Father: Oh my danish butter!
Moppet: What is done is done.
Me: It's done!!! Let's hope Christy approves...
--
Chapter 23: One for all, and two for one
Father dropped the sword and stumbled backwards, lifting his face away from Mother's body and staring into the eyes of Randall...
Randall stared right back.
The beach was still, silent, resting in a heart beat. Everyone was there. Viq, Vibs, Viola. Jack, Mairin, Grey, Kyle. Vic held Jana's hand tightly. Miss Mingostone stood beside Mr Harvey.
Near them, Adam and Izzy breathed, freed from their cell and moved to watch the final encounter. Ann and Tabby grabbed their grandma's legs.
And Adam could see them. His girls, their beautiful fur, and sparkling eyes, now fearfully wide.
His vision was not shadows and darkness but the full sunlight caught in its glare. He turned towards his wife, etching her soft skin, dark hair, and green eyes into his mind in case this moment could dissolve.
He could see, not just feel. He touched her hand to be sure it was real, crushed her hand in his. Not an illusion, not just a feeling of fur beneath catching between his fingers.
Randall lowered two swords, one in each hand, straightening them before him. "Ready to watch are you?" he said, directing his remark towards Adam and the other standing by.
Adam looked away from his wife and saw his sister, crumpled on a pile of golden coins. His gaze moved on to his brother-in-law, Father Moppet whose shocked face was turning to anger at betrayal.
"How could you..." Father said. "You made me..."
"Oh forget your British politeness and run me through," Randall said. "If you can. I'd like to think of this as the final moment of glory for me, when the man she chose chooses to turn and run, or turn and fight and die. Right here, in front of his friends and family."
Father shook his head.
"After this," Randall stated. "The rest will be child's play. Destroying the magic school and its claim on protecting our dear country. Move in on the president and remove him. Set myself up, invite a conference, bring out my illusions and help myself to the world." He paused and licked his lips. "She could stop me, you stopped her."
Izzy dropped into cat form and leapt towards the man. She stopped in the air and was lowered gently to the ground.
"No," Adam said, holding her back with his magic. "This is not our fight."
Viq charged towards his daddy and was pulled back the same way.
"Only he can do this," Adam said. "The rest of us must wait, and hope."
Father and Randall stood opposite one another. Father closed his eyes. Mother was right. He'd become complacent and dependent. He'd rather close history books and deny the past than live who he was. No more. He was ready.
"This could be painful," Vibs said.
"It will be great," Jana interrupted.
Vibs pulled her nose up at the baby. "Who says?"
"My name's Jana, I'm-"
She stopped suddenly as Father Moppet flicked his foot, catching the gold sword with the toe of his polished shoe and flinching it into the air. He spun once and caught it in his right hand, twisting his left behind him.
He charged and Randall split into three. All double-sworded, the three Randall's closed in.
"Moppeeeeet!!!" Father shouted, whizzing his sword in a circle, clashing one sword out of a Randall's hand. It danced up into the sky and Father leapt to grab it.
Another hand caught it.
Adam saw the person appear and raised an eyebrow. It was becoming clear to him, slowly. His sight, that man...when Mother had died she had left behind more than her soul, she's sent her magic into those nearest to her, given Adam sight, and Father her powers of illusion, the ones she had used to trick them back at the ship yard so very long ago now.
The hand which caught the sword belonged to a white cloth-sleeved arm owned by a man in pirate gear. Moppet, complete in himself. He brought the sword around and stabbed it through a fake Randall. "Nice ta meet you Father," he said.
Father frowned. "We'll talk about this later." His golden sword clattered against metal, ripping though another of Randall's blades.
Moppet flung himself forward and twisted himself around to stand at Father's back, fighting with one hand. Father and Moppet, back to back. Randall split himself into six.
"Oh that was mean," Moppet said, linking arms with Father and using his back for support as he leapt to kick with both feet in two directions, tossing two fake Randall's at the floor.
"Mean is your kind of game," Father said. A sword slid down his own as a Randall moved close to his face. Father head butted him and the Randall disappeared.
"Actually, defense is my game," Moppet replied.
"Oh really, truth, justice, stuff like that?"
"Not at all, Bo, that's your job, keepin' up the weaker side."
"Weaker?" Father spun and punched a Randall. Another one appeared.
"Bad choice of words, per'aps," Moppet replied. "The other half, the half that keeps up the morals, the gentleman, the code of an Englishman."
The Randalls snapped back into one. "A code of practice that suggests this should be a one on one. its fairer that way." He sneered at Father. "Isn't that right?"
"You should go," Father said.
"Keep me in mind," Moppet replied. He grabbed Father's hand and grinned. And flashed out of existence.
"One on one then," Father said.
"Dad?" The small hand tugged at Adam's coat. He looked down into the face of Kelly, took a jagged breath. "I'm sorry," Kelly said. "I just...I...I don't really know what to say."
"You're beautiful," Adam said.
To Father the beach was deserted, except himself and Randall, and Mother. He'd lost her, he wouldn't lose her memory.
"A duel, then," Randall said. "Turn your back? Ten paces? Etcetra, et el, boring, lar de dar?"
Father nodded.
Randeall turned his back.
Father threw his sword and it hit the villain between the shoulders. He went down on the shingles and gold. "Only a gentleman deserves a duel," Father said. "A man like you deserves something far more sneaky." He could still feel Moppet's handshake in his palm.
"Remind me never to slip sugar into his tea again," Jack said, nudging his sister Miss Mingostone.
Father shut his eyes and let himself go. Randall was defeated, destroyed. He returned to Mother's side. He pressed his hand to her chest. "I'm willing," he said. "Now, I am willing.
"I said, once, a long time ago, I said I'd give it all up for you. Piracy, the old life. I'd give anything up for you. And for you I'd take it again.
"Perhaps," he faltered, "The facade, masks we wear, they become more than we are. Then our other, darker halves take us over." He stopped. "You never let that happen to you. You kept the balance. I can do it too, I can learn, I can be me.
"I just wish, just once more, you could be you, and I could see you, Christy Nicole O'Conner Cole Demitri Moppet by my side. As a pirate, a mother, my wife, my soul." He pressed his hands into fists, and burst into tears. It didn't happen often. He'd rather faint. Father stood and ran away, down the beach, away.
Jana looked up at Vic. It was her turn now.
Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
Jim Henson Idea Man
Back to the Rock Season 2
Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
