With the vampire mirror he hoped would exercise Tabby-Cat tucked into the waistband in the back of his pants, Marko arrived to find Tripp sleeping in his cage. It was possible he simply passed out from smoking too much, but Marko had his doubts. He carefully walked down the alley to the entrance he used to access his apartment.

...They're heeere...

Worry wart said something new! That was disconcerting. Helpful in that it could only mean that Tabby Cat was here, and the Bad Voice was with her; or maybe it was the Bad Voice was here so Tabby-Cat had to be here, Marko couldn't quite decide which the more accurate interpretation anymore was. He supposed it didn't much matter; either way it meant the same thing. It meant this might be his best and only chance to get the Bad Voice out of the Network and not have to skin the Cat to do it. He just hoped the mirror would take one of them and leave the other. In this case he hoped he could get the Bad Voice to come forward so that Tabby-Cat would be safe until the Bad Voice was gone. He liked Tabby-Cat and wanted her back; preferably with her skin intact. Besides, the prospect of sharing Jeanette with another Kitten was starting to sound like a lot of fun...

"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..." Marko called from the bottom of the stairs. "Hello, Tabby-cat, I'm home!" Pausing to wait for a reaction, he could hear someone scrambling, and then stopping. He could hear two voices from one mouth upstairs. It was her, or him, or them, whichever; and the noise was in his apartment. He quickly climbed the stairs and hesitated at the end of the hall where he could see that his door was left open. He knew he closed it and locked it before leaving.

"What's this, then?" he called out. "The door is open! That must mean I have someone passing my tress!" Tabetha must have heard him trotting down the hall, because the moment he burst through the open doorway, she caught him in her snare; pinning him to the ceiling. As he crashed into what was evidently his new floor, he heard the mirror crack upon impact. In a momentary lapse of insanity, he hoped that it wouldn't be so damaged to impair its ability. This was the only exercising method he knew of.

"WHERE IS IT?!" She demanded. Her voice was inky; all water logged and black. Her eyes, even from behind her tinted glasses, were void of any light. Her aura was almost completely black; only the slightest veins of blood red ran through. Whatever the Bad Voice was, it was in full control over her. Even worse; Marko had the idea that she wanted it there.

"But Gramma, what a big, Bad Voice you have." Marko retorted. The Bad Voice slammed him down to the floor, pinning him face down.

"Do not play games with me, whelp!" The Bad Voice said. "You know what I seek. Surrender it to me, and you might see another night."

"I SURRENDER!" He cried out with a shrill and desperate shriek. "I SURRENDER! What am I surrendering?"

Then Marko noticed something; Tabby-Cat's snare loosened a little. He discovered he could move just a little bit. He started to slowly reach around his back.

"THE MIRROR!" it shouted. "HAND IT OVER!"

"Oh!" Marko said, finally reaching the mirror hidden behind his back. "You must mean this!" In a flash, he pulled out the mirror, the cracked glass facing her.

"No!" she shouted in a near panic as she realized what was instantly starting to happen; an inky black mass was being drawn out of her and into the mirror.

Two things happened at once. First, the moment the transference was complete, the mirror popped out of his hand and floated into Tabby-Cat's. Next, Tabby-Cat pointed at him with her free hand and a stream of fire shot out of her finger. With a yelp of genuine fear (fire is always trouble for the undead), Marko dove for cover, the stream of flame shooting over him and into the bathroom door. The door caught.

Marko shouted in disdain and scrambled to the kitchen to get the fire extinguisher he kept under the sink. Meanwhile, Tabby-Cat used the distraction to take flight out the window, mirror in hand. Preoccupied with the fire in his apartment, Marko had no choice but to let her go, and hope that the Bad Voice was now trapped behind the cracked glass.