In honor of the memory of Tony Todd, a horror icon that will be missed.

And Quincy Jones, who has produced several music albums and soundtracks, including Thriller, The Wiz 1978 film, The Color Purple, and Fresh Prince.

Enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 9: No One Mourns The Wicked

Ten years ago…

The Land of Oz…

There was a celebration going on in Munchkin Village. The streets were filled with Munchkins dancing and singing.

"Ding-dong! The witch is dead! The witch is dead! The witch is dead!"

"Ding-dong! The witch- the witch is dead!"

Making her way through the crowded streets, bumping past the Munchkins, was a young teenage girl. Hiding herself underneath a hood was a thirteen year old Zara Ziggs, who kept her face down as she navigated through the crowd. She was especially taking care to hide her green skin.

After all, these Munchkins were celebrating the anniversary of the downfall of her mother… the Wicked Witch.

She looks around the town, noticing several banners put up depicting the snarling face of an evil green-skinned witch. She also spotted a straw effigy of the Wicked Witch, one Munchkin holding up a torch.

"Yeah! Burn the witch!" the Munchkin declared as he set the effigy aflame.

Zara looked slightly horrified by the burning of the effigy, but she continued her walk through the crowd, towards the food and game stands that had been set up for the festival. As she saw the food being sold, she heard her stomach growl and whimpered quietly. She was so hungry… but she had no money. As she let out another whimper, she noticed some of the games that the Munchkins were playing.

There was 'Whack-A-Witch', where one Munchkin was trying to slam a hammer down on witch heads that kept popping up like moles.

She saw another game where some Munchkins were using water guns to shoot water at witch faces. When one of the heads got hit enough, her head steamed up and she began to cry. "I'm melting! I'm melting!"

Zara then spotted a dunk booth, where a Munchkin dressed as the Wicked Witch was sitting over the tank. One Munchkin kid managed to throw a ball at the target, dunking the Munchkin playing as the witch.

"Ah! You got me!" the Munchkin declared.

"I got her! I got the witch!" the kid cheered as her parents congratulated their child.

"You sure did, honey," the mother replied with a proud smile.

That was something that bothered Zara most of all. More than the burning effigy or the games that she felt like were in poor taste. No, it was seeing the children playing with each other, some of them wearing ugly-looking witch masks. And it was the children laughing and smiling with their parents. She watched as the Munchkin kid who just dunked the witch walked off with her parents, her hands in theirs. They looked so… happy together.

Zara's hands tightened into fists as she felt a tinge of envy bubbling inside her. She stormed away, bumping past another Munchkin in the process.

"Hey, watch it!" the Munchkin shouted in anger.

"Sorry," she said as she kept walking. As soon as she had walked far enough, she held up a small coin bag and smirked, Zara having managed to pocket the coin bag from the unsuspecting Munchkin she had 'accidentally' bumped into.

She started to bump past other Munchkins, telling them "Excuse me" and "Sorry" while they grumbled about her not looking where she was going. Each time she pick-pocketed some cash from the Munchkins. After several successful runs, she went to a food stand and placed some of her cash on the counter.

"Give me the best you have," she told the vendor.

Soon, Zara was away from the worst of the crowd, sitting on a bench as she ate her food. She took a bite of the pastry and it was so good that she almost cried. As she ate, she looked up at the statue she was sitting underneath. It was a bronze statue of a young girl and her dog. Zara read the plaque that was underneath the statue.

'In honor of Dorothy Gale, hero of Oz.'

Zara knew the story, of course. Every child in Oz knew the story of Dorothy Gale, who landed in this very village so many years ago, crushing the Wicked Witch of the East with her house, and then killed the first Wicked Witch of the West with a bucket of water.

Zara looked back up at the statue. "He told me you were really nice," she said to the bronze Dorothy Gale. "That I reminded him of you." She shrugged. "Personally, I don't think I'm anything like you." She took another bite of her pastry. "What made you so special?"

The statue, being a statue, couldn't answer her even if it wanted to.

After finishing up her food, Zara heard the sound of a clock chiming. She turned her head back to the crowd and saw them gathering around a tower-like container where the chiming was coming from. Curious, Zara got off from the bench and went to join the crowd, noticing that the container was designed to look like a clock tower. On the front was the face of a clock, its one hand a minute to midnight.

And on top of the tower… was a dragon.

Not a real dragon, of course. It was a mechanized dragon, a puppet that someone was controlling. And yet… its movements were so lifelike, that the Munchkins who saw it were struck with awe. Even Zara was struck with awe at the mechanical dragon.

"I am the Time Dragon," the mechanical dragon said. "And this is my Clock. Let me take you back in time…"

Several mechanized puppets came out of the tower, appearing in front of the fake clock. Zara recognized one of the puppets being Dorothy and she was accompanied by her companions: the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. Zara heard several children cry out for joy when they saw these figures and Zara couldn't blame them. Dorothy's companions were just as famous as Dorothy herself and they were all at one point rulers of Oz.

"Over one hundred years ago," the dragon spoke. "Dorothy Gale came to Oz from a distant land known as Kansas. She landed in Oz in this very village, ending the cruel reign of the Wicked Witch of the East over the Munchkins by crushing her underneath her house."

The Munchkins cheered at this and Zara once again became slightly disturbed by how much the Munchkins loved celebrating death and murder when it was someone they didn't like.

"Dorothy Gale freed Munchkin Country," the dragon spoke. "And then she freed Winkie Country as well."

Another puppet appeared, causing the crowd of Munchkins to hiss in anger. This mechanized puppet was of an old hag with white skin, three pigtails, and an eyepatch. She was holding an umbrella. The Dorothy puppet picked up a bucket of water and threw it at the hag, causing the hag to scream and fall down, much to the loud cheering of the crowd.

"Dorothy Gale killed the Wicked Witch of the West!" the dragon exclaimed. "And for many years, Oz knew peace. Until…"

The puppets representing Dorothy and her companions went away as a new figure rose up in front of the clock. A green-skinned woman dressed in black and holding a broomstick. The crows began to boo this new puppet as it let out a laugh.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh!"

"A new Wicked Witch rose to terrorize Oz," the dragon exclaimed. "And her name was Margo."

As the crowd booed and jeered, Zara pulled the hood farther up her head to further.

"Fortunately, she was no match for the great Wizard of Oz," the dragon said as the silhouette of a man was projected against the Margo puppet.

"And it was thirteen years ago to this day that the Wizard defeated the Wicked Witch, Margo, vanquishing her."

Lightning bolts struck the mechanical witch, causing her to shriek as she fell down, the crowd cheering wildly as they saw her defeat re-enacted.

"And ever since then, Oz has been a better place for everyone to live in, all thanks to the Wizard of Oz!" the dragon narrated.

Zara couldn't help but roll her eyes at that.

"But, while you enjoy your peace, a word of warning," the dragon declared, his tone ominous. "For we must remember, Margo was not the first Wicked Witch who has terrorized Oz… and having seen the future, I can tell you that she will certainly not be the last…"

Hearing this, the Munchkins turned and whispered anxiously to each other, all the while Zara decided to slip away before someone saw her…

In the present day, in the Inwell Isles' General Health Coven, Zara was still in her room, still lying in her cot.

She laid there in her cot while looking up on the ceiling, staring into space. She was… thinking. About a lot of things, really. About Emily. About Lupe. And about Oz…

"No…"

In a hotel on the Inwell Isles, Emily was able to find Donna, Lindsay and Cross. She had just told Donna the news about Lupe being alive. Least to say, Donna did not take this well…

"No… no, nononononononono!" Donna shouted as she put her head in her hands. Cross and Lindsay quickly came to her aid "No! No, no, not him! He can't be alive! You have to be lying!"

"Donna…" Cross said as he held her hand while Lindsay did the same, both of them trying to calm her down.

"I wish I was, Donna," Emily told her with a sad tone. "Lupe is alive and he's here on the Inwell Isles."

"But I killed him!" Donna pointed out. "I saw him die with my own eyes! I used my keyblade to puncture his body with ice spikes from inside! Nobody could possibly have survived that! He can't be alive!" she screamed, her entire body shaking as Cross and Lindsay held onto her. Donna, realizing she was getting worked up, took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down, but only to limited success. "Are you… sure it was him, Emily?"

Emily nodded. "It is. He looked… slightly different, but I could still tell it was him. There was just something… unmistakable about him. And the way he reacted when I recognized him only confirmed it."

"M-Maybe it wasn't him," Donna stammered, still in denial. "Maybe it was some other werewolf that looks like him, or a shape-shifting creature or someone who looks like him…" Her Abomination hand was trembling, with Lindsay and Cross only barely stopping Donna from freaking out completely. "I… I just can't…"

"There, there, Donna," Lindsay said in a gentle tone while patting her back.

"Yeah, we got you," Cross said, nodding.

Donna was still stammering. "I-If Lupe is alive, then who knows how long he could have been on the Inwell Isles. He… he could've been watching me, stalking me… but, why hasn't he made a move against me yet?" she started to question. "Why hasn't he tried to kill or rape me yet? Why did he go after Zara instead?"

"I don't know," Emily admitted. "I think he may have even been on the Inwell Isles before you got here. But I don't know what he wants to gain. I just know that he's too dangerous to be allowed to roam freely. He must be stopped before he hurts anyone else."

"Yeah," Cross said while looking at Donna. "I wasn't there when you had to face him at St. Epiderm and the castle, Donna. But now, I am not going to leave your side. You have us to help you fight him."

"He's right," Lindsay said, nodding in agreement. "Lupe hurt you, and he's hurt a lot of other witches from what I've heard. So count me in."

Donna looked at Cross and Lindsay, their expressions equally determined. She held their hands and squeezed them, her two friends squeezing them back, reassuring her. She took another deep breath and nodded. "Yeah, you guys are right," she said. "I have no idea how he is still alive, but Lupe has to be stopped."

"And we'll be here to protect you if he comes after you again," Cross pledged.

"Yeah," Lindsay nodded. "Like Cross said, until Lupe's brought down, we will not leave by your side."

"So what's the plan?" Donna asked Emily.

"Right now, Zee is telling the authorities what I told you," Emily said. "They will help raise the alarm about Lupe…"

Meanwhile, Zee was at the Inwell Isles Justice Department, which was formerly a Coven Precinct before the fall of the Emperor's Coven. Now it was run by the volunteers there, including Torque.

"A werewolf on the Inwell Isles?" Torque asked after Zee gave him the report.

"Yes," Zee responded. "He's a mass murderer known as Lupe back on the Boiling Isles. And now he is on the Inwell Isles. And as long as he's here, he is gonna kill people. You need to set a curfew and warn people about the dangerous werewolf!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, now I may be volunteering in law enforcement but there's no room for racial profiling here," Torque declared. "Not in my department."

Zee stared at Toque in disbelief. "Racial profiling? Did you miss the part where I said he was a mass murderer! He worked for the Tarot Guild back on the Boiling Isles! He just tried to kill a girl, and me and my friends were almost killed by him while trying to protect her! I got a shiner because of him!" Zee shouted, pointing to her eye.

"Yeah, that's one bruised eye," Torque said.

Zee let out a frustrated sigh. "Look, you have to warn the rest of the Isles about Lupe. Put the Isles under lockdown until he's been dealt with, because it is too dangerous for witches to be outside right now."

"Look, I get what yer saying, but we can't start a panic around here, especially during our tourism season," Torque declared, which frustrated Zee even more.

"Who the fuck cares about tourism season, shellhead!" Zee shouted as she let out her dragon form, bursting flames from her mouth and scaring some of the nearby volunteers. "I am trying to save lives here! Take this seriously for once!"

"Ma'am, I must ask you to calm down," Torque told her, surprisingly not intimidated by the dragon. "Look, we promise to deal with this Lupe character, but we'll do it more quietly. No reason to raise and fuss and cause a panic."

Zee glared down at the turtle biped before letting out a frustrated scoff and turning around to storm out of the building in disgust. "Fucking useless turtle," she muttered under her breath.

After Zee walked out, she summoned her scroll to check in. She looked up Emily's name and sent her a text.

ZD-Tops: How's your end?

She waited for Emily's response, which came a few moments later.

Emillusional-Girl94: I told Donna about Lupe.

ZD-Tops: How did she take it?

Emily: Not well, but she agreed to help take him out. Her along with your brother and Lindsay. They won't be leaving her side, since it is too dangerous for her to be alone.

Zee gave a small smile and let out a sigh of relief. Then she read Emily's follow up text.

Emily: How about you? How's your end?

Zee scowled and tapped her message, letting out her frustrations.

Zee: I told Inwell's 'Finest' about Lupe, but they're not taking it as seriously. Even after I told them about him going after Zara, and showed him my shiner, that fucking turtle asshole didn't want to tell the rest of the Isles about him.

Emily: Seriously? Doesn't he know of the danger?

Zee: He cares more about the effect a curfew might have on tourism than the safety of the people apparently. 'Not wanting to start a panic' he said. &_&.

Emily: So much for getting help from the authorities.

Emily was at the hotel, looking at Zee's response.

Zee: We still need to get the word about Lupe to the rest of the Isles, warn witches about him. But how?

Emily paused for a moment, thinking to herself. Then she thought of something and texted Zee a response.

Emily: I think I have an idea.

Sometime later, Emily and Zee were both in front of one of the houses Emily had been to earlier that day with Jackie. Emily knocked on the door and Chuck Avery opened it.

"Emily! What a surprise!" Chuck shouted happily. "I wasn't expecting to see you twice in one day! Who's your friend?"

"Hey Chuck, and this is my friend, Zee," Emily told him.

"Sup," Zee greeted him. "I listen to your radio show every morning, great stuff."

"Thanks, I consider it my calling," Chuck said bravely.

"So are you busy right now, Chuck?" Emily asked him.

"Not particularly," Chuck said. "Why? Did you think about my offer for an interview?"

"Not exactly," Emily told him. "We came here to ask you a favor."

"Yeah, the emergency kind," Zee said, both of them having serious looks.

Chuck looked between them and quickly invited the girls in. "Tell me everything."

All around the Inwell Isles, residents were listening to the music playing on the radio. Suddenly, the music was cut off and replaced by the voice of Chuck Avery as he made an emergency announcement over the radio.

"Sorry to interrupt your tunes, folks, but this is Chuck Avery with an emergency announcement!"

In one home, an Inwell Isles family listened intently to Chuck's announcement.

"There's a dangerous murderer loose on the Inwell Isles. He calls himself Lupe and he is a werewolf witch who previously terrorized our neighbors on the Boiling Isles…"

Inside their apartment, Cups and Mugs were with their grandfather, the three of them listening to the radio.

"From what I have been able to gather, he was once a member of an infamous now-defunct criminal organization known as the Tarot Guild, which was run by the late Terra Snapdragon."

In his shop, Friz was listening to the radio while taking inventory.

"His various crimes include murder, kidnapping, trafficking, torture, cannibalism, sexual assault, endangerment of minors…"

Grimhilde was listening to the radio while in her store, showing a look of concern.

"According to what I've been told, he is a very dangerous individual and should not be taken lightly."

In their boat restaurant, the Thians were listening to the radio, Goonla and Levi sharing concerned expressions.

"He was last seen on the Boiling Isles during the week of the Day of Unity and now he has been spotted here."

The King was in his dressing room, adjusting a bowtie while listening to the radio.

"Witches and demons of the Inwell Isles, please heed this warning…"

"For those inside, stay indoors. For those outside, take shelter. Do not go outside until Lupe is no longer a threat."

In their hotel room, Jackie, Andrea, and Tabrella were listening to the radio, Tabrella holding Katie protectively.

At a bar, Franky the winged monkey was having a drink while he and the other patrons were listening to the radio.

"If you see anything strange or out of the ordinary, please contact your local authorities. If you see Lupe, do not engage with him."

"I must repeat, do not engage with Lupe and call the-"

SMASH

In his cabin, Lupe smashed the radio while having a fit of rage. To say he was not happy about getting exposed like this would be an understatement.

"Fucking fantastic!" he growled, having mostly bandaged himself up. His eyes twitched as he let out a snarl. "This is just fucking great…"

Once upon a time, many centuries ago…

We find ourselves in the countryside of a European country, in a field filled with livestock. But the thing about these livestock… is that they had all been killed.

Many of them had their throats slashed and their guts torn out as their bodies were spread all over the field, the grass around the bodies having turned red. This definitely disturbed the small crowd of people that had gathered at the edge of the field, who were observing the carnage.

"In the name of the lord…" one villager said while looking sick to the stomach.

"What could have done this?" asked a horrified midwife.

"Everyone!" announced a farmer. "The magistrate has arrived!"

Everyone turned to see a man dressed in a black gown and a hat walking toward them. He was a middle-aged man with black hair, blue eyes, and white skin. With him was a short man in the same outfit, with his brown hair in a ponytail.

"Make way for the Magistrate!" shouted the short assistant.

"Magistrate, it… it is a surprise to see you here," said one farmer.

"I go wherever I am needed… and wherever evil can be found," the Magistrate replied, his arms folded behind his back as he glanced at the nearby carnage. "I heard about what happened to this livestock and seeing it only confirms my suspicions…"

"Y-Yes, sir," the farmer said with a nod while pointing at the carnage. "We believe an animal might've done this."

The Magistrate gave a second glance at the carnage before scoffing dismissively. "Please, this was not the work of a mere animal."

"It… isn't?" the farmer asked while the civilians looked confused.

"If this was the work of an animal, it would be most unusual," the Magistrate explained. "For you see, the livestock here were merely killed, but not eaten. What kind of predator would brutally kill so many animals without eating any of their flesh?"

"Then who could have done this?" the farmer asked. "Was it the work of bandits?"

"No, not bandits," the Magistrate said, shaking his head. "I do not believe that this was the work of anything… human."

The farmer looked shocked by this. "Do you think that this was the work of a witch?"

The Magistrate intertwined his fingers and raised his chin up. "I believe this was the work of something evil. And I will say this… evil can take many forms…"

Meanwhile, at the circus, Pryce made an announcement as many of his guests already started to file out.

"Attention all patrons!" he shouted into a megaphone. "Unfortunately, due to the recent news about a killer being on loose, the circus will have to be closed for the rest of the day! Please, all of you, return to your homes, take shelter, and stay safe!"

After he finished making his announcement, he turned to some of his performers, who were standing nearby. "I need some of you to make sure that everyone gets out of here in a safe and organized fashion. Ratla, do you think that you can use some of your ratworms to help our guests get home?"

"On it, sir," Ratla, the Ratworm Tamer, replied. While she went to help some of the civilians, the other circus performers were shutting down the circus, closing the food and game stands while making sure that everything was secure.

Over at the petting zoo, Zaraff was making sure that all of his animals were safe.

"Alright, this should do," he said, locking them up in their cages and checking his protection spells. One of the animals let out a growl, prompting him to pet them. "Do not worry, everything will be fine. You will be safe."

After he finished securing his animals, he left for his own wagon. He opened up his wardrobe and brought out his bone-like weaponry, preparing himself for the hunt.

"I've been wondering when I would get back in the game," he said as he found a fur-trimmed outfit. "Hello, old friend," he greeted. "It has been a while, hasn't it?"

He took a deep breath, composing himself as he continued to get ready… for the hunt.

Back at the General Health Coven, a door was opened. Zara poked her head into the hallways and looked around, making sure that the coast was clear. After she finished checking, Zara silently stepped out of her room and began to walk down the hall.

"Zara?"

She paused upon hearing her name called. She turned around and saw Team WZRD, minus Zee, standing there. "Oh, you guys… um, I thought you'd all be healed by now?"

"Well, we mostly are," Rebecca said. "But we're also staying here to protect you."

"Me?" Zara asked as Darcilia stepped forward.

"Yeah, Zee told us to stay here to watch over you, Zara," Darcilia said. "You know, just in case this Lupe guy makes another attempt at you."

"Oh, um, it's nice that you're all concerned about me," Zara said a bit awkwardly. "But I should really head out to check my wagon. I hope to recover-"

"Don't worry about your wagon right now," spoke Whitney, though her voice still sounded a bit sore. "Going out is not an option right now. Not with Lupe still out here."

"Yeah, you're safer here," Rebecca insisted.

Zara tried to protest. "But-"

"Zara, we can't let you leave," Rebecca told her, walking over and patting her shoulder. "We cannot in good conscience let you leave, not until Lupe is dealt with. Don't worry, Emily and Zee are looking for him right now."

Zara wanted to protest more, but decided against it, especially since she figured there was no point in arguing more and the last thing she wanted to do was risk potentially exposing herself…

"Fine," Zara pouted, deciding to not arouse suspicion. "I guess staying here's the only option…"

Rebecca smiled. "With us!"

And so, Zara found herself back in her room, with Team WZRD being there both to keep her company or keep watch over her. She sat on her cot while the other three were either standing (Rebecca), leaning against the wall (Darcilia), or seated in a chair (Whitney).

"You know, without Zee here, isn't this just Team WRD? Like, 'wired' or 'weird' or 'world' if you pronounce it," Zara pointed out, trying to break the awkward silence.

"That is kinda true," Rebecca admitted, though she was the only one who said anything.

This was followed by more silence as Zara looked around at the three girls. Her gaze settled on Rebecca and she remembered what she heard Lupe say to her when they fought…

"So… what did that wolf man mean about your mother, Rebecca?" Zara brought up, causing the rest of the girls' eyes to widen at the mention.

"Um…" Rebecca said, looking down.

Zara noticed the immediate tension that was now in the room with them and she looked around.

"Was it something I said?" Zara asked.

Darcilia just sighed. "You said nothing wrong, Zara. It's just… well… Rebecca's mom's a touchy subject."

"That's putting it lightly," Whitney grumbled.

"Oh," Zara said as she turned back to Rebecca. "I'm so sorry for bringing her up."

"Hey, it's okay, Zara, you didn't know," Rebecca reassured her, smiling. "And I can still talk about her if you're interested."

"Really? Are you sure?" Zara asked her.

"Don't worry, I'm an open book," Rebecca said as she then started to explain. "See, I may go by the Carmine name sometimes, but other times, I'm a Knightcore. And you're probably wondering just what the name Knightcore means…"

"I am now," Zara replied, waiting for the answer.

Rebecca nodded. "You see, my mom ran a business of her own… that being, she's the leader of an organization of bounty hunters and mercenaries for hire," she said in a rather casual tone.

"…say what now?" Zara asked, surprised by how casually she talked about it.

"Yeah, us Knightcores are a pretty hardcore witch tribe," Rebecca said with a nod. "My mother runs the Reaper's Shadows, so I wouldn't be surprised that she crossed paths with Lupe at some point, especially since she did the same kind of bounty hunting and mercenary work that Calypso Brooke did back in the day she was the Red Hood Huntress."

"My father was in that same line of business as well," Whitney mentioned. "He was a mercenary before he got out of it by marrying into the Carmine family. However, after my mother passed, he and Rebecca's mom started a relationship. It was a brief relationship, and they were never married… of course, Rebecca came out of it in the end."

"I used to live with my mother," Rebecca said before looking down. "But… having a daughter didn't agree with the type of lifestyle she wanted."

Zara's eyes widened at that. "You mean, she…?"

"One day, she asked dad to take care of me… and then she went away," Rebecca finished. "I haven't seen her since, and I've only heard rumors about what she has been up to."

Zara stared at Rebecca in shock. "So… how do you all feel about that? That… your mother just straight up left you and never returned?"

Rebecca and Whitney looked at each other.

"Well… it's complicated," Rebecca admitted. "My mom is a… complicated witch."

"She's a deadbeat," Whitney hissed, looking down with her arms crossed.

"Sis…" Rebecca said to her sister.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat this, Rebecca," Whitney said, her tone bitter. "She chose her work over you. She didn't care enough to see you grow up to become a skilled and talented witch. As far as I'm concerned, she doesn't deserved to be called a mom."

Zara looked between Whitney and Rebecca, the latter having fallen quiet. Zara then turned to Darcilia, who noticed her look.

"Don't look at me," the secret werecat told her. "I tend to just stay out of it."

Zara then looked down at the floor, remembering something from her past…

The festival in Munchkin Village was still going on, but had started to die down, which prompted Zara to begin to make her leave of the town. She was now at the outskirts of the village, about to cross a bridge. However… she did stumble upon some complications…

"I knew it was you… Zara!"

Zara paused and let out a sigh as she saw who was coming out from underneath the bridge. It was a gang of much larger teenagers. Their leader was a white-skinned Ozian boy in colorful and decorative clothing.

"Hey, uh, Seph," Zara said, waving nervously. "Still up in trouble with your friends, I see?"

"You shouldn't be here, showing your face around town again," Seph told her, crossing his arms. "Seriously, why would you come here now of all days?"

"Yeah! No wicked witches allowed!" another Ozian teen declared.

"Maybe she wants to die just like her mother," another said, making Zara flinch.

"We did tell you what would happen if you came back here, Zara," Seph said as he pounded his fist.

"L-Look, I was just leaving, alright," Zara told them while backing away. "Just… just let me leave and I won't come back."

"Oh, we'll make sure you don't," Seph said with a grin.

Zara looked around, trying to find a way out. She then saw one of the larger teens coming at her. He tried to grab her… but then she kicked him in the crotch.

"AAAH!" he cried as he fell, giving Zara the chance to dash away, though not without being confronted by another teen

"I got her!" she cried, only for Zara to push the girl down as she ran past her.

"What the… don't just stand there! After her!" Seph told them as he and his gang of bullies chased after her.

Zara ran as fast as she could through the village streets, the green-skinned teenager looking back at the gang of bullies still chasing after her

"We're gonna get you, Zara!" Seph shouted.

Zara kept running, all the while desperately looking around for a place she could hide. As she ran, she passed by some adult Ozians, who took notice of her and her green skin.

And when they saw her and that she was being chased by a gang of bullies, they just… looked away.

Zara wasn't surprised, so she kept running, weaving between buildings and alleyways in an attempt to lose her pursuers. She was terrified at what Seph and his gang would do if they actually caught her, especially since she knew that nobody was going to help her…

Poor Zara was in such a panic that she ended up running straight into a stranger.

"Oof!" she cried out as she fell down. She quickly looked up at the stranger… and saw that he was a man with peach-skin, blue eyes, brown hair, and a mustache and beard. He wore a brown suit that fit his build and a black top hat. He was standing in front of a wagon that was in an alleyway between two buildings.

"Are you okay?" asked the stranger. But when he took a good look at her and her green skin, his eyes widened in surprise. "Oh dear… you're…"

Before Zara could respond, she heard the bullies shouting nearby.

"Where did she go?"

"I think I saw her go that way!"

"You're dead, Zara!"

Zara panicked and leapt to her feet. She was about to run off, but the stranger grabbed her by the arm.

"Let me go!" Zara shouted.

"You want somewhere to hide, don't you?" the stranger asked, surprising Zara.

"Y-yeah," she admitted.

The stranger quickly brought Zara into his wagon, closing the door behind them. Zara was surprised by his help, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she listened to the door as she heard footsteps just outside, the bullies running past.

"Where did she go?"

"She's gotta be around here!"

"When we find her, she is as good as dead," Seph's voice said.

Zara felt her breath pick up when she heard that threat and she didn't calm down until after she heard the bullies run away. Only then did she turn to her savior.

"Um, thank you, kind sir," she said.

"It's no problem," he told her as Zara then got a good look around his wagon… and her eyes widened in awe.

"Wow…" she said as she saw that the wagon was full of clockwork and mechanized puppets. Many of them were finished, but there were some that looked like they were still in the process of being built, the unfinished clockwork puppets resting on a table surrounded by gears and other pieces of clockwork.

Her savior saw her reaction and he couldn't help but be amused. "Do you admire my craftsmanship?" he asked her.

"You made… all of this?" she asked him, still in shock and awe.

"Why yes," he confirmed. "But they're nothing compared to my Clock of the Time Dragon."

Zara turned to the man in surprise. "No way… that mechanical dragon I saw earlier… at the clock tower… was you?!"

He gave a smile. "Indeed, it was!" he proudly confirmed. "The Time Dragon is my greatest masterpiece. In fact, I was the one in that tower controlling everything. I've traveled all around Oz with my mechanical shows, using my puppets you see here to tell tales from Oz's past… and future."

"Wow…" Zara said, staring at the man with a look of wonder.

"The name's Morgan," he said, offering his hand to her. "Inventor. Traveler. Salesman."

"Nice to meet you, sir," Zara replied politely, shaking his hand.

"And what about you, little lady?" he asked her "What's your name?"

"My name is Zara," she answered.

"Zara… may I ask you why those ruffians were pursuing you out there?" he asked her.

Zara looked down at her own feet. "Well… it's because of my green skin," she admitted.

Morgan didn't look surprised by this, but he did look sympathetic for her plight. "Ah, I suspected that would be the case."

She looked up at him in confusion. "Then… why did you help me?" she asked. "Why help me when you could have just ignored me like every other Ozian?"

"Well, back where I come from, we have a word for people who harass other people just for the color of their skin," Morgan explained to her. "So I don't approve of such savage behavior."

Zara tilted her head. "What do you mean by 'back where I come from'?"

"I mean… that I'm not exactly from around here," he casually admitted with a smile. "For you see, I'm not from Oz originally."

This surprised her. "You're not?"

"Yes. Of course, from what I have heard, that's not exactly a rare occurrence here in Oz," he told her. "Oz has quite a history with that sort of thing, actually. Yes, I've learned a lot about Oz since arriving here, including its history." He looked at Zara. "And I am guessing that the reason you were bullied for your green skin is because it is reminiscent of the previous Wicked Witch…"

Zara frowned. "Actually… that's because I am her daughter," she confirmed, which shocked Morgan. "I am the daughter of the previous Wicked Witch, with my skin being a dead giveaway of my heritage."

"My word…" he said, his eyes widened. "I… I had no idea that Margo had a daughter."

"It isn't that much of a secret," Zara said before she scoffed. "But she's barely my mother at that," she said, her tone bitter. "She abandoned me shortly after I was born."

"Oh dear," Morgan said, showing more sympathy. "Then who raised you then? Is there even a… father in your life?"

"There… was," Zara said as she looked down sadly. "Past tense…"

It didn't take long for Morgan to realize what she meant. He patted her shoulder while looking down at her. "I'm so sorry, Zara. You have my condolences."

Zara looked up at Morgan, as she replied "Thanks… but I would rather not talk about it."

"I understand," Morgan said, nodding. "We can talk about something else."

"Yeah, like…" Zara fell quiet, remembering what he said earlier and what the dragon said during the show. "How are you able to tell stories of the future?"

He just smiled at her playfully. "Can you keep a secret?"

Zara nodded. "I promise to not tell a soul. Well, it's not like anyone would believe me anyways."

"Well then, guess I can show you this," he said as he led her to a table, where he pulled back a drape to show Zara a crystal ball… the same crystal ball that Zara would own years later. "Behold!"

This intrigued Zara, who leaned toward the crystal ball. "Wow… what does it do?"

"Simple," he explained. "It allows me to look through time and space, giving me whatever answers I desire. Like about the history of Oz… and its future."

"Again, wow…" Zara said while looking at the crystal orb.

"Would you like to use it?" he asked her. "It can show you what you desire the most."

Zara thought about it. She was seriously tempted to use the crystal ball and after a moment… she gave in.

"How do I use it?" she asked him.

"Just think about what you desire to know the most and place your hands on the ball," he told her. "Simple as that."

Zara nodded and did just that, reaching out to place her hands on the crystal ball. "Show me… what I desire the most…"

An image began to form in the crystal ball and Zara leaned even closer to get a better look as the image cleared up. Her eyes widened when she saw a green-skinned woman with a young girl who had green skin as well…

"That… that's my mother," Zara said as she got a better look at the young girl with her. "Wait… that girl…" Her eyes widened in realization. "That's… not me…!"

Back in the present, Zara gave Rebecca a look of sympathy before looking down.

"I know a thing or two about being left behind…" she quietly admitted.

Back in the hotel, the trio of Tabrella, Jackie, and Andrea were all together in the same room. Tabrella was watching Katie while standing over her crib, her infant daughter playing with one of her stuffed animals.

"You okay, Tabby?" Jackie asked her, walking over to her.

"Yes, thank you," Tabrella replied with a sigh as she turned to Jackie with a concerned expression. "I'm just… worried about Lindsay, that's all. I wish she wasn't out there. Even if she's with Donna and Cross, I can't help but worry about her dealing with that… Lupe character."

"I am worried about her myself," Jackie admitted. "Even while knowing about Madstream, I don't like the idea of her facing that psychopath."

"Yeah, but let's have some faith in our girl!" Andrea declared, popping up in-between Jackie and Tabrella and putting her arms around them. "She fought a goddess, remember? I know she can handle herself against a werewolf, especially with Cross and Donna at her side."

"Well, I hope that you're right," Tabrella said before they heard a knock on the door. "Oh, who could that be?"

"Let me answer," Jackie volunteered, walking over to the door to their hotel room. She peeked through the hole in the door to see who was standing on the other side before she opened the door, revealing Tracy.

"Guys! Thank Titan you're all here!" Tracy shouted as she came in. "When I heard about the curfew and the lockdown, I had to come here to make sure that you're all okay." As she looked around the room, her expression changed to one of worry when she noticed that one of their number was missing. "Wait… where's Lindsay?"

"She is safe, she is with Cross and Donna," Tabrella said, though neither she or Andrea looked particularly happy to see Tracy at the moment.

"Well thank goodness to that…" Tracy said before she noticed the way they were looking at her. "Um… why are you all frowning? I mean, I know the situation is pretty serious, but even Andrea is frowning."

"That's because I told them what happened, Tracy," Jackie said before closing the door.

"Tell them about wha-" Tracy said before she realized what Jackie meant. "Oh…"

"Tracy… as your gal pal and friend with benefits, I'm gonna ask… what in the living son of a Titan were you thinking?!" Andrea called her out.

"Yes, we're aware of your dislike towards Emily, Tracy. But I never thought that you'd resort to violence against her," Tabrella scolded her.

"Hey, she started it!" Tracy argued. "She attacked me!"

"I already told you before that I've been with Emily all day, Tracy," Jackie said. "It couldn't have been her. Are you sure the one who attacked you was Emily?"

"Yes!" Tracy declared. "I was out jogging and then she came out of nowhere, attacking me and using some psychological warfare stuff against me! Listen, she probably knew that she could use Jackie as her alibi, so she left an illusion to hang out with her while she went to attack me!"

"And you don't think I would have noticed if I wasn't interacting with the real Emily?" Jackie asked, crossing her arms.

"T-that's not what I meant!" Tracy shouted. She looked around the room and saw that neither Andrea nor Tabrella were buying her story.

"It doesn't make sense," Tabrella pointed out. "I mean, Emily is a good illusionist, but Jackie told us that she and Emily were fixing up houses together. Emily would have to leave an illusion of herself with Jackie for a while and an illusion wouldn't have been able to fool her for that long, especially while they were working."

Tracy scoffed. "Are you guys saying I was lying or something? I was literally attacked!"

"You know, you don't have to be lying for Emily to be innocent," Andrea pointed out, causing everyone to turn to her.

"What did you say?" Jackie asked.

Andrea shrugged. "I mean, Emily attacking Tracy doesn't make sense, but neither does Tracy lying about getting attacked. So what if nobody is lying?" She turned to Tracy. "What if you were attacked by someone who wanted you to think they were Emily? Someone trying to provoke you into attacking Emily?"

Jackie, Tabrella, and Tracy all stared at Andrea for a moment, surprised by her common sense. Of course, it seemed obvious in hindsight. But Andrea had been the first one to realize it.

"You… might be onto something, Andrea," Jackie realized.

"Maybe… but who in the Demon Realm would want to frame Emily?" Tracy asked.

Jackie and Tabrella just looked at Tracy in disbelief.

"How about everyone at that anti-Emily party we attended?" Jackie reminded Tracy.

"The gathering of witches who hate Emily?" Tabrella added. "Who all know that you hate Emily thanks to you loudly declaring your hatred of her?"

"Including that weird host who said that she knows where Emily is?" Jackie pointed out.

Thinking it over, Tracy realized that her friends might be onto something and she suddenly became a bit embarrassed for her earlier behavior. Because if they were right and it wasn't Emily that attacked her, it meant that Tracy had easily allowed her emotions to be manipulated.

"Oh…" Tracy said, looking down.

Meanwhile, Emily and Zee were now in the woods in front of Zara's wagon… which had burnt down.

"I can't believe this," Emily said with a frown, looking saddened by the state of the wagon. "This was where Zara lived…"

"How do you think it got burned down like this?" Zee wondered out loud while looking around.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Lupe did this," Emily said with a sigh. "Either on purpose or by accident while he and Zara were fighting." She looked around. "At the very least, the fire didn't spread to the rest of the forest. That would have been very disastrous," she said before noticing some of the burnt objects in the ruins of the wagon. "Zara is going to be devastated."

Zee nodded. "Hopefully, there was nothing too valuable to her in there that got burned…"

"At least a few things survived the fire… like her trunk," Emily pointed out. She then began to look around the area, finding some signs of Lupe like a few claw marks and footprints. "He definitely was here though," she said.

"Do you think he might still be around?" Zee asked.

Emily shook her head. "Staying around the scene of the crime isn't his style."

"So you think he hightailed it and left?" Zee asked her.

"If I had to guess, he probably went to a safehouse to lick his wounds after he fled," Emily guessed. "After that, I'm not sure what his next move would be. Either he would try to leave the Inwell Isles now that his cover has been blown, he would try to keep his head low and wait for this to blow over, or… he will do something desperate."

"Like going after Zara again?" Zee asked her.

"If she is his target, perhaps," Emily said with a grim look. "Or he could try to go after Donna. Which is why Cross and Lindsay are with her."

"You think they would be able to handle Lupe if he attacked them?" Zee asked, looking especially worried for her brother.

"I saw Cross and Lindsay fight Melinoe when she was in her dragon form," Emily pointed out. "And I don't think Lupe knows about Madstream. As long as those three stick together, they should be fine. If Cross and Lindsay were able to take on an immortal goddess, they can take on a mortal werewolf."

"I mean, that's if he is mortal," Zee reminded Emily. "Didn't Donna kill him?"

"She… thought she did," Emily admitted. "I don't know if Lupe faked his death or if he somehow came back to life, but either way, we should try to capture him alive. He has questions to answer."

"Yeah, like why he went after Zara," Zee pointed out. "Do you have any idea why he attacked her first instead of Donna?"

"I… might," Emily cautiously admitted while looking around. "But the 'why' isn't what we should be worried about right now." She looked back at Zee. "Your friends will keep an eye on Zara, right?"

"Yep, I told them not to let her leave the building," Zee confirmed with a nod. "If Lupe comes for her, they'll be ready."

"Good," Emily said with a nod. "It is important that we keep tabs on her." She then paused, hearing a rustling in the woods. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah," Zee confirmed. "We're not alone…"

Assuming it was Lupe, the two girls get ready in their fighting position. Emily summoned a fireball while Zee partially transformed, bringing out her claws and her wings. They prepared to fight as something came out of the bushes…

"Hold your fire!" shouted Zaraff, who was wearing a black jacket with fur trims and sporting eyes on each side, while his chest was exposed and bare. He also wore black pants and gray boots, which had fur trims as well, as did his sleeves. He was carrying his bone-like weaponry. "It's me."

"Raff?" Zee asked in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Emily asked him, just as surprised.

"Simple," Zaraff said. "I am on a wolf hunt."

"You are?" Zee asked him, before shaking her head "Look, Raff, you should've just stayed back at the circus where it's safe."

"She's right," Emily said while walking up to him. "Lupe is a dangerous criminal. You don't know who you are going up against."

"Oh, I think I do," Zaraff said. "The Big Bad Wolf, right?"

Emily was taken aback. "How-?"

"You think he is only infamous back on the Boiling Isles?" Zaraff asked her. "That guy has left bodies all over the Demon Realm. When I heard the announcement, I immediately knew that it was him. And I have been waiting for a chance like this for a long time."

"You have?" Zee asked.

Zaraff grinned. "Believe it or not, but I've done this thing before," he told her. "I had quite the career before I joined the circus."

"But how would you-" Emily started to ask before she saw Zaraff take a potion from his jacket and drink it up. "What are you…?"

After drinking an ounce of the potion, Zaraff sighed before his nose started to transform, turning into a dog's snout, much to the shock of Zee and Emily.

"Whoa… what kind of potion is that?!" Zee asked.

Zaraff doesn't answer. Instead, he began sniffing the air. He bent down to sniff the ground, sniffing around the area as he sniffed the burnt area of the wagon. "Hmm… I got two scents… Zara was here, but… I also smell… a stronger scent." He turned to the girls. "I got his trail."

We return to the past, to a village in a European country, when the Magistrate had gathered the local villagers to make an important announcement. Night was starting to fall.

"Gather around! The Magistrate has an important announcement!" his aide declared while ringing a bell.

"Thank you, LePeu," the Magistrate said, nodding at his aide before looking at the crowd that had gathered before him. He cleared his throat. "Good people, I have learned who is responsible for the heinous act of slaughtering your livestock."

"Who, Magistrate?" asked the farmer.

"A werewolf," the Magistrate revealed, causing the crowd to gasp in shock. "That's right, a man who can take the form of a wolf! I've told you before that evil comes in many forms and this werewolf is one of them! And he is living among us!" he declared as the crowd began to whisper to each other, expressing their worries over this new information.

"A werewolf?"

"Here in our village!"

"Who is the werewolf?"

"It's not me!"

The Magistrate listened to the commotion before he raised his hands. "Everyone, calm down, don't panic," he told them. "I know that none of you God-blessed souls are the beast." He gestured to a man who was standing near him. "Come here, tell them what you saw."

A hunter stepped forward and nodded. "It was a wolf," he said. "Except instead of all fours, it walked on its hind legs like a man. I could hardly believe it."

"And where did you see this wolf?" the Magistrate asked.

"It was near that strange fellow who lives in the woods with his family," the hunter confessed. "I always thought he was a bit of an odd one, always keeping to himself. He hardly ever came into the village."

The Magistrate nodded before he turned to the crowd. "You heard him!" he announced. "It is clear who our werewolf is!"

"Wha… what do we do, sir?" asked a villager.

"I'll tell you what," the Magistrate said while raising his cross. "We take action! We shall slay the beast! After all, our livestock is just the beginning! Next he will come for our children! Our women! Our livelihood! He'll come after them at night, as we're not safe until his head is mounted on my wall! I say… we kill the beast!"

The crowd started to speak amongst themselves.

"We're not safe until he's dead," sang the baker.

"He'll come stalking us at night!" sang the farmer.

"Set to sacrifice our children to his monstrous appetite!" a mother sang while protecting her child.

"He'll wreak havoc on our village if we let him wander free!" sang a man.

The Magistrate then joined in. "So it's time to take some action, boys! It's time to follow me~!" he declared, getting everyone's attention.

"Through the mist, through the woods, through the darkness and the shadows, it's a nightmare, but it's one exciting ride~!" he sang as he got up to his aid, LePeu, and scared him by acting like a werewolf to make a point about the situation, causing his frightened sidekick to hide behind a woman.

"Say a prayer, then we're there, at the front door of a cabin, and there's something truly terrible inside~!" he declared while he stood on a crate. "It's a beast, he's got fangs, razor-sharp ones! Massive paws, killer claws for the feast!" he demonstrated with his hands waving around in the torchlight, creating the shadowy image of a werewolf. "Hear him roar, see him foam, but we're not coming home! Till he's dead! Good and dead~!"

"Kill the beast!" the crowd, now a mob, roared as they raised their fists up.

"Light your torch, mount your horse!" the crowd sang as they collected their pitchforks and their torches.

"Screw your courage to the sticking place!" the Magistrate sang as he led the now armed mob into the woods.

"We're counting on Lupin to lead the way~!" the mob sang as they followed the Magistrate.

"Call it war, call it threat, you can bet they all will follow, for in times like this they'll do just as I say~!" the Magistrate declared with a grin.

"There's a beast running wild, there's no question," LePeu sang as he followed his magistrate, glancing at him with some concern… and doubt. "But I fear the wrong monster's released…"

"Sally forth! Tallyho! Grab your sword! Grab your bow! Praise the Lord and here we go!" the mob sang as they marched. "We don't like what we don't understand! In fact, it scares us, and this monster is mysterious at least!"

During this time, George was playing with his son while his wife Maria watched them with a smile. George suddenly stopped playing horsey.

"Father, why did you stop?" Lawrence asked.

"I… I think I heard something," George responded as he set his son off from his back and got up as he stared out the window at the woods.

"What is it?" Maria asked, looking worried.

"It looks like… torchlights…" George noted.

"Bring your guns, bring your knives, save your children and your wives, we'll save our village and our lives~!" the mob chanted as they continued through the forest. "We'll kill the beast!"

George backed away from the window, realizing the danger. He turned to his wife and son with a fateful expression. "We need to go, now!"

But then, a torch crashed through the window, startling the family as they saw it set their cabin aflame. "Father, our home!" Lawrence shouted.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" George shouted as they ran toward the back of the cabin to escape while the mob broke into the cabin behind them.

"Hearts ablaze, banners high, we go marching into battle, unafraid although the danger's just increased!" they sang as they started wrecking the place before spotting the family.

"All of you, run!" George shouted at his son, who ran as Maria followed.

"Raise the flag, sing the song, here we come, we're fifty strong, and fifty good men can't be wrong!" the mob sang as several of the villagers, including the hunter from earlier, raised their rifles and aimed them at the fleeing George.

"Kill the beast!" the mob shouted. "Kill the beast!"

Bullets flew past George's head, prompting him to duck before he heard his wife cry out in pain. "Maria, Lawrence, are you all alright?!"

"It just grazed me," Maria said before she saw her son lying face-down on the forest floor, causing her to gasp. "Lawrence!"

"Lawrence!" George shouted as he rushed over to his son, turning him over. He gasped as he realized that his hands were stained with blood just from touching Lawrence. Then he saw his son's lifeless face. "No…"

Lawrence was dead.

"The beast still lives!" the Magistrate declared as George turned to the approaching mob.

"You… you killed my son!" George snarled as he got up. "You will PAY!" he shouted as he then started to transform into a werewolf, much to the shock and horror of the mob, who gasped at the sight.

"There he is!" the Magistrate declared with a smile. "The monster has shown his true form…"

George snarled at the mob and rushed towards them. The hunter tried to take aim, but before he could fire George used his claws to slash through his gun and his face, killing him where he stood. He then moved onto the rest of the mob, slashing at them with his claws and biting at them with his teeth, killing and injuring as many of them as he could. While some members of the mob fled from George in fear, others still continued to try to take George down, even as George gutted the farmer like one of his livestock.

Maria watched her husband while she held her dead son. Tears streamed from her eyes. "George… Lawrence…"

She heard footsteps and looked up to see the Magistrate standing over her, causing her to wince in fear. "W-why are you doing this?" she asked him. "Y-you killed my son!"

The Magistrate said nothing for a moment as he looked down upon Maria while the sounds of slaughter happened in the background. "Oh, don't worry," he finally said. "You and your husband will be joining your son in Hell shortly."

He then turned around, leaving the woman with her dead son as he marched back toward George, who despite his superior strength was now being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the mob, who had managed to wrap a noose around George's neck, making him snarl.

"Tie him down!" the Magistrate ordered as other members of the mob followed suit, throwing their rope across the werewolf and forcing him to the ground.

George struggled to break free, but members of the mob quickly tied him down while one of them burned him on the back with a torch "AAAAAH!" he cried in a scream.

"We have you now, spawn of Beelzebub," the Magistrate declared as he walked up to the werewolf with a grin. "All those people you've slaughtered will be avenged tonight…"

"No! You all killed my so-" George was then punched in the face by the Magistrate, who knelt down and grabbed him by the bloody muzzle.

"You will be silent, demon!" the Magistrate then declared before he began to repeatedly punch George, drawing blood with each blow. The Magistrate was deceptively strong and George could do nothing as he felt his snout get broken and he began to guzzle out blood.

Witnessing this, the mob cheered for the Magistrate while Maria looked on in shock and horror. She tried to rush over, but two men held her back.

"George!" Maria cried out, helpless as she watched her husband get beaten to death.

And the Magistrate just sadistically smiled, taking pleasure in beating George to death with his bare hands.

Meanwhile, Emily and Zee followed Zaraff as they came upon a cabin. The very same one that Lupe had been living in.

"The trail leads here," Zaraff said as all looked at the cabin.

"Is this where he lives?" Zee asked as they approached the cabin.

"Possibly. In any case, we need to be cautious just in case he's still in there," Emily said as they walked towards the cabin door.

Zaraff took the lead, reaching for the door and pushing it open. "No locks."

"Yeah, definitely not a trap," Zee sarcastically remarked as Zaraff slowly opened the door and the trio let themselves in.

The three entered the dark cabin and began to look around, Emily summoning a flame in her hand and using it to light up the room. They took each step carefully. As Emily scanned the walls with her flame, she noticed the portraits and pictures of the previous residents of the cabin.

"What do you think happened to them?" Zee asked Emily, feeling anxious.

"…we probably should assume the worst," Emily told her before Zaraff paused.

"You hear that?" Zaraff asked as Zee paused as well.

"Yeah," Zee responded, her ears picking up a scratching sound. "Someone's in one of the other rooms."

"Get ready," Emily told them as the flame in her hand grew into a fireball while Zee prepared some spell circles and Zaraff who held up his bone knives. The three walked down the hallway for a bit before Zee tapped on Emily's shoulder, pointing at the source of the sound…

A door. They were silent, Zaraff giving them a nod and Emily and Zee nodding back. Holding up his knife, Zaraff went to open the door as they braced themselves for the worst…

They walked into a bedroom… and the three witches halted when they saw that the walls, floor, and even the furniture were covered in scratch marks.

"Titan," Zee whispered. "It is like a wild animal was in here…"

"That sounds like Lupe," Emily said as she walked over to the bed, noticing the shredded sheets.

"He's not in here," Zaraff said before they turned toward the closet. "Or is he…?"

"Stand back," Zee told them as she transformed into her dragon form and marched up to the closet. "Alright, we know you're in there!"

"Zee, wait!" Emily shouted as Zee threw open the closet…

…revealing a scared little witch boy, who shrieked in fear when he saw the dragon hovering over him. It was, of course, Pete. The young boy shivered as he looked up at Zee, himself looking nothing short of terrified.

"P-please don't hurt me!" Pete begged as he backed away from Zee in fear, forcing himself into the corner of the closet.

Zee stared at Pete in shock before turning back to her witch form and backing away. "I-I'm sorry," she said while Emily walked in front of her.

"It's okay, we're not going to hurt you," Emily said while kneeling down.

"You're… you're not?" Pete asked them, his tone cautious.

"We're not," Zaraff assured him. "Honestly, we had no idea that you would be here."

"What is he doing here?" Zee asked, still shocked that she had scared the kid. "Did Lupe kidnap this kid?"

"I wouldn't put it past him," Emily said while taking her eyes off Pete to look at Zee. "But I don't think we want to know what he was planning to do to him…"

Zee and Zaraff looked at each other, both of them thinking of several possibilities for what Lupe could want with a kid, each one of those possibilities causing them to shudder. "Nope," they both said.

Pete looked up at the three, realizing that they assumed that he was just a victim of a kidnapping… and that he could use this to his advantage. He slowly crawled up to feet and went to embrace Emily. "Oh thank goodness! I'm safe!"

Emily turned to him, surprised by the hug. "Yes, you are," she promised him. "Can you tell us your name?"

"M-My name is… Pete," Pete responded while looking down nervously.

"Did Lupe kidnap you, Pete?" Emily asked him.

"Actually… I live here," Pete claimed before he began to spin a lie. "T-That big, bad wolf broke into my home and… and killed my parents. I was kept alive to be… be…"

"You don't have to finish that," Emily said and Pete nodded.

"Oh, you poor thing," Zee said while kneeling down next to Emily. "Look, you're safe with us. We're going to take you out of here."

Pete nodded, though he still took a step back away from Zee.

"Do you know where Lupe is?" Zaraff asked Pete.

"I… I don't know," Pete responded. "He got angry all of the sudden and then he stormed out. I was left alone here until he got back and I was… too afraid to leave. I didn't think I would make it through the woods on my own…"

"Don't worry, you won't be here when he gets back," Emily said before she looked back at Zee and Zaraff. "We need to take him out of here."

"Yeah, I agree," Zee replied. "No way that guy's going near this kid."

"We have to take him back to town," Zaraff suggested. "But for now, he'll be a lot safer with us."

Emily nodded and she offered her hand to Pete. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

Pete looked up at Emily and with a hopeful expression he grabbed her hand. "Thank you."

But before they could leave the cabin, it was then that Zee and Zaraff both picked something up with their enhanced senses.

"Wait," Zee said as Emily and Pete looked over at her and Zaraff. "Something's out there…"

"Yeah, I hear it too," Zaraff replied as Emily picked up Pete.

"Wait… is it Lupe?" Pete asked in fear, hugging Emily tightly.

"We don't know," Emily said as she held the boy. "But we should be ready for him just in case."

The three left the bedroom and went into the hallway, where they heard a growling noise coming from outside the cabin. Zaraff held up his weapons, Zee changed her arms into dragon arms, and Emily held onto Pete, ready to protect him from any signs of danger…

They waited in silence as they looked around the house. Everything has become too quiet… when suddenly something huge smashed through the walls of the cabin at the end of the hallway, rolling toward them.

"Look out!" Zaraff shouted as the huge object threatened to crush them.

"Hang onto me!" Emily shouted as Zee grabbed hold of Emily while Emily tapped her hand onto Zaraff before she surrounded them in a cloud of red smoke, teleporting the four of them away before they could be crushed. When they reappeared, they were now outside of the cabin, which had been destroyed by the creature, which unrolled itself while letting out an animal-like snarl.

"That… that is not Lupe," Emily pointed out.

The large creature stood on its hindlegs in a hunchbacked position. It had a white shell on its hunchback, with white spikes all over its dark body. It had a white skullcap with glowing red eyes, along with tusks coming out from the sides of its jaws. It also had large, white claws and an exposed rib cage.

"What is that?!" Zaraff asked in shock. "In all my years and travels, I've never seen a beast like that!"

Zee stared at the creature for a moment before she looked around the area, noticing the claw marks on the trees and the paw prints in the ground. Wait a minute," she said as she recognized the tracks. "These markings… I've seen them before!"

"You have?" Emily asked her.

"Earlier, me and my team were out looking for a creature that had been attacking homes," Zee explained as they stared at the creature turning to face them. "We had to give up on the hunt because of Lupe, but I think… this may be that creature!"

The creature let out a roar, a roar which sounded familiar to Zee… before she remembered where else she had seen those claw marks before… and realized what this beast reminded her of.

"Oh my Titan…" Zee said as she covered her mouth in shock. "It's just like… the one we fought," she whispered, remembering the creature that she fought with the rest of Team WZRD when they first met each other.

"Wait, are you saying you've faced that thing before?" Emily asked her.

"Or at least a similar species," Zee said before she saw the creature roll itself into a ball and send itself rolling toward them. "Split up!"

They all did while the creature crashed through the forest, knocking over some trees but missing them in the process. It unrolled itself and let out another terrifying roar while the heroes prepared to fight it, Pete hugging tightly.

"Lupe or not, we should get this guy out of the way," Zaraff said while holding his bone-bow and arrow, aiming them at the creature.

Back in the health coven building, Zara and the three Team WZRD members were still in Zara's room, passing the time together while the entire building was on alert for Lupe…

However, their conversations were interrupted by the sound of a window breaking in the hallway outside of the room, followed by a member of the staff shouting. "Hey! You're not supposed to be here-AAH!"

The girls all immediately realized what this meant.

"He's here?!" Zara reacted in a panic, leaping to her feet.

"Get ready," Rebecca told the rest of her team as she held up her scythe, Whitney and Darcilia also getting ready for a fight.

They stared at the door, waiting for what was coming. Outside the door, they could hear the sounds of members of the staff screaming and running away…

And then the door was kicked down by Lupe, who was in his witch form. "Found you!"

"Hey," Rebecca said as she, Whitney, and Darcilia stood in front of Zara. "Remember us?"

For a moment, Lupe did look surprised to see them there. He started to transform into his wolf form, but his brief hesitation resulted in Whitney blasting him with an ice spell, knocking him out of the room and back into the hallway.

"En guard!" Whitney declared as she, Rebecca, and Darcilia charged out of the room, taking their battle into the hallway while Zara watched.

Lupe, now fully transformed, began to lift himself up. But before he was fully back on his feet, a crossbow bolt slammed into his chest, courtesy of Darcilia. "Gah!" he shouted as he grabbed the bolt and pulled it out of his chest, blood coming out of the wound.

"First blood," Darcilia said with a smirk.

Before Lupe could react, he felt a slash courtesy of Rebecca, who channeled her magic through her scythe to make slices in the air, creating red slashes that slammed into Lupe, slicing him up without the scythe even needing to touch him.

The next few seconds did not go well for Lupe, since he had to alternate between dodging crossbow bolts, Rebecca's attacks, and Whitney's ice magic. Realizing that this was not going well for him, Lupe turned and tried to run down the hallway.

"Don't let him get away!" Rebecca shouted as they pursued Lupe down the hallway.

Lupe went on all fours and he looked back to see the three girls chasing after him, Whitney using an ice spell to cover the floor in front of them with ice so they could slide across it and keep up with him. Lupe growled and looked ahead, noticing a nearby cart. He stopped and grabbed the cart, moving it and revealing the scared nurses hiding behind it. They screamed and ran, but Lupe ignored them and instead pushed the cart toward the members of Team WZRD. Whitney and Darcilia jumped out of the way, but Rebecca instead jumped over it, using the cart as a platform to launch herself closer to Lupe while drawing some spell circles, summoning thorny vines that attempted to bind Lupe…

The vines wrapped around Lupe's arms, but the werewolf snarled and broke free from his bonds quite easily. "Did you honestly think that would work?!" he asked before he turned to run down a hallway… only to run smack into a wall instead. "Oof!" he shouted, falling back as the 'hallway' vanished. He got up. "Where did that come from?!" he asked before he saw that Zara was standing behind the members of Team WZRD, having used her illusions to trick him. He growled, narrowing his eyes at Zara. "You…"

"That's right, motherfucker," Zara said with a smirk. "Me."

Lupe saw some ice spikes coming at him from the corner of his eye. He dodged them, but they still grazed him. "AAH!" he grunted as he glared at Whitney… only to realize that there were more of her… and more of Rebecca… and more of Darcilia. "Oh great… more illusions…"

"We can't fool his sense of smell," Zara told the members of Team WZRD and their duplicates. "But we can overwhelm him, wear him out."

The many versions of Darcilia, Whitney, and Rebecca nodded before Lupe charged at the duplicates, swiping through some of them and making them disappear. He tried to find the real Team WZRD with his nose, but he found that difficult with the sheer amount of attacks coming at him, forcing him to focus on them instead. While most of the crossbow bolts, ice spikes, and slash attacks coming at him were fake, plenty of them were still real and many of them still found their target. "Fuck!" he shouted, backing away.

Rebecca kept shooting magic beams at Lupe while her duplicates mirrored her actions and she turned to Zara. "Thanks for the assist."

"I guess right now that I am the 'Z' in Team WZRD," Zara said while her eyes glowed as she created more duplicates to replace the ones that Lupe cut down.

Lupe was quickly getting tired of this. As he found himself surrounded by a spam of Whitney, Rebecca, and Darcilia duplicates… he closed his eyes. He could no longer see the illusion duplicates, nor could he feel their fake attacks passing through him. Instead, he only felt the real attacks… and the direction where they were coming from… and then he had it. Their scents.

Whitney continued to shoot her ice spells when she saw Lupe charging toward her. Zara summoned some duplicates of Whitney to throw in his way and keep him busy, but Lupe just ran through the illusions. He was having none of it, grabbing a surprised Whitney by the face and slamming her down to the floor.

"Whitney!" Rebecca shouted as she ran towards Lupe. "YAAAAH!"

"Rebecca, wait!" Darcilia shouted before Lupe threw Whitney towards her, Whitney's body slamming into her and knocking them both into the wall.

Rebecca swung her scythe at Lupe, who dodged the attack. He took a whiff and grinned. "Found you," he said before he grabbed the scythe and swung it up, slamming Rebecca against the ceiling and causing her to fall to the floor.

"Rebecca!" Darcilia and Whitney shouted as they got up. Lupe was about to stomp on Rebecca's face while she was down, but Whitney shot an ice spell at him, knocking him back.

"Oof!" he shouted as he looked back at the two and saw them aiming their spells and their bolts at him. He let out a chuckle before he charged at the two.

Whitney sent out her ice attacks while Darcilia shot at him with her crossbow, but then realized she had fired her last bolt. "Shit," she said. But before she could reload, Lupe was already on them, slamming them both so hard that they were knocked back into the wall. He looked down at the two girls and singled out Whitney, who reminded him of his favorite victim and was now coughing up vile as he grabbed her leg, pulling her up and slamming her down on the floor like a ragdoll.

"AH!" she cried out.

Darcilia heard this and snapped out of her daze, pulling out a knife and lunging at Lupe, stabbing him in the hind leg and making him growl in pain.

"Fucking pussy!" he shouted before he kicked Darcilia in the face hard enough that she left a trail of blood as she slid across the floor and hit the wall. Lupe just glared at her motionless body before he heard Whitney's groans. He looked down and raised her up, seeing her stirring despite the blood coming from her forehead. "Oh, still alive, are ya?" he asked her.

"You…" Whitney said as her vision blurred. But before she could finish, she felt a punch to the face from Lupe, knocking her out.

Lupe grinned, but before he could hurt Whitney anymore, he was shot by a red magic blast. "GAH!" he shouted as he was forced to drop Whitney. He turned to see Rebecca, who still had some fight in her and had struggled to her feet, using her scythe as a crutch before using it to shoot a spell at Lupe. "You! You can't stay down, can you?!"

"Leave my sister alone," Rebecca told him as she drew some spell circles, summoning vines that Lupe dodged as he lunged towards her and tried to kick her. Rebecca managed to block the blow with her scythe, but she still slid back across the floor. "Oof!"

Nearby, Zara was watching the fight while hiding around a corner, trying not to draw attention to herself since she very much preferred Lupe to be focused on Team WZRD instead of her. However, at the moment she felt conflicted, especially as she watched Rebecca continue to fight Lupe despite her injuries. And to her credit, Rebecca was making a valiant stand… but she was getting slower and Lupe had managed to swipe her with his claws a few times, making her cry out in pain. It was obvious to Zara that Rebecca didn't have a chance to win against him and that she was obviously going to lose this fight… which could result in her being killed.

Along with the rest of Team WZRD, who now laid helpless at Lupe's feet.

Zara knew that she should have just ran away while Lupe had been distracted, but something had forced her to stay behind and watch the fight. Team WZRD had been so determined to protect her despite barely knowing her, determined to fight Lupe despite still not having fully recovered from their last fight with him.

So despite her better judgment, Zara couldn't bring herself to leave Team WZRD to die.

Especially not Rebecca.

"Hey, stop!" Zara shouted, drawing a spell circle.

Lupe stopped knocking Rebecca around when he saw a bright flash of light. He turned toward the light and saw Zara, who was now in front of him.

"You want me? Come and have a piece of me, you little doggy!" Zara declared while waving her arms around

"Zara, no!" Rebecca cried out.

Lupe smiled and rushed over to Zara, ready for the kill. He ran on all fours, baring his fangs as he leapt onto Zara… only to pass through an illusion.

"What?!" he shouted before he heard some footsteps nearby. He growled, realizing that Zara was making a run for it. "Oh you can run, but you can't hide from me!" he shouted as he went to give chase to Zara.

Rebecca had managed to pick herself back up, but she was shocked by Zara's decision to lead Lupe away. "Zara… hang on…" she grunted as she was about to pursue as well…

…only to collapse from exhaustion.

Meanwhile, Emily, Zee, and Zaraff were still locked in battle with the creature that kept trying to roll into them.

"Get back!" Zaraff shouted as they got out of the beast's way, Pete crying out in fear as Emily held onto him protectively, teleporting themselves out of the way in a cloud of red smoke. The creature ended up crashing through some more trees, knocking them over. It then unrolled itself and let out a roar.

Zee flew up while in her dragon form. "How about some of this!" she shouted as she breathed fire down at the creature, which was seemingly not affected by the flames.

Emily reappeared again with Pete in her arms and she saw Zaraff sliding back while holding his marrow bow and arrows. He shot them at the creature, the arrows bouncing off the armored hide as the creature turned to him. It formed into a ball again, but rather than roll towards Zaraff, it instead rolled towards Emily and Pete, Emily teleporting herself and the terrified Pete away as it crashed through some more trees.

When Emily and Pete reappeared again, the creature unrolled itself and turned to them. But before it could try to attack them once more, Zaraff jumped onto its back while stabbing at its hide with one of his weapons.

"Leave them alone!" Zaraff told while holding off the creature, who roared in response.

"You two okay?" Zee asked while flying next to Emily.

"Yeah," Emily responded while looking at the creature, which was trying to shake Zaraff off its back. "That thing… I think it is targeting me."

"Really, why?" Zee asked.

Emily wasn't sure, but then she looked back at the destroyed cabin home and she realized something. "Wait… I don't think it's targeting me," she said as she looked down at Pete, who she could feel trembling in her arms as he buried his face into Emily's shoulder. "I think it is after him…"

"It… it's after me?!" Pete asked in shock, looking and sounding more fearful.

The creature seemed to hear this and it formed itself into a ball again, spinning around and sending Zaraff flying away.

"Gah!" he shouted while hitting and breaking a tree.

The creature then began to roll itself towards Emily and Pete again. Fortunately, Zee grabbed them and lifted them up in the air before they got hit as it crashed through some more trees.

"Why is it targeting Pete?" Zee asked.

"I don't know," Emily responded. "It's almost as if… it's drawn to him."

"But why me?!" Pete asked.

"Don't know, but we're not going to let it get you," Zee told them as she put the two down before she flew towards the creature, slamming into it and causing it to unroll itself as it crashed into the ground.

"Stand back, Zee," Zaraff declared as he wore some rib-caged gauntlets, which extended into bone-claws. He rushed towards the creature, which used its own large claws to block Zaraff's attack. Despite the creature being much bigger, Zaraff managed to stand his ground and push back against the creature, snarling at it.

Zee took to the air and blew flames down at the creature from above, which caused the creature to scream in pain before it used its tail to swat Zee away. This gave Zaraff the chance to leap onto its back again, attempting to slash at the creature before he got knocked off once more.

Zee flew around as she blew more flames at the monster, who rolled into a ball and leapt into the air, trying to hit Zee as it spun around. However, it was vulnerable in the air, since without ground it had no traction. Zee managed to grab the creature by the tusks, stopping it mid-air.

"Gotcha," Zee said before she slammed the creature into the ground, creating a cloud of dirt. While Zee wrestled with the creature, Zaraff came over and slash at its arm, making it howl in pain.

"ROAAAAHHH!" it cried.

"Try to pin it down!" Zee cried as she blew steam into the face of the creature, distracting it.

Zaraff nodded and stabbed one of his bone blades through the arm of the creature and into the ground. He then did the same to the other arm before he attempted to stab it through one of the hind legs.

However, the creature managed to kick the hunter away from it before it forcibly ripped itself from the ground, the blades still in two of its arms. It then used its head to head-butt Zee, knocking her back before it rolled itself up in a ball again, rolling away from Zee and Zaraff.

Emily and Pete, meanwhile, were watching the battle from above, Emily on her staff while Pete held onto her. Emily wanted to make sure that Pete was safe, but she also couldn't bring herself to leave with him, wanting to make sure she was here in case Zee was in trouble.

"This rolling thing is a problem," Zee told Zaraff.

"Then we need to make sure he doesn't roll again," Zaraff declared. "I'd say we-"

"Flip him over?" Zee finished as Zaraff gave her a nod.

The monster unrolled itself again and turned to the heroes. It roared as Zee and Zaraff rushed the creature, Zee spreading her wings out as she flew up to grab the creature by the head while Zaraff ran behind the creature, summoning some bolos to throw at the creature's hindlegs, bounding them in place.

This gave Zee the chance to flip over the creature, knocking it onto its back and exposing its belly and rib cage. "Zaraff, now!"

Zaraff jumped up with his bone claw gauntlets out and he swung them down towards the belly of the beast…

And pierced it.

"AAAAAAIIIIEEEEEE!" the beast roared as black ooze sprayed out of its belly, covering Zaraff.

Zaraff screamed and kept stabbing the creature over and over again. Zee soon joined him, using her claws to rip into the creature. The two kept wailing on it, its ooze spreading across the forest floor while it cried in agony.

Emily covered Pete's eyes to keep him from seeing the carnage. She actually looked quite surprised to see Zee like this. Sure, this wasn't the first time she'd seen Zee willing to kill, since she had no problem killing the Goblin King. But seeing Zee go all out like this… it was still a bit of a shock.

"Stand back!" Zee shouted as Zaraff backed away and she jumped up, spinning around with her wings folded before she used them to drill through the monster's stomach, causing it to roar in pain again.

The creature continued to cry until it just… stopped.

Then the black fur started to melt away, turning into a black puddle, while the white armored parts of the creature started to crack and turn into dust. Both Zee and Zaraff were covered in the black substance.

"Is it over?" Pete asked.

"Yeah," Emily confirmed while uncovering Pete's eyes. She flew them back to the ground and they saw that the creature was now nothing more than a black puddle. "What kind of creature was that?"

"Don't know, but it's definitely the same kind that me and my team fought before," Zee responded as she changed back into her witch form. "It might be an invasive species."

Emily took notice of all the black ooze on them. "What is that substance on you?"

"Not sure," Zee responded while looking down at her. "But I am definitely going to need to take a shower…" She then saw Emily kneel down and touch the puddle, rubbing the substance with her fingers. "Uh… what are you doing, Mily?"

"This ooze," she noted as she looked at it more closely. "I think it's actually ink…"

Meanwhile, Donna, Cross, and Lindsay stood outside the Healing General building. They had heard the commotion and had shown up to see staff members rushing out of the building.

"Run away! Monster!" a nurse cried out.

"They're turning this hospital into a warzone!" another staff member shouted as Donna confronted him.

"Where's the monster? Which floor?" Donna asked.

"Third floor!" he told them before he saw the trio rush towards the entrance of the building. "What are you three doing?!"

"Don't worry, we'll handle this!" Cross shouted back as the three teens went in.

When they reached the stairs, Cross brought his dragon wings out as he grabbed hold of his girlfriends and flew them up to the third floor. Once there, he put them down gently and Lindsay opened the door.

"Hopefully we're not too late," Donna said as they rushed through the hallway, spotting the window that Lupe had crashed through and the broken glass. They followed a trail that included crossbow bolts embedded in the wall, melted ice, and countless knocked over objects until they turned a corner and came to a shocked stop. "Is that…?"

"Zee's friends," Cross said, seeing them all down and looking rather bruised up. He heard a groan and saw Rebecca trying to get back up. "Rebecca!"

Rebecca was panting heavily while trying to lift herself up with her scythe. "Gotta… go…" she struggled to say. She was about to fall again, but was immediately caught by Cross.

"Rebecca, what happened?" Cross asked her.

"Where's Zara?" Lindsay asked while she and Donna checked on Darcilia and Whitney.

Rebecca stirred lightly as she looked up to who had caught her. She blinked twice, before realizing that she was in Cross's arms. "C-C-Cross…"

"Yeah, we're here," Cross responded. But from Rebecca's perspective, all she saw was Cross in a shojo-style vision, with his eyes sparkling along with radiating a cool vibe around him.

She instantly blushed and began to stammer, almost forgetting her injuries. "W-W-What are you… how did you get here?"

"We followed the screams and found you and the others like this," Cross told her, making Rebecca's heart beat faster. "Are you okay?"

'He… he's worried about me?!' she thought, feeling her heart race as her face turned more red.

"Your face is all red…" Cross noted as he turned to Donna. "Donna, come quick! I think something's happened with Rebecca!"

"Let me check," Donna responded as she rushed over while leaving Lindsay to check on Darcilia and Whitney, Cross going over to help Lindsay. When she saw how red Rebecca's face was, she realized what it was and let out a sigh. "Don't worry, Rebecca, you're going to be okay."

Rebecca stopped blushing. With Cross out of her sight, she was able to think more clearly… and was able to remember one of the last things that happened. She sat up. "Zara!"

"Hey, be careful," Donna advised her. "Try not to move too much. What happened to Zara?"

"She… decided to draw him away from us," Rebecca said. "He… he beat the crap out of us, but now he's going after Zara. Please, you gotta save her!"

Donna stood up. "Lupe is here," she told Cross and Lindsay, her tone much colder. "He has to be stopped."

Cross looked worried. "Donna, maybe you should stay here with Team WZRD. After all, you're the healer-"

"No," Donna said as she pulled out her key and gripped it tightly. "I have to stop him."

Cross and Lindsay exchanged worried looks.

"Cross, go with Donna," Lindsay suggested. "I'll stay behind to help Team WZRD and then catch up with you two."

Cross looked at Lindsay for a moment before he nodded and stood up, walking over to join Donna. "Alright, let's go," he told her.

Donna turned to Rebecca "Which way did they go?"

Elsewhere in the building, Zara had been cornered at a dead end. She had tried to make herself invisible, but Lupe was ignoring all of her duplicates and was walking straight towards her. He took a whiff of the air and grinned.

"Found you," Lupe said while walking up towards her. "Better lose that illusion, it's useless against me."

Zara dropped the invisibility spell. Her fists tightened and she turned to face Lupe. "Why are you doing this?" she asked the werewolf.

"I've been watching you ever since you started spending time with Emily," Lupe told Zara. "And I know you're lying to her. That you are a threat to her. And I am gonna do her the favor of eliminating that threat once and for all."

"Why do you care about what I do to Emily?" Zara asked Lupe.

"Because unfortunately for you, she's the sister of a friend of mine," Lupe told Zara. "And that means she's off-limits!"

"Do you even care why I'm lying to her?" Zara asked.

Lupe just shrugged. "Nope," he said before he lunged at Zara, jaws wide…

"FREEZE!"

Suddenly, a blast of ice hit Lupe, causing him to howl in pain before he got swatted aside by Cross's tail, sending him flying away from Zara. Cross, in his dragon form, grabbed Zara and flew her away from Zara, dropping her down at the other end of the hall.

"You alright?" Cross asked her.

"Y-Yeah," Zara replied. "Thanks."

Cross nodded. "Don't mention it," he said. "Go down that hallway until you find Lindsay, who is with Team WZRD."

Zara nodded back and started running down the hallway while Cross turned to rejoin the fight, where Lupe grunted as he picked himself up and saw Donna standing before him, holding her keyblade up at Lupe while Cross joined her. Donna was glaring daggers at Lupe.

"Oh great," Lupe snarled in annoyance. "You're here too, snack?"

This angered Donna. "Tell me… why in the hell are you not dead?!" she demanded. "I killed you! How are you possibly alive?!"

Lupe just sighed. "Well, why don't you find out by killing me again, huh? Or you could just get out of my way, since believe it or not, you're not my target."

"Not a chance, Lupey," Cross said as he stood next to Donna. "You're not hurting anyone else today."

Lupe just scoffed before noticing Donna's Abomination hand. He grinned. "By the way, I like the new hand," he said. "Though I doubt it tastes as good."

Donna glared at Lupe and attacked, the werewolf snarling as he dodged Donna's next keyblade slash. She kept blasting him with her ice beams, which Lupe had to dodge. However, while Lupe was focused on Donna, Cross spun himself around and knocked Lupe into the wall, trying to hold him down. The werewolf growled and proved to be even stronger than Cross, grabbing the dragon by the face and viciously slamming him down to the floor. But Donna shot an ice blast on his arm, freezing his shoulder and making him let go of her boyfriend. "YAAAH!"

"You and me, we're not done," Donna said, her tone cold as she walked towards Lupe, slashing at him with her keyblade. Each slash created a wound and those wounds froze up, hurting him even more. While Lupe backed away from Donna, Cross got behind him, grabbed him by the tail, pulled him back, and swung him into the wall.

"And neither are we," Cross growled at Lupe, who coughed up some blood.

"And you must be the boyfriend," he indicated, seeing his dragon form. "A shame you weren't there when I bit her hand off."

Cross growled again and slammed Lupe head-first against the wall.

"You know, you're the second dragon I fought today," Lupe taunted despite his injuries. "Any chance you're related to the blue one?"

"My sister," Cross responded as he unleashed his dragon claws and slashed Lupe across the back.

"You're sister, eh? How's the shiner I gave her?" Lupe mocked before receiving a punch in the face from the green dragon, who turned Lupe around.

"Why don't you shut up!" Cross snarled as he delivered more punches towards Lupe, who then caught Cross's fist, head-butted Cross's face, and then kicked Cross in the stomach, knocking him back. Lupe was about to continue his beating of Cross, but then he realized he was unable to move. He looked down and saw his feet frozen to the floor.

"You have a lot to answer for," Donna said as she swung her keyblade at Lupe.

Moments later, Lupe crashed through a wall into a storage room. Lupe got up, finding himself covered in medical supplies like cotton and bandages. He shook most of it out of his fur before he noticed another blast of ice coming at him from Donna's keyblade. He went on all fours, ducking underneath the ice blast and rushing out of the room and into the hallway. Donna pursued, shooting after him more with more of her ice spells.

"Fuck!" Lupe shouted as he saw the two teens pursuing him. Cross flew past him and summoned vines to create a net in an attempt to slow Lupe down, but Lupe just easily broke through them. "Why do you plant witches keep thinking that would wor-"

Lupe was silenced when he was punched in the snout by Cross's fist, sending him across the floor. Lupe managed to stop himself from sliding any further by digging his claws into the floor, just in time to look up to see Donna and Cross pouncing upon him.

The two began to just wail on Lupe. Donna slashed at Lupe with her keyblade while Cross slashed his back. Lupe did his best to block their attacks and hit back when he could, punching Donna when he had an opening and kicking Cross in the gut when he had another. But he quickly realized that the two just refused to go down. Cross spun his wings around, drawing a spell circle before blasting a mean light spell that knocked Lupe back, just as Donna swung her keyblade into a large spell circle, shooting an ice spell at him. Lupe got hit by both of those attacks and the two teens didn't stop there.

After this went on for a while, all three combatants were breathing hard but still standing. Parts of Lupe's fur was either burned or frozen and to be perfectly honest he was getting sick of fighting teenagers.

And that was when Lindsay came in.

"Guys, I'm here!" Lindsay shouted before she came to a stop, noticing the wrecked hallway and Lupe, who spotted her. "Is that… Lupe?"

Lupe grinned and turned to rush towards her, seeing her as the perfect hostage to threaten.

"Lindsay!" Cross and Donna shouted, seeing Lupe about to pounce on Lindsay…

WHACK!

Only for Lupe to get instantly punched away by a larger fist, sending him flying past Cross and Donna. Lupe, dazed, looked up and saw that Lindsay's arm had expanded. "What… what just happened?!"

"I've been holding this in for so long," Lindsay said as her hair covered her eye before she raised her head up, showing that it was glowing red as she tilted her head. "But after hearing about all the horrible things you've done… I think I have found a new way to relieve my anger!" she shouted as she started to transform…

"Donna, time to clear the way," Cross said as he and Donna got out of Lindsay's way as Lindsay rushed towards Lupe while growing larger.

"Like I'm going to get manhandled by-" Lupe didn't even get to finish his sentence as he got to enjoy a reunion with the large fist of the cyclops girl.

"MADSTREAM HURT PUNY LUPE!" Madstream shouted as she delivered multiple punches towards Lupe, hitting him so hard that he crashed through the building and onto the ground outside three floors below.

Lupe groaned as he looked up, only to see Madstream jump off the third story floor and fall toward him. "W-Wait-!" he shouted before Madstream body slammed him into the street, creating a crater.

Cross and Donna were joined by Zara as they looked out the large hole created in the side of the building and looked down at Madstream beating up Lupe.

"What… what happened to Lindsay?!" Zara asked in shock.

"Madstream," Cross and Donna responded at the same time in an unsurprised tone, which left Zara in confusion.

They all watched Lupe getting pummeled by Madstream, who beat him down into the street with punch after punch. All the while drawing attention from some of the nearby civilians, who came out of their homes to watch the curb-stomp.

Eventually, after delivering an uninterrupted beatdown, Madstream changed back into Lindsay, who looked quite exhausted. Cross flew down with Donna to help her up and they all looked down at the very beaten up and unconscious Lupe, who changed back into his witch form.

"You alright, Linds?" Cross asked.

"Yeah," Lindsay responded while taking a deep breath. "Just glad that I got all of that out of my system."

And so, soon the authorities were on the scene. They wasted no time and left nothing to chance, muzzling Lupe and covering him in large chains. He was then dragged away by Torque's men, who placed him in the police wagon while nearby pedestrians watched the excitement.

"Alright, alright, everyone back up!" Torque told the pedestrians. "I'll be taking care of things from here."

One of the volunteers, Hendrick, shut the back of the wagon once Lupe was in. He then turned to see Lindsay, Cross, and Donna on the scene, Donna glaring at the back of the wagon as she made sure that she was there to see Lupe get taken away.

"Hey, sis! Are you and your friends alright?" Hendrick asked as he walked over to check up on them.

"We're fine, thank you, Henry," Lindsay replied. "I'm just glad that Lupe guy is being arrested."

"Yeah, thanks to you, Linds," Cross complimented with a smile. "I haven't seen you go this all out since Mel."

"Yeah, you were pretty hardcore against him, Linds," Donna said, relaxing a bit more as she saw the wagon with Lupe inside leave.

"Oh, um… it was nothing, really," Lindsay said, her tone bashful.

"That's just the Lindsay way, she can be both nice and firm," Hendrick said. "I think she gets it from me in a way."

"Um, in what way…?" Lindsay questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"Um… well… you know…" Hendrick said, struggling to answer. "Hey, it looks like I have to go now! See you later, sis!" he shouted before rushing off.

Lindsay sighed and shook her head before turning to Donna. "Are you sure that you're okay, Donna?" she asked her in concern.

"Yeah," Cross said, turning to Donna as well. "We know this was a big deal for you. Seeing Lupe again and all. How do you feel?"

Donna looked down and took a deep breath. "I wish he was dead," she admitted in a low voice. "I wish I had killed him." She looked at her Abomination hand, which tightened into a fist. "I hate him."

"We understand, Donna," Lindsay said as she reached out for Donna, who pulled back slightly.

"I'm… not sure you do," Donna admitted. "Lindsay, have you ever hated anyone so much that you wanted them dead? That you wanted to kill them?"

"I… don't think I have," Lindsay confessed while looking down.

"I have," Cross said, getting Donna to turn to him. "Osran. What he did to my sister… I wanted him dead for that. And he is dead for that and a lot of other stuff. So… I actually do get it. And I think you are valid to feel that way after what Lupe did to your parents… after what Lupe did to you. If I was in your position, I would want Lupe dead as well."

Donna looked at Cross, grateful. "Thank you," she said, feeling validated. She then looked down again. "But… I'm glad that I didn't kill him this time. Because now I know that killing him won't stop him from coming back. I don't know how he came back, but… right now it doesn't matter how. I can, at least, still have the satisfaction of knowing that he will be locked away and face punishment, meaning that he can't hurt anyone else."

Cross and Lindsay shared the sentiment.

"We are glad that you're okay, Donna," Lindsay told her.

And at that, Donna smiled. "Thanks," she said as she went to hug them.

After they finished hugging, Cross looked up and noticed several figures in the sky. "Better late than never," he said as Zee and Emily came down on their staffs, Zaraff and Pete riding with them.

"Cross!" Zee shouted as they levitated down. Once they got off of their staffs, Zee rushed over to her brother and wrapped him in a hug. "Are you alright? Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" she asked worriedly.

"Hey, don't worry, Zee, I'm fine," Cross reassured her, trying to break out of her grip. "What the hell are you covered in?"

"What happened here?" Emily asked, looking around after setting Pete down.

"Well, Lupe broke into the building to try to kill Zara. Rebecca, Whitney, and Darcilia tried to protect her… but they got hurt pretty badly," Donna said.

"What? Are they okay?!" Zee asked her.

"They're fine, and so is Zara," Lindsay quickly reassured them. "We got here just in time, Donna and Cross stopping Lupe before he could kill Zara."

"And Lindsay delivered the finishing blow," Cross mentioned. "Like, she went Madstream and body slammed him."

"She did?" Zee asked in surprise, breaking into a smile. She patted LIndsay on the back. "Way to go, Linds! You really are the MVP player tonight."

"It's nothing, really," Lindsay told her in a humble tone. "I'm just glad I was able to let out my anger on someone who deserved it. And now he won't hurt anybody else since he got arrested."

"Wait, so this Lupe is… contained?" Zaraff asked.

"Yeah, the authorities showed up and took him away while he was unconscious," Cross said.

Zee and Zaraff looked relieved to hear this, while Pete looked surprised and Emily looked… disappointed.

"So he is already gone?" Emily asked. "I was hoping to get some answers from him…"

"You can always ask him those questions later, Mily," Zee pointed out. "Because now you know how to find him. At least he still isn't running loose around the Isles."

"Yeah," Emily acknowledged. "I just hope they can contain him." She looked around and sighed. "We would have been here earlier to help, but we ran into some… complications."

"Complications?" Cross asked.

Emily nodded and gestured to Pete, who was noticed by Lindsay.

"Oh, who's this?" Lindsay asked, curious about the boy, who hid behind Emily.

"This is Pete," Emily explained to her. "We found him in the place Lupe was staying in. Lupe… broke into his home and killed his parents."

"Dear Titan…" Donna said as she knelt down to Pete's level. "You must've been scared of Lupe, weren't you?"

"Y-Yeah," Pete responded with a sniff. "He would threaten me and beat me. I… I was so scared. I… I'm just glad that he's gone… a-and that my parents were avenged," he said, lying through his teeth while wiping away his tears.

"Oh, you poor thing." Lindsay said as she, Cross, and Donna looked at him with nothing but sympathy.

"Could you guys get him checked in with some healers while me and Zee go check up on Zara and the rest of Team WZRD?" Emily asked the trio.

"Yeah, you two can go ahead, we'll watch over Pete for you," Donna told her as she offered her hand to Pete. "Come on, we can take you to see a healer who will help you, okay?"

Pete looked up at Emily, who nodded that it was okay. After a moment, he reluctantly reached out and took Donna's hand. "S-Sure."

While Donna, Cross, and Lindsay went to check in Pete with some healers, Emily and Zee started to head toward the building to check Zara and Team WZRD. However, before they went in, Zee turned around and saw Zaraff about to leave.

"Not sticking around, Raff?" Zee asked.

"Well, the hunt is already… well, hunted," Zaraff told her. "The threat of Lupe is over, even if we didn't have a chance to face him. Which is kinda disappointing, but hey, at least I still got to fight something and Lupe was still taken care of, so it wasn't a total loss."

"Yeah, I know that feeling," Zee admitted. "But thanks for the help, Zaraff. Without you, we wouldn't have found Pete."

"Yes, I am glad that he is safe," Zaraff said before he began to make his leave. "See you around, Zee."

Zee gave a nod. "You too, Raff. Oh, and do us all a favor and take a shower."

Zaraff looked down at his ink-stained outfit and laughed. "Will do, Zee. Will do…"

Inside the building, Emily and Zee managed to find Zara with Team WZRD. They saw the girls in their cots, getting treated by healers for their fresh injuries.

"Zara! Guys! You're alright!" Zee shouted, rushing over to them.

"Depends on your definition of 'alright'," Whitney groaned, having to wear a bandage wrapped around her abdomen while her shirt was up. She then saw Zee and the ink she was covered in. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Um, long story," Zee said. "How badly did you guys get hurt?"

"We were already still sore from the last fight," Darcilia admitted. "So we went down a lot faster, unfortunately. Out of us, Zara was the least harmed," She gestured to Zara.

"Yeah, um, thanks guys, for defending me out there… again," Zara said, her tone ridden with guilt. "I'm… sorry that you got hurt because of me."

"I mean, I didn't like getting thrashed around like that," Whitney admitted. "But this is the kind of thing that we signed up to do. So you don't have to apologize."

"Yeah, and you did help," Rebecca pointed out while covered in bandages from her head to her ribs and chest. "Your illusions did give us an edge, we just… weren't fighting at our full strength."

Zee, like Zara, looked ridden with guilt. "I am so sorry that I wasn't here…"

"It's fine," Darcilia told her. "Fortunately, Donna, Cross, and Lindsay were here."

"Yeah, although they could have at least been a few minutes earlier," Whitney complained before looking up at Emily and Zee. "And what about you two? Where have you been during all of this?"

"We were looking for Lupe, and then we ran into Zaraff," Zee explained. "He helped us find where Lupe had been hiding, in a cabin in the woods. He wasn't there, but we did find this kid, Pete. His family lived in the cabin before Lupe killed his parents."

This shocked the girls.

"He… killed his parents?" Rebecca asked, looking down. "That's awful…"

"What about the kid?" Zara asked, looking concerned. "Is he okay?"

"He's safe, although I am not sure he is okay mentally after everything he has been through," Emily confessed. "Which is why we are getting him checked by some healers. But… there is something else. After we found him… we got attacked."

"By what?" Darcilia asked.

"It was the beast that we were tracking earlier," Zee revealed, which surprised her team. "Me and Zaraff fought it while Emily protected Pete, which the beast seemed to be… drawn to. We did eventually kill it… but the thing about that creature was… that it was similar to the one we fought together when we first met. Hence the stuff I'm covered in."

"Really?" Whitney asked her and Zee nodded. "That's… peculiar…"

"Yeah," Darcilia said, nodding in agreement. "Wait, do you think the creature we fought before might have originally been from here?"

"Maybe…" Rebecca considered. "But… that could also mean there are more creatures like it here…"

"Wait, did you say that this beast was drawn to Pete?" Zara asked.

Emily nodded. "Yeah," she confirmed. "For some reason, the beast seemed to be prioritizing attacking him over any of us."

Zara turned to Zee. "I remember something you told me," she said. "The first beast that you and Team WZRD fought, it was prioritizing your Teraskat, Yang, right?" she asked. "It even briefly ignored you to chase Yang?"

"Yeah," Zee said, nodding in agreement. "This behavior is… pretty odd."

While the teens were sharing theories about the nature of the creature that they fought, Emily was looking over the bandaged Team WZRD when she noticed something on Rebecca's back. "Huh," she said.

"What?" Rebecca asked.

"I didn't know you have a tattoo on your back, Rebecca," Emily pointed out.

"Oh please, I'd never allow my sister to have a tattoo," Whitney said. "You're looking at her birthmark."

This surprised Emily. "Birthmark? That's a birthmark?"

"Oh yeah, that," Rebecca said as she realized what Emily was referring to. She moved her body, showing off that around the bandaged part of her body was a birthmark. A very distinct and specific birthmark. "I've had this since I was a baby."

"Um, yeah, that is how birthmarks work," Emily said.

Rebecca blushed in embarrassment. "You know what I mean!" she shouted before looking over her shoulder at her birthmark. "But because of my birthmark, I've always believed that it must've been destiny for me and Zee to become friends..."

Her birthmark... was of the shape of a dragon.

Meanwhile, Zaraff had made it back to the circus. He walked over to his own wagon, passing by Mr. Pryce.

"Zaraff! Good to see you've returned," he told him. "How was the hunt?"

"Not as successful as I would have liked, but you can let the others know that they've apprehended the werewolf," Zaraff told him while continuing to walk toward his wagon.

"Will do, my friend," Pryce told him. He paused, sniffing the air. "You smell terrible."

"Yeah, I know," Zaraff said, his clothes still stained with black ink. "I need a shower…"

Inside his wagon, Zaraff took his boots off before he began to take off his jacket. He then looked in the mirror and as he took his jacket off completely…

…his back showed a dragon birthmark as well, just like Rebecca's.

Back in the health coven general building, all of the teens were currently hanging out with each other in the same room. Emily, Zee, Zara, Team WZRD, Cross, Lindsay, and Donna all chatted about their day.

"So what do we call what we just fought back there?" Emily asked Zee, who gave a hum. She was now wearing a fresh pair of clothes provided to her by the staff.

"I think I'll call it… a Tuskwolf," Zee said as she tapped her chin. "Yeah, I should document the creature we fought…"

Whitney, who was drinking her tea with Rebecca, noticed her sister's lovey-dovey look as she stared at Cross, who was chatting with his girls.

"Rebecca…" Whitney groaned.

"W-what?" Rebecca asked defensively while looking back at her sister. "I wasn't doing anything," she pouted.

"Doing what?" Cross asked as he looked over at Rebecca, startling her.

"N-N-Nothing!" Rebecca denied while Darcilia just shook her head.

Zara looked around at everyone and for a brief moment… she smiled. But then she sighed and started to stand up. "Well, now that the threat of Lupe is over, I should make my leave."

"Already?" Lindsay asked her.

"Well, I do want to get back to my wagon and look for anything that can be salvaged from it," Zara pointed out. "According to Emily and Zee, my chest is at least fine. And that's where I keep my most important valuables. I want to make sure I get back to it before someone loots it."

"You sure you don't want someone to walk you back over?" Zee asked her. "I can get my brother to walk with you."

"Thanks, but I'm a big girl. I know how to keep myself safe from the normal weirdos out there," Zara said as she started to leave.

"Where are you going to be staying now?" Emily asked, causing Zara to pause. "Your home was burned down."

"I'll… figure something out," Zara said before looking at the members of Team WZRD. "Anyway, thanks again for saving my ass back there, especially you, Rebecca."

"Oh, it's no problem, really," Rebecca replied. "But thanks."

Zara gave her a nod. "Goodnight, everybody," she said.

"Night!" they all shouted when seeing Zara out.

And just as Zara left… someone else came into the room. And that someone… was Torque.

"Ahem," Torque said as he cleared his throat, causing everyone to turn their attention to the turtle biped.

"Oh… him," Zee said with a groan.

"Greetings, everyone," Torque said. "May I have a word with a Ms. Emily Tricks and Zee Drakescale out in the hall?"

Emily and Zee turned to look at each other before they both got up and walked over to Torque, following him out of the room. Once they were in the hallway, Torque faced the two girls as he cleared his throat again.

"I want to talk to you girls about your decision to go to Chuck Avery and ask him to use his radio show to tell the rest of the Inwell Isles about Lupe," he said before narrowing his eyes on Zee in particular. "Specifically, I want to talk to you about you deciding to do it right after I told you that I didn't want to risk causing a panic by letting everyone know about Lupe. So I don't appreciate you two intentionally undermining me and my authority like that by going behind my back and against my wishes."

"Wait, seriously?" Emily asked in surprise. "This is what you wanted to talk to us about?"

"Yeah," Zee said, crossing her arms. "Look, if you and your volunteers did your jobs to begin with, we wouldn't have to have gone to Avery!"

"She's right," Emily said, nodding in agreement. "We did what we had to do to warn witches about Lupe."

"Well… fortunately for you, I'm gonna let you girls go with a warning," Torque told them. "But as of right now, I have my eyes on you like a hawk."

Neither of the girls were happy with this or just Toque in general.

"What about Lupe?" Emily asked him. What do you guys intend to do with him?"

"Oh don't worry about him, he isn't getting out nor will he ever," Torque reassured them. "I got this handled."

"Hopefully so," Zee said with a bitter tone. Despite her words, she had some doubt about his ability to handle a psychopath like Lupe.

"What about Pete?" Emily brings up.

"Pete?" Torque asked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"We found this young boy, Pete, in the cabin that Lupe was staying in," Zee explained. "He's the son of the cabin's residents before Lupe killed them."

"What… did the cabin look like?" Torque asked.

"Well, the wood appeared to be redwood," Emily explained. "And it had circular aqua windows… and its door has a glass shaped like an eye."

"Glass eye… aqua windows…" Torque wondered out loud before he snapped his fingers. "I know which house you're talking about!"

"You do?" Zee asked.

"Yeah, but… the family that lived in that house died months ago," Torque revealed, surprising the girls. "None of the relatives have decided to take their possessions yet… and neither did the former residence have a son or a kid of any kind."

This surprised Emily, leaving her in a confused state. "They… didn't? But Pete said…"

Before she could finish that thought, she began to quickly walk away from Zee and Torque, who watched her leave.

"Emily?" Zee asked, seeing Emily run off.

"What is your friend doing?" Torque asked, just as confused as Zee.

The Tricks girl didn't stop to give an explanation. Instead, she ran around the building, looking for Pete. Eventually, she ran into some staff and tried asking where Pete's room was. After asking around, she finally found the room where they checked Pete in.

"Pete?" Emily asked, checking around the room only to find that Pete… wasn't there. "Pete?!"

She looked around in the room again before she noticed the window was open. Her eyes widened as she stared at the open window in horror, realizing that Pete… was gone.

But… where could he be?

In the woods, Zara was now in front of her wagon… or at the very least, what used to be her wagon. She sighed and approached the burnt ruins, then her eyes lit up when she saw her trunk still intact. She rushed over to it.

"Thank goodness this wasn't destroyed, "she said as she went to unlock it, checking the contents to make sure that they were not damaged. She smiled in relief and pulled out a few of the items, looking at them. This included her black hat… and crystal ball.

She held up the crystal ball and looked into it. And when Zara saw her reflection look back at her… she frowned. She lowered the crystal ball, remembering how it told her about Emily all those years ago… and what happened afterward.

In Munchkin Village, the Munchkins were still in the midst of their celebration, still singing and dancing about the defeat of their enemy.

"Good news!" they sang. "She's dead! The Witch of the West is dead! The wickedest witch there ever was! The enemy of all of us here in Oz! Is Dead! Good news! Good news!"

Seph and his gang were watching the other Munchkins when Seph felt one of his friends nudge him. "Look," the bully said while pointing. "It's Zara!"

Indeed, Zara was walking around Munchkin Village. But she looked… like she was in a daze. She wasn't really walking anywhere in particular, just stumbling along, her head not in the moment. Instead, she was thinking about how her own mother had replaced her with another daughter.

Zara had a sister.

And that sister… was her replacement.

While Zara processed this, the crowd sang in the background.

"No one mourns the Wicked! No one cries 'They won't return!' No one lays a lily on their grave!"

"The good man scorns the Wicked!"

"Through their lives, our children learn what we miss, when we misbehave…"

Zara was looking down at the ground, still wandering aimlessly through the streets of the village when she heard the sound of footsteps. She looked up, but her face had no reaction when she saw who the footsteps belonged to.

"Finally, we found you," Seph said as he and his gang confronted Zara. "We warned you about showing up around here, Zara! Any last words?"

Zara didn't respond. Instead, she felt herself getting hit in the back, making her fall. Once she was done, another bully in the group kicked her in the stomach.

"Yes, Goodness knows," the distant crowd sang. "The Wicked's lives are lonely. Goodness knows, the Wicked cry alone…"

Tears began to stream down Zara's face as the bullies kept kicking her.

"Nothing grows for the Wicked, they reap only what they sow…"

"Look how down she goes!" one of the bullies shouted.

"If we had a bucket of water, do you think she would melt?" another replied.

"We don't need a bucket," Seph said as he raised his boot and stomped Zara on the back, causing her body to wince in pain. "She's worm food either way!"

They continued to beat and kick the downed Zara and in that moment… everything that Zara had experienced up to this point culminated all at once. It felt like all of Oz was against her… and her mother had not just abandoned her, but replaced her…

All of the torment she went through, all of the loneliness and hatred…

Zara just couldn't take it anymore.

So… she didn't.

Seph was about to raise his boot again… only for it to get caught on fire.

"WHAT?!" Seph cried out in shock. "Ah! Help! Put it out!"

"Oh Oz! Seph!" his friend cried out.

Everyone stopped when they saw the flames spread to Seph's leg. Nobody knew what to do, so they just backed away while Seph danced around with a flaming leg.

Zara slowly picked herself up and she saw Seph's predicament, saw him dancing around while the flames started to consume his pants. Zara stared at Seph in quiet shock, then looked down at her hands as she realized… that she did that.

And she asked herself… what else could she do?

She looked back up at Seph… and grinned.

"Hey Seph," Zara said, drawing his attention. As he looked at her… she snapped her fingers and the flames consumed his entire body in an instant.

"YAAAAAH!" Seph screamed. "HELP! STOP HER!" he cried while looking around at his gang, who all looked shocked at what Zara did. "STOP HER!"

But no one did, as all were too scared to do anything as Zara watched Seph burn to death, a wicked gleam in her eye.

So instead, they ran.

"No one mourns the Wicked!" the crowd sang in the distance. "Now at last, she's dead and gone! Now at last, there's joy throughout the land! And Goodness knows we know what Goodness is! Goodness knows, the Wicked die alone!"

"She died alone!"

"Woe to those!"

"Woe to those!"

"Who spurn what Goodnesses, they are shown no one mourns the Wicked!"

"Good news!"

"No one mourns the Wicked!"

"Good news!"

"No one mourns the Wicked! Wicked! Wicked!"

And as Zara watched Seph burn, she started to laugh.

"Heh-heh-heh-heh-HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHHEHEHEEEE!"

Zara looked down at her crystal ball, so focused on it she didn't hear someone landing on the ground behind her.

"Hey, Zara!"

Zara looked up in surprise. She turned around and her eyes widened in shock when she saw who was standing there. "YOU!"

Smiling at her was Mel.

"Did you miss me?" the goddess asked her. She was wearing an orange short-sleeve shirt with a brown vest, dark-red mid-length skirt, and brown shoes. She gestured to the burnt wagon.

"Don't tell me you were crashing there," she said with a cheeky smile.

"Mel…" Zara said, still shocked to see the daughter of Hades and Maleficent here of all places.

It was a reunion that Zara did not expect.

Long ago…

Inside her cell, screaming in agony was George's wife, Maria. She was chained to the wall, her clothes tattered and ripped. She looked awful and it was not difficult to imagine what she had been through since we last saw her. Currently, she was being subjected to torture as her bare feet were held by the Magistrate, who used a hot iron rod to burn the bottoms of her feet.

"YAAAAAAH!" she cried in pain while the Magistrate held a tight grip on her ankle. "Please… stop…" she begged while in tears.

"Do you confess to witchcraft?" he asked her. "Do you confess to consorting with the demon?"

Maria continued to tear up while feeling the hot, stabbing feeling on her feet. She winced, crying and begging for this to stop as her body couldn't take it. She then looked up at the Magistrate… and saw something in his eyes. After a moment, she realized what it was.

"You… you're taking pleasure in this, aren't you?!" Maria hissed, causing the Magistrate to stop.

"Oh? So now the accused is accusing me?" he asked with no emotion, but Maria wasn't buying it. His tone was controlled, but his eyes told a different story.

"This is all just for kicks, isn't it?!" she called him out, resisting the pain and the tears as she shouted at him. "You may call yourself magistrate, but I know what you really are! I saw you beat my husband to death! You're just as sinful as those you've accused! Probably more so! You're sick, twisted! You're no Man of God, you're not even a man!"

The Magistrate dropped her feet and put down the iron rod. He then stood up, raising to his full height as he looked down at her. At first, his face betrayed no emotion. And then… he broke into a sadistic grin.

"You're right… I'm not," he said as he finally dropped the act and revealed his true colors.

Maria should have taken some comfort in being right, but instead she was horrified as she watched the Magistrate begin to monologue.

"Yes, I do take pleasure in tormenting and torturing my victims, including you. And all I have to do is claim to be a man of god out to punish the wicked and the evil, and they eat it up without question. In fact, I might as well be a god to them, for I can be judge, jury, and executioner…" He paused. "Would you like to know a secret?"

He didn't wait for her to answer. Instead, he leaned towards her, getting uncomfortably close to her face. She tried to turn away from him, but there was nowhere she could go. She was trapped in this cell with this monster of a man.

Or at least, that is what she thought until the Magistrate whispered something into her ear.

"I am a werewolf."

Maria's eyes widened in shock as she turned her head to stare at the Magistrate in horror. "You… you're…?"

"Correct," the Magistrate declared while reveling in his depravity. "I know, it is so ironic. But who would suspect the Magistrate, Nicholas Lupin, as the werewolf responsible for the slaughter of their livestock?"

"You… you framed my husband!" Maria accused.

"Yeah, I did," he told her with a sadistic smile. "I did it to rally a mob against him. And it felt so good beating him to death," he said while looking down at his hands, remembering the feeling of George's face breaking beneath his fists. He turned to look at Maria, who was shaking in fear. "Your son got off lucky, he would've suffered a lot more than you if he had lived…"

"Why…?" she asked, tearing up in anger. "Why did you do this?!"

"Your husband was weak," Lupin said, almost dismissively.

"Weak?!" she questioned with ire.

"George was a werewolf, a werewolf that should've taken charge!" Lupin declared. "But instead, he kept to himself, killed only animals, and decided to lay with a human whore before conceiving a child to be just as weak as him! He deserved death," he said as he looked at Maria again while sporting a cruel smile. "But I'm glad that you're alive. For now, at least…"

As Lupin hovered over her, Maria realized his intentions and let out a scream…

Later, Lupin went to see LePeu, who confronted his magistrate.

"How did the interrogation go, sir?" he asked.

"The witch confessed to her sins with her dying breath," he lied while wiping his bloody hands with a rag, resuming the identity of the Magistrate. "Her fate is in the hands of God now…"

"Yeah…" LePeu nodded while noticing the blood on the rag. "You must've given her the old iron to get her to confess, didn't ya?"

"Indeed, LePeu," he told him.

"By the way… where were you the other night, sir?" LePeu asked.

"Oh?" Lupin asked while looking up at LePeu.

"Well, it is just that… I can't remember where you were that night," LePeu said. "I went to check on you, but you were gone and I didn't see you again until the morning."

"I was… praying," Lupin said while noticing the way that LePeu was looking at him.

In truth, LePeu had his suspicions for a while. Especially since he spent more time with Lupin than anybody else and like with Maria, he saw it when his true self occasionally bled to the surface. But at that moment, it seemed like his suspicions were proven true… George wasn't the only werewolf in this village.

Lupin realized that he had been found out and he sighed. "It was nice knowing you, LePeu," he told his sidekick as his body began to grow fur all over as he started to transform into a werewolf…

BANG!

Only for Lupin to get blasted in the face, sending his body back. LePeu held up his gun towards the now former magistrate. He looked down at the body, which quickly reverted back to human form as it laid on the floor.

LePeu sighed regretfully. "At least I've put an end to the true monster," he said.

Thus the story of Nicholas Lupin should have ended…

But in the Underworld where the Fates resided, Lachesis held up a thread of life in front of her sisters.

"Alright, girls, let's give Nicholas Lupin a snip!" Lachesis declared.

"Here comes the scissors!" Atropos shouted as she held the scissors up, about to snip away Nicholas Lupin's life… but then she stopped herself. "Wait a second!"

"You see what I see as well?" Clothos asked.

"You mean, 'we'?" Lachesis corrected.

"Yes," Atropos said as the sisters looked at the thread. "A man as evil as Lupin, as cruel… he would make the perfect antagonist for some of our future stories, I think."

"Of course," Lachesis said as she and her sisters grinned. "We found our Big Bad Wolf, girls!"

"He will still die, of course," Clothos said as they looked into the thread. "In the end, the monster must always die. Vanquished by the heroes. Because we will bring him back in a new body every time, reuse him over and over again. Yes, he will be most perfect…"

And with that, Nicholas Lupin's thread of life was spared… and his cycle of life and death began.

Back in the present, Lupe currently sat in a cell… while wrapped up in chains that made it so that he could barely move. Obviously, they weren't taking any chances with him.

Lupe was in his witch form, though he had tried to use his wolf form to break out of his chains. No luck. He grumbled at his predicament.

"Can't believe I got myself into this," he said while looking around the jail cell. "Why am I even here? I should have left, nobody would have come looking for me…" He then paused, remembering why he had come to the Inwell Isles in the first place. A favor for a friend. He let out a sigh. "Of course, they won't be able to contain me. Not for long…" He then sniffed the air, finding a familiar scent. His eyes widened before they narrowed at the shadows outside of his cell. "You…"

"They really did it," said the woman in the shadows, who stepped forward, revealing herself… to be the former Captain Wolffe. To say she looked unhappy to see Lupe would be an understatement. In fact, she was using her one good eye to glare at Lupe. "They finally captured you and locked you away… like the animal you are."

Lupe growled. "You really enjoy seeing me like this, eh?" he asked. "Nice scar."

"You gave me this," she told him with a venomous tone, reaching up to touch the scare that was over one of her eyes...

"Yeah, I know," Lupe said with a grin. "So are you here to gloat or are you going to help me out?"

Wolffe was taken aback by the sheer audacity of Lupe to suggest that she would help him. "Help you?! Why in the hell would I ever help you out?!"

"Because you're my daughter!" Lupe growled back.

Wolffe scoffed at him. "Daughter? Um, did you forget that you disowned me when you realized that I didn't inherit your lycanthropy! I don't owe you a damn thing!" she told him, before calming herself down. Her fists tightened. "And you… you can't hurt me anymore."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Lupe said. "But the way I figure it, I was the one who toughened you up. You became a captain in the Emperor's Coven, right? You have me to thank for that."

Wolffe stared at Lupe in shock. "What?" she asked him, almost laughing. "You expect me to be grateful? I am more than happy to just let you rot in that cell!"

"And yet, you're still here," Lupe pointed out.

Wolffe growled. "I want answers…"

"Like what?" Lupe asked her.

"Why are you here?" she asked him. "Just… what the hell are you doing here on the Inwell Isles in the first place?"

Lupe looked at his daughter and just smiled. "Well… it's a long story, but since I am clearly going nowhere, we seem to have the time," he said. "Once upon a time…"

A long story indeed… but for now, author's notes.

Since Wicked is coming out next week, we have thought that we would do something to celebrate the occasion, which is why in this chapter, we decided to give the first extended look at Oz in the LCU with the first flashbacks to Zara's past.

The Clock of the Time Dragon in the chapter is a complete reference to Wicked, both the book and the musical. Morgan, the dragon's inventor, is based off of two characters: Mr. Boss(the dwarf who owned and operated the Clock of the Time Dragon in the book Wicked) and Professor Marvel(the fortune teller with a crystal ball that Dorothy meets in Kansas in the 1939 film). Morgan is even a reference to Frank Morgan, the actor who played Professor Marvel. We've also included the chorus from "No One Mourns the Wicked", hence the name of the chapter.

The use of another song number, "Kill the Beast" aka "The Mob Song", was something we have been thinking of using for a while now. And the flashbacks with Lupe was pretty much the best use of it. We've drawn some inspiration from the animatic "The Mob Song-DnD Animatic" by UnusualCrow on YouTube, which is what actually gave us the initial idea for Lupe's backstory.

Originally, Lupe was going to be a human named Nicolas Lupin, who is based off of a real-life figure, Nicolas Remy, a French magistrate who in his book claimed to have overseen the execution of more than eight hundred witches, and the 1988 show 'Werewolf' gave us the idea to have Lupin already be a werewolf, since in that show, Remy was an immortal werewolf who used his position as magistrate to hide his lycanthropy. This way, there is still some mystery in Lupe's backstory, since we still don't know how he became a werewolf.

You can thank to Jack_Skeletron with giving us the idea to have the Fates be the ones responsible for Lupe's cure.

As for Wolffe being Lupe's daughter, this was an idea we came up with during Book Two, which we didn't get the chance to use it and have no room for it there, but we never forgot it and we decided to include it here.

As for Rebecca's mother, who is based off of Raven from RWBY, and that the idea of Rebecca having one of the Huntsclan's birthmarks is something we had been thinking about for a while. This would confirm that the Huntsclan does in fact, exists in the Demon Realm in addition to it existing in the Human Realm, which is something we have been hinting at…

We hope to get something else out next week to celebrate the release of Wicked, but it's not going to be a full chapter…

Also, the Tuskwolf that turns out to be the wild animal Team WZRD was hunting before, is a combination of a Beowolf and Boarbatusk from RWBY.

Review Section:

Matteso585: 1) No. 2) Not really, not like the Doctor invented the concept. 3) Well that's something those who told the tale created the happy ending cause the real story is just brutal.

Crash X Fusion: No, as he said he's doing it as a favor to Sonya. No, George didn't have anything to do with Lupin's lycanthropy, he was already a werewolf.

Shuffollower: Well, maybe in an AU where Cross is a Pokemon trainer, he'd have a Taloflame named Elio. Ironic, considering there is a Pokemon character named Cross in one of the movies…

Spantidem7: 1) Don't know. 2) The Titans are obviously different from the ones from Greek mythology. 3) Lupe look slightly different, but enough for Emily to recognized him especially when he noticed her. 4 and 5) No, if so that would've been established. His persuade-immortal life started as Nicolas Lupin. 6) No, and it's probably a mythology thing. 7) Look into her backstory.

Ultimate-drax: Well there's sunbathing. Witches still need that vitamin d.