Author's note: Monster Francis arc has begun! What a sweet monster.

The monster looked back to the door before he dragged the rest of his serpentine body over the bed, completely ignoring Kowalski and sitting at the door like a dog asking to go for a walk.

Kowalski sat down and sighed as he stared up at the monster. The knowledge of what just happened hadn't sunk into his mind yet and he just felt numb. Just like Francis, he was now void of thought, emotion. But the memory of Doris' worried voice brought all of his feelings back. He shook his head and slowly placed his flippers on his knees as he looked down to the floor. Doris' sweet voice, he never wanted to hear shake, tremble or stutter. She would become a spluttering mess like he was.

His tears dripped to the floor once again, rolling down his cheeks, the underside of his beak and wet the ground below him. The pain he felt was far worse than any he had felt before. The pain of all 17 breakups didn't even amount to the pain he felt at that moment. But he shook himself back to sense and forced himself to stand tall. He wasn't going to break, he wasn't going to crumble again. He was going to stay strong and find a way to fix Blowhole even if he had to make it his entire life's work.

Francis twisted his head around to stare at Kowalski again. Kowalski felt nerve but didn't back down as he stepped to the door again.

"A-alright," he said, his voice shaking. "You follow me." He pointed between himself and Francis, hoping that what little intelligence the beast had would understand the gesture.

He then punched at the control panel and the door slid open, revealing the wide hallway.

Francis took no hesitation in running out into the hallway, seeming to scent the air, pointing his head in every which direction almost as if he was searching for something.

Kowalski stepped out into the hallway and started walking towards the elevator, hoping the monster would follow. He waddled a good 5 meters down the hallway before Francis reared up and galloped towards the bird. His feet thundering on the ground as Kowalski braced himself to get smacked to the floor again. But Francis ran straight past by a few meters and stopped to look back at Kowalski.

Kowalski hurried himself up and reached the elevator, hoping to whatever sky spirits there were that it was empty and not being called to another floor. The elevator door opened and Kowalski got a good look at the space he had to deal with. He looked back to Francis, then back to the elevator again. It was going to be a tight fit.

He stepped in and tried to beckon the beast in with him. Waving his flippers and pointing to the ground next to him.

"Come here. Get in," he said, as clear as he could.

Francis just stood outside the elevator door and stared. Kowalski huffed, then the elevator pinged and the doors began to close. Francis did not like that. Not one bit. He released an ear splitting scream as Kowalski began to vanish behind the door and then began to force his way inside, the doors opening again after detecting something between them, until Francis was mostly inside. His large fluked tail still lay outside the doors but Kowalski found no problem in grabbing them and pulling them inside. He just hoped and wished Francis wouldn't panic when the doors closed again and they were locked in that tiny space.

Luckily for Kowalski, the elevator ride was smooth and Francis ran down the halls of the lowest level of the lair, bouncing off the walls and grunting like a sea monster would.

Kowalski opened the door to the large pool room and Francis instantly caught sight of the glistening, still water. Running into the room, the serpent slipped into the pool and dove down to the bottom, circling around a few times before surfacing again and facing Kowalski, huffing a spray of water over the bird in an effort to clear his nose of water.

Kowalski nervously chuckled and stepped forward.

"Are you comfortable?"

Obviously Blowhole gave no response and Kowalski expected that but thought it was nice to speak to him anyway. Perhaps once, or if, Kowalski had managed to bring Blowhole back he might remember these times his mind was lost. And he could think back to just how kindly Kowalski had treated him.

Kowalski sat down and sighed. He was tired and the day had only just begun. He still needed to talk to Doris and tell her what was going on. He wasn't looking forward to that. Doris would be devastated. Her brother was gone, mostly. Doris would demand to see him and Kowalski had no idea how Francis would react if he saw her. He went rabid at the door when he just heard her voice. Inch deep gashes on the door that could be in Doris. Kowalski was stuck, what to do?

The serpent dipped beneath the water once more and Kowalski found that the perfect time to slip out of the room. Perhaps once Kowalski was gone the monster wouldn't even realise he was ever there and be calm and content in the water.

The door was locked and Kowalski checked that three times before he took a step away from the door. Pain filled his senses once again as he leaned his flipper on the wall. He supposed the easy part had been dealt with and now he was about to deliver the worst news he had ever had the displeasure of discovering. He thought of Doris in his heart, held her close and sighed as he made his way back to the elevator.

In a higher level of the evil lair, Doris and Red one were casually waiting in one of the conference rooms. Kowalski heard their hushed voices as he stepped out of the elevator and peered inside through the open door. He sighed one last time before he waddled inside.

Doris immediately caught sight of him from her seat around the oval shaped conference table and Red One shook his head sympathetically to Kowalski, as if he already knew the news Kowalski had come to bring.

"Kowalski, is Francis ok? What was all that banging? Did his bed fall apart again?"

Kowalski shook his head and hopped up onto the table where he waddled over to Doris, sat before her and placed a tender flipper on top of hers. He breathed deeply, looked up into her eyes and willed himself not to cry again, for her.

"Francis turned in the night."

Doris shook her head in disbelief and pulled her flipper back.

"What? No! You practically have his medicine all worked out. He- No!"

Red One looked up with sorrowful eyes.

"I'm sorry, Doris."

Kowalski didn't really know what else to say. Should he have kept quiet or made a eulogy? He thought it best to think about Doris and keep her as comfortable as possible.

Doris shook her head before she stared off into space, her eyes quivering and suddenly tears began to streak down her perfect face. The pain she felt was immeasurable. The one person she loved unconditionally was now gone, again.

Kowalski couldn't stop a few more tears slipping from his eyes as Doris lowered her head in despair. He opened his flippers wide, inviting her in and hugged her tightly as she rested her head into Kowalski's body.

Kowalski briefly looked over to the little red lobster, even he shed a tear. It was weird, running down his eye stalks but he felt the pain nonetheless.

Kowalski sighed and smoothed Doris' head, calming her down and comforting her. Hopefully how he phrased this next part would help somewhat.

"I-I don't know how to say this," Kowalski started.

Doris didn't lift her head, just stopped her sobbing long enough to listen.

"He's not completely gone."

Doris instantly shot her head up, her cheeks wet and pink.

"What do you mean?" She asked, her voice hoarse.

Kowalski cleared his throat and wiped his tears from his eyes.

"He recognizes me. I was able to move him to the indoor pool without him even trying to hurt me. I think he recognized you too. He went crazy at the door when he heard your voice. I think he was trying to get to you."

Doris stopped crying immediately, she blinked her tears away and reached for her segway.

"Take me to him. I have to see him."

Kowalski did as he was told. However, he kept Red One away. He had no idea how Francis would react to him, since the last major thing that happened between the two of them was a backstabbing. So he and Doris alone went down to the lowest level of the lair.

The water was eerily quiet. Not a ripple coursed over the perfect surface. Doris followed Kowalski into the room and promptly shut the door. Hearts were pounding as Kowalski stepped towards the pool's edge, keeping his flippers drawn in tightly to his body, partially in fear.

"F-Franis," he called.

Not a moment later, small ripples on the water cascaded to the outer edges of the pool. The perfect tension on the water broke as the sea monster reared his head up out of the water and leered down to Kowalski. Trickles of water poured down from Francis' head and over Kowalski as the beast seemed scent and look him over thoroughly. Then, he caught sight of Doris.

Francis launched himself out of the water, his claws struggling and scraping on the stone side of the pool for a moment before he dragged himself up and over to Doris in an instant. Doris had a fright and backed up, scared for her life. Francis was at least the size of a full grown orca with meters of extra tail beyond that. Francis didn't stop lurching towards her as she traveled back and ended up trapped against the wall as Francis dragged his eye across her body.

Kowalski quickly turned and ran up to Doris who was still cowering and close to tears again.

"Say something to him."

Doris swallowed her fears and let her shoulders drop.

"Hi Francis," she said, her voice shaking and unsure.

The monster liked that and gave back a reverberating low growl.

Doris squeaked, scared again as the monster wouldn't give her even a foot of space. So Kowalski stepped in to hopefully teach the monster some manners.

He grabbed Francis' wet flukes that were still half hanging in the water and tugged at him to get his attention. Francis did turn and craned his neck around to huff at Kowalski.

"Give her some space, big guy."

Francis took a few steps back before he launched down and grabbed Kowalski in his taloned hand, throwing him into the pools water and diving in after him.

Doris gasped and drove forward, peering into the water with a heavily beating heart.

"Kowalski!" She exclaimed.

Several moments went by where all she could see through the dark, deep water was just a shadow below. Then Kowalski surfaced with a slightly crooked smile.

"It's alright Doris."

She breathed a sigh of relief and slipped off her segway and on to the floor where she leaned over the pool's edge. Francis surfaced again, next to Kowalski and cleared his nose of water, the spray covering Doris.

She gave a pitiful chuckle and just stared at the monster who was once her brother. She then shook her head and frowned again.

"I don't understand. He's meant to be a monster."

Kowalski swam to the edge of the pool and dragged himself up and out, sitting next to Doris as Francis dipped below the surface again.

"It was a shock for me to find out too. But don't get me wrong, I'd rather this than any other outcome. This is actually good."

Doris outstretched her flippers below her and rested her head down.

"Will your cure still work?"

Kowalski shook his heavy head.

"No, it was created to stop the development, the progress of changes. He's fully infected and at the end of his transformation. We will use it to rid his body of the pathogen but the cure won't fix him."

"Then what do we do? He can't live like this, Kowalski." Doris started to sob again. The tears welling up in her eyes and dripping into the water below.

But before she could cry a river, Francis popped again and nudged her with his wet face.

Kowalski chuckled and placed his flipper on Doris' head as Francis gently nuzzled her back to smiling.

"See, he doesn't want you to cry over him. We'll fix him. Just a different way."

Doris lifted her head and brought her own flipper up to Francis, gently smoothing his face.

"But how? You're not a God Kowalski, you can't perform miracles."

Kowalski hopped up and gave a triumphant smile. Doris was right, he was just an ordinary penguin but that's what made him special. And he had some very good leads to follow up on which would help tremendously at bringing Francis back.

"Doris, I'm more than certain I can bring him back mentally. He shows promising signs. I promise, and this time I won't let you down. I won't let anyone down. I will bring your brother back."

Doris smiled as she received another spray to the face from her brother.

Kowalski smiled and sighed. This had gone much better than he could have ever hoped for. Things were looking bright again. It was like he said to himself before. He solved one problem and another even worse problem arose in its place. He had to report back to Skipper...