"Your Dad makes some really great food," Dib remarked, watching Dulcie dig into her waffles. Chloe had been provided a small trencher of steamed greens, well-seasoned by the smell of them, and tossed with sauces. Next to it was a bucket of warm, honeyed milk, which Chloe eagerly drank down, licking the bottom for a last few drops.

"Nobody's better." Dulcie said it so matter-of-factly, without a hint of bragging. "Not even Lewis."

"Ouch, that's harsh."

"Nope. Lewis says so too. He's really good, though."

"Well, your Dad makes a mean sandwich. Maybe I can join one of the fresh-made mealtimes when things are calmer." He sat back in his folding chair, watching her from across the small card table a Deadbeat had set up for her. "Speaking of things being calmer and working toward that, did you get anything?"

Dulcie swallowed, setting her fork and knife down. Sliding out of her chair, she walked back to the bed and grabbed a small notebook from the bedside table. Returning to the table, she handed it to Dib, then picked up her fork and knife to continue.

Dib flipped it open, scanning the only entry.

I went into Arthur's dream first. I thought it would be scary but it was just black. I couldn't see anything around or walls or sky or even my hands. The only thing I could see was two Arthurs. Both were curled up as small as they could get and their eyes were shut and their hands were over their ears. Looked like they were holding their breaths too. I watched for a while, but nothing else happened, so I left his dream.

Dib's eyes narrowed. So. That's how Arthur was trying to play it. "Flat brainwaves my ass," he growled, then glanced up, swallowing his words. "Sorry, Dulcie. I'm a little irritated with Arthur. Some things make more sense now."

Dulcie looked uncomfortable. "Dr. Dib, please be nice to him. He tried really hard about everything."

Dib felt the first twinge of real anger at Arthur. "He's not the only person who tries really hard about everything, Dulcie. I don't see why he should get special breaks for that. In my experience, special breaks don't happen just because you need them. When they do happen, it's just the setup to a cosmic joke where you're the punchline. Again."

Dulcie blinked. "But you're making special breaks happen for all of us. And we make special breaks happen for each other whenever we can."

Dib's pulse pounded behind his eyes and he turned his head, drawing a deliberate, slow breath and exhaling it. "That's very nice for you. I'm sure you're happy to have each other." He raised her notebook, cutting off further conversation.

I went to Kay's dream after that. She was in the dark, too, but she was flying in it and screaming for help. She couldn't find anywhere to land. Looks like she'd been flying a really long time because her arms were shaking. Then there was a song. It was like when Mom, Aji, or Kay would sing, and then the darkness went away and we were in a park. Kay landed in a tree. It was her special tree. Lewis can tell you more because he used to have to get her down from there a lot when she was upset. She was sitting in her tree and then Lewis came and said everything would be okay. Then it was over.

Dib frowned, tracing a line with his finger. "You said there was a song-you're sure this was a siren song?"

Dulcie nodded. "It sounds really different than someone else singing. I don't know how to explain."

Dib lifted his eyes to study her. "Do you know who was singing or what the song was?"

She shook her head. "Don't know the song but I heard Kay sing the first few parts when she came to get Lewis and me from the Cage. He might know because he got to study music like he wanted." There was a note of wistfulness Dib couldn't miss.

"And what about who was singing it? Was it Kay?"

Her face scrunched up. "No, actually, wasn't anybody's voice I'd heard before."

"But it had a siren sound," Dib confirmed, closing the book. "Thank you, Dulcie."

"You think that means something?" she asked. "I make up new people in my dreams, maybe she did that."

"It could be nothing, but if it's something then it raises a lot of other questions." He stood, pocketing the notebook. "Thank you, Dulcie. This was really helpful. I have to talk these things over with the others now. I have a few ideas on what we could do."

She stood as well. "Dr. Dib, is Arthur well enough for me to talk to him? I haven't even gotten to thank him yet."

Dib's gut twinged at the hopeful look on her face. "I'm sorry, kid. Not yet. But I'll arrange a visit as soon as I can. In the meantime, he has your hairclip to wake up to."

Sighing, she pushed her empty plate away. "Thanks. Please tell Dad thanks, too. Chloe and I will be down in the library for a while if you need us."

Intrigued, Dib asked, "There's a library here? What kind of books does it have?"

"Looks like a lotta music books, but some school books and some storybooks too." She shrugged. "It's Lewis' library. Guess it has whatever he wants."

"Or whatever he's read," Dib muttered. "I wonder… but no time for that now. Enjoy your reading, kid. I'll see you later."

He made his way back out. The halls always gave him some trouble, bending back around to point him away from the front door several times before begrudgingly letting him off at the foyer. If he didn't know better, he'd say the mansion itself had a persona. But that was ridiculous because it was a construct of Lewis' power. Then again, Lewis himself was still suspicious of Dib, so it was no stretch to infer some measure of passive aggressive behavior from the mansion.

He headed back out toward the med-bay, where he'd stationed the jury-rigged life support system. It had been intended for any personnel too badly injured to make it to a hospital in time, only to be used as an emergency stop-gap. The patient rested in an oxygen-rich goo that allowed for Dib's small store of nanobots to move at synaptic speeds across the surface of the body, enter it where needed, and repair damage at will.

That Arthur still looked like a shriveled wreck and couldn't breathe on his own was, most certainly, a result of his own stubbornness at this point. The images in his dreams confirmed it. He was still in there, masking all signs of life on purpose. Dib's fingers clenched around the notebook in his pocket. He had some choice words for Arthur.

"...and another thing, you overloaded grocery cart! If you think pulling this routine is going to make a newt eye's worth of difference then you can blow it out your overdrafted bank reserves because we're going to find a way to drag you back and when you can stand up straight, you're going to get my fist in your face for putting me through this!"

Dib slowed to a halt just outside the room. Maybe he wouldn't have to. It sounded like Vivi was already going to town on Arthur. Maybe it would be enough? He peeked around the corner.

No. Even from the doorway he could see the monitors and their perpetual flatline. Arthur was not moved by her diatribe.

Vivi turned away from the tube and stalked toward the door, shouting, "Now if you'll excuse me! Some of us are still doing serious work like we promised, while other people are running away and trying to die like they promised they wouldn't!" She shrugged off Lewis' hand and bolted through the door.

Dib walked alongside as she ran, one long stride to three of her furious steps. "So. You knew right away?"

"Of course he's faking it," she answered vehemently. "Not the whole shriveled-up bit, but the comatose state. I mean, not faking. Faking's the wrong word. Gah!" She turned, kicking the wall hard enough to leave a dent, then continuing on, limping a little. "He's trying to die and shut us out at the same time, making it look like he's already gone. Stupid Squire!"

Dib clasped his hands behind his back as he walked. He'd been ready to lay into Arthur himself, but her words gave him pause as a new thought crossed his mind. "Are you sure it's Arthur doing this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Mystery implied to me that the Shiker is responsible for something that may have happened to their creator. Arthur's last conscious words were directed to his 'mother' which Mystery believes is their creator."

Vivi stopped cold. "Dib, there's no way. There's no way that son of an upstaged fur coat feels bad about anything he's ever done. Do you even know what he did to Lewis?"

"I got the general gist, though I'm sure you're much more familiar with his memories given your escapades in possession."

"Yeah, and I can tell you better than anyone save Lewis-"

"Actually you can't and neither could he. Being victim to the Shiker, he would only see what he needed to in order to survive. There may be information beyond what Lewis ever had access to and beyond what he ever wanted to know."

"You can't seriously be telling me-"

"That the Shiker may be feeling so hideously guilty right now that he's actively trying to destroy his own existence? It's at least a possibility. And if you can't accept that it's a possibility, I need to go talk to someone who might actually hear me out."

Vivi's fingers curled and uncurled, her face pale. Dib waited as she wrestled with the notion.

Abruptly she continued storming down the hall. "No. It's not possible. I refuse."

Dib stayed put, his mouth pressed into a thin line. "Fine, then I have one more price on you taking refuge here."

She wheeled around, eyes hard. "We already settled terms."

"We did, but I think after a couple nights of sleep you will find this one is in the best interest of everyone here, even if you don't like it."

"And what would that be?"

"You need to disband the Mystery Skulls."

She stared at him, her eye twitching. "Over my cold dead body."

That did it. "No, actually, over Lewis' cold dead body, and almost over Kay's," Dib snapped. "And over Arthur's, shortly, if we can't figure this out. And Aji may not have been a part of your little crew, but she sure as hell is cold and dead too because of all the ways this case was mishandled."

Vivi sucked in a sharp breath, but Dib continued.

"If you have some obsession you have to chase to the ends of the earth, that's on your own head. But if you're any kind of leader then you will recognize that you entered this venture with too little training and that it's too late now. I checked your case history. Mostly exorcisms and minor demonic entities. You had success there, I grant you, but I don't see anything else in your repertoire. And by what I see in front of me, you never prepared yourselves for the big leagues. You can't even step back from this situation far enough to acknowledge what could be a major factor in Arthur's deterioration; that the Shiker is capable of remorse."

Vivi opened her mouth, then closed it, her eyes dropping.

Dib stuck out one finger. "If, by some miracle, we get Arthur back, what happens when you drag him into another case that's too big for you to handle? From what I've gleaned, he'll fall back on his Shiker abilities to keep your group safe. And look what happens when he does use those abilities! He's 22, you say? I have the body of an 80-year-old man in there."

He stuck out a second finger. "Lewis, as a ghost, is a great deal more powerful than he was before. He's also a great deal more vulnerable. I haven't made a great study of ghosts, but it seems logical that it's much easier to steal or consume a soul when it's out in the open."

A third finger. "While Mystery probably isn't in that much danger, you now have to handle the unicorn who decided to stay behind. What are you going to do, drag her around from house to house on poltergeist calls? What happens when people find out a unicorn exists? I never thought they were real and even I know about the legends surrounding their horns and the properties of it. Can you say poachers? Exotic animal entrapment experts? Not to mention PETA breathing down your neck and making off with her the second your back is turned."

Vivi's eyes glistened. Dib could tell it was starting to sink in, and he toned his voice down a few notches. "You didn't have proper training for this to begin with. Now the situation is too screwed for training to fix. If you gotta have a taste of the paranormal, I'm happy to have you as my personal assistant like we talked about. But you need to disband this team."

She turned on her heel, fleeing for the lab vault. This time Dib did not follow, instead retracing his steps back to the room that housed Arthur's life support system. A Deadbeat beat him through the door, slipping back into Lewis' chest with a chirp. Lewis had his back to the door, hands hanging by his sides, silent.

"Tell me I'm wrong," Dib challenged, crossing his arms. "You know I'm not."

Lewis nodded once, affirming.

Dib ran a hand through his hair. "So. You were obviously listening in. What do you think about the Shiker having remorse?"

Lewis did not respond.

"Right. Well, I was going to give Arthur a piece of my mind, but looks like Vivi did it for me." Dib withdrew the notebook from his pocket, flipping it open. "Lewis, is there a particular tree you were always retrieving Kay from?"

Lewis' skull swiveled to face him, eyes wide.

"I'll take that as a yes. And do you know the name of the piece of music she was singing when she came to get you and Dulcie from the Cage?"

"Pachelbel's Canon in D," Lewis whispered, "Why?"

Dib stuck his tongue out. "Ugh. Of course it would have to be classical. Listen, I've got details from Kay's dream that might help us get her back. Let me know what you think of this…"

…...

Note: Chapter title excerpted from Bird With A Broken Wing by Owl City