TAU part 4:'A lot harder than I thought!'

Leo heard something behind him and quickly turned to see something truly bizzare! Closing his eyes Leo thought, 'A man sized, green caterpillar sitting on a giant toadstool, and smoking from sort of corked bottle with a long pipe stem attached? I must be hallucinating!' With that Leo opened his eyes and the caterpillar was still there! "I must have hit my head!" Leo said in disbelief.

"Why?" The caterpillar asked.

"Because you are a talking caterpillar!" Leo answered.

The caterpillar took a puff from his strange pipe and laughing replied, "And you are a human. But I won't hold that against you!"

As Leo questioned his sanity, Chris returned to the manor and thought, 'Just have to con 3 witches and a baby. How hard can that be?' With that he entered Piper's room where she was feeding Wyatt. The boy immediately put up his force field and "WAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" voiced his displeasure at Chris's entry! BOOM! Piper then gestured and Chris exploded!

Chris reformed himself as Piper came through the door and concluded, 'A lot harder than I thought!' Piper stood over him and said, "Look kid, I told you to stay out of my room. You come in without permission or scare my son and I kick your ass! Got it?"

"Got it, I'll be more careful in the future!" Chris held up his hands and slid away on the floor. After Piper went back to the baby he thought, 'Nuts, manipulating Leo's mind to deaden her pain has worsened her temper! That will make it harder to manipulate her! What about Paige?'

A few minutes later, in the kitchen Paige said, "Look Chris, I know you mean well but let's face it, you're no Leo!"

'Might bring her around in a few months but I don't have that much time. Damn that meddling Prue!'

With that he went looking for Phoebe and ...

TAU part 5:'Control, must maintain control,'

Found her in the living room. Ahead on her advice columns, Phoebe had decided to watch some tapes which had her favorite heroine in action. Namely the final season of the "Batman" TV series. Being a time traveler Chris didn't know about the Batman series or even worse Phoebe's Batgirl fandom. So just as the fight started onscreen, he was unwisely approaching Phoebe from the rear. So as the action started on TV Phoebe followed suit and (WHAM!) elbowed Chris in the nose and spinning, kicked him in the face!(POW!)

Meanwhile Leo and the caterpillar had been having a little chat when the caterpillar said, "You are kind of emotionless about losing your family..."

"I was upset but emotions are for mere mortals, not elders." Leo responded in a flat tone of voice

"... and slow even for a human!" The caterpillar continued and rubbing his chin said as much to himself as Leo, "Of course the other two were pretty bright."

"Do you have a name?" Leo asked ignoring the insult.

Rubbing his chin, the caterpillar answered, "You can just call me Ag. So this emotionless thing started when you became one of these Elders?" Leo nodded and Ag looked at him closely.

Back at the manor Phoebe apologized for beating on Chris but said, "Leo knew not to get behind me when I watch wrestling or Batgirl in action. You need to be more careful!" 'I need to be more careful? Blasted witch, ooh I would like to...' Chris thought until Phoebe held up her finger and complained, "You made me break a nail!"

At this Chris turned red and thought, 'Control, must maintain control, can't kill, can't kill now!'

A few minutes later Chris had healed Phoebe's nail and allowed himself to be dragged to the sofa to watch a Batman with Batgirl marathon. As he watched he began to get some ideas!

Back in the weird dimension, Ag asked Leo "You humans shake hands to indicate greetings and friendship right?" Leo nodded affirmatively and Ag stuck out a hand. Leo approached and saw the hand had 3 fingers and an opposable thumb. Leo shook that hand and as he did so another hand plunged through his forehead and into his brain! Leo reeled in pain and ...

TAU part 6:Oh so you didn't know about the"

then Ag withdrew his hand and the pain was gone. Collapsing to his knees Leo saw that his Elder robes were gone and Ag was holding a small orb of white light and examining it closely. Leo realized that the orb was his elder powers but that didn't matter as he lamented, 'What have I done? I turned my back on my family for no reason!'

Back at the manor Chris was getting the beginnings of a plan, 'Yes something like that might work, at least on Phoebe. I will need info from Phoebe, to work on Piper's mind and some scape demons of course!'

Just then Piper walked by and shooting Chris an annoyed look said, "Don't you have something better to do? If you are going to hang around here, you will have to help out. I will make a list of chores for you, starting with the dishes!"

Chris bit his tongue and thought, 'Grrr,dishes! Who would respect a budding mastermind with dishpan hands? Blasted witch! Control, maintain control, however satisfying it would be to hogtie these 3 witches, stick them in with Prue and add boiling lead, I must maintain control!'

"Sorry about that Leo, but I didn't think you would volunteer to let me examine these elder powers of yours and I didn't want to damage you!" Ag said as he took another puff from his pipe.

"I don't want anything to do with those powers. Somehow I threw everything away for them!" Leo sadly replied.

"Oh so you didn't know about the curse?" Ag asked.

"What curse?" Leo responded.

"The one that over a short period of time first deadens all strong emotions like love and then lowers the elder's intelligence by 25%, of course!" Ag responded.

"WHAT!!??" A stunned Leo yelped as his jaw dropped in shock.

Blowing a ring of smoke from his pipe Ag smiled and said, "Nobody expects the unspeakable curse!"