Playing with Fire
Standing alone in one of the hallways of George Washington High School, Dervin was leaning casually against a locker. Dressed in a brown leather bomber jacket with a white t-shirt and dark jeans it could only be hoped that the pale red headed rebel youth even knew the name of the actor he was silently paying homage to. After a few quiet moments of Dervin swinging a bathroom pass around two of his fingers a step of footsteps echoed from down the hallway.
The soft pattering of foam-soled cable knit boots came from around the corner as Patience came into Dervin's line of sight. The red boots scrunched up to the middle of her calf, showing off sparkling black tights that she wore underneath a red and black plaid tunic dress. Carrying a stack of papers underneath one of her arms with both her hands stuck into her short puffy black coat as she looked down at her feet. She was playfully skipping on the square tiles of the floor, using them as a makeshift hopscotch. Landing crookedly on her foot she tripped causing all the papers she had been holding to be scattered at her feet. But before her body could slam into a nearby locker Dervin caught her elbow.
"I think you just fell for me." Dervin laughed as he scooped up some of the fallen papers. Holding her steady, he managed to pick up all the scattered items before standing upright again. Flashing a dashing smile as he handed her back the papers and letting her go at the same time.
"Bathroom pass again?" Patience observed the crude defaced chalkboard eraser that function as a restroom pass for students.
"Its our meet cute of the day darling, uninterrupted by your charmingly over protective cousins." Dervin picked a hairpin out of Patience's hair. A strand of her chestnut brown hair fell into her face instantly.
"Why must you do that?" Patience slapped his hand and pulled her hairpin out of his fingers. Dervin just shrugged. Patience pushed her stalk of papers into Dervin's chest as she tucked the loose strand back up and re-pinned. The two teenagers had been meeting on an almost daily basis during their third period for the last week. Dervin found an excuse to leave his history class indefinitely while Patience wandered the hallways during her T.A. period.
It was ten in the morning and the florescent lighting indoors combated the darkness of the outside storm. Dervin leaned forward and brushed his pale cheek against Patience's blushing cheek. He was about to start whispering plans about their next meeting when a blurry figure in the parking lot caught his attention. Outside in the drizzling rain a black beanie kept ducking behind cars. Tripping between a muddy old Toyota Camry and a new VW Beatle, Dervin noticed the figure looked oddly familiar with his hunched shoulders and brown hair was escaping from the beanie.
"Is that your cousin?" Dervin said surprising himself by making the connection. Patience spun around immediately to see what he was staring at. Without having to wait too long she caught sight of her baseball player cousin sprint towards the Halliwell brothers shared Jeep.
"What is he doing?" Patience asked. Without waiting to study the situation any more she hustled to the double door exit to the parking lot. Dervin, on the other hand, stood watching as Chris ran his hand under the driver's side front tire. The burst of cold air made Dervin jump and jog to follow his girl out into the parking lot.
"It looks like he is trying to play hooky." Dervin smiled wickedly as he slipped his hand into Patience's. Patience b-lined with determination through the high school parking lot until she stopped right behind her cousin.
"What are you doing?" Patience demanded. Chris smacked the hood of the Jeep forcefully before turning around.
"Hey guys." Chris said through gritted teeth and gave a stiff wave.
"No hidden key?" Dervin guessed amused. Chris gave a curt nod.
"Can I ask why you don't have a key to your own car?" Dervin asked.
"Because his older brother is not an idiot." Patience glared at Chris.
"You know we have to do this thing, I mean if I had my…" Chris paused for a moment thinking of a way to describe his magic without saying magic. "Other key, than I could just use that."
"Wyatt said he would take care of it, just tomorrow. Why are you so impatient?" Patience demanded placing her hands on her hips.
"They might expect him tomorrow. I might catch them by surprise especially without my key…" Chris held his arm with one hand, keeping both of his arms tightly pressed against his torso.
Dervin rolled his eyes he could sense that the two cousins were not actually talking about a second key. Sensing the urgency from Chris though he inserted a suggestion.
"I can rig the car if you want?" Dervin offered.
"You can what?" Patience and Chris said though both in different tones of shock. Patience in a overly virtuous shriek and Chris in a slightly impressed yelp.
"That's what I got picked up for a few years ago, I was the kid they used to rig cars when we stole them." Dervin shrugged nonchalantly. "So I could do it, jeeps are pretty easy though you know I don't know how much your brother would appreciate it."
"Really you could…" Chris said thoughtfully. But Patience wagged a finger in Dervin's face as she elbowed her cousin in the gut.
"Absolutely not. You are not going to rig the Jeep and are you crazy suggesting something like that! Couldn't you get into huge trouble for it?" Patience glared at Dervin.
"Well, I mean I think that it might be different when consent is given by the owner of the vehicle, just maybe." Dervin smiled.
"That's true Pat." Chris nodded.
"No." Patience shook her head.
"Well, my second idea is that I can drive you to, I'm guessing the middle school to spy on your cousins and sister?" Dervin pulled his keys out of his pocket.
"Why would you do this for me, I don't even like you." Chris demanded of Dervin. Dervin laughed and nodded his head a few times before meeting Chris gaze.
"Maybe this will make you like me." Dervin shrugged. "So we going or not? I have a test I should try to make it back for in 7th period."
"Patience?" Chris questioned. "You know we have to stay ahead of this. We just have to see what we can find out."
"You're right but with…" Patience didn't finish her thought.
"You two are really bad at being secretive." Dervin rolled his eyes again as he started towards his car.
"Chris what is he…" Patience started murmuring the rest of her argument and Dervin quicken his pace to give them room to fight without him. Dervin wasn't an idiot and having spent some time on the wrong side of the moral and lawful. He knew when people were trying to keep secrets and he respected the need for it on occasion. If anything the Halliwell cousins were nothing but amusing and everything they seem to do, for better or for worse, was actually for each other and Dervin could find nothing bad about looking out for family.
He turned the key to start the car and turned on the heat as he waited. Chris and Patience stood outside of the car, their clothing dampening with every passing second as the air was filled with sprinkling mist.
"This isn't one of our magic school friends Chris and this is the second time that we've brought him into one of this situations." Patience stole a worried glance to the back of Dervin's head.
"It's a recon mission Pat, we're just going to watch from afar. I would go alone if I could orb, and I would take Henry if he could orb properly. Or I would try to convince Wy if I thought I could budge him from missing his test today. But here is the thing, I think they might be able to sense our magic, maybe me not having my active powers I can get by undetected." Chris had both his hands on Patience's shoulders as he tried to make his point. Cole wisped in between the two of them suddenly.
"You two are on occasion extremely predictable." Cole commented as he looked down at the two of them.
"Watching us for our entire lives, I could only hope that you would be able to predict some of our actions." Chris responded sarcastically as he opened the back door to the car.
"This is a new way to get your boyfriend liked," Cole's eyebrows were highly arched as Patience stuck out her tongue at him and slipped into her seat.
"You know you could make yourself more useful." Chris commented as Cole appeared next to him in the car.
"And you could do what you're told." Patience snapped back to him not realizing that the comment wasn't' directed to her.
"She is of course correct, not to mention that I could as easily observe for you kids while you stay in school." Cole smiled.
"Right because you really want to sound like an after school special." Chris rolled his eyes. Patience engaged Dervin in conversation to keep him from noticing that her cousin was talking to no one in the backseat.
"Why are we spying on your sister and cousin again?" Dervin questioned. Though nothing in his tone, manner or face demonstrated judgment.
"It's just, there's something different about…" Patience was struggling with how to explain the situation yet again.
"The boyfriends? You have a problem with their boyfriends?" Dervin cracked a smile.
"Look I know, it sounds hypocritical. But, you've never really known my sister. Penelope is the sweetest, passive aggressive, agreeable, stickler for the rules you might ever meet. She's about bright colors, optimism and the power of the individual gaining strength for the group. She's so much more grounded than I'm ever going to be and ever since she started seeing this guy, she's none of those things." Patience stared at her window.
"She's in middle school though, from what understand girls at that age are rather susceptible to peer pressure and sudden personality changes." Dervin commented. Patience turned to stare at him oddly.
"It's a psychology test I'm taking today." Dervin laughed at her confused expression. "But for real, speaking from personal experience of walking down the dark side when you're that age, you have a sincere need to be accepted."
"But wasn't it different for you?" Patience questioned, slipping her hand over his.
"Oh you mean cause my mother had just died and no one knew where my father was?" Dervin nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah. It might be a little different. Love makes people do crazy things."
"Love and lust are not the same thing." Cole commented having paused from his banter with Chris.
"I don't think she's in love." Patience shook her head.
"And you're an expert on love?" Dervin laughed again.
"Actually," Patience started.
"Patience." Chris said sternly from the backseat.
"I'm a teenage girl, all teenage girls are experts on love." Patience finished. Dervin pulled up in front of the middle school.
"Now what do we do?" Dervin turned off the car and twisted his torso to look at both of the Halliwells in the car.
"It's almost lunch, we could probably sneak around unnoticed." Chris shrugged.
"Plans are really your strong suit." Dervin laughed as he hopped out of the car.
"It is something you should work on, the consequences of your initial plan." Cole suggested as he went through the door.
"Maybe you should listen to him, he was one of the best tactical demons mom ever fought. Possibly the best." Patience flipped her hair and jumped out of the car.
"This is why I like orbbing, no one else has to come." Chris rolled his eyes and moved out of the car as well.
Lincoln Middle School was a large brick building that took up an entire corner of the city landscape. The middle school didn't look that much different the high school, smaller building, fewer classrooms, not as many public displays of affections in the hallways. It wasn't until the three teens entered the cafeteria that they noticed the biggest difference. Dervin as a high school senior with broad shoulders and a jaded edge around him was at least a head taller than most of the boys in the room. If Patience had been wearing a bit more make-up and didn't stand up so straight with confidence, she might have had more of a chance of fitting in. And Chris, much like Dervin was too tall and his physical appearance of broad shoulders and built up muscle from baseball also made him stick out like a sore thumb.
"Maybe you two should bend your knees while you walk." Patience bit her lip trying not to laugh.
"Maybe you shouldn't draw so much attention to each other by all standing here together." Cole laughed.
"All right try not to get caught, you guys go that way and I'll go this way and try to feel them out." Chris said pointedly to Patience.
She nodded and slipped to the right staying close to the wall, while Dervin hunched his shoulders and started to zigzag around the lunch tables and fawning girls. Chris moved towards the lunch line, trying to find his little sister.
Chris spotted Pandora first though, in a bright orange sweatshirt that made her hair stand out even more than normal. Chris studied her. Dora was the only one of the younger girls that didn't have an evil inducing boyfriend. Though if Chris and Wyatt had not been so over consumed with the sudden surge of boyfriends, they might have red flagged the troublemaking course that Dora was on.
Navya was sitting on the chair next to Dora twirling her black pigtail. Her pale skin tone, dark hair and dark eyes reminded Chris vaguely of Javin. Navya slipped her hand into her back pocket and tucked something between her fingers. Chris squinted from afar attempting to see what Navya handed to Dora. But once the exchange took place the discretion was lost. Dora placed the cigarette expertly between her fingers. Chris' eyes widen as he watched Dora lift her other hand snap her thumb up and use her powers to lit her cigarette. Chris blinked repeatedly trying to make the image of his cousin smoking in the middle of her very crowded middle school cafeteria.
Meanwhile Dervin had caught sight of Tricia sitting snuggly against Adam's shoulder. Adam was feeding her pieces of food that were so hot they were still steaming. Dervin watched curiously from two tables away as Tricia would blow a frost onto each of them before biting. Dervin wasn't sure what he was seeing and only became more confused as he watched Tricia nonchalantly wave her hand over a glass and produce what appeared like ice cubes form her hand.
Patience had literally run into her younger sister's feet. Penelope was making out with Julian and the dark couple was floating a few feet off the ground. Not surprisingly none of the other young teens of the room had noticed, being to self-involved in their own affairs to look over at the couple that had been making out for days in the same place.
"What are you doing?" Patience and Chris hissed loudly from different sides of the cafeteria. The kissing couple ignored Patience but Chris did not fare so luckily.
"What does it look like?" Pandora snapped at him as she puffed at the cigarette in her hand.
"Hey Chris," Navya smiled and gave him a flirtatious little wave.
"Pandora Mitchell put out that cigarette." Chris commanded, letting his anger get the best of him.
"I don't think so." And before Chris could register what was happening, Dora brought her hand up to her face and twirled it to be palm up right in front of her mouth. Her eyes twinkled a black that Chris had never seen before and as she smiled she blew. At first only sparks flew off her hand but as her grin widen the fire built in her hand. Chris didn't react but someone pushed him down as a torch of flames flew over his head.
"PATIENCE!" Chris screamed loudly from the ground. Seeing the flames across the room and hearing the panic from her unseen cousin, Patience threw her hands up and closed her eyes hoping for the best. Every sound dissolved around them, no giggling, no hushed whispers, no wrappers being torn open. Patience slowly opened her eyes and saw that everything was frozen in place in the entire room and was amazed.
"Don't just stand there, come over here and unfreeze your boyfriend." Chris hissed.
"And pull down your sister." Cole advised. He was standing next to the frozen flame examined it. Cole had been the one that had pushed Chris down, being able to materialize his hand for long enough to save the charmed child.
"Chris… I don't… They…." Patience stammered. Chris waved her over impatiently though.
"We don't have time. Let's go, quick." He said urgently. Patience nodded and took a deep breath to concentrate not unfreezing everyone in the room. With a simple twist of her hand Dervin was reanimated and with Patience holding one arm and Chris the other he was quickly removed from the frozen scene. Chris expertly pulled the fire alarm next to the door on their way out of the cafeteria and the sprinklers overhead.
Dervin hadn't spoken a word about the situation instead he had pulled out his key. Slamming into the doors of the school and pouring out onto the sidewalk. It was not until the trio had driven a few blocks that anyone spoke.
"So did your cousin have a torch thrower?" Dervin finally whispered. Patience turned to give Chris a panicked glance before swallowing loudly.
"Nope." Chris responded resolutely.
"So the…" Dervin started.
"Chris, I think we might have to tell him." Patience whispered.
"Wyatt will kill you." Chris pulled his body forward angrily.
"But I just think…" She started.
"Not to mention what Mom and Aunt Phoebe might do to you." Chris argued.
"I'm not sure it's the wisest choice either Patience." Cole commented from his spot in the backseat.
"I just, I don't know." Patience buried her head in her hands. Dervin glanced over to see her looking so distressed and caught the expression of murder on Chris face in the backseat through his mirror.
"I'll tell you what," Dervin commented calmly. "Just don't explain it. When you're ready and Chris thinks its ok, then you can explain what exactly is going on. But from what I can gather you're cousins and sister are in some kind of trouble. So even if I don't understand it, I'm here to help." Dervin shrugged and kept driving.
"He might be a better guy than you think." Cole laughed to himself. Chris' mouth was hanging slightly open and Patience had popped up.
"You… Do you … Are you…?" Patience tried formulating a sentence unsuccessfully.
"Maybe some lattes before we go back and food, we missed our own lunch." Dervin suggested as he turned into a shopping center.
"Melinda wasn't in that cafeteria." Cole commented.
"She wasn't." Chris nodded suddenly realizing that Pandora had distracted him from his original target. Melinda had actually been the reason that the entire cafeteria had been frozen and not just the half that Patience had been though. Javin had appeared in the middle school cafeteria at the same time as the trio to woo Melinda. As he ushered her protectively from the scene, he had commanded her to help Patience. Good or evil, magic could not be exposed and the charmed children were proving to be more difficult to control than most young demons.
Javin shimmered himself and Melinda to nestled secluded rose garden in the middle of Golden Gate Park. He had placed Melinda into a clouded daze that kept her from realizing that she was being transported demonically. Upon arriving in the park, Javin snapped his fingers in front of her and swung his arm around her shoulders.
"I've never skipped school." Melinda picked up on the conversation they were having before the trance not frazzled by being at the park now.
"You were always a goody two shoe." Javin laughed as plopped himself down on a bench. Melinda smiled down at him before spinning around once playfully. Javin snapped his fingers while her eyes were closed and conjured her a perfectly bloomed rose. He stretched out his hand and brought Melinda towards him, she slid down onto the bench next to him slowly. Javin pushed the hair from her forehead and tucked the rose behind her ear.
"Just because I never cause as much trouble as Chris…" Melinda laughed pulled the rose out from behind her ear and tumbled down to rest her head in Javin's lap.
"You know Chris and I ditched school for the first time as seventh graders." Javin nodded.
"And I should aspire to be like my rebellious older brother?" Melinda laughed.
"What you competing for golden child?" Javin joked.
"Wyatt isn't the golden child, no matter how much Chris complains about it. But you know that Wy has been grounded for most of his childhood, so I wouldn't think he's much of a golden child." Melinda pressed the rose into her nose.
"You're by far my favorite Halliwell." Javin laughed playing with the loose ends of her hair.
"You didn't think so when you were eight." Melinda's eyebrows arched mockingly. Javin closed his eyes reaching for the planted memories of a childhood with the Halliwell children. He pictured a cherub little girl with dimpled cheeks and a smile that took up half her face.
"You're beautiful." Javin whispered without looking down at her.
"You're not bad looking yourself." Melinda giggled.
"Stop wasting time." A voice hissed in Javin's head. Rolling his black eyes, he shifted his weight and lifting his feet up to lift up Melinda's head.
"I loved the way you watched lady and the tramp every day when you were in first grade, it drove Chris and Wyatt absolutely crazy but not me." Javin cradled her torso in his arms.
"Ad that stupid red coat you wore every Tuesday when you were in fifth grade." Javin whispered as he brought her closer to him.
"Or how you insist on always having chocolate chips in your vanilla ice cream." Javin pressed his lips against her cheeks.
"I am liking this game." Melinda whispered pressing her lips against his cheek.
"Don't you like anything about me?" Javin said before kissing her. The couple didn't talk much after that moment, Javin successfully though somewhat reluctantly intoxicating her. As the smoke poured into her mouth, Melinda suddenly shook and her eyes rolled back into her head.
"Melinda?" Javin stopped and sounded worried.
But Melinda was silent as visions played in front of her of events yet to come. A flash of violence, a blur or someone throwing Melinda down to the ground, the sounds of crying and a sense of fear that was overpowering. Before the vision could become clearer though Javin understanding what was happening started kissing her again. It seemed that even though the memories were magically induced and the feelings were pretenses to a grander evil plan, Javin was starting to feel.
A crystal fell onto the map of San Francisco right onto the point of Golden Gate Park where Melinda was currently making out with her demon. The crystal only rested there for a few minutes though before it shifted to the designated spot of the strip mall that Chris and Patience were now leaving. The crystal followed their movements only for seconds before jumping to the location of the middle school. Prue dropped the crystal down onto the table and waved her hand sending the tiny object across the room forcefully.
She hung her head in her hand as she stared at the map and pool of opened books. There were star charts, calendars, history books on the warren witches and more. Several clanking heels stormed into the room from different directions. Paige wandered in from the East doors wearing a teaching robe and looking frazzled. Phoebe appeared in a red dim light on the west side of the room kissing the air besides her. And Piper came storming in through the front doors of Leo's headmaster office.
"I still don't think this is a good idea," Piper mumbled as she snapped her cellphone shut.
"Leo thinks it might really be beneficial to the kids, I mean we rarely give talks together anyway." Phoebe sighed.
"Hm, there is no full moon this February. That only happens three times a century." Paige mumbled looking down at the charts on the table Prue was still hanging over.
"What were you scrying for Prue?" Piper frowned at the collection of magical references.
"I was trying to hone in on the evil that might be affecting the kids…" Prue commented.
"Chris is really very good at convincing people of things," Paige shook her head laughing.
"Prue, you really shouldn't encourage him." Piper sighed.
"There does have to be a reason that Prue was brought back from the past though…" Phoebe suggested calmly. Leo popped his head in at that moment.
"Girls, the hall is ready for you." He announced as he hurried away again.
"I think it was just a magical mishap, I mean that ban on time travel had to whack out the spell." Paige shrugged.
"Why is there a ban?" Prue demanded again as the four sisters walked into a large auditorium. Magic School's auditorium resembled the ancient halls of the Romans and the Greeks, done in a style hope to aspire thinking like Aristotle and Socrates. Leo had convinced the four charmed ones to come to an open hall Q & A for the students of magic school. He thought that they might as well take advantage of the opportunity that magic had presented them with, a rare teaching moment with all four of the most powerful witches to have existed in the last several centuries.
"We can talk about this later." Piper suggested as the four women sat down on the stage to face a hundred bright innocent faces. Four chairs had been set-up on the stage in a semi circle facing the audience of young magic. Leo stood at one end of the stage clapping his hands, an empty gesture, because everyone's focus was already on the charmed ones.
"As you all know, we are here to have a discussion with the charmed sisters. Please keep your questions to academically relevant questions and don't talk over each other." Leo gave the audience a stern glance before sitting down. The proceedings started normally enough. Questions from the younger students consisted of the types of questions given in a teeny bopper magazine. Ranging from what their favorite colors were, to how love affected their powers, to what was their favorite thing to wear to a vanquish. As the conversation was coming to a close and Prue was explaining her initial reactions to Paige, as a tiny sophomore wanted to know, two bright figures appeared in the back of the room.
Anka's glittering arm shot up as she appeared and she didn't wait to be called on, so much as she just started speaking when Prue finished laughing about the idea of having a sister that was more trouble than Phoebe.
"Do you think that having discovered your destiny at a younger age would have been more beneficial to you? Maybe prevented Prue's death?" Anka announced. Eyes from every direction turned to observe who had asked such an intrusive question.
"I'm not sure that it would have changed anything, things happen for a reason." Piper said slowly.
"Maybe it was destined for one of the charmed ones to die." Prue nodded.
"But, don't you think that your grams should have told you about the destined that you were growing into. Do you really think she was protecting you or she was just protecting herself from the disappointment she thought you were going to be because you couldn't get along as sisters?" Anka pressed. Leo went to stop the discussion but Piper waved him back down.
"She might have been doing both…" Piper started.
"It's a possibility that Grams was fearful for the future of good magic if we as witches couldn't pull it together as sisters but you understand that my grams like to control everything. And there's no telling if we might not have evolved in the same way to become powerful enough to defeat several sources and an ultimate power if it hadn't been for the normal childhood that we were given…" Phoebe defended.
"Are you keeping secrets from your own children about their destinies?" Anka smiled triumphantly.
"We don't know what their destinies are." Paige commented back.
"Do you think that being the most powerful witches of your time that you might underestimate the power that you're children hold?" Kron asked from besides her.
"I'm not sure that we do." Phoebe snapped back.
"And I'm not sure you are willing to accept that they aren't all children in need of your protection anymore." Kron responded. At that Leo stood up and declared it was the end of all questions and directed the students out of the room. When he glanced up to catch the two young people from the back, Anka and Kron had already disappeared.
"What the hell was that about?" Piper demanded.
"I think they were… No they couldn't have been. They haven't been here in decades, though sometimes they get bored…" Leo rambled to himself staring at the spot where Anka and Kron had been standing.
"What are you talking about?" Paige demanded.
"In any case they weren't students." Leo shook his head.
"Then what were they?" Prue asked curiously.
"Magical beings, Wyatt's birthday is coming up and it marks a growing suspicion in the magical community about his destiny." Leo sighed walked back towards his office.
"His magical destiny?" Prue repeated.
"Our nephew is the new King Arthur, but he doesn't know because Piper and Leo haven't told him." Paige popped her lips in annoyance.
"Paige, it's not that we haven't thought about telling him." Piper snapped.
"I'm sorry, who is going to be King Arthur?" Prue demanded.
"Wyatt." Phoebe said quietly. They had all walked back into Leo's office and Phoebe had stopped to study the table that Prue had left.
"And we know he's going to be King Arthur because?" Prue asked not questioning the idea of storybook kings.
"He's the master of Excalibur, though he's only used it once and it was before he could talk." Paige commented.
"Excalibur?" Prue stated in disbelief as she stared at Piper.
"About sixteen years ago, almost seventeen now I guess, the lady of the lake came to me. And now technically I'm the lady of the lake and Wyatt is the master of Excalibur. We've got the sword magically hidden in the attic." Piper waved off the explanation to Prue before glaring at Leo. "This was a good idea why?"
" Why haven't you told him?" Prue stared at her younger sisters trying to understand exactly what the young magical being had asked. Why, if after their own experience of having to learn about their destiny on the way, would they ever keep the destiny of one of their children secret?
"It's complicated Prue." Piper sighed.
"Right before Chris was born, his future self spent a year with us trying to save Wyatt from turning into an evil tyrant." Phoebe spit out. She started shifting through some of the star charts that Prue had laid out.
"But you saved him?" Prue said slowly trying to make sense of the situation that had her sisters in a tense state.
"We constantly saved him during his first few years. Wyatt was born at the manor." Piper whispered.
"Which means he's like me. We've unfortunately got a tendency to be swayed to the use our powers for evil which is very dangerous with a witch as powerful as Wyatt." Phoebe commented as she frowned at the chart.
"You don't want to tell him about the sword because you're worried he might use it for evil?" Prue asked.
"When Chris came back from that dark future that we changed, Wyatt wasn't just a kid who had jumped the fence. He tormented the world Prue, and from what I can gather he didn't have access with the sword. If he were still to turn evil, if he had the sword it might be worse…" Piper swallowed and looked down to the ground.
"We just wanted to be sure he was ready for it. So much of that future already changed, but we're worried. Chris died in my arms to save his older brother, I don't want what he fought for to be destroyed." Leo commented.
"That's why there is a ban on time travel, he's already died doing it once?" Prue whispered nodding.
"Chris has a tendency towards time travel. When he was six he almost got himself eaten by a dinosaur." Paige nodded.
"You haven't told him either?" Prue asked.
"Told him that he's either going to be his brother's right hand man or the only person in the world able to stand up to him?" Leo stated angrily.
"Maybe he needs that, maybe he needs the confidence that might give him. Do you know how much he idealizes and feels threatened by Wyatt?' Prue demanded, surprising herself with how much she had come to knew her nephew in the few days she had spent with him.
"She's just trying to protect them Prue, they are powerful boys." Patty Halliwell had appeared in the office her ghostly figure glowing.
"Mom?" Four voices said surprised.
"You are doing what I did." Penny had appeared next to her daughter.
"Grams?" Phoebe and Prue said surprised to see another ghost appear.
"Not that I don't love to see you both, but what are you doing here?" Paige demanded.
"Prue is right." Patty commented. "It's time you told them."
"You came down here to mother me?" Piper sounded incredulously.
"Something's going to happen." Phoebe gasped as she fell down into a chair. All the eyes in the room turned to look at her. She titled her head back on the chair and a shiver shook her body.
"Phoebe?" Paige asked impatiently.
"I can't make it out." Phoebe stared directly at Piper when she looked up again.
"What did you see?" Leo asked.
"Something's going to happen on Wyatt's birthday." Phoebe sighed.
"How do you know?" Piper demanded.
"The full moon was the only thing I could make out." Phoebe stared down at the charts and books in front of her.
"Better reason to tell the boys now," Patty commented.
"Mom, really this isn't the time." Phoebe snapped annoyed with herself for not being able to see the vision.
"Phoebe don't talk to your mother that way." Penny chastised. "If anything Piper might be right, if there was a time that Wyatt might turn evil now might be it. Let him mature a little bit more…" Penny suggested.
"Wyatt is very responsible, we have raised him for this." Leo suggested trying to settle his arm around Piper.
"You always did say that you would tell him when he was 18…" Paige trailed off.
"Maybe telling them both might prepare them for what's to come," Patty suggested.
"Do you know something we don't know?" Phoebe stared at her mother.
"I just know that it might have been easier on my own girls had they been prepared with the knowledge of their own destinies." Patty sighed.
"If Chris knew that he is such an important factor of his big brother's life…" Prue commented.
"No." Leo shook his head. The women in the room all looked at him surprised.
"But you're all for telling Wyatt, why not Chris?" Penny looked at him stunned.
"He doesn't need to know. He's never going to have to protect his brother that way, he doesn't have to know." Leo shook his head resolutely.
"It's important that we tell Wyatt soon." Phoebe said touching everything on the desk trying to spark another vision.
"Headmaster Wyatt you're advance magical theory class is waiting for you?" A younger teacher had popped her head in. Leo jumped away shouting over his shoulder that he would see everyone later.
"I have a charge calling for me." Paige orbed out of the office.
"Did she just leave us here?" Phoebe stared at the spot where Paige had been.
"You couldn't see anything else?" Patty asked Phoebe. Phoebe shook her head sadly.
"Someone is getting attacked. But I can't make out who is getting attacked or who is doing the attacking." Phoebe pressed her eyes shut.
"Now with all four of your girls here, I'm sure you can figure out what is going to happen. Just scry for evil in the city, maybe have Paige check with the Elders if anything is brewing." Penny started suggesting.
"I think we know how to deal with things now Grams," Piper said between gritted teeth. Prue stared at her wristwatch.
"The kids are out of school, Wyatt could come orb us home?" Prue suggested.
"And then you could tell him." Patty placed her ghostly hand Piper's shoulder.
"Leo and I will discuss it some more later." Piper shook her head.
"Piper don't you think that maybe we should give Chris back his active powers with what's happening? I mean it would only be a few days early." Phoebe suggested.
"Maybe we can call Paige over later tonight and we'll say the spell but maybe not tell him, because he tends to get into trouble especially when he thinks there is trouble coming," Piper nodded.
"Piper they aren't little boys anymore." Patty whispered.
"You two really came down here to talk about Wyatt and Chris?" Prue looked at them suspiciously.
"We may be dead honey, but that doesn't mean we don't know things." Penny laughed.
"This is boding well. Three dead family members and two magical beings criticizing how I am raising my children." Piper growled.
"Honey we're just trying to help," Patty comforted her daughter.
The family discussion only continued for a few more minutes before Piper called for Wyatt in exasperation. The tall youth was wrangling his little brother towards the car.
"You went to the middle school?" He hissed. Patience and Henry were trudging behind the two of them whispering about the events of the day. Patience was updating Henry on how she had watched his younger sister use magic in broad daylight.
"I think they might be expecting you tomorrow." Chris argued impatiently.
"Who the hell are they Chris?" Wyatt growled. "I'm more worried about you than any they."
"I don't know who they are exactly you know that!" Chris argued.
"Mom's calling." Wyatt gritted his teeth.
"Better go golden boy." Chris rolled his eyes and held out his hand for the keys to the car.
"But you're not suppose…" Wyatt started but Piper yelled in his head again.
"Yeah, you really going to make her wait because the headache you can get for that is horrible." Chris made a grabbing motion with his hand for the keys.
"Straight home and don't forget to pick up Prim." Wyatt dropped the keys into his younger brother's hand and ducked down behind a car to orb out. Henry skipped forward to be walking by Chris with Patience lagging behind looking for Dervin. Dervin pulled up next to her already in his car and rolled down his window.
"I'll call you later?" He asked as he dashingly took her hand and kissed it. With a wink he rolled up his window and drove away.
"Patience!" Chris hollered to her as he slammed the driver's door shut. Clutching the straps of her backpack she ran towards the car and jumped into the backseat because Henry had already made himself comfortable in the front seat.
"Pat I can't be worrying that you are going to blow the family secret to some crush." Chris said as he started the car.
"She wouldn't do that." Henry defended her.
"I don't think it's just a crush." Patience whispered under her breath. "What are we going to do?"
"I guess we're going to have to wait it out until Wyatt sees what we're talking about tomorrow. I think maybe we can try to convince aunt Prue to convince mom to give me back my powers. If you could work on aunt Phoebe?" Chris smiled at his cousin.
"Yeah it works better when you're there to give her that innocent smile. You can con her better than I've ever been able to." Patience rolled her eyes.
"We're really going to wait for Wyatt?" Henry asked doubting the idea.
"You know when the twice blessed makes up his mind, he'd have my head if we tried anything without him. Besides we still don't know who these demons are and with mom not believing us." Chris sighed in frustration.
"You've cried wolf a lot." Patience shrugged.
"But we're worried about this?" Henry demanded.
"It might be a problem yes, but if they were really that powerful wouldn't they just outright attack? I think they're more scared off us than we should be of them." Chris commented.
"Pride comes before a fall." Henry shook his head looking worried out the window.
"Stop worrying about it, we'll take care of it." Patience nodded.
"Pandora used her magic against Chris, I think we should be more worried about this." Henry stated stubbornly.
"We are, we're just going to wait until Wyatt is on board too." Patience soothed him.
"You don't think that Wyatt is going to blow us off? I mean he has been acting slightly distracted lately…" Henry started.
"That's just cause of college applications and his birthday coming up soon. You know he gets all weird about getting older, it's like with every year he gets another weight of responsibility dumped on him. "Patience shook her head.
Chris pulled the car up in front of the elementary school that all the charmed children had attended. Henry unfastened his seatbelt and hopped onto the sidewalk to help Primrose get into the car. The little girl had a wide pink ribbon in her hair that matched her pink corduroy pants. She jumped readily into Henry's arms and the older boy wrapped his thin arm around her protectively. Patience pushed opened the back door and Henry sat the little girl down on the seat.
"Thanks HJ." Primrose gave him a toothless grin.
"How was your day bug?" Patience asked as she tried to collect all the loose papers that the little girl had been holding and stuff them into the backpack.
"We had a substitute today and he's great fun Pat. Mr. Broody let us put on old socks over our shoes and had us run around in the soccer field and then we planted the sock and he says that in a few weeks things will start to grow from the speeds that we collected from the grass!" Primrose started chattering excitedly in the backseat and the older cousins let the little girl talk herself silly for the rest of the drive.
Across town, Dervin was standing outside the San Francisco City Police Department leaning against his car finishing off a cigarette. Henry Sr. walked out of the front doors and straight over to Dervin with his arms crossed.
"I thought you gave those up." Henry said sternly.
"Our appointment isn't for three more minutes." Dervin sighed as he checked his phone.
"Were you going to lie to me?" Henry arched his eyebrows slightly.
"Nah, I don't really smoke much anymore just sometimes helps me think." Dervin pushed his fingers down on the burning end before chucking out the cigarette bud.
"You didn't attend some of your classes today." Henry reproached.
"You keeping tabs on me Officer Mitchell?" Dervin pursued his lips while avoiding eye contact.
"And you promised that you weren't going to give your foster parents anymore trouble Dervin." Henry shook his head.
"I didn't mean anything by it." Dervin shoved his hands into his pockets.
"So what'd happened, you didn't hear from one of the other guys?" Henry looked worried at the young man in front of him. Dervin Rogers was Henry's youngest parolee, and Henry had a soft spot for the teenager that had been under his supervision for the last two years.
"No sir." Dervin shook his head.
"You skip a test?" Henry persisted.
"Nope, actually I made sure to get back for my test today." Dervin shook his head again.
"So?" Henry demanded.
"Well someone needed my help." Dervin shrugged.
"Someone…" Henry repeated. "A girl?"
Dervin nodded and his blue eyes twinkled with a look of far off adoration that Henry was trying not to laugh at.
"What's her name?" Henry prompted.
"Patience." Dervin sighed. Henry frowned for a second and thought before speaking again.
"Patience Halliwell?" Henry asked. Dervin nodded slightly shocked.
"You got someone following me?" Dervin demanded sounding slightly angry.
"No." Henry shook his head. "She's my niece."
"You've got twin daughters?" A light bulb went on in his head about why one of the girls had looked so familiar.
"Yes." Henry nodded. "You didn't go to class today because my niece needed your help?" Henry's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"I don't want to get her into any trouble." Dervin said alarmed.
"What did she need help with?" Henry demanded.
"I'm not sure…" Dervin started.
"Dervin she's a very special girl," Henry softened his tone.
"Yes sir, I know. I'm starting to understand that the whole family is very special." Dervin nodded.
"How so?" Henry lost some of the color in his face, if Patience had told this boy the sisters were not going to be pleased.
"They are very closed knit sir, as cousins and siblings." Dervin shrugged.
"Yes, yes the family is very closed. But Dervin I need to know what she needed help with today…" Henry tried again.
"I'm really not sure that I should be telling you." Dervin was not about to give up information that wasn't his to divulge.
The image of Henry Sr. and the young Dervin smoked around the edges and a cloth-hidden hand waved over the picture.
"He's the target do you understand?" A chilly voice commanded at a shivering Mr. Tolliver.
"Yes sire." Mr. Tolliver bent his head down.
"You will be sure that Kron and Anka understand their part of the plan?" The voice demanded.
"Yes sire." Mr. Tolliver nodded.
"And the others understand their parts?" The voice demanded of another darker figure in the room.
"Yes sire." The figure bowed lower than Mr. Tolliver had.
"Have you decided which ones you want?" The voice asked sounding bored.
"The twins sire will be the best for our ranks. We can easily turn them and their powers will be useful." The darker figure didn't raise from his bow.
"May we keep Melinda?" Javin came from the shadows. Mr. Tolliver snapped his cane at Javin's knees forcefully.
"That is not part of the deal." The cold voice roared.
"Excuse him sire, he doesn't know when to keep his tongue on occasion. Shut up boy." Mr. Tolliver hissed as he hit the young demon again in the knees.
"You'd do best to not be heard young demon." The voice sneered.
"I'm older than you." Javin grumbled.
"Go on and inform Kron and Anka of their parts, make sure they understand they must keep their part of the deal." Mr. Tolliver knocked Javin on the head forcefully as the young demon shimmered out of the cave.
"You will be greatly rewarded if this works Tolliver. Greatly rewarded." The icy voice laughed in anticipation of a plan that was about to come to life.