Chapter 168: Bad, Bad, Bad World Pt 4

Halliwell Manor

Wyatt and Celia sat in the playpen watching Chris. He glanced up from the Book of Shadows to look at them. The attic was silent except for the crackling of the pages of the Book as Chris flipped through it.

But the silence was broken when the floorboard creaked. Chris stopped what he was doing and looked around the attic. "Hello?" he called. After a minute more of silence, he went back to what he was doing. There was another loud creak in the attic. This time, the creak continued as if someone were walking through the attic.

Not liking this one bit, Chris moved over to stand by the playpen. "Ok, it's time to get you guys outta here," he said. Before he could pick up either Wyatt or Celia, he was thrown across the attic, landing hard on the floor and smashing into the wooden table, breaking it to bits.

Gideon appeared in the attic standing in front of the playpen. Chris groaned and started to get up. "Don't make me sacrifice all of you," Gideon said.

Chris gritted his teeth and gestured for all he was worth, determined to stop Gideon from taking the kids. Gideon was caught off guard and was flung high across the attic. He turned and landed on the floor hard. From his position on the floor, Gideon held out his hand and his athame appeared in his grip. He disappeared from sight.

Fearing for Wyatt and Celia, Chris jumped to his feet and dashed across the attic toward the playpen to reach them, but Gideon wasn't after the kids. He appeared mid-way directly in front of Chris and plunged the athame into Chris's abdomen.

Chris fell to his knees, his face contorted in pain. "Dad!" he cried before falling to the floor.

Gideon turned toward Wyatt and Celia.

San Francisco Memorial

Dawn fell to the hallway floor, the wound Chrysaor made was gone, but her face was twisted in pain as it was still there. She watched as Celia looked down at her with contempt before turning and walking away before vanishing mid-stride.

"Chris!"

Dawn blinked at the voice and looked around.

"In trying to save your daughter, you have lost both of your nephews," Barbas, still quite invisible, said. "Very, very sad."

"No!" Dawn screamed. And it was then she finally saw Leo, he wasn't far from her and he too was on the floor. She grabbed his hand on shimmered them both out.

Halliwell Manor

Dawn shimmered into the attic and instantly saw Chris wounded and bleeding. She ran over to him. "Leo!" she called over her shoulder.

Leo followed Dawn's gaze to Chris. "Oh, god," he said as he rushed over and fell to his knees beside his son, rolling him over. He and Dawn could see that Chris was still alive.

Uhh ... Wyatt," Chris groaned. "Uhh! Celia."

Dawn turned instantly and looked toward the playpen and saw Gideon carrying Wyatt in one arm and in the other he had Celia.

"It's for the best," Gideon said as Dawn strode toward him her eyes blazing with fury, a green aura surrounding her. Before she could reach him he orbed out taking Wyatt and Celia with him.

Dawn turned and walked over to Leo and Chris. "Can you heal him, Leo?" she asked quietly trying to hold back her tears.

Underworld

Barbas waited as Gideon orbed in with Wyatt and Celia.

"You made one miscalculation," Barbas said.

"I know," Gideon said as he placed Celia and Wyatt on the ground. "I expected Dawn to be distracted like her sisters. But I believe the spell the monks cast that created Dawn's memories and personality protected her from Piper's spell. She's immune to mind tampering."

"So what are you doing?" Barbas asked looking at Wyatt and Celia. "Would you come on? Let's get this thing over with."

Gideon slowly backed away from Wyatt and Celia. "Not so fast," he said as he put the athame down on the counter behind him. "This will take some thinking, and I prefer not to get stabbed again if I can avoid it."

"How cute: The great big Elder's afraid of the teeny-weeny itsy-bitsy babies," Barbas taunted.

"Oh, they're much more than that, trust me. Cocky, too. Notice—their shield are not even up?" Gideon asked.

Barbas headed over to the counter. "Their shields are not up because you've pierced them already. Fools and idiots." He picked up the athame and brandished it with a flourish. "Why is it ... that every time you want something done right," he moved the athame from one hand to the other, "you gotta do it yourself?" He casually stepped toward Wyatt and Celia, then he lunged at them as they half-orbed, half-flamed out.

"No!" Gideon shouted.

Barbas fell on his face, flat to the floor. Gideon grabbed and pulled him to his feet. "Slippery little devils, aren't they?"

"Now look what you've done!" Gideon said angrily.

"What was that?" Barbas asked indicating the half-orb, half-flame.

"They worked in coordination," Gideon answered. "Something I didn't know they could do. That's why I wanted to be careful. Although I doubt they;re able to leave the underworld. Even they are not that powerful yet!"

"Well, I suppose all of this means that you've lost your interest in fixing the world at this moment," Barbas said.

"And allow The Charmed Ones the chance to rescue them?" Gideon answered. "No! The world stays exactly as it is until Wyatt ande Celia are eliminated. You and I will have to work together to find him ... quickly!"

"First you do remember not all of them are distracted," Barbas reminded the Elder.

"One alone is not enough, besides she can't track them down here."

"Second, perhaps ... we could work together in order to eliminate them, seeing as how much trouble you're having by yourself. It also helps with Dawn that way one of us can ensure she doesn't interfere."

"Interesting," Gideon said. "It could work, especially if you bless the athame, too. But to try, we need to get them back!"

"Well, then, you track him with his orbs," Barbas said. "I'm going to, uh ..." He licked his finger and held it up in the air as if testing the wind. He took a deep breath, sniffing the air. "Track her with her fears." He then flamed out of the cavern.

Halliwell Manor

Chris fell back on Piper's bed in pain. Leo knelt down next to him and put his hands over his wound to try to heal him. Behind him stood Dawn, watching fighting to keep her tears in check.

"You have to find Wyatt," Chris said as Leo's hands glowed, but the wound wasn't healing. It wasn't working.

"We're going to find them…. All of us…. Together," Leo said.

"It won't work," Chris answerd. "You've already tried. Gideon's magic did this to me. He's the only one who can stop it. Just… go. Saving Wyatt and Celia saves the new future. You know that."

"Gideon doesn't know how to kill Wyatt and Celia, remember?" Leo said. "We still have time."

"Only until the trauma turns them."

"I am not going to choose between you and Celia and Wyatt, Chris. I can't," Leo said.

"You don't have to, dad," Chris said. "Find Gideon and you save us both."

"All right. All right, but I'm not leaving you alone. I'll be right back," Leo said as he stood up. He looked at Dawn. "Stay with him till someone comes to replace you. Then you and I are going to finish this." Dawn nodded. He turned back to Chris. "You're going to be fine. Ok? I promise." He leaned over and kissed Chris tenderly on his forehead. He pulled back and orbed out.

San Francisco Memorial

Phoebe stood in the middle of the bustling maternity ward holding a camera as she snapped a photo as she, Paige and Buffy bide their time waiting for baby Chris to be born.

"Okay, Auntie Paige, Auntie Buffy, big smile!" Phoebe instructed as Buffy and Paige smiled. Through the lens she saw LEO orb in next to Paige and Buffy just as she snapped the picture. "Leo!" She looked around to make sure no one saw him. Buffy and Paige scrambled to their to stand next to Phoebe. "Don't you think you should be more careful? I mean, you don't want to bring back the witch trials." She gave him a big smile.

"Gideon got to Chris," Leo said. "He's hurt bad."

"What?" Buffy said. "Now, why would Gideon want to hurt Chris?"

"Buffy," Leo said. "He has your daughter."

"He has…" Buffy hesitated.

"Phoebe, Paige, he has Wyatt and Celia."

"Gideon is the paragon of all good." Phoebe said. "I told you that. Remember? Smile." She raised the camera and snapped a photo of Leo.

Leo could see in Buffy's eyes something was happening. Celia and Dawn were the things she cared about the most, beyond all else save her sisters and her nephews. He looked back at Paige and Phoebe. "He's not good." He looked around to check that no one's listening. "He's trying to kill both of my sons ... your nephews. He's trying to kill our niece. How can that be good under any circumstances?"

A pulse of magic swept through Buffy as tears began to fall from her eyes. "Celia?" she sobbed.

"Oh, I don't know, but there—" Phoebe started.

"You don't understand," Leo interrupted. "Chris is dying!"

"Look at me, Phoebe, Paige," Buffy said as she turned to look her sisters in the eyes.

Phoebe and Paige looked at Buffy saw the tears in her eyes. As they looked at their sister a pulse of magic washed over them.

"What just happened?" Paige asked.

"I think we were were under a spell and Leo took me out of it," Buffy answered as she wiped her tears from her eyes. "Then I took the two of you out of it."

"Ok. Come on, let's go," Leo said.

"No. We can't all go," Phoebe objected. "Uh, Piper's being prepped for surgery."

"Surgery?" Leo asked suddenly worried. "What's the matter?"

"They're not saying," Paige answered.

Leo realized he could lose Chris completely, both his adult son as well as his unborn son.

"Don't worry. We're not going to lose either Chris," Buffy said. She looked at Paige and Phoebe. "I'll go with Leo and take care of Gideon. That leaves Dawn with Chris. You two stay here."

"You are flaming home," Leo said. "I am taking Dawn with me."

"Why?" Buffy, Paige and Phoebe said suddenly concerned.

"I was on the Golden Gate Bridge trying to sense Gideon," Leo explained. "I was told, well not so much as told but hinted at, by an Elder, the only Elder that sides with us against Gideon, that I could only ask for Dawn's help."

"Okay," Buffy said.

Halliwell Manor

Buffy flamed into Piper's room where she saw Chris lying on the bed and Dawn kneeling down next to him holding his hand. "How is he, Dawn?" she asked.

"Not good, Buffy," Dawn said as she stood and wrapped her arms around her wife. "I'll find her, I promise." Suddenly she orbed out of the room and out of Buffy's arms.

"Leo," Buffy said with a resigned sigh. "You could have given me another minute with Dawn."

Downstairs, armed SWAT members in black uniforms poured out from every corner of the first floor. Buffy hearing the commotion hurried downstairs to find herself instantly surrounded, the barrels of their guns pointed right at her. She raised her hands palms outward in surrender.

Darryl and Inspector Sheridan ran out of the kitchen smiling and happy to have caught Buffy. "We got one of 'em. Stand by," he said.

"Darryl, what's going on?" Buffy asked in confusion.

"Good day, Miss Halliwell," Sheridan asked. "Where's Chris?"

"Chris?" Buffy said deciding to play ignorant. "Chris who?"

"Buffy, please," Darryl begged her. "We've been waiting here to give you one last chance to turn him in ... for your sake."

"Go to hell," Buffy said as she glared at the cop.

Sheridan viciously backhanded Buffy, who barely moved. "Watch your tongue," she said as she smiled at Buffy.

"And you watch that hand. You may give a good slap but I can hit really hard," Buffy said as she glared at the woman.

Magic School

Dawn found herself standing with Leo in the Great Hall. "Come on," he said.

Dawn followed Leo into Gideon's study. He walked over and pushed aside the curtain revealing the mirror to find evil Leo and evil Dawn in its reflection. For a brief moment, they were both taken aback. It was the first time the two men had come face-to-face. The surprise at what their opposite selves looked like was evident on both their faces.

Evil Dawn rolled her eyes and said, "He's got to be hiding in the underworld."

"I agree," Dawn said. "It's the only place he can go to avoid being sensed."

"Which means he must have both of our Wyatts and Celias there, too," evil Leo said.

"Still, it's too vast," Leo said. "We have to narrow it down."

"Wait. It is too vast. For Gideon, too, right?"

"Somebody's got to be helping him," both Dawns said.

"But who?" Leo asked.

"Whoever helped him get to Piper in the hospital," evil Leo said.

"Dawn and I went to the hospital and tried to pick up a trail…." Leo said.

"But all we felt was overwhelmed with…." They both took a deep breath.

"Hope," evil Leo and evil Dawn said as Leo and Dawn said, "Fear."

"It's Barbas," Dawn said.

"So, if we find Barbas…" Leo said.

"We'll find Gideon," evil Dawn said.

Evil Leo and evil Dawn black orbed out. A heartbeat later Dawn and Leo orbed out, too.

Underworld

Discarded skeletal bones littered the cave floor as sounds of demons feeding on flesh carried through the air.

Wyatt and Celia half-orbed, half-flamed into the cave. They stood in the center of the cave staring at two vulture demons. The male vulture demon looked up from his meal and saw Wyatt and Celia.

"Check it out," he said.

"How'd they get down here?" she asked.

"Maybe the world's finally turning back in our favor."

The male vulture demon left his meal and walked over to Wyatt and Celia. Celia blinked and the male vulture demon was engulfed in flames, his cries of pain punctuated by an explosion. Wyatt and Celia turned and looked at the female vulture demon.

"Or not," she said as Celia blinked and she burst into flames before exploding.

Wyatt and Celia half-orbed half-flamed out.

Barbas flamed into the cavern hot on Celia's trail. He saws the pile of smoldering demon ashes on the ground. "Damn." He looked around and sniffed the air. "Ah! Missed them by that much." He held up his hand, his index finger and thumb separated by an inch.

Halliwell Manor

Buffy looked up at the ceiling. "Leo! Leo!" she yelled.

Leo orbed in with Dawn. "Sorry," he said. "We were in the underworld looking for…."

"What's wrong?" Dawn interrupted. The bedroom door opened and two members of the SWAT team emerged followed by Sheridan and Darryl. "What's going on? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Nothing. We didn't have to," Sheridan said.

"I'm sorry, Leo," Darryl said.

Leo brushed past them and headed for the bedroom with Dawn and Buffy hot on his heels. Chris was lying on the bed, weak, pale, and dying.

"Oh, Chris," Dawn said.

Chris used whatever strength he had left and turned his head toward the sound of Dawn's voice. "Hey."

Leo knelt down next to the bed while Dawn went around to sit on Chris's other side. Buffy lingered quietly in the doorway. "Hey. I'm here now." Leo said. "You can…. Hold on, ok? Hold on…. hold on. I'm here. You can hold on, ok? Don't give up, ok?"

"You, either." He moved his fingers toward Dawn and she took his hand. He turned his head slightly so he could see Buffy. "I love all of you." Chris shut his eyes.

Dawn looked over, tears staining her face, at Buffy, who also had tears staining her face.. Buffy to hold her arms out to her, but Dawn shook her head and looked at Leo. "Leo," she said softly. He looked up, realizing his son wasn't there anymore. "Leo…." Leo let out a scream and stood up in a rage. He powered up an energy ball and threw it at Piper's mirror, shattering it. "Leo!"

He left the room and headed up to the attic.

Dawn looked at Buffy and let out a sigh. "His grief is overwhelming," she said as Chris's body faded away until it was no longer there.

"Dawn," Buffy said. "I think I understand why the Elder said it had to be you. "Your new power can help find Wyatt and Celia."

"I think you right," Dawn agreed. "When we find Celia and Wyatt…"

Buffy nodded in understanding. "I will be waiting and then we'll grieve together."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy and Dawn stood in the doorway of the attic watching. They watched as he smashed another energy ball into the furniture in the attic. He turned, cried out, and a lethal stream of electricity shot out from his hands, shattering the mirror on the side of the wall. Pulses of electricity continued to crackle around Leo as he turned to fire out another stream of energy out at the contents on the table.

Leo picked up the nearby table and threw it across the attic room. With a roar, he fired streams of electricity at the windows, shattering the stained glass raining shards on the floor. Buffy had had enough. She walked into the room from her place next to Dawn and grabbed his wrists to stop him.

"Leo, stop it!" He took a step back from her, trying to pull away from her iron grip. "This isn't going to bring him back."

"I promised him I'd get him home safely." Leo said.

Dawn slowly moved over to stand beside her wife. "We can still save his future, which means we can still save him, Wyatt and Celia. We have to hurry and you need to focus. You need to focus on Barbas."

"Barbas?" Buffy asked. "What's he got to do with this?"

"He's working with Gideon," Dawn said looking at Buffy. "That's how we think he got to Piper."

"That's…. how I think he got to me." Leo said.

"And me," Dawn said Leo looked at her. "I believe he fed on both of our fears to distract us long enough not keep us from here. I assume you likely saw a similar vision. I saw Celia as an adult. Telling me how I failed her, how she had killed my beautiful wife and then with Chrysaor she stabbed me."

"Mine was similar," Leo admitted. "Except mine was of Wyatt and he had Excalibur."

"Gideon teamed up with a demon to get at our children?" Buffy asked.

"No," Dawn said. "An act of Great Evil in our world restores the balance. That's what he was using Barbas for."

"So, they're working together. That means they must be in contact with each other, right?" Buffy asked.

"So?" Dawn and Leo said.

"So, that means maybe that's a way to find Gideon," Buffy suggested. "At first I thought Dawn's new empathy power would help you track Wyatt and Celia. But now I think the next time they try to contact each other, you just intercept it."

Underworld

Dawn stood in the shadows with Leo disguised as Barbas. Gideon had made a call to him and Leo had managed to intercept it. Wyatt and Celia were sitting on the floor together. Suddenly, five crystals orbed on the ground around them and activated a white cage of impenetrable energy around the kids.

Gideon stepped out further into the main cavern. "So sorry to lure you like this. Barbas, where are you? Barbas!" At the opposite end of the cave where Dawn and Leo were waiting, Leo stepped out. He made his way toward Gideon. "It's time."

"Took you long enough." Leo said.

"Your impatience is growing tiresome." Gideon held up the athame. "I blessed it already. Now it's your turn. Is something wrong?"

Leo moved around Gideon, causing him to turn his back to Dawn. "As a matter of fact…." Leo took a couple of steps closer to the crystal cage "There is." Leo reached forward and stabbed Gideon in the chest.

"Why?"

"Barbas" changed back into Leo. "Because…. you murdered my son." Leo glanced at Dawn who was now standing behind Gidoen.

"And you kidnapped my daughter." Gideon turned and Dawn flung an energy ball at him, sending him sailing through the air and across the cavern. He landed hard outside the cave entrance.

Leo looked at Dawn. "I'll be right back. You get them out of there."

"We are doing this together," Dawn growled as she turned and made her way toward Gideon as Leo followed. "They will be safe for now within the cage."

"Leo, Dawn, please, you have to understand. I am only doing this for the greater good. I swear." Gideon said.

Leo reached out and knocked the athame out of his grip and picked Gideon up by his black robe. "How is killing a child ever for the greater good, huh? Who the hell are you to decide that, huh?" He threw Gideon across the cave.

As Dawn walked toward Gideon something swept through her.

"Are you ready to be strong?" something whispered in the back of Dawn's mind

"Yes," Dawn answered as she grabbed Gideon and picked him up.

"I'm an Elder! It's what we do."

"I'm not one of you anymore," Leo said. "And Dawn was never one of you.

Dawn lifted Gideon up off his feet, his back against the wall. "And now there are two Charmed Slayers!"

Leo glanced at Dawn wondering how that was possible. Had Faith died in prison?

"Leo, Dawn, listen to me. You both know what happens. You know what Chris came here to stop." At the mere mention of Chris's name, anger and grief surged through Leo. He watched as Dawn tossed the Elder to Leo who tossed Gideon back into the center of the floor. Gideon landed on his back, exhausted. He tried to get back to his feet, though. "Let me finish what I started. Let me save the future…. the only way it can be saved."

"You're the reason the future's threatened, Gideon…. Not Wyatt or Celia…." Dawn bit out.

"No…."

"But because of what you do to them," Leo added. "We're about to make sure neither one of you get the chance again. Mirror!" With a gesture of his hand, Leo orbed Gideon's magic mirror into the cavern where it appeared suspended in mid-air.

Gideon stretched back to look at the mirror. In its reflection, evil Leo and Dawn stood in the good Barbas's underworld garden.

"You ready?" evil Leo and Dawn asked.

"Remember…. You two can't do anything. We have to do this alone." Leo said.

"We know."

Gideon turned his head away from the mirror to look at Leo and Dawn. "Do…. do what?"

"A Great Evil." Leo and Dawn said. Leo gestured and fired a stream of electricity point-blank at Gideon while Dawn began to fling energy balls one after another in rapid succession. The combination of powers lifted Gideon completely off the ground and up into the air. In the mirror, Dawn and Leo's power lifted evil Gideon off the ground and into the air as evil Leo and evil Dawn stood on the side doing nothing. Both Gideons continued to cry out in pain and still, Dawn and Leo didn't stop.

Smoking, Gideon fell to the ground, his back to the mirror. His mirrored self also had his back to the mirror. Dawn and Leo looked down at Gideon with contempt. Their evil selves also looked down at evil Gideon also.

"You have no idea…. What you've done." With a final breath, Gideon died. His body faded away into black dust, leaving a mark on the ground in front of the mirror.

Evil Leo and evil Dawn looked at Leo and Dawn who returned their gaze. "Didn't know you had it in you," evil Leo quipped.

"The same goes for you," evil Dawn said looking at Dawn.

"Our worlds can never cross over again." Leo said.

"Take care of your family," evil Dawn said.

"Promise, and you do the same," Dawn said as an energy ball formed in her hand. She flung it at the mirror and it shattered into a million pieces.

They walked over to Wyatt and Celia. After kicking a crystal away to remove the cage, they knelt down next to their children. Leo pulled Wyatt into his arms as Dawn did the same with Celia. "We have you both," he told the children.

"And you are both safe," Dawn added.

"Dawn," he said looking at her.

"You don't have to say it, Leo," Dawn said. "In fact I would prefer to forget it."

"So what was that about being a Charmed Slayer?" he asked as they stood up with their children in their arms. .

"Faith's not dead, at least I don't think so. I think my new empathy power actually unlocked it," Dawn explained. "I could feel within me a portion of me was sleeping waiting to be called. Using my empathy, I forced it to wake, to call me as a Slayer."

San Francisco Memorial

Buffy, Phoebe, and Paige paced in the waiting area waiting for news on Piper. There'd been a complication and she'd started hemorrhaging. The doctor hadn't planned on doing anything until the change had come over the world, setting it to right. Carrying Wyatt, Leo made his way through the door with Dawn holding Celia right behind him.

Phoebe looked up and saw them. "They found them." Everyone rushed over to them. Phoebe took Wyatt from Leo. "Hey."

"Are they ok?" Paige asked.

"Yeah." Leo said. They weren't with Gideon long enough to do any damage."

"What happened to Gideon?" Buffy asked.

Dawn tapped her head as she thought. "I will tell you later, Buffy. This is not something that Leo and I want to discuss right now."

Buffy nodded in understanding. "Okay, Dawn," she thought. She touched her daughter's back as Dawn held her.

"How's Piper?" Dawn asked changing the subject.

Behind them, Piper's doctor walked over to them. "She's resting comfortably."

"Is she ok?" Phoebe asked.

"We stopped the bleeding, obviously had to perform a c-section, but I think she's going to be ok."

"And the baby…. is he all right?" Leo asked.

"You tell me," the doctor turned to the recovery room doors and pushed the button on the wall. The double doors opened and he stepped aside to allow the family to look inside the room. In the back of the room, the orderlies wheeled Piper's bed into position. In the front, a maternity ward nurse carried baby Chris wrapped in a blue blanket. She made her way toward them to show them the baby. "Congratulations. He's perfectly healthy."

"Really?" Leo said as the nurse put Chris in his arms.

"We saved him," Dawn said as she whispered into Leo's ears.

Leo glanced at Dawn and nodded as he smiled at her.

"Oh, look…. he's beautiful. Baby Christopher," Phoebe said as Leo returned his gaze to his son in his arms and smiled with a new father's pride. "That's your brother."

"And that is your cousin," Dawn added looking at Celia.

"Can we see Piper?" Phoebe asked.

"Well, maybe just one of you for now," the doctor said.

Leo glanced at his sisters-in-law. "Go tell her we love her," Dawn said. Leo smiled and stepped into the recovery room toward Piper.

"Where'd the baby go?" Phoebe said to Wyatt. "That's your brother."

"And your cousin," Dawn added to Celia.

They all watched as Leo carried Chris over to Piper. Exhausted, she looked up and saw Leo with Chris and smiled. Leo grinned, his eyes on Chris. Piper held out her arms and Leo gently placed Chris into them.

Author's Note: This chapter went through a revision as I was writing it. At one point I was like when Celia was taken, Dawn would retreat into herself, much like Buffy did when Glory had taken Dawn. And at that point the Key which was a separate personality within Dawn would take over. I backtracked and on that then I thought since Dawn has been a Potential (or a Slayer) in so many of my stories that it would Sineya (the primitive Slayer, the one Buffy sees in her vision quest) would possess Dawn instead. It would not be the first Sineya had possessed Dawn in a story. Again though I backtracked and what we see now is what we got.