Hey guys! Thank you for reading this story! It's been a while since I've written and posted something so even though this isn't as popular as some of my other stories, I really do appreciate you reading it! I hope you enjoy the final chapter of this three part saga!

Three

The main doors to the Supreme Leader's room automatically opened, revealing the legendary Sector V.

Of course, Lenny had seen them before. Multiple times, actually. He remembered his voice screaming their names in anger and malice, as well as fighting them with incredibly complex weapons created from the combined intellect of all his sectormates. Seeing them now enticed a bittersweet feeling. As majority of Sector V saluted Chad, Wallabee Beetles babbled on about how seriously cool the Moonbase was.

"At ease, guys, and welcome to Moonbase. You may have heard that we have a spy in the enemy camp," Chad said, holding a report folder that, from as far as Lenny could see, was relatively empty.

"Only rumors," came the skeptical response of Nigel Uno.

Chad stood up from his desk, leaning down to grab something Lenny couldn't quite see. "Well, they're true. I want you to share our super special top-secret files with him," Chad affirmed, handing Nigel the heavily protected wooden briefcase from beside his desk, Wally still babbling in the background.

"I understand," Nigel said seriously. "So, who's the mole?"

Go time.

"I am," Lenny said, drawing out his words with a certain vibrato he didn't normally use. He felt his entire body tense as he stepped into the light, almost expecting to be killed on sight. Sector V stared at him in varying degrees of shock, and their eyes bore into him as he took off his helmet. The reminder of that unholy mouth brace only added to his discomfort.

As soon as he noticed his mouth brace, though, he saw a flash of orange lunge in his direction, accompanied by a guttural scream. "No, wait!" he exclaimed, but Wally had already landed on Lenny and chewed at his shirt like a rabid dog.

Lenny wanted nothing more than to don his boxing gloves and punch the kid in the face, but he quickly reminded himself that he couldn't. He didn't need Sector V angry with him, or Chad…

So, dejectedly, he stuck to screaming, "Get off me!" like some baby. Out of all the covers he'd done in his life, this was by far the most embarrassing, and a minute hadn't even passed yet!

Suddenly, his attacker's grip started to lessen as Wally was yanked away by Abigail Lincoln and Hoagie Gilligan. "Numbuh 4, stand down! I said... stand down!" shouted Chad, who started to jerk Wally away as well. The Supreme Leader eventually separated Numbuh 4 from Numbuh 0.4.

So much for things going smoothly, Lenny thought as Abby and Chad hoisted him up. This mission was definitely going to be a nightmare.

Lenny knew it would be a long ride to the Coffee Rig when Kuki and Wally bombarded him with questions, Hoagie occasionally chiming in. There was "How do you and the other Delightfuls even talk in unison?" this and "Are any of the other Delightfuls spies?" that, as well as the ever-popular, "How did you infiltrate the Delightful Children, anyway?" and "Are the Delightfuls brainwashed or something?"

He deflected most of the inquiries off with one off half-lies or long, elaborated stories he'd come up with on the spot. Eventually, they left him to his own devices (per Abby's request), allowing him to simply observe with his thoughts.

For most of the ride to the Coffee Rig, Lenny sat on the couch in the helicopter, thankfully unbothered as he watched the antics of Sector V. Lenny didn't exactly know the positions of the sector's members, sans the fact that Nigel was the leader. Given that Hoagie was the one flying the helicopter, Lenny assumed he was the 2x4 Technology Officer since Constance, his sector's 2x4 Technology Officer, did the same. Though, he supposed that didn't have to be the case for every sector…

On the other hand, Abby appeared to have some sort of power over the sector, given the other teammates listened to her just as well as they did Nigel. She was likely second-in-command, or maybe an older member of the sector. Maybe both, he didn't know, nor did he care to ask.

Wally, he guessed, was the Hand-to-Hand Combat Officer like himself. Though Lenny liked to think he was more strategic than Wally, impulsivity seemed to be a common trait of direct combat specialists. Not every Kids Next Door operative would spring out of nowhere to attack a foe, after all.

Then, of course, there was Kuki. He had no clue what she did. He knew that she did something with hamsters and had an affinity for Rainbow Monkeys, but besides that, he drew a blank.

What he could clearly see, however, was how much Kuki and Wally clearly liked each other. It didn't take a Global Tactical Officer to figure that one out. If they really disliked each other as much as Wally claimed, they wouldn't have been near each other for nearly the entire flight.

They're almost as oblivious as Ashley and David, Lenny thought. He smiled to himself, thinking of David's poor attempts of flirting and Ashley's adamancy that he only thought of her as a friend.

His smile washed away when he suddenly felt his hand twitch, an abrupt sense of doom clouding any semblance of rational thought. He watched in petrified silence as his hand curled into a fist on its own accord. The headache he had earlier forcefully returned. In some sort of epiphany, he knew what was going on.

They were near the Coffee Rig, and the Delightful Children from Down the Lane were already there. His connection to the hive mind was so strong that he could sense where they were…

…and that meant he didn't have much time left as himself.

Thankfully, Hoagie announced, "We're closing in on the Coffee Rig. We should arrive in T-Minus five minutes." Maybe there was still time for the mission…

"Everyone, get in position," Nigel instructed, grabbing the stack of scripts Chad had left in the helicopter. He handed them out to Abby, Kuki, and Wally respectively, keeping the last one for himself. Lenny had a strange feeling he already knew what to say.

The five situated themselves on the steps to the couch. Abby was at the top step, Lenny and Kuki took the bottom step, while Wally and Nigel stood on the floor. As they approached, the group grew increasingly more alert, just like Sector Z. Lenny brushed off the intrusive, melancholic thought.

Focus.

Hoagie gave a thumbs up, signalling that they were transmitting audio to the Coffee Rig. Everyone looked at Lenny, who began their delightful recreation, "Delightful Children to Triple Espresso, requesting permission to land." The combination of voices was uncanny to that of the actual Delightful Children.

"Hey, you guys are good at this," Lenny said before he could stop himself, giving the operatives an impressed look.

Before anyone could respond, a voice was heard from the other end of the line, the diabolical Cuppa Joe. "Good to have you back! Please transmit password." His voice held a thick southern accent, one that gave Lenny serious déjà vu, but he quickly chalked it up to his memories from delightfulization.

"The password is, sheep."

"Oh, I'm sorry… That password has been, cancelled!"

Suddenly, the view from the helicopter was filled with a barrage of coffee beans, tossing everyone in the cabin every which way as Hoagie tried to gain control of the aircraft. Lenny climbed his way up to the front window, looking at the ambush from the shaky interior. He found himself turning to Nigel like he would Bruce, donning an expectant look.

"They're onto us! Did you guys happen to have a Plan B?" he asked in the shaky voice he'd been using all afternoon. The answer, he already knew…

"The Kids Next Door always have a Plan B!"

And… Plan B failed. A group of Coffee Rig workers hoisted the defeated operatives from their sinking sub, crowding them onto the rig itself. They were completely surrounded, no place to run or hide.

At this point, Lenny was absolutely done with this mission. Sector Z would've been in and out of this place by now, but Chad wasn't lying when he said Sector V dove head first into disaster. Not only that, but his headache was growing ever stronger. His time as an individual Kids Next Door operative was wasting away as the captives meandered over to Cuppa Joe.

"Well, well, well… If it isn't the famous Kids Next Door! It seems the Delightful Children overestimated your abilities!" the villain taunted, his eye twitching as he leaned forward. Lenny couldn't help but notice the own twitching in his hands and fingers that were becoming increasingly worrisome, not to mention annoying.

"Ha! We're the best there is!" Lenny shouted, his voice not as intimidating as he wanted it to be due to the unholy mouth brace.

"Hm.. do I know you?" Cuppa Joe inquired, tapping his finger on his chin spastically.

Lenny raised an eyebrow, a vain smirk caking his features. "Not really, but let me introduce myself."

Lenny could not give two cruds about his cover now. When he turned back into a Delightful, he didn't want to be remembered as cowardly and nervous. He wanted to be remembered as someone worthy of being a Kids Next Door operative, one of the best there ever was!

Though, contrary to Chad's statement, coffee had advanced in the past few years. Cuppa Joe sped away from Lenny at a incomprehensible speed, leaving the operative hurling directly into the concrete. As if his headache wasn't already bad enough.

His face, and consequently his mouth brace, took the brunt of the fall. His teeth and forehead were pounding in pain. It was agonizing. As if that wasn't enough, his vision began to blur, and he wasn't quite sure whether the hive mind or his fall were responsible.

Cuppa Joe ran back over, obnoxiously tapping Lenny on the head. Lenny's injuries pounded to the rhythm.

"Do your worst, kiddy!" the adult exclaimed, rushing over to Sector V. "I'm running off of-" In a split second, he appeared on a higher level of the rig, just above the cornered children. "-six cups of coffee!" He returned back to his workers on the main level within a few seconds, where his employees stared at him in admiration.

"You can't touch me," he spat, chugging some coffee.

Lenny's mind just barely caught up with the situation as scalding hot coffee dripped on him from the higher levels. He rubbed his head, but the headache just got worse and worse, and no amount of soothing would make it go away. He could turn back into a Delightful any minute now.

The sound of laughing coffee rig workers grew more and more distant, whispers taking over the eerie space. He used whatever control he had left of his twitching body to turn to the blobs he thought were Sector V. "I'm… I'm sorry, guys," he muttered.

"You gave it your best shot, mate, but don't worry. We'll get out of this mess somehow!" Wally encouraged, but Lenny could barely make out the words.

He would punch something if he could. The concrete, Cuppa Joe, himself, anything. He didn't want to leave, not after all this. He couldn't just go back to watching from a peephole, not being able to control anything, but even as he sat on the cold concrete of the coffee rig, he knew it was inevitable.

A static feeling snaked through his veins, a familiar static he felt years ago in that botched Delightfulization Chamber. It burned throughout his entire body like fire, cutting every bit of individuality out of him. It was happening. He screamed his head off, but no sound came from his closed mouth. He had been reduced to a puppet yet again.

In the midst of his cloudy vision, Lenny saw a clear figure emerge above him. It appeared to be floating, or perhaps it was just on a higher level of the coffee rig. He honestly couldn't tell the difference at this point. The more he focused on the mysterious figure, the more familiar it became. The silhouette became more detailed until it morphed its way into an old friend, Ashley. Her caring brown eyes stared down at him as she smiled.

"Come back, Lenny," she said, her voice full of life. She knelt down, extending a hand out for him. Without much effort, Lenny managed to stand and hobble closer to her. The closer he got, the more clear she became.

Behind Ashley, another figure waltzed in. Its tall stature immediately gave it away as another friend, David. His demeanor was the perfect blend of apprehension and confidence, just as it had been before he met his tragic fate.

Even with his friends reappearing right before his eyes, an ambience of terror choked him. Something wasn't right.

Lenny's hands began to shake. He was going insane; he had to be going insane… He shouldn't be able to move. His friends, they couldn't really be here… They were the Delightful Children right now! He had to be seeing things… He felt the effects of delightfulization wearing on him. Maybe, maybe this was part of it…?

Though, David's voice rang out loud and clear above all the other far-flung noises, "You've done good, Lenny, but it's out of your hands now."

"You're not real," Lenny muttered in a wobbly exhale, backing away slowly, though he didn't really go anywhere.

Neither Ashley nor David moved. They stayed frozen in their welcoming stances, an eerie aura emanating from them. Instead, another figure walked in. He could recognize her pigtails a mile away in a blizzard. It was Constance. Her sweet smile that he usually loved now only radiated a bizarre sense of fatality.

"We're proud of you for breaking the connection," she soothed.

"You're not really here!" he shouted, but as soon as Constance stopped talking, she too became as still as a statue.

"Stop it!" he stepped closer as Bruce approached the others. Tears filled his eyes as he shouted for the figments to go away, but the more words he bellowed, the quieter they became. He didn't even know where they were anymore… His surroundings had faded into a black abyss.

That sparkle had returned to Bruce's green eyes, but there was something sinister in his smile that Lenny couldn't describe. He stood front and center, his arms crossed so as to keep his authoritative nature.

"Thanks to you, Sector Z will surely be back soon," he said, giving an appreciative nod.

As Bruce's motions slowed to a stop, all four of Lenny's sectormates were right in front of him, frozen and fake. He wanted them to be real so badly, but he knew that this was merely some crude vision from the hive mind, surely. Those were not his friends.

Suddenly, of the haunting hallucinations dashed towards him with terrifying speed. Lenny didn't even have time to react. They all crashed into him, sending Lenny soaring backwards into the darkness.

"It's time to go home," rang the voices of his friends. The phrase slowly amalgamated into a monotone chant, his friends' cheerful overtones corrupted into the eerie growl of the Delightful Children from Down the Lane. Eventually, his own voice was added as if he had never left the hive mind in the first place.*

Next thing he knew, his vision was clear. Clear, but tunneled, just like it was when he was within the hive mind. Though his body was covered in popcorn and butter, he still felt himself internally shaking.

His time was up.

As he got used to the familiar sensation, feelings of dread washed over him, that isolating loneliness of the hive mind. He wanted nothing more than to be with his sector. Bruce's off-handed compliments, David's warm hugs, Ashley's radiating pep talks, and Constance's never failing smile. He wanted it all, but it was just out of reach. The hallucinations seemed almost comforting now…

There was a thought that lingered in the back of his mind as a grieved his friends, his freedom. It was a promise a former cadet made to him a few short hours ago,

"We will bring Sector Z back, and the Delightful Children will be no more than a bad dream."

The Supreme Leader knew about their predicament. He would get them out of here somehow, Lenny knew it. In the meantime, he just needed to stay strong.