As Vin grew up, he kept his Texan accent, honoring his father's origins. His younger brother JD spoke with a Boston accent, the accent his mother had, as she was born there. The family continued to live in Texas, content to stay in the house that Michael Tanner had persuaded Michelle to buy when it was for sale.
CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7
Almost seven years after Vin Tanner Junior was born, Nathan Jackson was called to see the Elders while he was in the Potter house; the tone that the Elders were using to call him meant that it was urgent, so Nathan almost immediately left the house.
The Potters had adopted three magical children out of the many children they'd rescued from danger - Josiah Sanchez, Chris Larabee and Ezra Standish; the sons all knew that Gloria and Terrence weren't their biological parents, as the Potters didn't believe in lying to children unless it was really necessary. The Potter family were unaware of the past, when seven men had served together as peace-keepers in an old west town, bearing identical names to the Potters' adopted sons. Nathan had realized the strange coincidence when he'd first learned of the rescued boys' names and recognized them as his former Four Corners friends' names.
Then Michelle's sons had added to the coincidence, as they were named JD Dunne and Vin Tanner - two more names identical to the peace-keepers' ones. There were then five modern-day magical males with names matching those of members of the Four Corners' seven peace-keepers.
Two of the Four Corners' peace-keepers still didn't have name-sakes in the modern-world - one being Nathan Jackson - one of the seven who'd become a Whitelighter after his death. Nathan's theory was that the children were all descendants of his Four Corners friends, who'd all eventually settled down and started families. He'd had two sons with his wife, Rain, but perhaps somewhere his family line had stopped, meaning it made sense if he was the only Nathan Jackson with a connection to the Potters. Or maybe, Nathan thought, the modern-day Nathan Jackson would never know the Potters, as it wasn't allowed for two people with the same names to be involved with the magical family.
Nathan wondered if a modern-day Buck Wilmington would ever become linked to the Potters. The names would then all be together again as modern-day incarnation of the seven men - if that could include one of the original peace-keepers, who was now an angel. It looked to Nathan like the seven were meant to be together as a group of seven magical people - modern-day peace-keepers who would protect people - like the Four Corners' seven had done, although without magic to help.
Nathan planned to ask the Elders about the strange occurrence: that most of the peace-keepers had modern-day namesakes AND that the namesakes were all being united, like the originators of the names had been.
Upon Nathan's arrival in the heavens, one of the very senior Elders stood facing Nathan, looking very serious.
"You needed to see me urgently?" questioned Nathan calmly.
"Yes," answered the senior Elder, whose name was Lawrence. "We are finally able to tell you what we knew before Michael was killed. We were keeping him away from Michelle because her whole family was being targeted by the Underworld."
"Her children are destined to be very powerful in the future and destroy many demons and other evils. Even with the parents dead, the children would still be powerful - therefore the Underworld decided that all the children and parents must die. As soon as they detected that Michael was on his way to visit his wife, they had a Darklighter redirect his orbing path to a cave and kill him there. Michelle has been attempting to trace Vin's father and has discovered the Underworld's plot to kill her family."
"Michelle and her coven are planning to fight the warlocks soon, to protect her family's future. She will take the boys with her, because they have no-where else to go. A clear premonition will be planted in Chris's mind so that he will be able to rescue the children, but the coven of female witches will all die, as the male witches will be unable to rescue them. You will assist whoever carries out the rescue, but you won't tell them anything you know about the Tanners or the Dunnes. If you reveal your knowledge, you will also be in danger from warlocks. Don't tell ANYONE that you already know about the children and Michelle and Michael Tanner."
"I suppose it was too dangerous to tell them about this?" guessed Nathan.
Lawrence nodded at Nathan, a serious look on his face. "Yes, that is why we left them believing that we were keeping Michael away because he had a relationship with a witch. When things are safer for the children, the truth will be revealed."
"When is Chris going to receive the premonition of the children? How can we make sure we save them in time?"
"Tomorrow is the day that the witches are going to fight the warlocks. Chris will know the exact time and place for rescuing the children. Once he tells you, you will orb whoever is to be the rescuer to the children. Nathan, we don't blame you for Michael's death and never have; even Whitelighters make mistakes and reveal information they shouldn't sometimes. Even if you hadn't told him that he was to have a son, he still would've tried to orb to his wife. You mustn't let Chris feel your guilt when you rescue the children - you have no reason to feel guilty anymore."
"Thank you, Sir," said Nathan with a slight smile. "I already feel less guilty for what happened; I still wish I could've saved Michael though."
"It was his time to die - he wasn't meant to be saved, Nathan," explained Lawrence gently.
Nathan didn't look happy about Lawrence's information as he orbed back to the Potters to finish the talk he'd been having with Josiah. His younger witch friend reminded him slightly of his friend with the same name from his own lifetime, although there were quite a few differences as well. The young witch named Josiah wasn't as religious as the older peace-keeper with the same name had been, and never saw things that he interpreted as signs to mean something was going to happen to him.
The original Josiah Sanchez had seen crows and he'd seen them as a sign that he was going to die soon; in the native Seminole Village, Josiah had lost some blood and come quite close to death, but Nathan had made sure that Josiah, the oldest peace-keeper, hadn't died.
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The next day as promised, Chris suddenly received a premonition of Vin Tanner and JD Dunne waiting in the forest while their mother and some other witches were killed in a battle with eight warlocks. Then the warlocks came after the two boys and killed them, because no-one had saved them in that possible future. Chris saw natural indications of the time of day in his visions and somehow felt that the attack would happen that day.
Chris had been taught by Gloria about shadows and other natural things indicating the time of day - all useful ways of telling what time it was in premonitions if there was no clock seen in the vision to help them. It was vital to know how soon an innocent was going to be in danger, as not knowing could mean they got to the innocent too late. Gloria received premonitions of past and future events; the future ones always happened within the next twenty-four hours, meaning that she or Terrence and their sons had to quickly get to the innocents before it was too late to save them.
Ezra volunteered to rescue the boys alone - a suggestion that wasn't well received. It wasn't safe for a lone, twelve-year-old, half-witch, half-demon to rescue the boys. Nathan volunteered to travel with Ezra to save the boys, easily convincing them that he was as surprised by the premonition as the brothers. Gloria and Terrence had gone away for the weekend after being reassured by Josiah and Chris that they could cope if they had any innocents to save in their parents' absence.
Ezra and Nathan then orbed to the forest to rescue the boys.
CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7
Two boys sat together under a tree in the forest, waiting for their mother to return from the meeting with her friends. The boy of seven had shoulder-length blond hair, while the younger boy of five had short mid-brown hair.
"How long is she gonna be?" whined JD, the younger boy, impatiently. It seemed like forever since his mama had left them there, and he was getting hungry.
"I dunno, but she said we had to wait here until she comes back," replied Vin, his older brother. There was nowhere else for them to go anyway, unless JD could remember the way back out of the forest.
A loud bang was heard from somewhere and JD grabbed Vin and clung tightly to him in terror. "What was that?"
"It was miles away, don't worry."
A young man with dark skin walked out from behind a nearby tree, followed by an almost-teenage boy with short medium-brown hair.
"Where did they come from?" asked JD in wonder. He hadn't heard them walking through the forest and his hearing was very good.
"Just stay close to me," said Vin quietly, as the two newcomers approached them.
"Are you two Vin and JD?" asked the man who was American, but of African ancestors. "We have come here because we know your mother won't be coming back for you and we're here to take you to a new home."
"Mama IS coming back - she just went to talk to her friends for a while," said JD, who talked well for a five-year-old. He didn't like the look of the medium brown-haired boy at all.
"Your mother has joined the spirit plane now and will be unable to return in her human form except as a ghost. Her friends were witches just like she was and they were all attempting to destroy evil warlocks. Unfortunately, the warlocks were too powerful and there were no survivors among the witches. You two must come with us to people who will take good care of you and help you learn to use your inherited powers," explained Ezra, the twelve-year-old boy.
"Vin? You said no-one could kill mama," said JD, tears beginning to form in the little boy's eyes.
"I didn't think they could, JD. I guess we better go with these two now, because I believe 'em about Mama. I lied to you about why we came here - she WAS meeting witches in the forest to kill warlocks, but I didn't want to scare you; I'm so sorry," said Vin sadly, missing his mama.
"You shoulda told me. I'll never trust you again," said JD quietly, before Nathan gently picked up the upset little boy.
"Vin? We have to go before the warlocks come here," said Ezra, walking closer to Vin. Vin begrudgingly took hold of his hand, accepting that it was for the best. Ezra then held Nathan's hand as the orbs appeared and took them home.
To be continued...