Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed.

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!

Chapter Nineteen

Mjolnir: Power

November 7th, 2003

The Manor, San Francisco

It was a mark of how foolish the people of this time were, that Niko was able to enter the Manor so easily. The wards they had were pathetically easy for him to slip through and a whispered spell let him sneak down to eavesdrop on the Halliwells. Of them all, only Kate's Uncle Cole seemed to notice that anything was amiss, and even he didn't realize that the threat they were discussing was standing behind them invisibly.

Niko felt his throat close over when he spotted Kate, her face flushed in fever while she tossed and turned on the couch. The strange Good Wyatt hovered anxiously beside her, while another man who had to be Kate's despised father, Leo, sat beside her, bathing her forehead with a damp cloth. He could hear the Charmed Ones whispering to each other in the kitchen.

"-on't understand why she's like this," 'Wyatt' was saying to his uncle when Niko carefully entered the room. "It didn't say anything about this in the Book!"

"I think it's because he didn't finish taking her powers," Cole explained heavily. "He left traces of his magic in her, and it's trying to drain the rest of her magic. But she's fighting back, and it's killing her."

Yes, Niko acknowledged his words. It was killing her. The whole reason that he had done this was for to live, so Kate dying was not an option. He needed to get to her, and finish taking her powers. Then they would return home, and hopefully not be killed by the enraged Source.

He frowned for a moment, trying to think of a way to deal with the large group of powerful opponents. As long as he could get the witches out of the picture for a few moments, he could easily overpower Leo, grab his fiancée and get them both somewhere warded against scrying so he could finish taking her powers and bring her home.

A plan formed as the Charmed Ones entered, Piper holding a vial and saying they would use it to threaten him, and he opened his mouth. Thankfully, the spell to keep him hidden from them stopped them from realizing that he was there and casting a spell.

"Spirits of the night, hear my call," he chanted the familiar spell, yet another of Kate's many inventions. Of course, his spells weren't as strong as hers were so he had to put all of his strength into it. "Make my enemies' lashes, heavy fall. Put them safely to sleep, so that they will fall into dreams so deep."

A yawn broke through Phoebe's half-spoken sentence, and he watched smugly as the group all began to succumb to their sudden exhaustion, ignoring the tiredness he too felt.

"Sp, spell...," Cole choked out before his eyes lost the battle and flapped closed. The sisters were resisting, but he could tell that they were too tired to do anything. Leo was snoring into the couch while Wyatt was shaking his head in an attempt to fight off the effects of the spell that were pulling at him.

Finally, Niko saw that they were as weak as he was going to get them, given his own average magical ability compared to the Halliwells' legendary strength, and he began shuffling quietly towards the couch his fiancée laid on.

He paused as he passed by the Other Wyatt. On instinct, he pulled a potion from one of his pockets and poured down the Twice-Blessed's throat. Now, Wyatt would be kept asleep for longer than the rest, if Niko was lucky.

He turned to the sofa and softly, he scooped Kate up, her family too lost in their dozing to notice or stop him, and shimmered away.

November 7th, 2003

Halliwell Memorial Museum, Camelot

They waited until nine, an hour after the curfew bell had rung, to leave the basement. Luck was on their side for once, and they only encountered one guard on the way to the attic, who they dealt with easily and quietly.

"What should I tell them?" Kate wondered softly as Niko pushed open the attic door. She had come up to this room countless times before, but this was the first time it felt as if she was an intruder.

"Don't tell them anything," Niko instructed her patiently, ignoring the fact they had gone over this a thousand times already. Her nerves were justifiable. This was the biggest, most important mission she had ever conceived of, let alone undertaken, and Kate always got a bit anxious coming up on a mission. "Just stick to your cover story. The less they know about the future, the better."

"But what if they find out who I really am?" Kate worried. "I don't think I can handle that."

"They won't," Niko cupped her face and spoke reassuringly. "Not as long as you can pass yourself off as their Whitelighter. Look, just remember, protect baby Wyatt and you protect the Charmed Ones. Keep them alive for our future."

Kate let out a bitter laugh, thinking of how trouble had always seemed to follow the Warren line. They were hard to deal with for a good Whitelighter, and Kate was the most pathetic excuse for a Whitelighter there was. Her family almost all being slaughtered by Evil was proof of that.

"Great," she scoffed sarcastically as she pulled away to pace in a tight circle. "No pressure there."

Niko followed her with a concerned face. "Kate," he said seriously. "You know you're the only one who can do this. You're the only one who can save us."

He was repeating words she had been hearing for years. Kate was the Last Halliwell, the Last Hope. She wished, goddess, Kate wasn't even sure what it was that she wanted.

No, that was a lie. She wished her family was alive, that Wyatt was Good and she could live in peace with Niko, no longer a pair of soldiers but just two people in love. If she succeeded, she would get exactly that.

But then again, this demon had slipped past the Charmed Ones and stolen their most protected member from beneath their noses. It had to be powerful, and smart. And Kate was no Charmed One.

"If I make it back."

Niko gave a cheeky smile, pulling the hand wearing her new engagement ring up so that she could see it. "Baby, you have to make it back," he insisted after kissing the small jewel. "If you wanna marry me."

She smiled, leaning in so that they could exchange a deep kiss.

She swallowed, smoothing her clothes when they had pulled away from each other. "You really know how to motivate a girl, you know that?"

They smirked at each other and walked over to the holographic Book of Shadows. Now, their roles seemed to have reversed, and Niko was the anxious one.

"You sure you can summon the real Book?" he asked her, trying to hide his worry.

She nodded tensely, jaw clenched. "Yeah."

"Away from him?" He pressed. She nodded again.

"Yeah," she repeated. "But we won't have much time once it gets here. His demons will be all over us."

Niko shrugged the warning off. "I won't need much time. Just long enough to send you back to them."

He strode confidently over to a wall and started drawing on it with chalk.

He stepped away when it was done, a drawn expression on his face as he announced, "It's time."

"I don't wanna go," Kate gasped, despair suddenly threatening to overwhelm her. She had lost so much already, and now she was about to lose what little she had left. "I don't wanna leave you."

Niko hurried over to her. He pressed one hand to her cheek in a tender action that they would never have done if anyone could see and lifted her hand so that she could see her ring again.

"Hey, look at it, Angel. This will remind you of why we're doing this, what's waiting for you here."

They hugged, a bit of desperation leaking into it as they squeezed each other tightly.

"Just make sure you take care of the guards, okay?" She urged, despite knowing that he knew all of this already. "Then get out of here. Because if he finds you, if he knows you betrayed him, he'll kill you."

Niko gave her a confident smile as he replied. "Don't worry," he told her. "I can take care of myself."

They linked hands and walked over to the hologram of the Book of Shadows, where Kate let go to pull a piece of paper out of her pocket. She had memorized it, but had taken it with her anyway, not wanting to risk a single mistake. After casting one last nervous look at her fiancé, she read the chant in a steady voice that hid her terror and anticipation.

"I call upon the ancient power, to help us in this darkest hour, let the book return to this place, claim refuge in its rightful space. It worked!" she cried at the sight of the Book of Shadows appearing on its' old stand.

Niko held up his knife and fell into a fighting stance, preparing for the coming attack. "The spell, find the spell!" he urged her, glancing around.

Kate flipped frantically through the book until she finally found the spell she needed. Who among her ancestors had written it and why was a mystery to her, but she hoped they had done it right.

"Hear these words, hear the rhyme, heed the hope within my mind, send me back to where I'll find, what I wish in place and time."

A portal opened where Niko had drawn the triquetra. A second later, a uniformed demon shimmered in behind Niko and grabbed him.

"Niko!" Kate cried, starting towards him. Normally, he would've been fine and she knew it. But she could sense the horde of enemies rushing toward them, and Niko wouldn't be able to fight them all off by himself.

He flipped the demon over his shoulder and jabbed at him with his knife, pausing long enough to yell at her. "Go! Go!"

Kate hesitated for half-a-second later longer, before turning and forcing herself to walk into the portal. The last thing she heard as she was engulfed by a tunnel of white was the sound of her fiancé fighting for his life.

November 7th, 2003

Lynn and Nikolaus Parker's Apartment, San Francisco

Kate groaned as Niko withdrew his hand from her chest. He had sent off his mother and younger self with a few sharp words to her about how his life had turned out because his mother had decided to raise him as an assassin. He was too focused on Kate to really care about the impact they'd had on Lynn, though.

"Just let me finish what I started," he murmured to her. "You'll feel better soon, I promise. That's it. Easy does it. Slow breaths."

He hid his nerves at the barely contained fury in Kate's face as she sat up, shoving him away from her in the process. "What'd you do to me?"

"I just saved your life," Niko snapped back. Unfortunately, the both of them had bad tempers, and were more inclined to attack than to defend. There was a heavy risk of damage to his mother's apartment. Just because Kate no longer had her active powers, didn't mean she wasn't still a threat. She'd been trained to fight with and without her powers, after all, and was a menace either way.

"By taking away my powers?" Kate retorted incredulously.

Niko ignored her, walking over to a wall and pulling off a picture frame. He stayed silent as he started drawing on the wall with chalk.

"How are you gonna bring me back, anyway?" Kate huffed, crossing her arms as she felt subtly for the knife she kept on her arm. Unsurprisingly, he had taken it. And from the lack of weight against her ankles and lower-back, her other ones too. "That spell's a one-way door. It only goes backwards in time." She herself had figured that she was going on a suicide mission anyway, so having a way to return was unnecessary.

"He created a new spell because of you," Niko replied curtly. "One that works both ways."

"I'm touched," Kate sneered mockingly even as she mentally corrected him to 'he had some of his spell writers make a new spell because of you'. Wyatt had never been the best at spell crafting or potions making. Why would he need to be, given he could have whatever he wanted with a thought via his projection?

"You should be," Niko snapped. "He's gone to a lot of trouble to get you back."

"Yeah, I see that."

"You know, you don't have to believe me, Kate, but this really is for the best."

"Oh, really?" Kate raised an eyebrow at him. "How's that?"

"Because this is your only chance to live," Niko snapped.

He felt his conviction, which had been wavering since learning about the Other Wyatt, steel. He remembered the cold promise in Lord Wyatt's eyes when he warned about what would happen if Niko didn't return Kate to him. Whether Other Wyatt really was here to help Kate or not, their future still existed, and Kate was his everything. He would protect her, even if it made her hate him with every fibre of her being.

"If I fail, he'll just keep sending more assassins back and all they'll have to bring home is a body."

Kate's eyes glinted with the same cold look as her brother's had as she replied. "Doesn't matter. There's nothing left in the future anymore, anyway."

She slammed the engagement ring on the table. The sound had an echo of finality to it as she leaned back and crossed her arms. Niko stared at it for a moment, his jaw clenching and his heart breaking, before turning back to the wall and the half-drawn triquetra on it.

Back at the Manor, the family had all, save Wyatt, woken from their enchanted slumbers.

"It was Niko," Cole declared grimly. "He used a spell to put us to sleep and took Kate."

"Damn it," Piper groaned, raking a hand through her hair. She paused, frowning at the still-unconscious form of her eldest Whitelighter. "Why isn't Will awake yet?"

"Maybe it was stronger on him because he's a Whitelighter," Cole suggested.

"Well, we can sort that out later," Paige sighed. "We need to prioritise, and Kate is the one who's life is in danger."

"What I don't understand," Leo huffed. "Is why did someone from the future send Niko after Kate, and not Will as well? What was the point of that?"

The sisters exchanged looks, shrugging.

"Doesn't matter," Cole insisted. "Kate's in danger, we need to save her. Quickly."

"Cole's right," Phoebe agreed. "We need to hurry, we don't know how long it'll take for them to be ready to return to the future, and if they get there, Kate's screwed."

"You really expect me to jump into this thing like before?" Kate stood and gestured at the now-finished triquetra drawing.

"Not without a fight, no," her now ex-fiancé replied icily.

"How can you be so cold?" Kate blurted out, her hurt finally slipping past her rigidly maintained mask of indifference. "How can you just stand there and pretend like we never meant anything to each other?"

"I don't have a choice." Guilt flashed over Niko's face as he glanced away.

Kate seized on his momentary weakness to press her case. "Niko, please don't do this. Don't give up on everything that we fought for," she implored. "The Wyatt here is proof that I can do this!"

"And that you'll die in the process," he replied, voice raw. His shoulders straightened as he fixed himself on his course. "I'm not giving up, Kate," he told her. "I'm just hoping we can find another way."

They both knew it was the same thing. It had taken years of fighting and planning to get them to this point. Going back was the same as giving up.

"Ready?" Niko asked.

Kate tensed, hand twitching toward a shard of glass on the table as she calculated whether or not she could grab it and stab her fiancé before he stopped her. The odds were not in her favour, not the least because she knew from experience that she didn't have it in her to kill someone she loved, upper hand or not.

At that moment, the Charmed Ones orbed in.

"Hey, future boy!" Piper called as she threw a potion towards the assassin.

But despite how good the Charmed Ones were, Niko, one of the Source's top assassins in their dystopian world, was better.

He countered her attack by throwing a dagger that smashed the bottle in mid-air while he shimmered out. Piper flung up her hands just in time to freeze the dagger, but Niko shimmered back in beside her, grabbed the dagger and held it against her throat. The room froze in a standstill. Kate was the only one reasonably confident that Piper's life was not actually in danger, but that didn't mean Niko wouldn't use other methods to take her out of the equation.

"You were saying?" Niko gave a cool smirk, while the sisters were blatantly stunned by his quick movements. They had no idea that a Resistance or Imperial soldier from the 2020's would consider it a weak attack. Mainly because he couldn't actually kill Piper if he wanted Kate to exist, so he had to be careful not to do anything lethal.

"Wow, he is good," Phoebe muttered, looking impressed. Ignoring her sister, Paige started to move towards Piper, who was standing rigidly still.

Niko pulled the athame closer to Piper's neck. "Uh-uh," he warned. "I can kill her in half the time it takes you to even think about it."

"Yeah, well we still have enough potion to vanquish you," Paige blustered.

"Maybe," Niko acknowledged, wondering if they thought he actually feared dying. Dying was easy, living was the hard thing. "But then you really will have to hope the power of two will do. Won't you, Paige? Now put the vials down slowly."

Kate, realizing that while she was fairly certain that Niko wouldn't kill Piper, it didn't mean her aunts had the same protection, spoke up. "Niko, don't," she ordered. "Let her go and I promise I'll go with you."

"Kate, what are you doing?" Paige hissed at her youngest Whitelighter, who ignored her.

Kate kept her gaze fixed on Niko. "If you kill her, there won't be a future for either one of us to go back to and you know it."

"What are you talking about?" Phoebe asked, frowning deeply at the vague comment.

"You'll see if you live long enough," Niko answered darkly. He released Piper and joined Kate, the two of them beginning to head for the portal.

"Piper, freeze them!" Paige cried, wide-eyed at the turn of events.

Piper made to freeze the two, but they continued moving. She faltered in confusion.

"Uh, okay, I get why he didn't freeze but why didn't she freeze?" she wondered.

Phoebe shook her head in confusion. "I don't- Unless she's a..."

"I'm a witch too," Kate confirmed quietly. "That's right, Will and I both are. Part witch, part Whitelighter. Just like you, Paige."

"You lied to us?" she demanded, a surge of betrayal storming through her.

"I had to," Kate insisted. Niko had an irritated expression as he watched the family drama, conscious of the Emperor's time-limit. "It was the only way I could get you to trust me."

"Trust you?" Phoebe spat, momentarily too angry to be her usual kind self. She felt a surge of guilt at the hurt look that briefly flashed over Kate's face before it went blank.

"Never mind," Kate shrugged indifferently. "It doesn't matter anyway."

"So that's it?" Piper demanded, furious that her Whitelighter, her friend if Kate would dare to acknowledge it, wasn't bothering to fight. "You're just gonna leave? What about your brother?"

"I don't have a choice," Kate bit back furiously. "He stripped my powers." She gave them a meaningful look as she finished. "Looks like Leo's gonna have to fix that floorboard without me. Let's go."

Niko waved his arm and a portal sprang to life. A feeling of dark foreboding rose in Phoebe as they watched their Whitelighter square her shoulders and march into the swirling white light. It seemed as if she were a prisoner walking to a guillotine.

The two stepped out into the dark, museum parody of the attic, greeted by a dozen demons. The two soldiers stared coldly at the uniformed demons, Niko rubbing his thumb over the hilt of his blade. Kate felt her stomach sink in disappointment. She had known as soon as her Niko arrived that her future still existed, but she had hoped, nonetheless, that she would arrive in the changed one.

"Welcome home, Kate," a voice, filled with menace, came from behind the demons. Niko tensed up, swallowing convulsively at the sound. Kate simply raised her chin defiantly.

The demons parted to reveal a man standing in the dark. He moved into light, reminding everyone in the room of a predator hunting down its' prey.

Ignoring the dangerous position that she was in, Kate glared back at her elder brother. "Hello, Wyatt."

"Okay, how were you and Kate planning on getting back to the future, then?" Paige asked Wyatt, who had been woken by Cole while they were confronting Niko and Kate.

The young man was obviously frantic with fear for his sister, but any attempt to tell them who she was facing had resulted in him choking violently on the words. They were trying a new tactic, tried and true. Figure out how to get to the future, and then 'run in without any plan and hope for the best', as Kate had sarcastically labelled it.

"There's a potion," he explained anxiously. "But I don't know the recipe, and it would take too long to make anyway, we need something else. The Power of Three would work, wouldn't it?"

"Not without help from the Elders," Leo shook his head. "And we don't have a date, either."

"I'm surprised you're not saying we should let her be murdered!" Wyatt spat, anger and fear removing his ability to hold his tongue, which was tenuous in the best of times.

Leo took a deep breath before replying. "Despite all your secrets, I still believe that you came back to protect Wyatt and that is enough for me to want to save her."

"The question is, how?" Cole asked, before anything else could be said.

Leo began pacing and stepped on the squeaky floorboard.

Piper's eyes widened in realisation. "Leo."

"What?" he asked.

"Fix the floorboard," Phoebe quoted, confusing the men.

"What does-?" Will began, before Paige cut him off.

"Maybe she was trying to tell us something," Paige suggested, leaning in.

"Who, what?" Leo repeated.

"Maybe," Piper agreed, ignoring her ex. "Maybe that's where Niko was taking her. To the attic in the future."

Wyatt's eyes lit up. "That makes sense," he informed them. "The-argh. It makes sense."

"But that would still be loose in the future, wouldn't it?" Cole stroked his jaw thoughtfully, picking up on the sisters' forming plan.

"Yeah, unless we fixed it," Paige nodded.

"Or used it to send her something, something that she needed," Piper continued.

"Like what?" Phoebe asked.

Paige gave a triumphant smile. "Her powers."

November 7th, 2026

Halliwell Memorial Museum, Camelot

Wyatt walked towards them and glanced at Niko. The assassin gave subtle nod, and Wyatt waved indifferently at the guards.

"They're no threat to me," he said. The demons accepted the unspoken command and shimmered out.

Wyatt turned on his heel, the vulnerable position of his back a glaring signal that he thought his sister too weak to fight him. Kate felt the familiar feelings of bitterness surge at the knowledge that he was right. This Wyatt was much more familiar than the one she had spent the last few months living with. Damn him.

"Et tu, Katharine?" Wyatt drawled, rubbing his thumb and index finger together. "Of all the people to betray me."

"I'm not the traitor here, Wyatt," she spat. "If anything, you betrayed me."

He scoffed, turning to face her. "How did I betray you, Little Sister?" He asked mockingly. On anyone else, his expression might have seemed amused. Kate knew better, though. She barrelled on nonetheless, ignoring the danger signs.

"You turned evil," she answered fearlessly, ignoring the worry she could sense radiating so strongly from Niko it broke through his shields. "Turned against everything that our family stood for, for four centuries!"

Wyatt rolled his eyes, and Kate knew what was coming. "That's always been your problem, Kate," he sighed. "Still stuck in the old good versus evil morass. I'm so past that. It's all about power, it's as simple as that."

"And whoever has the most power wins, is that it?" She challenged, wondering how, even with the whole kidnapping thing, Wyatt could have turned out so differently in two lives.

He nodded sharply. "That's it. That's why I keep this museum intact. To remind everyone the power from which I was born and that which I possess."

Kate felt her temper fray dangerously at the reminder of how he had desecrated their family home and she stalked forward furiously. "Too bad the rest of the city isn't faring as well as your little shrine here!" she spat, thinking of the homeless, the terrified inhabitants and the damage from various battles that filled Wyatt's supposed utopia.

He rolled his eyes and changed the subject. "You know if anyone else tried what you tried, I'd kill them on the spot. But you... I've forgiven Niko, I can forgive you too. If you promise never to cross me again."

Kate lifted her chin defiantly and met his eyes determinedly. "I think you know me better than that."

Wyatt's expression darkened and he turned on Niko, standing silently in the background. "I thought you said you could talk some sense into her!"

"Leave him out of this!" Kate cried, fear rising for her lover despite her anger towards him and hoping that she could attract the Source's attention. She achieved that, anyway.

Wyatt raised his arm and Kate started to choke as he cut off her breath telekinetically.

"Pardon me?" he said, malice lining his voice, before he flicked his hand and sent her flying across the room into a table, the impact breaking several of her ribs.

Niko ran forward. "You promised you wouldn't hurt her!" he yelled.

Wyatt sneered at him. "You promised you'd turn her. It's like I turned you, or at least I thought I had."

Niko cast the Source a bitter glare before he ran over to kneel next to Kate, who was struggling to rise from the floor. The loss of her active powers had weakened her resistance, so her injuries affected her more than they usually would have.

"Kate, please," he begged softly. "I didn't bring you here to die."

She cast him a cocky grin that didn't quite hide the worry in her eyes. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." she looked back at their opponent as he stepped on the squeaky floorboard. "I think," she added under her breath.

She rose to her feet and ran towards Wyatt only for the Emperor to grab her and throw her carelessly across the room.

"Have you lost your mind?" Wyatt demanded disbelievingly before lifting his sister into the air with his telekinesis. "I don't need you."

He created an energy ball and raised it while Kate struggled against her invisible bonds, choking. Wearing an anguished look, Niko ran to Wyatt and shoved his arm into his back. Kate dropped to the floor roughly.

"Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast!" Niko yelled, his strain obvious. "I can't hold him for long."

Not bothering to reply, Kate raced over to the squeaky floorboard and pulled it up, splinters entering her fingers as she scrambled to get out the spell.

"Powers of witches rise, come to me across the skies, return my magic, give me back, all that was taken from the attack," she chanted, making a blue light wash over her.

Wyatt kicked back, sending Niko through the air to land on a broken table leg.

"No!" Kate shrieked. She sent a blast of lightning at her brother and he went soaring from the force of it, falling unconscious against the wall while she rushed to Nik's side, tears welling in her eyes.

"Niko," she moaned in grief. "No, no, no, no."

"Haven't we been here before?" Niko gasped out weakly, giving her a weak smile. Her returning one was weak and teary.

"Maybe we will be again," she stroked his face in an uncharacteristic display of softness.

"Maybe," Niko agreed weakly.

Kate leaned forward to bury her head in his chest. "No," she moaned.

Niko reached over and handed her something. She sniffled and slipped on the engagement ring.

"Always yes," she whispered to him, eyes sparkling with pain and tears.

"Hurry," he urged her. "Go and take the spell so he can't send anyone else. Go."

Hating herself, Kate stood and ran over to the Book of Shadows while Wyatt struggled to get up, a look on his face that usually proceeded a mass-murder.

She hurried to chant the spell, ducking energy balls as she did so. "Hear these words, hear the rhyme, heed the hope within my mind. Send me back to where I'll find, what I wish in place and time."

The portal opened and Kate ran to it. She glanced back and instinct took over. She orbed Niko to her arms just before she flung herself into the swirling vortex.

She fell out in the 2003 attic, instantly registering its' occupants.

"Heal him!" She shrieked madly at the good Wyatt. "This is all your fault! Heal him or I swear I'll kill you!"

The past people were obviously confused by her words, but Wyatt reluctantly hurried over and stuck his glowing hands over Niko's unconscious form.

"Please," Kate moaned, clutching his hand tightly. "Please not him too. Please."