Chapter 3: A Difficult Secret To Keep

Aurora stared at the computer screen, and sighed. For the past two days, she'd been looking up every single fact imaginable about witches and witchcraft. She'd gone to the bookstore and had bought several books on the subject, and had been poring through them, hoping to find out more about her new gift. She'd also gone to every single website about the supernatural, but they'd only been about various demons and such; there hadn't been hardly anything on witches or witchcraft.

" 'Witchcraft is another name for satanism'," she read aloud from the latest webpage that she was visiting. " 'Witches worship the devil, and every Friday night, they practice their evil spells and read passages aloud from the Satanic Bible'." Aurora snorted. "What a load of bullcrap." Suddenly, there was a knock on her bedroom door, and Aurora quickly got offline and shoved the books under her bed. "Come in," she called. The door opened, and Claire poked her head inside.

"Hey, kiddo," she said. "Adam's here, and he wants to talk to you." Aurora grimaced.

"Did he watch the video of the trial?"

"Yep."

"Crap." Aurora stood up and walked out of her room, heading downstairs. Adam was sitting on the couch, but he stood up when she walked downstairs.

"Aurora, we need to talk," he said. "I saw the tape of your parents' trial, and I was rather surprised to see that you telekinetically threw your mother backwards." Aurora swallowed as Adam's brown eyes bored into hers. "How long have you had telekinesis?" he asked.

"Since the trial," whispered Aurora. She swallowed again. "Adam, I found out a couple of days ago that I'm not just a New Mutant."

"Well, what else are you?" asked Adam curiously.

"I'm..." Aurora began, but then remembered the promise she'd made. She'd promised not to tell anyone about her new heritage. "Just different, that's all," she finished lamely. Adam lifted an eyebrow slightly, but didn't question her answer.

"Well, if you're sure, then I guess there's nothing I can do to change your mind," he replied, and stood up, walking towards the front door. "See you later, Aurora."

* * *

"I can't keep the fact that I'm a witch hidden for much longer," said Aurora to Piper the next day. The older woman was making spaghetti sauce that smelled absolutely heavenly. "Adam knows that I lied to him, I just know he does."

"We never said that being a witch was easy," replied Piper, stirring the sauce. "Hand me the garlic, would you?" Aurora grabbed the garlic that was in a bowl and handed it to her. "It's especially hard when you're having to keep it a secret from the ones you care about, and it doesn't help when demons are always dropping in and attacking you."

Aurora smiled faintly, knowing that Piper was right. Suddenly, her cell phone rang, and she pulled it out of her purse, turning it on.

"Hello?" she asked. "Claire, calm down! What happened?" Aurora listened to the person on the other end of the line for a moment, and then spoke again. "Don't worry, Claire. It's just a few houses down from where I am right now. I'll go over there and get her. Okay, bye." She turned off her cell phone and turned towards Piper. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

* * *

Aurora ran down the sidewalk and stopped in front of a yellow and blue house. She could hear shouting inside, and she ran up to the front door.

"I can't believe that you turned our daughter in to the GSA!" shrieked a woman inside. "You sick bastard! They'll put her in a stasis pod!"

"She's a freak!" shouted a man in reply. "She deserves to be in a stasis pod!"

Aurora opened the front door and grinned at the man and woman who were in the hallway.

"Hi. I was in the neighborhood, and I thought I'd take your daughter and get her into the Underground before anyone from the GSA gets here," she said cheerfully.

The woman let out a sigh of relief, but the man glared at her.

"She's not going into the Underground!" he growled. "She's going into a stasis pod where she belongs!"

"I don't think so," replied Aurora calmly. Turning to the woman, she asked, "Where's your daughter?"

"In the living room," the woman replied.

Aurora went into the living room and saw a little girl with brown hair and brown eyes sitting on the couch who couldn't have been more than eight years old. When she saw Aurora, she jumped to her feet, a terrified look on her face.

"It's all right," said Aurora soothingly. "I'm not a GS agent. I was sent by Mutant X."

The terrified look left the little girl's eyes.

"Adam sent you?" she asked.

"That's right. My name's Aurora. What's yours?"

"Leila."

"That's a pretty name. Now, are you ready to leave?"

"Uh-huh."

Aurora and Leila turned to leave, but they both came to a halt when they saw three men dressed in suits that were standing in the doorway.

"Hand over the kid," one of them said. "Or do you intend to resist?"

"Don't be such an idiot; of course I intend to resist!" Aurora snapped. She flung out her hands, and the GS agents went flying backwards, crashing into the wall. Then Aurora made a gesture with her hand, and a wall of fire appeared between her and Leila and the GS agents. She grabbed Leila by the hand, and they ran towards the back door. Aurora looked back, and saw that the agents were putting out the fire. "Come on, Leila! We've gotta get you to safety!"

They ran around the side of the house and then ran down the street.

"Aurora, where are we going?" Leila demanded, panting.

"Just down the street, kiddo," Aurora replied. "There's a place where we can hide at for now." A moment later, they reached Halliwell Manor, and they ran onto the front porch. Aurora began pounding on the front door with her fists. "Piper! Phoebe! Paige! Somebody open this goddamn door!"

A moment later, the front door was yanked open by Piper, who looked slightly alarmed.

"Aurora, what the hell's the matter?" she demanded.

"Let us inside!" Aurora said frantically, pushing past her and dragging Leila inside.

"What's going on down there?" came Paige's voice from upstairs.

"We've got trouble!" Aurora yelled.

"Demonic trouble?"

"They're human, but they've got superpowers and guns."

"Who's got superpowers and guns?" asked Phoebe, walking in from the kitchen.

"The guys that are after me and Leila."

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Piper peeked out the window. Then she looked back over at Aurora.

"Would the guys after the two of you be dressed like corporate clones?"

"Yeah."

"They're here."

"Crap." Aurora formed a fireball in her right hand. "Piper, open the door as wide as you can, *now*."

Piper flung the door open as wide as it would go. Aurora flung the fireball in her hand at the agents on the front porch, and they dove out of the way.

"Give us the kid, you freak," snarled one of the GS agents. "We're not gonna hurt her, if that's what you're worried about."

"No, you'll just stick her in a stasis pod for future examination," Aurora retorted. "Not gonna happen, asshole."

Angrily, the GS agent pulled out a gun.

"Gun!" Aurora heard Paige call from behind her. An instant later, the gun disappeared in white sparkles. Aurora whipped around just in time to see the gun reappear in Paige's hand in the same white sparkles as before. The GS agent gaped at her in astonishment, and then threw electricity at her. But before it could hit her, Paige orbed out of the way.

"Hey, jackass!" Phoebe snarled, glaring at the agent. "It's bad enough that demons throw lightning at my baby sister, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna let a goddamn corporate clone do that to her!" With that, Phoebe ran at the agent, levitated five feet into the air, and kicked him in the head.

A second agent ran at Phoebe and tried to grab her, but before he could, Piper froze the room. Aurora grabbed a chair and moved it in front of the agent, while Phoebe got out of the way as quickly as she could.

"Piper, unfreeze the room," she ordered. Piper unfroze the room, and the agent moved forward. Then he tripped over the chair and crashed to the floor face-first.

"Have a nice trip," said Piper nastily.

"See you next fall," added Paige.

In the meantime, the four of them hadn't noticed the third agent. He pulled out his gun, and aimed it at Aurora. But before he could pull the trigger, he was hit from behind by a bolt of electricity. He fell to the ground, unconscious. Aurora and the others spun around and saw that a young man was standing there. Blue electricity sparked around his fingertips.

"Brennan!" Aurora shrieked, flinging herself at him. She hugged him tightly and grinned at him. "Did you come to get Leila into the Underground? Because if you are, then you'd better get her out of here before the goon squad wakes up."

"Yeah, me and Shalimar are here to get Leila into the Underground," replied Brennan Mulwray. "When you didn't call back, Claire got worried about the two of you, and she demanded that we track the two of you down."

"So here we are," said Shalimar from behind Brennan.

Leila stepped forward.

"Do you work with Adam?" she asked.

"That's right," Shalimar replied.

"Am I ever gonna see my mom again?" There was a sad look in Leila's eyes. Shalimar crouched down until the two of them were eye-to-eye.

"Leila, we're going to try as hard as we can to get you and your mom into the Underground together. I can't guarantee that your dad'll get into the Underground, too, since he betrayed you to the GSA, but we're definitely gonna try to keep you and your mom together in the Underground. All right?"

Leila grinned.

"That's all I ask," she said. Suddenly, she screamed, "Look out!"

Aurora and the others spun around, and they all gasped. There was an older man standing in the doorway. He had curly grey hair and dark brown, almost black eyes. There was a cold glint in his eyes, but that wasn't what frightened Aurora.

What frightened Aurora was the pale blue energy ball that he held in one hand.

"Where's Belthazar?" he demanded. Aurora was startled at how cultured his voice was.

"Um, he's out of town," Aurora replied. --Wonderful. A bounty hunter that's searching for Cole-- she thought grimly. --I do *not* need this right now, and neither do Phoebe, Paige, and Piper.-- "He'll be back sometime next millenium, though. Can I take a message?" The demon bounty hunter snarled, and flung the energy ball at her. Aurora dove out of the way, barely avoiding being hit. "So that's the way you like to play, huh?" she asked. "Mind if I join the game?"

She formed a fireball in one hand, and flung it at the demon. It took off his arm at the shoulder, splattering green goo everywhere. Then, to Aurora's shock and amazement, his arm instantly grew back. --Aw, crap!-- she thought, dismayed. Without hesitation, she used her telekinesis to fling him against the wall, and while he slowly got to his feet, she formed another fireball.

* * *

Arestan stood up slowly, feeling the pain in his bones. --Did Alaster ever feel this kind of pain?-- he thought, grimacing slightly. It was one thing when his arm was blasted off, but it was another thing entirely when he was flung up against a wall.

He glanced over at the red-haired witch who could fling fire, and saw that she looked slightly different. Her green eyes were practically glowing with anger, and strands of her hair had come loose from her braid, framing her pale face. With a start, Arestan realized that he found the young witch quite attractive.

Suddenly frightened by the way that his emotions were acting, he transported himself back to his lair.

* * *

Aurora lowered the hand that was holding the fireball, staring at the place where the demon had been standing. He had just shimmered away.

"Where'd he go?" she asked Piper, confused.

"Probably to report you to the Source," Piper replied.

"Oh, great. I've been a witch for less than a week, and I'm already having to worry about the Source? Lovely."

"Um, Aurora?" came Brennan's voice from behind them. Aurora nearly jumped out of her skin; she'd completely forgotten that he and Shalimar were still there. She turned around, and saw that they were staring at her and the three Halliwells. "Would you mind explaining what the hell is going on?"

Aurora swallowed hard.

"Uh, that could take awhile."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Aurora, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige had explained everything to Brennan and Shalimar. They were a bit skeptical about the fact that Aurora was a witch, but they agreed that the guy who had attacked her definitely wasn't human.

"Aurora, you do realize that you're going to have to tell Claire and Adam and Jesse and Emma the truth, don't you?" Shalimar said.

Aurora made a face.

"Do I have to?" she whined.

"Well, Brennan and Shalimar now know," replied Piper. "So it's only fair that the rest of your friends know it, too."

"Oh, all right," said Aurora reluctantly. "I'll tell them tonight."

"If you want, we'll come with you when you tell them," offered Phoebe.

"No, that's all right. I don't need any help."

"Well, we'd better get Leila into the Underground," said Shalimar finally. She, Brennan, Leila and Aurora headed out the front door.

to be continued...

* * *

A/N: As always, please R&R, but no flames. Flamers will be pelted with dungbombs, and then they'll get their sorry arses kicked from here to the Bog of Eternal Stench.