Chapter Eighteen:
Chris sat alone on the couch in his so-called apartment. His mind was racing, and he had no way to keep from facing his thoughts, his feelings, and worst of all his memories. Thinking about how his life came to this point, being the prisoner of the source of all evil, his own brother. Then there was the whole issue with knowing of Wyatt's plan to kill an innocent man, and being powerless to stop it. Sick of just sitting around letting his thoughts get the best of him, Chris once again decided to go out into the underworld cave surrounding his gilded cage. If he could figure out the way Wyatt ran the underworld, perhaps that would give him the knowledge that could help bring his brother's terror regime down, one day. That is if he ever managed to escape.
When Chris looked around this time it seemed as if there were even more demons concentrated in the area. He wasn't sure however, it could have just been his imagination. Upon scanning the scene it did not take Chris long to locate his brother in the corner of the cave, talking to a young female demon, who looked oddly familiar to Chris, although he could not see her face. He walked over to try to identify who it was, because Chris already knew who most of Wyatt's trusted minions were, and the young woman was not ringing a bell.
When Chris finally did make it over to the other side of the cave, he recognized her immediately as the woman he had met at the bar the night that Prue was taken, Bianca. He was rather surprised to learn that she was evil, because he had not gotten that impression, but after all he had been rather smashed. He was angry at himself though for having been attracted to a demon, or whatever she was. However, despite his shock he managed to remain unseen while he listened to the orders that Wyatt was giving to her. "I want you to kill the senator tonight, I cannot have him planting seeds of doubt in the people of this state, I have come to far to lose the ground I made because of some greedy mortal who does not want to give up his own power." Bianca nodded at what he was telling her, she had never enjoyed her work but she had come to accept that this was her life.
Wyatt, having gotten business taken care of seductively put his arm around the Phoenix witch, who quickly rebuffed his advances. "I may have to work for you since you rule the underworld, but I do not have to be with you, nor do I have any interest in doing so, got it?" Bianca was sick of Wyatt's advances. Yeah she was a professional assassin but she disliked her work, and had always tried to make death quick and painless for her victims. Wyatt however enjoyed terrorizing and torturing innocent people and that simply repulsed her.
The all powerful source did not take the rejection well, but he suppressed his anger, knowing that Bianca did her job well and he did not want to lose such a valuable asset. "Whatever." he scoffed. "Just take care of the problem, tonight, and don't leave a mess." The female witch coldly looked up at the source. "Consider it done." she said and then Wyatt orbed out.
Bianca was about to shimmer out as well when she heard something from behind her. It was Chris, and she recognized him from the night they had met at the bar. "I've never seen you in the underworld before." She stated rather inquisitively. "Well that is because I am not evil, although I have been down here several times, for vanquishes." She stared him down unsure of what to think. "So you are a witch. Chris right?" He nodded. "I'm surprised you remember me. And your Bianca, I remember talking to you down at The Shack, but I don't remember you mentioning that you were a demon." He said rather sarcastically.
"Well that's because I am not a demon." She replied sounding offended. "I am a witch. One of the Phoenix coven." Chris just looked at her blankly, knowing about Phoenixes' as his mother had been killed by one. "Sorry, you are an evil witch, who uses powers to kill." She chose to ignore his remark, but she was still rather curious about what a witch was doing down in the underworld, and why all the demons were acting as if everything was normal. Finally though it clicked in her mind. "You're Chris Haliwell aren't you?" she asked although knowing the answer, she had heard that Wyatt was holding his younger brother down in the underworld.
"Maybe, what's it to you?" He asked. She just shrugged her shoulder. "Anyway I owe you an apology." She told him. "An apology?" Chris asked in a sarcastic tone. "For what?" She made direct eye contact with him before giving her answer. "Because I was wrong when I told you your problems couldn't be any worse that mine. I can't imagine anything worse than having Wyatt Haliwell for a brother." She said almost showing compassion in her voice, but trying to cover it with sarcasm. Chris just nodded, before asking a more difficult question. "So how do you justify killing innocent people?"
Bianca flinched clearly rattled by the question. Her conscious tormented her over that question everyday of her life. "I don't" She said flatly, trying to hide her emotions. "It is just a job that I was born into and one that I am stuck with." Chris just gave her a strange look. "That's crap. You could choose to be good if you wanted." He told her. This statement really hit home, as deep down she yearned to get out of her life. "If only that were true." she said, angry at herself for showing emotion, yet somehow she felt comfortable confiding in the young man before her. To Chris' surprise he found him self feeling bad for the Phoenix witch. "I know Wyatt has given you an assignment for tonight." he informed her. "He can't force you to kill." he continued "not if you don't want to."
She wanted so much to believe what he was saying, but there were just so many expectations, particularly those of her family. He was right though, she did not want to kill, but she simply saw no way to escape her life. She was born and bred to be a killer, and that was that. "Whatever." she said before shimmering out leaving Chris standing there alone knowing that she was going to execute Wyatt's orders.
Back at P3 Prue emerged from the back office and quickly walked over to Brian and Leo. "I just has a vision" She told them. "When I turned on the radio, there was a report about Senator Hall, and I saw him being hit by an energy ball, over at City Hall tonight, in less than an hour." Leo nodded realizing the urgency of the situation. "All right" he said. "We need to get over there and stop it. Did you see what demon it was?" He asked. "No." Prue answered. "The vision wasn't that clear." Leo nodded. "Okay then we will just bring what potions we have. We don't need to worry about vanquishing the demon right now, we just have to rescue the senator."
"I agree." Brian said. "I'll go, and Prue should come too because she knows exactly where and when it is supposed to happen." he said "I agree." Leo said. "I'll orb you two over there." "Us three" they heard Bridget's voice from behind them, she continued not giving her brother a chance to protest. "If my brother and my best friend are going then I am going to," she said. Brian nodded reluctantly. "Okay" he said knowing that they were short on time and that he could not stay here and argue with his stubborn little sister. He was just thankful his other sister was still too young to argue with him the way Bridget did. "I'll go grab some potions." Prue said before walking off to go retrieve what potions they had ready made.
After grabbing as many as she could she walked over to Sean and told him what was going on. He hated doing nothing while Prue went out and put herself in harms way, but the reality was that he had no supernatural powers and she did. "Good Luck." he told her before giving her a soft kiss. "And be careful." She simply nodded as she headed back over to where Leo, Brian and Bridget were waiting.
The four of them then orbed out, not wasting any time. They materialized inside a janitors closet down at City hall. It was after office hours so the place was pretty empty, but they did notice a light on in the office at the end of the hall. The door was open a crack and Prue peeked in. "He is in there. And this is definitely the office from my vision." she whispered. The others nodded, and then just waited there in anticipation. It wasn't long though before they saw a female witch, Bianca, shimmer in. She threw off an energy ball before the Senator even realized she was there. Eventually realizing what was happening he looked up in fear, when suddenly the energy stopped dead not a foot from his head. Prue still had her hands up, after gesturing to freeze the energy ball before it met its target.
Bianca turned around to face the group of witches, surprised at their presence. She was slow to react however as Chris' words kept echoing in her head "He can't force you to kill…not if you don't want to." Her hesitation gave Brian the opportunity to gesture, blowing her up. Prue, Brian, Bridget and Leo, all looked at each other, all thinking the same thing, that it was too easy. Regardless, Prue went over and knocked the senator out of the way of the energy ball before unfreezing the scene. "What's going on?" He demanded in a rather shaky tone.
Before they could answer Bianca rematerialized before them and shot off another energy ball, aiming once again at the senator. Prue's reflexes were barely quick enough as she managed to freeze the second energy ball, as it came towards her and Senator Hall. Brian once again gestured causing Bianca to explode for a second time. "We need to get out of here." Bridget exclaimed "Before she comes back, maybe with help." All agreeing Leo orbed the group, including the senator, back to the club.
Bianca rematerialized down in the underworld, clearly flustered. This was the first time she had failed at a job, and it wasn't just because the witches showed up. She had hesitated. She leaned herself against the cave wall, not knowing how she would tell Wyatt that she had failed. Strangely though, she felt incredibly relieved. She was glad that she had been kept from taking another life. "Maybe I don't have to keep doing this." she thought to herself, before heading to Wyatt's lair, knowing there would be hell to pay for her failure.