A/N: Sorry it took so long to update... the damn website wasn't letting me upload!

Mediatorsk: Ha ha, you know the song too! I have no idea what the heck inspired me to put that in there... just one of my weird moments, I guess.

Lucy Knight: I promise I'll keep writing! It was just the website that made me take so long! So if this happens again, I'm sorry!

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Wyatt sat leaning against a stone wall, trying to find some peace in his crowded head. Often he had seen television shows where a character had an angel figure on one shoulder and a devil on the other, but it was extremely confusing for it to happen outside of a cartoon, let alone live it.

"I thought they wanted me to hurt someone close to me, not a city full of helpless strangers," once voice, obviously what was left of his conscience, muttered. The Girenes were planning to deliberately expose magic to the city of San Francisco, in order to scare them and "take over" the city. The way they figured it, once they were sure they could get one city to bow down, moving on to more would become easier and easier with time. They wanted to rule.

"I can't believe it," Wyatt's conscience thought again. "I make one stupid judgement call, and the next thing I know, I'm a dictator."

"Oh please," another voice began. It was the same as the other, but the tone was different. It seemed darker somehow. "With all of my power, scaring a few worthless mortals shouldn't be a problem at all. If I rule them, they will have to do as I say. Perhaps I could order them to use their weapons against witches, while I could hold off some of their whitelighters…"

"Plans to kill witches? I can't be thinking this! This can't be happening," Wyatt thought desperately. But there was no use denying it. They attacked at dawn, and his resistance would certainly mean a painful death by the Girenes. He had no choice.

………………………………………

"It's still non-lethal," Pam observed as she peered over the brewing potion batch. They were trying to figure out if there was something they could add to the potions they'd used to defend themselves the day before. If only Piper had written down the ingredients for the three potions she'd whipped up to use against Cole so long ago...

"Uh, maybe more Mandrake," Phoebe suggested as she peered over a map, shaking her head as the scying crystal once again failed to point out Wyatt's location.

"We already added that, remember? Any more and the whole house'll blow down."

"Oh, right," Phoebe recalled.

"Are you okay?" Pam asked. "You seem kind of spaced out today."

"I'm just thinking," Phoebe replied. "Something doesn't feel right about this. If Wyatt was going to try to kill us again, don't you think he would've done it by now? Unless he's planning something, which has the potential to make us perpetually screwed…"

"Guys, come in here!" Paige called from the living room. "Now!"

"You don't think…?"

"I dunno. Go," Phoebe said as she coaxed Pam through the kitchen door. She picked up Allie out of her highchair, careful not to leave the baby alone, and followed.

Paige was sitting on the edge of the couch, eyes glued to the TV.

"What's going on?" Pam asked as she noticed the words 'Breaking News' at the bottom of the screen.

"It's Wyatt," Paige said warily. "He exposed magic… to the entire city."

The words hit everyone in the room like a ton of bricks and hung in the air like a haunting chill.

"Oh my God," Phoebe said, sitting down next to Paige. It seemed that Allie could sense the nervous tone in the room, for she immediately became uneasy and Phoebe had to continually rock her so she wouldn't cry and prevent them from hearing the news. The three women watched in horror as they learned the details of what had happened. Although Wyatt had not yet been indentified by police, his image was clearly visible on the screen before he spotted the camera and angrily threw an energy ball at it. (At this the channel was changed to a news team with an undamaged camera.)

"Someone's bound to recognize him," Pam pointed out. And with that, the phone began to ring. And it didn't stop ringing, as friend after friend called to ask what was going on. Luckily, most of them were witches, but it was still difficult to explain.

"This can't be happening," Phoebe said as she rocked Allie, barely blinking as she watched the reports. Pam wouldn't have stirred either if she didn't have to move to another spot on the rug to avoid Paige's pacing. Currently she was talking to the owner of a magic shop she frequented.

"No, Crystal, none of us encouraged this! What do you think we are, evil?" Paige said, the anger coming through in her voice. Pam wondered how a fellow Wiccan could ever think of accusing one of the Charmed Ones of betrayal. "We…" Paige's tone changed suddenly to something that sounded both exhausted and grim. "We're not sure how to stop him." She hung up the phone before Crystal could go any further, ripped the phone from it's cord, and plopped down on the couch.

This was the first time Pam noticed how thin her aunt really was stretched. Paige had always been the most devoted witch of all of them, and not being able to figure this one out was really cutting into her. New lines had formed in her face from stress, and her roots were starting to show in her hair. Problem was, they were gray, not black.

"What are we going to do?" Pam asked as she looked back at the TV. She pushed a box of things from their houses that hadn't been unpacked so everyone could see the picture better.

"If Piper was here, she'd think of something," Phoebe said solemnly. Even without this huge toll, she would've still felt like she wasn't doing a good job as the oldest sister. Wyatt's turning just made it worse.

"We can still turn him back, right?" Chris asked hopefully from the foyer. No one had noticed he'd been standing there. The tone in his voice made him sound like a little kid who feared he wouldn't get to go tothe beach when the skies darkened.

"I don't know, Chris. We've tried everything… and we've failed," Paige admitted. The words lowered everyone's moral severely.

"Maybe he'll come to his senses," Phoebe said, trying to make everyone feel better.

"When?" Pam asked. Immediately after she uttered the word, she knew it was the wrong thing to ask. Everyone felt helpless again. She cursed herself for not thinking before she spoke.