A Chance for Villain Recruiters

by Sarah Elizabeth Merizalde

For as long as history has told the villains have always been in the dark and banished or vanquished to the mirrored world of Disney, the Anti-World for Disney Villains. Wanting to rewrite their stories the Original Disney Villains have found Recruits to rewrite their stories. The real question is, how will the stories change? For them, or their Recruits?

12. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

MR. V

He had never before been so glad to have had a Villain turn him down. He could not tolerate hearing why Gaston could not have a Recruit or a sidekick because he did everything himself, besides he already had Le Fou so he didn't need anything or anyone else. Although Mr. V hated that Gaston did not have another partner, he could not help but feel a little relieved that he was not going to be a patron, coworker, or associate. He would find a way of killing him with his bare hands before the Beast could.

No one was quite as exhausting as Gaston and Mr. V was very aware why that smart girl Belle avoided him. He was too much of a simpleton and she was too smart to fall for his ridiculous antics; if only he could have recruited Belle then maybe things would move a little faster in the Anti-Realm. There certainly weren't enough calculating Villains so much as there were ones to come up with a get rid of your enemy quick schemes, and even far less apprentices to be taken under them as well. Although he hated not having another partner, he could not help but feel a little relieved that he was not going to be a patron, coworker, or associate. He would find a way of killing him with his bare hands before the Beast could.

When Mr. V finally returned and made his way to dinner it was a quarter to six and most of the Recruits, with the exception of Shade and Adam, were sitting at the table. None of them waited for the others and were all eating their own meals. Mr. Po and Ms. Villa were both in deep conversation about something, Mr. V caught a snippet of her next big fashion plan to advertise better options for the Villains as he walked over to his chair. He took his seat at the head of the table with Ms. Scatter who had also already started eating without him. He frowned a little, but she wasn't angry like she was before so he would live the fact that she started without him; she must have been very hungry. Frederick, one of the many butlers to look after the Recruits when the Hosts were way, brought a rather displeased Adam in to join everyone else for dinner and Ember Shade had magically appeared in her seat. The Recruits conversed amongst themselves and Mr. V turned his attention to Ms. Scatter.

"You seem to be in a better mood," he chuckled as he dug into his gumbo. He closed his eyes in pleasure at the first bite. It had been hours since he last had a meal and it tasted like heaven, though still not quite as good as Tiana's.

"Food is very magical," she shrugged and ate her shrimp alfredo. With how curt she was with him perhaps she was still a little mad at him after all. "It can tame even the scariest of beasts."

"I entirely believe it," he chuckled and earned a glare from her. "Do you by any chance have the list with you?"

"List?" She raised a thin brow at him in confusion.

"The time sheet list of everyone returning from their field missions today." He cleared his throat then took a quick shot of whiskey.

"Oh, yes." She blinked as if she had entirely forgotten about it. "Here it is." She slid a folded piece of paper over to him. "I think something that we did not count on was the time changes between each Realm."

"You would be right," he grimaced slightly as he looked at the list.

Adam returned at 11:06am.

Left at 11:31am.

Returned at 5:01pm.

Jane returned at 11:30am.

Left at 12:30pm

Returned at 3:14pm.

Malfie returned at 12:02pm.

Left at 1:00pm

Returned at 2:00pm

Dalmatia returned at 12:38pm.

Left at 12:45pm.

Returned at 2:00pm and stayed in the library until dinner.

Jack returned at 3:00pm and disappeared in the courtyard.

Joe returned at 4:00pm.

Left at 4:30pm.

Returned at 5:00pm.

Farja returned at 2:00pm and took a nap until dinner.

Veil returned at 1:01pm.

Left at 1:15pm.

Returned at 2:45pm.

Jamila returned at 4:54 pm and joined Farja for a nap before dinner.

Shade returned at 5:59pm.

"We have such an odd bunch, don't we?" he smirked and handed the sheet back to her.

"That's putting it lightly!" Ms. Villa cut in quickly. "I mean, have you seen what they're wearing?"

"Ms. Villa, they are wearing complete upgrades compared to their Villains!" Mr. Po scolded.

"Not all of them!" While the couple went back to bickering, Mr. V turned to his rather bitter assistant who continued to avoid making eye contact with him.

"I'm rather surprised you were able to tag all of these so accurately." He tried to compliment her, but even as he spoke he realized it was more of a jab.

"That would be thanks to Varuo." She said curtly as she sat up straighter.

"Ah, so you let the cat do your dirty work for you?" He smirked at her and chuckled as her nostrils flared in annoyance. He tried to stuff his mouth with another spoonful of gumbo, but he still laughed at her reaction.

She snatched up a piece of bread and tore it in half aggressively and almost made him laugh again. "You know very good and well how good Varuo is!"

"Which is why I don't complain when he helps you." He tapped her nose with his pinky finger. She snapped her head around to look at him and blinked in confusion. He couldn't help but feel as though he won a small victory for getting her to look at him. "It is just amusing is all."

"I can't stand that room. . ." Her voice softened as she took off her glasses and cleaned them with her cloth napkin. "You know that."

There was a quick flash of gold, but they instantly relaxed to brown. Mr. V was sure that he wasn't hallucinating anymore now. He had seen that flash of gold in her eyes one too many times now for it to be a trick of the light or from his lack of sleep.

"It was necessary when I went in." He took another sip of his drink and now he was the one who tried to avoid her gaze.

"During the time you decided to take a nap was not," she hissed and he could feel the daggers glaring at him. Off on his right he was sure he could hear Ms. Villa and Mr. Po chuckling.

"I do apologize, Ms. Scatter." He winced at having to apologize, but he should have known better than to ask her to stay in there longer than necessary. That room had a tendency of making her do things she normally wouldn't do; perhaps that was why he kept seeing gold in her onyx eyes. "I should not have asked you to stay in there."

"No you should not have." She turned her nose up at him, and he knew that she still had not forgiven him yet. She had good reason to with the fact she caught him red handed trying to break into her filing cabinets. It would do him a ton of good to lay low for a while and to try to stop stepping on her toes to stay in her good graces.

"What are the chances of me getting that coaster by midnight?" He asked casually already knowing the answer.

"Not likely." She ever so carefully cut her pasta before twirling it on the fork and popping it into her mouth. Defeated, he let out a sigh and out of the corner of his eye saw Ms. Villa slap money on the table and Mr. Po snatching it up with a chuckle. He frowned to see that they were taking bets again of who the victor would be between Ms. Scatter and himself, but he wouldn't say anything to them about that now. There were a few matters that needed to be addressed and now would be as good as chance as any as they will all very soon begin to dwindle in numbers and see less and less of each other as they truly embark on their missions.

He cleared his throat and pulled at the tie that suddenly felt too tight around his throat and turned his attention to his Recruits. They all ate and chatted about cheerfully about their missions from today, all except for Adam and Jane; the two oldest and most serious of them all as well as possibly the most dangerous of his Recruits. Jane glared at her rum and stabbed at her lobster as she ate. Whatever had happened today she was not in the sharing mood. Adam, on the other hand, though he glared at his food only ate the apples and pears off his plate but refused to touch the quail. Mr. V found that odd since he ate it the other night. He was for sure that he enjoyed eating quail, then again that was the Evil Queen's favorite, not necessarily his. Seeing his chance to diverge his conversation from Ms. Scatter, he turned to Adam and dared to start a conversation with him.

"How is the food, Adam?" Mr. V asked with a smile and Adam raised an eyebrow.

"It is fine," he pushed the quail around his plate. "The apples are delicious."

"Not a fan of quail?" he raised an eyebrow at him.

"Not particularly, no." He put his fork down. That confirmed it, it was the Evil Queen's favorite but not his. He would make note of that and would let Frederick know so he could make a list of meals to avoid making for the Recruit and to discover what he did enjoy eating.

"Would you like anything else, then?" He was ready to snap his fingers or tap his cane to replace it with something else whenever he said the word.

"Not this evening," he shook his head. "I'd have to think on what I would rather have. Just preferably not quail."

"Very well then." He gave a shrug and looked to Ms. Scatter. "I'll have Ms. Scatter send you a menu list so you can choose what you would like or have a preference to."

"Thank you?" he raised his eyebrow as he watched Ms. Scatter scribbled something down on her clipboard the snapping the pen down on it without looking at Mr. V.

"How did your mission go today, Adam?" Mr. V asked as he sipped his whiskey. Perhaps something had happened today to have set his mission off.

"I gained much field knowledge of the Realm of Apfel, however. . ." He grave a grunt and crossed his arms as he sat back in his chair. "I know nothing of the Evil Queen or Snow White."

"What's odd. . ." Mr. V's brows furrowed. "The Evil Queen didn't tell you what happened?"

"No," he shook his head. "She only ever spoke of her successes, never her failures."

"Ah, I see." He nodded and took a shot of his whiskey. He did not like where this was going. It would lead to questions that would put him in another irritating predicament with the other Recruits again. They were all too smart for their own good, at least it proved that they were as capable and promising as their Villains said they would be.

"I tried looking in the library before dinner, but even then I discovered very little." Adam's hands gripped his elbows tightly as he stared a whole at the quail on his plate. "Nothing at all really since I already knew of the information that was written, but it was a little odd that I couldn't find anything." He frowned, and Mr. V could feel his own smile faltering. "I can understand with the Queen since she probably came from a more ancient time, however, it is rather odd with Snow White since she is a popular princess in the Disney world."

"You'll have to do more field work to discover the story then." Mr. V finished his glass of whiskey and gently set it on the table. He could feel his fellow Hosts growing anxious beside him as they all knew he was going to have to inform the Recruits there are limited sources in the library.

"Is the story not in the library?" Adam posed the question and the heads of some of the other Recruits turned their heads in interest.

"Not currently, no." He put his hands on the table and casually pushed himself to his feet. More heads looked in his direction and conversations stilled all around the room. "But it isn't just yours that is no longer in the library here, none of y'all's stories are."

"What do you mean by that?" Jane glared up at Mr. V and he decided to take a little walk so as to distract them from Ms. Scatter's even growing anxiety and to keep his knees from locking together.

"Exactly as I stated, Jane," he smirked and hoped that he sounded confident. "You see, part of the contract that your Original Villains signed was to tuck their stories away as well as the princesses, fashionistas, princes, and other protagonists."

"Any why is that?" Jane demanded as she stood. "How else are we supposed to complete our missions of Happy Endings?!"

"That is the point there, Miss Jane," he smirked at her and she snarled at him. He would hate to be her enemy, but it did not appear as though she was going to give him much of a choice in the matter. "The Happy Endings are to be for you Recruits, not the Villains. The Villains have each received their own second, third, and even fourth chances and have all screwed them up at different times. You each have had to pay for the penalties in your own way. Now I'm giving you your own chance to find your own Happy Ending. That being said. . ."

He circled back to his seat and stood with his hands on his cane. Ms. Scatter seemed to be a little bit more calm. "The stories had to be taken away so that you could all decide your own fate without any bias towards your Villains."

Silence spread around the room and he could feel her anxiety grow, yet again. They made a rather odd sort of team. He being so confident, she being so anxious; he the leader, her the secretary; he was charismatic, even when angry while she was positively terrifying when she was livid. Despite how powerful she was, she always worked herself up in a tizzy of anxiety whenever things do not go the way she planned them. They were a slightly better dynamic than Mr. Po and Ms. Villa, only they had a longer history with one another since they knew each other since childhood and knew how to work with one another where Mr. V and Ms. Scatter only ever knew each other as employees.

Jane, already agitated, snatched her bottle of rum and a glass and stormed out of the room. The Hosts heads all turned to way her leave, but Mr. V made no motion to stop her and allowed her to leave the dining room. He did not want to be the enemy more than he already was to her, he also did not want to be stabbed with a rum bottle. Besides he was very sure that the other Recruits would follow suit and leave the room as well. They all had the right to be angry with him for the decision he made, so he would allow them to be angry with him for a little while.

"How much of this was truly in the contract?" Adam finally asked once Jane had left. "There is no way that the Villains would have so easily signed those contracts knowing that we could have our own Happy Endings."

"Oh contrary, monme," he chuckled and held a finger up to argue. "There was no clause statin' that they were the only ones having their Happy Ending. If you choose your own happiness over theirs, it is all the better for you because ultimately the Villains will have their own Happy Endings of sorts."

Adam's nostrils flared before he too stood and left the dining room. Ms. Scatter still sitting in her chair seemed to be holding her breath. The other Recruits just sat there blinking and continued on with their food. They attempted to continue their conversations, but the mood had been deflated and the conversation quickly died.

"If you're all finished, go ahead and return to your rooms for the evening and prepare for your future missions." Mr. V waved and turned on his heel to leave the room. Ms. Scatter scurried and stayed right at his heels while the other two Hosts watched them leave the room.

"What is up with you giving speeches like that?" Scatter hissed as she followed after him. "Are you trying to turn them against us?"

"No, I'm giving them the only thing that has never been given to them." He snapped as he turned and faced her. She froze on the spot he didn't care that he could see the gold flaring up in her eyes. "I'm giving them the truth and not the lies they've all been led to believe!"

"If you really think we've lived lives of lies, then you are seriously underestimating us!" Ember Shade sneered as she fanned herself with her paper fan as she apparated beside them. "Though I cannot speak for everyone, we haven't all exactly had peachy lives. Even though I am considerably better off than the others, even I am trying to buy back my own freedom."

Her hair burned white with her anger before turning back to its calm blue.

"Can I help you, Ms. Ember?" Mr. V planted a smile on his face, but he could see the challenge in her eyes.

"No, but I can help you," she sassed back and Mr. V could feel his blood pressure rising.

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" His hand gripped his cane tighter and he could feel himself on the verge of exploding. This girl was far too much like Hades, she had a nasty way of getting under his skin.

"By telling you to back off." The crowd of other Recruits began to grow at the entrance of the Dining Hall. His fellow Hosts did not seem capable of keeping them in their seats and instead joined them in gawking at the show before them.

He smiled through gritted teeth as he kept his eyes locked on hers, "I beg your pardon?"

"I said." She repeated slowly and her hair flashed orange as her words became more heated, "To back off. This whole 'I know more than you, don't ask questions' act is really pissing me off. You either lay it out to us straight, or not at all and let us figure it out. There is obviously a lot of loophole in the contract, so you either tell us what our Villains did, or let us figure them out for ourselves."

Mr. V could only blink as he comprehended what it was that she was saying. A low, dark chuckle escaped from him. "You sure are Hades' Recruit. He's the only one hot headed enough to talk back to me like that."

"I already know what my Villain has done and how he has failed," she crossed her arms and impatiently waved her fan on her face. "Unlike other Villains, he has shown me his truth and he is allowing me to make my own decisions for my own benefit without your stupid little contract."

"Well how fortunate for you that your Villain was honest with you." Another dark chuckle. "I don't know what they've told you, but I'm merely doing my best that I can to make sure y'all have your own Happy Ending. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Ugh," she gagged. "You're becoming a broken record. Look, just because the Villains lied to us about being so great doesn't mean that we all believe them. We've all gained our own scars from living with them. They might be powerful, but they're not all very charismatic." She snapped her fan closed and began jabbing Mr. V's shoulder with it. "We're Villains too. Just because we're Recruits doesn't mean that we can't handle ourselves."

A fire had started in Mr. V's belly and he had suddenly been tempted by his friends on the Other side to try to use some of their dark magic on her; but he refused it.

"Ms. Ember." Ms. Scatter stepped between them. "Mr. V. I highly advise you to take this conversation into another room. You're drawing an unnecessary crowd."

"I don't see why this discussion can't be had in front of us," Dalmatia barked. "We have just as much of a say in this as well as a need to hear this if this is going to affect all of us."

"It's not that simple - " Ms. Scatter tried to explain and began to shake with her own rising anger.

"Oh, I think it's more simple than what the two of you are trying to make it out to be. " Joe growled as he marched over to them. "It's only the second day and you keep reminding us that we're Recruits, that we have to make the "right" choices. You keep acting like we're going to fall into the hands of our Villains."

"Because you're going back to a time where you do not know them and you will see their more vicious and dangerous and toxic tendencies." Mr. V stood in front of the shaking Ms. Scatter. "Despite what you already know, you're going to see the more volatile side of your Villains before they had you in their lives. Some of you are more prepared than others. That is why we try to stress the fact that you can make your choices for yourselves, and not just for your Villains."

"They will manipulate you into doing what they want you to do," Ms. Scatter poked her head from around Mr. V's shoulder. "I should know. . ." she held her amulet tightly. "I broke my Realm and I can no longer return to it."

Mr. V blinked as he looked down at her as she stood shaking, but looked at them all seriously. They all stood silently and looking at Ms. Scatter curiously, even the other two Hosts were looking at her strangely. He opened his mouth up to get the attention off of her and back on the main subject again when she spoke up and continued speaking. "There are some choices that if you don't listen to your instincts, or if you make them irrationally you're going to lose more than you thought."

"Is that what happened to you?" Jack asked as the crowd suddenly got closer to them.

"Yes," she nodded her head and got out from behind Mr. V. "And I broke my Realm because of it."

"You broke your Realm?" He looked down at her with wide eyes. She did not look at him and kept her eyes focused on the Recruits.

"I fell into a trap after I made a terrible deal with a man who promised to uphold his end of the deal in order to protect those that I cared about." She slowly looked at each Recruit in the eyes. "I made the choices that he wanted, and he got his Happy Ending while I got nothing and lost everything and everyone I cared about. So don't any of you dare tell me you know what you're getting in to, because you don't!"

They all remained silent and just stared at her. Her eyes had turned completely turned gold and she was not hiding it as her hair unraveled from its tight bun and fell about her shoulders. Mr. V immediately draped his jacket over her and held her to him in his best efforts to shield her from the others and to hopefully calm whatever anger was trying release itself from her.

"All right, no more questions for the evening." He slid his arm across her shoulders and could feel her shaking from her head to her toes. "Y'all all get to bed. Now."

There was no hesitation, no quick remark, no snarky comment, they all - including Ember Shade- went away quietly to the stairs that would take them to their segregated wings in their scolded silence. Ms. Villa and Mr. Po followed after the Recruits, herding them towards their designated stairwells to make sure they all went to their rooms. He knew they were doing that to at least give him a chance to calm her down and maybe talk some things out with her.

"They're gone now, Ms. Scatter." Mr. V spoke quietly to her and gently rubbed her back. "They're gone."

Her shaking eventually stopped, but she was frozen in place and refused to move.

"Ms. Scatter?" He lifted his coat from her head an looked down at her. Her grey suit was gone and replaced by a sexy yet modest black floor length gown.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and refused to look up at him.

"You didn't do anything wrong," he rubbed her shoulders and she only turned her head to the side to avoid looking at him. Her hair was exquisite when it was down and around her shoulders. He had to resist the urge of running his fingers through her hair to if it was as silky as it looked.

"I gave away too much about me," she whispered again and dropped her head in the middle. "They're going to gossip about me."

"They're Villains, it's what they do, hun," he patted her on the head. "You know you can't let their words get to ya. You're stronger than that."

"They're not supposed to know anything about me," Her little hands clenched into fists. "No one is supposed to know anything about me. . . "

"Why?" he asked ever so softly so as not to scare her. What was the big deal? What was so terrifying for her that she would remain as anonymous as possible?

"Because when people know about me I become a threat." She finally opened her eyes. Those yellow amber eyes glowed in fear and worry up at him. He couldn't help but wonder if this explained why she had been a secretary to so many other Villains and still couldn't nail down a job. Whatever her past was it greatly affected the opinions of others towards her and of herself.

"You couldn't be a threat to me," he tucked a lose strand of hair behind her ear. "I know too much that goes on with the Other Side."

"The things on the Other Side have nothing on me." She pushed against his chest and vaporated through his jacket as she backed away from him. The jacket fell limply to the floor and Mr. V couldn't hide his surprise at the sudden magic trick. The bottom of her dress floated about her against gravity, even without her moving. "Nothing could be more frightening than Chernabog."

"Chernabog?" he took his hat off and scratched his head. The name was familiar, but he couldn't quite pin point why it was familiar.

"Yes, Chernabog." She nodded.

"Just who is that?" She frowned at his response.

"I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since I destroyed my own Realm. . ." She huffed and showed him her amulet. If was a deep green emerald on one side, but she turned it over and showed a cracked charcoal freckled quartz. "Have you ever heard of the Fantasia Realm?"

---

Author's Note:

Thank you so much for reading! I hope that you have been enjoying this!

So, have you seen Fantasia? I do mean the pretty movie that had all the different variations of music and episodes in it. The most popular is the beautiful green girl and Chernabog. If you haven't seen it, you should watch it.

Thank you for coming along for the journey, stay tuned for more!

Ko-fi/SarahtheWriter.