Close Encounters of the Worst Kind

Stuart finished reading the letter. He swivelled in his chair to put it down on top of the others and as he did, the framed picture on the desk caught his eye. He stopped and stared at it, sadness growing on his face. The knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

"Corey," Stuart said, acknowledging him.  "Is it ready?"

"It's ready," Corey answered as he walked towards Stuart, taking a chair across from him.

"The two circles are marked," Corey said.  "Get them inside the outer circle and press the button.  The net will fall down on them and then the canvas will come down over the net.  Five seconds later, the jets in the outer circle will ignite.  After another five seconds the jets in the inner circle will ignite also."

Stuart was silent for a moment. "I hope it works, Corey."

"It'll work - you did the research yourself," Corey said. "There isn't any record of a single one surviving. Not one of them could stop the fire. Their power can't affect it.

"All you have to do is get her to come here."

"Oh she'll come," Stuart said confidently. "She knows I'm hunting her, following her moves. She'll come all right. I'll get all of them to come."

Stuart was quiet again, his fingers thumping the desk.

"Nervous?" Corey asked.

"Anxious," Stuart answered. "I'll feel a lot better when this is all over. When evil Prue Halliwell and her sister witches are all burned to death."

Prue's mind was working on a spell she needed as she walked down the block when the scream interrupted her thoughts. Ahead of her, a man was trying to grab a pocketbook from a woman. Unable to wrest it away from her, he pushed her out into the street. She fell down hard on her wrist and began screaming in pain. The man grabbed the pocketbook, went back up onto the sidewalk and started to run away.

Prue waved her hand at him and sent him flying back into the street.  A car was coming down the street and, swerving to avoid hitting the woman, hit the thief as he started to get up.

Prue ran over to the woman who was screaming from the pain.  "My wrist!  My wrist!  Eyye!"

"That man will never break another person's wrist and never steal again," Prue said to her, satisfaction evident in her voice.  "I'm going to call an ambulance for you."

As Prue took out her cell phone, she saw someone holding a camera and taping everything that had happened.

"Stuart!" she said with loathing in her voice.  But before she could do anything to him he lowered the camera and hurriedly walked away.  She wanted to go after him but she couldn't leave the woman alone.

"That does it!" she said to herself as she called for the ambulance.

 

Stuart removed the tape from the camera.  He wrote the time, date and location on the label, then handed it across the desk to Corey.

Corey opened a cabinet to his left and placed the tape in one of its drawers. As he turned back, he saw Stuart staring at the picture on the desk.

"From three hundred years ago in Salem to San Francisco today," Stuart said, resolve in his voice. "We're going to continue what they failed to finish."

"Updated for these times," Corey added.

"I'd feel better if we could tie them to stakes," Stuart said.

"We'd never be able to do it against their powers," Corey said. "But the net will have the same effect. And the canvas will cover them so that they won't be able to use their powers on anything outside of it.

"You know...what will be left of them won't be very pretty."

"What Prue Halliwell did to Teri wasn't very pretty," Stuart said. He picked up the picture and held it in both hands, tears coming to his eyes.

Corey got up, walked around the desk and put his hand on Stuart's shoulder.  "We can't bring Teri back," he said to him gently.

"I know...I know," Stuart said, trying unsuccessfully to hold back the tears.  "But at least...when we're done...no other good and decent girl will be killed by these evil witches. And no one else...who loves a girl so much...will have to put up with the loss."

He took out his handkerchief, wiped away the tears and tried to pull himself together.

"You know Corey, this is not just vengeance," Stuart said.  This is really what the Council to Save Society from Witchcraft is all about. After we burn them they'll be three less evil witches in the world to hurt people."

 

"I have really had it with this Stuart Weston," Prue said to Phoebe as she marched into the living room. "This morning I saw a man shove a woman into the street, break her wrist and grab her pocket book. So I sent him flying into the street where he got hit by a car.

"Then I turn around and see Stuart with his camera taping what I did.  I couldn't get to him. But I will."

"Look at this!" Piper said as she came into The Manor.  "This was hanging on a lamppost on the next block.  And he had the nerve to hang another one on the lampost in front of The Manor.  I took them both down."

Prue took one of the flyers from her and read it aloud.  "The Council to Save Society from Witchcraft invites you to the revelation of the names of three dangerous sister witches in your midst.  Taped proof of their witchcraft will be presented.  Tonight at the Council's headquarters at eight o'clock."

"We're going to take care of him tonight," Prue said.

"Let's be there at seven before anyone comes," Piper said.

 Prue saw a confused look on Phoebe's face.

"Phoebe, what's the matter?" Prue asked.

"Something here...isn't right," Phoebe answered, slowly shaking her head.

"What isn't right?" Piper asked.

"I don't know," she replied.

 

They opened the door under the Council's sign, walked inside and found themselves in a very large room. Chairs were stacked along one wall and two circles were outlined on the floor.  But otherwise the room was empty.  A door on the far side opened and Stuart walked in.

"Come for your un-masking?" he said. "You're a bit early."

"We've come to take care of you," Prue said. "You've gotten in our way too much."

"The same way you took care of Teri," he said.

"We protect the innocent by destroying evil, by punishing those who would hurt them," Prue said.

"Teri never hurt anyone," Stuart said. "She was so good,  so kind, so un-selfish. I loved her so much."

"She had evil inside of her," Prue said.  "My spells hurt only those that have evil in them.  It finds that evil and uses it to destroy them."

"Finds evil?" he asked. "No. It's you who just decides that someone is evil. And then you decide to punish that person. Teri wasn't evil, she wasn't bad, she-"

"Wasn't real," Phoebe said.

"What?" Piper said.

"She wasn't real...she didn't exist," Phoebe said. "There...wasn't any Teri."

"Phoebe, what are you talking about," Prue said. "I used a spell on her."

"I told you that something wasn't right," Phoebe said, shaking her head. "None of this is right.

"You know that I can see things with my power that no one else can.  All of this...isn't real.  We protect the innocent but...we don't punish the guilty.  That's not for us to do.  The one time we did...I almost died...being burnt at the stake.

"And you, Stuart, you...didn't love Teri. You...love me."                                                           

"Are you crazy, you evil witch," he said. "Love you? You're trying to distract me so that you can destroy me." Stuart saw that they were inside of the circle. "But I'm going to destroy you first."

He turned and hurried to the gas jets switch on the wall.

"No!" Phoebe shouted and ran at him. She grabbed his hand as he was reaching for the switch, scraping her hand against a sharp corner of the switch plate as she did.

"Feel me against your heart," she said as she pressed him against the wall. "Then listen to what your heart tells you."

Stuart tried to push her off but then stopped. His expression changed from anger to confusion.

"I...I don't...understand," he said.

"Phoebe - get away from him so I can cast the spell," Prue said.

"No!" she answered. "Feel your heart," she said to Stuart.

He was all confused.  He was getting flashes of feelings as she pressed against him.  A brief feeling of happiness.  Then one of no longer feeling alone.

Then bits of memory.  Of feeling excited holding her hand as they walked down a street together. Of the happiness of a kiss.  And of a night together.

"Phoebe?" he said, trying to make sense of it. "Phoebe." He paused.

"PHOEBE!!" he shouted.

"EEYYY!" Phoebe's heart was racing, her breathing fast and heavy. She was sitting upright in her bed. She looked around her, trying to understand what was happening.

She jumped up and walked slowly around the room, touching and feeling her familiar surroundings to calm herself.  She walked over to the window and looked outside.  Everything is normal, she thought, as she saw the street.

She turned around and saw Stuart sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Phoebe. Oh, Phoebe," he said, shaken, his face white. "I just had...a...nightmare. I dreamed that I was...trying to hurt you. That I was...part of...some...council..."

"To...Save...Society from Witchcraft," Phoebe said, finishing his sentence.

"And...I tried to kill you...and Prue and Piper," he said. 

"And Prue tried to kill you," Phoebe said.

"What? How could this be?" he asked. "We couldn't have both had the same dream."

"It was...so sharp, so real," she said.  "It...wasn't a dream.  A demon must have done something to us.

"Prue...and Piper?" she asked, as she realized they may be in danger.

Phoebe ran into Prue's room while Stuart went to check on Piper.

"Prue! Prue! Wake up!" Phoebe shouted as she shook her sister hard. "Wake up, Prue!!"

"I can't wake Piper," Stuart said as he came into Prue’s room.

"And I can't wake Prue," Phoebe said.

"What's that?" Stuart asked as he took Phoebe's hand and turned it over.

"When...I grabbed you and pulled your hand away from the switch I scraped my hand on it." She looked at the trace of blood along the scrape. "All of it was real."

"I...almost really killed you," Stuart said, in shock.

"How?" she asked.

"The room was set up with gas jets around where you were standing," he said. " That switch would have dropped a net on you to hold you and then ignited the jets.  The fire was to burn you...as witches."

"Prue and Piper...if that reality still exists they're still in it," Phoebe said.

"Uh...uh...uh...Corey," Stuart said trying to remember the name. "He was my partner in the Council.  He set up everything for the fire.  If he finds them there and doesn't see me...he'll start the fire himself.  They're in danger." 

"If a demon has a spell on them to keep them there then I can't get them out," Phoebe said.

"You have to look through the Book of Shadows and find the demon," he said.

"That could take hours.  There isn't time for that," she said, as she turned back to look at Prue.

"No!!" Phoebe screamed.

Stuart turned to Prue and saw perspiration on her face. He lifted her arm and felt that it was wet and very hot.

"Corey must have started the fire," he said.

"If I can't get them out of that reality, then I'll take Corey and the fire out of it," she said.  "Prue said that I've become completely like Phoebe.  I’m going to make up this spell on the fly the way Phoebe does." She took a deep breath.

"Prue had better be right," she said.

She was silent for a moment. Her eyes closed briefly and then opened.

     "To save my sisters who are in danger     

           From where they are that I cannot see,   

       Bring here the fire and the one who made it     

           Contained together before me."

There was a sudden loud clap of thunder and a circle of fire appeared in the bedroom. Within it stood someone. Tall, with grayish black hair and piercing eyes,  a smug, powerful look on his long, somewhat triangular-shaped  face.

"That's not Corey," Stuart said.

"Who...are you?" Phoebe asked as she slowly walked towards him.

"You're worst nightmare," he answered with superiority.

"This wasn't a nightmare. This was real," she said to him.

"Hmm...smart witch," he said.

"My spell said to bring the fire and the one who made it," she said turning to Stuart. "Corey didn't really make the fire. This demon did. That's why my spell brought him here."

"Smart indeed," the demon said to her.

"What did you do?" she asked.

"I created an alternative reality," he answered.  "I changed your perceptions so that you would think it was real. You did - and it became real to you."

"Get my sisters out of it," Phoebe demanded. "Bring them back here now!"

"Your sisters."  He glared at Phoebe with a look that went right through her.  "Sisters," he repeated, emphasizing the word. Mockingly, it seemed to Phoebe.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds and concentrated, then contemptuously nodded in Prue's direction.  Phoebe hurried over to her and shook her.

"I'll check on Piper," Stuart said.

"Prue!" she called as Prue started to move.

"EEYY!!" she screamed as she sat up, frightened.

"I...was being burned by a fire..." Prue said.

"This demon put us into another reality and tried to get us killed," Phoebe said.

Prue slowly got up from the bed and stared at the demon and the fire.

"I made up a spell to bring him and the fire here," Phoebe said.

"I underestimated your power," the demon said to Phoebe. "It let you see more than one reality. I also underestimated the strength of his emotional tie to you. It's so strong that it let him see beyond that reality, too. I won't make those mistakes again."

"How did he change reality?" Prue asked.

"Quite simple, really," the demon said as Stuart and Piper came into the room.. "Reality is shaped and formed by what one perceives it to be.   Your reality is a reflection of your perception of reality. Alter the perception and I've altered the reality.

"I'll put it into terms that even your small human minds can fathom.

"You humans once held a significance to a meaningless ability to run the distance of one mile in some number of minutes.  People tried to do it, some more than once.  They all failed.

"Their perception was that it could not be done.  And that was their reality.

"Until one person had a perception that it could be done.  And he did it.  And then everyone's perceptions changed.  Everyone perceived that it could be done.

"And so others then did it too," the demon continued. "Even those who had previously tried a few times and failed now did it with relative ease.  Their perceptions changed.  And so their reality changed with it.

"I changed your perceptions while you were asleep.  It doesn’t matter whether you are conscious or not.  Your un-conscious mind can perceive and make realities just like your conscious mind can, if you know how to unlock it’s power. You don’t - but I do."

Piper and Stuart edged slowly towards the ring of fire.

"What you see around you is your reality now - because you perceive it to be so," the demon said. "A little while ago, you perceived something else to be your reality - and therefore it was.  In the past, when you had another perception of reality, it too, was real to you."

That startled Phoebe and she turned to Prue. Could he have meant what she thought he did? Could he know who they really are - what they really are? And therefore know where to find them after they go back to being their real selves?

Is that how all of this came about?  Prue thought.  Did we become The Halliwells in the real world because all of the real world's perceptions of reality were changed?  Could something as incredible as that be true?

"Who...is he?" Piper asked.

"I don't know - but I'm going to find out," Phoebe said. "Stay here and watch him while I go up and look through the Book of Shadows."

"Be satisfied that you'll live through this night, Charmed One," the demon said to Phoebe. "Don't push your luck."

"My spell has contained your powers," Phoebe said. "If you could use them you would have already."

"I will eventually kill you, all of you," he said. "One by one if not all together. But in the meantime you need to be taught a lesson.

"You were lucky tonight with your amateurish, half thought-out spell. But don't think that you can really take me on.

"My powers are contained.  But yours are not."

He looked at the fire surrounding him and concentrated.

"Why is it suddenly getting hot in here?" Piper asked.

"Ahhh!! I just felt the fire against my skin," Phoebe said.

"Move back!" Prue said.

They moved back towards the wall where the door was.

"It's getting really hot in here," Piper said.

"Arrgghh!!!" Stuart screamed. The fire had jumped and caught onto the sleeve of his tee shirt.

"Arrgghh!!!" he screamed again as it spread over the rest of the shirt.

Piper grabbed a blanket from Prue's bed and threw it over Stuart's arm and chest, trying to smother the flames.

"Eyye!!!" Piper screamed as a flame jumped and landed at her feet.  She put her arms around Stuart and pulled him further back with her.

"How is he doing that?" Phoebe asked.

"You brought the fire here with your spell," Prue said. "So it exists here because of your power, not his. Your power isn't contained so he's somehow able to use it."

Stuart couldn't suppress his crying out from the intense pain from the burns. Piper held him, supporting him with both her hands.

"How far back do you want to go?" the demon asked, his tone showing that he was in control.  "To the hallway?  To the other side of the house?  To the end of the block?  I can make the fire go as far as I need to."

"You have to let him go," Prue said.

"No!" Phoebe said.

"We don't have a choice,"  Prue said. "He'll keep doing that and we can't stop him."

"Stuart’s hurt bad," Piper said. "He needs help."

Phoebe tried to get closer to the demon but the heat was too intense. She glared at him and then closed her eyes to concentrate.

     "Demon and his fire

        Who have been brought here,     

      Set them free and let them now

         From our midst disappear."

The demon and the fire were gone. But Stuart was still crying out in pain.

"We have to get Stuart to a hospital," Piper said.

 

"Leo," Piper said as he materialized in the parlor the next morning.  She went over to him and kissed him.  "A powerful demon tried to burn us. We almost didn't make it through the night."

"I know," he said. "They told me."

"Stuart got burned pretty badly on his arm and side," Phoebe said. "The doctor at the hospital gave him very strong pain killers."

"And...you want me to heal him," Leo said, then hesitated. "Ahh...Phoebe, I know you're...close to Stuart. But...this time I can’t help him."

"What!?" Piper said. "Leo, I'm asking you to heal him."

"I'm able to heal only when they want me to," he said. "And...they told me they don't want him healed."

"What!?" Phoebe said.

"After he almost got you killed last night, they don't want him endangering you again," Leo said. "They don't want him getting in the way."

"Getting in the way?!" Phoebe said. "Stuart hasn’t gotten in our way...he’s helped us! He hasn't stopped us from doing anything.

"And we're not going to leave him like this. You're our whitelighter. You're supposed to help us."

"I am," Leo said. "By protecting you.  By not letting something like what happened to you last night through him happen again.

"He can't defend himself against demons," Leo continued. "And because he can't he almost got you all killed."

"Last night, Stuart was under a spell," Piper said. "We all were. Stuart's the one who broke the spell with Phoebe."

"Piper...even if I thought that you were right, I can't do anything about this," he said.

"No?"  Phoebe said.  "Well, here's something you can do.  You can tell ThevElders that they’re right - Stuart doesn’t have any powers. But he’s taken on demons anyway. Because he has something they'll never have - courage. He's chosen to fight evil without any way of protecting himself.

"But they - they stay...wherever it is that they are.  They don't take on the demons themselves. Oh no, they just wave their magic wand and send others to do that.  They manipulate people, people who are un-prepared, who aren't even asked if they want to take on evil and protect innocents, and throw them into life-and-death situations. And then they just watch."

"Phoebe, you don't know what you're saying," Leo said.

"You think so?" Piper said angrily.  "Then maybe I should explain some things to you, Leo.  About us, about this reality, about our being The Charmed Ones."

"Maybe even about you," Prue said.  "I learned something last night about perceptions and reality. I wonder what would happen to all of this reality that The Elders made here if we changed your perceptions of it."

Prue stopped as she saw Leo look upwards and slowly move his head for a few seconds.

"Ahh...whatever it is that you were going to say...they really don't want you to say it," Leo said. "You win. Take me to Stuart."

 

"He's still going to be out a long time from those pain killers," Piper said after they removed Stuart's bandages and saw that everything was completely healed.

Phoebe took Stuart's hand in hers. With her other hand she slowly stroked his forehead, then kissed him gently. She let go of his hand and turned back to the others.

"I'll check on him in an hour," she said. 

"In the meantime, I want to know why there was nothing in the Book of Shadows about this demon," she said to Leo.  "Someone must have run into a demon this powerful before."

"There's nothing in The Book of Shadows because no one has run in to him," Leo answered. "And they haven't because he is so powerful."

"I don't understand," Prue said. "Just who is he?"

"Dalios," Leo answered. "He sits on the Infernal Council."

"The Infernal Council. They...they sent that genie to destroy us," Piper said, recalling that Charmed episode. "And they've sent others, too."

"How do we vanquish him?" Phoebe asked.

"That's just it," Leo said. "You can't. Your powers aren't strong enough to vanquish a demon that high up."

"So what do we? Just let him kill us?" Phoebe asked.

"You have to avoid him," he answered.

"How?" Phoebe asked. "He came after us!"

"What he did...to personally try to kill you, is unprecedented," Leo said. "There must be something you did that really provoked him."

"Or will do," Prue said, thinking about their still having to save the world from destruction before the solstice.

"His intervening tips the balance of power between good and evil," Leo said. "And The Elders let the Infernal Council know that they won't tolerate it."

"You mean the good side and the bad side talk to each other?" Piper asked.

"Not exactly talk," Leo said. "They communicate. The thoughts from one side get to the other side. They let the Infernal Council know that they would also intervene personally if Dalios was allowed to continue. And the Council couldn't allow that to happen.

"Even though in practice good and evil are balanced, there is an underlying basic, passive goodness to the world.  That inherently would give good a small advantage over bad but under normal circumstances it's not enough to make a difference.  But if the The Elders got personally involved that advantage would be amplified and become much greater than the evil side could hope to defeat.  So to prevent that, the Council has restrained Dalios - for now."

"But for how long?" Prue asked.

"I don't know," he said. "They told me that Dalios is a maverick, that he chafes at the restraints the Council imposes. How long he'll stay restrained - I just don't know."

"And we won't know," Piper said slowly, with fear in her voice, "until it’s too late. Until he's already come after us again."