"Ugh!" Johnny grunted a bit as he slammed his fist on the ivories, slightly startling the old lizard sat beside him. "Oh... sorry, I just... I thought I had it, then..."

There weren't any clocks nearby, but given that it was already late when he first arrived, Johnny knew that it had to be past midnight by now. It certainly wasn't the best time for an extra piano lesson, either for himself or Ms. Crawly, but with the legendary Nana Noodleman herself coming in the morning to see their run-through, he knew there wasn't any time to waste. While the song they were currently rehearsing hadn't been Buster's first choice for Johnny to sing, the young gorilla could already tell that this one was a much better fit, which only made the notes he messed up even more frustrating.

"I wouldn't worry about it, sweetheart. You are getting there..." Ms. Crawly gently patted his hand. "I just... I just feel like you're holding back a little, that's all, Johnny..."

"I really am trying, Ms. Crawly, it just... I dunno..." Johnny pursed his lips, his fingers hovering hesitantly over the keys. "It just feels weird playing it alone."

"Alone...? Hmm..." Ms. Crawly cupped her chin. "Didn't you say you played it when you were little...?"

"I um... I... ugh... not exactly..." Johnny sighed, hunching forward a bit as he furrowed his brow. "My Mum used to teach it me, back when I was a kid. Yeah, she um... she had an old piano back at the garage, and... and she used to play it for me. I'd sing along and stuff, and then she'd let me have a go too, but... but it weren't much, really..."

"Aw, that's a shame, Johnny..." Ms. Crawly thought for a moment. "Why'd she stop teaching you...?"

"Well, it... it's because... it... it, um..." Johnny bit his bottom lip to stop it from quivering, then looked down at his hands, letting out a small exhale. "She died, my Mum. I think, it... yeah, it... it'd be about twelve years ago now."

"Oh..." Ms. Crawly's one good eye widened with this revelation. But after a moment, the old lizard's expression softened, and she slowly tightened her grip on the gorilla's hand. "Oh Johnny, I'm sorry to hear that..."

"Eh, it's alright..." Johnny pulled a small smile, using his other hand to wipe his misty eyes. "Like I said, it... it were a long time ago, so..."

"But still, I know how hard it can be..." Ms. Crawly turned over to the ajar door behind them, a small grimace forming on her face. "Hmm... y'know, back when Mr. Moon's father died, he... he was sat up here for three days straight... he didn't talk, eat, nothing... Baxter really left a hole there..."

"Really...?" Johnny turned to see where Ms. Crawly was looking, wincing a little when he spotted the chest full of prize money that he'd only just tried to steal for his own father. "I suppose Mr. Moon was right close with his old man, then..."

"Oh, absolutely..." Ms. Crawly chuckled. "Yeah, Baxter always wanted his boy to dream big dreams. And I bet your Mom was the same with you, huh, Johnny...?"

"Yeah..." Johnny sighed wistfully. "She loved music, my Mum. That's definitely where I got it from. Always said she'd wanted to be a singer, but... well, it never worked out for her, so she were always telling me I should be one instead."

Ms. Crawly nodded. "Well, if your mother believed in you that much, Johnny, she'd be glad to see you coming up here and proving her right."

"Eh, I dunno about that..." Johnny hesitated as he looked back to the piano keys. "I mean, you don't really see many gorillas having a go at this sort of thing."

"I think Florence Fletcher would beg to differ, sweetheart..." Ms. Crawly scoffed playfully. "Heck, you're not even the first gorilla I've taught before, Johnny!"

"Really...?" Johnny looked surprised.

"None of them folks ever let who they were hold them from who they wanted to be, Johnny... and neither should you..." Ms. Crawly said. "You got talent, sweetheart. Y'owe it to yourself to go out there and show it..."

"Well yeah, and... and I do want do, it just..." Johnny looked down at the keys again, still unsure. "I just dunno if I can do it without my Mum there..."

"And who said you had to...?"

Johnny was taken off-guard by this rather cryptic response, though he felt his eyes misting up again when Ms. Crawly patted his hand.

"Every note you play, every note you sing... she'll be there."

Per the old lizard's prompt, Johnny closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then, with a sudden burst of confidence, he finally placed his fingers back on the keys and began to play the tune. To his surprise, it flowed effortlessly without missing a single note, and he even found himself mumbling the lyrics to the chorus while he played.

By the time he'd opened his eyes and stopped playing, Johnny was still rather dumbfounded by what had just happened, and he turned to see Ms. Crawly smiling proudly at him. "Hmm... I knew you had it in you, sweetheart..."

"Ooh!" Ms. Crawly shot awake at the sound of the loud knocking, and she lifted up her eye mask to see that it was coming from the door at the other end of the room. So she slid out of bed, still wearing her orange nightgown, and shuffled over to open the door and see the porcupine and wolf stood waiting on the other side. "Oh... good morning, girls."

"Oh, did you sleep in today, Ms. Crawly...?" Ash chuckled.

"Yeah, I always thought you were more of an early morning gal..." Porsha said. "Or I guess, y'know, whenever Uncle Buster needs you to be up kinda gal..."

"Hmm..." Ms. Crawly's one eye widened a little when she noticed the stylish but completely black outfits that the two roommates were wearing, Porsha's being a stylish but still covering dress while Ash wore a more modest suit. "Oh... you two goin' somewhere...?"

"Uh, I think you mean we're going somewhere." Ash laughed, putting her hands on her hips. "We're all going to that Madame lady's memorial thing today, remember...?"

"Oh... of course... silly me!"

Ms. Crawly left the door open as she shuffled back over to her bedside table, where a small, black leather box was sat beside her alarm clock. Porsha and Ash had initially assumed that this box contained some kind of jewellery that Ms. Crawly was planning to wear for the ceremony, but it wasn't until she actually opened the box when they realised the old lizard hadn't been wearing her signature accessory.

"Oh, wow!" Porsha nearly laughed. "I didn't know ya kept it in that, Ms. Crawly..."

"Well, it wouldn't be a bright idea for me to go to sleep with it, sweetheart..." Ms. Crawly chuckled as she fished out her glass eye, though Porsha and Ash both had to look away in mild disgust while she opened her empty socket to put it in. "Ah... there we go..."

While Ms. Crawly went into the closet to change, Ash went over to the bed to put the leather box back on the table. It was made of a slightly faded but still very rich black leather, which almost felt as smooth and scaly as the lizard's own skin. And after having a quick peek inside, the porcupine noticed that the box's interior was sculpted specifically to contain the spherical object that she'd been keeping inside it, indicating that it was custom made.

"Still, this is a pretty fancy little thing to keep it in, Ms. Crawly..." She said, while Porsha quickly came over to have a look for herself. "Must have cost a fortune..."

"Oh, I wouldn't know, dear... it was a gift..." Ms. Crawly came back out of the wardrobe, now wearing a long-sleeved black frock with a matching fascinator hat. As she came back over, Ash noticed a small, almost nostalgic grin forming on the old lizard's face, while she tenderly stroked her hand across the container. "Hmm... a very special gift..."

"Ah! Morning, girls!" Buster's voice called from the doorway. Porsha, Ash and Ms. Crawly all turned to see the familiar koala and saluki - both dressed in black, as they were - standing there waiting. "You guys ready to go...?"

"Whoa-ho-ho, Would you look at that!" Nooshy's voice bellowed out, though the others silently matched her awe and reverence as they approached the legendary Jument Mansion.

The elegant palace sat comfortably atop a gentle hill, and as they turned away from it, the visitors couldn't help admiring how the vast skyline of Redshore City looked down below them. Two identically intricate stone carvings of Madame herself stood like sentries on either side of the towering, black steel gate, and upon opening, gave way to a a lush, finely manicured lawn that was dotted with tall trees and blooming flowers. Despite the rather morbid tone of the situation, one couldn't help feeling a sense of serenity and tranquillity in this garden that complemented the traditional royal grandeur of the building itself.

Klaus - who still wore his signature beret, with a simple black suit - remained at the front as he led the troupe down the stone pathway from the gate to the double set of tall, solid oak doors, which had large iron knockers and ornate brass handles that glinted in the sunlight. The old monkey hesitated for a moment or two before he pushed both doors opened, and the group were greeted by soft strains of classical music and the gentle flicker of candlelight as they all entered the front foyer and headed in single file down the hallway.

The walls on either side were adorned with various paintings and sculptures of Madame herself, most of them even exceeding the size of the portrait that the cast had seen displayed in the Majestic, and each one vividly captured the legendary instructor in various stages of her long, illustrious career. Klaus eventually stopped as they arrived at the end of this hallway, where a large, ornate staircase led upwards to the central ballroom on the second floor, but after taking a deep breath, he finally stepped forward and began his ascent, and the others followed close behind.

"Alright, just remember, everyone..." Buster whispered as they reached the door to the ballroom, all of them holding back for a minute as Klaus prepared to open it. "Best behaviour..."

While Buster said this, Kaya gave a small, playful nudge to Marilyn's shoulder, lowering her glasses as she sent a glare the young gorilla's way. "That means no livestreaming, young lady."

"Hmm..." Marilyn chuckled, placing her phone in the front pocket of her black suit. "No promises, KC..."

Klaus finally threw the doors open, and the group were all wide-eyed with amazement at the sight in front of them. While they'd gotten used to the vastness of the Crystal Tower Hotel and the Majestic Palace Theatre, the sheer grandeur of this ballroom had still taken them off-guard. The domed ceiling and all the walls that led upwards to it were adorned with a sparkling gold leaf - a sight that would have likely made even Jimmy Crystal feel intimidated - and a massive, diamond studded chandelier hung down exactly in the centre to cast a soft golden glow over the entire room and the dozens - if not hundreds - of mourners in attendance.

Most of the visitors were dressed in black to commemorate the sombre occasion, as the group themselves all were, but out of the corner of her eye, Suki suddenly spotted another familiar horse sat in the corner, wearing a stylish white dress as if she was at a fashion show. "Oh, God..."

Linda Le Bon of Hot News fame, whom the group later discovered was in fact a distant cousin of Madame's, was surrounded by her entourage of assistants and Yes Men while she put on a big, tearful show for a relative that she barely knew. Rather than point out her presence to the others, Suki kept a hand on Porsha's shoulder and made sure to guide the young wolf over to the other side of the room, not wanting her honorary niece to be reminded of the particularly nasty hit piece that she'd been the subject of a few months prior.

Most of the Moon Troupe had dispersed to mingle with the other mourners, leaving Klaus to his own devices in the middle of the big, crowded ballroom. The old monkey managed to exchange a few nods and greetings with some other dancers that he had trained with under Madame, but was also forced to have some more awkward interactions with younger dancers that he himself had mentored. He couldn't help tightening up a bit as the amount of overlapping sounds and voices coming from all corners of the room began to overwhelm him, to the point where he eventually had to take a seat by one of the unoccupied tables to himself keep from completely collapsing.

Nooshy and Johnny had stayed within earshot of each other while they talked to the other visitors, having agreed to take turns keeping an eye on Klaus from a distance, though they were both pulled away from this when another bunch of familiar faces suddenly approached them. "Hey, uh... Johnny, Nooshy! Over here!"

"Oh... hello, lads!" Johnny straightened up a bit when he saw some of his former Planet Of War co-stars, and he pulled a small smile as he shook Ryan's hand, while Nooshy quietly greeted all the others. "Been a while since we've seen you lot... how's things been...?"

"Eh, not so bad..." Ryan shrugged, casually adjusting the tie and flattening down the nice black suit he was wearing. The tiger then glanced to his left, pulling a small grimace when he spotted the old monkey who was sat on the other side of the ballroom. "Ugh... probably shoulda realised he'd be here, huh...?"

"Oh, you mean Klaus...?" Johnny said. "Yeah, he's here to see Madame. Y'know, she were his teacher and stuff, so..."

"Ah, right..." Ryan itched the back of his neck. "Hey, he's um... he's still working on your new show, isn't he?"

"Well yeah, but he's just a consultant. He's been training this new girl, Marilyn, and she's quite good, actually..."

"Oh, okay... yeah, just as long as he's not doing too much... the last thing you need is him hijacking the show again!" Ryan's remark prompted them both to laugh, though after a moment he let out a small, rather regretful sounding sigh. "Anyway, so um... so I know it's pretty overdue by now, Johnny, but... but I'm really sorry none of us told you what Klaus was gonna be like."

"Nah, come on, mate, it weren't your fault..."

"Well yeah, but you gotta understand, Johnny, the guy's always been a jerk..." Ryan scoffed, gesturing over to the other dancers while they nodded and murmured in agreement. "I mean, we all had to put up with that for years, so we kinda got used to it, but... but you just showed up and he put you right in the deep end. I can tell it really sucked for you, buddy."

Johnny bit his bottom lip as he nodded, wringing his hands together. "Yeah, well... it's all fine, now. And y'know, funnily enough, with what's been coming out these last couple days, I don't think it's all that clear cut..."

"Huh...?" Ryan raised an eyebrow, reflecting the similar confusion that was etched onto the other dancers' faces. "What do you mean by that...?"

"J!" Nooshy suddenly rushed over and latched onto Johnny's arm, her minor outburst also getting Marilyn's attention. "Mate, I think we've got a problem!"

"Problem...?" Johnny said. "What kind of problem, Nooshy...?"

"Ugh, just look!"

Nooshy pointed over to the other side of the room, where Klaus was still sat by the table, speaking to one of the short penguin servants that had approached him. While their conversation was inaudible from this distance, Klaus suddenly pulled himself to his feet, still staggering a bit, and he slowly followed the penguin through the crowd towards the door at the far end of the room.

"Oh bloody hell..." Johnny said, before Nooshy took off and he and Marilyn both tried to keep up with the lynx. "They're taking him to go see her!"