"What?" Leo asked while entering the room, looking slightly harassed. After all he wasn't a whitelighter anymore; calling for him did not bare the same connotation as before. He considered it a call for chores, not a call for actual help.
"A very confused demon just shimmered into our kitchen!" Piper shouted, still unable to convey the entire extent of the problem to Leo.
"What's your point? Did you blow him up?" Leo questioned, still not grasping the seriousness of the situation.
"I couldn't" Piper simply replied. For about six years now they had not come across a demon that Piper could not blow up. Her powers had elevated so much she could probably do as much damage as an atomic bomb if she set her mind to it, not that she would. She could blow up the Source if she felt it necessary, but the current Source isn't as bad as any new Source may be, so they decided not to run the underworld into chaos just yet. Plus with Pheobe's pregnancy they were trying to avoid major demon fights. They didn't want there to be any complications due to Pheobe over exerting herself. They had a very been there done that policy about these things. Piper just hoped that that specific plan didn't just shimmer away with that demon.
Leo stood stock still.
"We should call Paige and Pheobe. Are you sure that you couldn't?"
"Yes, Leo. Every time I tried he just flinched a little and shook it off. I've never seen this demon before. I'm nearly positive that he isn't in the book." Piper answered, having regained her composer. Leo went to the phone to call Pheobe.
"Paige!" Piper yelled at the top of her lungs, though unnecessary. Paige and Wyatt orbed in.
"Piper you didn't need to check in, he's fine. You just pulled us away from—"
"Paige, an unknown demon attacked and I couldn't blow it up." Piper said, staring at Paige.
"What!?" Was all Paige could say. They hadn't run across an unknown demon in so long, Paige was sure that this was some kind of joke.
"Pheobe and Melinda are on their way." Leo said informatively.
"Where's Chris?" Wyatt asked, knowing how much time his brother spent studying the book, hoping that he would know the demon.
"He's upstairs, why don't you go get him?" Piper answered hoping that it would get all the kids out of the room so that they could discuss this new development for a moment. But Wyatt simply closed his eyes for a moment and Chris orbed in. Piper had nearly forgotten about their whitelighter mind connection. Damn.
"I know the demon" Were the first words out of Chris's mouth.
Everyone stood staring at him and looking aghast.
"Chris, how do you know who the demon is?" Piper asked.
"I've seen it in a book at magic school…" Chris answered rushing the part about magic school to obscure his admittance of being at Magic school
"When were you reading at Magic school! Unless it was in the past (looks at watch) 33 hours mister, you are in quite a bit of trouble." Piper said annoyed yet again this morning in finding out her son had been breaking her number two magic rule (Number one was no magic in public.)
"Mom! Does it really matter!? You won't believe anything if I tell you about demon, so we'll all have to make the trip. And… as much as I hate to say it, we should wait for Mel. She should come too." Chris said. Piper looked at him and could tell that he was hiding something, but she knew that she would find out what it was soon enough.
A couple minutes later Pheobe and Melinda walked into the kitchen.
"So, we're at it again, are we?" Pheobe asked. On saying this though, Chris immediately averted his eyes.
"To magic school then?" Wyatt questioned looking around the room.
"Magic School?" Pheobe asked.
"We'll fill you in when we get there. Every orber grab a few non-orbers." Piper ordered. In a matter of seconds they had grouped and orbed to magic school. Chris immediately went to a bookshelf to search for the book, while Paige filled in Pheobe and incidentally, Melinda. Wyatt went over to Chris.
"We have to fight this one, Mel too." Chris whispered to Wyatt. Wyatt looked at him. Chris had begun his 'self-training' around the same time Wyatt started his own real training. Chris had read most of the books in Magic school, considering he had gotten in the habit of orbing there every other night. About three months ago, Chris found a few 'demon excerpts' in some books. These demons had to be vanquished by him, his sister, and his brother. Chris immediately told Wyatt. They both had just hoped that Mel turned 12 by the time one struck. Apparently, no such luck.
Wyatt looked grim. He was too young for this, let alone his little brother and sister. He knew Chris well enough to be most afraid for him. Chris never minded danger, as a matter of fact he loved it. Chris was the only one in the family that could get chipper after a demon attack. And Wyatt was fearful that Chris's lack of self preservation would get him hurt, and a lot sooner than Wyatt would have liked. Wyatt was sure that Melinda wouldn't do something dumb, like going after the demon alone, so he was less worried for her well being than Chris's.
"Found it." Chris said just loud enough for most of them to hear.
Eurynome Paymon
The King of Demons may only feed on corpses. He can only be summoned at midnight by the sound of Elvis Presley singing. Only the fruit of the eldest Charmed one can vanquish him. All others will fail, and be lucky to return with their lives or bodies. Second to no demon ever found before and spits at the Source. The vanquishers must have potions and a spell of their own making.
Under the description was a picture that perfectly matched the demon that had stood in her kitchen earlier that morning.
"No." Piper said.
"Mom, there is no other way, you read it." Wyatt said, having expected this reaction.
"I do not think that this is the demon." Piper said stubbornly.
"Mom, it's clearly the demon and you know it." Chris answered. Since he had seen the demon, she could not change the description now.
"Chris," she began in a stern tone, "I am not going to allow you and Wyatt to go off demon hunting! You just started your training! By the sounds of it—"
"We are the only ones that can." Chris interrupted. "Me, Wyatt, and… Melinda."
"Melinda! She can't! She's only nine years old! There's no way she can fight a demon! She's just learned how to simply protect herself! This is—" Piper was cut off again.
"Our destiny." Melinda finished, although not with the words her mother was planning on using.
"Mom, you know Wy and I won't ever put her in real danger. Worst case scenario, she has to help us say the spell, but Wyatt will have his shield around her the entire time, you can do that, right Wy?" Chris checked, to ensure he wasn't making a promise that they couldn't keep.
"They don't call me the twice blessed child for nothing." Wyatt said and he quickly demonstrated a force field around Melinda.
"Woah woah woah. Boys we haven't gotten past allowing you too to even go kill super demon here." Pheobe said realizing that Piper needed some serious reinforcements, and Leo couldn't do anything but stare at the page with the demon description.
"Phebes, they're right." Paige finally spoke up. The boys had a sudden look of triumph gleam across their faces. "We all new this would come someday. I mean think about it. There were power of three demons, why can't there be well, twice blessed and siblings demons? I know it's really hard to admit, but it will teach all three of them to work together. We'll just be standing there as back up. I think they will be okay. They have to do this, no one else can, and demons always come back. And, as a side note, is anyone else having trouble taking an Elvis obsessed, blue sued shoe wearing demon seriously?"
Everyone stopped for a moment to ponder the sudden realization of one thing. This was not a negotiation. There were no other options; all they could do was help. Wyatt and Chris were taking over long before any of them had planned, and it looked like Melinda was joining them. This realization did not, of course, convince Piper.
"There's always another way." Piper said.
"No there isn't Piper. We will be with them every step though." Leo finally spoke. He knew that they would not be able to protect them forever and now was the time to except that. He knew that Wyatt would protect Chris and Melinda. And everyone knew that the time had passed in which Wyatt truly needed protection from demons.
"Okay, so the book said that the potion and spell had to both be made by one of us." Wyatt gestured to Chris, Melinda, and himself. "Mel, you should right the spell, you've always been good at rhyming and Aunt Pheobe will help you if you get stuck." Wyatt suggested, Pheobe nodded her head even though she found it slightly disgruntling to take orders from her thirteen year old nephew.
"Chris, you and mom work on the potion, but mom can not put anything in it or touch the potion in any way; this has to work the first time." Piper looked slightly annoyed, but understood the reasoning. Wyatt was getting the hang of this ordering people around thing.
"What? Wyatt still won't admit that I'm better at potions than he is?" Chris retorted smirking. Wyatt ignored him.
"Aunt Paige and I will hash out the battle plan, and uh, dad, you don't happen to know much about Elvis Presley, do you?"
"Elvis was popular back in my early days as a whitelighter, so I'll see if I can dig up an old album son. I'm really proud of all three of you." Leo answered, glad he could do something and swelling with pride as he watched his children like they were mini Charmed ones.
"Okay so let's grab that book and orb home." Wyatt said, enjoying his new leadership position.
"You know that son of yours is awfully bossy,' Paige grumbled to Piper as they congregated into orbing groups, "reminds me of his mother." With that, they all orbed back into the foyer of the manor, with their charges in mind.
Meanwhile, back in the underworld…
The underworld was in chaos. For millenniums there had been stories of these demons, they were said to have more power than the Source. But no one ever believed these stories were true, they were just the fairy tales that every demonic child was raised upon. No one had even thought much of them until about a month ago, when a demon swore that he saw the supposedly mythical king of demons from the children's stories. Every demon had believed he was crazy and after the Source quickly interrogated him, he was sent to the wasteland.
About a week ago though every one of the demons that had once been characters in fairy tales became very much the reality of the underworld. The Source himself was killed and the underworld had no order or sanity. Demons were running everywhere. A new regime was beginning.
The new demons took no interest in restoring order, simply gaining power, for with each demon they killed they would gain that demon's powers. Every demon was looking back to their childhood, trying to remember anything about the demons. The only hope they had was that the king, Paymon, would finally vanquish the Charmed ones and their heirs.
But for now, every demon had just one fear, blue sued shoes and psychopathic clowns.