With thanks to Jordi, Aeoros, Rune and Mikey for being the coolest friends on the net! Thanks for being there guys!
Especially dedicated to Justin, Jeremy and Louis. The three of you have inspired more new parts of this story. Quidditch and lightsabers forever, brothers! :D
Especially for Justin: I never expected when I first met you that we'd be together. How did I ever end up with someone like you, so loving, caring and thoughtful? What did you see in me that made you smile that extra sweetly for me? How did I get a boyfriend that has the same name as Mr. Timberlake, the star I've admired for so long? You may not be an angel, but you sure are my heaven. Love you! :)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Disclaimer: This story is fictional, and says nothing about the orientations of any member of the boyband N Sync, or any other character, celebrity or otherwise. If you are under 18 or 21, or live in a country where it's illegal to read something like this, leave, though I seriously doubt you will. If you don't like the idea of two guys in a relationship with each other, or having sex with each other, what are you doing here in the first place?
Though maybe none of the characters will be appearing, ideas taken from these places will show up:
Buffy, Copyright 20th Century Fox, Created by Joss Whedon X-Men, Copyright Marvel Comics, Created by Stan Lee Charmed, Copyright WB, Created by Aaron Spelling Harry Potter, Copyright JK Rowling (due to James' addition of Harry Potter to his Dark Knight series, I find myself adding it in too, but the character may never appear in the story. However, loving Quidditch as much as I do... :D ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 13 - The Good And Bad News
(Note: This part of the story takes place at approximately the same time as Chapters 22-24 of Chronicles of a Real Dark Knight, in the Tales of a Real Dark Knight folder of Nifty/Celebrities/Boybands)
I shook my head in frustration as I looked at the notes I had taken down. It had been nearly two weeks since I began collecting clues, and I was still no closer to finding the culprit. The tour was ending in two days, and if I didn't solve this problem before then, Nsync and Ocean Whispers might both no longer exist. Things had not quieted down, but they weren't getting worse either. Whoever was behind this obviously had a plan that was working without a hitch, and it was up to me to expose everything. I looked over the clues again, feeling that I was missing something out, but nothing came to mind.
"Yes you did!" I could hear Reuben shouting. "Joy and I both heard you say that to Lance."
"I said no such thing!" JC replied hotly. "I tell you I was on the bus!"
"You have no proof of that," Joey was saying. "We all saw you talking to Lance."
I slowly let the argument change into background noise. It kept getting louder, but I just ignored it. Then I heard Melvin shout, "You're all a bunch of assholes that deserve to be shot! Especially you, Mr Stuck Up Beyond Belief! Keep your bloody voice in your ass where it belongs."
"You bastard!" I heard Justin yell. There was a large thud as someone hit the ground, followed by Justin's howl of pain. "That son of a bitch hit me!"
"Well, you deserved it," Melvin said. He must have left because the door slammed and the bickering continued. Then a thought struck me: When such arguments start, the party being accused what had been said usually claimed they were alone. Now that Melvin had apparently left, I thought that someone should keep an eye on him. The outburst was uncharacteristic of Melvin, but then locking myself in my room (with the others knowing where I was at all times) was uncharacteristic of me. Now all I needed to do was to find a way to get out of my room and follow Melvin without anyone spotting me leaving. Invisibility was out of the question since Reuben's powers had developed during the tour, and he was now able to see a bright glow whenever a kindred or mutant used their powers. I would be as invisible as a flashlight with new batteries in the dark. I had to think of something quickly or I would lose the only chance I had to find the shapeshifter.
"Shapeshifter," I thought to myself. "I'm a shifter!"
Shifters are different from shapeshifters, the latter being mutants. Witches and Wizards could use magic to change their forms to look like other people. Some Wizards (the "high" wizards called themselves Wizards and Witches to define gender, which irritated us witches to no end since we used "witch" for both males and females. The high Wizards and Witches often went to study in large schools like Hogwarts while the witches, or "hedges" as they sometimes called us as a nickname for "hedgewizard" or "hedgewitch", were often homeschooled, like us Filans.) did complicated rituals to make themselves into Animagi, or artificial shifters. I was lucky, the Filan line had a long line of natural shifters in the family, but only two of my cousins, Shane and Seamus, and myself were shifters.
And lucky for me, I could change into a ferret. Small and silent, I could creep through places unseen and unheard, even without invisibility. I quickly brought the animal instinct into mind, and felt myself change into the ferret. I slowly accepted the instincts that flooded me, but gently pushed them aside for now. I needed to keep a human mind to prevent myself from losing track of the situation. I hoped that my kindred powers would work in ferret form, and luckily enough, they did. I walked through the door and darted across the floor as quickly as I could. I didn't use my invisibility to hide, so the tension was high, but none of them saw me. I squeezed my slender and long ferret body under the door, which was built a little higher than normal above the ground (lucky for me). I could feel Melvin's storming feet vibrate the ground, and I followed him. He entered the door that led to where all the instruments were kept. Stopping before the door, I slowly shifted back to human and waited before I walked in. I reached out a touched the knob.
"Dylan? I thought you were in your room?" Melvin said from behind me. I glanced back at him. He looked calm and happy, and had bits of strawberry jam on his lip.
"Where were you?" I asked, then pointed to his lip. He quickly wiped the jam off. "I went to make a sandwich and I heard them shouting, so I stayed in the kitchen."
I glanced hard at him, then burst the door open as quickly as I could. There was Melvin sitting on the piano chair. He looked up at me as I stormed into the room, his face blazing with anger.
"And what did I do now?" he shouted at me.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" I screamed back. He looked at me with the typical cuteness that comes when he's confused.
"I don't know what you mean..." he said slowly. Then his eyes widened.
"Oh my..." Melvin exclaimed from behind me. "Why are there two of me?"
I ignored his question and looked at the Melvin sitting at the piano. "Who are you?"
"I'm Melvin," he said instantly. "The other guy must be an imposter."
"Just shut up," I said. I turned to the Melvin behind me. "Who are you?"
He stared at me for a moment, then smiled. "I am who I am. I am me."
"What kind of stupid answer was that?" the imposter Melvin asked. I turned to him again. "Who are you?"
"I'm Melvin McGowen," he said. "I've been your childhood friend since forever. Come on Dylan, you know it's me."
"Wrong answer," I said, a smug smile forming on my lips. "Now tell the truth. Who are you? No, wait. Show me who you manifest as most when you're around us."
"Caught on, did you?" the fake sneered. "How about I show you my natural form?"
"No," I said. "You may not have been around us in your natural form."
"Dylan, what's going on?" Melvin asked.
"This is a shapeshifter that's been behind all our arguments and fights," I said. The mutant clapped his hands slowly. "Well done. Too bad I won't be around for you to prove anything to anyone."
He got up and dashed for the door at the other end of the room. I reached out with my mind, sensing the ground beneath me. A quick split second communication with the elementals conveyed my desired effect and reason behind it, and they responded with immediate action. The area of ground just in front of the door rushed upwards like a stone wall, cutting the devious villain off from escape.
"You will come with me," I said as I stretched my hands out. The winds responded with an affirmative, and the shapeshifter was blasted off his feet, landing at mine. He glared up at me and whispered in a threatening voice, "I promise you, one day I'll get back. I'll find your family and make them suffer."
I rolled my eyes. "This power runs in my family. It took one Filan to bring you down. What can you do against three families of Filans? Now show me the form you took most among us."
The door burst open and the rest of Ocean Whispers and Nsync came dashing in. Of course when the floor burst up from the ground, you would expect tremors and a loud sound at least.
"What's going on?"
"Dylan, let Melvin go!"
"That's not Melvin, I am."
"Why are there two Melvins?"
I raised my hand and they fell silent. I looked back at the shapeshifter. "As we were before they came in. Come on, I'm still waiting to see who you are."
The shapeshifter sulked, then slowly morphed into Cynthia. "There, happy now?"
I wasn't sure if I should believe it. Still keeping my eye on the mutant, I reached into my pocket and drew out my cell phone, dialed Cynthia's number and waited. Sure enough, Cynthia's ringtone sounded off from the mutant's clothes. I hung up and put my phone back.
"So it was you all along," I said coldly as the others murmured away. "Why did you do it?"
"Revenge!" Cynthia spat. "Batman crossed my path (Author's note: Check out Tales of a Real Dark Knight series, it's in there somewhere) and I have always wanted to get my revenge. But I could not find him, so I thought of the next best thing. He seemed to have ties with Nsync, and I meant to tear the group up as my form of vengeance. Ocean Whispers appearing as an opening act caused several problems in my plan, but I overcame them. If it was not for you, I would have succeeded in destroying both groups."
"That's why you were so cold to us when we first met you," I said. "Then that explains a few things. You got punched, and Justin's ring cut you. You cleaned it up as much as you could, then his the cut with make-up, and when Melvin and I refused to heal you, you cut a similar wound into Lance as he was sleeping to keep appearences up. You said and did things that were lies to cause dissension in the group."
"None of which is cause for arrest," Cynthia said smugly. Her face fell as I replied, "But fraud is serious enough. We'll see you in jail, whatever your real name is."
"I'll come back," she said weakly. "I will come back."
"And we'll be ready for you, Mystique," Lance said. We all looked at him. He shrugged and said, "What? Batman does talk to me, you know."
Morale was considerable higher. It was Lance's birthday, and according to Justin, the guys had given him a surprise party in the morning. Melvin, Reuben, Joy and myself quickly went off to get gifts for Lance's birthday. Mystique was taken away by the police, and everyone had forgiven everyone else for harsh words and hard fists exchanged, and all the lies she had spread had been cleared up.
"And just in time, too," Joey remarked happily. "Today's our final concert of the tour! Let's give it our best!"
It was indeed the best concert we had done throughout the whole tour. We all gave it our best, and then some. The fans went wild, cheering and screaming their heads off, and we had done about seven encore performances, including a few Ocean Whispers/Nsync combined songs when we ran out of ideas after the first three encores. The truly last song of the night was "That's When I'll Stop Loving You", and the guys performed it to perfection. Justin kept turning to look at me, giving me sweet smiles. When the song was over, the fans hit the roof. The guys bowed and said their goodbyes, then walked backstage.
"That was awesome!" JC said, his face beaming all over. "We were awesome tonight!"
"Yeah," Justin replied, his face just as contented. He gave me a huge bear hug which I returned happily.
"I just wish Eric could have been here for it," Lance said, a little sadly, but still high on good cheer. "He sent me 'That's When I'll Stop Loving You' in his last message to me."
"I'm sure he wanted to be here to hear it," an unfamiliar voice said. Lance recognised her voice, and looked up at the girl. She looked quite strong, and her presence made me feel a little uncomfortable. Reuben, Joy and Melvin were obviously uncomfortable around her as well, despite a strong familiar feeling. Then I recognised it. She was a slayer.
"Jessica!" Lance said, his face widening into a grin. "Glad you could make it! Where's Eric?"
The room suddenly felt charged with tension. Jessica's face twisted in an attempt not to cry, but her tears began to flow. "Lance. I'm so sorry."
Lance shook his head and whispered, "No."
Jessica nodded slowly and sadly, causing Lance to shake his head even more. "God, no."
Jessica ran up to him and gave him a hug to support him as he collapsed. Lance's pain was almost too much to bear. "God, no! Why?!"
"I'm so sorry, Lance," Jessica whispered. I glanced slowly at Justin, and he understood. Though we were friends, we were still relatively new to Lance, and right now, he needed his extended family. The rest of us left while the guys of Nsync stayed behind and gave comfort to him.
"So it's true?" I asked Joey. "Eric really is...?"
"Yeah," Joey said sadly. "I'm worried about Lance, Dylan. He chased us out and locked himself in his house and he won't speak to any of us. I really need to go see him. I need to make sure he's all right."
"Of course he's not all right," I snapped a little too harshly. "He's just lost someone close to him, and I can relate. My dad's dead, remember?"
"Sorry," Joey said softly. "But I want to be there to talk to him or something. He just wants to be alone, and it isn't healthy."
"Sometimes you need time alone," I said, remembering the morning when I woke up hearing guests in the house and my mother crying. "When my aunt broke the news to me, I just locked myself in my room and cried for hours before I came out to talk to my mom and my sister. I didn't want to talk to anyone at the time, and I didn't want anyone to talk to me."
"I don't fully understand," Joey said. "I can't understand unless I go through the same thing, but I can be there for him. I don't think he needs to be alone."
I shook my head sadly and patted Joey's shoulder. "Sometimes you just have to accept that you can't do anything now, but he'll call when he's ready to talk."
Joey grabbed my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. "Dylan, please, I really think... no, believe that he needs to be with someone. I have this sick feeling in my gut telling me that he shouldn't be alone. I couldn't live with myself if he did anything to himself. Please Dylan, help me get in."
"You do realise," I could feel my will weakening, "that he'll probably be asleep by now?"
"I don't care," Joey said, gripping my shoulders even more tightly. "I just have to make sure that he's all right physically."
I couldn't help it. I gave in. Possibly the worst thing I could have done at the time. "Okay, I'll take you tomorrow."
"No, now," Joey said urgently. "Please."
"Joe, it's two in the morning!"
"I know, but I don't care," Joey said, shaking me. If he didn't cut it out, he'd tear both my arms out.
"Okay, fine," I said. "I'll take you."
"Thanks," Joey said. I had a horrible feeling that something bad was going to happen, and I almost changed my mind, but Joey wanted so badly to help Lance that despite my gut feeling, I felt that I couldn't change my mind anymore since I had already agreed. I held Joey's hand and turned us both invisible and intangible, and Joey slowly led me to where Lance's house was. We took our time walking, reaching Lance's place at about two-thirty. A car drove by Lance's house, then slowed down. A sudden movement from the bushes around Lance's house revealed the slayer Jessica. She charged at the car and yanked the door open. Joey and I walked near to see what was going on. I could hear Justin's voice from inside, realising that he had been driving around to check up on Lance. Jessica got into the car and the two of them drove around the corner and parked there. Joey tugged on my arm, reminding me that he wanted to go inside. I turned and walked towards the door, wondering what Justin and Jessica were talking about. A slight but sudden pain appeared in my chest, then disappeared quickly. My heart was pounding like a jackhammer, and I could feel a bit of sweat on my back. I had a really bad feeling about the whole situation, and somehow, something about Justin and Jessica's meeting didn't feel right. I put all those thoughts out of my mind quickly, focusing on getting Joey and myself inside. Once inside, I let Joey's invisibility drop to conserve energy. I also figured that it would not be in Lance's best interest to have Joey appear from nowhere. And I knew Lance would react better to just Joey, rather than two of us, so I kept myself invisible. Joey and I made our way upstairs as silently as possible when we heard noise coming from the bathroom. It was Lance, and he appeared to be singing softly to himself. Concerned, Joey opened the bathroom door to check on Lance. He was sitting on the floor crying and singing to himself, three bottles of what I knew to be a very strong brand of whiskey lying next to him, all empty..
"Lance," Joey said softly, cautiously. "Lance, are you okay?"
"Eric?" Lance said. Joey knelt down next to his drunken friend. "No, Lance this is Joey."
"Eric," Lance said, a drunken smile on his lips. He hugged Joey. "Eric."
"Lance, it's Joey," Joey said, extricating himself from Lance's strong grip. He looked at my general direction and nodded his head. I leant over and whispered, "I'll wait downstairs."
"Okay," Joey replied. I made my way downstairs and decided to take a nap on the couch. I still didn't feel good, and there was the feeling that something unpleasant was about to happen. After turning over a few times, I finally fell asleep on the couch.
I could feel the light on my eyes even before I opened them. It was not blinding light, but the soft glows of dawn. Rubbing my eyes, I stumbled into Lance's kitchen to get a drink of water. I heard a chair shifting and halted in my place, slowly removing my hands from my eyes. Expecting to see Lance, I sighed with relief as I saw Joey slumped on the chair looking tired and disheveled. He looked a mess, and his eyes were red from crying. He looked up at me as I sat opposite him, all thoughts about my thirst forgotten. He choked and buried his face in his arms on the table while I sat and watched. We stayed that way for a couple of minutes. "Joe, you alright?"
I got up and stood behind him. Turning to look at me, he stood and grabbed me into a hug, struggling not to cry again. I patted his back and softly tried to calm him, still not understanding why he felt so bad. He smelled like some of the whisky Lance had been drinking had been spilled on his clothes. The smell of alcohol masked another scent, but I could smell traces of it on Joey.
I released Joey and grabbed his shoulders, looking him straight in the eye. "Joey, what happened in there with Lance? I smell cum on you."
A pained look crossed his face, then he seemed to start crying again. I could tell he was fighting it, but something happened that hurt him a lot. "Lance... h-he was drunk and he kept s-saying I was Eric." His voice began to crack as he continued. "He... Dylan, he..."
"He had sex with you," I completed. Joey let out a sob, then slumped to the ground, still whimpering.
"I didn't want him to," tears streamed down Joey's normally cheerful face. "I kept telling him 'no', but he was too drunk. He wouldn't stop. I couldn't stop him."
I crossed my arms. "That is inexcusable. We need to talk to him."
"No," Joey said. "Please, he's too fragile right now. Give him time."
"He can't get away with it," I said, shaking my head. "He has to know."
"No," Joey pleaded. "Not now. Not yet."
I nodded slowly. "But you'll have to tell him sooner or later. Promise me that."
Joey looked pained as he promised. It was understandable for Lance to act that way, but it did not justify his actions at all, and it would have to be dealt with later.
I grabbed Joey's arm and pulled him up. I reached up and wiped the tears from his eyes, silently wondering what this would impact in the future. "Come on, Joe, let's go get you cleaned up."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Comments, questions? Email dylan@celticwarrior.com