Notes: apologies for how short and lackluster this chapter is, but this is literally all I could come up with in the past two and a half weeks. My schedule has become extremely busy and it's promising to stay that way; and as much as I want to update this weekly, I just can't anymore. I owe my readers more than rushed, short chapters like this; so bear with me on this. I want to give my readers quality chapters, so please understand if updates take some time. This fic is one of my pet projects right now, so it will not be abandoned.
Panic filled the interior of 1334 Beechwood.
"Whatta we do!? Whatta we do!?" Micky yelled, shaking Peter by the shoulders. "We're doomed! Done for!"
"I don't know!" Peter said, as Micky shook him. "But we'll get through it—we always do!"
"How!?" Micky asked.
"Well…. Mike will find out a way, right?" Peter said, with a hopeful grin. "Mike? Miiiiiiiiiiiike?"
"I… uh… um…" the Texan stammered, running a hand through his hair. "I just… I just need a moment to think…"
"What difference does it make?" a fourth voice asked.
Mike, Peter, and Micky all froze and turned to see Davy. The English boy looked absolutely broken as he stared out the window.
"Davy…?" Mike asked, softly.
The little percussionist looked back at Mike.
"It doesn't matter what we do now," Davy said. "Zero rewrote our future—and he's running around with the page from the Book of Ages. He can be making a few more final edits right now—just to make sure that we're really miserable."
"Hey…" Mike said, placing his hands on Davy's shoulders. "Don't you talk like that. You just heard what Peter said, didn't you? We always find a way out of these things. Because we've got something Zero can never have—our power. It's the power we get from each other; he's got nothing on that."
"But now he's got something we don't have too—the power to change events!" Davy said. "If he writes us having a falling out or getting separated or who-knows-what, we won't have our power anymore!"
"Davy…" Mike said. "Look at me."
The English boy sighed and turned to face him.
"You know I always keep my promises to you and the others," the Texan said. "I'm not going to let the three of you suffer. I'm gonna see to it that you three are going to be alright, no matter what."
But Davy didn't look at all pleased.
"Once again, you've neglected yourself," he said. "I know what you're planning, Mike—you're planning to make a deal with him, aren't you?"
"Mike, you can't!" Peter exclaimed, shocked.
"Now, wait a minute…" the Texan said.
"Don't 'wait a minute' me," Davy said, darkly. "I know the way your mind works; I've been your roommate long enough. You're going to try to get us all out of it—I know you will. But when that fails, you're going to fall back on making a deal with Zero to make sure that the three of us are alright."
"You know what that means for you, though, right!?" Micky asked. "I mean… He's going to want nothing less than your soul!"
"And you'd give it to him," Davy said.
"Look," Mike said. "I gotta look out for you guys."
"Not at this price," Davy said. "Never at this price. I don't understand you sometimes, Mike."
"What do you mean by that?" he asked. "You expect me to believe that if it was you standing here in my shoes, you wouldn't be at least considering it, too? Don't try to say that you wouldn't."
"I'm not," Davy said. "But it's not something that I could go through with. I just have this horrible feeling that you actually would."
"Well, let me reassure you by saying that this is not an option I want to resort to," Mike insisted. "I'm not crazy about Zero, and I sure would hate to spend eternity with him. I'd much rather pal around with y'all."
"But you'd still do it, even though you don't want to," Davy said.
"Look; I'm the one in charge here. That means I'm the one who has to handle the unpleasant things that happen to us—and I gotta make all the tough decisions. Most of all, I gotta look after you guys."
"We look out for each other, Mike," Peter said.
"Yeah, man," Micky said. "I know you think you've got an obligation to look after us since you're the leader and everything… But you gotta let us stick our necks out for you sometimes."
"Is isn't even about that right now," Davy said. "It's about all of us trying to get through this—and I think we've hit the one time we won't be able to."
"Don't say that!" Mike ordered. "I'm going to do the best I can to see us all through this. And I think we can at least make a start by trying to get that last page from the Book of Ages back. Once we get it, we can figure out how to undo whatever it is Zero did when he rewrote the page."
"There's just one problem with that," Davy sighed. "Do you remember what Professor Song said about that book? About how Zero was one of very few people who can change it without causing time and space to fall apart? She said that he can decide what parts of time can be changed."
"Ah, but that's the beauty of it," Mike said. "If he's making changes to the page now, then it means he's allowing that part of time to be changeable. So we gotta snatch that page and make the changes before be makes them un-changeable again."
"You make it sound so simple…" Davy said. "Exactly how do you plan on getting the page from him?"
The Texan glanced at the English boy.
"Come on, Davy," he said, softly. "It's not like you to lose faith like this. What's going on?"
Davy looked away, back out the window, looking at the vast expanse of ocean on the horizon.
"I'm tired," he confessed. "Tired of always being hounded by Zero. He's never going to quit—never. Even if we do win this, he'll just come up with something else. It's never going to end. And I'm tired of it."
"But you can't give up!" Peter cried, horrified to see Davy in the throes of admitting defeat. "That's what he wants—if you give up without a fight, we have no hope. If we fight back, we've at least got a chance!"
"Do we even have a chance now?" Davy asked.
"Heck yeah, we do!" Micky said. "But not if you're gonna just sit there and wait for Zero to finish up!"
Mike now walked around Davy so that he was facing him again, and he placed his hands back on his shoulders.
"They're right," he said. "We've got the power, but it's useless if we don't use it. I'm the guy in charge, yeah. But you help keep us together. And we need you now more than ever, Tiny."
Davy blinked.
"So, what do you say?" Mike continued, softly. "We need your help. I know the chips are down, and I'm not perfect, but I'm willing to try. Are you willing to give me a chance, at least?"
"Does this chance include all four of us making it out of this?" Davy asked, after thinking about it.
Mike bit his lip.
"You need to promise me, Mike," Davy said. "You need to promise me that it's going to be all four of us, together, until the end." He gave a slight smile. "You know what I'm asking for, don't you?"
A slight twitch of a smile crossed the Texan's face, as well.
"A vow," he said.
"And I'm gonna hold you to that vow, you know that, right?" Davy said, echoing the words Mike once asked him some time ago.
"Yeah, I know," Mike said. "Okay, then—let's make it official…"
He placed his hand out in front of him, and, one by one, the others placed their hands on top of Mike's.
"All of us or none of us?" Davy asked.
Mike nodded.
"All of us or none of us."
Micky and Peter echoed the words.
"Alright," Mike said. "Now that we've settled that, let's get down to work."
