AN~ Well, I seem to be over my writer's block!

Purpleflower23: Oh, gosh, and I completely rushed this chapter. I was getting bored, so I decided I wanted them out of there. As a result this chapter's quality is WAY lower than last chapter, and now I feel guilty 'cause I got all these 'best chapter yet' comments, and it was awesome...

Q: If you can't express yourself without cursing, please don't review. How exactly are you going to cause me problems? This is the internet. We probably live halfway across the world from each other. Oh, and have you not been reading? Because a) the title of the last chapter was 'not such a bad guy after all', b) I've been telling people who guessed which side Puck was on that they're right in the reviews, and c) I've been dropping hints all over the place. In fact, I'm pretty sure last chapter I came out and TOLD you he was faking it.

Agd: Thanks! I really appreciate it!

silverwombat: Moth is annoying. And thank you. :)

squrriel101: Thanks! Glad you liked it!

The previous morning:

Sabrina woke up back in the dungeon, with her hands strapped back above her head, but a box under her feet, this time, so that they were resting on something. It was just tall enough that when she stood up straight her arms bent at an awkward angle, making it almost as uncomfortable as before, but at least she could feel her fingers. She chanced a glance at her wrists warily, afraid to see what days of hanging from them had done, and saw, unsurprisingly, that both wrists were bruised dark blue.

She had been somewhere before, hadn't she? Somewhere not the dungeon.

Yeah, she had. Where?

With Puck, wasn't it? He'd been... kissing her? No, that was two years ago, now.

But she could have sworn...

It came back to her, then. The tests, Puck's betrayal, that kiss...

She must have relived their own kiss at least fifteen times, for them to get her down here before she snapped out of it.

"Stupid Puck." She muttered.

"What did the traitor do now?" Peter asked, and Sabrina's head snapped up as she remembered she wasn't alone.

"Kissed Moth." Sabrina said. "Looked like he was enjoying it, too."

Peter made a face. "Ew." He said. "So, what did they do to you up there?"

"Stuck me in a weird helmet and watched me see the past and tell when they were lying. Did you know Dr. Jekyll is an everafter?"

"I did." Mr. Clay said. "But I didn't know he was here."

"He's creepy." Sabrina said. "And this is double bad news 'cause not only does he invent stuff, but this means the Scarlet Hand has a doctor, and we don't."

"Wonderful." Peter said. "Hey, you sure you're OK?"

"Yeah." Sabrina said, nodding. "I'm fine. I mean, my wrists hurt, but other than that..."

"I meant mentally." Peter said.

Sabrina gave Peter a look that killed all coversation.

Back to The End of Last Chapter:

After Puck left, Sabrina felt an echoing pain in her chest, a strange loss. After all, even if Puck was on the other side now, at least he was a familiar face, someone she understood.

But she comforted herself with the fact that she was clean, and all they were going to have her do was sleep. Clean was good, lying down was good, sleep was all right. All in all, this was the best possible outcome. So what if Puck was evil and gone?

She wondered if she'd be able to leave the room, or if the damper stuff would block her in. If she could leave, she could tell people where she was. Maybe they'd be able to rescue her, Peter, and Mr. Canis.

She forced her body to relax, and, lying on the table, waited to drift off to sleep.

She was out of her body, and floating above the table. She decided to try to leave first. No use sitting around wondering. So she floated over to the wall and pressed against it lazily.

It stung! Apparently the block on magic counted her as such. But still... she could go through, it just hurt.

She slipped outside and, seeing the Puck heading down the hall, decided to follow him. She could leave later.

But halfway to wherever Puck was heading, she saw a pair of card soldiers heading down towards what she was pretty sure was the dungeon, carrying two bowls of soup... or something. Maybe she could overhear the password...

She followed the two of clubs and the nine of diamonds down to the dungeon, wishing for that soup. She couldn't feel her stomach right now, but she still knew she was hungry, and she could almost smell that food.

She was right! They were headed for her cell! She waited, holding a breath she didn't need to take, ready to remember the password.

"Might forever." The nine of diamonds said, and the cell door opened.

Sabrina focused on memorizing the password, then headed upstairs, through the floors. She stopped when she saw Puck's hoodie inches from her face. She'd almost gone through him!

"Did you hear something?" Moth was saying.

Puck looked down, directly where Sabrina was, then away. Sabrina held her breath, sure he'd seen her. He knew what she looked like. But...

He shook his head. "Nope." He said. "Why?"

Maybe he hadn't seen her, then. But it seemed like he had. But why wouldn't he tell, if he had?

"So, did you think about what I said earlier?" Moth asked. "About us?"

Puck nodded. "A bit. But I'm not... not ready, Moth. For anything like that. It's too soon."

Why was he being nice to her? That little... Sabrina knew she should leave, but this was too interesting.

Moth nodded. "After she-"

Sabrina felt herself being pulled back to her body, and, even though she could have resisted, she didn't. It wasn't worth it, and she didn't want them getting suspicious.

She opened her eyes, back in her body, and said, "Well? Did you figure out what you wanted to?"

"Yes." Dr. Jekyll said. "But, of course, having been here the whole time, you ought have known that..."

"Yeah, totally." Sabrina said, a bit too quickly.

"Hmm..." Mab said. "Stay here, next time, girl."

"Next time?" Sabrina asked warily.

"I want to see if you can leave your body when drugged into a sleep." Dr. Jekyll said. "We have spells that allow people to leave the body, so I don't think I'll be testing to see if I can replicate this, but it's still worth studying, so that I gain an understanding of you."

"Oh." Sabrina said flatly. "You're not going to try to knock me out with a hammer, too, are you?"

"Well, perhaps." Dr. Jekyll said, pulling out a handkerchief and shoving it into Sabrina's face.

She was above her body again, and after a few minutes where she sat around staring at them, thought/said, "Great. It works. I'm still here. Wake me up, please? This is boring."

"Try just re-entering your body." Dr. Jekyll suggested. "I want to see if that wakes you."

"It doesn't." Sabrina thought/spoke, but she re-entered her body anyway.

She was woken several minutes later by a hideous smell. She sat up and said, "Auh! That's disgusting! Get it away from me!"

Her head hurt. She wasn't sure if it was from the chloroform or the smell, but she didn't like it. And she liked it even less when she was hit on the head with something large and heavy. Her vision went black again, then, for the third time that day, she found herself floating above her body.

"Not cool." She thought/spoke. "In fact, I don't think you're going to get me up from that anytime soon. That hurt."

"Well, then we'll simply sit here and wait for you to wake." Dr. Jekyll said, pulling out his notepad and jotting something down.

"And don't even think about leaving." Mab said harshly.

"Try and stop me." Sabrina said/thought, heading for the wall.

Mab picked up a knife and held it to Sabrina's body. Even in her astral form, she felt the ghost of cold on her cheek.

"Leave this room, and I will slice you just enough that your body will hurt tremendously when you return to it, but not enough that you die." Mab said. "And I want you to keep talking as long as you're here, so that I know where you are."

"Fine." Sabrina thought/spoke. She then proceeded to ramble for twenty minutes or so, complaining nonstop to Mab. When she felt the first tugs back to her body, she went gladly, and, opening her eyes, finished her rant by saying, "-have nose hair. Can I stop talking now?"

"Yes." Mab said irritably.

"What now?" Sabrina asked. "My head hurts, by the way. I think I said that before, but..."

"Gravity." Dr. Jekyll said, cutting Mab off before she could say, 'you did.'

"All right." Sabrina said, then concentrated on Dr. Jekyll's shirt. If she could move the anti-magic stuff, then... well... she'd never said she'd do what they wanted, just that she'd tell them what they wanted to know.

But they didn't move. Dangit. Sabrina thought, then turned to the case that the whatever-she-was-wearing had been packaged in. It wasn't made out of the cream stuff.

She finagled the gravity around the box so that it was floating, then, first slowly, then faster and faster, shot the box at Dr. Jekyll's face.

It knocked him over, sending him to the floor with a thump. She switched the pull to Mab, then, and, when both were knocked out, ripped the sensors off her body and walked over to them. She kicked Mab in the head, then turned to Dr. Jekyll. "You're a creep." She told him, then walked to the door, planning to head out.

But it wouldn't open. She cursed quietly, knowing magic wouldn't work on it, then sat down to wait for someone to open it. Maybe she could knock them out, too.

It almost worked. When the door was opened, she ran for her life, shooting fireballs behind her, missing people as often as she hit them.

But she got hopelessly lost in the huge castle, and cornered. They got the cuffs back on her, and, though she landed a good number of solid kicks and punches, hurting them wasn't worth much if she was back in the dungeon.

"What happened to you?" Peter asked, once she was back, severely bruised and aching.

"I almost got out." Sabrina said. "But then I got lost."

Peter hissed, saying, "Ouch. So close."

"Yeah." Sabrina said. "It wasn't cool. But whatever. I found some stuff out, and if they ever start testing me again, I can maybe get out. I'll be more prepared next time."

"So will they." Mr. Clay said. "Don't try again for some time. Give them time to get their guard down."

"Sounds smart." Sabrina said.

So she did. When they came for her the next day, she didn't resist, and it was a good thing. They had guards in the room with her, she was strapped down to the table with the mind reading machine on her head and the sensor thing on the rest of her. But she put up no fight, and just did what they wanted her to.

"What's this?" Puck asked.

Moth was leading him to the great hall- he was blindfolded, but he'd memorized the way- and she was giggling madly. "You'll see." She said.

They reached the great hall and Moth pulled the blindfold off with a flourish. Puck looked around in confusion. The room was full of Hand members, all of them wearing the handprints. Mab stood on the dais nearby, holding a pallet of something. Puck walked forward with a little push from Moth, going to stand in front of Mab.

Mab, with great ceremony, put her hand in the pallet and pressed it against Puck's chest. "Welcome to the Scarlet Hand, Puck." She said.

The crowd erupted into a chorus- mostly cheers, but a few boos- and Puck, confused, looked down at the handprint, wondering dazedly if he would be able to get that off- that was his favorite sweatshirt.

"But-" He started, "But what about my third test? I mean, not that I'm complaining, but... well..."

"It was a secret test." Mab said. "I had Moth conduct it without telling you, so that you wouldn't be able to prepare mentally. Just in case." She smiled at him.

"Oh." Puck said, stunned. "Cool."

Moth ran up and hugged him. "Isn't this exciting?" She asked. "You're one of us, now! Soon you'll meet the master, and you'll get an assignment, and everything!"

"Great." Puck smiled tightly, then said, "Moth? You're squishing me." Inside, he was screaming, cooties! Cooties! Get them of! but he knew better than to jump away from her, especially in front of all these people.

"Oh, sorry." Moth said, loosening her grip but not letting go. "This wasn't going to be for another few nights, but Mother's having a banquet this evening, and since you're a king, it seemed appropriate that you have an audience for your initiation."

"Oh..." Puck said. "So, are we eating now?" He asked.

"Not for a while yet." Moth said. "We'll mill about first and make polite conversation, then we'll head for the dining room."

"Great." Puck made a face. "I just love that."

Moth giggled and pulled him down the steps of the dais towards the crowd. "Come on, silly, it'll be fun." She said.

Puck followed, resigned, then perked up a bit, realizing that this was his chance!

If he could pretend to get lost in the crowd, he could sneak out of the great hall, and he'd narrowed the dungeon entrance down to four places- enough to search and escape from before they were missed. And everyone would be busy- if they had left any guards up, it would only be one or two, and he could take care of them easy. He'd get them out and away before anyone even noticed he was gone!

Now all he had to do was get away from Moth.

That actually turned out to be easier than he thought it would. After about fifteen minutes, he started to feel uncomfortable in the region of his bowels. "Listen, I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a minute."

"All right." Moth said, barely looking away from the fairy she was talking to. "Can you find it, do you think?"

"Probably." Puck said. "I'm learning my way around. I'll wander around 'til I do, if I get lost. I might be more than a minute, come to think of it."

"Well, find me when you get back." Moth said, turning back to her conversation. "I'll be around. Somewhere."

Puck mumbled a response and worked his way through the crowd and out the doors. He really did have to use the bathroom, but he didn't have time to find one. For a moment, he wavered in indecision, then, noticing a flowerpot, he scurried over to it, glancing about for other people: there weren't any.

He emerged a minute or so later, much more comfortable, and grateful again that he wasn't a girl, then headed towards his bedroom.

All four of his options led to nothing. Puck leaned against the wall, sighing angrily. Where could it be? He'd searched everywhere! He pulled out his maps, deciding that he might as well fill in the stuff he'd found. But, as he was going, he noticed something wrong in the room near the bend in the hall: there was too much space between the rooms.

Of course! A hidden staircase! Mab wouldn't want to clutter up her house with an ugly dungeon's door. Puck ran for the hot spot, and, reaching it, thumped against the wall and started feeling for cracks.

He found one, a long, narrow slit, and, in the molding, a strange dent, almost like the bottom of a handle. He pulled, and it opened. Genius construction. He couldn't have designed something better himself. And to make it so nobody noticed- well.

He started down the stairs slowly, wishing for one of Sabrina's handheld fires, putting a hand on the wall so that he didn't lose his balance, and closing the door most of the way behind him, but not all.

As he walked further down, a grayish glow started emanating from the walls, getting brighter the lower he went, and he realized he could have closed the door. He wondered if it was the rocks themselves that glowed, or a spell. Because if it was the rocks, he could take one with him and be able to see anywhere!

Puck reached the dungeon proper safe and sound, and began walking down the featureless hallway, counting doors as he went. It had been a while, now, and he wasn't sure he remembered the number right. Was it eight doors down? Or nine?

There was someone else in the hall.

Puck stopped short, staring at a boy- man, maybe. He looked about twenty- who was utterly ordinary looking, and thus, for Ferryport Landing, extraordinary. What was he doing here? More than that, where had he come from? Puck had been alone a minute ago.

"Hello, Puck." The boy said with a smile. "I know why you're here."

"You what?" Puck asked.

"I know you're here to let them out." The boy said.