Dials was the sharpest tool in the shed, and he had made a plan for the young man. Dials, the man with a plan.
"You'd be shocked at how often he does."
For some reason, over the period of the three speaking amongst one another over the course of a few hours, they had grown close. When BB finally returned with some of Genghis Kahn's spring water, Dials took it up and drank it before setting it down and sending them on their way.
"Hope you the best, but don't waste what little time you have left because I botched it. Not on purpose, of course."
BB and Scott were fuming at his words.
"What do you mean you botched it?"
"Well, Lighter was too far deep in there and he certainly won because now, the time has been speeding along, and I hope the group of you the best. Just know that my heart bleeds with yours."
"Scott."
"Yeah, BB?"
"What happened to Dials before we entered Backtown for the second time?"
"Well, he had left."
"I was thinking about that. Thank you for playing fortune teller. I truly wish you the best, son. I can only wish that you forgive me for everything that has happened."
Everyone in that hut left Backtown. Some willingly went on the ship. Others, not so. They let Alexander out of the ship and sent him into the town. If anyone there could pull them together it was him.
"Never seeing you again."
"Likewise."
Sugar had sat in the rat's nest whilst talking to Lia who was sitting on the foremast. She'd not been able to clearly see Sugar or anything for that matter thanks to her horrible eyesight. Though, she had known from the noise around her that Sugar was less than twenty feet away and that there was a calm breeze coming past the ship as they sailed into a blood red sunset.
"There's no saving me."
"But we can find something. There's always something!"
"Not this time. Dials gave me something. It looks weird."
Lia looked confused at the words of Sugar as he took out a white envelope with a black wax seal on it. This most likely has a message of some kind in it. Dials told me to open it when I lose control so he most likely placed something like a message that would set Lighter back to normal and me back in control. So, that means that he possibly lied. No, that would be too inconvenient. If he had placed something dangerous in there then that means that it was very liberal with how it damages things. So, that means that if it is very liberal with how it attacks then that means that he might've been trying to kill two birds with one stone and to kill BB, Lighter, and me along with as much of the crew as possible.
"Can I take a look at it?"
Sugar's train of thought was broken by Lia's curiosity. He folded the envelope into a square that was about a quarter of the size of its former self before he tossed it to her. She responded by looking it up and down and giving her analysis to Sugar.
"This is a letter. It most likely has a note in it."
"Huh, so that means he must've done some kind of hypnosis that would be triggered by reading the note. Clever. Or perhaps some kind of toxin that works in a way of skin-to-skin touch."
"I think you're overthinking this a tad."
"Maybe."
She looked at the seal. It was in a font that she had recognized, it was Henny Penny. Dials liked the font for how it reminded him of how uneven his office was. Sometimes people would walk into his office and would see him sleeping whilst using his rolling chair as a blanket.
"Are you going to open it?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'll do it sometime. Just when I get curious. For some reason, I don't feel like I did too much or too little. Maybe this is destiny."
"Destiny? Sugar, we're time traveling. Destiny doesn't work that way."
"Maybe it is. Maybe I'm just crazy. Maybe life is so short, and I was meant for so little that this feels like it's forever in a bottle. Think about that."
She was left with her jaw dropped at the sounds of how hopeless Sugar was in his own survival whilst he was also completely at peace with what he expected to be his demise through loss of body or through death. He slowly descended by the ropes that led one from the crow's nest to the floorboards below.
"Sugar!"
"Yes?"
"Can you stay up here with me? It's very quiet when I'm alone and you know how blind I am so it's nice to have company."
"Fine."
He slowly crawled up the rope before he had ended up sitting next to her.
"Sugar."
"Yes?"
"Are you alright?"
He kept his calm smile before he ultimately dropped his mind games that he used. See, he planned this whole interaction out in a few seconds. He knew that he needed a way to tell her that he was okay with everything and he needed a way to find closeness to her. That was how he had been picked by the orphanage.
"Well, I guess this is the end of the line. The kid is going and that's all we can do. Nowhere to go. Nobody to rely on. Not even a thing to do."
Scott and BB were down below. They had found themselves in a pickle. Where would they go and what would they do after the whole kerfuffle was done? Scott was mad and BB was sad. BB looked far more different from the beginning of the story but one could absolutely still make out the fact he was the man he used to be. He was rapidly de-aging. Sugar barely recognized him and Lia was so blind she wouldn't notice the difference.
"We need to find ODETTA."
"ODETTA? She is the reason we're here and it's not like we have any way of finding her."
BB gave his iconic sly smile as he looked up from his desk to the likes of Scott.
"Well, I think I do."
"Come on, tell me. You know how much I miss her."
He was obviously sarcastic in his delivery, and he hadn't cared about finding her. He just didn't want to be alone.
"It starts with me doing this. Don't resist."
"Resist what?"
BB took a knife from his desk. He meant nothing malicious to Scott, but the plan needed to be successful or else nothing would be.