"One teaspoon of baking powder," Beca recites as she pours it into a bowl.
"One teaspoon bat guano," Stacie says chirpily, adding it to a pan on the stove and causing a tiny explosion, making Beca jump. "Ooh-hoo. It's starting to bubble!"
"And stink. Couldn't you have made that potion after breakfast?" Beca grumbles, finishing mixing the pancakes and pouring them on another pan.
"No, I couldn't; Jessica needs it for this morning and she's leaving soon," the tall girl continues, not even fazed by her sister's grumpiness. "Why are we so grouchy this morning?"
Beca grumbles some more, expertly flipping the pancakes, but doesn't really answer.
"Becs…" Stacie tries and fails to hide her amusement which, honestly, only fuels Beca's grumpiness. "Where's Chloe?"
Just as the tiny brunette is about to answer, blue orbs fill the kitchen and then Chloe's smile-y form appears.
"Morning!" the redhead greets the girls happily. "Whoa, what is that smell?"
"That would be the lovely smell of Beca's breakfast," Stacie grins, winking, earning herself an elbow to the gut.
"Hope you're hungry," Beca's forced smile made her look kinda scary and it made the giant one on Chloe's face diminish a bit.
"Uh, starving," she says awkwardly, going over to kiss her girlfriend.
"Probably cause you missed dinner last night," Beca offers her cheek but doesn't make a move to kiss Chloe back. Her sharp reply makes the redhead frown.
"Becs, I already said I was sorry I was late, okay? It's not like I was out partying — I was out being a force of good in the universe!"
"A true force of good would have called or at least orbed," Beca glares at her girlfriend, like she was mad, but it was truly hard to stay mad when you were dating a literal angel. "Not make me share my very fancy prosciutto with Kit."
"I couldn't," Chloe sighs. "Not under the circumstances."
"Which were?"
"Work related, which means I can't talk about it. I mean, anything that happens between me and a charge is confidential, you know that, babe."
Beca rolls her eyes at the line she has heard at least a thousand times, "Doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Wait," Jessica, catching the end of conversation, intervened, looking around in confusion. "You fed our cat Italian ham? When you wouldn't even let us anywhere near it?"
This just makes Beca grumpier and she huffs as she finishes plating the pancakes and taking them to the breakfast table, with Chloe in tow.
"You know, this whole 'for the good of mankind' stuff really puts me in an awful position," Beca continues her grumpy rant, forcefully putting the plate on the table and gesturing wildly. "I have no choice but to be understanding!"
"Babe," Chloe sighs, taking a seat on the table and grabbing Beca's hand to make her sit by her side. She does it with a frown, but refusing to make eye contact; she's holding her ground. "I'm sorry, okay? I wish this wasn't a choice I had to make but, unfortunately, it is."
"Okay, fine," the brunette finally relents because it's really hard to stay grumpy with Chloe's baby blues staring deeply into your soul. Or whatever. "I made your favorite, you know," she gestures to the chocolate chip pancakes in front of them.
"Yay! You're the best, Becs!" the redhead celebrates with a tiny seated dance and leans in for a kiss, but leans back slightly with her eyebrows raised. "Wait. Can I have my good morning kiss now?"
Beca grants her the first smile of the day, even though is mainly a smirk. "Sure, dork."
Just as they lean in, another set of blue orbs appear in the dining room, in orbing a very tall and high-strung looking blonde woman.
"Ahhhh!"
"Aubrey!"
"Chloe," the blonde named Aubrey says in a very pompous tone, looking disapprovingly at the couple. "Sorry to interrupt," she doesn't look sorry at all, which only irritates Beca even more. "But we've got a major problem on our hands."
She gestures to the bloody athame she's holding just as Stacie enters the room, causing an even bigger commotion.
"Hey, I heard screaming…" she looks at Beca and then at the blonde whitelighter. "Oh, oh, athame! Athame!"
Chloe goes to stand between Stacie and Aubrey before Stacie can undoubtedly try to attack. She drops Beca's hand, causing her to frown. "No, no, no! It's okay, she's a Whitelighter!" Beca and Stacie exchange skeptical looks. "Aubrey and I go way back, we were rookies together. Actually, we were together in World War II."
"All your charges need to know is that I'm a Whitelighter, Chloe," Aubrey's left eye twitches a little. "This is not a social call. I just came to warn the Bellas that a warlock killed my most powerful charge with this athame."
"Oh, I'm so sorry."
At this, Aubrey's demeanor softens a bit and if Beca wasn't watching her closely she wouldn't have believed it. "Thank you. The real tragedy is that it didn't have to happen. I warned her to lay low, and she didn't listen," and now the worked up and uptight demeanor is back. "She always refused to let her magic interfere with her life, and now a warlock has her power of deflection."
"Deflection," Stacie repeats, a thinking frown gracing her face. "Wait a minute, does this mean he could deflect our powers?"
"Yes, which is why all Whitelighters have been put on alert."
"We have?" it's Chloe's turn to frown. "Why didn't I hear about this?"
"Because you missed this morning's staff meeting," Aubrey replies in a judgy tone and it would have made Beca bristle because, honestly, she's already had enough of this lady this early in her home pre-coffee, but…
"Wait," Beca can't hide her amused smirk. "You have staff meetings?"
"With mandatory attendance." Aubrey turns her icy glare at the tiny brunette and this time it does made her bristle.
"I believe the Bellas need special attention," Chloe intervenes in what Beca recognizes as her placating tone. Maybe because the redhead knows she's moments away from losing her cool.
"I've heard rumors about such… special attention," Aubrey's face contorts as if she'd just eaten something sour. "And honestly Chloe —"
All of a sudden, Chloe and Aubrey start talking to each other in a clickety-clack language, startling both Beca and Stacie with their rapid-fire chat.
"What the fuck?"
"Whitelighter-ese?" Stacie shrugs, trying to calm her angry little sister, when they hear Aubrey say Beca's name.
"Well," Beca smiles sarcastically. "At least we know what they're talking about."
"All right!" Stacie claps loudly, interrupting the talk. "You guys can click-clack all you want. Me, I'm gonna go look in the Book of Shadows, okay?" she eyes Beca and the brunette nods her okay.
As much as doesn't want to stay near this Aubrey person any longer, she also doesn't want to leave Chloe alone to her wrath.
"I'll go with you," Beca does an internal 30-second-dance party when Aubrey volunteers. "I gotta look at the warlock. I might be able to identify him."
"Oh, alright," Stacie doesn't seems bothered by the company, which Beca takes as a sign of her older sister being a complete lunatic. "Well, it's up in the attic."
"Attic?" Beca swears she sees Aubrey's eye muscle twitch again. "You mean the altar room, don't you? The rules are very clear! Every witch must keep their Book of Shadows in a sacred and protected spot!"
"Right, of course," Beca replies sarcastically.
Chloe sighs heavily, one hand going through her red hair in tiredness. "Maybe you can bring the Book down here? Please Stace?"
"Yeah, yeah. No worries, ginge. I'll just run up to the altar room, which by the way, is right next to the potions lab, and I'll be right back."
She leaves the room and Chloe reaches for her mug of coffee, causing Aubrey to clickety-clack at her again.
"Not supposed to eat on the job," she mumbles at Beca's floored look.
It was Beca's turn to sigh heavily. This day was sure turning out to be a long one.
###
Once Stacie comes back down with the Book, she and Beca move to the conservatory, sitting on the couch. Unfortunately, they're followed by Chloe and Aubrey.
The short brunette opens the book with more force than necessary, flipping through it until she lands on the page talking about deflection.
"The power of deflection is a witch's best shield against the forces of darkness," Stacie reads over her shoulder.
"Unless the forces of darkness already have it. In which case, it's the great shield against us," Beca grumbles, earning a swift kick from her girlfriend and one of her rare glares.
"How did he get close enough to get it from such a powerful witch, anyway?" Stacie continues. "He couldn't be working alone."
"Or maybe he possesses the power of —"
"Cloning. I was thinking the same thing, Chlo."
At this, Beca frowns once again. At this rate, she'll be getting premature wrinkles, but honestly. It was starting to look ridiculous.
"It's the ability to duplicate oneself," Chloe continues, but smartly avoided eye contact with her girlfriend, Beca thinks. "But —"
"It can't be sustained for long periods of time," Aubrey finishes her sentence once again and Beca simply can't hold it in anymore.
"That's cute," she fakes a smile. "How you two… finish each other's sentences."
"It happens when you work with someone for so long like we have," Beca wants to punch that cocky little smile off of the blonde dictator's face.
"Stacie," Chloe says, her voice strained in what Beca assumes to be effort to remain light and cheery. "Maybe we should check the Book? See if the warlock stole the cloning power, too."
"Sure thing, boss," the tall brunette smirks, clearly finding the whole situation highly amusing. "Cross-reference cloning with warlock," she uses her power to flip the pages until it lands on one. "Here it is. A warlock named Pieter. Seems that, uh, ten years ago, he murdered a witch in Glasgow and stole her power of cloning," she turns the book to Aubrey. "Do you recognize him?"
"That's definitely him," Aubrey agrees.
"Uh, well, cloning and deflection are not his only tricks, apparently," Stacie continues. "It says here that Pieter also killed a witch in Kenya in '89 and took the power of," she frowns. "Trans-mo-grification?"
"Trans what now?" Beca frowns too.
"The ability to change shape or form." Chloe and Aubrey answer at the same time and Beca has reached her maximum level of this bullshit.
"So," Stacie, clearly picking up on the dangerous signs Beca was so obviously putting out, says loudly. "What's his master plan? Because the time and geography between the kills suggests hunting and I say that's a bad sign."
"So?" Beca shrugs, aloof. "All we have to do to catch him is to figure out what that plan is and then beat him to the punch."
"Right," Stacie agrees. "Or we can try and take him out first before he even has a chance."
"Uhm, Chloe," Aubrey says, interrupting their brainstorming session. "We should discuss the best way to approach this situation, don't you think?" she eyes the sisters with a little bit of disdain, making Beca almost growl. "If you don't mind going to another room?"
"Or," Beca's smile is borderline evil. "How about this?" she freezes Aubrey and, for the first time since this morning, she's able to breath properly.
"Ohhh," Stacie grins. "I was wondering when that would happen."
"Beca!" Chloe chides. "What are you doing?"
"Getting irritated, Chlo!" Beca snaps. "Who put the blonde dictator in charge?"
"What? She's not in charge!"
"Really?" Beca laughs sarcastically. "Because it sure looks like it! I thought Whitelighters were supposed to guide, not dictate."
"Beca," Chloe sighs heavily for what it feels like the thousandth time that day. "She's just trying to help, okay?"
"Uhm, Chloe, no offense," Stacie intervenes. "But how exactly is she helping when all she does is slow us down and second-guess us?"
"Introducing the concept of caution and organization into the manor isn't a bad idea, guys. Aubrey's considered one of the top Whitelighters up there."
"Oh, I bet they just love her," Beca rolls her eyes. "She's never met a rule she didn't like."
"Chlo, we already have a Whitelighter. The best," Stacie winks and grins up to her soon-to-be sister-in-law. "Besides, it really sucks to work with someone who doesn't trust you."
"You've misread Bree. She's just being cautious because she just lost a charge and she's worried the same thing is gonna happen to you. You can't question her heart," Chloe nods definitely, looking all sincere.
"Okay, how about everything else?" Beca still won't relent.
"I'll talk to her," Chloe eyes her girlfriend and then her friend. "Now please, would you unfreeze her?"
"Ugh," Beca huffs. "Fine. But I'm leaving."
She gets up and leaves for the kitchen, unfortunately being followed closely by Chloe, which just serves to irritate her more. She just wants to go and brood in a corner, she doesn't need her girlfriend's chirpy attitude now.
"Babe, you know that freezing Aubrey won't make her or the Elders happy, don't you?" Chloe starts and it's surprisingly not sounding as chirpy as Beca originally thought it would.
"Well, I'm sorry, but how do you think I feel listening to you two clickety-clack about work when you don't tell me anything?" Beca huffs, crossing her arms in a protective stance. "I mean, she clearly knows things about you that I don't!"
"She's an old friend," Chloe tries to approach Beca, but the brunette just takes a step back.
"Well, obviously," she rolls her eyes in annoyance.
"Oh, come on, you're not jealous, are you? Because there is nothing..."
Beca sighs, dropping her defensiveness and rolling her shoulders, trying to ease the tension. "I'm not jealous of her. I'm jealous of the part of your life she gets to share with you that I don't. You know, like where you go all day, who your other charges are, what it's like up there…"
"I've taken you up there before," Chloe tries to appease.
"Once, and I don't even get to remember it!"
"Becs…"
"Every time I turn around, we seem to be violating some stupid Whitelighter ordinance!"
"We just have to be careful as long as we're under probation."
"Which is never ending," Beca huffs and crosses her arms, well aware it looks like a tantrum but not quite caring at the moment.
"Becs…" Chloe tries to interrupt her girlfriend's avalanche of words, but once Beca got going it was hard to stop her.
"It's just more rules, Chlo! More stupid rules that exclude me, unlike you and Aubrey," Beca's voice drips with disdain, "who literally speak the same language with each other."
"Becs, it's just boring shop talk."
"No, Chlo, they're secrets," Beca says seriously, trying to show her girlfriend she's not being — just — petty and that it's a real issue. "And if there's one thing I learned from being a Bella for so long, is that you don't keep secrets from the people you love."
The heavy silence after Beca's speech is only broken by the back door opening and in entering Jessica, looking as crappy on the outside as Beca feels on the inside.
"Uh, hi?" the blonde says unsure. "Am I interrupting something?"
"Yes."
"No."
The contradictory answers both Beca and Chloe give at the same time just shows how out of loop this whole situation threw them and their relationship. Which just makes Beca feels crappier, if she's being honest.
"O-kay," Jessica says slowly, looking unsure from Beca to Chloe. "Chlo, can I talk to you? Soon?"
"Take a number," Beca grumbles, crossing her arms again.
Chloe sighs, passing a hand through her red locks in frustration. "Maybe later, Jess. Why don't you go into the conservatory and meet Aubrey?"
"Who's Aubrey?"
"She's a —"
"Fellow Whitelighter," Chloe rushes to complete. "See? I finished your sentence."
Beca smiles, unamused. "That's not what I was going to say."
They walk in back the conservatory in time to hear Aubrey and Stacie arguing.
"You're wasting your time. You can't scry for warlocks." Aubrey sounds stressed so Beca is pleased.
"I'm not. I'm scrying for a witch," she can almost see Stacie rolling her eyes and her chest fills with pride. "I'm focusing the crystal on your charge's power, which technically is still alive."
"Hi," Jessica says enthusiastically, trying to take the vibe down a notch, which was her typical easy-going personality. "You must be…"
"Oh!" Stacie exclaims at the crystal points to a spot on the San Francisco map in front of her. "Okay, here we go, I think I found Pieter," she bends to try and get a closer look at the location. "Uh, Industrial District south of San Francisco."
"Warlock?" Jessica frowns. "What's going on?"
"We'll fill you in on the way. Beca! Chloe!"
"Wait!" Aubrey waves her hands trying to get Stacie's attention. "You're not gonna go after him, are you?"
Beca and Chloe enter the conservatory in time to watch the start of the new argument and Jessica having a premonition as she touches the athame.
"What? What did you see?" Beca asks approaching her sister.
"A warlock, I think? Killing a male witch."
"Not if we can help it," Beca nods, already grabbing their things to go out the door. "It's three against one, piece of cake."
"Babe, he can also clone himself," Chloe says with a frown, worrying her bottom lip.
"So, it's two against one. We'll be fine, Chlo."
"People!" Aubrey almost screeches, making them stop. "We're under an alert. You can't go around half-cocked, you need a plan!" she doesn't let Beca talk before she continues. "You must consult with the Elders, find out what they know."
Beca rolls her eyes at this but Aubrey turns to Stacie with a hard expression.
"You wondered what Pieter's ultimate goal was. What if it's to kill the Bellas? Think of the damage he could do with all of your powers."
There's a moment of silence before Stacie sighs. "Alright Aubrey, you got us. Go check with the Elders, we'll go when you come back."
The blonde nods and orbs out, leaving the stunned girls behind.
"Uhm, Stace?" Beca is the first to say something. "What the actual fuck, dude?"
"We're not really waiting, are we?" Jessica reverberates the sentiment.
"No!" Stacie dismisses them with a wave of her hand. "But I had to say something to get rid of her, didn't I?"
Beca laughs out loud. "I knew I loved you for a reason, dude."
"Wait!" Chloe exclaims as she watches the sisters go out the door. "Didn't you hear what she said? Consulting with the Elders is for your own protection."
"And siding with us is for yours," Beca smirks. "You coming?"
She hears her girlfriend sigh, but she also hears her light footsteps coming towards the door.
Beca: 1. Blonde Dictator: 0.
###
Actually, it turns out to be more like Beca: 1, Blonde Dictator: also 1.
Honestly, they couldn't have predicted how bad everything was going to turn out, could they? She was trying really hard to ignore the Chloe-like voice in her head saying that yes, they could have.
They enter back into the Manor just as Aubrey is orbing back in.
"Good, you're still here," she sighs in relief, making Beca roll her eyes. "I consulted the Elders and they want you to hold back. They think the witch Jessica saw might be a force of darkness too."
"Yeah," Stacie shrugs sheepishly. "He was a darklighter."
"How do you know?"
"Hmm…"
"We went. We saw. We didn't quite conquer," Beca says quietly, but unfortunately Aubrey hears her.
And freaks about it, just like she thought the blonde would, "What?!" the Whitelighter shrieks. "Chloe, how could you let this happen?"
"Hey, it wasn't Chloe's decision, it was ours!" Beca jumps to defend her girlfriend.
"Oh, so you'll take responsibility for a decision, but not for your lives?" Aubrey gestures wildly towards them. "That warlock could have killed you!"
"Aubrey, calm down, he wasn't after us," Stacie tries to argue.
"That makes you lucky, not smart, Stacie," Aubrey says in a low tone. "You were reckless. As the Bellas, you have an obligation to serve the greater good. You have a higher calling!"
"And so do we," Chloe interrupts the fight. "They're calling us, Bree."
"I think we both better go up this time, Chlo," Aubrey says seriously.
"Lay low until we're back, 'kay?" Chloe turns to Beca, looking at the brunette pleadingly. "I promise we won't be long."
"Fine," Beca rolls her eyes, grumpily, and before she has a chance to kiss her girlfriend goodbye, Aubrey grabs her by the hand and they orb away.
"What's with the hand holding thing?"
"That's the least of our problems, Beca," Jessica says. "We have to concentrate on finding and vanquishing Pieter, okay?"
"Yeah, and we can't count on scrying to locate him because it just could be his clone again." Stacie agrees. "I still think we need to decode his master plan and then that way we can figure him out."
"I'll take book duty." Jessica volunteers.
"I'll do a flow chart, see where all this is leading," Stacie says, with nerdy excitement.
"I'll help," Beca reluctantly says. "Anything to get rid of her."
"You mean him." Stacie looks at her, confused.
"Nah," Beca nods furiously. "I mean her."
"Oh."
###
Stacie eyes Beca's angry writing on the whiteboard with an increasingly deep frown gracing her features, something the tiny brunette doesn't care about as she vents all of her pent up frustration on an innocent piece of furniture.
"Are you this nervous over Aubrey or over the fact the Elders still haven't said anything about you and Chloe getting married?"
"Stace…"
"Because you don't need to worry about either, you know," the taller brunette says, placing a steady hand on Beca's shoulder to try and ease her tension. "Aubrey's kinda cool, she's just stressed about the whole thing that happened with her charge."
Beca found that hard to believe but then again she always laid on the more pessimistic side of things while her sisters tended to do the exact opposite.
"What about… them?" she gestures vaguely towards the ceiling, having given up on writing the board.
"They're just being assholes," Stacie shrugs, making Beca chuckle at her brutal honesty. "Which is nothing you can't handle, Becs."
"I know, it's just…"
They hear a scream and run out of the attic in time to see Chloe doubled over in pain.
"Chlo!" Beca rushes to her side. "Chlo, what's happening?"
"I don't know," Chloe grunts out. "Feels like a witch is being hurt, I can feel her pain," the redhead whimpers in pain again and Beca hates feeling this helpless. "She needs help."
"Why isn't her Whitelighter helping her?" Becs asks, annoyed.
"I don't know, but I have to get to her," Chloe starts to orb out when Stacie reaches out to stop her.
"No, Chloe, wait!" the tall brunette says. "I just realised, how could we have missed it? The only reason Pieter would have killed a Darklighter is so that he can use the crossbow to kill a Whitelighter."
"She's right, Chlo, it's a trap," Aubrey says, having just orbed in. "Apparently his master plan," she looks over at Stacie. "Is to gain the power to orb up there, kill all the Whitelighters and leave the witches unprotected."
"The Elders have instituted a lockdown and recalled all Whitelighters from Earth," Aubrey continues. "Chloe and I are the only ones who have retained the power to orb so we can help you stop Pieter."
"Must be why I feel her pain," Chloe groans out, still leaning heavily on Beca. "If you could only feel it."
"I feel it," Aubrey says with coolness and Beca almost decks her in the face right then and there. "But I won't be ruled by it. A Whitelighter who's controlled by their emotions is useless. The greater good must come first."
There's a pause in which Beca seriously ponders to pros and cons of hurting a Whitelighter when Chloe slips out of her grasp and stumbles down the rest of the stairs they're standing on, doubled over in pain, crying out.
"He…" she gasps. "He killed her."
Beca feels like hurting Aubrey right now would be totally and completely justifiable.
###
The sisters are in the kitchen with Jessica making some coffee when their somber silence is finally broken.
"I can't believe Aubrey just let her die like that, we should have done something!" she grumbles.
"Like what?" Beca sighs, sipping her coffee bitterly.
"I don't know, something."
"Yeah, well, we need to figure out a way to stop Pieter before he kills again. We should be working on a vanquishing spell," Stacie mumbles, eyeing their potions cabinets as if looking for something to help.
"It's gonna be a tricky spell, though. We have to counteract a lot of powers."
"Plus, we need to do it fast, 'cause I don't like my girlfriend being one of the only two targets on Earth," Beca's scowl only deepens as Chloe and Aubrey walk into the kitchen together.
"Good! We'd like to speak to you, Chloe," Jessica says cheerily.
"If you don't mind going to another room," Beca added on, looking at Aubrey with a smirk on her face.
She loves using people's own words against them.
"If it's work related, you can talk to me," Aubrey fixes them — Beca — with her best glare.
"What? Why?"
"Chloe?" Beca looks over at her girlfriend, who's awfully quiet during the whole ordeal.
"I've asked Aubrey to take over as your Whitelighter and she agreed," Chloe says sheepishly, looking over at her girlfriend with bright, sorrowful eyes.
"What?!"
"Girls, nothing is more important to me than your safety, and my being here is putting all of your lives at risk!" the redhead tries to argue.
"Chlo, you've done nothing but protect us!" Beca's baffled at her girlfriend's words.
"Babe, you saw what happened upstairs. I would have rushed off to help that witch if Stacie hadn't stopped me! I'm supposed to be guiding you, and instead you're guiding me," Chloe walked over to Beca, whose stance said she was ready to fight.
"Chloe, we all make mistakes," the brunette stresses, looking pleadingly at the other girl.
"We can't afford to make them now, Becs," the redhead whispers, kissing her girlfriend softly on the forehead and hugging her tightly.
"Aubrey's right, my feelings for you guys are clouding my ability to guide the Bellas. And this is no time for self-doubt, not with Peter out there."
"Becs," Chloe turns to Beca. "They want me to join in the lockdown. Until I return, I want you to do as Aubrey asks, okay? It's important for us."
Beca rolls her eyes, but nods, agreeing anyways; it's not like there's anything she can do to fix this situation.
"I love you," Chloe places another kiss to her forehead and a harder, lingering one on her lips before orbing out.
Beca and Aubrey level each other out with matching scowls. This is not going to be fun.
###
Aubrey runs them to the ground. Between "no more braless, strapless, fearless attires," "split-second timing and flawless teamwork," and "let's pretend I'm the enemy," Beca is sure that ruining her chances of ever getting the Elders blessing to marry Chloe is better than having to endure this. It had to be.
But they were doing it anyways.
"Hey, if we don't get to vanquish Pieter, can we at least vanquish Aubrey?" Jessica asks later when they're all back at the house working on a spell.
"Don't tempt me," Beca grumbles, eyeing her part one last time to make sure was okay.
"Alright, I've got the cloning portion of the vanquishing spell done," Stacie exclaims proudly, shaking a napkin at their direction.
"I'm almost there with the transmogrification."
"Mine came out a little country western," Jessica frowns. "I'm rejectin' your deflection."
"Well, it works for me, but you have to get it past General Blondie over there."
"You know, Chloe never had to approve our spells. She trusted us."
"Yeah, but Aubrey said that she needs to hear it," Beca rolls her eyes. "I don't like it any better than you do."
"You know what? What she needs, none of us can give her, alright?"
"I'd gladly give it to her," Stacie sighs dreamily, eyeing the Whitelighter in the armchair nearby with a smirk on her face.
"Okay!" Beca exclaims loudly, trying fiercely to get that image out of her head. "Let's get focused on bringing Chloe back safely, okay? Then we can take Stacie to get her head examined."
"Hey!"
"How's the spell coming along?" Aubrey comes over, interrupting their banter.
"Here you go," Stacie hands her their papers.
"Okay, let's nail this warlock," Aubrey nods in approval.
"Alright, I'll start scrying for his location."
"No need. I've been working on a new plan, one that will allow us to fight on our turf, not his."
"Make him come to us? How?" Beca asks, frowning as Aubrey avoids eye contact.
She's pretty sure she wasn't going to like her answer.
"What he wants is what you've got," Aubrey says evasively.
"You're gonna use yourself as bait," Stacie narrows her eyes, accusingly.
"If I orb in somewhere unprotected, Pieter should be able to track me with his Darklighter powers. With the three of you in position, as soon as he shows up, I orb out and the advantage is all ours," Aubrey explains nonchalantly.
"Nu-uh, nope. I can't let you do that," Beca wholeheartedly disagrees. "It's too fucking dangerous, dude!"
"I appreciate your concern."
"My concern is not for you," Beca says menacingly, amending when she feels Stacie elbowing her gut. "At least not just for you. My concern is if you fail…"
"I won't fail," Aubrey replies sharply. "I've gone over every permutation. So long as we follow the rules, we'll succeed."
Beca sighs and rolls her eyes, seeing that there is no arguing once again; but she can't shake off the bad feeling she has about this.
###
Stacie, Beca and Jessica are in the dark, behind some bushes at the park where the witch had been killed earlier, waiting for Aubrey to orb in so they can execute their plan.
As she does, Pieter immediately blinks in as well.
"Now!"
Pieter tries to shoot Aubrey with the crossbow but she orbs out and Stacie uses her power to knock the bow out of his hands, making him disappear.
"Clone!" Jessica yells out.
"Alright, be ready with the spell, he could be anywhere. Get the crossbow!" Beca rushes over and grabs the crossbow, but the feeling in her gut still won't go away.
"Wait, where is he? Why isn't he fighting back?" Jessica ends up voicing her concerns.
"This was way too easy," Beca agrees. "And fucking anticlimactic. I don't like this."
"Neither do I, but we did what we came here to do, Becs," Stacie sighs, looking around for signs of danger. "And we better get back soon."
The feeling in Beca's gut only got worse as she picked up the crossbow and they went back to the Manor.
###
"Did you get it?"
"We got it," Beca hands Aubrey the crossbow. "But we didn't get Pieter."
"That's okay, he wasn't out primary goal. You've done well," the blonde Whitelighter nods.
"I don't know, we think he gave up too easily," Stacie looks over at Aubrey. "What are we going to do now?"
"I'll bring this up there and the Elders will take care of it."
"Uh, does that mean we get Chloe back?" Beca asks eagerly.
"That's not my decision to make," for the first time Aubrey actually did look apologetically but it didn't diminish the frown on Beca's face.
She wants to see for herself that her girlfriend was okay, damn it!
As Aubrey starts to orb out, Jessica yells and grabs her arm, "NO, WAIT!"
"What the hell, dude?"
"The crossbow!" Jessica points to it just as it starts transforming into Pieter, with an evil smirk on his face.
He grabs Aubrey and Stacie tries to use her power on him and he deflects it, sending her flying. Beca tries to freeze him and he deflects it again, sending her to the floor.
"She was right," the warlock says with his obnoxious german accent. "Way too easy."
He stabs Aubrey with the poisonous arrow and Beca yells out a "No!" before trying to freeze him again, to no avail; Pieter had already blinked away.
She knew she should have trusted her gut.
###
"We followed the stupid rules and look what happened!" Stacie grumbles after they move a pass out Aubrey to the couch.
"I hate rules!" Jessica agrees.
"I knew something was wrong. Why didn't I trust my instincts?" Beca passes her hand stressfully through her hair.
They need a plan.
"None of us did Becs, but now we need to find a way to fix this!" Stacie mops Aubrey's damp forehead with a washcloth.
It feels oddly familiar.
"I am going to now. Chloe!" the brunette starts yelling up. "Chloe!"
"Chloe!"
Chloe orbs in and Beca could almost cry out of relief.
"Okay, look! We-we did everything she asked, I swear!" she almost does cry out in relief when her girlfriend walks over and hug her.
"I know, babe, I know. I was watching," the redhead sighs. "And right now, I need you to come up with a new plan, fast."
"Hey, hi, hate to interrupt this lovely reunion but a little healing over here would be nice?" Stacie gestures towards Aubrey.
As Chloe kneels down next to the couch, Beca exclaims, "Wait!" halting everyone.
"Seriously?!" Stacie looks at her in aggravation.
"Becs…"
"No, listen, I have a plan," Beca starts explaining. "The poison works out slowly, right? But Pieter is getting antsy. So as soon as he feels just a tiny little bit of Whitelighter-y in him, he's gonna want orb up there and finish what he started, right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"We have at least half a night for the poison to work off completely but it shouldn't take him more than an hour to try and finish off his plan," she finishes, hoping they'd catch on.
"So you want us to…?" Beca sees understanding wash over Chloe's face and nods eagerly.
"Uh-huh."
"And you really think Bree can hold on until…?"
"Well, it happened to you, didn't it?"
"Will someone explain what the hell is going on here?" Stacie crosses her arms and looks sternly over to her little sister and future sister-in-law. "Because it sounds suspiciously like…"
"Do it."
The faint whisper came from the couch and they all looked over to see a struggling Aubrey looking the most serious she had all day.
"Bree, are you sure?" Chloe still looks terribly uneasy.
The blonde just nods, still struggling.
"Then let's do this."
###
Heaven is not at all what Beca expects.
And, okay, Chloe had taken her up here once, but she didn't get to remember it so it didn't really count. But this?
This was much better. It's even better when they vanquish Pieter not only with the same poisonous arrow he used on Aubrey but also with their very flashy and effective spell.
Nothing anticlimactic about that. Especially when Aubrey and Chloe make their way over to them.
"You've made your Whitelighter proud," the redhead beams at them.
"Well, it was all thanks to split-second timing and flawless teamwork, am I right?" Stacie winks at Aubrey, making the blonde blush and giggle.
Which is odd to Beca since all she's seen from the woman is frowning and scowls and harsh orders. But, oh well. Apparently Stacie really does have a way with people.
"So, Aubrey, I didn't think you would have been too keen on us orbing up here," Jessica comments, breaking off Stacie and Aubrey's eye sex.
"Which is why we have to get out of here before we all get in trouble," Chloe urges them, grabbing both Beca's and Jessica's hands to orb them out.
"Oh, come on!"
"We're going!"
###
Later that day, the girls are all out at a bar, listening to some good music and having fun, unwinding from such an eventful day.
Or, Jessica was trying to have some fun, going to the bar to grab them some drinks as Stacie stays with Beca in a more secluded lounge area, trying to relax her little sister to help her avoid having a heart attack.
"Oh, my God, Becs, would you relax?" Stacie snaps as she watches Beca nervously tap her foot along with the beat of the song playing over the stereo.
"How, how, how can I relax, Stace, they've been gone for hours!" Beca snaps back, switching to nervously chewing on the end of her straw when Jessica brought back their drinks. "Aren't you nervous? They're deciding your fate too!"
"Yeah and you don't see me about to tear up a whole to this floor now, do you?"
Stacie opens her mouth to retort but Jessica interrupts them.
"Hey guys, look!"
They all look over to the bar's entrance to see Chloe and Aubrey walking in and over to them.
"Oh, my God, what took so long? What happened?" Beca gets up as soon they come close.
"Are you always this dramatic?" Aubrey asks, smirking when all she got was an eyeroll.
"I have some news!" Chloe exclaims excitedly, a smile on her face that did little to diminish Beca's nervousness.
"Okay."
"Well, obviously, they found out that you've been up there, so they decided to review the facts of the whole situation. And…"
"And…?"
"They unanimously decided to lift probation!" Chloe exclaims happily, hugging a stunned Beca.
"What?"
"Becs, we're officially engaged!"
Beca is so ecstatic she barely even feels her sisters excited squeals and hugs. Not that she cares. She will get to spend the rest of her life being married to Chloe Beale.