chair. "Why would you want to make Erebus?"

"So we can help you, Glitch."

"No." Glitch shook his head emphatically. "No, Erebus doesn't HELP anyone." He would have stormed out just then but it was only just then that he noticed he was half reclining in a hospital bed with an unspeakable amount of wires and tubes connecting him to a few very immovable machines. His finger followed the oxygen tube up to where it was attached to his nose. "What…" His head was pounding and he closed his eyes to fight off the sudden nausea. "Why am I here?"

"You're here because you need help, Glitch. Please let me help you."

"H-help…?" He could feel tears spilling down his cheeks when he opened his eyes.

The doctor gently took his hand and squeezed it in a comforting grip. "Yes. I only want to help you. Are you ready to try again?"

Two years ago…

Jeb was barely able to wait for Ambrose to put the Corvette in park before he undid his seat belt and raced out of the car and up the walk to the front door. He was bouncing impatiently from foot to foot as Ambrose grabbed both of their book bags out of the hatchback. By the time Ambrose had made it to the door and began fumbling his key out, Jeb was exasperated.

"Come ON Ambro! I've got to PEE!"

"Hold your horses, partner, almost there."

Ambrose fit the key into the lock and barely had time to turn the latch when Jeb shoved the door open and disappeared down the hallway. Ambrose chuckled and hoisted his heavy backpack higher up on his shoulder, thinking jealously of the barely noticeable weight of Jeb's bag in his other hand.

He set both bags by the table in the dining room before slipping into the kitchen. He pulled bread out and set it on the counter while calling out to Jeb, "What flavor jam do you want?"

A muffled, "Strawberry!" came down the hallway just before the sound of the toilet flushing and the water in the sink running.

Ambrose smiled quietly to himself for a moment as he pulled the strawberry jam out of the fridge. He began carefully spreading the jam onto the bread. "What's seven plus seven?"

It was a very petulant Jeb that appeared in the entrance to the kitchen. "Ambro, that's not fair."

"What's not fair?"

"You know it's spring break. I don't have to do school for another whole week!"

Ambrose carefully began spreading the peanut butter across the bread. "All the more reason to keep practicing. Besides, the school break doesn't OFFICIALLY start until you finish your homework."

Jeb jumped up on the stool across the counter from Ambrose and rested his chin in his hands as he kicked his feet back and forth. "Mrs. Murphy didn't give us any homework."

Ambrose smirked. "Oh, yeah? Hmm… what about that paper you were writing about dinosaurs that's due next month?"

"It's not due until NEXT month."

"Yeah, but have you even started on it yet? You haven't, have you?"

"No…" The feet swinging stopped.

"And you still have your math work to do, right?"

"I'm already ahead of everybody in class. If you keep making me do extra stuff, I'm gonna be even more bored."

"If you're so far ahead, what's seven plus seven?" He put the finished peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a plate and slid it over to his adopted brother.

Jeb made a big production of sighing to let Ambrose know he was not amused. "Fourteen. You didn't make my sandwich right."

Ambrose sniffed and raised his chin enough to stare down his nose in his most aristocratic manner of mocking disdain. "I'll have you know I made that sandwich perfectly." When Jeb raised an eyebrow just like Wyatt often did, Ambrose huffed a sigh of defeat and dropped his chin again. "Why? What's wrong with it?"

"You forgot to cut it into triangles. It's not a perfect sandwich unless you cut the triangles in."

Glitch jerked and shuddered, crying out in agony as the memories flooded him. His brain felt like it was slowly being covered in molten iron. The pain was beyond immense, beyond bearable, and it wouldn't stop. A scream tore from his throat as the memories continued to pour into his brain in an overwhelming flood of torment.

Ambrose dropped his sandwich on the plate mid-bite. He frowned in confusion and stared towards the entrance hall. He could have sworn he heard something crash.

"Stay here, Jeb."

He walked quickly towards the doorway and poked his head into the hallway. It had sounded like it had come from the front door…

The front door that was currently swinging slowly on its hinges.

The front door that was OPEN.

Ambrose's breath froze in his chest. He had shut it, he was certain. He had locked it, too. Perhaps he hadn't. Perhaps he'd made a mistake. He stood for some moments staring at the door before he was finally able to summon the courage to stalk forward and shut it again. He slid the lock home, heart pounding in his chest. It was hard to breathe and he wasn't certain why. Surely something as silly as forgetting to close the door shouldn't fill him with such absolute terror.

His fingers were trembling as he stepped away from the door. Sweat was trickling down his shoulder blades. This was silly. Stupid even. It was just a door, he'd just forgotten to shut it, that was all… Ambrose bit his lip hard. This was so stupid, but just being paranoid didn't mean that there WASN'T a monster lurking about waiting to take a chomp at him. Ambrose made up his mind.

"Jeb! Jeb, hurry up and grab your coat, we're going next door to Mrs. Kylee's." There was no answer from the kitchen and Ambrose hurried to the doorway. "Jeb?"

Hands grabbed him from behind and hauled him backwards. His arms were pinned to his sides and he kicked out, struggling, screaming, crying out and fighting with everything he had in him. He screamed until he ran out of oxygen and just as he began to suck in another lungful of air, a cloth was pressed roughly against his face. His eyes flew wide in alarm as the pungent chemical smell burned his nostrils and made his lungs ache and his head pound.

Ambrose tried to fight. He tried, he tried, he tried… he tried… he…

Glitch gasped for air and struggled madly with the hands that held him down…

…and when he opened his eyes, he was no longer in the safe bright blue house on Papay Way that his family lived in. He was in absolute darkness with his face pressed into the damp concrete. A dirty rag filled his mouth and he gagged at the taste and the dry texture that made it difficult to swallow. The air was dank and cold, causing his skin to contract in goose flesh all over his mostly naked body. His arms were tied painfully behind him. Panic threatened to overwhelm him and he struggled fiercely against the ropes that had him hogtied. Blood roared in his ears and he couldn't help the whimper of fright or the scream of frustration that tore from his throat, both effectively muffled by the gag.

Ambrose wanted to panic. He wanted to scream and struggle and cry and give in to terrified despair, but he knew that he shouldn't. He wanted to, but he shouldn't.

Ambrose took a deep breath and let it out slowly focusing on nothing but the sounds he could hear. His heartbeat drummed in his ears and he slowed his breathing down more trying to soften the rapid thrumming. He started calculating statistics in his head, repeating back the odds of survival in kidnap situations and telling himself that if he panicked, the odds would be even more against him and he needed to be calm, needed to breathe, needed to relax and breathe and be calm, still, quiet…

"That's right, Glitch. Just breathe. Steady now, in and out. Easy and calm, just breathe in and out."

Glitch gasped and choked, jerking involuntarily against the arms that held him as his lungs struggled to drag the air in and out. His chest and throat burned and his eyes watered. The bright light that filled his vision was blinding compared to the darkness.

A friendly voice, the same that had been coaching him. "Doctor, is he…?"

"Stabilizing, yes. But he doesn't have much time."

"Glitch? Can you hear me? I need you to keep talking… I need you to…"

"I need you to start talking, Ambrose." Zero paced slowly around the room, casually swinging a metal baseball bat with one hand. "Just tell me how you did that cute little enzyme extraction thing that you did for the science fair and I'll let you go. And I won't have to tell Azkadellia that you're being difficult and uncooperative. You think I'M bad when my tempers up…? Whew! You don't want to see Kadie in a snit. So do us both a favor and just spill it."

Ambrose tried to blink the tears from his eyes. From where he lay in the center of the room, still tightly bound, he could see Adora and Wyatt. They were both still and unmoving, both covered in blood and bruises. He imagined that he looked the same. Zero had been very generous with swinging that bat of his. He concentrated hard, trying to detect signs that his parents were even still breathing, ignoring as best he could the agonizing, throbbing ache that seemed to start at his head and end at the tip of his toes.

Zero sounded as if he was getting impatient, but Ambrose didn't understand what Zero had to be impatient about. Really, this had only been going on for a few hours, hadn't it? "Look, it isn't as if I'm asking you to destroy the world or give me the formula for the black death or anything as dramatic as that. All I want is a teensy, tiny little chemistry lesson. Is that really so much to ask?"

They'd been over this and over this. It almost wasn't worth the effort of splitting his lip open again to speak. His voice was dull and toneless with the expectation of being refused again, "Take my family to the hospital, show me proof they've been admitted and I will tell you anything you want to know."

"You know it isn't going to happen like that."

Ambrose grit his teeth and closed his eyes, feeling another tear escape from his lashes to trail down his cheek. He was surprised his eyes hadn't already dried up completely.

"Alright, you fairy-assed little queer, I'm starting to get a little tired of this shit! Either you start talking, or I start showing you my nasty side, so which is it going to be?"

He was dragging a pale and frightened Jeb roughly behind him. Jeb's face was so pale that Ambrose could see the freckles standing out on his cheeks and nose. His eyes were as wide as saucers and his voice shook, "A-Ambro?"

"Jeb! Jeb are you alright?" Ambrose struggled against the ropes that held him, wanting to reach out for his brother and comfort him. Zero shoved Jeb to the floor near the still forms of his parents then stepped aside, making sure that Ambrose had a clear and unobstructed view.

Jeb's frightened gaze never wavered. "Ambrose, I'm scared."

Ambrose tried to give his brother a shaky smile, tried to make his voice sound more confident than he felt, "It's alright Jeb, everything's gonna be alright."

Except it wasn't. Nothing was going to be alright. He looked at Zero, fear making his head pound and his heart beat funny. Ambrose had already figured out that neither he nor Wyatt or Adora were going to survive this ordeal regardless of what he said or did and the hopelessness of it all had made it very easy to hold fast to his ideals. But now he knew he wouldn't be able to do it. It had been bad enough when Zero had beat him and kicked him until his throat hurt from screaming. It had been worse watching the same thing happen to Wyatt and Adora. He had nearly lost it at that last swing, the one that had cracked against Adora's skull so hard that her head snapped to the side and Ambrose could almost have sworn that he heard the bone fracture from across the room. It took everything he had to not give in, not when he knew they were all going to be killed anyway, but he had held out hope that Jeb had somehow escaped, that he was somehow still safe at home and wasn't involved in this. A cold dread settled in the pit of his stomach. Ambrose knew he wouldn't be able to resist anymore. He couldn't watch them hurt Jeb. He looked at his tormentor, his eyes filled with entreaty. "Please…"

"Just do what we want and we won't have to kill them. It's that simple."

"Zero, please don't do this."

"Look at them. I don't think the wife can take another hit like that, do you? She might even be dead already. Then we start on the kid next. Now do what you're told. Unless you want to see more?" With a smirk, Zero lifted the bat with both hands high overhead. Ambrose couldn't tell if he was aiming for Adora again or Jeb this time.

Panic made him scream, "No, please stop, please God stop!"

Zero paused, the beginnings of a cruel smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "All it takes is one little word…"

"Yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, I'll do what you want, just please don't hurt them anymore, please? Please?"

He lowered the bat, grinning in triumph. "Now you're starting to see sense. Get it done. You've got one hour before the baseball bat starts swinging again."

"One hour?" Ambrose struggled against the ropes that held him. "I can't… it can't be done in an hour…"

"Then I suggest you work fast…"

"What you're talking about takes DAYS not hours! It can't be done that fast! Look, Zero, just give me a pen and paper. I'll write down everything you need to know, just don't hurt him, alright?"

Zero smiled, teeth gleaming like a predator. "You have an hour. And just to make it easier on you, I think I'll go ahead and remove some distractions."

With brutal swiftness, Zero raised the bat over Adora Cain and brought it down in a single, vicious, powerful swing.

"NOOOOOO! No, God, no!"

"Glitch!"

"No, please, please, please, no! No! Please! Stop…" Tears streamed from Glitch's eyes and he shook and shuddered and sobbed uncontrollably.

"It's alright, Glitch, everything's alright now, you're safe!" Glitch only sobbed harder. Doctor Raoul held the inconsolable young man in his arms, lips set in a thin line from the ordeal of watching such grief and being unable to soothe the almost unbearable anguish. "It's okay. We're stopping right now, I promise. I'm sorry I pushed you so hard, but we're stopping now, alright?"

"No, it's not alright! Nothing's alright!"

Doctor Raoul grimaced and held the boy tighter, rubbing circles against his back and being careful not to jerk any of the tubes or wires, trying to be as comforting as he could. The shaking didn't stop, but the sobs died down to quiet hiccups and sniffles. Glitch pulled back and wiped his red, glassy eyes with the heel of his hand. Raoul frowned. "Glitch?"

The boy shook his head. His voice was quiet, but firm. "Not Glitch. My name is Ambrose Cain. Give me a pen and paper. I'll write down everything you need to know…"

TBC... (really, no joke. It WILL be continued, I promise =) You have my solemn vow)