Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed, or they would have to stop messing around with the comics
Timeless Mistakes
"So then, we are agreed on our course of action?" Gideon asked the four demons in the room, and Asmodeus, the apparent leader of the Triad, nodded.
"Indeed. Obviously however, we can do nothing until you fulfil your part." He warned, and Gideon nodded, conceding the point to the demon.
Barbas strolled around the room, his hands clasped at his back, pondering the situation, which he wasn't altogether thrilled about. While he had never wanted to rule the underworld, to be basically the Source in all but name, the fact remained that he was indeed the leader of the underworld and had been for quite some time. However, he was now being forced back into second place as the Triad, who had somehow managed to escape when Cole had killed them, were now back and were quite clearly intending to take charge before too long.
"And somehow it leaves me to make the first moves." Barbas complained, and Candor looked at him with a snooty expression on his face, as though dismissing anything the other demon said.
"You usurped leadership of the underworld Barbas, the least you can do is attend to the plan, which will have untold benefits for the entirety of demon kind. With this plan, we shall bring the Charmed Ones down at long last, and end the threat they pose to us now and in the future." He informed him, but before Barbas could retort, Baliel also interjected.
"Not to mention absolving the future of when the Charmed brats take control of the power of three and continue to inflict untold damage upon the demonic imperative." He added, but Barbas held up a finger before anyone else could prevent him from speaking.
"That's all well and good, and trust me, I'd like nothing better than to watch those witches burn. But we're forgetting one teensy weensy but ever so tiny crucial little detail: they are the most powerful witches in the world for a reason, and even with this plan, there is still a chance that they can overcome us, and then they will vanquish us! Again." He said, disgruntled, and the Triad did look as though they thought he had a point.
"Barbas, you worry yourself too much. Between us all, we can bring an end to this threat." Gideon assured him, but as one the demons turned to him, looking at him suspiciously.
"And then of course, there's him. How do we know he won't backstab us at the first opportunity?" Barbas asked, not even having to use his fear powers to realise that the Triad were thinking the exact same thing as he was.
Gideon raised his hands, looking irate.
"This plan began with me! Why would I wish to see it fail?" he demanded, and Asmodeus raised a pencilled eyebrow sceptically.
"You don't, but your only concern is killing the boy. We are the ones who want and need the Charmed Ones dead, you, not quite so much." He pointed out, and Gideon sighed in annoyance, refraining from rolling his eyes only with great difficulty.
"And as I have informed you, the alteration of the timeline, which is what has helped us get into this mess, is just as catastrophic for my side as it is for yours. I don't want the Charmed Ones dead, certainly. But, I wouldn't object if one of them tragically fell in order to protect the greater good. Now, are we all agreed on our course of action?" he demanded irritably, and the Triad exchanged looks with Barbas before nodding as one.
"Yes. Barbas, you need to begin your operations." Candor ordered, and after throwing the Triad a look of deepest loathing, Barbas flamed out to begin his part of the plan.
"And I shall begin to make preparations for my own interventions." Gideon said, giving them a smart bow before orbing out in a shower of purple orbs, leaving the Triad alone in their chamber.
"The Elder is an unknown quantity. He could easily be the undoing of this entire plan." Asmodeus grumbled, and Candor looked at his companions worriedly.
"There is another danger. After our defeat at the hands of the traitor Belthazor, we vowed to wait for the right time before we acted. Granted, the situation has changed, what with the editing of the timeline and the perversion of the original Charmed prophecy, but are we perhaps not moving too soon, too fast? We vowed to return to power only when it was in our best interests, but it seems like doing this, well it will inevitably attract the attention of the Charmed Ones. And quite frankly, they outnumber us." He concluded grimly, and Baliel sucked the inside of his cheek, looking to Asmodeus, who was curiously silent about this whole affair.
"He does have a point about that Asmodeus. If it does indeed come down to a battle between ourselves and the Charmed Ones, while we'd be able to match the Power of Three, we will most likely be overwhelmed by the Power of Four." He pointed out, and Asmodeus paced the room, listening to his companions fears.
"I have indeed considered this my friends. And you are correct, we are moving faster than we originally anticipated. But you forget, we have plans within plans. If this plan succeeds, then we will retake power far sooner than we originally planned or anticipated. If not, then it will be a setback, but not an insurmountable one. We also have Dumain, and his plan to use the Ultimate Power, which even if things go badly for us in regards to a confrontation with the sisters, can be used to reverse the damage done by them should we fail at this juncture." He assured them, but Candor, and Baliel to a lesser extent, remained sceptical.
"But old friend, it all comes down to one problem: at the end of the day, we will be outnumbered and outgunned by the Charmed Ones." He insisted, and Asmodeus sighed.
"Very well. If, and only if, we can convince Xar to return to us from exile, then will that settle your fears?" he asked waspishly, and the other two, while looking hesitant, nodded.
"Then we go." He said, and with that the three members of the Triad flamed out in order to rebuild their ranks.
XX
"Did you find out anything in the underworld honey?" Prue asked as she and Chris entered the manor, and he shook his head.
"No, all I know is, everyone is scurrying further down into the underworld, they're afraid what's going to happen now that the four of you are back together." He informed her in dark amusement, and she grinned, it was good that the demons were learning their place again.
"Aren't you supposed to be meeting Darryl?" Paige asked as she came in from the kitchen, casting a look at her oldest sister, and Prue nodded.
"Yeah, he said he'd meet me here, to discuss Operation Resurrection." She told her, gratefully accepting the cup of coffee that Paige had just passed her, and Chris took the other one, sipping it gratefully.
"So that's what we're calling it?" he asked in amusement, and Prue grinned.
"Well what else should we call it? Where are the others?" she asked, and Paige waved a hand airily.
"Piper's doing washing upstairs and Phoebe's in the sun room writing her column, I can imagine how cheery her column will be now." She told her in amusement, and the other two grinned, just as Phoebe poked her head around the corner into the dining room, a playful scowl on her face.
"And what's wrong with my column being cheery? It'll certainly be happier than any other news we get." She pointed out as Piper came down the stairs with an empty laundry basket, when something caught her eye in the living room, as demons shimmered or smoked into existence.
"Demon!" she yelped, dropping the basket, and blasted the first one, the demon screaming as he was vanquished.
The others moved like lightning, Chris and Paige orbing into the room, Chris throwing a combustive orb into one of them while Paige orbed a fireball that the demon had thrown at Prue into one of his companions. Prue flicked another demon into the air, Phoebe jumping into the air and levitating into him, kicking him with all her might towards Piper, who blasted him apart.
More demons continued to shimmer in, all of them wearing metal claw like appendages on their fists.
"Who are these guys, Wolverine fanboys?" Paige demanded as Chris used his lightning to vanquish two at a time, and he glared at another demon who had just flung a fireball at his mother, before vanquishing him with a stream of light darts.
"They're Celerity demons, I can't think what they're doing attacking en masse like this though!" he cried, swearing as a demon sprang at him, only for him to be reflected by a furious Prue.
"They're everywhere!" she cried, and as she did so, there came a cry from upstairs, and Piper exchanged a horrified glance with her older sister and hurtled up the stairs, Prue hot on her heels, rushing to Wyatt's aid.
"Wyatt!" Chris called, sending jagged lightning everywhere and vanquishing three more demons as he heard his mother's usual war cry as she entered Wyatt's room.
"Son of a bitch!"
Three demons were then thrown bodily through the air, slamming into the wall at the top of the stairs with a scream as they were vanquished, Prue in the lead as she led herself Piper and a screaming, shield wrapped Wyatt down the stairs as more demons thundered through the house.
"There's so many, what the hell's going on?" Phoebe demanded as more Celerity demons turned up, beginning to herd her towards the centre of the room where Piper and Prue continued to vanquish the onslaught, but even they realised they were surrounded and would soon be overwhelmed, despite the four sisters and Chris doing their utmost to vanquish them.
"I'm beginning to think we need more power!" Paige cried, ducking as a fireball exploded just over her head, and Piper snarled, Wyatt screaming blue murder behind her, she had to get him out of here, she needed Leo, she needed to call for him to get her son to safety, but she wasn't even getting enough of a respite to do even that.
"Power of four spell?" Prue asked hopelessly, flicking fireballs into three more demons, who were simply replaced by more demons, and Paige grabbed her sisters hands, intending to orb them all out, but she couldn't do it, she couldn't make sure she got the kids too, what were they supposed to do? It wasn't as if this lot should be able to beat them, they were the Charmed Ones for god sake, but they didn't have the power, they just needed more power…
And suddenly, Paige's eyes closed, and when they opened again, something went surging through her and her sisters.
Prue raised a hand to flick away various demons, but to her great delight, her telekinesis suddenly multiplied immensely. With a shimmering yellow, blue and gold effect, the various demons she was battling gave a scream as they were toppled over like jenga, all of them screaming in pain as they were vanquished.
Piper raised her hands to blast one demon, but when she twitched her hands, all the demons facing her were suddenly blasted apart, ripped into separate molecules with a fiery scream as they were destroyed.
And Phoebe, who had been using her empathy to redirect several attacks suddenly felt the surge of energy pass through her, and as one the demons facing her screamed in pain, dropping to their knees as the anger that she was directing back at them consumed them, their heads blowing apart and once more, the house was quiet.
"Um…" Paige whimpered as everyone turned to look at her in shock, their faces the very picture of delight.
"Well, I guess that means someone has a new power." Piper said with a grin, as Paige smiled smugly, Prue smiled in amusement, and, as predicted, Phoebe scowled in annoyance.
XX
Neena ducked, flinging her hands up to create a portal as she did so, and with a savage roar, the beast went through her new portal, allowing her a little bit of breathing space. It was about time, the thing had been chasing her everywhere, through all time. Queen Elizabeth I had been less than impressed when Neena had appeared in the middle of her court, a monster hot on her heels. The cave men she had passed in her next stop had at least tried to help her though bless them, not that it had done her any good. And then, she had jumped to the future, which was still a hellhole, and had quickly vanished once again before the Twilight Legionnaire spotted her.
Breathing a sigh of relief, and knowing that the monster should be out of the way for a little while at least (she had sent it back to play with the dinosaurs, it would take it a while to jump through portals in order to get back to chase her again), she finally had a chance to get to the girls and warn them, which is what she had been after all this time, but obviously, pursued as she had been, had been unable to carry out. Seizing her chance, she entered a new portal and jumped through, and at long last emerged into the manor.
Looking around though, she saw no signs of life. Could it be possible that the girls were all out? But no, there was something not quite right about all this, the house just didn't seem right, it wasn't sitting right with her. Yes, there was definitely something not all there…
"Neena?" a voice asked, and she leapt about a foot in the air, believing she had been alone.
"Hells tits Cole don't sneak up on me like that!" she shrieked, and he grinned, leaning against the doorframe with an annoyingly superior grin on his face.
"Now, what would the First Witch be doing here at a time like this?" he asked softly, and she looked at him curiously, trying to remember.
Oh yes, that was right, Cole had been anchored to the manor for quite some time before the rapidly deteriorating situation in the real world had forced the powers that were to allow him to move around with greater ease.
"What time am I in?" she asked, trying to get her heartrate under control, and he looked at her curiously.
"Well someone, I'm presuming you, just changed the timeline, Prue's just came back from the dead, and Paige has just realised her new power. I'm not able to do much in this existence, but I can keep an eye on the girls." He told her, and she nodded, yes, this was good, this was the right time frame, she just wasn't in the real world proper, all she had to do now was get through to the real world and she could let the girls know everything that they needed to know.
"Good, that's good. Now…" she said, about to open a portal when a distant roar echoed behind her.
Both she and Cole turned to see the red eyes of the beast burst out of a portal.
"Son of a bitch how did he get here so fast?" she demanded anxiously as the beast wriggled through the portal it had created, determined to get to her and finish its task.
"Wait, isn't that the Dahaka? Is that why it's taken you so long to come and tell the sisters what you did?" Cole demanded as the Dahaka now had the front half of its body through the portal, it wouldn't take long now.
"Yes, yes, oh crap, you better come with me too, if I leave you here, it'll devour you as well, come on!" she urged, creating the portal and taking Cole's hand, both of them jumping through as the Dahaka finally emerged into this false manor and charged towards them, Neena's portal slamming shut before it's very eyes.
XX
"Let the cause of objection become but a dream
As I cause the scene to become unseen!" Chris chirped, returning the house back to the normal state of affairs.
"Projection, that's your new power." Leo told Paige proudly, who couldn't quite keep the cheerful look of smugness off her face, and Phoebe looked rather disgruntled.
"It's a good thing too, that was too close, I just got back from the dead, I ain't going back, I told you, all of you are getting outlived." Prue told them, rocking Wyatt to try and get him to go to sleep.
The house was once more mercifully free of demons, but it had been rather close, the swarm of Celerity demons could very well have overcame them had it not been for Paige tapping into her new projection power, which on the plus side, had made her feel rather cheerful about the whole thing.
"What I don't get is why they were so determined to attack like that, it was kind of suicidal if you ask me…even if they did nearly get us." Phoebe admitted lamely, and Chris had to admit, the same thought had been playing on his mind.
"Yeah, that did seem a bit strange, and not at all like them." He admitted, flopping down beside his mother, who stroked his hair reassuringly, her own face tense and worried.
"Well like them or not, they nearly got us. You reckon someone's behind it?" she asked, and Chris nodded, but his face remained puzzled.
"Yeah, but I don't see how, or why, I mean, they're taking a pretty big risk attacking like that for potentially no reward." He said, and Prue looked at her nephew, a dark look on her face.
"Barbas?" she asked shrewdly, and he nodded hesitantly.
"That would be my guess, but this isn't his style, and we all know it, so what exactly is he up to?" he asked, and none of them had an answer for that.
"What do we know about these demons?" Paige asked, orbing the book into her arms, and immediately proceeding to check what it said about the power of projection. Finding the page, she flipped the book round to show Phoebe, who stuck her tongue out before Paige resumed trying to find out about the Celerity demons.
"I'll head to the underworld, see what I can find out." Chris declared, and Piper nodded, though she looked apprehensive.
"Ok sweetie, but be careful. If Barbas was behind this, he's upping his game, which means we need to up ours too. Phoebe, do we have that spell?" she asked, and Phoebe nodded.
"Yeah, say the word, Barbas goes bye bye." She said, and Piper nodded, satisfied.
"Ok, and now that we know that Paige's new power is projection, we're going to have to be careful with your powers too, they might go a little crazy until they all balance out." Leo reminded them, and they nodded.
"Alright, Darryl will be here soon so skedaddle, the lot of you." Prue ordered, and Piper looked at her, an irritable expression on her face.
"You are not the boss of me." She told her stubbornly, and Prue grinned.
"Oh yes I am. Come on, the less you guys know about me and the Mercers the better." She said, and she had to admit, she had a point.
"Alright, I'll go to magic school. You two coming?" she asked her other sisters, and Phoebe shook her head.
"Sorry sis, I'm heading to work. I'll be back for dinner though don't worry." She promised, and Piper nodded before turning to Paige.
"I'll come, that way I can use the library to help us with our new demon problem. And research my new power!" she crowed, as Phoebe had just headed upstairs to get changed for work, and she took great delight in hearing her grumble as she headed up.
"Be careful honey." Piper warned Chris, kissing his cheek and he gave her a reassuring nod before he orbed out.
She turned to Leo who was about to speak when he suddenly looked very worried about something, the colour falling from his face.
"Leo?" Piper asked nervously, that look never usually meant anything good.
"I'll get back to you." He promised, orbing out in a hurry, and Piper exchanged a darkly significant look with Paige as he did so, the last time had had looked like that was when the Titans had attacked.
"What was that about?" Prue asked suspiciously, passing Wyatt to his mother, who cradled him as she put him into his stroller.
"I don't know, but I'm getting a b-" she began, but Paige gave a cry like a wounded animal and clamped her hand over her mouth, earning her a thoroughly unimpressed look from her older sister.
"No, don't say that, people say that, things get cocked up, so, shhh!" she urged and Piper rolled her eyes at Prue, who was unable to meet her sister's gaze as she was now sniggering into her hand.
"Ok, call me if you need me, I'll be at the office all day if you need me for demon duty of any sort." Phoebe told them as she came down the stairs, but she had only taken two strides towards the door when a shimmering white portal blazed open in the wall, tinged with glowing red orbs around them.
"Now what?" Prue demanded, stepping in front of her sisters automatically, as Piper and Paige raised their hands to fight off whatever it was that was about to come through the portal.
And to their great surprise, it was two people who came out of it.
"Oh, all four of you together," Neena said happily, her eyes misting over as she saw all four sisters together, "that's so lovely, it actually worked. Anyway, no time for that now, right, out the road!" Neena cried, as Prue's eyes narrowed dangerously as she saw the First Witch.
"I've got a bone to pick with you Neena!" she snapped, and Neena waved her hand impatiently.
"I know child, but it'll need to wait, out the way, come on now!" she urged as a roar emitted from the portal she and her companion had just left.
"What the hell was that?" Piper asked in alarm as she heard the roar, and Neena shot her an exasperated look.
"The thing I'm trying to escape from! I know you all have questions but you'll need to wait for now, I swear I'll answer them all, but for now, move!" she urged opening a portal behind them and scrambling to her feet.
She shouldered her way through Phoebe and Prue, who looked as though she seriously wanted to stop her, but there was another roar from the other portal and Neena dived through the new one to safety. There was a furious roar and a massive creature erupted from the portal, and the girls gave shrieks of fright, leaping out the way as the colossal beast stampeded through them and followed their ancestor into the portal that she had escaped through.
"What the hell was that?" Piper demanded in a high voice as Wyatt opened his eyes blearily as if to see what all the fuss was about.
"I don't know, but whatever the hell it was, it's big enough and nasty enough to scare Neena. Is everyone ok? Pheebs?" Paige asked her sister, who was staring transfixed at the person who had come through the portal with Neena.
"Oh, hi Phoebe!" he said brightly, dusting off his suit and smiling cheerfully, as the four sisters beheld him in shock, Phoebe's mouth open in total surprise, her eyes bulging in angry horror as she grasped to find the word, but in the end all she managed was a shocked, single word.
"Cole!"
XX
"There seems to be a lot of yelling going on in there, is everything ok?" Darryl asked, as he had expected to go into the manor, but had instead found Prue waiting, sitting on a step outside, wincing at the ruckus inside the house, and Prue exchanged a glance with Paige, who shrugged nervously.
"Um kind of, another old friend who was in the same place I was has popped by for a visit, and we don't quite know how to get rid of him." She explained, and Darryl looked at the house hopefully.
"Is it an old friend of mine by any chance?" he asked hopefully, and Prue gave him a sympathetic glance, laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Sorry, the other old friend, which is Phoebe's yelling." She explained, and she had to admit, her sister was doing a good job if they could still hear her raised voice berating her meant to be dead former demonic hitman, former Source and now whatever the hell he was ex-husband.
"Really? How's he back?" he demanded angrily, and the two sisters shrugged helplessly, just as Darryl's car door opened.
"Boss? Oh, hi." The man said, seeing the two sisters and giving them a cheerful wave.
"Sorry mate, old friends you know? Henry Mitchell, this is Prue and Paige Halliwell, well Paige is Matthews, but is actually a Halliwell, it's all a complicated story, they're good friends of mine, and Prue's the one who we came to recruit into my cunning plan. Prue, Paige, this is Henry Mitchell, he's a parole officer who's on secondment so he's with me. My new partner, Inspector Sheridan, will meet us later she got held up at court." He explained to Prue, who was eyeing Henry suspiciously, as he had come round from the other side of the car and was shaking Paige's hand enthusiastically.
"Nice to meet you, Morris has said a lot about you all." He told them, and Paige smiled.
"Only good things I hope." She asked, and Henry grinned as he continued to shake her hand.
"Well he left out how beautiful you are." He admitted, and Darryl spluttered while Paige giggled, and Prue rolled her eyes, coming in between the two.
"Ok romeo, that's enough of that. I thought you were helping Piper or Chris?" she asked pointedly to her sister, who was gazing appraisingly at Henry, but her older sister standing with her hands on her hips brought her back to reality with a bump.
"Huh?" she asked in confusion, and Prue sighed irritably.
"You know, sweet little nephews, major problems, bad guys running amok, ring a bell?" Prue asked, peeved, and Paige's eyes rounded in comprehension.
"Oh I see, yeah. Ok, um I'll get going. It was nice meeting you Henry." She purred and headed back into the house to orb.
"Yeah, you too." Henry admitted huskily, and Prue rolled her eyes, exchanging a vexed look with Darryl, who was clearly torn between sniggering in amusement, whistling in appreciation or telling Henry off, so obviously was doing none of the above.
"What am I, chopped liver?" Prue grumbled, and Darryl grinned.
"Let's go. Come on lover boy, you know where she lives now, you can stalk her if you want." He joked, then hastily went quiet as Prue sent him a nettled look, and the three of them climbed into the car, Henry's eyes not leaving Paige, who was standing at the top of the stairs, and watched them drive off before she nipped into the house, wincing at the yelling going on next door, and orbed to join Piper at magic school.
XX
"People are going to start to talk about us at this rate." Nomed pointed out as Chris emerged from the shadows of his lair, and the witchlighter grinned.
"They already are. I need help." He told him, and Nomed grinned, eyeing the future kid appraisingly.
"No arguments here, you keep coming down to the underworld, consorting with the very worst of my kind, and you're giving both me and the seer a reputation that we're both sleeping with you." He complained jokingly, and Chris scowled.
"Well demon gossip sucks anyway, and you're not telling me half the underworld hasn't slept with Kyra, she is over a thousand years old." He pointed out, and Nomed nodded, conceding the point.
"True, but it doesn't do my image much good if people think I'm sleeping with you future boy." He pointed out, and Chris shrugged, grinning a little.
"You'll just have to tell them you aren't. Can you help?" he pleaded a little, and Nomed sighed, sitting down in an alcove in the cave wall where he made his home.
"I suppose so, since it's you. What do you need?" he asked, and Chris sat down beside him.
Nomed was a lower level demon, young, with dark curly hair, clad all in stylish black and a goatee. Chris had first encountered him when he had been checking information with Kyra, and since then, he had become a very useful source for him just as she was. It was also clear that Nomed did quite like the young witchlighter, but Chris was a little uncertain about how far his willingness to help him went. However, the two had a good partnership, Chris basically gave Nomed immunity from his family provided he behaved himself, and in turn then took out demons so that Nomed could move further up the food chain of the underworld, provided he kept Chris informed of things that he needed to know.
"Someone has rallied the underworld, because we were attacked by a whole legion of Celerity demons this morning. Now, I know what you're going to say," he protested, cutting Nomed off before he spoke, "I know Barbas is the one calling the shots down here, and while I am fairly convinced he's involved somewhere along the line, I'm not entirely sure that he is the one behind all this." He said, and Nomed leaned back in the alcove, pondering his words carefully, as though measuring every word.
"Alright, the actions of the Celerity demons are a little strange, I'll admit. They're not usually easy to control, at least not in the numbers you're describing, so someone high up has to have ordered the hit. What were they after?" Nomed asked, his brow furrowed in suspicion, and Chris shrugged.
"I don't know, that's what seemed so strange, it seemed like they were swarming to just take out the sisters, but they also went after Wyatt too, so it might have been a distraction to get to him as well." He admitted, and Nomed gnawed his lip, he had been afraid of that.
"Ok, and this is top secret, but there's a rumour that there's some great power in the deepest echelons of the underworld. There's rumours that someone very powerful is uniting factions, and that they've entered into an alliance with Barbas. But whoever they are, the rumour is that Barbas is no longer the only one calling the shots." He whispered significantly, as though afraid they would be overheard, and Chris felt a dark surge of panic.
"What, Barbas has lost control of the underworld?" he demanded in a panicked whisper.
Like he had told the girls, they were better off with the devil they knew, and that happening would for a start mean that the girls could try out their first official power of four vanquishing spell, which would be rather cool admittedly, but if Barbas wasn't the person in charge down here anymore, and someone more powerful had acted, who the hell were they dealing with? And were they perhaps the power that got to Wyatt?
Nomed considered his answer carefully before uttering it in a barely audible murmur.
"No, Barbas is still the de facto leader of the underworld, at least as far as the vast majority of the underworld is concerned. But there is the rumour that there is someone stronger than Barbas down there, and I got to say, people are worried, if there's someone more powerful than Barbas out there, I mean the Charmed Ones have cleaned house, there shouldn't be very many left, so who the hell is it? Demons on the street like my good self, we don't want one of the old guard in power, we tolerate Barbas because he was never really part of the Source's inner circle, but if there's someone like that out there, well, people like me are going to have to wait even longer for our day in the sun."
The two of them sat in contemplative silence for a while, before Chris, wrapping his head around what Nomed had told him, leaned in closer to his demonic informant.
"Who could it be? Any guesses?" he asked, and Nomed, pulling away slightly from Chris, looked around nervously as though terrified they were being watched, then shook his head.
"None. I did a check, figuring you'd ask me to, on the prison where they're keeping Zankou, but it's still locked up tight, so I've got no idea." He admitted, and Chris suppressed the urge to swear, the last thing they needed right now was some other powerful demon making a move, they already had their hands full with trying to find out who was after Wyatt without worrying about some powerful demon playing the demonic Game of Thrones.
"Any idea why now? What brought it all on?" Chris asked, and Nomed shrugged.
"I've no idea. But…there is a rumour going around, that someone from your side has been seen down here." He told him, and Chris looked at him sceptically.
"My side? Sure they don't mean me?" he asked, and Nomed nodded.
"Well I thought that at first too, but it seems like it's someone else. Whoever they are, they're being very careful to keep a very low profile, they don't want to be discovered, by either side I reckon. Word is that whoever it is has been searching for this new power, but that is idle rumour, people making up best case scenarios." He told him, and Chris nodded, contemplating everything that Nomed had told him.
"Ok thanks. If you hear anything else, about anything, call me ok?" he asked urgently, his eyes burning with a purposeful fire, and Nomed grinned.
"Will do. But be careful Chris, there's someone very powerful on the move down here Chris, and with the timeline change, well, people are antsy. It's like…" Nomed began, but it was Chris who finished his sentence for him.
"It's like something's coming, and whatever it is, when it gets here, it won't be pretty." He finished darkly, and grasped Nomed's wrist in thanks before orbing out, leaving Nomed sitting in his cave, mind abuzz with his strange relationship with the witchlighter, and fearing the future that, despite everything Chris had done to try and prevent, could very well be coming true regardless of what they did to try and stop it.
XX
"My lord Xar-aargh!" his frog like servant screamed as he was vanquished by a stream of fire pouring from the eyes of Asmodeus, and Xar, who was sitting at the table in his lair, raised his goblet in greeting of his old friend.
"My old friends, the Triad. I feel that was a bit harsh, admittedly he wasn't the greatest of servants, but he was functional." He chided, and the Triad stood arrayed in front of him as he drank deep of his goblet.
"Xar." Asmodeus greeted, and Xar looked at the three of them appraisingly.
"I must say, you three are back sooner than expected. When I heard that Belthazor had dealt you your more than well-deserved deaths, rest his memory," he said with a gloating smile, raising his goblet in Belthazor's memory, "I expected you to be sulking and licking your wounds a lot longer than this. To what do I owe the pleasure? Surely if you are intending to take control of the underworld from Barbas, you have bigger fish to fry than my good self?" he asked, and Baliel sighed.
"We are not here to kill you Xar." He admitted, which caught the former Triad by surprise.
"Really? You expect me to believe that old friend? You all banished me remember, because I refused to go along with your ludicrous plan to trust that fool Dumain and to use those witches he's been corrupting to try and take over the underworld, a fact that I was right about at the time, since even if we had used them to take down the Source, we'd have had to deal with the Charmed Ones as well, and we all know that those blond bimbos would be no match for them. And now you come here, when you're presumably on the verge of using those little blond harlots to affect a regime change, to the one person who knows of your plan, and you claim you're not here to kill me?"
Asmodeus glared at him, irritated by the delay.
"Baliel is correct Xar. We are here to offer you your old position back. Admittedly, we still intend to use the Ultimate Power if needs must, but that is not why we are here now. The timeline change has prompted us to move more quickly than anticipated. We have little time, and as you might have heard, there are now all four Charmed Ones, united together, and we cannot overcome them all alone. But, should we succeed now, then my old friend, we will happily sit back while you kill Dumain and his pet witches." He told him, and the other two looked at him in surprise, he hadn't told them that if they succeeded he intended to do away with the Ultimate Power.
Xar gave him a swift, calculating look as he leaned back in his chair, trying to pretend that he wasn't bothered by the offer. But, if they did indeed intend to dispose of those stupid little girls and that fool Dumain, well, there was no reason he couldn't once again be part of the Triad. And as the Charmed Ones were now a power of four, it seemed only logical that the Triad, who for all purposes were basically their evil inverse, should have four members as well. Xar would return to the fold, his powers would return to their former strength, and the Triad would easily be able to wipe out the last of the Source loyalists, destroy Barbas and rule the underworld as they had originally intended to do.
"You want my help…why?" Xar asked, it was clear that their main concern was offsetting the power of the Charmed Ones, but he could tell that there was more to it than that.
The Triad looked among each other, before Candor offered the information that Xar was really after.
"There is a plan, to bring down the Charmed Ones, and to ensure that the next generation, the so called Blessed Ones, never come into their powers. We have made alliances to that end, but if we are to succeed, we must be able not only to sufficiently distract the Charmed Ones, but be able to fight them as well, along with dealing with our so called 'trusted allies'." He explained, and Xar couldn't deny, he was tempted.
"You have high hopes for this plan?" he asked, cautious not to give anything away, and Asmodeus nodded.
"We will finally take what is rightfully ours. All we need from you old friend, is your cooperation, and together, the underworld will fall at our feet, and the Charmed Ones, the Ultimate Power, and the so called Blessed Ones will be destroyed once and for all, and evil will reign supreme once again, and we shall bring an end to this so called epoch of good." He spat in contempt, and Xar got to his feet, his gaze mistrustful as he examined his former so called allies.
"Then perhaps old friend, we can make a deal." He said, grinning maliciously and the Triad smiled themselves as the four of them reached their hands out, clasping them in the centre of the circle they had formed, and a darkly glowing pentagram flickered into existence between them as the Triad were once more joined as one.
XX
"Prue, this is Inspector Sheridan. Sheridan, this is Prue Halliwell." Darryl said, looking nervously between the two of them as they sat in the back room of a restaurant where he was friendly with the owner.
"So, you've decided to come back have you? Three years, bit of a long period under cover wouldn't you say?" Sheridan asked, her sharp eyes boring into Prue's, while a confused Henry looked at Darryl, who looked like he was caught between a rock and a hard place.
"Inspector, I'm going to lay it on the line for you. I'm only alive today thanks to Darryl. That madman who attacked me, and killed Dr Griffiths, he was a monster working for the Mercer family. They knew I had it in me to bring them down, so they sent him to take me out, and they damn near got me too, I'm sure you remember?" she asked, and Sheridan nodded, her expression suspicious.
"Yes, you were proclaimed dead at the scene, like Griffiths was. Yet somehow, here you are." She said, her eyes calculating and never leaving Prue's face for a second.
Darryl had spent the night working out a cover story for Prue. In it, it was claimed that in order to protect her and her family from potential reprisals by the Mercer crime family, Prue had been proclaimed dead at the scene, when in fact Darryl had whisked her away to convalesce while she was in a coma under a false name. Having woken up from the coma, she was now back, and was willing to do her part to bring down the crime family, which, in the false story was to blame for her death and that of Dr Griffiths, when they actually knew it was Shax who was responsible for both.
"I was in a coma. Darryl got me to safety, and put me under a false name. By doing that, he protected both me and my family." Prue told her, not giving anything away, looking stonily back at Sheridan's inquisitorial gaze, and Sheridan looked over at Darryl, who tried to make it look as though none of this was new to him, before she looked back at Prue.
"Alright, let's say, just for now, that I believe your story. You claim that you can offer me the entire Mercer crime family, how do you plan to do it?" she asked, leaning back in her chair, and this was the truly difficult part
"Morris, what?" Henry muttered under his breath, but Darryl kicked him under the table to shut him up, the last thing he needed was for him to open his trap and get them all in shit with Sheridan, the woman was far too sharp and nosey about everything as it was, and he was fairly sure that she had also been reviewing his old case files, which coincidentally, were all the ones that involved the sisters. Offering up a quick prayer that he would a) get away with this, and b) that Henry would hook up with Paige so she could explain what was really going on to the poor kid, he looked at Prue, who took a deep breath.
"Strictly speaking, there isn't a better time to make a move. Mercer runs the family with an iron fist, but his son, who is meant to be his heir, is still a teenager. That means that I we can take out Mercer, his son isn't in any position to take over." She explained, and Sheridan gave her a sharp look.
"That's true enough I suppose, but it doesn't really help us, it could lead to a crime war." She pointed out, and Prue nodded.
"Which is where I come in. I can get us all the incriminating evidence you need. You not only get Mercer, but his chief lieutenants as well. Any left will be too busy either trying to keep the entire thing from falling apart, carving out their own little fiefdom, or trying to manipulate the Mercer kid to worry about what the police are doing, and in one stroke, you take down the entire crime family." Prue promised, and both Henry and Darryl looked at Prue, astounded, she really sounded like she knew what she was doing. It was all the more mind boggling to Darryl, how she could research the Mercer family, on top of reuniting with her own, vanquishing demons and trying to find the faceless threat that was after Wyatt, he was buggered if he knew.
Sheridan raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
"You never told me exactly how you plan to serve up the Mercers on a platter." She pointed out, and Darryl winced at the frigid tone of her voice, but despite that, Prue merely gave Sheridan a small smile.
"I know. The less people who know what I plan to do, the better. But, I helped bring down the Jessup crime empire, I can help here too. All I want at the end of it, is to be kept out of the backlash, and to get my life back." She said, and Sheridan exchanged a look with her two colleagues, before nodding slowly.
"Alright. Fine, we go ahead with it. I'm only doing this because you were the one who helped bring down Jessup, and because Morris assures me that out of your whole family, you're the least trouble. So I'll give you everything I have. If you fail though, you get nothing, understand?" she asked sharply, and Prue nodded, her green eyes narrowed as she considered Sheridan.
"Agreed. Can I go?" she asked, and Sheridan nodded.
"Yes, I'll get the stuff to you by the end of the day." She promised, and Darryl allowed himself to relax a little.
"Henry, why don't you walk Prue to the car?" he asked, and Henry nodded, and Prue's face lit up like a cat that got the cream as she followed the younger officer out of the room.
"Oh, forgot about that, that's bad." He muttered, and Sheridan looked at him.
"What is?"
"Henry was hitting on Paige earlier, and I've just thrown him to her big sister. Ah well." He dismissed, getting to his feet, but Sheridan then clamped her hand around his, her eyes boring into his as he looked round at her.
"What really happened Morris? I've looked through your cases, the Halliwells are all over them. You expect me to believe that she can hand us the Mercer crime family? That she really has been in a coma for the last three years? Morris, I don't know what sort of deal you and the Halliwells have, but…" she hissed, but Morris removed his hand from her grip.
"Sheridan, listen to me. They're good people, the best even. They've done more for the greater good than the entire police force in this state. Trust me alright? She can get what we want, I know she can. You just need to trust me." He insisted, and Sheridan narrowed her eyes, but nodded reluctantly.
"Ok fine. But, you're not telling me that their entire family, and this case in particular, haven't been done right. So, I'll let it slide for now, but you better hope that she pulls this off, because if she doesn't, then the first one I'll bust is you, and then I'll get all of them too." She vowed, getting to her feet and heading for the door, not noticing Darryl's slight shudder.
"But if she does?" he asked, and she stopped at the door way.
"If she does, I'll go with you to the captain and get her her life back, like we promised. No questions asked." She promised before leaving the room, leaving Darryl inside with a very sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
XX
"Just like you asked boss, I followed them, yep I did." The excitable demon that Barbas had recruited to spy on the Triad reported back in Barbas' throne room, and he raised a hand lazily, gesturing for him to continue.
"Well Smicks, don't keep me in suspense." He ordered, and the demon nodded.
"Sure thing boss. See, they plan to do away with you, the Charmed Ones, their progeny and anyone else that gets in their way, even the Source himself if he'd still been around. They've recalled a banished member, chap called Xar, yep, they have. So now there's four Triads!" he emphasised, and Barbas leaned back in his throne, mulling this over in his mind.
So, ironically, there was some truth in the story that Belthazor had given the Brotherhood when he had killed the Triad, they had indeed been planning to take down the Source and make themselves top dog in the underworld. And now, with the vast majority of the old guard vanquished, they perceived that their time had come, and were now scheming to take total control of the underworld, which meant they planned to take him out.
Which could only mean that he had to take them out first.
"Good job Smicks. Hmm, it seems to me that the Triad, they don't like to share. And while I never asked for the job, I kind of like it here. And if they succeed, well, there won't really be any point in me coming back either, and I'm pretty sure they'll do whatever they can to keep me in the wasteland. Obviously, we can't let them do that." He pondered, and Smicks nodded eagerly.
"No sir, no way, cant let them, no sir." He agreed, and Barbas smiled.
"Make yourself useful. Find a couple of demons who see things as we do, but not our own loyal support. Different ones." He ordered, and Smicks nodded.
"There's at least one boss, he's been giving information to the Charmed Ones witchlighter kid." He informed him, and Barbas smiled.
"Has he? Well, he sounds ideal. Let's go find him." He said, his eyes glinting evilly as he flamed after Smicks to find this demon who could help rid him of his problem.
XX
Leo orbed to Astoria, one of his former charges apartment. She was a witch, not in the same league as the sisters naturally, but she was quite potent in her own right, and was able to manipulate light as a weapon. She had shrieked for him this morning, sounding at the very limits of pain, and even though he wasn't officially her whitelighter any more, he had to find out if she was alright.
"Astoria?" he called, and there was a noise behind him, and he opened the kitchen to kind the island in the middle covered in blood, and Astoria, stained by her own blood, was lying bleeding out onto the floor, her breath coming in ragged gasps.
"Astoria!" he gasped, rushing to her side, but she shook her head, her eyes filled with tears.
"Leo, no, run…it's a trap, it's him!" she gasped, but before she could say anything else, a black arrow plunged into her skull, right between her eyes.
"No!" he yelled in denial, but then his blood froze as he heard a sardonic, mocking laugh behind him.
"Hello old friend." The mocking voice bit out, malicious pleasure in his voice as he watched his hated enemy look in hopeless despair at his former charge, and Leo got to his feet, glaring at the murderer.
He was a normal looking man, dressed all in black, complete with black leather jacket. He had long bangs that fell into his evil, callous eyes, and in his hand was a jet black crossbow. Leo's entire being filled with hatred at the sight of his arch nemesis, who was smirking slightly as he raised the crossbow to aim at Leo's heart.
"Rennek." Leo ground out.
"Hello Leo. Goodbye Leo." He purred, and before Leo could react, Rennek fired his crossbow.
And the black, deadly bolt was headed right for Leo's heart.
So, everything is on the move, we have the Triad scheming away, we have Barbas playing a demonic Game of Thrones, a new power is rising in the underworld, Prue is about to take on the Mercer crime family, obviously sheridan is as nosy as ever and Paige and Henry have met each other two years before they were meant to
What other things have happened now that the timeline has changed, and what will happen next?
Only time will tell but until then please read and review!