Author's note: And my next magnum opus arrives. This fic may confuse you if you're not vaguely familiar with the rest of the Chronicles. Please feel free to ask any questions in your reviews.

Shadowland, the theme song for this fic, features in the Lion King stage show. The words can be found at the end of the fic.

Come the 'Pocalypse

It started one afternoon in late July, when the Charmed sisters sent Chris to find Kaia.

"Kaia? Kaia!"

"What?" Kaia yelled back.

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the…oh no, don't come in here…"

Chris pushed open the door, froze for one second, and then spun around, putting his back to her. "Uh-sorry?"

"Sorry?" Kaia repeated. "I'm in the shower, Chris! You don't just walk in on your patron when she's in the shower! You don't walk in on anyone in the shower! You live in a house full of women and you haven't figured that out?"

"I didn't know you were…look, can you come out of there? I can't have this conversation this way."

"Fine. Go away."

He started to turn towards her, caught himself, and settled for talking over his shoulder. "What?"

"Go out of the room, Chris. I can't get out with you standing there."

Chris flushed and almost fell back down the stairs, where he paced for several minutes until Kaia finally came down, still toweling her hair dry. "This better be important, Chris."

"You do know what's happening."

It wasn't a question, but she answered anyway. "Yeah. Remember who you're talking to? Of course I know what's going on."

"You know why?"

"Not the foggiest." She tied back her hair. "I guess the sisters want to talk to me?"

"Yeah. Are you OK?"

"Nope. Shower helped, but not enough. Shall we?"

She held out her hand, and he took a step towards her. "What's wrong?"

"You do know what's happening, Chris."

"Point. All right."

She swayed dizzily when they reached the Manor, leaning against Chris for a minute before regaining her balance.

"You OK?" Phoebe asked, halting for a minute.

"Yeah. It's the…" she gestured vaguely. "Hits me at odd moments."

"Right. Can we do something?"

"Find out why all the plants in the world are dying, that'd be a good start."

"So it is all over the world then." Leo said.

"Hi, Leo." She stepped away from Chris and carefully moved towards the couch, watching her feet closely. "Yes, it's all over the world." Reaching the couch, she collapsed onto it. "There's no way that should have been so hard."

"You OK?" Piper asked.

"No. Everyone should stop asking me that. Do we have any idea what's going on?"

"I thought that's why you were here." Paige said, looking up from the Book.

"Paige!" Piper hissed.

"Fair point. I don't know, though."

"Has this ever happened before?" Leo asked.

"Not counting, like, bombs and things, the only other time this has happened was in Sunnydale a few years back. Part of a botched apocalypse."

"Botched? They get botched ones?" Phoebe asked. Looking at Leo, she asked, "How come we never get botched ones?"

"Buffy just usually botched them." Kaia told her. "But I don't think this is the same thing."

"Why not?" Piper asked.

"Because there isn't any famine, or boils, or earth monsters, or…damn it, I've forgotten the other ones." Looking at Leo, she added, "There were seven signs. I've forgotten some of them, but none of them have been happening anyway, so it's not important."

"Riiiiii-ight." Phoebe said slowly. "Chris, can I talk to you?"

Chris blinked, looking at Phoebe. "Sure." He followed her into the kitchen.

"What's wrong with her?" Phoebe asked.

Chris stared at her. "Phoebe, all the plants in the world are dying. Kaia's linked to them. It's like part of her dying."

"Oh." Phoebe thought for a minute. "But she doesn't seem hurt, just…kind of…"

"Spaced out? Yeah. That's…just how she gets. Connor says she was the same in LA."

"Connor. When did you talk to Connor?"

Chris flinched. "Before. Look, can we go back in there, in case she…"

"Kaia?" Piper's voice was high and surprised, and Chris and Phoebe exchanged looks before hurrying back into the sitting room.

Where Kaia wasn't.

"What happened?" Chris demanded. Leo looked up from helping Paige to her feet.

"Kaia attacked Paige and ran upstairs."

"What? Why?"

"No idea." Paige answered. "I didn't do anything."

"I'll go look for her." Piper offered.

"No, I'll do it." Chris said quickly, stepping in front of Piper. "Leo?"

"Attic." Leo said quietly, watching them. Chris nodded and turned quickly, heading upstairs.

"Kaia?" Chris called carefully.

"Don't…" her voice trailed off, and he leaned in through the door, glancing from side to side.

"Where are you?"

"Don't, I said." This time she sounded irritated rather than afraid, and he took a couple of steps in.

"Kaia…"

"Thariin, Chris." Definitely irritated, and now he knew where she was and moved a little closer.

"Thariin. Whoever. What happened?"

"I don't…" Realizing he knew where she was, she rose to her feet. "I didn't mean to do that. Is she Ok?"

"Fine." Chris said without thinking. "What happened?"

"She just…" Kaia gestured, and he took a step closer and realized her ears were pointed.

"Huh. So you meant it when you said Thariin, then. Can you turn that off?"

"It is off, Chris." she said automatically. She shimmered, and Chris jerked his gaze away; watching her glamours form was always oddly disorienting.

When he looked back Kaia was slumped on the floor, and he dropped to one knee beside her. "Hey. You Ok?"

"I really wish people would stop asking that." she muttered, but the irritation was gone and she was just tired now.

Chris settled himself more comfortably beside her. "What happened, Kaia?"

"I don't know. She just…I was just…and then she…"

"Not making much sense there." he observed.

"I know!" She glared at him at for a minute before relaxing…quite literally, almost falling over before Chris caught her. "I don't know why I did it, Chris. I'm sorry."

Chris sat in silence for a minute. "Are you asleep?"

"No, Chris." she answered immediately.

"Come downstairs."

"Oooh…" she pushed away from him, sitting up straight. "Already?"

"Yeah. Come on." He rose to his feet, holding out his hand, and she let him help her up.

"Is she mad?"

"Paige? No. Doesn't hold a grudge."

Kaia halted on the stairs, just out of sight of the others. "Do me a favor, Chris?"

"Sure. Name it."

"Call Connor?"

Chris rolled his eyes, turning away, and she went on, "He's used to this. To me being loopy. He knows how to handle it." She tugged on his arm, pulling him back around to look at her, and finished, "I don't want to hurt anyone, Chris. This isn't a judgment, or a 'I'd rather him than you'."

Chris nodded. "OK. What's the number?"

Kaia reeled it off from memory and added, "You need to ask for him by name. That's only Harmony."

"All right. Come on."

He steered her down the stairs and into the sitting room, letting go only when he was sure she wasn't going to fall over. He turned away to find the phone.

Kaia looked around a room that was much quieter than it had been before they'd come down. "I'm sorry, Paige. And everyone else. I don't know why I did that, I didn't mean to." To Paige, she added, "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No. Don't worry about it." Paige said with a quick smile.

"Good." Kaia nodded, taking her seat on the end of the couch again.

Chris came back. "He's not there." he told her. "Angel's been looking for you."

"I don't care. Does he know where Connor is?"

"No. If they see him, they'll pass on the message."

"What message?" Phoebe asked.

"Connor's used to me being crazy. I asked Chris to ring him, to get him here." She looked at Piper as a thought occurred to her. "That's OK, isn't it, Piper? I didn't mean to presume…"

"No, it's fine." Piper said quickly.

"Is there something else we can do to help?" Phoebe added.

"Yeah. Stop asking me that, and concentrate on finding out who's doing this so we can go kick his butt." She glanced around. "Or her butt. You know, whatever."

"Do we have anything?" Chris asked, moving away from the couch towards Phoebe, redirecting everyone's attention.

"Nothing. There's a few demons who can do this, but not on this kind of scale." Phoebe pointed to something in the Book, and Chris leaned down to look at it.

"Could they be working together?" Paige asked.

Chris scanned the text. "It doesn't say. Kaia?"

"Yom?"

Chris blinked. "Uh…can you get Angel to check this out?"

"Sure." She held out her hand for the Book.

"Whoah." Leo rose to his feet. "You want to bring Wolfram and Hart in on this?"

"They're not evil anymore, you know, Leo." Kaia reminded him.

"We need the help, Leo." Chris told him. "We can't handle this by ourselves."

"He's right, Leo. It's just too big for us." Phoebe said quietly.

"You don't have to do anything, Leo. I'll just give him the names Phoebe found." Kaia told him. "It's not interfering."

"What interfering?" Phoebe asked, looking up and holding out a piece of paper.

Kaia took it and glanced at the names distractedly. "Angel works for the Powers That Be, not the Elders, and there's an arrangement that keeps either side from interfering with the others' Champions."

"You don't seem to have any trouble." Piper noted.

"Because I don't work for any of them, Piper. They're already going to be working on this, Leo, and I won't even talk to Angel."

"They're all the same." Leo muttered, but he nodded agreement anyway.

Kaia dialed the phone, wandering out into the hall as she did. Chris stationed himself in the doorway where he could watch all of them and pretend not to be listening to her.

"All right." Leo said. "I'm gonna take the kids to Magic School and then go see what the others have come up with."

"Harmony?" Kaia said. "Can you put Wes on, please?"

"Phoebe, you and Paige want to start the vanquishing potions for those demons? Just in case." Leo went on.

"I know he's busy, Harmony. I think I have a lead here." She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well you didn't exactly give me time, did you? Put him on, please."

"Piper, do you…"

Wyatt started crying, and Leo went on neatly, "want to get him, or should I?"

"Nice save." Phoebe said as she passed Chris.

"Fred, hi. Where's Wes? You know what, never mind. We've got something here. Maybe. Write this down."

"Shush, honey." Piper cooed softly. "There, there. It's Ok."

"Got that?" Kaia asked, and tsked. "Fred, I thought you could write fast.…oh, not and be able to read it back. Fine. Which one you need again?…all except the first one. You do realize time is important here, right?"

When Leo orbed out Chris turned, ignoring the sisters totally in favor of watching Kaia's conversation. She wasn't talking to Wes, whoever he was, but another guy called Fred…or hang on. Was Fred the one who was originally from a demon dimension? The one who'd been a Higher Power for a while? No, that was…Chris shook his head. He didn't know any of these guys, really, making a point of staying away from them for Connor's sake.

"No, Fred, he hasn't been here. Your guys haven't seen him yet?" She glanced at Chris, covered the phone and muttered, "They haven't found Connor yet."

"It's been ten minutes." Chris pointed out.

"Gloom and doom." she muttered. "No, Fred, not you. Sorry. How's Knox?"

She winced. "Oh? When did that happen? Yeah, no I did see it coming, you just…"

She stiffened, glancing at Chris. "Hit."

"They found something?" Behind him, Piper came to the door.

"Yeah…uh-huh…OK, Fred, got it. I'll call you back in a while. Hey, if Cole or anyone rings, don't tell them where I am, OK? Great. Bye."

She handed the phone back to Chris and slipped past them, flicking through the pages of the Book. "Paige was right. It's one of those, y'know, celestial signs aligning things? There's a bunch of these guys," she tapped the page, and Chris and Piper came to look one over each shoulder, "all working together, and if we don't stop them in the next twenty hours, yada yada yada."

"So what now?" Piper asked. "Leo!"

"Angel says that Buffy and the Slayers…" She paused, laughing. "Sounds like a rock group, doesn't it? Buffy and the Slayers…"

"Focus." Chris urged her. Leo orbed in behind him. "What about Buffy?"

"Uh…they're taking out as many of the demons as they can. Angel says there's one each directly north and south of San Fran, and if you guys can take care of them that'd be great."

"North and south?" Piper repeated.

"On a direct line with this house." Leo said quietly from behind her.

Kaia nodded. "That's what I thought, too. Are demons always this predictable, Piper?"

"You think that was predictable?" Piper asked.

"It'll make it easier for you to find them, won't it? Orb ten miles north, there one is. Orb ten miles south, oh look, it's the other one."

"Does Buffy have the manpower to do it?" Chris asked.

"She's got the woman power, yes, more or less, but…" Kaia glanced at Leo. "Are they going to do it?"

Leo sighed. "You've really managed to split the council, you know that?"

"Which side were you on, Leo?"

"Yours. But not for your sake."

"Leo, what are you talking about?" Piper asked.

"The Powers that Be wish to ally themselves with the Elders for the duration of this threat." Leo, without even thinking, slipped into 'Elder' mode. "They've asked us to allow some of our Whitelighters to help Buffy's Slayers, and whatever other fighters we can find, to get to all the demons in time."

"How did the vote come out?" Chris asked.

"You won, Kaia, but very narrowly."

"It wasn't me!" Kaia protested. "The Powers did that all on their ony-o. It's stupid that you guys are so compartmentalized anyway."

Leo shrugged. "Chris, you're to stay here with the sisters, help them find their targets. Kaia…"

"I have to go for a while." she interrupted. "Cole and Merrick are so giving me a headache, if I don't go and talk to them my head may explode."

Leo frowned. "I have to go back Up There, and Chris needs to stay here."

"You could call them." Piper offered.

"No, this isn't something they're gonna let me settle over the phone. It's fine, I'll make my own way."

"You're not…" Chris cut himself off.

"I am too! I'm going, Chris."

No one moved as she crossed to the front door, but when she pulled it open Leo took a step forward. "I'll take you."

"No you won't, Leo. At this point, orbing'll do me more harm than good. I won't be long, I promise."

"You have to go to Turtle Cove." Chris protested.

"So?" She smiled faintly and left, pulling the door closed behind her.

"Leo." Chris protested.

"Sorry, Chris. We don't have time to worry about Kaia right now." To Piper, he added, "Check on that potion. We need to get this done, fast." With that he orbed out.

"Chris? Come check on the potion with me." Piper said, touching his arm lightly.

"Yeah." Chris was still staring at the door. "Sure."

Piper tugged at his arm again, and he turned and followed her to the attic.