Legacy: Power Thrust
by Lady Dawson
Chapter One: Mortality and Visions
Susan Dawson moved around the kitchen, considerably more cheerful than normal as she tapped to the music on the radio and pushed the eggs in the frying pan around while there was bacon on another one, cooking diligently while the witchlighter turned up the music enough so that it would wake her best friend, currently sleeping in her bedroom, but not enough to annoy the neighbours, AKA her ex-boyfriend Chris Halliwell.
Before she could even start feeling guilty about what had happened the previous day between her and Chris, arms wrapped around her waist, drawing her in closer and she giggled, leaning back against her boyfriend Ethan Hale, who kissed her hair as he inhaled.
"Wow, do you really do this every morning? Because Betty Crocker needs to move over if that's true," he said with a grin. Susan grinned up at him.
"No, I just felt like cooking a decent meal for once," she answered, shrugging. "And you are not any excuses about taking off immediately. You can sit down and have breakfast before you go looking for the Amazons." Ethan grinned, swiping a piece of bacon off the pan.
"Sweetheart, since when have I ever been able to say no to you?" he asked seriously as he stuffed it into his mouth. Susan considered.
"Well, how about when we broke up?"
"Apart from then."
Susan smiled at him, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him, but just before their lips met, Brooke Murphy barged into the room, looking seriously annoyed. "Okay, do you think you could lower the volume, just a little bit?" she asked. "I was having a really good dream and then a really good wake-up until someone started blasting music at eight o'clock in the morning. Hi, Ethan," she added to the half-demon.
"Hi, Brooke," Ethan said with a smile at her.
"Why did you start blasting music so early?" Brooke complained. "I mean, really, is it—" She spied the food. "Uh . . . what's with breaking out the good stuff? Usually, you just press some cereal on me."
Making a face at her, Susan threw up her hands. "So I was in a good mood this morning and I wanted to make everybody a nice breakfast. Is there really anything wrong with that?" she asked, glaring at them. Ethan only smiled at her as he sat down backwards in one of the chairs. "Why is everybody giving me grief about that?"
"Oh, no, honey, I wasn't making fun of you, I was just a little bit surprised. You can cook a nice breakfast any time you want," Brooke said with a smile. "Just why are you making so much?"
"I figure there's five of us, unless your good morning wake-up wasn't planning on staying for breakfast," Susan answered, looking towards the door, sensing a certain someone there. "Were you just gonna head home, Wy, or are you staying over?"
A red-faced Wyatt Halliwell appeared in the doorway. "Well, it does smell good," he acknowledged. "I suppose I can stay a little bit longer. But whose the fifth person?"
Susan cocked an eyebrow and looked past them, at the demon that was currently tied up in the kitchen. "Didn't you want some breakfast, Cassandra?" she asked sweetly. Ethan shook his head as he grinned at his sister, who ignored Susan. "It's very rude to ignore people, you know."
"Yeah, well, when I get out of this, I'm going to do more than be rude," Cassandra hissed at her. "You just wait, Dawson, I'm going to rip your veins out of your body, one by one, and then tear your spine out of your worthless body and hang it on my wall—"
Wyatt waved his hand, orbing the sock back into her mouth and Brooke sat down, looking slightly green. "Well, I'm not hungry any more," she said weakly.
"Ignore her, she's just trying to antagonise you," Ethan told her. "She never does any of the stuff she threatens to do."
"Yeah, but somebody want to explain to me why we're keeping her hostage instead of vanquishing her?" Susan asked, as she scooped the eggs onto some plates. Ethan got up to help her, setting them on the table before she placed the bacon in the middle of the table.
"Well, maybe because the vanquishing potion didn't work on her and if that didn't work, then I don't know what we're going to try," Brooke said matter-of-factly. Susan glanced up as she delicately placed some of the eggs into her mouth.
"What vanquishing potion?"
"The one that I found in your purse for Ethan," Brooke answered. Ethan started, then turned to look at Susan, a hurt look on his face.
"You had a vanquishing potion for me?"
Susan looked bewildered as she shook her head. "No, I didn't," she said, confused. "Ethan, if I couldn't figure out until yesterday how to vanquish your dad, then how did I figure out how to vanquish you?" Ethan paused, then accepted this as he went back to the breakfast. "Brooke, what vanquishing potion are you talking about?"
"It was in a glass vial that you had in this box," Brooke answered, pulling something out of her pocket and handing it to her. It was small and cylinder, like a lipstick carrying case. "I just figured that maybe you kept it around, just in case something . . . sorry, stop talking now."
Susan was fingering the box carefully, understanding filling through her eyes. "You used the potion in here on Cassandra?" she asked, looking at Brooke.
The nymph-witch nodded and Susan leaned back in her seat, setting down her fork as she began to laugh. Everyone else in the room looked at her as though she were crazy, but the witchlighter couldn't stop laughing, her eyes filled with mirth as tears began to leak out.
"Okay, what is so funny?" Brooke asked her.
"The potion that was in this wasn't a vanquishing potion," Susan told her, managing to control her laughter. "It was a power-stripping potion."
"What?" Ethan asked, sounding disbelieving and incredulous. "You actually kept that? I thought that you were going to get rid of it!" He didn't sound angry, though, just surprised.
"I was going to be, but . . . I couldn't. Every time that I tried to toss it, something just kept telling me that I might need it someday. But if Brooke used that potion on Cassandra . . ." she said, starting to smile as she looked at the demon, who had grown very still with growing horror.
"Well, I'll be," Ethan said, laughing. "What do you know, Cassie? You just got your worst nightmare."
"What do you mean?" Brooke demanded, confused as she looked towards her best friend and her boyfriend. "What nightmare? What do you mean, that potion was a power-stripping potion? If it was a power-stripping potion, then that would mean . . ."
"Yeah," Susan said, giggling at the predicament. "Congratulations, Cassandra. You're mortal now."
--
Chris closed the door behind him, trying to ignore the sounds of laughter coming from the apartment next door, but couldn't stop himself from peering into the kitchen window. A lump formed in his throat as he saw Susan, her eyes brighter than he had ever seen them, her smile wider than ever before, with her head thrown back in laughter. She was more beautiful than he had ever seen her and he knew that it was because she had been in the arms of the wrong man.
Anger rose through her as he saw Ethan sitting right next to her, his gaze filled with adoration and affection as he looked at Susan. Stopping himself from going into the apartment and vanquishing the half-demon where he sat, Chris stormed past the apartment, heading down to his car and slamming the door shut.
Fishing his keys out of his pocket, Chris drove them into the keyhole and turned on the car. As it roared to life, he backed up, maybe more forcibly than he usually did, but kept an eye out to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid like hit someone.
All the way to the restaurant, he couldn't get the image of Susan and Ethan together out of his mind. Why? Why couldn't it have been him to make her happy? He had thought that they were happy, that things were going great, and then suddenly, the second this half-demon came to town, his relationship with her was cut off and they were left to be happy together while he was completely miserable.
Chris released a sigh, unable to blame Susan or even Ethan for this. He could feel Susan slipping away from him for months, but couldn't pinpoint the source of her unhappiness.
But that didn't mean that he wasn't angry with either one of them.
Turning into the parking lot for Charmed, his mother's restaurant, Chris shut off the engine as he grabbed his apron and headed into the building. His mother was already directing people as he arrived. "Hi, Mom," he said tonelessly.
"Hi, honey," Piper Halliwell said with a smile as she hugged him. "Good to see you. What's wrong?" she asked, noticing at once his unhappy expression. "Is everything okay?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Chris muttered darkly. Piper looked worried, but didn't press the subject. "Where is everybody? Seems like it's only a half-crew."
"Yeah, about three people haven't shown up and four more called in sick," his mother answered with a sigh. "Although, to be honest, something has been going around. Phoebe's been saying that there's been an increase in the number of people in the hospitals."
"Any idea what's going on?" Chris asked, grateful to have something else to think about as he headed to the kitchen.
"Not yet, but keep an eye out, because I'm not entirely certain that this isn't demonic," Piper grumbled. Chris smiled at her as he headed into the back, not noticing that his mother had picked up the phone and was dialling a number, a worried expression on her face.
--
As Brooke and Wyatt left to leave her and Ethan alone to say goodbye, Susan just wished that she could fast-forward to the next week when she would be coming after Ethan to help him find the Amazons. "Are you sure that we're gonna be able to find them?" she asked anxiously.
"To be honest, I don't think it's going to be that hard," Ethan assured her, kissing her forehead. "Amazons tend to stick out, but demons tend to avoid them, especially if they're witches. If I find them, then I'll come back and get you quick as I can."
"Okay," Susan said softly, looking up into his eyes that seemed to capture her in them as they always did. "Just promise me that you'll be careful, all right?"
"I promise," Ethan assured her. "I'll see you in a couple of days." He paused. "I love you."
Susan's eyes filled with tears as she smiled up at him. "I love you, too," she whispered. She stood up to kiss him, her arms wrapping around his neck as their lips met, capturing each other in their first kiss since their reunion.
It was not a simple, chaste kiss, but rather one of possession, passion, emotion, and love that had been lying dormant for far too long. By the time that they had pulled apart, both of them were breathing heavily and Ethan pressed his head against hers.
"Keep a weather eye on the horizon," he whispered softly. Susan gave a small giggle at the words, recognising them from Pirates of the Caribbean. How many times had they watched that together? How many times had they fallen asleep to the sounds of clashing swords aboard a pirate ship in each other's arms in her home in Wisconsin?
"Just come back to me safely," she whispered. Ethan smiled and swooped down to kiss her again, his kiss just as passionate as before, filled with longing and fervour, before he shimmered away, leaving Susan alone in the kitchen.
Not a second passed that he had left did the phone ring and Susan jumped at the sound of it before walking over and picking it up. "Hello, Dawson/Murphy residence."
"Hello, Susan," Piper Halliwell's voice said on the other end. Susan blinked in surprise at her friendly tone. She hadn't expected to be exactly well liked in the Halliwell family right now. Unless nobody had told anybody the news just yet. "How are you?"
"I'm okay," Susan said, curious as to why she was calling. "Uh, not to seem rude, but why are you calling? Is everything okay?"
"That's what I was going to ask you," Piper answered. "Chris just came in a few minutes ago and he seemed a little . . . upset. Did something happen that I should know about or did you two have a fight or something?"
Susan sighed, not wanting to be the one to tell her this. "You should really talk to Chris about this, Mrs. Halliwell, or Wyatt, maybe."
"Well, I'm asking you," Piper said sternly. "And I would like to know what's going on with my son."
There was no arguing with her, Susan noted. She recognised that tone from her son and knew that when it was used, there was no point in trying to avoid the conversation. "Chris and I broke up," she finally said, her shoulders sagging in surrender.
"Oh!" Piper sounded surprised and perplexed. "Well, I'm sure that it was just a misunderstanding and you two can work it out."
"Mrs. Halliwell—"
"I mean, if you two fought about something, then you can make up. Couples fight all the time, it doesn't mean that it's over. Why don't you come over tomorrow night and see if Leo and I can help?"
Susan sighed. "No, there's nothing to work out, it's . . . it wasn't a fight, exactly," she said, trying to explain. "There's . . . there's somebody else. My old boyfriend came into the picture and . . ." She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I really have to go," she said just as a stabbing pain erupted in her head and she let out a gasp, the phone clattering to the floor as images flew through her mind.
There was a building with the sign James' on it and a bunch of Innocents going into the building. Then she saw a room inside with some potions and needles and stuff before moving to a street sign outside. Rose St. and Manny Dr.
"Susan!"
Brooke was knelt down beside her, shaking her quickly as the premonition ended. Her brown eyes were wide with fear and apprehension, staring down at her. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"Premonition," Susan mumbled, struggling to get up. "It was a premonition, that's all."
"Since when do you get premonitions?" Wyatt asked. He was hanging up the phone, presumably after talking to his mother. Susan raised her head to look at him as Brooke helped her to her feet, navigating herself over to one of the seats.
"Since two days ago, before you guys tracked Ethan and me down," Susan muttered, rubbing her hand over her eyes. "It still gives me a backlash whenever it happens." She shook her head to clear it.
"Well, what did you see?" Wyatt asked her.
"Uh . . ." Susan tried to focus on the vision, to bring it back to the surface. "It was an old building . . . corner of Rose and Manny. It was called James', I think."
Wyatt raised his eyebrows before picking up his jacket. "All right, then, let's go check it out."
"What did you say to your mom?" Susan asked as she and Brooke followed him.
"Don't ask."
--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, since I've successfully broken up Chris and Susan and put her with Ethan, I'm gonna let you guys make a decision, really because I'd like your input in regards to Chris' future relationship. Would you . . .
a) like me to bring Bianca back and put them back together or . . .
b) like me to bring in a new character for him to be with.
Just please, tell me in a review which one you'd prefer and the one with the most votes wins! Mind you, it's not going to be for awhile, because I'm planning on making Chris go completely crazy for a little bit, but I'd still like to know where I'm going with stories and you guys would really be helping me out. So please, cast your vote!
