"Where did he go?" Exclaimed Prue, hurrying over to where the smoke cloud was dispersing. Chris frowned, trying to think of what would have caused his friend's sudden departure. Prue sighed, clearly seeing Chris had no idea, and rather than waiting for another session of storytelling and reminiscing to get to the point, she hurried upstairs to find a skrying crystal and a globe, followed hastily by the rest of the group. "He's in Britain." She declared triumphantly less than a minute later. "Somewhere near umm… Cardiff."
"That's where he was born." Said Chris, trying to think why Adric would have chosen that moment to wonder down memory lane. Phoebe however had a fairly good idea of why he might have left.
"Do you think his family might still live there?" She asked. Chris shrugged- Adric never spoke about his family. Piper, on the other hand, nodded- agreeing with her sister's unspoken thought.
"What is it?" Asked Chris impatiently- noticing the grimaces on all three of the sister's faces.
"He said the guardians of the ring were chosen from the five most powerful families in Britain right..." Said Piper. Chris nodded slowly, the pieces beginning to come together in his mind as well. "Well I've never been to Britain, but I'd be surprised if there were many witches more powerful than him."
"The look on his face." Said Prue sadly, thinking back to the moment just before Adric had gone up in smoke. "He looked like I always feel when I know one of my sisters is in danger." She said, avoiding her sisters' eyes.
"Shit." Murmured Chris under his breath. He quickly grabbed Prue's arm as Paige did the same with Piper and Phoebe and together they orbed to the spot the crystal pointed to on the map, leaving behind Leo to look after baby Wyatt.
Although the globe had been far from accurate in pinpointing Adric's exact location, somehow their orbs seemed attracted to the high level of magical activity seeping from an ordinary looking house on the outskirts of Cardiff, bringing them straight to the conjuror.
It appeared as if they had made it on time as when they hurried into the kitchen they found Adric leaning against the wall, staring at a friendly looking woman serving out pasta to her husband and three young adults the group presumed were Adric's siblings. As the family began to eat, the youngest girl, who looked to be about sixteen, stuck her fork into the pile of spaghetti, and then instead of twisting the fork, she levitated the plate a few inches off the table and made that spin instead, much to the disapproval of her mother.
Despite the merriment, however, something was wrong. Surely Adric had warned them about the imminent danger, why weren't they preparing themselves for the attack? Why wasn't Adric sitting or talking to his family? And now they came to think about it, why had no one questioned the sudden unexpected arrival of the Charmed Ones and Chris?
Before they could ponder further on any of these questions, however, the lights began to flicker and the family suddenly became very still.
"Mum..." Said the eldest son warningly. The mother just nodded, hurrying over to one of her kitchen cabinets, throwing it open to reveal row upon row of potions. At the same time, the father also jumped to his feet and he and the middle son began recanting powerful protection charms while the eldest son grabbed his little sister firmly ordering her to hide and stay out of sight, before grabbing an athame from one of the kitchen draws.
Prue glanced over at Adric, expecting him to make some sort of effort to protect his family, but he just stood their staring blankly as the scene unfolded before him, his fist clenched so tightly they were turning red.
"It's not working." Gasped the father, who seemed to be struggling to even stand as he concentrated all of his energy and power on protecting the house. "It's breaking through..." He shouted, "Get ready." The Whole family seemed to be remarkably calm about the whole situation and Prue could tell this wasn't the first time their family dinners had been interrupted by sudden attacks. Prue and her sisters instinctively readied themselves to help defend this family, but in their hearts they knew they wouldn't be able to do anything.
Suddenly dark purple orbs appeared just in front of them and from them emerged the fearsome figure of Emperor Wyatt.
Wyatt wasted no time with introductions or discussion. He sent a volley of energy balls at the father, who only manage to deflect a few before his powers failed completely and he fell to the floor, his chest burnt through.
"No!" Screamed the mother, throwing potion after potion at Wyatt, who simply raised his shield to deflect them then, with a sneer, he clenched his fist tightly, telekinetically snapping the unfortunate woman's neck before turning to the two boys. Together they were able to put up a greater fight than their parents, but eventually they too were both slain, leaving only the little sister, cowering under the table.
For a moment it seemed as if Wyatt hadn't noticed her. He turned away from the table and walked out of the kitchen, not even glancing at his family or the smoking and mutilated corpses on the floor and hesitantly, the young girl emerged from underneath the table, tears falling down her face as she knelt down beside her fallen family.
"Adric." She whispered staring up at the ceiling. "Adric please, I need you!" Adric was now visibly shaking; he took two steps towards his sister, reaching out a hand as if to pull her away. "Adric!" She called again a little louder, as everyone heard heavy footsteps returning. "Adric!" She screamed running to the back door of the house, desperately trying to pull it open, but the house had been magically sealed. "ADRIC!"
Wyatt was back in the kitchen now, a large book heavily resembling the book of shadows under his arm. He sneered at the hysterical girl who had backed away as far as she could from the man, and was now sending out wave upon wave of telekinetic energy at Wyatt, which did little more than make his hair fly backwards as if caught in the wind.
"Adric. Please. Come back." She whimpered. "Please brother, you're all I have le-" Her words were cut tragically short; as Wyatt telekinetically picked her up, pulling her towards him until they were just inches apart. "Please!" She begged Wyatt, who sneered cruelly, before pushing his hands forward, sending her flying across the room, straight through Adric, and smacking her head against the back wall creating a horrible 'crunching' sound before she fell lifeless to the floor.
Adric waved his hand, and the illusion ended, removing the sneering form of Wyatt from the room. Sadly, however the bodies remained and the sisters watched despairingly as Adric sunk down next to his fallen brothers. He had no tears on his face, but something seemed to have died behind his eyes, aging him by years.
Prue hurried over to his side, unable to imagine the pain he must be experiencing. She wrapped her arm around him, though he barely seem to realise she was there, and turned back to face her sisters.
"We have to go." Murmured Chris. "Wyatt will be looking for us, if he finds us here, everything is lost." Phoebe and Paige all turned to him in disbelief at his heartlessness. They had all just witnessed the massacre of his friend's family and he wouldn't even give Adric time to breath.
"I hope he is looking for us." Spat Adric, glaring at the floor. "'Cos when he finds me. I'm going to kill him."
"No you won't"
Everyone turned around in surprise to hear such a harsh, if slightly shaken, voice come from Piper. Everyone held their breath as Adric stood up, a new fire now blazing in his eyes as he stepped over the body of his younger brother to tower over Piper.
"Don't think you can stop me." Piper moved her hands to blast him, but before she had a chance, Adric suddenly seem to duplicate until there were five of him surrounding the one witch. "If it were you're family, are you saying you wouldn't do the same?"
"It's my family you're threatening." Pointed out Piper, her eyes switching between the five conjurers to try and determine which the original was. "And I won't let anyone hurt my son." Then she wheeled around, pushing out her hands before she had even stopped moving, to blast the witch standing behind her, throwing him off his feet and at the same time, the other four illusions disappeared.
"Stop this!" Yelled Phoebe, moving in-between the two powerful witches, followed quickly by Paige, Chris and Prue.
"Adric, I'm sorry about your family, but please we still need your help. We are going to stop Wyatt, but we need a plan before he makes himself invincible." Pointed out Paige. Adric scoffed.
"You just saw how he slaughtered my family! He let my sixteen year old sister watch her brothers die, watched her beg for help and mercy before slamming her-" He broke off, unable to continue, and no one could look into the witch's eyes any more. "I have a plan." He pointed out in forced calm. "And it's a hell of a lot less risky than letting that maniac live."
"He is my son." Protested a still shaking Piper. "I know what he has done and I understand he can't continue, but I can't let you kill him. We will find another way."
Xx
The group returned to the manor to work out a plan. As Wyatt could return at any moment, Paige had no choice but to return to the safety of the protected cavern, but Chris assured her they would get her before putting any plan into effect.
While Piper, Chris and Phoebe returned to the book of shadows for inspiration- hoping to find a strong enough binding potion for Wyatt's powers, or a time travel spell to go forward in time and try and join the fight, Prue and Adric went through the old boxes of books from the sister's childhood- hoping to find stories about Merlin which could give them a clue.
"I'm sorry about your family." Said Prue, having no clue how Adric was still holding himself together. Adric shrugged, trying to focus all his attention in the books. "Thank you. For staying I mean. I understand why you wanted to handle this by yourself, but I don't think we could do this without you." Adric tried to regain his usual grin, but it was quite clearly forced.
"It's stupid really." He sighed, fumbling with a new box of books, accidently spilling the on the ground. "I saw them like twice a year and I always get into an argument with my brothers, then my sister cries and I leave." Prue placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Adric shrugged it off, bending down to pick up the fallen books. "Mum and Dad believe- believed- we should live a normal life and act like we didn't have all of these powers and, well, I didn't agree. I shouldn't be this sad, we barely spoke anymore."
"They were still your family." Pointed out Prue, opening up a dusty old book entitled the exploits of Merlin the Sorcerer. "Believe me, if it had been my sisters, I would have done exactly the same thing." Adric nodded, his eyes filling with tears.
"She called for me." He moaned. "I could have saved her, but I didn't hear her. I should have heard her."
"It wasn't you're fault." Comforted Prue. "You can't blame yourself. It will eat you alive." Adric nodded, absentmindedly flicking through another book. Prue sighed, deciding to change the subject. "Hey, so what was that illusion we saw when we got to the house?" She enquired. "How do you know that's exactly what happened?"
"It wasn't an illusion, I was a channelling." Corrected Adric. "In places of gory and violent deaths- especially when they are linked to magic- illusionists like me are able to channel the energy left over at the scene to recreate the event. What you saw is what- Prue?" He broke off, seeing the oldest Charmed One was no longer paying any attention.
"I think I've found something!" She said excitedly, running off towards the attic before she could explain.
...Already the ancient Warlock was breaking through Merlin's bonds, and the young sorcerer knew that he would have to act quickly if he were to save Camelot from the Warlock's deadly wrath. Every spell he tried to vanquish the demon failed and every potion fell off him like water. Eventually Merlin knew the Warlock's powers were too strong inside the body so he cast a spell to draw them from the flesh.
Still these powers could not be destroyed, but Merlin was cunning, he trapped the power in the Warlock's own Grimoire, before killing the warlock and burying them both deep beneath the earth- forever together and yet forever separated until a new demon should rise to take the power for his own."
"So what?" Questioned Phoebe. "We're looking for this mythical book?"
"No, don't you see? The book's already been found." Explained Prue, but her sisters still wore blank looks. "I think the warlock in the story was the original source. Merlin was able to use a spell to extract all that power from him."
"Ok..." Said Piper, still not sure what the big revelation was. "But, I mean, haven't we already agreed that the best way is to strip him of his powers? I mean that's sort of what we have been working on."
"If we strip him of all his powers than that's about as useful as killing him when it comes to saving the future." Cut in Chris. "If he has no power, he won't be able to control his demons anymore and they'll make the world far more dangerous than Wyatt ever has."
"But surely if we strip him of the source's power, he won't be able to control the demons any way." Pointed out Piper, unable to refer to the demons as 'his'.
"He won't." Agreed Prue. "But he would still have all his other powers, and if he could no longer control the demons he-"
"He would most likely destroy them." Completed Chris with a grin.
"Well that sounds great." Cut in Phoebe. "But am I the only one here seeing a problem in this plan? There is no spell written in the book. It just says 'he cast a spell'. There's nothing strong enough in the book of shadows and we have no idea what it could be."
"No we don't." Agreed Adric, who had been listening from the doorway. "But we know who does."