Chapter 5

The next afternoon Richard woke up with a bump on his head the size of a tennis ball. Shelbie was still a little out of it and couldn't stand up straight. She didn't normally use that much magic in one sitting. Leo had since vanished and Piper was impatiently waiting his return. Paige was nursing the bruised Richard and Pheobe was off somewhere with Jason. Things were quiet around the house for the next few days. Everything had gotten a little awkward and not much demon action was going on.

Piper and Paige walked in the house with shopping bags. Piper had to get out of the house and get her mind off Leo and Richard needed rest.

"This house is way to quiet. I'm starting to wonder what's going on up there," Paige stated while she looked up at the ceiling.

"Yeah. I'm getting worried, Leo hasn't come over to see Wyatt in the past few nights," Piper included.

Shelbie and Chris orbed in unexpectedly.

"Hello all!" Shelbie started in a cheery voice much like her mother's, "Good news and bad news!"

"Shall we start with the bad?" Piper said.

"Well some more demons are on the way," Chris started.

"And they aren't good," Shelbie added. "They can possibly destroy the whole world. Think of it like the Charmed Ones plus me times three."

"Oh joy, now the good," stated Piper.

"We get back up," Shelbie finished.

"What kind of back up?" Paige questioned.

"Dozen or so white-lighters, some witches, a few leprechauns, dwarfs, fairies, elves, and a couple other magical creatures!" Chris sounded optimistic.

Piper and Paige had a shocked look on their faces.

"Please hold your enthusiasm," Shelbie inputted. "Oh and Piper, there's something you have to know about Leo. He's not coming back for a little while, just until the demon comes, and if we are still here. I'm SO sorry!"

Piper's eyes were watering. She needed him now. A force stronger than the Charmed Ones was coming and Leo was nowhere around to help and comfort her in this crucial time. Paige collapsed onto the floor and she couldn't breathe. She needed Leo almost as much as Piper and she couldn't stand the fact that he couldn't be there right at that very moment. Piper started bawling. She couldn't take it, the demon, Leo, Shelbie she just couldn't take all of this.

"Sorry but I have to go. I need to make sure I have a future," Chris said and then orbed out. Piper was too busy tearing that she didn't process Chris' last words. Shelbie had slipped out of the room and left the sisters in a catharsis.

Meanwhile up somewhere in the sky Leo was watching Piper. He missed her but couldn't go down and comfort her. Leo had a huge job to do. The magical creatures were on their way the Charmed manor and the rest of the world was clueless and had no idea about this dark force. The Elders didn't know what it was that was coming but they knew it was more powerful than the Charmed Ones themselves. Leo's job was to move the world's citizens somewhere else for their life's sake and to prevent them from knowing so. As you can imagine there is no possible way of doing so, well your wrong. Leo was to kill the whole world and send them to heaven where they would be safe, keep them in a safe place and allow the warrior to save the world. Then he would bring everyone back to life with a spell created by Pheobe. This was a hard task but one he knew had to be done to protect the future.

Pheobe was informed on the 411 and was just as disturbed by it as Piper and Paige. Jason left to go back to Asia and Pheobe moved into her sister's house for the time being. That evening they had another unexpected visitor.

"LEO!" Piper ran to her husband (they never got a divorce). The hugged for a moment but then he had to tell them the whole reason he was there. He told them about his latest assignment.

The next day around noon some interesting creatures appeared in the Halliwell house. They were all sitting around talking when Richard walked in.

"Where the hell did you people come from?!" He exclaimed.

"Calm down. These creatures are here to stop the dark force that is supposedly coming to destroy the world and all inhabitants," Paige said emerging from the kitchen.

"Oh that makes perfect sense. OW! My head is hurting again!"

"Its ok just lie down you'll understand eventually."

Paige went back into the kitchen to see how Pheobe was doing. Nobody knew where Piper and Leo had gone after the discussion the night before and they hadn't been seen that morning. Paige was going over battle plans, Pheobe was writing a spell to bring everyone back to life when it was over, Chris was organizing the soldiers, and Shelbie was discovering ANOTHER new power of hers.

"AH! My vase!" Piper screamed as she walked through the front door and watched her niece shoot lighting bolts out her hands aimed straight for the antique vase that belonged to the very first generation of Halliwells. Piper froze the room. Quietly walked over the vase and replaced it on the mantel.

"Shelbie, Paige, Pheobe, OUTSIDE!" She snapped. Piper dragged all three outside of the house. "Now I don't know what's going on but it better be fixed and SOON! I just got home and already I almost had a 200-year-old vase shattered! There are a million creatures in my living room, dirty gnomes in my garden, and an elf on my car! I can't take it! Go and clear up this mess!"

Shelbie was sent to practice her power outside in the yard, Pheobe went to help Chris organize the nimrods, and Paige went to go Shelbie proof the house.

A week later another crisis occurred. Over half of the Elders went missing. Leo was first on the case. He sent out an alert but he couldn't sense anything. He lost all hope. Chris orbed in.

"Not again."

"Chris get serious! They are gone. No one knows where. There are four left. How can this happen?"

"Look, you saved the world last time by turning the Charmed Ones into Goddesses. Maybe this time you need to turn them into something more powerful than the Dark Force."

"You can't be serious!"

"All you have to do is find out who or what the Dark Force is."

"That's suicide."

"See that's the beauty of it. You're already dead."

Leo vanished on his quest to find the Dark Force. Chris went back down to Earth.
Pheobe stepped outside to check on Shelbie and her new power.

"I almost got it!"

"That's great! Whose power is that?"

"A new one. No one has had it before. It's a sign. I can feel it. The only reason I have it is because of the Force. Otherwise I don't think I would've ever known about it."

"Has any of this happened in the future?"

"After you changed history the first time by vanquishing the Gods none of this was ever recorded. Even before then I was too little to remember any of this happening. After all I am inside your tummy."

"Your right!" Pheobe laughed at this remark.

Meanwhile Leo returned from his quest and went to summon the Charmed Ones, Shelbie, and Chris' new identities.