A dragonfly flew over the winter-worn rolling hills of the Adel farmlands, surveying the landscape. At the top of a wooded hill stood Hank and Otto, both clad in dark leather jackets and gloves to ward off the cold. Hank, further bundled in a grizzly bear fur hat, peered through a telescope, his lips moving in a sneer as he muttered to Otto.

Suddenly, the vision in the mirror shifted to the eyes of a squirrel perched in a nearby tree, and their conversation became audible.

"Should we just stop them? Or relocate?" Otto grumbled, arms crossed tightly against his chest as the wind pushed against them and whipped at the evergreens around them.

Hank remained silent, gaze fixed through the telescope.

"I was hoping that stupid rumor about the gas leak wouldn't reach the senator in time, but it looks like I underestimated the people of Adel," Hank scoffed, lowering the telescope to massage his temples. "They aren't as disconnected from society as I thought."

"We could move the sorcerers to the other road and still catch—"

"No," Hank interrupted, shaking his head. "Holly has to attack Adel. This way, she has no home to return to, no group to fight for her, and no allies to call out the government for lying all these years once she's officially taken into custody." He rubbed his chin, one finger absently tracing the edge of his thin mustache. "It would have been a bonus if Senator Paul had witnessed firsthand the sorcerers destroying the town and had his life at risk. It might have changed his stance on sorcerer regulatory laws, making our plans easier down the road... But this can still work to our advantage. Even if he isn't in town, we can still swoop in, 'save' the town from destruction, claim she attacked thinking the senator was there, and pretend we helped evacuate the civilians." His eyes glinted with mischief. "Just like all those years ago."

Otto nodded slowly, gaze fixed on the ground. "Just you and me standing in their way? We planned on military backup from Senator Paul to make it seem like the Great Plains military was stronger than even the strongest of sorcerers. How can we—"

"The Great Plains military will have eyes here as soon as the flames rise high enough," Hank interrupted again. "Then we swoop in and 'fight' the sorcerers as planned."

"And if they don't show up?"

Hank chuckled, flashing Otto a crooked smile. "Then I have a last resort. You'll see."

"Hmmm." Bert hummed, closing his eyes and drumming his fingers against his eyelids. "I don't like the sound of that, but Holly and Margo can handle it."

"Where are they?" Robin insisted, stomach twisting as he processed the plan.

"Hang on," Bert murmured, his fingers thrumming against his eyelids once more as the image in the mirror shifted.

A dragonfly buzzed overhead as Holly stood before a horde of sorcerers atop a farm field outside Adel. The remnants of summer crops lay limply at their feet, the late-winter wind shaking dead stalks in small piles of slowly melting snow. The gravel road to Adel stretched before them, the courthouse bell tower barely visible over the wooded area separating town from the surrounding farmland.

The sorcerers stood in military formation, bundled in heavy leather jackets against the cold. Holly stood ahead of them, a wide-brimmed red Stetson atop her head and a deep red scarf wrapping her lower face, its tail snapping in the wind.

While the sorcerers' gray eyes stared blankly ahead, Holly's were shadowed by her hat, yet alight with barely contained anger.

As if a switch had flipped, the sorcerers broke into a frenzy, some shoving past Holly, tearing through the fields and trees, setting them ablaze at an alarming rate.

As the last sorcerer rushed past her, Holly slowly removed her scarf and tossed it to the wind. Beneath lay a dark silver-blue, articulated bevor, adorned with feather-like engravings and ivy-like vines curling around her neck and jaw, leaving only her eyes and the upper bridge of her nose exposed.

Stepping forward, the flames around her snuffed out, each step consuming the magic that had razed the land. Suddenly, Margo appeared beside her, wrapped warmly in a white scarf and fur-lined coat.

"The area has been evacuated north," Margo announced. "I warned the civilians of an ambush from a Magician Stone Heart."

"Stone Heart?" Holly echoed, amusement flickering across her face.

"There wasn't time to explain the truth." Margo huffed. "Best I could come up with."

"Not judging," Holly reassured with a chuckle. "Great work."

Margo shot her a doubtful look, but as Margo turned to watch the sorcerers' destruction, her brown eyes gleamed. "Let's give them a show—like old times, ay? Don't hold back."

"Oh, of course." Holly's mischievous grin mirrored Margo's. "The last newspaper photo didn't do my form justice."

Holly casually shook out both her arms as her coat erupted into red feathers. The sorceress slowly rose above the ground, as a swirling halo of feathers appeared behind her. The wind knocked off her Stetson, revealing her long, dark blond hair that began whipping around her face. Long, dark crimson feathers grew to replace her long locks, falling around her face and trailing down her back. The faces of two red crows emerged at the edges of Holly's hairline,  just slightly above her ears,  their beaks reaching across her face and covering her closed eyelids. When the crow's beaks parted, deep red eyes gleamed from within their jaws.

As she soared higher with. Her arms outstretched, large, long feathers trailed from her coat and trousers. Swiftly, she turned her palms downward, snuffing out the fires below.

The view in the mirror then shifted to the ground, revealing Margo's transformation. White scales had crawled up her coat, and her braids twisted into two snakes that coiled around her neck and hissed over her shoulders. A larger snake coil formed behind her head, with two additional snakes emerging to rest their heads at the far edge of her eyes. Which had become a stark white, her irises replaced by an occasional flicker of red—imitations of the snakes' flicking tongues.

The brainwashed army of sorcerers shifted their attention from all-out destruction of their surroundings to survival, as white snakes began to slither out of the half-melted snow that littered the ground. Margo's illusions began to bare their fangs, striking at the ankles of the unsuspecting sorcerers and causing them to crumple onto the frozen ground. But no matter how much fiery magic the sorcerers cast in retaliation, their spells passed harmlessly through the illusions, striking only the frozen ground below.

Just as most of the sorcerers had turned their focus downward at the snakes below, the sky above them rained with sharpened red feathers. Those too distracted by the serpents collapsed under the barrage, while the rest scrambled to throw up shields, barely fending off the onslaught.

Those protected within their shields quickly turned their fiery attacks on Margo and Holly. Fireballs streaked through the sky, only to fizzle out just before reaching Holly. Meanwhile, Margo wove an illusion around the battlefield, trapping the sorcerers in a dense, twisting forest. Disoriented, they sprinted through the shifting maze, the forest warping with every step.

A few managed to catch sight of the Silver Snake within the twisting trees and hurled fireballs at her, only to realize, too late, that they hadn't escaped her magic at all. Margo had cast a final illusion: to each sorcerer, every ally around them now bore her face. Their own attacks turned against them as they began to battle their own. 

Meanwhile, the real Margo stood below Holly, shielded from any stray fireballs by Holly's magic. Her thick eyebrows knit together in concentration as she wove her illusions with practiced precision. Holly's focus remained on smothering the magical fires encircling them, but as the flames gradually died out, she began adding her own tricks to Margo's illusion. A flock of red crows conjured from the halo of feathers behind her, blotting out the sunlight above Margo's false trees. Moments later, the birds descended upon the sorcerers below in a shrieking mass, swarming those who remained in a flurry of claws and beaks.

______________________________________________

Robin sucked in a quick breath, mesmerized by the sorceresses reflected in the mirror before him.

"I warned you," Bert smirked, watching Robin's reaction as he chuckled at the star-struck man beside him. "A bit sexy, huh?"

Robin shot Bert a guilty smile as he raised his eyebrows in agreement. "I'm glad you saw this and became Margo's number-one fan."

Bert laughed and playfully hit Robin's arm. "Hey, I'm glad you think that. I was worried I'd have to remind you—she's taken." He added, pointing a warning finger in Robin's face before wiggling his gold wedding band on his ring finger in Robin's face.

Robin chuckled and shook his head, turning his attention back to the mirror on the mantle. After a beat, a horrifying thought crossed his mind. 

"Are they...killing them?" Robin asked hesitantly, closely eyeing the sorcerers who lay limply on the burnt field to search for any sign of breathing.

"No, not at all," Bert explained defensively, looking at Robin as if surprised he would assume such a thing, even in battle. "They're just unconscious. These people are being mind-controlled. It's not a fair fight to kill them because of that. If you look closely, they're all using the same spells over and over—that's all they're being commanded to do."

"Ah," Robin mumbled, feeling a bit embarrassed to have once again questioned whether Holly had killed.

"Yeah, you should see them fight more specialized fighters," Bert replied nonchalantly, both brushing off and moving past Robin's suspicions. "WAY more exciting." He added, a giddy grin spreading across his face. Bert once again led forward and drummed his eyelids.

"Speaking of, let's check in on the opposing team," he mused, using his magic to shift the mirror's view back to Hank and Otto.

______________________________________________

At the top of the hill opposite Adel, Hank was yelling and hitting Otto, who knelt on the ground, hunched over in pain, apologizing while wincing at Hank's blows.

"—ing fool! How did you manage to lose the MOST IMPORTANT heart stone? How are we going to claim that Holly led the band of sorcerers to destroy the forest and nearby towns if she is DEFENDING the forest and nearby towns?" Hank shouted, punching Otto in the face.

"Maybe we could say the sorcerers are fighting her..." Otto winced, spitting blood onto the ground before him as he braced himself for another hit. "A-And you led them here?"

"No, idiot!" Hank shouted, kicking Otto in the gut. "Because the whole point is to make it seem like most sorcerers are evil and should be mistrusted, EXCEPT the few I trust to oversee them, which is you. It's why you will be appointed to be in charge of them. You must be fine with giving up all you've worked for all these years with that suggestion."

"M-Maybe she invited them all here to kill them?" Otto offered again, wheezing, his hand pressed against his jaw, trying his best to heal himself from Hank's latest blows before the next one struck.

"Okay. Why?" Hank commanded, his fist raised threateningly.

"B-Because they were going against her plans to rebel," Otto desperately wheezed. "Sh-she needed to get rid of them! They would be the only people powerful enough to stop her." Otto added, with a cough, blood filling his mouth as he tried to speak. "You swoop in and save the sorcerers. You show your strength, you become a hero, AND people will worry about a rebellion amongst the sorcerers." He finished, quickly putting his fingers into his mouth to stop the bleeding from his cut cheek.

"Hah," Hank snorted, lowering his fist as he mulled over Otto's words. He slowly nodded, and a grin began to spread across his face. "That's perfect... I knew you had some use left."

"Thank you, sir," Otto muttered as he painfully continued to heal himself and slowly rose from the ground.

"Looks like will have to go with my last resort after all," Hank grumbled with a displeased chuckle.  I'll need your help, Otto."

Otto quickly nodded, his face pale and pleading,  to be of assistance.

Hank gave Otto a wicked look, baring his teeth with a crooked grin as he passed Otto a silver and black revolver from the leather holster that sat at Hank's hip.

"Take out the bullets." Hank urged. "I want you to cast a spell on them using a similar magic to what I taught you for manipulating the magic of sorcerers, but I want you to combine it with what you observed from watching Holly's destruction magic."

"I didn't get to observe her magic as much as I would—"

"Try," Hank growled, his blue eyes seemingly burrowing themselves into Otto's as he glared at the man before him. "Use my magic to make a spell that latches onto a heart stone and manipulates its magic and hers to push that magic out and be rid of it."

Otto hesitated, a fearful look of uncertainty clouded his features momentarily before his expression hardened with resolve. He carefully shook out the bullets from the revolver before passing it back to Hank.

Otto was silent for a moment as he analyzed the bullets in his hand. Lifting his head, he gave Hank a confident nod. "We might need a few more bullets. I think I can do it, but it might take some practice before I get it right."

"Oh, I've got plenty of bullets," Hank reassured Otto with a triumphant smirk. He held out his hand expectantly, waiting for Otto to hand over the first bullet.

Otto picked out a bullet from his palm and held it between his fingers. Slowly, Otto closed his eyes in concentration as he rolled the small piece of metal between his fingers before clenching the bullet in his fist. With a thoughtful nod, Otto passed the bullet over to Hank's waiting hand.

Hank turned, smoothly reloading his gun. The barrel leveled at Holly's heart, his smirk widening. "Alright. Let's give this a shot."