A few minutes ago...
Fasttrack and Charmcaster were lying amid the broken wood flooring and scattered rubble in the dimly lit basement beneath the stage. Dust floated in the air around them, and somewhere above, the muffled sounds of fighting still echoed faintly through the ceiling.
Fasttrack slowly lifted his head and looked up at the hole he had crashed through.
"So," he said, trying to sound calmer than he felt, "how do we break this spell?"
He turned his golden eyes toward the girl still clinging tightly to him.
"Hey," he said after a second, noticing the wet shine in her eyes. "Are you crying?"
"No…" Charmcaster muttered, quickly wiping her tears against his blue fur like she was embarrassed to be caught. Her voice cracked anyway, and that gave her away more than her answer did.
Fasttrack fell silent.
After a moment, he tried to shift his shoulders and pull her off him, but the spell held them together too strongly for that. Every movement felt awkward and forced, like the air between them had turned into a wall.
"It's no use…" Charmcaster said weakly.
Fasttrack raised a brow at her. "Heh?"
"The spell created a powerful gravitational force," she explained, speaking into his fur more than to his face, "like two magnets being placed together. That is why we cannot separate."
He frowned. "Okay, so how do we break this stupid spell? And do not tell me this is permanent."
"It is not," she said, shaking her head faintly. "It only stops when the caster cancels it or when they run out of mana to keep it running."
"So you cannot break it?"
Charmcaster lowered her eyes. "No. I am still only a sorceress in training. My skill is nowhere near my uncle's."
Fasttrack studied her for a moment, then glanced toward the ceiling again, where the sounds of the battle above had gone a little quieter.
"So," he said carefully, "does every master magician turn into a complete nightmare once they get enough power, or is that just your uncle?"
Charmcaster gave a small, bitter laugh that quickly fell apart into something sadder.
"That is just my uncle…"
She went quiet for a moment, and when she spoke again, her voice had changed. It was lower now, thinner, like she had been holding everything in for a long time and the spell forcing them together had finally made it all spill out.
"My father, Spellbinder, was kinder. He was loving. He gave up his life so my uncle and I could escape. He…" She swallowed hard. "I miss him."
Her shoulders trembled slightly, and Fasttrack realized then that this was not just frustration or fear. This was grief, raw and unfiltered, finally finding somewhere to go. She had been forced to cling to him, but in a way that made her more honest than she probably wanted to be.
Fasttrack stayed quiet for a while.
Then he said, very softly, "You are just like me."
Charmcaster blinked and looked up at him, her expression shifting from sadness to caution.
"I understand what it is like to lose someone you care about," he said. "Someone who mattered to you more than you knew how to say."
He thought of his old life. Of being an orphan, raised by his grandparents until college, only to lose them before they could ever see him graduate. He remembered what it was like to keep moving forward because there was nothing else to do, to act like a machine just so he would not fall apart. He had lived through that emptiness. He knew what it felt like to have no clear place to stand and no clear path to go.
And then he had ended up here.
A whole new world. A strange new life. A family he had not expected to have, with sisters who were unpredictable and chaotic, mothers who were even worse in their own way, and a father who was somehow both dependable and unreliable at the same time.
It had taken time to accept that too.
"I know it is hard," he said, his voice steadier now. "Especially when you do not know where you fit anymore. When you are just following orders because that is what you have always done. But if you keep moving forward, you will find your place eventually. You will find the people who matter. I know that because I did."
He has understood that Charmcaster currently is just like the him of the past, who was lost and didn't know what to do with their life. She just follows orders from someone she knows like a machine, even at times when she dislikes it.
The him of now has already walked that path and has decided that he would live for his family and protect them at all costs.
Charmcaster listened, silent and still.
For the first time since coming to Earth, she looked at him like someone had actually understood her instead of judging her.
"You really think so?" she asked, her voice small and uncertain.
"Yeah," Fasttrack said. "And I think your father would be proud of you. He would want you to live a happy and good life, even without him."
That made her look away for a second. But when she looked back, there was the faintest hint of a smile on her face.
Fasttrack tilted his head slightly, then glanced toward the opening above them again. The fighting had gone quiet by now, and he could already guess what was happening. Gwen was probably being reckless with her new power, like back when she first got the Lucky Charm, Ben was probably trying to keep up in the only way he knew how, and Hex was probably trying to turn the whole situation into a disaster.
"Listen," Fasttrack said, focusing again, "try to pull your chest back as far as you can. If I can just reach my dial, I might be able to get us out of this."
Charmcaster hesitated.
For a second, she just looked at him, as if she were trying to decide whether to trust him or not. Then she took a deep breath, and her expression slowly steadied.
She still looked nervous, blushing faintly at where his hand was moving and touching, but she moved anyway. She angled her body, mustering up all the strength she had to force a little space between them, just enough for him to reach his Omnitrix dial.
That was when Fasttrack's finger tapped it.
A golden flash erupted around them.
In the next instant, Fasttrack disappeared, and a black, living substance began to spread across Charmcaster's body.
"What the?" Charmcaster gasped, her eyes widening as the strange material moved over her skin and clothing. "What is this? Hey!"
"Do not resist," Noir's voice said, low and calm, though there was something deeper in it now, something ominous and steady. "If you truly want to break free from your uncle's control, then you need the power to stand against him. I can give you that."
The black substance continued to move, but it was no longer rough or violent. It flowed more smoothly now, blending into her outfit, wrapping around her in a way that felt less like being taken over and more like being remade.
Charmcaster's breathing slowed. She still looked unsettled, but the panic in her face began to fade. Slowly, she let go of her resistance and allowed the process to continue, feeling him clinging to her skin and body.
"You… you would not lie to me, right?" she asked hesitantly.
"As long as we are not enemies, I do not mind helping you break free," Noir answered. "What you do after that is your choice."
The black material finished merging with her clothes, turning them a deep pitch black with purple and magenta designs running through the fabric. White, sharp, tooth-like spikes rose from the collar of her coat, and gold markings spread along the edges. The golden Omnitrix dial appeared over her left chest, right above her heart.
"Promise?" she asked softly.
"Promise."
With that, the two became one.
Charmcaster lifted off the ground effortlessly, and she rose with a steadier, more controlled presence. Then, without wasting another second, she flew toward the fight above.
She and Noir arrived just in time to stop Hex from finishing off the Tennysons.
"Charmcaster, what is the meaning of this?" Hex asked, glaring coldly down at his own niece.
The look alone made her flinch, and for a split second her confidence wavered. But before the fear could really take hold, Noir steadied her, easing the panic down before it could spiral. Her breathing slowed, her heart rate settling back into something she could manage.
Charmcaster lifted her chin and looked back at him.
"What does it look like, Uncle? I am carving out my own path!"
Hex's face twisted in disgust. "You dare to disobey me?"
He raised his staff and pointed it directly at her.
"Perhaps you believe that our blood means something to me. Let me remind you exactly where you stand before me!"
A powerful magical blast began gathering at the tip of the staff, growing larger and brighter by the second as Hex poured more and more energy into it. The air around him crackled with pressure, and Charmcaster could feel the force building before it even left the staff.
She flinched. But instead of backing away, her body moved forward on its own.
She stepped right into the blast and absorbed it before Hex's eyes.
"Thanks for the recharge!" Charmcaster's voice and Noir's voice overlapped as she raised her left hand toward him.
Then, without even bothering with a chant, she pulled her index and middle fingers back, her thumb pressing over them. A ball of fire crackled into existence in front of her, laced with sharp bursts of electricity that danced over the surface like living sparks.
With a flick of her fingers, she launched it.
The attack flew forward at incredible speed and struck Hex dead-on, exploding against him in a burst of light and energy.
Charmcaster stared at her own hand in shock.
"Wow… how did we do that?"
A mouth lined with sharp teeth briefly formed along her left cheek.
"Your power is mine, and my power is yours," Noir said through the second mouth before it faded away again. "When we bonded, we became one. We are Noir."
Charmcaster blinked and stared at herself for a second longer.
"Okay," she muttered. "This is both cool and creepy."
Then her gaze shifted upward.
Hex was still there, covered by a damaged magical barrier that had barely managed to protect him from the attack. The shield flickered and cracked, then finally dissolved as his hands trembled from the force of it.
"Such power…" Hex muttered, breathing heavily.
He had managed to save himself only because his instincts had kicked in at the very last second. The attack had moved so fast that if he had hesitated even a moment longer, it would have gone right through him.
Noir had not been bluffing.
With all the upgrades stacked into him, the attack had become far more dangerous than it looked at first glance. [Sun Eater] let him form a ball of light. Heatblast's DNA let him coat that light in fire. [Pyretic Overdrive] increased the force of the flames, and [Electromagnetic Pulse] added the electricity that made the attack even faster and harder to counter. It was not just one power anymore. It was all of them working together.
Charmcaster looked down at her hands, then straightened.
"Let us try this then," she said.
She spread her arms out, and from the blackened parts of her suit, several symbiotized bats burst outward, flying in a twisting cloud toward Hex. Their wings beat hard through the air as they circled around him, forcing him to keep moving.
Hex hissed in annoyance and raised his staff, sending out several magic blasts to break apart the swarm.
Some of the bats burst apart under the attack, but more kept coming.
Hex clenched his teeth and backed away while still fighting them off, trying to keep the swarm from overwhelming him.
Then Stinkfly's wings spread out from her back, only this time they were coated with another layer of black symbiote, making them larger and more imposing while also blending them into the rest of her dark outfit.
Charmcaster shot forward at a much greater speed than before, closing the distance between herself and Hex in an instant.
Hex snarled and swung his staff to clear the bats before slashing it toward her.
In response, blue-green crystal surged from her palm, shaping itself into a pointed staff that looked halfway between a magical weapon and a spear. She brought it up and met Hex's staff head-on, the two weapons colliding with a sharp crack.
"This rebellious phase of yours is getting annoying, Hope!" Hex hissed, his eyes burning with fury as he tried to push her back.
"I am done being your lapdog, Uncle!" Charmcaster shot back. "Now I will decide my own future!"
The words came out stronger than she expected, and for a second she felt something in her chest settle. Noir's presence did not smother her fear, but it made it easier to hold it still. Easier to keep standing.
From her shoulder, Stinkfly's eyes popped out and fired a stream of slimy goo directly at Hex.
The sudden attack, along with the awful smell, caught both of them off guard.
Charmcaster wrinkled her nose. "Eww. That smells disgusting."
Black symbiote slid up over the lower half of her face, turning into a mask that covered her mouth and nose.
"Sorry," Noir said through her in a dry tone. "I do not have much training in fighting with anything other than firing or swinging."
Even with all his buffs and upgrades, he still had limits. He had no real experience with weapon combat outside of what he could improvise, and Charmcaster had already admitted she was still only a sorceress in training. Trying to go blade-for-blade or staff-for-staff with Hex, someone who knew this kind of magic far better than either of them, would have been a bad idea.
So Charmcaster changed tactics.
She spread her hands and summoned several orbs of fire behind her. With a quick motion of her staff, she sent them flying toward Hex one after another.
Hex gritted his teeth and swung his staff again, breaking apart the goo clinging to him while swatting the fireballs out of the air. He was getting pushed back now, forced to fight on too many fronts at once.
Charmcaster flicked her fingers again and launched another ball of fire.
Hex dodged to the side, then waved his staff sharply. The water from the pool below surged upward in a huge wave, rushing straight toward her.
Charmcaster raised her left hand with two fingers extended.
A metal ring shot out from her suit, spinning rapidly in the air as it expanded. She thrust her hand forward, sending the ring straight into the wave. It sliced clean through the water and slammed into Hex.
The upper half of the wave still came crashing toward her.
The black symbiote immediately spread over her face and hair, coating her completely just before the water hit. Charmcaster did not panic. She could still breathe, thanks to the gills that had appeared on her neck from Ripjaws.
When the wave finally passed, she looked up.
Hex was gone.
"He escaped..." Their voices overlapped again as the mask drew back from her face and disappeared into her suit.
She turned and floated down to where the Tennysons were standing.
Up close, her posture was awkward now. She had just been fighting them a few minutes ago, and she knew they all remembered that. So when she opened her mouth, it came out a little uncertain.
"Uhh… hi. I am Charmcaster..."
"We do not have time for this," Noir's voice cut in as a mouth with sharp teeth formed on her stomach.
Charmcaster let out a small breath through her nose, clearly still getting used to that part. Ben and Gwen were taken aback by the sight, while Max didn't even flinch.
"Thanks to Hex's spell, she and I are stuck together," the mouth said. "We need to beat him so he cancels it, or we are not getting free."
Max's expression sharpened immediately.
Hearing all of that and after seeing the entire battle against Hex, he has understood that. Charmcaster was Hex's niece, and now she was the one helping Evan because Hex had forced the whole situation on them. Enemy or not, the truth was simple enough.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
"Then do you know what Hex is planning next?" Max asked.
Charmcaster did not hesitate.
"He wants to perform the Ritual of Bezel," she said. "With the Keystone of Bezel, he will go to the highest point in the city and do it during the eclipse. That will let him recreate the charms that were destroyed and restore his full power."
Max nodded slowly.
"I see," he said, already turning toward the Stratosphere Tower. "Then I think we know exactly where he is headed."