BEDLAM II: Heart of Glass

by Gormless Wheaton

Chapter 2

---

The heart monitor finally steadied as the potion-filled IV slowly dripped into Tempest's veins. At the same time, she stopped quivering and let out a low moan. I held up a hand, and the hovering animunculi assisting me drew back, save the one shining a dim blue light onto her, which was the primary illumination in the room.

"Better?" I asked. She opened her unbandaged eye and nodded slowly. I exhaled hard and leaned back in my seat. I dragged my bloody gloved hand over my head. "Fucking hell." I took a breath and looked her over again before standing up.

"Alrighty!" I gently tapped the IV bag. "This little miracle should already be patching up those burns, so by the time we get to the Citadel, you oughta be back to a hundred percent."

I paused and pursed my lips. "Well, maybe ninety, ninety-five?" I turned to her. "Would you settle for eighty?" I gave her a weary smile, but she just took a breath and closed her eye before relaxing. After a moment of silence, I anxiously bit my thumb and paced around her bed to the communications panel.

I clicked a few keys and leaned towards it. "Jury-rig. Status on the scepter."

After a moment, Jury's staticky voice came through. "Status? What do you mean?"

I clenched and hissed through my teeth. "Is. It. Secure?"

"Wh-" She grumbled. "Yes. It's just as secure as when you locked it in this forcefield on the bridge. Surrounded by golems. With me on guard."

I clicked my teeth. "Good."

"How's Tempest?"

I hesitated before looking back at the bed. "Stable," I quietly replied.

"Thank the Sky Mother," Jury huffed. "Considering Ember melted practically every animunculus you sent with her, she's lucky to be alive."

"Very true," I hissed and chuckled grimly. "But once we figure out how that ruby scepter really works? Oh hoh hoh!" I clenched my fist.

"We gonna make her pay?" Jury cheerily queried.

"With interest." Jury and I shared a laugh, and I even heard Tempest weakly chortle.

---

The memory pulsed in my mind as we approached the three-tiered triangular castle, and it took every ounce of my will to suppress the anger it brought as Tempest, flanked by minotaur guards, trotted out to greet us. Her three mechanical legs sharply clanked against the stone floor of the palace plaza as she came.

"Good to see you, sir," she greeted with a smile in her partially synthesized voice. Her neck, entire rear-end, and half of her face were completely mechanical now. While it made maintenance to her horn easier, and she loved the combat benefits it all gave her, that fact she was like this at all still made me-

Jury nudged me slightly as she stepped passed me. "Great to see you too!" She cheered. "How's your mission going?" I quietly released a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

Tempest hummed a laugh. "Well, the former Diarchs of Equestria recently fled southern Minos, and a dozen or so of their rabble surrendered to me and are being held in the Iron City's dungeon." She turned and led us towards the throne room.

I grinned. "Very good to hear. And to think I was worried once we discovered they were in the area."

"You wound me, Sire!" My grin faded for a moment before I forced a new one. I looked up to see Steel Eyes and his queen strolling out to us. "I might not have the built-in weaponry of your little demoness, but my warriors and I could have handled it!" The hulking, bearded minotaur roared a laugh, causing the tengulated plate vest he wore to jostle. My eyes slowly drifted from him to his queen, who kept her hands inside the sleeves of her flowing white gown. She met my eyes with a cool smile.

---

"Are you certain you don't wish to join us, my lord?" Steel pressed from the door threshold. "Leave the sorcery and flashing lights to the heifers! A good hunt is best for bull-folk!"

My eyes remained locked with Silver Lace, the Queen of Minos who sat across the low table from me. I remained reclined in my seat with my hand on my chin, Tempest and Jury on either side of me. And on either side of them were six humanoid animunculi and just as many hovering drones. "No, Steel, and thank you. But this is important, and I need to supervise." He audibly whined before slipping out. Silence held the room for a minute or two following his departure.

"No tea this time?" I finally asked.

Her smile never faltered. "I would not wish to enflame my lord's fears. He seemed most concerned with poison and treachery the last time I served him, for which my husband put three maids to death."

Jury snorted and I hummed, inspecting and rubbing three fingers together. "Well, I appreciate the consideration. But you'll be willing to keep me company while my assistant performs some simple maintenance on the castle's controller console, right?" I gave her a toothy smile.

She daintly gasped and brought a sleeved hand to her mouth. "Goodness! What manner of maintenance might it need? My silly husband hasn't broken anything, has he?"

I laughed and waved a hand. "No, no, nothing so serious. Just a discrepancy we noted between the Crystal Mind and a few of my administrators' registries."

She hummed and bowed her head slightly. "I see. Very well, sire." I gave her a narrow-eyed smile before gesturing to Jury, who adjusted her bag before heading out of the room for the console, followed by all but two of the golems and drones. Silence again held the room, and I subtly scanned the paper walls around us. I adjusted the lens on my glasses. It clicked a few times as I rotated it until it settled on a state sensitive to body heat.

Sure enough, behind three panels were three crouching shapes. I smiled at Silver before clicking a sequence in my glove. The golem to my left swiveled and raised its arm. Three thin beams of magic shrieked from its palm in a rapid sequence and pierced the three shapes. A set of pained screams followed and three female minotaurs in the same gowns the maid staff wore, bearing long knives dripping with some unknown green substance, tumbled forward, tearing through the paper paneling.

Silver gasped, recoiled at the sight, and hid her face behind her sleeves. "Mercy!" Slowly, she peeked over her sleeves before wincing and fixing me with a teary-eyed frown. "Sire! I'm so sorry!"

I grinned and shared a look with a thoroughly unamused Tempest as Silver sobbed quietly and scowled at the three corpses. "Those awful Equestrian princesses must have planted these assassins among our staff."

Tempest snorted, and I hummed. "Must have."

---

"Are you sure we can't just kill her?" Tempest groused as I finished adjusting the joint in her left forehoof.

"Can't spare any creatures clever enough to handle administration," I replied before closing the panel I was working under. "Not until we're certain the Dragons aren't going to launch an attack on Minos, which won't happen until we have the scep-" I groaned hard and recoiled before leaning on the table.

After a moment, I felt a cold metal hoof draw my face forward and I met her eyes and sad smile. "And when we get it?" I kept my eyes locked with hers for a few moments before wiping mine with my thumb and nodding.

"We make her pay," I growled and smiled back at her.

"With interest!" Jury chirped as she came trotting in. "After we find our traitor, of course."

Tempest chuckled. "Whoever that could be," she humphed and leered at me as she hopped down from the table. "Considering that's largely a forgone conclusion, are you sure you trust Steel Eyes to handle Celestia and Luna?"

"Considering they've been butting heads with you for three months?" I scoffed. "I imagine those two magicless old nags are plenty softened up." She smiled before turning to Jury.

"Now, in the interest of thoroughness, what about Silver? Is she-"

Jury shook her head. "Nope. Her console had plenty of stuff she probably wouldn't want Ed to know, but she's not the hacker," she gasped and beamed at me. "By the way! When we're finished, we've got plenty of stuff to spook her with."

She chortled darkly. "Imagine her surprise if we prepped an antidote for the poison vapor she's planning on filling the guest room you sleep in next time you visit."

I frowned and tilted my head. "In what world am I sleeping anywhere near Silver?"

Jury and Tempest shared a look before the former rubbed her chin. "Uh.. The one in which you do it on purpose to thwart her poison and scare her?"

Tempest hummed and smiled at me. "Or the one in which you turn her into a rug on your bedroom floor after having me blow a hole through her head." She wagged her eyebrow while Jury gasped and then giggled.

"Hoh hoh hoh! Now that sounds about right."

---

Comments

[SleeplessChatter]

This is quite the interesting timeline we're getting insight into. Cyborg Tempest is something I didn't know I wanted to see before :P

I am kinda curious what things are like for the common folk in Bedlam's empire. It's clear that Bedlam is not a good guy, but I'm having a hard time determining where he is on the bad guy scale. If it weren't for Sandy the maid in the prologue, I'd assume that only Jury and Tempest are happy, but that interaction was tame. But she's also hired help, so probably not stupid enough to spit in his tea. And I can't take the existence of rebels as a clear sign of his evil because all large scale changes result in rebels of some form or another.