Lock glared at Carver.

"Oh, like [i]you'd[/i] do better against Lillith's speed!"

Shock glared at him.

"[I]Regardless[/i]," she said, "you still screwed up!"

Lock glowered as he sucked on the cigarette. A thought came to mind, and he smirked as he slowly let out the smoke.

"Actually..." he said, "this could be a good thing."

Barrel reached over to take a handful of popcorn, intrigued. How was his older brother going to worm his way out of this one?

"A good thing?" Shock asked. "What can [i]possibly[/i] be good about this?"

Lock glanced at her, then at Carver.

"How long was my memory wiped," he asked, "and what brought it back?"

Shock's glare darkened, then softened as she realized what Lock was getting at. This was something they hadn't actually considered.

Or tested.

"...Filling you in," she said.

"I also pieced some of it together myself," he said, "when I saw and heard certain things."

Lock took a final drag to finish off the cigarette, then snuffed it against an already damaged part of the wall, where a few other round, cigarette burn marks were etched into the wood.

"And I can tell you, even with reminders, it takes time for a monster to remember something, but once it's triggered, it'll start reversing the forget-me-lots' effects. I still don't remember everything, but it's coming back."

"You also only had a small dose," Shock said. "It'll probably take longer for the rest of Halloween Town to get their minds back in place."

"True," Lock said, "but if they see or hear something familiar enough, even by accident--"

"--They may start to remember sooner than we want them to," Shock finished.

She paced the room a few times as she pondered it.

"...Then we need to strike--"

"--As soon as--" Barrel continued as he picked up on it too.

"--The fog clears," Lock finished.