It was raining again, but Mirror Stan hardly noticed. He was too busy being violently ill. James and Natasha were at it again, smooching and professing their love for each other. It's enough to make an honest Evil King sick… he thought.

He bowed his head. But I'm not an Evil King, he remembered. Or am I? I'm the mirror image of one, so why can't I be? Yeah, the Mirror Evil King. I like the sound of that. And just as soon as he screws up, and I get free, I'm going to blow them off the face of the planet…

He shivered slightly with the urge to do just that; every fiber of his being was commanding him to destroy them, and he couldn't do a thing. He turned around in the hopes that it would ease somewhat. It didn't help until he saw the imp hanging upside down in a nearby tree, contriving to look very bat-like.

Mirror Stan looked around quickly to make sure James and Natasha were still preoccupied with each other. They were. He turned back to the imp, held up three fingers, and pointed in the direction of Madril. Then he drew a square on the palm of one hand and pointed to the ground.

The imp jumped slightly and quietly flapped over to his shoulder. It squeaked a question, and Mirror Stan nodded. It squeaked a second time, and he held up two fingers. It squeaked one last time, but Mirror Stan shook his head. The imp nodded and quickly flapped away.

It only took an hour to reach Madril by air; the same trip would take a day on foot, but the imp was moving as fast as its wings could carry it. It flapped in through an upper window of the hotel and crash landed on the bed.

Rosalyn jumped and squealed as it tumbled to a stop against her leg. "Oh, is it an imp, again?" she asked, somewhat breathless.

"No, it's a flying cow," Stan said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He moved closer to it.

The little imp heaved and panted. It chattered something between breathes.

"Slave, get it something to drink," Stan commanded, stepping easily into the roll of translator.

Ari did as he told without question, pouring a shot glass full of water for the tiny creature. It grasped the glass and squeaked it thanks, then spent several seconds restoring its hydration. It spent several more seconds catching its breath while its audience waited with varying degrees of patience. Finally, it began chittering and squawking.

"It says it met my imposter," Stan translated. "It says he doesn't seem to like James or Natasha. Not that I blame him. He said something about being here in three days or so, and something about a magic square. Oh, no…"

"The magic square in Madril's sewers," Ari groaned.

"Of course!" Rosalyn exclaimed. "That's why they'd be coming here. It makes perfect sense. I had completely forgotten about that thing."

"Wish I could," Ari muttered.

"But does it still work?" Rosalyn asked. "I mean, after…you know…the last time…" For some reason, Rosalyn was hesitant to speak of Ari's time as one of the Ignored.

"That's a very good question," Stan answered. He grinned. "Let's go find out!"

"No!" Ari almost shouted. He wanted nothing to do with that thing ever again.

Stan chuckled. "Whatever."

The imp, having completely recovered, squeaked its goodbyes and flew out the window. As she watched it go, Rosalyn mused, "I wonder why they're going to wait so long before they show up?"

Ari shrugged. "Who knows? At least, we know we have a little time."

"Oh, yes, wonderful," Stan said dryly. "Time to sit around and do nothing except wait."

"We can help people," Rosalyn pointed out. Stan raised an eyebrow and just looked at her without saying anything. "Well, Ari and I can, anyway. You could, too, if you weren't so pigheaded."

Stan snorted. "Pigheadedness has nothing to with it. Besides, you're the one with the pig's head."

"You take that back right now!" Rosalyn exclaimed loudly.

"Hey, can you keep it down over there?" shouted a muffled voice from somewhere around them.

"Put a sock in it, you neutered primate!" Stan yelled back.

"Stanley, shut up," Rosalyn yelled at him.

"I'm a what?" came the disembodied voice from beyond one of the walls.

"You heard me," Stan roared. "Now, shut up before I send you to the hospital!"

"Stanley!"

There was a stomping noise, then the sound of a door being slammed open, and suddenly, someone was banging on the door. "Come out here and get some, you freak!" shouted their disgruntled neighbor.

"Stan, no!" Rosalyn said. She tried to grab his arm and keep him in the room, but he managed to shake her off. He pulled the door open and stepped out, pulling it shut behind him. There was a slam and a muffled curse, then a pounding noise that rapidly grew softer. Stan walked back inside the room.

"It's nice to be feared," he said happily.

"Stan, what did you do?" Rosalyn demanded.

Stan sighed with exasperation. "I didn't hurt him. I just grabbed him and slammed him against the wall. Then he ran away."

"You are so stupid!" Rosalyn yelled. "What if he calls the Hero's Club, huh? What about me, being seen here with you?"

"You've been seen with me before," Stan laughed. "And if he calls the Hero's Club, I'll just have a little fun with them."

"You'd better get ready, then," Ari said. He was standing at the window. "They're coming out the Town Hall now and heading this way."

"Oh, no…" Rosalyn clutched her head. "Now, what? What am I supposed to do, now? Oh, this is bad…"

"Oh, stop gibbering," Stan said scornfully. "You're giving me a headache."

"Oh, shut up, Stanley! This is easy for you. You don't have to worry about being kicked out of the Hero's Club. All you have to worry about is which attack will do the most damage."

"That's a tough decision to make," Stan defended himself. Rosalyn glared at him.

"They're entering the building now, guys," Ari informed them.

"Ohnoohnoohno…" Rosalyn moaned.

"You could always go out the window," Stan pointed out.

Rosalyn brightened considerably. "Wait! I've got an idea. You go out the window! That way no one will know you're here!"

"Except the guy I pummeled…" Stan murmured.

"I've got a better idea," said Ari.

"It was this room, right here," said the young muscle head. Despite Stan's protests that he hadn't hurt the guy, he had. The young man was sporting two black eyes, a bleeding, broken nose, and a minor concussion on the back of his head. He had only come along to point out the room. Now, two Heroes took him away for some better medical treatment than a rag to staunch the blood. The remaining Heroes nodded to each other and, on the count of three, kicked open the door.

"What is going on here?" Rosalyn demanded, jumping to her feet from where she had been attempting to sit nonchalantly on the bed.

"Uh…" The Heroes looked around, but could see no Evil King anywhere. One of them stammered, "We're…uh…we were told….that is…"

A second one, one of Rosalyn's fans, saluted and said smartly, "Hero Rosalyn! We were told there was a criminal assailant in this room, but obviously that can't be so."

"Obviously," Rosalyn agreed. She was a little pale and shaky; fortunately, the Heroes mistook her nervousness for great anger.

The unofficial spokesman saluted again and said, "Well, we'll just be leaving then. Sorry to have troubled you." They backed out and closed the door. It now required being slammed to make it latch, but they finally succeeded.

Rosalyn heaved a sigh of relief and sank down on the bed. "Oh, good. They didn't suspect a thing." There was a time when deceiving her fellow Heroes would have made her feel guilty. Now, all she felt was relief that they hadn't caught on. She wondered if she'd been hanging around Stan for too long, but quickly pushed the thought away.

"Slave," Stan said approving. "You have this certain knack for being completely invisible when you want to be."

Ari wasn't sure whether or not to take that as a compliment, but he said thanks anyway.

"Okay, it's time for bed before anything else happens tonight," Rosalyn said, sighing heavily.

"Sleep is for the weak," Stan said.

Rosalyn started to answer him, then changed her mind. She grinned and shut off the light, effectively trapping Stan inside Ari's now non-existent shadow until the lights came back on.

A light played across the backs of Rosalyn's eyelids, waking her. She spent several moments trying to make it go away before she realized it was the sun shining through a window and onto her face. She sighed slightly and rolled over, not yet ready to give up the only real peace she'd had since Ari found Stan. Something tickled the back of her mind at the thought of that name; some sense that all was not right…something about Stan and the light…She decided to ignore it and went back to sleep.

Suddenly, she found herself tumbling through the air; her squeal of surprise turned into a loud "oomph" as the breath was forced out of her lugs by the hard, unyielding surface she fell onto. Before she could react in any way, something heavy fell on top of her, momentarily pinning her to the floor. As she lay there trying to clear her sleep-fogged mind enough to figure out what had just happened, she heard the sound of someone howling with laughter.

With some difficulty, Rosalyn managed to fight her way out from under the mattress. She faced Stan and put her hands on her hips. "Very funny," she said angrily.

Stan, still laughing, nodded. Once he could speak, he said, "Revenge is so sweet."

Rosalyn sighed; she was still too tired to argue with him. She toyed with the notion of picking up her parasol, then decided not to. Stan didn't tease her about her shadow as long as she didn't draw attention to it. Something was still nagging at the back of her mind. She looked around the room, pointedly ignoring Stan, who was still chuckling. "Where's Ari?" she asked, finally pinpointing the problem.

"I sent him for breakfast, so he wouldn't be able to wake you up and ruin my plan," Stan answered.

"Oh, great," Rosalyn moaned. "Alone in here…with you…"

"Time was, women would have killed to be in your position," Stan said wistfully. "Literally. Being an Evil King was a very prestigious thing three hundred years ago."

Rosalyn was suddenly very interested; Stan never talked about what things were like back then. "Are you joking?" she asked dubiously.

Stan shook his head. "You wish I was. Being an Evil King was more important than being the human King. We got more press time than Heroes."

"You are lying to me," Rosalyn said.

"Usually," Stan agreed, grinning. "But not right now. Nobody cared much about Heroes, until Hopkins defeated Gohma."

Rosalyn still didn't really believe Stan, but his story had credence. It certainly seemed that no Hero had been half as important as Hopkins. The only deeds that were chronicled were their defeats of the Evil Kings; it was almost like they hadn't done anything else. "But why?" she asked.

"They weren't as important," Stan answered. "They defeated us and brought peace to the land, but that was what always happened, and no one cared after a while. Heroes never really helped people for some reason. They left that job to the local militias."

Rosalyn creased her forehead and shook her head. "So what changed? Why did Hero Hopkins suddenly get so much glory?"

"Because, for the first time in centuries, no one knew if the Hero would actually win."

The door opened and Ari came in. He took in Rosalyn's disheveled state, Stan's self-satisfied attitude, and the tumbled bedding, and asked with slight trepidation, "Do I want to know?"

Stan thought he should be angry, or at least insulted, but he was in too good of a mood. Rosalyn sighed heavily and explained, "Stan was trying to get me back for turning the lights off."

Ari relaxed visibly. "Oh, okay." He set the bag of breakfast on a table. "So what were you talking about?"

"I was telling pig girl about how women used to throw themselves all over me," Stan answered. Ari repressed a shudder.

"Oh, there's a mental picture," Rosalyn groaned, unknowingly agreeing with Ari. "I think I need to boil my brain, now."

"Please, be my guest," Stan said with relish.

"Oh, shut up." She helped herself to the food, then said, "So, keep talking. Why didn't anyone know if Hero Hopkins would win?"

Stan motioned to Ari to bring him the bag, then leaned back in his chair. He made Rosalyn wait for a very long time before saying, "So, first you want me to shut up, then you want me to talk? Make up your mind, woman! All right, all right. Let me start from the beginning."