A Charmed Story - Part Three:
Double Demons
Chapter 7
Chris was standing next to Odin, when Bianca entered the room short after Cole and Phoebe. He looked like any day, but she felt that he was not the same. His magic was gone completely.
Cole went nearer Chris: "Welcome to my world."
"Very funny, uncle," he answered.
Odin warned: "Be careful. This place is full of traps and hidden riddles. Get in, find the potion as fast as possible and get out, o.k.?" Chris nodded.
"No need for details, I've heard of that place before," Cole answered.
Odin nodded with a smile: "That's why we don't use it anymore..."
"By they way," Cole added, "why did you call it a field, 'cause, if I remember right, it's more like a wood, isn't it?" Odin just looked at him without any answer.
"Are you ready?" John asked.
Cole nodded. "One moment," Chris said.
He went over to Bianca: "Sweetie, I'm so sorry... I..."
"You don't have to feel that way honey," she said with her soft voice.
"I have to, you feel sorrow and I have no time to help you... I wish I could just stay here, with you... and talk... 'Cause I still have no idea of what's going on..." He started to cry.
Bianca felt sorry, for him... She wished she had told him her secret, but on the other hand there was still the fear, and the hopelessness. She couldn't tell him the truth. And at that very moment, he was unable to feel the truth.
She wiped away his tears. Then she hugged him tightly and full of love: "Don't think about this now, honey, just come back to me safe and healthy, o.k.?"
He nodded and kissed her. Then he turned to John, grasped his hand, same as Cole had done, and the three man orbed away.
Bianca sighed while watching the orbing lights. Phoebe was caressing her hair: "Cole will take care of him."
"I know," she answered.
Odin looked at her and frowned: "What's wrong with you, Phoenix?"
Bianca glanced at him furious: "Don't call me that!"
The Elder raised his eyebrows: "But that's what you are."
"But I wish I would not!" she yelled back at him.
Odin sighed: "No one can change the way we were born. But you can change how you act. You are a Phoenix, you should accept that, because that is you. But that doesn't mean that you can't be good... And I know that you are good."
Phoebe looked at the Elder with surprise, same as Bianca.
"Nice words, Odin," the witch said.
"Thanks," Bianca whispered.
"Never mind... you and your future husband taught us a lot about love and tolerance... a lot of things which were lost under a mountain of rules and orders... So we have to thank you."
Phoebe smiled at him still not really believing what she just had heard.
Bianca smiled too, and then she added: "The Phoenix thinks that we should take Wyatt and go over to Piper and Leo."
Odin nodded and left the room. Phoebe took the boy and followed him and Bianca.
°°°°°°°°°°
"Damn!" Paige yelled frustrated. She couldn't believe that she had lost Steve that way.
"I'm sure he's alright," Nicki whispered to her. Sarah started to cry again, and Veronica tried to calm her down.
"Excuse me... Mrs... Matthews?" Paige turned around even if she wasn't able to see from where this male voice was coming.
"Who is there?" she asked.
"My name is Lorenz Marsden, I'm Tom's father," the man said.
"Are you?" Paige asked, beginning to go a little crazy about all that.
"Yes, I am... And I have to tell you something," the man went on.
Nicki frowned: "Tom never told that his father is a witch. He said his mother is one."
The man sighed: "That's true, he doesn't know that... But his mother is not a real witch, she is something different."
"And what?" Paige asked.
"Why doesn't he know that?" Nicki interrupted.
"Because his mother is from the evil side," the man explained.
Paige frowned. Nicki couldn't see it but she was sure that she had frowned. "So, is she a demon?" the Charmed One asked.
°°°°°°°°°°
Steve kept listening to the woman, who emanated an agreeable and peaceful aura as she spoke so softly.
He just took a glance around him to see all the people gathered there. There were lots of witches, or what he thought were witches, but there was a great amount of other kind there. Those who he would have classified as demons...
However, they were all now in the same team. They all had a parent from the evil side and another one from the good side. The only difference was the environment in which they had been raised... But now they were all the same. They were all willfully paying attention to the woman that was talking.
"This is a great day for you all, my children," she said, even though some of them were apparently older than her. Only apparently... "This is the beginning of a new era, which marks the end of all suffering, fear and pain. No more fights between good or evil. You're both things, and none of them. You're the species meant for the creation. The peak of the Great Design. The others were only the means... to get to us all. We are the completion of the perfection of this work. We have been persecuted, killed, reduced, humiliated, and ignored... But we survived, just waiting for the moment of the truth to come. And here we are today..."
Steve was listening attentively, but couldn't help remembering what he had seen, what his mother had shown to him. He couldn't believe this woman was of the same kind, even one of the same people, that had caused so much sadness and destruction.
And some minutes before he had been shown a perfect future, too... No battles, no wroth, no fight... no Elders, no witches, no demons... no Nicki, Chris, Leo, the Charmed Ones... Not even his own mother. None of them were there anymore. They were the sacrifices... And he, Steve, knew that.
Even the innocents, the human beings... what would happen to them?
"You are the Chosen Ones, you were born with a purpose. And this purpose is about to be fullfilled. All of you, all of us, the race of mestizos...", she went on, "are here today! For the first time in centuries... We've gathered our whole race, and now the last step to reach this end is possible... Take your hands..."
All of them, former demons and former witches, did as they were told, around the round table. The woman in grey as well as the other two men stayed in the most illuminated part. She closed her eyes, and the rest imitated her. Then, she started to pronounce words in an unknown language, in a very ceremonial way...
The room started to bright with the same golden aura that had covered them before. They were smiling...
Steve opened his eyes, not knowing what he should do next. He was worried now... What if he couldn't stop that? He swallowed. What was gonna happen next? Was everyone going to die? He wanted to let go off his partners' hands, but he couldn't.
However, as if his desires turned true, the bright light went off, and darkness covered them.
The woman stopped her words, and stared at one of the men at her sides: "What has just happened?"
"I don't know... There's something wrong."
"Are you sure they're all here?"
Both men nodded: "All the others in the caves were witches, whitelighters and demons..."
"There's someone left. Otherwise, this would have worked," she whispered. "Someone is hiding or keeping one of us... Without her, or him, we won't be able to fullfill this task!" she almost cried, desperate.
"The magic school?" one of the men asked. "Could still be any of us there? With the Charmed Ones?"
'Oh, my God... Tom...' Steve thought.
°°°°°°°°°°
John had led Chris and Cole straight to the very boundaries of the so called Fields of Hope.
"This is the farthest I can go... I'm sorry I can do nothing else for you... " he said sadly.
Chris smiled at him reassuringly: "You already did a lot, man. Now, go back and help them in whatever they need, ok?" John nodded.
"Thanks, buddy..." Cole said, patting his shoulder. Then he turned to what was waiting for them and sighed: "Well, let's do it!" He and Chris took a quick glance at each other, and then crossed the border.
John watched them doing it before he orbed away.
°°°°°°°°°°
Belthazor had shimmered straight to his lair in the Underworld which was now empty.
"Damn it!" he yelled, furiously.
He should have realised it was all a trap. Now he had very little to do. They'd end up finding him and vanquishing him, as well as every witch and demon in the world.
Up there, on earth, it was all a mess. Thousands and thousands of missing people, everywhere...
'And they had ever feared the demons!' he thought sarcastically.
However much he thought about it, he could only reach to a conclusion. He was alone, and there was only one thing left to do... But how?
°°°°°°°°°°
Cole and Chris stood in front of a huge gate. It was made of silver which sparkled in the moonlight.
"Moonlight... I didn't noticed that it's so late."
Cole smiled: "Time is flying..." Then he turned his head back to the gate. "What does that mean?" he asked, pointing at some kind of scripture.
"That's the language of the Elders... I think," Chris answered.
"So what does it mean?"
'Be aware of what you're doing. This place shows you your worst fear. Take it or leave it,' Chris read, but when he turned to his uncle he just said: "Welcome!"
"So let's get in," Cole sighed and took a step through the gate.
Chris followed him a little unsure about whether the binding of his powers was really complete. But when he stepped in the field, or wood, nothing happened. So he sighed. "And now?" he asked looking at that rainforest-like place which resembled a place with thousands of trees, flowers and little animal and creatures.
"You're the Elder, boy," Cole answered smiling.
Chris sighed again and started to walk straight ahead. Cole followed him.
It was really a crazy place. Even though his powers had been bound, Chris could feel the magic all around. Also Cole could feel that.
They went deeper and deeper into that wood. And the world around them was getting darker and darker.
°°°°°°°°°°
"You did what?" Leo asked, unnable to believe what Odin had just told him.
"Leo calm down please, it was his own decision," the Elder said defending himself.
"Yeah, I'm sure it was... As sure as I am that you didn't told him what he will find there."
Phoebe and Bianca frowned. 'What was Leo talking about?' Also Piper seemed to be worried, because of the break-out of her husband. Tom stood a little aside watching that scene with fear.
"Could you explain that to me, honey?" Piper asked her husband, not taking her eyes away from Odin who sighed.
Leo turned to his wife, not sure if he should tell her.
"Leee-oooo?" that was Phoebe.
"In former times the Elder used that place for testing future witches. They sent them in, to face their worst fears. Those who managed to get through it and get out, were considered to be strong enough to become good witches..."
"And the others?"
Leo swallowed: "Nobody knows, they... they never got out."
At that moment Bianca felt as if someone had taken away the ground under her feet. She staggered, and Phoebe had to hold her.
Piper also went over to her and hugged her: "They will get out, I'm sure." Then she looked at Phoebe: "Both of them." Her sister nodded.
"What's wrong with this girl?" Odin whispered to Leo.
He shrugged: "I don't know."
At that moment, John returned. "Alright, they are in," he said. But when he saw the angry face of Leo and the sorrow of the girls, he felt that it would be better to keep silent now. So he did. During a few minutes, none of them said any word.
Then suddenly Tom cried out loud in pain: "No!... Steve... NOOOOO!"
°°°°°°°°°°
Belthazor was thinking deeply about his idea... He himself had helped to imprison his fellow-demons, as well as that foolish Eridon had done with the good beings... But he doubted that now, he was still able to reach the caves and free the demons on his own. Probably he had been locked out from them.
He roared in anger as he paced stepping strongly from one corner to the other in the lair. He was the source of all evil and could do NOthing!
The only chance was getting to the Charmed Ones, to Phoebe... and joining them.
For little he liked the idea, that was the only solution, to join his enemies against someone superior...
But he didn't have any idea of how he could do that. And besides, he felt like vomiting at that thought.
°°°°°°°°°°
Paige was still staring at Tom's father, in disbelief. "So... that's true... his mother is a demon." she muttered, weighing up the transcendence of that information.
The man was fast at rectifying: "Well, she isn't a demon exactly. She is a... Phoenix." He made a short break, then went on: "Her.. people didn't like the idea that she was pregnant of a good witch, so she had to hide, and after having Tom, she went back with her people, saying that she had been kept against her will... They never knew that she had a baby... And she... well, she comes whenever she can, to visit him, not very often, actually." Everyone around him frowned.
"Is Tom evil, then?" Sarah asked innocently.
Veronica chuckled: "Girl, you didn't really pay attention to the lesson about Ancient History, did you? That one which Gideon taught..." Sarah turned to her at a loss, and Nicki still frowned.
"Of course not!" Mr. Mrasden exclaimed, "My son is good, you all know him..."
"So...?" asked Paige. "Well, it's clear he's the son of evil and good, but..."
Veronica rolled her eyes. "Don't you really know about that? I mean, none of you has ever heard about... Mestizos, Double Demons?" the girl said, a bit upset.
Paige turned her eyes from one to another, and heard how Nicki started to breathe faster. "Oh, my God..." she whispered. Sarah looked at her confused, but Veronica smirked. "Look at the good student..." she said.
°°°°°°°°°°
Chris and Cole were walking or trying to, very slowly. The rainforest was turning thicker and thicker...
"Uncle..." he panted as he tried to open a way to go on walking, "You were wondering how they could call this field, if it was a wood..."
"Aha..." was the simple answer of Cole, who was looking around him, worriedly.
"Well..." Chris continued, "I'm wondering how you could call this.. wood, when it's a rainforest..."
Cole kept silent. Yeah... the trees and green had grown a bit much, from what he remembered...
All of a sudden, Chris stiffed, tense... "Have you heard that?" he asked.
Cole frowned: "Heard what?"
"That..." he made a gesture to ask him for silence. Cole shook his head, and Chris frowned: "What? Are you deaf?"
The young Elder knew he wasn't... He knew it was happening. Whatever it was, it had to do with his greater fears... It had started with him, because he was the most vulnerable?
"Uncle, come on, pay attention... There's something over there!" he pointed towards the front.
"Well, then, let's go..." Cole shrugged. "What is it, exactly?"
Chris shivered. It was so clear... the sound... Cole had to hear it, he had to... "Are you sure you can't hear it?" he asked, very scared. It was different from the fear that Barbas used to cause. Here, he was aware of the fact that whatever happened, it was all about his fears. The problem was that he had to face them... Alone.
°°°°°°°°°°
Tom lay on the floor still crying and yelling. Phoebe and Leo tried to calm him down, but they couldn't. Then he was silent. He just lay there, tired and breathing heavily.
"What happened?" Piper asked, after he rose to the half.
"Was it Steve again?" Leo asked.
Tom nodded, still out of breath. "They plan something..." he said then, "a... a kind of reunion... but they need all... they need me..."
"What?" Piper asked.
"Oh no," Tom started to cry, "they are coming... Don't know how, but... they will come here... and take me."
Phoebe hugged the boy. She felt that he was desperate and afraid. She started to cry with him.
Piper, who was holding Wyatt in her arms, hugged him a little closer: "And now?" she asked.
Odin knelt down to the boy: "Do you know what kind of Mestizo you are?"
"What does it matter?" Leo asked.
"Just want to know which powers he'll probably have."
"I don't know," Tom answered, "I know my mom is a witch, she left us because of that, she wanted me to have a normal life... always thought my dad was just human."
"I think we have no time for that kind of discussion," Piper broke in, "we have to hide somewhere, where they can't find us." She turned around to John: "The spell they used to imprison all witches... Was it temporary, or will we get caught too when we leave this safe place?"
John shook his head: "I think that nothing will happen to you, as long as they don't find you."
Piper nodded and turned around again: "So maybe..."
She stopped, because she had spotted a little mouse running to them. It was carrying a little sheet of paper.
Leo took it and read it to them:
"Even if I would love to kill you, I need your help this time. The enemy is much bigger than I am for you and you're for me. I wouldn't ask for an alliance if I saw another way. My doors are open. Belthazor."
"Wow," was all that Phoebe could say.
"So, now we know where to go," Piper said, picking up the new potion for him, which they had created - just for safety - and went over to her husband. "Come on, orb us there."
"I'll take Tom," Bianca said to Phoebe, "you go with Odin and John."
Phoebe wanted to protest, but her sister was already away. She sighed: "So let's meet that evil red-face again."
°°°°°°°°°°
Chris felt his heart beating strongly. He could hear it, it was so near. He knew that if he put the leaves in front of him aside, he would see it.
"Chris?" Cole asked scared, because his nephew had suddenly stopped.
But he didn't answer. Chris was standing there, trying to calm down his emotions. But he couldn't. He knew he had to face his fear, he knew... But was that knowledge enough?
He heard it... a little soft sound... a sound like sobbing... a sound like whining...
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he put the leaves aside and went a step forward.
He was on a little empty glade. He turned around to look for Cole but he wasn't there anymore.
"Cole! COLE!" he yelled. But there was no response... he had to face his fears alone.
Anxious, he turned slowly around.
There she was... his mother.
She lay in the grass, deadly wounded, covered with blood all over her body... And she was whispering his name.
The young Elder swallowed
"Chris, sweetie..." she whispered.
He looked at her. It felt as if his heart had just stopped beating. He tried not to let this picture into his mind.
Chris closed his eyes again: 'It isn't real, right?' But when he opened his eyes, she was still there.
She was still there... dying...
Chris swallowed again. He looked away, trying to concentrate on his mission. But there it was again, her whisper...
"Chris, help me."
Chris looked to her again. His heart was beating faster; he felt the tears crawling from deep down inside him up to the surface. 'That can't be true!' he yelled in his thoughts.
He turned around, he wanted to run away. But the way was gone.
"Chris," she whispered again. "Chris I must tell you something..."
He felt a tear running down his cheek. He felt helpless and unable to breathe. Every little movement, every thought... it all hurt inside him. His feelings hurt inside him.
Again he turned around. She was still there, she was still dying.
Chris closed his eyes again, while more tears ran over his face. "Please don't do this to me," he whispered, "I can't live that again."
Again he looked at her. He couldn't bear it anymore. His emotions took control over him. Slowly Chris went to her, facing her... facing his dying mother.
He knelt down, taking her bloody hand. He swallowed, he began to sob. He wished this to end; he wished this to change... He wished that he himself was the one lying there instead of her...
Then Chris broke down next to her and cried.
°°°°°°°°°°
Cole was scared and confused. He had knelt by his nephew and was trying to shake him, make him come back to reality.
He couldn't understand anything at all: "Come on, buddy, what happens? Just tell me what happens..."
Chris didn't seem to hear him, to notice him. He had broken down suddenly after mumbling some incoherent words, and falling on his knees, he had started to cry.
"I can't live this... not again again..." he repeated, among other senseless sentences.
Cole stroked his hair, and tried to calm him down. What was that? He didn't understand anything, and the fact that both men were there without any powers at all, scared him to death...
Had that Elder lied? Or had John tricked them out? What if that whitelighter was, after all, helping the Double Demons and had taken them somewhere else? But no... He knew that that was the place... and that place was doing that to him...
"Chris..." he whispered.
°°°°°°°°°°
Chris was shuddering at the sight of his mother dying. Those memories hadn't disappeared completely from his head, even if he had tried hard to forget them. Some nights, he still saw his mother dying in his arms, and he was never able to do anything.
Piper looked at him coldly, covered with her own blood. "You could have saved me..." she said.
"No, mom... I can't... I can't heal..." he answered shaken by spasms caused by his crying. "I wasn't able to heal... You know that."
"You knew what was happening..." she continued, weakly.
"What? No..." he realised suddenly what she meant, "I didn't see him... I thought it was a demon..."
Piper shook her head peremptorily. "You knew it was him. You always knew that Wyatt was evil. But you didn't do anything... and he killed me," she mumbled, coldly.
"No..." Chris sobbed, devastated, "I didn't know... I wish I had... But I didn't know..." He had closed his eyes and hugged his mother strongly. "Stop this, please... Stop it now!" he cried. Now he was completely covered by her blood...
"You should have known..."
Chris opened his eyes which were welling up in tears, only to find that Piper was not there anymore... Her place was now taken by Bianca.
"You knew what was happening... You should have known, baby..." she said, in agony.
Chris's heart beat dangerously fast. "No..." he whispered, whitening. "No, no, no, no... please, no... This cannot be true..."
Bianca stared at his eyes, deeply inside his mind. "You should have tried hard... I needed you, but you didn't try to get to me. You knew there was something wrong with me... But you didn't do anything..." she said accusingly.
Chris sobs and heartbeats turned stronger, he started to hyperventilate. "You wouldn't tell me... I tried, but you wouldn't tell me..." he started to feel very sick, panic had conquered his mind.
"You can not fight... You were always too weak..." she went on.
Chris mumbled, shaking violently: "I did... I swear I did... I fought... But I couldn't... She... you... wouldn't tell me what was wrong. Bianca, please... I need you..."
Bianca's voice suddenly softened: "Fight, honey... you should fight stronger, so that your mom doesn't die, so that nothing wrong happens to Bianca... to me."
°°°°°°°°°°
"Fight, Chris, ok? Can you hear me? You need to fight so that we can get outta here with what we need. Come on, buddy. I'm right here. Whatever is happening to you, you have to fight... Come on..." Cole was saying once and again.
But Chris seemed to be really sick. He had turned paler; his eyes were wide open, and all his body was shaking. And it was clear he wasn't seeing him... He only repeated: "I didn't know... you wouldn't tell me... I swear I did..."
"Cole?"
Cole turned around at the voice at his back, startled at the sight behind him. He frowned: "Dad!" His father... that wasn't possible.
He shook his head and closed his eyes, to erase that image from his mind. But when he opened them again to go on watching Chris... the boy wasn't there anymore. Not for him.
Instead, his father was. And his mother... She smiled evilly at him, her hands covered with blood.
Cole looked at her in shock. That was not possible. "You cannot be... real."
He stood up and stumbled backwards, almost falling down. His eyes followed his mother's arms, towards her hands, and then down to his father's body, who was bleeding from a wound on his chest.
"Cole... I had to do this, and you know it..." Cole blinked, and breathed heavily. She was not speaking to him, but to a little dark-haired child by her side. "He was a problem for us. You're over him, and you know it... He was only a human being... a weak creature... You are Belthazor, sweetie..."
"No..." the child and the adult Cole mumbled.
"You need to understand... Your daddy... had to die..."
The dead man's head turned slowly to him. He was dead, but he spoke to him, to the oldest version of Cole: "Don't give up, my son... You're better than that. You're Cole... Cole is more powerful than Belthazor..."
"Dad... " Cole sobbed as he listened to him.
His mother started to laugh out loud, and then, the man's body faded away.
"Dad!" he cried.
The child went on crying on his mother's arms, and she smirked at him, the adult Cole. "Belthazor will win, my child... And you know that."
"Noooo!"
°°°°°°°°°°
"Welcome to my lair, sweetie..." said Belthazor, as he saw Phoebe appearing and ignoring the rest.
"Don't touch me," she flinched, "we're here because you needed us. So, let's go to the point."
"We need each other..." he answered, suddenly sombre.
Odin looked around a little scared. He hated to be in the Underworld, he hated to be so near to the source.
Belthazor smiled at him, noticing it: "Something's wrong, Elder?"
"No-no!" Odin shook his head.
John grinned because of the unsureness of one of the great Good.
"So why did you call us?" Piper asked.
"Thought you already knew that," he smiled evilly, "we have to stop those old double-demons who will kill everybody, if we fail."
Leo raised an eyebrow: "And why should we trust you?"
"You already do it... otherwise you wouldn't have brought the little boy with you..." Belthazor went over to Piper who was holding Wyatt in her arms. He smiled at the boy, playing with his fingers in front of his face saying: "Gutzy-gutzy-gutzy!"
"Go away, you're scaring him," Piper said. But Wyatt just laughed happily, as kids do.
Then Belthazor looked at the others. When his eyes went on to Tom, the red of his face seemed to turn grey. He jumped over to him, grasped his neck and tried to strangle him.
"Let him go!" Phoebe yelled. Tom was gasping for air.
"He's one of them; he's going to kill us!" Belthazor yelled!
"Let him go, or I'll blow you up!" Piper yelled.
A moment later, the source let the boy free, mumbling in anger. Tom fell to the ground. He was breathing heavily but he did.
"He will kill us, you'll see it," Belthazor mumbled.
"He will not," Phoebe repied, "because he's one of our students." She smiled at Tom who rose slowly, observing the demon mistrustful.
Belthazor started to pace through the cave. 'How could I be so stupid to ask those kids for help,' he thought. He sighed secretly. Then he turned to his guests again: "So then... what's your plan?"
(Chapter 7 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)
