The merged Dave and Josh hurried into the study and banged the door behind them.
“That was close,’ panted Josh as he struggled the backpack off, “but you know you gotta tell your brother and the rest of your family that we’re stuck together sooner or later.”
Dave looked at Josh and shook his head, “Didn’t your heard what Trent said; he has some sort of document from Oman about this fucking chain,” he raised the eagle pendant in his hand, “maybe it’ll tell us how to get separate again.” He looked around the study, “He said the notes are somewhere here, help me look for it!”
“Fine,” agreed Josh as he and Dave moved their conjoined body towards the nearest bookshelf and started rifling through its contents, “but you know I already tried to find a way to separate Kyle and dad and the book I had said that it was impossible.”
“Yeah, but you got yours from the fucking school library, Trent says this one’s from the Middle East, there might be some information in there that wasn’t included in your version...aha!”
Dave drew something out of the shelf and grinned triumphal as he showed it to Josh. The translated book that Trent had acquired in Oman was little more than a collection of print pages bound together in a folder with a tag saying “The Enchanted Treasures of Ancient Persia” stuck on the front.
He pulled for them to move towards the desk, and noticing the discomfort Josh’s delayed reaction caused both of them along their shared torso he signalised him to help him walk there.
“God, I’ll be so happy once I have my whole body back and don’t need to coordinate every movement with some idiot stuck to my side anymore.”
Josh scoffed at Dave calling him idiot, “You and me both, Dave!” He just hoped this folder really held the key to separating them, if after this ordeal he never saw Dave again, it would still be too soon!
They sat down and opened the folder. It didn’t have a list of contents so they had to search the whole thing until they came about a pencil sketch of the Eagle Chain.
“There it is!” exclaimed Dave. Josh had to admit it looked promising. In the other book the Eagle Chain only had a single paragraph, here it had two whole pages.
Dave started reading out loud. However, most of it was just more information about the origins of the Eagle Chain. Apparently it was created in the third century AD in Alexandria, not by a witch, but by a Alchemist from Judea called Maria Prophetissa. The Chain had been commissioned by the Emperor of the, recently reunited, Persian Empire to prevent civil war and strive among local warlords and chieftains. It remained a treasure of Persia until the coming of Genghis Kahn, after which it was lost in the wildernesses of Eastern Europe.
“Well’ that was interesting and helpful!” The sarcasm in Josh’s voice was so thick it was almost testable.
Dave slapped him over the head, “There’s more, asshole!” He turned the page and continued reading.
“Of the 34 known cases the chain was used only one, a Byzantine general called Flavius of Antioch managed to restore the singularity of his being.” Dave read on.
“Really? How?” asked Josh
“He did so by using the formula known as the ‘Axiom of Maria’, devised first by the creator of the Chain and which reads as follows: ‘One becomes Two, Two becomes Three, and out of the Third comes the One known as the Fourth.” Dave finished and fell silent.
Josh knit his brows, “That’s all? What is that nonsense supposed to mean?”
Dave gestured for him to shut up as he read the sentence again and again, silently mouthing it as he did so. Then his eyes grew wide in realization and he gulped.
Josh felt the tension in their shared body, “What is it Dave?”
Dave eyed their shared body, “Well, at least it will be better than being stuck like this I suppose... I just hope Trent hasn’t left for the wedding yet...” he attempted to stand up, but Josh forced him to stay seated. He growled at the other teenager joined to his side.
Josh growled right back “What will be better than being stuck like this Dave? And what does Trent being here have to do with anything?”
Dave sighed, “Look that Axiom thing, pal, one becomes two...” he gestured at himself and Josh, raising two of his fingers, “two becomes three,” he raised a third one, “and from the third comes the one known as the fourth.” He squeezed the three fingers together and lowered two of them again. “The fourth made from the three. The singularity of being restored.”
At first Josh shook his head, not seeing any sense in any of Dave’s words, but then his face suddenly froze in shock. “Dave ...you mean....”
Dave bit his lip and nodded, “Yep, you and me and Trent are going to become a lot closer.”
Josh shook his head violently “No way! No! No! No! I’m not becoming one person with you and your brother.” He sneered, “if that’s even what that stupid folder says!”
“It’s worth a shot,” declared Dave, “or do you want to stay stuck as a two headed freak for the rest of our lives? Needing someone else’s cooperation to do such simple things as walking or turning in bed.” He snorted, “Speaking of bed, I’m sure it will be a bit of a problem to get a girl in this state and that’s before we have to agree on who gets to fuck her.”
Josh thought about that for a moment, a lifetime stuck to Dave’s side. “Dammit!” he cursed, “I really liked being myself...All right, we can give it a try, but why Trent? I’m not sure he’d agree to merge with us.”
Dave shrugged his shoulder, “Logistic reasons. He’s here, that saves us trying to hunt someone else down. He’s my brother so the guy we become can simply be a new son for my parents, easier than getting one of our other friends and their family involved. And as for whether he’ll agree to fuse with us or not...” Dave broke the Eagle Chain around their necks in half and gave Josh a smirk, “who says we need his consent?”
In his room,and oblivious of the fate his brother planned for him,Trent slid the second white glove on and wriggled his fingers to get it to fit right. A looked at himself in the mirror and smiled. It had been a while since had worn his dress uniform and he looked damn good in it; pure white, folded pants, tunic, cap, gloves and the sword on his hip. He saluted his reflection and left the room.
Walking down the corridor to the stairs he reflected how long he had been looking forward to Curtis’ and Heather’s wedding. Finally he’d see all the guys from his training corps again. He hadn’t spoken to some of those guys in years and could hardly wait to hear what had become of them or to talk of old times. He laughed to himself as he remembered some of the shit he and those guys had gotten themselves into during training.
As he reminisced like that Trent suddenly saw a glittery object lying in his path. He bent down and picked it up. It was the Eagle Chain Dave had worn earlier. No, it was only half of it, still attached to the chain. Trent cradled the golden pendant in his white gloved hand. He had seen enough ancient artefacts overseas to tell that this thing was genuine. How could his brother had gotten his hands on something like that? And how could he be so careless as to break and lose it? That kid really needed to learn some discipline! Trent resolved to talk to their father again about getting Dave enlisted as soon as he left high school, the Navy would do his brother good.
Without really thinking about it Trent put the pendant around his neck.
“Thanks, bro-bro!” called Dave as he dove from around a corner. Trent gasped as he saw that his brother had a second head, the one of a strange boy with long, brown hair.
“Dave, what happened to you?”
“Don’t worry about that, it will soon be over. Thanks to you.” Dave and his second head nodded at each other. The look in their faces was weird, at once resigned and relieved, hopeful and full of fear. Trent noticed that the two headed boy was wearing the other half of the pendant on a long chain around both his necks. The pendant started glowing and rose into the air. His own half of the pendant did the same as Trent and the two headed boy were slowly drawn towards one another.
“What are you doing, Dave?”
Dave gulped, “Don’t worry Trent. It will be all right! You, Josh and me are going to merge into one person, but it will be all of us, all of us in one.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” The two halves of the pendant reconnected in a blinding blue light. Trent was startled and held out his hands as a sort of defensive reflex. To his horror his white gloved hands connected with his brother’s chest and melded seamlessly into it. He tried to pull them out, but he seemed stuck.
Dave and his second head calmly watched Trent’s struggles. “Let’s hope this works...” said the brown haired head. It and Dave nodded at each other again and threw themselves at Trent.
Trent staggered under the impact of the full mass and force of the two headed boy. The was an unpleasant, wet squishing sound and Trent had the weird sensation of something flooding into his body. Suddenly regaining control over his arms and hands, Trent caught his balance and soon realised that his brother’s body was melding into his, getting absorbed wherever it touched his skin.
A blink of an eye later Trent stood alone in the hallway, with no sign of Dave, but the fact that Trent’s uniform felt a bit tight and the Eagle Chain being whole again.
Trent stared at his hands and touched his chest. “Dave? Dave you here?” Had that just really happened? Was he dreaming? Was he losing his mind?
The chain started glowing again. The two headed eagle grew a third head and Trent started to feel somewhat queasy.
“Great, move Dave, I thought would fuse us into one guy with your brother, not attach us to his shoulders!” said a voice Trent didn’t recognize right next to his left ear. Trent turned his head and saw himself eye-to-eye with the brown haired boy that had been Dave’s second head. He was now rising out of his left shoulder, with his own collar connected to Trent’s uniform.
“Give it time to work, asshole!” Dave’s head was to Trent’s right.
Trent looked back and forth at his extra heads. “What? How? Dave? How? Who?”
“Don’t worry Trent,” said Dave, “it’s only temporary, we’ll all be one soon.”