Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed
Timeless Mistakes
It was strange, going on the offensive. However, they were nearly ready, the manor was quiet yet tense, preparing itself for war.
Prue had gone over her battle plan meticulously in her head, trying to anticipate any potential problem, anything that could potentially change or go wrong that would get them all killed, but she was quietly confident that their plan would work. However, confident she was, it was still a daunting prospect, going up against Shax was bad enough after all he had done to her, but going up against the Triad, a showdown, that was a different matter entirely. However as she worked on her plan, she found it therapeutic, finding it was calming her as she considered her plan over and over again, soothing her agitation as she envisioned the battle she and her sisters were about to face over and over again. This was different, even when planning to combat Belthazor, it hadn't been like this, preparing for all out battle with extremely powerful demons. She was nervous, she feared facing the Triad. She was terrified of facing Shax once again, terrified she would let her family down, that she would die again, that her sisters would be killed due to some oversight in her plan, but that thought galvanised her, and she would rip her plan apart time and again as she considered their approaching confrontation.
In the kitchen Piper was hard at work, a new potion coming to life before her eyes, her hands and mind occupied with singular determination, the Book beside her as she concocted her potion, hoping it would do what she wanted it to do, writing down the blessing spell she hoped would help them carry the day. It soothed her, working in her kitchen, keeping her hands busy, preparing for war. She was terrified of the coming confrontation, terrified that they were indeed walking into a trap, terrified that she was leaving her boys defenceless, terrified she was risking her baby, but there was all four of them, and together, they would be able to overcome anything. She was certain of that…she hoped, and to soothe this newest burst of fear, she renewed her focus on her potion, feeling it come together, a small smirk on her face as she made it.
Phoebe was going around the house, casting hastily written spells to combat any form of magical eavesdropping or voyeurism, determined to make sure the Triad wouldn't anticipate them or their plans. Working with spells, with words, spoke to her as she did her part to prepare them for battle, the shock, ew feeling and happiness she felt for her father and Elise being together put aside, that she would deal with later. She prayed that her friends and family would be safe, that they were doing the right thing, and that they weren't walking towards their demise, but she focused, knowing what was needed from her, preparing the house, her sisters, for war.
Paige was in the conservatory, watching as Phoebe toured the house, chanting spells, running over incantations in her head, and she could see Prue in the living room planning out her battle plan. Instead of actively assisting, she had put the finishing touches on her spell, and was now meditating, taking the fear, almost crippling as it was, that she felt, forcing it down, and tapping into her Whitelighter side to boost her projection power, helping soothe the fears of her sisters. She could feel it helping, their overriding terror and fear being calmed down to manageable levels, and every time she sensed a resurgence, she was there, calming them down as war beckoned with their myriad of enemies.
Paige then felt a surge of triumph from Piper as there was a loud bang from the kitchen, and joined her sister in the kitchen, peering into the pot curiously.
"Aren't you done with this yet lady?" she asked, and Piper allowed herself a small smile.
"I think I am now actually." She said happily, and she could feel that this potion would work, would do what was required, having blended the bog standard demon vanquishing potion with that of an upper level demon vanquishing potion and the potion to banish a spirit, with just a touch of banishing an evil ghost, she could feel the strength of it.
And she could tell that if this part worked, she wouldn't even need demon flesh to make it effective.
"Well we can't do much till we face the Triad surely?" Paige asked, yet Piper shook her head, and passed Paige the spell she had edited.
"I think that if the four of us bless us with that, we should be able to overcome it. Prue, Phoebe!" she called, and her sisters came through to the kitchen, peeking into the pot to see the tumultuous broil of deep, blood red potion.
"Impressive, yet it smells nasty. What do you want us to do?" Phoebe asked, and Paige then showed her the spell Piper had given her.
"We empower it even more, I'm thinking this will give it a kick and vanquish anything once and for all. Ready?" she asked, and her sisters nodded as they began to chant in unison:
"Prudence, Penelope, Patricia, Melinda,
Astrid, Helena, Laura and Grace,
Halliwell witches bless this potion,
To vanquish an evil from time and space!"
As they began to chant the spell, flames began to erupt on the top of the potion with each new name: purple, orange, blue, pink, green, red, yellow and then finally grey. As the roiling multicoloured flames coalesced together, they came together to form a shimmering, multicoloured quadquetra consisting of all the colours the flames had shone, all while they chanted the spell, and as they finished, the quadquetra coalesced one final time and a massive roiling plume of multicoloured flame erupted into the air, coming out of the pot and shooting up like a rocket with a large boom that made the whole kitchen shake.
"Whoo! Now that's an enchanted potion!" Paige cried in surprise as she wafted the multi-coloured smoke from in front of her face, however the smell was strange, it made her feel empowered, as though she could do anything.
Piper, suitably pleased with her potion, approached to see that the potion was now a glimmer ruby colour, and she had to admit she was very impressed with her work. At least until a piece of plaster fell down beside her hand, and curious, she looked up to see the ceiling to see where it had come from, and her face fell in horror.
"Oh me bit ceiling now, look!" she cried, and sure enough there was now a burning hole right above her potion pot that had blasted right through into the room above the kitchen, which also happened to be her room.
Her sisters burst out laughing as Piper cursed, and she was fairly sure that she was a slight soot mark on the ceiling of her bedroom when she squinted as well. Muttering under her breath and knowing she'd need Leo to come and fix the hole she had just made inadvertently, she bottled her potion while her sisters headed through to the foyer, where they had last encountered Shax.
"What's our level of confidence in this plan?" Phoebe asked worriedly, as Piper divvied up her bottled potions, feeling the warmth coming from them.
"Well, what's the scale, ten being where we kick ass, and one where they laugh at us while we're on fire and naked…" Paige began, and Prue, Piper and Phoebe exchanged a smirk, before Piper put a hand over her sister's mouth.
"Maybe you should lie to us honey. Ok, summoning spell rewritten?" she asked, and Prue nodded, steeling herself, and felt her sisters eyes on her.
"Are you sure you can do this Prue? We can probably do it with just three if you want?" Phoebe asked worriedly, eyeing her older sister, and Prue closed her eyes and shook her head, exhaling to clear it.
"Yes, I need to if nothing else, and you are not vanquishing that bastard without me. Let's do this. This time, we get rid of him for good." She said with determination, readying her spell as the four witches went into their positions, Paige on the stairs, Phoebe in the hallway, Piper in the doorway to the conservatory, and Prue in the dining room doorway.
"Ready when you are Prue." Paige said to her sister softly, who took a deep breath, tried to ignore the hammering of her heart, and began to cast:
"Magic forces black and white,
Reaching out through space and light,
Be he far or be he near,
Bring the demon Shax before us here!"
A twirling tornado erupted in the centre of the circle they had formed, dead leaves blowing around them, all four sisters watching with baited breath as the wind whistled through the house as the tornado transformed into Shax, his long hair blowing around his face, who looked around in shock before realising exactly where he was, and with a sick smile, fired a blast of his power right at Prue.
Who was much faster this time, and on her guard, and raised her hand, deflecting the attack right back into him, and Shax roared in pain as he staggered back, allowing a terrified Prue to permit herself a small smile.
"Not this time you evil son of a bitch." She ground out, and Paige then struck, concentrating, and to her delight her plan worked, as her orb shield appeared around Shax, who snarled in fury, and tried his attack again only to discover it didn't work, and he once again deflected the blast back into himself, making him cry out in agony. He looked around desperately, trapped within Paige's orb shield, and gave an impotent cry of fury as the four sisters, a feeling of savage satisfaction flooding through them, said the spell that bound all four of their destinies together as the Charmed Ones:
"Evil winds that blow,
That which forms below,
No longer may you dwell,
Death takes you with this spell!"
Shax gave a cry of exquisite agony as he began to rotate on the spot, crying and growling in impotent pain, spinning around more and more until with a final roar of pain, he exploded inside Paige's orb shield, and the Source's Assassin was once again no more.
Paige dropped the orb shield, not allowing herself to bask in their victory quite yet, and cast the spell she had written herself:
"As this demon turns to dust,
To find his masters is a must,
Before he disperses through the air,
Have him lead us to the Triad's lair!"
Instead of finishing going poof like most demons did, the dust that had once formed Shax then swirled into a sort of path through the air, and all four sisters looked at the gold coloured dust storm that they had created, extremely impressed.
"Very clever spell Paige, I'm very impressed." Piper complimented, and Paige grinned.
"Thanks! Shall we go then?" she asked nervously, not entirely relishing the idea of entering into a showdown with the Triad, and Prue, looking better than she had in days, nodded and took her hand.
"Yes sweetie, we have to if nothing else. We're the Charmed Ones after all." She said with a proud smile, and with that, Paige took hold of her sisters and orbed along the path of the trail that Shax's vanquish had created, heading for their confrontation with the Triad.
XX
Barbas was standing in the underworld, facing the wall as he awaited his moment. It was almost time, all this time and he would soon get what he wanted. This would be the last time he would visit his lair as well, after this there would be no more need to.
He didn't turn as he heard Rennek orb in behind him.
"Barbas, what are you still doing here? I thought you and that pompous ass were going to go and deal with Leo's brat, and then once you've done that I can finally kill him, come on, I've got a nemesis to kill here!" he urged, standing irritably behind him.
"I'm almost ready, things aren't all in place yet." He said, raising his hand and shaking his finger in that annoying way he did, and behind him, Rennek scowled.
"Yes they are! The boy is virtually defenceless, and the witches are chasing after the Triad, and Leo is still running all over creation looking for me. This is it, this is what we've all been planning for months, now get a move on, help that blasted wet blanket kill the brat, and then I can destroy Leo, and go back to my life, such as it is, this endless good vs evil crap is boring." Rennek complained, and Barbas shook his head.
"So impatient for a Darklighter, you know, maybe I should check your fears while we wait? No, then be quiet, I will make my move when I'm ready." He purred softly, and Rennek growled in frustration.
"Look, this is it, now get out of here and go and kill the brat!" he yelled, grabbing Barbas shoulder and twirling him around.
And as he did so, Barbas fired a bolt of lightning right through Rennek's heart, and the Darklighter screamed as the blast punctured right through him, collapsing to the ground as he looked up at Barbas in alarm, in shock…which turned to dread as Barbas face changed in a swirl of light into that of a highly satisfied Leo.
"Got you at last you evil bastard." Leo spat, as Rennek stared up at him, then began to chuckle, he was dying, he knew it, Leo had finally managed to truly kill him.
Leo felt a dark surge of triumph, knowing that it was, at last, over. Whatever the future held for him in regards to the Elders demands or what would become of him and his family didn't matter, as he had defeated Rennek at last.
"Well done Leo…well done. But you're too late. As it clearly wasn't you, Barbas is away to help kill your son." He gloated, but the fiery feeling in his chest was worsening, and Leo grinned as he squatted down towards Rennek.
"I don't think so, Wyatt's perfectly safe." He assured the Darklighter, who laughed again, though thought better of it, it clearly hurt.
"Really? Then why have the sisters left him unprotected?" he challenged with a croak, and Leo shook his head, unbothered.
"Piper would never leave our son unprotected. If nothing else, Chris will be with him, and they'll be safe at Magic School, far away from you, and all of your demonic friends." He growled, and Rennek cocked his head curiously before laughing more.
"Oh Leo. You really don't have a clue do you? Well you may have killed me, but I'll still get my wish after all, when your son dies. They're going after him now Leo, and by the time you put it all together, it'll be too late. What a waste of time!" Rennek crowed and with a flare, he was consumed with flames, cackling as he was vanquished, and he left Leo sitting in Barbas' lair feeling triumphant, yet uneasy.
He couldn't have interrogated Rennek any more than he already had during their conversation otherwise he might have revealed himself, but Rennek seemed to think that Leo and the girls had failed to protect Wyatt, that there was some way that the evil forces arrayed against them could get their hands on his son. But that was impossible, even if something had arisen that required the Charmed Ones, Chris would still be with his brother in order to protect him with his myriad of powers, and most likely would have retreated to Magic School as well. So why was Rennek so sure that something was going to happen to his son?
He would say this for his nemesis, Rennek was a lot of things, but there had always been a form of professional respect between the two of them, and he had never lied to Leo, at least as far as Leo knew. And about to be banished for eternity to the wasteland, Rennek had elected to mock and taunt Leo, which meant he was fairly certain that whatever was about to happen to Wyatt would succeed. But was he just determined to have the last laugh? And getting a final word in just to mess with Leo's head was also his style.
But that didn't stop Leo feeling uneasy, there was something not quite right about this. However, just as he was planning to head to check on his son, he sensed the girls in the deepest parts of the underworld, and alarmed, he orbed away to find out exactly what was going on.
And in the shadows of Barbas lair, watching and waiting until he was sure Leo was gone, Rennek then stepped out of his hiding place. He had seen Leo arrive and had hidden just in time, allowing him to form his Barbas glamour and wait for Rennek's astral projection. Still was one of the best powers he had ever stolen.
Clearly someone had given the game away to get rid of several impediments, and he could make a shrewd guess who that person was. As such, in order to avoid his own undesired vanquish, he had used his astral projection and allowed that to do the job for him, and he had given a very convincing performance if he did say so himself. And now Leo thought he was dead again.
Good. He had taken the job as an opportunity to hunt down and kill Leo, to hurt him, bring him low and take everything from him. But the cracks were beginning to show in the plan as the Triad, Barbas, Katya and Gideon all carried out their own individual plots and schemes in order to one up each other. And people wondered why he couldn't be bothered with the endless battle between good and evil anymore.
But now, as far as he was concerned, his part in this story was over. Leo had won, and believed he had gotten his pound of flesh, and whatever happened next he was beyond caring about. It was time to get out of dodge, and when the time was right, maybe he would strike back when Leo least expected it, destroy and take everything from him. But for now, he was done with grand plans, multi-layered plots and intricate schemes.
Now, all he wanted was a massage, and with a smirk, hoping that his previous allies did manage to hurt Leo in some irrevocable way, he orbed away to leave the rest of his comrades to their fate.
XX
Truth be told, their extended family as actually quite a good think tank. Elise, Cole and Sheila in particular were very good at playing devil's advocate, while Victor balanced them all of, and the cops had a methodical approach to the whole thing, and he had a slightly hopeful feeling that all these fresh eyes on the problem might just give them the edge they needed to figure out who was after Wyatt.
"Ok, so if the Triad weren't back to harm Wyatt, they've come back because their evil plan is good enough to actually lure them out. That is worrying in and of itself, because that means they've thrown caution to the winds and are willing to risk whatever their later master plan is to try and win this one." Elise pointed out, and Victor nodded, pacing around the board, staring at the various connecting lines and dots that they had made during the course of their brainstorm.
"Yeah, that is worrying. So, Cole, say you were after Wyatt for any reason, how would you go about it?" he asked, turning to his former son in law, and Cole shrugged, mulling over the question.
"Actually, pretty much how they've gone about it, constantly attack them to wear them out and wear them down, throw in a couple of curveballs like stealing the Book to further offset them, I mean they got luck with Piper being pregnant and not having the forcefield," he pointed out, only to receive an acidic glare from Chris.
"Stop mentioning the forcefield!" he complained irritably, and Cole chuckled to himself before continuing.
"Split the sisters up, weaken their bond however I could. Basically, you put them on guard while putting them to sleep, constantly have them run from one threat to another so they don't get the chance to stop, relax and think. Whoever's behind it is good, I have to admit." He told them, and Andy frowned curiously.
"So what, you think the Triad, which according to Prue is some sort of big bad, is actually just a red herring?" he asked, and Chris shrugged, thinking it over himself.
"Well, kind of yeah, the Triad is obviously big and flashy, a lightning rod to draw mom and her sister's attention. They can still be the big bad, but they're the obvious one, to distract all of us while the real one makes its move." He theorised, and Darryl looked at Chris board, his mind abuzz as he tried to deduce the next move.
"Ok, let's set the demon stuff aside, and just look at the human stuff, you really think Andy and Dan are part of it? I mean I can see why it would be a good idea for them, Andy will distract the girls, especially Prue, and you're terrified of Dan after everything that went down between you, and with this Rennek character on the loose distracting Leo, and the situation made worse by Shax coming back to distract everyone, well, I reckon Cole and Chris are right, it's all just a distraction." Darryl concluded, while Henry, who was holding his own quite well, though admittedly, not as well as Elise was, crossed his arms behind his back as he paced the room, thinking out all the plot points.
"Ok, so bad guys are after Wyatt, and in steps the Triad, being big and flashy to distract everyone from the real threat. To me the real question had to be, what do they want with Wyatt? To turn him to the dark side? To kill him? Or just as part of some convoluted plot to get to the sisters?" he asked, and Chris had to admit, he raised a good point.
They never had figured that out in the future, they had always assumed just some convergence of the three, but they had never had confirmation one way or another as to why Wyatt had been targeted to begin with. All he knew was it worked after the fact.
"Ok, let's take the Triad out the equation, let's remove all the demons, and look at the human problems." Sheila suggested, taking notes from the couch as she watched over Wyatt, "what makes you think that everything else isn't the Triad?" she challenged, and Cole shook his head impassively.
"It doesn't make sense, a lot of the things that have happened aren't their things. Like freeing a mortal to do their dirty work and creating him a pocket realm? And besides, Chris checked Andy over, so did Prue, and they're both convinced there was no dark magic used, so who the hell brought him back and why? And I know the guy's nuts, but none of the Triad could really be a wise man like that madman described." Cole reasoned, and Chris could see where he was coming from he just didn't like it.
He was right, none of the Triad couldn't really be described as a wise man, and Dan didn't make any sense at all, neither really did Andy to be honest.
"Well it's pretty obvious that whoever's behind this is very smart, and what's more is waging a highly effective psychological war against the girls, and even more worrying its working. The girls have been run ragged, forced into retreat, forced into a confrontation with the Triad…it does seem more and more like a trap, like someone's been manipulating them into this position." Victor complained, squatting down and ruffling Wyatt's hair to reassure himself while the others present all thought, trying to see their way clear.
Someone powerful enough and with an intricate knowledge of the Charmed Ones was working the Triad and it was that which inadvertently fucked up the world as they released an extremely damaged Wyatt onto an unsuspecting existence. But like they had said, the Triad may be the big bad in some form, but the real big bad was whoever had made the Triad abandon their previous plan and come out of hiding two years early in order to wage war on the Halliwells. True, the timeline change and the constitution of the Power of Four had certainly galvanised the situation but still, the real mastermind had managed to essentially convince the most powerful force in the underworld other than the Source to be little more than a distraction and a focus for the sisters while the real villain made their move.
And if they were right, and they were being manipulated into a position, what good did they hope to accomplish by doing it? After all, while he was worried about the sisters, call it love or hero worship or whatever, but he was fairly sure that the Power of Four could overcome whatever was about to be thrown at them no matter the odds.
All they had really accomplished, their mystery opponent, was to really piss off the sisters and to force them all to Magic School, not that that would do them any good in the long run, they were perfectly safe here, and the girls were on the warpath and the Triad and Shax at least were about to learn why one did not fuck with the Charmed Ones.
"What if you're wrong, what if the Triad are the real villains here?" Sheila asked, but Chris shook his head, no, they weren't, he knew that much.
"They can't be, the timing doesn't fit." He explained, this whole thing was maddening, it was like they were only missing a couple of bits of the puzzle, and if he could even just get one bit, he could figure the rest out.
"Could they be the big bads? As in, do they have the ability?" Henry asked, and Cole nodded, a guarded expression on his face.
"Well, yes, they have the power and ability, but as their former enforcer, I have to say, this doesn't feel like them, this whole, overarching scheme, it's subtle, manipulative sure, but not their brand of it, this is actually more insidious and I get the impression that they're being played just as much as we are. And that's what worries me, whoever is behind this is even more cunning and devious than them collectively, and that…that is scary." He told them all, and Elise stood in front of the board, running it all over again, sharing Chris' frustrations.
"And we're positive Prue's resurrection has nothing to do with this?" she asked, as that was the part she was having the hardest time getting her head around, and Chris nodded.
"Yeah, the future was screwed before she came back, if anything, having all four sisters alive should negate some of the damage." He explained to her, and she frowned, deep in thought, thinking that there was indeed something that they were missing.
Darryl kneaded his temples in frustration, he was sure the answer was close, he just couldn't figure out that last, little piece.
"Ok, what's the oddest thing about all this, the most bizarre bit?" he asked, realising they were dealing with magic here, but he was kind of running out of patience, and he was kind of hoping they could maybe work backwards, and Chris opened his mouth, his eyes darting briefly to Andy, who rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Me coming back? Kid, both you and Prue thoroughly tested me, so what's your issue with me?" he growled, and Sheila laid a hand on his chest, sending him a quelling look, figuring Piper would send him back where he had come from if he attacked her son.
Chris glowered at him.
"I don't have an issue with you," he hissed through clenched teeth, "I have an issue with your resurrection. It doesn't make sense, and I don't like it. There's nothing, nothing to indicate how you came back or why, and people, especially mortals, don't just randomly resurrect themselves. I don't trust your resurrection, that's all, it's weird and we've had too many weird things happening recently for me to pass it off as good luck."
The two of them glared at each other, before Andy turned away, and after sending Andy a concerned yet chastising look, he looked at the young witchlighter.
"Ok, so how could Andy have come back, who could have done it?" he asked, and Chris threw his hands up in annoyed exasperation.
"That's the thing, I don't know, if I did, I wouldn't be so worried! It just…it rankles with me, and I don't even know why it bothers me this much, but it does, I feel that Andy coming back is kind of the key." He explained, but the key to what, and what shape that key was, they were different matters entirely.
But he felt he was right, it was Andy's resurrection that was the key to the whole thing.
Andy sighed in frustration, turning his back on Chris.
"You know what, say what you like kid. My resurrection's a good thing." He snapped, turning away, and Chris rolled his eyes and turned back to the board, silence reigning in the room before something Andy said niggled at him.
"Wait, what? What did you say?" he asked suddenly, his eyes still staring at the board, but his heart was starting to accelerate as his mind kicked into overdrive, and clearly sensing his tone, Andy turned and looked at the witchlighter, looking a bit perplexed by his sudden change in tone.
"I said my resurrection was a good thing." He repeated, and Chris hesitated, his mind whirling as he considered the implications.
A good thing…what if it was a good thing, a Good thing? Evil would have left traces had they been the one to bring him back, but Good wouldn't. But then, why would someone from the side of good resurrect Andy? It wouldn't be to do a favour to Prue, the vast majority of them hadn't been happy about her return, well, all the ones with the power to bring Andy back, they wouldn't resurrect her love simply as a welcome back present.
But that left him with an even deeper, more alarming implication, because if Good had been the side that had brought Andy back, what did they stand to gain? Unless…
It couldn't be, but as the thought about it, thought about the trap his mother and her sisters were likely walking into, Andy's resurrection, the intimate knowledge that their true enemy had to have in order to have attacked the family so thoroughly, and the common sense approach that would surely follow from the corner that the girls had been backed into. Chris was suddenly feeling extremely nauseous, his stomach churning as he considered the implications, scarcely believing he was thinking what he was thinking.
"Oh…I think he's got the Jessica Fletcher moment!" Victor said excitedly, and Elise turned to him, looking quizzical.
"What?" she asked, and he waved his hand impatiently.
"The moment, the moment she figures out who done it, I think he's figured it out!" he said excitedly, and Elise shrugged at Cole, looking lost.
It was all running over in Chris' mind, all of it. Good, if it was Good that had brought Andy back, it stood to reason that Good had also been the ones to free Dan as it didn't fit with evil's game plan, but then, why would…the wise man. The wise man, Dan, in his own way, had actually been right. A wise man…known in days past as an Elder!
He was shaking, his face going chalk white as he started to realise it all, and unbidden, various images flashed to the surface of his mind:
Neena's advice before they had left the future 'you're looking in the wrong place'
Nomed's warning 'someone from your side has been down here, someone else'
His wish which had meant that only one person had been able to heal him after Phoebe had sent him to sleep
Dan describing the one who had freed him as a wise man which was a synonym for Elder Andy's guileless resurrection which would indeed point to it being a good thing
Sirk knowing the details of all of the innocents that the sisters had saved since Paige joined them
The personal knowledge of the whole family that was clearly being used against them
No, it couldn't be, he couldn't be thinking what he thought he was thinking, but the more he thought it over, the more it made sense. The attacks on the extended family, by Shax no less who was the demon the girls all hated most, would force the girls into retreat especially once discovering that the Triad was back, and there was only one place where they could retreat to, which was here, to Magic School. And once revealed, the girls would obviously chase down the Triad, and with Leo still chasing Rennek, that would leave Wyatt virtually unprotected in Magic School, with only Chris as a line of defence.
But if that was the case, that meant that it had to be…
Oh god, oh no. They had been played, all of them, manipulated by someone who was orchestrating them all like pieces on a chess board! It was him, it had to be!
Gideon.
It was Gideon!
As Chris came to realise the awful truth, more memories swirled in his head, his panic mounting:
Wyatt, every time he had attacked Wyatt, the one he had always hated most, flinched away from, that was always his electrokinesis, his lightning, which was an Elder power.
And now he came to think of it, had Gideon ever really orbed into the girl's presence, because if he had, if he was indeed the threat, his orbs would be changing colour and he always had some excuse or other for not coming where he should have
Sigmund had mysteriously vanished, the only other person within Magic School with access to the wards other than Gideon himself
And as Cole was here, Chris had been right, Cole shouldn't have been able to get in at all! The wards had been lowered, allowing demons into the school!
Oh no, they had failed, he had failed! It was a trap, the whole situation was a trap, just it wasn't a trap for the sisters, Gideon was still theoretically on the side of Good so obviously he would orchestrate it so that the Triad and their various allies would be wiped out, he still had to ensure balance, the Greater Good.
No, the trap was for Wyatt, and they had stumbled right into it, how could he have been so blind? What had he done?
"Oh my god…we need to leave, now!" he shouted in panic, and Cole looked at him in alarm.
"You've figured it out?" he asked urgently, and Chris nodded, his mind reeling, they had to leave, they had walked right into the trap by coming here, and if Chris was right, if he really was the one, then Gideon, who had been mysteriously missing all day, would know exactly where they were!
"I thought we were safe here?" Henry asked, nonetheless hurrying to Chris' side, seeing the state of agitation the kid was in, clearly in no mood to argue.
"No, we're not, it's him! Gideon's the one who's been behind it all!" he cried in terror, they were right in the lion's den and if they didn't leave right now…wait, when had the door into the corridor been opened?
And before he could say or do anything, a storm of lightning blasted from some invisible point in the room, blasting Andy, Darryl and Sheila against a wall, screaming as they went, Henry was blown with a grunt into the window which he slammed against hard, Elise and Victor were sent careening over the back of the couch with a cry, and Cole and Chris received a blast in the chest, blasting them to the floor, skidding to a stop at the bottom of the board.
Chris was panicking, struggling to stay conscious as he briefly registered that Wyatt had generated his forcefield. He had failed, it was Gideon, Gideon was the one who gotten to Wyatt and destroyed him, and in turn destroyed the world. It was Gideon!
Gideon dropped his invisibility and advanced steadily upon Wyatt, who started to cry as he noticed that Gideon was the one who had attacked the people who loved him, and Barbas flamed into existence beside him.
"I am sorry my boy, but this is for the Greater Good." Gideon said mournfully, and Chris passed out as Gideon advanced upon his brother, and Barbas smirked maliciously beside him.
XX
The Charmed Ones followed the path laid out by Shax's vanquish closely, lingering a lot as orbs as Paige got them through some very tight squeezes. This was the deepest part of the underworld they had ever gone to, and there were dozens of Scather demons on patrol as they got further and further through the underworld. Lave lakes, strange flying creatures, architecture of bone, this was the darkest most vivid part of the underworld and they didn't like it one little bit. However, guided by Shax's demonic energies, the girls were essentially cloaked from being sensed by evil, as it was technically just evil returning to its home base, albeit with a Wiccan parasite clinging onto it, and so all of the defences that the Triad would have put up to deter the four witches no longer mattered, which was fortunate, as had they had to battle all the way through all those Scathers, complete with the snakes and flying, dragon like beasts that populated this area, it would have taken them ages to get to the Triad, this way, they could arrive fully rested and fresh, ready to give them their all.
And as they orbed down one last dip laid out by the path, they realised that the time to give their all had arrived as the road laid out for them by Shax's vanquish finally dispersed as whatever part of him that might have remained was banished to the wasteland where he belonged. The road had come to an end, and it was here, in this cavern, that the Triad awaited them.
Paige orbed them down through the last obstacle that following Shax's residue had afforded them, all four of them crouching down behind a large outcropping of rock. The room was a large, dark cavern, which would almost be pitch black if it wasn't for the various sconces adorning the walls, which nevertheless gave an eerie feel to the place as the light flickered as a soft wind stirred the flames of the torches. A large, glowing white circle adorned the floor with a small triangular pyramid erupting from the circle at four different points along the circumference. Rock outcroppings were scattered around the cavern, and the air was thick and ominous, with the girls almost able to taste the evil that transpired here.
Yeah, this place was definitely the home base of evil.
The four sisters were deathly quiet, Prue holding a finger to her lips as she motioned to the rock they were hiding behind, and as one, they ever so gently edged their heads around the outcropping to peer into the semi darkness at their enemy.
This was the Triad, who other than the Source were clearly the most dangerous enemy of the Charmed Ones thus far, some could even say their archenemies, having been behind many of the attacks, pains and traumas inflicted on them over the years. The four demons stood in a circle, each of them clad in long black robes with an inverted silver pentagram on them. Above the black robes they wore long, blood red over cloaks with hoods which they had all thrown off to reveal their faces, and squinting through the darkness, Prue could see that every so often they would open their eyes, which were a shining black, just like those of the Source. All four of them stood in a circle, their arms in order to contain the ritual they were performing, their arms acting as a barrier. Within the barrier, a crackling pulsing ball of energy was suspended between them, with each of them contributing energy into it and then receiving it in turn, as black and red lightning roiled around the large sphere of pure power they had within their circle.
The Triad was clearly preparing for them.
But the Charmed Ones had also prepared for the Triad.
"Please tell me you have a plan?" Paige asked in a scared squeak, as they huddled behind the outcropping they were sheltering behind.
"Yep, divide and conquer." Prue told her, her voice a little pitched due to fear but nonetheless in control, and Phoebe looked at her, aghast.
"You plan to divide and conquer that?" she hissed in fright, indicating where the Triad were powering themselves up, and Prue nodded, her green eyes shining with determination.
"Yes. Here's the plan." She said, and Piper felt a little better.
"Oh good, Prue has a plan." She sighed in relief, and at least now she could find out what the hell her sister had been doing with her son's bears.
"Alright, like I said, divide and conquer. The trick is getting them to do what we want. The Triad are like us right? A collective, but the power is being pulled, weakened, because of Xar being here when he's not meant to be, so, he's the key. So, here's what we do. Phoebe, Paige will orb you into that corridor, over there," she whispered, pointing at the entrance to the cave, and Phoebe looked at her in alarm.
"Wait, why me?" she demanded in a hushed tone, and Prue sent her a nettled look.
"Two reasons, one you're the best at hand to hand combat, and two, because out of all of us, you're the one they'll want dead most. It's because of you Cole turned on them and killed them, because of you the Source was weakened, and because of you the entire upper levels of the underworld are all dead, that's why," she growled in a low voice, and despite herself, Phoebe did look quite proud of her accomplishments, "so you come in and distract one of them. Thankfully, Xar is away from where you'll come in, so you should get one of the other Triad members. You need to draw one of the Triad away, away from the others. That's when we'll make our move once you've got them suitably distracted." She whispered, and Phoebe nodded, mulling over her part in the plan.
It could work, if she lured one of them away, she would only have to hold him off until her sisters hopefully succeeded, and then she could deal with him once their collective was broken.
"Paige, you orb into that other outcropping over there, hide behind that," Prue ordered, clearly her time in the resistance in the future had given her an even greater grasp of warfare and tactics than before, "and wait for Piper's signal. Once Phoebe draws one of them off, we go at them, but don't reflect their attacks, we just have to hold them off until the time is right, got it?" she asked, and Paige nodded, looking nervous.
"Got it, so I just orb their attacks away until I get the signal." She reiterated, nodding to herself and thinking over the part in the plan.
"I will astral myself to that outcropping, and channel my powers from over there, and hold them off as well. Piper, you stay here, this is the biggest outcropping and use that to protect you and the baby, and me obviously too. Hold them off, just like the rest of us. We need to wait until Xar starts throwing killer fireballs, not small ones, massive ones, they're bigger and have much more power. Once he's got a big enough upper level demonic fireball ready, you freeze him." She told him, and Piper looked at her older sister worriedly.
"Prue, they're extremely powerful upper level demons, they won't stay frozen for long, seconds at most." She pointed out, and Prue nodded, then looked at Paige.
"I know, which is when Paige comes in. Once you freeze them, she orbs one of them into his path. Xar then vanquishes his chum, and destroys the collective power of the Triad. Then we go on the attack and hopefully we vanquish them with our powers, their physical forms anyway." She concluded, and her sisters all nodded, looking grim but determined.
"Ok, let's do this, so we can get our lives back, such as they were." Piper said, flexing her hands, ready to move on Prue's signal.
"Wouldn't it be easier to throw the potions?" Phoebe asked hopefully, in a last ditch effort, and she shook her head.
"We don't know if they would work on them in this form Pheebs. Besides, it's a good plan. Ok, good luck everyone, let's try and hit them while they're distracted. And if anyone comes home dead, we're going to have issues." She warned, and with a last look of love between the four of them, they headed for their positions.
Paige orbed Phoebe out of sight into the corridor, and Phoebe materialised just round the bend of the cavern they made their home. Thankful for the lack of guards in the Triad's inner sanctum, she peeked round the corner, waiting for Prue's signal. Paige herself orbed to her designated position, still crouched, the Triad still powering up in the centre of the room, and prepared to move. Prue astralled to her own outcropping, leaving Piper alone with her sister's unconscious form, her sister clearly having elected to put all her consciousness into her other form, removing her ability to have both forms ready to attack as that would draw attention to her pregnant sister. And once Prue climbed to her feet in her astral form, she gave a thumbs up over the edge of her outcropping, and the showdown was a go.
Phoebe decided to go with the brazen approach to the problem, and simply walked purposefully around the corner, emerging into the Triad's inner sanctum as bold as brass.
"You know," she said, and the Triad suddenly broke off their ritual, looking at her in furious incomprehension, their black eyes glinting in the flickering firelight, "when I was Mrs Source my place was much nicer than this, Cole had them aboveground and everything. Wow, how the mighty have fallen since he killed you all, he said you went down without a whimper, is that true?" she asked cockily, and her sisters, scattered throughout the room, grinned at her ballsiness.
The four Triad members looked at her in shock, startled by her sudden appearance, their ritual fizzling to an end. The four of them grinned maliciously however, confident in their chances, they had been empowering for hours, and the Charmed Ones were in the deepest parts of the underworld, far from their connection to light magic. This was going to be easy.
"Belthazor's treachery was unforeseen. Sadly, the same cannot be said for your arrival here witch, we're ready for you now." Candor spat, and struck like a viper, throwing a minor fireball at Phoebe, who levitated to avoid the attack, landing catlike, a grin on her face.
"Come on, you can do better than that, it's my fault you all died after all! And wrecked the whole underworld, think how many of your chums I've vanquished or gotten vanquished, doesn't that make you angry?" she taunted, and yes it did, she could feel the lava hot fury of the original members of the Triad with her empathy, and the cold anger of Xar, though his was also slightly tinged with amusement she had to say.
Candor, Asmodeus and Baliel allowed themselves a twisted, evil smile as they advanced as one upon her, each of them raising a hand to launch a fireball.
"Oh yes witch, it does. It's why we've been looking forward to this day for such a long time. And we can assure you my dear little witch, that this is the last time you will ever make us angry!" Candor spat, and struck first, a massive fireball blazing right towards Phoebe, who barely backflipped out of the way of the attack, shooting a taunting grin in his direction.
"Catch me if you can!" she mocked, and with a cheerful wave she ran up the corridor, a fireball from Baliel just missing her, as Candor dashed after her.
"I'll get her, she'll pay fo what she had done to us!" he spat, and Asmodeus suddenly blanched, something was wrong…
"Wait, where are the others?" he asked in panic, as Candor sped around the corner after Phoebe.
"Yoohoo!" Paige called from her position, and the other members of the Triad span in fury, Baliel firing a fireball at her.
Acting fast, Paige orbed it into the ceiling, and Baliel chuckled, advancing towards her.
"How quaint, you seek to destroy us. You must realise that you're too late, we knew you were coming witch. And we're ready to finish what we once started, which the Source himself couldn't do, and destroy you all!" he roared, and fired another fireball, which she absorbed on her orb shield and the fight was on, Baliel throwing fireballs and firing optical bolts, Paige either avoiding the attacks, orbing them away or absorbing them on her shield as the powerful Triad got closer to her.
"Well, at least the Source has a claim to fame, he had me killed, turned Phoebe evil, what have you guys done?" Prue taunted, popping up from her position, and Xar raised a hand suspiciously, stopping Asmodeus from going after her.
"Clever little witch, taunting my brothers. You're more demon like than I thought. A pity that it will do you no good. It's a pity that you came back from the dead, just to die!" He purred softly, before throwing a fireball at her, which she crashed into the ground with her telekinesis.
"Really? Seems to be working so far!" she boasted, and Xar snarled, a stream of fire erupting from his hands, which she manipulated with a deft motion, swirling it into a vortex and throwing it back at its creator, who leapt out of the way just in time.
Asmodeus was on the lookout, the other one had to be here somewhere…a blast from behind sent him staggering, and he turned, not wasting time on words, this was serious, this was the showdown that had been promised for years and the others were exchanging pleasantries, he intended just to kill his witch! Bolts of fire fired out of his eyes, Piper blasting apart the attack and blowing herself backward into the wall as she kept up her defence.
The showdown was on. In the corridor, Phoebe and Candor were locked in an epic battle, Phoebe's skill at fighting coming to the fore as she fell upon her demon. Candor was shocked at being attacked in such a direct manner as she used her levitation enhanced powers to keep him occupied, avoiding or spinning around his energy balls, using her empathy power to deflect his attacks from her, her psychic reflection sending bolts of hatred and anger at him, forcing him to break off his attacks as they battled. Furthermore, she was punching and kicking him, using her powers to guess where he would appear when he flamed out, punching and kicking at him, forcing him further down the corridor, further away from his companions and her sisters.
Within the chamber, the battling was fierce, the whole room was shaking as the other Charmed Ones duelled the Triad. Paige was orbing the numerous fireballs, optical bolts, molecular attacks and energy balls of Baliel back at him, each of them just managing to avoid him as she frustrated him with each deflected attack. Her orb shield was holding up, just, absorbing attacks she missed, but the youngest member of the Triad was pushing closer to her, prepared to finally break the power of the Charmed Ones.
Prue was like a mirage, using her telekinesis to deflect the various attacks of Xar, who was becoming more and more incensed by her refusal to die. Plumes of dust and cascades of rock filled the room as they fought and battled, Xar's super strength allowing him to throw off the rockfall and erupt from the middle of the boulders, using his own telekinesis to throw them back at Prue, her telekinetic waves turning them to dust while simultaneously deflecting his attacks. Teeth gnashing, Xar's attacks were becoming bigger and stronger, ever harder for Prue to deflect, determined to send her back where she had crawled out of.
And the other duel, Piper versus Asmodeus, raged. Piper had never used her powers like this before, blasting at Asmodeus, who was the leader of the Triad and hence the strongest. Asmodeus was like hellfire itself, furious, murderous and unpredictable, his assortment of energy balls, optical bolts, fire balls all coming to bear to try and murder the witch. Piper would not be cowed, she was not going to leave her child. She would freeze his attacks, blow them up while he prepared them, slow them down or speed them up so that they managed to just miss her, her instincts second to none, echoing back to her battle with Wyatt in the future. Asmodeus snarled in tempestuous fury, forming attack after attack, but the most powerful Charmed One was equal to him, and his concentration was slipping, and she was landing more blows, staggered back by her blasts as his high resistance absorbed the blows.
And then, out of the corner of her eye, she finally spotted Xar conjuring a massive upper level demonic fireball, growing the attack above his head, the metal rings swirling around it, as he prepared to kill Prue once and for all, and heaved it with all his might.
It was in that second that she moved, and edging out of the way of Asmodeus' latest attack, she flicked her hands, and to her relief, the room froze.
Well the attacks did anyway, mostly, most of them slowing to an almost complete halt. Meanwhile, Asmodeus, Baliel and Xar were struggling, adjusting to the freeze, and they didn't have a lot of time to act.
"Paige, now!" Prue cried, prepared to do whatever she could to deflect the attack if her sister didn't manage in time, but Paige was already on the move, her orb shield falling as she reached towards Baliel.
"Triad dude!" she cried, and with a triumphant smile, she orbed him into the path of Xar's oncoming attack as he continued to adjust, the freeze coming to an end.
"Now Piper!" Prue urged, and with a victorious smirk, Piper gestured, ending the freeze.
Baliel had a second to look around in confusion, before Xar's fireball crashed into him, and he was consumed with murderous flames as he gave an agonised scream, his arms throwing up into the air in terror as he was vanquished in a small atomic explosion.
Asmodeus turned, breaking off his attack on Piper as both he and Xar looked at the space where his companion had been destroyed in horror, Baliel gone, and Asmodeus felt something break irrevocably, and he knew it was over…and not the way they wanted it.
"NO!" he cried, spinning back to resume his duel with Piper but she had a half smile on her face as she blasted him in the chest, noting with savage pleasure as the explosion elicited more fire as he stumbled back, crying out in pain.
Another blast followed, then another, each eliciting a greater cry of anguish and pain, and with one final blast to the chest, Asmodeus too gave a terrified, anguished scream as he was annihilated too.
Xar turned to Prue in shock in the split second it had taken for him to witness the deaths of his two brothers, and he then staggered as she blasted him with a telekinetic wave, blowing into his chest. His screams rent the air as she blasted him once more, and he could feel something was deadly wrong. Another blast sent him sprawling away from her, and she brought back her hand and let out a final wave attack, and he was consumed in flames as he joined his comrades in death.
There was no time to even breathe as Candor suddenly came flying into the room, slamming into the white circle with a crash, and he scrambled to his feet.
"Brothers, help, I underestimated…her…" he gasped, and then his gaze fell onto the soot marks on the white circle that had once been his companions, while the other three sisters advanced upon him.
He tried to flee, but he was too late as Phoebe suddenly showed up behind him, wrapping her hands around his head and taking all of his fear, his hatred, his anger and even the remorse he felt, and channelled a weaponised version of it all back into him, and perhaps thirty seconds later, he gave a cry, fire bursting out of his eyes and mouth and with a final scream he too was gone.
Silence reigned for a second before they allowed themselves a relieved smile, relaxing.
"We did it, we actually did it! Good plan Prue." Paige said with a smile, hugging her sisters in relief.
"We've taken out the Triad, well, at least the Triad part one. Next time, we throw the potions at them and send them screaming straight to hell." Piper chirped happily, laying her head on Prue's shoulder.
"We kicked ass!" Phoebe boasted, and they all laughed, as Prue surveyed the soot marks which had once been the Triad.
"I believe the scales of good and evil just tipped dramatically back into our favour." She concluded, renewing the hug between them with a happy laugh.
XX
Gideon advanced upon Wyatt, who was now screaming blue murder, and Barbas looked at him in annoyance.
"Can't we just kill the little brat now?" he demanded, and Gideon rolled his eyes.
"No Barbas, this must be done properly!" Gideon insisted, raising his hands towards Wyatt's shield, his numerous times visiting the boy had shown to him exactly how it worked and now, he knew how to break it.
He felt power surge through him as he channelled his intentions into his hands, Wyatt's crying ringing in his ears, the crying getting worse as he realised that his orb shield was falling, shrinking as Gideon applied magical pressure to it, Barbas watching excitedly beside him, and with a dull shattering sound, the shield broke, leaving Wyatt totally unprotected.
"Impressive Elder. Let's kill him now!" Barbas urged, and Gideon nodded, his face grim but determined.
"Yes, it must be done for the greater good. I am sorry my boy, but we cannot allow you to grow up, the damage you inflict on existence it undeniable. I'm sorry it has to be this way." He said with remorse, and readied the blade that both he and Barbas had blessed, raising it to plunge into the heart of the screaming child before him.
"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY BROTHER!"
A swirling ball of lightning and telekinesis then blasted into both the Elder and the demon, sending them hurtling across the room as Chris got weakly to his feet, as did Cole, combustive orbs flaring to life in Chris' hands while Cole readied his energy balls, both of them standing protectively in front of Wyatt who continued to scream blue murder.
"You don't understand, this is what has to happen, it is for the greater good! You know what he becomes, I'm trying to save us all from that fate!" Gideon protested, getting to his feet as Barbas followed suit, his malicious eyes watching carefully.
"You fucking idiot," Chris breathed, adrenaline coursing through him, his entire body shaking with fear, anticipation and above all, fury as he beheld the sanctimonious Elder, "it's you doing this that breaks him, you turning on him starts him down this path!"
Gideon shook his head sadly, watching them both warily.
"No Christopher, it is his nature, he will destroy everything we all hold dear, and that is why I must stop him, it is for the greater good. Don't make me sacrifice you too." He begged, and Chris narrowed his green eyes.
"You will never touch him again." Chris vowed, and the fight was on, the balls of electric combustible orbs flying towards the two conspirators, as Cole fired energy balls into the mix.
Gideon was faster than he could have believed, a stream of lethal lightning erupting from his hands, causing an explosion as the two attacks met in mid-air, the whole room shaking from the effects of the attack. Chris fired lightning at Gideon, who responded with an attack of his own, crackling bolts of electricity bouncing around the room and blackening the ground as Cole continued to throw energy balls at Barbas. Their jolts of lightning locked together, the witchlighter and the Elder advanced upon each other, the strain of keeping the attack from exploding getting to them both, though with a hint of satisfaction, Gideon saw that he was pushing Chris back.
"You might be part Elder boy, but I am an Elder and have been so far longer than your family line has existed." Gideon pointed out, and Chris cried out in pain as Gideon overwhelmed him, blowing him back with an explosion, slamming him into the wall above his screeching brother.
"Belthazor, give it a rest!" Barbas spat, now retaliating towards Cole, throwing a fireball at him, which to Cole's delight just phased right through him.
"Ha, dead perk." He commented, and kept up the attack and while he wasn't particularly hurting Barbas, he was distracting him, and keeping him from Chris and Gideon.
"Don't make me sacrifice you as well." Gideon warned, advancing on his fallen opponent, and Chris suddenly lifted his head up, a swirling electrocombustive kinetic ball slamming into Gideon who screamed as he was thrown across the room, hammering into the wall on the opposite side of the room and dropping down like a stone.
Panting as though he had just run a kilometre long sprint, Chris turned to assist Cole.
"I vanquished you in the future Barbas, I can vanquish you here too!" Chris spat, and a current of lightning blasted into the Demon of Fear, who went flying away with a cry, giving Cole a respite as Barbas had been rather annoying him.
"Chris, where's Gideon?" Cole demanded, and Chris eyes widened in horror as he moved closer to his brother, he thought Gideon was out of the fight, but if he wasn't, then where the hell was he?
"Wyatt…" Chris whispered in panic, advancing closer to his brother.
Cole was alert to everything that moved, energy ball in hand, ready to strike when a brief flare caught his eye. Turning, he found that Barbas had flamed away.
"Chris, Barbas has gone too!" he cried in panic, and Chris looked around, begging desperately for his mother and father to come and help, his aunts, anyone really, he needed to save Wyatt, he also needed to save everyone else, and after being exposed Gideon would have to slaughter everyone in the room to keep his secret.
"Come on Wy, we're getting out of here." Chris whispered, heading towards Wyatt, as his brother still screamed blue murder, and suddenly his pitch went up, just as Cole screamed.
"CHRIS!"
Barbas had flamed up behind him, and wrapped his arms around Chris', a twisted smile on his face as he pinned Chris' arms to his sides. Chris prepared to blow him off, when Gideon materialised out of thin air in front of him, dropping his invisibility, and plunged the blade he had on him into Chris' stomach.
Chris screamed in agony, crying out in pain as he felt the blade slice through his insides, making them burn torturously as Gideon forced the blade as deep as it would go, and then extracted it, spraying Chris with his own blood while a delighted Barbas savagely dropped Chris to the floor.
"No!" Cole yelled, throwing energy balls at the two murderers, but this time, Gideon raised a shield of his own, calmly absorbing all the attacks as he looked regretfully down at Chris, whose blood was now spreading in a pool across the floor as he held a hand to his wound, still determined to reach his big brother, gasping in pain as he did so.
"I am sorry it came to this." Gideon claimed sadly, and then turned his attention to Wyatt.
"Get away from him!" Cole spat, fading right in front of the Elder.
He wasn't going to let him take or hurt Wyatt, he wouldn't allow what happened to him as a child, to his father, to happen to Piper's son. He threw energy ball after energy ball at Gideon and Barbas, his attacks barely fazing either of them. Gideon raised a shield, then nodded respectfully at Cole.
"You have made a noble final stand Belthazor. I salute you." He said, and then raised a hand, a burst of lightning ripping through Cole with a scream, punching right through his body, and Cole toppled to the floor, the hole in his chest smoking, Wyatt still screaming behind him, looking frantically towards at the man his little brother would become as Gideon and Barbas surrounded him.
"COLE!" Chris screamed as much as he was able to, and Cole gave a weak gasp, lying ahead of Chris, and Chris could tell Gideon had killed them both.
"A parting tribute to the demon who tried to be good." Gideon lamented, and Chris looked frantically at Wyatt.
"Wyatt, go…orb to mommy!" he managed to shout, but it was too late.
"Come my lad, it is time for your sacrifice." Gideon said softly, his eyes closed in remorse, and Barbas flamed out while Gideon gently took Wyatt's hand and orbed them out.
Chris panted weakly as he looked at the spot where the Elder and the demon had kidnapped his brother. His family were all out cold, or dead, he didn't know, and even Cole, the mighty Belthazor, seemed to have finally been struck a truly mortal blow. And now, everything he had done, everything he had tried to do, was coming undone, he had failed, Gideon had Wyatt again, and if he succeeded in breaking him, it would all be for nothing.
He had let everyone down, he had failed, and now Gideon had his brother.
He had lost.
He could feel the blood rushing from him from the wound Gideon had struck, and knew, this time he really was finished. Even if he arrived in time, his father wouldn't be able to heal him, the blade must have been cursed by both Gideon and Barbas, and a Twice Blessed blade wouldn't be undone by another Elder. His blood was pooling across the floor as he struggled to where Wyatt had been, his heart pounding less and less in his ears as the enormity of his failure sunk in.
"Mom…dad...!" he cried before darkness claimed him.
XX
Orbs suddenly appeared behind the sisters, but the fright of seeing a light behind them made them turn, ready to attack before they saw who it was.
"Leo, what are you doing here?" Piper asked, calming down as she saw her husband, and he gave her a proud smile.
"Vanquishing Rennek, I got him." He told her, though his eyes did convey a little worry, and Piper smiled proudly.
"Aww, well done honey!" she congratulated, kissing his cheek, as he looked at the four sooty marks on the floor curiously.
"Um, who pissed you guys off?" he asked, and Prue smiled a little.
"The Triad, yeah, they're back," she said, correctly interpreting the shocked look on his face, "well, they were. Now we just need to hunt down their spirit forms and finish the job!"
Leo smiled proudly, very pleased with all their days work, though Rennek's last words still haunted him.
"Leo, what's up?" Phoebe asked worriedly, clearly picking up on his anxiety, and he frowned, looking pensively around the headquarters of the Triad.
"Well, after I vanquished him, Rennek said we were too late, that Wyatt was unprotected and he was going to be killed before we had a chance to do anything about it. I take it he's safe?" he asked, and Piper scowled at him.
"Leo, what do you take me for? Of course he's safe, he's at Magic School, along with the whole extended family, and he has Chris and Cole protecting him." She told him waspishly, and he smiled placatingly, and kissed her forehead.
"I know you wouldn't leave him unprotected, it's just Rennek seemed so sure, it's weird." He told her, though something else niggled at him, and Paige shrugged.
"You worry too much Leo, he was just trying to get in your head." She told him, and he nodded, reassured.
"Yeah, you're probably…wait, did you say Cole was protecting Wyatt?" he asked sharply, suddenly feeling the bottom drop out of his stomach, his tone seriously worried, and sensing his fear, they all looked at him worriedly.
"Yeah, but hurting your son isn't exactly going to convince us that he's good is it?" Phoebe pointed out, but Leo shook his head urgently.
"No, as in, is he in Magic School, with Wyatt?" he demanded, his heart hammering, and Piper nodded slowly, not liking the panicked look on his face at all.
"Yeah, with Chris, Leo, what…?" she asked, and he cut her off sharply.
"Piper, no matter what Cole is, he should never have been able to get into Magic School. He can't get in, no matter what he is nowadays. So how the hell did he get in?" he asked, his panic growing, why he was so scared he didn't quite know but he knew it was nothing good.
"We figured it was because he was dead!" Paige said, though she too was starting to feel worried, not liking where this was going.
"No, if he's in Magic School that means the wards were lowered, there's no other explanation. Someone lowered the wards…" he breathed, sounding terrified.
"Barbas…what if he was getting to me when I was at the school?" Piper asked anxiously, her mind going down the same dark path as her husband's.
"But that's impossible, least it should be, only Gideon and Sigmund can lower the wards to the school but for Cole, and potentially Barbas to have gotten in, they have to have been lowered. Someone left Magic School vulnerable!" he breathed in realisation, and Phoebe looked at him in shock, her face going grey with terror.
"Leo…Sigmund has vanished, no one knows where he is." She whispered, the full force of the implications setting around them, as if the demonic wards were gone, likely the others were too, and a suddenly gaunt looking Prue turned desperately to Piper, who's belly was churning with terror for reasons other than her pregnancy.
"Piper, when you interrogated all the Magic School staff, did you interrogate everyone?" she asked anxiously, her heart pounding against her ribcage, and Piper nodded.
"Yes, of course I did, I interviewed everyone. Well everyone except…oh no…" Piper whispered in anguish.
"Gideon. No, no it can't be!" Leo roared, terror flooding him.
It couldn't be, Gideon was his oldest friend, his mentor, why would he try and hurt his son?
"It can't be, he's an Elder!" Paige protested weakly, but Piper had gone white, and looked frantically at her husband, clutching at his hand desperately.
"He was the only one, Leo, it's him, it has to be! It's him! He's after Wyatt!" she shrieked, and Prue felt a terrible realisation dawn on her.
They had all been right, it was a trap. The only thing was, the trap wasn't for the Charmed Ones and Leo, the trap was for Wyatt and they had let him walk right into it.
"Oh my god, what have we done?" she gasped, her nephews were unprotected, and Chris and Cole were the only defence against an insane Elder.
"What have we done?" Piper echoed in a shriek, and then suddenly froze, as did Leo, both of them looking horrified.
"Piper?" Paige asked worriedly, and she turned to her husband frantically, looking sick.
"Leo, did you hear…?" she breathed, sounding nauseous, and he nodded.
"Chris!" he gasped, and seized his wife by the hand and orbed them away, and Paige grabbed hold of her sisters as they followed suit, headed for Magic School the one place where the kids were meant to have been safe.
XX
They orbed into the room Piper had inhabited during her exile here, and saw the scene of carnage. There were chunks out of the walls, debris littered the ground, blackened marks emblazoned upon the floor. They all looked around in panic, and as they adjusted, the sight that greeted them froze them to their core.
Victor, Elise, Henry, Darryl, Andy and Sheila were all littered around the borders of the room, unmoving. Prue and Paige gave strangled, inarticulate cries and rushed to check on them all, and left the others staring at the floor in front of the board Chris had written. Beneath the board, Cole was lying slumped against the wheels, a smoking hole in his chest, gasping weakly for breath.
"Cole!" Phoebe cried, rushing to his side.
But Piper and Leo had eyes only for their son from the future. He was chalk white, grimacing in pain, his black tshirt and leather jacket slick with blood, his hand crimson as he held it against his stomach, lying gasping weakly in a pool of his own blood, his legs and arms beginning to become translucent.
And Wyatt was nowhere to be seen.
"Mom…" he whimpered, and they both crashed down beside him, Piper taking his head in her lap as Leo tried to heal him.
Behind them, Phoebe was cradling Cole's head in her lap, his hand in hers, as she saw the floor through the hole that had been blasted inside Cole.
"Phoebe? Is that you?" he asked weakly, clearly struggling to hold on to his existence, and she nodded, tears pooling in her eyes.
"Yes Cole, it's me. It was Gideon, wasn't it?" she asked softly, and he nodded weakly, letting out a weak chuckle.
"Yeah…bastard fried me with lightning, so whatever form of spirit I am…still works on me. He's finished me Phoebe." He gasped, his eyes closing briefly in pain, and she shook her head frantically.
"No, don't say that Cole, Leo…" she began, but Cole broke her off with a weak cough.
"Leo can't heal the dead Phoebe, you know that. And I am dead, for good now. Funny…not how I intended to go out you know," he admitted, crying out in pain, "dying for Piper's kid of all things but…couldn't let what happened to me, happened to my father, happen to the boy, or to Chris, or to Piper…I thought I could do at least…that." He breathed weakly, his breaths coming in a rattle, and Phoebe let out a small gasp.
She had seen the premonition of what had happened to Cole when he was a child, his demonic mother seizing him and murdering his father, allowing her to raise the baby in the ways of evil. And he had been trying to stop that happening to Piper, to Wyatt? He had felt so strongly, had done something selfless, to try and protect someone other than Phoebe, and it had cost him his life.
"Cole you…" she whispered softly, stroking his hair, and he hesitated, as if struck by a random thought.
"Hey, Phoebe…did I do good?" he asked weakly, and she felt the tears fall from her cheeks and splash onto him.
"Yes Cole. You sacrificed yourself to try and save Wyatt. Thank you." She told him kindly, and he smiled weakly.
"Good. That's….good. Save him Phoebe. Don't let him grow into…into…into me. Make this," he gasped with pain, his grip on her hand loosening, "mean something. And tell him…tell him…" he struggled to form the words, and Phoebe, tears pouring down her cheeks, let out a tragic sob.
"Tell him about the mighty Belthazor, the former Source, who died…good." She finished, and he managed a last contended smile before his hand dropped from hers and his body shattered into pieces and faded into oblivion.
And she then screamed as Cole was lost to eternity, having sacrificed himself to prove to her one last time that he truly could be good.
"Why isn't it working?" Piper spat angrily, her fury at their own blindness, how easily they were played, coursing through her as her husband tried to heal Chris.
"It…it was a Twice Blessed blade mom. Dad," Chris panted weakly, his breath shuddering out of him in stuttering gasps, "dad can't heal that."
Leo looked at his son, aghast, but the look he gave Piper was one that she understood instantly, and that her son was right.
This time he was going to die.
"No…no, peanut hold on, ok we can save you!" she insisted, tears streaming from her eyes, but he shook his head weakly.
"No mom…it's too late for that…you have to stop…Gideon. It's him…he's the one who breaks Wyatt…you need to stop him…" he pleaded, his life fading as his body started to fade along with it, and Leo shook his head, agony at his failure, at his stupidity, ripping him apart.
"No, you can help us kid, come on son…don't do this, not again…" he begged, and Chris gave him a weak smile.
"It's too late dad…it was Gideon, you have to…it was him…I didn't realise…I'm sorry I let you down…" he panted, and Piper kissed his blood stained hand as she stroked his hair, her body wracked with sobs.
"No! You didn't let us down sweetie, you did so much…please honey hold on…" she begged, but knew it was too late.
His green eyes looked blearily up at his parents, both of them crying, as he squeezed his mother's hand, his breaths gasping out of him as he went bone white, his eyes starting to lose focus as his body faded out of existence.
"Save Wyatt…stop Gideon…then this doesn't happen…" he pleaded, looking mainly at his father, and Leo nodded, his heart breaking as he did so.
"We will, we won't let you down." He promised, and Chris managed to nod weakly.
"I know…I love…I love you…" he said to them both, before his eyes fluttered shut, and the hand that Piper had been holding went limp in her hand.
"Chris? Chris?" Piper begged, shaking him gently but then the awful truth dawned on her, on them both as Chris let out one last breath, and was gone.