*Hey, guys. The new part is published today. I don't know when I'll publish the next part but hopefully, it will today or tomorrow. This is published on March 16, 2020. Thank you guys for taking the time to read this. If you like this part, please give it a vote and/or comment. I would love to hear what you guys think. Enjoy!*

"So...this is your plan, hombre?" Goat growled mostly to the pretend walkie-talkie in his hoof while wearing a mask and goggles along with the gray trenchcoat. His hindlegs began to wobble from standing too much.

"It's starting to get hot in here," Michael complained, wearing the trenchcoat along with a mask and a pair of goggles like Goat. They were followed by McWinkle, who had his brow raised at the two of them.

"Are sure this is going to work, amigo?" Goat whispered to the invisible walkie-talkie on his now gloved hoof.

"Yeah," Sam answered over the walkie-talkie formed in his hand while sneaking through the sewer halls, separate from Goat, Michael, and McWinkle. Guy and Michellee were following closely behind him.

Sam continued, "Whatever you do, act tough and serious. Act like you own the place."

"Hmph, that shouldn't be hard to do," Goat muttered to himself over the walkie-talkie.

"Excuse me, that's hard for me to establish my dominance," Michael whispered over to Goat.

"Just follow my lead, zorro," Goat responded while almost collapsing on the floor, but Michael helped him up on his feet.

"Are you doing okay, man?"

"I can't walk on my hindlegs for too long. I'm fine," Goat assured the fox.

Meanwhile, Jean, Cosette, and Fawn snuck through the vents of the sewers, searching for a room that they were supposed to reach according to plan. Fawn spotted a room with the monitors and a desk.

"Papa, Momma...there's the room we're searching for," Fawn pointed while Jean and Cosette approached behind their daughter. Jean smiled proudly at his daughter.

"Well done, ma fille," Jean responded quietly while the family of mice snuck towards the room with the monitors in it. The blue mouse looked to his daughter and his wife. "Stay here. I'll mess with the monitors."

Before Jean took off, Cosette grabbed his paw gently, causing her husband to glance at her.

"Let us come with you, Jean," Cosette requested.

"No, I can't risk your lives," Jean responded while holding his wife's paw up to his face so that he could kiss it in endearment. "I can't put you both at risk."

"Papa, you helped us against poverty and violence. Let us help you against whatever we're fighting with right now," Fawn begged a bit to her father.

"But--"

"Please, Jean," Cosette interrupted Jean, gazing at him softly.

Jean swept his gaze around the monitor room with a deep sigh. "Fine. But if something were to happen. If I were captured by Jeckles, you both make a run for it. Don't look back."

"And if I get capture along with your father," Cosette added while looking at Fawn. "Run as fast as you can. Do not try to help us."

"I can't leave you both," Fawn squeaked meekly, her eyes trembling in fear.

"My daughter," Jean spoke up and hugged his daughter. "Do not be afraid. We'll get out of whatever is going to get us and we'll find you. I promise you that we will fight to see you again."

Cosette joined in the hug. "Let's focus on what we have to do right now. Alright?"

Fawn nodded her head. "Alright."

"Come on," Jean urged his family to come with him. They crawled down from the slippery walls and then climbed up to the desk to gaze into monitors that had shown so many cameras.

Jean formed his paw like he's holding an invisible walkie-talkie and cleared his throat. "We're here at the monitor room. Are you guys in position?"

The mouse glanced over at one of the monitors that revealed Goat, Michael, and McWinkle approaching the group of assassins, standing idly and chatting among themselves. Michael, the fox wearing the assassin's attire, put a thumbs up through one of the cameras.

~.~

"We're in position. Sam, Guy, Michellee, are you guys in position?" Goat asked while talking into the invisible walkie-talkie. Michael gazed at Goat's imaginary walkie-talkie with his brow raised.

"Uh...why are you talking into your hoof?" Michael questioned with a whisper.

"Because we're messing with physics," Goat answered with a shrug. "I don't know. Sam's doing it."

"Oh, I see," Michael responded with a nod.

Meanwhile, Sam, Guy, and Michellee snuck through the other side of the circle of assassins, near sewer water and a boat across from them.

"Yeah, we're in position," Sam spoke up to his walkie-talkie while sweeping his gaze around the area, noticing the assassins chatting amongst themselves. "Do you guys see E.B?"

"I don't see either my son, Gluntz, or E.B anywhere," McWinkle answered over the walkie-talkie.

"Jeckles wouldn't leave the prisoners out in the open," Guy muttered to himself. "Does Jean know which room Gluntz, Louis, and E.B. are in?"

"I hope so," Michellee spoke up nervously, praying that her daughter will be okay.

Guy glanced at Michellee sympathetically while rubbing her shoulder with his hand to comfort her. "She'll be okay."

"Yeah, Jean said that Louis and Gluntz were in the room with Jeckles but he couldn't find E.B," Goat answered over the walkie-talkie.

Sam spotted the assassin entering the sewers through the motorboat across from them. Luckily, they were in the shadows and barely noticeable. The assassin stepped off of the boat, leaving a familiar little red-haired girl with a messed up ponytail, cuts and bruises all over her body, and her little pink skirt a bit torn on the edge. She had a black eye--as if she got beaten up for some reason.

"E.B?" Sam gasped, his heart shattered at the sight of her. Guy and Michellee noticed this too while Guy had his fists clenched and Michellee had her agape mouth covered.

"My baby," Michellee uttered, her tears streaming down on her face.

Guy growled angrily and glared at the assassin walking away from E.B.

~.~

McWinkle, Goat, and Michael stared at E.B. with eyes widened in horror.

"They did not just-"

"Yep, they did," McWinke interrupted Michael's question.

Goat paused while growling a bit. "They're so dead."

"Yep."

"Agreed," McWinkle concurred with both Michael and Goat.

Goat and Michael exchanged brief glances at each other for a moment.

"Ready, Michael?" Goat urged.

"Yep."

"Let's go," Goat responded while both the fox and the goat entered the assassin's circle, glaring at every one of them.

McWinkle hid behind the wall to watch them carefully. He noticed a doorway that might lead him to his son and his former partner. He kept his focus on Goat and Michael, while the animals roamed through the crowd.

"We need to create a diversion," Goat whispered to Michael.

"Now?"

"Now."

"Alright, sheep."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!?!?!?!?" Goat screeched for all the assassins to hear him.

"You heard what I called ya!" Michael shouted back, pushing Goat slightly on the shoulder.

The assassins watched them with complete confusion.

"Say that to me! Say that to my face, estupido!" Goat got in Michael's face, pretending to be angry.

McWinkle snuck quickly through the room without anyone noticing him and entered the hallway. Meanwhile, E.B. became baffled on why two weirdly looking assassins were picking a fight with each other. The boat began to move under her feet, baffling her more. She glanced to the side to notice Guy extending his hand out to pull the boat over to him, her mother, and Sam with his mind. She smiled brightly to notice her family, tears streaming down from her already swollen eyes. She knew she couldn't shout their names since it will draw attention from the other assassins.

When the boat was close enough to them, they immediately embarked on it. Sam had a knife and cut E.B. loose. Michellee wrapped E.B. in a tight hug while crying.

"Oh, sweetie, are you okay?" Michellee muttered, sobbing.

Guy and Sam joined in the hugging and embraced tightly around the little girl.

"What did they do to you? What happened?" Guy asked urgently, his tone filled with concern.

E.B's lips quivered while sobbing into both Michellee and Guy's shoulders.

"Oh, baby," Michellee gasped and hugged her tighter.

"You don't have to answer that," Guy replied gently while hugging her. He had an idea what they did to her but he knew E.B's mental and physical health was more important than figuring out what the assassins did to her.

"It's okay, E.B. You're safe now," Sam reassured her, comforting the crying child from behind.

E.B sniffled and glanced up at her family. "I'm sorry...I-I--"

"Don't be," Michellee responded softly. "We need to get out of here."

E.B nodded her head in understanding and hugged her mother tighter while her mother picked her up and carried her. Guy noticed Sam about to follow after Michellee until he tapped on his friend's shoulder.

"Sam...could I speak with you...privately?" Guy requested, knowing that whatever was on his own mind will still bother him if he doesn't talk to Sam about it.

Sam smiled softly with a nod. "Sure thing, buddy."

Michellee turned around with a raised brow, holding E.B. "What's going on?"

"It will only be a few minutes," Guy reassured her while Michellee nodded her head in understanding and strolled away from the two boys.

There's an awkward silence while Guy tried to ponder up what to say to Sam.

Sam became troubled by Guy's silence. "Is everything okay, Guy?"

"I don't know. Sam...I need you to be honest with me."

Sam blinked his eyes for a moment, confused. "Okay."

Guy sighed deeply while kneeling down to make the same level eye-contact with Sam. "Is it true? Were you involved with Michellee's husband's death?"

Sam widened his eyes a bit, his mind racing into million different directions. "Yeah."

There's silence while Sam exhaled deeply, calming himself.

"It was a mission...back when I first started out working for Jeckles at the age of...fifteen, I think. I was only an 'understudy' for the Ghosts at the time. I watched him die...that's all I did. The assassin I worked for did the killing...I think after her husband died...I quit. Went into stealing and making up aliases as you saw before," Sam uttered, his voice cracked.

"Do you remember anybody else's death that you were involved in?" Guy asked softly, listening to him closely. "Jeckles told me that you were involved with more deaths than that one--"

"I remembered...all of them...not exactly their names but their faces...their faces of pain and anguish when they were dying," Sam answered, his voice cracked. "I remembered their cries and their sobs...it's just...something that I couldn't go back to. When I stop being the understudy, Jeckles had me steal and make up many aliases. I joined multiple gangs and kept changing and changing myself...that's why no one ever wanted me to stay the same because...I had to be someone different every time I helped different people. When I met you, it changed. All of it. You were my first real friend who stuck around me. If I haven't met you...I wouldn't be better than I was today. At first, I was scared that...if you ever saw my past or the real me...maybe even hear about it, you would hate me and abandon me...just as my mother might have done back then."

Sam sighed sadly and deeply. "You have gotten angry and I'm sorry for lying to you all this time when we're rescuing Mr. Jenkins. When you said about my mom leaving me...I-I was hurt. I know that it was all in the past and we didn't know better, but I couldn't help but look back at that moment. I wished I apologize sooner for lying to you the entire time about me and who I am. It's just that...I-I--"

Guy lifted Sam's face when Sam was about to look down on the ground and looked into his tearful gaze. "Sam...that's in the past. I forgave you...you forgave me. That's all it matters to me. I just want to understand you better. And you don't need to be afraid. We're briefcase buddies. We're in this together. You always support me unconditionally so...I'm giving back what you have given me." Guy hugged Sam, surprising his friend for a moment. Sam embraced Guy back tightly. They shared a brief moment of silence and hugs.

"This is nice," Sam uttered while smiling.

Guy chuckled a bit. "Yeah. It is." However, there's one more question that still bothered him. He dispersed from Sam a bit and looked into his eyes. "Sam...do you remember Jeffrey?"

"Jeffrey?"

"Jeffrey Am I...my brother," Guy explained it better, hoping Sam knew of his brother.

Sam's confused silence made Guy worried a bit.

"He has yellow fur--"

"The Jeffrey I worked for has pink fur and killed Michellee's husband. He had a tragic story about how he lost his family and everything. He said that he had nothing else to live for," Sam responded innocently, not realizing that he's triggering a flashback for Guy.

Guy remembered the photograph Michael held when they were at his parent's house interrogating the assassin who killed his parents, the one which had the pink-furred man in it with his family. He remembered the assassin begging him to kill him before the Ghosts could reach him. And...he did. That assassin...was a different man named Jeffrey. And he's the one who killed Michellee's husband. There's a part of him that gave him a sigh of relief that it wasn't his youngest brother who did it. It would've made things more complicated between him and Michellee but...there's another part of him that wondered if that assassin was a robot too. Because when he snapped the assassin's neck, his neck wasn't twisted as it would normally if one snapped someone's neck. In fact, it had only a tiny rip open that he could've analyzed deeper if given the time.

~.~

Michellee carried E.B through the sewers to get both of them out of here. E.B. looked up at her mother with a smile.

"You know, it's weird how the way you're holding me reminded me of how you were holding me back when I was a toddler...during Dad's funeral," E.B. uttered, frowning at the end of her sentence.

Michellee frowned while stroking her daughter's red messy hair. "Yeah."

E.B. had a question popped into her head while glancing up at her mother. "Hey...Mom, what was Dad like before he died?"

Michellee paused for a moment to think, her heart clutched a bit to realize that she hadn't told her daughter what really happened to her father.

"I know you don't like talking about him but...I-I kind of wanted to know about him," E.B. requested innocently, noticing her mother's sudden pause.

"Where did you get the idea?" Michellee asked E.B. gently.

"Well...you never talk about him. I mean, a couple of times you mentioned about him. The only thing you mentioned was he passed away in a car accident and after he passed away, you wanted to live a safe life away from Meepville. But...that's about it. The assassins acted as they knew about my dad better than me...they said that he died from choking--not a car accident. Of course, I knew better," E.B. growled, remembering what the assassins told her while she was kidnapped by them. "Dad died of a car accident. Is it true that Dad died of a car accident because he was trying to run away from me and you?"

Michellee widened her eyes in shock. "Who told you that?"

"Jenny Taylor...from my school," E.B. muttered while nestling up against her mother's chest. "I told Guy about it on the train and he helped me with it. But...he doesn't know anything about my dad. Guy did say that he wouldn't leave a wonderful family like us if he were my dad. If Guy is like that...would Dad be like that too in the past?"

Michellee blushed while smiling slightly. "Your father was a lot like Guy, except his inventions don't explode. He's kind, caring, creative, and loving. He loves you so much, honey. You're his greatest pride and joy."

"Really?" E.B. inquired, her eyes growing wide and tears began to slimmer down her cheeks.

"Really, really," Michellee responded with a soft smile. "He loves you with all his heart, E.B. Don't you ever forget that."

"I won't," E.B. answered with a smile.

Michellee lost her soft smile while gazing at her daughter. She knew her daughter had to know the truth about how her father died. But was this the best time to tell her? The answer is yes...yes. Better now then never while you still have the chance before you got into more conflict.

Michellee hesitated while looking straight ahead of her, pondering about what to say.

Come on, you know you have to, Michellee.

E.B. noticed the far-off distant look on Michellee's face. "Mom? Is everything okay?"

Michellee glanced down at her daughter and sat down on the rock at the doorway of the sewers while her daughter sat on her lap. It took her a moment to breathe in and out calmly. "E.B, you need to know something...something I haven't told you. It's probably something I should've told you a long time ago."

E.B. sat up, taking an interest in what her mother had to say with a smile. "Okay."

Michellee frowned a bit. "It's about your father. He-He didn't die of a car accident."

E.B had her eyes bulged out. "W-What? But--"

Michellee noticed E.B's smile faded away quickly.

"Does that mean what the assassins said...about killing my dad was true?" E.B. asked, stuttering. "And...about Sam's participation?"

"Participation?" Michellee responded meekly.

"Yeah...they said that Sam participated in my father's death. But...I don't believe it. It's not true. It can't be true...can it?" E.B. questioned, her voice cracked. "Sam was the nicest person ever. He wouldn't do something like that."

"No, he wouldn't," Michellee agreed with her daughter. "He wouldn't hurt a soul."

"Then, why would they say he's a murderer?"

"I'm sure they didn't mean that he's a murderer, honey...but...he was a bystander," Michellee explained further. "He's the 'understudy'."

"What's that?"

"Someone who watched the assassins kill their victims to learn how to kill. But, I believe Sam wasn't anything further than an understudy. Unless there are more secrets he didn't tell us about."

"We can ask him!" E.B determined, now anxious.

"Maybe later, honey. The important thing is we get out of here. We'll talk as a whole family later, okay?"

E.B. seemed a bit puzzled but nodded her head in understanding. "Okay." 

To Be Continued...