Thank you to everyone for all your nice comments about this story. There have been so many positive comments that I felt very nervous about posting anymore of this story, knowing that it could not possibly live up to the first two chapters. I've ploughed ahead anyway, and hope you continue to enjoy it.

CHAPTER THREE

Piper slowly opened her eyes. Cautiously, she looked around the dimly lit cave from where she was lying in the dirt. Her eyesight was blurry, so she blinked a few times to try to see more clearly. One by one her senses started to return, and then she realised she could hear Phoebe calling her. All of a sudden the memories of what had happened came flooding back, and she shot up to a sitting position.

"Phoebe?" She called out, not quite sure what direction her sister's voice was coming from.

"I'm here Piper. Are you okay?" Phoebe asked, obviously concerned.

Piper swung around to look behind her and saw Phoebe standing not far away. "What happened? Where are we?" Piper asked as she tried to stand up.

"Be careful," Phoebe warned, "We're in some kind of a crystal cage. I found out the hard way when I touched the edge of it, and it certainly packs a punch!"

Piper looked around and noticed the crystals placed around her on the ground. Then she looked over to Phoebe and noticed the same crystals around her. "I don't remember how I got here." Piper said to Phoebe as she rubbed her forehead.

"You and Chris were unconscious when you arrived with that demon, Drask, we've been trying to vanquish."

"Chris? Chris is here too? Where is he?" Piper asked as she immediately started looking around for her younger son.

"He's over there." Phoebe said, indicating to the younger Halliwell who had been tied by his hands to two wooden stakes that were keeping him in a standing position, despite him still being unconscious.

"Oh God! Chris! Chris!" Piper called, desperately hoping her baby was all right.

Chris started to groan and move his head slightly as Piper called him.

"He obviously knows your voice," Phoebe commented when she saw Chris's response.

"What are those things tied to his hands?" Piper asked Phoebe, only just noticing the clear rectangular blocks that had been bound tightly around Chris's hands.

"I don't know," Phoebe answered, also just noticing them. "They look similar to these crystals."

"Mum?" Chris called weakly as he lifted his head to look around the cave.

"I'm here sweetie, are you okay?" She asked.

Chris looked at his hands and wrists tied securely to the wooden stakes coming from the ground. His hands and wrists were numb, but his arms and shoulders were aching terribly, and his throbbing headache was back again. "Depends what you mean by okay?" Chris called back. Then he looked around at his surroundings, never having seen anywhere like this before. "Where are we?" He asked.

"I was hoping it would be a while before you saw this place, but this is the Underworld Chris. This is where demons live. Welcome to Mummy's day job."

Chris tried with all his strength to move his wrists to loosen the ropes that tied them, but to no avail. "You were right," he called to his Mother.

"About what?" Piper asked.

"I much prefer going to Magic School than coming to work with you." Chris told her.

Piper allowed herself a small smile at Chris's attempt at a joke. She knew he must be terrified.

"How did we get here?" Chris asked. "Do you know if Dad and Wyatt are okay?"

"I don't know, Chris." Piper answered honestly. "Can you orb?" She asked, suddenly hopeful that they may have a means of escape.

Before Chris could answer his Mother, Piper heard a familiar voice talking as he entered the cave.

"Hello and welcome. Nice to see you awake, Piper, and no, nobody can orb in this cave, it, unfortunately for you, is protected." Zankou said as he walked towards them, the other demon, Drask following a few paces behind.

"What do you want?" Piper asked, immediately getting to the point.

"What no small talk?" Zankou asked as he looked at both Phoebe and Piper. He then laughed to himself before continuing. "Very well, we'll get straight down to business. What I want is simple. I want you to summon your other sister, Paige, and then I can be rid of the Power of Three for good."

"You're crazy!" Phoebe said to him.

"There's no way we're going to do that!" Piper said confidently.

"Well, that's your choice, of course, but just so you know, Drask here will take great pleasure in hurting that young man over there until you do."

Piper looked over to Chris, terrified by what she had just been told. "No, you can't," she said quietly, and then continued with a more threatening tone to her voice. "Leave him out of this. This is between you and us, Zankou, you don't need to start using babies to get what you want, do you?"

"First of all, I'm a demon, Piper, I will use any means whatsoever to get what I want. And second of all, even though he is you son, he's hardly a baby."

"But you don't understand, he is a baby, he's only eight months old. Paige accidentally cast a spell that aged him." Piper explained. "Even you wouldn't hurt an eight month old baby, Zankou." She said, hopefully.

Zankou looked back at Chris, who had been listening silently to the conversation. Chris managed to give him a smile, hoping his Mother had been able to convince Zankou not to hurt him. Zankou then looked back to Piper and said, "If what you say is true, then you do have a point. Being the most superior demon on the planet, I do unfortunately possess a conscience that would make it hard, although not impossible, for me to hurt a baby."

Piper let out a sigh of relief that turned out to be premature when Zankou continued. "Lucky then that Drask is here, because he has no such moral problems." Zankou started to walk away, but turned and whispered to Piper, "Always handy to keep a lower level demon around the house, don't you think?" Then he walked out, calling back to Drask. "Let me know when the other witch is here."

"Zankou!" Piper called out to him. But Zankou didn't even bother turning around as he left the cave.

Drask immediately walked over to Chris, who looked at him fearfully.

"Mum?" Chris called desperately.

"No, Drask, wait!" Piper told him.

Drask turned to look at Piper. "Have you reconsidered, witch?"

Piper didn't have an answer. All she knew was she didn't want to see Chris be hurt for any reason.

"Piper, we can't summon Paige." Phoebe said quietly to her. "They will kill us and Chris as soon as she gets here."

"I can't just stand here and watch him hurt Chris, Phoebe." Piper said sounding very distressed.

"I know how you feel, Piper, but we may have to." Phoebe said solemnly.

Piper was just about to respond to Phoebe when the sound of Chris screaming stopped her. Both she and Phoebe turned to see Chris convulsing in pain as Drask was using another crystal to touch the one already tied to Chris's hands.

"Chris!" Piper screamed helplessly.

Drask moved the crystal away and Chris's body immediately collapsed. Piper could see him breathing heavily, obviously catching his breath after the unexpected agony he'd just experienced.

Drask then walked over to Piper and Phoebe. "That was just a taste of what's to come. You can save your son a lot of pain if you will just summon your sister, now."

Before Piper or Phoebe could answer, Chris called out in between deep breaths, "Don't do it Mum. I don't want them to kill you. I need you."

Piper's heart melted. And then in a desperate attempt to escape her confinement, she used her hands to blast the forcefield around her, but only succeeded in throwing herself backwards against the other side of the forcefield and then falling heavily to the ground.

Drask didn't waste any time as he moved back over to Chris who watched him come, dreading what he knew was about to happen again, but trying very hard to be brave.

Piper was still trying to pick herself up off the ground when she heard Chris's screams of agony again fill the small cave they were being held captive in. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked on helplessly, knowing that Phoebe was right, and the sure way to sign their death certificates was to summon Paige to join them. Her thoughts wandered to Leo and Wyatt, and wondered whether they were even still alive. And as far as she knew Paige was still at Magic School completely oblivious to what had happened. Her feelings of dread deepened when, try as she might, she could not think of a way out of their current dire dilemma.

"Wyatt! Wyatt! Wake up, you've got to tell me what happened." Paige called frantically.

Wyatt slowly opened his eyes and looked up at her, trying to work out what she was talking about. Immediately he was overcome by the pain in his shoulder.

"Oww," he cried as he grabbed his shoulder. It took him a few seconds to realise he was still in his adult body.

"Wyatt, you have to heal your Dad, he's hurt really badly and there's not much time." Paige told him, trying not to alarm him too much.

Wyatt managed to sit up slightly and could see his Father, still unconscious, lying next to him. He straightaway put his hand over to cover his Father's deep wound on his back, grimacing in pain as he did. He closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to control his own pain and find the energy to heal his dying Father before it was too late.

Paige watched in silence, knowing how important it was for Wyatt to concentrate. He hadn't quite healed Leo completely when he collapsed back on the floor, exhausted.

"Wyatt, are you okay?" Paige asked, concerned.

"It's too much!" Was all he could say.

Leo's eyes fluttered as the healing started to take effect. He opened his eyes and looked up at Paige who diverted her attention from Wyatt to Leo when noticing him becoming conscious.

"What happened?" Leo asked her.

"I was hoping you could tell me," she replied. "Wyatt orbed you here to Magic School. You've both been hit by energy balls. Wyatt tried to heal you, but I think he's too weak to finish the job."

Leo looked over and saw Wyatt still collapsed on the ground next to him. "Where are Piper, Chris and Phoebe?" Leo asked, noticing that they were nowhere in sight.

"I don't know." Paige answered.

"They've been taken by the demons." Wyatt answered as he tried to sit up again.

"I think I can finish healing you now, Dad."

"No, Wyatt, I'm fine. The important thing is to heal yourself because you will have to go with your Aunt Paige to find our family."

"But.." Wyatt started to say.

"No buts, Wyatt, do it now." Leo demanded in his authoritative Daddy voice.

Wyatt put his hand over his shoulder and concentrated. Seconds later his wound disappeared and then he lay back down, exhausted once again.

"The healing is taking a lot out of you, that's why you've got to save your strength." Leo told him.

"I don't suppose you could describe the demon?" Paige asked.

"It was the same demon who attacked you the night before in the attic." Wyatt answered.

"Drask!" Paige cursed. "Good work, Wyatt. We've got something we can use to scry for him." Paige said as she helped both men to their feet.

"But you don't have a vanquishing potion." Leo reminded her.

"I'll improvise when we get there." Paige answered. "Come on, I'll orb us all back to the Manor to get the scrying crystal and then Wyatt and I will go and kick some serious demon butt!"