Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Seven: The Ones Who Still Fight

 The group watched silently as Daniel left. None of them went after him, none of them called his name. 

Finally when nothing but the darkness of the night remained, Tammy spoke. “That was horrible. Is everyone okay?”

“No.” Belle began to cry. “Oh today has just been too, too awful! Judy might not've been the best boss in the world, but we were becoming such good friends. Oh Judy! Now Dan is gone too, and Revolver, I didn't want him to die! I didn't want anyone to die!” 

“Daryl did this. My loathsome, disgusting, worthless brother.” Sunny was shaking. “And I could have turned out just like him. Oh why couldn't we have saved him like you saved me?! Then no one would be dead!” She burst into tears of guilt and rage.

“I'm the one who left Dan, I could've stopped him!” TJ was crying too. “If only I had kept my mouth shut and not gotten arrested!”

“We both left him. We were idiots.” Sammy wiped his eyes, the tears not stopping.

“It’s not fair. We loved Dan so much. Why wasn’t it enough?” Petunia looked defeated. 

Tammy looked in the direction Daniel had gone. She was crying too. Her voice, the voice she had fought so hard for, failed her. Daniel had driven her to her therapy to get that voice back. Daniel had supported her, when even Sammy didn’t. Daniel had been her hero too. Lord knew he paid more attention to them than their actual siblings did.

She had to get up. She had to find her voice again.

“We’ll go on.” Tammy croaked.

Everyone looked at her. Tammy grit her teeth. “WE WILL GO ON.” She yelled. “WE WILL GO ON, WE WILL GO ON, WE WILL GO ON!”

She got up on one of the broken cars. “We’ll go on. We’ll fix this city once and for all. We’ll finally win and when we do, we’ll get our Dan back.” 

All of the Knights looked at her. Belle and Charlie sat by themselves, away from the group. They felt too bruised by what had happened to pay attention to what was going on. 

“We’ll get him back. It might be on the other side of the prison bars, but we’ll get him back.” Tammy said, her voice getting stronger. “We can’t give up now. We have to go on.”

Sammy looked up at his sister. The one he'd once tried to speak for. He stood up and climbed up the car to stand with her. He wouldn't speak for her, not now, but he would use his voice to amplify hers.

Petunia smiled up at them, sadly. Daniel had been a brother to her too, something she'd craved as an only child. She offered a hand to her beloved TJ, who took it before burying his head in her chest, devastated. She hugged him tightly.

Sunny looked at the four of them. Somehow she was now one of them. The five friends had opened their arms to her and Sir Lionheart had knighted her. Sir Lionheart was gone now, but Lady Silent was still here, her soft, quiet voice now more powerful than the loudest boom could be.

“We are the Noble Knights of the Last Order.” Lady Silent looked at them all. The loud and proud Sir Hyper. The deep dark connection to the enemy Sir Dark. The loving healer Lady Luck. The brave and tenacious Lady Courage. 

And, in the background, Sir Motor, Patrick to help them make getaways. The Outer Knights of the Last Order – they could be called on again. Finally, Sir Hedgehog, who was the key to winning, working hard for them in Brisvegas, getting the pieces they needed in place to finally fix things.

So what if one had fallen. Many more would before the war was over. Not just in Pleasantville, not just in their world, not just in their Universe. This was a fight for the ages, and the Noble Knights of the Last Order were ready for it.

After a sob and ice cream session.

–

Because the City Hall was not only a complete and total mess, but also a crime scene, Belle and Peter were on paid leave until everything was sorted out. Charlie, being his own boss, also gave himself some time off.

Both of them were still shellshocked – not just because of the defection, but because of the Improbability Clause. 

“How long did you know?” Belle asked the next day as they sat under their favourite tree.

“Too long. I didn’t want to be right.” Charlie told her. “That’s why I didn’t tell you, because if I told you…”

“Then it became all the more true.” Belle finished. She sighed and looked across the street. “At least you got the Lions Claw back.”

It was Charlie’s turn to sigh. “Not that I’m the true owner of it apparently. I hate that. Why did Daniel have to drop THAT on us?!”

“Because he wanted to hurt us. You know that.” Belle rested her head on his shoulder. “And he did a pretty good job.”

“Tell me about it.” Charlie sighed as Peter pulled up in his car.

“Hey kiddos. Belle, I have a letter for you. It’s from Revolver. He left it to you in his will.” Peter handed Belle a letter.

“His will? Surely it’s way too early for that, the poor bloke only died yesterday!” Belle took the letter.

“His minions are getting ahead of the curve, and you know how lawless they are. They’re getting rid of everything connected to the DVG and the Mob so they can get out of here clean. Those two gangs will never operate again.”

“Small miracle.” Belle opened the letter. 

Dear Miss Masters,

Let’s get it out of the way – I know you’re that annoying pest Giggles. I always have. We’re family after all. Distant family, but family none-the-less. If you’re reading this, my lackeys have done their work. You probably know by now that I shot myself in the head. I’m just done with it all, done with life, done with the Death Valley Gang, done with fighting. 

That being said, let me introduce myself properly. My name is Timothy Masters. My father was David Masters, his father was Toby Masters, and his father was Lachlan Masters, who founded the Death Valley Gang after his brother James, who you would know as Damon, was murdered by the March Hill Crusaders. I don’t think you come from James, but probably one of the other brothers. I researched all of this when my father died trying to kill you. When I saw your name in the paper the day afterwards and saw you had the same surname as me I got curious. When I saw the Lucky Seven Gun in the hands of Giggles it put the pieces together for me.

I don’t know how much you know about the Lucky Seven and the Lions Claw, or about the other Weapons of the Seer, but I’m sure your friend Lightheart can tell you about Bequeathed Blood. I’m 99% certain we’re Bequeathed Blood, although I don’t know how we became that way. (“He’s wrong on that count. Shame.” Belle sighed.) Ever since I killed Mark I’ve been feeling…empty. Mark and I were firm friends growing up, but he ditched us for the Crusaders who are nothing more than bullies. I don’t care how demented Marion got, there was no need for him to abandon us. He was still my friend though. It made me think of the original purpose for the Death Valley Gang – the same purpose you fight for.

I’m going to tell you now – GIVE UP. Give up before you become another Death Valley Gang. Give up before you become what you hate, your descendants paying for it. There is no future in what you’re trying to do – it’s pointless because human nature will never change. Someone will always want more.

Take care of Lucky for me. Take care of the family for me. If I’m dead, that means the rot is gone. Farewell.

Your cousin, Master Revolver.

“Well, that was definitely a letter that told us absolutely nothing.” Belle started to scrunch it up, but then thought better of it and folded it back into the envelope instead. He’d been a distant cousin after all, she needed to have some respect. 

“I dunno Belle, maybe he’s right.” Charlie looked up at the leaves above them.

“Daniel pointed it out, there’s no way we’re Bequeathed Blood.” Belle said.

“I meant about quitting.” Charlie said. “He’s got a strong point there. Look what happened to him. His bloodline beheaded after months of depression.”

Belle pulled out the note again. “He says here about shooting himself in the head. Wow. Wonder why he didn’t follow through with it.” 

“See? He was stuffed either way.” Charlie sighed.

“But we’ve gotten so much further than Lachlan Masters ever did. He never had a Begly to keep his bloodlust in check.” Belle pointed out. “Besides, you’re the President of the Chamber of Commerce, you can’t quit now.”

“I guess not.” Charlie yawned. He pulled out his phone and checked the messages. “TJ says he doesn’t envy you one bit when you get back to work.”

“Hmm? I feel bad because he’s got to work while I get all this time off.” Belle replied.

“Yeah, but Daryl’s back in with his Dad.” Charlie told her, reading the messages.

“Oh come ON.” Belle groaned.

–

Demon Jones looked horrified at his office. His son had done a lovely job “redecorating” as part of his revenge against his father. With a sigh, he waded through the muck to his desk, grabbed his liquor key and opened his liquor cabinet.

“NO!” He cried. The little berk had taken all his booze too?!

With a groan, Demon sat at his desk and logged onto his computer. This was a PR disaster, and the Kings County state government was now on his tail. Two murders in city hall, one by someone who then went on to massacre a small town? Demon knew it was only a matter of fobbing them off until they lost interest, but even that was getting harder due in no small part to the efforts of Chuckles and Giggles, along with a certain Sir Hedgehog character that was putting huge pressure on not just the state government but the federal government for reform that would put Demon out of business and make life harder for crime.

They had to be dealt with.

Just as he was typing out another grovelling email to another senate member he had a knock on the door. 

“I’m busy trying to clean up here!” Demon yelled angrily, his concentration broken.

“Cleaning up Father? Oh, you mean covering your own worthless hide.”

“DARYL!” Demon shot up. Bold as brass, Daryl stood at the door of the office, looking smug as you like. “I should kill you where you stand, or at the very least have you arrested.” Demon grumbled. “You’ve caused no end of trouble now!”

“Awww, and I thought you wanted the Mob, the DVG and the Crusaders wiped off the map.” Daryl grinned. “And I did it all in one day!”

“You know damned well why I wanted the other syndicates around.” Demon replied. 

“Oh, but I’m so useless Dad, please tell me why.” Daryl’s perpetual smirk was irritating beyond belief. 

“So that the Troupe didn’t get any bright ideas you fool! Now with no threats to their power, I’m a sitting duck!” Demon barked angrily.

“Oh I wouldn’t call you a sitting duck Mr. Jones. I’d call you a roast duck.”

Demon felt the blood drain from his face. Andrew Haiter came and stood next to Daryl, looking grim.

“You forgot how you sent me to work with the Troupe?” Daryl looked ready to laugh. “They do. They also know I’m the one who has given them the keys to the city.”

Demon broke into a cold sweat. This wasn’t right! How had his son turned so conniving?

“So you’ll just go back to your grovelling email, and Mr. Daryl here will supervise you.” Haiter frowned at Demon, who dared not answer back. 

Daryl chuckled and sat down on the couch in his fathers office. “Isn’t this going to be fun Dad? Just you and me again, just like the good old days!”

Demon silently seethed as he returned to his email. This was bad. 

Very, VERY bad.