Chapter 34: Ya Gotta Take Charles' Words On This Chapter

It was very unclear on who was being shot at.

Iclyn dissolved the icy protection into a fog of cold mist. The gunshots could still be heard as the group ran through an alley and into zigzags. The problem was that Villainapolis, with its constant landscape morphing for annual turf wars, was notorious for having a maze of alleys. The gunshots got louder, suggesting that things were getting too close. And it didn't help that Audrey had to run with an injured arm.

"What just attacked us?" Audrey asked as they ran.

"The Immediate Murder Professionals!" Jessie knocked over a dumpster behind them in the hopes of delaying whoever was after them. "Demons pay them to kill people in the mortal realm!"

"Why the fuck would you give a building in this town to people who can kill you?"

"More importantly, were they paid to kill us or Kory's band of merry sadists?" Charles pointed out.

"Who knows and who cares?" Iclyn led them through a right turn and into an alley where a bunch of people had spray-painted 'F*** DA POLICE CAUSE THERE'S NONE' in ten different languages. "All that matters is that whoever they're paid to kill, they're gonna do it! For a company with a lousy jingle, they sure perform well!"

"Wait! I thought the IMP kills kids for free?" Jessie frowned as she ran. "Aren't we kids?"

Before Iclyn could respond, the group found themselves trapped in a dead-end. For some reason, the two dumpsters in the alley were perfectly clean and the wall in front of them displayed an orange and pink graffiti of devils dancing around the burning words 'CUL-DE-SAC! SINS GO UNDER IT!'

"WHO THE FUCK GOES HERE?" Iclyn shouted in frustration. They huddled in a group when footsteps were heard approaching. "Kill circle!"

Jessie held on to her bat, Iclyn created an icy mace, Charles held his trademark silver dagger on one hand while flaming up his spare hand, and despite being injured, Audrey kept herself ready to use her fists. The footsteps finally stopped to reveal Aengus Beth ahead of them, gun at them.

"Gotcha, lassies!" He sneered. Clanking sounds alerted the group and Aengus Beth that they were cornered. Above them, on a fire escape, was a fancy-suited, white haired, black-and-white horned red devil pointing a gun at them. On top of one of the dumpsters was another red devil, black-haired, dark-horned, and wearing a one-piece suited with ripped areas on the pants. The second devil held out daggers. Aengus' sneer widened at the sight of the devils.

"Shall I leave you space to do your work?" Aengus lowered his gun and gestured towards Audrey as if she were a buffet. The red devils gave a quick look at Audrey and raised their weapons. Audrey held her head up, expecting the blow. Two gunshots and thrown daggers echoed against the walls of the alley…

Audrey's eyes widened as Aengus fell on the ground, dead from the daggers that impaled his skull and the bullets that pierced his heart.

"Good aim, Moxxie!" The black-haired one said eagerly as she jumped off the dumpster while 'Moxxie' climbed down from the fire escape.

"Didn't think that he'd die that easy," Moxxie admitted. The two devils put away their weapons and approached the mortal group.

"What just happened?" Jessie was confused.

"I believe that's what you call a plot twist," Charles responded in surprise.

"Poor thing." Moxxie's friend pulled out a cloth bandage and used it to wrap it around Audrey's arm, covering her arm. "It's a good thing you've got big talents, sweeties. That silver bullet could have killed you."

"We got to move fast, Millie. How long do you think we have until the boss's distraction runs out?" Moxxie asked her. A distant explosion was heard, followed by an enraged demigoddess screaming: "WHAT THE SHIT? I THOUGHT THE IMP WOULD BE SENT TO KILL AUDREY! WHO FLIPPED THE SCRIPT?"

"Yeah, who did?" Audrey frowned at the two devils.

"Let's talk about it while we get you all out of here." Millie nudged Audrey. Moxxie checked to make sure the rest of the alleys were safe and gestured for them to follow. Any rational or religious fanatic would tell teenagers to not follow two imps in a maze of alleys, but this was Villainapolis and nobody cared. Besides, considering that Moxxie and Millie had just shot Aengus, Audrey was obviously not the target.

"If you're devils…"

"Imps, sweetie. Big difference," Millie politely corrected her.

"Sorry." The bandage helped Audrey ignore the pain as she quickly followed them. "Anyway, if you are some sort of organization that kills mortals for demons, why are you helping us?"

"Depends. Are you in a rush to meet your own devil?" Moxxie asked drily. Somehow, Audrey didn't have to guess twice to know who he was referring.

"Alastor paid you to murder Aengus Beth?" Just as Audrey asked that, Moxxie pulled out his gun and shot down three wolves that almost attempted to barricade their path. They stopped running when they reached the end of an alley that led right to a street. Only that street separated them from the train station.

"More like 'murder anyone who gets in her way of getting out'," Millie explained. "You see, your provider's acquainted with our business' sponsor, so just before we came, our sponsor came in the office with your provider. The guy said that something blocked your communications and he couldn't see or hear what was happening to you. He hadn't heard anything from you in weeks, so he asked the sponsor to help him convince our boss to come here, kill the bitches who're trying to kill you, and make sure you leave town!"

"Wait. 'Hasn't heard of me in weeks'? It's only been a day!"

"1 day here is like a month for a demon," Charles said.

"And our boss doesn't like confusing assassination with bodyguarding." Moxxie checked for any signs of suspicious activity on the street. "The Radio Demon paid him 10 times the usual price to save your hide."

"And the usual price is…" Audrey frowned.

"You don't want to know. But with the money the Radio Demon paid us, let's hope that the boss actually uses it to renovate the office!" An explosion was heard. The group ducked behind a car with Moxxie and Millie until they saw another red devil ducking behind a discarded scooter and shooting at Alasdair Beth, who shot back from behind a car. The imp with a splash of white on half of his face noticed Moxxie and Millie.

"What are you waiting for? Get them out!"

"Where are the others?" Moxxie shouted back.

"Who cares? I shot one of the boys on the neck just before a truck ran over him!"

"And the girl?"

Moxxie got his response when the car they were hiding behind shook. Macy Beth had hopped on it, grabbed Moxxie by the horns, and sent him crashing through the window of a café.

"MOXXIE!" Millie exclaimed. Before Macy could make an attempt to stab Millie, Iclyn and Jessie jumped on her, pinning her on the ground until she threw them at Moxxie and Millie's boss. They crashed onto a fire hydrant, water exploding everywhere. Charles pulled out his Golden Touch 200 and fired at Alasdair, trapping his right arm in gold.

"Oh! Not twice this time, rat!" Macy threw her daggers at his direction. All they did was fly through the broken café window since Millie managed to push Charles aside. He looked at the imp in surprise until something pulled her by the tail and raised her in the air. The monstrous demigoddess, in all her fury, pulled her high up and shook her like a rag doll, forcing the weapons to fall out of her. Kory bared her teeth at the female imp and pointed a gun at her with her spare hand.

"You morons thought I wouldn't carry silver bullets on me in case you ever came? You're even more pathetic than your social status!" Kory clicked her gun. Charles crawled, hoping to grab one of Millie's weapons until Kory pinned him down by stomping her foot on his wrist. "Not so fast, mini-Frollo! You're next!"

And what happened next was something people would have a hard time explaining.

The first thing they'd tell you was that they heard a gunshot. Obviously, you'd think that because of Kory's intentions, she did it on the imp Millie, but you'd find yourself corrected. You'd find out that neither Millie nor Charles was killed on that day but that somebody else was. And it wasn't so much that somebody was killed to save another but because the killer immediately went on to regret it. The IMP, Alasdair Beth, Iclyn Lincoln, Jessie Joker, and Charles Luther Frollo were all equally shocked, confused, and horrified.

In the midst of the commotion following Moxxie being thrown into a window, nobody had taken into account where he dropped his gun.

So preoccupied by her thirst for blood, Kory Lokisdottir realized too late that the only thing keeping her sanity in check had gotten a direct hit in the heart.

"MACY!" Without even hesitating, Kory let go off Millie and Charles and ran, her eyes flooding frozen tears that shattered on the road. She knelt down and caught Macy Beth in her arms. The Scottish princess coughed as she struggled to stay alive. "MACY! DON'T DIE!"

Moxxie had just gotten out the window when he realized what happened. When Millie ran to hug him, he looked up and saw who had picked up his gun.

"Oh God…" He gasped.

Charles grabbed Kory's gun and stuffed it in his satchel. Like anybody hearing this story for the first time, they would have assumed it was Moxxie who shot the finishing blow, but Charles' word said everything.

"Audrey?"

Audrey shook like a leaf in the middle of the storm. Her hand shook even after she tossed away Moxxie's gun. If guilt about being accused of Carlos DeVil's death had been terrible enough for her in the past, what she just committed made her feel like she had been hit by a train again. All her big mental talk about wanting to kill the demigoddess for revenge, all the Auradonians she had petrified as stone statues, every nasty or mean thing she had done in the past washed down the drain when she committed this one evil act. Out of a desire to protect Charles and the imp from the demigoddess. The confusion was agonizing. Why didn't she just shoot Kory instead of Macy? Did she think it would be a distraction? A way to bring down the enemy by a peg? Or maybe she didn't think that the Scottish princess was the only other person besides Carmine that kept the remains of the demigoddess's sanity in place. And unfortunately for her, Kory sobbing hysterically while cradling Macy in her arms gave her the answer.

"What… what have I done?" She choked out. Her conscience was so guilt-ridden, she didn't pay attention to Alasdair's attempt to charge at her with his ax until Moxxie and Millie's boss regained his senses and sent a bullet through the skull of the last remaining child of Macbeth.

"We got to go!" Charles grabbed Audrey by the wrist and dragged her along, with Moxxie and Millie following along.

"What have I done?" Audrey kept gasping.

"Audrey, come on!"

In the end, she ceded. She joined the rest of the group and the IMP as the latter cleared the way for them towards the train station. They left behind the demigoddess, still crying and begging for her friend to stay.

"Macy… Live… I beg you!" Kory cupped Macy's cheeks. "I lost Carmine already. I can't afford to lose you!"

"I'll be OK…"

"No, you won't!" Kory cried. "You'll end up in Hell! That Mr. Notice Me Sempai will get back at me for not finishing her off by lashing out against you! The one I've been avoiding to fulfill my contract will use you against me!"

"I've spread my victims' blood all over the streets of Villainapolis, I can easily do the same to what awaits me in Hell…" Macy coughed out some blood. "Kory…"

"Don't go…"

"Kory, listen… That contractor wasn't wrong. The Queen of Mean is a threat… Why do you think the IMP finished off my brothers?" Macy's lungs and heart were beginning to lose their strength. "She's getting too powerful and too connected… If she succeeds in creating her own destiny… if she succeeds in fulfilling her contract… if she actually goes that far enough… Then your reign of chaos and entertainment will end and everything you accomplished will disappear while everybody else in these damn lands venerate her like a real queen…" Macy gripped onto Kory's hair. "Don't let the Queen of Mean become a real queen… Kill her. Mount her head if you must, I can easily kill her in Hell… but remind everyone that even the Queen of Mean can't challenge you!"

"Macy…"

"And if that doesn't work… well…" Macy gave out one last chuckle. "It'll be a win-win for me… Together in Hell, Kory…" Finally, the Scottish princess's body stopped moving. The last breath went out. Kory stared, tears flooding and heartbroken as she watched Macy Beth die in her arms.

"Macy… Macy…" Kory whimpered as she cradled the corpse, placing a small kiss on the dead, fully aware that it wouldn't do anything. She looked ahead to the train station.

People will be dying.

At the train station

The train station at Villainapolis looked no different than the typical old-fashioned train stations you'd see out there, but if you looked from above on a helicopter, you'd see that the design of the train tracks were fashioned in the motion of spider legs, making the station one giant spider. For all they knew, the trains leaving were probably the strings in its web moving around.

On that Friday, just as 6:30pm struck, people were rather surprised to see an RV tour bus-sized ROCKINGTROLLTORTOISE relaxing in one of the open-air terminals. Beatrice Deetz was pacing around nervously while Princess Osbourne Rockenburg fed her pet some kale.

"Relax, Deetz. They'll be here," Ozzy said as she caressed her pet's head.

"I'm not worried about that." Honestly, after everything that was happening, Beatrice was getting anxious. She was certain to expect Audrey's wrath; it was probably a good thing that the Bloody Bambi was reduced into its original cadaver and buried in the wilderness on their way here. Audrey would have probably thrown things at it. She's probably going to be indifferent about Alastor eating her former servants in Auradon, but how will she react about that voodoo man's kid?

"Beetlejuice Junior!"

The familiar nickname and people running away screaming alerted her. Any passenger nearby ran for their lives when the Immediate Murder Professional ran in escorting teenagers. Alastor had warned her that unknown circumstances in Villainapolis had led him to hire the imps.

"Blitz!" She rushed to them, managing to squeeze both the imp and Jessie Joker in a hug. "Jess! You guys are OK!"

"I missed you too, Bea, but you guys got to dash!" Jessie said, breaking off the hug.

"Man! Your hugs are getting tighter, kid!" Blitz complained but Beatrice ignored them.

"You!" She hissed, her tongue getting forked up when she saw Charles. "Why are you here?"

"We can cut our animosity to another time!" Charles Frollo snapped at her. His hand was holding on to Audrey's wrist; the latter's looked so pale with that destroyed look on her face. Beatrice's mouth dropped when she saw Audrey's state as Charles ushered Audrey past Beatrice.

"Dinomaggedon! What happened?" Ozzy exclaimed.

"We can't talk about it! We got a demigoddess with a lethal vendetta on our heads!" Charles insisted. "We need to leave now!"

"You're not!" Beatrice snapped. "You tried to kill me!"

"The Radio Demon asked us to kill anyone who gets in the way of her getting out," Blitz said. "Sure, I killed the last bitch, but the kid contributed as well."

"And Audrey intends on having him come. They got each other's back," Iclyn agreed.

"Audrey?" Beatrice turned to her friend, but the latter was too trapped in her own bubble to respond. The only responses she let out were a series of mumbling 'what have I done' in both English and French. The debate was interrupted by screaming coming from the streets and ice spikes growing above buildings.

"Look, I agree with the goth rocker here! We leave now and debate later!" Without warning, Ozzy took Audrey from Charles and carried her in her arms. Her hair moved around the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE and hit knocked on every O in the graffiti words in the rhythm of 'Crazy Train'. The Os glowed red until a part of the coastal shell popped open, making way for a folding step ladder. Ozzy didn't wait further and rushed Audrey inside.

"Fine!" Beatrice pointed an angry finger at Charles. "Do anything funny like last time and I will kill you!"

"Whatever." He muttered.

"We'll take things from here. Take care of Audrey. Good luck on your trip." Jessie gave both of them a hug.

"We will." Beatrice nodded before rushing inside the giant reptile-vehicle hybrid.

"Hey kid!" Blitz called out to Charles before the latter could go in. "You got skills… for a human. Die someday and I might consider hiring you!" He gave Charles some thumbs up and a toothy grin, earning an exasperated moan from Moxxie and a chuckle from Millie.

"Tempting," Charles admitted, "but I intend on staying alive." He ran up the folder before it and the coastal shell folded and closed behind him.

"Sir, what now?" Moxxie asked as the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE let out a steaming howl and jumped onto the train tracks, running away from the terminal and on the tracks elevated above the street.

"What we were paid for." Blitz loaded his gun and hung it over his shoulder. "We follow that tortoise until it gets out of the border."

"We'll delay the freaks from her." Iclyn cracked her knuckles. "I still don't like you imps."

"Eh. Who does?" Blitz shrugged. While Jessie and Iclyn ran back to the station, the imps jumped on the tracks and took on the direction where the giant reptile took off.

Meanwhile

The ROCKINGTROLLTOISE ran, jumped, and shook a bit as it ran on the tracks. Charles felt his stomach turning as he held on for dear life.

"You OK, Goth Rock?" In the area that ought to be the reptile's 'throat' was the equivalent of a plane cockpit: two seats facing a whole dashboard of screens, wheels, radars, and a rock-themed jukebox complete with a small TV playing music videos. There must have been some sort of cloaking mechanism since there was a visual of the outside world like the front of a plane but no part of the shell had been popped up. On her seat shaped like a throne, Ozzy drove the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE. The rest of the interior was just insane: black leather fainting couches over a grey carpeted floor, a complete kitchen set with metal and black oak furniture, a door leading to a full set bathroom, and three cabins each leading to bedrooms with two bunkbeds. Among the decoration were a rock-themed pinball machine, a bookshelf full of books, and the black walls covered by a rainbow of graffiti.

OZZY AND GLADIOLA WERE HERE! ROCK ISN'T EVIL, YOU ARE! GO ROCK YOURSELF LIKE A HURRICANE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OZZY! GET A ROOM, DYLAN AND DANTE! I HID A CANDY SOMEWHERE; CAN YOU FIND IT?

"How does nothing fall off your shelves?" He exclaimed.

"Rock Troll World Tour Pop On And Off Glue!" Ozzy smirked. "You pop it off when you use it, and when you don't use it, you pop it on and it stays!"

"Audrey, talk to me!" Beatrice shook Audrey as the latter curled in a ball on one of the couches, still muttering the same words in English and French. From the visuals in the cockpit, Parademons were flying in close to the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE, carrying some luggage in their claws. Picking up the cue, Ozzy clicked a button and the top part of the shell opened, giving the Parademons a chance to drop off the luggage and fly away to fight off some wolves trying to climb up the tracks. "Audrey! Why are you like this?" Beatrice continued.

"Give her a break!" Charles snapped. "Audrey just killed someone! She's not handling it well!"

"What?"

"Who did she kill?" Ozzy asked, looking over her shoulder.

"Macy Beth. And I kinda killed Kory Lokidottir's pet hellhound before that, so she's after our heads."

"Why'd you guys kill them?"

"Kory wanted Audrey's essence so she had this whole thing where she kidnapped me, trapped me in her madhouse, I don't even want to get started with how they touched, I had to climb up a fucking air vent to find out that she's been feeding off other people's essences, I torched her reserve, had to face her hellhound, almost got her in the act of shoving a vibrator on Audrey, I could have thrown up when I hitched a ride on Audrey the burning phoenix, Kory shoots her a silver bullet, I keep Macy from stabbing Audrey but Carmine took the hit for her, then the IMP show up and start killing the Scots, and I don't understand why Audrey shot Macy, it's not OK, she shouldn't have done that, I don't know why she did it, but I don't think anyone should have to deal with mind manipulation, kidnapping, assaulting, transformation, gun violence, and death all in one day, especially not Audrey, because she's the kind of person where even after just knowing her for 24 hours, you know she's the kind of friend you want to have because no other bitch has your back like she does!"

Charles almost hyperventilated from his rant and took some deep breaths. Audrey was still in her bubble but Beatrice looked stunned. Ozzy had to put the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE on auto-pilot just to listen to Charles' rant with her full-on attention. Her eyes practically beamed at him.

"Too much?" Charles asked.

"Too perfect." It was a miracle that Charles didn't pick up on the dreamy tone that slipped out of Ozzy by an inch. A howl came out from the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE, bringing Ozzy's attention back to the screen. A pillar of ice had appeared in the middle of nowhere on the tracks and wolves were viciously climbing up, hoping to create a barricade.

"That's it! I'm officially anti-canine!" Charles searched through his satchel and pulled out a safety line that he tightly wrapped around his waist and connected to a hook hanging on the ceiling. Locating the way he came in, he forced it open and jumped out.

Ozzy whistled in amazement. "What a rocker…"

"Is he insane?" Beatrice looked over the open shell to see Charles on top and using the gun he had stolen to shoot at the wolves. When those he shot collapsed on the track, the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE didn't hesitate to jump over them. Charles took a deep breath and let out a breath of purple flames towards the ice pillar, melting it and causing it to flood the street underneath, dragging some wolves with it.

"Dude, who the heck is that guy?" Ozzy said in amazement as she hit the speed pedal, accelerating the stamina so that the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE could flawlessly jump over the broken ends and land to continue running on the tracks with more wolves in pursuit. Charles swung down from the shell, landed on the opening where Beatrice was observing, and kept shooting at the wolves.

"Why aren't you doing anything?" He snapped at Beatrice. "I thought you were some kind of reality warping zombie!"

"First off, I'm a human-ghost hybrid!" Beatrice snapped at him. Second, I don't listen to you, and third, the first time I got involved in a fight on train tracks, a dinosaur almost tried to eat me and provoked Audrey to turn into the Queen of Mean! Audrey's too shocked to do anything queenly!"

"Then let's trade!" Out of nowhere, Ozzy put the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE on autopilot and used her hair to force Beatrice to switch places with her. While Beatrice took the wheel, the Rock princess ran to the opening and started climbing up the shell. Charles quickly followed after her.

"Get back in! You'll fall!" He shouted.

"Aren't you cute! I'm a Rock Troll, I move on moving animals all the time!" The tip of her red-and-black braid formed into a ball and Ozzy turned her head, causing the braid standing on top of her shaved head to move and spin like an Olympic hammer, knocking out wolves into the upper town neighborhoods. Maybe some more neighbors to go and they'd be out of Villainapolis. When a wolf managed to grab onto a spike, Ozzy brought her hair back to its initial size, put her hands in it and pulled out an electric guitar that she immediately proceeded to destroy by smashing it on the wolf's head.

"Uh…" Charles looked speechlessly as the unconscious canine crash-landed onto an ice cream truck before looking back at Ozzy. A wolf tried to sneak up on Ozzy until Charles shot it in the skull.

"Nice riff there!" Ozzy complimented. She pulled Charles out the way, practically lifting him off the shell by the waist so that she could easily strike down five wolves with her hair. "I'm Ozzy. Princess Ozzy of the Rock Trolls. And you?"

"Uh…" Charles blinked in confusion. He didn't know what the heck was going on with that Amazon hitting wolves down and lifting him like a doll. It was a miracle that her spiked bracelets didn't pierce his shirt. He didn't get the chance to respond when her hair strangled a wolf out of the way while she was still holding him. When he noticed another trying to sneak up yet again, he shot some fire at its face.

"Fast as this thing is, it's still a tortoise!" Charles forced himself off Ozzy. "Clear those wolves off the track, I…" He paused when Ozzy's hair turned into a massive hand that smacked away another pack of wolves. "Your hair's really wild."

"Thank you!" Ozzy said.

Charles began climbing down the shell until he reached the license plate of the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE (yes, they have one of those). The safety line was beginning to feel tight on him as he struggled to hang upside down on it. His hands reached to touch the train tracks speeding underneath him, scratching his skin. Ozzy tried to have a look, and sure enough, she witnessed Charles' eyes turning pitch black, his hands emitting a purple aura, and his veins showing on his pale skin in dark hues.

Charles: Fleur aux pétales sombres,

Sous la lune diaphane,

Sort enfin de l'ombre,

Libère les forces du mal,

Les forces du mal.

In a shower of metallic shards, the tracks behind the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE began to destroy themselves. It was safe to say that the people of Villainapolis were shocked to see train tracks turn into a cloud of sharp debris. Whatever wolves were left to climb, they fell back to the ground, killed either by the landing or by the floating shards that hurt them. Charles regained his senses and stopped glowing just in time for the last wolf to slash him on the chest, hitting the safety line as well.

"NO!" Ozzy hit the wolf with another of her electric guitars, leaving it to plummet and catching Charles in the process. "Goth Rocker!"

"I'll be fine." Charles knocked on his stomach, revealing the clanging sounds. "Breastplate… never sleep without it…"

"Still, I need to fix you up before the fragments do a number…" Ozzy began making her way up the shell, carrying Charles, and slid back down to the opening.

"What happened out there?" Beatrice asked from the driver's seat.

"Hurt Incantation… Wolf slashed me in the breastplate…" Charles winced.

"I can patch him up." Ozzy almost made her way to the cabins to put Charles down until her eyes deviated to the main screen. Ahead of them, the demigoddess who sent out the wolves stood on the tracks, probably waiting to freeze down the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE. Before Beatrice could even hit to brake, a flaming circle appeared underneath the demigoddess's feet. She fell in and the circle disappeared, leaving the giant reptile to continue running.

"Well, she's gone."

"AAH!" Only Ozzy and Beatrice yelped. Audrey was still in her mental bubble while Charles was too in pain to say anything when the imps appeared out of nowhere.

"Yeah, even with cash, we can't kill a demigoddess but I don't want to find out what your old men would do if they found out she hurt you, Beetlejuice Junior," Blitz said.

"So where is she?" Ozzy asked.

"One way ticket to the north. Nowhere near where you are going," Moxxie said. "You'll be far away from her."

Ozzy and Beatrice sighed in relief.

"Poor sweetie." Millie looked sympathetically at Audrey. "She'll need some time to recover."

"Speaking of time, we gotta head back. I know he's a man of his word, but I still want to get my money." Blitz pulled out a cellphone and started texting. "Keep them alive. Both of them."

"Obviously," Ozzy grumbled.

"I'll see you guys the next time I go to Hell, OK?" Beatrice said as the same flaming circle appeared in the small kitchen.

"We can't wait. And tell the kid he should really consider working at IMP!" Blitz smirked.

"Sir, he's a human child!" Moxxie snapped.

"Who knows, Moxxie? Maybe one of the wolves will want him dead…" The conversation was cut short as the three imps disappeared before the portal closed on them.

"They're nice… when you get to know them," Beatrice chuckled.

"Whatever." Ozzy shrugged. "I'm gonna go take care of these two. Ya can put the ROCKINGTROLLTOISE on autopilot. Next stop: Crystal and Gothy's train."

Meanwhile

The portal opened up into the outskirts of Witchachusetts. Kory Lokisdottir found herself crashing into a line of pine trees, either destroying them or freezing them in the process. When the dust cleared, she saw the portal closing in the sky above her. She let out an unholy shriek and kicked on a nearby rock, destroying it in the process.

"I'LL DESTROY THEM ALL! I'LL HAVE THAT LITTLE QUEEN'S HEAD ON MY WALL AND HER SOUL RIPPED TO SHREDS IF IT'S THE LAST THING I'LL DO! I'LL KILL THOSE BRATS IF I HAVE TO!"

"Problem with filthy brats?" A voice called out, varying between German and Norwegian accents.

"Eva. Long time no see." Kory dusted herself off and stared into the shadows of the trees where she heard the voice come from. "Still sending children to Hell?"

"Humanity's vilest creatures," Eva sneered. "It's harder nowadays, but my witches and I do rival with the Immediate Murder Professionals. We charge for child murder. My favorite targets are always the overgrown ones. You'd be surprised how much the creepy moth pays for the appealing ones."

Kory shuddered by a small fraction but made sure that 'Eva' didn't see it. She proceeded to make her way. "Well, nice to see that you're doing well financially, but I must leave. I got my own brats to murder."

"Any of them from Auradon, by any chance?"

Kory stopped in her tracks. She turned, an interested gleam in her green eyes, as 'Eva' stepped out of the shadows. "Maybe. Why?"

"The Goblin Princess was here. With a teenager from Auradon. The Isle Of The Lost, no less. Gothel's second born."

Kory smirked in interest. "What a coincidence. I encountered her third born in Villainapolis. He is currently catching a train east."

"Coincidentally, the brats just left on a train to the east." 'Eva' gritted her sharp teeth. "I seek vengeance. They killed my daughter!"

"Leona's dead?" Kory was surprised. "She's your daughter! You expect me to believe that Jareth's brat and some second-rate villain's brat managed to kill your heir?"

"They turned her into a toy! The hybrid brat of the Blight-Noceda household ripped my child… did unspeakable things… I can't put my anger on him if I want the wrath of his mothers nor can I attack the princess without provoking Jareth… but Gothel's brat is up for brags!"

"You want her dead?" Kory smirked.

"She already interfered with Leona when she tried attacking a child. Before death struck her, Leona struck a lucrative deal with the creepy moth. Gothel was a crone before she was pulled out of Hell, nothing interesting, but the creepy moth sounded very interested at the prospect of collecting the soul of her youthful daughter." Eva sneered. "You mentioned Gothel had a third born. A son. You think the creepy moth would pay extra for the batch?"

Kory pondered a bit, gears spinning until the idea of how to kill a flock of birds with one stone hatched. "I have a proposition, Eva. I generally avoid working with your sort, but you might find it delightful. On both parties, we each get revenge."

Eva's eyes gleamed with interest. "I'm listening."

"Jareth's brat obviously can't be killed with your usual methods, but she's still Fae. Gather your witches, keep some iron on you, and I promise you a vengeance consisting of 6 dead children. One Fae, one Troll, one Auradonian, 2 brats from the Isle of the Lost… and one ghost-human hybrid. And if that doesn't satisfy you… let's just say you'll have a whole train with a potential buffet of children. Kill whoever you want, but save me the Auradonian. That one's personal to kill."

"But I'd still get my hands on Gothel's brats?"

"Obviously. Do what you want with them. Turn them into rats, stab them, send the girl to the creepy moth for all I care. Heck, I don't care if the train turns into a snake and everyone gets digested." She leaned in, bearing her own fanged teeth at Eva. "I just want the Auradonian dead… no matter how she thinks she can play above me! And Gothel's third born? Death would be too generous! Do your worst?"

Eva grinned. Using her three-fingered hand, she grabbed Kory's regular fingered hand and shook it. "How long do you think they can hide from me?"