Clockwork Castle

I resisted the urge to groan in frustration. Stealing my body from Kirux, I threw it over one shoulder and slipped past Megara. "Adrian, I know you're in there! Let us in." If Jacob wasn't going to let us in, I'd have to rely on the prince. But before I could add anything else in, I suddenly realized that I felt like our group was one member short.

I glanced back.

Kirux was nowhere to be found - a corridor of his darkness standing in his spot. It didn't take me long to figure out where he had gone.

I slowly looked back at the door.

...That was one way of getting inside.

After a moment passed, I headed inside through the corridor that Kirux had made, joining him in the shop.

Fidel and Megara followed Skull through the corridor.

Inside the shop, Jacob was in something approximating a panic. At least he hadn't started crying yet.

Before he could stutter something barely comprehensible, Megara cut him off, "Thanks for locking us out. Next time, I stab you and force my way in, m'kay?"

He nodded furiously and opened his mouth to say something, only to once again be cut off before he could get out the first syllable, this time by the queen, "I certainly hope that your job is complete."

Adrian had been silent throughout Jacob's panic, watching us as we emerged from the corridor that Kirux had made. It seemed like he was coming to the same conclusion that his mom had - that it was us. Or, at least, he recognized Megara, so at least there was that.

"It's alright," Adrian softly reassured him. "We haven't been discovered here."

Meanwhile, I turned to more important business.

I stretched one last time, hopped back to the body I had placed down on the ground, and made quick work of the guard I had been possessing before turning back to the queen.

"It's been completed," I said. "There's no doubt that he's dead."

"Hm," she stood from the stool she'd been seated in as regally as though it were a throne just by her presence upon it, "Then you've come to be sent back to your worlds?"

Megara's knife was in her hand in an instant, flashing in the firelight, "We did make a deal," she said, her voice cold, smooth, not quite menacing. An imitation of her father. She had to keep herself from reacting to that revelation. She was imitating her father. She didn't know if she should be ashamed or screaming.

"Very well," said the queen, "Which of you would like to be sent back first?"

I looked around at the others.

I could ask to go back first. I should ask to go back first, seeing that I was the only one of us whose entire body was different. But part of me stupidly wanted to make sure everything went alright for the others, so I picked someone at random.

"I vote Fidel," I said.

Spoiler

Taking over Kirux for a second to get Fidel out of the suit thing.

Kirux used his strange key thing to unlock the guard, and Fidel climbed out. Megara disabled the guard while he approached the queen.

She looked him over and held out a hand, "Take my hand," she ordered.

Fidel did as he was told.

The queen held him lightly, her face twitched as though she were being forced to touch something nasty. She chanted a spell and Fidel suddenly vanished. His body became shimmery, hard to look at, like a mirage, and then he was gone.

Spoiler

Okay.

Kirux took off his robotic head - something I hadn't even been aware of him being able to do - and frowned when he saw Fidel suddenly disappear. His gaze traveled from me to Megara to back to me, and I suddenly found myself being pulled into a hug.

"I think Kirux wants to go next," I said, peeking around his shoulder so I could get a good look at Megara and the queen. Kirux gave a nod before ducking his head into my shoulder, tears welling up as he held me just a bit tighter.

The queen nodded stiffly and offered her hand.

"Bye," Megara signed once Kirux could see her, "Have a good life." That last bit was sentimental. She hated that, quelled it. Tried to quell it. Pretended to quell it. May the gods forbid her family ever discover her to be a sentimentalist.

She didn't even notice the small, sad smile she offered Kirux with the goodbye.

When Kirux finally wrenched himself away from me, he gave Megara a hesitant look. There was a moment where he didn't move at all - only to end when he darted over to Megara, gave her a tight, quick hug, and went running back to the queen.

He grabbed onto her hand.

"Bye, Kirux," I said. "I hope we meet again."

He gave a big, tearful nod.

The queen repeated her spell and Kirux vanished with no ceremony from her. "Next?" she asked, the word darting out of her mouth in a tight, bitter rage.

Megara was still staring at the place where Kirux had been, blinking slowly. Hugged her. He had...He'd hugged her. She swallowed the unfamiliar emotions that followed the unfamiliar feeling - unsuccessfully - and turned to Skull. She gestured to the queen.

"Would you like to go first?" she asked sarcastically.

I shrugged, then gestured grandly from Megara to the queen.

"Ladies first," I said. I was going to draw this out as long as I possibly could - I had heard the tone to the queen's voice, and I was reveling in the thought of making her miserable as my last final hurrah. "I'm not in any rush to get back right now. I just hate when certain authority figures think they have a right bossing me around."

Megara smirked and crossed her arms, "I'm anything but a lady," she said with a roll of her eyes, but went first anyway. She didn't imagine anyone could give the queen a little hell better than Skull, other than herself, and she'd stayed too long already. Any longer and her head would be on a pike for this extended unexplainable absence.

The first assumption was going to be she was a traitor. She fought off the shiver at that thought and kept up her overconfident act long enough to be magicked back to her world by the queen.

The queen who, as soon as Megara was gone, fixed Skull with a glare and extended her hand, "Well?"

I pretended to mull it over.

"You know," I said, "being a robot has been pretty nice. I'm not really sure I want to leave yet. Maybe I'll stick around, bug you for a bit just so you get a sweet taste of karma, and then force you to send me back to my old world."

I crossed my arms, nodded in deep contemplation, and looked over in the direction of the prince and his lover - even though I hated the queen with a passion, I hoped things would turn out alright for them. I'd never say it to their faces, but I liked to think they figured it out from my emotionless robotic stare.

I shrugged.

"Eh," I said, "this world's a little bit too boring for my tastes - send me back to my world now, your lowness."

I grabbed onto her hand.

To her credit, the queen took his mocking with a hard stare, the sort of stern look one would give to a misbehaving child as they made their excuses.

She took his hand firmly in her grasp and took a breath to perform her spell. Just before she did, though, she said, "Never return." And then he faded away, tumbling through the void between worlds before another word could be spoken.