Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed or any of the characters present on the show. I also, technically and legally, don't own any of the characters I've made up or anything to do with this story. The Archers, their boyfriends and girlfriends, the O'Reillys, none of them are legally mine, nor are the phrases, quotes, or anything else in here, but I would greatly appreciate it if you would ask me before using my characters and/or quotes. Thanks!

I'd like to give a humungous thanks to Laur (The-Cheese-Fairy) who is my wonderful co-writer. If you haven't already, be sure to check out all of her stories as soon as you're done reading this.

Okay kiddies, I'm finally back! I know it took me forever, but it's done. I think I have carpal tunnel syndrome, but it was worth it. This is 30 (30!) pages long on Microsoft Word. Unfortunately, I've been informed that that's too much for one chapter, so this is going to be split up a bit. So, please read on and if you'd like a refresher as to who's who, let me know in your review (hint, hint)!

I'm sorry to say, but for those of you who thought this looked interesting and haven't read any of my other stuff, you're going to have to read Army of Witches and everything in between to understand what's going on. You don't have to read Cole's Revenge, Close Your Eyes, or Green Eyed Serpents. But everything else is all part of the series. So get reading!

So without further ado… Drumroll please… (Hey, where the hell are my drummers?) Nevermind! Please, let's just start the show!

Carry on the Heritage: The Next Generation of Halliwells

Chapter One: The Whitelighter Trials Part One

"Do you understand all that I've just explained to you?"

"Do you understand that we're not retarded?"

The Elder Oden looked at his audience sternly, his mouth twitching in annoyance. They were just like their parents in every way, from looks to attitude and everything in between. What a shame.

"This is a serious matter. I don't think that smart remarks will help you any," he said. Patience Marie Halliwell rolled her ocean blue eyes and sighed, blowing a piece of her long, raven black hair out of them.

"Fine," she said. "We understand."

"Are you sure?" Oden asked, fixing his eyes on Patience's youngest cousin, Persephone Autum Halliwell. Sensing his gaze, Percy looked up from her newly manicured fingernails, which she had previously been inspecting.

"Yes," she said pointedly. Oden looked over at the two boys, Parker Wyatt Halliwell, who was staring fixedly at the glass table, and Preston Coleridge Halliwell, who had the hood up on his black sweatshirt and appeared to be sleeping.

"Good," he said, convinced that that was the best response he was going to get out of the four of them.

"Great! Can we go now?" Patience asked, standing up.

"No," Oden said dully. Patience groaned and plopped back down in her chair. "I have one more matter of business to discuss with you."

"Fine, but this time, let's not make it take all week, okay?" Percy said, tightening the dark brown ponytail that sat on the back of her head. Oden glared at her, feeling the blood red anger creeping up his neck, but resisted the urge to fly off on a tangent about how they should respect their elders. There were much more important things at hand.

"Very well. You might want to wake up the drooling dog first," he said, nodding at Preston. Percy sighed and nudged her cousin. Nothing.

"Preston, wake up," she said dully. Still no reply. Her chocolate brown eyes filled with annoyance and frustration as she pulled back and slammed her elbow into his ribcage.

"Ow!" Preston exclaimed, his dark brown curls falling into his coffee colored eyes. He glared daggers at his younger cousin as he blinked the tears of pain from his eyes. "What the hell was that for?"

"Shut up and pay attention so we can get the hell out of here," Patience ordered. Preston groaned loudly and eased back into his chair, rubbing his side in the process. Finally, Parker drew his light brown gaze up to look at Oden, pushing his messy brown hair out of his eyes.

"Now, the last order of business is assigning you a Whitelighter," Oden started.

"Why can't my dad or Uncle Leo do it?" Percy questioned immediately.

"Because they've got their own charges to attend to. You four must be assigned a Whitelighter who has no other charges so that their full attentions can be focused on you. The only problem with that is that you have not yet been anointed," Oden answered.

"Anointed? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Preston asked irritably.

"It means that you haven't formally accepted you destinies," Oden said.

"The hell we haven't!" Patience exclaimed. "We gave up scholarships for them!"

"You have said that you accept them, but you have to show that you accept them."

"Did you not just hear the 'giving up scholarships' part?" Percy asked.

"How are we supposed to 'show'? Parker asked.

"It is a series of tests; three trials that you must endure. If you make it through them, you will become anointed and receive you Whitelighter," Oden informed them.

"If we don't?" Percy asked, quirking an eyebrow. Oden frowned.

"If you don't, then you will not become fully anointed and therefore cannot receive your Whitelighter. We need to know that you are willing to fight as hard as necessary, if not harder for this. If you can't complete this simple task, then there is no chance that you will be able to defeat your foe in the final battle. This is why you must complete the trials," Oden said.

"What kind of trials?" Patience asked suspiciously.

"I cannot say. I can only tell you that the first task you will face, you will do it together. For the second, you will be in pairs and for the third you will be alone. When you've completed all three trials successfully, you will be met by your new Whitelighter and brought back here for the anointing ceremony," Oden said.

"When do we start?" Percy asked.

"Now." The cousins were blinded as a bright white light filled the room, creeping into every inch of it and blocking everything from sight. Before they could even realize what was happening, the four of them fell to the ground with a loud thud as the chairs and table disappeared out from under them. Percy yelped in surprise.

"Ugh! You could have at lease let us stand up!" Patience yelled, her eyes transforming from their ocean blue to a stormy color swirled with dark blue. "Asshole!" she exclaimed.

"Um, guys? Where did the door go?" Parker asked, looking very worried. His cousins turned their heads to look at the spot where the huge double doors once were.

"Screw this, I'm outta here," Preston said, forming into solid rock and disappearing. A few seconds later, the rock came crashing back in and broke into a million pieces before quickly gathering themselves back together and forming back into Preston.

"Well obviously that isn't working," Percy commented. Patience turned her head up angrily to the ceiling.

"Alright assholes! You want us to do these trials, then bring 'em on!" she demanded. Right on cue, four bodies entered the room, one in water form, one in tornado form, one in rock form, and one in fire form. The quickly turned into identical twins of the Archers standing across from them. Behind them appeared a glowing blue crystal.

"Who the hell are you?" Percy asked. None of them answered, they just stood there silently, looking unblinkingly back at her. "Okay then, my guess is that we have to get that crystal back there."

"Looks easy enough," Preston said, striding up to their silent twins.

"Um, Preston, I wouldn't do that if I were you…" Parker warned. Preston ignored him and came within a few inches of his twin.

"Hey, how's it going? Listen, I need to get to that crystal, so you need to move aside," he said. His twin didn't move, he just stared back at him. Preston tried going around him, but the twin moved in front of him. "Okay, maybe you didn't hear me the first time. Move."

"I'm pretty sure he heard you, Quake, but it's not gonna be that-" Before Percy could finish her sentence, Preston had launched a fist at his twin, only to have it blocked by that same fist that belonged to the twin. Preston yelled in frustration, the anger visibly creeping up his neck as the sound of knuckles cracking ricocheted off the walls.

"You bastard!" he yelled, forming a fireball in his hands.

"Preston, no!" Patience yelled. Preston's twin had also formed a fireball and was ready to launch it at him.

"They do exactly what we do. They're mirroring us," Parker realized. Preston whipped his head back in surprise. Then he looked back at his twin curiously. He extinguished his fireball, the twin doing the same.

"How the hell are we supposed to beat them if they know exactly what we're going to do?" Percy asked.

"I swear, I'm gonna kill the Elders when this is over!" Patience promised angrily.

"Oh, screw this!" Preston said, whipping around to face his twin and hurling a fireball at him.

"No!" Percy screamed. As the fireballs came within inches of the two Prestons' faces, both Parkers blew as hard as they could, causing the fireballs to blow into the opposite walls.

"Preston, what the hell were you thinking?" Patience questioned angrily. "You could have killed yourself!"

"So what, this is stupid! I don't want to be 'anointed'. I never asked for this!" Preston yelled.

"Hey guys," Parker said.

"None of us asked for this, Preston, but we got it so we might as well make the best of it. Getting yourself killed isn't going to solve anything," Patience shot.

"Guys," Parker repeated.

"Well I'm sick of this! I'm sick of the Elders and their shit! I just want to go home, go to college, get a job, get married to Leah. I'm tired of people telling us what we are and aren't allowed to do," Preston said.

"We're all sick of it! You don't see the rest of us trying to commit suicide, do you?" Percy asked.

"Guys!" Parker yelled.

"What?" the three of them yelled back, turning to face him.

"They don't talk," Parker pointed out. His cousins raised their eyebrows simultaneously as though he had just said something completely out of character. "They don't talk." They still looked clueless. "Haven't you noticed that no matter how much we say something, they don't ever say anything back or say the same things? They mirror all of our attacks, but not all of our moves. And if they don't talk, then they can't say spells or orb telekinetically." There was a collective 'oh' as what he was saying dawned on the others.

"So, if I just did this…" Percy said. "Crystal!" Without any effort, the blue crystal disappeared in a cloud of orbs and reappeared in her hand. As soon as it touched her skin, it glowed brilliantly and engulfed the room in a blinding white light again.

"That was eas-" Patience was cut off as they were transported away from their white room and away from the twins. The next thing she knew, she was landing hard on the ground again. She could tell by the sharp pain in her leg from the rock that she had landed on that she wasn't in the white room again. She groaned and rubbed the underside of her right leg, tossing the rock aside. That's when she looked around. She had to stifle a gasp as she took in her surroundings.

All around her, Patience was surrounded by full, thick, dark green hedges at least fifteen feet tall and about six feet apart. The hard dirt ground underneath her was covered in a light mist and she could barely see two feet in front of her through the thick fog, but she could tell that it was completely dark. Menacing looking twigs and vines stuck out at odd angles from the hedges, the sharp thorns very visible to the eye. A small grunt of pain brought Patience's blue-eyed gaze over to the crumpled form of Preston abruptly. She scrambled over to help him up as he roused himself from unconsciousness, having hit his head hard upon their arrival.

"Goddamn," he groaned, rubbing is head where a pesky lump had already formed.

"Are you alright?" Patience asked in concern.

"Yeah, just let me re-grow some of the brain cells I lost real quick. Where the hell are we?" he asked, looking around in confusion. Patience shook her head.

"I don't know, but I don't like it," she commented.

"Where are Tory and Fireball? Didn't they make it?" Preston questioned, suddenly becoming concerned.

"I'm pretty sure they made it somewhere, just not here. This is the second task. We're in pairs, remember," she pointed out.

"My powers don't work. Why don't my powers work?" Preston asked suddenly, trying fruitlessly to form a fireball in his hands. Patience also tried out one of her powers, but came up with the same result.

"Oh, this is brilliant! How the hell are we supposed to get out of here without our powers?" she yelled. Her question was lost in the deep silence of the hedges.

"Patience? Patience? Can you hear me?" a panicked voice rang through Patience's mind.

"Percy?" she thought.

"Oh thank god! Squirt, I don't know what to do! Parker and I are in this place all alone and we tried to come find you guys, but we just kept ending up in the same spot and we don't have any powers and my wrist hurts really bad, I think I broke it," Percy said frantically.

"A maze," Patience whispered aloud.

"What?" Preston asked.

"Okay sweetie, just calm down. I think I know what we have to do. This place is a maze. We're probably on opposite ends. My guess is that we need to find our way to the middle and meet up there. We just don't have any active powers, which means that spells and potions are in. Alright, get Parker and fill him in and start using your heads. Do whatever you need to get to the center of this maze and if Preston and I aren't there, then wait for us. And most importantly, stay together. We don't want either of you getting lost," Patience said.

"Okay. Be careful." With that, the connection was broken.

xxxxx

"Did you get through?" Parker asked expectantly.

"Yeah. She said that this was a maze and we had to get to the middle using only spells and potions. No active powers. Do you know how much that royally sucks?" Percy said.

"Yeah, I know. But let's just do this. The faster we get through, the better we'll be," Parker reminded her.

"This better be one damn good Whitelighter for all of the work we have to go through for it! And I think my wrist is broken," Percy whined.

"Let me see," Parker said, concern crossing his face as he gently picked up Percy's right hand.

"Ow!" she gasped.

"Sorry. I don't think there's anything we can do about it though until we get our active powers back. You think you can deal?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Percy assured him with a nod. "Let's just try to think of how we're going to get to the middle of this."

"Well, let's try a spell. Maybe we can come up with some kind of spell that will point us in the right direction," Parker offered.

"Okay, um… point us to the center… of this maze that we have entered," Percy said. Parker raised his eyebrow. "What? It was pretty good for the two seconds it took to think up." Suddenly, the mist that covered the ground gathered itself into an arrow pointing straight. Percy smirked and gave an accomplished look to Parker, who rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, you're brilliant. Let's just follow it," he said.

"Wait! I can't see a thing. I need light," Percy said. Parker sighed and looked around. His eyes lit up as he noticed a purple flower sticking out of the hedges.

"I think I remember something from one of your mom's lessons," he said, walking over to the flower. "She said that almost anything can be used as a potion ingredient, you just have to know a little about the world around you. Thank god I was a nerd."

"Was?" Percy asked with a raised eyebrow and a mischievous smirk. Parker glared and picked the flower.

"This flower represents guidance," he said, showing it to her.

"Okay, that's nice, but unless it can guide us to a lantern it's not gonna do us any good," Percy commented. Parker put his finger up.

"Just wait," he said. Then he stooped down and grabbed some of the dirt underneath them. "The earth represents stability so it won't go out. Now all we need is… to make a potion is what we desire, so give us a cauldron and brewing pyre," he recited. A small cauldron appeared out of nowhere on the ground, suspended by nothing. Under it was a small blue fire.

"Wow, that was incredibly cool," Percy said in astonishment. Parker grinned and knelt down, throwing in the flower and dirt. Then he looked around curiously and grabbed a dead twig from the hedges, lit it with the fire, and tossed it in.

"A little fire for light and…" A glowing white orb floated out of the cauldron and illuminated the path around them. As it did, the cauldron and fire disappeared into thin air. "Voila!"

"Yay! I love you!" Percy said happily, gently pushing the orb in front of her with her good hand and letting it, along with her arrow of mist, lead the way. The two walked for a while before their arrow pointed them right and led them down anther path. They weren't even really paying attention anymore, they were too busy conversing about who their Whitelighter might be and how excited they were to move in to their new homes. When she had first bumped into it, Percy had thought that she was imagining things. Then she lifted her gaze from the rock hard foot seemingly made out of hardened magma, up the thick legs, hard cut abdomen, strong arms, ugly face, and finally, the rock hard spines on its head before she realized that she was actually standing in front of a demon. Her big brown eyes got huge as she looked into the evil, beady black eyes of the creature.

"Percy," Parker warned.

"Okay, this was so not in the bargain!"

xxxxx

"Patience, we've been walking around for ages and I'm pretty sure I've seen this rock at least a thousand times now. We're going in circles, Squirt," Preston complained as Patience led them down another dark pathway that looked exactly like the rest of them.

"Well I'm sorry, but it's not exactly like there are signs sticking up out of the ground that say 'This way to the middle of the maze'. It's a little hard to find your way around," Patience pointed out in annoyance.

"So let magic find our way around. Do a spell or something," Preston suggested.

"Why don't you do a spell? All of my spells suck and your mom was the spell writer of the family," Patience reminded him.

"That doesn't mean that I am! I can't rhyme," Preston said. Patience just glared at him. "Ugh, fine. Let's see… Guide us to the place we seek; to the center of this maze so deep; to meet our cousins and end this task; hurry up and make it fast."

"You're right, your spells suck," Patience confirmed with a grin. Preston glared at her, his cheeks pink from embarrassment. A small green light appeared from nowhere and circled around their heads, before zooming off in the direction they wanted to go. "Oh, guess that's our cue to follow." The two of them sprinted after it, following it down a twisting path.

"Okay, what is that?" Preston asked as the outline of a figure was shadowed into the darkness.

"I'm not sure, but we need to hurry or else we'll lose your little lightning bug," Patience panted. As they came closer, the outline of the figure became clearer until they were almost right in front of it and had to stop or else they would run into it. The light, however, was in no mood to wait and zoomed off past the figure and down a path, disappearing into the darkness. Now that the two could see the figure, they almost wished they couldn't. Standing before them, about seven feet tall was something that neither of them thought existed, but could not be mistaken for anything but what it was.

It was a sphinx. It had the body of a lion with huge paws, about the size of small boulders, each equipped with their own set of razor sharp claws. It's long, slender, muscular body led down to two powerful hind legs and a long, quick tail with a small tuft of brown fur at the end that was swishing back and forth restlessly. The head, however, was that of a woman, with large chestnut brown eyes and a petite nose. She blocked the whole path, preventing the two from getting past, but she didn't look hostile.

"You are very near your goal, but there are more troubles that lie ahead for both you and your cousins. The quickest way to the center is past me," she said in a soft, confident voice that sounded very Russian.

"Um, so, can we get past?" Preston asked hopefully.

"No," she said simply.

"I figured that was too easy."

"You must first answer my riddle. Answer correctly on your first guess and I let you pass. Answer wrong, I attack. Remain silent and I will let you walk away unscathed to face the more horrible dangers of this maze," she explained. Preston and Patience looked at each other in disbelief, but came to the silent agreement that if they couldn't put it together between the two of them, then there was something seriously wrong with both of their brains.

"Okay. What's the riddle?" Patience asked. The sphinx nodded and sat down on her hind legs in the middle of the path.

"First think of the person who lives in disguise,

Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.

Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,

The middle of middle and end of the end?

And finally give me the sound often heard

During the search for a hard-to-find word.

Now string them together and answer me this,

Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?"

Patience and Preston shared a look again, this time of utter bewilderment. Patience turned to the sphinx and raised her eyebrow.

"Um, can I hear that one more time, a little more slowly?" she asked. The sphinx smiled and repeated it once more.

"So all of the answers add up to something we wouldn't want to kiss?" Preston asked. She nodded. "Well I can think of a few people already…"

"Preston!" Patience exclaimed. He grinned sheepishly. "A person in disguise who tells lies. The demon who posed as Brianna did that. An imposter?" The sphinx dug her claws into the ground, ready to attack.

"That's not her guess!" Preston said quickly. The sphinx smiled and relaxed. "Wait a sec… a spy!"

"That's it!" Patience exclaimed. "A spy." The sphinx nodded. "Okay. Next line. The last to mend… no clue. 'Middle of middle'… I don't know."

"Me either," Preston said. "What about the last part? 'The sound often heard during the search for a hard-to-find word. Er… what would that be… er…"

"Preston, stop mumbling. She's gonna attack just cause you're annoying," Patience said angrily.

"Oh, er, sorry," he said.

"Wait… say that again," Patience ordered.

"Sorry?" Preston said with a confused look.

"No! 'Er'. Er's a sound! That's it!" Patience exclaimed. They sphinx smiled and nodded again. "Okay, put it all together."

"Spy-er. Spy-er. A spyer? No! That's not my guess, that's not even a word," Preston reminded her.

"Spy-er… spider!" Patience yelled. The sphinx gave one last grin, bowed, and moved aside to let them through.

"Thanks!" Preston yelled behind him as they ran past and down another dark pathway that would eventually lead them to the center of the maze… hopefully. (A/N: Many, many, many thanks to J.K. Rowling for that whole sphinx bit. I take no credit for the riddle, the answer, or the sphinx herself. I'm not that much of a genius ;)

xxxxx

Parker soared backwards as a rock hard foot, probably equivalent to a size twenty-three shoe, slammed into his chest again, causing a sickening crack as some of his ribs broke. Percy was already down for the count, having been knocked out by a furious fist to the head a few minutes ago. Parker groaned and attempted to get back up, but fell backwards as a sharp pain where he had been kicked three times in a row rocketed through his body. He winced in pain and watched as the demon made his way toward Percy's unconscious form, an evil grin on his face. Parker gritted his teeth and slowly got up, stumbling a little as he walked towards the demon.

"Hey, Lava Head! Why don't you go find someone a little more your type. You might want to try big, stupid, and ugly," he taunted. The grin on the demon's face disappeared as he turned to Parker, a look of anger now replacing it. "Come on asshole, show me what you got!" The demon landed a hard hook to Parker's jaw, breaking some teeth and causing it to bleed. He hit him again and Parker fell to the ground. He grinned, showing his bloodstained teeth. "Is that all?"

Meanwhile, Percy was very slowly coming to. She could hear the deafening cracks of Parker's various bones that were being broken and she could hear Parker getting up again for more. But she knew that he wouldn't last much longer. She grabbed onto the darkness and pulled herself forward, slowly opening her eyes. She could just make out Parker being kicked again through the blur of her vision and groaned slightly. As she tried to pull herself up off the ground, she could now feel all of the pain rush to her body, particularly the construction site working overtime in her head to make it pound. She fought through it though, the need to help her cousin much greater than the need to give in to the pain. There would be time for that later.

Now that the demon's back was turned to her, Percy's eye caught something that she hadn't noticed before. In the center of the demon's back, right on his spine, there was a thin crack, about a foot long. It was the same glowing orange as the lava veins that covered the rest of his body. Even in her weakened mental state, she was able to put two and two together and get four, something that had taken her quite some time to understand in first grade.

Following her instincts, Percy reached into the crack and wrapped her hand around something hard and hot. She assumed it was his heart, made out of the same material that the rest of his body was. The demon was instantly paralyzed as he roared in pain. Through the pounding in her head that had now worsened due to the screaming, Percy kept hold of the heart and pulled it out, throwing it to the ground. The demon dropped to his knees, and his body cracked and crumbled as he died. Percy and Parker shared a look, both of them feeling the other's pain, then Percy helped Parker up and the two followed the arrow of mist and the orb of light that had waited patiently for them the whole time.

xxxxx

"Is this the middle?" Preston asked curiously as he and Patience finally emerged into a large opening in the maze where several openings could be found.

"I'm guessing, judging by the cute pink crystal over there. I think we should wait for Percy and Parker though, make sure they're alright. I'm kind of worried about them," Patience said.

"Yeah, me too. I wonder when they'll get here…" As if on cue, Percy emerged from one of the openings directly across from them, helping Parker through as well.

"Oh my god!" Patience whispered, she and Preston sprinting over to them. They looked like hell. Parker could barely walk, his jaw was bruised and his mouth was full of blood, plus it looked like he was having trouble breathing. Percy was holding her wrist funny and the black eye didn't make her look any better. She seemed to be fighting the urge to puke as well, though they weren't sure why. "What happened, you guys?"

"Demon," Parker replied hoarsely.

"You look like death. Maybe we should call this off, get the Elders to heal you guys. The way you look, you won't even live through the last task," Preston commented.

"No, let's just do this and get it over with," Percy said. Patience nodded and went over. She picked up the crystal and once again, a bright white light filled the maze, transporting them all to their separate locations.

Okay guys, that was the first part. Second part is written and ready to go, so as soon as you review I'll be glad to get it up. Let us know how you like it! Til next time…

Aut