Cassie felt her chest tighten as the limo pulled into the school parking lot. Harry made no move to get out of the car to escort her when she and Diane proceeded towards the entrance. Cassie glanced back behind her, almost wishing that Harry would deem that she needed an escort this time.

She sighed. She was only fooling herself on that score. Like everyone else, he would trust the school. There was nothing to fear here, in his eyes.

At the top of the steps, Cassie stepped in front of Diane and whirled around to face her. "Diane, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?"

Diane sighed. "You want the truth? No, not really," she said, a nervous quaver in her voice. "But I'm going to feel really bad if I don't see this through to the end. This may sound silly, but ... but I feel like being around all of you has protected me somehow."

"Diane, I don't think ..."

"Yes, I know, it's silly, like I said, but ... but I feel like I have to repay that ..."

"I just want to make sure you realize that you're not going to be getting any protection. I can't stop Nyssa from doing something to you."

"I-I know," Diane said. Her eyes shimmered. Cassie could see the fear in them. "But hopefully it will be like Jason said. She's weak. She won't be able to do anything. Or at least n-not much."

Cassie sighed inwardly. She was beginning to think bringing Diane along was a bad idea. She was growing very nervous about the whole thing. But she also knew that there was no deterring Diane at this point.

"All right, let's go," Cassie said, and the two of them jogged into the entrance and down the long central hall of the school. Their footsteps seemed unnaturally loud in the quiet of the building, and Cassie's heart thudded steadily louder in her ears.

The odd feeling she had was becoming a sense of foreboding, and then one of dread. Finally, when they came within sight of the corridor leading to the nurse's station, Cassie grabbed Diane's arm and stopped.

Diane looked at her in surprise and then in concern. When she saw Cassie staring towards the corridor, she glanced that way as well and then back at Cassie in growing trepidation. "Cassie, what is it?"

"Ned's not here," Cassie said in a hollow voice.

"Maybe we got here first ..."

Cassie was already shaking her head. "No, he was a lot closer and I called a taxi for him. And I told him to wait outside for me." She looked at Diane, her eyes widening. "I don't like this."

"Wh-what do we do?" Diane asked fearfully.

"There's not a whole lot we can do ... except go in."

Diane swallowed and nodded quickly.

The two of the advanced slowly on the door. Just as they got to it, Cassie reached over and took Diane's hand tightly in hers. They took one last look at each other as Cassie grasped the knob of the door. For a moment, Cassie considered peeking inside to see what was in there, but there was no point. Nyssa would know by now they were coming. Stealth didn't matter anymore.

Cassie took a deep breath and threw the door open, the two of them taking a step inside. The next moment, both gasped and froze at what they saw.

Ned was indeed already here. The problem was, so were Richie and Melinda, and they had his arms pinned behind his back. Cassie shifted her gaze when she head a whimpering noise, and her eyes became saucers.

Becky?? she thought incredulously.

It was indeed her. She looked like she had been crying again, her cheeks stained and wet. She hung limply in the grip of Heather, who had her arms pinned behind her as well.

Cassie felt her heart sink. Yet what really chilled her to bone was not so much the situation as the horrible look of complete and utter blankness in the faces of her former fellow Harbingers. It was far worse that what she had ever envisioned happening to them.

Ned looked like he was about to say something, but the next moment Richie twisted one of his arms. He gritted his teeth and winced.

Cassie was about to protest Ned's treatment when she realized that the only one she was not seeing was Jason. Before she could act on this, she saw a blur of motion out of the corner of one eye as her arm was seized. She uttered a yelp, a muscle twinging in pain as she was roughly spun around. Her yelp became a whimper as her arm was pinned behind her just long enough for the discomfort to cause her to stagger and allow her other arm to be taken.

Diane had been so stunned by what she saw that she did not react quickly. When she finally did move to try to pull Cassie away from Jason, Jason was already dragging Cassie further into the room. "No! Don't!" Cassie cried. "Run, Diane! Get out of here!"

Diane staggered back but did not leave, staring with eyes wide. "I can't just leave you like this, I ...!"

"Get out, Diane! Before Nyssa ..."

"Before I what, my dear Dreamer?"

Cassie felt her body shudder violently at the sound of that voice. Too late she thought to warn Diane. "No! Diane, don't look at her! Don't look at her eyes! Oh no ..."

But Diane had automatically turned her head at the sound of the voice, and with her eyes already wide and staring, she could not help but be drawn to the icy depths as Nyssa stepped out from behind the door.

At the same time, Cassie's warning reached her, and her body trembled with the effort to respond. She managed to stumble back a step, even as her gaze felt drawn further into Nyssa's. Nyssa simply smiled in amusement at her. She took a casual step towards Diane and touched her cheek, then trailed her fingers slowly down Diane's neck.

Diane took a rattling breath as her heart pounded, her body shuddering with the pulses of pleasure that shot through her body. Nyssa slid her fingers down Diane's arm, the sensations mounting and multiplying, until it grew impossible to think of anything else.

"So simple," Nyssa said softly. She lifted her hand and cupped one of Diane's breasts through her blouse. Diane mewled as her pussy grew intensely hot. "So weak. And now ..." Nyssa reached down and touched the crotch of Diane's jeans. Diane moaned and came, her hips jerking as she throbbed, her mind growing blissfully blank. " ... so helpless."

"You won't do that to the rest of us so easily!" Cassie yelled. "You can't! We know you can't! You lost us, so ... s-so ..."

She trailed off as Nyssa slowly turned to her. Behind Nyssa, Diane's eyes glazed over and her body became still and mute. Now Cassie felt her own gaze drawn into Nyssa's, and for a frightening moment she thought that her immunity was just so much smoke, that Nyssa had been toying with them all this time and was now going to enslave all of them.

Yet if that were the case, why would she need to strong-arm the others, when she was able to so completely entrance Diane with a few simple touches and an orgasm?

As Nyssa advanced on her, Cassie felt an icy chill as she now remembered what she had gone through. She remembered the fall into Nyssa's eyes, a frigid wasteland that froze her mind and made any thought impossible. She remembered the wonderful, delightful pleasure that had radiated through every fiber of her being. She remembered reliving her fantasy in her mind, over and over, until something ... something alien ... had joined with it and made it her world.

But now as she felt herself drawn in again, her body and mind were feeling something completely different. Her body trembled and then shook, and she cringed.

And Nyssa's eyes were no longer blue.

They were blood red.

"Yes, Cassie," Nyssa spoke in a voice that was almost serpentine. She reached up and cupped Cassie's chin. But instead of pleasure, Cassie felt pain. Not physical pain, but emotional, as if every little fear she had was being drawn out of her psyche and fed back to her all at once. "Yes, now you understand ... there is more than one way to control someone ... and if pleasure does not do it ... then fear will ..."

Cassie whimpered pitifully and wanted to run as fast as she could. Her muscles strained to obey her instinct, but somehow Nyssa had reached into a part of her mind so ancient and stirred up something so old and terrible that it paralyzed her.

Dimly, she was aware of Ned and Becky also in similar distress. Fear was flooding over them as well, like a terrible wave, though not as bad as what Cassie was experiencing. In Cassie's mind, it was as if sections were shutting down, withdrawing to her subconscious to escape the horrible torture. It was a simple surrender, a plea to end the torture, her mind growing increasingly blank.

"What are you afraid of, my dear Dreamer," Nyssa cooed as her eyes glowed. "What gives the Dreamer nightmares? Tell me ... let me play them out in your mind ... let me ..."

"NO!!" Cassie suddenly screamed.

Something in Cassie's mind had snapped, and Nyssa seemed to recoil slightly from it. Cassie started to collapse, but Jason pulled her back to her feet. In her mind, the terror was passing. "This ... th-this is not real ..." she murmured, her body shaking with the effort to force out the words. "N-not real ... not real! ..."

And her fear continued to retreat.

Cassie was stunned. She had managed to break Nyssa's control. In a few moments she would have done anything to be spared further emotional torture. It was bad enough facing her own fears, but to feel just vague, undirected fear, and at such intensity would have driven her mad.

Yet when Nyssa had tried to focus her fears, Nyssa had entered an area that Cassie had already faced with great success. One who knew her dreams as well as Cassie did knew her nightmares as well, and knew what they actually meant. With that knowledge, they were no longer objects of fear.

Nyssa snarled and yanked Cassie's chin back towards her. "You think your little talent gives you protection. Think again, Cassie. There are some fears so firmly rooted in your mind that they cannot be dismissed. Or ... did you not heed what Jason told you? About the patterns he saw around me? About ... my form ... my true form ..."

Cassie's eyes slowly widened as Nyssa stepped back.

"You think me weak, Cassie," said Nyssa. She shook her head. "It is you that is weak. You may have delayed me, Cassie, you and your pitiful 'Harbingers' here. Do not think what you did today has stopped me. Instead, it just allowed me to finally get you all out of the way. Oh, and I know your little secret, too. The ones you 'rescued' today? I'll make quite sure they are incapable of organizing anyone to move against me."

Cassie swallowed hard. "Y-you are weak," she said in a shaky voice. "Or y-you wouldn't have to do this ... e-everything you're doing ... it's taking energy ... you don't have a lot to spare!"

Nyssa's lips curled into a terrible smile. "Then I shall cease to use so much. I shall drop this shell, and show you ... what I really am ..."

Cassie blinked at her in confusion. That made no sense. Cassie had had no sense from her dreams that there had been any disguise in place. Surely she would have seen ...

But before she could continue thinking along these lines, Nyssa transformed, and the abject fear that had so nearly enslaved her will returned with a vengeance.

Cassie was only vaguely aware of Becky's scream, even as shrill as it was, or Ned's cry of anguish. She noted absently that the transformation itself was nothing like she had expected. No smoke or sparks or flames, no slow morphing or mutation. There was simply a brief shimmering effect, like heat rising from a hot road in summer, and Nyssa was changed.

Cassie had seen something similar to Nyssa in movies; she had seen it described in books; she had seen it in pictures and artwork. Yet somehow, seeing it real before her, and knowing from where it came, it filled her with a horror that none of those facsimiles could possibly match.

It had been an offhand comment, but it had been right in the end. Before Cassie's now frightened eyes was a form generally associated with a succubus. Her skin had become the same blood red as her eyes, her hair now black as midnight. Two curving horns emerged from her head. Huge, leathery wings with large, sharp claws spread outward behind her back. A long tail swished slowly back and forth behind her, writhing like a snake. When she parted her lips in an evil grin, long fangs flashed in the light.

When Nyssa now advanced on her, Cassie almost screamed. She bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood to stop herself, her stomach clenching at the coppery taste in her mouth. Nevertheless she struggled against Jason's grip, only to have her arms pinched more sharply behind her until she quieted.

Nyssa smiled and raised a hand to Cassie face, cradling one cheek. Cassie whimpered in distress, feeling dreadful waves of abject terror try to flood her mind. She felt the tips of Nyssa's talons trail along her skin. Cassie closed her eyes tightly, tears beginning to leak from them.

"And now, Cassie," Nyssa spoke, her voice deep and husky, with a diabolical edge to it that sent icy shivers down Cassie's spine. "Now try to block it out ... now try to close your mind to the fear ... the panic ... the terror ..."

Every word felt like a lead weight dropping on her. Again she felt her mind trying to retreat into itself, threatening to leave an emptiness far worse that anything Nyssa might have done by sexual means. She had to clench her teeth to stop herself from letting the words out, the words that would have begged Nyssa to stop, that would have doomed her to enslavement to this horrible creature.

"I can hurt you in so many ways, Cassie," Nyssa hissed. "I can cause pain that will make you beg for death let alone enslavement ... or ..."

She paused for a moment. She remained still, save for a tiny tremor to the hand that still cradled Cassie's cheek.

Finally, Nyssa slid her hand from Cassie's cheek and lightly pressed the side of one talon against Cassie's neck. "I could simply ..." she began to trail the nail across skin. Nyssa's finger now trembled as well. " ... slit your throat ... and take care of the problem that way ..."

Cassie felt herself spiraling into despair and defeat. She had led them all to this terrible end. She had let herself be tricked by Nyssa. So many mistakes she had made now replaying in her mind.

It's all my fault! Cassie screamed at herself in her mind. I did this. I was so foolish! I was foolish to ever think that Nyssa was ...

The finger against her throat trembled again. "Hurry up, girl!" Nyssa sneered, a slight quaver to her voice. "Tell me what you prefer! Enslavement or death! I will happily give either!"

... weak ...

Cassie paused. She mustered every last bit of her remaining will to push against the fear. She had to get a coherent thought into her head. And when she did, she prayed that it was the right one.

"No ..." Cassie said in a weak voice.

"What was that? Speak up!" Nyssa thundered. She pressed her fingers more firmly into Cassie's neck, nicking the skin just enough for a single bright red drop to appear.

Cassie had to fight down another surge of panic. "N-no ..." she said again, a little stronger. "N-not real ..."

"What?!"

"Not real ... i-it's not real ..."

"I will show you what is real ..." Nyssa growled. "I will ..."

"NO!" Cassie screeched, her eyes ablaze. "This is not real! It's fake! You don't really look like this! You're burning energy just do to this and make me scared! It's not REAL!!"

Nyssa's eyes became fire and she viciously slapped Cassie across the face, her talons causing four bright red marks. "You little bitch ..."

"Not real ... not real ... not real ..." Cassie chanted, even as bright red beads of blood grew on the slash marks. Along the cuts, she felt a burning sensation that grew worse every second, as if her skin were about so be seared away from her face.

"I'll make you cower before me!"

"Not real! ... not real! ... not real!"

"You will fear me!!"

"Not real!"

"SHUT UP! Submit to me!!"

"GO TO HELL!!"

Nyssa staggered back from Cassie making a frustrated growling noise that quickly turned into a more normal sound of exasperation. At the same time, her body shimmered again, and within barely a heartbeat, her form had returned to the golden-haired, white-uniformed one she had before. The burning sensation on Cassie's cheeks vanished, as did the bloody streaks and the pricking on her neck. It was as if it had never happened.

The fear in Cassie's psyche vanished all at once. Despite the relief, it was such a drastic change that it was like leaving a vacuum in a large space. Her other thoughts rushed in, and for a moment she felt too much of a tumult in her mind to think straight.

When her head did clear, she saw Nyssa clutching one part of the door frame to the corridor, panting as if out of breath, her body trembling badly. Behind her, Cassie felt her arms hanging more loosely in Jason's grip. Diane shuddered, some life coming back to her eyes. Ned was already fighting against his captors, but where there were two of them, it was more difficult.

Becky, however, had fainted, and was hanging loosely in Heather's arms.

Cassie felt her morale rising, and with it, her boldness. "You are weak, Nyssa!" Cassie shouted. "You've even losing control of your slaves. You're burning energy and you don't have enough to resupply it."

Nyssa looked up, still panting, pure hatred in her eyes. "You ... you don't know anything ... dear Dreamer ..."

"I know a lot more than you think I do."

Nyssa forced herself to rise to a full standing position. She tossed her head back and strode over to Cassie. Cassie tried to quell her own natural fear. "I know what you know. I knew you were the Dreamer from the start. That's why I tried to take you first."

Nyssa turned away, just as Ned managed to get free of Richie. Richie staggered back, his eyes unfogging as he made a groaning noise. Melinda's face took on a momentary look of anguish and she whimpered pitifully as Ned was about to pull his arm from her grip as well.

Nyssa made a casual gesture towards her slaves. Richie and Melinda's eyes glazed over completely once again and reasserted their hold on Ned.

"You can't keep doing that for much longer!" Cassie cried. She abruptly yanked herself away from Jason, quickly turning around before he could grab her again.

When Jason began to advance on her, Nyssa raised a hand. "Stop."

Jason did as he was told, though his body was quivering and his eyes unsure. Nyssa smiled and Jason returned to glassy-eyed obedience. There was a sudden soft but heavy noise to the side. Cassie turned her head in time to see Becky slump to the floor, Heather having let her go. Heather hung her head and then slowly joined Becky, as if falling deeply asleep.

Near the door, Diane moaned. "Huh? What ...?"

Nyssa turned her head sharply, her eyes glaring. Diane gasped suddenly. Her eyes slid closed and she slumped to the floor.

Oh my God, Cassie thought in horror. Please let them just be asleep.

"See?!" Cassie cried. "You don't even have enough power to keep control of everyone! You have to put some of them asleep. You ... "

Cassie yelped as Nyssa suddenly grabbed her arm with surprising force and shoved her back. Cassie flailed her arms as she fetched up against one corner of the desk. It knocked her completely off-balance and she crashed to the floor on her side, her hip thumping soundly as she fell. She shuddered and moaned at the brief flare of pain.

"Don't underestimate me, Cassie," Nyssa said darkly. "Don't ever do that. It's a dangerous thing to do."

Cassie struggled to get up, the fall having knocked the wind out of her. As she slowly rose to her feet, she glanced towards the other open door and momentarily froze in alarm, uttering a tiny gasp.

Nyssa chuckled malevolently. "Oh yes, you recognize that place, don't you, dear Dreamer? Oh, but you were there in person once."

Cassie swallowed and forced herself to turn away from it. She cast a cold look at Nyssa. "My friends helped me escape what you had planned for me."

Nyssa advanced on her. "So foolish of them, you know. So very foolish."

Cassie tried not to let fear get the better of her. She knew Nyssa was getting to the end of her reserves. Yet the icy cold malevolence in Nyssa's eyes, even robbed of their hypnotic power as they were, still chilled her to the bone. Nyssa was still able to project some fear into her.

For Cassie was getting to the end of her reserves as well. She could not take any more mental anguish like she had endured before. She backed up from Nyssa, even as it took her closer to the one place she dreaded the most.

"You think this has stopped me?" Nyssa continued. "You think this has been anything more than a way to waste everyone's time? Come now ... you're the Dreamer ... surely you know the answer."

Cassie backed up until she saw the door frame out of the corner of her eyes. Her arms snapped out and she grabbed the frame, her knuckles turning white. No matter what, she would not go into that terrible room again. Not unless she was forced.

Or she had some other reason to enter.

She looked up at Nyssa's eyes, swallowing hard. "The seeds," Cassie said softly.

Nyssa grinned. "Yes, Cassie, the seeds."

Cassie suddenly stared at her. "You're trembling."

Nyssa's gaze hardened. "So?"

"You're still weakening even now. Every moment that passes. Every ..."

"Shut up," Nyssa snapped, turning away. "You're changing the subject. Are you still that afraid of me?"

"The seeds," Cassie said. She forced herself to look back towards the examination room. Something caught her eye on the other side of the room. Her grip loosened on the door frame. "You're going to put them in other people. And give them the same desires that the ones you took them from had."

"Very good, Cassie. Such a smart girl you are," Nyssa said as she went over to Richie and Melinda. Ned had again nearly pulled from his captors. Again, Nyssa reasserted her control over the two and they gripped him tightly again.

Cassie didn't know what to do. She looked back into the examination room. Something was there. Something she had seen before. She let go of the frame and edged a little further past the threshold. Her gaze was again drawn to something on the opposite side of the room. She could see a counter there, and a large glass container to one side.

Nyssa turned and saw Cassie looking into the examination room. "Oh, so do you long for it again?" Nyssa cooed. "The power? The control?"

Her words made Cassie shiver. Even as far removed as she thought she had been from it, the words still had an allure to them, something that reached into her and touched on something she did not want to admit was a part of her.

"Mmm, you still have that little fantasy. Being freed from my control doesn't make it go away. Oh no. And you can still have it."

Cassie took a deep breath. She took another step, until now she was halfway to the examination table. Yet despite the horrible memories associated with that table now, she was barely aware of its presence. A dream began to come back to her, and it commanded all her attention.

"You just have to come to me willingly. You just have to give yourself to me."

"Why would I want to do a foolish thing like that?" Cassie asked. She had to keep Nyssa talking. She almost had it.

"Or ... if you feel a little more adventurous, let me use a seed on you."

... She crosses the room ...

Cassie shuddered. Her hands curled into fists as she cast her gaze across the room.

Nyssa grinned wickedly. "I can give you a whole new fantasy. Whole new desires that will make you ache with arousal and send you into ecstasy when you fulfill them."

"I don't want another one's fantasies ... and your voice is getting weaker as well."

... Something made of glass appears to gleam for a moment to the side ...

Cassie's eyes fell again on the glass container. She took another step forward.

"Enough nonsense, then!" Nyssa snapped. "I do not need to convince you of anything. All I need is to rest until I can use the seeds. I can go somewhere you cannot follow, even in your dreams!"

... before she opens a low door ...

Just to the side of the container and down, Cassie spied a closed cabinet.

"And Cassie ..." Nyssa said in an oily voice. "Perhaps you are too strong to succumb to fear ... but one of your friends has already fallen. The weak one that fainted? I can reach into her mind anytime. And the others here? It would not take long ..."

... and floods the room with silvery, ethereal light ...

Cassie wasn't listening. She was running across the examination room.

Finally, Nyssa realized the danger. She raced forward, leaping towards Cassie and lunging for her arm, and managed to snag it just above the wrist. Cassie was briefly jerked to one side, but wrenched her arm from Nyssa's grip. Nyssa stumbled and crashed into the examination table, gripping it tightly to stop herself from falling.

"Jason! Stop her!" Nyssa yelled.

Cassie reached the cabinet. She yanked the door open and for a moment was stunned when the silvery glow spilled out from inside the cabinet like liquid mercury. She gazed at the crystalline cylinders, and for a moment was mesmerized by them and the flickers of light inside them.

She shook herself out of it and reached down to grab the syringes. Just as she got her hands on some of them, arms wrapped around her waist and dragged her back. She yelped and flailed, but her arms were snatched and twisted behind her back again. Cassie screamed as she fought hard, now and then getting an arm free only to have Jason grab it again using strength that was not his own.

Nyssa was using the last of her reserves. In the reception area, her control over the others weakened. Ned broke free at the sound of Cassie screaming and was away before they could barely turn their heads. Ned raced over towards Cassie, but Nyssa blocked him and threw him back across the room. Ned's feet came out from under him and he barely avoided smacking his head on the opposite wall.

"The cabinet! The cabinet!" Cassie screamed. "The glowing vials! Smash them!"

Ned looked nonplussed at her for a second, then finally saw the glow from the cabinet. Seconds before Nyssa lunged at him, he scrambled to his feet, narrowly avoiding her reach. Nyssa collided with the wall and needed a moment to recover.

It was all that was needed.

Ned reached into the cabinet and scooped up the syringes. As he turned around, Nyssa started towards him, then gasped and stopped in mid-stride, her eyes wide.

"No!" Nyssa cried. She swallowed and tried to force her voice to a more calm tone. "Ned ... put them down ... you don't want to do this ... the power that they took from you, I can give it back to you! You can have any girl you want. Any of them!"

"Heh, yeah," Ned said with a smirk. "Thought I wanted that, y'know? Maybe I still do, sorta."

Nyssa slowly smiled.

Ned smiled in return. "But not from you. Bitch."

The last thing that was heard before the syringes shattered against the floor was Nyssa's long and strident scream.

The silvery contents oozed and writhed on the floor, almost like worms. Nyssa fell to her knees before it, gasping, her face a mask of horror as she watched the fluid evaporate before her very eyes. Finally, when the last of it was gone, she dropped her head into her hands and uttered a long, despondent sigh.

Suddenly the grip on Cassie loosened. She wrenched herself free and spun around just as Ned came up to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "You all right?" he asked urgently.

Cassie nodded quickly, her eyes on Jason. He was staggering a little, his eyes still foggy, yet life slowly appeared to be returning to them. "Jason!" Cassie called out loudly. "Jason, fight it!"

"Uhhn ... C-Cassie ..." he said in a voice that was barely above a whisper. "I ... uhh!!"

He stiffened, then moaned as he suddenly came, pleasure radiating through him again and fogging his mind once more.

Cassie was no longer fearful upon seeing this. Now she was red-faced with rage.

She balled her hands into fists and stomped over to the still kneeling Nyssa. "Stop it!" Cassie bellowed. "No more! We stopped you! You don't have anything left!"

Nyssa shuddered, her eyes closed as she slowly rose to her feet.

"Haven is still doing it, still taking your energy. Yes, I figured it out now. You're just getting energy for Haven itself. You're channeling it through you. But you don't have enough to give it now. And it's going to get angry, isn't it? You're going to get in a lot of trouble with it, aren't you?"

Nyssa took a deep breath and turned to face her. Ned tried to step protectively in front of Cassie, but she pushed him away. She felt she had to face Nyssa herself.

"You stupid, spoiled brat," Nyssa hissed. "You could have had what you wanted. You could have been happy. But you did this instead."

"No, they did it!" Cassie said, sweeping her arm towards the reception area. "I was just carrying on what they started. But we've done it. You don't have any more options. Just ... just leave. Get out. Go away. And when you do, everyone will be released. Everyone will be free."

Cassie said this more as a hopeful question than a statement.

Nyssa lips slowly curled into an evil smile. "Oh, is that what you think, is it? You know so little about how mind control truly works."

Jason suddenly staggered. Cassie gasped and was about to rush over to him when Ned beat her to it, grabbing his shoulders and steadying him. Nevertheless, Cassie had already crossed half the distance, and now she stopped and stared. For a frightening moment she was sure that Nyssa had just put him asleep as well, that she was going to do the same to all of them. It was only when Jason looked up and Cassie saw the terrible blankness retreating from his eyes that she knew something else was happening.

"Cassie ...?" Jason groaned.

The next moment, his aura of Darkness flickered out.

Cassie had only just begun to smile in relief when there was a sudden, shrill cry from the other room. The next second, Melinda dashed into the room, tears streaming down her face. She practically tackled Jason, and he would have surely fallen over if Ned had not already been there. Melinda buried her face against Jason's chest and cried so hard her body shook violently.

Jason slid his arms around Melinda and closed his eyes, but not before a tear of his own escaped and trailed down his cheek. "It's okay, Melinda, it's over ... it's finally over."

"N-no it isn't," came a shaky voice from the doorway. Heather gripped the door frame with one hand tightly and turned her gaze to Nyssa in a look blazing with vile hatred. "She's still here."

"Where's the rest of them, Heather?" Cassie asked.

"Diane woke up and is trying to console Becky," she replied. "Richie is just slumped in a chair muttering 'why' over and over and shaking his head. But we're all free of it. We're free of her."

Cassie whirled around and marched up to Nyssa. "Get out. Go the hell away."

"Yeah, get the fuck outta Dodge, bitch," Ned spat.

"We beat you. You don't have any power over us anymore! Or over anyone!"

Nyssa backed up a step, smiling wickedly. "True, I don't have any more direct power over you," she said in a sultry voice. "But don't for a moment think that it's over."

"We know," Jason said, his voice weak but still held conviction in it. "Haven is still there. It'll try again somehow. But now we have more people that can see it for what it is."

Nyssa laughed. "Like I was just telling Cassie ... you know so little about how the mind works. Haven is the least of your troubles."

"What are you talking about?" Cassie demanded. "You let everyone go, right? All the rest of them are free, too!"

Nyssa paused a moment. "They will be ... 'free', as you crudely put it. After a short while, that is. I need their energy until I can get clear of this place."

"So what did you mean?"

"Do you really think I intended to keep controlling them directly all the time? Isn't that rather inefficient? Or just perhaps ... the control would become permanent given enough time."

Cassie exchanged a look with Jason and Heather. Melinda's crying had begun to abate, but she still clutched at Jason tightly and would not let go.

"The mind is very flexible, my dears," Nyssa said with a wry grin. "Very adaptable. It dutifully arranges itself the way you wish it the longer you control it. Yes, I am releasing them. But there is nothing that can be done with any of the changes that have already taken place in them."

Cassie gasped and looked at her in horror. Yes, her dreams had told her this might be the case, but she had so hoped that her interpretation had been wrong. "Then ... th-then the first ones that were taken ..."

"... will be the ones to have the most permanent changes." Nyssa giggled. "Perhaps Sally will like being a bimbo after all."

Cassie finally exploded. "You ... you bitch! You can just stand there and laugh about people being permanently altered like that?! You think it's some damn joke?!"

Nyssa's smile faded. She looked at Cassie with a gaze so piercing that Cassie backed up a step, even though there was no hypnotic power to be found there anymore. "Honey, what I did to them ... what I tried to do to you ... what I did to your friends ... that pales in comparison to what Haven has in store for you all ..."

Cassie shuddered.

"What do you mean?" Jason demanded. "What is it planning?"

Nyssa shook her head. "I don't know. Not exactly anyway. But I can tell you this ... when it does happen ... when it Awakens ... this is the last place I will want to be."

A dread silence fell on the others. Ned glanced between them all, as if silently begging for someone to explain it to him so he knew whether he should panic or not.

Nyssa gave them one last sly smile. "But if you kiddies manage somehow to stop it ... perhaps I'll come back ... and then we can really have some fun ..."

She winked. A second later, there was a flash of light that made spots dance in front of their eyes. When they managed to see clearly again, Nyssa had vanished.

Melinda finally lifted her head from Jason's chest, her eyes red and her cheeks tear-stained. "P-please tell me she's gone," Melinda begged. "Please t-tell me it's finally over! ... P-please ... t-tell me I don't h-have to ... t-to ..."

Tears trickled down her cheeks again and she collapsed against Jason.

"I'm sorry," Heather said softly, her own eyes shimmering. "I'm so sorry, Melinda ..."

Melinda looked over to her. For a moment, burning fury and hatred appeared in Melinda's eyes. It quickly dissolved into just plain anguish a few seconds later, but it had been long enough to tear at Heather's heart.

Heather took a deep breath and looked away.

Jason hugged Melinda tightly again. "Look, we better check on the others."

"But is it over?" Melinda demanded as she finally parted from him. "I mean, with Nyssa? Is she really gone?"

Jason paused, then looked over to Cassie.

Cassie managed a small smile. "Yes, Melinda, she's gone. We stopped her once we smashed the vials that contained whatever she had taken from you and the others."

Melinda whimpered and shivered. "N-now I can remember everything she did ... I was so helpless ... I-I couldn't ..."

"None of us could, Melinda," Jason said quickly when she threatened to dissolve into tears again. "It's nobody's fault. Not yours, not Heather's ..."

Melinda glared at him for moment but subsided quickly. She gave a simple, curt nod.

Jason smiled slightly at her and looked over to Cassie. "Cassie, could you come here, please?"

Cassie nodded and stepped up to him. "Sure. What do you ... oh!"

Cassie was astonished when Jason suddenly threw his arms around her and gave her a tight hug. Barely seconds later, she realized she was doing the same thing in return.

"Thanks, Cassie," Jason said in a choked whisper. "Thank you."

"Why are you thanking me?" Cassie said in a quavering voice, her eyes threatening tears. "I fell for the trick. I fell into the trap."

"And if you knew it was a trap, would you have come anyway?"

Cassie paused a long moment before finally responding, "Yes."

Jason's arms tightened around her. "Then that's what I'm thanking you for."

Cassie smiled and lingered in the hug for another moment before slowly breaking it off. "We better see to the others, Jason."

Jason nodded. As he turned away, Melinda rushed up and gave Cassie a hug as well. "You're a real friend, Cassie," Melinda said softly. "You really are."

That meant even more to Cassie than anything Jason had said to her. She smiled as tears silently spilled down her cheeks.

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