Chapter 10: Secrets and Guys Part 1

Auto Shop

The two men led Max Franklin into the back of the auto shop that one of them owned and had offered as a safe haven. Max, gagged with his hands bound in front of him, was pushed to the ground by the leading thug.

The leader towered over the sitting Max. "Alright. You try anything, you're dead and so is your old man. You got that, kid?" he demanded harshly, receiving a vigorous nod from Max.

"Come on. Ease up on him, Mickey. Kid's not stupid, are you, Max?" the second man asked, turning to face Max. Max hastily shook his head before the man continued. "You're going to do just as we tell you and everything's going to fine, right?" Max again nodded his answer.

Mickey turned on his companion. "Yeah, you better be right about him or me and you got problems," he warned.

He shrugged the warning off confidently. "Look, that kid is a living, breathing, winning lotto ticket. All I know is that my kid brother said somehow, like magic, he turned off the arcade alarm system from across the street and got them inside," the second thug explained.

Mickey glanced disbelievingly at Max before turning his hard gaze back. "I don't believe in magic," he countered shortly.

"So, we test him out, we don't like what we see, cut our losses." The two left Max in the back room and returned to the front.

Max watched them leave and waited several moments to see if they were coming back before closing his eyes. He began to slowly rock back and forth as he triggered his power.

The Halliwell Manor

Phoebe looked up in time to see the pointer on the spirit board move. Her curiosity peaked, she jumped up from the chair. She grabbed a pencil and paper. "Piper," she called out.

"What is it?" Piper asked as soon as she had come in the attic. She saw Phoebe write down the letters the pointer identified.

Phoebe held the notepad up for her sister to see. "Help Max," she read.

The Halliwell Manor – Next Morning

Anakin looked at Phoebe and Piper as they sat before him. He would have questioned them on where Prue was except he already knew, which was in part why he was here instead of Buffy. Buffy, Angel and Prue were off Earth in search of lightsaber crystals so that Prue and Angel could build their lightsabers. Willow and little Padme were off Earth as well as they were busy negotiating a treaty on an outer rim world. Dawn and Faith were off world with SG-1 on a Stargate mission. And Aurora and Padme were on Coruscant visiting with Elara, Luke, Leia and Han. That for the most part had left him as the only Master left on Earth.

"That is what you saw on this board?" he asked motioning toward the spirit board sitting on the table between them. "Help Max?"

"Yes, Master Skywalker," Piper said.

"Any idea who or what Max might be?" Kayda wondered. With Aurora off world Anakin had taken over her training temporarily and so she currently sat next to Anakin.

"Maybe Max is a ghost. I mean, after all, that is a spirit board." Phoebe suggested

"Possibly as you both have dealt with spirits before," Anakin said. "But let us also consider other possibilities as well."

"What if it's just someone in trouble crying out?" Kayda suggested.

"Well, it would have to be someone with powers," Phoebe said. "That's not exactly a phone or even a comlink."

Piper sighed and ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "'Help Max.' That's not a lot to go on."

"Agreed," Anakin said. "Let us hope that Max sends another message. But I do believe you wouldn't have gotten this message if it wasn't important. While Kayda is not a witch, I am going to have her help you since Prue is with Buffy."

"So, what do we do then?" Phoebe wondered.

"I will go talk with our Liaison in the San Francisco Police Department," Anakin said. "See if he can do a search on a possible missing person by the name of Max."

"No offense, Master Skywalker," Pheobe said. "But that's a long shot."

"Agreed," Anakin said. "But it is currently the only avenue we have short of a second message from Max. For now, Kayda will remain next to the board waiting for another message. Phoebe and Piper …"

"Master Skywalker," Piper said. "I know this should take priority, but I'm needed at Quake to deal with an obstinate Chef. While …"

"I know," Anakin sighed. "Go deal with your job. Try and make it quick if you can. Phoebe, I need you to look through the book."

"Can do," Phoebe said as Piper got up and headed for the door.

Piper quickly grabbed her coat off the rack by the door and pulled the door open, revealing a stunned Leo on the other side. She stopped in surprise and watched as Leo slowly lowered his hand from where he had been about to ring the doorbell.

"Ha. Ding dong," Leo laughed, his face breaking into a wide smile at the sight of Piper.

Piper quickly recovered from the shock and returned the smile just as warmly. "Leo, you're back! Come in," she offered, pulling the door open wide for him. "It's so good to see you. How are you?" she asked, allowing him to pull her into a tight hug.

"Better now," he answered, reluctantly pulling away slightly. "How are you, Piper?"

"Uh, I'm better now too." Piper admitted, glancing over her shoulder to see Phoebe, Kayda and Anakin coming up to the doorway behind her.

Anakin gave a nod to the Whitelighter who returned it.

"What brings you back?" Phoebe questioned with a knowing look toward Piper. "You know, the chandelier in the living room keeps flickering."

"Yeah? Well, I'll get my tools," Leo offered, starting to step away from Piper, who glared lightly at Phoebe.

"Oh, no, no. Take your time." Phoebe exclaimed dramatically and none-too-subtly.

"Phoebe," Anakin said.

Phoebe glanced at Anakin and nodded in understanding. "Right, attic," she said. She looked at Leo and smiled. "Being a Jedi is never dull." She turned and headed up the stairs.

"Piper," Anakin said as he turned toward the other Halliwell sister. "Didn't you have some stuff to deal with at your job?"

"Yes, Master Skywalker," Piper answered.

"You have to go now?" Leo wondered, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Yeah…" Piper replied reluctantly. "Sort of, but I'll be back soon, I promise. Can you wait?" she asked hopefully.

Leo took a moment to pretend to think it over. "Uh… sure," he teased, pulling her in for a long-awaited kiss.

Piper pulled away and lightly tapped him on the arm. "Ooh… So glad you're back," she commented, moving around him to finally head for work.

Leo let her go and slowly turned to watch her leave.

"Leo?" Anakin said as Leo turned back toward him.

"Uh, actually I'm here to help a boy named Max," Leo explained.

"Max?" Kayda said. "Wait. That's the... the..."

"The spirit board," Leo acknowledged. "I know. See, Max is a budding good witch new to his powers. But he's very young and vulnerable. And he's in serious trouble. Someone wants to take advantage of his gift."

"Is that all you can tell us?" Anakin asked. "You can't help further?"

Leo sighed. "I was to make sure Prue received his cry for help, but she's offworld. So, Piper and Phoebe received the call instead. That's why I was sent here. That's all I'm supposed to do for now. The rest is up to them."

Anakin sighed. "Your bosses are being difficult, you know that," he said.

"I know," Leo said. "Uhm there is one thing I need your help with though. It's the reason I came today. I could have done the rest remotely without anyone seeing me."

"What is that?" Kayda wondered.

"Whitelighters and witches aren't allowed to fall in love," Leo explained. "It's like humans and angels aren't. But I did. I fell in love with Piper."

"I see," Anakin said. "Your relationship is forbidden by your bosses."

"Yes," Leo said with a sigh.

"I know how you feel," Anakin said. "My relationship with my wife, Padme, was forbidden by the Old Jedi Order. The only attachments that were allowed were Buffy and Dawn's and that was because of a Force Bond they share. I had to marry Padme in secret and the lie almost cost me as I briefly fell to the Dark Side."

"So, you can help me tell, Piper?" Leo asked, hopeful. "It isn't fair to keep her in the dark... but I have to keep this secret. So somehow I have to tell Piper that I can never see her again and I can't tell her why."

"I have a better idea," Anakin said. He looked to Kayda. "Tell Phoebe what we learned, tell her it came from Inspector Trudeau. And keep an eye on that board for another message."

"Yes, Uncle Anakin," Kayda said.

Anakin looked back at Leo. "Take me to your bosses."

"I can't," Leo said. "It's forbidden."

"I'm not asking," Anakin said. "Let me be your liaison, just as you are for us, with your bosses."

Leo sighed and nodded. "Alright," he said as he took Anakin's hand and they orbed out.

Quake

"Harry!" Piper yelled as she barreled through the swinging doors that led to the kitchen. Her eyes immediately landed on the chef that she didn't recognize and she made a bee-line for him.

Harry calmly glanced up from where he was cooking to look at the source of the noise. "Hey, you must be… Pippy," he guessed, giving her his full attention… well her and the ravioli he was cooking.

Piper glared at him. "Piper," she corrected harshly. "And…"

"You know, your voice doesn't do justice. You're actually attractive," he commented off-handedly.

Piper rolled her eyes, inwardly seething before deciding to ignore that remark. "You cannot come into this restaurant, throw away all our knives, and refuse to make the house specialty…" she ranted, trailing off when she noticed he was wearing shorts. Very tackily dressed. "… That is not a proper chef's uniform."

Harry shrugged. "Will be. I'm a trendsetter," he informed her as he reached for a colander filled with more ravioli. "In fact, I, uh, decided to change the menu, so I threw out all the old ones. Now my crab ravioli. There's a specialty." He looked down at his ravioli proudly and sniffed it dramatically. "Mmm… straight from Eden."

"You threw out all the menus?" Piper exclaimed in disbelief. "You're fired!"

"Ooh… attractive and feisty," he remarked, slowly closing the distance between himself and Piper. He leaned forward for emphasis. "Um, you can't fire me cause you're just a manager. Unless you'd rather be the executive chef." Harry laughed at his own power and turned away from Piper to continue his cooking.

Having enough, Piper threw her hands out at him, freezing the kitchen. With another irritable glance at him she went to the trashcan and retrieved the knives that he had thrown away before taking his colander full of ravioli and dumping it in the trash. "Take that," she snapped, partially satisfied, and she quickly left the kitchen, which unfroze.

Harry looked around in confusion upon seeing her gone.

Outside a Microchip Plant

Mickey pulled the car into the empty parking lot of the microchip plant. His conspirator, David, sat next to Max in the backseat, showing the kid the blueprints.

"These are the blueprints to the microchip plant. So, the main security panel is in the room here. All you do is switch the system off. You start with zone one, ending with zone five. You got that?" David was saying, pointing to the corresponding sections on the map.

Max lowered his gaze and shook his head. "I can't. My mom made me promise never to use my power for bad things," he argued softly.

Mickey, impatient and on edge, spun in his seat to face Max. "Yeah, well you ever read the book when bad things happen to good people?" he snapped harshly.

David held his hand out to stop Mickey's rant. "Look, I got it, Mickey," he assured him before turning back to Max. "You broke into the arcade, right? This isn't any different, man. I mean, we're not even going to take anything. We just want to see if you can actually do it." He saw that Max was still wary. "Look, I'm… I'm really sorry about what happened to your mom, okay. That's a tough break, but you want to make sure something doesn't happen to your dad, don't you?"

Max didn't reply, but slowly closed his eyes and began to rock back and forth as he concentrated on turning off the security. David nodded to Mickey to go check it out and Mickey cautiously stepped out of the car. Mickey approached the door while Max short-circuited the control panel. The card slot next to the door flashed green and unlocked, allowing Mickey to step inside.

"Well, I'll be damned," Mickey muttered, as he was successfully inside without any alarms going off.

David looked up as Mickey disappeared inside the plant before glancing back at Max. "I don't know how you did that, but I have to say, I'm very impressed," he praised, watching as Mickey came back out.

A security guard came around the corner and saw Mickey come out of the closed plant. "Hey!" he called, fumbling for his gun.

Mickey beat him to it, grabbing his own gun and shooting the guard in the leg before dashing back to the car.

David grabbed a screaming Max and pulled him down. "Shut up," he hissed. The cop fell to the ground and Mickey successfully made it back to the car where he drove them away.

In the Heavens

Leo orbed into the heavens with Anakin. He knew that the Elders would immediately sense that he had brought someone. He looked around and spotted one of them approaching, he knew as Roland.

"Leo?" Roland said as he looked at Anakin.

"It is a pleasure to finally meet you," Anakin said. "I am Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker. I am here to argue on the Leo's behalf."

"What?" Roland said as he glanced at Leo.

"Leo told me that he had fallen in love with Padawan Piper Halliwell," Anakin said drawing Roland's attention back to him. "And that per your rules that it was a forbidden relationship."

"That's correct," Roland admitted. "Whitelighters and witches aren't allowed to be together."

"I am here to tell you that the relationship is to be allowed," Anakin ordered.

"And why is that?" Roland wondered.

Anakin smiled. "Under the Old Jedi Order, attachments were forbidden. We were not allowed to have any attachment to another, the only exception were my sisters who share a Force Bond. I got married in secret and my superiors in the Order did not know. The lie nearly cost me. I briefly slipped to the Dark Side and almost killed the love of my life and unborn children. So you can see I have a unique perspective when it comes to forbidden relationships. Taking Leo out of Piper's life could have similar consequences. I do not want that for them. The Jedi Order's stance on attachments is that they are allowed, all attachments. Jedi are allowed to fall in love and marry."

"Leo is not one of your Jedi though," Roland reminded Anakin. "He is a Whitelighter."

"He is also our Liaison with you," Anakin reminded Roland. "How can we trust you when you act like the Jedi that came before us. It will naturally create mistrust."

Roland sighed. "We already had to give some concessions to you when we allowed Leo to reveal ourselves and himself to you. You can't ask for more."

"We can," Anakin said, "and will. You forget Earth is now part of the galaxy. You can put aside everything you knew and live with the people of Earth or you can be relocated. Your choice."

Roland looked to his fellow Elders who had gathered around and listened to Anakin's impassioned speech. They each nodded at the unspoken thought. He looked back at Anakin. "Very well. But we propose this be a test. If Leo and Piper can make this work. With Piper not falling to the Dark Side, as you call it, or to the detriment of one single innocent. Then we will allow their relationship to move forward. If they can make it work we will even do away with the rule all together. But they have to prove to us they can make it work."

"And if it doesn't?" Anakin said. "I take it you would permanently separate them? That's not going to happen. But I will for now table this discussion. We will see if it works or not. But if it does not because of your interference then we will be returning to this conversation. And the next time I can't say I will be in as good a mood as I am currently."

Halliwell Manor

Kayda sat looking at the spirit board as Andy stood before her. He had come by the Manor to relay some information he had gathered on an issue he believed fell under the Jedi's jurisdiction. "Earlier today, a microchip plant was broken into but nothing was taken. Stranger still, the alarms were turned off before the front door was opened on the outside."

"That does sound unusual," Kayda agreed. "But could someone have hacked into the security system remotely?"

"Not that I am aware of," Andy replied. "I believe a witch may have somehow done it. Security cameras picked up a car in the front parking lot with a boy in the back seat … matching this photo taken at an arcade last week ..." He showed her a picture of Max and another boy "... where a couple of kids snuck in, in much the same way. Same boy. Max Franklin."

"Do you know who was in the front seat?" Kayda asked remembering to use the terminology she had learned from Willow, Buffy, Prue, Piper and Phoebe.

Andy shook his head. "Just that they shot and wounded a security guard at the scene. This boy's in serious trouble."

"Did you talk to his family?" Kayda wondered.

Andy nodded as he sat down in a chair opposite Kayda. "I did. His father. He pretended not to know anything either. Claimed the boy was out of state visiting grandparents, will be back tomorrow, but something's wrong. He wanted to tell me something, but he was scared. He was afraid to say anything." He looked at the spirit board as the pointer moved on its own. "What's that doing?"

"I'm hoping relaying a note from Max," Kayda said as Andy looked up at her. "We already knew about Max. But thank you for the additional information. Hmm." She looked down at what she had written. "Kidnapped auto shop. I have to go."

"You're not going to wait for Master Skywalker?" Andy asked.

Kayda smiled. "I maybe a Padawan learner but I am also a Jedi. I believe I can handle this. Besides I was once a Sith Lord, and as a result have a few tricks up my sleeve."

Franklin Residence

Kayda approached the front door of the huge house. She rang the doorbell and stepped back as she heard shuffling on the other side of the door. Mr. Franklin cracked the door open and narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her.

"Mr. Franklin?" Kayda asked, trying to get a decent look at the man through the barely open door.

"Yes?" Mr. Franklin prompted cautiously.

Kayda hesitated a moment, trying to decide the best way to go about this situation. "I am Padawan Kayda Skywalker of the Jedi Order. I need to talk to you about your son," she finally replied.

Mr. Franklin held his breath, the topic touchy at this moment. "Sorry, um, you have to leave, okay?" He pushed suddenly and started to close the door.

Kayda jumped to speak before he could close her off. "Look, I know he's been kidnapped. I know he's in trouble," she explained hastily. She was relieved when Mr. Franklin chose to respond instead of completely closing the door.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he returned, feigning ignorance.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Mr. Franklin said.

Her eyes narrowed at his obvious lie. "I think you do," Kayda challenged, not relieving him from her gaze. "What I don't understand is why you won't talk to the police."

"Please, you got to leave. Alright? Thank you." Mr. Franklin decided abruptly and started to close the door again.

"Mr. Franklin…" Kayda began again but when he didn't immediately respond, utilizing the Force she held the door open. "Unless, you can't talk to the police," she realized suddenly. That would explain his reluctance and the sudden fear that shot through his eyes. "The kidnappers don't want you talking to either the police or the Jedi Order, do they? That's why you wouldn't say anything to Inspector Trudeau and why you are trying to get me to leave."

Mr. Franklin sighed and was beginning to lose his patience with this woman who couldn't possibly help him. "Look, I don't know who you are, but I'm begging you…"

"The Jedi Order can help," Kayda reiterated.

Mr. Franklin immediately shook his head. "No, no, you can't. Alright? Goodbye," he insisted, trying to close the door again. He found that he was still unable to as Kayda continued to use the Force to hold it open.

Kayda's eyes flickered to land a family photo on the table just inside the door. Using the Force she telekinetically sent it flying into Mr. Franklin's hand.

Mr. Franklin stared at the picture for several silent moments before turning his surprised gaze on Kayda. "Dear God…" he whispered, thinking she was a witch and that she may just be able to help.