Legacy: Cradle of Faith

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: A Dark Future

Brooke Murphy was smiling happily as she walked into the kitchen, finding her best friend and roommate Susan Dawson in the kitchen, a pencil tucked behind her ear while staring down at one of her notes, occasionally checking her books for accuracy. Shaking her head in amusement, Brooke walked over to the coffee pot, which usually held hot water first thing in the morning, but to her surprise, she found actual coffee in the pot.

Staring at it, Brooke turned to Susan, who hadn't looked up from her notes since she had entered the kitchen.

"Are you drinking coffee?" she asked in amazement. Susan shrugged, still re-reading her notes for whatever final that she had that day. "Okay, weirdo, we've been friends for over two years, roommates for almost seven months, and I can count the number of times that I've see you drink coffee on one hand. Actually, with no hands. You always drink tea."

"Well, maybe I just wanted coffee this morning," Susan replied, finally looking up at Brooke. "Maybe I wasn't in the mood for tea."

"Any particular reason why?"

"Tea is relaxing," Susan answered, shrugging. "I don't want to calm right now, I want to be tense."

"Huh." Brooke frowned at Susan, pouring herself a cup of coffee before walking over and sitting down at the table. "What's today?"

"Tuesday," Susan answered with a hint of sarcasm attached to it. Brooke cocked an eyebrow, showing her annoyance and Susan sighed. "We've both got English this morning and then I've got an art final this afternoon," she reminded her. "You should be studying, too, you know. If you don't pass this final, you could fail the class."

"Yeah, I'm more worried about my best friend right now than I am about this stupid final," Brooke retorted, surveying Susan critically. "Are you okay? Because I really think you don't need to be drinking coffee, you never do, which says volumes."

Susan gave her a withering look. "It's finals, Brooke. In case you haven't noticed, finals are a very stressful time and I do not want to be calm right now."

"Okay, but see, the bad thing about being a telepath? I can't exactly block out anybody's thoughts, which means that I can kind of tell that you're not worried about your finals. Besides, English and art? You've got those down stone cold." Brooke stared down at Susan. "Honey, are you worried about Ethan? Because he's fine."

"We don't know that," Susan hissed at her, finally abandoning her notes to give Brooke her full attention. "He could be dying, for all we know. He could be anywhere, because we don't know where the Amazons are. Ethan could be anywhere around the globe, lying somewhere and bleeding to death or hurt or being attacked or captured or something and I wouldn't know it because I'm sitting here, just taking these finals while he's off on a mission!"

"Okay, all valid points," Brooke reasoned. "But when you guys were together the last time, didn't he ever take off on missions?"

"Not for this long without checking in!"

Brooke sighed, leaning her head back. "Okay, you know what you need? A good, old-fashioned trip to the mall," she said and Susan gave her a look. "What, it's almost Christmas and I haven't been on a good shopping spree in ages. And it has been far too long since you've set foot in a mall. Come on, let's go shopping this afternoon."

"Don't you have plans with Wyatt?"

"I'll cancel," Brooke said determinedly. "Because there is nothing more important than my best friend."

"No, I have to study for tomorrow," Susan said, returning her attention back to her notes. "And you should be doing the same thing. I appreciate the concern, but shouldn't you also be concerned about your finals? You really need to pass these."

"I've got them covered," Brooke said easily. Susan might be her best friend, but apparently, she had no idea how well Brooke actually did on tests. Schoolwork she didn't do okay on, but when it came down to test time, she did really well. With a smile, she took a sip of the coffee and gagged. "Uh, Susan?"

"What?"

"Don't ever make coffee again," she ordered, going over to dump it all out. "It's terrible."

"I followed the instructions on the bag!"

"Yeah, but it's still terrible," Brooke countered. Susan shook her head, giving her a curious look. "What?"

"What are you so happy about, anyway?"

Brooke shrugged, still exultant as she rinsed out the pot and started to brew some more coffee. "I don't know, things are just going really well with Wyatt, it's been over a week since that incident with that James guy, there hasn't been any demonic activity since then, and things are finally at a relative calmness around here." She smiled cheerfully. "I really think that we might be in for a nice, normal holiday."

"You just jinxed us, you know that?" Susan joked, but grew serious. "And speaking of Wyatt, I actually wanted to talk to you about that." Brooke frowned, sitting down. "Not that I'm not happy for you guys, because you guys are really great together, but why are you still seeing each other? I would've thought after that thing with Brandon, you guys would've broken up."

Brooke was bewildered. "What incident with Brandon?" she asked and then it dawned on her. "Oh, jeez, you didn't really believe that stuff that Tristan was going on about, were you? Honestly, Susan, do you really think that I would do something like that, especially after with Ryan? I told Wyatt and now I'm gonna tell you, I learned my lesson. I'm not going to check on any boyfriend ever again. But thank you for caring." With a smile, she stood up, giving Susan a tight hug before walking away, leaving a very bewildered Susan in the kitchen.

"That's impossible," Susan muttered, shaking her head in bewilderment. "I saw them . . ." But Brooke had seemed so eager and honest when she'd answered her query that if Susan didn't know any better, then she'd say that Brooke had bee telling the truth.

An idea suddenly formed in her head and she glanced towards the heavens. "Brandon?" she called.

--

December, 2046

Connor Hale swung around the corner, dodging two demons before hurling an energy ball at them, successfully vanquishing them just as he heard the sound of orbing behind him. Before he could turn around, he felt his mother's presence and she grabbed him before orbing back to the manor, where the rest of his family was.

"Don't you do that," Susan Dawson-Hale hissed at him, looking extremely frightened as she hugged him tightly, kissing his temple. Connor held his mother tightly, burying his face into her shoulder. Ever since his father had been killed six months ago, she had been terrified that something was going to happen to him. "You had me worried sick!"

"I'm sorry, Mom," Connor apologised. "But I got something that I think is gonna work. We need to fix this, it's getting too bad out here."

His Aunt Brooke gave a small smile towards him. "Connor, sweetie, as much as I hate to say it, I don't think that we can do anything to fix it. We've been trying to fix this for years and there's nothing. We've done everything humanly possible to stop him, but we can't. I never thought we'd face anything worse than that demon, but—"

"No, listen to me," Connor begged them. He needed them to listen to his idea, his theory, because they were running out of options and more and more people were dying every single day. "We need to stop this and I've got an idea on how we might be able to do it."

His mother exchanged a look with his aunt before looking at the two Halliwell brothers Wyatt and Chris, the former who was his uncle, Aunt Brooke's husband.

"Hear him out, Sue," Wyatt advised. "It's not like we haven't tried everything else."

Susan sighed before sitting down at the couch, motioning for Connor to join her. Connor let out a relieved sigh as he joined her. "All right," she said, running her hand through her hair and giving her son and encouraging look. "Let's hear it."

"Okay, well, I was down in the Underworld, trying to get some information," Connor said, getting the worst of it over with first. His mother's mouth opened in outrage, but he continued before she could so much as say anything. "And get this, the Dark Lord's mother was a witch who was forced to bear the child of a very powerful demon."

"Yeah, we actually already knew that," Susan said, frowning. "You actually went to the Underworld to get information that we already knew?!"

Connor rolled his eyes at his mother, whose eyes narrowed dangerously. Thankfully, his Uncle Bobby intervened.

"Susan, calm down, he is sixteen, he's not a baby anymore." Turning around, Susan gave a look towards his uncle.

"What happened when you were sixteen?" she challenged him. Bobby winced slightly, sinking down into the couch. Connor shook his head.

"Will everybody please listen to me?" he exclaimed. Everyone quieted. "Thank you. Now, that wasn't the only information that I got. There was a reason why his mom was picked. Apparently, right before she got abducted, Faith McKnight killed a man by accident."

That caused everyone to listen closely and Susan straightened. "A loss of blood innocence," she said softly.

"Why didn't we think of that before?" Brooke wanted to know. "But still, I don't see how this is gonna help us now."

Connor smiled before looking to his last uncle, Chris, the expert on time travel. Chris's eyes widened the moment that Connor looked at him, comprehension already dawning on his face. "Oh, no, no way, Connor," he said immediately. "I'm not sending you to the past, it's way too risky. A million things could go wrong."

"But nothing is going to go wrong and personally, I don't see how it could get any worse than it already has!"

"He's got a point," Wyatt observed, earning a glare from Susan and an annoyed look from Chris. "What? It's not like any of us haven't time-travelled before! Plus, he's kind of right. We've hit rock bottom and more and more people are dying every day. If we don't do something, then . . ." He didn't finish that particular thought. "Chris, you've done it before. Or at least another version of you did, to stop me from turning evil, remember?"

Chris sighed, running his hand over his face. "I don't know, Wy, it's pretty risky. Not to mention, I think Susan should have the final say."

"Thank you," Susan told him. "Because the answer is no. I am not sending my sixteen-year-old son into the past to change it and possibly make it worse!"

"Oh, come on, Mom, would I?" Connor said, grinning at her. His smile faltered as he saw his mother's expression and he turned serious. "Mom, please, you know you have to let me do this."

"No, you're not," Susan hissed at him.

Connor moved towards his mother, hugging her around the shoulders. "I have to do this, Mom," he told her pleadingly. "Not just for the rest of the world, but for us, for entirely selfish reasons. I want Dad back. Maybe if I go, I can find a way to stop him from dying." Susan closed her eyes, tears welding in her eyes as she thought of her dead husband. "Don't you want us to live in a world that we don't have to worry about if we're going to die every day? Where we don't have to worry about being discovered at any time?"

Susan sighed, exchanging a look with her brother and best friend before looking back at her son. "You're too much like your Uncle Ryan, you know that?" she complained. Connor grinned as she looked at Chris. "You think you cast the spell?"

"The problem's not getting him there," Chris observed as he stood up. "The problem's getting him back."

"But you can do it," Susan said. It wasn't a question, but Chris nodded anyway.

"Yeah, it's not a problem."

"Anyway, the date's December 17th, 2024," Connor told them. Chris and Susan exchanged looks before looking away quickly. "What? Did something happen that day that I should know about?"

"No, of course not," Susan said, a little too quickly. "It's just, uh . . . your uncle and I were . . . in a bit of a rough spot then."

"Rough spot?" Chris exclaimed, shooting her a dirty look. "You were the one who broke up with me just so you could be with your demon lover!"

"You know, I really thought after twenty-five years, you would be past that," Susan said with a hint of reprimanding. Chris's mouth twitched and he grinned.

"Come on, Sue, you know I'm just playing. I'm past that now."

"Hold on a second!" Connor protested, eyes wide. "You guys dated?!"

"Until your dad got back into the picture," Wyatt told him. "Be prepared, kiddo, because they're still in that post-break-up phase where Chris was still really angry at your mom and was going out, getting drunk every night, even though he was underage," he added, giving Chris a look, "and bringing homes these girls every single night—"

"I was a kid!" Chris protested. "And mad at you and Ethan," he added to Susan, shrugging. "What would you have done?"

Susan smiled. "I'm an artist," she said, striking a pose. "I would have expressed my feelings by painting extremely violent paintings, and then someone finding them and loving them and I would've made millions." Everyone laughed at this before Susan looked at her son worriedly. "Connor, seriously, be careful. I don't want to lose you."

"You won't lose me," Connor promised her, wrapping his mother in a tight hug. "You won't ever lose me. I'm gonna change all of this. And I'm gonna bring Dad back. I'm gonna save him."

--Opening Credits--

Title song: "Chariot" by Gavin Degraw

Drew Fuller as Chris Halliwell

Wes Ramsey as Wyatt Halliwell

Michelle Trachtenberg as Susan Dawson

Anne Hathaway as Brooke Murphy

Hayden Christensen as Brandon James

and Shawn Ashmore as Bobby Connelly

--

AN: Okay, guys, two things. First of which, I am not getting nearly enough reviews as I have been on previous episodes. So please, please, please give me some reviews, because if you don't, I may lose interest in this series and stop writing it.

Now that I got that out of my system, the second thing is, can you guys think of actors/actresses that could play the older gang? I'm looking, but I'm having trouble finding actors that look like older versions of them. If you could help me out with this, I would be eternally grateful.

Thanks!

Lady Dawson