I think some things could've been done better, but we're closing in on this arc soon. Everything will be good until then.

Either way, I hope you all enjoy!

Raven wasn't sure what was happening right now, but she had a feeling it was the gas that was causing this. The general feeling of anxiety, pushed up to an eleven, made her feel all sorts of things that she didn't want to.

Shadows played along the walls, making familiar shapes she tried to ignore. The fire around here was a bigger priority, which she did her best to extinguish with some controlled bursts of magic. The conduits Eddy gave her worked wonders for that.

When things eventually calmed down, she was finally able think for a few seconds, the feeling of an impending headache making her groan. The shadows had diminished, but they still danced as the lights that were still there remained on. Though, she was relieved when they took less familiar shapes.

Raven soon heard whimpering.

"Hello?" The sorceress turned in all sorts of directions, realizing that everyone else had run off for some reason. The whimpering could've been anything for all she knew. "Is anyone there? I'm not afraid to fight if I have to."

"Raven? Is that you?"

The sorceress stilled at the sound of her roommate's voice. "Apple? Where are you? Everything got crazy for a second there."

"I'm over here! Can you please get me out? I don't know how long I can stand being here."

Raven instantly moved towards where Apple's voice was coming from, her steps hurried. She pointedly kept her gaze forward to avoid seeing the shadows dance. It didn't take her long to find her roommate.

Apple must've tried to run at some point after Ygor set off the gas bomb and accidentally fell into a ditch. Some exposed pipes were dripping onto the blonde, leaving her in a small puddle of water, but she acted like she was trapped, arms around her knees. Her eyes were wild, looking everywhere in the dark corridor.

"Apple? Are you okay?" Raven moved closer to the frightened girl, doing her best to go slow. "You can get just get up. It's not exactly a big ditch. Did you hurt yourself?"

"I-I tripped on something, but I'm okay. What do you mean this isn't a big ditch? Aren't I…" Apple looked over to Raven, blinking as she realized how close the sorceress actually was. "This- You shouldn't be this close. Did you fall in too?"

Raven frowned. She was still on the cusp of the ditch, and the difference between the rim and the bottom of it was only a couple of inches. What was Apple seeing that Raven wasn't? There must've been something to that gas after all.

"I think you're- I think we're both seeing things right now. Ygor might've drugged us with something that's messing with our heads." Raven extended a hand towards Apple, trying to be comforting. "Just grab my hand and we'll get out of here just fine."

Apple blinked at the hand, tentatively grabbing it. She seemed surprised that she could touch, along with how easy it was to get her up. Her knees shook, looking around herself carefully.

"I was hallucinating that? That felt so real. Why did it feel so real?" Apple nearly tripped, still holding onto Raven's hand like it was a lifeline. "What happened to everyone else? I don't see them anywhere."

"They were gone when I finally got up. I think Eddy might've accidentally started a few fires while he was down here." Raven really hoped at least one of them hadn't got a dose of it. Eddy was directly in the blast zone, but Cleo could've gotten out without a scratch. Same with Draculaura. "I think I'm going to start teleporting our friends down here. This has gone absolutely pear shaped."

"That sounds like a great idea. Maybe they need healing. I haven't gotten to use my wand just yet." Apple chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. "I've been wondering how it actually works. Maybe I should've given Eddy some more credit."

They were silent for a few moments, looking for a good place to get everyone to gather. They drifted in and out between the hallucinations bothering them and not, their conscious minds usually winning. Apple did look towards Raven, frowning.

"Raven, if you don't mind me asking," Apple looked at the walls her roommate had been keeping an eye on. "What are you seeing?"

"…Nothing."

Raven didn't want to tell her that every shadow looked so much like her mom.

Ygor had played it smart and booked it as soon as the short one started summoning fire everywhere. The fear gas was good at what it does, but he certainly didn't expect it to act so fast. Usually it only did that for someone that was already emotionally compromised.

Of course, he was also hit by it too, so the plan hadn't gone completely without a hitch. Again, crossing the line between genius and stupid.

Ygor did his best to ignore the shapes of the tunnels that mirrored Stoker's disappointed and enraged faces, reminding himself it was just in his head. Though his heart was hammering in his chest, adrenaline forcing himself to move.

"Where could it be, where could it be?! I need to find it now!" Ygor wasn't even going to bother dealing with those kids anymore. As long as the key was in his grasp, he didn't need to do much else. "I can't leave without it. Stoker will be beyond angry with me."

A wall formed in front of him, causing the man to brake immediately. He tripped up, landing on his back when he eventually stopped.

"Looking for something?"

Ygor did his best to get back on his feet but was only able to turn and see the manic form of Eddy moving slowly towards him. The fact that he seemed calm, despite having a hallucinatory gas thrown at him, made him nearly go into hysterics.

Eddy's hand lit up, making the tunnel turn in closer on itself closer. It only made Ygor even more nervous, the realization that he was at his mercy rather than the other way around.

"You know, it was my mistake not taking you that seriously. You aren't exactly the most intimidating, but that doesn't mean much nowadays." Eddy snapped his fingers, causing spikes to form in the foundation. "That isn't happening twice, though."

"L-Look, I'm only doing my job here. You don't have any idea what Lord Stoker would do to me if I disobeyed him." Ygor didn't even want to think about what he'd do if he realized that he failed. Then again, he had a feeling it wouldn't be any worse than what this kid was going to do. "I just wanted to make things go smoothly! You wouldn't hurt a messenger, would you?"

"I don't know. Never really tried before. Mostly because I didn't have a good enough reason before." Eddy lifted Ygor up with his magic, looking into his eyes with that same eerie calm he'd had since the beginning. "How much is it worth to you to make sure I don't have to break that streak?"

"Eddy!"

The boy blinked, barely moving his head to look behind him. Cleo and Draculaura not that far behind him, the mummy holding the Worshipper's Staff in front of her. The vampire was hiding behind her, not wanting to get too involved.

"I think you're going a bit far there. He may be a bit sniveling, but you're not acting like yourself right now." Cleo waved the remains of the ball that held the fear gas. "There's hallucinogens in this. I don't know what you're seeing, but I doubt it's the same thing we are."

"Oh?" Cleo really didn't like how that sounded. Eddy turned around, weirdly graceful. She could see a flash of anger cross his face, though it was brief. "Why aren't you freaking out then? You two seem pretty chill, and you weren't that much farther away."

"Being undead kind of helps with the not breathing part. Pretty useful when you want to win a few dares, honestly." Draculaura laughed nervously, instantly hiding herself behind Cleo more. "You shouldn't be this far gone, though. Even if you were at the center."

"I'm completely fine. Now let's make sure this idiot-" Eddy blinked, jerking his head in one direction. The room got quiet as he did this again, searching for something that wasn't there. "Evan? Are you there? What are you doing here?"

Cleo jerked at the name, realizing the extent of the gas. She didn't know too much about potion making, but she figured something that aimed for someone's emotions would work easier on someone more emotionally compromised.

And Eddy hasn't exactly been the beacon of stability lately.

"Eddy. I need you to listen to me closely." Cleo made sure to keep the staff leveled at him. Despite knowing him as an impulsive lunatic sometimes, that didn't mean he wasn't skilled at magic. "Whatever you're hearing is not your brother. You know it isn't. He's dead, remember?"

"Hm?" Eddy blinked again, looking at Cleo with some clarity again. It quickly turned into paranoia. "How the hell did you hear about that?"

"That's not important. What you're hearing right now is fear gas deciding to mess with your head. Evan, or whatever his name was, isn't anywhere near-" Cleo clenched the staff tighter as some flames started up. "What did I just say?!"

"I think we need to focus more on how you knew my brother is dead. What set you on my trail, huh?" Eddy didn't remember what he'd said on True Hearts Day. The fear gas tightened its hold on his mind, leaving paranoia behind. "You shouldn't know a thing about that. Only Double D and Ed know."

"…We overheard while you were talking with Nazz and Kevin." Cleo charged the staff up. She subtly moved her head, signaling Draculaura to leave, maybe find the key. "It was an accident. Blondie was being invasive."

"I'm pretty sure I would've known that. You aren't as good of a liar as you think you are." Eddy paused. Cleo could see his eyes widen and then narrow, taking only seconds for it to occur. "Is Evan here? Were those two lying about it? Did he set everything up like this?"

Cleo watched him spiral more. She really didn't want to do this, but before could regret it, she flicked the staff towards Eddy.

To her immense relief, Draculaura had already disappeared when the first wall of energy hit.

It had taken only a few moments to get everyone together, and fewer for everyone to eventually spread out. Raven and Apple went out with Clawd and Clawdia to figure out to either find their friends or the last key, the remaining members joining together and doing the same.

And then Ed and Double D disappeared, most likely to go after Eddy.

"I still can't believe those guys just ditched like that. Where the heck did they go?" Cerise was a little ticked, keeping an eye out as they passed through every tunnel, leading to more parts of the El Capitan Theatre. "Considering everything's gone pear shaped, you'd think they'd stay close just in case."

"Considering their friend might be going on a rampage right now, I don't think we can really judge." Ghoulia did understand, even though it was slightly annoying. Ed and Double D knew Eddy better, so they had a higher chance of calming him down alone than with other people. "Most likely they'll have Eddy dealt with soon enough. With his skills, he could cause a collapse if he isn't careful."

"She's got a point. Letting the people that know him the best deal with it is probably the best course of action." Clawdeen ears twitched, eyes moving to Maddie. The mad girl didn't say as much as a peep since they got here. "Something wrong, Mads?"

"…Do you think we made a mistake?" Maddie gripped her staff, shuffling with it nervously. "We didn't say anything about Eddy and the whole thing with his brother. We figured that he and the boys would come to us first or do things by themselves. Maybe we should've said something?"

"It's not exactly that simple. While Eddy is in a bad way, forcing our way through to him would simply make him defensive." Ghoulia kept her statements logical, even if Maddie raised a good point. "Though, maybe we should have tried a different route. And since the Ed's shroud themselves in so much mystery, that's clearly bit us right in the butt."

"You've noticed that too?" Clawdeen hadn't meant for that to slip out, but she played it off and used Ghoulia's surprise as a smokescreen. "Hey, you're not the only one to realize that we don't know too much about them. And what we do know isn't exactly that great."

"There's a good chance that we're reading too much into this. I mean, yeah, it's weird that they're way too used to breaking the law, but some people don't care about that." Cerise adjusted her hood. She didn't like the way Clawdeen looked at her when she said that. "We're all entitled to secrets. Just because we don't know theirs doesn't mean we need to get suspicious."

"It's less suspicion and more concern, Cerise. Several lives may be in danger thanks to the mix between Lord Stokers machinations and Eddy's wavering stability." Ghoulia looked somewhat down for a second, her own words cutting her. "And I get the distinct feeling that they don't trust us as much as we think they do."

"…We've only known them for a few months, ghoul. It's not like we can just get them to admit to anything without making their mistrust seem justified." Clawdeen had plenty of time to think about that since she learned about Double D's secret. She didn't know what he would do if she just threw it out there for everyone to see, but it would've been ugly. "We got to work for it."

"Clawdeen's right. We don't know them that well, even if we've been through plenty together." Maddie seemed to accept that answer, even it didn't fully satisfy her needs. She laughed a little, trying to think of a joke. "Maybe we haven't earned enough points to grind out their tragic backstories."

"…Yeah. Tragic backstories." Cerise frowned, remembering Double D's conversation with her dad. "Need to work for those."

The group walked in silence for a few seconds, trying to think all of this out. They didn't have the time as Maddie gasped, pointing down the hallway.

"Girls, look! It's Draculaura!" The Wonderlandian squinted her eyes, noticing that she was practically dragging the trembling figure of Ygor behind her. "And some poor hunchback. Who is he?"

"He knows where the key is!" Draculaura didn't waste any time, moving past them, holding onto the man's magic detector. "We got to hurry! Eddy's completely lost it and Cleo's going to need all the help she can get!"

No one bothered to argue, following the vampire instantly. They needed to make sure this didn't end in tragedy.

Cleo figured her work as a fearleader would end up coming in handy in some dicey situations, but a fight wasn't one of them. But, as she dodged some columns sent by Eddy, she wasn't going to complain.

The good thing was that Eddy didn't seem to be trying to kill her, despite clearly being out of his mind. None of the attacks weren't meant to do anything but maim, though she figured that they could still hurt.

There was also the fact that Eddy apparently finished another of his rings that he'd been holding out on until now. Somehow, Cleo couldn't really take the fact he was willing to use the Illusion ring for her rather than Ygor as a compliment.

The mummy sighed shakily as the mass of shadows Eddy 'produced' kept him out of her line of sight. Telling him about her claustrophobia was starting to become a real disadvantage right now.

"Something wrong, Queenie? I thought you'd be a little livelier than this." Eddy's voice wavered in and out, moving around her like the illusory shadows. "Or were you lying at Gloom Beach?"

"Eddy, I've never met your brother before. I'm not working for him. As far as I know, he's just some dead man who I doubt is ever coming back." Cleo saw a column rise, breaking it the force of her staff. "You're the one grieving over him."

"I'm not grieving over him. Evan isn't worth the effort." Eddy actually sent some fire this time, though it missed her by a mile. Cleo broke another column, already knowing that was just to bait her into running into it. "He never was the worth the effort. I never got what my parents saw in him."

"Then why do you care so much. Why do you think he's putting so much effort to mess with you?" The mummy knew that having this fight continue would be suicidal if she let it. She was reasonably athletic, not an Olympian athlete. "I'm pretty sure my sister would, but nothing like this."

"Well, lucky you!" Eddy sent several attacks at her this time. Some of the columns were illusions, though she misjudged one and got hit in the shoulder for it. "My brother did nothing but make me miserable. I don't understand why. I didn't do anything to him!"

Eddy's attacks were becoming more erratic, at the cost of taking away from his illusion. He was obviously running around since Cleo wasn't able to land a shot on him.

"Don't you dare compare me and you! I don't know who your sister is, but she's nothing compared him." Eddy laughed wildly, more columns rising up, fire moving around to keep her at bay. Constantly keeping her moving. "He liked to play a few games, you know. He had plenty of them for me to deal with."

Cleo threw several blasts at the sound of voice coming behind her. She was nearly decked by a column for the trouble.

"It was mostly stupid stuff at first. Hide and seek, except he never bothered to look. Sometimes he'd send me on scavenger hunts and locked me out of the house!" Eddy laughed. It was bitter, mixed with a nostalgia that probably tasted like acid. "And that was before he started getting creative."

"What do you mean by 'creative?'" Cleo really didn't want to know. But the more emotional he got, the less control he had. If she could get him when he was out of control, she could make the staff force him down. "Maddie speaks in riddles, not you."

Eddy laughed, the sound going everywhere as the illusionary shadows grew stronger, turning into an uproar. Cleo imagined this is what it would be like in the middle of a cyclone.

"Not really an easy thing to say, honestly. I think he would've told you about it before." Eddy's voice got dark. "Let me show you."

The wall of shadows immediately dissipated, causing the mummy to nearly be knocked over. It gave Eddy enough time to get in front of her, hand alight with magic that was yet to fully form, a manic look in his eyes.

"Say. Uncle."

Cleo froze as his hand lit up brighter, wondering what kind of spell he'd chose…

Before Eddy was immediately being knocked back by a metal tentacle.

The short boy yelled in frustration, though Ed shot forward, hitting him in his arms legs with the poison. Cleo had enough sense to snap out of it, using the Worshipper's Staff to force Eddy to his knees before he could think to try anything. Double D followed it up by sending a light shock to his friends' neck that knocked him out immediately.

The tension of the room fell, though only by a single notch. Cleo got onto her knees, feeling exhausted at the amount of physical activity she just had to do.

"Well. I can't say this exactly went to plan, but at least we were able to stop this from getting too ugly." Double D spared a glance towards Cleo, wincing. "Okay, maybe that wasn't the most accurate thing to say here, but still."

"Um, Cleo?"

The mummy dazedly looked up at Ed, who nervously smiled at her. He tilted her head at her, the look on his face barely moving.

"I don't know what he said, but could you maybe keep it secret? It was probably pretty personal." The mummy knew the first part of that was a lie, but she couldn't bare to argue with him. "I'm pretty sure he'd be upset if you did…"

Cleo didn't bother saying anything against him, only nodding before slowly getting back up. She was exhausted, upset, and a little angry. It was for a lot of reasons, some linked to concern, but she wouldn't ever say that out loud to them.

She knew one thing, though. She was really getting sick and tired of secrets.

Eddy remained unconscious for about an hour before he was eventually awoken, liquid dripping down his throat without his permission. He coughed for a second before insistent hands tilted his head up to make sure it went down smoothly.

"God, that tastes terrible. Why can't people make good tasting medicine?" Eddy groaned, squinting so the lights wouldn't hurt his eyes. He saw Ed and Double D standing over him, which was weird. "When did you guys get here?"

"Not long after you got gassed by Ygor. From the looks of it, it drove you mad enough to actually forget everything." Double D flicked the boy in the forehead with a frown. "That's what you get for underestimating the henchman. You should know better. We're lucky he even gave us the cure of the fear gas instead of trying to hold out on us."

"Well, excuse me, Sockhead. It wasn't like he was making a good case for himself." Eddy pushed him off, sitting up while rubbing at his head. "What did I do? I didn't embarrass myself too much, hopefully."

"You and Cleo almost had a fight to the death. Don't worry, though!" Ed raised his hands up at Eddy's alarmed expression. "She held up long enough for us to get there and stop you from doing anything bad! No one blames you for what happened either."

"We do need to talk about what you do remember about that fight and determine what secrets you might've hinted at. Though, that will have to come later." Double D leaned back into his seat, pulling out his iCoffin. "We've got an issue; Stoker obviously knows that we're onto him and it looks like he's mobilizing against it."

"And thanks to the girls, we now have all three keys. So, he's probably not going to like that." Ed nervously chuckled as he looked at the door. "And I don't think we're going to be dealing with someone like Ygor if he finds out where we are."

"Do we know what he's doing right now?" Eddy would've questioned what happened to him more, but he honestly didn't want to think about it too much. "Bloodgood and Grimm are keeping an eye on him, right?"

"Yes, but apparently a large group of people decided to check into his hotel under the guise of a meeting. And from what they could tell, it wasn't a very diverse one." Double D showed a picture on his phone. There was an entire group of vampires shown. "They're not exactly a large group, but certainly more than we can handle. About twenty-five were gathered, at the very least."

"Jeez. He's going all out on us, isn't he?" That was still plenty of people there. Magic and invention aside, that didn't mean numbers weren't a good factor. "At least there was only two people the first time we fought someone."

"We do have more people who can fight now, though! And we can still get backup too." Ed didn't look sure about that, though. When they dealt with the monster hunter and his accomplice, they were definitely in the right. It would be a lot harder to get people to fight for them if it could lead to an international incident. "At least we know what we're dealing with…?"

The boys got quiet, realizing how badly this was going. They'd won the battles so far but considering that Stoker had a small army at his side. Holding the keys hostage wouldn't matter since the Vampire's Heart was still in his possession, and Ygor was most likely not valuable to him at all.

Eddy took a look at their options, sighing deeply before a plan started forming in his minds.

"Sockhead," Eddy looked at his friend, tapping his foot on the ground as he went over the roster of people they had in mind. "Do you think Bloodgood and Grimm can get into the army's hotel rooms?"

"I can't imagine it would be easy, but maybe?" Double D started typing a number into his phone, getting up with a confused look on his face. "I can certainly see what they can manage to do."

"Good. Ed, you come with me." Eddy got up, forcing himself to go steady as he wobbled the slightest bit. "I'm going to guess you had some time to test out your hypnosis?"

"Yeah, it worked great. Didn't have to make any tweaks." Ed got into step behind his friend. "Why?"

"I want to have a talk with Ygor. If he doesn't want to, I need your eyes as back up." Eddy moved towards the door, getting tense. "I have a dumb plan, but I need everyone's help for this. Stoker isn't going to leave until tomorrow probably, so we have one night to make it a good one."

He wasn't sure if they'd even have that, but he did figure that he was right on one thing; this plan was either going to be really dumb, or outright brilliant. Only time would tell whether he turned out to be right on that.

Yeah, things are getting a little less implied. I'm not going to lie, the next arc will start getting into some dark stuff, though I'll make sure content warnings are used properly. Besides, we've still got a chapter or two to go.

Whatever happens, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you all next chapter!