"No…"

"How!? What?! Why!?" Puss shouted, pointing at the image before them. Jump onto a chair near the bowl and glaring daggers to it. "Why him?!" He crossed his arms, trying to calm down, but it was hard to considering how his fur was bristling up in anger.

The Duchess narrowed her eyes and then gazed back to the parents. "I know this seems bad-"

"Seems!?" Puss cut her off. "This does not seem bad! It is bad, Duchess! We all know how bad he is, he will make Miguel believe his lies!"

"He probably does," Duchess sighed heavily. "I don't know how long it's been going on, but... knowing this monster-" She pointed to the image, "-has already lifted lies into his mind, and if he encountered him at a young age, then who knows how much lies he's been feeding your son."

A growl came from Puss. "If that is the case, then I will find him myself and make him back away."

"On your own?" Dulcinea asked, placing her hands on her hips as Puss looked at her, he was about to nod when she pointed a finger at him. "Not happening. I'm also going to make him stay away from Miguel."

"But of course," Puss nodded. "We will do this together."

"But... how do we get where he is? Miguel seems like the only one to know where he is and how to reach him," Dulcinea said.

The Duchess smiled, and got out a book, and flipped to the page that was marked with a bookmark. "It so happens, I know a spell! It'll make you two be able to find him and Miguel. However, I would advise you to at least wait a few minutes to see if he's actually brainwashing him."

"Why do we need to wait?" Puss hissed. "We already know he is!"

"... Just to make sure." replied the Duchess, she was already making the potion, and she sounded sure of this, with mixture of unsure. "We could be wrong, and maybe he's changed."

Puss shook his head. "No. Evil does not change, and he is no exception when it comes to this! He will pay."

"Easy," Dulcinea placed her hand onto his, and Puss looked at her, "I know you're worried, and I am too. But for all we know, he's helping Miguel. We don't know for sure, but this is...something we need to do."

"Once evil, always evil." Puss hissed. "You should know that well, too."

"You don't think I'm worried?" She asked, and Duchess stayed quiet during this. She had nothing to say in this argument. "I know we know what he can do, he's tricked us all."

Puss placed his forehead to her's. "Then, trust me on this one, please. You do not know what he can do. We do not know what he is like when he has someone under his control without them being warned for a certain amount of time! We were lucky to have been saved when he roomed, but Miguel does not know him."

"Not like us." Dulcinea finished.

"Exactly." Puss nodded before gazing at the Duchess. "Finish the potion and find us, we will enter the dream when it is finished. So we can end this quickly and try to help him."

"Of course," Duchess nodded. "Go and spend time with him, he will need it. I do believe he's out by the fountain with Antonio and Santiago, playing."

True to that word, they did find Miguel with his brother and friend. Puss took a long look at him and didn't understand how he was brainwashed by Evil Puss because he looked like he always did. However, it would explain the whole muscular thing on his son. The knowledge of using a sword and how to fit with his fists.

He shook his head as he walked over to his sons and rubbed the top of their heads, ignoring their shouts of protest. Dulcinea could see he was trying to convince himself Miguel wasn't training with his evil self, like he was still pure. But they knew it now, they had seen what the smoke told them.

All they were doing now was trying to tell themselves, they could help Miguel. They could make him see how horrible Evil Puss was, and how he shouldn't be listening to him anymore. They were being parents in this situation! Like they should be!

Even so, she was still trying to tell herself nothing had happened and it was just harmless helping. But she knew Puss was right. They couldn't trust him with Miguel, and he was doing bad things. Telling her son lies, and she felt anger towards him, and growled herself.

No, this would have to stop.

"Mama!" Miguel complained. "Get papa to stop messing up our hair!" She saw their paws on their heads while Puss laughed. "Please?"

"Now, he's just having fun," Dulcinea laughed before moving towards them, sitting down next to Antonio. "He's being a good father."

Antonio gave a low laugh. "A 'good father'? He's already one, mama!"

"I know I am," Puss puffed out his chest. "Where is your sister?"

Miguel rolled his eyes, "She's with Pajuna. Helping out at the bar because she doesn't want to sit around all day like we apparently do."

"Oh?" Puss chuckled. "Well, perhaps you two can learn a thing or two from your hermana."

"Papa!" Both boys whined and Puss couldn't help himself from cracking up as Dulcinea shook her head at the sight. "That's not nice."

"...Why are Miguel and I the only boys?" Antonio asked, and the two parents froze up at his question. "I mean, shouldn't we have another sister?"

"Er…" Puss looked at his mate before at his oldest kit. "No."

"Why?"

"Because...we had two boys and a girl. We do not need another girl, si?" Puss asked, awkwardly despite seeing a nearly pissed off face on Dulcinea. "Anyways, we should be getting back to work."

Before the kits could say anything else, Duchess chimed in with a bottle big enough for two serving of liquid showed up and Puss was on his feet right away along with Dulcinea.

"It's done," The Duchess said. "You just need to drink it."

"Thank you." Puss said. "Let us go." He took the bottle before grabbing his mate's hand and pulling her away. Once far enough away from the fountain, he looked at her and gave a smile. "Tonight, we shall find out."

"...Together." Dulcinea nodded.


When both Puss and Dulcinea woke up from having to have drank the potion Duchess gave them, they found themselves in a forest. It had a mucky smell with the ground all muddy and broken. The trees were dead, and the water was not cleaned, but they walked around until they heard fighting. Two swords clashed together and Puss's blood boiled when he saw who was doing it.

Miguel and Evil.

He tried to move to get his son but Dulcinea held him back, muttering to wait until they saw more. Much like Duchess had said, they needed to know if he was in fact, feeding Miguel lies about the world. About them, and about who know what else. But Puss didn't want to stay still, this was his son!

The warrior could see anger flashing up in his mate's eyes and gazed back towards his evil twin before noticing how tired Miguel looked. Maybe Evil was pushing him over his limits? That was not something a mentor should be doing to his apprentice, and Puss knew this clearly. He wanted to march over and demand Evil to leave his son be, but he knew better.

They had to wait.

"So...exactly how am I going to get you out of here?" Miguel asked, and Dulcinea held her breath. "Without anyone noticing how you're back again?" Did he already know of his crimes?

"You see… there's a certain spell that can allow me to come back into the world of living my dear nephew," Evil Puss explained, walking around him. "However, only…Duchess and Artephius knows this."

"Really?" Miguel sounded surprised. "I guess that makes sense, they are… magic wielders."

"Haha, si, well…" Evil trailed off, waving his paw around. "It would be a great help to be able to see the sun again, Miguel. I haven't seen it in so long, I just want to say hello to my other nephew and niece."

"I think they'll be happy to meet you."

"Of course they would be," Evil happily purred but Puss almost gagged at the sound of his voice being so happy. He was angry that they could sound so much alike, he wondered if Evil could change his voice. "Now, please, just go off asking to Artephius if he can help you with the spell."

"What's it called?" Miguel asked.

Evil leaned in before whispering the spell's name before leaning back, looking both ways before nodding. They were alone. "You got it? I want out of here, and when it's done, just… dream."

"Always, uncle," Miguel nodded before vanishing.

Puss growled and jumped onto a rock behind Evil, Dulcinea following more quietly before they noticed Evil didn't take notice of their appearance, so Puss softly took out his sword.

"That is cruel to lie to a child!" He hissed out, and Evil Puss didn't jump, but only simply turned around. "My-our-child no less!"

"Ah… brother," Evil puss clapped his hands. "I did not think you would show your face to me again. Not after my stunt I pulled on San Lorenzo. May I say how beautiful and handsome your youngest is?"

"You do not have the right to say such things!" Puss hissed. "Despite how kind that was, I know it was out of mockery."

The other Puss scoffed, "You always knew."

"Of course I did! You are me!" Puss growled out before jumping down and moving towards his evil twin. "I will not say it again so listen up. Stay away from Miguel."

He was ignored as Evil looked over to Dulcinea. "You must understand I have a right to see my nephew, si?" He asked, with a smug look no less and the white feline growled. "Oh? A growler are you?"

"Stay away." Dulcinea growled out, moving to join Puss in where he was standing and Evil Puss held up his orange paws. "I mean it. We mean it."

"I'm shivering with fear," The Blind King hissed out in mockery. "What are you going to do? Remove my whiskers? Step on my feet?" He laughed. "You can not do anything bad."

"We can, and we will!" Puss hissed.

Waking up a moment, the two looked at each other and knew exactly what they had to do before Miguel ended up getting Artephius to make whatever spell Evil Puss needed to be able to show himself.

Puss had opened Miguel's door slightly to see him still resting him bed with a soft purr coming out him and sighed, shutting the door to meet with his mate's blue eyes. He nodded that he was still there and shook his head.

"What are we going to do?" He asked. "Miguel will surely help him now."

"I guess, we'll need to do whatever we can to make him too busy to speak with Artephius." Dulcinea suggested. "It's the only way I can think of or… we might have to confess we know what happened."

"That will not be wise."

"Oh really? Then what do you suggest we do?"

"I do not know." Puss sighed. "Either way, we cannot allow him to return by using our son."

They both knew it would be hard. Miguel always found time to do whatever he wanted, and if they had to have one day without breaks during his day time training, then so be it. They'd do anything to keep this from happening.

But… they also knew Evil Puss would keep on telling him until he woke up early in the morning and moved to find Artephius.

This was going to be...hard.