Inside the Magic Room at the Potter house, Ezra and Chris sat on the floor beside each other, looking at The Book and trying to find out how to vanquish the demon who had wiped out their JD. It was taking a long time to find a demon identical to the one from Chris's premonition of when it had killed the Old West JD.
"He must be nearer the end of The Book," assumed Ezra, as they reached about three quarters of the way through their magical volume. The entries were arranged chronologically by the date they were added, meaning that the last section of their magic book contained pages written by the first generation of Potter witches. The chronological order of pages did mean that it would be hard to find information that was needed unless someone knew how long ago it had been added to The Book. Each section of the magical volume had a first page that included the names of the witches who'd written the information on the subsequent pages, and the time-period when the information had been entered.
None of the family knew that the Time-changer demon had first been vanquished by Brianna Potter many centuries ago; otherwise they would've been able to find the information by turning to Brianna's section of The Book.
Chris and Ezra were both concerned that perhaps the demon wasn't included in their magic book. If the Time-changer demon was a newer type that had developed only recently, then past generations of Potters wouldn't have fought him and so wouldn't have included him in The Book. Then, the brothers would have to devise a way to effectively vanquish the demon themselves - not something they were very experienced at doing. Even Terrence hadn't had much experience at developing vanquishing methods for new evil magical beings. It would mean creating a spell specifically for destroying that creature, and an effective vanquishing potion, made from special ingredients, although it would be difficult to decide which ones would work effectively.
"I hope the demon IS in The Book, Ezra - I'm not sure we have enough time to develop a way to vanquish him before he strikes again," replied Chris. He unknowingly had the same worrying thought as his five-years-younger brother that the demon might not be in the book. He had to help get his baby brother back, or his whole family and he would have lost one of the boys they'd come to love as a son and brother ever since they'd rescued him.
Finally, Ezra turned another page, and found "Time-changer Demon" in large words across the top of the left-hand page. There was a large black and white sketch of the demon, filling most of the page, with how to vanquish him underneath. "Is that him?" he asked Chris, who was looking closely at the sketch.
"YES!" shouted Chris, joyful that they wouldn't have to devise their own way to vanquish their latest foe.
"It says we have to defeat him in a time not our own."
Chris began to read aloud from the page. "To vanquish this demon, you must be in a time not your own but where he also is. When you find him, you must say the entire spell below and then throw the vanquishing potion over him."
"This recipe is absurd!" exclaimed Ezra, as he looked at what ingredients they would need to complete the magic potion. "A time-piece from the time he is in, any herb which grows in the same era, and a drop of blood from anyone he affected in that time, then mix them together and boil the ingredients over a stove until the mixture starts to steam. Leave to cool for about a minute and then the potion will be ready."
"Sounds pretty sensible to me. You know we're going to need to fit in if we're going back to the cowboy days."
Ezra grinned; "It is most opportune that Father and I have completed the spell to transform me into a super-hero. We can adapt it slightly and it will be more than adequate for us." The boy took a piece of paper out of his front right pants' pocket and then unfolded it before handing it to Chris.
Larabee quietly read the spell. "This is very good, Ezra. I figure you wrote most of it, judging by the words." Chris grinned proudly at his brother.
"Indeed I did. I'm glad you're so satisfied with it. Just a few minor adjustments and we'll be turned into cowboys until we reverse the magic. I propose we ensure everything else is prepared first, as there's a slight chance we may be unable to reflect much like witches once we're altered."
When the boys began to prepare for their latest mission, they realized that they couldn't make the vanquishing potion until they had time-traveled. That was one less thing to do before their journey, which meant it gave them more time to prepare everything else. Ezra used carbon paper between two blank pages of a notebook, so that he could make two copies of the vanquishing spell and the potion recipe, while Chris searched for a time-travel spell in their book. After those jobs were done, they would make personalized versions of the character transformation spell and the reversal one to return them to normal.
As with all magical transformations, providing the new identity still had the IQ of a human, no memories, skills or possessions should be lost in the transformation. That meant that both boys would probably still remember they were originally witches, and the boys' copies of spells would hopefully transfer to pockets in their new outfits.
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After the Elders had left Nathan and Michael in the garage, (now both Whitelighters) the two men began to discuss what they would do when they caught up with the twin male warlocks who were indirectly causing trouble for the Potter family.
"Nate, I was thinkin'...," began Michael, pausing to consider how he would phrase what he was about to tell his friend.
"Just spit it out, Michael," snapped Nathan, wondering what Michael wanted to tell him.
"If my step-son really has gone, it means one of the others will have the power to freeze people and objects now." Michael then regretted not reading the rest of the book about the prophecy. It might actually say how it was decided who got which powers if one of the prophesied ones died - or ceased to exist as JD had.
"You're right - I wonder who has JD's freezin' power now." 'Let it be me,' was Nathan's silent request, thinking it would be so amazing to have a power that Whitelighters didn't have unless they were all-powerful Elders or even Senior Whitelighters. When Whitelighters had served in that position for many Earth years and had done plenty of good work, they were promoted to Senior Whitelighters, who had more powers as well as more input in the Elders' plans and decisions.
"Put yer arms up an' try ta freeze me."
"We don't have time for this - we have to get to those two warlocks and stop them doing anythin' else to affect the Potters."
Michael moved toward the door, as if he was going to walk outside the garage. "I'm not goin' with ya if ya won't try freezin' me."
Annoyed by Michael's threat, Nathan bought up both arms reluctantly - he wasn't quite sure if anything triggered the power, like Josiah's telekinesis was triggered usually by anger. Someone more experienced with their powers wouldn't have to feel an emotion to trigger their powers and if they felt too much of the right emotion the power would work automatically. That would risk the exposure of their possession of magic in public places. Nathan pointed both palms at Michael and then the other Whitelighter stood still as a statue.
"Michael?" asked Nathan as he waved a hand in front of the other angel's face. He wasn't sure if Michael was just teasing, or if he really had frozen. "I hope you aren't playin' games with me." How could he be sure if his friend was really frozen?
When Michael remained completely motionless, Nathan decided he needed to test if his friend was teasing him or not. When Michael had been Vin Tanner before he'd died and become a Whitelighter, he'd been notorious for playing tricks on people. So Nathan began to tickle his friend, knowing that in the past, Vin Tanner, the human, had been quite ticklish. Michael didn't flinch and then Nathan knew that he really did have his youngest charge's freezing power. Unfortunately, that meant that JD really was gone, and up to that point, Nathan hadn't fully believed it.
He started to blame himself like all Whitelighters did if they lost a charge - he should've defied the Elders and told the Potter family of the prophecy sooner. If they'd known, then they would've been more prepared for demonic attempts to ruin the prophecy.
Michael then unfroze, as Nathan was new to his witch-power so couldn't keep it working for long. "Nate, it ain't yer fault - you was obeyin' the Elders' rules otherwise they woulda taken ya 'way from the Potters. Ya know it woulda been much worse if ya'd been separated from the others of the prophecy."
"Maybe you're right. At least with this active power I can use it against the warlocks. Let's go there now." Nathan orbed away before Michael could even agree. Then Michael orbed to where he could sense his old friend.
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Back in Vin and JD's bedroom, the Potters had used a spell they knew by heart to summon Josiah to them. Unfortunately, Josiah had just finished his shower and only had a towel wrapped around his waist.
"Oh," said Gloria in shock at seeing her half-naked son. "I'm sorry."
Josiah smiled. "It's okay - I know you'd only summon me if it was urgent. What's wrong?"
"Gloria, you explain everything to Josiah, while I find him some clothes," said Terrence. "He's still got some spares here, hasn't he?"
Terrence's wife nodded; "There's some in the closet in Chris's room - they're hanging on the left, away from Chris's. Vin, you go with your father, while I speak to Josiah."
Vin nodded in agreement and left the room with Terrence. The boy was still very upset on the inside by JD's disappearance as they were half-brothers and had always been very fond of each other.
Josiah suddenly noticed that JD wasn't there. The little boy didn't usually go somewhere without Vin, so there must be something wrong. JD certainly wasn't asleep in the room, and Josiah knew that the little boy wouldn't sleep somewhere without his half-brother as he always felt safer with him around.
Gloria closed the door behind Vin and sat on the bed, patting the space beside her. "Sit down, and I'll explain why JD isn't here any longer." She knew that by then, Josiah was wondering why his youngest brother wasn't there.
"Mother, has something bad happened to him?" asked the young man, with a bad feeling growing inside him that the answer would be "yes." It was very unusual for the little boy to be very far from Vin. JD didn't like going somewhere with his other older brothers unless Vin went as well. Vin was on his own with their adoptive father, so for some reason JD had been separated from his half-brother who was like a guardian angel to him.
"He's been erased from our lives," answered Gloria, trying to talk through her renewed crying.
"WHAT?" asked Josiah loudly and angrily; understanding exactly what Gloria meant, and feeling annoyed that someone would do such a thing to such a sweet and innocent young witch. Until Gloria had just explained about JD, Josiah hadn't realized that his mother was so upset, as she'd been hiding her emotions inside. It would take someone with empath power to sense how Gloria felt inside, and Josiah hadn't been blessed with that type of magic. She had learned to pretend she was calm, to make evil think that she was stronger than she really was.
Then Gloria began to explain what had happened to her youngest adopted son, and what Chris had told her about his premonitions. Josiah listened quietly and grew more concerned by the minute; suspicion forming in his mind that there was another reason why someone would want to upset their lives. There were times when it seemed like Nathan was hiding something and attempting to cover it up with lies. Being a police detective, Josiah had learned from experience when someone was lying or simply not disclosing everything they should.
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In the Potters' Magic Room, Chris and Ezra were finally ready to travel back in time. They had in their pockets two spells each: one for changing into cowboys, and one for vanquishing the demon (plus reversal spells for the transformation and the time-travel ones) and the recipe for the Time-changer demon's vanquishing potion. The boys began to chant together; "We wish to visit a time long past, where guns ruled the towns and horses were fast, to the date and place our minds request, carry us straight to the Old West."
Not able to find a time-travel spell in their magic book, Ezra and Chris had written one together. As usual, Chris had preferred to write one that rhymed, so Ezra had helped him word it so it was just like a poem. Chris had remembered the date he'd seen on the newspaper before JD was killed, so had decided they should travel back a day earlier to hopefully give them enough time to stop the demon.
As they said the spell's final line, strong winds whipped around them both, eventually obscuring their view of the Magic Room.
To be continued...