"Where is Dee?" Danu asked, standing up in the presence of Hekate. Only a moment ago the goddess had come through the mirror in the corner of the room which has obviously been a leygate.

"He attempted to use Excalibur against me, I had no time," She lied. What she had done was seen as the most dreadful punishment given by en Elder, and although the two would not argue, she could not it be used against her someday. "The Doctor was dead when I left, well, dying, anyway." She thought that was a good cover up. If any of the Elders attempted to check in on the aura-less doctor, she could use the excuse that the humani had saved him, but that was the price.

"What of Bastet and the Morrigan?" Shiva asked, his brow furrowed, unbelieving Hekate's story. He motioned to the koi pond. The Goddess with Three Faces went to the waters edge and looked beneath the still waters. Two figures lay suspended in the pool, eyes closed, but they all knew that they were very, very alive.

"I have heard that Danu has created a Shadowrealm for the Morrigan?" She asked, her eyes unmoving from the still bodies.

She nodded, "A whole Shadowrealm of underground. She will be forced to wonder the unending labyrinth of stone looking for a way to the entrance, but she will never find it," She added maliciously.

Hekate turned to the Destroyer. "And Bastet?"

He shrugged, "I was actually thinking of letting her go."

Both the goddess' heads snapped up to bore their gaze into him. "What!?" They screeched in unison.

Shiva lifted his shoulder again. "When I went after her, she was afraid. It was a fear more powerful than any I could induce into her through a Shadowrealm. If I were to release her, I could always check back in every few weeks, scare her some more."

"Hmm," Danu murmured to herself. "What if you make her think she escaped on her own?"

"Do what you wish," Hekate said dismissively. "Where will you two go?"

"I plan to return to the Irish highlands of my youth. I miss them dearly…" She said dreamily.

"I will probably head back to LA, within close range of Bastet. And occasionally take a trip to India to the lost city of Ocher to visit my few remaining relatives." But then he added, "We must let them go."

"No," Hekate said impassively.

"Hekate, if we imprison either of them we are no better than them. We must be better, we must be the Elders who…"
"I will not let them live while I live. And neither will they."

Shiva shoved past her and reached into the cold water and pulled Bastet out. She snapped awake as soon as she broke the surface of the waves. He dragged her snapping and thrashing body to the large mirror in the corner. He activated the leygate but before he threw the Cat Goddess through, he touched her forehead. He pinched his thumb and index finger together against her furry head and pulled a long luminescent silver string from it. Then he shoved her through the gate and closed the portal.

"What is it?" Danu asked curiously, eyeing the silver strand floating in his hand.

"It is her memory, the memory of you, Hekate. She no longer remembers that you live."
"Then we accomplished nothing?" Hekate spat angrily at him.

"I induced fear and panic into her before I took this memory. She will live as if she were constantly being tracked down. She has become Bastet the Hunted."

"I wish to do the same to the Morrigan," Danu said suddenly. "But I want to put her back within her prison in Alcatraz.

And so, moments later, the Crow Goddess had entered her prison once again, her memory of Hekate gone. "Morrigan the Caged," Danu murmured softly to herself.

"I trust in what you did although I do not approve of it," Hekate confessed when they were done. "But then what have we accomplished? We had them, but now they are released back into the world!"

"They are creatures of the night, Hekate," Danu answered, s twinge of sadness in her voice, "and the worst possible punishment for them was already given. A creature of the night hunted by night itself."

"There is no more we can do," Shiva said, "We cannot play God." Hekate had forgotten that the Destroyer had been a firm believer in a higher power, despite the fact that his powers, along with most of the other Elders, were almost limitless.

"I must be off," Danu stated suddenly. "My flight leaves in a few hours." A smile stretched across her face. "How strange is it that we went from ruling the world to traveling among the humani in planes?" She turned, and with a giggle, kissed both of them good-bye. And then she was gone.

"I must be leaving too," Shiva said, remorse in his voice. "But before I leave, I have something for you." Hekate turned to face him as he opened his hands and revealed a golden lotus flower. With a gasp of surprise, she cupped it in her hands. "It will always bring good luck to its possessor."

"Thank you, Shiva," She whispered. And then he turned and ran out of the World Tree and out of the Shadowrealm.

The Yggdrasill moaned in anticipation: for the first time since the Dark Elders had invaded her home, Hekate was in peace. She was happy.

She tossed the golden lotus into the pond, ignoring it as it sank to the unseeable bottom. She walked outside of the tree and turned to stare up at its wonder. It was a magnificent creature, full of power, but yet full of solitude.

"The world is ours," She murmured softly to the World Tree, laying her jet black hands on its ancient bark. "How should we spend eternity?"