Chapter 12: Charming Revelation

Paige was out, full force, protecting another charge from an onslaught of demons suspected of being sent by the forces of Slade/Source. The charge—a young witch— had been cornered when Paige came round to save the day, sent a few objects flying in an aura of orbs in the direction of trouble before departing with her charge in an orb.

Her charge had been targeted for a reason apparently—to get Paige's attention obviously. It perturbed her to say the least, but instead of complaining she just took action.

When Paige—with her charge—had reached the refuge she had intended on aiming in the direction of, she let out a sigh of relief and let her guard down some—as well as that on her charge. They were in the safety of magic school, pretty much out of harm's way.

"You should be safe here," Paige told her charge. The young witch went elsewhere in the school's layout, while Paige went her own way on the premises. She knew her charge was familiar with the school, so she wasn't all that worried about her.

She wandered a bit, taking up a few books from the literature shelves and reading a few passages, returning each when their use was spent. She continued her wandering, meandering around passing students and faculty along the way.

She spied Leo on the other side of the large expanse of the library, a collective of characters around him, conversing with Leo or just amongst themselves. As he was the only one she recognized worth talking to present at that time, she approached him. She had to talk with him anyways, so it was fortunate he was there when she was.

As she approached, she noticed those in his company. Paige recognized the whitelighter, Kane, and his charge Raven, but a couple weren't familiar—a tall tanned girl with auburn hair standing next to a black haired guy in a mask, and a third—a woman, witch or whitelighter—which she couldn't determine. That third one was a stranger, yet oddly—somehow familiar—she couldn't grasp why that was exactly—

"Leo," Paige said aloud to alert him to her presence. Leo looked towards her, acknowledging her—and expressing surprise—odd. "I just outran some demons and brought one of my charges here for safekeeping, for the moment. So—who are the new faces you've got here?"

"Well— these two are friends of Raven—Kane's charge," Leo replied, indicating the girl and guy duo she'd noted on earlier. "Said their names are Starfire and Robin. They were just recovered from the woods outside the city after being missing the past several days. They were rescued by a whitelighter sent to go fetch them." He turned to the woman next to him—the familiar stranger. "And this would be that whitelighter—Prue."

Paige didn't really take much notice of the name of the whitelighter Leo introduced, even though the name had plagued her for a lot of the first few years of her becoming acquainted with her new destiny as a witch/whitelighter Charmed One. The name of one she'd tried to live up to the potential of when she was just a novice witch new to the craft—and to being part of the sisterhood after being an only child in her previous existence. The name had a reputation, but she'd never met the witch of legend—Prue.

"Good job on the recovery bit. I'm Paige," Paige introduced herself to this strangely familiar whitelighter. Leo was acting a bit on edge, fidgeting. Paige looked at him oddly for this. Asking him, "Uh, Leo—what's up with the fidgety thing?"

"Paige—this isn't just any whitelighter," Leo replied.

"Yeah—she braved demons," Paige said. "That makes her extraordinary. Apparently not many whitelighters I've met lately have much of a spine."

"That wasn't what I meant," Leo replied. "She's not exactly just a whitelighter per se. You might not know it because you've never met her before, but she—Prue—is the Prue—your older sister Prue."

Prue. She remembered. The familiar stranger—the name finally registered in her subconscious, and she recognized why the stranger had been oddly familiar. Besides

sharing some familiar traits with the two sisters she'd grown to know well, she had that emanating aura that practically announced that she was akin. She remembered her battles to gain an identity after being newly recruited into the family unit, trying to compete with the memories her two other sisters had of their missing sibling. The spells, dealing with Barbas on the issue, finding that niche in a place vacated by a legend—

Paige was dumbstruck. She was shocked, momentarily speechless even. Leo—she could see he acknowledged that she finally recognized Prue the whitelighter—the sister. She looked to her eldest sister, the one she'd never met—but definitely knew by reputation.

"Prue…" the word hung lone, not one other uttered by Paige. She couldn't seem to form full sentences. Or even just incomplete ones.

"Glad we finally got to meet," the dark haired Prue said, smiling. "A fellow whitelighter—and sister Halliwell."

PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

There were so many fears to work with—some new, some familiar—most being enticing. It was his specialty to feed off it, and for Barbas to be assigned specifically to working on some unique cases of fear; he was like a kid in a candy shop.

The girl that didn't do fear; she might have thought that, but she was lying to herself. Everyone does fear. No creature could exist without at least some fear. Playing on her denials had been fun—to say the least. Confidence shattered by hidden—deep—fears, to take away just some of that to break her down to crying when she never usually would—

Getting anything to feed off of from an easily fearful victim wasn't all that much of a thrill; it was just too easy. Scaring someone who just usually tended to deny it—much more of a challenge, much more satisfaction to it. Playing on the fears of one of her friends some time back had almost been as satisfying; almost—

He would have to play on the same girl's fears again; he had been instructed to do so. The girl, the Charmed Ones—any that could remotely be siding with them—working together—