Day 68

Pete heard soft whispers and looked up. Why was the entire team at the end of the aisle, talking and occasionally looking at him? Had the end finally come? He was going to die – he just knew it.

The group broke up. Myka and Steve went one direction. Artie, Claudia, and Abigail went another. Then Myka and Steve came back with the golf cart. Steve got out and started doing something with the back seat and straps.

Myka got out with a piece of cloth, and an MP3 player with headphones. She walked over to Pete and knelt next to him.

"Do you trust me?" she quietly asked him.

He stared into her eyes. They had come up with something, hadn't they? A glimmer of hope lit in his tired body. He nodded.

She laid her hand on his shoulder. "It's been a pretty strange few months, but you know, I think I'd keep them – except the part where Genna died."

"Why's that?"

"I got to know my best friend better."

He leaned his cheek against her hand. "Yeah. Guess so."

She pulled her hand back and he watched her fold the cloth and lay it out in front of her. She looked up at him.

"When you see me signal, you'll have to come to me, okay? I can't… I can't tell you anything more than that. He can't know more than that."

Pete nodded. "I'll look for the signal."

He jumped when something stabbed his neck and started to turn his head. She caught his chin in her hand, shaking her head and smiling.

"You're going to get really tired, but you can't fall asleep," she told him. "Fight like you've been doing and we'll get you out of this. I promise, Pete."

She let go and he turned his head. Steve held a small syringe in one hand.

"Sorry, man."

When he turned his head to look at Myka the world moved at varying speeds. Suddenly he couldn't fight back Evil Pete.

"What have you—" Pete didn't get any more out.

Evil Pete grinned at Myka. "Whatever you gave him made this easier than I ever thought it would be."

She tilted her head to the side. "Come on, Evil Pete, did you really think we'd make this so easy for you? You should have learned by now we thrive on being unpredictable."

She quickly pulled a blindfold over his eyes. She grabbed the headphones and pulled them over his ears, turning up the volume and securing the player between ropes. Together she and Steve moved Pete onto the back of the golf cart and strapped him on. They jumped in and sped off down the aisle.

Overhead they heard a scream. Myka looked back, seeing a dark cloud gathering. She smiled at Steve.

"Well, that made them mad," she told him.

He smiled.

Steve drove to a bare spot in the warehouse where there were no artifacts. Abigail, Claudia, and Artie were waiting. In the middle of them were various pots, teapots, hookahs, vases, and metal oil lamps. Claudia held a staff taller than she was. Artie held a Farnsworth in the other. Abigail was waiting with a pair of sewing scissors.

Myka and Steve pulled Pete off the back of the cart and laid him in the center of the items. Myka pulled the headphones, MP3 player, and blind fold off, and darted out to the edge of the circle. Abigail hurried in and snipped the end of the rope. It immediately released Pete and she quickly hurried back to the edge of the items.

Claudia held the staff up and brought it down hard on the floor. The floor trembled. Around the items they each placed a black crystal and with a soft light something raced from them, forming a dome before disappearing.

Pete's eyes slowly opened.

"I see the whites of his eye," Steve said, "Come on, Evil Pete. You're free, show us what you're made of! Or are you chicken?"

Pete started to ask what was happening but lost control of his body when Evil Pete rushed in to take control. He was forced to watch what happened next through fuzzy vision.

Evil Pete climbed onto his feet, grinning. He had turned Pete's eyes black and shiny, and his skin pasty with black veins. He looked around him. His eyes stopped on Mrs. Fredric when she joined the group.

"What a treat," he crooned to them. "I get to meet the enigmatic Mrs. Frederic."

He was suddenly within a foot of her, grinning like a lunatic. She stood with her hands behind her back, watching him. An eyebrow lifted.

"You make Pete nervous? How profound."

"Is it?" she calmly asked.

He reached for her throat and his hand hit something solid. He pushed against it, then hit a fist against it, but never lost his grin.

"Oh, this is interesting."

In a black blur Evil Pete raced around the enclosure he was in, testing it, looking for a way out. He found it domed not far over his head but there was no way out. He stopped in the center, laughing.

"So… I get him out of the bronzer, then he tangles up George Mallory's rope, you let him out of that, and imprison him in this invisible dome." Evil Pete looked right at Artie. "And here he thought you cared about him." Evil Pete laughed maniacally like the Joker.

Suddenly the laughter cut off.

"Call them, Evil Pete," Myka said.

He slowly turned to look at her. She tilted her head.

"Call the others," she told him.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because you want to destroy the world," Claudia told him. "You want them to destroy us. And you want Pete to watch."

He looked over his shoulder at her. He turned in a circle, carefully eyeing each of them.

"There…" He smiled again. "You seven think you have me fooled! You couldn't be any more wrong!"

"Really?" Claudia smiled. "Oh can I tell him? Please guys, let me tell him!"

"I think she should have the honor," Myka agreed.

"Go ahead, Claudia." Artie smiled. "Tell him what he's won."

"Look. Down," she told him. "We left a present in there just for you, Evil Pete."

He did. He stumbled back, staring at the teapot sitting on the floor sitting on a slab of alabaster. Pete started laughing, but it wasn't the laugh of Evil Pete.

"He doesn't know what to do!" Pete told them. "This is—"

Pete suddenly knelt, holding his head. He fell forward, catching himself with his hands. In his cloud form, Evil Pete pulled out of his body and he collapsed. On cue, members of the Circle, dressed in their black hoods, came out of the surrounding aisles and began chanting. It caused Evil Pete's bodiless form to make a screeching sound and slam against the invisible barrier.

Pete lifted his head, seeing Myka crawl between two cloaked people. She patted the cement in front of her, calling him to her. Pete closed his eyes a moment. Between his physical condition, the trauma Evil Pete put him through, and the sedative he'd been given, he found it difficult to find his strength. Pete slowly pushed himself up and then managed to stand. He staggered toward her, scattering things in his way. He hit the barrier and she stood opposite him. Myka smiled, attaching a bracelet to her wrist. He looked down when her hands reached through the barrier and slid a bracelet on him. He took a step toward her, into a hug, and collapsed. Unable to hold his weight Myka crumpled with him.

Myka looked back and saw Evil Pete had noticed Pete was leaving the dome. The space was held open by Pete's feet still inside the dome. Myka pushed Pete off her and grabbed his legs. She pulled back, seconds before Evil Pete slammed into the invisible barrier. Evil Pete roared, shaking the ground, walls, and shelves. He tried to change into a human form but his cloud was starting to disappear into the teapot. He scratched at the invisible barrier and screamed at Myka.

She turned away and laid down next to Pete, facing him. His eyes were closed and his breathing had slowed.

"Pete?"

He muttered something.

"Pete," she called.

"Ten more minutes, Mykes," Pete muttered.

She smiled, brushing her fingers down his face. "Take all the time you want. You've earned it, Peter."

He was snoring before Evil Pete had turned into a genie.