Hello beasties, I'm back!!(Art above belongs to Anti-CosmoFangirl) Now if I remember correctly, Valerie was in a lot of trouble by the end of the previous chapter(literally landing on the ruler of the Netherworld would do that), and now after that we're going to get our first interaction between Valerie and Betrayus! Hope you enjoy this! (And I hope I get Betrayus's character right)

Well things could be not going any better, Valerie thought sarcastically as she was half dragged, half lead down a hall by her two ghostly captors. She had mostly given up with trying to struggle in the grasp of their tentacles, mainly because whenever she did, their tentacles would wrap more tightly around her arms, sending a dull burst of pain across her wounded arms. So, she had to settle for obeying her captors.

For now.

Of course, the reason she was in her current situation was due to the fact she may or may have not punched THE lord of the netherworld in the face.... (Even if she hadn't known it was him at first. Valerie hadn't exactly seen the infamous fire ghost before....)

Yeah, there was that little tidbit of info. Not only had she been attacked by some sort of creature that wore her face like a glove, most likely been framed for murder, and ended up falling through a portal(probably should have looked where she was going....), she had ticked off one of this world's worst and most evil being due to her carelessness, and as her father said, she'd soon pay the price for her actions....

But if she was honest, she didn't exactly expect for him to look the way he did...

Practically everyone in this world knew of his horrible deeds, and the way they spoke of them made Valerie picture someone, well, more monstrous looking, some sort of twisted creature made of flame and darkness, a twisted form to match the darkened soul. But he was actually....

Kind of good-looking if she would admit....

Valerie tried to shake off the thought. What was wrong with her?

Get ahold of yourself Valerie, you can't judge a book by the cover as it's said, but what about the contents?  Let's not forget that the devil was the most beautiful of the angels....

Eventually her ghostly captors reached their destination, a open side room somewhere deep within the castle-probably the dungeon- and shoved her roughly inside, leaving her to stumble for a few steps before she eventually regained her composure.

Wincing at the pain shooting up from her arm, Valerie turned around, only to witness a metal  door, sliding in place with a click. The ghosts leered at her, showing of their glowing teeth-god, they had glowing teeth-sending a vague chill right down Valerie's spine.

"We'll be seeing you later, if you're still around..." And with that, they were gone before she could even blink. Had they gone back the other way, had they phased through the wall or whatever it was that ghosts did? Valerie wasn't entirely sure at the moment, her mind was more preoccupied with other matters.

Valerie took in her surroundings, mind whirling, trying to think of what to do. Right at that moment, there was one thought on her mind: escape, before god-knows what happened to her. She was no fool, she had heard of what happened to those who had crossed the fire-ghost....

Okay, so there was no chance of her managing to slip through the bars of the cell, not anytime soon. They were done in some sort of strange pattern, one that gave her mind of a spider web. The most she could do was sort of fit her arm through one of the larger slots, but not very far at all.

There wasn't much else she could work with either, but wait! Didn't she still have her lodestone in her jacket pocket? Sure, it didn't have enough power to get her over a great distance at the moment, but maybe.....

Instinctivley she reached into her pocket, her fingers clasping around....

Nothing.

Panic flooded Valerie's mind. Oh God, where could it have gone? Did it fall out somewhere? She frantically rummaged through her pockets.

"Come on, come on....." She muttered to herself, then from behind her, she heard a voice.

"Looking for something?"

Turning around, she saw Betrayus, watching her with a mild expression of amusement written across his features, his clawed hands clasped behind his back. How had she not heard him coming?: Valerie wondered. He was looking right at her, espechally her horns, she noted with a hint of dread. A small part of her noted the side of his face where her fist had connected earlier. Good, she hoped it bruised.

"No." She lied.

"Well, perhaps you were looking for... This?" With that, he held out her lodestone.

Valerie's eyes widened. "That's mine-" She tried to reach for it but failed.

"Ah, ah, ah... Whatever this useless trinket is, it's all mine girl-" As he spoke, the stone began to faintly glow in the palm of his hand and let out a pulse of energy, causing Betrayus to yelp in surprise.

A little snicker worked its way out of Valerie's mouth before she could stop herself. Betrayus regained his composure enough to glare at her, silencing her for the moment, before he shoved her lodestone into a pocket in his coat. Silently, Valerie bid her way of escape goodbye.

A moment of silence passed between the two of them before he spoke. "Now, Dr.Butoxx suspects you of being a spy, but I assured him you couldn't possibly be a spy. Because if you are, you have got to be one of the most inept spies I've ever seen."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Okay, I am not a spy. What happened back there was a simple accident."

Betrayus let out a dark chuckle. "Oh really? Because it certainty didn't feel like an accident when you attacked me."

"Please, I had just literally fallen out of the sky, the freaking sky, and I didn't attack you, I landed on you. Big difference, unless you're going to continue being a big baby about it."

Betrayus's expression darkened, clearly not used to being spoken back to in this way. "I'd appreciate if you didn't continue to insult me girl-"

"I have a name you know. It's Valerie, not girl." Valerie interjected.

"If I had cared to know your name, I'd have gotten you to tell me it." He fixed his red eyes on her, moving closer to the cell. Now, they were close enough to fully glare at each other through the bars, making Valerie unconsciously notice how much taller he was than her-Valerie was about 5 foot 6, not counting the horns, but this guy was ridiculously tall, maybe 6 foot 4?- probably because of those stupid looking boots, she thought.

"You know, in my world people just didn't get thrown into gothic murder dungeons in an instant." Crap, that had come out.

This seemed to intrigue Betrayus. "Oh really, and what world would that be?" He asked sarcastically. "Because this is the way things are around here sugar."

"Look genius, I wasn't born here. I came here from somewhere else, called Earth, ever hear of it?" Valerie retorted.

Betrayus actually seemed taken aback for a moment, before his lips curled into a self-satisfied smirk. "Hmmm... So that explains it."

"Explains what?"

"Of course, there's the obvious right here, and the fact that the atmosphere of this place hasn't affected you in the slightest," He gestured to her horns and torn clothes. Something he said gave Valerie pause. Wait, affected her? But she felt fine, there didn't seem to be any discernable difference to the air that she could tell...."But there's a little something off about you, maybe even a little otherworldly, but for the unlife of me, I just can't put my finger on it." He stroked his goatee with his claw, as if thinking about something.

Then, his expression lit up, and he smiled a slow, evil-looking smile.

"Now, Valerie." He practically purred out her name. "Care to enlighten me on how you came to enter Pacworld in the first place?

Okay, he was clearly trying to get her to talk, due to that tone of voice. Fortunately, Valerie knew exactly how to deal with this.

"Oh that's easy." She said with mock seriousness. "I was in the park one day, and out of the corner of my eye, what do I spot but a rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a pocket watch? This was so curious, I ended up following him into his hole, and on the other side, I found this place."

The immediately confused expression on Betrayus's face was quickly replaced with annoyance. "Oh ha ha. Real clever there. Now tell me the truth."

"There was this strange little door in our living room, and no key we had in the house seemed to fit it, except this one made of black brass with a button on the top-" She had barely finished, when Betrayus interjected.

"Is this some type of joke to you, because you're really starting to burn me up here-"

"So there was this wardrobe, and what did I find in the back but a whole other world-"

"ENOUGH!!" The very air seemed to sizzle with heat as Betrayus slammed his fist against the bars in rage, causing Valerie to jump back in shock. After a moment, he regained his composure and regarded her coldly, with Valerie trying to not show how that sudden bust of rage had actually affected her.

"You aren't going to give me a straight answer are you?"

"No probably not." Valerie answered as honestly as she could.

"If you can't answer the simplest of questions, I'm going to have no choice but to leave you down here." The way he said that, made Valerie's blood run cold.

"What? You can't do that!" She practically yelped.

"I can do whatever I want with you, seeing how I hold all the power here, and you:" A hint of darkness crept up into his voice. "You're just my prisoner now, and a very dishonest one at that. I think a extended stay in the dungeon should be enough punishment for you."

With that, something inside Valerie broke. " Please, don't do this, I've had enough of people treating me horribly from where I came from, because I guess that's the price you pay when you're born a monster like me."

She looked up, to judge his reaction, ready for him to sneer or let loose another cutting remark, but to surprise, she saw something very different written across the face of the ghost lord.

The anger had completely vanished, leaving an expression of.... sympathy? No, that couldn't be, could it? Betrayus was heartless, why would he be showing any sympathy for her?

As soon as he met her eyes, his expression changed, and he looked away. Why couldn't he meet her eyes. He muttered something she couldn't hear.

Valerie finally found her voice. "What?"

At the sound of her voice, Betrayus's expression quickly shifted back to one of disdain, and his gaze soon met hers. "I have something else to take care of in my castle, but I'll be back for you in the morning."

Valerie couldn't believe her ears. "I thought you were leaving me here forever."

"I merely said you'd be left own here, not for how long you silly girl. I think spending the night down here alone should be enough for now, until I can think of something suitable for you to do." He still couldn't meet her eyes, as if her words had gotten to him more that he would say...

He then turned to leave. "But don't worry, I'll be back for you before you know it." The last word was a dark purr, sending a chill down Valerie's spine.

And with that, he was gone, leaving Valerie alone in her cell, wondering what had just happened. Had she really seen sympathy in his eyes?

But that couldn't be right, monsters don't show sympathy for anyone, Betrayus was a prime example of that, so why had she seen sympathy there?

Was she simply just projecting comforting emotions onto a heartless fiend so she could feel comforted?

Or maybe, she had seen something there....

These thoughts would plague her mind for hours, but one thing was for certain, something was going on....

Well beasties, I'm finally done another chapter, sorry for the wait! I hoped you liked the chapter, and that I got Betrayus's character right....

Anyway, I'll see you next chapter, when we get into some plot stuff....

Hail lord Betrayus!