Charmed:
The New Power Of Three
by Julien Gregg


© Copyright 2006 - 2007 Julien Gregg
All rights reserved.
No part of this story may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.  This story is almost all fiction.  Almost all of the characters depicted in this story exist exclusively in the imagination of the author.  Any resemblance to an actual person, living or dead, is, sometimes purely coincidental. This story is based on the television show, Charmed, and although the family name and a similar book of shadows appear in this story, there are no characters from the show in the story. They may be named, but they will never be portrayed.

Charmed is owned by Spelling Entertainment and Warner Brother's Television. Certain spell text is borrowed from the television show. However, since no money is being made by this tale, I don't feel horrible about borrowing anything.


Chapter Sixteen:
Sand-Witched

"It looks great so far," said Damon as he stood with his cousins across the street from where the manor had stood before it was destroyed by demons. Construction on the new manor was well underway, and from the looks of things it wouldn't be long before it was finished.

"Its going very fast," said Drake as he remembered that just four days before they'd only just finished the foundation, and now they were already working on the second story. "At this rate, we'll be moving in by next week."

"That's a good thing," replied Dean. "Besides, a little magical help isn't exactly unwanted."

"You think magic is being used?" Damon asked, turning to face Dean.

"Well what else could explain the way they're building it so fast?" Dean questioned. "Its probably the guardians or the Elders. Maybe its both."

"Well whoever it is that's using a little magic to speed things along, I thank them," said Drake, turning back to watch the construction crew work. He couldn't wait to move back in. Living above the coffee house wasn't exactly a hardship, but there wasn't a lot of room. Then there was hiding the Book of Shadows. In those small rooms it was nearly impossible to make sure it was well hidden from any mortal eyes that happened to come upstairs for anything. At least whatever magical protection had protected it in the manor was still in play at the coffee house. No one could remove it from the establishment save for the cousins themselves.

"I'll second that," said Damon. "My room is nice and all, but its very small."

"Small?" laughed Dean. "Try sharing it with someone else. David and I are constantly bumping into each other when we try to do anything in that room."

"Aaron and I are having the same problem," chuckled Drake. "If he wasn't able to orb, we'd have had a lot of problems."

"Where is Aaron, anyway?" Damon asked. He hadn't seen him at all that day.

"He had a charge to look after," replied Drake. "He'll probably be gone all day. Maybe he'll be gone overnight. I don't really know how long it takes to save destiny."

"Just think," chuckled Dean, looking at both of them. "Not long ago we'd have never even imagined that there was a possibility of doing anything like saving destiny."

"Yeah," said Damon with a smile that had almost no warmth at all. "But now we fight demons and other evil creatures almost every single day."

"You sound bitter," said Drake, looking at Damon hard. "You don't wish you'd never learned that you were a witch, do you?"

"No, its not that," said Damon with a sigh. "I just wish there were no demons or evil creatures to fight. It just seems like yesterday I was a normal guy trying to hide my sexuality from the world. Today I'm a not so regular guy trying to hide my supernatural powers and origins from the world. Its just a lot to get used to."

"I don't think any of us are really ever going to get used to things, Damon," counseled Dean. "I look back at what life was like before I learned that I'm charmed, and I thank my lucky stars every single moment for every breath of life that David breathes. Not to mention how much he loves me."

"Let's not forget the three gorgeous sons the two of you have to look forward to in the future," laughed Drake.

"I just have to make sure that there is a future for them to be born in," said Dean, wiping the smiles off Drake and Damon's faces.

"There'll be a future for them to be born in, Dean," said Drake. "We've seen them."

"I know we've seen them," replied Dean. "But think about it. They came back because something happened to their future. Who's to say that the next time we do something that alters the future, they won't be completely erased?"

"We'll just have to be more careful," Damon said as Dean's cell phone began to vibrate.

"Get back here!" David cried when Dean answered. "We have a demon here, and I need help. Cloaking isn't going to fool him for long."

Dean flipped his phone shut and turned to Drake. Drake had heard David's cry, and he grabbed Dean by the arm as he and Damon walked into the ally. Once they were out of site of practically anyone who could be watching, Damon took Drake's other arm. Drake looked at his cousins to make sure that they were touching him and shimmered them back to the coffee house. The last thought he had before the shimmered out was the great evil the seer had warned them about. This could be it.

What they found when they shimmered into the coffee house was three cloned versions of David frozen in ice. Dean looked at Damon, but he knew that Damon hadn't done it. He'd been with him the whole time. That meant that the demon was responsible. An uneasy chill ran through him as he worried about where his lover was hiding.

"Hey!" cried Drake as the demon walked into the coffee house. He had come from the hallway that led to the stairs. As soon as Drake cried out, the demon turned to face them.

What they were looking at wasn't a demon. This was a man. There was no question about it. He had dark hair and eyes and was dressed in leather. As he turned toward them he raised both of his hands. Damon knew what was coming and raise his own hands as Drake formed an energy ball in his left hand and a fireball in his right. Damon, intending to freeze the warlock, blew up a table right next to him. He gasped in both shock and frustration as the warlock prepared to freeze Drake.

Drake let both loose both his energy and fire balls at the same time. They met with the icy wind that came from the warlock's channeled power and a small explosion was the result. All three of them were knocked off their feet as was the warlock. Drake's mind filled with the image of the manor exploding, and he cried out in anger as he got to his feet. He wasn't going to let it happen again. He raised his hands and let lightning pulse from them toward the fallen warlock as Dean blew his own icy wind at the same time. Just before either the lightning or the icy wind could reach him, the warlock disappeared.

"Where'd he go?" Damon asked as Dean helped him up.

"Its called blinking," said David as he came through the door to the hallway. The frozen copies of him disappeared at that moment, and the ice that had encased them crumbled.

"I thought you said it was a demon," said Dean as he took his lover in his arms.

"I thought it was at first," replied David. "He moved so fast that I couldn't actually see him. I was too busy cloning myself and trying to cloak all of the copies along with myself to really try to get a look at him."

"What did he want?" Drake asked. "He couldn't have come here to kill us. He had to know that we weren't even here."

"He knew you weren't here," said David. "He was surprised to find me here."

"Well he didn't get whatever he came for," said Dean as the Book of Shadows appeared in his outstretched hands. "That means he'll be back."

"Jason!" cried Damon as they sat down at the bar to look through the book. They had to find out who he was and what he wanted before they could plan an attack on him.

"You won't find him in the book," said Jason as he orbed in. "He's too new for that."

"Well then who is he?" Damon asked, turning to face the whitelighter.

"And what did he want?" Dean asked.

"His name is Sandrick, and the elders don't know much about him so far," said Jason as he took a seat next to Drake. "He's a warlock who apparently just came into his powers. If he'd had them all along, we'd have known something about him by now."

"That doesn't tell us what he came here for," said Damon.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jason asked. "He came for your book. Your powers are tied to it, and we knew that evil would come for it eventually. With the manor destroyed, they must have thought the book was also destroyed, but you used magic to fight the Hollow, and the other side was watching."

"You told us that evil can't touch the book," said Drake. "So how could he have thought he could come here and take it?"

"Because they all believe that the book's power is tied to the manor," said Jason. "The manor was built on powerful ground."

"Is that why magic is being used to speed up the building?" Dean asked, leaning back so that he could look Jason in the eye.

"No one is using magic to help build the new manor, Dean," explained Jason. "I said the manor was built on powerful land. That power is what is speeding up the construction. The land wants a house built there. It knows that the charmed line lives there."

"This is just too much," sighed Drake. "How can the land know that we live there?"

Jason looked at them for a moment before he responded. He didn't know how to explain the Nexus so that they would completely understand it. He wished that Donald had lived long enough to explain all of the magic that the family possessed. Even one of their magical parents could have explained it to them. They all knew about the Nexus and what it meant to their family as well as the magical community at large. No one knew everything there was to know about the Nexus. That was impossible.

"Have any of you heard of a Nexus?" Jason asked, looking at each of them.

"Spiritual Nexus," said David. "I know what you're talking about, but what does that have to do with the Manor?"

"I found it in the book," said Dean. "Its some kind of powerful pentagram formed on the points of the five elements. It says in here that the manor was built in the center of this pentagram."

"That's right," sighed Jason. "The most powerful part of the Nexus is where Halliwell Manor stood. That part of the Nexus wants the house rebuilt. That's what is aiding the construction. It's from that power that you each draw your own powers. Not the powers themselves, but haven't you noticed that your powers aren't as strong as they were while you were living in the manor?"

They looked at each other for a moment. None of them had noticed that their powers were weaker. Damon was still having trouble adjusting to his new powers, but they weren't weaker. If anything the charmed powers were stronger. Even Drake's demonic powers were stronger. If anything their powers were a little off. Fighting the warlock had proven that to even Dean. It'd been a little hard for him to perform his ice kiss, and when he'd done it the flow of air was off a little bit.

"They aren't weaker," said Dean slowly.

"They're off," said Damon. "I can't seem to get the hang of my new power."

"I felt different when I used my demonic powers, too," said Drake. "My energy ball wasn't as powerful as it should have been."

"That's because you draw strength from the Nexus," said Jason. "You'll never be completely powerless without it, but your powers will be affected by the loss of it. That's why the Nexus is helping the construction along. It wants your powers back where they belong."

"You said our powers were tied to the book," said Damon. "If they're tied to the book, then how does the Nexus come into this?"

"The book is your power," replied Jason. "Its where you power comes from. The book is your link to your ancestry and all of the power they possessed. If the book is destroyed, your powers are gone with it. The Nexus didn't give you your powers. What it does for you is completely different."

"It amplifies them?" Dean asked.

"That's one way to look at it," said Jason. "Ordinarily the power of the Nexus would be very hard to tap into. To this day countless demons die because they try to take in the power of the Nexus at one of its five points. One point of the Nexus has been completely destroyed by members of your own family. I won't get into that, but what I'm saying is that being in the center of the Nexus makes you stronger than any other Halliwell witches in the world, and believe me, there are more Halliwells out there. Witches in your family are naturally stronger than ordinary witches, but you three are the strongest in existence. You're even stronger because of the Nexus."

They were all silent after that. Each of them needed to digest what Jason had told them. There would be more questions about the Nexus, but there was time for that later. They knew now that their home was built on the most powerful land in the world, and that thought made them both nervous and happy. If the land was powerful, there had to be a way to channel that power if they needed it. Maybe it would even help them if and when that powerful evil came for them.

"This doesn't help us much," said Damon. "We still don't know anything about Sandrick."

"I told you about the Nexus to let you know that if you can lure him to the manor, you can defeat him by drawing on the power of the Nexus," said Jason.

"The manor is still under construction," said Dean. "How can we fight him there if the site is full of construction workers?"

Before Jason could answer a dark haired young man came running into the coffee house with Dax right behind him. The young man's face was a mass of bruises, so they couldn't identify him at first. Damon looked closer and realized that it was Mikie Kerry. The middle evil charmed brother. He screamed as he came in through the double doors. "Get him off me!"

The sight of Mikie wasn't what rooted the charmed ones in their seats. Dax was in his full demonic form, and in his hands were energy balls. Hatred filled his eyes, and his mouth was twisted into a hateful smirk as he chased Mikie into the coffee house.

"You dare to seek protection from my brother and his cousins?" snarled Dax as he threw the energy balls at Mikie.

Damon didn't even think about his powers being off. He just knew that no matter what Mikie had done, he couldn't let Dax kill him. They'd bound the evil charmed powers and left the brothers powerless, and Damon didn't believe it was a fair fight. He raised both hands and froze the energy balls in the air.

"Dax, stop!" Drake cried, breaking his shocked paralysis and rushing toward his demon brother.

"You'd defend this warlock?" Dax demanded as he glared at Drake. "You who reject evil and embrace good magic would dare stand in the way of justice?"

"What justice?" Damon asked as he made his way to where Mikie had fallen to the floor, trying to avoid the flying energy balls. "Dax, he has no powers now. Why would you want to kill him anyway?"

"I am not evil!" cried Dax, glaring at Damon now.

"Dax, you're a demon," argued Dean. "How can you come in here in your demonic form and claim to not be evil?"

"This was done to me against my will," argued Dax as he morphed into his human form in front of them. "I didn't ask for this!"

"You didn't ask to become human, either," reminded Drake. He still didn't believe that there was no way to save Dax, but the witch in him couldn't help being suspicious of the demon before him. "That was done against your will as well."

"I have not claimed one innocent life," argued Dax. "I embraced my humanity. It was the seer who did this!"

"You were about to claim an innocent life," Damon said calmly, causing even his cousins to give him a long look. "Mikie has no power now, Dax. That makes him magically innocent."

"No it doesn't," spat Drake.

"Don't you start," said Damon, pointing at Drake. "You argued with us over and over again that Dax could be saved. You said that once the demon was stripped from him, he was innocent. He'd killed more innocents than most demons in the Kin, but you said he became an innocent as soon as he became human. If that was true, then Mikie became an innocent the second that Dean bound his powers."

Drake was shocked into silence as he stared at his cousin in disbelief. How could he not see that Dax becoming human was a completely different situation? Mikie was never a demon. He'd chosen evil just as they had chosen good. How could he believe that Mikie was innocent after everything that the evil charmed ones had done in the past. They'd read up on them, and they knew that countless innocents lost their lives at the hands of the evil charmed ones.

Dean didn't know what to say about it. He could see both sides of the argument. He still didn't trust Mikie Kerry, though. There was just too much in his past for Dean to be comfortable with. He wouldn't argue with Damon, though, because what he'd said made perfect sense. Sure Mikie could still hurt innocents even without his evil charmed power, but that wasn't really the issue. It wasn't right for Dax to kill him. He didn't understand why Dax even wanted to kill Mikie.

In the confusion, they hadn't even realized that Sandrick had returned. He watched them from the hallway and listened to them argue. The Book of Shadows lay open on the bar, and he knew that if he could attack them with their guard down he might just get what he'd been sent to claim. The seer had demanded that he bring the Book of Shadows back with him. What the seer wanted the charmed one's book for he didn't know, but he knew that with all of the power stolen from dead demons, the seer would kill him if he failed again. With that thought in mind, he raised his hands and froze Damon Halliwell in ice. Before any of them could even think of reacting, Sandrick blinked.

Dean and Drake didn't know what was going on at first. Drake thought that Damon had somehow frozen himself. His powers were off, but could he really freeze himself like that? He'd been told by Jason that good witches didn't freeze, so was it even possible? His question was answered as Sandrick appeared beside his frozen cousin. Before any of them could even move, Sandrick pushed Damon's frozen body over and he shattered as he hit the floor.

"No!" cried Drake, forming an energy ball in his hand, but he wasn't fast enough.

Sandrick raised his hands and froze Drake before he could even let go of the energy ball. Dean lifted one hand, but Sandrick froze him before he could do anything. He reached out for the book on the bar, but just as his fingers were about to touch it, the book shot across the bar away from him. He cried out in frustration as he turned to face the white lighter.

"If you want the remaining charmed ones to live, you'll remove the protection from that book!" he snarled.

Jason was too stunned to even think. He was staring at the shattered pieces of one his charges on the floor at Sandrick's feet. He felt numb with dread. Damon couldn't be dead. He had to find a way to heal him. There had to be a way.

"Did you not hear me, whitelighter?" demanded Sandrick.

He raised his hands, but Mikie stepped in the way this time. Mikie stopped in his tracks, frozen by Sandrick, and again the warlock advanced on Jason. Jason's despair over the death of his charge prevented him from moving from where he stood. He saw Sandrick approaching him, but he just couldn't make himself move to protect himself.

"No!" cried Dax, and he lifted both of his hands and let the fire course through them, incinerating Sandrick.


I'm sure by now you all know that my site is down. I'm using a fortunecity page to update the stories right now. I'll get the site back up as soon as I can. Happy New Year everyone! If you have comments (flames will be ignored completely) email me.