The room is eerily silent after the gun shot stops ringing in the air. Ingrid, who jumped in front of Ginni, looks instinctively at her daughter. Raven crumples on the floor next to Helena heaving with sobs as the older witch starts fighting for breath. Wendy and Freya just stare at Johanna, and Johanna just stares down at her stomach and then back up at them. Her white night-gown is quickly soaking with red and she stumbles into her sister who grabs onto her with anxious hands.

"Mom-" Freya whispers, but Joanna's eyes have glazed over and she doesn't seem to hear her daughter or feel it when Ingrid leaves Ginni's side to take her hand. Raven looks up from Helena's body and spits at the dying witch, "she deserves to die for bringing all you sinning scum into the world!" Ginni unleashes a howl that shatters the windows of the house and fractures Raven's bones. She pounces at her grandmother from across the room. She tears Johanna from the firm grip of her sister and daughters, and throws her at the South wall of the house where she drew the frame with her blood. Except Joanna doesn't hit the wall – she goes through it.

"No!" Freya screams, but Wendy just looks at her great-nice with new respect and leaps through the wall after Joanna. Hesitantly, Ingrid and Freya meet each other's eyes, take each other's hands, and jump after the rest of the Beauchamps. Ingrid grabs hold of Ginni as they pass her and, although she is sizzling with heat, pulls her through the portal with an iron grasp.

The coast of Asgard is stunning. A white beach runs as far as the witches can see beside a deep blue ocean, and a mountain watches over it and the forest on the other side. Ginni turns her face into the wind and looks in wonder at the castle the mountain cradles – her home. The ocean licks at Wendy's feet, but it is foaming red with her sister's ever-spilling blood. A snake seethes under the water drinking it up until the family of witches pull her out of its venomous reach. Kneeling before her grandmother Ginni sticks her fingernails into her neck and draws the spilt blood back into her body until Joanna closes her eyes and takes a peaceful, steady breath. "Long recovery ahead – be O.K." Ginni mumbles before hitting the sand in a dead faint. Her scales recoil and her body heat drops to levels a mortal can stand. For a while it is all the others can do to keep standing, but then Wendy looks up at her nieces wearing an exhausted smile. "Well girls are you ready to go home?"

With a combination of will-power and power of the magical variety the three witches carry their two sleeping family members up into the mountains. The sun was rising when they landed in Asgard, but by the time the castle is looming over them the mountains in the West are literally swallowing the sun into a black void, while strange wisps are drawing a curtain over the sky.

"Aperta," Wendy whispers at the towering black gate. At the sound of her voice a clanging harmony of thousands of shifting locks rings through the air. When the gates swing open an entire court turns to stare at them.

"Miss us?" Wendy winks at the room of gawking witches, warlocks, and beasts.

An elderly man comes up to them and bows at their feet before taking in Joanna and Ginni with nervous, watery eyes. "Who is the young girl? What has happened to my granddaughter?"

Wendy looks at the man affectionately. "Johanna will be fine, Akean, and the young girl is Ingrid's daughter – your granddaughter." Turning to Ingrid and Freya she continues, "Girls it is my pleasure to introduce my mother's father - your non-sociopathic great-grandfather."

Ingrid just smiles shakily, and Freya says "nice to meet you," before starting to shake along with her sister.

"I think these girls need some beds, and so do the two sleeping beauties."
"Of course," Akean beams tearfully, "but Freya should go through into the council-room first."

"But Akean she's not -"

"Nonsense, he needs to see her! I'll take the rest of you to your rooms. Freya go and see him and then you can meet us. You remember where your room is?"

"Of course she does," Wendy says with a strange, horrible recognition dawning on her face.

Coming over to the girls with the pretense of a hug she whispers frantically, "no one here can ever know that you are not the original Ingrid and Freya. Freya the man you are about to see is named Aspen, and you love him. Your room is at the top of the stairs, down a long hallway to the left and then the last door on the right. The council room is just through the doors at the back of the ballroom." Wendy sighs, "the results would be catastrophic if anyone learned the truth. The people won't follow a new Ingrid and Freya. I'm sorry girls, but I need to know you understand..."

She pulls back and they nod, "we love you too Aunt Wendy."

Thanks for reading! I know I have been bad about posting, but I promise to not let it go more than a week from now on.

~ LovingAuntWendytheCat

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