Out of Sight

'Do you know who the man on the train was?' Barbas echoed Milton as he questioned Jennifer.

'I have no idea. Some demon, after the tramps I suppose.' Jennifer looked annoyed. It was rare for a seductress demon. They normally continued through hell and high waters – quite literally – with a certain cool and grace.

'Will the tramps take him back to the charmed ones?' She asked. Nobody had known about the tramps' existence until Milton reported the incident on the train. It was a sore spot for all, a crack in their masterpiece.

'Why would a demon be after the tramps when nobody knew they were alive?' bellowed Barbas. He stopped, breathed and rubbed his forehead. 'It's difficult to know if they will return him. Morgan's very cautious. He won't want to cause any strife. He may wait.'

'And the other? Sanchez?'

'Sanchez will follow Morgan anywhere.'

'I don't want to go to San Francisco.' Milton said stubbornly.

'Why?' Sebastian's righteousness echoed angrily in his voice.

'Because… Because so far, all I've seen are fireworks. I've had a hard year. I got in a fight and then I fell in with a couple of tramps. It was time for me to go off the rails. My wife can forgive that. Maybe even understand it. But San Francisco, a new family. How does anyone explain that?' Milton was unsure if it was he or his wife who would need to explain.

Sebastian looked Milton in the eye and spoke for the longest period of time since Milton had met him, 'if this is all a mad episode, a couple tramps and an amnesiac, then there won't be a family waiting out there. You can come home. All we did was take a road trip. If there is a family there, then… Then your wife is someone you need to be afraid of.'

TJ was sat on a bench, he let his head rest on his chest as he thought. 'There is always magic school,' he said.

Leo Wyatt sat in a meeting.

'I'm telling you, I didn't do it, sir. This is so unfair. I always get blamed for everything.'

'We're not blaming you for anything, Blane, we simply want to know what happened.' Leo had meetings like this several times a week. The difference was he usually didn't have elders sat either side of him.

'I'm telling you I don't know anything. And it don't make no difference how many magical heavies you bring down here, I still ain't saying I did it.' The kid was a trouble-maker, one of the usual suspects.

Leo frowned, 'maybe you can start by telling us what you were doing there.'

'I already told you, man! I don't know.' Any other day, Leo would be sure the student was lying but in the last week, five highly responsible, extremely dependable students had also been found in the forbidden areas of the school, claiming they had no idea what they were doing there.'

Leo sighed, 'thank you, Blane. That will be all.'

As the office door slammed shut, Leo looked around at his companions. The younger elder, Kevin, took to doodling on a notepad, scribbling strands of thought and then illustrating them.

'Demons?' the other, more traditional elder pondered.

'No.' Leo furrowed his brow. 'We have covered the whole school in crystals, cast hundreds of spells, and checked for any sign of attack or infiltration. Nothing's been stolen. Nothing's been damaged. This is a student. Or a teacher.'

'How can it be? Everybody's been accounted for.'

'We can rule out demons. We can rule out student trickery and we can rule out misled teachers. This leaves us with one remaining option.' It was the first time Kevin had spoken since the beginning of the meeting. He held up his doodle, now a page covered in scribbled words and cartoons. In large, spidery handwriting across the middle, he had written the word, 'innocent.'

'How could an innocent possibly get into magic school? Or not be found? Or erase the students' memories?' Paige asked. Leo was continuing the conversation with her in the manor.

Leo narrowed his eyes, deliberating on the word, 'an innocent does not necessarily have to be none magical, Paige. It's just somebody without the power to protect themselves from evil.'

'Well, if they're so very innocent then why don't they show themselves?' Paige raised an eyebrow.

'Any number of reasons. They could be a magical outcast – an ogre or a giant. They might believe that by remaining hidden, they relieve the threat to themselves. Whatever it is, we can try and lift the spells put on the students and get their memories back. Now, we've ruled out evil magic, there are new spells we can try.'

'Honestly, you'd think after the triad, someone would've invented magical CCTV. How come Harry Potter gets the Marauder's Map and we get nothing?'

TJ closed a door quietly behind him. He, Milton and Sebastian stood alone in an empty wing of the school.

'I've found a cloaking spell. Hopefully this way we won't run into anymore curious students.' He passed a sheet of paper to Sebastian with the words written on it. Sebastian squinted at it. He and TJ began to read the words. Then TJ stopped abruptly and turned to Milton, 'do you want to help?'

'Sure.' Milton looked up obligingly. TJ took his hand.

'Just hold our hands and focus on wanting not to be found.'

'Okay.' TJ and Sebastian began to speak the words again. Milton stared at the door uncomfortably. He didn't expect anything to happen.

'Cloak our spells, lights and sound,

Whilst we remain, this room must not be found.'

TJ lit the paper they were reading from and as he did the light caught Milton's attention. It seemed to consume all his thoughts and suddenly energy surged through him, coming like heat from TJ's hand and growing stronger. Shocked, he pulled away. TJ looked at him alarmed then smiled.

'So you are a witch after all,' Sebastian murmured.

Paige tipped a potion into Blaine's eyes, 'sorry about this. It really is necessary.'

Blaine struggled away from the potion, 'yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure. Well, I-' Blaine blinked. As the potion went into his eyes it turned a thick green. 'I- I-' It trickled down his cheeks. 'I remember.' He breathed.

'What do you remember.'

'I was on the third floor and I heard someone calling out - a guy. And some bangs. I thought it was just students so I went to check it out. I snuck towards a door at the end of the corridor and...' Blaine paused, thinking deeply. 'There were three guys in there. One was blasting the other. Another was sat watching. They were... really powerful. Not students.' He looked up at Paige, hesitantly. 'The one being attacked. I think... He looked just like... He didn't have any powers. His face was bleeding and he looked... helpless.'

Leo looked at Paige concerned. He didn't often feel so powerless in his own school. 'They were all witches?'

'No, two witches and a mortal. They were torturing him, Leo.'

'C'mon, Sanchez. Again.' Milton looked stubbornly towards Sebastian and gritted his teeth. Sebastian flicked his hands towards Milton's shoulder. Milton flew sideways, his shoulder now bleeding. As he picked himself up, TJ opened his mouth to speak. Sebastian nodded at him.

'No,' Milton gasped for breath. 'We're not stopping until I've mastered it.'

'You're not going to master it, not like this.' Sebastian said, turning away.

Paige and Leo stood at the end of the third floor corridor.

'What once was cloaked, now be revealed.

To save the innocent and let his wounds be healed.'

The wall at the end of the corridor moaned and there was a loud crack. The corridor began to vibrate.

Milton looked up at the surrounding walls as they shook. TJ and Sebastian glanced at each other alarmed.

The spell turned to ash in Paige's hand. The walls in front of her parted and a door was revealed. She dashed towards it.

Milton closed his eyes dreading what might come through the door.

Paige clasped the door handle and - stopped. Her hand was touching a smooth wall again. She looked at Leo, shocked.

'The cloaking magic is too strong. We need the power of three.' He said.

'What? Us?' Paige was taken aback. The power of three seemed like something that had died with the birth of their children. She wondered what was on the other side of that door that could revive it.Without another word, she orbed out of the school.

Tyler looked at an empty space where Milton and Sebastian had just been. He looked around the room; books and tables were knocked over, Drops of Milton's blood splattered the floor. He read from a piece of paper in his hand.

'Open the doors that are not seen,

allow me to leave this place in which I've been.

Through space, in no time, let me travel

That my secrets may not be unravelled.'

Tyler stared at the spell and it burst into flames. As it did, he dissappeared from magic school.

In the same second, the door to the room exploded and Piper, Phoebe and Paige walked through, followed moments later by Leo.

'There's no-one here, Paige.' Piper sighed.

'But - ' Paige looked around her struggling for an answer.

'It looks like they haven't been gone long.' Phoebe knelt down on the floor next to a pile of books. She indicated to a spot of wet blood.

'What's in the books?' Piper asked.

Phoebe lent over to look. As she did images flashed through her mind, like they had done when she was young.

Piper snorted, 'Jesus, you look like you just had a vision.'

Phoebe looked at her sister, alarmed, 'no, don't be silly. I don't have visions anymore - not like that. The books are all cloaking spells and illusions. And this last one is a spell to make yourself materialise elsewhere.'

'Well, looks like someone really didn't want to be found. Okay, I'm going home.' Piper looked at Paige, 'will you take me?'

'Sure. I guess there's nothing else we can do for now.' Paige walked toward her sister and they dissappeared in a blaze of blue lights.

Phoebe looked towards Leo, 'what are you going to do now?'

Leo chewed his lip, chosing his words carefully, 'you know whose classroom this is, don't you?'

Phoebe fixed her brother-in-law with a deceiptfully steady gaze, 'it was Tyler's.'

'Phoebe, did you have a vision?'

'What? A flashing of irratic images that doesn't make any sense and takes ages to decipher? C'mon Leo, my powers are better than that now. I don't have to do the whole dramatic closing of the eyes anymore.'

'But you just did. Phoebe? What did you see?'

'Nothing.'

'Phoebe.'

'I don't know what I saw.' Phoebe cried exhasperated, 'But I know this. This is bigger than just innocents. And magic school.' She sighed, 'Just be careful, Leo.' Looking down at the floor, Phoebe paused as if waiting for something. In a burst of pink light, a tall man appeared.

'Are you okay?' He asked.

'Yes,' she lied. 'Can you take me home.'

'Sure.' The man walked towards his wife, smiled at Leo and two more people disappeared from that room.