Demon In Church

[katleept]

Title: "Demon In Church"
Author: Kat Lee
Rating: PG/K+
Summary:
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, names, codenames, places, items, fandoms, titles, and etc. are always © & TM their respective owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Any and all original characters and everything else is © & TM the author and may not be reproduced in any way without the author's express, written permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.



She took a deep breath and finally turned the knob on her fifth trip back to the church. She'd kept coming ever since that first initial encounter after she'd become a Witch when lightning had almost struck her. Piper shook inside as she froze with her hand on the knob. Her eyes were shut tightly as she waited for lightning, thunder . . . something, anything bad, but nothing happened.

Slowly, she cracked one brown eye open, then the next. Still, nothing had happened, and the church where she had spent some of her happiest childhood memories lay open before her. "Hello?" she called, peering around, but the Father wasn't to be seen. The church appeared empty, but yet, it didn't feel that way. It never had. She had always been able to feel a strong and welcoming presence within this hallowed halls for as long as she could remember.

She gulped as she wondered again, fearfully, if the hallowed halls would burn her to a crisp on the spot if she stepped into them. She'd read so many books about Vampires being burned by crosses and churches, and she was no better than a Vampire. Okay, she admitted to herself, so she didn't suck blood, and she used her powers for good. But she was a Witch, even if she hadn't asked to be one. That meant, according to God and the Bible, that she was wicked, right?

She had never done anything to hurt anybody and had instead sacrificed so much to save innocents, risking her life and those she loved time and again. Yet, she was supposed to believe that she was the evil one? Still gripping the doorknob as though it was a lifeline, Piper picked up a booted foot, started to step into the church, and stopped again.

What if the Bible was right? What if she was evil? What if God wanted her dead? What if she stepped into the Lord's house, where she'd spent such happy times as an innocent child, and was killed on the spot? She'd never see her sisters again! She gulped again, still shaking inside. They needed her!

Piper started to turn away, but a deep, welcoming voice called to her from somewhere within the sanctuary. "Do not fear, child. Come in. You are velcome here."

She turned back around and peered into the church. The shadows were too thick for her to be able to see anything; the light of candles did little to help at this hour. She took another step as she wondered about the person to whom the German-accented voice belonged. None of the Priests or nuns she remembered had a German accent. She stepped closer again.

"It's okay, child. Ve are all children of ze one God and velcome here."

Was she? Was she really? She took one more step closer and finally saw the first sign of who was speaking to her. Bright, yellow eyes glowed at the alter. Anger immediately flushed Piper's being. She had been so worried about coming to her church, and yet, there was a Demon already here?! She entered with no more hesitation and rose her hands to the ready.

She didn't want to fight in the Lord's house, but the Demon had no right to be on holy ground. She'd gladly vanquish this one, although she'd still prefer to lead it outside to do so. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Piper's breaths quickened. The creature was another kind of Demon, stranger and different than any of the many evils she and her sisters had fought since becoming Witches. He was covered, from what she could see, from the top of his head to the ends of his feet with blue fur! He wore a Priest's clothing, but a pointed, blue tail swished out behind him from underneath the robe's black hem.

What had he done, Piper immediately wondered, fearful for her Priest, to get the clothes he now wore?! "Leo," she whispered urgently as she walked boldly further into the church. "Leo!" she hissed again when there was no answer.

The Demon smiled at her. Piper's hands were still at the ready. She started to freeze him just as a familiar voice called to her. "Piper! What a pleasant surprise, my dear! How long has it been?"

"Father, don't come any closer! There's a Demon in our church!"

She did not realize that she had referred to the steeple as being their church, only that the Priest she had loved for years was in danger and the Demon before her was soiling the Lord's house. The Demon looked suddenly pained while, at the same time, her Priest smiled. "My dear, Kurt is no Demon. I know he appears a little . . . different . . . "

"Different?! He has a forked tail!"

"Very well. So he fits the stereotypical Devil appearance in which so many misguided people believe, but, my dear, have you forgotten that the Devil is actually a pretty being? He was the loveliest of all Angels before he fell. He even thought his beauty could outshine our Lord's majesty."

The Priest had reached now, where Piper stood immediately before the blue-furred creature called Kurt, her hands still raised and her dark eyes full of mistrust. "I know Kurt very well, Piper. I've known him for years." The Priest clasped the shoulder of the being he called Kurt. Piper's eyes almost jumped out of her head at the sight. "We're old friends." He smiled at Piper.

Piper's eyes darted between the two. She felt like demanding what had happened to her Priest and investigating to see if another Demon might have overtaken his body. But they were in church, where no Demon was supposed to go, and her old friend was smiling at her as though he'd never stopped. She was in church, she suddenly remembered, and she wasn't going up in smoke!

"It's been a long time, Piper. Do you no longer trust my judgment?"

"O-Of course, I do, Father. It's just -- "

"I know." He patted Kurt's shoulder as his tail twitched again, then sighed deeply. "It is hard to overlook the way we are taught to perceive differences in others, but I assure you, my dear, that Kurt is no more evil than you or I. He is what is known as a mutant."

"A mutant?" she repeated, doubt creasing her forehead. "I thought they didn't exist." She wanted to do a Phoebe and roll her eyes at her own self. How could she say such a thing, she silently reprimanded herself, when, in the last several months since her grandmother's passing, she'd seen and done countless things she'd thought impossible?! And how could she judge Kurt based on his appearance when she herself was supposed to be an evil Witch?

Her Priest was rambling on about mutants, the reality of their existence, and how there were just as many good mutants as evil ones, but Piper was too lost in her own reverie to hear anything more than his last few sentences on the subject. "There are mutants who would gladly kill us, Piper, and any other human they come across, but Kurt is not one of them. He is one of a group of mutants, of heroes, who have gathered together to protect the whole world, no matter how much people like us, normal humans, hurt them."

Normal humans, she thought. Yeah, right. How she wished she could be normal! But that would never happen again. There was no way to stop her birthright now that Phoebe had read the spell to return their powers and their grandmother was dead, taking the secret of how to stop them from being Witches to her grave. Oh, Grams, if you could only be here now! If you could have just told us --

"Piper?" The Father reached out and gently touched her shoulder. "Are you all right, my dear? I know this is a lot to take in . . . "

"I've taken in a lot recently, Father," Piper admitted with a heavy sigh. She reached out and offered her hand to Kurt, meeting his eyes with her own without distrust in them for the first time. "I'm sorry. There is Good and Evil in everything, and I should remember not to judge a book by its cover, as the old saying goes."

Her smile was tremulous, and again, she found herself thinking more than she spoke aloud. Could there actually be truth to that theory, that there was Good and Evil in everything? Could there be a good Demon somewhere? If there was, she'd surely never met one.

"No harm done, fraulein." Kurt smiled as he took her hand. His gentle squeeze was warm and reassuring, but a chill raced through Piper as she realized that the man only had three fingers. She started to ask about it but stopped herself. It was rude to mention a handicap that had not been brought up for discussion. His lacking finger and thumb might be due to his mutancy or to some kind of horrible accident.

"Piper, I've been meaning to talk with you for a while," her Priest again spoke, "ever since your grandmother's death . . . " His eyes peered solemnly into hers in an earnest exploration. "I know you've been troubled, my child, and have not seen you attend any of our services."

"I-I've been busy," she said, dropping her hands to her sides. And troubled's putting it mildly.

"I think I know." He looked to Kurt. "Will you excuse us, Father Wagner?"

Piper's mouth almost dropped open. He was a Priest!

"Ja. Of course." They started to part ways when a huge, crashing sound reverberated throughout the church from outside. "Merciful Jesus!" the Priest exclaimed and started running for the doors.

Father Wagner disappeared in a thick, cloud of black smoke that left Piper coughing and gagging for a moment. She rubbed her eyes, desperately trying to clear them, and felt, rather than saw, her Priest grasp her arms. "I'm sorry, my dear. Father Wagner forgets himself. That cloud of brimstone comes with his mutant ability to teleport, which is to say that he can disappear from one place to appear in another."

Piper's mind whirled as well as her senses. How did her Priest know all of this and take it so calmly?! She let him lead her outside, and only in the bright light of day did her eyes and nose stop stinging from the atrocious brimstone. "Father, help them!" her Priest cried out and then started praying fervently in the holy tongue amongst the crying and wailing of many other people while Piper was still removing the water from her eyes.

Then, at last, she saw what he was crying about and froze everybody. "Oh God!" she breathed for an entire bus loaded full of children had just hit the back end of a semi. The big truck had turned to keep from hitting the children but evidently hadn't made it entirely out of the way. Both vehicles were now smoking, and there was no way to get to every one in time.

"Leo! LEO!" They had to do something! They had to help! She couldn't let so many innocents die! "LEO!" Her White Lighter wasn't answering. How was she to save so many so quickly?! She couldn't! There was no way! She glanced to Kurt, who stood frozen with his mouth open, shining fangs fully on display and blue tail caught in mid-twitch. There was no human way!

She threw her hands at him, unfreezing him. "We have to save them!"

"Ja!" He didn't hesitate. He either didn't notice that she had everybody else still frozen, or he didn't care to take the time to ask. He simply teleported again, leaving her in a second plume of dark, stinking smoke, and reappeared on the bus. He grabbed two children and teleported back to her side. "Keep zem safe." He was gone again before she could speak.

Piper shook her head, still coughing and dabbing at her eyes. There was no way he could rescue everybody, even with his teleporting ability, nor could she keep them all frozen for long! She raced to the truck, leaving her Priest frozen next to the still children.

The two worked quickly, Piper removing the drivers while Kurt saved the children. When everybody was clear, the two heroes stood side by side, bent over and gasping for air. Piper looked up at Kurt, who was shaking slightly from the exhaustion of teleporting so many so quickly. "You are a hero," she breathed in admiration. And now that she wasn't looking at him like a Demon, she could also admit that he was kind of cute, too.

"So are you," he said, smiling at her. "May I ask you somezing before you . . . before you release zem?"

"I have the time around them frozen," she explained. He nodded as though it was just an every day occurrence for him. "Go ahead and ask me," she encouraged, wondering what on Earth he could ask her.

"Vhy vere you scared to come into ze church earlier? Vas it because of me?"

She shook her head quickly. "No. I'm not a mutant, Kurt."

"I know," he said, his yellow eyes glancing at the pentagram she wore. "You're a Witch."

"And you don't hate me?"

"Do you hate me, fraulein," he questioned in return, his tail giving a weak whisp, "because I am a mutant?"

"No, but I -- I kind of did when I thought you were a Demon."

"Many make zat mistake, just as many mistake ze powers zat zey are given as being from ze Devil. Satan has no power, fraulein, ozer zan zat vhich God gives him. Our powers, both my mutantcy and your Witchcraft, do not come from ze Devil. Zey come from ze All Mighty."

"But -- " she started in confusion.

"All good zings do. He gives us zis powers so zat ve can help ozers, so zat ve can save lives as ve have here today. Ze Devil caused ze wreck, but because ve vere here, because God gave us zis powers, no one vill die because of it. He vill gain no more souls here today."

"What about Exodus 22:18: "Thou shall not suffer a Witch to live"?"

Kurt's tail whisked. The people around them unfroze and began to look around each other in confusion. "Is zat vhy you vere so afraid to enter God's house again?"

"Yes," she answered honestly, not realizing that her Priest was coming up behind her. Tears brimmed in her eyes.

"Ack, leibling!" Kurt cried, wrapping his arms around her in a tight, reassuring hug. "So much has been lost in translation," he explained, his tail swishing fervently with his emotions. "So much of ze Bible is not ze vay our God intended it and has hurt so many!"

She clung to him, no longer caring that he looked like a Demon or that she barely knew him. Her tears finally started to run freely down her face. "Then what did he mean? He doesn't want me dead?"

Kurt moved his arms from around her waist to clasp her face. His yellow orbs peered into her despairing, brown eyes. "Nein," he spoke firmly. "Our God does not vant any one dead or to suffer. Ze Bible vas first vritten in Hebrew. Ze original scripture did not use ze vord "Vitch"; it vas not even known to ze people at zat time. Ze original vord, to describe zat vhich God vanted dead, vas m'khashepah, vhich meant a person vho did use magic, ja, but used magic to kill, to do evil. You, leibling, are a good Vitch. He does not vant you dead!"

"Piper, I'm so sorry," her Priest cut in, placing a hand on her back. "This is what I wanted to talk to you about."

She turned away from Kurt's embrace so that she could look up at the Priest who had originally baptized her so many years ago through her tears. "You knew?" she asked in disbelief.

He nodded. "Yes. I knew your mother very, very well. I helped her at times, and she asked me to be there for you if you ever needed me." He shook his head. "I'm sorry I failed. I should have persisted in talking with you."

"You tried," she admitted, remembering all the times he had called her and she hadn't answered.

"I didn't try hard enough," he said firmly, speaking over the buzzing chaos of the ones they had rescued that day, "but Father Wagner is correct. You are not evil. The powers you were given did not come from the Devil. They come from God. The differences you both have come from God. We are all His disciples, all blessed with different ways, different abilities, to use for Him to do good, to save lives, to save souls."

"I am good," she breathed shakily.

Both Priests tightly hugged Piper. "Ja!" Kurt cried happily, his blue tail whisking with his joy. "Vou are good! Look around you, sister! Look at all zese lives ve have saved today, and I am quite sure that you've already saved many more than these and vill continue to do so!"

She grinned. "You're right," she admitted.

"That is wonderful, and, Piper, I expect to see you in church Sunday if you're not busy saving the world, but for now, Kurt, perhaps you should get her out of here?" Piper's Priest said as a news van arrived, brakes screeching. "I'll let them know this was another of God's miracles."

"It is, brother; it most assuredly is!" Wrapping his arms around Piper, and wishing he could stay in San Francisco for a while longer, Kurt took them from the scene.

The End



Plug: This fic resulted from a Christian Pens challenge!

Comments

Demon in Church

[blackjackalee.livejournal.com]

Exellant story!!Great crossover!!!!!