Let me just kick this off by saying congratulations to AllAmericanSlurp, who was the only one to solve the key!

For those of you still trying, you have until Douglas' point of view down below. :P

Thanks to those of you who reviewed and made efforts and...thankable things...

Random Q&A: "Was one of the three demons Chase?"

Answer: Going out on a limb here, but I'm preeeeeetty sure - like, a whole 2% - that Chase wouldn't get lost on the way to the Davenport mansion. Just sayin'. :P

Vampire Girl: It took me 4 hours to find Douglas after this comment. You found Douglas-repellent! Nice! :D (I was laughing really hard when I read it.)

KrisKat: Updating. Hopefully soon enough for ya. :3

Moonlit: Hasn't Chase always been dry and sarcastic? :D He amuses me so much. I had to amplify it for this story.

Shinxshinx1595: Not life. :3 Nice try.

AllAmericanSlurp: Yes! The dreaded cliffie!

Everyone else: Thanks :3

I'm quite displeased with how the part with the Davenport's turned out. Had to muscle through some writer's block for that. But at least it went somewhere. Feel free to hate it, though. I look upon it with distaste. *shudders*

Anyways, who wants to do it? Adam?

"Lab Rats and anything you recognize isn't owned by Zara. If you don't recognize it, it's probably hers."

"A cat bitten once by a snake dreads even rope."

Arab Proverb

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."

Robertson Davies, Tempest-Tost

Chapter 5 - Other-Worldly Secrets and Simplicity

Adam

Adam couldn't remember the last time he had ever seen Mr. Davenport at a loss for words.

Davenport always had a response, even if it was just to say how great he was. However, five minutes had passed since Adam had relayed what the talking birds had said, and Davenport was still opening and closing his mouth, saying nothing. He just kind of clutched the arms of the chair he had sank into at the sentence, "Douglas sent demons to guard us." Adam just watched him from his seated position on the floor, hoping that Mr. Davenport had at least half an explanation as to why something like this would happen.

Leo – who was usually better at explaining things – was still out cold on the couch, his head resting in Tasha's lap. She didn't look much better than Davenport, but her expression was tinged with disbelief more than anything else. Adam didn't blame her; he was there, yet he still couldn't wrap his mind around the situation.

"Demons don't exist…. We spent years trying to find one, and we couldn't find a thing…."

Adam – his thoughts interrupted by Davenport's frighteningly quiet sentence – looked at his adoptive father with a massive frown. However, as he opened his mouth to speak, Tasha beat him to it. "You're not seriously believing this, are you?"

"No," Davenport answered immediately. Then, with a slight wince, he amended himself. "Maybe."

"Maybe?!" Adam heard himself yelp. Maybe there were demons? Weren't those things fake?

Tasha reached down and touched Adam's shoulder. "Demons aren't real," she reassured before shooting Davenport a look. "Right, Donald?"

"Right," Davenport responded slowly after a few seconds. "Douglas is just messing with me. With us." He sent Adam a smile that seemed strained. "Those were probably just little robots or something, programmed to think that they're demons."

"Why?" Adam asked, feeling more confused by the second.

Mr. Davenport seemed embarrassed by the explanation. He looked down at his lap and fidgeted in the chair. "You see, when Douglas and I were in college, we went through this "phase" in which we wanted to prove that demons existed."

Tasha shot Davenport a "what-the-hell" type of look before she turned her attention to her son, who had shifted a bit while beginning to wake up. Davenport winced again before continuing. "We were college kids. What do you expect? Anyways, we even went so far as attempting to build a portal into their world. It never did work, so we eventually just gave up." He paused. "Wait, I take that back: It worked enough to shock Chase. Not sure why it scared him away, though."

"There's a demon portal downstairs?" Tasha growled, narrowing her eyes.

"I'll get rid of it," Davenport offered shyly, like he was trying to keep a bear from eating him. "It doesn't work, anyways. Just a way to remind myself that Douglas wasn't always a bad guy."

Before anyone could say anything, two things happened: Leo groaned and sat up, shaking his head, and a loud bang – followed by a long string of cursing about gusts of wind and loud laughing – sounded from the front door. "Hey, there's a door there, idiot!"

"What are you, blind?"

The laughter increased until a yellow flash lit up the window for a split second, followed by indignant squawking. "Geez, Carth. No need to be upset."

A few more angry words met this statement. "I'm over 20,000 years old and being used as a babysitter! I'll be as upset as I want!"

"Can we just get in the house?" someone whined. "I'm tired of all this 'fresh air' crap. Seriously, it can't be good for you. Where's the sulfur? Stupid humans don't know what's healthy."

General murmurs of agreement reached Adam before, seconds later, three mice appeared in the frame of an open window and scurried in like they weren't afraid of anything. One-by-one, they all leapt to the floor – everyone staring at them with wide eyes – until they finally ended up in the middle of the living room, right in front of Adam. The one in the center spoke first. "Yeah, the running? Thanks for that." It fluffed its brownish fur a bit. "Don't do that again."

They're so cute! Adam found himself thinking, unconsciously reaching towards the closest one – a dark - furred creature - while Tasha and Davenport's jaws dropped and Leo jumped behind the couch.

"Don't touch me," it squeaked, scurrying away a bit. "I'll singe your fingers if you do."

"Don't hurt that one!" A muffled voice protested from under the couch. "He's nice."

"It doesn't matter!" huffed the third mouse – a little gray one with a ripped ear. "It's not like we could hurt them anyways. That was an order, remember?"

"I have a creative way of making accidents happen," the dark one retorted, still watching Adam.

A gecko – his gecko, Adam realized – crawled out from under the couch, holding the wing of a fly in its small mouth. The fly was buzzing desperately in an attempt to get away as the lizard crawled onto Adam's knee. "No accidents," it muttered around its captive. "I'll eat anyone that makes something happen."

"You couldn't eat crap, Yahn," spat the brown rodent.

"What is going on!?"

Everyone jumped a bit at the high-pitched question and locked eyes with Leo, who had poked his head over the couch to watch.

"Do we have to explain again?" the dark mouse groaned.

"That one was out cold when we were explaining it," the gray one supplied.

"Yes," Mr. Davenport – finally having found his voice – answered the original question. "If you are demons, then talk before I bring Tasha's silver jewelry out."

Adam furrowed his brow at this. Davenport was going to throw Tasha's necklaces at them? "What would that do?" he asked.

"I'd like to know that, too," Tasha added, somehow finding the ability to become miffed at the mention of Davenport using her jewelry - some family heirlooms - as weapons against small animals.

However, the brown mouse interrupted any explanation that might have been forthcoming. "Okay, okay! Keep that stuff away from us! Impatient much?" It straightened itself up, balancing on its hind legs. "I'm Carth – " it pointed at itself with one paw – "that's Vilar – " he pointed at the gray mouse – "and that's Mesth – " he gestured towards the dark mouse. "The lizard's Yahn. Master sent us to guard you from imps like that guy over there," he explained while Yahn shook its head to indicate the fly. "So just shut up and deal with it, because he ordered it and we can't say no."

"Master is Douglas, right?" Adam asked as he began to run his index finger down Yahn's back repeatedly. Demon or not, Yahn was still his gecko.

"Right!" Mest answered.

"And you're real demons?" Mr. Davenport asked slowly.

"Demons don't exist," Tasha insisted from her spot on the couch. Her voice lacked conviction, though, and she had started to tremble a bit.

"Yeah," Leo added from his hiding place. "Prove it."

Vilar sighed. "Why do we always have to prove it?" However, it seemed to dissolve into a smoky shadow before reappearing as a large cobra. Then, it changed into a hamster. Followed by a poodle. And, finally, the spitting image of Leo, who almost passed out again. Vilar-Leo sat down on the floor and crossed its legs before creating a blue orb of light in her right hand and gently pushed it upwards to hang over her head and shed an eerie light over all of them as it hung like a star near the ceiling, suspended by nothing. "Need any more proof?" it – no, she; her voice, now that her vocal cords were large enough to accent the difference, was distinctly feminine - asked sarcastically, actually rolling her eyes.

"I'm on board; they're demons." Mr. Davenport swallowed hard. He had fear written all over his features, but it was tinted with the slightest bit of excitement and suspicion.

Leo had jumped up indignantly, though. "Give me my body back!" he snapped. "You can't pull me off like I can."

"I don't want you, kid," Vilar sneered as she shifted into an exact imitation of Bree, who had been hiding in the Lab since they got home. "You're too small."

"I am not small!" Leo hissed, jumping over the couch. However, when Vilar stood up, an eyebrow raised challengingly, Leo sank down onto the couch with a whimper. "But whatever works for you is fine with me."

Adam almost smiled at this, but decided to ask something instead. "You aren't going to possess us, are you?"

"We're here to guard you," Carth reiterated slowly, as if speaking with an idiot. "We can't even possess people!"

"Why would Douglas send demons to guard us?" Mr. Davenport asked. "We need to be protected against him, not by him."

Adam frowned. "But he did save our lives once," he pointed out, forcing everyone to remember their recent fight with Krane.

"That doesn't mean he's good," Leo shot back instantly.

"And we have a security system," Mr. Davenport pointed out. "Right, Eddy?"

The program in question lit up the screen near the door. "What? Sorry; I was sleeping. Beautiful doesn't just happen, you know. Just look at Tasha: Talk about no effort."

Tasha glared at Eddy before declaring, "I'd take a demon over that deranged emoticon."

Adam and Leo nodded in agreement. Mr. Davenport was just pinching the bridge of his nose at the snarky computer's comment.

"You and Master, both," Mesth squeaked. "That 'Eddy' thing can't see other imps, anyways. We can."

"Besides, I've already been here a week," Yahn added, its voice still muffled. "If we were sent to hurt you, you'd be dead already."

"A week?" Leo asked. "You could be a spy, for all we know!"

Yahn gasped indignantly. "I am not – crap, catch him!"

The fly – having freed itself when Yahn opened its mouth – was quickly buzzing towards the window.

And, suddenly, four demons were launching themselves after it. Now, Adam could tell they were demonic. Yahn – who'd leapt from Adam's knee – now looked like a fat, gray gargoyle. Vilar-Bree had turned into some kind of large, strangely – scaled blue dog. Mesth and Carth had more cat-like physiques, Carth looking like a very short, fully-furred cat-human hybrid while Mesth had a two-headed green bobcat thing going on. However, despite the rapid action, the fly was out the window, narrowly avoiding the attacking group.

"Damn it!" Vilar snapped, her claws digging into the floor hard enough to leave gouges.

"Way to let the actual spy go, Yahn," Carth hissed angerly.

"That one was the spy, not us!" Yahn lamented, flailing his arms around. "It'll take information to Lovett!" He paused before groaning, "Master is going to kill me."

The other three seemed by be enjoying Yahn's misery. "Maybe Master will stick you in a tin with rosemary and drop you to the bottom of the ocean for the next thousand years," Mesth cackled.

Yahn paled. "Or feed me to his half-breed." He dropped to the floor and curled into a ball, hiding his face with his wings. "I don't want to get eaten!"

"Wait, what?" Adam found himself asking.

"That was a spy sent against us by some random Lovett guy," Leo was rationalizing, "you four are demon guards sent by Douglas, and the spy just got away? We're just supposed to accept this? And what's this 'half-breed' thing?"

"Some kid that got turned half-demon somehow," Yahn groaned. "And Master's going to feed me to him now because the spy got away."

Mr. Davenport suddenly stood up at this. "Kid?" he asked. "Brown, spiky hair, about this tall, looks like Douglas?" He held his hand to about Chase's height.

Yahn moved his wing to look with one eye. "Except for the demon parts, pretty much."

Adam was confused now. "Are you talking about Chase? What does he have to do with anything?"

"Chase!" Yahn squeaked. "That's the guy!"

"Chase is with Douglas?" Leo gasped.

"Who the hell is 'Chase'?" Carth asked, scratching behind his ear absently.

"Everyone quiet!"

Adam jumped, startled by Tasha's loud command. He had honestly forgotten that she was in the room. However, in an instant, everyone was silent.

"I want these demons out," she hissed lowly, standing up.

"But they know where Chase is," Davenport protested. Adam nodded vigorously. If anyone knew where Chase was – even evil demons – it was something that he wanted to look into.

"Then take these four out of here," Tasha huffed, her eyes glued to the now-smoking ruts that Vilar had created in the floor. "Lock them in a capsule or something. I don't care. Just get these things out of the main house." She marched to the window – literally parting demons like they were the Red Sea and ignoring their protests at being called "things" – and slammed it shut. "Meanwhile, don't let anymore demons in." Everyone was frozen for a second before Tasha turned around, her expression more terrifying than any demon. "Go. Now."

"Yeah, follow me," Davenport said rapidly, basically running towards the Lab elevator with Leo, Adam, and four terrified demons on his heels.

Tasha, thought Adam. Ruler of the house, even when there are demons in it.

"When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras."

Dr. Theodore Woodward

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."

Confucius

Douglas

Stupid key.

It had been a week, and he was no closer to solving it.

Maybe it was too profound? Or maybe it was something that even he couldn't solve.

He scoffed at that thought instantly. I'm Douglas freaking Davenport. I can solve anything.

He stabbed a pencil through the bottom of the paper that held the current bane of his existence – did he mention how stupid he thought the key was? – and sighed, running a hand down his face. He'd never find Krane this way. Maybe the guy was just too clever? Douglas himself had designed Krane, after all. It was possible that a little too much had gone into the intelligence front of that failed project. Maybe enough to create the ultimate weapon? Krane had easily taken down Adam, Bree, and Chase before.

Adam, Bree, and Chase.

Douglas ground his teeth as the mental image of his kids leapt into his mind's eye. Krane was going down. He had to.

And, if Chase and Oly couldn't find anything on Lovett, Krane's downfall might very well begin with solving the infuriating key.

Douglas found his eyes drawn involuntarily towards a few bloodstains and scorch marks on the carpet near the kitchen. Chase and Oly had gone to Lovett's before Douglas had gotten downstairs, but he had no doubt that the two had come to blows over something, if the tip of Chase's ear he had found was anything to go by. He'd have to lecture them both when he saw them again. Or make them hold hands for an hour, like his mother used to do when he and Donald were fighting.

Douglas chuckled a bit before reluctantly glaring at the key again. Honestly, who cared what the little riddle meant? Why would the answer get him any closer to decoding the nonsense that crowded the rest of the papers? His vision lost focus, causing the only discernible sentences to blur together in a mixture of letters as well. He had spent so much time staring at it that it probably tattooed itself on his brain. What started eternity?

The fucking letter 'e', he thought sarcastically.

The resulting revelation caused him to sit upright and drop his pencil on the table with a slight click, as if he had been struck by lightning. It couldn't be that easy…could it?

Hand shaking slightly, he fumbled around for the pencil and began to underline the first – or last – letters of every word that the riddle mentioned. The first letters of eternity and end. The last letters of time, space, and race.

All the letter 'e'.

Okay, he acknowledged. But, if this is right, what would that have to do with anything? What makes 'e' so important?

He was at a loss again. There wasn't much that mattered about it. It was a vowel, tended to be silent, was the fifth letter of the English alphabet; nothing that really stood out.

On a whim, Douglas took a paper with a one in the corner– he hadn't wanted to get them out of order - and a clean sheet, laying them side–by -side. Maybe the answer fairy had dropped her magic dust on my paper, he thought with amusement as he wrote down the first letter in the series. Then the fifth. Then the tenth and fifteenth. So on in fives until what he saw made him cry out in triumph.

Lovett: It is important that you understand me when I tell you to do something.

"Yes," he cheered, throwing his hands up with sheer excitement. "I kick ass! Suck it, Krane!" Then, almost laughing with glee, he began to transcribe the rest of the papers.

Maybe now, they would finally get somewhere.

"Where's Chase?!"

Next chapter. It's not quite night time in their world yet. :3 But it's about an hour out.

Review. Or don't. Whatever you're feeling.

Hopefully, the next chapter will be better. I'll see what I can do. Until then: \ :( / *cone of shame*

OH, and enjoy.

*Bows and exits*