Hey, so an actual fast update for once in this fanfic's life! Yeah don't get used to this, I'm trying to get as much out as I can before school starts up again.
Thanks for all the positive reviews for the last chapter!
Anyway without anything further to say, read on!
Chris collected himself, "As I've already told you, the tattoo started when I was fifteen, when looking into it, we found legends, stories, prophecies in relation to the tattoo," looking around the room, the faces were focused, intrigued by the story but none more than Paige, who seemed to be imprinting the story into her mind, "The prophecy itself is called the Coniunctus Potestas, which translates to adjoining power, it says the tattoo, the Tree, was a channel to a greater power, a force that could either be good or evil."
No one seemed interested in interrupting the story and for that Chris was somewhat relieved, "The Tree is a holder of power, through its roots it is embedded in ancient and new magical sources and on its branches it carries powers of great witches that have passed, until the Tree is complete no one, not even me, can access though powers," Chris took a quick glance at Paige before continuing, "I'm assuming the reason Paige reacted the way she did towards the tattoo was because she is a sort of guardian to it, it was mention in a few translations of the prophesies and she took this role properly when she made a connection to the tree."
"A guardian? What does that mean?" Paige asked, she certainly didn't feel any different, intrigued yes, but any aftermath of what had happened no longer lingered.
"We don't know, it was mostly myth until this happened," Chris answered truthfully, most of the scripts they found mentioned little of the guardian and focused solely on tree and its connection to the greater power and most of those texts were too damaged to understand or spoke in riddles.
Amid the silence Piper looked down at her watch, "Shoot! I have to get Wyatt to Mommy and Me," quickly getting up and rushing out of the living room towards the kitchen to grab her handbag and keys.
Phoebe looked up at the sudden rushed movement, "Weren't you too late for the administration?"
"I was but they let me sign up anyway," Piper rushed upstairs, checking on Wyatt to find him smiling back up at her. Smiling back, Piper picked him up after checking she had everything ready and rushed back downstairs, "Okay, I'll drop Wyatt off and Mommy and Me and head to P3, don't forget you guys have to show up when I go to pick Wyatt up, we have to show family support."
"Wait, Piper!" Paige got up but was cut off with the front door being pulled shut, turning around in defeat to see Phoebe quickly get up to grab her handbag and keys, "Phoebe?"
"What? Piper gets to leave and I can't? I have to go to work and besides there is nothing much more we can do at the moment, at least until something new turns up, so I say we just resume our normal lives and wait and see," Phoebe reasoned, "We can't just let life pass us by," Phoebe didn't leave enough time for a reply before she was out the door.
Paige was left stunned, raising her arms in complete shock, "Unbelievable, it is like nothing has happened to them, like this whole thing was a run in the mill demon."
"They might be right, nothing requires immediate attention at the moment," Nathan voiced, Paige gave it a thought before nodded.
"Maybe, I should try and contact Richard, make sure he hasn't gone on a magical freak out," Paige mumbled as she walked out the door phone in hand hoping that Richard would answer or that she would be able to find him.
"Well mate, now that we have a moment of solitude from the sisters how about we catch up," A smile spread across Nathan's face as Chris got up to and pulled Nathan into a long overdue hug.
After a short amount of time, the two left their embrace, letting themselves reel from everything they sunk into a comfortable silence before Chris decide to speak up, "How long's it been?"
"In our present? A couple of months since you left," Nathan answered, although something was bothering Chris, something from the way Nathan was showing himself. Chris and Nathan, even despite fighting against each other at the beginning of the endless war Wyatt and those that opposed him and his beliefs on power, they joined together on a common cause. Their lose. It was that common cause that caused them to form an understandable link between each other and lead them to be able to read one another in the most darkest of times.
"Has something happened? Is Matthew or…"Before Chris could start listed off a number of family or friends or random acquaintances that Chris made sure he knew the names of Nathan stopped him.
"It was one of our refugee camps we set up, Wyatt's power has been growing stronger every day, the charms we put up weren't enough this time," Nathan took a pause, the memory was still fresh in his mind as it had only happened a couple of weeks ago, they were still trying to deal with the aftermath, consoling grieving family members and trying to re-establish the charms and create stronger ones but it was all straining them in different ways and some were losing what motivation they had left, "When we got to the refugee camp there was nothing left, everything was burned to the ground."
Chris nodded solemnly, it was to be expected, there are always causalities in war but acknowledging that fact doesn't make it justified it just proves that human nature falls into predictability in a reoccurring cycle of history.
"Talia was working at the refugee camp that day, her and Junior got into a fight and she said she'd be helping out there a few days, no one saw her after that," Talia was a sweet young girl, beautiful in complexion, her hair was in waves of chocolate brown with soft features to compliment but her more common known features was the way her ears pointed, easily hidden by her hair but noticeable to anyone that looked. She was known as one of the Oceanids, the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys in Greek mythology. Before the war, they never showed themselves, even most of the magical community doubted their existent. It wasn't until most of Wyatt's forces drove even the most well hidden magical creatures out into the world, Wyatt didn't want the threat of an unknown powerful force lurking out there, and so some of the oldest magical beings came back into existence and were forced to choose a side. Oceanids were sea nymphs and didn't retain the sort of power that Wyatt was interested in, so of those that survived joined the rebel force.
"How's Junior?" It was childish love really, stupid and fast, but that didn't make it any less real.
"He's strong, he doesn't like to show how it's affecting him but you can see it," It was the little reassurance that he could give to Chris at the moment.
Chris nodded he didn't expect anything less than that from Junior, he grew up as a mortal in a magical family, he'd gotten thicker skin from it.
Nathan looked at Chris, he could see the heavy bags that had formed underneath his eyes, "Go get some sleep Chris, you need it."
The day care centre was bubbling with life. It was the picture perfect day care that any parent would want to see, parents were seen playing with their children, and an aura of happiness filled all the room but faded as it reached a corner of the room. There Wyatt was fiddling with a few toys by himself.
"All I'm saying is that you're way behind with little Wyatt," Carol said as she watched Wyatt in the corner before she turned to Piper, "You really should have applied before this."
"Yeah, well, you know, he's not even a year old yet," Piper rationalized, she continued to watch Wyatt in the corner, all she wanted for him was a normal life, with normal friend. The lingering thought of binding his powers was always on her mind but she could never do that to Wyatt, her and her sisters were left in the dark about their powers and although she was grateful that for a little while they were given some normalcy, it made it a rude shock for when they came into their powers.
"So? I had my Jake signed up for "Mommy and Me" when I was still pregnant with him," Carol sounded like those typical soccer moms, participated in all the school meetings, offered to drive other kids to games or for school trips, it was something Piper wanted to do but at the same time she'd hope she would never become one of those moms.
"Really? You can do that?" It amazed Piper sometimes what people could do, no matter how out there it seemed.
"Oh, absolutely. In fact, I'm surprised that they let you sign up this late because everybody wants to get in here because it gets you into Adlebery pre-school which is a feeder for Hoskins Elementary, and Bentley Middle School," Carol paused, Piper was nodding along with the conversation although she couldn't say she was actually truly interested, Carol looked over to Wyatt once more, "Doesn't have any siblings, does he?"
Piper looked baffled at her, "Uh, no. How did you know?"
"Because he doesn't play well with others," Seeing the concern that overtook Piper's face Carol quickly added, "Oh, don't worry about it, it's a common problem among only children. All the more reason to start developing their social skills early. First things pre-schools look for, you know."
"Yeah, well, that's why we're here," Piper turned around to see Phoebe and Paige walk in, the more family support they showed for Wyatt the better, Piper was just thankful that they actually came, Piper excused herself before walking over to her sisters, "Hi, thanks for coming."
"Oh, of course, you know, anything for our little nephew. What exactly are we doing for our little nephew?" Phoebe asked, she seemed chirpier then she had been the previous night, downside of being an empathy was adopting other people's emotions around you, feeling what they feel sometimes made the bad outweigh the good.
"Showing family support remember? They look for that, especially when the father's not around a lot," Piper explained, of course she was sad that Leo wasn't around as much as he used to be and whenever he was it was for business or spending time with Wyatt at home and hardly for a school visits.
"What are you talking about? Leo's around all the time," Phoebe stated.
"Yeah, for Wyatt, but he won't be for the school, he can't be," Piper glanced over at Paige to see her slowly sneaking off, phone to her ear, "What are you doing? Put that thing down."
"I'm trying to get a hold of Richard, I can't find him," Paige told her, anxiously tapping her feet, she had been trying to get a hold of Richard for a couple of days now, even tried to look around for him today but with no avail.
"Yeah, well, you've been trying to call Richard for the last couple of days, maybe you should give it a rest," Piper recommended to Paige, if Richard didn't want to found then it shouldn't be her sisters job to worry herself about it, especially now that she had this guardian business put on her shoulders . Richard would come around when he was ready.
"I know, but I'm just afraid he's off on some magical freak out or something, you know, and I just wanna be able to help him," Paige sighed, with no answer on the other end of the phone, she let it rest for now.
"Maybe he just needs a little time alone," Phoebe advised her sister.
"It just makes me question whether or not I can even save an innocent if I can't save my boyfriend. No offence," For being the youngest sister, Paige seemed to place a lot of burdens upon herself.
Phoebe waved Paige off, "Oh, no, don't worry about it, I'm over it."
"Jason?" Paige questioned, well that was quick.
"Yeah, when you get to be my age, you can't spend the time crying over spilled milk, you know?" Paige gave Phoebe a very confused look.
"Your age?" Paige raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, the whole biological clock thing. It's very real and it's echoing. Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick," Phoebe seemed to be lost mindset of her own, thoughts running through her head, her life slowly slipping through her fingers…
"Okay, neurotic people, can we get back to my neurosis right now, please?" Piper snaps them back to the present and both turn back to her.
"Sure," Phoebe nodded before asking, "Which one were we talking about?"
"The one where I'm a rotten mother who's raising an anti-social child," Piper sighed in utter defeat, looking visibly frustrated and defeated at the same time.
Paige semi zoned out again, deciding she had left it long enough and started dialling Richard again while her other two sisters continued babbling over Piper's current crisis.
"Is it? He doesn't have any friends, Phoebe," Piper lookedover to Wyatt, still seeing him playing be himself, distant from the other kids, "You and I had each other when we were growing up, but he doesn't have anybody, he's all alone."
Picking that up, Paige piped in, "Hey, I was all alone."
"Yeah, but you didn't know you had powers, so it was safe for you to have friends," Piper reminded her, "Your mother didn't have to worry about if you were gonna orb out during a play date or something."
"Piper, do you think you're overreacting a little?" Phoebe tried to reason with Piper, all of what she was saying seemed a little far fetch to happen, Wyatt would properly never orb out during day care centre but as soon as Phoebe said Wyatt then orbed out of the room and Phoebe earned an 'I told you so' look from Piper.
"No," Was the simple reply Piper gave her as they all moved out of the day care centre.
At the manor Dylan had finally woken up from his nap, stretching his muscles he moved downstairs to find that no one was home, not even Nathan was around to supervise him as if he was a child. Sighing he walked in the kitchen and began helping himself to whatever snacks were in the fridge. Walking back out into the hallway with his arms and mouth full of a range of different snacks, he found little Wyatt standing at the bottom of the stairs.
"Hey little dude," Dylan muffles with a mouth full of food, he quickly shallows, he glanced up the stairway to see an antique door that seems to be what caught Wyatt's attention, "You do that?"
Phoebe, Piper and Paige orbed into the manor, as soon as they orbed in Piper's attention goes straight to Wyatt, "You cannot keep doing this, sweetie, really," and Phoebe curiously looks at Dylan and the arrangement of foods bundled in his arms as she goes down to scoop Wyatt up into her arms.
"Uhhh…" Dylan looks as though he'd been caught at a scene of a crime, "I swear I thought nobody was going to be home."
"Oh, guys?" Paige tries to raise her voice to catch their attention, she was the first of the sisters to notice that a door had seemed to magically appear at the top of the staircase.
"Oh, what the... Oh, this is not good," Phoebe commented. They all walked over the front of the staircase, curiously inspecting the new door in their house.
"Help!" A voice behind the door cried, that had certainly set the Charmed Ones on red alert.
Piper quickly turned to Paige, "Orb him out of here. Go."
Phoebe handed Wyatt over to Paige and they instantly orbed upstairs where Wyatt would be safe, Piper and Phoebe took a defensive stance, both preparing for whoever or whatever may come through that door. The door swung open to reveal a slightly bald man dressed in black robes. Relief flooded the man's features as soon as he saw them, "Oh, thank god you're home."
The moment of relief was shortly lived as a headless man riding a horse appeared behind him, the robed man turned to face his attacker and was only given the split second of surprise before he swung back a long silver sword and cleanly sliced the man's head from his body. His head and body not too gracefully fell to the floor, his body remaining on the other side of the door while his head rolled over the doorway toppling down a few steps of the stairs, and the antique door slammed shut.
"What the hell was that?" Piper cried, her eyes widen is shock and confusion.
"That was the headless horseman," The man's head spoke to them, both of the sisters looked down, only to see a disgruntled head, its glasses were skewed. He spoke as if it was a minor inconvenience to have his head decapitated from his body!
Phoebe started to rapidly to the head, not truly believing her eyes.
Dylan's smile reaches from ear to ear, he'd seen some stuff in his day but this was reaching the top of that awesome list he was compiling in his head, "That is so awesome!"
Thanks for all the reviews, favourites and follows! If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask away! Now the next chapter is pretty much going to be on par with The Legend of the Sleepy Halliwell episode with variations due to the fact that this is AU. If you have any suggestion, don't hesitateto suggest and maybe leave a review while you're at it.