Wyatt, Chris and a group of witches faced off the demons again. This time in a rural village in Argentina. Wyatt had put a cloaking spell and shielded it to keep the inhabitants from noticing the fight. They had come prepared with potions, but the enemies were still quite tough. They needed to wait for the right moment to strike if they wanted to succeed.

"Man, there's no end to this," Chris complained. His back was to his brother, who had to focus on protecting the civilians.

One of the witches emitted energy waves from his hands. The demons held up their hands and telekinetically held the attack off. Chris realized now was the time.

"Now!" he hollered.

Two witches tossed potion vials at them. Two demons were hit and instantly the vapors left their bodies, their hosts dropped unconscious. The rest of the team prepared to throw their potions. The remaining demons retracted and prepared to strike again.

A myriad of flying arrows suddenly fell out of the sky and hit all the demons in the chests. They looked down at the arrows that pierced their flesh in shock, and then fire engulfed them, and incinerated them along with their possessors. Chris turned to see where the arrows came from. In the far distance of the little valley, a group of four horse-riding females in ancient warrior attire held their bows ready. He recognized one of them as Mist, one of the Valkyries–demi-goddesses who trained dead warriors for the final showdown between good and evil. He was surprised to see them outside of their domain of Valhalla: they usually only left their island to collect souls of warriors befitting of their cause. They met once when he went up against a demon and she arrived post-fight to claim a brave police officer's soul. He regarded her as an independent beauty. When she turned to him, she said, "It was nice to see you again, Chris, no matter the circumstances."

He consoled the Elders that day and found out that his alternate counterpart from a dark timeline had met with the Valkyrie when he went back in time to change it.

The warriors rode their mounts in their direction and stopped only a few feet away. The witches watched them with exasperated expressions.

"Thanks for the help," Wyatt said politely.

Mist inclined politely.

"The Queen sensed the disturbance in the air, so we came to investigate," she said.

"You know, you could have just sent warning arrows," Chris said harshly. "We were about to use dispossession potions to set their hosts free."

Mist met his eyes with an unreadable expression. A dark frizzle haired Valkyrie regarded him with a disdained look.

"From where I'm standing, you were in a bind between slaying the demons and shielding those unsuspecting villagers," she said in a high-and-mighty tone, "You should be thanking us for taking care of the problem for you."

Chris was about to argue when Wyatt placed a hand on his shoulder to silence him.

"Regardless of the outcome, we understand you were only trying to help," he said politely.

Chris assumed he probably wanted to maintain the peace.

Mist nodded indifferently.

"Perhaps it'd be best we exchange information to further understand the situation."

Wyatt nodded.

"I agree."


Melinda handed in the paperwork on the third day after announcing her leave. Her professor was taken aback by her abrupt decision, but she needed to make sure everything was properly arranged before she could leave for her journey. The door hadn't disappeared, but there was no guarantee it was going to stay that way.

Even the universe has its own limits of patience, she thought.

This was not permanent, she told herself. She was coming back. For now, the mission was more important. Even if she had to do it on her own, she would have to because she knew if no one did, the future will certainly become the version she saw. All she had to do was find this hidden power and keep it safe, and once it was over she'll come home. Gloom slowly washed over her as the idea of going alone made her stomach churn. She wished Kat and PJ were by her side. But Kat had said her piece, and she should respect that. If they didn't want to go, then surely she shouldn't make them.

Not even with a spell.

Her professor snapped her back to the present.

"It's a real shame, Miss Halliwell," he said, "That you feel the need to leave in the middle of the semester."

Melinda opted to say as little as possible. "I plan on coming back next semester. For now, there is something I need to do."

"Care to elaborate on that?"

"No, not really."

He nodded, looked back to the paper and signed it. He handed it back to her.

"I'll see you then. Although I must warn you, if you intend to come back you will need to catch up on your studies. I hope you plan on attending additional classes before you reapply."

She inclined. If I come back, I'll do just that.

Their conversation was interrupted by an outburst cry from the hall. Then an explosion followed. Past the door, there were sounds of people screaming and running in fear.


Both parties told each other everything. The Valkyrie Queen, Freyja, had felt a disturbance and suspected that the time of the Ultimate Battle between good and evil was nearly upon them. Wanting to be certain, she had sent scouts to investigate.

Wyatt and Chris told them about the Great War, the demonic alien parasites and the Elders' deductions, as well as their sister's plan to stop it.

"So the Queen was right," Mist deduced. "The final battle is upon us."

Chris furrowed his brows. "But the fight isn't taking place here," he said.

She nodded in agreement.

"That is true. However, she suspected it would take place elsewhere. There is a reason we Valkyries have pendants that create doorways. It was both to travel safely around places, as well as provide direct travel to the battleground when the battle commenced. I just didn't know the battle had already started by the time it came to us." She grinned at the Halliwell brothers. "Thank you for your information. We must report now to the Queen. I suspect we will see each other again before the storm comes."

Wyatt nodded politely. A sudden call rang in his ears. He looked up at the sky sharply. He glanced at Chris, who shared the same look, and realized he had heard it too.


Kat listened intently to the professor. The seminar was about a person's reaction to random ideas caused by neurotic distress which made it easier to trick their psyche to fall for persuasion.

Kat was really fascinated. Psychology was the subject she decided to pick because of her curiosity of the human mind. Her mom was a psychology major, and that was how she came to understand matters of the heart and how to guard it, cure it, even find companionship for it. She wanted to be just like her, and that was what she was going to do.

A dentist drill sound pierced into her mind, breaking her focus. She yelped and pressed her hand to her ear, dropping her pen in the process. The drilling eased. When she was able to focus again, several sets of eyes were on her. They couldn't hear what she was hearing. They weren't angels after all. But being part Whitelighter, she had the innate ability to hear cries for help even from those who may not be aware of what they were doing. And this one was screaming loudly to get her attention.

"I'm sorry, professor," she said, collecting her notepad. "There's been an emergency. I'm so sorry."

She picked up her pen from the floor and headed toward the exit. She will have to find the bathroom and make sure it was empty before she could teleport away.

It seemed like magic was reminding her that she could not outrun it. Especially if someone out there needed protecting. If you have the power to fight what you know is happening, you shouldn't ignore it. That was her mom's lesson. Reaching into the bathroom, she took the first available bathroom stall, stood on top of the toilet seat just in case anyone noticing a pair of feet turning into a million particles, and orbed away.


Melinda winced as she tried to move her body after one of the demons telekinetically flung her to a wall. Her mind was disoriented and her vision blurry. Screams echoed everywhere, and loud noises pounded into her eardrums and her brain.

She looked up and saw a group of demons in the center of the main hall. The possessed had invaded the college halls and were attacking people at random. The quaint interior of McLaughlin Hall was turned upside down by destructive explosions that blew bricks off the walls, pillars blasted in half and people running in fear.

One of the demons approached with murderous eyes directed at her. Knowing the demon was coming for her, she tried to push herself on her feet. Her arms and legs wobbled at the lack of strength. She tried to orb out of their sight, but disorientation made it impossible to call on her power.

The demon facing her raised his hands above his head. Energy began to radiate from his palms to form a gigantic sphere. The energy ball emitted heat close to an oven's temperature. One hit and she will be toast.

Melinda forced herself to stand back up, and failed again.

I'm gonna die here. The thought was clear and completely despairing.

The demon readied to launch his energy ball. Then two sets of white lights appeared from above and formed into five individuals. It took half a second to recognize her brothers among them group. One of the people she didn't recognize tossed a vial of potion that exploded on the demon's chest and forced the possessor vapor out of his body. The energy ball in his hands dissolved and then he dropped to the ground.

The other demons launched energy balls in their direction. The energy balls suddenly stopped in their flying tracks, seized in midair.

The fog in Melinda's mind slowly cleared. She found strength in her limbs again and pushed herself back up. Her whole body still ached like the devil, but at least she was no longer on the ground.

"Are you guys okay?" said a distant voice.

Melinda followed it to the far corner of the hall and found Kat racing toward them.

Chris motioned to the other witches, who tossed their vials and forced the vapors out of their host bodies. Wyatt then raised his hands and vanquished them with his own waves of energy.

One crisis undone. Another one to go, Mel thought.

Demons and magic had been spotted on campus. They would have to do something about that. As if on cue with her distress, the Cleaners – two neutral individuals tasked by both good and evil to ensure the secrecy of magic materialized at the McLaughlin Hall entrance.

"Quite a disturbance," said one of the Cleaners, "You got careless with your magic, and now we have to clean up your mess."

Chris stepped forward to argue, but Wyatt held him back. "We are not responsible for this. We only came in after the demons attacked in public."

That part disturbed Melinda. Demons and magical beings all held onto one rule, to keep their existence secret from the human world so they may do their workings in peace and without persecution. And yet, the possessed attacked in public in a school filled with people. If this goes on, soon they will have more on their plate than they can chew.