Happy Holidays, Y'all! Bet you missed me, huh? Here I am again, glorious and triumphant, with the next chapter of "Know Your Myst Stars!" fanfare Please enjoy the show. :)

Poor Saavedro. It's just one thing after another for him, isn't it? Being betrayed, getting stuck somewhere for twenty years, and now this. How will he do? Will he be able to keep himself from knocking Sirrus and Achenar senseless afterwards? Will he be able to keep himself from knocking anybody else senseless afterwards? You'll see…

Disclaimer: Myst III: Exile, Santa Claus, and Cats are not mine, even though one is my favorite game, one is something that I no longer believe in, and one is a musical that my High School is doing and that I am in. (I'm Cassandra!) Also, Jenga and Sorry are not mine. They're just two of my favorite games.

WARNING: This chapter gets a bit graphic and very disturbing at the end, especially if you are a fan of a certain Narayani, as I am. Don't take it personally, I'm not a Saavy-hater or a sick, twisted person that fantasizes about cruel, painful methods of torture. Really. I just put it to add to the drama of the moment and build up suspense and surprise for the ending. Some other characters may make an appearance later, some from Myst V, some from other places. And the meaning of Cho and the green book will be explained later. Here's a hint: it involves Gehn and a now outdated theory about linking books.

Saavedro cautiously stepped onto the stage, hammer poised for attack if he needed it. The stage was empty, but someone could be lurking around the next corner, waiting to ambush him. It always payed off to be prepared.

Noticing the small blue chair in the center of the stage, and noticing that the materials it used did not look natural, Saavedro walked over to it. Tapping the blue portion resulted in a thudding noise, and the feel of it was smooth with tiny ridges and bumps on them. It was a little flexible, but rigid, and obviously synthetic. Assuming that it was safe enough, Saavedro sat down, still attentive to what was going on.

"Know your starts, know your stars, know your stars, know your stars, know your stars…"

Saavedro jumped at this sudden voice. What was going on? Chairs made of a tough, resin-like substance? Voices from nowhere?

"Have I gone crazy?" Saavedro shouted to nobody in particular.

Saavedro jumped again when he heard the booming voice speak once more.

"Saavedro… is crazy!"

His confusion turned to anger in an instant.

"I'm not crazy!" he yelled. "I'm just… a little… disturbed, okay?"

"Saavedro… enjoys eating plastic!"

"What's plastic?"

"It's what your chair's made out of, stupid!"

"That's it!" Saavedro shouted, picking up his hammer and searching for the source of the voice, "I'm going to kill you for that!"

"Saavedro… has been to jail forty-one times!"

The Narayan native quickly spun around at this comment.

"I have not!" he protested.

"Oh, sorry, my mistake – forty-two times!"

"WHAT?!?"

"Saavedro… is a pimp!"

"What! I've been faithful to my wife for TWENTY YEARS! It's not like there even WERE any chicks on J'nanin!"

"You see what I mean? He thinks with his -"

"SHUT! UP!!!"

"Saavedro… bathes in squee bile!"

"That's disgusting and perverted! Who would do that?"

"You."

"I HATE YOU!!!"

"Saavedro… is a disgusting pervert!"

"You idiotic, sick, twisted son of a Squee! Who are you?! WHY?!?"

"Because you deserve it."

Oh, that burned him up!

"How," Saavedro said through clenched teeth, "In the Weaving do I deserve THIS?!?"

"Because Santa said that you were naughty."

"Who's that?"

"A big fat guy who breaks into your house at night and gives you stuff."

"Even if the door is locked?"

"Even if the door is locked."

"This Santa guy sounds like he's a bad person. Bad people need to be sent to jail for breaking and entering. And then he needs to be shot."

All of the little kids reading this fanfiction began to cry.

"Aww, you made the little kids cry, Saavedro, how could you?"

Saavedro realized that he had been lured into a clever logic trap.

"Oh, perfect," he muttered under his breath.

"Saavedro… enjoys making little kids cry!"

"I do not! Are you sure that you have the right person?"

"I'm sure. Saavedro… is a creep!"

"I AM NOT A CREEP!"

Suddenly, a picture of Saavedro with an extremely creepy and wild look on his face flashed onto a screen behind him.

"I don't know, that looks pretty creepy to me," the Voice said.

"I had problems then!"

"You sure that all of those problems are gone?"

Saavedro couldn't think of something to shoot back, so he shut his mouth.

"Exactly. Saavedro… He likes to be perverted with cats!"

Saavedro looked like he was going to explode.

He did.

"WHAT?!?"

"Saavedro… his favorite musical is Cats because he likes the actors' skin-tight costumes!"

"That's disgusting!"

Suddenly, video footage of a Broadway production of Cats rolled, showing close-ups of hot actresses dancing gracefully in costumes so tight that you could have sworn that they weren't wearing anything. Saavedro stared at the footage, anger threatening to burst forward like lava from a volcano.

"Okay, that's about the most retarded thing I've ever seen!"

"But you've seen it."

"Arrrrggghhhh…"

"Saavedro… he's a dog! Arf, arf!"

"I. AM. NOT. A. DOG!!!"

"Aww, poor little dog. Here, chase the kitty, dog! Chase the kitty!"

Suddenly, a figure that looked as if she could have come directly from Cats appeared on stage. Her make-up and outfit gave the impression of a Siamese cat, skin-tight unitard and all.

"You idiot!" She yelled, "Take me back home! I'm going to get my High School and director to sue you!"

Saavedro stared at the poor girl, who similarly stared back at Saavedro.

"Hey," the cat-girl said, "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

The voice returned to antagonize Saavedro and the girl more.

"Saavedro, meet Cassandra. Cassandra, Saavedro."

"For the record," the girl replied, "My name is -"

"The Weaving, how many people are you going to pull into this cat-and-mouse game?!?"

"Meow!" Cassandra yelled.

"I happen to be enjoying myself," the voice replied.

"Meow!"

"I hate you," Saavedro replied.

"Meow!"

"But I like you. You're so easy to annoy."

"Meow!"

Suddenly both Saavedro and the Voice yelled "SHUT UP!" at the poor actress, making her cringe and shudder.

"Sorry," Cassandra said feebly.

"Now that we've got that figured out, I am not a dog!"

"Woof!"

"Stop it!"

"Woof, woof!"

"SHUT UP!"

The stage was suddenly filled with a decidedly non-harmonious sound that resembled a sick dinosaur, or possibly, a dying dog.

"Meeeeeeemmmorrryyyy… all alooooneee in the moooooooonliiiight!!!!"

Saavedro clapped his hands to his ears in an attempt to drown out Cassandra's terrible singing, but to no avail.

"Oh, get off the stage, already!" the Voice yelled. Suddenly, a barrage of tomatoes rained down upon the poor anthropomorphosized cat, making her stop singing and start running for cover, which she only found off-stage.

"And don't come back!" the Voice yelled after her. Saavedro was about to go after her when he slipped on a squished tomato and fell flat on his face.

The Voice boomed with cruel laughter that echoed about the auditorium, making it seem as if several people were laughing at once.

"Saavedro… he just slipped and fell because he's clumsy!"

Saavedro felt just about ready to kill. Again.

"Saavedro… he likes to wear a dress!"

"It isn't a dress! It's a robe!"

"Sure… it's a man-dress!"

"I'm not a cross-dresser! SHUT UP!"

"Sure you're not…"

"I'm not!"

"Saavedro… he's a tree-hugger!"

"I'm not a tree-hugger! It's my job! It's all of my cultures' job!"

"Saavedro… lives with a race of tree-huggers!"

That was the final straw. He could take being insulted, but insult his family and be prepared to face an enraged animal glaring daggers sharp enough to pierce your soul with fear and freeze you, making you the perfect target to take his anger out on.

"Nobody," Saavedro said in a tone as chilling as ice, "Makes fun of my homeworld and gets away with it!!!!"

Saavedro angrily picked up the chair and held it above his head, searching for the voice's source and finding a small speaker mounted on high. He tossed the chair with all of his adrenaline-saturated might, and both the chair and the speaker came tumbling down. The chair landed somewhere in the audience area, and the speaker landed on stage with a crash.

The destruction the fall caused was not enough for Saavedro, who whipped out his hammer and proceeded to viciously smack the speaker into tiny flakes of plastic, metal, and circuits. Finally, when the speaker lay in unspeakable ruins, Saavedro backed away.

"That ought to teach you a lesson!" he yelled with all of his might. "NEVER MESS WITH A NARAYANI, especially an angry one!"

Suddenly, Saavedro heard the voice speak out from the ruined remains of the speaker. It began to giggle slowly, then chuckle, then laugh, then full-out cackle in insane pleasure.

"That, Saavedro," the voice said, "Was the most remarkable thing I've seen in a long time. I've seen anger, but that… that was raw, wild anger! That was amazingly chilling! You certainly are a threat!"

"That's right," Saavedro replied, obviously proud of his work. "I am."

"Yes, a very fine job. That's why you force me to do this."

Saavedro frowned at this last part, but before he could ask what the voice meant, he felt something hit his arm, followed by a stinging sensation. Looking down, he saw a small dart with a tuft of colored feathers at the end sticking out of his upper arm.

Saavedro began to feel woozy and tired. Something on the dart had poisoned him! He had to get help. He started to walk offstage, but whatever was on the tip of the dart caused him to stumble and fall.

The last thing he saw before everything blacked out was a black-clad figure coming straight for him…

Meanwhile…

"Hey, has anyone got any threes?"

"Go fish."

"Darn it!"

The remaining few people left in the dressing room were now playing Go Fish, since they had run out of ideas for stuff to do a while ago. The only means of amusement were a deck of cards, the game Sorry, and the game Jenga.

After Sirrus won Heek earlier, everyone decided that he had been cheating and ousted him from the game, which Achenar got bored with, joining his brother at Sorry. This time, Atrus won the card game and Catherine and the Stranger went to go play Sorry, which let Atrus to amuse himself with Jenga by stacking the bricks into different buildings and formations. The Stranger won Sorry, proclaiming that green was her lucky color, and joined Atrus in playing Jenga for the next hour.

Eventually, a system was set up so that people could rotate games every so often. This got boring after playing the same games over and over, however, and so several times somebody would be seen sitting out or napping.

Eventually, the Stranger noticed that no sound was coming from the stage and left to see what was going on, leaving the rest of the characters to play cards.

Ten minutes after the Stranger left, Sirrus began to feel a little uneasy at how the Stranger had noticed how silent it was.

"I think that she has a point there," he said. "I haven't heard any frantic screaming lately."

"There was that awful rendition of 'Memory' that I heard earlier, though," Catherine pointed out. "Or was that a sick wahrk?"

Cho, who was sitting in the corner and watching the game, muttered something in rapid Rivenese.

"Cho thinks that maybe the voice scared Saavedro off," Catherine translated.

"I don't think so," Achenar replied, trying to organize his hand of cards without giving them away. "Saavedro's too strong of a fighter for that."

"We still took him down that one time, though," Sirrus responded.

"Yeah, we did… I felt kind of bad leaving him there, you know.

"What kind of insane, twisted evil villain are you? Villains don't feel remorse for their victims!"

"I told you once, Sirrus, and I'll tell you again, I've gone through therapy. I'm different now."

Sirrus scoffed at this. "Looks like the thickness of your skull hasn't changed a bit, brother dear."

"Okay, that's it!" Achenar yelled, charging at the much faster and fleet of foot Sirrus. The brothers chased each other around the room a couple of times before Atrus finally yelled at them to cut it out. Which they didn't do.

Cho suddenly stepped in front of the running duo and yelled something that Catherine translated as "Stop and sit in the chairs." This proved to be a bad idea, however, for instead of stopping, Sirrus swerved out of the way, and Achenar, being big and fast-moving at the same time, could not slow down enough to prevent a nasty collision with Cho. The two men lay on the floor in a tangled heap, shouting at each other loudly. It took several minutes to disentangle them, but eventually both were released relatively unharmed. (Except for Cho sustaining a black eye, that is.)

Sirrus merely grinned at his brother who walked towards the far end of the room, holding his head in agony.

"You're lucky that your hard head protected that tiny brain of yours," Sirrus quipped, "Or else you might have sustained a concussion."

"Why you little…"

Catherine finally stepped in between her sons and told them to cut it out or she would stick them both back in their books for the rest of their lives.

At that, both shut up.

Suddenly, a very panicked-looking Stranger ran into the room, holding what appeared to be the remains of a speaker.

"What is the matter, my friend?" Atrus asked, walking up to the upset girl.

"What happened?" Catherine asked worriedly.

"Why are you holding a broken speaker?" Sirrus asked.

"Ooh, she broke it…" Achenar said for no particular reason.

"You big lummox, why would she break a speaker for no good reason?"

"I don't know. Maybe a wahrk broke it."

Sirrus shot him a dirty look.

"It could happen!"

The Stranger shook her head slowly, the shocked expression never leaving her pale face.

Cho asked something, which Catherine translated as "Well, what's the matter, then?"

"This."

The Stranger placed the remains on the pink carpeted floor and lifted out a small cassette tape inside of a tape player. She picked it up and pressed play.

Several moments of static was heard, followed by the evil laughter of the voice in question.

"So, you found the tape, did you?" it jeered. "Good for you. It's a wonder your little friend didn't break it. Oh, and speaking of which, if you're looking for him, you won't find him on stage or backstage, for that matter. You're probably all panicking ring now. Saying stuff like, where is he? Where is our dear friend? Oh, no! You're all running around like chickens with their heads cut off!"

More insane laughter was inserted here.

"Where is he? I have him! Where am I? You'll never find me! Who am I? You'll never know. He's mine, and he's not going back home. Ever. Do you know why, Atrus?"

Atrus jumped after hearing his name spoken in such an ice-cold tone.

"Because," the voice continued, "I have the only linking book out of here! You're all stuck here. Stuck in my little game. So, answer me this, my little pawns – are we having fun yet? Because I'm enjoying myself immensely!"

Even Sirrus looked horrified at the idea of this person's nefarious plot to keep them as slaves to his 'game'. It was diabolical. It was terrible. It was horrible.

Why had Sirrus never thought of it?

"Oh, Stranger?" the voice said in a sickly-sweet tone. "You scared yet? Surely such a brave and noble adventurer as you wouldn't be scared of having to live forever in a game. You already do! And Catherine, you've been trapped before. What's one more time going to hurt? And now I turn to the brothers. Sirrus and Achenar. Classic. Like salt and pepper. Red and blue. Bread and butter. The perfect evil duo. But I wonder – do villains fear their own doom? Do they shudder whenever they think of it? Are they terrified at the thought of the metaphorical monster beneath their beds?"

Every single eye and ear was fixed on the tape recording, frightened and intrigued at the same time.

"I believe that there is another character that you are forgetting. Another piece to the puzzle of who I am. I could be anyone in all of Myst's continuity, but then again, anyone can change their voice."

A sudden banging noise was heard in the background, followed by muffled screams of terror.

"That would be my hostage," the voice continued coolly. "It sounds like his torture is going quite well. Perhaps he'd even be so kind as to tell me where all of you are hiding. I've been needing more slaves around here, and good help is terribly difficult to find these days."

The entire group of characters glanced at each other nervously. This person was a madman, and he had to be stopped, but how?

"Come face me, if you dare. Come search for me if you like. I'll keep Saavedro comfortable while you're looking."

Sudden cries of pain rang out in background of the tape.

"And for your friend's sake," the voice added, "Don't keep me waiting."

The tape ended there, leaving villain and hero alike stunned and terrified, but no more so than the Stranger, who felt such rage and fear at seeing an ally of hers being hurt that she kicked a hole in the wall, weeping all the while.

"We have to stop him," she said through the tears that streaked her face. "He can't do this to him! Saavedro's as much of a friend to me as Atrus is. And if it were Atrus with that psychopath, I'd do the same thing – go after the twisted fiend holding him prisoner."

"Screw him," Sirrus said, walking over to a chair in the corner. "You go risk your lives, I'm staying here."

Suddenly, to everyone's great surprise, Atrus walked over to the Stranger and stood by her side.

"Saavedro has gone through too much," Atrus said. "He doesn't deserve this. I'm not sure about any of you, but I'm standing by my friend on this one."

"Geez, Atrus," the Stranger remarked, "Would it kill you to call me by my name for once?"

"I would, but that would ruin the player's sense of adventure and self."

"Good point. What about the rest of you? Will you help us?"

Achenar stepped forward.

"I've done some bad things in the past," he said, "Especially to Saavedro. But now I'm going to change that, and maybe redeem myself."

Catherine turned to join the group. "I didn't know Saavedro personally, but I know that nobody deserves torture."

Cho walked over to the group, leaving Sirrus by himself.

"B…b…but you'll all be enslaved!" Sirrus stuttered. "He'll torture you all! You'll be trapped forever! Is that how you want to live?"

"There's strength in numbers, Sirrus," the Stranger replied. "And if you help us, even though you don't necessarily like Saavedro, we'll be one person stronger. You have the brains to plan out a strategy. We all have skills that will help us out. But we can't use them unless we have someone organized and clever enough to lead us. So, Sirrus, tell me. Are you in, or are you out? Because if you're out, you're a much easier target for this guy to pick out, and if he finds you…"

"Alright, alright, I'll help you. But I won't like it," Sirrus muttered. "So, I'm the brains. As I should rightfully be, of course. Now, what can Atrus do?"

"Well, I could be able to help scout out a route," he suggested.

"Okay, you do that. Stranger, you're a girl of many talents, so you'll be my second-in-command of sorts. You'll scout, use any stealth abilities that you have, and fight if necessary. Mother, I want you to help fight, since you're so good at self-defense methods. Achenar, you're strong and agile, two very important traits. Use those to be our 'sniper' of sorts. You'll clear out guards and such."

All three of the aforementioned characters nodded in agreement.

"And Cho," Sirrus concluded, "You can… uh… you can… Ah, never mind, you can go on stage and be a distraction because you're really annoying."

Cho saluted him, showing that he got the message.

"Okay, so everyone got what they'll be doing? Good. Now we need a plan and a way into the hideout."

"But where is it?" Achenar pondered.

"I think I know," The Stranger said. "Most auditoriums have Sound and Light Booths or the like. I think that the voice is hiding out there. So, if we find the way into the Booth..."

"But all of the doors are closed," Atrus added.

"Well, if there's a way that he got out to get Saavedro… then there's a way in on the stage! But we need Cho to distract him so we won't be seen. I think that the method on and off stage is that of a trap door. But we need to find its handle."

"I'll go look for it," Catherine volunteered.

"Great," Sirrus said. "Now we need the rest of us to sneak onstage carefully, one by one, once they find it. Achenar, you can signal her one she's found it and ready to go. Cho, you go out there and put this plan into action."

"Wait a minute," the Stranger said. "The stage has all of its lights on. How are we going to shut down the lights?"

"Cut the wires," Sirrus replied. "Atrus will do that. I have to supervise the operation, and Atrus is the only one besides me that would know how to take the proper precautions."

Suddenly, Catherine yelled out "Found it!"

"Shh!" Sirrus hushed. "Not so loud! He might hear us. Go stand near the lever or whatever. Achenar will signal you when we need the door open. Our little plan is just about set for action..."

Meanwhile…

"So, they think that they can come after me, eh?" the voice replied. "They think they're going to stop me and get out? Never."

He chuckled to himself and walked over to the man he held prisoner. Saavedro lay strapped to the metal bed with slats in the back, taking the blows of blades slicing through said slats remarkably well for one in such excruciating pain.

"And how are we doing?" the voice asked his captive. "Are you ready to talk yet?"

"Never," Saavedro said through gritted teeth as he took yet another slice.

"I can end this, you know. You don't have to take any more pain. You just need to tell me where your friends are, and -"

"I will never, not for all the riches in all of the worlds written and not yet written, tell you where they are."

"Very well. I just hope that the blood loss doesn't kill you. You're the only thing that keeps them going, you know."

The madman stopped the machine and released Saavedro, examining the damage caused by the torturous instrument. The back of his robe was destroyed, and most of his back was torn up and streaked with blood. The gashes were not very deep, but they were numerous. The Narayani fell to the floor, panting and bleeding.

"I see that didn't get anything out of you," the voice said. "Very well. I can be harsher. Much harsher. What do you think of that?"

In truth, Saavedro was terrified of what brand of exquisite pain this psycho was going to offer next, but he couldn't let the wanton man see that. So, he merely grimaced, stood up, and stared him dead in the eyes, hidden from view by a veiled, full-face mask.

"Do your worst," he said before collapsing again.

"I will. You can be assured of that."

Woah… that was ten times eviler than I intended it to be. Hopefully Saavedro is saved before he is killed, and hopefully they all escape with their lives! Who on any of the ages would be twisted and evil enough to harm a man so? Find out in the last chapter of Know Your Myst Stars!