Hey. This is my second Charmed story (please check out my first called Little Women) and, unlike the first one, this one has magic and all that jazz in it.
Just some things – Leo never became an avatar, Phoebe's first child was actually twins, Cole was never vanquished, Chris never came from the future and the whole Utopia thing didn't happen, nor did the Gideon thing (mostly because I didn't really watch Charmed then and so am not entirely clear on what happened.)
Summary:- Sixteen years ago, Phoebe chose to stand by Cole, her husband and the source of all evil. Since then, there has been a truce between good and evil. Phoebe has not had any contact with her sisters since becoming Cole's queen. However, a new power is forming, more than either side can handle alone, and the Halliwell sisters will have to re-unite their families in order to defeat this power and train the next Charmed Ones.
Pairings – Phoebe/Cole – Piper/Leo – Paige/Glenn
The kids:-
Wyatt Halliwell – 15
Chris Halliwell – 13
Melinda Halliwell – 7
Benjamin Turner – 16
Alexia Turner – 16
Smith Turner – 8
Lily Belland-Halliwell – 3
Anything in Italics is telepathic talking.
Chapter One: Nightmares and Reunions
Thunder crashed as the roof was ripped off the house. A child screamed. A ring of fire, seven feet tall, surrounded them. Suddenly, a hideous face appeared through the flames and grinned, black fangs glistening, yellow eyes gleaming. The creature opened its huge mouth and breathed in. A vortex appeared and rapidly widened, a swirling mass of orange and green, sucking everything and everyone into it.
In a house in San Francisco, a little girl woke up screaming. Simultaneously, two other girls, one a teenager and one a toddler, did the same thing; one in a small apartment, one in a luxurious penthouse.
In the house, a man and a woman ran into the little girl's room.
"Ssh, honey, everything's okay," soothed the woman, wrapping her arms around her daughter.
"Was it the dream again?" asked her father.
The girl nodded her dark head and sniffed, burying her head in her mother's long, brown hair.
"Piper-"
"I know Leo."
"You need to call-"
"-Paige. I know Leo."
"And you have to-"
"I know Leo," Piper repeated for the third time, brown eyes flaring angrily. "But not now. We'll talk to Paige in the morning and then discuss what to do."
"Okay." Leo ruffled his little girl's hair. "You want to come sleep in our bed Melinda?"
Melinda Halliwell nodded and Leo lifted her up.
A tired looking teen stumbled into the room, wiping his blue eyes and scratching the back of his blond head.
"S'going on?" he yawned.
"Melinda had a bad dream. That's all," replied Piper. "Go back to bed Wyatt."
"'Kay. Night."
Next morning, a tired looking Paige entered through the kitchen door of the manor, carrying a little girl with blonde bunches, big brown eyes and a toy rabbit that looked like it'd seen better days.
"Morning Paige," said Piper, pouring a second cup of coffee for her sister. "Hi Lily."
"Hi Auntie Pipey," replied Lily, scrambling down from her mother's arms and wrapping her little arms around her aunt's legs.
"Melinda's watching Spongebob in the sitting room," Piper told Lily, before chuckling softly as the toddler tore off into the next room.
Paige collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table and gratefully accepted the mug Piper handed her.
"I need to sleep," she whined, laying her head on the table.
"Nightmare?" inquired Piper, already aware of the answer.
Paige nodded. "Nightmare. Every night now for two weeks."
"Melinda too. This means something."
The younger sister pulled her light brown hair back into a ponytail and sighed. "I know. And it scares Lily so much. Problem is, she can't really explain to me what's actually happening in the dream."
"I suppose it's a bit much for a three year old," Piper agreed. "Melinda's explanations don't really tell me much. Just that she's surrounded by fire and this…thing…opens it's mouth and sucks everything into it."
"And that the thing has big, black teeth and yellow eyes."
"Hmm," mused Piper, taking a sip of her coffee. "I checked the book, twice. There is nothing at all like that in there. Nothing even close to that."
There was a swirl of blue and white lights as Leo orbed in and sat at the head of the table, looking as tired as the two women felt.
"No one knows anything up there."
"Figured as much," muttered Paige.
"But if both Melinda and Lily are getting these dreams, then it probably means that-"
Piper cut him off. "Leo, we know what that probably means. But until we know what this creature is and that it isn't from…you know…down there…then we'll deal with it ourselves."
Leo sighed in exasperation. "Piper-!"
Before Piper could reply, Paige interrupted. "Piper, I know where you're coming from on this. I really do. But, for the safety of our kids, I think we should go talk to Phoebe."
"Fine," replied Piper, defeated.
"I also think we should go now," Paige continued.
"What?" exclaimed Piper. "Now? Can't we maybe…I don't know…prepare a little first?"
"What are you suggesting? We take a muffin basket and an animal carcass?"
"Paige is right," Leo said softly. "Both girls have been having these nightmares every night for two weeks. It's not good for them. They're so young."
Piper could see she was going to be overruled on this one, so she sat back in her chair and looked at her hands.
"I know you guys are right," she murmured, almost inaudibly. "But it took be so long to get over losing another sister, I just don't know if I can…"
"Piper, I know what you're feeling. I'm scared about seeing Phoebe after so long, and I don't know what to expect. But I do know that Lily means more to be than anything, and I know Melinda means the same to you, and I'm willing to do anything for her."
Piper looked up at her younger sister, who, in that moment, was a replica of Prue, and smiled slightly.
"Okay. Let's go now before I change my mind," she agreed, holding out her hand to Paige. "Leo, please look after the kids."
"Course I will, honey."
"Oh and later you need to have a word with your sons about the no-orbing policy."
Leo smiled. "As long as you have a word with your daughter about the blowing up vegetables thing. Mushed sprouts are really hard to get out of your hair."
Piper chuckled, and Leo could still hear her chuckling as she and Paige orbed out.
Over the other side of town, in a penthouse apartment in The Towers, a sixteen-year-old girl was sitting cross-legged on the white, carpet floor, watching as her twin brother lazily spun an energy ball on his hand from his position laying on the sofa.
Suddenly, she noticed something. A small cloud of blue and white lights.
'Ben, Ben!'
'What Lex?'
'Look. There. What is that?'
'I have no idea.'
"Dad!" the twins yelled in unison.
The doors to the dining room that doubled as their father's "office" slammed open and the source, Cole Turner, stormed out, eyes flaming angrily.
"What? I'm in the middle of something."
"Look!" Ben and Alexia exclaimed, pointing at the cloud that had now formed into two figures.
"What the hell?" muttered Cole.
The cloud dissipated and the twins looked in astonishment at the two women standing there. One had long, brown hair and chocolate eyes, while the other had light brown hair, cut stylishly just above her shoulders, and hazel eyes.
"What the hell are you doing here?" demanded Cole.
"We need to talk to Phoebe," replied Paige, her tone icy. "Now."
"She's not here," Cole informed them, his words ice encrusted. "So why don't you just go back to where you came from and leave us alone."
"Dad, who are they?" asked Alexia, Cole's only daughter and the apple of his eye.
She and her brother were now both standing, side by side, a few feet behind their father.
Piper glared at Cole, hands just itching to blow him up. "We don't want to be here any more than you want us here, but this isn't about us. It's about mine and Paige's daughters, and probably yours as well."
"What do you want with my daughter?"
Ignoring Cole and the anger that was coming off him in waves, Paige turned to the pretty, young girl standing behind him. She was a carbon copy of her mother, and Paige tried to ignore the slight sting that went through her.
"Have you been having nightmares recently?"
Nervously, Alexia nodded. "For the past two weeks."
"About what?"
She looked to her father and Cole gestured for her to answer Paige's question. Despite himself, he was curious, and, if someone could help rid his daughter of the nightmares that plagued her night after night, then he was willing to accept their help.
"I'm standing in a room and there's a huge ring of fire comes up around me and some other people. I can't tell who they are. And then this horrible face comes through the flames and it's got black fangs and yellow eyes. Then it opens its mouth and there's a vortex and everything gets sucked into it."
Paige and Piper exchanged a look. Their fears had been confirmed.
"Alright, what's going on? You just orb in here and start asking my daughter all these questions."
"Where is Phoebe. We need to talk to her. Now," Piper repeated.
At that moment, a burst of flames appeared next to Cole, and Phoebe was standing in front of them, her arm around a small boy.
"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" she asked Piper and Paige.
"That's what I've been asking them," Cole informed her.
"We need to talk to you about something really important," Paige told her, her tone almost begging.
"They know about my nightmares," Alexia said, quietly.
Phoebe visibly stiffened. "Ben, Alexia, take Smith and play on the playstation or something. Quietly. Cole, go and finish whatever you're doing in there." She turned to her estranged sisters. "You two, come with me."
Piper and Paige followed her into the master bedroom and sat on the bed.
"Phoebe-"
Phoebe cut Paige off. "No. You're not allowed to be here. Sixteen years ago we agreed on a truce. Our demons would stop attacking you and, in return, you'd stop hunting us down. Cole and I would stay out of your way, as long as you stayed out of ours. Why can't you stick to those simple agreements?"
"We've stuck to them for sixteen years. But this isn't about us, or about good versus evil. This is about the Charmed Ones-" Piper argued.
"The Charmed Ones are dead, Piper. There is no more Charmed Ones. There is no power of three. Its over."
Piper shook her head. "No it's not. Why do you think that mine, Paige's and your daughters are all having the exact same dream? Why aren't Wyatt and Chris or your sons? We may not be the Charmed Ones any more, but there's the next generation."
"Piper. Don't you understand? The power of three has to be gone. The Charmed Ones have to be dead."
"But why?" asked Paige.
Phoebe turned on her, her eyes flaming just like Cole's had. "Because if they aren't dead, they soon will be. We all will be."
"What do you mean?"
"If you're right, then that means Cole and I are harbouring a Charmed One. If it was to be discovered they would kill Cole, then they would kill me, and then they would kill our children. The truce would be over, and good and evil would be fighting again. They'd kill your children, then they'd kill your husbands, and then they'd kill you," Phoebe shouted. "The only reason that this truce exists is because Cole and I have done everything we can to prove to the demons and the warlocks that they are no longer threatened by the Charmed Ones."
"If you won't co-operate with us for our sake, or for the sake of our children, then do it for the sake of your children," Piper implored, her voice low and her tone even. "Do it for your sons and your daughters."
With that, Piper and Paige orbed out and Phoebe yelled angrily, blasting flames from her hands at the door. As she did so, the door opened and Cole walked in, buffeted backwards by the flames.
"Phoebe, what was that about?" Cole asked.
"We may have a problem."
Eh, that first chapter was iffy, but tell me what you think please.