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Dorothy was awoken by the feeling of being dropped on the floor of the palace.
"Thanks Nikko." Dorothy said as her head began throbbing.
Without any response Nikko flew off and Dorothy felt herself being grasped by the wrist and pulled to her feet. She then felt a cup of water get forced into her hands. She quickly downed it and opened her eyes as her vision cleared.
"I don't like the glasses, they fit you, they add to your traits and look nice, but they change you a bit." the jester said.
"Why did you capture me again?" Dorothy asked
"Oh I just wanted you to be at the front of everything, I'm glad Nikko grabbed you and not Rose he's known to and often bungles up sometimes." The jester said as he tied Dorothy's hands behind her back
"You know, I'm not going to ask why you always bother tying me up. You can plainly see I don't have the scepter." Dorothy said turning to face him.
"Good point, pepper?" he asked flicking the wand.
Suddenly a pepper shaker appeared in front Dorothy. It then over turned right over her nose causing her to sneeze loudly.
"Only on eggs." Dorothy said
"I figured, I was just trying to be funny." He said flicking the wand again.
Suddenly the pepper shaker and the rope around her wrists vanished. Dorothy sighed quickly rubbed her nose as it was itching from the pepper.
"Right now, you are not a captive, not till your army gets here, right now, you are either my servant or my guest, I haven't quite decided which." The jester said
"Remember, you aren't your sister, you have your own free will." Dorothy said walking over to the crystal orb that seemed to be causing all the trouble.
"You know what, you're going to get lonely aren't you?" the jester asked curiously.
"I'm not prone to loneliness so long as I have a person to talk to." Dorothy said.
"Well then, shall I take you to my favorite room?" the jester asked chuckling.
"And see a bunch of my friends who have been turned into puppets again?" Dorothy asked
"I take it the next sentence would have been along the lines of 'No thank you'? The jester asked
Dorothy looked at the jester and sighed. She rolled her eyes and walked over to him.
"Fine, I'll come with you, but why?" Dorothy asked curiously
"Give you a choice of some friends, again, no one will come to harm if you behave." The jester said.
Dorothy sighed and then found her wrist being grabbed by the jester as he dragged her out of the room. They walked in the direction that in the normal city would have led to her bedroom. They stopped at a new door just short of it however. Pushing open the door the jester revealed a room filled with row upon row of trophy cabinets.
"All of your friends are near the back." The jester said.
Dorothy sighed and ran along the rows. The first thing that caught her eyes was the cases with Donna and Kelly in them. Next to them were there parents and Eliza. The row behind them contained officer grey, Mr. Alistair and Mr. Pryce. Behind that, Brianna, Chrissy, Caitlyn, and Elena. Behind them, their parents as well as Mr. and Mrs. Upland. First she turned back and placed her hands on Donna and Kelly's cases, they had nothing to do with the jester neither did their parents, Officer grey was really the only one out of all of them who tried to cause any harm to the jester. These were just people who wanted to keep her safe, throwing themselves in the line of fire. She couldn't free them into another line of captivity.
"I can't." Dorothy said as tears began roll down her cheeks
"Can't make a choice?" the jester asked as his voice echoed through the room.
"I can't release them into more captivity." Dorothy said.
"Would you like me to choose for you?" the jester asked curiously.
"No, I'd take this as a punishment again before I release my friends into an even worse captivity than this." Dorothy said retracing her steps.
"Yes well I'm not taking that chance again." The jester said as Dorothy walked up to him.
"Good, less for me, to worry about." Dorothy said wiping tears from her eyes.
The jester said nothing in response. He simply grabbed Dorothy's wrist and led her out of the room.
Meanwhile at Rose's castle.
Alex had just finished packing some things into Dorothy's satchel and had slung it over his shoulder when he turned around to find Ellie and Aislynn standing directly behind him.
"Are you two going to try and stop me?" Alex asked curiously.
"No, we are going with you, all of us are aside from Em and henry since they have to keep their children safe." Ellie replied.
"Rose isn't coming either, not that the jester will let her come to harm." Alex said.
"We know, but to be fair she should be allowed to see him before he gets destroyed." Aislynn said.
"Ace, it's not that I don't agree with you but will the rest of Oz?" Alex asked.
"Alex, next question, do you even have a plan?" Ellie asked.
"I've chatted with Alyssa, Terrance and marshal mallow, they'll come up with the plan." Alex said
"okay, it's a start, but you know as they scepter seems to answer to both you and Dorothy, something I'm still not quite understanding, once you get close to her it will try to locate her on its own you know that right?" Ellie asked curiously.
"Yes, and once she has something to defend herself with the battling can begin." Alex said.
"So basically get close to the emerald city and let the scepter do the rest?" Aislynn asked curiously
"To an extent." Alex said.
"What's the extent?" Mr. Foreman asked walking into the room.
"I don't know I haven't thought of that yet." Alex said strapping his sword to his belt.
"Well that's helpful." Ellie said rolling her eyes.
"Well have you got a better plan?" Alex asked as he grabbed the scepter and pushed passed them.
Meanwhile back at the city.
Dorothy had been taken to her bed room by the jester. He had for whatever reason kept it the way it was when she left it last. After she was settled in he left her in there alone and locked the door. She didn't have her ribbon of keys so she knew she was trapped this time. The slippers still didn't work as Glinda never had the chance to lift the spell she had placed on them, the window wasn't an option because she didn't have a rope, and she really doubted that the jester would let her leave willingly. She simply sighed and went over to the desk. As she sat down she took out the card that rose had put in the box with the moon's tear and left it out in plain sight. The note wasn't for her, she was just its carrier. The note was for the jester, and it would hopefully make him change his mind.
"Well Dorothy, you've got a couple days before any army reaches here, you're a prisoner, or guest since the jester still has morality issues, and you're trapped in your own room, what are you going to do now?" she asked herself as she pulled out some paper and her sketching materials.
Immediately she began sketching anything that came to her mind. It was hard for her mind however not to jump to the sight of her friends all turned into puppets. She couldn't keep her train of thought and eventually got up and walked over to the bed. Removing her glasses and setting them on the bedside table she decided a nap would probably be best.
Back in the chambers however the jester was pacing about, listening to Alex and the others in the crystal ball. He knew that realistically they had no plan, but something Ellie had said made him curious.
"An object of power should only ever obey one given master, that's why the scepter never obeyed me as well as either of my sister's wands, the scepter had already passed its ownership to Dorothy when she melted my sister, the wands however were long since abandoned by my other sister to be replaced by the slippers, an object of power should only recognize a new master after the old master is dead or has replaced that object with something else." The jester said to himself before going over to a shelf he had set up and grabbing some of the books.
He flipped through several of them before finding the page he needed.
"again it doesn't make sense that the scepter should obey both of them, the known laws of magic state that an object of power can only have one master at any given time, why then does it work for both of them?" the jester asked himself.
He threw the book down on a nearby table before sitting down on a chair and sighing
"Perhaps I should ask her, perhaps I should just capture him, the scepter never works as well for me and that blue orb was the last one I had so there'd be no point in capturing him for the scepter, but maybe I could capture him as a little incentive for her." The jester said turning back to the crystal
Well ending with another cliffhanger. Will the jester actually capture Alex? Will Dorothy give the jester the card or will she let him find it on the desk? Will Alex and the others come up with a proper plan before starting for the city? Find out in the next chapter, leaving a review is also much appreciated, not required but appreciated.