Disclaimer: SpontaneousCombustion does not own Psychonauts or any of its characters, just the ones she made up.

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Chapter 25

Playing Games

Alphonse grunted as he tugged on the handle of the door to his father's mind. Finally, with a frustrated sigh, he gave up, leaving the door alone. "Anything?" He asked turning to his sister, then cocking an eyebrow. Sarah was not only pulling on the door, but she had her feet pressed up against the wood in a very cartoon-like fashion. "Sarah?"

The girl let out a shriek and lost her grip, falling onto the steps leading to Milla's door. She glared at it and kicked it in frustration. "Stupid door!"

"Mom's too?" He asked in disbelief. Sarah nodded. He paused, tapping his chin. "I have an idea." He pulled her up and put both their hands on the doorknob. "On three. One..."

"Two..." Sarah said, her arm tensing.

"Three!" Both of the Nein twins pulled as hard as they could, and their mother's door flew open. They ran inside and were faced with a very unpleasant scene.

Milla Vodello's party was on fire. Literally.

Sarah gasped and said a few words in Spanish that her mother would have rinsed her mouth out with soap for. "Mama!" She cried, running into the mess.

"Sarah, don't!" Al cried, rushing after, intending to stop her. He cringed away from the horrifying sights surrounding him. The bouncer that normally guarded the inner recesses of Milla's mind had been turned into ash, and all that was left was a smoldering pile of metal. He bounced across it, wincing at how close his thought bubble came to the flickering embers, and looked for Sarah in the next room.

By some force of luck, the trampolines were still in one piece, and Sarah had bounced up them to the second floor. "Sarah!" She turned to see Alphonse land behind her (having used the much faster kickback to get up to her level).

"Don't lecture me right now, Al." Sarah growled. "We have to find mama!"

He held up his hands in defense. "I'm not here to lecture you, sis. And you're right, we have to find mom. But we can't just rush in here like…" He paused, peering at something behind Sarah. She frowned, then turned to see what he was staring at, and her eyes widened.

The bright blue door that housed Milla's nightmare room was wide open. "Do you think she's…?"

"I don't think she'd be anywhere else. Let me check it out first, just in case." Alphonse murmured, summoning up his thought bubble again and bouncing over toward the platform. He landed on it easily.

"Is she in there?" Sarah called.

Al turned around and with a stunned look on his face. "You have got to see this."

Not a moment later, Sarah landed beside him. "So, what did I need to se- oh my god." She gasped, looking inside the small classroom/nursery.

Milla Vodello laid in the middle of the room, surrounded by the ghostly grey figments of over a dozen children. Three or four were sitting atop the toy box in the corner, while the rest stood over their 'matron' protectively. They all looked up as the two Nein children walked into the room, clearing a path for them to their mother. "Mama?" Sarah asked quietly as she reached Milla's side.

Milla moaned lightly and her eyelids fluttered open. "Ayiyiyiyi… ooh, my head." She blinked slightly, her eyes focusing on her two children standing above her. "Sarah? Alphonse? Darlings, what are you doing here?"

Al bit his lip. "Yeah, um, about that mom…"

Milla smacked her forehead lightly. "Alphonse, sweetie, you didn't…"

"Can we talk about this later?" He asked. "You need to see this." He and Sarah helped Milla to her feet and led her to the door. Milla gasped, then turned toward the toy box.

"Scoot!" She ordered, and the ghost kids drifted off of it. She peered inside, then groaned. "Oh no…"

"Mama?" Sarah asked, stepping toward her mother. Milla took a deep breath, then turned toward her children.

"Sarah, Alphonse, I need the two of you to go and wait for me in the Collective Unconscious, okay? It's going to get a little messy in here."

They both nodded and walked over to the Teleport Bug that had scuttled into the room for safety.

--

"She's taking too long." Sarah worried, biting her lip. "Maybe we should-"

"It's only been a few minutes." Alphonse said, stopping her from going toward the door. "She's fighting back her nightmares. It's gonna take-" Both of them looked up as the pink door opened and Milla stepped out, looking fairly exhausted but no worse for the wear otherwise.

"Mom? Are you okay?" Sarah asked.

Milla managed to smile warmly at her children. "Yes, thanks to you two. How long was I in there?"

Alphonse did some quick calculations in his head. "A little over a day, I think."

Milla paused, looking at the two of them suspiciously. "How did the two of you get here?" Sarah and Al looked over at each other. Milla crossed her arms. "Well?"

"Kisa…"

"Kisa's here too?"

"Uh-huh." Sarah said.

Milla sighed. "Go on."

"Kisa… kinda… took Grand Head Zanotto's jet and we flew here." Al supplied meekly. Milla blinked.

"What?" Milla held her hands up, shaking her head. "We'll talk about this later. Fill me in on what's going on now." Alphonse quickly summed up what had happened (leaving out the part about sneaking away from Whispering Rock) in the last few hours.

Milla closed her eyes. "Ayiyi… this is worse than I thought. Alright, you two. Until we can find a way to free your father, Lili, and Razputin, I want you two to get out of here and find Kisa."

"What?"

"But mom!"

Milla held up a hand. "No buts." She knelt down. "This is important, alright? Kisa may be in some real danger here. The two of you need to find her and get her out of here."

Alphonse and Sarah nodded meekly. "Yes ma'am."

Milla had no idea how right she was.

--

Jacob chuckled as he looked down on his unconscious captive. Kisa was dangling above the grounds, her hands tied with Psitanium laced chains over her head, which were attached to the ceiling. Beneath her feet, and a clear, glass floor, was a deep pool of water which lapped against its glass covering. Even unconscious, the Aquato squirmed slightly. "I'd hoped that you and your friends would put up a little more of a fight, Kisa." Jacob sighed. "Oh well. The mere fact that they beat my gas is amazing in itself, I suppose. The real fun will begin once the Psychonauts arrive." He leant close to her face. "You see, I've made enough of that fear gas to infect every psychic in the world. And once I do that, well, I think you know what I'm going to do, don't you?" He smirked. "I'm going to destroy everything that ever stood in my way, starting with the Psychonauts. I may even give you the antidote long enough to watch me kill your parents and grandfather. How does that sound?"

Jacob looked up as an alarm sounded from a nearby console. He walked up the stairs to the steel platform and hit a button. An image of Sarah and Alphonse weaving through the maze-like corridors of the underground appeared on the screen. "Farther than I thought." He mused. "Now, will you listen to your mother and come to save Kisa, or will you be unable to resist helping out your father and teachers first?" He chuckled, tapping a few buttons. The other screens were filled with the images of Lili, Raz, and Sasha. "Hm… well, family first, I suppose." He chuckled, hitting another button.

--

"This place is like a maze!" Sarah groaned.

Al nodded in agreement. "If we'd just gotten to stay in the Collective Unconscious, maybe we could've gotten to Kisa's mind that way."

Sarah cocked an eyebrow, stopping. "We've never been to Kisa's mind."

Al bit his lip, slowing to a halt. "Well… you haven't."

"Alphonse Nein! I am shocked! And appalled, and… and out of cool sounding synonyms, but you get my point."

Al growled slightly, annoyed. "Can we please talk about this later? We're supposed to be…" He stopped abruptly as the wall he was standing in front of slid away. He closed his eyes. "Sarah… what's behind me?"

"Dad." He turned around, staring. An arm shot out to prevent his sister from moving as she tried to walk past him. "Al!"

"It's a trap." He said. "Look, mom will take care of dad. She told us to find Kisa."

"Fine. You go find Kisa, I'll go and help mom." She shoved past him, pulling out her Psycho Portal and tossing it onto Sasha's forehead.

"Sarah!" He yelled, reaching a hand out. But it was too late- she had already slumped over on the floor. He hesitated- leaving Sarah's body there was no doubt more dangerous than letting her go in.

Sister, girlfriend, sister, girlfriend…

"Why are you still standing there?!" Al jumped as Sarah's voice rang through his skull. "I'll be fine; I've got things covered with dad… sort of. Go find Kisa already!"

He shook his head, growling. "Alright, alright! I'm going!" He yelled back, running off.

--

Jacob frowned. "Hm. Well, that didn't go as planned. I could do with some entertainment though." He smirked. "Alright, Alphonse Nein. Let's see just how much you can do." He closed his eyes, concentrating.

--

'Oh man, I am so lost!' Al groaned to himself, turning down another hallway. 'How am I supposed to find anything in this place?' He nearly tripped over himself as a wall shot up in front of him. "Oookay… not that way." He said, backing up. A 'whoosh' of wind behind him blew his hair and shirt up, and he turned to see another wall that hadn't been there five seconds ago. He glared up at the ceiling. He felt like screaming something along the lines of, 'Fine, I get it, go THIS way!' but instead turned down the only open pathway left (ironically enough, to his left).

Finally, this hall ended as well, with a rather large door. Alphonse pushed on it, straining with effort, until it finally creaked open. A flash of light blinded Al for a moment, but when his eyes cleared, he gasped. "Kisa!"

--

I looked around dad's mind and sighed. "I'm a horrible liar… I don't even know where to start." I sat down on the floating piece of cube that I'd poofed in on. I say 'piece of cube' because… well… Sasha Nein's cube seemed to have all but exploded, sending the pieces scattered about his mind. Which couldn't be a good thing, as the cube is my father's MIND(!), and was supposed to be in one piece, last I checked.

After a moment of sulking, I stood up again and cupped my hands around my mouth. "Dad!" I called into the void, right before I smacked my forehead. "Oh yes, brilliant, Sarah. He's really going to answer you right now." I muttered, hopping to a nearby floating cube-piece. "At least there aren't any censors now."

Several hops later, I spotted something that would hopefully be useful. A much smaller version of what used to be the cube… maybe just big enough for someone (like, oh, say, my dad) to be on? I glanced around. There didn't seem to be any clear path over there… or any path over there at all. "Please, please, PLEASE let this work." I begged, propelling off the cube fragment I was standing on and into the air. When I didn't fall, I let out a sigh of relief and moved toward the larger piece of my dad's mind.

What I saw was not pleasant.

Three nightmares were hunched over Sasha, claws dug into his body. "Hey!" I yelled, sprinting toward my father. "Get away from him!" The nightmares looked up, and I froze. Probably not the smartest idea I've ever had, but I was just so surprised. The nightmares had the faces of me, Al, and my mom. Only… only they were covered in what looked like the chicken pox. My dad was afraid of…

Wait a second. Pox? My eyes widened. Smallpox! My grandma had died of it when dad was just a baby! He was afraid of us getting sick and dying like grandma!

Well, THAT certainly made more sense.

But back to the nightmares feeding off my dad's sanity. I blasted them away and ran over to him. "Dad? Dad, can you hear me?"

I felt myself actually, physically relax when he groaned, and his head rose. "Sarah?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's me." I helped him sit up.

He grimaced. "Ach, my head."

"Are you okay?" I asked. My father glanced over at the three nightmares, who seemed to be recovering.

"I will be in a moment." He said, levitating to his feet. Pulling me to his side with one hand, he put the other against his forehead. I shrieked and grabbed onto his sweater as the nightmares lunged toward us, only to bounce off a rather painful looking shield. "Sarah, close your eyes."

I nodded and buried my face in his shirt. There was a rather loud rumbling sound, and the nightmares shrieked in pain before everything went silent. I felt my dad smoothing my hair down. "It's alright now, Sarah. You can look."

I pulled my face out of his shirt and looked around. The cube was back to normal- no nightmares in sight. I let out a sigh of relief, until I heard my father clear his throat. Slowly, I looked up at him. He did not look happy. "I have some explaining to do, don't I?"

--

SC: Okay, apologies all around. I've been in a weird mood lately, and it didn't involve Psychonauts. But, I think I'm back on track with my fanfictions now, so I should be able to update fairly soon. That, and I'm in Michigan for the summer, and basically have an unlimited amount of time to type. Anyway, I'm really sorry, and would really appreciate reviews.

Ja ne
SC