AN: This is a story that has been bumping around my head for a few years. It takes place after the TV show ended, and I don't read the comics, so none of those ideas will be included. This first chapter, after the look into the demon's plot, switches points of views quickly, but in latter chapters will heavily rely on Melinda Halliwell's point of view along with her brothers and cousins. The adults' points of view typically won't be represented because this is a next generation story.

I have many ideas for this story, but sometimes my real life gets in the way, so I will apologize now for the strange updating habits. I can however promise that this story will be finished at some point in the future.

I'd love to hear your feedback, but truthfully I won't update any faster due to reviews, and this is the last time I will ask for them.

Thank you and enjoy the story.

Ps. I do not own Charmed in any of its forms.

Chapter 1

Somewhere in the underworld

"There has to be a way to kill all those brats!" A demon, bloodied and limping seethed while dragging himself over to a couch. He kicked his leg up on a table to assess the damage. "I'm going to need stitches," he whined. A male demon across the room sighed and looked up at him over his chess game.

"You're lucky you don't need an urn," he answered dryly. The idiot had recently decided to go after the Halliwells. He had been around for the days when demons thought the grandmother of the Charmed Ones was bad. Then he had seen the Charmed Ones come into their powers and no one, no one, had thought it could get worse. They were wrong. The three Charmed Ones had produced a total of nine offspring, the youngest being only eight but able to orb, heal, command the weather, and who knows what else. In his short life, he had been responsible for the death of many demons. Of course, there were also the older ones who had bad attitudes, vast knowledge of their craft, and enough power to bend the earth itself into two pieces if they so wished. Hopefully the Charmed Ones were finished spawning… "What do you want?"

The other demon peered over at him. "You are intelligent," he praised, "You must have thought up thousands of ways to kill them. I would help you; I would send my entire squad of underlings to you. We could destroy them all!"

"Yes," the demon hissed peering at him mildly, "I am intelligent, enough so that I'm still alive and not dripping blood on my clean carpet." He took his own king and cleared the chessboard. "I prefer killing intelligently. I don't simply run in guns blazing relying on my brawn."

"Which is exactly what I need," The other demon exclaimed, "a way to kill them with the mind instead of with brawn. Or even better, with mind and brawn. You think up a plan and I'll supply the army. Come, Matalino, you must have some way you think you can kill them and I have the resources. We can't lose." Matalino regarded the high level demon. It was true that they all wanted the Halliwells dead and it could be a good challenge for his mind….

Suddenly it was all laid out for him: a chessboard. He looked at his guest and no longer saw a peer, but a pawn. A disposable pawn that would help him win what he wanted. A strategy for the coming game formed in his head.

"Yes," he whispered, "I can see it in my mind." He reached into his desk draw and removed a different set of chess pieces, the ones he only used for special games. He set up three rows in the center of the chessboard with three pieces in each and studied them with eagerness "Come, let's play chess."

It was a "normal" day at the Halliwell manor. Piper was in the kitchen with her daughter, Melinda, and Paige's twins, Pandora and Patricia. Melinda was studying trigonometry and eating an apple absentmindedly. The twins were scribbling away on pads of paper writing essays for their 7th grade classes. Pandora paused and looked as though she was about to say something but before she could Melinda spoke.

"He was born February 12th, 1808" Piper glanced over at the trio as her niece went back to work and her daughter continued writing out a math problem, not even pausing for a second. Melinda: the closest to normal any of the younger (or for that matter the older) Halliwells got. Yet, she was able to read the twins' minds and bring inanimate objects to life. Piper smiled at the irony and glanced into the living room.

Piper's middle son, Chris, was obviously in charge of the remote to the television. On the screen was a filmed expedition into the Amazon rainforest and he was watching intently from the couch. His older brother, Wyatt, who had stopped by to eat dinner after his college classes, was looking between the television and Chris seeming to calculate the best way to gain control of the remote. It would probably involve violence of some sort. Polianna, Phoebe's middle daughter, sensed conflict brewing between the twenty and eighteen year olds and picked herself of the floor with a sigh while stuffing a notebook under her arm.

On her way up to the attic she passed Chris's room where, unbeknownst to her, her ten year old sister, Philippa was letting lose a frog and some grasshoppers to scare her older cousin. When Polianna knocked on the door at the top of the second stair case, her mother answered and she walked into the attic.

Phoebe was standing behind Prudence, her eldest daughter, when her 15 year old stepped into the room. Prudence was studying the Book of Shadows intently while copying a potion onto a piece of paper to try to recreate in the kitchen later. Considering the high school sophomore had her culinary skills she was glad that her ladybug had picked a pretty harmless potion to practice and that Piper would most likely be helping her.

"Wyatt and Chris are about to start fighting." Polly stated and as though on cue a crash sounded from the living room. It was strange how the cupid and psychic/empath mix had resulted in two distinct powers that were related to their parents and yet vastly different. There was Prue, who could see and feel the thoughts and emotions of someone and manipulate them to make them remember better times to cheer them up or to make love flourish in their hearts. Good in small doses, bad when she is three and her mother and father are fighting while her aunts and uncles are having issues. Phoebe still had only a blurry recollection of those three days. Then, Polly could sense conflicts and heal the rifts they cause afterwards. From what had been implied by a few different kinds of "guest" her powers had not completely developed.

"I'm coming," Prue scribbled the rest of the ingredients down and went to help calm down her cousins not with her powers (Phoebe hoped), but with her uncanny ability to calm down the two's bickering.

The Halliwell children didn't realize a game was about to begin. All nine chess pieces were in place.