Disclaimer: Sorry for forgetting to put this in earlier, but I own nothing, 'cept my characters and my plot.

Thanks goes to PhycopathofSanity, for being the only one to review.

---------------------------

Five Years Later

Maxy leapt out of the Manhattan Newsie's lodging house with a laugh and danced around on one foot, watching the rest of the boys spill out of the building, singing their hearts out, dancing as well. He was now eleven years old, and he had most certainly grown up. He had grown a good few feet since he had first joined the Newsies of Manhattan, and apart from the occasional troubles along the way, life had most certainly good, even though there wasn't that much money to be had.

"It's a fine life! Carryin' da bannah through it all! A mighty fine life, carryin' the bannah tough an' tall! We do what we wishes, we as free as fishes-" they all sang, carrying the banner once more, and Maxy joined in the song, whole-heartedly, once even adding his own line.

"It's a fine life! Makin' sure ta use every tatic dere is!" For a moment, all the boys stopped and looked at him, and he just shrugged, grinning. "A mighty fine life! Carryin' da bannah tough an'-" he sang futher, and everyone just kept on singing.

Maxy sure did have the look of a teenager now, even though he was only eleven. He was tall, lean, strong and broad for his age, since he had been in so many fights, and had most always come out on top. The Delancy's were now avoiding him like the plague, since he had gotten bigger, and more talented in the art of fighting. It was amazing how skinny he was, as thin as a stick, as all the waitresses would say at Tibby's, buying him more food than he ordered, trying to make look less thin, for their own sakes. He always gave the extra food to his fellow newsies later, who hadn't made enough money for lunch. His eyes were as sea-greeny as always, though his hair had faded from red to just strawberry blonde. He was viewed as a bit of a young ruffian, but quite a fine catch to any young ladies who managed to ensnare his heart.

They caught sight of the distribution office, and then they just started jogging towards it, still singing, ready to sell their papes, Maxy still in the lead. As the rush slowed down a bit, Maxy glanced around, taking in his surroundings, like he always did everyday, and his eyes fell on that spot near the Horace Greely statue, where he and his sister had first met the newsies. His smile slid off his face as he slowed to a stop and just stared at the spot. He AND his sister.

Bumlets shook his head to get the hair out of his face, and looked around, checking the crowd of newsies around him. He blinked. Maxy wasn't there. He furrowed his eyebrows, and turned around, looking for him. He had appointed himself Maxy's guardian ever since Lenna had been taken.

There he was. Standing right in the middle of the street.

Bumlets walked towards him, puzzled, and put a hand on his shoulder when he got to him. He looked the way the Maxy was, and his face darkened sadly with realization. He was staring at the spot where he had first found the two of them with the other newsies. Their first fight in New York.

Bumlets sighed and wrapped an arm around the boy, and when he looked at him with his sad eyes, Bumlets couldn't smile, but he nodded his head towards the distubution office in a silent question. Maxy sighed and nodded down at the ground, and they started walking back, Bum's arm still over Maxy's shoulders comfortingly.

"It's alright Act…" Bum whispered in Maxy's ear, since he wasn't really a talker. "-lets get dose papes."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maxy-or Act as he was called by his fellow newsies- tossed in his bed, rumpling his sheets, sweating, getting caught in a knot that the sheets were making down around his legs. He was dreaming about that night again.

DREAM

Maxy and Lenna trouped into the bunkroom, puckered out, dry, hot and sore from working hard all day long, soaking scabs and avoiding getting soaked just like all the other newsies behind them. They grinned at each other. They had made some good money today, and they sat down together on Lenna's bed and divided the plunder. They'd make $4.50 today! They were rich! Divided between them, they each got $2.25, enough to let them live quite well for about four days, and that quite well nowadays!

The two laughed, and clapped each other on the back, congratulating each other. They had made real good money by acting out a scene they had seen(no pun intended!) from a window of a theater Royale, a play called 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare. What they had seen was all about fluffy stuff about the boy called Romeo loving up his girl called Juliet who was up on a balcony and couldn't be bothered to climb down. They were advertising it in the paper. So, naturally, seeing the advertisement, Lenna got up on a stack of crates, leaned against one of them and made goo-goo eyes at her brother, who stood at the bottom, pretending to big and strong and put on a deep voice. They had put on the scene with great deatail, recalling what they had seen with great accuracy. They had sold all their papes, and at a customer's request, they did it again, even after all their papes were gone, raking in even more money. That's why they were so rich today.

Just when all the dust was settling down in the bunk rooms, tired newsies taking a quick kip on a random bed before the owner of that bed woke them up rudely, stiff and sore joints being relieved from their strain from heavy stacks of papes and random beatings in the shower, when loud voices arguing came up from the stairs, and a door slammed, and then silence.

Everyone who was awake looked at each other, mystified. What had that been all about? Suddenly, footsteps too heavy to belong to any newsie that they knew started climbing up the fire escape, and the older newsies pushed to the front of the crowd closest to the window on a sudden, protective instinct, ushering the younger ones behind them.

Then, a man completely in black jumped in front of the window with a scowl and a snarl fit to make any black bear green with envy. Every one jumped, and the younger ones screamed and ran for cover away from the sight of the hideous man. The distorted man came in through the window slowly, and advanced towards the younger, running newsies with searching, scorching eyes. Maxy picked himself up and ran, sticking his half of the money in his pocket while running for the door. Then he realized that his sister was not following. He turned at the door, and saw her sitting there, gazing at the distorted man as if in a fearful trance, and as if sensing her gaze, the figure turned it's gaze towards her, and it grinned. Lenna could do nothing more but widen her eyes.

The newsies tried to stop it from getting to her, but they were all pushed aside like rag dolls, unhurt. Then Bumlets jumped in front of the figure with a defying glare, and waited for it to make to first move. It made to push him aside like it had done with all the others, but Bumlets grabbed it's arm, twisted it, pounded his strong fist down on it and broke it. The creature howled with pain, and with one mighty swipe with his other arm, it scooped Bumlets into the air, and slammed him against the wall. Bum's head hit the wall with a loud sound like a rock being thrown into the river, and he slid down the wall, his eyes glassy, and blood starting to trickle it's way out from his dark hair.

"Lenna…" Maxy whispered, but it seemed as if he had screamed his sister's name, as time slowed, the figure reaching out his palm, Lenna magically flying to his hand as if it had tied a string around her and yanked her to him, Lenna fainting as he did so. The figure then flew out of the window with a flurry of black cloth, and Maxy hadn't done a thing to stop it from taking his sister, and he blamed himself at this very moment. He then looked up sharply to see if Bumlets was alright, just to see Bum's glassy eyes gazing emptily back at him, blaming him for not doing a thing. An earthquake rattled the floor, and he began to cry.

"Act…Act…"

"…Act!" A roughly familiar hand was shaking his shouldersand Act opened his eyes with a start to see Bumlets looking at him, worried. "Are ya alright?" he asked gently, softly. "-youse was rockin' da bunk…" Bum's brown eyes searched his own. Act gulped and sniffled, trying to stop himself crying.

"I-I dreamed ag'in Bum." Act sniffled, for all his trouble, reminding Bum that however old he may look for his age, he was still only eleven years old. Bum's gaze softened, and without a word, he took the young boy into his arms and comforted him, for all the world, taking on the part of a mother.

It was only Bum who knew the real truth about Act and his sister Lenna, who they called Choir, since she had such an amazing singing voice. That man hadn't really been as hideous as he had been in Act's dream. It was the boy's sense of fear making him look worse. That man had been sent by Act and Choir's parents who they had been running from all along. Bum looked up at the bottom of his bunk with sad eyes. He was afraid that this was only the beginning of their troubles, and a tear managed to find it's way out of the corner of his eyes. He had had a rough life, but these two kids had it worse.