Author's Note: Fair warning: I teared up as I got to the middle of the chapter. Enjoy.

Chapter Seventeen: Ancient Past Revisited

The girl in question looked at Ben in shock. "How do you think I hold the key to saving this place?!" Eunice asked when they found temporary safety in a shallow cave and now convened in a battle plan to defeat the demon and drive it back to the dimension from wince it came.

Ben shook his head. "You may be the key to defeating Dagon, but a key is useless without a lock."

Gwen looked at Ben and back at the land around them and the vastness of the mana that flowed around them. Not a single world but an entire plane of existence was currently at stake, and if they failed to stop Dagon, Gwen realized. Home was as good as already conquered.

Something drew Gwen to look at the silver-haired witch as perhaps an unconscious attempt to get away from nihilist thoughts. The look on Charmcaster's face gave away most of what she felt. Inside, the witch was a turbulent torrent of emotions. Fear, anger, hate, sadness, and pity all swirled together in a great storm to cloud the native of Legerdemain's psyche. Gwen wanted to help, but Belicus through Ben told her not to interfere. This was Charmcaster's battle and hers alone.

Memories of the past came rushing back and assaulted the young sorceress' mind. The great war with Dagon, whom her people knew as Addwaytia, just started not long ago. Charmcaster's father, Spellbinder, fell in battle with that great evil. Charmcaster felt the pain anew. Tears rolled down her cheeks at the last memory she had of her father before she came under the watch of Hex. Spellbinder's phantom knelt and gave his daughter a sad smile.

"I must go now, my sweet princess. Be a good girl for your uncle and treat him as you would me." The ghost stood and looked toward something his daughter could not see. "I will always love you…Hope."

Still more memories flashed before her. Charmcaster stuck by Hex for the first time. The day she found her beloved bag while Hex had her loot bodies of the fallen for objects of use to him. It took much time fore her to work up the courage to show the bag to her uncle. She thought he would be pleased; her father would have been. Instead, the girl was given a thorough magical lashing where Hex yanked at her mana painfully until the girl cried out and begged with tearful eyes for him to stop while she kept swearing by Legerdemain to be a good girl and never stray again.

Charmcaster's head jerked violently. The elder sorceress gave no audible cry, but tears silently streamed down her face as the memories of abuse and the pain that accompanied it assailed her in a single massive wave of agony. Memories swirled around her mind like a tornado. The massive storm of pain threatened to carry the silver-haired woman off into the yawning abyss of Oblivion. Charmcaster tried to cling to some happiness to keep her from being destroyed, but each hold only caved when Charmcaster remembered the strings with which Hex controlled her.

Eunice couldn't stand to watch her friend suffer while Gwen heeded Belicus and did nothing to help the sorceress. Eunice didn't know what would happen when she touched Charmcaster. Part of her worried about feedback frying them both with Charmcaster's mana currently in a wildly chaotic state. Part of Eunice worried her artificial "Omni Energy" would only hurt Charmcaster. However, as Eunice looked at Charmcaster's pained face, she resolved to help.

With a small smile that held a mountain of worry back just enough, Eunice grabbed Charmcaster's hand. Copied memories from Gwen's childhood experiences with the witch joined the maelstrom. Charmcaster betraying Hex to save the Tennysons after she and Gwen spoke. Eunice smiled and, using a meditation technique Asmuth taught her, began to manipulate the memory. Eunice had ten-year-old Gwen reach and put her hand on Charmcaster's shoulder.

"You don't have to bear this alone." "Gwen" smiled. "I can help you."

"No, you can't!" Charmcaster protested. "I'm worthless."

Eunice made herself appear in the phantom Gwen's place as the memory of the talk with younger Gwen faded back into the howling storm of Charmcaster's mind. "You have honor and integrity." Eunice glared at an image of Hex in the storm. It froze and came down to eye level. "He tried to drive that from you." Eunice growled. "He tried to make you as beastly as he is and failed."

Eunice smiled as Charmcaster saw herself saving the Unitrix core after Eunice exhausted herself to open a portal.

"You are more worthy of compassion and mercy than you realize, Charmcaster." Eunice smiled and pulled down Charmcaster's last memory of her father. "Spellbinder could see the hope in your eyes." Eunice smiled. "I can, too. Take my hand."

Charmcaster woke up with her hand in Eunice's and slowly drew her hand back to herself as a small smile at the affectionate feelings she hadn't felt since her father died. Charmcaster stood up and looked at the assembly. There was new resolve and power in her eyes now. Instead of a wounded kitten, a roaring tiger looked at the group.

"Eunice's energy will be able to purge Legerdemain, but she doesn't have enough to do it herself." Charmcaster nodded at Gwen with the look of a soldier on her face. "Red, you and I will act as regulators for Eunice to keep the feed steady and constant." Charmcaster smirked at Benjamin. "You, mighty, late-blooming upstart will power this thing."

"Why me?" Ben asked.

Charmcaster chuckled. "You basically have a two universes of Mana at your disposal thanks to Belecus and Serena, if they agree to help."

Ben paused for a moment and nodded. "Belecus figured it out long before you did. He just convinced Serena after nearly a day and a half if debate." Ben seemed irritated for a moment. "For the record, I hardly slept last night thanks to them."

"It was crisis situation meeting, Ben." Serena stated. "Emergency Protocol applies to those."

"You should know," Belecus growled. "You're the one who suggested we alter the Bylaws of Order."

"I know." Ben muttered. "I was honestly hoping you two would learn to be more civil because of my changes."

"Then, we are agreed," Charmcaster said with a nod. The witch looked at Eunice. "Gwen and I will try our best to keep the energy flow from overwhelming you." Charmcaster promised. "This is your decision, though." The woman said as she put a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "If you don't want to, I won't force you."

"You saved my life," Eunice reminded her. "It's time I repay your kindness by saving your home."

Something about the way Eunice spoke made an uncomfortable rock settle in Charmcaster's gut. As soon as Charmcaster laid her right hand on Eunice's shoulder with Gwen on the other, the unease relaxed somewhat. Then, Charmcaster felt the influx of energy and tensed unconsciously at the strength of the energy flow from Ben. Through the network of flesh and energy the team created, Charmcaster could feel the peace Ben gave Red as his energy flowed through her, unencumbered and free. The state of ease between them made Charmcaster jealous for a moment, but a cry of pain in front of her shocked Charmcaster back to reality.

Eunice!

«Back down, Ben!» Charmcasterordered over the network of interconnected Mana as all in the connection began to share Ben's fiercely glowing green eyes to show the amount of energy built up in all their bodies. «It's too much!»

«You cut back…now...» Eunice growled though the pain was noticeable. «…and we lose. KEEP POURING IT ON!»

After another moment, Charmcaster could feel the strain in Eunice's artificial body. It felt as if the construct was about to fly apart under the stress of restraining power dumped into it. Charmcaster almost broke the connection to ease the stress on Eunice.

Before the sorceress of Legerdemain could, however, an agonizing cry ripped through the land. Then, a subsonic frequency rumble and blinding flash of electric green light blinded Charmcaster and sent her to the ground before a deafening explosion took her hearing for a few moments.

When Charmcaster looked up again, her heart rose with happiness. Her homeland no longer looked sickly but normal and healthy. The euphoria was dashed short however when Charmcaster looked over and saw a sparking light out of the corner of her eye. The silver-haired sorceress stared for what seemed like eternity at the sight before her as Ben and Gwen walked up to join her.

Ben looked like he was trying to be strong and failing. Gwen's eyes glistened with wet tears. Finally, she couldn't bare it anymore and buried her face in Ben's chest as quiet sobs softly broke into existence.

I may have lost, Dagon mocked Charmcaster, the demon's voice growing weaker as it spoke. …but pain can be sweeter than victory.

Charmcaster managed a few steps as her body shook with restrained emotions toward the smoking and sparking cylinder before her knees gave. The woman caught herself with her hands and leaned back to sit on her heels as she picked up the burnt and ruined core. Not having the will to look at the moment, Charmcaster only held the device to her chest. With the metal and circuits so close to her, Charmcaster found the strength to release her pain.

A scream unlike anything heard before erupted from the sorceress before she began to shake violently, dropped the core, and sobbed into her hands.

The core clattered to the stone and was noticed by a rock creature. With surprising tenderness for such a being, the creator took the coverings off and reached to begin tinkering. Before it could however, Charmcaster looked up and almost blasted the rock critter to bits. Something stopped her however and caused her to walk over and look at the creature's intentions.

"What are you doing to her?"

The creature seemed to be trying to disconnect something from the larger device. Charmcaster looked at it in curiosity. Then, she saw the green power core was cracked and looked ready to blow any moment. Quickly, Charmcaster looked at the Unitrix and cursed as she tried to reach the power core. When her fingers proved too thick for the small openings to the core. Charmcaster growled and produced microfilaments of Mana, delicately removed the unstable source and threw it as far as she could. When the power source impacted a walkway, the explosion shook the realm.

When Charmcaster was certain the blast would not repeat itself, Hope turned her attention back to the Galvan device. Whoever built this either didn't know Mana existed or was too scared to use it. She sighed. A genetic manipulation device like this would be much more stable with a Mana core instead of an artificial stand-in. Charmcaster shook her head with a laugh at the simple fix that would bring Eunice back, stood, and slowly walked over to Gwen as to not jar anything important loose.

When she offered the machine to Gwen, the redhead looked at her in confusion. "What?"

"Charge Eunice with your Mana, Gwen." Charmcaster said calmly. "Since she was built from your DNA, your Mana can revive her."

When Gwen gripped the device to take it from Charmcaster, the redhead felt an instant drain to her Mana. When Ben saw Gwen teeter, he glared at Charmcaster, ready to kick her ass.

Something truly strange began to happen after a moment though. The green device seemed to be healing as Gwen held it. In addition, the device began to change colors from a vibrant green usually associated with the Omnitrix to a light teal a shade or two darker than Tetrax or Diamondhead.

When Gwen handed the Unitrix back to Hope, the witch's hands shook and continued to shake as she activated the device. A moment later, it released the same teal color. Then, there Eunice lay in place of the device.

The blonde slowly got to her feet with a groan. Before she could turn, Eunice felt a large purple trench coat wrap around her and reform into a matching shoes and top with capris.

Ben couldn't help a grin as he saw Eunice wearing a variation of the outfit Gwen wore on their first summer trip with a key difference: a wolf stared out from her shirt.

"Hope…did we win?"

Gwen blinked. She and Ben were surprised at the name but said nothing. After all, the name was fitting for a person like Charmcaster. In spite of all life threw her way, Charmcaster kept clawing her way up and always hopes to be free of Hex. Now, that home found fruition.

"Yes," Charmcaster said softly. "Yes, we did. We're all safe."

Ben and Gwen shared a look and quietly backed away to give the two space. Then, Gwen created a portal and took herself and Ben back to Bellwood.

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