***This is the long chapter, but I didn't know how to break it. Thanks for
your patience! ~abs
Cole shimmered into the kitchen in front of Phoebe and Paige at the sink, "Get down!" he instructed.
"What?" Paige asked as Cole pushed her and Phoebe to the floor, "What is going on with you?" Cole jumped back up and hurled an energy ball as a dragon demon materialized in the conservatory. The energy ball hit him in the chest but only wounded him. In anger, he spit out his forked-tongue as fire erupted from his mouth. "Now I know why he wanted us on the floor," Paige commented to Phoebe as they crawled under the table.
Phoebe pulled on Leo's pant leg, "Book of Shadows, Dragon Demon," she informed him as he orbed out. Cole continued to battle the demon with fire and energy balls. The demon was being continually weakened, but was unrelenting in his return attack—and the kitchen had the scorch marks to prove it.
"Power of Three spell!" Cole yelled hoping Leo could hear him.
Chris walked into the kitchen, "Who's attacking?" as a stream of fire went straight for his head. Cole lunged at Chris and knocked him out of the way taking the full blow himself. Chris rolled over on the floor and looked up at his savior as the flames practically bounced off him, leaving Cole unmarked. "I forgot you were invincible, handy," he crawled to join Phoebe and Paige under the table. Chris motioned for a pitcher of water on the counter as the next stream of fire was directed at the threesome—extinguishing the flames inches from their faces.
"Good job," Paige complimented.
"Thanks, I try," Chris acknowledged.
"LEO! Hurry!" Cole shouted. Leo orbed back into the kitchen next to the table and quickly aided Phoebe and Paige to their feet. "I told you it was a power of three spell," Cole growled dodging an oncoming attack, "Where's Piper?"
"I didn't hear you," Leo apologized.
"Let us try it anyway. Chris, read," Phoebe grabbed the paper from Leo as the three of them chanted, "Demon of fire, dragon of haste. We banish you now, and send you to waste." The dragon demon began to scream in agony as he was engulfed in fire and vanished.
Phoebe and Paige looked to Chris with wild grins on their faces, "Welcome to the Power of Three, Chris," Paige beamed.
"What'd I miss? A good vanquish?" Piper asked coming from the foyer with Wyatt on her hip.
"An excellent vanquish," Phoebe smiled patting Chris on the back, "And your baby boy participating in a power of three spell."
"They grow up so fast," Piper sighed handing Wyatt off to Leo, "All this on top of getting a new power." Everyone's eyes darted to Chris, "Oh, I guess you haven't had time to tell them about that," Piper realized, "Now's as good a time as any," she lead the way to the living room.
"There's actually a lot I have to tell," Chris confessed.
"I have some information, too," Cole offered, "Hence the dragon demon following me home. But you should go first."
Chris nodded, "Right. As mom alluded to, I have a new power—for me anyway," Chris took a deep breath, "Last night after Batterak took Chloe, I blew up two demons that were coming at me before I orbed home."
"Have you ever done that before?" Leo questioned.
*No, Leo, that's why it's called a new power,* Chris thought, *If Chloe were here she would be telling me to be nice,* so he said out loud, "No, I haven't. That was the first time."
"He is his mother's son," Piper grinned proudly.
"I still don't know how to control it, but there's something more important," Chris continued with every eye in the room fixated on him, "Chloe and I were in a demonic pub when Batterak attacked. We were there following up on some information that Batterak was looking for a way to get in touch with an elder. We approached some power brokers thinking he would have as well, hoping to get the power to orb, but he didn't need it. They told him where to go."
"Which was?" Paige asked impatiently.
"The Magic School."
"Gideon," Piper frowned, "That must be why Wyatt puts up his force field around him. He senses something."
"That's not all," Chris blankly said.
"There's more?" Piper asked amazed.
"Chloe read Wyatt yesterday morning to see what was going on. She saw Wyatt sitting in the middle of an open field, all by himself, with you, me, and Leo standing on one side calling him and a figure in black on the other. She said the vision was broken up by the spinning top," Chris's eyes drifted to Wyatt who was mindlessly flipping through a book.
"Did she know what it meant?" Phoebe posed getting up and walking over to Wyatt to attempt to read him herself.
"I don't remember," Chris answered honestly.
"Hey, Wyatt, honey, bring your book to Aunt Phoebe," Phoebe cooed as she joined Wyatt in the conservatory. He picked up the book and brought it to his aunt, "You are such a good boy, let's look at the pictures," she attempted a smile. To the rest of the family, "Um, it's hard to tell," she stroked Wyatt's head, "Confusion," she paused, "lots of confusion, and alone. He feels alone?" she picked him up and stood him up in her lap so that she could look into his eyes, "He doesn't know who to trust, oh baby!" Phoebe cuddled him.
Piper and Paige joined them in the conservatory. Piper sat with Phoebe and placed her forehead against Wyatt's, "Sweetheart, you are not alone and you can trust all of us! I wish you could understand what I'm saying," she pleaded.
"He can," Phoebe turned to Piper, "He just doesn't know what to do."
Leo had been sitting quietly thinking of the ramifications of what Chloe and Chris had discovered. Gideon—one of his old mentors, one of the prime advocates for his and Piper's marriage—Gideon was somehow tied to Batterak and possibly Wyatt. "Do you realize you're accusing an elder of working with evil? For evil's purposes?" Leo stood up in anger.
Chris looked to his father shocked with his sudden outburst, "The first source has never let me down. That's who told us Batterak was looking for an elder. Then we went to the pub, and Chloe in no way lead them to say it was Gideon," Leo gave Chris a dejected look, "Unless there is another elder at the Magic School I don't know about?" Leo shook his head no. "In that case, given what Chloe and I found out when we were at the school—with Sigmund and Gideon discussing someone or something, and my birthday on a star chart on his desk. He's looking pretty suspicious, Leo."
"I can't accept it. Not without investigating it myself," Leo frowned.
"I'm going to have to back Chris up," Cole added, "My sources today insinuated the same thing. They all tied Batterak to Gideon. What they were less confident on was why they are working together."
Leo couldn't accept the answers, "I'm still going to have to check this out," he orbed out.
"Speaking of not trusting," Chris implied Leo's lack of trust in him.
Piper was conflicted about which son to comfort so she just did what she knew best—kissed Wyatt, kissed Chris, and went to the kitchen, "I've gotta bake something."
"And it's almost noon, I've got to go to work. I need to do something else to think," Phoebe handed Wyatt off to Cole.
"Hey, what'd you give him to me for?" Cole held Wyatt a good foot from his body, "I don't know what to do with a baby!"
"Learn," Phoebe grabbed her purse and walked out the door, "You need the practice."
Cole pulled Wyatt closer to his body, "Ok, now what?" Wyatt just stared back at him.
Chloe was standing on knocking knees, her strength obviously waning. As she looked up, a black eye, bloodied lip, and a blood-stained slash in her shirt could be seen, "You won't kill me," she bated Batterak, "If you kill me, you will never get my father."
"Are you sure? What if it's not my plan to take him now? But to wait? Or try to infuriate him to the point he is back to his old self, and evil?" he sharpened a knife.
"I'm not ignorant to the ways of time travel, Batterak," Chloe grimaced, "if you kill me now, you could alter time so that you never get Cole. And if you don't trap him in the eight years into the future, you won't get your power boost," a small smile crept across her face as she realized Batterak had not thought of the repercussions of his present actions, "Never thought of that?" she mocked.
"Shut up," he hurled an energy ball at her as it grazed her left shoulder. She screamed in pain.
"Ah!" Chris grabbed his shoulder, "What is that?"
"I don't know," Paige looked up to him from her spell scribbling puzzled, "What was what?"
"A sharp, burning pain to my left shoulder. It felt like an energy ball," he got up from his seat on the sofa and began towards to attic.
"Wait for me!" she called after him.
Cole was tossing a small Nerf football at Wyatt, "Catch," he tried to encourage him. After a couple of failed attempts, Wyatt had begun to orb the ball into his hands while it was in the air, and would smile in triumph, "Whatever works for you," Cole would telekinetically draw the ball from Wyatt before tossing it back to him, "But if you end up playing ball with your friends someday, forget I taught you this."
Wyatt clapped, "'Gin!"
Cole heard the sound of feet swiftly moving by the door and turned to see Paige scrambling after Chris. "Come on, let's see what your crazy aunt and brother are up to," he picked Wyatt up and followed Chris and Paige up the stairs.
"What are you looking for?" Paige caught up to Chris in the attic.
"I'm not really sure," he flipped his wrist as the pages of the Book of Shadows turned.
"You sure ran up here like you had some sort of light bulb moment," Paige approached him.
"What's going on up here?" Cole asked carrying Wyatt in the room.
"Investigating," Chris continued to turn the pages hoping some piece of information would leap off the page to him.
Cole put Wyatt on the floor as Wyatt orbed a ball out of his playpen into his hands, "Cute," Cole smiled, "but not right now. Play with Paige," he pointed Wyatt towards Paige who walked over to him and the two of them began orbing the ball back and forth. Cole nodded, "Good," then to Chris, "What are you investigating?"
"I felt pain in my left shoulder a few minutes ago," Chris mumbled.
"I don't think information on heart attacks is in the Book," Cole harassed.
Chris looked up to him through raised eyebrows, "I'm not looking up heart attacks," he chortled sarcastically, "I'm looking up my powers, I think, I hope. Or Chloe's powers."
"You mean my powers?" Cole inched closer to Chris.
Chris stopped flicking his wrist and looked up to Cole, "Maybe. Do you have thought projection?"
"At some point I think I have," Cole took a contemplative step back, "I haven't tried since I've been back." He turned to Paige who was still orbing the ball back and forth with Wyatt, "Pinch me," he turned back to Chris.
"What? Why?" Chris responded exasperatedly.
"Just do it, I'm going to test this out," Cole held out his right arm to Chris. He grabbed a chunk of Cole's arm and pinched it, "Ow, I said pinch me, not bruise me," Cole recoiled.
"Ow!" Paige echoed Cole, "What was that?" she grabbed her right arm in the same place Chris had pinched Cole.
"I guess I can," Cole smiled cockily.
"Hmm," Chris began back out of the room.
"Wait a second, you haven't told us what's going on! This seems to be a trend with that kid," Cole noted while helping Paige up off the floor. She took Wyatt's hand to lead him out, but Cole put his hand on her shoulder and shimmered them to the kitchen.
"Thanks for the lift, Cole. I guess there are no hard feelings between us? You know about the my-leading-the-charge-to-vanquish-you thing," Paige gave Piper Wyatt's hand.
"I never said that," Cole took a seat at the table as Chris entered.
"I just left... nevermind," he shook his head, "Mom, can you think of what spell or potion you might have used to link mine and Chloe's powers through these rings?"
"I haven't done it yet," Piper pulled her cookies out of the oven, "Cookie?"
"I know that," Chris took a cookie off the cookie sheet, "but I need some kind of idea," he blew on the cookie, "because I think whatever you linked our powers with might help us save Chloe."
Chris's statement got Cole's attention, "How so?"
"I think Chloe was hit by an energy ball earlier and I felt it, the same way when I pinched you, you projected it to Paige. I think that if she can project to me, and our powers are linked, I can project to her."
"What does the spell I used have to do with anything?" Piper asked picking up a cookie herself.
"Strengthening the bond—blessing my ring again. We can read each other's thoughts and locate each other when we're together, right?" Chris was now pacing with excitement from his forming plan, "What if we could do it across whatever distance there is? And we could come with a plan to get her out and she knew about it? The power of projection is her's, I'm just using it to get thoughts back to her."
"Chris, that seems pretty risky. Especially without her here to test it," Paige cautioned.
"But it's worth a try, right? Even if it's only knowing what is going on with her," Cole pressured Piper.
"What if it heightens her powers to the point of hurting her? We are playing with her mind here people," Piper enforced why she was hesitant, "Let me think about it, ok? In the mean time, we need to figure out some way to vanquish this demon. Paige you were working on some potions and spells, keep it up. Cole and Chris go together to find Leo and check on Phoebe. Got it? Good, now I've got to go pee. Chris, you're sitting on my bladder," Piper headed towards the restroom.
"Too much information," Chris's eyes widened.
"Definitely," Cole agreed as he shimmered out. Chris orbed to follow him.
"Phoebe," her assistant Lauren addressed her, "Your ex, who is just as adorable as ever, and Chris are here wanting to see you."
"Really? Show them in," Phoebe gestured to her assistant, "Oh, and Lauren?"
"Yeah," she reappeared in the door.
"Eww, let's not make comments about my ex if you don't mind," Phoebe pulled Lauren further in the room.
"Right. And what about the guy with him?"
"No, no, no, neither of them," Phoebe pushed her out the door, "Chris, Cole," she waved them in as she noticed Lauren fanning herself after they passed. "She needs to get laid," Phoebe mentioned shutting the door. Chris and Cole exchanged a hopeful look, "Not by either of you. Can I help you with something?" she asked taking her seat.
"We came to see how you are doing," Chris stated.
Phoebe was flipping through a pile of letters, she stopped on one, picked up her glasses and read: "Dear Phoebe, I have a seventeen year old son and fourteen year old daughter. We've always had a distant relationship. Their mother died when they were nine and six. Since then, my son has been overprotective of my daughter, and my daughter has clung to him for support. I feel like they refuse to let me into their lives. I don't know what to do. My son will be graduating high school shortly and starting college—leaving me alone with his sister. This makes me nervous on two fronts: 1) I'm afraid my son will never communicate with me once he's gone, and 2) my daughter will be losing her best friend. I love both my children more than I could ever express to you or them. I need advice on how to best communicate with them, get them to trust me, and let me into their lives. Sincerely, Hopeless in Sausalito," she took her glasses back off and ran her finger down the page, "Does that sound at all familiar, Chris? I came here to escape knowing my daughter, who I just met six days ago, has been kidnapped. Not to mention my nephew's endless feud with his father, and the only letter I seem to be able to read is this one," she took a deep breath, "How do you think I'm doing?"
Cole walked up to Phoebe as she rose from her chair and fell into his arms. Somehow, just knowing that he was Chloe's father and was possibly feeling the same pain and loss that she was, alleviated her sadness. Chris stood back against the door and let them have their moment. He was the only one in the room who knew how much they truly loved each other and their daughter—and knowing that prompted him to speak, "We're going to find her. I promise. This is going to work out. I'm going to find Leo."
"Piper told us to go together," Cole turned to him.
"That's ok, I'll go. You two... have... I don't know. Stuff to talk about," he left them still standing close.
Chloe was no longer standing. She didn't have the energy. Batterak appeared to be taking out all his frustration with the situation on his captive. Her right leg was badly swollen, she had a cut on her stomach, a scorch mark on her shoulder, and she was thirsty. She tried as hard as she could to draw a glass of water to her lips. Chloe knew that her powers were linked through her hands, but she also knew that she could move objects with her mind. However, Batterak seemed to have enchanted the shackles that were binding her, and none of her powers were working, and she was too weak to give it a full effort. "Help me," she sighed.
Chris was atop the Golden Gate Bridge looking for Leo, "Help me," he heard Chloe's voice. "I'm trying," he responded, hoping she would hear him.
Cole still had his hand on Phoebe's shoulder as she began working on a response to Hopeless in Sausalito when she was thrown into a premonition. She saw Chloe shackled and bleeding, then a flash forward to her, Paige, Chris and Cole standing in the mausoleum as Batterak took Cole with him to his lair, and proceeding to torture Cole and Chloe. "Oh, God," she gasped coming out of it.
"What did you see?" Cole knelt down beside her chair.
"Chloe, she's hurt... bad. And I saw you, me, Paige and Chris exchanging you for Chloe, except that Batterak didn't give us Chloe. He took you and began to torture you both," she blinked away tears.
"Phoebe," Cole took her hand, "You know just as well as I do that your premonitions aren't always of the definite future, but shown to you so we can change it. And we will. I promise you."
Chris orbed into the main hall of elders. Leo was seated talking to another elder when he noticed Chris. "What are you doing up here? You could get in trouble since they know you're not really a white lighter."
"Piper wants you back home. We're working on a plan to get Chloe back," Chris took Leo's arm and orbed them back to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge before Leo could object, "But I wanted to talk to you first."
"Ok," Leo was shocked.
"I know it has to be hard for you knowing that Gideon is somehow involved in all this. But I appreciate you trying to find more answers and seeing how much truth is behind what we know. That helps a lot. I just wanted to thank you," Chris looked into Leo's eyes.
Leo couldn't contain his smile, "You're welcome. I want you to trust me, and know that I trust you," the two shared a moment before Leo added, "I need to change out of this robe before we go back to the manor. Meet me there?"
"You bet," Chris responded as the both orbed off the bridge.
Cole shimmered into the kitchen in front of Phoebe and Paige at the sink, "Get down!" he instructed.
"What?" Paige asked as Cole pushed her and Phoebe to the floor, "What is going on with you?" Cole jumped back up and hurled an energy ball as a dragon demon materialized in the conservatory. The energy ball hit him in the chest but only wounded him. In anger, he spit out his forked-tongue as fire erupted from his mouth. "Now I know why he wanted us on the floor," Paige commented to Phoebe as they crawled under the table.
Phoebe pulled on Leo's pant leg, "Book of Shadows, Dragon Demon," she informed him as he orbed out. Cole continued to battle the demon with fire and energy balls. The demon was being continually weakened, but was unrelenting in his return attack—and the kitchen had the scorch marks to prove it.
"Power of Three spell!" Cole yelled hoping Leo could hear him.
Chris walked into the kitchen, "Who's attacking?" as a stream of fire went straight for his head. Cole lunged at Chris and knocked him out of the way taking the full blow himself. Chris rolled over on the floor and looked up at his savior as the flames practically bounced off him, leaving Cole unmarked. "I forgot you were invincible, handy," he crawled to join Phoebe and Paige under the table. Chris motioned for a pitcher of water on the counter as the next stream of fire was directed at the threesome—extinguishing the flames inches from their faces.
"Good job," Paige complimented.
"Thanks, I try," Chris acknowledged.
"LEO! Hurry!" Cole shouted. Leo orbed back into the kitchen next to the table and quickly aided Phoebe and Paige to their feet. "I told you it was a power of three spell," Cole growled dodging an oncoming attack, "Where's Piper?"
"I didn't hear you," Leo apologized.
"Let us try it anyway. Chris, read," Phoebe grabbed the paper from Leo as the three of them chanted, "Demon of fire, dragon of haste. We banish you now, and send you to waste." The dragon demon began to scream in agony as he was engulfed in fire and vanished.
Phoebe and Paige looked to Chris with wild grins on their faces, "Welcome to the Power of Three, Chris," Paige beamed.
"What'd I miss? A good vanquish?" Piper asked coming from the foyer with Wyatt on her hip.
"An excellent vanquish," Phoebe smiled patting Chris on the back, "And your baby boy participating in a power of three spell."
"They grow up so fast," Piper sighed handing Wyatt off to Leo, "All this on top of getting a new power." Everyone's eyes darted to Chris, "Oh, I guess you haven't had time to tell them about that," Piper realized, "Now's as good a time as any," she lead the way to the living room.
"There's actually a lot I have to tell," Chris confessed.
"I have some information, too," Cole offered, "Hence the dragon demon following me home. But you should go first."
Chris nodded, "Right. As mom alluded to, I have a new power—for me anyway," Chris took a deep breath, "Last night after Batterak took Chloe, I blew up two demons that were coming at me before I orbed home."
"Have you ever done that before?" Leo questioned.
*No, Leo, that's why it's called a new power,* Chris thought, *If Chloe were here she would be telling me to be nice,* so he said out loud, "No, I haven't. That was the first time."
"He is his mother's son," Piper grinned proudly.
"I still don't know how to control it, but there's something more important," Chris continued with every eye in the room fixated on him, "Chloe and I were in a demonic pub when Batterak attacked. We were there following up on some information that Batterak was looking for a way to get in touch with an elder. We approached some power brokers thinking he would have as well, hoping to get the power to orb, but he didn't need it. They told him where to go."
"Which was?" Paige asked impatiently.
"The Magic School."
"Gideon," Piper frowned, "That must be why Wyatt puts up his force field around him. He senses something."
"That's not all," Chris blankly said.
"There's more?" Piper asked amazed.
"Chloe read Wyatt yesterday morning to see what was going on. She saw Wyatt sitting in the middle of an open field, all by himself, with you, me, and Leo standing on one side calling him and a figure in black on the other. She said the vision was broken up by the spinning top," Chris's eyes drifted to Wyatt who was mindlessly flipping through a book.
"Did she know what it meant?" Phoebe posed getting up and walking over to Wyatt to attempt to read him herself.
"I don't remember," Chris answered honestly.
"Hey, Wyatt, honey, bring your book to Aunt Phoebe," Phoebe cooed as she joined Wyatt in the conservatory. He picked up the book and brought it to his aunt, "You are such a good boy, let's look at the pictures," she attempted a smile. To the rest of the family, "Um, it's hard to tell," she stroked Wyatt's head, "Confusion," she paused, "lots of confusion, and alone. He feels alone?" she picked him up and stood him up in her lap so that she could look into his eyes, "He doesn't know who to trust, oh baby!" Phoebe cuddled him.
Piper and Paige joined them in the conservatory. Piper sat with Phoebe and placed her forehead against Wyatt's, "Sweetheart, you are not alone and you can trust all of us! I wish you could understand what I'm saying," she pleaded.
"He can," Phoebe turned to Piper, "He just doesn't know what to do."
Leo had been sitting quietly thinking of the ramifications of what Chloe and Chris had discovered. Gideon—one of his old mentors, one of the prime advocates for his and Piper's marriage—Gideon was somehow tied to Batterak and possibly Wyatt. "Do you realize you're accusing an elder of working with evil? For evil's purposes?" Leo stood up in anger.
Chris looked to his father shocked with his sudden outburst, "The first source has never let me down. That's who told us Batterak was looking for an elder. Then we went to the pub, and Chloe in no way lead them to say it was Gideon," Leo gave Chris a dejected look, "Unless there is another elder at the Magic School I don't know about?" Leo shook his head no. "In that case, given what Chloe and I found out when we were at the school—with Sigmund and Gideon discussing someone or something, and my birthday on a star chart on his desk. He's looking pretty suspicious, Leo."
"I can't accept it. Not without investigating it myself," Leo frowned.
"I'm going to have to back Chris up," Cole added, "My sources today insinuated the same thing. They all tied Batterak to Gideon. What they were less confident on was why they are working together."
Leo couldn't accept the answers, "I'm still going to have to check this out," he orbed out.
"Speaking of not trusting," Chris implied Leo's lack of trust in him.
Piper was conflicted about which son to comfort so she just did what she knew best—kissed Wyatt, kissed Chris, and went to the kitchen, "I've gotta bake something."
"And it's almost noon, I've got to go to work. I need to do something else to think," Phoebe handed Wyatt off to Cole.
"Hey, what'd you give him to me for?" Cole held Wyatt a good foot from his body, "I don't know what to do with a baby!"
"Learn," Phoebe grabbed her purse and walked out the door, "You need the practice."
Cole pulled Wyatt closer to his body, "Ok, now what?" Wyatt just stared back at him.
Chloe was standing on knocking knees, her strength obviously waning. As she looked up, a black eye, bloodied lip, and a blood-stained slash in her shirt could be seen, "You won't kill me," she bated Batterak, "If you kill me, you will never get my father."
"Are you sure? What if it's not my plan to take him now? But to wait? Or try to infuriate him to the point he is back to his old self, and evil?" he sharpened a knife.
"I'm not ignorant to the ways of time travel, Batterak," Chloe grimaced, "if you kill me now, you could alter time so that you never get Cole. And if you don't trap him in the eight years into the future, you won't get your power boost," a small smile crept across her face as she realized Batterak had not thought of the repercussions of his present actions, "Never thought of that?" she mocked.
"Shut up," he hurled an energy ball at her as it grazed her left shoulder. She screamed in pain.
"Ah!" Chris grabbed his shoulder, "What is that?"
"I don't know," Paige looked up to him from her spell scribbling puzzled, "What was what?"
"A sharp, burning pain to my left shoulder. It felt like an energy ball," he got up from his seat on the sofa and began towards to attic.
"Wait for me!" she called after him.
Cole was tossing a small Nerf football at Wyatt, "Catch," he tried to encourage him. After a couple of failed attempts, Wyatt had begun to orb the ball into his hands while it was in the air, and would smile in triumph, "Whatever works for you," Cole would telekinetically draw the ball from Wyatt before tossing it back to him, "But if you end up playing ball with your friends someday, forget I taught you this."
Wyatt clapped, "'Gin!"
Cole heard the sound of feet swiftly moving by the door and turned to see Paige scrambling after Chris. "Come on, let's see what your crazy aunt and brother are up to," he picked Wyatt up and followed Chris and Paige up the stairs.
"What are you looking for?" Paige caught up to Chris in the attic.
"I'm not really sure," he flipped his wrist as the pages of the Book of Shadows turned.
"You sure ran up here like you had some sort of light bulb moment," Paige approached him.
"What's going on up here?" Cole asked carrying Wyatt in the room.
"Investigating," Chris continued to turn the pages hoping some piece of information would leap off the page to him.
Cole put Wyatt on the floor as Wyatt orbed a ball out of his playpen into his hands, "Cute," Cole smiled, "but not right now. Play with Paige," he pointed Wyatt towards Paige who walked over to him and the two of them began orbing the ball back and forth. Cole nodded, "Good," then to Chris, "What are you investigating?"
"I felt pain in my left shoulder a few minutes ago," Chris mumbled.
"I don't think information on heart attacks is in the Book," Cole harassed.
Chris looked up to him through raised eyebrows, "I'm not looking up heart attacks," he chortled sarcastically, "I'm looking up my powers, I think, I hope. Or Chloe's powers."
"You mean my powers?" Cole inched closer to Chris.
Chris stopped flicking his wrist and looked up to Cole, "Maybe. Do you have thought projection?"
"At some point I think I have," Cole took a contemplative step back, "I haven't tried since I've been back." He turned to Paige who was still orbing the ball back and forth with Wyatt, "Pinch me," he turned back to Chris.
"What? Why?" Chris responded exasperatedly.
"Just do it, I'm going to test this out," Cole held out his right arm to Chris. He grabbed a chunk of Cole's arm and pinched it, "Ow, I said pinch me, not bruise me," Cole recoiled.
"Ow!" Paige echoed Cole, "What was that?" she grabbed her right arm in the same place Chris had pinched Cole.
"I guess I can," Cole smiled cockily.
"Hmm," Chris began back out of the room.
"Wait a second, you haven't told us what's going on! This seems to be a trend with that kid," Cole noted while helping Paige up off the floor. She took Wyatt's hand to lead him out, but Cole put his hand on her shoulder and shimmered them to the kitchen.
"Thanks for the lift, Cole. I guess there are no hard feelings between us? You know about the my-leading-the-charge-to-vanquish-you thing," Paige gave Piper Wyatt's hand.
"I never said that," Cole took a seat at the table as Chris entered.
"I just left... nevermind," he shook his head, "Mom, can you think of what spell or potion you might have used to link mine and Chloe's powers through these rings?"
"I haven't done it yet," Piper pulled her cookies out of the oven, "Cookie?"
"I know that," Chris took a cookie off the cookie sheet, "but I need some kind of idea," he blew on the cookie, "because I think whatever you linked our powers with might help us save Chloe."
Chris's statement got Cole's attention, "How so?"
"I think Chloe was hit by an energy ball earlier and I felt it, the same way when I pinched you, you projected it to Paige. I think that if she can project to me, and our powers are linked, I can project to her."
"What does the spell I used have to do with anything?" Piper asked picking up a cookie herself.
"Strengthening the bond—blessing my ring again. We can read each other's thoughts and locate each other when we're together, right?" Chris was now pacing with excitement from his forming plan, "What if we could do it across whatever distance there is? And we could come with a plan to get her out and she knew about it? The power of projection is her's, I'm just using it to get thoughts back to her."
"Chris, that seems pretty risky. Especially without her here to test it," Paige cautioned.
"But it's worth a try, right? Even if it's only knowing what is going on with her," Cole pressured Piper.
"What if it heightens her powers to the point of hurting her? We are playing with her mind here people," Piper enforced why she was hesitant, "Let me think about it, ok? In the mean time, we need to figure out some way to vanquish this demon. Paige you were working on some potions and spells, keep it up. Cole and Chris go together to find Leo and check on Phoebe. Got it? Good, now I've got to go pee. Chris, you're sitting on my bladder," Piper headed towards the restroom.
"Too much information," Chris's eyes widened.
"Definitely," Cole agreed as he shimmered out. Chris orbed to follow him.
"Phoebe," her assistant Lauren addressed her, "Your ex, who is just as adorable as ever, and Chris are here wanting to see you."
"Really? Show them in," Phoebe gestured to her assistant, "Oh, and Lauren?"
"Yeah," she reappeared in the door.
"Eww, let's not make comments about my ex if you don't mind," Phoebe pulled Lauren further in the room.
"Right. And what about the guy with him?"
"No, no, no, neither of them," Phoebe pushed her out the door, "Chris, Cole," she waved them in as she noticed Lauren fanning herself after they passed. "She needs to get laid," Phoebe mentioned shutting the door. Chris and Cole exchanged a hopeful look, "Not by either of you. Can I help you with something?" she asked taking her seat.
"We came to see how you are doing," Chris stated.
Phoebe was flipping through a pile of letters, she stopped on one, picked up her glasses and read: "Dear Phoebe, I have a seventeen year old son and fourteen year old daughter. We've always had a distant relationship. Their mother died when they were nine and six. Since then, my son has been overprotective of my daughter, and my daughter has clung to him for support. I feel like they refuse to let me into their lives. I don't know what to do. My son will be graduating high school shortly and starting college—leaving me alone with his sister. This makes me nervous on two fronts: 1) I'm afraid my son will never communicate with me once he's gone, and 2) my daughter will be losing her best friend. I love both my children more than I could ever express to you or them. I need advice on how to best communicate with them, get them to trust me, and let me into their lives. Sincerely, Hopeless in Sausalito," she took her glasses back off and ran her finger down the page, "Does that sound at all familiar, Chris? I came here to escape knowing my daughter, who I just met six days ago, has been kidnapped. Not to mention my nephew's endless feud with his father, and the only letter I seem to be able to read is this one," she took a deep breath, "How do you think I'm doing?"
Cole walked up to Phoebe as she rose from her chair and fell into his arms. Somehow, just knowing that he was Chloe's father and was possibly feeling the same pain and loss that she was, alleviated her sadness. Chris stood back against the door and let them have their moment. He was the only one in the room who knew how much they truly loved each other and their daughter—and knowing that prompted him to speak, "We're going to find her. I promise. This is going to work out. I'm going to find Leo."
"Piper told us to go together," Cole turned to him.
"That's ok, I'll go. You two... have... I don't know. Stuff to talk about," he left them still standing close.
Chloe was no longer standing. She didn't have the energy. Batterak appeared to be taking out all his frustration with the situation on his captive. Her right leg was badly swollen, she had a cut on her stomach, a scorch mark on her shoulder, and she was thirsty. She tried as hard as she could to draw a glass of water to her lips. Chloe knew that her powers were linked through her hands, but she also knew that she could move objects with her mind. However, Batterak seemed to have enchanted the shackles that were binding her, and none of her powers were working, and she was too weak to give it a full effort. "Help me," she sighed.
Chris was atop the Golden Gate Bridge looking for Leo, "Help me," he heard Chloe's voice. "I'm trying," he responded, hoping she would hear him.
Cole still had his hand on Phoebe's shoulder as she began working on a response to Hopeless in Sausalito when she was thrown into a premonition. She saw Chloe shackled and bleeding, then a flash forward to her, Paige, Chris and Cole standing in the mausoleum as Batterak took Cole with him to his lair, and proceeding to torture Cole and Chloe. "Oh, God," she gasped coming out of it.
"What did you see?" Cole knelt down beside her chair.
"Chloe, she's hurt... bad. And I saw you, me, Paige and Chris exchanging you for Chloe, except that Batterak didn't give us Chloe. He took you and began to torture you both," she blinked away tears.
"Phoebe," Cole took her hand, "You know just as well as I do that your premonitions aren't always of the definite future, but shown to you so we can change it. And we will. I promise you."
Chris orbed into the main hall of elders. Leo was seated talking to another elder when he noticed Chris. "What are you doing up here? You could get in trouble since they know you're not really a white lighter."
"Piper wants you back home. We're working on a plan to get Chloe back," Chris took Leo's arm and orbed them back to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge before Leo could object, "But I wanted to talk to you first."
"Ok," Leo was shocked.
"I know it has to be hard for you knowing that Gideon is somehow involved in all this. But I appreciate you trying to find more answers and seeing how much truth is behind what we know. That helps a lot. I just wanted to thank you," Chris looked into Leo's eyes.
Leo couldn't contain his smile, "You're welcome. I want you to trust me, and know that I trust you," the two shared a moment before Leo added, "I need to change out of this robe before we go back to the manor. Meet me there?"
"You bet," Chris responded as the both orbed off the bridge.