A Charmed Story - Part Nine:
I, Myself And The Elders
Chapter 6

After the dinner, they all sat together a little longer. They had moved to the living room, where they could sit more comfortable.
Cole sat on the armchair, with Phoebe on his lab. Darryl and Sheila sat on the sofa, watching Bianca and Piper taking care of the babies. Kyle and Paige sat on the chairs, face to face to each other, exchanging shy but loving looks.
They were talking lively about everything... from football to the latest acts at the P3... from diapers to make up... from books to game shows... They just had a wonderful and relaxed time.
"Oh I see... the glasses are empty," Paige said suddenly and rose, "I'll go to the kitchen, so what do you want?"
While everyone was giving their orders, Phoebe stood, up too. "I'll help you," she said, and followed her sister to the kitchen.
Cole sighed when they were gone, and asked: "So Kyle... how are you doing... I mean... now... with all...?" He really didn't know how to say it...
"I guess," Darryl interrupted him, feeling that this conversation would maybe go the wrong way, "he wanna know how you're doing since you know their secret."
Kyle grinned, even if he found that question a little weird. But he figured that in their situation he would ask the same. "I think, I'm getting used to it... satisfied?"
Cole rose his hands in defence: "Hey... don't worry... I just wanted to make sure that everything is fine..."
Kyle nodded smiling: "It is... don't worry."

°°°°°°°°°°

Meanwhile in the kitchen Paige was opening a bottle of wine, while Phoebe was seeking for more orange juice.
"Everything's fine between you and Kyle?" the empath asked.
Paige looked at her a little annoyed: "Yeah... But since when is that your business, sister?"
"Hey... I just... you're my little sister damned... I just want to know if you're happy... And if you hadn't gave him that blocking potion..."
Paige grinned making her sister smile. Then Phoebe turned serious again: "What I meant was... something's changed between you too, while you were showing him the manor... THAT's something I realised even without checking on him... And after what you've told me..."
Paige's eyes were sparkling: "Well.. yeah... He said he loves me."
Phoebe looked at her surprised, almost shocked, then a smile appeared on her face as she went over to her sister and hugged her excited: "Uhhhhh, that's so sweeeeeeet..."
"Yeah, yeah... Mrs Romantic..." the witch-whitelighter answered teasing her.
"And you?" Phoebe asked. Paige just grinned, that was enough for her sister to understand, and again she hugged her happily.
But then Paige turned serious again. "Do you think that we have a chance?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that he's not a witch, nor an Elder or whitelighter... or demon if that counts..."
Phoebe smiled at her, caressing her cheek: "Honey, he loves you... I don't think that he cares about all that magic in your live, otherwise he wouldn't be here."
Paige nodded: "I know..."

°°°°°°°°°°

While Leo looked at his son kind of shocked Chris knelt down in front of him: "Hey, little brother, it's ok... calm down..." He caressed the check of the boy who was crying now. Slowly Wyatt calmed down and the light-switching stopped.
"That's good," Chris said, looking around if everything was alright. Leo sighed relieved.
"I wanna sleep here!" Wyatt sobbed again.
His father shook his head to get his mind clear then he went over to them: "Son, that's too dangerous at the moment..."
"But I wanna sleep here with Chris and Anca and Hope," the boy said stubbornly. Leo sighed again.
Chris couldn't help grinning. "Ok, brother," he said, "if you want to stay?... Do it... but for me... naaahhh, that's too dangerous for me, I think I'll sleep at the attic of the manor... But if you want to stay here, just do it..."
Wyatt looked at him with wide opened eyes: "But I wanna sleep by your side!"
Chris nodded, making a serious face: "I see... That's a huge problem..."
Leo chuckled inwardly. His oldest son was amazing. He seems to know what to do from deep down inside, it seems the most natural thing to him... Hope was really lucky to have such a father.
Then he turned to his boy: "I have an idea... Wyatt, why don't you sleep in the attic, too?"
"Can I?" the blonde boy asked, his blue eyes sparkling.
"Of course you can, brother," Chris said, and Leo nodded. Wyatt smiled, put his little arms around the Elder-witch and whispered: "Thanks... best brother in the world."

°°°°°°°°°°

"Thanks again for the wonderful dinner," Sheila said, as she put her cardigan on.
"Yeah, it was delicious," Darryl agreed.
They were all standing in the hall now. It was already late and for Darryl it was time to leave. He had to get up early the next day.
"It was a pleasure to have you here," Piper said, "we have to repeat that very soon." Everyone agreed.
Then also Kyle put on his jacket. "You leave, too?" Paige asked surprised. She had hoped he would stay a little longer so that they could go on from the point they had stopped at, earlier that evening.
He nodded a little embarrassed: "Yeah, I'm sorry, but I have to get up early too..."
Paige sighed, but then nodded: "Ok... but you call me tomorrow?"
Kyle smiled: "Of course..."
At that moment bluish orbing lights filled the hall, startling Kyle and also Sheila a little. "Wow..." both exclaimed quietly.
"Odin, Silas... what do you want?" Piper asked surprised and also a little annoyed.
Kyle turned to Paige and whispered to her ear: "Are those two these Elders?" She nodded.
"Well," Odin hesitated, looking at the normal human beings, "we are searching for a place to hide... and..."
"We want to ask if we could stay here tonight..." Silas explained. "So... can we?"
Piper looked from on to the other, and then at her sisters. "Whatever," she said, "first we should take care of our guests, then of you... so, just excuse us a little." With that she turned back to Sheila, Darryl and Kyle. But before she could say a proper goodbye, again someone orbed in... this time Leo and his sons.
"Hey family," Chris said holding a sleepy Wyatt in his arms, "can we spend the night in the attic?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Tom had been left alone. Well, not exactly alone, but technically, since the Elders would not respond to his calls. He had had the opportunity to breathe relieved when Rhashirk left.
Tom had thought that he was going to stay and do those terrible things to him, too. And he was not sure that he would be able to bear them, since he could barely stand the thought that Steve had. He bent his trembling legs, trying to adopt a more comfortable position, but his hands were hanging from the chains on the wall, and that was starting to cause him cramps. It was cold there. Cold and damp... as he remembered from Steve's memories. The only thought that he was in that place made him shiver.
He had tried to shimmer away with no results. Of course... those Elders were also there, and had not orbed away, so it was evident that they could not do it. And he, Tom, knew where they were now, in that dark dimension... But who else knew? Hopefully Veronica had paid enough attention and would be able to get him back... Suddenly another thought hit him: What if she got caught too?
Tom felt like crying, suddenly. He had never been so scared. Never, at least, since that first time in the school, when he was lost in the corridors with adult Wyatt and the rest of the family, and the eldest of the brothers had taken care of him.
Tom tried once again to get loose, but the only thing he got were scratches in his wrists. He turned to look at the Elders. They seemed to be breathing... Or was it just an illusion? Their bodies were moving rhythmically. Not as much as they should, but they were.
Rhashirk had told him that they were badly wounded, and that his fate was the same, as soon as he needed more powers. He also said that he'd be back to make him talk. He wanted to know why he had come, how he had found him, and everything.
Tom had asked some questions too, like what he wanted from the Elders and all. But he had just laughed. And laughed so evilly that he would have made the whole world shake.
He finally leaned his head on the wall, and sighed, trying to encompass his breathing and stop the irregular beats of his heart. He closed his eyes... Should he try to contact Steve? Would he be able to do it? No way...
"Are you ok?"
He opened his eyes widely, his heart beating faster than before. When he turned his face, he saw one of the Elders, who seemed to have woken up, and who looked like in a really bad shape.
"Did he hurt you, poor boy?" she asked, sadly.

°°°°°°°°°°

Paige and Kyle waved their hands to goodbye, when Darryl's car disappeared in the distance. Then the witch sighed and turned to the man. "Time to leave now," Kyle said.
She nodded sadly. "Well actually I planed to bring you home, but I guess..." she pointed at the door in her back, "they need me." Now it was him who nodded.
They looked at each other, looked deep into each others eyes. Paige felt that she was blushing. She had thousands of little butterflies flying around in her stomach. It was amazing. And that moment she realised that she had never felt like that before... not that strong, not that intense.
Kyle smiled shyly when he saw how her cheeks turned red. Then he softly pressed his lips on hers and kissed her lovingly.
Paige pulled him closer and kissed him back. It was just amazing.
When they finally separated Kyle looked at her serious: "Promise me to be careful, alright?"
Paige could hear the worries in his voice and she thought it was cute, that he cared so much. "I do," she said and smiled. Then she added: "You too... I mean... your job is also kind of risky..."
He smiled back at her. "I do..." he said before he kissed her again shortly. Then he left.
He went down the street to the next cable car line. But on his way he turned around countless times to wave to Paige, who was still standing on the stairs, watching him leave. Then he disappeared from her view and she turned around to go back to join the others, ready to face the bad guys again.

°°°°°°°°°°

Veronica was really nervous and ashamed. She did not want at all to worry Steve, but she had not been careful enough and he had ended up knowing. They were all three at Tom's house at that very moment, and Nicki could not help looking at her boyfriend who seemed to be very pale. She had insisted all the time on him staying back, but he was determined to help Tom, even though he was scared to death. Somehow he felt that this was helping him, actually.
"Maybe we're worrying about nothing," Veronica said. "Maybe he's ok, and that is exactly what he wanted to do. But I kinda freaked out when I saw him disappearing that way, you know..."
Nicki squeezed her hand trying to comfort her: "Honey, we're gonna find him..."
"I promise he'll be back, Veronica," Steve added.
The two girls looked at him, worried: "What are we gonna do? We cannot go..."
"To that dark world he was talking about? Where I was supposed to be all that time? If they took me, and if he went, we can go, too," Steve answered.
Nicki shook her head: "Not the way he did. That was a suicide, and we don't know what is going on now. I won't let you go."
Steve was going to answer, but Veronica interrupted, shyly, too shyly for her normal behavior: "What if we ask the Charmed Ones?"

°°°°°°°°°°

Jeremiah was walking around through the halls of the main-complex in the upper world... alone. Most of the others Elders were gone after Odin's speech. "We have to hide," he had said. "We can't be sure that this place is safe!" he had said...
'Me and hiding...' Jeremiah thought. 'Who does Odin think he his? No one can give me orders...' He shook his head. "A demon entering here? That's impossible," he said to himself and his voice was reflected by the cold walls.
He went down the long hallway to his private rooms. Everything around him was calm... Not that it had been ever loud up there, but still you could notice the others around you... but not today.
He shook his head again, when he passed the open door to the empty conference room. 'Nonsense' he thought and then led his thoughts into another direction.
He frowned: "What are we doing with that problem..." He sighed. 'He's Leo's son,' he thought, 'that makes things not easier... He will try to stop us, if we take Chris's powers back.' Again he sighed. 'But that's the only thing we can do... we have to stop this, before he loses control.'
Suddenly he heard a cracking behind him. Startled he turned around. But there was nothing to see. "Nonsense," he said and went on.
'I need to convince nine more Elders that this is the best thing,' he went on thinking about Chris, 'then we could do it on our own, without even telling them.' He sighed again. 'Whatever... we need to do it fast... before it's too late...'
Again there was a noise in his back, making him turn around again. "Hello?" he asked to the emptiness of the hallway. "Is anybody there?"
There was no response. "Nonsense," he said a little angry now and went on to his rooms. Still he began to feel a little uncomfortable. But no, he was an Elder and he was in his place, so there was nothing to worry about... nothing except Chris, maybe.
He made some more steps, but then he felt a kind of wind in his back. Just weak but still it was there...
He shivered and quickened his pace. He felt that something was wrong. But instead of just orbing away, he kept on walking to his room.
He was only fifteen yards away from his destination when he heard another noise.
Again he turned around. And there he was at the end of the hallway... A man, looking nearly like a human, but still he wasn't... he was a demon. Jeremiah knew he was, he could feel it.
The demon smirked: "Do you really think you can escape?"
Jeremiah felt the panic rising. He started running to his room still looking at the demon. He stumbled, but didn't fell. He kept running, watching the demon who didn't move at all.
But when he turned his head to his way in front of him, he directly saw into the demons yellow eyes. He stood in front of him and smirked.
"See... Told ya... No-one-escapes-Rhashirk!" he said and began to laugh evilly.
Jeremiah couldn't stop. Paralysed he kept walking right into the demon's arms. He wanted to yell, he wanted to orb. But it was too late.
Rhashirk grabbed him and put his hand on the Elders forehead who instantly lost conscious.

°°°°°°°°°°

Andrew had been sitting in the library of the Elders for a long time, reading and re-reading all he could find about that demon Chris was talking about. But there were only less information.
It seemed that Rhashirk was banished by the Source hundreds of years ago. And since then, no one had paid attention to his person. So most of the information that maybe had exist once, where lost with the time.
But then he found a hint, well... he even wasn't sure if it was a hint... About one hundred years ago, it seemed there was a demon seen in the Golden Gate Park. He was there, and the next second he was gone. 'The description would fit to what Chris said,' Andrew thought. 'And didn't they had that fight at the park, too?' He closed the book with a thud and orbed down to the world of the humans.
He hadn't been down there for a while, so he felt a little uncomfortable, even if he was invisible for the humans.
He had orbed to the park looking for any clue, but everything seemed to be as usual. Nothing that could be connected with a demon.
He went around there for a few hours, without noticing that the day had passed and the night had broken in.
Still he walked around, when suddenly he felt a presence. The presence of an Elder. Confused he looked around and hid instinctively behind a tree. The next second he saw bluish orbing lights appearing in the middle of the grass. No one of the people around seemed to notice that.
Then his blood froze when he saw who materialised just a few yards away from him. A demon... and the unconscious Jeremiah.
He saw them just a second, then they vanished without a warning. There was nothing left than grass and air.

°°°°°°°°°°

"Ok... so now that the 'innocents' are safe at home, the Elders are snoring in the attic, and the children sleeping next to them... What do we do?" Piper asked in a whisper, looking at the others. It had been pretty hard to convince Wyatt that he should go to sleep without Chris; that his 'best brother in the world' would come later, but they had finally achieved their purpose. With a condition, of course... Bianca should stay with them.
Now they were all sitting or standing in the kitchen while some of them took some coffee and analysed the situation.
Chris lowered his eyes at Piper's question. He had been so worried about the painful words of Jeremiah that he had not thought about any plan at all.
None of them knew what they should do. None of them knew how to get to Rhashirk, if it was not through Julian, but Julian had demanded that power of sensing, and they could not give it to him under any condition.
At that moment the phone rang, so Paige left the kitchen and picked it up.
"Well... It seems that the books they found did not say much. So the only thing I can think about is... trying to use some spell to find him?" Leo suggested.
Phoebe shook her head: "We tried that before. Remember that none of us could find Angela..."
Cole opened the mouth to say something, when suddenly blue orbs filled the room... It was Andrew, and his countenance was completely contorted in fear.
"Jeremiah... The demon... He has kidnapped him... I saw him." Chris and Leo looked at each other and frowned.
"Someone gets the Elder, he's fainting!" Phoebe exclaimed, hiding her eyes with her hands. Cole rushed and caught him. Then, Leo and Chris helped to take him to the lounge and lie him on the sofa.
Paige was just hanging up: "Just in time, guys." At that moment she saw the Elder. "What has happened?" she asked.
Cole was feeling his pulse: "His heart is about to burst..."
Leo got nearer and touched his wrist: "He suffered a big shock, but he just fainted. He'll be ok... And he's an Elder, don't worry, he can't die." He smiled.
Chris was behind his father, looking at Andrew worriedly.
Piper had gone to the kitchen again to get some water for the poor man. "Here you are..." she said, handing it to Leo. While they were trying to bring him round, Paige shook her head and sighed.
"Guys... I am sorry, but there is no time. Veronica phoned, and told me that they're looking for Tom. He disappeared when he was trying to find Rhashirk... Does that ring any bell?" All the heads turned to look at her, in shock.
"Why was he looking for him?" Chris asked, totally surprised.
His aunt shrugged: "Because he thinks he was the one who kidnapped Steve too... And it seems he found the entrance to this other dimension where, it seems, he was imprisoned by the source of all evil. It is..."
"In the Golden Gate Park," a very feeble Andrew concluded who had just come round.
"What?" Phoebe asked, furrowing her eyebrows. "How do you know that?"
Andrew shook his head, overwhelmed. "I saw that someone was taking Jeremiah who was unconscious, and he just disappeared there. I guess this was Rhashirk." he said, between sip and sip.
"Where was it exactly?" Chris asked, feeling his own heart jump.
"In the very same place where we fought him," Paige answered instead.

°°°°°°°°°°

Bianca had fallen asleep in the attic, with little Wyatt hugging her body tightly. She had watched the babies until they had fallen asleep too, and then, she was so tired that she had to close her own eyes. The attic was always such a quiet place that she could not help falling asleep.
But suddenly she felt a chill, and a kind of fresh air. Frozen air, she would say... She opened her eyes and when she saw the dark figure standing in front of her, she had to hold back a cry. She placed herself protectively in front of the little babies and Wyatt. "Get out of here," she said threateningly, fearing that it was Rhashirk.
The man just came nearer and looked at her coldly with his grey expressionless eyes. "I'm not here to take them with me," he said, simply.
Bianca shivered, even if she did not really know what he meant by that. It was so cold up there... "What do you want?" she asked, wondering why she was not calling for help.
"Answer your questions," he was still staring at her so coldly.
"Do I know you?" she asked.
The figure nodded slowly: "You do."
"From what?" she could not remember, even if he was familiar.
"From another life." Bianca turned her eyes to look at the kids slightly. "I told you I am not here for them. It's not their hour yet."
Bianca opened her eyes widely and gasped: "What? Who are you?"
"The angel of Death," was the simple answer.
Bianca went completely mute. She knew him... From another life... She could not remember because she had never made that spell on her, to see her other lives, but... "We met when I died? I mean, in the other future..."The angel nodded, and she went on, trembling: "Are you here because that is my destiny? To die now?"
The angel shook his head this time: "I told you, I just came to bring answers."
"What kind of answers?" the woman asked, feeling terribly uncomfortable.
"Why you were given this gift of life. Who gave you this gift of life."
Bianca swallowed and went paler. She was not sure anymore whether she wanted to know, but the angel continued.
"You were on my list in your future. Both of you. Do you think your timeline disappeared? Your timelines... All of them, are still there. What once existed can not be erased, or my job would be impossible. When you saved this future, or better said... When you created this new future, your destiny was going back. Once there, your now beloved Wyatt would have taken you two and killed you with no mercy. You two were on my list." Bianca opened her mouth, turning paler and paler, but had no opportunity to speak, as he went on: "That future did not need you anymore. This new future, once you were gone, had no future either. Your two little versions were on my list too, at a very early age, as well as the whole family."
"W-w-w...why?" she stuttered, stepping backwards instinctively.
"Because that was your fate, the Halliwell's fate and the world's fate," he answered as coldly as always.
Bianca frowned, and played with her hands nervously: "If...If that was the fate, why change it?"
"Because no one before had made so many efforts to change it, and I thought I would give you the chance of living in this new world you had created, and see if fate can actually be changed or if you could not avoid it."
Bianca did not understand a word. Was the angel of Death saying that for the first time, he had been partial? He had a heart after all? Even if it was only moved by curiosity...
"You are wrong, woman. It was not love, or curiosity, or any human feeling you can think about. It was only the deep desire of keeping the balance stable. Without you here, this timeline, as well as the others, were destined to fall into the evil's hands. If all the timelines fall into the evil's hands, there's no hope anymore, no good side, no balance. Death is supported by this balance. There's no good without evil, there's no death without life. And there was no life in a world dominated by the evil side. It was doomed to destruction and ruin. And with that, I myself would have disappeared. I knew that, so I decided to make you stay here, get stuck in this world, and maybe safe me too."
Bianca was wordless. She did not know what to say... Was the angel of death behind all that?
She wanted to say something but the dark figure shook his head.
"Here you got your answers," he said and disappeared.
Bianca felt the cold air again, and the attic spun around until she fell on the floor.
Suddenly she woke up and looked around, her heart beating strongly. As soon as she came back to reality, she sat on the mattress and looked around. There was no one there... No one at all. It had been a dream... She swallowed, since she somehow knew it had been real. But she would not tell Chris about it...
Bianca sighed and looked around again, but there was no one there except her, the kids and the Elders. She shook her head and then laid back down, hugging the cute blonde boy next to her.
But the next moment she jumped up startled again. Baby Chris was crying. The Phoenix went over to him and took him to her arms. She rocked him softly and whispered comforting words to his ear. But still he was crying.
It was a wonder that the Elders were still sleeping, but Wyatt was awake and Hope also started tossing around in her bed.
"What's wrong honey?" Bianca asked the baby a little desperate, even if she knew he couldn't answer.
"He's scared," Wyatt said sleepy.
"What?" Bianca asked confused.
Wyatt was rubbing his eyes: "He's sacred... had a baaaad dream."
"You know what he dreamt?" she asked still confused and he nodded. "So what did he dream?"
Wyatt shrugged: "A demon..."
"A demon?" Bianca asked confused. How should he be able to dream about demons at this age... he never really met one until now! Well... except the day he was born...
But when the blonde boy nodded again, her brain started to work and she remembered some past dialogues...
Piper: "I saw Chris, down in a cave... He hurts him because he wants Chris and my baby..."
Leo: "Relax honey, you're stressing the little boy inside you..."
And also...
Cole: "I'm a witch... when I was in the field... "
Herself: "... they said the filed isn't working anymore..."
Chris: "... was a little magic left... mini-me has that power too..."
Phoebe: "Yeah, they have the same power like me, isn't that great..."
Christopher: "... well, kind of..."
"Oh my God," she muttered, when she realised what was going on, what had happened to that three-month-old-boy. "He had a premonition," she said to herself. Then she turned to Wyatt who was still sitting on the mattress: "Where has he seen that demon?"
"Here," the boy answered looking at her with his big blue eyes and wondering why she was looking so scared suddenly.
Bianca didn't lose time, she had to react quickly. "Come over here, Wyatt," she ordered.
Wyatt didn't understand what was going on, but obeyed, while the woman pulled Hope out of her bed too. Then she knelt down to hug the three kids tightly and shimmered with them away.
The next moment bluish lights filled the attic. But it wasn't an Elder or whitelighter... it was Rhashirk. The demon took a short look around and then went over to the still sleeping Elders. He touched Odin's and Silas's foreheads for a short moment, to make sure that they wouldn't wake up. Then he orbed with them away.

(Chapter 6 written by Chrissy.W.x and Belén)