2022
He shimmered home, an abandoned church in a secluded wood. The point was unable to be plotted on any mortal map; dark magic protected the spot from being found. The Source himself had given them this place to call their own. The walls were made of a dark, heavy stone, and the few windows were stained glass. Long tapers, in sconces on the wall, were the only source of light.
He wiped the blood from his face on his sleeve; he'd just come from killing a witch, and it had gotten messy. Now he could add shapeshifting to his list of powers.
As much as he loved the feeling of new power coursing in his veins, all he wanted at that moment was to see his wife. He knew where she'd be: her potions room.
Down the dark hall he walked and leaned against the doorway. His heart skipped a beat when he saw her, as it always did. She looked as beautiful as she had the day he met her.
Silky ebony hair rippled down her back like waves. Her brown eyes were hypnotic, able to switch from cool intensity to enraged passion instantly. Her body was lithe and taut beneath her ceremonial black robes. Her skin was pale as a vampire's; she rarely ventured out into the light. She hadn't aged a day in twenty-one years; her magic kept her body preserved from the day she gave up her humanity. Around her neck was a gold medallion, etched with an inverted pentagram, denoting her position as a Dark Priestess.
Piper looked up from the cauldron bubbling before her, a piece of sage dangling from her fingertips. Her scarlet lips parted in a knowing smile. "What are you looking at?" she asked, her tone betraying her amusement.
"You," her husband replied, moving from the doorway into the potions room. The cavern was lit with numerous torches, creating shadows across Piper's face. Leo lifted a hand to stroke her cheek, before kissing her. "What's this you're brewing?"
"Paralysis potion," she explained, tossing the sage in the pot. White smoke began to puff from the surface. "Put it in a witch's drink, she's instantly paralyzed. You can kill her without a fight."
"Is this for your own stockpile, or for a customer?"
"Just some lower-level demon," Piper sniffed. She turned back to her potion recipe, running a crimson fingernail down the page. "Have you seen our sons today?"
"Wyatt's on assignment," he said, "and I haven't seen Christopher all day."
Piper shook her head. Her potion complete, she began to pour it into several small bottles. "I don't know what we're going to do with that boy," she said, sounding agitated. "He's nothing like his brother. He's so withdrawn; he takes no joy in his assignments."
"He has his premonitions, and a good head for spells and charms," Leo reminded her. "He enjoys studying the Dark Arts. He could always take the Dark Orders and become a priest, or a potions master." He smiled at his wife, caressing her face. "Like his beautiful mother."
Piper smiled back, but the look in her eyes was distant; she had other things on her mind. "I suppose," she replied. "What day is it?"
Leo looked surprised. "In mortal time?" His wife nodded. "The… I'm not sure. November the first, I believe. Why do you ask?"
"Just curious," his wife replied, not meeting his eyes. "Go find Chris, will you? I'd like to have a talk with him."
"Of course," Leo said, pulling his wife in for a last kiss. "You look beautiful today."
Piper rolled her eyes almost playfully. "Go," she ordered, her tone much harsher than her smile.
Leo shimmered away. Piper began to clean up her potion supplies. November the first. She was shocked by the passage of time. That made it twenty-one years since she and Leo had left her sisters. Twenty-one years in the service of the Source.
-----
2001
When Prue died, Piper's world fell apart.
Three years of fighting the good fight, of sacrificing her life, her friends, her career- and for what? To lose the person she loved most in the world?
She had Phoebe; that was true. But Phoebe hadn't been close to Piper like Prue had been. They were the only ones who remembered their mother. The ones who taken care of Grams before she died. They'd bonded over toys as children, boys as teenagers, magic as adults.
Then they'd found out about Paige, and it was like another betrayal. Their mother had lied to them. How could it be, that they had another sister? Some woman, half-witch and half-Whitelighter, who just stepped into the family as if Prue had never existed? Piper tried to accept Paige, while attempting to fill the role of the big sister Prue had left vacant, but it was too much to handle all at once.
Leo tried. He promised that everything would be all right, that things would get better, that he'd always be there for her. But despite the fact that her husband was an Angel, he couldn't take her pain away.
Not too longer after Prue passed, Piper suffered another blow.
She was leaving the bank just before it closed one September night when she heard a woman scream from a nearby alley. "Help! Oh God, help!"
Piper took off, running down the street, stopping just where the alley met the street. A pretty blonde woman sat on the ground, crawling back against the wall, her face frozen in fear. A man dressed entirely in black- a warlock- threw an energy ball at her. She waved her hand; the energy ball flew into the wall, fizzing out.
"Stupid witch," the warlock snarled before powering up another energy ball. "Your power is mine."
"Hey, who are you calling a stupid witch?" Piper remarked, causing both the witch and warlock to turn her way. Annoyed, the warlock threw his energy ball at her; Piper froze it midair.
"I don't have time for this!" the warlock shouted. He blinked away.
The blonde witch looked at Piper. "Is he gone?" she asked, her voice tight with fear. She started to stand and move away from the wall.
"I think so-" The words had barely left Piper's mouth when the demon blinked in behind her, covered the witch's mouth with one hand, and with the other, stabbed her in the stomach with his athame. The witch groaned in pain as she collapsed to the ground.
"No! You bastard!" Piper screamed, throwing out her hands. Instead of blowing up the demon, she blew up a large crate in the end of the alley. Shards of wood went everywhere, and Piper was lifted off her feet. She slammed into the ground a few feet away. While she lay there, her back aching and her left ankle surely sprained, she saw the cool white essence of the witch's power- her telekinesis, just like Prue- flow out of her and into the warlock.
"Thanks for your help, witch," he snapped with a smile before blinking away. Piper turned on to her side despite her aching leg. Through her blurry eyes she could see the young witch's body, her crimson blood staining the pavement.
"Leo," she called quietly, pitifully. "Leo!"
She heard the familiar jingle of his orbs behind her, watched Leo kneel down beside her. "Piper! Oh my God!" He put his hands to heal her, but she shook her head.
"No, no, take me back first, please. I can't- I can't be here," she managed to say, her voice choked with tears. His blue eyes filled with concern, Leo laid his hands across her stomach and orbed them both to the manor.
-----
2022
When Prue knocked on the manor door, it was Lizzie who answered. "Mom's in a bad mood," she warned her older sister.
"Hi to you, too." Prue walked into the house, setting her coat and purse down on a couch in the parlor.
"Hi. Mom's in a bad mood," Lizzie repeated again. "Did you do something to make her upset?"
Prue shook her head; for a sixteen-year-old, her sister could be shockingly stupid. "It's the first of November, moron. Mom's always upset today."
"Why?"
"Today's the day Piper and Leo… you know…" Prue whispered to Lizzie, whose eyes widened.
"Oh," she said quietly, looking down at the floor. Their mother had never told them much about her aunt and uncle, a witch and former Whitelighter who had fallen away from the Light and turned to evil. It had been over twenty years ago, before Prue, Lizzie, and their youngest sister Brianna, were born.
"Where's Dad?" Prue wanted to know.
"The kitchen. Mom's in her room."
Prue nodded, leaving her sister in the parlor before heading into the kitchen. Cole Turner, a lawyer for the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, was in the kitchen with a sandwich in one hand and a Coke in the other. His eyes lit up at the sight of her. "Prue! I didn't know you were coming home. What a nice surprise."
"Dad, you're not supposed to be drinking that," Prue reminded her father. "Too much sugar; you're supposed to have only diet soda. And is there mayonnaise on that sandwich? Because the doctor said-"
"I know what the doctor said," Cole said, cutting off his daughter in a tone more bemused than angry. "When did you become a little health know-it-all?"
"I took a class in Nutrition Science last semester." Prue was a sophomore at San Francisco State University. She'd been accepted to Berkeley and Stanford too, but had gone to school in the city, mostly for her mother's peace of mind. Phoebe wanted all of her children close to home.
Cole frowned. "I thought you were a Sociology major."
"I am, but I have to take one Science class. It's part of my core curriculum."
Her father shook his head. "Why does the university waste our money with classes you have no interest in taking? I don't understand the logic behind it."
Prue smiled. It wouldn't be a visit home without her father complaining about something. For the first time, she noticed how old he looked: the bags under his eyes, the wrinkles forming around his mouth, the handful of white strands crisscrossing through his black hair.
"How's Mom?" she asked, becoming serious.
Any amusement left her father's eyes. He sighed, setting down his sandwich. "She's alright. Every year, it hurts a little less. She's come to terms with what happened, but you know your mother."
Prue nodded. Her mother, who'd earned her PhD in Psychology, had spent the last twenty years of her life writing books and teaching classes at the local community college to help people learn how to resolve problems and find happiness. It was ironic that she spent her life pursuing a goal she herself never had achieved.
"Do you think I should go upstairs and say hi?" Prue wondered.
Cole nodded, giving his daughter a small smile. "I think she'd like that a lot."
Prue nodded and headed upstairs, past the empty bedroom she'd occupied when she lived at home, that had been her namesake's room, Prue; Lizzie and Brianna's room, which had once been her Aunt Paige's room; and the master bedroom that had once belonged to her Aunt Piper and Uncle Leo, and now belonged to her mother and father. Prue knocked on the closed door. "Mom?"
"Come in," she heard her mother say. Prue walked in. Her mother lay on the bed, her eyes closed. A washcloth was draped across her head. Prue could see gray roots in her mother's brown hair that needed to be dyed. Phoebe's eyes flickered open when she saw her oldest daughter walk in. A warm smile grew on her face. "Hey sweetheart," she said, patting the spot beside her on the bed. Prue sat down beside her mother. "What are you doing here?"
"My afternoon class was canceled, so I decided to come by. Are you feeling OK?"
"Just a little headache, I'm fine," Phoebe told her daughter, sitting up and removing the washcloth from her head. "Are you sure everything's OK? No failed tests, boy troubles, demon attacks?"
Prue couldn't help but smile. "Nope. I'm demon-free." Like her mother, Prue had inherited her mother's gift of premonitions, and her aunt Prue's gift of telekinesis. She rarely ever used her powers, however; her mother had all but forbid it, except in the case of demon attacks. "Is there anything I can do for you, Mom?"
"No, I'm alright. Are you staying for dinner?"
"I can, if you want me to."
Phoebe smiled. "Of course I want you to. Why don't you grab Lizzie and Brianna and start cutting up some vegetables? I'll be down in a few minutes."
"Sure," Prue agreed, giving her mother a kiss on the forehead before getting up and leaving the room. The second the door shut, Phoebe closed her eyes again. She knew why Prue had come by: to try and cheer her up. Phoebe knew it was silly to grieve for a sister who hadn't actually died, but the day Piper had left her family, something inside of Phoebe died.
-----
2001
Phoebe could tell something was wrong with her sister. After Piper lost the innocent in that alleyway, she started acting… different.
True, it had only been about three weeks since Prue died, but there was something else. Piper spent hours locked in the attic, learning how to use her exploding power, writing spells and creating potions; it was as if she was trying to make up for losing that witch.
Piper getting lost in magic didn't make Phoebe's life any easier. She was still dealing with Prue's death, and now had to add on the burden of training Paige in the Wiccan arts, not to mention Cole being constantly on the run from bounty hunters. It was enough to make Phoebe's head spin.
Later she would feel guilty, that she hadn't seen the mess her sister was getting herself into. Phoebe was sure had she known, Piper never would have gone down the path that she did.
-----
Leo knocked lightly on the attic door. "Piper?" He opened the door slowly.
A cauldron bubbled away on the table. Piper tossed a handful of some herb into the pot; it hissed like a petulant snake. "Hi, honey," she greeted him without looking up from the Book of Shadows.
I wonder why she's working up here, Leo thought. It was much more convenient to brew potions in the kitchen- unless Piper was working on something she didn't want her sisters to know about.
"Is there a demon? Are you brewing a vanquishing potion?"
Piper shook her head, stirring the cauldron with a large wooden spoon. "Nope. What we have here, is a potion that scorches flesh, which should be done in just a moment."
"What do you need a flesh scorching potion for?" Leo asked, trying not to sound too suspicious. He moved to the table and picked up several smaller bottles, reading the labels on each one. "Mind control, Fire Breath, Torment… Torment?"
She nodded, looking proud of herself. "If you throw that at a demon, he'll be in unspeakable pain until you throw the antidote at him." Piper must've been unhappy with the shocked look on Leo's face, because she replied, "What? I've already made the antidote."
"Piper, did you get these spells from the Book of Shadows?"
"No, I wrote them myself." She started to look a little less pleased with herself. "I just want to be prepared. Paige isn't as strong as Phoebe and I are. We need a little extra fire power."
"You vanquish demons, Piper, to save innocents. You don't try to torture them-"
"Well, maybe they deserve pain, Leo, have you ever considered that?" Piper snapped, voice breaking. "We vanquished Shax, but if I could go back in time, I would put that demon through every kind of torture I can imagine, for what he did to Prue."
Leo was lost for words. He knew his wife would never completely get over Prue's death; and he was hard-pressed to say that he wouldn't torture Shax himself if he got the chance. "Piper," he finally said, "I know you feel bad for that witch you lost. But that wasn't your fault. You didn't know the warlock was coming back, you still don't have full control of your exploding power yet-"
Her face lit up. "Oh, but I do," Piper said gleefully. She turned to the dollhouse in the corner and tossed out her hands. The wooden dollhouse exploded, sending shards of wood and glass flying, just as Piper froze the pieces midair. She whirled around to look at Leo. "Impressed?" The pieces of wood and glass fell harmlessly to the floor with a final flick of her wrists.
"I- I am," he admitted. Piper had come a long way in only a few weeks. Not just magically; for the first time since Prue's death, she was cheerful and talkative and alive; Leo was thrilled to see her like this. He'd missed his wife.
Piper walked over to her husband, throwing her arms around his neck. Leo wrapped his arms around her waist, savoring her touch. Since Prue died, the last thing Piper wanted was for Leo to touch her. He inhaled the flowery scent of her hair; let his hands trace the curves of her hips.
"Leo, you don't need to worry about me. Phoebe doesn't have any active powers, except for levitating, and Paige can barely control her powers. I need to start being the big sister. Prue was the most powerful out of all of us. And now… I am."
Those last three words sent a chill through Leo. He looked at Piper, and was unable to say a word before she pulled him into a long, deep kiss that sent shockwaves through his body. When he looked back at that time, he realized that that moment was the first indicator of her turn to evil- and by not saying a word, his too.