Okay, all you people who have me on author and story alert, don't forget to drop in and send me some reviews about these last few chapters! This one is a long one, so enjoy!
Forever
Eden Gareth was a simple woman. She didn't need much in life to make her happy, which was good, as her husband has passed away a few years ago, and her children visited her only on a few rare occasions. She didn't mind though. She loved the quiet, and she hated having to fill it with pointless small talk. Unless it was to her garden, "There you go; my lovelies…" She cooed sweetly as she poured water over a bed of powder blue flowers, before digging her gloved hands into the plump soil beneath and patting it into place softly. Her silver hair, which was tied up in a tight bun, gleamed in the sunlight that was catching the back of her neck, despite the large hat she wore. "I would hate for the sun to completely dry you up."
The elderly woman loved this part of her garden. It was at the very back, surrounded by a thick canopy of trees that had been there for years, with the powerful sunlight pouring through gaps in the leaves. It was such a beautiful secluded spot, and she loved sitting within it on a summer afternoon, reading a trashy romance novel before slowly drifting to sleep in her lounger to the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind. At this stage in her life, it was going through the simple motions of her day that made her happy.
Unfortunately, it was the fact that she was so wrapped up in her plants that made her oblivious to her garden slowly coming in on her. The trees that surrounded the circular concrete patio began to move, looming over as the branches magically extended and crept towards her. The plants behind her suddenly began to sprout into life, blooming into dangerously red flowers as they too extended out of the ground, their stems slithering over the cool stone and making a beeline for the woman in front of them, who had now begun to hum a melodic tune to herself.
Eden was about to move along to the next set of plants, when the powder blue plants she had just been tending to suddenly began to grow at a phenomenal rate, "What the…?" The stems rose up from the ground, elevating the flower heads to her eye level as they danced, swaying gently in the breeze. Before she could reach out to touch them, the flowers suddenly flew at her face, coiling around her neck with steadily increasing pressure. This sudden move was the signal that made the other flowers and branches also join in, wrapping themselves around Eden's neck as her face slowly began to turn red from the lack of oxygen. She fell onto her back, taking any precious gasp at air she could get.
"Paige, throw the potion!"
The witchlighter complied with Piper's wishes and threw the vial down to the ground. It smashed instantly, a hazy cloud of rusty brown mist spreading out through the area. An unnatural wail of agony pierced the air as the flowers recoiled from the woman's neck, slowly losing their colour as they retreated from their target before completely drying up and disintegrating on the concrete. The branches followed suit shortly after, withering within seconds and showering them all with dead leaves as they began to fall from the dead tree.
"Okay, I'll take her back to the Manor then I'll come back for you. Be careful…" Paige warned, kneeling down next to their shell shocked innocent and vanishing with her in a swirl of white and blue orbs.
"It's just you and me now!" Piper called out to the dead foliage around her, smirking. Tiny twinkles of orange light began to pour from the various dried up plants as the witch held out her hands, as if she was sucking the life out of them with her geokinetic abilities. She watched as all the streams of orange light coalesced in front of her, forming a swirling, twisting mass of energy that struggled against Piper's grasp.
She lowered one hand into her pocket, fishing out the vanquishing spell while she focused all her power into one hand, "She blossoms through the seeds of life, causing death and fear and strife, take her now unto the earth, and-Hey!" She let out a shriek as she felt something wrap around her ankle, seeing a flower that must have managed to avoid the potion's effect. Piper frowned darkly, gesturing down at the plant and reducing it to a pile of dust with her own powers. She looked up to finish the spell, only to find out that her target had fled during her distraction.
"Did you get her?" Paige asked excitedly as she materialized, looking around the garden and scanning for the creature they had come to deal with.
"No!" Piper snapped, shaking her leg and getting the rest of the dust from the creases in her jeans, "Next time, we're killing the whole garden!"
"Yeah… okay…" Brennan spoke into the phone pressed against his ear, staring forward with his eyes glazed over as the person on the other end of the line continued to speak to him, "I can't give you an answer right now, but I'll definitely think about it… Yeah, I'm going to talk to Phoebe about it too… Alright; I'll talk to you later, bye." He hung up the phone, placing it down on the coffee table and let out the breath he had been holding for most of the conversation.
He heard the front door open suddenly, giving entrance to Phoebe as she walked into the house, her eyes down, looking at the screen of her blackberry and not even seeing that her husband was in the house until she noticed something out the corner of her eye, "Oh!" She jumped, her eyes widening behind her glasses, "Sorry, I didn't see you there. Aren't you supposed to be at work?"
"Yeah, but I got a cancellation. The husband of the woman who called in said that he couldn't hear the noise the car was making and he wasn't going to pay good money just to hear someone tell him what he already knew." He explained, smirking when he saw Phoebe's face go red as they had had a similar situation a few months ago, "And my next client isn't coming in until two so I've got a few hours to kill. What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I just came home to pick up some notes for work." She looked down at her blackberry again, inspecting the small clock in the corner of the screen, "… But I guess I can take an hour or two out. Wanna have an early lunch or something? I'm pretty sure there's still some of that lasagna left over from last night…" She mused, dropping her purse onto the couch and walking into the kitchen.
"Okay, sure." Brennan got up, following her slowly as he tried to piece his words together, "Actually, this works out perfectly. I wanna talk to you about something, and it's probably better that the kids aren't around to interrupt."
"Oh?" Phoebe didn't turn around as he entered the kitchen, instead delved her head into the fridge and pulling out a casserole dish that had silver foil over it. The witch promptly removed the foil and placed the dish into the oven, only turning to her husband once she had put the lasagna under a low heat to make it edible once again, "Alright then, what is it you want to talk about?" Her face fell, "This isn't something totally life shattering, is it? Because leftover lasagna isn't good during a crisis."
Brennan chuckled softly, leaning against the doorframe, "No, don't worry. It's nothing like that…" He assured her, stepping into the kitchen and placing his hands on the counter, "Uh… Well, I got a call from Allison just there. She told me that she and Sandra are moving out of the house, and… they offered it to us." Phoebe immediately stopped in her task of getting glasses from the cupboard, "Yeah, apparently, they don't want to live with all the memories anymore, and they're going to sell it if we don't take it. It was left to all four of us, and Nelle doesn't want it, so that just leaves us… and you're frozen, and that's never good."
"No! I'm fine, sorry!" Phoebe stammered, shaking herself out of the trance she had fell into after hearing this news, "Um…" She scratched her head, breathing deeply, "This would mean that we'd be moving, right? Out of the city, out of the state? Away?"
"That's what moving across country usually entails, yes." Brennan responded sarcastically, before going back sitting silently, not wanting to disturb her as she thought the proposition over, "So… does that mean that you don't want to do it then? You couldn't be away from your sisters?"
"No, that's not the problem." Phoebe replied immediately, before rethinking her statement. "…Okay, its part of the problem, but not a big part. I mean, I moved away from them before and that turned out for the best, and maybe this would too. It's just… My job has got really hectic lately, and I don't think I could do the long distance thing again. Not to mention we've now got Connor into school and he would have to leave all his friends… and his cousins!" Her heart was crushed when he looked at that floor, clearly upset that she shooting down the idea, "And now you think that I'm looking for excuses…" She sighed, "But I'm not, I'm really not, because this is really tempting, and it would be the perfect place to raise our kids, but-," She sudden stopped herself mid sentence and shoved her hand into her back pocket, pulling out her vibrating cellphone and flipping it open to read the message she had received, "It's a 911 message from Piper…"
"Go." Brennan said tiredly, waving lazily towards the door with a sigh, avoiding her gaze.
"We'll talk when I get back, I promise." Phoebe said quietly, striding towards the kitchen door, sweeping her hand over his shoulder lovingly as she passed and stuffing her cellphone back into her pocket. She was ready to walk out of the house, when she stopped to pick up her purse, grabbing it over the back of the sofa and making sure she had everything.
"Is it always going to be like this?"
Silence fell upon them as Phoebe stopped rummaging in her purse. She looked up and out of the front window, seeing some of Connor's toys splayed across the lawn from the day before. It had been beautiful until they had been attacked in the front yard by the demonic spirit her sisters were currently tracking. The witch rolled her eyes sadly and swung her purse onto her shoulder, "God, I hope not."
"I… I don't understand." Eden breathed as she lowered herself into one of the attic's more comfortable sofas. Her face had nearly gone the same colour as her hair from the fear at what she had experienced, her neck an angry red and bleeding in small places where rose thorns had sliced her. "What happened? Who are you people… and what did you do to my garden?" She asked, regaining some strength to her voice as she remembered seeing all the plants and trees she had nurtured for years being destroyed in an instant.
"Well, to be fair, your garden started it." Piper deadpanned, handing their innocent a glass of water, "And what did we do? Well… it was a potion. Originally, it's supposed to kill all living things that its smoke comes into contact with, but my sister, the potions whiz…" She gestured to Paige, who smiled nervously next to her, "… altered the recipe so it would only kill plant life, so we wouldn't kill you as well."
"But why?" She breathed, looking at the two women standing over her. Fear flashed in her eyes for a brief moment, "What are you? Why are you talking about potions… and how did I even get here?" She shrieked, pressing her hands down on the sofa as if she making sure it was real.
"Short version?" Paige chipped in with a raised eyebrow, "We're witches, and we saved you from a demon called-,"
"Well, a demonic spirit, technically." Piper interrupted.
"Whatever." The witchlighter snapped back, "Anyway, we saved you from a demonic spirit called Terra, who can possess any kind of life that grows from the ground and use it to kill innocent people. She made the mistake of coming after my other sister's family yesterday and now we're after her. We tracked her down to your house, and… well, you pretty much lived the rest."
"W-witches?" Eden stammered, looking down at the ground with a wide eyed stare, "The dementia finally got to me, didn't it? You're actually hospital nurses and are just indulging the hallucination that my garden tried to choke me… Yes, that must be it." She suddenly stood to her full height, shocking Piper when the feeble old woman was actually taller than her. "I need to leave now, excuse me."
"Hold it!" The eldest Charmed One laid her hand on Eden's arm, causing her to turn around, "Look, lady, you may want to deny what just happened to you, but the redness on your neck sure doesn't." At this, Eden rearranged the light scarf around her neck and used it to cover the crimson skin and small welts, "Whether you believe us or not, you're still in danger. Terra's going to keep coming after you until you're dead and you won't stand a chance without us."
Seeing that their innocent was still hesitant, and Piper was a few seconds away from having to freeze her, Paige slowly raised her hand up to Eden's neck, "Here…" A golden glow burst forth from the witch's hand, making the old woman flinch in shock before basking in the warm, healing glow she was under, "As witches, we not only protect, we heal as well," She took her hand away, leaving Eden's neck completely healed to her amazement.
"Am I really going to safe here?" She asked timidly, her eyes darting around the attic to see if there was any plant life that could potentially try and kill her.
"Yes. We put crystals outside-," Paige was cut off when Piper elbowed her in the side, clearly wanting her little sister to stay away from explaining the mechanics of witchcraft, "We've protected the house. And it'll hold until we've vanquished Terra, I promise." She beamed, prompting her elder sibling to do the same and scare their innocent slightly as a result.
"Alright…" Eden said unsurely, slowly sitting back down and placing her clasped hands on her lap, as if she was waiting for the train.
"Alright!" Piper echoed, giving Eden another disconcerting smile before looping her arm with Paige's and walking towards the Book of Shadows, the grin still plastered on her face, "Next time, try not to petrify the innocent by talking about crystals and stuff like that, will you?
"Coming from the woman who thought it was appropriate to make sure the innocent knew exactly which kind of homicidal evil was after her!" Paige hissed back, before they both turned at the sound of shoes on the wooden steps that led up to the attic as Phoebe entered slowly, staring straight ahead as if she wasn't even in her own body. "Ah! Eden, this is the acclaimed other sister I was telling you about. This is Phoebe." She said with comical pride, putting an arm around the middle Charmed One as she walked over to her and snapping Phoebe out of the trance she seemed to be in.
"Hey…" Phoebe replied distantly, "What's this all about?
Eden smirked approvingly, "Well, at least you're not as peppy as the other two. I'm…" She trailed off when she saw three columns of light descend through the ceiling and began to take form behind Piper, who had her arms laid over the Book of Shadows. The front pillar was made up of white and light blue glowing orbs, while the two behind it where a darker, royal blue. Shaking, Eden raised her hand and pointed at the source of light, her mouth having open in shock, "L-look over there!" The three witches turned around and look as the columns of light took the shape of people, not even flinching after seeing hundreds of beings orb into their presence.
"We have a huge problem!" Leo breathed as he materialized; speaking so quickly that the orbs around him hadn't even properly vanished
"This is Leo, my husband. He's also the king of tact." Piper said sarcastically, before looking past the Elder and frowning suspiciously, "These two, however, I've never seen in my entire life.
A man and woman stood behind Leo, looking forward with hard stares, as if they weren't even addressing the fact that there were other people in the room besides themselves. Just looking at them made Piper feel inferior. It was as if they made in the image of the perfect human
The tall man's straw blonde hair and strong jaw framed his face perfectly, with striking blue eyes that seemed to pierce your body and look into your soul as its purest form. There was not a scar or blemish on his slightly bronzed skin, and Piper imagined that it he were to show something that remotely resembled a smile, his teeth would probably be perfect, and his grin would make her weak at the knees
The woman was practically the same. Long, gorgeous strawberry blonde hair flowed perfectly down her back, not one strand out of the place. Her beautiful, slender face looked like it was made of porcelain, and looked to be just as smooth. Warm brown eyes were the focal point of her face, making her look like an angel. She held herself with the utmost elegance at all times, and Piper could tell this just from seeing her for three seconds
"Um… Leo, who are your new friends?"
"This is Adam." Leo replied, gesturing to the taller man behind him, who nodded respectfully to the four woman in the room, before Leo turned to the other side and gestured to the woman, "And this is Eve.
"Adam and Eve? Are you kidding?" Phoebe scoffed, laying her purse down on the table and staring at Eve's face, amazed at how flawless her complexion was
"No," Leo replied with an amused tone, before going back to the business at hand, "And seeing as how these two were the first whitelighters in existence, the names are kinda appropriate, don't you think?
"So, we have Adam, Eve, and Eden?" Paige asked with a raised eyebrow, grinning wildly, "Wow, it's a bible hat-trick!"
"Okay, I put a few crystals around Eden, so she'll be safe until we get back up to the attic." Piper announced as she entered the living room, joining her bemused sisters on the largest sofa and swinging her legs onto the cushions as she sat on the armrest, looking over to the three angelic beings across from her. "Okay, I know I'm not an expert on the first two whitelighters in existence, but I'm guessing if you're giving as a personal visit, it's not good. What's going on?
Leo looked to the two whitelighters that he had arrived with, "I think I'll let you guys explain." He then turned to his wife and sisters in law, "I was just asked to bring them to you, I have no idea what's going on.
Adam and Eve exchanged a look, before the latter of the two spoke, "We're here because the realm of death was breached by two beings that you have grown familiar with over the last two years. The agents of the Hollow, Diam and Tyola. They somehow broke down magic that has been in existence since the dawn of time, and were able to enter the afterlife with their physical forms still intact. They destroyed us several times with your powers…" She added, looking at Piper and causing the witch to cast her eyes down to the floor, "And eventually, after the amount of injuries we sustained, it took us too long to reform and they got past us."
"Why are they even in the afterlife to begin with?" Paige asked, narrowing her eyes, "I mean, it would certainly make our lives a lot simpler if they stayed there."
"To get the artifact that we were charged with protecting." Adam interjected, taking over for his partner. "You sending the Devil's Eye to a place where they couldn't reach it intensified their desperation to release their master. I'm sure that if you hadn't done that, they wouldn't be going to such lengths to get the Angelus Barba, known better as the Angel's Whisper in these times…"
"Wait a minute," Phoebe interrupted, putting her hand up, "I… remember reading about that in the Book of Shadows. That's the other half of the seal that keeps the Hollow locked in its box, isn't it? Then why the hell are you wasting time here instead of protecting something like that?"
Both whitelighters took offence at this remark, and visibly hardened, "We took precautions before coming. As we speak, spirits that we enlisted to hold the two of them off will be fighting them, and immediately recovering from any injuries as spirits are eternal. Second of all, it cannot be destroyed. The Angel's Whisper is also eternal. It thrives off the hopes and dreams of every good being in this universe. They would have to destroy the very concept of hope if they wanted to destroy it."
"But you don't know them like we do, all due respect." Paige responded calmly, her hands clasped around one of her knees, "All you've done is sense shifts in powers, never experiencing anything first hand, but Diam and Tyola are tricky, and they wouldn't have gone after the Angel's Whisper if they didn't have some sort of plan, especially given the risk of going into the afterlife."
"That's why we came for you," Eve answered, her expression remaining like stone, "You have experience dealing with these beings, and you're the best equipped to fight them. Besides, we lost our jurisdiction the moment they got past us. What they've done has become a pivotal event, and we can no longer interfere in the actions of this world. It's the price we pay for existing outside time and space."
The three sisters shared uneasy glances between one another, before both Phoebe and Paige folded and cast their gaze to the floor, leaving their big sister to make the decision for them, "Okay, so how to get into the afterlife then?" She droned with a roll of her eyes, before jumping at the sound of a familiar voice behind her.
"That's where I come in."
The Charmed Ones turned around and each reacted in their own way to the appearance of the Angel of Death. The eternal being gave them one of his trademark smirks, always taking pleasure in sneaking up on his victims. "So…" He began, folding his arms and chuckling lowly, "After all these years of me playing on your field, you're coming to play on mine. This should be very interesting indeed…" He stalked into the living room from the foyer, his footsteps not even making a sound as he walked. "Are you ready?"
"Wait a minute, if Death is taking us there, doesn't that mean-?"
Adam cut Phoebe off sharply before she could finish her question, "Technically speaking, your bodies will still be alive, just lacking your spirits, although there's only so long one's body can last without the will to live behind every breath, so we must be swift in every action we take." He locked eyes with Death, nodding gravely, "Do it."
"No! Wait! What about our innocent? We can't just leave her high and dry!" Piper protested, glaring suspiciously at Death as he lowered the arm that he raised on Adam's command.
"Uh… I'll call Pam, and get her to help out for the time being." Leo replied uncertainly, biting his lip.
"Are you kidding me? After all that girl's been through over the last three weeks?"
"This cannot wait." Eve interjected firmly.
Piper heaved a conflicted sigh, rubbing her head in thought for a moment before resigning herself to the inevitable, "Alright… But keep an eye on her, and get the other guys here so she doesn't have to do much. I really don't think she's up to it."
"Then it's settled…" Death said darkly, swiping his hand through the air in the Charmed Ones' general direction, a white glow shimmering across his palm's path as all three witches suddenly fell unconscious. Phoebe and Paige fell back onto the sofa, while Piper, still perched on the armrest, began to fall backwards before luckily being caught by Leo just before she tumbled to the ground. "Sorry for your loss." He said, black humour dripping in his voice as he vanished in a swirl of ghostly blue smoke, the façade of a skeleton briefly flashing within before it completely dissipated. Adam and Eve then vanished in two columns of dark blue orbs that shot swiftly through the ceiling, leaving Leo alone with nothing but his dead wife in his arms.
"Well, this certainly isn't what I was expecting…"
A dim golden hue coming from beneath them illuminated the Charmed Ones' faces. The platform they stood on glowed and sparkled, but for some reason, it was anything but comforting. It was as if they were in a hole, as Piper could clearly see the walls of the circular area. They looked earthly and dirty, but also reeked of ancient magic so strongly that it was assaulting all their senses to the point where her eyes watered. They also weren't at the bottom of wherever they had landed. As Piper looked down, she could see that a path, beginning from the platform they were standing on, coiled downwards with smaller platforms breaking up the path now and again before it descended into what seemed to be a pit of swarming black orbs that clouded whatever lay beneath. Whatever the reason they were here, all three witches silently pleaded with the Gods that said reason wouldn't lead them downwards.
However, despite the harsh contrast to below, what lay above them wasn't that inviting either. The sight of millions and millions of orbs swarming high above them and concealing the end of the path that trailed upwards was just as comforting as the rest of place. It really did come down to mystery in the end, even when someone had come this far, they still wouldn't know what fate had in store for them. Not all the orbs, however, where above and beneath them. There were many that hovered gloomily around the walls at all heights. A dark red orb flew by Phoebe's face, startling her briefly before she realized that en entire slew of orbs, all the same colour, where hovering around her like insects. She let out a squeal and flapped her arms, causing the orbs to scatter and vanish into the mass that flew around the walls. "What the hell is going on here?" Phoebe asked loudly, surprised when she heard no echo after she spoke, only the sounds of faint wailing every time an orb went by her.
"They're lost souls." Adam replied sorrowfully, holding out his hand and letting a cluster of different coloured orbs float into his palm, "Many don't have the courage to cross over, and some simply refuse to accept their fate. They spend the rest of eternity here, never achieving the peace that every being deserves after life." He blew gently on his hand, causing the orbs to scatter and fly away. "Every orb is actually a spirit, so when a whitelighter summons their power to orb, they are, in essence, calling on the spirits for help in getting to where they need to be."
"That's kinda creep-!" Paige was cut off when a train of lilac orbs suddenly passed right through her stomach, causing her to take a deep breath from the odd sensation before she watched the trail vanish, "Okay, why do they keep doing that? What's their big interest in us?" She asked, flinching slightly when Piper aggressively swatted at an orb in front of her face.
"Fresh meat." Death replied stonily, walking in front of them smoothly and nearly blending into the darkness. "They have never seen another spirit in a human façade, other than those two and me, of course." He said, gesturing to Adam and Eve. "They are just curious as to what makes you so special that you deserve a full escort."
"Speaking of which…" Eve interrupted, her eyes narrowed at Death, "You can't go any further now. You have a job to do; they're in his hands now."
"Oh, yes," Death responded smoothly, "I'm almost disappointed that I'm going to miss this, actually. It's sure to be hilarious…" He drawled, smirking at Phoebe for a brief moment before fading away within a coil of glowing blue smoke.
"Wait, what did he mean by that?" Phoebe asked, immediately on alert after Death's comment as she turned around to berate two original whitelighters behind her, not seeing her sisters' shocked faces at whatever was in front of them.
"I think he meant me."
Phoebe spun around at the voice, her eyes going wide with a mixture of confusion, surprise, and fear. She backed up, reaching for Piper's hand and not stopping until she felt the gentle squeeze of her big sisters digits around her palm. It couldn't be the person she thought she was seeing; it had to just be someone with a striking resemblance. There was absolutely no way, she had sent him on to the afterlife herself with her own power.
Cole stood before them, clad in a black robe that dusted the ground and covered his neck, similar to how Death looked. He hadn't aged a day in nine years, it seemed, looking considerably younger than the three women that stood agape at him. A nervous smile crossed his lips as he fidgeted with his hands, not sure how to deal with the Charmed Ones' reactions. He let out a sigh, before settling on the broad grin that, in another time, would have sent Phoebe straight into his arms, "Surprise! …I guess."
"No."
Leo frowned as his niece, heaving a large sigh and trying to push the vanquishing spell into Pamela's hand once again only to have her ball her hand into a fist so she couldn't take hold of it, "Pam!" Leo suddenly exclaimed in a raised voice, losing his temper slightly as his hands briefly went to his head, before he controlled himself, "Look, I know that you've been through absolute hell recently, and that protecting an innocent is the last thing you want to do, but-,"
"No, you're wrong; it's not the last thing I want to do, it doesn't even get on the list of things I want to do. I don't want to do it at all." Pamela responded strongly, standing up from her perch on the armrest of the chair in the living room and getting in her uncle's face. She looked absolutely terrible. Her hair glimmered in natural light, looking greasy due to her inability to wash her hair properly with only one working arm. The colour and life had vanished from her face, leaving it covered in sickly yellow bruises and small crimson cuts from where wreckage from exploding walls had sliced her. The large scar that tore through her face, which was normally covered by the witch's natural colour and attractive eyes, was now the main feature of her face. Combining all her injuries with the broken arm that currently hung in the sling suspended around her neck, and she looked like she had been put in a blender and barely got out alive, "You're a powerful witch." She growled, glaring at Brennan who was sitting on the sofa, watching what was happening in silent pity, "Why can't you do this instead of me?"
"Because we don't know if my power's enough to do it." He responded calmly, "With you, we know for sure that you have enough power."
"Well, even if you can't vanquish Terra, you can certainly force her to retreat if you say the spell," She snatched the piece of paper from Leo's hands and gave it to Brennan, dropping down onto the sofa next to him and giving him a saccharine smile, "That way, you still save the innocent, and if you can't vanquish her, then you call me for something legitimate. Not…" She glared at Leo, "For something that may not even require my powers." She smacked Brennan a few times on the knee with her free hand before rising, "Good luck!"
"Pam, a woman's life in danger!" Leo protested.
"She's sixty nine! Her life is in perpetual danger at that age!" She shouted back, before a torrent of water suddenly flew up from the floor and quickly took the form of Aidan, was currently toweling his hair dry and wearing his work clothes in the form of a simple white t-shirt and navy blue tracksuit bottoms, "Did you get pulled away from something too?" Pamela asked him sarcastically as he threw the towel onto the chair.
"Nope, I don't have to go into work for a few hours since I work the swing shift now, which basically means I haven't seen my family awake in weeks." He replied bitterly, loathing his four in the afternoon to midnight work hours, "I actually just woke up an hour ago, hence the post-shower wet hair." The elemental commented, before turning to the other two males, "Okay, so what is this about a demonic spirit and my wife being dead?"
"I put the girls in the other room." Leo said to him, nodding his head in the direction of the conservatory, where the Charmed Ones' bodies lay unconscious, "They had to go and deal with Hollow stuff, so they should hopefully be back soon. Don't worry; they're completely safe, just unconscious." He said calmly, before turning back to the situation at hand, "Okay, so we have to protect the innocent until the girls get back. Pam, you're not going anywhere, we need you to say the spell in case Terra gets in, and that's final."
"What am I, eight?" She snorted.
"Right now, you're acting like it." Leo shot back with a hint of frustration in his voice, causing his niece to fold and settle, falling back against the archway of the living room, shaking her head.
"Well, if we are going to be serious about protecting her…" Pamela began quietly, accepting the inevitable, "We need to make the barrier stronger. Crystal cages aren't suitable for large scale areas like houses. The bigger the area they have to protect, the less power the barrier has. One of you should go out and switch all the crystals with dark matter."
"I'll do it. I could use some air that isn't filled with smoke for a change." Aidan said darkly, turning on his heel and heading towards the stairs with laboured steps. It was clear that he didn't want to be here either, but he was better at hiding it.
"I'll come upstairs with you, the last thing we should do is spook the innocent with more strangers…" Leo said ruefully, quickly catching up to the elemental before he completely vanished up the steps.
Their departure left Pamela and Brennan alone and in silence, not even registering each other's existence until Brennan spoke up, his tone full of sympathy and pity, "I heard what happened." He said softly, "How are you holding up?"
"Fine." She replied flatly, "Although I may just crack if someone asks me that question one more time…"
"Well, if you need to talk about it, I can lend an ear." The mutant, standing up to his full height and shoving his hands into his back pockets, "I mean, I'm probably the only one out of everyone in your life who has a remote idea of what you're going through, so…"
"Yeah, right." Pamela snorted sarcastically with a roll of her eyes, "Did you kill your brother as well?"
"Yes, actually I did." Brennan replied stonily, all amusement from her vanishing immediately at this proclamation and being replaced by mild shock, "He was going to kill Phoebe, and I wasn't about to stand by and let him kill an innocent person that I loved. So… I blasted him with all the voltage I had and killed him. I like to think that me doing that saved a lot of people who would have died at his hands if he hadn't died at mine."
"Is that what gets you past the crippling guilt?" Pamela asked weakly, staring at him harshly, "Because that's the thing I'm having trouble with. I haven't had a good night's sleep ever since, because I see his lifeless eyes every time I close my eyes. Add that to my newborn niece constantly wanting to give her lungs a work out and I'm pretty much at the end of my rope here."
"It gets better." Brennan replied heavily, knowing that his words weren't that much consolation.
"You promise?" She responded with a wry smirk.
"I promise."
"You… are like a cockroach!" Paige exclaimed, catching up to Cole as the group slowly made their way up the path, towards the massive cloud of white light above them. Unfortunately for her, the whitelighter couldn't keep up with her prey's larger strides and couldn't get out what she wanted to say properly, "Every time we think you're dead, you're not! You're just skulking around somewhere else. What are you even doing here anyway? Being Death's bitch?"
"Yeah, I'd kinda like to know why as well." Piper added, not noticing that Phoebe hadn't stopped and was continuing to climb.
"I knew there was an advantage to being dead…" Cole muttered ruefully, glad that he couldn't get headaches anymore, before turning around to face the witches who were following him up the path, "And I'm here because… Well, I'll just let those two explain." He said, gesturing to Adam and Eve who were at the end of their trail, making sure no danger came to them.
"He's a spiritual anomaly." Eve responded, folding her arms as it seemed they were taking a break from climbing, "When he died, there was no place for him. While harbouring demonic powers all his life and killing mercilessly as a demon, his soul, somehow was pure, and had merely been corrupted by his powers. We couldn't punish his soul eternally when it was technically innocent, but we couldn't reward him either, as he had killed in cold blood, regardless of the corruption of his soul. So, the compromise was this. Our very own Charon…"
"Charon?" Paige questioned.
"In Greek mythology, Charon guided souls across the River Styx, and into the afterlife." Adam replied, looking over to Cole, "This is what he has become. He guides spirits to where they need to be if they can't accept their fate immediately. He is the final face they see before departing from life completely."
"Poor spirits." Paige quipped, giving Cole a dirty look.
"Paige…" Piper said in her classic scolding tone, "Okay, can we please follow Phoebe's example and keep moving, please? Being in the realm of death is kinda freaking me out." She said, ending the conversation as she turned around and resumed their climb, Adam and Eve following behind her effortlessly. They had made this trek millions of times over their thousands of years of existence.
Cole was about to turn and follow them, when he saw that Paige was still glaring at him. With a roll of his eyes, he smirked devilishly, knowing how to get under her skin. "Oh, give it a rest, Paige. At your age, you're gonna get even more wrinkles if you frown disapprovingly. Not to mention the crow's feet from glaring like that."
Paige's face instantly softened at this as Cole walked away, chuckling to himself, "I'm only thirty-four!"
After their brief break, the group reformed, walking silently as if they were part of a funeral march. The only thing that would break the quiet would be when a profanity would echo from Piper's mouth as she swatted another orb away from her face, and the hushed murmurs of Adam and Eve as they conversed while they walked, discussing something to great importance that they didn't want anyone to hear about. They seemed to be miles away from the top at this point, and even further from the bottom. The pit of black orbs couldn't even be seen anymore. It had been devoured by the shadows from being so high up.
It was at a particularly uneven part of the path were Phoebe tripped and lost her balance, accidentally dancing very close to the edge. She was about to tumble completely when she suddenly let out a yelp as a cold hand wrapped tightly around her flailing arm and pulled her to the middle of the pathway, into a body of similar temperature.
"You should be more careful. It's a long way down and landing is far from pleasant."
The witch looked up at her saviour's face and instantly pulled away from Cole's body, "Thanks." She mumbled, noticing the frightened faces of her sisters up ahead and smiling warmly to them, "It's okay, I'm fine. I just tripped."
Piper rolled her eyes, returning the warm smile, "Klutz." She jibed affectionately before they resumed walking.
"So, what made you walk ahead back there?" Cole asked, catching up to Phoebe before she could speed away, and matching her pace.
"Believe or not, Cole, I don't really care why you got a third lease on life. If you can even call it that…" She responded icily, not even giving him eye contact as she concentrated even more on walking safely, not wanting to repeat what had happened a few seconds ago, "I actually have far bigger things on my mind right now than wondering why you've joined the ranks of the neutral undead."
"Oh yeah, I heard when I was watching over you this morning." He said casually, breaking Phoebe's hard stare on the path ahead of her and making her head spin round to him, "Personally, I don't think you should let the mutant guilt trip you into moving away if that's not what you want to do. His name's… Brendan, right?"
"Brennan." Phoebe corrected him with a glare, "And it has nothing to do with the fact that I would be moving. I would move in a heartbeat if I was sure that…" She trailed off, her face going beet red, "Let's just keep walking. I don't even know why I'm talking about this with you. Piper doesn't even know yet."
"You're talking about it with me because apart from Brandon-,"
"It's Brennan…"
"-I'm probably the only person in the world that knows how you think." Cole said with a triumphant smile, "And you don't think with your head, you think with your heart. Which means it must be about the person you'd be moving with, and not the moving itself. I'm right, aren't I?" He received no answer, but grinned when he saw Phoebe's lip twitch in annoyance over him figuring her out so easily, "I don't blame you though, after the amount of fighting you and Ben-,"
"It's Brennan!"
"-Have been doing over the last few years, it's no surprise that you're not sure if you want to be with him anymore."
"It's not as grave as that, you sadist." Phoebe responded in an annoyed tone, "It's just… After everything that's happened, I'm just wondering whether or not if the only reason mine and Brennan's destinies met was so that we could give each other children, but not be together in the long run…" She suddenly shook her head, letting out an angry noise and making Cole frown in confusion. "Oh my God! Why am I still talking about this with you? The last thing I need is you coming back from the dead because you think you have a chance!" She spat, annoyed at herself before she quickened her pace and walked away from Cole.
"Phoebe?"
"What?"
"You're very welcome."
Pamela gently tapped her fingernails against the midnight blue cover of the Book of Shadows, letting out a sigh from her pouting mouth. She leaned back on the stool she was sitting on and closed her eyes, enjoying the silence of the Manor. If she had been in a normal state of mind, she would have found the quiet in the normally bustling house to be unsettling, but right now, she relished it. The witch brought her head back, sharing a small smile with their nervous innocent before she opened the book and began to flick through it, "It's the arm, isn't it?"
Eden blinked a few times, coming out of the daydream she had been having, "Excuse me?"
"If I only had a few cuts and a big scar that run through my face, you'd be thinking, 'Boy, I'm in safe hands with that tough chick!' But with the broken arm, you're thinking twice." She looked up, smiling sadly, "It's okay, trust me. Out of all the stares I've got recently, yours the probably the least offensive."
"If you don't mind me asking… what happened to you?" Eden bowed her head when she saw the young lady shift uncomfortably, "I'm sorry if I'm intruding or anything, but I could use a conversation given everything that's happened today."
Pamela let out a quiet, hallow, laugh at this before speaking, "I… made a few errors in judgement. I let my feelings cloud my common sense and trusted someone I shouldn't have, and because of that, people are dead… I almost became one of them, if you can't tell." She said, lazily gesturing to her injured face. The witch decided that it would be best if she left out the part about her killing someone, as she didn't want to scare Eden any further than she already was.
"Well, I can't say I completely understand your situation, but I have made a few errors in judgement in my time." The innocent replied wisely, smiling slightly, "Oh yes, there are a lot of regrets that I wish I could do over… But I've learned that you shouldn't obsess over something you have no control over."
"But I did have control over what happened, I just wasn't aware that I had to use it." Pamela pointed out.
"No, you're not looking hard enough, sweetie." Eden replied with a cocked eyebrow and her eyes sparkling with zest, "You trusted someone you shouldn't have trusted, meaning that this person earned your trust. He tricked it from your hands… I'm assuming it's a he, am I right?" After a brisk nod from Pamela, she continued, "The only thing you're guilty of is being too good a person."
Pamela narrowed her eyes, smirking a little, "Isn't that just a big rationalization?"
Eden shrugged, mimicking the witch's smirk, "Maybe, but listen to whatever gets you past the darkness. That's what I always told my kids when they younger. As long as what got them out of the darkness wasn't drugs, I was fine."
Pamela smiled slightly, before looking down at her watch and shaking her head angrily, "Leo said he would be back by now…" She muttered irritably. Leo had vanished an hour ago as he had been called away to get the Elders up to speed on as to why Adam and Eve had requested the Charmed Ones' counsel. "I can't believe they all bailed out to go to work!" She added, still seething from when Brennan and Aidan had unceremoniously dumped the task of protecting the innocent on her as they had to go to work.
"That's men for you…" Eden said, clicking her tongue and shrugging once again, "What are you gonna do?"
The two of them shared a small laugh, before the window that faced the house next door suddenly exploded in a shower of tiny glass shards, causing both women to turn away from the blast, not seeing the giant surge of vines slithering in through the broken pane and make a beeline for the elderly woman sitting closest to the window. They began to rise up from the floor as Eden turned around, her eyes widening in fear as the vines suddenly shot towards her body, coiling around her and enveloping her entire body almost instantly.
Pamela moved to her aid, but was only able to take one step before a burst of vines branched out from the main vein and threw themselves into her chest, throwing her back into a nearby dresser, smashing it and falling under the numerous shelves that came loose from the impact. Ignoring the searing pain in her broken arm, she spotted the plant vanquishing potion on the table next to her and threw her healthy arm out at it before thrusting it forward to the tangle of vines that had consumed Eden. The potion flew from the table with the help of Pamela's telekinesis, smashing against the wooden floor and immediately causing a wail of agony to rise from the spirit within the plants as the vines slowly turned to dust, dropping Eden to the floor, her skin now a pale blue from the lack of oxygen.
Struggling to her feet, the witch grabbed the spell that had been left on the altar of the Book of Shadows and immediately began to cast it as an orange glow rose up from the dead plant, "She blossoms through the seeds of life, causing death and fear and strife, take her now unto the earth, and salt the ground where she shall burn!" Ignoring the spirit now imploding in the attic, Pamela rushed to the downed innocent, dropping to her knees as Terra vanished in a shower of golden sparks that fizzled out on the floor, "Leo!" She bellowed.
Almost instantly, the Elder appeared in a swathe of orbs right next to her, his normally calm eyes widening when he saw what was before him. He too dropped to his knees, putting his hands over Eden and administering his healing powers, "What happened?" He asked manically.
"That goddamn ivy plant thing that trails up the side of the house, that's what! It must have been within the perimeter of the crystals!" Pamela shouted back, bearing her teeth while do so and giving a heated glance to the dusty remains of the plant that had burst through the window, "Oh; and you left me alone with the innocent as well!" She frowned when Leo pulled his hands away, his face having defeat written all over it. Instantly, her eyes blazed with fury, "What are you doing? You can't just let her die!"
"It's too late… I can't do-,"
"No! I can't let another person die!"
"Pam, I under-!"
"No, you don't!" Pamela bellowed, cutting him off as she rose to her feet and stomped over to the Book of Shadows, spinning the top of the altar around and beginning to flip through the tome at a maddening pace until she found what she was looking for. "It's not over yet…" She murmured to herself, ripping the desired page out of the book and storming towards the attic door.
"Pam, where are you going?" Leo shouted after her, not sure to be worried at his niece's current mental state, or to be angry that she had just defaced an ancient tome of powerful magic.
"To save your damn innocent!" She spat angrily, before disappearing down the stairs and once again, leaving Leo with nothing but a dead body.
Nothing could compare to this.
Phoebe looked down beneath the floating platform that they were now standing on, vibrant flowers brushing her ankles as the din of waterfalls crashing into a sea of mist below nearly deafened her. All the waterfalls made up one giant u-shaped waterfall, and in the distance, Phoebe could see that all the liquid was being channeled into a sparkling river that twisted and turned all the way to the horizon. Colossal spires made from what looked to be the same substance as the walls of their previous area rose up towards the cloudy sky, which gave off a pink-gold hue, illuminating this beautiful place in angelic light as orbs danced across the rushing water. The only thing that seemed menacing was what lay at the end of the long, winding river that seemed to be miles away. A column of black smoke that was as tall as the spires around it defaced the beautiful scene, but oddly enough, this wasn't what scared Phoebe the most. Within the smoke, she could see a giant, light blue circle of light that hovered eerily, contrasting hideously with the black smoke around it and making Phoebe shiver.
"This is the final step that all souls must take." Eve said, sensing there would be questions about their new location. She walked through the flowers that covered the platform they were standing on, managing to not crush any of them, "They jump from here, travel down the river… and reach their Nirvana." She stared out towards the powder blue disc that lay in the smoke far off in the distance.
"A leap of faith." Phoebe added with a sour tone, no longer thinking that this place was as majestic as she thought.
"Exactly." Eve replied stonily, "Omega, the ruler of the Crimson Era, was vanquished on this very plateau." She said, looking down at the flowers around her.
"I've never heard of any demon called Omega." Piper stated, folding her arms and looking towards the two whitelighters with an inquisitive stare.
"I'm not surprised." Adam responded flatly, "Omega was ordained as the first Source a century before the Crimson Era began. He was an unstoppable demon, wiping out an army of a thousand whitelighter warriors within just a few hours. It was that victory that led to Evil's golden age, a time of prosperity for demons, and a time of misery and sorrow for everyone else. The Hollow was the only impediment during this time, and was quickly dealt with by both sides before they returned to a battle Evil was sure to win." At this, he gave the Charmed Ones a warm grin, making them return the gesture with inane, smitten smiles of their own, "But then the witch was born."
"You were around at the time witches came into existence?" Paige asked in disbelieve, her mouth agape.
"They were the saviours of all good magic." Adam replied, "Three sister goddesses. Their names lost in the ravages of time, but their legacy shall live on as long as witches walk the earth." He looked to Piper, "The first goddess had the power over everything in the physical world and all its elements," He turned to Phoebe, "The second possessed an understanding and power over the minds of all living things, bringing peace to fraught emotions and fragile smiles." The whitelighter sought out Paige, only to find her preoccupied in muttering hushed words to a cluster of orbs in her outstretched palm, "And the third dealt strictly with the nether realm, bringing forth the eternal rest to those who had earned, and had the ability to bend all of nature's rules. Every power a witch can possess stems from these three."
"What happened?" Piper probed further with her sisters at her sides, intrigued at the learning of their Wiccan roots.
"Teamwork." Eve interjected, smiling slightly, "It's one of the many meanings of every Triple Goddess symbol in existence. Three working together as one, bringing forth unimaginable strength and light. Omega feared these three more than anything in his millennia long existence, and fled to the afterlife, where he sought to use every soul's limitless magical energy to stamp down this insurgence. We weren't about to let our realm be invaded and abused like that, so we turned the power against him."
"We had a stronger dominion over the dead, thus our connection won out and the souls consumed him, making him one of them." Adam continued, "As whitelighters, we have a more powerful link with the dead. We asked for their assistance, and they complied."
"The goddesses ascended into the heavens after Omega's defeat, leaving the remnants of their power behind for it to be continued until the end of time. These days, you three are the closest thing to a reincarnation that there ever has been." Eve added, a hint of pride and nostalgia in her voice before she blinked a few times, confused at her own show of emotion and composed herself quickly, "Let us get back to the matter at hand."
"Let's." Cole agreed verily, rolling his eyes, "This origins stuff is only vaguely interesting once, and I've already heard it before, so let's get back to the present. We have a future to save."
"Just because your kind doesn't descend from gods…" Paige murmured spitefully under her breath before returning to a normal volume, "So, where are we going now? Through that blue… portal thing?" She asked nervously, nodding to the enigmatic splash of colour with in the coal black smoke.
"No. That is life's end, and you will only ever see the other side of that portal when you die." Eve replied, "It was considered at the time protecting the Angel's Whisper from within it, but we decided to build another realm for it entirely. It was a lot of work, but I like to think that it was worth it."
"Why?"
"Because after a lifetime of battles, would you want your eternal rest interrupted by two graceless oafs recklessly destroying all in their path just to find something?"
Paige smiled sadly, a bittersweet tone in her voice as she thought of all the tortured souls in the other side of the blue portal, having finally earned their peace, "No… I guess not."
"Okay, so if we're not going there, we are we going?" Piper asked, looking around the flowery haven for another portal to see she could guess where their next destination was hidden.
"This way…" Adam answered, turning from them and taking with Eve as they outstretched their free arms. A trail of orbs shot from each of their palms, exploding in a mass of white light just in front of them and revealing a dark, rust coloured portal that continued to change its appearance with a variety of foreboding colours, the last even less inviting than the first. "We are the only two that can open the seal on this gate. It doesn't work with only one of us, so it prevents one of us being killed as a form of persuasion."
"Then how did Diam and Tyola get in?" Phoebe asked darkly, raising an eyebrow at the two whitelighter as they hesitated in their answer.
"They old beings, and with that, come magical knowledge that was thought to be lost long ago. It's entirely possible that they knew of a way to breach this realm when the Hollow was first sealed, but just didn't have a chance to use that knowledge before they were bound themselves." Eve replied calmly, tired of the particularly insulting questions that kept coming from the middle Charmed One, "Are you ready to fight?"
"Do we have a choice?" Piper inquired sourly, only getting a cryptic smile as a response.
They walked into the portal, the normal loss of sense of direction taking them over as they were transported. After all these years, the nausea and various side effects of traveling like this had worn off for the three witches, and now, traveling by portal was nothing but a mild annoyance. Once the odd sensations ceased, they realized they had arrived at their destination, but their sense of direction remained lost.
They were surrounded by nothing but a thick fog, water sloshing at their feet that was only around an inch deep when they took a step. What lay above brought them no comfort either, it was the exact same as what lay around them. For all the Charmed Ones knew, they were trapped in a dome of fog, "This way!" Adam urged almost immediately, charging off into the dank abyss and nearly abandoning the Charmed and Cole from the speed he was running through the shallow water, forcing the rest of the group to keep the same pace. As they ventured further into the unknown, echoes of arguing familiar voices began to fill the air, completely ruining the mystique.
"Just take it from the branch so we can get out of here! Those whitelighters will be coming after us any minute!"
"Do you want a repeat of what happened with the Devil's Eye?" Silence. "That's what I thought. This has to be handled carefully."
The group continued to run until the mist vanished suddenly, revealing an enclosed area that seemed to be completely clear. Within the centre, a giant, dead tree stood, its branches completely white and its trunk almost glowing from the water that surrounded it. An object resembling a dream catcher hung from one of the many branches, the only difference being where there was a usually a circle of patterned netting, a colourful portal of light lay instead. The pearly white feathers that hung from it resembled the flawless colour of the tree itself, making it blend in perfectly. The only thing that didn't belong was the two beings clad completely in black.
"Diam!" Tyola shouted as she turned around to face the Charmed Ones, one foot perched defiantly on the trunk of the tree as she glowered at the three witches.
"How the hell did you get here?" Diam growled, taking his hands down from the outstretched position there in as he had been reaching for the Angel's Whisper.
"We died." Piper responded sassily, a smug smirk creeping onto her lips, "Wanna see what feels like?" She threw out her own hands, summoning all her strength and using it to blast Diam back from the massive tree with a large explosion that detonated against his chest. The Hollow agent was thrown into the air, landing on the watery surface below with an undignified splash. "Paige, get that stupid artifact outta here!" The eldest Charmed One bellowed as she charged towards her downed target, Phoebe going in the other direction towards Tyola.
The witchlighter nodded once before holding out her hand as if she was carrying something that had a handle, "Angel's Whisper!" She called out. Orbs began to devour the hanging artifact, but were beaten back by a sudden white flash that passed over the object, causing Paige to make a face, "What happened?" She spun on Adam and Eve, who both looked apprehensive at this latest development.
"It's impervious to all magic. It was done so it couldn't be summoned away." Adam replied sadly, seeing how the protections that had been placed on the artifact were no longer working in their favour.
"Great!" Paige boomed, before striding towards the tree while her sisters held off their enemies.
"We really need to stop meeting like this." Tyola smirked, raising her hands as they began to glow with photokinetic energy that could easily burn Phoebe in a second. "Then, maybe we should just stop meeting altogether." She added, throwing her arms forward and letting lose two high power lasers that streaked through the misty atmosphere like a golden ray of sunlight.
Phoebe barely had time to use her telempathy, causing both lasers to veer off course before they hit her as she interfered with Tyola's mind, changing the way the attack went as the two beams coiled round the witch's body and flew back at their caster, pummeling the ghostly pale woman in the chest and throwing her back into the water, smoke rising from her still body. "I couldn't agree more." Phoebe replied in a bored tone. The middle Charmed One made the mistake of approaching her, allowing Tyola to fly to her feet and kick Phoebe in the face, sending her to the floor immediately with a bloody nose.
"Oh, look at that. I never knew spirits could bleed!" Tyola said in sarcastic triumph as the witch wiped her face. "You might as well wipe the smirk off while you're at it."
At this, Phoebe suddenly looked up at her enemy, her head whipping upwards as her eyes narrowed before a psionic blast flew from her forehead and into Tyola's mind, throwing her back far enough to let Phoebe regain her footing, her hair now damp from being thrown into the water below, "You talk far too much." She spat, a sneer appearing on her face as her combatant got up to face her.
Wordlessly, a psionic blast flew from Tyola's head, having just copied the power from its usage on her. Phoebe, thinking fast, retaliated with a psionic blast of her own, both attacks colliding between them and resulting in a psychic shockwave that hurled the two warriors apart and into the shallow water far away from one another.
Piper's face began to go red as she tried to hold her impervious armour of cracked orange lines that ran across her body. Diam was keeping her pinned down with an unending barrage of explosions, flicking his hands out again and again. Finally, the Charmed One could no longer hold her breath and she was struck back into the water by the effect of her own power. She gritted her teeth as she pushed herself up, growling at Diam as he advanced.
"It this all that you are?" He asked in a disgusted tone, "The mighty Charmed Ones, the eldest of whom being the most feared in all the Underworld with offensive powers unmatched by any other being." He bent over, glaring at her as she struggled to get up, "You're nothing but a bug that needs to be stepped on."
Piper suddenly raised her hands, laying her freezing power on him as he attempted to bring down a punch. "Ever met a bug that can punch like this?" She growled, taking in a breath and massing out her fist, throwing it into Diam's jaw and sending high into the air for him to land with a sickly thud. Seeing that her opponent had been taken care of, Piper took this time to assess the situation. She saw Phoebe and Tyola, far apart from one another, unconscious in the shallow water with Cole going to her sister's aid while Paige struggled to untie the string that kept the Angel's Whisper tied to the tree branch. "What is the matter with you?" She shrieked when she reached her youngest sister, "If ever there was a time to move something with your mind, it's now!"
"Magic doesn't affect it!" Paige snapped back, before both of them suddenly flew backwards, landing at Adam and Eve's feet after rolling through the water for several turns before stopping, having been a victim of the telekinetic abilities Diam had copied from Paige two years ago.
The being in question gave his enemies a stony stare as he sauntered up to the tree once more and violently ripped the Angel's Whisper from the tree branch. "Tyola! We've got it, let's go!"
"Finally!" Tyola snapped in response, flipping herself to her feet and running over to her partner. She stood next to Diam, her bushy hair tangled and soaking from the numerous tumbles she had taken into the water during the fight. Laying a hand on his shoulder, Tyola grinned widely at the reformed group in front of them, Phoebe hold onto Cole for support as they hobbled over, "It's always a pleasure, Charmed Ones!" She cooed, before she and Diam burst into a swirl of particles and left, taking the Angel's Whisper with them.
"Spirits of air, sand and sea, converge to set the angel free, in the wind I send this rhyme, bring Death before me, before my time."
Pamela looked up from the torn Book of Shadows page in her hand and towards the endless ocean in front of her. Her bare feet had been completely submerged by the sweeping sand brought in by the tide, her toes wiggling beneath a sandy surface that was up to her ankles. She shook her head slowly, muttering under her breath when it seemed the spell hadn't even worked. She was about to give up entirely and walk away, before jumping in fright as Death stood right beside her, casting a shadow across her body and blocking the sunlight.
"You look like Death." He drawled, a thin smile forming at his own joke.
"What took you so long?"
"I'm not like your average pitiful demon, witch. I don't immediately get whisked away the moment I'm summoned. I chose to answer, and depending on what you have to say, I may stay." His expression turned pensive as he folded his arms, looking down on her with scornful pity, "If you summoned me to plead for your innocent's soul, then the answer is no. It's out of my hands now."
"How did you know?" Pamela asked quietly, the rushing sounds of the ocean fading out in her hearing.
"You have that look in your eyes."
"What look?"
"The look that says you can't bear to have another death on your conscience." He replied gravely, "Do you really think you're the first witch to come to me, begging to return an innocent's life? They know full well it's not in my power to do so, but they try anyway, despite the fact that witches no longer need to care about an innocent once they're dead. You see, it doesn't come from genuine sorrow over a person losing their life; it comes from the guilt, from the failed responsibility. This is about appeasing your own issues, not your innocent's." He snarled.
"You're wrong. Eden died because I acted like brat about protecting her. It's my fault she's-,"
"Be quiet." Death said firmly, cutting her off before rolling his eyes, "I'm not hearing about why Eden Gareth should be brought back, all I'm hearing is your resounding guilt that saturates your words. This is nothing but a selfish act concealed in noble intentions. Your mother summoned me for the exact same reason."
"Don't even compare me to her; I'm nothing like my mother." Pamela snarled in response, tears prickling her eyes."
"Oh, but you are." He replied smoothly, "Now, I'm going to tell you something that everyone in your life has probably wanted to say to you but just hasn't: get over it."
"Excuse me?"
"This guilt you're feeling is so self-absorbed, it's sickening. Your brother mercilessly slaughtered hundreds of people over the years, never feeling a thing as they knife went in, draining the life from all those witches." He continued, ignoring Pamela's visible flinch, "You, on the other hand, kill him in the least personal way by shooting him, giving him a quick, almost painless death and yet, you destroy yourself over it. The only thing that made killing him different from vanquishing a demon was the personal connection, which wasn't that strong to begin with!" Death argued, his voice raised slightly, "Stop manufacturing feelings because you think they're necessary, and don't bother calling me ever again." With that, he vanished in a wreath of blue smoke and left her to contemplate his advice.
Pamela turned back to the ocean, her feet still with in the sand despite her position shift. She didn't even care when the waves soaked the ends of her rolled up jeans, all she could feel was the rush of the ocean and the soothing sound of the waves bursting into the rocks nearby. With a deep breath, tears began to run down her cheeks. She felt lighter somehow. The golden heart shaped necklace, which had felt heavier around her neck since Arc's destruction, no longer felt like such a burden. She opened her eyes and stared out into the horizon, before something that she hadn't done in weeks.
She smiled.
Phoebe sat on the edge of the glowing platform, looking out towards the orbs that were floating around the circular walls that enclosed this place. She swung her legs in a childish away, looking all the way down to the pit of black orbs that lay below, before looking up at where they had just come from, where the top of the path was bathed in light. After finding the good side of the afterlife slightly frightening, she dreaded to think what it was like in the realm beneath her.
"How's your nose?" Cole asked, sitting down beside her and mimicking her position.
"Fine, I think." She replied, rubbing her swollen nose slightly, "It's just a spiritual injury, so I'm guessing it won't be on my body when I go back into the living world…" They sat in silence for a few moments, watching the many orbs float by before Phoebe spoke again, "I couldn't imagine spending an eternity constantly going up and down this path, never knowing what lay after… Living a half-life." She said mournfully, "But then again, I guess this is the path that was mapped out for you all along with you being a hybrid of human and demon."
"I guess." Cole said quietly, "And speaking of paths, have you made a decision about your little dilemma?"
Phoebe smiled slightly, looking down, "I don't know yet."
"Well, I was thinking about it, and all I've ever wanted is for you to be happy, Phoebe." He responded, seeming to be slightly embarrassed by this, "And I think that if Brennan makes you happy, then I'm completely for you following him to wherever he goes… and besides, your kids are adorable, you don't want all that city smog ruining them. The country air's better."
Despite her confliction, Phoebe managed to laugh slightly, silently nothing that he had managed to get Brennan's name correct, "Thank you for your blessing, it factored heavily into my decision making process." She said sarcastically, biting her lip as he also looked down, laughing a little. Without any warning, she suddenly turned his head to hers and pressed their lips together. Cole's eyes widened briefly before he realized what was happening. Unfortunately for him, it was too late to intensify it, as Phoebe pulled away as quickly as she had initiated it.
"W-What was…? What was that for?" He stuttered.
"It was for more my benefit than yours, trust me." Phoebe replied with a smile, getting up and squeezing his shoulder as she walked away, "Goodbye, Cole." She said sweetly, still leaving her ex-husband speechless about what had just happened and completely unaware that he had helped her make her decision.
"So, now that they have the Angel's Whisper, is there anything we should look out for?" Piper asked, folding her arms and waiting for the bad answer she knew was heading her way.
Eve, for the first time since they had met her, hesitated before answering, clearly not knowing what to say, "The full extent of the Angel's Whisper's powers are unknown… But, it existence is sustained on the hopes and dreams of the people, and given the hands that it's fallen into, its anyone's guess what they could do with it." Their attention was directed when Death smoked in, really to take them back to their bodies.
"So basically, we wait." Paige said ruefully, shaking her head sadly as she concocted all the possible scenarios.
"Sadly, yes." Adam replied, "Just be on guard. You three are their clear targets, as your Power of Three is strong enough to destroy the seal on the Hollow… I'm sorry we couldn't intervene during the battle."
"It's okay. After all this time, we're starting to finally understand the consequences thing."
"Are you ready, or would you rather stay here?" Death asked them, his lips twisting into a smile. He decided not to tell the witches about his encounter with Pamela, as for starters, it had nothing to do with him, and secondly, she would benefit more if she went through this alone. The immortal being mentally slapped himself for being so connected in the ways of the living, before composing himself and resuming his intimidating demeanour.
"Just get us out of here, will you?" Piper snapped, her eyes narrowed.
"Very well." Imitating the same gesture he had done to drain their spirits, Death swept his hand across the trio, causing them all to evaporate into thin wisps of blue smoke that flew up into the ether, returning the Charmed Ones to the world of the living, and leaving the four immortal beings alone in the silent darkness with only the anguished moans of lost souls to console them.
"Good luck, Charmed Ones…"
"How does she do that?"
Brennan sat on the steps of basement that was he and Phoebe's homemade gym, marveling at how his wife had stayed still for so long. Maybe it had something to do with the electric current constantly pulsing through his body, but Brennan could never stay still for long. Even sitting here watching her meditate for ten minutes was starting to give him a desire to unleash some energy. And yet she was still like stone, her hands resting on her knees in her crossed legged position. Her utter lack of movement was frustrating for the mutant in a way, as he too sometimes wished he had the patience to be still for just one moment and collect his thoughts.
"I heard we lost the innocent." Phoebe said, her eyes flashing open. She smiled when it was clear he was surprised that she had known he was there, "The third step on the stairs has a really quiet creak. That and when you try and make no sound, you end up making a lot of sound."
"Good to know." Brennan responded with a grin, "And yeah, we left Pam alone with her, knowing that she wasn't up to fighting if it came down to that, but we went off to work anyway... which makes me see that moving across the country really isn't a good idea, regardless of the house's importance."
"Brennan-,"
"No, you were right before, it's just too much. And today taught me that. We were all in town, and yet that poor woman still lost her life. Can you imagine what it would be like if we were in Wisconsin? So, no, I don't think we should move." Although he was smiling, his eyes betrayed his true emotions to Phoebe, who smiled back at him.
"That's funny, because I was just about to say we should."
Brennan's head shot up from its bowed position, "What?"
"It's funny, spending the day in the afterlife makes you really appreciate what you have in life. I faced some of my demons, and I made a decision." She got up from her sitting position and walked across to him, smiling at the double entendre of her statement as she leant on the banister of the stairs, "I don't want to live the rest of life, always putting being a witch before everything else. Nearly everyone in my family has done that. Even my sister, Prue, and look how she turned out: Dead. Way before her time. I wanna break that cycle of death that's plagued my family for centuries and live!" Phoebe leant forward slightly so she could put her arms around Brennan's neck, "So, let's do it. Let's take that leap of faith. I'll quit my job and work on the farm or something; you can be a silent owner of your garage, and we'll both have a lot more free time to watch our kids grow up in the best place we were able to give them…"
"… Are you absolutely sure?" He asked seriously, staring into her eyes as he placed his hands on her hips.
"Absolutely. Maybe I'll write a book or something!" She replied with a smile.
"Alright then…" Brennan said quietly, before a beaming grin spread across his face. "Wisconsin, here we come! …There's just one thing."
"What?"
"Have you ever milked a cow?"