The robots surrounded us, forcing us to huddle together. They moved in-sync. It was creepy.

"Syndrome," I said, voice trembling. I don't know if I said it to gain his attention or to alert my friends and sister of who he was in case they didn't pick up on that. "You and Yzma are doing all of this. How and why?"

Silence. There were ten robots. A bit excessive since there were only four of us.

Four of us but Ben's on his way, I reminded myself. Sukie was staying behind in the office to carry out the plan involving the characters once the time was right.

"So you know who we are," Syndrome finally spoke. It was eerie hearing his voice over the speakers but not seeing him. "I'm surprised. Not many people care about us."

"Care about you characters?" Zeke said to my left.

"Exactly. Who we are, our worlds we live in...we are not as loved as the rest."

No. Freaking. Way. I kept my voice level instead of losing my temper as I said, "Are you doing all of this because your characters are underrated?"

"We deserve to be known by this world," Yzma's voice hissed. "I am extraordinary with my potions and schemes. Syndrome is smart; has his own robot army and builds things beyond what your minds could imagine. But we are brushed to the side in this world. Looked down upon."

"How did you get here?" It was Marcus speaking this time.

"One of my creations went wrong," Syndrome's voice spoke, sounding peeved. "But the mistake did open a portal, which is far greater than what I was trying to achieve. I experimented with it a bit. One day, one of my men who went in came back with Yzma. It was astounding. We talked it out, she took me to see her world, and from there the two of us worked on the portal until it opened up to this reality."

"Did you purposely open this world to Disney animated movies?"

"Movies!" Yzma spat, sounding both disgusted and angered. "We are not movies. We are living beings."

"But you opened this world to all of those other worlds seen in what we call Disney movies. The Disney universe," I said, eyeing the robots around us. They weren't moving at all. I was sure if we tried to run, they would. "Did you do it on purpose?"

Another stretch of silence. Syndrome finally spoke softly. "The portal got out of control. When Yzma and I stepped into this world, naturally, we explored. We discovered your movies and found that we were in them. Our portal connected to this location, right here on these very grounds. We were about to step through to go home and plan a way to make your world pay for laughing at us, but somebody came through the portal before we left. Fell through the portal. A girl who called herself Tiana."

"We had already seen her movie so we knew who she was," Yzma said with a cackle. "We took her back to Syndrome's world and kept her locked up there, thinking it was but a glitch in the system. No. When we went back to your world the next day, another person fell through the portal. Each day, a new one arrived. We were keeping them hostage in Syndrome's lab, but once we connected the dots and realized they were all linked to your "Disney universe," we came up with a plan. This world loves that universe so much, we knew we could profit off of these people, animals, and things. So we began building ComplexDisney."

"From there, it grew to what it is now." Syndrome sounded delighted. I wanted to sock him in the face. "Now, here we are."

"You do realize that non-Disney characters are coming through too now?" Zeke asked, tone shaking with anger. "Your portal is out of control. If it isn't contained or destroyed, who knows what will happen. I'd rather not find out."

"Non-Disney characters that are still loved and adored here," Yzma said. "We aren't backing down."

"You could destroy all of our worlds."

More silence. Mary-Ann grabbed my hand, squeezing it.

"We're coming down to you," Syndrome said. I felt a chill run down my spine. Oh, no. "We'd much rather see your faces in person when we do what we're about to do."

That didn't sound good at all. I knew they'd left because the silence this time was very long. Zeke, Marcus, Mary-Ann and I stood unmoving. I tried to steady my breathing. We were going to see them in person. We were probably doing to die.

The robots surrounding us still hadn't moved at all since positioning themselves. We didn't know how strong they were or how deadly. I didn't want to find out.

Ben was on his way. Maybe he'd already heard the commotion and was hiding out of sight, coming up with a plan. Maybe he was still on his way.

Maybe he was working for them after all and we should never have trusted him again.

"Gianna," Mary-Ann whispered.

A robot next to her immediately started to move forward. I grabbed my sister and shoved her behind me, holding a palm out to the robot. "Stop! She didn't do anything!"

It stopped in its tracks, stood there for a moment, and then stepped back to its previous position. Mary-Ann was trembling behind me. I turned to her and whispered, "Don't talk, okay?"

She nodded.

I had almost forgotten that we were in VillaVillains. The villains were so quiet behind the glass cases, just watching. Who knew what was going through their heads. The ones who agreed to help us...I wondered if they were changing their minds now.

I shivered as a cool breeze swept through. I didn't know what time it was; couldn't pull my phone out to check.

It was quite a while before we could hear footsteps in the dead silence. I tried to brace myself for who I was about to face. My whole body tensed as I instinctively moved in front of Mary-Ann. At the same time, Zeke and Marcus stepped closer to me, almost protectively.

When they came into view, my stomach lurched.

They looked just like the movie characters, which wasn't surprising seeing as every other character did too, but seeing them outside of an exhibit - freely roaming around our world - was very unnerving...especially as I took in the menacing smiles on their faces. Yzma was as purple and hideous as ever while Syndrome remained the burly but intimidating guy with spiked hair and a conniving smirk.

"So lovely to see that you're alive," Yzma sneered at me, eyes narrowed.

I couldn't bite back the urge to say, "Likewise."

She just glared before looking at my sister. "Hello. You look like Gianna, so you must be her sister. Pleasure meeting you."

"Yzma," Syndrome said as she snickered. "Please."

She nodded.

"You still feel tough without Kronk by your side?" Mary-Ann said almost tauntingly.

Yzma glared at her. "Kronk is an idiot."

"Nevertheless, you always had him with you."

"Yes, well, he hasn't come through the portal yet."

"You guys don't go home every once in a while?" I asked.

Yzma and Syndrome exchanged a look before he answered, "We like this world much better."

Why? It's crap.

"So what do you intend to do now?" Zeke asked, tone tight with anger.

"Kill you, obviously."

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself and keep my legs from buckling. They already tried to kill me once. Would they use a method worse than freezing to death this time?

"But first," Yzma drawled, looking around as if searching for somebody, "a little compensation for our greatest helper."

What?

"Come out, come out," Yzma said, turning in a circle, a huge smile on her face.

Syndrome just pulled something out of a pocket and flipped it in his palm, as if taunting us. I squinted to make out what it was. It was a black, square rectangle with multi-colored buttons on it.

"What's that?" I asked. I was a little shocked by how clearly I spoke to them, even when their plan was literally to kill us.

Yzma still seemed to be trying to coax something or someone out of the shadows as she turned in circles, calling for them. She almost seemed a little crazy. Syndrome just lifted his gaze to me, smirking slightly. "A controller for my robots."

My gaze flicked to one of the motionless robots to my right.

"No," he said, "not those ones."

I swallowed, bile rising in my throat. He was talking about the humongous ones. Where are they right now?

"Come here." I jumped as Yzma's tone changed from a drawl to a snap as she demanded whoever she was talking to to reveal themself. For a moment, I really thought she was going crazy.

Until movement in the shadows caught my attention.

It caught the boys' and Mary-Ann's attention to. They turned to watch as a figure walked into the light of a lamp.

All I could do was stare, trying to figure out where I'd seen him before. He was a teenager. Wavy black hair, piercing green eyes. Marcus let out a gasp beside me. I looked at him only to see his face drain of color.

"Marcus?" I asked.

Mary-Ann nudged my arm, whispering with a trembling voice, "That's the boy from the beach. Kellen."

I looked at him again. He was avoiding our gazes, body tense. She's right! A simmer of rage boiled in my chest, spreading heat across my body.

"You," I hissed.

"Yes, him," Syndrome said. "He has been spying on you for us."

He was the spy. Not Ben. My hands were fisted as I stared the teenager down. His eyes had fallen on Marcus. I turned again to my new friend.

"Kellen," Marcus whispered.

Yzma leaned forward, putting a hand to her ear. "What was that?"

"Kellen," Marcus said, louder this time, his tone that of disbelief and pain, "what are you doing?"

Kellen's stoic expression shifted to a scowl.

"Who is this?" Zeke asked. I could hear the confusion in his voice.

"My brother," Marcus said.

"Brother," Kellen scoffed. His tone was cold; differing from the friendly approach he'd had at the beach. Yzma and Syndrome seemed entertained as he stepped forward, tone shaking with anger as he said, "Now I'm your brother? Now I'm connected to your life? You never even reached out when you left!"

Marcus stepped forward but the robots immediately moved closer. I pulled Mary-Ann against me, heart racing. Marcus froze. "Kellen, I...They disowned me."

"Our parents disowned you." The boy glared at Marcus, but I could see his eyes glistening. Tears. "I never did. I still wanted us to be brothers."

"I'm sorry," Marcus said softly. "I'm sorry for everything."

"Apologies don't undo the wrong," Syndrome said, moving to stand next to Kellen and placing a hand on his shoulder. The other still gripped the controller. "Kellen has been remarkable, so it seems only fair that we pay him right away."

Yzma was grinning as she reached into the purple clock she wore and pulled something out. Cash. A huge stack of it, all $100 dollar bills. Kellen accepted it, holding it tightly in his hands.

"Don't do this," Marcus said, moving forward again. This time, the robots surged toward us. I let out a yelp as one grabbed me, twisting me so that it was standing behind me, gripping my arms and pinning me against its solid chest. Its grip on my arms was tight. I hissed in pain. Mary-Ann, Zeke, and Marcus now had robots holding them too.

This was it. We were going to die. Please, Sukie, give off the signal.

Kellen looked back up at us, gaze still angered. "This is going to help me leave home. I want to get out."

"I could help you with that," Marcus said, voice quivering with emotion. "You can live with me. But you shouldn't work for them. This isn't right. These characters don't belong here and that portal could just get stronger and destroy the world."

"Quiet now," Syndrome said, tightening his grip on Kellen's shoulder. Kellen winced. "He works for us and he'll be out of that house before he knows it. He'll be free."

The longer Kellen stared at his brother, the more his scowl faded. I watched it shift from anger to conflict...like he couldn't stay mad at his brother. Who knew how long they'd been apart, but seeing Marcus now, Kellen couldn't remain angry. His eyes were still watery. I noticed him swallow, gaze flicking to Syndrome's grip on his shoulder before moving to the remote in the man's other hand.

Yzma was prowling around, eyes narrowed as she stared us down. "Let's just do this, Syndrome. They know too much."

"I know," he said. He lifted the controller. My heart began pounding again, hot adrenaline rushing through my veins. I heard Mary-Ann release a small whimper.

Marcus and Kellen were holding eye contact. They held it for a minute before Kellen inhaled shakily, closing his eyes. I didn't even have time to realize what was about to happen.

As Syndrome slid a finger over the buttons on the remote, Kellen twisted out of his grip and grabbed it, yanking it from his hand. Both Syndrome and Yzma lunged for it but he threw it before they could grab it.

It landed directly in front of Marcus.

It could've been an adrenaline rush, or pure luck, but Marcus buckled his knees so that his weight would fall completely on the robot. For a moment, the robot's grip faltered, and Marcus jolted free, scooping the remote up off of the floor. The robot moved to grab him again but Syndrome barked, "Stop!" It froze in its tracks.

Marcus was breathing heavily, remote in his hand.

Syndrome was immediately grabbing Kellen and pinning him in his grip, pulling a knife out and holding it to the boy's chest. Marcus tensed. I felt my body grow rigid too.

"Looks like you've suddenly swayed him to your side, the stupid boy," Syndrome chuckled, though his voice held no humor. "Give me the remote or I'll kill him."

Kellen shook his head, frozen in the villain's grip. "Don't do it. I'll die, just don't do it."

Syndrome pressed the knife harder against Kellen's chest. He winced, tensing.

"Stop it," Marcus said. He looked down at the remote in his hand.

"Marcus," Zeke said.

Marcus looked at us, then back at his brother. I tried shifting slightly but the robot holding me tightened its grip, making me grimace as a sharp pain shot through my arms. Yzma was right beside Syndrome, eyes trained on Marcus. Once again, it was silent. I didn't know what to do. If it were Mary-Ann with a knife to her chest, I'd give the remote back. I knew I would.

"You haven't got all night," Syndrome finally said, tone menacing.

Marcus looked at us one more time before hesitantly leaning down and sliding the remote back over to the Founders. Yzma picked it up. She and Syndrome exchanged a look.

Then Syndrome drove the knife into Kellen's stomach.

"NO!" Marcus shouted, lunging forward. The robot behind him grabbed him, pinning him once again.

I let out a sob, tears filling my eyes. I pulled against the robot holding me. Marcus was thrashing wildly as Kellen cried out and slumped against the exhibit behind them. Syndrome grabbed him by the hair and slammed his forehead against the exhibit before shoving him down to the ground, leaving a dark smear of blood on the glass.

I was fighting the robot holding me now. I managed to free just one hand, but that was enough. I grabbed the walkie-talkie from my belt and raised it, shouting, "Now, Sukie!"

It only took a moment before her voice could be heard over the speakers bellowing into the night. "Leave your exhibits now!"

Like a wave, movement started all around us as Disney characters burst through the unlocked doors of their exhibits to fight.

•~•~•~•

Ooooooh. The story is almost done!! Kind of hard to believe!!