Everyone gathered in the den and slowly sat in a circular fashion around the coffee table. Pru, Piper, Phoebe, Paige, and Leo had avoided focusing their thoughts on what had happened in Ankara. With the Cardinals here now imploring they reveal all that had happened to the family, the Halliwells were compelled to face their pasts and what they once were and how they managed to gather there now. It amazed them all how despite the passage of time, of separate lives lived and lives not lived, they still bonded together in the same dynamic with which they always had.
Cardinal Magaldi placed on the coffee table a large, black bound book. Pru amused herself with the thought that had it not had the triquatra on it that it could pass for their Book of Shadows. How she wished they could flip through its pages to gain guidance from their ancestors as to what they could do in their current situation.
"This book," Cardinal Duarte began, "is a tome of great power. It had been started and maintained by our organization in the Church for millennia. Great magic flows through its pages, which are documents of all aspects of the magical realm. It not only contains spells but serves as a reference guide to all matter of magical beings."
"It has been kept sacred by our sect," Cardinal Magaldi continued. "Its contents have never been disclosed to anyone beyond Our Holy Mother Church. Never disclosed in the history of its existence except for one key instance.
"During the 1800's it was foreseen by a member of the Church that a great evil would inherit the earth. Fearful that Hell would be brought on Earth, it was decided by the sect to share our knowledge with a coven of good witches. Good witches have always fought the forces of evil and we thought to tip the balance of power in good's favor by bestowing upon these witches our intimate knowledge of all things magical. It was further discussed that to embolden a whole coven with that much knowledge and power would be foolish.
"Our sect has always taken a stance of neutrality. Never had we sought to influence the struggle between good and evil. We merely sought to document all that we could and to learn as much as we could. In this act we knew we would become ultimately responsible for anything that happened with the knowledge we would divulge. We understood the ease with which power could corrupt even the most benevolent of souls and that a powerful coven of witches could easily succumb to evil's seductions"
"Thus it was decided," continued Cardinal Duarte, "To burden but a single witch. We had followed the ancestry of a powerful witch that lived in the New World. Her family originated in Virginia but moved west as time wore on. Her descendent at this time traveled with her husband to California during the Gold Rush. They sought to capitalize on the promises the West brought and to escape the suspicions of prying eyes.
"It was at this time that a Cardinal was dispatched from Rome with a copy of our tome. He traveled a long difficult path to intercept this witch on the Wagon trail, who had herself traveled an arduous path. He approached her in the still of night, when the caravan she traveled with had stopped to slumber. She fed her infant daughter by a campfire encircled by wagons.
"The Cardinal called out to her from the dark. He feared to tread into her view without gaining her trust, as she was gifted with telekinetic powers.
'Helena Halliwell,' the Cardinal summoned, 'Daughter of Astrid, Granddaughter of Melinda and Mother of Laura. I come to you in this dark hour with a gift of good will'
"Frightened, Helena distrusted the voice. She nonetheless bid it come forward. Her life as a witch had accustomed her to the things that go bump in the night. She had faced both the benevolent and malevolent in this world and knew a greater good looked out for her.
"The Cardinal came out of the night and immediately Helena bowed her head down. Her husband had introduced her to the Catholic Church and she embraced its customs as she had embraced her own Wiccan ones. The Catholicism of her husband, in its traditional values and ancient rites, gave her a peace when she knew of so many darker things.
"The Cardinal bid her to rise. He explained where he came from and the purpose of his journey to her. He explained the evil that they feared on the horizon and their sole attempt to stop it. He spoke to her of her family lineage, of the power witches to follow in her footsteps as well as "The Charmed Ones", foretold to be a great benevolent force for good.
"He gave Helena the tome and promised her with it, no evil would extinguish her bloodline. Her family and the book would be as one, more powerful as each grew. He instructed her to study the book but also to contribute to it. As their shared knowledge grew each generation would be better equipped for the coming evil."
"I think I know what happens next," Pru said," Helena and her family get to California. They settle in San Francisco and generations later the Charmed Ones are born. Does that pretty much sum up the rest of your story?"
"Essentially," Cardinal Duarte responded.
"So what," Paige began, "Is it payback time or something?"
"Essentially," Cardinal Magaldi said, "If you look at things as a whole you begin to realize the Evil that we're dealing with is of our own creation."
"I'm not following," Piper said, perturbed.
"The evil we had foreseen, that we sought to prepare against," Cardinal Duarte said, "We had ourselves assisted. We inadvertently gave that Evil the resources it needed to accomplish what it has. Like fools we failed to realize that the powerful lineage we were further empowering could spawn the future evil we feared."
"Well, there's nothing we can do about that now," Piper said, "I don't really see how relevant this is to our present situation. Wyatt doesn't have the Book of Shadows, it's upstairs in the attic."
"Actually Piper," Paige interrupted, "He does. Remember that ruby covered book Aeron had?"
"Perhaps it's time you share with us all that has happened," Cardinal Magaldi said. "Our knowledge of this family had been quite thorough from the time the tome was granted to Helena up until the time you four died. Imagine our surprise when we learned that all four Charmed Ones were alive. What has happened to this family since?"
Pru, Piper, Phoebe, Paige and Leo all looked at each other hesitantly. So much had happened to them all, years spent separated and lost. The pieces were difficult to construe themselves let alone explain to someone else. Piper rose and circled the room, carefully choosing the words in her mind that would help her best explain the gap.
"After Pru died we discovered Paige and reconstituted the Power of Three," Piper began.
"Forgive me for interrupting, Ms. Halliwell," Cardinal Duarte said, "But we're caught up on events up until the birth of your son Chris."
"Sorry," Piper stammered, "The boys were young when Paige, Phoebe and I vanished. We had gone to the Attic to search the Book of Shadows. The Elders feared some Ancient had surfaced and wanted us to track him down. Out of nowhere a Phoenix appeared. It's an ancient demon made of fire in the shape of a hawk. The Phoenix's flames encircled us and closed in on us. Before it could flame broil us we were yanked to the Underworld."
"That's where we were enchanted," Phoebe said, "A powerful spell was cast on us by a powerful entity, Alma."
"Now this is where things get interesting," Paige threw out there.
"Alma is half of a life force that drives this world. Kind of like Yin and Yang, Light and Dark," Phoebe continued, "Dani is the other half. Alma is a destructive force while Dani is a creative one. They're at constant odds with each other and their balance is what drives the world. Think of them as the architects of the universe. They're not Gods but they're pretty damn close."
"Alma took us to shift the balance of power to Evil. She kept us in an illusionary world where we duped into doing things for her," Paige added.
"However I was rescued by Dani, "Piper said, "She rescued me and kept me within her graces. With Dani I learned and empowered myself, readied myself for when my family would need me. I don't know how many times I wanted to save my sisters or return to my husband and sons. Dani encouraged me to learn what I could from her so that when my family needed me most I could help them"
"Meanwhile I raised the boys or tried to at least," Leo said, "I mourned for Piper and my loss clouded my judgment from the responsibility I had to my children. I fought against them, causing Wyatt to run away and ultimately become the evil that he is today. I pushed Chris to resent me for the troubled childhood he had. I lost one son to my grief and lost another to my ignorance."
Leo stood up and stepped away from the group. They all knew the toll it had all taken on him. The sisters couldn't visualize the man who'd become distraught and lost touch with his children; it wasn't the man they knew. With their return he had regained his focus. Piper never realized how important she was to Leo until that moment.
"What happened with Chris and Wyatt?" Cardinal Duarte pressed.
"As I said before, I lost contact with Wyatt," Leo started, "I tried to look for him but every lead I followed turned up empty. The few times I received a solid lead he had already split. I followed Wyatt around the world.
"He seemed at first interested in all kinds of magic. He had visited faeries, leprechauns, and giants. Slowly the trails lead to more powerful creatures such as seers, wizards and sorceresses. It became clear that as he aged his fascination with power grew. The last lead I had on Wyatt took me to the Underworld, to a group of powerful Arch Demons. They had the ability to resurrect themselves and to manipulate time. When I arrived they had just resurrected themselves; it seemed as if Wyatt had vanquished them.
"While I chased Wyatt around the globe, Chris stayed with Victor. Victor tried to snap me out of the haze I had been living in but he had no luck. I visited Chris sporadically but I could see even in my shadowy view the intensity with which he grew to despise me. I felt like I owed it to Piper to bring her family back together. Chris grew into a man without my help. He fell in love and became engaged to a witch named Bianca. She came from a coven of assassin witches. She fell out of the practice and devoted her time to Chris.
"One day she suddenly called the wedding off. Chris was devastated and Bianca withdrew into her family home, shunning her craft and not daring to venture out. I later learned that she was threatened out of the engagement by Aeron, Wyatt's chief follower. He scared her into believing that he would have Chris killed if she didn't leave him."
"Here's some background information on Aeron," Pru said, "Leo filled me in on a few things-,"
"-Which I got from the Elders when Susie first went missing," Leo said.
"Sometime at the end of the Roman Empire is when it all started," Pru began, "Wyatt started conquering much of the old world and it took a union of demons and whitelighters to bring him down. For thousands of years afterwards it was Aeron who kept his cause alive, looking for a way to resurrect him. Aeron was helped in his mission by his sister Adana."
"Wait," Piper said.
The wheels in Piper's mind slowly started to churn. Something about everything they were discussing struck a chord with her, a familiarity and continuity. A sudden realization came to her that both angered and disappointed her. She felt duped and was furious at herself for failing to connect the dots before that moment.
"Aeron started the sequence of events that's lead us all here today," Piper said, "I know he's the one who sent the phoenix after us all those years ago. He's been the catalyst of everything and has been working us from the start."
It had never occurred to Piper that everything that had happened anything more than a random sequence of events. That it was all part of a larger plan baffled her mind. The complexity of it, the precision involved, took the understanding of a patient and persistent mind.
"He then somehow kidnapped Susie," Phoebe uttered.
"It was when Susie was kidnapped that Alma dispatched me and Phoebe to retrieve the Book of Shadows," Paige said, "That's when we were reunited with Piper and finally fell out of the spell. It was then that we learned that Susie was Phoebe's daughter, her child with Cole."
"When Cole was the Source, I was pregnant," Phoebe said, "After we vanquished Cole, the Seer stole her from my womb. The Seer couldn't handle the powers and she obliterated herself with the hierarchy of the underworld. Piper, Paige and I witnessed the whole thing. When we left, Leo orbed in to rescue us. That's when he found Susie."
"I wasn't sure what to make of it all so I took Susie up to the Elders. They decided it would be best to place her with an adoptive family to protect both Susie and Phoebe," said Leo.
There was a silence in the room. The sting of that decision still bore in both Phoebe's and Leo's hearts. Phoebe had forgiven him but Leo wasn't sure he would ever forgive himself. Especially for what he still lacked to share with Phoebe.
"We were preparing to go after Susie," Piper said, "Leo had caught us up on her capture.
"When Chris found out Susie had gone missing, he became alarmed and wanted to go after Susie alone. I convinced Bianca to go with him," Leo said, "They left for Turkey and traveled to a forest outside of Ankara, where Wyatt was originally defeated by the Demons and Elders thousands of years ago."
"We prepared ourselves at the Manor to go after them," Paige said, "Suddenly Phoebe and I were pulled away; summoned in a sense. Our spirits were separated from our bodies. Aeron had cast a spell to use our powers at his bidding. I guess he thought we were still dead."
"Which would explain why our spirits went but not our bodies," Phoebe added.
"Dani's protection kept me from coming with them," Piper said, "I made sure they're bodies were safe. They were left in a sleep like state. I went to Dani to see what had happened, to gain her insight on the events that were transpiring."
"Since they couldn't get Piper's spirit," Phoebe said, "The spell they cast brought Pru's spirit from the afterlife. They then forced us to summon Alma. I don't know how they knew about her or why she would help them but she did. She created a field made up of a crystal lattice that neutralized all magic within its range."
"Aeron knew Chris and Bianca were coming for Susie and he prepared to send a phoenix after them," Piper said, "Dani alerted me to my son's doom and sent me down to help him with all of her power at my disposal. When the demon attacked I descended upon them from the sky and froze the flames of the phoenix, vanquishing it. It was the first time in years that I laid my eyes upon my youngest son. We then finished the trek through the forest to Aeron's lair."
"Aeron coerced Alma into helping Wyatt. She lay in wait for the moment that she was needed in the ground. After using us, Aeron separated us," Pru said, "He put me and Paige in a hidden room and had Phoebe nurse Susie during childbirth."
"Once the infant was born Aeron's sister Adana came and whisked him away. As soon as he was born he started to grow and talk. I knew it wasn't an ordinary baby," Phoebe said.
"In the lair Chris, Bianca and I came face to face with Aeron and Adana," Piper said, "Chris seemed to know them and it appeared as if the dots were connecting in his mind. With them was a dark clad figure. They were all armed with weapons.
"Suddenly Paige and Pru come out of a hidden door then Phoebe and Susie come out of another. We're all ready to take on Aeron when Leo arrives with a grouping of High Elders and Arch Demons. There was a pool of water between us and from this pool the clad figure pulls out Excalibur.
"Seeing the weapon the Demons tried to throw energy balls but found themselves powerless. It's then that we realize that none of us had powers. Bianca realized the crystals dotting the lair were hindering out powers and she struck one with an athame, breaking the lattice's power.
"The Demons and Elders showered energy balls and orbs on the figure but with a swift hand they were all deflected with Excalibur and sent back to the Demons and Elders, killing them. That's when Wyatt revealed himself as the clad figure. He killed Bianca with an energy flare from Excalibur and it dematerialized her in front of Chris' eyes.
"That's when Chris summoned some sort of power, an electromagnetic power, and tried to kill Wyatt. Wyatt shimmered out of the way and Adana was killed instead. Wyatt shimmered in behind Chris and struck him on the head with the hilt of Excalibur which knocked Chris out.
"I ran towards Chris to see if he was alive," Piper said, "I felt his pulse and breath and stood up to Wyatt in defense of my youngest son. It was the first time I had laid eyes on my eldest son in years."
Piper kept quiet after that last revelation. When her eyes met Wyatt's she searched for some semblance of the boy she left behind. The vacancy in Wyatt's eyes, the lack of recognition struck her deeply. She did not know the man who stood before her and he didn't seem to know her.
"Before anything else could happen," Piper continued, "Smoke rose from the ground and swirled around us making nothing visible. It was Alma. Once the smoke cleared Wyatt and Aeron were gone."
"Leo and Paige orbed us back to the Manor and I took Susie to the hospital," Phoebe said.
"We lay Chris on his bed and kept a silent vigil at his side until he woke up," Piper said.
"Does that about catch you up?" Paige asked.