Tippi and Count Bleck were celebrating their reunion with a lovers quarrel.

"Let me see if I understand this," she said, "Before you continue to explain yourself. It was your idea to bargain with Nawrocki to set me free."

"That's right."

"After I was gone, you went completely out of your mind from the separation between us so much that you can't tell right from wrong, is that it?"

"More or less."

"Blumiere, I think there's something fundamentally wrong with you."

"Perhaps we'll look into it."

"I leave you for just a few days and you're already whipping out that book!" she stormed, suddenly very angry. "That's your answer for everything, isn't it?"

"Timpani, there's no denying that book has answers!"

"That book asked the questions in the first place, if it has answers! After this is over I want you to get rid of it."

"I can't do that- someone's got to watch it."

"Someone who isn't driven to use it at the drop of a hat!"

"It was hardly the drop of a hat! I had to get you back!"

"You know I would have come back!"

"But I didn't! Not safely, anyway."

"You sent me away!"

"Because I couldn't watch you suffer!"

"So it's better if I suffer somewhere else?"

Dimentio was watching them argue back and forth, as if watching a match of Mario Tennis. Then he turned around and pulled the rest of the minions together, away from the wall and out of Dimension D. Soon Nastasia, O'Chunks, Mimi, and Mr. L were gathered with him.

Nastasia cleared her throat. "Excuse me, Count, but we have more pressing matters to attend to," she said. "Yeah, so there's more Machine Mades outside. They're confused but they're not out."

"Yeah," said Mimi, "but Mr. Merlon told us how to get rid of 'em. See, Nawrocki stocked 'em to run on his potions instead of, like, gears and junk."

"Right," said Count Bleck. "Dimentio, can you lead to take care of that?"

"Magical beings, I know more about than machines." He disappeared.

Count Bleck nodded. "Now that we know he's using magic, we should be on equal footing. No one has the upper hand."

Mr. L stepped forward. "Uh, with your permission, Count, I think Brobot might still be useful in stomping them."

"He doesn't need my permission to be useful," said Count Bleck, "but if you're asking for my permission to use him, then go ahead."

Mr. L pumped his fist victoriously and then scurried off.

Count Bleck motioned to the others to follow him. They followed on the ground, while he lifted himself into the air, to the top of the hole blown in the wall. He had a good view of the outside.

A large number of Yaridovices were there, as well as the bow-shooting ones. Count Bleck recognized the arrows as the ones brought back from the woods. Nawrocki wasn't doing this thing partway- he'd located the missing tribe of arrows in his quest for information about the old Smithy Gang. Count Bleck hadn't made that connection until recently. If he had, would it have made a difference? Probably not; he still wouldn't have seen Nawrocki for what he was until it was too late.

Even with the reduced numbers of Machine Mades, it was still a tough battle. They were attacking with all the fierceness and velocity they'd displayed in the village, but these monsters were stronger. The home advantage was coming in handy, true. His minions knew where all the hiding spots and pitfalls were (what little there were to be found in a barren landscape) and their stock of items was coming in handy. But this was an entire factory of monsters—scratch that, most of a factory of monsters, given that he'd just sucked up a floors worth into oblivion.

Then he spotted Merlon in the distance, lobbing spells into the fray. He hit randomly, and Count Bleck noticed that no matter who or what the spells hit, they and the backlash hurt only the Machine Mades. He nodded to himself, and then reappeared next to Merlon.

"You must teach me that maneuver sometime," he said.

Merlon jumped. "Count Bleck!" he said. "I didn't hear you come up."

Count Bleck put his face in his hands. "I've become one of them," he sighed.

"Pardon?"

"I wasn't aware you were coming," said Count Bleck.

"I've come to help your minions," said Merlon. "The women came to me for help, and I've given them what they need to fight."

"Which is?"

"All they need to do is fight. I'm here because they're strong, but not strong enough for me to just turn them out with nothing more than a scrap of information and my blessings."

Count Bleck shook his head. "I can't believe you would come here."

"Blumiere," he said, "think about this: If I, the man who once lead the crusade against you and your deeds is now willingly fighting on the same side, with no prior encouragement even from your minions, does that not say anything about your redemption?"

"I've done something awful again."

Merlon paused to lob another spell and take out a few Yaridoviches who were surrounding Mimi, fighting in her spider-form.

She waved one of her spindly legs. "Thanks!" she called. "Mimimimimimimimimimi!"

"If you write yourself off every time you do something bad, you'll never be good enough for yourself," said Merlon. "You need to be aware of yourself. For starters, listen to your wife."

"No, I mean, I did some very, very awful."

"No, you didn't," said Merlon. "You didn't do anything awful because you didn't want to do anything awful. Nothing in and of itself is---" he paused to cast a spell that cleared out several Machine Mades surrounding them. "Excuse me. Nothing in and of itself is awful."

"We're not winning, are we?"

"No," said Merlon. "These monsters are too strong."

Count Bleck nodded. Then he spread his arms, and opened up the sky again.

"Focus your heart," said Merlon. "The magic comes from there."

This time, he began to pull up the Machine Mades, flailing in terror. His minions, though trembling, remained firmly planted on the floor.

"Like that," said Merlon.

"Thank you for showing me."

Merlon nodded. "The dark secrets of the book have affected you deeply, more than you know. You can't un-read it, but you must always be in control of yourself."

Suddenly, Count Bleck found himself back in Nawrocki's empty factory room. He looked around and saw that the rest of his minions were there, too, just as confused as he was.

Nawrocki was standing near the closet, clapping his leaves quickly. "Good job, really, bon travail. You've broken your agreement."

"Wait," said Mr. L, "I thought you said we'd die if that happened."

"I was hoping," said Nawrocki, "but it seems someone's magic is stronger than mine and is protecting you. Which is a pain in the tail." He slowly opened the closet door, creeeaaak, as he spoke. "So… do you want to know what I've been doing in this closet the whole time?

"See, the Smithy Gang isn't the only thing I admire. As a plant, I do admire the more prominent members of my kingdom, Plantae. And, if you'll recall your history lessons, there was more than one monster in the Smithy Gang's heyday."

"Plantae," said Count Bleck to himself.

"Monster plants?" asked Nastasia. "Are you thinking—"

"What you're thinking."

"Smilax."

"What's a Smilax?" asked Mimi.

"Smilax is a semisentient multi-headed piranha plant indigenous to Bean Valley," said Tippi.

The wall with the closet door exploded outwards. Count Bleck shielded those around him from the wall shrapnel. The dust cleared quickly, and suddenly they found themselves looking up at a three-story piranha plant with an enormous boat of a head and many, many other smaller heads growing out of thorny vines.

"That," said Tippi. "That is a Smilax."

Nawrocki indicated Smilax. "I've been tending him in there, in a sort of dimensional space-warp so he'd have enough room. I figured he'd be a good mascot in my crusade against the world."

Smilax gnashed his teeth once. He was drooling with anticipation.

Count Bleck looked up at the biggest head. As his head traced upwards, his spirits sank down, down, into the dungeon beneath him.

His minions flanked him by the sides, standing firm in their resolution, like soldiers on review.

"Your order, Count," said Nastasia.

Count Bleck nodded. "Very well, then. On the defensive."

The melee started.

Smilax swiped one vine across the ground. The piranha plant heads growing from it snapped and bit as it made its way across the room. The minions jumped it like a rope, but on the rebound they were knocked down, save for Dimentio who was hanging in the air as usual.

"Scatter!" Count Bleck commanded, and they complied.

"Nastasia, hypnotize it!" he commanded.

"I'm trying, sir," said Nastasia. "Its mind isn't developed enough to register loyalty."

"That's why I'm back here!" Nawrocki called from behind the rubble.

Smilax gnashed and lunged for O'Chunks, who grabbed the vine and twisted it around until it snapped off.

"Aye, it may look lush an' green, but it be as brittle as the stubble o' a newborn beard," he observed sagely.

Nawrocki's head popped up from behind the wall. "That's not how it should be."

Mimi shot rubees at Smilax's big head. It growled and turned on her.

"Eep!" She skittered back until she bumped into the wall.

Mr. L struck a pose and jumped onto one of the piranha plant's heads, springing onto two more until he lost his steam and missed.

Count Bleck suddenly felt in synch with the situation and began barking orders. "Mimi! Move right! Dimentio, back up Mr. L! If he won't stop striking poses someone needs to cover him! O'Chunks! Opening on your left!"

Smilax swept a thorny vine across the floor again, all the way up to the wall. Count Bleck pulled himself upwards, but not quickly enough. His waistcoat snagged on a thorn, tearing deeper than the fabric, and pulling him along for several feet before what was caught gave way.

The vine continued on, under the table against the wall. The table that held the cauldron containing Timpani's potion. Smilax's vine cracked the legs and flung the table sideways, and the potion into the air.

"Somebody grab that potion!"

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