After taking care of what that horrid dream had started he'd spent more than an hour standing under a freezing cold shower, leaning on the wall and praying for strength as the water rained down on him.

It wasn't his strongest moment, he'd admit that. The thought of finding DG and finishing what he'd envisioned was too tempting for comfort.

With a sigh he'd finally managed to dress and drag himself out the door. His face was a lovely shade of infuriated crimson, his frustration at a peak as he hurriedly made his way toward Glitch's library seeking answers. The presence of Nura in his dream only confirmed his fears of a link between his little interlude with the Princess and the pendant he'd given her.

How could he have been so rash? It wasn't like him to do something so irresponsible and spur of the moment. He should have done a massive amount of research before that charm had come anywhere near DG. Who was he to trust these feelings? They could be a trap. He could be putting her at risk here and the thought alone made him even angrier with himself.

This damned magic was to blame. He needed to find a way to take it off, to turn it off, to make it stop forcing him to …do things…that he wasn't ready for…His eyes glazed over at the memory of the taste of DG in his dream…the sounds she'd made, the way she'd been so eager for his touch. A growl of frustration left his lips, echoing off the marble and causing a few of the guards posted in the hall to jump. He didn't care, recalling the dream made him recall the millions of questions he had about it.

What had it been exactly? A horrible combination of all the things he'd seen and felt over the course of the day? Oh, how happily he would have clung to that belief…

He tried for a moment to force himself to buy into it. He had wanted to kiss DG earlier that night, and as much as he'd love to deny it, he'd seen in her eyes that she'd wanted it, too. It would have been reasonable for his mind to play out a scenario stemming from such a surprising (and never EVER to be repeated) event…plus he had learned of Nura and the origins of the pendant in the morning, so maybe the image of her had been an invention of his own overactive imagination.

But hundreds of stark naked, winged Alishas? o.0

Alright, come on, even he had to admit it was just plain weird for him to be picturing such a thing.

He couldn't explain that part away no matter how he hard he tried. Her mischievous nature was one thing - he wasn't able to rationalize how his mind had taken the giant leap to the image of her as some sort of mythical creature. The questions as to where such an image could have come from were making him even more aggravated, easily breeding distrust in him given his current state of vexation.

Maybe she was something more dangerous than a loudmouth...the suspicions said and his features tensed in worry. Maybe she was up to more than simply meddling in DG's appearance and causing the trend of new relationships in the palace...

Wyatt didn't want to believe it, especially not with how closely she'd allied herself with his son, but something was nagging at him about her now. He was always one to trust his instincts about people and he couldn't ignore the sense that he wasn't seeing the whole picture when it came to her.

He ground his teeth together angrily as he turned the corner and abandoned all attempts of trying to chalk the images up to being just a dream. It wasn't working - there was no use in telling himself that it wasn't linked to the magic of the charms in some way.

But why would Nura have said that DG belonged to him now? What the hell were these pendants doing? Had he unwittingly purchased some sort of love spell? He trembled at the thought. He had enough on his plate with these damnable feelings sprouting in the darkest corners of his mind; he wasn't prepared for any magical meddling to make them any worse for him...

"Head-case, you in here?" He called as he pushed the doors, only to stop dead in his tracks.

His mouth fell open in shock, a feeling of dread coiling in his gut as he took in the scene before him.

There, seated around one of the tables with Glitch right at the head of it, were the maids.

Every single one of them.

For a few seconds dozens of stunned faces stared back at him, forks stopped inches from mouths, pens froze mid-scribble. Tumbleweeds rolling across the scene of this standoff would have completed the moment.

They were eating breakfast in here for some reason, a few of them guiltily tucking notepads beneath their plates upon seeing him. He scanned the dozens of sets of eyes that were avoiding his at all costs, finally managing in a thoroughly suspicious tone, "What the hell is going on in here?"

A voice reached him from the crowd and his heart raced. Oh no, not now...he wasn't ready to face her now...

"Just eating breakfast, Mr. Cain." DG said with a smile as she leaned forward enough to be seen past the others. There was something in the way she was looking at him today, the slightest hint of color in those cheeks...he said a silent prayer that she hadn't had a similar vision in the night.

The head-case gave Wyatt a nervous smile and wave and he narrowed his eyes on him. Something was definitely up. He felt like he'd just unintentionally walked into the war room of the enemy. After another moment of tense silence he shook his head to jumpstart his brain. "Well everybody needs to take their breakfast elsewhere, now. I need to talk to Glitch and as I'm still not sure exactly what is going on in here…you'll understand that I'm not too upset to be interrupting."

"Interrupting what?," came that familiar voice of feigned innocence from behind him.

Wyatt spun on her quickly, leaving her to stare up at him in surprise as she nearly choked on the piece of bread she'd just taken a bite of.

"And you..." He began, glaring down at her suspiciously.

"What the hell did Ido?" Alisha demanded with a full mouth, looking around the room of stunned faces for an explanation. Even DG had nothing.

"I don't know what you're up to, but I'm going to find out...." He said in a low tone, his finger pointed at her in accusation. His eyes took in her clothing and his scowl became markedly more severe. "And...go put on more clothes!"

She stared at him as if he'd completely flipped his lid, her brow arching damned near to her hairline as she looked down at her attire and found nothing wrong with it. In fact it was just a normal OZ house dress, covered just about everything from her cleavage to her ankles.

"Jeb - your pops is wigging over here. I think somebody spiked his coffee - he's staring at me like I'm fluttering around the palace naked or something!" Alisha said in disbelief.

To her great dismay that choice of words brought him a step closer, his features suddenly grave. "Why 'fluttering'?" He asked in a dangerous tone that made her eyes widen as she struggled to swallow.

Jeb was now crossing the room to break them up while the others stared in shock.

"Come again?" She asked, looking up at him and wondering how he seemed to make himself taller when angry.

"Why would you use that word?" He demanded.

"It's just a figure of speech, Tin Man. Did you hit your friggin head or something?" She shot back, her tone bordering on anger now as she stood up straighter. She hadn't done anything to bring about this line of questioning and that was all she needed to know. If he wanted to argue then so be it. "And what's got your gun-belt all up in a bunch this morning, anyway?"

Wyatt had just started to open his mouth and let hell fall from his lips, his face red and eyes impossibly blue...he was looking for a reason to vent at this point, her curious choice of words when he was already this suspicious of her was serving to open the gates….but Jeb knew that look.

"Whoa, Dad! Easy!" Jeb called out as he quickly stepped between the two, putting his hands on his father's chest and staring up into his face, asking with concern in a hushed tone, "What's the matter with you?"

DG was climbing from her seat, eyeing Wyatt in shock as she approached cautiously…but he didn't see it. He was still glaring down at the scowling blonde troublemaker past his son's shoulder, slowing his breathing before looking into the eyes of Jeb the dream-interrupter.

"Everybody…out." He ground out mere inches from his son's face, sidestepping Jeb and pointing over at Glitch as he stalked toward him. "You, upstairs. We need to talk."

Glitch yelped as he was snagged by an arm and hauled toward the staircase casting pleading looks at the girls over his shoulder.

"What was that all about?" Jen asked in a huff as she watched them go.

"I don't have a clue." Jeb said honestly, looking back at Alisha as she glared up at the retreating form of his father. "Hey, I'm sure he didn't mean it to sound like that…" He soothed, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "He's probably just…Alisha?" He said in disbelief as she walked away from him, shaking her head as she exited the library.

Chelsea and Jessie were at her sides in an instant, asking her if she wanted some chocolate and ice-cream to make it all better as they cast looks of disapproval back up at Wyatt.

Erin arched a condemning brow, her jaw flexing impatiently as she remained. She waited for Glitch's pleading look to fall on her before pointing at her eyes with two fingers spread, then at his and back again, mouthing for him to find out what in the name of GALE was going on before walking out the door.

DG could barely make herself move. First she'd been given this phenomenal vision of Wyatt finally giving in to her, could still taste his tongue in her mouth…then the first meeting of the SPCA with its newest member, Glitch, had been walked in on and almost discovered for what it truly was by him…then he freaks out on Alisha and stalks away without a single explanation? She could barely even look at Nita as she led her out into the hall whispering that it would be just fine.

"Cain? Are you oka–" But that's as far as Glitch got before the Tin Man had spun on him, too.

"Where are those books, Glitch? We've got reading to do." Cain said in a short tone, pushing his way over to the table and finding the heavy volume still sitting among the stacks.

Glitch stared at him with worry creasing his face, wringing his hands and wishing at least some of the girls could have stayed behind, at least Rose…

"Wyatt, what's wrong wi–"

Cain slammed the book down, glaring over at the head-case in frustration as the sound echoed through the room. It was a long moment before he could even form words.

"I screwed up, okay?" He finally said, his features tensing painfully at the admission. "I went back to that damned magic shop and bought the pendant of the Charge for DG. I gave it to her; put it on around her neck and do you know what happened? I watched the little thing flicker as if a spell was being weaved. And last night? I had….a dream…" He looked down at the pages of strange characters desperately, pleading for one of them to look familiar to him.

Glitch approached him cautiously; slowly trying to get to the book since he knew Wyatt couldn't read any of it. "What kind of a…dream?" He asked quietly, flinching and taking a step back when Cain's red face turned to him in anger…

But before his very eyes that rage receded, slowly fading away to reveal what it had truly been concealing…

Fear.

They stared at one another for a moment in silence, Glitch awestricken by the rush of emotion he could see swirling behind those blue eyes. Disappointment, worry, desperation, regret, frustration…all of it boiling down to absolute and unbridled terror that he'd unwittingly unleashed something that would bring harm to DG.

Wyatt ran a hand over his face and sank down into a chair beside the table, looking defeated as he confided the details of the dream to someone he avoided calling, but in actuality was, his friend.

Glitch didn't say a word as he chewed the inside of his cheek thoughtfully, his eyes carefully taking in the concern that was etched into every line of Wyatt's face until he'd finished recanting the visions that had plagued him in the night.

He stayed quiet for a while after all was said, playing it through his minds and finally asking, "Naked with wings, huh?"

Wyatt nodded, seemed he wasn't the only one that could find the presence of Nura to be understandable and disturbingly the idea of Wyatt and DG "kissing" (since that's as much information as he had given up) hadn't earned as much as a raised brow from the head-case.

"Alright, let's get to reading then…" Glitch conceded, pulling up a chair. He didn't want to lay all the cards on the table, knew that Wyatt would get defensive if he told him everything but he had to at least put his worries to rest. "Listen, Cain…I know you're worrying that this is some sort of love spell – but it's really not. It's simply what…well, what Nura told you it was. These charms are a link to her magic, that's what is giving you the ability to feel when DG is in trouble. And her saying that DG belongs to you? I…may have an explanation for that…" He said, his eyes avoiding Wyatt's at all costs for that last part.

Cain tilted his head to the side, leaning his forearms on his knees and bracing for the worst.

"She might mean that DG is 'yours' because she is 'your' Charge….or it could be that she thinks history is repeating itself. You see…Nura and Othniel were lovers, as it turns out…." Glitch said, continuing to avert his eyes as Cain's mouth dropped open.

"When were you going to share that bit of information?" He asked in disbelief.

"I knew you'd get all weird about it so I left it out." Glitch confessed and squinted, waiting for a slew of curses to erupt from the blonde at the end of the table. He was surprised to find Cain's features instead thoughtful, his lips pursed together as he thought through what he was hearing. With a sigh of relief Glitch continued. "The Charge pendant was created by Nura, but you already knew that much. What is news is that when she created these charms it was just one strand in a web of many spells she had to unleash to protect herself and her children."

Wyatt looked up at those words, the slightest tinges of concern for the white witch of his dreams evident in his expression.

"I had to stop reading because this text keeps making reference to words for items of magic that I'm not familiar with; I'll have to find their meaning so that's where we can begin today. Apparently…let me see if I can find it…" His finger scanned the symbols as Cain dragged his chair closer. "Here it is, 'to battle the darkness the woman of white brought into being the na'hala'can'tien' I have no idea what that is." Glitch said in disappointment. "But whatever it is it must have done the trick. There's a lot of mention about the na'hala'can'tien 'driving back the darkness and so that the light could prevail'. Sounds like a tool or instrument of some type." He stood and wrung his hands, his eyes scanning the library. "Give me a few minutes." He said, wandering away and leaving Cain to stare at the unfamiliar text.

At least twenty minutes had passed as he moved shelf by shelf, pulling out books of various sizes in search of anything that could help. He was starting to feel overwhelmed by the task already. This could take weeks. "You know, it's a shame we can't share this with anyone, Cain. Having another set of eyes to help out would really speed this –"

"What in the…" Cain breathed and Glitch stopped, turning back to find Wyatt staring down at the book in shock.

"What is it?" Glitch asked, hurrying back to the table. "Cain?" He said, unsure of the way the Tin Man's mouth was hanging open in astonishment.

There, hand on the pendant, Cain sat staring down at the ancient language…watching the symbols on the page glimmer and shift in his perception into words that he could comprehend.

In your hour of greatest need…

"Holy…" Wyatt said in awe and swallowed hard. "I think you've got your second set of eyes, head-case." He said in an unsure tone, looking up at Glitch in confusion.

Glitch smiled. "I'm beginning to really like that pendant, Cain." He placed a few books on the table. "Here, just look for that weird symbol there and…"

"Na'hala'can'tien…Glitch…it's not a weird symbol to me..." Wyatt said as his eyes widened, his voice even more concerned now, it was downright panicked.

"That's wonderful – so what does it mean?" Glitch asked, looking down at the text over Wyatt's shoulder.

"It means…" He said, swallowing somehow past his concern. "The winged ones…"

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Ooohhh.... Evil, evil cliffy LOL
The plot bunny for Glitch joining the SPCA was provided by Isa, aka Queen Isabella ;) Thanks babe!