Legacy: Pieces of Eight

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Three: Armageddon

Bobby watched his sister as she began reading the incantation from the paper that he'd brought, which would allow them access to the Oracles. Her blue eyes turned towards him, as though sensing his gaze and she gave him a crooked smile before returning her attention to what she was doing. "Okay, maybe this isn't such a good idea," he commented. "I know that it's our best bet, but . . . we're talking about the Powers That Be."

"Which means that they're either gonna tell us what we want to know or turn us both into frogs." Bobby couldn't help chuckled at the mental image that she'd prescribed and she smiled faintly, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear. "Either way, I've got the feeling that we're running low on options and time, so let's just get this over with."

"All right," Bobby sighed as they both turned to the portal that was beginning to open. "'We beseech access to the knowing ones.'" Looking towards his sister, he forced a smile. "I hope that I'm doing this right. Okay, from Mom told me about them, you just get in there, ask your questions, and get out. Don't wait, because they are unpredictable."

"Fine, no waiting," Susan muttered as the bright light of the portal began to open. "Am I the only one having a bad feeling about this? Because whenever portals happen to open, bad things happen. Look what almost happened the last time."

"Yeah, well, blame Brooke for that one," Bobby said, rolling his eyes as they walked into the portal, entering into a pure white room that looked like what Bobby imagined Up There would look like. In front of them were to ethereal beings, dressed in ancient Greek garments and had a sense of great power about them. "Uh . . . hi."

"This is for you," Susan said as she pulled out the vase that they'd stopped by the antique store and retrieved earlier. "A sixteenth century vase from Ireland." She tossed it to the female Oracle, who caught it easily and looked at it admiringly.

"It is beautiful," she commented with a nod towards her fellow Oracle. "Come before us, witches," she added, motioning for them to come further into the room. Bobby followed his sister's motions as they obeyed. "We know why you are here. Your father was here just moments before, to try and find where the two remaining guardians have been."

"The sons of the eldest Charmed One protect one, the other remains vulnerable," the brother said as they watched the two witches. "You wish to know how to find him?"

"Yes, but we also want to know what the amulets were created for," Susan answered, more boldly than she probably felt. Bobby could sense her nervousness just by looking at her. "Who created them, what they were used for and what they're gonna mean if all eight are joined together. Candace said that they were never meant to be brought together."

The Oracles looked at each other before returning their gazes to the two siblings. "There was a time, long ago, when the lands were ravaged by a demon that was summoned from beyond the earth, beyond your dimension and ours," the sister answered, not looking particularly worried about the dilemmas of humans. "He was very powerful and vengeful. His only goal was to rid the earth of humanity. I did not like him," she added scornfully. Her brother nodded in agreement.

"You met him?" Bobby asked in disbelief, forgetting for a moment that the Oracles were older than time itself. Older than man, older than demon, older than the universe. "Sorry."

"We met him," the brother said quietly. "But we did not involve ourselves in the trifles of lower beings. We watched as the humans fought against him, finally sending a great army to destroy him. He could not be killed, however, and finally eight witches banded together, using their magic to separate the demon into eight amulets. Each taking one, the witches separated, taking those amulets into a different part of the globe, never coming back together out of fear that someone would try and bring forth the demon known as the Avenger."

"And the guardians of the amulets . . . they're being killed so that somebody can get the amulets and bring them all together," Susan said slowly, looking around at Bobby fearfully.

"By Dad," Bobby whispered. "Dad's the one collecting the amulets, so he's got to be the one to do it."

The sister nodded. "He is killing the guardians, indeed," she acknowledged, "to restore the Avenger to his full power again. And when that happens," she said in a calm voice, "it will bring forth Armageddon." Silence met her words and Susan took a step back.

"And the last guardian?" she asked, her voice filled with determination. "Where can we find him?"

"You won't," the brother replied simply. "By the time that you get there, it will already be too late. All you have to do is to protect the guardian that you have already rescued and secure the amulet before they find out where its gone. Retrieve the other amulets and send them to a secure location. And remember this," he added, "no weapon forged in that time could destroy him."

"That's not promising," Susan grumbled as they were blasted from the white room, landing in a heap in the tunnels where they'd entered. "Okay, do they not know the meaning of 'goodbye'?" she inquired, pushing herself painfully up. "Let's not do that again."

"Well, we at least learned what the amulets are for and why Dad wants them," Bobby sighed as they started to climb up to the city levels. "We driving or orbing?"

Susan sighed. "Uh . . . Bobby, I hate to break this to you, but we are trying to stop your lunatic father from bringing forth a demon that could potentially bring an apocalypse with him," she said sarcastically. "We can get the car later. We can't get the world back if it ends."

"I was just asking."

--

Chris sighed as he glanced up at the clock. "They've been gone for nearly four hours," he commented, referring to Susan and undoubtedly Bobby. "Maybe somebody should go after them."

"Don't worry about Susan, she'll be fine," Brandon said with a shrug. "We just need to worry about finding the last guardian. The Elders said that she's cloaking herself from them and everybody else because of what's been happening."

Alex sighed as he paced back and forth across the apartment, glancing towards them. "You sure that Candace is going to be safe at Magic School?" he asked worriedly. "Because you know, we're taking a chance. We can't afford any more amulets to be taken, especially considering that we have absolutely no idea of what they do."

"I'm sure that once Susan gets back, we'll find out a whole lot more," Brandon told him calmly. "Bobby just probably took her someplace that's taking awhile to get the information that they need." He sighed as he glanced towards Brooke's closed door. "She's been in there awhile, maybe somebody should go talk to her."

There was a long pause until Wyatt finally stood up, about to head into his girlfriend's room when Brandon stopped him. "I meant somebody that understands what she's going through," Brandon said as he moved past Wyatt and walked into Brooke's room without knocking.

"She's my girlfriend," Wyatt grumbled as the door closed behind him, securely locking him out.

Brooke looked up the moment that Brandon walked inside and scowled up at him. "Do Whitelighters not understand a person's need to be alone?" she demanded. "I swear, you guys have no respect for privacy."

"Sorry, I was under the impression that you might actually need somebody to talk to," Brandon responded, smiling at her. Brooke rolled her eyes as she turned away from him, curling back up on the bed. Brandon sighed and walked over to her, sitting down next to her. "What's going on, Brooke?" he asked her, more kindly.

"Nothing."

"Brooke, I am not going to believe that," Brandon told her with a small laugh, shaking his head. She looked up at him in annoyance. "I've been around you for a couple of months and you've got that look that says volumes that something's bothering you. Is it Alex?"

"Maybe," she said vaguely. Brandon chose not to say anything as she leaned back against her headboard. "I just don't get why he's even a Whitelighter again. The Elders made it perfectly clear when he killed his charge that he wasn't going to be guiding any more witches or future Whitelighters. Why would They suddenly change Their minds?"

"Well, maybe They think that he needs this," Brandon said with a shrug. "Helping people can be a powerful antidote for rebellion, Brooke. And since he's gotten off of his probation, he has been sticking to the rules and has been doing a really good job with Candace and his other charges."

She shook her head, disgusted. "How could you have so much faith in him after what he did?"

"I've got my reasons," Brandon said with a mysterious smile. "Look, Brooke, you may be right and he isn't ready for this, but sitting in your room while we've got innocents and witches in danger and amulets that we have no idea what they do isn't going to help anybody. Not Alex, not the people you're meant to help, not even you."

Raising her brown eyes to him, Brooke made a small smile as she looked at him sideways, as though she were just now seeing him in a whole new light. "You supposed to be Susan's Whitelighter or mine?" she teased.

"At the very least, I hope I'm your friend," Brandon said without thinking. Brooke smiled at him.

"Yeah, you are," she whispered softly as they began to lean closer to one another. Brandon, not even thinking that she was somebody else's girl or that he was breaking a whole bunch of rules by doing this, had his lips barely touching hers when Brooke pulled away.

"What are we doing?" she whispered incredulously. "Wait a minute, what are you doing?"

"I have absolutely no idea," Brandon said quickly, scrambling away from her and retreating a few steps, turning his back to her. "Oh, man. This is a really bad idea."

"Yeah, I'm glad we're both on the same page with that one," Brooke said, glaring at him furiously as she stood up, folding her arms across her chest. "Why were you trying to do that when my boyfriend is right out there, along with his brother and your charge's cousin? I mean, any one of them could have walked in at any second and caught us doing . . . whatever it was that we were just about to do!" Brooke was panicking by the end of this speech, but Brandon frowned at the end of her speech.

"So, the only problem that you had with that was that we could've been caught?" he asked slowly. Brooke stared at him, her face starting to heat up as she covered her mouth and sat down on the bed.

"Oh, gods," she whispered. "This isn't happening. I can't be doing this again, not after last time." Brandon felt his heart skip a beat as he looked away form her. "Okay, this is what we are going to do. We are going to go out there and find out what is going on and then later, we are going to talk about this calmly and rationally. Okay?"

Before Brandon could even respond, a knock came at the door rapidly and both of them jumped as the door opened, Susan peering around it quickly. "Hey, guys," she said, noticing their flushing faces almost immediately. "What's going in here? Everything okay?" She looked between her best friend and Whitelighter. "Brooke? Brandon? What's going on?"

"Uh . . . nothing," Brandon said, forcing a smile at his charge and hoped that if she didn't see through his lie, she wouldn't comment on it. They didn't need to deal with this right now. "It's nothing that can't wait. Did you find anything out from Bobby?"

"No, we actually went to go see the Oracles and boy, did we find out some stuff there," she said with a sigh, running her fingers through her hair as she looked between the two of them. "He's here, by the way, Bobby. And we should probably get out here, because we're gonna need to find a way to get the amulets back and get rid of them once and for all."

Brandon could sense her worry and see the fear all too clearly in her eyes. "How bad is it?" he wanted to know. He wasn't sure how much worse this day could possibly get.

Susan forced a smile at him and gave a small, weak laugh. "How about the end of the world?" she asked.