The smell of whole-wheat pancakes filled the house. Leo appeared behind Piper, and wrapped his arms around her. "Everything smells wonderful," he whispered into her ear. She turned and embraced her husband in a passionate kiss. "Now you," she grinned trying to be serious, "can go set the table for me." Leo smiled as Piper handed a stack of dishes to him. Then the sound of three woman screaming was distinctly heard from all over the house, the dishes fell onto the floor with a loud smash. "Piper, what is it," Leo bent down to his wife who lay in a crumpled mess on the floor. "My head, it hurts so much." She squeaked out before fainting. A concerned Leo orbed Piper to their bedroom, and went to go check on Paige and Phoebe. He found Phoebe holding onto the banister for dear life, helping her up he asked what was wrong. "My head," she moaned, "I saw something." Leo shook his head and orbed her to her room, placing her gently on the bed. Then he ran to Paige's room. She was lifting herself off the ground slowly, rubbing her head. "I know, I know." She said when she saw Leo. "I'm a moron, I fell out of bed, it's alright." "No it's not, Paige." Leo replied. "Why? What happen-..." Paige interrupted herself, clutching her forehead, "no...not again."
Before Leo could rush to her side, a screaming baby Wyatt let the world know he had woken, and he was hungry. Leo orbed downstairs to get the milk, only to find the pancakes his darling wife had been making in flames. He awkwardly fumbled with the old dusty fire extinguisher, and wiping his forehead of the dust after the whole ordeal he sighed. "What the hell is going on around here?" The phone was ringing and he answered it, expecting it to be Phoebe's anal-retentive boss requiring the location of his missing employee. The voice on the other end was foreign however. The voice sounded like a young female, but it was raspy like the girl had been coughing for quite some time, she spoke in a broken whisper. "I...I heard that this is the home of three...the three...I need to tell you...you are in danger. Great danger...I can help you. Meet me at the cemetery tonight...midnight...many lives hang in the balance." Before Leo got a word in edge-wise the phone disconnected.
He wrote on a piece of paper hastily, cemetery midnight (?), and stuffed it in his pocket. Grabbing a warm bottle he orbed upstairs to check on his wife and son. Wyatt stopped crying as soon as he was fed, and Piper was beginning to open her eyes. "Leo," she cried out. "I'm right here..." He said gently. "Is Wyatt alright, Phoebe, Paige?" She rushed out. "Yes, everyone is ok, now. We all just need to talk about what happened." Later the entire household was assembled in the living room, with the exception of Wyatt who had found the excitement much too troublesome and swiftly fallen back asleep. "Who died?" Paige inquired playfully, amused by the serious expressions that be cast her family's faces. "Well, if what I saw is the slightest bit accurate, we won't have to wait too long to find out." Phoebe added quickly, the smile soon left Paige's eyes. Leo told them of the mysterious phone call, and Piper took her role as leader immediately. "We can't find out who called us today, because we didn't hear the voice. But we can find out what's happening tonight at the cemetery, and what we might be preventing. Leo, find out what you can from the elders about this, and I'll look through some old books." Leo nodded and orbed away. "Phoebe, try and write down anything you see when the vision comes back to you; faces, places, season, anything at all." Phoebe nodded and retreated to the sanctuary of the porch grabbing a pad of paper and pen. "And Paige find something to get rid of these headaches..." Paige nodded and grinned, "Sort of like a witch's Advil?" "Yeah...I guess," Piper responded eager to get to work. "I like the sound of that," Paige began as she wandered to the kitchen muttering something about a copyright. Piper sighed and sank back into the couch, there was so much work to be done. Trundling upstairs she wondered if the book of shadows had anything about fainting spells, weird phone-calls, and screaming children.
An hour later, they were all reassembled in the living room with a plan. "Explain to me again why me and Leo are going to the scary dark evil cemetery at MIDNIGHT?" Paige exclaimed exasperated. "Because you two can orb," Piper explained patiently, "You two will orb to the cemetery, and find the powerful young witch ..." Phoebe interrupted, "The girl that called here right? And the one I saw?" "Yes," Piper continued, "and bring her back here. Leo will orb her away somewhere safe, until we've vanquished the demon that's was going to sacrifice her, who will follow her here a few seconds later." Paige was finally catching on, "So I have those fifteen or so seconds to grab the potion I made, and we'll get together and vanquish his butt when he shows." Leo grinned, "It sounds like a plan to me." "Leo, there's one thing I don't understand," Phoebe began, "what did this girl plan to accomplish if we all went to the cemetery tonight." "It's sad actually," Leo said on a serious note. "She's been trapped and abused her entire life, for powers she's never been able to use. She knew that the source wanted to sacrifice her to gain the power, thus destroying the power of three. She felt her life needed to accomplish something, so she was going to have us go to the cemetery and she would a create a distraction, before she died so we could vanquish the source right before he took the power." "Suicide..." Paige breathed out, mouth open. "Basically," Leo concurred. "But that's not going to happen," Piper said bringing her family back to the present." "Right," Paige agreed with a smile on her face, "Let's do it." Paige grasped Leo's hand firmly as they orbed into the cemetery. "Not my idea of a walk in the park either, Paige." Leo said sensing his sister-in- law's anxiety, "Let's get the poor girl and get out of here." Paige pointed to some lights in the distance, "let's head over there." The sacrificial offering was something that neither of them had ever seen before. There were robed monks, rocking back and forth chanting, and every sort of demon imaginable. "There she is," Leo whispered, gesturing to a young girl being dragged forth by an oversized ape like creature. "I'll distract it," Paige said, "You grab her, and orb back here, we'll all orb home." Leo nodded and orbed toward the monster.
Faith struggled hopelessly against the large creature. "Let go of me you fucking creep," she yelled, though she knew it would accomplish nothing. "Where are the charmed ones?" She wondered. Finally she stopped struggling and became aware of her doomed situation. Just then a white light appeared in front of her. A man had vaporized from thin air. "Come on Faith," he said extending his hand, "We have no time." Faith had no reason to distrust the man, so taking his hand she hoped for the best. She appeared in front of a younger girl who was throwing things at the large demon who was getting more angry as the seconds past. She realized she was clinging to the man who traveled through the air and knew her name, and he had a comforting arm around her. "Come on Paige..." he called, grabbing her hand. Then Faith found herself in a house, two women were staring at her inquisitively. Faith buried her face in the man's arm to avoid there eyes. "We haven't got any time," the girl called Paige cried out, "I heard the scary monkey thing who had her call for help yelling about the power of three." Another woman said, "Yes, your right Paige. Leo, take her somewhere safe, and stay there, ok?" The man nodded slowly, and Faith found herself somewhere else.
They were in a school of some sorts, and Leo led Faith through it, still holding her hand. They stopped in a warm room, with lots of windows and light, and a couch. Leo led her gently to the couch and sat her down. "Faith, I know you're very scared right now. I need you to sit here for a couple minutes while I go talk to that man over there," Leo began pointing to a man in the corned of the room, who appeared to be a teacher. "Then you and I will talk about what happened, OK?" Faith nodded slowly, and tears began to spill down her cheeks at this stranger's affection. Leo's heart broke for the girl, she had been on her own for her entire life, never shown any love...and he couldn't bear to leave her just yet. He sat on the couch next to her, and pulled her gently onto his lap. He kissed her forehead, and stroked her hair whispering softly, "it's ok, everything's ok now." For the second time in her entire life Faith found herself hiding herself in this strangers arms, as the tears rushed out. They sat like this until Faith calmed down. "Are you OK now," Leo asked. Faith nodded, averting her eyes. Leo gently cupped Faith's chin in his hand and brought her eyes to meet his own. "You've got to stay here, Faith. I'll be back really soon." "Yeah, ok" Faith murmured, speaking for the first time.
Then Leo was gone, off talking with the professor in a hushed voice. Faith hugged herself tightly. This wasn't the way it was supposed to work. She imagined herself breaking free, not someone else rescuing her. Or dying to save others, she sometimes played that over in her mind. She could not deal with his kindness, this didn't feel safe somehow. Her eyes darted to the open window, she cautiously lowered herself from the ledge onto the ground and then she was gone. Leo came back into the room, bearing gifts of food. "Faith," he called out, his eyes stationed on making sure his balance didn't fail, "you hungry?" He looked up, curious at the lack of response. "DAMNIT!" An aggravated Leo watched the figure run further from the school. He orbed to catch her.
