Chapter 6 – Charmed By Caster

- (X) -

July 10th, 2010

Marian Medical Center

Santa Maria, California

The tones coming from the medical equipment in the room were soothing and regular, and in the dark of night, it broke up the monotonous silence of the hospital. Hex – or as his chart said, 'John Hex' – rested as well as he could in the bandages covering his body. He was lucky to survive the collapse of Painted Rock and the emergence of the containment vessel with his head intact, especially considering he had been at ground zero and unconscious. But a small part of him couldn't help but wonder if he would have been better off having died than lying here in a hospital where his niece was not far away.

On cue, there was a flash of white and purple light and she appeared. Charmcaster, standing in his hospital room, arms crossed, and glaring at him.

"My dear," started Hex but his niece merely held up a hand.

"Save it," she said. "You have about twenty minutes before the Tennyson brigade marches in here and violently interrogates you and of I'm half a mind to let them."

"You have to understand—" began Hex but he was cut off again.

"I don't want excuses, I want the truth," said Charmcaster. "I have reason to believe you've been hiding a lot from me, Uncle, but right now I want to know: why were you working with Brozz?"

Hex sighed and closed his eyes. "He promised me power."

"Is that it?" snapped Charmcaster. "Is that all it takes to gain your trust? Your honor? A mystic rune, a new spell, and you'll follow anyone anywhere?" She shook her head. "He's a monster, Uncle, I've seen it with my own eyes. He'll destroy this world without a second thought."

"It doesn't matter," said Hex. "This world is insignificant."

"That's a change in a familiar tune," said Charmcaster. "What happened to 'taking over the world and all those in it?'"

"We need power, Charm," said Hex. "I thought we could yoke these people and use them but I was wrong. They're useless. We need raw power, something we can take with us."

"Take where?" said Charmcaster. "This is our world now! We need to keep it safe if we're going to live in it."

"This will never be my home," said Hex. "I always intended to go back to Ledgerdomain."

Charmcaster's jaw dropped. "You're joking. For what reason? So we can be hated and despised by everyone?"

"So we can free our people!" shouted Hex. Then he started coughing and struggled to calm himself.

"What are you talking about?" asked Charmcaster.

"I'm sorry, my dear," said Hex slowly. "I-I lied to you."

Charmcaster frowned. "About what?"

"Everything," said Hex. "You were just a child, you couldn't have understood. I told myself it was better for you to think... but then, it was just easier to keep telling you the lies then admit to you that I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?" asked Charmcaster.

"Adwaita," breathed Hex.

"He was defeated," said Charmcaster.

"No," Hex shook his head. "He was not."

Charmcaster's eyes widened.

"We were overrun," explained Hex. "Even the combined cults of Archamada stood no chance before him. We had to flee or be enslaved."

Charmcaster took a step back and then sat down in a nearby chair. "All this time... Adwaita has been occupying Ledgerdomain?"

Hex looked away. "We could do nothing, except try to amass enough power to fight back."

"So that's what this was all about?" asked Charmcaster. "Trying to take over the world? Just to get an army big enough to march back to our home? And for what? We've been here for fifteen years, Uncle! What do we have to show for it?"

"You needed to grow," said Hex. "Your power is still untapped, you can be the strongest asset we take back to Ledgerdomain. Even if we have no army, the fact that you are more capable than me – more capable than your father ever was! - That's what the time has bought us. Time to develop your skills."

"I can't stand against Adwaita alone," said Charmcaster. "If the combined cults of Achamada couldn't do it, there's no way I could. I'm not that strong. That idiot Gwen Tennyson is more powerful than me!"

"You still have more to learn," said Hex.

"And while I'm here learning our people are suffering!"

"There is no other choice!" shouted Hex. "We have to grow our skills or we don't stand a chance. This is why I never told you! You can't be thinking about everyone back in Ledgerdomain all the time. You have to focus on your training. It has to be us that goes back, there's nobody else who will help."

"There's nobody else? Uncle!" Charmcaster stood up suddenly and looked at Hex as if he had three heads. "There's nobody else because you never bothered to ask!" She pointed towards the door. "There are people out there, right next door, with real power. Different power, that Adwaita probably doesn't expect. And they're heroes, people who relentlessly lay down their lives just to keep others from harm."

Charmcaster struggled to contain her fury. "And you never thought – just once – that maybe you could ask for their help?" She raised her hands up. "There have been Plumbers on this planet for over a hundred years! You didn't need to wait fifteen years. You could have asked for help right away." She lowered her hands slowly and stared at her Uncle. "Or were you just too proud to do that?"

"These people are not like us," said Hex. "They can't understand."

Charmcaster shook her head. "No, Uncle. I think they understand better than you." She turned towards the door and grabbed the handle, then hesitated. "My parents," she said simply.

"They bought us time to escape Ledgerdomain," said Hex.

"Just us?" asked Charmcaster.

Hex looked away and hesitated to speak. "Your... father was being foolish. There were too many. He couldn't possibly hold open the door that long and if he screwed up then Adwaita would just follow." He looked back. "Only the best of us needed to go. After that, I had to close the portal."

Charmcaster clenched her fists and shook with rage. She slowly let go of the door handle and turned back towards her Uncle.

"You're going to tell me everything you know about Brozz," she said. "And you're going to do it now."

- (X) -

Phil leaned against the wall as the combined stares of two retired Plumbers in hospital beds and their successors were directed at him. He just looked away and made a "Pfft" sound.

"Phil," started Max.

"Listen, I know we had an issue a few years back, but I've learned my lesson," said Phil holding up his hands. "I admit I hated you for a while, but this Brozz thing is a big deal. I'm willing to ... put it to rest. I have no interest in doing anything at all that might get me sent back to the Null Void. Believe me."

"I'd like to," said Max. "But it's them you've got to convince."

"Kids—" started Phil but he was cut off.

"We're Plumbers now," said Ben curtly. "Not kids."

Phil sighed. "I'm sorry." He hesitated. "For everything. But you got me, I served time, and now I'm out and-"

"You broke out," pointed out Gwen.

"Technically, Paradox broke us out," said Phil. "But I get your point. Listen, I ... admit to having had a skewed view of things for a while. A long while. Pretty much up until last week. But what Paradox showed me... how the Plumbers evolved on Earth over the last 150 years... I kind of feel like I really did betray that legacy. And I'm... I feel guilty about it." He looked away. This was not the kind of things he was used to saying and he wasn't sure how much to express.

"A hundred and fifty years?" asked Wes Green from the other hospital bed in the room. "I thought ... well, I knew there was a Plumber presence—"

"Not just a presence," said Phil. "A full installation, buried beneath Mount Rushmore. Sound familiar?"

"That empty facility?" asked Max. "The president gave it to us but he didn't know what it was originally for."

"It was for us," said Phil. He motioned to the whole room. "All of us. The Plumbers had it made to store alien tech." He looked at Max. "One Plumber specifically: your father."

Max's mouth hung open. "What?"

"He was a Plumber too, Max," Phil said softly. "As was his father, and his aunt, and her father. It runs in your family." He half-smiled as he looked to Ben and Gwen. "As you can already see."

"How could they hide this from us?" asked Max.

"Honestly, I don't think many knew," said Phil. "Although Azmuth and Mylene definitely did, which answers a heck of a lot of questions about how you so quickly became their favorite." He crossed his arms. "I used to be jealous about that too. Now... they were honoring your father."

"How does this 'Brozz' enter into all that?" asked Julie.

Phil sighed. "That's a really long story. But the short of it is this: he hates your family, Max. Has for generations. Blames them for some slight back in the eighteen hundreds. He's out to end your family line in any way possible. And it looks like, based on what you told me, he's decided to just do it all in one go."

"Destroy the planet," said Gwen.

"Yeah," nodded Phil. "The problem is he's a devil of beast to stop. He's a Chamatronian, so anything you throw at him he eventually adapts to and - if you're really unlucky - he learns how to copy. Though we may have stumbled onto something he has a problem adapting to."

"What?" asked Kevin.

"Magic," said Charmcaster from the doorway. She walked slowly into the room and closed the door behind her. "He has a problem with my magic."

"He didn't seem too fazed by mine," said Gwen, suspiciously looking at Charmcaster.

"Were you really using magic, or just your mana manipulation powers?" asked Charmcaster pointedly. "This is one area where your Anodite heritage may get in your way."

"What do you mean?" asked Gwen.

"Paradox drew a distinction between what I can do and what Anodites can do," said Charmcaster. "There's something... different about arcane magic that Brozz is vulnerable to. I think."

"You think?" asked Gwen with an arched brow.

"It's not like I had an Anodite handy to test it!" snapped Charmcaster. "But my magic kept him sealed for millions of years. It would have kept him contained for millions more if someone else with similar arcane magic hadn't removed the seals."

"Hex," said Gwen.

"Unfortunately, yes," said Charmcaster. "He was a fool. He had no idea what he was unleashing."

"What do you mean, 'millions of years'?" asked Kai. "That's the part I don't understand. If Brozz was sealed in the forties, and that ... machine became Painted Rock, what happened to the original Painted Rock? Why did they put it there, of all places?"

"There was no 'original' Painted Rock," said Charmcaster. "It was always the containment vessel."

Ben stared blankly at Charmcaster. "How is that possible?"

"Time travel," said Charmcaster. "Brozz has Paradox's powers now."

"How?" asked Gwen.

Charmcaster reached into her pouch. "Paradox knew something was wrong in time, and brought us to the point where Brozz was sealed up in that containment vessel. He sent us to help capture him, but stayed out of the battle. When Phil and I went back to where we left him, all we found were these." She pulled Paradox's lab coat, goggles, pocketwatch, and bag of gumballs out of her pouch. "Next to a pile of bone dust."

Ben, Gwen, and Kevin looked at the pile with varying degrees of horror.

"He's... dead?" asked Gwen.

"Sure seems like it," said Charmcaster. "And if what you saw is right, that confirms what happened. Brozz used Paradox's powers to come here and free himself, then sent his younger self back to 1944 to get Paradox's powers."

"An actual paradox," said Phil. "He freed himself with powers he only got by being freed. It's no wonder the professor was so unnerved."

"That still doesn't explain how the containment vessel became Painted Rock," said Kai.

"Uncle filled me in on that bit," said Charmcaster. "After I flung the containment vessel into space, it passed through a chronotron wormhole that sent it into the distant past. Brozz used Paradox's powers to catch it and throw back at Earth where it landed in the early Jurassic. But he couldn't open it until there was a capable magician to release the seals and he figured out where it landed."

"He needed you to arrive," said Gwen.

"Any magician, really. You probably could have done it, or my Uncle, as it turned out," said Charmcaster.

"So what's next?" asked Kevin. "Now that he's free and finished the loop. What does he do now?"

"I think we're back on destroying the Earth," said Phil. "Beats me on how, though. He's probably strong enough to snuff out the sun at this point."

"And how do we stop him?" asked Gwen. "Can we build another containment vessel?"

"Sorry," said Phil. "It took Azmuth years to construct the original. I doubt we have the time."

"Didn't you show up in a time machine?" asked Julie.

"Only goes one way: forward," said Charmcaster. "Despite the fact that we were travelling with Paradox Azmuth refused to give us anything else." She rolled her eyes.

"I'm surprised he had a design on hand," said Phil, scratching his chin.

"Forwards is easy, backwards is hard," said Wes. "At least, I recall Azmuth saying something like that back in the day."

Max sighed. "If he really does have Paradox's abilities, then tracking him will be impossible. The only thing we can do is keep an eye out for when he emerges again."

"Assuming it's not already too late," said Ben.

"We have to believe he has some limits," said Max. "Or he would have destroyed the Earth ages ago. No, what happened last night HAD to happen when it happened or it wouldn't have, which means we're back on real time. Brozz can only do things from here to the future, which means we're on level footing."

"Except for his massive power and ability to adapt to our attacks," said Kevin. "But, you know, besides that: even footing."

Gwen punched him in the arm.

"Grandpa's right," said Ben. "We know what he wants, just not how he's going to do it. So we have to run down every possibility we can think of and check it out." He looked around with a smile but nobody was smiling back. "Right, Gwen?" he said, falling on his cousin to help.

Gwen didn't move, she looked lost in thought and had her hand to her chin.

"Gwen?"

Gwen looked up. "Huh? Oh, right. Yes." She nodded.

Ben stared at her for a second then turned back to the rest of the room. "So, let's start on that. Kai, check the news. Kevin, see if any of your contacts are awake. Charmcaster and Gwen, you two see if there are any spells to help. Julie, Phil, we're going to go see if Plumber Central Command has heard anything."

"Ah, I don't know if it's a good idea for me to be interacting with any active duty Plumbers," said Phil.

"As far as they know you broke out of the Null Void," said Ben. "If you don't want to be chased by them forever, they're going to have to know you're working with me and Grandpa."

Max laughed quietly. "He's right, Phil."

"Ugh," groaned Phil, and then nodded. "Fine."

"Grandpa," started Ben. He hesitated for a moment. "Get better."

"Roger," said Max with a salute and a smile.

"Let's move," said Ben.

- (X) -

Outside of Max and Wes' hospital room, Charmcaster gently tapped Gwen's shoulder. "Can we talk?"

Gwen arched a brow at the girl but nodded. They started to walk down the hall towards one of the bank of elevators when Charmcaster stopped, turned and pointed behind Gwen.

"Not you," she said brusquely.

"Hey, I don't trust you—" started Kevin but he was cut off.

"Its fine, Kevin," said Gwen. "I can handle myself."

Kevin frowned. "Just because something can be done, doesn't mean it has to be."

"Don't worry," said Gwen said as she turned to follow Charmcaster away.

The two witches entered the elevator and Charmcaster pressed the button for the top floor. Gwen noted the unexpected selection but continued to remain silent, wondering where this was going.

A few minutes later the two were heading up a service staircase and – after a quiet spell by Charmcaster on the lock – stepping out onto the roof of the hospital. The door swung closed with a loud slam and the two stared at one another.

"This is dramatic," Gwen pointed out.

"I don't like eavesdroppers," said Charmcaster quickly.

Gwen rubbed her arms and shrugged. "So, what are we going to do? See who's better once and for all? Shall we use golems or direct attacks? Do we want to set rules on teleporting?"

Charmcaster looked down and idly kicked the gravel on the roof around. "You really piss me off."

"Believe me, the feeling's mutual," said Gwen.

Charmcaster looked up and glared. "What right do you have to be so good at my thing?"

"Magic is not 'your' thing," said Gwen. "It's part of my heritage."

"I don't care!" yelled Charmcaster. "This was it for me! The only thing that set me apart. I'm not terribly pretty or strong or smart or ... or whatever! But I had the gift. I had talent. I could do magic. And that made me feared at home."

The purple witch turned her back to Gwen and looked again to the stars. "It was terrible," she said softly. "Nobody wants to be hated. But it's better to be hated than forgotten."

Gwen's frown slowly faded. This was not at all the conversation she expected.

"Where I come from," continued Charmcaster. "Mana is everywhere. Being able to manipulate it, to subvert it... it's an aberration. A deformity. Nobody wants to touch you; to deal with you. You're the enemy. The boogeyman at night."

"Then we came here, to Earth," she said. "And I wasn't feared, or hated. I was nobody. Just another child with strange hair. It was worse. I don't want to be nobody. But I don't want to be hated all the time, either." She shook her head. "Uncle Hex told me I could be the best spell caster that ever lived. Now there was something to be. Admired. Awed. I wanted it."

She turned again and looked back at Gwen. The redhead's eyes widened in surprise. There were tears on Charmcaster's cheeks.

"But as soon as I got good, you showed up," Charmcaster said. "You just stumbled into power and ran circles around me." Her hands clenched into fists. "I didn't even get my moment. I didn't even have a chance to feel special in way that wasn't about hate! You stole it from me! You took the only thing that mattered!"

Charmcaster rubbed the tears from her eyes and scowled.

"I..." started Gwen, all traces of anger had fled her. "I didn't know. I had no idea—"

"I know that!" snapped Charmcaster quickly. "I'm not a kid anymore, of course I know that. I was breaking my Uncle out of jail, of course you tried to stop me. You had no idea what that meant to me. That saving my Uncle was my test to show I was finally his equal." She breathed deeply. "I admit I didn't always understand, but I have known for a while."

"Then why—" started Gwen but she stopped. In a way, she already knew the answer to what she was going to ask.

"Because at least I was still special, that's why," said Charmcaster, answering the unspoken question. "If I couldn't be the best, at least I could be hated by her."

Gwen signed and shook her head. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked.

Charmcaster grit her teeth. "Because your universe hates me. Because I can't even have that bit of specialness anymore. And I want you to know - to understand - what it means for me to ask you this, so you don't come back at me with stupid questions about schemes, or trust, or betrayal."

"Ask me what?" said Gwen softly.

Charmcaster closed her eyes. "I need your help," she said so quietly it could barely be heard over the breeze.

"With what?"

Charmcaster looked at her feet. "My world... where I come from... is called Ledgerdomain. It's been conquered by a powerful monster called Adwaita. He's been ruling there for the last fifteen years." She looked up. "I need your help to free m y people from him."

"My help?" said Gwen.

"And Ben, and Kevin and... anyone," said Charmcaster. "My people have suffered too long as it is."

Gwen found herself mouthing dozens of questions she could ask but couldn't find the nerve to voice. "Now?" was all that she managed.

"We can deal with Brozz first," said Charmcaster. "But... not much longer afterwards."

Gwen swallowed as she tried to turn the situation over in her mind, trying to view it objectively. She couldn't. She felt helplessly in the middle of it, not the least bit because it wasn't hard at all for her to imagine what it was like to be overshadowed by others because of luck. To try so hard to persevere anyway, to try and outperform talent with hard work only just to come up short every time.

No, Gwen knew exactly what it was like. "I'm sorry for ... what happened," she said feebly.

"Don't be," Charmcaster said. "You were only doing what was right."

Gwen placed her hand on her chest. "I'll help you, in any way I can. Even if nobody else will, I'll help you."

Charmcaster stared blankly. It wasn't hate, or joy, or anything she was showing her. Perhaps she was simply unsure what to do. Perhaps she was afraid to feel anything. "Thanks."

The wind blew coolly across the rooftop, sending a chill down the spines of both girls as they stood, facing off. Neither could be sure what was supposed to come next. Nothing had prepared either of them for the way their rivalry would turn.

"Can I see Paradox's watch?" Gwen suddenly asked.

Charmcaster blinked at the random request but quickly recovered. "Sure, I guess, what for?" She pulled the brass covered watch from her pouch and tossed it to her rival.

Gwen held out her hand and caught the watch in a purple sphere.e Her Her eyes began to glow purple as she stared at it. "I can usually trace the energies of an object back to its owner."

"He's dead, Gwen," said Charmcaster simply.

"I believe you," said Gwen. "But if Brozz really did duplicate him, down to the exact energy pattern, then it's possible I can still follow Paradox's trail to him."

"That still doesn't tell us how to beat him," Charmcaster said wryly.

"One problem at a time," said Gwen. She concentrated and felt the tendrils of energy extend out from the watch, swirling around them momentarily before shooting straight up into the sky. She and Charmcaster looked up immediately.

"My word, this is a troubling development," came a voice from above. Professor Paradox was standing – somehow – in mid air, about twenty feet above the rooftop. His eyes met those of Gwen and then slowly descended to stand on the roof with the two spellcasters.

"Professor Paradox!" said Gwen, in shock.

"Excuse me?" said Paradox, with a raised brow. "Who?"

Charmcaster looked equally dumbfounded, then she frowned and held up her hands. "Brozz," she spat angrily.

Paradox turned to look at Charmcaster now. "Who is this now?" He looked back and forth. "Dear me, I seem to be here out of sequence."

"Who... who are you?" asked Gwen. She had her guard up but was holding back on attacking just yet.

"I'm ... well, honestly I forget, but I'm sure it was very respectable name," said Paradox. "You can just call me 'Doctor,' I am fairly certain I had one. In any case, I was just curious about what you have there." He pointed at the pocketwatch still hanging in mid-air.

"Your watch?" asked Gwen, frowning.

"Yes, indeed." He nodded, then reached into the pocket of his lab coat. "Especially because I still have my watch." He held out an identical brass pocketwatch for the girls to see.

Gwen pieced everything together. "You're a younger version of Para—of the Doctor that we know," she concluded, and finally dropped her guard.

"It does appear to be the case," nodded Paradox. "Though I shudder to think how it is you came to be in possession of my property."

Gwen looked uncomfortably away.

"I see," said Paradox with a sigh. "That certainly leaves an empty taste in one's mouth."

Charmcaster frowned and then reached into her pouch again. "Have a gumball," she said, then tossed the bag to the professor. "Have them all, in fact."

Paradox examined the bag curiously, then removed a blue gumball and began chewing it with pleasant sounds. He slipped the bag into his coat pockets. "Thank you, my dear, I will have to repay the favor someday. Still, it is probably best that I be along. There is still one mystery left in my life and I'd just as soon leave it as such." He nodded cordially to the two girls. "I'll see you again."

"Wait," Charmcaster called out. "Do you... know me?"

"I know everyone, to a degree," said Paradox. "I imagine that a future version of myself must know you better than I do now, since you're asking."

"You said to me... once, that if I helped this girl and her friends that I would be 'free'... of all binds except those I made myself." Charmcaster struggled to speak diplomatically with the time walker. She wasn't sure how much she should be hiding from someone who'd seen both the past and the future. "What did that mean? What are the binds that I make myself?"

"Habits, my dear," said Paradox. "The binds we forge are those that undeniable control our fate but are of our own doing. Of course, 'habits' has such a negative connotation, they are not always such a burden. The bonds of familial dependency become habits over time, but frequently are very rewarding. As are those of friendship. Though, just as easily we create binds of enmity, which can blind us to the good that our adversaries can do."

Charmcaster looked to Gwen and frowned. "That's it?"

"That's my interpretation," said Paradox. "Though if I were you, I would focus more on those binds not forged by your hands."

"I already know about those," dismissed Charmcaster.

"Do you?" asked Paradox with a raised brow. He looked once again at Gwen then back at Charcmaster. He put his hands in his pockets casually. "Since you two appear to possess a modicum of wisdom, I shall impart upon you a little more that I have only recently learned. As the – slightly inaccurate – saying goes, a shark must forever swim forward or else it will drown. So too must a time walker progress ever onward or risk destruction between the ticks of a clock. The changes wrought by our actions are always on our heels, threatening to overtake and rewrite us."

"Is that why you rarely do anything yourself and just tell other people how to fix things?" asked Gwen dryly.

"Indeed it would be," nodded Paradox. "But it is important to understand what it is that time does not like, for it is not action that change hates: it is memory."

"Memory?" asked Charmcaster.

"Memory of a universe that no longer exists: that world which was destroyed when a time walker effects a change."

"Time hates people remembering when things went differently?" asked Gwen. She was more than a little skeptical of that. She remembered when Paradox himself had allowed her to change time and she still recalled those doomed timelines she created.

"Of course," said Paradox as if it were obvious. "Wouldn't you try to keep people from remembering your mistakes?"

"Time is alive?" asked Charmcaster.

"Of course not," laughed Paradox.

Gwen and Charmcaster both stared at Paradox with disbelieving looks on their faces.

"I have no idea what to do with this 'wisdom,'" said Charmcaster.

"Give it time," he said. Then, with a flash of multicolored light, Paradox vanished.

- (X) -