I know nahtheeng... I owns nahtheeng... I don't own the copyright, yada,
yada, yada. I'm just taking the characters out for a test drive again.
That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it...
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, you guys are great!
SAN FRANCISCO
Tom Evans grinned as he hugged his Halliwell cousins, the cousins that he hadn't seen in more than a year, not since he'd suddenly and dramatically discovered not only that magic was real, but that he also had control of a pretty powerful bit of it.
That memory made the grin fade and he disengaged himself from Piper and Phoebe. "I'm sorry," he said, his head going down, "that I missed Prue's funeral. I was in Russia on business, and by the time they got word to me..." He shrugged and grimaced.
"They told us that they couldn't get to you," said Piper, her eyes bright with sudden tears. "And we got your letters after it. Don't worry about it. We know how much you cared about her." Phoebe made a little lost noise and he hugged them both again.
Then he stepped back and gestured to the two women behind him. "This is Molly Durrell..." the dark haired women in the denims nodded and smiled, "And Theresa Atkins." This came with a longer, more loving, look at the other women, who had red hair and a puckish air about her. She smiled back at him and then stepped up and reached over to hold his hand as she looked at the Halliwells. "So these are the Charmed Ones," she muttered.
"We all work for the British Museum, and yes they're both witches as well," said Tom. He looked beyond Piper and Phoebe. "And you must be Paige. Your sisters have both told me so much about you."
Paige walked forwards, her eyes moving upwards with embarrassment. "Yeah, well, I only found out about you today. So I know nothing about you really." She grimaced as well. "Oops. Too much honesty first time out?"
"Just a tad," said Tom and then grinned at her. "You remind me of your Gran. I'm sorry you never knew her."
"I met her. Thanks to these two and a bit of hocus-pocus. And I met my mom," said Paige and then she found herself swept into a hug by a cousin she'd never known until that morning.
When they disengaged, Phoebe wiped her tears from her eyes, humphed a little to pretend that nothing had happened and then asked: "How come you never told us you were on holiday here? And when did you arrive?"
Tom looked at his two companions sombrely and then back at his cousins. "Pheebs, we're here on business, not a holiday. And we need your help. It's serious."
Piper rolled her eyes. "Like that's a change for us? Can it wait until we get dressed?" "Yes, as long as you have coffee. Lots of it. We were in London an hour ago, and bloody hell, speaking for us all, I'm knackered. An hour before that we were in Egypt, so three time zones in two hours and ouch!" yawned Tom.
Leo gaped. "That's a long way to go by magic," he said, to be greeted with a sheepish smile from Tom.
"I've polished my gifts," he answered. "I've learnt a lot. Coffee? Please? Even just coffee beans to chew?"
"Milk, no sugar?" said Piper. He nodded. "You know where the kitchen is, and I need to change." She swept up the stairs, followed by Phoebe. The three British newcomers all yawned and followed Paige and Leo into the kitchen.
"So what do you do for the Museum?" asked the youngest Halliwell as she started the third pot of coffee of the morning.
The others had all parked themselves around the table and now the two girls looked at Tom. He parted his hands in an expressive gesture and then said, less expressively, "Artefacts and stuff."
"Okay, that's a little unclear," accused Paige.
Tom humphed and then grabbed eagerly as his cousin placed three large cups of coffee on the table in front of them. After a long draught from his mug he leant forwards.
"Okay," he said a little less wearily. "How long have you been practising magic now? Six months?" She nodded. "How many magical pendants, enchanted objects, hexed items have you seen in that time?"
Paige opened her mouth to answer, paused, closed her mouth and then scowled with thought. "A lot," she finally said.
"Well, there's a lot more out there. Most are less magical, some are very powerful and a few are lethal if they ever fall into the wrong hands. And they're just the modern ones. Places like the British Museum see hundreds, maybe thousands of new finds come in every year from archaeological digs or smaller museums. Stuff that people have long forgotten about. We three - and there are a few part-time witches as well - help to sift through what comes in, looking for the out-of-the-way objects that could be magical."
"And yes," added Theresa, who was sitting so close to Tom that Paige could tell at a glance that they were an item, "The museum authorities - a few people in security as well - know about magic. Not everything, just that certain objects are dangerous and that they need someone on site to deal with any problems."
"So they should," said Molly darkly, "After that incident with that Saxon helmet and the Duke of Kent. And the Clay Woman from Babylon."
Paige's eyebrows shot up. "What Clay Woman from Babylon?"
Tom looked chagrined, while Molly and Theresa giggled. He glared at them but they glared back.
"Small figurine about..." he held his hands about four inches apart, "That big. Some idiot put it on display without clearing it with anyone from our department. Came from a dig in Babylon, dated to about 1000 BC. First morning it was before the public, the security guards started to notice that they kept seeing more and more women coming back to stand in front of it." He stopped to glare at Molly and Theresa again, who were both now crying with laughter.
"Were they worshipping it?" asked Leo, puzzled.
"No, they'd just discovered that women who stood before it for a while had... well... lots of orgasms. We almost had a riot on our hands when we closed the room. Fortunately it also had some kind of affect on their memory."
"Wow," said Paige, her lips twitching madly. "What happened to it?"
"It's locked in a safe, inside a bigger safe, in a strong room in the lowest level of the Bank of England." He grinned for the first time since he'd started the story. Then he sobered. "I wish it was that simple with this..." He looked down at his bag, where for the first time Paige could see the outline of some folders. "We'll wait for Piper and Pheebs."
What Piper called a war council reconvened in the living room shortly afterwards, although by the way that she was gripping a huge mug of coffee it was even odds that she might fall asleep again.
Tom took out a large folder from a bag and removed a large glossy picture that he held against his chest as he spoke.
"Um..." he started, "Four days ago the British Museum discovered a break in. Or rather, security discovered that someone or something had broken into the middle of the building. Leaving no sign of any forced entry on the outside." His eyebrows rose. "As if something had mysteriously appeared inside the building." He looked around at everyone. "Sound familiar?"
"Demon," was Phoebe's grim response.
"Got it in one," said Tom. "Whatever it was, it broke into a storeroom. Where it was discovered by a security guard called Harry Smith, who... did not survive the event. There's a picture of the crime scene here, but it's a bit... unpleasant."
Wordlessly Phoebe reached up for the photo. When she saw what was on it she went pale and a hand flew to her mouth. Then she closed her eyes and handed it back before shaking her head firmly at Piper and Paige.
"He was torn apart," she said faintly.
"From the claw marks initially the police thought that some kind of wild beast had got loose. Then their own magic branch - it's got a different name of course - called it in as a demon attack." Tom sighed. "Only one thing was stolen... this," he said as he took a set of pictures out of a different folder and laid them on the table.
The Charmed Ones and Leo leant over and stared at them. Viewed from different angles the set showed a strange artefact made out of some kind of white material. It looked like an elongated capital E, with the prongs perpendicular with the main stem. The three prongs each had a hole bored at the end.
"It looks like something once fitted through these holes," murmured Leo, frowning.
"Two things, actually. If you look carefully, the right hand one and half the middle one are square holes, the left hand one and the other half of the middle one are round," said Theresa, pointing carefully. "So this is only part of an artefact."
"What makes you think it's magical?" asked Piper.
"Why else would it be stolen by a demon? And when it first came in, almost a hundred years ago, the people who were in our department then thought that they could detect something faint. Like it was a part of something, but that it had no power without the rest of the pieces."
"Where was it found?" asked Paige.
Molly answered that one. "Giza, 1900. The archaeologists couldn't identify it, they couldn't tell what it was made of, and they couldn't even date it. Fortunately it was in the shattered remains of a pot, and that they could date. Last Dynasty of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, just before the First Intermediate Period."
Phoebe looked up. "Honey, you're going to have to be a leettle more general for us ignorant Colonials."
Molly blushed. "Sorry. Problem with working at the British Museum is you start to assume that everyone around you knows the same things. We're talking about 2200 BC."
There was a stunned silence. Then Paige blurted: "You mean this thing is more than 4000 years old?"
"Yes," said Tom softly. "We know where one of the other parts was - it was found a week ago on a dig near Elephantine, in a pot that dated to the end of the Old Kingdom. Same time, identical pot as the main piece," he added, pushing another photograph over the table. The four craned their heads to see an image of a square rod approximately 12 inches long, made of the same white material as the larger piece. One end finished in a small globe.
"That's the only picture we have, but by the measurements..."
"It looks like that part slots into the other one," agreed Leo. "Where is it now?"
The British trio looked, as if it was possible, even grimmer.
Theresa answered: "Two days ago it was stolen from a tent on the dig site. And the archaeologist who found it was-"
Piper broke in. "Let me guess - torn limb from limb?" She sighed as the others nodded. "Now there's a surprise. Why can't we have enemies who make cutting remarks or who throw puppies at people?"
Her youngest sister looked at her. "Piper, calm down and drink your coffee. And work on your metaphors." She looked back at Tom. "Awfully big coincidence, having two thefts in one week. Were there any witnesses in Egypt?"
He replied by opening another folder. "Not to the murder. But we talked to one of the foremen on the dig, a Coptic Christian called Joseph Al-Majouri. He told us he saw the Devil in the camp that night."
Leo blinked. "The devil? You mean the Source?"
Tom pulled a piece of paper out of the folder and placed it on the table. "Not quite," he replied. "He saw this, he said. And we have no idea what the hell it is. Or rather what in hell it is."
The picture had been drawn in chalks by a very good artist, with the occasional hint of pencil marks underneath. It showed the left side of a sweeping black hood that hid most of the face beneath. But what it did show was part of cheek and a massive jaw, with some kind of spikes of bone protruding from the chin. Two large fangs jutted up from the lower jaw and the skin looked dark red and rough - possibly scaly. Almost hidden in the darkness under the hood was a red gleam, roughly where the eye would have been - on a human that is.
The Charmed Ones shared a collective shiver. Whatever it was, the picture alone looked malevolent enough.
Phoebe picked the picture up and looked more closely at it. "Well, we can check the Book of Shadows, but I've never seen anything like this in it. Did it say anything? Do anything else?"
"No," replied Theresa. "Apparently it just glared at him and then walked behind a tent. Just as well, the poor man was frozen with terror. He couldn't move for almost twenty minutes. Then he heard screams from the tent, where another guard had discovered the body. No-one else saw anything or heard anything."
"What about the body?" said Leo as he poured more coffee into a pale Piper's mug.
"Same as poor old Smith. He wouldn't have had enough time to even scream. Same claw marks, same MO."
Paige was about to open her mouth to ask a question when there was a flicker out of the corner of her eye and she looked around in time to see Cole materialize in mid-air. He seemed to have been leaping when he shimmered out of wherever he had been, because the momentum carried him a good six feet over to small table, which did not survive the encounter.
"Ow," he said, getting up shakily and brushing bits of wood off his legs. Then he looked up and froze. "Oops."
Phoebe had started from her chair the moment that she had seen Cole and now she hugged him. "It's okay," she reassured him, "It's just Tom and two witch friends and more trouble. Although you could have picked a slightly less spectacular entrance."
"Bounty hunter," he explained enigmatically. "Out of touch bounty hunter, actually. We need to talk. Something's happening down there, it's total chaos. The Source has placed the biggest bounty ever, something that makes the one on me look like peanuts, on..." He froze and tilted his head as he focussed on the table. "On him," he said wonderingly as he pointed at the chalk drawing of the demon.
SAN FRANCISCO
Tom Evans grinned as he hugged his Halliwell cousins, the cousins that he hadn't seen in more than a year, not since he'd suddenly and dramatically discovered not only that magic was real, but that he also had control of a pretty powerful bit of it.
That memory made the grin fade and he disengaged himself from Piper and Phoebe. "I'm sorry," he said, his head going down, "that I missed Prue's funeral. I was in Russia on business, and by the time they got word to me..." He shrugged and grimaced.
"They told us that they couldn't get to you," said Piper, her eyes bright with sudden tears. "And we got your letters after it. Don't worry about it. We know how much you cared about her." Phoebe made a little lost noise and he hugged them both again.
Then he stepped back and gestured to the two women behind him. "This is Molly Durrell..." the dark haired women in the denims nodded and smiled, "And Theresa Atkins." This came with a longer, more loving, look at the other women, who had red hair and a puckish air about her. She smiled back at him and then stepped up and reached over to hold his hand as she looked at the Halliwells. "So these are the Charmed Ones," she muttered.
"We all work for the British Museum, and yes they're both witches as well," said Tom. He looked beyond Piper and Phoebe. "And you must be Paige. Your sisters have both told me so much about you."
Paige walked forwards, her eyes moving upwards with embarrassment. "Yeah, well, I only found out about you today. So I know nothing about you really." She grimaced as well. "Oops. Too much honesty first time out?"
"Just a tad," said Tom and then grinned at her. "You remind me of your Gran. I'm sorry you never knew her."
"I met her. Thanks to these two and a bit of hocus-pocus. And I met my mom," said Paige and then she found herself swept into a hug by a cousin she'd never known until that morning.
When they disengaged, Phoebe wiped her tears from her eyes, humphed a little to pretend that nothing had happened and then asked: "How come you never told us you were on holiday here? And when did you arrive?"
Tom looked at his two companions sombrely and then back at his cousins. "Pheebs, we're here on business, not a holiday. And we need your help. It's serious."
Piper rolled her eyes. "Like that's a change for us? Can it wait until we get dressed?" "Yes, as long as you have coffee. Lots of it. We were in London an hour ago, and bloody hell, speaking for us all, I'm knackered. An hour before that we were in Egypt, so three time zones in two hours and ouch!" yawned Tom.
Leo gaped. "That's a long way to go by magic," he said, to be greeted with a sheepish smile from Tom.
"I've polished my gifts," he answered. "I've learnt a lot. Coffee? Please? Even just coffee beans to chew?"
"Milk, no sugar?" said Piper. He nodded. "You know where the kitchen is, and I need to change." She swept up the stairs, followed by Phoebe. The three British newcomers all yawned and followed Paige and Leo into the kitchen.
"So what do you do for the Museum?" asked the youngest Halliwell as she started the third pot of coffee of the morning.
The others had all parked themselves around the table and now the two girls looked at Tom. He parted his hands in an expressive gesture and then said, less expressively, "Artefacts and stuff."
"Okay, that's a little unclear," accused Paige.
Tom humphed and then grabbed eagerly as his cousin placed three large cups of coffee on the table in front of them. After a long draught from his mug he leant forwards.
"Okay," he said a little less wearily. "How long have you been practising magic now? Six months?" She nodded. "How many magical pendants, enchanted objects, hexed items have you seen in that time?"
Paige opened her mouth to answer, paused, closed her mouth and then scowled with thought. "A lot," she finally said.
"Well, there's a lot more out there. Most are less magical, some are very powerful and a few are lethal if they ever fall into the wrong hands. And they're just the modern ones. Places like the British Museum see hundreds, maybe thousands of new finds come in every year from archaeological digs or smaller museums. Stuff that people have long forgotten about. We three - and there are a few part-time witches as well - help to sift through what comes in, looking for the out-of-the-way objects that could be magical."
"And yes," added Theresa, who was sitting so close to Tom that Paige could tell at a glance that they were an item, "The museum authorities - a few people in security as well - know about magic. Not everything, just that certain objects are dangerous and that they need someone on site to deal with any problems."
"So they should," said Molly darkly, "After that incident with that Saxon helmet and the Duke of Kent. And the Clay Woman from Babylon."
Paige's eyebrows shot up. "What Clay Woman from Babylon?"
Tom looked chagrined, while Molly and Theresa giggled. He glared at them but they glared back.
"Small figurine about..." he held his hands about four inches apart, "That big. Some idiot put it on display without clearing it with anyone from our department. Came from a dig in Babylon, dated to about 1000 BC. First morning it was before the public, the security guards started to notice that they kept seeing more and more women coming back to stand in front of it." He stopped to glare at Molly and Theresa again, who were both now crying with laughter.
"Were they worshipping it?" asked Leo, puzzled.
"No, they'd just discovered that women who stood before it for a while had... well... lots of orgasms. We almost had a riot on our hands when we closed the room. Fortunately it also had some kind of affect on their memory."
"Wow," said Paige, her lips twitching madly. "What happened to it?"
"It's locked in a safe, inside a bigger safe, in a strong room in the lowest level of the Bank of England." He grinned for the first time since he'd started the story. Then he sobered. "I wish it was that simple with this..." He looked down at his bag, where for the first time Paige could see the outline of some folders. "We'll wait for Piper and Pheebs."
What Piper called a war council reconvened in the living room shortly afterwards, although by the way that she was gripping a huge mug of coffee it was even odds that she might fall asleep again.
Tom took out a large folder from a bag and removed a large glossy picture that he held against his chest as he spoke.
"Um..." he started, "Four days ago the British Museum discovered a break in. Or rather, security discovered that someone or something had broken into the middle of the building. Leaving no sign of any forced entry on the outside." His eyebrows rose. "As if something had mysteriously appeared inside the building." He looked around at everyone. "Sound familiar?"
"Demon," was Phoebe's grim response.
"Got it in one," said Tom. "Whatever it was, it broke into a storeroom. Where it was discovered by a security guard called Harry Smith, who... did not survive the event. There's a picture of the crime scene here, but it's a bit... unpleasant."
Wordlessly Phoebe reached up for the photo. When she saw what was on it she went pale and a hand flew to her mouth. Then she closed her eyes and handed it back before shaking her head firmly at Piper and Paige.
"He was torn apart," she said faintly.
"From the claw marks initially the police thought that some kind of wild beast had got loose. Then their own magic branch - it's got a different name of course - called it in as a demon attack." Tom sighed. "Only one thing was stolen... this," he said as he took a set of pictures out of a different folder and laid them on the table.
The Charmed Ones and Leo leant over and stared at them. Viewed from different angles the set showed a strange artefact made out of some kind of white material. It looked like an elongated capital E, with the prongs perpendicular with the main stem. The three prongs each had a hole bored at the end.
"It looks like something once fitted through these holes," murmured Leo, frowning.
"Two things, actually. If you look carefully, the right hand one and half the middle one are square holes, the left hand one and the other half of the middle one are round," said Theresa, pointing carefully. "So this is only part of an artefact."
"What makes you think it's magical?" asked Piper.
"Why else would it be stolen by a demon? And when it first came in, almost a hundred years ago, the people who were in our department then thought that they could detect something faint. Like it was a part of something, but that it had no power without the rest of the pieces."
"Where was it found?" asked Paige.
Molly answered that one. "Giza, 1900. The archaeologists couldn't identify it, they couldn't tell what it was made of, and they couldn't even date it. Fortunately it was in the shattered remains of a pot, and that they could date. Last Dynasty of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, just before the First Intermediate Period."
Phoebe looked up. "Honey, you're going to have to be a leettle more general for us ignorant Colonials."
Molly blushed. "Sorry. Problem with working at the British Museum is you start to assume that everyone around you knows the same things. We're talking about 2200 BC."
There was a stunned silence. Then Paige blurted: "You mean this thing is more than 4000 years old?"
"Yes," said Tom softly. "We know where one of the other parts was - it was found a week ago on a dig near Elephantine, in a pot that dated to the end of the Old Kingdom. Same time, identical pot as the main piece," he added, pushing another photograph over the table. The four craned their heads to see an image of a square rod approximately 12 inches long, made of the same white material as the larger piece. One end finished in a small globe.
"That's the only picture we have, but by the measurements..."
"It looks like that part slots into the other one," agreed Leo. "Where is it now?"
The British trio looked, as if it was possible, even grimmer.
Theresa answered: "Two days ago it was stolen from a tent on the dig site. And the archaeologist who found it was-"
Piper broke in. "Let me guess - torn limb from limb?" She sighed as the others nodded. "Now there's a surprise. Why can't we have enemies who make cutting remarks or who throw puppies at people?"
Her youngest sister looked at her. "Piper, calm down and drink your coffee. And work on your metaphors." She looked back at Tom. "Awfully big coincidence, having two thefts in one week. Were there any witnesses in Egypt?"
He replied by opening another folder. "Not to the murder. But we talked to one of the foremen on the dig, a Coptic Christian called Joseph Al-Majouri. He told us he saw the Devil in the camp that night."
Leo blinked. "The devil? You mean the Source?"
Tom pulled a piece of paper out of the folder and placed it on the table. "Not quite," he replied. "He saw this, he said. And we have no idea what the hell it is. Or rather what in hell it is."
The picture had been drawn in chalks by a very good artist, with the occasional hint of pencil marks underneath. It showed the left side of a sweeping black hood that hid most of the face beneath. But what it did show was part of cheek and a massive jaw, with some kind of spikes of bone protruding from the chin. Two large fangs jutted up from the lower jaw and the skin looked dark red and rough - possibly scaly. Almost hidden in the darkness under the hood was a red gleam, roughly where the eye would have been - on a human that is.
The Charmed Ones shared a collective shiver. Whatever it was, the picture alone looked malevolent enough.
Phoebe picked the picture up and looked more closely at it. "Well, we can check the Book of Shadows, but I've never seen anything like this in it. Did it say anything? Do anything else?"
"No," replied Theresa. "Apparently it just glared at him and then walked behind a tent. Just as well, the poor man was frozen with terror. He couldn't move for almost twenty minutes. Then he heard screams from the tent, where another guard had discovered the body. No-one else saw anything or heard anything."
"What about the body?" said Leo as he poured more coffee into a pale Piper's mug.
"Same as poor old Smith. He wouldn't have had enough time to even scream. Same claw marks, same MO."
Paige was about to open her mouth to ask a question when there was a flicker out of the corner of her eye and she looked around in time to see Cole materialize in mid-air. He seemed to have been leaping when he shimmered out of wherever he had been, because the momentum carried him a good six feet over to small table, which did not survive the encounter.
"Ow," he said, getting up shakily and brushing bits of wood off his legs. Then he looked up and froze. "Oops."
Phoebe had started from her chair the moment that she had seen Cole and now she hugged him. "It's okay," she reassured him, "It's just Tom and two witch friends and more trouble. Although you could have picked a slightly less spectacular entrance."
"Bounty hunter," he explained enigmatically. "Out of touch bounty hunter, actually. We need to talk. Something's happening down there, it's total chaos. The Source has placed the biggest bounty ever, something that makes the one on me look like peanuts, on..." He froze and tilted his head as he focussed on the table. "On him," he said wonderingly as he pointed at the chalk drawing of the demon.
