"Waht do yuo wnat?" a voice hissed from behind the door.
The room was as dusty and full of cobwebs as the rest of the castle, but a single ancient desk sat in the centre of the room with a clean, black swivel chair out-of-place behind it. More ancient paintings lined the walls, this time portraits of Neopians long passed. The paintings' eyes seemed to follow the three friends as they entered, the zombie-like guild members close behind them.
Suddenly the swivel chair swung around, revealing a small Kacheek, fingers locked together in front of him. It was the infamous Eliv Thade.
"I cna't sya I hvae bnee epixtecng yuo," Eliv Thade said with an evil grin stretched across his face, the Brain Wrap in Tarra's paws catching his eye. "Btu I ese yuo hvae boruhgt deninr."
"See, he is crazy," Sulli whispered to Min. "Whatever is an 'epixtecng' or a 'deninr'?"
"Eliv Thade speaks in anagrams," Min replied in whisper, a pen and notepad deftly pulled from his pocket. "See, if we re-arrange the letters in 'deninr' we get 'dinner'."
"Oh great, Mr. Thade, we three are in need of your help," Tarra exclaimed, her paws together in a pleading gesture as she faced the famed villain. "These pets have accidentally been fed Voidberry Elixir, and we need your help to turn them back."
Eliv Thade cackled from his seat, a look of pleasure at the pets' predicament in his eyes.
"So yuo wnat ym hlep?" Eliv laughed, standing and approaching the smaller Kacheek. "Taht cemos ta a pcire."
"He says 'that comes at a price'," Min whispered to Tarra as he quickly deciphered Eliv's message on his notepad.
"Oh, a price?" Tarra said, waving the Brain Wrap as she racked her brain. She didn't have any Neopoints on her...
Watching Eliv Thade's eyes as she waggled the Brain Wrap, Tarra had an idea.
"Are you hungry?" she asked, holding out the Brain Wrap.
"Stranvig," Elix replied, snatching the wrap from Tarra.
Suddenly all the guild members' eyes snapped onto Eliv instead. They no longer moved, their eyes glazed over, drool falling from their mouths.
"I wlil tlel yuo hwo to creu tehm," Eliv announced as he licked the last of the wrap from his lips. "Fsirt yuo msut..."
Eliv was interrupted by the door to the room slamming open once more, another figure entering.
"Who's there?" asked Sulli, her voice shaky.
The figure did not answer, pausing for a moment in the shadows where none of the pets could recognise him.
Tarra took a step toward the figure and saw a flash of ghostly green in the shadows.
"It's you!" Min exclaimed from behind Tarra. "This is all your fault!"
The ghost Hissi stepped from the shadows, his evil laughter echoing around the room as Eliv Thade's had just minutes before.
"That's not entirely true," the Hissi said, holding a phial up in the air. "If you hadn't put this Voidberry Potion in the Usul's soup, then none of this would have happened."
Min's face flushed red. What the Hissi said was right.
"Waht's ginog no hree?" Eliv Thade exclaimed loudly, but no-one heard him.
The attention of the three pets was firmly on the Hissi, his whispery figure flashing from bright to dull in an eerie manner.
"Thank you for making this zombie army for me, Min," the Hissi said, reaching to pat the Gelert on the back. His wing passed straight through Min instead. "I couldn't have done this without you."
The Hissi turned to Eliv Thade, floating through Tarra to get to the other Kacheek.
"Now you, your time is over," the Hissi declared, stopping at the desk. "Neopia doesn't need any more failed villains like you, they need more like me."
The Hissi held the phial up again before clipping it to a chain around his neck. Suddenly all the guild members stopped their incessant moaning and drooling, their attention firmly on the ghost Hissi.
"Now, my lovelies, for my name is Liandon the master of the Voidberry zombies, attack!"
All the zombies lurched into motion, arms outstretched in traditional zombie-style as they began chasing Tarra, Sulli, Min, and Eliv around the room.
"This is terrible!" moaned Sulli, her paws sore as the pounded on the cobbled floor, running from her guild members.
"I agree. I'm sorry, Sulli!"
Tarra shot a quick glance behind her. Eliv was not far behind, trailing after him an Eyrie and Skeith with huge snapping jaws.
"I'll sitll tlel yuo hwo ot sotp tehm," he puffed as he came level with Tarra. "Ot trun tehm bcak ot nroaml yuo nede ot dsetroy teh suocre fo tehir zoimbefcitatoin."
"I have no idea what you just said!" Tarra moaned in exasperation, the Eyrie and Skeith quickly gaining on the two Kacheeks.
"Luckily for you, I heard every word and I have the gist of what he said," huffed Min as he joined them from the opposite direction, a rabid Kyrii zombie hot on his tail. "We need to destroy the Voidberry Potion to reverse its effects."
"But Liandon has the potion around his neck! How are we supposed to get it?"
From the corner of her eye, Sulli caught a glance of the ghost Hissi, but not before an idea struck her.
"Liandon is a ghost, but the potion is a solid!" the Usul exclaimed. "We can pass through him to get it!"
"Seh's rghit," Eliv said, his voice faint from all the running.
"We're almost out of the castle," Tarra said. "Once we get outside, it should be easier to get at Liandon. Here's my plan..."
As the four pets reached the giant front doors, Min turned around, as per Tarra's plan.
"Are you sure this will work?" he gasped as the horde of guild members gained on him.
The Gelert dodged them to the left, rounding the zombies from the side as they continued to follow the other three. He could now see Liandon, the ghost Hissi floating behind the last of the zombies.
"There, there, my pretties, there's much more food out here anyway."
Much to Min's luck, Liandon hadn't even noticed the Gelert's approach. With a quick leap over a Grarrl, Min found himself face to face with the Hissi.
"It's time to end this!" Min shouted.
It was difficult to see in the darkness, but the ghost Hissi stood out easily with his eerie green glow. Liandon laughed.
"How do you think you're going to stop me?" he asked, floating down to eye level with the Gelert. "You fell quite easily for my plan before."
"Yeah, but it seems you're a lot sillier now," Min whispered, the Voidberry Potion well within his grasp.
Min took a quick step foward, and before Liandon could even tell what was happening the Gelert had run straight through him, snatching the potion as he went through.
"No!" Liandon screeched as the zombies all came to a halt and turned.
"Oh yes," replied Min as he threw the potion to the ground.
***
"I'm so glad that's over," sighed Sulli, her face solemn as she looked at her two friends. "But I still can't believe you two did that just to get at me!"
"We'll admit we did something wrong," murmured Tarra, her face mirroring Sulli's. "But... so did you, in a way."
The three pets were back at Sulli's house, all three troubled by the day's events.
"What did I do?" Sulli said loudly, a flash of anger on her face. "You two just wanted to ruin my resolutions! You guys never keep them, I always do -- I'm perfect in that way..."
"Sulli, stop!" Min exclaimed, taking the Usul's paws in his own. "It's just that that you did wrong; you always do the things on your resolution list for the wrong reasons."
"What do you mean?" Sulli asked, tears pricking the corners of her eyes.
"We mean that... even though some of your resolutions are aimed at helping others, you don't do it to help them. You only do it to make yourself look good," Tarra whispered.
"I... well... I guess you could be right," Sulli sighed, wiping her eyes with her sleeves as she looked at the framed lists around her lounge room. "These are all worthless now; they used to mean so much."
Sulli stood, reached up to the lists, and pulled each one down as Tarra and Min watched. Once she had all of them down, she proceeded into the kitchen, where she placed them all in the bin. Brushing her paws together she returned to the lounge.
"I'm sorry, guys. If I hadn't have been acting so perfect, you wouldn't have tried to sabotage my dinner."
"It's all right; we were still wrong to do so," said Min. "At least it's all over now."
Sulli nodded, pulling something from behind her back.
"I... before all this happened, I got you guys something."
Sulli revealed a brown paper bag from behind her back, and from it she pulled out a sugar-coated doughnut and a black leather jacket.
"Happy Year 12, guys," Sulli said, and the three embraced.
This was going to be the best year ever, even if it hadn't started out so well.
The End
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