I sincerely hope everyone liked me bringing Riley back. I'm loosely basing Riley's first words around another show with this stuff. Oh, and Magic School comes into play into this chapter. YAY! A lot of dialogue will be taken from the episode The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell, without the headless horseman, just the discovery of magic school and the quests going on inside. The dialogue will be tweaked to my needs and wants. Hope you enjoy.
Everyone froze at Riley's words. Chris wasn't sure how to react to his best friend asking if this was hell. Did that mean she had been stuck in a hell dimension? He pulled the sisters aside and whispered as Riley got up and started touching things, as if asking if this was real.
"From what I'm guessing, she was stuck in a hell dimension, and that's why the Elder's fought us at first about bringing her back." Chris was hoping against hope that this was true, and she hadn't really felt that being with them, or more precisely him was hell. He didn't know if he could handle that.
Riley closed her eyes, feeling out of sorts. She hadn't gotten a choice in the matter, now that she understood she was truly alive again. At first she had thought that this was a cruel joke, and now she knew that this was. She had died on purpose, and for what? To be brought back not even a full day later, judging by the clothes the sisters were wearing.
"Riley, had we known you were in a hell dimension, we would have fought so much harder to bring you back sooner." Chris said, coming up behind her. They had thought that was the reason she had made her comment. It was her turn to be stunned, but she knew if she contradicted them, it would hurt them. And though Chris had hurt her; she refused to do the same.
"It's ok, just…thanks for bringing me back…it was horrible." That was partly true; it had been horrible to watch Parker get taken from her again. Before anything else could be said, Riley got a strange sensation, as if she were being pulled to the stairs. She walked out, and went down the stairs, knowing whatever it was, it was important. When she got to the landing, she saw Wyatt downstairs, staring at a door that hadn't been there before. Piper, Phoebe, Paige and Chris followed, wondering why she walked out like that.
"Oh guys?" Paige said, spotting the door.
"Oh, what the…this is not good." Phoebe wondered about the door. Was it demonic? A short man wearing glasses, a black robe and was bald came through the door as Phoebe spoke.
"Oh thank god you're home." The man half spoke, half squeaked.
"Who the hell are you?" Piper didn't know whether to be scared or amused.
"Fair question, I'm a teacher at magic school." The man said.
"Magic school?" Piper asked.
"Yes. Didn't you know about it? You all summoned it." The man was obviously confused.
"We didn't summon anything." Piper said, remembering how Wyatt had orbed himself from preschool, were he'd been dropped off while they performed the spell.
"Unless Wyatt summoned it. Does magic go on freely in the school?" Phoebe asked, following Piper and Paige's trains of thought.
"Yes it does." The man said as Leo orbed in.
"How did the spell…Sigmund!" Leo exclaimed, happy to see a familiar face.
"Hey Leo." The man now known as Sigmund answered.
"Why are you here?" Leo asked, hoping nothing was wrong at magic school.
"It appears your son summoned the door." Sigmund said.
"Why would he do that?" Leo asked.
"Maybe he somehow knew it was ok to do magic there. He orbed from magic school, and apparently stood by the door when Riley came down." Phoebe said. Chris was being quiet, just staring at his childhood friend. There was so much more grief on her face now, then when she'd left. He hoped she'd talk about it when she was ready.
"Gideon said to bring you all in if you were home." Sigmund said, turning and walking toward the school.
"Gideon? Who's Gideon?" Piper called, but the man kept walking. They decided to follow and made their way through the doors, but before they got through them, Piper turned around.
"Would you be so kind as to watch Wyatt?" She directed to Chris, who was standing to next to Wyatt. He nodded as the door shut behind them. They found themselves facing a long hallway. Paige looked impressed.
"How long is the hallway?" She asked Sigmund as they started walking.
"We're not sure, but we think endless." He replied.
"Great, we better not get lost. I have to give Wyatt his bottle soon." Piper said as Phoebe looked at Sigmund.
"So, how are we going to find this Gideon dude?" Phoebe asked and Leo shot her an annoyed look.
"He's not a dude, he's an Elder. My old mentor, actually." Leo said the last part with pride. Riley was wondering why they were even here. She saw a girl levitating into the air as they walked by a classroom. She had attended magic school for a while in the future, but Future Paige had kicked her out for freezing all the pipes repeatedly. She hadn't wanted to be there.
"Really? You've never mentioned him before." Piper said and warning bells went off in Riley's head. Leo's old mentor? Why was that important?
"We met a long time ago, when I first became a Whitelighter. He helped me out a lot, took me under his wing. He fought for us to be allowed to get married, to break the rules." Piper smiled.
"Really?" Something inside Riley was trying to tell her something, but she had no clue what it was. She just had a bad feeling.
"Nobody freak, but there's a wolf following us." Phoebe said. They all turned around, but nothing was there.
"Phoebe, nothing there." Paige said, and Sigmund smiled.
"Not everyone sees the same things here, only what they're meant to see." He informed them. They reached a large wooden door, and went through.
"Ah, Leo. Thanks for coming." A voice said, a voice that Riley assumed was Gideon. Leo smiled.
"Gideon." He sounded almost giddy, on the verge of carefree.
"And the Charmed Ones. Lovely to see you again. You probably don't remember meeting me, you were very young at the time." He said, but nobody was there.
"Leo…" Piper said.
"Gideon, I think you forgot to take your invisibility shield off." Leo informed the Elder.
"Sorry, I wear it to catch late students." He said. Riley saw his face, and it brought even more alarms to her head. Then it came to her.
"Oh my god! I remember you from the history books!" She exclaimed.
"And you must be Riley from the future. You've caused quite an uproar up there. What am I in the history books for?" He asked. Riley narrowed her eyes. He sounded nervous...but she couldn't remember why.
"I slept in school, I don't remember." She said, and caught the relief in his eyes. She knew something wasn't right with this boat, and was determined to find out what. She stared off into space, only to be brought back by Gideon a few minutes later, only to find the Charmed One's gone.
"Where'd everyone go?" She was nervous, and didn't trust Gideon.
"To follow their path in magic school. There's a purpose to everyone being here, including you. Yours is to find your true destiny. You're wondering if the Charmed Ones were able to bring you back, why not bring Prue back too." He said, and Riley nodded.
"It doesn't make sense." She said.
"The Elders made that specially for you. It wasn't your time to die, you do have a purpose, and now you have to discover what it is. Follow the hallway. You'll know where to stop."
To be continued. What is Riley's true destiny? And why doe Gideon send off warning bells? More will be revealed in the next chapter. Please read and review.