Weapons snatched off the bed spread ended up being the only thing the Snugglemagne sister got from her home when she'd stopped by thinking she actually needed a few spare things. Of course when she arrived there suddenly the lioness forgot what she thought she needed. And figured anything really must have made it over to the sheriff's department earlier in the week when she first came over. Since then she really didn't think she'd brought anything home. Zu could have totally forgone the trip thinking it over now. Something she'd laugh about later when she got back to the hero's headquarters. And what was quickly becoming her second home.

Zu about to be on her merry way turned right for the door only to get a face full of her brother's chest floof inches from her, "Huh wh- What are you doing?! Don't sneak up on your sister you dunce!"

"A-Are you...leaving already sister?" The King twiddled his thumbs like a little worry wart when he looked past her to the still crisply made bed from quiet a few days ago, "You...you haven't been home all week...Or night."

Surprised that's what came out of her brother, Zu laughed it off like he was fooling, "What? Quinten not enough all of a sudden? Ha, c'mon I'll be over at the sheriff's if you need anything." She readjusted her belt with all her attention off her brother as she whisked by, "Ring the monster alarm if something happens, doubtful anything will happen though. We seriously kick the crap out of some slimeball today and Mao had them-"

"Do you think you'll be coming back soon?" Her brother outright interrupted her without a lick of listening to what she was saying.

Zu was first confused. Until the vacant look quickly turned to a scowl and she shook her head, "I'm right here? I came back because this is my home too you know." Sparing her brother a harsh glance up and down even as he continued to wring his hands nervously she rolled her eyes and made off back to where she'd been staying, "Your not mom, don't try and tell me what to do now."

Snugglemagne dropped his worrying hands as his sister turned back on her way out. The few minutes he'd finally seen her all week and this was the worst possible way he could think of spending it.

Obtuse but not enough to catch the hint of the lioness's out of character antsy behaviors this close to bedtime. Mao decided to breach what was wrong since Adorabat was already passed out in the bunk bed. And Badgerclops was up to his armpits in a campaign he swore would only take an hour before bed and was quickly approaching the four hour mark. It didn't matter though it meant he had to sleep on the couch at this rate. And Mao could actually share his real bed with the queen. Not just the janky couch for a night.

"So uh...you didn't pick anything up from the castle earlier my queen?" Mao, who laid on his side looking up at her across the snug room, did a little recoil when her harsh glare converged onto him seconds after his last word, "Ok ok sorry. You didn't pick anything up?"

Unphased to peel off her tunic in front of the sheriff and the sleeping deputy, Zu didn't really respond until she scratched at her chest fur and gave her shoulders a lazy shrug, "I saw my brother."

Mao wondered if that was a trap or trick question. Slowly he sat up in bed and crossed his legs, "...the King does live in the castle-"

"I don't know what makes him think all of a sudden he gets to decide what I do, when I do it and argh! He's just pulling the same crap our mother did-" Zu wadded up her clothes in a fit of anger and through them hard into the desk chair across the room from her, "I haven't seen that brat in a week and the first words out of his mouth are about when will I be back in the confines of those stupid walls! If I wanted to-"

"My Queen-"

"-then I would just have-"

"My Queen-"

"-I'll be damned just to have him-"

"Zu!"

"What?!" Zu whipped around finally when Mao screeched out her name in the midst of her rant. He pointed vehemently at Adorabat sound asleep upside down on her bunk and the signal was sent. The Queen lowered her head with a deep breath trying to calming her mind down, "...He's always been in my corner to let me be me." She looked up at the cat crossing the room so she dropped her head and her voice, "...I can take it from you...not my own brother."

Awkward with the charismatic siblings possibly at ends with one each wasn't something Mao was sure he could help. In fact the fact they were close wasn't even something he understood. None of his sisters were close to him. And honestly he preferred it that way.

Mao palmed the back of his neck as he rolled through a couple of words looking for the right one, "Maybe...a good nights sleep and you could go see him tomorrow. Family, visits or whatever y'all do when you like your family."

Her expression softened. Tipping her head down ever so slightly just so her forehead would brush against the black cats even as it hid her little smirk, "You don't have to like your family all the time."

"Have you met my family?" Mao jested, reaching up and cupping her face knowing her weakness for physical comfort when she was distraught.

Zu pressed her cheek into his palm amd her own hand came up to cup his paw against her cheek, "They really are terrible."

"Exactly," Mao smiled, more at the fact she was indulging in a little touch but also because she seemed to relax, "The King is probably just bored knowing him."

"Ha, and you're just saying that because he writes your paychecks," The Queen laughed. A quick and faint kiss on her sheriff's cheek before breaking off and making it first into the bottom bunk.

They went back and forth like that for a little bit. Hushed with whispers and hidden grins in the dark room. The Queen and Sheriff bantered into the night with Mao's cape wrapped around the two of them and their bodies snugged in only the only slightly bigger bottom bunk mattress. Upset with her brother's action. Zu still found relief just going with what Mao suggested. Resting her chin a top his head with Mao's ears far apart as the black cat slept mashed into her chest snoring ever so slightly. She figured a good nights sleep did sound like a fix all.

That restful sleep was rudely interrupted with the gnawing sound of the Queen suffering with the echo of her brother's voice trifling through her dreams. Tossing this way and that in the cramped bed did nothing but yank the cape off Mao's body and left her bound in it before jolting up right in a fright, "Brother I-!"

"Nrm- Zu? Do you hear that too?" Adorabat peeped her barely cracked open eyes over the edge of her bunk.

Adjusting to realizing what she heard wasn't in her sleep at all. But in fact a muffled noise coming from the living room. Zu pulled the rest of the cape from Mao and crawled over the black cat, "What is that?"

Mao finally groaning loudly was the last to roll himself up right. Rubbing his face the sheriff grumbled past the two standing in the middle of the room, "Mmrm, Badgerclops."

Zu wrapped herself tighter in Mao's cloak and followed. Adorabat dragging her blank off the bed and waddling behind both the adults into the livingroom.

Still on the couch, like he was five hours ago, Badgerclops was screaming into his headset while frantically throwing his arms up and down with the videogame control clasped tightly between his hands. Button mashing like none other. This wasn't the noise at least that woke the rest of the sheriff's department.

"Oh hey ya'll," Badgerclops didn't even take his eyes off the screen he was glued to, "What's up?"

Zu and Adorabat groaned and tightened their blanket burritos while Mao rubbed his glove down his face, "Badgerclops...how long has the king alarm going off?"

"ForEVER!" He through his head back groaning, "Could you like, take care of that?" Badgerclops did peak his eye over enough to see Zu dawned in that very red and very familiar cape, "Oh, she gets to wear the cape but when I wanna-"

"Wait- Why does she get to wear your cape Mao Mao?" Adorabat finally did take notice that the queen was wearing the very coveted cape. Late enough she didn't think it made a difference, the little bad started pulling on the hem, "Lemme wear it too I wanna-"

"Adorabat no! Adorabat stop!" Zu tried yanking the cape away without exposing the face she didn't have a lick of her own clothing on, "Adorabat stop sometimes adults they-"

"Dude no way are you naked under there?!" Bagerclops loudly announced only to quickly remember his mic was still by his mouth, "What- No- No not you kid- No my buddies girlfriend! No! No- Yeah well he's a sheriff and- He's a sheriff and he'll totally-!"

With a flash Mao snatched the control out of Badgerclop's hand and crushed it with an eye twitching death stare, "Tell your friend, you have to go."

Groaning as loud as possible Badgerclops gave in and clicked off his head set with one last salty quip. Adorabat still tugging on Mao's cape, Zu sighed and picked the little bat up and placed her on the couch beside Badgerclops. If the King alarm was going off it meant this was another trip to the castle she really wasn't looking forward to.

Dressed but barely awake. Save Badgerclops who had never gone to bed. The quartet arrived at the castle in the dark of night with nothing more than the moon to illuminate the courtyard.

"Yo what do you think the King saw anyways?" Badgerclops swung his body off the aerocycle while the rest of them lugged their tired bag of bones slowly in the same direction.

"I doubt he saw anything," Zu ground her palms into her tired eyes, "He was probably eating a cake and dropped it."

"Or he- He saw uh- He saw a turd- Turd in the-" Adorabat drabbled on only to give up when she landed on Badgerclops shoulder exhausted.

"Whatever it is, we're here now," Mao even though he looked like he'd been through the ringer still upheld the sheriff oath as they entered the castle, "The alarm went off and now we're here to- Oh my GOD what happened?!"

Before them what was normally the tidest of rooms, the throne room, was torn into shambles with onlookers all gathered in the casting dim light. All of them seeing the same thing. Torn tapestries. Broken sconces. Shattered frames and vases beyond repair. It was ransacked.

Violent to react when the same castle she left only six hours ago was neat and tidy. Zu flew off the handle pushing Mao and Adorabat aside screaming her head off, "What in the holy hell-?!"

"Sister! W-What are you doing here?!" The King flung himself out of the middle of the dazed crowd.

"What am I- The alarm went off!" Zu shouted irritated.

"Your Majesty what has happened here?!" Mao inserted himself between the twins just to lesson the argument they might into. And also jeopardize the fact something had happened here.

"Nothing!" The King jumped with beads of sweat rolling down his cream fur, "I- Nothing happened at all! There was nothing going on!"

"Why are all our tapestries ripped?!" Zu accusingly pointed to the walls and their casualties.

"Um, it's called decor?" King Snugglemagne obviously stated.

"What are y'all doing out of bed?" Mao looked around to see the entirety of the castle staff out here. Then he saw the smashed cake odd enough, "And cake?"

"We were having a party for the floor! Ok that's enough problem solved yes it's all fine now just go back home!" The King laughed loudly with all eyes converging on him.

Zu pinched the bridge of her heart shaped nose, "Why don't you just tell us what happened, some of us were asleep."

Puffing out his chest the King scowled at his sister, "Ha! A ruined sleepover oh woe is me sister."

"Sleepover?!" Ragged around the tired edges the Queen still bumped her chest into her brothers as they got into each other's face for a certainly uncommon fight, "Admit it you pulled that monster alarm because you're a brat!"

"Gah!?" Her brother scoffed with a spray of spittle onto her face, "Brat?! Those are ripe words who think everywhere is a welcome mat to any castle!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"You don't make sense!"

"Enough!" Mao finally through in his voice to the mixture just to break up the insistent nittering. The sheriff crossed the room towards the broken mirror and scrutinized everything and everyone in the room, "Something happened, we're not leaving until we find that out so just-"

"Nothing happened," Zu crossed her arms with the dirtiest eye roll, "Someone probably just saw their reflection."

Bags under his eyes Mao glared at the sass falling out of her mouth. This time not directed at him but still this was way too early for any of this. She shut up but still sneered when the King stuck his tongue out at his sister.

Mao stepped back over toward Badgerclops and Adorabat for a consult without sass. Poor Adorabat looked from the glaring royalty to the mess and finally back to Mao, "Mao Mao, I don't think that's right."

"That they're obnoxious rich babies arguing over nothing?" Mao forgot a second that she meant the scene of the crime.

"No, the King," Adorabat frowned at the lion who then proceeded to try and scoot everyone out of the castle frantically, "I don't think he's telling the truth."

Mao sighed and looked back at the hectic scene behind them, "You're right. And we're not getting anything out of him."

"So ask your girlfriend," Badgerclops popped off.

Choking on his breath Mao hacked up a lung at his casual mention and tried to rectify the wording, "She is not- The Queen is just- They're all shaken! The King is compromised, we must find out what caused this and fast. I think those two might kill each other."

Wordless the hate feuding between both lions nearly blocked out the fact something or someone ransacked the castle. The Queen would be just as useless like this even if Badgerclops quick fix was that easy. Decided the fate of the Kingdom laid in their hands alone.

"Alright! Line up!" Mao called all the sweet pies in proxy to this mess, "Now if anyone has any information on this step forward now so we can-"

"Op! Breaks over! Lets go! Yes all of you go go go!" Breaking Mao's investigation into little bits the King dispersed everyone leaving no one for the black cat to question aside him or his sister. Which obviously turned up useless, "These labor laws, ha! They'll be the death of me I swear."

"You did that on purpose!" Zu ran right into berating her brother over anything and everything.

With them bickering in the background Mao shook his head and huddled with his team, "This looks worse than I thought."

"If those two keep going at it, I'm gonna get an ulcer just from listening," Badgerclops looked over Mao's shoulder at the weirdly angry twins.

"No not those two!" Mao snapped their attention back to him, "This runs deep, conspiracy deep! We have to conduct our own investigation. The fate of the kingdom depends on it!"

Zu came up behind Mao and yanked the cat up by his red cape, "Lets go! Fix the kingdom or whatever you're plotting over here!"

"My queen I-"

"Don't care!" Zu stalked off towards the bowels of the castle, "Lets question whoever you want! I'll even take you! Just so I can see that stupid look on my brother's face when he's caught for being a bratty baby pulling the taddle alarm."

"Taddle alarm?" Adorabat tilted her head.

"Royal alarm, whatever! Let's just get this over with." Then Queen led the charge to uncover her brother's wrong doings. The rest of the sheriff's department followed with less of an intent to rile up the King. But finding out who did this was a priority.

The investigation went as such. Rhett the chef was a bust. Minus the slightly detour Badgerclops was going to make when he thought Mao decapitated the Pure Heart chef. That left a sour taste in Mao's mouth when he realized the head that dropped at his feet was none other than a watermelon poorly constructed on a decoy when he wasn't looking. The answer to the nights crime was not in the kitchen.

Second were the royal guards. Zu suggested them in fact with the small factoid that her brother made them stay up all night to look at his garden below his window. Naturally it would have made more sense to question the guard first. But she wasn't running this investigation and Mao reminded her of that.

As useless as the first account. The guards were uselessly distracted. A tell tale sign when Mao was yelling at them for eating candy off the ground and Zu caught a suspicious glance of a pink mane over the edge of the garden railing. Squinint she had a feeling who was doing this. But she had one dirty trick up her sleeve too.

"Behold!" Camila, the mad mistress of magic under the kingdom, waved the bazooka like device in front of the sheriff's department and queen forcing them to duck when another erratic beam of pink light fired off, "This beauty fires a laser right into the mind! Exposing the targets deepest, darkest, secrets! Ahahah!"

"Dude, is that like, legal?" Badgerclops nuged Zu like she should be shutting it down. Instead the Queen shrugged and let the sweet pie go on.

"Ugh, we asked you about the King!" Mao rubbed his tired face. This third attempt starting off worse than the other two, "The king! Did you see anything happen to the King!"

"I don't think she's gonna help Mao Mao," Adorabat chimed in from Badgerlops shoulder.

"Ahaha the King!" Camila cackled, "When I saw the king after the horrible scream-"

Mao's face lit up, finally a lead, "Yes then what?!"

"That scream came and I saw-"

"Yes!?"

"I saw- Rainbows! Hahah! You're all made of rainbows!" The chameleon completely off her rocker as she bolted. Her assistant sighing silently and grabbing the animal control net that always worked.

Amidst Camila's screaming, Zu's ear twitched with the definitely creak of metal from above. Teal eyes darting towards the drab ceiling and all it's criss crossing tubes. She once again caught a glance of that same pink vanish just before she saw it. Eyes narrowing she edged closer to Mao and silently nudged the tired sheriff to look up where she was looking.

Catching the hint that she gave. Mao understood the feeling of eyes on their investigation. The Queen must have seen the culprit up in the piping and without hesitation swung his katana up. A shriek and part of the metal fell down to the ground with the accused.

"What the- The King?!"Mao pointed his sword at the frazzled lion who was surrounded with the fruit that made the decoy in the kitchen, the candy that the guards had been eating off the ground and even Rhett the chef. The sheriff scowled as Badgerclops and the rest of them approached, "You're the one undermining our investigation! The only thing I don't get it, why?"

"Because he's a scardy brat who won't admit it," Zu scoffed under her breath even when her brother gestured rudely at her.

"Now now now, Mao Mao, Queen Zu," Badgerclops for the first time all night took initiative. Unlike when the royal alarm had gone off. The badger scooped up the King to cradle him bridal style, "Obviously the King is just scared." Badgerclops continued carrying the King out of Camila's lair. Confused everyone followed as the co sheriff continued, "He's just scared so what he needs, is exposure therapy."

Where Badgerclops had lead them was down to the dank musky depths of the caverns below the kingdom. Cackling like an absolute mad man Badgerclops strapped the king into carnival like chair that no one understood when Badgerclops even had erected. Fighting it the restraints kept the king neatly in place.

"Nothing in there is going to scare that jerk," Zu remarked but didn't free her brother.

"The Queen is right!" Adorabat shrieked, "We don't even know what scares him!"

"Ohoho! There is no need to worry as there is something for all to fear in, Badgerclops's Hall of Horror!" Of course without consent he pulled the lever. Meaning a struggling and complaining king slowly began rolling back into the tent. Screaming of indignance the entire time.

"You know what, I hope it scares him," Zu huffed, "That jerk."

"Of course it will scare him," Badgerclops rolled his eye, "I just said it has something for everyone! Jeesh does not listening run in the family?"

Raising her fist Zu made a threatening gesture at the mouthy comrade. Daring him to try again this late and with this many bags under their eyes. Badgerclops revoked it and showed them all to the end of it to wait for the beautiful result of his genius.

Everyone at the end of this little trick, Mao blew on the hot cup of beverage he'd gotten from Badgerclops robo arm,"Ah," Mao sipped from the cup, "Night shift is so much better now that you installed that coffee thermos in your arm Badgerclops."

"Thermas?" Badgerclops looked down from where he got the 'coffee'. "Um dude that not coffee."

Choking on the mouthful he had. Mao waited and thought about it. Then decided he was too tired to care and swigged it back like it was still coffee.

Zu dry heaved and turned her nose up at Mao, "That's disgusting, I'm never kissing you again with that-"

"Quiet! The King is coming cured!" Adorabat shrieked as the tent gave way to a washed out and pale King sitting as far back in his chair as he could.

All three from the sheriff's department converged on the king in his seat as they chanted for him to tell them what was wrong. Over and over. But the desensitization obviously didn't work for one more 'tell us' out of them and the King snapped. Breaking free of the chair he dashed pass them all. Throwing himself up the stairs dramatically, "I'm not going to tell you simpletons anything!"

"After all this?!" Mao's fuse growing shorted by the second.

Of course the King made a rude gesture and shook his head. Zu out right starting the bickering up again until Adorabat's voice finally broke the scene of the screaming.

"Um, Mr. King..." She was pulling out all the stops with the adorableness, "I was wondering, if maybe, well, you'd wanna tell me?"

Without hesitation the King did exactly what Zu thought he'd do. Which was stick his tongue out at the little bat and then turn around in a huff. That broke the camels back for Adorabat. Shrill battle cries as she picked up a sharp piece of shrapnel from when the King broke the chair and made like she was going to stab him.

"Adorabat!" Mao surprisingly stepped in front of the little heathen, "I like where you're heading but-" And no semblance of sanity left, Mao pulled out the horrific weapon of Camila's from when she'd been firing it off like crazy in the lab, "I think I've got a better idea! Haha, borrowed it from Camila's lab."

Zu stopped her haranguing of her brother to look over at the sheriff pointing a gun at her sibling, "Um Mao I'm not sure I want you shooting my brother over-"

"Ooo didn't she say rip those dark thoughts from your brain?!" Badgerclops and his sick and twisted plan of the carnival tent gone wrong was right on board with Mao's plan.

"Guys wait I don't know if-"

"It's, ethical!!!" Adorabat rage screamed in all her sleep deprived glory.

Before Zu got another sensible word in edge wise, the pink beam shot across the way. Zapping her brother instantly. What seemed fine didn't feel so much when the King screamed and grew pale. It was done though as the shot king gasped and fell to his knees. Behind him though lingered the darkness of his own shadow. Bubbling and morphing into something else.

"Get ready y'all," Mao dropped the bazooka to opt for combat with his sword, "Here they come!"

Camila was right. What it turned into was a dark engulfing representation of what the victim feared most. None of them expected the three shadow figures of the sheriff's department to come to life. When the last tendril of inky black shadow stepped away from the stone wall, their glowing red eyes snapped open. A sheriff, a badger and a bat. And they charged without hesitation.

"Us?!" Adorabat dodged away from her shadow figure as they pursued her with blood lust, "The King fears us?!"

"Us?!" Zu stood on the steps lower than her brother but privy to the fight going on below, "There's only you guys?!"

"So he fears us?" Mao grunted as the powerful shadow opponent gave him a run for his money. It was shaped like him. And fought like him. But the power behind its swings was unnatural, "We're the arm of the law, the king!"

"We're always saving him!" Adorabat rung out as she out flew her attacker.

"I don't need saving you fools!" The King cattily remarked even with the fight going on below at his own subconscious mind.

Without a fight Zu impulse leapt into the fight in an attempt to peel the shadow off Mao. Every time she struck it though her dagger was met with the sizzle of nothingness. Trying to gain its attention was just as useless. These shadow fighters sought out their doppleganger and thats it.

"I don't get it!?" Zu finally boiled over with anger after all this, and a medically questionable ray, her brother's subconscious had the gal to blow her off all again like she didn't matter, "If you're not afraid of being some big weenie-" Stomping up the stairs until she was right in her brother's face for the last time of the night. The anger they'd started fighting with earlier seeped away to just the bone tiredness the lioness felt as she stared at her brother and lost the venom in her voice, "Then what- What are you afraid of brother?"

The King's face dropped. He looked down at his sister's feet standing before his own. A top this stone set of stairs together once more. The clash of fighting going on behind them no more louder than the insecure roar in his mind. Finally the king through his arms up and confessed, "I'm afraid of loosing you to those, imbeciles!"

"Wha?!" Everyone locked in battle with their doppleganger stuttered in their fight to look up at the loud proclamation of the king. With his words of truth, even the shadows fueled by fear seemed to waiver under his words finally ringing true.

"I...I'm scared of loosing you!" King Snugglemagne finally met his sister's all but surprised gaze, "You've been spending so much time with the sheriff's department, fighting monsters, rough housing, being away from home...I just...I don't want to be mom!" Zu's face an echo of surprise from her insult earlier in the day when she called him controlling like their mother. The King shook his head and lowered his eyes, "I don't want you to be anyone but yourself but...I just wished yourself meant you still had room for your little brother too."

Into a million tiny pieces Zu's heart shattered. Just like the shadows when each of their respective identities struck a killing blow. The shadows gone but the problem not solved as they looked up to the stairs with the two lions standing in stunned silence. Zu finally finding some kind of words, "Brother I-"

"I know you like the handsome sheriff ok!" King Snugglemage blurted

"Oh handsome well, I don't know about that," Mao laughed arrogantly like he wasn't going to let that go to his head. Badgerclops rolled his eye.

"I love seeing you happy!" The King continued with a waiver to his voice, "The way you smile when you see him, don't think I don't notice sister. Because I do. I'm so happy but....he takes you away from me, I don't want to control you like that. I just wish...I wish you'd miss me sometimes too."

"Brother-" Zu's voice cracked. She couldn't take it anymore when her eyes welled with tears and she through her arms around her brother's torso, "I'm never going to be happy if you're not in my life! You absolute dunce! You're my brother!"

"So wait," Badgerclops scratched his head, "The king was scared, because he missed his sister?"

Mao punched his best friend in the side and glared. Obviously that wasn't the answer, "Your majesty....the alarm was for an emergency right?"

The lions parted in a hug. The king did have to heave a sigh with a real confession now, "Yes well, I pulled the alarm in a bit of a, fit, I was having you see."

"He pulled it because of her," Badgerclops interjected. Getting punched again.

"I may have gotten a little upset and before I knew it, broke, some of our items," The King confessed exhausted like keeping it a secret had taken everything in him, "I rang the alarm because I knew the Sheriff here would blow it out of proportion and my sister would come because she always does this disgusting little thing of bonding, with the sheriff or whatever."

"The Queen was wearing Mao Mao's cape when we go up today!" Adorabat disclosed loudly and inappropriately.

"Adorabat!" Mao and Zu echoed each other embarrassed. Then the queen looked past the sheriff and back to her brother, "...I am, sorry." Zu lowered her head, "I've just enjoyed my time spent that, I forget home is here too."

"Hear that guys," Mao smug as a rug elbowed Badgerclops grinning, "She enjoys her time with me."
Everyone ignored him and Zu took a deep breath, "What can I do to make it up, little brother."

Holding his tongue for the best idea to come to the surface. The King's face lit up with the widest grin seeing as the tragedy of the night was finally being remedied, "Sleepover in the castle!!"

Shaking her head with a smile Zu lightly punched her big little brother in the arm but caved to his very easy fix at nearly 4 in the morning, "Alright, sleepover in the castle."