(James' POV):
"Well, we meet again, old friend," Nigel gasps.
The man in the cell, which I guess is Dorian, smiles weakly at him.
"Nigellius," he says weakly.
"I never thought I'd live to see you again."
"How do you two know each other?" Billie asks.
"We're brothers-in-law."
Billie stares at Nigel, blinking a bit obliviously.
"He means," Alfie pipes up.
"They're brothers because one of them married into the other's family."
"But if they're brothers-in-law," Dani exclaims.
"And Veruca is Nigel's daughter, then Dorian would be her uncle, which would make Dorian—"
Dani and I look at each other.
"Matilda's father?" we gasp at the same time.
I hear him gasp.
"Matilda," he sighs feebly.
"That's a name I haven't heard in years."
"But….but I don't understand," Sophie stammers.
"Wonka told us you were killed. He said….he killed you. H…how are you still alive?"
"It was Daisy Bloom, one of the oompa-loompas. She was the one who was assigned to kill me when I stopped producing novel ideas. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. Later on I found out that she and the others had convinced Wonka to keep me alive. But ever since, I've been a prisoner down here."
"Why are you a prisoner?" Billie asks.
I glare at her.
"Wonka LITERALLY explained everything to us about ten minutes ago."
"It's fine," Dorian assures us.
"Wonka let me make a choice to either give her to him or give myself up instead. I chose the latter, hoping she could simply live a normal life. That's what keeps me from going insane, knowing that she's out there living a normal life."
We all stare at each other as if to ask "should we tell him?"
"Yeah, about that," Billie pipes up, making the choice for us.
"She's not. She got caught by Wonka and got knocked out by some sort of shot. Also her mother threatened to have her institutio…..insti….in….put in a hospital because she thought too much."
"Oh, Zinnia," he huffs shaking his head.
"Always taking it too far."
"I told you; my name's Billie."
"So wait. You're saying she's here? Where?"
"We don't know," I tell him.
"She got captured by Wonka. Something about wanting to make her his daughter."
I faintly notice his jaw stiffening as he clenches his teeth together, before he speaks once again.
"That…...Benedict Arnold!"
"His name's Willy Wonka, actually," Billie says.
I purse my lips and huff in frustration.
"Actually," Alfie jumps in.
"Benedict Arnold was a general in the early stages of the Revolutionary War. He is infamous for betraying the United States and switching sides to fight with the British. So with this context, calling someone a Benedict Arnold implies that they have betrayed someone in some way."
"Yes," Dorian sighs.
"He promised that once I was his prisoner, he'd want nothing more to do with my family. But he's a traitor and he must pay for that!"
"Great," Dani pipes up.
"But, uh, what about the antidotes?"
Dorian looks at her and blinks, confused.
"Antidotes? Why? What for?"
"Well, sir, believe it or not," I clarify.
"The five of us squirrels were previously human. I'm James, if you recognize me at all. I'm one of Matilda's close friends. Anyway, we came down here because it said Laboratory and we've been looking for one, suspecting it would be in the deepest part of the factory. We believe the antidotes may be down here."
Dorian looks around and breathes heavily as if he's concentrating intensely on something in his mind.
"I believe there is one here somewhere," he mutters quietly.
"Yes, yes, I believe it's…..it's…oh, I'm sure I'd remember it if I saw it!"
"Maybe we can get you out," Violet suggests.
"Good luck with that. The keyhole is invisible and only oompa-loompas can see it."
"Really?"
"Really."
Groaning, we all ponder over what we can do.
"What if we tried to bend the bars by putting something really big between them?" Alfie suggests.
"That might work, but where are we going to find something big enough?"
We all ponder this and then it hits most of us. We all turn to Augustus.
"Vhat?" he asks, sounding genuinely confused.
"Vhy are you looking at me?"
And then it hits him.
"Oh no. No, no, no! I am not going to do that!"
"We just need you to make a bigger hole for Uncle Dorian to crawl through," Veruca says.
"Vell, you can forget it!" he snaps.
"I may eat a lot und be tempted by chocolate, but I am not some sort of tool for you to just use vhenever. There's nothing you can say or do to convince me!"
"Augustus, if we don't get him out of here, Wonka's gonna take over the world!" Dani snaps back.
"On top of that, eventually him or some of the oompa loompas will find all of us, we'll be squirrels forever, Dorian will be a prisoner in here forever, and YOU will be killed!"
All of a sudden, his eyes grows wide.
"Wait, dudes," Mike says.
"No need for that. I just remembered; I've got a weapon we can use to complete the objective."
From his pocket, he pulls out a pocket knife. Trying to keep himself up right, he walks over to the bars and begins to saw them in half.
"There's no way in heck that'll work," Violet scoffs.
"Those bars look too strong to be cut by anything, let alone a pocket knife."
"Well, at this point, it's our best option," Mike scoffs as he cuts at the bars.
"If you have any better suggestions, Smurfette, I'm happy to hear you out."
"Just because I'm blue doesn't give you the right to call me names!"
We hear a snap and whirl our heads to see that Mike has cut the bar in half.
"Okay, onto the next one."
"Vait!" Augustus exclaims.
"Check if it bends."
He checks and, with enough force, it does.
"Good. Just cut in da middle of each of the bars und I'll take care of the rest."
After about a good five minutes, Mike's finished. All of a sudden, Augustus runs at the bars and slams himself into them several times until they bend backward enough to create a crawl hole.
"But he's still chained to the wall," Dani points out.
"Leave that to me, my squirrel sidekick," Mike says.
With his new height, he bends over, crawls into the hole, and saws at Dorian's chains until we hear the clink of them against the floor. Mike crawls back through the hole and Dorian follows just behind.
"Okay, follow me," he says.
Soon we reach a room that's opened just a crack. The five of us squirrels head inside first.
"No sign of any oompa-loompas," Sophie concludes.
"Now where are the antidotes?"
"I'll check on the table," I suggest.
"I'll look on the shelves," Dani volunteers.
"I'll see if he has any safes he might've stored them in," Alfie pipes up.
"Or we could just look in that box marked squirrel antidotes," Billie says.
I turn back and notice her pointing to a cardboard box by the door.
"How is it we missed that?" Dani asks.
"More importantly, out of everyone, how did Billie spot it?" I ask.
We rush over to the box and chew open the tape. The box flaps swing open. Sure enough inside of it are dozens of blue vials, each labelled "Squirrel Transformation Antidote."
Billie immediately jumps inside of the box, steps out of the box, and downs a vial.
"Why am I getting a sort of 'Wonderland' feel to this whole thing?" Sophie asks as Billie drinks the last drop of her vial.
"It's Wonka's factory; of course it's insane," I remark.
All of a sudden, we hear the shattering of glass.
"Guys, why do I feel all shaky—?"
Immediately her fur disappears and her tail shrinks back into her before she sprouts up to her original height. She now dons a long-sleeved, yellow dress with flowers.
Spying a full-length mirror, she runs over to it and twirls around.
"I'm me again! I'm me again!" she exclaims in a voice not as squeaky as before.
Next comes Dani. When she sprouts back up, she wear her hair in a light-blonde ponytail and she dons a blue dress. My heart palpitates a bit.
"I don't think I'll take being able to walk on two feet for granted for a long time!" she sighs in relief.
Then Alfie and Sophie are next. Finally it's my turn. I feel myself shake before I sprout upwards. Going over to the mirror, I breathe a sigh of total relief.
"Oh man! It feels amazing not having all of that fur!"
"Hey, I don't mean to break up your celebration," Veruca says as she walks in through the door.
"But we still have to save Matilda AND free those other human-squirrel hybrids, BEFORE Wonka takes control of the world, mind you."
"Oh right," I say as we run out of the lab, taking the box with us.