Legacy: Ghost of the Past

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Bianca Malone

Wyatt Halliwell stifled a yawn behind his hand as he walked into the kitchen, finding his little brother pouring over some folder as he held a cup of coffee in his hand. He was completely absorbed in the material he was reading, Wyatt noted as he walked up behind Chris. "What're you reading?"

"Oh, jeez!" Chris jumped a mile, his hand flying out and his telekinetic energy sent the dishes that were drying in the sink against the wall, shattering them to pieces. In addition to this, he knocked the chair out from underneath him, sending the younger Halliwell onto the ground unceremoniously.

With a groan, Chris grabbed the table and pushed himself up, glaring at his older brother, who was laughing. "Did you have to do that?" he asked Wyatt laughed harder. "When did you get home? I didn't hear you come in."

"Yeah, well, you didn't hear me walk up behind you either, little brother," Wyatt said with a grin. Chris scowled at him. "I don't know, it was about seven-thirty or something."

"I thought that you and Brooke were taking it slow," Chris wanted to know. Wyatt shrugged; they'd agreed to that, but that agreement had lasted about two days.

"We were," he said, putting emphasis on 'were.' "Anyway, what are you looking at? You just finished up a couple tests, you shouldn't have one for another couple weeks."

"It's not for school," Chris said with a sigh. "I found these in Susan's dresser a couple days ago, when you guys got back from L.A. I think that Brandon might have orbed them over there right before he got captured by Connelly." He handed the folder to Wyatt, who picked it up, opening it so that he could look at the contents.

His mouth dropped open by what he found. There was a page of information about each of them. Him, Chris, Susan, Brooke . . . all four of them had a page in the folder, including pictures. There was such information about allergies, what they liked or disliked, previous girlfriends/boyfriend . . . anything about their lives that was relevant had been included.

"Where did he get this?" he asked, looking towards his little brother in astonishment. "And more importantly, why did Connelly have this kind of information? What did he need it for?"

"Offhand, I'd say that he's using the information to kill one of all of us," Chris said dryly. "We thought he was only interested in Susan, but maybe not. Maybe he wants all four of us dead and he was just focusing on Susan for the time being."

The elder Halliwell looked worried as he flipped through the pages carefully. He made a face. "How come Brooke's got so many ex-boyfriends while Susan has . . ." He checked the witchlighter's page. "None," he finished up. "Whoa, she's never had a boyfriend before you?"

"So?"

"Nothing," Wyatt said with a shrug. "It's just . . . well, I guess it's not so surprising when you think about it. She's not one of those outgoing girls like Brooke is."

"No, she's not," Chris agreed. "But could we possibly get back to what's important? Do we show the girls this first or talk to Brandon and see what he knows?" Wyatt shook his head just as the phone rang and Chris stood up to answer it. "Hello, Halliwell residence."

"Hi, sweetie," his mother's voice said at the other end. He grinned slightly; she called about once a week just to make sure that everything was all right with them. "Just calling to check up on you. Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, Mom," Chris answered, rolling his eyes. "What's going on over there?"

"Well, we've had a couple demon attacks, but that's nothing new," Piper said and he could hear the exasperation in her voice. "But Phoebe's got a new book coming out and wanted to know if you boys wanted to come to the book signing at the restaurant."

"Really? She finished it already?" Chris asked, scratching his head. "I'd like to, Mom, but we've kind of got our hands full at the moment. There's this guy who's kind of been sending demons after us lately and we need to focus on him."

"What?" Piper's voice rose a few octaves. "Who's been sending demons after you, Chris?" Instantly, Chris wished he hadn't said anything.

"It's nothing we can't take care of," Chris assured her. "Believe me, Mom, we're handling it just fine . . ." Which wasn't a lie. Not exactly. "We're just not sure what he wants with us just yet."

"Is he a demon?"

"Not exactly," Chris admitted. "He's a fallen witch. Anyway, I think we may have a lead on it."

"Well, all right . . . if you're sure," Piper said slowly, her voice still slightly protective. "Just call for one of us if you need help, honey, you know that we're always happy to help you." Chris let out a relieved sigh, thankful that his mother was dropping the subject. "Would Susan or Brooke like to come, then? We saved two spots."

"Uh . . ." Chris was distracted by Susan walking in, looking around the kitchen and immediately noting the tense atmosphere, to which she frowned at them curiously.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking between the two brothers. Chris immediately decided that she should be kept in the dark until he figured out what was going on.

"Hang on one second, Mom, I'll put her on," he said to his mother, lifting the phone from his ear. Turning to Susan, he handed the phone to her. "My mom wants to talk to you."

Susan raised an eyebrow as she took the phone from him. "Hello?" she asked as Chris blocked her viewpoint from the table, where the file and journal were sitting, signalling Wyatt to orb them to his room. He saw the flash of white lights out of the corner of his eye and he let go of the tension in his shoulders. "Hi, Mrs. Halliwell, is everything okay? Yeah, we're fine. Well, there was a couple of demons . . . it's okay, we took care of them. No, we don't know why he's after us just yet, my Whitelighter is supposed to be taking care of it." Chris winced; he hadn't meant for his mother to start harassing Susan. "Wow, that sounds really cool," she said. Obviously, the conversation had turned to the book signing. "Today at 3:00?" she asked, looking at Chris questioningly. He nodded encouragingly. "Sure, that'll be fine. Yeah, I'll be there. Okay, thanks for inviting me. You want me to put Chris back on?" she asked, glancing towards him. "All right. Bye." She hung the phone up, turning around to face the brothers. "She said to tell you goodbye and that she loves you both very much," she informed both of them.

"Sorry, I didn't mean for her to start asking you about all these demons that have been after us," Chris apologised, but she waved his apology aside.

"Don't worry about it, it's okay. Besides, it's nice how much your mom worries about the two of you," she said. Wyatt moaned, rubbing his forehead as Chris rolled his eyes. "Okay, I think that it's nice. Grow up, the both of you, that's what mothers do."

"You're gonna go to Aunt Phoebe's book signing, then?" Chris asked her and she nodded. "All right, you know where the restaurant is, right?"

"Yes, I do, but thank you for worrying," Susan informed him, kissing him. "And good morning to you, too." Chris smiled as he kissed her back while Wyatt groaned loudly from the kitchen table. "So, why aren't you two going?"

"Uh . . . Wy and I have some stuff to take care of," Chris said with a quick look towards his brother. Susan frowned. "Not demonic stuff, just brother stuff."

"Liar."

Chris grinned, realising how well she had come to know him. "Okay, so it's demonic stuff, but it's no big deal. I promise, we'll call you if we need you. But you just go and have a good time."

"All the while be given 'the Talk' by your mother," Susan pointed out with a smirk. Chris blinked; is that what his mother had been doing? He hadn't caught that, but now he realised that's exactly what his mother was doing.

"Oh," Chris said weakly and Wyatt winced from the table. "Okay, uh . . . maybe I should go with you after all. Mom can be a little intense when she wants to be." Susan smiled at him, but she shook her head. "Are you sure? Wyatt can handle this thing—"

"Chris, I promise you, I'll be fine. Your mom seems like a really cool person, so I'm going to go to the book signing, you two go deal with the demon, and I'll see you tonight for dinner. Okay?"

"All right," Chris sighed as Wyatt shook his head. "Where's Brooke, anyway? Still in bed?"

"Mm-hmm." Susan raised her eyebrows as she glanced towards Wyatt. "She got really tired last night, I think. Although I can't imagine why," she added, giving him a look. "Weren't you two going to take it slow?"

"For goodness sake!" Wyatt exclaimed, leaning his chair back. "You know, Bianca wasn't this annoying!" He stood up and walked out from the kitchen, shaking his head.

Susan frowned slightly and turned towards Chris. "Um . . . who's Bianca?" she asked. Chris let out a groan, closing his eyes, wishing that he wasn't in this situation.

--

Peter Connelly paced back and forth across the study, waiting for the demon to return. Unfortunately, while he had a lot of admirable qualities, patience was not amongst them. "What could possibly be taking so long? After he let the Whitelighter escape, you would think he would want to stay alive as much as possible." And making him wait was not the best way to do that.

The demon suddenly shimmered in, bowing down before Peter as he halted in his pacing, turning around to look at the demon. "Sire, I have found information on what has happened to the Grimoire," he said as he rose. "It appears that its home is now in the West Andes. The sisters' Whitelighter planted it there after they destroyed the Source."

"Can it be retrieved?" Peter asked as he sat down, watching the demon. "And more importantly, will it submit to my rule?"

"Absolutely."

"Good," Peter said as he poured two glasses of wine, offering wine to the demon, who accepted the cup. "Because I need that spell if I'm to weaken that stupid witch. And if she is weakened, then she is that much easier to destroy."

"Of course, my lord," the demon said, though he looked a bit worried. "But if I may ask, sire, what spell are you planning to use?"

"The one to bring someone back from the dead," Peter answered as he looked down at the file identical to the one Chris and Wyatt had been looking at. "Someone who will be all too willing to help me weaken the girl. And someone whose presence will cause a rift between Miss Dawson and her precious lover."

His gaze was fixed on the file. Chris's page was open and there was a circle around one of his previous girlfriend's names. The last one that he'd had before Susan entered into his life. And her name was Bianca Malone.

--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