Veronica tried to run off the ship, however, the man of no indeterminate gender held her while the hook-handed man grabbed the others and held them tightly. "Oh no." Aunt Josephine muttered, in shock. "You can stop faking your death and running away and rescuing each other and making me ferry around this godforsaken lake searching for you." Count Olaf said. "Parenting is exhausting." The man of neither man nor woman added in, as they tried to keep Veronica in place. "You're not our parent and you never will be." Violet spat at Count Olaf, eyebrows furrowed. "On the contrary, Mr Poe is putting the finishing touches on your adoption papers this very moment. In a few hours, you will be Violet, Klaus, Veronica and Sunny Sham." He bragged in the children's faces. Veronica's breath became hesitant after he said those words; she would NEVER go back and live with that monster. All she had was the scars of her years there, she didn't want the visual reminder of the man who ruined her life.

"When we explain that you forced Aunt Josephine to write that note, Mr. Poe will tear those adoption papers into a thousand pieces." Klaus glared. "And who is Mr. Poe going to believe?" Count Olaf questioned, sarcastically. "The owner of a respectable lakeside rental agency, or four runaway pip-squeaks who go around stealing boats?" He continued. "We only stole that boat to retrieve Aunt Josephine from her hiding spot so she could tell everybody about her terrible plan." Violet explained. "No, no, no, juvie could be better." Veronica stated, giving the Baudelaires a look.

Count Olaf just ignored the brunette's comment and looked towards Josephine. "Is this true? You were going to betray me?" The woman stared towards Olaf, nervous reflecting on her face. "After all the years we spent together? After all of those picnics by the shore? After all of those shredded beef tamales I served to your husband? After all the secrets we had shared?" Count Olaf continued as he walked towards her, Josephine walking backwards. Veronica's breath became even more hesitant as she saw that she was backing towards an open fence. "Yes!" She bursted out. "I was going to betray you, and these four children gave me the courage to do so. Ever since their parents were killed, they have been so fierce and formidable, again and again escaping from your clutches." Josephine went on and on, pointing directly at the man who had ruined lives. "And what have I done all these years? Nothing but hide in my house. Well, enough of that. My house can topple off a cliff for all I care." The children looked at each other with slightly awkward looks. "Who's going to tell her?" Veronica whispered to the Baudelaires. "Later." Klaus mumbled, the two sharing a nod.

"I am ready to be fierce and formidable again myself, and to face you, Count Olaf!" The troupe gasped. "I have had enough of your schemes! I have had enough of your plots! I have had enough of your greed and your betrayal." The four watched her with proud smiles; this was the side of Josephine that they had heard of and longed to see. That time was now. "Listen to me, Olaf, you villain, you wretch, you vastly untalented actor!" Veronica chuckled under her breath as she watched Olaf take offence to her comments. It was a sight she loved to see. "I'm going to tell you something I should've told you a long time ago." Josephine said to him. "And what might that be?"

"It's 'have'!"

Everyone arched their eyebrows in confusion. "What?" Olaf questioned. "You said, 'After all the secrets we had shared.' You should have said, 'After all the secrets we have shared.' You made a serious grammatical error!" Veronica gave a sigh of annoyance. "And she's back." She said to the Baudelaires. "Let me make sure I understand." Count Olaf walked closer towards Josephine. "You would not say, 'Josephine Anwhistle had been thrown overboard to the leeches', because that would be incorrect. But if you said 'Josephine Anwhistle has been thrown overboard to the leeches,' you would be all right with that?" He asked her. "Yes!" Aunt Josephine said, and then gave a look of realisation. "I mean...no! I mean..." She tried to justify her words. And in all of a sudden, he shoved her off the Fickle Ferry and right into the water of the leeches. "Aunt Josephine!" The four screamed as they tried to get out of their grip as if they wanted to drag her out of that water.

"You're all horrible! Monsters!" Veronica screamed at the troupe and Olaf. "Fiends! All of you!" Klaus said in agreement with the brunette. Veronica bit her lip and tears welled in her eyes as she watched the leeches come in and out of the water, no doubt knowing what was happening. "Take the boat to Damocles Dock! Our work here is done." Olaf demanded to the others. "But Josephine?" The man of neither gender questioned. "Josephine, Schmosephine."

~~~~~~~

Veronica leaned against the rails as she watched the boat come into port at Damocles Dock. She thought back to the moment she met Josephine, and realised that there was something that this said fierce and formidable woman gave her, she gave her the gift of who her family was. She knew she had an uncle, knew she had cousins, and knew that as soon as this was over (if to her unfortunate luck), she would set off to find them and finally have that family feeling once again. "Everybody off!" Olaf's yells broke her out of the thought but it didn't for Klaus. The girls were about to leave along with the troupe but saw that Klaus hadn't. "Klaus?" Violet questioned. Klaus pointed out something; the three looking to where he was pointing, which was two tall smokestacks in the mountains. He then showed them the picture that they had taken earlier, and noticed it was the same ones as in the image. "Lucky Smells Lumbermill." Violet said. "Aunt Josephine said it wasn't far." Veronica added.

"Come on. We don't have all day."

The four got off the ferry, to be met with the sight of Mr. Poe coughing. There was nothing unusual about it, since his coughing was always usual. "What am I supposed to do with you?" He said to the Baudelaires before facing the four entirely. "You said you were going to go home and rest, and check in with Veronica, but instead, you four steal a sailboat and push Josephine's house down a hill?" Veronica was about to speak up but Klaus just held his hand out to stop her. "I missed the pre-hurricane discount tickets and had to spend the night in the bed and breakfast that uses powdered eggs! I wouldn't be surprised if Captain Sham was no longer interested in serving as your guardian, even though I filled out these forms in quadruplicate while he boated around Lake Lachrymose looking for you on a hunch." Mr. Poe said in anger. To be honest, the four wouldn't mind if Mr. Poe wouldn't let Count Olaf have them due to "bad behaviour", they would take a criminal, someone bad just to get away from this monster.  

"Well, I'll admit the children's behaviour did make me have second thoughts." Count Olaf put on his Captain Sham accent again. "But then I also had third thoughts, which are how empty my wallet and my heart are. I truly think that the children can be an enormous fortune and a wonderful gold mine in my life." Veronica rolled her eyes, how is that not obvious he's asking for the money? "And so, as I used to say to my dearest friend, the late Josephine What's-her-name, get in the car." He faced the four children. "We're not going anywhere with you." Violet said. "Mr. Poe, this man is really Count Olaf in disguise." Klaus stated to the coughing-fit of a man. "He murdered Aunt Josephine in cold blood, right in front of us!"

"Uh, actually, cold water." The hook-handed man corrected him. "Klaus, we've been through this. There's absolutely nothing at this point that will convince me that this man is actually Count Olaf. And you have no evidence to support these wild accusations, and I cannot, on behalf of Mulctuary Money Management, merely take the world of a single child." Mr. Poe replied to the middle Baudelaire child. "You don't have to take the word of a single child. Four, actually." Veronica gritted her teeth. "Actually, it's more like three. The baby doesn't really count."

Sunny leapt out of Violet's arms and went straight for the peg leg. Olaf exclaimed out in terror as Sunny bit into the wood, like a chainsaw. Once she went in enough, the peg leg snapped in half and revealed the hidden leg with the eye tattoo to all. "My leg! My leg has grown back! It's amazing! It's incredible! It's wonderful! It's a medical miracle!" Count Olaf said in fake shock. Veronica picked up Sunny with pride on her lips, during Olaf's monologue. "Good girl, Sunny." She held her close. "Oh, come now, that won't work." Mr. Poe said to Count Olaf. "Even a child can see the peg leg was false." Veronica and Sunny exchanged glances of annoyance. "A child did see that peg leg was false. Four children, in fact." Violet stated to him. "But you didn't listen." Klaus added. "Well, perhaps the peg leg was false. But I have never seen this tattoo in my life."

"Oh, come now, that won't work either." Mr. Poe said. "You tried to hide the tattoo with the peg leg." 

The children then turned to a loud thud. It was a truck that was for Lucky Smells Lumbermill, Klaus pulling the photo out again and they smiled in agreement. "Let's go." He said to them. As Mr. Poe and Count Olaf went back and forth, arguing, the Baudelaires and Veronica ran to the truck. The worker had finished piling the wood into the truck and went to go and get in the driver's seat. They, carefully, went into the back and the truck began to drive off. Veronica pulled out the notebook and started to read over the notes she took from the book, thinking of her mother, Kate, her father, Arthur, her uncle, Reginald and her seven cousins. She imagined her parents up in those pure and clear clouds, gazing down upon her and seeing the way her life had turned out. She imagined if her uncle and cousins had heard of her disappearance and were out searching for her. 

However, as she gazed over at the Baudelaires, she also imagined what would've been of her if she never met Violet, Klaus and Sunny. It would've still been dull and full of misery. Her life would've been full of insults, hard labour for anonymous hours and torture of all kinds. Now, having met them, her life now felt full of adventure, people who cared about her and how she felt, and three people that had awakened her daring spirit. Klaus caught her gaze and they shared a warm smile together. "What's that thing Haruki Murakami said?" Violet asked Klaus. "When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in." He responded to his sister. "Before that part." The inventor specified. "You won't even be sure, in fact whether the storm is really over." Klaus corrected himself. 

That meant something to the four of them, as they were experiencing it. They weren't sure if running away towards the mill is the right choice; they had lost two more people in their lifes because of their choices. This wasn't nothing compared to what would come next for the Baudelaires and Veronica.