"Find that little brat!" Linda screams from the other room, and Lex flinches. She knows she needs to come up with something, and fast. Her baby sister's life depends on it.

The people drag her and her dad to the back room, tying Ted to a chair. When he starts yelling at them to let him and Lex go, someone gets out the duct tape and slaps a piece over his mouth. He growls, struggling against the ropes they'd tied him up with.

Lex tries to think of a plan, as the two men come over to tie her down to a chair, too. Sherman Young, the creepy guy who had tried to buy all the Wiggly dolls for himself, watches with a satisfied smile on his face. Lex doesn't argue or struggle as the men tie her down, so they don't put tape over her mouth. The two men leave, but Sherman stays. A few minutes pass in silence, while Sherman paces the room and fiddles with the box cutter.

"I can help you, you know," Lex finally says quietly. "I've seen you in here every week since I started working here. You've been such a loyal customer..."

"I'm more loyal to Wiggly than I am to Toy Zone," Sherman says proudly.

"I can see that," Lex replies sweetly. "And it's very impressive. But who's the one who helped you every week for the last two years? I hid a set of those ponies for you, every time a new collection came out, so you could get them before the little girls they were technically made for. I've helped you get stuff off the top shelf countless times. I even set aside a set of ponies for you just the other night..."

"New ponies? I never heard of a new set coming out," Sherman says suspiciously.

Lex shakes her head. "Not new, but rare. The colors are all messed up— we were supposed to ship them back to the manufacturer, but I hid them for you 'cause I thought you might like them."

"Mispaints," Sherman breathes.

"I could take you to them," Lex offers. "If you let me and my dad go." Sherman squints at her doubtfully, and Lex backtracks a little. "Just my dad, please? I'll get you all the ponies your sick little heart desires, just let my dad go."

"There aren't enough ponies in the world for that," Sherman snorts, but still cuts Lex free out of her chair. "But I do want those mispaints... so rare..."

"Yeah," Lex agrees, rubbing her wrists for a moment from where the ropes had burned her a little. Then she whirls around and slams her knee into Sherman's crotch. "About that... I threw 'em in the trash," she spits, grabbing the box cutter.

She goes to cut her dad free, but Sherman grabs her ankle and trips her. The box cutter clatters to the floor, skidding to a stop just a few feet in front of Ted. He screams, muffled behind the duct tape, as Sherman grabs Lex's hair and slams her face down into the linoleum flooring once, twice, three times. Her nose is all bloody, and she whimpers, struggling to fight the creepy man off.

Sherman wraps one arm around Lex's throat, squeezing. She slaps at his arm, silently begging him to let go, but he doesn't. Ted's crying, trying to beg for his daughter's life, but the tape won't let him.

"You should have just given me the ponies," Sherman snarls, squeezing harder. Ted watches helplessly as Lex reaches for him, unshed tears in her eyes. Her hand shakes, fingers outstretched, and her eyes go unfocused.

The moments pass, agonizingly slow— and then suddenly, Ted hears a gunshot, and he blinks, trying to look around to find the source. Sherman falls to the side, and Lex stands up on shaky legs, a gun in her hands, still pointed at her would-be killer.

"And stay down," she croaks out. She waits another moment, then grabs the box cutter again and cuts her dad free. The second he's able to, he wraps Lex in a protective hug, tearing the tape off his own face.

"I'm so sorry," he whispers. "I'm so sorry you had to go through that, and I couldn't help you. I'm so sorry, baby..."

Lex shakes her head, still buried in her dad's shoulder. "W-we need to find H-Hannah," she mumbles. "Gotta stop W-Wiggly..."

He pulls away from the hug and wipes her tears away, kissing her forehead. He gently takes the gun from her, and she smiles gratefully at him.

"We'll circle around the outside of the building," he says, pulling himself together. "Sneak back in near the movie theater and regroup with Henry and Peter. Hopefully they've gotten to Hannah by now, when they realized I didn't come back."

Lex nods, taking a deep, calming breath. She leads him out the back door, to the loading bay, and spots Mr. Houston getting ready to leave with a Tickle-Me-Wiggly doll. Ted points the gun at him while Lex calls out his name.

"Mr. Houston, stop!" She calls. The former shop teacher turns to look at the pair and sneers.

"What, you're gonna let your dad shoot me?" He asks, clutching the doll tighter.

—

Ethan carries Hannah as he tries to keep up with the other three. The professor is taking the lead, his shotgun at the ready. Peter and his girlfriend— Ashleigh, the girl they all shared English class with— hold each other's hands as the group jogs along. Hannah sniffles and buries her face in Ethan's shoulder.

"What if we're too late?" She mumbles, and Ethan rubs her back.

"We won't be," he soothes quietly. "Can't you ask Webby?" Up until very recently— as in, the last half-hour of his life or so— Ethan had thought that Webby was just Hannah's imaginary friend. Then when he'd first woken up with his concussion, Henry had told him otherwise. Ethan might not have believed him... had it not been for the dream he'd had when he passed out again.

Hannah sniffles again. "She said we have to hurry," she says.

"Exactly, Hannah," Henry calls back. "We're almost there—"

The shotgun goes off, and Ethan holds Hannah tighter as he watches one of the men who'd beaten him up earlier crumple to the ground, blood pooling around him. The woman from earlier is here, too. She snarls at Henry.

"Where are they?" Henry says, pointing the shotgun at her. The woman doesn't answer, and simply lunges at him. He shoots her before she can get even halfway to him, and he sighs. "We'll just have to find them ourselves..."

He leads them inside the store, which is surprisingly empty.

"They're looking for me," Hannah whispers, looking around.

"They won't find you, Banana," Ethan promises. "We won't let them hurt you."

Hannah nods, accepting his words, and clings to him again. "Just don't let them hurt you again..."