Shadows Of the Night
part 20
"Grandpa Ben, you look really funny," Melinda Wyatt concluded, as she let her eyes wander over his outfit, her small nose scrunching itself up in an expression of pure displeasure. "That person was a bad dresser."
Benjamin Turner chuckled briefly, as he gently patted his granddaughter on the head, calmly straightening out the black bow tie that now occupied his neck. "It's all part of the era," he told her simply, giving her a smile.
"The what?" Alex piped up. "What's an era? Is that the stuff mommy uses to wash my clothes with?"
"An era is a product of time," he explained. "It only means that you happen to fit the decade with your wardrobe, and...well...maybe even your kind of language. If we want to get by here without any problems, we have to look as if we are a part of this century."
"You know, I wish he would just speak English," Melinda whispered to her cousin, shrugging, as she adjusted the ribbon she'd tied up into her long blonde hair.
"According to your mother, we are to wait here until they come and find us again," he instructed.
"But why?" Alex asked him, her face rather troubled. "Aren't we...don't we fight the bad guys? What about that bad lady that's after us? Won't she come soon?"
Benjamin shook his head. "As long as you're with me, you should be safe. At least for now."
"So why don't you approve of Daddy?" she spoke aloud then, curiously placing her hands upon her hips.
"That's a pretty grown up sentence, coming from a little lady like you, isn't it?"
"So why don't you like him?" she continued, as her fingers began to play with the smooth fabric of her dress.
"It's not that I don't...can't...accept my son," he told her, frowning. "It's more along the lines of what he's done in his past. But that hardly concerns someone like you."
"But what he did shouldn't matter, right?"
"Well, I don't know. That depends."
"On what?"
"Maybe he doesn't like all of the questions," Melinda offered, rolling her eyes. "Mom always says that's impolite for your elders."
"But Aunt Piper doesn't like the Elders," Alex added, confused.
"Nevermind," her cousin responded, shaking her head.
"Besides, it's not your father I'm worried about," Benjamin noted carefully, as he averted his gaze ever so slightly. "It's your grandmother."
"But my grandma died a long time ago," Alex filled him in. "Grandpa Victor and Mommy told me the-"
"I mean, Elizabeth," he cleared up. "She was....my wife. Well, not for very long, but-"
"So she's Daddy's mommy?"
"Yes. Though your father would never speak of her, because I know he is all too well aware of the things she's done in her lifetime."
"Oooo....so the other grandma was evil," Melinda sided, her eyes growing wide. "Was she a witch?"
"A demon. A very powerful demon. I assume your father fought The Dark already, yes?"
"You mean that awful mean bad lady from last year?" Alex asked him.
"From what I gathered, he seemed to indicate you two had the ability to take her down. Am I correct in that assumption?"
"You don't want to mess with us," Melinda cut in, smiling.
"So I take it that's a yes. Now that we've established that, let me enlighten you on a few points. Elizabeth does have a weakness....though I doubt even she knows what it is yet."
"And you do?"
"She wanted me here, didn't she? I'm not a force of evil, nor have I ever been one. What way to better allow her to reign in her misery, than to put her up against the ultimate kind of good?"
"I don't understand," Alex replied, as she leaned her tiny frame against the wall, crossing her feet in front of her.
"Of course not. You two still have so much to learn. You're only children, afterall."
"So try us," Melinda interrupted.
"I take it you picked up that brash tone from your mother?"
Alex smiled. "Aunt Piper loves to be bossy. Daddy says it comes naturally to her."
"So I figured," Benjamin noted, offering a slow smile.
"Hey!" Melinda objected, as she opened her mouth to protest. "There is nothing wrong with my mom. She knows a lot of magic."
"I'll bet she does," Benjamin finished. "But what I'm proposing requires me to confront a part of my past I'd rather not like to. You see, like your father, Alex, I also have some demons I need to fight."
"Like real demons?"
"Old ghosts," he added softly. "But I know that if I keep telling myself I can't do this, I won't be able to. These memories will forever stay with me for a time to come."
"Are you afraid, Grandpa?" she whispered. "I mean, like...really afraid of her?"
"Sometimes," he told her honestly, his eyes growing dim. "But I also have to remember I once gave her my heart, and in turn she gave hers to me. There was magic there once."
"But now it's gone."
"Oh, magic is never gone. It just likes to hide a bit....waiting for you to find it again. When the time is right, you'll know. Trust me."
"What if it's always lost though?" Melinda chimed in. "Then what? If you can't find it, you can't get it back..."
"Ah, but you're missing the point, young Wyatt. It's always there when you need it. You just have to know."
"Oh, Benny. Wow. This is really quite touching, you know? So touching, in fact, that I almost didn't want to kill you a couple of seconds ago. How's that for lost?"
Benjamin slowly took his eyes away from the girls, easily directing it in the way in which the familiar voice had come from. His frame of vision grew rather faded, as he lifted himself from the chair in the hallway, his hands remaining surpisingly calm at his side. Gently reaching up to lightly finger the collar of his dark suit, he parted his lips rather slightly, his gaze now fully concentrated on the woman who stood before him. Her true form....right in front of him. Her long black hair hung without bother over her shoulders, her green eyes seemingly amused by her discovery. Her long black dress easily complimented the shade of her hair, a matching heel positioned just enough to reveal a bare ankle, as she gently shifted her weight rather effortlessly, examining an extremely well manicured nail. "Oh, Liz, you haven't aged a bit."
She smiled, revealing a set of perfectly white teeth. "Then again, I wasn't the one who got themselves caught up in a little mess of sorts over a hundred years ago, was I? I've had time to enjoy this world, Benny. I mean, for what it's worth..."
"But not forever," he said slowly.
"Actually, an eternity wouldn't be so bad, if I could rid this God awful planet of people like you, that just happen to be miraculously still in it. Imagine that. Old, decrepid...just waiting to die."
"You did come here to try, didn't you?"
"Oh, honey, you know me so well. All in all, despite his witch of a weakness, I'd say Cole learned from the best. Wouldn't you?"
"You really don't know him at all then, do you?"
"Like I said, Benny, you never pay attention. He and his little wife are definitely on my list of things to do. But...not yet. Not...just yet. I'm a very patient person now, you see. I can wait. Just as long as the job gets done."
"And what job would that be, Liz?"
"Do you really still believe I have feelings for you?" she taunted him. "That I ever had feelings for you?"
"Maybe," he admitted. "But I think you've just proved to me that that's long past, isn't it?"
"Do you know how long I've been searching for you? How long I've been anticipating this moment....your return?"
"Is it what you've always dreamed it would be?"
"Oh, so much more!" she exclaimed, laughing, as she held her hands out in front of her, her face suddenly filling itself with a deep glow.
"Grandpa?" Alex called out weakly, her voice cracking, as she kept her eyes trained on Elizabeth, never letting her stare falter, as she silently moved closer to him.
"Oh, sweetie, it looks like your daddy isn't here to protect you anymore. Is he?"
"No. But I'll bet Uncle Cole could take you in a second," Melinda spoke up bravely, as she emerged from the shadows, her arms planted neatly across her chest. "But who's counting?"
"So there's another one," she mused carefully. "The little wicca now attempts to challenge me, is that it?"
"Melinda," Benjamin advised. "Don't."
"I got here shortly after you did, you know," she continued. "Took me awhile to track you. But I guess it goes without saying that I almost half expected to find you still trapped in that stupid little sphere. Such a silly little man Raynor was....releasing you to the only person who never deserved to know the father he'd been wishing for all his life."
"You denied him a family!" Benjamin shouted, as his anger began to rise, his tone growing more precise.
"I denied him good," she responded indifferently, shrugging. "It's not so bad, really. You begin to see that the only alternative in surviving, is to not have a single care worth a damn. For awhile, he was catching on. But if I didn't know better, I'd say the Triad should be held solely responsible for ruining him. Don't you think?"
"You would have to place the blame elsewhere, wouldn't you? That was always your style, Liz, wasn't it? Could never take the fall....could you?"
"Oh, so many answers, so little time. Do you really think I'm stupid enough to-"
"If you felt so strongly about the life he's chosen to live, why the hell didn't you seek him out sooner? Why let him live it?"
"And I don't know why you're making this all about him, when it's us I want to talk about."
"But you just specifically implied that there is no us," he reminded her.
"Benny, Benny, Benny. You just never learn. I had every chance I needed to destroy you. You know? I mean...just ask the Brotherhood. But alas, they still wanted you alive and kicking. If it were up to me-"
"I see what you're doing," he cut in then, a half smile creeping across his face.
"And what's that?"
"Why don't we just cut right to the chase, hmm?"
"Oh, but I think there's a small problem there," she told him, placing a finger to her lower lip. "Because, you see, I'm really no match for you, Benny. No matter how you look at it, I always have the upper hand."
"Do you?"
"Now who's playing with who?" she countered, offering a low giggle.
"And what's stopping you?!" he shouted, gesturing to himself. "Just get it over it, by all means. Just end it, Liz. God knows you've made me suffer all these years enough as it is."
"Oh, but you have to suffer to be in love, don't you? What is it they say? Taking the good with the bad? But, you know, I guess that kind of leaves me hanging, doesn't it? Because I've never been anything, but bad."
"Or so you'd let yourself believe."
"And just what is that supposed to mean, Benny?"
"You were a good woman at one point in your-"
"And that's only what you wanted to believe."
"Was it?"
They were interrupted by a brief flash of blue sparks, as a figure suddenly orbed into view, cursing faintly under her breath, as she fought to straighten out the creases in her dress. Paige Matthews finally caught sight of her surroundings, a confused expression plaguing her face. "Ooooh...uh oh. Think I'm probably too late once again, huh?"
"Aunt Paige!" Alex cried out.
"I, um...think you'd better come with me," she quickly urged Ben. "Phoebe sent me, and if that's who I think it-"
"Oh, it is," he cut her off softly, continuing to stand his ground.
"Well, that means we have to leave. As in now," she hissed. "I don't think you understand what she's-"
"Take the girls."
"Mr. Turner, with all due respect, things are going to go from bad to worse, if you don't listen to me, and- look, it's your only chance."
"I made a promise to my son," he told her.
"Yeah, and you'll be making a promise to your deathbed, if you don't come with me."
"Aunt Paige?" Melinda called out softly.
"It's okay, sweetheart. I'm going to get you back to- look, just take my hand, alright? Alex?"
"But if I kill all of you now...there'll be even more reason for Cole to come right to me. How's that for a plan?" Elizabeth asked, taking a step forward.
"You don't want him, remember?" Benjamin confronted. "It's me you have to deal with."
"First," she sided nonchalantly.
"Mr. Turner-"
"Take the girls, Paige. Go."
"I-"
"Go!" he yelled.
Paige took one last look at him, as she gathered both of her nieces to her, hugging them tightly. "It's safer if we work together. You know that as well as I do."
"There is no together," he whispered. "It's just me."
Without hesitation, she disappeared, leaving the two of them in her wake, a torn expression still lingering upon her face. Elizabeth turned to her former lover, a calm smile working its way across her fair complexion, as she gently held a hand out to him. A ball of transparent energy began to claim it, and she mindlessly bounced it ever so slightly within her grasp. "Alone at last, Benjamin."
"It ends here, Liz. No more games."
**********
"Do she and Leo have a name picked out yet?"
Phoebe shrugged, as she gathered a loose strand of dark brown hair, carefully tucking it behind her ear. "I'm not sure. We haven't really talked about it, you know?"
"And you haven't told her-"
"No...well....I guess I just didn't want to steal her thunder, you know? I know she'd never say it...but I'll bet she's going to enjoy having another one running around that manor."
"Getting into mischief," he finished, smiling.
"Alex was never any trouble," she whispered, looking up at him with a smile.
He laughed softly. "No, she wasn't, was she?"
"Piper's been telling me Leo should probably be there for Melinda more than he is. And I can't help but feel that being a whitelighter is getting even more difficult for him."
He shrugged. "They've made it work before, haven't they?"
She slowly nodded. "Yeah. But sometimes I worry about her-"
He brought her close to him then, as he gently placed his hands upon her face, his unshaven profile only inches from her, as she smiled up at him. "Right now, it's you I'm worried about."
"I somehow don't think Orin ever intended to-"
"He was trying to tell us something," he said quietly. "There was something he wanted to say, but...it actually looked like he just seemed to snap right then and there...that something was holding him back."
"If it's true though, and Sterling is in fact sacrificing those innocents to the Taker-"
"Lowell," he corrected, frowning. "I...think we're forgetting that it has a name now."
She sighed. "Still, it means we probably should have stayed back there and helped those people. That woman's son-"
"If Crane isn't working with Sterling anymore, he could have made up half of what he told us."
"How did you know?"
"What?"
"You saw that he was alone, almost as soon as he took us down there. How did you know that?"
"Elizabeth has always worked on her own, despite her affiliation with Sterling," he explained. "When Paige and I first saw her, it was all her own doing. Even when she attempted to trap us with the water- Crane never knew about any of that. He only recognized us after a time, and probably not entirely of his own memory. While Sterling mayhe have eventually filled in the blanks, I think even he was left in the dark with a lot of Elizabeth's little scheme."
"And just what was her little scheme?" she asked him curiously.
"I still tend to think she's far from being finished, if that's what you mean."
"So why get in on the story of Jacqueline and her love for Orin? What purpose has it served for her?"
"When did you-"
"The story of a doomed romance had to have appealed to her from the very beginning...if you think about it. There was something awfully similar about how she seemed to draw us here."
"You think there's a connection between this and my father?" he questioned, knitting his eyebrows in tight concentration.
"I thought it was random at first....but now- well...I guess I'm not so sure," she countered briefly, shrugging.
"If she knew my father was trapped all of these years, she could just broken the sphere," he sided.
"Unless she really did have no idea where to find him."
"But this still makes no sense," she noted. "Moreover, Raynor could have easily obeyed her requests, knowing the kind of power she had. She knew of the Brotherhood, didn't she?"
"Elizabeth never knew about a lot of things," a voice said simply to their right, the figure coming out from beneath the darkness, his face still clothed heavily in shadow. He placed a hand to his cheek, smiling slightly, as he offered a soft chuckle. "In fact, I'd say all of us had a grand old time of using one another- until we got just what we needed in this. I'd say I came closer than any of them though, wouldn't you?"
Cole studied his opponent, a slow grin creeping over his features, as he calmly shrugged, his overall demeanor clearly indifferent to the other man's claim. "I suppose you've already heard everything, so what's the point, right?"
"Oh, you'd be surprised what's been called to my attention since we set sail, Mr. Turner. And...just so we're clear, this has nothing to do with your father. Which, by the way, was an awfully nice touch. I really think you made Elizabeth's day. So many deaths, in so little time. Impressive, isn't it? Though I still happen to think his, will bring her the greatest joy of all."
"Then speaking of surprises- you....probably also don't know Benjamin too well, or else you'd be thinking twice about giving her a sudden victory," Cole responded, clasping his hands evenly behind his back, as he gently rocked backward upon the heels of his shoes.
"Son, are you seriously going to stand here and tell me that you truly have that much faith in a man, who has done nothing but let you down all your life? That's absurb!"
"Faith has nothing to do with it."
"Oh really?"
"You're how old....little over a hundred years?" the former half demon guessed. "Or should we throw in an extra few for good measure?"
"And you're not exactly a new player to the old ways either....are you, Cole?"
"I've had my share."
"Then I'd say you're more of a failure than you let yourself believe."
"I'd...take that back if I were you."
"Oh, I've no intention of it. In fact, in all of your abilities to protect her, you've miraculously led me right to her. Congratulations on a task well done, wouldn't you say?"
Cole crossed his arms over his chest, narrowing his eyes at the older man, his lips parting ever so slowly. "You want...."
"Why, your wife, of course," Sterling replied, smiling. "I'm clearly baffled you never saw this one coming. All caught up in the tragedy of a pathetic love story with more twists and turns than I could count."
"You were going to sac-"
"Quite the contrary. You see, it is all about love. Miss Halliwell was never wrong in that. Only...I'm afraid this is purely personal."
"And do you really think I'm just going to willingly go with you?" Phoebe spoke up, standing her ground, as her voice began to shake somewhat, her composure faltering.
Sterling laughed. "See, I like that about you, Phoebe. You've got strength in that anger, and that's just what I need. You've got charisma." He paused a moment. "That's why I'm proposing- in all honesty....a game."
"Maybe you didn't hear her," Cole said, his voice just above a whisper. "We're not going to play."
"You don't have a choice. The future of this entire ship depends upon my terms...as well as your fate. I'd make this decision wisely, if I were you."
"And the Grave sisters?"
"Oh, their lives are very much at stake as well. Orin wasn't just feeding you a mindless bedtime fairytale. He loved her, and I...well...I destroyed him. Most notably because....he didn't win."
"Win?"
"Me," Phoebe whispered. "He was in love with Jacqueline too....weren't you?"
"Love, love, love. It's all the same, isn't it?"
"And I'm not going to lose her. Ever."
"Mr. Turner, the rules are simple. If I win, Miss Halliwell is mine, and the rest of this dimension is history, for all I care. She'll be completely consumed within my control...or a prisoner, if she so chooses. If you win? If you really think you have what it takes? You can both return to the present frame of time, and all of this disappears. Interested?"
"So this was all about you? You created-"
"Oh, come now! You make it sound like it's much too horrific for words. See, the final hours have been drawn, and it's time to raise the stakes a bit. Afterall, it's only fair we get down to the real heart...of the matter. Don't you agree? Elizabeth lost her one true love by surrendering herself to evil. You're about to lose yours to a whole lot more than that."