A Charmed Story - Part Four:
Marriage with Obstacles
Chapter 5
The man in the white gown closed the door behind him. He looked around. The small, dark room was, on the one hand, full of magical weapons, potions and other things like that, and, on the other hand, full of computers and technical equipment.
In front of the messanger stood a very tall demon, completely dressed in black, and looking onto some papers. When the man stepped closer the demon looked up. "Hello Julian," he said with his deep voice. The witch nodded with a slight smile.
"Did they get the message?" the demon asked then.
Julian nodded again: "Yes Belthazor, they did."
A bright smile appeared on the red face of the demon: "Goooood!" Then he turned around again.
Julian went a little closer: "You promised me an explanation."
Belthazor grumbled something; then he turned around again: "Right!" He placed his arms around the witch and went with him a few steps aside to some stony seats. "Ask me... two questions, and I will answer them honestly... But no more!" he said as he sat down.
Julian nodded. That was typical of him. Those two-questions-games. "Alright," he started, "I know you want to save those boys, but why?"
Belthazor smiled: "I met the old one once, and thought he's nice..."
"You said you would be honest," the witch replied.
Belthazor grumbled again: "You know me too well..." He laughed, then he explained: "Well... o.k... Once when I and Cole were reunited for a while, I learnt all what he knew at that time... And therefore I know that we need this boy. He's the only one that can save us from the future he had lived in. A future where there is no place for you, or me... Even if he already saved his brother, he has something special, something huge... That's why this world needs him. And even if that means we have to help the sisters in a way... The boy, both boys must be alive!"
Julian nodded, he knew that this was the truth. He always knew it when the demon was honest, or not. And he also knew it this time, even if he was sure that there was more...
"Second question?" Belthazor asked.
"Why do you need me? Why all these computer-stuff? I mean... you're the source."
Now Belthazor smiled again: "'Cause the sisters know how to vanquish me... That's a kind of protection... The Charmed Ones are not used to that, and those who want the boy dead either."
°°°°°°°°°°
"Well..." muttered Victor uneasy, observing how the three teens kept eating and drinking as if everything was going fine. But from time to time, between their chitchatting, they directed some furtive looks at each other, worried looks out of the corner of their eyes. Victor immediately understood what all that was about: They were just pretending that there was nothing to worry at, because of Victor... But the truth was that they themselves were staying back only for him. He smiled without knowing what else he should do.
"I guess I came in a very bad moment..." he finally said. The three teens raised their heads to look at him.
"Why do you say that, Mr... Halliwell? " Nicki tried, showing him her most calming countenance.
"Oh... Bennet. That's my last name."
"Oh..." Let out the three at the same time.
"Don't worry, it's o.k... I guess that my ex-wife's family had a stronger position in the world."
The kids chuckled. "Yes... It seems so..." Tom laughed.
"Well... Being next to my daughters and now their progeny too, is always being in the wrong place... For a normal human like me, I mean," he sighed.
Steve nodded, pensive: "Yeah... don't tell us. But they're amazing, Mr. Bennet. All of them. And we're really proud that they took us into account when they needed some help, you know?"
Victor smiled and stretched his arm to get some cookies himself. "Just call me Victor, please... Forget about last names and honours." The three smiled at the same time.
"You're really anxious to go there now, aren't you?" he winked at them.
"Oh, no, no, don't worry about us. We're here to help, and this is also helping," explained Nicki.
Victor interrupted her: "Come on, don't lie... You're missing all the fun up here. You'd die to be there, helping, TRULY helping... "
Tom blushed: "Well... Maybe..."
Victor laughed as he saw how Steve hit his stomach softly, but rudely, to make him close his mouth.
"No, we're fine here, promise. We wouldn't leave Chris's grandpa alone at any instance." Nicki took the dish with cookies, and stretched it towards Victor, grinning widely. And with the intention of cutting the conversation off and changing the topic, she said: "More cookies?"
Victor raised one eyebrow, and then took a cookie. 'What else I could do!' he thought for the second time in a while.
°°°°°°°°°°
"What was that?" Phoebe asked.
Chris was about to leave the attic and have a look, but Bianca held him back.
"You go back to the school, now," she said and then turned to Piper, "and you, too!"
Both were about to protest, but Bianca just grasped their hands and shimmered them on her own.
"I can't believe that he's in love with a demon," Prue said when they were gone.
"Maybe that's the reason, why she doesn't like you," Cole replied grinning evilly. He never liked that witch very much. And he didn't plan to lie now. Prue glanced at him with a little anger.
"O.k., stop, stop," Phoebe said, while another noise came from downstairs, "we have much more important things to do."
Leo nodded and orbed down, while the sisters followed by feet. Cole was also about to follow them, but Phoebe asked him to stay. "Look up the riddles," she commanded.
Cole sighed. He really hated that part! But what else should he do? So he went over to the book and flipped through its pages. But there was nothing that could help them.
°°°°°°°°°°
Leo orbed in the kitchen. There was no sign of an intruder. He walked out to the hall and then to the living room. No sign. When he returned to the hall the sisters came down the stairs. "Nothing," he said.
"But something has made that noise," Paige remarked, "so there must be something!"
The sisters looked around, but there was no trace of anything... It was weird. The whole house was calm... too calm... it was kind of spooky.
"Some things have changed here since my last visit," Prue remarked after a little while.
"Oh, not that much," Phoebe answered.
Prue smiled to her, and also to Paige who looked at her a little shy. "Did I tell you, that I'm proud to have such a brave half-sister?" she asked and winked.
Paige blushed: "Thanks."
Prue smiled again: "Never mind."
Then, suddenly a vase next to her broke into pieces.
°°°°°°°°°°
Victor and the teens looked up when the others shimmered in.
"Hey," Piper said, looking at her father, sitting there on the table and eating cookies.
He nodded: "Are you o.k.?"
"Sure," she answered.
Then she looked at Tom, Steve and Nicki: "Didn't I tell you to go home? It's already late."
"Well..." Chris answered instead of them, "they are here 'cause... we wanted to go through some lessons for the next week..."
Piper smiled and shook her head: "I can't believe that you've managed to hide your real identity from me, for over half a year... You're such a bad liar." The teens chuckled.
Piper laughed, but then her face turned serious.
"What's wrong?" Bianca asked, while Chris looked at her with sorrow. Victor jumped up from his chair and went over to her, too.
"I don't know," she muttered. Then she broke down yelling.
"Mom! Piper!" Chris and Victor cried at the same time, leading her to the sofa.
"Sit down here, sweetie, are you o.k.?" Victor was feeling helpless.
"Is it the baby, mom, is it... me?" an anxious Chris asked.
Bianca was also next to Piper, offering her a cup of tea, and placing some cushions behind her head so that she could rest it on them.
Meanwhile, Nicki, Steve and Tom had stood up, and looked at her without knowing what they could do.
"Maybe another vision?" Chris insisted, when he made sure his mother was relaxing.
The pain had only lasted for some seconds, but it had been so intense! Then, she felt as if no air had reached her lungs for centuries! She started to breathe heavily until she recovered the normal breathing, little by little. Chris's voice brought her into reality. She stared back at him, scared and worried.
"I'm afraid it was," she said with a broken voice. Her eyes welled up in tears.
"What did you see...?" Bianca asked.
Piper shook her head and closed her eyes. A weak, still sad smile appeared on her face when she felt the gentle touch of a very worried Victor, caressing her hair. "I don't know..." she whined then, opening her eyes again, "I can't catch the visions... It's only that pain!"
The teens kept their eyes on Piper, Nicki and Steve holding their hands tightly.
Chris swallowed. He was pondering an idea. "Mom... maybe we could cast that spell I used with Phoebe when Wyatt turned evil the second time..."
Victor turned his sight at him, questioningly, but said nothing.
"I could try to see what you see..." Chris went on.
She shook her head: "Phoebe is able to control her powers, her visions, in a way. I don't think I can show this to you. Besides, I'm sure they're the baby's visions, not mine..."
Chris and Bianca sighed, feeling helpless too.
Then Nicki suggested in a low careful tone: "We could hypnotise you, Piper..."
Chris and Victor frowned. "Is that safe?" her father asked.
Nicki nodded: "She'll be fine. That's the only way to see what she's just seen, because those memories and visions are kept in the subconscious."
"But they seem to be horrible. If she finds herself in a very extreme situation, she might not wake up, and..." Chris stated this time.
Steve answered instead of Nicki: "We'll wake her up at the first symptom that she's feeling uneasy or in danger."
Tom supported the idea: "Maybe in those visions there's some image of the demons that are after you..."
Bianca looked at Piper, who sighed: "Let's do it as soon as possible..."
°°°°°°°°°°
Cole kept looking at the book, bored. He was resting all his weight on the bookrest where it was lying.
At that moment, white-blue orbs filled the attic, and a few seconds later, little Wyatt showed himself, crying and mumbling: "Mom..."
Cole rushed to the boy. He seemed to be really distressed, and he had never seen the little child that way. "Come with me, man. it's o.k... Did you have a nightmare?"
"Unce Co..." he was crying desperately.
"Mommy is fine, o.k.? Calm down..." he sat down, forgetting about the book, and sat Wyatt on his lap. The child kept on crying and repeating 'Mommy' all the time.
"Hey, look at this... This is the horse of the little warrior!" Cole said in a cheering tone, moving his legs in a way that simulated a trotting horse. "We're going to save the princess now, she's calling you, do you hear her?" Wyatt's sobs started to reduce, and he even giggled with the trotting. Little by little, he was calming down, but he kept repeating 'mommy' for a while. "Come, on, Wyatt, you have to kill the bad man to save the princess."
"The ba man want mommy," he sobbed. "And want Chis. I want mommy..." He started to cry again.
Cole stared at him, surprised. "What?" He stopped playing, and the child was crying more and more again.
Suddenly something broke downstairs.
"O.k.," he muttered. He took Wyatt on his arm and grasped a sheet of paper and a pen to write a little note. Then he went over to the book again. He placed the paper there and took the book with his other arm. Wyatt was still crying.
"Hey, little warrior, now it's your turn," he smiled at him, "I know you can do that, I know you can... You're big boy, right?"
Wyatt nodded softly, still sobbing. He began to calm down again.
"Come on," Cole whispered to his ear. Orb us together to the school, alright."
It took a little moment and a few more words, but then Wyatt and his uncle disappeared in orbing lights.
°°°°°°°°°°
Meanwhile Chris had another idea: "Nicki, why don't you just try to enter her mind?"
Nicki turned pale afraid of what she could see inside her. She knew she would see it as if she had to live that on her own.
Piper, who was still lying on the sofa, shook her head: "No, I don't want her to suffer... Just try to hypnotise me.
Nicki smiled at her thankful, while Chris just nodded. He felt real sorrow for his mom. Something was really wrong in that game, this time.
Victor put his hand on his shoulder. Chris looked at him, looked at his weak smile. "Everything will be alright," the grey-haired man said to cheer him up.
Chris nodded and hugged him: "Thanks grandpa."
At the same moment Cole entered the hall, with Wyatt and the book. The others stared at him surprised.
He intended to explain what was going on, but when he saw Piper lying on the sofa he went quickly nearer: "Oh my God... Your son was right!"
"What?" most of them asked at the same time.
Cole knelt down besides her, and Wyatt hugged his mom still sobbing. "The little boy came up to me, crying for mom. He was afraid. I think he felt that something was going on. He yelled for you and then for Chris," he explained.
Piper looked at her little son surprised, and then kissed him on his cheek.
"And why did they give you the book?" Bianca asked.
It took a second till Cole realised that she was addressing him and what she meant: "Oh, no... I took it with us, I left a little note, saying that it's here. Something is going on at home and I thought it's better for him and the book to be here. So I asked him to orb us."
"You mean Wyatt has orbed both of you?" Chris asked surprised, while Piper was looking at the little boy in disbelief.
"Yeah," Cole answered, "he orbed us right into the kindergarten.
"That's my brother," Chris remarked with a smile.
°°°°°°°°°°
Paige turned around when another vase was broken. Then she looked at the others again.
"What's going on here?" she asked.
"I don't know," Leo said.
Phoebe looked at Prue. She was still smiling. "Have you got any idea?" the empath asked a little scared by that.
"No idea," she answered.
Phoebe suddenly got some very weird feelings... but she wasn't able to locate where they came from.
"O.k., I think I should try a spell," Paige said. Her sisters nodded. Paige sighed and rose to speak.
"Whatever is around us here
Invisible just to hide.
Show us its real identity
Come to our sight!"
At the same moment a light appeared in the middle of the hallway, bright and shining.
"What is that?" Phoebe asked.
Leo was speechless for a moment, then he muttered: "A kind of ghost, maybe." All the eyes were on the shining figure.
Secretly Prue moved his hand, slowly and carefully, making sure that the others didn't notice. And she sent the ghost away.
"Where has it gone?" Paige asked, after they saw the ghost disappear through the walls.
"No idea," Prue said again, still smiling.
Leo frowned. 'She's too happy,' he thought. Also Paige was a little irritated by that.
"O.k.," Phoebe took over the action, "it's gone, so let's get back to the attic."
All of them together climbed up the stairs again. But when they reached the attic it was empty.
"Oh, my God... The book!" Paige exclaimed.
Everyone was looking around, hoping that it was lying somewhere else. Phoebe went to the bookrest and found a sheet of paper. She read it to the others.
"Wyatt is a little uneasy. And because I don't know what's going on downstairs, I took him and the book to his mother. Cole."
"So maybe we should go there too," Paige asked.
Prue frowned but still smiled: "Yeah, but how are we gonna get there?"
Now Leo was frowning: "Thought you watched us, so you must know the way."
Prue turned pale for a moment, but then her unkillable smile returned: "Sure, I was just asking about the 'how'... Will we use the door?"
Leo sighed... he couldn't explain it... He felt that something was wrong. And while Phoebe was still happy that her sister was there, and hugging her, also Paige started to become a little uneasy.
°°°°°°°°°°
"Are you coming back alone?" the tall and elegant demon hissed pacing slowly towards his invisible subordinate, with his hands at his back.
When he approached the place, a sudden and weird breeze shook the air in the very same place where seconds later the demon turned visible. He was shivering, and shrinking his head as much as he could, as if that way he could hide from the coming storm.
"None of them was in the manor, master..." he mumbled. The one to be called his boss, made him raise his head and look into his eyes, as he went on speaking: "Only the Charmed Ones, and their Elder, the father of the boy... and Cole Turner was also there... They were distracted by something else, so I went to the babies' bedroom, but there was only the other one... that, Wyatt. I thought he couldn't see me, but he started to cry, and cry, and then he orbed away... I... Ihad to come back, I'm so sorry, master..." He was shaking violently now.
His boss narrowed his eyes and looked deeply into his: "He might be developing some new powers... But it's just a baby... Why didn't you bring the eldest of the Charmed Ones, the one who's pregnant... ? Thought you had said that 'none of them' was in the manor... She's definitely 'one' of 'them', you bastard."
The demon stepped back and tripped over a stone, which made him stumble, but he just recovered the balance: "No, master... the one who's pregnant, that one called Piper, wasn't there. Nor the other Elder... Chris."
His master frowned, confused an irritated: "You stop now mumbling and telling incoherences, or else I'll..."
"No, master, wait... I mean, three of the Charmed Ones were there, but one of them being the dead one. The eldest, Prue..."
His master stopped stiff. "What?" That wasn't something he had counted on... "What the hell is she doing there?"
"Master Zankou..." the demon went on, still shivering and with a trembling voice, "I think they know... They know what we're up to... somehow. That's why they hid both of them."
Zankou, a demon with Arabic features, smart in all the senses of the word, turned his head slightly and narrowed his eyes. "How do they know, my dear friend..." he said in a kind tone, "how do they know... "
°°°°°°°°°°
A few minutes later, Steve, Tom, Cole, and Victor, who was holding little Wyatt on his arms, were sitting on a sofa just in front of Piper.
The woman was on an armchair, in the middle of the room, with her eyes closed, and Nicki, just before her, was speaking to her very softly so that she relaxed. She had started to feel better little by little.
Chris, however, was really uneasy. He had been pacing from one place to the other, and his attitude wasn't helping his mother to calm down, so Bianca had decided to take him to the library, and see if they could find there something else about that weird prophecy. Something that could help. The library was a box of surprises; actually, you never know what you can find there.
"We should be doing something in this place. Such a magical site and we still have to go from one book to another, flipping through the pages, and wasting a precious time," Chris said sitting down on the floor, very frustrated.
Bianca smiled and hugged him lovingly. "I hope that you are more patient tomorrow, when the bride arrives late, as always happens," she teased.
Chris smiled making a sarcastic grimace: "I will, I promise... if I myself get to arrive in time."
"We will, honey, I promise..."
°°°°°°°°°°
Meanwhile, Piper was getting asleep. "What about the pendulum?" she had asked when her eyelids started to fall over her eyes.
Nicki grinned: "No need of a pendulum here..." Then she whispered: "Just sleep..." She was touching her temples. "Sleep..."
Victor and Cole observed the scene very interested, although Victor was also a bit worried. Steve noticed it and pressed his hand on his shoulder.
"That's not dangerous, I promise..." he explained. "She has done this to me lots of times... to help me with some stuff about my past too."
'Your mom?' Tom asked telepathically, looking at his friend out of the corner of his eyes. Steve just nodded.
"No..." Piper muttered, becoming very uneasy. It was starting.
Nicki concentrated on her: "Listen to me, Piper... I'm with you; you don't need to worry, o.k.? Relax... relax... and tell me, just tell me what you see."
°°°°°°°°°°
"O.k... me and Phoebe go to the school and took the book and talk to Piper again, you and Paige stay here," Leo commanded.
"Oh, but I want to stay with Prue," Phoebe pouted a little.
"Yeah," Paige said, "but you can't orb if there's another visitor." Leo nodded.
Phoebe sighed and took Leo's hand. But before they orbed, she turned to Prue again: "Don't run away, alright?" Her sister nodded smiling. Then, they orbed.
"And what are we doing now?" Paige asked after the blue lights were gone. She really wasn't sure about how to behave in front of the great Prue. She was like a family-heroine.
Prue just smiled and said: "I would like to have a hot chocolate, you too?"
Paige smiled too: "Stay here, I'll take care of that." Prue nodded and the witch-whitelighter went out.
As soon as Paige had left her, Prue's eyes became darker, her face paler.
Then she shimmered away.
(Chapter 5 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)
