A Second Life
Chapter 10; Misguided
Halliwell Manor; immediately afterwards.
"What are going to do?" Paige asked.
"All we can do is wait." Piper said, "We don't even know if she needs a way back."
"Something tells me she didn't bother thinking that far ahead." Paige retorted.
"You're her whitelighter." Phoebe spoke up. "Can't you sense her?"
"I can try." Paige responded quietly before settling herself on a rocking chair and closing her eyes to concentrate.
A few minutes passed this way, with Paige concentrating whilst Piper and Phoebe looked through all the papers strewn across the floor. Aberro waited patiently for anything to happen. To be honest he didn't really want to get involved. His job was to protect the boys and through them the Sisters and Leo and even at a push he would protect Henry or any proper boyfriend of Phoebe to keep them happy and therefore give the boys a better childhood than Harry had. He was not however going to offer himself up to run after a girl who couldn't think things out before throwing herself Merlin knows where without a plan to get back again.
"Nope, nothing." Paige said before explaining. "Well I can sense her but not where she is."
"Doesn't that mean that she is in the underworld?" Phoebe asked.
"That or she's being hidden by the same thing as Christie is." Piper deadpanned.
Phoebe was saying something else but Aberro didn't hear it over the shout in his head. Damn the girl had thought to call him. And since he was supposed to save any one that managed to call him he should go. But he'd make sure everyone knew he wasn't happy about running errands like this.
With an annoyed trill that left nothing to the sisters imagination about Aberro's view on the matter he burst into ice and lightning.
Underworld; Unknown
Almost a minute later the first thing that Billie heard to declare that her call had worked was a really annoyed trill sounding in the cell they were in before Aberro burst into the room, ice catching her across the arm as he arrived though it didn't hurt her in any worse way than a few bruises.
Aberro gave her a superior look.
"You could have told me that you could find this place, you could have saved Christie ages ago!" She cried in indignation.
Aberro's eyes narrowed and he turned his head slightly at the bossy tone in her voice. When nothing more was offered he opened his wings as if to fly away again but was interrupted.
"Please don't leave us here!" Aberro snapped his head around again to face the new girl in the cell. She looked similar to Billie except for her darker hair and slightly older look showing that she either grew up faster, not that that was difficult, or was in fact older than Billie.
"Please, Aberro, take us back with you!" Billie asked, trying and failing to not sound frustrated.
Aberro made a huffing sound and looked at their hands pointedly and was almost surprised that they worked it out as they immediately joined hands. Aberro flapped a few times to land on Billie's shoulder and then all three disappeared from the room.
Back at Halliwell Manor.
Aberro and the two girls reappeared and Aberro instantly flapped to gain altitude as the girl he had been perched on collapsed to the ground shivering. He almost laughed when he landed on Paige's shoulder at the sight of the two girls shivering on the ground. Real ice littered their hair even as it stood on end from the static.
Piper and Phoebe ran to the girls to try to put them to rights and got a small static shock when they tried to touch them. "Aberro, what did you do to them?"
He gave Piper an innocent look, or as innocent as a Dark Phoenix could look.
"Does everyone you transport that way end up like that?" Phoebe asked.
Paige got her answer when Aberro shifted slightly and her slight grin told the other two. Technically all a passenger would feel when properly transported with the elements was a weakened effect of that element. Fire would cause a nice warm feeling. Whereas ice and lightning would send a chill through you and maybe give the first person you touch a small shock.
"You did this on purpose didn't you?" Piper looked slightly annoyed at him. "Oh why do I bother, you can't answer either way. I'm going to get a couple of hot drinks. You two get them to your old rooms." With that she walked away but Aberro decided to answer her question on whether the effect the transport had on them was his doing because he felt like it. With a flap he left his Paige perch and landed on a new Piper perch and digging his claws in slightly to stop her throwing him off in her fright he burst them both into ice and lightning and reappeared two seconds later in the kitchen downstairs.
Leo looked up as they appeared, the two boys also quite attentive. Piper shivered slightly as a small chill went down her back. "You did do that on purpose!" She declared though this time there was a slight grin tugging at her lips. "I'll explain later Leo, right now we need hot drinks."
Piper moved over to the kettle and Aberro leaped down onto the centre table and to Wyatt who was sitting in one of the chairs.
"Jason!" Chris called from the floor next to the chair and Leo automatically turned to lift him up to place him on the table in the care of Aberro.
"Not Jason," Leo reprimanded kindly "Aberro."
A week later
A lot happened in the last week. Aberro had tried not to get too involved but still did what he could to make sure nothing happened to Wyatt, Chris, Leo and the sisters but he knew he couldn't always be everywhere and he had to admit, though grudgingly that he couldn't always be right. He realised that he had changed when he refused to believe he was wrong. Phoenixes were always very stubborn creatures and were used to being in the right so much that Harry being stuck in his form all the time was starting to act more and more like a Phoenix.
Flashback
It was early morning Friday that he felt it. A sudden surge of panic originating from the bond he had with Phoebe. Though weaker than the ones he shared with the boys and even to that of the one he shared with Paige it was still strong enough to know that she had panicked for some reason. He was at her side in an instant leaving a bemused Paige with the boys.
He took in the situation in an instant. Phoebe had kicked a man into the wall. Probably using her levitation by the looks of the distance he had travelled and the demolished bookcase that now littered the ground underneath him.
Phoebe looked rather shaken up so Aberro trilled a cheering trill to boost her courage. She smiled slightly at him in thanks before edging closer to him. Aberro feeling courageous flew across the room and settled none too gently on the man's chest.
The motion woke the man and as he tried to stand Aberro flapped his wings to keep his balance. The man looked at him warily for a few seconds and then grinned at him. Aberro glared at the man before shocking him with a low voltage electric shock. The man cried out in surprise but wasn't really hurt but his grin vanished.
"What are you and what do you want?" Phoebe asked reaching their side but keeping her distance knowing she wasn't immortal like Aberro.
"Can you get this thing off of me?" He asked.
"You magically appeared in my flat scaring the hell out of me and you want me to call of my immortal body guard?" She asked sarcastically.
Aberro wondered whether to take offence to that comment but shrugged it off. That was what he was after all
"I'm not here to harm you. The elders sent me." The man said.
"The Elders haven't done anything for us in a long time, why would they send you now?" Phoebe sounded sceptical. Aberro was even more so which he showed by gripping the man with his claws enough to shred his shirt.
"Actually the Elders have done a lot more for you than you are aware of." He said significantly, glancing at Aberro.
"You mean they sent Aberro?" Phoebe asked looking at the Phoenix in question. "Wait! I still don't believe you." Aberro agreed, they wouldn't have sent someone here without telling him before hand. Or at least he didn't think they would.
"They said you might have trouble accepting that they sent me. But they said Aberro would be even harder to convince so Joel told me to tell him 'To back of you feathered ice ball.'"
If Aberro wasn't a Phoenix he would have flinched but Phoenixes weren't that mundane. He did however let off a slightly amused trill before launching himself into the air. If the man knew Joel then he undoubtedly knew that Aberro wasn't not only a Phoenix but a Whitelighter.
He flew back over to Phoebe and perched protectively on her shoulder. He might believe that the Elders had sent him but he wasn't going to trust that blindly.
"So what are you? A whitelighter." Phoebe asked.
"No," he said, he glanced at Aberro again for a split second that Phoebe didn't catch before saying the next part. "You don't need another Whitelighter." That solved it, he knew. Aberro had to admit he was smart, he had told Aberro what he wanted to know but Phoebe wouldn't guess it. He was right after all; the sisters didn't need a new Whitelighter. Aberro was Wyatt and Chris' Whitelighter. "I'm a cupid."
"Why are you here then? Do you need our help?" Phoebe asked.
"No," he answered before carefully thinking his next words. "I've been sent because you need my help." Aberro was shocked when he realised that the man had been looking at both of them when he had said that. This time Phoebe noticed it.
"Did they send you to help Aberro too?" The cupid did look slightly shocked that she picked up that Aberro needed help and he paused as he thought about it. Phoebe continued thinking that the man was confused as to what she meant. "I mean, can't you help someone that is heartbroken."
"I can, and I will try, but the Elders made it clear that you were my major concern and they have taken me off all my other work to help you." Aberro didn't miss the emphasis on the Elders part and wished there was a way he could ask about it. Before he remembered that being a cupid he was actually a magical creature and therefore could communicate with a Phoenix.
He concentrated on the Cupid. "What do you mean by that?" Phoebe only heard a trill but the Cupid heard the words.
"Joel thinks you are just as much in need as Phoebe?" He replied in English not being able to reply privately.
"Wait!" Phoebe interrupted. "You can understand him?"
"I can." He explained. "We are both inherently magical."
"Why do I need help then?" Phoebe asked getting back to the whole point of this occasion.
"The Elders are concerned that you have closed your heart off to love because of what you went through with Cole. I am here to help you open up again, to accept love again. Both of you." He explained.
"You can't to anything for me and you know it. You can't mess with a Soulmate bond." Harry snapped his trill sounding rather annoyed to Phoebe.
"I can help soothe the pain though."
End Flashback
Coop as he had preferred to be called had been hanging around constantly the last few days, always present at the most annoying times. He had spent as much time with Aberro to start with as Phoebe but after failing to put up with Aberro showering him with ice every time he appeared in a room he had starting spending most of his time with Phoebe.
Aberro didn't really mind this, he could sense something between the two of them though he didn't think anyone else did, not even Coop and Phoebe and he wasn't going to offer anything, he knew it was probably against the rules but what did this family care. Piper had married a Whitelighter after all. And Aberro wasn't really the poster boy for rules either, even the cosmic ones.
Something else had been happening this week that had pulled the attention away from most else and that was Billie and Christie. They all knew that Christie was hiding something and unfortunately they could all see the change that was coming over Billie. They couldn't do much though, especially Aberro who couldn't even talk to them. The sister's had tried to help Coop with him but he refused to use Coop as a translator even if it had been Joel's idea to send him.
So he had spent the last week ensuring that Wyatt and Chris were never left alone with Billie or more to the point Christie and he even tried to make sure none of the sister's or even Leo were on their own with her.
He knew she was plotting something, he had dealt with Evil too much to ever think otherwise but he didn't know what it was. He had the feeling that she was only here to use Billie as an excuse to get closer to the sister's.
Her plan seemed to almost be working as well. With the combination of her not doing anything to alert the sisters and her distressed 'I was kidnapped as a child' routine she was starting to gain their trust.
One way or another something was bound to happen and Aberro was going to make sure he was in the thick of it. This family had saved Jason's life after all.
"You have to try to talk to Coop, Aberro!" Phoebe called after him as he prepared to fly upstairs. Coop, Phoebe, Paige, and Henry had been sitting in the living room after a family meal. The boy's and their parents were upstairs getting settled in for bed. Or rather the boy's were.
Aberro was about to say something sarcastic to the aforementioned Cupid when the front door slammed open, blowing completely off of the hinges. Aberro was in the air instantly.
"Aberro, get Henry out of here!" Paige yelled, even as she and Phoebe leapt up. Aberro paused before grabbing the human mortal and bursting into ice and lightning. He reappeared in Paige and Henry's flat and after being told to take care he left again.
He reappeared on Coop's shoulder to give the magical person some added protection. Paige and Phoebe were facing the doorway and in it stood Billie and Christie. He'd obviously missed the beginning of the fight.
"You can't have them!" Phoebe yelled.
"We have to fight you!" Billie yelled. "You've twisted what it means to protect the innocent. All you care about is yourselves. The boys shouldn't be brought up that way!"
"What are you talking about?" Paige joined in as Piper came down the stairs.
"Finally," Christie smirked and the fight started. Christie and Billie concentrated and between the Charmed Ones and them a huge fireball started to form.
"Watch out!" Yelled Coop as Aberro flapped his wings, Ice and Lightning dancing across the feathers.
Just as the two were going to release the attack onto the Charmed ones Aberro let loose a loud shrill that caused Christie to grip at her head, Billie also lost her concentration as she turned to look at her older sister, but the attack was already flying but Aberro had weakened their concentration enough that Piper could slow it down with her freezing power.
"It didn't freeze!" Piper yelled. "Quick, Paige, send it somewhere!"
"Garden!" Paige yelled as she flung a hand at it. The fireball burst into orbs a split second before an explosion rocked the house. The kitchen windows shattered as flames took over the back garden.
Aberro closed his beak and Christie dropped to the floor. "Billie! The potion!" She cried.
Before any of them could react the two sisters were smothered in smoke and as it cleared they were gone.
Aberro instantly burst into a shower of ice much larger than normal as he tracked the fleeing attackers through the house straight to the boys' room. He reappeared five second later to find the boys in the corner surrounded in a blue shield courtesy of Wyatt. Leo was sprawled out on the floor, with a bloody cut on the side of his face.
Aberro let loose with his anti-evil cry again and watched in a certain amount of satisfaction as Christie cried out again as her hands went to cover her ears. Unfortunately Billie, not being evil, wasn't affected. A dagger was sent flying at Aberro and he was forced to close his beak as he tucked in his wings to dodge it. Christie leapt to her feet again and then the two of them concentrated again and a fireball started to form again. Aberro watched as it formed all the time building up his own attack as he flew to hover just over the boys' protective shield. He let loose on a ball of ice just as they let loose with the fireball.
The two met in the centre of the room. Aberro was smacked fully by the explosion that occurred when the powerful ice smacked into the much more powerful fire attack. The explosion overwhelmed him and he went flying backwards into and through Wyatt's shield. He heard a scream of pain from across the room just as the door burst open.
He registered few thing after that, a small scuffle, a burst of smoke and small hands cradling him and then after much talking a total darkness.