"I'm your queen damnit, respect the crown!" Darcy yelled, watching as the flames engulfing the warriors around her died down as hers continued to rise. 'Just what the hell did I wake up to? Unless I didn't wake up. Am I dead?' Darcy thought, checking over her shoulder to ensure the large mound of dirt was still in one piece. 'This is wonderland and I must be alice. Or maybe its Oz and I'm Dorthy…Dorothy Lewis.' Darcy found herself wondering if Darius had scrambled her brains as she turned back to face the now kneeling women, their eyes refused to meet her face, but they stared above her head at her raised arm holding her sword, causing Darcy to realize she was striking the same poise as some of the statues.

The earth beneath her feet began to shake, causing Darcy to levitate off the shaking ground to maintain her balance. A large cracking sound filled the air, and Darcy spun around to watch as the large dirt mound, flickered like hologram, changing into the clear sphere she had woke up in allowing her to she her children, before flickering back to the image of a large dirt mound. A crack travel down the middle of the mound, before it turned back into a clear sphere and shimmered out of existence.

Darcy's son stared out at the army before him with wide fearful eyes before immediately dropping to his knees, and starring at the ground. Darcy's daughter sat with Ambee's head cradled in her lap, looking up from the bleeding woman with tears in her eyes. When Darcy's daughter noticed the army, her eyes widened and immediately went to her brother, before searching and finding Darcy. She bent and whispered something to Ambee that Darcy could not hear, before gently moving the woman's head to rest on the ground, and standing up.

Darcy watched, as the girl with features similar to her father, walked with a grace Darcy didn't think she could pull-off, as she stood beside her kneeling brother, placing a hand atop his head.

"Our mother, sisters is a queen of fire!" Darcy's daughter yelled to the army of women, causing them to stand and raise their weapons. Darcy tensed thinking they were going to attack her again. She brought her arm down and held her sword in front of her with two hands.

"Bring it bitc-" Darcy trailed off, as the army began to stomp in unison.

"Our mother, our goddess has subdued your flames, by her will. As it is natural those beneath her submit in her presence."

Darcy watched as her daughter closed her eyes and took a steadying breath, before looking out at the army again calmly.

"As it is natural, males even of blood, submit in her presence!" Darcy's daughter petted her brother on his head and approached her.

"I, the daughter of our queen submits in her presence!" Darcy's daughter lowered herself to one knee and crossed her arms across her chest in a poise similar to what Ambee did on earth.

Darcy found herself shaking with rage.

"Stand up." Darcy spoke with venom in her voice. Darcy's daughter rose to her feet, meeting her mother's eyes. Darcy found herself mentally counting back from ten, to control her temper, while reminding herself that the girl in front of her, who might view Ambee as more of a mother than her, was still her daughter, and she wasn't sure what her stance was on corporal punishment, but she couldn't outright slap her. She felt kind of ashamed that she even wanted to. Lifting up a hand Darcy brought it to rest on her daughter's cold cheek and closed her eyes.

"Stand up." Darcy said again, opening her eyes to find her son still cowering on the ground, in an effort to become one with the dirt and disappear. Darcy felt her hand against her daughter's cheek began to tremble with her rage. Dropping her sword, and ignoring the suddenly hushed army, Darcy put both of her hands on her daughter's shoulder, willing her flames not to harm her.

"If I'm not Alice or Dorothy, and this is not a acid trip gone wrong, then this is real. You're my daughter?" Darcy asked, needing to know again.

"Yes, mother I-"

"Then, freaking act like it, I know I'm a deadbeat but what has your brother done to you!" Darcy yelled pulling away to float over to her son.

Darcy felt her eyes watering as her son flattened his body to the ground and turned his face to the side. She bit her lip, wanting to scream and pull him to his feet.

"Get up, what did I tell you?" Darcy waited with her fist clenched at her sides..

Darcy's son pushed himself up to rest on his legs, but kept his eyes facing the ground.

Darcy dropped down to her knees and wrapped her arms around him, causing a rush of whispers to sound behind her. "I don't know rather to hate you two for choosing her over me, or love you…just because, I'm impulsive. Which is really bad, because that's how I got in this mess, not that you two are messes. I really want to love you two. I'm just really fucking jealous and angry."

"Always."

Darcy pulled away from her son, giving him room to speak.

"Ambee has been a presence teaching us, but you have always been my mother." Darcy's son hugged her. "Ambee deserved your wrath, I know about Darius."

"How?" Darcy asked.

"What we told you was false mother. Ambee addresses me as Ambrose and my sister as Ambrosia. Ambrosia and I hesitated and lied, because we could see how distressed you were.

Ambrosia is not like everyone else that looks down on my gender, we have to play parts here mother, everyone does. Ambee taught Ambrosia how to behave to keep both of us safe when others are watching. When Ambee taught us to watch your memories. She couldn't hide what she wanted to from me, but I hid what I knew from Ambrosia, because she needed someone other than me to—"

'I really should have killed her.' Darcy sighed. She wasn't really surprised that the woman who was Darius righthand was a deceiving and lying bitch, but she couldn't finish her off, not knowing that without Ambee her kids might not have survived.

"—trust, until you awoke."

Darcy's hug tightened before relaxing. "I can never forgive Ambee, but for keeping you two safe I won't beat her into next week, again."

"I always wanted to share my father's name." Ambrose said.

"What, Loki?" Darcy asked shocked.

"Yes."

"What is the meaning of this!?" Darcy turned around to face the source of the indignant voice.

A tall elderly woman with light blue wrinkled skin and weak flickering orange flame, walked down the aisle the army created as they parted and bowed to her. The elderly woman slowly walked towards Darcy unabashedly nude, and with a posture that made Darcy subconsciously straighten her own stance. Grey eyes glared at Darcy, as she stood pulling her son to his feet with her, but keeping him behind her to shield him from the old woman's ire.

Ambrosia bowed to the old woman and addressed her as "Mother of mothers."

Squinting Darcy noticed a flickering crown of flame atop of the old woman's head.

"Our new queen, this new mother! Hugs a boy and shuns her daughter at her coronation!"

Darcy frowned. "Hey, no one is shunning anybody, she was being a dick to her brother. I love her, because she's my kid. They both are, I'm learning how to parent, so back off."

"What strange talk is this?" The elderly woman turned towards the crowd of women and then turned back towards Darcy, making Darcy feel as if she was on trial and this old lady had seen one too many "Law and Orders". "Our new queen birthed off world, disrespects our customs and laws and is ignorant of coronation rites—"

"Hold it Perry Mason, I was born off world, so how am I suppose to know what's normal here?"

"You should not have stepped from your ceremonial grave unawares. As the Mother of mother's, I am the head scholar now so I will inform you of your transgressions mother."

"Mother of mothers, mother…you people need to get a better naming system." Darcy said wondering where all of the skills she learned as a Political Science major had waltzed off to. She was pretty her International Relations professor if he was here, would be standing off to the side shaking his head at her while holding a large red marker over some hapless student's term paper.

"Men are the lowest ranking life forms on this planet, as such they are to kneel and submit in the presence of their superiors. Affection towards males is undignified, unless it is for breeding purposes. Men who do not submit are punished, banished, or disposed of." The Mother of Mothers explained.

"This sexist shit has to end."

"Sexist? What is the meaning of this word?" The old woman asked frowning.

Darcy wanted to face palm, but didn't, not wanting to give the old woman the satisfaction.

"If you couldn't tell my daughter and son are twins, they both came out of my who-ha. What makes one better than the other? What makes you better than my son? Maybe you should be in rags, or just clothes in general. I understand the whole nudist colony vibe, but come on." Darcy said, wanting to cover her son's eyes but figuring it was pointless.

The old woman faltered staring at Darcy as if seeing a ghost. She licked her aged lips as her eyes searched Darcy's face.

"Those words…however not exact are strangely reminiscent…"

"Mother." Ambrosia approached her mother with a look of worry on her face, while wrangling her hands.

Darcy tightened her grip on her son, as she felt him trying to lower himself back down to the ground.

"Hold it there house elf." Darcy whispered to her son.

The old woman cleared her throat.

"Here we follow natural law. Men are naturally inferior to our sex. They cannot bring life into the world, they cannot connect with the bell, they cannot mother. They are beneath us in natural intelligence and power. This boy recognizes this, and shows his deference through the lowering of his body in the presence of the high ranking women of our world. In this way he is virtuous, because he knows his place and adheres to it. "

Darcy found herself wanting to laugh, she wished she could take pictures and video and post everything online back on earth. Jane would get a kick out of a place like this, after all of the gender based discrimination she's faced as an astrophysicist always having to prove herself.

Darcy held out her hand and her sword of flames lifted from where she discarded it on the ground to land in her hand.

Chuckling Darcy winked at her daughter and turned behind her to give a wink to her brother.

"Well a new-" Darcy began, but was soon interrupted by the old woman.

"New? If you intend to change the natural order of things, than you wish to bring chaos to our very existence."

Darcy frowned. "What do you expect me to do, pretend like you haven't enslaved an entire gender?"

At Darcy's words the whispering of the army behind the old woman rose up again, followed by laughter.

The old woman stared at Darcy confused. "Slaves? We protect men from themselves. Given free reign they bring chaos and destruction in their wake. The bell has shown the seers other worlds where men rule-"

Various woman in the crowd yelled in outrage.

"Men in those worlds start wars, rape, and seek knowledge beyond their station not to further their species but to dominate and kill senselessly. They are slaves to their desires!" Flames began to dance around the elderly woman. "They shame women into obedience, and you a queen born off world in a world such as those the seers have seen, judge our way of life. A way of life without wars, without famine, plagues, rape, and infanticide. You have not lived a full rotation here and you preach of change. You do not know your people, yet you would order them to change! You shame us." The elderly woman turned her back to Darcy and began to walk back towards the crowd, trembling with her emotions.

Darcy wasn't really sure why, but she felt guilt. Here she was trying to change a system she knew nothing about, she only had Darius's words to form her decisions on. Along with her children's words…but they had been raised by Darius's right hand. Darcy lowered her sword and closed her eyes. Sighing, she thought about the cultural anthropology class she had to take as a graduation requirement. How good anthropologist were suppose to put their personal bias aside as much as they could to observe a culture different from their own. 'But I'm a political science major damnit!' Darcy though chewing her bottom lip. She opened her eyes and stared at her daughter who looked back at her worriedly.

"Am I wrong?" Darcy asked.

Ambrosia looked towards her brother, and then looked back at her mother. "In your memories we have viewed the world of men where you hail from mother. When I look at our home here through that lens, my brother's treatment seems unjust, yet having been raised here. I do not crave the horror of your world. Though, I have not viewed dearest Ambee's memories, when I watch her, when she believes no one to see. I see the scars that world has caused. As much as she and you favor that existence, such a place is beyond my forgiveness." "The fact that my brother breaks tradition at your request risking his virtue and life, is a testament of his love to you as our queen and mother. Yet, you never asked if he were happy here, you merely assumed he was otherwise."

"They hate you for being what you are." Darcy argued weakly."

Ambrosia's eyes became downcast. "Frost Giants have a patriarchal society. My fellow Dresleims hate what I represent, but because of my sex here I am an equal… the more certain my fellows become of my nature the easier it becomes for me."

At Ambrosia's words the old woman stopped and turned around.

"Spoken like a Dresleim, had you been born crowned I would have gladly called you my queen daughter."

Ambrosia blushed and turned to face the elderly woman. "I am honored Mother of Mothers; however I believe that our current queen, once her coronation is complete and she understands our ways, will be honored amongst all of the nations. This, even the seers will see. Given, that you Mother of Mothers are the wisest amongst all of us, having been queen once yourself. Please show patience and guide our off world born queen."

The elderly woman huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, before kneeling. "May the bell toll in our queen's favor.

Ambrosia turned towards Darcy and knelt with her arms crossed in front of her chest. The army followed her example and knelt as well. Ambrosia smiled at her mother, and mouthed 'I will assist you through coronation.'

Darcy stared at her daughter shocked, wondering where the shy timid girl she had met upon waking had went. Her daughter was as smooth of a talker as her father. Darcy didn't know rather to be concerned or proud.

"May the bell toll in our Queen's favor." Everyone shouted.

Darcy's son lowered himself back down to the ground, and Darcy felt has if a heavy weight had been placed on her shoulders.