Chapter Thirteen: Who's Fight?
Everyone in the living room could scarcely breath, unable to take their eyes off the sorceress when Phoebe had finished explaining the premonition.
"Why didn't you ever tell us about this?" Paige stammered.
"Because it was none of your business." The sorceress answered bitingly.
"You being involved in a major battle against our destined enemy with our ancestor, I'd say that counts as our business." Piper bit back.
Natalia's eyes were downcast. They had never seen the sorceress so contrite. All her usual demeanor was nowhere to be found. "Because I knew that if you found out, you'd want to fight alongside me, just as Melinda had done. She died because of me." If she weren't a demon, the others could almost see where her tears would be. "I dragged Melinda into my fight, and she died for it."
"But you said so yourself, that the seven have to fight him, and you know that includes us." Phoebe pointed out.
"You're correct. After research over the ages I discovered that the seven have to be connected by blood to the witches who fought The Source in that grove, and they must be powerful enough to cast a Power of Three spell. The only surviving bloodlines strong enough are Melinda Warren's and Eva Proctor's."
"Where are you going with this?" Piper interjected.
"What I mean is that now I know that these boys are part of the seven as well. So tell me, are the three of you so ready to throw them into the lion's den?" The three sister's reaction answered Natalia's question wordlessly. "Then you of all people should understand my actions."
"Zack, Cody, upstairs. We need to talk to Nat alone." Piper told them. They both stood where they were, debating whether or not it would be wise to argue with her. "Now!" She barked again, prompting their immediate retreat.
"Come on." Max beckoned. The three of them trudged up the stairs, but Cody waited at the top. Zack and Max tried to pull him along, but he just shook them off. Zack looked at Max with worry written on his face. It wasn't like Cody to disobey. Come to think of it, it wasn't much like himselfto obey. He crouched by his brother, listening to the conversation.
"It doesn't make much difference either way." Natalia drawled, seeming back to her usual self. "I've only managed to locate five. The other two have eluded me."
"What about Carey? Do you think that's why The Heir took her?" Phoebe deduced.
"No, she's not a witch. It skipped her generation. Besides, The Heir knows nothing of the seven. Not even The Elders know. I've had that page of the book enchanted to hide itself to prevent that. I still don't know how it revealed itself."
"Well whether she's part of this or not, we still need to get her out of there." Piper affirmed.
"What about the Call-A-Lost-Witch spell?" Paige interjected.
"I don't think it'll work." Phoebe sighed. "Wherever they are, The Heir probably has it protected."
"But you said you've reversed it before." Natalia added. "Maybe it could take us to her.
"What about the boys?" Phoebe asked. "Shouldn't they come with us?"
"No." Piper shot at her sister, leaving no room for argument. "This isn't their fight. We dragged them into this. We'll find Care, and try to take out The Heir the old fashioned way before he gets his power back."
The twins and Max looked back at each other. Cody's expression was unreadable. "Come on." He motioned. The three of them met in the attic. "They're wrong." He grimaced. "It's not their fight. She's our mom."
"I know." Zack assured him. "But they've been at this longer than we have. Maybe we should let them help us." He rubbed the long thin cut on his cheek where Helen had scratched him. It hadn't healed yet, and would likely leave a scar.
"But they're not going to help us. They're going to fight our battles for us. We can't let them do that."
"So what are you planning?" Max asked, surprising both of them.
"Max, you're not serious!" Zack stared at her in shock. "You're supposed to be our guide, so guide him out of the crazy!"
"Yeah, but whitelighters are also supposed to trust their charges instincts, and I think Cody has a point. So what was your idea?" In truth she was still trying to make up for lying to him, still unsure if he had forgiven her.
Cody had similar feelings, still feeling guilt-ridden for the way he had treated her. He nodded, grateful for her support. "Zack, didn't you and Phoebe make a vanquishing potion?"
Zack's expression softened to one of curiosity. "Yeah, a powerful one. I can see why you tie your hair back now. I almost lost my facial hair."
Cody nodded again, not bothering to point out that Zack still didn't have any facial hair. "Alright, here's my idea. If we reverse the Call-A-Lost-Witch spell like Nat said, we might be able to find where The Heir is keeping mom. If he's there, we can use the potion. If it doesn't vanquish him, it might stun him long enough to get us out of there."
Zack sighed. "Well at least you didn't say we were going to take him on. Okay, I'm in."
"Me too." Max agreed. Cody's face was still blank.
"Alright, Max, Zack, you orb to the kitchen and get that potion. We might need something else in there to get past the sisters. I'll look for the spell and see what I can do with it." The other two nodded again before Max took Zack's hand and orbed out.
"Zack, Cody, get down here!" Piper called. She turned back to her sisters who stood ready and waiting with Natalia seated casually on the couch next to a still frozen London. "So we're all clear on the plan?"
"What plan?" Natalia drawled cynically. "We're orbing into battle to hit him with everything we have and hope it's enough. In other words 'wing it' like you always do."
"Well it's worked pretty damn well so far."
"How, may I ask? The Source has managed to resurface not once but twice under you noses. Only the seven can vanquish him for good."
Phoebe threw her hands in the air as if cursing fate. "Well Nat, we don't have time to wait for two more witches to just fall from the sky. I'm sorry about what happened between you and Melinda, okay? I really am, but we need to get Carey back, and I'm not about to send those boys to do our job."
Natalia narrowed her eyes as their whites turned black. "Then all your ancestor's efforts were wasted on you."
"Enough with the melodrama Nat." Piper ordered before turning to her husband who still had Wyatt in his arms. "Leo, keep the boys safe. Make sure they don't try anything stupid."
"Alright." He answered, kissing her on the cheek. "Be careful."
Before anyone else could say anything, Zack and Cody descended the stairs with Max trailing behind. All three had their hands behind their backs and their eyes trained to the floor. They were wearing new sets of street-clothes that Max had managed to purchase while the boys had written the new spell, since the ones they'd been wearing were the same ones they had escaped the Tipton in.
"You look like you're going somewhere." Piper remarked.
Cody looked up at her, his eyes apologetic before he had even done anything. "We're going for our mom."
"That's out of the question. It's too dangerous."
"We thought you'd say that. Max, now!" He shouted, prompting Max to whip her hand from behind her back to send a vial of gray potion spinning for Natalia. It shattered and puffed into a cloud of white smoke that filled the sorceress' nostrils, knocking her out cold. Zack threw his next, this time at Paige before she could orb it. Cody pulled three from behind his back and telekinetically threw them at Piper, Leo, and Phoebe. Leo's fall landed Wyatt hard on the floor. Seeing that his family was down for the count, he began to cry just as London unfroze.
"Get your hands off… me." The poor girl looked from one fallen sister to the next, then back at the twins. "Zack, Cody… what's going on?" The two simply looked at each other and nodded. CRASH! The last potion shattered at London's feet. She slumped over on the couch, her head landing in Natalia's lap.
Cody whistled admiringly. "Nice work Zack. Where did you get all the sleeping potions?"
"The kitchen cabinet. I guess they stockpile this stuff."
"There's no time to waste." Max reminded them. "We don't know how long this stuff lasts."
Cody crossed the room to where Wyatt sat crying. "Hey, it's okay buddy. It'll all be okay." He bent down and picked the toddler up carefully. He immediately stopped crying. "Listen, we need you to watch mommy and you're aunties for awhile okay? You think you can do that?" As if to answer, the little boy orbed out of Cody's arms and back onto the floor by his mother. "There's a good boy." Cody smiled.
"Come on, let's go." Max called again. The three of them raced up the staircase to the attic without another word.
The small cauldron sat bubbling in the center of the short round table. "Okay." Cody sighed, dreading what he was about to do. "Max, you need to stand over there, and Zack, you need to stand by me." They both shrugged, but did as he directed. Cody nodded and stared at Max. "Max, I… I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
Max blinked. "We'll have time for that later." She scolded, although she secretly hated to put this off.
Cody continued as if she hadn't spoken. "I know you'd never do anything to hurt me on purpose, and I shouldn't have treated you that way. But I need you to know that I wouldn't do anything to hurt you either. That's why…" he trailed off, reaching into his jean pocket, "I have to do this." Before either Max or Zack realized what he was doing, Cody had already thrown the last sleeping potion, and she was unconscious.
"What did you do that for?!" Zack demanded.
His twin stared back at him with that same blank expression that had taken the place of his usual cheerful smile. "This isn't her fight either. We have to do this alone." For once, Zack didn't argue. Cody didn't want to put anyone in danger for his sake, nevertheless he was glad to have his brother at his side.
The two knelt by the cauldron. Cody leaned over Max's fallen form to draw out her athame. He pricked his own index fonger with a grunt until he drew blood. Then he handed it to Zack who did the same. They held their fingers over the cauldron, forcing a few drops into it. It sparked in response. Cody drew out the paper with the spell written on it and held it so they both could read.
"Powers of the witches rise, course unseen across the skies.
Take us to you where you lie. Let us be there at your side.
Blood to blood we summon thee, blood to blood return to me."
A haze of white sparks swirled around the two, filling the entire attic with their glow. When they cleared, Max's athame fell to the hardwood floor next to her with a clang.
"Did we make it?" Zack's voice whispered in the darkness. "Is this the right place?"
"I don't—" Cody began, but another voice laughed darkly from the shadows.
"Rest assured, this is the place." The Heir taunted as he leapt from a cloud of flames. He was using his own body rather than Carlisle's. His heavy boots made an intimidating thud as they touched the ground. It sounded like grass. They had made it to the park, but… where was their mom? Suddenly, the long neat cut on Zack's cheek began to throb.
"Oh look." Came Helen Stryker's shrill cackling as she and her brother orbed in. She was holding her crossbow, and Rupert was dragging an unconscious captive by the collar. "They came to rescue their mommy, like good little boys." Carey was unconscious, but other than that she seemed fine.
"So," The Heir continued, "Where's the heiress?"
"Not here." Cody glowered, tightening his grip on the vial of silvery potion he held behind his back.
"I expected as much." The Heir began to circle them, like a wolf around frightened sheep. "You know, you boys are quite resourceful. Such a shame you lack common sense. You see, I'm not interested in that brainless flower at all. By removing her from where the Nexus stands, as well as evacuating the guests, you and The Charmed Ones have done most of my work for me. Your coming here is the last piece of the puzzle. You played right into my hands."
It was now or never. With telekinetically induced speed, Cody threw the potion. It spun through the air, sailing for the demon lord. Quicker than what is humanly possible, The Heir caught it an inch from his tattooed face.
"Impressive." He remarked in his low slightly ravaged voice. "A word of advice; vanquishing potions are meant to be thrown in a manner that prevents the enemy from catching it. Like this." It was all the warning he gave before tossing the potion back at them. Zack and Cody barely had time to dive out of the way before it exploded, alighting the entire park with fire. The flames parted briefly for The Heir to leap through them, his grey eyes intent on the young witches who were struggling to get to their feet.
Zack leapt back up, helping Cody to his feet before turning back to their adversary. He hurled fireball after fireball at The Heir with all the strength his young body possessed. The Heir simply knocked them away, closing the distance between him and the twins.
With his twin tiring, Cody moved his hand to throw The Heir backwards, but it was too late. He lunged them both, clamping his pale bony hands around both their faces. His grip was like ice.
"I don't remember the last time I was able to torture others myself. So much more exhilarating than having another demon do it for me." The brothers tried to pull his hands off, but he was holding them a foot off the ground and his grip was suffocating them. They couldn't even use their powers. "Did you know I need two sacrifices for the ritual to become what I once was? You see, your ancestor tried to stop me from regaining my power, and here you are to help me restore it again. The Grand Design has such a delicious sense of humor."
Things started to go dark as Cody lost consciousness. He could hear Zack's struggles cease. The Heir's chilling voice was the last thing he heard before his mind plunged into nothingness.
"Now your mother shall bury her children, just like what happened to dear old Prue."