Chapter Text
I stared at the fountain in horror as it began to convulse. Yes, the whole thing. I ran from it, but my fallen colleagues tried chasing me. They ripped themselves from the fountain, blood and gore smearing into the water and falling out of the fountain.
I ran in a blind panic away from them, even further into the maze. These are the rules of the Court.
The lyrics to ‘Strangers’ echoed in my head.
‘But God is telling you and I that there is death, for all of us’
I know Ethel, I know. If I had to die, I was happy to die with her lyrics in my head. I raced down the maze, but the lyrics in my head calmed me some. If I die, I will die, and there’s nothing I can do. But if not, I will fight. I can save everyone, if I’m willing to try hard enough.
I saw her at the end of one of the passageways.
“Mama? Mama!” I ran to her without thinking.
Mama was also burnt to a crisp, essentially. She said nothing, but I could tell she’s sorry now.
“Mama!” I cried, bending down to her body. I hugged what I could, a mangled faceless body- burnt almost to dust. “I’m so sorry. I could have saved you from him.” I looked up through tears to see the rest of my family approaching us. Paul, Ambrose, and my sisters- Daisy, Scarlet, and Grace. Paul peered out from behind Daisy.
“Why did you do this to us?” He asked timidly.
I scrambled up from mama. “Now you know that’s not true.” I told him aggressively. “We just talked in the dream! You know I would never do something like this.” Paul said nothing.
My family did nothing to attack me. They just sat, and stared. Well, mostly stared. Some of them didn’t have eyes anymore, which I was very upset about.
“Paul, now you know I’m a good sister.” I pleaded. “I’m coming to see y’all soon. I promise. It won’t be very long now.”
Each member stepped back into the darkness, one by one, never turning from me. Paul was last. I crouched to him. “You be good, and take care of mama, ok?”
I thought I saw him nod before he disappeared into darkness, as well. I turned to say my goodbyes to mama but she left me.
I wandered more and more, coming across depictions of my life. In one of the halls, I found a recreation of one of the cornfields we all played in when we were younger.
I have to do this for them. One last thing. I know how to get out of here. I know how. I start to pick up a brisk pace and weave through the halls. I see things move and people call to me, but I ignore it. What goes on around me isn’t my business anymore.
After a while, the things start to be overwhelming. It crosses my mind to gouge out my eyes, but I wonder if they’ll be able to grow back or not. I chew on the sleeve of my jacket as I walk.
I continue gnawing at it as I decide what to do. It’s hard for me to form thoughts, but I’m able to. I didn’t drink that much of the water, and hopefully my healing factor deflected most of the drugs.
I finally rip off a piece of the fabric and I’m able to tie it around my eyes. Instantly the voices and sounds get louder.
Shit, what can I do to block that out?
I come up with the best course of action: to just think of random lyrics and repeat them.
I go through all my favorite songs one by one, blaring them loudly in my head. Then I start walking again. I get on one of the walls and trace it with my hand. It seems like I do that for hours. At one point, I lost my footing and fell down some stairs a pretty long way.
I took this as a sign I was getting closer.
“We’re waiting on you, Lydia.” The voice comes from all around, interrupting my lyric-reciting.
“I know you are.” I say loudly. “I’m trying to find you.” You see, with the Court, you cannot be emotional. This is a huge sign of weakness to them.
I wander along the halls, still tracing my hand further and further. It’s starting to wear away at my skin now.
I walk straight into a large body.
“Mmph!” It almost knocked me down. I took my handmade blindfold off to find Bruce.
“Bruce? Is that you?” He must have drank that damn water.
“Do you see that? Do you see them?” He grabs me forcefully, his eyes wild.
“Hey, stop!” I rip myself from his grasp. Why did the Court allow him to be in here with me?
“Bruce, nobody is there. It’s drugs from the water.” I put a hand on his arm, hoping to bring him away from whatever state he’s in. His eyes seemed to return to a semi-normal state.
“Let’s keep walking.” He turned away without waiting for me and started walking left.
I followed him without saying anything. It makes me feel a little safer having him here, if he is real.
After a while, I interrupt the voices to ask him something.
“What should we do?”
He doesn’t look back. “We find Damian, first. Then, we beat anyone’s ass who was involved with this.”
I lowered my head and kept following behind him. I don’t think that’s a very good plan.
He must be thinking a lot of things, so I don’t intervene. He is the Detective. I’m just the Alchemist.
We continue meandering through the maze. I don’t know what he’s seeing, but I’m seeing more and more people from my past. Even Penguin made an appearance at one point.
Soon, we come across yet another owl statue in the middle of one of the rooms. It’s a statue of the Talon, or so I thought. Bruce gets too close to it, and the statue leaps from its place and starts attacking him.
Talons usually carry swords, but they also like these little tiny throwing knives-that hurt very bad. This one is a lot bigger than Bruce. Bruce blocks a lot of the blows from the Talon, but it manages to slash him once with a knife.
As he’s distracting it, I sneak behind the Talon- hoping to kill it with its own sword. Bruce sees what I’m doing.
He throws punches just as fast as the Talon tries to dodge them.
I snatch the large sword from out of the Talon’s sheath and swirl, attempting to stab it in the side. Bruce kicks out, and I end up stabbing it halfway through the stomach. It’s almost just like Slade did to me.
“Go!” Bruce runs toward a doorway in the maze. I chase after him the best I can, leaving the Talon and the sword.
We pass blindly into the doorway, but there’s apparently another set of stairs. We tumble down, Bruce tries to separate me from most of the stairs and I appreciate it.
We land in a pile at the bottom.
“I see you’ve found the Courtroom.”
I am dragged away from Bruce and thrown in the middle of the room on my knees.
“Yep. Pretty sure we found it.” I lift myself up. There are guards everywhere. I am completely surrounded, and so is Bruce. And so is…everybody else? I count out them all, everybody except… Roy. Ok, maybe Roy and Plushy got away. I will believe they did, for now. Everybody is a little beat up, some with black eyes and some with bloody noses, but all are alive. My Jason is there, he’s alive as well. For now.
The room is very bright, but the Court members sit above us in the shadows. Their owl masks reflect off the light below them. I hear whispering, but I can’t hear what they’re saying.
Bruce doesn’t put up much of a fight, I don’t think he can right now. Three of the Talons slam him into a wall, and he sits. He does not get up.
“Lydia Blood, accused of discussing our Court to others, conspiring and plotting against our Court, and involving others in doing so.”
I half-raise my eyes to the Judge. This is the Court leader, somewhat. The Judge is mostly a speaker for the entire Court, not necessarily one to make decisions for the Court. I have to be very careful what I say here.
The Judge leaned over their stand. “Does evidence need to be provided or do you accept your execution, along with theirs?” Imagine the theaters where people used to watch surgeries- that is exactly like this.
My head hurts very bad, and a drop of blood falls from somewhere on my face to the ground. The family is silent, but Bruce gazes at me indistinctly. I can’t tell what he is thinking.
“Evidence doesn’t need to be provided. The Court is correct. However, I would like to explain my side.”
“No need.” The Judge says dismissively.
“Yes.” I hear whispers in the crowd. “I would like to explain my side, and propose something if I can.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible.” The judge says.
“So have the laws changed since I was a member?” I bite my tongue. Shit. I hear some gasps and angry words from the Owls.
The Judge laughs a little. “No, no they have not changed. I see you remember our traditions?”
“Yes.” Some hair falls in my face. I don’t not look at my family. I cannot. “Permission to speak freely?”
“Of course. This is your trial after all.” The Judge says this with amusement. The Court likes to play with victims, as you can tell.
“In my opinion, I should be immune to the Court’s actions against me. The other defendants,” I don’t look at them when I say this. “Have known about the Court for a long time. There was almost nothing I told them that they already didn’t know.” I sweep my gaze around the room quietly. “I have helped the Court for a long time. It doesn’t seem to uphold your…ideals, to kill me off like this.”
The Owls seem to ponder this. The Judge finally chimes in. “Lydia, we take no pleasure in killing you.” That’s a lie. “You have a lot of potential to us, and you have already assisted the Court greatly. However, you have broken too many of the laws, and this means you must face the consequences.”
I’m running out of time, and the Court’s patience.
“I understand. But I was hoping to pay the Court back in some way, if you’re willing to let the other defendants go.”
Some Owls in the crowd laugh, and others shift in their seats. I can’t see any of their faces, they all are wearing owl masks.
“I don’t think releasing the defendants will be a solution for us. They’ve already seen the Court, and each one has already proven they’re not willing to simply walk away.” The Judge seems to look from me to them.
“But they haven’t upset the Court before, have they?” I glance around to the Court, hoping to get a reaction. “They have known about the Owls for a long time, but they’ve done nothing to act against you.”
“You are correct, in that sense.” The judge said this begrudgingly. “But they have seen too much, you understand?”
I let my eyes fall slightly. “I do. But you said I have potential, do I not?”
The Judge looks back toward the Owls. “Yes,” they say this slowly. “And it is true you have proven yourself before, but the Court is not convinced that will be enough this time.”
“I understand.” I look up to the Judge with a glint of fire in my eyes. “Then there’s one last thing I want to propose.”
“And what is that?” The Judge asked, almost kindly. I know all too well, the Court is anything but kind.
“I want to propose the seventeenth state!” I say this loudly, to get a rise from the Owls.