Bryson kept his head in his hand as he rubbed his hair, sighing in defeat.
Suddenly, the sound of his cage being opened startled him and caused him to jump.
He jerked his head up to see two guards opening his cage and looking down at him. Rabadan standing in the middle of them. But he also noticed someone else. It was Laura.
Don't tell me she bought into his shit.. he thought.
"Thought I'd pay you a special visit. Are you ready?" Rabadan teased with a grin.
"I think he's ready, baby." Laura cooed, disgusting Bryson.
Rabadan laughed and bent down to kiss Laura.
"I can't believe you actually sided with him.." he spat at Laura.
She simply smirked.
"Take him to the crowd. Make sure the girl, the monkey, and Glinda stay." Rabadan commanded to guards.
They didn't say a word as they rushed in the cell, picking him up roughly and dragging him out of the room.
His heart pounded as he feared for the worst.
Was he gonna die? Was this when he'd watch his friends be tortured? Why was Rabadan keeping those three here?
He felt so helpless as he was carried away. They brought him into a door behind the stairs, the guards yanking it open. It was dark out. He was shocked as he looked around. To his left, there was a huge wooden stage that hard a curtain on it, with a crowd of people, some tied up. He could see people of all races and then looked back, noticing different people being carried out of the same room, saddened and anxious looks on their faces.
The guards forced him further and shoved him on the ground, and suddenly, they forced his arms together and he could feel himself being tied up roughly with a rope. He groaned and was forced back up, the guards forcing him to stay, the position he was in causing him a lot of discomfort. The guards forced him back up, making slightly less uncomfortable.
He looked around as he witnessed tons of other people being forced down and tied up. It was a horrible sight. This was almost everyone in Oz. And Bryson knew that something bad was gonna happen on that wooden stage.
Several minutes passed by. He wanted to see his friends, he ached to know what was happening with them.
Eventually, he noticed Rabadan walk on the stage. Bryson craned his head up to get a better look at him.
Rabadan chuckled as he walked on the stage.
"Well, here we are! All of Oz practically on their knees for me. Look at all of you. You're all broken. No hope in your eyes. Now all of you see! This place isn't perfect and it's possible to break! But... I haven't completely proved my point just yet!"
Next, two guards on each side pulled the curtains up.
As the curtains opened, it revealed the Scarecrow on his knees, a completely glum and absolutely defeated look on his face. Bryson shook his head at the sight.
Suddenly, Rabadan snapped his finger and a guard rushed up, handing him the torch.
Oh no no no no...
Fire and straw certainly were never a good combination.
"And now to show you all that your precious king isn't as high and mighty as you think."
Rabadan started to put the torch on Scarecrow. Bryson just couldn't let that happen. He couldn't. He didn't know, he didn't know what to do.
Everyone in the audience gasped and cried.
Bryson started to struggle from the guards, but they kept holding him back. He was about to witness the death of a childhood hero and a friend, and he couldn't take that.
But suddenly, the torch went out. Bryson's eyes widened and he smiled a bit, sighing in relief. He wondered where that came from, however. He looked around, as did Rabadan.
Then, someone suddenly appeared on the stage next to Rabadan, causing Scarecrow to gasp and jump, startled and breathing heavy, smiling a bit since he had been saved from his death.
It was Laura!
Rabadan snapped his head back at her and gave a confused look. Bryson looked on. Was she just tricking Rabadan? Did Bryson get through to her?
"Laura... what are you doing?" he demanded, his teeth gritted.
She gave no reply and revealed that she had her own scepeter. Rabadan's eyes widened and she slowly lifted it up. Rabadan quickly lifted up his own.
Her scepeter slowly started form a tiny blue ball from it.
Rabadan gave a shocked expression and then suddenly, a blue ball started to form from his.
Bryson smirked a bit. It looked like Laura realized what Rabadan had been doing!
But Rabadan's blue ball seemed to be growing bigger than Laura's. Bryson shook his head.
No. He couldn't win!
But suddenly, Bryson could hear the faint sound of a metal sound cranking out through the grass.
He turned around.
It was Tin Man!
Bryson grinned at him.
Tin Man smiled back and put a hand over his mouth, signaling Bryson to keep quiet. Bryson nodded and dropped his smile, trying to not seem suspcious.
Bryson noticed Tin Man had a new axe in his hand.
Tin Man slowly lifted the axe up and threw it hard in the air.
Bryson held back his gasp and his eyes widened. The axe slowly began to descend and it suddenly hit Rabadan's scepeter, causing him to drop it.
Bryson grinnd.
"Oh my God.." he gasped out in happiness. This was it. If they had a chance to win, it was now. This was the first time Rabadan's scepeter wasn't being held by him.
As the scepeter fell on the stage, all the audience gasped and seemed to be stricken and shocked with happiness, epsecially Scarecrow.
Laura looked as if she had expected this.
She rushed and bent down, grabbing the scepeter before Rabadan could react. She now had both scepeters in her hand. She gave an angry look and shot out a blue burst from the scepeter, but Rabadan quickly leaped off the stage, dodging it, as he ran off out of sight.
And no one could believe it. What seemed to be an unbeatable monster moments before was now a coward. Laura rushed after him.
The guards holding Bryson's grip loosend as they looked on in shock.
Bryson took the chance he had and he used all his strength to roughly pull away from the guards. He sprinted away towards the back entrance of the castle.
"HEY!" The guards yelled, snapping out of their distraction.
This was it. This was his chance.
He couldn't believe after all hope seemed to be lost, everything suddenly looked bright. He didn't know where Tin Man came from, and when Laura changed, but he was damn glad about it.
The guards rushed after Bryson.
The door was still open.
Bryson sprinted through it and slammed the door shut just before the guards could come in, ultimately slamming it right in their face.
"Ooof!" Bryson heared them groan.
"Phew.." Bryson muttered, glad he had outran them.
He then ran around the castle to search for Dorothy, Finley, Glinda, and anyone else who he hadn't yet seen who could still be captured.
All the guards seemed to be occupied.
He ran around aimlessly, opening doors, peering around the rooms, but with no luck.
He cursed under his breath, but suddenly, as he ran around, he noticed a flight of stairs going downwards beneath one of the doors.
"Bingo... I hope."
He rushed down the stairs and then noticed how darkly lit the enviroment was, causing him to slow down before he tripped and fell.
He carefully and slowly walked down the stair, squinting, trying to make just something out..
He finally made his way down the stairs and slowly walked around, paranoid that something was gonna pop out at him.
He looked around. There were was.. nothing. It was essientally a basement. Spider webs and dust everywhere.
He searched around. It was just a large, empty space.
He kept looking around, and finally noticed something.
He could make out a figure. He very slowly began to approach it, scared of what it might be. As he got closer, he could see that the figure was chained up. It's arms hoisted up with chains all around it.
As he got closer and closer, he gasped.
It was Glida!
He rushed over until he wasn't to far from it.
"G-G-Glinda.. i-is that... is that you?!"
She snapped her head up and the chains moved a bit. She began to groan and cough a few times. She fluttered her eyes.
"Huh.. who... what..." She coughed.
She squinted. "B-Bryson? I-is.. is that y-you?" She asked, tearing up.
"Y-yeah.. y-yes.. it's me, Glinda! It's me! I'm so glad to see you, oh my God! I.. Rabadan... we managed to get his scepeter away."
"Y-you did? You did?" she asked, her voice cracking, causing Bryson to feel so sorry for her.
"Yeah! Yeah.. I.. I gotta get you out of here. I.. don't... I don't know how though." he told her.
She coughed more and tears flowed, and she slowly started to sob.
"G-Glinda?"
She kept sobbing. He couldn't blame her. He worried about what Rabadan could have done with her. And the fact she had been chained up and worried for days. It had to be emotional to see him.
She sniffed, and tried to calm her crying.
"I.. I.. I'm so glad to s-see you.. where... is.. are the others okay?"
"Scarecrow and Tin Man are fine. I don't know where Dorothy and Finley are but I know they're alive. We're gonna beat him. Don't worry." He assured her.
She slowly nodded and tears kept flowing.
"I don't... I don't know where the key to all these chains are. It's one key... but I don't know where it's.. where it's at.." she said between sniffing and choking up.
"Don't worry. One way or another, we're gonna get you out of here."
"Yes we are." A voice called out, startling the both of them. It was Tin Man. He slowly walked towards them.
"Oh, Tin Man..." Glinda choked.
"Hi, Glinda. It's good to see you again." He said with a light hearted smile. He lifted up his axe and slowly smashed through her chains with it until she was finally free, slipping them all off after a good bit of work.
She sobbed once more as he helped her and instantly fell to the floor. She was clearly a bit scarred by all of this. Tin Man picked her up slowly and comforted her.
"It'll be okay.." he assured softly. He looked up at Bryson.
"Go find Dorothy and Finley." Tin Man looked down at his axe and handed it to Bryson.
"Use this to break them out. The door he put them in is surely locked." He told him. "I need to take care of Glinda, alright?"
Bryson nodded and gave him a smile. He slowly took the axe and almost fell. "Whoah!"
It was heavier than he expected.
"Too heavy?" questioned Tin Man.
Bryson composed himself. "I've got it." He smiled.
Bryson began to walk away before Tin Man stopped him.
"Bryson.. if you find them... especially Dorothy... please protect her.. she.. she means a lot to me."
Bryson nodded slowly.
"Me too."
Tin Man gave a smile and nod and Bryson rushed out of the room, finding the steps and quickly running up them.
He rushed out of the room and snapped his head both ways, no guards or anyone to cause him harm in the way.
He continued to rush around each door and look for his dear friends. He looked through every room carefully and there was still no sign of them. So, he decided to rush up the stairs he had been up earlier. He decieded to look around the grey room he had been in earlier, still no sign of them. He looked around, and suddenly, he looked up. There was a string. He gave a curious look. He slowly pulled it, and out popped out another flight of stairs, almost hitting him before he ducked.
The stairs were connected to the wall, it seemed.
"Bingo again.. hopefully."
He lifted up his arm and stretched, reaching the stairs. He of course was never strong, but he gave it all his might. It was difficult, since he had his scepeter in one hand and could only use his other but he eventually was able to hoist himself up and jumped up, landing on the first step, stumbling a bit, falling and catching himself on his hands, dropping the axe.
"Phew.." He grabbed the axe once again.
He looked up and slowly began to climb the stairs. His heart pounded as he made it on top. He looked over and there was another door. He walked up to it and tried to open it, and it was locked. His friends were in there. He could feel it. He knocked on the door.
"Dorothy?! Finley?! Are you in there?!"
"Bryson?!" A voice called out.
He almost cried right there. That was Dorothy. That was her beautiful, soothing, angelic voice.
"Oh thank God.." he said softly. "Dorothy, it's me! Is Finley in there?!"
Dorothy choked up a bit, almost crying.
"Unfortuneately!" Finely called out.
As Bryson teared up a bit, he laughed a bit. And that was his loveable and funny Finley.
"Oh my God, oh my God.. I'm so glad you guys are okay! Listen, I have Tin Man's axe. I'm gonna smash the door open, alright?!"
"Alright!" They both cried out at the same time.
He looked at the axe and wrapped both hands around it. He slowly lifted it up and then slowly started smashing the door with the axe violently, taking out large chunks of the door in the process. Soon, he smashed almost the whole door. He fit himself through the door and Dorothy immediately ran quickly to him, causing him to drop the axe, and hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back, tighter than he had ever hugged anyone in his life. They embraced like they'd lose each other if they let go, and it honestly felt like that could happen at this point. He took in her scent. She still felt, smelled, so beautiful.
"God, I missed you..." Bryson confessed into her hair softly, his voice cracking a bit. Tears fell from his eyes and she cried into his chest. He just wanted to hold her forever, and he never wanted to just kiss those red, plump lips more than ever. But he also had to give attention to his favorite monkey.
They let go and Bryson kneeled down to look at Finley. "And I missed you too! I missed you both so much.."
Finley rushed up to him and wrapped his tiny primate arms around him.
They let go and he looked at him.
"Guys.. we.. we.. we got Rabadan's scepeter away from him!" He announced proudly and excitedly.
"Really?!" Dorothy and Finley asked together.
"Yeah! This woman that Rabadan had enslaved.. she tricked him, and, and Tin Man got his axe, and he threw it, and he dropped the thing, and the woman, her name's Laura, she just picked it up, attacked him, and he just ran away!" He excitedly spat out.
Dorothy and Finley both gasped.
"That's so great!" Finley yelled out.
"It is!" Dorothy agreed, tears still flowing from her cheeks.
"And I found Glinda, Tin Man's taking care of her, and, as you can see, he sent me to get you guys out. There's a good bit to tell you, but I'll just have to get around to that later. I'm just so glad to see you guys!" He told them.
"Oh, I'm so glad she's okay!" Dorothy exclaimed. "What about Scarecrow? Is he okay?"
"Yeah, he's fine." He was going to them about what was about to happen, but decided now was not the time.
They all smiled and the three all hugged each other tightly, and Bryson never felt so lucky to have friends like them.
"I don't know where Rabadan is. Hopefully nothing too bad happened. We better go, though. Come on."
Dorothy and Finley nodded, and Bryson picked the axe back up.
The reuinted trio walked out and rushed down all the flights of stairs.
They eventually made their way down and were in the main hall of the castle, when suddenly, Rabadan teleported in front of them, just mere inches away. Scepeter in hand.
Bryson gave a shocked look and froze, shaking.`
"I thought you said it was taken away..." Finley muttered through his teeth.
"Looks like he's got it back.." Bryson muttered.
Rabadan stared at them all angrily, gritting through his teeth. "It's not over. Nothing is over."