Chapter One: One Less Evil…One More Good

In this time

And in this hour

With this rhyme

Goddess, grant us power.

Power to climb and rise above

This evil before us that feels no love.

Remove its presence from our sight

And free us from it on this hallowed night.

The entire Halliwell clan stood together in the Underworld, hands clasped, as they chanted the spell. They watched as the demon began to burn, and then turned to ash. This particular demon, Bezelore, had given them quite a challenge. He had managed to destroy most of the Elders, and organize the Underworld quite efficiently before the Charmed Ones had figured out that if the Power of Three didn't work, and adding in their Twice-Blessed sons didn't work, the only solution was to bring in the whole family.

"Thank goodness that's over," Paige said. She then grabbed her daughters' hands and orbed them back to the manor, the rest of the family following.

When they had all rematerialized back in the manor, Phoebe's daughter and Paige's two ran upstairs to change.

Jordan was last up the stairs, and the rest of the family could hear her yelling excitedly, "Yay! We're back in time to Trick or Treat!"

Chris and Wyatt looked at each other and rolled their eyes

"How'd we get roped into taking them this year?" Chris asked his older brother.

"Because of last year when you came home piss assed drunk and ended up spilling that I had been the one that had given the alcohol to you, when I wasn't old enough to have it myself. And of course let's not forget our lovely younger brother Hayden who got caught by Mom getting it on with his girlfriend last year!" Wyatt grinned at his 16-year-old baby brother.

"Shut it, Wy," the youngest of Piper's boys grumbled to his brother. "If you hadn't given Chris your illegally acquired alcohol, then he wouldn't have come home so drunk he couldn't walk up the stairs, which in turn would have meant that Mom wouldn't have been woken up and forced to help her middle child into bed, which would have meant she never would have noticed that I wasn't in mine at three o'clock in the morning."

"Right," Chris and Wyatt said together, looking at their brother as if he spoke another language.

Phoebe's daughter Pearl, and Paige's daughters Patience and Jordan came running back down the stairs 20 minutes later, eagerly dragging their older cousins out the door.

Chris looked at Pearl, his oldest cousin, and grimaced at her outfit. "Oh hell no you are NOT wearing that to this oh-so-precious Halloween party you're planning on attending. Get your happy little 13-year-old butt back upstairs and put on some clothes. What are you supposed to be anyways?"

"A Valkyrie, and no, I'm not changing."

"The hell you aren't!" Wyatt joined his brother. "There is no need for you to be showing that much skin."

"Who are you, my mother?" Pearl asked her cousin snidely.

"No, but if she wasn't in her room getting ready to go to P3 tonight I'm sure she'd say the same thing, as would Aunt Paige and Mom. So it's simple, go change or we're not taking you."

"I knew you would say that. Greg's on his way to pick me up, so I don't need a ride."

"Who's Greg?" Hayden asked suspiciously.

"The boy that asked me to the party."

"If he's old enough to drive then he's too old for you." Chris informed her.

The four of them heard a car pull into the drive and honk.

"See ya boys later," Pearl smiled evilly as she walked to the door.

"I don't think so," Wyatt grabbed her arm.

"I do," she said, making herself go intangible so they couldn't grab her as she ran for the door and easily passed through it, knowing that Greg couldn't see her from his car.

"That little brat!" All three boys exclaimed at once, and then headed into the kitchen to grab their still sweet and innocent cousins.

Three Days Later…

Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were sitting in the kitchen drinking tea and enjoying a for once quiet manor. All of the kids were spending the night at Magick School, along with their fathers for some special event. The sisters had taken the day off to spend some quality non-demon fighting time after their last big vanquish while they had the chance. They had gone shopping and out to eat before going to P3.

Their 'normal' time, as they liked to call it, didn't last long as the kitchen was filled with the sound of orbs. The Charmed Ones looked up to see Matthias, one of the few remaining Elders, along with another whitelighter and a robed figure.

"Blessed Be," Matthias greeted them. The sisters responded with the same.

"I am going to get straight to the point. We need your help," the Elder told them plainly.

"There's something new," Piper responded sarcastically.

"This is a very complicated and delicate situation, one I hope you will take seriously."

"What demon is it this time?" Paige asked.

"No demon, this is a lot different. The new Council of Elders believes that it is one that would best be handled with your knowledge and experience of practicing and teaching magick."

"So spill already!" Phoebe demanded.

"As you know, the demon you recently vanquished destroyed almost all of the Elders, and did manage to take out the entire Council of Elders. In the past couple of days we have managed to form a new Council. We began receiving reports this morning about the various projects that the old Elder Council was dealing with that we had previously had no knowledge of. Joel was one of those who came forward with what we found as a quite disturbing secret the old Council was keeping."

Joel, the whitelighter that came in with the Elder then stepped forward and began to speak. "8 years ago I was assigned to be a guardian for a young girl who had been found just wandering around 'Up There'. She had no memory of anything, except for her name. She had a bag that only contained a Book of Shadows and a notebook. Both were and still are completely unreadable to anyone but Kiara, the little girl. She also had a note for the Elders. They never told me or anyone else what it said though."

"What happened to the girl?" Paige asked. She had immediately fallen into the story, as she did anytime children were involved.

"The Elders decided to use her as a guinea pig of sorts, seeming as how there was no one to argue for the child. They began sending her to different locations around the world. She would spend several months at each location learning the particular skill the master she had been sent to had to offer. They alternated her between learning how to fight in hand-to-hand combat, and learning to use her magick. The sent her to spell experts, potion making, weaponry, and many forms of martial arts. It was truly disgusting how they treated her."

"How do you mean?" Piper asked, her maternal instincts telling her that she wasn't going to like what the man had to say next.

"They had very strict rules for her. She wasn't allowed to speak, unless commanded to do so. She had no freewill what so ever. She did, still does, what she's told when she's told to do it. She isn't allowed an opinion or feelings. The Elders were training her to become the perfect demon killing machine, and she has become quite good at it. It's kind of scary too, because the Elders don't even know where most of her power comes from. Sure they blessed her with many powers, but she has even more than that. They just assumed they were doing something right when she started showing powers she wasn't supposed to have."

"How could you let them do this?" "Where is she now?" "What does this have to do with us?" The sisters began bombarding Joel with questions.

"Calm down for a moment, please. I tried to stop them, but they told me if I ever brought it up again they would recycle my soul. It was my job to move her from one place of training to the next, and watch her in between. They usually gave her a few days of rest in between subjects."

Matthias cut Joel off, "As for what this has to do with you, well…everything now. We just found out about her training, and were just as disgusted about it as you. No human, magickal or otherwise, should be treated like that, and we intend to stop it. We would like you to take her. We know that you all have your own lives that you try to lead, and we tried to find another option, but there is no one else."

"How can there be no one else?" Piper asked. "There are thousands of witches, many of them who would probably love the challenge."

"I know, but none of them have ever experienced this kind of power. You have Wyatt and Chris and the Power of Three, along with your other very magickal children. Please try. The new Council doesn't want to be like the old. We don't want to force assignments or rules on you to make our lives easier. Just try for a while, and if it doesn't work, we'll try somewhere else."

"Of course we will," Paige spoke as the Elder finished his plea. "There's always more room in this family, but what exactly do you want us to do with her?"

Joel spoke again, "It's going to be very hard at first. We want you to try and teach her how to be human again, but keep in mind that for all of her remembered life, she has been trained to take orders without thought, and to do nothing else. Realize, that for a while you'll have to give her orders as well."

"No way!" the sisters cried at once.

"If you don't then she'll probably die. She doesn't eat, or drink, or sleep unless somebody tells her to. I remember on one of her resting periods I had to leave her for a few days, and I told her to do whatever she felt like. She sat on her bed. She didn't eat or sleep, she just sat there. The only thing she did was her morning exercises, and that's because one of the first things she was taught was to get up at four every morning, and if her instructor gave her no orders, she was to go through an exercise routine they taught her. She literally cannot function without being told to do so."

The Charmed Ones sat in silence, thinking about the situation. After a few minutes, Paige finally spoke, "Is that her under the robe?"

"Yes. Before I have her remove it, understand that the Elders made her life hell. Her trainers were merciless, and if she didn't complete something to their satisfaction, she was punished. Just be ready." Joel's voice deepened and rose he spoke a command to Kiara. "Kiara, take off your robe and send it back to where it belongs."

The figure removed the white robe and held it out in front of her before causing it to disappear. The sisters gasped when they saw her. She was clearly only about 17. She was dirty and wearing thin dirty clothes that one could only guess passed as clothes. She was incredibly emaciated; the sisters could see her ribs where there were holes in her shirt. Her eyes were cast downwards, and she did not move after she had finished the tasks Joel had assigned her. Her hair was bound messily on her head, and she had the dark circles and bloodshot eyes that clearly meant a severe lack of sleep.

The sisters stared for a few moments before Paige finally spoke, "Welcome to your new home, Kiara."

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter. Reviews are VERY much desired, even if they are bad (Please let me know if I suck). Usually getting even one review leads me to immediately update, so if you want more….) If you have any questions, let me know. I packed a lot of info into this chapter; so let me know if I forgot something. Hopefully after chapter two or three there won't be quite as much important info all at once.