Disclaimer: We still do not own Charmed. If we did, the first season would have never been written. Gosh, slow people.

Summary: When a demon attacks the manor, Piper makes a disturbing discovery: The Book of Shadows is no longer protecting itself against evil. This calls for an emergency family meeting as everybody in the Charmed family comes together to race against the clock - and against the demons - to figure out what is going on and save the Halliwell family legacy.

Author's Notes: Just a reminder: There are two people writing this fic. This is Kaye as always. O'Tuachair is off in St Louis doing her college thing.

As you just heard, college has taken over our lives. How we've come so far so quickly, I'll never know, but we never meant to neglect this fanfic as much as we have. Either way, I hope you enjoy this next installment of The Phoenix Trials. This is when the real plot behind this "season" begins. Also, we've realized that the website has removed all of our scene breaks. That's highly annoying, so we'll be trying to go through and fix this for your reading pleasure.

Constructive criticism is welcome!

Enjoy!

The Phoenix Trials

Chapter Four: The Eleventh Hour

GUEST STARS:
MILANO, Alyssa... Phoebe Halliwell
WEBSTER, Victor... Coop Halliwell
RAY, Charlie... Prudence 'Ladybug' Halliwell
MARANO, Vanessa... Patricia 'Firefly' Halliwell
ALLEN, Tessa... Penelope 'Bumblebee' Halliwell
MCGOWAN, Rose... Paige Matthews-Mitchell
SERGEI, Ivan... Henry Mitchell
RATHBONE, Jackson... Henry Mitchell, Jr.
HALE, Lucy... Julia Helen Mitchell
SCODELARIO, Kaya... Melody Samantha Mitchell

The evening was quiet and calm as Piper and Leo Sr. settled into bed, ready to get some rest after the day's activities. Just about ready to doze off, Piper nearly missed it when the crystals that sat upon her desk began to glow. The Halliwell Matriarch groaned and threw the covers off with frustration.

It was just past eleven o'clock, and Leo had to get to Magic School in the morning. Midterms were almost over, so Leo had to prepare all of the progress reports to be sent out to the parents of the children (at least, Piper reminded herself, to the guardians' who cared). Piper was grateful that Paige had a door permanently installed from their house to Magic School awhile ago. All Leo had to do now was touch a crystal that could read his hand print and say his name, and then he was there. Piper could think back to a time when he couldn't get anywhere without magical help.

Leo grabbed her arm. "Let Paige get it. You know she'll probably be here in less than a minute anyway."

The crystals glowing meant that something that was not supposed to be there was in the attic. It was a lot less worrisome and just more of nuisance by now.

Piper chuckled and put her hand on her husband's. "Honey, she's taking her first vacation without the kids since they took in Junior. I don't think her and Henry are going to stop in the middle of whatever they're doing so that she can take care of a measly demon."

Piper looked at Leo with a touch of suggestion in her eyes; after thirty years, she was still in love with him. She smiled to herself and realized how some things would never change. Demons would still be running all over this house in sixty years, and she would love Leo Wyatt until well after she was the High Priestess in the spirit world.

"Are we talking about the same Paige?" Leo asked, innocently.

Piper laughed and threw a robe on. Demon or not, she wasn't about to let anybody see her undressed. She leaned over and kissed her husband. "I'll be back in five."

"Make it three and we have a deal."

"Deal."

Leo rolled over and covered himself back up. He would be fast asleep in less than two, she was sure.

Piper went upstairs and threw the attic door open.

What she saw surprised her more than anything. The demon she saw was normal - no upper level demon qualities that she knew of - but she still felt a chill travel up her spine as her eyes landed on him.

He was standing there holding the Book of Shadows, her family lineage, the sacred book that was supposed to protect itself from evil. But it wasn't. She felt betrayed after the thirty years of counting on it. The Book was almost always that one thing that she could depend on not getting into the wrong hands.

Piper blinked. The demon exploded. The book fell to the ground with a loud thud. Piper walked to it cautiously. There was a part of her that wondered if suddenly the book had decided to switch it's concept of good and evil and would then protect itself from her when she got too close. But it didn't. She walked to it and picked it up delicately in her hands. She looked around the attic in confusion, looking for an answer. At the moment, for some reason, it was just a book.

And to Piper, that was even worse.

She took the book out of the attic and made her way to her bedroom. There was another set of small crystals that she had in her room in a chest in the closet. Piper set it in a safe Leo had installed in the room (something about having lived through the Depression, she guessed), surrounded it with the emergency crystals, and used another crystal to lock the safe door.

Phoebe and Paige would be by in the morning; they both had the other crystals that would notify them if she had to use the emergency one.

It was as magically protected as she could get it. Although, she cursed herself for not getting a protection spell out of the book before she closed the safe.

Opening Credits Roll
Theme Song: "Fallen Angels" by Aerosmith

Song: "Home" by Chris Daughtry

Wyatt walked through the apartment as he drained the soda in his hand. He tossed it into a nearby trashcan, using a bit of last minute magic to actually make it in. He grinned and did a little victory dance as he ignored the fact that he kind of cheated to make it actually drop into the goal. He kicked Leo's passed out form in the living room as he passed by without much restraint. Little Leo's sleeping form immediately curled up as he groaned in on himself.

Wyatt chuckled and shook his head. Leo's late shifts at the club were starting to wear in on the nineteen-year-old, but Wyatt figured they could live with that. At least he wasn't coming home piss-ass drunk and passing out. It was only exhaustion that was causing the teenager to pass out on the floor. But, to be honest, Wyatt was sure that if he and Chris had the ability to sleep anywhere like their little brother, they would have been doing the same thing with how their lives had been lately.

The blond witch sidled up to Chris's room and banged on the door.

"Chris! Get up! We have a family emergency! That means you too, Leo," he added, looking at the slowly waking up form of his baby brother.

"Why the fuck did you have to kick me?" the sleepy brother mumbled.

"Because I could," was his older brother response.

The door to Chris's room swung open, and the bleary-eyed film student stood staring at him in nothing but his boxers. "Wyatt..." he groaned, running a hand over his face, "it's six o'clock in the fucking morning andmy day off. What are you-?"

"I already said. Family emergency. And I don't just mean us. Mom is calling everybody. She wouldn't tell me what's up, but whatever it is, it's big." He looked between his two brothers who were staring at him as though not quite understanding. "In other words, get dressed! Unless you guys don't mind showing up half-dressed and reeking of alcohol."

The two younger brothers looked down at themselves, a little confused.

Chris shook his head to get the grogginess of sleep out of his system before turning a glare onto Wyatt. "Fine. I'll be ready in one minute. And, Leo, you better be, too," he yawned and went back into his room, slamming the door behind him.

Leo stood up, already peeling off his shirt as he went. "I'm going to need more than one minute," he muttered. Before he entered his room, he looked back at Wyatt with a confused look on his face. "And why are you so goddamn chipper?"

Wyatt gave an ironic look. "Oh, you know me. I've already been up for five hours working at the hospital. I love my life."

Leo grinned and disappeared into his room as Wyatt grimaced.

- FADE TO BLACK -

As Chris walked into his old living room, he was immediately confronted with the undoubtedly loud noise that was his family. All six of his cousins, plus the Aunts and their husbands, and of course, his own two brothers, mother, and father were crowded into the room. His mother, Piper, stood at the head of the room with his Aunt Paige. They both looked equally stern and upset at something. Aunt Phoebe ran around the room, greeting and admittedly crushing her nieces and nephews in her death hugs; before joining her sisters at the front of the room, adapting the same face. This must be demon related, Chris thought, recognizing the look with better ease than the rest of the cousins would. He was the second eldest of his generation, after all.

Their seriousness, however, did not affect the numerous amounts of squeals coming from the abnormal amounts of teenage girls. The brothers' eyes twitched in equal annoyance. Chris and Wyatt snuck a peek at Leo Jr, both having realized that this was a bit of a test for the youngest Halliwell of Piper's Clan.

Little Leo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. All of the cries of "Oh MY GOD" were getting to him. He was ready to be excited with the girls, but combined with the Charmed Ones' and their husbands' worries, angers, and frustrations, plushis brothers' worry and helicopter-hovering, he was trying everything he could to keep his hands from flicking outward. He was happy that it was still necessary to use his hands in order to activate his powers, unlike his mother, who needed only to look at something.

Piper, as impatient as always, only gave them another few minutes before she began to try to get everybody's attention. From where the brothers were standing near the back of the room, huddled near the foot of the stairs while they watched their mother, the Matriarch of the Halliwell line, at the front of the room, they couldn't hear her. There was too much chatter going on. She tried several more times, Phoebe chiming in with her own loud voice, but the wrath and voice of the teenage girls seemed to completely overwhelm anything that they wanted to say. At some point, Junior had dodged his sisters and ran over to join them, leaving the four lone boys of the newest generation of Halliwells to watch in apparent awe and horror as their cousins (and in Junior's case, twin sisters) managed to drown out even the Charmed Ones.

That was truly a miracle.

"EVERYBODY!" Piper screamed. Nobody listened.

Paige put a calming hand on Piper's shoulder. "Piper, honestly, give it up. They aren't all going to listen at the same time."

"Well, they damn well better listen!" Piper's frustration got the better of her. From the back of the room, a vase exploded and shocked everybody in silence.

Wyatt blinked twice. "Well, that worked."

Piper pinned him with a warning glare, and he quickly zipped his mouth shut and threw away the key with a gesture of his hands. She nodded, satisfied, before turning to the rest of the family. It seemed as though the exploding vase had done more than get everybody's attention; it had finally allowed the seriousness of the situation to sink in. How serious it was, the boys still didn't know, but from the stormy look that clouded all three of the Charmed Ones' faces, it wasn't good.

Piper took a breath. "The Book has stopped protecting itself."

"Wait... what exactly do you mean "The Book isn't protecting itself anymore?" The Book of Shadows?" Phoebe asked Piper incredulously.

"No, Phoebe - The Book of Revelations. YES, THE BOOK OF SHADOWS!" Piper stopped, letting her heart beat calm down from her anger. She turned back to the children. "As you all know, the Book of Shadows has always been a dependable part of our family. We've always been able to count on it to provide us with information and protection. Well, that sacred book, our heritage, and yours, has stopped protecting itself. This morning, a demon came in and he was holding the book. He was a low-level demon - didn't even have his claws yet. I blew him up easily. But if one demon can touch it, then others can too. They'll start coming in quickly."

The stunned silence that followed her words was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. None of the boys could remember a time when the entire family, all gathered together, had ever been quiet before. Even Phoebe and Paige, who apparently hadn't heard the full story until now, were staring at Piper with something akin to horror on both of their faces. The Book not protect itself? It was more than scary; it was terrifying. Within that Book held every secret and spell of the Halliwell line. With one simple spell from that Book, every single witch in the family could lose their powers just like that.

"Where's the Book now?" Chris asked cautiously from the back of the room.

"Upstairs," Piper answered. "In the safe, surrounded by crystals, a protection spell, the whole nine yards."

Chris and Wyatt looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. They didn't trust that to protect the Book. Wyatt nodded and said, "I'll go get it," before orbing away.

Piper looked between her boys as she moved through the room, heading toward Chris and Little Leo. The youngest of the three brothers looked just as confused as his cousins, though, and was giving Chris a baffled look. Piper approached her middle son. "What was that about?"

Chris sighed. "Mom, we know that you probably put every possible preventive measure on the Book to make sure that it won't be stolen, but..."

Wyatt orbed back in, the Book in hand. "We need someone to watch the Book at all times."

Junior blinked a few times and turned to Little Leo. "Creepy how they do that."

Leo made a face. "Yeah, tell me about it. And they're my brothers."

Piper, looking none too happy, threw up her hands (making everybody in the vicinity flinch). "Alright! Then let's take the Book upstairs. Upstairs, let's go. No orbing!"

Wyatt, having been in the middle of orbing as she said that, rematerialized with a pout. "I hate stairs."

Chris rolled his eyes and began to push his brother up the stairs. "Yeah, yeah, you big baby. Let's go."

The matriarch of the Halliwell line turned to her sisters. "Paige," she sighed as the cousins all marched up the stairs, drowning out most of her words.

Paige jumped to attention and moved to her sister's side. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Can you orb Up There and let them know of our little situation? Maybe they can, y'know, tell us what's going on for once in our lives!"

Phoebe appeared at her other side as she gently put her hands on Piper's shoulders, attempting to calm her down. "Piper, deep breaths. Remember, freaking out at the Elders isn't good for your blood pressure."

Piper scowled. "Yeah, well, it makes me feel good!"

Leo Sr walked up to them. "Maybe I should go to Magic School, try to figure out if there's some magical reason behind this that we don't know about?"

She immediately shook her head. "No, no. We should stay together as a family, a great big noisy family, until we have a better idea of what's happening. So if those assholes know what's good for them, they'll give us a little clue as to what the hell is going on!"

Leo winced. "Honey... You know they can hear you."

"Oh, put a cork in it, Leo!" Piper looked at Paige. "Well!"

Paige snapped to attention. "Er, right! Be back soon!" And she orbed away.

Henry watched her orb away before turning to look at the other parents. "What do we do now?"

"Now..." Phoebe ventured cautiously. "We head upstairs."

Piper gave a nod and led the way, following after their children.

When the parents entered the attic, Wyatt had already placed the Book back onto its pedestal where it belonged. All nine of the next generation was sitting around the attic, all staring at the pedestal as though expecting the Book to do something fantastic. Either that, or something horrifying. It was hard to tell. For many of them, they had only ever touched the Book as a learning tool. For Piper's own children, though, she knew that they had been relying on the Book for a while to save their own lives. It scared her more than she could possibly think on that they were taking over where the Charmed Ones left off, and it scared her even more because they didn't really talk to her.

It wasn't as though Wyatt and Chris went out of their ways to avoid her or to keep her in the dark. In fact, they both loved showing up randomly for some of their mother's cooking and to talk to her about their lives. If she had been naive, though, from the way that they talked, she would have assumed that their lives were completely demon-free. She knew that wasn't the case. Leo was learning, slowly, to open up more to her, but she knew that they both had a long way to go before they got there. But at least Leo was open and honest about the demons and evil that he encountered. It saddened her to think that she had to go to her most closed off son to get information on Chris and Wyatt's magical well-being.

Wyatt had only been fifteen when he stopped telling her about all of the demons he encountered. It was as though it became such a routine for him - such as talking to his friends at school - that he no longer felt the need to fill her in on every detail. Chris took on his brother's attitude by the time he left for college. She couldn't remember the last demon that Chris had even told her about. She knew, even if she never caught them, that Chris and Wyatt would often orb into the attic in the middle of the night to look at the Book. They would much rather leave her in the dark than let her know what danger they were in. She feared for Leo, feared for where he was heading in life, but when it came to Chris and Wyatt - she feared if they would even have a life to live.

Piper was just moving to sit down herself when Paige orbed back in at that moment. All of the living members of the Halliwell line looked up as she appeared.

Piper blinked. "That was fast."

"Yeah, faster than usual," Phoebe said, sounding almost impressed.

"Well, they wouldn't talk to me," Paige said, hands on her hips, an annoyed look on her face.

Wyatt and Chris glanced at each other in confusion.

"Wouldn't talk to you?" Little Leo repeated. "Why not?"

"They said they needed one of our children present for the explanation," the youngest Charmed one said, mimicking one of the elders in a floaty voice.

"What's thatsupposed to mean?" Piper snapped. She stalked over to the Book and gestured toward it wildly. "We're having a goddamn crisis down here and they won't talk to us till one of our children is there for them to bitch at instead!"

"Pretty much," Paige said, shrugging her shoulders. Then she turned toward Wyatt and grabbed him by the arm. "C'mon."

Wyatt yanked himself out of her grip. "Hey, wait a minute, why me?"

"Because you're the oldest and you can orb; let's go."

"Why not take Chris?" Wyatt said, practically attempting to hide behind the shorter brother. "He's more into that whitelighter politics stuff than I am."

Chris dodged his brother. "Oh, Hell no!"

"Wyatt," his father reprimanded suddenly. "Go with your aunt. It won't kill you."

"Easy for you to say," Wyatt muttered, but this time he didn't dodge Paige as she reached out to grab his arm. A moment later, they disappeared in a shower of orbs.

"Now what?" Junior asked, looking at his father.

Henry shrugged. "We wait for your mother and Wyatt to return."

"And protect the book while we do," Chris said ominously.

- COMMERCIAL BREAK -

Wyatt cleared his throat awkwardly as he looked around the white and floaty place that they only knew as Up There. Really, what kind of name was that anyway? Up There. Shouldn't they give it some sort of far more fancy name that actually made it sound like some high, powerful place? At least the Underworld had a dark and foreboding name. "Underworld" was much better than just saying "Down There," though Wyatt had been known to just call it that when he felt like it, too. That was more to make fun of it, though. Which brought him back to the point of why Up There was simply known as Up There. Sure, they were also the Heavens, but it wasn't theHeaven, so that was almost a misconception, wasn't it?

"Wyatt!"

The blond witch started at the sudden call of his name, and he turned to look at his annoyed aunt. "Er... yes?"

"You going to just stand there and stare off into space?"

The eldest Halliwell brother sighed, frustrated. "Not like there's much else we can do. They won't see us. I thought you said they wanted to see us."

Even Paige adopted an annoyed expression at that. "They did. I guess they changed their minds."

He made a face. "Does that mean I can go back home now?"

"No," Aunt Paige said immediately. She paused for a moment before adding, "They might just be discussing what we're here to talk about, figuring out what they're going to tell us."

Wyatt glared suspiciously at that. "In other words... figure out how they can be perfectly cryptic once again?"

Paige nodded. "Pretty much."

He rolled his eyes. "Great. Just what I wanted to hear."

"Oh, perk up, grumpy. This place ain't so bad. And besides, you might be working for these Elders one day."

The smile on Paige's face made Wyatt severely suspicious. "Me? Work for the Elders? Why do you say that?"

Paige shrugged. "Well, you're part witch, part whitelighter, just like I am, and look at me. I wouldn't be surprised."

"I would," Wyatt replied. "Considering how much of a fan of the Elders my mom is and the fact that I'm her son... I'd say the idea of me becoming a whitelighter is doubtful. Besides, I'd rather not. My life's busy enough as it is."

Paige elbowed him. "Ah, lighten up, Wyatt! Who knows? You may even grow to love it!"

Wyatt stared at his aunt for a very long moment before saying, "Why do I get the feeling that you know more than you're letting on?"

She just smiled mysteriously.

- FADE TO BLACK -

Time passed as the Halliwell clan waited for Wyatt and Paige to come back. The atmosphere of the room had changed drastically since everyone had first arrived. There was a heavy silence that had settled all across the attic. From the look of things, Chris could only assume that each and every member of their family had something heavy weighing on their minds. Not that he could blame them, considering the circumstances, and really, he was almost frightened by this entire thing.

Growing up and believing that something was invincible and infallible, and it suddenly not being any of those things was a very scary thing. Looking at Little Leo next to him, though, he knew he couldn't voice that aloud. No matter how badly he and Leo got along, he still worried for his little brother, and he wanted nothing more than to make him feel safe and like everything was going to be alright. Being an empath made it harder for the youngest brother to believe anything the older brothers said anymore, especially when they were lying, but Chris still felt the need to try.

His mother's voice suddenly broke through the eerie silent.

"Leo..." Piper began, looking at her husband.

"No, Piper. I know what you're going to say, and the answer is no." Leo cut her off. "I'm staying here."

"Me too," Henry piped up, realizing where this was going.

"It's not safe for the two of you," Phoebe jumped in, trying to help her sister out.

"It's not safe for any of us to be here," Leo said, "and I'm not leaving my wife and children to fight something on their own. I want to help."

"I do too."

Chris shook his head sadly at his father. "But, Dad, you don't have powers."

"We don't need powers," Henry said, stubbornly. "There's other ways to help out. Potions, right? And I'm a pretty good aim. I can at least slow down a demon if nothing else."

"I've been doing this long enough to know how to survive," Leo promised. He reached out toward his wife gently. "Piper, please."

There was a long moment of silence.

"Fine," she sighed, obviously unhappy. "But I can't speak for Paige, Henry."

"I know." He nodded. "I'll talk to her personally when she gets back."

- FADE TO BLACK -

Paige and Wyatt orbed back down to Halliwell manor, talking on their way down. Piper could hear Wyatt complaining about the current situation, and having been chosen to see the Elders. She smiled. Wyatt had come to inherit his mother's discomfort with the "all powerful Elders." As much as she tried to accept them, she still held much disdain for their ways of dealing with things. She was happy to know that Kyle was slowly making his own changes "Up There."

"Aunt Paige, what the hell-?"

Paige immediately cut him off. "Watch your language. You may be half my age but I still have twice the experience."

Chris chuckled under his breath. Wyatt never really had any tact. And when he heard Wyatt's sigh, his chuckle was no longer covered by his fake cough. The silence in the room erupted with laughter.

When Wyatt and Paige got to the attic, Wyatt's face grew a dark shade of red.

Chris took his opportunity, "Aww, is wittle King Artur embawassed?"

"Shut up."

"What are you gonna do? Throw your sword at me?"

"I'm gonna throw something at you," Wyatt threatened under his breath.

Piper interrupted her boys. She always hated it when they fought. "Watch it, boys."

The hoard of Halliwell cousins watched as Chris and Wyatt said in unison, "Yes, mother."

Leo Jr. could even hear Prudence say from across the room, "I hope I can do that when I have kids."

Uncle Coop shot her a look, as if to say, 'Not until you're well over 30.'

Aunt Phoebe grabbed her husband's hand, having understood his secret remark to their oldest daughter. She turned to Paige and Wyatt immediately, however, instead of responding to the silent exchange between father and daughter. "What did they have to say?"

The emotions in the room shifted. Little Leo was relieved for the comedic release earlier, but now he felt the fear and anticipation that the adults felt, and the confusion of the children. His headache was slowly coming back, and he wished that he could be excluded from the news. Wyatt immediately became frustrated.

"Oh, what did they have to say? Well, they had a number of things to say. Half of it was a lecture-"

"The book stopped protecting itself because it is ready to move on to the next generation of witches." Aunt Paige explained, while Wyatt continued on his rant.

"As if this was our fault! As if we wantedthis to happen! They just-"

Paige shot a glare toward him, as she tried to continue, "So it will begin to...it will begin to..."

Piper finally snapped. "Wyatt, shut it!" Then in a calmer tone, she continued, "I can't hear your Aunt Paige talking."

Wyatt sat down next to Chris. Both of them could hear Henry Jr. as he mumbled to the twins, "Mama's boy."

Paige took a sharp turn. "Junior? Do you have something to share?"

Leo Jr. was reminded of his high school English teacher. Aunt Phoebe slyly scooted next to him and held his hand, hoping that her physical energy would calm him. Whatever she was doing had helped, but he knew that it wasn't a permanent fix. This was easier to endure than high school had been but not anymore pleasant.

Junior shut his mouth quickly. Aunt Paige gave him a stern look before continuing on. "Where was I? Oh, whatever, I'll just start over. Basically, the Book is getting ready to move on to the next generation of witches. While it's doing that, though, it's letting down its guard in order to assess who will be the best candidates. Once it's found its proper owners, it will restore the protective shield surrounding it."

Aunt Phoebe immediately started questioning. "So, the book decides who it goes to? We can't make that decision ourselves?"

"Well, apparently, Prudence - no, not you dear, you're ancestor - our Great-Great-Great-whatever-grandmother thought that she would be having a second child. At the time when she was alive, there were many fights over property that had been passed down, especially in a magical household since witch hunters were notorious for tearing households apart. So, she came up with this magical solution. While she didn't have a second child, the Elders said that it came in handy for P. Baxter and P. Bowen."

Leo Jr., Chris, and Wyatt looked at each other. Chris spoke up. "Who will the book go to? One person, or a set of siblings?"

Wyatt spoke up with a grave look on his face. "It will go to a set of siblings."

Prudence looked at the brothers, "So this means we're competing?"

Uncle Coop quietly laughed. "You can't compete for the book's love. It'll just choose whoever is worthiest."

Now it was Uncle Henry's turn to laugh. "You know, I've heard a bunch of crazy sh-crap since I joined this family, but so far, inanimate objects have stayed inanimate objects. Except for the lamp, but that was a shapeshifter... and the teddy bear, but that was Wyatt's projection powers... and the... okay, look, that's not the point. Mostly, unless there's been a creature or a human behind it, inanimate objects have stayed inanimate. What's behind it now?"

Paige smiled, "It's just a spell, sweetie."

Henry looked back at her. "Okay, that's all I wanted to know. I'll just be quiet now."

Junior jumped up casually from where he was sitting. Leo Jr. immediately felt a feeling of loneliness exuding from his closest cousin. Leo Sr. spoke up before Junior could be questioned, however.

"Regardless of this news, the book still has to be protected."

Wyatt nodded. "Agreed. We need someone to watch the book at all times."

Chris looked around and hung his head. "Well, I don't think we can depend on our generation at the moment, so more than half of the people in this room have to be discounted."

Prudence looked incredulous. "Excuse me?"

"What my dear brother is trying to say, I think," Wyatt began brightly, "is that most of the witches in this room happen to be underage and-or under-prepared for the incoming demon attacks that will most likely plague us for the next 24 hours or however long this is going to take. So, while everybody needs to stay close to the Book... I for one am completely against putting, say, Penny in charge of watching it."

"Agreed," Phoebe and Coop said immediately.

The nine-year-old pouted.

"We should be sending the younger kids out of the house," Piper tried to say, but Paige seemed to guess that that was coming.

"We can't," she said, sounding worried as the words past her lips. She was watching the twins sitting there with an uneasy expression. "The Elders said that the fastest way for this whole thing to be over with is to keep everybody close at hand and everybody else not needed as far away as possible. Granted, I told them under no uncertain terms were we going to leave our children here all by themselves while the Book has an identity crisis, but any other interference - they assume - will make it take longer."

"In other words," Wyatt said, taking over. "We're all under house arrest until further noted. We might as well all call into work now."

"Why can't we just... force the Book to choose now?" Penny asked quietly, looking around the room.

"Probably because, for one, all of us need the Book collectively. And for another we can't try and persuade it," Leo Jr. was finally able to say.

Chris smiled almost proudly at his little brother as he nodded. "That's exactly the reason."

The twins, although quiet throughout the whole exchange in the attic, looked at each other in shock. Jules turned to Leo Jr. upon his ruling. "You can't persuade a book!"

Wyatt sarcastically remarked, "Pssh. You can't." He ignored the looks that he was receiving from the adults before continuing, "No, but seriously... Nothing that we do now will affect the Book's decision or how long it will take as long we are the only ones here - other than demons of course. It will go to whoever it is meant to go to. Destiny, and all that crap."

- COMMERCIAL BREAK -

The attic was surprisingly quiet the hours following Paige and Wyatt's return. So much so that the family finally started to feel better about leaving the Book on its pedestal and only leaving a few of them to watch it at a time.

Piper, Paige, and Phoebe took the young ones out of the room-to them, the twins and Phoebe's two youngest were not capable of handling the job that this would require. Phoebe attempted to take Prue out as well, but was immediately met with a rebuttal.

"No! Are you kidding me? Leo and Junior are both not too much older than me. AND this would be leaving it up to the guys!Aunt Paige, you know how sexist this is!"

Paige and Piper laughed, but Phoebe only looked at her daughter with curiosity. When did she grow up? When did she become more like her namesake-fiery and in control-and less like her mother was at her age?

"I think she has a point there, don't you, Mom?" Paige teased her sister.

"No. No, no, no. She's only 17! Phoebe-" Coop was ready to fight someone on this. She was his daughter, his oldest. She wasn't cut out for this-she was too delicate.

Phoebe smiled at her overprotective husband. But she also knew what Prue was feeling. Defiance. Telling her "No" now would only send her somewhere dangerous. Phoebe would rather keep her like her namesake and less like herself, to be honest. She took her husband's hand and squeezed it tight. He read in her eyes what she was thinking. While he objected, he knew that this was a discussion to be had somewhere else.

Phoebe closed her eyes. "You can stay."

A loud yell of "Yes!" was heard from the oldest of the half-cupids. Leo Jr. seemed to finally have enough.

"Jesus, could you stop?" he yelled from the other side of the attic.

Prue continued to dance ecstatically. "Take a pill and go meditate!" She told him. She was well-aware of his empathy, as she was given the same gift as well. However, being Phoebe's daughter and a cupid, she was well-equipped to handle everyone else's feelings.

"I guess it's settled! Prue and Chris will be taking the first shift. Let's get downstairs." Paige commandeered everyone out of the attic and left Chris and Prue to themselves.

Their jaws dropped, but Paige left before anybody could say anything. They looked at each other and glared before turning to other things.

Chris immediately went to the Book and started to flip through some pages. He took out a journal from his back pocket and began writing.

"What do you think you're doing?" Prue snapped at him. She knew very well what he was doing. She could feel the dreaded sense of worry coming from him, the need to be prepared. She asked regardless, to confirm her suspicions.

"Look, I know you wouldn't understand, but if my brothers and I don't have this book, we're screwed. There's no sense of jealousy here, but we need some of these spells. More now than ever." He continued to copy down How to Defeat the Sourcebefore moving on to the next set of pages. He stopped there, finding the demon Shax. On the opposite page, Aunt Phoebe had placed pictures of his final victim, Prudence Halliwell.

"I don't know why you're acting like you'll never see the Book again. Whoever it goes to will have to share it still, you know," she said smartly, but even as the words passed her lips, she sounded uncertain. Is that true? It's not like the others had any sort of obligation to share it.

"Not necessarily," Chris said distractedly. He was staring at the picture of his aunt, the woman that he never got to meet. He often got compared to her, from his love of the camera to his powers, but he had never met her.

Prue noticed his distraction and walked over to him silently. "What are you staring at?" she asked unnecessarily, because as soon as she was close enough, she could easily see the picture. She went silent for a moment, staring at her namesake. "She was dead before you and Wyatt were born, right?"

Chris nodded.

"You ever think about summoning her spirit and talking to her?" For once, the oldest Halliwell female was being completely serious.

Her green-eyed cousin blinked and turned to look at her before shaking his head. "Ah, no. We tend to leave that sort of magic to Mom." He cleared his throat and moved onto the next page, moving to copy down the information.

"You don't seem to think that the Book will go to you," Prue pointed out, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"I don't," he said truthfully, looking up at her. He shrugged. "I mean, if it was one person, I wouldn't even hesitate in saying that it will go to Wyatt. But since it's a set of siblings..."

She moved to sit down on the sofa as he talked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Well, then who?"

Chris watched her for a moment. "I thought that would be obvious?"

Noticing the look that she was receiving, she responded at him with slightly wide eyes. "You think it will be me and my sisters?"

He nodded without missing a beat. "The Halliwell line is a lineage surrounded by feminine energy. All of the best witches in our line have been females. The Charmed Ones are also a set of three sisters, just like you guys. Not to mention that unity among siblings is a big deal with it, too, and Wyatt's kind of a one-man show, I don't really like working with partners if I can help it, and Leo would rather stay out of everything if he had it his way." He shrugged. "I wasn't lying when I said that without the Book my brothers and I would be kind of screwed... but I don't think it's destined for us."

Ladybug found that she was uncertain on what she should say, so she finally just managed, "Oh."

Her and her sisters as the next set of Charmed Ones? That was actually a rather terrifying thought that Prue hadn't considered before. She suddenly wasn't so sure why she had been so eager to help out in protecting the Book in the first place.

- FADE TO BLACK -

Henry Jr. was sitting in Wyatt and Chris's old room. He was told that it used to belong to his mom, years ago, before she met his Dad, but long after her adoptive parents passed away and she was a lonely orphan. A feeling he couldn't remember having, but the sense of not belonging to a family seemed to creep up on him at times like these. Why should he be here? The set of siblings the Book would go to might go to his sisters, but it would not include him. The Halliwell line did not flow through his veins. But in Jules and Mel? There was no doubt. They fought like the Charmed Ones - both together and apart - and they seemed to absorb the family powers quite nicely.

Sure, he was a witch himself. His birth mother had been one of his mom's first charges after the Charmed Ones' battle with the Ultimate Power. Whatever that was. And then she had died, and he had been given the name Mitchell and given the family Halliwell. But those were all just words when it came down to it.

He kicked his shoes off and laid on the bed - what was now a guest bed, but it still maintained that teenage "manliness." The colors were dark, bold. Nothing flowery, like what people would expect in Piper's guest bedroom. But then, most people assumed Aunt Piper was this flowery person that she really wasn't. That was something more up to Aunt Phoebe.

Junior knew them. He knew them in his heart and soul, but he was scared to say if he was a Halliwell or not. He could say he was a Mitchell, sure. Never once had he not felt like Paige and Henry's son; they didn't call him Junior for nothing after all. But when it came to a family that was so bonded by magic passed down through generations of blood connections, he hesitated.

A knock came from the entrance. It was light, almost apologetic. Junior lifted his head, staring at the door, trying to determine his answer. The door opened without Junior's prompt.

It was Leo Jr.

"Hey, Junior."

Junior's head collapsed back on the bed. "Hey, Junior."

Their customary teasing greeting left a small almost melancholic smile on both of their faces. Leo had never gone by Junior, which was a good thing as that would have gotten confusing, but when they had been in school together, it had been how they greeted each other almost like their own little secret handshake.

Leo looked around the room and marveled at how little things had changed. It was almost like a time machine that changed memories. Despite the room having been changed by Chris after Wyatt had moved out, he could still feel both of them, could still seethem. Wyatt's dirty clothes at one moment, Chris' obsessive cleanliness the next. The window that looked over the driveway had so much more use when the room had been Wyatt's as it was often used to sneak out the oldest brother when he wasn't feeling up to orbing at the moment. Girls would be waiting with DJ out in the street in DJ's dad's Mercedes (his prized possession at the time, which was quickly made into junk after Wyatt and DJ used it for accidental target practice). And that desk? It saw so much work from Chris than it ever did from Wyatt, probably too much work at times as Leo could not count the number of times he had left his own room for a midnight piss only to see his brother still slaving away over some project or another.

That all seemed so long ago now.

"Look, I know you've got your empathiness in there, so don't go trying to act all "Aunt Phoebe" on me," a voice suddenly said, interrupting his reverie.

Leo was snapped out of his memories and his thoughts. He laughed.

Junior looked at him uncertainly. "What?" he finally managed.

The hazel-eyed teenager shook his head. "I'm just the last person that most people would compare to Aunt Phoebe. It's just kind of funny."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Why do you think I don't want you to try it?"

Leo smiled, knowing that it wasn't an insult, before he crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. He could feel Junior watching him the entire time, and the curiosity and uneasiness was rolling off of him in waves. Hazel eyes rolled upward. "I'm not going to bite, y'know," he finally offered.

"Yeah, well, tell that to your friends," came the immediate bitter reply.

He heard him snap his mouth shut, but he knew immediately what his cousin was talking about. He winced a bit and sighed. "I really screwed things up, didn't I?"

Junior didn't respond right away. He gave a small tired sight and looked off toward the window that Leo had been studying a moment before. After a small pause, he finally managed, "I know you were just confused because of your powers."

Leo frowned. "You never went off of the deep end because you couldn't control your powers."

He shrugged. "Yeah, but I didn't have everyone inside of my head either. Whitelighter, empath. Must suck."

"Now I know you're just bullshitting me," Leo said, frowning at him as he laid back on the bed so that he and Junior were laying shoulder to shoulder. "Empath, remember? Are you really still so angry with me?"

A rather uncharacteristic glare crossed Junior's face. "High school has really sucked for me, Leo. And you helped make it suck, so yeah, I'm still a little angry." He paused. "And things still haven't changed, even with you and your gang gone. People don't just forget."

He pursed his lips, trying to think of the right thing to say. He thought about Mark Lang, the ghost he had helped to move on a few months ago. At the time, the words had just seemed to come from him out of nowhere. Now, he understood why it had been so easy for him. Being an empath and a whitelighter at the same time should make talks like this easy. It should be in his blood to be the best damn talker in the city, but here he was, with his cousin, his former best friend, and he couldn't think of a single word to say.

"I'm sorry," he finally whispered. "I was so messed up." He sighed, closing his eyes with a groan. "I've had to say that to a lot of people lately."

"Yeah, well, you've hurt a lot of people," Junior said bluntly.

He glared at him. "Thanks. I've been hearing that enough from Chris without you adding to it."

Junior sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, leaving his back to Leo. "If you didn't want to talk about what an ass you've been the past four years, why are you here?"

Slowly, Leo sat up too. "Because I did want to talk about it... Just not like this." He paused, hoping for some sort of reaction, and then sighed when he got nothing in return. "And I wanted to talk about what you were feeling up there."

A sharp look was thrown in his direction. "What are you talking about?"

If Junior wasn't going to be soft with his words, Leo figured he could be blunt as well. "What was up with you feeling like you didn't belong when we were talking about the Book?"

The teenage witch stood and pinned Leo with a dangerous glare. "Stay out of my head, Leo!"

"No," came the immediate reply. "You're a Halliwell, Junior. Maybe not by name and maybe not by blood," he added when the other started to interrupt him, "but magic brought you to Aunt Paige and destiny led you to being a part of our family, so you're one of us. For better or worse." The last part was said with his own bitterness unintentionally coming through. "But right now your sisters need you. The last thing we need is for the Book to choose the three of you and for one of you to have checked yourself out of the trio."

"I'm not checking myself out!" he said defensively.

Leo raised an eyebrow, and mentally, he could just imagine how much like Chris he looked at the moment. "If the Book does end up choosing Jules and Mel only, what then? Will you just stop talking to them? Never help them in this great destiny in store for them?"

"What? No!"

"Then what's the big deal!" Leo stood and moved to head toward the door, but he didn't leave. "If you're going to be there anyway for your sisters, no matter what your role is in this, what does it matter if you're destiny is written in the stars or not?"

"I guess... it doesn't," Junior said hesitantly.

"Well, there you go then."

"You're an ass," was the curt definitely not grateful reply.

Leo's hand was on the doorknob when he heard that. He gave a small sigh and looked over his shoulder. "I'm trying not to be," he said quietly. "But it seems most people are of the belief that people can't change." Then, he left.

- FADE TO BLACK -

"I'm really sorry, Ryan, but something came up." Wyatt was sitting in front of one of the telecomputers, a video call open on one half of the screen while the other half had his email. Because Ryan was on his cell phone, there wasn't any video feed coming through, leaving just a blank screen.

"What sort of thing?" the voice asked through the speakers.

"Family thing," he replied with a sigh that he knew he probably should have held in.

"Everything okay?" his classmate asked.

Wyatt gave a shrug even though he knew that Ryan couldn't see it. "Yeah, yeah, everything's fine. Just, y'know, stuff I gotta deal with."

"Have you told Professor Calliway yet?"

The blonde winced a bit at the name and sighed. "Sending her an email now."

"Not gonna call her?" There was the definite sound of a teasing tone there.

"Definitely not," he said immediately. "I'd rather not get bitched at about my priorities being set straight for the next half hour."

"What about Trish?"

Another sigh escaped his lips. "I've already told her."

"And?"

"We're broken up as of two minutes ago," he replied listlessly.

He heard a hiss on the other side of the line before he sighed, "I'm sorry, man. That sucks. She seemed nice."

Wyatt cleared his throat. "It's alright. You know me. Famous for being able to hold onto relationships and all that." He forced his tone to be chipper. "Anyway, I gotta go. Thanks for understanding, man."

"No problem. Seeya."

With that, Wyatt ended the call and finished up the email he was typing to his professor before sending it off. That took care of informing everyone that he would be MIA for who knows however long, but it didn't make him feel any better. Trish and he had been getting along pretty nicely. She was smart, sassy, and had surprisingly even been in one of his classes. But this was the fifth time he had been forced to cancel on her in the last month. He was surprised she held out this long.

A long yawn escaped his lips as he moved to stand up and headed into the kitchen. He had only gotten four hours of sleep last night before his 1 AM shift at the hospital started, and now it was nearly 2 PM. He was really starting to feel it. A good cup of coffee would hopefully keep him awake long enough for him to get to bed at an actually reasonable time.

The moment he walked into the kitchen, though, Wyatt knew he had interrupted some sort of serious discussion. His mother, father, Aunt Paige, Uncle Henry, Aunt Phoebe, and Uncle Coop were all sitting around the table, speaking quietly, with frowns on each of their faces, but the second they noticed his presence, they all went eerily silent. He blinked, confused. He could not remember the last time his parents had actually acted this way around him, as if he was too young to know what they were talking about. It was definitely back when he was still in high school, though, so this was definitely strange.

"Don't stop on my account," he couldn't help but throw out.

Instantly, the other adults in the kitchen looked guilty, and he knew that his guess had been correct. He frowned a bit but managed to hold his tongue as he crossed the kitchen toward the counter. He reached into the overhead cabinets and pulled down some coffee beans before starting to set up the coffee maker.

"Coffee?" his father asked, realizing what he was doing.

"Yeah," Wyatt sighed, rubbing at his eyes as the little machine started up. "I had the morning shift. I'm kind of running on empty."

"I was wondering why you were the one Piper called," his Uncle Henry said with a smile in his voice. "Usually you're still dead to the world until somewhere around noon."

"That was when I was in high school," he corrected. "In college, it was until 2. Now? It's until I have to get up for my next shift or class."

Aunt Paige winced at the tone in his voice. "How long have you been up?"

"Since midnight," he answered, deciding not to lie.

"Maybe you should lay down, sweetheart," Piper said gently.

Wyatt shook his head. "Imminent demon attack or not, I can't allow my schedule to be screwed up now."

He must have said something that either made sense to the other 6 in the room or at least cooled their concern for the moment as they said nothing as he went about making his cup of coffee. He took a sip from the red mug before moving to join his family at the table, half realizing that they probably wanted to return to their previous discussion so he probably wasn't very welcome but he realized that he didn't fully care at the moment. Walking out into the den just seemed like too much work at the moment. He took another long luxurious sip from his coffee.

"What do you think about all of this?" Aunt Phoebe suddenly burst out.

From the way she spoke, it was obvious that she had been holding in the question since he walked into the kitchen. He almost smiled, but he knew the subject wasn't exactly a smiling matter. So, instead, he sighed.

"I think... that Jules and Mel have the strongest sister bond of anyone I've ever seen, even including you three," he said, pointing from his mother to his aunts, "and that between Penny, Patty, and Prue, there's some serious firepower there. Definitely witches to be reckoned with." He shrugged. "Even adding in Junior, sometimes I think he shares Jules and Mel's telepathic link. That kid is psychic, I swear."

"And then there's you, Chris, and Leo," Uncle Coop said, silently encouraging him to continue.

"And then there's me, Chris, and Leo," he repeated, thoughtfully. He shrugged. "I don't know. It's hard to think about." His fingertips tapped the outer edges of his warm mug. "Chris and Leo are extremely powerful witches, but..."

"But what?" his father asked gently.

He sucked in a breath and looked at them. "I don't think it's us," he answered truthfully. "The Book of Shadows is a legacy passed down from Melinda Warren herself, and we aren't exactly the perfect picture of the Warren family line."

Uncle Henry just looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Every witch born in the Warren line has been female, first of all. And second of all, they have all had only one of Melinda Warren's powers." He gave them each a look. "Chris has two of her powers, and I have none of them. And, well, Leo's stuck with being our brothers, so..."

He could tell that Aunt Paige wanted to say something about his tele-orbing, but she was keeping her mouth shut since she had long since figured out how to use regular telekinesis. He was often told about all of the powers that he had displayed as a child, and he could even remember some of them, but he didn't take much comfort in that fact. He remembered the story of his Aunt Phoebe losing track of her inhibitions and being able to do all sorts of things with her magic, and that's what being a kid was all about - not having any inhibitions. Now, he was an adult, and he was stuck with only the powers he had been naturally given.

"So, who do you think it will go to?" Aunt Phoebe asked quietly.

Wyatt waved off the question. "It doesn't matter who I think it will go to. I just hope it makes up its mind soon." He sighed, taking another drink from his coffee when he suddenly started, splashing scalding hot coffee down the front of his shirt.

"Wyatt?" his concerned mother asked.

But he was already orbing away, dropping his cup onto the table with a clatter and sending the rest of the coffee splashing across the surface as he disappeared.

- FADE TO BLACK -

Wyatt reappeared in the attic and immediately ducked as a fireball went flying over his head. His shoulder was throbbing, but he knew it was not his pain that he was feeling. One glance toward the podium had him spotting his younger brother crouched down in a ready position, his forest green shirt darkened with blood and a huge burn mark on his left shoulder. His face was twisted in pain and determination, but at least he was conscious. That meant that his injury wasn't life threatening. Yet.

The sound of twinkling orbs reached his ears, and Wyatt instantly called out, "Leo, down!"

In hindsight, he realized that the orbing could have been from his Aunt Paige or either of his twin cousins, all of whom could orb, but somehow he had just knownit was going to be his baby brother. And Leo did not hesitate in responding to the command as he dropped to the ground, letting the fireball go flying over his head as well.

That was enough. Wyatt reached out with his powers, catching the fireball with his tele-orbing before it crashed into the opposite wall, and threw it back at the demon. The demon only looked surprised for a moment before he burst into flames and was destroyed. He gave a relieved sigh before starting to move toward the middle son to heal him, but Leo was already there.

"You okay?" he asked the green-eyed witch.

Chris gave a small hiss as the healing power started to take effect. "I've been better," he admitted.

"W-why did you do that!" a voice suddenly squeaked from the corner. All three boys turned to see Prue pressing her back into the wall with all color absent from her face. "Chris... You could have died!" Big watery tears were starting to form in her eyes, too. "And I... I just froze up..."

Chris stood, despite Leo's protests that he wasn't done healing yet. "Prue, I'm fine. And it's okay. You're not used to this, and we don't expect you to be."

Wyatt rolled his eyes lightly at his brother's stubbornness and came up behind him to finish the healing job that Leo started, but his eyes were on his cousin. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

"I... I'm fine," she finally managed shakily.

The door to the attic burst open as the adults that Wyatt had left downstairs came tumbling in. Before they could start asking questions, Chris raised a hand toward them. "We're fine! Everything's okay!"

As if to prove him wrong, Prue suddenly gave a small sob and went running from the room. The boys all winced as the adults looked alarmed.

"It's alright," Wyatt said with a forced smile. "I'll take her spot." He walked over to the Book of Shadows that he just realized had been thrown from its pedestal. When he realized that no one had moved, he added, "You might want to go check on her; she seemed pretty upset. First real demon attack and all."

Aunt Phoebe, despite still looking completely stunned, gave a nod and immediately turned and left with Coop on her heels. Aunt Paige only hesitated a moment before deciding that she wasn't needed after all and moved to leave as well with Henry. Piper and Leo didn't move, however.

"Are you boys okay?" Piper asked, looking between her three sons.

Both Wyatt and Leo looked at Chris, but he didn't bat an eye as he replied, "We're fine. Don't worry, Mom. We can handle it."

Piper looked like she wanted to say more, but she held her tongue as she nodded and finally left with her husband as well.

Wyatt dusted the Book off and returned it to its pedestal before speaking. "So, what happened?"

"Two demons attacked. They looked like mid to upper level, if I had to guess. One of them threw a fireball at Prue, and she just..."

"Froze," Leo finished for him.

Chris turned to look at him, and he nodded. "Yeah, she froze." He turned to look at Wyatt with a confused expression. "Why did she do that? This wasn't her first demon attack. I don't know why you said that."

"But in a way, it was," Wyatt answered simply. "I mean, think about it. Every attack before this was about running, hiding, surviving. This time and probably every other time after this, it's going to be about standing and fighting. This isn't her parents' fight anymore. Things are different now."

The middle child blinked. "You don't think it's meant for us."

"No," he agreed easily. "You?"

"Not even a little. Leo?"

The witchlighter in question shook his head.

Wyatt was quiet for a moment before saying, "You said there were two demons. I only saw one."

"Right," Chris said, realizing he hadn't finished his story. "After I got hit protecting Prue, one of the demons grabbed the Book. I managed to telekinetically throw it out of his hands when you orbed in. One of them flamed out just as you arrived. Must have scared him off, but you can guess what he's going to tell the others in the Underworld."

The blonde raked his hand through his hair. "That evil can touch the Book without being harmed."

Little Leo plopped down onto the sofa with a sigh. "Awesome," he deadpanned.

"How did you know we were being attacked anyway?" Chris asked as he moved to sit on the armrest of the sofa, looking between his two brothers. "I didn't even call either of you."

Wyatt got a thoughtful look on his face as he leaned forward onto the podium. "I felt you get hurt."

The hazel-eyed boy nodded with a look of confusion. "Me too," he said, "but I thought it was because of my power." He narrowed his eyes at the eldest witch in the room. "You aren't suddenly an empath, too, are you, Wy?"

He gave him a dry look. "No."

"Then how?" Chris asked.

Wyatt shrugged. "I don't know. I just... felt your pain." He brought a hand up to rest on his shoulder, right where Chris had gotten hit. "And I just knew that it was you. It's hard to explain."

The middle child raised an eyebrow. "Is that what happened to your shirt?"

Having completely forgotten about it, Wyatt looked down at his white t-shirt and gave a sigh. "Yes. It kind of startled me."

After a moment of silence, Chris shrugged. "It's probably just both of your whitelighter powers expanding. Remember? Dad told us how he used to be able to feel Mom's pain."

"Yeah, but you're not my Charge, Chris," Wyatt protested. "You're my brother."

"Maybe it works differently because we're only half-whitelighter, and we don't have any charges," he suggested.

"I don't know," Leo offered, looking just as skeptical as Wyatt felt. "Aunt Paige never mentioned anything about this."

"I don't know then," he said, though he sounded far from concerned. "But it doesn't really matter. We need to protect the Book. Half the Underworld could know that it's unprotected by now."

Wyatt gave him a look. "I wouldn't exactly call it unprotected," he said, gesturing to the three of them.

Chris matched his look. "You know what I mean."

"We'll figure something out," Wyatt said confidently. "We always do."

- COMMERCIAL BREAK -

The same demon that had managed to escape earlier flamed into the Underworld. Despite his failure and his fallen comrade, he had a wide grin on his face as he marched into the demon bar, one of the few locations were many demons of different varieties would gather together without the direction of a leader. Nobody took any notice of his presence as he strolled through the bar; after all, if truth be told, he was just another no name demon among the lot of them. But he would no longer be a nobody after tonight. No, that would be changing.

He climbed up onto the counter and stood above all of them. Still, nobody even blinked an eye at him. Even the demoness who was tending bar ignored him as she just slid a drink of what appeared to be sheep's blood to a demon between his legs. He simply raised his hands high above his head and announced loudly, "The Charmed Ones's Book of Shadows is no longer protecting itself!"

Silence almost immediately covered the bar as all of its occupants turned to stare at the demon as if he had just lost his mind. Those who had not heard his words went quiet anyway, trying to figure out what the sudden hush was about.

"Now, is our time to strike!" he continued, looking at each demon eagerly. "They are at their weakest. And even better - the entire family, second generation and all, is at the Manor at this very moment. We can wipe the name of Halliwell from existence in one brutal attack!"

For several moments, nobody moved, seemingly too stunned to make a sound. Then, a burly looking demon in the back stood, formed a fireball in his hand, and threw it at the messenger before the demon had a chance to act. He burst into flames before being destroyed. The burly demon grinned evilly. "The Book is mine!" And then he shimmered out.

Several warlocks blinked out, following his example, and black orbs disappeared from another corner.

The Underworld would not be united by a single demon. At least, not tonight.

- FADE TO BLACK -

"How'd they know?" Little Leo asked after several long moments of silence.

It had been nearly two hours since the attack earlier. The three brothers had taken up a pretty much temporary guard in the attic while Chris continued to copy down vital spells and potions from the Book. Downstairs, they could sense their cousins sitting around in each of their old rooms with their parents, aunts, and uncles still sitting around in the kitchen. They had not spoken much since the attack, each of them lost in their own thoughts, but now the silence had gotten to be a bit too much for the empath.

Wyatt looked up from where he was currently looking through a box of some of their old things. An empty cup of coffee sat next to him. Earlier, their mother had come upstairs with a tray of cookies, 3 mugs, and a pot of coffee. Chris had only drunk half a cup with Leo only nibbling at the cookies. The pot had been empty for about thirty minutes now thanks to Wyatt, and he hoped that their mother would be making a return trip soon.

"Who knew what?" he asked, glancing toward Chris who had not even bothered to stop what he was doing to look toward their baby brother.

"The demons," he supplied, sitting up from the sofa where he had been laying, tossing an old football up in the air before catching it again as a way to entertain himself as he let himself get lost in his thoughts.

Now, the football was hugged to his chest as he looked between the two other witches. None of the three men in the room had ever played the game; even Wyatt, who was the most athletic out of all of them, had opted for hockey much to their Uncle Henry's (who loved football) and father's (who had been hoping for a baseball player) disappointment. However, that didn't mean that all three of them didn't have vivid memories of Sunday afternoons being spent tossing the football around with their dad and uncles as the men united for that spare moment against the overwhelming amount of women in the family.

"How did they know?" he repeated when neither brother offered an answer. "Mom only just found out that the Book wasn't protecting itself this morning, and she vanquished the demon that had been trying to steal it. And then, just a few hours later, two more demons show up to steal the Book. How'd they know that it was vulnerable?"

Chris and Wyatt glanced toward each other uneasily.

"What are you thinking, Leo?" the green-eyed witch said bracingly.

"Well," he paused, wondering if he was about to shoot off some random idea and sound totally nuts over it but he continued on anyhow, "someone must have told them, tipped them off."

Wyatt narrowed his eyes. "Leo, the only people who knew that the Book was in danger was this family."

"Not really," Chris said, beating Leo who was about to start backtracking. An intense gaze had overcome the middle child's face. "The Elders knew."

Even Leo looked shock at that. "You really think the Elders would betray us?"

"Maybe," Chris said, though even he was starting to sound doubtful. "Maybe not. Maybe not even intentionally. But they never were the biggest fans of our family..." He trailed off as he caught the look on Wyatt's face. "What?"

Wyatt started and looked up, giving himself a shake. "Nothing. I just..." He paused. "I feel like I've had this conversation before... or I've heard it or something. Sorry." He cleared his throat awkwardly before looking between his two brothers. "That's a pretty farfetched theory."

Chris nodded, agreeing to that at least. "Yes. But Leo does have a point. How didthey know? I mean, a demon trying to steal the Book is nothing new, but two attacks in one day let alone a week...? That's new."

"Things weren't always like this," Wyatt said as he went back to shifting through the box he had been looking in. "Attacks like today used to be pretty normal."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "You remember that?"

"Not really," he admitted. "Just bits and pieces. Just enough to know that as much as I complained about the demon attacks that we had growing up... I know it could have been a lot worse." He smiled a bit as he pulled out a rattle from the box and set it aside before shrugging. "Maybe it's a sign that things really are about to start up again and that's why the Book needs to be passed on and pronto."

The hazel-eyed man studied the blond for a moment before turning to look at Chris. "Do youremember?"

The brunette snorted. "I was, like, what? One when the demons went into hiding?"

Wyatt shrugged. "You were two."

Chris smiled bemusedly, almost surprised that he knew that. "No, I don't remember."

A quiet chuckle from Wyatt seemed to cut off the direction the conversation was headed momentarily. Leo turned to look at his brother confused before realizing that his attention was on something in his hand. "What are you looking at?"

"Some old photos," he said before moving to show the one that he was showing off. "Leo's first Halloween. Mom dressed him up as Prince Charming."

Leo's eyes widened and his cheeks went slightly red. "Nuh-uh," he said as he scrambled off of the sofa over to his brother to look at the picture.

Sure enough, just as Wyatt had said, there was a little baby in a violet getup and a crown on his head. He would have groaned at the embarrassment of it all, but honestly, the picture was rather charming. Wyatt was holding the baby even though he couldn't have been more than 5 yrs old himself, and he was dressed up in an outfit that had to be Tigger. The little blond blue-eyed boy had the largest grin possible on his face as he stared at the camera, showing off his missing two front teeth. Chris was sitting next to him, but he didn't even seem to be aware that his picture was being taken as he was staring rather intently at the baby and seemed to be in the middle of attempting to poke him in the eye. The 3 yr old was dressed as the Scarecrow, making the whole Halloween picture rather perfect.

"Oh, thanks, Chris," Leo said dryly. "You were trying to kill me even when I was a baby."

Chris, who had resisted making his way over at Wyatt's comment, couldn't stop himself anymore as he raised an eyebrow curiously and walked over. He took the picture from Leo and grinned, despite himself. "I don't remember this at all," he admitted, turning the picture over to read the description on the back.

"I do," Wyatt said with a smile. "We got so much candy that year. Well, I did mostly, but we had to throw most of it out because you and I ended up getting sick from it. There was some bacteria that ended up infecting the candy that year."

"Damn," Leo said.

"Yeah, Mom and Dad were pretty scared," he said as he remembered back to that year. "That's probably why that picture isn't hanging up, because it just reminds them of us being in the hospital." He took the picture back from Chris and grinned at it anyway. "Still kind of cute, though."

"You and your toothless grin," Leo snorted.

"Hey," Wyatt defended. "I ended up getting a dollar for those teeth. I was quite proud of myself."

Unable to stop himself, Leo moved to start looking through the box as well. "Is all of this stuff ours? ...Or used to be anyway?" he amended as he picked up a baby blue onesie with a mysterious green stain on the front.

"Demon guts," Wyatt said knowingly looking at the stain and then grinned. "Yeah, looks like it. All of our old baby stuff that Mom couldn't bring herself to throw out or give to any of the girls."

Leo made a face at the onesie as Wyatt identified the stain. He found it a bit disturbing that that kind of stain could be on a piece of baby clothing, but he wasn't really surprised. He decided not to ask which of them had been wearing that particular outfit when they had been splattered with said guts and instead just dropped the onesie into the pile that Wyatt was creating. He figured no answer would be pleasant.

"Remember when we went to the Bahamas with Grandpa?" Chris asked suddenly, a grin on his face as he picked up a photo and showed it to the other two of an older man and 3 boys standing on a beach, all in swim trunks, with their arms across each other's shoulders.

Wyatt and Leo laughed immediately.

"Oh, you mean when we were supposed to be grounded when Mom and Dad were in New York?" Wyatt said with a large grin.

"Confined to our rooms for playing Orb and Go Seek," Leo said, happy to finally come across a fond memory that he did remember and could share.

"It wasn't for playing Orb and Go Seek," Chris said, grinning. "It was for getting caught."

"As I recall, youwere the one that got us caught," Wyatt said accusingly but with a smile.

"Hey, it's not my fault that you two couldn't find me," he laughed.

"Only you would think to hide in Nantou City, Taiwan," the blonde witch said with a laugh. "I'm never going to forget that city now."

Leo reached out and took the picture from Chris. They all looked so young, happy, and very sunburned, especially younger Wyatt. He chuckled. "Only grandpa would have come up with the idea of us going to the Bahamas while we were grounded. We probably would have gotten away with it if you hadn't gotten so sick, Wyatt."

He chuckled. "I'm pretty sure the sunburn would have given it away even if the vomiting didn't."

"And the Elders wouldn't even let me heal you," Leo said, moving his eyes upward to glare at them.

"This is a good picture, though," Wyatt said thoughtfully, smiling a bit. "I think I'm going to take it." He looked back into the box and laughed. "Hey, it's Wuvey."

Leo blinked. "Huh?"

Wyatt pulled out a dirty old teddy bear that was starting to come apart a bit at the seams. "I used to love this teddy bear. The only person I'd let play with him used to be Chris until I grew out of him. You didn't even like him even though Mom tried to pass him onto you." He gave the teddy bear a once over and chuckled. "I would have thought for sure she'd have given it to one of the cousins."

"No wonder I didn't want anything to do with it," Leo said, making a face. "That thing's filthy. Not to mention a little creepy."

"It is not creepy!" Wyatt said defensively, childishly hugging the bear to his chest. He then turned the bear to face and spoke down to him, "Isn't that right, Mr Wuvey?"

Leo dropped his face into his hand. "Oh my god," he moaned, somewhere between laughing and horrified.

A sudden strange feeling of shock overcame him, and he looked up at Wyatt confused. His eldest brother was blissfully unaware of the look, though, and was smiling at the teddy bear before moving to set him aside. Leo turned and looked at Chris instead and instantly knew that this was where the feelings were coming from. Chris had gone quite pale and was staring at a photo in his hand with a shocked expression.

"Chris...?" he asked uncertainly.

The green-eyed witch started and looked up at him.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah," he said immediately, moving to shove the picture into his pocket. Leo only caught the words 'Wyatt and Chris'written on the back before it disappeared. "I'm going to finish copying some of the spells and potions down from the book." He stood and walked back over to the podium, Leo watching him with worried eyes the entire time.

"You plan on starting our own Book of Shadows?" Wyatt asked, only half joking, but his attention was still on the contents in the box.

"Maybe," Chris answered distractedly as he picked up his pen and went back to where he left off. "If I have to."

Wyatt shrugged. "It's not a bad idea."

Leo was still watching the other man, and he started to open his mouth to comment on his unease when Wyatt spoke again.

"Oh, God. Leo, look," he said, laughing as he shoved a picture toward him.

It was a picture of their father, passed out on the sofa, with Little Leo on his chest. He had to have been about 2 or 3 yrs old, and there was a permanent marker in his hands that he had obviously been using to doodle all over his father's face and naked torso. The picture, along with Wyatt's bubbling laughter, was so infectious that Leo found himself laughing along, forgetting about the strange mood that had overtaken the middle son.

Chris dutifully copied down the rest of the spell that he was on before his pen stilled. He looked up at his brothers, watching as they laughed over whatever old treasure they had found. He took a deep breath and reached into his pocket where he pulled out the picture he had pocketed before. It didn't make any sense. It couldn'tmake any sense.

It was a picture of him at almost the exact age that he was now. He was sleeping on the Manor sofa; he would recognize that room anywhere not to mention that flowery print on the sofa. His hair was longer, though, and he seemed a little more worn than he could ever remember being. On his chest slept a little blonde toddler that looked far too familiar to be possible, but something told him that the picture was real. He swallowed, his hands shaky, as he turned the picture over and read the print on the back.

'Wyatt and Chris, 2004.'

It's not possible, he thought immediately, his eyes wide. But then he thought of the dreams he had been having, the ones that were starting to make him lose sleep out of fear of what he would see when he closed his eyes, and he knew that it was not only possible but very much true.

Another burst of laughter from his brothers startled him out of his distressing thoughts, and he quickly pocketed the photo once more before Leo caught wind of his emotions. He didn't know how he would be able to explain the photo. He didn't know how he was supposed to explain any of this.

So, he wouldn't.

- COMMERCIAL BREAK -

It was raining. It was fitting that it was. Chris thought that the entire scene was perfectly glum just like he thought it ought to be. He was crying, too, but because of his lack of an umbrella, no one could really tell with how still he was standing. He was soaked to the bone and freezing, but he could not even find the energy to shiver. His eyes were stuck on the three graves in front of him. His mother, Aunt Paige, and the newest addition, Aunt Phoebe, all laid to rest, side-by-side. The Charmed Ones were dead.

A hand clamped down on his shoulder, and he felt hope for a second that it was his brother. As the 16 yr old looked up and saw his grandfather standing there instead, he tried to hide the disappointment and betrayal that crossed his face, but he wasn't fast enough.

"I'm sure he has a good reason for not being here," Victor said stiffly. It was so obvious that he did not believe those words for a second.

Chris decided not to comment. "How's Ladybug?"

"Heartbroken," Victor answered honestly. "She doesn't understand why her mother won't be coming home. She's only 11."

Chris almost wanted to say that he was only 14 when he lost his mother, but he managed to hold his tongue. He looked up toward the crying sky and sucked in a painful breath. "Wyatt should have been here," he growled angrily.

A flash.

"Christopher!"

Shocked and unable to respond, Chris just continued to stare at the burning rubble that used to be his high school with horror. He felt his grandfather run up behind him and wrap his worried arms around him, but he neither took comfort from the embrace nor even noticed it. There had been students inside, teachers. All of them had been innocent. And his brother had... and now they all were...

"Thank God you're not hurt! I thought you were inside!" Victor sighed in relief, holding him tightly.

"He orbed me out," Chris said tonelessly.

"Who?"

"Wyatt."

"Thank God," Victor repeated, starting to look around for his other grandson. Sure, they hadn't been on the best of terms lately, but that didn't change the fact that he had just saved his brother's life. "Where is he?"

"He's evil." The words fell from Chris's lips as if they were a foreign language.

He felt his grandfather's arms tighten around him in surprise. "What?"

"He did this," Chris said shakily. "Wyatt did this. He's evil. He's... Oh my god." His legs suddenly gave out from underneath him as he collapsed to the ground.

"Chris!" Victor fell to his knees as well. People were all around them, but many of them were screaming and grieving parents. Nobody noticed another pair of grieving family members. "W-what? What are you saying? Are you sure!"

The 16 yr old turned and grabbed his grandfather's coat as he sobbed into it. "I saw him, Grandpa! I saw him! And he just..."

"M-maybe he's under a spell? Or a potion?" Victor said, his voice trembling, not quite willing to believe what he was hearing.

"No, no... It was him... It was all him...!"

A flash.

"Where are you going?"

The nearly 17 yr old stopped in his packing to look up into his grandfather's confused eyes. He felt guilty for a moment before remembering why he was doing this. He sucked in a breath.

"Wyatt's coming after me. I have to go," he said, throwing the necessities in the backpack. The backpack that only a few months ago had actually been used for schoolbooks and homework. But his school had been destroyed and finding another just did not seem like an option, not when the world was crumbling around them.

"That's even more reason for you to say!" his grandfather tried to reason. "You have to remain safe, Chris!"

"No, you have to remain safe, Grandpa," Chris corrected as he zipped up the bag and threw it over his shoulder. He walked up to the older man. "I can't lose you, too. I can't!"

"But..."

"I'll be alright," he promised falsely. There was no way he could know that, and he knew that his grandfather knew it as well. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crystal before pushing it into his grandfather's hands. "Take this. As long as it glows, you'll know I'm okay. And when the light goes out..."

Victor gave a sudden sob and wrapped his arms around the teenager's frail form. He seemed so small to the older man, much too young to already be going out on his own.

"Don't kill Wyatt," his grandfather said suddenly and Chris tightened in his arms.

He had thought about it, considered it, and realized that it was probably the only way that all of this would end, but he had never actually said it allowed. And now that someone had said it, Chris could feel his own tears springing to his eyes. Kill his own brother? Could he do that? No.

"Don't kill him," Victor repeated. "Your mother would never have wanted it to end this way."

A familiar ache rested in his chest as he heard that, and he squeezed his eyes shut. "I won't," he promised falsely again, because how could he promise not to kill the man that was destroying the world when he was possibly the only one that could? And then the answer to that question seemed to make so much sense to him. "I'll save him."

How? He had no idea.

The visions or dreams or whatever they were probably would have continued had a sudden wracking pain not ripped through Chris's chest in that moment. He awoke with a gasp, taking a moment to realize that he was still in the attic where he and his brothers had decided to camp out in sleeping bags when sleep had gotten too hard to resist, especially for the oldest of the three. For a moment, Chris thought he had been stabbed or shot, but as he looked down at his chest, he saw nothing there.

"LEO!"

And then he knew, just as quick as that, that he was feeling his little brother's pain, not his own. This must have been what Wyatt and Leo were talking about when they said they could feel his pain. He threw the sleeping bag off of himself as he sat up and saw his baby brother leaning against the wall near the podium with a look of pained shock on his face, two darklighter arrows protruding from his chest. He gave a pained grunt before sliding down and collapsing to the ground.

"NO!"

The yelling was not his own. It was Wyatt's, who had a look of fury on his face unlike anything Chris had ever seen before and for a brief moment, he was frightened. But then he looked across from Leo to see two darklighters standing there, advancing on the Book with looks of satisfaction on their face, and Chris felt his own anger rise. One of them had their crossbow pointed at Wyatt and a second later, an arrow was ripping through the air toward him.

Chris raised a hand, catching the arrow with his telekinesis and rebound it right back to the darklighter, catching him in the chest before he blew up. Next to him, Wyatt had not even flinched at the arrow as if he could sense that Chris would catch it. Instead, he was intent on conjuring an athame in his right hand that he then threw with expert precision, catching the second darklighter between the eyes. Wyatt was already scrambling out of his sleeping bag and running toward Leo before the darklighter had even finished blowing up.

Wyatt turned Leo onto his back, and Chris immediately called out, knowing he had to be the logical one, "Wyatt, don't touch it!"

He was ignored as the blonde witchlighter wrapped his hand around one of the arrows. Smoke started to rise from his fist as his skin literally began to burn from the touch, but he ignored it as he ripped the arrow out of his brother's chest. Chris winced against the pain that was shooting up from his hand. It felt so real that he was shocked that he wasn't getting blisters on his own palms. Whatever this new advancement in his link to his brother's was, it was strong and it made whatever pain they were feeling feel as if it was his own.

Already, sweat was starting to form on Wyatt's brow as the poison entered his system, but he had to ignore it. He had to ignore it for his dying brother. His hand wrapped around the other arrow, and he ripped it out of him as well.

"Wyatt, don't!" Chris screamed, this time actually jumping up to try to stop him.

But he was ignored again as Wyatt rested his hands over Leo's chest and began to try to heal him. A cry that he couldn't hold back escape Wyatt's lips as the poison shot through his system at a much faster rate thanks to using his whitelighter abilities, much faster than simply being shot with one of the poison arrows ever would. But he didn't let up. The wounds on Leo's chest slowly, so slowly, began to close, but before the healing could be completed, the poison overtook the Twice-Blessed and he blacked out.

Chris stood there, halfway to them both, frozen for a moment. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't heal. He couldn't heal!And there was no one that he could call. His father wouldn't answer. His Aunt Paige was dead. What was he supposed to do-?

And then just as quickly as the confusion came, it seemed to clear as he finished his run to his brothers and dropped by their side. "Aunt Paige!" he called out, praying that the confusion his mind was going through from this other world hadn't wasted too much time. "Aunt Paige, I need you!"

He was pressing his hands to the wounds on Leo's chest, the blood seeping through his fingers as he tried desperately to do something, anything to help him. All the while, his eyes laid helplessly on his older brother, who looked so pale that Chris was certain he could make out every vein along the older man's arms, neck, and face.

Finally, after what felt like forever, he heard a jingling behind him.

"Heal them!" he pleaded desperately, unaware of the panicked tears that were falling down his cheeks.

"Oh, good Lord," Paige breathed as she ran over to the boys. She only took a second to make a decision before she was kneeling beside Wyatt and holding her hands over his barely moving chest. "Jules! Mel!" she cried.

This time, the jingling answer seemed to come much faster, but time didn't seem to be moving in slow motion anymore for Chris either.

"Mom?" an uncertain voice that belonged to Mel asked.

"What's going on?" a shakier voice that definitely belonged to Jules continued.

"Come here," Paige said in the calmest voice that she could manage. "I need you two to heal Leo."

Chris heard two sets of footsteps followed by two gasps as they finally saw what Chris's body had been hiding from them, but he refused to look up at them. He was too busy focusing on Leo and Wyatt, too busy trying to keep track on the color of their faces. Why wasn't the color returning in Wyatt's face yet? Was Leo getting paler?

"Jules, Mel, now!" Paige ordered in her calmest yet authoritative tone.

This seemed to knock the girls away as they both dropped to their knees. Mel's right hand found Jules's left as their free hands both moved to hover over Leo's torso where Chris was trying to slow the bleeding. He didn't move out of the way; he was too afraid to, but luckily he didn't need to. Mel and Jules' powers combined to allow them to heal as a golden hue started to shine from their palms.

Chris remembered the first time that the twins had managed to heal. He had been there along with the rest of his cousins, and though he had initially felt a stab of envy, even then he could see how beautiful it was that their love for each other was enough to allow their diluted magic the strength it needed to heal.

It had been at one of the annual Halliwell gatherings. All of the children had been playing in the park when Jules had come across a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest. She had brought it over for the rest of the children to see with sympathetic tears in her eyes - it looked as if the baby bird would never fly again with that wing - and had begged Wyatt as pathetically as she could if he would heal it. But before he could even make a move, Mel had been there, grabbing her sister's hands, and they had healed it together. They had only been 13 years old.

All of the shouting must have attracted attention, because behind him, Chris heard the attic door bang open. He heard more gasps and screams behind him, but his world now existed within only a 5 ft diameter, and until he knew his brothers were okay, he cared about nothing else.

"Why isn't it working!" he snapped at his aunt who was still working on Wyatt.

Beneath his fingers, he could feel the twins's magic working, knitting Leo's flesh back together as they finished the job that Wyatt started. The Twice-Blessed witch, however, had not seemed to change color at all and was just as still as he was two minutes ago.

"It is," she told him, even as her brow was knitted in concentration, sweat starting to form. "But it's difficult... What happened?"

"Darklighters," Chris answered in a wavering voice, as the tears came more freely. What was taking so long? "They shot Leo. Wyatt pulled the arrows out," somewhere behind him, he was certain that he heard his mother gasp, "and then he tried to heal him."

"So, that's why it feels like I'm healing someone in the final stages of Darklighter poisoning," Paige said, understanding as her eyebrows knitted together in even more concentration and the light from her hands started to glow brighter. She was pushing herself. That much was obvious.

Leo had started to gain back some color giving Chris the courage to remove his hands from the wounds in his chest. He carefully stepped over his baby brother so that he could get closer to the blonde witch who still didn't seem to be responding to the healing.

"Let me help," Chris begged, watching his aunt's struggling expression. He brought a sleeve up to wipe at his face. "Please."

He held out a bloody hand to her, Leo's blood, but she didn't even flinch as she took the offered hand. He couldn't heal, not alone, but this was not the first time that someone in his family channeled his magic to attempt something that he never could have done alone. He hovered his free right hand over Wyatt's body and concentrated on letting Paige's magic flow through him. Finally, he started to see some results as the veins in Wyatt's neck and arms started to become less pronounced and color finally started to return.

Behind him, Little Leo groaned as he started to come back to consciousness, and Chris allowed his relief to fuel his magic even further. Finally, Wyatt's eyes fluttered with signs of life and the rounds of healing could finally cease. Blue eyes looked up at him through a blurry vision.

"Hey," Wyatt said with a sleepy grin before blinking as he really looked at Chris. "You're bleeding."

"It's not my blood," Chris answered immediately, turning to look at Leo who was in the process of sitting up with the help of the twins.

The younger brother realized that he was being talked about and gave a thumbs up in response. "That hurt like a bitch," he muttered, rubbing at his chest.

Aunt Paige, who was the only older generation who heard him, simply raised an eyebrow at him.

Chris turned back toward Wyatt and felt a sudden wave of anger toward him. "What the hell were you thinking!" he snapped, jumping to his feet and taking several steps away from him. He was pretty sure that if he had stayed that close to his brother, he would have hit him.

Wyatt managed to look ashamed at Chris's tone, bowing his head in a very submissive position. "I, er, wasn't?"

"That much is obvious!"

Piper, finally able to shake off the shock of seeing two of her sons nearly dying before her eyes, managed to step forward and put a calming hand on Chris's shoulder. "Chris, honey, don't you think you should-?"

"No!" Chris snapped, completely ignoring his mother for probably the first time in his life. "Wyatt, you nearly killed you both!"

The green-eyed witch should have known, long before the words ever left his lips, that Wyatt would take such an accusation hard. He should have. But for some reason, the thought hadn't even crossed his mind how hard Wyatt would take it. The second that his brother's blue eyes widened as if he had just been slapped, though, everyone in the attic knew what Chris seemed to be totally missing.

Even Little Leo had realized that his usually logical older brother had crossed the line. "Chris," he said bracingly, moving to stand. "I'm fine. I'm okay."

But he wasn't done. "What if Aunt Paige hadn't been able to hear me, Wyatt? What if I hadn't been able to orb? What if Aunt Paige hadn't been right downstairs?" It was like he was pulling these accusations of hypothetical scenarios from somewhere in his memory, but that didn't make any sense because Chris couldn't ever remember being in such a situation before as the one he was cooking up in his mind.

"I-I don't know," Wyatt said in a small voice, still sitting on the floor where he stared up at his younger brother with hurt eyes. "Chris, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking! I just acted."

"I can't heal, Wyatt!" he yelled, causing almost everybody in the attic to flinch. The boxes and various paintings on the wall rattled with his anger as his telekinesis started to get the better of him. "Next time you decide to play hero, don't. Next time someone needs darklighter arrows pulled out of them, let me do it! Let me do it, because I can't heal!"

Wyatt seemed to finally find his footing as he managed to at last get to his feet. He was to Chris in a second, wrapping his arms around his younger brother. "I'm sorry, Chris," he whispered, but the attic was so silent that everyone heard him. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done it. I shouldn't have done that to you. It was stupid, and it was unfair, and I'm sorry."

Momentarily stunned, Chris didn't move for several seconds before he sighed and wrapped his arms around Wyatt's torso gratefully. "You scared the shit out of me, Wyatt. Both of you did," he admitted shakily.

"I know, and I'm sorry," he repeated once more. He looked over Chris's head and smiled over at Leo, a little misty-eyed himself. "Get over here, man. You're the one that caused all of this."

Little Leo held his hands up in surrender. "Hey, you two carry on with what you're doing. I kind of like not being the one being yelled at for once."

Chris turned to pin him with a warning glare. "I can change that."

Hazel eyes widened in alarm before he was shuffling across the floor toward his brothers.

Piper gave a shaky relieved sigh. "Thank God you three are alright," she sniffled as she fell into Leo Sr.'s arms.

"Aren't we always?" Wyatt asked cockily as Little Leo reached them, earning a jab in his side from Chris.

As he moved one arm from Chris to wrap around the shoulders of his youngest brother, the room was suddenly illuminated with unnatural light. All three boys looked up in confusion before slowly turning around toward the source of the light. The Book of Shadows was glowing a radiant golden color that was nearly blinding for several seconds before the light slowly began to dim, leaving only the triquetra on the front shining before that faded as well.

Everyone in the attic stared in confusion.

Patty finally managed, in a quiet voice behind her father, "...What just happened?"

Aunt Paige moved to put her arms around her daughters, a proud smile on her face as she watched the grown men in front of her. "I think the Book just made its decision."

"Hold up," Little Leo interrupted, looking at the rest of his family. "You think the Book chose...?" He couldn't even finish the sentence and just wordlessly pointed at himself and his brothers.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Chris protested when the other adults in the room started to smile proudly at them as well.

Wyatt ran a hand down his face and muttered something that sounded quite a bit like, "It's out of its fucking mind."

"No!" Prue suddenly cried, pushing past her mother to throw her arms around Chris's middle.

The middle child looked completely taken aback and didn't seem to know what to do as he looked toward his parents for a little help, but Piper and Leo looked just as confused as him.

"Uh, Prue..." Wyatt started, hoping to help his brother's awkwardness, but he was cut off.

Ladybug looked up at Chris with watery gray eyes and then turned the same gaze onto Little Leo and Wyatt. "You three almost died today just from protecting the Book for a couple of hours... How are you supposed to protect the Book for the rest of your lives?"

The brothers looked at each other helplessly, not even sure how to answer when the fact that for some unknown reason the Book had chosen them as its new protectors had yet to even sink in. Leo was the first to look away, looking rather ill at the thought. Chris and Wyatt watched their youngest brother worriedly as he wandered away from them and moved to sit down unsteadily on the sofa, and though they wanted to say something (but no idea as to what) to their brother to make it better, Prue was still there, clinging to Chris as if he was going to disappear.

"Prue, we're going to be okay," Wyatt said finally, putting a hand on her shoulder. He looked over her head toward Leo and caught his eye. "We are going to be okay."

"How do you know that?" she asked, and from the way that Leo Jr was looking at Wyatt, he knew he was asking the same question.

"Because they have each other," their father said with a smile on his face.

Chris smiled a bit and turned to catch Wyatt's eye, rolling his eyes a bit at his father's cheesiness. The blonde witch grinned secretly at him but then nodded at Leo's words.

"That's right," he said as he ruffled Ladybug's hair much to her annoyance, but her being annoyed was better than her blubbering on Chris's shirt. "Don't worry, Prue, I'll be keeping one eye on Leo, one eye on Chris, and one eye on the Book at all times."

Chris gave Wyatt a strange look while Little Leo coughed into his hand. "Uh, Wyatt," the youngest brother said, with an amused grin. "I think you messed up your math there. Either that or you're a freak."

Even Prue managed a watery laugh at that. Coop came up to them and put a comforting hand on her shoulder that finally seemed to coax her into letting go of Chris. She looked up at her father before turning her hug onto him. Not wanting to hurt her feelings, Chris simply mouthed, 'Thank you' to his uncle but said nothing more. Coop gave a nod over Prue's head to let him know that he had gotten the message.

"So," Henry started, an arm around his son as he looked around at the rest of the family. "Does that mean it's over?"

Before anyone could respond, the unmistakable sound of blinking came in from behind them. Chris spun around just in time to catch a glimpse of three warlocks before one of them was waving his arms at him, and he found himself flying through the air. He heard several people call out his name before he crashed into a pile of boxes and everything went black.

"Chris!" Wyatt was one of those that called his name. "Leo, get Chris!"

Little Leo was already on his feet and running toward his fallen brother long before the words were actually out of Wyatt's mouth. He threw a freeze toward the warlocks but grimaced when he saw that it only made them slow down in their movement for a second before starting in on their assault.

"Coop, girls, get everyone out of here!" Aunt Paige ordered, pushing her twins away from her as she threw the warlocks across the attic with a swoop of her arm.

The twins rushed over to the stunned group of adults, teenagers, and children near the doorway and grabbed onto Penny and Patty before disappearing in bright blue orbs. Prue, who was still in Coop's arms, realized what was going on and dodged out of his embrace.

"I can help!" she protested, refusing to freeze up again. As if to prove her point, she jumped forward and roundhouse kicked the first warlock that tried to get to his feet sending him crashing back to the floor.

Coop made to go after her, but Phoebe grabbed his arm. "Go," she instructed, nodding toward Leo Sr and Henry. "I'll watch after her."

The cupid hesitated only a moment before clapping a hand down on Henry and Leo Sr's shoulders. Both men wanted to protest, it was obvious, but they surprisingly managed to hold their tongue. Henry looked around for his son and realized that he was no longer standing with them.

"Junior!" he called out as he spotted him.

But the adopted witch didn't respond as he had already moved up behind one of the warlocks silently. The next second, Junior's hand was moving to clamp on the side of the warlock's face and both of them went rigid as Junior's eyes went an eerie white. Then, his hand was dropping away from him as he took a step backward, and the warlock adopted a rather terrified expression as he looked down at himself.

"AH!" he screamed as he began to dance in place. "GET THEM OFF! GET THEM OFF!"

Wyatt raised an eyebrow at the warlock and then turned to look at his cousin inquisitively. "What did you do?"

"Spiders," Junior responded with a bit of a grin. "I figure even evil has to hate them."

The blonde laughed. "You and your illusions."

The witch's grin grew.

Coop smiled rather proudly as he watched the next generation doing rather well for themselves and looked at Henry. "Come on. Paige won't let anything happen to him." With that, he hearted the three of them out.

Piper stepped forward, ready to blast the middle warlock to bits, when he caught her movement. His hand went up and a disc like shield appeared in front of him.

"Don't even think about it, witch. Unless you want me to rebound that little explosion onto your son here," he said, nodding toward Wyatt.

She hesitated, recognizing the disc as a sign of a deflection power that she had only seen once in her lifetime. Wyatt, however, was unimpressed.

"Oh, you have a shield? Me too."

Then, he summoned his blue shield and propelled it outward against the warlock, sending him crashing into the opposite wall. Before he could recover, Wyatt conjured an athame into his hand, momentarily dispersing into a bunch of blue orbs before landing on top of the warlock where he stabbed him in the chest. The warlock screamed out before exploding.

"No!" screamed the warlock that wasn't being affected by Junior's illusion. He summoned a fireball in his hand, ready to throw it at the Twice-Blessed's back, when a sound behind him got his attention.

"Ahem!"

He turned around to see the witch that had kicked him in the face standing there. He growled angrily, changing his mind about who to throw the fireball at, when he suddenly realized that the fireball was no longer in his hand. He turned toward the witch, surprised, only to see it now sitting in her hand instead. She tossed it up and caught it again as if it were a baseball.

"How did you-?" he started to ask, his eyes wide.

"You really should do a little bit of research about who you're attacking before you attack," Prue said brightly, her empathy channeling the warlock's powers allowing her to hold onto the fireball without any damage to herself. Tele-hearting it away had been the easy part. "You might have realized you were totally outmatched before it was too late." And with that final thought, she threw it at him, tele-hearting it halfway through the air, so that it hit him in the chest that much faster. He screamed out for just a second before being vanquished for good.

Junior stood watching the warlock continue to dance around the attic as the invisible spiders continued to crawl up and down his body, freaking the man out. What was he supposed to do now...? A hand came to rest on his shoulder, and he turned to look at his Aunt Piper.

"Don't worry, Junior," she said, her eyes furious with fire. "I'll handle this one."

Then, with her glare still pinned on the warlock, she blinked causing him to explode.

"Rise and shine," Little Leo said as he saw Chris start to come to as his healing finished up repairing all of the bruises and cuts the throw and landing had caused.

Chris winced as he sat up and rubbed at his head. "What happened?"

"Warlock decided to use you for a football," the youngest brother said dryly.

He made a face. "Why's it always gotta be me?"

Leo grinned a bit. "You did ask."

Chris blinked and then scowled. "Me and my big mouth."

Wyatt looked toward them and felt relief flood through him as he saw both of his younger brothers in the middle of a conversation. He started to walk toward them, wanting to check them over for himself to see if they were okay. "Chris," he called out, jogging toward them. "Are you-?"

"Wyatt, the Book!" Chris cried suddenly, leaping to his feet.

The blonde witch whipped around. A burly-looking demon had obviously used the commotion to shimmer into the attic unnoticed, and now he was standing over the Book. Before anyone could stop him, his red claws were grasping the edges of the Book - when he started to suddenly convulse as he was electrocuted from the renewed protection power. All present Halliwells watched with dropped jaws as the demon was finally blown away from Book from the sheer power of the protection surrounding it, and he crashed below the attic window.

"Crystals!" Chris called, holding his hand out as he orbed them from downstairs and then directed them around the demon.

"What are you doing?" Wyatt asked him, confused and more than a little shocked. "And does it always do that?" The second question was more directed toward his mother and aunts.

"No, not always," Phoebe said as she stepped toward the podium curiously. "If I didn't know any better, I would say it almost wanted to send a message."

"Some message," Leo muttered, slightly awed.

"Honey?" Piper asked as she watched Chris march up to the newly formed crystal cage.

"I want some answers," he said, finally answering both her and Wyatt as he watched the demon come to. The demon noticed him and tried to charge at him but was once again electrocuted by the crystal magic and forced to the floor once more, but he did not pass out this time. "As you can see, you're trapped," Chris said calmly to the furious demon, "so you're going to answer some questions for me."

"Go to Hell, witch," the demon snarled.

Wyatt came up beside him. "Answer him or you're going to regret it."

"I regret nothing!" the demon announced proudly.

Chris ignored him. "Who sent you?" When the demon didn't answer for several moments, he twitched a finger, causing the crystal by his foot to shift, making the entire crystal cage to light up with electricity as the demon was shocked for several seconds. Another flick of his fingers put the crystal right and he repeated, "Who sent you?" Again, silence was his only answer. He flicked the crystal back into place until-

"N-No one!" the demon wailed.

He stopped the shocking but narrowed his eyes down at him. "You're lying."

"Why would I lie?" he snarled.

"You're a demon," Aunt Paige couldn't help but throw in dryly. "That's kind of what you do."

"He's not lying," Leo said, moving to stand next to his brothers.

Chris looked over at him for a moment before turning to look back at the other two empaths in the room. They nodded showing that they agreed with Leo's assessment. He turned back toward the demon.

"How'd you know to come after the Book then?" he asked.

"Some demon came into the bar and announced that the Book was vulnerable," the demon said bitterly. "Obviously, we were tricked."

"Obviously," Chris said dryly, deciding not to correct him. "Who was this demon?"

"I don't know," he growled. "Just some no name demon. He wanted us to band together to come after it. I wanted the glory for myself, so I killed him."

Leo immediately nodded when he felt his brother's eyes on him, letting him know that he was sensing only the truth coming from the demon. He was rather grateful that the demon was being so cooperative. Hearing the demon's screams was not exactly something that he would call pleasant.

"And you have no idea who gave this demon his information?" Chris asked, just to make sure.

"No," he ground out, obviously pissed off over being held prisoner.

"He's telling the truth," Leo said unnecessarily.

Wyatt turned toward them with a sigh. "He's no use to us, Chris. He doesn't know anything."

The middle brother sighed and nodded. "You're right. I guess we should-"

He was cut off suddenly by loud screams within the crystal cage. Immediately, their attention was back on the demon who was writhing on the ground, twisting in unnatural ways, before he suddenly burst into flames and completely disappeared. Shocked silence reigned throughout the attic.

"What the hell was that?" Junior asked breathlessly.

"Looks like someone wasn't very happy that we captured this demon," Piper mused, her eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"But why?" Wyatt asked, completely dumbfounded. "He didn't know anything!"

Phoebe walked up to them and gave them a hard stare. "Maybe you weren't asking the right questions."

- FADE TO BLACK -

Down below, in a poorly lit cavern, the demon was forcefully flamed in, his screams cutting off as the flames finally went out from his body. He was left breathless, on his hands and knees, as he tried to get his bearings straight. He looked around, confused at the seemingly empty cavern, until a figure stepped out of the shadows. The figure was short and somewhat petite with a cloak covering most of its body and a hood that was pulled up to cover its face. A moment later, the cloaked figure was joined by eleven others who surrounded him.

Realizing that he was highly outnumbered, the demon's paranoia rose as he shakily moved to get to his feet.

"Who are you?" he demanded. "What's going on here?"

"How much did you tell them?" a female voice inquired from the forefront cloaked figure. "Did you tell them anything of anyone attempting to organize the Underworld?"

"Why would I say anything of that?" he sneered, trying to keep an eye on all 12 figures at once. "Those are merely rumors, and what respectable demon would ever agree to follow a bunch of witches."

"A smart one," the lead cloaked figure said easily.

Then suddenly the air shimmered behind him as a woman appeared clad in all leather. Before he could react, an athame was in her hand and slitting his throat. The demon gasped and fell to the ground before bursting into flames and exploding.

"Bianca," the cloaked figure said calmly as she reached up and lowered her hood, revealing short-cropped copper hair. "The Halliwells are still unaware of our existence."

"That's good to hear, Mother," the young Assassin witch answered calmly. "Do you want me to proceed as planned?"

"Yes," the other female said, looking around at the rest of the coven. "Do not fail me, Bianca, or the coven."

"I won't."

The young witch assassin bowed respectfully before she shimmered out.

Next Episode: "Samhain's Sight"