Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed.

Chapter 21: Poco a poco viene la oscuridad.

Chris couldn't deny it any longer. Ever since he had returned to the past the signs had been there. Jo finding Paige 2 years before she should have done in his timeline. Phoebe meeting Cole, years before it had originally happened. And now, the demon that killed his mother was going to turn up 13 years too soon.

"You're sure?" Leo had asked 10 times.

"Yes" Chris had replied 10 times, and would have reiterated a thousand times if need be "his face haunted my every waking moment for months, tormented me in my pitiful sleep. It is most definitely the Caixa demon"

"right. Let's think about this"

"What is there to think about? They can't battle him. End of"

"Chris this demon needs to be vanquished"

"then I'll do it, or we can do it, bloody get the elders down here to do it themselves , but one thing is for sure. Mom is not going anywhere near that thing"

"But the whole point is that it is the Charmed One's who needs to take it out."

"Perhaps I wasn't making myself clear – mom is going to die in this battle, she cannot be allowed to fight. I can't believe you are even prepared to consider this."

"It's not that simple Chris, it never is"

"You don't understand, you weren't there…I cannot and will not lose her again"

"It may not come to that this time"

"whatever way you look at it Leo, by allowing this battle to go ahead, you are willingly and knowingly sending her to her death. You're no better than a tyrant"

"send who to her death?" Prue stood in the doorway of the attic,

Chris and Leo remained mute.

"well then" Prue stepped fully into the room "one of you had better start talking, now"

…20 minutes later

"she died?" Prue was still having trouble processing all the facts.

"Yes" Leo said simply.

"which is why" Chris interrupted, " she can't be allowed to fight this demon."

"You're forgetting one thing" Prue told him. "This is Piper, and from what I've seen and heard these past couple of months, nobody tells Piper what to do."

"But family means everything to her" He cried

"Exactly! If fighting this demon means that you and your brothers can have an unhindered fairly normal child hood then she would do it in a flash. You and I both know that's true."

"I don't care..she's my mum"

"I know sweetie" Prue's gaze softened, "I lost my mum too, and I was angry at her too when I realised she had taken on the water demon by herself, but I realise now that she was only doing it to protect us, to her it was one more demon to vanquiah who couldn't come after us."

"You don't care, you just want revenge on the demon who kidnapped you. Screw who gets hurt in the cross fire. You lost 5 years of your life, everyone else moved on and you can't stand it. Some one's got to pay, but instead of the demon, it's going to be my mom. You're jealous of everything she's got and every thing she has become, admit it" Chris burst out, the anger making him irrational.

"Christopher Perry Halliwell" Leo shouted.

"That's not true" Prue muttered, her eyes down cast.

"hey guys I hear that you got a lead on who kidnapped Prue?" Phoebe and Ben came bounding into the room.

"we were just discussing that as a matter of fact" Leo said, trying to force a smile.

"discussing it? That's rather civilised, what happened to the wham bam thank you ma'am approach" Phoebe joked.

No one laughed.

"what's going on..?" she asked.

Ben, meanwhile had noticed a picture on the floor of the attic. While mummy and the grown ups began talking he wondered over to have a look. Picking it up, he was immediately flung into a premonition.

"ahhhhhhhhhhhh" he screamed.

Phoebe was at his side in seconds. "Ben, sweetie what happened?"

"I had a vision" he hiccupped between tears.

Phoebe rubbed his back soothingly, half of her secretly proud and curious that he had inherited her power, the rest of her hurting by the fact her son was too young to be subject to terrifying premonitions.

"what did you see?" she asked gently.

"that nasty man, and you, aunty Prue, aunty Piper, aunty Paige, and some other people who I couldn't see because there were fire balls everywhere and lots of noise and smoke. What does it mean?"

"It's okay darling, it's okay, it doesn't mean anything because we won't let that happen." She soothed.

"promise?"

Phoebe crossed her fingers behind her back "Promise. Now, shimmer down to Aunty Piper and perhaps she'll give you a cookie"

"You said no shimmering in the house"

"well I think we can make an exception this time"

"alright" he said glumly before shimmering out.

Phoebe looked up. " So, who wants to tell me what the hell is going on?"

Leo quickly enlightened the middle sister.

"and there is something else we need to consider too" he said, his voice heavy. "whether or not to tell Piper about the severity of this battle"

Chris's head shot up " what are you saying?"

"he's saying, if it was you, would you want to know in advance if you were going to die?" Prue said bluntly.

"Yes" Chris replied "of course, that way you can say your goodbyes, make sure there are no words are left unspoken, and those that are left behind have the chance to prepare themselves, not have someone snatched cruelly from them without time to tell them how much you really loved them…"

"I wouldn't" said Prue "that's no way to go through life, with a thunder cloud over your head, an invisible count down timer ticking, knowing that every second draws you closer to your end. I'd rather not know, at least I would be happy, at least I wouldn't be dwelling on all the people that I would never live to see, all the things that I would never achieve."

"Why are we thinking like this?" Phoebe interrupted. "to me it seems simple- we don't tell her. This time we will be prepared for the attack, we'll kick some demon butt, as this time we have the power of 4, not 3. and Piper will never have to know that she died in the original timeline. There's no need to tell her right?"

She looked expectantly at the assembled group. Prue was nodding in agreement. Leo and Chris however….

"Right?" Phoebe asked again.

"She knows" Chris muttered

"Huh"

"Piper. She knows that she died in the original timeline, and there is a small possibility that it could happen in this timeline too." Leo told them.

"But how…?" Prue was at a loss

"She over heard me and dad talking." Chris explained

"I can't believe she didn't tell us! She kept it too herself!." Phoebe exclaimed

"That's mom, a martyr through and through" Chris attempted a Joke

"why wouldn't she tell us?" Prue puzzled.

"Honestly, I think it is because she didn't know how" Leo admitted.

"Hey you lot" Paige's voice floated up the stairs "Piper says if you don't all get down here and drink your coffee before it gets cold she's going to blow your collective asses to kingdom come"

"so we're agreed then" Prue said as they left the room "we won't tell her"

"Yes" Phoebe said, looking at Chris.

"Ok" he agreed, he could see the logic sort of, besides, at least he could mentally prepare himself. "I'm going to go out I'll be back later" he orbed out to the Golden Gate bridge to think and have some alone time.

"There you all are!" Piper greeted them as they entered the sun room "so what was the big mothers meeting about?"

"Leo was telling us about the Demon who kidnapped Prue" Phoebe tried to keep her voice light.

"really?"

"Yeah, sounds pretty simple, a potion, power of 3 spell, and hey presto" Prue continued.

"is that so?" Piper looked up at her husband who merely gave her a little smile. "well perhaps now he's finished gossiping he can give me a hand with the coffee" she motioned for her to follow him into the kitchen.

She handed him a tray and began placing various cups and sauces on it "good news about the Elders having found the demon" she said

"yeah yeah great" he hoped his tone was 'upbeat'.

"at least we can vanquish him and then be done with it, one less thing to worry about"

"uh-huh, one more on the never ending list!"

"What's he called/" she began balancing silverware on the edge of a plate.

"The Caixa Demon"

"Interesting name" she placed a plate of biscuits on the top. Stopping inches away from his face she paused and looked him straight in the eye "It's the one isn't it?" she said slowly.

Leo opened his mouth, closed it again, opened it, and finally just said "Yes".

For the briefest of seconds a look of uncontrollable fear flashed across Piper's face. Then her mask rose once again and she choked back the tears that were threatening to fall. "oh"

"Piper"

"When do we vanquish him?"

"You don't have to , we can find a way.."

"I said, when de we vanquish him?"

"If you want, we.."

"It's not about what I want Leo" she grabbed the tray from him. "Ladies" she yelled as she walked into the sun room "I hear we've got some demon butt to kick…."

XXX

TBC