Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot and Rowan.

Chapter One: The Lost and the Found

Wyatt Halliwell, at age twenty-five, could be a very dangerous man should he choose to be. He was the successor of King Author, Wielder of Excalibur, and not to mention the son of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt. His brother, Chris Halliwell, while not as powerful as Wyatt, could also be particularly dangerous. Together the two made quite a team. Now that the Charmed Ones had retired Chris and Wyatt and now their sister, Melinda, had taken over.

The problem with this scenario was that Melinda Halliwell had been kidnaped ... and no one could find her via spell or scrying. Needless to say, the Brothers Halliwell were quite irate. The Elders yielded no answers, not even who had taken her. Everything began to seem hopeless until...

Chris and Wyatt walked through the woods, venturing on the only lead they'd gotten. "This must be where she was taken," Chris said, pointing to a perfect ring of scorched earth in a small clearing.

Wyatt knelt down, examining the ground. "It was probably a demon... How are we going to tell Mom and Dad that she's missing?" Piper and Leo were on vacation for two weeks.

Chris sighed, placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. "You can't blame yourself, Wyatt. We can't hover over her shoulder to protect her forever."

"I should have been there. What the hell was she doing out here anyway?"

"I don't know. Probably trying to get away from an overbearing brother who carries the weight of the world," replied Chris nonchalantly.

Wyatt managed a small smile despite his foul mood. He was about to reply when in the clearing ahead three beings fell from the sky and suddenly vanished. The brothers glanced at each other and quietly crept closer. A portal appeared and out of it stepped two men, or at least they looked like men, wearing black jackets with a silver crest across the chest.

The taller one spoke first. "Where are they?"

"I don't see them... I can't sense the either."

"I hope you know they'll have your head for this!" The portal appeared again, and bickering, the two stepped inside. As soon as it closed, movement caught Chris's eye. Down in the clearing, the three that fell from the sky came out of hiding. One, a pretty young woman with ebony hair topping her head, was covering the other two with wings that protruded from her back. She folded her wings and rolled onto her side. On her left was a tall brunette with doe eyes and on her right... "Melinda!" exclaimed both brothers running to embrace her.

Melinda tried to pull away, her face panicked. "Rowan's hurt!" she yelled turning to the winged woman.

"Am not," Rowan said in a low musical voice.

"Um, Row, hate to tell you this but your left wing is ripped out a bit," the brunette said. She seemed dazed.

"You're seeing things," muttered Rowan, opening her eyes which were astounding ice blue in color. She looked over her shoulder to see that the brunette was right, and she was lying in a pool of her own blood. "Well, damn," she said, closing her eyes again.

"Wyatt moved over to Rowan and knelt down beside her. He started to heal her as Chris checked over Melinda, and the brunette, whose name was Bianca. Wyatt found it difficult to heal Rowan. She wasn't human, but she wasn't evil either. "What are you?" he whispered once he finally finished. Now that he was up close, he could see that her hair had midnight blue streaks and she had a strange symbol tattooed on her lower back. Rowan mumbled something incoherent. After having lost so much blood, he was weak. Wyatt, exhausted from healing her, said down beside her to rest. When Chris finished healing the other two, he orbed everyone back to the manor.

While Rowan and Bianca slept, Melinda sat talking to her brothers in the kitchen. "We were in some kind of test lab as far as I can figure. The men that had us, they weren't demons or warlocks.." Melinda trailed off thinking. Wyatt and Chris, though concerned, decided to hold questions until Melinda could rest. "Rowan had it the worse. They, they did things to her everyday, but when they brought her back, and even when she wasn't there, she managed to protect Bianca and me. They really got to me after that first time, thanks to her," Melinda's eyes began to well up. "Two days ago, Rowan organized a break out. I still don't know how she managed it. She and Bianca had been there long before I had. They know some of what was going on, I think."

"You need sleep." Chris said, standing up. "We'll talk in the morning." Melinda nodded and went upstairs.

Wyatt sat, staring into his coffee cup. "If not demons or warlocks, then what?"

"I was wondering the same thing," said Chris as he quickly fetched the Book of Shadows. He flipped through aimlessly. "I don't even know what I'm looking for," he muttered.

"Wait!" Wyatt exclaimed, placing his hand on the page Chris had been about to turn. He pulled the book toward himself. "Listen. Sorcerers are a very small faction of beings in the magical world that are neither witches nor warlocks. No one knows where sorcerers originated from nor are all their powers known. They work for their own purposes, siding with whomever will benefit them."

"You're scary sometimes," Chris said.

Ignoring him, Wyatt went on, thinking aloud. "Maybe, if it was sorcerers that took them, they wanted to expand their power or something so they gathered different people from the magical community... putting them up to a series of tests?"

"That's crazy."

"Not really," said a low musical voice behind them. Rowan came into the kitchen, walking slowly, as if it pained her. "As fare as I can figure, that's what they were doing. Trying to create a master race or something," she said quietly, sitting down.

Chris gazed at her, realizing that something was off. "Where are your wings?" he asked. Wyatt stared at her, but she didn't seem to notice.

"I can hid them if I need to. I cam down to thank you for healing me," she said, turning to Wyatt, who smiled," and to say good bye."

"What? Why?" Wyatt demanded.

Rowan looked taken aback. "I don't want to intrude on you. You've done so much already. And besides, I need to work on finding a way to destroy the sorcerers before they start up the project again."

Wyatt caught her hand as she stood up. "No, don't go. You saved Melinda and who knows how many other innocents. We owe you everything. Besides, you can't take on the sorcerers by yourself. Let us help you." Rowan hesitated; however, when she looked into Wyatt's eyes she nodded. Chris grinned seeing the look that passed between the two.

Bianca was the next one up. She stumbled to the table and sat by Rowan. "They drugged me," she declared, still angry about it apparently. Chris smiled.

Rowan laughed; Wyatt was struck. Rowan hadn't smiled until that moment. Her haunting face was beautiful even when frowning but when smiling she was amazing. "Feeling better?" she asked.

"Yes. Are you?"

"I'm find, Bianca."

"And you two are?" Bianca asked looking at Chris and Wyatt.

"Chris."

"Wyatt. We're Melinda's brothers."

"Where is Melinda? Is she ok?"

"She's fine," Chris said. "Asleep in her room."

Bianca relaxed. "Good."

"Do you two want to tell us what happened?"

Bianca began. "I was brought there two weeks ago. I'm a witch, no one special. They tested my powers and cut off some of my hair, but that was it, until they started the medical tests. I was ill by the end of the first week, which was when Rowan came."

Rowan took over the story now. "I had been living on Earth when I was taken. I don't know how I got there, but when I woke up, I was on some kind of operating table. They had me hooked up to machines, they tried... they tried to carve my wings out." Rowan trailed off, looking pale. A few moments later, she spoke again. "Being what I am, I couldn't let them hurt anyone else. So I kept them from taking Bianca, and Melinda when she came. We weren't spoken to. Nothing was explained. We were treated like lab rats."

"What are you?" Wyatt asked, extremely curious.

"I'm from an ancient race called Icarii. We're like witches, except we have wings and a larger variety of powers. The Icarii live far away from Earth, on a distant star," Rowan explained, smiling somewhat sadly.

"So why are you here now?" Chris asked.

"That's another tale for another day," Rowan said. Suddenly closed off. Chris glanced at Bianca; she only shrugged.

"Do you two think you could find a way back to the hideout?" asked Wyatt. The girls nodded. "I'll go talk to the Elders tonight and see if they know how to vanquish sorcerers." Wyatt orbed away.

Chris looked at Bianca and Rowan. "Want food?"

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