Summary: This story is set in the future, sixteen years from the Season Six finale. Tasha, a girl whose past is unknown even to her, appears to the Charmed Ones, asking for help. Along the road to controlling her powers, an attraction springs up between her and Chris, but can their feelings for each other overcome the demons in her past--and future?
Dedicated to: A very dear friend of mine, without whom I could not have started this fic without my brain imploding from thinking too much, or my blowing my computer up. I wish I could've gone to Tony's seminar NSYNCA! I'll DEFINITELY be going next year though. Oh, and, today, at sunset, I saw a blue that could've been Julian's.
Disclaimer: Heck, if I invented or owned anything, I would tell you. Oh, and if any of the Charmed cast/crew see this…don't sue me, hire me! I wouldn't have completely botched up Cole's little storyline. Or killed off Drew Fuller… -- and my description of dominions/dominations is gotten from Hines', an absolute genius—you can find her off – she pwns.
Thanks: To everyone who reviewed.
Random Fact: My dad is a weirdo who believes in Zone 51, Roswell, and the Bermuda Triangle.
Chapter Six
(Later)
Tash hummed happily as she tossed some cloves into the pot bubblingon the stove. After the initial suspicious welcome, she had demonstrated the fireball thing and Piper had sat down with her and explained.
"So, you're telling me I'm a witch," said Tash slowly.
"Well, we don't know what you are really. But, as you demonstrated when you threw that fireball, you're definitely not just normal." said Piper kindly.
"You're a witch?" asked Tash, in the same flat tone.
"Yes I am. And we understand that this might be a bit hard to grasp…but the sooner you get used to it, the better."
"Shit," breathed Tash.
"Yeah." agreed Wyatt.
"You know what?" said Piper suddenly. "My husband, Leo, can probably figure out what you are. What about I ask him…then we can help you out a little. A couple of potions, et cetera…Wyatt, maybe you could take her up to the Book of Shadows?"
Wyatt had shown her that huge book of spells, and flipped through it a little. Then they had started talking about music and movies and had gotten sidetracked. His aunt Phoebe had returned home from work, and although she was a mistrustful at first, they had gotten along famously. Great taste in literature, thought Tash cheerily. Finally, Piper had delegated herself the task of teaching her how to make a potion or two.
Leo had confirmed that she was obviously some sort of magical person, but what kind, he couldn't say. He had sensed some witch power in her however, and was currently in talks with the other 'Elders', some sort of heavenly senate or something. A voice snapped Tash out of her reverie.
"You seem to be taking this very well," noted Piper, smiling. Tash shrugged.
"I always believed in magic. But I think I'm in shock or something." she tugged on a lock of her hair. "Every few minutes I freak out…my mind starts screaming stuff like 'oh my God' over and over."
"The same thing happened to me when I found my powers." said Piper sympathetically. Then she frowned. "Wait a sec. How did you get our address again?"
"Like I told Wyatt, I don't know. It was just under my backpack when I came to."
Piper's brow creased in worry.
"Is something wrong?" asked Tash, worried.
"Not really, it's just…" she was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. "Could you answer that sweetie?"
"Sure," Tash wiped her hands off on a dishcloth and went to open the door. Swinging it open with a cheery smile on her face, she froze.
"What are you doing here?" she asked aggressively.
"Um…I live here?" said Chris tentatively.
"You…what?" Tash asked dumbfounded. Chris pushed past her and made a beeline for the living room. She followed him angrily and stood threateningly over him as he flopped onto an easy chair.
"Tash, your potion is gonna vanquish itself if you don't—Chris! When did you get back sweetie? Why are you so late?" Piper added in a disapproving tone as she entered the room.
"Hey mom. Sorry, I was with Brian," said Chris with a winning smile.
"Didn't I hear the doorbell? Why didn't you orb in?" said Piper, not letting up.
"I didn't want to orb in because I thought that Tash might still be around…I didn't know how much she knew."
"You left the note," said Tash suddenly, clueing in.
"Duh," said Chris, giving Tash a strange look. "So, what are you? A witch?" he asked, interestedly.
"No. Well, I don't know yet. Maybe. Leo said there might be. Or maybe not."
"Anyone care to interpret Tash-babble to normal language?" asked Chris in a loud voice.
"Christopher…" said Piper warningly.
"Hey, Tash," called a voice suddenly. Tash looked up to see Wyatt entering the room. "I found that movie you said you wanted to see," he said, holding out a CD.
"Hey, thanks!" she said, taking the proffered movie with a smile.
"Dude," interrupted Chris. "Is that my copy of Coyote Ugly?"
"You have a copy of Coyote Ugly?" asked Tash.
"I happen to think Leann Rimes is hot," defended Chris. "Unlike certain less good-looking people."
"How brave of you to agree that you're one of the ugly ones," countered Tash.
Piper looked confused. "I take it you two know each other?"
"He's in some of my classes in school." clarified Tash.
"He?" said Chris in an insulted tone. "I have a name."
"Yeah, it's 'amoeba'." Tash looked at Piper earnestly. "Seriously Piper. Why waste a great name like 'Christopher' on him?"
Piper grinned and went back into the kitchen.
"Isn't she supposed to be defending me?" wondered Chris aloud.
"Maybe not. You are a wart sometimes, said Wyatt, grinning.
"And Christopher is a great name. I though that if I'd ever have a son, I'd name him Christopher. Then I met him."
"Shouldn't you be thanking me for leaving that note?" asked Chris, looking slightly hurt.
"Didn't I already? Whoops. Thank you. Now can I go back to being a jerk?"
"You're welcome and sure."
Wyatt rolled his eyes. "When I see the two of you talk, I am strangely reminded of--" he was interrupted by a mist of blue orbs.
"Hi dad," said Chris, smiling. Wyatt echoed his sentiment.
"Hi boys. Tasha," Leo said earnestly, turning to her. "Sorry it took me so long. Your case happened to be…unique."
"Unique?" echoed Tash hollowly.
"That doesn't sound too good Dad. What's wrong?" asked Chris worriedly. Leo took a deep breath.
"Wyatt, go get your mother and aunts." Wyatt orbed out. "Tasha…you'd better sit down."
(Later)
"So what's all the cloak-and-dagger?" asked Phoebe impatiently.
"Yeah, I was busy thinking about how my child will suffer, having a mother who's so old she has grey hair," grumbled Paige.
"Paige, you do not have grey hair!" said Piper, a little exasperatedly.
"Well, what was so important that you had to drag me out of magic school? I found this really cool spell I wanted to try out."
"Figures." muttered Chris.
"I heard that young man!" said Paige tartly, although there was no real rancor in her eyes.
Leo coughed slightly.
"I think we're here for a reason," he said calmly. He quickly introduced Tasha to Paige, who seemed to take an instant liking to her.
"Firstly," said Leo. "I want to tell you Chris, that we Elders have unanimously decided that you are old enough to have your first charge."
"What?" asked Chris, surprised. "Aw, do I have to?"
"Christopher, just try it out. Your brother Wyatt has had one before."
"Yeah, but I hated it," chipped in Wyatt.
"Thanks for the contribution Wyatt." said Leo dryly.
"No prob Dad."
"I don't understand," said Tash, confused. "What's a 'charge'?"
"Oh, every whitelighter--" began Wyatt.
"That's the angel-type thing, right?" interrupted Tash.
"Yeah, kinda. They all have a 'charge', a witch they look after."
"But you're only a half whitelighter."
"Yeah, so I have a choice of whether I want one or not." explained Wyatt.
"I see."
"Anyway," interrupted Chris. "Yes, I'll try taking on a charge. Now spill about Tash."
"I was getting to that." Leo looked squarely at Tash, who was by this time, on the edge of her seat, gnawing on a nail.
"Tasha, as I said before, there is some witch in you. But that's not all. Your mother was half a witch and half a Dominion."
"What's a Dominion?" asked Tash nervously. She looked so tense that Chris took pity on her.
"Hey, it's okay," he whispered in her ear so no one could hear. He slung an arm around her shoulders. She smiled slightly, but otherwise gave no sign she had heard him.
"A Dominion is a type of angel."
"Like a whitelighter?" asked Tash.
"No, a whitelighter is actually a human who did…well…"
"Who did great good in his life." filled in Piper, smiling at Leo proudly. "As my husband is too shy to say."
"That's different from an angel," said Leo. "A Dominion is an angel of the second circle. They're…well, they're…"
He stood up and began to pace. "Dominions are spirits." Leo said at last. "Although they're made of the same stuff as angels and are immortal, they're not like your typical messenger angel or even an archangel. They're a whole different order of spirit. Dominions, or dominations as they are sometimes called, rule over angels and are responsible for cosmic order, for maintaining a balance. They're more like a force of nature than anything else I know to compare them to."
"Tell them the rest, Leo," said Paige, giving Leo a look. "I read up a bit on these things at Magic School, and I think you'd better give them the full story. You owe it to Tash."
"Look, it's difficult to explain." Leo said. "You know how some people think the Angel of Death is evil? But, he is neither good nor evil, he just is?"
"Yeah," said Chris, biting his lip slightly.
"Whoa, there's really an Angel of Death?" said Tash, who looked a little pale.
"Yes, but let's not get sidetracked," said Wyatt, who was looking quite interested.
Leo nodded briefly. "Dominions are the same way. They just are. Like the air they rule, they can be a spring breeze or a hurricane. The spirits in their charge are both good and evil. One may lead a man into the street, chasing after a windblown twenty-dollar bill, only to have him get hit by a bus. Another might do the same thing to help a guy meet his one true love. Why dominions do what they do is a mystery."
"And, let's just say they don't always have your best interests at heart." Paige added.
"What do you mean?" asked Phoebe.
"I've read about one of a dominion's dukes walking into a meeting of this powerful demon brotherhood." Paige said. "He just walked in and ordered those demons around…powerful demons. You know what that duke had them do? He had them set a hospital on fire and burn it to the ground while his soldiers of air fanned the flames so hot that the firemen couldn't get near it. Hundreds died. When I read that part, I just didn't understand it. Demons do destructive things, but they do it for an overriding reason: power. This didn't seem to have any purposes. Just random destruction."
Tash looked worried and frightened. This was precisely what Leo didn't want to happen.
"Hey, T, it's okay," Chris whispered again. The feeling of his lips brushing against her ear would have ordinarily sent a tingle through her body, but this time it didn't. She was too numb.
"No. No, it's not." she breathed.
"What was that?" said Piper, looking at Tash kindly.
"Nothing. It's just…does that make me evil?" asked Tash tremulously.
"No sweetie!" cried Paige; at the same time Phoebe said "No way,"
"Tash," said Piper. "It's more your choices than what you are that makes you good or evil." she smiled. "I got that from Harry Potter."
"Besides. Dominions aren't really evil," said Wyatt helpfully.
"What about my father?" asked Tash; in a tone that made it clear she didn't really want to know.
Leo took a deep breath. "Your father was a…he was an upper-level demon."
"Wyatt. You showed me something like that in the Book? They're, like, strong demons or something?"
Wyatt nodded.
"Figures. So, now you're going to tell me he's the…what was it again? The Source?"
"No. Actually, he was Belial."
"The...wait, I know this one…the Archduke of Demons, was it?"
"Wow, you really got through the Book," said Paige, impressed. Tash shrugged.
"So, does that make me evil?"
"Once again…it's your choices that make you what you are."
"Fine, let me rephrase that," said Tash, a bite of anger creeping into her voice. "Does that give me the capacity to be evil?"
Leo replied reluctantly. "Possibly."
"Possibly." said Tash tightly. "Anything else I should know?"
"Um…well, you know how you were adopted by Rachel Fuller when you were ten? You had several powers by then, you obviously didn't know you had them, but the Elders noticed. And we…well, they, as I wasn't one yet…they bound your powers and sent Rachel to look after you."
"Is Rachel a whitelighter?"
"No, she's a Phoenix. They're assassins."
"Oh great. A demon for a dad, a half witch half evil slash good angel for a mom, and an assassin for a guardian. Sounds like something Jerry Springer would love to get his hands on."
Chris laughed.
"Bound…so she, like, kept me from using them?"
"Yeah, exactly." said Wyatt.
"Why? I mean, she was magical, so…"
"Because your powers were too strong. That sort of union wasn't supposed to occur, and the fact that it did…the power rivaled the Charmed Ones' for crying out loud, we weren't sure if that much power was supposed to be concentrated in one being! Now we know they can, by the fact that you used them and are still alive."
"My powers are stronger than Piper, Phoebe and Paige's?" said Tash, looking slightly excited.
"Not a thing to be happy about when you use them and become a lump of charcoal or ash or something."
Tash nodded in understanding. "So how did my powers--" Tash wiggled her fingers "Become unbound?"
"Well, we're guessing it's because some sort of really intense emotion broke through the binding…y'know, blinding hatred, overpowering love…anything like that."
Chris shifted uneasily.
"Which is really worrying, because it was the strongest spell we had on hand."
"So, what powers do I have?"
"Well, if you count what you just got today…you have fireballs, invisibility, telekinesis, shimmering, temporal stasis and weathercharming."
"And they are?" asked Tash.
"Fireballs are, as you saw, destructive spheres of fire. Invisibility is quite straightforward, I don't know if you can remember, but that's why you never got caught at hide-and-seek when you were a kid even though the seeker seemed to be right in front of you. Telekinesis is--"
"Moving things with your mind?" asked Tash.
"Precisely. Shimmering is a demon power, like the fireballs. It's a method of transportation, like how Wyatt, Chris, and me can orb. Temporal stasis is freezing time--"
"I can do it too," volunteered Piper.
"Piper can do it too. And weathercharming is the art of controlling weather. It's very rare…only a few witches can do it, and only those who have an elemental side. It's your dominion side that brings out that power." Leo finished and sat back.
Tash was in shock.
"I think you told me too much." she said slowly. "I can't feel my limbs."
Chris rolled his eyes and started to massage her palm. "Don't exaggerate."
"Is there anything else I should know?" she asked Leo, a sarcastic tinge in her voice.
"Um…you're Chris' new charge?" he volunteered.
"WHAT!" she shrieked, jerking her hand out of Chris' grasp.
"Wow, that got the biggest reaction out of her so far," cracked Wyatt.
"Why?" whined Chris.
"Because." said Paige unhelpfully. Leo gave her a look.
"What? It's more useful than what you're going to say," she defended.
"She's your charge because she lives in San Francisco and you won't have to orb out in all hours. Plus, I can help you out if anything goes wrong because I always have an eye on you." Leo shrugged. "Father's prerogative."
"Okay, maybe not." muttered Paige.
Chris picked up a lamp and slammed it into his head repeatedly.
"Chris! That was a gift!" chided Phoebe.
"Nice to know you have your priorities sorted out Aunt Pheebs," Chris said dryly.
Phoebe huffed. "Well, it was."
Tash looked around. "Um, this has been really…um, illuminating, but…I—I gotta get home. All the blood is rushing to my head…I gotta…I gotta…sleep."
The group nodded sympathetically.
"We understand," said Piper, reaching over and placing a hand on her shoulder.
"We'll see you tomorrow?" asked Paige. "We can help you with your powers," added Phoebe with a winning smile.
"Cool," Tash gave a wan smile.
Leo looked at Tash worriedly.
"Chris, take her home," he ordered. Chris started to argue then changed his mind.
"Sure,"
"No, it's okay,"
"I insist," said Chris, with a crooked smile. Tash was reminded of the first time she had talked to him. It seemed so long ago. She simply shrugged.
"Thanks for all your help," said Tash slowly, looking over everyone ranged in the living room. "I'll see you all tomorrow?"
"'Course you will sweetie, it's not like we're going anywhere." said Piper warmly.
Chris took hold of her arm and orbed her home.
"You remembered my address," said Tash, looking around at her house as though she couldn't believe she was there.
"Yeah. Good memory." said Chris, and then stopped. Tash was staring at his eyes in a rather disconcerting way.
"What?" he said, brushing at his face.
"Nothing…it's just…I thought your eyes were like emeralds, but now they look like moss. Soft-green."
"My eyes remind you of moss?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Tash shook her head violently.
"Never mind. I'm exhausted, and I say stupid things when I'm this tired."
"Okay then, I'll see you tomorrow and, as your whitelighter," Chris grimaced. "I will teach you how to use your powers."
Something about his tone irked Tasha. She replied caustically, "You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself."
"Wisdom," he mocked. "Deep."
T laughed derisively. "Deep? You wouldn't know deep if someone threw you into it."
"That's funny coming from the intellectual equivalent of the Grand Canyon." Chris said, annoyed. "Great depth, but with very little content."
Tash opened her mouth in outrage, but was prevented from delivering a scathing reply by Chris orbing out. She felt like going back over to the manor and punching him on the nose. She glanced at the clock. It was only 7 PM. Early…she could still make it before it got too dark.
Instead, she settled for brushing her teeth and falling into bed, where she dreamt of Chris whispering into her ear.
©WalkThruTheFire, 11th September 2004
--God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
The courage to change the things I can, and
Wisdom to know the difference—
God bless the souls who died today three years ago. May they find peace and freedom for eternity.