He looked around his throne room; the scorched earth of the latest vanquished demon marred the floor. A voice brought him from his thoughts.
"If you kill all your minions, who will there be left to rule over?" She glided through the darkness, lit by the flame torches. Shadows danced about her as she slid onto the smaller throne.
"You are questioning me, Seer?" Dominic made the statement into a dangerous question.
The old woman bowed her head, dark hair falling to cover her eyes. The flickering fire light illuminated her grey streaks.
"I would never question you my liege, merely making a suggestion."
Dominic took his place in the throne next to the Seer. He leaned back into the red velvet lining of the chair. "He failed me."
"You sent him after the children of the charmed ones. He was a lower level demon. I consider him even returning a success."
Dominic chewed his lower lip, "He had a message; it pissed me off."
The Seer nodded. "Leo." She frowned, "The Elder has returned to tend to his saplings. But he can be killed."
"To kill an Elder?" Dominic looked at the old Witch next to him, "that would require a lot of power. Dark lighters work on white lighters, but the poison isn't enough to take out an Elder."
"The poison wouldn't kill him, this is true, but it would harm him. He would be severely weakened, possibly unable to look after your cousins."
Dominic grinned. "A dark lighter, it's so simple, yet genius! He could kill all of them, they all share white lighter blood!"
The Seers eyes glowed white.
"Seer, what do you see? Will my plan be a success?"
"It is uncertain" The Seer frowned, she was used to indecisive visions, but this vision was one of the cloudiest she had experienced. "There are too many variables."
Dominic smiled, "It is a good plan, Seer. Bring me a dark lighter."
He walked slowly through the labyrinth of clay tunnels, towards the central throne room of the Source. Flames licked at the dark walls, lighting the way forward, casting long shadows behind him. He often wondered why it was so impossible for the new fangled contraptions such as electric lighting to be introduced, but the Source liked his flame torches, and so flame torches it was.
He considered the Source. The youngest Source ever to take the throne, inherited from one of the greatest Sources ever to lay claim to the underworld. The rumour was that the heir was insane. He had vanquished the biggest threat to evil that the underworld had ever seen, and now he seemed obsessed with vanquishing his own kind.
Demon after Demon had been summoned, and disappeared into the throne room, never to be seen again. He had heard from one of the Source's guards how unstable he had seemed. There was talk of a revolt, many more demons or warlocks that died at the Source's hands, and there would be insurrection.
He had been summoned to see the Source, apparently there was a white lighter to be taken care of. He jiggled the crossbow on his back, so it settled in the small of his back, the comforting weight on his shoulders.
He turned the last corner and found himself in the throne room, empty with the exception of the two velvet chairs taking centre stage. He waited a beat, wondering what any white lighter had done to deserve the attention of the Source, when he noticed the light, the flickering orange light which grew into the shape of a man.
The dark lighter dropped to one knee as Dominic materialised.
"My liege" The dark lighter bowed before his leader.
"On your feet dark lighter." Dominic growled, looking at the man on his knee in front of him. "My contacts say you are one of the best dark lighters there is."
"I have many kills under my belt," The dark lighter swiftly moved to his feet as the Source appraised him.
"I have a task for you." Dominic said, "It is of most importance, and I must urge you to keep what is revealed in this room to yourself."
The Dark lighter nodded, his curiosity heightened. "A white lighter is causing you trouble?"
"Not a white lighter per se," Dominic hesitated, "An Elder."
The dark lighter bowed his head, "My liege, I would take the Elder out for you if I could, but my poison is not strong enough to kill an Elder."
"I don't care if he dies or not, it's the charges I'm after. Your poison would clear him out of the way, let you get to his charges."
"Charges? My poison only works on White lighters!" The dark lighter was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going.
"The charges all have white lighter blood."
"White lighter blood? So they are half white lighters? But there's only one we've ever known about. And she… she's dead. You saw to that yourself."
The dark lighter frantically tried to put the pieces together. The only half whitelighter he had ever heard of had been one of the infamous charmed ones.
Dominic nodded, "Yes, that one is dead, but there are more, all protected by an Elder."
"How many?"
"Three." Dominic said simply, observing the beads of sweat taking form on the dark lighters forehead. "And yes, they are of the Warren line."
"I don't understand how this is possible. The charmed ones are dead."
"They are the Charmed Ones offspring, they have been cloaked from me for 15 years." Dominic explained, "The Elder is Leo."
The dark lighter looked up at Dominic, searching with his last remaining hope, for any possible sign that this was a joke. "What you are asking me to do, to go up against Leo and the children of the charmed ones, it's madness, it's suicide."
Dominic studied the dark lighter, then formed his hand into a fist, focusing all his rage, he let it build inside, then channelled it to the palm of his hand, it grew warm as flames licked at his skin but never burnt. He watched as the ball of fire grew larger, he looked from the fire to the face of the dark lighter, realisation dawning on his face as Dominic hurled the ball of fire, consuming the dark lighter.
"I'm going to need your crossbow," Dominic motioned for the crossbow and it flew into his hands. He regarded the charred corpse, "My mum used to tell me, if you want something done properly, you've got to do it yourself."
The woman was beautiful, her long dark hair shimmered in the candle light, with just a hint of the grey that would have taken control. Her smile still illuminated her face, as she looked from the young girl to her boys.
"So, is no-one going to say 'Hi'?" She asked the stunned kids.
Wyatt stared at the woman who's grave he visited on an almost daily basis, she was really here, standing in front of him after all this time. He blinked, once, twice, her image remained. A million questions barged their way into his mind, causing his stomach to heave with a thousand different emotions. He didn't know how else to feel.
"Mom?" Wyatt whispered, scared to raise his voice in fear of blowing out one of the candles and shattering the magical illusion.
"I think that's already been covered." Piper laughed, crossing through the circle of candles, taking on a more solid form, she headed for the comforting arms of her boys. They clung to her, not wanting to let her go again, she looked around at the face of the young girl.
"Pia," She said, stroking the girls face, looking into Paige's eyes, "Your mom sends her love!"
Pia gaped, mouth wide open, at the ghost of the woman she knew. Guilt surged through every pore, her first thought after reading those words were for her own mother. She didn't want this woman; they had brought back the wrong sister. It wasn't fair; she wanted her mom.
When the guilt left, she discovered another feeling, hope. Hope that she would see her mom some day soon.
Piper looked round at the last remaining person in the attic and into the eyes of the man she hadn't seen for fifteen years. "Leo!" She smiled, "You're looking great!"
Leo smiled back at her and gave her a gentle squeeze.
Chris looked into his mother's eyes, eyes that he had thought he would never see again. "How?" He whispered.
Piper grinned, "You ought to know silly! You said the spell!" She gave him another squeeze, "And colour me impressed! A perfect summoning spell! Your second spell! It took me and your Aunts years before we got the hang of that one, you three are going to be so powerful!"
Wyatt moved away, hanging his head, "Why didn't you tell us mom? All this time?"
"Honey," Piper glided to stand by Wyatt, holding out her hand to touch his cheek, her touch was cold on his skin, "Please don't be angry with me. A lot happened and I wanted to protect you all from this life, this world. It was naïve of me to believe I could keep you from your destiny."
"Destiny? Mom, this is the first time you've ever spoken to us about all this magical crap!" Wyatt moved away from Piper's outstretched hand.
"Mom? What happened? What was so bad that you had to do this to us?" Chris asked quietly.
Piper and Leo shared a look, "They deserve to know everything, they've only just discovered who they really are, and they deserve to know why they've been in the dark for so long." Leo stood next to Piper, his hand on her shoulder, an echo from a previous lifetime when the gesture would have been all Piper needed for comfort.
"Yeah Mom, enlighten us." Wyatt slumped down on top of the dusty old trunk. Piper sat down next to him, putting her arm around his shoulder.
Piper looked around at the young faces, so innocent. The faces of the children she had been trying to protect from this world, trying to let them have the normal life that she had always longed for. She should have known better. All those years of fighting, of fulfilling her destiny, it wasn't fair of her to deny the children a chance to fulfil theirs.
It was a page from her past that she had tried so hard to forget, and she didn't even know where to start.
"The first thing I guess you need to know is that I had another sister."
"Another sister? What do you mean 'had'?" Pia asked a thousand questions jumbled in her mind, Her eyes flicking from Piper's face to Leo's.
"Phoebe." Piper choked out the name she hadn't uttered for nearly fifteen years, the pain swelled through her, as raw as if it had been yesterday. "She's dead."
"How come you've never even mentioned her before?" Chris knelt down by his mother.
Piper shook her head, "It's such a long story, I don't even know where to begin." Piper tried to gather her chaotic thoughts, looking to Leo for help.
"Your mother, Prue and Phoebe were the power of three, the Charmed Ones for three years, until your Aunt Prue died. Phoebe and Piper found Paige." Leo explained.
"So mom and Aunt Prue never actually even met?" Pia asked, surprised. Her mom had always talked of Aunt Prue as if they had known each other.
Piper shook her head, "No sweetie, they never met."
"Tell us more about Phoebe, why have you never mentioned her before?" Wyatt asked, looking at his mother, intrigued.
Piper smiled, searching for the happier memories of her younger sister, "She was so sweet, she had this childlike quality to her, an innocence," Piper began, "And she fell in love." A solitary tear traced its way down her cheek, she wiped it away.
"Cole," Leo nodded, "He was a half demon."
"What?" Wyatt bellowed, "Why? How did that happen?"
Pia and Chris stared at Piper in stunned silence, waiting for more answers. With each answer another question followed.
"He loved her, and she loved him." Piper nodded, "To begin with he really tried to change, at one point he became fully mortal. He actually helped us kill the Source."
Leo inhaled sharply at the memory, remembering what happened next.
"But Cole absorbed the Source, he became the Source."
"The Source?" Pia asked, "I've read about that! That's the Source of all evil!"
Piper nodded, "At first we all carried on as normal, thinking we had vanquished the Source, Cole kept it all a secret. He and Phoebe got married, somehow he managed to orchestrate a dark ceremony without any of us realising." Piper ran her hands through her hair, wondering how it had all got so bad, so far beyond repair so quickly.
Leo put his hand on Piper's shoulder, calming her, helping her to continue telling the story.
"We didn't even realise. Well, that's not strictly true," Piper looked up to meet Pia's eyes, "Your mom guessed, she had suspicions, but none of us would listen to her." Piper shook her head, "We thought she was crazy. And then Cole moved him and Phoebe in to a penthouse. Next thing we knew Phoebe was pregnant."
Piper remembered Phoebe telling her that she was pregnant, she had been so worried because she had known that Piper and Leo were having trouble conceiving. Piper looked at her boys and smiled.
Wyatt looked at his mother carefully, "Are you telling us that we have another cousin?"
Piper gave him a slow smile, "Dominic isn't much older than you, a year perhaps.." She stroked his blonde straggly hair. "He inherited his fathers throne, he's the new Source ."
"So our own cousin is the Source of all evil?" Chris asked in disbelief, he had always thought they had a small, fairly normal family, now he was learning he was a witch and that his cousin was evil personified.
"How come He's evil? I don't understand," Pia held her head, trying to absorb all the new information about her family.
"Something happened during Phoebe's pregnancy. Cole was Crowned as the Source, Phoebe chose evil over good. We never saw the child, but we came up against Phoebe and Cole several times. You see, Cole was the Source, which made Phoebe his queen. We had been the Charmed Ones for years, and the underworld were hesitant to accept Phoebe as their queen. They wanted proof that she was evil."
"But Phoebe embraced the darkness, she killed innocents and she enjoyed it. Cole kept the rest of the council off of Phoebe's back for several years, but it turned out that Phoebe enjoyed punishing demons and warlocks for failures, and she must have killed one demon too many. The underworld were about to revolt against Cole and Phoebe, and it was decided the only way to satisfy evil that she was on their side, was to kill us."
Piper swallowed hard, remembering the hazy events that had occurred. "A couple of years passed, with the occasional big fight with Phoebe or Cole," Piper glanced at Pia, "Your mom married Glenn, your Dad, and eventually conceived you. It all came to a head while she was still pregnant."
Pia blinked back tears, she knew her Dad had died while her mom was pregnant with her, she knew what she was going to hear, she crumpled to her knees, not wanting to hear anymore, but unable to stop the words falling from her Aunt's mouth.
"You gave your mom her first ever premonition, a premonition in which she saw your Dad being killed by Cole. Of course we tried to stop it coming true, but we were too late. Your dad died, and in her fury, your mom severely wounded Cole, if he had been anything other than the Source, there would have been nothing left of him, your mom really knew how to make potions!"
Piper looked around the attic, her gaze resting on the place where they had had the final showdown.
"Phoebe and Cole returned for vengeance, as we knew they would. We were ready for them. We were so evenly matched, Two charmed ones against the Source and the third charmed one, it was an impossible fight. We needed to tip the balance, we needed the extra power."
Piper glanced at the kids, barely able to meet their eyes. "You asked what happened that was so bad we had to bind your powers? To hide who you really were?" Piper bowed her head, unable to meet any other eyes in the room.
"The night Phoebe and Cole came here looking for vengeance was the one of the last times we used our magic. We couldn't beat them, just the two of us, not even with Leo's help. We needed more power."
"You used our powers didn't you?" Chris guessed, taken aback, "somehow you used our powers."
Piper nodded, tears rushing in rivers down her face, "I'm so sorry."
"You killed your own sister using our powers?" Wyatt asked, he didn't know how he should be feeling anymore, there was a sense of betrayal, of anger and fury, but he couldn't imagine what it would take to even try and kill his own sibling.
Piper looked up at Wyatt, "You were about ten at the time, and you," she continued looking over at Chris, "were eight. We were having troubles with your powers. Wyatt would freeze the room constantly in an attempt to get what he wanted, and Chris, you were learning to control your telekinesis. When Pia gave Paige the premonition, we knew she had powers, and that the Power of three was reborn in you. We knew that the power existed which would defeat Cole and Phoebe. It was the only way."
Piper took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her eyes, her hands were shaking with sorrow, choking her voice.
"We hesitated to use the Power of Three, and the hesitation cost your dad his life. When your Dad died, we vowed we'd do what was necessary to stop them, but to tap into your powers, you had to be in the room."
"We were there? When you killed your own sister, we were watching?" Chris shook his head, hardly believing what his own mother was telling him.
Piper nodded, "It was something that we both regretted doing. After the event, we turned our backs on magic, we bound our powers, and yours. It was the hardest decision we had ever had to make."
Leo looked at Wyatt and Chris, "And it meant that I couldn't stay. I had to go and help to guide other witches. Without the Charmed Ones, they needed me to help more than ever. That was why I left, not because I stopped caring. The last thing I did was to alter your memories, which is not something I did lightly; I didn't want you to have to remember the trauma of what you experienced."
"You could have told us all of this while you were still alive though, why didn't you?" Chris asked.
Piper raised her eyebrows, "I remember a time when Grams tried to tell me, Phoebe and Prue that we were witches. We were all ready to cart her off to the asylum. Besides, I didn't want you to know about this world, while you live in ignorance of it you are safe from it, and Leo could keep you cloaked."
"I guess ignorance really is bliss!" Pia mused.
From the corner of his eye, Wyatt noticed an orangey glow, for a second he thought that one of the candles had set fire to the rug, as he turned the flame grew bigger, brighter and stronger. Pia and Chris turned towards the flame and gasped as it took a human form.
"Isn't this sweet, a family gathering!" Dominic muttered as he stepped forward, aiming the crossbow at Leo.
/lj-cut
If any of you guys have suggestions on what I can call this whole series, let me know!