SAME SPOILER WARNING AS LAST TIME

CHAPTER FIVE

Piper hummed happily to herself as she took some cookies out of the oven. She carefully placed them on the middle island bench next to a tray of cooling muffins on one side and some freshly iced chocolate cupcakes on the other. Cooking always relaxed her, and finally today she felt relaxed. The events of the previous week had been stressful to say the least, and she desperately needed this time to herself. Leo had taken Wyatt to Magic School with him, Phoebe was at the paper and Paige was working with a charge, so it was just her and Chris alone in the house.

While Chris was upstairs asleep, she had decided to prescribe herself some stress therapy, by cooking up a fattening storm. And it seemed to be working. Not even the sounds of Chris waking up an hour early from his nap could change Piper's mood and she laughed when she heard him chattering away to himself in baby talk. She picked up the monitor and started to head upstairs to his room.

About halfway up the stairs, Piper became alarmed when she could hear someone else in the room with Chris, and her casual walk suddenly turned into a frantic run. She arrived at Chris' room with her hands in the air ready to blast whoever the intruder was, but was incredibly relieved when she saw Leo lifting Chris out of his cot.

"God, Leo!" She cursed him. "Don't scare me like that. Tell me next time you decide to change your plans."

Leo looked up at her as he held onto Chris. "I'm sorry if I scared you," he said.

"No, don't be silly, it's fine, I just wasn't expecting you that's all." Piper said to him. "Can you change him and bring him downstairs so I can give him some lunch?" She asked as she turned and walked out the room.

"That wouldn't be a problem," Leo called out.

"If I knew what to do." A different voice said, finishing off the sentence.

Piper froze mid stride, and terror filled her whole body. She recognized the voice immediately, and turned to run back to Chris' room. All her fears were realised when, instead of Leo holding Chris, she was now confronted with Zankou standing, smiling at her, holding Chris with one arm, and an energy ball with another.

Piper considered her options, and knew immediately that it was too dangerous to try to attack, as Chris would most certainly be caught up in it. She decided to plead for his life instead.

"Please, don't hurt him, I'm begging you, he's just a baby."

"Interesting request," Zankou said calmly to her, as he jiggled the baby he was holding. "He's a heavy little thing isn't he?"

"What do you want?" She asked.

"What I want is for you to listen to me. It would be so easy for me to kill this little creature right now. Let's see I could snap his neck, or hit him with this energy ball, or drop him on his head…"

Before Zankou could finish his threats, Piper started walking toward him, "If you hurt him, I swear I'll kill you!"

Zankou lifted his hand with the energy ball and started moving it toward Chris. Piper stopped, "I'm listening!" She shouted at him.

Zankou turned and laughed at her, and then put his hand down, but did not extinguish the energy ball. "I thought you might," he said. "Actually, I think you'll like what I have to say," he told her.

"I can't imagine why." Piper replied.

"Because I'm about to make you an offer you've only ever dreamt about. You see, I know what you want more than anything is to lead a normal life. I know that being a witch is not something you ever asked for or wanted."

"It's who I am," Piper said firmly.

"It's what you are, it's not who you are," Zankou corrected.

"Get to the point," Piper said sharply.

"What if I was to offer you a truce? I promise not to fight you and you promise not to fight me."

"You're a demon, why would I trust you?" Piper scoffed.

"Because you can't afford not to trust me. What is the alternative? That you fight us forever? You must have been looking for a way out to have been so desperate to agree to the Avatars' proposal. By the way, don't you think it was a bit extreme to change the entire world, just because you were sick of facing up to your responsibilities?"

"As it turned out, you're right, but that is even more reason why I wouldn't trust you. We are not about to make the same mistake again."

"Ahh, but what I'm offering you is completely different. I'm not asking you to change the world, just enter into an agreement. All I want is you to leave me alone to take over the Underworld, and I'll leave you alone up here. It will be much easier for me to take control if I'm not fighting you every second day. And once I'm their leader, I will make sure that all demons leave you alone." Zankou could see Piper was considering what he was saying, although she was pretending not to.

"You're crazy. We don't make deals with Demons, for any reason." Piper said firmly.

"We'll see." Zankou said smugly. "As a token of my good will, I am going to return your son to you unharmed."

Piper held her breathe in anticipation as Zankou walked toward her. She was waiting for something to happen, for she was sure he was trying to distract her for some reason. But nothing happened, instead, he just handed her Chris. Piper immediately hugged him tightly.

"You see I can be trusted." Zankou told her, trying to sound genuine, and then warned her, "Please don't mention our little meeting to anyone else, as I would consider that a betrayal of my trust. Consider my request, and I will be in touch." He smiled at her again, and then flamed out.

Piper let go of the breath she had been holding, and realising she was feeling a little dizzy; she walked over to a chair in the room and shakily sat down. Tears were falling freely from her eyes and down her cheeks. She wiped them away and tried to compose herself, stroking Chris' hair and kissing him on the top of his head. As she looked down at her precious baby, she could not help but think of an image of future Chris, and realised how close she had just come to him never existing. How close she had just come to losing her baby.

She wondered how much longer she could go on like this. And even though she knew it went against everything she believed in, everything she knew was right, she found herself considering Zankou's proposal.