Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed.

We're on the home stretch guys, I hope you've enjoyed (and continue to) it.

Chapter Seventeen

Amazonite: Releasing Grief

November 7th, 2003

San Francisco Arboretum

Niko shimmered into the little corner of the San Francisco Arboretum that he and Kate had dubbed 'their spot'. He struggled to repress his shaking as he sat down and buried his face in his hands. It had been so long since he'd seen her last, and the sight of her as she'd entered the Manor attic was burned into his mind's eye.

Her brunette hair had grown longer, instead of being just long enough to be pulled back into a plait, it was several inches longer and put into a pair of Dutch braids.

When she left, she had temporary blonde dye in her hair and grey contacts on, as her face was known all over the world as the Leader of the Resistance. She had worn their time's required fashion for a female her age, consisting of a denim miniskirt that showed off her bum and legs, and a tight off-the-shoulder dark green crop-top. Wyatt and his demons were perverts, and loved to leer at terrified women who could do nothing to protect themselves from being violated. Niko had known she hated it, he had too, but Wyatt set the fashions, as he set everything else, and dressing the way she wanted to would have drawn attention to them. Not to mention those who didn't follow the dress code were immediately classed as rebels and arrested. Such was the life of those who lived under the reign of the Source of All Evil.

Today however, she had been dressed in the closest she could get to her own style in 2003. A pair of navy moveable jeggings, and a purple (she loved purples, blues and greens) top with ¾ length sleeves. Conservative and covering her scars, but still good for fighting, just the way she liked it. She finished it all off with her charmed jewellery and a pair of old velcro sneakers that had once been a sort of shimmery blue-green but had faded and grown dirty over the years of battle and traipsing around Valhalla and the Underworld. She wore nothing that could get snagged on something or be used against her in a fight, like laces.

Of course, her face was bare of any make-up. Niko doubted that she even knew how to apply the stuff in the first place. Clary had always done it for her when needed for undercover missions.

She was still the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen. Just as she had always been.

January 3rd, 2020

Beijing Alley

Niko had been tracking the Resistance Leader for several months now. Whoever they were, they were slippery, and good at fighting. Niko was one of seventeen currently assigned to the mission, and the Leader, known by their, presumably they were a woman, alias of Athena. The goddess of war. Niko smirked at the thought of it.

But now, he had caught up to The Target, and he had them pinned in an alley in Beijing. His plan had hinged on The Target's habit of confronting her stalkers to eliminate them. Having long since realized that The Target was an expert at spells and wards, he had gone to a great deal of trouble to get his hands on a rare object, nicknamed the trapping stone, to help in his mission.

By activating it, she would lose her ability to use magic in any way, shape or form. She would be forced to rely on any non-magical skills or weapons that she had and he was confident that he would be able to subdue her. He was a Phoenix after all, and Phoenixes were the best. The 'alive' part of his orders was inconvenient, but who was he to defy the Ruler of the World?

But if he accidentally killed her or failed, and the Emperor found out though... Niko swallowed at the thought. The worst of it, of course, was that he wouldn't be the only one to be 'punished' for the failure.

Wyatt Halliwell knew very well that most people prized their families and loved ones' lives above their own, even if he didn't, and whole families were wiped out for one member breathing too loudly near him. He would make Niko watch his family (though none of the other active assassins, they were too valuable for that) be tortured to death before doing so to him.

It wouldn't come to that though, he insisted to himself mentally. Niko was the best, and once her magic was neutralized by the stone, she would be stuck without magic. He, on the other hand, would still have his shimmering, apportation and energy balls. The Target would be at his mercy.

He saw The Target, turn to face him and felt a moment of surprise. She was at most sixteen, and a small sixteen at that. Her dark-brown, almost black hair was dirty and pulled into a tight braid that was pinned up. Sensible, the way it was done would stop anyone being able to use it against her in a fight. She wore a pair of battered old jeans and a frayed knitted dark green shirt with bloodstains on them. They both hung off her. Not surprising given how malnourished she was. A bloody cut stretched across the left side of her face, barely avoiding damaging her eyes. It looked shallow enough to avoid scarring though.

But it was her eyes that really drew him in. They were far too old for her face, and full of emotions, a rarity in these days, when everyone hid their thoughts with neutrality or fake happiness. Athena's eyes, the same shade of green as a piece of jade, were haunted by grief, unsurprisingly. Who's weren't nowadays, save for the demons and the Source? But there was determination there too. And a look that he didn't recognize. Something that drew him in. A spark of something that he didn't understand, but he wanted to.

He had never seen someone so beautiful.

"So, are we gonna do this, or are you just gonna keep checking me out?" Athena drawled sarcastically with a smirk.

He blinked and snapped back into the assassin mindset that his mother and clan had hammered into him. "We're doing this," he nodded sharply. "If you surrender, you might get a quick death," he offered graciously. Bullshit of course, Wyatt would torture her to insanity, then publicly burn her as a message to those who dared to oppose him. But he felt obliged to make the offer anyway. He didn't want this woman (not a girl, despite her age. She was too experienced to be called a girl.) to die.

"Bullshit," she laughed as she waved a hand, forcing him to dodge the large piece of brick sent spinning at his head. He countered with an energy ball that she flung aside casually with her telekinesis before, to his shock, opening and closing her hands and making him blow up, though he swiftly reformed. It damn hurt though. People with multiple powers were rare. Athena was definitely related to the Warren line somehow, but he was too focused on the fight to be able to reach the conclusion that hovered just out of reach.

The fight itself felt more like a friendly spar, the two of them trading sarcastic, innuendo-laced quips as they tried to kill each other in an oddly playful way. He almost forgot about the stone hidden in his pocket.

Then Athena suddenly stiffened, her eyes briefly flicking towards the alleyway entrance as she moved to avoid a stab from his knife. Instead of catching her in the shoulder, restricting her telekinetic abilities, it only grazed the side of her arm. She looked back at him with a tense smile.

"Sorry, hun," she drawled. "But I got things to do and people to see. This has been fun though. Bye."

She kicked, and he was so bemused by her sudden attitude change, that she managed to land it straight in his stomach. It was stronger than it should have been, and he recognized her boots as the same enchanted ones worn by the Valkyries moments too late. His ribs cracked under the pressure and he flew through the air and got impaled by a piece of debris. It hurt more than he would have expected it to.

Athena swore, and he wondered absently why. Then he wondered if Wyatt was going to kill his family for failing, despite him dying in the attempt. His mother would be so disappointed in him for doing so. Athena's face swam into focus above him.

She looked strained, glancing up at the entrance and back down at him repeatedly, indecision warring in her eyes.

"You're good," he complimented her weakly. "What's your name?"

"Didn't Wyatt tell you?"

He shook his head in reply. "Didn't even...say your powers...other than spells..."

"He doesn't even know all my powers," she muttered. A crash sounded nearby, and she clenched her jaw, looking tense. "Why'd you join him?"

"No...choice," he gasped. "Kill...whole clan...if don't.."

She sighed, a bitter twist to her mouth. "Yeah, that sounds about right," she muttered. Another clang made her nod, and he saw her make her decision.

"Are you...an angel?" he mumbled. He was definitely dying. Angels as beautiful as her didn't look at murdering demon-powered witches like him. This was some sort of hallucination.

Athena scoffed and grabbed hold of him. "This is gonna hurt," she warned. "And no, I'm not an angel. I'm only half." she glanced down, winking at him. "I'm Katharine Halliwell, nice to meet you Phoenix."

"Niko," he croaked back. Katharine Halliwell. That explained why Wyatt wanted her alive. At least he was killed by a superior foe. That was something. Hah, Wyatt's own (supposedly dead in the Fall of Magic School) sister was leading the resistance against him. That seemed ridiculously funny for some reason. Then the world went blue and white and Niko screamed at the sudden pain in his stomach as he was orbed away.

November 7th, 2003

San Francisco Arboretum

Niko swallowed, hurt pounding at him as he remembered that day. The most important day of his life. The day Kate had shown him mercy, and saved his life. And now, years later in the past, he was trying to bring her back to deliver her to her worst enemy. Wyatt had sworn he wouldn't hurt her, but Niko knew it was a lie. He had held out for months, but the torture, and threats of sending other assassins back, ones who wouldn't have any inclination to spare Kate, had broken him. At least this way they had a chance of surviving.

His thoughts drifted to the blonde man who had appeared with Kate's mother. He looked terrifyingly like Wyatt, but so different at the same time. It was the softness, Niko decided.

He hadn't met anyone so gentle seeming in a long time. People weren't soft in his time. In his time, children didn't play or cry outside their homes, like he could see them doing here. Even toddlers knew better than to draw attention to themselves, if their parents let them outside the house in the first place.

People didn't smile or laugh, not genuinely anyway. No one stopped for casual chats, or even left their houses if they could avoid it. And no one ever called out "Kate!" in that tone of voice, full of concern and love and protectiveness. Not even Niko dared to imply that the person everyone Good was pinning their hopes on could be vulnerable by doing so where people could hear.

It couldn't be Wyatt. Wyatt would never rush to Kate's side to heal her. He was usually the reason that she needed healing in the first place. And the hair was too short, the eyes too soft, the clothes not black.

Maybe it was Leo? Niko had never met the asshole of an Elder, nor had he seen a picture of the man, but supposedly Wyatt inherited his father's looks. But instinct told Niko that was still wrong. Instinct insisted that Wyatt had been the one at the house, instinct said something strange was going on. Instinct urged him to talk to Kate.

November 7th, 2003

Kate and Wyatt Halliwell's Warehouse

Kate glared back at her brother, who was pacing the floor of their apartment furiously. It took a ridiculous amount of effort to do so, like the time she had appendicitis when she was six. Something was definitely wrong with her.

"What the hell is going on Kate?" He demanded. "I know it was Niko who attacked you in the attic. No wonder Mom and Dad always hated him so much, he's gone back in time and is trying to kill you!"

"Says the reason I die at twenty-three," she shot back, going right for jugular as she'd been taught to do in a fight. He froze, looking as if he had just been slapped, and she softened the tiniest amount. Not that Kate's version of softened and everyone else's (from this timeline/Wyatt's timeline) were remotely alike. But she was becoming kinder over time.

"Look, it was a Phoenix who attacked me, and they looked like Niko," she admitted. Lying was a delicate art, and one she had mastered over the years. Her renegade fiancé trying to kill her was her problem, no one else's. No way was she telling anyone about it.

"It caught me off-guard," she continued, reluctant to acknowledge her slip-up but never one to ignore her screw ups. "But it wasn't him, okay? I swear, it must be some look-a-like cousin from this time, that's the only logical explanation. We haven't exactly been making friends in this time, you know. Oddly enough, the Underworld doesn't seem to be fond of the Charmed Ones' Whitelighters getting them to actively go demon hunting."

Wyatt hesitated, studying Kate's face to see if she was telling the truth or not. If it was Katie that he was talking to, he would be fine. He could read her like a book even without their bond. But Kate was different, she had years of experience keeping her emotions out of her expressions and their bond remained fragile. Only enough to communicate when necessary. Otherwise, she was locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

But she looked genuine right now, so he reluctantly nodded.

"Well, if it's not Niko, then the Phoenixes are still gunning for either you, us, or us and the sisters. Either way, we need to figure out how to get them to back off."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," she snarked. No one would ever doubt her relation to Paige if they weren't under a spell to do so. "Why don't you go and speak to the sisters and Cole about that, I need to lie down."

"You're admitting you need to rest?" Wyatt asked, tracking her as she headed for the door to her bedroom. "Now I know that something's seriously wrong."

"Turns out assassins trying to suck out your powers is tiring, who knew right?" she retorted without missing a beat before orbing away.

Wyatt bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed, before nodding to himself. He orbed away, rematerializing in the Manor. The sisters were all asleep in bed, but Cole was still up, working at the table on a case that was going to trial soon.

"I know who attacked Kate," he admitted to his uncle. "I really need your help with this. I don't know what to do."

November 7th, 2003

San Francisco Arboretum

At the same time as Wyatt was going to Cole for help, Kate was also sneaking out. She gathered up all the scraps of energy she could manage (most of it provided by a potion used by the Resistance) and orbed to where she knew he would be.

She barely made it, and almost fell onto the bench.

"You really shouldn't try to orb anymore, you know," Niko said casually, stepping out from behind a pillar. "It could kill you."