Sell you a Bridge chapter 181

February 26th 2011 The OZ 8:00 AM EDT

We  were really lucky the others had left, because we absolutely would have  had to leave some of them behind. The hot air balloon was barely able  to fit the seven of us. The cornerpups spent the entire trip hanging  from the ropes and basket by their claws and yipping joyfully as we  listened to Ahamo regale DG with stories about how he ended up in the OZ  and met her mother and just generally bonding with his daughter.  Artemis was glaring most of the time, mostly because my bestie had no  patience for this obvious conman trying to reconnect with our friend  after he abandoned her.

To be fair his reasoning for  bailing was more valid than Larry's, but I personally thought "I had to  stay here and prepare for your return and protect the secret of the  emerald" was a copout. He couldn't have just raised her like a decent  person and told her all this shit growing up? Lying to her for her  entire life and then dumping all of this on her all at once seemed like  exactly the worst way to handle things. At least her mother had the  excuse of being imprisoned, this asshole was just a lazy dick.

Finally  we made it...somewhere. We stopped on a seemingly completely random  cliff top and we all climbed out of the balloon. Wally raced off to use  the bathroom and the rest of us just looked around. We'd followed the  weird weathervane compass to this spot and looking around it seemed like  it had led us to a dead end. There was nothing obvious around here to  see so I switched to aura sight and then stopped, raising an eyebrow.  "Found it." Everyone turned to look where I was pointing.

DG  checked the compass before nodding. To my eyes there was a big ass set  of double doors sitting there, but apparently the others couldn't see  them. As they stepped in closer though, Artemis inhaled sharply. I  turned off my aura sight and gave it a shot, stepping forward myself and  then side to side. "Huh. Magic camo doors. Basically invisible. I  wonder if these are even here if you don't have the compass." Even if  they weren't this seemed pretty safe since I didn't think anyone had  been here for decades aside from us.

She held up her palm  with the brand, and just like at the ice palace the door swung open as  her hand glowed. I glared at the thing. "What the fuck is the point of  even having doors with knobs when they just magically pop open when they  talk to the hand. Like couldn't they have save some effort making a  portal or something." Zee snickered but elbowed me in the ribs as  Dreamer gave me a disapproving frown, presumably for undercutting DGs  epic destiny. I sniffed and headed inside, ignoring them with as much  dignity as I could muster.

Once we got in we found...grey.  Artemis whistled. "Wow the Grey Gale is really committed to their color  palette huh? I have to be honest, in terms of designs for a mausoleum I  give them ten points on style and one point of shading. This place is  fancy as hell, but it's pretty drab." She pointed to the grey and white  walls and the large hole that fell away into the floor, which was also  grey. Well, the hole wasn't grey, but the stuff around the edges was  grey, including the giant ass spiral of stone steps.

Ahamo  cleared his throat with a glare. "This is where the royal family is  interred DG. Down there lies those whose blood flows through your  veins." I rolled my eyes. According to his little bonding speech he was  from Kansas in the first place. Clearly he'd gotten super into his  wife's family history and was being way too enthusiastic about it all.  It was pretty inappropriate to gush about finding your daughters family  gravesite.

We came to the entrance to the space where the  Grey Gale was housed after Wally came back, and Ahamo stopped us all.  "This next part is DG's alone. She must make her way inside and retrieve  the emerald alone." I was about to argue that when Dreamer put a hand  on my arm. She nodded to DG, who had a determined look on her face. I  sighed and stepped back, gesturing her ahead to her destination.

It  took like twenty minutes for her to get in and get the emerald, coming  back out a bit dazed. She didn't want to talk much about it, but she  mentioned meeting Dorothy. THE Dorothy. Apparently our farm girl hadn't  caught on to this place being the literal land from the wizard of oz,  though to be fair all the symbolism was probably less obvious if you  weren't looking for it, plus she'd had a lot going on. She seemed a bit  dazed by the fact that she was related to one of the most prominent  fictional characters to ever live.

Ahamo meanwhile was  practically glowing. Crowing about how amazing she was. "You're  everything I always hoped you would be DG, I am so proud of you!" The  man was practically manic with energy and excitement. "With the emerald  in our hands we've as good as won!" He swept DG up into a hug spinning  her around. "I'm so grateful that you lived up to all our hopes for  you."

A sardonic voice cut in, punctuated by a slow clap,  and I turned to see Azkedelia step from behind a veil along with a dozen  long coats. She sighed dramatically. "Oh daddy, always such a  romantic." She cast a lascivious look at me. "Hello again pretty. I'll  get to you in a moment. But first, DG why dont you share your pretty new  trinket with your big sister." DG yanked it away, hissing that  Azkedelia wasnt her sister. She held out a hand, pouting impatiently.

I  raised an eyebrow. "So...are you stupid? Because I kicked your ass last  time we fought. What gives you the incredibly mistaken impression that  I'm going to let you take the emerald we came here for to begin with?" I  didn't like how smug she seemed. She was acting like she had a plan for  me, and as much as I wanted to just handwave it as pointless this was  the OZ and she was the "wicked witch of the dark" apparently. Which made  her a prehistoric witch of the west on steroids.

She  smiled coldly, tracing her nail over her cleavage again, except this  time the tattoos didn't shift, something else did. Energy to be  specific, energy that made the heart behind that cleavage glow a toxic  green. "She said it herself didn't she? I'm not her sister. But this  body is. You'll give me the emerald or I'll tear the heart from her  pretty little chest." I blinked. I...hadn't even considered that. I  flexed my hand a bit, getting ready to try to restrain her, but she just  tsk'ed at me.

The  glow brightened. "Ah, ah, ah. I made sure to begin this spell hours  ago. Right now the magic in her heart is all that's holding it in place.  If the flow cuts off...well." She gave DG a dark smile. "I wonder if  our pretty princess will be so pure and innocent with bits of her  sisters organs splattered across her face?" DG paled, looking at her  sister and the monster inside her in terror.

Fuck.  I probably shouldn't have baited her about the manipulation thing.  Because this was a decent hostage negotiating tactic. DG was...literally  the most innocent person I'd ever met. Even after what we saw at Cain's  place she had this sort of unstained optimism that only got dented when  she found out how her sister got possessed. I didn't think the person  my friend was could survive watching the sister she felt she'd failed  have her heart ripped from her chest.

I  sneered at her. "Rule one of hostage negotiating, you need to give the  other party some incentive. Azkedelia lives if you get the emerald but  you collapse the whole world into darkness with your stupid machine. I  can take you even with the glowy rock I'm betting. Plus she's your host,  if you kill her you're fucked or else why stick with her for so many  years? There's too many holes in your trade."

She  just giggled. "I've been in here for years, I've regained enough power  to stand on my own, and if I don't have the emerald what's the point  anyway? I'm so close to my goal, I'll risk it all if I have to. As for  the OZ being doomed you can all just leave. You don't belong here  anyway. Go home and let me rule in peace and we don't need to have any  more problems."

She  turned to look at DG. "Or don't. Push me and she dies. Or perhaps you  want to hear that from her?" She lifted her hands and projected an image  into the air before her. A twelve year old girl with curled up hair and  a look of fear on her face. She was looking at DG with tears in her  eyes, and when she opened her mouth the witch giggled again and clutched  her hand, choking off the supposed plea for help. "See? She's still in  there, scared and alone. I used to lie to her you know, tell her I was  her friend, tell her I was always going to be here for her. She's been  so lonely for so long."

DG's  horrified eyes were locked on the illusion of her older sister as tears  streamed down her face. She turned to look at me in horror. "Morgan...I  can't lose her. I have to do this." I sighed but nodded. I got it. I'd  have done the same for Artemis, or Zee, or Reggie. She turned to the  witch, holding up the glowing green stone the size of my thumb. "Here.  Take it. But this isn't over yet. We aren't going to just sit back and  let you turn out the sun. We'll come for you, we'll break down your  doors and we'll save my sister."

The  emerald zipped across the clearing into her hand and she gave a  sharklike grin. "Oh my dear, I'm counting on it. It'll be so much more  satisfying to do this while all of you try in vain to stop me." She shot  me a wink. "As for you, well...the things I can do with this emerald  will make even you miss a step. If you want to come and play though I'll  be ready for you, so don't disappoint me lover." She snapped her  fingers and she and all of her goons vanished like a puff of smoke.

I  winced, teleportation had taken her a big wind up before, but once she  got the rock she just blinked them all out of here. I was guessing her  little speech about the emerald making her stronger wasn't just for  show. I checked my points. Twenty five thousand five hundred. I'd burned  some taking down the bounty hunters in Ahamo's bar. I needed a new  party trick, something that would maximize my combat potential, which  meant I needed to think.

I  sighed and reached into my spatial ring, slowly beginning to set up  camp as Zee and Artemis comforted DG. Wally came over to pitch in with  setting up the tents and Dreamer walked over to stand at my side. She  put a hand on my shoulder, giving it a squeeze, and gave me a proud  smile, as if to let me know she thought I'd done the right thing. It was  frustrating, but I knew she was right. Still I couldn't help shake my  head. "Gods, I really hate that stupid fucking witch." My voice must  have carried because there was a tense beat throughout the camp before  we all burst out laughing. And if some of us were laughing more  hysterically than others, no one chose to comment.