Goodnight Sweetheart (3/?)
Here's part 3! I wrote most of this a long, long while ago.. and I published that as a chapter in ff.net, but I wanted to finish it like I meant to originally before I posted it here.
This story started out as a ball oneshot but now it's definitely not just that XD
[Afternoon]The great bells of Central City's clock tower resonated through the spacious throne room, each grave stroke marking noon as Cain took in what he had just heard.
A group of alchemists and longcoats have escaped.
"Was Zero among them?" the Queen said before he could,
"No, your majesty," the other man said, "but the alchemist Raynz and two of the top longcoats after Zero are amid the fugitives. We have reports from the security at the tower that it seems they stole something before they left. We believe they escaped sometime in the last three days so they may already be in the city or near it."
"Are they armed? How the hell did they escape?" Cain demanded furiously. As relieved as he was by the fact that Zero was still in his dark cell-right where they had left him after getting him from the suit when the battle was over-he still bitterly remembered Raynz, the man who had taken Glitch's brain. After retaking the tower from the witch's rule, they had taken the time to destroy anything that could be harmful to the O.Z. and save and transport anything of importance to where they were staying at the city, including Glitch's brain. Now, it was stored safely in one of the castle's rooms for when Glitch connected to it to work; and the thought of Raynz being in the city and anywhere near it or Glitch made Cain's blood boil.
"How the hell did it take them three days to figure out they were gone?"
"We don't know..." the messenger said, slightly taken aback by Cain's outburst, "The guards aren't sure what it was they took from the witch's stockrooms either, so they might be armed. We didn't know they were missing from their cells until now because they used a holographic projector to make it seem like they were still there."
That thing... Cain remembered with loathing, grasping without success at the overly complicated acronym.
"Wherever they are," Queen Lavender finally spoke again, "I want you to find them and capture then immediately, gentlemen. Mr. Walker, take your best men and search the woods outside Central City. Mr. Cain, gather your best men as well and be on the lookout for the escapees on the streets in case they are already here." She waved a hand gracefully and dismissed them.
"Yes, your highness," Cain and the other man, Walker, responded in unison to their respective orders before bowing and leaving the throne room.
***
In one of the highest floors of the castle, Glitch stood before the missing half of himself in the new brain room.
Kalm was by his side, one hand on his shoulder and one reaching out to the bubbling tank, helping him connect with-well, himself. Since it was Ambrose's marbles that possessed some of the most important knowledge for putting the O.Z. back together again and making it a better place, Raw had been helping Glitch find that information within his mind. Today, though, Raw was away. And Kalm, wanting to be as brave and helpful as his guardian had become, volunteered to help Glitch in the older viewer's absence.
Glitch had his eyes his eyes shut tight as the rush of Ambrose's memories surged through his head. This was always the best and the worst part. During his sessions with Raw, he would usually navigate around the sea of synapses that did fire right-his brain was quite the thinker!-until he found what they were looking for. Today, it was being rather difficult.
Glitch couldn't find his other half's voice and instead, alchemists, longcoats, mobats, and even the evil witch herself flashed in front of his vision as seen by Ambrose. Well-he couldn't see them of course, he had no eyes; he was a brain! But he had seen whatever the old viewer he had been attached to, Lylo, had seen...
Azkadellia, possessed by the evil witch, paced back and forth in front of the glowing tank.
"And you're sure you can extract all his memories..." she asked, casting a glance at the brain, "All his ideas?"
"Yes," Raynz said with a creepy grin, "With the creature here we can tap directly into his mind. Everything he knows, we know. And once we've connected him to the machine, he'll be able to run it for us. As you can see, sorceress, Ambrose here is a fine-
"-Apple! Oh I haven't seen such shiny apples in a long time!" Glitch was in a clearing surrounded by beautiful trees that seemed to hold the juiciest apples he had ever seen. He went to grab one from the closest tree. But as soon as his hand touched the red apple, the tree moved. Suddenly there were half a dozen apple trees mercilessly throwing their fruit at him as he tried to escape.
"Ow, that hurts!"Glitch ran around with his hands above his head and tried to-
"-Stay alive." Ambrose finished, communicating through a tired viewer.
"And this would be indefinitely?" the longcoat asked,
"Yes, as long as the suit was functional and not damaged, it would keep the prisoner alive, conscious, and in the exact same state he was in when he was imprisoned; if the suit was completely intact," the oblivious mind in a tank repeated.
"Perfect-
-Aim, Glitch thought as he rubbed a sore spot on his arm that was sure to be bruised. Well, at least he had lunch! He picked up one of the many scattered apples around him and polished it with the end of his sleeve. At least he wouldn't have to-
Wait a minute... This was definitely not Ambrose's memory.
"Glitch?" Kalm's small voice cut through the thought,
"Um," he laughed self-consciously, "I guess sometimes my memories get into the mix-sometimes my memories get into the mix."
Kalm squeezed his shoulder and closed his eyes as he resumed the connection and chased the rabbit.
"You'll never catch us!" DG's thrilled cry rang through the garden.
"Yes I will if you keep broadcasting your location like that every few minutes!" Ambrose called back and kept counting, "96, 97, 98, 99-
"98, 97, 96-
"Stop!" Glitch's eyes snapped open and he took a shaky step back as he stared at his brain. All of his jumbled memories had led them to that memory. Kalm looked equally shaken and he instantly felt bad for putting the young viewer through that.
"Oh, Kalm," he tut, "I'm sorry! We should have waited for Raw. You're just a kid; you should be out having fun! Not here in this stuffy, dull brain room."
As if to help his case, the tank discharged a few awkward bubbles.
"You're sure?" he asked uncertainly, "You okay?"
"As okay as a crow-less orchard!" Glitch assured him, smiling like his usually chirpy self. It took some more convincing and talk about how good it would feel to be out in the afternoon sun and smell the spring flowers, but eventually Kalm gave in and left to play in a less gloomy part of the palace.
As soon as he was gone, Glitch sank down to the floor with his back against the glowing green tank. Memories weren't usually part of his sessions with Raw, but sometimes they inevitably flashed by. It was great when he got to see some small piece of his past as Ambrose; that was the best part of this. Seeing that memory, though; that was the worst part. Glitch buried his face in his hands and wondered why his head hurt so much all of a sudden. With a groan, he drew his knees up and curled further into himself in pain. But a moment later the feeling was gone, and he had forgotten why he was on the floor and why there were tears in his eyes.
***
For a moment, Cain was surprised that it had only taken less than five hours to round up all the fugitives and capture them.
After his audience with the Queen, he had headed outside the castle with Jeb and other former rebels in tow. He had divided his team into smaller groups and mapped out the routs each of them would patrol while his son handed out their weapons. Once everyone knew their place, they had split and scattered throughout the streets. Cain, Jeb, and three others made up the group that guarded the sector closest to the castle.
They had walked the streets of the city under the O.Z.’s scorching suns and within a couple hours had four stumbling badly disguised longcoats in their handcuffs; however they had escaped, they certainly hadn’t had a good plan for being on the run. The other groups had had similar success across other parts of the city, and after a quick check with the guards back at the tower they had confirmed that, between both of the divisions in the city and in the fields, they had caught all that had escape.
In total, there had only been a dozen renegade longcoats on the run, though how that many had escaped in the first place was still under investigation.
“That’s the last of them.” Jeb called out as he hit the back of the truck before it drove away, taking the prisoners back to their tower. He made his way over to Cain, looking warily side to side at the small crowd that had gathered to watch the arrests.
“What about the alchemists?” Cain asked tightly when his son was within hearing distance.
“One of our messengers just told me that Walker’s men caught them with the group of longcoats they found near the orchards. There were just two.”
Cain nodded, “Good.” He tried not to let it show on his face, keeping a professional mask of stoicism, but he was relieved they had been that far away from the city; and that he hadn’t been the one to get his hands on them.
“What about what they stole from the tower?” He recalled the other matter at hand as they walked back to where the other officers and cars were doing crowd control, “Did they find it?”
“No,” Jeb said slowly, “They still don’t what it was but the men at the tower are on it.”
For a brief beat, Cain felt like he was back on his tin man duties from over a decade ago; those short, active annuals after leaving the Mystic Man but before joining the resistance. Then he realized just who it was that was relaying information to him and it made him think of how far they had all come. His son was a grown and capable man, and would soon leave him behind in the dust as it seemed. He smiled faintly at the thought, realizing that times were changing in the O.Z. and that after things were stable again there was nothing he wanted more than to finally step back and enjoy his time with those he loved. But only when their work was done.
Now that all the longcoats had been packed into the trucks and sent back to the tower, the crowd was moving on and the rebels turned tin men were heading out as well.
This afternoon had just been another day in the restoration of the O.Z.; and as he and Jeb took one of the waiting cars and drove back to the palace, Cain wondered idly what Glitch had been doing today.
This story started out as a ball oneshot but now it's definitely not just that XD
[Afternoon]The great bells of Central City's clock tower resonated through the spacious throne room, each grave stroke marking noon as Cain took in what he had just heard.
A group of alchemists and longcoats have escaped.
"Was Zero among them?" the Queen said before he could,
"No, your majesty," the other man said, "but the alchemist Raynz and two of the top longcoats after Zero are amid the fugitives. We have reports from the security at the tower that it seems they stole something before they left. We believe they escaped sometime in the last three days so they may already be in the city or near it."
"Are they armed? How the hell did they escape?" Cain demanded furiously. As relieved as he was by the fact that Zero was still in his dark cell-right where they had left him after getting him from the suit when the battle was over-he still bitterly remembered Raynz, the man who had taken Glitch's brain. After retaking the tower from the witch's rule, they had taken the time to destroy anything that could be harmful to the O.Z. and save and transport anything of importance to where they were staying at the city, including Glitch's brain. Now, it was stored safely in one of the castle's rooms for when Glitch connected to it to work; and the thought of Raynz being in the city and anywhere near it or Glitch made Cain's blood boil.
"How the hell did it take them three days to figure out they were gone?"
"We don't know..." the messenger said, slightly taken aback by Cain's outburst, "The guards aren't sure what it was they took from the witch's stockrooms either, so they might be armed. We didn't know they were missing from their cells until now because they used a holographic projector to make it seem like they were still there."
That thing... Cain remembered with loathing, grasping without success at the overly complicated acronym.
"Wherever they are," Queen Lavender finally spoke again, "I want you to find them and capture then immediately, gentlemen. Mr. Walker, take your best men and search the woods outside Central City. Mr. Cain, gather your best men as well and be on the lookout for the escapees on the streets in case they are already here." She waved a hand gracefully and dismissed them.
"Yes, your highness," Cain and the other man, Walker, responded in unison to their respective orders before bowing and leaving the throne room.
***
In one of the highest floors of the castle, Glitch stood before the missing half of himself in the new brain room.
Kalm was by his side, one hand on his shoulder and one reaching out to the bubbling tank, helping him connect with-well, himself. Since it was Ambrose's marbles that possessed some of the most important knowledge for putting the O.Z. back together again and making it a better place, Raw had been helping Glitch find that information within his mind. Today, though, Raw was away. And Kalm, wanting to be as brave and helpful as his guardian had become, volunteered to help Glitch in the older viewer's absence.
Glitch had his eyes his eyes shut tight as the rush of Ambrose's memories surged through his head. This was always the best and the worst part. During his sessions with Raw, he would usually navigate around the sea of synapses that did fire right-his brain was quite the thinker!-until he found what they were looking for. Today, it was being rather difficult.
Glitch couldn't find his other half's voice and instead, alchemists, longcoats, mobats, and even the evil witch herself flashed in front of his vision as seen by Ambrose. Well-he couldn't see them of course, he had no eyes; he was a brain! But he had seen whatever the old viewer he had been attached to, Lylo, had seen...
Azkadellia, possessed by the evil witch, paced back and forth in front of the glowing tank.
"And you're sure you can extract all his memories..." she asked, casting a glance at the brain, "All his ideas?"
"Yes," Raynz said with a creepy grin, "With the creature here we can tap directly into his mind. Everything he knows, we know. And once we've connected him to the machine, he'll be able to run it for us. As you can see, sorceress, Ambrose here is a fine-
"-Apple! Oh I haven't seen such shiny apples in a long time!" Glitch was in a clearing surrounded by beautiful trees that seemed to hold the juiciest apples he had ever seen. He went to grab one from the closest tree. But as soon as his hand touched the red apple, the tree moved. Suddenly there were half a dozen apple trees mercilessly throwing their fruit at him as he tried to escape.
"Ow, that hurts!"Glitch ran around with his hands above his head and tried to-
"-Stay alive." Ambrose finished, communicating through a tired viewer.
"And this would be indefinitely?" the longcoat asked,
"Yes, as long as the suit was functional and not damaged, it would keep the prisoner alive, conscious, and in the exact same state he was in when he was imprisoned; if the suit was completely intact," the oblivious mind in a tank repeated.
"Perfect-
-Aim, Glitch thought as he rubbed a sore spot on his arm that was sure to be bruised. Well, at least he had lunch! He picked up one of the many scattered apples around him and polished it with the end of his sleeve. At least he wouldn't have to-
Wait a minute... This was definitely not Ambrose's memory.
"Glitch?" Kalm's small voice cut through the thought,
"Um," he laughed self-consciously, "I guess sometimes my memories get into the mix-sometimes my memories get into the mix."
Kalm squeezed his shoulder and closed his eyes as he resumed the connection and chased the rabbit.
"You'll never catch us!" DG's thrilled cry rang through the garden.
"Yes I will if you keep broadcasting your location like that every few minutes!" Ambrose called back and kept counting, "96, 97, 98, 99-
"98, 97, 96-
"Stop!" Glitch's eyes snapped open and he took a shaky step back as he stared at his brain. All of his jumbled memories had led them to that memory. Kalm looked equally shaken and he instantly felt bad for putting the young viewer through that.
"Oh, Kalm," he tut, "I'm sorry! We should have waited for Raw. You're just a kid; you should be out having fun! Not here in this stuffy, dull brain room."
As if to help his case, the tank discharged a few awkward bubbles.
"You're sure?" he asked uncertainly, "You okay?"
"As okay as a crow-less orchard!" Glitch assured him, smiling like his usually chirpy self. It took some more convincing and talk about how good it would feel to be out in the afternoon sun and smell the spring flowers, but eventually Kalm gave in and left to play in a less gloomy part of the palace.
As soon as he was gone, Glitch sank down to the floor with his back against the glowing green tank. Memories weren't usually part of his sessions with Raw, but sometimes they inevitably flashed by. It was great when he got to see some small piece of his past as Ambrose; that was the best part of this. Seeing that memory, though; that was the worst part. Glitch buried his face in his hands and wondered why his head hurt so much all of a sudden. With a groan, he drew his knees up and curled further into himself in pain. But a moment later the feeling was gone, and he had forgotten why he was on the floor and why there were tears in his eyes.
***
For a moment, Cain was surprised that it had only taken less than five hours to round up all the fugitives and capture them.
After his audience with the Queen, he had headed outside the castle with Jeb and other former rebels in tow. He had divided his team into smaller groups and mapped out the routs each of them would patrol while his son handed out their weapons. Once everyone knew their place, they had split and scattered throughout the streets. Cain, Jeb, and three others made up the group that guarded the sector closest to the castle.
They had walked the streets of the city under the O.Z.’s scorching suns and within a couple hours had four stumbling badly disguised longcoats in their handcuffs; however they had escaped, they certainly hadn’t had a good plan for being on the run. The other groups had had similar success across other parts of the city, and after a quick check with the guards back at the tower they had confirmed that, between both of the divisions in the city and in the fields, they had caught all that had escape.
In total, there had only been a dozen renegade longcoats on the run, though how that many had escaped in the first place was still under investigation.
“That’s the last of them.” Jeb called out as he hit the back of the truck before it drove away, taking the prisoners back to their tower. He made his way over to Cain, looking warily side to side at the small crowd that had gathered to watch the arrests.
“What about the alchemists?” Cain asked tightly when his son was within hearing distance.
“One of our messengers just told me that Walker’s men caught them with the group of longcoats they found near the orchards. There were just two.”
Cain nodded, “Good.” He tried not to let it show on his face, keeping a professional mask of stoicism, but he was relieved they had been that far away from the city; and that he hadn’t been the one to get his hands on them.
“What about what they stole from the tower?” He recalled the other matter at hand as they walked back to where the other officers and cars were doing crowd control, “Did they find it?”
“No,” Jeb said slowly, “They still don’t what it was but the men at the tower are on it.”
For a brief beat, Cain felt like he was back on his tin man duties from over a decade ago; those short, active annuals after leaving the Mystic Man but before joining the resistance. Then he realized just who it was that was relaying information to him and it made him think of how far they had all come. His son was a grown and capable man, and would soon leave him behind in the dust as it seemed. He smiled faintly at the thought, realizing that times were changing in the O.Z. and that after things were stable again there was nothing he wanted more than to finally step back and enjoy his time with those he loved. But only when their work was done.
Now that all the longcoats had been packed into the trucks and sent back to the tower, the crowd was moving on and the rebels turned tin men were heading out as well.
This afternoon had just been another day in the restoration of the O.Z.; and as he and Jeb took one of the waiting cars and drove back to the palace, Cain wondered idly what Glitch had been doing today.