A Charmed Story - Part Four:
Marriage with Obstacles
Chapter 3

"Wow!" Phoebe opened her eyes widely at the sight below, just after materialising on the top of the bridge. "Oh, my God... I think I'm gonna faint... How the hell can you, whitelighters and Elders, like coming here?"
Leo, with the shape of Piper, and Paige, smirked and grabbed the girl by her two arms. Then, Leo looked around. "There's no one here..." he muttered.
"Well, then we were wrong!" Paige answered. "So let's go home and forget this, o.k.?" She was starting to orb when an invisible hand held her down.
"No, you were right," a strong and deep voice said behind her.
Leo and Phoebe looked in the direction from where the voice came, but they couldn't see anybody. "Who's there?" Leo asked, worriedly.
"They want him, I need you to come with me now," the voice said instead.
"But whom? Whom do they want?" Paige asked, frowning, and making the attempt to push the invisible arm away. "Is it for Chris, Leo, Wyatt...?"
They didn't know if the man gestured with a shake of his head or a nod, but he didn't utter a word.
"Is it for Cole?" Phoebe asked trembling.
"We cannot talk here," the man said, and after that, he took the three people on the bridge with him, away from other ears.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Do you like cookies?" Piper asked all of a sudden. Tom raised his eyebrows, surprised, as she went on: "Come on, man... I need to do something else. The kitchen is brightening like gold now... I can't just sit down and wait! So do you like cookies? I can make some..."
Tom smiled: "Of course I like them..."
"Great, chocolate?"
Tom opened his eyes delighted: "Yeah! Chocolate is cool! Chris is always talking about his mom's chocolate cookies."
"Oh..." Piper turned to him, grinning, "is he?"
Tom nodded: "Yep, he says that it's good that Wyatt is so little, because in his future, when they were kids, Wyatt always ate them all, and let him try not even one, at least..."
"Oh... " Piper's face saddened. Chris's bad memories were always there, haunting him... Even those small things, that were stupid in a normal family, added up to his sadness.
But Tom realised: "Oh, yes, he says that; but he then starts laughing evilly and adds that little Wyatt is gonna pay for that now, because he's gonna eat them all, because he's now older and stronger and he's an Elder too."
That made Piper laugh. "O.k..." she took the ingredients, and prepared the oven, "I'll make sure that there are so many, he can't eat them all..."

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris stepped into the library hesitantly. He had absolutely no idea what he would find there. Moreover, it was up to him to find out, as Steve was younger than him and looked up to him. The responsibility was on his shoulders.
Gingerly, he walked a few steps forward, as softly as he could. The last thing he would want to do was to alert the intruder, whoever he, or she, was. A loud crash penetrated through the original stillness and both men jumped. What exactly were they up against? Was it just a normal demon that can be easily vanquished with merely a spell? Or was it something much more dangerous, a creature to which they might fall prey?
Chris cast a glance at Steve, who was apparently scared, too. He swallowed. Fine, he thought, it's entirely up to me then.
He motioned for Steve to wait, and that he would proceed first. Then, carefully, he walked towards the crash. Just then, he spotted a metal bar lying on the floor and with one swift motion, he picked it up. It would certainly do well as a weapon, should he need defending himself, he figured.
As he neared the bookshelves, he raised the bar above his head and almost made it come down upon the intruder, but stopped himself immediately as he saw the body lying there.
"A RABBIT?" Steve choked with laughter.
Chris couldn't help laughing, too. "How on earth can a rabbit appear in magic school is really beyond my imagination! Especially if we are so afraid of just a tiny animal! Come on, let's pick this furry guy up and bring him to Bianca and Nicki."
Chris walked towards the animal, trying to catch it, as he chuckled to himself. He certainly was losing it. Too overly jumpy and worried, was he. It was only a rabbit! He laughed at his previous worry.
But what he did not realise was the imminent danger he was walking right into. He had barely heard Steve yelling a warning before he found himself bouncing off an invisible wall and hurtling backwards. He flew through the air and landed on the floor with a loud thud as Steve ran towards him to help him up.
"Wh- What happened?" Chris asked groggily. He could still visualise stars dancing around him and he mentally kicked himself for being so careless and acting stupid in front of the young boy.
Steve gulped. He didn't know how to explain. "I... I don't know, Chris, but I think we're in trouble," he said, as he stared at the newly transformed demon. The rabbit was gone, and in its place stood a well-built man, sneering down at them. "I think we're trapped in a cage."

°°°°°°°°°°

Piper placed her last batch of chocolate cookies into the oven and wiped sweat from her eyebrows, using the back of her oily hands. Sighing with weariness and relief, she smiled as she watched the boy eat her cookies with pleasure.
"Like it?" She asked, though knowing the answer.
"When Chris says that his mom's cookies are the best, I must admit that for sure he wasn't kidding!" Tom replied, grinning, his mouth full of cookies.
"Glad that you like it." Piper laughed. "Want some more?"
"Yeah!" Tom nodded enthusiastically, then sombered. "But... I've already eaten 2 batches... and this is your last batch. What about Chris?"
Piper smiled. "It's all right. I can easily bake more. Finish this up and I'll bring out the next batch for you."
The boy happily gorged himself on the remaining few cookies left on the plate, but one. He didn't want to be accused of not knowing his manners. "Mrs Halliwell, you can have the last one."
"Really? Thanks." Piper strode over to the table and picked up the cookie.
Just then, she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. The feeling was so intense, so unbearable, she winced in pain as she fell to the ground, and the cookie flew out of her hand.
Tom ran towards her. "Piper, are you all right? What happened? Should I get help?" He asked worriedly, rattling off questions. It all happened too quickly, he wasn't sure about what had happened.
"I... Chris!" Piper realised the implications of her pain and shouted before she blacked out.

°°°°°°°°°°

Victor and Cole ran into the kitchen. They had heard a noise of something falling which had made them jump up form the sofa.
Victor knelt down to his daughter: "Piper sweetie, what's wrong with you?"
"Chris..." she muttered again, gaining back her conscious a little.
"Your baby?" her father asked.
"Leo! Chris! Cole yelled.
Tom turned pale, and Cole put his hand on the boy's shoulder to comfort him.
Piper tried to fight the pain. She looked to her father staring him into the eyes.
"LEO! CHRIS!" Cole yelled again, but none of them orbed in.
"The other one?" asked Victor. Again Piper wasn't able to answer. "So what is it, sweetie?"
Cole took a deep breath: "O.k., Victor you stay on her side... and keep calling for Leo!" The man nodded.
Then Cole turned to Tom: "Shimmer me to the school!"
"What?"
"We have to find Chris, so do it!" he ordered.
Tom took his hand and both shimmered out.

°°°°°°°°°°

Nicki and Bianca had followed the boys from a little distance. Now they stood in front of the doorway smiling.
"Should we help them?" Nicki asked. She held the rabbit in her arms, which had run out of the library after the demon had appeared, and fondled it.
Bianca chuckled: "Hmmm... No!"
Both started to laugh till they were running out of air.
"I... I can't believe that," Bianca said then, "I mean... I thought Chris himself had come to this school, so why doesn't he know about that book?"
Nicki smiled: "Well... We had it in our first year, so Steve should know that too..." She made a short break and frowned: "Maybe he forgot to think about this, maybe he's still afraid of not being safe here... I mean... because the last attacks!"
Bianca sighed: "Yeah, maybe we should really help them..."
Nicki looked into her eyes, and she looked back.
"Noooo..." then, both of them said.
It was too funny to watch Chris and Steve fight that imaginary demon, which had jumped out of the 'book of nightmare', when it was opened after the rabbit had pushed it down from the table. The book had been made to scare little witches and to make them realise that demons are nothing to play with. But it was all an illusion. The boys only had to close the book, but they didn't realise it. As long as they thought it was a true attack the demon could fight them.
Suddenly the girls heard another noise behind them and turned around.
Cole was standing there, next to Tom, looking really pale, trying to gain back his balance. "Man, what the hell was that?" he asked.
"Sorry," Tom, replied, "I wanted to warn you that I'm not so used to that shimmering stuff, even more when it's not shimmering more than myself... but you..."
Cole stopped him with a movement of his hand: "Alright, alright... I'm still alive... as it seems."
"What are you doing here?" Bianca asked.
Now the man noticed the girls. "Bianca? Nicki? Where is Chris?" he exclaimed.
Bianca pointed at the doorway: "Fighting an illusion."
Cole and Tom went a little closer. "The book of nightmare?" the latter asked.
Nicki nodded chuckling.
"O.k. guys stop that," Cole ordered, "Piper is sick, she needs Chris's help." Bianca turned pale, same as Nicki.

°°°°°°°°°°

Chris and Steve were fighting that huge and ugly demon. But not even the flashes from the Elder were able to hurt him.
"Something is wrong here," Chris remarked and Steve nodded.
Then they saw Bianca coming in. She just went through the demon to the table in the middle of the room. 'Through the demon?' Chris thought.
Then they saw her picking up a book from the ground, closing it. And in the same second the demon was gone, same as all the destruction. Everything in the room was as usual again.
Chris and Tom looked at her in disbelief. Then they realised the truth and blushed.
Bianca smiled, but then she turned serious again: "Guys, believe me, I would have loved to watch you fighting that 'nightmare' a little longer... But Cole is here, he says that Piper needs you, honey!"
Within a second, Chris was on his feet again. "What's wrong?" he asked his uncle standing in the doorway.
"I don't know, but we shouldn't lose time..."
"Let's go, honey, I'll take care of the others," Bianca ordered. Chris nodded and orbed to the manor with a little qualm inside him.

°°°°°°°°°°

When he rematerialised in the hallway of the manor seconds later, no one was seen. "Mom?" he yelled.
"In the living room..." that was his grandpa.
Chris ran over there. He found his mother sitting on the sofa, her feet on the table and a glass of water in her hand. She smiled weakly. Victor was sitting next to her caressing her cheek.
"Mom? What happened?" he asked, kneeling down next to her, "Cole told me that you needed me..." She just sighed. Chris turned to Victor.
"A few moments before I thought your mother would die or something..." Victor explained, "she was lying on the floor in pain."
"What?" Chris felt real bad sorrow.
"But then it stopped; whatever it was..." his grandpa added.
In the same moment the others shimmered in.
Cole and the young witches looked at Piper with sorrow while Bianca went over to her too, and took her hand: "Are you o.k.?" She nodded.
"But what was that?" Chris asked still worried.
Piper looked him into the eyes: "Son... have you ever had a premonition?"
"You mean..." Chris asked unbelieving.
She nodded: "Yeah, I think I had one... and for the reason that I don't have this power, I thought it must have been yours... and your vision."
Chris frowned: "I can't remember that I ever had one... But the timeline has changed so... maybe that little kid and me are more different then we had thought..."
"What did you see?" Bianca asked.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Hey, man, whatever you have done, don't do it again. Never!" a very upset Phoebe yelled right after materialising in 'God-knows-where.' It was an empty square room, white walls, no furniture... But nothing weird, either. It was like any normal room, with its doors and lights... Even windows! But they three were there alone... At least, 'visibly'.
Meanwhile, Paige stumbled to a wall, in order to support herself on it: "I hated that, next time let me orb, on my own..."
"That wasn't 'orbing'," Phoebe remarked, turning around herself and looking up to the ceiling, very frustrated. "That wasn't shimmering either... shit!"
"Let's say it was a new way of transportation," a voice said, the same one that they had heard on the Golden Gate.
"What...?" the two sisters asked at the same time, as Leo searched with the sight for the owner of those words.
Suddenly the man appeared in front of them. He wasn't exactly the demon they were expecting, after all. On the contrary, they found themselves in front of a tall, well-built black man, around his fourties, of kind and sad eyes, and a very peaceful countenance, wrapped up in a long white cloak.
The glamoured Leo frowned: "Where are we?" he asked, pacing to one of the three windows. He peered out with the intention of discovering where they were, and he couldn't help choke a surprised exclamation when he realised that outside, there was only a beautiful field. A very bucolic landscape, with its flowers, trees... man... even sheep! "I... I can't believe this..."
The two sisters stared at the silent man, and then rushed to look out of the window too.
"Wow! What is this?" Phoebe asked, shocked.
The man smirked: "This... my friends, is virtual reality."
All the three sisters turned to look in his eyes, with their eyebrows raised in surprise and disbelief. The man went on: "We can not risk you knowing where we are exactly... It'd have been too dangerous if you get caught..."
"Oh... Funny," Paige replied sarcastically. So... you transported us here and faked this beautiful world... and what kind of demons do that? Because if I'm not wrong, even if you're a demon, you need our help, that's why we're here..."
'Unless this is a trap...' Leo thought, as Phoebe interrupted her talk. "Oh... They must be the Power Rangers, man..."
Paige and Leo glared at her, but the man only chuckled: "Yes... we wanted you to come here... because they want him..."
Phoebe rolled her eyes: "NO-MORE-HIEROGLIPHICS... Please! Just... Who are THEY, and who is 'HIM'?"
Paige nodded this time, and Leo waited, patiently.
The man gave his back to them, and said, after a long deep sigh: "He doesn't want you to know that...yet."
"Oh... great, now there's also a HE... Or is this HE by any chance the same as 'HIM'?" Paige asked, approaching the man.
He turned to her again, sadly. "No..."
"So is this HIM... someone from our family?" Leo intervened. The man just stared at him. "And if that's so... Why those demons are trying to... save HIM?"
The man lowered his eyes: "The demons were also virtual reality. Their mission, just delivering the messages. They were destructed right after that. Disappeared... Deleted..." The three sisters frowned. They didn't know what to ask now. Well, they knew... But they didn't know where to start.
"Are you saying this... is like the Matrix?" an incredulous Paige took the word, finally.
This time, the man had to laugh: "Of course not! These are just... precautions." Then he made a pause.
"Listen... There's not much time. You need to protect HIM above all, o.k.? It doesn't matter who is 'THEY' or who is 'HE'. The only thing that matters is that your son is alright... Leo." And he stared at the faked -and now surprised- Piper.
"How... how did you know?" he asked, recovering his original shape.
The man laughed again. "I know too much about you... Too much," he answered, "and now, do what I say."
"What... what son is in danger?" Paige asked, this time.
The man looked at her, surprised: "Christopher, of course... Who else?" Leo felt the world spinning around him.
Then, the man took his arm, and asked the sisters to touch his shoulders. "I'll transport you again... It's safer, because they can't trace this type of travelling. Only orbing and shimmering."
"Wait..." Phoebe said, suddenly, before disappearing," who are you...? At least, I guess you can tell us that."
The man looked straight into her eyes: "I'm only the messenger. And I'm a witch, if that makes you feel better."
Then he trasported them just after Phoebe and Paige tried again.
"A computer-science-expert witch?"
"And why did you create virtual demons to warn us?"

°°°°°°°°°°

"I don't know..." sighed Piper, "the pain was too much. There were many images, one after another... I couldn't grasp any. Only that in all of them was Chris. And I got the feelings of distress, fear, pain... a lot of pain..." She whined: "This can't be happening."
Chris pressed his hand on her shoulder, not knowing what to say.
It was Bianca who took the word: "What if it was only... a kind of nightmarish vision created by your pregnancy? I mean, we're bearing magical children... They might be developing their powers in the womb... And probably they don't control them. The little Chris might have created a vision out of a nightmare...?"
Victor and Cole, as well as everyone in the room, stared at Piper and Chris, and waited for their confirmation. But they just shook their heads.
"We can't ignore that something's going on, anymore..." said Chris, sadly.
Bianca hugged him tightly: "Don't worry honey, we will marry tomorrow. Nothing can spoil that... I swear."
"Yeah, you will," Piper said, "and that's why you'll go back to the school now and relax. You both."
"But mom," Chris replied, "I don't want you to be alone with my little self having this visions. What if that happens again?... And... where the hell is dad, why wasn't he here?"
"He and the other sisters orbed to the bridge... you know, the Golden Gate," Tom explained.
"What? Why didn't you call us?" Bianca asked.
"Because you should relax," Piper answered.
"But mom...!" Chris exclaimed.
"Enough!" Piper yelled. Everybody shut up. "I will not discuss this, got it?" she asked. Chris nodded weakly.
At the same moment Leo, Phoebe and Paige returned. When the Elder saw his wife on the sofa, still pale, he went over to her: "Piper, what's wrong?"
"I'm alright," she answered.
"She just had a vision, as she said," Victor explained.
"A vision?" Phoebe asked, "but that's my part!"
Tom, Nicki and Steve couldn't help chuckling a bit. But when they saw the angry look of the empath, they kept silent again.
"Did you find out anything?" Chris asked.
Leo looked at his son, thinking about what he should answer. He wanted to keep all this away from him... just till tomorrow evening... after the celebration. But he wasn't able to lie to him.
He sighed: "Well... we still don't know who is chasing that person, and who is telling us that. We only met a messenger..."
"But he was a witch," Paige added.
"Sounds nor good nor bad... in a way," Cole remarked.
"And did he tell you who they want?" Bianca asked.
Leo sighed again, same as Phoebe, who felt his inner fight. "Tell them," she said.
Leo nodded. Then he looked into the eyes of his son.
Chris looked back at him. And when he saw the sorrow and the fear in the eyes of his father, he knew the answer.
"Great," he said, with a weak smile. Bianca just hugged him a little more. And now she felt as he had felt before... She was angry that someone dared to spoil their big day...
"That fits," Piper whispered.
"What?" Paige asked worried.
"That fits to what I have seen, and felt... I felt that Chris was in danger," she answered.
Everyone kept silent for a while. Chris was hugging Bianca; he just needed to feel her this moment. 'Why always me?' he thought. But in the same second, he had a feeling that everything was alright. He had a feeling like... everything was exactly like it had to be. Everything was going the right way, whereever that would lead to.
Cole sighed. He felt sorry for this boy. Chris was more then just a nephew. He was his friend, more then anybody else in this freaky family. And he wanted him to have a good life, and not that... that shit.
But when he looked at Chris, who already freed himself form his love, he saw him smiling... weakly, but still smiling.
"And now?" Chris asked.
Leo raised an eyebrow: "We still don't know who's after you or why, so..."
Chris sighed: "I'll go to the school, where I'm safe, right?" Leo nodded. Chris jumped up and offered Bianca his arm. She took it with a sad smile.
"Everything will be alright, I'm sure," he whispered to her ear, while the others were looking at him with suspection. 'Since when is it so easy to make Chris stay out of the action?' Piper frowned... same as Phoebe; the latter one even noticed that kind of weird feeling inside him.
Then Chris turned to Victor: "Grandpa, would you like to come with us to see where we live?"
Victor gave him a little worried look, but then he nodded. 'If the school is a safe place, it's better to go with them,' he thought.
"See you later," Chris said and orbed with Bianca and Victor away.


(Chapter 3 written by Belén, aKaNe-MiZuKi and Chrissy.W.x)