Sweet had gone to the police station, tent village, and the gold and blue room looking for Jughead. He threw the red door open to storm into the house. He stops in the living room at the sight of the Jones sitting across from Kurtz. A G&G game was set up on the coffee table between them. "What are you doing here, Sweets?" Jugs stood up.
"What am I doing here? You hang up on me after hinting that you know where Abby is. Why is he… What the hell did you do with Abby?" He lunged forward to throw a punch at Kurtz.
FP pulled him off him. "We need him conscious to get them back." He threw him on the recliner.
"Them?" He pants.
"He got Jellybean and Abby," Jugs told him.
"You kidnap a little girl." He sneers.
"How many times am I going to say that they came to me?" He sighs.
"Abby didn't go to you." He shook his head. "She promised she wouldn't go off on her own again."
"Then she must love Fangs. I don't get it, the guy is a disgusting selfish traitor, but her pure heart wants to keep him close. He needs to ascend, so he'll always be with her." He was talking to himself now.
"Can we get on with this damn game so I can have my daughter back?" Glady slammed her fist on the table.
"Of course. Mr. Jones, you will be Deadeye like in high school." He hands a card to him. The older man took it. "Jughead, you will remain the Hellcaster." He took the familiar card. "And Mrs. Jones, you'll be the alchemist, I think." He knew Abby should have enjoyed the irony in that. She snatched the card out of his hands. "I didn't know you were going to be here, so you'll just have to sit on the sideline, as usual, Pea Brain." Sweets resisted the urge to knock him out.
"Deadeye, you're up first." He put three dice in FP's waiting hand.
He sighs, not believing that he was playing for his daughter's life. He was counting on his son to get them through this. He rolls the dice around in his hand before dropping them on the table.
"You've reached your first challenge." Kurtz picks up a card. "This one is easy. It's called cards on the table. Inside two of these pouches is white marble. Inside the third is a black one. If you choose the black one you must reveal your secret. Simple enough." He looks around to make sure they understand the rules.
"Call it what you want. We've been playing secrets and sin since high school." He knew the game well.
"Alchemist, why don't you begin?" He picked the woman with the biggest secret in the room. She picked a pouch to open it up and see a black pearl. "Be honest. The king already knows your darkest truth." He advised her since he knew her secret.
"I don't have any secrets." She wasn't going to play.
"Mom, Jellybean's life is on the line so if you don't say something I will." Jug couldn't believe she was going to lie when so much was on the line.
"What's he talking about?" FP asked.
"You must as well tell him. It's not much of a secret considering everyone in this room knows but him." Sweet wasn't going to let Abby's sanity be put on the line for her secret.
"I'm the new fizzle rocks dealer in Riverdale and Kurtz used to work for me before he lost his damn mind." She glanced at her old lead fizzle rock maker.
"I hate to tell you he never had it." Sweets corrected her.
"What?" FP couldn't believe it. She watched him come home stressed about finding out who was the new head of the drug trade before the town was completely ruined by it. "And you knew about this and didn't tell me, boy?" He turned to Jughead.
"Don't blame him. I told him not to say anything because I wanted to keep you out of this. I did it to protect you, to protect the family." She tried to defend her secret. Everyone knew it was bullshit, she was protecting herself. She knew Jughead would convince FP to give her the ultimatum of leaving town or getting arrested. Sweets shifted uncomfortably as he watched a family be torn apart. Kurtz looks to be enjoying the show.
"How's that working out for Jellybean? Huh? You are the reason that this psycho kidnapped our daughter." FP shouted, not buying any of her lies. Kurtz nods that she was. "You brought this into our lives."
"Dad." Jughead was going to remind them about the task at hand.
"I heard enough. We are going to finish this game and get Jellybean back safe and sound. But there will be a reckoning." He promised his wife. She nods that she would accept whatever her fate was.
"We're getting Abby back too." Sweets wanted everyone to remember the other person being held hostage.
"I never said that." Kurtz shook his head.
"Excuse me!" FP glares.
"He never said we would get Abby back if we won." Jughead realizes they just assume she was part of the deal.
"She's not part of the deal. The goddess isn't something to gamble." He licks the dried blood off his busted lip.
"She's a fucking person. She got a life with us, not you." Sweet was holding onto the arms of the chair to not beat him to death.
"She meant for so much more than this mortal existence." He sneers.
"Let's get on with this game." FP looks at Sweet to let him know that he would make sure to get Abby back.
"Sure thing. Hellcaster, it's your roll next." He nods to Jugs.
"Finally, you've reached your next quest." Kurtz was delighted that they were at the next stage. "You steal some treasure from the realm." He hands the card to Jugs.
"What treasure?" Glady didn't know of anything like that in Riverdale.
"He wants us to commit a robbery," Jug explains.
"You've got to be kidding? I'm the sheriff." He couldn't be committing crimes.
"Not tonight. Tonight, you are Deadeye and your target is…" Kurtz picked up another card. "... the tavern."
His parents look at Jugs. "So, if everything is a parallel for Riverdale, then the tavern is Pops." He looks at Kurtz.
"Consider it Jellybean's ransom. And the money you obtain is going to get me out of town with all my luggage." He looks over at Sweet Pea.
"You're not going anywhere." FP points his finger at him.
"Especially not with anyone." Sweet glares.
"The only way this ends, Kurtz, is with you in the ground," FP promises.
"If I die, so does Jellybean and the goddess's mortal form." He reminds him. "If I leave with the money then they live and we all win."
"Let's go." Jugs got up. "Sweets stay here and make sure he doesn't go anywhere."
"Will do." He nods while the Joneses leave. The two males stare at each other. "What's happening to her?"
"She is relaxing in a room listening to a book on tape." He waves around the manual.
"You're not leaving with her." He would have to kill Sweet Pea for him to allow that.
"You felt the goddess's powers, didn't you? She changed you for the better. Made your ice heart melt. She meant to do that for the world, not just you." He leaned back in his chair. "I understand the addiction to her presence. It's why we ascend."
"If ascending is so great then why haven't you done it?" He wished he would off himself.
"Before I do I'm going to get the goddess powerful enough to be on her own." He spoke of his grandest quest. "I'm getting her mortal form ready to meet the King."
"You are crazy enough to believe that there is a goddess spirit inside her." He looks into his eyes to see the insanity.
"You're ignorant enough to believe that a moral with no leverage could control that many people. She's enchanting them and she doesn't even realize it. She enchanted you. Why do you think you do everything she wants? You forgive her so easily when she comes back from being with us. You adopted a kid with her. You live away from your people with her. You think Kraken, Dracula, or Greg, former Ghoulie gang members, are selfless people that want to protect a damsel in distress. None of them have chivalrous bones in their bodies. No, the goddess is making them good. She is the light to the king's darkness. They are the new balance to a better world that is coming." He didn't know how these townspeople were so naive that she could have once been a wallflower.
"You're beyond help." Sweet hisses while leaning back in his chair.
Abby jumped when the door was broken down. She scrambles to get away until her back hits the wall. The Gargoyle King was standing in the doorway. "Oh my god, oh my god." She mutters while praying that she would live to see another day.
He walked in and sat down on the futon before putting a hand on her arm. She was surprised to see that it was a glove under that stick skeleton structure of a hand. He yanked her down so her head was on his lap. He pets her hair with one hand while the other holds her in place. It was humming a song she didn't recognize. She let out a shaking breath. He hissed whenever she moved, tightening his hold on her hip. She shook as she cried while it played with her hair. "Please, please let me go." She pleads. He grabs her face to wipe her tears as its deer skull mask tilts while staring down at her. "Please." She screamed when it pulled a rag out of its pocket. It put the rag over her mouth as she struggled. She couldn't fight the chemicals that invaded her brain and put her to sleep.
The sound of the door opening broke the silence that fell between the men. "And then they were two." Kurtz didn't have to look to know that FP sacrificed himself.
Jughead throws a right hook, knocking him out. "The cops are probably on their way over here," Glady told him. "We have to move somewhere."
"I got a place." Jug grabs an arm. Sweet Pea grabs the other arms.
They took him into the bunker, throwing him to the ground, handcuffed. "Kurtz is an insidious bastard. I mean, even if we save Jellybean, we still lose. I just robbed Pops at gunpoint. It was unloaded but still. How can we stay in Riverdale after that?"
"We don't. We get in a car and we drive up North and we keep going until we find a town where no one knows us." Glady was sitting at the entrance of the bunker.
"You cause problems everywhere you go and when it gets too heavy you leave everyone else behind to deal with the burning pieces." Sweet lost all respect for the woman he once admired.
"You better remember who you're talking to." She didn't need some teen giving her lip.
"What's wrong? Is hearing the truth too much for you?" Jughead's heartbroken eyes made her freeze up. "You did it to us once already. When we finally picked up the pieces, when dad and I were finally able to be happy together you came and ruined it. You ruined us. You have no remorse for it." He picked up a bucket of water to pour on Kurtz.
"What the hell?" He wipes the water off his face. He looked around, not liking that he didn't know where he was.
"Sleepytime is over, Kurtz." He picked him up to put him on his feet. "What's the next challenge?"
He grabs a card from his pocket. "It's a doozie. Trail with the Cyclops."
Jug took it confused. "Cyclops? That's not a character class I've ever read about."
Glady took the card from her son. "I might know what he's talking about." Kurtz smiles at her being able to figure it out.
They walk into the Serpent's headquarters. "This was once a Gargoyle lair. Come on… come on…" He hurried them to step in. "Now it's a serpent's den." He looked around in disgust at all his memories being erased from the place. "But, tonight it's a battlefield."
In walked a woman with an eyepatch. "Penny Peabody?" Jug was shocked at her being here.
"This woman is like a roach." Sweet groan. Glady had to agree with that.
"You are cyclopes. I thought you were…" He looks at his mother.
"Dead? Is that what mommy told you? No, it was an eye for an eye. Though I'm sure she wishes now that she finished the job." She mocks him. Glady smirks at this being who she had to defeat.
"And your weapons will be the sai." He uncovered four of them. He gave two to each woman. "As decreed by the king."
The males took a seat on the couch. "Ever held these before Jones." Penny twirls them in her hands.
"Once or twice." The stance she took told a different story.
"Players on my mark, let the battle begin," Kurtz called for the fight to start. Sweet was impressed with how the women were able to handle the weapon with expertise. Glady got a sai stuck in a pillar when Penny dodge a strike. She took her chance to penetrate her skin.
"Mom." Jug stood up to get pulled back down.
"This is a two-player game. If you move again, your sister will pay the price." He warns. Glady was moving with rage. She was able to knock the sais out of Penny's hands and held the sharp edge to her throat.
"Stop," Jugs yelled. "You have to defeat her to beat the quest. You did that, now let's go."
Glady nods, taking the blade away from her throat to stab her in the leg. "Guess you'll be limping home." She smiles as Penny's wails of pain fill her ears.
"Come on, let's get you to a hospital." Jug grabs her arm to guide her out of the place. Kurtz and Sweets follow them out.
Jug got in the truck where Sweets and Kurtz were waiting for him. "And then there was one." Kurtz sang.
"I just dropped my mom off at the emergency room for a broken arm and a ruptured kidney. My dad has been shot and my sister is being held against her will. So you are going to take me to Jellybean." He orders.
"Fair enough, but only you can go." He pointed at Jughead.
"No, no way!" Sweets snapped.
"It'll be fine Sweet Pea. I promised I'll come back with both of them." He tried to reason with him.
"We both knew if you had to, you would leave Abby there to save your family." He didn't trust Jughead to make that kind of sacrifice for her. "This is the first time you mention her all night."
"If you come with, you have to be shackled." He warns. Sweet held his wrist out and then his feet to get bound.
"I'll drive and you'll wear this." He held up two hoods. They switched seats and got their heads covered. He drove them to the junkyard. He took Jughead out of the car and child-locked Sweet Pea in. He guided Jughead to stand in front of two fridges and a Gargoyle King replica before he pulled off his hood. "You've made it to the valley of darkness. And now, your vision has been restored."
"Where are we? Where's Jellybean?" Jughead looks around. The creepy junkyard was what he imagined Derry's would look like. He hoped she wasn't stuck in one of the fridges.
"Surely, you must be familiar with the story of the lady and the tiger. Behind one of these doors is your sister." He pointed at the two fridges. One had a Griffin painted on it and the other a Gargoyle. "Behind the other is your doom. The final challenge is simple Jughead. Choose one."
Jughead ran to Griffin's fridge to see it was empty then opened the gargoyle one to find it was the same. "Hey, what's the twist?" He turned to see Kurtz had a gun on him.
"Get in." Jughead put his hands up. "You broke the rules of the game when you checked the second fridge. Climb into the ice tomb and the princess will be freed with a phone call."
"No, not until I know she's safe." He kept his hands up.
He took his cell phone out and dials a number. "Put her on." He orders before handing the phone to Jughead.
"Hey, Jellybean." His voice was shaking.
"Hi, Jug." She greets.
"Are you alright? Where are you?" He stares at Kurtz.
"I just got home. I'm hanging out with my pal, Ricky. Don't be mad but we've been playing G&G. I know you said not to but…" She told him about her day.
"It's okay." He let out a breath of relief that she didn't know she was in danger. "I'll see you soon."
Kurtz took the phone away. "Get in."
"Alright, alright." He climbed into the fridge. "I did what you wanted, tell Ricky to let her go."
"Calm down, Hellcaster." He put the phone up to his ear. "Acolyte? The Hellcaster has been contained. You may kill the princess." He slammed the fridge shut as he locked it.
"Kurtz, you cheater." He threw his body against the door. When he was finally able to bust it, he was shocked to see Kurtz on the ground. A screwdriver sticking out of his bloody chest. Next to him was Abby. She appeared to be sleeping. He turns to see the Gargoyle King between the two fridges. It points at Abby and then the truck. He scoops her up to run to get away from the scene.
Abby wakes up in her bed. "What the fuck? Was that all a nightmare?" She rubs her arms.
"No, it was real." She jumps at hearing another voice. Sweet was sitting on a chair by the foot of the bed. "Do you give a shit about anyone else but yourself?"
"Sweet Pea…" She sat up.
"No! No excuse! What you did last night was selfish. You worried everyone and for what? He wouldn't have gotten Fang's back. He wants him dead." He stood up. "You made it clear last night that you didn't care about my feelings at all."
"That's not true." She shook her head.
"You didn't take me or Tessie into account. You can't just leave us whenever you feel like you have some kind of mission to do." He ran a hand through his messed-up hair. "Since I met you, I don't think there has been a day that has gone by that I didn't think about you. I haven't tried to be a better person for you. It hurts that you don't feel the same way. "
"Sweet Pea. I love you" She stood up from the bed.
"Just not as much as I love you." He picked up a suitcase. "I think you should stay here. I'm going back to the tent village with Tessie."
"What… no…" She shook her head.
"I'm not leaving her here when you just take off whenever you please." He shook his head. "I want you. I want us to be a family. But, you have to prove to me that you want the same." His eyes tear up. This was the hardest thing he had to do. "I hope you do." He walks out of the bedroom. Abby threw herself down on the bed sobbing.