I'm SOOOO sorry for the delay in updating! Too many things for me to tell have been going on in my life for me to explain, and accompanied with tremendous writers block, I wasn'thaving a very successful time! This chapter is kinda short, but it's good! I promise! I knew you'd hate me… but, as Jess so kindly put it, there is a method to my madness…
Rebanana- Thanks for the review! More evil than Decron! Argh! I think I made a lot of people cry… You'll have to wait and see about The Third Child! Please don't kill someone in your story!
RJF- wipes brow Thank goodness your sickle is at a far distance! I'm glad you think my writing is that good! I spent hours trying to get that chapter perfect. An ode to Mark, if you will. & The Phoebe bashing just slips in there! I can't help it! And wow? You have a padded cell TOO? COOL BEANS!
Charmed Dawn- Actually, from he minute I wrote his name on my page I knew Mark would die… I am so proud of myself for creating such a strong character that you actually think he's better than Kyle? But I have everything planned out…
.elementbabe.- Thanks for the review! I loved Mark too…still do in fact!
Prince Halliwell- Thanks for the review! You have no idea how long it took to write the prophecy so I could get it perfect! Lol! And maybe you're right about Mark, maybe not…
Phiona- Thanks for the review! Glad chapter 16 could put a little hope back in your heart!
Charmed1s-Halliwells- I made you cry too? Damn! I never thought I'd be able to reduce anyone to tears! Thanks for the review!
Powerof4- Thanks for the review! You hate me that much? I'm sorry! But never fear, I have it all planned out…
Money Makes Me Smile- Thanks for the review! Anyone who read it will think you're completely bonkers! But I understood every word of it! Lol. Wow! I rock that much? tries not to let it go to her ego I can't believe you were the only one to notice exactly what killed Mark! I'll have to make it clear! You'll have to see about Mark and The Third child, but it'll probably slip out in an msn conversation…
Cutleryismyfriend- I take it you're not happy? ±Hides± Watch that language! Lol! I hope your all caffeine-ed up now!
Cherry7up- Thanks for the review!
BlueOrbs998- YAY! 200th reviewer! You get a reward! I need you to pick three flashbacks which you'd like to see in a coming chapter: Paige and Mark's first meeting, Mark proposing to Paige, Piper finding out she's pregnant with Prue, Phoebe and Jason's wedding, or Benjamin being born? Thanks for the review!
Moonfirefairy- Sorry for making you cry! Thanks for the review!
Peanut2lb- Thanks for the review! One thing I'm trying to keep important in this fic is that there will only ever be one set of charmed ones, but that won't become important until later. You'll have to see what my plans for Mark are, but the BOS entry on Nauctaters in chapter16 is a really big clue…
Pangea- Thanks for the review! Nauctaters were entirely my own concept! Lol. As the fic goes on and the kids get older the concept of Nauctaters is going to be explored in more depth!
I want to dedicate this chapter to Jess, who has helped me overcome my writers' block and quite simply rocks!
Chapter25- Gone
Cole let himself into the Manor and despite the panic that had arisen as soon as he had received the phone call from Leo informing him of his daughter's injury and of the Andersons' disappearance, smirked. That door was never locked.
"Hello?" He called. He was greeted by silence. "Phoebe?" Nothing. "Piper?" And then he heard something, but it wasn't an answer to his shouts. It was the sound of a woman crying- a cry he knew very well- coming from the living room.
He entered and saw Phoebe kneeling next to the sofa, her face buried in her hands. "Phoebe?" He asked tenderly.
"Cole?" She whispered, looking up to reveal a tearstained face. He looked at her with question, still standing in the doorway. "She's dying…" Phoebe sniffed.
It suddenly dawned on Cole why Phoebe had been crouched next to the sofa. MJ. He slowly, cautiously, entered the room, dreading what he may see. He had panicked when Leo had told him of Decron's return, but he had never imagined MJ's injury to be so serious. The look on Phoebe's face, however, told him otherwise. And then he saw his daughter and realised it was true. She was dying. Her usually sun kissed skin was tremendously pale and the green pinafore she was wearing was soaked through with blood. The huge gash in her chest was enough to make vomit rose in Cole's throat. His little girl, one who usually exuded confidence, was lying there helpless and from what Leo had told him, Cole knew he could not to anything to save her.
"Phoebe." Cole said, trying to hold off his own tears, his eyes glued on Melinda-Jayne's body. "Mark and Paige will kill Decron. She'll be okay." However much it sounded like he was trying to reassure Phoebe, Cole was trying to reassure himself. Not only did he have the weight of his dying daughter in his heart, but also the knowing that his best friend in the whole world had a chance of dying too.
xxxxx
Piper slumped over the stove and, with trembling hands, added a handful of mustard seed into her cauldron. Her vision was blurred with tears and her mind raced with thoughts of her family. Her niece was dying; Laura and Rachael were missing in the hands of Decron; Paige and Mark had not returned; Phoebe was too panicked about Melinda-Jayne to even focus on her own potion, and Leo had insisted on going to ask the elders about Decron's whereabouts. Jason had taken Prue, Andy and Charlotte to Victor's, but things were not looking bright. The eldest Charmed One knew something bad had happened. She couldn't explain it but there was a lurch in her heart that was telling her someone was not going to return home. She lost all concentration for a brief moment as she looked to the Anderson family portrait. If one did not return the others would not cope.
Her concentration returned when the anti-curse potion she had been mixing for MJ began sparking. She hurriedly removed it from the hob and gave it one final stir before turning to retrieve potion vials from the cupboard behind her. However, the twinkling of blue light in the corner quickly snatched her attention.
"Leo?" She asked, "What did the elders say?" But the orbs did not form Leo. Cowering, huddled together, bruised and dirty, tears streaming down their petite faces were Laura and Rachael. Piper's breath caught in her chest and the empty vial she had been holding smashed on the floor. She met Laura's eyes, but they held no hope, and none of the innocence Laura usually possessed. Behind her niece's blue eyes lay a hollow sorrow. This made Piper's heart sink. Rachael was crying too much for Piper to even take a proper look at her, but she felt the redhead calm as she wrapped the Anderson girls in a tight embrace.
"…Where are your mommy and daddy?" Piper asked slowly. The question she had been dreading was almost too hard to ask.
xxxxx
A fiery orange blaze filled the underworld cave and thick, black smoke began wrapping around Paige's lungs. The flames were close to licking her pale and bruised skin, but she couldn't find the strength to move. Her hip throbbed in pain; her lungs, filling with smoke, and tender from heavy sobs, her chest ached; but it was her shattered heart which caused the inability to move. She lay still on Mark's cold and lifeless body, her finger caressing his blooded cheek. She had not enough energy to sob any longer, but her soul still cried out in a searing pain.
When the flames brushed her bare skin, Paige jerked herself away from them, but through all of her pain, could not find the strength to move away from the raging fire. A small cough escaped her mouth and she slowly brought a trembling hand to the small of her back, where the flame had just touched her. It took a moment for the youngest Charmed One to register something that she could not understand. The flame had not burned her…
She brushed the tears from her swollen and reddened eyes, her lip still quivering, but she couldn't help but wonder… She placed her hand on her stomach and looked towards the roaring fire; her baby had caused it. Something inside her was urging her to touch the flames again. It was almost as if they were calling to her.
"Why?" She whispered to her unborn child, lowering her tearstained face to look at her stomach. A curious look washed over her and she was hit by a sudden light-headed spell, which caused her to fall forwards dizzily. For a brief moment- just a fraction of a second- an eerie green glow surrounded Paige. She swept her tousled and rubble filled hair from her raw and reddened face and looked to the fire, but her eyes were no longer the warm and inviting doe brown they had been the moment before. Paige's eyes were now the deepest midnight blue you could possibly imagine. Her pupils would have been lost in the mass of deep blue if it had not been for the distinct waves of aqua marine. No, Paige's eyes were no longer her own. They were the eyes of a nauctater. The eyes of her unborn son. The eyes of The Third Child.
She lowered her face to gaze at Mark's and planted a soft kiss on his cold forehead. She uttered no words, but her immense love for her dead husband seemed to linger in the air- to fill the underworld cave with the flames. In fact, the fire was almost a symbol of the burning passion they had shared.
Paige rose to her feet, which was an extreme effort with the searing pain in her hip, but a new look of purpose had settled on her face. It was the sheer determination shining in the blue eyes which she now possessed that gave her an almost strong look.
"Thank you." She whispered slowly, a tear streaming down her face, "Dad." And with no further warning, The Third Child made his mother's body step into the raging blaze. It seemed to rise, filling the entire cave with furious flames. The heat, to a mortal, would have been unbearable. The fire itself would have killed a human being within seconds. But Paige stood in the centre of the conflagration, her hands raised to the ceiling, wild determination shining in the blue eyes as she brought her arms downwards, causing the fire to enter her. And then…she was gone. One thing that she had failed to notice before disappearing, however, was that she was not the only one to have disappeared. Mark's body was nowhere to be seen.
xxxxx
His hollow and cold laughter reverberated on the walls of the dark, underworld cavern and he showed all of his jagged yellow teeth in their disgusting and rotten smile. He had finally gotten to experience the sweet taste of victory. After all of his failed plans, after everything he had lost, Decron had succeeded in killing Paige and Mark…or so he thought.
A burst of intense heat from behind caught the large, cloaked demon of guard, but he did not care. Without The Third Child in existence, he was unstoppable. Whatever feeble demon this was would suffer his wrath. He formed a fireball in his hand and turned to face the spot in which a burning fire remained in and his brow wrinkled in confusion.
"Come out you ignorant fool." He growled, "Show yourself."
Paige felt the dizzy spell once more and her head drooped downwards and a small green glow flashed around her for only a millisecond. She looked up. She was no longer in the tunnel of caves where she had been drawn by the mysterious unharming fire, but she was in a small, dark cavern. Her gut instinct told her that her unborn child had been the reason behind the sudden location change, but the question was: why?
Her question was soon answered. She looked up, revealing her now doe brown eyes, and they rested on the back of the one demon she never wanted to see again. Cackling ominously to himself was the demon who had just destroyed Paige's soul and shattered her heart. The demon who she had such a passionate hatred for that even looking at him caused the fire at her feet to grow. When Decron formed a fireball in his hand, Paige, with the strain of her agonising hip, only just managed to move before he could see her.
"Come out you ignorant fool." He growled. The sound of his voice sent chills down the youngest Charmed One's spine, but rage bubbled so violently in her stomach that it took all of her remaining strength not to scream. This was the voice of a murderer. "Show yourself."
"Gladly." Paige spat, her voice dripping with poison, but rough from all of the crying she had done. Decron turned to face her and the smirk wiped from his charcoal black face as his one eye widened in horror.
"How…?" He stuttered. For a moment, the world's most powerful demon was frightened. Paige looked ready to kill. And ready to kill she was.
"You bastard." She said, keeping her voice in a steady tone. Her eyes glared daggers at Decron, but at the same time, it looked as though she was fighting back tears. Her breathing became louder and deeper, all the while her face growing angrier and angrier. "You're going to pay for what you did."
Decron smirked, infuriating Paige even further, but before she could speak again, Decron did. "You pathetic excuse for life. I have no idea how you survived my attack, or how you got here, but let me assure you, half-breed, you can never make me pay. There's nothing you can do that will harm me. Nothing."
Paige was to distressed to think of a response. The only word buzzing round her mind was the one question she had been asking herself since her wedding day, but now seemed like an inappropriate time. She wanted to strike fear into Decron's heart. She wanted to rip it from his body and tear it into shreds, just like he had done to her in his act of malicious murder.
"Why?" She choked. Her attempt to stop tears was failing, as did her attempt to keep the question form passing her lips. "Why Mark?"
"Why Mark?" Decron mocked. "Because," the tall demon looked to be contemplating what to say, "I had to prevent the existence of The Third Child."
Paige's heart was racing. It took a moment for her to grasp what Decron had just said: 'The Third Child'? What did that mean? …Unless…her child? He was trying to prevent her unborn child from existing? Then he had not succeeded.
"The Third Child?" She repeated his words in contemplation. It all began to make sense to her now. Her thoughts were brought back to the day Rachael had been born; to a conversation Decron had had with Barbus…
"Barbus, you insolent fool! Did you not think to take care of the family?"
"Of course I didn't forget, but how else was I going to steal this baby for myself if there was no one to vanquish you."
"No living witch can vanquish me Barbus!" Decron roared, as if amused by Barbus' plan.
"Oh…" Although his plan had been foiled, the demon of fear was still grinning. "But then I suppose it means I can?"
"Don't be so idiotic! You know my biggest fear and you know it is impossible to bring him here!"
Paige had never understood what Decron had meant, but now, it all made sense… For some reason or another, Decron feared her unborn child, and he was under the belief that he had prevented its existence.
"The Third Child?" She repeated again. "He's the only one who can destroy you, isn't he?"
"Clever, half-breed, clever." Decron sneered. "Pity that brain of yours won't be in use for much longer…wait? How did you know The Third Child was a male?"
"Something you'd never know about." Paige replied. What she was going to say next would give her so much satisfaction. "When a woman's pregnant she can just tell."
Decron's jaw dropped and his fireball extinguished. All of his arrogant confidence; his looming and ominous stance; and all of his power over Paige was lost in that one moment. "No." Decron gasped. "You're lying to me half-breed."
Paige glared defiantly at the demon she hated with the fire of a thousand burning suns. To kill him would give her the revenge she sought. But she wanted to do it painfully, and she was unsure of how to tap into her baby's power. Slowly she unclenched her fist and placed her hand on her lower abdomen, silently willing the baby to show its power.
"Nobody lies to me and gets away with it!" Decron roared, his defensive stance rising, but Paige could still see fear in his eye.
"Touched a sore spot, have I?" Paige mocked. "And I'm not lying."
This was too much for Decron to handle. He thrust his arm towards Paige, hitting her hard in the jaw and sending her crashing backwards into the cavern's wall. Her head pounded against the rock surface, giving a resounding bang, which made Decron's smirk return. He looked at Paige's unconscious body and let out a malevolent chuckle. It wasn't too late to kill the unborn child. And now, with Paige unconscious, it would be so much easier.
"Goodbye once and for all half-breed." He snarled, pulling the athame he had stolen from the nauctater from his pocket and raising it above his head, ready to strike. He lunged forward, preparing to finally take his victory, but stumbled, caught off guard by the green glow which had momentarily surrounded his pathetic victim.
"What?" he gasped as Paige began to rise to her feet. He had seen her hit her head. Nobody should have been able to survive that without remaining unconscious for a very long time. But Paige was now on her feet, glaring with more hatred than anyone could ever muster. Decron prepared to strike again, but found himself too drawn by the mysterious blue eyes which were crushing him with an icy stare to raise his knife. Something about those eyes was striking fear into the cruel and powerful demon.
"Nobody," Paige spoke, her voice barely above a whisper, "Nobody hurts my mother." Venom seemed to spill from her mouth as she took a step forward. Decron had lost all of his power now. The Third Child was in control.
"No!" Decron roared, and edge of panic in his voice. "It can't be!" Those eyes. Decron realised why he had been so frightened of them. They were the eyes of the man he had just killed. The same ones the Anderson Children all shared. They were the eyes of The Third Child. "It's not possible."
"Apparently, it is." Paige spat. "Any last words?"
Decron had never looked so weak or scared in his life. This was the end, but he couldn't stand by and allow death to meet him. He formed a fireball in his palm and thrust it towards Paige, but his fear only became more immense when she absorbed the fireball through her chest and remained unfazed.
"Fire can't hurt me." She said defiantly. "But it can hurt you." Both of her arms flew forward, towards the small blaze which had been left behind when she had been transported. The flames, which had almost died out, now rose to a tremendous height, the heat almost unbearable. "Goodbye Decron." The words were spoken quietly, but they meant more to Paige, and The Third Child than any ever spoken. This would be the end of the Demon who had cause Paige more pain than all of the other demons put together.
"Noooo!" Decron screamed, as Paige violently pushed him back into the raging blaze. A smile played on the youngest Charmed One's lips as a green glow engulfed her again. Her now brown eyes glazed with tears as she watched Decron meet his demise. His screams seemed to echo through the cavern for eternity. His clawed hands grasped his face as his skin began to bubble in the roaring fire. He fell to his kneed, engulfed in an excruciating pain and continued to scream in agony. Paige watched until he screamed no more and all that remained was a pile of ash, but revenge did not stay sweet for long. Without a purpose to take her mind from it, Mark's death became more real. He was really gone. He was never coming back…
xxxxx
The Manor remained in an eerie silence as the sun sank over the bay leaving San Francisco in darkness. Phoebe lay in the living room, MJ, having been healed after drinking Piper's anti-curse potion, asleep on her knee. The fact that it had worked seemed almost like a miracle, but everyone had been too grateful to question it. As mother and daughter slept, having been exhausted by the panic filled day and tired by their worry for the Andersons, Leo paced the room, hating the powerless feeling he had. Piper and Cole sat in the kitchen in a tense quiet, neither knowing what to do or say to Laura and Rachael, who were cuddled together by the basement door, shaking violently, tears streaming down their faces.
The stillness of the Manor, however, was brought to an abrupt end when the twinkling of blue lights appeared in the kitchen corner. Piper's heart stopped, Cole's jaw dropped, and an ounce of hope shone on the young girls' faces. When the lights formed the blooded, bruised and frail form of Paige, everyone in the Manor's kitchen rose to their feet.
"Paige," Piper gasped, her voice dripping with concern for her baby sister. It seemed almost inevitable what had happened, and apparently Cole had realised it too because tears were now silently tumbling down his cheeks.
Paige ignored her sister. She knew if she made eye contact with anyone she would break down and crumble beneath the agonising pain in her heart. She saw her daughters, so small and innocent, look to her in relief, but sorrow also shining on their little faces. She fell to her knees and pulled them close to her and enveloped them into a tight embrace, before falling apart and letting her tears overspill.
"Mommy?" Laura said in a hoarse whisper, she too was crying, still gripping tightly to her sister's hand. "Wh…where's Daddy?"
This was the question Paige had been dreading. How could she tell them? How could she tell her daughters that their father was dead? "He…" She began, sobbing and still avoiding her sister's gaze. "He's with the angels." She choked as Laura collapsed into her arms, sobbing in the same violent manner as her mother. Rachael, however, did not seem to understand.
"Wh…when he comin' home?" She asked sadly.
"He," Paige could almost not bring herself to say it. "He's not…"
And the Andersons sat there weeping together, leaving the rest of the family to do nothing but watch. What could they say to a family who had just lost their husband and father? Piper was crying onto Cole's shoulder, and Phoebe, who had appeared in the doorway, was crying similarly onto Leo's. The two men were letting tears fall down their cheeks, but trying to be strong for Paige more than anyone.
The silence that had previously engulfed the Manor was joined now by sorrow, as the Halliwells tried to come to terms with the death of one of their own. The silence, however, stopped when it reached the attic, where the Book of Shadows lay, pages turning and coming to rest on the page titled 'Prophecies of good'. Written in fresh ink, in a very familiar handwriting was 'The Third Child'. There was no sign of who had written it, other than the fresh set of green orbs which had just disappeared in the corner…
AN- I'm sorry it was so short! My summer holz start next week so the next chapter shouldn't take so long to write. I've pretty much got most of it written with pen and paper so all I'll have to do is type it up. I hope you are all still with me. Please review.
Laur x