The Dark Charmed Ones

“Well, what happened? Something must have triggered it.” Luke stood around the Book of Shadows with Alex and Michael.

“Andras was here. He did something that controlled me and Mike and I used magic against each other.”

“Is that it?”

Michael was still grabbing the cut. “Yeah, Alex…Andras, actually…cut me with the dagger we used to scry for Jackie before except this time it was glowing red.” Luke walked over to him and took his hand off the cut then started healing it.

“Something’s wrong. The cut is healing but there’s something…dark about it.”

“Dark?” Alex went to the Book of Shadows and started flipping through the pages. I don’t remember Jackie saying anything about that before. After flipping through most of the book he came to the page with Andras’ description.

“There’s nothing here on something like that, Luke.”

Luke looked confused. The Book of Shadows had all the answers before when the other… well it had all the answers…according to what he’s heard.

“Maybe we should take it to Jackie. She could use the effects of the smart spell to find something.” He was still grabbing his arm.

“Yeah, maybe we should. Hopefully what happened didn’t cancel it somehow. Let’s go now. Anyway we should go to make sure Andras doesn’t try anything on her.”

“Alright. Hold on.”

---

The Hospital: “Something dark? I didn’t read that from the book.”

“Yeah we know. That’s why we came to see if you could find something.”

She took the book from Michael…obviously growing tired of the added ability the smart spell provided. After about a minute of thinking of how to put the words, she finally asked the book about what Luke was telling her crossing it with the information about Andras. The book flipped its pages back and forth three times before stopping on a page with the picture of a demon and an angel.

Luke looked at the page and was speechless to what the heading was. Again! Jackie looked to Luke, “The Hollow? What’s The Hollow?”

“It’s a …”

His words were cut when the book started flipping again this time stopping on the picture of… “Belthazor?” right before stopping on a page marked The Source. The book flipped again this time stopping on the page marked Charm of Multiplicity. The book then went to a page marked Demons.

Alex looked at the book then at Jackie and Mike. “What do you think it means?”

Nobody said anything for a few minutes when Luke broke the silence. “I think I know what it means… and it might be the reason the book doesn’t have all the answers.”

“Well what is it?”

“I might not be right but I think there’s a connection… I just have to check with the elders first.” He was covered by blue light and disappeared into the air.

“So I guess we stay here for the night.”

“We were going to anyway. We can’t go back home and leave Jackie alone knowing he could come back anytime.”

From behind, Jackie took the crucifix from her pillow and put it back around Alex’s neck. “Thanks but sometimes I think you need this more than Mike or I ever might.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. Just a feeling.”

Michael looked at the book then looked for a place to hide it for the night. “Book.” After calling for the book, nothing happened. It stayed on top of Jackie’s bed. “Book”, again nothing. “Why isn’t it working?”

Jackie picked the book up and saw the cover. “Dad’s charm… what happened?”

“After what happened in the manor, Andras said the power was broken and when we went to the attic, the book was like that. Do you think that’s why, because the charm is separated?” Michael looked to Alex for an answer.

“I don’t know. We’re going to have to wait to Luke gets back with some answer.”

---

The Source’s Chamber:

“Well…did you do it?” The Source stood in front of his demon and beside his queen and her sisters.

“Yes sire…the power of three was broken.”

“And the knife,” this from one of the two sisters. Her hair was long…the longest of the three. She was also the oldest it seemed. The other had hair that was longer than The Source’s queen but shorter than her other sister. Her skin was pale…almost as if it had never seen daylight.

“Yes the knife hit but I assume their white-lighter healed them.”

The younger sister looked at the Source. “A white-lighter’s healing can only heal physical injury. If two white-lighters were to use their power at once would the poison have been driven off as well.”

“Are you sure? You were only half white-lighter. You could be wrong.” He then looked at the eldest sister. “Call him.”

“Does it bother you that he’s the only dark-lighter that doesn’t answer your call?”

“Call…him.”

“Alright, jeez. LEO!”

Next to the eldest sister, a clutter of black orbs appeared. When the orbs vanished, there stood a tall, blonde man with blue eyes. He leaned over and kissed her after saying, “Hey Piper.” The two have been married for over a year and the conversion over to darkness didn’t erase the love they felt for each other, even if it was by force.

“Leo, Cole wants to know if a white-lighter could heal someone from poison.”

Leo looked up after he heard the term white-lighter and was filled with a confusing feeling he felt. Something they all felt when they were reminded of their past. “Well it would require two white-lighters to heal both the injury and the poison at the same time. And if it isn’t done at the same time, it can’t be done.”

The queen looks at her brother-in-law after she realizes something. “Wait, what about when Paige healed you back when we defeated the first Source and you were shot with a dark arrow?”

“Paige was holding my hand over my wound as well so I could use my power through her. Because Paige is…was half white-lighter, it amplified the ability to heal so that I could take the poison out of my blood.”

“But from what we heard from Eames, the three of them are half white-lighter. Wouldn’t it be the same?” said Piper.

“No, not if his powers weren’t expanded enough.”

Phoebe Haliwell, or The Source’s queen, walked up to the demon, “Go. Finish what you started and bring the book here. Bring back what is rightfully ours.”

---

Back at the hospital, the morning after:

“So, what did you find out?” Jackie didn’t sleep in spite of her brothers’ advice. The book being different and the cut on Michael’s arm were on her mind.

“Turns out I had the right idea. You see The Hollow was created in the beginning of time when magic was abundant and existed in all life. Whenever magic would go wrong, The Hollow would collect it and it never existed in the world again. The ma…witches of that time sealed The Hollow in an ancient box and buried it in an ancient burial ground were it was protected by both sides of magic, black and white.”

“You mean good and evil?”

“Yeah. Belthazor was…”

Jackie cut him off. “Wait, why did you jump from The Hollow to Belthazor?”

“I’m giving you the information you’ll need to understand what I have to tell you next. Belthazor was a demon, one of the strongest demons that lived. At that time he was an upper level 3-demon…right hand to the source (he explained when he saw the confusion). His demon half was vanquished by the old owners of the book…”

“So he was half human,” this from Michael.

“Yeah. His demon half was vanquished by the last owners of the book of shadows…by the old Charmed Ones (he held up his hand to stop any questions). During the time Cole was human, and some of the time he was a demon, he lived with the Haliwell sisters in the manor…your manor…”

“But grams said…”

“She was told to say that. Everything she said that day was true except for the part of them living their forever. Althea was put in that house four months before you found her and everything that had to do with the government was changed so that it said so. The manor is found directly over a pentagram created by the five ruling powers of magic: fire, wind, water, earth and spirit. Being over it helps you with your magic. I know it feels like lies…”

“They were lies.”

“But it was the only way to bring the three of you together as the new Charmed Ones. But we’re getting away from the point. The sisters were attacked by The Hollow before, which was released by the old source so that it could steal their powers and take it to him. After successfully taking two of the three powers he felt were the strongest, he went to attack them.”

“So that’s how they were turned…the source got to them.”

“How did you know they were turned?”

“I had a premonition yesterday about them…I didn’t say anything because I thought it wasn’t important…just like I had the vision of you two arguing and the book being changed.”

“You didn’t tell us about that, Jackie. If I had known, I wouldn’t have fought back at Alex. We could have prevented this whole thing.”

Luke looked at her surprised, “Never keep a premonition to yourself…no matter what. It never helps…well almost never. The youngest sister named Phoebe Haliwell had the power of premonitions. The day they were attacked by the source, she had a premonition of Cole taking an energy blast for her. When the source attacked them, Cole had The Hollow in him allowing him to absorb power. When he took that energy ball from the source, he used the source’s power to weaken him allowing the sisters to vanquish him with their spell.”

Alex looked at Luke after listening while looking out the window. “So the source didn’t turn them evil?”

“No. Phoebe did. Because Cole helped kill the source, the sources power went into him and filled the emptiness left there when Belthazor was taken away from him. Cole became the new Source. Couple of weeks later, he married Phoebe in a dark ceremony…though she wasn’t aware of it at the time. When the time came for his coronation for the Source’s full power, Phoebe decided to go along with him as his queen…”

Michael looked over at Luke this time, “Why? If she knew he was the source, why didn’t she just vanquish him?”

“Because she’s in love with him and because she is pregnant with his child who because of the dark ceremony will grow up to the side of evil, producing the strongest magical baby in the history of magic. After The Source was given the full powers of the underworld, Phoebe used the Dark Book of Shadows and turned her sisters, Piper and Paige, along with Piper’s husband Leo to the side of evil. Leo was a white-lighter and Paige was a half-lighter like your selves.”

“Is it possible to turn a white-lighter evil?”

“No not really. Just comes to show you the powers of the Charmed Ones.”

Jackie was still confused, “But wait, what does this have to do with anything? We still don’t know what the cut does or why the book doesn’t give the appropriate answers.”

“Cole is much more powerful source than he last because his love for Phoebe increases his power. Whenever he revives a demon, they come back stronger…sometimes with an added ability…like Eames and his power to reconstitute himself and Andras’ poisoned dagger.”

Michael got up surprised, “POISONED?”

“Yeah. They don’t know what it does and neither does the book since it’s based on the old source’s demons and powers. The connection is the source who in the past was Belthazor has given his demons stronger powers.” Jackie thought to herself, a poison.

Alex went back to the book. “And this, how do we get our powers back?”

“By vanquishing Andras. After he’s gone your powers will be returned and the poison will leave him. What does that tell you?”

There was a fear in Michael’s eyes. “There’s a time limit.”

“Right. We have to work fast in getting that potion and spell finished. Basic magic will still work…what was taken away from you were your powers. So Michael, finish that spell while I go and get those last ingredients. Alex, find the erase a memory spell. We have to get Jackie out of here.”

Alex and Jackie flipped through the book until the came to the page to erase a memory. The doctor came in and they erased his memory of Jackie before they orbed away with all the paper work in that room. At the manor, Michael went to work on re-writing Belthazor’s vanquishing spell to work for Andras. Alex orbed with Luke to the herbal store in Chinatown to get the remaining ingredients for the potion.

After about an hour later, the potion was ready and so was the spell. Jackie gave out a sigh. “So how do we find him?” Michael opened the book to a page an answered, “Already have an answer to that. Wrote myself a summoning spell.” Alex and Jackie went to stand next to Michael so that they could see the words. They were about to say it when Jackie thought of something.

“Wait, what’s gonna stop him from blinking out of the room when he sees we’re trying to vanquish him?” They thought for an answer. Without the power to freeze, the demon could just blink out of the house. But that was just it, the power to freeze. “I got it. Let’s just summon him. I’ll take care of the rest.” Listening to what Alex said, they said the spell.

At first nothing seemed to happen but then there was a strong wind that blew through the house. In front of them was what appeared to be a small tornado. When the tornado cleared, the demon stood in its place. “It worked,” to Michael’s surprise.

Slowly he began to freeze until he stopped moving completely.

“Nice,” came from Michael. Alex looked over at him and said, “Really? Sounded pretty lame the first time I used it.”

“No time for this. We don’t know when the spell will wear off so we have to vanquish him now.” Jackie took the potion from her pocket and made sure everyone had a copy of the changed spell in his or her hands. When they were ready she threw the potion at the demons feet and they vanquished him.

Andras unfroze and became surrounded by fire. Soon enough a portal appeared below him and he fell into it. After their victory, they went to the book and saw the triquetra come together. To make sure their powers were returned, Michael called for the dagger that was still on the floor with dried blood. “Dagger.” It orbed into his hands and he handed it over to Luke. “Do you think you could find out what the poison was?”

“Why? The poison’s gone now. There’s no point.”

“Just check, please?” Luke sighed and orbed to the elders. Something still wasn’t right and Michael knew it.

---

The Source’s Chamber:

The Seer came out of her vision. “He failed. The Charmed ones regained their powers and they vanquished him.”

“No Seer you’re wrong. He didn’t fail. He poisoned one of them. It’ll take a while but he will come over to this side. And if the order of magic changes he will easily choose the side of black magic when he becomes an undecided. You see, in the long run, we won. We broke the power of three.”