Chapter 8: At the Resistance camp

Another failure that Cain secretly blamed on him had caused them to be parted from D.G. again. That ruthless fortune telling bitch had guided them into a trap and Cain had walked into it without even getting suspicious once. Now the princess was in the hands of the Seeker and Cain could only hope that his eyes hadn't fooled him and that the Seeker was Ahamo himself.

Once Airofday had caught him and his companies underneath a net, one of the unwanted had contacted Azkadellia's Longcoats who shortly afterwards had chained them to a massive wooden trunk. Zero had been the leader of their troop and once again Cain had been washed over with anger and the strong wish to kill Rick Zero.

Now the troops were leading the prisoners through a deserted wood on their way back to the Central City palace where a higher authority would be the judge of their fate.
Their little group was making good process with getting ahead of the Longcoats when they were suddenly stopped by a cart that blocked the way.

A hooded young man with a bucket of water walked to Zero and asked if they needed any water. As it was common among the dark-hearted men, the Longcoat refused the offer and underlined his anger by kicking the bucket away and sending it to the hard ground. The others watched the humiliation in joy, but before Zero could do more another one of the Longcoats was shot and a group of Resistant Fighters jumped out of their hiding and attacked them.

All happened too soon to progress but as the chained men realized that this was their chance , they regained their hope to escape and attacked their enemies in a perfect synchronization. While the fighters around them were taking care of knocking down the shouting and cursing Longcoats the group of men used the trunk to their advantage and with a picturesque move to the right they sent the first Longcoat flying to the floor who had been shooting one of the attackers.

It was a pleasure for Cain to kick the man in his ugly face before the group focused on another Longcoat that they decided to knock out by pushing him against a tree with the top of the tree trunk. When the second enemy was lying on the ground unconscious, they positioned themselves into their starting position again, waiting for the next chance to be part of the fight.

The Resistant Fighters were proving to be skilled and successful though so the fight was over sooner than they expected. Once they had regained a steady position again, the man with the hood came walking towards them.

As he revealed his face and removed the hood though , Cain thought that he suddenly knew how the beaten Longcoat's must feel.

"Father?" the young man with the light blond hair and unfamiliar grown up voice asked him suspiciously.

"Son," Cain responded flatly, shock written on his face.

To his surprise and shock their sudden encounter felt like a slap in the face and not like the happiest moment in his life, although Cain had secretly hoped that he would still be able to find his son after the hard realization that Adora was dead and lost to him forever.
Seeing his son all grown up and taking care of himself, though, even underlined the fact that Cain had broken his promise and that he hadn't only lost his wife but also the carefree child that used to be his son.
O.o..O.O.O.O.O

Once they had chained the Longcoats, both the conscious and the unconscious, the group of Resistant fighters and freed prisoners had made their way to the camp which Jeb was leading them to.

It was a huge camp, perfectly hidden in the woods. The tents were built up precisely and in pristine order and Cain could see that someone had put a lot of thought into the organization of the camp. The tent with the weapons was circled by the tents of the fighters so that they could grab what they needed even when they were under attack at night, and the close distance assured them that they would hear it if someone stole their belongings. Tables and fireplaces were built at the center of the camp and the place where most people were gathering. The tent that they were heading for seemed to be at the top of a little hill, though.

While Jeb's companions brought the Longcoats to a place where they could be properly taken care of, Cain observed the moving and living camp in awe. He hadn't seen so many people fighting for their rights in many years and it brought back the old pain in the middle of his chest.
Then he spotted an open Tin Suit and he stopped in his tracks.

"What's this doing here?" he asked his son who was slowly approaching him.

"I keep it to remind me. To remind everyone. What we are fighting for," his son answered.

The bang in his chest increased as he heard that his son had not only grown into man but also into a victim of the familiar hatred that he felt as well. The uncontrollable desire to take revenge seemed to bloom in his son's heart as well, and he blamed himself for not protecting him from this misery.
For a moment Cain thought that he might reach through to his son, but the young man was already turning away from him so Cain grabbed him by the shoulder and stopped him.

"You know... uh, I thought you'd be dead." This was his chance to get ahold of his son and he wished that he wasn't screwing it up right now.

"They told mother and I that you were dead." And for the first time since their encounter he looked like a twelve year old boy again.

"Finding out that you're still alive I would have risked everything, crossed enemy lines to come get you. You know that don't you?" Back was the grown up man in front of him.

"Yeah I do," he answered reassuringly. And how could he not? Jeb had developed into a strong and feisty man that reassembled his mother's free spirit in so many ways.

Cain let go of Jeb's shoulder, but before he could say more another Resistant fighter approached them calling Jeb sir and asking him to follow since someone needed Jeb's attention.
Cain was surprised by the title given to his son and a wave of pride suddenly washed over.

"Sir?" he remarked curiously and suddenly realization hit him.

"You're…you're running things around here?" That's why Jeb was showing them around , that's why he had started the attack on Zero. He was the leader of the Resistance!

"It just worked out like that!" Jeb assured him in a casual manner which lightened Cain's mood a bit. Just like his father he thought to himself.

"I'm proud of you son!" he exclaimed and allowed his happiness to show on his face before he decided to do the exact right thing and hug his son for the first time since they met.

When they were sharing their warm embrace it felt kind of strange to both of them, but they would hopefully get used to it again. Little steps... it would need a lot of little steps to restore the old comfortable feeling that they had shared years ago, but Cain needed this embrace to realize that this was his second chance and that stubbornness wouldn't stop him from taking this chance. Jeb accepted his offer for he seemed to know that this chance was a gift to them.

"Hey, you're all right?" Nevertheless Cain had a feeling that his son was distant so he wished that they could fix that over time.

"Sure."

And although they parted rather clumsily and awkward, tears suddenly filled Cain's eyes for he gave himself the promise that they would become a family again, no matter how painful their new beginning may have started.
O.O.O.O..O.O.O.O.
Shortly after Jeb had left, Cain had followed him into the tent that seemed to function as a base for private investigations and as meeting point.
Aside from the others the fighters had brought Zero to this tent for they wanted to have answers to an awful lot of questions and none of them looked like they wouldn't beat them out of the man if necessary.

Zero proved to be stubborn and Azkadellia had shielded his mind so Raw wasn't able to reach through, but Jeb had grown into a skilled strategist who knew how to handle those who refused to talk.

Slowly he kneeled down to be on the same height as the Longcoat and his voice was calm but demanding when he spoke.

"I'll make this easier for you, if you tell us everything you know about the machine…," Jeb started.

Zero seemed to be completely unimpressed by that approach and as a sign to show how less he cared he spat Jeb into the face. A wave of anger rushed through Cain's body as he saw the disrespectful behavior that was guided towards his son, however he was surprised to see how calmly Jeb reacted.

Instead of starting a fight with the man who had ripped him apart from his father and killed his mother, Jeb stood up with dignity and ordered one of his men to fetch something of unknown identity. Whatever it was he would use new forces to make Zero talk and Cain was impressed to see that Jeb was leading the conversation, humiliation included or not.

At first Zero was very amused about Jeb's 'pathetic' attempt to get the answers they wanted and needed. However when the device was brought into the tent and he heard the disturbing sounds of screeching metal and unknown rattling, his demeanor changed and he visibly started to look uncomfortable.

Since his hands were chained behind his back and his view was guided towards Raw and Glitch he couldn't see what the men had carried into the tent and this missing knowledge was what broke him in the end.

"What, what is that? What... uh... What, uhm... What are you, uhm... Okay, okay," Zero stammered turning his head from one side to the other desperately trying to take a glimpse of the device and to see what Jeb and the men were doing behind his back. Sweat built on his forehead and uncertainty was evident in his voice.

"No! NO... wait... wait, wait... wait. Not the fingers, not the fingers!" he yelled as one of the men grabbed for the Longcoat's fingers.

Jeb showed no mercy and no matter how much Zero suddenly pleaded, he grabbed the device without listening to the stuttering Longcoat and brought it closer and closer to the man's fingers.

"Wait NOT the fingers!" Zero was completely out of it now and the fear inside of him was eating him up.

"Oh SHUT UP!" Jeb shouted in return and showed all the anger that he had been repressing at the beginning of the interrogation.

" I will tell you everything I know," desperately Zero tried to stop Jeb from his longing for revenge and for the first time he showed everyone how pathetic he really was.

"Oh it's too late," Jeb snarled, making clear that he wouldn't accept any excuses nor forgiveness.

"I'll talk, okay!"

"It's too late!"

Before the situation could escalate Cain had to do something. Jeb wasn't rational anymore and his hatred for the man on the floor clouded his mind and made him do rushed things. The misery he had seen was guiding his actions and Cain needed to stop him so that he wouldn't lose his son to the darkness that had cost them his wife and Jeb's mother.

"Son! Let him talk…TALK!" he first addressed his son then Zero.

"The machine forms an intense beam of light," Zero started and his whole body was shivering , either from fear or from the relief that Cain had surprisingly saved him.
The new found information seemed to confuse Glitch and like he had done back in the cabin of Lorraine and Ralph he surprised them by asking questions about the machine.

"Why?" he addressed Zero with a cocked head.

"It focuses its power on the emerald at the double eclipse. Locks the two suns behind the moon. It will bring darkness to the O.Z forever," there it was Azkadellia's plan, the purpose of Ambrose's machine, the reason why she had looked for it.
So it was true, they used his friend's invention to destroy the Outer Zone and whatever ran the machine was either Ambrose himself or Azakdellia had found a much worse solution.

"Damn thing is the anti-sunseeder!" Glitch suddenly exclaimed in horror which caused all of them to look at the Scarecrow. His burlap face was hidden in the shadows, but Cain seemed to trace guilt apart from the horror that was written on it.

His heart stopped and a shiver suddenly ran through his body as if he had fallen into the frozen lake from the Northern Palace again. The world around him seemed to shake and twirl for a moment, before his vision became clearer again.

The guilt on his face and voice, no matter if both were inhuman or not, the upset behavior at Ralph and Lorraine's, and the tidbits of forgotten memories. All those impressions suddenly crushed down on Cain and made him realize what he had refused to believe and accept before. Glitch, the annoying , clumsy but often enough likeable Scarecrow was the missing Duke of the North. His friend Ambrose. Now he only needed an explanation how and why he was an animated Scarecrow and what had happened to him.

Zero was just about to respond when Jeb interrupted the two by asking what a sunseeder was so Cain told him that it was a machine that Ambrose had designed to help the farmers.

"How do we shut it down?" his son then asked not being really impressed with the original machine but more concerned with what Azkadellia had turned it into.
Zero didn't reply at first, instead he looked at the Scarecrow and thought about his answer as if he knew more than all of them.

"Ask him," he finally said and waved his head in Glitch's direction.
The straw man froze and looked at Zero and the others in disbelief.

"I'm just a Scarecrow without any memories of my past... I...I don't know how her machine works," he answered in defense, his unease causing Zero to smile triumphantly.

"Part of you does... Ambrose,", the blond man on the ground answered with so much dark-hearted joy dripping from his lips that the truth was even harder to take for Cain.
Zero knew Glitch's true identity, he knew what had happened to him and maybe he had even witnessed how his friend had become a Scarecrow.

Finally knowing the truth and hearing the approval from Zero took a heavy burden from Cain's heart. Knowing that Ambrose was still alive and not Azkadellia's slave even made him feel happy for a moment, however this realization made it harder, for he had never wished his friend to lead a life like this.

The Scarecrow stared at his hands in disbelief as if he was taking a closer look of his body for the very first time. Maybe he was remembering something , maybe he even believed that what Zero had told them was true but how could he be sure if most of his memories had been taken from him?

Only now Cain realized what a strong burden it was to forget everything about your past and to be a victim of your own mind. Annuals he had wished to forget the pictures that had been playing in his mind on ends but now that he thought about his friend's situation he was glad that none of his memories from the past had been ripped away from him.

Zero was visibly enjoying the scenery, although he hadn't been released yet and Jeb was still threatening him with the unknown device.

"Ambrose?" Jeb asked both curiously and suspiciously.

Jeb seemed to know more about the name but Cain doubted that he remembered that Ambrose used to be a friend of the family. There was another reason why Jeb was so suspicious about it.

"Jeb?" he therefore asked his son.

"Our spies found out Ambrose is a code word for the brain that runs the machine," Jeb answered and Glitch winced.

"My... why…you say that my marbles are in the tower? That I'm really human?" he stammered.

Although Glitch wasn't able to physically show a lot of emotions everyone in the tent could feel that he was horrified, so no one hesitated to clear the way when the odd creature started running away from the scene and outside into the fresh air.
Cain wanted to follow, but Raw held him back.

"Needs little moment to himself," the viewer whispered and he was right.

Cain ordered Zero to tell them where they could find the brain and the Longcoat obeyed to that as well.

"Look, I've told you everything you need to know... now put that thing away... put that thing away," Zero whimpered now that the only thing that had amused him was gone and nothing was left but the fear of the invisible torture tool.
With a satisfied grin on his face, being happy that he had been able to break the stubborn and feisty Longcoat, Jeb revealed the pair of spoons he had been knocking together all the time.
His satisfaction grew when he saw how Zero gulped visually, his face turning whither than before and his head falling on his chest as a sign of capitulation.

Cain was frightened by the joy that was showing on Jeb's face although he himself was feeling pleasant about the man's defection. Nevertheless, he stopped his son, completely being in shock, when the young man tried to kill Zero with a sword. One hand was lying tremblingly on Jeb's shoulder, his heart beating in his chest like crazy. This isn't what he wanted for his son. Both men were guided by lust and by the burning pressure to seek revenge, but he wouldn't allow Jeb to live with the horrors of someone's blood on his hands.

There were other ways and he hoped that he could convince his son that he shouldn't allow hatred to guide him and his deeds.

"You won't finish the job like this, son. Put it away!"

"This is the guy who killed mother. He destroyed your life and mine and you want to let him live?" Jeb countered, disgust on his face.

"He deserves to die. I won't deny that," Cain agreed.

"Then what?" his son snapped.

"Killing him won't bring back your mother. And won't honor her memory either," Cain ended.
He could see the disappointment, hatred and disgust on his son's face but no matter what this meant for their relationship, he wouldn't allow his son to become a murderer.
Angrily Jeb let go of the sword and with swift steps he left the tent like Glitch had done moments before.
O.O.O.O..O.O.O.
He found him sitting on a log a few feet away from the busy fighters and the tents. His face was resting on his hands which were steadied by his legs. He was a heartbreaking sight to look at however Cain needed to talk with him and interrupt the serenity.

"It is not your fault," he said without waiting for Glitch to raise his head. With an almost silent sound he placed himself next to the Scarecrow on his log and observed his friend more closely.

" I don't even know if I can disagree with that or not," Glitch's answer was muffled since he was speaking with his face still buried in his hands.
The truth behind the Scarecrow's words left Cain speechless for a moment. How was he supposed to help if Glitch was right and neither of them knew whom they would talk about. Was it the same person Cain had met so many years ago or was he a shallow remains of the man he knew…a stranger with a twisted memory?

"Who am I, Cain? Who was I? What have I done?" Not knowing if Cain could help him or not he raised his head and hoped for a little comfort from the rational Tin Man. Maybe he was the only person in the whole O.Z who could give him an answer that was plausible enough to let him forget the guilt for a second.

Cain was silent and the look on his face was unexpectedly sorrowful and not frozen and stony as usual. Something was bothering the man. Did he blame Glitch for having been the inventor of that dreadful machine that was threatening all of them? Did he hate him, now that he knew who Glitch truly was even though Glitch himself didn't know if the rude Longcoat was right.

The memories got a bit clearer once the man had mentioned that familiar name but everything was still much too blurry and too far away to be acceptable as the truth. Nevertheless Zero had a point, he had seen the fear in the man's face as Jeb had threatened him so there was no possible reason why Zero should have lied to them. Jeb had broken the man and there was another thing that was bothering Glitch. He was wearing the tattered and torn royal garb and he still couldn't explain why.

" I knew you," Cain suddenly answered, reminding Glitch that he had asked the man a question.
That took him by surprise. Cain knew who that Ambrose was and he had never even mentioned it? Back at the frozen palace he had mentioned that he knew the royal family so Glitch believed him but why had he left out Ambrose?

"You knew Ambrose?" Glitch asked curiously.

" I met him - you - a long time ago and we became very close friends. I thought he ..you died from the hands of Azkadellia's…the witch's alleys. Some days I even hoped she would still hold you captive somewhere in that tower. I didn't know she had done...this." And the sadness coming from these words convinced Glitch that they were the truth.

" So it is true then?" the Scarecrow asked further on.

"I'm not sure but I have to confess that I had my suspicions. You are in many ways like him," Cain answered lowering his head and voice in unison. He had imagined their reunion to be completely different. It was supposed to be a day of victory like he had promised him during their last encounter in the palace, but they hadn't even fought the witch yet. And although Ambrose had been his best friend, he didn't even know what to say to him now.

An uncertain feeling rushed through Glitch's body and was added to the uncommon traits he had developed... was it what people called hurt? For he could tell that Cain's statement made him feel cheated and lonely.

"Why didn't you tell me when we were talking about my own suspicions back in DeMilo's wagon?" he needed to know the reason and he had to hear it coming out Cain's mouth. He wanted to know if Cain had been silent because he mistrusted Glitch, or if there was another reason.

"I think I was scared of the truth." Cain raised his head again and Glitch could see remains of tears covering the man's cheeks.

He hadn't expected an answer like this nor that it would make Cain cry! He wasn't even sure if he had believed that Cain was capable of crying. The unfamiliar feeling of hurt was suddenly replaced by another much stronger feeling that only could be relief and sympathy. It touched him that Cain seemed to care so much for him and he wondered what their friendship had been like. If only he could remember. Reassuringly he placed a hand on Cain's back hoping that the man wouldn't feel guilty for something that wasn't his fault.

" It is okay. I'm scared too," Glitch mumbled hoping it would give his friend some comfort.

"We will find D.G. and then we will look for your brain," Cain responded silently, his voice sounding much clearer and less sad. Glitch agreed with that and hoped that they wouldn't only get a chance to reunite him with the past that was lost, but also fix the things that were broken.

"Before we will do that, though, you need to know that I've known you for a very long time now. You were always a noble, honest and loyal man so don't think that you're the one who is responsible for that machine! The Sorceress knows how to break people." Now it was Cain who placed a reassuring hand on Glitch's shoulder making them look like two old friends who were philosophizing about life and its meaning. At least the first applied to them.

"I will try," Glitch answered and before they would go back to the others, both allowed themselves to remain in this comforting posture for a little while longer.

Belated A.N: Okay about this chapter…well now everyone knows who Glitch really is *surprise* I hope the way Cain deals with the revelation is okay to you. I know it's all written awkwardly and maybe too sloppy but I thought this might be a possible way of them to get to know the truth. Also I didn't want Cain to get too emotional yet because they are still in the middle of the fight against the witch and all that and I didn't want to get away from that focus either. Just tell me what you think ;) I hope you enjoyed it !

PS: Yes Glitch still can remember certain things which I blame on the magic inside of him ;)