The Way It Wuz, the Musical: Act III »

TWIW: Act III

Date: 04/15/2000
From: Blinker

THE WAY IT WUZ: THE MUSICAL
=====
ACT III: THE WAY IT IZ

Professor Arturo paced the cavernous auditorium, examining each square inch of the wall with the utmost attention to detail.

Bennish rapped a drumstick against the side of his chair. "Like, uh, there's no way out, 'kay dude?"

Arturo turned to face him. "Mister Bennish, we deserve some exposition -- er, explanations." He folded his hands. "For instance, will we be allowed to leave in..." The Englishman trailed off with a questioning look at Quinn.

"Eleven minutes."

Bennish scratched his neck. "No prob, dude."

Mallory was beginning to get concerned. "You sure we got time for this?"

"C'mon guys," Wade insisted. "I want to see what happened."

"Well, things were as lame as ever. This time, though, they had a plan. Every old poster the new breed could get their hands on was bombarded with an e-mail urging them to show up and contribute... on Wednesday, August 25."

relrelrelaboo burst in via a previously unseen back door. "AH-HAH!" [All of relrel's handles spell "ha" as "hah." That's a tip, kids; write it down!] "So Chaser9's contingent of BUSTED lapdog sheep spammed everyone's e-mail! See! What I did wasn't so bad after all!!!"

The Sliders picked up discarded props littering the stage and tossed them in relrelstupid's direction. "BOMBARDED, you moron, not SPAMMED! GEEZ!"

Bennish snapped his fingers, and the annoyance vanished.

"Anyway, everyone gathered up strength for one final push against the forces of darkness. SL4ever prophesied that future generations would sing songs about this Wednesday. Well, he was right..."

***

- QUINN -
If this should be
Our final stand,
We will stand, together
With pride...

We'll honour the past
And fight to the last...
It will be a good way to die.

- MALLORY -
It matters not
If the cause is lost,
For our last breath
Won't be
A si-i-igh...

- MAGGIE -
We'll show those jerks
What true fans ca-an do...
The last note sung a hi-i-igh.

***

Remmy turned to the director. "So how'd it go?"

"Oh, Bring Back the Vets Day was a smashing success. Filled three solid pages. Everyone from SlidingThrough to The_Cynic showed up and posted bundles. There was even a spam attack, and people just ignored it and kept on going."

Bennish's glum face and tone didn't match his triumphant words. Ever sensitive to others' moods, Maggie was quick to pick up on this.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, so what went wrong?"

"Well, no-one stuck around to make it work. Soon as the day was over, everyone went back to where they were and things returned to normal. A couple o' weeks later, the latest revival of TWIW went under. Status quo par excellence." Bennish shook his head. "This part always gets to me."

"I wish my character could change what happened," pleaded Wade.

"Uh-uh. No can do, the show is the show."

The next song blended sharp, quick piano hits with a sinuous orchestral sound no-one could quite put their finger on. Quinn stalked towards the women's side of the stage in time with the jagged beat.

***

- QUINN -
Ga-ather round, and he-ear my song
You've been deaf,
You have been blind too long.

Be-yond your haven, there li-ies a threat;
It will spell,
Our certain death...

The flamers are coming, the ba-ashers loom;
The spammers are bringing
Our final doom...
You cannot hide, you must listen to me;
For the sake of
Our community...

- WOMEN -
We helped you before but our dues are all paid,
To face your foes, we are now too afraid.
We hide in safety, we have all we need;
Why should we fight with you, why should we bleed?

- QUINN -
You do not know
What you mean to our fate,
You are the ones
Who can overcome hate...

- WOMEN -
All that we want's
To be left here alone...

- MEN -
And so our board di-ies...
With a tear and a
M-o-o-o-a-n.

[Quinn lays down, outstretched in symbolic death. The other men bow their heads.]

***

Time slowed down as Bennish spoke the next words.

"That's it. That's all there is."

Wade felt the music trying to leave her. That spark of an alien soul that had permitted her to share in the sorrows and joys of these "Sliders" fans.

And she fought back.

With all of her strength, Wade staggered over to Quinn and poured her soul out in one tormented look. The look was returned, and the air began to faintly buzz with the intensity of what they were harnessing.

Bennish was on his feet in shock.

Together, they forced the music to start up again. In an ironic twist, the tune they summoned was that of the initial Division of the Boards.

***

- QUINN -
You find me, wasting here
You must think I'm insane.
All I want, is for you to know
I would do it all
Again.

I simply had to stay
Where I had to stay;
I fought and lost,
Now here I la-a-ay...

But why, do you come see me here
Is it to break my heart, again?

- WADE -
When we were, away from you
The main board went insane.
All I want is for you to know
I've come back for you
Again.

We simply had to do
What we had to do,
But it never meant
We didn't lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ove,
You,

I can't stand, to see you wasting here
It fills me with such pain...

[All others move up behind Quinn and Wade]

- QUINN & WADE -
Our two boards are as o-one board,
But this one's worth more than two;
As long as this board exists
I will stay right here
With you;

Time slips away,
Fades away,
So we must
Live toda-a-a-ay...

What do you say, we kick off the day
With Beret War, Chapter Two?

[Another tune swells up. This time it's the very first one, from the beginning of the show.]

- ARTURO -
We shall, preserve
This post through time,
If anyone ever a-asks why...
The Sli-iders board did not fall on its knees...

- DIANA -
They will know...

- REMBRANDT -
We found a way to...

- ALL -
Surviiiiii, iiiiii,
iiiiii, IIIIII...
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE.

***

Something intangible twitched and died within each of the role players, and they knew the force had left them for good. Emotionally drained, Wade sagged against Quinn.

Much to everyone's surprise, the director was livid. "That was NOT in the script!"

Diana folded her arms. "Maybe it was. Maybe someone just forgot to give you the final revision."

A breathless Quinn looked up from the the timer they'd obtained on Mesopotamia World. "Thirty seconds and change."

"Do you realize what you've DONE?!"

Arturo nodded. "Yes. We enacted the classic happy ending. Love triumphed over all, and - "

"Nuh-uh, dude. That's NOT the way it ends! They found a way to DIE, not SURVIVE!! The trolls, bashers, mis-informants and relrel handles are supposed to WIN!" He stabbed an accusing finger. "It was something the red-headed chick did!"

Wade took several breaths and tried to stammer out a reply. "It's... I don't know, something just came over me. I couldn't handle seeing my friends suffer like that..."

"But- but the SHOW is the SHOW!" Bennish's hands trembled.

Rembrandt spoke softly. "We're Sliders. Not just any Sliders, we're THE Sliders. Even Seer World knew that. We've always looked out for each other, no matter what." He collected his thoughts. "Now there *was* a time when we'd all drifted apart. Quinn had stopped caring a long time ago... and then he was gone. Wade was scattered to the interdimensional wind, and Maggie and I were sure the professor was dead. Some days it seemed like we'd never win, like no matter what we did we were only getting ourselves in deeper."

Maggie picked up the slack. "But we picked ourselves up, and kept going. We threw the Maggs off Earth Prime. We rescued Quinn, and he did everything he could to make up for leaving Wade behind. We found Colin, and the others..."

Wade cast her a tear-stained smile. "We even learned to get along."

"Here we go..." Quinn looked up from the readout - 00:00:00 - to see the translucent vortex flower open.

"No," Bennish choked. "This is a trick, my board is *dead!*" Tears streamed down his cheeks. "Shut it off!"

"I can't," the Professor spoke calmly. "That gateway will remain open for sixty seconds, at which time it will close by itself."

A pistol materialized in Bennish's grip. "I said, *shut it off*!"

Colin raised his hands in front of him. "We're not the board you knew, but we've lived their lives. And they wouldn't want you to hurt innocent people."

Trembling, Bennish lowered the gun to his side.

Arturo looked at the wormhole. "Fifty-nine seconds to closure."

Mallory and Diana joined hands and leapt in. One by one, the others followed, until only Wade was left standing before the heartbroken Bennish.

"Just remember... anything is possible." She turned for a quick look at the gateway, and the infinite possibilities it offered. "What If?"

Then she was gone, leaving the Master of Ceremonies to his thoughts... as the theatre faded into the vastness of space, leaving no sign that its final and greatest performance had just concluded.

- THE END -

Original URL http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/2326/19841/4
Nominated by Blinker