"Damn it!" the dark-haired witchlighter exclaimed as his brother's blue orbs swirled into the room. Chris took off the VR headset he was wearing, agitated. He had been short-tempered a lot recently; during his last semester at school Chris had started freelancing as a game developer and decided to try freelancing full-time after he graduated. It made sense, he needed the flexible hours, especially with all the family emergencies he had to deal with. He had found over the last six weeks, however, that actually paying bills was getting pretty tough, even with the crazy hours he was working.

"God, Wyatt! Can't you just use the damn door like everyone else? I was in the middle of reprogramming that and now its all screwed up," Chris griped.

Wyatt, knowing how dramatic his brother tended to be when he was stressed, rolled his eyes. "I'm not the magical being who decided to pursue a career in programming. You knew what magic does to wireless, dude before you started this little business of yours," Wyatt said as he took off his camera bag and headed to the kitchen in search of food. "And don't start with the normal life, blah, blah, bullshit either," he added over his shoulder.

Wyatt had almost two years on Chris, so he'd had a little more time to adjust to the big bad world of adulthood and pesky responsibilities, like paying the light bill. Wyatt had spent his college years living in Washington, D.C. studying photojournalism and had scored a job at National Geographic directly afterward. Chris had no idea how Wyatt explained away his lack of expense reports though.

"Whatever," Chris started as he followed Wyatt to the kitchen. "You know we could work out a schedule, like on workdays no orbing in or something."

"Or you could work somewhere else," Wyatt said before chugging some milk directly from the carton. "This is my apartment too. And I'm the one who's been covering your rent the last two months anyway. I still don't understand why you passed up the teaching job Dad offered."

"Seriously, are you still sixteen?" Chris ignored his brother's last comment. He'd been through that argument with his family too many times. He had to admit, it was frustrating how overprotective his parents seemed to be and he didn't understand why it was so difficult for them to let him do something completely on his own. They'd always been that way with him though: Wyatt got all the responsibility lectures while he got all the be careful lectures. Not that it wasn't warranted, Chris could be a lot more hot-headed and impulsive than Wyatt, especially when his emotions were running high. "Where have you been anyway? You smell like the zoo."

"Ethiopia."

"Assignment," Wyatt continued in response to his brother's blank stare. "Trying to get some images of the elusive African wild ass for the next issue," he laughed.

"Figures," Chris rolled his eyes, then laughed. "Seriously, you were stalking an animal called the African wild ass? Wow, I could go so many places with that one."

"Shut up, man. Actually though, something weird happened," Wyatt said, his tone turning serious. Wyatt tended to be pretty easy-going but Chris knew by his brother's subtle change of expression this wasn't the time for joking around.

"Weird? Weird like normal weird or our kind of weird?"

"Our kind of weird."

Chris sat on a stool at the kitchen island and waited for Wyatt to continue. The brother's had been dealing with their own "kind of weird" their entire lives, but even so it never became commonplace. Just the thought of a potential magical threat started both of their senses tingling. Their parents and aunts had never tried to hide too much from them, and based on the stories they grew up listening to, things on the magical front had been relatively peaceful. Their mom, Piper, could never fully relax though, she was always waiting for the other shoe to drop and her boys unconsciously picked up her wary nervousness. It had been nothing short of a miracle that their family had had such a long reprieve- well, a miracle and the after-effects of the Charmed Ones near decimation of the entire Underworld two decades prior. Chris swallowed hard, trying to be patient as Wyatt started explaining.

"So its this desert, right? And not a lot of places to, you know, hide." Wyatt paused, thinking. "And its effing hot too. So I'm standing there, well actually crouching behind a scrub bush trying to get a good shot and I hear something behind me. And Chris, I sensed the whole area before I orbed in, I know there wasn't anything besides animals around. I know it. But I turn around and there's this crazy looking man. I mean crazy looking. Wearing this ratty turban and carrying this giant stick with all these weird... uh, things attached to it."

"Things?" Chris interrupted.

"Yeah, like I dunno, like animal shapes and stuff. And they were attached with strips of cloth or something so they dangled around it. I dunno," Wyatt shook his head, "I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the stick. The guy was old, I mean ancient looking and he walked like, well kind of like how you'd think a spider'd walk if it had two legs. And he comes straight over to me and gets these wild eyes and demands to know how I found him."

"What?" Chris exclaimed. "In English?"

"I don't know, no, no, I don't think so. But he's ranting about it, wanting to know how I found him and how he's been hidden from 'them' for so long and now 'they' send me to find him and it wasn't his fault, he was just messing around or something. Kept telling me he was playing a joke, he didn't mean any harm," Wyatt trailed off.

"That's it? I mean he just ranted at you and then what?" Chris pressed, hoping there wasn't more. Wyatt was obviously shaken by the encounter, but Chris noticed that he didn't appear to be hurt and didn't look like he'd gone through a battle.

"Oh, yeah he ranted and then," Wyatt started to laugh, "then he pointed at something behind me and yelled 'look!' So I did and when I turned around he was gone. Oldest trick in the book."

"Ok, yeah, that's definitely weird. You planning to tell Mom, or you think we should check it out first?" Chris asked.

"I was going to talk to Brody about it first, but I don't know where the hell he is," Wyatt griped.

Then both brothers cocked their heads, as if listening for something very faint.

"Oh shit."

"Family dinner." Wyatt said, looking down at his sweat stained clothing and shrugging.

"Sucks to be you," Chris laughed, but as he started to orb away he could hear the start of a spell "Let the object of objection..."

)0( )0( )0(

"Did you two forget? You forgot." Piper sighed, pursing her lips and looking at her grown-up sons. Motherhood had been good to Piper, so had a slightly quieter life. There were times though, raising three kids, that she'd almost have preferred dealing with demons, especially the days when her two extremely powerful sons were at odds with one another. Before the boys learned basic control of their powers she had to stop counting the number of times she'd run to their room only to find Wyatt behind his shield, Chris angry and crying and scorch marks on the wall. Chris had inherited an array of Elder powers from his father, which evened the playing field between him and his Twice-Blessed older brother. As far as anyone knew, Wyatt and Chris, independent of each other, were the most powerful magical beings in known history. Piper and Leo liked to downplay that as much as they could though, and so far in the boys' lives their powers hadn't been truly tested or put on full display, and for that she was grateful.

"No, Mom, we didn't forget..."

"Of course not..."

"It's just that... well, Wyatt was late..."

Wyatt shot Chris a pointed look, telling him to shut up, but not without Piper noticing. She was used to their banter and smiled a little thinking about how easily they could push each other's buttons.

"Ok, fess up, what happened?" she demanded.

"Nothing really..." Wyatt began, while his mom eyed him warily.

Just then, a young, dark haired witch walked out of the kitchen carrying a stack of plates, with her father just behind her.

"Oh, right Dad, just because you've seen like ten decades of fashion trends come and go does not make you an expert," Melinda joked. "Oh! You guys made it! Mom, quit giving them the third degree. Chris, run get the glasses, will you? And Wy, can you grab the napkins?"

The brothers rushed to follow Melinda's orders. Despite being the youngest of three siblings, Melly was a force to be reckoned with- typical of all Halliwell women. She was almost an exact replica of her mother, with dark hair and dark eyes but her face was shaped more like her father and Wyatt. She, along with three of her cousins, turned 20 this year. Leo shook his head as he followed her out of the kitchen, wondering how his little girl had turned into a grown woman so quickly.

"You aren't getting off that easy, mister." Piper began as her children were setting the table. "Really Wyatt, what happened?"

"Something happened?" Leo shot a worried glance at Chris, then shared a concerned look with Piper. They'd been doing that a lot recently, much to Chris's annoyance. It seemed the last few months his parents were somehow getting more paranoid and overprotective of him. "A demon?"

"No, Dad, I don't think so. It was, well, it was just weird," Wyatt said. After throwing a glare at his brother he proceeded to tell his parents and sister about the strange experience with the unknown man in Ethiopia.

Piper and Leo looked thoughtful for a moment, then looking at Leo, Piper said "Well, sounds like you just ran into a wacko, honey. Strange, though..." she trailed off and looked at Leo again.

The siblings all eyed each other, their parents were definitely acting off, very off.

"So, maybe we should just eat then, huh? I'm starving," Chris said, breaking the silence and hoping to avoid any more not-so-subtle worried looks from his parents. Why did they keep looking at him as if he was about to shoot fire out of his eyes? It was Wyatt who met the crazy man, not him.

Piper jumped a little, "Oh! Yes, right, I'll just go grab..." But she was cut off by the sound of orbing and Kyle Brody appeared, with a young witch at his side.

"Brody!" Wyatt exclaimed. "Where have you been? I've been calling you!"

Brody quickly looked Wyatt over, "I see you're not hurt. I was with the Elders actually." He paused briefly, looking back at the young woman standing a step behind him. "Piper, they've actually got an assignment for you and your sisters."

"What? You have got to be kidding me!" Piper's voice rose. "The Charmed Ones are not supposed to have assignments any more Kyle. The Charmed Ones are handing the reigns over to their children, remember? The Charmed Ones are retiring," she ground out, getting more and more angry with each word.

Brody's hands went up in a gesture of surrender, "Look, I know, I know. But, well... she needs protection. And she's got quite a lot of useful information." Brody looked pleadingly at Piper. He had a long, and to be hones, quite tiresome history with the Halliwell family. How on earth the Elders thought it appropriate for him to be assigned to any of the Halliwells given his relationship with Paige just prior to his death, he would never figure out. It wasn't until Wyatt, Chris and Melinda were in their teens that they became Brody's charges, before that the Elders trusted their parents to guide them. During their adolescence though, the Elders thought it best to bring in an outside, non-Halliwell influence, thus putting Brody smack dab in the middle of countless Halliwell-family disputes.

Piper surreptitiously studied the woman, she looked vaguely familiar but Piper couldn't place her. "If this is another Seer with visions tricking us into siding with those tyrannical Avatars again..."

The three young Halliwells started laughing behind their hands. "He really shouldn't let her get started," Wyatt whispered.

"Yeah, you've got to head her off before she really gets going," Chris added. "She only gets worse and harder to stop..."

"And then KERR-PLOOH," Melinda added, using her hands to mimic the gesture Piper used when blowing things up. The siblings' laughter really exploded then and Piper turned to see what was going on.

"And what is so funny?" She asked curtly. Her only response was more laughter.

Brody took advantage of Piper's distraction, "Can you call your sisters? I'd rather go over everything with all of you only once."

Defeated, Piper sighed "fine, I'll call them. You two might as well sit and eat something while you're here."

"Typical no-nonsense Brody fashion," Chris thought to himself. When Kyle Brody was first assigned to Piper Halliwell's children, the teenaged brothers would compete to see who could get the straight-laced whitelighter to crack a smile. Unfortunately, Brody never found any of their practical jokes very funny. The whitelighter did seem to have a soft spot for Melinda though, but that could have just been because she never tested experimental potions on him.

Leo stood up, shuffling chairs around, and began introducing everyone to the newcomer. "Sorry about that, Piper, well, my wife guards her family time. And I'm Leo, these are our kids: Wyatt, Chris and Melinda."

"Ok, they're..." Piper was cut off on her way back into the dining room by the sound of orbs. "On their way. Hey, guess who has an assignment?" She finished with false perkiness.

Phoebe and Paige looked at Brody, annoyance evident on their faces.

"Well?" Paige asked.

Brody took a sharp breath and crossed his arms. "The Elders want you three to protect her in exchange for information and her help," he paused, looking at Bianca then at the three sisters. When they didn't immediately protest, he continued. "She is a Phoenix and she came to me..."

But Piper, Phoebe and Paige didn't hear the rest of what Brody was saying; they had just recognized the woman.

"... her name is Bianca. And the Elders... and, I mean, I think she really does have information that will help you, help us. They've questioned her and agree that her motives are pure."

"Kitchen, now." Piper said, motioning to her sisters and husband.

Bianca watched the Charmed Ones disappear with Leo into the kitchen, then nervously looked around, catching Wyatt's eye. As a trained assassin, she had spent years perfecting her tracking skills, unlike other predators who caught a scent and followed it, she was able to sense the unique energy signatures of her targets and track them down. Everyone, magical and non-magical beings alike, had an energy signature, almost like a vibrational imprint on the atmosphere around them. She didn't view energies as good or bad, they just were. She knew there were volumes of magical theory out there regarding energy reading, but she thought most of it was just a bunch of nonsense, attempts at classifying something that was beyond classification. The energy signatures of the two brothers before her had her baffled though, she'd never seen anything like it. She remembered the intensity from the first night she came across them, when she was tracking their friend Jude, and now, here in their family home, it was just as intense. So intense it threatened to pull her in to the trance-like state she had experienced the first time she encountered it.

She remembered how strange it was that night, she felt like she had been hit by car or TKd across a room. When she came upon them she had been in full tracking mode, allowing her senses to be completely open, so their powerful signatures had hit her with an almost physical force. The two signatures, with their swirling chaos of light and dark seemed to be on the brink of something, something that could go terribly, terribly wrong or wonderfully right. She'd always thought she was meant for something more than taking orders from demons and doing their dirty work- even if it did come with perks like Prada and Teslas. This was it, she knew it immediately. She was supposed to be here, with these two brothers to help make sure that terrible wrongness didn't happen. Now she just had to wait and see if the sisters would accept her offer to help and give her the protection she needed.