Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait. Real life kind of got in the way, and then this chapter took a completely unexpected direction. Hopefully, it turns out to be a good direction. Only time (and a cooperative muse) will tell.
Theresa watched the young witch pace the length of the small office. Her shoulders were tense, and her head was bowed, like she was bearing the weight of the world. Her steps carried her two more times back and forth across the office, and then she stopped, glancing up at Theresa.
"The Underworld?" she asked, softly, a tremor of fear running through her voice, although Theresa could tell that she was trying to hide it. "You want me to go, alone, into the Underworld."
"Yes," Theresa confirmed.
"To rescue Prue, by myself," the young woman pressed, insistently. "With powers that I've only had for a couple of weeks, and that I just barely understand."
"Yes," Theresa repeated, calmly, and Paige sighed, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes in frustration.
"Why?" she asked, a plaintive tone in her voice. "Why me?"
And that was the one question Theresa couldn't answer. Not because she didn't want to, but because she didn't know the answer. She hadn't been given an answer to that particular question, when she'd demanded to know why this young woman, out of all who could have gone on a rescue mission. All he'd told her was that it must be Paige, and no other.
'Damn you,' she thought, glaring into the shadows, where her mysterious accomplice was lurking. 'Damn you, she's so young. Don't make me do this. Don't make me send her down there on her own.'
But, the man was silent, and Theresa hated him a little bit for not stepping up and taking this over. For leaving her to do his dirty work.
"There is no one else," she said, finally, and Paige sighed.
"What is this?" she demanded, incredulously. "Did the Elders set this up? Is this some kind of test?" Spinning on her heel, she paced anxiously away from Theresa, muttering to herself, although the older woman could still hear her. "That must be it. Leo said that I'm not even supposed to exist, but I do, and there's nothing they can do about that, now, so they're testing me. They want to see if I'm good enough to be one of their precious Charmed Ones-"
Theresa's heart went out to the young woman in front of her. She was clearly suffering for what Theresa was asking of her, and her inner demons were eating away at her self esteem. But, Theresa could see a steel core running through her, a strength that had helped her survive in the past. Theresa only hoped that she could draw on the strength when it counted.
"There is something I have for you," Theresa said, and Paige stopped her pacing and muttering to look at her.
Theresa moved over to the small table, removing the cloth-covered bundle from where it was resting on top. As she lifted the bundle, the silken cloth slipped away to reveal a shining, silver sword, and Theresa winced at the strident, screeching sound that assaulted her ears.
The sword had slipped free of its sheath, an inch of shining, silver blade gleaming in the low light, and Theresa used the silk cloth to hastily push the blade back into the scabbard. She didn't want to touch the sheathed sword with her bare hands, even for a second. She was afraid of the reaction.
Still cautious, she used the cloth to pick the sword up, carrying it over to where Paige was standing. She held the sword out to the young woman, who was staring at the blade as though entranced. She reached out slowly and took the blade from Theresa's outstretched hands, her fingers curling around the hilt. Then, she pulled the sword from the scabbard.
"Do you hear that?" she whispered, as the gleaming blade cleared the protection of the silk-lined scabbard. "It's singing."
Theresa had automatically tensed up when Paige had first grasped the sword, but in the young woman's hands, the grating scream had turned melodic. There was a soft whisper of silk as the sword cleared the edge of the scabbard, and then Paige held the naked blade in her hands.
"It's beautiful," she murmured, quietly. Breaking her gaze away from the weapon, she glanced over at Theresa. "Why would you give this to me?"
"It is meant for you," Theresa told her, a reassuring tone in her voice.
"I have no idea how to use this," Paige confessed, with a weak chuckle, and Theresa smiled.
"I think stabbing is the appropriate response," she quipped, and Paige's smile got marginally bigger.
"Anything else?" she asked. "I don't suppose you have some kind of magical "get out of Hell free" potion, do you?"
"Only one to get you in," Theresa told her, gesturing to the mug on the table, and Paige sighed, softly.
"I guess there's nothing else for it, then," she replied. Shifting the sword to her right hand, she picked the cup up with her free hand and raised it to Theresa in a toast. "Salut," she said, and then she downed the contents in a long swallow.
For a couple of seconds, nothing seemed to be happening, but then the young woman started to glow from within with a soft, golden light. The light got brighter and brighter, until Theresa had to shield her eyes, and when the light had faded, Paige was gone. Theresa sighed, closing her eyes and sending up a brief prayer for the young witch's safety.
"It's done," she said, flatly, without turning around. "I hope you are pleased."
"Thank you." Her mysterious accomplice stepped out of the shadows he'd been hiding in, staring at the spot where Paige had been standing. He was tall, with dark hair, and a battered leather jacket, and a sword at his waist that sang like Paige's. His face was blank and closed-off, and Theresa could read nothing in his eyes. "I believe I promised you a reward, for your help."
"I hope it is worth trapping a young woman in Hell," Theresa snapped at him.
"Your life, and the lives of your fellow Shuvani?" the young man offered. "A gypsy hunter is after the priestesses of your clans. He hasn't started hunting you, yet, but he will. Now, you can be ready for him."
Theresa stared at the young man. "What would you have done if I'd said no?" she asked. "If I hadn't helped you? Would you have just let us die?"
"I would have wiped the hunter off the face of the earth," the young man told her, "and you would have never been the wiser. But, then," he added, with a small smile, "you already know that, don't you?"
"Why did you ask for my help," Theresa demanded, "if you were going to go after the gypsy hunter, all along?"
"Why did you help me when you knew that the reward was useless?" the young man countered, stubbornly.
"I saw her path," Theresa admitted, reluctantly. "I saw what she is, what she may yet become. I saw you walk beside her," she added. "That is why I helped you."
The young man looked wistful. "We were good together, once," he said, his voice quiet. "I hope-"
"You love her," Theresa stated, when the young man trailed off, staring into the distance.
He nodded, a fond smile curving at his lips. "We met after I almost ran her over with my car," he replied. "She'd just been assigned as the social worker to one of my parolees, and we clashed on the case. She was stubborn, and she wouldn't give an inch. And she wound up being right."
"What happened?" Theresa prompted, gently. She'd already seen bits and pieces on her first reading of the young man, when he'd first walked into her shop, but she wanted to hear the full story from him.
"We were happy," the young man told her, a faraway look in his eyes. "Our twins had just celebrated their fifth birthday, and we were talking about having another baby, and then Phoebe had a premonition. Prue was alive; ten years, and she saw Prue alive. And she and Piper were so excited."
"Paige wasn't?" Theresa asked, carefully, sensing that they were entering dangerous territory with the young man.
"No, she was," the young man hastened to tell her. "But, she could tell that something was off with Prue, could see something that Piper and Phoebe couldn't. A decade in the Underworld can change anyone, even someone as strong as Prue, but Piper and Phoebe just couldn't see it. They wouldn't listen to Paige when she tried to warn them, and then it was too late. She died protecting them from someone they thought they could trust."
"You tried to change it," Theresa said, and the young man sighed, his shoulders slumping.
"The Elders wouldn't listen to me," he said, a bitter tone in his voice. "They kept telling me that it was destined, that nothing could be changed. That my wife, my soul mate, was gone. Forever. I couldn't live with that. So I didn't."
"You came back," Theresa commented.
"I came back," the young man confirmed. "It took me almost a year to find a way to do it, to save her. But, I finally found a way."
"Impressive, for a mortal," Theresa told him.
"I was highly motivated," came the calm response, and the young man ran his fingers lightly over the hilt of his sword. Theresa could hear the same, faint singing that came from the weapon she'd given Paige. The weapon that the young man had given her. "I didn't mean to come back this far," he confessed, after a long moment. "But, once I realized when I was, I couldn't pass up the chance I'd been given. I had the chance to save her, save everyone."
"You would circumvent destiny?" Theresa asked.
"Screw destiny." The young man pushed himself away from the counter he'd been leaning on, his eyes blazing with a fierce light. "I am tired of watching good people die because of destiny. If Death wants to take the woman I love, he's going to have to fight me every step of the way."
Theresa didn't bother with a reply. This young man wasn't the first one she'd seen challenge death, challenge fate. But, he was the first she'd met who was stubborn enough to succeed.
"You're going down there," she commented, but she didn't need an answer. "You're going down there, after her."
The young man gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes, his hand curling around the hilt of his sword. "She's my life. Where she goes, so do I."
"Who are you?" Theresa asked, before the young man could disappear. "Tell me your name."
"Henry," he said, as he faded out of her shop, his voice trailing behind him. "Henry Mitchell."