In the penguin habitat, they heard a deathly scream echo throughout the Central Park Zoo. An eerie silence resonated after, like the whole Zoo had disappeared. It was quiet… too quiet. They looked at each other, fearing the worst. The scream was identifiable, though it didn't help cease their fears one bit.
"Wasn't that Julien?" Private asked his leader.
Marlene already had a guess on what transpired. "Oh no," she whispered.
"Come on." Skipper jumped to the ladder. "We are going to rescue Ringtail."
"Marlene's coming then?" Private clapped his flippers together hopefully.
Skipper rolled his eyes. "She can stay here and 'guard' the HQ." He ignored the glare he received from Marlene.
"Wonderful," Marlene muttered sarcastically despite her fear.
Private sighed sadly, passed Marlene and went up the ladder after his leader. He flipped out and landed on the habitat bars next to Skipper. "Do you think we are too late?" he asked. In a way, he was hoping they were because he didn't want to see the girls like that anymore than he had to.
Skipper didn't answer and headed for the lemur habitat as quickly as possible. Private followed with as much speed as he could. They both flipped over the habitat walls and landed on the grassy ground. They launched themselves upward and thumped down on the concrete.
Mort was bawling and cradling his tail, and Maurice was huddled up on the ground with his back turned from them.
"Maurice, what happened?" Skipper placed a flipper on the aye-ayes shoulder.
The pudgy aye-aye whirled around; his expression was a horrified one. He relaxed considerably when he realized it was only Skipper. "Is something wrong with Amber?" Maurice asked timidly as Private came to his leader's side.
"Why do you ask?" Private smiled nervously and tapped his flippers together.
Maurice sighed and jumped to their sides so they could see what he had been bent over.
Both penguins gasped in horror. Julien was completely torn up. A large gaping wound in his stomach, empty with no organs inside or anything, and his head had a large hole in it as well. It was missing a brain too (A/N: I don't think there was one in the first place). The legs and arms looked like they had been gnawed at like a chew toy to a dog. His feet were a simple bloody pulp.
Private couldn't keep his lunch for rising and threw up on Skipper's feet.
Skipper grimaced at the mess on his feet and shook them in an attempt to get rid of some of the substance. "Ew..." He looked back at the dead Julien and closed his eyes. "Thank god Marlene isn't here to see this."
Maurice's eyes reflected sadness. His king might have been a pain, but Julien had still been his friend...in some weird way. "So is there something wrong with your penguin friend?" he asked again, almost accusingly.
"She's a monster," Skipper answered bluntly and looked at the pudgy lemur. "Flora, Sara and Madison are too."
Maurice's eyes widened in utter shock. "Say what?" he yelped. The penguins were strange and psychotic but this was new and completely unexpected. "What did you do man?" he practically shouted, though the flightless birds dismissed this comment.
"It's terrible." Private shook his head sadly. "They don't even remember us!"
"The scary penguin killed King Julien!" Mort wailed.
Skipper stared at the ground thoughtfully. "We need to alert the other zoo animals. This is getting out of hand," Skipper growled.
"We aren't going to split up are we?" Private asked, hoping he could stay with his leader.
Skipper shook his head and said, "I don't want to lose another soldier. We stay together. Remember the penguin credo?"
Private looked confused. "What does hot oil have anything to do with this?" He tilted his head to the side and stared at Skipper carefully.
Skipper face palmed before shouting, "No! It's never swim alone!" Geez, why can't he remember that? Skipper thought.
"Oh…" Private hummed, nodding his head.
"Wait, you two aren't leaving us," Maurice gestured to himself and Mort, "are you?"
"Good point." Skipper rubbed the bottom of his beak. "Go back to our HQ; Marlene should let you two in." Skipper then jumped onto the habitat walls; Private hurtling over also. The commanding bird pointed a flipper at both of the lemurs warningly. "Don't touch anything," he ordered sternly and eyed them warily for a moment.
Mort jumped up suddenly, and his large eyes glazed over with sadness and fear. "What about King Julien?"
"Leave him." Skipper narrowed his eyes. "We can take care of it when this is all over. We don't need distractions of any kind."
Maurice and Mort didn't appear happy or satisfied with the response but the sense of it made them start over to the penguin habitat.
Skipper then signaled for Private to follow him. They made their way to Burt's habitat, about to tell everyone to beware of four monster penguins.
Marlene looked around the HQ curiously, trying to find something to occupy her time. She looked at the girls bunks and found a Lunacorn plush under Sara's pillow. She put it back and arranged it so it looked like she never looked there. The antsy otter suddenly heard a few tapping sounds on the fishbowl. She froze, afraid it might have been the monster penguins. She decided to check.
Marlene jumped to where the periscope was and brought it down. She angled it around so she can see the fishbowl and whoever was there. She sighed in relief when she realized it was only Maurice. She wondered where Julien, Mort and the other penguins were. She felt a lump form in her throat.
'Please don't tell me…' Marlene could only assume the worst. She was just hoping she was wrong. She jumped away from the periscope and went over to the fishbowl. She unlocked it, pulled it aside and looked up at the gray lemur with wide eyes.
"Maurice?" Marlene tilted her head slightly in confusion. "What are you doing here?" She looked around quickly and asked, "Where is everyone else?"
The Aye-aye sighed sadly but his eyes told the Asian otter that he honestly didn't care. "They are dead."
The otter had to do a double-take. "W-what?" Marlene gaped. "Who?"
"The penguins, Mort, King Julien…they are all dead," Maurice said with almost no emotion.
Marlene felt tears prick her eyes. She shook her head in denial. "T-that can't be…"
"Amber killed them all. They tried to save Julien but she had destroyed him."
The pudgy lemur narrowed his eyes when Marlene asked, "How did you escape?"
"They told me to run so I did," he answered bluntly. "Can I come in now?"
"O-of course," Marlene stuttered and made room for him to come in. Maurice jumped into the HQ and strode to the middle of it. He looked around as if it was his first time being here in the penguins HQ.
Marlene examined Maurice. He didn't appear sad of the loss or concerned. Something smelled fishy and it wasn't just the smell of the penguin's home. The smell was a bit appalling though. "So Maurice," Marlene began and locked the fishbowl again, studying him carefully. Something was off about him. "You don't seem too upset about this."
The lemur turned toward her and, for a split second, she thought his eyes flashed red. He came to her and stopped so he was almost nose to nose with her, eyes slightly narrowed. "I saw everything." He glared. "Julien was weak." Maurice's voice then sounded more…feminine.
Marlene gaped at him and took a couple steps back in surprise and shock. "W-what?"
"He was weak." His now feminine sounding voice was getting more familiar to Marlene, but she couldn't place her finger on it. "He was stupid. He didn't even defend himself. Just screamed like the coward he was." Maurice's eyes were completely red by now.
"M-Maurice?" Marlene blinked owlishly.
Maurice's eyes rolled back, and he suddenly collapsed with a certain spirit escaping from his body.
"S-Sara?" Marlene gasped. She had been tricked. Mort and the other penguins were probably still alive. But something told her that Julien was gone due to that hint of truth she heard in Sara's voice when she had been controlling Maurice. "Sara?" she repeated hoarsely.
The ghost penguin was now hovering over the ground and had narrowed eyes at the Asian otter. "Why does no one care?" Sara shouted. "Why am I so alone?"
Marlene blinked in minor confusion. She realized that Sara looked ready to explode from undirected fury. "You're not alone!" The otter denied and waved her paws around frantically. Sara's tormented spirit being came closer to Marlene, making her back into a wall. "Where is Mort, Julien and any of the other penguins?"
"Julien is dead," Sara hissed, stopping in front of the terrified otter. "Mort is hiding, but I will find him," she growled. "The penguins are alerting the other stupid animals about me, aren't they? They want me to be alone, don't they?" Sara shouted and drifted even closer to Marlene.
"What were you doing with Maurice?" Marlene suppressed a stutter.
"Maurice would be the body I live in, but he's too weak." Sara looked at the fallen lemur on the ground. "All the lemurs are too weak." Her red eyes drifted back to Marlene. "But you…you're stronger, more agile." Sara came so close that Marlene had to press herself against the wall. Sara was a ghost; it wasn't like she could squish her. "You'll be a much better host then that lemur." Sara smiled crookedly.
Marlene shook violently. "Y-you wouldn't!" she shrieked.
Sara shook her head and murmured, "Oh, but I would." She got even closer to her if it was possible. "Now hold still." Her red eyes flashed as the room grew deathly cold and silent. "This won't hurt a bit… It's going to hurt a whole lot."
A cloaked shadow came into the empty lemur habitat silently. No one seemed to notice it from other nearby habitats. It came up to the platform and looked down at the mutilated lemur. It tutted and shook its hooded head with fake emotion.
"Can't let a perfectly good body go to waste now can we?" it said to itself as it gazed into Julien's blank wide eyes. The lemurs mouth was open as if he was about to scream out to the world in his afterlife. His eyes still looked terrified, even in death.
The hooded shadow lifted the sleeves of its long cloak. Green liquid started to drip from a black appendage, as if he had cut himself, blood dripping out by pools. Yet, was this really an animal or a human? Probably neither. It brought the green dripping appendage over to Julien. The green goop came in pools into the ring-tailed lemur. It poured in the lemur's opened stomach; he dripped some on his feet and lastly; he put some in Julien's mouth and opened up skull.
Once it was done; he brought his sleeve back down and, strangely, the green fluid ceased from flowing from its arm like appendage.
"Now let's see what he turns into, though I have a good idea on what," it chuckled darkly as he watched Julien's body repair itself. "This is becoming a most fun game indeed. Now I just got to beat those meddling penguins… Hmm, this is going to be easier than I had thought."
