Chapter Text
Almost two weeks to the day that Amelia arrived, DG felt a shift in the magic inside the palace. She looked up from the sketch she'd been working on and caught her sister's eye as Azkadellia sat up straighter on the window seat where she'd been reading.
"That felt familiar," Az spoke up when DG said nothing. Glitch and Cain glanced at them in confusion while Raw closed his eyes. "Do you think...?"
"Doorway opening," Raw announced, opening his eyes to stare at DG with an expression that was both pleased and sad. "Amelia's mother returns."
DG nodded, biting her bottom lip as she glanced at the little girl in Cain's arms. She was torn on how she felt about it; on one hand, she hoped her counterpart brought good news and was able to reclaim her daughter but on the other, she found she was going to miss having the baby in her life.
"We should check it out first," Cain told her, getting to his feet slowly so not to wake the sleeping baby. "Make sure it's safe for her."
"I know." DG stood to join him, her gaze dropping from his to rest on the contented child. "Would you mind staying here with her while I check it out with Az?"
He narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Princess?"
"If there's any danger, it'll be magic based. Besides," DG added, reaching out to smooth out Amelia's furrowed brow as she slept on oblivious, "you're the best person to protect her if something happens to me."
It was clear he was reluctant to let her go without him but when given the choice of who needed his protection most, DG or the baby, there was only one real answer. He might hate it but he knew DG could and would defend herself if she needed to.
Cradling Amelia against his chest with one arm, he used the other to draw DG in, leaning down to kiss her softly. "Take care of my princess," he murmured against her lips. "No unnecessary risk, you hear?"
Pulling away with a smile, DG nodded. "I hear you, Tin Man. We'll be back soon." She stepped away and reached a hand out to Az, who tried to pretend she hadn't watched their whole exchange with wide eyes and took it. The immediate glow between their palms helped settle some of her nerves.
They held hands on their way to the throne room, where the doorway between realities had first been opened. DG wasn't surprised to find her mother and father standing outside of the room, the Queen and Consort looking up from their discussion when their daughter's approached.
"The guards reported the same sort of fog in the mirror," Ahamo told them. His voice was calm but his eyes were concerned as they locked on DG. "It looks like someone's trying to come through."
"She did say she'd come back as soon as she could." DG felt Az send a wave of reassurance through their connection and tried to smile. "I suppose we should go and see if she made it or if someone else is here in her place."
Queen Lavender motioned to the guards standing at attention in front of the throne room. "Open the doors."
As one, the Royal Family of the OZ entered the throne room. Purple clouds swirled in the panel of one of the floor to ceiling mirrors, just as they had done before. DG tried to move closer but Az's hand on hers kept her a small distance away.
"We don't know who's going to come through," Az cautioned.
"Raw did." DG glanced over her shoulder at her sister, a sad smile on her face. "He said Amelia's mother was returning. That's a good thing," she added, seeing the sadness cross over her sister's face, too. "Amelia doesn't belong here with us, not when she can be at home with parents who love her."
"Her parents love her here." Az's eyes shone but she gave DG's hand a squeeze in understanding. "I know we have to let her go, Deege, and if it's this hard for me, I can't imagine how it is for you."
"Someone's coming," Lavender announced, her pale eyes fixed on the mirror. "Stand back, girls."
They did, though DG felt no fear. The glass cleared a little and then a familiar figure stepped through, followed by another. They looked a little worse for wear, both sporting cuts and bruises, but both were alive.
"Hello again," her double greeted her, her smile tired but her eyes bright. "I'm sorry it took us so long to come back."
Trying not to look at the other version of Cain standing so protectively behind her other self, DG let go of Az's hand so she could take a step closer. "You came back as soon as you could. Is it over?"
"It is." A pained expression crossed over her double's face as she took in the three people who stood behind DG. "Oh."
The alternate Cain put a hand on his wife's shoulder, his wedding band catching the light. He, too, glanced from DG to the people standing behind her, his expression giving little away but his eyes full of grief. "We won, but not without some losses."
A choked sound escaped her double, and DG felt cold. She was suddenly very sure that at least one of the people standing behind her hadn't made it in the other reality. "Az," she started, glancing at her sister, "would you please go and ask Cain to bring Amelia here?" Catching her father's eye as Az nodded, she tried to signal to him that he and her mother should leave.
After only a moment's hesitation, Ahamo put his hand on his wife's arm. "Let's go, my love. We can say goodbye to Ami outside."
DG waited until her parents and sister were gone before looking back at the couple who'd walked through the mirror. "Is there a chance what you faced might happen here?" She asked quietly. "Is there something I can do to stop it?"
The alternate DG and Cain exchanged a glance, and she got the impression there was a whole lot said in that one moment. It comforted her, a little, to think that one day her already strong bond with Cain would hopefully be as strong as what she could feel between them.
"The first thing you should do is make sure all of the Longcoats are accounted for. Every last one of them," her counterpart told her. "Without them, there wouldn't have been an army."
"Get Zero from the suit if you haven't already," Cain's counterpart said, though DG thought he was addressing it more to the man she sensed walk into the room than to her. Both of their alternates seemed to freeze for a moment, then release a simultaneous sigh of relief as their daughter was brought into the room. "Keep him somewhere secure. If there's even the slightest chance of him escapin', kill him."
"I'll take that under advisement," Cain, her Cain, said as he moved closer with Amelia. "Anything else we need to know?"
"Look for a man who calls himself Jester," DG's counterpart told him softly, "and don't be fooled by his story," she added, a look of guilt on her face as she glanced at DG. "He can't be trusted. He isn't what he might appear to be." Her gaze fell on her daughter and her eyes softened. "May I?"
"'Course." But Cain passed the baby first to DG, who lifted her so she could kiss Amelia's forehead in a silent goodbye. "Jester. I'll remember that."
"See that you do." His counterpart watched as DG carefully passed Amelia to his wife, the last of the tension in his shoulders easing when his daughter was back in his wife's arms. "Thank you, for takin' care of our girl."
DG gave him a small smile, her arms immediately feeling bereft at the loss of the little girl. She leaned into her Cain when she sensed him behind her. "I'd say anytime but I hope it isn't necessary again."
"She's a good kid," Cain added, catching his counterpart's eye. Whatever question he saw there, he answered with a nod. "Take care of your family."
"And you take care of yours."
Their counterparts moved back to the mirror, with Amelia sleeping peacefully in her mother's arms, oblivious to the shift her little life was going to take again. With one last thankful look, the alternate DG and Cain touched the mirror and were gone, its surface reflecting DG and Cain staring into it.
Without a word, DG turned away and buried her face in Cain's chest. No sound escaped her as she cried against him, his arms moving to keep her close.
Two annuals later...
The man who identified himself as the Jester sat in a cell in the basement of the Central City Palace. His expression was one of furious contempt as former Tin Man and husband to Princess DG of the House of Gale stared him down through the bars.
"Might as well make yourself comfortable," Cain told him, arms folded across his chest. "You're not goin' anywhere near fresh air for a long time to come."
"There must've been some kind of mistake," the Jester tried, hoping to appeal to the Tin Man's heart. "I swear I'm not the man you think I am. I know nothing of magic. How could I? I'm just a simple man, trying his best to earn an honest living."
Cain snorted. "There's nothin' honest about you, Jester. We know all about your plot, about your plans to summon the old Witch's magic." He smirked when the man in the cell tried and failed to hide his surprise. Taking a step closer, Cain's expression hardened. "You'll be tried for treason, for plotting against the Royal Family. You won't get a chance to hurt my family this time."
Confused, the Jester could only watch him walk away, the heavy door at the end of the dark hallway slamming shut with a finality that made him seethe.
On the other side of it, two floors up, DG paced the floor of the suite she shared with her husband. Her palm glowed as she let it rest on her extended stomach, her unborn daughter kicking in response to her mother's upset.
They'd searched the OZ for a man called the Jester since the day their counterparts had left with Amelia, only to find themselves thwarted by dead end after dead end. It was two cycles into her pregnancy that his name had come up, reported to them by one of the Guilds who served on her mother's council of advisors, and they'd been on high alert ever since.
"It's okay, little one," DG soothed, rubbing her stomach and trying to settle her own emotions. "Daddy's taking care of things. I'm sure he'll be back soon and we'll know –" The doors to the suite opened and she stopped pacing to greet her husband.
Cain crossed the room in an instant, his arms going around his wife and child immediately. "It's done, Deege. The Jester's behind bars. He won't be hurtin' anyone in this world."
All of the tension that had been gathering inside her since the day she'd found out she was expecting dissipated in a heartbeat. She relaxed in Cain's arms, their unborn daughter safely between them.
End.