2. Never been a story with more woe

Where the ocean meets rock, somewhere along the northern coast of California was a cave. This cave was not only hard to detect by human standards but by magical standards as well. Being protected by old and new forces of magic, it maintained an appearance of being constantly flooded when in truth the waves only shallowly rolled over the sand at the entrance of the cave.
The empty air rippled and four feet suddenly appeared sinking into the moisten sand as a small wave retreated back into the ocean. Two dainty black ballet flats jumped from the wet sand onto the drier sand further into the cave. The owner of the ballet flats was a petite girl with silvery white skin and pitch black eyes. She twirled around to look at her companion rolling her eyes as she watched a wave splash into the back of his ankles.

"Why do you like to do that?" The girl demanded.

"The ocean is refreshing," He retorted as he stepped towards her. The two walked down the natural stone corridor. The girl had black hair that matched her eyes up in pigtails and walked pointing her toes. She was dressed white collared shirt with capped sleeves and a red plaid skirt that matched a scarf she had wrapped around her neck. Her companion walked digging in his heels, dragging the bottom of his khaki pants. He was about ahead taller than her and had his hands shoved deeply in his red coats pockets. They reached the end of the corridor entering a spacious cavern that no longer felt like a cave.

The cavern had white marble floors that contrasted against the dark brown walls magnificently. Lining the walls were not only torches but also hammocks hanging between fashionable tiki torches and small palm trees. In the center of the room where a variety of things clustered in bunches from couches, to pool tables, to a bar and stools. There seemed to be no real order to anything, almost as if all the pieces of furniture were left where they were first placed.

In the cluster of couches sat four other youths, two more girls and two more boys. Commanding attention was a devious looking young man, with tousled black hair and brilliant black eyes. He sat with both feet planted and both his arms rested regally on the armrests of his recliner. A girl was laying in his lap her head lazily resting on his right arm while her knees bent over his left arm. She was pretending to sleep and had two ear buds slipped into her ears.

"Did you find out anything useful?" The commanding boy demanded as the girl and boy approached the group.

"That depends on what you find useful Javin." The girl said flippantly as she deposited herself onto the lap of one of the boys on the couch. Javin glared at her as she started making out with the boy.

"Wyatt and Christopher caught up with some trouble with those dark lighters. They are intoxicatingly powerful." The boy responded as sat on a nearby stool and kicked off his shoes.

"Well we are following them for a reason, but did you gather any ideas for a plan of attack?" Javin demanded. The boy shrugged and shrugged his coat off letting it fall to the floor.

"The boys have a very strong bond as brothers. Though they also have a strong rivalry. It might be possible to use that against them, to attempt to break them up but its not the easiest bond to break." The boy responded.

"Yes, I suppose that's true Julian." Javin nodded and then glared back at the girl. Though she seemed to not notice as her arms slipped around the boy's torso.

"Navya." Javin said sternly and the girl pulled herself away from the boy reluctantly. She licked her lips as she turned to face Javin, her eyes mirroring his in irritation.

"What?" She demanded. Javin cocked his head to one side and raised an eyebrow, using his facial expressions to dare her to continue her behavior.

"We might be able to influence the oldest of the cupids, she is easily distracted. Emotionally unstable, and possibly in lust with a boy her parents will never approve of. Though the path seems problematic because not only would her parents disapprove, so would the brothers and then we're faced with their powerful bond." Navya rolled her eyes.

"But we could use this relationship?" Javin asked.

"If we influence her lust, make her fixate. She might isolate herself." The girl in Javin's lap suggested as she pulled out her ear buds.

"But we need to attack one of their ties. We still think their sibling ties are all too strong?" Javin directed the question to no one in particular.

"Of course they are." An older voice said from behind the group. At the sound of the voice all the youth stumbled onto their feet. After a few minutes of bustling about the six youth stood in a straight line, in order of their assumed ages.

"Mr. Tolliver." They group said in unison.

"Messy bunch you all are. And the items on the ground Julian?" The older gentleman chastised. The group didn't look abash though, they were all too proud to be disappointed in themselves for their messy appearances. Upon inspection one might notice that the six youth were in some sort of liberal uniform. The girls were in variations of white collared shirts, each wearing a different type of accent from scarf, to belt, to headband. They were all in either khaki or black slacks, or a black of red plaid skirt. Though in uniform, each youth had a distinct style that was easily represented through the use of accessories.

"Olivia get the board." Mr. Tolliver commanded. The older gentleman was nearly his forties and stood handsomely tall. His once jet black hair was sprinkled with streaks of gray and he had aged lines across his face. Mr. Tolliver looked tough and being in charge of six unruly teenagers might be why.

The girl who had been lying across Javin scrambled to a corner of the cave and pulled out a rolling black board. The board had a chart drawn on it, divided into 9 sections with each section heading being the named of a charmed child.

"Javin, I'm surprised you haven't seen it yet.' Mr. Tolliver shook his head as he picked up a piece of chalk and waved Olivia back into her place in line.

"The brothers connection is too strong, but we can distracted them with their own rivalry." Mr. Tolliver repeated as he drew some symbols over the line in-between Wyatt and Chris section of the chart.

"It is true that we can isolate Patience with her new found path into relationships." Mr. Tolliver smiled as he drew a symbol into Patience section of the chart.

"The other boy, and the youngest and the outspoken twin are of no consequence. We have to focus on the namesakes." Here Mr. Tolliver drew a line connecting Melinda, Patricia and Penelope.

"But why?" Navya asked and upon receiving a look added, "Sir?"

"The siblings bonds are strong because?" Mr. Tolliver asked.

"Wyatt and Chris are far too connected to separate and Melinda only brings them closer together. And combined with their vast range of power, they are nearly impossible to break down." Javin responded quickly.

"While the cupids are so interconnected with their sensing loved ones and their mother's empathy. That they are hard to make hate each other." Olivia sighed.

"And Paige's twins shared powers make them a hard bond to break as well, leading to the same problem as Piper's kids." Responded the boy next to Olivia, a blond known as Adam.

"So if we can't break down the siblings bond, we move to the next strongest bond. The bond of their ancestry, such a thing of pride for the Halliwells, we focus on the namesakes. Break them apart and then move to the weakest sibling bond, the cupids." Mr. Tolliver explained. He turned back to the teenagers as he finished on the board and stared at them for a second before proceeding.

"And who are the namesakes named after?" He asked.

"Melinda Prudence Halliwell is named not only for the first witch of the charmed family but also for the oldest charmed sister." Navya responded. She had been required to study the history of the person she had been following and could recite most of it from memory.

"Patricia is named after the mother of the Charmed Ones, having carried all four." Grace a girl with highlighted brown hair and bangs stated.

"While Penelope is named after the Charmed Ones grandmother, the woman responsible for raising the original three sisters. She is also responsible for a majority of the newer spells present in the Book of Shadows." Olivia finished off.

"And the most powerful one?" Mr. Tolliver asked.

"Is debatable." Javin responded rebelliously.

"No." Mr. Tolliver shook his head.

"It's Melinda, being named after two of the powerful witches in the family line." Navya looked down the line and stuck her tongue out at Javin.

"But," Javin started ignoring the stern look Mr. Tolliver was giving him. " Penelope is a partial cupid with very strong powers, while Patricia shares not only in two witch powers but also in some white lighter abilities as well. In terms of powers, Melinda can't be the most powerful."

"You are blinded by amounts rather than by strength. Melinda is considered in many circles of demons to be the most powerful, not only because of her namesakes. But also because she will grow powerful on her own right and with the connection of her extremely powerful brothers." Mr. Tolliver sighed.

"Amount is strength." Javin rolled his eyes.

"To inexperienced youth." Mr. Tolliver refuted and Javin stopped protesting. Mr. Tolliver paced in front of the lined up youth and looked at his watch.

"Javin go report to Anka and Kron. Olivia go influence our little lust driven Patience. Adam move to collect the seeping power of rebellion from the brothers as I am sure they are going to be punished for their misbehavior. The rest of you to bed." Mr. Tolliver commanded and the air rippled three times at one end of the line.

Javin reappeared next to a pool table, upon the pool table laid a half finished game. Anka sat on the end of the table, still only dressed in a white bikini top and mini skirt flipping through the newest issue of people. She looked at Javin, studying him with her green eyes as she announced him.

"Look they sent Javin, you're my favorite. So much repressed youth in you." Anka jumped down from her perch. Kron was sitting on a spotless white couch, leaning forward as he anticipated the next move his video game character was going to make. He sat shirtless, the tops of his boxers peeking from over his jeans.

"Hi Anka," Javin smiled at her as her coffee cream-colored hands slipped around his neck and started loosening his tie.

"How do you manage to retain so much youth in you? As I understand it don't you retain your memories of maturing?" Anka asked as she skillfully started to unbutton the top buttons. Javin carefully placed his white hands onto her elbows, slowly sliding up her arm while pushing her hands down.

"We do." He responded nervously. "We do retain it, but something about being young again helps us forget."

"She means you forget more than the others, that's why you're her favorite." Kron tossed the words over his shoulders but never removed his eyes from the game. Javin softly pushed Anka away from him and he took a few steps back as he re-buttoned his white long sleeved shirt.

"I'm not sure why that is. I've not been older than 23 in over a century?" Javin shrugged.

"It's truly interesting how you're little group of demons came up with this idea. Feeding off of youth, much in the same fashion we do. Following our fountain, you're lucky we stopped guarding it so well I suppose." Kron flung his controller down as he lost and swung himself over the back of the couch.

"But you've been young forever and seem not to get any older." Javin provided.

"Its different. We are the very essence of youth. We can never age and we can never grow any wiser. We act upon every impulse and we do whatever we please. We exist without restrictions to our youth so we can never age. If we were to age, the fountain of youth would no longer exist. As you know, because you're constant youth depends on it, that hasn't happened." Kron shrugged as he picked up the pool stick to start playing his game of pool again.

"Did you come to play?" Anka asked.

"Not exactly." Javin looked longingly at one of the pool sticks.

"He reeks of restrictions." Anka crinkled her nose.

"Also interesting that with your youth your group sees fit to impose restrictions. But I need a partner, so if you're going to talk you might as well play." Kron pushed back his hair and leaned his muscular chest over the edge of the table as he took his shot.

"We are going to target the traditional cousins, the namesakes." Javin shared.

"I want Wyatt and Chris." Anka squealed.

"That's who we're going to target." Kron smiled his perfect smile.

"But they are so powerful?" Javin was taken aback. He ran his hand through his black hair.

"We like power." Kron pulled out a snapped his fingers and a beer bottle appeared on the table for him.

"Wyatt reminds me so much of Alexander, and Chris of Marc Anthony. I miss Marc Anthony." Anka pouted.

"But what will you do with them?" Javin frowned.

"We said we would help you distract them because we are bored. You don't understand we don't intend to do anything we don't already do. We like to influence youth to direct their powers, the young are reckless by nature but sometimes that's restricted. We are what some parents consider bad influences. Though without us Arthur might have never united England, Joan of Arc would not have become a martyr, and Cleopatra surely wouldn't have overthrown her own brother…" Kron missed his shot and Javin studied his options before hitting his balls into the right pocket.

"If they prove to be as entertaining as I feel them to be, we'll grant your wish of eternal youth without the fountain. If you achieve you're little stunt of breaking down the charmed children's defenses, you'll receive the money promised to you by the rising source?" Kron asked curiously.

Javin nodded as he missed his second shot. Kron laughed innocently, took a sip of his beer and leaned down for his shot. Anka snapped her fingers conjuring a colorful drink with an umbrella and started sipping from a straw. She went to sit on the ledge of the window looking out onto the entire city of San Francisco. She bent one leg up and let her other leg dangle as she stared out searching the flickering lights, like she could see beyond them.

"I can feel them." She sighed happily as she closed her eyes. Anka focused on a loft apartment in downtown, the home of Phoebe and Coop where she watched first love being quenched.

The streetlights went on as the last light of the sun disappeared and the people strolling by the Westin Building might have been able to make out the shouting match happening over their heads. On the third floor of the modern flats complex, Phoebe Halliwell was trying to remember why she couldn't strangle her own daughter. She held her hand upon her cheek exasperated.

"You can't tell me who to love!" Patience shouted at her parents. She stood enraged in the middle of the living room with her arms crossed over her chest. The living room was a spacious room with red couches, a black media center and white carpets. Coop sat on the loveseat a few feet from his oldest daughter, rubbing his temples.

"Patience you aren't in love," He sighed as he tried for the twentieth time this evening to explain the differences between love and lust to his teenage daughter.

"You don't know that!" She stomped her foot passionately.

"He's a CUPID!" Phoebe shouted at her daughter. After Chris had brought his love-lost cousin back into the Manor, no one had even tried to deal with her. Wyatt had attempted to assert some of his older brotherly wisdom and authority over her but she had screamed at the top of her lungs until Piper commanded he leave her alone. Coop had decided it best that Patience was dealt with by both her parents in their own home, so he let her be. The family had all eaten dinner together at the Manor, most of them sullen and quiet and Phoebe had driven her family home immediately afterwards.

That's when this fight had started as the moment they were in their apartment, Phoebe declared that Patience was no longer allowed to see this boy.

"And if you focus a little bit of your energy into learning your cupid powers. You might be able to recognize hormonal teenage lust compared to actual love." Coop shook his head slightly. Coop was the calmer of the two parents; he was quiet and focused his part of the lecture to Patience learning to recognize her own emotions apart from her powers emotions. While Phoebe was focusing on the dangers of her fourteen year old daughter going down a familiar path of bad boy relationships.

"I know what I'm feeling." Patience replied stubbornly.

"Well learn to control you're feelings because you are not dating that boy." Phoebe was done arguing.

"Patience, you know you're not allowed to go home with anyone but your cousins." Coop started trying to steer the conversation away.

"You just don't understand!" Patience screamed running to her room. She slammed her red door loudly.

"You know you're grounded!" Phoebe shouted at the closed door. Coop threw his arm back and held Phoebe's hand keeping her from following their daughter.

"I think I can hear Gram laughing at me." Phoebe blew her bangs out of her face as she slide down next to Coop. Coop chuckled at the thought.

"You were a handful love." He replied massaging his wife's shoulders.

" I couldn't have been so stubborn…" Phoebe said unsure of her own words. Coop just nodded at her.

"Yes, well I didn't have a mother to tell me what a bad idea some of those guys were." Phoebe justified looking brightly at Coop for affirmation. Coop laughed until tears came to his eyes and he pulled Phoebe into a hug.

"Yes you only had a grandmother and two older sisters and one younger sister telling you they were a bad idea." He laughed.

"She can't go down that path though, look at what happened to me…" Phoebe sighed looking defeated.

"She won't." Coop reassured her, though he himself wasn't so sure that they could stop her. Phoebe slipped off her shoes as she nestled herself into Coop. Coop slouched a bit and picked up the remote to turn on the TV, to drown out the sound of things being thrown.

"Patience, we're not going to replace anything you break!" Phoebe shouted at her daughter's closed door again.

Hovering outside the window, completely invisible Olivia watched as Patience entered her dark room. The streetlights poured in light that streaked over the red and white combination of the room. Olivia smiled at the individualization of the room, a coca-cola theme was apparent from the color scheme to the glass bottle lamps. Olivia watched the angered teen throw stuff animals and books at the door in frustration. She smiled at the bitter taste of injustice that came rolling out of the room easily.

In her room, Patience was throwing anything she could grab at her door. She was grumbling to herself angrily as she pace back in forth in front of her vanity. After a few times, she stopped and stared at the mirror. She pulled out the tie that held her ponytail letting her hair fall in a wrinkled wave onto her shoulders. Patience was so frustrated she was crying, she took a tissue and wiped off her cheeks. She unbuttoned her dark red jacket and pulled it off, revealing her deep v-necked white shirt.

Olivia started whispering, chanting a rhyme to reminded Patience that she was magical. Olivia nonchalantly played with the tips of her golden hair as she whispered words to encourage Patience to use magic. Olivia didn't care for what purpose Patience used her magic, just that she used it. It was proven that teenagers often screwed up their use of magic, personal gain was rampant in their spells but more importantly it seemed they never got what they wanted. Teenage spells were a path to a magical taught lesson, but always provided a great amount of expended power. Mr. Tolliver's teenage demons were always on the hunt for hormonal impulsive magic, it was their goal to collect it for themselves. The youthful magic is what the group collected from good little witches is what they used to follow the fountain of youth when it moved.

"Why doesn't she understand?" Patience asked her reflection. She pulled out her earrings and unfastened her necklace dropping them into her hand as she looked around her table for her jewelry box. Olivia beckoned the box and it scooted forward into the shining light of the street lamps, as Patience had still failed to turn on her own lights. She pulled out a small wooden box running her fingers over the craved triquetra before opening the box.

Olivia smiled, it was so easy to provoke the charmed children these days.

"That's it!" Patience gasped to herself. She twirled around, throwing herself over her bed. She grabbed a pen and a notepad and started jotting down words. She rolled to be on her back, holding the note pad over her head and still writing and occasionally crossing out words. In her white top and tight black pants she laid in perfect contrast with her Coca-Cola bedspread. The wall directly behind her bed was painted in coca-cola red and had five white frames holding back and white photographs. The photographs had been taken by young Henry and were portraits of the family in threes, the sets of siblings and the husbands all drinking cokes.

"Perfect!" Patience jumped onto her feet again and took a deep breath. She paced to the windowsill, lighting her candles by blowing on them. She closed her eyes for a second before opening them to recite her spur of the moment spell.

Olivia stared straight into Patience's eyes as she said the spell unnoticed. As she stared at her reflection in the window, Olivia got distracted with studying her own complexion.

"To let my mother know, that I am on my own. Remind her of her loves, all the highs and lows. Let the memories be serve so I might gain my own wisdom." She ripped the sheet off the top of the notepad and folded it before holding it above the open flame. She let the flames consume the paper completely and then blew out the candle.

The air outside the window rippled as Olivia disappeared as quickly as the flame blew out. Meanwhile, Patience changed into a set of cotton PJ Pants and top, she saw a message scrawled on her mirror.

That was a bad spell. You shouldn't be doing magic. Patience frowned at the words as they disappeared. Penelope had figured out how to write messages through their vanities, because each sister had one in their room. The white wall that the Patience's vanity rested against was the shared wall between the sister's rooms. Penelope and Primrose shared a room, and Penelope had taken to spying on her older sister since Patience had entered middle school.

"Mind your own business." She mumbled. She put a thick white headband on and pulled out a worn out novel from her backpack.

"It's not even like it's going to work," Patience mumbled to herself as she slipped into bed. She flicked a reading light on and started thumbing through Romeo and Juliet. There was a light knock on the door but Patience didn't look up or speak.

"We wanted to say good night." Coop commented with his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"You know, Romeo and Juliet weren't allowed to be together and look at what happened to them." Patience looked up defiantly.

"Well if they had just communicated more and been a slight bit less impulsive. Maybe had some understanding parents." Phoebe rattled off.

"Understanding parents wouldn't ground a girl for loving a boy." Patience looked at her mother expectantly. Coop chuckled and started to back away while Phoebe stepped into the room. Phoebe was still dressed in her work attire and the heels of her fancy shoes clicked with a sort of suppressed annoyance on the wooden floor of the room. She sat on the side of the bed and used her right hand to pull the book down from her daughter's face.

"Patience," Phoebe sighed.

"Mother." Patience responded.

"Oh I'm mother today am I?" Phoebe smiled. Patience shrugged still defiant.

Phoebe shook her long chestnut hair off her shoulders and smiled sweetly at her oldest. She lifted her hand and caressed the young girl's cheek softly.

"A week and seriously don't go home with anyone but Wyatt and Chris." Phoebe pointed her maternal finger seriously at Patience.

"Yes ma'am." Patience rolled her eyes.

"Beautiful things may be admired, if not loved." A male voice said.

"Who was that?" Patience jumped.

"Who?" Phoebe frantically looked around the room ready for an attack. But nothing was visible in the dark room.

"I might have imagined it." Patience stared into the dark room.

"Maybe you should sleep." Phoebe kissed her daughter's forehead. As Phoebe started walking out of the room the male voice spoke again.

"She is going to be just as beautiful as her mother." The voice dotted. And that's when he stepped out of the shadows of the corner of the room. A tall man pale in the shadows with dark hair dressed in a casual well-tailored suit.

"Mom," Patience said urgently when the voice materialized. Phoebe turned around throwing her arms straight through the man that had appeared.

"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked and Patience noticed her mother couldn't see the man.

"Nothing." Patience whispered as she stared straight at the man. The man looked curiously at Patience.

"Good night." Phoebe said as she shut the door.

"Can you see me?" The man asked Patience.

"Who are you?" Patience demanded in a whisper not wanting to alarm her parents.

"You can, that's interesting. You're not dying…" The man paced around the bed looking over Patience ensuring his assumption was correct about her dying.

"I am going to get my mom and aunts in here to vanquish you." Patience threatened pulling up the blankets to cover her chest.

"Phoebe can't see me. Neither can Paige or Piper. Besides they've already vanquished me." The man leaned against the wall and stared longingly at the door.

"You've been vanquished?"' Patience asked intrigued. The man nodded and looked at her strangely again.

"But why can you suddenly see me?' He said more to himself than to her. The two were silent for a few long minutes, starring at each other. Patience studied the man in her room. She decided he was about 30 years old. He looked human and had yet to use any kind of demonic power, so she wasn't feeling threatened by him. She was trying to visualize the pages of the book of shadows in her mind, trying to remember if she recognized the handsome face.

"Before what you said…" Patience whispered.

"Beautiful things may be admired, if not loved?" The man repeated.

"Yes, why did you say that?" Patience whispered.

"I was talking about your mother. It was something that Frank L. Baum wrote." The man responded, crossing his arms.

"But why were you talking about my mother?" Patience asked as she slide closed her book giving up on her reading for the night. The man was studying the room now, searching for the answer to his question.

"You said a spell?" He asked her. Patience paused and then nodded. He shook his head but was smiling.

"Maybe its only temporary then, that you can see me. You should go to sleep." The man suggested. Patience frowned unsure if she should trust this invisible man in her room, but something about his demeanor calmed her.

"Are you going to stay here? I shouldn't trust you." Patience yawned.

"You're going to fall asleep anyway." The man suggested but he was stepping towards her. He reached out his hand to pull the blanket, but his hand went right through the physical materials like a hologram.

"I'm on a different plane, I can't hurt you." He smiled.

"You could." Patience nodded. "I learned something about it at magic school. Something about different planes…" She yawned again.

"You're reading Shakespeare?" The man changed the subject. Patience nodded.

"What part are you at?" The man asked.

"Juliet is waiting for the nurse to come," Patience yawned again.

"Why don't I recite it to you? You'll fall asleep and by the time you wake up the magic will have worn off. You might not even remember me. " The man winked at her and stared pacing dramatically.

"The clock struck nine since I did send the nurse…" The man started as his words were timed with his steps and soon Patience was fast asleep. The man stared at the black and white photographs on the wall above the sleeping teen smiling when he came to the one of the charmed ones.

"To be that bottle upon her lips…" He whispered before dissolving into the wall leading to the outside world.