And Now for Something Completely Different

Chapter 12

DG's vision

DG hears two girls singing, "Two little princesses..." One of the little girls, the smallest, the one DG recognizes from the mirror as her younger self, stops and stands up. "What is it" young Azkadelia asks. Her voice is sweet and concerned. "Do you hear that?" Young DG asks. She starts to run off towards the crying on the wind she hears. Young Az calls after her, "Your adventures have a way of getting me into trouble." She huffs and runs off after her younger sister. DG follows the vision children. Young DG stops at the entrance to a cave. The crying voices are inside. She runs inside just before young Az can stop her. DG watches as young Azkadelia shivers in trepidation just before calling out, "You Adventures have a way of getting me into trouble." again before she follows her sister into the dark cavern.

Young Az catches up to Young DG and the younger girl calls out "Hello?" Young Azkadelia finds an old lantern and lights it with her magic. Her smile of triumph makes DG smile.

Young Az lights up the wall Young DG is staring at and they see ancient pictures. "Its the picture language of the Ancients." She tells her younger sister. "What does it say Az?" Young DG asks. "At the dawn of time...dark and light battled...and the light concerned over the darkness...and something about an evil witch." Young DG shrugs and turns towards the sound of crying. DG and Young Az run after her. They catch up when Young DG pauses at the sight of a large rock sculpture of an evil screaming head. They crying seems to be coming from inside. "Lets go" Young Az grabs her sisters hand and tries to pull her out of the cave. Young DG shrugged her off and put her hand in the mouth of the sculpture. DG jumped back when Young DG started screaming. Something in the mouth was pulling her in, Young Az grabed her arm and tried to pull it out. They were both yelling and crying now. Their joined arms started glowing and the mouth exploded outward, blowing them backwards. They landed on their backs.

The crying got louder and Young DG peaked in the open hole to see what it was. DG could see a small girl in an old fashioned blue dress crying into the wall. "Are you okay?" Young DG asks as she takes a step closer. Young Azkadelia steps up next to her so they can grab hands if they need to. "We'll go get our parents wait here."

"No" the little girl snarls. She transforms from the sweet little girl into a hideous old hag. The lighting in the room changes and the girls glance up to see monkey bats crawling around on the walls and ceiling. "I've been waiting so long." The hag tells them hungrily, crawling towards them. Young Azkadelia swiftly grabs Young DG's hand and their closed fists glow.

The hag focuses on the glow and her hunger sharpens. DG shivers in revolution. She can feel the evil flowing off this hag even in the echo of the vision. "Such power." The hag gasps. She looks up and smiles evilly at them. "Let go." Bile rises up in DG's throat. "NO!" Young Az says calmly, trying to be strong for her sister.

"LET GO!!" she snarls at them and Young DG screams and runs off. She turns back at her older sisters screams and cries. The hag has both hands on her face and is holding her steady while the monkey bats fly into her. Just as they touch her she rocks and the monkey bats meld with her. The hag melds into Young Azkadelia's face and Young DG runs.

DG falls to her knees and the vision changes. Young DG has run to her mother on the swing. She's crying and the Queen holds her and asks whats wrong. "Az she fell and I let go." The Queen shakes her head, "There's Az, its okay." But the Queen's expression changes as Young Azkadelia gets closer. She's pulsing with evil and her smile makes the Queen shiver. "Yes mother, I am fine." She smiles at Young DG and the little girl turns to whimper into her mother's neck.

End of Vision

Harry blinked once, and then once more. What a vision. They were sitting next to the swing. Raw was holding DG, as he had been since she started telling them about her vision. "OK. Let me make sure I understand." DG nodded absently and Harry understood that she was completely overwhelmed by what they had discovered. "Azkadelia is possessed by an evil witch." She nodded again. "So, Its the evil witch that's been doing all this." Glitch gasped and Harry watched Cain struggle to keep the zipper head in his lap. Glitch had a tendency to stand and shout when he had a memory. "It was the witch who took my brain!!"

Harry shook his head. The witch. He had no idea how to stop a possession, they'd not ever covered that in DADA. They probably would have, but Luna had pushed him into the veil. For the first time, that thought wasn't accompanied with a flash of anger. He liked his life here. Sure there was an evil witch out to kill them, but he was used to that. He wasn't the hero of this adventure, he was a supporting character. And he had Glitch and Cain here.

He watched his zipper head cuddle into Cain's chest and smiled.

"Well," Harry started, he paused because he wasn't sure if he should say this and take away from DG's distressing vision. "I guess that means it was really Azkadelia that asked my Godfather to take me away, and it was because the witch would kill me." Glitch ran to Harry and pulled him into a big hug, a huge beautiful smile splitting his face.

"That means that in some part of her brain, Azkadelia loved you."

Raw nodded and gruffed out, "Yes, Az loves Harry, but witch is scared. Won't let princess see." Harry's forehead creased in confusion. The viewer was hard to translate sometimes. He shrugged and figured that eventually it would all fall into place. That was just his luck.

He concentrated on the steadily increasing weakness that settled in his bones. The forest wasn't done, something else was coming. He buried his nose in Glitch's bouncing curls and inhaled deeply. He wasn't sure the princess could handle another draining vision. He knew that the forest was pulling from her too and that was not really helping her get over her distress.

"Its my fault." She whispered and Harry was glad Cain took over comforting her. He wasn't good with women ever but female emotions were completely beyond him. "You can't blame yourself for that kid." He sunk down on his heels next to her and Raw.

Glitch followed his ass with his eyes and Harry chuckled. He was going to have to do something about the unresolved sexual tension they were all having before it exploded.

"It's because of me that the witch got out." A lone tear fell down her face and Harry refrained from rolling his eyes. Was he this melodramatic when he was young. He huffed a little when he remembered that, yes, yes he was. It must be a prerequisite for heroship.

"you were just a kid." Cain told her. "But I ran." She shouted at him. Cain gave her a scolding look, and she blushed for yelling. "You're not running now are you?"

She smiled weakly and Harry got sick of the tension. He made faces at Glitch which made the headcase chuckle.

Harry heard a male voice in the forest whisper to DG. He couldn't make out the words but the princess said, "Your light will shine in a place that is dark. Its where you will find a message about your future and your past."

"Was that a memory?" Glitch asks him. Harry shook his head but didn't answer otherwise.

"Flat rocks fly round rock die." Harry blinked a few times and made a few crazy gestures to Glitch. His zipper head giggled and Cain clapped him on the shoulder. Harry turned to wink at him and Cain rolled his eyes, a small smile pulling at his lips. They were so great together, the three of them. Harry swore that he'd never give this up for anything. He reached down to mesh his hand with Cain's. They'd not been displaying their feelings physically and it was bothering Harry's 16 year old sensibilities.

DG stood up and dug around in the ground next to the swing. Glitch arched up in front of Harry to look in his eyes. "How is she going to find anything when the house and lake are gone?" Cain shushed him and Harry winked. When this was all over, he was going to tease Cain about having a daddy kink.

She uncovers a pile of rocks and digs around. She straightens up holding a 'perfect' skipping stone. She kisses it and whispers. "I hope this works." She 'skips' the rock on the ground of the forest and where the rock hits the ground a splash rises from the dirt. Glitch gasps and Harry can feel the magic the forest had drained from them rush by him.

The trees are enveloped in a bright light. When the light is gone the trees are sinking into a lake that's rising up from where the rock disappeared. When the magic settles, Fenaqua looks just as it did before Azkadelia scorched it.

Glitch and DG gasp. A peaceful feeling envelops Cain and Harry and neither have to wonder why this place is so sacred. The hope and beauty of the place bring warmth to their cold hearts in a way that only Glitch had been able to before. The headcase turned in their arms and hugged them both, tears falling from his eyes. Each man buried their faces in his hair.

They pulled apart at the sound of a vaguely familiar woman's voice. The Queen spun up from a bowl on the Gazebo. "DG if your hearing this message then you have overcome much on your journey for find the emerald. The emerald of the eclipse contains the power to being either light or darkness to the oz. As you know, now the evil witch of the dark lives inside your sister that. Is why she knows not of my plan and why I can only entrust the emerald's power to you my angel."

DG waves her hand in front of the Queen, there no reaction. Her eyes stare straight ahead and do not follow DG as she walks around her mother. "Make haste south to the realm of the unwanted. There you will find a man named Ahamo he will help you on your journey to save the O.Z., to the grey gale, to the emerald."

The Queen sinks back down into the bowl and Harry shook his head. What was with adults giving critic instructions. If she just told her where the emerald was then they could get the emerald immediately. Instead they had to go on a journey find someone they didn't know, probably get another riddle and on and on...

"Wait! Who is Ahamo?" DG yelled into the bowl.

Harry chuckled, "You know that wasn't really her right? It was a memory?" DG turned and stuck her tongue out at him. He laughed again. "Ahamo was your father." Glitch tells her and Harry had to let go and double over to with the force of his laughs. Ahamo, what the fuck kind of name was that Sirius? Why didn't he just keep his old name? Idiot. Oh he was going to rub this in when he found the old dog.

Quickly before he forgot he shrunk the bowl and put it in Glitch's pocket. He didn't want to risk someone coming along and finding it.

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AN: please review I do so like to hear from my readers.