A/N: Happy New Year! Sorry for the hiatus, but here's the next chapter! It should answer some important questions, but certainly not all of them, because that'd be no fun. The first half of this is from 2D's 3rd person POV, and the second half is from Murdoc's.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gorillaz.

~Chapter Three: Back Into Her Clutches~

2D and Murdoc had been riding in the sub for about an hour before anyone spoke. Murdoc had been mumbling nearly the whole time, his mismatched eyes glaring into the murky ocean in front of him. He mumbled about "that damn cyborg" and "bloody finger" and "more cigarettes". 2D sat on a small platform to the side. He didn't want to watch for superfast jellyfish or colorful seaweed anymore. In fact, up until now he had let his mind do as it pleased, and what it pleased to do was absolutely nothing. It drifted off into a place where nothing could touch it and it could touch nothing.

But after the first hour, 2D's mind was deprived of its liberty when it began drifting back to what had just happened. The lift. The stairs. The book. The explosion. Questions arose, and they needed answers.

The singer cautiously examined the captain of the sub. Murdoc looked as grumpy as ever, his bruised finger outstretched in front of him, the rest gripping the steering fork. 2D swallowed heavily and took a chance.

"Murdoc?"

Murdoc jumped, as if he forgot 2D was even there, and then his face went back to its grumpy demeanor. He didn't look at him. "What?"

2D meant to ask the question of all questions. He wanted to sum up all his worries and confusion in only one question, and then have that question answered, and then for everything to be right again. Like it used to be back in Kong when the four of them would laugh together. But instead, the only thing that came out of 2D's mouth was, "Why?"

He hoped Murdoc would understand the vastness of the question (much more than 2D did), but instead Murdoc just glared at him. "Mind being a bit more specific, dullard?"

2D started off simple. "Why did she wait to blow up the island?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know?" Murdoc asked grumpily, breaking his stare with 2D and looking back into the ocean, occasionally checking the radar and the map in front of him.

2D waited for a better answer.

Murdoc continued, talking more to himself than anyone else. "Maybe she didn't want to kill us and just take the island out? Maybe she's just too slow and stupid?"

Neither answer seemed very convincing, but 2D shrugged and didn't press the matter. He knew that if he did, he would probably get hit. So he asked another. "Why… what… what happened?"

"To the cyborg?" Murdoc glanced over his shoulder again at the singer, who nodded. "Malfunctioned, that's all I can think of. Knew it was bound to happen eventually…"

"Do you think she's gone?"

"Well, I don't see how she could have gotten away; we would have seen her evacuate if she did, wouldn't we? Now, enough with all the questions, and get me some rum out of my bag."

Grimacing, 2D did as he was told, even if he felt like telling Murdoc he had had enough to drink last night as is. The blue-haired man had so many more questions to ask, but decided to wait until Murdoc had taken a few swigs of the rum bottle. For some odd reason that 2D only partly understood, Murdoc was a lot more tolerant when he had at least a little bit of alcohol in him, as opposed to none. At least, that's how it was now. It used to be the opposite.

A lot had changed since 2006.

A few minutes later, 2D asked, "Where are Dave and Tattoo?"

Murdoc went stiff for a second, staring intently at the radar. Then he said, "If they got away, they must have gone in the opposite direction, because they aren't on the bloody radar."

2D heard something in the bassists' voice right away, and he couldn't help but state the obvious. "They didn't get away."

Murdoc looked murderous just then, but then he took another swig from the bottle and simply sighed.

A few more seconds of silence, another question forming in 2D's head. He had a lot left, and now was carefully pondering the order of which he would ask them. Pondering as well as 2D could ponder, that was. He wished he could ask the two remaining questions as the "last question", because they both seemed appropriate to be the last question, but he had to pick one before the other. Finally, he asked, "Murdoc… what was that book?"

If Murdoc had gone tense when the last question was asked, he was a stone-cold statue when this one was asked. When he switched the sub onto autopilot, 2D thought for sure Murdoc was coming back to hit him. He watched Murdoc swivel his chair around to face him, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He took a drag, kept the cigarette in his left hand, and opened his mouth to speak. His voice was pure gravel. "Why do you want to know?"

2D dared to get a little sarcastic. "Well, you nearly killed me because of that bloody thing. I want to know what it is."

Murdoc growled under his breath. "Fine," he grumbled. "Fine, fine, fine. It's gone now, anyways, so what's the point?" His left eye twitched as he gazed out a small porthole window, spinning his cigarette between his fingers. "I found it washed up on the island about a week after I discovered the bloody place. And," a hungry look filled his eyes, "and it knew where it was. It knew… well, it knew everything."

"Huh?" 2D frowned, not fully understanding what that meant.

"Huh, yourself, dullard! It means what it means. Everything about me. Everything that had ever happened. Everything I wanted to know. It was all there. I had one day to look through it. It had things even I didn't know about. Unimaginable things. The last chapter was missing, though, and only the title was there: The End of the World."

2D was staring at Murdoc with wide, empty eyes. "Then what?" he asked, like a little kid entranced by a fairy tale.

Murdoc, always appreciative of the extra attention, continued in a particularly dramatic voice. "I searched everywhere for the pages to that last chapter. For so long, in fact, that I barely got to skim the rest of the book. And the next day, the book was locked."

"But who locked it?" 2D asked, frowning.

"I dunno, but that's when I started hearing it."

"It?"

Murdoc nodded grimly, taking another swig of the rum. "Every time I got near that book, strange things started happening. That thing had a mind of it's own. And every bloody time that thing took over, it would tell me to go up stairs to get the key, to unlock the damn thing, even though I didn't have the bloody key! And whenever I would go upstairs to get it the trance would break all over again."

"So, after the first day…"

"Something was in that book. I don't know what it was." His green face went grim again and he stuck the cigarette back into his mouth and said no more.

"Well, it's gone now," 2D said, trying to sound upbeat.

"If only I read more on that first day… I could be the most powerful man on the planet…" Murdoc mumbled, his eyes far away again. 2D watched him curiously. He would never understand the thrill of power, or the sacrifices necessary to experience it.

Murdoc hadn't told 2D everything about the book. Why the hell would he tell the dullard everything? He didn't need to know everything. Murdoc did. And he could have, too, if only he had that book back… if only he had that key.

He had a vague idea of what had possessed him those many days. Or, rather, the piece that had possessed him. It was just a piece of the full deal. A full deal Murdoc had experienced before.

He just didn't want to admit it to himself.

He had a vague idea of a lot of other things involving this same "deal".

Another thing he didn't want to admit to himself.

His mind was now clouded over by a nice layer of rum, so he wasn't thinking about anything he didn't want to think about.

Until 2D brought it up.

"Now what, Murdoc?"

Murdoc had gone back to steering the sub northeast, and hissed at the question. If there was one thing he didn't want to talk about more than being possessed, it was what the hell the duo was to do next. He started with the simple: "California. About a day's ride. I've got, erm, connections there."

"And… what about me?" 2D asked timidly.

Murdoc raised a greasy eyebrow. "What about you?"

2D just sat there stupidly, his mouth hanging open and his eyes as empty as always.

"Listen, faceache, in case this hasn't gotten through to that dead brain of yours, we're in a bit of a jam. My entire studio has just been blown into smithereens, including all my equipment, records, recordings, and materials. We're stuck. I don't know what the hell is going to happen next. You can tag along if you damn well feel like it, but I don't know what the hell is going to happen after that."

2D opened his mouth to ask another question, but Murdoc cut him off with a threat. "If you ask one more dumb-arse question, I'll pop your empty head right off your shoulders!"

But this question must have been important. "B-b-but Murdo-"

Autopilot on. Murdoc was in front of the singer in an instant and had 2D by the collar of his dirty shirt, ready to punch his annoying little face in.

"Murdoc, wait, does that mean I can leave once we get there?"

The question caught Murdoc by so much surprise, he forgot to hit the dullard, and instead let go of his shirt. The singer slid back down the wall, as he had back in the studio when the cyborg had released him.

A flood of emotions hit the slightly intoxicated Satanist in the face all at once. 2D didn't want to "tag along". He wanted to leave. Sure, Murdoc had brought him to Plastic Beach by brute force, and sure, 2D had made it very clear that he did not want to have anything to do with his former band. But, still…

The 2D during Demon Days secretly idolized Murdoc. The 2D during Demon Days hated being alone. The 2D during Demon Days wouldn't want to leave.

Was Murdoc the one who now wanted the company? Was Murdoc the one that Plastic Beach had taken her strongest toll on?

But Murdoc shooed all of these feelings out of his stubborn head, refusing to feel anything but anger, smugness, and drunk.

His only reply was, "Why should I care, dullard?" And he turned, sat down, switched off autopilot, and continued to steer, his broken finger throbbing more than ever. But he couldn't feel anything anymore.

He was going to be lonely again.

They rode for what seemed like forever. The water went very dark, a reflection of the cloudy sky above it. 2D had fallen asleep on the hard platform, and was curled up into a tight ball, shivering slightly. God only knows what that brainless head of his could dream up, and on a few occasions Murdoc caught him waking up and popping a few of the headache pills he kept in his pocket. Murdoc himself wasn't at all tired. He had just run out of rum and was on his sixth cigarette, trying to keep his mind off more serious matters. The only thing he wanted to think about was getting to California. It would still take several more hours.

First his mind drifted to Dave and Tattoo. Gone.

Then to the Cyborg. Hopefully gone.

Then to the book. Gone and still a mystery.

His finger itched for more rum, but there wasn't any.

His success was ruined.

He needed rum.

The paradise he had built up for himself was broken.

Rum. Where was his rum?

He didn't like not knowing what was going to happen next.

Dammit, where's the rum?

If he had that book he would know what was going to happen.

He grabbed a fistful of his hair with his left hand, still making sure not to move the broken finger. When had this all started going so downhill? Was it the party? The storm last week? Building the cyborg? Burning down Kong?

No. Murdoc knew exactly when it was.

It was when Noodle had left.

Everything had been going great until that day. That day…

It was what secretly kept him up at night. It haunted his sleep whenever he wasn't hung over. It was the reason for all of his troubles.

And the worst part was it was all Murdoc's fault. He tried to blame it on others, but he had eventually given up. And that's when he had decided it:

If Noodle were here, everything would be ok.

Murdoc took a long drag, wishing for nothing more than to get stoned, right then and there. It was a temporary shield from his faults. That's why he needed the rum.

Hours passed. The sea got a shade lighter, although they were down deep enough that not much light reached them anyways. Bags formed under Murdoc's already tired eyes. 2D was just waking up.

"Are we there yet?" he yawned.

Murdoc bit his tongue to keep from exploding into a million fiery pieces of doom. "Shut it, dullard, or I'll punch your face in."

2D didn't say anything until a few hours later, when land was detected on the radar.

California was in sight.

The sub was steered closer to the surface. 2D was standing next to where Murdoc sat, staring out of the front windshield with curious eyes. When it finally surfaced, the two blocked their eyes from the afternoon sun. It was March 5th, and the two had arrived in LA. The first time on actual solid ground in almost a year.

"Hold onto something, faceache," Murdoc yelled to 2D, already pressing buttons of all types as the sub ducked under water again and started propelling towards the land. 2D, not quite knowing what was going to happen but doing as he was told nonetheless, grabbed onto a large pipe protruding out of the wall that he hoped wasn't important.

Murdoc maneuvered around the land until he found a harbor, full of colorful sailboats and motorboats. About 200 meters from land, he spotted a ramp going out of the water for trailers to put boats in. Perfect. He started full speed at the ramp, 2D holding onto the pipe tightly. People at the beach next to the harbor saw the giant metal shark and pointed, panicked, and as the shark seemingly crashed into the ramp, the onlookers watched in awe as the sub transformed into a black, rusty Stylo Camaro, drove right up the ramp, and screeched into a parking lot next to the docks, spurting smoke from the exhaust. And water. Lots of water.

The people of Los Angeles continued to stare as two men hopped out of the car, carrying duffle bags and guitar cases.

Little did Murdoc and 2D know, this was the second sub the onlookers had watched dock there today.

Murdoc and 2D took no more than five steps out of the parking lot and away from the crowd, out of sight, when the undeniable sound of a gun clicking sounded from behind them. Murdoc's breath caught in his throat.

"You will come with me, or you will die," a familiar, evil, and metallic voice came from right behind them.

They didn't need to turn around. They knew she had them in her clutches. They put their bags back in the car and walked off behind the parking lot, two Uzis to their backs.

Don't forget to review, or we'll never know what will happen to our somewhat beloved heroes next! I hope you liked it. I know there's probably still a lot of confusion about the book, but don't worry, because I'll get to that.

The next chapter is going to be about a character we haven't explored yet. Any guesses on who it might be?

Thanks for reading!

~blue-eyed-cow