Secrets Within
Chapter Six: Touring the Old-world
Chris, Penny, Pia, Patty, Phil and Harry all got up really early the next morning. They all got up before anyone else, as they knew that the Charmed Ones, Wyatt and Leo would try and stop them. They all gathered in Chris's room. It was arranged that Chris would be the only one Orbing, as the others could easily get lost, or the Orbing may be a little off, and they might get separated. Chris orbed them all to a place where none of them had ever been before, well, they had sortof. It was like a desert. It was strangely serene, of course they had all been there, just never when there was no demons fighting witches. In 2026 it was prime real estate, for battling on. It was in Wyatt's possession at the current time, and he used it as a grounds for mass torturing. Chris remembered some of the demons he had seen there, and apparently, so did Harry. They appeared. Chris rolled his eyes. He got Harry to send the demons away. Once that was done, Penny, Pia, Patty, Phil and Himself standing in a circle. Harry was on his back. They started running around really quickly, faster and faster, until their bodies were blurred. While they ran, they chanted.
Tower of the secrets past
Come to us to show at last
Through blood of witch
And blood of protector
Through blood of mortal
And Blood of Three
And to us Protective Watcher come
And through our bloods we will succumb
To save the fate of our fathers
From the fate of our brothers
As they chanted, a tower rose slowly from the ground. It was stone, and in the ancient script, the words: the prophesised ones will call me out of time it stood there, looming over them, taking their breaths away. There was a door, where Chris stood. He signalled them to be silent. Slowly he opened the door; it creaked vociferously as he placed his foot on a wooden floorboard, which should have rotted millions of years ago.
When they were all inside Chris spoke in hushed tones "We are in the tower of time. We successfully called up the tower of time, which means that we can save all of humanity." Smiles broke out on their faces. "I want to try something," he said, and they were silent, as Chris held his eyes shut and opened the door to the tower. As the door swung open, they realised that they were no longer in 2004.
They weren't in 2026 either though. They were in 2016. They could see Chris and Wyatt, playing with a football. Wyatt kicked the ball, and it went a bit off course. It orbed to Chris's foot, hitting it square on the end, it booted high into the sky. Chris and Wyatt stood there, tapping their feet impatiently, waiting for it to fall. It didn't. Chris got too bored, and orbed it down. Penny then came into the backyard, and called them to dinner. Three giggling identical girls were astral projecting in and out. An older girl walked out of the manor, and told the astral projections to stay inside for dinner. "Yes, Petal" they said, and disappeared. Petal walked back inside the house. Chris slammed the door shut, a single tear running down his face 'Petal' he whispered. When he opened the door again they were in 2004.
They were all blinking furiously, trying to stop the tears that came when they thought of Petal. "We have to shrink the tower again," said Pia, Patty, and Phil.
"How do we do that?" asked Chris
"Say the spell backwards," said Penny. They nodded
"Srehtorb ruo fo etaf eht morf
Serhtaf ruo fo etaf eht evas ot
Bmuccus lliw ew sdoolb ruo hguorht dna…" the tower still stood, as clear as day.
"I don't think it worked," said Chris, stating the obvious
"No, It didn't" said Pia, Patty and Phil.
Chris got out his pen and paper. He sat for a moment, chewing the end of his pen, and then he quickly wrote down something. He showed it to the others.
"That should work," they said.
"Tower of the secrets, past
Away from us you'll go at last
Through blood of witch
And blood of protector
Through blood of mortal
And Blood of Three
And from us protective watcher, go
Let us get on with our destiny, so
Your offered help we don't yet need,
So wait for us to do our deed." They finished saying the words, and the tower sunk deep into the sands of time. Chris orbed them away, deciding on something more 'normal' for the next place they would visit. They orbed into a Hong Kong elevator. It was vacant, thankfully. Chris looked at the dial. They were going to the ninth floor. The Elevator stopped, and the doors opened. There was a familiar looking man, waiting when the elevator opened.
"Chris?" asked the man.
"Jason" he acknowledged.
"What are you doing here?" he looked around nervously. "Who are all these people?"
"They're from the future, like me"
"You're from the future?"
"Yes, I'm Piper's son… but that's not important, Jason, see, let me introduce you too some people."
Jason looked around "Are these people magic too?"
"In a manner of speaking, alright. This is Penelope Cleaner, she's Paige's Daughter from the future, these are Pia, Patricia and Phyllis Dean, and they're Phoebe's Daughters from the future-"
"Dean?"
"Hi, Dad" They piped up, at once
"Please tell me I'm hallucinating"
"You're not. And this is my son Harry"
"Your son? Hold on. You're telling me that I marry Phoebe in the future, and we have three girls, Paige marries someone Cleaner and they have a daughter, you're Piper and Leo's son, and you have a son, and all these people just came from the future?"
"That's what I'm telling you. How'd you like to travel with us today?"
"Um…"
"We take that as a yes, Dad," said the triplets. Jason fainted. Chris dragged Jason into the elevator. Quickly he healed him. Jason came to.
"It wasn't a dream," he said, sounding slightly sick.
Harry orbed over to him "Hello Gweat Uncle Jason"
Jason closed his eyes and clenched his fists. "Please, why are you doing this to me. Leave me alone!"
A demon shimmers in and throws a fireball at Jason, who is quickly protected by Pia, Patty and Phil levitating, and grabbing his hands. His feet dangle just overtop of where the fireball hit. He is quivering. Chris throws an energy ball at the demon. The demon vanishes. He shimmers back in behind them. The elevator doors open, and they do not notice, due to the fact that they are fighting. No-one is waiting for the elevator, so that's good. Harry levitates, and flies to behind the demon. He kicks him on the head, knocking him out. Pia, Patty and Phil astral project to the book, while Chris freezes time. They re-appear with a potion in hand.
"We have to throw this at him, but not while he's frozen."
Chris unfreezes time. The demon is lying there, and Jason is staring at it in fear, his eyes wide like saucepans. Chris throws the potion at a demon, and a lady walking past sees.
"Ahh!" she screams, and runs. Then she turns slowly around, and makes her way back to the lift, to make sure that she was seeing correctly. She looks carefully into the elevator, and saw an astounding sight. Several people were floating; one was holding a ball of fire in his hand. There was a cloaked figure lying dead on the floor, and revealing only its face, which was, too say the least, disfigured. Then in the corner, looking as terrified as she was was a man who she recognised as Jason Dean. Then, as if they had never been there, they vanished in a swirl of pretty blue lights. "Ahh." She says puts her hand to her head and fainted dead on the floor. A cleaner emerges from the elevator. He waves his hand over her head, and she awakens, but sees no cleaner. "What a queer place to sleep!" she exclaims "And what queer dream's I've been having." She gets into the lift, and pressed the button that would ensure that the elevator would stop at level 15.
Chris had orbed them all to the middle of Antarctica. They all were shivering slightly, apart from Jason, who had no magical protection from the cold. He was doing far more that merely shivering, he had turned blue, and little icicles had formed on the end of his nose. "C-c-can I-I-I h-h-have a jump-p-per?" he asked through chattering teeth.
Chris gasped "Sorry! I forgot you don't have magic yet!" He quickly coated him in a heat spell.
"Yet?" asked Jason
Pia, Patty, Phil, Penny, and Chris all shook their heads "Future consequences" they all crowed "We can't tell you"
Jason rolled his eyes. They all laughed, his reaction was similar to that of the girls when they were told future consequences. "Stuff future consequences," he said "Telling me I have three daughters changes the future, doesn't it?"
They all grimaced "Yes and no" seeing Jason's confused expression, they elaborated "The future is very delicate, what it holds, though difficult to change in some cases, is often changed in ways it shouldn't be, by people who make mistakes. Telling someone that you're from the future in some cases is extremely dangerous, as the people can pressure you to tell them about the future, and say, if someone finds out they die in the future, they'd try to change that, and by changing that, lots of worse things might happen, because that person might have been fated to die. Then they didn't it would stuff up the whole timeline, it's like that movie, back to the future, remember when he brought that magazine with the winners of all the races in his times back, and then some guy found it, used it to bet, and won millions, changing the whole timeline for the worse? That's how easy it is to change the timeline in the wrong direction, the other way, however is a lot harder."
"Oh" said Jason, only slightly understanding what they meant. They sort of reminded him of Phoebe. The way they spoke, tiny things like that. "Alright. I'll come with you today, but please can you drop me back at Hong Kong later?"
They nodded, a little sadly.
They moved slowly around. Glaciers were floating all around them. Harry giggled, seeing an iceberg that represented a manticores head, and orbed over to it. He was sitting right on it's peak. Chris looked around for him, as he hadn't seen where he had gone. Neither had any of the girls or Jason. He laughed again, and Chris sighted him, touching Jason lightly on the arm he orbed. When he got to Harry, he stared right into his eyes.
Harry, you know I told you to stay with me!
But it looked like a manticore Daddy! I wanted to see it closer up!
A manticore you say?
Yeah, can't you see it?
Now that you mention it, I can
Well I think that it's real ugly Daddy, can I smash it?
No Harry, I think it's the place we've been looking for.
Yay!
Harry cheered out loud as well as silently. Chris nodded to Penelope, who promptly orbed over with the triplets. Jason is looking a little afraid by now, thinking that he was stuck with a bunch of crazies. Pia, Patty and Phil looked at Chris for affirmation, who nodded. Holding hands, they levitated high above it. They closed their eyes, as if using empathy, and suddenly let the levitation stop, as if they had lost all their powers mid-levitation. Jason watched as they plummeted, thinking of the pain they would experience when they hit the ground. But they never did. Just as they were about to strike the manticore shaped iceberg, they dissolved and vanished into the iceberg.
"Your turn, Harry" said Chris, and Harry levitated and dropped, like Pia, Patty and Phil. The same happened when He hit the floor. Then Chris and Penny grabbed either of Jason's hands and began levitating. "NO!" He shouted, "Let me go, please! I want to go home!" He was breathing heavily, nearly hyperventilating. He was falling. And suddenly he felt himself dissolving and being remade, a bit like orbing, but a lot less nice. He was shaking when her reappeared in a small, ice cold, see through room. "Couldn't we have just climbed on top of it?" he asked "And where are we?"
"I'll answer the second question first. We just came through the mortal entrance to the underworld, which can only be activated by dropping more than 100m onto the tip of the manticore head. I think I answered your other question as well then, Uncle Jason"
Jason nodded thoughtfully, then, "The UNDERWORLD! You brought me to the home of all EVIL!"
"Ya, we did, sorry Dad," said Pia, Patty and Phil
Jason was positively shaking, his knees were wobbling so badly that they were clanging together and making a loud noise in the otherwise silent room. His skin had turned a sickly pale, and his teeth were chattering. "You really are going to have to get used to this Dad, it's not that scary!"
"N-n-n-not-t-t-t th-th-that scar-r-r-ry?"
"It's just a few demons dad; you're acting like you've never seen a demon before!"
"He hasn't"
"Oh, yea, sorry"
They continued on, walking as quietly as possible through the underworld. Harry was even quiet, which was quite an achievement. As they were walking, Chris thought he saw something. He turned quickly back, and confirmed his suspicions. Wyatt, the baby, was sitting, struggling against bonds that tied him. Quickly Chris orbed Wyatt to him. The demons that had been guarding him saw where he disappeared to, and charged at them. Quickly they orbed out, and reappeared in the Haliwell foyer. Jason was even whiter than before, if possible. Leo, Phoebe, Paige and Piper had just walked in as well.
"You found Wyatt!" Exclaimed Piper, grabbing him and hugging him to her. Wyatt orbed out of her grip and back to Chris. Piper looked crestfallen. Phoebe was looking at the group, which had gotten quite large. Chris, Penny, Pia, Patty, Phil, Harry, Wyatt… and Jason! "Jason!" she exclaimed, causing everyone in the vicinity to look at her.
"What?" she said to the ten pairs of eyes that were staring at her. "Jason!" she repeated, "You came back!" She runs over to him and hugs him, smiling.
Jason is looking uncomfortable, and Pia, Patty and Phil say to Phoebe "Actually, he didn't come back, we kinda went to Hong Kong, and got him, and took him to the underworld" they laughed here "He was shitting himself!"
Phoebe looked disappointed "So you didn't come back?" she asked Jason sadly.
Jason shook his head, but he couldn't resist her, she was too lovely "But I can if you want me too" he said.
Phoebe smiled "I do, Jason" she said, leaning into him and kissing him.
"Get a room!" exclaimed everyone else in the house. Phoebe and Jason didn't hear them. They had eyes and ears to only themselves. As their kiss deepened, Pia, Patty and Phil decided that they didn't want to see this
"Eeewwww!" the groaned "Chris, get rid of them!"
Chris laughed, "Alright" and with a wave of his hand, they were orbed into Phoebe's bedroom.
"Chris?" asked Piper
"What?"
"Well, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but Harry doesn't look like Bianca and you were going to marry her… so what really happened?"
"Bianca!" Chris spat "She was evil. Nothing at all like Rosie."
Piper prompted him to go on. Reluctantly and with menace he answered, "Her and Wyatt put a spell on me, to make me think I loved her. Rosie knew that she could do nothing, so she let them. It was really hard for her. When Bianca died the spell broke. And then I remembered Harry and Rosie"
Piper nodded, and saw the tears in his eyes. She knew that she couldn't comfort him.
Suddenly a swarm of demons shimmered in. They were the same ones that had had Wyatt in the underworld. Chris looked quickly at them. He didn't send them away, because he knew that he couldn't, for some reason. He orbed out quickly, everyone coming with him, bar Phoebe and Jason. (Who were still kissing in Phoebe's room) He ad been trying to orb into P3, but somehow, his magic was sent off course, and they orbed into a mall, full of people. The moment they appeared, people started screaming. "Why'd you orb us here?" asked Piper confusedly.
"I didn't. I think these demons can make it so that your powers are less accurate all the time."
"Great!" said Piper sarcastically "Just what we need. A swarm of demons in a mall, and out powers not working properly"
"No." said Leo. "What we need are the cleaners"
"You're a genius!" shouted Chris. Leo frowned. Chris started orbing all over the place, Harry was levitating, Pia, Patty, and Phil were astral projecting, and Penny was telekinetically orbing objects from around the shop.
Three men in white suits appeared. "It's the cleaners" said Leo
"Why's there three?" asked Paige
"Must be new to the job."
Paige scrutinized the men, as she knew one of them would be her future husband. She saw the two ones that she had become accustomed to, and saw nothing great about them. Then she turned to the other cleaner. He was much younger than the other two. He had brown hair, which was sort of long, wavy, but neat and it looked really cute. He had blue eyes, and was of a thin but strong build. Paige now understood why she might have married one of these men. This new cleaner was a lot better looking than the others, and come to think of it, Penny did look a little bit like him, with her wavy brown hair and blue eyes. But she had more of Paige's mannerisms. Paige hadn't noticed that she was staring at him, until Penny shook her shoulder "Mum, come on, we should be going back now"
Paige shook her head, and started to walk away, looking back only once at the hot cleaner, who caught her eye and winked, she winked back, and orbed away with Penny.
When Paige got home, Piper begged Chris, Harry, Pia, Patty, Phil, and Penny to stay home for the rest of the day and not go out, but Chris was adamant, they had more to do yet, and he couldn't give up, and besides, why did he need to be home, there was no need. He went to get Jason, knocking on Phoebe's door before he entered.
"Come in" he heard Phoebe call out.
He orbed in, not being bothered with opening the door. Phoebe and Jason were sitting on her bed, looking a little sorrowful.
"Jason, are you coming, we have to take you back to Hong Kong now."
He nodded, and pecked Phoebe on the cheek, and orbed out with Chris. Soon the only people left in the manor were Phoebe, Paige, Piper and Wyatt, as Leo had had to go 'Up There' because the elders had called him.
"So" said Paige slyly "How are things with Jason, my dearest sister?"
Piper raised her eyebrows, and Phoebe laughed. "Things, 'my dearest sister', with Jason are fine. We are officially back together."
"That's great Pheebs," said Piper "How are things with you and that Cleaner, Paige?" she asked evilly
"There is nothing"
"I don't quite believe that," said Phoebe, her eyes widening 'We know you're going to marry one of them anyway" she turned to Piper "You met the cleaner?"
"Ya, we were at a mall, and we kinda needed them. There was a new one, and Paige found it very difficult to keep her eyes off him, and he her"
"Ohhhh"
"Shuddup" snapped Paige, blushing furiously.
Chris, Harry, Pia, Patty, Phil, and Penny had just dropped off Jason, who had made them promise that they would come back for him tomorrow and take him to visit Phoebe again. Now they were in a rainforest in Eastern Congo. They crept quietly, not wanting to destroy the perfect peace the forest held. They heard a branch crack. They froze. Another branch cracked, this time louder than before. Chris waved his hand, and all of them 'disappeared', or appeared to, as they went invisible, including Chris himself. A man burst through the bushes, and the look of fear on his face was intense. His eyes were wide and his brow was dripping with sweat. He ran backwards, and toppled over, landing on his back. Chris wondered what could have scared him. He soon found out. A warlock burst through, and threw a ball of fire at the him. Chris's eyes flashed.
He held up his hand. "Fire." He said softly. The fire orbed to his hand.
"So you're a witch then, boy. And your whitelighter is here to sav you. Well guess what. He won't get to. You are about to die, and your whitelighter can't do anything about it."
The boy quivered "I – I don't know what you mean." He said
"Sure you don't, witch. You know nothing." He conjured another ball of fire. He caught the man looking at it fearfully. "Oh, no, this isn't how I'm going to kill you. This is just for fun."
The man looked as though he had given up completely "Okay. I'm a witch. But you'll wish you'd never messed with me" he said. He threw up his hands, and the warlock laughed.
"You can't blow me up. I have an anti blow shield on, stupid."
The man tried again, this time pretending to wring it's neck. The warlock was being strangled, and he choked. Fighting back, the warlock threw random fireballs at him. Both were lying on the ground, half dead.
Chris had had enough. He threw an energy ball at the warlock. It exploded. The man lay panting. Chris stayed invisible, but leaned over the man. He healed him.
The man sat up. "Who's there?" he asked. Chris gasped in recognition. It was one of his old best friend from school. He hadn't known that George was a witch. And how did George get here anyway?
"George?" he asked, not remembering that he was invisible.
"Chris?" asked George "Where are you?"
"Ooops!" said Chris. He quickly took off his invisibility cloak.
"What the? How'd you do that, are you a witch too?"
"Sortof. Half witch, half whitelighter. Hold on." He unveiled Pia, Patty, Phil, Penny and Harry.
"More witches?" he asked "And who's the little kid?"
"Yep, more witches, and as for, 'the little kid', that's my son, Harry"
"You have a kid?" he asked, and Chris nodded the affirmative
"So, is your whole family witches?"
"Yep!" he said proudly. "Runs in th family. Especially telekinesis, time freezing, and premonitions."
"Cool. I'm the only one in my family."
"Cool. Do you wanna come on a tour with us? Future people only."
"Future people?"
"You know, people from the future."
"The future?"
Chris looked at him. "Do you even know when you are?"
"Sure. 2026"
"Uh-uh, we are in 2004"
"What! That's the time of the original Charmed ones!"
"It is." Said Chris. "It is the time of my mother and my aunts"
Goegre's mouth dropped open. "Your mum was – is – a charmed one?"
"Sure. So are their mum's." He pointed to his cousins. "And that's where we are going now. To the mansion. It's night-time. We have things to do." He grabbed George's hand, pulled Harry onto his back, and orbed out, the girls following after him.
