"Ugh, creepy."

LeChuck and I faced the same murky abandoned theme park square from earlier, thankfully free of dark pirate leaders, or anyone else for that matter. The light switches were still shut off, but now they flickered erratically, showing that odd graffiti from earlier underneath, but sparking phosphorescent blue. When they did, the theme park would flicker too, reverting to the High Street I knew, but in plain daylight. "I feel like I've seen those graffiti markings somewhere else recently," I mused aloud. They hadn't been lit up then though - or had they? "Ah! It's the same magic symbols that Lila used, and from that note in the church!"

LeChuck wasn't listening to me. "The chest…" He stood in front of it, where it still sat open and empty in front of the locksmith display on its pedestal. The animatronics behind the glass beside it slumped over, unmoving with the power cut.

As I walked over to join him, LeChuck slammed the chest closed. "Hand over the key," he demanded.

"I don't have it," I told him honestly.

"You said you found it!"

"Yes, then Madison stole it."

"Arrrgh!" He tried to lift the lid, but it stayed shut. Then he tried to pick up the entire chest - to smash it on the ground, most likely - but it and the pedestal remained glued to their places. "You better not be lying to me, Threepweed," he warned.

"Nope, it's the truth. I want it open as much as you do," I reminded him. "But opening it here with the key obviously doesn't work anyway; this proves it." I pointed at my new shirt. "We need to go back to figure out what went wrong. And more importantly, to find Elaine."

He grumbled a bit, but he followed me to the back alley. It was still dark most of the time between flashes, but with my new six foot tall walking glow stick, I could see my way to the "Employees Only" door. I tried Stan's - or Trent's - keys in the lock, and found one that fit. The door now open, we slipped back inside the caverns beneath Monkey Island.

We stepped down onto the same landing as before, with the giant circle wall puzzle surrounding the doorway. The same stone slab with the engraved ring-turning clue still bobbed along in the surrounding pool of lava. Madison's captain hat remained lying on the rock shelf beside it. "Either Madison didn't come back this way, or she doesn't want it anymore," I said aloud. I wasn't a captain hat kind of pirate, and LeChuck of course had his own, so we left it alone.

We hurried back up through the connecting caves, keeping an eye out for any clues or likely spots that screamed "Open Secret Here!" However, nothing had changed from when I'd last been through. Soon enough we were at the place where I'd entered the lower caves originally: at the foot of a gigantic waterfall of boiling hot lava.

"Oh no." I stared up at it; it seemed to go up forever. There was a solid rock overhang above the cascading lava, as I remembered from diving off it before. I couldn't see it from here though.

"Got any bright ideas, Threepweed?" LeChuck prodded.

I rummaged through my pockets, but everything was pretty much useless. Except one thing.

I pulled out the rope I'd found on the pier at the back of the Scumm Bar kitchen. So far, it hadn't been of much use, but I couldn't help but notice it was just a few feet longer than the lava falls. I looked between the rope and LeChuck, and sighed deeply.

"LeChuck, you're going to have to toss me."

"Into the lava?" LeChuck folded his arms and smirked. "On any other day, gladly."

"No, I'm serious." Though extremely reluctant. "I'll tie this rope around me, and then you can throw me above the lava falls." He'd sent me sailing enough times on our adventures to know he had the strength for it. "Then when I land on the cliff, I can pull you up."

"I've a better plan: I go first, then bring you up," LeChuck countered.

"I may be a Mighty Pirate (TM), but I'm not that mighty." I resolved to look into gym memberships after this was over.

LeChuck didn't try to argue the point, though a token protest at least would have been polite. "How do I know you'll keep your word?"

"I promised, didn't I? You need to trust me. Just like I did with the knife."

The lava's orange ripples reflected on us both as he considered my words. "We'll do it your way. But you'd better follow through."

"Right!" I knotted one end of the rope around my waist and handed the other end to LeChuck. "Make it count!" I screwed my eyes shut and willed it to be over already.

LeChuck grasped the back of my shirt and lifted me over his head. "Yarrr!" Bellowing, he sent me hurtling upwards in a perfect pitch.

I landed heavily on the rock ledge above. "Oof!" I got up and dusted myself off. "I can't believe that worked!"

"Hurry up and get me up there, Threepweed," called LeChuck pointedly.

To be honest, I was tempted not to. This would be the perfect time to ditch my nemesis who, up to today, had only stuck out his hand towards me with intent to harm. But despite his track record, there was something that held me back from abandoning him (and the fact that he'd still be between me and the rest of the caverns if I decided to come back this way was only a very small part). I was forced to admit that he'd come through back there in the church, and I'd be the lesser pirate if I was the first to break that trust. There'd would be plenty of time for trickery after his inevitable future betrayal.

With that in mind, I slithered out of the rope loop and secured it around a handy stalagmite (or stalactite, I never could remember which was which). Soon enough, LeChuck stood beside me on the ledge.

"Keep up, whelp." He strode off without so much as a thank-you. I left the rope hanging off the stalactite - unless it was a stalagmite - in case we needed to come back that way, and followed him.

We walked along the winding path, dodging around geysers and cascades of molten magma. Behind one of them, a familiar flame-crowned figure peered out.

"Flambe," I greeted him. "Still hanging out here, huh? You must like this place a lot."

"It smells like home," Flambe replied simply. He frowned at my clothes. "I see you didn't take my advice."

"Hey." I pointed at my companion. "LeChuck's right here, you know. Aren't you worried about getting keelhauled for unauthorized shore leave or something?"

"As if that would do anything to a demon," LeChuck answered for him. "Not like I need him anyway. He'd've been more use as a blowtorch than a lookout."

"You have got to work on your inter-crew morale." Not that I had any room to criticize.

"You don't know what you'll unleash if you continue on this path," Flambe interrupted. "Much would have been easier if you had just accepted things and left when asked."

"That's pretty close to what you said before," I pointed out. "Who says I like the easy way? Sometimes, the difficult mode is more fun."

"Sometimes, and sometimes not," Flambe said cryptically. "But you can never unlearn a secret. You can't turn back into who you were before."

"I'm not afraid of making changes or choices," I answered, recalling my earlier pep talk for LeChuck, and hoping that saying it would make it more true. This was getting a bit too heavy for me though, so I tried to lighten it up. "Like my extremely manly and attractive facial hair, for example!"

Flambe remained stone-cold, or rather, flaming-superheated. Tough crowd.

"We're not turning back," I clarified.

"It's not like I care either way." Flambe began retreating back into the lava labyrinth. He paused, half-in and half-out, like his whole attitude the entire time I'd known him. "Just remember, a secret can change depending on the time and place, and the path to it may be as valuable as the choice itself."

"I don't know whose advice is less helpful when I need it, yours or the Voodoo Lady's," I retorted. Though I figured I'd already found out the first part the hard way, with the T-shirt to prove it. Which, again, made for a pretty useless warning. "Though I don't know how much I should be listening to a literal demon, anyhow."

"Suit yourself." Just as suddenly as he appeared, Flambe vanished back into the lava maze.

"If you're all done with your fortune cookie reading," LeChuck sneered at me, "maybe you'll recall that we're almost out of caverns to explore, and with still no clue on where to open the Secret."

"I should have asked Flambe!" Though considering our previous conversation, I doubted he'd have been very helpful. "Maybe we'll find something around the island nearby. There's got to be a hint we've missed somewhere."

Just a short way beyond, we met another familiar face. "Wally!" I rushed over to where he hung suspended over a bubbling fiery pool.

"Hello again, Mr Wood," Wally answered politely. The small mapmaker swung gently to the background noise of creaking chains. "I'm very surprised to see you again. Though I doubt you'll free me. Like every other time."

"Not if I can help it." I'd already tried all the keys in my pockets on his manacles when I'd passed by on my way down, but I hadn't had the key ring then. I went through those now, until one clicked.

"It fits!" I was about to finish opening the restraints, when Wally interrupted me.

"Not to complain, Mr Brush, but did you have a plan for preventing me from dropping straight into the boiling hot lava?"

"Good point." I waved over at LeChuck, who'd gone right past us. "Can you lend a hand here and pull Wally in before I unlock these?"

LeChuck actually snarled at me. "Why should I? The little weasel swapped my map with a mop quest! Let him fall in!"

"Like I said before, that wasn't me," Wally protested, with the patient tone of someone very used to being ignored.

There were several responses I could have had here - including nothing at all - but I decided it was time to come clean. "Wally's right, it was me. My bad."

"You?!" Fire blazed from LeChuck's eye sockets. "I should have known! Arrr, I'll help get him down from those manacles all right - so I can clap them 'round your puny wrists!"

"Hey, we've got a truce for now, remember?" I backed up nervously. "There will be plenty of time for manacle hanging after we've taken care of you-know-what. In the meantime, grab Wally's ankles and pull him this way."

LeChuck grumbled loudly but surprisingly obeyed, and in next to no time, Wally stood beside us, a free man.

"Thank you," he said.

"Don't mention it," I told him politely.

He continued on as if he hadn't heard me. "Of course, what would really be helpful is you making up for my map shop losses."

I didn't really have a great answer for that. I tried to sort from the few I did come up with, which included "Er," "About that," and "Let me check with Elaine about our plunder liability insurance."

While I was thinking it over, LeChuck interrupted. "In order to resist mangling you, I'll go on ahead and canvas the island for more clues. Meet me at my ship later if ye find anything." He strode off without waiting.

"Sorry about that, Wally." I was just about to tell him the last response I'd thought of - and hoping that we didn't buy our policy through Stan - when Wally sighed resignedly and walked away. Poor Wally.

I continued alone to the cavern entrance, but just as I reached the edge of actual daylight, I encountered a welcome sight.

"Elaine!"