Yellow tendrils shot out of Dorothy’s black palm and wrapped themselves firmly around the scythes handle in an instant, with audible “twips” echoing through the hall. The wires glowed like a bright bulb as they exuded Luster that took over the black length of the handle.
With a flick of her wrist, she attempted to pull the weapon from his hand, but the effort was fruitless even with her strong grip on the tendrils. The automaton held on to his weapon firmly and took advantage of the situation.
Before she could let go, Dorothy found herself flying in the air towards him, yanked over with extreme force that she couldn't resist. As the machine gained his weapon back, he grabbed hold of the handle with both hands, swinging the blade from the ground and to the air in a wide arc, meeting Dorothy’s stomach as it was pushed through with no effort. The crash of her organs rupturing was audible and blood spurted everywhere, raining down over the killer, and gushing from her stomach onto the metal floor beneath them.
Death was instant, her body went limp and hung on the end of the pole, having most of the silver blade lodged within her and curving out the end. The scythe wielder wasted no time and flipped Dorothy off his blade, letting her body plummet to the ground and roll to a stop, while blood pooled around her lifeless course.
Blood stained the bramble-like hair that sat atop the machine’s head while he looked down upon Dorothy, whose eyes were lifeless and hollow, her face filled with freight that remained from the moment before the blade met her stomach.
“I’m sorry, it's going to be o-” was the last thing she heard from the tall machine.
***
“You used a Blue Atral?” asked Toto, as he clung to a raven-haired girl’s shoulder.
“Yeah,” she said in between gasps of air, her voice uneven as she ran through the rocky caverns. It felt as if they had been running for hours in pure fear now, yet only the better part of moments had passed. Dandelion, despite his strength and larger frame, trailed behind slightly, as he clutched onto a vibrant Purple Astral in one paw and a Ho’som carcass in the other. The Purple Astral not even being visible in his large hand, only apparent to onlookers from the bright light it exuded. The wound around his chest began to close slowly as it drew blood from the large thin corpse he carried like a toy cart, though far slower than the healing Dorothy had demonstrated using the Black Astral. It wound up with threads of flesh slowly like knitting a sweater across his chest, bit by bit, the hole closed.
“I think it worked as well,” she added before slowing herself down and coming to a stop, though really she didn't need to, her body would have let her run to the moon if she let it.
“At this point, yeah it would have to, he would have caught up to us by now,” said Toto
“We got lucky, OZ wrote that the Black Astral’s influence on Blue Astral is a direct clone that is almost exactly the same as me,” explained Dorothy,
“Is that why you left the other Astral?” Asked Toto as he hopped down from her shoulder. “So it could use it to fight?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know if the clone was able to use it or not though. It's like a second me, I can’t read its mind or anything,” she explained.
“Yeah, that’s the same with regular Blue Astral, it makes a clone of whoever uses it but they're a lot more fragile, they can’t even use Astral, they're just like lights and are less convincing, you can walk right through them. It’s actually a little bit creepy,”
“Sounds like it,” added Dorothy.
“That was really smart of you though Dorothy, It must have worked really well, I wish I could have seen your clone in action!” his voice perked up, and looked up at Dorothy with admiration.
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“Doesn't matter if it worked or not, we’re alive,”
“Y’know, for a second I thought you were going to fight him! I would have hopped off your shoulder so fast if you did that” Dorothy smirked slightly as she shifted her head down and shook her head.
“You can’t win every fight, only an idiot thinks that,” she said, opening her eyes and eyeing Dandillion. Toto noticed this and turned to face him, he was standing meek, slightly away from where the pair stood in the caverns, his wound had almost cleared itself, though, it was beginning to resemble the rest of the nasty scars that were left across his body where there was missing fur. The Ho’som he pulled in his hand had none of its thin flesh left, it had slowly begun to snap apart as the blood was extracted from the bone and weakened its skeleton.
“So was that creepy thing from his chest his muscle thing?” Dorothy asked Toto,
“Yeah, but I've never seen you use it so, well…big. Dandillion, what happened?”
“I-I was scared, but I wanted to get you out Toto, even if it meant me dying,”
“Dont do that again, Dandillion!” said Toto who’s tone was clearly that of someone who had been offended. “Look how Dorothy saved us, there's always a way without putting yourself in big risks like that,”
“That was Dorothy though, I-I’m not like her,” he said, stammering his words slightly with his voice that didn't match his appearance.
“No, you're not, so don't try to be like me,” she said curtly, “but you did get me to act, so thanks…Dandillion,” she said, turning on her heel and walking back through caverns. If Dandillion could blush, he would have, but instead, Toto asked him for a ride on his back, something the kind lion would never turn down.
***
The colours of Luster passed in the sky, animated and lively that it almost felt like a play that Dorothy was watching. She had decided to take advantage of the warm night and spend some time outside the church. She found it useful when she was so overwhelmed in this new life, though unfortunately, it caused her mind to reflect on her past life. She kept wondering where her parents were despite her disliking them, her urge to apologize to her father only got bigger and bigger, but that’s all the urge was allowed to do. It had no opportunity to be displayed to her father who she had blown up at, no opportunity to show her apologetic intentions, and slowly began to morph into a form of regret, rather than an opportunity for redemption.
“You’re not stuck in a trance, are you?” asked the voice of the older gentleman from Dorothy’s left. She snapped her head quickly to find OZ, his professional-brimmed hat hiding part of his face.
“No, but it is beautiful,” admitted Dorothy, “The sky I mean,” she further clarified.
“I've found even just staring at the sky is enough to help me get my thoughts in order, despite it being a complex display of colours, it's such a simple display of beauty in a realm filled with horrors,” Dorothy took in what he said with her arms folded and back to the wall of the church, staring up at the sky with her usual sad face.
“Are you feeling ok, Dorothy? Toto…told me what happened,” OZ approached audibly cautiously.
“Hmm, yeah fine,” she said quickly. No sound could be heard in the quiet night, with no birds or owls, it was just them and the subtle ambiance of the gramophone playing quietly within the church.
“I've yet to thank you young lady,” OZ said, “That was very kind of you despite only knowing me for 2 short days, and very brave of you having only inhabited this world for the same time, I’m eternally grateful to you for rescuing Dandillion,” his hand held to his chest as he spoke. Dorothy scoffed slightly.
“Do you ever just speak normally,” She asked with a small chuckle, “It’s like you wrote out what you were gonna say or something,” OZ returned a jovial chuckle, leaning on the dirty church wall with her.
“When you're cooped up in the church like me, killing time with books is generally the best course of action,” he explained
“You said I was brave but…I wasn’t” Dorothy digressed abruptly.
“What do you mean?”
“Yeah, I rescued Dandillion and Toto but, I did it by running away, part of me wanted to face that thing with Astral, to see if I could win but…I was too scared,”
“That's perfectly normal, Dorothy, you made the right choice. I did warn you about how dangerous he is,”
“Not for me, I've hated fearing things, learning how to kickbox was always like chasing the next strongest opponent, and yeah, we got taught that sometimes you can’t win a fight and need to run, but I never did that shit, whether I would lose or win I always fought. There began to be less and less things I feared the better I got at fighting. It got to the point where I felt unstoppable, it felt like I had a talent I could really call mine,” she said with clear passion which soon began to dissipate. “but this…” she stopped before slumping back against the wall lazily. “It feels like I'm a kid again, feels like I have nothing,” she explained, dejected.
“And it sucks?” Interjected OZ. Dorothy turned to him quickly, surprised by the choice of words he used.
“Y-yeah, how’d you know I was going to say that?” she said slightly surprised.
“It's apparent on your face,” he said smugly, pushing himself off the wall of the giant church. “Don’t worry, Dorothy,” he stopped before meeting her eye with his under his brimmed hat, his eyes were tired and old, yet had an air of intrigue and to them despite being completely black and white, “We’ll get you out of here, I promise I will,” He then turned on one foot to enter back into the church doors.
“Thanks,” she said softly. OZ smiled, pushing his hat down to hide his eyes,
“Don't stay up too late,” he said, before disappearing back through the doors. Dorothy smirked and decided she would go back in once she felt drowsy.