Hi so here is another chapter, I hope you enjoy this one and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later. There are only ten more chapters left of this story but there are more Charmed stories coming so please stay tuned.

And I want to thank you all for your patience in waiting for this chapter, there has been a lot of personal issues going on recently, hopefully they have now been resolved.

I predict two more chapters left of the Season 6 arc.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine just this story.

Please Read and Review .

And thank you all for sticking with this story through the hard times, I appreciate that I have been a bit absent recently but rest assured I am back and so is this story.

Mother Of Invention

Chapter 20-Something In The Shadows

With a threat rising against Wyatt and everyone aware that Chris is Piper and Leo's son, Paige is increasingly plagued by dreams that something is going to happen to Billie. Zankou is already there and Mom and Dad must take steps to protect their baby girl from a foe they do not even know is right in the room next door.

The dreams started soon after.

Dreams of Billie screaming for her and Paige unable to get to her. Screams of her baby girl in pain and Paige unable to get to her. She didn't know what to do, she would wake up in a cold sweat, feeling like there was a hand on the back of her neck and something terrible around the corner. She didn't know that she wasn't alone in this until she woke up one night to see Zankou standing in her room staring out at the thunderstorm that was raging over San Francisco.

"Stop doing this" she said pushing herself up. "Please stop doing this. This is the reason why my sister doesn't like you"

"Aye love that's the reason"

"Why are you here?"

"Something's happening"

There was a pause as Paige ran a hand through her hair. "No shit" she said finally because really! What else was one supposed to do when their baby daddy, demon lover appeared in the room next to them?

"Billie isn't safe" he said turning away from the window and sitting down on the bed. "You know it, I know it. Someone is giving us dreams and we have to listen to them. I have buried two children I do not intend to bury a third. Something is happening, you need to tell me what"

Paige watched him for a second and then.

"Chris is back from the future" she said quietly "But you all knew that, he's Piper and Leo's son and he says something evil is working behind the scenes to turn Wyatt evil, when Wyatt becomes evil he will bring about the end of good magic and I don't want to say it but bringing about the end of good magic does I believe bring about the end of our daughter, because you and I both know that she will not see Wyatt become evil without a fight"

Zankou stared at her and then.

"Oh dear God woman did you not think that perhaps you might want to share that one with me?"

"Piper asked me not to you see…" there was a pause and then she didn't know how to continue. Fortunately Zankou did not have to speak for him to understand.

"Ah…so she thinks that it was me?"

Paige shrugged.

"Well" he said finally. "I can assure you it's not. I told you coming into this I had no plan to make our daughter evil. I don't know what the hell is going on but I do know that it is not me. I also know it's not…underground"

That was news indeed.

"The threat?"

Zankou shrugged.

"I don't know what to tell you" he said honestly. "Other than the fact that nobody downstairs is preparing for outright war. And you would know if we were by now. Dare I ask what THEY are saying?"

"Nothing. We are communicating through one and one alone Gideon—"

"Gideon?"

"You know him?"

For a second Zankou stared at her as if he thought that she was trying to be funny.

"Aye" he said finally. "I know him"

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing much" he said in that evasive tone he sometimes took that drove her up the wall more times than she cared to count.

"Zankou—"

"He doesn't like change"

"What does that mean?" she pressed again. It was all very well and good him saying that but a lot of people didn't like change—hell she had two sisters and a couple of ghosts who didn't like change.

"He doesn't like change" was all Zankou said and then. "He know I'm Billie's father?"

"No why?"

He hummed to himself but he didn't elaborate. Paige flopped down on the pillow and said nothing for a second and then.

"Something is happening isn't it?"

"Yep"

"Someone is coming for Billie?"

"Yep"

"And someone is clearly on our side because we are both having dreams?"

Zankou said nothing for a second and then.

"I won't lose another child Paige"

"I know"

"I won't do it."

"I know you won't. Newsflash, I don't plan on losing one either"

Zankou said nothing and then.

"Are you sure you asked Chris all that he knows?"

"Yes. Come to bed"

He shot her a look.

"Not like that, come to sleep."

She didn't know if he would do it and so she shifted and turned on her side giving him room on the side of the bed. He didn't move for a second but then she felt him shift under the covers. He wasn't wearing all leather anymore just his shirt and despite the fact that she knew she shouldn't she turned so that their legs were tangled together. She didn't want to tell him that she was afraid of going to sleep. She didn't want to tell him that the thought of losing her daughter…of losing their daughter was enough to send her groaning to the floor in pain like a wounded animal.

She didn't have to tell him that what he had said about Gideon was plaguing her mind like there was no tomorrow.

He understood all of that.

And his lips brushing the top of her head told her that he understood, and that he felt the same way.

She knew that anyway.

She knew it all.

"Gideon?" she said to Chris under her breath.

"What about him?" Chris said turning to look at her.

"Is he in your future?"

"No" he said turning back to his coffee. "But then again most of the elders are not in the future. That's the whole point of their being no good magic since Wyatt turns evil"

"Wyatt turning evil means there are no Elders? Jesus boy the damn Titans didn't wipe them all out"

Chris blinked at her and then shrugged. "I know Gideon survives it all" he says quietly. "I think he does anyway, his name isn't in any lists of magical beings that died. But why do you ask—"

"And Billie?"

"What about Billie?"

"Don't fuck me around" she said suddenly. "Nephew or no nephew I will take you to Zankou and I will let him get the answers out of you. What happens to Billie in the future and if you even think about lying to me I will know and I will make you pay in ways you will never begin to understand"

Chris looked at her and then.

"She leads the resistance, against Wyatt, against all of it. But when I left she was planning on taking the fight to a man"

"What man"

"I don't know…Paige I swear I don't…this man was just…he was a thing for Bil…she was going after him because he was going after her and it was a back and forth that was carrying on for a long, long time. I don't know why I don't know how I don't know…all I know is when I left Billie was all for burning down the world and when I came back she wasn't there and the world was. Make of that what you will"

He left the room then and Paige sat at the table her hands around her cold mug of coffee and she found that she was shaking for reasons she didn't dare name.

When she went to magic school that night she found she was sitting in the corner watching Gideon out of the corner of her eye.

She found she didn't trust him.

She found she didn't want Billie near him.

She found she wanted Zankou.

She wanted the one man that she knew deep down she could trust.

"So you think that he's the one turning Wyatt evil?"

"I don't know" she said into the empty cavern.

Zankou sat at one end of the chamber. Cole at the other end. She had asked Cole to come with her simply because she needed another opinion and Leo bless him was never going to give her an honest one, he was an Elder, Gideon was his mentor.

No…now she needed two demons.

Ex demons or not.

Both Cole and Zankou were glaring at each other. She got the impression neither one of them liked each other very much. Both of them were infamed with their reputations and both of their hard won reputations had taken hits when they had met and fallen for Charmed Ones.

"Gideon" she said waving her hand at the both of them… "Hello do we think this is a thing?"

"Hard to say" Cole said finally. "I don't…I won't say I have felt fully comfortable in his presence but I had always assumed that that was because of the fact that I am a demon and demons are pre disposed to despise whitelighters and elders. Zankou will confirm the mess—"

"Oh the mess" Zankou said with a shudder. "It's that light glitter thing it just…sticks everywhere"

"Weeks" Cole said sagely. "Weeks it took before I was able to get the mess out of my suit the first time I met Leo"

"DO WE THINK GIDEON IS TURNING WYATT EVIL?"

"Paige I don't know" Cole said finally. "I really, really, really don't know, the Elders are the biggest bunch of hypocrites that have ever been known to exist. It wouldn't surprise me if they were behind this, if Gideon was. I just…I don't know what about Wyatt would turn them off. You debunked the myth that whitelighters and witches couldn't have children. You also debunked the myth that those children would be a threat to the status quo. So what about Wyatt frightens them?"

There was a pause. Paige was well aware of what they were talking about. She was well aware that they were talking about something massive. To accuse an Elder of trying to kill a Charmed One's child was to overthrow the natural order of things.

It would devastate Leo if it was true.

"Maybe you should send Billie to me. Keep her safe"

She didn't snort nor did she issue a denial because it was a fair assessment.

She was not going to do it just yet.

"Not yet. I want to watch Gideon more closely."

The next day Gideon's little sidekick, the man whose head had been lopped off in their house was gone. Gideon offered no explanation to his disappearance only that he wouldn't be troubling them anymore. Two days after that demons with an intricate knowledge of how their house worked planted cameras in their home and tried to play some reality TV show with them.

Two days after that a demon hit them with intricate knowledge of where Billie was. She managed to deflect the blow at school and Leo wiped all the memories but at the same time Wyatt was attacked. At each point Paige noticed that Leo was urged to go upstairs sans his family by Gideon.

By the end of the week she was convinced.

"I was thinking" she said to Billie who was wincing at the stiffness in her arm. "Maybe your Dad and you should spend some time together at his house?"

Billie looked at her.

"Dad lives underground. Actually it's a bit more than underground. He lives so far underground it is actually hell. You want me to go to hell. You know how many mothers and daughters can actually say that to each other?"

"Yes dear thank you for that"

"No Mom I mean it…it's impressive"

Pagie rolled her eyes.

"I just…maybe it's something to consider. Soon we will be sending Chris back and if his latest bombshell is right then the evil coming after him—"

"Is gone—didn't we all agree that it was the Witch Wars?"

Pagie smiled.

She didn't believe a word of it.

Neither did Cole.

Fuck it was odd when they both agreed on something.

That night she had a dream.

It was all that she needed to know.

She let Billie sleep on it for two more nights but that night she waited. Zankou popped into the house about three and she was waiting.

"Take her the second it gets bad" was all she said.

"Take her from what"

"Not what. Who"

She'd had the dream the night before.

She knew what it meant.

She was confident of it now.

Gideon was the threat.

Gideon was the thing coming after her nephew, her daughter, her other nephew. She knew it in her bones. She also knew that nobody would believe her. Not yet.

Zankou crossed the room and took her in his arms.

"Let me take you with me" he said into her hair. "Please Paige…you make me…vulnerable in a way I don't like. Let me protect you"

She wanted to give him some kind of speech about how independent woman didn't need men to protect them and independent witches sure as hell didn't need demons but she found that even as resolute as she was she was strongly emotional.

She wrapped both her arms around him and she didn't let go.

"No"

"Paige…darling…"

"He wants my daughter dead. Someone is sending me visions and I know he wants my daughter dead. The last one was him standing over her. I couldn't get to her and I couldn't reach her but I was watching as if through glass as Gideon killed her. I know she is going to protect Wyatt…I have to know that she is safe, at the expense of my own life is needs be. I have to stop him. And if I have to stop him then you have to keep Billie safe"

She felt him swallow and she wrapped her arms around him.

"I don't like it"

"I know"

"I love you" she said quietly.

Gently he titled her head up so he could see her face bathed in the moonlight.

"I love you too. I didn't think…I never thought that I would ever feel love again but I do…and I will keep her safe. I vow the Underworld on that"

She nodded hearing the ring of the utter truth and then she wrapped her arms around him closer as they moved towards the bed.

He covered her with his body and she moved with him and they held each other even though neither one of them could get warm or get any sleep. Everyone else was asleep bathed in the knowledge of suspected peace.

Pagie and Zankou were prepared for war.

She though as she fell asleep that Gideon better beware.

She was not going to stop him.

She was going to end him.

And God help where they went from there.

And there we are.

Next Chapter-Gideon makes his move, Billie ends up stuck in hell, Paige fights to be reunited with her family, Piper goes into labour, Chris is mortally wounded and a special someone comes to help. Part One of a Two part chapter and Part One of the finale of Season 6.