Author's Note: These are a series of Charmed one-shots that I'll be writing occasionally. Unless otherwise indicated, the individual chapters stand alone, and are not connected to each other. Most of the stories will be requests written for various readers; others will be random scenes and snippets. I'm keeping requests open, for the moment; if there's anything you've always wanted to see written, PM me or leave it in a review. Just, please keep it to one-shot ideas, or ideas that could be condensed down to a one-shot; I have enough plot bunnies running around that have me rewriting entire seasons, and sometimes the entire series.
This story is a request written for Love2read23 who wanted: I've been interested about Piper and Leo's daughter Melinda. I thought maybe she wasn't fighting demons with Wyatt and Chris because she didn't have powers but she's in the new Charmed comic books. Maybe she had her powers bound? Love2read23, I hope you enjoy the fic.
Hero
The problem with brothers – at least, the problem with her brothers – was that they were so overprotective towards her that they completely forgot about their own safety. For example, in the attack that had resulted in their current situation, both Wyatt and Chris had been more concerned with making sure that she stayed safe, rather than worrying about the demons attacking them. And, as a result, the demons had managed to overpower all three of them, dragging them into the Underworld.
Melinda Halliwell groaned, letting her head thump back against the wall of the cavern in the Underworld that she and her brothers were being held in. The impact sent a jolt of pain running through her skull, and she immediately regretted the action.
"This," she said, bluntly, as she lifted her head to glare at her older brothers, "is all your fault."
In emphasis, she rattled the chains that were restraining her arms above her head, and the noise echoed through the open space. But, unfortunately, it wasn't enough to wake up her brothers. Wyatt and Chris remained lying, limply, on the floor where they'd been dumped by their demonic captors.
Wyatt had a visible knot on his temple that had swelled to an alarming size. Chris had a gash on his forehead that was crusted over with dark, slowly drying blood. The part that she could see looked bad enough, but she was afraid that the rest of the gash continued up into his hair, where she couldn't see it. And both of them had been unconscious for far too long.
"Wake up," Mel pleaded, quietly, closing her eyes with a sigh when neither of them reacted to the sound of her voice.
"If they're lucky," a new voice spoke up, tauntingly, "they'll just die, without ever opening their eyes, again. Probably best, considering what the boss has planned for them if they do wake up."
"If you touch them," Mel threatened, lifting her head to glare at the smirking demon standing in the doorway, "I'll kill you."
"You?" the demon scoffed, laughing at her. "You're just a powerless little runt. What are you going to do?"
Still laughing, the demon disappeared, and Mel glared after him.
"Powerless, huh?" she muttered, furiously. "I'll show you powerless."
She looked up at the ceiling as though praying for inspiration, and that's when she saw it. The low ceiling of the cavern was pitted and marked with gaping holes, and stretching across the length of the cavern was a section of rock. It looked almost like a catwalk, and Mel thought that if she was careful, it would be able to hold her weight.
Stretching her hands up as far as she could through the shackles, she grabbed the chains anchoring her to the wall. She gave the chains a hard yank, but they didn't budge. Part of her was disappointed that the chains weren't loose enough in the wall to just come out, but she wasn't going to let it deter her. The chains seemed strong enough to hold her full weight, and she could work with that.
Mel braced a foot against the wall she was chained to, grateful that their captors hadn't thought to chain her legs down, too. Then, she pushed off with her foot, holding tightly to the chains above her head as she slowly lifted herself into the air. A second later, she lowered herself back to the ground, toeing her shoes off. She'd make better progress barefoot.
She put her other foot on the wall as soon as she was back in the air, and then, slowly, painfully, started to walk backward up the wall. She inched her hands up, slowly, one at a time, using the chains to pull herself further up the wall.
'When we get home,' she thought, as she determinedly ignored the pain radiating from her shoulder muscles, 'I need to thank Mom for all those gymnastics lessons I took as a kid.'
She'd practically bent herself into a pretzel by the time she was close enough to the outcropping, and every part of her body was screaming in protest. But, she forced the pain to the back of her mind and stretched her neck out until her fingers were brushing the top of her head. She eased one of the bobby pins out of her hair, holding it tightly between her fingers. Then she gripped at the rough surface of the wall with her toes, and she clung tightly to the chains and prayed.
She slowly moved her right leg away from the wall, stretching it up toward the outcropping. By some miracle, she managed to snag the outcropping with the heel of her foot, feeling the rough stone against the back of her ankle. She took a deep breath to prepare herself, tightening her already-punishing grip on the chains. Then, she pushed herself away from the wall, using her momentum to try and catch the outcropping with her other leg.
She got her second miracle of the day when she hooked her foot over the outcropping. She managed to get herself up enough so that her knees were hugging the outcropping, and then she went to work on the shackles.
She straightened the bobby pin as best as she could with one hand, getting rid of the rounded plastic ends in the process. Then, she started picking at the locks of her shackles. It was slow going, with the bad angle her hands were bent at, but finally she managed it.
As the shackles fell off her wrists, she fell away from the wall. A heart-stopping second later, she found herself hanging by her knees from the outcropping. She lost her grip on the bobby pin, watching in resignation as the piece of metal fell to the floor.
'Guess that wouldn't have been much use as a weapon, anyway,' she thought, wryly.
Then, thanking Aunt Phoebe's insistence on her taking martial arts lessons, and in staying physically fit, she curled up at the waist until she could grab the outcropping. She hugged the stone with her arms while she considered her next move.
Unfortunately, she didn't exactly know what that move was going to be. She had no active powers, her spell-casting was an absolute mess, and being completely human meant that she didn't even have orbing as an option like her brothers did. Potions were her area of expertise, but she didn't exactly have an herb cabinet down in the Underworld.
'Think, damn it,' Mel scolded herself, when she couldn't figure a way to get herself, Wyatt, and Chris out of danger. 'You have no weapons, no reliable magic, and no idea when that demon is coming back.'
That last concern was answered when the demon in question walked back into the cavern a few seconds later. He was so focused on Wyatt and Chris, still unconscious on the floor, that he didn't notice that she was gone, at first. And when he did, he was pissed.
'Time to wing it,' Mel thought, when she watched the enraged demon turn on her brothers like they were somehow responsible for her escape.
When the demon got close enough, she let go of the outcropping. She fell, grabbing the demon when she hit him and dragging him down to the ground with her. The demon roared in outrage, grabbing her by the throat and squeezing.
Mel gasped for air, scrabbling desperately at the demon's hand. Black spots were dancing in front of her eyes when she managed to dig her nails into the soft skin on the inside of her attackers' wrist, forcing him to let go. As soon as she was free of the demon's painful grip, she jerked her knee up, hitting the demon in the groin and making him howl.
Rolling away, Mel put herself firmly between the demon and her brothers. She crouched on the balls of her feet, eyeing the demon warily as she reached back and placed two fingers lightly on Chris's neck, feeling for a pulse. She breathed a quiet sigh of relief when she felt Chris's heat beating, strong, beneath her fingers, and then she reached back to perform the same check on Wyatt.
A glint of movement out of the corner of her eye had her spinning back around in time to catch the demon rushing at her. Bracing herself for the inevitable impact, she lunged at the demon and hit his midsection with her shoulder, driving him backward a few feet. She knocked the demon to the ground, slamming his head into the ground.
A second later, a hot flash of searing pain ripped through her arm, and she looked down in shock to see blood flowing from a gash in her upper arm. She looked back down to the smirking demon, catching sight of the long-bladed dagger he was holding in his free hand.
"Thanks for the weapon," Mel told the demon, driving the smug smirk from his face when she slammed the heel of her hand into his throat.
As the demon choked for air, she grabbed the dagger that fell from his limp hand. Then, before her opponent could react, she drove the dagger into his chest, deep into his heart. The demon burst into flames with a scream.
"Powerless, huh?" she muttered, glaring at the blackened spot on the floor where the demon had been.
Then, she scrambled across the floor to where her brothers were still lying. Both of them were still breathing, but they were in bad shape. She needed to get help, now.
But, she wouldn't be able to get it in the cavern. She'd already tried calling for Paige when they'd first been captured, praying that her Whitelighter aunt was able to hear her. But, something about the area that they were in had been blocking her, because no rescue ever came.
"I'm going to be right back," she whispered, as she bent and kissed Wyatt and Chris on their foreheads. "I have to get somewhere where Aunt Paige can hear me call, but, I swear, I'm coming back."
Then, even though she hated herself for it, she stood up and left the cavern. She crept down the corridor, stolen dagger held in front of her, defensively, moving as quietly and as quickly as she could, and keeping alert for any suspicious noises.
She'd been running for about twenty minutes when she heard voices ahead of her. Slowing down, Mel plastered herself to the wall, hiding in a tiny crevice just as a pair of demons rounded the corner. The demons moved past her hiding spot, and Mel breathed a sigh of relief. And she regretted it a second later when the sound caught the attention of one of the demons, drawing both of them back to where she was.
"Aunt Paige!" Mel yelled, abandoning the need for silence for the hope that she was far enough away that the older woman could hear her. "Aunt Paige, help!"
As the demons advanced on her, scowls fixed on their faces, Paige orbed in behind them. The witch didn't say anything when she saw the demons; she simply clenched her fingers into a fist. Rings of orbs appeared around the demons' necks, tightening to choke the demons.
"New trick I learned," Paige said, conversationally, as she walked around the demons to Mel's side. "Mel, honey, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Mel told her, her voice tight with tension. "But, Wyatt and Chris aren't doing so well."
"Let us go, bitch!" one of the demons ground out, cutting off whatever Paige was about to say, and the woman leveled a dark glare at him.
"Do you know who I am?" she asked, softly. "Who my family is? Who her family is?" she added, jerking her head back at Mel.
The demon's eyes went wide with terror as he took in Paige's implications. Paige, for her part, flexed her fingers, tightening the orb collars. A few seconds later, both the demons were vanquished when the collars went through their necks.
"Let's go get your brothers," Paige said, turning to look at Mel. "Lead the way."
"How'd you hear me so quickly?" Mel asked, as they ran back down the corridors. "I only called for you once."
"We found the scorch marks in the attic," Paige told her, tightly. "Piper's been out of her mind; we've been trying to find you for hours. I was trying to sense you when you called."
"I don't even know what they were after," Mel complained, and Paige shook her head.
"We'll find that out, later," she replied. "Right now, let's just get you out of here."
When they arrived back in the cavern, Paige immediately knelt beside Wyatt and Chris, holding a hand out over each of them. Her hands glowed with healing energy, and a few seconds later, Chris's eyes fluttered open, slowly. He looked around in confusion, staring up at Mel as she helped him sit up.
"What?" he mumbled, as he leaned against her, and then his gaze landed on his older brother. "Wyatt?"
"There's some swelling," Paige said, distractedly, as she poured healing energy into her nephew. "Wyatt took a pretty bad knock on the head."
Despite her aunt's light tone, Mel had studied enough medicine to know that any kind of swelling on the brain was bad news. She squeezed Chris's hand, hard, biting anxiously at her lip while she waited for Wyatt to wake up.
"Come on, Wy," she heard Chris whisper, beside her, his own grip punishingly hard. "Aunt Paige, do you need me-"
"Don't you dare, kiddo," Paige told him, not letting him finish his statement. "I just put that energy into you; you're not giving it up, now."
"But, Wyatt-" Chris protested.
"He's going to be fine," Paige answered, just as Wyatt opened his eyes.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice groggy as he leaned against Paige.
"Long story short," Paige replied, running her fingers lightly through his shaggy, blond hair, "your sister saved your lives."
"Really?" Wyatt asked, looking over at Mel with an expression of unmistakable pride on his face. "Way to go, Melly."
"Come on," Paige said, pulling him to his feet. "Let's get out of here, before any more demons come back."
"We can't orb out from here," Mel reminded her, and Paige nodded.
"Let's start walking, then," she said, leading them out of the cavern.
Twenty minutes later, they orbed into the kitchen. Piper was the first person Mel saw, and she threw herself at her mother, hugging her, hard.
"Thank god," she heard Piper mutter, as she held onto Mel. "I've been so worried. What happened?"
"They were after Melly," Wyatt spoke up, surprising her.
"Me?" she echoed, skeptically. "But, I don't even have any powers."
"You're pretty damn good with potions," Chris pointed out, blushing when Piper shot him a look. "Sorry, Mom."
"You're a pretty big threat, kiddo," Paige added, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "Don't count yourself out. Demons certainly don't."
"Well," Piper spoke up, shooting her youngest sister a pointed glare, "I'm glad that you're all right, Mel. And, thank you two," she added, glancing at her sons, "for protecting your sister."
"We didn't do anything," Wyatt said, as he leaned against the kitchen counter.
"Yeah," Chris added, "it was all Mel."
"Really?" Piper asked, looking curiously over at her youngest child.
"She saved our lives," Wyatt said, pride in his voice. "She's a hero."