Author's Note: Holy crap, you guys, fifty chapters. When I first started this story, I had a couple of paragraphs and no direction, and now it's at over 100,000 words. And that's thanks to all of you. A million thanks to my amazing beta, cruelangel101, without whose help this story would probably not have gotten this far. And to my readers; you guys are amazing.
Chapter Fifty
Christy ignored Paige's question, still staring at the empty space where the memory had been projected.
"That was me, wasn't it?" she whispered, a horrified tone in her voice. "I was – I lit that man on fire."
"That wasn't you," Paige said, automatically, in response to the fear in the girl's voice. "Not really. Christy," she repeated, emphatically, as she moved toward where she was standing, "what are you doing here?"
"I brought her here," a new voice spoke up, and Paige looked up to see a young man in Elder's robes standing behind Christy.
She didn't recognize him, but from the stormy expression on Odin's face as he came over, he did.
"What are you doing here, Caenan?" he demanded, and the younger man glared, rebelliously, at him.
"You and the rest of the Council haven't been doing anything about these monsters," he snapped, gesturing at Christy, who whimpered in fear and shrank against Paige, instinctively. "So, some of the others and I decided to take matters into our own hands."
"By terrorizing a young girl?" Paige demanded, incredulously, as she wrapped an arm protectively around Christy's shoulders, supporting her as much as she was holding her in place.
"Didn't she kill your sisters?" Caenan said, scornfully, glancing over at her. "I'd think that you'd want to see her dealt with, too. In fact, I'm surprised that you haven't done anything about her, yourself."
Paige glared at Caenan, fury and confusion warring for dominance within her. She wanted to rage at the young Elder for even suggesting that she would take a life out of revenge, but then she remembered Piper's broken, battered body lying among the ruins of their home. Making things more difficult, whenever she looked at Christy, she didn't see the evil witch who'd destroyed her family, she just saw a terrified young woman.
But, before she could say anything to Caenan, Odin spoke up.
"Be quiet," the Elder said, his voice coming out in a furious growl. "If you say another word, Caenan-"
His voice trailed off, leaving the threat deliberately vague. The younger man gulped, nervously, backing away from Odin's steely glare.
"Go," Odin told him, his voice quiet. "Gather everyone involved in this – this scheme of yours, and wait for us in the meeting space. The Council will deal with you when we are done, here."
Caenan orbed away without a word, and Paige breathed a quiet sigh of relief when he was gone.
"Thank you," she said, quietly to Odin, who nodded. Then, she turned her attention to Christy.
The girl had pulled away from her when Caenan had accused her of killing Piper and Phoebe, but she hadn't been able to go far, surrounded by the members of the Council. She was standing, frozen, in the middle of the loose circle, shrinking into herself every time someone even glanced in her direction. And she absolutely would not look at Paige.
"Christy?" Paige prompted, gently, moving toward the young woman, but stopping when she saw the first flinch. "Christy, talk to me."
"He said that I killed your sisters," Christy whispered, wrapping her arms around her midsection in a protective gesture. There was a hopeless tone in her voice that practically broke Paige's heart.
"It wasn't you," Paige told her, and Christy gave a short bark of laughter.
"It sure looked like me," she said, bitterly. "I lit that man on fire, and I was covered in blood – that man was right; I am a monster."
"You are not a monster," Paige said, insistently. "Look at me, Christy," she said, when the girl glanced away. "Yeah, you've been given a pretty raw deal, being taken from your family, raised by demons. But, you're not there, anymore. And you're going to go back to your family; I promise."
"Really?" Christy asked, hopefully, and Paige nodded.
"The way I see it," she went on, "you have a choice, here. You could do nothing; let others dictate who and what you are. Or, you could decide to take charge of your life; you can make the choice not to be that person. And you can show people like Caenan just where they can shove their attitudes."
"Why don't you hate me?" Christy asked, in a small voice. "For what I – what she – did?"
"There's a part of me that wants to, believe me," Paige admitted, softly. "But, I know you're not the same person as the woman who killed my family. That woman is dead. And you have the chance to make a new life for yourself."
"What if I don't know how?" Christy asked, but the fear in her voice was tinged with hope.
"I'll help you," Paige told her, the last of her indecision fading away. "You have the chance to be a good witch, Christy, to do good things."
"I want to," Christy said, her voice stronger by the second. "I want to be good. You'll really help me?"
"Every step of the way," Paige told her, and then she jumped, slightly, when Christy hugged her, hard.
"Ms. Jenkins," Odin spoke up, and Christy looked over at him, pressing herself against Paige when the Elder moved toward her. "Remus will take you out of here," he went on, gesturing to the other Elder. "And Paige will join you in a few minutes."
"Okay," Christy said, nodding slightly and following Remus.
The Elder orbed the two of them out of the room, leaving Paige alone with the Council.
"So much for binding her powers, huh?" she asked, wryly.
"I never said that was our plan of action," Odin interjected. "Simply that we would consider your suggestion."
"Are you willing to listen to another one?" Paige asked, and Odin raised an eyebrow at her.
"Perhaps," he said, neutrally.
"Give me my wings," Paige told him. "Make me a Whitelighter, again; give me back my charges. Including Billie and Christy," she added, before anyone could say anything. "I'll look out for them, mentor them. I won't make the same mistakes as last time."
"What about your duties as a witch?" Sandra asked.
"Being a Whitelighter didn't interfere with being a Charmed One," Paige pointed out. "I would think that it would be easier, now that I'm just a regular witch."
"Your powers-" someone added, and Paige cut him off.
"My witch powers make it easier to protect my charges," she said, "and my Whitelighter powers are already coming back. I can orb, and sense, and I know how to trigger my healing power. I've done this job, before, and I've done it well."
Odin nodded, waving a hand over her, and Paige watched as her hands glowed for a second before the light sank into her skin.
"Thank you," Paige said. "Now, I think I promised my charge that I would take her home. If you'll excuse me?"
She orbed out of the room, to where she sensed Christy waiting, and the girl practically lit up when she saw Paige.
"I'm going home, now, right?" she asked, and Paige nodded.
"If you're ready," she said, and Christy nodded, enthusiastically. Then, a second later, she seemed to wilt.
"What am I going to say to them?" she asked, nervously, as Paige wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"Just say hello," she suggested, as she orbed them away.
They reformed on the front porch of the Jenkins' house, and Paige was grateful for the late hour, and the darkness that hid their arrival. Reaching out with her free hand, she rang the doorbell, and Christy tucked herself up against her side as the sound echoed through the house.
"What if they don't want me?" she whispered, but before Paige could reply, the front door opened, and Helen Jenkins stood on the other side.
"Can I help you?" she asked, curiously.
"Helen Jenkins, I'm Paige Matthews," Paige said, holding out her hand for the older woman to shake. "I have someone I'd like you to meet."
Helen glanced over at Christy, her curious expression morphing to one of confusion. Christy, for her part, was biting her lip so hard that Paige was surprised she didn't draw blood, and her hands were clenched into fists, her nails biting into her palm.
"Mama?" she finally whispered, and Helen's eyes flew open in shock.
She reached out with a trembling hand, running her fingers lightly over Christy's cheek. There were tears in her eyes, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet and hoarse.
"Christy?" she ventured."Baby, is that you?"
Christy nodded, wordlessly, jerking forward to wrap her arms around her mother in a hard hug. Helen held her daughter, tightly, looking up at Paige. There were a million questions in her eyes.
"Can I come in?" Paige asked. "I'll explain everything."
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The Manor was dark when Paige orbed in, but before the light faded, she saw Henry sitting on the couch. She made her way across the dark living room to sink down beside him on the cushions, feeling him wrap his arms around her.
"Welcome home," he said, sleepily, as she leaned back against his chest, twining her fingers through his.
"Did I wake you up?" Paige asked, quietly.
"I was just dozing," Henry replied, with a yawn. "Did you get everything taken care of?"
"I warned the Elders about everything that I could," she told him. "The Titans, the Avatars, Zankou – maybe this time, we can avoid all the bad stuff."
"With any luck," Henry agreed with her.
"And I got Christy home, safely, so-" Paige began, and she could feel Henry perk up.
"Christy?" he echoed, incredulously. "Did I miss something? Weren't the Elders going to bind her and Billie's powers."
"Yeah, not so much," Paige told him, sighing. "But, I think we can still make things different. For one thing, we've got Christy, and not the demons, this time around."
"But, she's been with them for nearly ten years, right?" Henry pointed out, reasonably.
"It's a little more complicated than that," Paige replied. "Apparently, even though the Triad was responsible for kidnapping Christy, they weren't the ones who had her for all these years."
"What do you mean?" Henry asked, sounding confused.
"They passed her off to a group of lower-level demons to raise, probably because they didn't want to be burdened with her. Only, the demons were vanquished, and the stronger demons who took them out took Christy as a kind of prize."
"That's sick," Henry declared, shaking his head in disgust.
"Oh, it gets worse," Paige told him, her voice grim. "Christy told me that she was owned, in a manner of speaking, by at least three other groups of demons over the years. Then, about a year ago, the Triad stepped in and "rescued" her from her demonic captors."
"And if they treated her well," Henry spoke up, echoing her thought process, "especially if the other demons had been cruel to her, then she would come to trust them, implicitly."
"I think that's exactly what they had planned," Paige said. "They'd swoop in, give Christy a better life than the one she'd had, before, and eventually they would have a loyal servant and a clear path to the Ultimate Power."
"So, what went wrong?" Henry asked.
"Cole, for one," Paige said, stifling a yawn behind her hand. "The Triad wasn't expecting him to go rogue, and they certainly didn't anticipate him vanquishing them – or, their physical bodies, at least," she amended. "And, without the Triad, Christy slipped away. She'd been living rough in the Underworld for the last several months before Andy found her down there."
"She's lucky to have survived that long," Henry commented, and Paige nodded.
"She's with her family, right now," she replied. "They were overjoyed to have her home, and I think she's going to be okay. I'll be watching out for her and Billie."
"What about demons?" Henry asked. "I can't imagine that they're going to leave them alone."
"No, but Christy knows that she can call me if she needs me, and I'll be there in an instant," Paige reminded him. "I think she's going to be okay," she added, with a small smile.
"What about you?" Henry asked, nudging her when she fell silent. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Paige decided, after thinking about it. "Yeah, I really think I am. Things are different than I expected, but it's a good different, you know? Piper's more relaxed, and she's not so tense all the time, and Phoebe – when she's not being overly hostile – is more open and happy than she's been in a while. And Prue – Prue is-"
"Prue is intense and a little scary," Henry finished for her, when she trailed off. "She's a lot like you, actually."
"Trying to tell me something?" Paige asked, teasingly.
"Just that you two will probably get along really well," Henry commented. "Hey," he added, "Phoebe said something about the Source wanting to get a child – a boy. Tyler?"
"I don't know," Paige admitted, squeezing his fingers in response to the worried tone in his voice. "It could be Tyler; it could be Wyatt, maybe even Chris. I don't know; I didn't hear enough."
"What are we going to do?" Henry asked.
"We'll vanquish them before they ever get their hands on anyone in this family," Paige told him. "Don't worry; I'm working on a plan to vanquish the Source. I'm going to fill my sisters in on the plan in the morning."
"After we get some sleep," Henry told her. "Here," he added, tightening his hold on her waist when she tried to get up. "I'm too tired to go upstairs, and we should let Tyler have the room to himself for one night."
"We need to add apartment hunting to the to-do list, tomorrow," Paige said, yawning, again. "I love my sisters, but we can't keep cramming three of us into one small room."
A light snore was her only answer, and she smiled, fondly, as she rested her head on Henry's chest. She closed her eyes, and was asleep within seconds.
