A Charmed Story - Part Three:
Double Demons
Chapter 4

"The problem is that I can't get out of this place," Piper said after a while. "If I could, I could try to... well.. I don't know..."
Bianca smiled weakly: "You can't do anything... I can't do anything. God, I wish that this had never happened." She cried again.
Piper hugged her: "No, no... stop thinking like that!"
"But..." the Phoenix sobbed.
"No buts... this child is a gift... And it's something very special... Look... I think that maybe it's the first time that there is a child of a good and... well... I think you know what I mean, right...?" She nodded.
"Maybe that's why the other Phoenixes are so worried about it," Piper suggested. Bianca didn't answer. She was just crying.
"Maybe I should talk to Leo... I mean, if he asks the Elders maybe..."
"No!" Bianca rose, "don't tell him... there are already too many people who know this! And I'm sure Chris will find out about it, when we tell him... I'm sure."

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige was still thinking about what Nicki had said before. A witch.. an evil witch... Yeah, why not... But... Who should want to go after the Charmed Ones...? There had never been a witch trying to fight against them before...only demons and other bad creatures.
Meanwhile Nicki was trying to cheer up Sarah. That little girl was full of fear.
"Did you see anything before you got here?" Paige asked her then. "I mean, was there anything that could help us to find our who brought us here?"
"No," Sarah said then. "Nothing that I remember."
Paige sighed: "O.k., there are a few questions to answer now. First: Where are we exactly? Second: Who brought us here? Third: Why did he or she do that? Fourth: Who is in the magic school in your place, Nicki, and is this the same person that brought us here? And fifth: Where are the whitelighters?"
"All good questions, Mrs. Matthews, if they had an answer which we could reach..." Nicki sighed. "Where are we exactly? No idea... The Underworld? Well, too out of fashion..."
Paige chuckled: "Well, there are not many places to be in, where my family can't sense us, scry for us, hell... find us!"
"Yeah, I know... This has to be the Underworld. Just kidding... Then, second question: Who brought us here? Well, if it's the Underworld... Demons, probably. Warlocks, perhaps... Don't know. Any evil creature."
Paige nodded, pensive, as Sarah kept silent, listening to them.
"Thirdly... Who's the one pretending to be me... And I swear that if I face her some day..." she clenched her fist, angrily, "o.k. ... And as for that, there's another question... Why ME?"
"Because you were alone at the time they caught you? Maybe... Just guessing," Paige answered.
Nicki shrugged: "No idea, but I don't think she was the same person that trapped us. I mean... there must be more than ONE person, you know? They're a team. Otherwise, they wouldn't have got so many... witches."
"Yeah... You must be right. So, more than ONE demon... Probably more than 10. A horde..."
Sarah adopted a very scared countenance. Everyone noticed her tension.
"Oh, honey, calm down, sweetie..." Paige added immediately, "you'll get used to my weird sense of humour. It tends to work even better in extreme situations..."
Nicki smiled and stroked Sarah's hair. "Don't worry, you're with the best ones now," she said. And then she went on: "Ok, as for the whitelighters... Killing them, has sense for demons. Keeping them trapped, away from witches... No way. So Mrs. Matthews... What if we're wrong from the very beginning?"
The Charmed One frowned: "What are you thinking about, Nicki?"
The girl shrugged again: "Only that we shouldn't dismiss any idea... that's all. Analyse it this way: Demons can't actually enter the magic school. Then, how the hell was I caught, and how's that other person inside? To top it all... If no demon can enter, Belthazor even less. We cast that special spell on him. So, we guessed, that this girl pretending to be me is another witch, the only one capable of entering the school."
Paige nodded, as she continued her explanation.
"Well, together with Elders an whitelighters..." she smiled in a weird way, and made a pause.
"But whitelighters are also disappearing... "
"Yeah, that's it. They're disappearing, but they're not dead, as far as we know. Above all because the only way to kill them is a darklighter arrow. They'd be out there, somewhere, dead."
"Well, that doesn't mean that they're not dead... Their bodies could be taken away, or something..."
"Yeah, but what I mean is that we shouldn't restrict our thoughts to the supposition that it was demons that are doing this... or at least... only demons. Only witches, whitelighters and Elders can enter the school... Witches and whitelighters are missing... And you've said that... There are not many places where your family can't find us. The Underworld and..."
Paige looked at her in shock: "No, no, no... That's not possible, Leo and Chris are..."
"I'm not saying anything, Mrs. Matthews. But even though I didn't like Gideon either, you should know that before you and your family came into the school... there were already many who supported him..." They all kept sielent for a while.
"But... why?" Sarah asked then, very pale.

°°°°°°°°°°

Both men turned to Nicki in awe.
"Is everything ok?" asked Tom, looking over Phoebe's shoulder and seeing their faces.
"Yeah, it is..." Leo answered. "Don't worry."
"But what's that pap..." this sentence gained Tom a hit from Steve. "Ouch! "
Chris kept silent for a moment. Then he said: "Well, maybe... we should go on searching..."
The teen that was ahead of everyone, Steve, grabbed some books again and started to read, while the adults were looking questioningly at each other.
"Leo, Chris, could you go to Cole? Ask him about some demons in the underworld..." Phoebe said, trying to get the men out with him. He would explain everything to them.
Chris's eyes screamed 'NO' but Phoebe just looked at him, very strict and he gave up. Both men went to Cole.
Phoebe watched the teens and looked through the book.
Steve, who was more suspicious than ever before, watched Nicki closer.
'Tom...Tom!' Tom winced, looked around confused and then met Steve's green eyes and understood.
They were using their power, the one they shouldn't use at all... especially in context tests and teamwork. Both had an unexplainable connection. They could talk to each other in their minds, they even could see the image of each other in their mind and they needn't be in the same room at all. No one knew this, except their families who made a secret out of it and bound their powers during the time at school.
'It works?' Tom asked surprised, pretending to read.
'Yeah. I don't know why... maybe mom thought that we might need them.'
'Always loved ya mom.'
Steve could feel his friend's smile, yeah he even could see it in his mind. 'Shut up. You always loved her, when she cooked for you.'
Tom's answer was a short: 'Yap.'
'Look. There's something wrong, very wrong...'
Before he could go on: 'NO! Look at this, Steven Moody figured THAT out... all alone?'
'Stop the sarcasm, moron. I mean with Nicki... didn't you see it? She behaved very weird during the last hours. And even worse. When she looked into my eyes it was...' he shivered again, remembering it.
'What? You're crazy.'
'No! Look.' Steve closed his eyes, concentrated, and sent Tom his memories.
'Whoa! That was creepy, man.'
'Told ya.'
'What do you think is going on? Why is she that way? What do we do?'
'I'll try to find out.'
"Nicki?" She looked up.
Steve went next to her and hugged her. "Don't worry. I know how you feel..."
She gave him a puzzled look.
"You remember the days where you were trapped yourself, mistreated by some stupid humans, unable to defend yourself." He said it sincerely, with tears in his eyes.
Nicki switched fast. Tears came up.
"Yeah. Thank you," she hugged back and Steve smiled sadly at Tom.
'That never happened...'
'What should we do? This is clearly NOT Nicki.'
They let go and went on reading.
Phoebe looked at the scene, very surprised. 'Didn't know that the girl went through such terrible things...' But after she saw the smile, she frowned. 'What the hell was that?'
Her empathy started up and somehow she broke into their conversation.
'They know it!' she thought horrified and surprised. 'How was I able to break into... whatever that was, it!'
'Mrs. Halliwell?' That was Steve's astonished voice.
'Steve?'
'Mrs. Halliwell?'
Both looked at each other, while Tom's head flew from Steve to Phoebe and back to his friend.
'You can hear us?'
'Yeah, what's happening?'
'It's our power. We can talk to each other in our minds, but we never knew that we could talk to others...'
'Wow, that's... unbelievable.'
After some silence: 'So you know that Nicki is not what she seems?'
'Yeah, but how did you find that out, Phoebe? Ehmm.. Mrs. Halliwell.' Tom just listened to the conversation and stared at Nicki.
'Call me Phoebe... I had a premonition. And that wasn't good at all.'
'What should we do?' the thought was helpless and sad.
'Now, everyone knows that she's... false. Chris and Leo will tell Piper and Bianca and we have to find a way, to get her out of line. We don't need her here.'
'I'll do it, I'll find a way.' Steve said bravely.
'No, it's too dangerous. We don't know who she is or what she has to do with all of this.'
'No, I'll do it, but wait, maybe I have some clues. Watch.' He sent her the pics.
Then he stood up. "Nicki? Can I talk to you for a sec."
She nodded and both teens went out, before Phoebe could say a word against it.
"Oh no..."
"Don't worry Mrs... Phoebe." Tom stood next to her now and was audacious enough to caress her back. "Let's go with the others."

°°°°°°°°°°

"That's unbelievable," Leo said after they had listen to the explanation of Cole.
"But that's exactly what happened... That girl isn't Nicki."
"But who is she?" Leo asked.
"I think the question must be: who could she be?... I mean... she can't be a demon or even Belthazor, they can't enter the school."
Leo nodded.
"And who can enter the school?" Cole asked.
Chris frowned: "Except you and Bianca who are "invited" to stay here... there are only witches, whitelighters and Elders as far as I remember."
Leo sighed: "That means we're again fighting against the good instead of the evil, or what?"
"It seems so, dad."
"No, not absolutely..." Cole remarked. Leo looked at him waiting for an explanation. "Look, when I was a demon, there were also a few really bad witches down there!" Cole explained.
"Right," Chris rose his head, "the dark witches."
Cole looked at his nephew: "You know them?"
"Met a few of them in my time," he answered.
Leo rose his hands: "Stop, stop, stop! If those witches were involved the Elders would know it..."
Cole frowned: "Oh man... Don't tell me that you are also with them?" Leo sighed.
"Any idea what we can do now?" Chris asked.

°°°°°°°°°°

When Piper came back from the toilette, Bianca was lying on the sofa touching her womb softly. When she heard the witch she looked up.
"Everything alright?" Piper asked. Bianca nodded.
"Can I ask you something?" Piper went on. "You told me that you're feeling that you're pregnant... So what is it exactly what you feel?"
The Phoenix sighed: "I feel that there is something inside. I feel it's life. It's hard to describe... You know it's just that you feel you're not alone." Piper nodded.
"And I feel if everything's alright, or not," she added.
"And? Is everything alright?" Piper asked a little afraid of the answer.
But Bianca just nodded. "If I could only..." she sobbed.
"I know honey, I know," Piper hugged her lovingly.

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige was still frowning... the idea that there are witches and Elders involved in all that, wasn't funny. But it seemed to be the most possible idea they had had the last minutes.
"What can we do with that knowledge?" Nicki asked still hugging little Sarah.
At that moment Derrick went closer again: "I've talked to a lot of them here, but no one knows more about how they came here."
Paige sighed: "What we need is a good idea. A very good one."

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris was about to say something when Phoebe and Tom went in. "Where are Steve and the girl?" he asked.
"Don't worry, Steve is taking her attention away from us," Tom explained.
"Any ideas about what we can do now?" Phoebe asked.
"I was just about to say something, when you went in," Chris said with a weak smile, "I thought about a bait... I mean... what we need is a spell to stay on the trace of someone...Like a homing beacon... We cast it on me, and I'll go out and let them catch me. And if the spell works you'll be hopefully able to find me and all the others..."
Leo frowned: "That's too dangerous... and you're also an Elder, so maybe they won't catch you."
"So I'll do that," Tom said determined.
"No," Phoebe said, "if it's dangerous for him, then it's even more for you... we can't let you do that."
"You can... we need to go on with this right?" he replied. "And if the spell doesn't work, maybe Steve can find me because of our connection!"
"What connection?" Chris asked.

°°°°°°°°°°

Steve and Nicki were in another room, far away from the others.
"What is it, Steven?"
'Another proof. She never calls me Steven,' he thought sad.
She prodded him to gain his attention. "What?"
"Ehmm"... 'Come on Stevie-boy... Think!'... "I might have an idea about how we can find them." She raised her eyebrows.
'Don't say anything wrong now'... "You could make a spell. You're very good at spells. And they are all witches so..."
"You really think I could do that?" she asked with an ironic undertone.
'Oups,' hwe thought but it was too late.
Her eyes widened and she had the empty and soulless look again.
"Yeah, I think so." He tried not to look busted.
She started to smile, evilly and sad at the same time. "I'm so sorry. I wished I wouldn't have to do this."
Steve looked at her shocked while she changed in front of him. He was blended by white light, and then he suddenly saw wings.
'An angel? Literally?' was one of his last thoughts.
She had a white dress that reached down till her naked feet. On her dress there was a picture of a silver dragon in violet waves, which was in the region of her hips, on the left side. She had big white wings. Her hair was long and brown. All told, it was a nice picture, but when he looked into her eyes he started to shiver from all the sadness, loneliness and emptiness.
'An ANGEL!' he cried out loud in his thoughts and sent themt with his last power to Tom.
Then he disappeared.

°°°°°°°°°°

Piper started to laugh hysterically.
"What?" Bianca, who didn't know yet what to do with that or what to say to Chris, was looking at Piper, as if she had lost it. The witch was sitting there and laughed. "What?"
"I'm sorry... It's just so... weird. All this, the whole thing... I mean, two pregnant women here, locked up for their safety and the others are out there hunting something or someone powerful enough to intercept the orbing," she said, her voice getting contemplatively with every word, especially the last words were full of meaning for her.
"Who can intercept orbing...? not Belthazor or any demon but a whitelighter... or an El... Damn it!" she stood up and raised her fists. "It's gotta be one of them!" she yelled enraged.
Bianca pulled her gentle back. "Who?"
"One of them. They want my baby," she cried. "I have to get Wyatt." She ran out and Bianca rushed after her.

°°°°°°°°°°

"What connection?" Chris asked again.
"Well, me and Steve have... DAMN IT!" Tom yelled the last words out in pain.
Everyone jumped up. "What happened?"
Cole went to Wyatt who woke up, because of the yell and started to cry.
"Oh baby! Mommy's here." Piper rushed in, followed by Bianca. She grabbed Wyatt and hugged him. "Shhh... I'm here. What's going on?"
Cole, Piper and Bianca turned to Tom again.
Phoebe and Leo looked to him too, while Chris repeated his question as he watched Bianca.
"Steve!" Tom wanted to rush out and then stopped.
"What's wrong with Steve?" Piper asked unaware of what happened.
Leo sorted everything out: "Cole, go with Piper and Bianca and tell them everything..." "Everything?" was the insecure answer. Leo just nodded. The four sat down and Cole gave report.
Phoebe caressed Tom. She felt his sadness.
"Steve is gone," he murmured. Chris and Leo exchanged a terrified look.
"What do you mean?" Phoebe asked softly.
"I heard his cry."
"Cry? I didn't..."
Phoebe interrupted her nephew: "They can talk to each other with their minds. You heard him? What did he say?"
"He cried out 'an Angel?' He was shocked and so scared, but at the same time so overwhelmed..."
Phoebe frowned. "An angel?"
"Yeah... I can't feel him. I always felt him, at least a bit, because of our power I think, but he's gone."
"Oh no." Phoebe said. "Nicki knows it. At least she knows that he knew it... Does she know about your connection?"
Tom shook his head.
"That doesn't matter Phoebe, because it's not our Nicki, she has not her memories or knowledge." Her brother-in-law told her.

°°°°°°°°°°

"They'll find a way..." Paige said confidently. "Who wants to play a game?"
She gained some laughters but didn't cheer up the situation.
"We could need some light." Nicki closed her eyes, mumbled some words. There was a short spark, but it was swallowed by the dark.
"Damn it. Conjured light, but it didn't work... What kind of weird cave are we in?"
"Don't know honey. I really don't... But my sisters will find a way to set us free, don't worry."

°°°°°°°°°°

"Oh my God, that means we're not safe here anymore," Piper said and then she added more to herself: "I knew it... Damn it!"
Bianca looked down to the ground. She was trying to avoid Chris's look. She knew he was watching her, and she didn't want him to see that she had cried. Piper took her hand and caressed it.
"What's wrong?" Cole asked worried.
But Piper gave him a look to shut up. Then she smiled at him: "Nothing to worry about."
Chris was watching Bianca while Phoebe and Leo were talking. He felt that there was something going on, but... 'What was wrong with her?' He didn't understand it. But he knew that there was something. 'Maybe she felt ill...' But why didn't she tell him...
'Oh no... if it had something to do with the time-thing...' Thousands of horrible scenes flashed his mind. 'What if there is already a problem about having two Biancas in one world... What will then happen to me, if I'm be born...'
He shook his head... 'No, that wasn't possible.' Wyatt had told them that they were both there in his time. He sighed. 'But what was it then?'
"Chris?" Leo asked again.
"What?" his son answered and then added, "Sorry, I was thinking about something."

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige sighed again: "O.k... it seems that magic doesn't work here, but you created a little light. For only a second, but you did it."
Nicki nodded, even if nobody could see it.
"So maybe, if we all work together, we will be able to do something, even if it's only a yell for help!"
"Yeah, that could work," Derrick replied.
"So let's go," Paige clapped her hands, "let's bring all together!"
But at the same second she rose, the green light appeared in the middle of the cave, again.
"Woah!" They heard a voice. "Damn it! What the hell is going on? I swear if I get you morons I'll beat the s..."
Nicki laughed, half happy half sad, and then yelled: "Veronica! We're here."
"Nicki? Is that you?"
Nicki turned to Paige, or at least she turned to the darkness where she thought Paige was sitting in and said: "I'll get her. Sarah, stay here." Paige grabbed Sarah's hand.
After some minutes full of screams and swears, because the girls seemed to kick everyone on their way back, they sat down. "Mrs. Matthews."
"Call me Paige."
Nicki blushed, but no one could see that. "Paige. This is Veronica. She was at our school too."
"Veronica? I think I heard of you. Very good witch in conjuring and potions."
"Well. Yes. Thank you, Mrs.."
She was interrupted: "Paige!"
"Paige."
"I guess it isn't necessary to ask you about how you got here, is it?" Paige sighed desperate.
"No. Sorry."
Derrick, who listened impatient to the conversation, brought back the topic: "But we should stick to the plan. We should collect every power in here and then... well I don't know. Do something."

°°°°°°°°°°

He fought against the darkness and it fell like he was going through a vicious ground. His body and mind hurt and he tried to remember what happened. Who he was. He panicked and fought harder.
'Where am I? What's happening? WHO am I?'
He started to see pictures. Slowly. One by one. He began to remember. He saw Nicki, the Charmed Ones, his best friend, the change, the angel and then darkness.
'I'm in my mind,' he thought, surprised. 'Got to get out.'
Then he saw a picture he didn't remember at all. A picture he had never seen. It flashed and popped up in front of his eyes. Out of the blue. He heard a terrible yell.
Steve woke up, he opened his eyes and then realised that it was him, screaming.


(Chapter 4 written by Chrissy.W.x, Belén and Dark Angel)