Chapter 28: The Truth

Queen Ivy looked for King Butch to see if he could identify the white merdog. When she found him, he was leaning on his trident staring at Vanessa. Annoyed at his behavior, Queen Ivy kicked with her tail fin King Butch's trident. King Butch fell forward, but the act did not disrupt his focus. At that point, Queen Ivy knew there was something fishy about this young female merdog.

Vanessa swam over to Charlie and said, "Hello handsome. You must be a prince? Well, I am new to this area. My name is Vanessa." At that moment, she extended her paw toward Charlie, but he was so infatuated that he could not speak. "Uh... Uh... Uh... Ma... Ma... Ma... My name is Charlie." Vanessa took over the conversation by saying, "Charlie, what a great name. You know... I feel like everyone is staring at me. Would you like to leave this palace and go for a swim with me?" Charlie grinned and nodded his head while his tongue hung out of his mouth. Vanessa said, "Great, let's go. And by the way, can I call you Chuckie?" Charlie nodded again and followed Vanessa out the door.

Once outside, Vanessa started swimming very fast away from the palace toward the darker water. Charlie swam as fast as he could to try and keep up. Vanessa giggled as she pulled away from Charlie. She said to herself, "That was the easiest thing I have ever done. Now it is up to Roscoe and Desoto to capture my brave little Chuckie once and for all. He needs to just keep following me." Vanessa slowed down and turned toward Charlie and she waved her pretty paw and said, "Chuckie over here." She then darted behind a large boulder. When Charlie rounded the corner, Roscoe and Desoto were waiting for him. They tackled him to the bottom of the sea and bound him with seaweed rope. Once bound, Vanessa swam up to Charlie and said, "Chuckie, you are all tied up! What is Sasha gonna do when you don't come home tonight?" At that moment Vanessa took out a vial of green liquid. She gulped it down and turned back into Belladonna. The love potion wore off and Charlie wondered where he was and how he became tied up with seaweed. He then saw Belladonna, Roscoe, and Desoto. He knew he was in trouble.

Back at the palace, all the male merdogs suddenly snapped back to consciousness. King Butch started to look for Queen Ivy. Sebastian came to Butch and said, "Your majesty, what is happening? Both Queen Ivy and Sasha are crying and-" Then the crab looked both ways around the inside of the palace and he continued saying frantically, "Charlie Barkin is not here, but Itchy Itchiford is here." King Butch then shouted "STOP! What did you say about Ivy and Sasha?" The crab responded nervously, "Why yes your majesty. I saw them both in the common area. Jeez man... They were very sad. Bubbling Bubble." At that instant, King Butch swam very determined toward the common area. When he saw Ivy and Sasha holding each other, he swam up and put his arms around them both. Once Ivy realized King Butch was holding them, she pulled away and took a swing at King Butch. She said, "Why you bungling, merdog googling, tyrant ruler of the DEEP! You have some nerve trying to cozy up to us after googling lustfully after that young white merdog..." Butch who was stunned by Ivy's act of aggression said, "Whoa... What the halibut are you talking about?" Queen Ivy said, "You know what I'm talking about! DON'T PLAY STUPID with me! I saw you staring at that young girl merdog!" Butch shook his head and said, "Darling, all I remember is having a good time at the dance, then all the sudden all the female merdogs were gone and us male dogs were swimming in the middle of the ball room wondering what happened." Ivy tried to overcome her anger, but she thought Butch was not telling the truth. She said, "What nerve you have making up such a story." Butch then said, "I am not making up any stories, and by the way, why is Sasha crying?" Sasha then said, "Really?... You didn't see who Charlie left with?" Then Butch realized something fishy was going on. He grabbed his trident and swam to his throne to think.

Meanwhile, Belladonna, Roscoe and Desoto swam to the surface to have a private conversation about the next steps to her plan. Little did they know that flying high above them was Jeremy. After he was humming happily, he heard Belladonna tells Roscoe and Desoto that soon Sasha would want to meet with her to fix her boyfriend problem and that they should help her find Belladonna. To Jeremy's surprise, he saw Belladonna pull out a vial of red potion which she gulped down quickly. Belladonna then transformed into a beautiful white saluki merdog Vanessa. "That evil Belladonna is a boogey mer-whippet who's witch?" Then he gulped in horror and continued saying, "Oh no! She's gonna... I gotta... SASHA!!"