Destiny Took Its Toll

Chapter 3

The manor doors opened and in came Tyler, Andrew, and Chris. Tyler immediately headed up the stairs and onwards to the attic. His brothers were at his heels. "So what exactly are you even planning on doing? I don't think there's a way to track who vanquished a demon." Tyler opened the attic door and made his way to the Book, not bothering to answer Chris.

He started to turn the pages in hopes to quickly find information on the Gorgon Demons and anything else he could find that started with S-K or S-C. "You know usually other demons just comes to us when demons get vanquished." Tyler ignored his brothers as he kept flipping. The boys were quiet for awhile, and it was getting to the point where it seemed like a demon had the perfect signal to attack.

"Got it! Gorgon Demons!" Andrew and Chris walked to Tyler's side so they could read the Books entry along with him. "The Gorgon demons are a demonic group who are in alliance members to the Skythorne Demons." The brothers gave each other a look, knowing that they were going to look them up next. "The Gorgons possesses the powers of energy balls, energy blasts, and pyrokinesis... Here's something useful. If the King or Queen is vanquished, then the whole collective is vanquished as well." The brothers all nodded, and Chris told Tyler to look for the Skythorne's next. "Alrighty..." It took a few moments for Tyler to find the Skythorne's page, but he managed to find the correct page. "The Skythorne's are a mixed breed between Celerity and Enoch demons. Even though the Skythorne's are their own race, killing the leader won't kill all the Skythorne's..." Tyler listed off their powers which included pyrokinesis, energy and fire balls, fading and smoking. "I've never met a demon that had multiple transportation powers."

"It's to help them keep themselves in the shadows about them." The boys looked up to see Wyatt, their father. Wyatt walked up to the boys and the Book, and asked them what they were doing. Tyler told him that they were just doing the good ol' demon hunting. "Nothing big." Wyatt nodded and looked down at the entry page and for some reason he froze. The boys looked at their father with confused expressions.

"Dad?" Andrew waved his hand in front of Wyatt, "Dad, you still with us?" Wyatt got out of his trance and shook his head. "Uh..yeah. Yeah I am...have you guys been confronted by these demons?" Tyler told his father that all they did was run into a demon who mentioned them. Wyatt slowly nodded his head, staring at the entry page. "Have you ran into these demons, Dad?" Wyatt looked at his three boys and slowly nodded his head. "Um yeah...I did...a long time ago." Wyatt shrugged it all off and said that he would be downstairs in the dining room working on some business material. "If you need me, you know where I'll be." Wyatt turned and quickly walked out of the attic. Chris stepped away from the Book and his brothers and turned to them, "Okay that was weird." Tyler shrugged and said that maybe their father had a bad experience with them, "All the more reason to watch ourselves. We never know when these demons will attack."

"Or the Gorgons." Tyler nodded at Andrew and continued to look through the Book. Chris told them that he was going to go to the library, and that he'd be back later that night. "Call me if you need me." He started walking out of the attic when Tyler stopped him, "Wait. Maybe you should stock yourself up on potions or something just in case." Chris turned back and nodded while Andrew made the comment about his brothers new power boost. "I don't want to talk about that." Was all Chris said on the matter, and Tyler made an O shape with his mouth, "Maybe we should." Chris rolled his eyes and sighed, "Do we have to?" Tyler told him it was either talking to them about it, or their dad. Chris sighed again and just stood there in his spot. "What's there to talk about anyway? I produced a fireball, big whoop. I am a demon after all." Andrew rose his finger towards his brother, "Half demon." Chris shrugged and quickly made his way out of the attic. "Should we worry?"

Tyler looked over at Andrew and nodded, "Definitely. Fireballs are a powerful Upper Level Demonic power. Maybe we should have Jason look after Chris just in case." Andrew nodded and called out for their whitelighter, Jason. Jason orbbed down in the attic and looked at his charges. "Hey what's up?" Tyler asked the whitelighter if he could put an extra watch out on Chris tonight.

"He produced a fireball earlier and we're worried about that certain power being developed." Jason immediately looked worried and told them he'd definitely be on the look out. "I'll go ask the Elders what the new boost could mean. It couldn't hurt to find out a little info on it." Tyler and Andrew nodded and the whitelighter orbbed on out of the attic. "What do we do now?" Andrew asked his brother. "Well, honestly, I can't think of anything right now..." Tyler closed the Book and the two oldest siblings made their way downstairs just as Chris was exiting the Manor.

Since Wyatt was where he said he'd be, Tyler decided to do a little digging. He sat at the dining room table to the left of Wyatt who was sitting at the head of the table. He was starting to feel like those teen detectives and Sherlock Holmes. Honestly, he admitted it felt pretty fun! "So...you need any help?" Wyatt glanced at his son and politely declined the offer. That didn't make Tyler back down however. "Those Gorgon Demons sure looks pretty powerful..." Wyatt ignored Tyler which only made Tyler keep going, "But those Skythorne's looks just as..." Wyatt was now giving Tyler an annoyed expression. "Tyler, I have a lot of work to get done and I really can't be disturbed while doing it." The boy rolled his eyes and stated that one way or the other, they would find out all about the Skythorne Demons they learned about earlier. After getting up from the table, Tyler went into the kitchen and Wyatt glanced in the direction of the kitchen, "That's what I'm afraid about." Was all Wyatt could say on the matter.

Tyler opened the fridge to grab anything he could see in order to make a sandwich. "He's hiding something." Andrew agreed. Like it wasn't obvious anyway. Tyler threw out the most random of solutions and theories he could think of. "Maybe Mom knows something about it...I mean she does receive premonitions of the past, present, and future anytime she wants." Andrew didn't like where Tyler was going with this. If anyone found out their intentions and why they were doing what they were doing, they'd get their asses beat. So again, they were at a loss. They might as well just wait for a demon to attack...or... "Dude I just got an idea!" Andrew gave his brother a worried look. "Honestly, I don't like the sound of your tone." Tyler literally ran out of the kitchen, forgetting all about the food which Andrew put back for him. When Tyler rushed past Wyatt with a, "Hi Dad, bye Dad!" He just went back to his work. "I'm not going to ask." Andrew gave his dad a sight chuckle, "Uh even if you did, I wouldn't have the answer."

Wyatt shrugged and once again got back to his work.

"The Trifecta is not working the way you planned." A demon was standing in front of Athulak who was rolling his eyes and looking angry. He couldn't understand. He couldn't capture a Charmed One, he couldn't even devise some simple factions! His biggest problem was the Trifecta. He remembered hearing about the countries that were in turmoil over the Trifecta's power! So why the hell wasn't the Trifecta doing its job? Unless...it really was. "Dammit!" He should have known. It was like all the others. The Hollow, the Nexus...neutral. All that fucking work...wasted. And now he didn't even know if he could retain the power. Oh God...he needed help...Charmed help. What bullshit. Just the thought of teaming up with those idiot kids gave him goosebumps.

Still the problem with the Trifecta remained. He needed that Power gone forever. "Now only if I had some help..." Athulak heard some laughter behind him. Turning, he saw a man about six foot, black hair which was down to his shoulders, and a very wicked grin. "Who are you?" The demon walked about examining the room. He always hated how every damn room in the underworld looked all the same. "You know this place never changes." Athulak was getting annoyed now. Who thehellwas this demon? He never saw this man before... What business did he have with Athulak? "Either you tell me what you want, or I'll be more happy to vanquish you." Another laugh came from the mysterious demon. This was the most fun he had in a while. The demon faced Athulak with a smirk on his face. "You can't vanquish me. Only The Power of Three can." Athulak rolled his eyes at this. This was so typical! Charmed this, Charmed that, the Charmed Ones weren't even suppose to exist anymore!

Now this demon was trying to get Athulak to kill himself. The Halliwell's were annoying him, this demon was annoying him, everyone was just annoying him these days. He really needed a break. "So basically, you're here to annoy the hell out of me..no pun intended." The demon once again gave one of his laughs. "Well sure if you want to look at it that way."

'I am officially going insane.' Athulak turned away from the demon, walking towards the exit.

"Have fun getting killed by the Charmed Ones!" Athulak didn't look back. All he did was continue on and left the room. The demon gave one final smirk before flaming out.

Chris' car came to an abrupt stop. "Oh hell no..." The hood of his car began to release smoke. "This is not good." Chris got out of the car to inspect the hood. Opening it up, a lot of smoke lifted into the air. Chris moaned in annoyance and covered his face. "This is not my day... Dad or someone please help me..." He lifted his head and used his hands to move the smoke away from his face and the area. Once it was all gone, or at least most of it, Chris tried to make heads or tails of what was wrong. Sadly he didn't understand cars. That was Tyler's profession. He was about to call out for either Wyatt or Tyler when a truck rolled up beside him. "Hey kiddo, want some help?" Chris looked over to see Derek, the man who just happened to own an auto repair shop. 'Well, I guess I have luck on my hands today.' Chris walked over to the driver window. "Hey Derek, my damn car broke down so yeah, I could use some help if it's not too much trouble?" Derek gave Chris and little laugh and told him to hop on into the passenger seat while he hooked Chris' car to the back of the truck. Once everything was set, Derek got back into the drivers seat and they were on their way.

"Thanks again." Derek shrugged and said it was not a problem at all. Derek began to ask Chris what he was up to and how his family was doing. "They're doing good. Tyler came back to San Francisco awhile ago, so we got to catch up with each other." They chatted a bit more when they got to the auto shop. Derek got Chris' car in the garage and almost immediately got to work on it. "Alright, let's see what happened to your car." He opened the hood and began to see what the problem was. "Were you going home or somewhere? I'll try to get this done as fast as I can." Chris told Derek he was going to the library and planned on being there til night, so Derek could take his time. Chris watched as Derek worked on the car, but he had absolutely no idea what the guy was doing. Derek caught Chris' look, and couldn't help but laugh. "It's a lot easier than you might think." Chris gave a small smile as Derek continued to work.

A couple minutes later, which seemed like a lifetime to Chris, Derek had eventually found the problem. "You have a blown head gasket." Chris' face dropped when he heard the news. Oh this is just fucking great, just perfectly great... Derek told Chris he'd get it fixed as quickly as he could. No problem whatsoever. He started getting some stuff to work on the project, and looked at Chris, "By the way, don't worry about the bill. It's on me." Chris started to reject the offer, but Derek didn't listen to the objections. Chris sighed and looked guilty. Even though he'd known Derek most of his life, he still felt bad about the situation. Chris started walking around the shop examining all the tools and other various things. Even though he wasn't into cars, he couldn't help but take a look at the stuff. Now if Tyler was here, he'd probably be trying to explain to Chris how to fix an engine, what to do with a flat tire(even though Chris already knew what to do with that), and other stuff. He picked up some weird looking tool that he had no idea what it was. On it it read "Derek Wilhem, W.H." Huh, that's kinda a nice thing to do for someone. Chris placed the tool down, and continued to look around. Derek caught Chris looking around, and all he could do was smile. He knew Chris was the nosy type, but it wasn't his fault. Wyatt was always nosy too, so it obviously ran in his family.

Chris heard Derek sigh quietly, took a little glance and saw Derek working on the engine. 'Ugh, my engine is probably gonna be blown to pieces and Dad's gonna get all pissed off...' Chris tried to keep his mind off his car and decided to continue to poke around the place. He wouldn't do anything nosy...too nosy... Chris walked over to a shelf which had spare pieces on it, such as bolts, screws, etc. Stuff that Chris was not into at all. But there was a certain book that caught his eye. He glanced over to see if Derek was looking, then took the book to see what it was. Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Chris had to smile because he had actually done a report on Edgar in his Junior year of High School. He didn't know why he loved Edgar Allan Poe since it was very old, but when he read the poems and stories, he got hooked. Chris opened to a story, The Black Cat.

Chris read over the story about the narrator and the cat he killed by hanging it from a tree after its eye was gauged out. It may have been horrific, but Chris read the whole thing. He couldn't really explain why he loved it so much. "You're a Poe fan too, huh?" Chris jumped when he heard the sound of Derek's voice. He placed the book down and nodded, "Yeah, I am. I actually wrote a report on him in my Junior year of High School." Derek smiled and nodded stating there really weren't that many Poe fans in the world...that he knew anyway. "So you're a Freshman in College now, right?" Chris raised his eyebrow and gave Derek a questioning look. Derek chuckled and told Chris he saw a book on Psychology in his car. "Ohh..." Chris gave an embarrassing chuckle and explained how his great aunt, Phoebe Halliwell, sort of got him into the subject. "That's cool. You know, you look like more of the writer or journalist type a guy to me."

Derek shrugged and handed Chris his keys. "Cars fixed, and no I won't be accepting any bills. And don't tell your father. Just ignore him if he asks about the bill and if it gets rough, tell him to come to me." Chris thanked Derek again before taking the keys. A phone started ringing and Derek excused himself. He stopped and turned back to Chris, "Maybe you can come back and talk about Poe stuff. If you don't think that's weird or anything." Chris smiled and nodded, saying he thought that was a great idea. Derek nodded as well and headed into his office. Chris opened the car door and got into the vehicle. He was about to start up the car when something caught his attention. Something shiny was in his sights when he looked out the driver seats window. He opened the car door, bent down and picked up a ring with two letters on it, "S.C." Suddenly Chris felt a jolt and was pulled into a premonition.

First Chris could see Derek standing in front of someone,

then the scene flashed when it showed a huge building with a sign

reading, "Sciton Corp".

Chris came out of the premonition and looked a little confused. First he wondered why he saw Derek in the premonition, but then he took note on the building belonging to Sciton Corporation, which coincidentally was located very close to the San Francisco Library. Chris debated on keeping the ring, but not wanting to steal something from Derek, Chris placed the ring back on the ground and closed the car door. He put the key into the ignition and turned it, happy to hear it turn on successfully. With the premonition still in mind, Chris drove off in the direction of the library and Sciton Corp. Derek came out of the office, and walked over to his ring on the ground. He picked it up and slid it on his right ring finger, as his eyes followed Chris' car out of his shop.