Part Three: Cut Adrift

Chapter Four

Mark and Joe landed back in the same area of the park where they had first met. Joe staggered away and spat, "Get the hell away from me! What are you two freaks going to do to me now?"

"What? I just saved you."

"Yeah, right." Joe looked around. "Looks like maybe you lost Wyatt. Maybe he got into more trouble than he could handle."

His smug satisfaction was fleeting: Wyatt orbed in, reverting to his own appearance as he did so. He showed no interest in any fresh torment for Joe; in fact, he ignored Joe completely and rounded on Mark.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Again, having to explain what seemed self-evident, Mark said, "Getting him out of there."

"I told you I was on it. I told you that he needed to rot there a while to get the point —"

"He was being led away."

"You did it because you didn't think that I would."

Mark wondered how he had given that impression; it hadn't been his thought at all. "I saw a chance —"

"You didn't trust me to take care of it. It was not your decision. Not your business!"

"You're the one who brought me into this, and you didn't tell me what was going on."

Joe overrode him, fed up with having his own grievance disregarded: "You had no intention of getting me out of there. You sold me and —"

"Shut the fuck up," Wyatt said. "No one cares."

At that, another voice was heard: "Maybe I do."

The three boys turned to see the figure who had shown up nearby as Wyatt had been speaking — a crone whose appearance soon took the form of Wyatt's Aunt Paige.

"Oh, shit," Wyatt said.

"He tried to sell me into slavery!" Joe cried.

"I know everything that happened. I was there. You're both going back to school, to Gideon, now." Paige looked at Mark. "What's your role in all this?"

"Nothing," Wyatt emphasized. "He's nobody."

As Mark stood silent, Joe volunteered his own answer. "He's a demon who was helping Wyatt with all this — until maybe he saw how valuable I was and was trying to kidnap me."

"Really?" Paige said. "From where I was standing, it looked like he rescued you."

"You know, forget it. You're Wyatt's aunt — no way am I getting justice with you. I'm out of here."

"Oh, for god's sake," Paige said as Joe started to stalk away. She waved her hand in his direction, saying, "Magic School," which orbed him out of the park.

Once again, she faced off with her nephew.

"You think you can do that to me?" he asked.

"I don't know. But do you really want us to come to that?"

With no reply, he orbed out in front of her. She made no attempt to stop him.

"Wyatt said he would rescue him," Mark said, even as he wondered if he believed it anymore.

Paige sighed, and he could see a flash of sympathy in her eyes. "Maybe you should go home now. You have a home?"

He nodded, and shimmered away, leaving Paige to follow her nephew.

"I just thought," Chris said to Piper in the kitchen, "that this spell might be the best one to adjust to get Vincenta's power back. Will you look at it?"

"I will, later. P3 has a band tonight, and I've got to get to work pretty soon. But you know, there are probably other spells that deal with lost or stolen powers. The real problem is that it's been months and we still haven't found Alaric." Piper turned from putting groceries away back to her son, who was scribbling on the back of the used grocery list.

"It's your copy of the invisibility spell." He handed it to her and stuffed his original copy into his backpack, which he shouldered as he followed his mother out of the kitchen. "Maybe we could tweak it to make it work no matter where Alaric is."

As they entered the foyer, they were both stopped short by the sight of Wyatt, who stood still, facing the door, with an unpleasant smile.

"Wyatt, you're home from school …" Piper trailed off. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for Paige to track me down."

As if on cue, Paige orbed in, disheveled, with a cut drying at her hairline. She stood face-to face with Wyatt. "What are you, two years old? Are you going to make me chase you all over like a toddler?"

"I'm not leaving. I'll talk to you, Paige; I'm just not going to that school."

"Give me the artifact."

Chris watched Wyatt, after a condescending pause, pull from a pocket the object he had been asked to orb to a volcano that morning. Wyatt tossed it to Paige, who added icily, "Both of them."

"Okay," Piper snapped. "What the hell is going on? Why do you have either of those things, Wyatt?"

"You know so much," Wyatt said to his aunt as he gave her the matching half-sphere, "you tell her."

"Obviously," Paige said, "he didn't dispose of the artifact this morning. Then when I went myself to the Demon Market to find the other half, it turned out I had competition. Your son."

That was all? Chris felt an uncertain relief. Skipping school was bad, and Wyatt was in a constant battle with Mom's restrictions against her sons going into dangerous magical situations. Wyatt had promised never to go to the Underworld again — did going to this market count as breaking that promise? Certainly it broke the spirit of it, if not the letter. Still, it didn't seem to justify how outraged Aunt Paige was.

Piper bypassed commenting on Wyatt's disobedience to raise another alarm: "Do you realize how dangerous it is to get these two things in proximity to each other? There was a reason we asked you to get rid of one half before we found the other."

"So it will raise some demon," Wyatt said. "So what."

"So what? What were you thinking?"

"That I'd raise the thing and then vanquish it, getting rid of the problem."

"It was already vanquished," Paige emphasized. "The only thing this is meant for is to undo that."

"Then I'd vanquish it in a better, more final way, so some damn artifact can't reverse it."

Piper shook her head. "You have no way of knowing that would work. Maybe resurrecting him makes him stronger — even unkillable, did you think of that?"

"Nothing is unkillable. You think too small, too cautious, and you're trying to shove me into that, and I don't need it."

"And I've been at this longer than you, Wyatt, and I have seen what can happen —"

"I know, your mother died, Prue died — I've heard it a thousand times. It doesn't apply to me. I'm not them."

"It's that kind of thinking that's going to get you killed!"

"No, it's that kind of thinking that makes me powerful enough that I don't have to be ruled by your fears."

Piper stared, open-mouthed with shock. Before she could find her voice again, Leo and Gideon materialized together in the foyer.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Wyatt snarled at the sight of Gideon.

"Wyatt," Leo said quietly, "this is serious."

Piper burst out, "What's serious? We know he skipped school, but that's hardly reason for a personal home visit from the headmaster — and anything else is our business alone."

"Not when it concerns another student," Gideon intoned.

Piper looked at Wyatt, then to Leo. "Another student? What's he talking about?"

Leo answered, "A boy, Joe Lasota, is saying that Wyatt, with the help of a demon friend —"

"I don't have any demon friends," Wyatt interrupted. A lie, Chris knew — at least, last fall Wyatt had had one.

"That's hardly what's most troubling here," Gideon said. "Joe said that you sold him to a Hawker demon in exchange for some magical object. He said that Paige could verify this, that she had witnessed it."

"Yeah, she did, most of it," Wyatt said before Paige could speak. "It's true. The artifact wasn't for me — it was for the Charmed Ones. Paige has it now."

"It wasn't so important that you could trade a human being for it," Piper protested. "But I'd think that should have been a given."

"I was going to rescue him!"

"But you didn't," Paige said. "You never made a move to try."

"Even if he had," Gideon said, "it doesn't matter. He endangered a fellow student. This is not the first time that has happened, but it has escalated to knowingly putting a student's very life in peril. I'm sorry, Leo, Piper, but Wyatt cannot be allowed back into Magic School. As of right now, he is expelled."

Wyatt stepped forward to the Elder, who seemed to be finding it difficult to hold his ground. "Great," Wyatt said. "That means I don't have to deal with you anymore. So get the fuck out of my house."

"Wyatt —" Leo tried to step in, but his older son barely acknowledged him.

"I mean it. Don't ever step foot in this place again, or there will be consequences."

"Stop it!" Piper shouted. "It's not your decision to make, Wyatt."

"Come on, Mom. You feel the same way about the Elders. And this one …" Gideon's terror was by now unconcealed as Wyatt warned, "I know what you are. I'm the only one who can see it. Don't cross my path again if you know what's good for you."

Wyatt jerked his arm upward, and at that command, Gideon involuntarily disappeared in a swirl of orb lights.

"Where did you send him?" Paige demanded.

"Back to the school," Wyatt said. "Far better than he deserves."

"Paige?" Piper's voice was strained. "Is there any more we need to know about what happened today?"

"No, I think you got the gist of it." Seeming to take her cue from Piper's expression, she said, "I'd better get back to school."

"Hold on," Wyatt said. "Tell Merlin that I won't be studying with him anymore. We'll stop wasting his time and mine. This being expelled — I feel freed. I don't need any of this crap — people trying to teach me magic, how to control my powers, when they have no idea what I can do."

Paige looked to Piper and Leo for direction. Piper looked torn — the wizard was a sore point that represented Phoebe's interference, but she couldn't be too happy with the way the tutorship would end here. Leo sighed, "Tell Merlin we'll take a break. But if he's willing, we'll call him when things settle down."

Piper added, "Please check to see that Gideon is okay."

Paige nodded and orbed away, as Wyatt glared at his mother.

"You don't trust me."

"No, at this moment, I don't. How can I, when you seemed to have missed the lesson that selling someone into slavery is wrong?"

"I did what I had to do to get that artifact for you, and I'm not going to say it again —"

"It doesn't matter if you planned to rescue him later."

"I would have protected him!" It was not a defense. It was an accusation. "I'm not sticking around for any more of this."

"Wyatt!" But he was already gone. Piper turned to Leo. "Where is he?"

Leo shook his head. "I can't sense him. He's probably in the Underworld."

"Then let's go find him."

"I'm not sure now is the best time."

"And it will be a better time after he gets himself killed down there?"

"You know he won't. Look, wherever he is, let's just give him a little time — I'm talking a half an hour, an hour — to simmer down. Then he might be more willing to listen. In the meantime, I think I ought to go to the Elders." Before Piper could object, he said, "Gideon is seriously disturbed by this, and he won't be alone. Better to talk to them first to get an idea of what they intend to do, if anything. I'll be back soon."

After Leo left, Piper stood in the foyer, head in her hand. Her shoulders were starting to shake when a voice came from behind.

"Mom?"

Forgotten by the adults, Chris now came forward from the corner where he had observed the clash.

"What's going to happen?" he asked his mother.

She brushed his brown hair from his face. "Sweetie," she called him, and pulled him to her in a fierce embrace.

When she let him go, he asked, "Will Wyatt go to a regular school?"

Piper laughed a kind of half-sob. "That might be difficult. I don't know. I just don't know."

Chris didn't know what to say, so he said, "You said you needed to get to work; there's a band."

Piper looked at her watch. "Oh God, I have to. I can't. I … I'm going to my room to call Aunt Phoebe, see if she can be there tonight." She touched his face again. "Will you be okay?"

He wasn't too sure of that. But he guessed she wanted to be alone to cry, or wait for Dad to come back so they could go chasing down Wyatt … So he nodded, and when she went upstairs, he walked out the front door, but he did not stray far. He sat on one of the porch steps, alone with his gloomy thoughts.

After Paige had spoken to him, Gideon went to see Merlin in the wizard's office. The headmaster knew his motive was rather ingloriously gloating, propping up his own tattered dignity.

He should have been feeling the satisfaction of being vindicated today: He had foreseen the danger posed by the older Halliwell boy years ago and had tried to cut it off then. Now, perhaps, there was no stopping it. Expelling Wyatt, letting the boy loose, was risky, but he had students to protect.

Then the boy had faced the Elder down, threatened him, and forcibly orbed him back to Magic School, where Gideon had materialized violently in the middle of the common hall. In front of students still studying there, Gideon was thrown into a table; Wyatt's orbing telekinesis evidently could reach far beyond the room he was in, across dimensions to the school.

In all, a humiliating end that marred Gideon's sense of triumph and relief to have Wyatt gone. Watching Merlin leave — on Wyatt's order, apparently — was all the Elder had left.

In his office, the wizard was calmly moving scattered papers, books, cages and archaic occult items into untidy piles.

"Fleeing your duty so easily?" Gideon asked by way of greeting.

"My duty?"

"You are charged to educate the one who wields Excalibur, yes?"

"I am? By whom? The Elders? Your sort has never dealt with me." Merlin shrugged. "It must be the half-demon business. In any case, contrary to popular belief, keeping watch over that sword and its heir is not my duty for all eternity. I've had centuries of a full, useful existence, carrying on work that has had nothing to do with Excalibur."

"Why did you come here then?"

Merlin clearly thought the question was stupid. "Because Phoebe Halliwell asked me to. But if the family no longer requires my services, I will return to other work, of which there is plenty."

"Let us hope you are more successful at that than you were with Wyatt. Unless it was your intention to see him head down the path to darkness."

Merlin stopped futzing with his disorganized piles of belongings, and looked the headmaster in the eye. For the second time that day, Gideon found himself struggling to hold his position, however much he knew himself to be in the right.

"If it needs to be said," Merlin answered, "that was not my intention. What has been yours? Today, you have removed one more restraint from Wyatt. If that was your aim — well done."

"I had to think of the welfare of the entire school."

"I don't doubt it. But you lack a view of the bigger picture."

"How so?"

"What will happen to those students once they leave school? What is the future of the wider magical world? Who will be leading it? Or," Merlin added, "look backward for a moment. We both know that I, the Halliwells, even you are combating the effects of terrible trauma in Wyatt's earliest years. It is not easy to overcome." The wizard paused, thoughtful. "Still, I see justice being done one day."

Was that a threat? Gideon barely resisted those words escaping his mouth.

Without another word, Merlin gave a sweeping wave of both arms, and he and his tottering stacks vanished, leaving Gideon behind to fret in a deserted, echoing office.

Solitude — whether sought or unwanted — was always a temporary thing at the Halliwell Manor. Chris's ended when Penka shimmered in on the porch and knocked on the front door. From his seat on the stairs, Chris twisted around to see the demon trying to peer through the stained glass windows.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, hello. I'm knocking. Your mom told me this morning it was rude to show up inside the house."

"No one's home except for me." Mom might actually still be in there, but Chris wasn't about to let Penka disturb her.

"Paige isn't here?"

"No, Paige is at the school. It's just me. What do you want?"

"To tell her something. Or I can tell the other sisters, I guess. I have some new information."

"Tell me. I'll pass it along."

Penka had moved down the stairs to face the boy. "I don't know. I shouldn't be here at all. I could be in a world of trouble …"

"Look, tell me or don't. Or come back later."

"Okay, okay. Just tell them that it's not a rumor anymore. The Fortalice is here."

"Where is 'here'? At the Manor? Now?"

"No, no — in town, planning her attack, to make her move on Excalibur. Everyone down there is talking or thinking about it. Lots of excitement."

"Terrific. So, do you know what day?"

Penka shrugged. "Soon?"

"My birthday's in two days," Chris sighed. "That would be just perfect."

"Sorry about that." Penka abruptly turned to the street and announced, "Hey, there's another demon here."

Chris jumped to his feet. "Where?"

"Right at the foot of the stairs."

After Penka moved aside, Chris saw what looked like a teenage boy. After a brief scrutiny, he placed the newcomer: It was Wyatt's "demon friend" that Chris had seen only once, many months ago in the Underworld.

"He doesn't mean any harm," Penka volunteered. "He's looking for Wyatt. To apologize."

"Apologize?"

"They were together today, at the market. I saw them."

"Really," Chris said darkly. "Thanks. And I'll tell Mom about the Fortalice."

Once Penka had shimmered out, Chris began to walk down the stairs, which the demon kid took as a cue to approach from below. They met halfway.

"You're looking for Wyatt."

"Yeah."

The demon's voice was almost meek, hopeful, but Chris wasn't yielding any ground. This was it. Someone had to step between Wyatt and the forces dragging him away from his family, from the light, from being the person Chris knew his brother was. Chris would have to take a stand. For Wyatt.

"He's not here," Chris said. "He took off after he got expelled from school."

"Expelled? Can you tell him …"

"He said he didn't have any demon friends. Wyatt said that, today. I don't think you're welcome here."

The kid looked dejected, but not surprised. "Okay, I get the message. You can tell him that, I guess."

After watching him descend to the street, Chris trudged up to the house. He heard voices when he reached the porch — his parents. And Wyatt had come home. He hesitated with a hand on the doorknob, took a deep breath to calm the sick feeling in his stomach, and walked in, shutting the door behind him with a wave of telekinesis.

End of Part Three