The Monkees and Elizabeth kept pace with the crowd as much as they could. Elizabeth was feeling much stronger now, but still felt a little weak. Micky took her hand to make sure she didn't get separated from him and the others.
"There is too many people around, it will be hard to spot Dr. Chronos." ELizabeth said to the others.
"He'll have to use underhanded techniques like he did the last times." Mike said, "Those soldiers look like they mean business."
The road up ahead began to open up a little. There were many trees lining both sides, providing shade; and a place for an ambush. Micky pointed that fact out to the others.
"Let me go on up ahead." Davy said. "I'm small enough to climb those trees to see if anything is afoot."
"Please be careful Davy." Elizabeth said.
"Not to worry, Luv." Davy said with a wink. He quickly separated from the crowd and using the side alleys, managed to get ahead of the soldiers. Davy scanned the treetops, looking for anything suspicious. Not seeing anything from the ground, he began to shimmy up the nearest tree-not an easy thing to do when wearing a long tunic. Davy was about half-way up when he saw a bundle of small firecrackers and smoke bombs tied to a branch. They were attached to a wire which connected them to another bundle in the next tree.
It immediately dawned on Davy that Dr. Chronos and his men were going to set of the fireworks and smoke bombs and scare everyone. There would so much confusion, it would be easy for Dr. Chronos and his men to free Jesus! Davy pulled the wires free from the bundle, ensuring that they wouldn't go off. From his vantage point, Davy saw the soldiers coming and realized he had little time. He jumped down from the tree and began to climb the next tree over, when he felt someone grab his ankle. Davy looked down to see an angry Dr. Chronos holding his ankle. His henchmen were around him.
"Get down from there, boy!" Dr. Chronos growled.
"Yes sir!" Davy said, smiling at the Doctor....then let go of the tree and fell on top of the startled man. Davy picked himself up and ran before the other men could grab him. He started back towards the soldiers coming down the road.
"Stop!" Dr. Chronos shouted, but Davy had no intention of listening.
Suddenly, Davy tripped over a fine trip wire that Dr. Chronos and his men had placed across the road. He fell to the ground. That wire was supposed to activate all the firecrackers and such when the soldiers walked past, but now Davy set everything off much too soon.
The trees all around Davy, Dr. Chronos and his men boomed and crackled, but the soldiers coming down the road were too far away to really hear anything. A few of them remarked that they thought they heard thunder, but nobody else gave it a second thought.
Davy shook his head and began to pick himself off the ground, when he found himself roughly hauled to his feet by Dr. Chronos' men.
Without a word, Dr. Chronos walked over to Davy and slapped him hard across the face. Davy's head spun from the blow and he nearly fell over. Dr. Chronos then grabbed Davy's chin.
"You are going to be very sorry you did that." Dr. Chronos growled at Davy.
"You'll be sorry, sorry for eternity, if you succeed in your evil plan." Davy replied defiantly.
Dr. Chronos smiled evilly. "What's eternity to me, if I can control time?" He said, "That's what I'll get if I succeed."
"You're crackers!" Davy shouted back.
Dr. Chronos was about to hit Davy again, when he heard the crowd coming closer. He motioned to his men, and they dragged Davy off to the side of the road and hid in some shrubbery. One of the men put a dagger to Davy's throat to ensure his silence. Seconds later, the soldiers and Jesus walked past, followed by an ever-increasing crowd of people. Davy looked around for the other three Monkees and Elizabeth, but didn't see them.
Finally, the last of the people went past. Dr. Chronos turned to Larry. "Take him back to our base and tie him up. Then come back and meet us at the place we agreed to."
"Can't we just kill him now, Dr. Chronos?" Mark asked. "Oh, no no." Dr. Chronos chuckled. "That would be too quick. I want him and his friends to die slowly for all the trouble they've caused."
Larry nodded then hit Davy across the back of his head. Davy slumped into unconsciousness. Dr. Chronos climbed out of the shrubbery to see if the coast was clear....and came face to face with Elizabeth and the other three Monkees.
"You were right, Mike." Peter said, "It couldn't have been thunder with so few clouds in the sky."
"It ends here, Dr. Chronos." Elizabeth said sternly, opening her hands. A ball of purple energy formed between them. Dr. Chronos' eyes went wide for a second, then he smiled.
"I don't think so, angel." He sneered, "Larry! Bring over our guest."
Larry came out of the shrubs dragging an unconscious Davy in his arms. The henchman still had the dagger at Davy's throat.
"Davy!" The other three Monkees shouted.
"Let him go now!" Elizabeth commanded.
"I don't think so." Dr. Chronos said with a smirk. "Do anything to me and your little Davy dies centuries before he was born. Now I think you should put away your ball of power."
Reluctantly, Elizabeth did as she was told. She looked at Dr. Chronos angrily. "You don't know what you're doing, Dr. Chronos." She said, "Do you think the devil, Satan or whatever you want to call him, is going to keep whatever promises he made to you?"
"Why shouldn't he?" Dr. Chronos demanded.
"Because he's the prince of liars. He's full of empty promises, that's why!" Elizabeth retorted.
"He is going to help me get revenge on the Christian faith!" Dr. Chronos shouted, "They killed my wife! So now I'm going to make sure their religion never gets started!"
"You can't fight God!" Mike answered back.
"I'm not going to stand here and debate this matter with you." Dr. Chronos said sharply. "But I will tell you this. Davy is our hostage. Interfere anymore with our plans, and he dies very, very slowly. Understand?"
The three Monkees and Elizabeth nodded their heads, defeated. Dr. Chronos and his men went through the shrubs once again and were quickly out of sight. Elizabeth put a hand to her mouth and began to cry. Micky put his arms around her, trying to comfort her, but he and the other two Monkees were crying as well.
They were faced with a terrible choice: To try and stop Dr. Chronos and sacrifice Davy, or leave him alone and let history be changed- for the worse?