Disclaimer: Oh I give up. You guys wanna sue me? Best of luck.
Ch. 23:
"The way I see it, we're all targets for the slime." Grams said as she, Leo, Chris, and Meredith stood in the nursery. "We need a plan to control it until the girls get back."
Unnoticed by the adults, Wyatt stood in his crib, staring at his full bottle on the nightstand, just slightly out of reach.
"In the future, everyone tried to control the demon with no name, but it can't be done." Chris told Grams.
"That's hardly a winning attitude, young man." She told him. "And why, in heaven's name, couldn't the people in the future find a name for that thing?"
"Because we were too busy fighting the damn thing in the future." Meredith said crossly.
"Speaking of the future, what's so awful that happens to Wyatt?" Leo asked.
"You know we can't tell you that." Chris replied.
"Come on, I'm an Elder." Leo told him.
"Excuse me, back on point?" Grams said. "The slime. I'm taking suggestions."
"We could orb it to an ice drift." Leo suggested.
"No, that's bad." Chris replied.
"Really bad." Meredith added.
"It's not bad, it's awful." Grams told him. "You can't orb that thing. It feeds on magic."
"So what's your great idea?" Chris asked sarcastically.
"Are you giving me lip?" Grams demanded.
"No." Chris said, stepping back.
Meredith snorted and he glared at her.
Suddenly, Wyatt orbed his bottle to him.
"No!" Chris yelled.
Leo grabbed Wyatt just as green goo shot out of the mirror towards him. It hit the lamp as Leo ran out after the others. They ran down the stairs as bits and pieces of the ceiling fell down all around them and the lights flashed on and off.
"Where do we go?" Chris asked as they stopped in the foyer.
"Hold on." Leo said. "I think it stopped."
They all listened. The house creaked and moaned as the goo moved around the house.
"Psst!" Chris hissed to Leo. "Get Wyatt out of the house. If it tries to follow, I'll fire off an orb or two to distract it."
"Or I'll shock the thing." Meredith told him.
"No, you won't." Chris told her sternly.
"Bite me, Christopher." She shot back.
"It's not up for discussion." He told her.
"Can we get back on topic?" Grams demanded.
"Leo gets Wyatt out, I distract the demon." Chris told her. "You okay with that?"
"Yeah." She replied. "It's just what I had in mind."
"Good." Chris said.
Leo took Wyatt and slowly made his way to the front door. He reached out to the door knob when the green goo appeared outside the window to cover the door, sealing them inside.
Piper moved from the bars to sit next to Phoebe.
"Any sign of Paige?" Phoebe asked.
"Nope." Piper replied. "We're not gonna reach her before grandpa's attacked."
Phoebe sighed and looked at the guard outside the cell.
"Should we try a spell?" Phoebe asked.
"Why not?" Piper said, shrugging. "Let's try a spell."
"Leave it to the man to lock the brother up with the crazies." Luther said suddenly.
Piper and Phoebe looked at him, staring at them through the bars.
"Shh!" Piper told him.
He fixed his hair as he moved away from the bars and they walked towards the cell door.
"Come to me and be seduced." Piper said. "I have a girl to introduce. Fall for her, you can't resist her. Trust me, mister, she's my sister."
"Why me?" Phoebe hissed.
"'Cause he's not my type." Piper said, grinning as she turned away.
"Oh!" Phoebe complained.
She sighed and grabbed the bars, turning on her charm.
"Hi." She called in a throaty voice.
"Hi." The guard replied, laughing.
"You know what I think is really hot?" she asked him.
"No." he answered.
"A guy in a cage." She told him. "Yeah. Why don't you come in here with me?"
"All right." The guard readily agreed.
He took out his keys and unlocked the cell door before walking inside.
"Take off your shirt." Phoebe suggested.
The guard laughed with anticipation as Luther objected loudly from his cell.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" he yelled. "Luther don't wanna see this."
Phoebe took the guard's shirt and tossed it to Luther.
"Put this on." She told him. "You're gonna lead us to freedom, Luther."
He quickly grabbed the shirt and took off his jacket.
"Well…a bother could get used to this." Luther told them.
"Mm-hmm." Piper agreed, watching him put the shirt on. "So could a brother's son."
Paige was searching the manor for Allen when Leo walked up to her.
"There's my little psychedelic sunshine." He said. "Are you ready for your private session?"
"Uh, uh…yeah, real soon." She told him. "Um, have you seen Allen? He was supposed to call his lawyer friends for me."
"My name is Leo, like the zodiac sign?" the whitelighter/Paige's future brother-in-law took her hand. "Astrologically speaking, leo represents the sun, constantly burning and highly energetic."
"Okay, Starshine." Paige said, extracting her hand and slapping him gently on the chest. "Could you just please point me in the direction of where I might find Allen?"
Leo turned Paige around and pointed her in the direction.
"Thank you." She told him, heading for the attic.
Allen walked into the attic to find Robin chanting.
"And so I call upon the crone," she called, "let evil roam inside this home."
"I thought you were acting strange." Allen interrupted.
"Allen, are you spying on me?" Robin asked.
"How could you, Robin?" he demanded. "What about our dream?"
"My only dream is helping my warlock friend put all of you weak creatures out of your misery tonight." She shot back, powering up a fireball in her hand.
The attic door opened and Paige walked in.
"Robin!" she shouted.
Robin threw the fireball at her and she dived to take cover, the fireball just narrowly missing her. Allen raised his hands to try to intervene.
"Violence isn't the answer, Robin." He told her. "Let love replace your fear! I know you felt our love!"
"Yeah!" Robin agreed snidely. "And I've still got the stink of it all over me."
"Over here!" Paige called, getting up and moving to the side.
Robin created another fireball as Paige knocked over a canister of marbles, scattering them all over the floor. As Robin tripped and fell flat on her back, the fireball flew high into the air above her.
Phoebe and Piper ran into the room right as the fireball fell back down and hit Robin, vanquishing her with her own power.
The blast from the explosion threw Allen into the wall and he fell to the ground.
"Allen!" Paige called.
"I'm all right!" he told her.
Phoebe and Piper exchanged a look and Paige winced.
"Uh-oh." She said. "What did I just do?"
"Oh, nothing much." Piper told her. "Just changed our entire future!"
"Or erased it." Phoebe added.
Chris, Meredith, and Leo walked into the kitchen and looked around.
"What'd it do, split in half?" Leo asked.
As they watched, goo slowly covered the utility room door, trapping them inside.
"How do we get out?" Chris asked.
"I don't know." Leo admitted. "Orb?"
"That thing almost swallowed Chris whole last time he tried to orb." Meredith pointed out. "I should just electrocute the thing."
"No, out of the question." Chris replied instantly.
"Will you get your head out of your ass?" Meredith yelled at him. "This thing is only going to keep growing. We need to nip this in the bud, and, in case you've forgotten, I have the strongest active power!"
"I'm not going to risk losing you!" Chris yelled back at her.
Meredith stared at him.
"Is that why you've been keeping me locked up?" she asked him softly. "Is that what you're afraid of?"
Chris looked away, but Meredith reached up and forced him to look at her.
"That's what Bianca told you." She said, understanding. "She told you to protect me."
Chris looked at her, but he didn't answer. Without stopping to think, Meredith reached up and kissed him gently. He was surprised for a moment, but then he returned the kiss.
"You can't always protect me." She told him softly when she pulled away. "You need a better reason than you're afraid to lose me to keep me out of the fight. We're fighting a war to save our family. I'm not going to sit on the sidelines."
Chris took a deep breath.
"Be that as it may, I do have other reasons, beyond my own neurotic tendencies." He told her. "We can't give that thing a chance to latch on to you. It could use you as a channel to access the Elemental powers you harness. That would be way worse than it feeding on me."
Meredith glared at him.
"I hate it when you use logic." She told him. "Okay, fine. What else have we got?"
"What do you think, Penny?" Leo called.
The three of them turned to look at Grams and found a totally different woman standing in the doorway. Oh, she was still Penny, but she was dressed in tie-dyed clothing, a leather tie around her forehead, love beads around her neck, and dangly earrings hanging from her ears.
"I think love conquers all." She told them in a breathy voice. "I think that we should take the demon into our arms and make it fell safe."
Chris, Meredith, and Leo stared at her.
"Oh, we are so screwed." Meredith muttered.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait! My life got kind of out of control there for a while, but it's starting to calm down. So, shout outs!:
70 goes to: charmed415
and
80 goes to: future author at work
Congratulations!
Let me know what you guys thought! Shout outs will continue on the tens!
Also, if you read my Doctor Who story, you should go check out my new one shot, Who Wants To Live Forever. It's an au for my au. And yes, it's already been pointed out that this is getting a little out of control.
Abbey