~TRTUTC~

Piper slowly made her way inside the Manor, it had been a long day and she was tired and very annoyed. No it hadn't been a long day, it had been a long month and she didn't see any relief in sight. She may have been tired and annoyed but she knew she would never regret the month that had flown by.

They had moved Billie in to the Manor after their big confrontation, none of them had wanted Billie to be alone; the poor teen was wallowing in guilt and with her birthday fast approaching they knew it would only make things worse for the Telekinetic. Billie had been hard to handle for the first few weeks, acting like a recluse and hardly spoke to the sisters or even joining them for meals but then she turned to anger and had snapped at them for the smallest things, she had soon realised what she was doing and quickly became a recluse again.

It wasn't just the Billie situation that had Piper tired, Leo had been his Whitelighter powers back as a gift. The Elders had apologised to the couple and promised that they wouldn't interfere with their lives; the best thing from it was that Leo was still going to age like a normal human. He was essentially a half Whitelighter, like Paige. Even though the Elders said it was a gift the eldest Halliwell was weary, Coop was supposedly a gift as well for Phoebe nut something about that just seemed plain wrong and her instincts went haywire when he was around. Paige felt the same. Neither of them said anything to Phoebe, not until they were sure, they didn't want a repeat on the Cole fiasco after all.

The final reason she was tired and annoyed was plainly just the fact that she had meant to be spending the night with Leo. The boys were with Paige and Henry, her baby sister had kindly offered to take them for the night so Leo and Piper could have some alone time. That obviously hadn't happened, her Assistant Manager had called in sick and she had to go in and keep an eye on everything. Therefore ruining her night. Leo had understood and told her to be safe; they parted with a kiss which made her long for the night have actually gone ahead. She hadn't been with her husband in months; she was so sexually frustrated that it was no longer funny. Piper just shook her head to try and clear the annoyed thoughts, it didn't do her any good to get worked up. The Molecular Manipulator walked slowly through the Manor and in to the kitchen to grab a glass of water before heading up to bed, as she sipped at the glass she started to think about her sisters. Paige was happy and almost back to how she had been when they first met, optimistic, almost to the point of annoying. Phoebe was confused, she could see it a mile away, but the middle sister tried to hide it with a smile. Piper didn't need to be an Empath to know how Phoebe felt; her eyes said it all, she was confused about Billie. Both eldest and youngest had seen it in increasing amounts over the last month, Phoebe's eyebrows would crease in thought after Billie had left the room and would remain there until Coop arrived, and then it would strangely disappear as if it had never been there. That worried Piper. Piper's internal musing where interrupted at the familiar sight of orbs, she knew it was Paige due to that fact there wasn't as many orbs as her husband created, after all Leo was a man and larger than Paige. Now the fact that her baby sister was orbing in didn't bother her, it was the fact that her baby sister was orbing in when she was meant to be baby sitting her children that bothered her. Paige materialised with a large frown on her face, which certainly couldn't bode well for them "Paige, What's the matter?" Piper asked as soon as she saw the look on her sister's face.

Paige stood still for a second, she knew she needed Piper's help but she didn't quite know how to approach the subject. "Okay, so you know that strange tingling sensation I've been getting on the back of my neck since that fight we had a month ago?" Paige's question might have well been rhetorical. Piper remembered that fight quite well, after all her sisters had died during it and she had to cradle Phoebe's lifeless body in her arms. Piper simply nodded, Paige carried on "So I was suddenly pulled from my sleep earlier and I thought it might have been the kids Y'know? But I check on them and they were sleeping peacefully. That tingling sensation became more like pins and needles, it was almost painful. I decided to just trust my instincts and I orbed into a very dark alley."

Piper waited for Paige to continue but the younger sister failed to do so "Paige what did you see? Was it a charge or something?" Paige nodded her head slowly. The eldest sister frowned "What's the problem then?"

"Well I think there's a high level demon there and I need your help, I know you were meant to spend the night with Leo and I hate to interrupt but can you please come with me?" Paige asked as she glanced away from Piper, she truly wanted her sister to spend time with her brother-in-law.

Piper just waved her hand dismissing Paige's reasons, it was valid but she hadn't actually spent time with Leo "Let's go."

Paige nodded and reached over for Piper's hand, she quickly orbed them to the dark alley and Piper finally saw what Paige was on about. The large demon, who looked remarkably human if it weren't for the mini spikes sticking out of his hands that had flames flowing over them, stuck a young looking teenager. The girl stumbled back and hit the wall, she looked like she had gone a few rounds with the demon, the strange thing was she was neither trying to fight back or get away from him. The Demon himself looked quite imposing standing at 6'3 with large broad shoulders and every inch of him seemed to be covered in muscle, the two sisters expected the girl to be frightened and attempting to run but she seemed oddly apathetic about it all. The young teenager stood at 5'5, she was slim and seemed to have some muscle on her because the poor girl was only wearing a vest and a part of surfing shorts, she didn't even have shoes, and the girl had shoulder length ash-blonde hair that was looking worse for wear. The demon struck his fist out again and the force of the blow forced the girls head to the side, the girl locked eyes with the sisters and thy noticed she had Heterochromia. She had one blue eye and one green eye, the different coloured eyes widened as they focused to something behind the sisters "Look out!" she shouted as she pointed to behind where the sisters were stood.

Before ever of the sisters knew what was happening something lunged at them from behind, Piper was stuck first and the blow caused her to drop to the floor unconscious. Paige was quicker to react but was still forced to the floor but not unconscious like her sister, she was only struck on the back not the head like Piper. Paige quickly rolled onto her back; she saw the demon forming an energy ball to throw at both her and Piper. She was too far away from Piper to reach her and she didn't have enough time to roll back over to get closer. The demon threw both energy balls, Paige had no option but to orb out to avoid it and hope for the best that Piper somehow wasn't hit. When Paige re-materialised she immediately looked to Piper and was surprised that she was unharmed, she looked over to the demon and noticed his look of disbelief but he wasn't looking at them he was looking over at the girl. The large demon by the girl was quick to flame out; he obviously didn't know she had a power. Paige noticed the look on the girls face, it was clear she didn't know that she had a power either. The demon by Paige and Piper growled, not happy neither of them had been hit by an energy ball, he pulled out an Athame and headed towards them. The girl was quick to move this time and leapt at the demon, Paige opened her mouth to warn her away but the words died on her lips because as the girl passed over them she changed. A white Lion landed on the other side, a Lioness, Paige's mind half-heartedly corrected. The changed teen took less than a second to leap again and was quick to latch onto the demons neck and tear a massive chunk from it. With less than a few tendons holding the head in place it was quick to flop to the side and the demon quickly disintegrated leaving no trace not even the slightest bit of black gunk around the teens white muzzle.

"What the hell?" Paige asked as she started to sit up. The Lioness turned her head to look at Paige and saw something she obviously didn't like because her top lip curled back and bared her teeth, Paige thought the Lioness was baring her teeth at her but she quickly noticed from the corner of her eye that there were a few lower level demons heading towards them. The Lioness started growling as the others moved closer to the fallen sisters, she stepped over them and crouched low to try and hide them from the demons view. Paige couldn't help but noticed that it was very animalistic, she wondered if the teenager had control over the lioness or if they were two separate beings. One demon was brave enough to try the changed teenager and started to approach them menacingly but the Lioness was quick to act she tilted her head slightly and roared, the approaching demon froze solid in mid step, the force of his movement sent him crashing to the floor and the demon shattered into a million tiny pieces. Seeing that happen the Lioness snarled in satisfaction, she turned her eyes onto the other demons then threw her head back and roared loudly and the other demons froze solid just like their fallen brother.

Huffing in pleasure the Lioness quickly turned her attention to the sisters, she stood up fully allowing them too move if they wished. Paige noticed the frozen demons but ignored them in favour of waking up Piper, she rolled over and pushed up to her knees and placed her hands over Pipers head. The healing glow quickly disappeared as Piper started to regain consciousness. She opened her eyes and was immediately greeted with frozen demons, with no thought she brought her hands up and blasted each and everyone one of them into oblivion, served them right for ruining the rest of her night. "Oh that hurt," she commented as she rolled over to face Paige and was greeted with an unfamiliar body, she looked up slightly and was greeted with the face of a Lioness. She looked past the Lioness and say Paige kneeling next to her "Paige why is there a Lioness stood over me?" she asked calmly, she was pretty sure she could freeze it before it decided to eat her.

"She's my charge," Paige answered with a nonchalant shrug, she'd had time to get over it. It certainly wasn't the strangest thing to happen to them so it wasn't a big deal. Paige offered her hand to Piper and helped her sit up. The Lioness started to walk backwards, the power of the unconscious female scared her, seeing as she had just blown up a few demons without as much as a blink.

Piper started to brush off the dirt and dust from laying on the floor "You're telling me that your charge is now a Lion?" she questioned. She didn't question Paige in disbelief; she just wanted clarification so she knew what she had missed. After all it was a big change, the last time she had been conscious she had been standing on two legs and reached 5'5 and now she was on four legs and had a tail.

Paige nodded to the question, she stood up and stretched slightly "She got the guy that knocked you out, jumped straight over us and when she landed she did so on four feet or four paws as she's a big cat I guess." Paige noticed her charge backing up in fear, "Hey we aren't going to hurt you; we came to help you. You're my charge, do you know what that means?" she asked softly trying not to scare the poor thing anymore. The big cat shook its head but seemed to stop moving backwards. Paige walked towards her slowly trying not to come off as a threat "It means that I'm here to help and guide you. Is that okay? Will you let me?" Paige questioned just as softly as before. Piper was amazed that Paige knew what her charge needed to hear, the only charge of Paige's she had really interacted with was Billie and they were not like this together.

The big cat whines low in her throat, showing the sisters how conflicted she was, her eyes flickered back over to Piper. Piper caught the flickered gaze and understood the teenager's apprehension; Piper tucked her hands into her pockets showing the teen that she wasn't a threat, no use in putting them up in the air because the teenager had seen her blow things up with her hands in the air. The shoulders of the large animal relaxed minutely but not completely, Paige ended up stood next to the Lioness and very lightly put her hand on the large cat's neck. She caught the chain around its neck, she had seen them earlier when the teenager had looked back at her, pulling the chain around she saw the dog tags and picked one up "Ashlee J. Bayn. It's nice to meet you Ashlee, My name is Paige and that one there is my big sister Piper. She may look scary but she's harmless really."

Piper almost huffed at being called harmless but she knew it wouldn't help them if she did because Ashlee clearly didn't trust them, well her because she seemed fine with Paige "Hi Ashlee," Piper said with a nod of her head, she wasn't even going to attempt to wave at the poor thing. Ashlee might thing she was trying to blow her up.

"You can change back now Ashlee," Paige commented as she stepped back a little, she wasn't sure how the whole power thing worked but she didn't want to be too close in case she got caught somehow. Ashlee shook her head and sat down; more relaxed now that she knew they weren't going to blow her up like the demons. "Why not?" Paige asked looking as confused as she sounded. The teen just shook her head again, and rolled her eyes because she couldn't actually answer the question.

"You can't change or won't change?" Piper spoke up from her spot. If it was a relatively new power then she might not know how to change back, she certainly didn't know how to control her power when she was first starting. Paige looked over her shoulder to give Piper a funny look "What?" Piper asked.

"Way to give her a multiple choice question Piper, she can't answer," Paige shook her head and Piper wanted to make a comment on Paige asking her a question not a minute earlier but they had more important things to do than bicker in front of her new charge. Ashlee, ignoring the little conversation, lifted her front paw and tapped the floor; much like a horse would when answering a question, one for yes and two for no. Paige saw it and frowned "what?" Piper rolled her eyes at the question Paige asked Ashlee. The large cat raised her paw and repeated what she had done "Piper why is she tapping the floor?" Paige asked as she continued to look at Ashlee as if the teenager had gone a little crazy.

Piper slowly made her way closer, careful not to frighten the teenager, she stopped next to Paige "she's answering my question Paige," Piper responded and Ashlee nodded "she tapped the floor once, the first option, she can't change back. This means we have to figure out what to do with her because I doubt we can take her home looking like a large white Lioness."

The youngest Charmed one shrugged "Take her home with us?" she offered hesitantly. They both knew she meant the manor because it was the largest out of all of the sister's homes, plus with the boys being at Paige's for the night it gave them something to do with her until morning. Piper nodded and took out one of her hands and offered it too Paige. Ashlee looked on warily, she understood what they had said but she wasn't so sure she wanted to go home with these people, sure they had come to help her but she didn't trust strangers. Paige placed a hand lightly on Ashlee's shoulder "Okay Ashlee I'm going to do something called orbing okay? It'll take us from here to our home." Paige didn't wait for a nod because Ashlee quickly pulled back and approached the end of the alley, they watched her go wondering what she was doing and sighed when they saw her pick up a bag with her teeth. Ashlee stood beside Paige again and they quickly orbed away.

~TRTUTC~~TRTUTC~~TRTUTC~~TRTUTC~~TRTUTC~~TRTUTC~~TRTUTC~

The group quickly materialised in the living room of the Manor. Piper looked around and wondered what to do with Ashlee "well if you're going to remain that way you can't stay down here, you'll freak out my Husband or Billie when she gets in. I'll put you in the spare room."

Paige looked at the clock and noticed the time "I have to go Piper, Henry will probably notice I'm gone and start to worry by now," Piper nodded and smiled as Paige came over to place a kiss on her check. Paige reached over and scuffed up the fur on Ashlee's head "See ya tomorrow Kiddo!" Paige laughed at the glare she got in return for her actions and words "night guys."

Piper smiled "G'night Paige," Paige disappeared into orbs and left Piper and Ashlee alone. Piper, without thinking, ran her hand over Ashlee's head and straightened the fur to how it should be "C'mon Ashlee lets get you to bed." Ashlee followed Piper's lead but couldn't help feel confused by the eldest Witches previous action.

\Silver-Eternal-Dragon/