Enter the Demon

Piper sat in P3. She poured herself a drink from a bottle of Jack Daniels. Rubbing her eyes with tiredness she finished off her glass and dissappeared into the back of the club.

Moments later, Milton appeared in the club, dark rings hung around his eyes. It was seven o'clock in the morning and neither of them had slept that night.

In fact, no Halliwells slept that night. The family's restlessness kept Phoebe awake. She knew Piper lay in the back office, the whiskey allowing her only some semblance of sleep. She knew that Milton was trying to escape down the last dreggs of his mother's bottle. Melinda sat staring at the prophecy and Chris was still searching for his brother. No longer in the Amazon, now in the Underworld.

Chris dashed his hand through the seer's pool. Her eyes flashed.

'Frustrating me won't help you.'

'Tell me what you know.' He demanded.

She smiled, 'I know that you compromise yourself so that your family can live in innocence.' She laughed, 'I know that you think you're the only one.'

Chris scowled, 'I don't want your psychobabble, seer, I want answers.' Chris's voice was light, like a child's. If the seer had a heart, it would have broken it.

She stared not into the pool but into Chris's eyes. 'Your father came to my predecessor looking for answers when he should have gone to his family. I could say the same of you.'

Chris rolled his head in frustration but the seer continued, 'you all have the same questions. Where did Tyler get the prophecy from? Is Milton really Wyatt? Is Corben still alive? You might try asking each other.'

The swarm of chaos and doubt in Chris's mind had just crystallised into five painful points. He looked at the seer helplessly, 'won't you tell me anything?'

She smiled, 'next time I will.'

Phoebe kissed Coop on the forehead, 'honey, are you awake?'

He rolled over dosily, 'you know full well I wasn't.'

'Can you take me to magic school?'

'Magic school?'

'I need to speak to Sebastian.' Coop didn't get dressed, he didn't even sit up, he just groaned and rolled over onto Phoebe. With a flash of pink they were lying on the floor of a classroom. Phoebe sat up frowning.

'Not quite what I had in mind,' she hissed.

'See you later.' Coop dissappeared again. Phoebe stood up and brushed herself down cautiously. She began to walk through the classrooms looking for Sebastian.

Sebastian sat awake. He was in a darkened classroom with only a single candle to read by. The top of the candle was a mess of wax where he had blasted it. He hadn't had a match. The door in the far end of the room creaked open and Sebastian looked towards the light. A small, upright figure stood there. Sebastian didn't speak. Recognising that it was him, Phoebe walked in.

'You know I always wondered,' Phoebe's voice echoed around the long room, 'if when you duplicated Piper's powers, you might have taken mine too.'

Only Sebastian's face was lit by the candle. His golden teeth flashed in its flame. 'I knew you knew.' He rasped. 'I wondered why you had never asked me.'

Phoebe looked at his yellowy eyes. She could not see past them. 'Being an empath is hard enough when you're human, it's unimaginable for a demon.'

Sebastian's glowing head spoke, 'what else could have turned me? You watched Cole struggling. You've seen how hard it is for us to suppress our demonic nature. Do you think I did it on a whim? Only with the weight of all mankind on me, could I ever have found the strength.'

Phoebe brought her face so close to Sebastian's that it too was illuminated by his candle. She looked down and whispered so that her voice was barely audible above Sebastian's breathing. 'Is Corben still alive?'

'Or is Wyatt dead?' Chris added. He had appeared about five feet away. Neither empath was suprised by Chris's arrival but he felt like he had made an entrance.

Sebastian's eyes darted to Chris, 'of all the powers in the world Chris, I wish I could duplicate your insistence. You'll never stop. Where your family are concerned, you are absolutely reckless.'

'I'd die for them.' Chris's words were a challenge lost on Sebastian. He only laughed.

'What?' He raised a bushy eyebrow. 'More often than the rest of them do?' Neither Halliwell smiled. 'Back to your question...' Sebastian continued.'I would imagine Corben is in much the same state as Wyatt; lost and weak but able to awaken.'

Chris dissappeared again. He went to P3. He went to find Wyatt, to find his brother.