Charmed: Season of the Risen Devils by Instant Classic Superstar Pac

Show and cast disclaimer: Charmed is complete property of the late Aaron Spelling, Constance M. Burge, Brad Kern, and co., as are all characters and pieces of the storyline previously depicted on the show. Characters created by either myself or a friend of mine who for all intents and purposes we will call Blacksheep Noble will be depicted with an asterisk in "casting" credits in the first episode they appear. Preexisting characters whose names I devise will have their in-show identities placed within dashes for their first appearance in this story. Regardless of whose vision they are, all characters involved either were and/or would be portrayed by actual specific human beings, each with at least an iota of believable acting ability, each owned by self, and none having actually acted the events introduced by this story. And last but not least, I own none of the suggested episode music, either. *sigh*. There, hope that covers it.

Rated: T for Teen

Summary: "One would think that the future was set in stone after the vanquish of the Ultimate Power, but clearly that isn't the case. That view is long overlooking a dangerous threat capable of ending it all… as well as salvation from the unlikeliest of sources."

NOTE: After reading this one over to myself, I think I may need to kinda plan these episodes out a bit wider. The character development is nice and all, and trust me, I do plan on keeping it up, but my demon attacks feel a bit brief, I know. Still, I would like to know after two bi-chapter episodes that I am not the only one that cares enough to prop up or to critique me…

Episode 2 - "New Underworld Order"

Central Date: September 12, 2007

Part B

"You're missing something vital about the whole reason I had you attack the child to draw the witch. That's because you're also missing something vital about their powers," Nomed explained to his two allies. "Most witches' powers are tied to their emotions. And what's the quickest way to frazzle the emotions of any decent mother, let alone a proud matriarch such as Piper?"

"Go after her child. I get it, but I don't understand why the strongest Charmed One," Ravvon quickly questioned.

"Because last week, two of your neo-ki kin attacked and almost killed her. And because there were no complaints from you about it three minutes. I was hoping similar results could come from you, but I guess you think you're incapable of such," Nomed responded a bit tauntingly. "Surely a more mature neo-ki demon than Dalia and Petrie, and a very advanced imp master, can do some worth of damage." Ravvon's eyebrows would perk up at that statement.

"Is that a challenge?" the mustached neo-ki inquired curiously.

"Sounds like it is, my friend, and it's one I'm willing to take up, personally," Axakentos commented instead, much to Ravvon's visible horror. "Besides, that, he's right. The witches will most definitely be off kilter. They will be expecting an attack on Chris, while the whole time, they will have been the only real objective."

"Have you even thought about anything else your great chief here may not be telling us?" Ravvon cautioned Axakentos, oblivious to Nomed's responsive chuckle.

"Yes… and I believe we can already head back to the safety of lower ground should such a thing ever become an issue," Axakentos replied, completely nonplussed by the issue which now had Ravvon completely hesitant. "Now, if you'd like to back out of this, then I have no problem with doing this alone, but if that's the case, then I won't share the spoils of a potential victory with you or your neo-ki kind."

Ravvon stood still with his head bowed, resigned to the point that Axakentos had made here. If neo-ki demons were going to rise from obscurity in the Underworld, then he would have to brave this through and destroy the Charmed Ones with Axakentos. If he returned with his tail between his legs, his kind would be regarded as cowards, and they would regard him as a coward. And considering the way the entire Underworld has been thoroughly weakened not only in numbers, but in resolve, over the years, he would be, essentially, a coward among cowards among cowards, essentially only worsening exactly what he'd taken up this mission to finally escape from.

Finally, he looked toward Axakentos and nodded, following which the imp master put a pseudo-comforting hand on his shoulder, and they walked off. With their backs turned and eventually gone from earshot, Nomed smiled; everything was coming to fruition just as he wanted it.

Paige had just arrived at the San Francisco Police Department building, and immediately started looking for Henry. Several of the cops turned to her and greeted her, to which she returned friendly waves and some hellos as well, but was most interested in finding her husband… or someone who could lead her to him. Which is exactly what she saw when the tall, dark, and sturdy black man in a blue suit was seen walking in her general direction.

"Paige, how are you?" the familiar man asked.

"Doing quite well, actually. I heard about the new returning cop that came in today,"

"Oh, he's talking with your husband," the man explained, quickly seeing her interest perk up. "They're a bit further down the hall." Paige leaned around him and indeed saw Henry talking with a very familiar-looking man who she could've sworn she'd seen before at a very important time in her life but couldn't wrap her finger around exactly when that was.

"Thanks, Durant. We should chat again sometime," Paige offered. Inspector Durant, who moved over from Chicago a couple of years ago, was one of Henry's closest friends on the force and commanded much respect from the other cops, as well as some of their wives and girlfriends, including Paige, who'd actually grown quite fond of talking with him herself. Respect and integrity oozed through the bones of this police detective. He was undoubtedly, truly, one of San Francisco's finest.

"Whenever you like. It's always a pleasure," Durant replied, before quickly patting her shoulder and walking by her. She then quickly went over to Henry and the other inspector.

"Hey, how's it going?" Paige greeted the two men, specifically her husband, who she came right towards and quickly enjoyed a peck on the lips with.

"Wow, you're pretty happy for someone who got…" Henry stopped himself in his tracks. He was about to mention the embarrassment Paige suffered at her job interview, but the realization he was about to say this in front of the other man, not to mention the death glare from his wife which thoroughly reinforced that, would cause him to forgo the rest of that sentence and clear his throat instead.

"Anyway, Paige, I'd like to introduce you to Inspector Cortez," he finished, introducing the cop. That's when she finally got a good look at him and was immediately racked with shock. The memory of when she'd seen him before came flooding back to her perfectly now. This was the same cop, the same Inspector Cortez, that had come to her and her then-boyfriend Shane asking questions after they'd been attacked by Shax at P³. The same one that had apparently been on the case about Prue, learned about her sisters' magic, and grown suspicious enough to come to the Manor with a camcorder and put himself right in the line of fire of the Source of All Evil. She hadn't seen him since that day over six years ago. He seemed to recognize her too, as the girl he talked to at the hospital that day, who he later came to find out was with the Halliwells around the same time they proved to him that they were truly good magic. The day he began his work in San Francisco, and the same day he quit it.

"Wait, so you guys actually know each other?" Henry deduced. This was enough to break the silence.

"Yeah, actually, we do. See, this is the same guy that investigated my sisters the same couple days I found out I was one of them," Paige explained, straight and to the point.

"What?" Henry asked in shock.

"Yeah, that would be me," Cortez replied. "As a matter of fact, I'd like your wife to come with me. We need to talk."

"Why? She hasn't done anything wrong," Henry questioned, quickly protective of his wife.

"Let's just say part of why I came back is that I was hoping to speak with the sisters again," Cortez explained. "And don't worry. Everything's good. Listen, I know something about Paige that she wouldn't tell most people, through that investigation. In fact, I learned it at about the same time she did. I bet she probably told you too, seeing how you're her husband. Believe me, I know it's good. So nothing is gonna happen to your wife. You have my word."

Henry pondered it for a second, and came to conclude that Cortez was honest and probably more of a help than he'd initially realized. In that spirit, he nodded in agreement, allowing Cortez to speak to his wife.

"Okay," Cortez said before turning to Paige. "Let's go." Cortez then walked off, presumably toward the exit, with Paige tentatively following.

After watching them leave for a few seconds, Henry turned around and went back into his office, where he had a strange feeling that perhaps he wasn't alone. He closed the door and slowly walked inside, and, discovering that his feeling was not exactly off, immediately recoiled defensively. Recollecting himself, he slowly approached the long blonde-haired man in the room, who was seated and leaning back against the wall in the corner. Before he could decide on a course of action to take with him, though, the man looked up and faced him and flashed a smile.

"So, Henry, I'm a bit curious; what's it like?" Derrick asked, alarming the tentative mortal standing above him, then took off his sunglasses. "What's it like knowing that your wife and one of her sisters almost died last week, and today seeing her run into an old face like Cortez?"

"Okay, who are you and what do you want with me?" Henry interrogated instinctively. He may have only been a parole officer, but he knew the basics of these matters. Quickly but calmly, the blonde raised a hand forward as to put him at ease, resulting in Henry taking a step back and allowing him to stand up.

"Maybe you should start being a little more thankful, or appreciative. Because I'm the guy… no, I'm the half-vampire, that saved your wife's neck last week," Derrick finally disclosed.

"Okay, so what? Did you come in here just to brag about the fact that you were able to save my wife and expect me to grovel or give her to you or something?" Henry quickly accused. Paige had vaguely told him of a bad experience with vampires, which combined with the entry from nowhere gave him reason to suspect this guy was up to no good.

"Actually, no. See, that would be pretty pointless," Derrick answered his question. "The real reason I came here was to give you a heads up."

"A heads up?" Henry repeated questioningly.

"Yeah, a heads up," Derrick reasserted. "See, I don't know exactly what's going on, but I just get a feeling there's something brewing down there in the land where evil lives. Which means the sisters and I are gonna be needing each other."

"How do you know?" Henry asked.

"Think about it, " Derrick appealed. "That same day, I was in Valhalla - you know, the place with the Valkyries? Before you ask, yes, they're real, and they're very attractive. Anyway, I was in Valhalla, and a demon attacked me. Of course, I killed him quickly, but that's not the point. The point is, something came after me, and something else came after the sisters, on the same day. I don't think the Underworld's gonna just stand pat or sit quietly for much longer. Just offering food for thought." With that, Derrick left in a sea of red orbs, leaving Henry confused on what to think. Moments later, though, Derrick would come back, this time dressed in his warrior coat and tights from the week before, which gave Henry a quick jolt of surprise.

"Oh, yeah, one last thing. Tell no one about this. I wanna be the one to introduce me," he said, before orbing away again.

Sometime shortly later, there was an ongoing phone conversation between somebody at the Manor and somebody at the Bay Mirror.

"Okay, well Chris wasn't hurt, was he?" Phoebe asked in concern over the phone, as Piper had called to tell her about the demon attack.

"No, but only because I got back in time. The creepy one in the suit, had his arms up and his hands were gong red," Piper explained.

"You can't be serious," Phoebe denied. Although she knew Piper couldn't kid about this, after what Nomed told her not too long ago about the uprising, this felt very disturbing to her and she was still trying to process it.

"Do I sound like I'm kiddin' here, missy?" Piper snipped. With that comment and the couple of seconds it gave her, the crushing realization came through Phoebe.

"Oh my god," in a very somber tone, was all the middle living sister could say in direct response.

"What? What is it? You can't go 'oh my god' like you just figured something really bad out and not tell me," Piper quickly inquired, knowing her sister's speech pattern and what it meant perfectly.

"Listen, I'm coming. I'll tell you when I get there. Stay safe. And tell Dad I said hi, okay?" Phoebe quickly said as she started organizing a few of her things on her desk.

"Alright, but you better get here quickly," Piper stated.

"Count on it. Love you. Bye!" Phoebe quickly stated, pressing "END" on her cell phone. She wasted no time in dialing another number, then pressing the phone back to her ear and waiting a few seconds. "Coop, Piper's in trouble. Chris was attacked. (pause) I know. Let me take care of the staff right away and you can come get me, okay? Good." She would lay the phone on the table, then walk go towards the door and open it.

"Okay, guys, I really wanna focus on my column right now, so I'm gonna have my door locked, and everyone, please - no interruptions!" she promptly announced to the rest of the newspaper team, to which generally all of them would nod and/or murmur their understanding. "Thanks." She smiled graciously, before going back inside, locking the door as she promised, and taking the phone back. "Okay, now you can come get me." Seconds later, Coop would fade by heart shine into the room, then repeat the process outbound seconds later.

Back in his spot in the Underworld, Nomed was facing an inverted pentagram carved onto a wall, which would be filled by a trail of flame that soon exploded into releasing what appeared to be someone, or something, coming packaged in large roll of flame. As said someone went to the ground, the flame would disappear, and he would slowly pick himself up off the ground. Looking around frantically between the place he was standing and his own hands, the dark-skinned demon was thoroughly dumbfounded as to how he could be sitting there, until he looked up in front of him and found a familiar face.

"Zohar, welcome back," Nomed greeted his old friend, who looked confused and somewhat upset at seeing him there.

"What's going on?" Zohar questioned as he stood up and approached his old comrade. "How'd you bring me back here? And why'd you do it, too?"

"Relax. I just decided to do an old friend a favor, that's all," Nomed casually replied, knowing Zohar didn't believe him.

"Favor? Are you kidding me? If it wasn't for you throwing me in front of the Charmed Ones while they were possessed by the Hollow, I wouldn't have been dead in the first place," Zohar objected to his old partner's disingenuous claim of charity. "No; there's gotta be something more to this, isn't there?"

"Actually, you're right," Nomed admitted. "I didn't bring you back just to chat and reminisce on old times. I brought you back because the movement is beginning. Our time is beginning to rise. And I need you… to do something for me."

"Which is…?" Zohar left open.

"I have one of those tonic experiment demons, the neo-ki ones, set up to attack the Charmed Ones with our old imp master friend. You remember; Fabian Axakentos?" Nomed started, waiting for Zohar's nod at the sound of that name. "Axakentos and neo-ki Ravvon are going to attack the Charmed Ones soon, and I need someone to spy on them. I have a feeling "

"Spy on them? Are you serious? They'll catch me, and then I'll be killed again,"

"Actually, I have something that should help you take care of that," Nomed stated, raising his right hand and the cup in it so Zohar could see the cup in it. "This tonic was formed from the ashes of Klea, from the Brotherhood of the Thorn. One of her powers was a kind of voyeurism ability. Drink it and it will do you much good, my friend." He offered him the drink. Tentatively, Zohar decided to reach out and take it.

"Oh, and as for sacrificing you; I knew you'd attack the Charmed Ones in an effort to defend yourself," he explained, while Zohar drank from the tonic. "And the Jenkins sisters had borrowed power directly from the Twice-Blessed Child. If they were in any way close to equaling the Charmed Ones in power before taking in Wyatt's powers and the Hollow… well, then, I needed to toss in something to make sure they didn't surpass them." He paused for a couple of seconds. "Sorry." Zohar proceed to shimmer out, except for his eyes, which stuck around glaringly at Nomed for a couple of seconds before vanishing as well. Nomed breathed a sigh of relief.

"Believe me, I was too ashamed to face any of you guys after what I did, especially Morris," Cortez explained to Paige just outside the doors of SFPD. "I couldn't stick around after that."

"Hey, you almost did your job too well. I almost turned evil on them," Paige interjected in his defense.

"You don't understand. I dishonored my family," Cortez replied. "I lost a sister ten years ago. She was killed by the sort of sick people that could pass for demons. And here I was, trying to pave a road to jail for some of the only people who could really stop demons like that by accusing them of killing their late sister. Even if Morris could accept my apology, I screwed up too big to face him again."

"Okay, so then why'd you decide now that it was time to come back? Is it because he's gone to Atlanta?" Paige inquired.

"No, I'm not that cheap," Cortez quipped, to which she chuckled. "It actually goes deeper than that. A couple of my best friends on the force in San Diego got caught up in drug corruption. I tried to get them to stop, but they saw easy money and they didn't care about the fact they were putting innocent kids and people in jail. I was disgusted, so I quit the place and I told them to kiss my ass. I've been applying for months in other cities in the state, but the only job I was offered beyond security detail openly encouraged putting numbers behind bars, so I left that job too. Finally, I chose to come back here, because I knew the captain was someone I could trust, and if I had to do a lot of apologizing to be around honest people again, then so be it. Morris being gone had nothing to do with it. In fact, I was looking forward to seeing him again."

"Oh, okay. Well, then let's hope this time you can actually stick aro…" Paige stopped when the beep of her phone interrupted her. She took it out and opened it and saw a text message from Phoebe, which raid 'COC. Manor.' The COC was the family's new personal version of SOS, something Billie and Phoebe had had time to come up with in case of magical emergencies. "It's Phoebe… okay, I'm sorry, Cortez, but I've gotta go."

"It's okay. I've gotta get ready for a cops' briefing in a few minutes anyway," Cortez excused, walking back towards the entrance doors. "Catch up with you later, Paige. I'll tell Mitchell you said bye."

"Thanks," Paige acknowledged, as she walked the other way, making sure to pay attention for the door behind her. Once she heard it open and close, looked around, and saw nobody watching, she felt comfortable in orbing out of the area.

Elsewhere, Keith and Billie were now driving around in a black Infiniti with windows tinted which was apparently his car. More accurately, Keith was driving and Billie was checking her cell phone. She saw on her cell phone the same 'COC. Manor.' text message that Paige did on her phone, and knew immediately that she had to leave.

"Okay. Keith, stop the car now. There's something in the trunk," Billie instructed him out of nowhere.

"What?" Keith questioned.

"Trust me. There's something there. You've gotta check it out," Billie prodded. After looking at her and seeing the serious expression on her face, he gave in and stopped the car at the side of the road next to an apartment complex, before leaving and going back to the trunk. Sighing in relief that it worked, she closed her eyes and used her thoughts to try to project herself back at the Manor.

"Billie, I checked. There's nothing in the…" Keith stated a few seconds later, stopping when he opened the driver door and looking shocked at what he saw: Billie. Distorted like she was in the middle of a motion blur. Then disappearing in thin air. He only had one word to describe what h e saw. "Whoa."

When Billie arrived at the Manor, she found herself projected into the sun room, where not only the sisters, but Leo and Victor Bennett were there as well. Phoebe, Paige, and Victor had each found themselves a seat, while Leo stood protectively with Chris by his side and Piper had the Book of Shadows and the scrying gem and map on a table/

"Guys, what happened?" Billie asked.

"Demons attacked Chris. One of them was the same kind as the ones that got you last week," Piper explained without turning around.

"And the other one?" Billie asked.

"Not sure, but I do know he calls himself Axakentos and his hands were shining red," Piper commented.

"Hand went red… wait, what if it's actually imp master?" Billie suggested, remembering an incident she had with such a being a long time ago.

"It could be a darklighter too, though," Leo pointed out. "The hands going red might be the touch of death."

"They can't go after Wyatt at school, right?" Victor asked uneasily, a bit afraid and protective of his grandson.

"No, that would be disastrous for them. It's a public place. Attacking him there would mean exposure," Leo answered.

"Yeah, but last time this 'exposure' thing happened, they got to kill Prue because of it, didn't they?" Victor pointed out.

"True, but they lost their best time sorcerer in the process," Leo counter-reasoned. Suddenly, the gem started spinning very quickly, and would lock on at the Manor's place on the map, which all three sisters saw and were very alarmed by.

"They're here," Phoebe stated. No sooner did the words leave her lips than the two demons suddenly shimmered in. Leo immediately took Chris and swirled away in white star-like orbs, presumably towards Magic School.

"Oh god, this guy looks freaky," Paige exclaimed at the sight of the intense eyes of Axakentos. However, before they knew what was going on, his right hand was going red, and as he swung it in the general way of the group, a swarm of imps came pouring out of it and going in all directions. Billie, having anticipated that he was an imp master, and Piper, on the warpath after the threat on her son, were the only ones with steeled rather than alarmed gazes at first, but even this would subside as several dozen imps came flying at her face, same as all the others. Several imps had even gone after Victor, but Piper used her combustion power to blow most of them up before they ever got to him, and the others joined the line in going after. Ravvon, not even needing to do anything, could only laugh at the torture the girls were going through, being snipped and gashed constantly for seconds by Axakentos' growing swarm. This was until somebody threw a burning liquid from behind at them which seared both enemies' backs and forced them to scream in pain while vanishing in flames.

…and reappearing in those same flames and with those same screams up in the attic. Only one person had seen the savior; Victor, the only one who right now who wasn't favoring many small cuts and various injuries, saw the warrior-looking blonde in the coat and tights. However, frozen in shock, fear, and panic for the safety of his daughters, he couldn't venture a single word. Noticing Victor looking at him from afar, Derrick turned to the middle-aged man and put a finger up to his lips, in so little words asking him to keep his presence a secret. Then, the screams of Ravvon and Axakentos could be heard from the attic. Muttering the word "crap" to himself, Derrick red-orbed out of here… at the same time as Jonas orbed into the room with Leo and Chris. Victor's only reaction was to faint in his chair.

"Victor!" Leo immediately called out, noticing the man's faint and quickly tending to him.

"He will be fine," Jonas assured him, before going down and beginning to heal the others, beginning first with Leo's wife.

Upstairs, the two demons had stopped screaming, and started to looking around frantically at where they were.

"Where the hell are we?" Ravvon asked caustically.

"It looks like we're still in the manor. What room, though, I'm not sure," Axakentos replied, just before catching his eyes on the Book of Shadows. The half-vampire warrior would orb into the room before they could do anything, however. Ravvon, sensing this, would quickly turn around and unleash a ki blow at Derrick, but the Double-Edged Blonde was able to orb away and reappear behind them. After drawing and letting loose a quick large breath, the spears would spontaneously appear out of the shoulders of his trench coat and stab through both men in the chest. Only one would end up killed, however - that would be Ravvon. Axakentos' entire upper body would be protected by a coating of red with unstable flashes of yellow moving and exploding through it. As the spears left the chests, one was soaked with blood - the one on the left, whose victim, Ravvon, was screaming again and this time his flame burst was more explosive, indicative of a vanquish - while the other barely had a few drops on it. As the spears receded back into the coat, Derrick looked slightly intoxicated by the material, but not as much as last week, obviously due to the lesser amount of blood. Much to his chagrin, Axakentos seemed perfectly fine.

"Wait, how's that possible? That wasn't nearly as much as I should've gotten out of you," Derrick admitted in complete shock.

"Oh, my. You had to go and kill my mark, didn't you?" Axakentos sarcastically chastised the hybrid, showing clear lack of care about Ravvon in the least, before he suddenly left via a crimson apparition. After just laying in here and looking extremely perplexed for about a minute, Derrick finally shook himself out of it and decided to head back downstairs. The others were still all in the sun room, and a black man in a robed suit was just though healing the last of them - Victor, who had apparently had a heart attack he must not have seen. Somehow, Leo seemed to recognize that there was someone there, but by the time he looked in Derrick's direction, he was already orbing away. Leo was shocked into a practical trance at the sight of the crimson orbs.

"Leo, are you okay?" Piper asked, momentarily concerned for her husband's distracted state.

"Oh. Oh, yeah," Leo said, recollecting himself. They were all blissfully unaware of the two mysterious eyes that were watching them right now…

…which shimmered away and found their way to Nomed's location in the Underworld. Zohar reappeared in full visibility through another shimmer as soon as Nomed turned to face him.

"Well?" Nomed gave him the floor.

"Axakentos is still alive, but the neo-ki one's been vanquished," Zohar reported.

"How'd that happen? Did the Charmed Ones-"

"No. It wasn't them. The element of surprise left him with a great advantage at first, but then a blonde warrior appeared and intervened," Zohar continued his report.

"Blonde warrior?" Nomed repeated in inquiry.

"Yeah. He was wearing a strange suit of armor with magical spears hidden inside. Axakentos was able to use his imps to shield himself from harm, but the neo-ki wasn't so lucky," Zohar explained. "Still need me for something, or was that it?" Zohar asked.

"No, you can go ahead. I'll get more of the tonic prepared in case you're needed to try this again," Nomed stated. "Pleasure doing business, old friend." Zohar nodded with a small appreciative smile, seemingly indicating to his revolutionary old friend that he'd won him back over, before shimmering away.

"That's it. We're almost in…" Nomed remarked to no one in particular as he turned back around again, or at least to no one that was there in person at the moment…

NOTE: I'm starting to see the things that I need to work on in order to help this thing flow better in the future. However, peeps… I need your thoughts! Please, folks, come on. You gotta help me out here.

-Pac.