Sirius nearly bumped into Good Cop's back when he abruptly stopped. "What's the big idea?" he complained.
"I've been seeing shadow figures for a while now," Good Cop said, "but... I keep seeing one in particular that seems to be waiting for us? It's like it's waiting for me to look right at it before darting off, unlike the others." Sirius stepped around him, looking around.
"I don't see anything."
"I'll point it out if I see it again. Come on." They continued down the hall side by side, keeping their eyes open for their mystery guide. "Oh! There!" Good Cop pointed, and Sirius whipped his head around to look where his friend was pointing. He gasped when he caught a glimpse of a white skirt.
"Tiffany!" He ran after her, but she had disappeared again. Good Cop jogged up behind him, frowning thoughtfully. Sirius turned to him. "What's that look for?"
"I'm just confused. She tried to warn you about the Ringmaster's plans, and now she's leading us somewhere. If she's helping us... why? What happened to make her change her mind?"
Sirius shrugged. "I don't know, really. I bumped into her- literally, I wasn't paying any attention- and we talked. Well, I talked. She was pretty cold at first, like she was waiting for me to give her reason to tear my head off or something, but the more I talked, the more she relaxed." He paused as he remembered something. "She did say I wasn't what she was expecting."
"I think it is very often forgotten that people can change." Good Cop gave him an encouraging smile. "You're certainly a far cry from Lord Business, now."
"Please don't ever say those two words together ever again." Good Cop chuckled at him.
There was a godawful screech, freezing them in their tracks. Sure enough, Keelan had found them again, and this time, he'd caught Tiffany. "Finally found you, little traitor," he hissed, not quite sounding like himself.
Tiffany thrashed in his hold, his hand wrapped around her throat and giving off an eerie green glow. Her form had turned more white, but less clear cut. "We can't do this to them...!" she protested, voice faint. "They've already paid their dues-" Her words were choked off, her form becoming more vaporous the longer he held her, until finally she dissipated.
"Oh my gosh-" Sirius gasped, and Keelan turned his attention to them. At his side, Good Cop grimly prepared for a fight. The President let out a yelp and threw himself against the wall as Keelan leapt at him again, Good Cop intercepting his brother before he could do any damage. He'd clearly become unused to fighting over the years, barely able to keep Keelan in check.
Sirius swallowed hard, hating feeling so useless, when he spied the one thing that did not seem to get duplicated with the brothers- Bad Cop's laser pistol. An idea came to him then. He shrugged off the comforter, throwing it at Keelan's head the moment the opportunity presented itself. "What the-?!" Good Cop yelped, leaning back to avoid getting blinded by it as well, and Sirius dove in, snatching the gun from its holster. He wasted no time whirling back around and shooting the possessed triplet with it. Keelan dropped like a sack of rocks, shrieking in fury. Good Cop looked down at his brother, then at his boss with wide eyes. "That was very brave."
"It was the only thing I could think to do..." He bit his lip. "Sorry, kiddo," he murmured, shooting Keelan with it again, knocking him out.
"I just hope he wasn't the only thing keeping the other ghosts from interfering." Good Cop knelt down. "I'm so sorry, Kee'," he murmured, gently brushing his brother's hair away from his face. "We'll find a way to help, I promise..."
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Buoyed by hope once again, Bad Cop found himself better able to block out the insidious whispers. What was getting to him now was boredom, and a need to move. He really needed to stretch his legs, and was starting to feel it. If only the bindings weren't magic-
Oh, he thought suddenly. Right. He'd been working on his Master Building abilities since returning home. Maybe he couldn't break the bindings, but he could break the post he was bound to. If he could twist his arms just enough...
There was someone else in the room. He could feel their gaze crawling over his skin. "Enjoying the accommodations?" a familiar voice crooned. "I worked so hard on them, just for you."
"Oh God no, not you."
"So glad you remember me, it's been ten years, after all!"
"Where are my brothers," Bad Cop growled in response. "I swear to God, if you've hurt them-"
"Oh don't worry, they're both quite safe. I left Good Cop all nice and cozy in your room, he won't be going anywhere any time soon. And your freak of a brother is... out playing, with Business." Bad Cop snarled at Keelan being called a freak. "Really, you're the one you should be worried about." The room lightened then, and Bad Cop winced at the brightness. It hadn't been dark after all, he realized, but his vision had been tampered with- a spell of some sort, most likely.
The Ringmaster crouched down in front of him, eyes the same blazing, inhuman green that Bad Cop remembered, and pulled his aviators off. "I haven't forgotten how you looked me in the eyes when you pulled the trigger, not once, but twice. Those blue eyes practically glowing with fury... That burning defiance..."
"What do you want with us..."
"I want to make you pay, of course. I wasn't ready to die yet, you see."
"But you sure were ready to kill hundreds of innocent people," Bad Cop spat back. "Ever consider they weren't ready to die yet?"
The Ringmaster waved him off. "Inconsequential. They weren't Master Builders."
"You're a monster."
The ghost grinned widely at that. "Takes one to know one."
"Why don't you just finish me off then, if you want your vengeance so badly? I'm right here, I'm helpless, what's stopping you?" Keep him talking...
"I want to make you suffer first, of course. I'm going to turn that scribbled disaster into a killer, just like his brothers. I'll watch him play cat and mouse with your master until Business wears out, and watch him tear that waste of flesh to shreds. And then I'm going to give them both such slow, agonizing deaths... It will be exquisite, listening to you plead for their lives. You'd do anything for your brothers, wouldn't you?" He grinned at the despair he could see in Bad Cop's eyes. "Goodness, no wonder you wear these all the time. You really can't hide anything, can you?"
The Ringmaster stiffened then, attention drawn elsewhere. "What- that's impossible. How did he get free?!"
Got it! The Ringmaster's attention snapped back to him at the loud crack of the pole breaking. "You really ought to stop acting like you know us." The ghost stared as, in a single fluid motion, he managed to swing his arms back in front of himself and stood.
"That's not possible-"
Bad Cop summoned the one spell he'd managed to learn from Alastar and released it in the spirit's face, startling him enough to make an escape. The halls darkened as he sprinted down them, wallpaper peeling and carpet decaying in his wake. He smirked to himself. Someone's pissed.
He just hoped he hadn't made things worse for the others.
