The Cipher Lounge
JP with Trustno1 and Cindy
Takes place before Episode 4
The Cipher Lounge:
A hidden area accessible only to Illuminati operatives, this private space is a sanctuary for strategizing and unwinding. Plush black leather couches are arranged in semi-circles, and the air is perfumed with a faint metallic scent. Onyx coffee tables contain built-in holographic projectors, allowing operatives to review dossiers or schematics while sipping rare wines and liquors.
The Cipher Lounge glowed with a subdued, almost ethereal ambiance, the dim, blue-tinted light refracted through the polished edges of onyx tables and reflected faintly on the sleek leather of the crescent-shaped couches. The scent of something faintly metallic, like a distant memory of blood and ozone, lingered in the air, melding with the soft tang of aged spirits and the faint whisper of old wood polished to a mirror finish.
Alyssa Wilson and Peter Sartre sat close, their silhouettes merging in the ambient glow of the room's holographic displays, which flickered like spectral sentinels above the tables. Her hand rested lightly in his, fingers entwined like the tendrils of ivy clinging to the weathered stones of a forgotten temple. The faint tremor of her thumb tracing small circles on his palm belied her calm exterior, a fleeting ripple across the still waters of her otherwise guarded demeanor.
From the concealed speakers woven seamlessly into the walls, the brooding strains of Chinese Democracy spilled out, each note crawling into the room's deep shadows and settling there like an uninvited ghost. The guitars roared with a restrained fury, the vocals a distant wail of defiance, each chord weaving a tapestry of tension and melancholy that matched the charged stillness between the pair.
Peter's eyes, sharp yet softened by an unspoken fatigue, flicked briefly to her face, searching its contours as if seeking some hidden truth there. Alyssa, her posture outwardly relaxed but with a barely perceptible tautness at the corners of her mouth, kept her gaze fixed forward. The holographic projector before them cycled silently, displaying layers of maps, schematics, and dossiers, but its relentless churn went unnoticed.
The weight of the music pressed upon them like an unspoken confession, its crescendos and lulls echoing their shared burdens. Alyssa's other hand rested on her thigh, her fingertips twitching faintly in rhythm with the drumbeats, a subtle tether to the moment that grounded her amidst the maelstrom of thought behind her steady expression.
Peter's grip tightened almost imperceptibly around hers, a silent reassurance passed through their entwined fingers, fragile yet steadfast. In that fleeting gesture, the cacophony of fractured harmonies and burning guitars seemed to quiet, if only for an instant, leaving them wrapped in the thick, tangible silence of understanding that neither dared break.
Remembering what she said earlier he switched the album to Appetite for Destruction. "Welcome to the Jungle" began to play. As Slash's riffs began he waited for her to make her move.
"You didn't tell me how we were different from Piper and Leo." Sartre said.
"I did, actually. I don't expect the impossible from you. I think Piper thinks Leo can move mountains. Prue wasn't meant to stay, she knew that. I doubt even a guardian angel could have kept on this plane." Alyssa paused. "We just aren't them so how could we be like them. Besides, we protect each other - it's not one sided nor do I want it to be."
"Your father, you should meet him at The Chess Club." said Sartre,
He shut the music and holograms off." I am more interested in what you have to say to the Halliwell Chef." I brought you here to listen in Private. Lumies Only. Call Piper............." I've been an agent for thirteen years Alyssa."
Alyssa kissed him, smiled, and nodded. "Alright," She pulled out her cell and called Piper.
Piper must have seen it was Alyssa calling because she picked up, and greeted the hacker with a hello followed by the hacker's name.
"Hi," Alyssa said to the Halliwell sister. "I.... um.. I wanted to see how you were."
When Piper Halliwell’s voice finally came through, it wasn’t the calm, collected tone Alyssa expected—it was raw and on edge.
“Hello? Alyssa?” Piper’s voice cracked, trembling with barely contained emotion.
“Hi,” Alyssa started cautiously, gripping her phone tightly. “I… um… I wanted to see how you were.”
For a moment, there was silence on the line. Then it hit—Piper’s voice exploded through the receiver, a mix of anguish and fury that sent a shiver down Alyssa’s spine.
“How am I?!” Piper’s words were like a hurricane, each syllable lashing out with unfiltered pain. “You’re calling me now? NOW?! Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?! Do you have any clue what it feels like to lose your sister—not once, but twice? to get her back, only to lose her again?!”
Peter raised an eyebrow, his expression unreadable, but he didn’t interrupt. (edited)
Piper’s voice broke, and Alyssa could hear her pacing. “Do you know what it’s like to wake up every day and pretend it’s okay? To hold it together for your kids while your heart is being ripped out?!” Piper’s voice caught, and there was a sharp intake of breath as if she were trying to stop herself from completely unraveling. “And Leo—oh, Leo—he doesn’t get it either. He tries, but he doesn’t understand! No one does!”
“What do you want, Alyssa?!” Piper interrupted, her tone teetering between anger and despair. “Why are you calling me? Why now, of all times?! Do you have some Illuminati secret you just have to share with me? Or is this another cryptic ‘favor’ you need?”
If Alyssa’s mother had prepared her for one thing, it would be to take it when someone used her as a verbal punching bag. Plus she had a feeling it was Piper’s grief mostly talking.
The hacker couldn't respond about losing a sister. But Piper had been the one to call first, granted it had been weeks ago. Still, Alyssa had listened and offered an ear if the woman needed it. Piper hadn't taken her up on that offer.
"No... I don't want....actually I do want something. I want you to listen. I can't say what happened last night but I saw Prue, in a vision, well several of them. She showed me a lot but part of that was you and Leo, and that you might need someone to talk to. Someone who isn't the husband that you want to blame. Or the sister you're not talking to.
Prue must have shown me you/i] for a reason. Don't you think?"
"Alyssa, I’m barely holding it together! I’m drowning in this… this endless cycle of losing the people I love! And don’t you dare act like you’re here to help me—because this is all because of you! Because of the Illuminati, the Dragon, the Templars… all of you!”
She was now screaming "If it hadn’t been for you—and your damn secret societies—Prue would never have been brought back in the first place! She died in 2001! She died! Shax killed her, and as horrible as that was, at least it ended! But no, you people couldn’t leave it alone, could you?” “You had to send your people—your Inspector John Legrasse, or whatever he calls himself—to San Francisco! You tore her out of the peace she’d finally found in the afterlife!” Piper’s voice wavered, a haunting mix of rage and agony. “And for what? So she could come back, suffer all over again, and then leave us again? Do you have any idea what that did to me? To my family?!”
"Maybe Prue should never have been brought back at all!” Piper’s voice cracked, and the raw pain in her words was almost unbearable. “That maybe it would’ve been better if Shax had just… if we had just accepted it, mourned her, and moved on! But no. You people had to meddle, and now we’re here! Stuck in this hell where nothing makes sense, where I can’t even breathe without feeling like I’m drowning in the past! If, you did see her in a vision and you're not lying to me. All three of us knew what you illuminati types were up to back in the 90s........." how exactly could you help me?" Leo is bleeding. I just slapped him across the face. He left, I'm seriously thinking about a divorce."
Alyssa somehow remained calm. "[i]I didn't bring Prue back. And I was shown what's it done to you and Leo, but I couldn't know what it did to the rest." How could she. Her family wasn't like the sisters. "Listen, weeks ago you called me. You talked to me. Weeks ago I wasn't the enemy. Now, apparently that's changed. I don't know what to tell you. I was simply offering an ear without judgment. If you want I could go for some hard truths but you wouldn't like what I had to say, and I doubt you're ready to hear them." Alyssa tried to filter what she was saying but she wasn't great at such things. "Even if you slam the phone in my ear. Even if you don't call me for years. I have no beef with you and I'm always around if you want to talk. But I won't be calling again."
Why the hell did Prue show her all of that if there was nothing she could do to help Piper? Maybe, Prue should go to Piper herself. If she could.
The hacker said one more thing before hanging up. "I don't know if you should divorce Leo but maybe really look at whether your blame is fired at the correct people. Goodbye, Piper I hope you eventually find closure." With that Alyssa ended the call. She just couldn't take being blamed for what happened with Prue