REVERSAL
-

"What? Boys can't cry? Right now I'm ALLOWED to! I had everything I wanted right in front of me. And then I gave it away! I gave it away to help all of YOU! No one ever said "Thank You". No one ever said "We're sorry"...no one..." Clark Kent, aka, Superboy Prime of Earth Prime

13
ALTERED FREQUENCY

Heartwing raised a silver-tipped hand to his chest, blinking slowly as his pupils dilated in and out. Slowly he rose up, his mouth opening in a horrified expression as he realized what had occurred.

The White Queen was dead because of the Jabberwocky. And...in a sense...because of him.

And he RAN into the palace, screaming her name as the others looked on in surprise, hearing him crying out as a burst of white light shot out from the inside of the palace. "Half my heart to keep you whole, my strength to purify your weakness!"

"Oh no." Ember hesitated, glancing over in Frequency's direction only to find him gone. She raced inside, hearing Heartwing screaming out again. Another flare of light illuminated the dark palace...

"Half my heart to keep you whole, my strength to purify your weakness!"

The others followed in, one after another, watching sadly as Heartwing tried in vain to pump a bursting, pulsing heart-shaped glow into Merrily's chest...but she refused to rise, the glow dissipating in his hands. Tears streaking down his face, he tried again, ripping into his chest, tugging out a new luminescence.

"HALF MY HEART TO KEEP YOU WHOLE, MY STRENGTH TO PURIFY YOUR WEAKNESS!"

"Heartwing." Manifest spoke quietly, putting a hand on Heartwing's shoulder as the draconic experiment turned to gaze up at the white-haired human. "...her spirit's gone. She crossed over. You can't bring back someone at peace."

Experiment 421, pillar of Light, World of the Major Arcana, sniffled slightly as his eyes watered.

"You can't save everyone." Manifest insisted.

"...then WHAT...is the POINT of me?!" Heartwing rasped out, clasping Merrily's body to his chest as he shook his head back and forth, the sobs making his body shiver.

Elsewhere, the White King panted heavily, dragging himself down the hallway and staggering out the front door, one hand flying out to halt his fall. This proved to be in vain, he hit the ground like a rotten fruit and let out a slight moan as he struggled to stand.

"Merrily was kind." Kualili's voice rang out.

Legato looked up from the ground at the sight of the White Knight, who had put his armor away and was calmly putting his hands in a pair of tie-dyed pants. He looked almost...naked. And his eyes...he wasn't there, not really. He was lost in the past, a faint, mournful nostalgic expression flickering across his face.

"Vladmir, he...he fed me scraps he snuck in his jacket up from dinner. Got a taste for fine food from him." The white-furred Experimental American chuckled, one hand held over his mouth. "Six months living in secret in his room...Merrily couldn't take his place in my heart, but she made her own when Vladmir brought me to her. She was so kind. Took me in...trained me...made me her knight. So...so kind. I would have done anything for her. And she's gone because you brought Manifest in."

He glared balefully at the White King now, his claws twitching. "You were only staying good because you wanted to cure your people and catch Manifest. The moment both goals were accomplished, you changed. And you were going to kill her, even if that thing from earlier hadn't. I don't blame the child. He can't control what his worse side did. I blame you."

He then coldly grinned, carefully approaching as he spread his arms wide. "Tell me...do you know how my clan works?"

The White King gulped slightly. "I know you...tend to-to work for...work for others as servants."

"Oh yes. It's how we get along." Kualili said, as the White King watched pieces of the Experimental American's face begin to chip off like old drywall. "We find homes...families. Sometimes we stay servants forever. Other times we're allowed into their families...or to make them our mates. And occasionally..."

The scales fell away, the veil now parted as the White King beheld a horror that reached out to ensnare him, a slit set of pupils widening as a maw opened impossibly wide.

"OcaSsIoNaLly wE'rE aLlOwEd To EaT tHeM."

He died without a sound.

...

...Zerinim Two looked down at his hands, his black gloves removed as he chewed his lip, glancing over in Joren's direction. His golden/amber eyes were now giving off the faintest glow, a glow that was slightly emanating from the blood sample he'd given from his hand in the enormous laboratory of the powerful Muridean supervillain-turned-on/off ally of the Major Arcana. "...I'm dying...aren't I?" He murmured out. "...Miyu...Azazel...Frequency...are they dying too?"

"The world your spirit took form from has been gone for some time, and now there's little left to tether you to reality with it gone and...and with your mother dying." Joren informed him as an Irken female stood nearby, arms folded as she chewed her lip.

"She got me KILLED." She muttered balefully, purple eyes turned to slits, none of them noticing the form hiding away in the catwalk above. "I ought to let her rot, but...this is the only way I can turn back to being a physical being and not just a spirit."

"Soon our Black Balloon won't even be that..." Joren mused as he examined the blood sample he'd taken from the still-lying form of the female Experimental American being in the sick ward they were standing in. "She's almost totally gone. Her vital signs are almost totally unregistered. Frequency shall be the least affected...his parents are not dead or dying like Azazel's is, and he hasn't lost the tether to reality the way you and Miyu have. Still, I doubt he's unaware of what's occurring-"

"Neither was I!" A voice rang out.

KRAKKA-THROOOOM! Joren was SLAMMED into the ground as Tak and Two leapt away, a dark-haired, crimson-furred Experimental American digging pointed nails into Joren's light brown chest as her pointed, devilish tail lashed back and forth, the vaguely demonic-looking experiment 593, Heatwave, glaring balefully down at him.

"Why did Heartwing come to you!? I KNOW that's the real reason he went to see Izzy's invention, the REAL reason he got sucked into that other world! I'm not stupid, I noticed he kept sneaking to your lab! Why did he come to you!?" She growled out, black eyes blazing with golden pupils brightly lit.

"I'm...WILLING to answer b-but it would b-be more e-expedient if-if you got off my CHEST!" He gasped out, hacking as Heatwave growled, stepping off of him and dusting her white, tight-fitting sleeveless t-shirt off. "He...he asked me for a way to bring back human beings who had died." He gasped out, clutching his chest. "Those that have lost their spirits as well as their bodies. But there was no DNA in my possession and his memories alone would have only brought back a COPY, not the true him."

"Who was he trying to bring back?" Heatwave snapped, pointing squarely at Joren.

"I don't know!" The Muridean insisted, waving a three-digited paw in the air, his wings clinging closely to his body. "I've never heard of this "Nick" in my entire life!"

...

...the placed-among-the-heather castle of Erick von Hayden-Muir was unmistakably Scottish. Flags flying proudly above the ramparts, every stone in the walls carefully polished, a proud state of the monarch and his family in dramatic, heroic poses by the front gate...a moat.

Good Lord, he had a moat. With a drawbridge that lowered over it to let them all inside of an enormous tree-filled courtyard. Apples, pears and cherry trees were lining all through the courtyard with, most noticeably of all, a wading pool in the center, calm and still. Erick nodded firmly at them all as they stepped out of the ATV, blond hair fluttering in the wind as his daughter stood nearby, hands clasped behind her back as Esther calmly smiled at the others.

"Good to see you. Milady." He intoned, nodding firmly at the Red Queen. "Shall I order some drinks for you all?"

"Yes. Give me a fifty year-old scotch."

Esther giggled slightly as they glanced in her direction, King rubbing his chin. "What, pray tell, is so funny?"

"Oh, I...I just thought of this joke." She giggled. "This guy in a bar asks for a fifty year old scotch, and the bartender gives him a forty-year-old scotch. So then he asks for a twelve-year-old bourbon, and he gets a ten-year-old bourbon. Then an old man sitting nearby asks him to drink something."

"And?" Junior asked, Ashton sniggering amdly, realizing what the joke was.

"He drinks it and spits it out. "What is this?" He cries. "This is human urine!" "Right!" the old man says. "Now tell me how old I am."

Junior bawled with laughter as King rolled his eyes, letting out a long, deep, "ugggggh" as the Red Queen let out a momentary snorting chuckle, Jess's tongue titillating slightly. Erick, however, just moaned, evidently he didn't care for bathroom humor, no matter how fancy it was dressed up.

"Excuse my daughter." Erick insisted as they headed inside of the castle, through an entrance hall and down a hallway towards the enormous dining region of his home. "I keep telling her to stop listening to NPR. It's rotting her brain."

"I believe the phrase here is "nice digs"." King mused as they glanced around the dining hall. It had been built, from the looks of things, to simulate the experience of being in a Viking beer hall, with enormous alcohol-holding wooden circular crates, long wooden tables and stools, and the family crest proudly displayed on many a banner that hung on the stony walls. "Quite lovely. Shades of Valhalla, dare I say?"

"BEEN to Valhalla?" Erick mused, one eyebrow held high, dark brown/red eyes widened in interest. "I have, in my dreams. It's where I got the inspiration for the fine structure you see before you, or, as you put it, "the nice digs"."

He clapped his hands. "The Red Queen and I have business to discuss. Please, please! Sit! Relax! As the Italians say, mangia, mangia!" He laughed out, spreading his arms wide as he and Melanie exited the room, chefs walking in, silver-trayed food items being brought in as Jess nervously stood in place, the others finding an area to sit.

"You aren't going to sit down?" Esther inquired, looking over at the page as he humbly chewed his lip.

"My mistress has not given me permission." He informed her.

"The minute you stepped into my castle, you became my guest, and my father's guest. And this goes for all of you." Esther said firmly, snapping her fingers as Jess whisked himself over to her side. "So PLANT IT. And start eating! NOM-NOM-NOM. As in, NOW."

"What, pray tell, is your father showing down there?" King inquired as he chewed away on a piece of bread and cheese, sipping some carrot juice from a glass.

"Ah, one of his favorite magics."

"...ugh." Jess sighed, shaking his head back and forth.

"I sense a nonbeliever in our midst." Junior chuckled. "You don't believe in it after seeing people like "B" or Manifest at work?"

"Magic defies physics. What you suggest is...this is unbelievable!" Jess insisted, holding his arms out at them. "I can believe that alien beings have psychokinetic powers or that a unique energy that imparts the body upon death could be considered a "soul", but pure "magic" is ridiculous to me and to many in the house of Yurp. What you're asking me to believe is..." He shook his head back and forth, groaning.

"Why does magic bother you so much?" Esther wanted to know, a confused expression on her soft face.

"Because believing in that sort of thing isn't smart, or healthy good for society. The real world isn't based on magic and superstition. It's rational." The page told the others as he smacked his fist into his palm with a soft "thump".

"Maybe you just believe that because all your mind is good for is thinking, and if the world around you isn't logical, you're lost." Esther suggested.

Jess blinked slowly, scratching his head. "...well...I...er..."

"If the world was totally rational...I wouldn't have become a psychiatrist." King said gently. "There's nothing wrong with admitting that you're not equipped to understand something."

"It's not his fault. This world's much different from our own." Junior spoke up, patting Jess on the shoulder. "Would you like us to tell you some stories about where we're from? A world of free magic?"

"...well...can you TRY and explain how it works?" Jess wanted to know.

"Sure. Take elemental magic. It's like tapping into a neighbor's internet from your car and using it to go and Google hot Asian teens."

"Really? It's like that?"

"No it's not, but if that explanation makes you feel any closer to the truth, go ahead and believe it."

Meanwhile, Erick calmly hummed to himself as he and Melanie strode down a set of stairs, descending into the basement as he held a torch high to light the way. "So then I informed the Reichstag that "Yes, if the queen feels the need to torture little children, she's within her rights provided she brings it before her congress". Unlike "him", I'd always ask."

"Good for you. Not too many governments would put stock in any kind of parliamentary checks and balances, not with the way the world is now."

"Yes, I suppose. Coraline would do away with it if she ever obtained my throne...OH how she wants my throne...but I must say, you seem awfully...CONFIDENT today." She informed him. "You've always been confident, but today, it's practically rolling off you like sweat! Why IS that?"

"Do you know how long I practiced to gain the skills at the blade I have today?" He inquired of Melanie as they slowly got closer and closer to the basement, a circular room opening up before them. The light from his torch barely gave any sign of what was inside, so he held it up to an area on the wall. In an instant, a series of torches began to light up from that newly-lit flame, spreading around the room. "YEARS. A CENTURY."

Now before her eyes she saw it...a series of mirrors, all situated in a circle with a strange kind of pentagram in the middle. Plain, ordinary-looking mirrors...in a not-so-ordinary basement.

"Light can reflect off a mirror. Sound can be reflected off of surfaces. Imagine...if you could reflect time." He whispered. "Reflect it, bounce if off over and over, stretch it out, make it virtually nonexistent. A frozen point in time...that's what got me the skills I have. Years of practice here in this basement which seemed like only some hours to my family." He gestured at the mirrors, beaming happily. "And...I'm the only one in possession of the secret, and am willing to impart the secret, give the necessary spells to you...in exchange for certain...favors. The ones regarding Africa, and...what you tried to cover up."

The Red Queen hesitated. This was so, SO tempting. Years of time to spend, never getting older, free to do whatever she wished? She could be relaxing for days in a private Heaven when it would seem only minutes to others. Or spend time training the way Erick had...finally catch up on all that abysmal paperwork...

But then again...what he was asking for was incredibly degrading to her country's honor. To her own integrity. It would mean freely admitting her most egregious faults, and essentially...she'd be begging. Begging in BABY-TALK.

...but it was such an opportunity. What if she could duplicate it? What if...

What if she could spread the magic, have it encompass her whole country? Weeks could pass on the outside whilst decades went by within, and by a single year's time, Yurp would emerge from it's shell eons ahead of any other nation. If she could know this secret...if she could manipulate the spell behind it, get it to work just right, this would be infinitely-

An idea popped into her head and she turned to him. "Hold on a moment. You say it worked on you. How do I know it doesn't work for ONLY you? What if it's harmful to children, or pregnant women or whatnot?" The last thing she wanted was for her people to start exploding or something due to some unknown radiation the magic gave off or whatnot. Was not the saying "be careful what you wish for"?

"You needn't worry. I thoroughly tested it." Erick insisted, waving a dismissive hand in the air.

Unbeknownst to them both, a blue-furred form was watching them from within the walls formed by Erick's thought patterns, paw digits digging into his palm as he drew blood from the sheer force, yellow eyes ablaze.

"Oh yes. You tested it alright. YOU TESTED IT..." He hissed.

...

... back at the White Queen's palace, Heartwing was digging his fingers into the ground, concentrating as a crystalline coffin of light energy encased Merrily, and he lifted it up, carrying it gingerly to the flower field where she would be buried as the inhabitants of Carolina watched in sorrow. The White Knight stood nearby, keeping his mouth firmly closed as he licked the last pieces of flesh off from inside his maw, arms folded neatly as he bowed his head.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Coraline managed to mumble out. "It should have been me?" She offered.

"Yes. It SHOULD have." He growled at her as Oskar put his hand on the Red Princess's shoulder, pulling her back as Ember spoke clearly, reading from a Bible Manifest played a sad song on the piano.

"Ashes to ashes...dust to dust. But to everything there is a season.." She began to say before hesitating. "...oh. I...I am unsure what to say. I can't even begin to tell all of you how deeply we're all hurt. And I don't think any words need to be said. Not this time."

She shook her head back and forth. "No, not this time."

Heartwing lowered the crystalline coffin into the ground as they began to pile dirt over it, and he hung his head, chewing his lip as Manifest continued to play the mournful melody, the sorrow of thousands conveyed in a few simple chords. Magic music was the epitome of power, the Sacred Skill for a simple reason: it represented ideals. Ideals made into reality. This was what most music stood for: ideals of love or loss or friendship or just living. And now, in this case...it was mourning, pure sorrow, and words would have only desecrated this sacrosanct moment.

From far away, sitting in a tree some distance from the funeral, Josef hung his head in shame, shame that he had run at the first sign of trouble. A cloaked being stood near him, it's masked face sending soft red rays from it's "eye and mouth slits" as Josef wiped his eyes on his jacket collar.

"I should have been there. She was so nice." He murmured. "...she was a good, good friend to me. She might have been my best friend."

"...does it ever go away?" He asked B.

"...I wish I could say it does." The usually-silent being spoke, it's childlike voice low and mournful as the glow faded and it hung it's head ever-so-slightly. "But I can tell you that in time, it does get BETTER."

"...who's going to protect my people and Carolina now that she's gone? What's stopping Yurp from expanding?" Josef mumbled. "...where is that idiot Legato? How could he let his wife-"

"Legato's dead as well." B said stonily, Josef gasping in surprise. "...we need to go to Erick. IMMEDIATELY."

B spread his arms wide as a shimmering portal opened up before them. It would take them to-

VWOOMP. It promptly closed up, making B blink in surprise. "What in?"

"That's not supposed to happen, is it?"

"...somebody's cut off all magical routes to Erick's home." B growled out. "How? Who could have such a control over his palace? Over his mind?"

"The Caterpillar?"

"The Caterpillar's still in Japan, he's going to send his condolences here." B reasoned. "...oh no." His eyes behind the mask went wide. "Frequency. He's not waiting anymore..."

Back at Erick's palace, the lights in the building went out as everyone let out a simultaneous shriek of surprise. There came an enormous sound of KRUCTHA-KLUNK as the doors in the dining hall all simultaneously locked, and Jess immediately clung to Esther in fear. "GAH! Who turned out the lights?"

"Hello, everyone." Frequency's voice rang out from a tiny TV screen that hovered in the air above them all, a calm smile on his face, looking like a cat that had just swallowed the canary. "I need you all out of the way at the moment. So if you could just stay here, in the Dining Hall?"

"Like heck we will." Junior insisted.

"Oh, "heck". You almost said a dirty word." Frequency chuckled. "That's cute. But I need you all out of the way so I can deal with Erick. Don't worry Esther...you'll live, despite what daddy dearest might end up believing in the end...I just want him to understandin' what it's like when someone puts you through a bad day that lasts FOREVER...a bad day that takes everything that made you YOU from you away."

"He has nothing to do with this!" Esther screamed back at Frequency, who's eyes became cold stones.

"Neither did I."

With that, the screen turned off, leaving them alone in the dark...with Erick waking up find he and the Red Queen suddenly trapped in an empty pool, the Red Queen sitting in a simple folding chair tied down with ordinary ropes, and Erick tied down in chains to a big comfy couch.

"Hello, Erick. Don't bother trying to break free. I've TOTALLY stripped your body free of any hidden weaponry...and the little hip flask you keep too. You're not gonna be drunk through this, I want you feelin' EVERYTHING." Frequency remarked cheerily, a television screen appearing to their right as he waved said hip flask in the air. "It's up to you to save him, Melanie. I'm going to flood the pool with water. I've put a rock to bust ol' Erick free by the side of the pool, a knife by your feet and a key to the door that'll lead you to "safety". Think you can get you and he out in time?"

Melanie blinked as tubes leading into the pool began to gush out water, Erick growling angrily at the TVscreen. "It's a'ight with me if ya just leave him there. But of course, you could always play nice and save his ass..." Frequency said calmly, the television sinking into the wall as Melanie reached down with her feet to raise the knife up to her lap as best she could.

"Eeehh...errrrr...this is...made it look SO much easier...in the damn MOVIES." The Red Queen growled out as she shimmied the knife up her legs, leaning down with her head and managing to snag the blade in her mouth. She carefully cut into the ropes around her chest as the water began to rise up to her knees, Erick struggling uselessly in his sofa. "HA! Out! Now then...what was that secret you were offering?" She asked Erick.

"Oh yes, I imagine you wanted me relinquishing control of North Africa's territories, correct? How about this instead...you tell me the secret, and I get you out of there." Melanie laughed as she climbed out of the pool and picked up the rock and the key, smirking down at him.

"Get us out of danger first, THEN I tell you the secret. There's no guarantee that there won't be another trap waiting for us outside." Erick reasoned, Melanie sighing as she hopped back into the pool, holding the rock high and bashing the chains off the sofa, setting him free.

The two quickly ran to the door, unlocking it, Erick gasping as the door swung open and he pushed Melanie out of the way.

THWOOMP! SCHLUCK!

"...uhhh...gee." The Red Queen remarked, blinking in surprise.

"Just a scratch, I'll be fine." Erick insisted as he dusted himself off.

"A SCRATCH? Your ARM'S OFF!"

"No it isn't."

"LOOK!" She yelled, pointing at the floor. "It's practically screaming "Put me in the freezer"!"

"...believe me, I've had worse. It's fine, REALLY, I underwent radical gene therapy. I can't die." Erick laughed as they made their way down the hallway, Frequency pressing a button on a control panel as a television appeared to their right.

"You know, I think the original "Omen" is a very nice horror film. TOTALLY excellent death scenes. Like this!" He remarked cheerily, holding up a remote and pressing it.

BEEP!

A mirror promptly shot out through a slanted tube above, and Melanie gasped in horror, reeling back as Frequency frowned angrily, tossing the remote away as the television vanished once again. "CRAP! Totally bogus!"

"Frequency, why don't you just tell us what's bothering you?" Junior called out as Frequency's face appeared back in the living room. He pouted and folded his arms, looking to the right.

"He caught the head, that's what." The bounty hunter muttered balefully. "But we'll see how well he does when he reaches the maze."

"Our castle doesn't GOT a maze, sir." Esther commented, scratching her head.

"Ya do NOW!" Frequency laughed, an image of Erick and the Red Queen appearing before their eyes as the two regal rulers made their way into a stony labyrinth. An acrid taste of rotting plants and ivy hung in the air, long-dead flowers desecrating the already foul maze as the two walked side by side.

"Stay close to me." Erick insisted, nodding firmly as they approached a door to their right with a sign on the front that read "Crazy Intent".

"...wait! Don't!" King yelled out, seeing the two reach for the door. "Crazy intent means-"

Melanie flinched as Erick picked himself back up, coughing madly, the large imprint of train wheels visible over his once-nice blue jacket. "Locomotive. I don't know what hurts more...the pain from my fractured back...or the puns..."

"At least he didn't strap us to a wall and make us cut our legs off to get a key." Melanie offered as they continued down the hallway, noticing a sign nearby that read "Loser's Ahead". Eyes widening, Melanie dropped down and dived across the ground with Erick, narrowly avoiding scything blades that shot out from the walls.

"Losers ahead. "Loses a head". HA-HA-HA."

"I changed my mind. The puns are worse." Erick mumbled as they reached a circular region of the maze, noticing several doorways with letters situated by them. One read "A", the other "B", another "C", and a final one "D". "What's this?"

"Pick a door. ANY door! Not every door's a winner, though! But you've almost made your way to the "Red-Hooded League", dude and dudette!" Frequency's voice rang out as Melanie approached the door marked "D", moving to open it up when Erick suddenly pulled her away.

THWUMPA-THWUMPA! Two large sharp circular blades shot out from the wall, embedding in the wall opposite, narrowly missing her as Erick moved her over to "B". "It's a musical clue. The key of "D" has "two sharps". But the key of "C", however..."

Frequency chuckled, steepling his paw digits. "What can I say? You got the music in you..."

"Frequency, STOP this!" Junior yelled out as the dining hall they were situated in began to shift and blend, Esther gasping as her guests were taken away from her. Junior, King, Jess and Ashton found themselves in the basement where Erick had been, surrounded by mirrors on all sides, the faint, twisted image of Frequency reflected all around.

"Me...I like monster movies, horror stories. Let me tell you about a real tragic one." The bounty hunter spoke in a voice that was now subdued, quiet...and very, very sad. "Summer blockbuster. All-star cast. All child actors, naturally. Bunch of kids in what looks like a coming-of-age family-friendly film. Not quite though...not quite. One of the kids falls through a rift in space and time, running...running like a coward because he was so, so scared."

King clenched his fist, poisonous energy seeping off as Junior felt waves of grief and pain oozing out of the walls from all around them like the walls were bursting to break down.

"Then the movie turns from sci-fi to horror. Kid lands in a very, very WRONG world. In some creep's basement. And he wants to experiment. Well...the kid is stuck there. For years...and years...and years...over 400 years alone...and afraid...and just wanting to go home."

"Revenge doesn't solve anything!" Junior begged.

"Experimental beings have more in tune with their bestial sides than most humans. Erick wasn't touched when he trained where you stand. But I? I was a different story. I aged...ever-so-slowly. I look young but...I'm not. I'm really not. And I've been waiting for a chance to get back at him for what he did to me. He took away 400 years of my life. I was fifteen years old."

"...I'm so sorry." Ashton whispered.

"FIFTEEN...YEARS...OLD." Frequency growled out at them. "I need you out of the way, don't want you "droppin' in", so you'll stay here until it's done. If you're lucky, this won't take long. Unfortunately...I'M the one with the Devil's own luck."

With that, he let out cold, harsh, laughter, his eyes a glitter as the glow from his spectral image faded, leaving haunting shapes in the mirror, reaching out at them...closer...closer...

...

...Erick and the Red Queen continued to make their way through the maze, approaching an archway with an enormous sign at the top. Through the archway was a splitting of paths, with signs above each path that showed different lines. One was a zigzag, another a straight line, the final one a curved line.

And the sign above the archway?

"What is the shortest travelling distance between the North and South pole?"

"Simple." The Red Queen reasoned. "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line."

"Ahhh! Ah-ah-ah!" Erick shook his head back and forth. "On a globe, it would be a CURVED line." He insisted as they opened up the doorway, Frequency appearing before them, squirting a gas in their face from a small bottle as the two began to cough and pant, the blue-furred Experimental American cheerily smiling down at them before they hit unconsciousness.

It wasn't long before he was dragging them into a special room, and they awoke to find themselves strapped to a table with a circular saw waiting for them at the end. Frequency was standing by a control panel, one pawed fist atop a red, bulbous lever as he flashed his many razor-sharp teeth.

"Welcome to the Red-Hooded League headquarters. We're about to find out which is your better side...left...or right?"

"How in the h-e-double hockey sticks did you set all of this up?! I don't HAVE a labyrinthine maze, for starters! And I'd never have a tool shed with a Bond-esque array of traps-" Erick growled out.

"Hush up!" Frequency snapped. "Friggin' wasteoid. It's all in the mind, Erick. YOUR mind. This entire palace was formed from your head, your imagination...your brainwaves. And me? I can ride waves of any kind. Bend them. Twist them around. It's just about precision, like ridin' the top of a killer whitewater without falling. And I've had years to practice."

He yanked down on the lever as they began to be brought closer and closer to the saw, whilst Junior and the others fought off the mirror things as they lashed out at them all. One of them grabbed ahold of Jess, making the page scream in terror as it began to pull him inside of an abyss of icy cold nothingness, but Junior yanked him out, panting heavily as he did so.

"Can't you do a spell that would take all these things out?" Ashton yelled at King.

"All of my magic is apparently USELESS against these things, but I wouldn't be offended by any suggestions!" The serpent anthro roared back as he launched a burning-white-blue fireball at one mirror, the blaze passing harmlessly through.

"I really wanted to try trepanation instead." Frequency told Erick, leaning on the lever as he waved a paw in the air. "Try something different other than knockin' off your limbs. I mean, Eli Roth does it all the time, but I admit, as GROSS as I find series like "Saw" to be, I DO admire some of the torture porn's ingenuity. I mean, that bear trap on the man's head? Or the key-behind-the-eye? Devilishly good. So I decided that after I've cut you in half, I'll wait and see if a new "you" grows. Like a worm. Think he'll be like a worm?"

"YOU'RE INSANE!" Melanie yelled at Frequency, who grinned at her.

"TOTALLY." He laughed. "Soon I'll have two Ericks and I can test the trepanation bit on one and the whole "Chinese torture rack" thing on the other. Trepanation's quite interesting. You drill a hole in someone's head. It stops male rage. No more hormones! You'll think like a girl! Good thing I'm good with power tools, or this would be EXTRA mess-wait."

He frowned, then yanked on the lever, going to Melanie and Erick and releasing them before tossing Melanie to the side and strapping Erick in the opposite direction...now his HEAD was facing the drill.

"What was I thinking?" Frequency laughed. "Doing it the other way would have hurt like hell!" He told Melanie, tying her to a nearby chair with some rope. "I may be out to waste you, but I ain't no inconsiderate jerk, y'know? Didn't want you FUBAR'D..."

"Alright!" Erick yelled out. "I'll say what you want to hear!"

"Oh?" Frequency whipped his head back at Erick as the whine of the circular saw buzzed through the shed, Junior's eyes widening as he realized what was happening.

"This is all in our head...it's an ILLUSION." He whispered to the others, reaching out and passing his hand harmlessly through one of the mirrors as Erick grit his teeth.

"Do you really think ya know what I want to hear? Go on. Tell me what I want, what I really, REALLY want." Frequency asked quietly, folding his arms.

"You're right. That's the awful thing. We both know you're right. Especially me." Erick cried out as his head got closer and closer to the saw. "But I WANT there to be something I can do! I want there to be a way to make amends! I don't want to lash out at you just to get free, to do something I shouldn't do instead of something I know I ought to have done years ago!"

Frequency was quiet as he closed his eyes, adjusting the red hood/cap atop his head.

"But is this all you are?"

"Hurting because I hurt you?"

"No."

The bounty hunter snapped his fingers, and with that, everyone found themselves in the dining room, untouched...unharmed. "That's not all I am. The whole thing was just in your heads, brought to life by me." He leaned back in a comfortable chair, sighing slightly as he closed his eyes. "Tell me...you ever read "Sherlock Holmes"? He was one of my favorite characters growing up."

"...The Red-Headed League. Of COURSE!" Junior gasped.

"A story where the whole point is not what it seems to be...one giant DISTRACTION." King growled.

"Then what were you really up to?" Erick wished to know.

"I think I know. You just gave yourself eighteen bamillion years bad luck, am I right?" Esther inquired as Frequency held up a bag full of broken glass from many shattered mirrors, tossing it to the floor.

"Yeeeeep. Smart girl, that one!" He told Erick. "You raised her well! The whole thing was just a play whilst I got the practical business done. You're not going to be trading that secret to the Red Queen, Erick. The magic was in the mirrors, and it dissipated when I broke them all."

"You mean after...after YEARS of him de-facto torturing you, centuries of pain, you set up this faux elaborate revenge scheme...JUST so you could get him to say he was sorry?!" The Red Queen asked, mouth gaping as Frequency took out a deck of cards and began to shuffle them.

"I don't expect you to understand. But where I come from, "sorry" buys a lot." The grandson of Stitch and Angel spoke simply, pulling out a Joker card from the deck and smiling. "Bridge, anyone?"

"...I thought I'd be coming back with valuable resources." The Red Queen mumbled as she slid to her knees. "That I'd be changing the face of Yurp's destiny. Now I have nothing to trade for and I just spent an hour running from deathtraps inside my own head, practically screaming like a little girl all the while...not my finest moment."

"Yeah...truth be told, the mirrors wouldn't have worked on a larger scale. Erick tried to do what you wanted to do, but he couldn't move the mirrors an inch out of the basement. Even I couldn't...until they were shattered." Frequency added. "Your plan NEVER would have worked...oh. Mel, Mel, you're turning red..."

"OHHHH!"

"Mel! Mel, you're turning BLUE!"

"Ohhhhh..."

"Poor thing. I mean...look at her, Jess." Erick remarked, a dark glint entering his eye as Jess and the other servants glanced at their mistress. "Don't you think she looks...TIRED?"

...

... "My, my, my." The Caterpillar remarked as he picked up the newspaper, waiting for Daveigh, Green and Princess to finish their little impromptu vacation in New Zealand, his wife making him a pot of green tea. "...vote of no confidence from Reichstag...Red Queen stepping down, passing crown to daughter...my-my. Poor dear, it's taken so much out of her."

"She looks so TIRED." Tak admitted sadly, nodding her head. She hoped Princess would bring back a nice souvenir...maybe a pet sheep doll?

"This'll be good for her. She could use a nice vacation. Should we suggest she come here for a nice weekend break at our famous hot springs?"

Tak grinned devilishly. "Well, there's always room for one more, honey..."