Chapter Four
"Astrid and the Shadow"
Grams' held her hand to her chin as she paced around the attic deep in thought. She opened her mouth to speak but shut it again, much to Piper's annoyance.
"Come on, Grams! You must know something about the Woogyman! Wyatt could be in danger," she urged.
"I know, Piper. I'm just trying to remember everything that happened that night when I banished the Shadow in the basement. It was a long time ago."
"Well remember quicker!"
"Mom, why don't you tell us everything that happened when you banished the shadow? Maybe it'll jog Grams' memory?" Chris suggested.
Piper sighed. "Okay. There was an earthquake that day. The appliances didn't really work and I was frantically trying to make a dinner for Prue's boss ... We called a gas engineer to take a look at the basement and the Shadow possessed him and later Phoebe … Phoebe got new powers and teamed up with the Manor itself to throw out me and Prue. We sneaked back into the Manor and tried to remember Grams' rhyme from when we were kids … but we failed miserably and Phoebe was the only one who ever remembered it off by heart," Grams tutted in the background, "then we went into the basement to face the Woogyman. Phoebe was strong enough to fight against it and then banished it back to wherever the hell it came from with Grams' rhyme."
"There was also an earthquake the night I banished it," Grams commented.
"Yeah, Grams, we've kind of already figured that's how it gets out. What else do you remember?" Piper hurried her grandmother.
"Well, soon after the earthquake began I slipped you and Prue a potion so you would sleep through the ordeal, but when I went to give it to Phoebe she was nowhere to be seen. I headed downstairs and I heard an almighty smash. A moment later Phoebe was screaming, saying she'd seen something in the basement. I humoured her and went down into the basement and sure enough there was the Woogyman, slithering all over the floor."
"Something broke?" Melinda asked.
"Yes. After I'd banished the Shadow and gotten Phoebe sound asleep I checked the basement again and found that my mother's urn had fallen off a table and shattered behind a number of boxes of junk that were down there at the time. It's a shame it broke, it was a beautiful thing."
"Was this Urn special in any way, Grams?" Chris asked.
Grams stopped for a second and the ends of her lips curled into a slight smile, "Now that you mention it … I do remember something about that Urn. My mother warned me that bad people were trying to steal it from our family. She was taking care of it for a while, most likely to keep its location hidden from the thieves."
"That's a nice tale you have there, Grams, but how is this going to help us find Wyatt and the Woogy?" Piper said, frustrated.
"Think about it, mom," Chris began, turning to Grams, "you said Phoebe screamed after the Urn smashed?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Well – what if Phoebe heard the smash too and went into the basement to see what had broken only to find the Woogyman in the basement?"
"I don't see where you're going with this, Chris," Piper raised an eyebrow.
"Well it begs the question: where did the Woogyman come from?" Chris eyed his family with a proud smile forming on his face, "Maybe, just maybe, the Shadow actually came out of the smashed urn?"
"Hiding a powerful demon in your own living room? Doesn't that seem a bit risky?" Piper said, almost laughing at the prospect.
"That would explain why 'bad people' would want to steal the Urn from my mother – in order to release a powerful demon from captivity from Warren witches? It'd be the talk of the Underworld," Grams noted.
"Until killing the Charmed Ones became the new best thing," Piper interjected. Grams slapped her lightly on the arm.
"However, we know in this family that 'bad people' is always codename for evil," Melinda said, "but now that we've come to this conclusion – how does this help us? Unless we have still have a piece of it in the Manor?" Melinda asked, hopefully.
"Alas, no. I threw out the shattered pieces after the earthquake."
"You can magically replicate the Manor into a dollhouse but not fix together some ceramics?" Piper smirked.
"Oh, anything for my girls," Grams smiled. "Anyway, we need think of a plan to save Wyatt."
"But how?" Piper sighed, "all we've got to go on is the hopeful story of this urn releasing the Woogy – that doesn't help us much."
"On the contrary, mom - all we have to do is cross-reference magical Urns in the Book of Shadows and hey presto! We'll have a solution," Melinda beamed.
"Ever the optimist, aren't we? You definitely get that from your father," Piper smiled, "but the only problem is I've only ever come across one other urn in my entire witchy career and it sure as hell didn't house a shadow demon … I think I remember there being another urn in the Book of Shadows, however," Piper turned on her heel and walked over towards the ancient Halliwell tome, "it's gotta be in here somewhere…" she muttered to herself as she rapidly skimming through the pages of the book, "aha! Here it is: the Lumen Urn – does this look familiar, Grams?"
Grams' hopeful smile dissipated as she gazed upon the page Piper was referring to, "I'm afraid not, Piper. My mother's urn was blue." Silence fell across the attic.
"… I have an idea," Melinda began, "what if we could summon the person who made the urn by focusing on Grams' memories of it?"
"But, Melinda, the crafter of the urn is probably long dead," Grams said.
"Grams, you're dead and you're right here with us."
Grams nodded in sudden agreement, "Point taken, Melinda. Let's do it!" she smiled, "Okay – I'll get working on a spell."
"A spell?" Melinda looked confused, "but don't we already have a spell to summon a spirit from the dead in the Book of Shadows?"
"Yes, but that only worked because Piper knew who she wanted to summon. We have no idea who made my mother's urn, so we'll have to be more specific," Grams explained.
"Are we even sure of what we're doing? This could potentially lead us nowhere and we'd have wasted precious time – time we could be using to track down Wyatt," Piper said, tinges of concern obvious in her voice.
"You worry too much, mom. Have a little faith. We'll find him and bring him back home," Chris said, smiling.
Piper couldn't help but smile back, "Okay then, let's do this. Grams, have you thought of a spell?"
"Of course," Grams smiled smugly, "now, we should make a circle around the candles and join hands." The four witches joined hands around the circle of candles as Grams closed her eyes and began:
"Memories inside my mind,
Cross now the Great Divide,
Reveal to us the hidden truth,
Of the maker of the Urn,
From my long-gone youth."
A dazzling flurry of sparking lights burst forth from the centre of the candle circle as a blurred figure came into view. The figure was that of an aged woman with short, blonde hair who was dressed in a long, flowing dark green velvet dress with fur lined around her collar with a pair of golden-rimmed pince-nez spectacles that fit snugly on her nose. As the lights faded the Halliwell witches broke their hand-bound circle and stared at her with awe.
She beamed at the family, "And what can I do for the four of you?"
Temporary silence swept over the attic before Melinda spoke, "Um … who are you?"
"You summoned me without knowing who I am? Ha!" she laughed, "my name is Astrid – Astrid Bowen."
Piper stood with her mouth open, aghast, "You're part of our family? By the looks of it I thought we'd summoned you from Cruella de Vil's wardrobe."
Astrid seemed confused but looked down to see her luxurious clothing and smiled, "Well, my dear, with all of the evil and demons running about our lives you have to find some way of enjoying yourself." Piper smiled. Astrid looked around the room and her smile broadened, "Is this the attic of the Manor?"
"It is indeed," Grams replied.
"Oh how things have changed! Just look at all of the potion ingredients, the vials, the crystals and-" she turned to see the Book of Shadows perched on its stand, "is that the Book of Shadows? Oh how it's grown!" she stepped out of the candlelit circle and crossed the room towards the tome. "I never imagined it'd get so big!" Her broad smile instantly disappeared when she saw which page that the Book of Shadows was open to. "W-w-why is this page open?" she asked, her voice now trembling slightly. The other four witches looked at each other confused.
"The urn?" Grams asked, "well, my grandson, their brother and son," she said, motioning to Piper, Chris and Melinda, "has been possessed by a shadow demon who we think came out of my mother's broken urn. But we ruled the urn from the Book because my mother's urn was blue and not white."
"Can I ask your mother's name?"
"Her name was Priscilla – Priscilla Baxter."
Astrid's face lit up, "Oh, dear Priscilla! She was a wonderful witch. She and my daughter made a wonderful team."
"Who was your daughter?" asked Melinda.
"Phoebe Bowen."
"Prue's past life…" Piper muttered.
"I entrusted her and Priscilla to look after the urn while I was away."
"But we've already ruled out the urn from the Book because it's not the right colour," Chris said.
"Do you people not even read this Book? Or do you just like to look at the pretty pictures?" Astrid said in frustration, "It clearly says here on the page that I cast Umbris' demonic essence – the shadow – into the Lumen Urn where it would be imprisoned. You say you think a shadow demon came out of a broken urn? Do you think you could possibly put two and two together and realise they're one in the same?" the frustrated witch said, furiously tapping the pages of the Book of Shadows, which read:
"Hmm…" Grams said with her hand to her chin, "maybe my mother and Phoebe magically altered its appearance? My mother told me as a child that bad people were trying to steal the urn from them. In my innocence I just assumed it was worth a lot of money."
"And you said Priscilla's urn was blue?" Grams nodded, "Oh dear. That might explain how Umbris escaped."
"What do you mean, Astrid? Who's Umbris?" Melinda questioned.
"Umbris is the name of the demon whose essence I stripped, but he was so powerful that his essence was still a great threat. I think that if Priscilla and Phoebe did indeed alter its appearance it would explain how he was able to escape. The spell that I used to imprison Umbris' essence specifically referred to a white urn – but because the urn was later altered in colour, the spell was accidentally weakened, also weakening the urn's physical properties which were supposed to prevent it from breaking. How, exactly, did it break?"
"An earthquake," Piper said simply.
Astrid sighed. "Now, you'll have to stop Umbris before he fulfils his goals. He believed he was the abandoned twin of the Nexus beneath the Manor and he thought it was his destiny to unite what he believed was two halves of the same entity to become an unstoppable power. You must stop him from ever doing this!"
"There's, uh, a slight problem with that, Astrid … my sisters and I – the Charmed Ones – we destroyed the Nexus years ago-"
"You did WHAT?"
"We had to! The demon Zankou had taken over the Manor and the only way to destroy him was to destroy him while he had taken in the Nexus." Piper said, "… Which begs the question, if the Shadow was trapped with the Nexus under the Manor why wasn't it destroyed along with Zankou?"
"Umbris' essence was trapped WITH the Nexus? Were you trying to get the whole world killed?" Astrid asked, aghast.
"I didn't know that the Shadow was after the Nexus at the time – all I wanted to do was protect my girls," Grams argued. "Anyway, I think I might have an explanation as to why this Umbris wasn't vanquished along with the Nexus. My powers didn't work against it and I had no time to think of a way to vanquish it, so I banished it under the Manor with a spell."
"So that spell was just designed to banish the shadow under the Manor? That would explain why when Leo took in the Nexus to fight against Zankou the spell worked and banished the Nexus back beneath the basement because it – much like Umbris' essence – is a glorified shadow or smoke or whatever the hell you wanna call it."
"The difference being that the Nexus was simply pure magical power, while Umbris is just evil," Astrid said.
"So," Grams continued, "both Umbris' essence and the Nexus had been banished underneath the Manor with my spell. Now, it'd be like being in jail – just because you're in the same jail doesn't necessarily mean that you'd be in the same cell, so when the Nexus was summoned out of its prison cell and then vanquished it wouldn't automatically mean that Umbris' was vanquished along with it."
"If that's how he remained alive and the Nexus is truly gone then Umbris must be working on a way to re-unite his essence with his body. You cannot let that happen!" Astrid urged.
"How can we find Umbris' body?" Melinda asked.
"Well it's a good thing I'm here to tell you," Astrid smiled proudly, "I hid his body in a nearby-"
"Mausoleum…" Chris said softly.
"Oh, you actually did read my entry in the Book of Shadows?" Astrid asked with a hint of surprise in her voice.
"No … I-I think he took me there – when I was possessed by him before. It was a small building in the middle of a cemetery surrounded by other grave stones …" Chris said, his eyes were fixed on the floor as he strained his memory, "he … he stepped towards it and a great barrier stopped him. He used my power to try and break through it but it stopped him again."
"What's your power, dear?" Astrid asked.
"I can move things with my mind."
"Oh my - we're lucky that the barrier I set up was so strong," Astrid said, "because Umbris also has that power. You essentially had two telekinetics against the shield."
"Just like when Prue accidentally conjured two clones of herself and her power tripled," Piper said.
"And the twins use their powers together all the time," Melinda noted.
"The combined strength of both your identical powers could have broken through the barrier," Astrid voiced.
"But they didn't," Chris continued, "… because he… we… had to visit the mausoleum again after he'd stabbed mom… I remember him sticking the bloodied athamé in the ground by the barrier and it seemed to weaken, because he tried breaking through with our powers once again and he almost succeeded, but the barrier was still too much for him."
Astrid's face dropped. "He's used the blood of a Warren Matriarch to weaken the shield? This could be disastrous. Tell me – how powerful is your son?"
Piper smiled awkwardly. "Well … do you know the prophecy of the Twice-Blessed child?" the summoned witch nodded, "That'd be him…"
"… I'm really not sure if this situation could get any worse," Astrid said as she brought her palm to her face. A moment of silence settled over the attic.
"I'm gonna try and scry for him," Melinda suddenly announced, readying the scrying crystal and map.
"What good'll that do, Mel? Umbris is probably suppressing Wyatt's signal – and we don't even know how to stop him," Chris argued.
"Well I can't just stand here and do nothing, Chris! We need to work fast if we're going to save Wyatt! Besides, Umbris has had god-knows how much time to try and tap into Wyatt's powers – we need to find him before he becomes unstoppable."
Wyatt stood in the dank, fog-covered cemetery and set his gaze on the gated structure in front of him. He slowly stepped forwards but was nudged backwards by the sudden appearance of the barrier of pink light that surrounded the building. He held out his hand and concentrated… but nothing happened.
He held the bloodied athamé to his face and glared at the image of the confused witch in the blade's reflection. "Hmm, you don't have your brother's powers," the Woogy confirmed in his deep, husky voice, "tell me, witch, what are your powers? I know you have plenty of them." Wyatt stayed silent. "Fine. I'll just have to figure out how your powers work by myself."
As the Woogy finished speaking, a scream echoed across the graveyard from behind him. He spun around and saw that in the distance a curly-haired woman was being attacked by a group of three men, two clad in black suits and the third in a red suit. A blonde haired man had her restrained, holding her hands tightly behind her back; a second, bald man walked around the commotion in a circular path and the third man, who was clad in the dark red suit, was crouched over the woman with his face close to hers. He brought his hand between their heads and a ball of fire erupted from his palm.
The tips of 'Wyatt's mouth curled up into sly smile. He carefully pocketed the bloodied athamé and his body burst into a swirl of black orbs as he faded from view. He reappeared a few yards away from the suited men.
The red-suited man turned his head to face 'Wyatt' with a look of annoyance. He sighed and extinguished the ball of fire in his palm. "What do you want, Darklighter? You're not meant to be here," he said, straightening his poise. 'Wyatt's smile broadened.
The red-suited man nodded to the bald man who was walking around in circles. The walking man lunged for 'Wyatt', but the dark witch proved to be too much for the assailant as he held out his hand and a clean, new blade appeared in his palm in a puff of black smoke which was swiftly thrust into the oncoming man's heart. The demon stumbled backwards as he screamed in agony before quickly being consumed by a raging fire. The conjured athamé fell to the floor onto a pile of fresh demon dust.
"You're no Darklighter…" the red-suited demon said, his voice showing some element of concern.
"You've got that right," the Woogy replied.
The blonde man who had the crying woman restrained released his grip on her and shoved her to one side, focusing his attention on 'Wyatt'. The witch waved his hand over the athamé in the direction of the blond demon, consuming the blade in black orbs flew towards its intended target. It missed the demon by a good metre and instead it curved around him towards the innocent woman. She screamed out in pain as the blade flew by and sliced open her left shoulder. The demons smirked and ignited balls of fire in their hands. 'Wyatt' waved his hand towards himself and the dark-orbed athamé zipped through the air and thrust into the back of the blonde demon's shoulder. The demon cried out in pain and the flaming ball in his hands disappeared as he fell to his knees. The demon in the red suit launched the ball of fire in his palms at 'Wyatt' who jumped out of the way into a patch of long grass next to him. The blond man ripped the blade out of his back and threw it to the ground in anger.
The two men then rounded on 'Wyatt' and expelled powerful spheres of fire from their hands. He instinctively held up his hands over his face and watched in surprise as a dome of pulsing blue energy surrounded him and negated the oncoming demonic powers. The two demons looked equally surprised but continued their onslaught of fiery power, determined to break the protective shield. 'Wyatt' stood up and threw his arms out as the balls of fire made contact with the blue barrier. The force field expanded outwards and deflected the demonic energy back towards the demons, instantly vanquishing the blond man in a pillar of roaring fire and knocking the demon in the red suit flying backwards.
The demon picked himself up off of the floor and stumbled as he backed away from the oncoming witch, "What are you?" he asked, shaking.
"You are nothing but an insignificant whelp. But I – I am a force you'll never comprehend. I am the beginning of the end. I am POWER!" the Woogy answered as he extended Wyatt's arms forward and flicked his hands open. The demon was surrounded by a flurry of spiralling darkness as he doubled over in pain. He gave out a last loud scream as his body convulsed violently before exploding into a burst of black orbs.
The innocent woman stared at 'Wyatt' open-mouthed and frozen in fear. She suddenly got to her feet as the dark witch took a step towards her and she ran as fast as she could out of the cemetery, holding her bleeding shoulder as she ran.
'Wyatt' pulled the bloodied athamé from his pocket and grinned at the terrified reflection of his host, "I seem to be getting the hang of your powers pretty well," the Woogy jeered before disappearing from the scene in a swirl of blackness.
The loud sound of a door closing echoed through the house as a voice called out, "Honey? I'm home! Is anyone here?"
Piper smiled, "I'll go and get that," she turned to Astrid, "excuse me for one minute." She left the attic, headed down the stairs, crossed the landing and stood at the top of the stairs. "Welcome home," she said, smiling down at her husband who stood on the first half-landing of the staircase.
"Ah, there you are," Leo returned the smile, "… are you gonna come down?"
"Uh, no … there's a slight situation."
"That doesn't sound good," Leo said as he headed up the stairs. When he reached the landing he planted a firm kiss on his wife's lips. "How was your day off?"
"Ha … day off … yeah …" Piper grinned innocently. Leo raised his eyebrow. "Oh, don't give me that look! Anyway, as I said: we have a situation. Follow me."
Leo followed his wife back up to the stairs to the attic and was met with a familiar face, "Oh, Penny, good to see you again … but who's …?" Leo trailed off, gesturing to the unknown woman in the attic.
"Leo, this is Astrid Bowen, my great-aunt. Astrid, this is my husband, Leo."
"Nice to meet you," Leo said, smiling at the dead witch, "so, what's going on?"
"Uh, to cut a long story short: Wyatt is currently possessed by the Woogy from underneath the Manor and we're thinking of a plan to get him back,"
"But I thought that-"
"Yeah, we thought that too," Piper sighed, turning to her daughter, "did you find anything, Mel?"
"Ugh! No. He's in the area because the crystal keeps pulling – it just won't settle on any given place," the frustrated witch replied.
"Well, that means there's still some Wyatt left in him. Umbris can't suppress him completely," Chris noted.
"We still need to think of a plan of action for when you face him," Grams said, "how about using my spell again to banish him someplace?"
"But that'd only delay the inevitable of him being released again when another earthquake hits," Piper debated.
"You'll need to vanquish him," Astrid said firmly, "and I think I have an idea as to how. By myself I didn't have the power to destroy him, but now, maybe all of you can? You're a Charmed One, Piper, and you have superbly powerful children to boot," she smiled at Chris and Melinda, "Surely your combined powers could put a stop to his darkness?"
"I'm not sure. No powers seem to work on its essence form," Piper noted, "what about its body? Will powers work against his full form?"
"Yes, they will – but you should avoid that at all costs," Astrid instructed, "he's possibly the most powerful demon I've ever come up against."
"Then what should we do?"
"I'll get to work on a dispossessing potion," Grams suggested, "it's a start."
"Will it work?" Chris asked.
"It's worth a shot, Chris. It's better than nothing."
"And I shall phone Phoebe to get her butt over here. Hopefully she can get a premonition of where Wyatt is or will be," Piper said as she walked over to the portable phone on the table and began to dial Phoebe's phone number.
"And I'll keep scrying," Melinda sighed.
"Come on, Phoebe, pick up, pick up… Aha! Phoebe, I'm glad you're there – we have a situation on our hands, Wyatt's been possessed…" Piper's face dropped, "w-whaddya mean the girls are missing? How – when?... Have you seen Wyatt? No? Okay, okay. You deal with your situation and I'll deal with mine. I just hope Paige is having more luck than us two. Okay, we'll talk later, bye."
"What's happened?" Leo asked.
"Penny, Charlotte and Grace are currently missing," Piper grimaced.
"Do you think it was Wyatt?"
"Phoebe hasn't seen him today, but that still doesn't rule him out. Give me a minute, I'm gonna call Paige." Piper dialled her other sister's number, "Paige! Right, we have a situation – Wyatt's been posse- whoa, Paige, calm down. What's the matter? ... Pandora is WHAT? God could this day get any worse? Okay, okay. You deal with that and I'll deal with my problem. We'll talk later – bye."
"What's the matter now?" Grams smirked.
"Pandora's in a whole lotta mess … But Paige'll sort all that out. We need to focus on Wyatt."
Chris crossed the room and stood next to Astrid examining the Book of Shadows. "Is there anything in here about how to dissipate or destroy shadows? It might help with Umbris," Chris asked as he turned the page, "Oh, would you look at that? The spell to banish the Woogyman is on the page before Umbris' entry. Coincidence?"
A soft, monotone jingling sound was heard throughout the attic. "Well, it appears that my time is up," she walked across the room and stood in the candlelit circle.
"Mine too," Grams sulked, moving to the circle with Astrid, "Piper, do you think you could finish the potion?"
"But, wait – we still don't know how to stop Umbris," Melinda said.
"You will," Grams smiled.
"We're Warren witches, my dear – the very best! You can do this! Blessed be, my dears. Blessed be," Astrid held her hands together and closed her eyes as white lights carried her and Grams away back to the afterlife. A breeze filled the room that extinguished the candles' flames.
"What now?" Chris asked.
The crystal hanging from Melinda's fingers suddenly dropped to the table, "I've got him. He's at a cemetery. I vote we go there and kick some demon ass."
"But you'd also be kicking your brother's ass," Piper said as she stirred the potion mixture that Grams had left behind. "It's almost done."
"What about me?" Leo asked.
"You should stay here, dad," Chris said, stepping away from the Book, "it'll be far too dangerous," he took a quick look at where the crystal was pointed on the map.
"But what if the demon comes here and I'm left all alone and defenceless ..." Leo said, pretending to be distraught.
Piper narrowed her eyes and smiled, "Fine, you can come with us. But if you get hurt and we can't heal you…"
"I won't."
"… Right, this is done," the mother witch poured the potion mixture into four glass vials. "One each," she handed her family a vial. "Are we all set?"
"Just one sec," Melinda said, moving to the Book of Shadows and scribbling something down on a post-it note, "okay, let's go."
The four of them joined hands and disappeared in a shower of white and blue lights.
Leo, Melinda, Chris and Piper reappeared in a flurry of light that illuminated brightly against the thick, dark, fog that settled over the cemetery like a heavy blanket.
"Are you sure this is it? I can barely see anything," Piper said.
"This is it," Chris replied, "see the outline of that building there?" he pointed into the distance, "that's the mausoleum that he took me to before – come on!"
The four of them moved quickly over to the mausoleum and suddenly stopped.
"Wait – where's Wyatt? I don't like this…" Leo said as he scanned the area looking for his son.
"Right here, dad," the Woogy snarled as 'Wyatt' stepped out from behind the focal structure.
Melinda flicked out her hands but her brother was too quick as he raised his hand and a dome of blue energy surrounded the four family members, rendering her powers useless.
"Damnit!"
"Wyatt, you can fight this!" Chris called out.
"No he can't," the Woogy replied, "and neither could you." Chris' gaze fell to the floor.
"Shut up!" Melinda raged, "now give us back my brother and maybe I won't vanquish your sorry ass!"
"You're in no position to be making negotiations – and besides, I want you to be here for the big reveal," the shadow replied smugly.
'Wyatt' turned his back on his family and focused his sights on the mausoleum in front of him. He held out his hand and the blood-caked athamé appeared in his palm in dark orbs. He waved his hand and the blade shot out of his hand and thrust into the ground. The barrier shot up and blazed a bright pink light before dimming. The dark witch forced out his hands and an explosion of dark orbs erupted out from the shield making it waver and dim. He threw them out once again as a burst of dark orbs scattered outwards from the shield. Its pink light waxed and waned as surges of energy jolted around the perimeter. With a smirk and one last forward thrust of his arms, 'Wyatt's power exploded outwards from the barrier as it shattered into a thousand pieces before disappearing. He opened the gated entrance, stepped into the structure, stepped down the cold, stone steps and disappeared from sight.
"Any ideas on how to get out of this?" Leo asked.
"Breaking out might be a start," Piper retorted. She flicked out her hands and a small burst of energy bounced off of the magical dome, causing it to wobble slightly before standing firm once again.
All of a sudden, an shrill scream echoed around them as a great plume of darkness billowed out of the mausoleum in the form of a decrepit and twisted face. 'Wyatt' stepped out of the structure and moved to one side of the entrance with a bowed head. Footsteps grew louder and louder until a tall, cloaked figure shrouded in darkness stepped out of the stone building. Umbris' skin was medium-grey in colour, his eyes gleamed with a blood-red sheen and his face was laden with black tribal tattoos. He breathed in deeply and stretched his limbs.
"Ahh, how I've missed my body," the familiar deep and husky voice said.
"Umbris…"
"In the flesh ... once again," the demon smirked, "now, which one of you would like to die first?"
"No one will by dying today, Umbris!" Melinda cried. She pulled out the post-it note from her pocket and began to read:
"I am light, I am one too strong to fight,
Return to dark, where shadows dwell,
You cannot have this Halliwell.
So go away and leave my sight
And take with you this endless night."
Wyatt began to convulse as streams of darkness escaped from his mouth and eyes. The tendrils converged in mid air and swiftly engulfed Umbris before fading away. The cleansed witch's hair faded into a light blonde colour and the dark facial hair disappeared. Wyatt slunk to his knees and fell to the floor as the blue sphere of energy that encased his family dissolved.
"How did you know that'd work?" Chris asked his sister.
"I didn't – and it didn't work either. I was trying to vanquish him!" Melinda replied.
"So you've freed your brother – congratulations. You puny witches still think you have what it takes to stop me?" Umbris jeered. His eyes caught sight of Piper and he smirked, "Oh? Still alive I see? I think I'll make sure that you stay dead this time."
"We'll see about that," Piper retorted as she flicked out her hands once more and half of Umbris' body suddenly exploded outwards in a plume of dark smoke. Her eyes widened as the darkness swirled around the demon and his arm reformed.
Umbris examined his reconstituted arm, "That wasn't very nice," he sneered, before throwing out the very same arm and firing a powerful blast of dark energy that slammed into Piper and sent her hurling backwards.
"Piper!" Leo called as he ran to his wife's aid.
"Chris!" Melinda cried.
The demon focused on his past possession and smirked. The two flung out their arms and pressed against each other with their telekinetic wills.
"You can do it, Chris!"
"No he can't! He couldn't withstand me before and can't withstand me now!" Umbris hissed as he jutted his arms forward and pressed harder against Chris' power.
Chris was slowly being pushed backwards – his shoes desperately tried to grip the floor beneath him for a solid footing. Umbris flicked his hand outward and launched a ball of shadowy energy from his hand straight at the younger witch. Melinda met his power with her own, freezing the shadowy ball in its tracks. Chris winced as he continued to battle Umbris' powerful will. He strained his mind as he forcefully waved his free hand and the frozen ball of dark power flew into the mausoleum. It exploded, sending chunks of stone in every direction as the front gate was flung off of its hinges and was thrust straight into Umbris' back. The demon cried out in pain and morphed into a tornado of swirling black smoke.
"Mel!" Chris exclaimed, looking through the debris for his sister.
"I'm fine," she insisted, "we need to get out of here!"
The two witches ran over to their unconscious brother and knelt beside him. "Wyatt? Wyatt?" Chris said, gently shaking the elder witch, "come on, Wyatt, wake up!"
Wyatt stirred and opened his eyes slightly, "Chris?" he said, his voice riddled with exhaustion and confusion, "Melinda? Where am I? What-"
"There's no time to explain, Wyatt. You need to orb you and Melinda home, now! Can you do that for me?" Wyatt nodded. "Good," Chris turned to his sister, "Mel, you go with Wyatt and I'll get mom and dad. When we're all together we'll think of another plan to vanquish Umbris." Melinda nodded too. "Right, off you go," Chris said, tapping Wyatt on the shoulder. The eldest and youngest witch disappeared in a wave of lights.
Chris turned and ran towards Leo who was crouched over Piper trying to nurse her wounds. The raging swirl of darkness ceased spinning and Umbris reappeared, glaring at the witch-whitelighter. The demon lashed out his arm and Chris was sent flying backwards and slammed into a nearby tree. The witch fell to the floor and whimpered in pain as he crawled behind the towering tree, trying to escape the demon's gaze.
Chris poked his head out from behind the tree and noticed the athamé still stuck into the ground. He waved his arm and the dagger flew out of the dirt and zipped through the air straight into Umbris' back. The demon cried out with rage and his hands began to amass a spiralling dark power. Chris removed himself from his natural cover and sprinted towards his parents as the demon launched the energy from his hands. The witch's body dissolved into sparkling lights as he dived on his parents and the three of them disappeared from view in the nick of time, as the blasts of dark energy exploded in the spot they were in not a second before.
Umbris reached behind him, ripped the blade out of his back and held it to his face. "I still have plans for you, my pretty – don't you worry about that," he snarled before he disappeared in a plume of dark smoke.
Author's Note:
Oh no! The Woogy got his body back – and worse still, he's actually the powerful demon Umbris? The kids have got their work cut out for them, but Wyatt is safe, right? That has to count for something… What does Umbris have planned? Stay tuned to find out!
Author's Note #2:
I'm well aware that I'm taking creative liberties with the names of Penny's mother, as was never named, and I'm also aware that 's mother was "Lola Mack" on the family tree, but that prop in itself is terribly flawed so please look over those small details and enjoy the episode =]
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