Desires

I sensed there was trouble immediately when I awoke the next morning. The wisps were absent as were the sounds of forest animals who were around us. Somewhere someone was tapping his or her foot then would pause and sigh.

"I only wish to offer Piper a gift." Raziel purred from the outside right in front of the shelter exit. "A simple and harmless piece of fruit."

Someone snorted and I opened my eyes to see it was Keegan. Raziel sighed once more and began pacing just outside the onyx's protection. Beside Keegan knelt Angel and Damon on guard and ready for fight or flight. I was betting the former.

"Gifts here turn out to be more than they seem, m'lord." Keegan replied with a slight bow of his head. "Pardon me if I seem to have doubts."

Why is he being so respectful with this loser, Angel inquired.

Heck if I know, Damon replied telepathically, He's* your* brother.

"I can understand your distrust, *halfling*." Raziel said politely but with obvious distaste. "You seem to think Piper is yours."

"She is." Keegan snapped. "And you can't have her."

Raziel yawned, "You forget, *you perverse monstrosity*"

"Look who's talking." Damon muttered to Angel, who snickered as Raziel continued more calmly.

"I am Loki's lieutenant, my word is law, second to only Loki himself!" Raziel sneered, "While you are some- *mistake*."

I winced as Keegan trembled in rage, the barb striking home.

I could tell this was a point that upset Keegan about how he was born. His mother was a prisoner in the Shadow World. She was forced to stay and probably was raped by Keegan's father -- whoever he was. In that moment Keegan needed me, which prompted me to do the unthinkable: Tick off Raziel!

"It doesn't matter how you put it Raziel, you're still second best." I told him as I sat up. "Ariel knew it and I know it!"

Raziel lunged toward us and I flinched only to stare agape as he struck an invisible force field. Then I heard raspy snickers and dry applause come up from the shadows.

"Nicely placed, girl!" the Shadow Men said gleefully as Raziel's face turned into an ugly mask of rage.

"Silence, you offensive apparitions!" Raziel roared and all was silent. He returned his attention to the four of us.

"I *will* have you *Piper*. Make no mistakes about that." He growled and vanished in an angry cloud of smoke.

I snorted, "Jerk!"

Angel giggled and patted me on the back. Nice one, Riley, she said with a smile. I glanced and saw Keegan give me a dark forbidding look.

Some hours later, the wisps returned and we were back on our quest with our gear. It began raining during the trek, forcing us to pull up the hoods to our borrowed cloaks. Trees and vines soon gave way into the black and white colors of a chess board with stone walls of the Labyrinth. Soon we were standing amongst pawns whilst they play.

"Excuse us." The wisps said as they quickly darted between pieces and laughed when they tripped on invisible feet and fell. "Pardon me!"

The four of us raced to catch up to the blur of lights, knocking over even more pieces behind us. I strove to keep up but found myself losing ground to the prenatural speed of my friends.

Suddenly I found my hand was grabbed and I was hauled up onto Keegan's back. My legs dangled while my hands hung on around Keegan's neck as his feet carried him back up with the others.

"Where are we going?" Damon asked the wisps as a fog began rolling in.

"To the Queen's" they cried as their voices got strangely fainter and their glow got weaker.

Something wasn't right. We began slowing down, as if Time itself was going still but the fog had no such problems. Soon we were enveloped in it.

I felt strangely weightless and knew that Keegan was no longer close. It was as if I was in my own foggy little world.

I began hearing distorted voices, slurring words in dull tones one moment and in perfect clarity another. Sometimes the voices would echo but I understood them nonetheless.

"Come back to us Piper." They said, "Come and play."

The Sirens were calling me. They wanted me. Needed me to play for them. To dance and sing with them.

"Go with them Piper." Raziel's voice urged. "It is where you belong."

The fog began to clear a bit and I could see the Sirens beckoning me. Their hair was blowing slowly in a silent breeze that I could not feel. Their voices cried out to me and I took an unconscious step towards them then turned only to be face to face with Raziel.

"Go to them, Piper." He whispered as I turned my back to him and toward the Sirens. He leaned closer to me and said in my ear, "What have you to go back to? Uncaring parents? Go. Be with them."

He gently turned me to him, "I would gladly spend the rest of eternity wrapped in *your* Siren's song." His hand cautiously lifted and caressed my cheek.

My eyes drifted close as Raziel continued, "You and I can dance forever in each others arms. Together we would make beautiful music."

As my arm drifted up to his, I knocked my pipes lose from my belt and it shattered on the ground. My eyes opened and my gaze went to the scattered reeds. Memories of laughing ice blue eyes assaulted me. Eyes that would turn blue when he was sad. Turn to gray when he kissed me. Turned to white on one special night.

On my hand, the alexandrite stone was a smoldering gray.

An icy tear fell gently down my face and I looked up at Raziel, "I can't."

As his face turned from seductive to confused, I continued stronger, "No matter how appealing your offer is, Raziel, I can't accept."

He tenderly wiped the tear from my face, "If it is the others you worry about--"

I stopped him before he continued and took a step back, "No! I can't accept it. I will not sacrifice my friends or the good inside me for something dark!"

He stepped toward me, "But it does not have to be dark, Piper. It can be good."

"Anything with you would be dark." I replied and gasped at the anger and menace on Raziel's face.

"How can you still choose* him*?! He roared. "I'm a god compared to him."

"I don't want a god, I want someone human" I cried and added softer " and Keegan is."

Raziel was quiet for a moment and vanished into the mists.

I looked around and as I did, I found myself back in time. I was home, in the bathroom, standing unnoticed as Keegan performed the binding ceremony on a pale and bloody me.

"All I refuse and thee I choose" I heard myself whisper.

Keegan sighed as the alexandrite stone on my otherself's hand glowed blood red.

"Now let's get you patched up." he told the other me obviously more relaxed. "Your parents will be home soon."

I watched as my twin hovered in the air, her wounds healing and then floated into Keegan's lap asleep.

He began crying and began rocking her, her head resting on his shoulder. "Why didn't you come to me?" Keegan whispered as he rocked, "That's why I stayed here. Why I rigged the Pokemon battle so you would win."

He kissed my temple and crushed a handful of my hair in his hands, "Why did you make me do this to you? To us?"

I watched him smile and rise to his feet with my other self in his arms then carry her into my room. I followed them as Keegan laid my doppelganger on my bed.

"This wasn't how I wanted to do things." He smiled as he brushed a stray lock of hair from my face. "But I'm glad I did."

Fog suddenly filled my vision and then I found myself in a white room. A happy little girl was sitting on the floor was sitting at her mother's knee. The girl and mother both had beautiful long flaxen hair, their eyes were blue. Beside the girl sat a little boy with ice blue eyes and short brown hair. Both of them were giggling at the story their mother was telling.

"And the king said "*I want this girl for my wife*"" the mother told children who giggled again. The mother looked up and saw me and said "Hello Piper. Come join us."

I shook my head and she nodded, "Angel, why don't you go with Piper here. I'll stay and entertain your brother."

The little girl nodded and rose to her feet aging instantly into the Angel I knew well. She shook her head as if coming out of a strange daze while fog began enveloping us.

Angel and I found ourselves in fantastic room full of Oriental rugs, giant cushions and a harem of women. Lounging amongst the women was Damon feasting on the blood of Elena while his brother Stefan was forced to watch helplessly.

I think I figured out what's going on here, Angel told me. We're having our desires used to trap us.

"So why did your Mom let you go to come with me." I whispered as Damon flung Elena aside to feast upon another woman.

Because that really was my mother, she replied.

As I stood agape at that revelation, Angel cleared her throat loudly, announcing her presence and displeasure at discovering this dark fantasy of Damon's.

Just what in the world are you doing, Salvatore? She demanded with her hands on her hips.

Damon jumped, flung the faceless woman aside and was on his feet in a second. "Nothing" he replied quickly.

The obviously fake Elena tried to snake her way into Damon's arms making him out to be a liar and forced Damon to shoo her away. I tried not to laugh.

Piper and I discovered our desires were being used to trap us, Angel said sweetly. Would having your brother's girlfriend be your slave be a fantasy of yours?

"Of course not." Damon denied smoothly taking a step towards her. "My fantasies involve you and a whip."

So you want to beat me up, Angel snapped making Damon take a step back. She spun around and gave him her back.

In an instant, Damon was behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He leaned down and began whispering in her ear. I watched her angry countenance slowly change to surprise and then Angel began to blushing bright red. She giggled as Damon moved back with a wicked grin.

Maybe later, she told him causing me to discretely cough to hide the laughter that was bubbling up inside me.

The fog lifted as it came and Angel, Damon and I found we lost something in the fog.

"Where are the wisps?" Damon asked looking around the chessboard and pieces.

More importantly, where's Keegan? Angel demanded.