Chapter 7: Doing the Magic

Penelope

"Well… I miscalculated," I said. "Although this is also ideal, I had a different target in mind." We had succeeded in opening up a portal back to the Prime Dimension. I wanted to bring my children, Max, Jacob, and Daisy, here. I didn't know what the Enigma had done to them and I wanted to be sure they were safe. However, I brought Perry back instead.

It might have wound up being a happy circumstance. His mind had been greatly clouded by dark magic. I was certain the Enigma might have succeeded if I had not intervened. Now away from influence, I could counteract the dark magic with light magic.

"There is no end to his depravity. He must be stopped," I said while dabbing a wet cloth across Perry's forehead.

"If he did that in your dimension, he must have worse plans for this one," said Candace.

"I wouldn't be surprised if this dimension's Enigma did have those types of plans. I have no doubt he and the Prime Dimension's Enigma are working together. The conversation Perry and I overheard was proof enough of that." Why he didn't destroy us then and there was beyond me… except… that never was his plan. "He won't stop until I'm his, I and the world."

"He doesn't want for much," said this dimension's Perry. "This really is too much. How are we to fight him?"

"Fighting? Ha. I don't think that's an option anymore. He won't stop until he stops," I said. It hurt me, the idea of having to kill my own brother to attain peace… but if that's what it took, then I would do it. For this dimension and the next.

"There… there must be another way. Let's… let's just think about this."

"I'm done thinking about it. It's what's happening."

"If… if that's what you think is best… I won't stop you. But I can't help you either. I don't know what all he put you through, but I'm sure your Perry would say the same thing."

Baljeet came up to me with a potion I had asked him to make. It would help Perry break free of the curse and remember himself. "Thanks, Baljeet," I said.

Before I could do anything though, Perry awoke. He backed away quickly. "Wh-What's going on?! Where am I?!" he was freaking out.

"Perry, it's okay. You're safe now. You're with me," I said.

"Stay back! I-I'm not where I'm supposed to be. Take me back!"

"Perry, please… it's all right. Really. Drink this and you'll remember everything."

Perry was shaking. I had never seen him so afraid. "Stay away. Please. Just stay away!" He started to run off and, wanting to stop him, I did something I had never done before. With a wave of my hand, the floor jutted upward, directly in the path Perry was running.

I fell to one knee from the effort. I felt blood coming from my nose. I hadn't expected that. Everyone else seemed equally surprised. "Witch! You're trying to kill me!" said Perry.

"I'm not! Perry, please!"

"Penelope! Perry!" a voice echoed from somewhere.

"The mirror spell…" I murmured. I hadn't activated it, but someone clearly had. I hadn't seen this since Perry did it in Montenegro. Of course, then the mirror was already enchanted. This time, the enchantment had been placed on the mirror.

"Doofenshmirtz! How'd you do that?!" I questioned. It was clearly a more advanced spell since we could hear each other. This felt different.

"There's all these books here. I picked one up on magic and read it. I guess it paid off," he said with a shrug.

"Wow."

"Listen, I don't have a lot of time. You need to get Perry back over here. You need to get back over here. You need to break the curse so that we can get out of this mess!"

"I can't leave yet. The Enigma of this dimension is working with the Enigma of that dimension. They're both wrecking havoc. Most of Danville over here is in slavery to this dimension's you as a front for being slaves to him."

"Wow, that's confusing as all heck. Wait, you're in another dimension?! No wonder I was having trouble with this spell."

"Well, you can't expect it to go right the first time you try it."

"That's the thing. I've been doing some reading. The Enigma probably doesn't want me to know this, but I'm seriously magical. Apparently, it was passed down to me from my great-grandmother, Gretel. Who knew she was magical? Maybe those were the issues Grandpa Jose told me about. Anyway, the point is, I have the magic ability to 'adapt new skills at first encounter.' It apparently applies mostly to magic, but still, pretty cool, right?" He had the book in front of him, so I didn't doubt his claim. Still though…

"You're Deus Ex Machina magic? You?" I asked skeptically.

"How else do you explain the mirror call, hm? And apparently, this is only a fraction of what I can do. If I was back in my body, I'd be doing so much more."

"I'm sorry, it's just Deus Ex's are myths and, moreover, they know things others shouldn't know. They have that uncanny ability to tap into the beyond. Since when did you do that?"

"I don't know, but apparently the Enigma wanted to keep this from me, so it's something big. Why else would he want my body? You said yourself I had magic in me. Well, this is it."

"Yeah, but Deus Ex?"

"What exactly is going on here?" asked Perry. I jumped since I didn't notice he was right behind me. "I knew this was all magic."

"And here I thought you were afraid of me," I said.

"I was until I remembered you were the one in my dreams," said Perry.

"Dreams plural?" I looked to Heinz since I knew I had only made myself appear in one dream.

"I created a Dream-inator and have been trying to awaken his memories of the past. He and you are the key to this. There are forces beyond us that want you two together. The bond you two have? It's beyond important, it's lifeblood," said Heinz.

"Lifeblood…" I said, remembering the promise Perry and I had made so long ago in Lithuania. "I had no idea…"

"You two could break any curse, just because of that bond. I guess the last one had a special clause written in it, but… I doubt it would have taken much."

"Well, you're the research guy. What do we need to do?"

"True love's kiss breaks any curse. But, you'd need to both be here in order for it to work."

"Right…" I was still hesitant. This dimension needed me too. A force like the Enigma was too much to go after alone.

"We have a perimeter breach!" said Candace. "To your positions!" Alarms were blaring red and everyone took positions beside the entrances.

"What's going on?" asked Heinz.

"Look, we're gonna have to do this later. I have to fix this first. Please, just do what you can until we can get back, because getting back is kinda hard to do," I said.

"Right. I'll keep looking. I'll get back to you if anything happens."

"Thanks." He nodded and the mirror faded back to normal.

Just as it did, Norm-bots burst through the walls and ceiling. It was bright with all the lights shining in. Then, a figure came in. "Well, hello there. Happy I made an appearance?" It was the Enigma, no doubt. He was dressed in a formal suit with his coat slung over his shoulder. He looked on at us with one red real eye (his right) and one red bionic eye (his left).

"Who took your eye in this dimension?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Why, you did."

Enter the Enigma, once more. Please keep reading and please leave a review. I'm starting to think you guys don't like this series anymore, what with no reviews so far :( Tell me what you think so far and what you'd like to see in the future. Thanks :)

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