The Charmed Seven: Family Past Series P8, Ep2: The Return of Chris's First Love (3)

Inspired by the TV Series: "Charmed" except all the characters are different from the TV ones.
Some universe details aren't like the TV show ones, some are the same, and some are just similar.
I don't make any profit from these stories.

Chapter 8

Warning: Mention of blood in this chapter.

Back at the Potter house, the Potters had used a spell they'd found in The Book to summon Ella to them in the Magic Room. They had also found more information about Ella in their book, including how to vanquish her. The Book said that she was many centuries old and had been vanquished many times in the past by Potter ancestors.

Ella arrived soon after Terrence, JD, Josiah and Vin had finished chanting, muttering to herself. Ezra thought he heard her say something surprising, and looked her in the eyes before he asked about her muttering. "Did you just say 'Devlin'?"

"Maybe, maybe not. I suppose you wish to vanquish me." Ella held the staff, with one end resting on the floor. The female warlock knew that the Potters would succeed to destroy her, and she was ready - there was no way to escape from the powerful family, and she would die honorably after coming close to destroying the Potters.

"I'm fairly certain she uttered my father's name - we cannot vanquish her until I know for sure."

"Son, we have to vanquish her - she's a danger to us all," explained Terrence, sounding regretful that they would be taking away a chance for Ezra to trace his real father.

Ezra suddenly stepped in front of Ella. He wouldn't let them take away the chance to find his real father. "No! I have to know if she knows where my father is now."

Ella raised the staff, keeping the point toward the ground. "I won't help witches - even if they are half-demons; you'll just have to kill me."

"Son, we'll find your father, but you must let us vanquish Ella first," said Terrence gently, knowing how important finding his real father was to Ezra. The boy's father had disappeared from his life when he was very young, and Ezra had always maintained the belief that his father was still alive.

"Okay," said Ezra reluctantly, as he stepped away from Ella.

Josiah threw the vanquishing potion at Ella, and the glass bottle containing the potion broke as it hit the floor in front of the woman. Then the witches, including Ezra, began to recite the vanquishing spell in unison. Smoke began to appear around Ella, and by the end of the spell, she was completely concealed inside the thick black smoke; then the smoke suddenly vanished, taking Ella with it.

"Now it's safe for Chris to come back," said Vin happily.

"Not quite - first, we have to dispose of her staff before it can find a new owner," said Josiah, as he magically moved the Staff of Powers from where it lay on the floor; but before it could move through the air to him, it vanished.

"Uh oh," said JD, feeling sure it wasn't good if the staff suddenly vanished - maybe another warlock or demon had got it.

Suddenly, Devlin blinked into the room, holding the staff downwards, not wanting to point it at anything in case that unleashed one of its powers. He didn't know how the staff worked

"Who are you?" asked Terrence threateningly, holding his arms up, ready to freeze or explode the stranger.

Before Devlin could reply, Ezra walked over to the demon, somehow recognizing him. "This is my father, Devlin."

"Your memory serves you well, my son," said Devlin with a smile. "You must vanquish the Source. All the powers needed to use against him are in this Staff, and as you are half-demon, you will be able to use it to destroy him. You will just need to think about needing to kill him and the staff will unleash the powers which will bring about his demise."

"NO, he won't do that for you; even if you are his father. Ezra does not take orders from demons," said Josiah, as he motioned with his arms and Devlin fell against the wall. Luckily for Devlin, Josiah didn't fling him too hard, so he didn't fall unconscious from the impact.

"The Source wants to destroy you all - if you destroy him first, it will send a message out that even the powerful Source cannot succeed in destroying the Potters and their adopted sons."

"Once the Source was dead, you would work your way up the ranks until you could take his throne and become the new Source," deduced Ezra, trusting his oldest brother over the father he hadn't seen since he was young. "I cannot help a demon, even the one who gave me life, I'm sorry, Father."

Devlin lifted the staff and pointed it toward Josiah in anger, intent on using one of the staff's powers to hurt the man who'd dissuaded his son from helping him. Fortunately, JD was fast to point his hands towards Devlin and the staff to freeze him. Instead, the staff exploded into many tiny pieces, startling JD. The little boy ran out of the room, scared by what he'd just done.

Gloria ran out of the room to calm down the little boy, trusting the brothers and their father to deal with Devlin.

"The boy clearly has more power than he thought," said Devlin, impressed by the power of the little boy.

Turner suddenly appeared in the room; he'd been wondering if Ella's plan was working. Upon noticing Devlin, he looked shocked. "Devlin, what are YOU doing here?"

"The Source personally asked me to destroy the Potter witches since Ella has failed, so I came here to destroy them."

"That wasn't all he wanted ta do," said Vin. "He wanted Ezra ta kill the Source for him, so Devlin could one day be the new Source."

"He's too low-ranking to be in line to the Source's throne," said Turner with a cocky grin. "Unless, he was really planning to kill all of you - achieving that would improve his rank considerably. I guess Ella's dead, then?"

"We vanquished her - so we are now enemies again," said Terrence, realizing that the demons would no longer want to help the witches.

Then Mr. Potter turned to face Ezra's father. "Is Turner correct? Were you going to kill us all, including your own son, to get a promotion?"

Devlin stood still, retaining a poker-faced expression; he had never realized that killing the Potter witches would mean killing one of his own kin, who was now also a Potter. He was proud of Ezra - he had heard of how the boy had always evaded capture by demon bounty hunters, and of all the demons his son had helped vanquish. His son was obviously a very brave and skilled half-demon and a definite improvement on Devlin himself. Also, Devlin felt a fondness for the boy - perhaps because he was as handsome as his father had been in his youth. Maybe he actually liked the boy, although he couldn't remember if he ever had before he'd been caught and returned to evil.

As Ezra watched Devlin silently refusing to answer Terrence's question, the boy was reading his father's thoughts, and was finding out that his father did really care about him. Ezra knew then that Devlin would never try to hurt him; even though they were enemies by nature - they were still related by blood, meaning that they couldn't be proper enemies.

"Now, I have something pressing to take care of," said Turner, as he turned to face Devlin. He lifted his hand and a long, sharp knife magically appeared in it. He threw it toward Devlin - he didn't want that demon succeeding in his plan to become the new Source. Turner had trusted Devlin to betray Ella, but not to betray him. By killing all the Potters himself, Devlin would automatically become a higher rank than Turner and next in line to be the Source after Fowler. Turner intended to deal with Fowler soon, because with Ella gone, Fowler would be the next Source if anything happened to the present one.

What neither Turner nor Devlin expected, was for a brown-haired teenage boy to dive in front of Devlin and be hit by the knife himself. Ezra felt the knife plunge into his skin, and then he lost consciousness as the pain overcame him. Blood started to pool on the floor by Ezra where he'd fallen and was now lying.

"Your son is both brave and foolish; you must be very proud," said Turner, before he blinked away from the room, temporarily giving up his plan to kill Devlin. He felt slightly sorry for the boy and would at least let Devlin say goodbye to his dying son.

Devlin looked at Ezra lying on the floor, blood flowing from his wound freely. "Someone help him or he'll die," he said with urgency in his voice, as tears began to fall from his eyes. Devlin muttered a few words of Latin; then, unexpectedly, he vanished.

"NATHAN!" called Vin, desperate for his brother to be saved. He was annoyed at Ezra's father for leaving his son to possibly die; the Potters would never leave their sons if they were dying. Vin and Terrence's Whitelighter healing powers could only heal minor wounds, as they were both only half-Whitelighters, so a full-Whitelighter’s healing power was needed to cure Ezra's more major wound. Even two half-Whitelighters' healing powers used together wouldn't be as effective as a full-Whitelighter's - they'd found this out in the past and weren't willing to risk losing Ezra by trying to heal him with their limited healing powers used together instead of just Nathan's.

Chapter 9

Chris Larabee sat alone in the bar, hoping his family was managing okay in their efforts to vanquish Ella. His powers might not be very useful for harming demons, but he was a good fighter and could still fight demons by using those skills. Chris was worried that his younger brothers could get hurt in demon attacks while he wasn't with them.

"Chris? The Elders called me before I got to your house, and told me that they can sense somethin' bad's goin' to happen there soon. We have to get back to them - there's trouble in the Underworld; it seems that with Ella being vanquished, several demons want to be next in line to the Source. To do that they have to show how powerful they are, and one way to do that would be to destroy your whole family."

Larabee stood up and faced the Whitelighter. "We better get back; we can orb from the alley outside, there are only a few drunks and homeless people there - no-one that would be believed if they saw us orbing."

Nathan and Chris headed outside to the alley indicated by Chris, then the blond held Nathan's hand and they orbed home. Somehow, Nathan didn't hear it when he was called to the house by Vin.

They arrived in the Magic Room and Chris instantly saw Ezra lying on the floor. "We're too late."

The Whitelighter rushed over and placed both his hands over the wound. An orange glow appeared between his hands and Ezra's wound; Nathan's Whitelighter healing power was working.

Gloria and JD came rushing into the room, after a fearful Vin had fetched them. Gloria rushed over to Ezra and knelt down beside Nathan, who was still healing the wound. JD stood beside Vin for comfort. The young boy was still shocked by what he’d done to the Staff of Powers when he’d tried to freeze it.

"He's going to be okay, isn't he?" asked Gloria, worried in case Nathan's healing power didn't cure her half-demon son.

"Yes, Ma'am," answered Nathan. "Luckily, it seems like the knife only hurt the witch part of him. I'd be able to tell if I weren't able to heal him completely." Whitelighters couldn't heal demons or demon-halfs of half-breeds, but because Ezra's demon-half was mostly inactive, when he got hurt, only the witch side of him suffered, meaning Nathan could heal him completely.

Everyone in the room felt a great wave of relief wash over them - they trusted what their Whitelighter told them, and were now sure that Ezra would soon be as healthy as he was before the knife hit him.

Vin wrapped his arms around JD and hugged the younger boy tightly, sensing his brother's distress. One of Vin's half-Whitelighter powers helped him sense emotions and locations of anyone he knew quite well. He'd always been able to sense JD, even when his mom had been pregnant with the younger boy.

"What happened to Ezra?" asked a grief-stricken Gloria, as she knelt down beside Ezra, and Nathan continued to heal the wound.

"Turner didn't want Devlin to become a higher-ranking demon than him, so threw a knife in an attempt to kill him; but Ezra dived and took the knife instead," explained Terrence, as he knelt beside Gloria and held her hand tightly in support.

Nathan pulled the knife out of Ezra and laid it on the floor. The wound then disappeared completely and Ezra opened his eyes.

"Five more minutes, Mrs. Potter," he muttered, before closing his eyes.

"Ezra, Dear?" asked Gloria, relieved to hear her son's voice.

"I'm sleeping, Mrs. Potter."

Gloria smiled, then leant over Ezra and kissed him softly on the cheek. "Don't you remember? You saved your father's life."

The teenager opened his eyes suddenly. "A Darklighter tried to hurt Mr. Potter?" he asked in alarm.

"No, Dear. Don't you remember at all?"

"No, but I do feel a little weak. Did I lose some blood?"

"Yes, you lost quite a lot," answered Gloria. "Go back to sleep now; everyone's fine, I promise."

Ezra closed his eyes again and fell asleep, glad that no-one had been hurt except for him.

"Why can't he remember?" asked Gloria, shocked that Ezra didn't recollect that Devlin had been there. She continued to watch the sleeping teenager - she cared a great deal about all of her sons and was relieved that she hadn't lost Ezra or any of the others that day.

"I think his father may have done somethin' to wipe his memory," said Nathan thoughtfully. "We only know of Devlin's mind-control power besides the usual demonic ones - perhaps he has another one that can wipe people's memories."

"Why would he want to wipe Ezra's memory?" asked Chris, as he walked to Ezra and looked down at the sleeping teen. He had actually felt concerned about Ezra when he'd seen the brunet lying on the floor with the knife in him. Chris had always felt some distrust for Ezra, although he did love him. He didn’t often show the half-demon that he cared, but now felt bad about it, and Chris swore that in the future, he’d show the boy that he really did care about him. Otherwise, when Ezra did die, he’d die thinking his slightly older adopted brother didn’t care about him.

"Maybe Devlin saw the error of his ways and didn't want Ezra's last memory of his father to be of him wanting to use his own son just to become Source," guessed Vin.

"I'm sure that's not the last we've seen of Devlin," said Gloria, as she smiled at her sleeping son. Some powerful magic must have been used to turn Devlin back to evil, but perhaps that magic would become undone and Devlin would go back to being good. Devlin looked like a demon that wasn't completely evil - perhaps he'd never be completely free of the spell used to turn him good.

A sound like little bells tinkling was heard then, signaling that the Elders were calling Nathan. "I'm being called - I'll see you all later." Then Nathan disappeared as he orbed to see the Elders.

Mr. Potter picked up Ezra and carried the boy to his room, then tucked him into bed; Terrence was as relieved as his wife that none of their sons had been hurt permanently or killed. Josiah followed his adoptive father, needing to make sure that his younger brother was put safely to bed. The oldest son sometimes felt like a father to his brothers because of the age gap between him and the younger witches.

Vin and JD went to their own room to play; they couldn't bath and get ready for bed until they'd had dinner and they weren't sure what had happened to that. They started to build with their Lego bricks, trying to ignore their empty stomachs that were growling.

Chris remained behind in the Magic Room; he couldn’t forget his earlier conversation with Sarah in the bar, and was upset that he seemingly couldn't have a future with her. He stood still, just imagining what a future with her would be like if she weren't so against raising a magical family.

"Chris?" asked Vin, as he joined his older brother in the room, having told JD he wanted to see Chris for a while. "What's wrong?" Vin's half-Whitelighter sensing power had helped him sense Chris's sadness.

"Sarah wants to raise a non-magical family. She wants to give up her powers just like her parents have done."

The half-Whitelighter brother wrapped his arms around Chris comfortingly. "Are ya jus' goin' ta give up on her? She doesn't know what a great dad ya'd make - you've been more than just a brother ta me and I reckon you'd make a great dad."

Before Chris could reply, Vin had orbed them both to the front of the Connolly house. "Vin? Did you mean to orb us here?" asked Chris, surprised by their sudden change of location. His younger brother still wasn't very good with his orbing power and it didn't often work when he wanted. The only time it worked well was when he wanted to orb to a member of his family - he could sense them so would be able to get a lock on them and orb directly there.

"No, I guess I wanted ta help ya so much that m' orbin' got us here."

Chris stepped away from Vin and rang Sarah's doorbell; maybe she hadn't gone clubbing after he'd said he couldn't go. Otherwise, Vin would have orbed them there in vain.

Sarah, dressed in mid-blue pajamas and ready for bed, answered the door. "CHRIS? What are you doing here at this time?" She was very shocked to see him there, as it was late evening by that time. She had decided not to go clubbing, preferring to have an early night - she was upset that Chris had turned down her offer to go out with her that night.

"Sarah, I think it would be a big mistake to give up your magical destiny. What's more, I'd like us to try again at being a couple."

"I've been thinking about things since we met up earlier and I realized that if giving up on magic meant cutting you out of my life, then I couldn't do it. I still care for you, Chris."

Vin watched from a distance as his older brother and Sarah chatted on the doorstep. Then he covered his eyes when they started kissing; he thought it was so disgusting when people kissed for longer than a few seconds.

Sarah and Chris stepped back from each other and exchanged smiles.

"I'm not doing anything tomorrow during the day, so if you're free I could drive over and take you out somewhere," suggested Chris, hopeful that Sarah would accept his offer.

"I don't have any plans - only job-hunting, but that can keep for a day," answered Sarah with a grin; "Pick me up at 9.00 a.m.?"

"I'll see you then. Good-night Sarah." Chris leant in for a quick goodnight kiss, which also lasted longer than a few seconds.

"CHRI-IS!" hissed Vin angrily. "We have ta go, 'fore the folks get mad at us."

The older brother stepped away from Sarah and waved, as he held one of Vin's hands and they orbed back to the Potter house.

Chapter 10

"CHRISTOPHER LARABEE? Where did you go with Vin this late in the evening?" asked an angry Gloria Potter, as she faced her two sons who'd orbed back into the Magic Room. She had gone into JD and Vin's room to tell the boys that they were having pizza and had discovered that Vin wasn't there, as he'd gone to talk to Chris. Then Mrs. Potter had gone to Chris's room to tell him and Vin about the sudden change in the dinner plans, but Chris and Vin weren't there. She'd guessed they might be in the Magic Room looking at The Book, so had arrived there just before the two missing sons had orbed back.

"He needed ta sort things out with the future Mrs. Larabee," said Vin with a cheeky grin. "I gave him a lift ta her house."

"Sarah's back in town?" asked Terrence, as he walked into the room; he'd heard voices there and had gone to the room to investigate. Too many times he'd found his sons in the Magic Room, using magic without telling an adult first like they were meant to. Most of the un-permitted spells had been cast for personal gain, and that meant they'd had to face magical consequences for their actions.

"Dad, she wanted to give up her magical destiny. Nate orbed me to the bar she was in earlier and we started talking. If it hadn't been for Vin, I wouldn't have tried to win her back tonight."

"You're forgiven for leaving after curfew this time, Vin. But in future you should ask one of us before you go anywhere this late." Chris didn't have a curfew imposed on him because he was too old for one, so he would have only been in trouble for taking Vin out late.

"I'm sorry, Sir," apologized Vin, "I didn' mean ta orb out with Chris, it was an accident."

"We'll work on improving your control of orbing tomorrow after school," said Terrence - it was worrying that Vin still couldn't control his orbing, as he could accidentally orb himself into danger.

"And don't you dare think of orbing to JD; walk like the rest of us have to," said Terrence sternly, reading Vin's thoughts.

"Okay." Then Vin walked out of the Magic Room to rejoin JD.

Terrence motioned Chris to follow him to his den for a short talk; at twenty, Chris was no longer a child and it wouldn't be long before his thoughts turned to raising a family, and Terrence didn't want his son to be unprepared.

Then Gloria couldn’t help but go to Ezra’s room to check on him; her usual underlying concern brought to the surface with his close brush with death. The boy's room had an occupant beside Ezra, as Josiah was there, watching his younger brother sleeping; he was scared of leaving Ezra on his own in case a demon blinked into the room and hurt the teenager.

"I wish I didn't live so far away, Mother; any of them could get attacked and I wouldn't be here to protect them," said Josiah softly, not taking his eyes off the sleeping teen for even a second.

"You can't always be here for them, Dear," comforted Gloria, knowing that Josiah felt responsible for the safety of his adopted siblings like he had done for his real sister, Hannah. He wanted to look after his adopted brothers better than he believed he had with Hannah - it was his penance for his sister's suffering at the hands of their real father, Raul Sanchez. The girl had been sent to a special home because the abuse she had suffered had seriously damaged her psychologically.

"Even your father and I can't protect them all the time. You were here when Ezra got hurt today, but you couldn't have acted quickly enough to stop it happening - none of us could. That boy is too - excuse my language - damn brave at times. I clearly need to have another talk with him about looking before he leaps - even if he can't remember doing it today."

"Mother, I need to get home," explained Josiah, "it's getting late and I've got work in the morning."

Gloria called Nathan and he orbed into the room.

"Hi, Gloria, Josiah," the Whitelighter greeted.

"Josiah needs to get home so he can get to bed at a reasonable time tonight," informed Gloria. "He has work tomorrow."

"I'd be happy to orb you home, Josiah," said Nathan with a smile.

The man walked to Nathan and put his hand on the Whitelighter's shoulder; then Nathan orbed them to Josiah's apartment.

"Gloria?" asked Ezra, opening his eyes after being woken up by voices in his room.

"We didn't mean to wake you, Dear," apologized Gloria. "Nathan's just taking Josiah home before he falls asleep in here. He was just watching over you - you worried us all with your act of foolishness."

"I remember something - I jumped in front of someone to stop a knife going into them. Is that how I lost some blood?"

His mother nodded. "You don't remember whom you saved?"

"Was it one of my younger siblings?" guessed Ezra, unable to remember what had happened or why.

"It's too late to talk about this now - we'll have all morning to talk, since you won't be going to school tomorrow." Gloria lightly kissed Ezra on his forehead and then walked out of the room.

Gloria didn't want to tell the boy what had really happened - that his real father had come back to see Ezra after all this time, but only to use his son in his evil plans. Maybe something would come up the next day and stop her from having to tell Ezra the truth about what had happened.

The boy felt tired, and closed his eyes. Five minutes later, he fell asleep.

While the boy slept very soundly, a dark figure appeared in the room and stood beside the bed, looking down at the sleeping teen. Then the figure vanished as quickly as it had arrived.

CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7

In the Underworld, Fowler went into hiding after hearing that Ella had been vanquished. He would avenge her death one day, but for now, he'd rather lie low to avoid letting any demons find out his plans. With her last dying breath, Ella had sent him a message from her mind to his; telling him that her death should be avenged somehow in the future and that she held all the Potter family responsible.

Once Fowler had disappeared, Turner became the next in line to the Source, waiting for the day when the present Source would be killed. Turner wasn't powerful enough to kill the Source alone, so would be waiting for someone else to do it for him - possibly the Potters.

Epilogue

While Gloria had gone to Ezra's room, Chris had followed Terrence into his den for a talk. Chris sat on the cushioned chair in front of his father's large wooden desk. Terrence seated himself in the leather swivel chair behind the desk and took a deep breath.

"Dad, what did you want to talk to me about?" asked Chris curiously.

"Son, if you and Sarah are going to get serious," began Terrence seriously, "I want you to think about your future together. You need to think about getting a decent job which will pay enough to support a family."

Chris laughed briefly. "We've hardly even started dating again - we're not thinking about our future yet. Protecting our family, friends and innocents from demons is a more immediate concern."

"Don't take too long before you plan your future though - none of us are immortal, so we'd like to see you settled before too long."

"Do you think Mom or Josiah will give me the family cookie recipe if I promise to settle soon?" asked Chris, longing to know how the cookies always tasted so delicious.

Terrence shook his head, with a small smile on his face. "I doubt it; they like being able to cook something delicious that none of us know how to make. Gloria will miss you a lot when you move out, and she'll need a reason for you to visit. Making the cookies you love will be one good reason - even if she does always say you’re too old for them, she doesn’t really mean it."

"Is that all, Dad? I'm taking Sarah out for the day tomorrow, and I agreed to pick her up at 9.00 a.m. So I'd like to get an early night."

The carriage clock on the shelf above the fireplace chimed 11.00 p.m. as if in answer to Chris's words.

"Well, early-ish," said Chris, who didn't usually go to bed much later than eleven anyway. He was usually tired by that time from fighting demons or keeping his brothers out of trouble.

"Go on, Son. I'm sure Sarah won't appreciate you yawning while you're out tomorrow. Good-night." Terrence smiled as Chris left the downstairs den; Mr. Potter was pretty certain that it wouldn't be long before a future generation of witches in their family was started, and he was pretty sure that Chris was the most likely to become a father first out of all the brothers. It certainly wouldn't be Josiah, as that son was too interested in protecting innocents and being a police detective to think about settling down and starting a family. As always, Terrence felt proud of his sons - they were all growing into fine young men.

Gloria joined Terrence in the den. "Everyone's safely tucking up in bed now; maybe we should do the same?"

"I don't feel very tired; I'll stay here a bit longer."

"TERRENCE POTTER," commanded Gloria loudly, "you're coming with me to bed now; and that's an order.

Terrence gulped. "Yes, Dear," he said, never able to disobey his wife when she was in her authoritative mode. Then he followed her out of the den and up the stairs, going into the bathroom to clean his teeth first.

Gloria crept into each of their sons' rooms before going to bed; all the boys were sleeping peacefully, showing no signs of nightmares that sometimes occurred after the boys had faced demons and other evils.

The last son Gloria checked on was Ezra, and she stayed slightly longer in his room, still shaken up that he had been so close to dying that day. Gloria looked up at the ceiling and spoke softly. "Thank you for not taking my son today - or any of my sons for that matter."