Hi, so Season 6 and we are over the halfway mark for this story. As you see we are halfway through and someone else is making his appearance, I might have to give Billie's Dad a happier ending than what he got on the show because the truth is that he is so good to write and his relationship with Paige is so devious. Hands down Zankou was the best thing about Season 7 (we will not mention the cop that shall not be mentioned or whatever the f was being done with Daryl) so I am loving that I have brought him in early.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Also Zankou and Cole have never met in this story. I don't know if it's more to do with their human sides but I am choosing to believe that while they have heard about each other they have not seen each other face to face in human form.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

We will cover quite a bit in the last fifteen chapters that are Season 6 and Season 7, Season 8 is probably only going to be two chapters if that.

Also if I did make Paige/Zankou a thing how would that sit with you?

In case it was not clear. I DESPISE THE ELDERS, LIKE ALL OF THEM, EVEN THE ONE WHO TRIED TO HELP LEO. I JUST...BIGGEST BUNCH OF HYPOCRITES ON TV.

Hope that was nice and clear.

Mother Of Invention

Chapter 16-The Wicked And The Devine

The Charmed Ones meet the Cleaners and it fuels Paige's paranoia. Meanwhile Zan and she keep meeting for drinks and she doesn't know if she dares to ask the question that she has been thinking about.

The Cleaners were the stuff of nightmare.

The fact that they could take a child and wipe that child out of existence and from the memories of it's parents simply because it was a child who had magic made her stomach cramp. The fact that they did it to Wyatt who was her nephew, who was Piper's whole world at the moment was nothing short of a violation.

And the fact that the Elders were behind it…in her opinion it was an excuse for open warfare.

Carefully Cole said nothing during this entire debate but it seemed to her that he was keeping his mouth shut in case they were listening, as if he was afraid of what was going to happen if he dared mention that Billie had a power such as the one that she had discovered she had. Paige was under no illusion that the Elders knew but the more that they discovered about the Cleaners from Chris, the more that Cole told them, the fact that Leo knew the Elders knew and that he was powerless to get his son back the more angry she felt.

The phone rang blasting their way through the conversation. There was not a punishment that fitted the Cleaners or the Elders that would work but as Cole pointed out Billie's suggestion of blasting them with their own lightening until they fell of the Golden Gate Bridge had it's merits.

"Mom. Zan?"

"Whose Zan?"

"Zan is a friend a met in a bar. Billie don't look at you like that not every man named Zan is connected to us"

"Did I say anything?"

Paige rolled her eyes stepping out into the garden to take the call.

"Hello gorgeous"

She smiled. He had a tone of voice that made her toes curl in her high heels.

"Hey"

"You okay?"

"Not really" she said sitting down on a deck chair. "I think…I think my nephew might be in trouble"

"You want me to call in some contacts?"

Paige paused. She was not entirely sure what Zan did. When they had spoke it was always in the hypothetical of what he did and she had learnt not to ask. She did suspect that he was in some kind of organized crime outlet but that being said she was also about eighty percent sure that he was Billie's father and about ninety percent sure that she wanted to sleep with him so it made a rather nasty mix.

The man just brought out her bad side and she wanted to be bad right about now.

"No. But…you think that…sometimes good people have to do bad things to protect the people they love don't you?"

"Yes" he said his tone strong. "Yes I do Paige, you do whatever you have to do to protect your children, your nephew whatever it is. The whole point of loving someone like that is that you annihilate whoever is trying to hurt them. Do what you gotta do, and then come round to my apartment tomorrow night?"

"Why?"

He laughed. "Oh darling, cause you have questions that you want to ask but your not ready yet and I understand that but in the meantime I want to wine and dine you and treat you like a Queen and then take you to bed stick my head between your legs and never let you go"

She swore under her breath and he chuckled. She knew that nobody was around to see her or overhear her—though Phoebe was making some rather wild hand gestures at her—but the thought made the blood rush to her cheeks in a way that blusher never did.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. Until your ready I don't see why we shouldn't have a little fun"

That was the thing with Zan she was learning. He had ways of knowing her, ways of knowing what she wanted and what she was afraid of asking. She knew it was because he knew, the second that she had told him that she had been a teen Mom she had known that he had known. It was there in the air as shimmering as gold dust and as deadly as poison and yet she had not asked him because she was afraid of what her life was going to look like when she got the answer.

And she had not dared look for him in the Book. She knew, deep down she thought she knew but she did not dare look for him in the Book.

There was a banging on the window and she saw Piper throw her hands in the air and she resisted the very unsisterly urge to throw a finger in her direction.

"I gotta go" she said as Phoebe appeared in her vision waving her hands around as if that was going to make her take flight and she rolled her eyes.

"Kill them all" was Zan's only answer and Paige hung up the phone and followed Phoebe back into the living room and wondered all throughout the telling of the plan just what was it was about that man that made her feel more alive even when his words were the kind where she would usually run a mile from.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing"

"Are we ever going to meet him?" Billie said critically. "Cause you were never like this with Glenn"

"Glenn was different" she said tapping her baby girl on the shoulder for admonishment. "This is…I don't know what this is and that's what makes it a good thing. This is chocolate for a girl used to feasting on vanilla"

Phoebe made a nodding ah kind of noise that had Cole turning to look at her in confusion. Piper stomped her foot and the lights blew up which effectively ended any kind of questions that Billie had about what was going on and what was the difference between chocolate and vanilla. Paige was thankful in the way because she was so not in the mood to explain that to her daughter.

She had a few cleaners to go and expose.

"You know" Cole said swinging around on the chair in Leno's talk show as Phoebe explained magic to the world by conjuring up a fireball throwing demon that she vanquished midair. "My days as a demon were filled with things like this Jay"

"Really?" Leno said with the air of a man rapidly pulling himself together to carry on with an interview that he had rapidly lost control of. "May I ask what you were—"

"Demon" Cole said with a grin. "But I am now human. But if you viewers want a real talk through of hell I am your man. And now I am a man which is ironic. Phoebe my darling wife will show you what I used to be, Phoebe Book"

Phoebe smiled just as Billie blinked in.

"Ah and here is Billie my niece, half witch half something else we don't know yet, Billie darling can you explain to the audience what you've been up too?"

"Certainly" Billie said with a smile as sweet as rat poison. "Mom has just gotten rid of the Golden Gate Bridge and Aunt Piper is raising the seas but for those of you young kids who actually like going to school I'm afraid you can't, you see I've spent the last hour and a half bursting all the pipes in the school of the upper mid-west and for those of you as worried about your Math finale as I am here, don't worry cause I have the paper. Grab your notebooks and I am going to read out what you need to learn to pass the worst subject since subjects were invented."

Phoebe conjured up a bottle of champagne and passed it Cole and Billie hopped on the desk and opened up her paper.

In the audience there was one man watching who was smiling into his hands beaming with pride at the chaos, the sheer level of chaos. He shimmered away just as Billie looked up and when Paige turned around he appeared as if to applaud her for asking the crew on CNN if they had any dead relatives that they would perhaps respectfully, like her to contact.

It took some doing but eventually Wyatt was returned. It was compounded by the sheer mess that they had made and then by Piper's assurances that they would keep on doing it. When the Cleaners had said they would simply wipe them out of existence Piper had laughed cold and cruel and high and had simply said they were welcome to it. But that would tip the balance between good and evil and that would see demons come to the surface to kill in abundance and wouldn't that make the world more obvious to the magic that was going on around them? How badly would that affect the grand design that death was always wining on about? How would the Elders keep the balance if the Charmed Ones were not around?

"And it applies to all of our children" Paige said suddenly. "You come for my daughter, Piper's son, Phoebe's children, any of them and we will end you. I don't care if I have to go to Hell and ask a demon to do it himself if the Elders tell you that my daughter or any other of my children or our children are a danger then you will turn down that call or I will burn the fucking world to the ground"

There was a pause as one of them turned away as if amused but Paige stepped forwards and grabbed his chin forcing him to look at her.

"Look me in the eye and tell me I am bluffing" she whispered and the blue widened as they took stock at what was in her face. Paige tilted her head to the side and then he nodded.

And then they were gone.

"Pity" Cole said quietly. "I rather enjoyed that, I imagine quite a lot of demons did. When one of you goes bad it's rather inspiring to the rest of us"

Phoebe laughed and bent to kiss her husband and Paige turned to hug Billie who raised an eyebrow at her.

"Rather wicca witch mom"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, if you don't ask why I will give you twenty bucks. And don't call tonight unless you have too. I have a date and I do not want to be interrupted."

"Sold" Billie said easily. Paige grinned and went to get changed.

She brushed down her blonde curls and tugged at her red dress and wished she had gone with the black but the door was opened and Zan was there dressed in black jeans and a black shirt with his leather waistcoat.

"Hello" he purred. "You get it all sorted"

"So to speak."

She put her handbag down on the couch and then kissed him. She didn't know what had inspired for her to make the first move but she made it anyway and she kissed him and felt him mould himself to the kiss. He picked her up easily and she felt her legs go around his waist as his mouth plundered hers and she pulled back only when she had to breath.

He looked at her mouth smeared a little with her lipstick.

"Not that I am complained but what—"

"Your Billie's father aren't you?"

He eyed her for a second and she nodded. "You're the man I remember in my dreams"

He eyed her again and then.

"Yes"

"And your not quite human?"

"No" he said quietly. "You want to vanquish me or go to bed and not think for a while"

She knew that she should vanquish him, knew that she should jump down out of his arms and run away in fright, knew that she should orb right out of here and come back with the Power of Three but this felt different. This felt dangerous and electric and alive and it had been a long time since she had felt this way. And there was Billie, she owed Billie the truth on this of that she knew deep down within her heart. And so she shook her head slowly.

"You heard of Don't Ask, Don't Tell?"

"Yes"

"How about we just do that for a while?"

He raised an eyebrow and then nodded.

"Alright darling, but for what it's worth I don't want to harm that girl of ours. I don't. I didn't plan it all those years ago, but you can rest assured she is safe with me"

And somehow despite it all she believed him.

Maybe this was what Phoebe had felt with Cole.

If so then she owed them both an apology because up until now she had never really got it.

"Take me to bed" she said quietly.

Zan smiled at her.

She knew that was not his name.

But she went anyway because at heart Paige was still the girl that craved danger and he was still the man that had given it to her. Perhaps that was why if you looked back at all their past lives in this world and in all the others it was him that came to get her, weather she was an Enchantress, weather she was a flapper or weather she was a witch that just wanted some to catch her when she inevitably fell.

The wicked and the divine indeed.

And there you go, hope you enjoy and see you next time.

Next Chapter-Paige in an effort to find herself both with Zan and without gets involved with a feud, may or may not sell her soul and nearly gets herself killed in Camelot. Billie wants to know what the hell is going on.