Prologue: Sparks'll Fly
Have you ever wondered how your life would be if it wasn't the way it is now? If maybe things had been just a little different. Would you be the same person you are today if you had been an only child instead of having siblings? Would you be the same if you have brothers rather than sisters, or sisters rather than brothers? Would you be the same if your grandparents had raised you instead of your parents, or if your parents had raised you instead of your grandparents? If you and your siblings were so close it was amazing, or if you hated each other so much it was scary? Would you have the same character, morals, dreams, and goals if everything had been different?
This story is about what could have been and what could have gone wrong, or maybe what could have turned out perfectly. In this story the Charmed Ones are still the Charmed Ones, but they aren't alone. They have three brothers, one born between each sister. They boys have no powers. The Charmed Ones and their brothers are all still young.
Patty is raising her six children with Victor by her side. Penny visits quite often, but does not live in the Manor. The attic was turned into a bedroom, with a corner sectioned off for the book. The basement was also converted into a bedroom. The girls share the attic, and the boys share the basement.
The question is: 'Do these siblings get along? If they don't, can they? What will it take to bring this family together? Or do they enjoy the 'fun' in dysfunctional a little too much?'
Ages:
Prue – 17
Patrick – 16
Piper – 15
Parker – 14 (I used Parker in another story as the name of Melinda's husband, but it's one of the few male names that begin with P that I like, so I used it again.)
Phoebe – 13
Preston – 12
"Psst!" She hissed at her sister. "Wake up!"
Slowly her sister rolled onto her back and looked up at her.
"What do you want, Prue?" She whined, glancing at their alarm clock, which read 1:08 AM.
"I need your help." She said.
"Why mine? Why not Phoebe's?" She groaned.
"Hers too." Prue added. "I asked you first cause your bed is closer to mine."
Piper frowned. "I wonder why." She muttered, kicking off her blankets, and crawling out of the bunk bed she shared with Prue; Prue's bunk being on top. Phoebe's bed was only a few feet from theirs.
They quietly made their way to their little sister's bed, and then they shook her. Phoebe usually slept like a log, but since the recent feud began she was the easiest of the three to wake. Phoebe jumped and then calmed after seeing it was her sisters waking her. She released her hold on the can of shaving cream she had hidden underneath her pillow, and sat up to face her older sisters.
"What's going on?" She asked Piper.
Piper shrugged. "She hasn't said yet."
Phoebe looked over at Prue in shock. Prue didn't usually do the kinds of things that Phoebe was nearly certain Prue was about to ask them to do.
"Look, I need your help this time." Prue said.
'This time?' Phoebe wondered. 'There had been other times?'
"With what, Prue?" Piper asked, hopping onto the bed next to Phoebe.
Prue crawled onto the bed with them after checking to make sure the attic/their bedroom door was closed.
"Patrick must pay." Prue hissed.
Phoebe glanced at Piper and the two both grinned evilly. Prue had henceforth banned them from getting back at their brothers. She didn't want the three of them sinking to their brothers' level of immaturity. Piper and Phoebe didn't much care about maturity; they just wanted to conspire against their brothers. They were getting really good at getting back at them too, and Prue was even really good when she wanted to be.
"How? Why? When?" Phoebe blurted out.
"We'll come up with the how together. The when will depend on the how, but I know the why." Prue looked from one sister to the next. "We…" She paused to let the emphasis on the word sink in. "We will win this feud."
Phoebe and Piper smiled at one another, plans already forming in their little heads. Prue interrupted their thoughts and plans.
"Patrick will get what's coming to him, but we aren't leaving out Parker or Preston. They get theirs too."
Phoebe and Piper smiled even bigger and immediately began suggesting things to Prue. Once again Prue interrupted them.
"Here are some reminders: always check your bed before getting into it, never eat anything they offer you – we don't know what they've done to it, and never do anything to seriously injure them."
Piper and Phoebe both nodded in agreement and understanding.
"Oh, but we can't do anything tonight because Mom is still awake downstairs." Prue remembered with a sigh.
"Why hasn't she gone to sleep?" Phoebe asked.
"Grams called about something, so she's been on book duty." Prue answered with a slight yawn.
"What time did you get home?" Piper asked, leaning back against the headboard.
"The seven o'clock showing of the movie was sold out, so I called Mom, and Andy and I stayed and saw the nine o'clock showing instead. But I've been home for about half an hour maybe."
"Did she mention anything about why Grams called?" Piper asked.
"No, she just said to keep our eyes open and stay aware of everything."
"That shouldn't be too hard to do." Phoebe said with a chuckle.
"Especially since Patrick started all this." Piper added, referring to the feud.
Phoebe leaned back against Piper and yawned. Piper put an arm around her sister and also yawned; Prue covered her mouth with her hand and looked away.
"Stop that!" She muttered mid-yawn. "You're making me sleepy."
There was a quick and quiet knock on the door. Prue gave her sisters the 'uh-oh' look; they were all supposed to be in bed. Prue and Piper got up to run to their bed but the door opened first and in came Preston. Prue and Piper relaxed and fell back onto Phoebe's bed.
"What do you want?" Phoebe asked her little brother.
"Mom wants us all downstairs." He answered in a snooty tone of voice. Phoebe stuck her tongue out at him.
"We'll be down in a second." Piper told him.
Preston shrugged, muttered a 'whatever', and shut the door behind him on his way down to the Parlor.
"Brat." Phoebe muttered under her breath, crawling out of her bed. Prue followed, pulling Piper up as well.
"What now?" She whined as Prue pulled her off the comfortable bed.
The trio made their way downstairs to the Parlor. Patrick, Parker, and Preston were lined up at one end of the room, so Prue, Piper, and Phoebe lined up at the opposite end.
"Please, take a seat." Patty said, rubbing her forehead.
The boys jumped onto the couch, leaving one chair for the girls. Prue sat down. Piper squeezed in beside her, and then Phoebe sat down on their laps. Patty looked the six over for a moment.
"Grams called earlier." Patty announced.
The boys all looked curious, but the girls had already been informed of this because of Prue.
"What'd she have to say?" Patrick asked.
"We have a problem." Patty sighed.
"What kind of problem?" Phoebe asked.
"The Manor is…well in a manner it's being staked out. We're being watched." She told them. "Your father went with Grams back to her place to get some supplies that we need."
"And?" Prue prompted.
"The reason this is so different from the other attacks is because this time…" Patty's voice trailed off.
"What?" Parker urged.
"This time they're after you six." She explained with a look of dread crossing her face.
Piper instinctively wrapped her arms around Phoebe in a protective gesture. Prue did the same, draping an arm around Piper's shoulder and setting her other hand on Phoebe's knee. Phoebe leaned into Piper and laid her own hand over Prue's.
Patrick's jaw tightened and his expression turned serious. Parker's eyes were darting around – no doubt trying to find possible escape routes should they be needed in the future. Preston sank back into against the couch, glancing at his older brothers and sisters.
"We've had warlocks and demons come after us before and we've dealt just fine." Piper said. "Why is this so different?"
"Patrick, Parker, and Preston can't protect themselves. They don't have powers like you do." Patty said, looking at the girls.
"So, we'll take care of them." Phoebe said as though it was perfectly clear what they would do. "We've done it before."
"And what if you're separated when they attack? What happens to them then?" Patty asked, hands on hips. She got no answer, so she went on. "Grams and I thought up a solution, but it requires your cooperation." She said, once again focusing on the girls.
"What kind of solution?" Prue asked.
"Well," Patty hesitated with a glance at the boys, who were all grinning wildly. "You would have to share your powers with your brothers."
"What?" Phoebe screamed, jumping off of her sisters' laps. "We have to share everything with them and now the one thing that we have that is special to us – you want us to give to them too?"
"Phoebe…"
"No! I can't believe this!" Phoebe cut her mother's words off. "This is all I have that is mine and mine alone! It's the one thing I own that can't be taken away – and you're practically asking me to hand it over on a silver platter?"
"Phoebe…" This time Piper was the voice of reason.
"No, Piper." Phoebe whined, looking to her sisters for their support.
"How long?" Prue asked.
"Not very, but you'd have to teach them to use your powers." Patty answered.
"I don't want one." Preston spoke up.
"What?" Prue and Patty asked as one.
"Phoebe's stupid power won't help protect me." He said.
"You don't know that!" Phoebe argued. "I've helped protect plenty of people!"
Piper took Phoebe's hand and pulled her back onto her and Prue's lap. Phoebe stopped arguing and leaned back into Piper's arms.
"If you want to do this then all three powers are required, Preston, they each do their own job." Patty explained.
"No." Preston simply said.
"We're going to go down to our room and discuss this." Parker said strictly, leading his brothers to the basement.
"Come get us when they're done." Prue told Patty.
Prue playfully shoved Phoebe off her lap and followed her and Piper to their room up in the attic. There was one certain corner in the attic where the girls had made a pile of pillow and plugged their television up against the wall, so they could lay on the pillows and watch movies together. Prue headed for that corner. She dropped onto the pillows with a sigh. Piper crawled up beside her and laid her head on Prue's stomach. Phoebe plopped down in front of them.
"I don't want to, Prue." Phoebe began. "We've done just fine keeping them safe without giving them our powers so far.
"I know you don't want to give Preston your power, Phoebe. I don't really like the thought of Patrick having mine." Prue said. "But if Mom and Grams think we should do this, well, then maybe things are worse than they're letting on."
"Pheebs, it's out job to protect the innocent, maybe they're supposed to be the innocents this time." Piper said.
"Piper, you don't understand." Phoebe sighed. "I have to share everything, anything I get is a hand-me-down, and I just want to have something all to myself. My power is mine, it's a part of me, and if I just give it away then I'm losing a piece of myself."
"Phoebe—"
"Prue," Phoebe interrupted. "I'm sick of everything being taken away. If they take this then I won't have anything left that they can't take away."
Piper sat up and took Phoebe's hands in her own.
"Sweetie, that's not true." Piper said gently. "You'll always have something that can never be taken."
Phoebe narrowed her eyes and looked at her sister curiously.
"Like what?"
"Like your love." Piper told her. "No one can ever take that from you. Only you can decide whether or not you want to share that."
Phoebe sighed and looked down at Piper's hands cupped around her own.
"Phoebe you were born with your power, so it'll always be a part of you. You're only sharing it temporarily, not giving it away permanently." Prue said.
"To save lives…" Phoebe muttered.
"Right, Pheebs, to save their lives." Prue confirmed with a smile.
"Fine." Phoebe said with no enthusiasm. "I'll do it."
Piper pulled Phoebe over between her and Prue and hugged her. Prue jumped in on the hug.
"Don't leave me out." She whined.
Phoebe pulled away first and looked at Prue.
"Do you think it will hurt?"
"I don't know." Prue answered.
They had all moved over to Piper's bunk when there was a knock on the door. Prue, who was nearly asleep, jumped almost a foot off of the bed. Patty pushed open the door and stuck her head in.
"The boys worked everything out; they're ready if you're willing to cast the spell." She told them.
"We'll do it." Piper said.
"But only because we have to." Phoebe added.
Prue, Piper, and Phoebe followed Patty downstairs to the Parlor where Patrick, Parker, and Preston were waiting. The girls weren't aware that their father and Grams were in the room until they took their seats in the chair they had earlier.
"Prudence, please come here."
Once again, Prue jumped, this time startled by her grams.
"Grams, I didn't see you!" Prue said, catching her breath.
"I didn't mean to startle you." She smiled. "Please come here for a moment."
Prue walked over to where Penny was sitting. Penny held out a bottle and Prue took it.
"What is it?" Prue asked, looking the bottle over.
"You'll each have to drink from that after reading the spell. It's a potion to help your powers split."
Prue nodded and returned to the chairs, Phoebe set back on her lap with her legs across Piper's lap.
"Here's what we'll do," Patty began. "We'll go into the attic and find a place where the six of you can sit in a circle; Prue by Patrick, Piper by Parker, and Phoebe by Preston. You'll say the spell and then Prue will take a sip of the potion and pass it on to each of you. Once you've each had a drink you'll say 'So Mote It Be' to finish up. I know 'So Mote It Be' isn't very original but it works."
"Let's just get this done with." Preston muttered and left the room, heading for the attic.
The others followed him up to the attic. He was already sitting in the middle of the floor. Piper cast a glance at Prue. Prue recognized the look as worry and gave a reassuring smile in response. Phoebe thumped herself down on the floor beside her brother. Victor leaned closer to Patty.
"Will this hurt them?" He whispered.
"No, Victor, this shouldn't be painful at all." Patty said.
Parker sat down next to Phoebe, Piper next to Parker, Patrick next to Piper, and finally Prue next to Patrick.
"Read this." Penny said, handing each of her granddaughters a copy of the spell.
Prue, Piper, and Phoebe each took the slips of paper handed to them. They glanced at each other in hesitation and finally began to recite the words on the paper.
"In this night and in this hour,"
They paused to look up at each other and everyone else.
"We split in two, our birth given powers."
Prue glanced over at Piper and then at Phoebe, before reading her part and doing as she had been directed. She took a sip of the potion and gave it to Patrick.
"With strength and protection," Prue recited as Patrick drank. He handed the bottle to Piper and she took a sip.
"With concern and reason," She recited, watching Parker drink. He handed the bottle to Phoebe and she took a sip.
"With spirit and courage," Phoebe recited, pushing the bottle roughly into Preston's hands.
He glanced at the bottle and the looked up. The glares of everyone in the room forced him to take his sip. Prue took the bottle from him and sat it in the middle of the circle.
"With the power of three." The girls read together.
Penny handed Prue a hammer. Prue once again glanced at her sisters, and then brought the hammer down on the bottle, shattering it. Once that was done they finished off the spell.
"So mote it be." They recited as one.
Piper turned her hands up with a shrug after a long silence. "Did it work?"
"Beats me." Prue said, also shrugging.
"Well, you girls should get some sleep." Penny said, ushering the boys out of the room. "Same for you boys." She turned back towards the girls. "Goodnight, my darlings." She turned to go and then looked back one last time. "Oh, and mind the glass, I don't want any bad cuts."
Patrick, Parker, and Preston glanced at one another.
"But did—"
"No buts, Parker. Get down to bed."
The three boys sighed, rolling their eyes, and went downstairs, followed by Penny. Patty kissed each of her girls on the forehead, wishing them a goodnight. Victor followed up with a hug for each, and then he and Patty went down to their room, leaving Prue, Piper, and Phoebe standing in the middle of the attic, wondering what they just did.
"Prue?"
"Don't ask me, Pheebs."
"Do you feel different?"
"Not really, Piper. Do you?"
"Nope. Pheebs?"
"I feel the same."
"Maybe you have to wait awhile for it to kick in?" Piper suggested in question.
"Who knows?" Prue asked. "I guess we really should get some sleep though."
"But—" Phoebe came up short on words and just pointed at the door instead.
"They obviously don't want to tell us anything tonight." Piper said, crawling into her bunk. "Else they wouldn't have left so fast."
Prue nodded in agreement as she climbed the ladder to her own bunk. Phoebe sighed and went to her bed. She slipped under the covers and stared up at the ceiling. A few minutes later Piper spoke up.
"Prue, are you sure we did the right thing?"
"I sure hope so." Prue answered. "I know it all seems weird now, but if Mom and Grams told us to do it, then it couldn't be bad."
"I hope you're right." Phoebe said.
"So do I." Prue muttered, rolling onto her side. "Goodnight, you two."
"Night, Prue." Piper said.
"Night." Phoebe chimed.
The next morning Piper was first to wake up, as usual. She crawled out of her bed quietly and made her way down to the kitchen. No one else in the house was awake, so she got out the milk and eggs and started to cook herself and her sisters some breakfast. Normally she would make her brothers' food as well, but not since the feud they started.
Piper poured herself a fresh cup of coffee when all the food was cooked and on the table. Even though her mother had told her she was too young to drink coffee she always did. She loved her morning cup, and she didn't think she was too young. She figured she'd finish her coffee before anyone came down, but with her luck the moment she sat down to eat her mother came dragging herself into the room. She paused long enough to acknowledge the food already on the table, and then she moved on to the coffee pot. She poured herself a cup and sat down beside Piper.
"I thought I said no coffee for you?"
"You did." Piper confirmed with a sip.
"Pass the sugar?"
Piper smiled and passed over the sugar jar. Patty put the sugar into her coffee and started piling food onto her plate.
"Thank you for not making me cook this morning." Patty sighed.
"No problem." Piper said. "I was up and hungry so…oh, but the boys have to make their own."
"Fine with me. Victor can cook theirs." Patty smiled. "Although, I must say I prefer your cooking to his."
Piper watched her mother fix her plate, quietly sipping at her coffee. Patty finished fixing her plate and looked up at her daughter. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Piper sideways.
"Question?" She asked, moving her eggs around on her plate with her fork.
Piper nodded. "About last night,"
"So ask it."
"After the spell Grams rushed everyone off to bed. Prue, Pheebs, and I were wondering what happened."
"You cast a spell to split your powers into two bodies of magic and gave your brothers the power to protect themselves." Patty explained, taking a bite of her french toast.
"But did it work?" Piper asked.
Patty looked down into her mug. "We don't know yet."
"When will we know?" Piper asked.
"When they use one of your powers," Patty answered. "I don't know how else we'll know for sure."
"How long will this last if they really do have our powers now?"
"Piper, you said the spell to give them your powers. There is no time limit on the spell. You'll all have to say a spell to get your powers back from them." Patty informed her.
"What?" Piper asked, slightly shocked. "What… well, what if they don't want to give them back to us? Are you saying they could just keep them?"
"They will give them back." Patty replied confidently.
"How can you be so sure?" Piper asked. "They might get attached to our powers, and then they won't want to give them back."
"Piper, trust me, the boys will give them back when this is all over."
Piper sighed and the finished off her coffee.
"Now go upstairs and wake up your sisters." Patty ordered, consuming a mouthful of eggs.
Piper got up and set her mug in the sink. "It's eight in the morning, and on a Saturday."
"They'll need to be up soon."
"We were up very late last night." Piper reminded her mother.
"Yet you're still up with breakfast waiting on the table." Patty said, acting amazed.
"Phoebe had a bad dream around five and I calmed her down. She didn't wake up, but the whining stopped." Piper explained. "I sat with her awhile, but then I couldn't get back to sleep, so I came to make breakfast."
"That was very sweet of you." Patty smiled.
"She's my sister, what would you expect?" Piper asked, as she pushed the kitchen door open and headed for the attic.
Phoebe was just beginning to wake up when Piper sat down on the edge of her bed. Phoebe stretched out, using full advantage of the big bed, and then she smiled at Piper.
"Mom wants us to get up." Piper told her.
"What for?" Phoebe asked with a yawn.
"I don't know. She just said you and Prue would need to be up soon." Piper told her. "She asked me to wake you up."
"Well, guess I won't be going back to sleep then, huh?" Phoebe asked, smiling.
"I guess not." Piper said, looking over at the bunk bed that she and Prue shared. "Well go get your shower out of the way, so there'll be a little warm water for Prue."
Phoebe nodded, went to her dresser, pulled out some clothes, and then went off to take a shower, and eat breakfast. Piper moved on to the bunk bed and climbed the ladder till she could reach Prue. She grabbed her leg and shook.
"What?" Prue muttered, kicking Piper's hand away.
"Time to get up."
"No, it isn't." Prue said. "Come back in, like four hours, that'll be time to get up."
Piper reached up and yanked the blankets off.
"Hey!"
"Time to get up, I said."
"Fine." Prue sighed.
She stretched out and then pushed Piper down the ladder. Piper jumped down, and Prue climbed down. She sat down on her sister's bunk and looked up at Piper.
"Why?" She whined.
"Mom wants us up." Piper explained.
Prue's face lightened up. "Did the spell work?"
"She doesn't know yet." Piper shrugged. "One of them has to use one of our powers for us to know."
"I'm hungry."
"Breakfast is on the table waiting on you. That is if the boys didn't wake up and eat it all." Piper said.
Prue got up and hugged Piper. "Thank you! I'm starved." She pulled away and headed downstairs.
"All in a day's work." Piper muttered as she followed Prue downstairs.
When Piper came downstairs Prue was already at the table eating and Penny was there. Piper sat down at the table next to Prue and looked at her mother. Patty smiled and looked over at Penny.
"Grams? What are you doing here?" Piper asked.
"What? I'm not allowed to visit anymore?" Penny asked.
"Well, yeah, that's not what I meant." Piper said. "It's just that it's early and you don't usually come over this early."
"Well here I am now." Penny smiled. "Now, run and get me a cup of coffee, would you dear?"
Piper opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. On her way to the coffee pot she muttered, "What am I? Little miss waitress? Geez." She poured the coffee and went back, handing it to Penny. "There you are, ma'am. Would you like anything else? Bob can cook up a mean steak." Piper said sarcastically, pretending to dry her hands on an apron around her waist.
Penny glared at Piper for a moment. "A bit cranky are we?"
"Just a bit." Piper answered, sitting down.
"So, why are we getting up so early?" Prue asked. "I feel like I've only slept for five minutes."
Just as Prue finished her question Phoebe came bouncing into the room. She sat down at the table and reached for a plate.
"Good morning!" She chirped. "Pass me the pancakes please!"
Prue picked up the plate to hand to Phoebe and then inhaled sharply and dropped the plate. Phoebe and Piper both jumped at the clanking. Penny and Patty glanced at each other.
"Are you okay, Prue?" Phoebe asked.
"I just…" Prue cleared her throat to try again. "I just…I had a…I mean I saw…I had a flash…a vision."
"What?" Piper asked.
"How? That's my power." Phoebe said, standing up.
"What's up?" Preston asked, coming into the room. He opened a few cabinets looking for his cereal. His arm hit a glass sitting on the counter and knocked it towards the floor.
"Preston!" Phoebe shouted and spun in time to see the glass. She brought her hands up to cover her mouth and the glass stopped in mid-air.
"How did—" Piper launched out of her seat and made her way to the glass, glancing back at Phoebe every two steps. She pointed at the glass and stomped her foot. "I want answers!"
"Don't raise your voice, sweetie." Patty said calmly.
"To hell with my voice, what's going on?" Piper demanded in a loud voice.
"Piper!" Patty said, standing up with her hands on her hips.
"Mom, what is going on?" Prue asked, glancing at her sisters.
Patty sighed and dropped her hands to her side. "The spell may not have worked exactly like it should have."
"MOM!" A voice screamed from downstairs.
A few seconds later Parker came bursting into the kitchen. He stopped to acknowledge all the other people in the room. He also gave Prue a wicked grin.
"Mom! Look!" He said, then he waved his hand in the air and a chair slid away from the table, and Prue jumped out of hers, pointing her finger at him.
"The squirt has my power? That's not fair!" Prue said. "I have an inactive power and the squirt has mine!"
"Prudence, please calm down." Penny said.
"Grams, this isn't right. There's no telling what power Piper has!"
Piper looked down at her hands and then picked up a fork and tossed it into the air. She tried to freeze it, but it clanked to the floor. Piper turned on her heels to glare at her mother and grandmother.
"Okay. I was all for trying a spell to help protect our brothers. I understood what was needed of me. However, I did not know that you would take away my power completely and give it to Phoebe and who else? Preston? Patrick?" Piper said.
"Piper—"
"Now our powers are screwed up. I can't protect even myself, let alone my sisters or brothers." Piper said. "This was your idea. Now fix it." She demanded, pointing at her grams.
"Piper, you're just going to have to help Phoebe learn to use your power. Prudence will have to teach Parker and whoever else has hers." Penny explained.
"Oh, I'm going to my room." Piper groaned. She walked by and grabbed Phoebe's hand to drag her along, but instead she got a cold chill and saw gray flash before her eyes. Phoebe held her up from falling over.
"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked.
"I guess we know who got the other power of premonition." Piper sighed. "Prue—" She started and then stopped with a deep sigh. "You don't have Telekinesis anymore, so Parker go wake up your brothers and hurry." Parker ran back downstairs. "Phoebe, my power works when I'm panicked usually. That's a good place to start. When you see him, just panic."
"See who?" Phoebe asked as the kitchen door flew open.
"Him." Piper screamed.
Prue jumped in front of Piper to use her power and waved her hand, then looked back at Piper.
"Sorry, forgot, it's a habit." Prue said.
He started towards them and Piper poked Phoebe.
"Now would be a great time!"
"I can't!"
Piper screamed at Phoebe all the sudden and Phoebe threw he hands up at Piper, but the warlock at the door froze. Piper nodded her head.
"That's good." She turned around to face her mother and grandmother. "Grams? You wanna send him out, please?"
Penny nodded and flung him into the other room. Patty ran over and put her arms around her girls, and listened to the yells and growls from the other room. A few minutes later Penny came back.
"He blinked away." She said.
Parker came back with Patrick and Preston behind him. Prue didn't waste any time finding out who had whose power. She picked up two biscuits and chunked one at Patrick and one at Preston. Patrick's biscuit stopped in front of his face, and Preston's was redirected to hit Phoebe in the back of the head.
"Well, Patrick has Piper's, and Preston has mine." Prue announced.
"Hey!" Phoebe griped, rubbing her head.
"This isn't happening." Piper muttered, rubbing her face.
"Okay, let me get this straight." Phoebe said. "Patrick and I have Piper's power, Prue and Piper have my power, and Parker and Preston have Prue's power?" Penny and Patty nodded. "So you're telling me that the experienced witches, here, have inactive powers?"
"Prue and Piper are not the only experience witches." Patty said. "You're just as experienced as they are."
"Right, but I'm experienced in seeing events before or after they've happened and filling the rest of you in. I'm not used to freezing things. I'm not used to actually facing the warlock or demon up front like Prue and Piper do."
"You want us to protect our brothers with inactive powers?" Prue asked.
"That looks like it's what you're going to have to do." Penny said.
"They're going to have to protect us!" Piper roared. "We are just up for grabs with this power!" Prue nodded in agreement. "And there is no way I'm spending the next few days at my brother's side. I can't stand any of them." She glanced over at the three. "Sorry."
"We don't care." Parker admitted. "None of us can stand you three."
Phoebe and Prue glared at the boys and Patty stood up.
"Your powers all got mixed up, now you can work together and get this warlock vanquished sooner rather than later, or you can all fight and argue and stay like this longer." Patty said.
"This isn't fair!" Phoebe said, turning to Prue. "I told you we shouldn't have done this."
"I should've listened to you." Prue muttered.
Monday morning came around quite fast after the girls had refused to work with the boys to get the job done sooner. Prue drove Piper and Phoebe to school and Patty took all the boys. She had a way of honking at them in front of their friends and blowing kisses to them. Phoebe loved to wait outside the school to watch them be humiliated.
"Remember, Pheebs," Piper came up behind her sister before the bell. "Don't get too excited about anything or you might…you know."
"What? Freeze everyone in homeroom?" Phoebe asked with a sigh.
"Just be careful." Piper said and walked into the building, going to her own first class.
Phoebe ran to homeroom when the bell rang. She sat down in her regular seat and got her English book out. The teacher got up in front of the room and began writing on the board. When she backed away, Phoebe saw the words 'Shakespeare's plays' written in large letters. She sighed and dropped her head to the table. At first she didn't notice that no one was talking. Then after a few moments she opened her eyes and slowly raised her head. Her teacher, Mrs. Fulton, was standing in front of the room with her hands clasped before her. Phoebe glanced around the room and saw that everyone was staring up front, unmoving. No one was making a sound, or even fidgeting.
"Oh…my…god." Phoebe whispered.
She jumped out of her desk and ran to the door. There was a small shade that the teacher pulled down over the window during tests to discourage people from staring out into the hall rather than working on their tests. Phoebe pulled it down so no one could see in. She quickly ran back to her seat, not knowing how long they would all be frozen. After ten minutes she sighed.
"How is this possible? Things never stay frozen this long when Piper does it." Phoebe muttered, nervously glancing around. "Please, please, please unfreeze. I don't hate Shakespeare this much!"
Piper was sitting in class writing down notes in her notebook when the person behind her tapped her on the shoulder. Piper dropped her pen and grabbed hold of the desk as a premonition over took her and she saw the girl dumping someone's homework into the toilet and waving goodbye to it. The teacher looked up at Piper.
"Is something wrong, Miss Halliwell?"
"Uh…no. Sorry about that." Piper answered, getting her pen off the floor.
The girl behind Piper whispered at her. Piper turned around to see what she wanted. She just held a book out and Piper took it. Since she already had her book she passed it up. When the person in front of her took it, his hand brushed hers and she jumped into another premonition. She saw him pushing some kid out of his way in the hall.
"Miss Halliwell!" The teacher called out, angry at all the disruptions.
"Sorry, I—I'm sorry." Piper said, sliding down in her seat. She put her face in her hands and muttered to herself. "Phoebe, how do you turn it off?"
Patrick was in his Algebra class listening to the teacher rant on and on about some equation that he didn't care about. He tossed his pencil up in the air and caught it and tossed it up in the air and caught it. Mr. Amgate slammed a book down on Patrick's desk to get his attention, making Patrick jump. He looked up and Mr. Amgate wasn't moving. He glanced around and neither was the rest of the class. He looked up and his pencil was hovering above his head. He snatched the pencil out of the air and sat back with a grin.
"This is the life." He muttered, watching time pass on his watch.
The bells rang and Prue hurried to her locker. When she got there, Piper was waiting for her.
"I can't take this." Piper whispered.
"You having a problem too?" Prue asked quietly. "I can't bump into someone without seeing some stupid little thing they've done or will do. Who cares if John Batterlin is going to steal something from the cafeteria lunch line?"
"I know; I keep getting into trouble because I'm disrupting class." Piper said. "I feel like I'm gonna fall down every time I get one."
"We need to find Phoebe and ask her how to tune it down." Prue said as the bells rang again. "Try to survive till lunch."
Piper rolled her eyes and headed to her next class, bumping into Patrick on the way. He clapped her on the back and smiled.
"Your power is great!" He whispered.
"What?" She asked as he walked away. "No, Pat, you can't use it like…" She sighed, watching him ignore her. "That." She finished. She shook her head and ran to class, trying to avoid everyone on the way.
Preston was in gym class when he was tripped and landed on his face. There had been one particular boy who did everything better than he did, and he liked to pick on Preston. Preston picked himself up and brushed himself off and got back in line. They were choosing teams for basketball. Preston was the last one to be picked since he couldn't play basketball worth a flip.
"Catch!" A boy chuckled and chunked the ball at Preston.
Preston was about to duck when he remembered he had Prue's power. He brought his hands up, ready to catch the ball, and right before the ball made it to his hands, he slowed it down enough to catch. The boy who had passed him the ball as a joke stopped laughing. Preston ran up to the goal with the ball and launched it. He guided the ball into the net with his newfound power. All the other boys stopped laughing and gawked at him. He just smiled and ran off. Then he used the power to steal the ball from the other team and make a three pointer. By the end of gym class he had everyone throwing him the ball.
Piper and Prue were sitting together at lunch, instead of with their friends, waiting on Phoebe. Phoebe came into the cafeteria and the minute she saw Prue and Piper she ran over to join them. She slammed her tray down and glared at Piper.
"How do you unfreeze things?" She asked. "I have frozen nearly everything all day long!"
"Oh, well you tell me how to stop these pointless visions and I'll tell you how to unfreeze things." Piper sighed. "This day sucks!"
"I froze my English class within two minutes of walking through the door, fifteen minutes later they unfreeze and the teacher wonders why the day is speeding by so fast." Phoebe said.
"Yeah? Well, we can't walk down the halls without getting a premonition from everyone that we barely even touch!" Prue told her.
"Oh, and Patrick is using my power to purposely freeze classes." Piper added. "Least that's what I figured when he told me how great my power was."
"We have to fix this!" Phoebe sighed.
Penny, Patty, and Victor were sharing some tea when the kids all got home. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe stormed into the Solarium, all three furious. Penny tried to calm them down, but they wouldn't all stop talking at once.
"Enough!" Victor yelled. "One at a time, please."
"Fine." Piper growled. "We want everything fixed. We want the spell to put everything back the way it was meant to be."
"We couldn't even make it through one day at school without using these powers every ten minutes." Prue said. "None of us know how to use them."
Patrick, Parker, and Preston came into the room shortly after the girls. Patrick took a step forward and draped an arm around Piper's shoulder.
"I love having this power, Mom." He said.
Piper sighed and shoved his arm off. "He's also using it to make class fly by, so he can't get any homework."
"I won over the basketball team!" Preston chirped. "I had the ball every minute practically. Prue's power is amazing."
Parker laughed. "Then let's not even get into my football practice."
"Wait a minute." Patty said. "You boys are using those powers for personal gain?"
"Sure!" Parker answered.
"We talked about that before you got them. You can't do that." Patty said.
"I told you we shouldn't have done it." Phoebe muttered.
"Why can't we? They're our powers." Patrick said. "We'll do what we want with them."
"Those are not your powers!" Piper reminded them forcefully. "If you remember right you were all born with nothing. Those are our powers." She gestured to herself and her sisters. "We're the Charmed Ones. They are ours by birth right."
"Yeah…" Patrick said. "But now we got em."
"Oh you little—"
"Whoa, Piper." Prue grabbed her and pulled her back.
"Prue, I'm warning you, let me go."
"Piper, calm down." Prue said, and then whispered. "I have a plan."
Piper growled at Patrick and then yanked away from Prue and marched up to the attic. A slamming door could be heard just moments later. Phoebe glanced at Prue, extremely surprised by Piper's outburst.
Prue and Phoebe found Piper lying on her bed staring at the bottom of the top bunk. Prue sat down next to Piper, and Phoebe leaned against the rail and looked at her. Piper glanced over at Prue and then over her head at Phoebe.
"I don't want to go to school tomorrow." Piper said.
"Well, you won't have to worry about anything if Prue's plan works." Phoebe said.
Piper rolled onto her side and propped herself up on one arm. "What plan?"
"I figure we're still the Charmed Ones right? We still have some powers, even if they aren't the right ones. I say we get the spell to vanquish this warlock and then we find a way to either lure him here or summon him. Then, as the Charmed Ones, we vanquish him."
"That still doesn't give us our powers back, Prue. They can hold onto them as long as they want them." Piper said.
"Not necessarily." Prue said. "We can always cast the spell while they're asleep."
"Yeah, Grams said that potion was only to help our powers split, so we don't really need it." Phoebe said with a grin.
"Then let's do it. What are we waiting for?" Piper asked, jumping out of bed.
"Well," Prue started.
"What? Well what?"
"Piper, we'll still be vulnerable when he comes. He might attack, and I don't have my power to stop him, and you don't have yours, and Phoebe doesn't know how to use yours."
"So, I'll teach her to use mine." Piper said. "I mean all she really has to do is freak out when he shows up."
"Which will be hard for her because she's usually pretty good at keeping a cool head when we're attacked."
"Well, sure, Prue, cause I've seen it coming already." Phoebe said.
"That's not the point." Prue shook the comment away. "Look, are you two willing to risk it?"
Piper nodded. "I want my power back. No offense, Phoebe, but it's mine, and I'm sick of the way others use it."
"None taken." Phoebe muttered. "No offense to you two either, but I want my power back. It's not as bad since you guys have it, but it's still mine, and I feel kinda weird without it."
"When can we try to call him to us?" Piper asked.
"Mom will kill us if she finds out, and no telling Grams or Dad either." Prue said. "We'll do it after midnight when everyone is asleep."
"Sounds like a plan." Phoebe nodded.
"This sounds so…"
"What?" Prue asked Piper.
"Well, you see people doing things creepy and magical after midnight on television, and that never turns out good." Piper said.
"Yeah." Prue nodded. "But then again those people are amateurs."
"Well, that and actors." Phoebe added. "It's supposed to go wrong for them. Makes the show interesting."
"Can't argue with that." Piper laughed.
"So, act normal at dinner." Prue pointed a finger at them. "No nervous twitching or anything to give us away."
"Nervous twitching? Who twitches when they're nervous around here?" Piper asked.
"Okay, you're right, none of us." Prue agreed then looked Piper in the eyes. "Don't talk at dinner."
"What? Why?"
"You tent to ramble and babble when nervous." Prue pointed out.
"I do not." Piper argued.
"You do! When we were going to dot the boys with permanent markers you went on and on and on and on…"
"We get the point, Phoebe." Prue interrupted.
"About how erasers really are amazing and you wish you knew how they erased pencil marks." Phoebe continued. "That didn't make anyone wonder what was up." She said sarcastically. "We all know you talk aimlessly when you're nervous."
"Whatever." Piper muttered.
"What do we do till dinner?" Prue asked.
"Homework?" Piper asked. "I know I got plenty, since I couldn't get anything done with all the premonitions I was getting. Touch this - get a flash, touch that – get a flash, bump into him – get a flash, bump into her - get a flash…"
"Piper…" Phoebe stopped her. "We get it."
"Right." Piper nodded.
"Homework can wait." Prue said, rubbing her chin dramatically. "I have better ideas."
"Really?" Phoebe asked evilly.
"Yep." Prue answered, leaning closer to Piper and Phoebe. "I say we start making plans on how we're going to win this feud after we get our powers back."
"Wait…" Piper stopped them. "What exactly did Patrick do to make you drop your 'No Revenge' mentality?"
"Piper, Andy came over and we decided to go to a movie Friday, right?" Prue asked, Piper and Phoebe nodded. "We decided to take my car. We stopped at a drive in eating place, and when I asked him to get my stash of napkins out of the glove box…" Prue paused and exhaled deeply.
"What happened?" Phoebe asked.
"He opened the glove compartment and had about a zillion…um…" Prue cast a glance at Phoebe.
"Come on! I'm old enough!" She whined.
"Let's just say that Andy got the impression I was big on safe sex." Prue said, scratching at her neck and not looking at them.
Phoebe and Piper started laughing. "Are you serious?" Phoebe asked.
"Oh yeah." Prue rolled her eyes. "There was a note in the back that said 'Prue wants it, so give it to her good.' And it was signed 'The Feud has begun'."
"That's terrible." Piper said.
"I had to explain to Andy that I didn't want anything and that all those…" Prue paused.
"Condoms?" Phoebe finished.
"Phoebe!" Prue shouted.
"What?"
"You're too young for that!" Prue said.
"Well, you're the one stashing them in your car." Phoebe giggled.
Prue sighed. "That was so embarrassing telling him those weren't mine. Of course, he believed me, but it was still humiliating."
"That sounds like a good reason to get him back." Piper said.
"I just couldn't take any more of his childish, humiliating pranks." Prue said. "I'm ready to be childish right back."
"And you got the masters to help you." Phoebe chuckled.
Patty came into the dining room carrying a tray. She set it down and put the dishes in the center of the table. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe sat on one side of the table; Patrick, Parker, and Preston sat across from them. Patty and Victor both sat on opposite ends of the table. Piper glanced at Prue to her left, then at Phoebe to her right.
"Could you please pass the butter?" Piper asked.
"Sure." Patty said, handing it down to Phoebe whom handed it to Piper.
"Thank you." Piper answered, then looked up. "Thank you both." She added, looking at Phoebe. "I didn't mean to not thank you. It's just that I –"
"Right, could you hand me that knife?" Phoebe asked Piper, staring into her eyes.
"Oh," Piper whispered and looked over for the knife. "Sure. Here."
"Thanks."
"Mhmm." Piper muttered.
"You boys are being awfully quiet." Victor noted.
"We're just making up plans on how best to use our new powers, Dad." Patrick answered.
"Pat, your mother told you that you aren't to use your powers like that."
"Right. Sorry." Patrick snickered and glanced over at Piper.
Piper inhaled deeply.
"It's just that it's kind of hard not to want to use them in whatever way we find convenient." He said. "We'll try not to use them wrong." He said in a sweet voice that didn't fool the girls.
Piper rolled her eyes.
"That's good." Patty said. "Thank you for listening."
"Any time, Mom." Patrick said. "For you," He added.
"Aw, how sweet," Patty said.
"Oh, my God!" Piper pushed her chair back and threw her napkin down. "I'm not going to sit here and watch this." With that she marched out of the room, ignoring Victor, who was telling her to finish her dinner.
Victor got up to follow, but Patty caught him. "Let her go."
"She shouldn't act like that." Victor said.
"She needs time to adjust." Patty said. "Piper doesn't like things to switch like this on her."
Victor sighed and sat down.
Piper went up to her room and slammed the door shut. She kicked the door afterwards.
"I can't believe he—" Piper ran her hands through her hair and groaned. "That's it." She walked over to the book and started looking through it. "I'll put Prue's plan into action."
She found a summoning spell and debated with herself whether or not it would work. Then she copied down the vanquishing spell. She cleared her mind and took a deep breath and read the summoning spell. She opened her eyes in time to jump out of the way of a fireball. She squealed and ran downstairs screaming.
Patty ran into the Sitting room and saw the Warlock chasing her daughter. She threw her hands up and froze it. Prue and Phoebe ran up behind their mother, and the boys behind them.
"What's going on?" Patty asked.
"Uh, an attack?" Piper asked.
"I have to get upstairs and get the vanquishing spell." Patty said. "At least now we have him."
"I have the spell!" Piper said.
"Why?" Patty asked. "Were you expecting him to barge in on dinner?"
"No, not really." Piper admitted. "I've been carrying it around with me since that night. You never know when he might have decided to attack, I just wanted to be ready." Piper lied.
"Fine, give me the spell, hurry."
Piper ran to her mother and handed over the paper. Patty sighed and handed it to Prue.
"Power of three." Patty said. "Not me."
Prue yanked Piper over by the collar, practically growling at her. Together she, Piper, and Phoebe recited the spell written on the paper. They weren't sure if it would work since they didn't have their powers. The demon unfroze and as he was burning he dove at the boys. They all screamed and ran back into the dining room, shoving Victor out of their way.
Piper sighed when the warlock finally poofed into smoke and his last scream was heard. Prue grabbed Piper by the collar again and dragged her upstairs. Patty watched them go in confusion. Phoebe started to follow and then turned around.
"Prue is a little mad that Piper's had the spell all along, especially since we were attacked at school in the girls room. Don't worry, she'll get over it." Phoebe lied and ran upstairs.
Phoebe informed her sisters of her lie. Prue shoved Piper down on Phoebe's bed and glared down at her.
"Sorry?" Piper asked.
"Sorry? Sorry!" Prue shouted. "You summoned that warlock without our knowing! You could've been killed, Piper! You don't have your power, remember?"
Piper jumped up and pointed at the door. "Right! And it was that thing's fault that I don't! Forgive me for wanting to fix things!"
"And I thought I was the one who didn't like this." Phoebe muttered.
"Shut-up!" Prue and Piper both shouted at her at once.
"I don't care if you wanted it all fixed, Piper. You should've waited until tonight like we had planned."
"That's all fine and dandy for you, Prue, but I can't stand the way Patrick is acting!" Piper muttered. "He's flaunting my power around like it's a gold medal! That power was given to me to protect and save lives, not to skip out on homework."
"I know that but–"
"Prue, just drop it. It's over and dealt with. It wasn't even that hard." Piper cut in. "Just stop lecturing me about it, I know that I put myself in danger, I know I made a mistake and did something stupid, but I don't care. In six hours we'll be casting a spell to get our powers back, and that's all I care about!"
Piper turned and marched over to her bed and flopped down, hugging her pillow. Prue sighed and slouched onto Phoebe's bed. Phoebe took a deep breath and looked from Piper to Prue.
"So can I speak now?"
Piper was staring at the bottom of the top bunk when Phoebe poked her shoulder. Piper didn't move or say anything and it was too dark for Phoebe to tell if she was asleep. Phoebe poked her again. Piper reached over and slapped her hand.
"Ouch!" Phoebe muttered, rubbing her hand.
"What is it?" Piper asked, turning her head to look at Phoebe.
"How long are you and Prue not gonna talk to each other?" Phoebe asked quietly so Prue couldn't hear.
"Beats me." Piper answered.
"Well, it's just that… I ask because in two hours we have to steal our powers back, and it might be nice if you two weren't trying to kill each other in the process." Phoebe smiled.
"This is so wrong." Piper sighed.
"What is?"
"I'm supposed to be doing that."
"Doing what?"
"Fixing everything. I'm not supposed to get into fights with you two like this." Piper said.
"Everyone needs a break from something." Phoebe said. "Maybe you wanted a break from peacemaking."
"Who knows." Piper leaned over and looked at Prue sitting on their pillow pile with the book in her lap, no doubt looking for something to help them get their powers back.
Piper sighed. Phoebe pulled her off her bunk and dragged her to where Prue was. Piper shrugged Phoebe off and sat down.
"I'm sorry, Prue."
"What?" Prue asked.
"I said I was sorry." Piper sighed. "How many times do you need to hear it?"
"Piper…"
"I know I made a mistake, Prue. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Piper scoffed and looked over a Prue. "Does that make it okay yet?"
"Piper, I didn't mean to sound like you had done something stupid." Prue said. "Although, it was because you could've been killed." She added. "I was just worried about you."
"I know, Prue."
"Come here." Prue held out and arm, and Piper scooted over.
Prue pulled Piper into a sideways hug. Phoebe sat in front of them smiling, and then she jumped on them, hugging them both.
"I felt left out." Phoebe explained.
Prue pushed away and pointed at a page in the book. "This is all I got to go on."
"Prue, that's the incantation that gave us our powers to begin with, how is that gonna work?" Piper asked.
"Well we used some of it to split our powers. I figure we say just about the same thing we said when we tried splitting them, but reword it a bit to get them back instead." Prue pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. "This is what I think."
"In this night, and in this hour,
We reclaim in whole, our birth given powers."
"See? Just like the other one, but different." Prue said. "We'll still say the little stuff afterwards too."
"Better than nothing." Phoebe muttered.
"I hope that it works." Prue said. "Otherwise, Mom will have three pissed off little witches on her hands."
"What about a potion?" Piper asked. "You don't think we need one?"
"Don't think so. Grams only had that other one to help split our powers, remember?" Prue asked.
Piper nodded and looked over the spell again. "I'm up for anything."
Two hours passed and their clock beeped that the hour had changed. Piper pointed and Prue nodded. It was 1 am, and Phoebe was asleep, which was typical. Piper woke her, quietly. She pointed at the clock, and Phoebe jumped out of bed, suddenly wide-awake. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe snuck downstairs, perfectly quiet, well aware of which steps creaked loudly. They snuck through the kitchen and into the basement. Piper was best at sneaking, so they sent her down first to make sure the boys were asleep.
A few seconds later they saw her head reappear and point down. She nodded and put a finger to her lips. Prue and Phoebe quietly followed her down. She stopped them halfway and pointed down at the step and ever so quietly, whispered the word 'creak'. Prue and Phoebe skipped that step.
Prue went to stand by Patrick's bed, Piper went to Parker's, and Phoebe went to Preston's. They each laid a hand, very gently, on their specific brother's leg. They exchanged glanced with each other and then began the spell.
"In this night and in this hour," Once again they paused here to glance at each other.
"We reclaim in whole, our birth given powers."
"With strength and protection," Prue whispered.
"With concern and reason," Piper nearly hissed.
"With spirit and courage." Phoebe finished.
"So mote it be." They concluded as one, right as Parker came around.
"What are you doing in here!" He yelled.
Prue, Piper, and Phoebe yelped and ran off giggling. Parker tried to slam the door shut on them with his power but it didn't work.
"Damn!" He cursed.
The girls returned to their rooms, and Prue started flinging pillows at her sisters using her power, with a huge grin on her face. Piper froze a few of the pillows and was laughing uncontrollably. Phoebe had even gotten a premonition of them getting in trouble for making noise, so she knew she had her power back as well. She told them what she saw, but they didn't care. Things were the way they were meant to be, and they would never ever let their powers go again. Prue had learned her lesson. 'Grams and Mom aren't always right about everything.'
Have you ever wondered how your life would be if it wasn't the way it is now? If maybe things had been just a little different. Would you be the same person you are today if you had been an only child instead of having siblings? Would you be the same if you have brothers rather than sisters, or sisters rather than brothers? Would you be the same if your grandparents had raised you instead of your parents, or if your parents had raised you instead of your grandparents? If you and your siblings were so close it was amazing, or if you hated each other so much it was scary? Would you have the same character, morals, dreams, and goals if everything had been different?
This story is about what could have been and what could have gone wrong, or maybe what could have turned out perfectly. In this story the Charmed Ones are still the Charmed Ones, but they aren't alone. They have three brothers, one born between each sister. They boys have no powers. The Charmed Ones and their brothers are all still young.
Patty is raising her six children with Victor by her side. Penny visits quite often, but does not live in the Manor. The attic was turned into a bedroom, with a corner sectioned off for the book. The basement was also converted into a bedroom. The girls share the attic, and the boys share the basement.
The question is: 'Do these siblings get along? If they don't, can they? What will it take to bring this family together? Or do they enjoy the 'fun' in dysfunctional a little too much?'
Ages:
Prue – 17
Patrick – 16
Piper – 15
Parker – 14 (I used Parker in another story as the name of Melinda's husband, but it's one of the few male names that begin with P that I like, so I used it again.)
Phoebe – 13
Preston – 12
"Psst!" She hissed at her sister. "Wake up!"
Slowly her sister rolled onto her back and looked up at her.
"What do you want, Prue?" She whined, glancing at their alarm clock, which read 1:08 AM.
"I need your help." She said.
"Why mine? Why not Phoebe's?" She groaned.
"Hers too." Prue added. "I asked you first cause your bed is closer to mine."
Piper frowned. "I wonder why." She muttered, kicking off her blankets, and crawling out of the bunk bed she shared with Prue; Prue's bunk being on top. Phoebe's bed was only a few feet from theirs.
They quietly made their way to their little sister's bed, and then they shook her. Phoebe usually slept like a log, but since the recent feud began she was the easiest of the three to wake. Phoebe jumped and then calmed after seeing it was her sisters waking her. She released her hold on the can of shaving cream she had hidden underneath her pillow, and sat up to face her older sisters.
"What's going on?" She asked Piper.
Piper shrugged. "She hasn't said yet."
Phoebe looked over at Prue in shock. Prue didn't usually do the kinds of things that Phoebe was nearly certain Prue was about to ask them to do.
"Look, I need your help this time." Prue said.
'This time?' Phoebe wondered. 'There had been other times?'
"With what, Prue?" Piper asked, hopping onto the bed next to Phoebe.
Prue crawled onto the bed with them after checking to make sure the attic/their bedroom door was closed.
"Patrick must pay." Prue hissed.
Phoebe glanced at Piper and the two both grinned evilly. Prue had henceforth banned them from getting back at their brothers. She didn't want the three of them sinking to their brothers' level of immaturity. Piper and Phoebe didn't much care about maturity; they just wanted to conspire against their brothers. They were getting really good at getting back at them too, and Prue was even really good when she wanted to be.
"How? Why? When?" Phoebe blurted out.
"We'll come up with the how together. The when will depend on the how, but I know the why." Prue looked from one sister to the next. "We…" She paused to let the emphasis on the word sink in. "We will win this feud."
Phoebe and Piper smiled at one another, plans already forming in their little heads. Prue interrupted their thoughts and plans.
"Patrick will get what's coming to him, but we aren't leaving out Parker or Preston. They get theirs too."
Phoebe and Piper smiled even bigger and immediately began suggesting things to Prue. Once again Prue interrupted them.
"Here are some reminders: always check your bed before getting into it, never eat anything they offer you – we don't know what they've done to it, and never do anything to seriously injure them."
Piper and Phoebe both nodded in agreement and understanding.
"Oh, but we can't do anything tonight because Mom is still awake downstairs." Prue remembered with a sigh.
"Why hasn't she gone to sleep?" Phoebe asked.
"Grams called about something, so she's been on book duty." Prue answered with a slight yawn.
"What time did you get home?" Piper asked, leaning back against the headboard.
"The seven o'clock showing of the movie was sold out, so I called Mom, and Andy and I stayed and saw the nine o'clock showing instead. But I've been home for about half an hour maybe."
"Did she mention anything about why Grams called?" Piper asked.
"No, she just said to keep our eyes open and stay aware of everything."
"That shouldn't be too hard to do." Phoebe said with a chuckle.
"Especially since Patrick started all this." Piper added, referring to the feud.
Phoebe leaned back against Piper and yawned. Piper put an arm around her sister and also yawned; Prue covered her mouth with her hand and looked away.
"Stop that!" She muttered mid-yawn. "You're making me sleepy."
There was a quick and quiet knock on the door. Prue gave her sisters the 'uh-oh' look; they were all supposed to be in bed. Prue and Piper got up to run to their bed but the door opened first and in came Preston. Prue and Piper relaxed and fell back onto Phoebe's bed.
"What do you want?" Phoebe asked her little brother.
"Mom wants us all downstairs." He answered in a snooty tone of voice. Phoebe stuck her tongue out at him.
"We'll be down in a second." Piper told him.
Preston shrugged, muttered a 'whatever', and shut the door behind him on his way down to the Parlor.
"Brat." Phoebe muttered under her breath, crawling out of her bed. Prue followed, pulling Piper up as well.
"What now?" She whined as Prue pulled her off the comfortable bed.
The trio made their way downstairs to the Parlor. Patrick, Parker, and Preston were lined up at one end of the room, so Prue, Piper, and Phoebe lined up at the opposite end.
"Please, take a seat." Patty said, rubbing her forehead.
The boys jumped onto the couch, leaving one chair for the girls. Prue sat down. Piper squeezed in beside her, and then Phoebe sat down on their laps. Patty looked the six over for a moment.
"Grams called earlier." Patty announced.
The boys all looked curious, but the girls had already been informed of this because of Prue.
"What'd she have to say?" Patrick asked.
"We have a problem." Patty sighed.
"What kind of problem?" Phoebe asked.
"The Manor is…well in a manner it's being staked out. We're being watched." She told them. "Your father went with Grams back to her place to get some supplies that we need."
"And?" Prue prompted.
"The reason this is so different from the other attacks is because this time…" Patty's voice trailed off.
"What?" Parker urged.
"This time they're after you six." She explained with a look of dread crossing her face.
Piper instinctively wrapped her arms around Phoebe in a protective gesture. Prue did the same, draping an arm around Piper's shoulder and setting her other hand on Phoebe's knee. Phoebe leaned into Piper and laid her own hand over Prue's.
Patrick's jaw tightened and his expression turned serious. Parker's eyes were darting around – no doubt trying to find possible escape routes should they be needed in the future. Preston sank back into against the couch, glancing at his older brothers and sisters.
"We've had warlocks and demons come after us before and we've dealt just fine." Piper said. "Why is this so different?"
"Patrick, Parker, and Preston can't protect themselves. They don't have powers like you do." Patty said, looking at the girls.
"So, we'll take care of them." Phoebe said as though it was perfectly clear what they would do. "We've done it before."
"And what if you're separated when they attack? What happens to them then?" Patty asked, hands on hips. She got no answer, so she went on. "Grams and I thought up a solution, but it requires your cooperation." She said, once again focusing on the girls.
"What kind of solution?" Prue asked.
"Well," Patty hesitated with a glance at the boys, who were all grinning wildly. "You would have to share your powers with your brothers."
"What?" Phoebe screamed, jumping off of her sisters' laps. "We have to share everything with them and now the one thing that we have that is special to us – you want us to give to them too?"
"Phoebe…"
"No! I can't believe this!" Phoebe cut her mother's words off. "This is all I have that is mine and mine alone! It's the one thing I own that can't be taken away – and you're practically asking me to hand it over on a silver platter?"
"Phoebe…" This time Piper was the voice of reason.
"No, Piper." Phoebe whined, looking to her sisters for their support.
"How long?" Prue asked.
"Not very, but you'd have to teach them to use your powers." Patty answered.
"I don't want one." Preston spoke up.
"What?" Prue and Patty asked as one.
"Phoebe's stupid power won't help protect me." He said.
"You don't know that!" Phoebe argued. "I've helped protect plenty of people!"
Piper took Phoebe's hand and pulled her back onto her and Prue's lap. Phoebe stopped arguing and leaned back into Piper's arms.
"If you want to do this then all three powers are required, Preston, they each do their own job." Patty explained.
"No." Preston simply said.
"We're going to go down to our room and discuss this." Parker said strictly, leading his brothers to the basement.
"Come get us when they're done." Prue told Patty.
Prue playfully shoved Phoebe off her lap and followed her and Piper to their room up in the attic. There was one certain corner in the attic where the girls had made a pile of pillow and plugged their television up against the wall, so they could lay on the pillows and watch movies together. Prue headed for that corner. She dropped onto the pillows with a sigh. Piper crawled up beside her and laid her head on Prue's stomach. Phoebe plopped down in front of them.
"I don't want to, Prue." Phoebe began. "We've done just fine keeping them safe without giving them our powers so far.
"I know you don't want to give Preston your power, Phoebe. I don't really like the thought of Patrick having mine." Prue said. "But if Mom and Grams think we should do this, well, then maybe things are worse than they're letting on."
"Pheebs, it's out job to protect the innocent, maybe they're supposed to be the innocents this time." Piper said.
"Piper, you don't understand." Phoebe sighed. "I have to share everything, anything I get is a hand-me-down, and I just want to have something all to myself. My power is mine, it's a part of me, and if I just give it away then I'm losing a piece of myself."
"Phoebe—"
"Prue," Phoebe interrupted. "I'm sick of everything being taken away. If they take this then I won't have anything left that they can't take away."
Piper sat up and took Phoebe's hands in her own.
"Sweetie, that's not true." Piper said gently. "You'll always have something that can never be taken."
Phoebe narrowed her eyes and looked at her sister curiously.
"Like what?"
"Like your love." Piper told her. "No one can ever take that from you. Only you can decide whether or not you want to share that."
Phoebe sighed and looked down at Piper's hands cupped around her own.
"Phoebe you were born with your power, so it'll always be a part of you. You're only sharing it temporarily, not giving it away permanently." Prue said.
"To save lives…" Phoebe muttered.
"Right, Pheebs, to save their lives." Prue confirmed with a smile.
"Fine." Phoebe said with no enthusiasm. "I'll do it."
Piper pulled Phoebe over between her and Prue and hugged her. Prue jumped in on the hug.
"Don't leave me out." She whined.
Phoebe pulled away first and looked at Prue.
"Do you think it will hurt?"
"I don't know." Prue answered.
They had all moved over to Piper's bunk when there was a knock on the door. Prue, who was nearly asleep, jumped almost a foot off of the bed. Patty pushed open the door and stuck her head in.
"The boys worked everything out; they're ready if you're willing to cast the spell." She told them.
"We'll do it." Piper said.
"But only because we have to." Phoebe added.
Prue, Piper, and Phoebe followed Patty downstairs to the Parlor where Patrick, Parker, and Preston were waiting. The girls weren't aware that their father and Grams were in the room until they took their seats in the chair they had earlier.
"Prudence, please come here."
Once again, Prue jumped, this time startled by her grams.
"Grams, I didn't see you!" Prue said, catching her breath.
"I didn't mean to startle you." She smiled. "Please come here for a moment."
Prue walked over to where Penny was sitting. Penny held out a bottle and Prue took it.
"What is it?" Prue asked, looking the bottle over.
"You'll each have to drink from that after reading the spell. It's a potion to help your powers split."
Prue nodded and returned to the chairs, Phoebe set back on her lap with her legs across Piper's lap.
"Here's what we'll do," Patty began. "We'll go into the attic and find a place where the six of you can sit in a circle; Prue by Patrick, Piper by Parker, and Phoebe by Preston. You'll say the spell and then Prue will take a sip of the potion and pass it on to each of you. Once you've each had a drink you'll say 'So Mote It Be' to finish up. I know 'So Mote It Be' isn't very original but it works."
"Let's just get this done with." Preston muttered and left the room, heading for the attic.
The others followed him up to the attic. He was already sitting in the middle of the floor. Piper cast a glance at Prue. Prue recognized the look as worry and gave a reassuring smile in response. Phoebe thumped herself down on the floor beside her brother. Victor leaned closer to Patty.
"Will this hurt them?" He whispered.
"No, Victor, this shouldn't be painful at all." Patty said.
Parker sat down next to Phoebe, Piper next to Parker, Patrick next to Piper, and finally Prue next to Patrick.
"Read this." Penny said, handing each of her granddaughters a copy of the spell.
Prue, Piper, and Phoebe each took the slips of paper handed to them. They glanced at each other in hesitation and finally began to recite the words on the paper.
"In this night and in this hour,"
They paused to look up at each other and everyone else.
"We split in two, our birth given powers."
Prue glanced over at Piper and then at Phoebe, before reading her part and doing as she had been directed. She took a sip of the potion and gave it to Patrick.
"With strength and protection," Prue recited as Patrick drank. He handed the bottle to Piper and she took a sip.
"With concern and reason," She recited, watching Parker drink. He handed the bottle to Phoebe and she took a sip.
"With spirit and courage," Phoebe recited, pushing the bottle roughly into Preston's hands.
He glanced at the bottle and the looked up. The glares of everyone in the room forced him to take his sip. Prue took the bottle from him and sat it in the middle of the circle.
"With the power of three." The girls read together.
Penny handed Prue a hammer. Prue once again glanced at her sisters, and then brought the hammer down on the bottle, shattering it. Once that was done they finished off the spell.
"So mote it be." They recited as one.
Piper turned her hands up with a shrug after a long silence. "Did it work?"
"Beats me." Prue said, also shrugging.
"Well, you girls should get some sleep." Penny said, ushering the boys out of the room. "Same for you boys." She turned back towards the girls. "Goodnight, my darlings." She turned to go and then looked back one last time. "Oh, and mind the glass, I don't want any bad cuts."
Patrick, Parker, and Preston glanced at one another.
"But did—"
"No buts, Parker. Get down to bed."
The three boys sighed, rolling their eyes, and went downstairs, followed by Penny. Patty kissed each of her girls on the forehead, wishing them a goodnight. Victor followed up with a hug for each, and then he and Patty went down to their room, leaving Prue, Piper, and Phoebe standing in the middle of the attic, wondering what they just did.
"Prue?"
"Don't ask me, Pheebs."
"Do you feel different?"
"Not really, Piper. Do you?"
"Nope. Pheebs?"
"I feel the same."
"Maybe you have to wait awhile for it to kick in?" Piper suggested in question.
"Who knows?" Prue asked. "I guess we really should get some sleep though."
"But—" Phoebe came up short on words and just pointed at the door instead.
"They obviously don't want to tell us anything tonight." Piper said, crawling into her bunk. "Else they wouldn't have left so fast."
Prue nodded in agreement as she climbed the ladder to her own bunk. Phoebe sighed and went to her bed. She slipped under the covers and stared up at the ceiling. A few minutes later Piper spoke up.
"Prue, are you sure we did the right thing?"
"I sure hope so." Prue answered. "I know it all seems weird now, but if Mom and Grams told us to do it, then it couldn't be bad."
"I hope you're right." Phoebe said.
"So do I." Prue muttered, rolling onto her side. "Goodnight, you two."
"Night, Prue." Piper said.
"Night." Phoebe chimed.
The next morning Piper was first to wake up, as usual. She crawled out of her bed quietly and made her way down to the kitchen. No one else in the house was awake, so she got out the milk and eggs and started to cook herself and her sisters some breakfast. Normally she would make her brothers' food as well, but not since the feud they started.
Piper poured herself a fresh cup of coffee when all the food was cooked and on the table. Even though her mother had told her she was too young to drink coffee she always did. She loved her morning cup, and she didn't think she was too young. She figured she'd finish her coffee before anyone came down, but with her luck the moment she sat down to eat her mother came dragging herself into the room. She paused long enough to acknowledge the food already on the table, and then she moved on to the coffee pot. She poured herself a cup and sat down beside Piper.
"I thought I said no coffee for you?"
"You did." Piper confirmed with a sip.
"Pass the sugar?"
Piper smiled and passed over the sugar jar. Patty put the sugar into her coffee and started piling food onto her plate.
"Thank you for not making me cook this morning." Patty sighed.
"No problem." Piper said. "I was up and hungry so…oh, but the boys have to make their own."
"Fine with me. Victor can cook theirs." Patty smiled. "Although, I must say I prefer your cooking to his."
Piper watched her mother fix her plate, quietly sipping at her coffee. Patty finished fixing her plate and looked up at her daughter. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Piper sideways.
"Question?" She asked, moving her eggs around on her plate with her fork.
Piper nodded. "About last night,"
"So ask it."
"After the spell Grams rushed everyone off to bed. Prue, Pheebs, and I were wondering what happened."
"You cast a spell to split your powers into two bodies of magic and gave your brothers the power to protect themselves." Patty explained, taking a bite of her french toast.
"But did it work?" Piper asked.
Patty looked down into her mug. "We don't know yet."
"When will we know?" Piper asked.
"When they use one of your powers," Patty answered. "I don't know how else we'll know for sure."
"How long will this last if they really do have our powers now?"
"Piper, you said the spell to give them your powers. There is no time limit on the spell. You'll all have to say a spell to get your powers back from them." Patty informed her.
"What?" Piper asked, slightly shocked. "What… well, what if they don't want to give them back to us? Are you saying they could just keep them?"
"They will give them back." Patty replied confidently.
"How can you be so sure?" Piper asked. "They might get attached to our powers, and then they won't want to give them back."
"Piper, trust me, the boys will give them back when this is all over."
Piper sighed and the finished off her coffee.
"Now go upstairs and wake up your sisters." Patty ordered, consuming a mouthful of eggs.
Piper got up and set her mug in the sink. "It's eight in the morning, and on a Saturday."
"They'll need to be up soon."
"We were up very late last night." Piper reminded her mother.
"Yet you're still up with breakfast waiting on the table." Patty said, acting amazed.
"Phoebe had a bad dream around five and I calmed her down. She didn't wake up, but the whining stopped." Piper explained. "I sat with her awhile, but then I couldn't get back to sleep, so I came to make breakfast."
"That was very sweet of you." Patty smiled.
"She's my sister, what would you expect?" Piper asked, as she pushed the kitchen door open and headed for the attic.
Phoebe was just beginning to wake up when Piper sat down on the edge of her bed. Phoebe stretched out, using full advantage of the big bed, and then she smiled at Piper.
"Mom wants us to get up." Piper told her.
"What for?" Phoebe asked with a yawn.
"I don't know. She just said you and Prue would need to be up soon." Piper told her. "She asked me to wake you up."
"Well, guess I won't be going back to sleep then, huh?" Phoebe asked, smiling.
"I guess not." Piper said, looking over at the bunk bed that she and Prue shared. "Well go get your shower out of the way, so there'll be a little warm water for Prue."
Phoebe nodded, went to her dresser, pulled out some clothes, and then went off to take a shower, and eat breakfast. Piper moved on to the bunk bed and climbed the ladder till she could reach Prue. She grabbed her leg and shook.
"What?" Prue muttered, kicking Piper's hand away.
"Time to get up."
"No, it isn't." Prue said. "Come back in, like four hours, that'll be time to get up."
Piper reached up and yanked the blankets off.
"Hey!"
"Time to get up, I said."
"Fine." Prue sighed.
She stretched out and then pushed Piper down the ladder. Piper jumped down, and Prue climbed down. She sat down on her sister's bunk and looked up at Piper.
"Why?" She whined.
"Mom wants us up." Piper explained.
Prue's face lightened up. "Did the spell work?"
"She doesn't know yet." Piper shrugged. "One of them has to use one of our powers for us to know."
"I'm hungry."
"Breakfast is on the table waiting on you. That is if the boys didn't wake up and eat it all." Piper said.
Prue got up and hugged Piper. "Thank you! I'm starved." She pulled away and headed downstairs.
"All in a day's work." Piper muttered as she followed Prue downstairs.
When Piper came downstairs Prue was already at the table eating and Penny was there. Piper sat down at the table next to Prue and looked at her mother. Patty smiled and looked over at Penny.
"Grams? What are you doing here?" Piper asked.
"What? I'm not allowed to visit anymore?" Penny asked.
"Well, yeah, that's not what I meant." Piper said. "It's just that it's early and you don't usually come over this early."
"Well here I am now." Penny smiled. "Now, run and get me a cup of coffee, would you dear?"
Piper opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. On her way to the coffee pot she muttered, "What am I? Little miss waitress? Geez." She poured the coffee and went back, handing it to Penny. "There you are, ma'am. Would you like anything else? Bob can cook up a mean steak." Piper said sarcastically, pretending to dry her hands on an apron around her waist.
Penny glared at Piper for a moment. "A bit cranky are we?"
"Just a bit." Piper answered, sitting down.
"So, why are we getting up so early?" Prue asked. "I feel like I've only slept for five minutes."
Just as Prue finished her question Phoebe came bouncing into the room. She sat down at the table and reached for a plate.
"Good morning!" She chirped. "Pass me the pancakes please!"
Prue picked up the plate to hand to Phoebe and then inhaled sharply and dropped the plate. Phoebe and Piper both jumped at the clanking. Penny and Patty glanced at each other.
"Are you okay, Prue?" Phoebe asked.
"I just…" Prue cleared her throat to try again. "I just…I had a…I mean I saw…I had a flash…a vision."
"What?" Piper asked.
"How? That's my power." Phoebe said, standing up.
"What's up?" Preston asked, coming into the room. He opened a few cabinets looking for his cereal. His arm hit a glass sitting on the counter and knocked it towards the floor.
"Preston!" Phoebe shouted and spun in time to see the glass. She brought her hands up to cover her mouth and the glass stopped in mid-air.
"How did—" Piper launched out of her seat and made her way to the glass, glancing back at Phoebe every two steps. She pointed at the glass and stomped her foot. "I want answers!"
"Don't raise your voice, sweetie." Patty said calmly.
"To hell with my voice, what's going on?" Piper demanded in a loud voice.
"Piper!" Patty said, standing up with her hands on her hips.
"Mom, what is going on?" Prue asked, glancing at her sisters.
Patty sighed and dropped her hands to her side. "The spell may not have worked exactly like it should have."
"MOM!" A voice screamed from downstairs.
A few seconds later Parker came bursting into the kitchen. He stopped to acknowledge all the other people in the room. He also gave Prue a wicked grin.
"Mom! Look!" He said, then he waved his hand in the air and a chair slid away from the table, and Prue jumped out of hers, pointing her finger at him.
"The squirt has my power? That's not fair!" Prue said. "I have an inactive power and the squirt has mine!"
"Prudence, please calm down." Penny said.
"Grams, this isn't right. There's no telling what power Piper has!"
Piper looked down at her hands and then picked up a fork and tossed it into the air. She tried to freeze it, but it clanked to the floor. Piper turned on her heels to glare at her mother and grandmother.
"Okay. I was all for trying a spell to help protect our brothers. I understood what was needed of me. However, I did not know that you would take away my power completely and give it to Phoebe and who else? Preston? Patrick?" Piper said.
"Piper—"
"Now our powers are screwed up. I can't protect even myself, let alone my sisters or brothers." Piper said. "This was your idea. Now fix it." She demanded, pointing at her grams.
"Piper, you're just going to have to help Phoebe learn to use your power. Prudence will have to teach Parker and whoever else has hers." Penny explained.
"Oh, I'm going to my room." Piper groaned. She walked by and grabbed Phoebe's hand to drag her along, but instead she got a cold chill and saw gray flash before her eyes. Phoebe held her up from falling over.
"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked.
"I guess we know who got the other power of premonition." Piper sighed. "Prue—" She started and then stopped with a deep sigh. "You don't have Telekinesis anymore, so Parker go wake up your brothers and hurry." Parker ran back downstairs. "Phoebe, my power works when I'm panicked usually. That's a good place to start. When you see him, just panic."
"See who?" Phoebe asked as the kitchen door flew open.
"Him." Piper screamed.
Prue jumped in front of Piper to use her power and waved her hand, then looked back at Piper.
"Sorry, forgot, it's a habit." Prue said.
He started towards them and Piper poked Phoebe.
"Now would be a great time!"
"I can't!"
Piper screamed at Phoebe all the sudden and Phoebe threw he hands up at Piper, but the warlock at the door froze. Piper nodded her head.
"That's good." She turned around to face her mother and grandmother. "Grams? You wanna send him out, please?"
Penny nodded and flung him into the other room. Patty ran over and put her arms around her girls, and listened to the yells and growls from the other room. A few minutes later Penny came back.
"He blinked away." She said.
Parker came back with Patrick and Preston behind him. Prue didn't waste any time finding out who had whose power. She picked up two biscuits and chunked one at Patrick and one at Preston. Patrick's biscuit stopped in front of his face, and Preston's was redirected to hit Phoebe in the back of the head.
"Well, Patrick has Piper's, and Preston has mine." Prue announced.
"Hey!" Phoebe griped, rubbing her head.
"This isn't happening." Piper muttered, rubbing her face.
"Okay, let me get this straight." Phoebe said. "Patrick and I have Piper's power, Prue and Piper have my power, and Parker and Preston have Prue's power?" Penny and Patty nodded. "So you're telling me that the experienced witches, here, have inactive powers?"
"Prue and Piper are not the only experience witches." Patty said. "You're just as experienced as they are."
"Right, but I'm experienced in seeing events before or after they've happened and filling the rest of you in. I'm not used to freezing things. I'm not used to actually facing the warlock or demon up front like Prue and Piper do."
"You want us to protect our brothers with inactive powers?" Prue asked.
"That looks like it's what you're going to have to do." Penny said.
"They're going to have to protect us!" Piper roared. "We are just up for grabs with this power!" Prue nodded in agreement. "And there is no way I'm spending the next few days at my brother's side. I can't stand any of them." She glanced over at the three. "Sorry."
"We don't care." Parker admitted. "None of us can stand you three."
Phoebe and Prue glared at the boys and Patty stood up.
"Your powers all got mixed up, now you can work together and get this warlock vanquished sooner rather than later, or you can all fight and argue and stay like this longer." Patty said.
"This isn't fair!" Phoebe said, turning to Prue. "I told you we shouldn't have done this."
"I should've listened to you." Prue muttered.
Monday morning came around quite fast after the girls had refused to work with the boys to get the job done sooner. Prue drove Piper and Phoebe to school and Patty took all the boys. She had a way of honking at them in front of their friends and blowing kisses to them. Phoebe loved to wait outside the school to watch them be humiliated.
"Remember, Pheebs," Piper came up behind her sister before the bell. "Don't get too excited about anything or you might…you know."
"What? Freeze everyone in homeroom?" Phoebe asked with a sigh.
"Just be careful." Piper said and walked into the building, going to her own first class.
Phoebe ran to homeroom when the bell rang. She sat down in her regular seat and got her English book out. The teacher got up in front of the room and began writing on the board. When she backed away, Phoebe saw the words 'Shakespeare's plays' written in large letters. She sighed and dropped her head to the table. At first she didn't notice that no one was talking. Then after a few moments she opened her eyes and slowly raised her head. Her teacher, Mrs. Fulton, was standing in front of the room with her hands clasped before her. Phoebe glanced around the room and saw that everyone was staring up front, unmoving. No one was making a sound, or even fidgeting.
"Oh…my…god." Phoebe whispered.
She jumped out of her desk and ran to the door. There was a small shade that the teacher pulled down over the window during tests to discourage people from staring out into the hall rather than working on their tests. Phoebe pulled it down so no one could see in. She quickly ran back to her seat, not knowing how long they would all be frozen. After ten minutes she sighed.
"How is this possible? Things never stay frozen this long when Piper does it." Phoebe muttered, nervously glancing around. "Please, please, please unfreeze. I don't hate Shakespeare this much!"
Piper was sitting in class writing down notes in her notebook when the person behind her tapped her on the shoulder. Piper dropped her pen and grabbed hold of the desk as a premonition over took her and she saw the girl dumping someone's homework into the toilet and waving goodbye to it. The teacher looked up at Piper.
"Is something wrong, Miss Halliwell?"
"Uh…no. Sorry about that." Piper answered, getting her pen off the floor.
The girl behind Piper whispered at her. Piper turned around to see what she wanted. She just held a book out and Piper took it. Since she already had her book she passed it up. When the person in front of her took it, his hand brushed hers and she jumped into another premonition. She saw him pushing some kid out of his way in the hall.
"Miss Halliwell!" The teacher called out, angry at all the disruptions.
"Sorry, I—I'm sorry." Piper said, sliding down in her seat. She put her face in her hands and muttered to herself. "Phoebe, how do you turn it off?"
Patrick was in his Algebra class listening to the teacher rant on and on about some equation that he didn't care about. He tossed his pencil up in the air and caught it and tossed it up in the air and caught it. Mr. Amgate slammed a book down on Patrick's desk to get his attention, making Patrick jump. He looked up and Mr. Amgate wasn't moving. He glanced around and neither was the rest of the class. He looked up and his pencil was hovering above his head. He snatched the pencil out of the air and sat back with a grin.
"This is the life." He muttered, watching time pass on his watch.
The bells rang and Prue hurried to her locker. When she got there, Piper was waiting for her.
"I can't take this." Piper whispered.
"You having a problem too?" Prue asked quietly. "I can't bump into someone without seeing some stupid little thing they've done or will do. Who cares if John Batterlin is going to steal something from the cafeteria lunch line?"
"I know; I keep getting into trouble because I'm disrupting class." Piper said. "I feel like I'm gonna fall down every time I get one."
"We need to find Phoebe and ask her how to tune it down." Prue said as the bells rang again. "Try to survive till lunch."
Piper rolled her eyes and headed to her next class, bumping into Patrick on the way. He clapped her on the back and smiled.
"Your power is great!" He whispered.
"What?" She asked as he walked away. "No, Pat, you can't use it like…" She sighed, watching him ignore her. "That." She finished. She shook her head and ran to class, trying to avoid everyone on the way.
Preston was in gym class when he was tripped and landed on his face. There had been one particular boy who did everything better than he did, and he liked to pick on Preston. Preston picked himself up and brushed himself off and got back in line. They were choosing teams for basketball. Preston was the last one to be picked since he couldn't play basketball worth a flip.
"Catch!" A boy chuckled and chunked the ball at Preston.
Preston was about to duck when he remembered he had Prue's power. He brought his hands up, ready to catch the ball, and right before the ball made it to his hands, he slowed it down enough to catch. The boy who had passed him the ball as a joke stopped laughing. Preston ran up to the goal with the ball and launched it. He guided the ball into the net with his newfound power. All the other boys stopped laughing and gawked at him. He just smiled and ran off. Then he used the power to steal the ball from the other team and make a three pointer. By the end of gym class he had everyone throwing him the ball.
Piper and Prue were sitting together at lunch, instead of with their friends, waiting on Phoebe. Phoebe came into the cafeteria and the minute she saw Prue and Piper she ran over to join them. She slammed her tray down and glared at Piper.
"How do you unfreeze things?" She asked. "I have frozen nearly everything all day long!"
"Oh, well you tell me how to stop these pointless visions and I'll tell you how to unfreeze things." Piper sighed. "This day sucks!"
"I froze my English class within two minutes of walking through the door, fifteen minutes later they unfreeze and the teacher wonders why the day is speeding by so fast." Phoebe said.
"Yeah? Well, we can't walk down the halls without getting a premonition from everyone that we barely even touch!" Prue told her.
"Oh, and Patrick is using my power to purposely freeze classes." Piper added. "Least that's what I figured when he told me how great my power was."
"We have to fix this!" Phoebe sighed.
Penny, Patty, and Victor were sharing some tea when the kids all got home. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe stormed into the Solarium, all three furious. Penny tried to calm them down, but they wouldn't all stop talking at once.
"Enough!" Victor yelled. "One at a time, please."
"Fine." Piper growled. "We want everything fixed. We want the spell to put everything back the way it was meant to be."
"We couldn't even make it through one day at school without using these powers every ten minutes." Prue said. "None of us know how to use them."
Patrick, Parker, and Preston came into the room shortly after the girls. Patrick took a step forward and draped an arm around Piper's shoulder.
"I love having this power, Mom." He said.
Piper sighed and shoved his arm off. "He's also using it to make class fly by, so he can't get any homework."
"I won over the basketball team!" Preston chirped. "I had the ball every minute practically. Prue's power is amazing."
Parker laughed. "Then let's not even get into my football practice."
"Wait a minute." Patty said. "You boys are using those powers for personal gain?"
"Sure!" Parker answered.
"We talked about that before you got them. You can't do that." Patty said.
"I told you we shouldn't have done it." Phoebe muttered.
"Why can't we? They're our powers." Patrick said. "We'll do what we want with them."
"Those are not your powers!" Piper reminded them forcefully. "If you remember right you were all born with nothing. Those are our powers." She gestured to herself and her sisters. "We're the Charmed Ones. They are ours by birth right."
"Yeah…" Patrick said. "But now we got em."
"Oh you little—"
"Whoa, Piper." Prue grabbed her and pulled her back.
"Prue, I'm warning you, let me go."
"Piper, calm down." Prue said, and then whispered. "I have a plan."
Piper growled at Patrick and then yanked away from Prue and marched up to the attic. A slamming door could be heard just moments later. Phoebe glanced at Prue, extremely surprised by Piper's outburst.
Prue and Phoebe found Piper lying on her bed staring at the bottom of the top bunk. Prue sat down next to Piper, and Phoebe leaned against the rail and looked at her. Piper glanced over at Prue and then over her head at Phoebe.
"I don't want to go to school tomorrow." Piper said.
"Well, you won't have to worry about anything if Prue's plan works." Phoebe said.
Piper rolled onto her side and propped herself up on one arm. "What plan?"
"I figure we're still the Charmed Ones right? We still have some powers, even if they aren't the right ones. I say we get the spell to vanquish this warlock and then we find a way to either lure him here or summon him. Then, as the Charmed Ones, we vanquish him."
"That still doesn't give us our powers back, Prue. They can hold onto them as long as they want them." Piper said.
"Not necessarily." Prue said. "We can always cast the spell while they're asleep."
"Yeah, Grams said that potion was only to help our powers split, so we don't really need it." Phoebe said with a grin.
"Then let's do it. What are we waiting for?" Piper asked, jumping out of bed.
"Well," Prue started.
"What? Well what?"
"Piper, we'll still be vulnerable when he comes. He might attack, and I don't have my power to stop him, and you don't have yours, and Phoebe doesn't know how to use yours."
"So, I'll teach her to use mine." Piper said. "I mean all she really has to do is freak out when he shows up."
"Which will be hard for her because she's usually pretty good at keeping a cool head when we're attacked."
"Well, sure, Prue, cause I've seen it coming already." Phoebe said.
"That's not the point." Prue shook the comment away. "Look, are you two willing to risk it?"
Piper nodded. "I want my power back. No offense, Phoebe, but it's mine, and I'm sick of the way others use it."
"None taken." Phoebe muttered. "No offense to you two either, but I want my power back. It's not as bad since you guys have it, but it's still mine, and I feel kinda weird without it."
"When can we try to call him to us?" Piper asked.
"Mom will kill us if she finds out, and no telling Grams or Dad either." Prue said. "We'll do it after midnight when everyone is asleep."
"Sounds like a plan." Phoebe nodded.
"This sounds so…"
"What?" Prue asked Piper.
"Well, you see people doing things creepy and magical after midnight on television, and that never turns out good." Piper said.
"Yeah." Prue nodded. "But then again those people are amateurs."
"Well, that and actors." Phoebe added. "It's supposed to go wrong for them. Makes the show interesting."
"Can't argue with that." Piper laughed.
"So, act normal at dinner." Prue pointed a finger at them. "No nervous twitching or anything to give us away."
"Nervous twitching? Who twitches when they're nervous around here?" Piper asked.
"Okay, you're right, none of us." Prue agreed then looked Piper in the eyes. "Don't talk at dinner."
"What? Why?"
"You tent to ramble and babble when nervous." Prue pointed out.
"I do not." Piper argued.
"You do! When we were going to dot the boys with permanent markers you went on and on and on and on…"
"We get the point, Phoebe." Prue interrupted.
"About how erasers really are amazing and you wish you knew how they erased pencil marks." Phoebe continued. "That didn't make anyone wonder what was up." She said sarcastically. "We all know you talk aimlessly when you're nervous."
"Whatever." Piper muttered.
"What do we do till dinner?" Prue asked.
"Homework?" Piper asked. "I know I got plenty, since I couldn't get anything done with all the premonitions I was getting. Touch this - get a flash, touch that – get a flash, bump into him – get a flash, bump into her - get a flash…"
"Piper…" Phoebe stopped her. "We get it."
"Right." Piper nodded.
"Homework can wait." Prue said, rubbing her chin dramatically. "I have better ideas."
"Really?" Phoebe asked evilly.
"Yep." Prue answered, leaning closer to Piper and Phoebe. "I say we start making plans on how we're going to win this feud after we get our powers back."
"Wait…" Piper stopped them. "What exactly did Patrick do to make you drop your 'No Revenge' mentality?"
"Piper, Andy came over and we decided to go to a movie Friday, right?" Prue asked, Piper and Phoebe nodded. "We decided to take my car. We stopped at a drive in eating place, and when I asked him to get my stash of napkins out of the glove box…" Prue paused and exhaled deeply.
"What happened?" Phoebe asked.
"He opened the glove compartment and had about a zillion…um…" Prue cast a glance at Phoebe.
"Come on! I'm old enough!" She whined.
"Let's just say that Andy got the impression I was big on safe sex." Prue said, scratching at her neck and not looking at them.
Phoebe and Piper started laughing. "Are you serious?" Phoebe asked.
"Oh yeah." Prue rolled her eyes. "There was a note in the back that said 'Prue wants it, so give it to her good.' And it was signed 'The Feud has begun'."
"That's terrible." Piper said.
"I had to explain to Andy that I didn't want anything and that all those…" Prue paused.
"Condoms?" Phoebe finished.
"Phoebe!" Prue shouted.
"What?"
"You're too young for that!" Prue said.
"Well, you're the one stashing them in your car." Phoebe giggled.
Prue sighed. "That was so embarrassing telling him those weren't mine. Of course, he believed me, but it was still humiliating."
"That sounds like a good reason to get him back." Piper said.
"I just couldn't take any more of his childish, humiliating pranks." Prue said. "I'm ready to be childish right back."
"And you got the masters to help you." Phoebe chuckled.
Patty came into the dining room carrying a tray. She set it down and put the dishes in the center of the table. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe sat on one side of the table; Patrick, Parker, and Preston sat across from them. Patty and Victor both sat on opposite ends of the table. Piper glanced at Prue to her left, then at Phoebe to her right.
"Could you please pass the butter?" Piper asked.
"Sure." Patty said, handing it down to Phoebe whom handed it to Piper.
"Thank you." Piper answered, then looked up. "Thank you both." She added, looking at Phoebe. "I didn't mean to not thank you. It's just that I –"
"Right, could you hand me that knife?" Phoebe asked Piper, staring into her eyes.
"Oh," Piper whispered and looked over for the knife. "Sure. Here."
"Thanks."
"Mhmm." Piper muttered.
"You boys are being awfully quiet." Victor noted.
"We're just making up plans on how best to use our new powers, Dad." Patrick answered.
"Pat, your mother told you that you aren't to use your powers like that."
"Right. Sorry." Patrick snickered and glanced over at Piper.
Piper inhaled deeply.
"It's just that it's kind of hard not to want to use them in whatever way we find convenient." He said. "We'll try not to use them wrong." He said in a sweet voice that didn't fool the girls.
Piper rolled her eyes.
"That's good." Patty said. "Thank you for listening."
"Any time, Mom." Patrick said. "For you," He added.
"Aw, how sweet," Patty said.
"Oh, my God!" Piper pushed her chair back and threw her napkin down. "I'm not going to sit here and watch this." With that she marched out of the room, ignoring Victor, who was telling her to finish her dinner.
Victor got up to follow, but Patty caught him. "Let her go."
"She shouldn't act like that." Victor said.
"She needs time to adjust." Patty said. "Piper doesn't like things to switch like this on her."
Victor sighed and sat down.
Piper went up to her room and slammed the door shut. She kicked the door afterwards.
"I can't believe he—" Piper ran her hands through her hair and groaned. "That's it." She walked over to the book and started looking through it. "I'll put Prue's plan into action."
She found a summoning spell and debated with herself whether or not it would work. Then she copied down the vanquishing spell. She cleared her mind and took a deep breath and read the summoning spell. She opened her eyes in time to jump out of the way of a fireball. She squealed and ran downstairs screaming.
Patty ran into the Sitting room and saw the Warlock chasing her daughter. She threw her hands up and froze it. Prue and Phoebe ran up behind their mother, and the boys behind them.
"What's going on?" Patty asked.
"Uh, an attack?" Piper asked.
"I have to get upstairs and get the vanquishing spell." Patty said. "At least now we have him."
"I have the spell!" Piper said.
"Why?" Patty asked. "Were you expecting him to barge in on dinner?"
"No, not really." Piper admitted. "I've been carrying it around with me since that night. You never know when he might have decided to attack, I just wanted to be ready." Piper lied.
"Fine, give me the spell, hurry."
Piper ran to her mother and handed over the paper. Patty sighed and handed it to Prue.
"Power of three." Patty said. "Not me."
Prue yanked Piper over by the collar, practically growling at her. Together she, Piper, and Phoebe recited the spell written on the paper. They weren't sure if it would work since they didn't have their powers. The demon unfroze and as he was burning he dove at the boys. They all screamed and ran back into the dining room, shoving Victor out of their way.
Piper sighed when the warlock finally poofed into smoke and his last scream was heard. Prue grabbed Piper by the collar again and dragged her upstairs. Patty watched them go in confusion. Phoebe started to follow and then turned around.
"Prue is a little mad that Piper's had the spell all along, especially since we were attacked at school in the girls room. Don't worry, she'll get over it." Phoebe lied and ran upstairs.
Phoebe informed her sisters of her lie. Prue shoved Piper down on Phoebe's bed and glared down at her.
"Sorry?" Piper asked.
"Sorry? Sorry!" Prue shouted. "You summoned that warlock without our knowing! You could've been killed, Piper! You don't have your power, remember?"
Piper jumped up and pointed at the door. "Right! And it was that thing's fault that I don't! Forgive me for wanting to fix things!"
"And I thought I was the one who didn't like this." Phoebe muttered.
"Shut-up!" Prue and Piper both shouted at her at once.
"I don't care if you wanted it all fixed, Piper. You should've waited until tonight like we had planned."
"That's all fine and dandy for you, Prue, but I can't stand the way Patrick is acting!" Piper muttered. "He's flaunting my power around like it's a gold medal! That power was given to me to protect and save lives, not to skip out on homework."
"I know that but–"
"Prue, just drop it. It's over and dealt with. It wasn't even that hard." Piper cut in. "Just stop lecturing me about it, I know that I put myself in danger, I know I made a mistake and did something stupid, but I don't care. In six hours we'll be casting a spell to get our powers back, and that's all I care about!"
Piper turned and marched over to her bed and flopped down, hugging her pillow. Prue sighed and slouched onto Phoebe's bed. Phoebe took a deep breath and looked from Piper to Prue.
"So can I speak now?"
Piper was staring at the bottom of the top bunk when Phoebe poked her shoulder. Piper didn't move or say anything and it was too dark for Phoebe to tell if she was asleep. Phoebe poked her again. Piper reached over and slapped her hand.
"Ouch!" Phoebe muttered, rubbing her hand.
"What is it?" Piper asked, turning her head to look at Phoebe.
"How long are you and Prue not gonna talk to each other?" Phoebe asked quietly so Prue couldn't hear.
"Beats me." Piper answered.
"Well, it's just that… I ask because in two hours we have to steal our powers back, and it might be nice if you two weren't trying to kill each other in the process." Phoebe smiled.
"This is so wrong." Piper sighed.
"What is?"
"I'm supposed to be doing that."
"Doing what?"
"Fixing everything. I'm not supposed to get into fights with you two like this." Piper said.
"Everyone needs a break from something." Phoebe said. "Maybe you wanted a break from peacemaking."
"Who knows." Piper leaned over and looked at Prue sitting on their pillow pile with the book in her lap, no doubt looking for something to help them get their powers back.
Piper sighed. Phoebe pulled her off her bunk and dragged her to where Prue was. Piper shrugged Phoebe off and sat down.
"I'm sorry, Prue."
"What?" Prue asked.
"I said I was sorry." Piper sighed. "How many times do you need to hear it?"
"Piper…"
"I know I made a mistake, Prue. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Piper scoffed and looked over a Prue. "Does that make it okay yet?"
"Piper, I didn't mean to sound like you had done something stupid." Prue said. "Although, it was because you could've been killed." She added. "I was just worried about you."
"I know, Prue."
"Come here." Prue held out and arm, and Piper scooted over.
Prue pulled Piper into a sideways hug. Phoebe sat in front of them smiling, and then she jumped on them, hugging them both.
"I felt left out." Phoebe explained.
Prue pushed away and pointed at a page in the book. "This is all I got to go on."
"Prue, that's the incantation that gave us our powers to begin with, how is that gonna work?" Piper asked.
"Well we used some of it to split our powers. I figure we say just about the same thing we said when we tried splitting them, but reword it a bit to get them back instead." Prue pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. "This is what I think."
"In this night, and in this hour,
We reclaim in whole, our birth given powers."
"See? Just like the other one, but different." Prue said. "We'll still say the little stuff afterwards too."
"Better than nothing." Phoebe muttered.
"I hope that it works." Prue said. "Otherwise, Mom will have three pissed off little witches on her hands."
"What about a potion?" Piper asked. "You don't think we need one?"
"Don't think so. Grams only had that other one to help split our powers, remember?" Prue asked.
Piper nodded and looked over the spell again. "I'm up for anything."
Two hours passed and their clock beeped that the hour had changed. Piper pointed and Prue nodded. It was 1 am, and Phoebe was asleep, which was typical. Piper woke her, quietly. She pointed at the clock, and Phoebe jumped out of bed, suddenly wide-awake. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe snuck downstairs, perfectly quiet, well aware of which steps creaked loudly. They snuck through the kitchen and into the basement. Piper was best at sneaking, so they sent her down first to make sure the boys were asleep.
A few seconds later they saw her head reappear and point down. She nodded and put a finger to her lips. Prue and Phoebe quietly followed her down. She stopped them halfway and pointed down at the step and ever so quietly, whispered the word 'creak'. Prue and Phoebe skipped that step.
Prue went to stand by Patrick's bed, Piper went to Parker's, and Phoebe went to Preston's. They each laid a hand, very gently, on their specific brother's leg. They exchanged glanced with each other and then began the spell.
"In this night and in this hour," Once again they paused here to glance at each other.
"We reclaim in whole, our birth given powers."
"With strength and protection," Prue whispered.
"With concern and reason," Piper nearly hissed.
"With spirit and courage." Phoebe finished.
"So mote it be." They concluded as one, right as Parker came around.
"What are you doing in here!" He yelled.
Prue, Piper, and Phoebe yelped and ran off giggling. Parker tried to slam the door shut on them with his power but it didn't work.
"Damn!" He cursed.
The girls returned to their rooms, and Prue started flinging pillows at her sisters using her power, with a huge grin on her face. Piper froze a few of the pillows and was laughing uncontrollably. Phoebe had even gotten a premonition of them getting in trouble for making noise, so she knew she had her power back as well. She told them what she saw, but they didn't care. Things were the way they were meant to be, and they would never ever let their powers go again. Prue had learned her lesson. 'Grams and Mom aren't always right about everything.'