I really should have finished this by now, but I was overtaken by Wales
playing Scotland at rugby and me suffering from an acute case of nerves
that involved taking the dog for a series of very long walks. Wales then
won, which meant that I had to celebrate. A lot. Whoopee!
I don't own the sodding copyright on this thing, and I don't care, I'm
having way too much fun. Thanks again to Gryffindor 620 for the
encouragement and for the patience in not bawling me out!
****************************************************************************
The Source froze. So did Paige, Phoebe and the others. They'd been expecting to come up against Tethos. The Source was an unpleasant surprise. Then Piper called out from behind him: "Tethos, help them!"
Cole's eyebrows went up. "She wants HIM to help US?" Then he blinked as the Source vanished in his usual gout of flame, only to reappear again in the same place. "What was that?"
"He's trying to escape," said Tethos, in an amused voice. The Source drew himself up and directed a glare at him. "I'll deal with you later, renegade," he said, grinding out the words. "And you too, Balthazar." The cowled demon concentrated hard and then flashed out again. This time, he did not return.
"I wonder how long it'll be before he lives that down," rumbled Tethos, before turning and waving a hand. The protective mark around Piper flared and then vanished. "I added quite a few booby traps to the shielding. Once he gets down there, they'll activate and... well, let's just say that he's going to have a very interesting time."
"Piper, honey," said Leo warningly, "what's going on? Why were you calling on Tethos to help us?"
His wife turned and hurried over to him, vanishing into his arms as they hugged. Then she looked up at him. "He didn't kill them," she said. "Those people in London and Egypt. Some skinny hairy thing called Gorgos killed them."
"What?" snapped Cole, looking around wildly. "Gorgos is the Source's personal tracker and sneak. He can track anything alive."
"It seems," said Tethos quietly, "That he was tracking me. The little maggot failed to find the other pieces of the Hammer of Ra before I did. He must have taken out his anger and frustration out on the people he found in the area. If I'd known he was tracking me I'd have hung around and killed earlier than I did." He pointed at the burnt spot on the wall where the demon had died.
Piper's head came up. "The Hammer... where is it? The Source put his hand out but it went straight through it. Another illusion?"
The demon nodded and put his hand out. There was a crack and the Hammer fell out of a rent in the air and onto his hand, where it rested. Tethos looked at Leo and then walked over slowly. "Have you read the prophecy about this thing, Whitelighter?" Leo shook his head. Tethos sighed. "I am not here to fight anyone, I am not here to use the Hammer for evil, you must believe me when I tell you this."
He reached into his robe and removed the book that Piper had seen earlier. "Constantine XI Palaeologos gave me this on the 53rd day of the Siege of Constantinople. The last day of the Siege. He had it from his predecessor, and so on. I'm glad you're here, Whitelighter - Leo, is that right? I've been wondering whom to hand it on to. My part in it is just the start. Take it and give it to the Elders." He handed it over to a stunned Leo.
"You'll get the Hammer in a short time as well. I need it for one last thing. The Source couldn't defeat me but this thing can. It's time for my story to come to a close, Leo. You know my tale. And you know that although I won my fight, every battle must come to an end." He looked over at Cole. "Balthazar. Or rather, Cole. I know the battle that you fight, I've fought it myself." His gaze flickered over to Phoebe, who was still clutching her axe rather uncertainly. "Find the best part of you and fight for something you love."
"I don't understand," said Paige from behind Cole.
"He's going to kill himself," said Leo, slowly. "That's what he needs the Hammer for. We were all wrong. I'm sorry, Tethos, I thought that your dark side had claimed you."
"Then, why," broke in Tom, "Do you look like that? Why do you look so demonic? Why did you seclude yourself in hell when the second piece was found?"
The demon smiled. "You've done your homework on me I see. Understandable if you thought that I was going to blow the world up." He waved his hand again and this time a visible chair appeared behind him, onto which he sat down. "It was in the middle of the '60s, as the time prophesied for the discovery of the second piece approached, that I started to have doubts about my plan to kill myself with the complete Hammer. By 1970, my doubts had grown to be very serious. Why do it? Why not destroy it instead? Then I realised that it was my dark side. All that doubt, all that darkness, whispering in my ears, trying to keep me from what I had pledged to do. My demon side wanted nothing to do with my suicidal impulses. The closer I got to the discovery of the second piece the stronger it became. I needed a way to circumvent it." He smiled painfully. "I found one in the Ritual of Korzalen."
Cole stared at him. "Only two demons have ever had the strength to attempt that," he said softly. "Both died in the process."
Tilting his head to one side, Tethos looked at him. "I know. Third time lucky perhaps. I had the strength and perhaps the desire, the need, to make it work."
The old demon looked back at the others. "No demon - however well- intentioned - has the power to destroy his demon side. But it is possible to externalise it, to purify the inner self by pushing the demon part of you out onto your exterior." He flexed one taloned hand and looked down at it in disgust. "Ironic, isn't it? I look demon, but inside I'm pure. For a while. The Ritual is painful and long and needs to be renewed once a week, or the evil returns into you. I was very angry this morning, when you beat me to the last piece. And I had to perform the Ritual then."
There was a silence. Then Leo cleared his throat. "If you're going to use the Hammer, shouldn't you choose a less populated place? You don't want to turn San Francisco into a hole in the ground like the Qattara Depression."
"I won't have to," he replied. "The last Pharaoh lost control of it, from what I've been able to work out. I'll be using just enough energy to finish me off. And the shield I put on the warehouse should contain the blast once I strengthen it. Please, I've been planning this for some time. Let me do this."
They all stared at each other. There wasn't much they could do, anyway.
One by one they all nodded.
They stood by the doorway, looking through into the warehouse. Tethos was standing in the middle of the floor, holding the Hammer of Ra in one hand. He looked terribly alone as he raised the other hand in farewell, a tired man approaching the end of a long and painful journey.
No one quite knew where to look. Tom and Theresa were holding each other, Paige was biting her lip, Phoebe and Cole were holding hands, Molly was looking slightly lost, and Piper was staring quizzedly at Leo, who had opened the prophecy and was reading it avidly.
"Honey, whatcha doing?" She asked.
"Piper, this thing has been lost since the middle of the fifteenth century, the Elders are going to go nuts when they find out that we have it again and..." he dried up, cleared his throat harshly and then made another attempt at speaking. Piper looked at him and was astonished to see tears in his eyes.
"Honey?"
Leo shook his head and looked back at Tethos, who was slowly raising the Hammer. "In the Whitelighter community he's a legend. The good man who became a demon to save the innocent."
Piper remembered the way that Leo had reacted the previous day when Cole had told them that the thing in the picture was Tethos. "That's why you were so disbelieving," she said quietly. He nodded in response and then returned to look back down at the book. Then he frowned and went back a page before flipping back on.
"Hold on a second," he said, but it was too late.
Cole was staring at Tethos, his mouth open slightly. Only he could see the full force of the power that Tethos was channeling, enough power to awe even him. "He's close," he said, and as he did so the very air in the warehouse seemed to shimmer and ripple like water.
Tethos raised the Hammer up, the energy coalesced and then... nothing.
There was a shocked pause. Tethos looked around, obviously stunned. "Why didn't it work?" he asked, bewildered. "The energy just... died."
And then Leo stepped forwards, still holding the prophecy at the page where he had paused earlier. "I think I know," he said. "I think that you were born to find the Hammer, but not to wield it. The prophecy is vague in places, but it mentions 'Three that fell to two and then became three once again with the finding of the lost.'"
Wrinkling her nose, Paige snorted. "That's not vague, it's opaque!"
But Cole leant forwards. "That sounds very familiar," he said, looking at Phoebe. "The Charmed Ones."
Baffled, Tethos stared at them all. "I thought that it referred to the finding of the Hammer. What do you mean?"
Looking at Phoebe, Piper winced. "We're the second version of the Charmed Ones. Our sister Prue was killed half a year ago. When she died we heard about our little-" Paige stuck her tongue out at her sister. "-pain in the butt of a half-sister who we never knew existed. Paige here. And we were Charmed again."
Tethos looked at them. Then he laughed, quietly. "I've been puzzling over that passage since 1642. Typical, you never see the path until it's shown for you." He shrugged and then walked over to them, his taloned feet making a faint clacking noise on the concrete of the warehouse floor.
"This, then," he said, placing the most powerful magical weapon in the world into Piper's hands, "Belongs to you. Once you have vanquished me, put it in a safe place. The Source may not be able to use it, but he's a devious bastard. Never underestimate him."
He snorted. "Time to say goodbye again."
"Wait a minute," protested Phoebe, "We don't know how to use this thing. What if we blow up the warehouse by mistake? Or San Francisco? Or California?"
Tethos shook his head. "I may not be able to use it, but I was able to set it. I gave it one command, to destroy the demon Tethos. Once you start to use it, it should carry out that command. And like I said, the last Pharaoh lost control of it. You have the Power of Three, as the old tales told. You'll be okay." He paused and then held out his hand to Leo, who took it in a firm handclasp. "I heard what you said, Leo. Tell the Elders to say goodbye to my wife and son for me. And to my brother." Then he turned and walked back to the middle of the warehouse. "Second time lucky, I hope."
Feeling the smooth white main arm of the Hammer of Ra, Piper looked at Phoebe and Paige. They nodded and, walking over to her, grasped the far ends of the Hammer with their hands. Then they raised it and pointed it straight at the old demon, who was smiling now.
"Goodbye," said the Charmed Ones in unison. Tethos bowed in response. "Whatever you're doing to annoy the Source," he called, "Keep it up. And remember, Cole, the battle against the darkness is never in vain." The Hammer quivered suddenly and then started to pulse slowly with light. Startled, Paige looked over at her sisters. Seeing their calm expressions, she relaxed a little.
"Don't worry, honey, just let it take you," Piper whispered, and then the Hammer flared so brightly that the others were forced to look away from the Charmed Ones, as they were enveloped in light. The light built and built, and then suddenly flared away in a great fist of energy, running straight towards the expectant Tethos.
It hit him in the chest and he screamed, a sound that was both agony and joy. A red light that only Cole could see flared briefly, ineffectually, and then started to die as the white energy danced all around Tethos, crackling and pulsing. He opened his eyes and wept tears of blood.
"An ending!" he screamed and then the light around him was too bright for even the Charmed Ones to bear. The energy flared one more time and then there was an explosion that knocked them all to the ground. When they looked back there was nothing but a cloud of evil-smelling smoke where Tethos had been.
The Hammer gave a quiet noise and then went dim again.
"He's gone, then," said Leo as he helped Piper up.
"Um," said Tom. "If he's gone, then who's that?" He pointed to the middle of the warehouse. At the centre of the rapidly clearing smoke they could all see a naked man sprawled unconscious on the floor. He had long black hair and was wearing the tattered remains of a cloak."
"It's Tethos," breathed Leo. "He's human."
****************************************************************************
The Source froze. So did Paige, Phoebe and the others. They'd been expecting to come up against Tethos. The Source was an unpleasant surprise. Then Piper called out from behind him: "Tethos, help them!"
Cole's eyebrows went up. "She wants HIM to help US?" Then he blinked as the Source vanished in his usual gout of flame, only to reappear again in the same place. "What was that?"
"He's trying to escape," said Tethos, in an amused voice. The Source drew himself up and directed a glare at him. "I'll deal with you later, renegade," he said, grinding out the words. "And you too, Balthazar." The cowled demon concentrated hard and then flashed out again. This time, he did not return.
"I wonder how long it'll be before he lives that down," rumbled Tethos, before turning and waving a hand. The protective mark around Piper flared and then vanished. "I added quite a few booby traps to the shielding. Once he gets down there, they'll activate and... well, let's just say that he's going to have a very interesting time."
"Piper, honey," said Leo warningly, "what's going on? Why were you calling on Tethos to help us?"
His wife turned and hurried over to him, vanishing into his arms as they hugged. Then she looked up at him. "He didn't kill them," she said. "Those people in London and Egypt. Some skinny hairy thing called Gorgos killed them."
"What?" snapped Cole, looking around wildly. "Gorgos is the Source's personal tracker and sneak. He can track anything alive."
"It seems," said Tethos quietly, "That he was tracking me. The little maggot failed to find the other pieces of the Hammer of Ra before I did. He must have taken out his anger and frustration out on the people he found in the area. If I'd known he was tracking me I'd have hung around and killed earlier than I did." He pointed at the burnt spot on the wall where the demon had died.
Piper's head came up. "The Hammer... where is it? The Source put his hand out but it went straight through it. Another illusion?"
The demon nodded and put his hand out. There was a crack and the Hammer fell out of a rent in the air and onto his hand, where it rested. Tethos looked at Leo and then walked over slowly. "Have you read the prophecy about this thing, Whitelighter?" Leo shook his head. Tethos sighed. "I am not here to fight anyone, I am not here to use the Hammer for evil, you must believe me when I tell you this."
He reached into his robe and removed the book that Piper had seen earlier. "Constantine XI Palaeologos gave me this on the 53rd day of the Siege of Constantinople. The last day of the Siege. He had it from his predecessor, and so on. I'm glad you're here, Whitelighter - Leo, is that right? I've been wondering whom to hand it on to. My part in it is just the start. Take it and give it to the Elders." He handed it over to a stunned Leo.
"You'll get the Hammer in a short time as well. I need it for one last thing. The Source couldn't defeat me but this thing can. It's time for my story to come to a close, Leo. You know my tale. And you know that although I won my fight, every battle must come to an end." He looked over at Cole. "Balthazar. Or rather, Cole. I know the battle that you fight, I've fought it myself." His gaze flickered over to Phoebe, who was still clutching her axe rather uncertainly. "Find the best part of you and fight for something you love."
"I don't understand," said Paige from behind Cole.
"He's going to kill himself," said Leo, slowly. "That's what he needs the Hammer for. We were all wrong. I'm sorry, Tethos, I thought that your dark side had claimed you."
"Then, why," broke in Tom, "Do you look like that? Why do you look so demonic? Why did you seclude yourself in hell when the second piece was found?"
The demon smiled. "You've done your homework on me I see. Understandable if you thought that I was going to blow the world up." He waved his hand again and this time a visible chair appeared behind him, onto which he sat down. "It was in the middle of the '60s, as the time prophesied for the discovery of the second piece approached, that I started to have doubts about my plan to kill myself with the complete Hammer. By 1970, my doubts had grown to be very serious. Why do it? Why not destroy it instead? Then I realised that it was my dark side. All that doubt, all that darkness, whispering in my ears, trying to keep me from what I had pledged to do. My demon side wanted nothing to do with my suicidal impulses. The closer I got to the discovery of the second piece the stronger it became. I needed a way to circumvent it." He smiled painfully. "I found one in the Ritual of Korzalen."
Cole stared at him. "Only two demons have ever had the strength to attempt that," he said softly. "Both died in the process."
Tilting his head to one side, Tethos looked at him. "I know. Third time lucky perhaps. I had the strength and perhaps the desire, the need, to make it work."
The old demon looked back at the others. "No demon - however well- intentioned - has the power to destroy his demon side. But it is possible to externalise it, to purify the inner self by pushing the demon part of you out onto your exterior." He flexed one taloned hand and looked down at it in disgust. "Ironic, isn't it? I look demon, but inside I'm pure. For a while. The Ritual is painful and long and needs to be renewed once a week, or the evil returns into you. I was very angry this morning, when you beat me to the last piece. And I had to perform the Ritual then."
There was a silence. Then Leo cleared his throat. "If you're going to use the Hammer, shouldn't you choose a less populated place? You don't want to turn San Francisco into a hole in the ground like the Qattara Depression."
"I won't have to," he replied. "The last Pharaoh lost control of it, from what I've been able to work out. I'll be using just enough energy to finish me off. And the shield I put on the warehouse should contain the blast once I strengthen it. Please, I've been planning this for some time. Let me do this."
They all stared at each other. There wasn't much they could do, anyway.
One by one they all nodded.
They stood by the doorway, looking through into the warehouse. Tethos was standing in the middle of the floor, holding the Hammer of Ra in one hand. He looked terribly alone as he raised the other hand in farewell, a tired man approaching the end of a long and painful journey.
No one quite knew where to look. Tom and Theresa were holding each other, Paige was biting her lip, Phoebe and Cole were holding hands, Molly was looking slightly lost, and Piper was staring quizzedly at Leo, who had opened the prophecy and was reading it avidly.
"Honey, whatcha doing?" She asked.
"Piper, this thing has been lost since the middle of the fifteenth century, the Elders are going to go nuts when they find out that we have it again and..." he dried up, cleared his throat harshly and then made another attempt at speaking. Piper looked at him and was astonished to see tears in his eyes.
"Honey?"
Leo shook his head and looked back at Tethos, who was slowly raising the Hammer. "In the Whitelighter community he's a legend. The good man who became a demon to save the innocent."
Piper remembered the way that Leo had reacted the previous day when Cole had told them that the thing in the picture was Tethos. "That's why you were so disbelieving," she said quietly. He nodded in response and then returned to look back down at the book. Then he frowned and went back a page before flipping back on.
"Hold on a second," he said, but it was too late.
Cole was staring at Tethos, his mouth open slightly. Only he could see the full force of the power that Tethos was channeling, enough power to awe even him. "He's close," he said, and as he did so the very air in the warehouse seemed to shimmer and ripple like water.
Tethos raised the Hammer up, the energy coalesced and then... nothing.
There was a shocked pause. Tethos looked around, obviously stunned. "Why didn't it work?" he asked, bewildered. "The energy just... died."
And then Leo stepped forwards, still holding the prophecy at the page where he had paused earlier. "I think I know," he said. "I think that you were born to find the Hammer, but not to wield it. The prophecy is vague in places, but it mentions 'Three that fell to two and then became three once again with the finding of the lost.'"
Wrinkling her nose, Paige snorted. "That's not vague, it's opaque!"
But Cole leant forwards. "That sounds very familiar," he said, looking at Phoebe. "The Charmed Ones."
Baffled, Tethos stared at them all. "I thought that it referred to the finding of the Hammer. What do you mean?"
Looking at Phoebe, Piper winced. "We're the second version of the Charmed Ones. Our sister Prue was killed half a year ago. When she died we heard about our little-" Paige stuck her tongue out at her sister. "-pain in the butt of a half-sister who we never knew existed. Paige here. And we were Charmed again."
Tethos looked at them. Then he laughed, quietly. "I've been puzzling over that passage since 1642. Typical, you never see the path until it's shown for you." He shrugged and then walked over to them, his taloned feet making a faint clacking noise on the concrete of the warehouse floor.
"This, then," he said, placing the most powerful magical weapon in the world into Piper's hands, "Belongs to you. Once you have vanquished me, put it in a safe place. The Source may not be able to use it, but he's a devious bastard. Never underestimate him."
He snorted. "Time to say goodbye again."
"Wait a minute," protested Phoebe, "We don't know how to use this thing. What if we blow up the warehouse by mistake? Or San Francisco? Or California?"
Tethos shook his head. "I may not be able to use it, but I was able to set it. I gave it one command, to destroy the demon Tethos. Once you start to use it, it should carry out that command. And like I said, the last Pharaoh lost control of it. You have the Power of Three, as the old tales told. You'll be okay." He paused and then held out his hand to Leo, who took it in a firm handclasp. "I heard what you said, Leo. Tell the Elders to say goodbye to my wife and son for me. And to my brother." Then he turned and walked back to the middle of the warehouse. "Second time lucky, I hope."
Feeling the smooth white main arm of the Hammer of Ra, Piper looked at Phoebe and Paige. They nodded and, walking over to her, grasped the far ends of the Hammer with their hands. Then they raised it and pointed it straight at the old demon, who was smiling now.
"Goodbye," said the Charmed Ones in unison. Tethos bowed in response. "Whatever you're doing to annoy the Source," he called, "Keep it up. And remember, Cole, the battle against the darkness is never in vain." The Hammer quivered suddenly and then started to pulse slowly with light. Startled, Paige looked over at her sisters. Seeing their calm expressions, she relaxed a little.
"Don't worry, honey, just let it take you," Piper whispered, and then the Hammer flared so brightly that the others were forced to look away from the Charmed Ones, as they were enveloped in light. The light built and built, and then suddenly flared away in a great fist of energy, running straight towards the expectant Tethos.
It hit him in the chest and he screamed, a sound that was both agony and joy. A red light that only Cole could see flared briefly, ineffectually, and then started to die as the white energy danced all around Tethos, crackling and pulsing. He opened his eyes and wept tears of blood.
"An ending!" he screamed and then the light around him was too bright for even the Charmed Ones to bear. The energy flared one more time and then there was an explosion that knocked them all to the ground. When they looked back there was nothing but a cloud of evil-smelling smoke where Tethos had been.
The Hammer gave a quiet noise and then went dim again.
"He's gone, then," said Leo as he helped Piper up.
"Um," said Tom. "If he's gone, then who's that?" He pointed to the middle of the warehouse. At the centre of the rapidly clearing smoke they could all see a naked man sprawled unconscious on the floor. He had long black hair and was wearing the tattered remains of a cloak."
"It's Tethos," breathed Leo. "He's human."
