That's right, folks. I'm alive! I told myself that I had to get in at least one update before school started. Thankfully, it's a long chapter. I hope you guys will like it and if you do (or don't) please let me know in reviews.

This chapter is dedicated to Dead-Rogs, who suggested that I focus on Violet. Enjoy!

Now for the reviews . . .

The_Disnerd: The fact that in the old movie the other children never come out makes me think that something could have happened inside of the factory. At least that's how I always perceived it.

The Liar and Honest: Thank you, I'm quite fond of it myself!

Anonymous: Thanks, I'm glad you like it and I definitely see your point. The swearing was the main reason for its rating and there is much less of it in this chapter. I don't encourage swearing myself, but it was an attempt to have the writing style match the speech of everyday kids. Like I said, though, I see your point. Hopefully you will be more satisfied with this chapter.

Toxic Truffles: Well thanks. I'm glad you read it too haha! Sorry for the long wait, hopefully you'll still read it.

Guest: Thanks!

civil_war_rose: You would not be the first to make that suggestion and I will try to incorporate it into a scene. Most likely it would be at the end of the story because Wonka doesn't show up until after the climax, which I am getting nearer to. I'm glad you like it and find it interesting. Hopefully it makes up for my inconsistent updates.

JHarpe: Most pairings in my stories are implied. I'm not very good at writing romance so I usually try to steer clear from it.

Dead-Rogs: Awesome, I'm thrilled that you enjoy it! This next chapter focuses a lot on Violet, so hopefully it will be to your liking.

Waring: The following chapter contains extreme weirdness from the overactive imagination of a fifteen-year-old girl. Viewer discretion is advised.

"How did you guys find us?"

"Vasn't 'ard," Vlady shrugged. "Ve vent the same vay you did, then ve just followed your trail."

"Trail?" Mike glanced behind him at several pairs of chocolate-colored footsteps. "Oh."

"What's goin' on?" Little Mike asked, now back in Mike's hand. "Who's there? I wanna see! Lemme see!"

Veruca frowned. "What was that?"

Vladik cleared his throat, sparing Mike the uncomfortable answer. "By the vay, is this yours?" he asked, pulling out something small and furry from his shoulder bag.

Violet squealed. "SKIPPY!" she ran up and snatched the ferret from the Russian's hands without so much as a thank you. The sudden movement surprised the animal and Skippy jumped and took off running. Violet tried to run after him, but the weasel crawled into a protruding pipe and she was unable to reach him.

"Hang on!" 1971 Mike shouted, tugging at Mike's sweater until a thread came loose. As the others watched in shock and amazement, he tied his "rope" into a loop and threw it towards the animal like a lasso, shouting, "he-HAW!"

He missed by a rather embarrassing amount.

Veruca turned up her nose in disgust. "What is that?"

"Let me guess," said Little Mike, "you're that Salt girl. The whinny one with the crazy dad."

Veruca glowered at him and then pursed her lips before responding. "I'll have you know that my daddy is a well-respected business man. No doubt your father lassoes horses for a living, hopefully his aim is better than yours." With, deciding the matter was closed, she stuck her nose in the air like a true hotshot.

Little Mike stomped his foot. "Okay, that's just not fair! My Pop is well-respected too in our town, so . . . so shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"No, you shut up!"

"No, you—"

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" Normal Mike shouted. "Look, we've accomplished what we wanted. Now, let's get out of here before there's any trouble."

Violet snorted. "And how do you suggest we do that, Einstein?"

Mike narrowed his eyes. He tried to control the anger in his voice, but it still shook with rage. "You know 'everybody shut up,' includes you."

"Humph."

Mike paused, quietly assessing the situation if there was a way in, there had to be away out. Hmm . . . a way in.

"Veruca," Mike said, catching the brunette by surprise. "Do you still have your cell phone on you?"

She snorted. "Of course I do!" she pulled the sparkly pink phone out of her purse. "What do you think I am, stupid?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" asked Violet.

Mike promptly ignored her. "Excellent, hand it over."

Veruca gripped the device to her chest protectively. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to call up whatshisname . . . err . . . Mr. Herald. He's worked here, so he probably knows plenty of escape routes."

"I vouldn't count on it," Vlady said grimly. The others turned to stare at him. "I vas under impression that Vonka vas very secret around his vorkers. Vy vould the case be different here?"

Mike cringed. He hadn't thought of that. Why the hell hadn't he thought of that? Still, he had to try. Mike extended his palm and sighed with exaggerated patience. "Hand me the phone, Veruca."

Her response was anticipated as she clutched the object tightly to her chest. "No, it's mine! I don't want anybody touching it."

"You're being ridiculous! Give it here."

"No!"

"Give it!"

"Don't you have your own?"

"I told you already. It's out of batteries."

She sighed in defeat. "Okay, fine," Salt surrendered, "but I'm calling him myself!" As she punched in the numbers, Little Mike peered at her curiously.

"That's a phone?" he inquired, looking at the bejeweled electronic device in a combination of confusion and awe.

"Sort of," his twenty-first century counterpart replied. "It's Veruca's version of one. It's more like a phone on steroids."

He seemed at a loss for words. "But . . . but where are the wires?"

Violet rolled her eyes. "It's a cell phone, genius."

Poor 1971 Mike looked beyond confused. But how were the others supposed to know that the first cellular phone wouldn't be invented for another two years.

"Guys, be quiet!" Veruca hissed. "Hello, Mr. Harold? Hello? There's no service."

"Give it to me," said Mike, "I'm taller, so I'm more likely to get a better signal."

"No! I said you couldn't touch it!"

"Just let me see it. I can probably find a hot spot if you just give me a chance . . . " he reached for it, but Salt immediately jerked her hand back. "Oh, come on! You're being ridiculous. Give it to me."

"No."

"Give me the phone."

"No!"

"VERUCA SALT, GIVE ME THE GODDAMN PHONE!" he tried to reach for it once again but she duck and tried to hide behind Violet.

"Leave me out of this," said Beauregard, sidestepping the British girl.

Augustus frowned. "Um . . . you do realize I have phone, yes?"

"Excellent," said Violet, "hand it over! Honestly, the sooner we get out of this place, the better."

"Wait," said Mike, turning to the German boy. "Do you have international coverage on your cell? Did such an idea ever occur in your tiny excuse for a brain?" Augustus paused and then shook his head, looking very embarrassed. Violet gave Mike a poisonous glare. "What?" he demanded. "What did I do now?"

"You don't need to be mean! He vas just trying to help."

Mike rolled his eyes. He really didn't have time for this. "Oh, wow. Look whose talking! Honestly, Beauregard, I don't think you are really in the position to judge what is 'mean.' You're a nasty little girl and that's probably why your mother doesn't like you! In fact, nobody likes you. You're repulsive to look at and even worse to be around!"

A deadly silence followed Mike's comment. Violet's expression did not change, but her eyes suddenly looked very shiny.

Had he gone too far? Mike wondered. No, of course not! She deserved it. He didn't need to justify his comments, the UK was a free country. At least he was pretty sure it was . . . either way, there was no need to worry.

The others, however, seemed to beg to differ. Even little Mike gave a low whistle. "Gosh, man. That was harsh."

"Shut up!"

"He is right, you know," said Augustus. He had put his arm around Violet in an attempt to comfort her. Vlady nodded too and even Veruca did not voice any objection.

"I can't believe this!" cried Mike. How could everyone turn against him? "You guys are being ridiculous! Violet will be fine, won't you Violet?"

Violet looked up upon acknowledgement. Her face was tear-streaked, but he hadn't heard her cry. "Everybody, go to the end of the hall," she said. "I would like to speak to Mr. Teavee alone."

The others began to shuffle out awkwardly. "Are you going to beat him up?" asked Veruca hopefully.

"We'll see . . . "

Mike hated to admit it, but he was sort of uncomfortable being in a room alone with Violet. Although they had just gone on a mission together by themselves (mostly,) at that moment it seemed . . . different.

"So . . . what do you want to talk about? And more importantly, is it going to result in internal bleeding on my part?"

Violet popped a bubble of chewing gum and turned to face him. "Do you think I don't notice what people say about me? Do you think I chose to wind up like this? Do you think that I'm happy that my mother is ashamed of me? Well, ARE YOU?!"

Once again, despite their differences in height, Violet seemed to tower over him. Mike found himself sweating profusely, although he tried to hide it.

"Is that all you wanted to say?" he asked, rolling his eyes. "I don't see why it needed to be private."

Violet grabbed Mike by his shirt, pulling him down until he was at face level with her. Mike could smell her tutti-fruity flavored breath. As much as he hated to admit it, she looked kind of hot.

Then, without warning, she let go of him. He pressure sent Mike stumbling and he was just barely able to keep his balance before falling over. Violet was no longer facing him. Instead, she stared at the wall. It was silent for another few moments and Mike was beginning to lose his patience. He was seriously debating leaving the room when the young girl spoke again. Her voice was soft and hollow-sounding, devoid of its normal competitive arrogance. She sounded like a completely different person. "Do they whisper at you too?"

"What?"

Violet continued, but she still did not face him. "Don't lie, Teavee. No doubt people notice you when you walk by. They say things, don't they? They say horrible things."

Mike paused, unsure how to respond. This was the first time he ever heard Violet sound like . . . well, like a person. Mike wasn't sure how to describe the feeling he felt right then. It wasn't pity. No, he had used up all of his pity long ago on himself. What was it then? The feeling was like something trying to crawl out of his chest and out his throat.

"I've heard things," he said finally, careful to keep his voice leveled. Every instinct in his body told him to leave the room immediately before things got overly emotional, but it was as though his feet attached to the floor.

"Have you?"

"Not that I care," he added quickly. "They're idiots, all of them."

"Yeah," Violet agreed.

It was then Mike heard a strange gurgling sound. The noise was deep and rumbly and sounded awfully familiar. It took Mike a moment to figure out that the noise was coming from Violet's stomach.

Violet noticed it too and she turned to Mike with a look in her eyes that spelled pure terror. "Mike," she said. "I need to tell you something. Something that nobody outside of my family knows. You have to swear to keep it secret, okay?"

"Um . . . yeah, sure."

Violet ran towards him and grabbed her shirt again. The panicked look grew stronger. "This is serious, Teavee! You have to mean it, okay?"

"I said yes!"

Violet nodded and let go of his shirt. She took a deep breath and stared straight ahead at nothing in particular. "I heard they made you go to physical therapy after you were stretched just to learn how to walk again." She looked up. "Is that true?"

Mike shrugged, wondering where this was going.

"We all had it pretty bad, Mike. Augustus suffered severe burn in the fudge boiler. Some of it melted right off, he said! And apparently Gloop had to have almost all of the skin on his body grafted. Like I said, none of us had it easy."

"Except Veruca," Mike added.

"Did she?" Violet replied. "I heard she went nuts about a week after the factory and stabbed a bunch of her pet rabbits to death, thinking they were squirrels."

"Oh."

"But you're right. In comparison to the rest of us, her life was a piece of cake. And she could afford the best therapy. And acts like . . . ugh, I can't stand that girl!"

Mike had no trouble being blunt. "You've made that quite clear, Beauregard. Now can you get to your point?"

She stared into the distance again. "When I ate that gum, something . . . something really strange happened. It didn't just make me blow up; it altered my DNA somehow."

She gave Mike a couple of seconds to let that sink in. There was no non-awkward way to phrase his next question. "So . . . you're technically part blueberry?"

A pause. "You could definitely say that. It has some good parts, like I can go months without eating or drinking and my body is even more flexible than it was before."

That's why she could do all of those strange things like flatten herself out, Mike realized. "That's why your mom didn't want you. Not because you were blue but because you were a freak of nature!" he stopped. Perhaps there could have been a better way to phrase that statement.

"Yes. At first she thought the color would wear off and then we went to a bunch specialists until the discovery was made during a blood test. Only . . . I didn't have any blood." She looked disgusted with herself. "I was all juice."

Mike unconsciously shuddered.

"You see this?" said Violet, pointing to her arm. "This is not normal skin! Feel it!" she grabbed Mike's hand and ran it over her arm. She was right, the skin felt strange and leathery, almost like a . . .

Mike pulled his hand away. "I get your point," he said. "Can we go now?"

But . . . but there's more. After the news, Mother didn't want to look at me. Every time I came into a group, she grimaced. I was forbidden from playing sports and every time I left the house I had to wear, like, nine coats of makeup. So eventually, I left."

"You left where?"

"Home. I knew my dad and my oldest brother worked as car dealers in Montana, so I went there."

"How'd you travel?"

"At first it was mostly hitchhiking, but eventually the makeup began to fade away and people stopped picking me up. So I walked."

"The whole way?"

"Pretty much. I would only approach people at night to ask for direction because at night they couldn't really see my color as well when it was dark. And eventually I made it and they took me in."

"That's good, isn't it?"

"That part was good, but then things started to get even weirder. Remember how I said I could go long periods of time without eating? Well, I discovered that during my trip, where I pretty much fasted for about a month. But once I was given food at my dad's, I discovered that I didn't want to eat or drink. I didn't really want to do anything much. At first I thought it was because the long journey had made me tired. But weeks went by I found myself wanting to do less and less. It was summer, so I spent most of my days just relaxing outside on the porch. It may not see strange, but . . . but it was so unlike me. All I wanted to do was lie there and soak up the sun. It felt right and it felt natural. I was told later that I almost entirely stopped talking as well. I was beginning to actually think I was a . .. . yeah, you get the point.

"My dad noticed this too. At first he thought I was just depressed, so he bought me a pet ferret. We also noticed that I was gaining weight, except it wasn't fat it was—"

"Juice?"

"Yes, juice. It seemed that the longer I went without food, the more my body tried to make up for it by creating juice. So I tried eating again and it worked for a little while. My dad was thrilled by the progress and ordered my brother to take me to the youth wrestling championship in Mexico, which was where I met Augustus. I had a great time and we exchanged emails. By the time I got back, things were looking pretty good. There was just one problem.
"You still didn't want to eat?" Mike guessed. He was growing more and more intrigued by the tale.

"Worse. Eating had no effect on the juice production. It was like the blueberry was evolving to take over the human. So we did what we could. I rarely left the house except for weekly liposuction to get rid of the juice."

"Would it still be called liposuction then?"

'"You know what, Mike?"

"What?"

"Shut up!"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I could break just about every bone in your body."

Duly noted. Continue."

"Where was I? Oh yeah. Dad began homeschooling me and I just had plenty of spare time overall to think about things. Things like revenge, which was how I ended up here. But the thing is, I haven't had the liposuction in over a week. And . . . and I'm beginning to worry my mind will make me not want it." Her stomach let out another gurgle as if to prove her point.

Mike stared at her with a kind of morbid fascination. What sort of scientific discoveries could be made by studying the fruit-girl? Mike realized that he probably should have been sensitive to her predicament, especially after all that he went through. But did that mean he couldn't be curious too?

Mike wondered why Violet had confided in him. He wasn't overly trustworthy and Augustus had obviously been a better friend to her. Perhaps she was drawn to the fact that they both suffered similar predicaments in the sense that they had been permanently mutilated at the hands of a madman.

Had Wonka known of the damage that he caused? If he did, the man certainly did not care. But what about Charlie then? Mike could say a lot of things about Bucket, but no one could deny the boy's sense of morality. Had Wonka brainwashed him into thinking that the punishments he delved out were somehow fair? Or maybe he purposely hid the truth from Charlie in order to make himself appear as the hero chocolate-maker that Bucket envisioned him to be. Mike supposed it was even possible that Wonka really hadn't been aware of the effects, at least not to the full extent; but that hardly mattered. Who cared if that had been Wonka's intent? The damage was done, damage that seemed to surpass any twisted nightmare that even Mike could think of.

The door opened to the room and Augustus's head popped in.

Violet looked furious. "I said no interruptions until we were finished!"

"Sorry. But zis is important. Remember the bird? He is back!"

"Why? How did he find us?"

"I don't knows. But zat does not matter. He came vith news: Vonka in returning from his trip!"

Violet and Mike exchanged glances. "Let me talk to him, I want to hear what he says." Augustus nodded and the two teens followed him out. As they reached the door, Mike couldn't help but notice that Violet seemed a bit chubbier around the waist. . .

I did say it would be weird.