Author's Note: Yes, Yes - long time, no write. Well, I finally received some inspiration.
Wyatt's Lair
Erissa paced nervously back and forth, her bare feet padding noiselessly on the cold, stone floor. There must be some irony in this, she though to herself. I'm in hell, yet the flood is freezing. Go figure.
She focused telepathically on Walter once more, double-checking his location. She caught it, and help it firming, as a map of the underworld conjured itself in her head. She saw were he was; same as before.
Her conscience, however small, twinged slightly. She felt a bit guilty about using her son in this way, but it was for his own good. Finding Melinda Haliwell would bring both of them much closer to safety.
Many had heard rumors that Melinda was rising in the Underworld as the new Source, but she had never been able to confirm them. Now, with what Walter had told her about his rescuers, she could safely infer that Melinda was indeed involved with the Source, if she was not it herself. Yet with all this rational and reasoning, she still couldn't help but cringe at the though of taking advantage of her son.
The gentle tinkle of orbs stirred Erissa from her thoughts. Yet the owner of them was anything but gentle.
"Ah, Erissa," he crowed, "what gives me the pleasure."
"My Lord," she began nervously, "I have some information about the rising power."
"Really?" he said, taken back. He never considered Erissa to be anything more than something pleasant to look at amidst the ugliness of the Underworld. Yet he should have known better, he scolded himself, then to underestimate the power of women. Look at his mother and aunts, he thought.
"What, pray tell, do you know?" he asked quietly and seductively.
"It is rumored that Melinda Haliwell is the new Source of All Evil."
"I have heard that myself," he said, a bit of impatience creeping into his voice.
"Yes, but I have something else – something of greater value," she amended.
"Really…"
"Yes. I know where she is."
Wyatt snapped his attention forward. In a second, thousands of thoughts rushed into his head. The loudest one was screaming at him, telling him how much power he would have if he vanquished the Source.
Strangely enough, he also felt a bit of fear. As a child, he outshone all of his cousins and his sibling. He was the promised one, after all. Yet Melinda had that aura of power around her that none but Wyatt had managed to pick up. She never showed off, as he had; but when push came to shove, she beat him every time. She had what he only pretended to have – complete control of her mind, body, and soul.
To face Melinda would put an ideal that his parents had instilled in him to the test. He had always been told that he was the strongest – ever. But Melinda had never faced off with him. Could it be that all were mistaken? Could she really be stronger?
He pushed these troubling thoughts out of his head for the moment, and refocused on Erissa. She looked back up at him with her startling violet eyes.
"Well," he began in a drawl, "lead the way, my lady."
Erissa fought down a gulp.
Melinda's Area
Walter lie awake in the bed he had been placed in. Peter had said that they would try to find some people to look after them in the morning – or when it was morning in San Francisco. He felt that he should have told them that he already had a mother, but his mom had been adamant about not letting them know anything about them.
"It's just too dangerous," she had said.
He looked around, to the sleeping forms of Jay-Jay, Mike, and Taylor. They looked content and safe in this new place, except for the quiet whimpers from Taylor. He pitied her, but at least, he thought to himself, she could sleep.
He didn't know why his mom wanted him to go back to his new friends, but he didn't mind so much. When he was with his mom, he was always hiding from Wyatt. His mother said that it was best if he was kept a secret from the Dark Master.
He thought about his new friends, and about Melinda. There was something really powerful about her; he could feel it inside of him. Part of him felt a deep admiration, but part of him felt afraid of all that power that laid untapped with in her.
That part reminded him of another fear – his fear of himself, and of his power that he had yet to control. That scared him more than Wyatt or Melinda ever could.
He was shaken from his thoughts as he heard a voice outside his door. It was deep, and menacing… it was Wyatt.
Quickly, Walter disappeared in a twinkle of orbs. He had to warn Melinda.
The Council Room
Dani arrived back in the Council room after the tense encounter with her sister and thought-to-be-dead cousins. She was still quivering, she discovered, and gripped the chair beside her in an attempt to calm herself down. It wasn't working.
Leo, the only person in the room, immediately noticed her condition. He rose from his seat quickly, and rushed to her side.
"Dani!" he exclaimed, "what happened?"
She looked up at him weakly.
"You know, family stuff. I talked to Mel, saw that Chris and Peter aren't really dead - just on the wrong side, the usual."
Leo stopped midstep. Chris? His son was alive!? How…
"It seems that my wonderful cousins faked their own deaths! I just love my family! You?"
Leo sank into a nearby chair, and put his head in his hands.
"How could this be… why didn't they stay with the Resistance?"
Dani sat next to her uncle, and looked at him with pity.
"I don't know anymore. I just don't know…"
Leo rose up in a sudden flow of motion.
"I need to talk to him. I need to understand."
Dani stood up as well, hands raised in exclamation.
"You can't do that! It's the Underworld! You'll get eaten alive!"
But Leo orbed out before she could continue to protest.
Dani cursed herself quietly. She should have known better than to tell Leo straight away. With one son gone forever, she should have realized that leo would jump at the chance of reuniting with his only child left. She just hoped that Leo wouldn't get burned as she had when she tried to make amends with her long-lost cousins.
Then she remembered something...she forgot to ask him about Chris and Peter some of the "legions."
"Great," she muttered. "Now I have to find another council member. Just perfect."
Bianca's Quarters
"Bianca... Bianca..."
"What? Mommy? Are you okay?"
"Bianca, sweetie, I need you to listen very carefully. Some very bad people are coming to the door very soon. Do you remember how I showed you to shimmer?"
"Yes, but Mommy - I don't what to run away. I want to help you!"
"It's too late for me. I need you to go down to the underworld, where Aunt Viviane lives. She'll take care of you."
"But Mommy!"
"Go!"
A flash of light erupted from the kitchen door, and Bianca's mother flew back into the wall. Blood poured from her skull and on to the floor.
"Mommy!"
Bianca shot out of bed, her skin slicked with sweat. She pushed herself against the headboard, leaned her head back, closed her eyes, and breathed deeply.
"Uugh."
Every night these dreams haunted her. She saw the same instance over and over again. Her mother, begging her to leave - and her eight-year-old self stubbornly refusing. She hear the sickening crack of her mother's head against the wall, and she smelt the sticky, deep red blood that flowed from the fatal wound.
She was only eight - she tried to convince herself that she had no power to stop them, to stop them from hurting her only family. But each time, she felt herself lieing to herself.
Throwing the covers to the side, she leaped out of bed. As she walked briskily towards the island in her apartments kitchen to grab herself some coffee, she heard the tinkling of orbs.
Her first thought was Wyatt, so she asumed a soldier's stance; yet the figure reforming was not that of the cruel-hearted, vicious Dark Lord.
Instead, the innocent - and strangely charming features of Chris Haliwell reappeared.
What? Where did that come from? Bianca furiously scolded herself.
"We need to talk." he said quielty.
And his grin made her knees feel weak. Bianca didn't like that at all.