A Charmed Story - Part Three:
Double Demons
Chapter 10

Cole and Chris were still walking through the woods. Now the way was easier to go, as if the trees moved aside for them.
"What have you seen?" Cole asked after a while.
"Don't ask," his nephew answered, "and you?"
Cole smiled and shook his head: "Don't ask."
Chris turned around smiling back at him. Cole stopped, so Chris stopped too.
"Did you mean that? What you've told me? I mean, that I'm a Halliwell?"
Chris nodded: "Sure... you're one of us. You're part of our family... Thought you already knew that."
Cole smiled: "Yeah... but I never thought about... the name... Cole Halliwell... Maybe I should adopt this name when I marry your aunt."
"So you will do that?" Chris asked smiling.
"Well, not today, or tomorrow... but... in a future not so far away..." he answered, smiling happily like a little baby who's getting a toy.
Chris shook his head. It was amazing... A few minutes ago they thought their own fear would kill them, but now they were feeling much stronger, as if they had been reborn. Even if they would never forget all that pain they had gone through, now they knew that those things would never scare them again... at least, not that much.
Chris smiled, too. Then he turned around to go on, but suddenly he looked into the eyes of the woman he had met before.
"Why are you still here?" she asked.
"Who is that?" Cole whispered.
"I think she IS the field," Chris answered.
"Why are you still here?" she asked again.
"Because we need the potion to kill witches, which is hidden here... somewhere," Cole answered.
The woman frowned: "Who had sent you?"
"Odin," Chris answered.
The woman nodded: "So I'll give you a riddle... if you solve it, you'll get the potion and I'll send you to any place you want to be... if you don't solve it, you'll stay here till the end of all days..."
Cole sighed: "I hate riddles."

°°°°°°°°°°

"Damn it!" Veronica swore. They had tried to open that gate, but they couldn't. Suddenly they heard a noise in the tunnel.
"Leo, the light," Phoebe whispered. He moved his hand and the lights disappeared.
"Come closer," Odin whispered, "I'll cloak us." So they did.
Then, they could here voices in the tunnel. Someone was swearing as Veronica did before.
"Oh my god," Phoebe said.
"Piper..." this was Leo.
Slowly the voices came closer. "Put you hands away from me, you little fucking demons!" Piper yelled.
"Stop it, or I'll kill you right here, missy," someone replied.
Then they saw her, coming closer, surrounded by two demons.
When they were a few meters away from the gate, the hidden friends saw a green light appearing in the cave. Meanwhile the gate opened.
Phoebe and Leo reacted within a second. They jumped out and killed the demons, as Piper yelled scared.
"Piper are you o.k.?"
"Leo?" she asked, and then hugged him relieved. "Next time you warn me before you do something like that."
Meanwhile Paige had left the cave. Now she was hugging her sisters. "Are you o.k.?" she asked. Phoebe nodded.
"Where is Tom? I'm his father," Mr. Marsden asked. He had also left the cave now.
"A man in grey came to the cave and took him away," Piper explained.
The man sighed: "So we have to hurry."
"One minute," Piper stopped the action, while Odin and John helped one witch after another out of the cave. "You are a witch? He thought his mother was the witch, and you... well we suggested you were a Phoenix."
"His mother is the Phoenix," he explained shortly, a little surprised that she knew that.
"Tom's mother is a Phoenix," Phoebe yelled, thinking about Bianca, "but that means..." The mind of the empath strated to spin.
"Really, we have no time for this," Leo remarked.
Piper nodded: "O.k., Phoebe, Paige, Tom's dad... You'll go with Leo and the other two to that room and try to stop those people in grey."
"I'm in, too," Nicki exclaimed.
"Without the potion?" Phoebe asked worried.
"You have to distract them, till Chris and Cole are back," Piper went on, "I'll help those witches here to get out and we'll make a little trouble to distract them on our own..."
"Trouble?" Veronica asked. "I like that!"

°°°°°°°°°°

The woman looked them in the eyes, one after another, ignoring Cole's words: "Listen carefully, think carefully, don't hurry. A wrong answer has no way back. If you fail, you won't have a second chance."
She paused. Then, adopting a very ceremonial tone, she recited: "Not all birds are reborn, but one is. And one is, that is not bird at all."
Chris opened his mouth and eyes widely, as he saw the woman disappear with a smile on her face.
Cole didn't realise, he was too frustrated to pay attention to their gestures: "I guess we'll need to get used to this place. It's not so horrible is it, Chris?" He turned to the boy, who seemed to be submerged in his own thoughts. "...Chris?" he repeated.
Finally Chris reacted: "I've heard that before..." He frowned: "Just, I think I interpreted it in the wrong way..."
"Do you mean... do you know the riddle?" asked Cole, filled with hope.
Chris shook his head and sat down, tiredly: "I read it in the book of Shadows. Wyatt from the future left those riddles or whatever they were, like the one about the ice-cream... I thought this one was a joke, that the bird which is reborn was Bianca, and the one which is reborn, but isn't a bird was me... But it seems I was completely wrong." He sighed.
This time it was Cole that frowned. "Well, maybe you were wrong in that interpretation... But if he wrote it, it was because he knew something... about this?" he guessed.
Chris shrugged: "Whatever... He clearly overestimated my capacity... I don't understand a word!"
"Come on, Chris..." Cole sat down next to him and patted his shoulder, "after what we've been through here... Haven't you learnt anything at all? You should start to be a little proud of yourself. Just a little, at least... Be more self-confident, man. I'm sure you know deep inside what this means. Otherwise, Wyatt wouldn't have left it written for you to find it."
Chris sighed. "This is a wonderful place... And I'll be happy to share it with you," he answered sadly and sarcastically, instead.
Cole rolled his eyes: "I don't know you, but I don't like this place anymore, and there are people waiting for us down there. So, think a bit, I promise I'll do too." He smiled.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Tom!" Steve exclaimed, feeling something half-way between fear and happiness, as he saw the boy being pushed gently towards the room in which they were all waiting. Fear, because he knew the last double demon, the one they needed to fullfill their purpose, had been found. Happiness, because he didn't feel so lonely anymore, with his friend by him now.
"Come here, child..." the woman in grey said, smiling kindly, "are you fine? Did they do anything to you?"
Tom turned to look at Steve, then the others. He was so scared! The leader could feel it, and stretched her arm to touch his face softly: "It's ok, my child, it's ok... You're safe now."
Tom was shivering and didn't dare to say a single thing, so that he didn't spoil any plan. Steve realised, and went nearer. "He's my friend even if I didn't know who he really is till now... He must have been caught by the witches," he explained before the surprised and scared look of Tom.
"Tom," he went on, looking straight in his eyes, "you're safe here, I promise. If they did something to you, just say it, ok? We need all our powers to get that wonderful, utopic world that is to come." He made emphasis on the word 'utopic'.
"He's right... You don't have to be ashamed of anything..." the woman intervened.
Tom looked at her, then at his friend, and finally he lowered his eyes and said in a low voice: "I... Thh... they stripped me of my powers."
'Yes', thought Steve, showing a very weak smile that only Tom could see.
"No! I can't believe they're doing this again!" The woman stood up, and blasted a blinding light that filled the whole room. She was furious this time: "We have to give them back to you. Then, we'll get our revenge!"
Steve and Tom looked at each other. They were running out of time. Steve wished he could read Tom's mind now, but without his powers, it was impossible. However, he could read his eyes, and they said that, even if he was scared, he knew something those people didn't know. Something probably good for them. Bad for the double demons.

°°°°°°°°°°

After a short while thinking, Cole, who had been repeating everything in a loud voice, turned to Chris: "You said you thought the bird was Bianca? The reborn one?"
He nodded: "But it has no sense anymore."
"No, it has. I mean, we should have a general view... Not focus on individuals. Why did you think she was this bird, Chris?"
Chris smirked: "Because she was reborn, somehow... And because she's a Phoenix, and the Phoenix, according to the mythology, is a bird reborn from its ashes... "
"Exactly, man!" Cole exclaimed excited.
"Exactly what?" asked Chris, confused. "I thought we should forget about that..."
"Not about Phoenixes. Phoenixes are the only kind of bird that can be reborn..."
"Yeah, fine... And what about that 'whatever' which is reborn and which is not bird at all?"
"That's exactly what is being reborn in me, man. Right now!" Cole smiled.
"Well, I wouldn't rise up my hopes, I... wait."
Cole was grinning more and more widely as he listened to his upset nephew: "You got it!"
Chris was surprised. How hadn't he thought about that before? Because he was so worried about his own life that he wasn't able to see the whole? He should have focused on that riddle as something separated from himself!
"Hope..." he muttered. Of course, he had studied it. He should have known. "Phoenixes represent immortality... but also the 'rebirth' of HOPE!"
"And these are the fields of Hope, buddy... By the way... Hope, sounds good. It's a beautiful name for a girl." Cole smiled, victorious.
Chris was really shocked but then, he truth found it's way into his mind: "You did it, uncle. You solved it on your own!"
"You mean...?" Cole asked.
Chris rose and started to pace in front of his uncle: "Yes... the hope... that must be the solution, the Phoenix means hope... maybe Wyatt just wanted to tell us with this riddle, that we shall never give up!"
Cole sighed: "But if we are wrong..."
Chris let out some air: "If you haven't any better idea, I think we should try it, 'cause we're running out of time, right?"
Cole nodded.
Chris closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Bianca I'll return to you, and then you'll explain everything to me," he whispered. Then he opened his eyes again and yelled to the trees around them: "The Phoenix is the bird that is reborn, and the other one is the hope it stands for!"
Nothing happened.
"Maybe they couldn't hear you..." Cole remarked ironically.
Chris sighed: "Maybe we were wrong..."
"No, you are not."
Chris turned around while Cole jumped up.
The woman smiled at them: "You are very wise, so I hope you will be careful with that potion."
She gave Cole a little vial with a white shining liquid in it.
"And now, decide to which place I shall send you."
Chris looked to his uncle who nodded. So he turned back to the woman: "Please send us to Bianca, the Phoenix, my fiancée... wherever she is at this moment." The woman nodded.

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca and Belthazor stood in front of the gate which closed the demons prison. Differently from the witch-prison, there was a clear grey light.
"Bianca?"
The Phoenix tried to find out form where this voice had come. Then she saw her mother. "Mom!" she yelled.
The woman went closer to the gate, with a little girl on her arms. Bianca swallowed; she hadn't seen her little-self before. That was... amazing. "Are you o.k.?" she asked. The woman nodded.
"Damn it!" Belthazor swore. He tried to open the gate, but it didn't work.
Bogus had come closer too, while the other demons in the cave became more and more uneasy. He smiled, when he saw Bianca working together with the source of all evil. "Could you please try to calm them down?" Bianca asked him. Bogus nodded.
Then she stepped back to Belthazor: "How long do you need, I thought you knew how to open this!" The source was just grumbling.
Bianca sighed. Then she felt a little pain from her womb. For a short moment she was groggy, but then the feeling left her as soon as it had come.
"Bianca?" her mother asked worried.
The Phoenix looked into the eyes of her mother with fear. She felt a tear running down her cheek.
Her mother swallowed. Then, she put her hand over her mouth surprised and shocked. Her daughter was pregnant. She knew about the arrangement, and now her daughter was pregnant.
"Hey, Phoenix," Belthazor mumbled, "need your help here."
Bianca turned around to him again. She knew she had to be strong. There were bigger problems to solve than hers.
A little later they managed to open the gate together, and the demons ran out.
"Go with them and make a little trouble," Bianca ordered to the source, "I'll go and help the others."
Belthazor grumbled... A Phoenix telling him what to do... That was disgusting.
"You will not go," Bogus said with a hard voice. He was standing right behind Bianca grasping her arm. Next to him stood her mother, he face was kind of frozen. Another Phoenix held the little girl in his arms. Two more surrounded them.
Bianca swallowed, looking at Belthazor for help.
He frowned looking at the Phoenixes. He knew, even if he didn't like it, that they needed Bianca for completing the plan. "Let her go," he commanded while nearly all demons had run out.
Bogus smiled evilly and took out a little dagger: "This is just a matter of the Phoenixes... not yours!" Bianca tried to free herself, while the little version of her started to cry.
Suddenly white orbing lights filled the place, and Cole and Chris materialised in front of them.
"Bianca?" Chris exclaimed when he saw the scene.
"Belthazor?" Cole asked surprised.
Then suddenly an energy ball flew between them and hit one of the Phoenixes. Surprised they turned around. It seemed that the source had missed someone before.
Cole pulled Chris next to the wall looking for cover, while Bianca's mom and the Phoenix with the girl tried to hide inside the cave.
Bianca was trying to hide too, while Belthazor, Bogus and the other two Phoenixes fought against the demon.
Chris wanted to help his fiancée, but he couldn't; he was still powerless.
Bianca observed the fight. She saw that Belthazor was hit by the demon. And also Bogus was hit on his arm. She felt sorry for him. It was crazy; he wanted to kill her... But he was a Phoenix like her...
Then she saw that the demon prepared another ball of energy. Bianca jumped out and pushed Bogus out of the line. The next she felt was the burning hit of the energy-ball on her chest.
"NOOOOOOO!" Chris yelled desperate, seeing his love breaking down.
In the next second Belthazor blew the demon up, before he broke down, too.
Chris ran over to Bianca, and knelt down next to her. She was hurt very badly. Blood ran out the gash in her chest.
"Oh sweetie," Chris said crying, "why have you done this?" He felt all his nightmares come true. He couldn't lose her, he couldn't...
She smiled weekly: "He is one of my kind." Meanwhile Bogus rose and watched her too. Also Cole was looking at Bianca.
"Sweetie, don't leave me, o.k.? You have to be strong... I'm not able to heal you... don't leave me please," Chris cried in pain. Then he looked to the other and yelled: "You have to do something, you must save her!"
But no one did anything; they were all paralysed by that scene.


(Chapter 10 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)