**There is one more chapter left after this, make sure to review! I'm trying to decide what the title of the last chapter is going to be. That means it might take a few days to come up because I can't write without a title. But know that I'm going to try to have it finished by Thursday! Also review, because I'm trying to decide if I'm going to write a follow up. If you like it let me know! ***
Moment of Truth
Kyle Broody collapsed as he appeared in a small puddle of dark dirty water. Primrose hopped away from the falling man to escape being crushed. The little girl and the young white lighter had appeared in a dark damp part of the underworld that seemed completely abandoned. Breathing heavily Kyle reached out his arm to Primrose, to comfort the sobbing little girl.
"It's ok Primrose, we're going to be fine. Don't worry." He whispered through clenched teeth. A cold sweat was starting to fall from his brow and Primrose had tears streaking down her face.
"I just want my mommy and daddy. I don't like it down here." She stamped her foot and magic sparked upon impact.
"Prim did you feel that?" Kyle tightened his grasp on her hand.
"Feel what?" She stopped crying distracted.
"The magic?" Kyle pointed to her foot. Primrose crinkled her nose and shook her head stamping her foot again in anger. The sparks flew again and this time Primrose was looking down and saw them.
"I got my magic?" Primrose asked.
"I'm not sure. I need you to think about something really hard. Maybe on creating light?" Kyle suggested trying to swallow his pain and give the little girl something easy to try her magical abilities on.
Primrose pressed her lips tightly together and squeezed her eyes shut. She clenched her tiny fists and tried to think of light with all her might. But as the frightened child that she was, it wasn't light that her thoughts focused on but her mother. Kyle watched as the youngest charmed child tried to hone in on her powers. The little girl seemed to emit a bright pink light from her light skin.
"Primrose!" Phoebe's voice rang off the stones around Kyle and Primrose. Hairpins falling from her now dishevel bun, Phoebe caught sight of her youngest child standing near a fallen man.
Piper and Paige came trotting behind their sister both with their hands up defensively waiting for more demons to appear.
"Mommy!" Primrose shouted not opening her eyes. Kyle moved his head and smiled as he saw the Charmed ones moving gracefully towards them. In the fifteen years since he had last seen the three women, he couldn't help but noticed they really hadn't changed. Though aged with wrinkles around their eyes and gray hairs hiding amongst their dark hairstyles. He would admit that the three had only gotten more graceful, powerful and beautiful.
"Open your eyes Primrose." Kyle whispered. The little girl's eyelids fluttered open to look down at her whitelighter.
"Is that who I think it is?" Paige's voice went up an octave higher than usual.
"That's Kyle Broody. Right?" Piper demanded. Phoebe was distracted holding open her arms as she ran towards her daughter. But the sweet mother daughter reunion was thwarted by the appearance of more demons.
A volley of dark arrows was shooting towards Chris and Prue, smashing into the chalkboard and bouncing back. Prue waved arrows out of her own way while still trying to wave arrows away from her jumping nephew. Chris was attempting to take out the dark lighters themselves, pushing them back with his hands. Neither charmed one nor charmed child was having much luck with their endeavor though. Suddenly, Chris in his vigor focus to take down the main dark lighter missed the dark figure that came up behind him. An arrow flew directly towards his heart as Cole appeared in the cave. His dark brown eyes widen as he surveyed the scene.
"PRUE!" Cole shouted at the eldest charmed one. She turned around, her dark hair flying up as if suspended in the air. Without a thought to herself she thrust her body in the way of the arrow and her nephew, letting the dark tip pierce into her right shoulder as she fell. Chris turned around in time to see the impact. Letting out an angry yelp the boy shuttered with an electrical power as lightning jumped from his core and bounced off the walls in every direction. The lightning hit the dark lighters and every single attacker was charred to dust.
"Prue? Prue are you all right?" Chris dropped to his knees and stared down worriedly at his aunt.
"That was incredibly impressive, remind me not to piss you off." Cole commented starring in wonder at the cave around him. There were burn marks from where the lightning had struck the rock walls and the remains of the dark lighters remained all over the ground.
"It's Aunt Prue to you buddy." Prue coughed at him groaning. Chris cracked a smile, even under pressure the charmed wit shone through.
"You have to pull out that arrow, it won't kill her but it should be heal nonetheless. Also you have to be extremely careful not to touch the tip because you are a white lighter." Cole suggested.
"Yeah because I've suddenly forgotten that I'm part white lighter." Chris responded sarcastically.
"Oh, little flesh wound. I've had plenty of these, no problem kid. Just yank." Prue said bravely. Chris grimaced giving Cole a questioning look. The ghostly old demon gave a curt nod and the young man squeezed his eyes shut. A stifled scream and a clattering of a cast aside arrow melted into one combined sound. Chris clamped his hands together and pressed his palms into the open wound.
"Aren't you part white lighter?" Prue demanded.
"Yeah." Chris frowned annoyed that this was still part of their conversation.
"But he doesn't know how to heal." Cole sighed knowing where the question was leading.
"You don't know how to heal?" Prue laughed. "Maybe I should have gone with Wyatt."
"Oh really let's give me more of a complex about Wyatt, that's exactly what I need from my family. More love for Wyatt." Chris spat bitterly. In his annoyance he straightened his arms more and pushed down on the wound.
"Chris, honey. That's rather painful." Prue said through clenched teeth. Chris alleviated the pressure and concentrated on his breathing. Closing his eyelids over his green eyes everything seemed to slow down for a second.
"So not to hurry you in whatever it is you're trying to achieve, but you do know that your entire family is stuck in the underworld. They have Henry and Patience now and it's only a matter of time before they call Wyatt." Cole commented.
"They already have Wy. I'm ready to follow him right after this." Chris said each word separately as he focused his attention on his hands. A warm glow emitted from his hands as he spoke of his older brother and the situation at hand.
"It seems that you kids gain powers the bigger the threat to each of you." Cole nodded impressed with the situation.
"Maybe you should stay and rest?" Chris gave his aunt a critical stare as he jumped up onto his feet.
"Right and let you go by yourself. Impulsive and reckless party of one, I think not." Prue winked at him as she held out her hand to be helped up. Chris sighed resigned to the situation and helped her up as he orbed.
Leo Wyatt rarely cursed his lack of powers these days, but on occasion a situation would arise much like this one. Leo let out a frustrated sigh because even without his white lighter abilities he knew that everyone he loved was in trouble. A flash of a heart and Coop appeared near his brother-in-law. The overtly tall cupid looked pale as he stared down at what Penny was making.
"Anything?" He demanded.
"Coop you've got a better ability to read where they are than I do…" Leo rolled his eyes, trying to hide his impatience.
"Yeah, but you know the charmed ones and your children better than anyone. As I understand it's all up to my dearest nephews." Coop puckered his lips in thought.
"Those boys are extremely powerful." Penny snapped as she mixed in another root to her mixture.
"Believe me, we know Penny." Coop rolled his eyes.
"You can't sense them then?" Leo demanded of the cupid. Coop curled up his lip into a slight smile that only lasted seconds.
"I can feel Phoebe, much more than the girls but she is moving around a lot. Also she's not exactly feeling loving currently. Patience and Penelope seem to be blocked from me, which doesn't bode well. And I think I am sensing Primrose's magic." Coop frowned at the oddity.
"I've always thought she might develop her powers when no one else was around to protect her." Leo nodded. Grabbing the bowl from Penny, Leo proceeded to pour the dark substance into a glass vile with experienced hands.
"Do you two have an actual plan or are we just making potions?" Coop tended to get a little snappy when his girls were all in danger. Leo's cell phone vibrated on his desk and Coop reached down, pressing the speaker button easily enough.
"Where are they?' Henry's voice was crisp and annoyed. As the only real mortal in the family, Henry had proved himself in magical situations again and again. The problem was that none of the husbands had been in this situation ever before. It is true that each man had at one point had their children taken from them and their wives in hazardous and dangerous situations. But though they might be use to the charmed ones having to fight their fights or Wyatt, Chris, Patience and Henry being attacked. Never had the demon community taken their vendetta to such extremities as to include all of the children and the girls at any one time. That was clearly a suicide mission. But for all their confidence in their wives and their children, this particular attack had come a little to close for comfort for any of the men.
"They are being held captive by some powerful demons." Coop crossed his arms and started pacing again.
"And what exactly are we doing about it?" Henry shouted through the phone receiver.
"You boys are aware that you're not the charmed ones? And two of you are mortal and one of you is a cupid?' Penny gave Leo and Coop a mocking glance.
"No, we totally missed that Penny." Leo replied sarcastically. For anyone who thought all of Chris' sarcasm came from his mother and aunts, they had never annoyed Leo enough to notice that the one angel was just as sarcastic as his son.
"Mom, the boys are just worried no need to taunt them." Patty reappeared.
"Why aren't you with Wyatt?" Leo's old blue eyes snapped up to his young mother-in-law.
"He was called away and I can't seem to find him anymore." Patty sighed.
"Called away?" Penny asked.
"I'm pretty sure the other kids used the to call a lost witch spell. Because one moment I was with him and the next he was engulfed in light that took his away." Patty sighed.
"Leo how long do we wait in this situation?" Henry demanded still on his line.
"Someone will check in, we just have to be patient. Let them do their thing." Leo groaned. He hated the idea as much as both of his brother-in-laws but there was nothing that they could do.
"And I'm sure that Coop has plenty of work to do, being a cupid before Valentine's Day." Leo nodded.
"But my family…" Coop started.
"You will know if there is anything wrong, you will feel it. Or we shall call you, don't worry they are very good, my girls." Patty patted Coop on the arm lovingly.
"What are you guys exactly working on?" Coop demanded for the second time.
"We are working on the essence of self, a potion that will reverse effects of the evil inducing toxin that the demon boyfriends were feeding the girls." Penny explained.
"It seems that Chris might have been right this time." Leo smiled despite himself.
"That's going to be make him bearable. Maybe if he didn't throw around so many theories on a regular basis, we would be more likely to believe him." Coop wiggled his eyebrows for a second. "All right you all know how to reach me."
With that the cupid disappeared again into his bright red flash. Henry coughed into the receiver to remind Leo that he was still sitting on the phone.
"Anything I should do?" Henry asked, desperate to have an action plan.
"Well maybe if you want to swing pass the manor every so often, just to make sure nothing is happening there? I mean since we expelled the nexus they don't tend to go back there as much but you know. I'm pretty sure that the kids have the book of shadows by now." Leo sighed. There was no doubt in his heart that the book of shadows was deep in the underworld by now. When Patience and Henry hadn't return within twenty minutes of leaving, he had known that they had been lead down to the battlegrounds below. And with Henry having gone for the book it was only logically that the Halliwell heirloom was with him.
"Now we just wait?" Patty looked expectantly at Leo.
"The curse of the dead and mortal." Leo nodded, pouring more of the potion that Penny had made into yet another vile.
A dark green goop oozed slowly along the dirt of the cave as another demon exploded. Phoebe kicked the fancy pointy heel of her shoe into the gut of yet another demon that popped like a balloon. Paige had tried to orb over to Primrose but the little girl had ran head first towards the demon that was attacking her mother. With her tiny head down and her ponytail flipping wildly, she emitted the pink aura again but instead of hitting her intended target she slammed into a demon that shimmered onto her path. The collision didn't hurt the little charmed child though instead it sent the large demon hurtling towards a stone column.
Paige laughed at the scene of the tiny little girl in pink taking out the oversized slimy demon for only a second.
"Paige, look out!" Kyle called to her from behind. The spunky woman didn't bother to even look back at what might be attacking her before summoning a pile of rocks forward to hit her attacker. Her torso turned with the flying rocks and once the demon was taken out, She walked right over him to pale dying Kyle Broody.
"Why if it isn't the fed?" Paige smiled sadly at her old lover. The sadness of recognizing a man she once loved, a man who hadn't aged since she had last seem him die.
"Fed huh? Well legs, you going to do some healing or you just going to watch me die again?" Kyle tried to laugh off his own joke but it the laugh came out more like a gargle of pain. Paige bent down and clicked her tongue in a maternal fashion.
"Good job leaving the arrow in there, buddy. And wait for it." Paige's fingers danced over the wound for a second as she magically extracted the pieces of the arrow from Kyle's shoulder.
"Look at you super witch." Kyle laughed. The rest of the cavern had gotten quiet, except for the happy chattering of Primrose.
"What is Broody doing here?" Phoebe demanded. Primrose was nestled into her mother's torso, with her legs clutching Phoebe's waist and her arms resting around the charmed one's shoulders.
"Back to calling me Broody? That must mean she's back to not trusting me. I thought we got over that when I helped saved the world and all that." Kyle sighed as the warm light of Paige's hands worked their magic of bringing color back into his cheeks.
"Well if we trusted everyone that helped us save the world, we would be dead. Care to explain what you are doing in the underworld with my niece?" Piper demanded. Her hands were resting nicely on her hips and her glare drove Kyle to start giggling. A rush of emotions had overtaken the whitelighter upon sight of the charmed ones that was now catching up with him.
"Mr. Broody is my whitelighter." Primrose announced before Kyle could compose himself.
"Excuse me?" Phoebe clutched at her youngest tightly as her brown eyes pierced through Kyle. Taking a deep breath and looking down as he scratched his head, Kyle nodded his response.
"Actually, I'm the cupid charmed girls whitelighter." Kyle risked looking up to see the stun face of Phoebe Halliwell.
"Not that we don't need to talk about this, but we do still have other children to save." Piper tapped her foot impatiently.
"I can actually help with that situation, I know where the throne room is." Kyle started to walk along the dark corridor to their left.
"Throne room?" Paige repeated.
"Yes, this plot is a little more involved than you probably anticipated." Kyle stated his voice getting further away as the girls hadn't started following him yet. Piper started walking after Kyle, while Phoebe shared a scared look with Paige. Paige shrugged at her older sister and the charmed ones and Primrose walked after the whitelighter.
Wyatt stood helplessly stuck on a point of the triquetra. His blue eyes shifted to steal looks at Patience and Henry who both looked terrified at the corner they had backed themselves into. Within the first few minutes of arriving to the place where he was summoned, Wyatt had noticed quite a few things. He had seen the book of shadows, lying ungraciously open near Henry's feet. He noticed the two ornate chairs sitting on a platform with a pretty looking demon and the powerful shrouded figure that seemed to be the puppet master of this rendezvous. Wyatt had learned at a young age to observe as much as he could from a situation before he started blasting things to smithereens.
"So young king, would you like to hear your choices?" The aged man with the dark curls on the platform asked. He's voice was steady and commanding and Wyatt understood that this man didn't expect much trouble beyond this point. Obviously he hadn't learned enough about his cousins and himself, otherwise he would not be so calm.
"Why do you keep calling me king?" Wyatt's wide brow creased with an intense curiosity. The oracle jumped to her dainty toes resembling one of the porcelain ballerina's on music boxes as she walked on her toes towards the shrouded man. She placed her hands on his shoulder using them to pull herself up to his ear where her lips moved so quickly it appeared as if she weren't speaking.
"Well, well that's indeed unexpected." The master demon laughed. His dark eyes sparked with a contempt that was unmistakable as he stared right at Wyatt.
"So are you going to share what was unexpected or just start in on the fighting?" Wyatt demanded. The tall youth had his arms crossed now defensively and his blue eyes appeared to freeze over with indifference.
"You are Piper's son indeed. Straight to the point with you both, never ones for just the plain old chit chat." The demon laughed again. Wyatt didn't respond his jaw dropping down a bit signaling he might speak but his mouth remained clamped shut.
"I call you young king because that is exactly what you are. But you see that Oralia here has just informed me that apparently you don't know of your own future. I assumed you would, silly of me of course, your mother was probably trying to protect you which is usually the cause with Piper." The demon nodded.
"So?" Wyatt gritted his teeth. He was a proud young man he didn't want to admit that he didn't know something that the demon obviously did. But it wasn't unlikely that his mother had kept something from him, possibly something direly important to this situation. "What is it then?"
The demon laughed again, clearly enjoying this added dimension to his unfolding plot.
"You, dear boy, are the master of Excalibur." The demon announced. The other evil creatures lining the walls of the back of the large cavern whispered amongst themselves excitedly. Wyatt didn't turn to study them. His eyes were completely focused on the main demon speaking to him. Melinda and Patience had audibly gasped at the proclamation as Henry had frowned suspiciously.
"I'm sorry, come again?" Wyatt managed to say finally. The demon's eyes truly sparkled now and his lips curled up into a genuine smile that caught Wyatt off guard completely.
"You are the new King Arthur young Wyatt, the first true master of Excalibur to come to the world in centuries." The man winked at Wyatt.
"Excalibur like the sword?" Henry squeaked, his voice cracking under the pressure of the situation.
"That would be correct." The man didn't remove his gaze from Wyatt's surprised face though.
"Say that we might believe this," Patience started.
"Oh you do, you may be young and inexperience but you all believe in all magic even those that you didn't before believe to be true." Came the cockily confident voice of Mr. Tolliver from somewhere behind her.
"Say we do, why is that important to you?" Patience demanded. Melinda opened her mouth to start speaking but a warning glance from Javin reminded her that she was not suppose to have her own free will. So instead the girl forced her thoughts towards Patience, in a timid attempt to tap into the power source that the mysterious being had told her about earlier. As she had the thought, Patience voiced Melinda's concern.
"And who are you?" She demanded. Only Melinda noticed the confusion flicker across the oldest cupid's face as she recognize the words coming from her were not her own.
"Valid questions, we skipped introductions because I feel as if I know you all so well. That and well we have possessed some of you." The main demon waved her hand rapidly over the outer points of the pentagram where Pandora, Patricia and Penelope stood devoid of emotion or expression.
Kyle had turned around suddenly and held his index finger pressed to his lips up clearly for each of the girls to see. Stepping lightly they approached an opening of the corridor they were in. Hugging the wall and shadows, Kyle motioned for the charmed ones to take a look. But before any of the girls got any closer to the throne room, Prue and Chris orbed in right next to them.
"What are you doing here?" Piper hissed. Chris though didn't wait to explain himself to his mother or aunts, but orbed right back out leaving Prue with her sisters.
"Chris you get back here!" Piper said a little louder than she intended. Kyle and Paige hushed her in unison.
"Oh you wait until I get my hands on that horrible son of mine." Piper growled under her breath.
"Tell Piper to shut up and listen, the demon is introducing himself and this is the part where he explains his plan." Cole commented to Prue as he walked out into the main cavern. There were advantages to being stuck in-between the land of the living and the dead mostly that no one could see him.
"My name is Nemod. And the young king is important to me because I want him to rule the underworld dearest." The man's smile melted into a full grin now.
"Why does that name sound so familiar?" Phoebe whispered to Paige.
"I won't do it." Wyatt bellowed.
"Ah but young king, I never said that ruling the underworld was the choice you had to make. Indeed you have a choice to make, but it's not about if you will rule the underworld exactly."
"Then what is this choice you keep talking about?" Wyatt hands were curled up into tight fists and he kept shifting his weight as he fought to release himself from his family built cage. The magic of the pentagram and the triquetra though were strong and would hold even the twice-blessed child for a little while longer.
"Why isn't Wyatt moving?" Piper demanded.
"He can't, the pentagram and triquetra that they are standing works as a magical bond holding the individuals to the whole." Prue explained.
"How in the hell did you know that?" Phoebe asked. Prue and Piper exchanged a knowing look and fell silent.
"Oh yeah they don't know anything they're not telling us." Paige rolled her eyes whispering her sarcasm.
"Well before I present you with your choice, you should see something to understand what exactly is going to happen." Nemod snapped his fingers at the young oracle. The demon twirled down to Melinda, carefully skipping over the lines of the pentagram and triquetra. Her pale almost transparent hand touched Melinda's shoulder lightly as the powerful little fortunate teller showed the young witch her vision. Falling into a trance, Melinda's eyes rolled back and her head snapped down. Pandora and Patricia awoke from their hallow existence to turn and face each other once again. The fusion of the water and fire creating their smoke screen ready as Oralia danced back to Penelope. Upon the touch from the Oracle, Penelope held up the palms of her hands and light sprang from her and life flickered on the screen.
"How the hell are they doing that?' Paige demanded now.
"You guys really aren't good at this staying quiet thing?" Kyle sighed.
"As you look around you young Wyatt, you might notice that we have all the powerful members of your family excluding one." Nemod pointed to one tip of the triquetra left empty.
"You won't get Chris." Wyatt growled suddenly.
"Not to stand there, of course not. We were never going to get Christopher. He's been lost to the good side from the moment he was conceived you see. Unless you can persuade him to join you but that seems unlikely. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. It's not Chris we're talking about. Penelope darling would you call for her now?" Nemod asked politely.
"Primrose!" Penelope chanted the name out unnaturally.
"Pen! Don't. Prim don't come!" Patience let out a shrill scream to her youngest sister. Though she was unsure where her youngest sister was, she knew that if the demon was asking for her she must be near.
Phoebe had clutched her youngest closer to her chest when her name had been called but the young newly magical witch wasn't easily contained. Glowing pink again she magically pushed herself away from her mother and straight into the cavern.
"Damn it Primrose!" Phoebe called after her youngest.
"Phoebe!" Paige hushed her.
"Oh we know you are there my charmed friends. The increase in power was your unmistakable signature. But we did want you to stay and watch, I did once tell you that we would back once we had time to regain our numbers and strength." Nemod tilted his head. Julian, Adam and Javin appeared at the mouth of the corridor snapping their fingers down in a childish wave they brought down an iron gate sealing the charmed ones away from the throne room. Before they could think to turn back down the way they came though Grace, Olivia and Navya appeared behind them and in the same motion brought down another gate. The girls were trapped.
Kyle and Paige tried to orb out but were bounced back into their confines immediately. Piper tried to blast the gate leading to the throne room but was thrown forcefully back into the other gate. She crumpled to the ground unconscious.
"Mom!" Wyatt watched horrified from his stationary position in the middle of the room.
"She's fine Wyatt!" Paige called out to him. Prue meanwhile, was trying her hand at lifting the cage but the harder she tried the less it seemed to do. If anything the gate seemed to be draining power from the eldest charmed one.
"Stop over exerting yourself." Cole grumbled at her.
"You see girls, that's a magical binding cage. Not that I really want to go up against the charmed one. Really you are no threat to me any longer. But I want you to watch as we expose dark secrets to your precious children and as one by one we turn each them away from you." Nemod explained.
"You helped us destroy the triad! I knew I recognize your accent!" Phoebe's face lit up with realization.
"Yes, I must have made quite an impression on the famous charmed ones for you to take this long to recognize me. But enough catching up, we have other matters to attend to." Nemod turned his shoulder away from the imprisoned charmed ones. Turning away from the girls made the rest of the demons ignore the witches as well, as if they really didn't exist.
Primrose had moved right into the empty spot of the triquetra. She tried to move towards Wyatt, but she found herself glued to her point as the rest of them.
"Wyatt?' The little girl cried.
"It's going to be ok Prim. Just don't worry ok?" Wyatt moved forward on the drawn line of the triquetra towards Primrose. He was surprised to find out that he could move along the line so easily when only moments before he couldn't budge. He held out his hand to Primrose but the magic didn't allow for the touch to happen. It was like trying to force to different polarized magnets together. After a few attempts Wyatt gave up and forced a little smile at Primrose.
"Yes, only moments now before you can break free of that confine. Only you have enough power to do that of course, but first you should watch." Nemod pointed up above Wyatt's head again. The scene was still waiting to be played out. The steam screen was still fuming above. Melinda was still in a trance and Penelope's arms were still up. Oralia, the oracle, had taken her place back on the secondary throne on the platform. The air was heavy with the tension of anticipation. Julian and Adam moved behind Penelope and let out a light breath of air pushing the steam forward so that the screen was directly in front of Wyatt Halliwell.
The images flickered again starting cloudy at first and then the shapes became clear. Being forcefully pushed in by two large no-nonsense types of demons Chris and Dervin came into the cavern unnoticed by anyone.
The image cleared up instantly broadcasting the future. An older, darker Wyatt stood up straight in what looked like the manor's attic taunting his younger brother. The images that played out were a new vision to the charmed cousins but an all too horrifying and familiar picture to the trapped charmed ones.
"Of all the people to betray me," Wyatt was dressed in all black. He stood perfectly straight with his arms behind his back, walking away from his younger brother as he said the words.
"I didn't go back to betray you Wyatt, I went back to save you." Chris argued the image flickered to the older Chris and a familiar looking girl next to him. Wyatt turned at he word save, with a disdained look on his face.
"Save me from what?" His lips curled into a mean spirited smile.
"From whatever it is that turned you." Chris defended, still standing his ground.
"That's always been your problem Chris," Wyatt was standing over what looked to be a hologram of the book of shadows. "Stuck in the old good versus evil. I'm so pass that. It's all about power." Wyatt proclaimed.
The image kept flickering as the conversation continued. The charmed cousins not emptied by the evil possessing them were enthralled by this future that was being portrayed. Patience was fuming at the back of Wyatt's head, not sure that she should blame her Wyatt for the action of this future Wyatt or not. Meanwhile Chris was standing struggling to get out of the demon's grasp at the back of the cave while also trying to place the all to familiar girl in the vision.
"You know if anyone else tried what you tried. I'd kill them on the spot. But you," Wyatt was giving Chris a familiar look of disapproval. " I've forgiven Bianca, I can forgive you too. If you promise never to cross me again."
Recognition burned in Chris' green eyes. Bianca was the girl who had been sent to kill him in the club. His mouth dropped open when he realized that he was with her in the future but he frowned. Did that mean that she was going to constantly be trying to kill him? Did she know something about their future that he didn't. These thoughts flew through his mind as he chuckled to himself for his future respond to Wyatt about knowing him better.
Wyatt watched impressed that even in this strange and deranged future, Chris was still holding his ground well enough. And even for what seemed to be their great dislike for each other, the brothers in this future scene were still bantering as him and his little brother did just today. But there was the moment that Chris went to far, as he often did even in the present day. Future Wyatt didn't stand for the offense though and present Wyatt found his fist twitching to beat himself up for trying to kill his little brother.
"Have you lost your mind? I don't need you!" Wyatt was using his powers to beat up his little brother, hell Wyatt was using his powers to kill his little brother.
"No, that is not their future we changed that!" Piper had awoken with a vengeance. She tried again to desperately blast her way out of her prison but with each blast she let off, a ricochet would bounce off of the gate and into her sending her flying.
"You are going to hurt yourself." Paige tried to hold her oldest sister's arms down.
"Though now we know what happened that time with future Chris." Phoebe watched the images having never actually seen this scene played out. The future played out until the moment that Chris used his powers to throw Wyatt against a wall, knocking him unconscious. Chris had heard his aunt Phoebe though and wondered what exactly she had meant by the comment about future Chris.
The steam screen and images disappeared as rapidly as they had appeared. But the stolen memories of lives never lived were never going to be erased from either Wyatt or Chris memories.
"And now young king, for your choice. I'm sure you're dying to find out what it is." Nemod laughed. Wyatt angrily orbed from his place along the curved line of the triquetra near Primrose. Orbbing onto the platform without much thought.
"Yes, powerful indeed. But though you can be released, remember the rest of them cannot. Not even by you." Nemod warned.
"We," Nemod motioned to the collection of demons in the back of the cave. "Desire you to become the new source of all evil. Being such a powerful being, we seem to think that you would be perfect. You have after all proven to be a great evil leader in previous lives yet unlived." Nemod made a clicking noise.
"Wyatt, don't listen to them!" Piper was screaming through the bars of the gate.
"There comes a day where every mother must let go of her children, today's your day ladies." Nemod pantomimed zipping his lips and charmed ones could no longer be heard at all.
"What is this choice then?" Wyatt turned, standing at his full height. His blue eyes stared down at Nemod because the demon was a bit shorter than the young Halliwell.
"I want you to join us. Because of the things that we could do, but before we can make you the full fledged king of the demonic legions. The most powerful evil man to ever exist in all of time, you must first become evil. So Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, your choice is this. Either kill contestant number 1," Nemod's dark eyes traveled to the back of the throne room where a large brute demon pushed forward a beat up Dervin.
"Or watch us kill your beloved little brother." Nemod actually laughed as Wyatt gasped when Chris was pushed forward.
"Surprised to see him tied up I suppose?" Nemod nodded to himself. "You're little brother as you know is rather impulsive and he actually arrived exactly when we expected him."
Back inside the sound proofed cage of the charmed ones, Piper was swearing up a storm. Cole had popped his head in to inform Prue that Nemod had cut off their sound.
"You idiot." Wyatt grumbled glaring at Chris. Though the glare was only half hearted because the worry was clear in Wyatt's blue eyes.
"You see Wyatt, we've always understood two things about you boys. Though always seemingly at odds, you're much closer than either of you even understand. Even in that future we showed you, where you were clearly the master of all evil you would not kill him. Something compels you to protect him even when he was trying to destroy you." Nemod gave Wyatt a pitiful smile.
"I wasn't trying to destroy him!" Chris shouted at Nemod.
"Chris, shut up." Wyatt said through gritted teeth. Though he didn't know what his brother could possibly reveal about a future that he was sure that Chris didn't know anything about.
"Well I wasn't trying to destroy him, you stupid ass demon. I was trying to save him. There's a difference. We're always out to protect each other." Chris spat at the demon. "And besides, obviously he hadn't killed me yet."
"I might today." Wyatt muttered under his breath.
"No matter young one. Obviously we understand there is a connection." Nemod was starting when Patience interrupted him.
"Well you don't understand the connection well. You think of it as something unexplainable, something beyond their understanding. But they understand it, they are brothers and no matter what side of the magical fight they're on. They can't do anything about the fact that they are brothers and on some level they will always love each other." Patience's eyes were a resilient red that glowed as she spoke the truth about the Halliwell brothers' relationship.
"ENOUGH." Wyatt's voice was deep and commanding and no one, demon or relation, dared speak. Melinda awoke from her trance seized her opportunity of stillness and silence and shook with power as she took deep breaths to focus her attention. Everything froze. The dozens of demons, the famous and powerful charmed four, and every single one of the charmed cousins. Everyone froze except for Wyatt and Chris who stood utterly confused by the stop action.
"Listen to me for a second, I don't know how long this will last." Melinda snapped at her brothers.
"You froze mom." Chris said unable to pry his eyes away from the frozen charmed ones.
"It's a power tap. We're in a power tap and I'm pretty sure that Wyatt can control it better than even I can. All we have to do is figure out a way to get Dervin, Chris and you, Wyatt, in here." Melinda spoke so quickly her words flowed into one.
"Who told you it was a power tap?" Wyatt demanded unsure of the situation and even more unsettled of taking advice from his novice of a witch younger sister.
"A magical being, what does it matter?" Melinda snapped at him. She looked so much like his mother that he just nodded in defeat.
"The demons are waking up." Cole commented breaking Chris out of his daze. As both Melinda and Wyatt still couldn't see the old demon or hear him.
"All right we're going to try to get all of us in there, and then we're going to try to send everyone home." Wyatt started.
"You need more powers than just yours to make the power tap work." Chris rolled his eyes.
"You're going home."" Wyatt shouted.
"Maybe we can deal with that in a second? We have to make sure to send the evil girls to magic school." Melinda pointed at her cousins.
"We have to get mom out of that cage before she really does hurt herself." Chris frowned. An image flickered in his mind, an image from a past life that danced in his memory just like it belonged.
"How are we going to do that and save everyone out here?" Wyatt asked desperately worrying as he started to hear slight movement.
"Wait, Cole?" Chris looked at the demon. "Tell them to use a power of four spell, I think they'll understand that."
"A power of four spell?" Wyatt and Cole said together in confusion. Chris just nodded before the entire room seemed to power up again and spark with life.
"Impressive young king, you are indeed a fine choice for our future." Nemod applaud Wyatt. The tall ran his hand through his blond curls in a panicked attempt to not let his confusion shine through.
"But your choice. Now. We will kill young Christopher or you will kill young Dervin. Either way we win you see. We destroy a constant problem or we turn you against your own beloved little brother." Nemod winked at Chris at this point. Chris struggled against the brute demon that was holding both his shoulders tightly keeping him not only from moving but also from orbbing.
"You know you'll never win right?" Chris shouted angrily as he struggled against the demon.
"We're always going to be stronger than you. Always." Chris continued.
"You're resilient spirit is really quite impressive Chris, maybe if Wyatt chooses to do as we please we might be able to turn you. That would be wonderful, I like having sets." Nemod nodded. The boys were putting up a show, trying to buy their mom and aunts some time while also trying to plan out a course of action in their own heads. They hadn't had time to discuss an actual plan, or any kind of signal so the Halliwell brothers were going to do what they did best. Wing it.
"Save Chris, Wyatt." Dervin whispered his own condemnation. Dervin had been brought onto the platform, purposefully right in front of Patience. Shaking from angry and despair, the teenage girl opened her eyes as big as they could get as she stared at Dervin. She saw the dashing Irish orphan that she had taken an interest in at first because she knew how much everyone in her family would disapprove. But in that moment when Dervin smiled at her, through the dirt on his face and the fear that shone through his blue eyes Patience stopped breathing.
"I won't hurt an innocent." Wyatt shook his head determined.
"So be it." Nemod snapped his fingers. The giant demon holding Chris produced a dark lighter arrow from his pocket and thrust it into Chris's side. Still clutching the young man though the demon didn't allow the paling Chris to fall to the ground.
Wyatt had taken a step forward but the Oracle had blocked his path with her dainty figure.
"I've seen his future. Fight you must and fight you will. But choose your path carefully for one will fail and the other prevail." Her eyes were cloudy and Wyatt didn't take another step forward as Chris gave him a tiny nod.
"That was just a test young king. You can still save your little brother. You know how dark lighter arrows work and there is time. But you must decide now, this one is a real choice either you spill your brother's blood or the innocents." Nemod mocked the weighing of both options with his hands.
"You've never even liked Dervin Wyatt, you can't tell me that you hate me that much!" Chris shouted swallowing hard at the last word. Wyatt watched his younger brother he could feel the pain course through his own body so he knew how much Chris was pretending to be brave.
"CHRIS!" Patience begged from her stationary spot on the pentagram. She had tears running down her face. She wasn't sure she could watch Chris die, but she was absolutely positive that she would die if something happened to Dervin Rogers. For in this moment of life and death Patience Halliwell had realized what Chris had noticed days before, she was in love that juvenile delinquent.
"It's true you've never liked Dervin Wyatt, you can't let your own brother die to save him." Henry pointed at Dervin with a frighteningly convincing disdain. But Chris had caught his younger cousin's eye and he knew that Henry had understood their act, fortunately Patience had yet to understand.
"Then I'll kill him." Wyatt feigned his resignation to the idea.
"Ah perfect!" Nemod smiled and the Oracle pulled a small sword out from behind the throne.
"This was the sword that Arthur used until he found Excalibur. Befitting is it not for your first kill?" Oralia smiled at him as she bowed. Wyatt grasped his fingers around the hilt of the sword and started towards Dervin.
"WYATT! Please, you can't do this!" Patience was begging, falling to her knees. Wyatt was trying very hard not to hear his cousin or look at her. His heart would not be able to deal with her defeated state. Also it was taking all of his self-control not to drop the sword and run to heal Chris behind him. Chris stamped his foot three times and popped his lips, a signal that Melinda recognized from their younger days. Whenever Chris needed Melinda to provide a distraction, he had always done the same thing. It was a wonder that Leo and Piper hadn't caught on that Melinda had been acting as a decoy for her older brother for years. Every time Chris had needed to sneak in from being out to late, or sneak out because he was grounded. Every time that the young boy had wanted to steal a cookie or needed to hide the pieces of something he broke, Melinda had thrown herself into dramatics to provide his cover.
"Chris said something about a power of four spell?" Prue frowned at her sisters.
"How do you know that, when did he say that?" Phoebe demanded.
"It doesn't matter, a power of four spell though what is he talking about?" Piper tapped at her jeans impatiently twitching. Piper was ready to blow up some demons, particularly the one that had handed her oldest son a sword. She was also thinking about freezing and blow up the demon that had stabbed Chris with a dark lighter arrow bit by bit.
" How would he know about that spell?" Paige asked confused.
"Again does it matter? I think the bigger picture is that he suggest you use it for a reason." Kyle argued.
"To get out of here?" Cole suggested.
"It's a way to get out of here?" Prue echoed the thought.
"I don't know if I can remember that spell, that was a really long time ago." Paige chewed on her bottom lip nervously.
"It was a simple spell." Phoebe started pacing trying to remember the fight in the parallel universe from sixteen years back.
"Why did you guys have a power of four spell?" Kyle wondered.
"Alternate universe, two of me and two of Phoebe. Piper was in laborer and Wyatt was under attack. You know the usual." Paige waved her hands back and forth in a nonchalant manner.
"Sounds like you girls just kept on having fun without me. Was I helpful at all in this epic fight?" Prue asked.
"Oh of course! You helped us be who we are, without you we would have never been able to defeat the source." Phoebe smiled at her oldest sister.
"This is no time for issues, our kids are out there fighting for their lives. Spell, let's go!" Piper snapped at her sisters.
"Ok, I think it went something like we call upon the ancient lore, to punish with the power of four," Phoebe started.
"Strike down this threat from both there and here, make him suffer, than disappear?" Paige questioned. "We did write it for Gideon."
"Ok, so we change the words to make it quickly go and disappear?" Prue suggested.
"Perfect. Let's go. Ready?" Piper hurried them along holding out her hands.
"Kyle, once the gate is up go straight for Primrose get her out of here?" Phoebe demanded more than asked of the whitelighter.
"To magic school." Paige nodded.
"Tell them that the priority for the guys is the evil kids." Cole suggested to Prue.
"Oh, also not that I think we're going to get very far before having to fight more demons. But the boys are trying to get the girls, the ones that have been slightly skewed by evil to the manor first." Prue sighed.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?" Phoebe jumped up again.
"Phoebe! Focus!" Piper stamped her foot.
"You know you guys don't change much." Kyle commented from his spot near the gate.
"Tell me about it." Prue laughed as Piper crushed her hand. "Right the spell."
The charmed ones said the spell, in perfect sync with each other as if the four sisters had been fighting with each other for decades. It was an incredible sight to behold because it would be the only time that the four sisters would ever say a spell together. It was a perfect combination of Prue's commanding presence, Piper's resilient spirit, Phoebe's loving self and Paige's excitement. The gate dissolved as the spell finished and Kyle orbed towards his target as the girls came out fighting.
"Come, bitter conduct, come unsavory guide! Though desperate pilot, now at once run on, the dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark! Here's to my love!" Melinda had placed her hand dramatically over her heart and outstretched her other in traditional Shakespearean pose. With her sudden outburst everyone was focused on Melinda, Chris sent an electric shock through his body causing the demon to let go of his hold on him. Piper proceeded to blast at will the demon that had been holding him.
"PATIENCE YOU'RE A CUPID, STUPID!" He shouted at his cousin before dropping to the ground. Chris crossed his arms and started rolling himself towards the pentagram. Wyatt had flung himself around with the sword and was trying to fight with Nemod but wasn't succeeding. The oldest charmed child had never held a sword before in his life and just because he was the master of a certain Excalibur did not make him an expert swordsman.
Understanding had dawned on Patience as had her eyes closed and held both her hands over her heart carefully. After a few moments of rocking back and forth, Dervin disappeared from the grasp of the demon that had been holding him and appeared in Patience's arms.
"WYATT!" Chris hollered as he tumbled into Henry's feet. Henry bent down and started healing almost immediately.
"CHRIS!" Wyatt shouted back.
"WYATT!" Chris waved the arm he didn't have pinned against the ground. Wyatt was orbed into the middle of the exact middle of the symbol. Wyatt threw up hands and concentrated on the power tap that Melinda had told him existed as he threw his force field over his family.
"Wow." Dervin gasped looking around at the blue shimmering light that had surrounded them.
"How are you doing that?" Patience demanded.
"For Wyatt to keep having the power to do that, we have to have someone standing on the five corners." Melinda explained.
"Why don't I just orb all of you home?" Wyatt groaned.
"Yeah and we're just going to leave you here to deal with all this!" Chris motioned to the demons trying to fight their way into their protective bubble.
"Besides it looks like mom and the aunts could use our help." Melinda pointed towards their fighting family members.
"Then Chris will stay, but no one else." Wyatt announced.
"Really?" Henry and Patience glared at their oldest cousin.
"Mr. Broody!" Primrose screeched as she watched Kyle enter the protective barrier.
"Obviously he's a good guy." Henry frowned.
"Whitelighter." Kyle nodded. "I'm to take Primrose back to magic school."
"You should really take Dervin too, maybe heal him?" Patience pushed her boyfriend forward.
"I don't know if I should," Dervin started.
"Magical powers," Patience pointed at herself. "Mortal who almost died?" She questioned him.
"All right!" He shrugged and limped over towards Kyle.
"And the book. Prim, you hold on to this like if it was Gregory the Hippo?" Chris snatched up the book and handed it to the youngest of the clan. Gregory the Hippo was Primrose's most prized possession and the only way that Chris could think to explain how dearly she had to protect their family's ancient history. Primrose held out her arms and tried to take the book but dropped it.
"I can't." Primrose frowned and pouted.
"Of course you can. Now stop being such a baby." Chris snapped at her hurriedly.
"Don't yell at her!" Patience glared at Chris. "She's been through enough today with your attitude Chris."
The force field started to flicker now and Wyatt's arms were started to shake.
"Stop it." Wyatt growled at both of them. "Primrose you have to take the book for us, it would really help us out." Wyatt smiled down at the youngest.
"I can help." Primrose smiled up at him. Wyatt laughed and shook his head.
"Please don't tell me you're going to start telling me you have a right or need to stay to fight demons too."
Primrose shrugged threw her hands up above her head and the pink light she was glowing with before spread up reinforcing Wyatt's force field nicely.
"When did you learn to do that?" Chris demanded.
"Time, guys!" Melinda begged watching the demons getting closer.
"I'll help you carry the book." Dervin suggested to Primrose. He bent down and held the book with one of his hands. Primrose smiled and nodded taking the rest of her book in both her arms.
"Be careful." Kyle warned, giving Patience a rather pointed look before orbbing away with his charge and his other charge's boyfriend.
"I told you, young king! Either you kill or we will kill everyone that is dear to you." Nemod shouted over the fighting going on around him. In a brisk unseen motion, a wind swept through the cavern and the lines of the symbol holding together the power of the charmed cousins was broken suddenly. Julian appeared behind Penelope and Adam behind Patricia.
"Now let's see how you fare fighting against your own." Mr. Tolliver laughed manically. A shot of ice went towards Henry while Penelope was happily conjuring knives that she was flinging at Patience. At Navya's appearance near Pandora a burst of flames went at Wyatt. Pandora blasted her older brother, hitting him squarely in the jaw, freezing the boy in a solid block of ice. Javin appeared behind Melinda and Chris noticing the trend ran with all his might straight into the demon that had posed as one of his oldest friends.
"I trusted you!" Chris threw a punch at Javin's jaw.
"Chris!" Melinda screamed.
"Stay out of this Melinda!" Chris warned as he started punching at Javin. Javin didn't do much fighting back instead he let Chris take out some of his anger. Though all their memories were magically created, Javin still did know Chris Halliwell better than most. Melinda tried to interfere though and at the moment that Chris arm hurtled into his younger sister on accident because she had gotten to close is when Javin started fighting back.
"You moron! You should stop fighting the one demon in this room that isn't out for blood!" Javin was whispering his words to Chris in hopes to not give himself away.
Melinda was attacked from behind by a scabber demon. The ooze came spitting out and hit her neck making her scream in agony.
"Melinda!" Chris and Javin both shouted suddenly. As the stream of more ooze came flying towards the young witch, Paige had noticed what was happening from nearby and sent the ooze back towards the demon. At that point a star shaped knife was hurtling towards Melinda outside of any of her family members eyesight. Javin caught view of it though and ran at Melinda with all his might sending her into the ground with a thud but keeping her from being hit.
"JAVIN!" Mr. Tolliver's voice boomed over everything else. Chris shot electrical bolts at the old Ankron demon to distract him from his friend.
"Get her out of here. And Javin, I'm trusting you." Chris pointed at his finger with one finger for a second. "You know how capable I am of holding a grudge."
Javin nodded and shimmered out with his sister. Wyatt was running around the iced over Henry, making Pandora hit the block of ice with her fire stream. The ice was melting down and the water was running around reaching the feet of Patience and Penelope. Patience was managing to freeze the knives as they got close to her face but she was unsure how to proceed in a magical fight with her younger sister. Watching the water an idea came to mind, remembering her newly acquired levitating power. Kicking off from the ground and remembering what her uncle Leo had taught her about her powers being connected to her emotions. Patience sent her body up into the air, doing a somersault of sorts leading her land behind Penelope. In the sudden movement of her feet, Penelope slipped and fell onto the ground. Patience didn't waste anytime in jumping on top of her youngest sister and freezing her demonic fake boyfriend.
"DOES ANYONE HAVE A PLAN?" She demanded into the cloud of her fighting family members.
"Hold on!" Wyatt shouted back, as he grabbed hold of Henry's elbow. Healing as he moved he forward toward Patience.
"CHRIS!" Wyatt called out.
"WYATT!" Chris responded back appeared next to his older brother.
"Really that's like your own game of Marco Polo, isn't it?" Patience demanded of them.
"The time for that?" Chris glared at her.
"Focus for me for one second Chris." Wyatt demanded. "The three of us, with our white lighter powers are going to orb the three of them to Magic School."
Wyatt said this while waving away a stream of fire coming from Pandora. Chris kept making Patricia's stream of ice hit the ground, making the floor of the underworld cavern into an ice rink.
"On three…" Wyatt started.
"How about we just do it now!" Chris suggested.
"Go!" Henry nodded at the suggestion. Not one of the four young people knew at all how the magic was going to work, or even if it would but it was worth everything they had to try. Patience focused her heart and mind on the love she had for her sister and her cousins, hoping that maybe her combined cupid abilities would enhance the white lighter abilities of her cousins. The boys didn't notice they had closed their eyes until they heard Prue shouting at them.
"Open your eyes you idiots, are you trying to get yourselves killed!"
When the pair of blue, green and brown eyes opened again they beamed at their success.
"It worked." Wyatt sounded surprised.
"We'll celebrate later Wy." Chris suggested as he decked the demon coming towards him.
"That was cool." Henry nodded.
"Let's hope you sent her to the right place, with your orbbing abilities I worry." Wyatt laughed blasting at a nearby demon. Phoebe was up in the air kicking one of the ugly looking tribal demons in the head when she looked down at Patience.
"I want you to go to Magic School!" She demanded of her daughter.
"She's right." Chris nodded turning to stare at his cousin. "And you." He tilted his head at Henry.
"Henry should orb you both out of here." Wyatt nodded.
"And you guys fight alone? No way." Patience shook her head. Freezing the weapon heading towards Chris.
"We're hardly alone, mom and all three of the aunts are here." Wyatt pointed out.
"He's right. You suggesting you're better back up than the charmed ones?" Chris mocked. Knocking a troll away from Patience's legs.
"Fine, let's go before they use super orbbing on us." Patience swung her arm around Henry. The youngest white lighter didn't argue he orbed out of the cavern quickly. There weren't many demons left in the cavern and the battle was clearing up to have a definite winner. It was no surprise to anyone that it was going to be the charmed ones and their prodigy.
Leo jumped under his desk as a flame scorched the top of his antique wood.
"Penny, do something!" Leo hollered from under the desk. Penny was throwing the essence of self potion at Pandora but kept missing the feisty youth. Luckily when Kyle Broody, Primrose and Dervin had arrived at Magic School they had prepared the ghostly family members and Leo of what may come. Crystals had been set not allowing the girls to shimmer back to the battle below. Which was good for containing their young family members but not so great at keeping their fight at bay.
"COOP!" Leo shouted. Patricia was freezing the windows as Penelope was throwing a tantrum worthy of all two-years-old combined. Penelope was flinging books magically off the shelves and ripping out their pages. The cupid appeared in the office at the same moment as Patience and Henry orbed onto the sight.
"Really great." Patience sighed as she exasperatedly threw up her hands and froze all three of her rampaging cousins.
"Impressive darling." Coop nodded approvingly.
"Throw the potions before they unfreeze," Leo gulped pulling himself up from behind the desk.
"Where's Dervin?" Patience asked glancing around.
"Patience your younger sister is possessed by evil and you're asking about your boyfriend?' Coop crossed his arms giving his oldest a parental stare.
"Grams and Leo are going to fix Penelope, are they not?" Patience copied her father's critical glare. Without waiting for an answer she kept going.
"Besides, Pen tried to kill me at least twice today while Dervin was willing to die to save Chris. So yeah, I think I'm going to go see him first." Patience bounced her ponytail up and strutted out of her uncle's headmaster office.
"Patience Calliope Halliwell, you should not speak to your father that way!" Coop puffed at her.
"Uncle Coop," Henry ventured. Coop sighed watching the door swing shut, his eyes rolled down to give his nephew a weary glance.
"It's been a really long day, I wouldn't be too hard on her." Young Henry suggested. "Uncle Leo?"
"Yeah?" Leo had his eyes glued to Pandora who was still frozen but had been hit with the essence already.
"My dad knows what's going on?" He asked. Leo nodded.
"He must be worried. I'm going to go see him, maybe bring him back?" Henry asked. Leo smiled, despite all the bad influences in the young Henry's life including his own sons, the boy managed to maintain his respect for all his elders.
"My kids?" Leo asked lifting his gaze before letting Henry orb out.
"Fighting, I think. I hadn't seen Melinda in a bit though." Henry frowned at the thought.
"She'll turn up darling." Patty said reassuringly.
"Go on with you, don't stay away too long." Leo warned. The young man disappeared in lights as Pandora, Patricia and Penelope stirred again.
"Daddy!" Penelope threw herself at Coop. Her arms wrapped around his waist tightly. Pandora and Patricia blinked as they stared at their surroundings in confusion.
"Fighting there was fighting?" Patricia commented, as she examined the scorch markings on her clothing and glared at Pandora.
"We have to go back." Pandora said immediately.
"Absolutely not." Henry's voice rang clear. HJ had not taken Leo's command lightly, orbbing out and back in a stunningly short time.
"Dad you don't understand." Pandora started, her eyes blinking rapidly. It appeared she was seeing all the action that had taken place while she had been intoxicated by evil with each blink. Her voice was desperate as the color drained from her face.
"It doesn't matter what I understand. You are not going anywhere." Henry shook his head walking towards his two girls. He outstretched his large hands, cupping each over the girls' hair and pulling the twins into his side.
"You're never going to be anywhere without me and my gun again." Henry shook his head.
"Henry, you know that demons aren't really affected by guns, right?" Leo sighed.
"But Wyatt and the Oracle." Pandora was trying to shake herself free.
"What about Wyatt and the Oracle?" All the adults except for Henry demanded.
The Oracle came running towards Wyatt and threw herself into his arms. Wyatt caught off guard and without a defense held up the pretty young demon. Oralia proceeded to start kissing the tall blond youth.
Piper had just blown up a hired gun of a demon that had split into a thousand charred pieces of glass. She flipped her long dark hair over her shoulder to look back at her boys that she knew were still somewhere in the cavern. The charmed ones had destroyed most of the demons, the hired army that had been lining the back walls. Nemod had escaped quietly walking through a wall that looked solid but obviously wasn't. Chris had been watching the puppet master and giving his family a glance he took off after the demon. Cole though had been watching the young man, knowing the Halliwells as well he did he had been expecting the boys to go off as heroes.
"Are you kidding me? GET OFF OF MY SON YOU WHORISH ORACLE!" Piper twisted her wrists repeated blasting at parts of the Oracle.
"You are to follow the young at heart who has been enraged by age, for there you'll find a useful gauge." Oralia warned. Paige threw a glass vile at the Oracle and she shriveled up in Wyatt's arms. Piper crossed her arms and glared at her oldest son.
"I'm starting to worry about your taste in girls." Piper tapped her fingers against her arms.
"Mom that wasn't my fault." Wyatt shrugged sheepishly. His cheeks flushed red as his mothers gave him a warning look.
"Where did that potion come from?" Piper demanded of her sister.
"Leo and Grams. Note on it said something about a possible problem with an oracle and our boy there." Paige winked at Wyatt.
"Prue, Chris." Cole pointed to the wall. Prue took off after her troublesome nephew not bothering to alert her sisters. Cole followed Prue down the corridor, expecting to be more help to the people who could see him.
Chris ran after the demon that had orchestrated this entire fiasco. Tired from the fight and from being stabbed with yet another dark lighter arrow, Chris pushed forward with the help of his need for vengeance. The laughter echoed around Chris and the accented voice that had controlled the happenings in the cavern boomed around him in surround sound.
"I knew it would be you that followed me. Christopher Perry Halliwell, always about your family first. Always the one about the demon fight, you'll tire of it sooner or later. Such a burning passion to protect your own." The demon taunted.
"Didn't you see the future? You against your older and more powerful brother, fighting the good fight destroys your family." Nemod appeared in front of Chris now. He was no longer dressed in his robes, but in a pair of designer jeans and plain white collared shirt.
"Wyatt is always going to be more powerful than you. He's always going to think he can control you. He's always going to be in charge and he's never going to understand your hunt for demons. You're need to prove yourself is childish to him." Nemod taunted.
Chris was shaking with furry, as he sent a blast of magic that missed Nemod by inches.
"Chris, he's just trying to flare up your emotions. Control yourself. Your powers are connected to your emotions remember." Cole had appeared behind the young man and was trying to coach him in this situation.
"What's your learning curve like Nemod, you've already failed at trying to separate my family. In most cases that means that you are a loser." Chris snapped.
"Not you're best comeback young one." Nemod laughed.
"He's right on that point. You're definitely wittier than that." Cole agreed.
"Cause you're helping. What are you like my guard demon angel?" Chris snapped at the invisible Cole. Nemod squinted his eyes and stared at where Chris had directed his gaze for only a millisecond.
"Has the little brother Halliwell gone crazy?" He mocked.
"No but this Halliwell is going to make sure you never come near his brother again." Chris forcefully threw his arm across his chest sending rocks flying over Nemod's head.
"Where did Chris go now?" Piper demanded looking around.
"I think we should put that kid on a leash." Paige frowned looking around.
"He's a free spirit with ambition that nephew of mine." Phoebe nodded.
"And Prue is gone too, maybe they are together?" Piper asked holding on to Wyatt's arm.
"Mom, I have to go." Wyatt stated as he saw the flickering of a shimmer in the corner. The twice-blessed witch wasn't sure how he knew, but he that Tolliver had just shimmered out of the throne room.
"Absolutely not. We're going to find your little brother and then we're going to go to magic school where I am going to lock both of you in a dorm room and throw away the key." Piper was shaking her head forcefully.
"Mom, the oracle said that I had to do something." Wyatt struggled against his mother's tight grip.
"The oracle said? The Oracle said! You really think that argument is going to win with me?" Piper crinkled her nose and shook her head at him.
"Mom, I have to. She saw it." Wyatt whined impatiently knowing he was going to lose the magical trail if his mother didn't let him go soon.
"Wyatt have you met Oracles they are tricky beings." Phoebe cautioned.
"That's what Anka said too." Wyatt frowned.
"An-eh-who?" Piper gave her son a half smile.
"She's the girl I've kind of been seeing, except she's not really a girl so much as the essence of all youth and the keeper of the fountain of youth." Wyatt had dug his hands into his pocket and straightened his arms uncomfortably.
"Yeah, you're not dating until your thirty mister." Piper stabbed her maternal finger into the boy's chest.
"I'm sorry mom." Wyatt closed his eyes and bit his bottom lip as he orbed away.
"Did my son just apologize before openly disobey me?" Piper tilted her head at her sisters.
"Yeah." Paige nodded. "And he's the well-behaved one."
"Now wait a minute, Chris is well-behaved." Phoebe disagreed. When Piper and Paige both gave her questioning looks, Phoebe swished air around in her mouth a moment.
"If by well-behaved you mean he lies and manipulates situations." Paige commented.
"He's impulsive and reckless and can't for the life of him follow clear cut rules." Piper nodded.
"But he loves his family." Phoebe sighed. Paige rolled her eyes and Piper skimmed the cavern one last time.
"Well my boys are big enough for their birches to run away from their mother and aunts, they are big enough to get themselves out of their own demonic messes." Piper announced.
"Really?" Paige questioned.
"I have another child I would like to make sure is safe, who isn't too old for her mother." Piper nodded.
"Are you sure that you're not displacing your fear of being abandoned by your boys by turning it into anger?" Phoebe studied her older sister.
"Oh stop that, don't you want to check on your own children. I know that we focus a lot of energy on my boys." Piper slung her arms around Phoebe and Paige.
"Are you sure about this?" Phoebe asked looking around worriedly.
"Yes. Wyatt and Chris are old enough to learn when to ask for help, they can't keep running away from us." Piper said with a note of finality that left no room for her sisters to question her any longer.
"What about Prue?" Paige asked.
"She's a big girl too. Besides she's the big sister, we have children to tend to." Piper snapped at Paige. "Let's go orbbing half bred."
Wyatt followed the magic that Mr. Tolliver had left behind right to the manor's attic. Javin and Melinda were sitting on one of the Victorian couches, Javin protectively shielding Melinda.
"HOW DARE YOU DISOBEY ME? You insolent, petulant, ungrateful brat!" Mr. Tolliver bellowed at Javin. Javin's face was set like stone, his glimmering black eyes defiantly looking at his master.
"You have been corrupted," Javin started quickly adding, "Sir."
Wyatt appeared just as Tolliver strongly backhand Javin across the face. The younger demon was sent flying into the shelves of old potions. Tolliver went towards Melinda.
"One Halliwell is as good as several." He commented stretching out his hands greedily.
"YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Javin growled but Tolliver raised his hand causing an old bat to smack Javin in the gut.
"TOLLIVER. You want a Halliwell, why not have me?" Wyatt snapped his fingers at Melinda and his younger sister disappeared in white lights.
"Wyatt, don't." Javin was shaking from his spot near the window.
But Wyatt couldn't be stopped now, shaking with a fury directly at the old Ankron demon. As Wyatt inhaled trying to calm himself a shiny metal object shot out from somewhere behind the boxes of old stuff. Holding his hand like an expert, Wyatt caught Excalibur with one hand. Mr. Tolliver stared into the blue eyes of the most powerful witch of the Warren line and swore he could see the triquetra burn in his irises.
"You'll never come after my family again." Wyatt whispered dangerously low as he shot the sword straight into Mr. Tolliver before the old man could do anything to stop it.
Chris was shooting off his powers in every direction as Nemod started blinking in and out of the place. The demon was laughing at Chris now, openly mocking the youth now. Prue had come up behind and was ready to jump in if her nephew needed her.
"You can't even fight without your brother." Nemod joked. Prue flicked a finger at the demon now sending him flying.
"No more time to play then. You will see me again young one, tonight has served its purpose. Without Wyatt, I will rule and rest assured young friend we shall meet again." And with that the demon disappeared. Anka appeared where Nemod had just stood.
"This was never a fight you were going to win. But rest assured that Wyatt wouldn't have won it either. I wanted you to know dear Mark Anthony." She smiled sauntering towards him. Cole held out his transparent hand in front of Prue, warning her to not stop the interaction. Anka's skin was glowing as she took her few paces towards the younger Halliwell.
"You're the girl that Wyatt was with, Kron's friend?" Chris asked.
"Yes and I wanted to see you for a few reasons." Anka smiled at him, her white teeth sparkling.
"Those would be?" Chris mumbled the words as his ability to speak diminished with each step the essence of youth took.
"First, I wanted you to know that I wanted you as much as I wanted Wyatt." Anka pressed her lips against Chris' open shocked mouth.
"Cole," Prue argued quietly.
"This is a confidence thing, she won't hurt him. I know you never crossed paths with Anka, not that you remember anyway. But you must understand, she doesn't hurt any of the young men she's been with." Cole smiled.
"You reminded me so much of Mark Anthony. Strong, careless, beautiful." Anka said each word in-between small kisses.
"And Wyatt of a naïve King Arthur. Your draw as individuals is strong, your draw as brothers is irresistible." She ran her hands over his shoulder blades as she described her desire for him and his brother.
"The other reasons?" Chris controlled himself.
"Two. One you did not just defeat Nemod because you weren't ready and also because you let him get the better of you. Your emotions and powers are connected never forget that it's a bad lesson to have to learn over. And the other, Javin will need you this week. Please do not shun him." And with that Anka disappeared from Chris' embrace.
"Chris." Prue said his name a few times but not until she called out his full name did the boy blink again. "Christopher."
"Sorry, what's up aunt Prue?" He gave her his best devil gives a damn smile.
"I think you're mother must be ready to kill you by now?" Prue suggested.
"Oh, you're lucky you can't hear her. But I think she has some explaining to do herself this time." Chris held out his arm to his aunt like a gentlemen and orbed away from the underworld a little older, a littler wiser and a whole lot more beat up than when he had come down.