We last left Wensley on his way to a dark place, and Leona on her way to indigestion. Just to stretch the suspense a little longer (muhuhahahaha!), in the next scene the POV changes back to the Watering Hole, where some peculiar things are going on. Leonard and perhaps someone else stand over a 
table holding down the corners of a map, while Ramses paces across it with a piece of paper (torn off the corner of the notepad I mentioned earlier) in his hand. After a couple of right angle turns he stops, points to the space between his feet and announces: "They are here!"
Someone in the background who isn't as well informed as the others (just like the reader at this point) wonders out loud how they can know that so accurately, and Leonard takes a minute to explain that Wensley's cage is more advanced than it looks. In addition to the emergency exit in the back, 
it also has a GPS receiver built into the bottom. (This of course explains why Wenslet went back into the cage and made some notes before he started questioning Leona. The position was also the first thing he told Ramses.)
So now they just have to get to Leona before her captors get a chance to move her. Furtunately it isn't far, just 10-15 minutes' drive away, in the middle of the fat cat district. Which is both good and bad really. GPS has an accuracy of about thirty meters, so they won't be able to pinpoint the position within the house, but there won't be any doubt about which house it is! (Because houses in that area are so big and widely spaced, see?)
Anyway, from the way the call got interrupted it looks like a good idea to get there fast! While the others get ready for action, Ramses remarks that he's not so concerned about Leona. After all she's a big girl and can take care of herself. Right now he's more concerned about what's happening to his brother...

And on that cue - right in the middle of the last sentence in fact, we once again turn our attention to a certain lioness.
Leona has closed her mouth again and stands scowling at her captors while Ramses finishes his remark in voiceover.
"I didn't tell you to swallow it whole," the supervisor says.
"You didn't tell me to chew either," Leona snarls. "Why should I enjoy something you force me to do anyway? I hate you! One of these days..."
"Yeah, yeah, you'll get even for sure. Tell you what? I'm not holding my breath!"
Making this hsi exit line, the supervisor leves the room. As soon as the door closes, Leona spins around and runs into the bathroom. "I know you're not (holding your breath)," she thinks, "but I know someone who does! I just hope he's got any left..."
She stops in front of the mirror, reaches into her mouth with a couple of fingers and pulls out the rubber band (remember the rubber band?) that's hooked under her tongue (remember how it arced?). She keeps tugging at it until Wensley pops out of her throat, holding on to the other end for dear life.
[Sound note: I imagine that a lion regurgitating a half swallowed mouse does so with a loud HORK. Or whatever.]
Leona dumps Wensley on the edge of the washbasin and just stands hawking and spitting for a while, while he gasps for air and fans himself with his hands.
He finds his voice first. "Pe-yeeew, what a stench! Sakes alive, girl! Don't you predators ever brush your teeth??"
"Look who's talking! When was the last time you had a bath, Mister Clean-as-a-whistle?"
After catching his breath, Wensley gets to his feet, wrestles the taps open and jumps into the basin to 'shower' under the running water while Leona locates a bottle of Listerine and starts gargling. Then spend soem time cleaning up in silence before dialog resumes.
Leona sits down on the toilet seat with the half empty bottle in her hand. "I'll never eat mouse again!" she moans.
"You mean you did before??"
"Hey, I'm a predator! What did you expect? Anyway it wasn't anyone you know."
"Oh well. Still, you realize this is going to put a damper on our relationship, don't you?"
"Yeah, like we ever had one. Face it, mousie - the only way you'll get into 
my frillies is if you take up hamper diving." [Note: In-joke]
"Can I do that?"
"Only if you consider drowning in the washing machine a great way to go."
"Hmmm. I think I'll pass on that one."
"Okay then, Well, at least we share the same taste in movies."
"Are you kidding?? I only saw that silly bungee jumping movie once twelve years ago. The only reason I remembered "Over the edge!" is that Ramses used to yell it whenever he pounced me."
"Sounds like you had an interesting childhood."
"Yeah, and the rest of my life is turning out pretty "interesting" too. Like in the Chinese curse..."

Fragment four? A bit later they have finished cleaning up and drying, and are back in the main room discussing their next move. Of course now that Wensley is supposed to be digested it's specially important to keep him from getting discovered again. While discussing their options, Wensley suddenly sits up, perks up his ears, looks at the door and whispers: "Someone's coming!" [Another in joke coming up]
Without thinking twice, Leona sweeps him up and drops him down the front of her dress.
"Hey, you've got polkadots down here too!"
"Quiet!"
"Oh it's alright, nobody's coming. I just wanted to see how you reacted."
"Great, So have you satisfied your curiosity now?"
"Well... kind of."
"Well, why don't you finish the tour while you're down there?"
"Can I do that??"
"Only if you don't mind me biting your head off afterwards."
"Hum. I think I'll take a rain check."

Fragment five. It's possible that the gang just come to the rescue around this point or a bit later, but my next ideas are for a different path.
The next item on the agenda is to get Wensley safely out and back home, so I got an idea that involves recruiting help from some other strip.
To hand out some information the others got from Wensley, the villa is surrounded by a big garden that is mostly lawn, but there are also "islands" of bushes and trees. For some reason I haven't worked out in detail yet, the lawn is off limits for everyone, but the bushes and trees are safe. Leona's room has a window that opens to the back garden but is too small for a lion to get through. About ten yards from the window there is a sundual surrounded by bushes and a couple of trees shielding it from view from the rest of the house.
In the morning Leona is standing at the window when a pelican comes flying from the direction of... Well, she doesnt know where she is, so she doesn't know that! Anyway, the pelican circles around a bit, sees Leona at the window and lands on the sundial after approaching it on a rather peculiar course (to avoid being seen from other parts of the house).
She turns and looks at Wensley. "Maybe I'm crazy, but I think your ride is here."
Wensley comes over to the window, and Leona holds him up so the pelican can see him, points to him and cocks her head inquisitively.
The pelican nods eagerly and opens its beak.
"Looks like you're right. But are you sure he doesn't just want to eat me?"
"It's a pelican! They don't eat mice."
"I know. You know. Does HE know? Anyway, how am I going to get over there? I can't cross the lawn, remember?"
Leona ponders for a moment, holds up Wensley, looks at the pelican and makes a throwing motion. The bird nods, opens its mouth again and leans forward as Leona starts pacing away from the window.
"What?? Throw me?? Are you nuts?? At least throw me into the bushes! If I miss the beak I'll hit the pillar!!"
"Then how are you going to get up to the pelican? He can't come down to you, remember?"
While Wensley ponders this, Leona stops, turns, pauses briefly to get a good grip on him and starts running towards the window.
A second later Wensley is airborne, and the action switches into slow motion to give the readers a chance to study three facial expressions change as Wensley first seems to be heading right for the pelican's beak, then veers off course...
And then the pelican saves the day by leaning sideways to compensate and catches him anyway. As the action returns to normal speed, Leona sees the flaw in her plan when the pelican gets knocked off the pillar into the bushes.
"Oh well. They can't all be gems..."

This bit left a few ends untied. How DOES the pelican get out of the bushes 
and into the air if he can't go out on the lawn? One little "deus ex machina" might be that there is a kind of support on the back of the pillar 
that the pelican can use to climb it. (Sure, Wensley could have used it to reach the pelican as he suggested, but neither he not Leona knew it was there...)

Fragment six. The rest of the gang was last seen hurrying to Leona's rescue, but my next idea is that she's too well guarded for them to get at her at night, so in the end they have to settle for kidnapping Dotty during the day and trying to "deprogram" her.
Now I don't know more about deprogramming brainwashed people that I have read in a couple of comics, so I'm taking some liberties here (as if I didn't already...). Even though they've got an expert to help them (possibly another cameo) they aren't really making any progress. Then during a brainstorming session Wensley happens to repeat what Leona said about tearing out Dotty with her own claws.
"That's it!" the expert exclaims. The others look at him, and someone remarks: "I hope you're not suggesting brain surgery!"
"Only metaphorically. The only way to reach Leona is to drag her out by her strongest emotion. Which is...?"
"Her love for me?" Leonard suggests. Noticing how the others stare at him, he shrugs. "Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?"
"Close. But her love isn't strong enough. Something else may be."
A voice from off panel says: "Hate."
Looking in the direction of the sound, both readers and cast realize that the last remark came from Tiffany. She doesn't look too happy about her discovery, and even less happy about the next.
"She hates me."
Cut to Tiff standing outside the room Leona is kept in. "I hate this," she thinks or mutters to herself. After a moment to compose her thoughts she reaches for the doorknob. "Okay... show time!"
Cut to the inside. Leona/Dotty is sitting on a chair in the center of the room as Tiff comes in and looks arrogantly at her.
"Well well, isn't it little miss Has-been!"
"The name is Dotty."
"Oh yes, you have a name! But who cares anyway? It's over, Spots. I'm taking over now, just like I always have and always will..."
While Tiff keeps talking, the POV changes to the side  room where the others sit watching. "I'm hungry," Leonard remarks. "For some reason I keep thinking of ham...!"

Aftr a while Drezzer gets an idea and asks the expert if he thinks it would work better with visual aids. As soon as he gets apositive answer, he runs off and comes back an hour or two later laden with clothes. He has made a quick round of former clients and managed to scare up most of the outfits worn by Tiffany on occasions where she outshone Leona some way or another. If that doesn't boots the lion's hate, nothing will!
Tiffany tries wearing a few of the outfits while hassling Leona/Dotty, and When they seem to get a positive response, she adds another modification. It isn't revealed for a while, but the readers may notice that on her following appearances she keeps her left arm hidden, either behind her back or under a garment draped over it.
Finally she comes in wearing a bikini from a Keenspot Bikeeni Special (meta meta!), this time with a towel draped over her arm, and this is where Leona snaps. With a ferocious growl she leaps out of the chair and goes for Tiff's throat. Fortunately Tiffany comes prepared. She drops the towel revealing a thick leather gauntlet which she uses to block Leona's bite attack. As they roll around on the floor, the POV changes to the mental plane.

For the first fraction of a second it's a pretty peaceful scene. Dotty stands at the mouth of a dark cave opening into blinding light, when suddenly Leona (dotless) burts out of the darkness and attacks her. It soon becomes clear that while Dotty can be hard to get close to, she does not fight very well aat close range. In just a few panels she is down on her back with Leona looming over her.
"Don't do this!" she pleads. "I am you! How can you hate yourself?"
Leona doesn't fall for that one. She raises her right arm above her head. "Ah! How do I hate thee?" She unsheathes her claws. "Let me count the ways!" She slashes visciously at Dotty's face. "ONE!"
I haven't worked out every details, but Leona keeps attacking Dotty in different ways, counting off each attack as a new expression of her hate (actually her hate for Tiffany refocused. Or something.).
After the fourth attack they are back on their feet, Dotty definitely looking worse for the wear. Leona slams her against the cave wall, knocking 
the last of her breath out of her. "FIVE!"
After a brief pause to catch her own breath, Leona grabs hold and lifts Dotty over her head. "SIX!" Then, staggering towards the cave mouth, she groans: "And... in the name... of all... that's pure... and holy..."
Dramatic camera angle as Leona tosses Dotty into the light, where she seems 
to lap-dissolve (or some other cool optical effect) with a drawn out scream. "SEVEN!!"

The inner enemy beaten, the POV returns to the material plane. Tiffany is relieved to see the mad gleam fade from Leona's eyes while she's still chewing on the gauntlet, and her growl fades in a quizzical tone: "GRRRRRrrrr...?"

Tiff smiles. "Welcome back, Leona!"
Leona blinks, mutters incomprehensibly, removes the gauntlet from her mouth and tries again. "Tiffany? Is that you?"
"Last time I checked, yes."
Leona turns her head and spits. "Yuck! Where did you find that old thing? How many disgusting things must I stuff into my mouth before this is over?"
In the side room Wensley pipes up, "Hey! I resemble that remark!"

Looks like I'm running out off space again, so I'm moving fragment seven to  yet another file (which just happen to be file seven too!)...