Saturday afternoon, at about 2 p.m.

April led George, Alan, and Fern to a secluded apple orchard not far from Lakewood Elementary. The weather was sunny and pleasant, and they could hear the song of a quail in the distance. In front of the rows of trees, Augusta was pacing back and forth, wearing a blue skirt and tennis shoes, holding a black plastic case under her arm.

"Hello, April," she greeted the cat girl. "Why did you bring these kids?"

"They asked to come," was April's reply. "They wanted to know about your plan."

Augusta smiled and nodded. "I see."

"What's in that black box?" Fern inquired, pointing.

"All in good time," said Augusta, walking closer to the children. "Tell me, do you like basketball?"

"Sure do," responded Alan.

"I'm too short," said George sadly.

"You won't believe this," Augusta related, "but I once had a chance at a college basketball scholarship, but I turned it down."

"I don't believe it," said Fern.

Augusta regaled the kids with basketball stories for about ten minutes, at which time they saw Dr. Portinari approaching through the uncut grass and weeds. The psychiatrist stood at one side of George, held out his hand with its palm raised, and demanded, "Augusta, give me the time device."

The rabbit woman flashed a defiant look at Portinari as April stepped over to her side. Then Augusta, taking the black case in one hand, waved her other arm in front of Alan, Fern, George, and Portinari. All at once, they felt an odd tingling in their legs that quickly passed.

George was the first to notice something amiss. "I...I can't move my legs," he told the others.

Upon hearing this, Fern, Alan, and Portinari attempted to take a step closer to Augusta and April, but were unable to will themselves to walk.

April reached into her pocket and drew out the time reverser, while Augusta flipped open the black case to reveal a large white crystal about the size of a loaf of bread.

"That's it," said George in astonishment. "That's the Los Cactos crystal."

Portinari spoke in a pleading tone. "Please, Augusta. You must turn the time device over to me."

"Why?" Augusta gently rubbed the surface of the crystal with her fingers.

"I can't let you use it again," the doctor said earnestly. "Don't ask why. Just trust me. I love you, and I would never hurt you."

"And I love you, Rick," said Augusta with affection. "But I would love you more if you didn't steal from me."

"Would someone please tell us what's going on?" Fern interjected as she struggled vainly to move her feet.

Portinari became crestfallen. "I admit, I stole it from your apartment. But I had to. There are forces at work you don't understand. You must give it back to me."

Rather than answer, Augusta cautiously lifted the crystal from its case, which she passed to April. With one hand she raised the misty object high into the air, and with the other she plucked the time reverser from April's hand.

"You have nothing to fear," April told the others. "Once Augusta activates the time reverser, our timeline will cease to exist. None of what is about to happen will have happened."

"That sounds bad," Fern muttered to Alan.

"We have to stop her somehow," Alan replied. "I have some coins in my pocket I can throw at her."

Then the Los Cactos crystal started to glow--a spectacular, enchanting light.

"Augusta, what are you doing?" exclaimed Portinari.

The rabbit woman gazed into the shining crystal as if she were possessed. The light emanating from it grew and spread, splitting into tendrils which shot through the sky and over the horizon in almost no time.

Alan started to tremble. He had seen a similar display of pyrotechnics before, when Dolly had absorbed the evil out of Elwood City with the Cleansing Stone...

In the former Crosswire mansion, Mavis was visiting with Mickie and discussing their situation with the Spongebrain strip.

"When I read your comic, it seemed really familiar," Mavis told Mickie in the palacial living room. "Then I remembered...I had seen the exact same joke in last week's episode of Family Dude."

"So what?" said Mickie petulantly. "Writers steal jokes from other writers all the time. And nobody watches Family Dude. That's why they cancelled it."

"It won't work, Mickie," Mavis retorted. "People will catch on, and they'll stop reading your comics, and ask the newspaper to stop printing them. You won't succeed unless you come up with original ideas. Or is that the only thing I can do that you can't?"

As Mickie pondered what Mavis had told her, a wave of light sped through the mansion, almost imperceptible to them. What they experienced next was not a feeling, but rather a total lack of feeling--as if their capacity for love and compassion had been utterly stripped away, leaving only disgust and hatred.

Negative, hideous thoughts filled their minds--thoughts about hurting and killing. Unable to control themselves, they shrieked, flew at each other, and flailed with their fists.

The web of light from the Los Cactos crystal covered the entire sky for about ten seconds, then started to fade and withdraw. After another second or two the tendrils had vanished, and the crystal burst forth with an intense light that Fern, George, Alan, and Portinari found to be much more beautiful than any light they had ever before seen. If not for their certainty that something sinister had just happened, they might have contented themselves with gazing into the light all day.

"Wait a minute, April," Alan spoke up. "You said Augusta wouldn't suck the evil out of the world."

April smiled innocently. "She didn't."

With a look of immense satisfaction, Augusta lowered the crystal and raised her hand that held the time reverser. She placed her thumb over the activation switch and beamed at Portinari.

The psychiatrist had by now reached the point of desperation. "I love you, Augusta," he said with urgent emotion. "I need you. By all that is holy, do not push that button!"

Augusta only smiled wider. "I'll still love you, Rick," she said sweetly. "I'll still love you after I've become a god."

Then she tried to squeeze with her thumb and activate the time reverser...

...but her fingers would not move.

April was alarmed by the rabbit woman's sudden look of consternation. "Push the button," she urged. "Do it now."

"I...can't..." mumbled the increasingly perturbed Augusta as she fought against the invisible power that held her fingers in place.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Portinari stepped forward effortlessly and wrapped his hand around Augusta's fist. Ripping the time reverser away from her with his other hand, he said flatly, "Resistance is useless."

And in a puff of light, they both vanished.

TBC