Disclaimer: don't own charmed never will (lol)

Reminder: Paige has been kidnapped by a gremlock, Craig is hurling over the stairwell while Carla is trying to escape from the psycho who wants to kill her and threw Chris through a wall of fire.

Isn't it the drama great!

Carla flinched as the hulking man picked her up again.

Chris was as good as dead, Craig was… where was Craig?

Paige was nowhere to be seen, she just wanted him to end it for her. She was tired of being the damsel, she just wanted her get out of jail free card and wanted to go home and sit with her cat watching 3 year old repeats of soaps she would never usually watch unless extremely bored, with a cup of frothy cappuccino.

Instead she was pinned to a wall a psycho breathing heavily on her brandishing a 12'' knife… she would prefer to be at home. Her cat seemed better company than Craig at the moment, the cat could sing better than him. The Elders had protected her from stuff like this normally, she had never usually had to fight for her life, even if she did she always had her whitelighter, Mark, at hand to heal her. The thing with Mark was he was extremely boring, having a conversation with him was like trying to explain to a pre-schooler sub-atomic theory. Quite hard. Not that he wasn't a nice guy, when Carla thought of good it was Mark who would come straight to mind.

But Chris orbed… he had to be a whitelighter… but he had used telekinesis too… so he mustn't be able to heal… it wouldn't matter though if he was dead… but Whitelighters don't die, she reminded herself.

Part Whitelighters do, a small voice reminded her.

She waited as the psycho ran the knife along her chest venomously. She heard a crash, Craig appeared at the doorway, don't run away again. Carla begged in her head as he gawped at the burnt lunatic pinning her to the wall.

"Do not worry I am here to rescue you!" Craig said nonchalantly. His face changing from horror to cockiness. He held his knife bravely although it was barely half the size of Frank's.

"Craig…" Carla croaked.

Frank swung round and faced Craig.

"Don't run…" Carla whimpered.

Craig's jaw dropped to the floor.

He regained himself.

"Where is Chris?" He yelled.

I'm not deaf, just dying idiot! Carla thought to herself angrily.

When she didn't reply Craig decided to start sizing up his enemy, who was foot taller then him and about 100 pounds heavier.

Frank dropped Carla back to the floor in a heap and stalked over to him and grabbed him by the neck.

"No fair…" Craig choked.

"This man is full of Satan's evil, you have to kill him or God won't be happy." Barbas muttered in his astral form by Frank.

"God wants you DEAD!" Frank shrieked.

Craig's hands flew wildly around the obstruction of his airways, he tried to pry Frank's fingers from around his neck but the burnt man kept his grip tight and firm even though his hands were covered in blood.

Craig flailed his arms and legs desperate to free himself, then he felt his knife clutched in his left fist, so he was right handed, he wasn't going to miss… now was not a good time to be squeamish, he closed his eyes and plunged his knife into Frank's right kidney blindly. Frank's grip loosened and Craig fell to the floor gulping in scattered breaths of sweet oxygen. He scrambled to his feet and quickly skidded over to Carla.

"You ok…" He asked examining her arm carefully.

Carla winced, he knocked her arm painfully and a stabbing feeling had shot through her arm.

Frank lay lifeless on the floor, had Craig killed him? Carla prayed he was gone, the body twitched. Carla grabbed Craig's knife with her unharmed arm and strode over to him. Frank was still alive she could hear him breathing, Craig hadn't killed him.

He seemed paralysed.

She wanted so badly to plunge the knife in her fist right into the mans chest but she didn't and turned to look at Craig, who beckoned for Carla to leave but she ignored him and slowly staggered over to the wall of fire, Chris was behind that…

She squinted her eyes and tried to make the flames disappear but they stayed the same, still licking the sides of the walls menacingly. She concentrated, Chris had tried to save her… she had to get him back…

whoa what this she was feeling? Compassion for a man other then Craig?

Weird…

"I'm leaving now!" Craig yelled jumping up the stairs playfully, "We have to go get Paige!" she could hear the noise of his worn leather shoes against the hard cold floor, then they died away and everything went silent.

"What about Chris?" She murmured to herself.

She stared at the wall one more time willing the fire to go away. It betrayed her, it began to move more violently, the flames hadn't burnt anything in the corridor except Frank. They had to obey her. She glared at them concentrating with every fibre for it to go away, her muscles tensed, her fists clenched, her eyes were squeezed shut…

But no change.

Suddenly she felt a hot hand wrap around her leg, she squealed, Frank lay on his front squeezing her ankle with his swollen burnt and bloody hands. She screamed, Craig had to hear her.

She screeched again.

This was going to hurt.

A figure dived through the wall of fire, it had it's sweater over it's head and immediately pulled it off and threw it to the floor and staggered over to Frank and kicked him in the face. Frank's grip loosened instantly, his face dropped to the floor.

Carla looked at the figure.

Chris stood staring at her concerned.

He had lost his sweater, his chest was red raw and bleeding, his face a huge slash across his forehead. His arms were bleeding and bare.

She felt like bursting into to tears when she saw the look of concern on his face, he was too busy worrying about her to realise he was in such pain.

"Are… you ok?" He asked croakily.

Didn't answer and just smiled at him, he would have been cute if he wasn't practically dying, it must be hurting.

Carla didn't care she wrapped her arms around his bleeding body and squeezed him.

He winced under the pressure, she pulled away, her new top was ruined but his concerned face was now a contorted smile.

Frank began to shiver again.

Chris looked at the large man bleeding to death on the floor and saw the knife clutched in Carla's fist.

He grimaced and breathed heavily, then with a flick of his scabbed fingers the knife shot from her grasp into Frank's chest.

Carla yelped.

The body stopped moving completely.

With a flick of Chris' wrist it was over, he had killed him, one second Frank had been gripping onto his life the next second it was gone.

Carla gasped Chris fell to his knees, his body was covered in burns, she couldn't bare to see him like this…

"CRAIG YOU GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE NOW MISTER!" She screamed.

Chris' eyes flickered shut, his face had a painful grin spread across it.

She nudged him, he remained lifeless, he was either unconscious or… no not yet… there was a medical room somewhere in this building and Craig and her were going there.

They had to make Chris live… he had been thrown through a wall of fire for her, then voluntarily walked through it again to save her…

She wouldn't let him die, not now… not from the fire she had created.

A tear dropped onto Chris' burnt chest.

The fire wall beside them vanished in a puff of red smoke.

"CRAIG!" She screamed, now crying openly.

Craig swung by the doorway and moon walked down the corridor.

Hopping over Frank's body, he had thought Frank was dead all along anyway.

He gaped at Chris' body lying by Carla's feet.

He walked over to Chris' body on the floor and knelt beside his head.

He grabbed Chris' arms gently and pulled them up.

"The medic room is down the corridor." He muttered hauling Chris onto his shoulders.

Carla followed him through where her wall of fire had been leaving Frank's dead body sprawled across the floor.

His blood trickled along the white flooring…

Carla couldn't bare to look at her crusting over arm.

As she watched Craig solemnly drag Chris along the corridor she saw his back was covering in scratches. She hated to think what had happened after Frank had thrown him through the wall, but she felt like she needed to know.

When he was ready he would tell her.

Piper had successfully blown up all the army guns and Phoebe had managed to blag her way into an excuse for still hanging around, using Darryl to explain her points. As well as throwing the life saving vial of potion.

The sisters had ventured around the back of the building to try and break in, they had tried every ounce of magic they knew but even with out the electrical current engulfing it they were finding getting into the building harder than they had hoped. Piper was at her wits end, and was seriously annoyed.

As they stood in the alleyway where no one was going to see them using their magic (thank god) Paige was trapped in the building going through God knows what.

The army had carted off after Phoebe had somehow convinced them all, the place was haunted and she, being a psychic, was going to tap into her spiritual connections and open up a portal using the plasmatic energy surrounding the building, so she could get inside and save the trapped people.

The first words of psychics the army backed immediately away, they weren't into the whole magic scene obviously.

It had taken all the self control Piper could muster not burst into laughter.

Darryl was currently trying to convince the presidential troops that:

a) that blowing up the building was too risky and

b) they were supposed to be protecting the people inside.

c) he wasn't crazy bringing psychics to the scene

Of course after he explained all this his replies were nearly as simple:

a) this building was way too dangerous to leave standing because of the casualties it has already caused.

b) collaterals are expected in a case on such a grand scale

c) he was crazy for bringing psychics and he was going to stall them all day, the building would be rubble by 10pm tonight they promised.

Darryl told the girls that was the best compromise they had.

"OPEN SESAME!" Phoebe yelled at the walls.

"That won't work you know…" Piper growled.

"Why not?"

"Because you tried it ten minutes ago and it didn't work then either."

"Oh… yeah… we need to get more spells from the Book of Shadows." Phoebe suggested.

"Do you think there will be any more?" Piper asked.

"Sure, as long as you don't upset it again." Phoebe winked brushing past her sister.

"BARBAS!" The Head of the council howled.

Barbas shimmered in.

"WHY AREN'T THE WHITELIGHTER AND THE FIRESTARTER DEAD?" The Head screamed at him his spittle flew at his feet.

"Mild misconceptions… they appeared to have escaped one of my best plans…" Barbas rubbed his hands together nervously.

"Are you sure the whitelighter is still alive?" Dalia queried.

"I'm unfortunately positive… he will barely live through his wounds but they are in the medical room now so I'm sure he is dead." Barbas said regretfully.

Dalia snorted. "The demon of fear can't take care of a firestarter or a whitelighter…?"

"He has killed every other person in the building now though." The Trok demon pointed out.

"Yes! But we wanted the whitelighter and charmed one dead… neither are!" The Harpy hissed.

"I'll send my warrior to finish off the whitelighter while he is still weak." The Gremlock suggested.

"No." The Head growled, "Let him finish off the witch, then he can… for now let him kill… Paige"

The projection in front of the council showed them a image of the third floor office. Paige was tied to a chair

Paige sat in an old computer chair, she vaguely recognised this place as her office.

Her hands were stuck behind her and her feet were resting on a lump on the floor, she was gagged with a bit of duct tape. Her head was hazy… all she remembered was the Gremlock knocking her out hard and everything went black. She was sure it had been trying to drain her aura. But he hadn't blinded her…

Her vision was blurred, she could make out shapes and colours vaguely, but she definitely recognised her desk, with the glue obsessed guy next to her. Yup that was her pc, covered in… blood… with a dead body lying at her feet. The body vaguely resembled the glue obsessed guy… Paige felt like vomiting.

She tried to flex her fingers… see if she was awake… something was holding them still, they couldn't move. She twisted her neck to see… she saw her hands encased in a clear hard substance. She blinked furiously to try and see.

Her vision began to focus, she saw tubes of empty superglue on her desk… oh god… the demon had super glued her hands together…

The Gremlock appeared beside her…

He stood behind her and whispered into her ear.

"You friends didn't make it," he grinned.

Paige's stomach began to churn, she could smell burning flesh… it reminded her of her parents death… the smell had poisoned the air, the smell was unmistakeable… she prayed it wasn't her friends.

"They were killed by their own magic…" The Gremlock continued.

Barbas astral projected behind the Gremlock

"Get on with it idiot!" Barbas muttered irritated, he had wanted to kill the Charmed one… he should still be allowed. That was the one he had been looking forward to…

Barbas shimmered behind the demon and threw an energy ball at him, the Gremlock swung around screaming as he burst into flames. Barbas waved at him sarcastically as it burst into flames.

"My turn Charmed one…" Barbas swung the chair around so he was staring directly at the witch.

"Let the games begin." He hissed.