Disclaimer: They belong to Aaron Spelling and Brad Kern. The squirrel bastards.
Feedback: is a girl's best friend. Constructive criticism is, as always, actively encouraged.
Question to dwell on: So if a writer kills a man off after character assassinating him for a season and half, should he really get away with it?
Notes on historical accuracy: I've tried to remain as accurate as possible but being neither a native San Franciscan or an historian, I've muddled through as best I can. Some of the historical events outlined here have been compressed somewhat but occur in their original chronological order. The only purposeful anachronism is the existence of the University of San Francisco, which at the time was still St. Ignatius College. However, I needed a university in the role of Cole's school, so USF it is. If you catch any other glaring errors, though, please let me know so that it can be revised.
Notes on chronology: There's some confusion surrounding Cole's age in regards to the events in 'Centennial Charmed.' I've decided to stick to his original canon dates (b. 1885) and assume he was born late in the year, making him twenty at the time of this story.
Timeline: Canon up until 'Centennial Charmed.' Complete AU after that.
Rating: PG-13. For language, violence and implied adult situations.
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PARALLEL INTERSECTIONS
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The gods have not revealed all things to men since the beginning But by seeking, they find in time what is worthwhile
-Xenophanes
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PROLOGUE
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Personally, Paige blamed Cole.This was a favorite pastime of hers, one that had begun long before his abortive marriage to her sister and which she saw no reason to stop now that he was dead. The two of them had never gotten along, although they shared the occasional moment of camaraderie when they forgot they were supposed to dislike each other. Still, any goodwill she bore toward him had gone out the window when he'd created an alternate reality where she was dead.
In this case, she had a much more direct reason to blame him because that short jaunt to a world that could have been was the cause of her current predicament.
Paige was fully aware that she was merely a replacement, a stand-in for a sister she'd never met. Destiny's own personal backup plan. If Prue hadn't died, she in all likelihood would still be at social services, maybe as an assistant, maybe as a full-time social worker, but certainly not as a witch.
She believed her sisters loved her and she had come to adore her new-found family but there were still times when she felt like the understudy she was. Especially when she realized that the Piper in Cole's bizarre alternate world had shown more admiration for her abilities than her own Piper did.
And, boy, did that chafe.
Therefore, being unemployed and having more free time on her hands than she really wanted, she started up some projects on the side, expanding her magical repertoire. Minor things at first: restocking their potion supplies, reading up on crystal properties, indexing the Book of Shadows. Stuff she'd been meaning to do anyway. Then she started to get a little more in depth, cataloguing spells and exploring the theory behind them.
That was when she discovered the hornets' nest of temporal magic.
Her family seemed to have more experience with it than most. There had been jaunts to the past and visits to the future, not to mention her own sideways shuffle into an entirely different universe. And the more she read about it, the more it worried her. Every time you slid through time itself, you increased your chances of, frankly, fucking up the entire space-time continuum. Thus far, the Halliwells had squeaked by mostly through luck; their goal had been to fix someone else's mess rather cause any change on their own. Still, Paige was beginning to suspect it took an advanced physics degree to even begin to understand the theoretical implications, and by that point, you'd have learned enough to run screaming for the hills if someone even mentioned the words 'time travel.'
And yet...
There was so much to learn. Discovering spells that had been lost over time. Reconnecting with the roots she was only starting to discover. Maybe even figuring out a way to prevent someone like Cole from abusing his gifts again. And she wanted to learn something that was hers. She'd picked up some of Prue's unfinished work but it only reinforced the idea that she was a fill-in. She wasn't a natural spell-writer like Phoebe and she didn't really have that strong an interest in potions beyond learning the basics so that would always make Piper her superior in the study.
This? She wanted to learn it, understand it, present it to her sisters and say, "See? I'm not just some screw-up who quit her job because she couldn't handle the pressure. I can do something. Something good." Even if her sisters didn't actually see her that way, Paige was starting to see herself that way and she was sick to death of dealing with an inferiority complex over a dead woman and a long bout of unemployment.
Her research started to narrow her focus. The way she saw it, the major problem wasn't observing the past, it was affecting it. The last thing anyone needed was her killing a butterfly and setting off a chain reaction of chaos theory. No, what she had to do was figure out a way to remain a silent observer without running the risk of changing the past.
Ironically, it was Prue that gave her the answer. Her eldest half-sister had possessed two major powers: telekinesis, which Paige had partially inherited, and astral projection, an ability to throw her mind outside of her body. Although Prue had mastered it to such an extent that she could use her astral self as a physical extension, it was the intangibility that primarily interested Paige. If she could figure out a way to modify that astral ability into a spell rendering the user invisible as well as intangible...
Well, hell, this might just work.
It was a wet Friday afternoon when it all came together. Phoebe was still at work and Piper had departed early to conduct inventory at the club, leaving the patter of raindrops against the roof as Paige's sole company. The spell ingredients were an amalgam of plants used primarily for travel and vision, although she'd been sure to include some lady fern for protection. Around her neck hung a small, finely cut piece of jasper, normally used as tool for visions of both past and present but here serving as her anchor to this time and place. God forbid she should be lost, stuck as an unseen, unknown ghost.
Taking a deep breath, she sprinkled the herbs into a small cauldron, intoning,
"Five minutes gone "What once had been "Let me observe "Without being seen."
Bleargh. When she did present her findings to the other Charmed Ones, she was definitely getting Phoebe to write her a better sounding spell.
She lit a match and dropped it into the pot. The plants ignited immediately, spewing out sparks and thick smoke. Rather than dissipating, the smoke continued to grow, enveloping the room and stinging her eyes. Paige shut them in response, sending a brief prayer to whatever deities might be listening that all would go according to plan.
When she opened her eyes again, blinking back irritated tears, the first thing Paige noticed was that she had moved and now stood on the opposite side of room. Which was weird. The second thing she noticed was herself.
Well, not her now. The Paige of five minutes earlier, still double-checking the correct measurements for her ingredients. The Paige of now grinned. "Yo, Paige! Earth to Paaaaaige!"
Her past self gave no indication she'd heard anything. Mission One accomplished. Now to see if she'd gotten everything else right. She reached out as if to tap her other self on the back only to watch as her hand slipped right through her shoulder, no more substantial than air. Okay, that was a little creepy but also, when she thought about it, really kind of...
"Cool."
She spent another minute checking out her past self but quickly grew bored; after all, she'd already lived through this. Stepping back, she recited the return spell,
"Leave the past now "For it is long gone "Return me at once "To where I belong."
Paige felt a brief sensation of vertigo and could swear she smelled smoke before she abruptly found herself sitting once again before the smoldering remains of her spell. She reached out a hand to touch the rim of the cauldron and was delighted to feel the smooth, solid metal under her fingertips.
An unqualified success.
In the weeks to come, she would study the magic of time further, increasing her knowledge, growing more confident in herself and her abilities. But there was one important lesson she completely forgot.
Pride always goes before a fall.
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END PROLOGUE