The Dark Years
Part Five: Revelations
Disclaimer: there's one somewhere, hopefully the first chapter. Just in case, I don't own anything.
Posted: July 26, 2004
Author's notes: sorry for taking so long to update, guys! I hope that you all are happy with these four new pages! They've been written for awhile, but this is the first chance I got to type them up! Real kicker at the end, trust me! Mwahahaha!
Reader Responses:
Looks for reviews...
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THERE ARE NONE!!!!! Cries Please review this chapter!
(They're still taking out my dividers so....)
"Hey, guys! Grace called, rushing upstairs sometime after supper that night, "I was looking through some old papers, notes and stuff, and I had....an epiphany!"
"About what?" Faith asked, rolling over, setting aside her book. Melinda didn't even give Grace a glance, so she threw the old paper back at her.
"HEY!"
"Try paying attention," Faith ordered, "Go on, Grace."
"We've been having a hard time coming up with ideas to find Mom, but we don't even know what happened to her!"
"Well, duh. No one knows, not even Dad," Melinda said, bored. They already knew that. Hardly an epiphany. Faith threatened to throw another book at her, and Melinda orbed it away from her.
"That's the point! What if we cast a spell to take us back to that night? First," she rushed over to the study table, grabbing some scrap paper and a pencil, "You have to determine the goal, basic spell writing, 101. We already know that. Next are materials to use. The best way would be through dreams or visions, less likely to be spotted and screw up the future, or the present. Whatever. I'm thinking maybe an amethyst stone, or something like that," she rushed over to their bins of minerals and dug through to find a good sized amethyst, "Then we have to come up with the spell. Most spells don't even have to rhyme!" she set the amethyst next to her scrap paper and started scribbling hastily.
After fifteen minutes, right after Melinda had gone back to her email, Grace crowed, holding up the paper. Faith read it over her shoulder, nodding.
"That just might work..." she mused.
"Now we just need to figure out who goes," Grace said, looking at her older sisters.
"You," they said at once.
"M-me?!"
"You're the one that came up with the idea, and the spell. It wouldn't be fair if one of us went, "Faith explained.
"Oh, but-"
"But nothing, Grace. You're going," Melinda said, using her 'parental voice.'
"Let's set up," Faith took charge.
"Let me go tell Grams," Melinda rushed out. She came back five minutes later, "Grampa said be careful."
"We will," Faith answered, "Ok, I think we're done. Let's do this."
The three girls sat down on a point of the trinquatra drawn on an old sheet just for this purpose. Blue candles were placed on each of the points where the petals met the circle, with white candles on the inside intersections. Behind Grace was a mound of pillows.
"Great Goddess
Give my spirit wings
So I may fly to the time and hour
My mother was taken from me.
Filly my mind with the memory
Of those fateful hours," Grace chanted. All three girls held hands, feeling the power course through them as Faith and Melinda quietly chanted two words over and over, "Tempus suse, tempus suse, tempus suse."
Give our mother back to me
If only in memory
Tempus suse, tempus suse, tempus suse!"
With the last rendition of the Latin phrase, the candles flared, and the girls could feel the awesome power they could one day control. The candles suddenly were extinguished, and Grace fell back into the mound of pillows, unconscious. If they hadn't let go when they had, they would have fallen with her.
(SCENE BREAK)
A/N: This section is supposed to be in italics. Whether or not allows me to have it in italics is still to be seen. FYI. Any of you who have actually read TNG (I have no way of knowing, since no one reviewed it, I think...) you'll recognize some of the following stuff...
"Well, here we are, our first night in our new home." She saw a man she knew to be her father settle a sleeping baby into one of the three cribs. She looked around, and she recognized the cluttered junk now in the basement; they were in the attic.
"Yup, here we are," A woman walked over to her Dad, placing another infant into a similar crib. The third one was already occupied.
"Tomorrow, we'll patrol, ok? Mom can take them for an hour or so while I show you around," he wrapped his arms around her, before going to pick up their new room.
"I-I want to go alone. You need to stay here and protect them."
"My parents can do that as easily-"
"Wyatt, please. For me."
"Ok. Don't worry." He set the stuff aside and wrapped his arms around her.
"I can't help it. I can't sense anything, Wyatt."
"What do you mean?" she could hear the concern clearly in her father's voice.
"In Sunnydale, I could sense the hellmouth, the vampires stalking the street, the demon bar three blocks away. Here...there's nothing."
"That's good, right?"
"No. It's too quiet. The calm before the storm. It's not natural." He turned her around in his arms, stroking her hair. She placed her head against his chest. Grace could feel her confusion, and her father's concern.
"Everything'll be fine. I promise. Come on, bed time for Mommy." He led her over to the bed, and she crawled over to her side. He slid in next to her and took her into his arms once more. "Everything's going to be just fine." She heard him murmur before the next thunder crash.
Suddenly she was in the dinning room. Her Dad, Mom and Grams carefully held a squirming baby while they ate.
"It's almost dark," Grace looked out the window to see that it was true, "I should be going." Her mom stood up. Phoebe took the baby from her, and she headed upstairs.
"Excuse me a moment," her father said, standing up and following her. Grace felt herself being dragged after her parents, but that was the way she wanted to go anyway.
"If you still feel off, don't go!" she heard her father cry, seeing him jiggling the fussy baby he held through the door.
"But I have to. Slayer's don't get days off."
"But an off day could kill you!" the baby was reacting to the tension and started to cry weakly.
"I have to take that chance," she went over and kissed him, "I love you, and I love our daughters, but I've learned over the years that destinies must come first." She caressed the child's soft hair, "Goodbye, Gracey. See you later."
Grace leaned against the door jam as her mother started to turn, even though Grace knew she couldn't see her.
"Goodbye, I love you," her dad told her mom. She picked up a bag full of weapons and started to leave. Grace backed even further from the doorway.
"Oh," Joyce stopped just outside the door, and Grace felt a hand grab hers and squeeze, "Don't wait up for me," she flashed him a joking smile. She then turned, and as she walked away, Grace heard, "I love you, Grace. Tell your sisters I love them too." But her mother didn't stop or look back.
Once more Grace felt herself tugged behind her mother, like a string attached them. Her mother started talking as soon as her feet hit the sidewalk.
"I knew something felt off last night, and then I finally realized what it was, Grace. There were two of you. I've always been able to tell you three apart by the way my spidey senses react to each one, and last night, I felt the tingle that I've always felt around you, and then I felt one much stronger, deeper. I was awake most of the night, and even today I wondered why you'd come back from the future. And then it hit me. Something must happen to me. Tonight, even.
"And you being the resourceful girls are, and I know you will be, sent one of you back to find out what.
"I know you're there. I can feel you. You're about the only thing I can feel in this damn town. Tell-" her voice cracked, "tell your Dad and your sisters that wherever I end up, I still love you. I always will."
"We love you too, Mom!" Grace cried, placing a noncorporeal hand on her mother's shoulders. Joyce stopped, and smiled, "C-Can you hear me?" Grace whispered, but then she felts something totally wrong in the pit of her stomach. She doubled over in pain as she saw something step out of a solid brick wall. Its face was twisted into the visage of a vampire, but it was gray, and Grace knew it was ancient, and not just by it's clothes.
"MOM! RUN!" she screamed, but she didn't move, "PLEASE! RUN!" she sobbed.
"Grace?...What's wrong? You feel...different. God, this city's screwing up my radar."
"RUN!" Grace screamed one last time. Her bones shivered and her blood turned to ice in her veins as the thing stepped through her. It took out a gun that looked odd in it's ancient hands, and zapped her mother from behind. She didn't even make a sound as she crumbled.
The vampire picked up her mother and headed back through the brick wall. Grace tried to pick up something to throw at it, but she went right through things.
As her mother's limp body passed through the brick wall, she felt herself transported back into her own body.
(SCENE BREAK)
(END ITALICS)
She awoke with a sob.
Her two sisters were right there, knowing that their sensitive youngest sister would take it hard.
"She knew!" she sobbed, "She knew."
"It's ok, Grace. Shh," Faith rocked her sister.
"NO! It's my fault! All my fault!"
"No, it's not."
She looked up at her sisters, tears streaming down her face, "Mom knew I was there! And she knew why. She told me...to tell you...that she loves you...and she always will. It's all my fault! She was focusing on me, and not her surroundings!"
"No, Grace, it's not your fault. Did she at least put up a good fight?"
Grace shook her head, "She didn't have time! The gray vampire literally came out of a brick wall. He shot her with a tranquilizer, and carried her back through the wall. There must have been a time loop or something."
"Wait, exactly what did this vampire look like?" Melinda asked, getting up and pulling out the book their grandmother had made for them.
"Gray, almost white skin, old clothes. I could tell the thing was ancient."
"Why, Mel?" Faith asked, still sitting on the floor with Grace.
"I've been going through Gram's book. I've always been a visual learner, and I was kinda hoping that if I could memorize the pictures and the demon's names, then you guys could remember the vanquish," she started flipping through the book, "Here it is. Gram's nicknamed it an Ubervamp. She wrote that it's an agent of the First Evil, and incredibly hard to kill."
Faith walked over, "The info on the First is in the beginning. Grams put all the major evils first." Melinda flipped through, "There. It says that the Charmed Ones vanquished it before Mom was born."
"Do you think these Ubervamps have their own agenda now?" Grace asked.
"More than likely the First Evil wasn't destroyed, just banished. I don't remember seeing the spell in the BOS. And God knows we've looked in there enough, with all the games Gramps and Natasha had us play," Faith mentioned their first whitelighter, assigned when the Elders though Leo couldn't guide both the Charmed Ones and Charmed Ones The Next Generation. Natasha had been reassigned when they had turned 10 and it was clear they were in little danger. It was almost as if they weren't even a blip on evil's radar screen. The girls still missed Natasha on occasion, like now.
They used to play a scavenger hunt type game with the information in the book until she was reassigned.
"Should we go ask Grams? She would know why it's not in there," Melinda suggested.
"I think we should go tell Grammy Summers what we know, and ask her," Faith said.
"No, this is something we have to do on our own!" Grace said with conviction, "We've been living under the umbrella that is our Grandparents for too long. They've tried everything they could think of, and they've had thirteen years to find her. This is our turn, guys. They can't help us; we're on our own. They'd just tell us we're too young, and then we'll never find her."
"Well, what about Uncle Spike? He's in the very back of the book, where Grams put things she wasn't really sure of where to put, like Grampa Summers, both being once vampires. He's a self proclaimed rebel," Melinda said. She loved Uncle Spike for his rebellious nature. And Melinda seemed to be his favorite, imparting some rebel ways in her thirteen-year-old mind.
Faith nodded, "I think he'd understand. I agree with Grace, this is our time to shine; to prove that we're not kids anymore. Call me a thrill seeker, but maybe we're the only ones that can get Mom back. I think Uncle Spike would help us."
"So, to Uncle Spike's?" Grace asked, and her two sisters nodded.
"GRAMS! WE'RE GOING TO SUNNYDALE!" Melinda yelled.
"BE BACK BY CERFEW!" was the reply.
"BE CAREFUL!"
"Let's go," Faith took her sister's hands and they all pictured Spike's comfortable, yet messy, apartment. Then they orbed out of their room.
Halfway there, something hit Grace, on the end, and she was forced to let go of her sister's hand. She landed roughly in a smelly, dirty, dank ally. It smelled like Gram Summer did right after her divorce when Grace was four and a half, where she didn't come home until three in the morning, and had passed out on the stairs.
A figured landed in the trash opposite her, and she figured it was what had hit her. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light, and her first look at the figure made her breath catch, her heart freeze, and her spine dance as shivers of dread ran along it. She felt like she had landed on ice cubes, in ice water, as her powers kicked in, and touched the evil figure. With double capital 'e's.
"Mom?" she croaked out as the figure shimmered out.
TBC....
And this time I'm thinking about ransoming my chapter....With this being a free activity, reviews are my wages, and with no reviews, I'm one sorry writer!
Please review!
Part Five: Revelations
Disclaimer: there's one somewhere, hopefully the first chapter. Just in case, I don't own anything.
Posted: July 26, 2004
Author's notes: sorry for taking so long to update, guys! I hope that you all are happy with these four new pages! They've been written for awhile, but this is the first chance I got to type them up! Real kicker at the end, trust me! Mwahahaha!
Reader Responses:
Looks for reviews...
Looks...
Looks...
Looks...
THERE ARE NONE!!!!! Cries Please review this chapter!
(They're still taking out my dividers so....)
"Hey, guys! Grace called, rushing upstairs sometime after supper that night, "I was looking through some old papers, notes and stuff, and I had....an epiphany!"
"About what?" Faith asked, rolling over, setting aside her book. Melinda didn't even give Grace a glance, so she threw the old paper back at her.
"HEY!"
"Try paying attention," Faith ordered, "Go on, Grace."
"We've been having a hard time coming up with ideas to find Mom, but we don't even know what happened to her!"
"Well, duh. No one knows, not even Dad," Melinda said, bored. They already knew that. Hardly an epiphany. Faith threatened to throw another book at her, and Melinda orbed it away from her.
"That's the point! What if we cast a spell to take us back to that night? First," she rushed over to the study table, grabbing some scrap paper and a pencil, "You have to determine the goal, basic spell writing, 101. We already know that. Next are materials to use. The best way would be through dreams or visions, less likely to be spotted and screw up the future, or the present. Whatever. I'm thinking maybe an amethyst stone, or something like that," she rushed over to their bins of minerals and dug through to find a good sized amethyst, "Then we have to come up with the spell. Most spells don't even have to rhyme!" she set the amethyst next to her scrap paper and started scribbling hastily.
After fifteen minutes, right after Melinda had gone back to her email, Grace crowed, holding up the paper. Faith read it over her shoulder, nodding.
"That just might work..." she mused.
"Now we just need to figure out who goes," Grace said, looking at her older sisters.
"You," they said at once.
"M-me?!"
"You're the one that came up with the idea, and the spell. It wouldn't be fair if one of us went, "Faith explained.
"Oh, but-"
"But nothing, Grace. You're going," Melinda said, using her 'parental voice.'
"Let's set up," Faith took charge.
"Let me go tell Grams," Melinda rushed out. She came back five minutes later, "Grampa said be careful."
"We will," Faith answered, "Ok, I think we're done. Let's do this."
The three girls sat down on a point of the trinquatra drawn on an old sheet just for this purpose. Blue candles were placed on each of the points where the petals met the circle, with white candles on the inside intersections. Behind Grace was a mound of pillows.
"Great Goddess
Give my spirit wings
So I may fly to the time and hour
My mother was taken from me.
Filly my mind with the memory
Of those fateful hours," Grace chanted. All three girls held hands, feeling the power course through them as Faith and Melinda quietly chanted two words over and over, "Tempus suse, tempus suse, tempus suse."
Give our mother back to me
If only in memory
Tempus suse, tempus suse, tempus suse!"
With the last rendition of the Latin phrase, the candles flared, and the girls could feel the awesome power they could one day control. The candles suddenly were extinguished, and Grace fell back into the mound of pillows, unconscious. If they hadn't let go when they had, they would have fallen with her.
(SCENE BREAK)
A/N: This section is supposed to be in italics. Whether or not allows me to have it in italics is still to be seen. FYI. Any of you who have actually read TNG (I have no way of knowing, since no one reviewed it, I think...) you'll recognize some of the following stuff...
"Well, here we are, our first night in our new home." She saw a man she knew to be her father settle a sleeping baby into one of the three cribs. She looked around, and she recognized the cluttered junk now in the basement; they were in the attic.
"Yup, here we are," A woman walked over to her Dad, placing another infant into a similar crib. The third one was already occupied.
"Tomorrow, we'll patrol, ok? Mom can take them for an hour or so while I show you around," he wrapped his arms around her, before going to pick up their new room.
"I-I want to go alone. You need to stay here and protect them."
"My parents can do that as easily-"
"Wyatt, please. For me."
"Ok. Don't worry." He set the stuff aside and wrapped his arms around her.
"I can't help it. I can't sense anything, Wyatt."
"What do you mean?" she could hear the concern clearly in her father's voice.
"In Sunnydale, I could sense the hellmouth, the vampires stalking the street, the demon bar three blocks away. Here...there's nothing."
"That's good, right?"
"No. It's too quiet. The calm before the storm. It's not natural." He turned her around in his arms, stroking her hair. She placed her head against his chest. Grace could feel her confusion, and her father's concern.
"Everything'll be fine. I promise. Come on, bed time for Mommy." He led her over to the bed, and she crawled over to her side. He slid in next to her and took her into his arms once more. "Everything's going to be just fine." She heard him murmur before the next thunder crash.
Suddenly she was in the dinning room. Her Dad, Mom and Grams carefully held a squirming baby while they ate.
"It's almost dark," Grace looked out the window to see that it was true, "I should be going." Her mom stood up. Phoebe took the baby from her, and she headed upstairs.
"Excuse me a moment," her father said, standing up and following her. Grace felt herself being dragged after her parents, but that was the way she wanted to go anyway.
"If you still feel off, don't go!" she heard her father cry, seeing him jiggling the fussy baby he held through the door.
"But I have to. Slayer's don't get days off."
"But an off day could kill you!" the baby was reacting to the tension and started to cry weakly.
"I have to take that chance," she went over and kissed him, "I love you, and I love our daughters, but I've learned over the years that destinies must come first." She caressed the child's soft hair, "Goodbye, Gracey. See you later."
Grace leaned against the door jam as her mother started to turn, even though Grace knew she couldn't see her.
"Goodbye, I love you," her dad told her mom. She picked up a bag full of weapons and started to leave. Grace backed even further from the doorway.
"Oh," Joyce stopped just outside the door, and Grace felt a hand grab hers and squeeze, "Don't wait up for me," she flashed him a joking smile. She then turned, and as she walked away, Grace heard, "I love you, Grace. Tell your sisters I love them too." But her mother didn't stop or look back.
Once more Grace felt herself tugged behind her mother, like a string attached them. Her mother started talking as soon as her feet hit the sidewalk.
"I knew something felt off last night, and then I finally realized what it was, Grace. There were two of you. I've always been able to tell you three apart by the way my spidey senses react to each one, and last night, I felt the tingle that I've always felt around you, and then I felt one much stronger, deeper. I was awake most of the night, and even today I wondered why you'd come back from the future. And then it hit me. Something must happen to me. Tonight, even.
"And you being the resourceful girls are, and I know you will be, sent one of you back to find out what.
"I know you're there. I can feel you. You're about the only thing I can feel in this damn town. Tell-" her voice cracked, "tell your Dad and your sisters that wherever I end up, I still love you. I always will."
"We love you too, Mom!" Grace cried, placing a noncorporeal hand on her mother's shoulders. Joyce stopped, and smiled, "C-Can you hear me?" Grace whispered, but then she felts something totally wrong in the pit of her stomach. She doubled over in pain as she saw something step out of a solid brick wall. Its face was twisted into the visage of a vampire, but it was gray, and Grace knew it was ancient, and not just by it's clothes.
"MOM! RUN!" she screamed, but she didn't move, "PLEASE! RUN!" she sobbed.
"Grace?...What's wrong? You feel...different. God, this city's screwing up my radar."
"RUN!" Grace screamed one last time. Her bones shivered and her blood turned to ice in her veins as the thing stepped through her. It took out a gun that looked odd in it's ancient hands, and zapped her mother from behind. She didn't even make a sound as she crumbled.
The vampire picked up her mother and headed back through the brick wall. Grace tried to pick up something to throw at it, but she went right through things.
As her mother's limp body passed through the brick wall, she felt herself transported back into her own body.
(SCENE BREAK)
(END ITALICS)
She awoke with a sob.
Her two sisters were right there, knowing that their sensitive youngest sister would take it hard.
"She knew!" she sobbed, "She knew."
"It's ok, Grace. Shh," Faith rocked her sister.
"NO! It's my fault! All my fault!"
"No, it's not."
She looked up at her sisters, tears streaming down her face, "Mom knew I was there! And she knew why. She told me...to tell you...that she loves you...and she always will. It's all my fault! She was focusing on me, and not her surroundings!"
"No, Grace, it's not your fault. Did she at least put up a good fight?"
Grace shook her head, "She didn't have time! The gray vampire literally came out of a brick wall. He shot her with a tranquilizer, and carried her back through the wall. There must have been a time loop or something."
"Wait, exactly what did this vampire look like?" Melinda asked, getting up and pulling out the book their grandmother had made for them.
"Gray, almost white skin, old clothes. I could tell the thing was ancient."
"Why, Mel?" Faith asked, still sitting on the floor with Grace.
"I've been going through Gram's book. I've always been a visual learner, and I was kinda hoping that if I could memorize the pictures and the demon's names, then you guys could remember the vanquish," she started flipping through the book, "Here it is. Gram's nicknamed it an Ubervamp. She wrote that it's an agent of the First Evil, and incredibly hard to kill."
Faith walked over, "The info on the First is in the beginning. Grams put all the major evils first." Melinda flipped through, "There. It says that the Charmed Ones vanquished it before Mom was born."
"Do you think these Ubervamps have their own agenda now?" Grace asked.
"More than likely the First Evil wasn't destroyed, just banished. I don't remember seeing the spell in the BOS. And God knows we've looked in there enough, with all the games Gramps and Natasha had us play," Faith mentioned their first whitelighter, assigned when the Elders though Leo couldn't guide both the Charmed Ones and Charmed Ones The Next Generation. Natasha had been reassigned when they had turned 10 and it was clear they were in little danger. It was almost as if they weren't even a blip on evil's radar screen. The girls still missed Natasha on occasion, like now.
They used to play a scavenger hunt type game with the information in the book until she was reassigned.
"Should we go ask Grams? She would know why it's not in there," Melinda suggested.
"I think we should go tell Grammy Summers what we know, and ask her," Faith said.
"No, this is something we have to do on our own!" Grace said with conviction, "We've been living under the umbrella that is our Grandparents for too long. They've tried everything they could think of, and they've had thirteen years to find her. This is our turn, guys. They can't help us; we're on our own. They'd just tell us we're too young, and then we'll never find her."
"Well, what about Uncle Spike? He's in the very back of the book, where Grams put things she wasn't really sure of where to put, like Grampa Summers, both being once vampires. He's a self proclaimed rebel," Melinda said. She loved Uncle Spike for his rebellious nature. And Melinda seemed to be his favorite, imparting some rebel ways in her thirteen-year-old mind.
Faith nodded, "I think he'd understand. I agree with Grace, this is our time to shine; to prove that we're not kids anymore. Call me a thrill seeker, but maybe we're the only ones that can get Mom back. I think Uncle Spike would help us."
"So, to Uncle Spike's?" Grace asked, and her two sisters nodded.
"GRAMS! WE'RE GOING TO SUNNYDALE!" Melinda yelled.
"BE BACK BY CERFEW!" was the reply.
"BE CAREFUL!"
"Let's go," Faith took her sister's hands and they all pictured Spike's comfortable, yet messy, apartment. Then they orbed out of their room.
Halfway there, something hit Grace, on the end, and she was forced to let go of her sister's hand. She landed roughly in a smelly, dirty, dank ally. It smelled like Gram Summer did right after her divorce when Grace was four and a half, where she didn't come home until three in the morning, and had passed out on the stairs.
A figured landed in the trash opposite her, and she figured it was what had hit her. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the lack of light, and her first look at the figure made her breath catch, her heart freeze, and her spine dance as shivers of dread ran along it. She felt like she had landed on ice cubes, in ice water, as her powers kicked in, and touched the evil figure. With double capital 'e's.
"Mom?" she croaked out as the figure shimmered out.
TBC....
And this time I'm thinking about ransoming my chapter....With this being a free activity, reviews are my wages, and with no reviews, I'm one sorry writer!
Please review!