Mal was staring at the statue before her. Her vision was dark at the edges and the blood rushing in her ears the only sounds she heard. Everything else was muffled and out of focus. The pain running up her side didn't register as she stood closing the distance between Evie and herself. She pressed her forehead to the cold stone, struggling to keep the bile down.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Which one of you would like to join your friends first?" The staff was glowing faintly as she floated down.

Uma and Ginny stood to face her. "How about option B. We kick your ass," Ginny said.

"You poor excuses for heirs will never be able to tap into the power I can."

"Sure," Uma snorted, "That's why you stole one of the most powerful magic items in the world. Because you're already so powerful."

A wave of green energy blasted out from the staff. Uma threw up her hands, the force pushing her and Ginny back but they managed to stay on their feet.

Mal braced them from behind just before they were knocked off balance.

"Is your head clear enough for this fight?" Uma asked, glancing at her.

Mal didn't answer, gripping Hades' emerald.

"You're going to reverse what you did," Mal said, stepping in front of Uma and Ginny.

She laughed, turning the staff in her hands, "Why would I do that? All you VKs have been good for is forgetting your legacies."

"Enough with the legacies crap," Ginny groaned, "If you want to meet our parents so much go ahead. Let them abuse you for a change."

"No true VK would hurt their own. We were all we had on the Isle," Uma said.

"Change them back. Now," Mal snarled, her eyes glowing.

"Even if I could do that, I don't care to listen to you."

"What?"

"I learnt how to cast the curses. I didn't bother with reversing part. And you won't have to worry about it in a moment either."

The staff flashed. Mal's hand lifted on instinct. Her magic bloomed out, doming over Uma, Ginny and herself. The gem in her hand burned, the heat sinking into her veins. Her eyes, arms, head all felt hot. The tears in her eyes didn't get the chance to fall, the very energy burning them away.

Uma's hand on her shoulder grounded her, giving her a centre to focus her magic.

"That staff doesn't belong to you."

"And are you going to take it from me? You couldn't last time."

"This time, I'm not alone."

Mal felt the burst of energy that ran through her from Uma, pushing the magic from the staff back.

The air smelt like ozone, the air charged with energy.

Ginny lowered her voice, "I can't help with the spark show, but if you give me cover I can get in close. Grab the staff while you two distract her."

"Suits of armour?" Uma glanced at Mal.

Mal nodded slowly, inching forward, holding the emerald in her hand. Her fingers seemed to almost meld into the surface of the gem, the warmth burning into her. She remembered Hades' words of the gem not doing everything for her, but just holding it now, she felt threads of magic weaving around her like she never had before. Screw 'everything' all she needed was 'enough' to make her pay.

The staff flashed again and she was ready this time, drawing her magic forward at the same time. Dark green and blue magic collided in the space between them. Molten energy refracted, colliding with the walls and fall around it.

Uma clasped her necklace, stepping behind Mal. Water formed in the air around, hovering in drops around her. Mal, tapping into the heat always burning the surface felt the flames licking up her face and hair.

"A little heat isn't going to scare me."

Mal smiled, "I don't use my magic to scare."

She shifted herself to the side, deflecting the magic from the staff upwards, the blow knocking their opponent back. She turned the flames on Uma. In the same moment water cascaded around Uma.

Steam filled the room so quickly it almost seemed to knock the breathable air from Mal's lungs. It took a moment to adjust, but they haven't the time to get comfortable. She could hear Ginny's footfalls against the floor already. Mal whipped back around, firing off concentrated blasts of flames through the steam.

The green glow of her mother's staff gave away where to look out for returning fire. Uma joined her side, spectral tentacles forming in the steam surrounding them, reaching out for the staff.

The staff bearer used magic blasts to vaporize the tentacles as they formed.

But it was all spectacle and distraction.

Emerging from the steam, she jumped from behind, grabbed the shaft of the staff.

"I got it!"

"When did you-!"

Tentacles of steam and water wrapped around her legs and torso.

"No!" She screeched.

"Ginny, pull," Mal was rushing across the space to help.

Mal saw the staff glow as her hand lifted towards it. She idly thought it was glowing for her.

She should have known better.

The room exploded. Green, black and suffocating. She tasted metal in her mouth. The floor under her was cracked, dust choking her lungs and stinging her eyes. There was a groan somewhere to her left.

"Uma?" She called, her voice cracking with the pain. There was no response. "Ginny?"

"First you refused to sleep. Then I give you the chance to walk from this and you come back again and again, a thorn in my side."

There was crunching next to her head and a green glow filled her eyes. It was bright enough to hurt.

"I was going to turn you to stone, but that would be too easy. You don't get that,"

The mask was gone completely now. Mal could see the bloodied and pain face of a woman a few years old than her. Her own clothes had been torn and battered in an instant too, like the magic had tumbled her as much as it had everyone else in the room. The staff flashed and the wall behind Mal's head exploded out, opening the room to the air. With a sickening green, the staff pulsed.

There was a moment Mal expected more pain in conjunction with that pulse but there wasn't. Instead, the stone figures of their friends hovered in the air.

"You had everything I wanted. And you still came here and took more. You all did. It's time you lost something."

Panic flared in Mal when she saw the stone figures moving towards the open hole.

"No!"

She tried to move but the pain was too much. A thread of energy spilt off from the tip of the staff, pinning her against the floor. She tried to reach for her magic, fighting against the staff, but each time she pushed back it held firm against her. The emerald. She didn't have it. She'd dropped it and without it, she was powerless against the staff.

Their friends, frozen in stone moved closer to the emptiness outside the walls.

A figure stumbled in front of the broken wall, hands up, her eyes glowing faintly.

"You'll have to go through me first," Uma said, wiping the blood away from her nose.

"Very well."

A jolt of magic fired off from the staff. So sudden Uma didn't have the chance to reach before she was out in the open air.

Mal watched her fall. She screamed her name as she did.

"Stop," She begged, pushing through the pain onto her elbows, "Please stop. You're not a killer."

"You don't know the first thing about me."

Their friends were outside now, suspended by magic alone. Their blank stone faces unable to see the fall below them.

"Don't do this."

"Villains don't beg Mal."

"I'm not a villain! I just to live."

She couldn't look away from the woman she wanted to live with.

"You shouldn't have fought your nature."

They fell.

Mal watched the magic fade around each stone figure. She watched gravity take over, pulling them to towards the earth. They were there. Then they weren't.

And Mal did nothing but watch.

There was a moment of eerie silence. There was no wind, so crash. Nothing. It was just dead silence in Mal's ears.

Then everything around her was flames.

The staff bearer fell back, lifting the staff to shield herself from the flames.

Mal stood, the pain of moving no even registering. There was too much pain everywhere else to care about her arms and legs. Too much pain in her chest, her head, her heart. So much. So much.

She ought to share this much pain.

She turned, eyes a deep green, two poisonous specks that only had one thing they wanted to see. Death. Mal's magic reached out, searching for the emerald. The edge of her consciousness felt it calling to her. As she walked towards it, it lifted into the air to meet. As her hands closed around it, the now-familiar surge buzzed deep in her veins.

Something else in the room reached back when her magic extended. The staff. Well, that was surprising.

"Enough of this." The staff cleaved the air, a wave of magic sweeping towards Mal.

She didn't lift her hand this time, the emerald responding with just her thoughts.

"You may have mother's staff, but you haven't even begun to explore how to use it," Mal hissed.

That much was clear now. When not trying to enact a curse, the magic from the staff was nothing but wild, untamed power. It easily overwhelmed when not prepared, but having seen a few times now, she could read the points that were weakest and cut through magical threads.

Mal pushed her magic into the gem, feeling it push back against her hand. She trapped the energy there, pressing more and more into a single point. So maybe she couldn't pull off something with finesse with the gem either. She didn't want finesse just then, she just wanted power. Just give her enough power.

The magic exploded in a swirl of blue and purple energy, flooding the room.

The staff flared to protect its user, but the green was quickly swallowed by the purples. It was knocked from her hands, and she went flying into the wall. She struggled to her knees, lifting her hands towards the staff. It rattled on the floor but didn't move. She tried again and it started to float towards her.

Mal lifted her hand and the staff stopped in the air. There was a moment it was still. Then it drifted towards her. It glowed when it touched her hands.

"How! It rejected you!"

"What was it you said? The staff responds to true evil? Allow me to show you what a real villain acts."

Tapping into a strain of nature magic she hadn't used in years she made the wood on the edge of the staff grow, curving and flexing. She placed her father's gem in the pocket she created. It pulsed in time with the gem sitting in the staff already.

Flames of a deep blue flare around both gems and Mal slowly lowered it towards her enemy.

"W-wait."

The flames crackled and flared around the staff.

"Mal, stop." Ginny was suddenly in front of her.

"Out of the way Ginny."

"It's over. You've won."

"I said out of the way."

"She can't fight without the staff."

"She's still breathing."

"My friends fell too! But I'm still telling you to stop."

"If you won't get out of the way I'll just go through you too."

"I caught them."

That was Uma's voice. A tentacle, a pale blue in colour pulled itself through the hole in the wall and Uma appeared, shifting down to her human form again. "It was a close call there. But they're safe. Stone, but safe."

"Get out of the way Ginny."

"Uma just said they're safe."

"She's hurt too many of us."

Uma glanced between Ginny and Mal. "You've never been one for an eye for an eye." She moved next to Ginny.

"I don't want to hurt you." The flames licked higher and brighter.

"Likewise, Mal," Uma said, her necklace glowing faintly.

She and Ginny moved together, grabbed for the staff. The flames exploded out, knocking Ginny back. Uma's magic covered her water, steam hissing at the point she grabbed the staff. She grimaced as the flames licked her hands.

"What happened to all your talk about doing things the right way?" Uma said.

"Evie…"

"Evie wouldn't want you to do this. You're not a villain. You're not your mother. You choose to make your happiness."

The flames burned hotter and Uma cried out but didn't drop the staff.

"Don't let yourself become the villain now. Mal, think about what Evie would want. You do this, you kill her, you get revenge, but you doom every VK. Get your head out of your ass. A poster kid like you breaking would make them think we're all going to break."

The tears on Mal's cheeks were evaporating as they rolled over her skin.

"After everything, this is the shit you're going to let turn you?" Uma asked, "Think, what would Evie want?"

She wouldn't want this. Mal knew that. So even though the flames would have been so easy to release, she dropped the staff instead. The fire sputtered out as soon as she did. She fell to her knees, cursing as tears drowned her vision.

There were angry burns on Uma's hands, but she dropped next to Mal, placing her hands on her back.

Nardragon- Until the next page.