***I goofed, I actually wrote 5 chapters... sooo... enjoy!! ~abs
"What about the spell we used to vanquish the source? Or at least one similar?" Paige picked up a couple of the crystals out of the potions chest, "His powers are linked to Cole's."
"But when Cole was the source, he wasn't an Avatar," Piper flipped through the book hoping to piece-meal a spell together from past vanquishes.
"Ok, well yes, technically," Paige admitted, "but, Avatar's have never been vanquished either. And we know it's going to have to take some serious magic because Cole is invincible. The way we vanquished him before was by altering reality."
Piper caught her words and looked up at Paige, "What did you just say?"
"We vanquished Cole in an alternate reality?" Paige repeated.
"Exactly, and he was Balthazar, right?" thoughts were moving wildly through Piper's head.
"Right. I'm not following, Piper. What are you getting at? Do you want to alter reality?" Paige speculated.
"Yes, and No," Piper flipped through the book to the part on Balthazar, "I want to give Batterak Balthazar's powers. And I want to vanquish him. We know we can do that!"
"Piper, Balthazar has been vanquished. Twice. His powers are bound to be long gone. Cole doesn't precisely still have them either."
Piper walked around the front of the book stand and took Paige's hands, "I know, but we can summon his powers into Batterak. And we can kill him! We've done it before. Remember you wrote that spell to give Chris his powers back after Bianca took them. Or any time we've switched, summoned, or lost our own powers. It's so simple it has to work," Piper was pacing from excitement.
Paige watched her, "I guess we know where Chris got that habit from," she commented under her breath and then to Piper, "Those were good powers. Good magic. You're suggesting we call demonic powers and put them into an already powerful demon. Whose flesh we need for the potion and don't have by the way."
"Minor detail," Piper nonchalantly replied, "This is going to work. I know this is going to work. Leo! Chris!" she called excitedly, "We're going to vanquish Batterak and then we're going to vanquish Gideon."
"Can we vanquish an elder?" Paige watched as he sister got more and more excited.
"I don't know, but we're going to try," Piper stopped, "Leo! Chris! I'm calling you!"
Chris and Leo orbed in a beat later, "What's going on, Piper? You sound excited."
"I am!"
"She is going to channel Balthazar into Batterak, vanquish him, and then vanquish Gideon," Paige nodded her head and then mouthed, "She's crazy," to Leo and Chris.
"I saw that," Piper pointed to Paige, "and I'm not crazy. We resurrected Cole, we can summon Balthazar's powers into Batterak... no sweat. What do you think?"
Leo walked up to Piper and placed his hands on both her shoulders, "That you are going to need to think about this a little more. For instance, how are you going to get to Batterak? How are you going to get him to hold still long enough for you to summon Balthazar's powers, channel them, and then vanquish him?"
"You're raining on my parade, Leo," Piper flicked her wrists blowing him up and grabbed Chris's arm as she headed toward the stairs, "Come with me—we're going to do some target practice. You and I need to figure out how to control that power of yours. I think Cole and Chloe left some melons and other fruit out back. Paige, grab Wyatt!"
"Mom!" Chris fought back, "You just blew up dad!"
"He'll get over it. He always does," then she stopped in the middle of the hall and looked Chris in the eye, "You just called Leo dad."
"I'm working on getting over it," he winked at his mom.
"I'm killing the patio furniture," Chris blew up another chair.
"That's ok honey, um, just keep practicing," Piper forced a smile, "What did you do when you blew up the two demons?"
Chris looked down at his feet before looking back up to his mom, "I was mad."
"Then get mad at the watermelon! Like this," Piper blew up the melon, "See. We're going to have enough melons to make sorbet when this is over." Chris took aim and instead of blowing up the watermelon sent it flying into the wall. "No, flick your wrist more. Go ahead, try again," Piper coached him.
Cole shimmered in behind the melons as Chris flicked his wrists causing an explosion on Cole's shirt. "Good thing I'm invincible," he noted, "You missed."
"Agh, I'm getting so sick of this! If he's invincible then Batterak's invincible, why am I doing this?" He threw up his hands as two watermelons exploded.
"There you go! You got it!" Piper congratulated him. Chris just looked at her before going back inside.
"Is it something I said?" Cole asked rubbing the hole in the front of his shirt.
Leo and Phoebe were having a conversation in the living room when Chris walked through.
"Hey, you were doing well," Phoebe cocked a smile.
"You're kidding me," Chris kept walking and headed towards the stairs.
"Yeah, I was," she turned back to Leo as she sipped her tea, "Piper couldn't control it for a while either," she yelled up the stairs after Chris.
"I don't have a while," Chris shouted back from the upstairs hall.
"He's got a point," she turned back to Leo, "So tell me what you found out about Gideon."
"Whatever he is doing, he is hiding it well. No one on this side has heard anything. All I hear is the talk of using magic freely, openly, and for the good of all people—not just the magical community. Maybe we can use your ex-demon-ex-husband to find some more information?"
"Right, but we don't need him dying. I want to have my daughter someday... in the distant and near future," Phoebe took another sip of her tea. Chris came back downstairs with a potion's basin. "Where are you going now?"
"Paige," Chris responded.
"He is so mad at himself," Phoebe chuckled, "Let's go see what this about," she gave Leo a hand up.
Phoebe and Leo followed Chris back into the kitchen where he and Paige were working on a potion. There were various potion ingredients sprinkling the counter as Paige and Chris were working in pure synchronization adding the ingredients to the pot. "What is all this?" Leo asked peering over the edge of the basin.
"Remember when Chloe and I were working on that potion to track Batterak?" Chris asked as he threw some of the wolfsbane into the pot.
"Yeah," Leo smelled the rancidness arising from the pot.
"This is the other half, we should be able to dip a rose quartz in the potion, put it on a map, and it will track him," Chris added the violet to the potion with a bang.
"Does that mean it's done?" Paige stepped back.
"Five more minutes. It needs to simmer," Chris sat down at the table and picked up one of the chocolate chip cookies his mom made earlier. "Whoa, what's going on?" Chris blinked and dropped the cookie back on the plate. He kept blinking, but it didn't change what he was seeing. He could see Batterak in a cave, with a boiling cauldron of something to his right. He looked down to his legs and could see the black sweatpants Chloe had changed into before they went to Zotox's cave. "It's Chloe," Chris began feeling around on the table, "Phoebe, Cole, Leo, anybody who could tap into this with me come here!" he felt his way around the table.
"Chris, right here," Phoebe put her hand on his face, "Leo, go get Cole and Piper from the backyard. Chris, I can't see anything or sense anything."
"Focus, Phoebe," Chris closed his eyes, "it's Chloe's power, channel it."
Phoebe closed her and concentrated on what Chris was feeling, what Chloe was feeling, and suddenly, "I see it, Chris." Chris and Phoebe looked down at Chloe's broken leg and cut on her stomach, "He's beat her," Phoebe gasped as Cole and Piper entered with Leo.
"I am going to kill him. I'm going to torture him and I'm going to kill him," Cole chuckled nervously.
"Quiet, Batterak's talking to somebody," Chris held up his hand. Chris and Phoebe watched through Chloe's eyes as she lifted her head and turned to the back of the cavern where Batterak was obviously having a heated argument. "Come on Clo, focus, what's he saying? Who is he talking to?" Chris encouraged. Chloe pulled herself more to her right so that she could see around Batterak, "Pheebs, do you see what I see?"
"I have five more hours and then I'm going after him. You can't act out your plan until I finish mine, that was the deal. You're an elder, you're supposed to be true to your word," Batterak moved to the side so that Gideon could be seen.
"I do," Phoebe's jaw dropped, "I see him."
"Can you read his lips?" Chris hoped.
"No," Phoebe shook her head as her own vision came back.
Chris double blinked as his own sight returned, "You're not going to like what we saw, Leo."
"We saw Gideon with Batterak in his lair," Phoebe finished Chris's thought. Leo nodded his head and lowered his eyes. He was going to have to deal with this our own way—he orbed out of the kitchen.
"We'll deal with one evil at a time," Piper pulled everyone back together, "It looks like we didn't need to double bless that ring after all. What else did you see?"
"They were talking, and Batterak mentioned something about having five more hours before it was Gideon's turn," Chris picked his cookie back up and popped it in his mouth.
"I bet that's what my premonition was about," Phoebe mentioned absent- mindedly.
"What premonition?" Chris's brow wrinkled.
Phoebe took a seat at the table with Piper and Chris, "When Cole and I were still back at my office. He touched me and I could see Chloe, in pain, and then I saw you, me, Cole and Paige in the mausoleum. Batterak took Cole in exchange for Chloe, except that he didn't give us Chloe. Instead, he tortured both of them."
"Whoa, Pheebs, why didn't you say anything?" Piper's eyes widened.
Phoebe took a hasty bite of a cookie, "Excuse me, Piper, but things around here have been a little insane over the past few days."
"Our potion should be done, Chris," Paige walked back over to the pot and added the rose quartz, "I have an idea," she smiled a crooked smile.
"For?" Phoebe prompted
"Getting Chloe back," she pulled the rose quartz out of the pot.
"What about the spell we used to vanquish the source? Or at least one similar?" Paige picked up a couple of the crystals out of the potions chest, "His powers are linked to Cole's."
"But when Cole was the source, he wasn't an Avatar," Piper flipped through the book hoping to piece-meal a spell together from past vanquishes.
"Ok, well yes, technically," Paige admitted, "but, Avatar's have never been vanquished either. And we know it's going to have to take some serious magic because Cole is invincible. The way we vanquished him before was by altering reality."
Piper caught her words and looked up at Paige, "What did you just say?"
"We vanquished Cole in an alternate reality?" Paige repeated.
"Exactly, and he was Balthazar, right?" thoughts were moving wildly through Piper's head.
"Right. I'm not following, Piper. What are you getting at? Do you want to alter reality?" Paige speculated.
"Yes, and No," Piper flipped through the book to the part on Balthazar, "I want to give Batterak Balthazar's powers. And I want to vanquish him. We know we can do that!"
"Piper, Balthazar has been vanquished. Twice. His powers are bound to be long gone. Cole doesn't precisely still have them either."
Piper walked around the front of the book stand and took Paige's hands, "I know, but we can summon his powers into Batterak. And we can kill him! We've done it before. Remember you wrote that spell to give Chris his powers back after Bianca took them. Or any time we've switched, summoned, or lost our own powers. It's so simple it has to work," Piper was pacing from excitement.
Paige watched her, "I guess we know where Chris got that habit from," she commented under her breath and then to Piper, "Those were good powers. Good magic. You're suggesting we call demonic powers and put them into an already powerful demon. Whose flesh we need for the potion and don't have by the way."
"Minor detail," Piper nonchalantly replied, "This is going to work. I know this is going to work. Leo! Chris!" she called excitedly, "We're going to vanquish Batterak and then we're going to vanquish Gideon."
"Can we vanquish an elder?" Paige watched as he sister got more and more excited.
"I don't know, but we're going to try," Piper stopped, "Leo! Chris! I'm calling you!"
Chris and Leo orbed in a beat later, "What's going on, Piper? You sound excited."
"I am!"
"She is going to channel Balthazar into Batterak, vanquish him, and then vanquish Gideon," Paige nodded her head and then mouthed, "She's crazy," to Leo and Chris.
"I saw that," Piper pointed to Paige, "and I'm not crazy. We resurrected Cole, we can summon Balthazar's powers into Batterak... no sweat. What do you think?"
Leo walked up to Piper and placed his hands on both her shoulders, "That you are going to need to think about this a little more. For instance, how are you going to get to Batterak? How are you going to get him to hold still long enough for you to summon Balthazar's powers, channel them, and then vanquish him?"
"You're raining on my parade, Leo," Piper flicked her wrists blowing him up and grabbed Chris's arm as she headed toward the stairs, "Come with me—we're going to do some target practice. You and I need to figure out how to control that power of yours. I think Cole and Chloe left some melons and other fruit out back. Paige, grab Wyatt!"
"Mom!" Chris fought back, "You just blew up dad!"
"He'll get over it. He always does," then she stopped in the middle of the hall and looked Chris in the eye, "You just called Leo dad."
"I'm working on getting over it," he winked at his mom.
"I'm killing the patio furniture," Chris blew up another chair.
"That's ok honey, um, just keep practicing," Piper forced a smile, "What did you do when you blew up the two demons?"
Chris looked down at his feet before looking back up to his mom, "I was mad."
"Then get mad at the watermelon! Like this," Piper blew up the melon, "See. We're going to have enough melons to make sorbet when this is over." Chris took aim and instead of blowing up the watermelon sent it flying into the wall. "No, flick your wrist more. Go ahead, try again," Piper coached him.
Cole shimmered in behind the melons as Chris flicked his wrists causing an explosion on Cole's shirt. "Good thing I'm invincible," he noted, "You missed."
"Agh, I'm getting so sick of this! If he's invincible then Batterak's invincible, why am I doing this?" He threw up his hands as two watermelons exploded.
"There you go! You got it!" Piper congratulated him. Chris just looked at her before going back inside.
"Is it something I said?" Cole asked rubbing the hole in the front of his shirt.
Leo and Phoebe were having a conversation in the living room when Chris walked through.
"Hey, you were doing well," Phoebe cocked a smile.
"You're kidding me," Chris kept walking and headed towards the stairs.
"Yeah, I was," she turned back to Leo as she sipped her tea, "Piper couldn't control it for a while either," she yelled up the stairs after Chris.
"I don't have a while," Chris shouted back from the upstairs hall.
"He's got a point," she turned back to Leo, "So tell me what you found out about Gideon."
"Whatever he is doing, he is hiding it well. No one on this side has heard anything. All I hear is the talk of using magic freely, openly, and for the good of all people—not just the magical community. Maybe we can use your ex-demon-ex-husband to find some more information?"
"Right, but we don't need him dying. I want to have my daughter someday... in the distant and near future," Phoebe took another sip of her tea. Chris came back downstairs with a potion's basin. "Where are you going now?"
"Paige," Chris responded.
"He is so mad at himself," Phoebe chuckled, "Let's go see what this about," she gave Leo a hand up.
Phoebe and Leo followed Chris back into the kitchen where he and Paige were working on a potion. There were various potion ingredients sprinkling the counter as Paige and Chris were working in pure synchronization adding the ingredients to the pot. "What is all this?" Leo asked peering over the edge of the basin.
"Remember when Chloe and I were working on that potion to track Batterak?" Chris asked as he threw some of the wolfsbane into the pot.
"Yeah," Leo smelled the rancidness arising from the pot.
"This is the other half, we should be able to dip a rose quartz in the potion, put it on a map, and it will track him," Chris added the violet to the potion with a bang.
"Does that mean it's done?" Paige stepped back.
"Five more minutes. It needs to simmer," Chris sat down at the table and picked up one of the chocolate chip cookies his mom made earlier. "Whoa, what's going on?" Chris blinked and dropped the cookie back on the plate. He kept blinking, but it didn't change what he was seeing. He could see Batterak in a cave, with a boiling cauldron of something to his right. He looked down to his legs and could see the black sweatpants Chloe had changed into before they went to Zotox's cave. "It's Chloe," Chris began feeling around on the table, "Phoebe, Cole, Leo, anybody who could tap into this with me come here!" he felt his way around the table.
"Chris, right here," Phoebe put her hand on his face, "Leo, go get Cole and Piper from the backyard. Chris, I can't see anything or sense anything."
"Focus, Phoebe," Chris closed his eyes, "it's Chloe's power, channel it."
Phoebe closed her and concentrated on what Chris was feeling, what Chloe was feeling, and suddenly, "I see it, Chris." Chris and Phoebe looked down at Chloe's broken leg and cut on her stomach, "He's beat her," Phoebe gasped as Cole and Piper entered with Leo.
"I am going to kill him. I'm going to torture him and I'm going to kill him," Cole chuckled nervously.
"Quiet, Batterak's talking to somebody," Chris held up his hand. Chris and Phoebe watched through Chloe's eyes as she lifted her head and turned to the back of the cavern where Batterak was obviously having a heated argument. "Come on Clo, focus, what's he saying? Who is he talking to?" Chris encouraged. Chloe pulled herself more to her right so that she could see around Batterak, "Pheebs, do you see what I see?"
"I have five more hours and then I'm going after him. You can't act out your plan until I finish mine, that was the deal. You're an elder, you're supposed to be true to your word," Batterak moved to the side so that Gideon could be seen.
"I do," Phoebe's jaw dropped, "I see him."
"Can you read his lips?" Chris hoped.
"No," Phoebe shook her head as her own vision came back.
Chris double blinked as his own sight returned, "You're not going to like what we saw, Leo."
"We saw Gideon with Batterak in his lair," Phoebe finished Chris's thought. Leo nodded his head and lowered his eyes. He was going to have to deal with this our own way—he orbed out of the kitchen.
"We'll deal with one evil at a time," Piper pulled everyone back together, "It looks like we didn't need to double bless that ring after all. What else did you see?"
"They were talking, and Batterak mentioned something about having five more hours before it was Gideon's turn," Chris picked his cookie back up and popped it in his mouth.
"I bet that's what my premonition was about," Phoebe mentioned absent- mindedly.
"What premonition?" Chris's brow wrinkled.
Phoebe took a seat at the table with Piper and Chris, "When Cole and I were still back at my office. He touched me and I could see Chloe, in pain, and then I saw you, me, Cole and Paige in the mausoleum. Batterak took Cole in exchange for Chloe, except that he didn't give us Chloe. Instead, he tortured both of them."
"Whoa, Pheebs, why didn't you say anything?" Piper's eyes widened.
Phoebe took a hasty bite of a cookie, "Excuse me, Piper, but things around here have been a little insane over the past few days."
"Our potion should be done, Chris," Paige walked back over to the pot and added the rose quartz, "I have an idea," she smiled a crooked smile.
"For?" Phoebe prompted
"Getting Chloe back," she pulled the rose quartz out of the pot.