CHAPTER TEN

"The boys are in the nursery, happily playing." Leo said to Piper as he walked over to the table she and Phoebe were sitting at in The Great Hall of Magic School.

Wyatt was standing next to the table, and Chris was pacing.

"Okay, where do we start?" Chris asked.

Before anyone could answer, Paige orbed in with two other people.

"Hi guys," she said, "Sorry I'm late. This is Katelyn and her Father, Michael. This is my brother-in-law, Leo, who is the Principal of Magic School."

"Nice to meet you." Leo said to Michael while shaking his hand.

Michael nodded in response.

"And of course, this is the rest of my family." Paige introduced, as everyone said "hi".

"Katelyn is one of my charges, and I just wanted to show her around Magic School," she explained.

"I didn't even know a place like this existed." Michael told them all, as he looked around, amazed.

"Neither did we until about eighteen months ago." Piper informed him.

"I'll get one of the teacher's to show you around," Leo said, ignoring Piper's comment which he felt was targeted at him for not telling them about the school.

"Come with me."

"Just come back here when you're finished," Paige called to them as they followed Leo down the corridor.

"He seems vaguely familiar," Wyatt said quietly as he tried to remember where he'd seen Michael before.

"Familiar how?" Phoebe asked. "Good familiar or bad familiar?"

"No, it's definitely not bad. I don't know it's probably nothing – just can't trust my memories at the moment." Wyatt replied.

"Well I don't remember ever seeing them before." Chris told them

"Michael's a really nice guy." Paige said, defending him. "He's mortal and he married a witch, so Katelyn is only half witch."

"Where's his wife?" Piper asked.

"She died a couple of years ago." Paige replied.

"Demon attack?" Phoebe guessed.

"No, a car accident." Paige replied. "He really wants to do the right thing for Katelyn, that's why they're here."

"Did I miss anything?" Leo asked as he returned to join the family meeting.

"No, Paige was just telling us about her charge." Piper replied.

"They both seem very nice." Leo commented before getting back to business. "Okay then, as Chris said before, where do we start?"

"Well, I think if we all agree that the person behind our deaths is Zankou, then we need to get to him first." Phoebe suggested.

"That makes sense." Leo agreed.

"Maybe that's what we thought the first time, and that's how we got killed?" Piper guessed.

"No," Wyatt answered her. "Dad would have definitely mentioned that to us. Your deaths were a complete surprise to him. It wasn't like you were heading out to a great demonic battle or anything. He just arrived home with us, and found you all in the Manor."

"Arrived home from where?" Leo asked.

"I think it was Grandpa's house." Chris answered.

"Yes it was." Wyatt confirmed.

"Dad's house?" Piper repeated, surprised. "Why would you have been at Dad's house?"

"It had something to do with Phoebe having a premonition about a fire at Magic School, so we'd been staying at Grandpa's." Chris told them.

"I had a premonition?" Phoebe asked excitedly. "I haven't had one of those in ages."

"Anyway, as it turned out, there was a fire at Magic School, and that must have affected its' protection spell, because after you were murdered a lot of Elders were killed there by Zankou and his demons." Wyatt explained.

"Zankou then took over Magic School and that was the beginning of him not only ruling the Underworld, but the whole magical community." Chris added.

"None of this is really helping us to find out what happened to the girls, though." Leo said.

"Which brings us back to attacking Zankou, before any of this is supposed to happen." Paige stated.

"Maybe we should consider other options?" Piper suggested.

"Like what?" Leo asked.

"Like maybe, I don't know, trying to come to some agreement with Zankou?" Piper told them.

"You can't make deals with demons, Piper. That's why they're demons." Leo answered her.

"I know that, but I'm just saying that maybe he'd be happy just ruling the Underworld and leaving us alone."

Everyone just looked at her not knowing what to say.

"Okay, I know that sounds unlikely. I'm really just thinking out loud here, trying to think of all options." She justified.

"In an ideal world, Piper, I would agree with you. But unfortunately, I just can't see Zankou stopping with the Underworld." Phoebe told her.

"No way would he stop with the Underworld." Chris added, very adamant. "And believe me I have first hand knowledge of what he will become."

"I agree." Wyatt said.

"But attacking him will be almost impossible because his precognitive power allows him to know what we're going to do before we do it." Paige said, frustrated.

"That's right. Any plan we come up with, Zankou will already know about." Piper agreed.

"We still have to try. What choices to we have?" Phoebe asked.

Everyone looked at each other.

No one had an answer.