"No, its my turn." Zack and Jack both said again at the same time. They turned to face each other, with matching looks annoyance.
"You already had a couple of turns before me." Jack insisted. "I should get a turn just like everyone else."
"You are me!" Zack emphasized that last word. "And anyways, I am the original. You're just a copy."
Jack's face contorted with anger as he forced air out of his nose. "I am more than just a copy! I'm like... your twin now." He pressed his thumb into his half of their joint chest. "Can you feel that?" It was more of a rhetorical question, because they both knew that Zack could not. It was like Zack's original body was sliced in half and split between them. Jack had full control and sensation of the right side, and Zack the opposite. In Jack's mind, that proved that he was Zack's twin, and deserving of his own turn with a new ring even though it would likely effect them both.
"That... That is just a side-effect of the fusion ring that Luke and I put on." Zack waved his left hand towards his friend. But, he acknowledged to himself that things were defiantly different with Jack. His other head felt more like... a brother. When he had snuck this ring in the bathroom previously, the three extra heads had no control of his body; it was like they were extra appendages, in a way. Even though he named each of them, they really did not have minds of their own. He had briefly explained it to the others that he could see and hear what the other heads knew. With Jack, he knew nothing going on in the other's brain.
The tension was palpable between them. Max braved approaching them and gently put his hands on each of their shoulders. "Lets take a breathe guys."
Zack stared at his 'brother' in the eyes. It was somewhat disorienting to see his own face stare back, and with such anger. "Why are we even arguing?" He realized that his left hand was clenched, he slowly relaxed the muscles. "Your right, you are like my twin." Zack agreed, "It was stupid of me to argue."
Jack's face relaxed, he was almost taken aback. "You agree."
Zack nodded his head. "I'm sorry for calling you a copy. " he sighed heavily. "This whole thing is just weird. I've never had a twin to argue whose turn it was."
"I thought you guys were about to come to blows." Mark stepped behind his twin. They both seemed more at ease that they were not needed to stop a fight. "Though, I'm not quite sure how we would have tried to separate you."
Mark's last remark made Zack's mind race. A thought suddenly occurred to him; his twin was only there because of the ring. A shiver ran down his spine, or his half of their spine.
"What was that?" Jack turned towards his brother again.
Zack did not answer right away. He raised his left hand and stared at the silver ring on his pointer finger. "This ring made us like this, but if I take it off..."
Jack gulped loudly, "What happens to me?"
All five boys were in a circle staring at Zack's hand. The blue gem gleamed in the light, almost tauntingly. "Okay, lets think this through..." Luke said. He then turned to Max and Mark. "Uh... any ideas."
Mark rolled his eyes, but then seemed to refocus himself back on Zack's ring. "We know that the rings' effects end when they are taken off."
"Not exactly..." Max commented, and the others turned to look at him. "Zack did have a good point about the two-in-on ring. We don't know if that had a piggy-back effect on the multi-limb ring."
"Maybe... But in any case, Jack might disappear if Zack takes off the ring." Mark restated the problem. The twins turned, facing each other and continued their discussion.
"What if we wear fusion rings?" Jack whispered to Zack.
"Huh? How would that help?" Zack whispered back.
"You cannot wear the multi-limb ring forever." he stated simply. "But if the fusion ring was the catalyst for me being born..." Jack was not sure if that was the best word, but that was the only one he could think of. "Then if might preserve that effect. Either way, it is worth a shot."
Zack wanted to argue against that, but at the moment, it was the best theory. He and Jack shuffled over to the rings. Walking was still painfully difficult, and they both felt they might topple over at any moment. They managed to get to Luke's bed without falling though. Next, they helped one another place the half-rings one each others ring fingers. For a moment, the two half rings seemed to glow dimly, but neither were sure if they were just catching the light just right.
Jack then reached to grab the silver ring from his brother's pointer finger, but Zack quickly moved his hand away. "We have to take it off to see." Jack urged.
"But you might disappear..." Zack was surprised by how horrified he felt. Even though Jack had been in existence for less than an hour, he could not imagine Jack vanishing. But Zack nodded in agreement as he gazed at Jack's determined look.
Slowly, Jack removed the silver ring from Zack's finger. Both stared at Zack's hand, and the ring that Jack held a few inches away between his fingers. "It worked."
"What worked?" Max and Mark both said as they turned around, finally noticing that their younger brothers had moved to the bed.
"The ring!" Max exclaimed as he took it from Jack's hand. "How are you both..."
Zack and Jack both raised their respective hands, showing the two-in-one rings. "It was your idea, sort of." Jack commented. "The fusion half-rings somehow must have combined effects with the multi-limb ring."
Max angrily glared back and forth between them, "But I did not tell you to test it out!"
"Hey, we're both perfectly fine." Zack smiled sheepishly. "And now, I have a twin just like you."
"Sort of..." Luke commented. "You still only have one body."
"Easy enough to fix." Zack kept his smug smile. "If the two-in-one rings make us like this."
"Then taking them off will give us our own bodies." Jack finished. His face mirrored his brother's.
Before any of the other three could react, Jack and Zack removed the fusion rings from each other's fingers. After a few moments of waiting, nothing happened. Zack and Jack remained how they were, two heads on one shared body. "Why didn't we split up?" they said in unison.
"Are you guys stupid? You didn't have two bodies to split into." Mark pushed forward and snatched the half-rings from their open hands. "You could have ended Jack instead?"
Max put his hand on his brother's shoulder. "Hey nothing happened, which is kind of good." he pointed out.
"And really bad." Mark waved his arm at their younger brothers. "They used so many rings that they could be a two-headed boy permanently."
"Um... Two boys with one body." Max supplied, "We already agreed that they are different people." His response only served to make Mark more angry.
"If the rings could do this, then we might be able to undo it with a different one." Luke went in between Mark and Max. "Right?" The brothers nodded in agreement.