CHAPTER SIXTEEN

When Oz stepped backwards with shock, part of him expected to hit against the doors, but they weren't there. His boots made clacking noises against the floor as he hurriedly kept backing up, reaching for his power.

"What is it?" Alice hissed.

"There!" He pointed – and then blinked. He thought he had seen – but no, it couldn't be. The figure crouched there on the floor was definitely human.

"Is that Lotti?" Alice hurried forward, her footsteps echoing in the empty corridor. "Lotti, is that you?"

Oz hung back. The figure might well be a Chain or a puppet or a shade, some horrible derivative of Lotti's consciousness. Still, he was surprised when the huddled figure raised her head with a hiss and there was madness in her eyes.

"Unicorn!" she snarled. "Unicorn – I'LL KILL YOU! Don't think you can win!"

Alice jumped back, startled, and Oz grabbed her hand. Lotti stood with shaking limbs, her clothes torn and dirtied, her feet bare, her hair tangled and her expression twisted with hate.

"Lotti?"

She blinked and looked at them properly. "Oz? Alice? That's you, right?" The weariness and anger seemed to melt off her face, leaving a smile full of relief and happiness in its place.

Oz rushed forward and hugged her, Alice following soon after. "I'm sorry I just up and left you," she said in a small voice as they separated.

"No problem," she said. "Just got abandoned by my super powerful companions, nearly died, got turned into a Chain, had a severe identity crisis, but we're good. Just don't do it again." She smiled sweetly.

"We won't," Alice promised fervently – then frowned. "Wait, what? You turned into a Chain?"

"It was more painful than I was expecting," she said, her smile twisting. "You know, I discovered an awful lot of things about the Unicorn while it was happening. I nearly lost myself in the process…"

"Things? What do you mean?"

"The Unicorn's past. Its thoughts. Everything. I've got all its power, too, and every spell and curse it's wrapped around itself. I know all its weaknesses." Lotti laughed humourlessly. "It knows mine now, too, I guess…"

Oz perked up. "Weaknesses?"

"It's more like what it believes is its weakness." Lotti shrugged. "It thinks that only a lion would have a chance of defeating it…you know, because of the rhyme? But it's got a plan to cover that. Whoever kills the Unicorn will die themselves."

Oz's eyes were wide, and he trembled as he stared at the ground. Lotti had to know what she was telling him. What she was telling him to do.

Only a lion would have a chance of defeating it.

He was a lion. He was the lion.

He had to be! Was there any other way? Had all this struggling, the whole thing been leading up to this? Was this why, on that awful night, he and Alice had opened the door and let it out? Was it all meant for this moment?

So that he would kill the Unicorn - and die with it?

He looked at Alice. Pale faced, she shook her head slowly. He saw her mouth form the word "no".

The inevitability of his death sunk into him, and the weight of it nearly forced him to his knees. He would fight for his friends, fight every sin that he had committed, fight for the memory of the dead, but the one death he couldn't fight was his own. He bowed his head in acceptance.

He looked at Lotti. Her face was filled with rage and fear. "Unicorn," she growled, bristling. "You won't have time to hurt them. I'll kill you first."

Oz reached out pleading hands, trying to make her see that they were Oz and Alice, her friends – but then Alice was gripping his wrist tightly, and he saw –

WON'T I? WILL YOU, LOTTI BASKERVILLE?

-that Lotti was not staring at them, but beyond them.

He whipped around, and the Unicorn was there, and he heard the death bells tolling in his head. Alice snarled, and then the rabbit was hulking beside him, and he felt himself shifting, becoming the lion, until he felt a hand on his shoulder and a whispered warning. "Don't. She hates lions, remember?"

He turned to see Lotti, her face grimly set.

"And how am I supposed to fight it if I'm a defenceless human?"

The corners of her mouth twitched upwards. "Move it, Jack."

Oz looked her in the eye. "My name is Oz," he said.

She looked startled for a moment, but then she nodded, perhaps realising it properly for the first time. "So it is," she said, smiling then.

"We came to find you," Oz said.

"You know, you shouldn't be here. I don't know what this place is myself."

"We made our choice," he said. "We're not going to leave you now." But I will, he realised. I have to kill the Unicorn. I have to end it here, with both our deaths…

DON'T EVEN TRY TO FIGHT ME, the Unicorn spat. Its message was directed at all of them. NOW I HAVE A CONTRACTOR, A CHAIN, I HOLD UNIMAGINABLE POWER. I WAS PLANNING… TO SIMPLY LEAVE HER HERE, AMPLIFY THE POWER I HOLD WHILE SHE SUFFERS BUT IF SHE WANTS TO FIGHT THEN WHO AM I TO DENY HER THE PLEASURE OF LOSING PITIFULLY?

And it grinned. Its voice had become jarring to listen to, somehow wrong.

Oz whipped around to face the Unicorn. "You –!"

He was the lion, then, and bounding towards it, clock swords angled at its neck. It laughed, that horrible, grating laugh, and gestured with its horn. Oz was thrown backwards, crashing into the other two and sending them sliding back across the floor. The Unicorn tossed its mane, and the ground rippled and undulated, and then they were falling towards the painted ceiling –

Oz flapped his wings, but the corridor was tumbling around and around and he didn't know which way was up. Throughout it all the Unicorn stood and grinned. It was playing with them. Oz roared and leaped for it, but it nimbly dodged out of the way and sent the gravity in the corridor haywire again, causing him to tumble backwards.

I CAN TRAP YOU ALL HERE, IF YOU LIKE, it said. IN FACT I THINK I WILL. YOU HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT NUISANCES TO ME. NUISANCES. IRRITATING. PESTS. YOU'RE ALL IN LEAGUE WITH HIM. MY BROTHER, SCAR. YOU ARE. YOU WANT TO KILL THEM. It sent the gravity another direction, and Oz saw Alice hit the wall hard. He yelled and scrambled over to her. MY CHILDREN, MY

YOU

YOU WANT TO KILL THEM! YOU! The Unicorn wailed, and Oz glanced over at it, and saw that its eyes were trembling and wide and completely, completely mad.

So much power…it's enough to drive anyone insane… He looked at Lotti. She was a Chain, and she was contracted to it, and –

He growled and launched himself at it again.

I'LL KEEP YOU ALL HERE! I'M MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY OF YOU! I'LL LOCK YOU UP LIKE YOU LOCKED UP ME it went to Alice and caught its claws around her neck and pinned her viciously to the ceiling. YOU WILL FEED MY POWER, YOU'LL NEVER DIE, YOU'LL STAY HERE AND GO INSANE, MAD, UTTERLY MAD, (like me) I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN. It knocked Oz back with barely a thought. BLOODSTAINED BLACK RABBIT. I KNOW YOUR NAME NOW. Its mouth unstitched and fell open, a gaping red maw lined with teeth like razors. DID YOU ENJOY YOUR POWER? I THINK YOU DID. I THINK YOU DID

VERY

MUCH

It turned its burning eyes to Lotti. AND YOU. I WILL LEAVE YOU BROKEN AND SUFFERING AND MAD. YOU WON'T EVER MOVE AGAIN. Cracks began to spread in the walls, spiralling out from where it was digging its claws. Bits of plaster and stone began to fall in all directions, until the air was thick with it and they were coughing and spluttering, unable to see.

"Oz, do something!" Alice gasped.

How? What was he supposed to do? Oz shook his head in despair. For the Unicorn to die, for the Unicorn to be defeated…the lion had to fight it, and the lion had to win.

The lion would win. There wasn't another option.

Oz roared, and the cracks spread faster. Lotti stumbled and fell. "What are you thinking?" she shouted.

"I'm going to do it, Lotti," he said. "I'm going to kill the Unicorn."

"No – you IDIOT! You're not meant – you can't – you'll die –"

The surface they were standing on fell through. In a haze of rushing air and plaster dust, Oz looked for the Alice, and saw that she had escaped the Unicorn's clutches and was now swooping around it, ineffectually slashing at it with her scythe. It wasn't letting her get anywhere near it; power shimmered around it like heated air.

His sense of balance swung around again wildly, and he found himself crashing to the floor. He lay there, stunned and out of breath, staring the pale blue painted wall, unable to think.

"We're here…" Lotti gasped. "This is her room."

"Whose room?" Alice was on her feet, human again, scythe at the ready. Oz shook his head to clear it and got to his feet, claws unsheathed.

W

H

Y

They all looked up. The Unicorn had landed in the room, and every one of its limbs was shaking.

WHY?

WHY

HERE

?

Its voice rose to a piteous cry. It opened its mouth and screeched, as Lotti struggled to her feet.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, pain etched in every line of her face, and Oz jerked in surprise as he saw her reach out to it with one trembling hand. The Unicorn trembled, shivered, shook.

THE LION BEAT THE UNICORN

ALL AROUND TOWN

Lotti touched its shoulder. "I know. I know." And then the Unicorn's skeletal shape was flickering, warping, softening, and for an instant she was human.

She was a tall, beautiful woman, her hair piled into a bun, wearing a ball gown stained with blood. Tears streamed down her face. She shook her head, sobbing -

"…Serafina?"

NO! NO! NO! She was the Unicorn again, her claws tearing into the carpet. I AM THE UNICORN! WHY HERE?

"This was her room," Lotti said. "When she was a girl –"

And then Alice began to talk, questioning and yelling, and the Unicorn wailed, backing into a corner, flicking from human to beast to human and back as her gaze travelled across the room.

Suddenly, Oz stood. They fell silent.

"Stand back," he said. "I…I've got to end it." He stepped forward and he was the lion, green eyes shimmering with power. "I'm the lion. I'm the only one who can do it." He swallowed convulsively. "Who can defeat her." His breathing became harsh and ragged. "I've got to do it." He looked at Alice pleadingly. She gazed at him with condemnation. "I-I have to…I have to…" His clock swords pressed jaggedly against the Unicorn's heaving neck. One slipped, drawing a little blood, and she cried out in pain.

Oz felt himself fade back to human. The clock swords wavered. "I have to," he sobbed. I have to accept this, I have to do this, it's the only way!

"I told you," Lotti said. "You'll die. Whoever kills the Unicorn dies as well."

Oz looked at Alice despairingly. "I'm sorry –"

"Don't you dare." She fixed him with a steely glare. "Don't you even –"

He clenched his teeth, stilled his breathing, tried to calm his racing heart, and thought about what it meant to die. He stepped forward, reaching, changing -

'Oz, have I ever told you that you're an idiot?" Lotti pushed him roughly to one side. "It's not your job to kill her –"

-and all of a sudden she was a lioness, her true Chain form. She gleamed with rosy light, her red eyes fierce and determined –

"-because I'm the lion."

The Unicorn looked up wildly. She reached out and her claws softened, blurred, became fingers clutching at air. YOU ARE

Lotti lunged.

Oz and Alice yelled out, both reaching for her, shouting no! and why! and you don't have to do this, but they knew that she did. Lotti leaped at the Unicorn with claws outstretched. The room warped and shimmered, the pretty tower room where the Duchess had grown up, and as she flew, Serafina knew she was going to die. This was the end, and it had all been for nothing because where were her precious children now?

Death soared towards her on blood-red wings, and it was so terrifyingly, sickeningly familiar. She had called upon it many a time. It was coming for her, now, and all she could do was take it with her. She knew it would be like this, deep in her bones. She was always going to lose.

No. This last time, this final game – she would not lose it, she would not forfeit –

-and Lotti howled and thrashed and gurgled and when she fell back, Oz could see a the hilt of a dagger embedded in her throat. Blood welled bright and scarlet around it, trickling down her neck and seeping into her fur, darkly staining her rose-gold coat. She worked her mouth, trying to speak, but could not make a sound.

Serafina fell to her knees in front of her, and slowly let go of the hilt like she couldn't believe her eyes. Her delicate fingers trembled as she sat back, her eyes wide with shock.

"I won," she said, blankly, speaking with a voice for the first time in a long, long while. "I beat it. I beat the lion. I won."

Lotti flickered, diminished. As a human she suddenly seemed very small, choking and kneeling and coughing up blood, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. Oz hugged her, and he felt Alice reaching her arms around her, too, trying to give her warmth and peace and everything she'd lost. "It's okay – it's fine – you'll be fine, don't move, just don't –"

She reached up with trembling hands and pulled the dagger out of her neck, causing the blood to flow out of her even faster.

On her knees, she looked up at Serafina with dim eyes, and reached out a bloodstained hand. She tried to say something, but all she could manage was a hoarse rasp. Alice leaned close to hear, her fingers pressing desperately against the wound, blood coating her hands. Oz's hands shook so badly that he could barely hold the vest he was trying to tie around her neck to stem the flow.

Serafina seemed to know what she had said, and her face relaxed into bliss as she, too, dropped to her knees.

"I did," she said, her outline fading and shimmering. "I won..."

Lotti turned her face to Oz and Alice. She was fading too, dissolving and flickering away.

I wasn't expecting to lose, she said with the voice of a Chain.

"You won't even leave a body behind," Alice whispered, her eyes glazed.

"Alice –" Oz choked out.

Give me Leon's crown, Lotti said.

Oz pulled it out and placed it on her head. She hooked her fingers around it and drew it close, and gave Alice and Oz a hopeless smile.

Lotti Baskerville died a queen. The bloodstained knife vanished.

"All its power," Oz whispered. "Every spell and curse it wrapped around itself…" Was he right? Would the Unicorn die too, now? Yes, he thought savagely, and if she doesn't I'll make sure of it myself-

He looked to the Unicorn and she was smiling. "Did it all happen? Or was it all a dream?" she wondered. "Was it really there? Any of it?"

"I…" Oz swallowed painfully.

"That's okay," Serafina Rainsworth whispered, her voice cracking. "The unicorn won." Then she was gone, too, her smile disappearing last of all - and the dimension was cracking, falling, fading, gone, imploding in a burst of brilliant light. Oz clung to Alice, reaching for her and screaming but he couldn't hear her, couldn't see, couldn't think – was it really there? Any of it?

xxx

Oz opened his eyes to falling and darkness. It was almost comforting, but not quite.

He reached for his power and became the lion, flapping his wings hard, looking around him in all directions. There was nothing anywhere –

– except in one direction. Alice was there, soaring towards him.

They met in midair and embraced, their hair streaming upwards in the silence and the rushing nothingness.

"They died," Oz said. "Both of them, they died…" He buried his head in her shoulder. "Alice...I can't – what on earth are we going to do now?"

She gripped his shoulders tightly and met his eyes, staring him down. "You know, I don't really care if she's dead or not." When Oz jerked and gasped, she continued. "Because it doesn't matter. I'm going to find her either way." Oz caught a flash of bright sharp white teeth as she grinned. "Death is going down. Our next target. What do you say, partner?"

"Yeah," he said. "That sounds about right." He smiled, taking joy in her iron will. She was right, after all. They were more powerful than anyone else. Could death really take their friend from them and hope to live? He guessed they'd find out.

"We've got a lot to do," Alice admitted. "There's Leverru, and Break…you know, the last time I saw him was kind of…awful. Oh, and you really need to speak to Gil, he's going crazy without your calming presence."

"Don't forget Sharon," Oz said. He looked down into the darkness and shifted uneasily, guiltily.

"Yeah, Pandora isn't going to be happy with us. I don't think we should show our faces for a while, actually…still, we're powerful, aren't we? We can fix Leverru behind the scenes. We need to rebuild the city."

"We're not quite as powerful as before, I think," Oz said thoughtfully.

"I know," Alice said, and laughed. "It's a real weight off my mind!"

She grinned fiercely, and he saw it, and matched it with one of his own. Her arms slid down his back and she took his hands.

"You were scared to die," she said softly.

Oz sighed, remembering the golden lion chasing him through the endless woods. "I'm not proud of it."

But her violet gaze was warm and full of light. "You should be," she said.

Oz started, surprised, and then he too broke into a grin.

"We've got things to do," he said. "Let's go." And he leaned towards her, the tears drying on his face, his hair rippling in the quiet stillness.

There was nowhere else to go but up. So they soared up into the light, together, and this time they were flying.

FIN

xxx

Holy shit that took ages.

Anyway, I'd just like to thank you, because that was the last chapter of 'The Lion and the Unicorn'. Thanks for reading this story, for following along, whether you were a reviewer or a lurker! (If you are in fact a lurker, this would be a great time to delurk and leave a review. Anon reviews are definitely appreciated.) If you've ever left a review on this story, +1 million hugs for you! Every single comment I've received is incredibly precious to me. Thank you!

This is the longest piece of writing I've ever done, the first multichapter story I've properly attempted, and the longest piece of writing I've ever actually finished. It sure does have its share of flaws, and I'm definitely ready to move onto the next project now, but overall I consider this an achievement and I'm glad I wrote it. I enjoyed working on this and I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Special thanks to Blackcat0989 for encouraging me to go ahead with this thing and reading over most of the chapters before posting. Peace out!