Sam filled Wyatt in on the details and munched on a cookie for a long time.
"Listen. It's your call. If you don't wanna be there, we don't have to"
"Problem is, I wanna be there, but…" she shook her head looking at her baby boy, Julian, orbing his toys around. "I don't wanna have to worry about somebody panicking over what our kids do and try to hurt us because they're scared"
"I know" he hugged her closer. His eyes on their Meghan moving the toys back to her brother so he could orb them again. "Soon we won't have to worry. I promise" he kissed the side of her head.
IN THE UNDERWORLD…
"The Kracht demon is all set to strike"
"Good. When the time comes, I'll hand him the dagger to collect the last soul we need to bring back the Nexus. The child's soul" Viz sighed, pleased beyond words of how his plan was finally evolving with clockwork precision. He would never tell, not even their majesties, but he had tried reaching Wyatt for years and time and time again he had failed. He could never be persuaded enough to become what Viz needed him to. In a way, he was even more pleased it hadn't, cause now he had found a power he had never imagined could exist, not even from Wyatt himself.
"Once you got everything you need, how are you gonna access the Halliwell manor? They're always watching. Nobody goes unnoticed and those who do never make it out" the demon interrupted Viz' relish.
"It won't be us who summon the Nexus" Vizkaroth turned to face the demon. "It'd be them and them alone"
"How do you know they'll side with us after they do? How can you tell they won't destroy us all?"
"Because I've done my task. They are utterly convinced a two-sided war would be never-ending, futile…that the only way to be safe is to bring balance between good and evil. They will be that balance"
"Didn't the Avatars already try that?"
"Yes… and no" he turned away and sighed. "They wanted a completely peaceful world, one with absolutely no chaos, but we will bring a world where evil can do evil and good can do good in equal parts. We will co-exist, no matter the cost" the demon gulped.
"So… what about those who want more?"
"Well, it'll be the last thing they want, nobody will cross their majesties"
"How can you be sure?"
"Cause once they see what they can do, nobody, good or evil, would dare" he smiled at the beauty of his own thoughts.
"There's one more thing" the demon added awkwardly.
"Yes…?"
"The stinger demon"
"Teresa. What about her?"
"She wants to go in and collect the boy with the Kracht demon"
"It's too risky. Her sister could finish her"
"Are you sure she would vanquish her own?"
"She would if it was to save her children"
"She'll meet her end anyway" he said in a whisper as close as he could get to Viz.
"Yes, but if she's gonna be of any use at all, it needs to be their majesties who dispose of her, nobody else" He sighed. "I'll talk her into staying behind. Keep her out of the way until her part is up"
"How can you be sure it'll be them who come and get the boy back?"
"Leave that to me" he stared into the darkness as he focused back on listening to their thoughts.
THE SISTERS…
"OK. So… we got a spell to go to the Norms" said Paige putting back the cap on the pen.
"But not to come back, cause there isn't one" said Phoebe laughing nervously.
"Phoebe…"
"I'm sorry, Piper. I still think this is not a good idea"
"Listen. If you don't wanna do this… I'll understand" Piper said crossing her arms.
"I… I do want to help you" she held her sister's arms tight. "And… I know you're right. This affects everybody, not just our family. We have to do something and we are running out of time" her breathing shallow. "I just fear for us… all of us" she confessed. "I'm scared of what the cost will be this time"
"We're gonna be alright, honey. I promise" said Paige coming to hug her older sister. Not entirely sure of her own words.
"Once we're there we'll let them know what we've seen and remind them what we've done to help the grand design" it was hard for Piper to breathe through her words. "And how our family still continues to do great good, even Wyatt"
"If they can see everything, won't they already know what we've done? I doubt they'll be impressed" Phoebe said uneasy.
"Of course they'll know, Phoebe. We just have to… rub it in a little… a lot"
"I'm just saying maybe we could come up with something better to tell them" Piper started pacing around. Paige pulled a nearby chair and sat heavily. As much as it hurt Piper to hear Phoebe questioning their plan, she knew she was right.
"We could stress the fact Wyatt and his family are the future of magic. They would be tipping the balance to evil if they dispose of them" Paige suggested.
"That's a good point. They'd lose all of us" Piper's heart was filled with gratitude as she heard Phoebe saying that.
"And if they do, they, themselves, would be messing with the grand design. Sounds good" Piper summed it up. Phoebe's phone started to vibrate.
"Hello, Bianca? Everything alright, honey?" she answered the call. "OK. Sure, no problem. Bye"
"Everything alright?" asked Piper.
"Yeah, she just invited us for dinner" she pushed her phone back in her jeans. "Which reminds me, are you still having that fundraiser dinner at P3? Cause we wanted to go. It's been forever since we were there last"
"I think so. I'm not really the one organizing it, but you know… hard to keep up with the specifics" Sam and Wyatt had been running the club for a while now and they obviously weren't on the friendliest terms at the moment.
"Well, it sounds like a great idea. It'll be something nice to do before we potentially end up stranded in some weird dimension. Count us in" Piper started slapping Paige's arm playfully a few times. They all started to laugh. The impending sense of doom had taken over their lives (again) last few weeks. It felt liberating to think they would be doing something together that didn't involve magic before they headed into the unknown, potentially for the last time too. They had been living a would-be-normal life for many years, but now, it felt like they were right back to square one.
"Chris?" said Piper as he orbed in.
"Hey, mom. Glad I caught you all here still"
"Something happened?" Piper asked alarmed.
"No, mom. I was just with Bianca"
"You guys made up? That's great" Paige congratulated him.
"No…well, yeah…that's beside the point" he tried shaking off the unpleasant memories of their encounter.
"Oh, honey. What happened?" said Phoebe feeling his pain as his mind was set on Bianca running from him again.
"Can we not focus on me, please?"
"Sorry" said Phoebe backing away a little.
"She told me there's a demon who seems to be convincing others demons to do his bidding for some reason. Organizing them for some purpose"
"New source?" asked Paige.
"Not likely. The demon doesn't seem interested in taking over the source's power. I believe it's all an effort to get Wyatt to take that place instead. He's the one we're looking for"
"Hold on a sec" said Paige. "So this demon wants them to take over the Source's power first and then get the Nexus? which is still vanquished by the way"
"Maybe the Source's power would let them know how to bring it back?" guessed Phoebe. They knew Wyatt and Sam would somehow end up with both the Nexus and the Source's power but they still hadn't figured out exactly how that was going to work. As far as they knew, the Source's power wasn't a collective power and they would manage to do that. The Nexus had been vanquished for good and they would find a way no other witch had, or they hadn't found who had yet, to bring it back and take it in as well. They knew and still didn't know at the same time, which was beyond frustrating.
"So, this demon…"
"Vizkaroth"
"Did she hear anything else?" asked Piper.
"Only that he's an upper-level demon and we should tread carefully" Piper felt her anger growing in the pit of her stomach.
"Let's cover the basics" said Paige walking back towards the bookshelves. "We'll check the books related to upper-level demons. Chris, you go home and check the Book of Shadows"
"How do we know we'll find anything in there?"
"We don't, but we gotta try everything and if we get nothing we can always go back to our suicidal plan"
"Wait, what?"
"Figure of speech. Now go. Tell us if you find anything"
"Right…" said Chris unconvinced before orbing to the manor.
AT WYATT AND SAM'S…
"Penny for your thoughts?" said Wyatt kissing his wife temple.
"It's nothing really. I just have this… feeling that something's… off"
"Honey" he pulled away enough for her to face him. "If at any moment you choose not to do this, we can take care of the demon and put a stop to it all. Just say the word" he held her hand in his. "We do this together or we don't do it at all"
"How do you feel about it lately?"
"Uneasy" he answered, a sigh escaping him right after, "I keep trying to come up with a better idea, but none comes to mind"
"It seems like such an impossible task to keep them safe, so much I even think maybe we shouldn't
even consider having any more…" she could feel an aching sensation in the back of her throat as she said those words. "and then I think of Beatrix… and Violet" her thoughts filled with their future daughters' smiles.
"Dylan" both smiled. "How could we not have them?"
"I wouldn't want them to go through half of what we did in this world"
"We just gotta make sure that when we do bring them, they'll be able to be themselves without fear of retaliation"
"Or of being dissected by some government division"
"Stop it. You'll make yourself crazy thinking that way. We are doing everything we can, we will
redo the world for them" he hugged her tight. "They always said I would" his mind wondering off to random memories.
"What, honey?"
"Change everything. Maybe this is when it finally happens"
"We certainly found the right reason to" he kissed the top of her head as she hugged him closer. "Cheer up. We do have that benefit to go to" he changed the topic in an attempt to get her head as far away from those doom filled thoughts as possible. He knew exactly how she felt as those same thoughts wondered around his own.
"It'll be nice"
"Yeah" he caressed her head gently. "You'll wear a nice dress. Kids will be at Bianca's where Jackson will go crazy about 'em" they chuckled. "I'll get myself cleaned up, grope you in the car" she slapped his chest playfully. "What? I'm just stating the facts here" they kissed as they both continued to smile stupidly at each other.
"That… reminds…me" she said taking shot breaks from his lips, lying on her back now, pulling him on top of her, one leg steadying them firmly on the couch. "I need to call Cody"
"Whatever works for you" their laughs muffled by each other's lips. "He texted 'everything set' just yesterday, did he not?"
"Yeah, but I wanna make sure we didn't miss anything, since Piper hasn't been around that much anymore. I need to pay extra attention, that's all"
"What do you think they're up to now?" he caressed her face, still on top of her.
"Isn't it obvious? Trying to stop us" she said in a would-be-scary voice.
"I know… and we haven't even done anything yet" he helped her sit back up, her legs on his lap. "I might feel better knowing what the preparations for it are cause it's taking a while. How much damage is this causing… even before it starts"
"Me too, but…" she climbed on his lap, placing her hands on either side of his face. "We agreed it would be better this way… not knowing. That it would make it easier for us to accept what needs to be done without going too much into the details"
"Yeah…" he sighed.
"Anyway, seems better this way. Having time to think it over… before it actually happens. Cause once it does…"
"No turning back" his hands playfully tangled in hers. He kissed her again, this time, no smiles in their way.
