It's been a while. But's Spring Break for me, and April Fool's Day. So why not bring in some of the biggest fools in the Detentionaire universe? The other fools will be coming up soon too! Maybe...?

By the time Nora reached the moat of Hearts Castle, the sky above was full of stars. The Castle was lit by several lamps and trail lights on the outer walls, making look even grander than it did at a distance. The four towers surrounding the clock tower reached at least ten stories up, and the surrounding gate was lit with bright torches. To Nora, this gate didn't seem much higher than the gate at A. Nigma High. The castle was surrounded by a deep moat, and the only way in was a wood drawbridge that the moment was up.

"Um, hello?" Nora worried that maybe she had missed the party entirely! It was late, and there was no time written on the invite. "Is this Heart's Castle?"

"What? Who goes there?" Up on top of the castle wall was… "Principal Wurst?"

"Ah, try Wurst of Spades!"

"You're a what?"

Principal Wurst was wearing a pure white suit, when he pointed to where his chest pocket would be Nora could see a black spade design on his entire coat. "A Spade! Spade Number Five to be exact. And who are you?"

Nora held up the invitation up over her head. "I have and invite. Isn't the Tea Party here?"

Wurst pulled out a golden, long curved telescope. "Hmm." He adjusted the lens trying to focus on the piece of paper Nora was holding up. "Interesting. Hey, Spade Two! What do you think of this?"

From the right side of the wall came another Principal Wurst with two spades on his suit. Nora would have thought this was weird but… this was actually pretty normal for her. "Is there something wrong?" she called up to them.

"One moment!" The second Wurst took the telescope and adjusted it onto the small piece of paper. "Do you have a name, Miss?"

"Of course she has a name!" The Five-Spade Wurst slapped the Two upside the head. "Everyone but the Cheshire Cat has a name! Wait. There's no name on that invitation. Is that the Cheshire Cat's?"

Nora worried for a second that she might be busted. No one had told her that these invitations had names. Inwardly, Nora cursed that Cat, he had tricked her after all! "Uh…" She tried to distract them. "The Cheshire Cat has a name!"

"He does?" They both asked looking at each other. Five asked, "What is it?"

"It's a…." Nora picked her brain. She tried to think of a name that would fit. The only other option was to call him The Serpent, but apparently here his nickname(or whatever you'd call it) was already taken. What would fit him? Nora tried to look past what she knew about and thought back to when she had just met him. She had taken a few guesses at his name back then. There was one that Nora liked. At the time she thought he was nice, so she tried to pick a nice name for him. "Jun! His name is Jun!"

The two Wurst shared a look with each other. "I didn't know that did you?"

"Not me. Call up Seven, that must be the free-bee invitation." Then he called down to Nora. "Do you have an escort, young lady?"

"No, Sir!"

"WHAAAAAT?" A booming voice came from behind the giant gate. It literally shook the ground beneath Nora and the Card-Wursts. "DO MAH EAR-HOLES DECIEVE ME!?" The drawbridge fell with a mighty thud. There standing in the gateway was a big shadowy figure. "Why ah do believe that we have a late-comer to lil' our hoot-in-nanny."

Out stepped Barrage, the Texan cyborg principal. Nora poised herself because it sounded like barrage was ready to go on the offensive. And with Barrage, his choice of weapons usually contains small tanks, lasers and metal-backed brute force. "Then in the name of Red Heart Castle I…." Out stepped the ex-army and questionably sane metal-man with a heavy limp. Nora's eyes went wide.

Barrage… his out-of-place army attire was replaced with multi-colored, and ridiculous jester clothes! Like the colors pink and yellow along with a jingle-hat and robotic arm was set up as a confetti cannon! "WELCOME TO CASTLE RED HEARTS!" Shot up into the air, then came raining down in all kinds of pinks, reds, and whites.

The Wursts swatted away the pieces of paper as they came down. "Pah! Phooey! Cut that out you Fool of Hearts! If the Queen catches you spewing out the color white again your head will be off in less than a heartbeat!"

Barrage grumbled at them. Then he raised his fist shouting. "I DON'T take orders from you! An' even if ah did, how from one side ah the coin to the other could I tell ya apart?"

"The spades, hearts and diamonds are a big hint!" Another of the Wursts shouted back.

"Ya' all got no individual voice 'er face!" Barrage bellowed. "A real leader stands apart! Can be picked out from the rest of the herd. Ah' do NOT rank under sheep!"

"But you do rank wherever the PIGS stand!" The third Wurst called.

The four men began bantering back and forth. Nora thought that this was amusing, and it made things easier. She simply walked past Jester-Barrage over the draw bridge and past the walls where the guards were shouting. She rolled her eyes and shook her head thinking that all four of these men deserved to be fools. Especially Barrage though.

The inside was vast courtyard that led up to the main building. Hedges, trees and bushes were all shaped into hearts. Even the pavement stones Nora walked on were heart-shaped. "Yet there is no romantic atmosphere here whatsoever." Nora said to herself. The atmosphere seemed to have a sense of dread in the air, not enough to make one uneasy, but enough that Nora felt that she shouldn't be lowering her guard just yet. That is when she saw someone standing by a pair of large doors.

A large beak, brown feathered wings draping down his back yet somehow still in his gentlemanly suit, was the Amazing Finnwich version of the Gryphon. He was completely covered in feathers, and his steam-powered limbs were completely replaced with lion paws. He was standing with his front to the door and away from the approaching girl. Nora, for good reason, was hesitant to get his attention. She and Finnwich… things had not ended well the last time the saw each other. Part of that being he lied and did something that Nora deemed unforgiveable (A/N: see All's Fair for details).

The old bird-lion gave a depressed sigh and his wings dropped. "I suppose it is getting worse." He softly mumbled so Nora only just barely heard it. "I can't remember it at all. I suppose it is my own fault in the end. Always so forgetful…"

Nora couldn't just leave him after hearing that. Besides this wasn't the same Finnwich she wasn't speaking to anyway. "Sir?" She walked up next to him. "Are you having some trouble with the door?" He looked pretty old, like Cheshire Cat had said, maybe it was just too heavy for him?

Gryphon simply looked at her, taking off his hat in greeting. "Oh, good evening my dear." Nora felt a twinge, but withheld it when he used that endearment term. "And, yes I'm afraid that I am." Ge gestured to the giant wooden doors. "I have been summoned to these grand festivities to be the entertainment. But, alas… I am dreadfully late. I cannot remember the password."

Nora looked up at the doors. "Wait. There's a password?" Glancing back at where she came, Nora could still see the Wursts arguing with Barrage at the bridge. "Yeah, I guess that is a smart security measure around here."

Gryphon continued. "Tis the duty of the King of Hearts to see that the word is changed, otherwise the doors will not open. He provided one on the back of the invitations. Though… it seems that I have dropped mine in my flight. And I cannot remember it even after hours of standing here."

Nora quickly pulled out her own (The Cat's) invite. It was just the same message as before. She turned it over, upside down and over again. There was nothing. "Are you sure?" Nora asked skeptically. "Here, take a look at mine."

Gryphon looked at it, taking it back and forth in front of his beak to focus. "Oh, I am truly gobsmacked by my own forgetfulness!" Finnwich reached into his coat pocket to pull out the three-lensed syphon the real Finnwich used to read the Pyramid text. "Now let's take a gander and… ah-ha!"

"You see it?" Nora asked excitedly. She was so close, she just had to go in now.

"Nope." Finnwich told her. "I see that riddle that reveals the answer. It reads… 'How far can a Fox run out of Coral Grove?'"

"What?" Nora deadpanned. She knew a similar riddle back in the real world was 'how far can the fox run into a grove?' But this? No one had ever told her! She couldn't even remember what happened!

"How far can a Fox run out of Coral Grove." Finnwich repeated. "I should know this, it's a classic!" The mythological creature rubbed his chin in thought. "Now… the fact that it says 'out' implies that she is already in."

"Well in." Nora added grumpily.

"That's another riddle's answer! But not ours. So if she is already in, how far can she be expected to get out? The entire way?"

"No." Nora said plainly. "She didn't make it all the way. Getting out of Coral Grove is a group effort, it couldn't be done alone."

"Yes, it is the most secure place." Finnwich began thinking again. Then he spoke to the door. "Is the answer: halfway?" The doors remained locked tight. "No? Boulderdash! Who could know this?"

Nora crossed her arms and looked to the side in shame. "The Beast." Finnwich looked surprised in her direction. "That's the only one who knows. He… It… was the only one aware of what was happening. Only The Beast could know how close to getting out of Coral Grove alone…"

Nora stopped.

Sensing her discomfort, Gryphon placed a gentle paw on her back. "Yes, only that one would know how close or far to the exit anyone was. But it is a being of such heart-breaking madness! Yet it failed to fulfill its quest of escape. The rumors spread far, but the only true word is that the Fox did not make it out that time."

An idea came to Nora. When she had woken back up in Coral Grove, she overheard Tina explain the final result of the rumors! Enough was wrong with them that the story wouldn't reveal anything about Nora being connected. But stripping back what she knew was false…

"I've got it!" Nora turned and faced the door. "The answer is almost! The Fox almost got out, but she was topped right before the end!"

With that, the heavy wood doors began to creak and slowly slide into the stone walls. The light that came from the opening was blinding at first, but as Nora and Gryphon squinted, they could see the long golden hall, and hear the sound of music not too far away.

"By Jove!" Gryphon exclaimed. "Well done, my dear!"

"Almost…" Nora lingered on that thought. It answered the riddle to the door, but it also answered a question Nora had almost given up asking anymore. But that wasn't important right now. Right now she had to find the Tazelwurm to get her back home. "Mr. Gryphon?" Nora looked up at him with a sweet smile. "Would you mind being my escort to the Tea Party?"

He bowed at the waist and replied, "The Great Gryphon would be honored to have such a clever young lady walk into the room with him." He held out his arm to her. Nora laughed and hooked her arm around it. "Does this mean I am forgiven, Elena?"

"What did you say?"

Gryphon shrugged. "I don't remember. Shall we go?"

They took a few steps up to the enterance when… "Wait a moment!" Gryphon pulled them to a stop. "You're hardly dressed for this occasion, my dear. May I?" Gryphon held up his walking cane, which glimmered with some kind of purple gem on top.

"Uh…" Nora looked down at her clothes, which consisted of her usual T-shirt and sweatpants for comfort, along with her running shoes. "Yeah, I guess that would be a good idea."

Gryphon waved his cane around in the air… and then hit Nora on the head with it! "Ow! What did you do that-?" Nora looked down to see that she was now wearing a cherry-red dress with a sweetheart neckline, see-through trumpet sleeves and a sheath shirt that went all the way down to her ankles. Clusters of red roses decorated the design and a pair of red shoes with a single diamond in the bow were already on Nora's feet. The dress was beautiful! "Whoa…"

"To your liking I take it?" The Great Gryphon asked proudly.

"Well, yes! But is this really appropriate for… this ta party?" Nora didn't like getting dressed up too often. And all this just for a tea party was looking very much like the continuing theme of overkill.

"I can easily say that it is." Gryphon informed her. "The Queen is very choosy. That dress you are wearing happens to be the latest design in Enigmaland, and it is the Queen favorite color! Not to mention her favorite flower. In that dress, you cannot be turned away!"

Nora may not understand why dressing up like this was set to such a standard when it was so uncomfortable. She did understand a mission is a mission. Nora wasn't going to be stopped whether she liked these clothes or not. She'd wear it if it could help get her home. So she straightened herself up like a proper lady, and once again took Gryphon's arm. "Then I'm ready! To the Tea Party!"

"Charge!" Gryphon cheered.

And the two took steady strides down the hall.

A/N: I trust that mostly everyone has read All's Fair, but...

If you liked it: Review!

If you didn't: try this riddle below!

If I have it, I won't share it. Beacuse if I share it I won't have it. What's the answer?

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It's a secret!

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