Paul and John took off, putting Barney from their minds. Well, John put Barney from his mind with, more or less, ease. Paul kept shaking his head, holding back sobs because all that he could see imprinted on the back of his eyelids was Barney, Barney, Barney crumpled up with his mouth and his eyelids hanging up, his blood still dripping from the hole in the middle of his head, his mouth still warm from his breath. If only John hadn't stopped him in the hallway, he could have —
Paul shook his head. He couldn't afford to think like that. Not here. Not now. He needed to focus. Focus. Focus.
So busy focusing on trying to focus, Paul didn't notice that there were people approaching them and he ran headlong into them.
"Paul," Ringo hissed, rubbing the spot where his head had collided with his bandmate's head.
"Sorry, sorry," Paul said, scrambling to his feet. He brushed off his clothes. "Oh, God, sorry," he said, stretching out his arms. "Let me help you up, Ringo — wait a second."
Ringo got to his face and grinned.
"Ringo!" Paul cried.
"Ringo?" John cried.
"What on Earth are you doing here!" Paul shouted.
"What the hell are you doing here, man?" John laughed. Paul hit his arm.
"Well... um..." Ringo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Behind him, Roger Taylor and John Deacon were getting back onto their feet after also having been knocked down by Paul.
"You two as well?!" Paul exclaimed. "I can't believe this!"
"Hey, now, wait just one minute," Roger said in a defensive tone. "We're not like Ringo here. We didn't find out about this a few days ago like he did. We've known for how many years now? We are full-fledged members of the Unknowables, and we have as much of a right to be here to end this thing as you do, Paul McCartney," he finished dramatically.
Deaky chimed in with, "And we asked Darren if we could home and he said that we could so there."
Paul rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay, I guess."
"Who you should be mad at is Freddie and Brian," Roger said. "They were just given the rundown about all of this yesterday."
"So, why should that matter?" John said. "They aren't here."
No one said anything for a long moment.
"Right?" Paul said, but still, no one answered. "They aren't here... RIGHT?!"
There was another long stretch of silence. Then, from down the hallway, someone spoke: "So, who's going to break the news to him?"
Paul smacked his palm to the middle of his forehead. "Jesus fucking Christ."
Freddie Mercury and Brian May poked their heads around the corner down the hallway, then scurried toward them.
"What are you all doing here?" Paul hissed.
"Like I said," Roger said. "Deaky and I are —"
"Not you two," Paul huffed. "You two," he said, pointing at Brian and Freddie. "And Ringo. What were you thinking?"
"Well, you and John and George were all going," Ringo said. "I'll be honest, I was feeling kind of left out."
"This is serious," Paul said. "And John's not even supposed to be here."
"I figured," Ringo said. "He told me he was, but I could tell he was lying. But I'm a part of this now, too."
"You really don't have to be," Paul said. "You've barely scraped the surface. You've still got time to walk away."
"And what happens if you lose today?" Ringo said. "They let me go home? They already tried to kill me, Paul. That was before I knew what was going on."
Paul frowned and thought about how President Wilson told him, eighteen years ago, that if Paul couldn't save John then he, George, and Ringo were all going in the White Room. Ringo wasn't safe, and he never was. "You're right," Paul sighed.
"He is?" John said.
"He is," Paul said. "Hell, you've all got the right to be here if you really want to fight. Once you know about all of this, you're in it. You're a part of it. So of course, you've got a right to be here to fight for your own life."
Freddie grinned. "Then let's fight for our lives," he said. "What's the plan?"
Paul laughed. "You adjust quickly, huh? Okay, I'm thinking we find some of our people. People we know for certain we can trust. Tessa and Steph, George and Yoko, Darren, maybe Marbella. We need to get back on track, figure out where we're needed."
"Right," Freddie said. "But what's the plan? How're we going to find them?"
"That... I do not know," Paul said.
"Can you track one of them with the weird phone?" John said.
"Weird phone?" Deaky said.
"We have two iPhones," Paul said.
"Whoa," Roger said. "It's been a second since I thought about one of those."
"What are they?" Brian said. "Did you call it an iPhone?"
"Phone from the future," Paul said, and Ringo, Freddie, and Brian all frowned at him. "Don't worry about it right now. And you know what, John, I just might be able to. That phone belongs to the Unknowables and I was able to track..." Paul trailed off. "Well, I think I'll be able to track Darren or Marbella with it." He pulled it out and looked. "Yes, we can find —"
Just then, the battery on the phone ran out and it died.
"Well, there goes that plan," Paul sighed.
"Well, not necessarily," John said.
"Hm?" Paul looked at him.
"I, uh...." John dug his hand into his pocket. "I have Barney's phone. I thought that it might come in handy."
Paul sighed, and then nodded slowly. He did his best not to cry as he took it from John. "You were right. Good thinking. Give it here, then. I'll see if I can find out where anyone on our side is." They all ducked into the nearest empty room that they could find and Paul fiddled with the phone for a while. It was more advanced than what he had been accustomed to in 2015 (and it's not as if he had been exactly been tech-savvy in 2015), so it took some time.
Roger and Deaky kept a lookout.
"Got it," Paul hissed. "Here it is."
John leaned over his shoulder.
"There are no names, just serial numbers."
"So we won't know who we're going after."
"But we'll know they're on our side."
"Well, that is something."
"Who's closest then?" Ringo asked.
"I don't know who, I just said -"
"Right, right. I meant where. Where's the closest one?"
"Um..." Paul looked back at the screen, "A couple of floors down."
"Right, then. Let's go."
Paul, John, Roger, Deaky, Ringo, Freddie, and Brian sneaked their way down the nearest flight of stairs. Past bloodstains on the wall and the bodies that laid beneath them, slumped against the wall. Paul swore they all looked like Barney and he kept closing his eyes.
"Are you okay?" John asked softly as they moved.
"Should I be?"
John laughed. "Fair point. But you keep stumbling into me. I just mean, are you okay? Do you need a break? Maybe sit down for a minute."
Paul sighed. "Don't have time for a break. C'mon." They pushed on.
They followed the little dot onscreen all the way to an actual person standing in front of them. When they all reached him, Darren looked around in shock at lot of them. "How — where did you all come from — how are you all — what?!" He tugged at his hair. "You're all supposed to be back at the —"
"Well, hold on," Paul cut him off. "I'm supposed to be here."
"Okay, but the rest of you —" Darren shook his head incredulously, eyes wide and mouth agape. "How — how — are you here?"
John, Ringo, Deaky, Roger, Freddie, and Brian all mumbled unintelligibly, shifting back and forth uneasily, until John finally huffed, "Look, your war isn't exactly going very well. It looks like you need all the help you can get."
Darren frowned. "That's... fair enough. But there's not much else we can do unless we get Wilson."
"Then let's get Wilson," John said vehemently. "Just remind me: who's Wilson?"
"President Wilson," Paul said softly and gestured for John to back down. "Okay, so how do we get to him? You're our best shot at getting near him, Darren."
"Me?" Darren said laughingly. "No, that's not really my area of expertise. Marbella is leading the squadron to assassinate Wilson."
"There's an assassination squadron?" Ringo cried.
"Excellent!" John said. "Where are they?"
"Why didn't we know about this?" Paul said, frowning.
"Yeah, and why weren't we on it?" Roger said angrily.
Darren looked between all of them just standing before him. None of them was sure he was going to answer them but before they got the chance to find out, they heard movement in the hallway. Darren ushered Paul, John, Ringo, Deaky, Roger, Freddie, and Brian into the next room. He closed the door as quietly as he could and when he found that it didn't have a lock, he held the knob in a death grip.
"Search this room here!" Came a muffled cry. Footsteps and voices grew closer; they trampled around the room, looking in cabinets and under the table. They jiggled the knob that Darren held tightly and seemed not to think very much of it when they found it to be, apparently, locked.
"All clear!" One of them cried, and the footsteps faded away once more.
"All right, here's the plan," Darren said. "You four are gonna stay right here." He pointed to John, Ringo, Brian, and Freddie.
"What?"
"Not fair!"
"We've got a right to fight, too!"
"Yeah, Paul says so."
"Paul's not in charge," Darren said simply. "You've never been in the field and you're gonna stay put and make sure no one opens that door, you hear me? It's a blood bath out there."
"But you're losing," John said. "You need —"
"I already said, if we can't get to Wilson then we've lost," Darren snapped at him. "So there's no point in putting you out there, is there? So, you four, stay here. The three of you, follow me." He marched out of the room.
"Just — just wait here a minute," Paul said to John, then to the rest, "All of you. Just... I'll be back." Paul, Deaky, and Roger followed after Darren together, but out in the hallway Paul caught up to Darren. "What's to stop them just following after us? They're sure to be killed then!"
"They wouldn't know where to look," Darren said. "But anyway, I locked the door."
"It hasn't got a lock!" Paul cried.
Darren sighed. He wiggled his fingers at Paul. Magic.
"Oh," Paul said glumly, feeling guilty that he told them all to wait, subsequently getting them locked in there. Right after he had declared that they all had the right to fight for their lives, too.
"Okay, well, where are we going?" Roger asked.
"Where do you think?" Darren said.
Deaky frowned. "I'm afraid to say."
"We're gonna go kill Wilson, aren't we?" Paul said.
"Well, sort of," Darren said. "We need to find Marbella first. I'm just not sure how. Wait, how did you guys find me?"
Paul pulled Barney's phone out of his pocket. "This."
"Brilliant!" Darren said, pulling out his own phone. "I'm such an idiot. I should have thought of this. This way, let's go. Where'd you get that?"
Paul frowned. "It's Barney's."
Darren stopped in his tracks. "Why do you have it?"
Roger, Deaky, and Darren all stared at Paul while he shifted back and forth uncomfortably until, at last, he mumbled, "He's dead."
None of them asked how, or if he was sure, and they didn't dwell on this. They didn't have time. So they kept moving. It was all they could do. They went downward. They found a staircase and worked their way down a staircase at the back of the building; they moved as quickly as they could, but had to stay in formation so that they were never unguarded. Weary of someone popping through a doorway to attack them. They kept turning sharp corners until they finally came to a conference room. Darren knocked on the door in an erratic pattern, and Paul tried to recall what very little he knew about morse code, but the door was already swinging open and they were being frantically ushered into the room.
"George!" Paul cried in relief when his eyes landed on his friend standing in the corner of the room. He looked a little more banged up than Paul did — he was bleeding in a few places — but overall, he looked to be in pretty good shape. Paul bounded across the room and threw his arms around George.
"Oh, thank God," George murmured into Paul's shoulder. "There are so many people dead. I didn't know. I didn't..." he trailed off and hugged Paul tighter.
"Hey, what am I? Chopped liver?"
Paul turned to Yoko with a gasp, dropping down to kneel beside her where she was sitting on the floor with her arm curled against her chest. "Fuck, what happened?"
"There's a war on. Don't know if you've noticed." Yoko laughed, and Paul and George both laughed with her.
Darren and Marbella were talking in low voices, angled toward the corners so that the rest of them couldn't even read their lips. Something was about to happen. Paul and George and Yoko were all sure of that. Something big.
"Three of us," Yoko sighed. "Back together again, huh?"
George smiled sadly. "We didn't start all this. We didn't start any of this, but..."
"But we're sure going to finish it," Paul said.
"All right, everyone," Marbella said to the room sharply. "Listen up."
Paul, George, and Yoko all shared a look. Here goes everything.