It was 9am, and a group of Riverdale's youth gathered together in Veronica's speakeasy below Pop's. They were hoping to save their friend from the clutches of evil. If their plans were good enough, Jughead would have his Serpent Queen back in his arms in no time. They would soon make a play to get Betty out of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and Jughead was at the head of the table leading their meeting, desperate to get their plan ready for action.
"I want it to be very clear that we need to stick to the plan. No matter what, we cannot afford to make any mistakes here. We are going into enemy territory where they will have an advantage and we need to be on high alert. The Serpent Queen is in danger, and it is our job to complete this quest and bring her to safety." Jughead's speech was meant to inspire his friends, and it worked. They all spent the next few hours planning the best ways to ensure they could get into and hopefully out of the Sisters with Betty in tow.
Veronica sat to Jugheads left with Kevin. They were looking over the building plans for the Sisters, trying to find the most efficient and secluded ways in and out.
Cheryl piped up and said. "Shouldn't Toni and I be the ones with the map? I was imprisoned there first and I know the layout better than baby Lodge and gay Forrest Gump over here."
"Fine Cheryl. Have it your way." Veronica said, sliding the plans across the table. Cheryl Smiled an exaggerated toothy grin and pulled the building plans out of Veronica's hands.
"So, fellow conspirators, the back entrance to the Sisters is on the southeast side of the building. If we can get to the door and inside the building undetected, I think we have a pretty good chance of finding my dear cousin. As long as they haven't locked her away in a tower like some ghoulish version of Rapunzel." Cheryl said.
She pulled out a red pen and began marking down the route into and out of the building. Cheryl also took out a folded-up piece of paper out of her purse and unfolded it. Passing the page to Jughead, she said "this is something that I found during my stay at that barbaric, oppressive, and tragically outdated home for 'troubled youth'. I didn't think too much of it until now, but certain events have made me reconsider the relevance of the information it contains. Especially since I am pretty sure this shows that Mr. Lodge is puppeteering the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and my uncle Claudius to help do his evil bidding. I fear for what my cousin has suffered under their watch, and we need to get her out. Tonight, if possible. I'm hopeful that with this evidence, once my cousin is free, we can finally take Hiram, and that place fit for a horror film, down for good."
Cherry Bombshell had done it again. Veronica nearly ripped the piece of paper out of Jugheads hands.
"What is this Cheryl and how could you have kept it from us until now? What the hell is this drug and why are all these kids at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy on it? And why is my dad's signature on the bottom?" Veronica asked, confused and incredulous. She was gripping the page tight in her hands, staring at the words and putting the pieces of the puzzle together for herself as Cheryl explained.
"Come on 'V' think about it. Your dad is testing his poison out on the patients at the Sisters. Polio Lapis is Fizzle Rocks. I know because I caught your dad talking to my weasel of an uncle about it a few weeks after you guys broke me out. I just took the paper to draw in my room alone. I didn't know what was on it, I kept all paper that I acquired so I could draw at night when I couldn't sleep. The Sisters wouldn't let us take any paper back to our rooms in case we tried to write secret messages to our 'deviant' lovers on the outside. They are definitely working together on this nefarious plan somehow." Cheryl threw her long cherry red hair back over her shoulder. "Now, how are we going to stop those two evil doers from torturing my cousin and using her and those other kids like human lab rats?"
"Why would the Sisters be testing fizzle rocks on the patients? I mean I'm sure Hiram is paying them somehow but why do it at all? What is he hoping to gain from this?" Said Jughead.
"It must have something to do with G&G." Toni said. "My grandfather used to tell stories about evil spirits that lived in that building. He told us it contained the embodiment of evil, and that's why the patients rarely try to escape. They were all said to be trapped under his spell, living in fear of his punishment for their wrongdoings. He seemed to think that the Gargoyle King lives there, but that can't possibly be true. Whoever is acting as the Gargoyle King now definitely isn't working out of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. It could mean that the game itself came from there or that there is something worse going on in there. But I'm not sure how much faith to put in folklore like that. It doesn't make enough sense, there are too many missing pieces to make sense of what's happening."
"This must be part of Hiram's grand plan to take over the town." Jughead shook his head, afraid for what Betty might be enduring alone in that awful place.
"Test the fizzle rocks out on the kids that are the least cared about, and then use them to turn the rest of the town into your servants by getting them all addicted to drugs. I saw the same thing in another town when I went away with Archie. All the people left, save for a few exceptions that were all taking fizzle rocks, all playing Gryphons and Gargoyles, and all working for none other than the Man in Black. Not to mention, all the men in town had been sent to work at a prison run by the Man in Black. We need to get Betty out of there before he turns her into another drugged-up G&G zombie like them. It seems like he is using the game to control people and make them too wrapped up in this fantasy world to realize that he's destroying their home."
Veronica felt sick. She could not even begin to process all the horrors that her father had inflicted on her friends and their town. She wanted to stop him somehow, show him that he won't get away with messing with her home and her friends. Most of all, she was concerned for Betty.
"Jughead if my dad knows that he has Betty, the Serpent Queen, at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy its perfect leverage against you and the serpents. You are just as much a thorn in his side as Archie and I don't think he would pass up an opportunity to get to you like this. We need to be prepared for the worst." Veronica said.
Veronica then turned to her friends with a look of determination on her face and said, "Guys, I think we are going to need to add another layer to this plan, a distraction of some kind. We can't take any chances that we don't make it out of there with Betty. But first, we need eyes on that place. The more we know about where they are keeping Betty the easier this will be. We need to know exactly where all of the moving pieces are going to be so that things go smoothly" Veronica said.
"I have had some of the Serpents watching the place ever since Kevin gave us the news. So far, they're saying it looked like Betty was being kept with the other girls, until recently when they stopped seeing her outside in the courtyard or anywhere near the other prisoners of that place. Do you have any idea where they could have taken her Cheryl? Any reason why she wouldn't be with the other prisoners?" Jughead asked.
"They could have taken her to see the King. I heard some of the patients talking about having to go see him if they got into trouble. I wasn't there long enough to learn much else. I think it's a chamber somewhere in the building with a big wooden door. I saw a few girls drawing the same entranceway during arts and crafts time. I don't know of any other secret rooms. She could be in the infirmary but that doesn't bode well for my dearest cousin at all. Have any of the Serpents been able to catch a glimpse of her through a window or anything? I know that place doesn't have many, but Betty's golden blonde locks are hard to miss much like my luscious cherry red tresses."
"The guys haven't been able to get close enough. The place has a lot of security precautions. That's probably why Mrs. Cooper sent Betty there, she probably thought she would be safe. Nobody has been closer than Kevin was when he took that photo." Toni said.
Jughead cursed under his breath. The torture of knowing where Betty probably was but not being able to run to her rescue that instant was killing him, but this was important. They had to do this right. This was his Serpent Queen and she had been captured and locked away by an enemy king, and he would not let anything jeopardize their chance to get her back.