After twenty minutes of cautious waiting, Zipper snuck through the doors to Thorn Valley, unguarded at the moment. Behind the door was a huge underground chamber, with stairs circling either side, filled with more dazzling crystals. Rats wandered around below, going about their daily business, dressed in capes and robes. He couldn't see where the others had been taken, so he decided to fly on and investigate. The walls had little apartments carved into them, where each rat lived. He watched as a rat drew water from a fountain at the center of the chamber, upon which a statue of an elderly rat with a long flowing mustache and a scepter was situated. A stand with food was situated at the other end of the chamber. The food seemed to be given out free of charge. And the chamber was illuminated by great electric light bulbs.

As Zipper discreetly hovered near the ceiling, he could hear rats below murmur and gossip about an alleged break-in attempt by a group of outside rodents. He heard someone say they were going to be tried before 'the council'.

Remembering that Mrs. Brisby had told them to seek out her two children, he flew on, looking for any mice in the crowd, who would be a minority among the rats. Finally, he saw what at first looked like a very short female mouse emerge from an apartment dressed in a cloak over a purple dress. He flew to her. She gave a startled gasp.

"Who are you? I've never seen a fly here before!"

Zipper tried to tell her what was wrong, acting out how Brutus had attacked his friends, and how they'd been marched off to the dungeons.

"Wait a minute…you were with the intruders, weren't you?" she asked with a frown.

Zipper nodded, but then shook his head and squeaked, clutching her dress and begging.

"You weren't here to hurt us, were you?"

Zipper shook his head 'no'. He wished he were able to speak. He stepped back and flapped his wings, doing his best to hoot like an owl.

"Do you mean…the Great Owl told you where to find us?"

Zipper nodded, glad that she was good at charades.

"Why didn't he eat you?" she asked, suspicious of the little bug.

Zipper pointed at her, and then cradled his arms as if cradling a baby.

"What?" she blinked.

Zipper repeated the gesture.

"My…mother, sent you?"

Zipper nodded.

"How do you know she was my mother?"

Zipper reached his arm high in the air and pointed down at the rats below, and then put his hand closer to the ground and pointed at her.

"Because I'm the only mouse here…"

Zipper smiled and nodded.

"If you did talk to my mother, maybe you aren't bad people. You certainly seem harmless…but we'll find that out at the trial," she said, picking Zipper up, "My name's Teresa, and I'm a member of the council. Come with me, I'll take you to Justin and see what he thinks."

Zipper nodded with a smile, and flew up to her shoulder as she walked on.

Abigail sat on the wooden bench within her dank dungeon, stroking Willy's forehead and hair as he lay in her lap, still unconscious. Everyone had been thrown into the dungeons, two to a cell save for Dale and Gadget who also had Michelle in theirs. Things looked about as bleak as they'd ever been. Their one hope now was that this council would listen to one of them, whoever was chosen.

"When are they going to feed us?" Russell asked, "Are we gonna starve in here?"

"Really, Russell? That's your biggest worry now?" Edgar asked irritably.

"What happens if I get an asthma attack in here?" Michelle sighed, clutching the bars and looking into Abigail's cell across from her.

Abigail looked up at her, and then fished through her pocket, finding the inhaler. She reached down and slid it across the floor, between the bars and into Michelle's cell. Michelle knelt down to pick it up. As she did, Willy began to stir in her lap and groan.

"Willy? Are you okay?" Abigail asked, kissing his cheek and massaging his shoulder.

"Where are we?"

"They put us in these cells after we beat that rat guard with his own weapon," she explained, "He knocked you into a pool…I was afraid for you."

"Aw, it's nothing I can't walk off,' he said, before feeling the top of his head and his back and wincing.

"Careful," Abigail said, nuzzling him with her snout.

"How 'bout you, are you okay?"

"I am," she said with a nod, "Thanks to Dale and Gadget's quick thinking."

"What are we gonna say when they take one of us in for questioning?" Dale asked.

"We'll just stick to the truth," said Gadget, "This is our chance to appeal for help. I hope they see that what we did to that guard was in self-defense."

The doors to the dungeon opened. A short, elderly mouse with long grey fur walked in escorted by two guards, one of them the Captain of the Guard from before, the other Brutus.

"Hm, so these are the trespassers who nearly took out Brutus," said the old mouse, adjusting his spectacles and walking past all of the cells, looking in, "Quite a ragtag bunch of misfits, eh? I don't think anyone has ever come that close to killing you before, Brutus."

Brutus sneered, "Don't remind me. I hope the Council will see to it that they're dealt with properly, as trespassers who nearly murdered me."

"I don't think a group like this would just stumble into Thorn Valley by accident," said the old mouse, "I wonder; Justin was going on about some silly prophecy the other day that had to do with outsiders coming here."

"We'll see what he says about it," said the Captain, "He's normally right though."

"You only say that because you're his apprentice," accused Brutus.

"If you'll excuse me, sir," Gadget began, interrupting them, "We didn't mean to hurt anyone. That big rat was going to kill us straight away. And Abigail gave him mercy when she could've killed him herself."

"Save it for the Council," Brutus snarled, before turning to the old mouse, "Ages, which one of these runts are we bringing to speak?"

"Hm…well which one nearly defeated you?"

Brutus grimaced, and looked down in shame, folding his arms, "The brat in the overalls."

"Take her then," said Mr. Ages, "She better have a good story."

They turned toward Abigail's cell. The Captain took his keys out and searched for the right one.

Willy frowned, "If you lay one paw on her I'll-"

"Shut up, weakling," Brutus shot back, as the Captain got the door open, and came in to pull Abigail to her feet, placing hand cuffs on her.

"We're taking you to the Council room now," said the Captain.

"I understand," said Abigail, feeling the light poke of his sword between her shoulder blades as she was forced out of the cell.

"Good luck Abigail!" Edgar called out.

"You'll know what to say," said Gadget, "Just remember to be truthful, tell them everything."

Willy got up and clutched the bars as the door closed, looking on as they marched Abigail outside and shut the door behind them.

Abigail was taken down a darkly lit hallway, worrying about what this 'council' was going to be like. They were silent as they reached the end of the hallway, and a door slid open automatically, startling Abigail. They walked inside. It was a round room of glass and metal, perhaps made from an old oil lamp. Abigail felt the room rise, and could see the dirt shaft around them move through the glass.

Mr. Ages glanced over at Abigail, looking her over.

"Excuse me, young girl," he began, adjusting his glasses, "Just one question. Have you ever heard of a place called Dapplewood?"

Abigail blinked, looking over to him, "Y-yes, that's…that's where I'm from."

Mr. Ages' jaw dropped slightly.

"Why do you ask?" Abigail inquired.

Brutus narrowed his eyes, looking to Mr. Ages, "Good question."

"Oh, no reason really," Mr. Ages said finally, looking away, "I'll let you find out yourself."

Abigail heard him mutter something under his breath about a 'Justin'. Her ears perked up, remembering being told about someone named Justin by the Brisby family. It was the name of their leader.

"Is your leader a rat named Justin?" Abigail asked.

Everyone else in the elevator froze.

"How do you know that?" the Captain of the Guard asked.

"She's a spy!" Brutus growled.

Abigail shrank, shutting her mouth tight.

"Now I don't know where you heard about Justin or this place, but you'd better keep quiet about it until we reach the council," said Mr. Ages, as the elevator stopped and the doors slid open on their own again.

Abigail nodded silently, feeling a poke in her back that told her to start walking. The scenery she emerged into was breathtaking. Before her was a great hall, built like the inside of a cathedral. Its walls were of quartz. The ceiling seemed so high a human could probably stand in the room. Along the walls were statues of rats and mice, former and current heroes of Thorn Valley she presumed. Two such statues stood out the most though, on either side of gold-plated double doors. On one side was the figure of a male mouse she hadn't seen before, but on the other side was a statue that looked like Mrs. Brisby, in her cape.

"Is that Mrs. Brisby?" Abigail asked, quite forgetting to stay quiet.

"You know my mother too?" the Captain asked, flabbergasted, "How?!"

"She's your mother? Oh! You must be…what did they say your name was? Martin?"

"Dear me," Mr. Ages muttered.

"She knows far too much," Brutus said.

Martin stopped, and Abigail walked a few steps before realizing the sword wasn't poking her anymore, She turned around.

"Did my mom send you here?" he asked.

Abigail nodded, "Well she didn't tell me where this place was exactly, but I did meet her. The Great Owl told me where Thorn Valley was."

"She must be lying," said Brutus, "They must have tortured the information out of Mrs. Brisby."

Martin frowned at Brutus, "Come on, you're just reaching for reasons to punish her for your bruised ego. Lets get to the council room, like Mr. Ages said we'll get this sorted out there."

"Mind your tongue, boy," Brutus snarled, "Or else I may not care who's son you are."

"Justin might," Martin shot back.

"Oh let's get this over with," Mr. Ages griped.

The four of them walked toward the door. Brutus opened it, and behind it was a large room lined with rats in seats both high upon balconies and down on the floor, all murmuring to one another or staring at her with weary faces. There were twenty council members. Rystal pillars held the upper balcony seats up, and the room was lit by the glow of electrical lights. At the center of the room was a large throne behind a table, on which sat a tall, handsome rat. Abigail took immediate notice of him, and figured he must be their leader, Justin. But she was expecting some old, decrepit but wise rat to be their leader, not this dashing young rat who sat on the throne. Brutus, Martin and Mr. Ages left Abigail's side and the doors closed behind her, with two guards crossing long spears in front of them to prevent her escape. The three of them had seats in the council too, and they sat in vacant seats on the ground level.

"The council is now in session," said Justin, his commanding voice silencing all others in the room immediately, "We have before us one of a group of rodents charged with trespassing on Thorn Valley. This crime, rare as it may be, is punishable either by death if the intruder is hostile, or life imprisonment, or, in certain circumstances as the intruders are deemed benign, joining our community, never to leave. But, as our leader I say everyone is entitled to a fair trial, must be treated as innocent until proven guilty, and perhaps if we are thoroughly convinced of this young girl's innocence, exceptions can be made."

"To hell with exceptions, she almost killed me!" Brutus barked.

"Now now, Brutus, calm yourself. You will now have your chance to tell us what happened out there."

Brutus muttered as he got up from his seat and walked to the center of the room, in front of the throne.

"Your honor," Brutus began, "I was at my usual guard post in the first chamber when I heard the door open, and footsteps on the crystal path. Once I saw the group of around seven, I brandished my spear, knowing I was outnumbered. I gave them a chance to retreat, but the girl refused. So, I did my job. I was going to kill her because she was refusing to turn back."

The council muttered. Abigail gulped and looked up at them. After a pause, Brutus continued.

"But the little runts were crafty. Two of them tripped me with some string, and the girl took my spear."

Justin rubbed his chin, "So she did. But as we can all see, you're still alive."

"Well, yes. She was too cowardly to finish me off. But she might have, had the soldiers not come in at that moment."

"It seems to me that if these rodents were ill-intentioned they'd have killed you," said Justin, "Your…rather checkered history of attacking before questioning even the most harmless intruders is well documented, if we'll recall what happened when Mrs. Brisby came to us for help. But, it's up to the council to decide their intentions."

There was chatter from the crowd as Brutus glared at Justin, who remained stoic. Teresa and Martin both frowned at Brutus, having heard about that incident before.

"I'm only doing my job," Brutus retorted angrily, "If it wasn't for me this place would be crawling with spies, if it isn't already!'

"What are you insinuating?" Justin asked.

Brutus pointed an accusing finger at Abigail, "She already knew who you were when we were bringing her here. She knew who Mrs. Brisby was too."

The crowd was shocked. Except for Teresa Brisby, who smiled, confident now that the fly was telling the truth.

"Very well, let's hear from the girl herself," said Justin, "Please, tell us everything. Don't leave out a single detail."

He spoke to Abigail in a soothing tone, that calmed her heartbeat from the panic she'd been feeling during Brutus' testimony

"Okay…" she said, clearing her throat and walking forward, "My name's Abigail. My friends and I don't mean you any harm at all. We came here for help. Mrs. Brisby helped us when our plane crashed, and took us to see the Great Owl, who told us where to find Thorn Valley to come and speak to you."

Surprise swept the council at the mention of the Great Owl.

"She's only the third mouse I've heard of surviving an encounter with him," said Mr. Ages, who sat close to Justin, "Wait until you hear the rest."

Justin nodded to him with a concealed smile.

"Well, what is it you've come to seek us for? How did you find out about Thorn Valley?" Justin asked.

"W-well, it's a long story. The answer to the second question is that my friend Gadget found out about you by going on this human machine called a computer, looking at a website about NIMH."

Many of the rats were lost when it came to this explanation, having little idea what a computer or a website was.

"Okay, so the humans had some kind of record of our escape," said Justin, "But why look for us at all?"

"Because NIMH attacked us too," Abigail said sadly, "Around a week ago, I think. The forest where I lived, Dapplewood, was completely devastated. They took my family and many of my friends away, and destroyed everything we had. Only me and three of my friends survived…unless the rest are still alive at NIMH."

"And what, you want us to rescue them?" Brutus snorted.

Abigail frowned, but then went on, "We escaped in a plane our teacher invented and went to a place called the City, where lots of humans live. There we met the Rescue Rangers, a group of rodents that decided to help us, but then…NIMH found them too. We weren't at their home when it happened, so we were lucky. And two…no, three of them got away. That's when Gadget, one of their members, took us to a library and went on the computer. She found out about you and we flew to the Fitzgibbons farm, met Mrs. Brisby and her family, and they told us to see the Great Owl which we did this morning, and then, when I told him what we needed, he gave us directions."

"What an incredible journey," said Justin.

Abigail nodded, "Please, we know you want to remain hidden, but you have to help us, somehow. We need to free everyone from NIMH. Gadget says the scientists there are finding out how smart rodents are, and soon they're gonna look for more to capture or kill. If we don't stop them, the humans are going to get rid of us all."

"But they'd never find Thorn valley," a rat said.

"Why endanger ourselves? It's not our problem," said another.

The room came alive with disputes, most of them arguing against sending rats to NIMH.

"We should never let them out of Thorn Valley in the first place!" said Brutus, "They'll tell everyone about us! And if any of us go to NIMH they'll find out about Thorn Valley!"

"What if she's lying?" asked another rat.

"Yes, how do we know she isn't making this up?"

"I believe her," said Martin Brisby.

"So do I," said Teresa, up above.

"Order!" Justin yelled, standing up, and the discussions ceased. Justin continued in a lower voice, "I have a confession to make myself. I know she's telling the truth. A week ago I prophesized that she and her friends would be coming, and I've been having visions of their journey."

Abigail blinked in surprise, "You've been watching us? How?"

"That I'll show you later," he said with a smile, "Anyone else in this room but her will know what I'm talking about."

"If you knew this would happen, why didn't you warn us?" Brutus asked.

"If I thought they meant any harm at all I would have," said Justin, "I did tell one mouse though. Mr. Ages."

The rats looked at Mr. Ages, who shrugged, "I had no idea these kids he spoke of would ever make it this far…"

"That's how he knew I was from Dapplewood," Abigail said.

"I don't fully expect you all to change your minds just because of this," said Justin, "But be aware; NIMH is getting worse. They're becoming aware of things no human has ever noticed before. A lot of innocent mice like the girl you see before you are going to suffer in the process. A lot already have. Most of us know how terrible it is being in NIMH. They still may never find Thorn Valley, but it is what they're searching for. Are we going to sit back, bury our heads in the sand and let thousands of other rats and mice like ourselves go through that same pain? Or do we have a moral obligation to stand up for others who have suffered just as we have? The Great Owl seems to think we do, if he sent this girl to us."

"I still think going to NIMH to save outsiders is a bunch of poppycock," said Mr. Ages, "NIMH lost our trail years ago. We're perfectly fine here, no human has come near our Thorn Valley since its inception. Why put that in jeopardy when the rats and mice outside could build underground communities of their own, if they applied themselves?"

"Is that what we should have done?" Abigail asked angrily, with her hands on her hips, "We had no idea the humans were coming. We even thought the humans were nice after they cleaned up a gas leak in the forest. How could we have known? It's gonna be the same for others too. It's gonna happen again and again. How will it end? Shouldn't we try to stop it?"

"It would be less dangerous to warn the communities that we do know of to take caution than to go marching into NIMH to probably get ourselves captured," Mr. Ages argued, "You and your friends can stay here, where it's safe."

"But what about our families? Our friends?" Abigail said, her ears going down.

"Count your blessings, little girl," said Mr. Ages, "Most of us haven't seen our families in a very, very long time."

"I think it's about time to put it to a vote," Justin said, turning to the council, "Firstly, what do we choose to do with the prisoners? Shall we let them out of prison to live among us? A show of hands."

The show of hands for letting them out of prison was nearly unanimous. Notably, Brutus kept his arms folded and glared at Abigail.

"Good, so they stay," Justin declared, "Now, for her request. There are multiple questions here. Firstly I'll ask one. NIMH is terrorizing the outside world. Do we send aid, and try to help its prisoners escape a life of torture? Or do we concern ourselves solely with our own safety? Those in favor of the first choice, raise your hands now."

There was a lot of hesitation. One by one, a few rats slowly raised their hands. Martin and Teresa both eagerly supported the idea.

"Just say yes!" urged Martin.

But in the end, only eight council members raised their hands. And although Justin was in favor, his vote still wasn't enough to tip the scales.

"Are you all certain?" he asked, unable to mask his disappointment.

No one changed their minds. Abigail's face fell, and she looked down sadly.

"Like I said before, I wouldn't oppose some measure to send representatives out to warn other forest communities," said Mr. Ages, "But going to NIMH is just too reckless."

"We'll have to discuss such things in depth later,' said Justin, "I know that you all know my opinion on this matter, but I can't go against the council. There is one final question, however, regarding the fate of our prisoners. Should we allow them to leave Thorn Valley? Those in favor, raise your hands."

But those who were against intervention at NIMH were also against letting the prisoners leave, and potentially give away their location. Once again the vote came 11-9 in favor of keeping them at Thorn Valley. Abigail sniffed and wiped her eyes.

"Understood," said Justin, "We'll reconvene tomorrow to discuss aiding those on the outside. This meeting is adjourned."

Abigail fell to her knees, defeated. The rats got out of their chairs and exited in lines around her. But Justin, Teresa and Martin stopped, standing over her after everyone had exited.

"I'm sorry, Abigail," said Justin, "I had a feeling the council wasn't going to listen to us."

She looked up at him with teary eyes, "W-we're…we're never gonna leave…?"

"Not all is lost," Justin said, offering Abigail his hand, "I have a backup plan. Come with me."

Abigail shakily raised her arm and Justin took her hand, pulling her up to her feet.

"Martin, Teresa, you two can free the others. I'm going to take Abigail to my chambers. There's a lot I need to explain to her."

"Yes sir," said Martin, saluting.

"We'll see you later, Abigail," said Teresa, "You'll find one of your friends at Justin's chambers too."

She smiled, and Abigail blinked, curious about what she meant. The two of them exited the room, and Justin led Abigail out of the room as well, leading her in a different direction. She wondered what this strange but handsome rat had planned, while all else seemed hopeless.