The Unknown Destiny

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Twenty-eight: Missing a Brother

It was a pretty moody meal at the Scotts that night. Haley had obviously been crying from her argument with Nathan and wasn't saying much, just picking at her dinner. Brooke sensed the uneasiness in the room and wolfed her dinner down, making excuses about some clothes she was making for the baby she needed to work on.

When Brooke left, Susan sighed, abandoning what was left from her dinner. "We need to talk to Nathan again," she said to Lucas. "Because this is getting ridiculous and this little 'Power of One' kick of his is getting out of control."

"I agree, but we have tried to talk to him on numerous occasions," Lucas pointed out. "What more can we possible do? We have tried everything. Maybe he just is trying to take his anger out on demons and doesn't want to bother us because of the baby and everything."

"That's hardly it, Luke," Haley said quietly, her voice slightly strange from crying. "He won't even talk to me about what's bothering him. Ever since this demon hunting started, he's just been a completely different person. I don't even know him anymore."

"Well, whatever it is, you need to find out what's going on and fast," Shawn offered his advice. "I have the feeling that this is going to start spiralling downward and fast."

"You don't think that some demon is brainwashing him or something?" Susan wanted to know. "What?" she asked when Lucas gave her a look. "With everything that has happened in the past few months, I don't know if anything's going to surprise me anymore."

Shawn smiled half-heartedly and was about to say something, when he glanced up, frowning. "Something wrong," he said quickly. "Nathan's in trouble."

"Tell Brooke where we're going, Hales," Lucas said quickly. "We'll make your husband's okay, I promise."

Haley sighed and nodded as Susan took Lucas's hand and orbed them to the place where she sensed her brother. She was nearly knocked off her feet when the strong wind picked up. Lucas grabbed her and pulled her away from the portal she hadn't noticed before.

"What is going on?" she asked him, but Lucas ignored her, grabbing Nathan's hand.

"Need a hand, little brother?" he asked, trying to pull Nathan out of range of the portal so they wouldn't get sucked in. Susan grabbed Lucas's arm, trying to help her brothers.

"I have everything under control!" Nathan screamed at him, yanking free. One minute, he was flying away from them and then the next, he had vanished, the portal along with him, leaving Susan and Lucas alone with a demon who had been standing by the portal.

"Who are you?" Lucas demanded, using his powers to try and keep the demon where he was. For the moment, at least. "What did you do with our brother?"

"Sent him somewhere where you won't find him for a long time," the demon replied smoothly. He conjured an energy ball and threw it towards Lucas. Susan froze it in mid-air, but Lucas had ducked on instinct, releasing the demon, who shimmered out.

Susan stepped away from the energy ball and pushed against the wall where the portal had been. "It's gone, the portal," she said when it didn't appear again. "Nathan's gone."

She must've sounded devastated, because Lucas put a reassuring arm around her. "We'll find him," he said firmly. "Come on, let's get to the manor and get to the Book."

With a tiny nod, Susan concentrated on orbing them back to the manor, neither of them noticing Anderson standing in the shadows, an evil grin appearing on his face. Phase one of his plan was complete. Now all they had to do was wait for the siblings to leave. Then Brooke Davis would be left vulnerable.

And then he would get her and the child.

--

In another part of Tree Hill, a blue and white portal in the shape of a Triquetra appeared out of nowhere and a tall and lanky brunette teenager came stumbling out of it, looking apprehensively around at his surroundings as the portal vanished behind him. He let out a deep breath, a relieved smile crossing his face.

"All right, it's the right place," he said quietly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Hopefully it's the right time."

The fifteen-year-old started walking down the street, his brown eyes darting his way and that, as though he were expecting someone to appear before him. As he walked past the newspaper stand, he picked a paper up, checking the date on it. A satisfied smile cross his face when he saw the date and he let out a slow breath, glancing back in the direction that he'd come in, where the portal had been.

"Nice job, cousin," he remarked, speaking to the cousin that was back home, where he had come from.

Tossing the newspaper back onto the stand, the teenager started jogging in the direction of the Scott manor. Time was starting to run out and they were about to leave. He had to stop them from going after Nathan before it was too late.

--

"You lost Nathan!" Haley freaked out, looking horrified at the two elder Charmed Ones. "What do you mean, you lost Nathan? How could you let that happen?"

"All right, look, Hales, try not to panic, okay?" Lucas tried calming her down. Haley only glared at him. "I promised that we would make sure your husband's all right and that is what we're going to do. We're just going to have to figure out where he is, first." He tried to sound optimistic, but was failing miserably.

"Okay, I found the demon," Susan announced, trying to brighten everyone's spirits. "His name's Valtarian, an Upper Level demon who has the power to travel back and forth through time."

Lucas looked around at her, startled. "Excuse me? Did you just say that this demon has the power to travel through time?"

"Yeah, apparently, that's what the portal was, a time portal, and it was taking Nathan to another time." Susan looked up at him, a humourless smile crossing her face that didn't meet her blue-green eyes. "So who wants to be the first to say that we are officially screwed?"

"No, we're not," Lucas said firmly. "Okay, we have to find Nathan before he does anything that he's going to regret later."

"Or he does something to mess up the timeline, whenever that may be," Shawn added.

"Mess up the timeline?" Brooke echoed.

"A single event can change the entire course of history and alter the future," Shawn explained. "Think for a minute if Lucas had never joined the basketball team, what would have happened?"

"I never would have gotten together with Brooke, twice," Lucas suggested, wrapping an arm around his fiancée protectively. "Nathan would still be a stranger to me. And Haley Scott would still be that bookworm Haley James," he added teasingly. Haley smiled ruefully back.

"And if Mom hadn't died in that car accident," Susan said quietly, "I never would have come looking for my father, never would have found out about Luke and Nate, and the Charmed Ones never would have been constituted."

"The question is," Lucas said, giving his sister a glance, "how do we find out where Nathan's at. The 'To Call a Lost Witch' spell won't work. And what do we do when we find him?"

"I'm voting for dragging him back home kicking and screaming, then knocking some sense into that thick skull of his."

"I was thinking something more along the lines of, how do we find out what's going on with him?" Lucas said, frowning at Brooke. "If some demon is doing something to him, the how do we figure out what and then how do we fix it?"

"I'd say that there's a pretty good chance that this demon was sent by someone," Susan offered. "So before we vanquish him—which, by the way, requires the Power of Three," she added, glancing down at the Book, "we interrogate the demon about who hired him."

"Sounds like a good plan," Brooke said. "So, how are we going to get . . . wherever Nathan is. Whenever he is," she corrected herself.

"No, Susan and I are going, alone," Lucas said firmly.

The look that Brooke gave him was enough to tell him what she thought of that suggestion. "Look, Lucas, I love you for looking out for me, but if this is about my delicate condition, you can—"

"It's not, Brooke. Sending one person through time is bad enough, but the more people that we send, the better chance we have of screwing up the balance."

"He's right, Brooke," Haley said after a minute. "We can't go; we can only send them."

"So let's write a spell," Susan said, picking up a pad of paper and starting to construct a spell to send her and her brother through time, then another one to get them back.

It was several minutes before she finally had it. "All right, got it, you ready?" she asked, walking over to Lucas. He nodded and they started reading the spell.

"In this night and in this hour,

we call upon the ancient power.

Remove the chains of time and space,

and take us to the one whom we wish to face."

There was a shimmer of lights surrounding the two remaining Charmed Ones and then they were gone, leaving Shawn, Haley, and Brooke in the attic, wondering if they were ever going to see them again.