THE BEST LAID PLANS

Chapter 9

"Are you sure it's a good idea to follow a demon around the underworld?" Phoebe asked nervously. She really didn't like to be back here. Too many bad memories.

"You have a better idea?" Piper asked. She wasn't any happier than Phoebe about following a demon around the underworld.

The demon they'd spoken with in the bar led them to a cave. There, high upon a throne, sat a human looking demon. Human except for the eyes, which were completely black.

"I am Abaddon, the mighty. Abaddon, the cruel. Abaddon, the corrupter of minds. Abbadon, the…"

"Loudmouth. What are you trying to do, talk us to death?" Paige asked, waving her hand under her nose.

"Look on me and despair." Abaddon sneered at the sisters.

"Despair of ever getting a word in edgewise, maybe." Piper added.

"Silence, foolish witch!" Abaddon cried out.

"Hey! I've had enough of this. Why are you after my baby?!?!" Piper demanded. "I thought I had made it clear to all of you that no one was to go after my children."

"I don't want your baby. I want the betrayer." Abaddon declared, getting angrier by the minute. Who were these witches to come here and question him in his own lair?. The sisters looked at each other, confused. Then looked blankly back at Abaddon. "The one who walked among us, pretending to be a friend, before killing as many as he could." He growled.

"Still don't know who you're talking about there, bub." Paige said.

"The witch that pretended to be a demon and then orbed out of here after killing many of my brethren." Abaddon explained. "One of my brethren wounded him. We used the blood to track him to your house. I know you're hiding him."

"Uh oh. They're looking for big Chris and they keep finding little Chris." Phoebe explained unnecessarily because Piper and Paige had already reached the same conclusion.

"You will return the betrayer or there will never be peace again." Abaddon shouted. More and more of his brethren demons came into the cave and surrounded him… and them.

Baby Chris was afraid. His room, which he normally associated with safety was foul of beings that scared him, though he didn't know why. His father was also in the room, but wasn't close enough to comfort him. The two new women in the house, who reminded him of his mother were also there, but not close enough. And to make matters worse, the person he wanted most, his mother, he couldn't sense at all. Which scared him even more. She was always there, a constant comforting presence. He couldn't stay there, but wasn't sure where to go. He sensed two other presences, though. One was newer, but seemed safe, and the other was familiar. He orbed himself to them.

Victor knelt on the floor next to Wyatt. Neither one was playing with the toys; both were wondering what was happening in the other room. All of a sudden, a crying baby Chris orbed in next to Wyatt.

Wyatt looked down at the little intruder. The one who had come along and stolen everyone's attention. Before everyone had paid attention to him, but now? He didn't feel anything bad from the baby. The baby felt good, like his parents. But that didn't make Wyatt like him any better. The baby was loud and woke him up at night sometimes. His parents gave some of his things to the new baby and the baby took his things sometimes. And his parents would praise the baby for using his powers instead of making him give the things back.

A demon shimmered into the room after the baby. "Where is the betrayer?" he asked, looking around and seeing only an older mortal man and two children.

Victor stood up and planted himself between the demon and his grandsons. "Get away from them." He shouted.

The demon felt bad, Wyatt thought. Looking down at his younger brother he realized that the baby didn't have a shield to protect himself. He was crying. He was probably afraid and come to Wyatt looking for help. 'He needs me' Wyatt thought. Wyatt raised the shield around himself and the baby. His grandfather was too far away for him to protect – and too close to the demon.

The demon pushed Victor out of the way. But Victor had been expecting that and punched the demon in the face. Sure he didn't know magic, but there were other ways to fight.

Patty ran into the room, followed by Grams and Leo. They had heard Victor's shout and come running. They all entered the room and saw Victor pummeling the third demon. Patty quickly froze the demon, which didn't stop Victor from getting another punch, or two, in. Victor took the athame out of the demon's hand and stabbed him with it, vanquishing him.

Leo's only thoughts were for his sons. He saw Wyatt's protective forcefield was in place around him and Chris. Wyatt dropped the forcefield when he saw his father. Leo quickly picked up Chris and cuddled him close. Turning to Wyatt, he gave him a one-armed hug and said "Way to go, Wyatt. You protected your little brother from the bad demon. I am so proud of you."

Wyatt basked in his father's approval.

"Look, the man you want is dead." Piper said, sadly. "He died two months ago."

"You lie, witch. We tracked him to your house." Abaddon snarled.

"How are we going to explain about the baby to him?" Phoebe whispered to Piper and Paige as she kept a close eye on the demons surrounding them.

"We're not. He might decide to take revenge on the baby instead." Piper said firmly.

"So what do we do?" Paige asked, as she watched the demons close in around them.

"This." Piper said as she blew up the three closest demons. Turning she blew up more.

Phoebe and Paige may have been caught off guard by their older sister's actions, but they quickly caught up and began vanquishing the demons as fast as they could. Soon the number of demons was cut in half.

"Stop!" shouted Abaddon. His demon brethren stopped what they were doing. Piper blew up a couple more, just because they were there.

Things were just not going well for Abaddon. It had taken him two months to rebuild the number of brethren after the betrayer had decimated his ranks. And now these witches had killed more than half of them. Why was nothing ever easy when dealing with witches? Abaddon stood up and conjured a fireball.

Piper saw Abaddon with a fireball and threw out her hands to blow him up, but nothing happened to him. She tried to freeze him, but that didn't work either. Abaddon was wearing an amulet that protected him from magic.

Abaddon threw the fireball at Piper. She felt herself go light again and the fireball passed through her, vanquishing the demon standing behind her.

Paige, saw the situation deteriorating fast and grabbed Phoebe and Piper to orb them out of there. Paige and Phoebe orbed out. But Piper, who wasn't solid at the time, didn't go with them. Piper looked around and saw that her sisters were gone and she was alone with the demons, unable to orb out.

"Oh, crap." She said as they closed in around her.

TBC…