GZ Legends 34: Tiara of the Mind pt 3

Ricci sat on her throne with a cruel smirk on her face. She watched the Mayor perform a demeaning and embarrassing dance. She loved the torture she exacted on him. She delighted in keeping him vividly aware of it all. Far ahead of her, near the front door, were Lawrence and Stagefright. She particularly liked Lawrence Jackdaw whose reflexes made short work of Gypsy before she could cast a single spell. Gypsy never saw it coming and wound up in chains with severe injuries.

            “You may as well come out where I can see you, chickee. I know you’re there,” Ricci called out.

             From where they hid, Nightfall noted blank expressions on Atomizer and Redeagle. With a sigh, she touched each of them on the cheek before she stepped out with Dreamseer.

            “I’m sorry, you guys,” she thought as they both collapsed unconscious.

            “Ooh, two of you! What fun!” Ricci sneered at the two women.

            “How did you know?” Nightfall asked.

            “Oh come on! My slaves start dropping like flies and you think I wouldn’t notice? I am in their heads you know. I gotta hand it to you for getting past my police barricade though, nice work. Still, it was stupid to come here.”

            “So why don’t you call your guards on us now?”

            “Hmm, because I’m bored. Can you believe it? I have all these boy toys and I’m actually bored.” Ricci pouted. It would have been an endearing, even cute, expression on anyone else; but on her, it just looked twisted and malicious.

            “Having everything you want isn’t always a good thing,” Dreamseer said.

            “But I don’t have everything I want. I mean, where’s the sun? Even torturing fat slob here doesn’t help that. Go back there, fat slob.” She commanded the Mayor to go back by the fireplace behind her throne and he did so.

            “The blocking of the sun is one of the reasons we’re here,” Nightfall said.

            “No, you’re here because you want my power. And you can’t have it! I see from your uniform that these guys must be friends of yours?”

            “Let them go.”

            Ricci laughed and Zachariah and Kyte came down the stairs. “Now these two were fighting up on the balcony. Great display of martial skills, but I can’t have them busting up my house.” Ricci stood up and took a couple of steps forward.

            Nightfall went for her weapon, but Lawrence shot her in the back. Dreamseer locked eyes with Ricci but suddenly found Kyte’s shadow tendrils choking her. She fell to her knees as the evil woman smiled on. Ricci owned all of Miami and nothing could take that from her. She commanded all and soon the world would feel her presence.

 Then a piercing pain in her back and chest abruptly broke her train of thought. Slowly, she looked down at the fireplace poker that now protruded from between her breasts. Ricci looked up to find everything as it was before she gave the mental command to attack. Dreamseer wasn’t being choked and Nightfall was standing unharmed. They both looked surprised though.

The men around the room were on the floor thanks to a sharp wind from Sandstorm who now materialized. He also looked toward Ricci with a semi shocked expression. Ricci turned slightly to look into the enraged face of the Mayor. She crumpled to the floor, dead.

            Dreamseer had given Ricci the illusion that she had defeated them in order for Nightfall to go up and take the tiara. The illusion apparently broke her hold on the Mayor. He took the fireplace poker and exacted revenge. He didn’t know what everyone was doing when he realized his freedom and he didn’t care. He only knew of the torture. Nothing else was real for him.

 The tiara fell and rolled across the floor to Nightfall’s feet.

            “Don’t touch it,” Dreamseer cautioned, “It won’t work for a man, so only a man should touch it.”

            Sandstorm picked it up.

            Dreamseer looked up to the sobbing Mayor who stumbled backward a little, preparing to flee.

            “Wait,” she reached out to his mind to pause him.

            He put his hands to the sides of his head, “No! Let me go! Get out of my head!” He dropped to his knees where Dreamseer ran up to him.

            “Wait, please. I’m not going to hurt you. I promise, I’m not going to hurt you.” She put her hands to his temples. Nightfall yanked down some long drapes and put them around the Mayor's shoulders.

            “What she did to me,” he sobbed. “What she made me do. What she did to me.”

            “I know, I know. Let me help you. Let me heal you.” Then her voice was in his mind, No more pain, no more hurt. You can let it all go. You are better than her and you aren’t a victim anymore.

            He opened his eyes, “Yeah, not a victim.  Okay.” She helped him stand.

            “You have a city to repair.”

            “Yeah. Yeah I do.”

            “We’ll help you,” Zachariah Ace piped in. He was dusting himself off from being thrown by Sandstorm. “Now that we are all under our own control again, it’s the least we can do.”

            The Mayor looked at Dreamseer and she said, “It’s okay, they’re good people. Let them help you.”

            The Mayor nodded and went out the front door. He wanted to find something better to wear. The jesters cap lay in the fireplace.

            Zachariah and Nightfall went to retrieve Gypsy from the basement.

            “We’ll get Gypsy to our med bay on the ship. We managed to reach Earth by teleporting past the shield around the planet. Unfortunately we couldn’t affect the shield itself, but at least we’re here.” Zachariah made a sweeping gesture, “And I think we’ll take over this mansion as a base while we help clean up around here.”

            Nightfall nodded. “With permission, I want to carry on with these people. We’re getting close to solving this whole thing, but there are more artifacts to collect. They’re of grave importance.”

            “Permission granted. Just check in with us okay?”

            Nightfall nodded. She didn’t mention that there was someone else as well. Someone she wanted to know more about. News of Anubis would have to come later.

Want to know what happened before this? Link back to number 1!