A/Note: So, one of the final chapters here. This is pretty two-parter with the next one, which may or may not premiere so soon after this one has since the last, but know that the finale is underway. Also, the next chapter is about 30, 32 pages. Big, big fight. Not LotR big, but pretty big. As for the title of this song, it both makes sense and is a song that has been really inspiring the mood for the finale. Check it out, it's by One Republic. You may now read and then kindly review, please!
Thanks to all my reviewers: This story has reached 400 reviews, which is pretty amazing, so thanks a load, guys and gals!
Chapter 27- All The Right Moves
Teaserline: If Good and Evil are both advancing, what's the outcome?
August 2nd, 2007
The night was screaming outside of the Mitchell-Matthews house as the navy sky was still, touched here and there with glistening stars to add some life to the obsidian canvas overhead, but roaring with unearthly growls of thunder. Nonetheless, the Witchlighter considered the sky to be one of life's greatest portraits, though tonight, the blinking stars peeking out from behind dark clouds went unnoticed by Paige as she had her back to the window in this midnight hour, officially thirty years of age. She watched her three children sound asleep inside their joint room, undisturbed and in full-on peace. In her three decades of life, the children she had managed to not completely screw up so far were her proudest accomplishment, especially since she never considered herself to be mother material.
She tightened the thin peach shawl over her shoulders and across her cleavage, her honey brown eyes bouncing back and forth between the three sleeping children. If she could've honestly had it her way, she would've preferred the task of only one child at this stage of her life as opposed to the challenge of three, but with the support of her family and friends to assist and the power to orb to be there in the instant she was needed, the kids managed to be just fine.
Ever since waking up from her cursed coma, Paige reflected on the impact her death would've made, as the only difference between her coma and passing away was that there was hope left in the hearts of those she loved and loved her back.
Just as she was about to become lost inside another whirlwind of the possibilities, Henry entered the room in a fitting black t-shirt with plaid boxers, assumably warm underneath the covers hanging from his shoulders as Paige was chilled at the moment, and said, "I never thought I'd say this after the coma, Paige, but..." he walked closer to her and hugged her to his chest. "Come to bed and let's get some rest."
Paige chuckled, "When I'm tired, I'll sleep, but there's too much traffic right now in my head." Henry pulled away from the hug and looked above her head, earning a playful, yet scalding look from his wife. "Not literally, Henry."
"I know, I know. You got to figure out the ritual to kill Valen who's inside Rose, then assist Billie in killing her," Henry drawled out in a comedic-dramatic tone. "I'm glad you devote your time to me and the kids though."
"The world is going to weather-hell out there on a weekly basis, but our home is safe. You're safe. Our kids are safe. My sisters and their families are safe. I have to say, it seems as if a demon really kept his word this time around. It seems like the only thing Avo is going to get out of this is being able to live. Until I get to him, at least," Paige assured, determination resounding clear in her gentle words. She hadn't told him about her encounter with Keith days before and kept quiet on the silent guardian angel she requested.
"So, birthday girl, I know of another activity we could busy our bed with if not sleep," Henry suggested, shifting topics as he didn't want Paige talking demons on her birthday.
"Real smooth," Paige replied, smirking. "It's almost as if there aren't three sleeping kids in the room as you suggested sex."
Henry feigned amazement, jokingly taking offense to her comment. "Paige, we don't use s-e-x in front of the kids. Let's go to bed and practice your subtlety." He offered his hand out to Paige, who willingly took it.
"Why don't we discuss that after...?"
(X)
Paige stretched her arm out, aiming for her husband's chest, bare after their evening activities, and her arm fell flat to the mattress. Her eyes opened quicker than an eager hand rushing towards their window blinds to gaze outside, and she was so alert she saw past the drowsy spell placed upon everyone when just waking up and searched the room for her husband. Just like her birthday the year before, as well as every other day from Sunday to Saturday, she feared the worst of what happened to him. "Henry?"
She tried again and no answer.
This wasn't right. She knew he'd taken the day off from work today and even if he was with the kids in their room, he would've heard her. She threw the sheets off of her thin frame, running off out of the bedroom only in Henry's white T-shirt from the night before and small aqua shorts. Barefoot, she stampeded down the stairs in great anxiousness and immediately smelled fresh breakfast floating from the kitchen. She calmed down, recognizing the smell of Henry's omelets at work, and just took a seat at the bottom step.
Was this what her life was truly going to be like? The Charmed One who's destiny may never end due to her hybrid lineage and what the Elders (not that she cared for them) expected of her? Piper had been near demon free for over a year and whatever attention she attracted, it was because of the ancestral tome in her home and whatever battle Paige invited her into. The same went for Phoebe, apart from having a duel out in an alley as her powers returned to her.
"Why me?" Paige whispered so lightly, she nearly confused herself thinking that the thought never even vacated her head and flew off her lips. The stress of her heavenly responsibilities continued to wage war against everything she wanted to do, such as wake up next to her husband undisturbed from everything apart from children crying and alarm clocks telling them to go work, as well as to tend to those crying children and not having to put them down because a charge is risking incineration as they foolishly stumble into an alley. If her comeback to this living realm and her birthday taught her anything, it was how much she missed the simple times before she was the Witchlighter of this world, and hated how much it refused to let her be a wife and parent. And sister. And aunt. And friend. And most of all, a young woman with a life free of world-heavy responsibilities.
Magic owned too much of who she was and Paige felt as if she prepared to fight for the steering wheel, even if it lead to a fatal collision of accepting who she is.
Henry slightly jogged out the kitchen, immediately finding a deep-in-thought Paige sitting on the step. "You alright, Paige?"
She looked up at him, surprised. "How'd you know I was here?"
"It had to have been the kid-Christmas march you took down the steps," Henry replied, taking a seat down next to her. "Your presents aren't here yet, Birthday Girl. You alright?"
She nodded, taking a hold of his hand and felt some yolk from the omelet, but didn't care. "I was just nervous that something happened to you. You know, the usual thoughts I have waking up."
"I'm fine, the kids are fine. We're all just in the kitchen, starting on some lunch," Henry said, pulling her into a hug.
"Lunch? How long did I sleep?" Paige asked, not even remembering drifting away last night.
The mortal chuckled, "I think the moment we started touching on how to better your subtlety. I must've bored you. Either that, or your refusal to sleep through a full night because of your coma finally made you crash." He rose from the step, picking Paige up with him and said, "I was about to wake you though as Peter finished a whole omelet by himself, which was yours. I have a fresh one in the kitchen for you right now."
"Let me just go and get changed into something a little more fitting." She flapped the large shirt from its sides and added, "Something prettier as well."
"Good idea. Everyone should be here soon," Henry responded, glancing at his watch. "And, Paige, we're going to keep this party magic-lite, right?"
She held up her crossed fingers and a smirk surfaced. "I vowed to not do anything magic-y on my birthday, I'm aware of this. I might have to talk a couple of things out with Cameron and Billie, because you know, the world and Underworld depend on it. Not that I care much about demons, I have to hold my end of the bargain and eliminate this scary demonic power before Avo finds use for her."
"That is one hell of a fine print inside your contract," Henry joked. The doorbell then rang and with wide eyes, he urged Paige up the stairs. "Company's here."
"Tell them I'm putting my face on. Piper might blow you out your flesh for making her remember what a bathroom hog I was, but I'll piece you back together later!" Paige replied, jogging up the steps. "Promise!" The excitement of a gathering to distract her from prior thoughts was evident in her rapid ascent.
Henry watched Paige until she was out of sight, then moved towards the door as the outside rang the bell again. "Coming!" Henry shouted, a couple of feet from the door. He reached the lock, unlocked it, and opened the door to see a man with brown hair, some curls entwined the top, small eyes by comparison, and a thin scar through his right eyebrow. "Can I help you?"
The man tugged on his navy sweater, buried his hands inside his matching jeans and replied, "Hey, how's it going? I'm an old friend of Paige's. I'm going to take a stab that you're the Henry-fella Phoebe told me about."
Henry felt slightly nervous, unsure if this man was a demon in disguise, even at the mention of him knowing Phoebe. "Yeah, I'm him. Who are you?" he replied, edged.
"Calm down, man. No foul intended. I'm Richard. I'm just stopping by to give the birthday girl my best wishes. Mind if I come in?"
(X)
The chasm thousands of miles below their feet roared with a terrible inferno, echoed with haunting, agonized screams, and whistled with dark, ancient magic. This Underworld district was restricted to all but only the superior voices of the realm and whatever company they saw fit of bringing. The Head of Darklighters, who found himself more reputable the past few months with his work on unleashing Valen, had earned his spot here long ago. He found this place as a child, lured by its mystique, and learned of its magic with the tale from his father.
He carried those words with him to this day, and as he stood beside Reynold on the cliff overlooking this yawning mouth of the Underworld, he glared at his Whitelighter uniform, prepared to disgrace the Elders and gain another. "You've come far, Reynold. And proved useful in acquiring the book from the Heavens which mapped my defeat. I now present you an honor for your service."
"So by accepting, I'll no longer be a Whitelighter," Reynold asked.
"It's much more than that. You'll no longer be weak, you'll have power at your disposal. You'll be able to roam the world and inspire fear into those you target. I have special plans for you as well, you'll be much more than an ordinary Darklighter. You deserve so," Avo stood as close to the edge as possible, peering into the purple fire below him. "Had I been in your position, I would find this leap so breathtaking."
"It looks quite frightening."
"Fear of falling? Such a tiny scare. You'll gain courage when you emerge. They all do. Some more arrogance, others insight, but you will have a confidence and dedication about your new ways, all while spitting on those blinding gold robes of your soon to be former forefathers," Avo grinned, placing a powerful hand on Reynold's shoulder, making the Whitelighter quiver at the touch of a profound dark being. "I'll admit, killing Paige was a thought I held long ago, once I learned of her entering the Charmed trifold, but I let it be. I didn't believe her to be worthy of my attention, so I sent out the pawns to carry out my work. She proved worthy over the years, shaped into a deadly Witchlighter by her sisters and the idiotic demons who challenged her, but Rose is about to play her final role in helping me defeat Paige and I welcome the break in the Balance."
"The Balance? The Ultimate Balance? The Scale of All?" Reynold asked. "It isn't to be tampered with. The laws aren't even to be challenged, not even by you, you know the risks!"
Avo removed his hand, straightened his jacket and grinned. "Give me credit, I've done my research. There's a loophole in the design, thankfully. One I discovered when I sought out Rose and realized if I was to claim a artifact important to our demonkind, I'd need the grandeur power of a demonic queen. There aren't that many laying about anymore with Hecate down in power and not fully recovering from her previous vanquish, it would've taken centuries to recruit her. Valen would have to do and that she will."
"What is it she's getting you?"
"You'll know after you take your Fall. You'll witness greatness, I promise you this. Greater than whatever light show the Elders put up whenever a worthy soul accepts his angel-hood," Avo's eyes glowed black, striking terror into Reynold's tainted soul and he chorused the same words his father taught him in his tale of this place, "He who descends shall spiral down deep, banishing his soul to exist no more, displacing oneself into a servant of the fire. Align thyself with the parallel of thy being and kill thy spirit. Just as ye shall twist and kill others." His eyes diminished from their darkness, though were still respectively foul.
"A Spirit Killer?" Reynold asked, thinking of the times he had to save a charge from these dangerous opponents and their mental powers. "Me?"
"All Spirit Killers were once Whitelighters. Who else better to help guide a lost soul into that final plunge of death than someone who used to sing the words to save them? It is you who understands how souls can grow corrupt and that there is truth to the words of my kind. Just magnified to better work on our behalves. Do you accept, Reynold?"
Without taking much thought, he answered. "Yes."
"Don't tell me," Avo looked down into the chasm. "Show your commitment and leap." He pointed downwards. "Be the next falling angel."
Reynold almost stopped to pray, then remembered he was abandoning such Faith in the Holy. He now served a new master, proving this with a mountainous leap on down into the abyss. He felt the orbs burning off of him, being picked apart by a spectral of shadow who howled many things out him.
"Make ashes of the old."
"Embrace your new being."
"Journey into greatness."
"Torch away the divine, scorch the Holy."
The Whitelighter continued to descend, noticing ravenous faces in the fire, starving for something good to feed on. The orbs of a Whitelighter would certainly fulfill their appetite, before spitting them back out onto Reynold as his new shell. Until then, the Whitelighter would continue to fall and would rise later, anew.
And with this, the Balance slowly began to break in Evil's favor...
(X)
Paige jogged down the stairs quickly in black jeans with strapped heels, having had practice running in heels after all the years of demonic ambushes. She was a shameless professional. Her dark hair curtained the shoulders of her lime green v-neck top, jeweled along her sides. She spotted Henry sitting in the living room, just staring at someone. It was strange, considering just how well he got off with her sisters. Either way, she'd lighten the mood. She walked in with closed eyes, smiling, as her hands danced around introducing her presence, "Go ahead. Wish me a happy one."
"Happy Birthday," a male voice said, one she recognized but had to confirm by opening her eyes.
"Oh, my God. Richard!" She walked towards him with arms extended and he rose from the opposite couch of Henry, embracing her.
Henry watched uncomfortably, wishing he didn't feel so insecure over a guy who clearly wasn't good enough to win Paige over for the long run like he was. Just seeing that hug though, he could almost read the history between them.
The two parted and Paige smacked him in the chest, "Wow, I wasn't expecting to see you around anytime soon. How've you been?"
He nodded with a grin now unfamiliar to her, "Fine. Just working as a counselor for teens at this location inside town. It's pretty eye-opening work. Yourself? I've met the husband already..." he shifted quickly at an unhappy Henry and returned back to Paige. "Not the kids though."
"I actually left them in the kitchen," Henry shamefully admitted, too distracted by the threat of an old flare. "Sorry, I'm going to get back to them. Peter's too young to babysit for more than ten minutes, I think." He feigned a chuckle and moved towards his wife, kissing her on the forehead before leaving.
"I don't think he cares too much for the idea of me being here. I'm sorry, I should've called," Richard apologized, willing to leave at that moment. Even if that meant leaving without what he came for.
"Don't worry about him, he's just my protective, grizzly bear of a man. He tries to involve himself in any demon fight and considering I'm approaching a pretty huge one, he's a bit on the edge," Paige explained, then pat Richard on the shoulder. "It's really good to see you alive and well, living magic-free and seemingly proud of your work. Teens, huh?"
"Yeah, and it's a recently special one that made me realize how I feel about my life," Richard softly said.
"You wanna board the parent train now? Afraid I'm no longer available to help engineer that one," Paige joked, earning a slightly forced chuckle out of Richard.
"I miss magic. I really do, Paige. The power humming inside me, actively making potions for all means, the way a benign energy ball could grow inside my fist, and even the risk of making sure I knew which ingredients partnered well with the other," Richard replied, rather passionate. "I recently helped a fifteen year old boy embrace his magic, electrifying powers that terrified him. I guided him and he's okay now. It just got me to thinking back to everything I just told you and that all leads to this." He sighed and proceeded to ask the question that walked his feet to this house. "Please, can you trust in me to give me my powers back?"
(X)
Billie peaked over the stacks of books laid out on the table in the Magic School study room, gazing at Cameron who had his back to her as he leafed through a thick book on his own. Somewhere, inside one of these books, they were going to find the answer to defeating the demonic power inhabiting Rose. Whether or not she could be saved in the process was another story, but that was a road they were definitely going to have to roll through whenever they found the ritual.
"Which book do you have there?" She asked, already having glimpsed the cover, but she just shamefully wanted to hear his voice; when he was calm like he was now researching, his voice had a way of soothing her anxiousness away, bringing her to that relaxed stage he'd mastered leaving himself in.
He looked over to her, refusing to admit to himself just how glad he was that she broke the much needed silence with her question, especially since he believed her to have had an idea of what he was reading anyway when he picked the book from the top of her pile. "It's Beyond the Black Gates, the second volume of the series in pretty damn good edition. Binding is the roughest, but it's kept all the information in one piece. So, while I've been educated on a couple rituals restricted only to the powers of the Source that future witches should keep a look out for, none of them are what we're looking for." He slammed the book close, expelling sprays of dust as he tossed the book onto the table.
"Some respect you're showing for that book there," she replied, then bounced up from her seat and held hers up. "I think I'm gaining some lead now with this book that Leo suggested."
"Which would be...?"
"Students aren't allowed to see it because of some of the rituals inside are too enticing and they are, I have to admit, but The Spells of the Slow Hour really hold your hand to the last detail. No cryptic funny stuff. They even give an estimated time on assembling all the necessities with suggestions on where to grab them," Billie held her page with her finger, then closed it to better eye the cover. An upside down pentagram adorned the upper left corner, made of leather, while buried inside some crimson wax. "Is this blood?"
Without looking directly, he asked, "Is there a listed author? Greyhorne, by any chance? Vack Greyhorne?"
Billie scanned the bottom and nodded. "How'd you know?"
"He was a traitorous demon in the early ages. Bad for them, awesome for us. He was a candidate for the Source's throne and he wasn't someone who liked being benched as the runner-up to wait until this Source was axed off. Skipping ahead, he rebelled, deciding that he would aid the Elders, witches, and any other champions with the resources in defeating demonkind," Cameron explained, sharing more of his demonic knowledge. Billie assumed he must've done really well training and studying when he was younger.
"So what? The demon got upset and decided to get published? Wow. Nothing smacks the bad guys in the face like literature," Billie replied, rolling her eyes.
"His name was inscribed later, after the book got in our hands and after he was sentenced to an eternity of hellfire with no means to escape. There's not a single ritual in there or spell to save Greyhorne, Rose with Valen's powers couldn't let him free if she wanted to. Evil would have to be diminished from the world completely and the Underworld couldn't even exist any longer," Cameron casually answered, clearly not caring much for everything this demon is still going through and would forever go through, just so this book could end up in the right hands. "He's been locked up and they destroyed the key."
"In other words, he's never going to just reduce to ashes and fall into oblivion? Never going to see the Wasteland?"
"He'll reduce to ashes, maybe, but he'll just build right the hell back up and rinse and repeat. Anyhow, I doubt the ritual we're looking for is going to be in there, but if I remember right, there are some resources he left behind that might be worth checking into. I can't believe I forgot about his work, it's just there are plenty of demonic authors that I've read growing up, he just fell out of mind."
Billie began to thumb through the pages again, slightly frightened at the words she was hearing, then replied, "I'm not sure if it's scarier that you read literature by demons or that demons are actually sitting around in their Underworld corners, getting poetic revenge instead of determining the best way to kill people like me." She shrugged the thought off, stopping at a page bulleted in a difficult penmanship. "I think I found it."
The mercenary strolled over her way, leaning over her while managing to slyly brush her arm with his as he overlooked the list. He fought for dominance between his heart and mind, pushing aside the feelings he hadn't spoken to her and concentrated on the books titled below. "Hmm. Crushing Ashes seemed to be a possibility, but I think crumbled ashes are more appropriate for the standard heavy-hitting fire-laced traps. Not rituals. I have a copy in my collection, I'll check that out, but all of these here are lacking the necromancy ritual we need."
"Last time I checked, I'm still a sorceress, right? Can't I just build together my own ritual? Tailor it to our needs?" Billie questioned. "You don't want us using this Ritual of the Spiritus Rector that Rose suggested because you don't think we should trust her word alone, but..."
"I also think it's best if we stick to something pre-made that's gonna pack enough of a super punch to take Valen out. You're still new to this game, we need to find the old strategies, namely the Living Grave Ritual, left behind by some praised player to win this one. Killing her seems to be out of the question, but we can bury her back in her grave," he zippered up his dark gray jacket, comfortably warm inside the leather. "I'm going to head back to my place and grab a couple of things as well as check on if any of my guys have found anything. Rituals can be very complex and can easily bite us in the ass if we don't play it right "
She nodded, "I know, I know, Cam, we go in sure or we don't go in at all. I'm just sure Christy would know if we could somehow find her." Despite the Phoenix's protest, the thoughts of forging her own ritual still lingered in the sorceress' doubted head.
Cameron wasn't even sure if Christy was alive, but kept his silence. "Yeah, I'm sure she would. I'll be back, Billie." He vanished in his usual fashion, leaving his words only with her. And they stuck.
"Maybe I can't create a ritual good enough to kill Valen," she whispered gently, flipping close the pages of Greyhorne's book. She thought back to her ultimate power and considered something Cameron begged her not to do. "But I can project my spirit to Christy." Her sister should know whether to trust this Spiritus Rector Ritual and where to find it. In turn, this would save them all.
(X)
Paige did her best to ignore Richard's request, saved by the doorbell when Piper and her family arrived with a feast for the ages to last them through another World War, she had exaggerated. Phoebe and Coop weren't too late behind and the middle sister teased how she and Coop should say their vows now and seal their love with a kiss while everyone was here and conscious, but Piper slapped both Phoebe's shoulder and the idea away. Today was Paige's day and that was how it was going to remain.
To the Witchlighter's surprise, Phoebe and Richard were in a corner chatting, and Paige approached a casually dressed Coop, reaching up to drop a hand on his shoulder. "Not jealous at all, are we?"
The cupid chuckled, "Right. Richard's heart beats for a woman at his job and Phoebe's heartbeat is reserved for me and me only. I've been reading hearts longer than words, Paige." He grinned as he cast a quick glance at Henry, "Though, I can tell you that Henry's a bit uncomfortable. And I understate just how uncomfortable."
Paige turned to the husband that her heart promised to be loyal to forever and knew that as time passed, Henry had only strengthened that lock of preserved love. She grinned at his discomfort, slightly okay with him being so protective of her that he was missing out on a good friend because it was in the name of their marriage. He trusted her, he just didn't trust the old flame returning as he expected him to try and throw some sticks into an old and forgotten campfire to re-ignite the former flare.
Henry just sat there with Samantha on his lap, watching and tickling her while occasionally bouncing his gaze to Richard to keep a watch on where his eyes were looking. Paige continued to grin at him as she asked Coop, "How do I tackle this one, Cupid?"
"I'm assuming you don't want me to toss out the speak-from-your-heart cliches, right?"
"Spare me," she joked.
"Henry will get over it, I don't doubt it. He's just a little intimidated that Richard was a man of magic and was able to tag along side for battle without you keeping him at home," Coop explained through the help of the glowing ring on his finger. Some of it was just plain obvious, heart-detecting ring or not.
"That's not true though!" She burst out louder than her preferred tone, gaining an audience of eyes that she playfully shooed off with her hand. Once they turned, she continued, "I left Richard behind as well. I didn't want him using the very essence that Henry's jealous of. So, no, I didn't encourage the use of his powers by making a power couple out of us." Paige shuddered at the idea of power couples, remembering Simon Mark's offer. Hopefully he was staying across the pond for good.
"Have you and Henry ever discussed this particular relationship?"
She nodded to the side, "Not to a full extent. Of course we shared our dating histories, but all I told him was that Richard was a magic-holic and that's what broke us apart. It was something he was glad to hear, but maybe since Richard is actually here right now, it bothers him again." She shrugged in self-wonder.
"Hey," Coop started with a boyish grin. "Kindly let me do my job in the future. If you start giving yourself love advice, I lose my role." The two laughed and she agreed. "May I give some advice before you run to Phoebe or give it yourself?" After a chuckle and a roll of Paige's eyes, he proceeded. "Maybe give Henry the magical tasting he's always been looking forward to. He once attempted a hair-transformation potion if I remember my details right and that was all in the name of showing you that if you need him in those circumstances, he'll have a footing to work off of."
Paige's lips curved to the side, once again in thought, and she replied, "I guess he could take a shot at spell-writing, he did write me a really nice poem once but that was under the inspiration of a muse. He then also sung me a song he was making up once, but that was under the influences of a very drunk muse and it wasn't nearly as beautiful." The two laughed together and she bounced her shoulders, "Perhaps just another potion. Great advice, Cupid."
Coop relieved himself of a dramatic sigh and said, "Good, I can still find purpose around you Halliwells. Go me."
The Witchlighter pat him on the chest as she walked past and said, "Alright, I'm going to go give this a shot. I'm not sure how he's going to feel that there's some magic working its way into what was supposed to be a magic-lite birthday, but this is a cauldron that always bubbles and after a year, he should come to grips with that already." She delivered a final grateful smile towards Coop and floated over to her husband, placing a hand on his shoulder and whispering in his ear, "Psst. I need to borrow you for a few magical minutes."
As the two excused themselves, Paige imagined that Henry's mind was definitely elsewhere right now and he would only be more surprised when he found himself pinching herbs between his fingers to form a substance unintended for his mundane lifestyle.
(X)
The sorceress stared outside the room's window, letting her gaze fall upon the garden of Magic School laying beyond, particularly the fountain planted atop a hill that she'd always wished to visit but was always too busy studying, researching, and strategizing to take time out to sit by it; it looked like a good place to think. She turned her back to the outside of this enchanted, concealed realm that hovered above the natural world, but was positioned under the great beyond space. Billie moved to the center of the room and sat down, crossing her one leg under the other. Her eyes closed, she focused her collected energies into merging with her spirit, permitting it to escape past her flesh and out onto the world where...
"What are you doing?" Cameron asked, having manifested in with a buzzing that went ignored to Billie's focused senses. When she guiltily looked up at him, he raised an eyebrow, "Something tells me that you weren't just about to bounce side to side and sing campfire songs."
"Throw me in prison, I'm guilty," she said, lifting herself up from the floor, wishing he was quicker to aid her in getting up. A little distracted at the last thought, she continued, "Uh, um. Oh, right. I was going to try and project myself to see Christy. I figured it would be harmless if I wasn't going there myself, it would've just been an astral version-"
"That you could've been trapped in by Valen's magic or did you already forget what she managed to do to Paige's soul already? You're getting reckless and you need to slow down, Billie. Rose wanted you dead already and that was before she swallowed one nasty, embodiment of evil one day with a glass of water. Demons like killing if you haven't noticed, Valen knows of Rose's hate, so she's going to be extra eager to kill you!" His face was growing red, the fire in his soul bursting with anger, warming his body and blood from the inside. "Dammit, I can't leave you alone for twenty minutes without you rushing to meet your maker!"
Taken back, the sorceress looked side to side, unable to decide on a reaction. He was showing how much he cared, not wanting her running off against an ancient power that wasn't vanquishable in the past – and he was right, she was being reckless. "I'm sorry, Cam. You and everyone else know this, but my sister is a sensitive subject to me, and when her life is on the line, I'm always willing to put mine down as well. I don't think-" she stopped to glare him back down for raising an eyebrow at her recent words, then continuing, "about the consequences all the time and I don't consciously try to get killed. I make some bad choices, I have in the past and I will in the future, but don't you understand that when you care enough about someone, you risk it all?"
This time, Cameron was at a loss as to how to respond, with his feelings still kept quiet for the girl in front of him, he wasn't sure if she had any idea how he felt about her – being raised as an assassin kept him divided from the quarters of love, therefore leaving him to lost to romancing, to telling the signs of mutual affection, and was instead left on lessons of beheading demons and finding his opponent's Achilles' Heel. If there was any shared understanding right now, he realized it was the question asked, knowing that although he didn't know how to confess his feelings for her, he would do his best to always champion her.
"Yeah, risk rings clear, Billie. I just want you to really prove that you know your dangerous next step and just stay still for once," Cameron finally replied, taking a couple of steps closer to her, wondering when they would share their first moment. A war was raging on, it wouldn't be anytime soon. Would it? he thought, mentally punishing himself some more. Ask him how to defeat the humanoid demons from the Serpentine Clan and he would tell you to repel their own venom on where their false hearts are, but asking Cameron Hawkins to propose a kiss would petrify him oblivious.
The two remained silent, completely unaware just how much their unspoken thoughts twinned and if a single voice spoke up, the two could join as one; partners in battle, a true friend to confide in, lovers...
"Did you find anything?" Billie asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
The mercenary nodded sideways, "Sorry, but I got nothing but bad news when I returned home."
"What's wrong?" She took a step towards him, leaving only three more quick steps in between them until they were face to face...
Cameron wanted to sit down for this, not having been able to go back to the Phoenix Mansion at the risk of showing weakness, but he didn't want to break the distance between himself and Billie. "A couple of my men were killed. They were last seen by her lair, a total group of three, and one was set free to send a message to us. To you as well."
"The message being?"
"I see no reason to repeat the formality of it, but she was basically telling us to bring it on." Cameron shuffled another step towards her and added, "This is why I was getting heated before, I'm sorry about that. It's just that she knows we're planning on knocking on her door and by the sounds of it, she's juiced up some of her residents; the demons are stronger. It's bad enough we haven't figured out how to stop her, but now she's sharing her power."
The sorceress looked at the piles of books, remembering many of the texts and the glimpse of hope she gained each time she saw something that sounded to be of worth but was canceled out by other ingredients and incorrect moon phases. "Why can't I just project that damn ritual here? What makes it so out of reach? Or better yet, what tongue-ties Avo and Rose from saying where X marks the spot?"
"I think they were chancing being heard by Valen – telling Paige what the ritual was to begin with was risky, but saying the location might've been even worse..." Cameron drifted off, thinking onwards.
The blonde grinned slightly, sensing realization in Cameron's changing features. "I feel a Eureka! coming on."
"If I was a nerd, you would've gotten it, but the case being otherwise, you'll just have to settle on how I think we may find the Ritual of the Spiritus Rector." He broke the space between them with another two steps, just leaving them a foot apart, and dropped a hand on her shoulder, sending a frightening warmth through her body and a flush in her cheeks.
"Are you saying you actually trust their word now? Rose, the vessel for Valen, included?"
Cameron nodded. "What other choice do we have? We can't let Valen parade on and collect more power. We've been spending our time researching books from past demons and forgotten sorcerers, but we haven't explored the past – and with your power, we can just do that. Didn't Rose tell you that it was a place not of our own? We've only been considering forgotten demonic temples and lairs, but how about time? "
She nodded along, ready to board this terrifying train. "Okay, this doesn't sound so terrible right now. Exactly how far back in time are we going? Ye olden days?"
"To Valen's last days before being reborn into Rose. We'll go back to when she was banished. Someone there has to have known about a ritual to kill her, but not the power to apply it."
Billie placed her own hand atop of Cameron's, the one on her shoulder, and forged an insincere smile, "Fine. Let me just go get my Whitelighter to sign my permission slip before going back to the Demonic Golden Age."
(X)
"Wait, what is that?" the mortal asked his wife in the altar room as she held up an oaken mortar, stuffed with something that looked like the crushed peel of a browned banana mixed with yellowed flower heads.
The Witchlighter smiled up at Henry, handing him the pestle and repeated herself, "We have carob which is a healing ingredient topped off with some goldenrod which provides a wealth in being. Now, you're going to crush those bad boys up, and it's going to get our recovery potion underway."
"Recovery potion? What are we recovering?" Henry asked, awkwardly crushing the herbs in the domed interior of the mortar, earning a sly grin from his wife. "Is there something really powerful hidden inside some dark and scary demon dimension or something? Is it going to be liking pull a rabbit out of a hat, instead it'll be something cooler, because I mean, that rabbit-hat myth had to come from somewhere, right?"
Paige burst with laughter, red in the cheeks and warm in the face. "Your very own ramble! A sign that married folk really do take on the other's attributes." The two just smiled and she carried on. "Well, we're not recovering tracks for Excaliber or anything cool like that – just so you know, we actually know where the sword is, but that's besides the point. We're recovering Richard's powers from the ever-magical ether and possibly returning them to him."
"Richard, huh?" And with that, the cuteness between the two fell. "Is being an Average Joe not good enough for the former Wonder Warlock?" The crushing of the herbs grew intense and Paige quickly moved over to him, grabbing him by the wrist and stopping him.
"Don't go killing the herbs more than they need to be. We don't want to lose the magic from them, otherwise-"
"Richard won't get his powers back and can't save the day on a weekly basis, I know."
Flushed in the face now, Paige battled back the rising anger inside her and refrained from any insensitive comments. "Henry, don't take it any other way than what it is. Richard was a witch who was growing drunk with power. An alcohol-witch, if you lamely will. He seems to have sobered up since all those many years ago and may be ready for-"
"His first drink again?" Henry interrupted for a second time in a row. "You can't go judging his good behavior on leading a life without magic when he didn't have it in him to tempt him. Real alcoholics at least have the temptations to go into a bar and still say no to prove just how well off they are, but this guy didn't even have it in him to pull a rabbit out of a hat!"
A third voice entered the conversation, quickly recognized as the subject of discussion, "Do you even know my back story?" The two mortals stared each other down and Paige stood silent for the moment, refusing to referee a match between a friend whom she believed deserved a second chance against her husband who she thought was wrong, and possibly petty. "If Paige didn't want to give me my powers back, fine, I could've been sneaky and gone off to other witch contacts that I have, but seeing as she's the one who thought I could use time away from magic, I wanted to respect her wishes and opinion and see if she really thought I earned the right to play Dr. Who again."
"And what story did you tell her that had her swooning over your charms?"
"Henry!" Paige shouted, disrespected on many levels, the most important being her love called in question by an old flame, one that never burned too bright and has been long extinguished.
Looking back between Paige and Richard, a confused Henry didn't know whether to continue his assault or begin his much needed apology when a buzzing sound echoed through the room, causing him to spin around even more for the source. When the cells reformed both Cameron and Billie, the attention was on them.
Billie looked over at Richard, her eyes wide, "Whoops." She turned to Cameron and smacked him on the chest, "Hello, exposure." She flipped back to the current-mortal, shrugging awkwardly and cracking her knuckles. "So, you might have a question or two about what you just witnessed... Oh, screw it." Looking over her shoulder and at Paige, "Can I just use my power and make him forget what he saw like that cool gadget in 'Men in Black'?"
"Unnecessary," Paige replied, still nerved by her husband. "This is Richard, he used to be a witch. Richard, this is my little protégé, Billie and her boyfr-" the Witchlighter bit her lip, shying away from the looks on Billie's and Cameron's faces. "...her Phoenix friend, Cameron."
None showed any excitement towards one another, bigger things on all their minds, and embarrassment for the recently arrived. The mercenary cut the silence, "Paige, we need to talk to you. Like, now."
She clapped her hands, "A welcome distraction. What's up?"
"We were doing research at Magic School and came to a conclusion about Valen. None of the texts are helping us out here and the historic accounts left for her aren't helping so much in figuring out to kill her," Billie started. "So...the past..."
Paige held up her finger and turned to Henry and Richard. "Richard, you want your powers back? Help Henry with the potion as far as two mortal men can make it. When I come back, I'll finish it and we'll act from there."
"But, Pai-"
The Witchlighter quickly rushed to Cameron and Billie, gripping their shoulders and orbing out. Henry and Richard engaged in a stare-down with potential to grow violently from there.
(X)
Paige followed behind Cameron and Billie as they returned into the study room of Magic School where they previously left their demonic and sorcerous texts. "...Okay, so we're hoping that by going back into time, we can learn more about the way to destroy Valen for good – once and for all?"
Billie picked up an old book where she first studied Valen and pointed down at the page. "We know that they resorted to the Living Grave because they had an idea on what might work, but couldn't risk it."
"So we're going to risk it?" Paige asked, feeling uneasy. "It just seems like we need to have a guarantee on Valen's lease on reborn life." She traveled towards the table, inspecting some of the books the pair had been studying through all day.
Cameron folded his arms, nodding to Paige's concern. "I agree, but we're reaching that point where we have to swing at Valen with something. You told us yourself, Rose threatened to raise demons of the Old Age and they may already have come home already. We don't need more Valens, but if we can vanquish her, there's a chance everyone she returned with her own power will go boom as well."
"There's nothing concrete though, we're just crossing our fingers. How do you plan on infiltrating these demons? Or even returning that far back in time?" the Witchlighter shot a look at Billie, "You've never traveled through time at these lengths before. Aren't we scared of getting, you know, lost and living with cavemen?"
Billie closed the text on Valen and replied, "At least we get to create fire. Sounds promising."
"Not funny."
"Agreed," Cameron assented, strolling over to Billie and taking the book from her. He found the few pages that noted Valen's history. "Yeah, we're only going back about nine centuries."
"Only nine centuries?" Paige exclaimed, pulling over a chair and sitting herself down. "With a mentality like that, I can't believe we're the champions of this world. We have a mercenary with no appreciation of time tag-teaming with the sister of a firestarter he was contracted to kill and who are both under my voice of command and I can't even convince my husband that I love him and all his mortal ways. Go Team Us!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Cameron held up a hand, slowing down Paige from ranting even further. "I'm not necessarily under your care. I'm offering my assistance, I can bow out of this at any time. I think you're cool and whatever, but I'm not your soldier. We're engaged in a massive war with many sides to it, but come tonight, there's going to be a battle we can only pray to survive."
"You sound so confident," Paige retorted. "Sounds like your fears are coming to surface."
In an outrage, Cameron's temper burst free, and he threw the volume against the wall, breaking the already weak build of the book. "Okay, you want the truth? I'm freaking terrified, I've constantly put on a face around you guys because it just seems to be expected of me. I've never had the chance to emote fear at the risk of everyone's morale falling, but I've battled terrible evils before, but this is beyond my pay grade and yet, I'm still willing to throw my body out there."
The Phoenix witch dropped his eyes to the floor, feeling both Paige's and Billie's on him, stunned. He broke his promise to himself, that being to never admit the fear that warriors felt before going into battle. By admitting fear, he was admitting to owning emotions, to feeling. This was an honesty he'd always vowed to keep buried in his frightened soul.
Comfort approached the assassin in the shape of Billie who wrapped her arms around, folding the space between them with a hug. Her hushed voice spoke into his ear, pressing her cool breath onto him, "You're not the only one scared." His hands remained on his side, fighting back the urge to fully connect the hug she initiated.
Paige looked down awkwardly, wishing the two would just declare their feelings for one another already; they cared for each other on a great level, it was obvious. She scratched her forehead, "Uh, I hate to break this up guys, but we have to move."
Billie pulled away from the non-responsive Cameron, unable to look him in the eyes, leading her to believe that what she believed to be a mutual affection was nothing but a fantasy in her head. "We have our plan. It's just a matter of going back now to the Demon Dome."
Everyone fell silent, lost in their individual thoughts about the approaching fight. Once again, Paige finally spoke up and said, "Would it be possible if I sat this out? If you guys are going to play it low-key, I shouldn't be worried about a fight. I just wanna get prepped for the battle, possibly do some research on mystical forces that can back us up."
Suspecting there was more to it that was being left unsaid, Billie nodded. "No, that sounds great. It's probably best if you stay in this time with your sisters in case we're buried too deep in time and we need you guys to bring us back." Keeping her back to Cameron, she patted Paige's shoulder on her way out of the door and said, "I'm going to get set up."
Trying to be the adult her birthday declared her to be, Paige apologized, "I'm sorry if I pressed you, Cameron. There's just a lot depending on the success of this that even my arch nemesis wants his recreation dead. I'm also concerned about Billie as always..."
"As am I," Cameron replied. "She's been the main reason that I tango with these demons. And I'll dance alongside her until my end." With that, he rushed after the sorceress.
Paige looked up to the heavens, wishing there was a force beyond there that she believed in that she could pray to, but the Great Above was still infested with polluted Elders. She glowed in orbs, carrying her back down to her home, leaving the chair she was sitting on empty.
(X)
When Cameron found Billie in an empty classroom, one used to help psychics embrace their abilities to safe levels, it's no wonder that the young sorceress chose this room over others to help aid her in the journey through time. The energy pulsed against his sensory abilities, welcoming him in an environment of safe psychically charged power. He felt in tuned, almost allowing him to gain a full scope of what Billie was both thinking and feeling, but instead, all he felt was a sliver of her dedicated concentration as she sat cross-legged in the middle of the room on an orange satin pillow and eyes closed.
He didn't want to disturb her, but he didn't want to risk her all of a sudden vanishing before and without him. "Is there room for two on that floor?"
Her eyes remained close, but her fingers began gently tapping away at her knees, "Pull up a pillow."
Cameron sat parallel to her without the pillow and felt as if he was violating her somehow by just staring at her when she wasn't looking; he wasn't one of those lame romantics who would appear in the bedroom of his sleeping crush to just watch her. They had no entitlement to one another, so that would've been creepy. "How's this room helping you out?"
Her hands stretched out to him with her palms facing upwards, inviting his to fall flat on hers. "It's helping to build my imagination of what her palace looked like...I'm feeling connected to a time I shouldn't be a part of...The air itself feels different and-" his hands fell atop of hers and he held on, in a gentle grip to ensure that wherever she went from that time on, he was with her. The contact threw her off more than she thought it would when inviting her hands out, but she regained focus after a sharp inhale of breath. "I'm hearing echoes...my senses are expanding to sharpen the voices...I hear arguments and pure panic...a rebellion reaching the moment as they prepared the Living Grave..."
A gold light blazed as a violent wind danced around them, throwing aside Billie's hair and breaking apart Cameron's zipper and flipping his jacket open, howling the haunting screams of history into their minds...
The room seemed to spin around them as they fell into the vortex of time traveling, being rewound to the moment where Valen fell for the first time, though moving back this far disrupted the usual smoothness of Billie's projection power. Instead of closing her eyes and re-imagining herself in a different period and waking up in that time, this was intensely interactive, such as their drop through the vortex...
Their hands remained interlocked, neither letting go of the other in the frightening moment of what was happening because wherever they were going, the other would be there to back them up through whatever dangers approached. Billie's eyes remained closed during the experience, but Cameron witnessed the cyclones of cement-gray and shadow-black which sparked fireworks of an orange to rival that of the sun's as well the streams of a pale moonlight. He understood this to be the infinity of solar phases they were traveling behind, but he soon caught sight of a hole at the end of the tunnel below...
(X)
Approximately late 1100's...
...and together, they crashed onto a silver-plated floor. Bruises would soon form on their aching bodies, but if they didn't act quick enough and were discovered by the already panicking demons, they were risking more. Billie finally opened her eyes, first spotting Cameron's features lit under the firelight of the original Temple's structure. When she looked to see where the glow came from, she saw stoned Wyvern dragons on the wall, easily identified to the studious sorceress by their warring wings, diamond shaped claws, and their frozen, yet flamingly vicious glares. She knew these dragons to be extinct in her present, and was glad of so.
A chorus of voices was sounding clear to both Billie and Cameron and the mercenary pressed a finger to his mouth, silencing her from an inevitably unnecessary comment. He gestured for her to take cover with him behind a gold statue of a lindworm, otherwise known as a legless dragon. Once safe, Cameron finally let go of Billie's hand, knowing that their present task in this dark past time was more important than whatever did or didn't exist between them. They peeked over the lindworm's tail and saw many demonic beings, monsters in various forms and sizes, as well as lower-leveled minions all working as one as they appeared to be assembling a ritual.
Standing in front of the throne was a gathering of six men along with one redheaded woman in front of them. Her voice could barely be heard over the panic of the demons in front of her, but it was apparent she was shouting instructions at everyone in front of her. She remained unheard as demons bumped into each other, all trying to complete their individual tasks, whether it was burying scorched-looking stones and gems into the ground, telekinetically building the prison that history spoke of containing Valen's essence, or even more minor roles such as shoveling or carrying rocks away.
Billie studied the attires of the different demons and decided that the leather attire of a bronze vest, black fitting pants, and matching colored boots of the minions was the easiest disguise to project onto both her and Cameron without using anymore magic than she had to; the time-rewind exhausted her energies, leading her to believe that projecting the complex looking armor of the Neptune-blue three-horned demon with an extra arm extending from where a human heart is would've been too much, not that she particularly wanted to look that way either.
What would've normally been an instant glamour took a couple more moments to process, indicated by the slow gold light that fell down from their necks to their feet, replacing their attire with the minion-wear. "So what's the plan? What can we and can't we do here?" Billie asked, careful of not disrupting Time. All it took was one mistake and the future could be changed, forged under the influence of Valen who may have never been imprisoned.
"I think as long as we blend in and don't say much, only allowing their natural conversation to move forward. Time traveling varies, there are some beliefs that even moving a rock from its place can break the pattern, while others believe that the Traveler is allowed to move around freely either because that's how Destiny intended or the Fate of the matter is already sealed in stone," Cameron explained cooly, not losing himself in the confusing words. "For all we know, we've done this before and might have even aided in the original Living Grave ritual..."
Billie shook her head, already mentally and physically exhausted by projecting this far back that she didn't need to try and understand time traveling. "I feel like I should just treat this century as a stranger's home, you know, don't touch anything."
The screams of a banshee band violently pierced the air, stopping all the demons from their tasks to turn their attention to the red-headed instructor. "Apologies, but I urgently beg of your attention," she sorrowfully replied. "Valen returns soon from her battle and I sense her power – her opponent is putting up a fight against her, but she will prevail as she always has, but tonight we bury her while she's been enervated. Are we in fair condition?"
"It'll never work!" A demon cried, throwing his shovel onto the opened ground, separated from the silver plates. "She'll see what we're up to and we'll be lucky if she snaps our necks instead of some infinite torture." Sensing his fate as it happened to others, he let loose with an energy ball that the red-headed sorceress simply deflected back at him without any gesture, destroying the demon before Valen could.
Her eyes glowed red and a supernatural wind twisted around her, blowing her hair off her shoulders and her voice morphed demonic, "We've no time for doubt. If you believe we're to fail, then raise a fireball to your mouths now and swallow them whole because Valen will care not for your late loyalty since we've come this far. This has been years of plotting under her nose, only left undetected to her because of enchantments known only to crones and hags. If we remain united, then Valen shall fall. Now my spell is ready and when our Queen returns, we'll bury her alive." With that, her eyes returned to an ordinary brown, and she commanded more instructions...
Cameron observed Billie who seemed to be in deep thought and asked, "What's going on in your noggin?"
"I don't know, I just feel a connection to that sorceress up there. I felt her power when she used it on that demon and now I feel like there's an itch that only she can scratch for me," Billie replied, regretting it instantly under how that context is often mistaken. "I wanna go speak with her. I feel like there's something important she can tell me."
"This doesn't sound like something you should ignore. I'll go with you," Cameron rose to full stance and helped a tired Billie to her feet.
"No, just watch from the shadows. Help these demons or whatever. I just...know that it has to be me who speaks with her," Billie said, in tune with her sorcerous talents, but that wasn't enough.
"I don't think so. I'm not going to let you walk through across this lair after everything it took to get here. I'm going with you."
Billie looked at him, remorseful as she placed a hand on her temple and said aloud, "Stay." She watched apologetically as the mercenary before her glowed gray for a brief moment, immobilized. When she saw that he wasn't frozen in a way that Piper's power accomplishes on many demons, leaving only his eyes to follow her as she walked into the inevitable battlefield of their present time, she didn't want to leave him unguarded. Quickly, she cast a protective circle around him that wouldn't hold very long, but would give her enough time to race over to him and toss away any attackers with her power.
She looked ahead at the hundred of demons before her, grateful for her disguise as she put one foot before another, navigating her way through sudden death should she be discovered as the sorceress from the future affiliated with witches who had yet to be prophesized to deliver damage against Evil's numbers; the Charmed line may not have been foreseen yet, but she wouldn't put it past the leading sorceress to detect profound magic in coming years...
Billie glanced occasionally on her way to the redhead, trying to remember from her studies what the effects of the stones the demons were burying were, but the power she used to project backwards, glamour disguises, immobilize and guard Cameron took too much out of her to even think properly. After several minutes, she reached the awkwardly raised stage where Valen's mountainous throne rested.
The redhead made contact with Billie and her eyes flared red and in that same instant, Billie's glowed violet for a brief moment. The sorceresses recognized the power in one another and the redhead glided down to where Billie stood, turning her to the side, "You're from another time, one much later from here. You're the one I've been waiting for."
"You've been waiting for me? How is it that you knew I was coming?" Billie asked, feeling very supported by her theory that this sorceress may even know of the Charmed line to come.
"None of us in attendance tonight own the power to destroy Valen, our tyrant of a Queen. We've gathered enough power to bury her alive, but her death is beyond us. We lack the true heart with the power to end Valen once and for all, leaving her to only be a history to later speak about to scare children and demons everywhere," she explained, looking very youthful up close. Her age and name were yet to be determined, but Billie figured she was going to get neither out of her.
"Not that I'm complaining, but what did she do that lead to all of this?" Billie asked, taking advantage of having an insider tell her about Valen, maybe even learn some additional weaknesses.
"There's no time, but you'll learn your answers with two items I'll leave in your care. It's crucial that you understand how to vanquish Valen once and for all. Is this something you're prepared to take on, Billie Jenkins?"
Unaffected by how the redhead knew her name, despite a slight shiver of realizing her importance to this vanquish, Billie assented with a nod. "Whatever it takes."
The sorceress held out her hands and an iron-covered book with Valen's sigil (a circle with a couple of well angled spikes) manifested into her willing arms. "Here is the history of Valen, containing the ritual to eradicate the unholy bitch, but there is a step inside that will mean little to you and may be overlooked, so let me explain..." the redhead looked grim as she spoke the unfortunate truth to the young girl before her. "It begins with a sacrifice of a well-intentioned heart, preferably yours..." the sorceress trailed off, instructing Billie on how to die so Valen may be vanquished.
(X)
When Billie returned to Cameron minutes later with a tome under one arm, she waved her other to unfreeze him and broke the protective enchantment. "We have to get out of-"
"How dare you do that to me? You understand what the hell you just risked by putting me out of action? You could've been demon dinner, hypnotized into doing demon deeds, been slaved into being a demon's bitch, or-slash-and converted into a demon yourself!" Cameron shouted, luckily unheard by the demons as they were too into finalizing their objectives. "You're so damn irresponsible, I don't understand why you don't just hire and pay me to kill you for you! That way I can quit my concerns on protecting you, help you die already, and make a good buck or two to do it."
"Did you get that out of your system? Good, because I need you to shut up so I can think our way back into our time. The big bad Queen is apparently on her way back here, so that means our back-to-the-past trip has reached its curtain call," Billie sniped back, angered by everything she just learnt from the unnamed sorceress. The two just stared at each other, hurt by the other's words.
Before Cameron could argue further or ask Billie how she received that volume with Valen's sigil on it, a sapphire light exploded into the room and everyone's attention was turned to the center of the room as Valen appeared in a different body. The body she owned in this time belonged to an older girl of very pale flesh, but the badger colored hair and sapphire eyes existed as majestic as ever.
Valen in her unknown host looked around at her defiant demons, immediately sensing betrayal in the air, "So when your Queen is away, you pets play." She immediately flicked her wrists towards a circle of eight beings with an obliterating blue blast, officially putting two different demonic species into extinction. "I've given you breath and modeled you out of nothing and in return, you try and make dust of me? Adorably impossible."
"Luckily we found an alternative," the sorceress screamed back before levitating into the air, casting a protective barrier around herself with power that she'd been storing for the past seven evenings to even build a defense against Valen. She then began to chant in a foreign tongue, activating the effects of the demons' work.
The ancient demon fired off several boulder-sized balls of concentrated sapphire energy at the sorceress' shield, weakening the magical structure, but not destroying it as immediate as she would've hoped. Masses of black light exploded from the center of the lair, twisting itself into a cyclone at first that danced around Valen and suddenly shaped into a shadowy angel, one of the original Reapers in existence...
Billie felt more fatigued than ever in the presence of an Angel of Death, slowly absorbing her life force in a way that it wasn't affecting the demons, only herself and Cameron. She closed her eyes, gripping Cameron's shoulder as she thought about home, Magic School, the manor, even her old college dorm, unable to decide in the panic of where to return to, all she knew was that she had to escape before her and Cameron's last breaths were vacuumed out of them because it wasn't their time (literally) to go now.
She kept her eyes closed, finally deciding on returning straight to Paige, wherever she was; if anyone had the potential to help Billie through her final day, it was her best friend of a Whitelighter. She focused on Paige's features, falling in and out of concentration with all the agonized screams of the fallen and explosions occurring in the background. She felt herself being lifted up into the air, carrying both the tome and Cameron like feathers into a more familiar time.
The sorceress knew her elevation was leading them back and she maintained concentration as she peaked out onto the scene below her, making eye contact with the redheaded sorceress who aided in her the knowledge she would need for the battle she was returning home for and before Billie lost sight of everything, she saw the enormous shadowed Reaper slashing away at Valen's vessel and gripping her navy blue essence with its ethereal clawed hand, hurling her into the grave made out of her palace, condemning her to suffocate for what was supposed to have been eternity...
(X)
Paige finally found the courage to return to her altar room after spending time with Peter inside her bedroom, the both of them drawing pictures of him orbing to different parks with his Paigey and Henny and little sissies. She realized that like her approaching battles, she had to face all her problems, and that included her unreasonably jealous husband. She knocked on the door before entering and only saw Richard and Phoebe inside, not the man in question.
The Witchlighter shot an inquisitive look at Richard and asked, "Did you turn my husband into my sister? Because I already have one too many of those."
"Cute," Phoebe replied with a smirk, crossing one leg over another as she sat down. "Your hubby went out for a drive. Was leaving these two in your magical room alone really the best of ideas?"
"It definitely wasn't of Einstein I.Q, but it had potential. It was supposed to be like in the movies where you leave two people in a room who kinda hate each other and they eventually find some reason to not knock the other's heads off," Paige bit her lip and folded her arms. "Something tells me you and Henry aren't going to be emailing buddies, huh, Rich?"
"It was just a bad idea for me to come here unannounced. I'm sorry for whatever troubles I've caused you," the former he-witch apologized. "My powers aren't worth anyone's troubles. I should've learned."
"It's not that your powers aren't worth my troubles, I just wish I had some warning and that we could've maybe scheduled this meeting. There's just too much going on right now, I have two people in a very deep past right now, a battle to mentally and physically prepare for, a family to take care of, and a birthday to celebrate! Your wanting your powers back is just the icing on an already sloppily put together cake."
Phoebe rose from her seat anxiously, eyes wide, "Back up. Who's in the past?" Sensing Paige's response, the empath annoyingly spoke for her, "Billie? Paige, you let her go by herself?...Oh, she went with the Cameron guy that she totally has the hots for, reasonably so. Shouldn't you have gone with them?"
Paige realized that Phoebe was beginning to dig into her buried emotions, including the swelling panic of surviving the battle with Valen to take on Avo, her fated foe, even more so, the dealings of her coma. "Phoebe, please go. I can't have you telling me how I'm feeling before I'm ready to talk about it myself. I need to wrap this up with Richard."
Still anxious, Phoebe quickly made her exit for the door as she was tapping into too many of Paige's emotions, including the ones left unspoken since she woke up from the coma. With the door closed behind Phoebe, Paige dropped her arms back to her sides and asked, "Are you sure you want the Hocus Pocus factor back in your life? I mean, the last time we discussed this, you couldn't handle my having magic around as it taunted to you and then when you insisted on hopping back on the broomstick, my sisters and I died for a little while."
He withheld a grin, knowing that it wasn't nearly as grim after all these years, but still felt it to be a tad immoral. "I understand where I went wrong, I abused my magic, but since I've begun counseling others as a method to learn how to save myself as well."
"So by saving others, you saved yourself?" Paige scoffed, burying her laughter within at the lame, but honest response. "I'm sorry, go on."
Richard chuckled as well and defended, "I know it sounds lame, but I learned my lesson. I matured and I wanna have a role and make a difference. Not necessarily for the fame, but I want to die one day and have done enough to be remembered by and have made that difference. You think I want people remembering me as some magic junky? I want people to recognize that magic is dangerous and can tempt you into having a bit of a dark side, but you can climb out of it. I wanna help people and at my funeral, people will crowd me and thank me in the way that they'll thank you."
Taken back, Paige had no idea she was inspiring Richard with a destiny that she was slightly unsure about. It took courage to embrace a life of magic that you weren't fated to live; he had no demonic counterparts that the world needed him to take down, he was freely paving the way to his own destiny and fighting a fight that didn't recruit him. The Witchlighter walked over to the cauldron, grabbing hawthorn leaves inside to rebuild the bond between man and magic. "Flattery gets you everywhere with me, Richard."
The potion exploded, blasting gold sparks into the air before dissipating into the ether. She picked up a baster from the table, squeezing onto the pump to suck up the power recovery potion and when she had enough, she released it into a vial. "And with a cork on top..." she popped a cork in and handed it off. "Voila! You have your powers back whenever you want them."
"Thanks so much," he replied. "I promise, I won't let you down and if I feel I'm not owning up to my word, I'll call you and-"
"Don't doubt yourself," Paige interrupted, walking over to Richard to hug him. "I sure don't. You're going to make a fantastic dude-witch again. You're walking the streets on your own and you're not using magic to fight your neighbors or banish your girlfriend's spirit. You're going to do great." The two parted and smiled. "At least you have it together."
"What's bothering you, magic-wise?"
"I just don't feel one with my magic right now. I'm not sure if it reached your ears, but I was just under a very heavily dosed coma, cursed by some ancient demon Queen, of course, and it served as punishment. I missed out on time with my children, time learning more about my magic, defending charges, and even little things like watching the latest 'Ghost Whisperer' or 'Brothers and Sister' episode." She began to clean up the herbs used to prepare Richard's potion and continued, "Once Billie gets back, it's ritual time, and then we have to take her on. I don't feel up to it. It's my birthday and I should be able to do what I want to, right? That song said so! And yet, I have to fight battle after battle and I already had to witness my family live a life without me. That's not something I want them or myself to have to relive anytime soon."
Richard was quiet, unsure why he, basically a stranger now, was the one Paige was pouring her heart out to. "You're destined, I guess. I'm in this game voluntarily, but you need to accept that you have too much heart to not be expected to save the world. I shouldn't need to tell you what kind of person you are and here I am reminding you that if you continue to think of magic as just an extracurricular activity, you're going to be forever wandering around life searching for definition of who you are. Magic is clearly a big part of you, you just have to accept the burdens and be grateful for the rewards."
Paige stood still, quiet. "Yeah."
Silent moments passed and Richard debated entering in a dangerous territory for conversation, but reserved himself; his time had passed, and Paige was clearly in love with this Henry guy. He would just hope to make the most out of his building attraction with Felicia, the woman at work, and hope that she turned out to be half the woman Paige is. "I think I should be on my way now." To this, Paige only nodded, still dealing with the crowd of thoughts in her head. "It was great seeing you again, Paige. And thank you."
When he turned for the door, Paige called out, "Not going to take a sip of your potion juice now and just teleport on home?"
He grinned over his shoulder and nodded dissentingly, "It's unnecessary; I'm not going to take advantage of the powers. Good luck with your fights, Paige. You have too much to come home to." With that, the soon-to-be-restored witch left the room, respecting the advice that Phoebe had given him when she came into the room and unintentionally picked up on his emotions.
Paige stood in the room by herself, a room she had tailored for her magical needs, and just took the time to think, to be uninterrupted by everything for just a little while longer, until...
A ring of gold light exploded inches below the ceiling, leading Paige to believe that angelic beings were about to gracefully fly out and bless her with the strength she'd need to take on Rose and Avo, but she was more than relieved when her fantasy was crushed by Billie and Cameron dropping out of the projected portal, smashing onto the floor face-first. A demonic tome slipped out of Billie's grip and before Paige could help either of them up, she noticed her young friend may have lost possession of whatever that book was, but managed a hold on Cameron's shoulder.
Billie rolled onto her back, taking a deep breath in her demon attire and saw Paige crouching down to heal any injuries, "So...Valen?" The tome was slowly willed closer to Billie and she pat its cover like a loyal pet. "She is going the hell down."
End of Chapter.
A/Note: Hopefully no one's bothered by my still mainly referring to Rose (who is now a prisoner of her body and no longer steering the ship) as Rose and only occasionally as Valen. The reason being, it's Rose's body and Valen is more the name of the power that Rose absorbed, as has been pointed out in earlier chapters. The characters will refer to her as both, but the prose itself is going to read as "Rose fought..." and trust me, Rose will be fighting quite a bit come the next chapter. Reviews? Final Chapters!