Charmed Rewritten: Season 3

Episode One, Chapter One.

It was near the end of the second week, after almost no word from Piper, that Prue started to think that perhaps her sister actually wasn't going to come back to them.

She hated herself for thinking that, but what other conclusion could she draw? She had spent whole nights calling for Leo, who was her whitelighter as well and should come when she called for him, without a single response even to let her know that he and Piper were still alive. What other reason could there be for that, if for no other reason than Leo's bosses wouldn't allow them to come back.

She hated herself for even thinking it, but she was the eldest. She had to think about it.

Not that Phoebe was spared, because she knew that her youngest sister was thinking about it as well. Hell, Phoebe had been the first to actually suggest the idea out loud. They had just been sitting down to dinner, Chinese take out considering that Phoebe could burn water and Prue's own cooking skills were limited to stove top mac and cheese, when Phoebe had asked her if she thought that Piper and Leo were ever going to come back.

And now that they were coming up to a month, with Piper being gone, Prue was about ready to concide that she wasn't going to.

Prue sighed, she really needed some air. Her darkroom in the manor's basement had become something of a sanctury these past couple of weeks, at least partly because Phoebe was still slightly too scared to spend any long peroids of time down in it. She walked over to the basement stairs and began to climb them up to the kitchen.

She briefly thought about getting something to eat but decided against it, instead she made her way up to the attic. She wanted to spend an hour or two flipping through the book, there were some interesting potion recpies in there that she wanted to take a closer look at as it didn't hurt to be prepared, more so now considering they didn't have access to the Power of Three.

Truth be told, she wasn't that surprised when she found Phoebe all ready up there with her nose buried right in the middle of the book.

"You know," She began and it really was lucky that Phoebe didn't have an active power to use on her as if she did then Prue was certain that at that moment she would be in a world of pain. "One of the really great things about being a professional photographer is that for the most part, the hours are really great. So, I can pull all nighters with much fewer consequences than a collage student who really should be in bed by now."

"I know, I know but I can't sleep. Restless, I guess. When I'm not worried about Piper and Leo, I'm worried about whatever that council that the genie we helped was talking about could be up." Phoebe shut the book and looked at Prue. "I don't need to see the future to know that something bad is coming Prue, and I don't think we are going to be able to stop it. Not without Piper."

Prue wanted to say something to make her feel better, or at least to erase the look of worry on her face, but she had no idea what she could say to do that. Still, no one said that Prudence Halliwell was a quitter and so she opened her mouth but before she could say anything to her there was the sound of someone banging on the front door.

The two sisters shared a quick glance before they both turned and ran out of the attic and then quickly down to the first floor, all the while as they made their way down the banging hadn't stopped and if nothing else it had only gotten that much more desperate. Prue, being the one with the active power, took the lead and threw open the door.

There was a woman on the doorstep, her skin was a light shade of brown and her chestnut curls framed her face. Her eyes were brown, well the one eye that had not been swollen shut was brown, and her bottom lip had been split and a stab wound at her shoulder was bleeding heavily and she had a large burn on her stomach which could be seen through the hole in her shirt.

As soon as they caught sight of her, it was like a damn burst and the woman on their porch began to sob and Prue and Phoebe looked at one another, neither of them having any idea of what had happened or what they could do.

They only knew one thing, they were going to find out and they were going to do what they could.

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Shannen Doherty as Prudence Halliwell

Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwelll

Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell

Dorian Gregory as Daryl Morris

Brian Krause as Leo Wyatt

Kerry Washington as Naomi

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Prue quickly finished pouring the poor girl a cup of coffee and handed it to her, their first instinct had to been to call for Leo and perhaps a part of Prue had even thought that he would come once he realised that there was someone who needed healing but alas, nada. Thankfully, her wounds hadn't been too bad all things considered.

The stab wound on her shoulder was shallow and didn't need any stiches, thank God for that and the burn on her stomach when actually seen in good light honestly didn't look like it was all that bad. They hadn't been able to get any answers out of her yet but it was clear that she was still in shock, at least a little bit.

"Here you go, careful. It's hot." She spoke to the younger women gently as she sat down across from her on the other side of the kitchen island, Phoebe was sitting at the side of the girl.

"Thank you." It was so quiet that Prue actually had to strain to hear what the girl had said but at least she had said something. She brought her mug up to her lips and took a deep drink from it and Prue could see that her hands were shaking.

"You don't have to thank us sweetie." Phoebe said as rested her hand on the younger woman's shoulder, Prue expected her to be thrown into a premonition at the contact and it seemed that her sister thought that would be as well but when Phoebe subtly shook her head at her to signify that she hadn't in fact had one, then it looked like they were going to have to figure it out the old fashioned way.

"She's right, you know, you really don't. But if you wanted to, you could tell us what happened to you. So that we could help you, we're pretty good at helping when it comes to it." Prue suggested, as gently as she could.

Their latest innocent put her nearly empty mug of coffee down on the island and then glanced between the two of them, hesitant about something. "Before I do, could I ask the both of you a question?" When she saw the both of them nod, she carried on. "Are-are you really them? Are you really the Charmed Ones, because all the stories said there were meant to be three of you?"

"You...know who we are?" Prue tried her best to keep any suspicion she felt out of her voice but it was hard to do so, it was rare enough for innocents to just land on their doorsteps and it was even rarer for them to know who they were. In fact, if she remembered correctly the last time it had happened it had been Aunt Gail who had come to them and look how that had turned out.

She must have done a better job than she thought as the woman kept going without looking put out. "Yeah, I mean everyone in my coven knows about the Charmed Ones. I mean, we didn't know your names or anything but we knew that you lived in the city somewhere. You saved a lot of innocent people, and a lot of witches, word spreads around."

"Great." Prue hissed.

"Hang on, Coven? You're a witch?" Phoebe asked and the other woman nodded with an almost shy smile as she flicked one of her hands in a very Piper like manner in the direction of a vase of flowers which were very quickly covered in a thick coating of ice. The display of power made Prue's mouth drop open and made Phoebe let out a low whistle.

"It's called Molecular Inhibition, my power. I basically cause the molecules of anything I use my power on to lose their energy and crystallise, thus encasing them in ice." When she saw that the both of them were still staring at the flowers in shock, she winced. "Oh, yeah, sorry." She flicked out her hand again and it was like the ice wasn't even there to start with.

"Okay, let's start again. Who are you, why did you come to our doorstep looking like death warmed up and what's this about a coven?" Prue said, falling into command mode as she narrowed her eyes at the woman. She didn't want to think that she was a threat, but there were a lot of pieces here that she wasn't sure how they fit together and she did not like it, not one bit.

"My name is Clara Ashford and, well, I'm a witch. I belong-" Clara's eyes fell shut then and her face crumpled and for a moment Prue thought that she was going to cry. "I belonged, to a coven here in San Francisco. About a month or so ago, one of our sister covens lost one of it's members. I mean, it was awful but we didn't look to closely at it. You know, demons and warlocks and everything, it happens."

"But then it happened again. And again. And again. We didn't notice it was a pattern at first, it was happening all over the city and each time it was happening to a different coven or witches who practiced the craft on their own were being killed. But soon enough, it became clear that we were being hunted down by someone, something."

"But, by the time we figured that out. The killings escalated, what was one killing every day turned into three or even four." Prue felt her stomach dropping, this many witches were being killed over how many months and they hadn't even noticed?

"How is that possible, we would have noticed? The police, certainly would have noticed if dozens of people were just suddenly turning up dead." Phoebe said as she rose from the kitchen island and began to pace back and forth down the length of the room. "God Prue, how could we let this happen?"

"Don't blame yourself, this demon is smart. Okay, after the first couple of deaths he used his powers to get rid of any bodies and he actually cleaned up their apartments, made it look like they had just up and left the city. Hell, for awhile it even managed to fool us." Clara said sadly. "In the end, it was just me and a few others left. We knew that we would need to find you, that if we wanted to survive then we would need the Power of Three."

"Me and my sisters were in the middle of performing a locator spell to find you when he burst in." That was when Clara did start to cry. "H-he killed all of them, Tomi, the most senior witch left, bought us time to finish the spell and we got your location but I was the only one who was actually able to get away. And you saw what a close call that was."

Clara broke down, clearly not able to keep the tears back anymore and as she was crying Phoebe and Prue shared a look. Phoebe then put her hand under Clara's chin and made her look up. "Sweetie, I am so sorry for what you've been through. Words can't even say how much, but you are here now and you are safe and that demon isn't going to get away with this."

"Would you be able to identify him?" Prue asked.

"I will never forget that face." Clara said, and the certainty in her voice made it clear that she wouldn't.

"Well then, lets go get the book."

End of Chapter One

Well, this has been an idea that has been in the back of my head for awhile.

Um, I don't want to give anything away about the future of this story so I can't say much but what I will say is that I hope you enjoyed it and that you will consider leaving a review, a follow and a favourite.

With a great deal of love,

DiscordantSymphony