Neena

'"She's not evil. Not before now, at least. She's a witch, just like you. Well actually, that's not true at all. She's not just a witch. She's the first witch."

- Leo Wyatt talks to Paige about Neena. '

Neena, also known as Isabel and Victoria, is - as Leo put it - the first original witch of the world, and actually mothered both the lines of good witches and evil warlocks. She used to work with a warlock named Hogan, but later killed him after deeming him no longer useful. She has now teamed up with a formidable Darklighter named Rennek to carry out her diabolical plans for the world.

History
Leo says her story starts from the first days of humanity, and explains: “When the world was dark, a spiritual energy ran through everything that existed neither Good nor Evil, it was part of everything like air and earth. The Elders call it The All. Thousands upon thousands of years ago, a woman came across that Nexus. She alerted her mate of what she had found. At first they were afraid of it, but she pushed past that fear and tapped into this power. Well the woman who tapped into the All's power was infused with more of the All than any human was supposed to possess. The woman shared that power with her mate and it changed them, made them immortal and invulnerable. It bonded them forever to one another and to the All creating a state beyond consciousness beyond the known universe; That place called the higher realm, a place of pure, utter bliss that they shared with the All. But their presence there affected the earth their magical bond contained the All in the higher realm. The world started to die. The only way to save earth was for the woman and her mate to separate their powers. To allow the power of the All to flow freely again. The woman and man were forced to abandon the higher realm, never to return again. Once back on earth the woman gave birth to a pair of twins, that were conceived while she was in the higher realm. The first child was a female and had powers like her mother just not so strong, it is from this child that natural-born witches came. The second child was a male born with the same abilities but he used the magic for dark purposes and that gave rise to warlocks. The other children that came later had no powers to speak of but they and their descendants could tap into the magic as magic practitioners. In very rare cases these non-magical descendants can give birth to a full witch, but this can upset The Grand Design. Leo says that The Warren family did not just come into the magic, but are part of Neena's bloodline. Every time a witch is born, she inherits a tiny piece of the All. Not a lot, but just enough to have an active power. With every new descendant, the All began to weaken: it was spreading too thin. It needed to reclaim some of the magic it had lost, it needed one of the two to return. So Neena's mate returned to the higher plane. But he did not abandon her, not by choice. One day, he was just gone, and she was alone for the first time in forever. They had no control over what happened to them. His return to the higher realm had become part of The Grand Design. The Elders were forced to make a decision. They chose her mate to go to the higher realm and not Neena.

As Isabel
Isabel, aka Neena, appeared in To The Warren Born, a six-page short story, in the comics about Charlotte Warren. She was, at that time, a mysterious woman who was only spoken about in whispers, and reputed to possess the power of precognition. Charlotte also stated that she was much more than just a witch. She refused to help Charlotte abort her baby and instead gave her a special talisman of the Triquetra. She told her to go to a local woman who would help her to give birth. Charlotte was afraid to do this as she had conceived the child before marriage and her fiancée was missing. She did not think she could do it alone, and somehow knew he would not return. Isabel explained that it was her child who knew this as she had the gift of Premonition and much more, unlike her parents. That is why she would not help her abort as she said her child had to be born for everyone's sakes. However, Isabel agreed to help her as someone she loved was taken from her, and she knew exactly how Charlotte felt. That is why she gave her the Triquetra to guide her to Eva who, with help from the future Charmed Ones, would aid her in giving birth to an extremely powerful magical child: Melinda Warren, who would start the Warren/Halliwell line and prophesy the coming of the Charmed Ones.

Charmed Lives
Neena and a warlock, Hogan waited in a club for Weasel. An Angel of Destiny visits them and tells them whatever their plan is, it is not destined to happen. Neena sends the Angel away to an unknown plane while Hogan projects rage onto people at the club. Weasel meets up with them and hands them a paper. Hogan takes the paper and Neena kills Weasel when he tried to make a move on her.

The paper appears to be a map when Neena and Hogan find the entrance to a cave near the Golden Gate Bridge. They go into the cave and end up in a scary, lava filled lair.

No Rest for the Wicca
Neena and Hogan are conversing with a smoke-type being, who appears to be in charge of them. It tells them that they must do something before it can return to full power. She and Hogan kill Paige's latest charge, a boy-witch named Brent.

Innocents Lost
Neena and Hogan are at the burial site of The Hollow and attack the new Guardians, taking a sample of soil and then give it to the misty master. The two of them bring the Source of All Evil back to life as a golem.

Mortal Enemies
In the Underworld, The Source is ready to make his next move, leaving Hogan and Neena behind to work on "more important things".



Unnatural Resources
Back in the Underworld, Neena is mixing up something in a cauldron of her own, while telling Hogan to be patient and being cryptic about not being trustworthy. She creates a spell to share the Source's powers.

The Heir Up There
In the Underworld, Rennek has teamed up with the Horned Demon and his minions in order to go on a rampage and massacre a group of Vampires. He sets his sights on the Vampire Queen, Lorna, who he claims that he won't kill yet. Lorna tries to feign innocence when Rennek points out that she had upset a friend of his. Just then, Neena shows up and yells at Lorna for not showing allegiance to her after she granted Lorna the powers to make her a Vampire Queen. Lorna wants to negotiate further, but a fed up Neena moves a bunch of stakes which pierce and kill Lorna.

Neena is pleased that the vampires have been dealt with, as that allows her plan to proceed for the Underworld. Rennek, however, is suspicious that the demons don't know who they are really working for. He then calls Neena by two different names - Isabel and Victoria - and that he knows her true intentions.

Oh, Henry
In the Underworld, Neena doesn't want The Charmed Ones involved with her scheme, which is why Rennek didn't attack them before. She would have left them out entirely, if she didn't have [Oh, Henry] to divide The Source's powers to make her army stronger. Rennek knows what Neena's real plan is, however the other demons don't. He has also collected enough orbs for her attack. She gets a group of demons to help her plan out the attack.

The Charmed Ones orb to the Bridge, where they find multiple demons attacking The Elders. Paige suddenly sees Kyle and tries to save him but Rennek quickly kills him with a Darklighter arrow while Neena takes his orbing power. Neena faces the Charmed Ones and is able to send Piper to another void. Paige tries to orb Piper back to her, but fails. Leo then comes out of the fog and recognizes Neena. He hurriedly tells them to orb back Home and he tells them that Neena is a witch but not just any witch. She's the first witch.

The All or Nothing
Neena has run the Elders into hiding, and had also attempted to create a world where the All Tree could be recreated, but the realm would not hold it, so she instead used it as a prison for her enemies: trapping Piper and an Angel of Destiny there. This other realm also damaged the Cosmic Void, allowing a mute Cole Turner to appear in the realm.

Last Witch Effort
Leo tries to reason with Neena that she will destroy everything, but she says it's not her problem. Leo says she will be destroyed with everything else, but Neena says the fusion will open a portal to the realm with The All and her lover. Leo says this isn't her, but Neena replies that the Angels of Destiny and Elders made her like this by shaping the world around her and her children and that she is tired of fate dictating everything. Leo says she has killed dozens of Innocents and Whitelighters but Neena says she has never killed anyone good. She tells him that she played by the rules, but she will no longer. She then combines the two orbs, causing a thunderstorm to brew on earth.

The Charmed Offensive
Up There, the glowing balls have merged into one giant ball, and Neena is working her magic on it. The Warren witches wait beyond the gates of the Ancestral Plane, and Paige hears an explosion. She has Grams open the gates for Melinda, and the Warren witches charge into the battle. Just before the sisters can get together, Neena reluctantly enters the fray. At that moment, Leo emerges with wings and a flaming sword. He takes out some winged demons, and Paige telekinetically orbs Neena away briefly. Sam, Henry and Coop arrive, with Henry carrying Paige's body. The sisters make Paige whole again. Neena returns, but Leo continues to take out demons, resulting in a standoff. Neena is angry that they're all ungrateful, because without her, they wouldn't exist.

Neena continues to justify her actions, and Phoebe uses empathy to feel Neena's emotions. Piper tells Phoebe to turn the emotions back on Neena; Phoebe tries and sparks starts flying from her hands into Neena's head. The emotions are too much to handle and they both fall to the ground. However, the psychic blast is powerful enough to incapacitate Neena for a short while. As Paige helps Phoebe up, Phoebe tells her sisters that she also felt compassion from Neena and realizes that Neena truly believes she is doing what's best. She then tells them she didn't know if she could use those emotions against Neena.

Piper tells them to move to plan B, binding Neena's powers, while she is still incapacitated. Piper then pours a potion on Neena's chest and the sisters cast their spell. However, they alone aren't powerful enough to do it, but all the Warren Witches together are able to pull off the spell. After binding Neena's powers, the sisters turn their attention to the sphere of Good and Evil, with the help of the Elders and Leo's sword, they break apart the spheres. That changes Up There back to normal.

The Angels of Destiny show up and banishes Neena to the realm she created, where six months out of the year, she'll be allowed to be reunited with her beloved, as a compromise.

Powers & Abilities
Neena is not a mere magical witch, but the very first witch. Apart from the basic Wiccan powers of spell casting and potion making, she also possesses the powers of portal creation, pyrogenism, energy beam and geokinesis. Her magical aptitude was even able to affect the entire Underworld, and alter their strength and power. It is theorized that she is now also able to access Up There, as she had taken the powers of an Elder. She also seemed to be well-versed in Latin, being able to use a Latin spell to merge the two Orbs. As a witch, who now possesses the powers of the Source (Hell) and the Elders (Heaven), anyone should consider her to be a most dangerous and formidable enemy, especially since she is a cunning strategist and an expert manipulator, being able to trick Hogan and even the Source himself into working for her.

It is also possible that she might have some form of Glamouring power, as it was implied that she had assumed several different identities over the centuries that she had lived, and was able to easily see through Leo's and Paige's magical Glamouring disguises.

To Share the Source's Power

 * Ancient evil now destroyed.
 * Others rise to fill the void.
 * To build our strength within this hour,
 * Leave vanquished Source, but share his power.

Trivia

 * She is almost two and a half million years old, as Leo says she was around since the first days of humanity.
 * She knew Charlotte Warren.
 * She gave Charlotte Warren a Triquetra necklace.
 * She is the first witch.
 * She used to be good until recently.
 * On Twitter, Paul Ruditis called her the Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty.
 * Neena's name is pronounced the same as Nina's, a mortal who was the Guardian of Pandora's box.
 * In The Charmed Offensive, The Charmed Ones, together with other Warren witches (except Prue), managed to bind Neena`s powers.

Appearances
Neena appeared in a total of 12 issues throughout the course of the comic series:


 * Season 9 -
 * To The Warren Born
 * Charmed Lives
 * No Rest for the Wicca
 * Innocents Lost
 * Mortal Enemies
 * Unnatural Resources
 * The Heir Up There
 * Oh, Henry
 * The All or Nothing
 * Three Little Wiccans
 * Last Witch Effort
 * The Charmed Offensive