A/N: Howdy y'all. As you may already know, this is a sequel to my first story; "The Charmed Life of Zack and Cody". I really must be out of my mind. So don't read this unless you've read that. Make sense? Also, you may be a little confused on this first chapter if you haven't seen the ending of Charmed. Now just a warning, I'll be taking this one a little slower than the last since it's quite a bit longer, and at the moment I'm lacking a little motivation since I'm also working on an original piece. But I promise I will see this through to the end if it kills me. It's rated T for angst... or maybe I'm just being over-dramatic. And just to be clear once more, I do NOT own Charmed, the Suite Life of Zack and Cody, or any characters therein. I do however own the original characters who shall go unnamed at the moment because I don't want to give anything away. Any other questions? No? Okay. On with the show.
Chapter 1: The Tipping Scales
It has been three years since the Seven vanquished the Source of All Evil for the third and final time. There were many battles ahead for them, but in the end, after The Charmed Ones defeated the Ultimate Power, the old demonic guard was decimated. Very few of the old generation remain, leaving a new generation of demons to do nothing but rebuild, gather their strength, and bide their time. But with the demons gone, a void is left where their evil acts once stood. And that void calls out to be filled to complete the Grand Design. Sadly, that space can be very tempting, and it seems that more and more witches are descending into that darkness to become the new face of evil, the other side of the scale.
The neon lights of the city cast eerie shadows all around the streets of Boston. Anyone out on the town alone at this hour was just begging to be mugged. But what most don't know is that sometimes, a common mortal thug is not the scariest thing out there.
"Please don't! Is it money?! Take it! It's yours!" The poor high school girl screeched at the tall pale man who had her around the throat. Her parents had warned her time and time again of the dangers of meeting someone online. But Charlene was the kind of person who always had to learn things the hard way. Now she was paying for it dearly.
The man made a disgusting inhaling sound, like taking in a dose of a highly addictive drug. "No money. Your screams are working wonders. Wolves are always more excited by the chase. We'll be eating good tonight my brothers."
Charlene tried to scream, but found that it came out strangled and weak as four pale gray wolves with gleaming yellow eyes emerged from the shadows. They snarled at her and licked their fanged maws, taking in her trim physique, her thighs that promised a juicy meal, but mostly the degree of her struggle. As their pack leader had said, it excited them. He threw the poor girl back to the ground where she landed on her knees. Her legs were covered in scrapes and her face marred by bruises and panicked tears. She looked up at her assailant with confused and pleading eyes.
He merely grinned, showing those odd canine teeth. "Start running." He hissed. Charlene bolted to her feet and took off the other way, down the unnaturally quiet street screaming for help. The wolf demon had planned the area and the hour well. No one would come to her aid. He and his wolves started to move after her, slowly at first, letting the thrill of the hunt wash over them. Their steps got faster and soon he and his companions were taking off after the poor girl on all fours, snarling and panting with lust. As he ran, the dark stringy hair on his head began to grow rapidly, not only on his head but on his face as well.
His face continued to transform until he too had the snout of a wolf. That same dark hair grew from the rest of his body, which grew in size, tearing the clothes he wore, until he appeared more wolf than man.
Twenty yards away, and gaining with each bound. Ten yards now. In a matter of moments he and his brothers would leap and drag her down with their fangs. The wolf man leaped a split second before the others of his pack, jaws wide to receive her tender juicy flesh. An instant before his fangs met her leg, he was thrown to the side, slamming into a lamppost. He snarled with his canine snout and rose to see what had struck him. His brothers had stopped the chase and were looking at him in confusion. His prey on the other hand hadn't even looked back and was already rounding the corner. The wolf demon rose back onto his hind legs before falling back on his massive front arms.
"Who dares interfere with our hunt?! Show yourself!"
"If you insist." Came a voice from the shadows, that was accompanied by a crimson fireball that nearly struck his face before he dodged to the side. Turning his yellow gaze back to where the projectile had come from, he saw two identical blond strangers, probably no older than the prey he was after. Their shaggy straw colored hair framed lightly tanned faces with a smattering of freckles across their noses which sat below a pair of blue eyes. One seemed more built than the other, but it wasn't him who was at the front, though judging by the smoke from his palm he had been the one who had thrown the fireball.
The wolf demon growled and bared his teeth. "Witches."
"What do we have here Cody?" the bigger twin said smugly. "Band of rabid dogs?"
"Filthy little mongrels aren't they Zack." Cody agreed, though his face was harder than his brother's.
"Indeed." Zack said sarcastically. "What should we do, fearless leader?"
Cody glowered at the pack leader. "Do the humane thing and put them down."
The wolf demons made a low growl in his throat again. "Just try it witches. My pack will shred you into bite sized bits. You'll make better eating than that brainless human anyway."
"Awe, how cute." Zack said in a mocking tone. "He's trying to talk, but all I can hear is 'woof woof woof'."
"How dare you mock us! Brothers, feast!" The alpha male issued the command, and all four wolves leaped for the twins at once. With a wave of his hand, Cody threw them back with that same unseen power from before. They rose back onto their paws, shaking it off to circle the teenaged witches, this time planning to move in from two sides.
"Can I take this one, please?" Zack pleaded.
Cody rolled his eyes. "Have your fun. But try not to show off too much."
Zack thought it over for a moment. "I'll try to try." He agreed. Then he took a deep breath to visualize his counter strike. The wolves launched themselves again for the twins. Zack stepped in front of his brother and jumped up to meet them. Red fire sprouted from his foot as he spun his leg out in a circle to strike each wolf in the face, sending them reeling back to the pavement. Zack landed and spun his other leg out, creating a wave of crimson fire that rolled over the wolves, who howled in agony before their inevitable vanquish.
The alpha male cast horrified eyes from one scorch mark to the other, each one representing a fallen member of his pack. With burning fury he leaped atop the lamppost he had crashed into to perform an aerial assault. The metal groaned in protest to his weight until he propelled himself for his earthbound enemies. Cody merely held out his hand and used his powers to throw him into the opposite wall behind them. His broad shoulder collided with the building with a sickening crack. The wolf demon staggered back up, growling menacingly. But he wasn't done yet. He opened his great fanged maw slowly, as if to howl. By the time the twins saw the white glow inside it, it was too late. The demon's howl shot a ball of white energy straight at them. At that range, they didn't have time to deflect it before it blew them off their feet to land on their backs. Wasting no time, the wolf sprung again and landed his heavy paws on their chests, crushing the air out of them. It made a strange snarling noise, almost like a laugh before slowly lowering its mouth to get a taste of his prey.
"I wonder if I'll be able to finish this meal all by myself. Maybe I should leave you both alive after having my fill to suffer and bleed. Too bad my pack isn't still here. They would have been merciful and helped me devour every scrap of you. Oh well." He made to clamp his jaws over Zack's head. All it would take was for him to close that giant mouth and Zack's head would have snapped cleanly off. But just before his teeth made contact, the wolf reared its head upward, howling in pain. Purple sparks shot from the wound in his shoulder where a gleaming athame was embedded.
The dagger flew out of the wound, and into the waiting hand of a brown haired girl with chocolate colored eyes. "Sorry I'm late." Max stated, although their whitelighter didn't sound sincere.
Seizing the opportunity, Cody struck the beast's abdomen with his palm, throwing him off of himself and his brother with a telekinetic thrust. He and Zack leaped to their feet. While Zack shot a ray of red fire at the wolf, Cody rounded on their rescuer. "Explain how someone who can freaking orb to wherever she pleases be late!"
"Are you gonna whine or are you gonna vanquish?" Max shot back.
"Cody, I could use your help here!" Zack reminded his brother. The fire was damaging the wolf, but his anger was giving him strength to step closer and closer to his enemies. "You got the spell?"
"Right here." Cody reached into his jean pocket and pulled out the folded slip of paper where the two of them had copied a vanquishing spell from their own Book of Shadows. He stood next to Zack and held it up so they both could see. Without wasting another breath, they recited the incantation.
"Wolf who wears the skin of sheep, whose howl is fierce and fangs cut deep, Cease your hunt of the small and meek, and join your pack in forever sleep."
The wolf's earsplitting howl rang through the air before Zack's flames wrapped around him completely, shrouding him from sight. When the fire cleared, all that remained was a pile of ashes and the wreaking scent of scorched fur.
Zack sighed and cracked his knuckles. "These guys are getting too easy."
"I thought you said you weren't going to show-boat this time." Cody grinned.
"I said I'd try."
"Umm," Max interrupted "When you two ladies are done, I think we should orb back to the Tipton."
"What, now?" Zack frowned at the whitelighter. "It's such a nice night. Why don't we walk?"
Cody rolled his eyes. "You just want to scope out another demon to hunt."
Max orbed in front of Zack in a swirl of white lights and held the tip of her athame threateningly against his nose. "No. This was your third hunt tonight, and the Elders said there aren't any more innocents in immediate danger. In fact They're getting a little tired of you sending me to ask them. They said something about you looking for trouble."
Zack shrugged and backed away slowly from her weapon. "No idea where that came from. How do they come up with this stuff?"
"Max is right." Cody agreed. "It's getting late and I have an exam tomorrow. With how much sleep I've been getting, I'll be lucky to squeak by with an A minus."
Zack made a horrified face. "Oh no, the horror!" The other two folded their arms and gave him a reproachful look. His expression turned to a pout. He hated it when they ganged up on him. "Fine. But can we please walk? And if we don't notice anything… demony, then I'll back off for awhile. Promise."
Max smiled. "And how do you plan to get into the Tipton without orbing? It's 1am. The doors are locked."
Zack frowned. Seeing no other argument, he held out his hand to her so she could orb them both back home. Max and Cody shared mischievous grins. It was surprising how easy it was to make Zack forget that the Tipton was a hotel that never locked its doors.
--
Later the next afternoon the twins made a somber walk through the lobby of the Tipton hotel making their way to the elevator. "How'd you do on your test?" Zack asked half heartedly as they stopped near the center table to talk.
"It wasn't just a test." Cody said defensively. "It was my mid-term exam for advanced bio-chemistry. And thanks to your… all night blow-out," he said after having woken up enough to remember not to talk openly about demons with so many prying ears, "the whole thing was a blur. If my score isn't good this could severely affect my twelve step plan."
"You mean to be the first doctor-chef-in-space?" Zack rolled his eyes.
"You laugh now, but when I'm on TV you'll see differently."
Zack chuckled. "Then lets get you back to the suite so you can hit the books. Don't want to disappoint all one of your future viewers."
Cody glowered. He and Zack started for the elevator again only for Cody to bump right into someone and falter back a few steps, rubbing his nose. "Owe. Sorry I didn't…" when he looked up to see who he had bumped into, his words froze as his eyes met the cold blue ones of the man in a bellhop uniform with a long ponytail of mud brown hair. He looked to be in his early twenties, and was of a long averagely muscular frame. The bellhop just rolled his eyes and continued pushing the luggage cart he had been tending to before he had been interrupted.
Zack snapped his fingers in front of his brother's face to pull him back into reality. "What? You can handle demons, but you're scared of the new bellhop?"
Cody shook his head as if trying to discard an unwanted thought. "You can't tell me you don't get a weird vibe from that guy."
"Come on, it's just Nathan. Norman the doorman keeps to himself a lot too. You're not scared of him."
"I'm not scared of Nathan. He just… makes me nervous."
"Okay, so he's a little creepy." Zack admitted as the elevator dinged and admitted them in. "But you've got to admit that niece of his is fi-INE." He grinned.
Cody gave him a crooked smile as the elevator made its rise to the twenty fifth floor where their suite was. "She's just as quiet as he is. Has she even said a word to you aside from 'quit staring at me you little blond freak'?"
Zack grimaced. "She never said those exact words… but I'm making progress. The other day she said something to me."
"And what was that?"
Zack hesitated. "We were at the elevator and she said 'I'll take the next one'."
Cody smiled smugly at the self proclaimed lady's man. "I'm seeing a real future there."
"Good thing that's not your power. I don't think I could live with you actually knowing everything." The elevator dinged again and opened to allow them entrance to the twenty fifth floor. They made their way through the halls to the suite in silence for the most part.
Over the past few weeks, Cody couldn't help but notice how his brother seemed pretty far from his usual wise cracking self. Whatever it was, it had been coming on for awhile now, and Cody had a bad feeling he knew what it was. "Still upset?"
"No, not really. I'll get over it." Zack answered unconvincingly.
"I don't get it. I couldn't be happier that the demons have slowed down."
"Yeah that's great for you," Zack grimaced, "but you had stuff before we got our powers. You had school, you're career goals, your cooking, and it's just making me realize that I didn't really have another plan outside this one. For the last three years, the witch stuff has been pretty much my whole life."
"You had all the girls, even when you became a witch." Cody reminded him.
Zack thought about that for a moment, a mischievous grin forming on his face. "Okay, maybe not my whole life. But that was a big part of it. I don't really want to revert back to… what I was like before." They were in their hallway now and coming up on their suite.
Cody tried to think of something positive to say. "Don't worry about it. You're not the same person you were before we got our powers. You've matured a lot. You'll do just fine."
Zack thought about that as he reached for the knob. "I have matured." He agreed as he opened the door.
"Surprise." Came a voice inside their suite that they both instantly recognized. Forgetting everything he had just said, Zack threw the door open and ran for the woman to literally jump into her waiting arms.
"Phoebe!"
"Good to see you too Zack." The brown eyed woman laughed, ruffling his shaggy blond mop of hair. It was a good thing Phoebe Halliwell was such a strong woman, otherwise Zack might have knocked her over.
Another voice sounded just behind her, accompanied by a pink glow. "Take it easy their sport. Don't want you to break my wife." Coop smiled.
"It's good to see you boys." Came yet another voice. Piper stood in the back with baby Chris on her hip. Her husband Leo stood just next to her with little Wyatt on his shoulders.
"What are you guys doing here?!" Cody beamed at their visitors. Wyatt begged to be put down so that he could run to Cody on his little four-year-old legs. Cody hoisted the boy up and spun him around. "Hey big guy." Wyatt squealed with excitement.
In the kitchen a cloud of white lights suddenly drew their attention as Paige and her husband Henry made their entrance. Paige steadied him with her hand. "You okay honey?"
"I'm fine." He promised, though he looked on the verge of being sick. "I think I'm getting the hang of this." He lied.
Paige turned to greet Zack and Cody. "And how are my two favorite little witches?"
"Not so little anymore." Phoebe reminded her sister.
"Oh that's right. Did you guys forget?" Paige smiled with her full red-lipsticked mouth.
"Forget what?" Cody asked, starting to get a little frustrated, but was interrupted again by Zack.
"Is Billy here?"
Phoebe frowned. "Tch, we hardly ever see her anymore. She's either on a demon hunt or she's throwing herself into college. Where's your mom? She really should be here."
"She's on tour still."
"For her CD?"
"No, for Dad's band."
"Actually," Paige interjected, "I ran into Max while I was 'Up There'." She pointed to the ceiling, though everyone knew that she wasn't talking about the suite above them. "She should be on her way here with Carey right now."
"Okay, really guys. What's going on?" Cody tried, but with so many people in the room he couldn't get a word in edge-ways.
Still ignoring Cody, Piper asked her youngest sister "Paige, did you remember to pick up the cake?"
"See for yourself." Paige answered, holding her hand towards the kitchen countertop. In a twinkling of orbs, a beautifully decadent chocolate cake, no doubt made by Piper herself appeared on its surface with bright red lettering written in flawless calligraphy across its chocolate icing. The words "Happy Anniversary" blazed for all to see. Cody slapped his hand to his forehead. How could he have forgotten? It had been three years ago on this very day that he and his brother had met the sisters, but more significantly it was the day they had become witches.
Piper flashed them both her warm maternal smile. "Happy anniversary you two."
No sooner had she said this then two others were orbed into the room. Max supporting Carey Martin, the boys' mother who felt as comfortable about orbing as Henry did. "Surprise." Carey beamed at her sons. "Didn't think I would make it?"
"Mom!" both twins cried in unison before glomping onto her. She kissed them both on their foreheads.
"I'm so proud of you boys. I can't believe it's been three years already."
Cody shifted his face to give Max a sly grin. "Have you been keeping secrets again?"
Max shot him a mock glare. "I knew as much as you. I just happened to run into Paige while I was making my report."
"Well," Phoebe said, making her way to the counter, "This cake's not going to cut itself. And I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving." Zack hadn't really paid much attention to it before, but now that he saw the way Phoebe was walking, and the slight protrusion of her stomach hidden beneath her uncharacteristically loose top, he looked back to Coop.
"Is she…" He couldn't really wrap his head around it enough to finish that sentence. Coop only nodded.
"That's our little Lady-Bug in there. Found out two months ago… well I did. Apparently she's known for awhile. She just loves holding those premonitions over my head."
"Honey," Phoebe snapped playfully at her husband, "did I mention I'm starving?"
Coop winked at Zack. "I'll cut the cake then."
"Please do." Piper said while rocking little Chris on her hip. "Before Phoebe sinks her teeth into it. I baked it, I want some of it too."