Things were getting out of hand, but then some of the ship's medics stepped in and announced that they carried the vaccines for the Water Fever aboard--the crew had to take it periodically, obviously. They thought they had enough to cover any stragglers.

The Menagerie staff almost seemed disappointed that they wouldn't get a chance to keep humans from entering their island, but they begrudgingly said that they should just get those then.

Neo thought little of all this except that it was needless to complicate things this much. The Water Fever was deadly only in a minority of cases, but unfortunately a lot of those tended to be children. Still, they had qualified doctors around who could probably treat it. Big deal if a few people contracted it.

Water Fever was the Remnant version of what Shine would have called malaria in her world. Though it was not the same, since their bodies functioned differently because of Aura.

Neo only knew this because she'd read a pamphlet about Menagerie on the way here out of boredom.

Roman was watching impatiently, and Emerald and Mercury were with him.

So far no one had noticed the newcomers...at least they thought so, till Mercury saw one woman looking at him.

She was nearly as short as Rub, but with straw blonde hair and large, smokey, purple eyes similar to Yang's, but her expression was decidedly more hostile.

She was frowning at the three of them.

Next to her was a Faunus with bull horns who had a long raincoat on, though it wasn't currently raining.

It wasn't uncommon for Atlesians to wear coats all year around, of course, even though it was much hotter here than in Argus, so it might have been that, but Mercury wasn't betting on it.

"Hey, 10 o'clock," he said. "There's a Faunus with bull horns over there, and that lady next to him is giving us a dirty look."

"That's not evidence," Roman said. "But wasn't there a bull-horned Faunus who was suspect?"

"Mino," Emerald whispered. "No last name that we know of yet. Two animal traits. I only see horns."

"Might have his tail hitched up behind that coat," Mercury said

A bull tail wouldn't have been that long, and if his pants were loose enough, a man might hide it in his.

"If that's him, what is he doing here? I thought the water was your air pirates' new turf," Roman muttered.

"They could have snuck on at that stop," Ruby suggested, "if they were bandits... That's not one of the pirate women, is it?"

"No," Emerald said. "Cinder said one had bright red hair and the other's was brunette. That's not one of them, unless they picked up another woman."

"Well, standing here isn't doing anything for us," Mercury said.

"If we act like we know them, they might run," Emerald said. "It looks like they completed inspection already."

They were standing off from where the people who had already been processed were waiting to be escorted to their new lodgings.

In fact, the Menagerie guides were deciding right now to just take the ones who were ready now, at least in bunches.

They rounded up about 20 of the kids, with their guardians, and led them off the docks and towards the orphanage itself.

This didn't seem to concern either of the suspicious people, so Emerald and Mercury assumed they had no interest in those kids.

Then what did they want? If it wasn't them...

* * *

Cinder's first conscious thought was her head was pounding and she had a weird taste in her mouth.

She thought there was pressure on her hand, like someone was holding it, but she was more concerned with the feeling she had that something bad had occurred.

What had happened...? Her memory was foggy. She was in the sick bay. Someone came in--

Someone came in!

She sat up, eyes flying open.

Royal was sitting there, holding her hand.

"You're awake," he said with relief.

Cinder yanked her hand away from him with a warning look.

"I was just trying to help." Royal began to make excuses right away. "I thought maybe I could do what I did before, to make that stuff wear off faster, but I couldn't tell if it was working or not. I thought maybe it felt different... I mean, you did wake up, so many it was."

Cinder decided not to listen to his excuses--though they would have perhaps been kind of cute if she'd been the type of person to see it that way.

"Forget it," she said, and her words were slurred because of the sedative. But she struggled to get more ahold of herself. "Listen, someone was here."

"We know," Royal said. "Neo got your message, but by the time they found you, you were out. Someone drugged you... The medic said you wouldn't remember what happened at first probably...but if you can remember anything, that would be good."

"How long has it been?" Cinder asked.

"I think at least 2 hours, maybe more. We were going to try to get help for it sooner, but they wouldn't hear it till...well, nevermind that's not important. We've been looking for anyone suspicious...well, I haven't, but the others have. Only we didn't know who to look for."

Rather blurry images were playing in Cinder's head, something about someone with horns...

Her eyes lit on the cabinet, and the memory came back to her with a jolt.

"That!" She pointed at it, hurrying to get up--and, finding that wasn't the best idea yet, she sank back down. "There was a...man, here. Faunus. He put something in that cabinet... He said something too..."

She rubbed her head and muttered a curse. "What was it...? I think it...I don't know, something about...ready?"

"This is it right here?" Royal went to it. "Let's see... I think I saw what they punched in..."

He pressed the buttons on the lock, and it clicked open.

"Do you have a photographic memory?" Cinder asked.

"No, they just made a nice kind of beat while they put the numbers in, and the pace of them, it's precise." Royal shrugged. "I'm good with patterns... Now, which stuff would he have tampered with? Besides they took nothing and it was the same as yesterday."

"Then something was replaced since yesterday." Cinder, even loopy, could see this much.

"Yeah," Royal agreed. "But what? It's just medicine and vaccines."

"Why do they need vaccines?"

"They were saying that up top. I guess everyone who stays there has to get them. There's this Water Fever people get from bugs here. I hope we don't have to since we're leaving. I hate shots."

"I see." Cinder didn't care. "Well, I don't know what--"

Then, as if it was divine inspiration, the memory hit her.

"They had marks in their arms..." Tammy had said.

Cinder stood up again, this time successfully. Maybe the adrenaline in her system had knocked the drug out of it.

"The shots," she said, "they're not vaccines."

"What?" Royal said.

[Despite what you may think, this was not meant to be any political commentary. It's like the dust being injected into your arm, only in shot form, but since people are going to assume I did it on purpose and make jokes about it, please do not start a comment war that's totally off subject.]

"They're the bandits," Cinder insisted. "Somehow they snuck them on here. They didn't infect those kids yet--they're going to right now."

Royal turned grey.

"As in what they're doing right now?" he said. "Because someone just came in here and took one box of them a few minutes ago. There's another box here."

"Who was it?" Cinder asked.

"Just the ship medic and one from Menagerie. They said they were confirming it was the right one," Royal said.

"The Menagerie one might have been a plant," Cinder said.

"We have to get up there," Royal said, taking out his scroll. "I'll let the others know... Only, it could be too late. How do we pull them aside if it is?"

"Someone with authority will have to," Cinder said.

They both ran out of the room, leaving the inventory unlocked, but it hardly mattered now.

The adrenaline rush made Cinder's mind sharper.

"I remember now," she said. "The bull-horned Faunus...probably the same one Dawkins mentioned, he was here. I followed him, but someone else must have followed me. I passed out. It wasn't a normal kind of passing out, because I don't remember anything hitting me. It could have been a Semblance."

"They took your scroll also," Royal supplied further. "But thankfully Neo knows you well enough to know that you didn't sound right. Did give us all quite a scare though. Can't let you out of our sight for five minutes."

"Perhaps you shouldn't have left me alone down there at all," Cinder said, with what sounded strangely like disappointment, but she wasn't exactly thinking straight.

Royal gave her an odd look but then put it down to nerves.

"No one's answering," he said. "They must all be on silent right now. I texted them too... Oh, here we go."

Pyrrha had finally checked her scroll since she had moved off the ship by now.

Her and Jaune's kids were in line to get the shots currently, since the three siblings were humans.

Polly and Davi were Faunus; they were in the other line. 

"Hello?" Pyrrha said in a hushed voice. "What is it? Speak quietly, I'm close to people."

"Mrs. Arc, if your kids are in line to get that shot, don't let them. They have the Grimm dust in them, we think," Royal said.

"What?" Pyrrha said in a tone of unmatched horror.

She looked dead ahead. Some kids had already been given the shot... If they were fake...?

Franz stepped up right then.

"Wait!" Pyrrha yelled, much louder than anyone was ready for.

The nurse flinched and looked at her.

Pyrrha didn't think if this was wise, she just rushed over and grabbed the syringe out of the nurse's hand.

"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?!" the nurse demanded, standing up.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked. He wasn't that far off, with the other kids and Lux.

Neo widened her eyes at Pyrrha. She knew Pyrrha wouldn't have done that without a reason.

Pyrrha, not sure what else to do, suddenly snapped the syringe in half and threw it on the ground.

The dark colored plastic had hidden the color of the contents from anyone looking, being a weird orange that would have made all of them look dark.

But as it spilled onto the ground, you could see it was blackish, jelly-like stuff that might have been a mix of dust and some binding agent liquid to make it appear like a shot.

The nurses, who at least knew that was the wrong color for the vaccine against the disease, gasped.

Except for one, who frowned at Pyrrha.

Neo noticed her.

Spy, she thought to herself, moving down there slowly, unnoticed by the others.

"Why did you do that?" Kali was still not sure what Pyrrha was up to.

But they all got the answer a moment later when Grimm claws sprang out of the dust like an ugly venus fly trap without the trap part.

Everyone watching screamed or jumped back or both.

Pyrrha, who naturally had her weapon with her, took it out and sliced through the plant in a few swift strokes, turning it to dust.

But that didn't really stop the problem.

"That was in the shot?!" one woman cried.

"Did my child get injected with Grimm?" someone else screamed.

The dock erupted into chaos then. Children began to cry and scream, and their guardians began to scream and yell at the nurses.

Most of whom were innocent and began to cry also or try to explain that they had no idea what was in the shots and that they were labeled as the vaccine...

Emerald felt sick.

"Well...that was not what I expected," Roman said.

The few people still on the ship were backing away from the edge as if thinking they'd be implicated if they didn't get out of it.

Royal and Cinder made it to the deck right then, rushing past everyone else.

"There you are," Meridian said. "It's too late. Everyone's freaking out, thinking their kids got poisoned... Did they?"

"No, no," Royal panted. "Only the ones from this ship would have been spiked. Unless they had someone in Menagerie, but if they did, they wouldn't have bothered to sneak them onto a ship   where they could be caught. Just the one box, right?"

"Well, that's less," Meridian said. "They only just fetched that one... We need to tell everyone..."

He looked around. The captain had a megaphone. He was trying to get people's attention.

Meridian went and snatched the megaphone away from him and then jumped on top of the ship's roof.

"Listen, everyone!" he said loudly, and his words were infused with Aura.

Everyone froze, even the Faunus and the woman who'd been trying to slip away into the crowd while chaos was erupting.

"There's no need to panic," Meridian said, confidently. "Not all yer children were at risk. We've deduced that only the shots that were carried on this ship were somehow switched out with those fake Grimm ones. Don't worry, the effect can be reversed. We have experts right here who can take it back out. Now it should just be the last few people who got those shots who had the bad ones. If you could round them up, we can take it out right now. If you all panic, you're just going to make those monsters manifest before we can stop it. I say we all calm down, and just take care of this problem before the dastardly SOBS who did this get exactly what they wanted."

Likely this wouldn't have worked if anyone else had said it, but he sounded incredibly persuasive, and most of the people started to agree that there was no need to panic.

Neo had been sneaking closer to the one nurse she was sure was in on this. The nurse was an aquatic Faunus with finns.

She had moved close to the blond woman from before.

Neo blended into a palm tree in time for them to come near it.

"What now?" the fish-finned one said. "Those infernal heroes somehow beat us here. How do they always know?"

"We're not beaten yet," the blonde said. "Those little chits of orphans still were infected. If we act now we can carry it out. More would have been better, but once phase 2 starts, it really won't matter. Did you get any of the earlier ones in line? I was worried this might happen."

"I switched out a few of the real shots when I could, but they were mostly watching too closely for me to do it. I'd say I gave out less than 12 of the changed ones."

"I was told it would take 5 or less to draw a big enough force, as long as it all happened at once... Them panicking would have been enough, but of course those stupid heroes had to stop that also. We can create another instigation. Just keep an eye on the heroes."

So saying, the blonde began to back up to where the docks had stalls of market wares in.

Neo decided to follow her, but she first messaged the others: "Blonde sus girl is going to try to stir up trouble to make the Grimm dust go off. Will follow her to see what she's going to do. Bad nurse also infected some of the earlier little ones. Or their babysitters. Not sure who. Might have left already."

She scurried to tail the blonde, who was ducking around stuff.

No one was paying attention to her. They were all too focused on the kids and adults on the dock.

People who hadn't even gotten the gammy shots were freaking out because they thought they had, though they would have been well before the time period to really worry about.

Oscar was trying to get them to settle down so he could start checking them for signs of the Grimm dust.

Jaune and Yang and Neptune were helping him.

The other heroes were more set to find the culprits. They didn't intend to lose them yet again.

"Wait, look at this." Emerald suddenly held up her scroll as they were moving off the dock. "Neo just sent this. The blonde girl is definitely guilty, but look what else--they already got some. I don't know how they did that without us seeing them."

"Sleight of hand. I think you'd know that better than anyone," Mercury said.

"Okay, fine, I know how they did it," Emerald said crossly. "That means...the orphanage itself, they could be on their way to it right now!"

"We can round up the kids and take the Grimm out of them, as long as they don't set it off now," Mercury said. "But if it goes crazy, we'll have to kill it, and then those punks will give us the slip yet again."

"Wait, we'll help you look." Pyrrha ran after them. 

Blake and Sun were with her, and Roman wasn't far behind.

"Ben." Pyrrha turned to him. He was the oldest. "Take all the others and get on the ship. Stay below deck. If there's anything on this island, we can handle it."

"But...Mama," Ben said, and this was something he'd only recently begun calling her, "are you going to be okay?"

"Trust me, no Grimm is going to be the end of me," Pyrrha said, smiling confidently. "But despite our training, I don't know if this is quite a novice level assignment. But if they do venture onto the ship, remember what we taught you?"

"Shoot straight and don't blink?" Polly said.

"That and pray and work together," Pyrrha said.

"She'll be all right," Davi said. "She's already survived dying once."

No time to really think how funny that sounded.

Ben took Jodie's hand, and Polly took Franz's and Davi's, and they ran back to the ship.

The other kids who'd been in line still were already on it, while the crew was trying to sort out the rest.

The Faunus kids, who hadn't been given the shots, were also pulled back onto the ship.

Neo texted suddenly that she'd followed the blonde and she was heading towards the hill.

"That's my house," Blake said. "The orphanage--I mean the real one, not the temporary ones they set up. They went there, so she's going to go start something there."

"She's going to attack the kids!?" Sun was horrified.

"Sun--" Mercury turned to him with a cold look. "--they shot those kids with Grimm dust just to invade this island. Do you really think they'd draw the line at attacking them?"

"That's...a good point..." Sun said meekly.

"I know how to get to my house the fastest," Blake said. "We can cut over the roofs past those streets. Come on." She took off and they followed her.

The sun had started to set nearly an hour ago, and it was almost twilight now. The only thing worse than fighting this battle out with kids probably would be if it was dark.

"Did we lead them here?" Emerald wondered, as they ran. "We brought them here to protect them. How is it they were ready for us?"

"I don't think they were," Roman said. "I think they changed their plans once they found out we were moving the kids."

"That doesn't add up," Mercury said. "I want some answers."

"Wait, there!" Blake looked down. "Neo."

Neo had motioned at them from between two houses before she ducked around them and kept running.

"I want answers too," Sun said. "Let's go after her."

"We need to warn the staff," Blake said.

"You go do that," Roman said. "They'll listen to you--you're a Belladonna. We'll handle the rat."

"I'll go with Blake then," Emerald said at one. "This is my project too. You guys see if you can get any information out of her, but watch her. They always have tricks."

"The Grimm we can handle," Mercury said, sounding determined. "She'll be lucky if that's all I destroy on her person."

"We need her alive, Black," Roman said dryly.

But they hurried to follow Neo.

Neo had tailed the blonde, who was nearly to the hill herself, but once Neo saw the others were coming, she sprang over a roof and got in front of the woman and then jumped into her path and held up her umbrella.

"Huh...?" The blonde backed up, then she frowned. "Neopolitan?"

Neo bowed with a surreptitious smile.

"I heard you were in the game of hunting criminals now," the blonde said, "but this really does take the cake... Remember me?"

She held up her wrist.

A spider was tatooed on it.

Neo blinked, and then she looked at her more closely, and then words appeared overhead.

:"Hypnosia Somnus?"

"The one and only," the blonde said. "Been a long time since anyone used my real last name. I go by Sand in the bandit world. Did you really go straight? I didn't think it of you."

Neo shrugged and held up her umbrella point.

"Neo, you must know that would do no good," Hypnosia said, holding up her hand.

Neo felt her eyelids grow heavy...but then she stuck herself with the umbrella tip, and her eyes flew back open.

"Aww." Hypnosia pretended to pout. "I guess you do remember that trick...but I'm a lot stronger than I was then."

She clenched her fist.

But then something hit her.

Roman had his cane up, and she flew into a tropical bush along one house.

Of course, since it was just a small bullet, it didn't do any real damage, just surprised her.

She brushed leaves off herself.

"Roman?" she said. "Well, small world. I should have known wherever Neo was, you'd be close behind like a faithful dog walker."

"Somnus?" Roman said. "This really is a small world. Don't tell me you've gone and joined the bandits?"

"Is that less surprising than you going and joining the law?" Hypnosia said.

"Who is this?" Mercury said darkly, hands up in combat position.

"Well, once she worked for Miss Malachite's organization," Roman said. "Last I saw her she still did, but I guess I'm not the only one who moved up, or should I say down, in the world. Don't get too close to her. Her Semblance allows her to put people to sleep for short periods of time. Unless you are in sharp pain right before you go under."

"Oh, that was then. I'm a lot stronger now," Hypnosia repeated her earlier words. "Are you really going to try to take me in, Roman? There really is no honor among thieves."

"Well, sweetheart--" Roman swung his cane. "--normally I'm no one to judge, but don't you think poisoning kids and attacking orphans is just a little too low for our brand? Even we had some class."

"I heard you got busted by a little girl once," Hypnosia said.

"She started that, and she was a lot older than your victims," Roman said.

"Yeah, what is wrong with you pervs?" Mercury said. "No matter how much Grimm are in your bloodstream, I would think you'd realize that this is another level of sick and twisted."

"It won't hurt those little brats," Hypnosia said. "They should be thanking us. It'll make them stronger."

"Do you really believe that?" Sun said, frowning. "It's Grimm. What do they do to you people to get you to swallow this? Take out your brains by surgery?"

"It's called a lobotomy," Roman said.

"Right, that thing," Sun said.

"I see you've got a genius right there," Hypnosia said. "And you don't know what you're talking about... Mercury Black, right? Another surprise... Well, are we going to fight or are we going to stand here chit chatting?"

"Before we fight, I just have to know, why would you switch targets to Menagerie?" Roman asked. "It's so out of the way."

"Switch targets?" Hypnosia said. "Whoever told you we were switching targets?"

"Huh?" Roman said.

Hypnosia laughed meanly. "Menagerie was always the target, you buffoon."

"That doesn't make any sense," Mercury said, lowering his hand slightly. "Argus is your big threat."

"Argus? We need Argus, you moron," Hypnosia said. "Not much revenue without it, is there?"

"Wait, so you don't want to destroy it?" Sun said. "Or take it over?"

"That is a little overly ambitious," Hypnosia said.

"She must not have had the Grimm dust for that long," Roman remarked dryly.

Hypnosia looked annoyed at him saying it.

"But why would you want Menagerie? It's barely even a real kingdom," Sun said.

"Exactly. No one thought of defending this place," Hypnosia said, smugly. "Mala is a genius. She figured that once you caught those other guys, you'd assume Argus was the target anyway. We were always going to attack Menagerie, but she realized she could use you sending those brats here as an opportunity to do it on a much bigger, faster scale. It would have taken months to sneak in those spiked shots otherwise and do it slowly--and so much easier to get caught in that time. But you paved the way for us to do it overnight, practically. I should be thanking you. And of course, it's all Argus' fault."

"Excuse me?" Sun said. "The people from Argus are out there trying to stop this, and if you haven't noticed, we're onto your fake shots game. What makes you think anyone is going to be impressed by this?"

"Did you really think the shots were the attack?" Hypnosia said coyly. "You are really not the brightest banana in the bunch, are you?"

Roman frowned. "That's my line, Sleepytime Girl."

He shot past her head, and she flinched. "Now how about you tell us exactly what you are going to do then."

"No, my dear, I know better than to do that," Hypnosia said. "Whatever you do will hurt less than what the Baba Tribe would do if I spilled, and I'd die either way. Aren't I more useful to you alive?"

"Dang, is she calling our bluff?" Sun muttered to Mercury.

"I think I have a better one." Mercury put a hand to his eyes. "You got those Grimm shots in you?"

Hypnosia suddenly went a little pale.

"You better start helping us," Mercury said, "or I'm going to use my eyes to blast the Grimm right out of you, and it really hurts when you don't want it to go. Might even burn your arm off if you're as lucky as Cinder. Maybe an eye too. I wonder how much of you that stuff runs through."

He took a step towards her.

"Grimm slayer," Hypnosia said, and she sounded totally shaken up now. 

She backed up, and Mercury came closer.

"Wait, stop!" She held up her hands like that would help and crouched down. "Don't hurt me! What do I have to do with your God and your light?"

"That...seems like an odd thing to say." Roman looked at Sun, who shrugged at him helplessly.

Mercury walked closer, and she flinched more.

"I guess the Grimm is a little afraid of me," he said, mercilessly. He reached down and grabbed her arm and yanked it up.

She screamed and tried to yank free.

Mercury pulled her sleeve back. There was a mark for an injection in her arm.

His eyes sparked silver.

She tried to pull free, but he had a pretty good grip.

"What's the attack?" he said.

"I don't know exactly what it is," she whimpered, nearly hysterical now. "They just said there would be hordes of Grimm, hiding in the desert of Menagerie, ready to come once the smaller ones began to act up. I swear that's all I knew. Only the higher ups knew more than that. Mino might know!"

"Where is he?" Mercury yanked her arm harder.

"He'll already have headed to the Orphanage to incite a panic..." she said, shaking. "He'll already have called the others in the desert. The Grimm are already going to be released. You can't stop it now."

"We'll see about that," Mercury said, his Aura blazing up for a moment.

She gasped...and then suddenly the Grimm exploded out of her arm like a long claw.

They tried to grab Mercury...and then they pulled back as if he burned them to touch.

They then lashed out at Roman, who swatted them away, and Sun, whose Aura lit up also, and he knocked one away with his staff.

Neo then jumped over the wall and stuck her sword through the center of the Grimm plant-monster thing.

Mercury's eyes flickered, and he yanked the rest of it off Hypnosia and onto the ground and stepped on it.

It turned to dust.

It was much smaller than the others...

"You really didn't have it long," he said.

Hypnosia had her hands to her face...but then she pulled them down.

"Was...was that thing inside my body?" she said in a shocked voice.

"No, it was inside an invisible hat," Roman said. Which wasn't that clever, but Neo still snickered.

"Didn't you know?" Sun said.

"They said it would make me able to wield the power of Grimm." Hypnosia rubbed her arm with a sick look. "But they never said a monster would grow out of me...just like out of the vial."

"You were going to do that to innocent children," Mercury said darkly, "and you're surprised that it happened to you?"

"I... It... I didn't think of it like that... I just thought about getting what we wanted," she said. 

Suddenly she started to cry. "What did they do to me?"

"Is she faking this?" Roman asked.

Neo shrugged.

"Maybe not..." Sun said, uncertainly.

"Who cares?" Mercury said. "This sob story stuff might work on Emerald or Pyrrha, but as far as I'm concerned you're all trash for doing this. We yanked that sucker out, but you'll probably just get it back once you start trying to get what you want again. People who invite that stuff to live in them are insane."

"Well, Cinder managed to reject it." Roman adjusted his hat. "Perhaps you should encourage that attitude."

"I'm going to go stop this Mino guy. You guys play nursemaid." Mercury took off running.

Hypnosia sank to the ground and pulled her knees up. "Maybe he's right... It might be that way for me. Just the shock of you doing that might have made me doubt it for a moment."

Neo slapped her.

She looked up, startled.

Neo made some hand motions at her. Then projected the words: "You absolute ninny! Don't you know those things eat you once they're done using you? They're not pets! How many atrocities do they need to make you do--or are you doing them yourself? Do you need to get beaten upside the head with my umbrella to know that it's a bad idea to play with demons?!"

"Those demonic animals are nothing compared to the strange plant ones," Roman shuddered.

Hypnosia shivered. "There's one thing you should know about the Grimm dust... You can inhale it too. If those cases get broken open and scattered before anything can grow out of them, it could land on anyone... They said to do that if we had more than we needed."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Roman asked.

She shrugged. "It won't matter--once Mino starts the panic, everyone on this island is going to be doomed. The whole place will be ravaged by sunrise--they told us that, and to get off the island if we didn't want to go down with it... If you don't leave now, all of you, you'll just die."

"They want to kill everyone here?" Sun said.

"Whoever isn't killed will be too weak to stop them," Hypnosia said.

"But with what? What Grimm would be that sure to wipe out an entire island?" Roman asked. "We have the best huntsmen in the kingdom here."

"Mala said that no huntsman would be able to fight it," Hypnosia said. "Just the people who were marked by the tribe to not be targets... You just ruined that for me. They'll attack me also..." She started to sniffle again. "I don't want to die..."

:"Maybe she's just a coward," Neo motioned at Roman.

"If she's telling the truth, we better warn the others to start moving," Sun said. "I'm telling Blake and Emerald. We need some kind of plan... I'm not the plan guy. Better ask Oscar."

"Raven will be here soon, right?" Roman said.

"Someone must have informed her by now, but if they haven't, this definitely sounds like a bigger threat," Sun said.

"If you call more people here, you'll trap them with you," Hypnosia said.

"For all we know, darling, you might be saying that just so we'll take you away," Roman said, pulling her to her feet. "But you will go with us. I'm sure Miss Branwen would love to hear your account of this."

[All right, who thinks they figured out the red herring?

I know one of my sisters got it early, but I think the final outcome may still surprise you.]