A/N: Oh. My. God. I am so freaking sorry for not updating sooner. My only excuse is that I procrastinated. Not gonna lie about this. So sorry for the wait. Here's chapter 3! Enjoy. :)

3

"Alright Maddie," Madison said, looking around. "Where to first?" She paused. "God, I wish Loue was here. It'd probably make life a hell of a lot easier... Probably." Then, a creamy-yellow gingerbread person came up to her.

"You dress a little funny." He stated. "Are you from around here?"

"Not really." Madison looked down, realizing that she was still in her basketball jersey, shorts, and worn out black and white sneakers. "Oh, sorry. I got out of basketball practice before I came here."

"Basketball?" the gingerbread boy asked. "What's that?"

"It's a game." Madison explained. "If I had my ball, I'd show you how to play it. Maybe some other time though." She started to walk away.

"Oh! Miss!" The boy cried. Madison turned around. "Sorry to bother you, but would you help me find my brother?"

"Sure thing!" Madison smiled. "Where did you see him last?"

"Last time I saw him, he was at the Macaroon Islands." The boy explained. "Can you do it?"

"Of course I can!" Madison cheered, throwing a fist into the air. "I'm Madison Freeman for Pete's sake! Greatest detective in the world! I'll solve this mystery!" With that, she left for where she remembered the Macaroon Islands were, leaving behind the gingerbread boy, laughing at her ridiculous show.

Madison had been wandering around Rem Sacchras for a while after she had gotten lost. "Damnit!" She yelled. "I thought I knew where that was. Great…" She turned and saw a path lined by strawberry trees and recognized that as the way to Babayaga's Shrine. "Maybe Babayaga will know the way." She hopped over the egg objects and ate through the whipped cream that surrounded the entrance and walked inside.

"Hey, Maddie!" Babayaga called as Madison walked inside. "You got everything?"

"Not quite, Miss Babayaga." Madison said. Babayaga just smiled.

"Don't be so formal!" She said cheerfully. "So, why haven't you gotten everything yet?"

"Well, for starters, I just got here, and I'm kinda lost." Madison gave a nervous smile. Babayaga frowned.

"Eh?" She sighed. "I thought you remembered!"

"I thought I did too!" Madison exclaimed. "Can't you give me like a map or something?"

"No way!" Babayaga smiled playfully. "But I will give you a hint for the ingredients."

"Thank you!" Madison exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.

"The first," Babayaga said, "you must return the Gingerbread man his candy cane; the second, find the lost brother; the third, and this one is pretty dangerous, defeat the root of tooth pains."

"Damn," Madison said. "I didn't know you could be so mysterious, Babayaga."

"Heheh," Babayaga gave a soft chuckle as Madison left.

"Alright then," Madison looked around. "So first, I give the Gingerbread dude his cane back. And to get there…" She looked down. "I need the water bomb. To the candy maze!" She cheered and ran off in the direction of the maze.

Minutes later, inside the maze, Madison was having candy thrown at her by dark gingerbread men. "I hate this maze!" She screamed, ducking under and running.

She grabbed a chocolate key from a box and unlocked a door, seeing the exit.

"Thank you Jesus!" She screamed running towards it. There was a small clearing surrounded by strawberry trees with a small box. She took out the bomb from said box and ran back.

"Not again…" she mumbled, racing past the candy that was once again being thrown at her.

She finally arrived at the large marshmallow that blocked her path, then asked herself something.

"Why haven't I tried to just eat through this?" She asked herself, but then remembered the sharp pain in her teeth. "Oh yeah… Well marshmallow," she placed the bomb near the marshmallow and lit it. "Today you die!" With that, the bomb set off and destroyed the marshmallow in seconds.

Madison turned around as she heard movement and saw three Slip Cranes. "Oh for God's sake." She sighed and began running, the monsters in pursuit.

"Fuck my life!" She screamed, running. Come on Expa! She thought, as if it would work. You worked last time, so why not now?! I hate monsters! Just then, she spun around and screamed. "Expa!" The monsters stopped dead as they were covered in small explosions. The explosions died away and one slip crane fell down. The others were covered in scratches and they began chasing Madison again. She screamed "Expa!" again and the other two finally fell down, defeated.

"Thank God," She sighed. "It's over." She rushed back to the marshmallow and began searching the macaroon islands. After a minute of searching, she saw a brown gingerbread person. "Hey!" She cried. The gingerbread person looked around. "Yes, you! Over here!" She flailed her arms wildly and the gingerbread person ran over to her.

"Are you the missing kid?" Madison asked. "Your brother's looking for ya!"

"Oh!" The gingerbread boy cried. "Yes, that's me. Thank you, miss!"

"It's cool." Madison smiled. "Come on, let's get out of here." They headed back to the cream colored gingerbread boy and the two were reunited.

"I was worried about you!" The cream colored gingerbread boy exclaimed to his brother.

"I'm really sorry." The chocolate colored gingerbread brother looked down.

"Make sure to say thanks." His brother reminded him.

"Oh yeah!" The boy looked up.

"Thank you!" The cream gingerbread boy looked at Madison.

"You really helped us." His brother said.

"No problem!" Madison smiled. "Glad I could help."

"You can have my treasure." The cream one said, a smile in his voice.

"Woah," Madison blinked. "You sure about that? I mean, it is yours."

"It's okay." The cream gingerbread boy said. "You deserve it. It's in our secret base at the Choco Pond."

"Okay then." Madison shrugged, then turned to leave. "See ya."

"Bye, miss." The two boys waved as Madison left for the Choco Pond.

"Alrighty then." Madison said to herself as she picked up the Honey Needle. She shivered. "Even though this isn't technically a needle." She shuddered. "I fricking hate needles. Now where to put you? Oh wait, I have pockets. Stupid me." She smirked and put the Honey Needle in her pocket. "That's one off the list that I'm not making." She laughed at her small joke and left.

"Okay, what next?" She thought for a minute. "Oh yeah… let's give the gingerbread guy his candy cane back. I don't wanna have to fight that toothache thing. Let's go!" Leaving the Choco Pond, she heard a familiar voice call her name.

"Madison!" She looked around and saw a bat flying towards her.

"Loue!" She cried. "What the heck, dude? I thought you said that you thought I could do this on my own!"

"I do," he said. "you just took too long and I got worried."

"D'aw." Madison smiled. "You didn't have to."

"I kind of do." Loue said. "It's my fault you opened the tome."

"Technically, it's my fault." Madison said, as she and Loue headed towards the Macaroon Islands. "But then again, it's not really. I kind of had to."

"Yeah," Loue agreed. "Can't say I blame you. So, where are we going now?"

"Gingerbread man statue!" Madison cheered and she and Loue went off to get the candy cane.

After many attempts at putting the cake in the right places, Madison headed down a ladder.

"Crap!" She exclaimed. "How the heck am I supposed to carry this thing?"

"At least see if you can carry it, first." Loue sighed.

"Okay!" Madison picked up the candy cane with ease. "Well, forget what I said earlier!"

After they had returned the candy cane to its rightful owner, the gingerbread man's frown was turned into a smile. At Madison's feet, there was a piece of burnt butter.

"But…" Madison looked at the butter in confusion. "Butter only melts. Right? I mean, it can't burn." As they exited the maze, Madison grinned. "Maybe I could ask Ms. G if we could do a lab to see whether butter burns or not! Man, I am a genius!" Loue just smirked, listening to her small rambles.

"How many more ingredients do we need to get?" He asked.

"Just one, but…" Madison trailed off.

"But?"

"I seriously do not want to fight that toothache." Madison shuddered. "I still don't even know how to work the runes."

"You protected yourself from the monsters, right?" Loue pointed out.

"Well, yeah." Madison admitted. "and I've used the runes then, but I don't really know how I can use them. I mean, I'm not a witch or anything like Liddell."

"And you can still use them." Loue smirked. "So it's not a bad thing, right?"

"Well, I guess it's not." Madison sighed. "But that doesn't mean it always happens when I want it to." She shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to hope for the best. Race ya!" Madison dashed off towards the Toothache's lair.