Disclaimer: I own nothing in the Tin Man 'verse. Nothing and no one. Because (at the moment) I'm playing only with the Sci-Fi original characters.
It was just after the girl had suggested a rest when the first hint that she wasn't as alien as she seemed came to light. One minute she'd been flashing him a pitiful expression that gave him an odd feeling in his chest, the next she spoke of the Old Road. Now, how would someone from the Other Side know of the Old Road?
She gave him a confused wide-eyed expression when he'd questioned her, denying any chance she'd been on that old brick road before. And then she took off running past him, as if drawn onwards.
He'd sighed, shook his head in disbelief and followed.
After that surprising revelation, the only he'd thought, that her parents were in fact from the O.Z., they found themselves in a town of androids who weren't exactly the most friendly of folk to those of the flesh and blood persuasion, to put it kindly. He'd just began to run forwards, shouting her name, when they were surrounded.
The instinct to move forward, to place himself between D- the girl and the robots were halted by common sense. They were armed, in greater numbers and surrounded them on all sides. One wrong move, no matter the good intentions behind it, could very well end in her getting hurt. Something he couldn't risk happening.
The robot leader's confusing statement about recognizing her speech pattern was barely being registered when two figures appeared out of a building. The girl rushed over to embrace them, recognizing them as her parents. But that didn't make any sense. DG's parents couldn't live in Mill Town unless… they were robots.
When the female robot revealed that she was not DG's real mother he could hear the sick thud of nasty surprise hit her like a punch in the gut. So when her 'parents' swept her away to speak to her in private he protested, but not as fervently as he normally would have. This revelation wasn't something he could protect her from.
So he'd hung back, stayed in that street under the paranoid and unblinking eyes of robots in various states in disrepair. Azkadelia had really done a number on the town, he could remember a time when Milltown had been a hidden jewel in the landscape of the O.Z.. The thought made him feel old to no small degree.
Movement out of the corner of his eye had him whirling towards it. He saw DG following her 'robo parents,' confusion and disorientation clear on her expressive face. She turned her eyes towards him, meeting his own with a shock of electricity. He felt one side of his mouth quirk up in what he hoped was a reassuring smile, and was gladdened to see an answering twisting of her lips. And then she stepped into a building alongside the street, pulling the door closed behind her. But not before one last lingering look in his direction, before it was cut off by the wooden door, leaving him once more acutely aware of his position in the middle of a dusty street surrounded by hostile robots.
It wasn't long before he, Zipperhead and Furball were herded into the building connected to the one DG had entered. One of their guarding machines pointed one metallic hang towards a crack in the outside wall. With one raised eyebrow he slowly turned, insolently slow, and looked through the broken wood. He was impressed when he saw that the entire length of the Brick Route that ran along the length of the town. It would be the perfect look-out position.
Mere moments later he spotted a group of Longcoats coming up the road in the distance. His eyes narrowed in anger, he had to get DG out of there before they could touch her. He'd protect her with his last breath if necessary. Zipperhead stepped on a loose board at that exact moment, creaking loudly.
Cain swore softly beneath his breath, he'd forgotten about the other two. Damn it, what was happening to him?