Pacing wasn't something I did growing up but it seemed I had adopted the habit now.

Waiting for the team to arrive was excruciating. That was all I could say. Not only were words building in my head that I so desperately wanted to say but couldn't quite yet, but the longer they took to get here, the longer it'd take to make a plan; which meant the longer Stermin and Ykell - Yzma - would be out there unstopped.

It took a little explaining to Mom and Mary-Ann to make them understand. When they finally did, they were as shocked as I. It made sense though. How did I not realize a Disney character would be behind all of this? Did Stermin even know she was not from our world? Did he care? Was he a Disney villain himself?

The moment there was a knock at the door I was lunging for it, a sound of relief coming from deep in my throat. I yanked it open, not even letting anybody speak as I gushed, "We need to stop them! She's not even one of us! Who knows..." I trailed off as I took them in. Zeke and Sukie were the ones I called but it seemed as if Zeke brought Marcus along. For what purpose? I didn't know. He wasn't the reason my speech faltered. A familiar blond-haired guy was standing next to Sukie, smiling sheepishly.

"Ben?" I hissed. There was a pause before I lunged at him.

He yelped in fright and dodged my punch. Before I could try and rain hits on him, I felt Zeke and Marcus both grab me, hauling me away.

"Woah, Gianna, slow down!" Zeke said, gripping me tightly.

I didn't listen. "Let go!"

"No, wait, I can explain!" Ben said, sidling behind Sukie for protection. She rolled her eyes.

"Of course you can," I snapped.

Zeke tightened his grip on my arm. "He can, Gianna. As soon as you told me he was with them, I looked into it."

"And?" I demanded, eyes still trained on Ben's worried expression.

"And he isn't working for them. It was a misunderstanding."

"But right after Stermin mentioned a spy, Yk-Yzma asked "Ben?" and I don't think that's coincidence."

"No, it's not," Zeke agreed. "But it isn't Ben. Trust me. I did some thorough interrogating."

"Well, then, I feel absolutely reassured." I yanked away from Zeke and his roommate.

"I swear I'm not working for them," Ben promised, peeking around Sukie to meet my eyes. "Well, okay, I'm working for them but not in that way."

"I still don't believe you," I snapped, "but we have bigger things to handle. Since he's here and listening, we can't let him out of our sights. Who knows if he'll run back to the Founders to tell them our plan."

I could see the twinge of hurt in Ben's face but I shrugged it off, gesturing for them all to enter. As he passed, I kicked him in the back of the knee, making him topple over. Mary-Ann - who was standing to the side for our whole exchange - giggled and stepped over Ben, high-fiving me.

Once we were all settled in the living room, I bit my lip, looking between the three of them. "So, um...we need a plan."

"No duh," Ben muttered, sinking back in his chair.

I shot him a glare. Sukie spoke before I could. "First, we need the whole story. How do you know for sure that Ykell is Yzma?

"Well...I don't know for sure," I admitted slowly. "But a while back, closer to when I first started working at ComplexDisney, I found this pink gem out in the parking lot. I never thought much about it until just an hour ago when Mom, Mary-Ann and I were watching The Emperor's New Groove." I pulled the gem out of my pocket. "It matches the one Yzma wore on her hat perfectly."

"So how does that point to Ykell being Yzma?" Marcus asked.

My eyes shifted to him. So he knew about ComplexDisney and what we were doing. Was he going to help our little band of rebels? "Well, she has an obsession with the colors pink and purple for one. And for another, she totally acts like Yzma!"

"That's not a lot to go off of," Ben said.

"It's mostly a gut feeling. But even if I'm wrong, we still need to stop them."

"You were supposed to rest today before we planned anything," Zeke told me, frowning.

I met his blue eyes, and immediately, our kiss came to mind. The corner of my mouth twitched upward into the slightest smile. "Um...well...you're all here now so let's plan now."

Marcus chuckled, nodding his head. "She's got a point."

"And who are you?" Mary-Ann demanded.

"Mary-Ann," Mom said exasperatedly. I grinned. She was going to lecture her. Good thing it wasn't me on the receiving end. "You-"

"It's fine, Mrs. Yumia," Marcus laughed as he studied my sister curiously. "I'm Marcus."

Mary-Ann scrutinized him. "You look familiar."

That was what I thought too. "May-Ay."

Her gaze moved to me, scrunched in disgust at the nickname. When she was little, she couldn't pronounce "Mary-Ann" so she called herself "May-Ay." It  stuck to that day. She didn't seem to appreciate it. "Don't call me that."

"May-Ay?" Zeke chuckled.

My little sister's glare shifted to him. "Don't even ask."

When I was sure she wasn't looking, I mouthed, "Ask me later," to him. He grinned and nodded.

"So what exactly do you propose we do about this whole ordeal?" Sukie asked no one in particular, leaning forward and looking between us all. For an older lady, she sure was functional and full of energy. Not once had I seen her grow weary when working.

I opened my mouth to speak but Ben spoke first. "Before you say make a plan, Gianna," he gave me a pointed look and I scowled, "why don't we actually talk this all over?"

"We just did," I argued.

He shook his head. "I mean, what do we know about the Founders? What do we know about ComplexDisney and its system? At what times do certain things happen like feeding, bathing, medical procedures, and testing? Who has experience in what areas of the park?"

I let out a small huff. He was right. I was still pretty new to the whole concept of the parks. I wasn't sure how everything worked. "Fine. Then what do you know, Ben? We'll start with you."

"Well, I work mostly in the kitchen. Not the kitchen for visitors; the kitchen where the food for the characters are made. I also work part-time in the control room, which could come in handy." He sat up straighter. "However, I did - and I think I've told you this already - work on building the marine exhibits over this past year and a half. I'm not sure how that can help, but remember how we opened the ventilation system for Ariel to hide in? Maybe we could open up those systems for all of the marine exhibits to allow those water creatures...animals...whatever....out. Even though they wouldn't be able to fully escape, at least they're out of the exhibits. Then maybe we could use the empty exhibits for something."

Zeke nodded. "That doesn't sound too bad but what would we need empty water exhibits for?"

Ben shrugged. "Just a suggestion."

"And not a bad one either, dear," Sukie assured, smiling at him.

"Well..." I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "What about you, Sukie?"

"I jump between fixing things - like that water fountain you met me by - and the control room. Only, unlike Ben who is an amateur called upon only when other workers are sick," she said, earning an annoyed grunt from Ben, "I actually know what I'm doing in there. And the control room will, for sure, come in useful. It controls the whole park."

I nodded. That would come in handy. My eyes found Marcus who shrugged, holding his hands up in surrender. "I can just...be moral support."

A laugh bubbled out of me. Mary-Ann cocked her head to the side. "I can help somewhere too."

"No," I immediately objected, any pleasantness that had been swirling inside of me gone. "This could be dangerous."

"Exactly! You could use my help."

I locked eyes with Mom, silently begging her to ban my sister from going. She looked between the two of us with pursed lips before smiling tightly. "You could use her help."

"What?" I complained. "Mom! You're supposed to be wanting to keep her home!"

"Well, sorry, but I can't help that she'd sneak out even if I said no," Mom laughed.

Mary-Ann grinned smugly. "There, you see? I'm coming with you."

"But...But you don't even know what we're doing!"

"Well, I'm about to find out, aren't I?"

I looked between everybody. My friends avoided my gaze. I groaned loudly, flopping back in the chair. "Fine. But if you get...get...get eaten by some mutated alien thing, don't blame me."

She rolled her eyes. "Please. This is Disney, not some horror movie."

"Yeah, well, you haven't seen enough Disney movies to know how many dangerous things there are."

She didn't reply.

An uncomfortable silence fell.

"So," Zeke finally spoke, running a hand through his hair, "let's make an actual plan."

"Go ahead," I grumbled, folding my arms.

Before he could reply, his phone rang. His eyebrows furrowed as he pulled it out of his pocket, picking up and pressing it to his ear. "Hello?"

I looked between the others, settling on narrowing my eyes at Ben who raised his hands questioningly as if asking 'What did I do now?'

"Wait, what?" Zeke sat up, a shocked look sliding across his tanned features. My blood turned to ice at his alarmed tone. "What...Who...Yes, yes, I here you. But that's not possible."

"What?" I whispered to him, my heart pounding hard.

He looked at me, his eyes still wide, and whispered back, "A non-Disney character just arrived today."

•~•~•~•

Hello everybody! Hope you're having a great day!

Who do you think Stermin and Ykell's...excuse me...Yzma's spy is if it isn't Ben? Or do you think Ben's lying?

And what about a non-Disney character arriving?!