Disclaimer: Don't own Charmed
Reminder: Chris is now possessed by the evil Dark Prince Mastiphal who is now approaching the girls, who are helpless, holding an energy ball.
Again thank you for all the reviews and support.
Gideon suddenly heard Wyatt screaming he ran through into the nursery, Wyatt stood in his crib bawling away, Gideon wasn't very good with children and desperately tried to quieten the boy down but this just caused him to scream more hysterically. Gideon threw his arms into the air in confusion. "LEO!" He yelled.
His fellow Elder orbed in, "Gideon have you seen the girls?" He asked as soon he materialised.
"They went to challenge Mastiphal and save Chris, please make him stop." Gideon said anxiously.
Leo picked his son up and rocked him in his arms then continued talking to Gideon hurriedly, "It's just it's past 3pm and the Darkness is still here."
"Oh my… you don't think…" The colour drained from Gideon's face.
"I have to find them!" Leo moaned and gave Wyatt to Gideon and orbed away, as soon as his daddy was gone, Wyatt returned to screaming incessantly, Gideon held him at arms length cringing.
Leo orbed into a large cave that was illuminated in a red light. He saw a man approaching the sisters holding an energy ball, through sheer animal instinct he lunged at him knocking him to the floor, the man rolled over growling but his face turned from anger to delight in seconds.
"Well, well, well if it isn't daddy!"
"Chris?" Leo cried horrified.
"Nope, Mastiphal. But you can call me son." Chris held out a bruised hand.
He shimmered away, "Whoops too late." He threw an energy ball at his father. Leo exploded in a mass of white orbs and reappeared.
"Oh, I forgot your already dead, an Elder no less." Leo scrambled to his feet, the sisters lay helplessly watching. He had to get them out but he had to stop Chris from killing them first.
"Fine I have the perfect remedy for that!" A dark lighter crossbow materialised in Chris' open arms. "Now then, who to kill, my dear aunty or my daddy." He glanced at Paige lying helplessly on the floor and strode over to her. "It's a no brainer." He smiled maliciously running a finger down her cheek, he swung round and shot an unsuspecting Leo who fell to the floor.
"Oops my finger slipped!" Chris cackled.
Leo felt his stomach, blood was oozing out. Carefully and swiftly and he pulled the arrow out and threw it to the floor howling in agony and then staggering to his feet.
"Ah, ah, don't want to waste all your energy now do we?" Chris smiled walked over to his father and pushing him by the shoulder to the floor. Leo fell onto the black silt.
Piper groaned her back ached so much! She stared as her son and his father for mere seconds glared at each other, Chris full of hate and spite, Leo full of pain and repentance. As Leo tried to haul himself back up Chris kicked him in the back forcing his face back into the silt. Leo spluttered as some entered his mouth.
"You know what? This is fun! The first demon ever to even lay a scratch on all the Charmed ones at once and their Elder and the bonus prize is I'm their son. Came to save to save them. Ironic isn't it," Chris said reflectively. Then he looked at the sisters, they looked so helpless.
The human within Mastiphal was fighting to gain control, he didn't want this, Mastiphal felt him trying to gain control. It wouldn't matter Mastiphal was much stronger than him anyway.
Mastiphal turned and stared at the girls with his concrete eyes but, then he flinched. Mastiphal blinked and his eyes turned green. "GIDEON!" He yelled. The girls watched as Chris fought with him self falling to his knees, then he orbed away.
Gideon orbed in and saw the girls sprawled across the floor, he stumbled towards them and quickly healed them and turned to Leo and healed him. Piper was shell shocked, she could not understand why Chris hated Leo so much, it was baffling along with the fact that he had just tried to kill her. The Charmed ones had lost, it was only by luck barely they had survived. If her son wasn't strong enough to fight off the demon they would have died. Her stomach twisted into a knot, her son almost killed her. Leo looked at the sisters as they steadily clambered to their feet, each one had looks of pure defeat. He knew it was hard. They had never lost before, not like this. When Shax had attacked he had still been there and healed them, he had sensed it. But this time was different, it wasn't just a demon. They were fighting Chris, their son, nephew, whitelighter.
Phoebe watched as Piper stood up, she was in a world of her own. Her eyes didn't focus on anything she just looked straight ahead of her all the time. Phoebe didn't want to know how much this would be hurting her. It had all seemed too easy, potion, spell, demon dies. That's how it had always been, but not now, what if they killed Chris?
"Whoa!" Chris cried. He materialised in an alley.
"Well, well, well, you have more power than the followers expected, no one has ever taken me on!" He plunged his hand into his own chest and ripped out Chris' soul.
"Now then, you have a choice, I can leave you here and keep your body. Or… we could work together and you can stop being such a spoil sport." Mastiphal explained.
Chris looked around him, he was a soul. This was not good, then he remembered, "No, it doesn't matter. You need my soul in you, otherwise the resurrection wouldn't have worked. You can't use your powers without me."
"Ah…" Mastiphal frowned, Chris felt weird that was his body frowning standing around casually in an alley. His body was worse for wear, he had a stab wound in his stomach which meant his shirt was drenched in his own blood and of course he had numerous bruises and scabs dotted all over his face and arms. He continued explaining to Mastiphal his point carefully.
"That would mean no shimmering or energy balls or whatever other powers you have." Chris folded his arms and looked at himself sternly.
"Fine but that doesn't mean I can't do this," Mastiphal closed his fist. Chris felt his a hand close around his throat, "I still have your powers after all." Chris fell to his knees.
"So are we going to be a good witch or not?" Mastiphal asked as Chris clutched his throat trying to breath, as a soul he shouldn't have any problems with not breathing but Mastiphal had control and if Mastiphal wanted this to hurt Chris, it would hurt him immensely. Chris choked and nodded quickly. Mastiphal opened his hand and Chris fell flat onto the floor.
"Good choice." Mastiphal grinned, "Now back in." Chris felt himself be sucked back into his body relinquishing control to Mastiphal. "Now to stop a certain someone blabbing our plan. Mastiphal looked around the alleyway then shimmered away.
Leo stood on the Golden Gate bridge breathing in the cold refreshing air, the sisters were at the manor trying to find a way to free Chris' body from Mastiphal. He couldn't stay there. The tension was sky rocketing into the atmosphere, each sister felt guilty, afraid and scared. It was still dark, the sky had spots of blood red in it, the news crews were going crazy it had been like this now for 2 hours. This wasn't like normal demons who had one innocent to kill, he could tell Mastiphal needed to absorb souls to become powerful, any soul that had the right markings would do. Then there would be no stopping him, Leo couldn't face telling the sisters. That would make them more upset, he orbed to the manor reluctantly as he heard Piper's calls.
"Ok, we have discovered Mastiphal has to absorb certain souls so we need to just scry for a soul marked the right way and protect them." Piper explained quickly.
"Where is Phoebe?" Leo asked as Paige pottered about the attic preparing a potion.
"She went to talk to the Shaman." Paige answered setting some ingredients on an old battered coffee table.
"What are you making?" Leo asked as Paige pulled a feather out of a cushion and threw it in an old brass pot.
"I am making a potion that we can use to quickly heal each other so Chris won't nearly kill us again." She replied now digging around in a chest.
"Oh…" Leo replied softly. Why did Chris hate him?
Piper held her head in her hands. Chris tried to kill them it had sunk in. That was why she could hurt him in the cave or try to stop him from nearly killing her sisters. She felt ridiculous and weak. But she couldn't kill her son. She briskly walked across the attic from the podium and grabbed a crystal from the table Paige had put everything and walked downstairs she had to do something to take her mind off it.
"Phoebe why are you back? In my vision you looked like you nearly got killed," The Shaman looked concerned.
"You know then,"
"That you were too late? Yes. I knew you would be I just could not tell you." The Shaman stirred a bowl slowly.
"Can you help me try and find a way to stop Chris… NO… Mastiphal?" Phoebe begged.
"Fine," The Shaman set her bowl down. "Now Phoebe, Chris will be entering his darkest hour, at midnight Mastiphal will have spent his first as a being on earth. This will be called his host's darkest hour. Last time it happened it was 300 years ago. The Darkest Hour is the time when the soul can enter or leave the body at will, if you kill Mastiphal when Chris is still in there he will die too. My advice, find a way to coax Chris out, then kill Mastiphal,"
"Why do you make that sound so hard?" Phoebe asked warily.
"Well… they don't call it the Darkest Hour for nothing you know. Chris will experience every horrible thought or feeling he has ever done. Communicating with him will be hard, and you can't use a spell to drag him out."
"Ah…"
"But that won't be happening will it Shaman?" A man's voice asked.
Everything around Phoebe went black, she went blind. Then all she could hear was the Shaman screaming.
"If you're wondering why you're blind aunty, that's one of my powers. To plunge anyone into Darkness."
The screaming stopped and Phoebe heard a loud thud.
"She won't be telling anyone else anything…" Chris laughed. Phoebe swung her head round anxiously, she couldn't see. She heard the distant sound of Chris shimmering away, then she blinked and saw the Shaman lying lifeless on the floor with an large athame sticking out of her back.