Dicalimer: I do not own Charmed
Chapter One
Hey Sister, Four Sister
Four months after the Ultimate Battle
It was a beautiful day in San Francisco. The Ultimate Battle, which had seen the dead Prue Halliwell resurrected by the evil Triad and anointed as the Source, had ended months before, and now the Halliwell family was free to go on with their lives.
Prue Halliwell, returned to life by the Angels of Death and Destiny at the request of the Elders was the oldest of the Charmed Ones. She had been dating her also resurrected one true love Andy Trudeau ever since the end of the battle and had been adjusting to life among the land of the living once again. During that time, she had been staying at the manor with her younger sister and bonding with her two nephews, Wyatt and Chris, which was a lot easier now she wasn't evil. She had also been catching up on family events, getting to know her two brothers in law, Coop and Henry, and also getting to know her youngest sister Paige, and had also managed to get her job as a photographer back at 415 Magazine.
Piper Halliwell, the second of the four Charmed Ones, and the most powerful, had been enjoying the perks of an almost demon free existence. Her restaurant, Triquetra had become an instant hit with most of the city's clique, and the restaurant was raking in the dough, while giving Leo enough time to attend to running Magic School and allowing the two of them to spend a lot of time with their two children, and work on detoxifying Chris' language, as due to his long imprisonment in the underworld with his brother, he had unfortunately picked up a few swear words which he seemed quite content to repeat at the most inopportune times. She was also preparing for the birth of her third child, Melinda Halliwell, who they had met during the war with Prue.
Phoebe Halliwell, for all intents and purposes the middle sister now of the Charmed Ones, was slowly getting back to work. Her baby girl, Prudence, had been born during the height of the war with Prue and her underworld minions and she was just now getting back to writing her advice column, with a lot of help and understanding from her boss, Elise Rothman, someone else who happened to be in on the secret of the sisters true identity as witches. Phoebe's husband, a Cupid called Coop, was also getting back to work as Prudence's aunt Prue was only too happy to babysit her when she wasn't too busy.
And finally, the baby of the four sisters, Paige Matthews, was moving on with her life. Pregnant four months, she was eagerly awaiting the arrival of her first child with her husband Henry. With all the powerful demons gone and the underworld in chaos, Paige had been taking a step back from her Wiccan duties, and had been aiding her charges as a Whitelighter, while her husband had been getting to know Darryl Morris, a long time friend of the family, and Prue's love Andy. The gap in Paige's witchly duties was being filled by her biggest sister, Prue, who Paige was quite enjoying getting to know.
Meanwhile, Billie Jenkins, one of the two sisters who had made up the Ultimate Power a year previously, was dating the Elder Kevin, who the girls had saved four years before whilst dressed as superheroes. She was also finishing her studies at university and performing her own witchly duties, with help from her Elder boyfriend, who to the other Elders great disgust didn't spend much time in the heavens and instead preferred to spend it on earth with her.
The Elders had recovered from the Source's attack a few months before and everything in the heavens and in the magical world had gone back to normal. The underworld on the other hand was in chaos. With the death of the Source, the Triad and all of the upper level demons that Prue had resurrected during her time as the Source, it was divided and leaderless, and even the ones behind the throne, for all intents and purposes the civil servants of the underworld, had all been vanquished in the final battle, so the underworld was in a state unlike any it had ever seen before. Various demons, warlocks and Darklighters were all trying to carve out niches of power for themselves and hence very few of them, bar the very arrogant, the very stupid, or the very suicidal, were attacking the family.
However, a small group of demons, lamenting the fall of the underworld and what they saw as the Charmed betrayal of their ends, were gathering and were preparing to take their revenge upon the sisters...
XX
"That's what makes it so hard to be a petty and judgemental sister. Piper and Phoebe know all of your history with Andy, I don't, so it makes teasing so much harder." Paige said with a grin as she and Prue walked through the streets of the centre of town, shopping for shoes and clothes for themselves (Prue especially as she was still using some of Piper's clothes), and stuff for Paige's soon to arrive baby, along with a few witch items they were low on, considering Paige lived with Henry and Prue had been catching up with new potions and spells and had been showing Paige some of the more complicated spells she had created.
Prue grinned at her baby sister.
"Alright, how's this to let you be petty and judgemental...first time I saw Andy in years. Not long after I found out I was a witch, in fact it was the day after Phoebe cast the spell and gave us all our powers, Andy and I meet and he asks me out. I agree. We go out, dinner...dancing...," she said, then winced, "sex."
Paige smiled in delight.
"You stopout! On the first date?" she demanded in delight.
"Yeah...well technically it wasn't because we had dated when we were in high school, but that was the first time after that, and then Piper went and told Phoebe, who was a bit of a wild child still back then..." Prue explained, grinning at the wicked look on Paige's face.
"Oh? I don't know this either! Come on, spill!" she encouraged.
"Paige, have you seen the list of boyfriends she had whilst in New York? She managed in six months what it took Piper and I about five years to accomplish." Prue said with a grin and Paige laughed.
The two of them stopped for lunch at a cafe, and Prue had to admit she did enjoy getting to know her little sister. It was good having someone other than her mother and Grams to talk to again, and being able to see her sisters everyday, along with her nephews and her little niece.
"A casual boyfriend? Paige, I'm surprised at you." She said condescendingly as she stabbed a tomato in her salad.
"Oh less of that from you lady. I'm old enough to know what I want. And if he hadn't married some blonde bimbo he met climbing some mountain I might very well have wound up with him." Paige said musingly, surveying the last piece of lettuce on her plate.
"Aww, that sounds like me and Andy..." Prue said with a grin.
The two of them continued chatting idly, until Paige hunched over a little.
"I'm beginning to think this baby is a centipede, she kicks so much." She complained.
"Aww it will get better sweetie. I was watching all through Piper's pregnancies. Count your blessings, you aren't burping orbs or conjuring flowers or fireworks." Prue said with a grin.
"Yeah, well forgive me for not feeling the funny side." Paige said in a strained voice, and Prue's teasing began to turn to concern.
"Paige?" she asked and went round to her side of the table and crouched down beside her.
"I'm alright, it's just the baby kicking." She said, waving Prue away.
"No way, Paige, you look like you have a serious cramp." Prue said, shaking her head.
Paige turned to look at Prue, her face pained, and she nodded.
"Ok, maybe you're right." She admitted, and Prue picked up their shopping bags, and helped Paige up to her feet, letting her sister lean on her as they left the cafe.
"I don't understand why it's suddenly so bad all of a sudden." Paige moaned, as they prepared to orb home to Leo.
"It'll be ok honey." Prue promised as Paige orbed their stuff home.
"Prue..." Paige wheezed.
And the next thing she knew, Prue was slammed into a large, fur covered creature. Prue rolled to her feet, cursing, and looked at what had tackled her. The demon that had attacked them was large and had four small wings, attached to its four arms. It was covered in short brown fur, and it had wide, hideous yellow eyes and horrible fanged teeth.
"Paige!" Prue yelled in panic, but saw that her sister was out cold, a result of the collision.
"Paige!" Prue cried as several more of the bat like demons flew down after her.
Prue snarled and flicked one back, slamming it back into the wall with a sickening crunch that made the demon explode into flames. As three more of the bat like demons swarmed around her, Prue looked to the edges of the alley and hoped no innocents would come strolling down here. What had happened to her was good enough proof that magic shouldn't be exposed.
One demon took a hold of Paige, and Prue astralled to her, kicking the demon in the stomach, but then noticed the other three that were swarming her were about to render the deal with Destiny inadequate by striking her down. She went back to her body and raised her hand.
The resulting explosion of energy forced the three demons attacking her backwards, and the resulting shimmer of blue and yellow energy destroyed the three of them.
"Ok, that was new." Prue said and turned just in time to see the demon she had kicked grab Paige, flap its wings and fly into a sort of hole in the sky that slammed shut right behind them.
"No, Paige!" Prue yelled to the empty alleyway.
XX
Deep in the recesses of the underworld, Tornavax, the demon who was attempting to gather the remnants of the underworld from the ashes and once more lead it to glory, looked across at Phia. Tornavax himself was in his human form rather than his pure demon form at the moment.
Tornavax had been one of three competitors to the throne of the Source many centuries before. A powerful demon who could consume magic sort of like a hoover, using sheer magical power to make himself was stronger, he was a mix between shadow and a tornado in his demon form, given a terrible beastly form with glowing red eyes. His human form was a heavyset, muscular man dressed in black robes with black chainmail surrounding him, and a black cape embossed with a silver pentagram. He had long black hair to his mid back and a goatee, along with vivid red eyes. At the moment he was one of the few remaining demons of the old generation, and was very slowly working towards the day when he would lead the underworld. Having fought against Zankou and the Half-Faced Source for the throne many centuries before, he knew he had a monumental task ahead of him to restructure and repair the underworld while keeping hidden from the Charmed Ones to prevent the newly established and devastatingly powerful power of four finishing off he and his demons.
Phia was a demonic seer. The mentor of the original Seer, who was in a large part responsible for the mess they were now in due to her craving power and vanquishing herself and most of the underworld's leadership when she couldn't control the power of the unborn Source, her visions were even more far reaching and powerful, and it was said she could see a desired future and influence events to make it all the more likely. Clad in a deep purple robe, her face was covered by a scarlet cowl, and the bottom part of her face was covered by a black veil, so that all could be seen of her face were her two vivid purple eyes.
"Is it true then Phia? The rumours that are floating around?" he asked in his deep voice.
Phia nodded gravely.
"I am afraid so my lord Tornavax. Apparently one of the witches, the youngest, and pregnant to boot, has been captured." She reported.
Tornavax growled.
"That's all we need. Anything untoward from the underworld could get the Charmed Ones asking themselves who rules the underworld nowadays, and that could lead them to me." He grumbled.
"Fear not my lord, that shall not occur. I would warn you before such an event could happen. Anyway, the Myotis demons are of little threat, they're only on the offensive because that devastating little spell of the witches that wrecked the entire joint disturbed their nests."
Tornavax looked at her ponderingly.
"You're sure they will not ask questions about who rules the underworld now?"
He could tell Phia was smiling behind her veil.
"Truthfully my lord, you technically do not rule the underworld. All we have to our name at the moment is a couple of dozen demons who can be trusted and who you have revealed yourself to. As far as the rest of the underworld is concerned, there is no leadership, hence all the factions that are fighting and vying for power, with no side making any clear advantage. We need to keep it that way for a long while longer so as to avoid the eyes of the Charmed Ones. Once all of them have their children and are consumed with their personal lives we can begin to totally unify the underworld again but until then we must progress a bit at a time. But for now, discreetly moving things into place and accumulating a small but skilled power base will serve us better than gathering a large demonic following, because fools who are still loyal to the Charmed Source will perhaps blab in exchange for clemency. For now, secrecy and shadows are our best weapons." Phia counselled.
Tornavax nodded.
"I know Phia, that was how I challenged Zankou all those years ago. I knew what I was doing, the fact that someone betrayed my plans to him and got me imprisoned in that rocky prison is irrelevant." He complained bitterly, sitting down on his throne.
Phia's eyes widened, then she bowed.
"Forgive me lord. I meant no disrespect." She said, inclining her head once more as she straightened out.
"I know. So the Myotis demons capturing the youngest sister is of no threat to me?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.
"No my lord. The only one their action is a threat to is themselves." She said with a smile, and Tornavax grinned.
XX
Prue smacked her hand against the wall in frustration. Paige was gone and there was nothing she could do about it. This was all her fault.
Prue shook her head. For heaven sakes. She may have been out of it for six years but she was still a very powerful witch and the only reason Piper was stronger than her now was because her powers had continued to grow while she had been dead. She was one of the four Charmed Ones, and she was the former Source of All Evil. Time to get back into ass kicking mode pronto.
Right. Paige had been kidnapped by weird bat looking demons with bad need of contact lenses. Piper was down the coast with Leo and the boys, and Phoebe was at some awards ceremony. That only left Prue to rescue Paige. But then Prue looked at her hands, grinning as she remembered the way her power had advanced. It was the same power she had had when she had gone into the future to save Phoebe from being burnt at the stake. She had that, she had her astral projection, she was known as the original 'superwitch' and she was the former Source. She knew what she was doing.
"Right Prue, head on straight. You've been out of it for a while, true. But you were the Source and now you back to normal, so time to prove that you are!" she told herself.
Deciding she should probably figure out what they were up against, she stood in an alcove of the alley and astralled to the manor.
"Here we go, up the stairs, Book of Shadows...good to know something's never change." She said with a small smile as she dashed up to the attic.
Opening the Book, she realised that while she had sat up in the afterlife, pointing and laughing at her sisters with her mother and Grams, it was actually quite hard work flipping all the pages considering how big the book had gotten.
"I'll never find Paige at this rate..." she said dramatically, looking upwards, and as predicted, Grams flicked through the pages for her, and eventually it came to a stop.
"Thanks Grams...Phoebe was right we do listen to you more now than we did when you were alive." Prue said with a grin, and Grams jingled.
"Myotis demons...lower level demon but an upper level leader...live in deep caverns of the underworld, great we probably blasted apart their homes when we purged the underworld...powers include super strength, sonic screeches, and pain projection...explaining how Paige was in pain, they led us into a trap...lower levels can be vanquished with ease, upper, distinguished by distinctive black tufts on ears and ruff on neck needs a spell, but it doesn't seem to be power of three...why the hell am I talking to myself?" Prue demanded, as she finished reading the entry.
Copying down the spell Prue wondered how she could get herself to Paige considering both cosmic taxis they had weren't available at the minute. Unless...
"Powers of the witches rise
Course unseen across the skies
Take me there, be far or near
Take me to Paige to end her fear."
And with a thrill of elation, Prue knew she was back.
XX
Paige struggled futilely against the bonds that were holding her to the wall. These demons clearly knew how to get on her nerves and make her as uncomfortable as possible. Her arms and legs were bound to the wall in a star formation, her growing chest was weighing her down, and she couldn't orb. This was seriously not a good day. And the fact that they had used their powers to make her think she was in pain just pissed her off.
"Look pal, I'm sorry we trashed your home but we were at war. And if you let me go, I might convince my sisters to go easy on you." She said.
The leader obviously, due to the fact that his bulbous yellow eyes were flecked with red, and he had black tufts on his pointed ears and a ruff of black fur around his neck, raised one of his four hands.
"Silence human! You lead Charmed Source to us, and we revenge ourselves upon her betrayal." He vowed, and Paige rolled her eyes.
"Look bub, if she comes here, she and I will vanquish your sorry asses like they should have been when we took out the rest of the main underworld complex. But if you let me go...I might convince her that she has better things to be doing." Paige said, futilely struggling against her bonds.
The demon then smacked her in the face to shut her up, but Paige suddenly grinned.
"Fool human! Why you smile?" he asked nervously.
"Take a wild guess." A contemptuous voice said, and the entire clan, around twenty or so of these demons, all clambered to get a better look at the Charmed One who not so long ago had been the Source.
Prue narrowed her eyes. One of her against twenty or so of these bums? No problem. She hoped.
"Source Charmed One! You owe us homes! You die now!" the leader said, and with that, the entire swarm descended towards Prue.
"Prue!" Paige cried as they swooped down on her sister.
Prue calmly raised her hands and two telekinetic waves came from her hands and destroyed the leaders of the swarm. She dropped to the floor, rolling away from the sharp claws of the closest demons and kicked two into some of their friends, and knocked the stumbling demons into the walls as she rolled to her feet. She threw two more waves from her hands, vanquishing three more on each side, and she realised she had already taken down half of them.
"Prue, look out!" Paige cried, and Prue turned in time to deliver a high kick to the throat of clan leader.
As he fell to the ground, clutching his throat, Prue turned and flicked one of the Myotis demon groups into the wall and sent some of their effects smashing into the next group. She fired a wave at the last group, and the remaining six demons swooped at her, their teeth and fangs bared. Sonic balls travelled towards her, but Prue easily reflected them into the chests of the oncoming demons, vanquishing two more. She then felt a pain in her midriff, and turning she flicked the leader back into the wall, before turning and blasting apart another two of the demons. The last two then avoided her next wave and grabbed her arms and flew upwards with her kicking in their arms. Prue then angled and flicked off the binders that were holding Paige to the wall, and Paige orbed up to Prue and grabbed her before they landed on the ground.
"No! Kill!" the leader yelled and the two demons came at them, sonic balls flying.
Prue then casually turned them back to their owners, and they choked on their own attack before bursting into flames.
"See, now you're just showing off." Paige scolded, and Prue grinned, at least until the leader gave a furious roar and swooped back down towards them to end their lives.
"Here, we'll need this!" Prue exclaimed as he came closer, screaming at a horrible pitch.
"Winged blight, bat of night
We win this fight with our bright light!"
The lead demon then gave a mournful cry and blew apart.
"Oh yeah, I'm bad and I'm back!" Prue yelled in triumph.
"Prue! Are you mad? You could have been killed! And where the heck did you get that power?" Paige demanded.
"It's just my powers growing, nothing to worry about. And I knew I could take them all. Looks like superwitch is back." She said with a smug grin.
Paige rolled her eyes.
"Yeah well, I just got you as a sister, don't make me lose you again. Superwitch or not. But...thanks for the save." She said and hugged Prue, who smiled.
"You're welcome little sister. Now, what do you say to giving me a lift home?" she asked sweetly.
Paige smiled.
"Yeah I suppose so." Paige said, and they orbed off.
XX
"To being sisters." Paige said and she clinked cider bottles with Prue.
"Amen to that. And to being back in the game." She said, and the two drank deeply.
"You know, I'm glad I have another big sister." Paige said happily.
"And I'm glad I have another little sister. All the benefits of Phoebe, without any of the stress." Prue said with a wink.
Paige sighed and looked at the clock.
"I suppose I better get back or Henry will be wondering where I've got to. You seeing Andy tonight?" Paige asked with a coy look.
"No, I am having the manor to myself tonight thank goodness. A night of peace and quiet, without the frequent cries of 'asshole' will be sheer bliss." Prue said with a grin.
"It's your own fault he keeps saying that. I thought Piper was going to die when he said it at preschool." Paige laughed.
Prue laughed too and got up as Paige headed to pick up her stuff.
"You were cool today. Pretty obvious that I need to do a lot to live up to any of you." Paige said humbly.
"Aw Paige, you're a brilliant witch all by yourself. You don't need to keep comparing yourself to us. You look after my little niece and take it easy ok? It'll be nice to actually be here when a niece or nephew is born now rather than watching from up there." Prue mused as Paige picked up her bags.
"Yeah, it'll be nice to have another free babysitter. And don't worry, I'll go home and have a nice bubble bath and relax." Paige promised.
Prue hugged her baby sister.
"Bye sis. See you later." Prue said fondly.
"Night Prue. Enjoy your night off." Paige said and smiled at her big sister as she orbed out of the door, leaving it open as she did so.
"God its good to be back." Prue said with a smile, and flicked the door shut.
Hello again!
This is just a little series of small stories set in between my Charmed Season Nine: The Ultimate Battle and the first of the Wyatt, Chris and Melinda stories.
I felt it was time for Prue to be super witch again, so she has gotten back her groove and also felt she needed a little bit of sisterly bonding with Paige, so here we are. Yet while evil is certainly much reduced, Tornavax and Phia are plotting to one day change that, but they arent much of a threat for the moment...
Next time we have a mostly Piper centred story as baby Melinda joins us!
So until then, please read and review!