AN: Two weeks, yeah, sorry about the wait. But, I think that the next chapter will come out faster, because then I won't have any problem with writing Ben.
"Laalalallalallalallalaah!"
Crash!
"You should be dead!" Phoebe yelled.
Can't they stop behaving like idiots and behave like the adults they're supposed to be?
But that wouldn't be as fun for them...
Who the hell cares about that? I know I don't.
Hear, hear, suddenly I'm the one who defends people...
Yeah, and I can't see why, they're idiots. They clearly love each other, and yet they fight and try to kill each other.
How do you know that they love each other?
Because they do, you're just too blind to see it.
Well, I use your eyes, so it's understandable...
Bastard.
Then the screaming reached a new level, and I sang some more.
Can't they just stop? God, I should have followed the others. Why didn't I do that?
Because you're a martyr...
I hate this.
Then quit your moaning and do something about it...
Fine, I'm fine.
It's driving me nuts too...
I stood up, and opened the door just in time to see Phoebe disappear, like the blonde woman in the cave.
A blonde woman stood there, in a cave with several cave openings to other caves, looking around, and shouting :"Tempus? Are you there?"
"Tempus? You confuse me with Tempus?" A steel-like voice echoed. She didn't seem to see from where it came, and then she shriveled away as if time had moved forward.
But she didn't shrivel, she just disappeared...
But it felt the same.
"Do you know what happened?" Cole asked me, standing there with a shocked expression, probably sad that Phoebe had stopped throwing breakable stuff at him. And she had thrown quite a lot, judging from the mess that the room was. It was even more messy than mine. "Do you?"
"No," I said.
Cole had that look on his face, the look that said that I was hiding something from him. It was a look that I had grown accustomed to. He didn't believe me when I said that I had only been kidnapped and then I had killed my kidnappers and that's that.
I didn't want to tell him about Hades, I didn't want to tell him that I had tried to save my parents, I didn't want to tell him about me, I was me, and I didn't want Cole to know more than he already did. So what if the Source said that he actually was my father? So what?
So he's your father... And you're not fine, even I can see that...
I'm fine, and you can't see that.
"Do you expect me to believe that?"
"Yes, because I was telling the truth."
Though you do know what happened... It was the Titans... Why don't you tell? Don't want him to help you solve it? You don't want to kill the Titans...
Of course I do.
"What does he know?"
"What?"
"You get a far off look in your eyes when you talk to him, and what did he tell you?"
"Nothing!"
Then I was saved from Cole's inquisition by Chris, who orbed into the penthouse.
Why doesn't he have wards...
"Why don't you have wards?" I asked Cole.
"Not now," Cole said.
"Mom disappeared, as did Paige, do you know where Phoebe is?" Chris asked.
Impolite brat...
Well, what do you think that I am?
"It went fast," Cole said.
"What went fast?"
"You getting together and figuring out what to do. She's gone," I said.
Dead...
All shriveled up and gone.
I smiled at the thought, and they looked weirdly at me. Chris was probably already of the opinion that I was crazy, and Cole probably just discarded it as if the Source had said something funny.
"How do you know that?" Chris asked.
"Because that's what I do." Chris looked at me, with the look of someone who clearly thought that the person who someone looked at was crazy, but refused to say it and instead looked like it. "I'm fine."
"Are... they dead?"
"No," I said with a shake of my head.
Liar, liar, pants on fire...
"You're lying," Chris accused.
"Yes."
"Oh," Chris said, looking heartbroken.
"Just kidding, anyway, they're just gone because they are the Charmed Ones, they have lots of allies, and if you want to bring down the good side of magic in a quick and easy way, those are the ones to disappear, as the Elders have wards against that kind of thing."
"Does it have anything to do with your disappearance?"
"No!" Chris and Cole stared at me. "No, it does not."
"Are you sure about that? Because Chris has a point," Cole said.
"He's just a kid who's mom disappeared."
"And what did your mom do a week ago?"
"She died, and left behind a charred body, she did not disappear."
"No, she died, because of you, right?" Chris said, and looked close to tears.
As usual, when I get mad, I got warm.
Kill him...
I settled for creating several fire-balls and then just letting them die. Chris looked a bit frightened by the fire-balls, but it's not as if I was aiming at anyone.
"Chris, be nice or today will be the day that this penthouse is destroyed," Cole told Chris, and he looked like he thought it unfair, but he didn't say anything. Stupid. "Do you know where they are?" Cole asked me.
"No, I don't," I said, exasperated.
Why don't you force him to listen to you...
"But you know that they are gone, how come that you don't know where they are? Or are they dead and gone?" Chris asked, and you had to give him credit for the effort he made to not cry, but, unfortunately for him, his eyes still glistened.
"I can go and check if they're dead, if you want."
Then Cole disappeared.
What are you going to do now? the Source asked with glee.
"Are you worried now?" Chris asked me.
"Of course I am, Chris, I'm not stupid, on the contrary to what you seem to think. We need to get back to the Mansion, this place isn't warded."
Chris orbed, and I followed.
In the attic, where all the kids and three husbands that the Halliwells had were collected, Wyatt had his shield up. He let it down when he saw Chris, but he seemed tempted to put it right back up when he saw me.
"Cole's gone too," Chris told Wyatt.
"Was it the same?" Piper's husband, no idea what the hell his name is, asked.
Leo... Former whitelighter...
"Yes," Chris answered.
"Do you know what I think is funny? It's that you're all hiding behind Wyatt," I said, and they all glared at me.
"Well, what do you propose we do?"
"Hiding behind a child is pathetic," I said.
"Ben, we don't have time for this, we need to come up with some plan of attack, or at least defense," Leo said.
"Well, I must have a plan, so relax," I said nonchalantly, but I wasn't. How the hell was I supposed to get that plan of attack that I knew Hades must have planned out.
Maybe you should go to sleep...
Or faint, maybe.
"Must?" a guy that I think must be Phoebe's husband, asked.
"Yes," I snapped.
"Are you sane?" Wyatt asked, and Leo glared at him, but he didn't say anything.
He agrees...
I rolled my eyes at him, and then collapsed.
"I've had a great idea!" Zeus said as he walked into my cave in the underworld.
"Really?"
"Yes, really. I've been thinking that I need help with my job, like, making the world a better place, and then I realized that I could use dead, wise men to help me, right, only problem is that I don't have nay, so you need to give me one."
"Just one wise man? Zeus, you need several to make up for the fact that you're lacvking in th brain department."
"Lacking? I'm not lacking, you're the one who's-"
"I meant in the brain department."
"Oh. Well, you're right then. Anyway, will you help me?"
"Of course, since you doesn't do your job, you might need someone with work ethic."
I should've known that his idea would fail. The Elders, as they were called, didn't like him and his lifestyle.
Eventually, after they felt that they had learned everything that Zeus could teach them (though not the things that he was an expert on, since they had decided that making the world a better place was such a big job that celibacy was the way to go), they disposed of him.
Poseidon was very mad at me for that, though it wasn't really my fault that Zeus had chosen the wrong wise men to do his job for him.
"Do, do, do you have a, a , a planofattack?" the little boy that I had gotten from Hel asked.
"Why, yes. I plan to bring us back."
"Us? Do, do, do you mean your brother?"
"Yes. Poseidon has been aging well, but he won't be able to fight, since he's too lazy. Zeus can be re-awaken, which will be done, and you'll put me into a boy."
"Boy?"
"Yes, I'll have to orchestrate that too, but the main thing is that Zeus, me, and King Arthur will be fighting the Titans."
"King Arthur?"
"Yes, he's coming back as well, it won't be too hard."
"King Arthur? Won't, won't, won't that create a un-balance?"
"Un-balance? I don't think so."
"Bu-but, two, two, twolords, and, and, one king?"
"Do you have a problem with that?" I asked coldly. He shook his head, terrified. At least he should be grateful that he's not living on the surface.
AN: And that's the end of this chapter, hope you like. They're got a tough road ahead of them, and Ben has to figure out how to execute Hades's plan, which, since he doesn't know about the sword, will be tough.
Anyway, the one who figures out how Ben is alive, will be able to wish for a one-shot set in this universe. And it's not that hard, there's a clue in this chapter.