In an ancient Greek temple in the realm of Mount Olympus various screens showed events from various points in time from the recent meeting in Milano Manor to the destroyed and ruined planet earth. The planet itself was covered in black clouds and the human race aside from those who believe in pureblood supremacy and half bloods who shared that idea were eliminated with Voldemort and the Malfoys along with the mystery allies backing them taking prominence. Needless to say, all hope for planet earth had been lost forever.
"Now do you understand what's going to happen in this dimension?" an off-screen voice asked revealing itself to be Zeus, King of the Greek Gods asked as the other Greek Gods and Goddesses including Hades were present.
"Breech of protocol causes the Arkeyan Weapon Masters to destroy the earth while Arcanon helps all who believe in pureblood supremacy escape by hijacking the greatest ally of the realm of the Cloudbreak Islands," the Greek Goddess with red hair, blue eyes, and phoenix wings spoke turning to face her audience, "I've seen this scenario many times in many dimensions so do you want me to do about it in this timeline?"
"How do we put this as simply as possible," Hades spoke before getting right to the point, "Move your ass and save the future again Tana! You are the Greek Goddess of Time, Space and Dimensions."
"Except this time it's much more difficult than usual," Tana retorted, "In the other timelines this was before the Hogwarts 2001-2002 school year so I had some wiggle room. This time it's much harder due to the negative energy that was gathered and Kai already tipping off the Arkeyan Empire thus prompting the beatings of several professors and the gamekeeper's death not to mention the destruction of all the protective enchantments around the castle and all of Scotland. To make matters worse a possible future of what we saw has already been shown to the staff."
"Then get going because we don't have much time," Zeus said to Tana, "As my little brother said you are the newly minted goddess of time, space and dimensions and your part time employers will be expecting you."
Tana understood as she headed to England to begin her plans to save this timeline and the future just as she had done six times in six other timelines knowing what was at stake. Tana knew that all hope rested with a certain newly minted and promoted member of the Hogwarts staff and that they'd need a lot of help.
At Milano Manor Margaret was about to visit Yzma Milano and her husband Ezio yet again as this was the last meeting they'd have before the 1st of September to try and build Yzma's confidence. With all that was happening as of late the oldest of James Potter's three sisters knew that all that had happened was at the Malfoy Family's feet but with the threat of Kai Malfoy's minions looming over anyone who might team up against the Malfoys it seemed like a struggle just to survive the year.
"It appears that things have gotten much worse since my last visit," An English sounding male voice spoke prompting Margaret Rosenblatt to turn and see a male with a white lab coat over a a white shirt with a brown vest, a black tie, black pants and black shoes. The male wore a set of goggles with green lenses around his neck and had fair skin, black hair and grey eyes, "Then again Tana the Greek Goddess of Time Space and Dimensions is running low on time."
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Margaret questioned suspiciously.
"Forgive me it's been sometime since we met. I'm professor Paradox," said the man known as Professor Paradox, "Tana the goddess of time, space and dimensions summoned me here to help Yzma regain her confidence."
"Then you know about Yzma's challenge," Margaret said, "Tell me she wins because Kai Malfoy and his backers have the entire global wizarding community too afraid to take any action against them. Even the GFMC is powerless because of the Arkeyan Empire Bylaws. They believe that the Arkeyan Weapon Masters will ultimately either enslave or destroy the galaxy."
"This is much worse than I expected," Professor Paradox said, "Where is Lady Yzma Milano?"
"She's in Milano Manor with her husband and the rest of the staff," Margaret explained, "The staff that were tortured by the Arkeyan Weapon Masters received howler after howler after howler from the outraged and frightened public and even Yzma herself is starting to believe that there is no way she can win her challenge."
Professor Paradox heard enough and decided the time to act had some. He and Margaret entered the manor and found the staff members that had been tortured by the Arkeyan Weapon Masters being glared at by the rest of the staff as they looked ready to tear each other apart. Uncle and his family along with Druella and the new members of the staff stayed out o fit fearing that this could be used by their enemies to remove and eliminate Albus who was looking stressed even with his cousin Aurea present. The most concerning issue however was that Lady Yzma Milano looked completely tapped out and spent. It was like she was on the verge of giving up before her challenge even began.
"Margaret I see you brought a guest," Ezio spoke upon seeing Margaret and Professor Paradox, "At this point we need all the help we can get. The recent vision of the Arkeyans destroying the earth pretty much drained the last of the confidence and all hope of victory. As far as Yzma's concerned nothing that she does will make any difference considering everyone hates her and all her relatives and by extension all of her in laws."
"Don't give up now," Margaret spoke, "Confidence is the key to winning this challenge Yzma."
"Look Margaret even if you say that even if we have all the confidence in the world without a way to win and power to back that up all is lost," Yzma sighed dismally, "It's hopeless."
Professor Paradox saw that between the despair Yzma was feeling, the wrath half of the staff were suffering along with the threat of Kai's armies eliminating them should they dare cross the Malfoy family not to mention the Arkeyan Empire preparing to eliminating all of earth and enslave all of creating the negative energy was at an all time high and once the energy expanded all would be lost. At that point Professor Paradox decided to tell Yzma what she needed to hear and say what needed to be said to the staff.
"I can see that this situation has everyone terrified beyond rational thought and reason," Professor Paradox spoke, "But I'm here to help. I'm here to give Lady Yzma Milano the strength and confidence she needs to win this challenge."
"Good luck with that," Jade spoke, "The tension is so think you'd need a knife or in this case a light saber just to cut through the first layer."
"Then I'd better get to work," Professor Paradox said, "This planet doesn't have much time."
Professor Paradox began to show everyone present a vision of planet earth only it was devastated and in ruins with statues of the pureblood supremacy movement littering the landscape as the only pristine relics left. The Darkness had taken hold completely choking all light and hope.
"What was the point of showing us this?" Charity commented, "We already know the Arkeyan Weapon Masters destroy the Earth because Minnie broke protocol."
"I'm well aware of that but from what I've witnessed in my travels Yzma didn't give up and surrender," Professor Paradox responded. "She ended up beginning a new age in this world."
Professor Paradox then showed the staff a bright new world, this one was a world of balance and harmony, a world where the magical and non magical found balance as did the organic and the technological. The staff saw various non magicals, monster girls, magical creatures, Arkeyans, wizards and witches living in harmony and working together in creating and building the world. It was a world where pureblood supremacy finally died out and purebloods were extinct.
"This is the world that we should be creating," Charity spoke finding her voice yet again, "A world where blood status and connections have no place. A world where education, merit and talent are all that matter."
"But how did such a world come into existence?" Yzma wondered, "I bet it was tough and something tells me so many people died at the hands of the pureblood bigots who want to keep the status quo."
"You want to know how such a world came into existence?" Professor Paradox spoke, "You Lady Milano are the reason. You made all the difference between the worlds. You were the one who took up this challenge and prepared for it diligently and wisely."
"How?" Yzma asked, "How do I end up changing the fate of the entire planet and by extension the universe?"
"That I cannot tell you", he replied. "There are certain fundamental rules to Time that even those like myself do not dare break. But your success is the first step to the eventual victory of Good over Evil here. Your success inspires so many others to rise up just like in my previous travels."
The staff were wondering what Professor Paradox meant by that as he checked his watch.
"Now, must be going. My young friend Ben will be in a bit of a pinch on his Earth in a few seconds. Tah!" With that, the Time walker vanished in a flash of light.
"That wasn't much help," Jackie spoke, "We already know Yzma has to win."
"But now we know Yzma wins her challenge with the right preparation," Jade said.
"Jade is right but this is not an eating contest, Dragon Racing, or quidditch," the Newly minted Head of Slytherin House spoke, "A lot of that success was due to strategy, training, preparation and teamwork. Wait a minute that's it."
"What's it?" Ezio asked, "You have a plan?"
"All this time I've been blinded by fear of the dark vision we saw coming to pass that I failed to see the answer to our problems was right in front of us al along," the newly minted Deputy Headmistress said, "We need to win by working together and that means we hire a new caretaker to replace Filch at once."
"What about Yuzu and Pele? Or perhaps Kenny?" Jade suggested, "Yuzu, Pele and Kenny don't fear Kai Malfoy, his relatives, or his contacts and army and they don't fear the Arkeyan Empire."
"That's actually a good ide and should Kai attack any of them again I'll be right by their side and that in turn will mean Duncan and Electra will be able to protect them this time since the challenge follows the school bylaws," Margaret spoke, "And something tells me we may have some divine help."
"Yep and regardless of what Kai has planned it's gonna blow up in his face," Druella said, "As long as we work together there's nothing that we can't overcome."
"Then why are we standing around talking?" Uncle said, "We should get cracking. Forces of darkness wait for nobody. Negative energy is bound to awaken darker energy."
The rest of the staff understood considering they all to work together to support Yzma and protect her form warlords crazy enough and bold enough to try and kill her and challenge the Arkeyan Empire.
Back on Mount Olympus Tana, Zeus, and hades were watching the show and needless to say Tana wasn't worried about what happened while Zeus and Hades were concerned.
"That went as expected but then again sending in Professor Paradox was part of the first step in the plan," Tana said, "Which means the forces of darkness are about to launch a counterattack once Duncan steps into his role at Hogwarts. As you can see I have the situation under control."
"You make a good point for now but what happens should the forces of Darkness find out you're interfering?" Hades pointed out," Remember you were human and you used to be Nova's vessel in ancient Greece."
"I'm aware of that but then again I did ascend to deity status and now I'm the newly minted Greek Goddess of Time," the Goddess of Time pointed out.
"Then we'll be prepared but either way I can't believe that one of Aphrodite's female relatives is in love with a mortal and is now living with said mortal on Earth," Zeus said, " Still I'm surprised she hasn't taken after Aphrodite herself by now."
"It's the fact that her sister in law chewed her out and that I helped remind her that the her husband's in laws would pay her out if she cheated on him," Tana pointed out, "That and to remind her that she's part human. I believe that the human spirit is going to determine the outcome of Yzma's challenge. That I'm certain of and I've seen how it ends. Now that Yzma's got support she'll put up a fight."
"Then in that case the situation is handled," the God of the Undead pointed out as he and Zeus returned to their respective realms leaving Tana alone to think.
'I've already seen how this ends and I've already seen how this happened six times before,' Tana thought, 'But I gave Yzma a nudge in those six timelines and even showed up in person before to show her what her victory has accomplished. So it looks like I'll have to do it again.'
Tana put her faith knowing that with Duncan Rosenblatt there the forces of darkness stood no chance.
Author's Note: This was a short chapter but the Challenge Begins next chapter and Duncan finds that he's already on the hit list of some problem students at Hogwarts.