Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 18:23:33 -0500 From: joseph foster Subject: Marvelously Charming 44 Marvelously Charming Chapter 44 Bagpipes for Chris... **Wyatt** To this day I will never forgive myself for it happening, I should have been there, I should have stopped it, as the eldest Charmed one I am supposed to be the strongest, yes in power I may be strong, but my spirit lacks where his was stronger than anyone's. I was so filled with angst I couldn't bear to stay there anymore, I orbed out, and let it happen, to my baby brother, the one person I could tell anything to. I orbed out of the battle zone to clear my head, I didn't think there was any danger, sitting on this proverbial rock in the center of the Atlantic ocean my thoughts focus on one thing, is it ever okay to kill a force of good for the greater good, or is that evil? From birth we're taught to protect the innocent not punish the guilty... but what is protecting the innocent forces us into a technical murder? Was Jean Grey not human, I knew this woman, I spoke to her daily, she helped me through some of the toughest times of my life, did she deserve to die, couldn't I have dis-possessed her? Was there an alternative to death? The answers to these questions I didn't know, I am so terrified I'm evil, but if I am, why do I not feel it, I've turned before, and it is the worst feeling, like a vortex of hate spinning inside 24/7. I had to talk to somebody, and there weren't many people that could help me, but I knew of at least one person... "Wyatt? What are you doing up here?" Sandra asked "I need to talk, and an elder is the only being with the kind of knowledge I need..." "Go on child." "A woman, her name is Jean Grey, she is the host body, was the host body to a being known as the phoenix, and she told us that when the time came we would have to kill her, and when the time did come, I was forced to dig deep to powers I do not dare use regularly, and I killed her, but she was such a force of good, did I do right, or did I commit an evil act, please help me..." The woman looked into the terrified eyes of the twenty something boy she'd known his whole life, she used to protect is dire situations, "Listen to me very carefully Wyatt, vanquishing a demon at the expense of an innocent is usually not considered a good act, but when the act of killing one that is possessed by a demon is for the greater good, and not to punish said individual, meaning you are still abiding by the basic magical law of protecting the innocent and not punishing the guilty, it is not solely about the act, is is about the vanquisher's intent upon doing so." "So you're saying that because I went into this situation intending to only do good, and it was necessary for the greater good, that I haven't committed an act of evil?" "Not at all my son, you have committed one of the most generous good deeds there is, sacrificing what you know, to save the possible, you knew that it could be construed as an act of evil, but you acted to save the possible thousands of lives that were on the line, kill one save a thousand is sometimes a way to live, you intended to save humanity, by vanquishing evil, though it was inside an innocent, you were killing the demon, not the woman, do you understand?" "Yes... I do..." "Now you should really get to Chris, those two aren't going to be able to keep him alive much longer without killing that man with the metal claws..." **VISION** "About time the strong one leaves..." "Huh...?" I heard Chris say as he turned around and was impaled with an athame, I saw my father, as he changes into a demon, and my mom as she turns into another demon, "Just one weakens all three, our work is done..." everyone was unconscious from Jean throwing them, everyone except Wolverine and Rogue, who came running over as they saw Chris holding his stomach, "What happened bub?" "Demons, they were demons..." he coughed up blood as he explained and went over to Johnny very slowly giving him a kiss before losing consciousness Rogue and Wolverine ran over to him, "Logan we have to do something!" "What can we do?" "I can help him..." She said taking off her gloves, "But only if you're willing to risk your life to save his..." **End Vision** "Oh my god, I have to go to him..." I orbed out and got to the battle zone, Johnny had woken up and was right by Chris's side, Logan was laying next to him, and Rogue was holding both of their hands, "Rogue..." I said "You can heal can't you?" She asked "Yeah..." "Heal Logan your power can use me as a link to heal Chris too, I can't let go of his hand, if I don't hold on Chris will die, but if you heal Logan , Chris will heal too." She explained "But witch powers aren't the same as mutant powers..." "We don't have the right to risk either of their lives but Logan was willing, now heal him and I'll do the rest!" She ordered, but somehow even her command seemed soothing with her southern accent "Okay..." I held my hands over Logan and they illuminated and I healed "Where were you?!" Johnny asked angrily "It's not important, let him concentrate..." Rogue said to Johnny "It's working, Chris's stab wound is healing slowly, keep doing what you're doing Rogue." I exclaimed **Chris** After I passed out, I was floating over my body, and I landed on a cloud, my mom and dad were seated on a bench, it seems like I'm having yet another out of body experience, "Am I?" "Dead... no, that girl with the white streaks is keeping you alive... see..." Mom said and waved her hand so I was able to look down on myself, "I look like shit." I said "Oh honey, it's so good to see, you... I wish the circumstances were different, but you'll pull through I fully believe your brother will come back..." "I still can't get the look in the dad demon's eyes out of my head, the worst part was unless he had changed into a demon, I never would have known it wasn't you guys..." "They studied our family for years waiting for an opportunity..." Dad said "How do you conclude that?" "They knew mannerisms, and the way we talk, they knew pet names, and memories, how else do you explain it..." "The Stillman sisters..." Mom said "Who?" "Three no longer demons, they are serving life with no parole, but they were the ones that knew the most about us, if they've teamed up with smarter demons, they might be volatile... But they only had the opportunity to study up on me and your aunts, they know nothing about the three of you, so you guys have to forget all the training you got from us, and keep doing things your way, in case anyone's studied you, they won't know what to do..." "Wyatt's there now..." Dad said looking down "She's draining that man's life to save yours, but by his choice..." Dad said "Are you reading their lips or something...?" I asked him "Actually yeah, I am..." "Keep up th---" I began to fade "It just means it's working, submit..." Dad said "Let the healing take your spirit back..." Mom said **Wyatt** It was actually taking a lot of my strength to heal this way, it must mean that Chris was closer to death than I cared to realize... "Come on Chris..." I said He coughed, Rogue let go of Logan and Chris's hands, and I put a healing hand over each of them, "Evil, no, not real..." Chris mumbled as I finished healing him Johnny grabbed him in a firm hug and kiss, then walked over to me and smacked me across the face, "what the he---." His arm was grabbed and ripped back we heard it snap "Did I just see you lay a hand on my husband?" Pete said dangerously while Johnny whimpered over his broken arm "PETE!" I yelled he turned to me, "It's okay, he was just worried about Chris, I should never have left." "Nobody has the right to hit you..." Pete said "I know baby, but if Chris had abandoned you when you needed him to save my life, you would have reacted the same way..." I looked over and Chris had finished healing Johnny "I'm sorry Wyatt, I wasn't myself, I was so scared I'd lost him forever, and I was holding you responsible..." "I hold myself responsible, if I had been a little more insightful, I could have spared myself the emotional journey and Chris wouldn't have almost died..." "Technically he was dead when me and Logan helped him, but wolverines are regenerative when so since we caught him right at that point, we kept him on the line..." Rogue said "Thank you so much..." Chris said and kissed Rogue and Logan each on the cheek "Kid, why do you do these things..." Logan said and wiped his cheek "Sorry for my cooties Logan ..." Chris said making us all giggle at Logan 's expense, the latter of whom was none too thrilled to being the butt of a joke and stuck up a middle claw "Can we see to it that this all gets cleaned up?" I asked "Don't worry, after a fight the professor always sends his best mutants to rid the scene of any evidence there may be to what went down..." Rogue said Melinda awoke next, and we all gathered together, coming up with a spell, "Rise and shine friends of mine, waking moments intertwine awaken now from sleep induced from evil doing ." "Not perfect, but I can tell it's working, gotta love the power of three.." Melinda said We saw that the people who were still among the living began to wake up, we all orbed home "We've got demons to find..." Chris said "Honey, don't you think you should give it a rest, you were just brought back to life..." Johnny said "Death won't stop me from bringing down these demons..." "Okay, we'll do it your way..." "Good..." He gave him a kiss, "Okay, mom says that the only people who know the Charmed ones enough to get that close are the Stillman sisters, but mom also says they are former demons, which means their powers have been stripped, but she also said that demons may still be in contact with them, and if they are then those demons could come after us to give our powers to these girls that could effectively become the power of three and turn the book of shadows evil right with them..." "So how do we find out if it's their doing or not?" I ask him "Easy, we track the demon using the knife Rogue pulled out of my stomach..." "Oh.. here..." She said handing it over immediately... As Chris began to scry I thought about everything that had happened, I was so grat--- wait a second... "Chris... they're in the cemetery..." "What, the crystal hasn't dropped yet... how do you know...?" "The crystal keeps circling the same area, it's harder to track demons in a cemetery, that goes for witches, as well as bounty hunters, the demons are probably taking refuge in a Mausoleum.. " "Well let's go then..." Now that we had a location, we made a potion, one of the most powerful ones we've ever made before, and stocked our hip bags with them then orbed to the cemetery, being twilight there wasn't too much light to lead us around. An energy ball came flying out of the mausoleum, Wyatt deflected it, Melinda threw a bomb potion through the door with a precision that professional pitchers would die for and two demons flew out and burst into flames, "Nice." Chris said They got into formation scanning the grounds with their eyes checking for demons everywhere they could see, suddenly a demon shimmered in behind Wyatt, "WYATT DUCK!" Chris said throwing a vanquishing potion straight at him, Wyatt dropped to the ground and a mushroom cloud erupted and disappeared where the demon had stood. Demons shimmered in and began to surround them, Wyatt focused on his potions, and telekinetically threw them all at once at different demons, while Chris and Melinda threw theirs one at a time, a female demon charged Chris and he broke a potion over her head, an ugly male demon charged at Melinda and she did the nose breaking move with a potion in her hand... "We've got all day..." Wyatt said at no one in particular Three demons shimmered in "Wait, wait, wait..." The first one said "YOU!" Chris said and threw a potion at him as hard as he could and he was engulfed in flames "You're both dead unless you tell me who's informing you!" Chris yelled "They never said this would happen!" the younger looking of the two demons said urgently to the other "WHO IS THEY!?" Chris yelled pulling back his arm ready to throw the potion "THE TRIAD!" "WHAT?!" Wyatt exclaimed "They took over those three blonde bimbos after they were defeated, you can't beat them, they just come back, every time, they come back, and with their knowledge, combined with the blondes, and them being three sisters effectively a power of three, do you really have to be a genius to figure out what their plan is... Do we get to live now?" "Nobody said anything about sparing you..." Melinda said and threw a potion at each demon, then they all orbed home "If this is true then we have an even bigger battle on our hands than we ever thought, the book isn't safe here, we need to move it to someplace safer, copy down all the spells we may need and potions too, Wyatt, Chris, scan the book with your powers and try to get as much into memory as possible, I'm gonna stockpile potions..." They set to work, making potions, memorizing the book and copying spells, as well as the potion recipes, "I've written a spell in case of emergency..." Chris said "What kind of spell?" "It's one that enhances the protection on the book of shadows, making it to where only we can touch it, and if someone else tries to it will protect itself, and if they try to touch it three times it will go up there and be locked away until we retrieve it... I've spoken to the elders about it, and it would be taking refuge in the same place they keep the goddesses' powers." "Why didn't you tell us?" Wyatt asked "Because mom told me that all threats to the book were no longer an issue, she was apparently wrong..." "What do we do?" Melinda asked "Okay, everyone place your right hand on the book..." As the three of them did so the triquetra on the book glowed orange and stayed that way, "repeat after me... Three times one may try and touch from hands non-charmed evil's seeping, after three go to elders for safe keeping." Wyatt and Melinda repeated and the book glowed a bright orange and a bubble appeared around it, and then became invisible. "That's the signal, let's test it, PAIGE!" Chris called "Yeah, what's up?" "We need you to test a spell for us..." "This isn't gonna get me injured is it?" "No, it's not... just try and grab the book..." Chris explained "Alright..." Paige walked forward and reach towards the book it's shield came up and it threw itself on the ground, "What happened, did the book turn evil again?" "No, it's a new spell, we need Phoebe, could you go get her?" Wyatt asked "Sure thing." Paige orbed out and came back with Phoebe "This better be important, I have a deadline..." "Look, Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Paige, we have a serious problem..." They all sat down and the new generation took turns explaining the situation "We thought they were gone for good..." Phoebe said "That one demon did try to warn us you cant defeat the triad..." Paige said "Which one?" Phoebe asked "The one that was kicked out of the triad remember he kidnapped that bitch Christie..." Paige explained "OH right... him...memories..." Phoebe realized and joked "So about this spell..." Paige asked "Spell... what spell... Who cast a spell?" "We did... on the book... an enhanced magical protection spell." Chris explained "You mean, now nobody can touch it...?" Paige asked "No, it means now nobody but the charmed ones can touch it, meaning if someone other than me, Melinda, or Wyatt tries to touch the book three times by the same set of hands, it will disappear for safe keeping by the elders since nobody but a whitelighter can get up there. "Well that's great, you guys, very good work... WHY?!" Phoebe asked intensely "Because, the triad is back, and they've teamed up with those blonde whores in jail, with the combined knowledge between those six, and the power of the triad, we need all the protection we can get..." "As a precaution to the book possibly being taken, we've copied spells, and potion recipes, and stockpiled potions, plus the spell we cast on the book, so I think we're ready for just about anything..." "Ok, well it's sunset, everyone should be with their families right now, and someone, I won't say who, should heal her newlywed husband of any injuries, and get on that Hawaiian honeymoon ASAP." Phoebe said **Chris** I walked into my house coming from the manor and the nanny was playing with the kids, whom were all dressed in pajamas. Johnny was on the couch, while the older kids played video games, I saw large gashes on Johnny's face I hadn't seen before, my gorgeous husband was still under there, I pulled back the blanket and noted a few wounds underneath his shirt, I got worried so I healed him quickly, he awoke, "Hey, where have you been...?" "New demons, we had to plan accordingly, but I'm here now honey, how are you feeling?" "I've been better, but I've been worse too." Johnny replied with a smile and I kissed his small but cute pair of pink lips I've grown accustomed to over the years "Promise me something Johnny..." "Anything Chris..." "If something happens to me, and I'm not here anymore, move on..." "This must be some serious demons, Chris, I refuse to even think about anything bad ever happening to you, I would give my life for you just to assure our kids would always have you and I would never remarry, or start dating, because there is nobody for me but you, NOBODY. I love you and my children more than anything in this world." "You sure know how to make a guy feel special..." "Are you two gonna be sappy all day or could we play this game in peace..." John said his voice cracking a bit "Why don't you go count your pubic hairs Screech..." Johnny said cauing Jocelyn to laugh hysterically at her brother "Not cool dad." His voice broke slightly "Oh well, you'll live, maybe you should stop cracking jokes at your dads and we'll stop cracking them at you..." Johnny responded "Fine..." John said and he and Joss went to play elsewhere "Gotta love puberty, oh lord Joss is nine now, it's gonna be her turn... NOOOOOOOO..." Chris joked, "I am officially getting old." "Hey... I'm older than you and I don't feel old yet..." "You will when our son and daughter start being..." Chris cringes for dramatic effect "TEENAGERS..." "I am so glad they're getting older, its more fun when you can talk to them like they're real people instead of kids." "Kids are real people Johnny..." "I know baby, but they are gonna be functioning members of society soon, it's pretty cool when you think about it." "That is mildly frightening." Chris said "Do you really think that the demons can win?" "I don't know what to believe, but I do know that we are prepared for anything, mom said we have to forget what they taught us, and what they taught us is that demons love to attack directly cause they aren't too smart, so we're ready for anything..." "Good." Johnny said **Wyatt** "Petey, if I died would you get remarried?" "What kind of bullshit question is that? Does it have a right answer?" "Just answer it please..." "No, you are the one person I have ever been able to picture dying with, the only person I have considered aging with, you are the only person for me, period, I could never find someone who can love me and our kids the way you do, and I wouldn't want to." "Thank you for being you baby..." I responded half wanting to cry "What brought this on, what aren't you telling me..." "There's a threat, one like neither we, nor our aunts have faced before, we don't know if we're gonna make it this time, it could be our final battle." "I believe in you as well as your sister and brother, I know when it comes time for you to fight, I know you'll win..." "But if we do, there could be a big price to pay, we may die saving everyone." I was even shocked at myself for thinking like this..." "You three have survived things most people would piss their pants to even think about, I know in my heart you three will survive, if there is a price, I believe the three of you will be safe." "I hope you're right." I said "Of course I am..." "We're prepared for anything, no matter what it is, they aren't going to screw with our family." UNDERWORLD "Is the plan in motion?" "Yes, they believe that it is them we are after." "So they do not suspect that we are starting by attacking the heart?" "No, they won't know what hit them when their precious families are taken from them." "They will be unprepared for any attack other than direct contact." "Perfect. We attack at sunrise..." A seer overheard the conversation and decided she would foresee the events to aid her comrades "Magical orb, show me the outcome of the triads attack..." **Vision** Chris, Melinda, and Wyatt orb in to find Paige, Phoebe, Johnny, Pete, Darryl, and all of their kids unconscious, **end** Not being able to foresee the deaths of anyone except Johnny and Pete the seer teleported out "DEMON!" Chris yelled and jumped up to kick her "Hello, I'm a seer, I totally saw that coming, I'm here to help you..." "How can I be sure..." "Because I know when where and how your husband and little munchkins are gonna bite it..." "What?!" Chris asked "Maybe we should clarify, yes I'm evil, no I don't endorse the killing of children, and I am only here because your aunts and mother were so helpful to my sister Kira may she rest in peace." "Wait, your sister?" "Yes, she had valuable information, and was to be made human before Zankou killed her, but your mother and aunts were willing to turn her human..." "Say I believe you're here to help, what then..." "I tell you how to stop the people you love most from dying... It's a funny thing love, seeing as I don't have a soul I can't feel it, but I have seen what it can do to those who can feel it, love makes people do strange things, and I've seen the strange things love makes you do for your husband, and lemme tell you... damn... just... damn... you live a full life that's for sure..." "When do they die?" Chris asked "On Friday the 13th, how cliché is that...?" "Wait... Friday the 13th.. as in Friday, how am I gonna stop that, that's the day after tomorrow..." "I don't mean to joke too much, but that was too many movie references for one line..." "You're right... don't joke..." "Sorry... nervous habit... Look, I am doing this as a favor to my late sister, you should get them to safety and you should really also consider changing your plan of action, because whatever it was, works to their advantage..." "We didn't have one... but if we come up with one... would you be able to tell us if it will work...?" "Now we're talking... You're going to have to trust me though, or this won't work..." "I do, the same way my Aunt Phoebe trusted your sister..." "Let's get to work..." To be continued... Okay, so what did you think, is it worth your time or what, tell me about it, I love hearing from people, how about any ideas, I'm running a tad dry, but also, your opinion, should I keep the seer on the good path or reveal her evil, is it time for another death, or should I just keep it the way we love it, with the charmed ones kicking ass... you tell me Questions comments or feedback is <3 Stories4evry1@yahoo.com or if yahoo is down for you too storiesalterego@gmail.com