Everybody at the manor was seriously sleep deprived at this point. Paige and Phoebe had stayed over since the night of the benefit at P3, in case anything needed to be tackled immediately, leaving their spouses to handle their respective households. Their children could tell something was seriously wrong and offered to help, but the sisters agreed this one needed to be taken care of by themselves. They didn't want it all to become an uncontrollable crossfire which could very well destroy their family, which is why the details, as current as they had them, were kept to only themselves, Chris and Leo.
Chris was feeling extremely guilty for leaving the house empty that night, in spite of his parents reassuring him that whatever happened hadn't been his fault. He hadn't spoken to Bianca on a regular basis, sure he was supposed to focus on his family alone now. Little did he know, Bianca was completely on board with what was going on with his brother and had played a crucial part in it. He even thought she had, but then worked hard to convince himself he was simply being paranoid.
Nobody had had the heart to speak to Wyatt and Sam just yet. They thought it safer for everybody to keep their distance, till it became absolutely necessary. They still didn't know exactly what they were planning to do with the Nexus at this point and as far as they could tell, they had gone on with their normal routine or so they seemed to be. They had taken turns to spy on them from a safe distance. They weren't sure they were unaware they were being watched, but even if they weren't, they hadn't made any attempt to stop them or complain about it. Still, the situation kept everybody on edge, the calm before the storm was hard to deal with.
The sisters had brought a pile of books from Magic School and had stacks of them spread on either side of the Solarium where they had settled camp for the last few days. There were empty cups of coffee adorning the tall pillars of unfruitful searches. They were exhausted, both body and soul, but mostly, it was the impotence of knowing something had already happened and they hadn't been able to stop it, and now that ticking clock had come to an abrupt stop.
"I still got nothing on a Vizkaroth" said Piper closing the umpteenth book.
"Me neither" yawned Paige.
"Hold on, I think I got something…" said Phoebe catching everyone's attention. "It's not much but…"
"It's something. We've been at it for days" Paige crawled to her side where Phoebe sat, legs crossed.
"Whispering demons. Whispering demons were the responsible for persuading people into doing bad deeds, hence tipping the scale to the side of evil…" she scanned lower down the page. "Fortunately, their numbers were reduced almost to the point of extinction by witches throughout the centuries. The last known demon been vanquished in the 1800's"
"That would certainly explain why we can't find anything on him" Piper said wearily.
"How can we know it's the same kind of demon?" said Paige stretching her arms, feeling her back crack back into place.
"Wait… saw something else around here…" Phoebe shuffled pages back and forth for a moment. "Ah…here… whispering demons could intrude a person's mind and successfully convince the subject that whatever evil deed they were performing had been originally their idea. They could accomplish this by whispering in their ear while awake or even invading their dreams while asleep" the puzzle started to shape, however slowly.
"Is there a vanquishing spell?" Piper asked on a fool's hope.
"No. It says they were driven to the point of extinction but it doesn't say how" Phoebe shuffled pages again.
"OK" said Paige gulping the remains of her last cup of coffee, shaking herself awake. "Give it to me again, Pheebs. Maybe we're missing something"
"When we got to the benefit, I could feel them happy, maybe a little sad when they met us, but… when we saw Sam's dress catch fire like that…" Phoebe kept tracing back to that moment. "I got nothing. No fear, no arrogance"
"Which they felt, I didn't have to be an empath to see that" said Paige.
"Like, I'd hit a brick wall"
"Are you certain your powers are working?" said Piper on a limb. Phoebe reached for her hand and squeezed it. A sympathetic smile on her face.
"Yes. I could feel everybody around them. They were the only void in the crowd" Phoebe felt like crying, not being able to offer more useful information to her sister, whose heart she could feel breaking.
"When Sam brought Wyatt here, he was hurt bad" Chris tried to continue the train of thought. "She tried conjuring a Stinger demon to be able to heal him and Bianca helped them convince (air quote) him to do it…"
"How did they get a hold of a Stinger demon so fast? I've checked and double checked the entry" said Paige holding the Book of Shadows on her lap. "and there is no conjuring them"
"Bianca told me she had shimmered to the Underworld to where she knew they usually hang out and got lucky, but even after bringing him he had to be threatened like I said" They exchanged looks.
"How long did she take to bring the demon here again?"
"They were up in the attic for no more than five minutes" he stared at them exchanging dubious looks. "What? You think she's lying?"
"Don't you?" Phoebe asked him.
"No" he answered automatically. "I mean… we have gotten lucky before… you don't think…?"
"We trust Bianca, honey" said Piper trying to stay on his good side, fully aware he was in love with her. "It's just… that's about the only gap we have to go from"
"Besides… we are not accusing her of lying, but maybe… she left something out…?" Phoebe explained thru his anguish. Chris knew that if he found out she was lying about the Stinger demon, she had to have been lying about going for a walk that night as well; and to be honest, he didn't know if he could bear to lose her too at the moment.
In the background, the TV set turned on by itself, making them turn around. "I got it" said Piper sure it had been Melinda, out of sheer boredom to be the only toddler in the room. "Guys…" she called them, turning up the volume.
Protesters are demanding to see their family members after being remanded for the given 48hrs. The police department is having a hard time maintaining the order outside the precinct. Riots have begun to disrupt an initially quiet protest as families have grown increasingly concerned about the fate of their families… authorities have failed to announce if the increase in punishment all around the legal system has come directly from the Federal office…
"Increase in punishment?" muttered Paige. "You don't think…?"
"I think we all know the answer to that" said Piper whose throat ache, making it hard to swallow. She backed away from the TV set slowly, feeling her way to a chair, as her knees threatened to fail her again.
"It's time. We need to go talk to them" said Phoebe bitterly. Paige took a vial from her purse and walked to her eldest sister.
"Just in case we need to get out of there" she explained as she placed the vial with stunning potion in her palm. Piper recognized it as it was identical to the one Chris tried to use last time they had all been there. She said nothing and pushed it down her front pocket. She had tears in her eyes now, which she tried to wipe away, clearing her throat as she struggled to keep the grip on herself.
After a while, the sisters decided to go alone. Chris argued as much as he could but he was given a different task to keep him occupied. Piper, Phoebe and Paige would pay a visit to Wyatt and Sam to ask them directly what was going on. Even if they didn't tell them exactly, they'd know where they stood. Chris would contact Bianca and make sure where she stood in all of this; and Leo would take Melinda to Magic School just for good measure. He was called back from spy duty since they were going to Wyatt's anyway.
They orbed to Wyatt's just a little before lunch to find them cuddling in the couch pretty occupied with each other.
"Ahem…" Piper tried to break them up.
"How nice of you to drop by, mother" said Wyatt with a big smile on his face, reaching for his shirt, which lied on the floor not far from the couch. Sam stayed on the couch, reaching to touch Wyatt's bare skin before he succeeded in putting his shirt back on. She turned to look at them all, resting her head on her hands, supported by the back of the couch; a sigh of disappointment.
"We would offer you something to drink, but something tells me this isn't a social visit" she smiled sarcastically.
"What makes you say that?" asked Paige sarcastically.
"Just a hunch" she said smirking, turning to Wyatt, reaching for his hand.
"We… wanted to…uhm… congratulate you on the benefit's success the other night" Phoebe tried easing their way into the conversation.
"Is that so?" said Wyatt going to sit on the edge of the couch now, where Sam leaned her head on him. "That why you carry a potion again?" they exchanged looks. Sam had detected the liquid the moment they'd arrived and the Nexus' power made it effortless to communicate telepathically with him, something they had all thought they could already do on some level. "What's on your mind?"
"OK" said Piper, deciding how to address the elephant in the room. "What happened at P3? You orbed in front of at least a hundred people this time"
"They were too distracted with the falling dollar bills; I can assure you that" Sam answered playfully.
"Mortals are easy to distract… then, demons are easy to convince… if you know what they want… you however… well, we were allowing for some time before officially talking to you, but…"
"I guess you're not gonna give us that choice" completed Sam walking to his side and taking his hand. That awkward silence that had reigned during any of their meetings for quite some time now took over.
"We know that you know" said Wyatt still with a smile.
"Bianca told us" said Sam.
"Oh, my God. Chris" said Phoebe worried.
"Relax. She would never hurt him, nor would we ever ask her to do so" as threatening as they seemed, the sisters believed in his words. It had never seemed like they were in harm's way directly from them, even in that heartbreaking future they saw.
"I guess there's no use in denying what we know, huh?" said Paige. Sam shook her head in a calculated way.
"Why?" asked Piper whisper-like, as her heart broke into a million pieces all over again.
"We have our reasons, and that potion in your pocket tells us you're not ready to hear them"
"What reason could there possibly be to mess with the justice system in all of San Francisco? There'll panic, chaos even" pleaded Phoebe, in a hopeless attempt to appeal to their better nature.
"We'll handle it" Sam looked Wyatt in loving admiration.
"How could you possibly think that?" Phoebe asked outraged.
"I guess when there's no limit to what you can do, morals aren't so much in the way" Paige said slightly defiantly now.
"We could have just punished people ourselves. We could have sent demons to get all the wrongdoers. We could have turned this world upside down days ago. And yet…"
"We simply got no morals" Sam completed his answer, still holding his hand firmly in hers.
"Things will change" Wyatt said finally.
"Change how exactly?" Paige's question has barely been asked when a demon shimmered into the room.
"Your majest…" was all he managed to say before Piper blew him up on the spot.
"See what we mean? No wiggle room at all" Wyatt nodded, agreeing with his wife. "Why don't you do the honors, babe?" she reached to kiss him.
"Very well. Mom, Aunts, I know there is no way I can explain this to you without you thinking we are doing evil and… that's precisely why we need to do this"
"Not everything is black and white" completed Sam. "We only seek to create a world where everybody will be able to be themselves without fear of retaliation, but…"
"In order to do that, there must be an adjustment period where we need to learn to break old patterns which will… don't longer serve us" he corrected himself.
"You two simply decided to rearrange the world and decide what's best for everyone?" Paige protested.
"Weren't you the ones telling me my whole life how I would change the world one day?"
"We didn't mean…"
"Well, this is it" Wyatt interrupted his Aunt Phoebe. "We're just doing it our way"
"Is this really what you want to do?" Piper finally spoke again. Her eyes were burning as she fought with every fiber of her being to keep the tears from coming. More than sadness, she was furious. Furious this Vizkaroth demon had gotten to them on such a deeper level where they no longer even saw how wrong they were.
"It's what we need to do" Sam answered, a trace of regret in her voice. Wyatt took her in his arms protectively as they both faced the Charmed Ones. "For them" she nodded towards the top of the stairs, where they understood the children were probably napping in their rooms. "For all of you. We won't let what happened to my brother Ed happen to anybody else"
"Nothing will hurt our family" Wyatt said deadly serious.
"But it will" said Phoebe this time. "We saw the future that's coming and we still lost people along the way" they all remembered how in their latest glimpse Leo, Melinda and even Bianca, who seemed to be awfully supportive of them right then, were gone.
Wyatt and Sam looked at each other and then he was the one who spoke, slowly, non-threatening, but… remarkably aware of his words.
"How old do you think Chris' boy was when you met him? Or tell me, how old do you think our kids were if we were ok living underground when they were living above the surface?"
"Bianca?" Paige sought for a confirmation she already had. "Damn it, Chris" she muttered.
"We have no hopes of immortality… for none of us, but… we do want the reassurance that we'll all have a chance at a full life before our time comes" Sam explained. "Is that really so much to ask?"
"No" said Piper to her sisters' surprise. "But the price you're asking for it…is"
