Chapter 50: Final Battle, Part 1

Seeing Brittany Crouch apparate away with Gladiola and the Simian Witch kind of irked Marius a bit. He wasn't really used to people telling him to stay back for his own safety. Not even his parents obliged such a thing to him, they knew he could fight for himself.

Impius rubbed himself on Marius, giving his master some comfort.

The door opened up and Roedor Pettigrew came in. Marius noted that he looked rather... more trembling than usual.

"Are you alright?" Marius asked in concern.

"I'll be fine." Roedor shook it off. "The mistress asked me to escort you back to her office. She hopes you'd keep her company while our friends deal with the rogue time traveler."

Marius nodded and picked up Impius. Roedor smiled a bit and gave the imp a small pet on the head, making Marius smile. "You know, Roedor, if you want to play with him a bit, you can ask."

"I'd rather not." Roedor shook his head as he escorted Marius through the hallway. With the lava cascades beginning to boil and flow in their regular state, the cavern got its lights of red lava, making the castle feel like it was in the underworld. "The mistress would be cross on me if I did not do my duties."

"What exactly are your duties besides being the son of a Death Eater?" Marius asked out of curiosity. Just when they approached the area where Penna's office entrance stood, they saw Penna out there speaking with other figures. Roedor bit his teeth and scurried behind Marius in fear.

Penna was speaking to Bloodyle Silisk and Indimia Rex, but the third figure, he did not recognize. He looked like he could be in his late teenage years, but it was hard to tell. His skin was pale white and his eyes were icy blue, nearly reminding Marius of his father. He wore a ripped blue shirt with ripped lace sleeves, revealing his midriff, black jeans with a white fang pattern held up by a grey belt, brown furred boots, and grey furred fingerless gloves. His silvery hair with blue dyes grew in curls not just to his shoulders, but also out of his superior, making out a moving tail. Fluffy ears replaced human ones and small signs of hair grew on his forehead and cheeks.

"And remember. I don't want you to merely kill him," Penna told the three sternly. "I want him mauled! Eat his remains if you wish, I don't care how you three do the job, but make sure his last wish is that he never should have messed with my business!"

"Her Tenebrous Supremacy will be impressed," the boy bowed. "We will make his carcass a work of art!"

"Sculpture or painting?" Marius asked out loud. Roedor squirmed behind him while the other four looked at him.

"Just in time," Penna told him. "I was instructing some of my best killers to dispose of that rogue time traveler you spoke me of. Brittany told me you confirmed that it was none other than Trigon's grandson."

"The green-haired buffoon, I know," Marius said. "Again, how shall his remains become art? A sculpture or a painting? Because I've always been a fan of sculptors."

The tailed teenager clapped on excitement and rushed on to master. "His Lordship is a fan of brutal art as well?"

"Only when it comes to people I really despise after what I endured," Marius said, "and right now, I'd really love it if you could make an abstract sculpture out of Corbeau's flesh and bones as you send his soul into limbo." He said this in rather dark bitterness, it actually scared his pet.

"You really know how to pick them, sister," Bloodyle remarked to Penna.

"Can you please go already?" Penna asked her back, trying to keep her cool done. Bloodyle just shrugged and began making their way. The tailed boy, on the other hand, started sniffing Marius near the neck area. "Vanagan! Do I have to shoo you out again with a Cruciatus?"

"He's a dormant Legilimens." Vanagan backed up and stopped sniffing.

"Pardon?" Marius asked.

"You're a dormant Legilimens," Vanagan repeated. "You can see others' memories. Though judging by the smell, you can see them by touching sensitive areas. But why so tardy?"

"Vanagan! Out, now!" Penna barked.

"Yes, your Tenebrous Supremacy." Vanagan bowed to both her and Marius and left to join Bloodyle and Indimia.

"Don't just stand there, Pettigrew!" Penna barked. "Go babysit the imp and stay out of my sight!"

"He doesn't have to," Marius said patiently while holding on to Impius. "I can take care of my imp while we're in your office."

"And raise the chance of your imp getting accidentally eaten by Naga?" Penna questioned.

"Unless you told your pet to back off."

"Um, good point."

"Still," Marius looked back at Roedor, "if it's alright with you, Roedor would like to play a bit with Impius. Not as a job, but for fun."

Penna rolled her eyes. "Fine. But don't expect some kind of raise, Pettigrew."

"Thank you, mistress," Roedor said gratefully. Marius smiled and handed Impius to Roedor. Roedor left, cooing Impius in his arms.

Marius followed Penna up the staircase to her office. "My apology concerning Vanagan Greyback. He's as savage as his father, the werewolf Fenrir, but at least he has more respect to me than he and his father did to mine."

"What happened to him?" Marius blurted out as the staircase hid back in its place.

"Meaning?"

"Sorry. It's just... around the time I familiarized myself to you, I learned about your comrades," Marius explained. "Bloodyle is your adoptive sister, you adopted Minuit and Jessie, you welcomed Feige and DÃ¥rlig as wanted personnel, and you value Indimia. You despise Death Eater children like Bayen, Brittany, Roedor, and Drystan Troy for still being loyalists to your father. But Vanagan... he's a bit new. No one told me about him. I don't think the VKs knew about him."

"And be glad they didn't," Penna commented. The floor opened up and upward came a table full of food. "Vanagan is one of those barbaric werewolves who allied to my family not for beliefs, but for the promise of massive victim numbers. And their specialty is biting children, forcing them into the wizard-hating werewolf society."

"Once again, I'm surrounded by villains trying to sell one another off," Marius rolled his eyes. He looked at Penna, who flicked her wrist and recited some kind of incantation. Her teakettle and cups levitated itself, pouring in the tea while floating spoons brewed them well.

"I only use Vanagan in case of emergencies, which is why I normally keep him hidden in the under layers of my castle." Penna took a deep breath and took a cup for herself while she had the spare one levitate right into Marius' hands. "I prefer though that he stays clear away from my very loyal ones, particularly Minuit Sparkle and Jessie Joker."

Marius nodded and drank the tea. "Uh. Serpent venom tea is surprisingly delicious," he commented.

"It's regular black tea in your cup," Penna said. "I can't have you die through poisoning."

Marius nodded. "Still good tea." He kept drinking.

"You really are a confusing one," Penna said. "Despite the minuscule information you give, you still act as if I am worth your trust. I could have poisoned you with venom tea, something that only I can tolerate to drink, and you immediately drink it without question."

"Well of course," he looked at her. "I trust you."

"I'm Penna De Mort," Penna said drily. "Nobody trusts me. Even my most blindly devoted servants know that there are times when they shouldn't trust me, and forgetting that fact is their worst mistake."

"He trusted you." Marius pointed at the big picture of younger Penna with Dumbledore by the lake. Contrasting to earlier, now they were sitting on the grass and it looked like Dumbledore was tutoring her to some spellbook. The sorceress' expression softened when she looked at the portrait. "He trusted you in his way, and I trust you in my own way. Not like..." Marius gritted his teeth. "Not like how you trusted Mandire."

Penna looked stunned and put her cup down. "When I thought you looked familiar, it reminded me of someone I met before I killed Mandire Sullivan..." Marius turned to look at her. "You were that awfully nice boy who wore the Gryffindor uniform."

Marius chuckled awkwardly. "Time travel, am I right?"

"Why didn't you stop my evil transformation?" Penna demanded. "It sure would have been a brilliant triumph, seeing my father fail, considering everyone hates him! Why would anyone want to repeat history?"

Marius looked hurt. "History needed you. If you weren't here, the present would just be a dystopia. You'd have died miserable. Minuit and Jessie would have never been born." The mention of the latter two not existing seemed to sting Penna. "I..." Marius finally admitted. "I didn't want a world without you in hit."

Penna's eyes widened even more, the cup exploded behind her. Marius rushed to pick up the debris and throw them into a nearby waste bin.

"I really wish to not believe you... but I can't," Penna bit her lip.

"Then believe." Marius got up. Without even thinking, he took Penna's hand, leaving her too frozen to respond. "Accept the fact that when things are fixed and time is back on track, someone will be waiting for you in a few months from now and that person doesn't care if you're an evil or a good person. Because that person cares for you as you are."

"Dumbledore's beard, you sound like him!" Penna rolled her eyes, slightly amused. She patiently slipped her hand off his and went to sit on her chair to watch the flames in the chimney. "Probably why I didn't just kill you on the spot after I dismissed you earlier. His portrait gave me one of his 'You know better' looks."

"Believable." Marius nodded and began pacing around the bookshelves, curious of her reading preferences. He picked up and dusty pamphlet, blew on it, and as the dust cloud vanished, he read the title. "'Mudbloods And The Dangers They Pose To A Perfect Pure-Blood Society'? Why do you even have that? You're not a pureblood."

"Christmas present from Drystan Troy. Doesn't help that his mother signed it." Penna rolled her eyes. "I do enjoy smacking him with it."

Marius flipped through the pages, which was just nonsense. "Muggle-borns stealing magic by taking wands from witches or wizards? Registration committee? Imprisonment in Azkaban? Feeding children to Dementors? I don't even know most of these words, but this doesn't sound like your kind of evil."

"What's my kind of evil, then?" Penna questioned.

"More about revenge against your father than power. Mild dislike to royalty and antiheroes." He waved the pamphlet in disgust. "Considering the ones you prefer over the children of the Death Eaters, it's saying something!"

Penna smiled a bit before going back to being grim. "Besides craving immortality, my father hated being half-blood. Half-wizard, and half-Muggle, a term we use to define non-magical humans."

"Like most of humanity? King Ben?" Marius asked.

She nodded. "Before I managed to subdue him for good, through puppet manipulating, Voldemort managed to create a dystopian British Ministry of Magic. Created a Muggle-born Registration Commission, an excuse to actually imprison innocent wizards to Azkaban. Made it easier to dispose Muggle-born children by feeding them to Dementors, phantoms who suck the joy out of you."

"That's terrible!"

"Indeed. But in my father's perspective, I made the job easier. More than half of the threatened Muggle-borns begged me to kill them rather than face Dementors." Penna sighed. "Years of traveling, and I've seen how wizards and Muggles look down at each other." She snapped her fingers and books and pamphlets began flying around her and Marius, each with unique book covers and titles.

"Muggelgeborene Sollen Auferstehen." Penna spoke in German while holding a red-and-black book before levitating it for Marius to see and sending it back its shelf. "'Muggle-born Shall Rise.' Not exactly what I expected to find when I visited the Nazi-occupied territories of Europe. Considering the tastes of the German Muggles back then, I expected pureblood fanatics, but no, I met fanatics trying to support Muggle-borns. Make them superior to half-bloods and pure-bloods by imposing rules similar that the Nazis did to the Jews."

"Voldemort must have fainted," Marius joked.

"No, he never found out." Penna picked up a Russian book. "I can't fully read Russian, but this one is translated in English. I got it while visiting the USSR after the Russian Revolution. They wanted to encourage a half-blood population. Selected the Muggle-borns and pure-blood witches needed for the reproduction. Disposed the Squibs and the steriles. I wasn't really surprised for that one, most witches and wizards are half-bloods." She went quickly through the books and sent them back to their shelves, all except for one. "This, however, is my favorite." She did a hand gesture, asking Marius to come join her. He did so and leaned over to read the title.

"'Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them'." Marius read the title. His eyes widened when he saw the name of the author.

Newt Scamander.

When you get to America, wish hello for Newt or Gellert! He recalled Dumbledore shouting to Penna during the previous time-travel.

"Was he a friend?" Marius asked. "Newt?"

"Was a friend?" Penna scoffed. "We're still friends! He may still be in England, but he and I still have every other Saturday night chimney talks! I used to visit him after he retired before I came here." She opened the book, revealing a taped figure of Penna from the late 1920s with a man holding a briefcase, two women in American style clothing, and a chubby man. The group was standing with the Statue of Liberty far behind them. Underneath the picture, there was a written dedication.

To Pensilisk, the one creature I have the greatest joy of having as a friend and fellow research partner. -Newt Scamander

"Pensilisk?" Marius asked.

"His nickname for me. I used to call him Officephobic..." Penna chuckled. "Because his boggart, his worst fear, was to work in an office!"

Marius had to admit, it did make him laugh a bit.

"He's three years older than me. We used to go to Hogwarts together, though he was sorted into Hufflepuff," Penna went on. "He was one of the rare, brave people who dared to befriend me outside of Slytherin, at the risk of being friendless himself. I helped a bit, studying some magical creatures. But then, when I was in third year and him in his sixth, he got in some kind of experimental accident. I don't know what fully happened, but some girl named Leta was to blame." She paused. "The Ministry began to conclude that I was to blame as the Dark Lord's daughter, but Newt took the blame. He got expelled, but since Dumbledore stood up for him as he always did to me, Newt got to keep his wand."

Marius bit his lip. He didn't know if what he was about to do would or wouldn't ruin everything, but he reached inside his layers of exoskeleton and pulled out the envelope addressed to Penna. Her eyes widened as she seemed to recognize the handwriting.

"Before coming here to fix the last details, the first thing we needed to get was a message from a departed," Marius explained as he held the envelope before Penna. "The Simian Witch used the Saturnium to take us back to when Dumbledore met up with you at a park before you headed to America. Right before he left, he put this on the bench you sat... and he looked at us."

"And you're surprised?" Penna asked sarcastically. "Even time-travelers fail to dub a genius like Dumbledore." She frowned at the envelope's address. "Malevia Village in Auradon Prep?"

"It's where all the descendants of the Isle stay in Auradon Prep. It's where you'll live..." Marius said. "It's where you lived, trying to make up for your past mistakes. There have been some who acknowledged why you did your misdeeds and tried to help you move forward, with no luck. There have been others who tried to attack you for what you did. I endangered you the most. I wanted you to be free, but I ended up making you vulnerable." He pushed the letter into Penna's hands. "Maybe it might be best if you just read it now."

Penna looked at him. She then went on to delicately open the envelope as if she wanted to preserve the plucked petals of a rose. Finally, she pulled out the delicate paper full of black-inked lettering. She didn't have to read it out loud, for Dumbledore's voice spoke right from it.

Dearest Penelope,

By the time you read this, I will have long passed away and you will be in a time of great difficulty. Your greatest enemy has still yet to be vanquished, and the reason why I know so is because you still haven't taken in what I told you: you are neither good nor evil. Only when you accept that you are what you are will the conflict of your darkness and light be cleared and make way for a clearer future.

You may also notice that when you receive this letter, it was given to you by a hybrid, a descendant of Titania and Oberon, and a royal heir. Yes, I know, you don't even want to know how I knew this, but this is what happens when you don't listen well in Divination class. Regardless, I know who he is and I know what he is. He is to you everything that Mandire Sullivan never was. Surprisingly enough, for someone of his kind, he is a dormant Legilimens, and you must help him fully reawaken before the worst occurs.

I wish you the best of luck, Penelope. You have always been to me the daughter I could never have.

With greatest of intents,

Albus Dumbledore

P.S: Don't be surprised when the cavern walls start banging.

The letter stopped talking and fell onto Penna's lap.

"What did he mean by 'don't be surprised when the cavern walls start banging'?" Marius asked.

"It means I made the mistake of keeping you back." Penna flew off her chair and to her desk. She pushed it aside with such strength, she did it in just one push. Parseltongue words slipped out of her month and the floor tiles, like snakeskin shedding, moved to form a hidden staircase.

"You know for someone who's apparently antisocial, you have so many hidden staircases," Marius commented.

"C'mon!" She grabbed Marius by the wrist and had him follow her, running down the staircase before it closed behind them and the desk moved back in place.

5 am, back to a familiar place

Silvia, Gladiola, and Brittany were hiding on top of a hill, using binoculars to keep a visual of the dead end that stood on the Kraken Trail. Despite the fog, the sound of a sportbike engine alerted them and Ruby came in view.

"OK." Brittany zoomed her view. "She's supposed to stop at the DEAD END, Gummy comes in, the fog shields him, she accidentally bumps on his tail, injures her leg, and cue capuchin in distress."

"Not how one imagines reassembling the eventual love of their lives encounter," Silvia rolled her eyes as she kept her eyes on Ruby. "She's getting closer..."

But before Ruby could even reach the DEAD END sign, a familiar blast of dark green magic hit the two tires. Losing control of her steering, Ruby yelled as she ended up falling off her vehicle, landing painfully on her leg.

"Corbeau surely didn't waste anytime!" Gladiola looked horrified.

Speaking of the devil, the fog immediately cleared to reveal Corbeau Roth Logan and Amanda Von Stiltskin standing by the debris of the sportbike.

"You!" Ruby spat at Corbeau.

"Miss me?" He said coldly.

Ruby responded by pulling out her gun. Amanda was way quicker and threw her foot at Ruby's wrist, pressing it on the ground.

"Well these two are no saints," Brittany Crouch actually winced.

"How the Hell did you get in the Isle?" Ruby demanded. "The dome holds in villains and keeps out heroes!"

"Yes, but those with ancient magic defy the laws of the barrier's magic." Corbeau walked towards Ruby while Amanda pulled her up by the hair, making her scream. "Pity. To think that after putting you in an island full of savages, you'd have learned what was best for you."

"Forget it!" Ruby spat. "At least the villains here have better decency than you! I'd rather died murdered by one of them than being back in the mainland with you!"

Corbeau shook his head with that indifferent expression in front of him. "Amanda, you may proceed."

Amanda snickered and waved her familiar golden spindle trompo. "You ever heard of gold poisoning? It's ten times worse than mercury poisoning. It solidifies your veins until it hits the heart, killing you into a statue with golden veins. Your pick, darling. Submission, or poisoning?"

Silvia got angry. She got up and pointed a finger at Amanda. 'Crucio,' she hissed in bloody anger.

The Cruciatus curse worked effectively, since Amanda began screaming. She let go of Ruby to clutch her paining head. The Death Eaters jumped out of their hidings and Brittany lead out a whistle. Soon enough, the pythonacondas in hiding slithered their way out to form a circle around Corbeau, who glared at the giant snakes around him.

"You think you can stop me?" Corbeau twisted his body until he transformed into a giant dark green T-Rex that began attacking the nearest pythonaconda. The giant snakes began attacking him in a pack while the Death Eaters shot him curses, which he seemed to have enough time to hold back with a magic shield. Meanwhile, Gladiola rushed to Ruby while Silvia got deeper in torturing Amanda. She pushed in the pain, it led Amanda to back straight to what separated her from a certain death via rocks standing out from the ocean.

"Please, I can't swim!" Amanda begged.

"Oh, the imp is afraid of swimming?" Silvia pouted. "What was I thinking? Getting myself toyed by a mere teenager! You understand nothing about the meaning behind evil! I became evil to protect my family! You merely do it as entertainment!"

"I'm Rumplestiltskin's daughter!" Amanda spit through her fear. "It's in my nature."

"Yeah..." Ruby groaned in her pain while Gladiola held her close. "Hey, ma'am? Amanda's got a limp leg."

"Oh, you're right. I can't just use magic on a disabled!" The Simian Witch put an end to her Cruciatus Curse and used her magic to fly the gun back in Ruby's hands. Realizing what was to happen to her, Amanda threw out her trompo, but using her spare, uninjured hand, Ruby shot a bullet right at the string. The golden spindle fell right on the floor. She sent in a second bullet, this time right at Amanda's limp leg. The poor imp screamed and grabbed her leg in pain, she lost her balance and fell over the cliff. The waves were so loud, no one heard her die.

"We need to get you out of here." Silvia rushed and picked up Ruby in her arms. She looked back at the battle scene. Some of the Death Eaters had been injured, two pythonacondas were dead, and Corbeau was now fighting his way around the remaining snakes in a green bear transformation. Just then, at the other end of the road, she saw a familiar jeep pulling in.

"Keep Corbeau busy!" She told Gladiola and teleported herself and Ruby out of the way. Gladiola took a deep breath, pulled out her Torch of Happiness, and aimed it at Corbeau.

"Being of despair and sadness, you cannot bear my barrier of happiness!" A gust of rainbow colored flames burned their way out, creating a fiery, colorful bricked wall that pushed Corbeau towards the old, stone wall that Gummy (in the previous fanfic) had pinned Ruby. He had to transform back in his regular form to hold back the wall, lest he wanted it to crush him. Brittany and some other Death Eaters joined in and aimed their wands at Corbeau.

"With me!" Brittany shouted.

"Protego!" They shot their magic at Gladiola's 'bricked wall', enhancing the rainbow cement around the bricks, making them heavier for Corbeau to push them away. Cracks began to grow on the stone wall behind him.

"Give it up, Corbeau! You and I both know that your demonic powers, though inherited from someone as powerful as Trigon, are minimal to the power of happiness that my Troll ancestors have been carrying for generations since the universe existed!" The Troll Princess shouted.

"Seriously, why do we never get one of those?" One of the Death Eaters complained. "All we get are the stupid ones!"

Corbeau gritted his teeth in frustration. Then, his eyes began to dart around the area they were in. His face suddenly got a realizing expression, which led to him transforming into a green rat. The enchanted bricked wall collapsed immediately.

"Get him!"

Curses were shot and the remaining pythonacondas tried to jump in to eat, but all attempts failed to kill the green rat, which transformed into a green raven that flew its way over the Infinite Forest of Evil.

Meanwhile, Silvia had managed to reach the jeep. It startled the butler loyal to the Fiskes so much, seeing his master's wife on the Isle, but he chose to listen to her and helped Ruby sit on the front passenger's seat.

"We can't explain everything to Monty," Silvia shook her head. "Just tell them that Ruby tried to bravely save the monkey from one of De Mort's pythonacondas, and she would have died if you hadn't intervened. Monty and Martin will believe it, they'll welcome her."

"I understand, mistress." Bates nodded. "Though I wish you could, at one point, tell them the truth. Milord already misses you terribly and the Young Master is not doing so well without his mother."

Silvia bit back her tears. "He's better off without a failure off a mother like me. What kind of a mother am I? I confused family duties with my delusions."

The door was still open, so Ruby reached out and held the Simian Witch's hand, startling the latter. "I wish my mom were more like you," she said with a small smile.

A small tear escaped the sorceress' eyes as Ruby brought herself back in and closed the door. Bates wished the best of luck to the sorceress and hit the engines, driving the jeep away from the dangerous zone. Silvia cried as the jeep drove away from the Kraken Trail and towards the direction of the Northern District, where Ruby would meet her destined love of her life.

Rubbing her tears away, she joined the others in confidence. "Good news! The matchmaking operation is at a good end!" She looked around and frowned. "Where's Corbeau?"

"Yeah, hold your applause, he went this way." Gladiola pointed at the Infinite Forest of Evil.

"What?" Silvia looked at the forest and then at the direction the jeep drove off to.

"Rather confusing," Brittany nodded. "It's too easy. That dirty blood has so much power, he chose to run away. Yet why did he not run after that girl he was after?"

"He did seem rather confused," one of the other Death Eaters agreed. "I could have sworn his eyes moved. Like he noticed something was missing."

Silvia's eyes widened in horror. "How could I have missed it? He saw Marius wasn't here and went after him!" She facepalmed herself.

"But I thought we agreed Martin and Ruby had to be reunited to eventually share true love's kiss, which is one of the mistakes we had to fix along with sending Corbeau to limbo!" Gladiola said.

"Gladiola, you said the riddle was 'reunite a couple through true love's kiss'!" Silvia exclaimed. "Sure, it would have made sense if it were Martin and Ruby, but now that I think about it, everytime I changed reality by stopping Penna from turning evil, I prevented many couples from joining!"
Gladiola pondered a bit more, unable to link the dots, but Brittany caught up faster. "Hold on. Are you saying... that the fellow with the imp pet is a couple with her Ladyship in the future?"

"Ooh, Bayen is going to be jealous!" One of the Death Eaters said in a sing-song tune.

"Penna wanted Marius to stay back!" Gladiola's eyes widened. "She was immediately drawn to him, much faster than Penna in our time. And since their connection is genuine, she might dare to risk everything and try to kiss him!"

"And Corbeau knows that it poses a risk to what he wants." Silvia looked back at the forest. "Corbeau is going to try to kill them."