Author's Note: I am having computer issues at the moment (it only runs in safe mode), but I plan on doing a system restore and reformat the hard drive once all my files (8 gigs of music and all the Monkees episodes) are backed up. In the meantime, my grandparents are letting me borrow their laptop so I can still get my homework done. But if there is a delay on posting my next chapter, I'm sorry. I almost lost this one as it was and almost had to re-type the whole thing. Luckily my grandfather was able to get my computer to at least boot in safe mode, which it wasn't even doing before.

Chapter 47: Bargaining

The Devil finally stood before the being he'd been seeking for the last several hours. He'd traversed through the sparse wasteland-like space between where this being resided and where he could safely transport himself. The man before him looked angry, but had agreed to see him on the condition the Devil speak quickly. The man towered menacingly above him and suddenly the Devil found himself a little scared for one of the first times in his long life.

"What do you want?" the man boomed.

"I beg your pardon, Chronos," the Devil started trying to put on his best charm. "I came to seek your help in something. I admit that I cannot attain my goals without your help."

"You want me to help you?" Chronos laughed.

"Yes," the Devil answered. "I wanted to ask you to send me back in time. There is an event I wish to change."

"What makes you think I would help you with your petty squabble with a few mortals?" Chronos cut him off before he could explain further.

"I…" the Devil stuttered a little. He didn't expect Chronos to already know what he wanted.

"I already know what it is you seek," Chronos sneered at him. "I am much stronger than you are. I have been alive much longer than you and have developed better skills and senses. You wish to make it so that they never met, but you will fail in your endeavor and not just because I won't help you."

"I will bring them to their knees," the Devil said getting slightly angry.

"You won't!" Chronos boomed making the very ground shake. "Even if I were to grant your wish, you would not win. Have you pesky little demons learned nothing!? There is a force much more powerful than you and those boys have it! It is why you have failed so miserably!"

"And what force is that?" the Devil asked.

"Love," Chronos answered.

"Many demons have torn through love!" the Devil snapped back. "I personally have broken up the closest of lovers!"

"Luck," Chronos said. "Luck and fate has always played a hand in that. You have failed too many times already. They grow stronger with each attack you throw at them. Your luck grows dimmer and their fate brighter."

"I cannot fail," the Devil said. "I will break their strength. That is why I want to go back in time! To break that bond before it even forms!"

"Not possible," Chronos said. "Fate has played its role now. You cannot touch them. You can keep them from meeting in that instance, but fate will find a way to make them meet. You cannot change their fate."

"Then I will talk to the sisters of fate," the Devil sneered.

"No, you won't," Chronos roared shaking the ground again. "You, pesky little man, have neglected everything you have ever learned. You waste your time and energy on these mortals simply for revenge! A petty, insignificant HUMAN emotion! You are not human!"

"If you will not help me, I will find another way," the Devil sneered turning to leave.

"Have you heard nothing I have just said!?" Chronos boomed making the ground shake yet again. This time the force was so great Devil was thrown off his feet and it caused him to collapse to the ground. "I have had enough of your petty problems. I told you I didn't want to speak with you in the first place, yet you dared venture here to bother me! You shall now be punished for your insolence!" The ground continued to shake and a very large crack opened beneath the Devil. He tried to push himself up, but only fell right back down. Then he felt himself falling through the crack. He seemed to fall through space itself and felt like he was in a vacuum. The air around him seemed to grow thick and press on him from every side. Then he hit the ground and the wind was knocked out of him but the air returned to normal.

Mike walked through the door first with his friends behind him. As soon as he did, he saw a very large, very old man. He seemed as old as Charon, but instead of being frail, this man looked as strong an agile as a 20 year old muscle builder. He definitely did not look like someone to be trifled with. Mike instantly grew frightened because the man himself looked very mad. When he yelled, the ground itself shook and it took Mike a moment to realize who he was even yelling at. The Devil fell to the ground and seemed to be fighting to get back up without much success. Before Mike knew it, a thunderous cracking sound resounded and the ground opened beneath him and swallowed the Devil, but the crack didn't stop. It made its way straight towards them. Mike turned to tell his friends to run, but it was too late; the ground opened beneath them as well and all 5 fell down through the ground.

Mike felt pressure from all sides nearly crush his entire body and he found it very hard to breath. He reached out for his friends, but he couldn't come in contact with them. He felt himself screaming, but there was no sound around them. Mike expected to hear the cracking and shifting of the rock around them like he had before they fell, but there was absolutely no sound. He supposed it was due mainly to the pressure on his ears, but felt there was something else involved. He didn't have much time to think about it because in the next moment, he hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

When he could breath again, he slowly and painfully pushed himself up and turned to look for his friends first. Davy had landed next to him and was groaning a little rubbing his back in pain. Peter was a few yards away rubbing his head. Micky didn't seem to be in much pain, and Mike attributed it to his added durability because of the charms on the weapons he carried. Piper was next to Micky and barely moving. Fear grew in the pit of his stomach as he watched Piper. She appeared to be in a lot of pain.

"You ok?" Micky asked moving closer to her.

"I landed on my leg," Piper answered. "I think I did something to it."

"We should get out of here," Davy said.

"Is this another test?" Peter asked.

"No," Mike answered staring at the Devil who had apparently landed several feet away and hadn't realized they were there as he pushed himself up. Mike charged at him and took him off guard tackling him to the ground. The Devil roared in anger and pain as Mike punched him in the face. He snapped his fingers like he usually did right before he disappeared, but nothing happened. Mike smiled as fear washed over the Devil's face.

"What?!" he stammered.

"Problem?" Mike asked smugly.

"What did you do to me!?" the Devil roared trying to wiggle out from under Mike. But Davy had come over by now and placed one heeled boot on the Devil's arm keeping him pinned.

"I think the better question is what did you do to us!?" Micky demanded.

"I didn't do anything!" the Devil roared. Davy pressed his heel in harder and the Devil cried out in pain.

"Guys," Peter said quietly standing next to Piper.

"What did you do?!" Mike asked again, ignoring Peter.

"I told you, I didn't do anything!" the Devil roared back. "I was going to, but he refused!"

"What are you talking about?" Micky asked.

"Hey, Mike!" Peter said a little louder.

"Who was that demon who was yelling at you?" Mike asked ignoring Peter again.

"Forget it!" the Devil sneered. "I'm not telling you a damn thing! I didn't do this! He did."

"GUYS!" Peter yelled.

"What is it, Peter?" Micky sighed. "We're a little busy trying to figure out what happened."

"I know that," Peter said, "but I think I may have a clue. We aren't in the Underworld anymore, are we?"

"Doesn't appear so," Piper said sitting on the ground but still looking around. "Air's too clean."

"Exactly," Peter said. "And look at those buildings. They don't exactly look modern." Mike looked at the buildings off in the distance and realized Peter had a point. They were currently in a large grassy field with woods behind them and a small village in front of them. And the village looked like a picture from a history book.

"What the heck?" Micky said looking around. "Those look colonial."

"I know," Peter said. "They look like a lot of the old houses back home that have been converted to museums, but new. Like they were just built."

"That's not possible," Davy said loosening his weight enough for the Devil to throw Davy off him. He pushed Mike off him and pushed himself up, but Davy was faster than him thanks to the sword he carried. Davy quickly unsheathed his sword and shoved the tip into the Devil's neck as he was only halfway up.

"Don't do that again," Mike warned. "Now you're going to answer our questions, or Davy here will run you through. You may be immortal, but we're pretty sure that'll still hurt like hell."

"That, and I'm pretty sure something's wrong with your powers, so you may not even be immortal anymore," Micky added.

"Who was that?" Mike asked again. The Devil seemed to consider for a moment whether or not to cooperate.

"You realize that whatever happened, we're probably all in this together," Piper said. "You didn't do it and we didn't do it which may mean that neither of us can un-do it."

"Are you saying we have to work together?" Peter asked.

"Maybe," Piper admitted. "We need to know what happened first."

"You don't even know what happened, do you?" Micky asked the Devil who just glared at him angrily. Which of course meant that he didn't know. "So start by telling us who that was."

"Chronos," the Devil finally answered.

"Chronos?" Davy echoed. "Isn't that a Greek Titan?"

"No, that's Cronus," the Devil answered as though Davy had just asked a stupid question.

"There's a difference?" Mike asked.

"There's a big difference," the Devil sneered.

"Chronos is a Greek god of time," Peter said. "Gets confused with the titan who has nothing to do with time at all. But I don't understand…are you saying god's exist too?"

"Yes," the Devil answered. "They were demons that humans feared and worshipped. Most of them have been around since the beginning of time."

"So Zeus and Athena and all of them are really demons!?" Micky said in shock. Mike himself felt a little shocked to learn that all the Gods he heard about in school were real and they were evil.

"Not really," Piper said. "Back then, the line between good and evil was very gray. They were just magical beings. Some did bad things, some did good things. The distinction between witches and demons didn't come about for several hundred years later. At least that's what my mom told me, but I never thought it was true. There's actually even rumors that the Norse Gods are from another world entirely."

"So if he's not a demon, why was he in the Underworld?" Davy asked.

"Where they went depended on what they became once the line between good and evil was drawn," Piper answered. "Some of the Gods became forces of extreme good, some became demons. It all depended on what they did with their magic. Did they use it to help others or did they use it to seduce as many women as they could like Zeus? Chronos must have done something to merit being labeled a demon."

"Ok, the guy you were talking to was the Greek god of time or whatever," Mike said trying to refocus them. "So he can manipulate time?"

"He sent us back in time," Micky said.

"Why?" Mike asked. "What were you trying to get him to do?" Again the Devil seemed hesitant to answer. Davy pushed the tip of the sword a little farther in the Devil's neck and he finally seemed to cave.

"I was going to have him send me back in time to destroy you," he choked out.

"How?" Micky asked.

"By making sure we'd never meet," Peter answered for him. "It's our bond that makes us stronger. We've always known that. The only way for him to win is to destroy that bond. He couldn't do it by making us angry at each other, so he wanted to make it so we never met."

"So why did Chronos not do it?" Mike asked. It wasn't that he wasn't grateful that didn't happen, but he was curious to know if they had someone on their side they didn't expect.

"Does that really matter right now?" the Devil asked angrily.

"Kind of," Micky said. "It may have something to do with why he sent us back in time."

"I think he may not have meant to," Piper said. "He probably only meant to send the Devil back as a punishment. He sounded angry from the yelling I heard."

"Yeah, he looked it, too," Mike admitted.

"What did you do to make him so angry?" Davy asked with a small smug smile.

"Never mind that!" the Devil roared.

"If he didn't mean to send us back, does that mean he'll fix it?" Peter asked hopefully.

"Peter, he's a demon," Mike said. "They aren't really known for being generous or caring enough to fix their mistakes."

"He will," said a voice behind them. They all turned to see a beautiful woman in Greek goddess style clothing. "He's not cruel. He's not the nicest person in the world, but he is at least honest. You boys were never meant to fall into his curse. He didn't know you were there. He sends his apologies."

"Apology accepted," Peter said. "Everyone makes mistakes." Mike shook his head a little. He wasn't going to quickly condemn Chronos for the mistake, but he wasn't so sure he was ready to jump on the forgiveness bandwagon yet. He had a really bad feeling that this mistake wouldn't get rectified so quickly.

"Who are you?" Micky asked.

"I am Demeter," she said. "I was sent to give you the message."

"Why didn't he just reverse the curse?" Davy asked.

"I am afraid it is not that easy," Demeter answered. "It will take time to reverse the curse. While you are here, time will move at the same speed it is in the present. I don't know how long it will take, but Chronos is working on it."

"Does he have an idea?" Mike asked. "Are we talking a few hours or what?"

"Perhaps days," Demeter answered.

"Days!?" Davy exclaimed. "You must be joking!"

"Curses like this are very hard to reverse," Piper said.

"Especially one involving time," Demeter said. "If done wrong, it could rip the very fabric of time."

"Which is bad," Micky said.

"Very bad," Piper agreed. "End of the world bad."

"So what happens until then?" Mike asked.

"Enjoy the scenery," Demeter said. "Consider it a vacation."

"A vacation with someone trying to kill us," Davy muttered glaring at the Devil.

"Be very careful not to mess anything up," Demeter said with a smile. "You could alter history."

"We'll just stay on the sidelines," Mike promised.

"Not sure we can say the same for him," Micky said.

"That's why we've taken his powers," Demeter said. "Frozen them temporarily. And no one said you had to stick together with him. Chronos can reverse the curse and pull you all back no matter how separated you are. You could be on different sides of the globe and it wouldn't matter."

"We went through all that to face him, and now we can't?" Peter said.

"Who says we can't hurt him?" Davy said pushing the sword into his throat. "I agree with Micky. Without his powers, he's probably not immortal anymore."

"You do, however, need to all be alive," Demeter said.

"Fine," Davy said putting the sword away. The Devil took that opportunity to get up and run away. Mike thought about chasing him, but decided against it. It wasn't worth the effort.

"Thank you for passing on the message," Peter said turning back to Demeter, but she had already disappeared.

"Ok, so let's go site-seeing," Micky said. "See where we are. Or when we are."

"Probably both," Piper said. Mike realized she was still sitting on the ground as Micky walked over to help her up.

"You sure you're ok?" Mike asked as she Micky supported most of her weight and they limped toward the town.

"Probably just sprained it really bad," she said. "Let's get to that town and see if we can get a place to rest. After everything we just went through, we should all rest."