Piper stared at the gun the demon was holding on
her, wondering if she could blow it up without letting the
demon take her power and use it against her. She
ultimately decided that a bullet would do less
damage than an explosion.
  "Look, witch," the demon said. "I don't
care about you. Just let me have the Earthshaker and you can go
on your merry way."
  "I think we both know that's not going to happen,"
Piper replied, shifting her body so she was in
front of Muriel. If she had to, she could try
to freeze time if the gun was fired. Maybe if she
just tried to freeze the bullet and not the demon she
wouldn't have her power reflected back. Of course,
the idea of freezing a bullet heading at her at the
speed of, well, a speeding bullet, was no easy
task. Then again, iggj was better than the other
option: death.
--------------------------------------i
  Charmed[*reg]
  The Power of Three Kiss of Darkness The
Crimson Spell Whispers from the Past Voodoo
Moon Haunted by Desire The Gypsy
Enchantment The Legacy of Merlin Soul of the
Bride Beware What You Wish Charmed Again Spirit
of the Wolf Garden of Evil
  Date with Death Dark Vengeance Shadow of the
Sphinx
  Something Wiccan This Way Comes
  Mist and Stone Mirror Image Between Worlds
Truth and Consequences Luck Be a Lady
Inherit the Witch A Tale of Two Pipers The
Brewing Storm
  Published by Simon and Schuster
--------------------------------------ii
  the
  An original novel by Paul Ruditis
  Based on the hit TV series created by
  Constance M. Burge
  New York London Toronto Sydney
------------------------------------comiii
  For the youngest Charmed Ones, Michelle and Hanna
  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should
be aware that this book is stolen property. It was
reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher,
and neither the author nor the publisher has received any
payment for this "stripped book."
  This book is a work of fiction. Any references
to historical events, real people, or real locales
are used fictitiously. Other names, characters,
places, and incidents are the product of the
author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual
events or locales or persons, living or dead,
is entirely coincidental.
  SIMON SPOTLIGHT
  An imprint of Simon and Schuster Children's
Publishing Division
  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York,
NY 10020
  [*reggg'and [*copygg'2004 Spelling
Television Inc. All Rights Reserved.
  All rights reserved, including the right of
reproduction in whole or
  in part in any form.
  SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are
registered trademarks
  of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
  Manufactured in the United States of
America
  First Edition 10 987654321
  Library of Congress Control Number

  ISBN 0-689-86851-0

  It Was a dark and stormy midafternoon,
  In fact, it was much darker and far stormier than it
should have been for San Francisco in early fall.
For days the weaker had been unseasonable to say the
least. The five-day forecast had looked like an
encyclopedia of climatic terminology and every day
brought new weather anomalies that couldn't have been
predicted.
  It started harmlessly enough on Monday with the typical
morning fog, which spread over the entire city and
stayed all day in spite of the wild winds blowing out
of town. Tuesday brought searing heat and humidity,
yet somehow managed to drop below freezing
by nightfall. Wednesday saw more wind, with the addition
of hail that pelted the area and covered the ground six
inches deep. People were still shoveling out from under the ice on
Thursday when snow came down on top of it.

  Conveniently, it all cleared away on its own with
another intense burst of heat in the afternoon that sent the
humidity soaring back up.
  By the time Christopher Young found himself speeding over
the city's rain-slicked streets Friday afternoon, the
day had already been a mixture of all the previous
days' weather, with a few very minor earthquakes thrown
in for fun.
  Being a meteorologist, Christopher knew that the
strange confluence of events was unparalleled in
recorded weather history. Nothing he had learned
back in school could have prepared him for the strange
climatic changes that were happening over the city and
slowly spreading to the rest of the world. He did his best
every night during his weather reports to reassure the
populace that everything would be fine by Sunday, when he
promised sunshine and happiness for all.
  What he had failed to tell his audience was that the
strange weather had happened before in unrecorded
weather history. The reason for the wacky weather on this
and all those past occasions had little to do with the jet stream
influence, El Nino, or a butterfly flapping
its wings deep in the heart of the Congo. It did,
however, have a little something to do with the reason a car full
of demons was chasing him through the streets of the city.
  Christopher swung his car off Lincoln
Boulevard and into the Fort Point parking lot so quickly
that the back wheels hydroplaned on the

  wet road. He was able to right the car and get it
into the lot with only minimal damage to the passenger
side door as he scraped past the gate.
  The demons had been impossible to shake on the
road. However, Christopher suspected that heading out
on foot wasn't going to be any better. He
hoped that he'd have an advantage out in the elements,
or at least that the demons would have a disadvantage
tracking him. Fleeing to the safety of his own home
was not an option, because that was exactly what they wanted
him to do, and the police weren't really much help when
demons were involved.
  He pumped his brakes and finally came to a safe
stop straddling a couple of parking spots. There were
only a few cars in the lot. Before he turned off
the engine, he saw that the clock on the dashboard
showed it was just after four. He was supposed to be on the
air in an hour giving the latest update on the
weather that had been plaguing the city.
  Somehow he didn't think he was going to make that
broadcast.
  Christopher dashed out of his car, making sure
to grab his cell phone as he went for the path to the
Golden Gate Bridge. At the same time, the
demons came to a screeching halt behind him. For a
brief moment Christopher wondered where the demons
had gotten a car from in the first place, but figured that
simple theft was nothing compared to attempted murder.
He hit

  the speed dial on his cell phone for the third time
in the chase.
  After hearing the outgoing voicemail message,
Christopher yelled into the phone as he continued to run
with rain pelting him. "It's me again. I can't shake
these guys and I can't let them get me.
Congratulations, you're in charge now. I sent you a
copy of the files this morning. Find the kid first.
He's your best chance-was
  Christopher slipped on a patch of mud and
dropped the phone. His eyes didn't even follow
as it skittered off toward a gutter. He could hear
the demons getting closer and realized he had just
been fooling himself when he pulled into the lot thinking
he would lose them.
  The rain abruptly stopped as he reached the
bridge footpath, and the sun was already bursting through the
clouds in points. The sudden change in the weather
wasn't much of a surprise considering all that had
been going on so far in the week. Christopher took
it as a sign that he was doing the right thing. It only
made sense that the sun would be shining down and warming his
body at that particular moment.
  Christopher made it a quarter of the way across the
bridge before he saw the group of tourists shaking out
their closed umbrellas in the path ahead of him.
He stopped immediately, knowing that he would never make it
all the way across the bridge without putting their
innocent lives in danger.

  He briefly considered using his powers against the
demons, but knew that would be playing right into their hands.
An indirect attack could backfire with all the people
around, especially considering that his intense fear would
probably mess with his control. Christopher was out of
options, but took solace in the fact that they had the
kid to fall back on.
  The demons weren't as close as he originally
thought, but they were certainly closing in. They were big,
scary, human-looking demons, built more for
battle than for speed. One rather formidable woman led
three hulking men toward him. They weren't running so
much as walking quickly, and Christopher couldn't help
but wonder why the bad guys never seemed to run, as
if speed walking was somehow more menacing. He wished
he was going to have time to figure that little mystery out.
  He wished he had more time to do a lot of things.
  Christopher considered flagging down a car, but
figured even if a driver was going to be kind enough
to give the sweating, panting, slightly rain-soaked
man with crazed fear in his eyes a ride, that same
driver would probably not stop in the middle of the
bridge to do so. It wouldn't help in the long run
anyway. He knew there was only one way out of this.
  At least he had the chance to choose how he died.

  As quickly as he could, Christopher swung himself
over the guardrail as the tourists looked on and cars
started to slow. The morbid thought that he would still be on
the news that night passed briefly through his mind. But
it was tomorrow night that concerned him more. He had been so
busy evading the demons all week that things were
horribly behind schedule. Only one of the others
knew what was going on, and she was out of town at the
moment. He wasn't even sure that the kid was a
possible replacement for him.
  As the female demon reached out to grab him,
Christopher could only hope that there would still be enough time
for the others to do what they had to do, and he let go of the
rail.
  He could feel the sun on his body as he fell.
The warm air currents were slowing his fall
unnaturally, but not enough so that it would make a difference.
As he took his slow-motion dive, he thought he
heard one of the demons say, "It's okay. We
know where he lived," but hoped it was just his mind playing
tricks on him. Their voices certainly couldn't
carry down to the water with him ... he hoped. Or
else this course of action was the wrong choice.
  Unfortunately, the air currents weren't slowing
him enough so he could do anything to change it.
  Christopher burst into flames a half second
before he hit the water.

  A beam
  of sunlight streamed through the frost on the kitchen
window of Halliwell Manor and fell perfectly
onto the notepad beside the stove. With a pencil in one
hand, Piper Halliwell was adding ingredients to the
list from memory. Her other hand was busy slowly
stirring a steaming pot in a counter-clockwise
direction with a long wooden spoon. She put a
check mark next to each item on the list as she
confirmed the ingredients carefully laid out before her in
a precise fashion. There was little room for
error-everything had to be measured out exactly and added
in the proper time-frame. The steam rising from the pot
had a pleasant aroma, a sign she was on the right
track.
  "Hey there," her half-sister Paige Matthews
said as she came into the kitchen and took in the scene.
"Potion?"
  "Potatoes," Piper replied as she picked
up the

  cutting board and slid the precisely sliced
spuds into the pot. "I'm making my formerly famous
Mulligatawny stew."
  "For breakfast?" Paige asked as she joined her
sister by the pot and took a deep breath, inhaling the
aroma of the potatoes.
  "Actually, it's dinner," Piper replied as she
double-checked her list and searched the counter for the next
ingredient with no success. "Can you take this?" she
asked as she handed the spoon to Paige, who took
it.
  "Dinner is like ten hours away," Paige said,
poking at the stew.
  "Stir it slowly, clockwise," Piper
replied as she turned toward the cabinets and started
exploring. It was much easier than usual since the
cabinets were already open; two of the doors had
recently been smashed to pieces, and Leo hadn't
had a chance to replace them yet. "It takes three
hours to make. After all the ingredients are added,
I'm going to start working on the main course while it
simmers."
  "Wow, what's the occasion?"
  "Leo," Piper said, a little too loudly.
  "Don't tell me I forgot his birthday,"
Paige said, squinting her eyes as she searched her
memory. "I guess he could always use another
plaid shirt."
  "It's not his birthday," Piper said, ignoring her
sister's comment about her husband's usual choice of
apparel. "I was just calling him."

  "Yes, darling," Leo said in a forced pleasant
tone as he entered the kitchen.
  Piper knew that she was on the verge of trying his
patience-actually, she suspected that she had already
crossed that line a few minutes ago-but she couldn't
worry about that right now. When she got into full-on
cooking mode it tended to occupy her mind one
hundred percent. It had been a while since she
had gotten into it this deeply, but that's what the day was
supposed to be about. She had even taken the night
off from work so she could enjoy the meal she'd be taking
all day to prepare.
  That was one of the perks of owning her own club. She
was able to take off whenever she wanted, even though
Saturday was typically the busiest night of the
week. She also liked the fact that she got to see the
hottest bands for free, as P3 was turning into quite the
little hot spot. The club's success was one of the
reasons she needed to take the day off, since with her
other responsibilities she hadn't scheduled any
time for herself in what seemed like forever.
  "I need you to go over to the store again and pick up
some pistachios . . . shelled if they have them ...
please?"
  "Are you sure that's all that you need," Leo
asked, and quickly added, "sweetheart? Maybe you
could go online and check out the recipe there."

  CliApDo
  Piper tried very hard not to blow up at him, or
blow him up, for that matter.
  Some people just don't understand the need for a chef to use
her own recipes, she tried to convince herself to remain
calm. The question really hadn't been entirely out of
line.
  Granted, she hadn't formally been a chef for a
few years, but the cooking gene never went away ...
she hoped. "Is it my fault all my recipe
files blew up in the last demon attack?"
Piper asked, expecting that her husband knew the question
was rhetorical. "I need to add the pistachios before
I can drop in the almonds. It's all very
specific."
  "Why?" Paige asked.
  But Piper ignored her sister, even though she
knew the question came out of curiosity, not sarcasm.
"Now go. Quick like a bunny." She clapped her
hands together for emphasis as the phone rang.
  Leo knew better than to argue, and orbed out
without another word.
  "Not again," Piper said as she picked up the
cordless hanging on the wall. She took a breath
and calmed herself. "What now?"
  Paige continued slowly stirring as she watched her
sister get more and more agitated.
  "I don't know," she said into the phone with
exasperation. "Call me crazy, but if the
electrician says he can't make it until four
o'clock, maybe you should call another electrician."

  n
  "Wow, I thought cooking was supposed to calm people,"
Paige said as Piper abruptly hung up the
phone and took the spoon back.
  "I used to love to cook," Piper said. "Hated
working for a prissy restaurant manager, but loved the
cooking part. Now I hardly have any time to make
anything aside from anti-demon potions. And now that
my recipes are gone-was
  "You figured it was time to start up again-was
  "Trying to recreate the recipes from memory,"
Piper said. "But guess what? My memories just
aren't what they used to be. Wonder why. My
body's only been taken over by other beings how many
times?"
  Piper actually stopped to think about that for a moment.
Considering the high number of entities always trying
to control them or kill them, Piper was actually
surprised that she was able to take any time off to cook
at all.
  Then the phone rang again.
  Oh, I'm sorry, she thought. Paige started
to move towa "Leave it," Piper said. "It
  What time off? rd the cordless, s been ringing
all
  morning. I
  "I know, I heard it up in the attic,"
Paige said. "What's going on?"
  As if for emphasis, the phone rang again.
  "The storm knocked out the electricity at P3
last night in the middle of the band's set," Piper
explained. "There was some kind of power surge that
blew out one of the amps, which the

  band is insisting we pay to replace. Somehow they
don't understand the concept behind the "act of God"
clause in their contract with us. There's also some water
damage to the storeroom, which I hope we can
ignore for a little while because I don't really have time
to deal with it right now. I specifically planned to do
nothing but cook today, but it looks like I'm going to have
to go in."
  Phoebe entered the kitchen as the phone rang for the
third time. "Are we not answering that for some particular
reason?"
  "Yes," Piper said. "But please don't make
me go through it again."
  "Aren't you a little overdressed for a Saturday?"
Paige asked Phoebe.
  Piper checked out her sister's very smart black
jacket. Of course she had to add the "Phoebe
touch" by wearing it over a red silk camisole and a
short skirt with a slit going up maybe a little too
high on the thigh.
  "Have to go in to discuss my contract," Phoebe
said.
  "Wait," Piper said, trying to wrap her mind
around what her sister had just said. "You've been working
all this time without a contract?"
  "No, I had a kind of ... probationary thing,"
Phoebe replied. "And now that my column seems
to be taking off, Elise thought we should
renegotiate that into a formal contract to address some
of the things I've been doing in addition to


  writing. You know ... public appearances,
interviews. We're even talking about doing some
endorsements. I'm thinking maybe I should get an
agent... and a business manager."
  "Wow, aren't we just the movers and shakers,"
Paige said. "I feel like such a sloth."
  "Hey," Piper said, throwing her arm around her
sister. "You do important work at the center. You
know that."
  "I know," Paige said. "I just think there's got
to be something else out there for me. Besides, I've
really been so focused on magic lately that it
seems like my attention's been split."
  "Speaking of which," Phoebe said as she grabbed a
breakfast bar from the cabinet, "find anything on that
weird weather stuff yet? The storm kept me up
half the night. On the bright side, I did have time
to go over my contract. Good thing, too. The lawyers
tried to slip in some "morals clause" that
actually said that as their representative, my
behavior outside the office had some kind of bearing
on the "Ask Phoebe" persona I had
created, and I would have to conduct myself responsibly
or suffer some kind of legal consequences that I
don't actually understand."
  Piper took a taste of her stew and sprinkled in
another dash of curry. Her mind flashed back
to her late sister Prue. The more Phoebe got
into her job, the more she sounded like the career-driven,
ever-efficient, eldest Halliwell-although Piper

  was sure Prue would have understood every legal
consequence of a contract.
  "And it seems like just yesterday you were ditching
chemistry to make out with Josh Login."
  "Oh, but we had some chemistry of our own!"
Phoebe sighed. "Anybody know when I became a
responsible adult?" She took a bite of her
breakfast bar.
  "It's the kind of thing that just sorta sneaks up on
you," Paige answered.
  "I thought responsible adults ate a proper
breakfast," Piper said with a sly smile.
  "They do when they have the time," Phoebe replied as
she made her way out of the kitchen. "Call if you
find anything!"
  Inspector Darryl Morris checked his watch
one last time as he burst through the double doors into the
police station. He was only two minutes late,
but any amount of tardiness still bothered him. All his
life he had been one of those people that naturally tended
to run at least fifteen minutes early for everything.
That had changed a bit as he got older,
particularly following the birth of his son. Children had
a way of unintentionally readjusting their parents'
schedules, and Darryl Junior was the reason his
dad was late for work today.
  The original plan had been to drop Darryl
Junior off with his grandparents Friday night so


  that Darryl Senior and his lovely wife,
Sheila, could have a romantic weekend (mostly)
to themselves. The only problem was that a massive storm
had hit the previous night, scaring the boy so much that
he refused to leave the house even though his dad
assured him that he would be safe in the car. Darryl
couldn't blame his son, though. At times the intensity
of the lightning and thunder had even scared him, but since
it's not usually reassuring to know that anything scares
your dad, Darryl had kept that part secret. That's
why he found himself taking a detour on the way to work
that morning, the last day of his six-day shift.
  Darryl slid into his chair and surveyed the
neatly organized stacks of paperwork surrounding
him. He wasn't usually the type to let work get
backed up like this, but in recent years his reports
had begun taking longer and longer to prepare since so
much of the paperwork had to be fabricated. That was
another thing Darryl didn't use to do-lie with such
ease to so many people. But he knew he could never reveal
the truth behind many of the cases he worked on. Too many
lives depended on that.
  It wasn't that Darryl liked lying in his
official paperwork; he just had no choice in the
matter. Aside from the potential for saving lives
by distorting the truth, the real story was usually too
extraordinary to believe. Witches, demons, and
magic were still largely in the closet in fairly
liberal San Francisco, which is

  why it was always so difficult trying to come up with an
explanation for the growing list of suspects that simply
disappeared from the face of the earth.
  Take last week's suspected murdererstdrug
dealer for example. His superiors had believed that
it was a simple case of a dealer taking out some of his
clientele. In truth, the perp was a demon selling
a mystical concoction from India that, besides killing the
user, drained the body of the seven chakras. Darryl
not only had to figure out an explanation for the
mysterious drug that bore only a passing
resemblance to heroin, but he had to work around the fact
that Piper Halliwell blew up the suspect after
he took out half her kitchen.
  Normally, Darryl would have left the Charmed Ones
out of the report entirely, but a suspicious
neighbor called the cops when she heard explosions
coming from Halliwell Manor for what certainly
wasn't the first time. The demon was gone by the time
Darryl's backup got there, but witnesses thought they
had seen a "man" fitting his description entering the
house.
  Darryl gave the report one last review before
presenting it to the chief. It was more than just dotting the
iness and crossing the ts. Any little mistake could
land him in trouble and risk exposing his friends, who just
happened to be witches. Darryl was finally beginning
to accept the fact that the mystical mayhem was a
reality,


  but he would certainly never get used to it or the part
he played in it all.
  "Hey, Inspector," Detective Warrington
called to Darryl from her desk across the room.
"What's with this freaky weather? Doesn't have anything
to do with a case you're working on, does it?"
  Darryl simply smiled and shook his head. He
didn't have an active case at the moment, but that
wasn't the point of the joke. Around the office,
Darryl was getting quite the reputation for his involvement
in weird-some might say "paranormal"-cases, which
made his reports all the more difficult to write.
  "Yeah, Morris," her partner, Detective
Simpson, added. "Is there some
Oogidy-Boogidy making all this rain?"
  "Is Zeus throwing around all this lighting?"
Warrington asked.
  "Is Jack Frost nipping at your nose?"
Simpson added as the duo cracked themselves up.
  "Very funny," Darryl said, though he was
thoroughly wnamused, and quietly surprised that
Warrington knew Zeus was the Greek God
credited with using lightning to make a point.
  "We've got one here for you," Simpson added.
"Happened yesterday afternoon. Seems we got a
jumper off the Golden Gate. Hey, now that I
think of it, he was a weatherman on the local
news."
  "Nothing new about a jumper," Darryl replied
as he got up to deliver his report to the chief.

  CHARMED
  "True," Warrington added. "But according
to witnesses, this one exploded in a ball of fire
right before he hit the water."
  Darryl tried to cover his reaction as he continued
to the chief's office. He didn't want to feed
into his reputation by acting too interested in the odd
situation.
  . "Sounds like he just needed to cool off," Darryl
said as he knocked on the chief's door and stepped
inside.
  "Mornin', Morris," the chief greeted
Darryl as he sipped his coffee. .
  "Morning," Darryl replied. "I have my
report on those drug murders." He dropped the
file on the desk and remained standing.
  "Another missing suspect?" the chief inquired.
"I don't like the fact that we're losing more and more
criminals lately."
  "Yeah, but at least the crimes always stop too,"
Darryl said weakly.
  caret Still don't like unanswered questions," the
chief replied.
  Neither do I, Darryl thought. He also knew he
couldn't do anything that would let the chief, or anyone
else, find those answers.
  "Warrington and Simpson were just telling me about that
case they're working on," Darryl said. "Sounds like
they might need some help."
  "I think they can handle a jumper," the chief said.
  "Yeah, but able local celeb," Darryl said.
"You


  know they aren't the best at handling the press."
  "They need the practice," the chief admitted,
but implied that this would be the case they would get that
practice on.
  "It sounds kind of odd," Darryl replied, still
searching for a way to insert himself into the investigation.
"Don't you think?"
  "No odder than the stuff you've been getting
into lately," the chief said. There wasn't any
accusation in his voice. Darryl knew the chief had
been on the force for years and had seen many strange
things in that time. San Francisco wasn't one of the
most conservative cities to begin with. Of course,
he also knew the chief was only going to turn a blind
eye for so long.
  "I've got something else for you," the chief said as
he handed Darryl a note. "Call just came in on
a missing kid. Seems pretty normal... at
least as normal as any sicko who would take a
kid."
  "I'll get right on it," Darryl said as he
turned and left the chief's office. As much as he
hated working kidnapping cases, he was actually
looking forward to a normal case for once, dealing with
normal police work, normal suspects, and
normal leads.
  The problem was that he couldn't get his mind off the
abnormal case he had just heard about. As he
walked through the station he made a mental note
to check in with the Charmed Ones about the exploding
jumper.

  g we'd let him sleep in," Mrs.
Michaels said between sobs. "None of us have been
getting much sleep lately since things have been so
hectic, what with finalizing the adoption and ..." The
woman trailed off in tears as she leaned into her
husband's shoulder.
  Mr. Michaels held his wife tightly,
whispering something that Darryl couldn't hear.
  "I'm sorry," Mrs. Michaels sniffed as
she tried to compose herself.
  The apology was completely unnecessary.
  Darryl focused on the photo of the
eleven-year-old boy, giving the woman a moment
to compose herself. The smiling face in the picture
showed a happy kid without a care in the world. However,
Darryl had seen enough of these cases to know that frozen
images like these rarely told the whole story. He
didn't have anything on the


  missing kid yet, so the case could go either way, and
runaways had slightly better odds than kidnap
victims.
  Stephen and Maria Michaels hadn't even known
their child for a full year. He had only just officially
become their son earlier in the week, and they were moved
beyond words by his disappearance. The vibe Darryl was
getting was that the parents weren't involved in any foul
play, as the saying goes. Unfortunately, in these
situations it was the parents who got the first pass as
possible suspects.
  Darryl hated that part of the process- examining
everything the parents said and did. He couldn't imagine
how he would behave if he ever walked into his
son's room to find the boy missing. He didn't
want to imagine it, either.
  "Mrs. Michaels," Darryl said.
  "Maria, please," she replied as she gathered
herself together.
  "When did you finally check on him?" Darryl
continued to gently prod for answers.
  "About a minute before we called the police,"
Maria replied, her hands had reached for the nearest
throw pillow and were twisting it at the edges.
  "Shortly after nine," Stephen added softly.
  "I could just tell something was wrong," his wife
continued. "The bed was a mess . . . there were things
strewn all over his desk. He's been

  n
  trying so hard to be good throughout the whole adoption.
I think he was afraid we would give him back if
his room was ever dirty." A sad smile flickered
across her face, but was gone immediately.
  "His window was wide open," Stephen continued for
his wife. "I know we shut it because of the storm last
night."
  Darryl had already been up to the boy's bedroom
for a quick glance. There wasn't any water on the
floor and the curtains were dry, which implied that the
possible kidnapping didn't happen until after the
storm had subsided. Crime scene analysts were
going over the place with a fine-toothed comb, but he had
seen no sign of forced entry. The house was one of the
older Victorians and didn't have any screens in
the windows. If it hadn't been locked, there really
wasn't anything stopping someone outside from simply
sliding it open, in spite of the fact that it was on the
second floor.
  A conveniently-or inconveniently, depending on
your view of the situation-placed tree branch was
only a short jump from the window. Darryl couldn't
imagine someone carrying the boy out the window, but it was
possible the kidnapper forced him to make the jump to the
tree. Either way, Darryl suspected the tree would
be removed once the family's lives got back
to normal.
  In these cases, he always tried to think
positively.


  Darryl was preparing himself to ask the next set of
difficult questions when he heard someone clearing her
throat behind him. He turned to see Officer
McGee standing in the foyer.
  "Excuse me for a minute," Darryl said
quietly as he got off the couch and went to join the
officer.
  "Sorry to interrupt," McGee said in a tone
that matched the silence in the house. Everyone was speaking
in hushed voices as if it were a library ... or a
morgue. "But I think you're needed outside."
  There was something about McGee's strained tone and
stiffened body language that set Darryl immediately
on alert. He gave a glance back to Mr. and
Mrs. Michaels and threw in a silent look of
apology before he stepped outside onto the front
patio. He immediately saw why McGee had been so
tense.
  A pair of dark sedans was parked on the
opposite side of the street. The cars so
obviously belonged to the FBI that Darryl was
surprised he didn't see the initials
emblazoned in white on the hoods. One man sat
behind the wheel of the first car looking up at the house,
while another pair of agents sat in the second
car. The lead investigator was making his way up the
steps to the patio.
  "I certainly hope the SFPD didn't
contaminate my crime scene," the Fed said as he
approached Darryl with a sneer on his face that made
McGee's body tense up even further, if that was
possible.

  "And I hope you Feds don't go blowin" the
leads I've collected so far," Darryl said
back.
  "You mean based on those rookie questions you've
probably been askin'?" the Fed shot back as the
two men stared each other down.
  Darryl was the first to crack a smile. "How ya'
doin', Sammo?"
  "Doin' fine, Dar," the Fed replied as he
shared a smile and held out his hand.
  Darryl had worked with Agent Sam Harkins on
several, mostly successful, missing person cases
in the past. He respected the man's abilities
and always got the same back from the Fed. It wasn't
a surprise that Harkins had showed up; Darryl had
expected company when he first got the note from the
chief.
  Darryl saw McGee relax her posture
slightly. He never understood why some officers always
got tense when the FBI showed up to take the
reigns of an investigation. He figured some
officers were just territorial about their work. As far as
Darryl was concerned, the more people they had out there trying
to find the boy, the better.
  "So, tell me you've got the case wrapped up
for me," Harkins said with just a slight twinge of hope
in his voice.
  "Sorry, man. Just started to interview the
parents," he replied. "You planning on taking
over right now?"
  "Since you've already built the relationship, why
don't I sit in," Harkins said. The agent


  never was one of those bureaucrats who came in
claiming jurisdiction and kicking out the local
police, which was probably why most of the times he and
Darryl worked together had been successful.
  "Do you have a read on the situation yet?" Harkins
asked. "Gut feeling?"
  "Too early," Darryl replied. "I was just
getting to the fun part," he added sarcastically.
  "Shall we?" Harkins pointed toward the open door.
  Darryl nodded to McGee to stay out on the patio
while he led Harkins into the house and briefed the
agent on the little he knew so far. When they reached the
living room they found Mrs. Michaels still sitting
on the couch digging her nails into the throw pillow,
already wearing a hole in the chenille. Mr.
Michaels had moved over to his desk, where he
seemed to be contemplating whether to smoke a
cigarette. The open pack was in his hand, but he
hadn't pulled one out yet.
  "Sorry," he said, putting the pack down.
"I've been trying to quit. This is my emergency
pack. Figured this is an emergency." But he
walked away from the cigarettes and joined his wife
back on the couch.
  "Mr. and Mrs. Michaels, this is Federal
Agent Sam Harkins," Darryl said, introducing
the new player. "He and his team will be taking over the
investigation."

  CHARMED
  "Taking over?" Maria asked, shooting a fearful
look at Darryl.
  "Don't worry, ma'am," Harkins said as he
shook Mr. Michaels's hand. "Darryl's not going
anywhere. We'll be working together."
  "Do we really need the FBI?" Stephen asked,
more out of fear of the implication of having the big guns
come in than anything else. "Tyler can't be that far."
  Darryl wasn't about to point out just how far their
son's abductor could have taken him in the time since
they found the empty bed. The possibility that he had
crossed state lines is what triggered the FBI'S
involvement in the case.
  "We prefer to get in as much help as we can as
soon as possible," Darryl explained, making
sure to give the parents a calming tone to latch
onto.
  It seemed to work, because Stephen took Harkins's
hand when he offered it.
  "I'm just going to sit in for the moment," Harkins said
after shaking hands with Maria as well. "Let Darryl
continue where he left off."
  "Okay," Mr. Michaels replied, though his
voice was kind of hollow. , The two
investigators took the nearest seats.
  "You mentioned that the adoption recently went through,"
Darryl said, carefully getting into subject matter
that was always difficult to explore. He hated this part
of his job, but prying into peoples' lives was a necessary
evil when trying to solve a crime. "Had there been
any


  unusual difficulties with the adoption? Maybe
with his birth parents?"
  "So far as we know, they're out of the picture,"
Stephen replied. "Tyler's been shuttled around from
foster home to foster home for years."
  "There was some problem with the last home," Maria
added. "The parents just suddenly disappeared."
  Darryl exchanged a glance with Harkins. That was a
route definitely worthy of pursuit, though
Darryl couldn't help but think back to earlier in"
the morning when he was dealing with another kind of
mysterious disappearance.
  "What do you mean by "disappeared"?" Harkins
asked.
  "We're not sure," Maria replied, ripping
into the fabric of the pillow. "Tyler never wants
to talk about it."
  "Maybe you should talk to the social worker who put
us together with Tyler," Stephen suggested. "I always
got the feeling that she knew more about the situation but for
whatever reason she wouldn't-or couldn't-tell us."
  At the mention of the social worker, Darryl's
intuition went on high alert. Since there were
probably hundreds, if not thousands, of social
workers in the city, the odds were slim that his
suspicions would prove true. However, the idea
that popped into his head probably had something to do with the
fact that they had also referred to people mysteriously
disappearing.

  "You don't think this social worker might be
involved somehow?" Harkins asked.
  "Oh, heavens no," Maria said. "She's done
everything in her power to make sure the adoption went
smoothly. And her sisters have been wonderful to us as
well."
  Darryl didn't need to ask the obvious next
question, but he knew he had to, because Harkins was
expecting it. "Can you tell us the social worker's
name?"
  "Sure," Mr. Michaels replied as he got
up and walked back over to his desk, avoiding the
cigarettes entirely. "Her name is Paige
Matthews. I have her contact information right here."
  Darryl took the slip of paper that Mr.
Michaels offered. He glanced at it for a moment,
even though he already knew what it said, then passed it
off to Agent Harkins.
  Phoebe pulled her car into her assigned parking
spot in a nice warm patch of sunshine, but stayed
behind the wheel. She couldn't help but notice that a
dense fog covered the entire office building but
didn't even extend to the parking lot. Phoebe was
already suspicious that the wacky weather of late was
somehow tied to her and her sisters and would have thought this to be
proof, but she had seen several such buildings
trapped in incredibly localized fog on her way
in to work. That wasn't the reason she was afraid
to enter the building.


  Renegotiating her contract was only one of the
things on Phoebe's mind. Growing up, she had
never imagined herself being "contracted" to work anywhere.
It just seemed so permanent, and in a way it was.
Once she signed that piece of paper, she would be
legally locked into her job for whatever period of time
they mutually agreed upon.
  Phoebe knew that it wasn't like she was signing
her soul away. That was probably something more in line
with her other, more magical, line of work. There was just
something that seemed so final about what she was doing. No
matter how much she liked the work and the attention it
brought her, there was something intimidating about the
possibility of doing this for the rest of her life.
  In addition to the unexpected contract
renegotiation, Phoebe was also dealing with the added
responsibilities of interviewing for an
assistant, figuring out her health insurance, and
starting up a retirement plan. If that last part
didn't make her feel old, she didn't know
what would. Add her recent divorce from Cole to that
list and she was feeling prematurely aged.
  Well, here I go, she thought as she took a
deep breath and enjoyed the last bit of sunshine before
entering her fog-enshrouded workplace.
  "There you are," her editor, Elise Rothman,
said before Phoebe even stepped into the office's bull
pen. "I swear I'm going to have you hooked

  up to a GPS system so I know where you are every
minute of the day."
  "Well, then at least one of us will know,"
Phoebe said as they walked to her private office.
"I never know if I'm coming or going anymore."
  "I hope you're coming in with your latest column,"
Elise said. "And maybe your comments on the new
contract?"
  "Ummm," Phoebe couldn't even come up with a good
excuse. She thought they were going to talk about the
contract, but clearly Elise was more concerned about the
column. And there were deadlines to meet, after all.
Phoebe knew she was right near the end of hers.
  "Phoebe, we do have a paper to publish,"
Elise said firmly.
  Phoebe had to think quickly. "I'm working on it,
Elise. In fact, that's why I'm here. Have I
ever left you hanging before?" she replied sweetly.
  "Something tells me I'm not getting even one of the
things I'm hoping for."
  "Well, it's just-was
  "Never mind," Elise said, holding up her hand
for emphasis. "I know everything will be settled at the
very last moment. You're nothing if not consistent on
pushing deadlines."
  Phoebe wasn't crazy about the fact that her
reputation was that she kept people waiting until the last
second on things. Then again, it was weird to think she
was in a place in her life where her "reputation"
didn't have a thing to do


  with what she had been up to when she used to ditch
chemistry with Josh Login in high school. Somehow,
she had managed to become that which she always feared: a
grown-up.
  "I actually need to talk to you about an entirely
different matter." Elise took a seat in
Phoebe's guest chair.
  Phoebe had hoped she could get to work on either the
article or the contract as soon as she got in the
office. Once Elise sit, she knew both of
those things had just gotten back-burnered. She took
a seat at her desk. "Yes?"
  "I know your column keeps you very busy,"
Elise said. "But I was hoping you could help me out
of a little jam."
  "Oh, Elise, you know I'll be happy to do
anything," Phoebe said, then added, "if I can."
  "This is right up your alley," Elise quickly
added with a wave of her hand as if it was nothing. "You
see, Granny Goodwords had to take a short
sabbatical."
  "Granny Goodwords?"
  "Our children's advice columnist for the Sunday
supplement," Elise said as if Phoebe should know
what she was talking about. "Kids write to her asking
for help with their little problems, like "My friend keeps
teasing mest 'My brother ripped off my favorite
doll's head" . . . that kind of thing. Granny
Goodwords tells them how to handle the situation."
  "Uh-huh," Phoebe said, surprised to find that

  CHARMED
  the paper had another advice columnist. She
really needed to be more on top of things if she was
expected to be a grown-up.
  "Anyway," Elise continued, "Granny
Good-words had to go visit her sister in Toronto
for a few weeks. She's in the hospital."
  "I hope it's nothing serious," Phoebe said,
now feeling guilty for not having introduced herself
to Granny, or even knowing the woman's real name.
Somehow, she doubted that the woman's parents had
looked at the baby in the bassinet and said,
"Elisabeth ... no ... Patricia ... no
... How about Granny!"
  "Right now it's just some tests," Elise said.
"But, as you can imagine, Granny is going to be so
preoccupied with her sister that she won't be able
to focus on her column ... so I was hoping that-just
for a few weeks-you could be Granny Good words."
  "Me?" Phoebe asked. "Granny
Goodwords?"
  Phoebe didn't know how to respond. The offer
was innocuous enough. It wasn't like she hadn't already
shown a knack for giving advice. But there was just
something about the name Granny Goodwords that she was
having some trouble getting past.
  "Excuse me, Elise," Norah Johnson
said as she stepped into Phoebe's office. "Sorry
to interrupt, but I just wanted to let you know I was
heading out to cover that possible kidnapping."
  As Elise and Norah spoke about some missing


  boy, Phoebe discreetly glanced down at her
shiny silver letter opener and tried to angle the metal
so she could see her reflection. With all the
contracts and retirement funds conversations of late,
combined with being asked to take on the role of a
"Granny," she wasn't surprised when she thought
she saw the beginnings of wrinkles around her eyes.
  "Phoebe?" Elise asked.
  Phoebe slammed the letter opener down on her
desk when she realized that Norah had left the
room and Elise was staring at her.
  "Kidnapping?" she asked, hoping to keep the
subject off herself for a moment. There wasn't a
doubt that she would help Elise, but she wanted
to get used to the whole "Granny" thing first.
  "Or a runaway," Elise replied. "We
don't know yet. Right now it's just a missing boy.
. . . You know, I remember a time when I never
referred to these stories as just a missing child. Maybe
I'm getting jaded. Or maybe it's just the way
I cope with it."
  Phoebe knew what Elise was talking about.
After saving so many innocents she certainly was more used
to the idea, but she also knew that each one was
important. She hoped that she'd never lose that
feeling.
  "I'm sure at some point in the day it'll hit
me," Elise continued. "And my mind will get stuck
on whatever could be happening to poor little Tyler
Michaels."

  "Excuse me?" Phoebe said. She hadn't
expected to hear a name she recognized. "Did you
say Tyler Michaels?"
  "Yes," Elise said. "Is something wrong?"
  "Remember how I said earlier that I didn't
know if I was coming or going?" Phoebe asked as she
stood.
  "Yes?" Elise stayed in her chair, a look
of confusion crossing her face.
  "Well, I'm going."
  Paige shut the Book of Shadows with a groan.
  Still no luck, she thought in frustration.
  She had been searching for a clue to the strange
weather ever since a giant hailstone had clocked
her on the side of the head earlier in the week. Leo
had managed to heal the bruise for her, but he'd
failed to convince her that the demon hail hadn't been
aiming specifically for her. Even he began to get
suspicious as the weather continued to behave in the most
bizarre fashion.
  But the Book of Shadows failed to provide any
answers.
  Paige worried that one of the reasons she wasn't
finding anything in the huge book was because her mind
wasn't totally on her work. Actually, the real
problem was that her mind was totally on her work- on her
professional work.
  Helping to finalize Tyler Michaels's
adoption earlier in the week had affected Paige in
ways she


  had never realized it would. Instead of seeing it for the
success that it was, she could only see the adoption
as a near failure of the system solely because she
couldn't explain the fact that the boy's last set of
foster parents had been a pair of demons trying
to corrupt him into becoming a bodyguard for The
Source.
  When Paige had met Tyler, she had seen him
as a kindred spirit because he was also learning about a power
he never knew he had. He was a Firestarter on
the run from his foster demons. Paige took him
home, where Tyler immediately bonded with the family,
especially Piper. And once they saved the day,
Paige made it her mission to find him a good
family.
  It didn't take long for Paige to come across
Stephen and Maria Michaels, but it sure took
forever to get them to be Tyler's parents. The time she
spent working the case was time she knew should have been
spent learning more about her new life as a Charmed
One, but she certainly wasn't going to let Tyler
slip through the cracks in the system. More and more she was
considering taking a break from work to focus on learning
about her magic, but she couldn't stop thinking about what
she would do once she got past her studies.
  Paige didn't want to be a burden, but she
also didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew
up, as the saying goes. That fear of her future was
the one thing keeping her at her job,

  CliApDo
  in spite of the fact that she knew that the magic was
the more important thing in her life.
  Actually, right now the important thing was finding a
reason behind the wacky weather, but the delicious
smell of Piper's stew was driving her crazy even
up in the attic, and she had to go down for a taste.
  Piper put her lips together and gently blew on
a spoonful of stew, then took another taste from the
pot she had left simmering for the past half hour,
only stirring on occasion. She let the stew roll
over her tongue for a moment before swallowing. Then she
looked off into space as she usually did when she was
considering one of her creations.
  Making her decision, she turned off the burner and
carried the pot over to the sink, where she poured the stew
into a strainer and watched as the broth slid down the
drain. She placed the pot on the counter and took the
strainer with its mixture of potatoes, nuts, and
assorted other ingredients and dumped it in the trash.
  "Leo!" she called through the house as she once
again put pencil to paper.
  It only took her husband a moment to get to the
kitchen since he was just coming from the living room.
  "Yes, dear," he said through tightly smiling
teeth. It only took him a moment to notice that the
pot was empty. "Why do I get the feeling that
I'm going to the store again?"


  "I'm sorry," Piper said. "But I really
want this meal to be perfect. They keep calling from
the club and I guess I was getting distracted and
something just wasn't right...."
  "Piper," Leo said, carefully choosing his words.
"It's your first day off in... whaft... decades?
Maybe you should try... I don't know...
relaxing?"
  "I cook to relax," she replied simply.
"Don't I seem relaxed?"
  As if an answer to Piper's own question, the phone
rang and, without even looking, she thrust out her hand and
blew it up.
  "Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "I
promise I will relax once I get started on the
main course. But before I can do that, I need you to go
to the store ... please."
  "You know, my powers really are supposed to be
used for more productive purposes," he replied.
"I'm not your mystical errand boy."
  "No, you're my wonderfully sweet and understanding
husband," Piper said, buttering him up. "Who has
one heck of a gourmet dinner in his future, if
only he'll go to the store for me one more time."
  Leo gave her a look of exasperated
resignation that silently told her that the dinner had
better be really good and include one very rich and
decadent dessert.
  "I love you," Piper replied. She then handed
over the newest list and watched him orb off.
  "I love you, too," Paige said as she came

  into the kitchen a moment after Leo had disappeared.
"What's with the spontaneous admission of
admiration?"
  "Just sucking up to my husband," Piper replied
as she took the trash bag out of the can and tied it up.
  "And what's with the phone?" Paige asked as she
saw the scorch marks and the phone guts hanging off the
wall. "Did I miss a demon? Why the sudden
interest in attacking our kitchen?"
  "Sorry, my bad," Piper said, but chose not
to explain further. "Any luck with our weather
woes?"
  "Nada," Paige replied.
  "I'm sure you'll find something when you least
expect it," Piper said as she opened the kitchen
door and found her young friend, Tyler Michaels, standing
there. He was wearing pajamas, but that wasn't what
Piper noticed first. It was clear to her before she could
say a word that not only was he out of breath, he was
terrified.

  1116 UppCf'lCVC-LIKE demon known as
Tempest leaned back in his stone chair and looked
down at the minion who knelt before him. The chair was
raised up on a platform specifically so the
minion had to lift his head even higher to see his
master towering above him, which was really the point of the
layout of the entire room.
  It was all Tempest could do to make the place more
comfortable for himself.
  It wasn't really a prison so much as a safe
haven, as far as the demon was concerned. True, it was
a safe haven he could leave only once a
century, but he tried to focus on the positive.
There was so much about the room to hate.
  The room was actually more of a cave. But instead of
an interestingly murky and damp cave that chilled him
to the bone, the place was always kept pleasantly at
room temperature.

  The air inside never moved no matter how hard
his minions waved their fans, trying to muster a
breeze for him.
  No fire would light.
  No water would flow.
  Not even a speck of dirt could enter the pristine
stone room.
  Tempest hated the place more than even he
knew.
  The demon was pointedly ignoring his minion,
focusing on the little clear plastic cylinder filled
with water spinning like a tornado. It was the one joy
he had in life, though he didn't quite understand how the
mysterious item worked or why it was allowed in his
cave. He watched the water swirling and imagined the
power of the tornado destroying whole cities. He
would unleash it to do his bidding and cow humanity before him.
  With a little imagination, a cheap little novelty toy can
be really entertaining, he thought.
  "You may rise," he said to his minion, putting
aside the toy.
  When the lesser demon stood, his head was still two
feet below his master's due to the height of the platform
on which the chair sat. A bruise was forming on the
minion's face, but the cut was already healing. His
master had not inflicted the wound.
  Tempest looked down at his minion.
  "Well, you may speak," he said, prodding the
dullard.


  "Oh, great and powerful one," the minion said.
  "Enough with the empty praise," the demon
replied. "My ego is fine, really. Move it
along."
  "I am so sorry for this failure," the minion
continued, bowing repeatedly as he spoke.
  "I'm getting seasick," Tempest said. "Stand
up straight. Be a demon."
  "Yes, master," the minion replied.
  Ego aside, Tempest did like the "master" part.
  "I am so sorry for failing you once again," the
minion continued. "It was beyond my control. I was
unprepared for what was waiting. That is no excuse,
but I beg your forgiveness."
  Tempest paused to let his minion sweat the
moment. He picked up the file on the table beside his
chair and flipped through it. Yesterday's "failure,"
as the jninion had put it, was actually a success.
Not only was their prey dead, but they also managed
to get a very important piece of information. The
file was incredibly thorough and had already proved to be
very useful. It did have one rather important omission,
but his minion had found that out earlier, so he figured
that they were back ahead of the game.
  "Okay," Tempest said.
  "Okay, master?" the minion asked.
  "Okay, I accept your apology," Tempest
replied simply. "What, did you think I was going
to kill you or something?"
  "Well... yes," the minion said. The relief
was evident on his face.

  "Now really, if I killed you then I'd have
to find someone to replace you," Tempest explained.
"And do you know how hard it his to find help when you're
confined to a stone room?"
  "But you will be free tonight," the minion said with forced
exuberance, as if Tempest needed to be reminded.
  "And if everything goes according to plan, I may never
need to rely on minions again," Tempest said.
"So, you see. I may still kill you yet."
  Actually, that was a lie, since Tempest really
didn't have the power to do that, but as long as his minions
were not aware of that fact, he was going to use their
ignorance to his benefit.
  "Thank you, my master," the minion said, not knowing
how else to reply.
  I really need to invest in higher quality
minions, Tempest thought.
  "Of course, you do realize that you are no longer in
charge of the others," Tempest said. "That
responsibility has been passed onto someone more
worthy."
  "Yes, master," the minion said. "May I
ask..."
  "She is watching the house," Tempest
explained. "Go, join your cohorts. She will
summon you when the time is right."
  "Leo!" Piper called out once again.
  This time Leo appeared in front of her immediately,
even though he had been considerably farther away
than the living room.


  "Leave something off the list?" Leo asked as he
orbed back into the kitchen. Then he saw Tyler
sitting at the table drinking hot chocolate beside
Paige. "Hey, Tyler. I didn't know you were
coming by ... in your pajamas?"
  Tyler just stared into his hot chocolate.
  "So far, our best guess is sleepwalking,"
Paige said. "Tyler's been kind of mum on the
subject."
  Piper pulled Leo off to the side so they could
talk quietly, as if Tyler wouldn't know they were
talking about him.
  "He just showed up and wouldn't say a word," she
whispered. "But we can see the fear in his eyes. Not
to mention the whole sleepwear ensemble."
  "Maybe we should call his parents," Leo
suggested.
  "Before we know whaf s going on?" Piper asked.
"They don't know anything about his powers."
  "Well, they must know something's wrong," Leo
said. "They're probably worried sick."
  "And if we call them, they'll insist on coming
over here," Piper said. "By the time they get here, who
knows what they could walk into? I promised Tyler
a normal life."
  "And we'll do our best to help him have it," Leo
said, putting an arm around her. "But we're not going
to be able to do anything about it if he won't tell us
what's going on."
  "Maybe he just needs a few minutes," Piper
said. "I'm sure he'll open up to me."

  Piper and Tyler had bonded almost immediately when
Paige brought him home several months earlier.
At the time, Piper had been a major proponent
of letting him keep his Fire-starter power to control
flames with his mind. As he started to learn how to use
his emotions to control the fire he created, Piper
also started to understand how it had the potential
to overwhelm him as he tried to grow up a normal
kid. Eventually, she agreed with his decision to have the
powers bound until he was older. She even made the
potion that would keep his powers subdued.
  Piper kept in touch with Tyler throughout the adoption
process, wanting to be there for him should he ever need
her help. When he suddenly showed up on their back
porch minutes ago, she knew that his dream of
normality hadn't lasted nearly as long as either of
them had hoped.
  "Has he said anything?" Leo asked.
  "I didn't want to push," Piper replied.
"I figured some hot chocolate might open him
up."
  Just then they heard the front door open and slam
shut.
  "Piper! Paige!" Phoebe called out as she
came into the house. "I think we've got a"-she
entered the kitchen and saw Tyler-"problem."
  "Way ahead of you, sis," Paige said.
  "Hey, Tyler," Phoebe said as she turned
to Piper. "What's going on?"
  "We were hoping Tyler could fill us in on that


  one," Piper said as she sat next to her young friend.
  Tyler took another sip of his hot chocolate.
"I thought it was all supposed to stop," he said.
"Once you took away my powers."
  "Tyler, I didn't take your powers," Piper
corrected him. "You've still got them. You just can't
use them right now."
  "Is that why they came after me?" he asked.
  "Who?" Piper asked, her defenses immediately
raised. "Who came after you?"
  "I don't know," Tyler said, pushing aside his
mug. "I woke up this morning and there was this guy
holding me down."
  "Did he look like a normal guy?" Phoebe
asked as she took a seat at the table. "Or did
he look kinda demony?"
  "Demony?" he asked.
  "You know," Paige said. "Horns . . . glowing
eyes ... a tail... all of the above."
  "He looked normal," Tyler replied, which
didn't really prove anything. Most of the demons
they dealt with toolj: on human form. "He kept
pushing down on any chest. And he was mumbling . .
. about n caret that failing again or something. I thought
that Source thing wasn't supposed to be interested in
me anymore."
  "You don't have to worry about him right now. He's
not in the picture," Paige said. "Or, wait...
is he back again? I lose track."
  Piper ignored her sister. "Tyler, I don't
think it

  CHARMED
  would be The Source. His minions can only track
you when you use your powers. You should be safe with those
bound."
  "Maybe somebody didn't get the memo,"
Phoebe suggested.
  "What happened, then?" Piper asked, hoping that
what Phoebe had suggested, though meant to be
sarcastic, wasn't the case.
  "I was gonna yell," Tyler said, "but I thought
he might be a demon and I didn't want Maria
and Stephen ... I mean ... Mom and Dad ...
to get hurt. So I..." He trailed off.
  "It's okay," Piper said. "You can tell us."
  "Ever since I moved in with my parents," he
continued, "I've been sleeping with a bat by my bed."
  "Hey, slugger, I could teach you a few things,"
Paige said. "I'm on the center's softball
team."
  "I don't think that's why he's got the bat,"
Piper said. "It's to protect you from demons,
isn't it?"
  Tyler just nodded his head as he continued. "The
demon was concentrating on his hands or something. He
wasn't looking at my face. So, I reached out and
grabbed the bat and hit him in the head."
  "Home run!" Paige laughed.
  "He kinda fell," Tyler continued. "But not
really. Just got sort of wobbly. I jumped out of
bed, but he was between me and the door. So


  I opened the window, climbed down the tree, and
ran."
  "All the way here?" Phoebe asked. "That's
over a mile."
  "It's not that far," Tyler said as if he did it
all the time. "I know the demon followed me out of the
house, but I'm pretty sure I lost him. I
had to keep hiding to make sure he wasn't
following me." He looked back out the window
to check for demons.
  "I'm sure no one did," Piper said quickly.
"Or they would have grabbed you before you got in the house.
"You're safe here."
  "First thing we have to do is let your parents know
you're here," Paige said.
  "We can't," Phoebe jumped in. "If my
paper's got a reporter at his house then there have
to be about a dozen others. Add to that the cops and
maybe even the FBI, and I don't see how we
can get a message to them without bringing a ton of people
to our door."
  "I think we have to focus out finding out who's after
him," Leo suggested. "Once we take care of the
problem we can get Tyler home."
  "Quick, to the batcave," Paige said as they got
up, moving to the attic and the Book of Shadows.
  Piper took Tyler by the hand and led him out of the
room. She took a quick glance back to her bare
stovetop, knowing the odds of getting any more cooking in
today were slim to none. She

  was halfway up the first flight of stairs with
Tyler and her family when the doorbell rang.
  Everyone froze.
  "Okay," Phoebe said. "You guys go up to the
attic. I'll get the door."
  Piper, Leo, Paige, and Tyler silently
continued on up to the attic as Phoebe slowly
made her way down the steps. She peeked out the
window to give them a second to get safely
upstairs and saw that it was Darryl at the door.
Phoebe literally breathed a sigh of relief as she
moved to open it.
  Darryl considered ringing the doorbell again, but
suspected it was pointless. Piper's SUV was in the
drive, so he figured they were probably home,
unless they had beamed themselves somewhere. He was still getting
used to that "orbing" thing where people popped all over town.
When he saw Phoebe peek out the window, he
figured that they had just been up in the attic or
something, which was why it was taking so long to answer the
door.
  "Hey, Darryl," Phoebe said as the door
swung open.
  "Morning, Phoebe," Darryl replied. "I
hope I didn't interrupt anything."
  "Not at all," Phoebe said with a transparent
smile. Darryl didn't have to be a detective
to get the impression that she had been in the middle of
something when he rang the bell. Although


  Darryl knew all about the Charmed Ones' more
secret activities, they were always reluctant
to get the inspector involved. Sometimes he
appreciated being ignorant, while other times . .
. not so much.
  "Can I come in?" Darryl asked when she failed
to offer.
  "Sure, sure," Phoebe said quickly, and waved
him into the house. "So what brings you here on a
Saturday morning?"
  "Phoebe," Darryl said. "I'm going to ask you
a question right now, and the answer is "no", okay?"
  Phoebe looked at him questioningly. "Okaaay."
  "Here, let's rehearse it," he added. "Say
it with me now ..."
  "No," they said in unison.
  Even though she was playing along, Phoebe's
face registered concern along with her confusion.
  "Good," he said. "Now, I'm working on a
missing child case, and your sister's name came up
during the investigation. You wouldn't happen to have seen a
Tyler Michaels recently."
  Phoebe looked up at Darryl, but did not
respond.
  "Okay, this is the part where you say "no,""
Darryl said, as if she needed prodding.
  Phoebe easily could have done as he asked, but
she hated lying to Darryl. She especially hated the
idea of him chasing leads all over the

  city when the boy in question was currently two
floors above him.
  "Darryl," she said in a tone that indicated he was
about to hear something he didn't want to know.
  "No," Darryl repeated. "We just rehearsed
this."
  "And I would love to tell you what you want me
to," Phoebe said, then took what Darryl
considered to be an extremely unnecessary long pause.
  "But?"
  "But he's upstairs."
  Darryl looked at the staircase, admitting
to himself that she just confirmed what he had expected all
along.
  "Come on," she said with a sigh as she led him up
to the attic.
  Darryl followed, trying to figure out in how many
ways his day had just become more difficult. On the
one hand, he had found the missing child in near record
time and, at least for the moment, the boy was safe and
sound. On the other hand, there was no telling how long
Tyler would be safe if he had to go to the Charmed
Ones for help. Not to mention the fact that Darryl was
fairly sure he wasn't going to be able to tell
anyone about his single-handedly solving the case that the
cops, the FBI, and various news agencies were
currently working on.
  He wasn't at all surprised to see Piper
and


  Leo standing in the middle of the attic with the missing child
in question. The smile that was on Tyler's face in the
photo his parents had showed Darryl was long gone.
In its place was a look quite similar to that which
Darryl's own son had worn on his face during the
previous night's storm. Darryl's hope that it was
just a simple runaway situation disappeared when he
saw Paige flipping through the Book of Shadows.
  "Hey, Darryl, how's it going?" Leo asked.
  "Well, let's see," Darryl said. "Half
the force and the FBI are currently scouring the city for
that boy standing right next to you. So I'd say things are
about par for the course."
  Tyler took a step closer to Piper.
  "Tyler, this is our friend Darryl," Piper said in
a calm and reassuring tone. "He's a police
officer."
  "Don't worry," Phoebe added. "He's one
of the good guys."
  "Thanks," Darryl said sarcastically as he
nodded hello to Tyler. He knew why Phoebe
had said what she said, but still hated the fact that more and more
often it seemed that people had to point out when the police were
on their side.
  Tyler gave a tentative smile in
response.
  "Hail, hail, the gang's all here," Paige
mumbled as she flipped to the page about
Fire-starters. She was actually glad that Darryl
had showed up, because it was easier to have the police around
on those occasions when you also had the police looking
for the person standing in

  the middle of your attic. Aside from that fact,
she really liked Darryl. He was just one of those people
who knew what he wanted out of life and had found the
perfect job to suit him. She was a little envious of
that, considering her current state of affairs.
  Paige gave Darryl a welcoming smile and
went to work on the Firestarter information. The book was
familiar enough to her that it only took her a moment
to realize something was different.
  "Well, what do you know," she said aloud.
"Lookyhere."
  "Find something?" Leo asked.
  "There's a new entry under our little
Fire-starter," she replied.
  "Firestarter?" Darryl asked. "Like the
movie?"
  "Pretty much," Paige said, then turned her
attention back to the group. "It still lists the basics
... extremely rare and magical creature ...
power linked to the emotions . . . trained to be
bodyguards for The Source."
  "See!" Tyler said.
  "Hey, we've dealt with him before, haven't we?"
Piper said, trying to be reassuring. "What's the
new part?"
  Paige continued to read. ""Firestarters play
an essential role in the Night of Aeolus.""
  "What's an a-o-lus?" Tyler asked.
  "Not a what ... a who," Phoebe replied.
"He's the Greek God of the winds."


  Everyone in the room gave her a curious look.
  "What? I've always been interested in Ancient
Greece," she replied defensively. "I love
that time in history with the art, the science..."
  "The simple, yet elegant fashions,"
Paige added.
  "Can I help it if I look good in
well-draped sheets?" Phoebe replied slyly.
  "Yeah, okay, we'll get you an outfit for your
birthday," Piper said, trying to rush things along.
"What's with this Night of Aeolus, Paige?"
  Paige flipped through the book and found an entry
she had never seen before. That wasn't much of a
surprise, since the dearly departed Halliwell
women were always adding things to the book when needed.
Paige scanned through the text.
  "Well, this would have been useful a week ago,"
Paige said. "The Night of Aeolus is pretty
much the entire reason the weather has been so freaky
lately."

  ('he Night of Aeolusst" Paige read
aloud. ""Once every century, the planets align
in such a way that it causes the winds to shift and the
climate to change. During that period, weather
becomes unstable and the Earth begins to shake as the world
falls out of balance.""
  "Oh great, once again we have to save the world,"
Phoebe droned sarcastically. "How many times have
we done that this month?"
  "Hey, I just came here looking for a missing
boy," Darryl reminded them. "This is a little more
than I bargained for."
  Tyler looked worried when Darryl referred
to him.
  "Don't worry," Piper said. "You're not going
anywhere yet. So, how do we put the world in balance
again, Paige?"
  "Apparently, we don't," she replied as she


  continued to read. ""On the Night of Aeolus,
by the light of the full moon, the elements must come together
to set everything in its proper place. To do this, a
Firestarter"-she nodded in Tyler's direction-"is
charged with gathering other Elementals at the Circle
of Gaea to perform the Ritual of the Guardians."
  Tyler looked even more worried. "What are
Elementals? Does that mean there are others like me?"
  "Well, we knew that Firestarters were rare, but
it didn't mean you were the only one," Piper said.
  "I don't think it's just o caret her
Firestarters," Phoebe added. "I think it means
people who can control the other elements." I
  "Other elements?" Tyler asked.
  "Earth, wind, and water," Phoebe explained.
  "Earthstarters?" Tyler asked, making a lame
attempt at a joke to lighten the mood for himself more
than anyone. "That sounds stupid."
  "I'm sure they have some other name," Piper said,
playing along. "So I guess we have to help
Tyler collect the other Elementals. When is this
Night of Aeolus?"
  "Urn ...," Paige replied. "Tonight."
  "Tonight?" Piper repeated as she joined her sister
at the book. "Then why didn't Grams or someone
add this little tidbit to the book earlier? We could have
been working on this all week. It's not like we've
got a bunch of time to run

  around the city and find ... what? Three people by the end
of the day with absolutely no information on who they
are?"
  "Just out of curiosity," Darryl said, "what
happens if the Firestarter doesn't find these . .
. Elementals, and they don't come together for this
Ritual of the Guardians and the Circle of
whasis?"
  "Gaea," Paige said, glancing at Tyler.
"If the elements do not combine, the weather will continue
to wreak havoc . . . and could eventually tear the world
apart."
  "Wait a minute," Tyler said, his voice
quivering. "You mean 7 have to save the world?"
  "Don't worry, we've had a lot of
practice at this," Piper said reassuringly.
"It's not as hard as you'd think."
  "B. .. the whole world?" Tyler asked again, his
eyes showing how overwhelmed he was by the news.
  "It's okay," Phoebe said as she put a hand
on the boy's shoulder to calm him. "We're here-was
  Phoebe's voice cut off as her mind flashed
with the image of a man standing on the rail of the Golden
Gate Bridge . . . then jumping . . . then
bursting into a ball of flame. Then, just as suddenly,
her mind was back with her in the attic.
  "What?" Piper asked, recognizing the signs
of her sister getting a vision.
  "I think I know why that stuff was just added


  to the book," Phoebe said, looking down at
Tyler. "I don't think Tyler was supposed to be
involved in the ritual... and neither were we."
  "What do you mean?" Darryl asked. "What's
going on now?"
  Phoebe looked down at the boy again. "Tyler,
why don't you go downstairs and pour yourself some more hot
chocolate." backslash
  Tyler looked up at Phoebe-well,
technically, due to an early growth spurt, he was
almost as tall as her and pretty much looked her
directly in the eyes. "Do you really think what
you're going to say is any worse than the things
I'm going to think of if I'm not in the room?"
  "Smart kid," Paige said.
  "Phoebe, what did you see?" Piper asked,
obviously agreeing with the boy. "Was it Tyler's
future?" i
  "No," Phoebe replied. "It didn't
involve Tyler at all. Not directly, at
least. I saw some guy ... I think it was the weather
guy on San Fran News ... I saw him
jump off the Golden Gate Bridge and ... he
kinda . . . exploded before he hit the water."
  "I know about that," Darryl said. "But it happened
yesterday. That's not in the future."
  "Yeah, welcome to my wacky power," Phoebe
said.
  "But why are you seeing some other guy when you touched
Tyler?" Paige asked.
  "Sounds like he was a Firestarter too," Leo

  said. "Maybe he and Tyler are linked somehow through
their power."
  "And that guy was supposed to be the one gathering the
Elementals," Piper added, working through the puzzle.
"But when he died the responsibility passed
to Tyler."
  "But why did he commit suicide?" Phoebe
asked. "I mean ... I know saving the world is a
big responsibility and all, but hey, we do it
once a week."
  "I don't think it was suicide," Darryl said.
"Witnesses reported he was being chased by some
guys."
  "You mean demons," Phoebe said.
  "So it is demons! I knew it!" Tyler said.
  "It's okay," Leo said. "All we have to do is
figure out who these demons are-was
  "Or who they work for," Piper added, scanning
down the page her sister had open. "There's more on this
Night of Aeolus. It says, 'If the
Elementals use the ritual to divert the power of the
elements to the demon Tempest, he will be able
to control the weather and the very Earth itself.""
  "I was about to get to that," Paige mumbled.
  "Sorry," Piper said. "Maybe you can look
up this Tempest fella."
  "I don't suppose he's one of those demons
that wants to control the weather so everyone gets to have a
tropical vacation," Phoebe said.
  "Let's find out," Paige said as she flipped


  through the book. "Let's see . . . Tempest .
. . Tempest... I have a Tempus."
  "Been there, vanquished him," Piper said.
  Paige continued flipping, "Here we are . . .
Tempest.... Oh, this is so not good."
  "Of course not," Phoebe mumbled.
  "Give us the Cliff's Notes version,"
Piper said.
  "Well, in short, Tempest is all about
controlling the weather," Paige said.
  "Yeah, we got that part,? Phoebe interrupted.
"Jump to the good stuff."
  "He was banished to a neutral environment that he
can only leave on the Night of Aeolus,"
Paige continued. "Tempest commands a quartet of
demons with the ability to drain the powers of
Elementals. . . . Oh, and look at this, they can
absorb witches' powers too. Goody. . . .
Anyway, if the powers can be collected from four
Elementals by the Night of Aeolus, they will
transfer those powers to their master, and he will be able
to control the weather all over the world."
  "I'm guessing it was one of his minions in
Tyler's room this morning," Leo said.
  "But he couldn't drain anything because Tyler's
powers are bound," Piper added.
  "So this Tempest guy has demons that run around
and do the dirty work for him?" Darryl asked. The question
was mostly rhetorical because he was regretfully
familiar with the tendency of the demon community to rely
on lackeys.

  so
  "Hmmm," Paige said. "That's what we need .
. . minions. We could send them out vanquishing
demons while we just lay around the house eating
bonbons."
  "Or cooking," Piper added wistfully.
  "Or renegotiating our contracts so that we have
an exit clause in cases of a change in
management oversight pursuant to the fair work
practices decision in-was Phoebe stopped herself
when she realized she had gone a little overboard.
"Sorry. I guess I am beginning to understand some
of the legalese in my contract."
  "Okay, so what's the plan?" Darryl asked,
wanting to be able to do something. "I mean, we gotta
get moving on these Elementals, and there's a big
demon and a bunch of little demons to deal with."
  "Well, I think our focus should be the
Elementals," Leo said.
  "But where is this "Circle of Gaea" thing?"
Paige asked. "We have to know how to get the
Elementals there."
  "And how did the demons find Tyler in the first
place?" Piper asked.
  "Maybe they tracked the shift in powers from the
dead guy," Phoebe suggested.
  "I think we're making a few too many
assumptions."
  "What if these Elementals aren't in the area?"
  "How are we supposed to take Tyler around if
half the city is looking for him?"


  "Hey, Piper, how about some of that stew before we
get to work," Paige said. Piper just glared in
response. "Okay, maybe later."
  And just like that, the five adults in the room started
talking about what to do and how to do it. Their cross
talk was fast-paced and utterly confusing, based on
conjecture and assumptions that weren't leading them
anywhere. But that all stopped once Tyler spoke
up.
  "Umm," he said tentatively. "Can I have my
powers back?"
  "What?" Piper asked. "Why?"
  "So I can protect myself," Tyler said.
  "But we can protect you," Piper replied. "Like
we did last time."
  "Actually, honey," Leo said. "I think he
protected us a bit too."
  "I promise I won't use them unless I have
to," Tyler said.
  "I think he's going to need them tonight anyway,"
Phoebe added.
  Piper thought it over for a moment. When they first
met, she had been so much in favor of allowing him
to grow up with his power remaining active, it was odd that
she was reluctant to give it back to him. It was just
that she had gotten so used to the idea of Tyler having
a normal life that she didn't want to put that in
jeopardy. Then again, it looked like the fates were
conspiring against that normal life happening this
weekend.

  "Okay," Piper said. "But remember, the power
is tied to your emotions, so you have to stay in control."
  "I remember," Tyler said. "But do I have
to drink that horrible blue juice again?"
  Piper smiled. He was referring to the binding potion
she had made for him. She suspected it tasted
nothing like her Mulligatawny stew. "No," she
replied, flipping through the Book of Shadows. "I
suspected we'd have to undo the binding someday, so I
wrote up a special spell for it. I just
didn't think we'd be using it so soon."
  Phoebe joined Piper and Paige at the Book
of Shadows and they all joined hands and read together:
  When time is ready
  Or need is dire, Unbind his power
  Return the fire.
  "Did it work?" Phoebe asked as she and her
sisters unclasped hands.
  Tyler looked at Piper, then held out his hand,
palm up, in front of him. He scrunched up his
face while focusing on his hand and Piper knew he
was concentrating on letting his emotions fuel his
fire. But instead of a small fire dancing in his
palm, a giant fireball shot out of Tyler's
hands, knocking him back a step and torching a box
of Christmas decorations.


  "Fire extinguisher!" Paige called out, and a
moment later the item appeared in her hand. She
sprayed down the fire calmly, having burned a
few things herself in her own exploration of magic.
  "Sorry," Tyler said sheepishly. "I was just
trying to make a little fire, like a candle."
  "It's okay," Piper said. "Your power has
been dormant for a while. It makes sense that it
would come on a little strong the first time you used it. I
should have warned you about that."
  "Maybe someone should open a window," Phoebe
suggested as the room filled with smoke and the smell
of the extinguisher's chemicals.
  "Got it," Darryl said as he moved toward the
nearest window and opened it, letting in some fierce
breezes. He leaned out for some fresh air and saw
something that made him pull himself right back into the
room.
  "What is it?" Piper asked when she saw his very
sudden movement.
  "We've got company," he replied as the
doorbell rang.

  1 QO so love it when the demons are kind enough
to use the doorbell," Paige said.
  "It's not a demon," Darryl corrected her,
almost preferring that it were some evil being come to kill them
with magical powers. "It's Agent Harkins from the
FBI."
  "The Feds are after me too?" Tyler asked.
  ""The Feds?"'" Piper said to the boy.
"Exactly how much TV do your parents let you
watch?"
  "Piper!" Tyler said, with concern in his voice.
  "Technically, you are a missing child," Phoebe
reminded him.
  "One that needs to stay missing for the moment," Piper
said.
  "Maybe we should just ignore it," Leo
suggested. "If we're not here, he might go
away."
  "Which would be fine if I wasn't just opening a
window while Harkins was coming up the


  walk," Darryl said, his mind working on the
problem. There was really no reason Harkins had to come
in the house mat he could think of. "Don't know if
he saw me, but I'm not willing to play those odds with
Tyler up here. He's probably just checking out
Paige's connection to Tyler. Let's not give him
a reason! to get suspicious."
  "Okay," Paige said as she came around from behind
the Book of Shadows. "I'll go downstairs with
Darryl. You guys stay up here with Tyler and try
to be quiet."
  As they started down the stairs, Darryl prepped
Paige for what to expect. "He'll probably
ask when you last saw Tyler and what kind of mood
he's been in."
  "It was earlier this week," Paige said. "When
we finalized the adoption papers. And, aside from the
whole being-chased-by-demons thing, he's been a
pretty happy kid. I assume he'll ask about
the fact that Tyler's last set of foster parents
went suspiciously missing."
  "Yeah, and if we can avoid telling him that they were
blown up, or njielted, or split into a thousand
tiny particles, tjhat would be best," Darryl said,
trying to lighten the mood. He knew Paige would be
fine answering Harkins's questions. All three of the
Charmed Ones were good at explaining the unexplained.
Darryl was getting better at it too, he realized
with regret. He braced himself as Paige opened the
door.
  "Yes?" she asked as she saw the agent.

  CHARMED
  "Sorry to . . ." Harkins trailed off as
he saw Darryl. "Inspector Morris, I was
wondering where you were off to."
  "Yeah, sorry l greater-than out that," Darryl
replied as he looked past the FBI agent. His
unmarked-but-obviously-Fbi car was parked on the
street with the same man in the driver's seat.
Darryl glanced up at the sky and noticed that the
storm clouds were, quite literally, gathering above. "I
happen to know Paige and her sisters, so I thought
I'd track down that lead myself. Paige, this is
Sam Harkins."
  "Mr. Harkins," Paige said as she held out
her hand.
  "Ms. Matthews," Harkins replied as he
shook it. His body leaned forward, implying that he
wanted to be asked in. "I assume Inspector
Morris filled you in on the situation."
  "Yes," Paige said, blocking the doorway.
"Have you heard anything new about Tyler?"
  "No," Harkins replied. "But I was hoping you
might be able to help us."
  "I've been trying," Paige replied. "But
I'm sorry, I just don't know where he'd be."
  "She hasn't seen him since the family
finalized the adoption papers earlier this week,"
Darryl repeated what she had just told him, hoping
to finish the interview quickly by providing as much information
as he could. "We were just going over places he might
have gone if he did run away."


  "Yeah," Paige agreed. "Sorry, but I
don't know much about his favorite hangouts. Did
you try some of his school friends?"
  "I have agents on that right now," Harkins said.
  "I know his previous foster parents are out of the
picture," Paige volunteered a little too
willingly. "I don't think they'd have anything to do with
this."
  "That was one of the first things I asked about," Darryl
explained. He could tell that the agent was picking up
on the weird vibe between him and Paige, so he
decided to back off a little and let Paige do the
rest of the talking. At least that was the plan until
they heard the loud crash from upstairs. I
  All three of them slowly looked back to the
staircase as if they expected to find something come
tumbling down. After a beat, Darryl found Harkins
staring at the two of them with a questioning look.
  "That... would be ... my sisters," Paige said,
obviously stalling for time.
  "They're cleaning the attic," Darryl filled in
the blanks. "It took them five minutes to hear
me ringing the bell when I got here."
  "Yeah, when we get into a project, we really
get into a project," Paige said as another crash
punctuated her statement.
  Darryl wondered what was going on upstairs.
He was worried on several counts: First, for

  Tyler's safety, then of course for Piper,
Phoebe, and Leo, and finally for himself, if Harkins
asked to see what all the noise was about.
  "Things look fairly straightforward here,"
Darryl said, hoping Harkins wouldn't notice the
tension in his voice. "I can finish up and report
back to you."
  Harkins looked a little skeptical. "I
guess-was
  Another loud crash from above cut him off, but this
one seemed like it was coming from outside the house.
Paige and Darryl stepped out of the doorway just in
time to watch an old mantel clock come crashing to the
ground three feet away from the FBI agent,
followed by a shower of broken glass. When they
looked up they saw the top of the attic window that
Darryl had opened now had a hole smashed in its
center.
  The FBI agent looked at the more and more
suspicious-acting duo.
  "I know strange things have been coming out of the sky this
week, but this is ridiculous," Paige said.
  "Sorry!" Phoebe yelled as she stuck her
head out the open part of the window.
  Darryl couldn't help but notice that her head
went back into the attic rather quickly, as if someone had
yanked her back inside. He needed to get
Harkins out of there immediately.
  "Last time I cleaned my garage, I wound up
with a big dent in the door when my cedar cabinet
tipped over," Darryl said, before going back


  to the subject of getting Harkins out of there. "Why
don't we meet at the Michaels's place
later. I'll call you if I find anything out in the
meantime."
  "Maybe I should have a look around," Harkins
said.
  "Oh, the place is such a mess and everything's
crazy with the cleaning, as you can see," Paige said,
looking down at the smashed clock on the ground.
"I'd really hate for something else to nearly fall
on you."
  "I got it covered," Darryl added.
  "If you're sure," Harkins said.
  Even though Darryl nodded his consent, the agent
didn't move.
  "Darryl, can I see you down here for a moment?"
he asked.
  Darryl followed Harkins down to the sidewalk.
He could see Paige stuck in the doorway,
wanting to go up to help her sisters with whatever was going
on, but knowing she couldn't leave just yet. He tried
to hurry Harkins along by anticipating what the
agent was going to say.
  "I know I should have mentioned that I knew Paige
and her sisters," Darryl offered. "But I was so
focused on the case that I didn't realize I
hadn't told you until I was halfway here."
  Harkins seemed to consider Darryl's words for a
moment. "Hey, I know these cases get us all a
little geared up," he replied. "But we gotta
keep each other in the loop on what's going on.

  Don't go getting like those cops that can't stand when the
FBI enters their turf."
  "That's not the case here," Darryl said. "I was
gonna call you right after I got done."
  "If it was anyone else, I'd be concerned,"
Harkins said. "But I know you're one of the good guys.
Just keep me posted, okay?"
  "Sure thing," Darryl said as they shook hands.
He watched as Harkins joined his partner in the car.
As they drove off, Darryl could see Harkins reach
for the radio. He knew immediately that their ruse hadn't
been entirely successful.
  "That was close," Paige said as Darryl got
back to the door. "You don't think he's going to come
back with a warrant?"
  "I don't think he could get one if he wanted
to," Darryl said, though his mind was preoccupied with
another thought. "There's nothing to base the warrant
on, even though we couldn't have acted more
suspiciously."
  "What's the matter?" Paige asked. "Aren't
we okay with him gone?"
  "For the moment," Darryl said. "But I don't
think he's going to leave us alone for long."
  His statement was accentuated by the sound of a door being
blown off its hinges.
  "Maybe we should get upstairs," Darryl
suggested.
  Piper closed the attic door behind Paige and
Darryl as they went downstairs to see what the


  FBI agent wanted. For a moment, she thought
back to her life before FBI agents were coming to her
door . . . not to mention warlocks, and demons, and
any number of other evil things. That was back when
she had time in the day to work, cook for herself and her
sisters, and even leave time for a bubble bath. Boy,
how things had changed in recent years.
  "I guess the first thing we should do is try to find
out where these other Elementals are," Piper said as she
crossed to the Book of Shadows.
  When she reached the book, she heard Phoebe
say "New plan!" and knew something was wrong.
Piper turned around and saw that three rather large men
and a very strong-looking woman-whom she assumed were
demons- had just popped themselves inside.
  Piper reflexively swung her hands up to stop
time.
  "There, that should-was but Piper was cut off by the fact
that the demons had not frozen. The female demon
then mimicked Piper's hand motion and a moment later,
each of the male demons somehow managed to have a hold
on Piper, Phoebe, and Leo, while the woman
was grabbing for Tyler.
  "What just happened?" Leo asked.
  But there was no time to answer as Phoebe stomped
her heel on the foot of the demon holding her and
elbowed him in the gut. Then she took three giant
steps across the room toward

  CllApDo
  her sister and levitated four feet in the air.
Piper ducked just as Phoebe kicked her foot
forward, and it met with the demon's chin, knocking him
back and freeing Piper from his grip.
  Leo then took the opportunity to slam his
demon back into the wall behind him with a loud crash, as
the demon smashed into the mirror hanging there.
  Tyler used the distraction to slip free of the
woman's grasp and hide behind some non-charred
boxes of holiday decorations. The female demon
saw him, though, and grabbed him by the foot, dragging
him out from his hiding spot.
  Piper could see him starting to concentrate on
calling up his powers.
  "Tyler, don't!" she said as she dove into the
woman, sending them both crashing through a table.
  When Piper got up, the demon was
unconscious. Free to help the others, she took
in her surroundings and found that Phoebe was in hand to hand
combat with one of the demons while Leo was holding off
the other two with a floor lamp.
  "We can't use our powers," Piper instructed
everyone as she helped Tyler off the floor. "The
demons can absorb them and throw them back at us."
She figured that was what had happened when she'd
tried to stop time on the demons.
  "Thanks for the suggestion," Phoebe said as her
roundhouse kick connected with the side of


  the demon's head, sending him sprawling across the
floor. "But since you and Tyler are the only ones
with defensive powers, I don't think we're in
too much trouble."
  Both women went to join Leo in fighting off the
remaining two demons. Using the element of
surprise, since the demons had their backs to them,
Piper and Phoebe both managed to land a few good
blows as Leo gave a jab to the one Phoebe
attacked. These were the biggest of the demons, and they
put up a good fight.
  In the midst of the action, Piper saw the female
demon regain consciousness and start toward Tyler
again, but Piper was pinned against the wall and couldn't do
anyth ng about it.
  "Phoebe!" she yelled when sister and her husband
seemec
  she saw that her to have the other
  demon under control.
  Phoebe moved to her sister first, but when she saw
where Piper's eyes were turned, she adjusted her
step toward Tyler. She grabbed Grams's
mantel clock-the one she'd always hated-and threw it
at the demon. The woman saw it in time to raise
her arm and deflect it toward the window, where it
crashed through the glass on the top.
  Phoebe used the distraction to land a good blow on
the woman's cheek.
  She continued to the window to make sure the clock
hadn't hurt anyone, since that particular window
looked over the front yard, where Darryl

  and her sister were probably talking to the FBI
agent. A quick peek showed her that everyone was okay,
and looking directly in her direction.
  "Sorry!" she yelled down to them right before the
woman pulled her back into the fight.
  The fighting continued. Even though they were
outnumbered, Piper, Leo, and Phoebe managed
to hold off the four demons with a little assist from
Tyler, who crawled his way underfoot of one of the
smaller big guys at just the right moment.
  Phoebe managed to lift the largest demon over
her shoulder and fling him right through the attic door. With
that demon unconscious, Phoebe, Leo, and
Piper turned their attention on the remaining three in
what seemed to be a stalemate. Piper reached for the
side table next to the Book of Shadows and picked
up a potion bottle with a green liquid inside.
  "Anybody moves and they'll regret it," she
said in the most threatening tone she could manage. "You
might be able to take our powers, but I'm thinking that you
won't be able to absorb this potion when it blows you
up."
  The demons seemed to consider what she was saying.
Even though she only held one bottle, the three
demons didn't like the odds that one of them would be the
target.
  "We're not finished," the woman said as she and the
two remaining conscious demons disappeared.


  "Why aren't they ever "finished"?" Phoebe
asked as she checked on Tyler. "Don't they know
we're the Charmed Ones? Whatever happened to giving
up without a fight?"
  "Pretty convenient that you just happened to have a potion
nearby," Leo said. "Especially one that would kill
these specific demons that we've never encountered
before."
  "Oh, this," Piper said. "It's a sleeping
draft Paige was working on."
  "So, if you threw it at the demons, what would have
happened?" Tyler asked.
  "Nothing much," Piper said. "Probably just
leave a nasty stain."

  y a demon?" Paige asked as she came
back into the attic with Darryl, who was dragging the
demon in question across the floor by his feet.
  Darryl had gotten lots of practice carrying
dead weight back at the Police Academy.
He knew the proper way to bend and pull without doing
damage to his own body. Technically, he was
supposed to fling the body over his shoulder and do the
fireman carry, but Darryl didn't want to give
the demon that kind of leverage should he regain
consciousness. The dummies at the Academy
didn't have the power to fry him, or freeze him, or
whatever this particular demon could do.
  "Where do you want this?" he asked.
  "Put him in the middle of the floor," Piper said
as she slid some things out of the way to


  give him a good clear spot to deposit the
body. "We can hold him here and get some answers
when he regains consciousness."
  Darryl unceremoniously dropped the demon's
feet when he reached the clearing. "You want me
to interrogate him?"
  "Actually, we've become surprisingly good at
this," Phoebe said as she grabbed some candles off the
table from which Piper had gotten the threatening sleeping
potion.
  "Besides, he'll know you're human...," Paige
said, but trailed off as if she was going to say more and
chose not to.
  "And therefore, not much of a threat," Darryl completed
the thought. "Don't worry, I'm used to this by now."
  "If it's any consolation, we might use the good
copstbad cop routine in your honor," Paige said
weakly.
  "Actually, I'm thinkin' just a bunch of bad
cops," Phoebe said as she placed the candles in a
circle around the body.
  "How did things go with the FBI?" Piper asked.
  "Pretty good, I think," Paige said. "The
guy left."
  "For the moment," Darryl added. "I think all the
noise made him a little suspicious. Not to mention the
fact that we wouldn't let him in the house. There's
probably a car on the way with a couple of agents
assigned to watch the place."

  "What went on up here, anyway?" Paige
asked.
  "And where'd he come from?" Darryl added, pointing
to the unconscious body.
  "Tempest's demons attacked," Leo
explained. "Three got away, but they left their
friend behind."
  Darryl watched as Phoebe lit the ring of
candles and Piper came over to sprinkle some kind of
powder along the rim. He had no clue what they were
doing, but assumed that it was some kind of spell to keep
the demon from zapping itself away or hurting anyone.
  "Well, just let me know if you need anything,"
Darryl said, feeling utterly useless.
  "Actually, if you could take Tyler downstairs
for a while, that would be great," Piper said.
  "But Piper, I'm not scared!" Tyler
protested, although his eyes were wide and he wouldn't
take them off the demon.
  "I know you're not," Piper replied. "You were
great when the demons attacked. But I don't
want to give this one the chance to drain your powers.
You're too important to this Night of Aeolus
to risk letting the demon get his hands on you when he
regains consciousness."
  "But Piper!" he tried to protest again.
  "Come on, kid," Darryl said as he put his hand
on Tyler's shoulder. "We can watch TV. I
think Soul Train's on."
  "Great," Tyler mumbled as he was led out of


  the room, never taking his eyes off the demon.
  As they left the attic, Darryl realized that the
demon on the floor was probably the same one that
had tried to take Tyler that morning. He had thought
the bruise on the demon's face had come from the
fight, but realized it probably had more to do with
Tyler's bat. He was even more impressed by the kid
now that he knew just how big the guy was. It
certainly wasn't something that he, Darryl, wanted
to wake up and find hovering over him.
  Darryl guided Tyler down through the house and into the
living room. "Stay clear of the windowsst" he
warned. "In case Harkins's agents return and
start peeking inside. I'll go wheel the TV in from
the conservatory."
  "That's okay," Tyler said.
  "I'm not in the
  mood for TV."
  "Things must be serious," Darryl said as he took
a seat on the couch beside Tyler. "If my son ever
told me he wasn't in the mood for TV I'd
rush him to the hospital."
  Tyler smiled, slightly. "You have a son?"
  "Just a little guy," Darryl replied. "Darryl
Michael Morris Junior. Once this is over,
I'll have to introduce you. His mom and I are always
looking for baby-sitters."
  "I'm only eleven," Tyler reminded him.
  "You're an eleven-year-old who can handle being
chased by demons," Darryl reminded him. "It
took me three years to get used to that,

  and it still trips me out every now and then. I think you'd
be able to manage looking after my son for an evening."
  This time, Tyler rewarded him with a real smile.
  "Mr. Morris-, was Tyler started.
  "Please, call me Darryl," he said, cutting
the boy off.
  "Okay ... Darryl," Tyler said. "Do you
think I'll ever be able to have a normal life?"
  That wasn't a question Darryl had been prepared
to get, but, being a father, he was used to the unexpected
quizzing every now and again. The thing about mis particular
question, though, was that it struck to the very core of what
Darryl had been thinking about a lot recently. His
life had taken a dramatic turn in the years
since his partner was killed by a demon and he found out
about the Charmed Ones and all the insanity that reality
entailed.
  He got used to the fact that his life would always be
in jeopardy shortly after he graduated the
Academy. That was just part of the job. Back then it was
a simple matter of good guys versus bad guys.
Today he was living in a world of gray. Now, he was
lying at work, keeping secrets from his wife, and always
had a nagging concern that he was putting his family's
life in danger since the bad guys he dealt with
weren't the kind that could be safely locked behind bars.


  "Darryl?" Tyler prodded him for an answer,
rousing him from his thoughts.
  "Tyler, I'm going to be honest with you," Darryl
said, figuring that the kid had been through enough already in his
relatively short life that he could handle the
truth. "I don't know what a normal life is.
I don't have any magic powers, and I'm in the
middle of this just like you. What I do know is that those
ladies upstairs will always be watching out for you. If
they say you're going to have a normal life, then it will
be as normal as they can make it for you."
  "Thanks, Darryl," Tyler said, apparently
satisfied with the answer.
  Unfortunately, it didn't manage to ease
Darryl's mind at all. j
  "Paige, remember how I filled the stew pot
with water and left it soaking while I made the
cocoa?" Piper asked as she looked over their work.
  "Yeah," Paige replied.
  "Would you do the honors?" Piper asked, nodding
toward the unconscious demon.
  "Certainly," Paige replied as she held out
both hands. "Stew pot!" The pot orbed from the
kitchen into her hands. She leaned the pot over the head
of the demon and slowly poured out the soapy water,
careful not to let it splash and put out the candles.
Once a third of the water had been poured on his
head, the demon woke, spitting soap from his mouth.

  "What the-," he started to yell before he took in
his surroundings and suddenly had very little to say.
  "Hi there," Piper said. "Your friends had to leave
without you. But don't worry, we're not going anywhere
for the moment."
  The demon sat up and, like a petulant child,
turned away from her.
  "Hi," Phoebe said when she found the demon
facing her. "You can turn in any direction you like, it
doesn't really matter. You're kinda surrounded."
  "You can't hurt me," the demon said.
  "Oh, I'm thinking we can," Piper chimed in as
she slid next to her sister. "You see, we know you
can absorb our powers and throw them back at us, but
I'm figuring that little ability doesn't work against
potions or spells."
  She threw a glance at Phoebe, who waved a
piece of paper in front of the demon's face.
"Admittedly, it's not one of my best, but we were in
a rush."
  "Now, you're going to tell us how you tracked
Tyler here," Piper said.
  "We didn't track him," the demon replied.
  "Well, you're here," Paige said. "So, somehow
I don't think we believe you."
  "We knew he'd be here," the demon said. "There
was no tracking."
  "How did you know that?" Piper asked. "We
didn't know he was going to be here."
  But suddenly, the demon got quiet again.


  "Phoebe, the spell," Piper said, holding out
her hand to her sister.
  "Okay, I'll tell you," the demon replied
rather easily.
  Piper knew that was the benefit of dealing with
minions. They very rarely had loyalty to their masters
when faced with imminent death, and could always be counted on
to squeal like demonic pigs.
  "We went after the kid after we lost the first
Firestarter," the demon said.
  "The guy that jumped off the Golden Gate?"
Phoebe asked for clarification.
  The demon nodded his head. "He didn't know that
we knew where he lived . . . well, when he
lived, that is." He laughed at his own little joke.
"He did a bunch of research finding the other
Elementals, including the kid. Apparently, he
wanted to have a backup in case something happened
to him. Good planning, eh?"
  He waited for a response, but there was none.
  "Was really organized too," the minion
continued. "Told us everything we needed to know about the
other three Elementals and the little Firestarter."
  "Except that Tyler's powers were bound," Piper
said, mentally confirming what they had already suspected
about there being three other Elementals.
  "Yeah, he left that part out," the demon
replied. "But I found that out this morning when

  I tried to drain the kid. Nothing happened."
  "Oh, I wouldn't say that," Piper said, checking
out his bruise. "Looks like you managed to get a good
wallop in the head, if you ask me."
  The demon sneered at her.
  "After the kid got away," he continued, "we
went back to the file. Like I said, it was pretty
thorough and listed a bunch of places we might find
the little guy. This was the first place we figured he'd
go, so we put a guard on the house. When she saw
smoke coming out the window, she figured you'd unbound the
kid's powers, so we attacked."
  "Yeah, we were here for that part," Paige said.
  "Where can we find Tempest?" Leo asked,
cutting to the chase.
  Once again, the demon clamped his mouth shut.
  Piper knew the threat of the spell would only work
so many times. "What about the other Elementals. Where
are they?"
  "I'd rather die," the demon said.
  "That can be arranged," Piper threatened. She
considered asking him where the Circle of Gaea was
located, but she knew he wouldn't answer and she
didn't want to deal with the attitude she would get from
him when he found out they didn't know.
  "Anything else you want to know?" the demon asked
her, smugly. "I've got all day."
  "Actually, you don't," Piper said, suspecting
that the demon would stall for the rest of the


  afternoon if they let him. "And neither do we...
  Phoebe."
  Phoebe held out the paper as she, Piper, and
Paige read aloud:
  This one's going down
  Only three more to go. Then Tempest will frown,
As we vanquish our foe.
  The demon let out a horrible scream that echoed
through the house as he exploded in a colorful light
show. Conveniently, the window was already open-and smashed,
too-so the smoke from the burning demon blew away
quickly.
  "Then Tempest will frown?" Paige asked,
skeptically.
  "Hey, it was all I could come up with on short
notice," Phoebe replied. "I said it wasn't
my best work."
  Piper watched the last of the demon smoke fly out
the window and noticed that it was beginning to rain. "We
should cover that or something, before all the rain comes in."
  "I'll take care of it," Leo said. He was
used to making quick patches around the house, what with the
tendency of uninvited guests toward smashing the
place up. "But first, how are we going to find the
rest of the Elementals?"
  "I have an idea about that," Piper replied.
"Meet us downstairs when you're done."

  It W3S all Darryl could do not to jump when
he heard the blood-curdling scream echo through the
house. He assumed that the demon was no more, although
he hadn't expected the big, hulking man to scream
like a little girl as he was vanquished.
  "What was that?" Tyler asked as he jumped up
off the couch and turned toward the scream.
  "My assumption is that man who came after you this
morning will never come after you again," Darryl replied.
  "Good," Tyler said softly as he sat back
down.
  Darryl sat in silence with Tyler for a moment,
wondering what the next course of action would be. Just
because one of Tempest's followers was taken care of
didn't mean it was safe to take Tyler home
yet. He also wondered if that scream could be heard
on the street. They certainly didn't


  need anyone else to come poking around.
  "Maybe we can go back upstairs now," Tyler
suggested.
  "That's okayst" Piper said. "We thought we'd
bring the party to you."
  The Charmed Ones filled Darryl and Tyler in
on what little they had learned upstairs. It only
took a moment, and had Darryl worrying once again
what their next move would be.
  "So, what's the plan?" he asked. "How do we
find the Elementals?"
  "Tyler," Piper said. "Did I ever tell you
about scrying?"
  "Is that where you use the crystal and the map to find
someone?" Tyler asked. "Paige showed me how when
Britney Spears was in town."
  All the adults in the room shot Paige a
look.
  "What? He's a preteen boy, who else would
he want to locate?" she said, defending her actions
and choice of person to scry.
  "Don't you need a personal object or something
to do that?" Darryl asked. He had watched the Charmed
Ones scry on occasion.
  "He had her CD," Paige said. "It was good
enough."
  "No, I meant with the Elementals," Darryl said
with a laugh.
  "Oh," Paige simply replied.
  "I was thinking that Tyler must have a connection to the
other Elementals," Piper said. "We

  could work with him to scry their locations and go meet
them."
  "And tell them that if they don't come with us to some
secret destination in the middle of the night that the world as
we know it will come to an end?" Phoebe asked.
  "Something like that," Piper replied.
  "Just checking," Phoebe said. "Sounds like a
plan to me."
  "We have a plan?" Leo asked as he joined the
group.
  "The beginning of one," Piper replied.
  "This should just take a moment," Paige said as she
unfolded the map of San Francisco on the
coffee table in front of Tyler and held out the
scrying crystal. "Now, Tyler, I want you
to hold on to this crystal and dangle it over the
map."
  Tyler took the chain that Paige held out to him and
moved the crystal on the end over to the coffee table as
instructed.
  "Great," Piper said as she put her hand on top
of his. "We'll do this together. Think of it like a
Ouija board. Just let your hand drift over the
map, and the stone will guide you where it wants to go."
She let Tyler guide as both their hands hovered
over the map, moving in a circular motion.
  "Like this?" Tyler asked.
  "Perfect," Paige replied. "If we're
lucky this should only take-was
  The crystal dropped on the map.

  "Did I do it right?" Tyler asked, looking
over his shoulder at Paige.
  "Well, sort of," Paige replied as she
leaned down over the map. "You found yourself."
  Since Darryl was the closest to the map, he
leaned in and saw that the scrying crystal had, in
fact, landed directly on Halliwell Manor.
"It's a start," he said encouragingly. "Now just
find the other three."
  Darryl could see a look of frustration briefly
cross Tyler's face, but he had to give the kid
props for pulling the chain back up and swinging it over
the map once again without a grumble or a complaint.
It was bad enough that Darryl had to deal with all this
crazy magic stuff as an adult; he couldn't
imagine going through it all at Tyler's age.
  It took a few minutes, but Tyler and Paige
managed to drop the scrying crystal on three more
points on the map of San Francisco.
Naturally, the other three Elementals had
to currently be spread across the city.
  The first drop of the saying crystal-after it had
located Tyler-landed on a building in the
financial district. Considering that it was already
Saturday afternoon, Darryl figured that there would be
less people in that area to get in the way, which was lucky.
The second location appeared to be an elementary
school in Stonestown, though Darryl couldn't
imagine who would be in a school on Saturday other

  than maybe the janitorial staff. The third
location took the longest to find, and it wound up being
San Francisco General Hospital. Darryl
hoped they hadn't found some bedridden patient, since
he or she would have a difficult time getting out to the
Circle of Gaea, wherever that may be.
  "Looks like we're going to have to split up,"
Phoebe said.
  "I'm with Piper!" Tyler announced, which
didn't come as a surprise. Darryl noticed that
the boy seemed to gravitate to that sister over the
others, in spite of the fact that Paige was his
social worker. Once this was all over, he intended
to ask how Tyler came into their lives in the first
place. But that was a story for a different time.
  "Actually, I'm thinking you should be with Darryl,"
Piper said. "Is that okay?"
  Darryl realized she was posing the question to him and not
Tyler. "Fine with me, but I don't think we can
stay here all afternoon." He crossed to the window,
peered out, and saw what he had expected. "Harkins
has a car posted outside. I don't know if it's
here to watch the house or to follow me, but either way
it's going to look suspicious if I spend the day
doing nothing but sitting in your house while the kid
I'm supposed to be looking for is right next
to me."
  "Good point," Leo said. "Is there some kind of
safe house you could take him to?"
  "The only one that wouldn't raise any questions would be
my own home," Darryl said.

  Brewing Storm

  That response was met by silence. It was obvious
that Leo and the Charmed Ones were reluctant to bring that
kind of threat straight to Darryl's family, but he
knew that there was no other option.
  "Little Darryl is with his grandparents for the night,"
Darryl explained. "So only Sheila's at the
house. If those demons only found Tyler here because
your address was in some guy's notes, then the odds of
them finding my place are slim."
  "But what if they're watching the Manor right
now?" Paige asked. "They could follow you home and
attack."
  "I've followed enough people in my life to know how
to lose a tail," lparryl said. "Besides, there'd be
no reason to follow me, since I won't be seen
leaving the house with Tyler."
  "You'll need me to orb him to your place," Leo
said, catching on.
  "Actually, I need you to do something else,"
Piper said. "Paige will have to do the orbing."
  "Fine with me," Paige said as she gave Tyler
a smile. "And maybe we can stop off on the way
and pick up some clothes for you. Unless you're okay
with being in your pajamas all day?"
  "Clothes would be nice," Tyler agreed.
  "Just be careful," Phoebe warned. "His
picture's probably all over the place by now."
  "I am nothing if not the queen of stealth,"
Paige replied.

  "So, what do you need me to do?" Leo asked his
wife.
  "Go to the Elders and see if you can pry the location
of the Circle of Gaea from them," she replied. "I
figure if they get back to you with their usual
lightning-quick response, then you shouldn't be any
longer than all afternoon."
  A lightning bolt struck off in the distance, as if
in response to her sarcasm. Darryl noticed that the
storm was getting more intense, which would make it easier
for him to lose a tail if he got one.
  As the Charmed Ones divvied up the locations of the
Elementals, Darryl took another look out the
window. The sedan was still parked across the street, with the
FBI agents inside making no effort to blend in
with the surroundings. Since they wanted to be seen,
Darryl assumed that they were just watching the house in
case Tyler showed up. He continued checking the
street for any other watchful eyes, but saw nothing
out of the ordinary through the rain, though he wondered if the
demons following them had the power to make themselves
invisible. Again, these were the kinds of things he hadn't
had to worry about when he was fresh out of the Academy.
  "So we've got a plan," Darryl said as he
turned back into the room. "I'll go out first.
Piper, you and Phoebe should wait a few minutes
before you go to your cars so it doesn't look


  like we're all leaving at once. The agents will
probably keep watching the house, especially if
they think Paige is still inside."
  "You don't think they might come to the door?"
Paige asked.
  "Well, they don't know that you didn't already
leave before they got here," Darryl said. "When you and
Tyler orb over, meet me in the garage. I think
Sheila will have fewer questions if I come in with him instead
of you bringing him to me."
  "Got it," Paige said, giving a little mock
salute.
  Tyler, however, looked a little tentative about
leaving the Charmed Ones. ,
  "Hey, Tyler," Darryl said. "You'll like it
at my place. I've got Gamecube and a ton
of games."
  "Do you have SSX3?" Tyler asked, his eyes
practically bugging out.
  Darryl smiled and nodded.
  Suddenly, Tyler looked quite eager to get there.
  Darryl wished the ladies and Leo luck and
made his way out of the house after promising to keep his
cell phone open should they need him and Tyler to get
somewhere on a moment's notice. As he stepped out
into the rain, he did another quick check up and down the
block, but only saw the agents' car. He gave
them a little wave as he got into his own car and
wasn't surprised when they waved back, confirming
that

  they did want to have their presence known.
  When Darryl pulled away, he was glad to see
that the agents didn't follow him. It would be hard enough
trying to convince his wife to hide a missing child at the
house without having to do it directly under the eyes of the
FBI. So much for their romantic evening.
  Even though Darryl didn't notice anyone-or
any demon-following them, he still took a
circuitous route, winding through the streets of San
Francisco. He purposely took three times
longer to get home than he normally would, giving
Paige enough time to orb Tyler into some new clothes
first. He wasn't surprised at all to find them
waiting in the garage when he got there.
  "Take the long way?" Paige asked softly as
Darryl got out of the car.
  Darryl knew they didn't have to whisper since the
garage was not attached to the house, but he didn't
want to tempt fate either way, so he spoke in
soft tones as well. "I'm pretty sure I
wasn't followed. I think we're okay here."
  "Here, take this in case," Paige said as she
handed him a potion bottle. "If a demon should show
up, throw it and duck. It should take care of him."
  "What if there's more than one?" Darryl asked as
he examined the bottle with the red liquid inside.
  "Run," Paige replied. "We only had enough
ingredients to make the one bottle."


  Darryl carefully pocketed the potion, not wanting
to risk breaking the one magical defense he had
against attack. Once he was sure it was safe, he
turned his attention to Tyler, who looked much calmer
than he had at the Manor. "Hey, Tyler,
nice threads."
  "Thanks," Tyler replied. He looked like
he'd stepped straight out of a Gap Kids ad.
  "I don't think we've really thanked you for this,"
Paige said.
  She was about to say more, but Darryl silenced her
by raising his hand. He looked down at Tyler, who
epitomized the word "innocence."
  "Just doing my job," Darryl said.

  you forgot something," Tempest said as three of his
four minions appeared at his feet.
  The female minion stepped forward, leaving her
partners silently behind her, where Tempest suspected
they really preferred to stay.
  "We were overpowered," she said. "The Charmed Ones
were ... powerful."
  "Yes," Tempest said. "Overpowerful,
apparently. Why did it take you so long to get
back? They could not possibly have been overpowering you
for an hour."
  "We did not want to return empty-handed," she
explained.
  "And yet you did."
  "Once we fled the house, we waited outside
and watched for an opportunity to strike again."
  Well, at least what they lack in intelligence,
they make up forwith dedication, Tempest thought.


  "I take it that opportunity never arose?" he
asked.
  The female seemed reluctant to speak. She
looked back to the others, but they provided no
support whatsoever.
  "We saw a man and two of the witches leave the
house," she explained. "We thought that left only
two adults with the Firestarter."
  "And?"
  "When we were teleported back inside, the house
was empty," she continued, hardly masking the confusion
in her voice. "We searched from top to bottom, but
it was like they disappeared."
  "Maybe because they did," Tempest suggested.
  "Yes, master," she said., "We humbly
apologize."
  "Stop!" Tempest said as the three minions
started to bow. "We're wasting time. Move on to the
next phase of the plan. Once you collect the
powers from the other Elementals you can go back for the
Firestarter." j
  "Yes, master," the female said as she and the big
guys looked up at their leader in awe of his plan.
  "Well... go."
  Once Paige had turned Tyler over
to Darryl, she orbed to the Stonestown section of
San Francisco and right into the auditorium of
Woodrow

  Wilson Elementary School. Her mind was
immediately whisked back to her own childhood when she
saw the auditorium seats, so obviously
designed for the comfort of children instead of adults. There were
so many mornings when she had sat at her old school
assemblies saying the Pledge of Allegience and
singing silly songs, like "Happy Talk" or
"Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'." Now that she
was an adult, she feared that she would never sing about
corn being as high as an elephant's eye again in
her life.
  That might not be such a horrible thing, she thought.
  Paige had intentionally orbed herself into a back
corner of the auditorium in case there was some kind of
special event taking place that would have brought the
Elemental to school on a Saturday. The place
was conveniently empty, which would make finding her charge
much easier. She left the auditorium in search
of the person, checking out the impressive building as
she went.
  The school was one of the newer ones in the city and
hadn't fallen into that state of disrepair that, sadly,
more and more schools were getting into these days. Wilson
Elementary was definitely one of the more affluent
public schools in the city. Paige was always
amazed at the differences in public education within the
same school system. It moved her to think that most
of the kids she dealt with in social services would


  never have this kind of education simply because of the part of the
city their parents had chosen to live in. Okay, she
knew that she was jumping to conclusions without really knowing
the school, but when she peeked into the room full of
brand new Apple Gibled computers, it sent her
head spinning.
  She was considering orbing into the locked room to check
things out when the sound of a crash from down the hall
reminded her why she was at the school in the first
place. Paige took off down the hall, but was
careful not to run directly into the commotion. Her
caution was rewarded when a chair came flying out of a
classroom and just missed her head. If she had
been only one step ahead of herself, she would
probably be unconscious on the cold, yet
sparkling clean, floor.
  Paige exercised even more caution as she peeked
into the classroom and took in the situation.
  The place was unlike any classroom that she
had had in her childhood. First of all, there were no
desks on the carpeted floor. There were a few
chairs and a stack of mats along the multicolored
wall. The only desk in the room was the teacher's,
and that looked more like it was from Ikea than from any
warehouse that specialized in those big, wooden
school desks that looked like they weighed a thousand
pounds. This desk seemed rather flimsy by comparison-a
fact that

  concerned Paige, because there was a man trying to hide
behind it and shield himself from a demon attack.
  I'm guessing that's my Elemental, she thought.
  Paige considered her options. The demon's
back was to her, so she thought about rushing him, but he was
a pretty big demon. Her sisters had already
warned her about using her powers against him. She
certainly didn't want to give him the power to orb
her down to the boiler room-not that she thought this
high-tech school had an actual boiler in it.
  As she watched the demon approach the teacher's
flimsy desk, she saw the pile of mats fly
toward the hulking behemoth.
  "No!" she called out, trying to warn the man against
using his powers, but it was already too late. Her yell
did distract the demon, however, and as he turned
toward her, he was buried under a pile of padded
mats.
  Paige ran past the demon who was stuck under the
mats and joined the man behind the desk. She had been
concerned about it protecting one person, but knew that it
was not substantial enough to keep the two of them safe.
  "Hi, I'm Paige," she said as she watched the
demon dig himself out from under the mats. "And I'll be
your rescuer today."
  "Thanks," the man said. "I'm Raphael, but
my rescuer can call me Rafe. Who is that man?
And why is he trying to kill me?"


  "Long story," she replied. "We have to get you
out of here."
  "I've got to get these animals out of here," he
said.
  "Animals?" Paige asked. For the first time she
noticed that the far wall was lined with cages and
terrariums filled with small critters ranging from
iguanas to what looked to be possums. She did
appreciate the guy's concern for the critters, but they
weren't the ones in danger. "What kind of class
is this?"
  Paige didn't have time to find out the answer to her
question because the demon had managed to extricate himself
entirely from the pile and was moving toward them
menacingly.
  "We can come back for the animals," Paige said.
"But we should get someplace safer."
  "I'll create a diversion," Rafe said as he
shut his eyes to concentrate.
  "Wait," she warned, but once again it was too
late. Paige watched as the demon was pelted
by chalk.
  "Run!" Rafe said as he dashed out from behind the
desk and past the demon.
  Paige had no choice but to follow. She hunched
down, bracing herself for the demon's counterattack, but
none came.
  "This way," Rafe said once they were out in the
hall. He ran in the direction that Paige had
come, back to the auditorium. "Now can you tell me
who's after me ... and why?"

  "It's a demonst" Paige said as they ran.
  "A demon?" Rafe repeated, unsure that he
had heard her correctly. "You mean an actual
demon?"
  "Yeah," Paige replied as they passed the
computer room. "Demons are real. Look, you
can't use your powers against it."
  "So you figured out I'm telekinetic," Rafe
said. "What tipped you off?"
  "Oh, you're more than that," Paige replied.
"But we'll get to that later. Just don't use your
powers. It could make things worse."
  "But I didn't have a problem a minute ago,"
Rafe said.
  "Yeah, I wonder why that was?" Paige thought
out loud. They finally reached the auditorium.
Paige looked back to see that the demon wasn't
following them yet and figured he was still fighting off the
chalk missiles.
  "Please tell me what's going on," Rafe
said as they entered the auditorium. He led her down
to the stage.
  "In a minute," Paige replied. She needed
his full attention while they dealt with the demon and
figured if she got into the whole explanation of him
being an Elemental and having to save the world right now,
she would probably lose some of his focus on the
immediate situation. "Where are we going?"
  "It's like a maze backstage," Rafe said.
"I figure whoever this guy is will give up looking
for us after a while."


  "Fat chancest" Paige said as they darted across the
stage. "What happened before I got here? And what
are you doing in school on a Saturday?"
  "One of my student's parents works at the zoo,"
Rafe explained as he led Paige through the
backstage area, past smaller classrooms and
storage areas. "She lent us all the animals you
saw in my room for the week. I came in to pick
up the cages and return them to the zoo. Had to wait
for the weekend so I could borrow my friend's truck."
  "And that's when the demon attacked?" Paige
asked.
  "You keep saying demon," Rafe said,
incredulous about the information. "What? Like Satan's
minion or something?"
  "Minion, yes. Satan, not so much," Paige
said, trying to keep the conversation on track. She
didn't blame him for the confusion. It was a lot
to take in. "Anyway, did he use some kind of
power on you?" andbrvbar;.
  "No," Rafe said. "He just threatened me with his
big bulky body. I considered fighting him off, but
did you see the size of his arms?"
  "Yeah," Paige said. The guy was
impressive, but she knew her sisters had already
taken the demon on once that day. She chose
to leave that part out, in deference to the feelings of the guy
she was trying to save.
  "At first I thought he was a mugger," he said.

  "But who would mug a teacher? And in the middle of a
second-grade classroom, no less."
  Paige looked around the room he had led her
into. It was a computer graveyard, and had a number
of dead pieces of expensive-looking equipment.
She tried to focus on the "computer" aspect of the
room and ignore the "graveyard" part.
  "Oh, I know the school looks impressive,"
Rafe said, reading her mind. "But I'm still a
public school teacher. Not a mugger's prime
target."
  "Yeah, well, he wasn't trying to get your
wallet," Paige said.
  "We should be safe down here," Rafe said. "So
who are you, exactly?"
  "I was sent to protect you," Paige said as she
took in the dark room. "How am I doing so far?"
  "Depends," Rafe said. "I'm not dead yet,
so let's chalk that up as a positive."
  "We need to figure out how to defend ourselves in
here," Paige said. "Demons always have a way of
find-was
  The door exploded inward, cutting Paige off
as it slammed into her and knocked her to the ground.
  "I don't have time for this!" the demon yelled as
he reached for Rafe.
  Paige watched as Rafe, out of fear or
habit, focused on the demon in the same way that
Tyler focused on bringing forth his fire. Before she
could say anything, the demon held out his


  hand and a sky blue energy flowed out of Rafe's
body toward the demon. She saw Rafe's mask
of concentration break and turn into a look of shock.
  The demon was draining his power.
  "Here's a little snackst" Sheila put a bowl
of microwave m less-than
  Morris said as she tcaroni and cheese
  along with a juice box in front of Tyler, who
was sitting at the kitchen table. "Enjoy. Darryl and
I will be out in the living room if you need us."
  Darryl knew he was in for it. He had only
given Sheila a brief-and carefully
highlighted-explanation of the chain of events that led him
to secretly bring a missing child into their home. He
knew that Sheila wouldn't cause a problem in
front the boy, but now that she had gotten him out of the
way with a quick meal, Darryl knew he was in for it.
  "Now, let me explain before you go off on me,"
Darryl said with a lighthearted smile as his wife
joined him in the living room.
  "Don't you smile at me," Sheila said,
calmly. "Who are these people looking for Tyler?"
  "It has to do with his past," Darryl said, choosing
his words carefully. He had no problem concealing the
truth from her, but it was the outright lying that he wasn't
comfortable doing. "Before he was adopted."
  "So, what? Evil foster parents?" Sheila
asked.
  "Something like that," Darryl agreed, going

  with the easiest route of explanation. "It's just too
dangerous for him to go home right now."
  "So you brought him here?" Sheila asked. Her
tone was subdued. She wasn't angry with her
husband, just confused. "What if Darryl Junior
was home?"
  "Then I would have brought him somewhere else,"
Darryl said. "This was the safest place I could think
of."
  "Safer than the police station?" Sheila asked,
taking a seat on the couch. "Darryl, what's going
on?"
  "Nothing," he said, coming the closest to a lie that
he was comfortable telling. "Nothing at all for you
to worry about." He considered sitting beside her on the
couch, but decided to remain standing and maintain a safe
distance. His wife could be a formidable woman when she
got riled.
  "But I do worry," Sheila said. "And not just because
I'm the wife of a cop. Things have gotten weird
around here since Andy died."
  Darryl knew what she was talking about. His
partner's death was roughly around the time he found out that the
world, as he knew it, didn't really exist.
Instead, the planet was full of magical
creatures waging a war between good and evil, and his city
was one of the fronts in that battle, and his friends were
major players.
  "What's weird about a missing child?" Darryl
asked.


  "You bringing him home with you," Sheila replied.
  "You're the only one who can bring work home?"
Darryl asked, making a lame attempt at a
joke.
  Sheila only smiled slightly as she shook her
head in resignation. "I don't suppose the
Halliwells are involved in this somehow."
  It was all Darryl could do to maintain his neutral
expression and not reveal his shock. Sheila was much more
in tune to events than he had suspected. It
shouldn't have surprised him. She was an amazing
woman.
  "Darryl, if I go in there and ask Tyler if
he knows Piper, Phoebe, and Paige, what will
he say?" Sheila asked, getting up from the couch and
approaching her husband]
  "That you are one good detective," Darryl
replied.
  "Don't try to butter me up," Sheila said.
"Tell me what's going on."
  "I would, honey," Darryl said. "But it's not my
secret to tell. And right now I need to focus on
keeping that boy safe. Can we please leave this
discussion for some other time?"
  "Okay," Sheila agreed. "But don't you think
I'm going to forget about this."
  "I love you," Darryl said.
  "You'd better," Sheila replied with a laugh as
they kissed.
  Their brief moment of romance was interrupted when
Darryl's cell phone rang. He took

  the phone off his belt and reluctantly pulled out
of his kiss. The display on the phone indicated that it
was the chief calling, probably for a status
report.
  "Hey, chiefirst" Darryl answered as he
stepped out to the hall. "What's up?"
  "That's what I was wondering," the chief replied
over the phone. "Are you coordinating things with the
FBI? I heard you left the crime scene."
  "Yeah," Darryl said, assuming the chief meant
that he heard that Darryl had left the scene without
coordinating with Harkins. He tried to lower his
voice so Sheila wouldn't hear him. "I had to stop
by the house on the way to check out a lead."
  "I just got a report that the crime scene
investigators found some blood on a bat the kid
kept in his room," the chief said. "Looks like it
is a kidnapping. I need you to meet Harkins
back at the scene ASAP."
  Darryl tried to come up with some excuse to explain
his potential delay, but nothing was coming. "I'll be
there as soon as I check out this lead."
  "Well, make it quick," the chief said. "Keep
me posted."
  Darryl hit the end button on his phone and
walked back to the living room, where he found
Sheila standing with her arms crossed, staring at him.
He immediately regretted not taking the call in another
part of the house entirely.


  "Your boss doesn't even know that you found the
kid?" Sheila asked.
  "Look, it's complicated," Darryl said. "I
can't get too many people involved.
  "At least tell me his parents know that their son
is being protected," she said.
  Darryl's silence gave her the answer.
  "Those people are probably worried sick,"
Sheila said. "How can you have their child here and let them
worry like that?"
  "I said it was complicated," he replied, trying
to figure out how much of the story he could share.
  "That is not acceptable," Sheila said. "You get
back there and tell them their son is safe. I'll
watch Tyler."
  At that moment Tyler just happened into the room.
"Are you going somewhere?" he asked, the concern showing in
his voice.
  "Darryl's going to let your parent's know you're
okay," Sheila said as she moved over to the boy and
put a calming hand on his shoulder. "He won't be
gone long."
  Darryl knew that he really didn't have a choice
in the matter. Aside from the fact that his wife was
putting her foot down, he didn't want to put his
job in jeopardy either. Besides, an appearance at the
crime scene would go a long way toward making his
actions look less suspicious. Naturally, he
had to weigh all those facts against leaving his wife
unprotected and

  chApo
  unaware of the kind of danger Tyler was in.
  "Did you finish your snack?" Darryl asked the
boy.
  "I wasn't very hungry," Tyler replied, which
Darryl understood.
  "I'm just going to talk to him before I go," Darryl
told Sheila as he took Tyler back to the
kitchen.
  "Do you have to go?" Tyler asked.
  "I won't be long," Darryl said. "But I
think I do need to stop by your house. At least to let
your parents know that you're alive. It's just something I
need to do."
  "I think you do too," Tyler reluctantly
admitted. "Your wife sounded mad."
  "Not mad, just strong-willed," Darryl said as he
reached into his pocket and pulled out the bottle
Paige had given him. "Take this potion for
protection. You should be safe here, but in case a
demon comes in, throw it at him, then grab
Sheila and run. I need you to look after my wife
for me, okay?"
  "Okay," Tyler said, looking a little more comfortable
with the idea that he had been given some
responsibility. Having a weapon didn't hurt
either.
  "Remember," Darryl warned. "Don't use
your powers unless you really have to." He went back
out to the living room to tell Sheila that she'd won.
She was already holding his jacket for him.

  in
  "Be careful," Sheila said as she gave him a
kiss on the cheek.
  "Don't open the door for anyone you don't
know," Darryl said, doubting that demons would use the
door to get in. "And if someone gets in the house,
don't try to be a hero. Just grab Tyler and go."
  "I love you," she said as she pushed him to the
door.
  "I love you too," he replied, worrying that
he was making a huge mistake.

  f plllled her car off Twenty-third Street
  and into the San Francisco General Hospital
parking garage. It took her several loops up the
different levels to find an empty spot, which did
not bode well for her finding her Elemental quickly
once she got in the building. Considering this was only
one of the parking areas for the hospital-which consisted of
numerous buildings over several city blocks-
Phoebe knew there would be plenty of innocents
to choose from.
  She got out of the car and took the elevator down
to ground level, where she dashed across the street
to keep from getting too drenched. She knew she should
have changed out of her short skirt before going out in this
weather, but she really didn't have the time.
  The hospital lobby was buzzing with people.


  Phoebe considered asking for help at the information
desk but she worried that she'd be sent to the psych
ward if she asked if they knew if anyone with the
power to control the elements was on the premises.
  Phoebe bypassed the lobby, heading down a long
hall to her right toward the emergency room. She
figured that was as good a place as any to start, and an
even better place to wind up should one of
Tempest's demons attack. The problem was,
she still didn't have an idea how she was going
to locate the Elemental.
  She briefly considered touching everyone she
passed, hoping that one of them showed her a future with
Tyler in it. But that plan had several flaws. First
of all, she couldn't just go around touching every single
person in the hospital. Then there was the possible
problem of seeing other people's futures that could distract
her from her mission. On top of that, a hospital was
not exactly the kind of place where you want to go
touching potentially germ-filled people.
  As she reached the ER, Phoebe passed a large
tropical fish tank set into the wall. The search
narrowed when she saw the water in the tank swirling in
a violent whirlpool, sending the fish in circles
at dizzying speeds. Phoebe looked through the water
and saw a slightly frazzled
African-American woman in a lab coat
flipping through some charts.
  "Bingo!" Phoebe said as she walked to the

  CkA caret MED
  door and into the room. The place looked like some
kind of waiting room, and it was conveniently empty
except for the woman.
  "Excuse me," Phoebe asked. "Can you help
me?"
  "Admitting is down the hall," the woman said
without looking up from her charts.
  "That's not the kind of help I had in mind,"
Phoebe said, checking the fish tank. The water was
swirling even faster. The doctor was still not looking
up. "I was wondering if you were doing that?"
  "Doing what?" the doctor asked, still refusing
to look up.
  "That," Phoebe said, taking the doctor's arm and
pointing her in the direction of the tank.
  The doctor looked at the water and hardly
reacted to its weird motion. "Sorry. Don't
know what you're talking about." She returned her
attention to the paperwork.
  "Yeah," Phoebe said. "For some reason I
don't believe you, doc."
  "Look, Miss," the woman said
exasperatedly. "I'm not officially a doctor
yet, I'm a med student ... a very busy med
student. I don't really have time to stop and watch the
fish swim by."
  "Do you have the time to stop and save the world?"
Phoebe asked, finally getting the woman's
attention. She knew this because the water came to a
dramatic halt. "That's better. I'm Phoebe
Halliwell. And you are?"


  "Gabrielle," the med student replied.
"Gabrielle Chambers. What do you mean, save
the world?"
  "Let's start at the beginning," Phoebe said,
taking a seat. "How long have you been able to control
water?"
  "Control water?" the woman said, sitting beside
her. "I don't know what you're talking about."
  "Look I-we-don't have time for games,"
Phoebe said.
  "No, honestly," Gabrielle said. "I really
don't know what you're talking about. All my life
I've been comfortable around the water. I love
to swim and surf and go boating. And yeah, every now and
then I notice weird things happening, like the water
in the tank just now. But I'm not controlling it."
  Phoebe didn't know where to begin. It was one thing
to tell the woman she had to use her power to save the
world, it was quite another to have to start from scratch and tell
her that she had a power that she could us less-than to
save the world.
  "Although that does explain that time I walked on
water," Gabrielle said. "I just thought I was on
a sandbar out in the ocean. Now you're telling me that
I did that? I can make the water do what I
want... like Aquaman?"
  "Actually, I think he just tells the fish what
to do," Phoebe replied. "But yeah, you can make
water do what you want it to do."
  "Wow," Gabrielle said.

  Phoebe let the woman sit silently for a
moment to absorb the impact of what she had just
learned.
  "Well, I gotta get back to work,"
Gabrielle said as she got back up.
  "Wait a second," Phoebe said. "That's it?
You just found out you have a magical power and that's it?"
  "Phoebe," Gabrielle said. "I'm a
thirty-six-year-old medical student. I don't
have the time to sit and think things over right now. I'll
worry about my magical power when my shift is
over... sometime next week."
  "Thirty-six-year-old med student?" Phoebe
said. "And I thought I waited too long to start a
career . . . that I'm going to be stuck in for the rest
of my life."
  "This is career number two," Gabrielle said.
"I was a lawyer in my twenties."
  "You went from being a lawyer to being a doctor?"
Phoebe asked.
  "Technically, I'm not a doctor yet,"
Gabrielle reminded her. "Which is why I'll
deal with this later. I've got work to do right now.
Thanks for the news."
  "Actually, there's more," Phoebe said, trying
to get back to the whole "saving the world" thing.
  "Sorry," Gabrielle said. "I just don't have
time for "more.""
  As Gabrielle started toward the door, a chair
came crashing through the tank, sending water and
tropical fish all over the floor.


  Phoebe looked through the broken glass to see one
of the demons standing in the hall.
  Piper reached the glass doors of the bank and
pulled, knowing that they would be locked. She was right. The
sign on the door indicated that the bank had closed
an hour earlier.
  "Stupid Saturday hours," she mumbled to herself
as she tried to stay dry under the small overhang.
The rain was coming down harder, and the sky was so dark it
almost appeared as if it was already night.
  Piper banged against the glass door, worried that
her Elemental may have left. She peered inside,
but the place looked entirely empty. *
  "Hello!" she called out as she banged on the
glass once again. "Is anybody in there?"
  This time, her knocking was rewarded when she saw an
older woman come out of an office in the back. She
looked to be in her mid-sixties and was dressed in
a very professional dark blue suit.
  It took the woman almost a minute to get across the
huge bank lobby, during which time Piper got more and
more soaked by the rain. She used the delay to test her
speech out in her mind. She thought, for some reason, it
might be difficult to convince the woman that she had
to come along with her to stop a demon from controlling the
weather and taking over the world. Although Piper was getting
more and more used to telling people weird magical truths.

  When the woman reached the door, she unlocked it
without hesitation and let the soaking wet stranger into the
bank. Piper knew this was not standard bank operating
procedure.
  "I almost gave up hope on you showing up," the
woman said. "It's getting late."
  "I'm sorry," Piper said as she stepped into the
dry bank. The air was much cooler inside, causing
her to shiver in her wet clothes. "I don't think
I'm the person you were expecting."
  "Well, that depends," the woman said. "Is your
name Piper, Phoebe, or Paige?"
  Well, that was unexpected, Piper thought.
  "Ummm . . . Piper," she replied, unsure
of how the woman had known she was coming when she herself
didn't even know until a short time ago.
  "Then you're exactly the person I was
expecting," the woman said.
  "How did you know I was coming?"
  The woman smiled. "First things first. I assume
you have the young Firestarter under your protection,
correct?"
  Piper was just getting more and more confused by this strange
woman. "Yes," she said.
  "Very good," the woman said. "Then we're
halfway to performing the Ritual of the Guardians."
She handed Piper a handkerchief to wipe her face.

  j 81jjCan ,.. flCI-PEOPLE... still" Rafe
said in a strained voice as Ms power continued to be
drained from his body.
  Paige wondered why the demon hadn't drained
Rafe's power when he'd used it earlier. She
didn't have much time to think it over as Rafe's
knees buckled and he fell to the ground.
Luckily, she came up with a possible solution rather
quickly. She figured] it was safe to orb so she
popped herself behind the demon and kicked him in the weak
spot in the back of his knees.
  The demon stumbled and broke his hold on
Rafe, which snapped the blue light in two. Rafe
looked a little weak, but he was able to stand.
  "Try to use your power on the computers," she said,
pointing to the cabinet over the demon.
  Rafe got the idea and focused on the shelves.

  CRAMMED
  The computers started to shake slowly as his strength
came back to him. A moment later the dead computers
were tumbling down on the demon. Paige used the
distraction to grab Rafe and flee the room.
  "I thought you didn't want me to use my
powers," Rafe said, conveniently forgetting that he'd
used them a minute earlier even though she had told
him not to.
  "I think the demon can only drain your power when
you use it on him directly," Paige explained
as they made their way back to the auditorium. "But
that doesn't mean you can't fling as many things at him as
you can get your mind on."
  "I've got an idea," Rafe said. "This
way."
  Rafe led her down the hall to the left of the
auditorium. Paige considered simply orbing them
back to the house, but the demon would probably just
follow her there. She knew she had to find a way
to take care of him here and now so she could get Rafe
to safety.
  "So, you were saying I'm not really
tele-kinetic?" Rafe asked as they continued to run
down the hall.
  Paige had to give the guy credit for his ability
to walk and chew gum at the same time-or, in this
case, to run for his life and carry on a conversation.
  "Actually," Paige said as they turned a
corner and ran down a flight of steps in the
seemingly

  in
  endless school, "you're what's known as an
Elemental."
  "Okay," Rafe said, absorbing her words.
"So, what's the difference between being telekinetic and
being an..." m
  "Elemental."
  "Yeah... that."
  They burst through a set of wooden doors, and
Paige was surprised to find that they were in the school
gym. At first she wondered why he had taken her
to the big room with nothing to hide behind, but then she saw
the equipment locker. It was already standing open and
littered with possible weapons. Images of past
dodge-ball games came to mind, and she and Rafe
ran to the locker to prepare for t attle.
  "Telekinesis is a wholi mind-over-matter
thing," Paige explained as they pulled everything out
of the locker. "What you do is use your emotions
to control the winds to lift and move things. You're not
moving the objects so much as letting them ride the
wind currents you create."
  "Really?" Rafe said, sounding impressed with
himself. "So I could, like, flyiif I wanted to?"
  "Yep. You, like, could do that," she replied, making
fun of the teacher.
  Paige was just one flip of the hair away from
flirting with the guy, but she realized that and stopped
herself. She hadn't had the best luck with men
lately, particularly ones that got involved in her
magical life. She decided to

  keep this relationship on the professional level,
in spite of his brilliant blue eyes and jet
black hair.
  "And what did that demon do to me in the computer
dumping ground?" Rafe asked.
  "He was trying to steal your power," Paige said.
She had just pulled out some kind of oddly shaped disk
that she couldn't begin to imagine a purpose for.
  "Why?"
  Isn't that just the all-important question, Paige
thought to herself.
  "We'll get to that in a minute," she said. "First
we need to take care of him."
  The slightly battered demon had just burst through the
doors. He froze when he saw Paige and
Rafe standing among piles and piles of weapons.
  Paige didn't give the demon a chance to think
as she started orbing stuff over his head and dropping it
on him.
  Rafe took her cue and started using his control
over the wind to fling bats, balls, and whatever else
he could wrap his emotions around.
  Darryl drove to the Michaels's home hoping that
he would be able to get in and out quickly with a minimum of
commotion. Once he turned the corner of their
block, he realized that would not be the case. In
addition to several squad cars from his precinct as
well as several FBI cars,


  there were also several news vans littering the
street. The case had somehow gone from simple
kidnapping to full media event.
  Just what we need, Darryl thought.
  Various members of the media were camped in the
middle of the street interviewing neighbors and the
dozens of people who just came by to witness real news in the
making. They all seemed unfazed by the heavy
rainfall pelting them, not wanting to miss out on their
chance to be part of the story.
  Uniformed officers had taped off the area to keep
the people back. Darryl would have had to show ID just to get
his car on the street, but the officer recognized him
and waved him through. It had not looked like this at all
when Darryl had left, and that was probably why the
chief had called him and politely pointed out that he
really needed to be there.
  Darryl was always amazed by the public's interest in
certain missing child cases. He knew for a fact that
kids went missing every day across the U.s., but
rarely did they warrant such media attention.
Once Darryl thought about it, though, he wasn't
really surprised. Tyler's case had the markings of
one of those media blitzes- recently adopted
Caucasian child in a semi-affluent neighborhood
goes missing in the early morning ... a bloody
bat found at the scene. Granted, Darryl knew
there was only a trace amount of blood on the bat,
but by the time it

  made the news that important fact would somehow be
dropped from the script.
  Darryl double-parked his car, since no traffic was
currently going up or down the street, and got out.
He tried his best to shield himself from the rain, but it was
practically blowing sideways at times. He
surveyed the situation, hoping he could get in and out
with a minimum of fuss, but suspected that was going to be
impossible.
  Harkins was holding court with various members of the
press under one of those hastily erected party tents
on the patio-the kind that was just poles supporting a
roof. Darryl was glad that the Feds were involved because
he never would have been able to disappear had he been lead
investigator on the case.
  Darryl flashed his badge to one of the agents at the
bottom of the stairs and was waved on. He hurried
up the stairs, bypassing press and only giving a
quick nod in Harkins's direction as he went into the
house. Darryl hoped that he could get this over with before
Harkins was done with the press.
  The atmosphere was only slightly calmer in the
house, where several agents were keeping busy hovering
around the concerned parents. Mr. Michaels had
apparently decided that the situation was enough of an
emergency to warrant a smoke break, as he was about
to light up when Darryl stepped into the foyer.
  "Inspector Morris," Mrs. Michaels said
with


  what sounded like relief in her voice as she
called Darryl into the living room. "We were
wondering what happened to you."
  "Call me Darryl," he reminded them as he
joined them. "I'm sorry, but I had to check up
on a few things. I hope Agent Harkins has
been okay with you."
  "He's got so many people around him, it's hard to get
a word in," Mr. Michaels replied after he
took the cigarette out of his mouth. "Not that we're
complaining. The more people working on the case, the better."
  "We were wondering if they could issue one of those
Amber Alerts?" Maria asked with hope in her
voice and her eyes.
  Darryl hated to be the one to dash that hope. "We
can only do that if there's information on a vehicle that
may have been involved. I saw Agent Harkins
working to spread the word through the press when I came
in. That will help almost as much as a formal alert."
  "We just want to try everything," Stephen said as
he kept holding onjto his unlit cigarette.
  Darryl's heart was breaking watching the couple and
knowing that their son was probably playing video
games with Sheila right now. His wife always acted like
the games were a waste of time and brain cells, but
Darryl had caught her quickly switching off the
Gamecube on a couple of occasions when he came
home early from work.

  "Listen," Darryl said in hushed tones as an
FBI agent passed behind the couple. "Is there
someplace private we can go and talk?"
  "Why?" Maria asked, matching his tone.
  "I'd prefer to explain when there aren't so many people
around," Darryl said.
  "Of course," Stephen said as he got off the
couch with his cigarette still in hand. "We can go into the
den. Agent Harkins designated that as a private
room for us to go to whenever we feel overwhelmed."
  Darryl had to give Harkins credit. The guy
knew how to handle these situations, right down to dealing
with the parents" fragile emotional states. He
followed them into the den and waited while Stephen
slid the doors shut.
  "Stephen . . . Maria ... I have some news
on Tyler," Darryl said, trying to ease into the
conversation. He couldn't believe what he was about to do.
If the conversation went the wrong way not only could he
be putting his job in jeopardy, but also several
lives as well. He took one look at Stephen
and Maria's faces and knew he was doing the right thing.
  Maria's face lit up. "That's ..." But her
excitement immediately waned as she apparently realized
that the news may not be good. "Oh, no. Is
he..."
  "I think he's fine," Darryl said. "At least
for the moment. It's kind of complicated."
  "Does it have to do with his last set of foster


  parents?" Stephen asked. "The ones who went
missing?"
  "In a way," Darryl went with the lie they
provided just as he had done earlier with Sheila.
"It's a difficult situation to explain. Things are
changing by the minute. But I wanted you to know that
Paige Matthews is involved and taking care of
it." He hadn't wanted to mention Paige by name, but
figured it was a little something to give the couple so they
would, hopefully, refrain from asking too many questions.
  "Thafs wonderful," Maria practically
screamed. "When can we see him?"
  Stephen, however, was slightly more reserved.
"Danyl, why couldn't you tell us this in the living
room? What's going on?"
  Darryl knew that was a question he couldn't even
attempt to answer. "The next few hours are going
to be critical," he said.
  "Critical? What do you mean?" Maria asked.
"Do you have our son or not?"
  "I know where he is," Darryl said. "But I'd
be lying if I didn't tell you his life could still be
in danger."
  "Oh, God," Maria said as she dropped into an
armchair.
  "Like I said, we've got people working on it,"
Darryl said, trying to sound positive. "But I
need you both to do something for me."
  "What? Anything," Maria said, and her husband
shook his head in agreement.

  CkApDo
  "You can't tell anyone," Darryl said.
  "Okay. Fine," Stephen agreed rather quickly.
  "I mean, anyone," Darryl said. "That
includes Agent Harkins. This is critical.
If everything goes as planned, you'll have Tyler
back tonight."
  There was a long silence as nobody wanted
to address the unspoken question.
  It was Stephen who finally put it into words. "And
if everything doesn't go as planned?"
  "It will," Darryl said. "We're going to move
heaven and earth to get your son back."
  Little did they know how literally Darryl was
speaking.
  "I'm not comfortable with this," Stephen said as he
crumpled up the cigarette and dropped it in a
wastebasket. "But since it's the only plan
we've got, I'll go along. Okay, honey?"
  "So long as it gets Tyler back, I don't
care," Maria replied. "I'll do whatever you
want me to do."
  Any regret Darryl may have had about coming to the
house went out the window. He was glad that Paige
had found such a wonderful set of parents for Tyler.
The kid was lucky; with all the losers in the world, these
two were definitely keepers. It made him all the
more determined to get this over with as soon as possible and
get Tyler back home where he belonged.
  Darryl said his good-byes to Stephen and Maria.
They gave him one more unprompted promise
to remain silent, and he felt the weight


  of their trust bear down on him even more.
  He was making his way out of the house when he met
face to face with Agent Harkins.
  "Darryl," the agent said genially. "I was
wondering what happened to you. Any luck with the
social worker?"
  "Nothing solid," Darryl replied. "How are
things here?"
  "We're doing the best we can with what little we've
got," Harkins replied. "Do you think you can get
me a formal report on Paige Matthews and her
sisters?"
  "Sure," Darryl said, though he wondered what
Harkins was getting at. They had worked so well together
in the past largely because when Darryl told the guy
they'd hit a dead end, Harkins took him at
face value, without question. "I was planning on heading
back to the station." That was a complete lie, but he
figured it was better than telling Harkins where he
was really going.
  "Great," Harkins said as he made a little notation
on his notepad. "Still wish you would've told me you
were going over there."
  "Yeah," Darryl replied. "Sorry about that."
  "No, it's okay." Harkins said as he slid the
notepad into his pocket. "It seems to have worked
itself out. I just didn't realize how close you were to the
family."
  "What do you mean?" Darryl asked with concern over
the direction this conversation was going.

  "I checked up on a few things," Harkins said.
"It's funny how many times that Paige Matthews and
her sisters keep showing up in your cases ...
especially her sisters."
  "Odd coincidence, isn't it?" Darryl asked,
trying to mask his apprehension. Harkins could have come
at that information from several different angles. But he
had no doubt how Harkins had found the connection.
  He had been checking up on Darryl.

  Get UOW-TL! Phoebe yelled as she
knocked Gabrielle to the ground just in time to avoid
the fire extinguisher the demon had flung at the
woman. It was cold and wet on the linoleum, and
tropical fish were flopping on the floor around them.
  The demon leaped though the now empty hole in the
wall and moved toward Gabrielle with his hands reaching
out, ready to lay them on her to drain the power she'd just
learned that she had.
  Phoebe hopped back up end let her magic
carry her higher as she let loose with a barrage of
kicks at the demon that sent his back to the wall.
As she descended, she noticed that the crash had
alerted numerous people to the situation, which meant she would have
to stay earthbound for the moment or risk exposing her
secret.
  "Call security," someone said rather calmly,

  implying that outbursts of violence around the ER were
not uncommon.
  Just like the TV show, Phoebe thought.
  She watched as a couple of strapping young heroes
tried to come to her aid, only to have the demon fling them
across the room. Even though the demon's only power
seemed to be reflecting the Charmed Ones and
Elementals' abilities back at them, he was
pretty strong without any magical aid.
  Phoebe looked for a weapon, but even though she was
in a hospital she was apparently stuck doing
battle in the most childproofed room in the place.
She saw a long sliver of glass from the fish tank
on the floor by the vending machine, but she didn't know
how to get across the room before the demon attacked
her.
  The demon followed her gaze and saw the glass
as well. The sneer on his face indicated that he
agreed that it was the perfect weapon. He stared
Phoebe down, just daring her to make her move first.
  Phoebe took in the situation, refusing to give
in to his dare so easily.
  Gabrielle seemed to think that the ground was the
safest place to be, as she stayed there and slid herself
behind the row of lounge chairs. The headstrong person
Phoebe had met earlier was gone, and in her place
was a frightened medical student probably just trying
to figure out what was going on.


  A crowd was gathering in the hall, though none of those
people seemed as heroic as the two guys that had just
gotten themselves thrown aside. Or maybe that was the
reason the rest of the group chose to remain passive
observers.
  How long does it take security to get here?
Phoebe wondered as she considered her options.
Even when the guards showed up, she figured they
wouldn't be armed. They'd probably be sweet old
retired cops that didn't have a chance against tall,
dark, and gruesome.
  That made the decision for her, and she ran to the
vending machine without hesitation. The demon moved a
half-second after she did, bending low so he could
get the glass shard first.
  Since the room wasn't thatjlarge, it was only
a few steps before Phoebe and Idemon were about
to collide. Phoebe used the momentum from the
demon's considerable bulk against him as she shifted
her plan mid-stride.
  The floor by the vending machine was wet, so as the
demon bent he also slid into the machine. Phoebe
reached behind the machine and pulled from the top, using all
her strength to bring it down on the demon, trapping
him on the floor.
  Luckily, the machine stayed in one piece and
didn't smash on the wet floor, electrocuting
them all. Phoebe only realized that potential
flaw in her plan after it didn't happen.
  The crowd cheered as an ER doctor came in and
sedated the struggling demon. Security

  finally arrived in time to lift the vending machine off
the sleeping man. Phoebe suspected that he would be
out for hours-plenty of time for the cops to come and take
him away before he awoke and transported himself out of
jail and to his waiting master.
  She took pleasure in the fact that he would be
reporting back without Gabrielle. This Tempest
guy was going to be pretty mad by the time he met the
Charmed Ones, the way they kept thwarting his plans.
Phoebe knew that their meeting was coming soon enough.
It always did.
  As the crowd started to break apart-with some of the staff
on tropical fish rescue-Phoebe could hear the
police sirens approaching. Even though it could have
been an ambulance too, Phoebe didn't want
to wait to find out. The police already had her family
under surveillance regarding one crime today. She
didn't need to add to the list.
  "We need to talk," she said as she grabbed
Gabrielle's trembling arm. "Is there someplace
we can go?"
  "Doctor's private lounge," she replied,
a little shell-shocked.
  Phoebe followed the med student to a tiny room
with lockers and a metal-framed bunk bed.
  Gabrielle sat down on the bed. "I should have
stayed a lawyer."
  "The demon would have just come for you at your law
office," Phoebe said.


  The med student looked up at her like she was
crazy. "Demon? You just stopped a demon from...
what? Killing me?"
  "Kidnapping," Phoebe said. "And I didn't
stop him so much as slow him down."
  "The cops are going to take him away,"
Gabrielle said. "As far as I'm concerned, it's
over."
  "Oh, but it's so not," Phoebe said as she
calmly tried to explain just how not over this day was for
Gabrielle.
  The med student seemed to take everything in stride.
She listened politely and didn't interrupt with
any questions. Phoebe was quite hopeful by the end of her
little speech, in spite of the dramatic pause
Gabrielle took before she spoke.
  Phoebe understood Gabpelle's hesitation.
Being charged with saving the world was a lot to take in,
especially in the middle of the workday. But once she
accepted the fact that she had an even greater mission
in life than just being a doctor, Phoebe knew that
they would be on their way home and to the next stage of
their plan.
  "I'm sorry," Gabrielle said. "But I'm
not going anywhere."
  Piper sipped at the hot cup of coffee the
woman had made for her to combat the chill from the rain.
She took Piper back to her office, introduced
herself as Muriel Hammond, and explained that she was
alone in the place after hours because she was the bank
president. However, she still

  hadn't managed to reveal how she knew about
Tyler.
  "So, Piper, how are you and your sisters handling
all the responsibilities of your gifts?"
Muriel asked as she took a seat behind her big
mahogany desk. "I would assume being the Charmed
Ones is a tremendous amount of work."
  "Tell me about it," Piper said, once again
regretting the fact that she hadn't even had time for
her favorite pastime recently. "But before we get
all chatty, how do you know about me and my sisters?
We try to keep that little secret . . . you know ...
secret."
  "I'm sorry, I tend to do that a lot,"
Muriel said with a genuinely warm smile. "I'm so
busy trying to solve the mysteries of life that I
usually go making myself a bigger mystery to the people around
me. As I'm sure you know ... or you wouldn't be
here ... I have a certain power too."
  "You're an Elemental," Piper said, filling in
the blank.
  "An Earthshaker," Muriel explains. "I
know, lousy name. "I could have gotten Firestarter,
or Windwalker, or Waterbearer . . . but no
... I got "Earthshaker.""
  "Sounds like a pretty strong power to have," Piper
noted. She always enjoyed meeting other magical
beings and comparing notes-so long as the beings were good and not
trying to kill her... or her sisters... or her
husband.


  "It can be," Muriel said. "I've done a
tremendous amount of research on it over the course
of my life. It can literally shape the world, if put
to good use. And don't you think it isn't very tempting
to know you have the power to destroy anyone that gets in your
way."
  Don't I know it, Piper thought.
  "But I never abuse the power," Muriel quickly
added. "Well, okay . . . once. But that woman
at the country club was just so annoying. She really
needed a dip in the pool to cool off. I just helped
by having the ground give her a little push."
  Piper laughed. She wasn't allowed to use her
powers for any kind of personal gain-not even
by punishing a man who refused to pick up after his
dog. She and her sisters had been finding ways
to bend that little rule recently, but they always had to be
careful not to cross the line. Even so, it was nice
to meet someone with a power she could exploit if she
wanted to, but still chose not to of her own free will.
  "How long have you known you were an Earthshaker?"
Piper asked. She and Phoebe had found out they were
witches only after their Grams died when they were
adults. Paige was grown when she learned about herself
as well.
  "All my life," Muriel replied. "I know
the books say that Elementals are rare, but what's
even more rare is that the Earthshaker ability seems
to run in my family. We've had the power

  for generations, so I knew all about it when I
started shaking things up when I was around ten. I
imagine it would have been a bit frightening if I
hadn't known what was going on."
  "Yes, it would have," Piper confirmed, remembering
back to the first time she met a terrified Tyler who
had no idea he could control the fires that seemed
to be exploding all around him.
  "Yes, you've been looking after the young
Firestarter," Muriel said. "I think his name is
Tyler?"
  "Yes, that's... How do you know that?"
  Muriel got up and crossed to a small wall
safe. She quickly worked the combination and pulled out a
manila folder. "It's all in here."
  Piper flipped through the folder and found copies of
photos of Tyler, including one with her and her
sisters. There were also pictures of a Hispanic
man and an African-American woman. The
woman looked to be a doctor, in her lab coat.
The accompanying paperwork confirmed that the woman worked
at San Francisco General Hospital.
  The file also contained personal histories on
all the people in the photos, including Muriel, as
well as descriptions of their powers. This would have been
useful an hour ago, Piper thought.
  "A gentleman I recently met sent that to me
yesterday morning," Muriel said. "It's copies
of all the information he's collected on the Night of
Aeolus and the Ritual of the Guardians. He


  was the Firestarter originally charged with the
responsibility of gathering the Elementals, but he
didn't have the chance to fulfill his task."
  "The Firestarter who jumped off the Golden
Gate," Piper guessed.
  Muriel nodded her head sadly.
"Christopher... I wish I had been here when he
sent the file."
  Piper looked at her, questioningly.
  "I was in Los Angeles for the week,"
Muriel explained as she sat and took a drink of
her coffee. "I just got back in town this morning.
My desk was so laden with work that it took me a
half hour to notice the file in my inbox. By then
I had heard reports of the missing boy. I
figured if he had been taken, Tempest would have
come after me already."
  "You know about Tempest?" Piper asked.
  "Like I said, this power's been in my family for
generations," Muriel continued. "My ancestors
dealt with the demon before, though I've certainly never
met him in person. I may be old, but the last time
he was out and about was a hundred years ago."
  "But you knew Tyler was on the run," Piper
tried to clarify, wondering why the woman didn't
make her presence known earlier.
  "And I suspected he would run to the safety of the
Charmed Ones," Muriel explained. "When we
get close to the Night of Aeolus, it is the
Firestarter who becomes the most open target for
Tempest's demons. Since he or she is charged

  with locating and collecting the other Elementals, the
demons tend to go there first to find the others. It's
traditional for the Firestarter to find a backup in
case of an emergency. As Christopher was watching
Tyler, he stumbled across the fact that the boy knew
you and your sisters. It didn't take him long
to realize who you were. Particularly when you fought that
demon in your kitchen last week."
  Piper didn't like the fact that her family was
apparently being watched and she had never even been
aware of it. "But why didn't he tell us what was
going on?" She was so absorbed in the conversation that
she'd forgotten all about her steaming cup of coffee.
  "I figure he assumed there was no need, at
first," Muriel said, setting down her own coffee as
well. "The demons were dose, but Christopher was
pretty sure they didn't know where he lived. He
probably assumed he could stay one step ahead of
them. Unfortunately, he realized too late that
he was wrong. He left a series of messages for
me on my home phone." Muriel let out a long
sigh. "If he had tried my cell or even left
a message at work I would have gotten it and rushed
back here. He was on his way to enlist your help when
the demons chased him to the bridge. So now it's up
to us to finish what he started."
  "My sisters are already working on getting the other
two Elementals," Piper said.


  "So you found them already," Muriel said, returning
to her warm smile. "I knew the reputation of the
Charmed Ones wasn't an exaggeration. But your
sisters could be in for a difficult time. The
Windwalker and Waterbearer have no idea about any of
this."
  "If Christopher contacted you, why didn't he
tell the others?" Piper asked.
  "Oh, he didn't contact me," Muriel said.
"I found him."
  Piper tried to wrap her mind around this very involved
set of circumstances.
  "The Firestarter usually waits until that last
moment to alert the other Elementals," Muriel
continued her explanation. "So they can remain safe.
While he waited, Christopher tried to find out
all the information that he could about each of us so he would
know the best way to approach us with the news. As I
said before, if you spend your life not knowing who you really
are, it can be a bit of a shock to find out."
  "Tell me about it," Piper rrtumbled.
  "Since I knew the Niglkt was coming, it
wasn't hard to figure out I was being watched,"
Muriel said. "So I met up with Christopher and
told him he could stop following me. He was
relieved that I was one less thing for him to worry
about, especially since he had found out I was going out
of town for the week leading up to the ritual. Besides,
I know how to protect myself from demons."

  "Good for you," said a woman's voice from the
doorway. Piper turned to see the female demon
step into Muriel's office. "Then you'll be able
to protect yourself from me."
  Piper stood, preparing to defend herself. She
heard Muriel get out of her seat behind her.
  "I know you have no powers," Muriel said.
"Except to drain ours or reflect them back at
us."
  "Well, that certainly is true," the woman
said, glaring at them. "I don't have any powers. But
what I do have is this." She reached into her jacket and
pulled out a gun.

  y flltjCan 811(1 Rafe each grabbed one
of the demon's legs and dragged his unconscious
body across the highly polished gym floor to the
equipment locker-or "weapons locker" as Paige
had christened it in her mind. The barrage of
footballs, basketballs, and field hockey
sticks they had let loose on the demon had been
quite effective at knocking him cold.
  "So this Ritual of the Guardians thing," Rafe
said, still working out what Paige had told him after the
battle. "What do I have to do exactly?"
  "Exactly?" Paige asked, grasping for an
explanation. "Well, we don't know . . .
exactly. But it's very important." Somehow, this
all sounded so much more convincing in her head.
  "Oh, I get that part," Rafe said as they
unceremoniously dumped the demon in the equipment

  locker. "And notice how I'm avoiding the
whole "why me" part of this discussion?"
  "I stopped doing that whole "why me" thing ages
agost" Paige said. "Just go with it as one of those
'great powers that comes with great responsibility"
things."
  "So I'm Spiderman?" Rafe asked.
"Hey, since your hair is red-was
  "At least for the moment-was
  "Does that make you Mary Jane?" he asked.
  Even though she was trying not to flirt, Paige
couldn't help but play along. "Honey, I could
kick Mary Jane's butt."
  Rafe got a little closer. "That I'd like
to see."
  Paige pulled back immediately. She hadn't done
it intentionally, but figured she should trust her
instincts.
  "I'm sorry," Rafe said, pulling back as
well. "I guess an unconscious demon
isn't really conducive to romance."
  "If unconscious demons ruined romance for
me, I'd spend the rest of my life alone,"
Paige said. "I'm just going through a little "me"
period."
  "Got it," Rafe said, sounding the appropriate
amount of disappointed. "Have you ever thought of going
into teaching?"
  "Wow. Talk about your non sequiturs,"
Paige said, blinking in surprise at the sudden
shift. "I really don't know what I want to do with
my life. Right now I'm trying to focus on my
magic."
  "I was just admiring the way you filled me in


  on my power to control the wind and all that "saving
the world" stuff without overwhelming me with it," he said.
"Especially considering you hit some of the high points
while battling a demon. It made me think you'd
do pretty well against a class of fourth
graders."
  "Demons ... kids ... it's all the same
to me," Paige said with a laugh as she reached into her
pocket and pulled out a potion. "Certainly gives
me something else to think about."
  "Got a lot on your mind?" Rafe asked.
  "I've been in a bit of a rut lately," she
said as she uncorked the bottle of green liquid.
"Sleeping potion," she explained before Rafe asked
the question. "I figure we can keep him knocked out
here for a while, then come back after I have time to make
a proper vanquishing potion ... or bring my
sister. She's good at blowing things up."
  "You have a sister?" Rafe asked, feigning
interest.
  "Back off, she's married," Paige replied.
"Although I do have another sister. But she's a little...
emotionally unavailable at the moment."
  "Bad breakup?" he asked, prying slightly.
  "Divorced a demon," Paige nodded as she
poured the potion down the unconscious guy's
throat. "You know, they're kinda cute when they're
sleeping," she kidded.
  The demon choked a little on the mixture, but
didn't wake.
  "No one else should be in the building until
Monday," Rafe said. "We just have to be sure to

  get back here before any kids come to school."
  "Noted," Paige said. "We should get back
to my place and meet up with my sisters. I don't
know what we might have to do before tonight's ritual."
  "Okay," Rafe said as they exited the gym.
"But first I need to drop off the animals at the
zoo. Loading the truck should go more quickly with the two of
us."
  "Can't that wait until tomorrow?" Paige asked.
Now that they were out of the gym they could hear how much the
storm had intensified. She was concerned that night was
approaching and they were getting closer to their deadline.
  "Hey, saving the world isn't the only
responsibility I have today," Rafe said lightly.
"Besides, we can use the time for you to tell me about this
rut you've been in."
  As the rain continued to pour outside the house,
Darryl considered the different ways he could answer
Harkins's inquiry into his relationship with Paige
and her sisters. More and more, he was leaning toward hoping
someone would yell out that they found some amazing clue that
Harkins should examine immediately. That way Darryl could
just ignore the question and walk away.
  Unfortunately, nobody was making any kind of
exciting revelations at the moment.
  "Let's get a little further inside," Harkins
suggested, because the rain was starting to come in the doorway.


  "Like I said at the Manor," Darryl finally
replied before Harkins could ask again, "Paige
Matthews was a dead end. She really couldn't tell
me anything more than Mr. and Mrs. Michaels
had."
  "I never understood why people got so pretentious with
houses," Harkins said. "True, the place looked
big-at least from the outside-but to call it a
"manor" just seems a little arrogant, don't you
think?"
  "It's a family thing," Darryl said, immediately
knowing that he'd chosen the wrong answer.
  "So, you know the family pretty well then?"
Harkins asked.
  "Their sister used to be involved with my partner,"
Darryl said.
  "Yeah," Harkins said, genuinely saddened by the
mention. "Andy was a good guy. Didn't the sister
die too?"
  Darryl didn't want to dwell in the past,
especially considering it was such a sad subject.
"The family has had its fair share of tragedy,"
he admitted. "I don't see what that has to do
with the case we're working on. They're not even
involved."
  That was probably the biggest lie Darryl had
told all day.
  "Well, they might not be directly," Harkins
said, trying to keep his voice low. "But they are at
the very least peripherally involved with the case and numerous
others that you've investigated."

  "So what are you saying?" Darryl asked, raising
his defenses even higher.
  Harkins pulled Darryl further away from the
others in the room so as not to be overheard. "Look,
I like working with you on these cases. You're one of the
most solid guys in the business. Even at the
agency we heard about how you're one of those rising
stars in the force. But lately, there have been ...
there's been talk."
  "What kind of talk?" Darryl asked, but he
already knew the answer.
  "The kind of talk that goes beyond the walls of your
station," Harkins replied. "And into FBI
regional headquarters. The kind of talk that could
put you on a different career track."
  Darryl couldn't believe what he was hearing. It
was one thing to put up with the jokes around the station. That was
all just good-natured ribbing for the most part. Even then,
he had managed to keep the more serious stuff away from
Internal Affairs. The worst part was that Darryl
wasn't even doing anything wrong. If anything, the
help he'd given to the Charmed Ones over the years
should have been rewarded with several commendations-not that
Darryl was a glory hound. He could care less about
receiving accolades for his work; right now he was just
worried about being able to continue doing what he did
without raising more questions.
  "Look, if you say those girls aren't involved
in this case, I'll believe you," Harkins said.


  "You've earned that level of trust from me. But
I'm talking big picture here, Darryl. If you
keep getting involved in these weird cases with
missing suspects and these girls . . . I'm just
concerned for your future."
  "I appreciate that," Darryl said, and he
meant it. "But everything's under control. I promise
you."
  "All right, then." Harkins dropped the
subject. "We've got a missing child to find."
  "I'm on it," Darryl said, mustering up false
enthusiasm as he moved toward the door. He took
one last glance toward Stephen and Maria who were
back on their couch trying not to look too comforted
by what Darryl had told them. Maria was even back
to mangling the throw pillow, though Darryl assumed that
had more to do with actual concern for Tyler than covering
for Darryl. He knew he'd just taken a great
risk by letting them know that their son was possibly
okay. Aside from the fact that it was premature, it
was certainly dangerous in light of Harkins's words.
  "Keep me posted," Harkir caret so called
to him.
  "You know it," Darryl liedj as he stepped back
out into the storm.
  It was raining even harder than it had been when
Darryl had entered the house. The wind had kicked
up as well and was blowing the tent around the yard.
Several agents were trying to grab the canvas and put
the thing away. Darryl hoped they would hurry because the
sky was filling with lightning and they really

  needed to get away from the metal tent poles.
  The more intense rain did have the benefit of chasing the
media into their vans, so Darryl didn't have to push
past reporters and their cameras as he went back
to his double-parked car. He carefully inched his way
out of the packed street and hit the road for home.
  Darryl had a lot to think about on his drive.
Harkins had managed to hit right at the heart of what
Darryl had been thinking about more and more as the day wore
on. Starting with Warrington and Simpson's jokes
right up to hiding the truth from his wife and flat out lying
to the FBI, Darryl knew this case was digging him
deeper into that hole.
  Darryl kicked up the speed of the windshield
wipers a notch as the rain continued coming down in
sheets. He tried to push his doubts to the back of his
mind because he really needed to concentrate on driving.
For some reason, the San Francisco motorists
felt that it was more fun to take the rain-soaked hills
at high speeds on days like this, never bothering
to signal their intentions and rolling to "California
stops" at the stop signs.
  The worries kept nagging at Darryl as he
drove through the Castro. It wasn't that he was
worried about being found out. Piper and Phoebe had
been managing to cover for themselves-and him by association-for
years. He was just worried that people would start prying and
he would


  have to distance himself from the Charmed Ones for their own
safety.
  Then again, that might not be such a bad idea, he
thought.
  Because he was in a moving car, Darryl didn't
notice the slight rumble beneath his tires. But he
couldn't miss it when the road started to buckle in
front of him.
  The trees along the sides of the road swayed as
the earthquake hit full force.
  Darryl resisted the temptation to slam on his
brakes and tried to roll to a stop, but the ground had
different plans. A rough jolt forced his foot
to slip from the brake pedal to the gas. The short
burst of speed sent his car careening out of control on
the rain-slicked street.
  As he rushed toward a building, Darryl
panicked and slammed on the brakes,
overcompen-sating for his original slip and sending the
car fishtailing and ultimately spinning in a total
loss of control. The car hopped a curb and
slammed sideways into the building.
  Darryl blacked out for a second, but managed
to rouse himself. His entire body ached. When his eyes
fluttered open he noticed that the side impact
airbag had deflated, and his seatbelt had locked
him in place. He could feel the rain spattering on
his face. The front windshield was totally gone.
  The water wasn't the concern though; it was the piece
of metal sticking out of his chest that worried him as he
blacked out for good.

  were p at the gun the demon was holding
  on her, wondering if she could blow it up without
letting the demon take her power and use it against
her. She ultimately decided that a bullet would
do less damage than an explosion.
  "Look, witch," the demon said. "I don't
care about you. Just let me have the Earthshaker and you can go
on your merry way."
  "I think we both know that's not going to happen,"
Piper replied, shifting her body so she was in
front of Muriel. If she had to, she could try
to freeze time if the gun was fired. Maybe if she
just tried to freeze the bullet and not the demon she
wouldn't have her power reflected back. Of course,
the idea of freezing a bullet heading at her at the
speed of, well, a speeding bullet, was no easy
task. Then again, it was better than the other option:
death.


  Piper leaned back on the desk as she tried
to come up with some other, less deadly, options. Her
hand brushed against the cup of hot coffee and she was
immediately glad that she hadn't drunk the whole thing.
Now she just needed a distraction.
  Her wish was granted as the ground beneath her started
to rumble. A distraction was on the way, but it wasn't
the kind that she wanted.
  The demon obviously noticed the slight rumble
as the evil smile on her face widened
considerably. "That's right, Earthshaker. Use your
power against me."
  "Muriel," Piper warned, without looking back.
  "Hey, that's not me," Muriel replied. "I
think you should brace-was
  But she wasn't able to get the full warning out as the
earthquake hit, sending all three women stumbling
to keep their balance. Books fell off the shelves
to Piper's right and the computer crashed to the floor behind
her. It was the distraction she was hoping for... and then
some.
  Piper grabbed the coffee and threw it in the
demon's face as she tried to get her footing. The
woman screamed and dropped the gun.
  "Run!" Piper said as she reached back and took
Muriel's hand, pulling her out the door of her
office. She considered going for the gun, but a pile of
books landed on top of it after sliding off the desk.

  The ground continued to shake as they hurried across the
bank lobby. Computers and desk drawers and
pencils and staplers came crashing down around them.
  "I love a good deus ex machinal" Muriel
yelled through the commotion, referring to the ancient
writer's technique of literally having the hand of a
god come down and save the heroes from danger.
  Piper appreciated the comment and found it
particularly fitting, though Muriel seemed to be
enjoying the havoc a little more than she should.
  "I haven't had this much fun since I ran with the
bulls!" the woman yelled as the shaking began
to subside.
  They reached the exit as the quake finally stopped.
The glass doors had cracked but were still mostly in
one piece. As Muriel reached for her keys a
gunshot rang out. The bullet missed the women but
hit the glass, and one of the doors exploded in a
hail of safety glass.
  "Thanks, dear!" Muriel yelled as she led
Piper through the conveniently opened door.
  Piper was amazed by the woman's energy level, and
her ability to multitask as they ran to the parking
lot in the pouring rain.
  "Hey, Charlie," Muriel said into her cell
phone after hitting the speed dial. "I was in the
bank during the quake. The place seems okay,
but one of the doors smashed and is wide open.
Better get people from security down here and


  someone to fix the door. I'm going home to check
on my place."
  She hung up the phone before the person on the other
end could respond.
  Piper looked at her in amazement as they reached
the SUV.
  "Bank manager," Muriel explained. "Can't
let a little demon get in the way of my investment."
  Piper continued to admire the woman's
abilities as she belted in and started the SUV,
pulling out of the spot without looking. Through the intense
rain, she could see a shape approaching them. A
bolt of lightning lit the sky and revealed that it was the
demon, with her gun aimed at them.
  "Floor it!" Muriel said as she put on her
seat-belt and held on to the dash.
  Piper did as instructed and slammed the pedal.
The SUV'S tires screeched as they found traction
on the wet ground.
  The demon managed to fire one off as the SUV
bore down on her. She was aiming at Piper, but the
shot went wide and merely nicked the side view
mirror.
  "Hold on!" Piper yelled as they were about
to hit.
  The demon was about to fire off another round when she
realized that her life was in very real danger. Choosing
to live and fight another day, she popped herself out of
there using the demon equivalent of orbing.

  Piper hardly slowed as she pulled onto the
street, heading for home.
  For the second time since Phoebe had met
Gabrielle, she found herself helping the woman up
off the floor. The earthquake had been intense and
thrown both of them from their respective seats. It was
a good thing too, as the bunk bed Gabrielle had
been sitting on had collapsed in all the shaking.
  "Are you okay?" Phoebe asked.
  Gabrielle gave herself the once-over. "No
apparent external injuries. Didn't hit my
head, so no concussion. Although I think I bruised
my ego," she said as she rubbed her posterior.
"You?"
  "I'm okay," Phoebe said. "Sadly, I'm
pretty used to getting banged around."
  They could hear commotion in the halls and suspected
the hospital would be in turmoil, if not now, then very
shortly. The lights had kicked off for a moment
during the quake, but the emergency generator brought
them back on a moment later.
  The tiny doctor's lounge was a shambles with the
collapsed bed, a broken sink sending water all
over the floor, and the lockers blocking the door after
tipping forward.
  "I think we have a problem here," Phoebe said as
she moved over to the lockers and examined the situation.
The row of five lockers had fallen forward and
slammed against the lockers


  on the other side of the door, buckling those
lockers in the middle. Phoebe tried to see if
she could fit under the lockers, but realized that she
wasn't going to get very far since the door opened
into the room.
  "Give me a hand?" Phoebe asked,
suspecting that any effort would be futile.
  Gabrielle joined Phoebe at the lockers.
They both put a shoulder against the metal and tried
to push it up and out of the way. The lockers slid about
a half-inch before getting stuck.
  "Okay," Phoebe said, straining against the
metal. "I don't think this is working."
  They took a step back to examine the situation
further.
  "Can't you just levitate th8j lockers?"
Gabrielle asked. "Like you did when that guy
attacked."
  "That levitation thing only works on me,"
Phoebe said. "It's not exactly the most useful
power, to be honest. It certainly won't help us
here. We might be stuck until someone comes for us."
  "We're in a hospital following a fairly
decent quake," Gabrielle said. "Everybody's
going to be too busy to come looking for us for a while."
  Phoebe looked around the room, trying to find
something to leverage against the lockers. The broken bed
frame was looking like their best shot, when Phoebe
saw something else that gave her an idea. "Maybe
we can use some water pressure."
  "You've got to be kidding," Gabrielle said as

  she followed Phoebe's eyes to the pipe pouring
water into the room. The growing puddle had almost reached
their feet.
  "Hey, it's either that or we wait to get
electrocuted when the water level reaches the
broken light on the wall," Phoebe said with a
menacing tone.
  "Don't be dramatic," Gabrielle said.
"The water will start spilling under the door and out into the
hall. Then someone will find us."
  "Do you have to be so logical?" Phoebe asked.
"Besides, they'd still have to break through the door to get in
here. You can do this using your power over the water."
  Once again, Gabrielle looked at the flowing
water. "I've never used it before."
  "Didn't you tell me earlier that you walked on
water?" Phoebe asked, pushing a little harder than
she knew she should be, but time was wasting.
  "Yes, but I didn't know I was doing it at the
time!" Gabrielle shot back.
  "Look," Phoebe said, trying another track.
"You can do this. I have faith in you."
  "But I don't know how," Gabrielle said
simply.
  "From what I know, the powers are linked to your
emotions," Phoebe said. "You've just got
to focus."
  "Fine," Gabrielle said skeptically.
"I'll try it."
  Gabrielle looked down at the water and made
all the required expressions that looked like she was
focusing on getting it to do what she wanted.


  Nothing happened.
  "Don't think," Phoebe said, realizing that she
was talking to a former lawyer who was now a medical
student. The odds that Gabrielle could stop thinking were
slim to say the least. "You just have to feel the water.
Let it touch your emotions."
  Phoebe didn't have a clue what she was talking
about, but it seemed to be working. The puddle of water
stopped spreading across the room and focused itself under the
lockers.
  Gabrielle had closed her eyes, so she
didn't know the progress she was making.
  "You're doing it," Phoebe said as more water was
pulled out of the pipes.
  "I'm doing it?" Gabrielle
  asked as her eyes
  popped open. "I'm doing it!"
  Phoebe figured that Gabirielle's
excitement level must have affected her control, because
the water suddenly shot up at the lockers, blowing
them back against the wall. Both Phoebe and
Gabrielle jumped as the water came crashing down
on them, giving them each a good soaking.
  "That was great," Phoebe said, putting her hand on
Gabrielle's soggy back.
  "Wow," was all Gabrielle could say.
  Phoebe gave the woman a moment to absorb
what had happened, but it was a quick moment.
  "Now," Phoebe said, "I need you and your power
to come with me."

  CtfApDo
  "I told you, I can't," Gabrielle
replied.
  "But I need you," Phoebe said. "The storm, that
earthquake-they're just the beginning. If you're not with
me at midnight, the weather will be the least of our
worries."
  "I told you I couldn't go before because I was
busy," Gabrielle said. "How busy do you think
I'm going to be now?"
  Gabrielle opened the door to prove her point
and Phoebe saw a scene right out of a movie. In
addition to the destruction from the quake, the place was
already looking like a triage center as bloodied
bodies crowded the hallways in every direction and more
were coming through the doors.
  "My point exactly," Phoebe said. "If you
don't come with me right now, the entire world will look like
that tomorrow."
  "Gabrielle!" a doctor yelled to her when he
looked up from a patient he was treating. "They need
you at curtain one. Now!"
  "You said midnight, right?" Gabrielle asked as
she started into the hall. "Where do you need me?"
  "We're not sure yet," Phoebe said as she
followed the med student. "But we'll probably
need you before midnight, actually.
  "Look, I'll be here," she said. "Come talk
to me when you're ready to go. I'll see if I can
get away."
  "And if you can't?" Phoebe asked.
  Gabrielle just shrugged as she disappeared


  behind the curtained-off section of the ER. Phoebe
considered following the woman behind the curtain, but the
pained moaning coming from the other side told her it
wasn't the best course of action.
  The general chaos of the ER was increasing and
Phoebe knew that she wasn't going to convince
Gabrielle to leave with her. She could only hope
that things would be a little calmer in a few hours.
  Phoebe decided to head back to her car and find
out how the others had done on their respective
assignments. She tried using her cell phone
to reach her sisters, but she only got a message that
said no service.
  The rain was really coming down and the sounds of sirens
echoed in every direction as she pulled out of the parking
garage. Phoebe had to slam on the brakes
to avoid hitting an ambulance rushing past her.
  Once she determined the coast was clear,
Phoebe carefully took to the street, unaware that
the ambulance that just passed was carrying her badly
injured friend, Darryl.

  "And then
  there was one," Tempest said as his female minion
stood before him.
  "Master-was
  Tempest put up his hand to silence her. "You do
realize that the Night of Aeolus comes only once
every one hundred years, right? Now, I realize that
my being a... well... a being almost as old as time
might make it seem like a hundred years is a
drop in the proverbial bucket... and let's
face it, it is... but I still feel the time passing.
I still feel every day and every minute. I'm still stuck in
this boring environment while you get to go and frolic in
the rain and the lightning and the quaking earth."
  "I'm sorry," she said.
  "I do realize that in the grand scheme of things your
failure was not as bad as the others," Tempest said.
"You returned to me. They haven't managed that one
yet."


  "I can find them," she said. "I can still feel them.
Let me go to the hospital.. disffthe school."
  "No," Tempest said. "I need at least one of
you to remain alive until tonight. Well, it's not a
total necessity, but it would certainly make my
life easier. What say you work with me here?
Haven't we been formulating this plan for, oh... the
past century? The others will return to us if they
can."
  "And if they can't?" she asked. "What happens
to them?"
  "Do you really think I care?"
  It took Piper close to an hour to get home
from the financial district because streetlights and
traffic lights were out all over the city. The pouring
rain didn't help any, nor did the general
populace's tendency to shy away from giving the right of
way when everyone came to a four-way stop at an
intersection. The one good thing about the rain was that it was
helping control some of the fires that had sprung up.
The quake hadn't been as bad as the big one that
hit back when Piper was in high school, but it was
fairly substantial.
  Piper and Muriel kept their conversation to a
minimum so Piper could concentrate on driving through the
obstacle course of torn-up streets, abandoned
cars, and windblown debris. They found that there was
suddenly a lot less to say as they took in the
destruction, knowing things would only get worse if
Tempest managed to get a hold of the Elementals'
powers before

  midnight. The demon was proving to be a very big
threat considering the Charmed Ones hadn't even met the
guy yet.
  "Here we are," Piper said as she pulled up the
drive.
  The Manor had fared very well in the quake, at
least on the outside. That didn't surprise
Piper. The place was used to being shaken, blasted, and
generally abused throughout the course of a normal day.
  The inside wasn't that bad either. Certainly things
had fallen on the floor and smashed, but it wasn't
any worse than most demon attacks. Piper was
a little annoyed to discover that they were going to have to go out and
buy yet another grandfather clock, though.
  "Leo!" Piper called out as soon as she shut
the door behind her. "Leo, get down here!"
  "Who's Leo?" Muriel asked.
  "My husband," Piper replied with a smirk.
"I'm surprised you didn't read about him in
Christopher's file."
  "So am I," Muriel said, returning the
look.
  "Leo!" she called again as she showed Muriel
into the living room.
  "Maybe he's not home," Muriel suggested,
unaware of the fact that Piper's voice could be heard
much further than the walls of the house.
  "Yeah, I was sort of counting on that," Piper
replied.
  Blue sparkling lights dropped from the sky,

  "fhe Brewing Storm

  combining together to form the body of Piper's orbing
husband.
  "That's a neat little trick," Muriel said as
Leo became whole.
  "Company?" Leo asked as he held out his hand
to Muriel. "Hi, I'm Leo."
  "Muriel," she replied as she took his hand.
"You'll have to show me how you do that sometime."
  "Sorry, it's kind of one of those innate things,"
he said.
  "Pity," she replied, letting go of his hand but
allowing her eyes to linger a moment.
  Piper wasn't sure, but she thought that the senior
citizen was coming onjto her husband.
  "The house looks a lot worse up there,"
Leo said to Piper as he took in the surroundings and
Muriel.
  "Hey, I had nothing to do with it," Muriel said,
holding her hands up in an innocent pose.
  "I take it Muriel is the Earthshaker," he
said as he righted a chair so she could sit.
  "Guilty," Muriel said, taking the seat.
  "Since you know her title, I'm assuming the
Elders were a help?" Piper asked, trying to keep
the surprise out of her voice. More often than not, the
all-powerful beings that watched over the Charmed Ones
liked to let them figure things out for themselves. Leo,
being the conduit to the Elders, usually got stuck in the
middle of those struggles of will.

  "I know where we can find the Circle pf
Gaea," he replied.
  "Oh, good," Muriel said. "Christopher left
that out of his notes too. Since it moves to a
different place every Night of Aeolus, I think
he was afraid the demons would find it if he
wrote the location somewhere."
  "Christopher?" Leo asked.
  "The first Firestarter," Piper explained. "But
that doesn't mean Tempest won't know the location
anyway. We need to be prepared."
  "Where are your sisters?" Leo asked.
  "The cell phone towers must be down," Piper
said. "Or flooded with calls. I couldn't get through
to either of them or Darryl."
  "None of them have called for me," Leo said. "So
they shouldn't be in danger."
  "We hope," Piper added.
  Two more sets of glowing lights formed in the living
room, turning into Paige and guest.
  "Hi, honey, we're home," Paige said as
she appeared.
  Introductions were made, and when the Earth and Air
Elementals shook hands, everyone could feel a little
ripple of power through the room.
  "Everything go all right?" Piper asked Paige
once they all settled down into chairs.
  "We're going to have to take care of a demon
trapped in a school, but otherwise everything's
fine," Paige replied.


  "Is that why it took you so long to orb home?"
Leo asked.
  Paige and Rafe exchanged a look.
  "Not exactly," he said.
  "You know where you don't want to be during an
earthquake?" Paige asked, but didn't wait for
an answer. "You don't want to be in a zoo ...
or anywhere near a zoo, for that matter."
  Everyone in the room got their own mental
picture of what Paige was suggesting.
  "We decided to stick around for a while and help
corral the animals," Paige said. "Once that
seemed to be in hand, we left Rafe's truck in
the parking lot and zipped right back here."
  "That little transporter thing was fun," Rafe said.
"And would be so convenient when I'm late for work."
  "Any word on Darryl or Phoebe?" Paige
asked.
  "Nope," Piper replied as she got up to start
pacing. She knew her sister could handle herself well
enough, but worrying was what big sisters did best.
  "Maybe we should go over what we know so far,"
Leo suggested.
  Piper assumed that he said that to help take her
mind off whatever Phoebe may be up to. She
appreciated the suggestion, but she could talk and
worry at the same time.
  The group followed Piper's lead, bringing everyone
up to speed and contributing where they could. Rafe
seemed to be having the most

  CliA caret MED
  trouble accepting what was going on, which was only
natural. He was the only one that had woken up that
morning thinking he was perfectly normal-well,
except for a little telekinesis.
  They were just about to get to Leo's part of the discussion
when Phoebe came through the door.
  "Good thing the Manor's so big," she said as she
took in all the people in the room. "We sure do get
a lot of unexpected guests."
  Once again, everyone did introductions.
  "Can't help but notice you came back alone,"
Piper said, trying to keep the mood light in spite
of the hellacious storm as a reminder of the severity
of the situation. "We've got our innocents. Where's
yours?"
  "She's a little busy at the moment," Phoebe
replied. "But she's going to try to make it tonight...
I think."
  "I'm sorry," Rafe said. "I realize you
guys do this type of thing a lot, but what could be more
important than this ritual thing we're supposed
to do tonight?"
  "Gabrielle's working at the emergency room at
San Francisco General," Phoebe
explained. "It's a madhouse there right now."
  "Okay," Piper said. "But she is going to join
us later, right?"
  "Well..."
  "Phoebe?" Piper didn't like it when her sister
stalled like that. It usually meant they weren't going to like
what they were about to hear.


  "She's kind of an ... intensely focused
individual," Phoebe explained. "I mean, she
quit her job as a lawyer to pursue a medical
career. Can you believe that? And here I thought I'd be
stuck working on the newspaper for the rest of my
life."
  "I'm sorry," Muriel said, working up a little
head of steam. "But I'm sixty-seven ... I've
had five careers ... and I'm not even ready for
retirement yet. What's the big deal? I understand
this woman's busy, but she's got to make time."
  "Like going out of town right before a hugely
important ritual?" Piper asked, trying
to keep an accusatory tone out of her voice. In
truth, she was a little jealous since she couldn't
remember the last time she had gotten out of town.
  "Yes," Muriel said. "Aside from the Night
of Aeolus, my family has always tried to use
our powers to help mankind. But in addition to that, we
have also tried to live our lives. And the first thing
we're taught is how to prioritize and find time for
ourselves. Haven't you girls learned that yet?"
  Piper wasn't sure that she got the point. "But
you said you wished you could have been here earlier," she
reminded Muriel.
  "But the truth is, I probably couldn't have
stopped anything that happened," Muriel said. "And
I would have been in the same danger as Christopher,
so it was really for the best that I was in L.a."

  Piper was impressed that Muriel could address
her own problem so concisely. Her attention was always
split between her responsibilities as a Charmed
One, her work life, and her actual life. Then
again, she had left the phone all day while the club
was dealing with problems, and they'd apparently managed
without her. She figured if a
sixty-seven-year-old banker with magical powers
could take a week off, she could at least find the time
to get in some cooking.
  Then she fell right back into the trap by worrying
about the club when she remembered that it was hit by the
earthquake as well.
  "There's nothing you can do," Leo whispered to her.
"Whatever damage is done, it will be there tomorrow. The
club wasn't even open yet when the quake hit."
  "How do you do that?" she whispered back, wondering
if the Whitelighter could read her mind.
  "I love you," he replied.
  "Okay, people, we need to focus," Paige said.
"Leo, what happened with the Elders? Did you find
out where the Circle of Gaea is?"
  "By the Crystal Springs Reservoir," Leo
said. "Right off the..."
  "... San Andreas Fault," everyone in the
room finished for him.
  "Figures," Paige said.
  Piper plotted out their plan. "So then we'll
collect Tyler and the Waterbearer-was


  "Gabrielle," Phoebe added, then mumbled,
"if we can get her."
  "comand then Leo and Paige can orb us over therest"
she finished.
  "No can do, honey," Leoj said. "The Elders
said that we had to get to thi Circle of Gaea
by earthly means." j
  "Earthly means?" Piper asked. "What
exactly does that mean? Can we take my car?"
  "I know a few people who might not consider an
SUV to be very 'earthly,"" Phoebe said.
  "Well, if we have to walk there we're already too
late," Leo said.
  "What about that Tggity the light of the moonst part you
guys mentioned earlier?" Rafe asked.
  Piper glanced out the window to see that the storm was still
raging. Good question, she thought. She also noticed that the
FBI agents had left, probably after the quake
hit.
  "Don't worry about the moon thing," Muriel
said. "Everything will be fine once we get there. Oh,
there is one thing I almost forgot. We're going to need
a few items for the ritual."
  "Such as?" Piper asked.
  "A sword, a wand, a chalice, and some coins,"
Muriel replied. "Preferably old coins. The
time period doesn't really matter, but the older the
better."
  "We've got all that in the attic," Piper
said.
  Rafe looked at Paige curiously. "You've
got a very interesting family," he said.

  ChARMED
  "You don't know the half of it," she replied.
"So now what do we do?"
  "We wait," Piper said. "Although we should try
to get Darryl back here. I tried his cell
earlier but couldn't get through."
  "Maybe I should orb-was Paige was interrupted
when the phone rang.
  "Yeah, forgot about land lines," Piper said.
"Honey, could you orb upstairs and get that."
  "I wouldn't have to if you hadn't blown up the phone
in the kitchen this morning," Leo teased as he orbed.
  Piper couldn't help but notice that Rafe and
Muriel were looking at her oddly.
  "What?" she asked. "It was a rough morning."
  Leo orbed back down with the cordless phone.
  "Sheila, I can't hear you," he said into the phone
with a worried look on his face. "We have a bad
connection.... Darryl's where?"

  y in the room froze when they heard the concern in
Leo's voice. Piper immediately regretted leaving
Darryl to look after Tyler with no defenses against
demon attack.
  "Okay . . . ," Leo said into the phone. He
looked at the sisters. "Paige is already on her
way to your house, so she should be there in a couple of
minutes. Do you need a ride to the hospital?"
  The Charmed Ones took a collective breath and
stood up. The guests in the room had no doubt that
these were sisters by the way they moved as one to Leo's
side.
  "I understand . . . ," Leo continued. "We'll
meet you there."
  "Hospital?" Piper asked as Leo hung up
the phone. "Was there an attack? How's
Tyler?"
  "No attack," Leo said calmly. "Tyler's
fine.

  CllApDo
  Darryl was in a car accident during the quake.
He's in critical condition."
  "No," Piper said, not wanting to believe it.
  Suddenly the room was a flurry of activity as
Leo doled out orders.
  "Paige, orb over to Darryl's house and get
Tyler," Leo said. "Pretend like you drove and I
called you on your cell."
  "But-was
  "Sheila's in no shape to wonder how you got a
cell signal," he explained. "A police car
is on the way to the house to get her to the hospital,
so you need to get Tyler out of there now."
  "On my way," Paige said, and she orbed without
another word.
  "Phoebe, you and I are going to the hospital,"
Leo said.
  Piper wasn't crazy about that idea since she
inexplicably felt responsible for getting
Darryl involved in the first place. "Leo, I
think I should-was
  "No," Leo said gently. "I need you to go
upstairs and collect the items for the ritual."
  "I can do that," Phoebe offered.
  "I'm going to need your help," Leo said.
"Darryl was taken to San Francisco General
over an hour ago. We don't have much time. I
may need you to convince your innocent to get us into his
room so I can heal him."
  "And convince her to join us while you're at it,"
Muriel added jovially, trying to lighten the mood.
  She failed.


  "Honey?" Leo took his wife in his arms.
  "Go," Piper said calmly, yet forcefully.
  Leo let go of his wife, took Phoebe by the
arm, and did as he was told.
  Piper watched as they disappeared. She was on the
verge of tears. Sune, they had been through worse
before, but Darryl was injured over an hour ago. There
was no telling whether or not Leo would make it in
time.
  "I'll get the things we need for the ritual," she
said without looking at her houseguests and made her
way to the stairs.
  When Piper reached the attic she realized that she
had forgotten about the jblown-out door. It seemed like
ages ago since mey'd vanquished the demon that
had tried to tyke Tyler's power.
  The plastic sheeting Leo bJad put up over
the broken window in the attic was flapping in the wind
as rain poured inside. She hurried over to the window
and reattached the plastic to the nails Leo had put
in the walls. It probably wouldn't hold for much
longer, but there were more pressing concerns than the attic
floor getting wet.
  Piper turned and went over to the trunk where she and
her sisters stored the odd weapons they collected in
their travels. There were several swords inside, and
she chose the most lightweight one, figuring it would
be easier to carry to the Circle of Gaea.
  The chalice and wand were the next things on her
mental list. They were easy enough to locate

  as they kept all the magic paraphernalia in a
cabinet near the Book of Shadows. She held the
wand in her hand for the first time, since she never had the
need for it before, and then placed both items on the
floor beside the sword.
  Lastly, she needed the coins. She remembered
Grams had a bag of old coins that Piper had
liked to play with when she was a child, only she had no
idea where in the attic they could be. She started her
search in the old bureau along the sidewall.
  The first two drawers had nothing but old rags in
them, and the third one was empty. The bottom drawer
was stuck, and no matter how hard Piper pulled, it
wouldn't budge. Frustrated, she waved her hands and
blew the drawer up.
  It was empty too.
  "Good thing what you were looking for wasn't in that
drawer," Muriel said as she came into the room,
"or it would have pretty much been destroyed too."
  "Sorry," Piper said as she moved her search
to the old apothecary cabinet that so didn't belong in
the house. "I have to find those coins."
  "Is that what happened to your phone in the kitchen?"
Muriel asked with her lighthearted tone that Piper
was not getting used to. "Couldn't find it so you blew
it up?"
  "I was a little stressed this morning," Piper
explained as she banged open and shut the little drawers
on the cabinet. "I'm a little stressed now."


  "I can see that," Muriel said. "Everything is
going to work out."
  "How can you say that?" Piper asked, banging more
drawers.
  "Because it always does," Muriel replied.
  Piper slammed the last drawer shut. "No, it
doesn't," she said quietly, thinking back to her
sister Prue, who had died the last time everything
didn't work out.
  "True," Muriel said as something unspoken
passed between the two of them. "But we move on. We
live. And honey, you've got to live."
  "But I've got all these responsibilities
. . . ," Piper said.
  "And you do what you dan and then move on. Start
by finding anything that can make your life a little
easier," Muriel seid as she held out her hand and
showed Piper that she was holding two quarters, a
dime, and four pennies. "Rafe had these in his
pocket."
  "But you said you needed old coins," Piper said.
  "No, I said that old coins would be better,"
Muriel corrected her. "But if it's going
to take us all night to find those coins, v caret every
should just make do wiih what we have. It doesn't
always have to be perfect. It just has to be good enough."
  Piper's mind flashed back to her
Mulligatawny stew.
  Paige orbed herself right to Darryl's front
door and rang the bell. Sheila had it open almost

  before Paige could even get wet from the rain.
  "Leo called me," Paige said as she entered the
house. She relaxed a little when she saw Tyler
sitting quietly on the couch. The Gamecube and
games were sitting out in front of him, but he
obviously wasn't in the mood to play. "Do you
need me to do anything? Take care of Darryl
Junior?"
  "He's with his grandparents," Sheila explained.
"I called them, but told them not to say anything
until we know more."
  "I'm so sorry that this happened," Paige said
softly.
  "I spend so much time worrying about being married to a
police officer," Sheila said, holding back
tears, "that I forget normal things happen like car
accidents and earthquakes."
  But Paige knew that the earthquake was far from a
normal occurrence.
  "Hey, Tyler," Paige said, hoping to lighten
his mood a little. "You been enjoying the gaming?"
  "Yeah," he replied, though his voice sounded
hollow. Paige assumed that he was blaming himself for
this as much as Paige and her sisters were blaming themselves.
Although, truth be told, none of them really had any
control over the situation.
  A siren could be heard over the sound of the storm.
  "That's probably the car the chief sent for me,"
Sheila said quickly. "You've got to get Tyler out
of here."
  "Are you-was


  "Go," Shelia said, pushing them toward the kitchen.
"Out the back door. The last thing Darryl needs
when he wakes up is to be questioned about what a missing
child was doing in his home."
  Even though Sheila was speaking logically, with no
accusatory tone in her voice, Paige couldn't
help but think that she was being blamed. She chose not
to say anything as she and Tyler went back out into the
rain. As soon as the door was shut, Paige orbed
them home.
  In the blink of an eye they were back in the living
room. Rafe was sitting on the couch alone.
  "Where'd everybody go?" Paige asked.
  "Leo and Phoebe are at the hospital,"
Rafe explained, looking down at Tyler.
"Piper and Muriel are upstairs."
  "Tyler, this is Rafe," Paige
  said. "You two have
  something in common. Rafe qan control the wind, and
he just found that out this afternoon. So, your little
eleven-year-old self is way ahead of him."
  Rafe and Tyler shook hands awkwardly- the boy
was obviously uncomfortable with the adult ritual.
Once again, though, they felt a ripple of energy go
through the air as Fire and Air met.
  "You know, I think we have some ice cream in the
kitchen," Paige said. "Mint chocolate chip."
  "Hot chocolate, mac and cheese, and ice
cream," Tyler said, reliving his junk food
intake. "All in one day."
  "You should get kidnapped more often, huh?"
Paige said before she realized the words were out

  of her mouth. Even though the comment was
inappropriate and in bad taste, for some reason the
three of them just broke up laughing.
  "What horrible thing has to happen to me so I can
get some whipped cream?" Tyler asked, playing
along.
  Paige just laughed some more. "I'll be right
back."
  She went into the kitchen. It hadn't fared so well
in the quake. In addition to the blown-up phone and the
two cabinets still missing doors, most of the contents
of those cabinets and the others had spilled out onto the
floor.
  Paige grabbed one of the few unbroken bowls and
got the ice cream out of the freezer. As she was
scooping it into the bowl, Rafe joined her in the
kitchen.
  "You know, I really do think you should consider
teaching," he said.
  "Again, with the non sequitur," she shot back.
"I don't think we should leave Tyler alone right
now."
  "Piper and Muriel came down with the goodies for the
ritual," he explained. "But back to the subject
at hand. I liked how you dealt with Tyler, getting
him to laugh during a serious situation."
  "I get a lot of practice with the kids at the
center," Paige said.
  "But I get the feeling that the center isn't giving
you what you're looking for," Rafe said. "Teaching could
be your calling."


  "I've found my calling," Paige said. "I'm
a witch, remember?"
  "No, that's your mission," Rafe said. "Your
calling is something that you want to do, not something that you have
to do."
  "Right now, I have to focus on my magic,"
Paige said as she closed the ice cream container and
put it back in the freezer.
  "But that doesn't mean you have to give up entirely
on your calling," Rafe countered. "It just means you
have to postpone it for a while. Don't worry, it'll
come when you need it."
  Paige considered what he was saying ... and
wondered why she'd chosen to stop flirting with him
earlier.
  Leo and Phoebe paced outside the operating
room that was off to the side of the ER. They had been
at the hospital for fifteen minutes and had gotten
little information so far.
  "What's going on in there?" Phoebe asked.
  "The nurse said the wound was deep," Leo
reminded her. "This kind of surgery can't be rushed."
  "Well, you can't save him if he dies on the
operating table," Phoebe said in exasperation. "We
should have brought Piper. She could have frozen time so we
could slip in there."
  "And miraculously heal him in the middle of the
operation?" Leo asked. "I don't think the
Elders would like mat plan."

  "I don't really care what the Elders think right
now," Phoebe said, scanning the ER. The place
was far more crowded than it had been when Phoebe was
there earlier.
  "Can't you just heal all these people and get them out of
here?" Phoebe asked.
  Leo chose not to respond to the question, since
Phoebe was well aware that the Elders would really
frown upon that plan.
  They paced for a few more minutes.
  "I know," Phoebe said. "We could dress up
in scrubs and barge in there arrogantly claiming that
we're world-famous surgeons who need the room
emptied so we can perform amazing medical feats."
  Leo just stared at her.
  "Well, it always works in the movies," Phoebe
laughed. She often relied on humor when the tension
was getting to her.
  "What about your innocent . . . Gabrielle?"
Leo asked.
  "She's got to be around here somewhere," Phoebe
said.
  She was concerned that the high volume of people would keep
Gabrielle from joining them later. Phoebe knew
if Gabrielle refused that they would be forced to take
her with them against her will. The ritual was just too
important to let one overstressed medical student
stop it. It seemed fitting to Phoebe that a day that
started with an attempted kidnapping could wind up
ending with a real one.


  "I'll go look for her," Phoebe said as she
left Leo.
  Even though the place was packed, it didn't
take her long to find Gabrielle. The woman was
comforting a little girl who was holding her arm like it was
broken. Phoebe waited for Gabrielle to walk
away before approaching her.
  "Hey, Gabby," Phoebe said, forcing the
cheer-iness into her voice.
  "It's Gabrielle," she replied, sounding
exhausted. "Look, I know I told you to come
back later, but as you can see, it's crazy here. I
just can't go."
  "Yeah, we'll get to that in a minute,"
Phoebe said. "First I need you to come with me."
  "I've got patients to look after,"
Gabrielle said.
  "Yeah, and I've got a specific one who
needs your help," Phoebe said as she pulled the
med student along with her.
  When they reached Leo, Phoebe saw by the look
on his face that he had some news.
  "The operation's over," Leo said before she could even
introduce him to Gabrielle. "But he's still in
critical condition. There's a nurse in there, but she
won't let me in."
  "Gabrielle, we need you to get the nurse out in
the hall," Phoebe said.
  "Look, you and your friend have to understand that the nurse
has a job to do," Gabrielle explained. "And so
do I. You just can't get in the way."
  "Yes, we can," Phoebe said simply.
"We're trying to save a life."

  Gabrielle, yOUT re not the only one with
powersst" Phoebe said, taking the med student
aside so the people bustling through the crowded hall couldn't
hear. "My friend is a very powerful man and he can
help Darryl. But he has to get inside. Now."
  The med student took a moment to consider what
Phoebe was saying.
  She relented with a sigh. "Okay."
  Phoebe was surprised that the woman gave in so
easily. Then again, she figured Gabrielle
knew they wouldn't leave without getting in the room, so
she probably just chose the option that got them out of
there the fastest.
  "We need to come up with a reason why the nurse
has to leave the room," Phoebe said. "Since this
is the emergency room, I'm thinking some kind of
emergency."


  "And we need her to stay away for a few
minutes," Leo said. "She can't come right back
or-was
  "Why don't I just offer to take over for her?"
Gabrielle said simply, in a somewhat condescending
tone.
  "You can do that?" Phoebe asked, surprised by the
ease of the plan.
  "I'm a medical student," Gabrielle
reminded them. "That's why I'm here ... to help."
  Phoebe knew when she was being berated, so she
shut her mouth as Gabrielle entered Darryl's
room. She found the woman to be an interesting
case. Rarely had she seen a person so focused
on her goals. It's a shame that it keeps her from
seeing that whole big picture thing, Phoebe thought.
  The nurse left about a minute after Gabrielle
went into the room. Phoebe and Leo exchanged a
look and waited for the nurse to disappear down the hall
before going in.
  "Your friend's in bad shape," Gabrielle said
quickly. She obviously still needed to work on that
bedside manner.
  "If s okay," Phoebe said as she looked
over Darryl, who appeared to be far from okay. "As
long as he's alive."
  "I can work with that," Leo completed the thought as he
moved to the bed.
  "What are you going to do?" Gabrielle asked.
  "Just watch," Phoebe said as she took her own
advice.

  CHARMED
  Leo put his hands on Darryl's chest and
concentrated. Phoebe watched as the blue light
emanated from his hands, spreading into Darryl's body.
Even with all the magic she had witnessed in her
life, Phoebe was still amazed by this particular power.
  It took a little longer than usual to kick in,
probably because Darryl had been out for so long. But,
eventually, Darryl's eyes fluttered open.
  "Hey, what did I miss?" he asked
immediately. "Did the world come to an end?"
  "Not yet," Phoebe said, shooting a glance at
Gabrielle.
  Phoebe and Leo filled Darryl in on the
events, including the former seriousness of his condition.
When they mentioned Gabrielle's apparent lack of
interest in joining them, the medical student tried
to look disinterested, as if they weren't talking about
her. But Phoebe saw something in the woman's gaze
that made her think they were starting to get through.
  "What do you need me to do?" Darryl asked.
  "Recuperate," Phoebe said. "You've done
enough. We can handle it from here."
  "You know I'm perfectly fine now," Darryl
said, giving a nod of appreciation in Leo's
direction. "I'm not just going to lie around here and do
nothing."
  "The hell you aren't," Sheila said from the
doorway.


  Dairy 1 looked across the room, both happy
fo see his wife and upset that he had caused her
to worry.
  "Hi, dear," he said. "Don't worry.
I'm-was
  Sheila cut him off by crossing the room in two
giant steps and throwing him into a tight hug. The
embrace ached a little, as he still wasn't a hundred
percent over being almost dead.
  "You scared me," she said as she pulled away from
him and playfully smacked him.
  Darryl considered acting like she had really hurt
him, but figured that joke might be just a little cruel.
Besides, he needed her in a good mood for the discussion
they were about to have.
  "Urn . . . we'll wait outside,"
Phoebe said as she pushed Leo out of the robm.
  "I have to stay and monitor the equipment,"
Gabrielle shyly explained. "Although I'm thinking
that's not entirely necessary now."
  "You can stay," Darryl said. "I don't want
you to get into trouble for abandoning your post." He
turned his gaze to his wife. "How's Darryl
Junior? Did he ride out the quake?"
  "He's fine," Sheila replied. "Having a
wonderful time with his grandparents. But how are you?
Really."
  "Just a little tingle in my chest," Darryl said,
rubbing the spot where he had been injured.
"Otherwise, I'm perfectly fine."
  "Good," Sheila said with relief. "Now what's
this about you going somewhere?"

  Darryl confirmed that the door was closed and the only
person within earshot, Gabrielle, already knew most
of what was happening.
  "A little boy's life is still in danger,"
Darryl said. "And I still have responsibilities."
He knew that technically he had done his part. There
wasn't any real need for him to go along on this
Night of Aeolus thing, but he wanted to see it
through. Any case that sent him to the hospital and
nearly killed him was one that needed a little closure.
  "Phoebe said you had done enough," Sheila
reminded him.
  "Exactly how long were you standing at that door?"
Darryl asked, going over the earlier conversation in his
mind, making sure they hadn't said too much toward the
end of it.
  "Long enough to know that they don't need you," Sheila
said. "And I do. And so does our son."
  Darryl tried not to glance over at Gabrielle.
He suddenly felt really odd having a stranger in
the room to witness this personal conversation.
  "Do we have to go through the 'a cop's duty" speech
once again?" Darryl asked kindly.
  "We were supposed to be having a romantic
dinner right now," Sheila reminded him.
  "And we will," Darryl said. "I promise. I
just need to see this through first."
  "They're never going to let you out of this
hospital."
  "I think they're busy enough that they won't


  miss me," Darryl said, "especially if my
wife raises some hell over getting me out of
here."
  "Somehow I doubt that," Sheila said, looking
over to Gabrielle for confirmation.
  The medical student just shrugged.
  "I'll see what I can do," Sheila said,
giving him another hug. "Don't you go anywhere
until I get back."
  "Where can I go?" Darryl asked, pointing to his
blankets and thin hospital gown. "I'm naked
under this flimsy hospital gown."
  "Don't remind me," Sheila said in a
flirtatious tone.
  Now Darryl felt really embarrassed that someone
else was in the room.
  "You know they're not going to release you,"
Gabrielle said as soon as Sheila was out of the
room. "The doctors don't even know you're
awake."
  "It's not like they can stop me," Darryl said. "Can
I get a little help here?" He indicated to the
wires and tubes attached at various points along
his body.
  Gabrielle hesitated for a moment before giving in
and unhooking him from everything.
  "Besides, they're probably preoccupied by the
quake," he said once he was free. "How bad was
it?"
  "Bad enough," she replied.
  "Well, we'll take care of that," he said as
he went over to get his pants, which were hanging

  on the back of the door. His shirt wasn't there,
and he figured it had to have been ripped off for the
operation.
  Darryl modestly slipped into his pants,
keeping the gown on, for lack of anything better
to cover his top.
  "So, what's your power?" Gabrielle asked.
  "Some people have said it's my charm," he replied.
  "No, seriously," she said with a smile.
"What's your part in all this?"
  "Technically, I don't really have a role,"
Darryl said, sitting on the bed so he could put on
his socks and shoes. "I'm a mere mortal."
  Gabrielle seemed to be thinking about her next
question. "So why?"
  "Why what?"
  "Why are you putting your life in danger?" she
clarified the question. "You have other
responsibilities. Your wife ... your child."
  "Add my job to that list," he said. "The boss
is not particularly thrilled with my actions all the
time."
  "Then why do you do it?" Gabrielle asked.
  "That's a good question," Darryl replied. "I wish
I knew the answer."
  Darryl walked across the room and opened the door.
"You can come in now," he said to Phoebe and Leo,
who were right outside.
  "All better?" Phoebe asked.
  "More or less," Darryl replied. "Why did
you


  wait outside? You could have come back in when
Sheila left."
  "We wanted to give you and Gabrielle a chance
to talk," Phoebe replied, looking at the med
student. "Did Darryl convince you to come along?"
  Gabrielle looked at her for a moment. "How
did you know?"
  Phoebe threw a smile in Darryl's
direction. "Because that's what Darryl does."

  I/o 1 get the sword?" Tyler asked
excitedly as Piper handed out the items she had
collected from the attic. She was about to hand that
particular item to Rafe.
  "That's fine," Muriel said. "The Fire and
Air symbols are interchangeable. Tyler can have the
sword and Rafe can take the wand."
  "But I want the sword," Rafe whined
jokingly. It was the first laugh the people in the room had
shared since Phoebe and Leo had returned with
Darryl and Gabrielle.
  When they had appeared and all four Elementals
met for the first time, the room had practically
crackled with energy. For a moment, the raging storm had
even seemed to subside.
  "I'm not crazy about giving an eleven-year-old
boy a sword," Piper said, sounding totally


  maternal. "You could put your whole face out with that
thing."
  "I'll be careful," Tyler said. "Promise."
  Piper considered the request. It might be
incredibly wrong to arm a normal child that way, but she
also knew that he had already proven he was mature enough
for the responsibility.
  "Okay," she gave in, handing him the sword.
"But only use it for the ritual. Don't go swinging
it around ... unless you absolutely have to."
  "Cool," Tyler said as he held the sword in
his hands. Piper could tell that he was just dying to hack
at something.
  How sweet, she thought sarcastically. Then she
handed the wand to Rafe.
  "First person who makes a Harry Potter
joke gets it," Rafe said, holding the wand up
menacingly. "Right between the eyes."
  Piper completed her task of handing out the
symbolic ritual items by giving Gabrielle the
chalice that her Grams used to say she drank from
at her third wedding. Muriel already had the
sixty-four cents safely in her pocket.
  "Whoa, somebody looks hot," Phoebe said as
Darryl and Leo came down the stairs.
  "Thank you," Leo said, modestly.
  Piper knew that her sister was referring to Darryl,
who had borrowed one of Leo's shirts. It was a
little tight on the police officer and showed off his
well-developed muscles. Although, Piper

  had to admit, the shirt did look better on her
husband.
  "Where's Paige?" Darryl asked as he looked
over the group.
  "Mission accomplished," Paige said as she
orbed in. "Scratch one demon."
  "Why would you scratch a demon?" Rafe asked.
  This time, no one laughed.
  "Wow, someone totally lost the funny while I was
gone," Paige said.
  "You took care of the demon at the school?"
Piper clarified things, for Darryl's sake.
  "Gone, and apparently forgotten," Paige said.
"At least by Tempest."
  "That leaves two demons," Piper said.
  "And two more potion bottles," Paige said,
holding up her little gift bag of demon death. "Not
to mention the ones for Tempest."
  "I figure the demon we sent to jail
probably escaped by now," Phoebe agreed.
  The earth gave a little rumble, and everyone braced
for a stronger aftershock, but it didn't come.
  "Excuse me," Muriel said daintily with her
hand to her mouth once the rumble had stopped.
  This time, everyone laughed.
  "I guess she found the funny," Paige said,
giving Rafe a playful jab. Even when she
wasn't trying to flirt, she wound up flirting.
  "So everyone knows the plan?" Piper asked


  and was met with a round of nodding heads. The tension was
stronger than the ripple of power that seemed to be
emanating from the Elementals every few minutes.
Only hours earlier Rafe, Gabrielle, and
even Tyler had no clue of the huge
responsibilities on their shoulders.
  "You okay?" Phoebe asked as she took a
seat on the couch beside Gabrielle.
  "Just a little overwhelmed," Gabrielle replied.
"This wasn't part of my plan. You see ... I have
a very specific life plan ensuring that I make the
best use of my time."
  "I think saving the world is a pretty good use of
your time," Phoebe said, trying to figure the woman
out.
  "It is," Gabrielle said. "But it's not part
of the plan. I mean, what do I do next? If this
works out, I mean. I guess we're all dead if
it doesn't, so that will be a pretty definite
plan. But I mean, I've got this power that I
never expected to have. Am I like a superhero?" I
  Phoebe was amazed to wptch this incredibly
put-together, totally ordered and precise woman
break down right in front of her.
  "No, you're not a superhero," Phoebe said,
although she often wondered the same thing about herself.
"You're just a person with a gift. It's up to you
whether or not you choose to embrace it. You can't
plan for everything, you know. Eventually something will come
up that could

  lead your life in a whole different direction.
Look at Muriel. She's done a ton of
different things and never let any plan get her
stuck in one rut for her whole life.... Huh."
  "What?" Gabrielle asked.
  "I think I just found my own moral," Phoebe
said with a self-satisfied tone. "And look at it this
way, the body's made up of what? Eighty
percent water? Sounds like your path is already part of
your plan."
  As soon as the words were out of Phoebe's mouth,
she could see a shift in Gabrielle's entire
demeanor. It was as if everything fell into place
once she realized that her power was already fitting into the
life she had laid out for herself.
  "I was just eavesdropping on Phoebe and
Gabrielle," Paige said to Rafe in the foyer as
he came down the stairs.
  "Well, they say the first step in curing a problem
is admitting you have one," Rafe said. "Please,
let me know how I can help you help yourself."
  Paige ignored him. "They were talking all about
this life path stuff," Paige said.
  "Ah, a topic with which you are recently
familiar," Rafe said.
  "Do you tend to drive your students a little
crazy?" Paige asked.
  "I try to," Rafe admitted. "Life's just
a little more fun with some insanity in it."


  "Well, then my life is just a three-ring
circus," Paige said. "Anyway,
Gabrielle's like this totally
obsessive-compulsive planner-was
  "Yeah. Couldn't tell," Rafe said
sarcastically.
  "Anyway," Paige continued. "I think you were
right earlier. I should just plan to focus on my
magic for a while and worry about where my life will
take me later."
  "Doesn't take a house to fall on you," he
said.
  "That was a witch joke, wasn't it?" Paige
said, smirking.
  Piper was in the kitchen with Tyler making sure he
ate something other than junk food before facing
demons. The young Firestarter downed the last of his
turkey sandwich and finished off a second glass of
milk.
  "Thanks," he said as he headed back toward his
new friends in the living room.
  "You're welcome," Piper replied. "Don't
forget your sword."
  "Why does he bring that sword everywhere?" asked
Muriel, who had wandered into the kitchen also looking
for a snack.
  "I chose to leave the question unasked," Piper
replied.
  "Good call," Muriel said. "I think you'll
make a great mother someday. Any plans?"
  "Plans, yes," Piper replied. "Success,
no."
  "Keep at it," Muriel said with a gleam in her
eye. "I'm sure something will happen soon enough."

  Piper looked at her questioningly.
  "Oh, no, I don't have some kind of Earth mother
premonition just because I can manipulate the land,"
Muriel said with a laugh. "Just a feeling. I really
can see you as a mom."
  "I don't even have time to make stew," Piper
said. "How am I going to take care of a child?"
  "You'll find a way," Muriel said. "Women
have been doing it since the beginning of time."
  "Yeah, well, we'd better get going,"
Piper said. "Or we could be facing the end of time as
we know it."

  il6 l1*0110 left in two cars,
uncomfortable with e risks involved in orbing back
and forth to get everyone to Crystal Springs
Reservoir; they weren't sure just how far the edict
to "travel by earthly means" extended and didn't
want to take their chances. Based on their earlier
drives through the city, they gave themselves two hours
to get to the Circle of Gaea, which they figured was more
than enough time to get there and set up, taking into account
any possible demon battling they may have to do.
  Piper drove her SUV with Leo, Tyler,
Darryl, and Muriel. At Muriel's
suggestion, they sang car travel songs as they
made their way slowly through the streets of town.
Piper had assumed that it was Muriel's way of
keeping Tyler calm, but, as he had called
shotgun, she could see that he looked rather bored by it
all. Muriel, on the

  other hand, seemed to be having the time of her life
squeezed between Leo and Darryl singing jaunty little
tunes.
  This day could not get any more surreal, Piper thought
to herself as she sang along.
  In spite of the storm and the darkened roads, the
ride was fairly uneventful until a bright light
appeared in front of them.
  "What's that?" Tyler asked as he pointed through the
windshield and up at the sky.
  Paige was in the passenger seat of car number
two, keeping an eye on Piper's car in front
of them while Phoebe concentrated on keeping the car
on the road. Debris from the storm was littering the
streets, and lights were still out in sections of the city.
Paige was having trouble following Piper's black
SUV through the dark streets because the rain was still coming
down heavily with high winds, and possibly even
hail. It was hard to concentrate because she kept
laughing over what was happening in the backseat.
  Rafe apparently had given up on his
flirtations with Paige when he realized it wasn't
going anywhere and had moved on to Gabrielle, but was
getting no response whatsoever. Paige assumed
that "fun" wasn't anywhere in the woman's life
plan either. She was also a bit annoyed that he had
seemed to lose interest in her and move on to the
woman ten years his senior. Not that age mattered
any; Paige


  was just looking for a reason to be annoyed.
  It took Paige almost a half hour to realize
that Rafe wasn't really interested in Gabrielle.
He was just fooling around to see if he could get the
woman to laugh. Paige figured it out when he
caught her eye in the rearview mirror and made a
face at her.
  Paige also saw Gabrielle give her a
strange look when she started laughing out loud for no
apparent reason.
  "You know, you could probably stop all this rain if
you really wanted to," Rafe said. "I mean, it
is only water."
  "No, actually it's a combination of climatic
factors occurring all around us and affecting the
clouds thousands of feet in the air above, only then
resulting in the water all around us," Gabrielle
clarified.
  "I knew you could be fun at parties," Rafe
said. "Look at all the useless trivia you have at
your disposal for small talk."
  "Maybe you could at least hold back the rain between
Piper and us. I can hardly see the SUV,"
Paige said. She played along with Rafe not just because
it was fun, but because she could really use the help. It
had gotten easier to navigate since there was hardly
any traffic on the road out here, but it was totally
dark and almost impossible to see Piper's
taillights in the downpour.
  "I don't really know how to do that," Gabrielle
said, sounding like she was disappointed with her lack of knowledge.

  CllApDo
  "Besides, she should conserve her power," Phoebe
said. "And Rafe, stop being an instigator."
  "Sorry, Mom," he joked back.
  Paige couldn't help but think that Phoebe was a
little touchy since they were picking on her innocent.
She was about to say something, but her attention was suddenly
diverted.
  "Look out!" Paige screamed as a giant
fireball fell out of the sky-right toward them.
  Piper swerved the SUV to the left as the
fireball came crashing down in front of them. As
she slammed on the breaks she knew that she was not
going to stop in time to keep her from going into an
embankment.
  "Hold on!" she yelled as her right arm
instinctively shot out to hold Tyler in his seat,
even though he already had a seatbelt on.
  In the milliseconds that followed, as they slid
across the empty lanes of the road, Piper saw the
ground in front of them suddenly buckle and rise.
At first she thought it was another quake, but then
realized that the road was rising steadily, creating an
incline that slowed the car without smashing the front end.
The SUV came to a stop about six inches from the edge
of a steep drop off the side of the road.
  "I'm getting the strangest sense of deja vu,"
Darryl said, massaging his shoulder.
  Before anyone could respond, a flash of
headlights blew past them as Phoebe's lighter
car


  could not get the traction it needed. Instead of
sliding off the road and down the embankment, it
launched itself into the air, using the upturned road as
a ramp.
  "No!" Piper yelled.
  It was as if the strength of her voice had
developed a new magical power, because Phoebe's
car slammed to a halt mid-air, j Piper
realized that Rafe must have used his powers as the car
rocked from side to side, being buffeted by the winds.
  Piper and the others jumped out of the SUV into the
rainy night.
  "Why aren't they coming down?" Tyler asked as the
car started thrashing in mid-air.
  "Rafe can't control it!" Muriel yelled.
  "Everybody back!" Leo shouted over the
increasing winds.
  The group ran across the deserted road and watched
in horror as the car flipped upside down and kept
jumping wildly.
  "Leo, do something," Piper shouted over the winds.
  Her husband didn't hav caret a chance to act as
four sets of sparkly light appeared in front of
them. A moment later Paige appeared with
Phoebe, Rafe, and Gabrielle, holding hands.
  "Let it down gently," Phoebe pleaded, still
holding her keys which had been orbed right out of the
ignition as she shut off the car in midair.
  But Rafe was still not in control.

  "I can't hold it!" he yelled.
  Once again they felt the ground move. This time it
was more violent than the earthquake, and everyone was
knocked to the ground except Muriel. The fall
jolted Rafe, and he lost control of the winds just as
the ground rose up from the embankment. The car
dropped about three feet as it crashed onto a
plateau Muriel created by the side of the road.
  Everyone sat in awe.
  Gabrielle was the first to speak. All she could
say was, "Wow."
  "I don't suppose you could orb that back here?"
Phoebe asked Paige since the plateau was about
six feet above the road.
  "I'm not done yet," Muriel said.
  Once again the ground shook as it lowered the car
until the plateau rested beside the ramp that Muriel
had made into the road. She then gave a little bump
and the car came rolling down. It looked a little
battered from the winds, but the damage seemed minor,
at least on the outside.
  Once again the group fell silent.
  "I swear I had nothing to do with that fireball,"
Tyler said.
  "We know," Piper said, even though she had been
a little concerned about that in the back of her mind.
  "I think it means we have to start the "earthly
means" part of our travels," Leo suggested.


  "Great," Paige said. "And in the pouring rain
too."
  "I think I can do something about that," Gabrielle
said as she closed her eyes and started concentrating.
  "Remember," Phoebe said, catching on to the
plan. "Feel it, don't think."
  Gabrielle opened her eyes, and when she did,
the rain stopped. Well, it still kept coming down, but
once it was about three feet over their
heads-Darryl's head to be specific since he was
the tallest-it divided like the Red Sea and came
down around the group.
  "We have to stay close," Gabrielle said. "I
can't push the rain too far."
  "You're doing fine," Muriel said.
  "I could probably dry us all off," Tyler
eagerly suggested. "All I have to do is focus my
power."
  "That's okay," Piper said. She figured that
Tyler just wanted to feel like he was contributing, but
she wasn't ready to put her clothes- and her
body-at the mercy of his flames. "But we could use
some light."
  "Why don't you try a small fireball about
three feet in front of us," Muriel suggested.
  Tyler seemed to like the idea and let his emotions
cast a little ball of fire to light their way. He
tried to take the lead position, but Piper pulled
him back into the mix, since it was a little dangerous for
him to be front and center. She allowed her husband
to take that position.

  Darryl totally understood Tyler's desire
to feel useful as he brought up the rear of the little band
of travelers walking along the side of the road. But
at the same time he couldn't remember why he had
argued with Sheila over getting an early release from
the hospital. He also didn't understand why he
wasn't at home right now having a romantic
dinner with his wife.
  Those thoughts continued to occupy his mind as they
trudged along. He felt like he was trapped
watching Sesame Street with his son as the song
"One of These Things Is Not Like the Others" rolled
over and over in his mind. Darryl reached inside his
jacket to make sure he was armed, though for some odd
reason he felt he would have been better protected
with the sword.
  The rain continued to pour down, though not on the
eight-foot-by-four-foot stretch of space that
moved along with them as they walked. Darryl had
to admit that these Elementals were proving to be quite
useful, just thinking how much more freedom he would have if
he never had to hold an umbrella again for the rest of
his life.
  "Are we there yet?" Rafe asked. Darryl
figured he was just beating Tyler to the punch.
  "Beats me," Leo said. "The Elders didn't
exactly point out the coordinates on a map."
  "We'll know when we reach the trail that leads to the
Circle of Gaea." Muriel said. "No need
to worry."


  But Darryl was worried. It was unlikely that
Tempest would know the location for the ritual, since
none of them had known it either. However, Darryl was
getting used to how the demon mind worked and how they
always seemed to have a surprise or two up their
sleeves. That's exactly why he put himself on
high alert when the rain stopped entirely.
  He looked up and saw the clear moonlit sky
above him, but that wasn't the surprising part. It was still
a downpour only three feet behind him.
  "Did I do that?" Gabrielle asked, almost in
awe of herself.
  "No, sweetie," Muriel said. "We've
reached the trail."
  Darryl saw that she was right. There was a trail
cut into the trees on the side of the road. But he
liked that path even less. On the road they had at
least had some warning if something was about to attack them.
The trees provided a frightening amount of cover even
though the sky lit the path well enough that Tyler could
put out his guiding fire.
  "I don't like this," Darryl said, looking into the
trees.
  "I think we're all in agreement on that one,"
Paige said.
  Muriel pushed a tiny button on her watch
and the face glowed for a moment. "Well, like it or not,
we've got to get moving. It's getting on
midnight."

  Darryl took out his gun and moved himself to the head
of the group out of habit more than for any logical
reason.
  "Urn, Darryl," Piper said gently.
"Maybe one of us with powers should lead."
  "I vote for the guy with the gun," Muriel said.
"That's the one power the demons can't absorb and send
back at us."
  "Good point," Piper agreed. "Never mind.
Darryl, lead the way."
  Darryl stepped off the blacktop and onto the
dirt path. He was much more comfortable moving between
concrete buildings than tall trees, but he let
his gun guide the way and felt a little more secure.
  The path went up a slight, though long, incline,
and Darryl kept his eyes moving in every direction as
they made the ascent. The silence of the woods was much
better to listen for noise in than the din of the city.
At least they had that going for them. Everything seemed
to be progressing smoothly when they saw a clearing
ahead. Darryl hoped that it was the location of the
Circle of Gaea.
  "I think we're here," Darryl whispered as he
let his attention slip for the briefest moment.
  It was in that moment that a branch came swinging down
on his hand, knocking his gun into the bushes.
  Tempest's one remaining male demon was standing
beside him.

  disness shock
  y wore off quickly as his instincts
  took over, and he came back slamming his fist
in the demon's face.
  "Stay back," Darryl warned as he saw the
female demon appear in the center of the clearing.
If the male demon had appeared like that it was no
wonder he was able to get the drop on Darryl.
  The woman raised her hand to show she was carrying a
weapon.
  "Gun!" Paige yelled, and she orbed the
weapon to her a moment after it was fired. It was still hot
when the barrel landed in her hand, forcing her to drop it
on the ground.
  The rest of the group dove for cover as the lone
bullet crossed the clearing toward them. Piper
pulled Tyler down with her as she froze the bullet
before it hit Leo.

  "Thanks, honey," Leo said as he grabbed the
sword from Tyler and advanced on the male demon
while Phoebe ran into the clearing and took on the
female using her martial arts training.
  "Darryl, keep the Elementals back!" Piper
said as she went to join her husband.
  Leo was well-practiced with the sword, but the
demon was surprisingly agile considering his bulk,
and able to keep away from the weapon with a series of
tight moves. Piper considered blowing the demon up
while his attention was diverted, but figured it was too
risky.
  Leo swung the sword, intending to decapitate
the demon, but the guy dropped and swung his foot
around, knocking Leo's legs out from beneath him and
toppling him backward. Leo hit the ground hard and
dropped the sword. The demon went for it.
  Piper was on him in a flash. He may not have
possessed any magic of his own, but he certainly
had power as he flung her across the clearing.
  "Piper, no!" Tyler yelled as he ducked
past Darryl into the clearing. He had the presence of
mind not to use his powers, but he was still rushing headlong
into trouble.
  "Tyler!" Darryl yelled as he gave chase.
  The demon met Tyler halfway and clamped on
to the kid. The power drain began immediately, and both
bodies glowed red hot.
  Darryl knew that he couldn't let the demon get
Tyler's power so he did the only thing he


  could. He took off his jacket, wrapped it around
his fist, and gave the demon a blunted yet powerful
hit across the chin. It knocked the demon off
Tyler, but the heat from the power transfer was so intense
that it set Darryl's jacket on fire, burning his
hand. He managed to burn his free hand too, trying
to remove the flaming clothes.
  Leo took the opportunity to reclaim the
sword and thrust it through the demon's chest.
  At the same time, Phoebe was looking to be
evenly matched with the female. Every kick Phoebe
landed was blocked or countered. Even her power
to levitate could not serve her as the demon clamped
on to ensure that Phoebe couldn't get the upper hand.
  Phoebe managed to shake the demon loose, but
was distracted when Tyler ran into the clearing. The
demon used that to her advantage as she grabbed
Phoebe's leg and flung her, hard, to the ground.
  Paige was right behind her sister with a vanquishing
potion at the read caret . Unfortunately, the
demon didn't give her the chance to throw it as she
attacked. Paige's fighting skills were as not as
honed as her sister's, but she managed to land a few
good blows before the demon knocked her aside,
smashing the potion bottle in the process.
  Once her partner was killed, the female wasted
no time finishing the job he had started. She hurried
across the clearing and grabbed on to Tyler, holding him
like a shield in front of her.

  She backed across the clearing keeping her eyes on
everyone as she drained the boy.
  "Tyler!" Piper yelled. She could see the pain
in his eyes as his entire body glowed a
reddish-orange.
  "Stay back," the woman warned. "Or I'll
drain him and then kill him."
  "No," Piper said, throwing up her hands.
  "Piper, wait," Leo said, grabbing on to her.
"You can't blow her up so close to Tyler. And if
you freeze time, we could all get stuck until
she's done with him."
  "Tough choice," the demon said as she focused
on the rest of the Elementals who had stayed safely
in the trees. "Don't worry. You're all
next. I'll drain you one by one and give your
gifts of power to Tempest."
  "Piper!" Phoebe yelled as she moved next
to her sister.
  "I know," Piper replied as the three sisters
realized the potential flaw in the demon's plan.
"Paige."
  "I'm on it," Paige orbed across the clearing
to the Elementals so she could tell them the plan.
  A moment later she and the Elementals entered the
clearing.
  "How kind of you to line up for me," the woman said
as the glow started to fade from Tyler's eyes.
  "Oh, they'll make it even more convenient,"
Piper said. "They'll give you all the powers at
once."


  The demon's eyes went wide.
  "Now!" Paige yelled.
  Muriel, Rafe, and Gabrielle grabbed hands
and let loose with their powers, focusing on the demon
holding Tyler. But the ground did not shake, the
winds did not blow, and the rain did not fall.
Instead, the three of them followed Muriel's
unspoken guidance and hit the demon with their raw
power, shooting beams of brown, sky blue, and aqua
light from their bodies.
  "No!" the demon screamed as she absorbed the
full effects of the fire, water, air, and wind
together. The intensity forced her to drop Tyler to the
ground, but even with one less power entering her body it
still proved too much. The demon exploded above
Tyler, sending smoke up through the trees.
  Silence fell over the clearing once again.
  "That was so cool!" Tyler said as he picked himself
up off the ground.
  "That kid has a weird idea of fun,"
Paige said.
  "Seemed pretty cool to me," Rafe agreed.
  "Speak for yourself," Darryl said as he cringed over
his burned hands.
  "Here, let me," Leo said as he took
Darryl's hands in his and worked his healing power.
  "Couldn't do this in a more manly way, could you?"
Darryl asked as they held hands. "Maybe over a
couple beers."
  "Next time," Leo said.
  "After being healed twice in one day, I don't

  want there ever to be a next time," Darryl said as
they let go of each other. His hands had entirely
healed over, leaving no burns or scars behind.
  "Much as I hate interrupting a tender moment,"
Muriel joked as she checked her watch again,
"we're getting nigh on midnight, as they say."
  "As who says?" Tyler asked.
  "It's a... thing," Piper replied, suspecting
that she'd have to work on her question-answering abilities
if she were to have her own child.
  "This way," Phoebe said as she continued down the
path on the other side of the clearing.
  Everyone was even more on guard than before, knowing that
Tempest must be near as well. Each member of the
party hoped that they would be able to get through this without
meeting up with the demon they only knew by name, but that
seemed highly unlikely.
  The odds were even less likely when they reached
yet another clearing and found what appeared to be a
man standing on a stone circle in the center.
  "Hello," the demon Tempest said. "I've
been waiting for you."
  "Well, that's odd," Muriel said.
  "What?" Piper asked.
  "I thought he'd be taller," she replied.
  Unfortunately, the atmosphere was too tense for
anyone to laugh.
  Muriel was right, though. Tempest was a little on the
short side standing on ground level across


  from the group. Not quite diminutive, but certainly not
as imposing as his minions had been in person. Then
again, his minions weren't very imposing anymore either.
  "You know," Piper said as she stepped into the
clearing, "considering your minions didn't have any
powers of their own, I'm guessing you don't have any
either."
  "You'd be correct," Tempest said from his spot
in the center of the stone.
  Piper was surprised that he had answered her so
readily.
  "And without those minions to act as a conduit for the
power," Phoebe added, "I'm guessing you have no
way to drain the Elementals directly."
  "That would be true as well," Tempest replied.
  "So, then you're not really a threat anymore?"
Paige added.
  "Well, I could always kill you and force the
Elementals to give me their power during the
ritual," Tempest said.
  "And how could you do that?" Piper took up the questioning
again.
  Paige used the fact her sister had the demon's
attention to pull two potion bottles out of her
bag. She handed one to Phoebe.
  "I may not own their powers," Tempest said. "But
as long as I stand in the Circle of Gaea, I can
control them."
  Paige and Phoebe each threw the vanquishing

  potion, hoping one would connect, but neither bottle
made it as far as the demon. They both exploded in
flames in midair-several feet before they reached
Tempest.
  Tyler doubled over in pain as he lost control of
his power.
  "You see," the demon said, "it's nearly
midnight and I'm only moments away from controlling
their powers, and the weather, for all time."
  "Like we don't have a backup plan," Phoebe
said as she closed the gap between her and her sisters.
  "What?" Tempest asked in a condescending tone.
"A spell? I doubt it will work if it can't be
heard."
  With a blink of his eyes, Tempest called up
hurricane-force winds that knocked Tyler and
Gabrielle to the ground. Rafe fell a moment
later, but not from the wind. He was in serious pain from
Tempest taking control of his power.
  The Charmed Ones could barely keep their footing as
they clasped hands and started their chant. It was no
use. The winds reached in and carried the words right out of
their mouths and out of the clearing.
  Leo reached for Tyler's sword, but a flash of
lightning came out of the cloudless sky, sending him and the
metal sword flying.
  Piper moved to blow up the demon, figuring that
he couldn't absorb her power either. But Tempest
countered by shaking the ground and


  sending the Charmed Ones to their knees and Muriel
to the ground as he stole her control of the earth.
  Surprisingly, it was Gabrielle who tried
to beat Tempest to the punch by willing a flood of
water out of the nearby reservoir, but Tempest
effortlessly sent it back at her, knocking her to the
ground.
  While Tempest's focus was split attempting
to control the four powers at once, the Charmed Ones
locked hands again and tried to work their spell once more.
But the combination of wind carrying their words and the water
flooding their mouths stopped them.
  Tempest was so consumed with drowning the witches on
dry land that he didn't notice the mortal sneaking
up on him until Darryl launched himself at the
demon and pulled him off the Circle of Gaea.
  As Darryl landed on the grass with the demon he
yelled to the Charmed Ones, "Now!"
  Piper, Phoebe, and Paige stood and clasped
hands, reciting the spell they had prepared earlier.
  By the Water and the Air,
  By the Earth and the Fire,
  By the powers that we bear,
  Tempest's life, now expire.
  Darryl rolled off the demon as his body glowed
a bright aqua, then shifted slightly to

  ClApDo
  sky blue, then deepened to brown, and finally
turned to orange before Tempest exploded in front
of them.
  Once again everyone was speechless as they took in the
fact that they were finally free of the demons that had been
chasing them all day. Muriel checked her watch.
  "We're down to minutes," she announced as
everyone moved toward the stone circle.
  Piper helped Leo up as he regained
consciousness from his near electrocution and joined the
group as they examined the stone circle.
  It was a simple platform made of what looked
to be granite. Now that Tempest had been
removed, they could see the Circle of Gaea had a
five-pointed star carved into it, forming a pentagram.
  "We each have to take a point," Muriel
instructed, making sure that they each had their
symbolic item of sword, wand, chalice, and
coin. "Rafe takes the upper left and
Gabrielle gets the lower left. Tyler, honey,
you're on the right side with me. Take the lower
point, and I'm right here."
  They all did as instructed, taking their positions
on the star.
  "What about the top point?" Tyler asked.
  "Good question," Muriel said. "That is the point
reserved for the Spirit Elemental."
  "Wait a minute," Paige said. "What Spirit
Elemental?"


  "The most powerful Elemental there is," Muriel
said. "It is the one that holds all the other elements
together: the Human Spirit."
  "What are you talking about?" Piper asked as she
checked her own watch to see there were only two
minutes to midnight. "You didn't say anything about
finding a Human Spirit."
  "Didn't have to," Muriel s very powerful one
with yoi
  aid. "You've had a all day. The only
  full human in the group . . . Darryl, will you
please take your spot on the circle?"

  VyflOfl, W31l a minute," Darryl said,
physically backing away from the circle. "I
don't know what you're talking about."
  "You're the only one of us that doesn't have some
kind of power suppressing the full force of your
human spirit," Muriel said simply. "Really, we
don't have time to discuss this, lime is ticking." She
pointed to the topmost point of the star.
  Darryl's mind was buzzing. This doesn't make
any sense at all, he thought. I'm not supposed
to be part of this ritual. I'm only here because... why
am I here again?
  "All you need to do is stand here and take part in the
ritual," Muriel said. "Really, it's not that
complicated."
  Oh, yes it is, said the little voice in his head.
What about your "know nothing, see nothing"
philosophy?


  "Muriel, why didn't it say anything about a
Spirit Elemental in Christopher's files?" Piper
asked, though Darryl suspected she was just stalling
to give him time to accept the fact that the ritual
apparently hinged on him.
  "It's not the Firestarter's responsibility
to find the Spirit Elemental," Muriel explained.
"The Spirit is the one who finds the Firestarter."
  Well, technically, my job was to find the
Fire-starter, Darryl thought. And I managed to do
that quickly enough.
  He looked down at the sword, chalice, wand,
and coins that were lying at the feet of their respective
Elementals.
  "But I don't have a symbol of my power,"
Darryl said, this time providit ig his own stalling.
  "Of course you do," Muriel said as she stepped
off the stone and moved toward Darryl. "Your symbol
is heart." She gently guided him into his
position. "Now let's get this puppy started."
  Darryl watched the Charmed Ones and their
Whitelighter step away from the circle to give the
Elementals space to perform the ritual. He
wasn't sure what he had to do since he had
missed that part of the briefing-what with being near death.
Darryl just followed along as the Elementals joined
hands by taking Gabrielle's on his left and
Tyler's on his right.
  "Tyler," Muriel said.
  "Now?" Tyler asked.
  She smiled and gave him a nod.

  Tyler closed his eyes and a fire erupted in the
middle of the circle-contained, but sending flames high
into the air that obviously matched Tyler's
excitement level. The flames calmed down once
Tyler did as well.
  "Repeat after me," Muriel said in the most
seriously calm voice she had used all day.
"Guardians of the North, the West, the South, the
East..."
  "Guardians of the North, the West, the South, the
East..."
  "... Join together in the spirit of this circle ..."
  "... Join together in the spirit of this circle ..."
  "... And bring about peace ..."
  "And bring about peace . . . Calm the winds,
hold back the rains, subdue the fire, and let
Earth rest. On this Night of Aeolus, in this the
Circle of Gaea, we implore you to take back
your power by using our strength."
  Darryl didn't realize that they'd stopped
repeating what Muriel said and were actually speaking as
one until after the verbal part of the ritual had ended.
It was an odd sensation to know he had just recited a
speech he had never heard before. Somehow it had
seemed so natural, just as the energy flowing through the
circle from Tyler to him and then to Gabrielle felt
right.
  The energy shifted in color as it traveled round
three times then shot out from each of the Elementals into the
flame in the center. The fire


  danced in front of them, then exploded up to the
sky in a brilliant burst.
  Once again the clearing was lit solely
by moonlight.
  "The Earth is at peace," Muriel said.
  "Really?" Rafe asked. "Doesn't feel
any different."
  The clearing was exactly the same as it had been
before the ritual. The only difference that Darryl
noticed was a gentle breeze replacing the eerie
stillness that had been there before.
  "Oh, but it is," Muriel said calmly, then
broke her serious demeanor and looked at Tyler.
"Race you back to the car."
  The boy apparently considered taking off, but
stopped himself when he realized the woman was making a
joke.
  Paige considered the day's events as the group
made their way back on the path to the road. She
understood exactly what Tyler, Rafe,
Gabrielle, and even Darryl were going through
emotionally after finding out that they each had an
unexpected gift that they could use to do such
important work.
  As she and the group came out of the woods, the first thing
they noticed was that the sky was just as clear as it had
been above the Circle of Gaea and the wind just as
gentle.
  "Wow," said Tyler. After all they'd been through it
was pretty much all anyone could say.

  Silently, they continued to the cars. Their trek was
much faster without having to fight against the weather, worry
about demons, or keep to the small patch of dry
area that Gabrielle had created for them earlier.
  Paige wouldn't have been surprised at all
to see a small family of deer come out from the trees
to walk with them. The moment seemed just so naturally
perfect. However, no fauna were there to meet them when
they reached the cars.
  "Keep your fingers crossed," Phoebe said as
she started the engine.
  Paige, Rafe, and Gabrielle cheered as the
engine turned over. Since the SUV was actually
facing the passenger side of the car, Paige gave
Piper the "thumbs up," and Phoebe and Piper then
pointed both their vehicles in the right direction.
  This time it was much easier to follow Piper's
taillights up the road. Paige didn't even have
to navigate for Phoebe. The car ride was mostly
silent as everyone was exhausted from the day, both
physically and emotionally.
  Since the passengers in both cars had already said
their good-byes, Phoebe split off from Piper
to take Rafe back to his car. It was still parked at
the zoo in the same spot it had been when Paige
had decided it would be faster to orb home.
  Paige walked him to his car after Rafe said his
good-byes to Phoebe and Gabrielle. She
figured that her sister wanted to give them some time


  alone since she had pulled in several spots
away from the truck.
  "Phoebe's not too big with the subtle," Rafe
said as they took the short stroll to the truck he had
borrowed.
  "Not so much," Paige agreed. "Look, I-was
  "Hey, I get it," Rafe interrupted.
"Believe me, I totally understand needing some time for
yourself."
  "It's not permanent," Paige said. "I just
want to figure out what I'm doing with my work and my
magic ... and ultimately the rest of my life."
  "And why would you want to get involved with a guy who
has well over two dozen kids in various parts
of the city?" Rafe asked.
  Paige's eyes nearly bugged out.
  "Schoolteacher . . . remember?" he said,
beaming a smile at her.
  "It's been a long day," Paige said, shaking
her head.
  "Well... good-bye," Rafe said as they did the
awkward "handshake or kiss!" dance.
  Mid-step, Paige noticed ai strange paw
print on the hood of Rafe's car, "What do you
think that is?"
  "Either a monkey or a duck-billed
platypus," Rafe said. "I'm sure a few of the
animals took the quake as their chance to escape."
  "I think duck-billed platypuses... or
platypi?" Paige wondered. "They have webbed
feet."
  "I know," Rafe said. "I just wanted to hear

  you say platypi." He leaned in, giving her a
soft kiss on the cheek.
  Once Paige got back in the car, it was all
Phoebe could do not to ask her sister what was going on
with the cute Elemental. She was definitely picking
up a vibe, but Paige just didn't seem like she was
interested in pursuing it right now.
  She exited the parking lot and headed for the
hospital where Gabrielle had insisted on being
taken.
  "You sure you don't want to go home and rest?"
Phoebe asked.
  "I'm just getting my second wind,"
Gabrielle said.
  "Actually, he just left," Paige said with a
groan. "I'm sorry. I just said that out loud,
didn't I?"
  The three women shared a laugh over the lame
pun.
  "So, now that you've accepted this power," Phoebe
said, readdressing the subject they had discussed
earlier, "how does that fit into your plan?"
  Gabrielle thought over the question. "I don't know
yet," she admitted. "And I have to say, I'm a
little excited. It's the first time since I was a
teenager that I didn't have every aspect of my life
plotted out. I feel a little more free than I did
this morning."
  "If you really felt free, you'd go home and
get some rest since you clocked out earlier,"
Phoebe noted.


  "One step at a time, Phoebe," Gabrielle
replied. "One step at a time."
  The streets were fairly clear so late at
night. Now that the storm had subsided, the damage
from the quake didn't seem as bad as it had when the
heavy winds were blowing debris around. The city had
even managed to get most of the lights back on between
the zoo and the hospital, which were not all that close
to each other.
  "Here we are," Phoebe said as she pulled in
by the emergency room entrance.
  "Thanks," Gabrielle said as she got out of the
car. "For everything."
  "You did the hard part," Paige said with a wave.
  "Still, I feel that somehow I need to thank you,"
Gabrielle said. "For getting me to accept who I
am."
  "Forget about it," Paige said. "We do this kind
of thing every day."
  "Not so fast," Phoebe said as she looked up
at the former lawyer from the driver's seat.
"Gabrielle, how are you with contracts?"
  Piper couldn't help but be excited as she and
Darryl followed Tyler up the walk to his house.
The door was locked so he started ringing the bell
frantically and banging on the door. The noise
echoed through the quiet neighborhood, but Piper
didn't stop him. It was nice to see him so quick
to return to his normal life.
  She had given Tyler another drink of the

  binding potion on the ride back from Crystal
Springs Reservoir. Tyler would have preferred her
to use a spell, but that only worked on the unbinding.
They had been forced to do it with the old-fashioned-and
less tasty-method.
  The door swung open and both Stephen and Maria
appeared in the doorway. Even though it was close
to one in the morning, they were both wide awake, which
didn't surprise Piper in the least. She could
imagine there wasn't much sleeping going on while
Tyler was missing. They were on their son in
seconds, smothering him in hugs and kisses along with
squeals of joy. Paige had certainly found the
perfect couple to raise him.
  Piper looked back to see Leo and Muriel
watching from the car. She wished that the reunion could end
on the happy note of parents and child back together, but
once the initial joy wore off and Stephen invited
her and Darryl into the house, she knew the questions would
begin.
  "Where did you find him?" Stephen asked as they
walked into the living room. Maria wouldn't let go of
her son.
  "It's a long story," Piper said, hoping that would
suffice but knowing it wouldn't.
  "It had to do with his last foster situation, like I
said," Darryl added, working the lie they had settled
on in the car. "And that missing couple."
  "But everything's okay now," Piper insisted.
  "Is he safe now?" Maria asked. "Are those
people going to come back?"


  "They're entirely out of the picture," Darryl
said. "Tyler will be fine."
  Piper couldn't help but wonder if that was true.
She had thought Tyler was safe the last time she had
bound his powers. It was all the more reason she would have
to look in on him from time to time.
  "What happened?" Stephen asked, apparently
wanting more of an explanation.
  "Not now, Stephen," Maria said, hugging her
son. "In the morning. Tyler looks exhausted.
  Thanks for the save, Piper thought.
  "We should get going," Darryl said. "Let you have
your reunion and get Tyler to bed."
  Tyler broke from his mom and gave Piper a big
good-bye hug that really tugged at those maternal
urges.
  "Thanks for everything, Piper," he said as he
let go. "You too, Darryl." He took the
officer's hand and gave him a very manly shake.
  "You were pretty impressive there yourself,"
Darryl said. "Don't forget, I'm going to need a
babysitter sometime. Maybe next weekend when I
have to make up for missing a night out with my wife."
  Piper gave both the parents a hug good-bye,
while Darryl kept it to a more professional
handshake. They both took a deep breath as the
front door closed behind them and they walked to the
SUV.
  "So, what exactly are you going to write in

  the report?" Piper asked, more out of curiosity
than concern.
  "I'll stick to the story we created," Darryl
said. "Keep to the basics. As long as the good guys
keep winning, the chief is content enough."
  "And Agent Harkins?" Piper asked.
  "He's another good one," Darryl said.
"He'll ask the tough questions, but in the end I'm
sure he'll go with the story."
  "Darryl," Piper said as she stopped before they
reached the car. "I don't know how many more times I'm
going to do this, but thank you. Thank you for everything you do
for us. We really couldn't fulfill this whole destiny
thing without you."
  She wrapped Darryl in a tight embrace.
  "Let's get you home," she said as she continued
to the SUV to find Leo and Muriel waiting for them
on the sidewalk.
  "I'm guessing it went well inside?" Leo
asked.
  "Pretty much," Piper said, giving her husband
a hug.
  "We've agreed that Leo's going to pop me
home," Muriel said with an excited look on her
face. "I've really wanted to try that orbing thing!"
  Piper laughed. The sixty-seven-year-old
woman looked even younger than Tyler as she waited
to be orbed.
  "I don't know if I should trust you alone with my
husband," Piper said.


  "Hey, you were the one just hugging the big guy here,"
Muriel said, giving Darryl a playful slap on
the back.
  "I guess it will be okay," Piper said, acting
like she was skeptical over the whole idea.
  Leo and Darryl kindly stepped aside so the
two women could say a proper good-bye.
  "Thanks for all the help, kiddo," Muriel
said. "The little Firestarter couldn't have done it without
you."
  "I had a lot of help," Piper reminded her.
  "Still, you were the one in charge," Muriel said.
"Trust me. In my life I've overseen
hundreds, if not thousands of employees. You made
that look downright simple compared to everything you handled
today."
  "Maybe I should tackle that stew again," Piper
joked. "We never had dinner."
  "Maybe you should go romance that hunky husband of
yours," Muriel said with a wink. "The stew can
wait."
  Piper liked that idea better than standing over a
stew pot again. There would be time for that later.
  They exchanged good-byes and Piper moved over with
Darryl to watch Leo and Muriel orb away.
They both stood in silence a moment longer, still
absorbing all that had happened throughout the day.
  "Let's get you home," Piper finally said.

  Epilogue
  y WflVeO good-bye to Piper as she drove
off into the night. It was after one, and all the lights in
the house were off. He wasn't sure if that was because
of the earthquake or not since Sheila usually left
the living room light on for him when he was working
late, and the familiar glow was not coming through the window.
  Darryl was careful not to make any noise when he
opened the front door so he wouldn't wake his
wife. They had left things a little tense at the
hospital, and he would have preferred to have the pending
conversation in the morning, or never actually have it at
all.
  As soon as the door was open a crack, he
heard the strange sound of a saxophone echoing through the
house. His favorite jazz CD was on, and it
seemed to be coming from the dining room. He followed the
smooth sounds and the


  faint glow that turned out to be candlelight.
  Two white taper candles were lit on either side
of the table. Sheila's favorite table linens and the
fine china and crystal had been laid out under the glow
of the candles. Darryl was glad to see that none of it
had been damaged in the earthquake.
  "Welcome home," Sheila said as she came in
from the kitchen wearing her black silk robe and
carrying a covered tray. She walked over to the
table, put down the tray, and turned to give her
husband a kiss.
  "What's all this?" he asked.
  "I realize your day was crazy," she replied.
"But don't tell me you forgot all about our
romantic dinner."
  In that moment, Darryl loved his wife more than he
thought possible.
  "Voila," she said as she removed the cover from the
tray to reveal a pair of peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches. "I didn't want to use the gas oven
in case another aftershock hit."
  Darryl knew that was no longer a concern, but he
didn't care. They could have a romantic meal over
a couple of Pez candies. He took his wife in
his arms again and slowly swayed to the music.
  "I'm sorry," he said as they danced. "I-was
  "Not tonight," Sheila replied. "I know your life
is crazy. I don't want to make it any
crazier."
  "Thank you," he said.

  "But we will talk about this someday," she said.
  "Yes," he said, focusing on the music and his
moves. "Someday."
  The saxophone continued to play as they swayed together
in perfect unison. For the second time since
midnight, Darryl knew that he was exactly where
he was supposed to be.

  About the Author
  Paul Ruditis has written and contributed
to various books based on such notable TV shows as
Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Sabrina, The
Teenage Witch; The West Wing; Star Trek:
Voyager; and Enterprise. He lives in
Burbank, California.