A/N: Hey, I finished chapter 3! Woohoo!!! That didn't take me nearly as long as I'd thought it would ... Nothing else to say except that I'm fairly satisfied how it turned out . So, enjoy!
P.S.: Oh, and please do review! It doesn't matter how much you write, every review makes me happy and keeps me smiling all day!
Disclaimer (forgot that one, the last two chapters I think): Charmed and all of its characters don't belong to me. Period.
Chapter 3
Demonic Espionage
There was silence for a few seconds as Piper Halliwell stared down at her son. She'd never seen him this terrified before.
"What do you mean? Who's coming?", she asked, finally giving him a hand to stand up.
"Yeah, who's they?", Phoebe asked, raising herself form her crouched position on the floor.
Chris started to look desperate which worried Piper and Phoebe even more. "It doesn't matter who they are!", he called. "The only thing that's important now is that you've gotta get out of here! They're only after me so there's no need for you to get involved! I'll handle it."
Piper looked at him in a disbelieving way. "Have you lost your mind?", she asked. "We're not going to leave you alone when some demons are after you! Besides, if you can handle it on your own, then why are you so afraid?"
"And why did you even come here?", Phoebe enquired, hands on her hips.
"Because the demons are going to attack here!", Chris almost yelled. "They know that I live here now, so that's why. And I'm not afraid!"
"Sure you aren't.", Phoebe muttered.
"Look, we don't have time for this. Now where's Paige?", he asked, moving into the parlour of the manor.
"Hold it, Mister." Piper grabbed his arm. "Neither you, nor we are going to leave this house. We're not going to run. Either we'll face this together or none of us will."
Chris looked as if he wanted to argue, but Phoebe interrupted him. "Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh."
"B-"
"No."
"And-"
"Save it.", Piper said. "We already had this conversation."
She watched as her son's mouth opened and closed as he dug for words, but couldn't find any. Finally he crossed his arms, his mouth moving into a pout. "Fine, but you better come up with a good plan. Now where's Paige?"
Before one of the sisters could give an answer there was a crash and the sound of breaking plates coming from the kitchen.
"Ouch.", Paige winced as she rubbed a sore spot on her back. She was currently in the kitchen, bent over a sizzling, ruby-red potion, her nephew, who she personally blamed for her aches, leaning on the kitchen counter beside her.
She'd been in her room, reading, when suddenly she'd heard a crash and loud shouting coming from the kitchen. Hurrying downstairs and immediately going into fighting mode she hadn't paid attention to what she was stepping on ... big, big mistake, for when she'd entered the kitchen, the world surprisingly tipped itself upside down.
Grumbling she reached over and grabbed a handful of lavender, throwing it into the potion.
Seconds later her sisters and nephew had come barging into the kitchen, looking ready for a fight, but when they saw her, their serious expressions had changed to astonishment.
After Phoebe had helped her up and explained everything, including why the kitchen floor suddenly looked like a mine field made out of butter and knives, Piper had given them their separate tasks.
And now she was standing here, with an aching back, her sisters at the kitchen table with the Book of Shadows and her neurotic nephew, who'd resumed going in circles in the middle of the kitchen.
"Could you please, stop that?", she finally snapped. "It's distracting me."
Chris stopped and looked up at her. "Well, I'm sorry, but those demons, they are going to be here any second and we're nowhere near ready for them!"
Sensing some kind of quarrel Piper looked up. "Chris, I know that you're worried, but you have to let us work. I promise we'll be ready for them when they come but you moving restlessly around the kitchen is distracting to all of us."
Accepting that Chris moved to lean against the kitchen counter again. "You're right. I'm sorry, Paige, I'm just nervous."
"I understand.", Paige said, looking at him kindly.
She took a bunch of daffodil roots and threw them into the potion. It banged and smoke started to rise from the potion. Paige turned her head to look at Chris and gave him a smile. "Ready."
"M-master?"
"What?", Chattal snapped, irritated.
"M-master, I w-wouldn't ever m-mean to judge your d-decisions, but are you sure you want to attack the H-Halliwells? I m-mean, with them b-being forewarned?"
Chattal looked at Plugger as if he was something very nasty on the sole of his shoe. "Yes, why are you asking?"
"W-well, isn't it a bit r-risky? I mean, they'll have p-potions and sp-spells ready now ..."
"So?", Chattal bellowed. "Wasn't it your idea to attack them in the first place?"
Plugger didn't say anything to that. He and Chattal both knew that neither the one nor the other had had the 'idea', but he refrained from commenting. "I-I'm just worried."
"Ha, don't be.", the upper-level demon laughed. "I've got it all covered. While the others are going to fight against the witches, I'll stay invisible in some corner. Of course, at one point, they'll lose and flee back to the underworld but I'll stay behind. Maybe right after the attack the Halliwells will let something slip which will help us to get to their baby."
"T-that's very clever master.", Plugger said and he meant it. He'd never thought that his master could think up such a smart plan.
"Hm, I know."
"B-but w-why do you need to stage that attack t-then? W-Wouldn't it be e-easier to go there without h-having them warned be-beforehand?"
"Maybe.", Chattal admitted. "But where would the fun in that be, Plugger? You've got to think about style. Fans love style."
Which fans?, Plugger asked himself.
Right then twelve or more demons shimmered into Chattal's cave. "Ah.", the demon said and turned to face them. "There you are already. Is everyone here? Yes. Okay, then let's go."
And with the flash of a lightning bolt he vanished with the others in tow.
"Okay, Wyatt is at Sheila's, everybody's got at least five potion vials, we know the spell for the warlock by heart ... I think we're ready.", Phoebe said, pursing her lips in thought, as she looked at her family. They were currently standing in the hallway of the manor.
"Yeah, I think so too, but don't underestimate them. They're many.", Chris said.
"Why are they even after you in the first place?", Piper asked. " They couldn't accidentally have discovered that you're from the future, could they?"
"No, I already told you, there's no way they could know that I'm from the future.", he answered a little unnerved. "I rather think that I somehow must have annoyed them and now they're out to get me."
"Well, I can understand that.", Paige said smiling.
"Ha, ha."
"Oh stop it you two.", Phoebe said. "Now we're here, the potions are here ... the only thing that's missing is-" Suddenly the air behind her elder sister started to shimmer. "Demons!", she yelled, eyes going wide.
On reflex she ducked, which was a good thing, because just a millisecond later she heard the sound of an energy ball slamming into the wall behind her.
Chris meanwhile had orbed behind the demons and already taken two of them out, before the third one had managed to side-step the potion thrown at him. The two of them were now involved in a bitter fight, energy balls against jumping out of the way.
Phoebe quickly stood up again to see her sisters who were engaged in their own little fight against some demons.
Deciding to first help Chris she threw one of her potion vials at the demon's back, then she immediately threw herself to the side, as a darklighter arrow whizzed past her, only to be returned to its sender by her nephew. "That was close.", she muttered.
"Tell me about it.", Chris said. "I was standing right behind you."
"Oh."
"Phoebe, Chris, a little help here please!", Piper called, as she finally managed to blow up the demon, which had been playing Hide and Seek with her for the past few minutes.
The two of them were just about to move over to them, when suddenly, they were grabbed from behind by a Brute demon and thrown against a wall. Before he collided with the wall, Chris thought that he brushed against something or someone, but when he looked in the direction from his crumpled position on the floor he didn't see anything. Still aching from the impact, Phoebe raised herself and threw a potion vial at him. He immediately erupted in flames.
Already on the move to finally go help his mother Chris halted in his steps when he suddenly heard a loud crash from upstairs.
Upstairs?, he thought. But why ...? What ...?
He barely managed to dodge the green liquid that had been aimed at him while he was distracted. He quickly vanquished his assassin while Phoebe took care of the demons, who were throwing energy balls at his mother and Paige. The last demon that was left (a particularly small one) obviously decided that he liked to live, for he shimmered out before any of them could make another move.
"I think I heard a crash upstairs.", Chris said. And he dissolved into blue orbs.
"Wait.", Piper yelled and grabbed onto his arm.
On instinct he orbed into Wyatt's room and found his suspicion correct. Of course ...
Just as his mother was about to start blowing the four demons up that had turned the room into a battle field, they shimmered out. A second later Phoebe and Paige orbed in.
"Where did they go?", Piper asked, looking around.
"I've got no idea but I don't think that they're here any longer.", Paige said, looking around. "Whew, they sure managed to wreck this room."
"Yeah and its obvious why.", Chris said. He'd moved over to what used to be Wyatt's crib and picked up a piece of wood. "They wanted to get Wyatt."
"But why? I don't understand. Didn't you say that they were after you?", Piper asked him.
"Yes, the demons I overheard must have known that I was there. It must have been their plan to use me as a bait to distract you from Wyatt."
"Oh, when I get my hands on them ...", Phoebe muttered.
"Well, at least now, we know for sure that they don't know you're from the future.", Piper concluded. "We can deal with them being after Wyatt. I still hate that all the demons in the underworld are after him but it's at least something with which we've dealt before."
Chris didn't seem so sure at all. "I don't know, mom. I mean, these demons that attacked, they were all different. I've never seen darklighters, warlocks, a brute demon and all the others work together like this before, unless they were under somebody's command and if there really is another demon, he's got to be really powerful."
For a moment he thought he saw something, a shadow, by the window, but then it was gone again. He put it off as a swish of one of the curtains.
"Maybe you're right. We shouldn't underestimate a demon just because we've dealt with a similar situation before.", Paige said and then sighed. "I'm going to get Wyatt. If there's really someone big after him, then he isn't safe at Sheila's anymore."
Phoebe nodded. "Alright and we're going to think about what to do next. "
Paige orbed out and Chris, Phoebe and Piper went into the attic after Phoebe had cast a little clean up spell.
As soon as they were gone the air started to flash in the spot where Chris thought he'd seen something earlier.
A/N: I know, 'twas a bit short, but what can I say? Bye, Jamie