Chapter 138: Ch.23
After we left the basement, I suggested Piper have Leo take him to magic school where he could learn to control his new powers. She accepted that asking. "Where are you going to go?"
I smiled. "To take care of some business. Trust me, you don't want to know."
I headed back to the basement and flame shimmered to Ludlow's Demonic Training Academy. Once I appeared, so did the guards. I waved a hand, lighting one of them on fire saying. "I have business with Ludlow. Take me to him or you'll join him."
The remaining two nodded and led me inside and up to his office. I could feel the wards on the place and while impressive, I knew I could get in with force if necessary. When we passed through Ludlow's office door, I used my hyper speed and super strength to rip both the remaining body guard's heads off.
They caught fire and I was hit with a blast of cryokinesis. Ice faded away as I gain the power for myself and became immune to it. He hit me with telekinesis next and I used my hyper speed to impale him on my blades. "Goodbye Ludlow."
He grimaced and burned away. I sped through the school and killed six more Firestarters in training that had already given in to evil, adding their powers to my own.
Luckily the cryokinesis was already at an upper level demon's strength like my energy balls and now my pyrokinesis. I left the academy, trashing the place and destroying the barrier and warding on it on my way out from spite.
I traveled back to the basement and went upstairs for a shower while I focused on fusing all my pyrokinesis powers into one. It reached the peak of what I'd call upper level demon strength. The only one possibly stronger in the same power would be the source or beings like the Avatars.
With my good mood in mind I went to see detective Morris about helping him on his case load. When he asked why I shrugged it off saying. "Boredom. Perhaps I'll give you the killers on a silver platter if you say yes."
He agreed so long as I agreed to be a consultant only. It was no hardship so I agreed. For the next week I helped him solve twenty seven cases while either having the killer confess or get caught in the act.
He got a lot of attention from the department as I let him take all the credit easily. It wasn't until I got a call from a worried sick Piper that I headed back for any length of time. I found that Leo had been shot by a dark lighter arrow and Piper and Paige's powers were gone.
Sighing, I used my power out in the open to heal him without hesitation. When I finished healing him, I felt an odd sensation in my chest as my ribs were scrubbed clean of the enochian sigils.
Before Leo could respond he was orbed away. Piper asked. "Where did he go?"
I sighed. "The elders took him for not telling on me when he had the chance. They're probably punishing him for his part in letting me go without informing them I was unbound."
I felt them trying to orb me as well but I resisted and shouted. "Fuck off you old bastards. I don't answer to you and I'm not going to sit around and let you bind me again. You've failed!"
I stood and Piper left to make potions to replicate her powers. I was being dragged south now as I flames away and appeared in a chamber with one whom I knew to be the seer.
I growled. "What is it you want demon? My fiancé is in danger right now so speak quickly or die!"
She spoke up. "I've a solution to both our problems. The Source has unleashed the hollow and intends to kill your beloved. I have a way for you to save her and the rest of the charmed ones."
I raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."
She smiled. "The only way to defeat the source now is to take in the hollow and when he strikes, let the hollow take his powers. The charmed ones can vanquish him then and I'll even help your fiancé put the hollow away."
I snorted. "And how can I trust the word of a demon?"
She smiled. "I've seen us doing great things together in the future. Why would I risk that now for a momentary loss that would see all of us dead?"
I growled. "Fine!"
She opened the box an let the hollow out. It entered my body and the only thing I can equate it to is bloodlust and hunger incarnate. It was the void that begged to be filled, never ending and always hungry for more.
I forced it down as it tried feeding on my magic. I crushed it into a ball with my will and forced it to my whim but even as I suppressed it I could feel it constantly challenging me, wanting more, pushing me to higher limits.
Smiling, I understood what the hollow was now. It was the all consuming drive for more. To improve, evolve and adapt. No wonder demons and elders feared it so. It didn't fit with their grand design that was based on balance. It was the opposite of the order they brought, chaos incarnate.
It was quelled by my understanding of it as instead of it feeding on me now, it hid in it's tight little ball as if it understood that I had great plans for it for the future. For now though it would be used and put back.
I flames traveled to the attic when the seer said it was time and ran in front of the sisters, taking the fireball from the Source. I growled at them. "Say the spell now!"
I turned and through an energy ball, putting the source on his ass. They began. "Prudence, Penelope
Patricia, Melinda…
Astrid, Helena,
Laura and Grace,
Halliwell Witches,
stand strong beside us
Vanquish this evil
from time and space!"
The Source screamed and exploded before I sighed but outwardly I was stone cold as the hollow had gained strength and was more than matching me pace for pace in the power department. I'd finally understood the limits of the Source's power.
He really could draw on the power of all the evil in this world to fuel himself and since his powers were now not only copied, but the originals were in me as well, I was fighting a war on two fronts as my own powers effectively doubled the Source's and were working against me with the hollow and the intense evil.
My demons were feeding on the evil but it was literally endless. My world tree grew more as it took in the evil and purified it's energies for it's own use. My beasts were doing the same while my shadow devil wasn't even purifying it as it took the pure evil taint in like mother's milk and rapidly grew larger.
It took on a life of it's own as it ate my other demon beasts. Only being stopped at my green Phoenix that my own green Phoenix spirit absorbed for itself. My werewolf and vampire side grew rapidly as well, both making my essence stronger until I barely managed to avoid being possessed by the hollow for my lack of vigilance at my inner world's changes.
I fought the hollow off but only barely as I growled when the seer appeared. "Trust her...."
Phone immediately went over to help as the seer opened the box, pulling the hollow out of me, along with half the Source's powers from my own power mimicking ability. I was still connected to the Source of all evil as much as the previous source had been but unfortunately for me, when they said the inscription together, the powers were returned to their last living host.
In this case the Source's original powers were returned to me. I gnashed my teeth and grunted as I stood up straighter but shakily. Without the hollow influencing them, the powers rain wild inside me trying to find a way to force my compliance.
My will was stronger than one Source's even if his Will was that of all the evil of a planet. But now with two both equally as powerful and daring to go after the hollow had battered my will around, it became a true challenge.
I looked around for Nym and couldn't sense her mind with my own personal link so I knew something had happened. I headed my father's laughter. (You've has enough time with them. Now it's high time you understand their roles as well. They've been locked up tight in your last fiancé. Oh and I've moved your toys out of the basement of your inner realm and put them in the manor basement and sealed off your realm until you reach the peak of this reality.)
Growling inside I felt the anger I was feeling being used to wiggle away at my iron will. Letting it go, I went to tell them what was wrong but when I went to speak it was like the evil from both Source's strangled my throat.
Helpless, I watched as my iron will forged over millions of years in hell and thousands of years of meditation was chipped away like it was made of clay. I felt a great weight press on my mind as I fought to stay in control for as long as I could.
My body was on auto pilot as I was barely able to speak much to Phoebe. She seemed to have forgotten about Nym, they all had and that only caused frustration and anger to rise up in me, chipping away more and more.
I sought the only safe place as my defenses started to show signs of giving, the void. The cold indifferent emotionless void. My weakened occlumency and mental energies held for a time as one week, two and finally three weeks had passed. Each night I was being summoned by the Source's powers to the seer.
It couldn't speak or express more than a coldness to her but then one evening Phoebe told me. "I think I'm finally ready to get married. The source is dead, the underworld is in chaos and everything's good here."
I swear I'd only slipped out of the void for a moment but apparently I was weaker then I thought as the Source's powers and influence surrounded the last of my will. If it destroyed me, it would have my body to do as it wished as my soul would die and be reborn elsewhere and the thought of leaving Phoebe alone with this evil, unprotected, drove me to fight harder then ever before.
It had gained control of my body and was acting in my place as I would, gaining powers and protecting Phoebe, not by choice but because my own remaining will forced it to. Call it spite, stubbornness or love, whatever you want, but I wasn't about to walk down Coal's path.
When the Source performed the dark wedding ceremony, it wasn't me saying the words but I meant it in my heart. Three more weeks of gathering powers and helping the charmed ones defeat demons threatening the Source's throne, leaving it a clear path to there.
Phoebe was pregnant now though not yet showing, I could still feel it. We'd moved out of the Halliwell manor as if that weren't odd enough, but what's more we were under attack by vampires. It wasn't until I was inside the vampire's lair, in front of the queen, that I was able to exert a measure of control from beyond the Source's own and shift into my vampire form.
The queen felt home inside and called for her vampires to restrain the source and feed me blood as I'd told her telepathically when we'd connected, what was wrong. She released Paige of her bonds as a vampire and told the rest to send the charmed ones away, that the vampire god had come.
They'd caught a glimpse of the queen kneeling before me while the rest fed me blood and I'd heard Piper ask. "How the hell are we supposed to fight that thing?"
I felt the child of the Source helping it and urged them to send the charmed ones away and feed me more blood. Leo spoke up. "If he really is a god then we stand no chance even with the power of three. Gods are immune to most powers and are notoriously hard to beat. The fact that it hasn't killed us and is instead sending us away should be a blessing in itself."
Phoebe started shooting fire out her hands at the vampires but Piper stopped her, pulling her back saying. "Phoebe! Let's not piss off the god in the room. Come on, Leo, grab Paige and get us out of here."
The moment they left, I slaughtered all the vampires in a blood frenzy to drink it all faster. When I finished I focused on my love for Phoebe and used it to fight back, finally starting to take ground again. When Phoebe announced she was pregnant, I used my joy to forcefully take ground further.
By the time I found her writing letters, not knowing who to choose, me or her sisters, I'd taken back almost half my own mind but still not enough for full control. When she left, I used what little control I had to write her a letter of my own, explaining what exactly had happened that night the source had supposedly been vanquished and everything since.
Even now the source was confident she'd never have to read it when I locked it in the wall safe with her engagement ring she'd been unable to wear since she'd become evil. I waited patiently for them to come and they did at that.
While they'd searched the place, I'd been invisible until Phoebe had rushed to the restroom. I had the Source back as it attacked. Over time both halves had fused into one stronger whole while I'd secreted away the powers themselves.
Now as it tried to harm them, I'd made jerky, awkward motions, forcing it to miss. When they got all but the last crystal in place, it refused to go down without a fight and flung Paige away.
When Phoebe came out and kissed me, telling me she loved me, I roared into the inside, focusing on that love as she placed the last crystal down. I spoke as she'd said her part of the chant that would send me to the demonic wasteland. "It's in the basement. Just-just remember it's in the basement."
Paige finished it and I told her. "I'll always love you Phoebe, thank you."
My body exploded as my essence, compacted into soul form rocketed towards the demonic wasteland through the fiery clouds and landed on the dirt like flesh of what I knew to be the old one, Heremus.
I climbed up the rocks and realized my body had reconstituted while the Source inside me was gone. I was finally free! That's when a tentacle grabbed my ankle and I realized this could end up like a Japanese anime if I didn't get serious.
I pulled out my soul swords and cut the tentacles up. Unfortunately it was already dead and there was no reincarnation apart of this dimension so I had to keep cutting it into pieces. Soon enough all that remained was a bunch of flesh and gore and a giant mess of powers.
I took them in like a man dying of thirst at the Niagara Falls. Time definitely ran differently in here and I didn't need my realm to tell me that. Minutes even felt dragged on as I collected every power that demons dropped as their forms were destroyed.
There was no hunger or thirst here, only the long boring wait as I collected powers endlessly it seemed. Each of my weaker powers slowly advanced as I continued to collect duplicates of them.
Eventually my powers started effecting my body as Super strength, immunity, immortality, sensing, high resistance, reconstitution, adjusting, enhanced senses, agility, hyperspeed, regeneration and crushing all faded and were replaced with what I called the invincible body.
After what seemed like eternity, my powers had all risen to at least upper demonic levels. My traveling had changed when not using green flame travel. All my other ways of teleporting had combined and had been fused into my flame travel to make it near instantaneous travel by thought.
Even blinking was slower than my flame travel now. Flame travel was once again my fastest way to travel and now I could do it continuously as well to loose any that follow my trail.
It was truly surprising with how many demons die each moment that the underworld isn't going extinct yet. Oddly enough I just got bored of collecting powers and sat down on the tallest platform, pulling them to me now with a bored look.
This place could drive anyone insane after a while if they stayed here to long. Heremus May be dead but his body is still pooling the powers inside him and I needed to figure out how. I looked up at the sky with a thought and understood a bit of it.
The portals here opened up above the red clouds I can only assume is blood. When the demons pass through it they're destroyed, leaving only their powers. My senses expanded as did my power to pull in more powers as thousands of them joined the trickle I'd been collecting each moment by comparison.
More and more I took in of powers that meant nothing to me in the long run. I stopped when I felt my shadow devil becoming agitated. It was the size of half my world tree now and only my Phoenix, werewolf and vampire parts of me equaled it. As all three were an intricate part of my being, I used them and the tree to suppress the shadow devil, reminding the beast that I was it's one true master.
It was quelled for now but the more powers I took in, the more it tried to fight. My world tree had started to change as well. It no longer just bore immortal apples. Other fruits of all kinds began to profit and bloom all over it as they were what was happening to the leftover powers I was collecting and dismissing as useless or weak.
I stopped my collection completely and only gathered them around my rock cliff structure until they were a variable sea of powers. When I felt something else coming, I decided to risk it and pulled them all into me.
My body toughened to an incredible degree but more to the point I'd gained a couple useful powers out of it. I'd found Tempus's powers to manipulate time and my portal creation powers had evolved to the point where I was sure I could leave now if I could figure out where earth was from here.
I had no destination point to plot the course as in fact Heremus's body resides in space if what I'm feeling is true. My senses had penetrated the clouds and the skin barrier far above them into the vastness of space itself.
That's when the demons arrived, hundreds of the tentacle like creatures from before, hunting the powers is taken in and each of them had demons in human form with them that were pissed off. I waved a hand and made a blue advanced fireball the size of an acorn before flicking it at them. When it left the twenty foot radius of me it expanded to the size of a stadium and exploded, destroying everything around me for miles on end.
Only the advanced force field around me kept it from my body, not that it could hurt me anyway now. All the demons were turned to ashes as were all the tentacle beasts. Their powers lay around me only for a moment until I collected them too.
As the last of them fell into place, my tree grew explosively to the point where I had to leave my inner world while it too expanded beyond the bounds of set before. This reality truly held what I'd needed to advance.
My shadow devil's agitation and why became evident now. It had appointed itself the guardian of the tree and since the laws of my inner world were expanding as my soul did and my understanding of this reality with it, it was worried the powers I was taking in would destroy my inner world if I took in too much at once.
I suppressed the expansion of the tree once it's top branches reached the length of the normal solar system is set out for it. Another barrier was there suppressing it as well so I felt relieved at first. My inner world was the size of a star now and that was while worrying, still a good thing for me.
My body however wasn't strong enough to continue expanding in this way so I felt weakened by it, injured internally in a way. Like a glass bottle holding back a hurricane, fragile and mortal once more. I could no longer feed excess powers to my soul and inner world. I'd have to keep them or trade them if I wished to stay alive in this reality without exploding and taking it with me.
Luckily my shadow devil was no longer big by comparison to my inner world and world tree now. In fact they looked like regular animals until you compared the size of regular animals to them. Then I realized each one of them was the size of a tailed beast from the Naruto anime my daughters had liked back in the slayer universe.
I put that thought aside and focused on the current issues at hand. Just when I thought of escaping, Phoebe, Prue, Piper and Paige showed up with Leo and the staff of the demonic wastelands. They stared at me meditating in a lotus position as I looked at them shocked. "You got my letter?"
Phoebe looked at me sadly. "Is it true? Was it not you?"
I sighed. "I'm a way it was and in a way it wasn't."
Piper spoke coldly. "Then you'd better Damn we'll explain before we take you anywhere!"
I sighed. "When the hollow took over my body, I fought it. It was a battle of wills and it wore me down. Then when the Source hit me with his powers, my mimicry power had an unfortunate side effect-"
Prue held a hand over her mouth. "Oh no!"
I grimaced and nodded and Paige asked. "What?"
Prue asked. "Can't you see? His power to mimic other powers copied the Source's power."
I nodded. "One became two and with the hollow already fighting me, moments became hours as they wore me down further. Then when the hollow was taken out, the two Source's picked up where it left off. Chipping away at my mind and will. I fought it head on for weeks, unable to say anything as it had a stranglehold over my body already, physically making me unable to say or do anything to stop it."
"I became trapped in my body as my Occlumency began to fail and my mental strength was worn down. I sought the void, lack of emotions to stave off total defeat and loss of complete control. But when you said you wanted to get married Phoebe, I-I was shocked out of my void as I felt and the Source's used that moment to strike, shattering most of my psyche. I hid behind my love for you, the one thing the Source's couldn't truly understand while they fed off of my mental and magical energies."
"For weeks afterwards I used that same love to try and fight back, to take back my mind. It worked for the most part. It wasn't until you announced you were pregnant to me that I was able to use that shock, that twisted version of love the Source who'd fused with my old psyche and mental energies with themselves into one being and write the letter. I'd regained half my mental space but only a small portion of the control on my body until it was defeated. You see, true evil cannot love, so when I was vanquished with it, I was able to say goodbye-ooff"
Phoebe had hugged me harder than ever before and I sighed while she cried on my shoulder. I patted her back while Paige asked. "How do we know this isn't some sort of trick?"
I smiled. "Easily. As the Source it had no control of my original power except my soul swords. They're an extension of my soul and a physical representation of it but nothing more. So when he flame traveled, do you remember what color it was?"
She nodded. "It was red like any other flames- oh, I see!"
I nodded and flame traveled a few feet with pure green flames. "You see, the green Phoenix is another representation of my soul and in fact my souls form. The source couldn't use it because it wasn't really me. Just like it couldn't use my powers that were fused with my soul so completely because they are apart of who I am as an individual."
I orbed with Phoebe still crying on my shoulder, next to Leo. Sighing I asked them. "If you want more proof then I don't know what to tell you, so can we please go home? I'm exhausted and these passed few months here have worn down even the patience I have."
They looked to each other and phoebe released me before looking at her sisters. "Please, if you don't trust him then at least trust me."
I sighed. "If it helps I'll do an oil ceremony when we get back to purify any and all evil inside me out. One of the things the Source wouldn't go near with a thousand foot pole."
Leo sighed. "I'm convinced."
Prue spoke up. "So am I."
Paige and Piper shared a look and Paige who'd been suspicious of me rolled her eyes. "Oh all right!"
Piper nodded and I said. "Well since we're leaving this damn place, I might as well leave it with a gift."
I removed the power I no longer needed and took out a piece of cloth, fusing it with the cloth and tossing it aside. Piper asked. "What is that?"
I smiled. "The mimicry power. After everything that's happened, I don't want it. It's caused enough problems in the past even for your ancestor. It can stay here and rot for eternity. You're welcome to check it out and keep it if that's what you want but I want nothing to do with it."
I handed it to her and she looked it over before trying to freeze it. There was a flash and it tried to freeze everything around it. I truly was done with that power and I didn't want anything to do with it anymore. Heremus's corpse was a good burial ground for it though.
Leo checked it out before tossing it away. "It's legitimate. It's the power of mimicry and all of it too."
Phoebe hugged me again and I sighed. "You should've seen the first signs I wasn't me, moving out of the manor? I had it connected so we could all stay together and happy like one big family. The Source needed a place apart so that it could do evil without you noticing."
I shuddered and Phoebe apologized but I stoped her. "No, it was just a sad man's attempt at humor. Don't apologize. With the dark wedding you were influenced by the Source and couldn't see the truth."
I kissed her before saying. "Phoebe my love, I love you more than any power in this universe or the next. Power means nothing without you, life as well."
She kissed me and I grabbed her ass as we fell into a frenzy before Piper broke us apart. "Ok, that's enough of that."
I rubbed the back of my head. "Sorry, I got lost in the moment."
Piper rolled her eyes. "It's definitely you alright. Leo, lets go home."
Leo an I orbed all of us out of the portal the staff kept open and when we got to the house Prue asked. "What was that place anyway?"
I sighed. "It was called the demonic wastelands but in actuality it's where demons go when they die. As the Source was in me when I was vanquished, I was sent there as well. Only when I arrived the Source separated from me and pooped away elsewhere, as it was still connected with this planet."
"The Source is literally the manifestation of all the evil in the mortal's hearts given form. It's as eternal as anything else so long as humanity lives on. So it was trapped deep in the underworld when we split and it would take a very long time for it to return unless helped along by some dark forces. Hopefully it won't be for a very long time though."
I hugged Phoebe and she sighed. "Let's get you a shower and a bed."
I smiled. "Sure thing, but first, I've my word to keep. Leo, think you could collect some holy oil? Enough to fill a tub?"
He nodded and orbed away while I prepared my old tub I used and lit some living flame under it. When he got back I filled the tub with it and got in, clothes and all. The clothes smoked and boiled as they were burnt away. After a while the oil turned a grey color as it stopped boiling and I got out.
Phoebe handed me a towel and Prue asked. "What's grey mean?"
Leo was the one to answer. "It means there wasn't enough evil in him to turn it black. He's been cleansed and it seems he's finally free of evil's influence. Welcome back."
I smiled. "It's good to be back."
Paige asked. "Why did your clothes burn off then?"
I sighed. "The same reason the oil turned grey. It's because of the demonic influence of the demonic wasteland. I was there long enough for a bit of it to seep in and so were my clothes. Speaking of which, you all might want to take oil baths of your own and burn your clothes or let them do the same. That place isn't pleasant even to whitelighters."
I waved a hand and cleaned the tub while Leo poured oil in it now. Paige asked. "You've kept your powers I see."
I nodded. "Like I said before, they're a part of who I am. Unless I give them up willingly like the mimicry, it stays. I'm just surprised there wasn't more evil taint in me. That wasteland and the Source weren't pleasant experiences."
Phoebe sighed. "I can't imagine, I mean, I felt it and with the baby, well, it wasn't pretty."
I nodded. "I'm sorry for that by the way. I can't imagine what it must've been like to have that thing inside you. It, well I-"
She shook her head and kissed me. "It's gone now and that's all that matters. We can finally put the Source and all that behind us and start over."
I nodded and kneeled down. "In that case Phoebe Halliwell, will you do me the honor of marrying me in a church or Wiccan circle of light and goodness so that we may be tied together in the best of ways?"
She looked both happy and shocked. Y-yes! God yes! Though I'm not sure it's appropriate to remarry so fast. I mean, to the outside world you're dead."
I sighed. "Well if it helps I can come up with a plausible explanation for all that. So if I'm dead, you got all the money right?"
She shook her head. "You divides it between me and some corporations that I'm guessing are fronts for evil now that I think about it."
I nodded. "Then I'll just have to bankrupt them when I announce I'm back. The will stipulated that only with my death would anyone receive anything but it's a vague memory after that. It's a foggy time of pain and constant struggles to see passed the black abyss that was the Source. I'll handle it and make sure they pay dearly in court with Frosthaven lawyers backing me."
Prue asked. "Speaking of which, what's with you and Frosthaven?"
I smiled. "It was a company I started in the magical community that my little brother has taken to a whole new level. His fiancé now I guess, is a witch that was born of regular people, a first generation one. She's also incredibly intelligent and is probably behind my old company's rise."
That shocked them all and I shrugged. "I left them everything I owned when I left the UK. They're probably worried I haven't contacted them in a few months but the Source left all my stuff here at the manor including my communication ring."
I picked it up from a shelf and showed them before contacting Harry, Daphne, Astoria and my parents. I invited them all to my wedding and made sure to stipulate it was family only so long as they only brought their partners and kids.
After that I showed Phoebe and the rest the map of hogwarts in it's 3D glory and told them how I'd made it. With that I sighed and realized how far I've come, not just in this world, but in all the realities and worlds since the beginning. While I still felt the drive to find mates and adventure, I wanted to see my family, my children and my friends I'd missed.
My hair changed to white and Phoebe's oil bath pulled me out of my thoughts. She was under the oil in a peaceful way as it boiled a bit before letting her go. Apparently the child had absorbed almost all the evil in her as it fed off it. When she got out, I cleaned and dressed her with magic and she commented. "You didn't have that power before."
I nodded. "I didn't. The Source was effected by my influence a bit as it was driven to gather powers it couldn't use and protect you no matter the consequences. It was all I could influence at the time but it worked. My powers have expanded a great deal now and I've gotten rid of the ones I couldn't find a use for like shapeshifting."
"It's demonic power was useless to me as I could do the same with my magical abilities and with more ease. My powers are less varied now but stronger. That was one of the few new ones called remote apportation. Like remote orbing but with only objects."
Prue asked. "What other things can you do?"
I shrugged. "I can make portals but I need to have an idea of where I'm going and what direction whether in time or in space. And my other main abilities have all advanced like your telekinesis will in a few years or Piper's freezing-"
Phoebe spoke up. "Or my levitation turning into flight."
I nodded. "Though that's one of the powers I have up as I can already fly with my own spells. I had premonition for a while but I got rid of that too as I don't want to see the future or past. I want to live in the now. None of my whitelighter powers advanced so far but I can remote orb like an elder can."
"Apparently one of the upper level demons the Source killed for that power had killed an elder thousands of years ago. The only other thing I can think of is my forcefield power has combined with the power of deflection and my physical body powers like super strength and speed have combined into one power."
Paige snorted. "So what you're saying is that you've become stronger than the Source now?"
I shook my head. "No, the source had an unlimited supply of evil and demonic energy to draw from. Wear me down and I'm just like any other witch or wizard with a limited supply of magic. Even Leo can rap into the powers of the upper plane where the elders are for power, I'm still limited and thus still vaquishable."
I grabbed a bottle out of nowhere and ripped a piece of flesh off me before handing it to in the jar to Paige. "Just in case and I hope it helps you feel better. I'm not the Source and I'm sorry for all it put you through while it was in me, but I'll earn your trust back over time I hope."
My wound healed before their eyes, leaving no traces behind as I regenerated. She took the jar and I left with Phoebe to our room where we grabbed a shower before going to bed.
A week later things went back to normal in the only clear way possible, the angel of Destiny showed up around the same time a witch hunter did. I'd just regained my identity and sicked my lawyers onto the demonic companies with proof and made up evidence that they were the reason I'd had to fake my death, claiming they'd hired out people to assassinate me.
With two inspectors and detective Morris on my side with extra evidence that they were after me for the money, tens of billions in fact, that the Source had willed to them. There was so much overwhelming evidence that the demons and dark priests behind the companies had to abandon ship before they were exposed as well.
All seven companies were in the process of being raided and my case went before the Supreme Court. So when Phoebe called me to tell me there was a witch hunter they were tracking for an FBI agent, I came home and got there as the FBI agent was about to take his 'witch hunter' away.
I read his mind then took his necklace and tossed it to Paige. "Put that in the basement. He's the witch hunter, she's the witch. She was in the federal marshals hands. He's using you."
Piper froze the mortal witch hunter and asked. "So what now?"
I shrugged. "I dump him in his hotel with all the evidence and freeze him while I call in an anonymous tip to the FBI. I'll remove the evidence he has of witches and all the amulets like that one he's got before erasing his memories of you all. The FBI will arrest him and he'll go to prison. I'll then call the magical governments up and warn them of the witch hunter families he knows about."
Piper nodded and Phoebe kissed me before saying. "Thanks babe, I was worried for a bit there."
I nodded. "Have you decided whether you're going to give up your magic?"
They each looked uncomfortable and I sighed. "When he comes again, call for me. I'll come and speak with this angel of destiny."
She promised and I got to work cleaning up after the FBI agent and soon to be prison bitch. When I wiped his mind and made the calls to MACUSA and my father, they took it seriously and sent auror's to clean it up and get to the bottom of it. Witch hunters was serious business.
When everything was fine I went back to deal with the court hearings after sending all the magical amulets into a volcano along with the evidence of them being witches. The court hearings went on until I felt the world froze and time stop. It tried affecting me but I shrugged it off and answered Phoebe's call.
I appeared in the dining room where the angel was. It looked at me in shock. "You're not supposed to be able to do that."
I snorted. "My powers are beyond yours little angel. What I can and can't do isn't up to you. I'm beyond your little grand design. The fact that you thought you could use your powers on me should be proof enough you should've known better."
Phoebe asked. "What's that mean?"
I sighed. "I am a Phoenix in soul, eternal and beyond the powers of an angel that in fact can be killed. It's probably why the elders haven't acted, they're using him to asses my powers."
I held her and sighed. "They're probably listening so I'll make it easy. I'm stronger than most of the elders combined though my magic isn't infinite. If they strike to kill with their full force I'll only come back, reborn anew and strike back in kind. Tell them to leave me be and I'll do the same from now on."
I held Phoebe close and watched the angel nod. "Consider it done. While I can't see your destiny however, it doesn't mean I can't see there's."
I shrugged. "You can only see the possibilities if I don't act. As I'm beyond your powers my decisions to help them when and where are beyond you as well. I won't allow them to fall or die from their struggles between good and evil."
He sighed. "Assuming they decide to keep their powers."
I nodded. "Yes. But even if they don't I can always give them mine and besides magic is in there blood. You can take away there active powers but I can teach them to tap into the magic within them, taking their powers to a whole other level."
He sighed. "And you'd do that to? Destroy the grand design?"
I shrugged. "If they want magic after they decide otherwise, yes. Your grand design means nothing to me after all. Their happiness is my one and only priority."
He frowned. "Thousands would die if the grand design collapses."
I shrugged. "Thousand die every second of the day, from one moment to the next. What you, the elders and demons all fail to realize is that magic doesn't exist because you do, it exists in spite of anything you do to the contrary. Even if the first witch returned to the all it would only bottleneck until the eternal couple exploded from all the power of the magic there. Then it would return to all those that are worthy of it and not limited to the control of you, the elders or the underworld. Free to grow and expand beyond your limited mind can understand."
He looked freaked by my words and I shrugged. "I'm ambivalent either way. It doesn't effect me one way or the other because I exist like magic, only magic to me is but one power at my disposal. My lifeforce is beyond even it's scope."
I shifted my eyes and the world went black before they all saw my Phoenix form. It's eye was looking at the planet behind them and they understood the breath of what I truly was then as my eye was as vast as the sea of stars and when it closed they saw a sea of green before I returned them to the same spots as before. An illusion and yet not.
Phoebe shuddered and the angel looked terrified and humbled as he understood now what he was speaking to. He bowed lightly. "Excuse me, I need to sit down."
He was in fact sweating in fear and shame. I held Phoebe close and entered her mind slowly as I asked for permission like usual. I showed her my life on this planet and what apart of me was. My inner world and world tree. I didn't explain that I was a god but she understood I wasn't a simple wizard anymore.
Piper asked. "What the hell was that?"
I chuckled. "That was my soul in it's entirety. It's as large and vast as the known universe because in essence I'm reincarnation personified or I will be one day. As the source is connected to evil, the angels are connected to good and witches are connected to magic, I'm connected to the beating heart of the universe. Life itself and when a soul is reincarnated, they'll pass through my flames and be purified of their sins and karma and receive life force in return as they take on a new life. Or they will someday when my soul evolves to that point."
Prue asked. "Souls evolve?"
I raised an eyebrow and it was the angel of destiny who answered. "Of course. It's how powers evolve when they have them. And how you're not evil or good like your past selves. When you start over your soul evolves from the experience."
I nodded and it was time for them to decide.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone