EPILOGUE

MR. V

Another rainy day in the Anti-Realm, yet Valentino felt a change in the air; perhaps it would be colder or there was going to be a hurricane to blow through and finally flatten this place. Standing outside old docked ship of the Jolly Roger, Valentino stood waiting for Dr. Facilier to finish advertising for his Recruiter program. He actually managed to find a good brandy that Captain Hook would enjoy and has had him laughing like a fool for what felt like hours.

He deflated with a sigh as he watched a bolt of lightening light up the sky that only seemed to promise more rain. He couldn't help but wonder if Tiana was okay. For whatever reason or another she kissed that frog and she hates frogs! Now she's hopping around the bayou with that stupid frog prince and trying to break the spell. There was only so much he could do without blowing his cover and giving away his betrayal to Dr. Facilier.

Laughter echoed on the other side of the door and Dr. Facilier walked out looking very triumphant.

"So glad to do business with you Cap'n." Dr. Facilier mocked a salute to him before stumbling out of the boat laughing as he finally met up with Valentino.

"I take it things went well?" Valentino asked with his arms crossed.

"'Course!" He chuckled as he showed off the contract that brandished Hook's signature.

"Good, so we can go now?" He huffed as he tried to turn to leave.

"Come now my good Valentino." Dr. Facilier called as he slipped into his arm over Valentino's shoulder and adjusted his hat on his head. "We've got deals to make and debts to pay off to my friends on the other side."

A sigh escaped him as he rolled his eyes and Dr. Facilier scooped up his cane and pulled them along down the road. He ended up putting most of his weight on Valentino since he was obviously tipsy, thankfully not drunk; though he would have gotten much closer had he stayed any longer.

Stumbling along the now slippery roads without an umbrella Dr. Facilier kept mumbling things incoherently and laughing at whatever he mumbled while Valentino trudged through the rain carrying them both.

"Where are we even going?" Valentino grunted as he readjusted his hold on Dr. Facilier.

"To the Queen!" Dr. Facilier pointed and threw them off balance.

"Which one?" Valentino hissed.

"The evil one!" Dr. Facilier laughed loudly.

"Which one?" Valentino growled again, half tempted to throw him of and allow him to fall into a puddle.

"The one who likes. . . Apples." Dr. Facilier giggled as he slumped over.

"I thought you could actually hold your alcohol." Valentino grumbled.

"I can." He argued with a hiccup. "It's just the rain. . . It's making it harder to focus."

"Sure it is." He heaved another sigh before readjusting him again and pulling him along.

They were passing an alleyway, Valentino was so tempted to just throw him in there and leave him there, when the air suddenly seemed to change. A familiar scent wafted in the air for a moment before being washed out by the rain.

"Oooooooh, what's that?" Dr. Facilier suddenly stood up and sniffed the air.

"Probably an alley cat." Valentino tried to pull him in the opposite direction, but Dr. Facilier pulled them both into the alley.

Being tossed into the alley, they could see the small fragments of a portal swirling away and a familiar click licked into place. Under the awning where the portal disappeared to they could see a girl dressed in black with a cat staring up at the sky. Her back was to them and Valentino could see that this alley way would be a great shortcut.

"Of course it would be raining. . ." The cat grumbled with his fur standing on end.

"I love the smell of rain. . ." She took a deep inhale before looking down at Varuo and smiling. "If you shrink down I'll keep you dry."

"Are you sure?" He asked looking her over.

"Of course I am." She snorted at him and the cat hopped in her arms. She nestled him carefully against her chest.

"Well, well, well." Dr. Facilier stood straighter and approached her. "And who might you be, pretty lady?"

"Stay back!" She glared up at him and the cat hissed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, feisty little lady." Dr. Facilier chuckled and took his off his hat and bowed to her. "I promise we come in peace. We just wanted to welcome you two newcomers."

She stared at Dr. Facilier as though he were insane and had no intentions of trusting him.

"Now tell me doll, what brings a pretty little face lie you here?" His eyes were looking her up and down. "What story did you fall out of?"

"None of your business." The cat puffed up and hissed at Dr. Facilier.

"Facilier." Valentino hissed as he pushed him aside and looked to the girl. "I'm sorry that my master here is being a touch sleezy this evenin' ma'am. He's had more to drink than I knew of and he's bein' a huge hassle to us both."

"The rain can't be helping him either." The cat looked Dr. Facilier up and down. "The rate this rain is falling he'll get sick in no time."

"Which is why I wanted to get him out of the rain." Valentino cast a glare at Dr. Facilier. "That's Dr. Facilier, the Shadowman from New Orleans and the head Villain here in the Anti-Realm. I'm his apprentice Valentino, but you can call me Mr. V."

"How original." The cat sneered as he looked him up and down.

"This is Varuo, my companion and I'm. . . Ashe." She blinked and for a split second Mr. V thought he saw gold in her eyes. "Ashe. . . Scatter. . ."

"Is your head fuzzy or somethin'?" He peered down in her face.

"Yeah . . ." Her brow furrowed and she ran a hand through her hair. "Fuzzy."

"Well, you are a newcomer; that's pretty common for most." Mr. V glanced over at Dr. Facilier who was now slumped against the wall. "Why don't you come back with us and you can stay the night?"

"You're joking." Varuo growled.

"It's not like that." Mr. v's nose turned up. "I have to get this fool out of the rain, and if you two are new and have no idea where anything is you're not goin' to have any place to stay; not to mention the rain never stops here."

"Never?" Varuo whined.

"I think we'll take you up on that offer." Ashe smiled politely. "That' very kind of you."

"Don't go sayin' that too loud now." He shrugged out of his coat and handed it to her. "Here, I don't have an umbrella, but this should keep you dry for the most part 'til we get to the castle."

With an awestruck look she took it and used it to cover herself. The rain was cold against his skin and left chills to go up and down, but he ignored that and went to Dr. Facilier to pick up the idiotic fool. Dr. Facilier groaned sleepily and Mr. v could already tell that he was getting a fever. He pulled him up by his arm and slung one over his shoudler and slid his other hand around Dr. Facilier's back to support him.

"Just follow me." He flicked his head as he began walking. "Thankfully we're not too far from it."

ASHE

After following the kind man to the Anti-Castle he took his poor sickly master to his room and had the Staff take her to a room where she was able to get a warm back, some new clothes and a warm bed; even Varuo seemed pleased to be out of the rain. She was sitting in the window watching it rain when there was a knock from her door.

"Come in." She called and Mr. V poked his head in.

"Is now a good time to talk?" He asked softly.

"Of course." She smiled at him and he entered the room. He quietly walked over to her and stood a good distance away from her as he looked at her.

"Do you have any memory before comin' here?" He asked seriously. He had really pretty brown eyes.

"Things are still fuzzy." She shook her head with a furrowed brow. "When I try to think about where I came from my head really aches."

"Don't force it." He offered. "Just let it happen on it's own. It'll be better that way."

"I won't argue that." She smile and hugged her knees to her chest.

"I don't mean to be rude when I say this." He sighed as he crossed his arms. "But unless you plan to work here we're not goin' to be able to keep you."

"I understand." Her stomach flipped nervously.

"That being said, I won't leave ya high and dry." He scratched the back of his neck as he looked down at her. "Until you find some place to work at we can employ you temporarily, but you will need to find a job."

"I understand." She nodded. "I will find something as soon as I can. And thank you for allowing us to stay here this evening."

"It's not a problem." He yawned. "This old castle has plenty of rooms, and we've been getting them ready for a program we think will take off in the future."

"What kind of program?" She tilted her head to the side curiously.

"We go to the Original Villains that have children or apprentices and offer to Recruit them to change their stories." He explained. "It's still rather spotty trying to get most of the Villains to agree and it will be a work in progress trying to go to the different Realms. . ."

"You travel between the Realms?" She asked surprised.

"We try to, anyways." He huffed and glared out the window. "It uses a lot of energy for me and the fool to go between to many Realms to talk to these Villains; not to mention we have to service them by doing something for them."

"I-I could do that." She gulped and clutched her necklace.

"I'm sorry?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I could travel between the Realms." She answered. "I can, actually."

"How?" His brow furrowed in confusion. "It's a difficult spell to learn and finding the landmarks to connect to portkeys is very difficult; not to mention getting in touch with the Villains and talking to them."

"I could do it." She stood up. "I-It's part of my powers, actually. I could go to the Realms and connect portkeys with their Doors."

"And talking to the Villains?" He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow down at her.

"I can do that too!" She wasn't entirely sure if she could, but if she could take on Astaroth, then surely -

Astaroth? Who's Astaroth?

She winced and grimaced as she held her head as a stabbing pain plagued her brain.

"We can talk more about this in the morning." He patted her shoulder gently. "You just arrived, Facilier is more than likely, and I'm too exhausted to really think on the details of the possibility and probability of you workin' here. ."

"Oh, okay." She nodded nervously.

"It sounds promising, though." He offered a smile as he withdrew his hand. "Who knows, it may end up working out for you to work with us."

THE END

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

This was to be a little short story to provide a little more background info for Ms. Ashe Scatter. I needed to write this so that I could finish Another Chance for Disney Villains. Hopefully this will allow me to continue writing that story sooner rather than later.

Please leave a comment and tell me what you think.

Thanks for coming along the journey with me, let's go on another one real soon!

Ko-fi/SarahtheWriter.