"Back so soon," said a woman coming down the stairs when the group appeared in the living room
The woman was holding Leo and Piper's son. The woman was wearing a white dress. Her golden hair hung below her shoulders. She appeared to be about Piper's age; perhaps a little older. She stood smiling at the three sisters. Her name was Matilda and she was a senior Whitelighter on the Whitelighter Council. The Council just below the Elders that helped to decide which humans became Whitelighters when they died.
"Yeah," said Piper taking the baby. "Thanks for watching the baby. I felt better with someone like you here while we went to stop this demonic war."
"My pleasure," said Matilda. "He's adorable. I'm honored you asked me to baby sit. I'm flattered you have such confidence in me."
"Well, you did help us out a while back," said Paige.
"Still," said Matilda, "being asked to watch this little fellow is a great honor. Well, I need to be getting back up there. Michael, I'll see you later."
"Sure thing," said Michael, smiling at Matilda.
Matilda orbed out of the manor leaving the others alone.
"Well, that's a first for us," said Piper. "We actually worked out problems for demons so the underworld will operate more smoothly. Why do I feel this is going to come back to bite us in the ass eventually?"
"Believe it or not," said Michael, "by doing what we did we've assured that the demons will continue to fight amongst each other for a long time to come,"
"Just how do you figure that?" asked Phoebe.
"Think about the long term affects of that war," said Michael. "Eventually one of those faction leaders would have won. The rest would have been vanquished. At their level the remaining demons in the underworld wouldn't have had a chance against them. They would, in effect, have become the new Source of all Evil.
"That would leave him in total control of the underworld. No demon would have dared oppose him. He would have organized the underworld to further his plans. That would have all the demons working together at his beck and call. Something that is unheard of in the underworld in its entire history."
"I see," said Paige. "So by stopping this war we've actually kept the demons in the underworld at each others throats?"
"Exactly," said Michael. "The demons in charge right now are roughly equivalent in power. None has a clear advantage. Oh, they'll abide by the agreement. But they'll also still try to increase their power when they see a chance. But they won't resort to open warfare like they were. The underworld is pretty much the way it was before this war erupted."
"One thing I don't understand," said Leo. "You told Piper to be prepared to vanquish Torlock before the meeting even started. How did you know it would be Torlock that would refuse to cooperate?"
"I've been in the underworld for nearly a hundred years," said Michael. "There aren't many demons I don't know at least something about. Torlock is one of the most visible. He was so adamant about not keeping our secret that I knew not even Turner would be able to control him. Torlock often opposed the old Source openly. So I knew he'd be the one to initially refuse to cooperate."
"And by vanquishing him as I did," Piper said, "it helped bring the others in line."
"Right," said Michael. "Since Turner has been missing in action a lot of the demons feel they can pretty much do as they want. This little demonstration just helped to reinforce that there is a demon capable of dealing with them. A Source in abstentia, so to speak. They'll think twice before starting another war in the future."
"Won't some demon eventually decide they should be the new Source?" Paige asked. "Our experience has taught us that demons are rarely satisfied with their positions. They want to gain more power and more prestige."
"Yes, eventually there will be a demon that will think they can become the new Source," said Michael. "When that happens there might be a struggle. But it won't escalate into anything like this war. It will be the normal struggle the underworld is used to."
"Good," said Leo. "I was afraid those demons would go after each other despite the fact they thought Cole was sitting right there."
"His reputation has spread throughout the underworld," said Michael. "Every demon knows how powerful he was when he came back from the Wasteland. They knew he was virtually unvanquishable. Plus, with that Power of Three spell that the girls put on that room they didn't have any powers. And most of them haven't engaged in physical altercations in decades. Once Piper blew Torlock up they became even more hesitant. You were in no danger. Besides, you're a Whitelighter. There really wasn't anything they could do to cause you any permanent harm."
"There is a down side to this," said Phoebe. "Now that this war is over we can expect the demons to start coming back after us. Even as unsettling as it was having the demons ignore us to go after each other it was kind of refreshing not to have to worry about them trying to kill us for a change."
"Yes, I'm afraid that's going to continue," said Michael. "But I'm sure you can handle it. You've proven you can handle yourselves more times than I can count."
"Thanks for the help, Michael," said Piper. "At least this time we didn't have to worry about fighting for out lives. All we had to do was stay hidden in that back room while Leo worked out the arrangements."
"That wasn't difficult," said Michael. "Leo was all ready aware of a lot of it. Like which demons commanded which domains. And I was familiar with which demons wanted a different domain. A little coaching beforehand and some prompting during the negotiations and Leo was able to persuade them he actually was Cole Turner. And like Shartan said, they may not be completely happy with the settlement but they can live with it. Plus we were able to dispose of a senior demon in the process. Always an added bonus no matter what the situation.
"Well, I should get going. Leo, I'm going to let the Elders know what we did. And I'll explain to them your role in it so they shouldn't have too many questions for you. They know that a lot of my plans are rather unorthodox. But my record speaks for itself. Besides, technically I don't answer to them. Like Paige, they never made me a Whitelighter. I was born this way."
"Thanks, Michael," said Leo. "That will make it a lot easier."
"The Charmed One negotiating a peace between demons," said Paige after Michael had orbed out. "I would never have thought it would happen in a million years."
"Neither would I," said Piper. "But there are a lot of things we've done the past few years I never would have thought we'd be doing. Well, I think the baby needs to be fed. And it's way past his bedtime."
"I'll be back in a bit," said Leo. "Like Michael said the Elders are going to want my take on all this."
"Well," said Phoebe to Paige, "let's go get some ice cream. After all this I think we deserve a reward."
"Now that's an assignment I can handle," said Paige.
"Don't eat all of it," said Piper heading for the stairs. "As soon as I put the baby down I'm going to want a bowl myself."
"I'll orb over to the market on my way back and make sure we have enough," said Leo. "Rocky road good enough for everyone?"
The End
(Author's endnote: I created the characters of Michael and Malevant for a story entitled "Balance Of Power". Michael and Malevant are actually the same person. His mother was a Whitelighter and his father was a demon. Michael, as Malevant, was a senior advisor to the Source of all Evil and funnels information to the Elders on demonic plans and activities. For a full description and explanation please refer to "Balance Of Power" found on most websites where this story is also posted.)
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