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The Coven of Reformed Supernaturals

As the white lights faded from around them, Constantine raised a critical eyebrow at his surroundings.

He'd been expecting to see a lot of things around the area where Wyatt was being guarded; swords, locked doors, a mass of witches ready to fight anything that might be even a remote threat…

What he hadn't been expecting was to see just a caravan, standing in the middle of a field full of other caravans. True, his powers allowed him to see the magical barriers around the caravan, but baring those barriers that there didn't really seem to be anything around this place.

"This is it?" he asked, looking over at Leo inquiringly. "No offence, but this set-up couldn't stop anything that really wanted Wyatt for themselves."

"The wards were mostly intended to be alarms more than anything else," Leo explained, as the sisters started scanning the surroundings for Gideon; they knew that he couldn't be there already, as the wards were still all intact and even an Elder going through would have disrupted them slightly, but that didn't negate the possibility that he was coming as they spoke. "The Elders assumed that, once something triggered the wards, a mass of them could come down and hold off anything that might be after Wyatt, or at least debilitate it enough for them to send it somewhere else."

"But the alarms wouldn't be set off by an Elder, huh?" Paige said, looking over at Leo inquiringly.

"They'd disrupt the wards, but not to the same extent that a demon would," Leo said, as he turned to look at the caravan door. "Well, we'd better get in; we don't know how-"

The wards around the caravan suddenly gave a brief shimmer, as though it was a river and a stone had just been dropped into the lake, and Constantine groaned.

That couldn't be good.

"We're out of time," he said, as he raised his left fist and slid the silver knuckleduster onto his fingers. "You can stay out here if you want, but I'm going in now."

Before any of them could respond, he'd walked up to the caravan door, opened it, and found himself facing a tall man dressed in a Victorian business suit facing a young woman who was holding a baby and looking at the sight before her with a mixture of fear and confusion.

"What the… Constantine?" the man said, turning to look at the supernatural detective in confusion. "Leo? What are you doing here?"

"What else?" Leo asked, as he stepped into the caravan followed by the Halliwells, all four of them glaring at Gideon in rage. "I trusted you to ensure the safety of my son, Gideon, and this is how you repay me? By trying to kill him?"

"It's for the best!" Gideon yelled back, although Constantine noted that he looked slightly nervous; if he was still at least slightly uncertain about his actions, maybe they could talk him down without having to get into a fight…

"The best?" Piper asked, standing in front of Constantine to glare at Gideon. "It's 'for the best' to kill an innocent baby? It's 'for the best' to destroy a child who's done nothing wrong? It's 'for the best' to lie to an old friend and kill his child behind his back? How is that for the best!"

"He's too powerful!" Gideon protested, indicating the baby in the young woman's arms. Constantine briefly wondered why she didn't run, but then realised that it wouldn't have done her any good; Gideon would grab Wyatt from her the second she came too near to him, and the caravan wasn't wide enough for her to easily evade him. "Anything with that much power is bound to turn evil! I can't take the risk, can't you see that?"

He turned to look at Constantine. "Surely you can hardly condemn me, John?" he said, staring the ex-smoker in the eyes. "After what you did-"

"That was an accident!" Constantine roared back at Gideon, trying to resist the temptation to just dive forward and punch Gideon's lights out; they had a better chance of stopping this guy if they could just convince him that his actions were pointless…

Taking a deep breath, Constantine glared at Gideon, flexing his fingers around the knuckleduster as he maintained eye contact with the Elder.

"There is no comparison between Astra and Wyatt," he said, glaring at Gideon. "I didn't set out to kill her, I didn't want to hurt her, and the only reason she went down was because I was such a- dratting- idiot," he said, stopping himself before he said something smaller; he had a bit of a rule about swearing in front of little kids, even if they probably couldn't understand him.

"Actually, I was referring to some of your past actions," Gideon retorted, as the Charmed Ones and their allies looked at Constantine curiously as he just stood and stared at the Elder. "You never had any qualms about risking your friends if you thought that it would protect the world; why should this be any different from your past actions?"

"It still isn't the same," Constantine growled back at the rouge Elder. "Not only was I more than a bit arrogant back then, but in those cases everyone knew the risks when they were going into the fight. Wyatt's just a baby, for- Pete's- sake! You don't even know that something's going to go wrong!"

"It's basic logic!" Gideon yelled back. "Wyatt isn't like anything this world has known; if he turns on us when he's fully grown, nothing could stop him! He has to be eliminated now while it's still possible!"

"And that excuses this?" Phoebe asked, glaring at Gideon. "Don't you have any faith in Leo and Piper's parenting abilities? They're good; why should a child of theirs turn out evil?"

"I can't take the risk!" Gideon yelled back at Phoebe. "You can't stop me!"

Then, before any of them could do something, Gideon spun around, launched a bolt of lightning at the woman holding Wyatt, started to walk towards the baby as the woman fell to the ground…

And then, with no warning, Wyatt suddenly vanished in a burst of white light.

"What the…" Constantine said, looking over at Leo in confusion.

"He orbed out!" Leo said in horror, as he looked over at Constantine and the Charmed Ones. "You three try and keep Gideon down; John, you're with me. We have to find Wyatt before something else does!"

As Constantine felt Leo grab his hand and begin to 'orb' them away to another destination, he vaguely saw Piper flick her hands at Gideon in a manner that he was prepared to bet involved blowing things up (Right now she looked too annoyed to bother with freezing an opponent)…

And then they were standing at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, staring at Wyatt as he sat on the top of the famous landmark. He smiled at his father brightly and held out his hands, gurgling slightly.

"Hi, son…" Leo said, reaching out and taking the baby in his arms. "You're OK now… Daddy's got you…"

Constantine smiled at the sight before him, briefly putting his location out of his mind; ever since his little 'fall' when he went to Hell after his first suicide attempt, he'd always been a little uncomfortable around heights…

Then Gideon suddenly appeared in front of the three of them, now dressed in white robes, and Constantine suddenly had other concerns to occupy himself.

"Did you really think that would stop me, Leo?" Gideon asked, looking at the Whitelighter as Constantine and Leo shifted into a combat stance (Or, in Leo's case, tried to assume a combat stance; it wasn't easy to get ready for a fight when you were holding a baby in your arms). "You should have know that their magic wouldn't work against me; whether or not you disagree with my motives, I am still a being of good magic, and their powers do not work against beings of good on a long-term basis."

He glared at Leo and Wyatt. "Now, just hand over the baby, and we can end this."

Leo was about to reply, but Constantine stepped in front of his friend and glared at his new foe.

"If you want Wyatt, you'll have to go through me," he said, staring at Gideon as he raised his left hand, complete with knuckleduster. "Are you really ready for that?"

Gideon just stared back at Constantine for a few moments, before shaking his head in a manner that almost seemed like he was pitying Constantine.

"I don't want to have to fight you, John," he said, looking back at the exorcist. "This affair is not your concern."

Constantine shook his head. "You made it my 'concern' when you had me brought into the Coven to help stop the bad guy," he said, glaring back at his foe. "You're getting Wyatt when you go through me. And that is not going to happen."

Gideon sighed as he raised his hand.

"So be it," he said, as he stared at Constantine before launching a burst of white lightening at his foe…

Only to have Constantine thrust his left hand forward and all the lightening suddenly focus on the silver knuckleduster, leaving the knuckleduster glowing a brilliant white as Constantine stared back at Gideon.

"Nice try," he said to the Elder, who could only stare at the glowing knuckleduster in horror as the exorcist smiled back at him. "Just wasn't good enough."

Before Gideon could get another blast off (There was no guarantee that the spell he'd just attempted would work a second time), Constantine had dived towards the Elder, lashed out at him with a left-handed punch that sent him reeling back, and then tackled the Elder with such force that both of them were sent hurtling off the bridge.

"NO!" Constantine heard Leo cry out from behind him as he and the Elder plummeted towards the ground. Constantine knew that he probably had alternatives to stop Gideon, but right now this was all he could think of; even if it didn't kill the Elder, it might hurt him enough for Leo and the Halliwells to figure out a better alternative…

Then Constantine found himself lying on the floor of a stone cavern, with Gideon looking angrily at him from off to one side.

He groaned as he stood up; he should have remembered that Gideon could orb, but he'd been focusing so much on hurting his adversary that he'd forgotten to take his foe's powers into account.

"You dare try to kill ME!" Gideon roared as Constantine staggered back onto his feet, trying not to focus on the blinding pain in his head from where he must have hit the floor; evidently Gideon hadn't been too bothered about giving him a soft landing. "I am merely trying to protect the world- what you CLAIM to do as well, I might add- and you feel you must attack ME!"

Constantine merely grimaced slightly as he twisted his head and glared back at Gideon.

"I'd like to say I'm sorry, but the truth is I am really starting to dislike you and I strongly doubt that I ever will," he said, as he glared back at Gideon. "Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned these days, but, personally, I always prefer to know that someone or something's going to be dangerous before I dive in head-first and try to stop the 'threat'."

"There will be a threat!" Gideon retaliated, glaring back at Constantine. "It's a basic practice in this world; the powerful will always seek to conquer those weaker than them!"

"What, so you think the kid's family will go rogue on you as well?" Constantine retaliated. "Last time I checked they were the most powerful witches in the world, and I don't see you trying to kill them!"

"Their powers were awoken when they were morally capable of using them properly!" Gideon yelled at Constantine. "Give someone that much power for their whole lives and there's no telling what could have happened to them-"

"Oh, just SHUT UP ALREADY!" Constantine yelled at Gideon as he lashed out with another punch, this one leaving a slight burn on Gideon's face; evidently the negative energies of the knuckleduster were starting to have an affect on the Elder. "You can't excuse your actions and you know it! You call yourself a Higher Power? You're just every fucking racist I've ever encountered; terrified of something that isn't you and you don't have the guts to admit it! You'll say anything to 'justify' how you feel except how you really feel about the situation! You just can't handle Wyatt being around because it means you're no longer top of the pecking order; you'd rather see him eliminated now rather than leave him with Piper and Leo! They're good people; there is no fucking REASON why Wyatt shouldn't be good as well!"

He leapt forward again, pinning Gideon to the wall with his right hand and reigning punches onto him with the left. The silver knuckledusters truck Gideon all over, and where it struck his foe it left a burn, until, finally, most of Gideon's visible skin was black and smoking from the impacts of the negative energy.

"Wait… wait…" Gideon gasped, as Constantine paused briefly to catch his breath. One side of Gideon's face was swollen over from the physical assault on him, and the mystic-related damage wasn't helping him either right now, but he was still healthy enough to make himself understood.

"What?" Constantine asked, glaring at Gideon at he briefly paused in his assault on the Elder. "Finally got something to justify what you want to do."

"I have… an offer… to make to you…" Gideon gasped, as he looked at Constantine, seemingly barely able to focus through the pain. "Let me… capture Wyatt… and I will… give you… free passage… to Heaven…"

Constantine's eyes widened as he stared at Gideon.

Access to Heaven?

For so long, that had been what he had fought for… what he'd desired… what had motivated his actions…

And now, he could get it.

All he had to do was let Gideon have what he wanted, while simultaneously betraying a person who'd been nothing but friendly to him…

No chance.

Constantine turned back to look at Gideon, glared at him, and launched another series of punches, shouting after each blow;

"Fuck-"

WHAM!

"You-"

WHAM!

"ASSHOLE!"

WHAM!

With the last punch, Constantine slammed Gideon against the wall with such force that something gave off a resounding crack! before Gideon's body collapsed back onto the ground, his head at an odd angle to the rest of him.

Walking over to Gideon, Constantine bent down and waved his hand briefly over the fallen Elder. Normally he would have simply checked the pulse to determine whether he was alive or dead, rather than waste time casting a spell, but he wasn't entirely clear on whether Whitelighters and Elders would actually have pulses, so this was the only way.

He smiled slightly in relief; according to the spell, all 'life' had departed from Gideon's body.

Standing up, he stretched briefly and then looked around at his surroundings. Based on earlier sightings, he was reasonably sure that he was in the Underworld of this place, but other than that he couldn't precisely say…

Constantine shrugged; he wasn't especially worried. Just so long as this next stage of the proceedings went according to plan, everything should work out fine…

"LEO!" he yelled, looking up at the ceiling of the chamber.

A moment later, Leo was standing in front of him, Wyatt now no longer in his arms.

Leo raised a hand as Constantine began to open his mouth. "Before you ask, Wyatt's fine; after you and Gideon vanished, I orbed back to check on Piper, Phoebe and Paige. He's still with them."

"Are they all…" Constantine asked, slightly nervously.

Leo smiled slightly. "They're all fine," he said reassuringly, clasping Constantine on the shoulder. "Gideon was demented, but he didn't want to hurt the Charmed Ones; he just wanted Wyatt."

He looked down at Gideon's fallen body, and winced as he took in the damage.

"You don't do things halfway, do you?" he said, glancing over at Constantine.

The exorcist shrugged. "Got started and just couldn't stop until he wasn't a threat," he said, trying not to make a big deal of it all.

Then he held out a hand to Leo and raised an eyebrow in a quizzical manner. "So, shall we get going? After all, the Coven still probably needs our help."

Leo nodded as he grabbed Constantine's wrist before the two of them orbed out, leaving Gideon's body to lie on the ground where it had fallen, already starting to blur around the edges as it lost the ability to hold itself together.

One foe of the Coven of Reformed Supernaturals had fallen.

Now it only remained to be seen if the group's leader could do the same to their main adversary.