Chapter Nineteen: "Sudden Impact."

"The end is almost here, our nightmare is almost over," Hermione said as she placed her hands on the side of her hips. The brunette looked up to the sky and smiled as she managed to alter the Rune Stones ever so slightly. "It is coming, they could not stop it, Harry Potter could not stop it, and Harry Potter could not stop me."

Hermione's face twisted into a grin as seconds ticked by. Her thousand year nightmare was almost over, she would be free. If the others perished, well it would be sad, but it would have to be done. She understood that the power was in her hands.

"No, No, I have not forsaken you, never, never, never," Hermione whispered as she talked to her hand. The dark haired witch opened and closed her hand, whimpering as she looked at it. "No, No, No, No."

Hermione shook her head and she saw the people on the ground. She turned towards them, with a loud barking to her voice as she snapped at them. "GET TO WORK!"

They did get to work, scrambling, looking completely fearful. They knew that if they upset her, it would be the end for them all. There were a couple who would question but it was at their own peril.

"What the heck are you doing now?"

"I am not to be questioned," Hermione said as she nearly bared her teeth, rotting as they were. She felt the pain, the hunger, she needed to feast on something. And if anyone questioned her, they would be feasted upon. "I am the smartest witch of my age or any other…."

"More like the dumbest bitch," one of them muttered, making sure that statement was done out of an earshot. She was not that stupid.

Hermione smiled, the planets were nearly aligned, it was something that happened once every ten thousand years so she had to get it done right and there was not going to be a chance for a redo. She had been waiting for this day.

The Forbidden Zone would now be the safest place on Earth, as opposed to one of the most dangerous. Life, the remaining humans, aliens, anyone left on Earth would be crushed and anything in the impact, including the headquarters of the Legion of Super Heroes and all of the other seven planets along with Pluto, would be destroyed.

Although in her book, Pluto was always a planet, and since she was the smartest witch of her age, Hermione felt that her word held more weight that anyone else. She peered down with hatred dancing in her eyes, burning from her soul, and her lips pursed as she said one statement.

"I want to get it done, I want that shield up, we have seven hours and seven minutes and seven seconds to get this done," Hermione said, she planned this one to the letter. She rubbed her hands together with glee, her teeth contorting into a bright smile.

There were those who doubted her but no one would doubt her now. She would lead her children to the promise land and the one that had forsaken them would be destroyed.

"You could have stuck with us Harry Potter, but you chose to be different, how dare you, after all that I've done with you," Hermione whispered harshly, as she stared at her hands once again and then looked up to the heavens. The shield actually was increased and not diluted, which was the reversal of what they were trying to do for years and years.

Time was not on their side, and it wouldn't be on the side of their enemies either.

"It is nearly done," one of them said, his voice shook as he spoke. He knew that if there was a miscue and a misfire, they would be screwed.

"See that it is," Hermione said as her voice was even more harsher. Instantly, she turned around to see him standing there, his white beard prominent and shining in a nearly blind light. He stood tall and imposing, with his twinkling blue eyes flashing in the distance. "Sir, we are nearly in position."

"Excellent, my child," Dumbledore whispered in a raspy voice as he looked at Hermione. "You have done well, you are a true credit to this school and it proves that you are the smartest witch of your age."

With her ego fed, Hermione grinned. "Thank you, sir, it is more than I deserve."

"But until Harry Potter lives, none of us our safe, he is responsible for the mass genocide of every magical user of Europe, and he corrupted your experiment to stop the plague, because naturally you would not have made a mistake, for you are impeccable," Dumbledore said. The faux grandfatherly tone of his voice tinged with disappointment.

"The only mistake that I have made was helping him for all of those years and not leaving him for dead," Hermione said, her eyes glowing with madness. Harry was her friend and he betrayed her. If it was not for her, he would have been dead several times over.

"Yes, but it is never too late, Hermione, my child, I am proud of you and it will all be over soon, just like a very bad dream, the impact will revert you back to normal but naturally sacrifices must be made for the Greater Good," Dumbledore whispered as he barely hid his knowing and slightly psychotic smile from the shadows.

"Yes, for the Greater Good," Hermione agreed as her hand opened and closed after a few seconds and she leaned forward, rolling her shoulders. Her lips curled into a psychotic little grin as she prepared herself for what came next. "I will not fail you."

The other members of the Forbidden Zone looked up and saw that Hermione was talking to thin air. Their eyes widened as they wondered what she was going to do next. All of them knew better than to interfere with her madness.

The time was running down and soon they would be free, it would be like a long nightmare that would end. And they would destroy the one that had forsaken them. Soon all would be right.

Harry had the ring in his hand, a smile spreading over his face. Slowly, it dawned on him. He barely heard Chloe approach him.

"So, do you have it figured out?"

"I think everything is finally clear to me now," Harry said as he looked over his shoulder to face Chloe. He could have more words here, but he was ready. "But someone is trying to go through an awfully lot to try and hide the Forbidden Zone."

"Yes, I noticed that," Tess said as she popped up. "I've been going through some scans of the Zone, or where you said the Zone is. The pull used to extend all throughout the European Union but most of them are holed up in Scotland, around the area of Hogwarts. It appears that Scotland has dropped off of the map and is unable to be found by the rest of the world."

"Okay, Hogwarts was unplottable in general, until the magic was sucked out of it by those zombies," Harry said and Karen and Kara turned up, along with Alexis and Alexandria. The latter two were being lead in by leashes by the two blondes.

"This is completely degrading," Alexis grumbled as Kara yanked the leash which caused her to go forward.

"Well if you want to act like bitches, then we're going to treat you like one," Kara said and Karen picked up where her younger counterpart as she nodded her head.

"You wanted to help, you wanted to do something useful, you wanted to make your mark, so here's your chance to do so," Karen said to the twins who smiled. "You're going to help us figure what is happening in this Forbidden Zone."

"Yes, one of the greatest mysteries in the world, so naturally you needed our help," Alexis said but Kara yanked the choke chain that she had the girl which caused her to yelp. "Why?"

"We'll train you yet," Kara said to her as she smiled and patted the redhead on the top of the head. She scowled and sank down, having never felt so utterly humiliated in her entire life and that was really something. The blonde smiled as she ran her hand down the leash that she had in her hand. "So, where are the others?"

"Diana, Zatanna, Imra, Salu, Lournu, Tinya, and Nuru are all on the advanced scouting mission, I should be checking in on them soon," Chloe said and sure enough Imra's voice popped over the comm system to give a report.

"We're outside of the Forbidden Zone or at least where you think that it might be, there's a wall….I've run some simulations and our weapons cannot even bend it," Imra said and this was interesting news to Harry.

"Hermione's fortified the barrier around the Forbidden Zone, sealing her inside, but why?" Harry asked and Alexis sat herself down, taking control and checking a few things.

If her calculations were correct and they rarely were not, they would be in for some big trouble.

"Well this may very well constitute as a problem," Alexis said as she doubled checked the report. Needless to say there might be a few problems.

Harry's eyes turned towards her. "What….."

"Dark matter meteors….nasty things, most of the time they pass right over the Earth and leave us alone but if someone magnetically altered certain properties about the planet, it could crash into the Earth and destroy all life on Earth and all of the neighboring planets and Pluto," Alexis said as she shifted her arms across each other.

Karen's chest rose and fell as she took a breath. "So, would this….fortification of the shields….indicate that they would be altering the magnetic pole of the planets."

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dark matter….yes….they would….she's gotten it into her head that that might some how to reverse the effects."

"Will it?" Tess asked, magic was uncharted waters for her but she was more than willing to learn what she could to figure everything out.

"No, it will most likely destroy them, but unfortunately it's going to destroy everything else on the planet as well and in all of the neighboring planets, there won't be anything left," Harry said as he decided to bring up all of the information that he could on this.

"You know, you can't stop this, you realize that, don't you?" Alexis asked him.

Alexandria disagreed with her. "You know there are possibilities, or are you doubting Harry's abilities?"

"Not doubting, just saying that it would be a lot saner just to get us to another universe and just write off this one as a lost cause," Alexis said but then she thought about it. "I'm sure that there are ways, but they would be suicide and it would be a one and a million chance to even work."

"Pretty good odds then," Kara said knowingly as they tried to lock onto the meteor and get all of the information that they can.

"There might be a chance that she's mistaken, there might be a chance that whatever she's bringing there, it does not get sent to Earth," Chloe said as she chewed down on her lip really nervously and Harry smiled hopefully.

"I hope not," Harry said. He should assume that Hermione was working with the impression that this would some how cure her and the other residents of the Zone of her affliction. Which meant that she was desperate and desperate people were the most dangerous of them all.

"Now is the time."

That was a phrase that went through the minds of both sides but for different reasons. Harry was going to face these enemies and hopefully he would be able to take them down right away.

'We deal with the pawns, you deal with the knight, it seems to work out well like that,' Imra thought. 'So are you willing to put her down so she stays down?'

'Not too happy about it, but I have to do it because she's too far gone and besides, she's not the person that she once was,' Harry thought and the fact was that Hermione had a few issues, regarding her obsessive pursuit of knowledge. These issues only increased with the plague.

'She's going to more likely open up a rift in time and space,' Alexis thought to them and she was still trying to get used to someone going into the back of her mind. It did kind of throw her off to be honest. 'So either the meteor destroys us or whatever horrors she sends through the portal does it. Take your pick of what is worse.'

'Let's try none of the above if we can,' Kara thought but she thought that there was a bit of a high pressure situation.

Harry was right outside of Hogwarts. He knew one thing to be true. Hermione's ego would not allow her to turn down a fight with him. She always had that need for superiority.

"So, you're going to go in there, despite the risks," Raven said as she showed up by Harry's side. Her sudden arrival surprised Harry but he took these things in stride.

"Oh, you're here?" Harry asked her, raising his eyebrow in surprise and the girl's face contorted into half of a smile.

"In a matter of speaking," Raven said as she shifted back and sure enough Harry understood what she implied.

"You're halfway there," Harry said as she nodded and there was a grim gaze that went over her face. Harry knew he was about to dread the next question but he asked it anyway. "So, what's the problem….you're risking a lot coming here."

"Whatever she's doing, it's causing a rift to be opened in my father's dimension, oh he is still trapped but there are some things in there that are as nearly as bad as him or pretty much that awful," Raven said as she watched him.

"I see the rune stone, that's what I need to target….."

"No need to trick your way into here, Harry, I'll be happy to open the door and invite you to dinner."

Hermione's voice was oddly girly and had a certain Umbridge quality to it that gave Harry the willies. He took half of a step forward as the door opened, allowing Harry entrance.

"Did you think that I would leave your demise to chance?" Hermione asked as she stared him down, dressed in a white robe and her slit like eyes glowing. "Did you really think that after all of the times you survived when you should it, that I would not personally crush you under foot?"

"Hermione, you are a fool…."

"DON'T EVER CALL ME THAT!" Hermione shrieked as she conjured several razor sharp flaming spikes were directed at Harry was the brunette foamed at the mouth. Harry conjured a shield up and the spikes hit it and faded off into nothingness.

"Books don't win the day, thinking on your feet is and you still haven't mastered that," Harry said as he held the ring up and tried at her.

Much to his surprise, there was nothing, not even a spark. That frustrated him Harry decided to go for plan B and surrounded Hermione with fire.

"NOOOO!" Hermione yelled as she felt the flames closing in on her. She felt a primal fear towards fire and while she could jump over it, she was completely paralyzed. "You can't stop me, this is my sacred mission."

"Who told you this or did you come up with an original thought on your own?" Harry asked Hermione, carefully peering back in the brunette from the shadows. Hermione's jaw was set and her scowl increased.

"You allowed him to die, but he could have saved us, you had to have all of the glory for yourself and now….."

BANG!

Harry and Hermione stopped suddenly. Harry was pretty sure that the Legion lead out the zombies on the other end but then….if that was….."

"What did you do?" Hermione demanded as Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Me, you're the one who is trying to inspire genocide on a mass scale!" Harry yelled as he let the fire down.

"He is trying to confuse you my child, you should not allow it," Dumbledore whispered as Hermione stared at him.

"I won't sir," Hermione said and Harry blinked.

Harry wondered why Hermione was talking to thin air and he was about ready to move towards her but a rift opened in time and space.

'We've got big problems,' Zatanna thought as they managed to isolate the zombies for the most part but that was only a minor problem.

Harry hated to say this but if there was going to be problems, he was going to have a slight headache. Hermione looked around as the fire faded.

Winged demons showed up and hovered over them, as it became clear that there was a moment where time and space parted and unleashed some horrors.

Hermione shook her head, as she watched them go after Harry. She frowned, she was the only one that should be able to stop him and these hideous creatures, she would not allow them to take him down.

Harry wondered how this madness tended to turn in this direction. He saw Hermione standing there and she fought, almost side by side. The girl was angry that her plans did not go according to plan and that really caused her to become upset.

"GET AWAY!" she howled at the top of her longs as her eyes flared with anger and it flared with power. She dodged the attacks, as Harry knocked the attacker out of the way. Hermione's eyes widened.

"You better watch your back," Harry told her and Hermione glared at him but she had no time to say anything.

'I'm guessing this is happening all over the Forbidden Zone,' Harry thought, as the shields were wrapped around the area of Hogwarts, where the survivors lid.

'Yes,' Kara said as she blasted heat vision at her enemies and then she flew at super speed, with the blonde knocking the whirlwind of attacks and the demons flew up into the ground and landed with a sickening crack.

'We'll take care of them, you take care of whatever you need on your other side,' Karen said as she fought them hard. Her hands cracked together and the monsters fell down to the ground.

"So just like old times again, isn't it?" Harry asked as Hermione nearly was sliced in half.

"No, never," Hermione said through gritted teeth, her mind was running a mile a minute. She was really confused and she did not like when she was confused. Horror swam through her eyes and her mind as she saw the winged figures dive bombing her fellow survivors. She stepped forward but tripped and one second later, she was trapped on the ground.

Harry blasted them with a huge attack and caused him to fly them backwards. They landed onto the spike walls and he summoned all of the power that he could, reversing the pull of the portals. The portal sucked them through and there was a loud crack as they were disposed of just like that.

'Halfway there,' Harry thought as he swallowed the lump in his throat and he saw Hermione fall down onto the ground, her face and throat was scratched up.

Blood poured from her mouth and Harry took a half of a step forward as Raven stood next to him.

"So, do you have any ideas?" Harry asked to the half demon and she raised half of an eyebrow.

"Maybe, do you?" Raven asked, throwing the ball back into his court and she used her own spell to knock the creatures back. Hermione was off to the side, forgotten, as more portals ripped open, sending more enemies into the center ring. "Well?"

"Yes, I do, although I'm not sure if they would be what you would consider to be a good idea," Harry said as he swung an axe and nailed the demons. The axe split into their heads, one at a time as blood splashed from their wounds. There was a loud squealing moan as they were knocked backwards. "But they are ideas."

Harry turned over his shoulder and could spot the creatures. He summoned all of the power that he could and locked onto the rifts. The green eyed wizard and his heart hammered even heavier as he tried to push through the rifts.

One thing at a time, the wizard managed to reverse the portal and sent them all flying through the portal.

'It's working, it's working,' Kara thought and there was a smile on her face. 'The Forbidden Zone….they're burning out as well.'

Hermione did a duck and roll and dove right towards the ring that had been dropped by Harry during the battle. She held the ring up into her hand and slipped it on, causing it to glow.

"At last, you're done!" Hermione yelled as she pointed Harry but the ring did not work as it intended to her.

In fact, the ring slowly ensnared her mind, gripping it in a trap, and Hermione screamed as all of the horrors that she had inadvertently caused were reflected into her mind. They played again and again in an intense loop as she was bombarded by the most horrific memories ever. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she dropped to her knees at Harry's feet.

"Harry, please, please, LET ME OUT OF MY MISERY, PLEASE!" Hermione yelled as she looked up at her once friend. "DUMBLEDORE FORGIVE ME, I'M….KILL ME BEFORE IT TAKES ME OVER AGAIN!"

No sooner did that sentence leave Hermione's mouth was that her head was parted with a magical ax and her body was ripped in half. The remaining magic left her as those in the Forbidden Zone vanished. The ring did work to set her up for the fall and it turned out that once she put the ring on, it overwhelmed her and caused her to feel the guilt of what happened.

"Good bye, Hermione," Harry said as he turned around and walked towards the rune stones.

'They're all gone, I don't believe it, everything is going back….' Kara thought and Harry disabled the rune stones one by one.

'So, do we still have a problem?' Harry asked and it was Tess who jumped in, frowning as she did.

'We'll know in a minute, and the meteor….it's about to….it's going to pass over us, because it's not being pulled down here, I think that you can breathe now,' Tess thought to Harry and Harry was not going to say anything, but he was going to take her advice.

There was nothing on the grass, not even an ugly blood stain, for Hermione had no blood left to spill for she died hundreds of years ago and the husk was finally put out of her misery.

Did Harry want to say that the nightmare was over?

Well he would find out before too long.

"In the end, we came so close, I'm not even sure if you could even describe how close we all came," Diana said, somberly.

"It was close, all too close," Harry said and there was nothing more to say about that. He had thought that for a second, Hermione had gotten a moment of clarity, at least enough to stop fighting. "So….I think that this is over, isn't it?"

"Yes," Kara said as she understood that Hermione would never be the girl that she once was after the moment that the plague hit her and she had a few mental issues before then. Then again, who didn't?"Was it hard?"

"It was a bit difficult, yes," Harry admitted, although things would have been worse if he had not been able to disable the rune stones in time.

"Double checking the dark matter comment, it's saying over us, we're out of the woods, we did it," Chloe said somberly and she watched Harry. "So, what you're trying to say is that if you would have just gave her the ring, her mind would have had clarity sooner?"

"It appears that way," Harry said grimly, the solution was so simple. Then again, the most simple solutions often got lost on people. "Damn, it was really close, wasn't it?"

"But, she's in a better place," Karen said but there was just something about what happened that she could not properly put her finger on. Zatanna noticed this as well.

"What…."

"I don't know," Karen admitted as there was a second where she placed her hand on her chin and then let it fall on the table. "I'm happy that the people in the Forbidden Zone were gone but….there's something that happened….."

"A missing piece of the puzzle?" Imra suggested as she walked over. There was something about the battle. Once Hermione was destroyed, so were her children. The curse flowed through her but there was something that Harry remembered.

"She thought that she was talking to someone, she thought that she was on a sacred mission," Harry said and Nuru frowned, she was far from the only one to do so.

"I don't know…."

"I thought that she might have been bonkers, because she did have all of the symptoms," Harry said as he pondered his next move. "Now, I'm not sure if I know any better. She might have been talking to someone, manipulating her already fragile mind."

"But none of you saw anything?" Diana asked and the group shook their head. "That's very odd."

"That makes things a bit worse, as we're dealing with someone who is able to hide himself or herself from several extremely powerful heroes, one of them who has telepathic powers," Harry said and Imra stared at him. The blonde chewed down on the edge of her lip and she felt like there was nothing, not even a thought, not even an echo.

"I thought that this would be a time for celebration but I guess that we were wrong," Salu said and Harry got up to his feet, as he moved over. They still had a connection to the Forbidden Zone and he would be able to look inside, to see what happened.

His eyes flared as frustration swam in his body. Sure there were people that were there on the other side, but they were all gone. There was nothing, not even a dot, in fact Hogwarts looked to have finally collapsed to the ground, an ugly pile of ruins.

"He must have posed as Dumbledore, whoever that person is, Hermione always did have a weak spot for authority figures," Harry said as Kara stepped over and placed her arm around Harry's shoulder. Both of them were thinking the same thing, the search was almost over, but they had hit a different snag in the road.

'Decisions, decisions,' Harry thought to himself as he shook his head, clearing the cobwebs and the demons out of his mind. He had to really focus on something that he might have missed.

He sat down in the center of the room, his legs folded over each other and he went over the battle in his mind, with Tess curiously looking at him but Kara, Diana, and Zatanna both gave her warning expressions.

"I don't think that you should say anything when he's doing this," Kara whispered and Tess nodded, keeping her lips sealed at least for the moment. The redhead kept watching to see what Harry was going to do next.

Harry was trying to piece together something, anything, whether it be a clue or something that he might have missed. He was a tad preoccupied by Hermione's insanity and later, the dinner guests from Trigon's dimension to do anything.

Time passed but Harry wondered if his thoughts would ever escape his mind. He got something.

'Imra, did you get that as well?' Harry asked the blonde telepath and she agreed in affirmation. 'It isn't much, just a split second flicker but….'

'It's far more than we've had earlier,' Imra thought back to Harry as they prepared to hunt down this person but there was a loud bang that could be heard outside. The telltale sign of time travel could be felt, but exactly why and more importantly, whom was not something that any of the Legion could decide.

All the group understood was they had to be on their toes and figure out who came out of that worm hole. It may have been the person that had been manipulating Hermione Granger's already cracked mind and they were ready to make their move with whatever plan they thought of.

However, the Legion was ready as well.

To Be Continued.