A/N: Thanks again to all my loyal reviewers. You guys are the best!

JadeAlmasy- Don't worry, you won't feel sorry for Mark for long. He's a total punk, trust me!

pitaC89- I agree, Phy is kind of a brat, but still I think she's my favorite character next to Chris & Wyatt.

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Cole stared in wonder as he looked around the cloud he was standing on. "Leo, where the hell are we?"

"Don't say that word around here! We're 'Up There'. You know, Elder-land. We're on a recon mission. Just shut up and try not to activate any of Phyra powers." Leo rushed out in a whisper. "Do you have any idea how much trouble I'll be in if someone notices you as a de…well, something other than a white lighter?" As powerful as he was, even Leo was nervous about bringing a demon 'Up There'.

"But what are we doing up here? I mean, we already know what's going on. We don't need any information, do we?" Cole didn't like his surroundings. He was far more comfortable on earth where you could see the battle between good and evil on every street corner. Up here, there was nothing but purity, sweetness and light. It was starting to make him ill.

"You're wrong. We need to see what they know about Phyra. There is no precedence for what has happened to her. She's strong enough that she shouldn't have been seduced by your evil powers in such a short time. The fact that she was is curious. Wyatt asked me to check it out."

"Hey, my powers are the best, that's all. You can't find a more powerful lure to evil than the mighty Balthazor's powers." Cole grinned cockily.

Leo ignored him. "Phyra is a Halliwell. She is descended from the strongest magical line there is. Evil shouldn't have been able to take her over so easily, at least not this completely."

"Yeah, well, Phoebe is a Halliwell too, and a Charmed One. But I turned her evil and made her my Queen fairly easily. Plus she was infected by the Woogyman that time. And wasn't she also a Banshee at one point? If anything, the girls' extreme powers make them more vulnerable." Cole pointed out.

"Not all of them, just Phoebe. And that's only because she was born on the Nexus. It's the same with Wyatt. It's scary, but like it or not, they are just as predisposed to evil as good. That's why they have to be taught to embrace good instead. So that when they are inevitably turned evil at one point or another, they will have a good background that we can reach out to."

"You're wrong, Leo. It's not just Phoebe and Wyatt. Each and every member of your family has flirted with evil at one point or another. Paige was a vampire, the Goddess of War and she was possessed by a dead woman's pissed off spirit. Piper has been a Wendigo, possessed by a she-witch that turned her into Coyote Piper of all things, she was turned evil by Excalibur's powers, and to top it all off, she was the Angel of Death for a day! And don't even get me started on all of your kids! Face it, Leo, evil is sexy, it's tempting and it is intoxicating. Every single member of your family has tasted its sweetness. And as far as I can tell, none of them have ever stayed that way. So what are you so worried about?" Cole ranted.

"Cole, you don't get it, do you? In another time line, Wyatt was the ruler of all Evil! All of that power had to go somewhere. Wyatt doesn't have it. He's powerful and strong, granted. He has more powers than most other magical beings, except maybe Chris. But he's not as powerful as he was in that other timeline. So where did that power go? According to Chris, Phyra didn't exist in the other timeline. If she has Wyatt's missing powers, and is still evil too, then we have a big problem." Leo snapped angrily.

"Leo. Follow me here for a minute. I have Phyra's powers. She has mine. Whatever powers she was born with, she doesn't have now."

"No, instead, she has all the powers of a former Source. Pardon me if that doesn't reassure me." Leo walked by Cole, heading towards Elder headquarters.

"What are they going to tell you, Leo? Cryptic messages about a powerful source? Maybe a general 'we have active evil powers gaining powers'? The Elders never tell the sisters or you for that matter, anything useful. We'd be better off to be back at the manor making potions or trying spells. This is pointless. When are you going to realize that the Elders don't give a damn about the Halliwells? All they care about is keeping a balance between good and evil." Cole argued.

Leo whirled on him angrily. "In case you've forgotten, I AM an elder. And you're right. The number one concern is keeping a balance. You wanna know why, Cole? When Chris got his memories of his other future, I made a solemn vow that my sons would never live in that world ever again. I'll never let my son grow up thinking that there is no point in fighting for good. I'll never let them think that they don't have a family that loves and protects them. I'll never watch him die again, Cole. If that means trying to figure out cryptic message and general warnings, then so be it. It's better than the alternative."

Leo pulled open the door to the Elder's Hall angrily. Cole sighed and followed resignedly. "I hope I don't get myself vanquished just for walking in the door to this place" he muttered to himself.

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"Let this girl, quick as a sneeze,
Stop this snit and quickly freeze."

Paige sighed in relief as Phyra froze inside her cage, instantly stopping her tantrum. "Thanks, Grams" she smiled inwardly as she glanced up.

"What did you just do?" Chris asked, looking up from the book abruptly.

"I just used one of Grams' spells she used on your Mom and Aunts when they were teenagers. She used it again on Piper when you were just a baby and they were trying to rid Wyatt of his sibling rivalry." She shrugged. "So, did you find anything useful?"

"Not really. The entry on switching spells says that it has to be voluntary on both parts. One person can't do it alone, at least not without the will of the other party. Basically, as long as Phy wants the evil powers, she keeps them, no matter what Cole has to say about it."

"Mom, did you get Phy's powers…back?" Peyton's voice trailed off as she stared at Mark still trapped in his cage. "What is HE doing here?"

"He's our prisoner, Pey. This way he can't cause you guys any harm, and we'll be able to find him easily after we get Phy straightened out."

Peyton walked over to the cage where Mark was held. "So she didn't kill you, huh?"

"The little bitch couldn't kill me. I'm too powerful. Even when you Halliwell brats steal someone else's powers, you're still not strong enough to kill me. Instead you need your big bad cousins to come get me. Whatever. You think you're so great…but you can't handle someone teasing you a little. You're pathetic." Mark sneered at Peyton through the bars of his cage.

"Oh really?" Peyton shot her hand up and threw a stream of ice water directly into his cage, hitting him full in the face. She drew up her other hand, and froze the water that was running down his face, encasing him in a thin sheet of ice. "Who's pathetic now?" she asked him bitterly.

"Peyton!" Chris yelled. "Unfreeze him! You know you can only do that to demons. He can't breathe under that ice."

Peyton glowered for a second, then with a wave of her finger, a space around Mark's nose and upper lip melted away, allowing him to breathe, but not talk. "There, now he can breathe. Happy?"

Chris sighed. Secretly, he was both amused and proud that his cousin was finally standing up to this overgrown brat. "Look, I get that you're pissed at him, okay, Peyton. But you don't want to let yourself get as bad as he is. He used his powers to torment, and soon that is going to bite him in the ass. Don't let the same happen to you."

Peyton didn't answer him. She just stared at her frozen ex-boyfriend. "You know what pisses me off the most, Chris? He didn't start being a jerk until he heard my last name. Once he heard the word Halliwell, he was impossible."

"I'm sure in his family Halliwell is a curse. How did you ever get mixed up with him in the first place?" Chris walked over to her, and steered her towards the sofa. Paige kept still, not wanting her daughter to notice her and clam up.

"He was in my advanced telekinesis class at Magic School. Everyone else had normal TK, like you, but I was the only one with Orb-TK. It made me stand out, I guess. I knew he was older, but he was really nice that first day. We just kinda hung out, and then we went to his house. We didn't do anything!" Peyton hurried as the look on Chris' face turned dark. "I swear. He'd forgotten his books for his next class, and we just went to his house, grabbed a snack and the books, and then went back to Magic School. Anyway, later that day he found out my last name. Then he just turned into a jerk."

"You know, it might just be because he's older than you. He probably wanted to look big in front of his friends. I mean, Pey, you're only 15. He's 18, almost 19. That's a pretty big age difference."

"No it's not. It's only 3 ½ years, Chris. Your dad is like 70 years older than your mom."

Chris laughed. "I guess you got me there. But seriously, Dad is also a white lighter. It is a different thing, you know."

Peyton grinned. "Yeah, I guess so." She fell silent for a minute, comfortable in her cousin's safe embrace. "Chris?" She continued at his soft murmur of accent. "Did you ever do stuff like this to girls? Were you and Wyatt both jerks too?"

Chris started, and shifted uncomfortably. "Honestly, Pey, yeah, we were jerks too. I think all guys are at one point or another. But we never tormented others with our powers. And any fights we were ever in, we didn't use our magic, just our fists. It wasn't fair any other way."

"So, in other words, you had no problem being a jerk, but you still played fair." Peyton finished for him.

"We had no choice but to play fair, Pey. Mom and Dad would've yanked our powers so fast we wouldn't have known what hit us if we'd ever done what he and his friends did." Wyatt answered for Chris. He'd listened to their conversation silently from just outside the door.

"Good. You must have gotten better, though, huh? Cause Abby and Maya don't seem to mind you the way you are."

"We got lucky. Seriously, Pey, all guys are jerks some of the time. Part of the time, it's on purpose, and part of the time it's a mistake. There's no way you'll get away from that ever. I guess you just have to figure out if the jerk part is bigger than the human, honest, nice guy part. If you can figure that out, you'll be all set." Chris stood up and stretched. As he did, he knocked over a coat rack, sending it crashing to the floor. He groaned and picked it up, upsetting the lid of the trunk next to it in the process. "Oy…" he grumbled at himself, as he started to close the trunk.

He stopped suddenly and froze, staring intently into the trunk.

"Chris? What are you staring at?" Wyatt asked, watching his brother go still.

Chris reached into the trunk and pulled out an athame. He grinned at Wyatt. "I think I just came up with a plan."

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Leo stormed into the Elder's hall, ready for some answers. "I have an issue and I need an answer." He said, walking confidently up to the table that was already surrounded by elders.

"I assume your issue has something to do with your family as usual, Leo?" Thomas asked in a stuffy tone.

"You're an elder. Why do you have to assume anything? Shouldn't you know?" Cole asked dryly, unable to shut up.

Thomas glared at Leo. "How dare you bring a demon to this place? Don't you remember what happened the last time a demon was here? The Titans just about killed us all! Isn't that when you became an elder? What, does one of your sons want a position now too?"

Leo's eyes flashed and Cole took a step, putting himself between Leo and Thomas.

"You know, Thomas. No one in my family wants to be an elder. Not even me. Cole was right. I'm sick of the cryptic bullshit. I quit."

Cole applause was the only sound left behind after they had orbed away in unison.