Timedancer: First Impressions by kiatrix [Reviews - 0] 
Timedancer/Charmed: First Impressions Part 1 by: J. Daniels email: jdanielsdvm@hotmail.com Disclaimer: I do not own Brooklyn, or the Timedancer concept or anything in the Gargoyles universe. I do not own the characters of Phoebe, Prue and Piper or any character or part of the Charmed universe. This is not in any way an official story of Gargoyles, Timedancer or Charmed. This is fanfiction. The auction house was quiet, most of the lights were off, the staff were gone. The faint predawn glow was starting to appear on the horizon. Prue Halliwell was asleep at her desk. She had come in at midnight last night to review the inventory for the upcoming auction. Her arms were curled on the desk and her cheek rested against her forearm. A speck of fire appeared in the middle of her office. The flickering light danced across Prue's closed lids, and then the odd sound reached her ears of something approaching. She lifted her head up, one hand rubbing at her eyes. She opened her eyes with a soft moan of, "What time is it?" then she jumped to her feet, intent blue eyes widening as she regarded the rapidly expanding ball of flame in the middle of her office. Something stepped out of it, the ball of fire disappearing. The creature was tall and muscular, though the way it carried it's body, slightly hunched, made it look smaller than it was. It was red skinned with a wild white mane. It had horns. Black wings. Loincloth. Tail. And in it's taloned hands it was holding an item of gold and blue. It opened its mouth as it saw Prue... she saw fangs. It drew in a breath. Prue reacted without thought, her eyes narrowing and brow furrowing as she drew in a fast short breath. The red creature seemed to be hit by nothing across the middle, it's form crashing into the window, through the window and out beyond her sight. Prue ran to the window, looking around to try to see it. She slowly stepped back, one hand clutching at her chest as she breathed rapidly, the shock finally kicking in. Her foot knocked into something. Prue looked down and then knelt, reaching out to pick up the gold and blue object that the demon had dropped. It was old, her trained eye identified immediately, but she couldn't identify where it came from. She trailed her fingers over the ornate gold bird in the center. Prue looked again out the window, but saw nothing but the light of the rising sun. She stood up and turned to grab her purse. She grabbed her keys, slung her purse over her shoulder with a practiced movement and holding the object closely against her chest, strode out of her office. **** Brooklyn wondered what truck hit him and if someone had caught it's license plate? He caught himself in the air as he crashed through the window and noticed two things simultaneously. He had dropped the Phoenix Gate, and the sun was rising. He groaned, "Great." He decided landing on the ledge of the building that he was just thrown out of was probably not a good idea, but the building directly across from him had two important things going for it. It had a tall ledge around the roof for him to hide behind and more importantly, he could reach it before the sun rose. He folded his wings and dove for the building. If time had been less pressing, he'd have come in for a softer landing, but instead accepted the new scrapes and scratches in addition to the ones he got as he flew through a plate glass window, and he crashed into the building. He dug his talons into the roof to halt his momentum, catching up against the lip just as the sun rose. **** Prue was stopped by Hannah, who was entering the building just as Prue was exiting. "Working late, Prue?" Hannah asked in her smug sly tone, one hand delicately touching at her red curls. "You should really not do that. It does terrible things to your skin." her face set in a patently false expression of concern, her lip curling slightly. Prue sighed and tried to give her boss' assistant a polite smile, "You know me, nose to the grindstone." Hannah glanced down at what Prue was holding and then asked sharply, "What is that?" Prue glanced down and then back up at Hannah and gave the other woman a laughing smile, "Ah, this. I'm taking it home with me... to clean it." Hannah raised a brow and reached forward, plucking the item from Prue's hands, "I'll do that, Prue. You should to go home, get some beauty sleep. You need it." Prue clenched her teeth and said, "That is so sweet of you Hannah. Thank you." and then, without an excuse to take the item back, turned and hurried out. Hannah glanced down at the object in her hands and a svelte smile touched her lips, "The Phoenix Gate. How nice." **** Rex turned the gate over in his hands and said to Hannah, "Do you know what this means?" "Yes," purred Hannah, "We can use it to go back in time and destroy them." "No," Rex said in an annoyed tone, "You know we can't change time, even with the Phoenix Gate." Hannah pouted and said sullenly, "So? What then?" "The Gate is a prison, holding a very... very nasty fellow." Rex smiled warmly. "I think we may just see about letting what is inside back out." Hannah's lips curled into a smile and she walked towards Rex, lifting one finger to run along the lapel of his suit. Rex caught her hand and continued thoughtfully, "We'll need to keep the Charmed ones distracted. Let's see if we can find the Timedancer. He, or she, will be looking for the Gate." A short while later, Hannah walked around the stone form laying almost supine on the ground, one of it's arms outstretched and talons dug into the roof, wings in low profile along it's sides. She glanced from it to the direction where a crew was working to repair Prue's window, "That was some throw." she said in a tone mixed with disgust and admiration. Rex said thoughtfully, "I wouldn't have thought the Timedancer would be a gargoyle." Hannah tapped a nail on the beak of the statue, "Let's destroy him." "Hannah," Rex chided gently, "You know I'd love to let you, but if we can get the Charmed Ones to destroy the Timedancer, think of the karmic consequences." Hannah slumped her shoulders, looking sidelong up at Rex, "I suppose." she pouted. Rex smiled at Hannah and reached down, helping her to her feet, "They destroy the Timedancer, or he destroys them. Either way, our purpose will be served. Now, let's see if we can set the stage, shall we?" **** Prue opened the door and called out loudly, "Phoebe! Piper!" "Up here!" came Phoebe's voice from overhead, followed by the sound of her running feet. She came bouncing down the stairs and said, "You're back early, I thought you had an auction today?" "Yeah, I do." Prue said shortly, hands raking her hair back behind her ears, "But we have bigger problems." "Problems? There can be no problems, Prue." Piper spoke up, entering the room carrying a large tray of food in her hands, "I am supposed to cater a birthday party today, Prue." She gestured with the tray and said, "Problems can wait, but these can't!" Phoebe bounced to Piper and looked over at the tray, hands held behind her back as she said in a gleefully innocent tone, "Can I try one?" "No, hands off! Back away." Piper said quickly, turning to shield the tray. Phoebe rolled her eyes. Prue sighed and said, "Guys, listen to me! There's a demon..." "You did not just say demon." Piper retorted. "Yes. I did." Prue said in measured tones with a quick lift of one of her eyebrows. "It appeared in my office and tried to attack me with some strange device." Phoebe asked, "Oh honey, what happened?" moving over towards Prue, concern reflected in both her tone and expression. "Are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine. I threw it out the window before it could do anything. It dropped this strange artifact." Prue explained, gesturing with her hands the rough size of the device. She led her sisters to the kitchen, which so often served as a tactical brain storming area. Piper put the tray back down on the large counter and moved to set up a tea kettle. "Where is it? I bet we can find it in the Book." Phoebe said confidently. "That's just the thing," Prue said ruefully, "Hannah showed up as I was leaving and took it." "You let Hannah take a demonic artifact? Prue!" Piper exclaimed with a frown. "I did not just LET her. What was I supposed to say? Sorry, you can't take this, a winged demon dropped it off specially for me?" Prue said in exacerbation. Phoebe patted Prue's shoulder and said, "Well, we should still be able to find it in the Book." Then added with a frown, "And we can look for the demon too." She turned to run to the attic. Phoebe brought the book back down into the kitchen as Piper was handing Prue a cup of coffee. Phoebe flopped into one of the kitchen seats and put the book on a table with a solid thunk, "Okay. Start talking Prue. I'll flip." Prue took a sip of the coffee and said, "Well, the device was gold, a little bigger than both of my hands. It had blue inlay, some stone... it was too light in color to be Lapis. I couldn't identify the style." She paused, then continued thoughtfully. "It was strange, almost like a shield in shape. In the center was a stylized gold bird, facing right." "Did the demon say anything?" Piper asked, sitting down with one leg tucked under her, cradling her own cup of tea in her hands. Prue shook her head, "I didn't give it a chance to. Piper, it appeared in the middle of the office in a big ball of fire. I wasn't going to give it a chance to do anything." Phoebe hummed thoughtfully as she turned pages, "Too bad. It may have been able to provide a clue. What did the demon look like? There's Igneus, who makes his entrances in fire. Did anything burn?" "No, that's the odd thing." Prue said, "Nothing burned. The fire just appeared, the demon stepped out, and then it, the fire I mean, disappeared again. Leaving the demon behind." Piper said, "What did it look like?" Prue raised her eyebrows and said with a series of small nods of her head, "Oh, demon-like." she said lightly. "Very helpful, Prue." Piper said sarcastically. "Okay well... it was taller than me, a little hunched over. It had a pair of wings, like a bat or something. It was brick red with shaggy white hair, I mean, it looked like it seriously needed some time with a creme rinse. It had horns and a tail and a pretty big mouth with fangs. So... as I said, demon-like." She sipped her coffee, "I really didn't get that good a look at it before I threw it out the window." "How did you explain that?" Phoebe asked, still looking down at the book. "The window thing I mean," she said, glancing up and swirling her finger around as she explained, "Not the demon." "I haven't yet. I'll think of something." Phoebe glanced down and turned another page, then bounced in her chair excitedly, "Oh, oh, Prue, is this it?" She turned the book slightly so her sisters could see the drawn image. Prue nodded, hooking her hair behind her ear again, "Yes, that's it. The Phoenix Gate?" she read. Phoebe lightly traced the page with her finger as she took up the reading, "A magical prison created by the god Hephaestus to hold an evil entity known as Loki." "That doesn't make sense." Prue said with a frown, "Hephaestus is a Greek God, Loki is Norse." Phoebe shrugged and said, "I dunno. Maybe there's more than one Loki? Anyway, the Gate can take it's bearer through time to a place of their choosing by using the incantation 'Deslegrate muri tempi et intervalia.'" Piper translated with a frown, "Burn down the walls of space and time? Well," she said prosaically, "That explains the fire." Phoebe continued, "It was last known to be located in Scotland and was stolen in 975 A.D." she paused, then said, "And that's it." "Nothing on a demon?" Prue asked, reaching over to pull the book closer to herself. Phoebe shook her head and asked, "Unless you think the demon holding it was the one that was supposed to be /in/ it?" "I don't know. But whatever it was, at least it doesn't have the Gate anymore. If it wasn't Loki, maybe it was going to try to release him?" Prue set her cup down. "What happened to the demon after you threw it out the window?" Phoebe asked, leaning her elbows on either side of the book, cupping her chin in her hands. "I don't know. The sun was coming up, maybe it hid? We should go look for it." Prue suggested, standing up. "Nah uh. Not me. I have a party to cater." Piper said definitively, holding her hands up, "You two can look for it by yourselves. Call me when," she quirked her eyebrows, "or if you find it." Phoebe stood and went over to Piper, hugging her as she said sweetly, "Okay sweetie. But be careful, if it came after Prue, it may come after one of us next." Piper grumbled, "Oh very reassuring Pheebs, thanks." "You're welcome." her sister replied in a sing song voice. **** Brooklyn awoke with a roaring yawn in a dimly lit room, making the unpleasant discovery that someone had chained him while he had slept. He roared, bringing his hands up to grab at the chain around his throat. The chains didn't feel thick, but he was unable to break them. He snarled, "Magic." as he slumped back against the wall he was chained to. He looked around, eyes glowing faintly with residual anger. Crates, chests, dust and cobwebs. "Huh. Doesn't look like this place is all that popular a tourist spot. I can see why." he growled, again reaching to his throat and giving the collar a tug. Just then, a voice 'hissed' from overhead, "Hey.. up here." Brooklyn looked up at a relatively small window to see a man leaning down. "Yeah?" Brooklyn asked, "Can I help you?" sarcastically. "No, but I can help you. Are you an enemy of the witches?" the voice asked, anxiously. Brooklyn frowned a bit and said, "I don't know any witches." A vague gesture at Brooklyn's chains and the voice said, "They're the ones that chained you up down here." "Oh? Then yeah." Brooklyn said heavily, "I don't like 'em." "I can get you out." Brooklyn heard the implied 'if' at the end of that statement, and asked with a sigh, "What's the price?" "I help you, you help me." Brooklyn gave another tug at the chains and then said wryly, "Doesn't look like I have much choice, do I?" The man pointed and said, "Liberatio." The chains cracked as a green light flickered over them, then they fell away. Brooklyn rubbed at his throat and said, "That's it?" before he shook his head and started towards the window, "I hate magic." The figure vanished from the window and Brooklyn jumped up, catching the sill and pulling himself up easily. He slid out of the window, grunting "You know, just once I wish I had to squeeze through a window or a door designed for someone other than the Lollipop Guild." He got to his feet, brushing off his arms as he looked at the man near him. He had unremarkable features and an unremarkable voice. For some reason, none of that seemed to bother Brooklyn as he said, "Well friend, you got me out of that jam. How can I help you now?" "These witches, three sisters..." "Oh no, wait a minute. You're nuts if you think I can do anything for you with the Weird Sisters." Brooklyn protested, holding his hands up before him, "I'm grateful and all but..." "No, no! Not the Weird Sisters. These are mortals. Only mortals. They stole a powerful artifact from me.. and if I'm not mistaken, also stole the artifact that you had." "The Gate? Have you seen it?" Brooklyn asked anxiously, leaning forward. The man held up his hands and said, "No, but I heard them talking about it. They'd be willing to trade you their book for your gate." "And how does that help you?" "Well, while they're trading the book to you, it will leave their stronghold unguarded and I can retrieve my own talisman. Without it..." he sighed, "Without it I'm afraid I can never go home." Brooklyn frowned, the words ringing true in his own heart as well. He reached forward to clasp a hand on the shoulder of the man and he said, "I'll help you." The man smiled at Brooklyn warmly, "Thank you. I can't go there, they'd be able to detect me coming. You'll have to go alone." Once Brooklyn had directions, he climbed the building and glided off into the night. Hannah materialized out of the darkness and said, "That's it? Are gargoyles really that gullible?" "Yes," Rex replied, "They are. And since they're also not creatures of evil, he'll be able to enter their house, and take the book." "What if he fails?" Hannah asked. Rex shrugged and said, "If he fails of his own will, then we'll just have to try a different method." **** Brooklyn raked a hand through his hair, watching the house. It didn't seem evil, but then again, he reflected... so few things that were evil seemed that way at first. He contemplated the house for a minute, identifying the three young brunette women who lived there, one of whom was the chick with the invisible baseball bat. Finally, he settled on entering through the attic. The window was large enough for him to fit comfortably through, and most of the activity seemed to be on the bottom floor. Once inside, he could search the attic and the upstairs rooms. "Hope it's up there. I can't figure out how to search downstairs with them in the house. And I can't exactly ask someone to ring the door and distract them for me." Brooklyn muttered as he jumped off the building and glided the short stretch to the attic. He landed as lightly as he could, flexing claws delicately into the outside of the building to support himself. The window wasn't locked, which wasn't a surprise, who locks their attic window? He opened it and slid inside. The house was old and the wooden floor creaked slightly under his weight. He closed the window behind him, then turned to survey the room. He paused after just a second and said, "It can't be this easy." as he spotted a large dark tome resting on a wooden stand not five feet away from him. He moved forward and reached a talon out for the book. He touched the cover gingerly, noticing the ornate triquetra on the cover. He paused, something just not feeling quite right. He reached forward again and opened the book, moving up next to it to read quietly, "Book of Shadows? Doesn't sound friendly..." **** Phoebe sat down with her sisters and took out the map, "Well, all that's left to try is scrying." Prue sat down and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, "We've never had luck scrying for demons." "Can't hurt to try." Piper said, also sitting down. Phoebe handed Prue the crystal and said, "Just picture it in your mind, as best you can." Prue sighed and held her arm out over the map, letting the crystal dangle on the end of the chain. It swirled gently as Prue closed her eyes, saying condescendingly "This isn't going to work." and then suddenly, the tip of the crystal thunked down on the map. "It worked?" Prue asked, eyes popping open. "It worked!" Phoebe smiled, then moved the crystal and said, "Ut. Oh." "That's .. here." Piper said, her voice growing alarmed. They exchanged glances and then Phoebe said in alarm, "The book." The more active of the sisters, she hopped out of the chair and was running for the stairs. "Phoebe, wait!" Piper called, as she and Prue followed. **** Brooklyn shook his head slightly. The book seemed a collection of stories, incantations and more than anything else, like an otherworldly encyclopedia. He started to close the book when a drawn image of the Gate caught his eye. He glanced at it, picking the book up to cradle carefully in his talons, "Huh. Nothing about me in it. Guess I'm not as famous as everyone says I am." he smirked as he read over the entry of the Gate. **** Phoebe burst in through the door and then stopped short, her eyes wide in alarm, "Oh boy." she breathed. The creature that was holding the book looked up in alarm, his body crouching. Phoebe thought irreverently that he looked less like a demon and more like a boy caught with his hand in a candy jar. Prue and Piper burst in together, knocking into Phoebe. Prue stepped forward and narrowed her eyes. **** Oh no, Brooklyn thought as he recognized the blue eyed woman, the truck is back. He turned to flee and was slammed to the side, the book dropping from his fingers. He groaned and got to his feet, "Will you give me a break?" "What?" Phoebe asked in confusion, but then Prue muttered, "I'll give you a break." and narrowed her eyes again. Phoebe yelped, "No Prue, wait!" Brooklyn felt the truck whack him in the side and send him crashing through the attic window. He grabbed the edge with his claws before he was thrown completely clear and muttered darkly, "Geeze, she /really/ doesn't like windows. I'd hate to have their repair bill." before he dropped to the ground, landing lightly with flexed knees, one hand touching the ground for balance. He ducked around the side of the house and ran away. His new friend had said to meet him back at the warehouse, so that's where Brooklyn would go. He didn't think he was up to tangling with three pissed off witches by himself, now that they knew he was there. They'd just have to try to get the book again, some other time. **** Phoebe rushed to the window and looked out, while Piper bent over to pick up the book. Phoebe turned and said to Prue, "Why'd you do that?" Piper held the book in to her chest and said, "Phoebe, it was trying to steal the book." "We can't know that." Phoebe interjected. Prue said, "Pheebs, it had the book. What else was it going to do?" "No no wait." Phoebe said, shaking her head, "Think guys. What demon says 'give me a break'? Didn't you see how he looked? Well, besides the horns." "He?" Piper asked archly. Phoebe nodded earnestly, "Yes. He. He didn't look dangerous." "Are you kidding? Phoebe. It has fangs." Prue said in exasperation. "In what world does that not look dangerous?" "And, and!" Phoebe continued, "It was holding the book." "So?" Piper asked, setting the book back down. "It was holding the book. In our own house. Doesn't that tell you something? Evil can't get the book, remember? Not while it's here. He isn't a demon." Phoebe said, walking to the book and flipping it open. "He's something else." Prue side and flipped her hair out of her eyes, "Look Pheebs..." but they were interrupted as Phoebe started to flip the pages and the book suddenly began to flip pages on it's own. Piper said, "It's doing that thing again." as she pointed a finger at the book. Phoebe waited for the book to stop turning pages, as her two sisters came in close. "Gargoyle?" Prue said, reading over Phoebe's shoulder, "It doesn't look like the picture." Phoebe read aloud, "Stone by day, flesh by night. Gargoyles are protectors and guardians. They come in many colors and shapes," she stressed that last word, glancing sidelong at Prue, "but typically all species have wings, talons and tails. They may have horns or smaller ridges marking their heads in unique conformations. Their eyes glow when they are angered, the males white, females red. Some subspecies appear mammalian, such as the types found in England." "Oookay." Piper said, "So we know he isn't from England. That's helpful." her voice indicating that it was anything but. "Does it say anything else?" Phoebe shook her head, "No, nothing else." she said with a sigh, placing her hands on the edges of the book in preparation to close it. Suddenly she jerked, her shoulders tightening and shrugging up as her head tipped back, her eyes closing tightly. **** The visions were always in black and white. Phoebe saw the gargoyle approach someone who was too far in shadow for her to make out clearly, a building nearby. It looked like a warehouse, the placard reading off the name of the building smudged on one corner. Suddenly, a small flash of light exploded in the gargoyle's face. He reared back, staggering. His mouth gaped open and his hands went up to grip his head in obvious pain. His whole body tensed and spasmed. His back arched, triangular wings flaring out behind him, tail arcing upwards. The gargoyle dropped to the ground on his knees, body hunching over and wings curving over his back, tail curling in around his knees and still gripping his head. Suddenly his muscles all relaxed, the wings folding to his sides and hands dropping, tail falling limp to the ground. The gargoyle stood up, his posture slumped. Phoebe could see his eyes, glowing softly in a way that left her no doubt that the gargoyle was no longer in control of his own body. **** Phoebe gasped as she came out of the premonition, both Piper and Prue looking at her expectantly. She gasped a few times then said hurriedly to her sisters, "We have to go. Someone's going to attack him." Prue shook her head and said, "Pheebs, did you not see the same creature I did? He looks like he could win a boxing match with Mike Tyson." her voice biting. Phoebe grabbed Prue's arm and said desperately, "Not physically. Magically. We /have/ to save him." Piper said reluctantly, "I'm still not sure he isn't a demon, Phoebe." Phoebe said to her sisters, "I got this premonition for a reason. I'm going to go save him." before she started for the door. Prue and Piper exchanged glances and started after their sister. |