Author's Note

I do not own A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The taxi pulled to a stop at a large theatre building with dimly flashing lights outside. Violet and Indigo, still in their nightgowns, were pulled from the back and shoved into the building through a side door.

"Here we are," announced Count Olaf with a smile. "No point in sending you home for such a short time! You can wait here in this room!" He pushed them into a dressing room that might have been a cupboard in a former life, with a single, dimly lit lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.

"Yes, very nice, very nice. My associate here-" he indicated the Hook-Handed man. "-is going to stand outside the door, so don't even think about going running off again."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Indigo hissed through gritted teeth.

"Excellent. And do remember, dearest Violet." He laid a hand on Indigo's shoulder and stroked her hair with the other. "I may have lost the biting brats, and… misplaced your dear brothers in a terrible accident-"

"What have you done with them?" cried Indigo, whirling round to face him.

He smiled. "Perhaps you'll find out. After the performance. In the meantime, I do still have two Baudelaires." He patted Indigo's head. "I'm sure you wouldn't want to lose any more siblings."

He spun round rather dramatically and strode out. Violet rushed forwards and wrapped her arms very tightly around Indigo. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Vi, I'm fine." Indigo wriggled free and took a step back. "What do you think he meant about the boys?"

"I don't know. Nothing good." Violet choked back her own sobs and tears, tugging at Indigo's nightgown. "Here; let me see your shoulder."

"And- And what happened to Sunny?"

"I-" Violet shifted, scrubbing at her tears. "I- I left her."

Indigo gaped, pulling sharply away from her. "You did what?"

"I left her. I had to keep her safe from Olaf."

"So you left her? Where? Is she safe?"

"She'll be fine. Sunny's tough."

"She's an infant! Who knows what might happen to her out there! Violet, what were you thinking?"

"It has to be better than whatever Olaf had planned for her."

Sofia sipped at her cocoa as she gave a very brief explanation of her situation. Noah gnawed on his sippy cup, spilling milk over both of them. She sighed and took hold of it to steady it. "Noah, be careful."

"Sun!" he said happily, which was usually his word for Sunny.

"No, Sunny's with Vi, remember?"

And Violet was-

Well, she wasn't really sure where Violet was right now.

Other than Noah, she wasn't sure where any of her siblings were.

The bell tinkled as the door opened. A tall man with slicked back auburn hair in a black suit and sunglasses strode inside. He looked, Sofia thought, like the stereotypical rockstar had come to life. He cocked a thumb at the door.

"Are you aware there's a very big dog sat by your door out there?"

"Oh, no, I wasn't. Can you get rid of it for me, thank you."

"Think it's keeping away all the customers."

"Oh."

"Oh, and there's a baby too."

"There's what?"

"What?" Sofia sprang to her feet, rushing to the door. Yanking it open, she was met with a chestful of far too pleased with himself Dog and a beaming Sunny. "Omigosh! Sunny! What are you doing here? Where's Vi?" She knelt down to scoop her up in her free arm. The little twins were small, but not quite small enough that they were easy to manoeuvre at once by one twelve year old girl, and she wobbled as she stood, especially when Dog jumped at her. "No, Dog, don't do that. You'll knock me over. Sunny, Sunny, where's Vi?"

She didn't really need to ask the question. She was fairly sure she already knew the answer.

"Marvel," said Sunny sadly, something which might have meant many things but in this case most likely meant 'Count Olaf captured her and took her to perform in his terrible play.'

"Oh no."

She tried to imagine what would happen if Count Olaf managed to marry Violet and found she probably couldn't imagine anything terrible enough.

"What's happening dear?"

"He caught Violet. Probably Indigo too."

Dog stuck his head through the doorway, panting. The shopkeeper shooed him. "No, no, I most certainly do not allow dogs."

Dog wagged his tail.

"It's okay; Dog wouldn't damage books. Loki used to take him in our library all the time." She smiled as she thought about it. It all felt so very long ago.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, who's this?" asked the rockstar.

"Oh, this is… Sophie?"

"Sofia Baudelaire," she corrected. "And these are my siblings, Noah and Sunny. How do you do?"

The rockstar waved a hand. "Terribly, as always. What's she doing here? Thought you didn't allow kids."

Sofia shifted the twins against her as she suddenly realised what she had to do and it settled in her heart with a resolute determination.

"She's escaping a most unfortunate situation. Her guardian sounds like a truly terrible man.

Probably your sort of person. He wants to marry her underage sister."

The rockstar suddenly looked more interested than bored. "Well, we can't be having that now, can we?"

"I have to get to that theatre," Sofia cut in. "Thank you for the cocoa."

"Wait wait wait." The rockstar waved a hand, peering down at her through the sunglasses. "Fancy a ride?"

Klaus was thinking as hard as he could. Elias was still encouraging Kyra to throw rocks at the windows, which she was doing with all her toddler might. Unfortunately, that still wasn't very much, and they could see the train rounding the bend in the tracks. Loki was trying to kick out the window on the other side, and Finn was hitting the passenger side window with the very large book.

"I've read about trains," Finn said, "in Harry Potter, and the Polar Express. But I don't know what we're meant to do when we're stuck on the tracks in front of one."

Klaus sat up very suddenly. "I do," he said. "I read about it once. The track switcher."

"The what?" asked Loki.

Klaus scrambled over to the window and looked frantically about them. "There! Kyra, Kyra the track switcher!" He pointed at the mental pole. "You need to pull the handle round!"

"Gotcha!" Kyra rushed over to the pole, but the problem was immediate. The handle was far, far above her head. Even holding her arms up and standing on her tiptoes she couldn't reach. She looked round at the car in desperation. "Klaus!"

"What now?" shouted Elias.

"There's always something," Klaus muttered.

"Violet and Indigo are the inventors, not us!"

"But we're all we've got! We just need something to help Kyra reach, that's all."

Kyra had picked up a branch and was trying to hit the handle round, but her small might was still not enough, and she was beginning to fear her brothers were going to die because she just wasn't big enough.

"Even if she could reach, she's not strong enough to shift it!"

"You're right," said Elias. "We need something to pull it. Loki, break the head off that elf."

"At least it'll stop giggling."

Elias knelt on the seat and ripped into the upholstery. "Klaus, rip this free."

Klaus did so while Elias tore a spring from the new hole in the seat.

"What now?"

"We string all this together." He threaded the leather through the spring, and then tied the elf head to the end to give it some weight. "Here's to hoping this works."

"I don't mean to rush you Elias," Finn whispered, looking at the train rushing down the track.

Elias shoved the elf through the smaller window, which opened on a slat and he had kicked open earlier.

"Wind it in."

They did so, lining it up and releasing it. The littlest elf flew through the air, landing several feet short of the switcher.

"Pull it back in!"

They did so as Kyra continued to hit the switcher with her branch. She thought it might have moved a tiny bit, but not enough to save her brothers.

Clang!

The littlest elf fell short a second time.

Clang! Clang!

Two more shots fell short.

"Maybe Klaus should have done this," muttered Finn.

"You think you can do better?"

"Can we not argue in the moments before our inevitable deaths?"

Boing!

The littlest elf flew through the air and wrapped tightly around the switcher.

"I got it! Pull!"

The four boys pulled hard on the rope with all their might, which was far greater than Kyra's tiny might. The switcher slowly inched round towards them as the train rushed closer and closer.

"Kyra stay away from the tracks!" Elias screamed.

Kyra rushed away from the switcher and to the side of the road ten feet behind the car. Inside the General Store she could see the Bald Man enjoying a soda.

Loki could taste the smoke from the engine now. He squeezed his eyes closed, convinced that these were the end times. Elias put the last of his strength into pulling, pleased with the thought that they had done all they could to survive, leant back against Klaus for comfort and tensed for impact.

There was an awful screeching noise, the blistering taste of smoke, and the train began to rush past.

"Yes!" Loki shouted.

"We did it," Finn whispered.

"We did it," Klaus repeated, a little dumbfounded.

Kyra rushed back to the car, banging frantically on the doors. Elias peered out at her. "It's alright Kyra! We're all alright!"

Shaking, the boys watched as the last train carriage pulled past and rattled away up the tracks. A familiar looking car rolled up behind theirs. The driver hit the horn. Kyra wandered back towards in and rolled happily. The driver rolled down the window and peered out at her.

"Poe!" she said happily.

The vehicle slowed down as it approached the three siblings, pulling to a stop in front of them. It was a large, square, gray van with the letters "V.F.D." printed on its side.

The side door rolled open. A small group of people were gathered inside. A bearded man smiled out at them. "Can we help you there?"

Damien shifted Phoebe against his hip. "We were, um, we were just wondering if we could get a lift?"

"Ah, but of course brother! Hop in!"

Lavender looked at Damien. "You sure this is a good idea?"

"What choice do we have?" He held his hand out to help her into the van and climbed in after her. The bearded man leant over to slam the door closed, and the engine roared as the van slowly began to move again.

"New volunteers are always welcome here!"

Lavender pressed herself close to Damien. "So, uh, who exactly are you guys?"

"Why, we're V.F.D of course!"