Series: Kisses Come From the Soul Too 3/?
Author: Essee
Beta: Annabella
Rating: PG-16 (almost went to higher rating)
Warnings: Men kissing other men, confusion, prickdom
Pairings: Cain/Glitch(Ambrose), past Cain/Adora
Word Count: 9,185
Author Note: This chapter is dedicated to wonderful, Annabella… who probably found out through beta-ing chapter three that I am the Queen of Pronouns, and that I hate breaking my paragraphs up. She should be given a trophy, but seeing as I don't have one available this dedication will have to do.
Oh yes, while you are reading there are two things to be aware of
Flashbacks will be completely it italics
and voices that only one person can hear will be in italics and curvy brackets
Summary: Glitch has his brain back in his head, where it should be. But the answer to one question has opened a very new can of worms.
Chapter Three: We May Have a Glitch
"Y-your sister?" Cain didn't know what else to say. All he could do was stare numbly at Glitch, and pray to the good wizard that he didn't fall unconscious.
Dosh it, if Cain was going to faint he was going to faint.
His vision was getting spotty, and he was having an incredibly difficult time trying to comprehend what this new man in front of him, Ambrose, had just said. Cain had known that Adora must have had family, he'd had asked her about it more than once, but he never considered that he would find out like this.
Nor did he expect that Ambrose was going to be a family member.
As a Tin Man, Cain should have done the investigating, but like most men in his profession, Tin Men did their best to keep their families distant from the job. Cain had made the mistake of letting them mix, and had paid the ultimate price.
Closing his eyes, Cain tried to remember, tried to recall the times that Adora had spoken freely about her family. Parents, siblings, grandparents, if there was anyone in the world that was related to her. It was funny that Cain had never realized how closed the woman was about divulging information about herself or her past.
"Honestly Wyatt, I don't know why this is so important." Adora's lips were pursed ever so gently as she spoke, as they did when she was trying to think her way out of answering an uncomfortable question. "Why do you want to know? I'm sure that the people who attended our wedding are people enough that we need to know."
"Addy, we were married in a two person ceremony. Two witnesses! By the Wizard I don't really think that's all the people we need to know. Besides, Jeb should know if he has any other family. One day he'll grow up and he'll want to know who his people are, where he comes from." Sure Cain was laying it on a bit thick, but it seemed strange that Adora had just popped out of thin air.
When they first started seeing each other Cain used to whisper sweet nothings into her ear. Moonbeams created her skin, fire made her hair, and rose petals made her lips, and when Cain looked into Adora's eyes it was like coming home. Nevertheless, all people came from somewhere – they had a mother and a father.
"Wyatt… I really don't want to talk about this, why can't you just believe that I have descended from pixies and that they left me full grown on your doorstep to be loved , and to make a happy healthy home with you, to give you sons, and quite possibly a daughter." Adora pulled her red hair back with a tie, having decided before this conversation that she was going to tackle their stove and wrestle it into a state of cleanliness so that people could see their reflection in it. She liked doing these simple chores.
Even though Cain joked about where she came from, and who her family was, it seemed that in a short amount of time he had become more persistent in asking her, dragging out their conversation about it. It was simple to learn his motive, Wyatt wanted to know about her family, and every time she managed to avoid the answer, or had flat-out said no, he had gone out and shot a rather large game animal. Jeb was becoming a rather chunky baby. "I do believe, Mr. Cain, that every time I tell you that I don't have any family you go out and shoot a great beastie, and it is taking a toll on your midsection, I do believe."
"Well, Mrs. Cain, if you would just offer up the information I wanted to know then I wouldn't have to go out and kill every creature I see. Can't you understand it Adora? I just want to know who else has seen you laugh, and smile, and cry, and pout. I want to meet someone that knows you as well as I do."
Cain really did love her, with all his heart. He would do anything for her, and she knew that. Adora pulled away from the oven and looked up at him, her wispy red hair falling forward into eyes that seemed distant. For a moment, Cain felt remorseful for pushing the subject.
"Adora--"
"I have a brother," she said it quickly; stopping almost before she started, and immediately the regret bloomed in her eyes. It was difficult for Cain to take sit patiently, his livelihood screamed at him to sit his lovely wife down and find out why that regret had flashed through her eyes, or ask her until she broke down. The husbandly side of him that loved Adora may have wanted to know, but was much more understanding about discovering why. "I just, I promised him a long time ago that we wouldn't talk about each other. He is an important man and while I chose a simple yet wonderful life with you, he chose a much different path."
She was smiling again, relieved to have shared this small fact with her husband.
Seeing that Cain was about to speak, Adora quickly cut him off, "And no, you don't get to know his name. I'm not going to have you finding him and hounding him every chance you get." She paused for a moment to smile at him, "Now go out and use some of the preserved meat as bait to catch some fat fish." Pushing him away, she grabbed a firm bristled brush, dunked it in a bucket of soapy water and tackled the stove. She went so far as to stick her entire head into the oven.
Adora quickly pulled her head out of the oven, soot covering her cheeks, and she managed a mouse sneeze before looking over at him sheepishly. "This could cause a fire with all the dirt in here." Then came her smile again, and it had Wyatt smiling back. Sitting up on her knees she gave him a pouty look, "Wyatt Everest Cain, if you don't get to doing what I said that boar food is going to spoil on us, and the fish will have gone to their watery beds for the night. Even if you choose not to get fish you should salt case the boar, it will be good for extra rations, just incase something was to happen."
There was that flash of regret again, but it was chased away as they were both able to hear the sounds of Jebidiah starting to wake up, little baby noises that weren't yet cries for his mother but more of curiosity as to what was around him. Standing up, wiping her hands on her skirt, she turned to see that Wyatt had yet to move.
"What do you want husband of mine?" Adora sighed, giving Cain the most serious look she could muster. There was a brief pause of silence, while Cain looked like he was thinking hard about something, before he spoke.
"Hey, Sunshine. What about your mother?"
"Why you!" And as Cain began to laugh, Adora ran after him, chasing him with a cloth as she hit his shoulders and head, not trying to do any real damage, knowing he was joking. It was that boyish charm that she fell in love with in the first place, and she'd never want to see it disappear. But Oh! Why couldn't he just let it go, evil husband.
His laughter was enough to wake Jeb up the rest of the way, and with a quick kiss to her lips Cain was ducking out the door. Adora went to scoop up their son and hush him back to a state of happiness.
Cain was pulled from his thoughts with an abrupt jolt, the memory now seemed to unlock like a rusted key finally giving way.
Why hadn't he remembered this before? Was he forgetting Adora?
Plagued by the nightmare of forgetfulness, Cain wondered why the similarities that ran so strongly through Glitch that reminded him of Adora, weren't as so glaringly obvious to him in the first place.
When Glitch smiled it was Adora's smile, his eyes were her eyes. It was so much more obvious now as blood was cleaned out of their eyes. Cain could now see that almost identical spark of life and light that always turned his knees to goo, and made his heart beat faster and slower at the same time
It was in the way they spoke his name.
That familiar tone of voice had been why Cain had flinched away from Glitch so rapidly when he had called him Wyatt. So many emotions were attached to that name, too much heartache.
Cain had barely had a real chance to grieve, to realize what had happened, and now his body was already making itself aware that there was someone else it was just as interested in. To say Cain was torn, and upset about it was an understatement.
Barely aware that he was nearly growling, Cain suddenly noticed that Glitch's inquisitive eyes were looking straight at him, focusing on him, questions barely contained within their depths. Glitch had been looking at him the entire time, and as Cain focused on his friend, he didn't like what he saw. Seriousness had replaced joy on Gl-Ambrose's face, there was a light of intelligence there but not of love and fun. His eyes regarded Cain coolly as if he had no innate interest in him at all. It was probably so.
"Mr. Cain, if you feel the need to ask me a question, and then decide that you aren't going to have any response to the answer, I firmly suggest that you not bother asking the question in the first place. I'd prefer that your brash nature not affect my concentration when I am very obviously trying to recover from severe maladies that you have no understanding of."
As Cain heard the clipped and precise tone that the man, Ambrose, spoke with, his stomach twisted, and by the way DG visually sneered she didn't enjoy it much either.
The Tin Man's blue eyes sought out Queen's purple gaze, and found them easily, as they were looking right at him. Whatever he wanted to say, or ask was left quiet as the Queen's gaze dared Cain to say something.
Lavender knew this man, she knew Ambrose as well as she knew her own husband, and was not at all deterred by the sudden personality change. If Cain could guess right he believed that she was amused by it.
Rumors came from the streets as if they were being manufactured day in and day out, and some of those rumors had to be true. Cain now found himself hoping that the gossip concerning the close relationship between the Queen and her Advisor was just that, gossip. It seemed as if there was something that the Queen wanted to say, if the quick parting of her lips was any evidence. Whatever was to be said was stored away for a later date as her royal stare returned to her partially confused Advisor.
The blond man watched as Lavender reached her hand forward to rest on Ambrose's shoulder, slightly sticky from the seeping blood, only to see Ambrose jump and turn to see her. It was like night and day as the Advisor's spine straightened while a contrary softness formed around his mouth.
"Ah, my Queen." It was interesting to watch the conflicting emotions playing over Ambrose's face, and a man that should have been cold fought against what had become his body's habit: smiling when he was happy, frowning when he was sad, and ranting and whining when he was in a less than wonderful situation. "I'm so-"
"Please say no more, Ambrose, my dear friend. What occurred was no more your fault than it was anyone else's. I would be heartbroken to discover that you blamed yourself for anything." Her hand traveled down Glitch's, could he even be called such now, shoulder to grasp his hand tightly.
Cain told himself that he should not be feeling anything, but from being so long in his tin prison it was near impossible to remain emotionless when he was so overwhelmed with gut reactions.
The Tin Man wanted to rip the Queen away from her Advisor. Wanted to grab Glitch and shake him until he shared all of his secrets.
What had Ambrose said while he was reflecting on his memories of Adora? Had it been important? Cain needed to know.
"He didn't say much." Spinning around, the whispered voice came from behind him and Wyatt's blue eyes widened in surprise as he saw that somehow DG had managed sneak up on him. What else had he missed?
Now that Cain realized his lack of observation, he saw that the doctors and the scientist had escorted Azkadellia out of the room, as well Ahamo. The room seemed eerily empty without them, or maybe it was that Glitch wasn't around to fill the space with mindless chatter that may or may not have had any relevance to what was actually going on.
With a quick scan of the room, Cain turned his attention back towards DG, Dorothy Gale, and took in her appearance. Royal life seemed to agree with her. Black hair that had looked rough and tumbled when the three men had first met her was now smoothed, her face was peachier, the dark dress she wore, was, if anything, draped regally.
The only thing problem was the dull expression in D.G's eyes. When they should have been radiant, they seemed to be dying. Cain guessed that it had something to do with her lack of freedom. Little girls never realized that their wishes for change sometime made them wish for what they lost, but he was sure that the kid in front of him was realizing it now.
Cain was worried, as DG quickly had filled a place in his life that had been empty of his son for so long, she was like a daughter to him, and no father ever wanted their children to be sad.
DG seemed to realize that Mr. Cain wasn't going to ask her what Ambrose had said as her mouth became an 'oh' and with her softened hands, she was able to grab Cain by the sleeve of his shirt and pull him away from the private moment between her mother, and who she could only refer to as ex-Glitch.
D.G. was able to let go of the breath she had been holding, and relax and roll her eyes -- something she'd been wanting to do since she first heard Ambrose speak.
DG hadn't had the chance to meet the royal parliament member, Ambrose, in the brain room like Raw, Cain, and Kaalm had, so she had no idea of his thoughts of 'conversational actions.' DG was sure that she'd get used to Ambrose and find that he was a good and loyal friend, but already she was comparing him to Glitch and he was falling dramatically short.
"Like I was saying Cain… he," DG didn't want to utter his name, saying it meant she accepted Glitch was gone, and above all else, that was something that she didn't want," didn't say much of anything. When you asked if it was his sister, he went on about how 'Completely and dramatically redundant' it was that he was having to repeat himself a second time, especially to a man that obviously had nothing to do with her. I know, harsh, you shouldn't be mad at him though, we have to remember that he wasn't--- Cain!"
D.G.'s voice rose as Cain yanked away from her, spun around, and made a beeline back towards Ambrose.
Ignoring that there were smiles being shared between the two friends, ignoring that the blood was still staining Ambrose's face and his clothes, ignoring that Lavender's smile was fading, a question on her lips, ignoring that Ambrose probably shouldn't be being jostled right now.
Wyatt Cain ignored it all.
In one swift motion Cain grabbed the lapels of Glitch's still ripped coat and lifted Ambrose out of the chair, with enough force that the belts still tying Ambrose down snapped and unraveled. Ambrose was lifted until he was eye level with Cain and his feet weren't touching the ground. In this strange and sudden action from Cain, Lavender had fallen over the table, and was now sprawled on the ground in a very un-Queen like fashion.
DG's mouth had fallen open as she rushed to her mother's side. Her pleas for Cain to put Ambrose down fell on deaf ears.
Cain did not move, could not move.
He felt as if everything was building to this point, all of his grief, his anger. His inability to kill Zero when he wanted to, the loss of Glitch, the way Ambrose was a fake, Glitch's familiar smile. It all led to this moment, and with each word Cain spoke he shook the Advisor making him look like a ragdoll. "Don't. You. Ever. Ever. Say. I. Have. Nothing. To. Do. With. My. WIFE!"
Cain's words forced real emotion over to wash over Ambrose's face. There was shock, surprise, fear, and confusion.
Cain wasn't affected by it at all as he continued to shake the bloodied man.
The two women in the room were mere bystanders. The Tin Man's attitude clearly said, 'interfere and I can't hold myself responsible for my actions.'
Lavender feared for her friend, but knowledge of Ambrose's sister was surprising to her as well, the biggest difference was that she trusted her advisor, and if he had chosen to keep his family a secret then there was a reason. In her opinion, there was no reason at all for Cain to have such a severe reaction.
A few days after the sun had shone yet again on the lands of the O.Z, Lavender had entertained the idea of hiring Wyatt Cain to be her guard, but that idea had been quickly squashed when she learned of the death of Adora, and that he had yet to truly go through the grieving process. Dorothy Gale had accidentally let it slip over breakfast. The knowledge had been a puzzle piece about Cain that she had been missing. Unfortunately, it led to a very quick and biased opinion of said Tin Man. In her opinion, Cain was a loose cannon, and she refused to have a man that was likely to explode to be the one protecting her children, even in light of recent events.
Let it never be said the Queen did not worry about her children like every other mother did.
DG didn't know whose side to be on. On the one hand, Cain was a dear friend that had saved her life and kept her going even when she wanted to give up. But, Glitch… there was no more Glitch. He was Ambrose, and she didn't know that man. DG had seen memories of him, and she knew that he had been more than brave, and she knew that Cain felt the same way. It was confusing, and she could barely entertain the idea that Cain might seriously hurt the 'stranger'.
"Unhand me you barbarian! Are you aware that I am in a fragile state that your clumsy shaking may cause permanent damage!? I'll have you know tha- OWW!"
It was that 'oww' that changed the situation, a sound of real pain that sprung everyone into action. Lavender and DG found their feet unstuck and rushed forward, Cain's rage filled eyes cleared and his hands released Ambrose, who fell to the ground. Surprise and guilt quickly seeped into the blond man's face.
Lavender managed to wrap her arms around her friend to keep him from crashing to the ground, instead bringing them both down, blood speckling her dress and her face. "Oww!" Ambrose's own hands lanced up into the bloodied curls, grabbing onto them as if to pull them out as anguish spread over his face.
Only DG's quick thinking reminded her that she could use her magic to heal.
"Ow! Geeze that smarts! I feel like I just got hit by… well I don't know what I got hit by, but I'll be sure to tell someone when I remember."
The voice that came from the post-op Glitch was, well, it was distinctly Glitch flavored. The tone, the lilting sound of his voice, the almost cheerful way he spoke as if he was trying to please everyone.
"Euhm… Queen… while I appreciate the fact that you may have been trying to comfort me in my time of need, I'm not sure that we should be on the ground. Ya know, people will start to talk, and when they do I don't want to be the one they come after. I've already been labeled as a… How did the surgery go? Oh well it couldn't have gone very well, seeing as I am still babbling and rambling on very much like my old self, but that can't be right, my head feels much heavier." Glitch pulled back from Lavender, shaking his head he pushed his hair back, and with a laugh and a smile, he looked up, "Hello. I'm Gl-Gli-G…what? Did I do something wrong?"
---- ---- ---- ----
"No… no… It does not make any sense. They said the rebrainment was a success. We have had this done before with the men that were found to be innocent and they have had no problems. This should not be happening."
Lavender was pacing back and forth, in front of a fire-warmed wall of colorful tapestries. After Ambrose's surgery, they had relocated to a more private room. Ahamo had chosen a prized spot in the room for Azkadellia, it being an overstuffed couch that was close enough to receive the heat from the fireplace .
Glitch was unnerved by the fact that Cain kept staring at him. He mentioned that it was giving him the shivers, and Cain had rolled his eyes and looked away, just as confused as everyone else was.
Cain had just found out that the family he remembered asking his lovely wife about such a long time ago, had been standing right next to him since being unlocked from the tin prison. If that wasn't surprising enough, Cain did not yet find himself wanting to be in the company of Ambrose again.
The Tin Man thought little of the Ambassador. Strangely, not the same could be said about Glitch. In a matter of a few days Glitch had managed to make an odd shaped spot in Cain's heart, and the attraction he felt for the empty-headed fool was as apparent as night and day. Cain was also sure that Glitch was interested in him, if Cain went by his actions. He couldn't even begin to imagine what Ambrose thought of him, but Cain was sure it wasn't complimentary. Shaking his head, trying to release such thoughts from his mind, Cain did his best to draw his focus back into the room, and its occupants.
Lavender had yet to change her clothes, and the blood-speckled dress was causing a sense of unease within her family. Her daughters and husband had arranged themselves on the couch. Cain was standing by the fireplace looking away from the entire group, Raw was sitting in a single chair, listening to everyone but making sure to protect the young Kaalm, and that protection extended to not letting Kaalm learn about what was going on.
Raw had discovered that the young Seer had a habit of pushing himself to his limits and ignoring when he needed a rest. He was sure that it had something to do with knowing Lilow had fought till the end, even if that end had come prematurely.
The only one missing from amongst them was Glitch.
It was a unanimous decision that Glitch was to head into his room and take a bath, there was only so much blood a person could stand to see in one day. It had taken both DG and Lavender to convince him to go to his room, and Cain to walk him to it since it seemed that the synapses Glitch always talked about were misfiring every two seconds.
The Zipper Head had forgotten what he was saying five times within a five-minute span. Glitch had introduced himself to Cain twice only to realize who he was in the middle of said introduction; he had then followed Cain out of his room like a puppy almost all of the way back to the family room before Cain had realized it, and took him back for his bath -- again.
Things became strained for a moment when the absentminded man had looked at Cain with worry; the Tin Man still had the blood on his face from his kiss with Ambrose. When Glitch saw the blood on Cain he had gotten nervous, thinking someone had attacked, or that in his lack of memory that he had done it himself. In one of Glitch's more coherent moments he stepped up and cleaned Cain's face.
In total, it took Cain three more tries before he had gotten Glitch to stay in his room. When Cain had finally been able to find his way to the room in which the royal family had gathered, Lavender had just begun her rant about the impossibility of the situation. Cain had been quiet since then, but now he felt the need to speak up. To be the voice of reason about Glitch almost wasn't Cain's place, but no one else was speaking about the inevitable fall of the once intelligent man. Deciding that glares from Lavender, and DG was a small price to pay for letting his own thoughts be heard, Cain spoke up.
"We have to come to terms with the fact that something about the surgery didn't work… maybe that brief moment of Ambrose was supposed to be for your goodbyes. Perhaps, his brain is permanently injured. It was overworked due to Azka--the Witches machine. Couldn't that have happened?" Not moving from his spot, Cain spoke as if he was only half-interested.
In reality he was the very opposite of that, Cain was dying to know what had gone wrong.
What was going on?
Maybe Lurline was laughing at the man known as Wyatt E. Cain from her lofty lair. The mythical woman had offered a branch of knowledge, a kinship that he was missing, and that he needed, and decided to snatch it away. Cain would have cursed the Fairy Queen, but some still believed that she was alive and watching them, and he figured that things in his life weren't going very well so he shouldn't make it worse by angering anyone.
Did Cain even want Ambrose around? Ambrose did offer up that small amount of knowledge that Adora was his sister, but there was a distinct hush-hush air around that information, and Cain suspected that the admittance was the only information he was going to get.
"No," the young Princess' words the suddenly disturbed the Tin Man's thoughts, turning his attention solely towards her, "you can't say that Mr. Cain! Glitch would be so upset if he found out what we are thinking, that he might not ever remember who he was." DG's voice held none of her usual sarcasm, she was genuinely concerned for the person who was quickly becoming one of her best friends.
DG liked to consider Cain a friend, but he was like a father figure or a very protective uncle. Cain had gone through so much that, while Deedg enjoyed his company, there was still a barrier between them that only let that companionship go so far.
"Glitch has been dreaming of having his brain back since I met him! We can't just take that dream away from him. He's fought for it as much as we all fought to get to this point. Would you just take me away from my family because you think there is something wrong? No, you'd help me and we'd figure out what to do. We should do the same for Glitch." It was clear to see how adamant DG was about the issue.
Lavender stopped her pacing, took a seat next to her daughter and grabbed her hands, violet eyes rimmed with tears. The Queen was taking in the idea that putting the brain back into Glitch's empty head wasn't a solution, just as hard as her daughter was.
Lavender would give her daughter the world, she held the matching half of her life, her soul, and being so close all Lavender felt was overwhelming love. Even if the Queen had decided that the best course of action would be the permanently take the brain out, Lavender would have reconsidered after DG's words. "My Angel, we will do whatever we can, but it might be better this way. If Glitch cannot remember what Ambrose knows he will be safer?"
It had been a discussion with her other daughter, Azkadellia, who was most definitely the jewel of her father's eyes, that convinced Lavender that it was better that Glitch not remember this truth. "I did not want to be the one to tell you, My Love, but your dear sister has told me that there were more than just the simple reasons that we believed as to why they took his brain. There is knowledge that Ambrose has that could save or damn the entire O.Z. I have known that this knowledge existed since Glitch began his experiments, but I do not know what this knowledge is." Lavender kissed DG's hands, trying to soften the blow.
Dorothy Gale's bright blue eyes were wide with confusion as she watched her mother, tears beginning to fall.
"But it's Glitch, he has a right to know this information, what if something happens… what if what he knows is what we need to know." DG pulled her hands away, running them through her hair, "Don't you get it!? It's NOT FAIR! How can we even be considering that he shouldn't know his own mind?! It should be up to him. If there is a problem with his brain we should be fixing it, not trying to figure out a way to keep him from his memories. What if… what if..."
"He knows about the Eastern Witch and where to find her!!" The voice came out from nowhere, yelled as if it needed to be said before the speaker exploded.
Even as she spoke, Azkadellia was trying to stop herself, her hands were raised as if she was about to cover her mouth. A blush formed around her face, dark eyes reflecting the flames that burned in the fireplace. All attention had turned towards her.
Lavender's violet eyes quickly looked at the other occupants in the room. Her beloved husband looked as if someone had just told him his food had been poisoned, and Raw looked about ready to growl, or attack… or flee? She threw away the latter idea, knowing he had found the courage he had desperately searched for. DG just looked very confused, not understanding the idea of an Eastern Witch.
Cain's expression was impossible to read, and that put Lavender on edge.
Ahamo grabbed Az's hand, squeezing her fingers, wanting her to talk. "The Western Witch often talked about it, she was always thinking about her sister. Her sister was part of her plan. The Sorceress wanted to bring darkness using the eclipse, magnifying her power, and then she was going to extract the information from Ambrose's brain and go after her sister. She kept saying that there was more that he knew, but there was something keeping the knowledge from her. Every time she started to think about what else Ambrose knew she'd loose her train of thought."
Az's voice fell, becoming quiet, it was the most she had said since the eclipse, and it put a visible strain on her face.
Now that the information was known it was as if there was a darkness looming over them. The only movement was DG shaking her head in confusion. "I don't understand who the Eastern Witch is? I didn't even know that there was more than one witch." She looked towards the faces of her friends, of her family, towards Azkadellia, who seemed to be the expert on witch information, if only because of her time as The Sorceress.
Thankfully, it was Ahamo who came to his Azkadellia's rescue, truly getting sick with the questions continuously fired at her, Az needed a rest from it.
"DG, this… it's one whirlwind of a story… it is old too. Your mother told it to me when we first met, and I'm sure that the only other person that could tell it better is Ambrose, as he told Lavender. But I'll guess I'll try, it doesn't hurt to give you're a more concise story without all the extras they'd put in it." He ignored the look he got from Lavender for that comment, "During the time of the Ancients, Dorothy Gale first arrived to the O.Z in a House. She fell right out from the sky and landed on top of the Wicked Witch of the East –"
"You are skipping much of the story, Ahamo," Lavender interrupted.
"Right. I should start by saying that before Dorothy came there were four Witches. Two good, two bad. The bad ones from the East and West. The Western Witch you've had a chance to deal with, she was power hungry. Yet, most considered the Eastern Witch more terrible than her sister. She never wanted power, because she already had it. What she liked to do was torture. She liked to hear people scream for no reason; she liked to put people in impossible situations only so they could fail. The worst part about her was that she was easily bored." Ahamo paused for a moment to gather a breath. "Boredom does awful things to people. It makes them vicious and vindictive – jealous because people around them aren't bored. She didn't have a plan to rule the O.Z. like her sister, thus no one could ever imagine what the Eastern Witch would do. Kill, destroy homes, steal babies out of cribs and toss them into the Nothing desert… laughing as their parents grieved."
"I don't understand. If Ambrose knows where she is, isn't that a good thing? We can go and defeat her. It's that much easier, we know what we are looking for, and we'll know where to look. We've already defeated the one witch. Let's go and defeat this one!" DG stopped talking when she realized her companions were staring at her. "What? Why are you all looking at me like that?" She would have continued with her speech, she was ready to go, already addicted to adventure. "What!?"
"Don't know how Ambrose knows." Raw had been deathly quiet the entire time, feeling out everyone's emotions and thoughts with his heart.
Raw was becoming one of the strongest Seer's of his lifetime and his empathetic skills seemed to be improving daily. He should have been scared, but Raw had learned that if he tried things and stood up his fears that they weren't as awful as they seemed. Raw had also been through hell and back, almost a meal several times, threatened with death at the hands of the Sorceress, and he had seen his own kind murdered.
Raw had grown to accept these humans as his family. He would do anything to protect them, even if it meant breaking their hearts… or hurting them for a moment because it would help them in the end. That was real courage, being able to say no to the ones you loved, to stand up to your friends even if all you wanted to do was comfort them.
The Queen was a strong woman, but she wasn't courageous, she would never be able to say no to her daughters, especially DG. Cain was strong, courageous, and a good man, but he was having more difficulty following his heart now than he ever had. DG had too much courage, and in the end it was going to make her foolish, much like Kaalm, much like Jeb. Taking a breath, Raw's tail twitched with slight irritation as he saw the defense building up in the large blue eyes of DG, and instead of answering her question he looked towards Cain, who was worrying an earlobe.
"Raw is right. That's why your mother is thinking that it might be a better idea if Ambrose's memories are locked away for good. How much would you hate it if you found out that the reason he knows where that witch is, is because he is in cahoots with her," Cain uttered this statement with his usual, frank, drawl.
"That would never happen!" It was Lavender who spoke up so loudly, "I have known Ambrose since we were children! I almost mar- I am sorry Ahamo, this was when we were young and foolish, and still teenagers- I almost married him! I would trust him with my life, There is no way that he is in league with a creature like her!" Her eyes were sparking, her nostrils flaring, and her hair seemed to be gaining static electricity, Lavender looked like a cat about ready to scratch somebody's eyes out.
Cain was just as ready with a reply, and he was unhappily disturbed to learn that Ambrose and Lavender were close enough to consider matrimony. Turning away from the fireplace, he squared off against the Queen.
"Then you find a plausible reason to why he knows where she is! Do you think I like that idea? Do you think I'm happy about this?! I just found out that he is my Brother-In-Law! Do you think I want to find out the same day that he planned on bringing the Wicked Witch of the East back to power?"
Ambrose had once told DG that he knew her mother when she was like her, a spitfire. Before the thou's and the thy's, that she used to go off looking for adventure, and that she wouldn't take flack from anybody. As Lavender glared at Cain, and he back at her, it was more apparent than ever that it was true.
Raw decided to save the situation, "Maybe, when house fall, cast spell."
There it was, the knowledge that they had been waiting for. Providing them with a glimmer of hope that Ambrose, before the surgery, would have told them about the Eastern Witch a long time ago, if he had been able to.
Spells were strange. Some spells could happen immediately, giving instant gratification to the person casting it. Others took time. Some spells could wait for years, decades, centuries. Then there were curses, dangerous things that caused a proverbial can of worms to open.
It was a terrifying idea that while the house had fallen out of the sky to land on the Wicked Witch of the East, she'd lived long enough to cast a spell that would allow for her resurrection. It could be possible that someone would unknowingly carry the knowledge of that spell allowing her to make a triumphant return. It could only happen if the spell was dormant nature, like a disease that no one, not even the afflicted one knew about.
In the land of the O.Z, with forms of magic flying every which way, many things that were truth didn't often need to be reiterated verbally. But why of all people would it be Ambrose that was afflicted? What if Glitch had released the spell accidentally during his wanderings?
This time DG sought out Lavender's hands and held them.
Cain spared a glance towards Raw, and before anything else could be said, "I'm getting Glitch." He was out of the room as fast as he could get. There was foreboding feeling in the room, and the Tin Man had seen looks like that before on the faces of his superiors' right before they sent him on a mission that probably meant certain death.
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"Whose room – Oh— this is my room, and that's my picture right there."
Cain had left Glitch in his room a while ago, leaving him more confused than he had been in months.
Glitch felt as if he was waking up from a long sleep only to be told that everything he knew was backwards and that he had to learn how to walk on his feet.
As quickly as the thought came, it went and then came again. Glitch was a broken record, and had no idea.
Though Glitch's mind always reset itself, it had never been much of a problem before he had met DG, now it was a very big problem. He always remembered what happened, and that was the important part, although it took him a while. Glitch was afraid that one day he would completely forget who he was.
Wait, why he was standing here right now?
"You do know you are running around in circles."
"Hello? My name is Glitch, have we met?" But there was no answer to his question, it was surprisingly quiet.
He spun around and by the time he had finished his circle Glitch had forgotten that he had asked a question.
"Hello? My name is Glitch, have we met?" Yet again there was no answer.
The silence didn't bother him this time, since the next time Glitch was opening his eyes he found himself nude and in the shower.
Before Glitch was consumed with the need to know how he got into the shower, he was distracted and quickly amused by pink water running down the drain. "Oh! That's quite pretty! The water is pink!" With childlike exuberance Glitch grinned, wondering when the Queen had decided to stain the water. It made him think that his skin was going to be all nice and pinky-peach instead of its usual pale complexion. Not that there was something wrong with his pale complexion, Glitch remembered that one time someone had told him that his skin looked like parchment.
Glitch ran his fingers up into his hair, curls tangling. With deft hands he was able to wash his hair without getting soap getting into the zipper this time. Practice makes perfect, and his actions were automated. Letting himself step under the spray of water, the soap washed away while the white noise of water rushing into his ears allowed his mind to clear.
Big bright eyes were looking up at him, smiling broadly as dirty hands reached up, each finger covered in mud, and suddenly squishing his face.
"Addy! Don't play with the red clay like that, it makes a mess."
"But Brosey it's fun! C'mon Brosey! Play with me"
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"You have to keep this a secret… use this, my Ambrose." Red hair flashed around his vision as he felt a hug encircling his shoulders. An overwhelming sadness filled him.
"Addy…"
"Shh… it's all taken care of. We are going to see the Wizard."
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"I owe you one."
"You are a deep well, Glitch."
"Good Morning, Sweetheart."
Bright blue eyes staring straight into his soul, the feel of lips against his own, the sheer force, the rawness of the kiss. Rubbing against each other with fervor, smiling into a kiss. His lips, passion-bitten until blood welled to the surface.
Glitch's pupils dilated as flashes of memory flew through his mind. Those final thoughts though, they left him breathless.
Where was the reset button now? Knowing Glitch's luck with memory he'd start . . . and forget halfway through. Instead, Glitch just turned the cold water on and tried desperately to ignore his hardening flesh. It didn't work as well as he had hoped, but he was able to focus on the fact that the water wasn't pink anymore. The clear water was enough of distraction from the sensual images that it slowly began to lessen his erection. What he remembered next was enough to diminish it completely.
"Maybe I – No, I was covered with blood. My blood turned the water pink."
"You just figured that out now? I knew that about… well, long before now. If you had listened earlier you would have known. I cannot believe that you find that barbarian blond attractive; or that you were entertaining the thoughts of pleasuring yourself in the shower!"
"Hello? Who's there?" Any further questions were cut off by a sudden blinding pain. "Ohh, my head." Reaching to turn off the shower, Glitch stumbled out of the bathing stall, groping for a towel. His skull was pounding behind his eyes, making the task of procuring a towel one of the most difficult things Glitch had done in a while.
Just as he found the towel, everything was suddenly doused by darkness. Glitch should have panicked, most people would have if they had suddenly had their vision disconnected from the world, but there was something oddly familiar about the darkness.
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As he approached the entrance to Glitch's room, Cain found himself too angry to bother knocking and opened the door without thinking. Glitch was standing there, dark curls still wet from the shower, and he was… why was he undressing?
The other man didn't notice that Cain had entered, quite occupied as he tried to unbutton a white shirt while removing a striped one and exposing a swath of creamy skin in the process.
Cain felt his face growing hot as he watched every inch of skin become exposed. Hidden underneath all of those layers was a lithe body. Glitch was thin and didn't have much fat on him, nor much muscle.
Cain swallowed thickly and loudly, the dryness of his mouth made him cough and catch Glitch's attention.
The absent-minded man turned surprised but intelligent eyes towards him. A clipped voice addressed Cain quickly after, "I would prefer to wear something red, or at least something that does not look like it was fed to a cutting machine."
"What?" This wasn't Glitch at standing before him all, it was Ambrose.
The Advisor let the striped shirt fall to the ground as he walked over to the armoire; opening it he batted away the moths that had made it their home for the past 15 years. Ambrose kept one eye on Cain while he searched through the clothes. While at the same time Cain was staring back with an odd questioning expression, having just noticed an odd design on Ambrose's arm.
With quick steps Cain moved forward before the Advisor was able to put on an uneaten red blouse adorned with gold buttons. Taking a note from Glitch's book, he ignored personal boundaries and grabbed Ambrose's bare arm to look at the marking there.
It was a circle with four long triangles coming from each side. One on top, one on bottom, one to the left and one to the right. Between each long triangle was a shorter fatter one. Cain had seen this symbol before, "I know this symbol…"
"That is all well and good. Congratulations, you are able to recognize triangles and circles put together in a uniform shape. As you can tell there are more pressing matters at hand." Ambrose paused to make sure he had the Tin Man full attention. "If I am not mistaken, before you left me in this room I was the person you call Glitch?"
"Yes," Cain bit out, wanting to question the marking more, but knowing he'd be shot down, or given the verbal run-around.
"Obviously, I am not said person, my name is Ambrose, and I would be rather upset if you choose to ignore such a declaration and continued calling me Glitch. It is quite obvious that he holds a friendship with you, seeing as how your eyes light up strangely when you think about him. Do not believe for a moment that I did not notice that, nor the fact that you blu-"
In the middle of buttoning up his shirt, and on a rant that no one was safe from, Ambrose was stopped short when the Tin Man kissed him.
This kiss was different from the first, before Cain was muddled (Ambrose was too, but he wouldn't admit it), and the kiss had been tainted by blood and uneasiness. Now it was as if Mr. Cain knew what he was doing, and was sure of his actions. Ambrose's body was fully aware of what 'The' Wyatt Cain could make him do, and he unwillingly responded to the kiss, leaning up and into the body of stone.
The kiss would have continued, as a questing tongue had convinced Ambrose to part his lips allowing entrance, but his mind came back to him and Ambrose hastily pulled away. A lesser would have punched Cain directly in the face, and finished with a sweeping spin knocked that would have knocked Cain's legs out from under him. But being a more dignified man, Ambrose pushed Cain away, possibly not as gently as he could have, emphasizing his point.
"What is wrong with you?! I am a man of intelligence, not the nearest toy you can use to get over whatever midlife crises you are going through." Ambrose finished his buttons, and hand-combed wet curls quickly. "Tin Man… if you were listening to me at all, you would have realized that what I am going through is addressed in the notes I left, if anyone bothers to read my notes."
Cain remained still, pale eyes seemingly empty.
"Move you lumbering blond beast. I have matters to discuss with the Queen." Ambrose moved towards the door, boots clicking ever so slightly against the hard floor. Pausing for a moment, he rolled his eyes and stepped from the room only to halt a few steps from the door to wait for the ex-Tin Man.
For a moment Cain just stood there, eyes trailing from Glitch's clothes to Ambrose's wardrobe, until he was staring up at the ceiling, trying to understand his own actions.
Cain had entered the room only to be faced with very nice body, not even minding that the top half of the torso was sans voluptuous breasts. Then he spotted the tattoo that was so familiar to him that Cain felt like he had seen it every day of his life. Next thing the Tin Man knew, heat from that body was burning his hand, and Ambrose was speaking.
All Cain could think was that the Advisor spoke to much, and then he was capturing those mobile lips.
Ambrose didn't respond nearly as passionately or quickly as Glitch did, and before it had begun the kiss was over and Cain was being pushed away and yelled at.
There was something wrong with the whole situation, something was wrong between Glitch and Ambrose, and something was wrong with himself as well. Cain knew he was using the Gl-Ambro-… the other man… in his grieving process, but he couldn't stop himself.
Had Cain changed so much after being in that Iron Box for about 15 years that he didn't have the self control he needed? Allowing the question slip away, Cain walked over to the door, and realized that, for whatever reason, Ambrose had waited for him.
Together, the two men walked in silence to meet the Queen.
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With hand over her eyes, Lavender was trying her best to regain her composure. DG was not helping any by snickering after Cain had almost run out the door.
This whole debacle was frustrating. What people failed to realize was that Ambrose was Lavender's best friend, and while Glitch had quickly earned a place in all of their hearts, he was not Ambrose. He did not have the same intelligence or insight that she desperately needed.
The O.Z was in shambles and Lavender did not know how to start undoing the damage wrought by the Sorceress.
"DG, my angel, will you stop snickering? I know that out of context, the situation is probably dreadfully humorous, but I am terribly worried. I feel another storm rapidly approaching." Before Lavender's statement was question, she raised her hand to pause the words, "Metaphorically speaking, do not worry my darling, you do not have any other siblings that I have yet to inform you about that are going to appear from another world."
Just as Lavender finished speaking, the door opened and presented a well-dressed Glitch.
Rising to her feet, Lavender approached Glitch with a smile on her face. Behind him Mr. Cain entered. The supposedly absentminded man bowed, "My Queen… before you address me as Glitch, let me inform you that I am Ambrose. I believe people may be having some difficulty in telling us apart." Straightening, he saw the confusion on all of their faces, and the hesitation on Lavender's as she didn't know if the statement about telling Glitch and Ambrose apart was serious or if her Advisor was trying to make a joke.
Sighing, a touch of a smile came to Ambrose's lips, one that Lavender knew well.
"Before you begin to fire question at me, as no doubt you all will do, as it is quite obvious that while people read over my notes in the process of how to complete such surgery, they dutifully ignored my notes concerning the side effects. I will explain what is wrong. It was found that when rebraining a person who had only been recently debrained, it was a successful eighty-three out of one hundred times, successes being in majority. I discovered that the longer debrainment lasted the lower the success rate of patients fully recovering."
Ambrose paused for a moment, letting the information sink in.
" I was sure that the Queen was fully aware of the fund being used to compensate a person who suffered the effects of such an error, thus knowing about the issues that would arise with the surgery. But within the midst of study, and through extensive notes that were all available in my desk at Fen Aqua, I discovered a startling detail that should not have gone unchecked. At some point I deduced that eventually a debrained individual would create a separate personality if left without their brain for the extensive amount of time, and that if ever rebrained, they would indeed be host to two personalities. I imagine that the unexplainable side-effect is more commonly referred to as dissociative identity disorder. "
"This means…" DG spoke up, not afraid to admit she wasn't following what Ambrose was saying.
Before Ambrose could address DG's question, Cain spoke up first, "It means, Princess, that we have a problem. In fact we have a rather large problem, a glitch, so to speak."