When she saw Haggith come out of hiding, Barbara's palms stopped producing flames. Waving the smoke from her hands while Haggith walked up to her.

"There you are." Haggith started, looking at Barbara's pale face. "You don't look so good."

"I was getting some fresh air." Despite being slightly asphyxiated and drained, she needed air to breathe even if the air wasn't exactly fresh, living on a swamp and all.

"Worry not, child. I know it can be exhausting using so much energy. Especially opening the gateway to the underworld and back." Haggith slowly reached for the dagger within her sleeve.

"Opening the gateway drained me of my powers. No wonder it takes two or more witches to do it." She admitted.

"Speaking of witches, did you find your grandmother?" Haggith asked, holding a tight grip on her dagger.

"I'm not going to lie, I found her. But she refused to join and she told me a lot of things."

"Is that so?" Haggith drawled.

"Yes. She told me what caused you to turn against each other. How you got turned into an old hag. And how you destroyed the witch hunter."

Haggith took out the double-edged blade to strike, but she didn't expect a snake to slither its way out of Barbara's cloak to take the stabbing and bit the treacherous witch by the arm, fangs sinked into her skin to inject her with poison.

"Grrrh! Should have known that your dear granny was behind this!" Haggith's blood boiled. She fumed while she pried the pseudo serpent from biting her and was tossed aside.

"Domus!" Barbara witnessed how the snake was writhing, bleeding.

"Very clever Agatha, but not clever enough."

"You're going to pay for this!" Barbara's eyes flared with indignation as Haggith smirked.

"Did you really think that I taught you dark magic to help you resurrect your grandmother? I only used you to bring the witches of The Dark Circle back from dead to wreak havoc on Dreadsville. Once I get rid of the dean, I will have the villagers at my mercy and it's all thanks to you." The unscrupulous witch casted a spell on the ground for the thorn vines to sprout. The thorny vines grew 6 feet tall and 3 feet in diameter to ensnare Barbara, wrapping her from head to toe, only leaving her face exposed. The thorns pricked and punctured her extremities and teared through her cloak. Blood drizzling down, if the thorns would have pierced any deeper inti her torso, she would have been done for. "I would've gladly killed you off by stabbing you with a rusty dagger and pushed you off into the swamp water to watch you drown, but seeing you bleeding and suffocating as you suffer a slow, painful death is much more amusing."

Haggith smirked as she heard Barbara mumble something that was too faint to hear.

"What was that? I can't hear you." Haggith came closer to listen but she couldn't understand her mumbling. "What did you say?" Haggith asked her.

"You won't get away with this." Barbara's voice was hoarse.

"Did you say something?" Haggith came closer.

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS!" Barbara burned in rage, the same rage burnt and charred the thorned vines.

Haggith paced back as she shielded herself from the embers of the vines. "Not bad, but not good enough."

The stormy dark sky roared and thundered as the witches used their dark magic to fight against each other, a clash of spells.

*

They heard cackling when they arrived to Croaker Swamp.

"Thank you for your help, Gottfreed."
"Anytime, Aggy. I hope you come back and visit again like old times. Farewell." The old friends bid each other goodbye.

The thunderstorms became louder and Agatha saw aparitions of the other witches flying towards Dreadsville.

"Haggith is becoming stronger. We have to stop those witches before they reach Dreadsville." Agatha said before a bolt of lightning struck.

Haggith and Barbara casted spells against each other, though they were equally matched. Barbara was the one struggling to keep her powers in balance, though her energy was depleting.

Haggith turned a spark of energy into a spear that got launched like an arrow, hitting Barbara by the arm as it drained her energy like a leech.

She staggered, Barbara's vision turned blurry and wobbly. She was seeing red before she blacked out and fell to the ground. Haggith walked to Barbara's unconscious form and put one knee on the ground.

"Such a waste, at least I absorbed an ounce of your power to put it to good use." With a wave of a finger, she casted a spell to levitate Barbara's body in the air. "Look at you... a scrawny witch with no more power to spare. Pathetic." Her corpse hovered over the murky waters. "Now to send you sleeping with the fishes." With a snap of her fingers, she dropped the body, but before it would fall into the water, a blinding light appeared.

When Haggith shielded her eyes from the light, Barbara's body levitated towards Marvin's arms. He pulled the rim of her hood to cover her face.

"My eyes!" Haggith shouted. When she regained her sight she saw that she was cornered. "Another time perhaps." With a clap, she faded into a puff of smoke.

"Marvin, how is she?" Agatha asked.

"She is still breathing."

"Take her home, I'll meet you there."

Marvin took Barbara to the swamp house.

"Is she alright?" Catherine queried.

"She is still bleeding, I have to..." but the old healer paused when she saw her familiar squirming on the ground, with a dagger protruding out of its head.

"Domus!" Agatha ran to the wounded serpent, tearing the fabric of her sleep to wrap it around the wounded area before holding the bleeding snake.

*

The guests were at Agatha's abode. After Agatha healed her familiar she was in another room, healing her granddaughter. The guests were sitting on a settee, except for Marvin who paced back and forth.

"All our efforts to catch that witch. Fruitless! When we get one step closer to capture her, she gets away." Edwin clenched and unclenched his fists in frustration.

"She already took my youth, what more could she want!?"

"She wants Dreadsville under her control, starting with the villagers." Marvin replied.

The white witch treated her granddaughter with medicinal herbs and magical healing to stop the bleeding. She treated her injuries until dawn. The guests were asleep, except for Marvin.

"How is she Mrs. Bogg?"

"Not so good. Her energy has been drained. Even with Domus's protection, she still got hurt."

"How did Domus survive?"

"Haggith used a dagger to stab him. It's a good thing that I was able to treat his wounds this time. It will take him a couple of days for him to recover, but Barbara on the other hand..." Agatha showed Marvin the state Barbara was in. He saw the young witch wrapped in sheets, her complexion as pale as a blank sheet of paper, her dark hair opaque and uneven, and her body cold and clammy as death itself. "...she lost a lot of blood. And that's not all, her chakras are out of balance." Agatha caressed her forehead. "My little Baba."
Her body remained unresponsive for the time being.