"Where are the others?", Lee finally began, trying to bring the tension between Kimmie and her mother down a notch or two.
"We got away for the most part - not like we can do much without proper weaponry anyways. I think your brother's still fighting, though..."
"Did everyone get away?"
"Well, come to think of it... I'm not sure..."
"Who isn't there, Kimmie?" She sighed, and Lee noticed that she really resembled her mother in doing so. "Kimmie!"
"Look, I don't know where they went. All I saw was the key on the ground, them grabbing it, then one of the creatures chasing after them. I didn't get to see what happened after that - it all happened so fast."
"You lost one of the keys?", Cassandra demanded. "You really aren't fit for that title after all, are you?"
"Well...", Lee said, unsure of how to respond. Then he realized that Kimmie had omitted a crucial detail from her narrative. "Wait...", he asked, "but who was it?"
"Jenny and Tina. Tina picked up the key, and Jenny ran after her."
Before Lee could react to this turn of events, Cassandra suddenly interjected: "You know what? Fine... since I suppose it doesn't matter much now anyways, I'll tell you that what you two don't know - besides the fact that I was the one who helped you by leaving the objects you found and even guiding you away from the casino (which I ordered captured) through my control of Barrage, of course - is that the company... well... no longer really exists."
"How come!?", Kimmie and Lee asked in unison.
"It wasn't by accident that the control room was placed below ground level. Coral Grove was originally entirely submerged. Remember, it was built by a lizard species - they're great swimmers, you know." Cassandra paused for a moment, then continued. "We built the top part ourselves, as a sort of mirror image - but one with an escape plan. You see, it was obvious that it simply wasn't feasible to build enough submarines to allow everyone to escape in the event of an emergency, so the top part was built such that when the self-destruct mechanism was triggered, it turned into - well, a giant escape pod, for lack of a better term."
Both of the teens listening to Cassandra were shocked. She continued: "You have no idea how much everything in the company depended on Coral Grove. It was His Eminence's idea in the first place - he's quite the centralization freak, so to speak... and I'd say it shows in terms of his species building this pyramid as well." She chuckled briefly, then became serious again. "Without the headquarters, we are nothing. MWF is no more."
"How can we trust you?", Lee demanded. "You're the one who lied to us and kept us trapped over there!"
"You can't trust her," a voice spoke out. "You can trust me."