A/N:9 Dec 2005- I've revised this chapter and the next few, simply because I realized today that they could go with Bohemian Rhapsody lol. I'm so partial to my favorite song... Anyway, there's my disclaimer. Not my song, Queen's (greatest band ever!) song.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Wyatt stood in the lair of the Girenes. There were two others who had shimmered in after he arrived. They must've been the heads of the clan or something.

"We are forever greatful for your decision to join our side," one of them said.

"Just revive my mom," Wyatt said forcefully. He was growing quite impatient.

"Alright, well-" another one began, but he trailed off as someone appeared in the cave, carrying an athimae.

"Do something!" the female Girene ordered.

Wyatt had to think fast. He used his power to throw him back against the wall, and then, using only his mind, the person burst into flames. The Girenes watched wide-eyed, totally awestruck by his immense power. They had really scored big by getting him to work for them.

"Why is he not disintegrating?" Wyatt asked warily.

"Because he's a witch, not a demon," one of the Girenes said, as if he was pointing out an obvious fact.

"What?" Wyatt asked, shocked at what he had just done.

"It may be hard for you to adjust to being evil at first," the female Girene began, approaching him, "but you must admit, it did feel good, didn't it? What's the word… 'right,' somehow?"

"No," Wyatt muttered, staring at his hand in disbelief. "No!" He orbed out.

"Great. I thought you said he was on our side!" one of the Girenes shouted angrily at the female one.

"Relax, we're not giving up yet. We still have a darklighter friend who might be able to… talk him into something."

…………………………………

Wyatt lied down on his bed, trying to somehow vindicate what he'd just done. He'd killed a witch. One of his own kind, dead at his hand. How could he ever have been cocky enough to think that he could get away from those demons unscathed. His overly confident nature had just come with a big price.

Is this the real life?

Is this just fantasy?

Caught in a landslide

No escape from reality

Open your eyes

Look up to the skies and see

I'm just a poor boy

I need no sympathy

Because I'm easy come, easy go

Little high, little low

Anyway the wind blows

Doesn't really matter to me

To me…

Wyatt looked over at a picture of Piper on his wall. What would she say about all of this? His heart sank as he realized that he had completely let his mother down.

Mama

Just killed a man

Put a gun against his head

Pulled my trigger, now he's dead

Mama

Life had just begun

But now I've gone and thrown it all away

Mama, oooo

Didn't mean to make you cry

If I'm not back again this time tomorrow

Carry on, carry on

As if nothing really matters

"I am not telling anyone about this," Wyatt promised himself. Little did he know, the darklighter was now right next to him.

"She was telling the truth. It did feel right."

Wyatt tried to shake the thoughts he thought were his own out of his head.

"People have been trying to turn me my whole life. Maybe I'm just meant to be evil."

"No," Wyatt thought. "Everything Mom did, she did to protect me from that side. I won't let her die in vain."

"Although, she's dead now. That means I have no ties to this side anymore."

"Oh, yeah? Then what do you call dad and Chris?" Wyatt muttered to himself as he stormed out of his room.

…………………………………

Pam sat at the kitchen table with a frustrated look on her face. Wyatt walked in.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked.

"Aunt Paige and my mom went to go destroy that potion," Pam explained.

"Well, good," Wyatt replied. "That means no one else can get infected by it."

"That's not the point. They wouldn't let me go with them. It's probably my punishment for dropping out," Pam said. "Just because I'm younger doesn't mean I'm not as good of a witch. I can look after myself. I'm responsible."

"Oh, by the way, this came in the mail today for you," Wyatt said, handing her a letter. "Apparently you have to pay a large fine for speeding and fleeing the scene."

"Crap, there must've been a camera there that got my license plate number," Pam said.

"So, back to the conversation, what was this about being responsible?"

"Ha-ha, very funny. For your information, I was only speeding and fleeing because I was trying to get to the hospital to see your mom before she-" Pam stopped abruptly, remembering that Wyatt didn't like the word "die" or any word related to it.

There was an awkward silence in the kitchen. Luckily, it was broken by Phoebe and Paige orbing in. Their clothes were torn and their general appearance was sort of… charred, for lack of a better word.

"What happened?" Pam asked instantly. "Did you get it?"

Phoebe sat down, exhausted, while Paige got herself a much-needed drink. "There were a lot of Nostis to fight. And we didn't think we could to it without the Power of Three. But, we used the spell to call our ancestors, variated a bit of course, and… we did it."

"Oh thank God," Pam said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Now no one else will have to… will be hurt," she changed.

"I only wished we'd learned where it was sooner," Paige said glumly, looking at Piper's picture on the wall. Thus the millionth awkward moment of silence since her passing was born.

A demon shimmered in the kitchen. Without even flinching, Phoebe threw a potion at him and he disintegrated. Paige gave her an odd look.

"Well, without Piper's powers helping us, we'll need protection. So I've started to carry a few potions around in my purse. Just because we've destroyed that potion doesn't mean no body's gonna come after us," Phoebe explained. "In fact, it probably means the opposite."

"So let me get this straight, you were mixing extra potions to protect yourself from evil, but you didn't say a thing about it to your sister?" Paige asked, the arrogance more than obvious in her voice. "What, do you want me to be killed?"

"Paige…" Phoebe started, getting up from the table as she heard Allie crying in the other room.

"Lemme guess, 'it's not like that,' right?" she mocked. Phoebe walked through the doorway to the dining room, hoping Paige would just drop it. Instead, she followed. "Because I've heard that speech a thousand times before, and I know what you really mean by it…"

Chris passed them on his way into the kitchen. "What's going on with them?" he asked.

"It's just… how things are right now. Everyone's nerves are on edge," Pam reassured. "They're constantly worried for their lives because of all the demon attacks around here. Sometimes things just boil over."

Chris didn't look too reassured as he took a muffin from the counter.

"They'll talk it out and everything will go back to normal, you'll see."

"Define normal," Chris said through a mouth full of blueberry muffin.

The darklighter planted another thought in Wyatt's head. "If I join evil, I can make sure no one attacks my family." Wyatt closed his eyes as the thought appeared, trying to forget it had been there in the first place.

"You okay?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine," Wyatt replied. He left the kitchen to lie down on the couch.