Scene: Hen Tie High. The final bell for the first day of classes has rung.]
[By now the rain has started, so students are grumbling as they go to their lockers to get their raincoats and umbrellas.]
[All except Zoi who sneaks into an empty classroom. He closes the door and sits on the teacher's desk with his legs crossed. Then he vanishes in a flurry of flower petals, which reappears as he's floating in midair in his living room, where Kunzite and Zoi's father are watching TV and drinking beer.]
Chief Midori: [screams] STOP DOING THAT!
Zoi: [drifts down to the floor] Why?
Chief Midori: Because I'm never going to get used to seeing it!
Zoi: What's for dinner?
Chief Midori: Kunzite's making meatloaf and scalloped potatoes.
Zoi: [wandering into the kitchen with Kunzite following after him] What? No vegetables?
Chief Midori: I just told you. He's making potatoes.
Zoi: [goes to the freezer and pulls out a bag of brussel sprouts] Potatoes are not vegetables.
Kunzite: [hugs Zoisite from behind] They most certainly are vegetables.
Chief Midori: Some botanist you are going to be.
[Meanwhile…]
On the school bus. Dev and El are sitting side by side, Hotaru is sitting behind them.]
El: [To Hotaru] I hope you don't mind my asking, but if your father is a teacher, how come you have to take the bus?
Hotaru: Usually I don't, but he has some administrative stuff to do today, since it's the first day of school.
[A pair of cute girls are sitting in front of them and they turn to talk to Dev]
Girl 1: Is that a guitar?
Dev: Why, yes.
Girl 2: Do you play?
Dev: Of course I play. I'm not carrying it around for my health you know.
[He opens the case and pulls out his guitar, and plays a few chords, which gets El's attention, and not in a good way]
Girl 2: [suggestive] Are you in a band?
Dev: [still strumming] I sure am.
Girl 2: What's your band called?
Dev: We're called [looks at El, who gives him a menacing stare] The …Godslayers.
Girl 2: That sounds pretty hard core.
Dev: We certainly are.
Girl 1: Can you play something for me right now?
Dev: Sure. Why not.
[Dev ignores El's horrorstruck expression]
Dev: Any requests?
Girl 1: How about some Taylor Swift?
Dev: [In all innocence] Who's he?
[The girls giggle, including Hotaru]
Hotaru: Your brother is funny, El.
El: [humorless] Yes, he certainly is.
Girl 2: What about "Bohemian Rhapsody"?
Dev: Now you're talking.
[He starts strumming softly, while Girl1 and Girl2 sing in a soft voice]
[By the time they reach Dev and El's stop, everyone on the bus except for El is belting out the song at the top of their lungs. El's buried her face in her palm]
[The bus stops in front of a gated community. El storms off the bus, with Dev at her heels]
El: "Keep a low profile," you say. "Let's not attract any attention to ourselves," you say. Then some cute girl smiles at you and you're like "Hey, Ladies. I'm Dev the Great and Powerful. Want to see me pull a rabbit out of my hat?"
Dev: It wasn't like that at all.
El: No. I suppose not. You just led half the school in a sing-along. Nobody's ever going to remember us after something like that!
[El punches a series of numbers into a keypad and the security gate opens. A careful observer might note that the two actions are unrelated]
El: You know what your problem is?
Dev: No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me.
El: You are really great at coming up with all these diabolical plans, and absolute crap when it comes to implementing them!
Dev: [smiles] Ah, thanks. There was actually a compliment buried somewhere in there.
[They look both ways then walk up to a door with a lockbox and lien notices, auction notices, and pre-foreclosure notices all over it. The door opens without them even touching it]
El: "The Godslayers", Dev? Really? Why don't we just call up Metalia and let her know when we're coming?
[They enter a living room completely devoid of furniture. The place has been trashed. It looks like the someone took a sledgehammer to the marble fireplace and gutted all the counters and cabinets out of the kitchen.]
[They strip off their boots and raincoats. Their eyes become as big as saucers as they notice an empty potato chip bag on the floor.]
El: Dev, please tell me those were your potato chips.
Dev: Um…no.
[They give one another a frightened look and they both race up the stairs to the second story bathroom.]
[They lift lid off the tank of the toilet, and sigh with relief when they spot a silvery shimmer below the surface of the water]
[Just to be certain, El dips her finger in and the water boils right away]
Dev: Oh, thank god. We didn't lose the crystal. That would have been bad.
El: Yeah, well I'm not taking any chances.
[El teleports away and returns with an oven mitt. She fishes the crystal out of the water, then opens Dev's guitar case. She tries to drop in, but Dev pulls the guitar case away from her.]
Dev: Hey!
El: Come on. We can't afford to let it out of our sight again.
Dev: That's easy for you to say! You're not the one walking around with a brick of supernatural plutonium about eight inches away from your nads!
El: [rolls her eyes] Oh, so what if it is? I'm fairly certain neither of us can have children. Except, maybe, with each other. And, as much as I love you…ew!
Dev: [adamant] No!
El: Fine, if you're going to be a big baby about it, I'll just have to carry it around in my lunchbox.
[She leaves the crystal and goes in the bedroom, with its single queen sized bed, but she freezes when she sees the closet door is open and all their stuff is gone.
[El sinks onto the bed and buries her face in her arms and starts crying]
Dev: [gathers her into a hug] Hey. Don't cry. It was probably just some bank guy who didn't want squatters, so he tossed our stuff in the trash.
El: I can't do this.
Dev: Why? Because some slimeball came in here and stole a bunch of stuff we stole from someone else?
El: [sobs] Dev. I'm scared. I want to go home.
Dev: [rubs her arm] We can't go home. Not until we've completed the mission. Otherwise, what are we to do with the Silver Crystal? It's not like we can bring it home with us.
El: We'll just get rid of it.
Dev: Get rid of the Silver Crystal? That's like throwing a nuclear missile in a recycling bin.
El: I don't care. It's not our problem.
Dev: El, listen to me. If Big Daddy finds out we stole the Silver Crystal and didn't use it to kill Metalia, he's going to wring both of our necks.
El: No he won't! Big Daddy would never hurt us!
Dev: Yeah, well… I don't think you want to find out otherwise. [looks her in the eyes] Listen to me, El. We've got one shot at this. One! We've gone too far already. We can't afford to screw this up now.
El: [shakes her head] I can't do it. I'm sorry. I don't want to die.
Dev: [sighs] Fine, let's let the fates decide.
[Dev reaches under the mattress. He pulls out a tarot deck and fans them out]
Dev: Pick a card. If it's The Lovers we have to stay, if it's Death, we go home. Everything in between is open to the usual interpretation.
[El takes a card and lays it face up on the bed.
[It's The Death Card]
[Dev sits on the bed and sighs in defeat]
Dev: Ok. It's settled. We're going home. Let's figure out what we are going to do with the Silver Crystal before we leave.
El: Wait.
Dev: What?
El: [sheepish] I didn't actually expect to win this argument.
[She sits next to her brother on the bed and rests her head on his shoulder]
Dev: So you want to stay and finish what we started?
[El nods]
Dev: Even if it kills us?
El: Even if it destroys the world.
[Dev hugs her and she hugs him back and they collapse on the bed with their arms around one another.]
Dev: [kisses her forehead] Everything's going to work out for the best, my love. You'll see. We're going to complete the mission. We have to.