Note: This chapter is a long one, and an important one. Also, is this fic getting worse? The review rate is slowing down, so I thought I'd ask. If it's bad, please just say so; I wouldn't waste my time if that's the case. This is my first story, so it's all kind of new to me.
In the afternoon, at the manor…
Bianca shimmered into the manner, and looked around carefully. All seemed quiet and at peace, like it had been in P3.
Which is exactly what was bothering her.
She knew she was on Wyatt's most wanted list right now, while Mel and Jonas had been on there since they refused to join him. He should have sent someone by now… and the fact that no one had tried anything worried her.
A shadow appeared against the white walls of the manor's conservatory. The phoenix immediately crouched down in an offensive position, mostly out of habit; she hadn't sensed any real danger to her orher baby. And vigorous training since she was eight had made her senses more attuned then the average witch or demon.
"So."
Leo stepped out of the hallway, and crossed his arms. Bianca stood up straight and looked him straight in the eye. Oh, how she hated this man. Her blood boiled being in such close proximity to him.
"What do you want, elder?" she spat, and he maintained his cold, smug smile.
"I want to know how you and your fiancé plan to hurt my son," he shot back, and expected her to recoil. But she stood her ground.
"That's all you're really concerned about, aren't you?" she stalled, trying to think of a convincing lie that would get him off her back. Her mind, however, was blank.
"Nothing is more important to me than my family," he said passionately, his emotionless stance faltering for a moment. He recovered himself shortly.
"Chris," Bianca began, "as well as Jonas and Mel, would sacrifice their lives if it meant Wyatt was safe from evil. You and the sisters are just too pigheaded to realize this!"
Leo was aghast by her point of view, but she continued before he could say anything.
"Chris is here trying to save the world!" she yelled, her anger rising, and overcoming her common sense. "He had been working so hard just to help you morons and you stupid son, and all you ever do is distrust him! My god!"
She charged up an energy ball, but as it was released, aimed at Leo's gut, it burst into a patch of breathtaking fireworks, whose beauty was undermined by a groan from Bianca.
"Come on, baby. Mommy wants to fight a little."
Leo, however, had no such handicap. Fuel by rage, his hands crackled with bright blue bolts of lightning. With his face crunched up, and his hands shaking with unrestrained power, he glared menacing at Bianca, who threw her hand toward her stomach in a defensive position, trying to protect her unborn child.
"Never. Insult. My. Son." Leo growled inhumanly. Bianca's shield shot up around her, and Leo's lightning was deferred.
Both fighters were so focused on each other and the feeling of loathing they held for each other, that neither noticed Phoebe's heels clack down the stairs and dart into the room.
"Leo, Bianca!" she cried, as she saw her brother-in-law about to kill her niece-in-law and her unborn baby, "Stop, it Leo! She's pregnant! The stress could kill the baby!"
"The 'baby' is spawn," he snarled, and Bianca's eyes widened.
"Don't you dare say that about it!" she said, enraged. "Someday, he or she will be more powerful than your first-born!"
She drew her breath in quickly, realizing what a terrible mistake she had made. Saying firstborn could imply that there was a second child. Hopefully, he didn't catch it, but know would be a good time to shimmer out.
"Liar!" Oh, good. He didn't. Bianca prepared to shimmer out with an impish smile on her face, while knowing that Chris would be very mad that she went out. All well. She'd jump off that bridge when she got there. But then she glanced at Phoebe's menacing glare.
Future, in the Valley of the Leprechauns…
Ella sat quietly in the meadow, playing with several colorful flowers she had picked. So far, she had managed to tie them together and lop them into a circle. Unfortunately, it was too big for her head; whenever she put it on, it slid down and hung around her neck like a necklace. Now, she was intently focused on fixing it properly.
Several yards off, where a circle of logs and rocks lay, a meeting was being held with the leprechauns and the "big people." Cole, however, kept a close eye on his youngest daughter as he tried to pay attention to the various arguments being held.
Teresa was speaking, and many of the audience were shaking their head in dismay. Her plan of action was violent and bloody, and would achieve very little. Cole and Richard looked at each other as David hung his head, ashamed of her.
"No, no, no!" Quincey hollered, his short legs not allowing him much height or visual notice. "We mustn't risk our numbers. Chargin' into Wyatt'slair wouldn't leave much survivors, eh?"
"I concur!" Michael yelled, thrilled to be participating in the debate, like one of the adults. Richard smiled at his enthusiasm; he was so much like his mother.
"Me too!" said Shannon, grinning at Michael. Teresa glared at them both.
"This isn't a place for children," she said pompously, and Michael glared back at her.
"Be quiet, Teresa," Cole muttered. He glanced back at Ella again, and she waved at him, content. Cole managed a smile.
"I think," David began quietly, and his voice rose with encouragement from his future father and uncle –in-laws, "that we should send someone back to the past, just to tell the two what happened. Then, after consulting them, we could consider a proper plan of action."
Cole nodded in agreement, and so did many others at the circle.
"All in favor?" Conner asked, and raised his own hand. "1…2…3…4…5…" he continued counting, as the majority of the hands went up.
"19 out of 20," he announced. All looked at Teresa, who was the only one against. Huffily, she raised her hand as well.
"Who gets to go?" she asked sullenly. Conner looked around.
"I nominate Cole."Many nods accompanied it.
"Why, Conner of the Finnegan Clan?" an older leprechaun asked.
"He's the most powerful one," he said in reply, "also, he knows the sisters and the manor the best. He could avoid getting caught."
"So could I!" Teresa announced. Conner just glared, and she quieted.
Cole nodded in agreement to Connor's plan, but a thought entered his mind as he checked on Ella yet again.
"I'm bringing Ella." It wasn't a question, but a statement, and the other members knew it. If he was to go, so would she.
"Agreed. You leave in an hour."
Back in the Past…
Phoebe glanced between Leo and Bianca, and her gaze seemed to stun Bianca. There was no shimmering out of this one.
"What the hell is going on!" Phoebe demanded. Leo looked sheepish, like he was a young boy being scolded.
Bianca, however, confessed about their little fight. Phoebe ends up marrying a demon; she had the advantage.
"Nothing."
"She insulted Wyatt! She claimed her…spawn…would be more powerful than my precious little boy."
That's a good possibility, Phoebe reasoned mentally. With parents like his/hers, how could it not be?
"Phoebe?" Leo prompted, "She has attacked the dignity of your nephew and this family. You cannot, in all seriousness, be taking her side?"
"Nice words you've got there, Leo," Bianca taunted, "especially for your intelligence level." Leo went to swing at her, but it deflected off of the still active shield.
"How old are we?" Phoebe reminded, surprised by the childish behavior being shown by the two rivals. Leo began to look more abashed. Bianca glared at Leo.
"Ok, I've come to my decision," Phoebe announced. They looked at her, for once sharing similar feelings.
"Since when are you the judge and jury?" Bianca snapped.
"Yeah?" Leo finished.
"Shut up, both of you," Phoebe continued. She put her hands on her hips and waited for them to stop being argumentative.
"Leo, go check on Piper. She's at the club, and is feeling uneasy about the whole 'future people' thing. Bianca, you come with me. I need to talk to you."
Leo smirked and orbed off. But not to Piper. His heightened elder senses was picking up something in the underworld.
The phoenix turned and looked at the Charmed One like one would look at their executioner.
"So," Phoebe began, drawing out the syllables, "you're about to marry my nephew."
Bianca looked down at the ground. She had figured that was coming.
"What else do you know?"
In the Underworld…(still past)
Mel jumped up into the air, and kicked the slime demon in the jaw. It howled in agony and stumbled to the ground, while green pus leaked out of several holes in its body.
"Grafraphrash shafrsphsugg!" It hollered out. Mel, who had learned the majority of demonic languages, laughed lightly, for the demon had yelled 'you crazy witch-child!' Sweat poured out of her forehead as she continued her favorite exercise: beat a demon using no magic.
"Jawsquef ramishgu ladfrished!" she mocked. It meant 'an ant could eat your mother.' It was a grave insult among these demons and many others, apparently. She had heard her father yell it once before at a Kazi demon, when it attacked her little sister.
Thinking of her father caused her to add more force to the various kicks and punches she threw at the demon. Finally, so bored with the fight, she conjured an athame and stabbed the demon.
As she absorbed the rather interesting demonic slime power, she thought back to her childhood. Her ability, shared by all upper-level demons, to steal powers with an athame once a demon was vanquished was a constant excuse for the rest of the sisters and their respective husbands to hate her. The only people who ever loved her were her fellow Charmed Ones, and her direct family.
Leo, especially, as well as Wyatt even before he turned, seemed to harbor feeling of revulsion, apparent every time they laid eyes on her, even when she was a young child. It was horrible to know that people hated her just for the way she was born.
A tinkle of orbs announced the entrance of a whitelighter. Old habits caused her to summon a darklighter's crossbow she had acquired when she had befriended a variety of demons in the Underworld, shortly after Wyatt rise to power. Being half demon and half witch allowed her to do things like that.
To her dismay, the orbs materialized into Leo, who looked very cross.
"What are you doing here?" they said simultaneously to each other. Melody shuddered. The thought of thinking the same way Leo did was disgusting.
"Where did you get that?" Alarmed by the crossbow she held pointed at him, he stuttered, and backed away a few paces. She looked down at the weapon, and back up at him, and a smile began to spread across her slime and dirt covered face.
"I make friends easily," was all she said, as she continued to point the poisonous arrows at Leo, just to watch him squirm. Watching him like that was well worth the scolding she'd get from the others.
"If you dare go near my son with that…" he trailed off, intending for her to imagine the most horrific punishment she could think of.
"You'll do what?" she laughed, "glare at me? Hate me? Well, Uncle Leo, you've already done that. Since I was five."
"You're a demon!" he cried out, "Good is supposed to hate you!"
She shook her head sadly at him, and tried to hold in tears.
"That's your problem, Leo," she said with a quivering voice, "the only second generation Haliwell you could stand was your precious Wyatt. The rest of us were never good enough for you."
"Us?" Leo caught the plural. "There are more of you?"
Mel realized her mistake.
"Of course." She said plainly, sounding sure of herself, like she meant to say it. The worst thing to do was to draw attention to Chris' and Jonas' identity.
"Do…do I have any more children?" he stammered, shocked by her revelation. Though, he thought to himself, he should have gone over that possibility. But that means…
"Piper and I are back together in the future?" Leo was in awe of the possibilities, and his old hatred of Chris once again bubbled up. "Screwing with the timeline…Chris ruined my marriage with Piper."
"That was not his intentions…believe me," Mel said seriously, "He didn't even consider the consequences. All he cared about was saving Wyatt, thus the rest of the world."
Her crossbow disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
"Well, I'll leave you to think about that," she started, as she wiped green guck off of her athame, scraping it against the rock. "Bye now."
And she shimmered out, leaving a confused Leo in her wake. The rest of the world?