On a sunny afternoon, Mae, Isadora, and Addison were cleaning out the attic at the Bach residence. "Why do we have to clean the attic?" asked Mae. "I've got to meet Nicki and Belle at Waffle World."

"Later, Mae," Addison replied. "We promised Grandma we would clean up in here."

"That's a weird lantern," Isadora said. "I've seen Chinese, Japanese, and Korean lanterns in person at markets and restaurants, but I'd never seen a Vietnamese lantern in person in my life."

"Yeah, well," Addison said, "Grandma loves to keep them in the attack so they won't get destroyed."

"Grandma must've taken this while fleeing Vietnam," Mae suggested. After looking around the place, she came across an old comic collection. "Hey, isn't this your old manga collection?"

"Where did you find them?" asked Addison. "I thought Grandma donated those to the thrift store 4 years ago."

"They were in a box that says, 'Addison's old books'," explained Mae.

"I can't believe Grandma hid them from me," Addison said. "She knows that lying is wrong."

"Easy, sis," said Mae. "I'll go get Grandma and ask her why she didn't donate them to charity." She left the place while grabbing a green hoodie.

Then Isadora looked at the manga. "This sure was a sad manga," she said. "I remember a bunch of friends of Dagger and Merula buying them for their tragedy comic collection, and they were huge fonds of these."

"If only we could go in there," Addison replied.

Isadora thought about it, and she decided that they should check it out. As they were going into the manga, Green Hood was observing them. Then it sent a text from Addison's phone.

Isadora, Mae, and I are cleaning our grandparents attic. We also uncovered old manga collection. Come quick.

XxoxX

At Zuzanna's Steps, Peggy was putting away new leotards when she got the text. "Hey, Mom," she said, "Addison needs some help cleaning the attic."

"Could you pick up some eggs on the way home, Peggy?" asked Mrs. O'Donovan. "Your father is making potato omlettes."

"I will, Mom," Peggy replied.

XxoxX

At Covington Ice Cream, Mahi and Rayne were wrapping up their shift when they got Addison's text. "Dinner is not for another two hours," Rayne said, "so let's help Addy with her chores."

XxoxX

Meanwhile, Addison and Isadora were in a manga. Everything was black and white, and everyone was wearing Vietnamese apparel. "We're in the manga," Isadora said. "I knew teleporting into the story would work. Now we get to see where the story of the Cruel Empress goes."

"I have to warn you," Addison said, "this story does not have a happy ending."

"What do you mean?" asked Isadora.

From the shadows, they saw a mysterious figure going around the streets. After she took an orange from the ground and hid in an area, she removed her hood, revealing royal Vietnamese jewels. "That's Princess Tuyết Nhi," whispered Addison.

"How does this story begin anyway?" asked Isadora. "I needed to know how it begins. Stories always have a beginning, middle, and end."

"It all starts with Empress Ngọc Ái, who was the princess of the Tuy Ngãi kingdom," Addison explained. "She was forced into marrying a prince from the neighboring kingdom who doesn't love her. He constantly abused and neglected her, turning her from sweet to sour. She steals farms, executes anyone who gets in her way, banishes spies for life, and works slaves to the bone. Her first-born daughter lived in the palace all of her life. Princess Tuyet Nhi snook out disguised as a peasant so she can be free."

"Talk about castle fever," Isadora said. "It's a play on Cabin Fever, where you live in your house for too long and there's no one else to talk to. Loneliness can sometimes make you go completely crazy. I mean, Tio Emanuel divorced Tia Delfina because he fell in love with a hot actress from Broadway and has always wanted to work on Broadway. Damien, Mel, and Toby always suspected that he keeps cheating on Tia Delfina, so they stayed with her. I snapped her out of her craziness after I read her the Guatemalan version of 'Cinderella'."

Princess Tuyet Nhi heard Isadora talking. "You must talk real fast, peasant," she said. "I'm, uh, Tùng Quân."

Isadora was confused. "Tùng Quân was a persona she came up with in order to avoid royal guards capturing her," Addison whispered. "This is also the part where she meets her true love."

A cute, poor farm boy comes in to take his pet Pho Quoc Ridgeback, Phan, for some food. Addison told Isadora that he was Bảo Hiển, a poor rice farmer who secretly gives rice to orphans. For months he's been working off other jobs to pay other lands and to find medicine for his ailing mother.

"Isn't that like your mother's death?" Isadora said. "Of course she died in a car accident when you were only five years old."

Then Addison remembered the last time she saw her mother alive. She was 5 years old in Los Angeles and Mae was only 4. They were both left with the babysitter. A beautiful Vietnamese woman dressed as a nurse came in. She was Addison's mother, Mai Khanh. "How do I look, girls?" she asked.

"Like a weal nuwse, Mommy," said Mae. "Youw gowing to be playing a nuwse."

"Their filming the season finale of the med drama 'Hospital Heaven' there at the part where my character Nurse Linh Châu confess her feelings to coworker Dr. Joyner," replied Mrs. Bach.

"I'm driving your mother to the TV studio," said a Vietnamese man in '80s apparel. "Be good girls for the babysitter."

"We will, Daddy," said Mae.

"Wait," young Addison said. "Mommy, do you have to be in that medical drama all the time?"

"Look, Addy," said her mom, "there is more to life than just working. You'll figure it out one day."

After Mrs. Bach kissed her on the cheek, she and Mr. Bach left the door.

XxoxX

In present time, Addison was snapped out of her depressing last memory seeing her parents. "Sorry. Isadora," she said. "I was remembering what happened to my mom before she-"

Isadora comforted her.

They were so distracted into Addison's dark past, that they didn't notice that Bảo Hiển and Tung Quac left the hideout where Bao Hien keeps his secret rice stash.

XxoxX

Back in the real world, they saw that Isadora and Addison weren't there. Mahi thought that she could pass the time by reading "The Cruel Empress." In the comic she saw that two peasants looked kind of like their missing friends. "Girls," she said, "I think we found our friends."

"Good eye, Mahi," Rayne replied. "Now we could just get them out of there."

"Let's all teleport into the comic," suggested Peggy.

XxoxX

Within a snap, Peggy, Rayne, and Mahi were sent into the comic book to find Isadora and Addison chasing after the main heroes of the story. "Addison," said Peggy, "we got your text."

"I didn't send you a text," Addison said. "I was controlling an eager Isadora."

That's when they realized Green Hood must've sent them the text. They also noticed that the scene changed into a burnt-down village. Addison remembered that this was the part where Queen Ngọc Ái searches the villages for her missing daughter. The queen noticed the girls and thought that they were spies, planning to seize the throne. "Guards, seize them!" she shouted.

Guardians Unite

They took down most of the guards. Isadora saw Bao Hien and Phan going around the place, looking for Tung Quan. Isadora decided to help the leading male find her. Around the burnt villages, they looked around for her. That's when Phan found her collapsed body on the ground. She was dying. Before she was sent to the afterlife, she confessed that she was the princess. She kissed Bao Chien one last time and died.

"This is a really sad scene," Isadora said. "I know this is hard, but Addison should've just told me. Like the time she forgot to tell me that she had to go to a play production of 'Anything Goes' and couldn't afford tickets for me. That's when I had to spend the night babysitting Tobias."

With grief in his body, Bao Chien decided to confess to Queen Ngoc Ai where her daughter is.

While flying around seeing Bao Chien confessing, Isadora saw her friends being arrested for witchcraft. She couldn't lose any of them. So she made a tornado, freeing them from their clutches. "Let's go home," she said. "This story is becoming too much for me. I remember seeing 'Romeo and Juliet' for the first time when I was 8, and boy, was the ending sad."

XxoxX

The teleported out of the story and back into the attic. As soon as they transformed back to their regular clothes, Addison looked at Isadora in tears. "Now you understand why the story is sad," Addison said.

"Yeah," Isadora replied. "Bao Chien did get to be with the love of his life, all because her mother kept her all alone for a very long time."

"Not all stories have a happy ending," Addison said. "In the end of 'The Cruel Empress', Ngoc Ai relizes her mistake that cruelty can lead to pain for others. She committed suicide by falling into the river and drowning. Bao Chien later died of a broken heart, while Phan howls into the night."

The others started to cry. "Oh, Addison," Peggy said. "That was awful."

"This is why I decided to donate these to charity," Addison explained. "I couldn't take the ending, and it reminds me of how my mother passed away in that car crash."

Everyone came up to Addison and hugged her.

XxoxX

As they left the attic, they saw Mae talking to her grandmother in her's and Grandpa Bach's room. "Grandma?" asked Addison. "You kept 'The Cruel Empress' and all my old mangas?"

"I did, child," Grandma Bach admitted. "I wanted to remind you that not all stories have happy endings. Sometimes things don't go the way you plan, but it doesn't mean things won't get worse."

"You're right," Addison tearfully said as she started to smile/ "Things will get better, and we'll find Father soon."

She hugged her grandmother. The others decided to join in on the hug.

The End.

Note: This is loosely based on the WITCH story, The Cruel Empress.