A/N: Next chapter's the last one la la la la la la!
A/N: To Kit: You never know, oh how you never know. Well, I do, but I'm not telling you. So there!
A/N: Paigefan: Dare I say it - you were right! Boy am I inventive! I bet you're all *really* surprised! *shakes head in ashame...ment*
Chapter Fourteen: The Eagle Has Landed
Prue and Stephen leapt apart, as if caught doing something wrong.
"I thought you said there wasn't any evil," Stephen muttered from the side of his mouth to Prue as he prepared himself for the attack.
"Well, well, well," said the intruder. Prue's jaw dropped. "Looks like Prue's got herself a new love interest."
Prue stepped in front of him protectively. "Phoebe?" she asked her sister desperately.
Stephen jumped. "Hold on - Phoebe as in your evil sister Phoebe?"
"Stephen, quiet," Prue commanded. "Phoebe, why are you here?"
Phoebe leant against the doorframe, inspecting her nails with a bored expression. "House hunting," she replied absentmindely, then took several steps in. "Only problem is, those darn folks down in the Underworld don't accept cash. They like to be paid in," her eyes flickered to Stephen, "powers."
Looking around his dingy apartment, Phoebe wrinkled her nose, and decided that she could do with boasting a little about their progress since last seeing Prue. "Of course, we could just take anything we wanted, but, you know, we wanna be on good terms with people down there. And besides, I could use a little practise at this... I haven't stolen powers before."
"Phoebe, you don't have to go through with this," Prue told her sternly. "You can fight it."
Phoebe's expression changed. "Oh," she said in a sing-song voice, "I'm cured!" There was a pause as Prue glowered at her sister's sarcasm. Shaking her head, Phoebe rolled her eyes disdainfully. "It's too late Prue. I like this me. You know what it's like," she spoke as if it was a seduction, "You've felt the power before."
There was a silence as the sisters stared each other out. "You know I could summon a darklighter just like that," Phoebe said, snapping her fingers. "But somehow, I just wouldn't find it as much fun. Now let me get what I came for, and just because you're my sister, I won't kill this one. Or you."
"I can't let you do that," Prue told Phoebe. "Especially not to my charge."
Grinning, Phoebe's eyes played over him. "So this is the Stephen we've heard so much about," she cried. "Cute. And soon to be powerless."
She held out her hand, mentally calling Stephen's powers into her own bloodstream.
Stephen clutched his chest, suddenly feeling all his strength sapping. "Prue," he spluttered, "she's... taking them..." He fell to his knees weakly, trying to fight against Phoebe's pull, but she was much too strong for him.
Acting quickly, Prue darted over to Phoebe and delivered a smart high kick to her outstretched arm. Phoebe cried out and withdrew her throbbing arm, glaring at Prue.
"You really are an idiot, you know that?" she growled, her voice trembling slightly, full of spite. "You can't stop me Prue. You may as well give up. And you know what? I think I will kill him now. With my new new power," her angry frown slid upwards into a smirk. "And you thought the telepathy was cool."
Conjuring up an energy ball, Phoebe turned her attentions to Stephen. "Hope Prue didn't like you too much," she uttered darkly, sending it hurtling towards his terrified face. He used his deflection power without even thinking about it; Phoebe's energy ball was absorbed right into the blue shield, and disappeared.
Phoebe stared. "That is so cool!" she said, sounding exactly like her former - good - self. Then she shook herself out of it. "But you won't be able to hold it forever."
She began to throw a barrage of energy balls, each one smashing into Stephen's deflection, but he was visibly weakening as she was just getting started. Smirking, Phoebe conjured an extra-large one, and shot it straight at the shield.
Once it was absorbed, the blue portal Stephen was protecting himself with vanished. He wasn't powerful enough to keep it up. Sweating, he attempted to bring it back, flicking his wrists towards the floor in the style Piper would freeze something. But nothing happened. Prue began to hurry to his side.
Shaking the hair from her face, Phoebe made one last energy ball, and blasted it right at him.
There was an explosion as it hit, shattering into a million tiny pieces.
Phoebe's mouth fell open when she saw he was still standing. "What the..."
The tiny blue orbs rearranged themselves back into Prue. She had leapt in front of the energy ball to protect him.
"I guess being a whitelighter isn't so bad," she said, then snatched Stephen's hand. "Come on. We are so outta here."
Before Phoebe could protest or keep her promise and summon a darklighter, they were gone. Enraged at their escape and her humiliation, Phoebe stamped her foot, scratching the bare floorboards with her heel. "Bitch!" she spat angrily. Shoulders sagging, she blinked out.
*
"Where are we?" Stephen asked as they orbed in.
Prue quickly closed the door of her chambers. "Somewhere you shouldn't be," she replied, feeling her nerves heighten in worry. What if they were caught? She saw him standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. "Make yourself at home," she told him. "You might be here for a while."
Stephen sat down on the bed. "Is this your place?" he asked. The room consisted of one colour: white. He felt like he was making a mess just sitting there. "It's... nice."
"Can't say I'm a fan," Prue told him honestly as she continued to keep a look out.
"So where exactly are we?" he asked again.
Prue stopped what she was doing and turned around. "The one true place where you'll be safe," she said. She knew she must be sounding like Leo, but somehow she couldn't help but talk in cryptic sentences. It was like a whitelighter psychological dysfunction, and now that she thought about it, that was a pretty neat term for it! Even though it made her sound nuts.
"You mean we're," he lowered his voice, "Up There?"
"Not quite," Prue said. She sat beside him. "We're sorta... halfway there." On his blank expression, she sighed. "This is hard... I'm not sure if I understand it myself. Yes, we are 'up there', but the place we are has the same time system as on Earth, thank god."
Stephen blinked. "What is it usually?"
"Um, something like one day here to one Earth month," she said thoughtfully. "We found that out the hard way when Piper decided to pay a short visit to the Elders and didn't come back for weeks."
Nodding, Stephen tried to take in the atmosphere of the place. It was calm, tranquil, that was for sure. "And I'm not supposed to be here, right?"
She laughed. "Mere mortals such as yourself aren't supposed to be here, no. But I have good reason to keep you here. So you're staying, whether the Elders like it or not."
* * *
Phoebe blinked into the manor. "Piper?" she called, "Paige?"
Silence.
Taking a few steps further into the hall, she peeked into the living room and saw it was a mess. Glass was everywhere and the grandfather clock was shattered. "Great. Why does that always happen?" she grimaced.
Hearing a noise from upstairs, a high-pitched squealing sound, she hastily rushed up the stairs. It was coming from Piper's room. Bursting in, Phoebe searched the room. "Piper? You here?"
It was empty. Phoebe got an uneasy shiver travel down her back. She turned around.
'Phoebe?' said a voice. Wait... but nobody spoke... it was like she'd heard it in her head. It spoke again. 'Phoebe? It's Piper... I'm on the mirror.'
She realised Piper must be talking to her telepathically. "Oh," she said, whipping around. Her mouth fell open in awe when she saw Piper. "Is that really you?" she asked.
The eagle leapt off the rim of the mirror and flew over to Phoebe, who outstretched her arm for Piper to land on.
"Ow, claws," Phoebe cried. The eagle looked up at her apologetically. "You look amazing, you know that?" Phoebe told it.
The eagle cocked it's head. 'Don't I always?' it said silently.
It glided over onto Piper's bed, and began the painful morph back to it's human form. Phoebe watched, wincing. It looked like it hurt. A lot.
When she was back, Piper grinned at Phoebe, her forehead glistening. "What do you think?" she asked, panting slightly from the change.
"I think I'm glad it's not happening to me," Phoebe replied.
"Yet."
Phoebe nodded. "And I also think you should put some clothes on."
Looking down, Piper yelped when she saw her slight nakedness issue. "Where the hell did my clothes go?" she squealed while tugging the bed blankets up to cover herself. Then she saw the small pile of clothes in the corner. When she morphed, she must've simply discarded them. "Great. How am I gonna deal with that? Wear lycra?"
Phoebe snorted in laughter and shaking her head at her panicked sister, blinked downstairs. Moments later, Piper was by her side, fully dressed again. They were in the living room. It was still a mess.
"Oh man not the clock," Piper complained. "I'll call the repair guy."
Phoebe giggled softly - it was always the same thing. "What happened in here?"
Piper looked at her reproachfully. "Paige," she shrugged. "What else? She's quite the little persuader, you know that?"
Thinking back to when Paige had threatened to castrate a warlock for information, Phoebe bit her lip and nodded. She knew only too well how well Paige had taken to this life change.
Piper wandered away, leaving Phoebe to contemplate her thoughts. She wasn't expecting any visitors, but Cole was always a nice surprise, and he appeared right then.
"Hey," she said, pulling a strand of hair in front of her face and playing with it.
"Have you thought about what I said?" he asked urgently, referring to a previous conversation.
She sighed in annoyance. "You're not still on about me trying to be good are you?" she whined. "Cole, you should be happy! You finally get to be who you're supposed to be!"
Shaking visibly, he looked down at her. She was so comfortable in her new life, he almost agreed to stay with her right then, just because he felt so overcome with love. But it was wrong. How could he continue to resist though? He loved her, for gods sake! Surely all that mattered was that they were together, right?
Raising her eyebrows questioningly, Phoebe could tell Cole was battling with his conscience. She hoped it'd lose. She'd love to have Cole by her side as they took over the Underworld. Sure it seemed like an ambitious plan, but if they had been the most powerful force of good, then it seemed only natural to assume they were soon to be the most powerful force of evil. It would be easy to take out the Source and claim full power over the Underworld.
Cole gazed at her with pained eyes. He couldn't bear to lose her. And then and there, he made his choice.
Leaning forward and kissing her, perhaps for the last time, Cole was certain he'd made the right decision. She glanced at him curiously, awaiting his answer.
He wouldn't give it to her. He shimmered away.
A/N: To Kit: You never know, oh how you never know. Well, I do, but I'm not telling you. So there!
A/N: Paigefan: Dare I say it - you were right! Boy am I inventive! I bet you're all *really* surprised! *shakes head in ashame...ment*
Chapter Fourteen: The Eagle Has Landed
Prue and Stephen leapt apart, as if caught doing something wrong.
"I thought you said there wasn't any evil," Stephen muttered from the side of his mouth to Prue as he prepared himself for the attack.
"Well, well, well," said the intruder. Prue's jaw dropped. "Looks like Prue's got herself a new love interest."
Prue stepped in front of him protectively. "Phoebe?" she asked her sister desperately.
Stephen jumped. "Hold on - Phoebe as in your evil sister Phoebe?"
"Stephen, quiet," Prue commanded. "Phoebe, why are you here?"
Phoebe leant against the doorframe, inspecting her nails with a bored expression. "House hunting," she replied absentmindely, then took several steps in. "Only problem is, those darn folks down in the Underworld don't accept cash. They like to be paid in," her eyes flickered to Stephen, "powers."
Looking around his dingy apartment, Phoebe wrinkled her nose, and decided that she could do with boasting a little about their progress since last seeing Prue. "Of course, we could just take anything we wanted, but, you know, we wanna be on good terms with people down there. And besides, I could use a little practise at this... I haven't stolen powers before."
"Phoebe, you don't have to go through with this," Prue told her sternly. "You can fight it."
Phoebe's expression changed. "Oh," she said in a sing-song voice, "I'm cured!" There was a pause as Prue glowered at her sister's sarcasm. Shaking her head, Phoebe rolled her eyes disdainfully. "It's too late Prue. I like this me. You know what it's like," she spoke as if it was a seduction, "You've felt the power before."
There was a silence as the sisters stared each other out. "You know I could summon a darklighter just like that," Phoebe said, snapping her fingers. "But somehow, I just wouldn't find it as much fun. Now let me get what I came for, and just because you're my sister, I won't kill this one. Or you."
"I can't let you do that," Prue told Phoebe. "Especially not to my charge."
Grinning, Phoebe's eyes played over him. "So this is the Stephen we've heard so much about," she cried. "Cute. And soon to be powerless."
She held out her hand, mentally calling Stephen's powers into her own bloodstream.
Stephen clutched his chest, suddenly feeling all his strength sapping. "Prue," he spluttered, "she's... taking them..." He fell to his knees weakly, trying to fight against Phoebe's pull, but she was much too strong for him.
Acting quickly, Prue darted over to Phoebe and delivered a smart high kick to her outstretched arm. Phoebe cried out and withdrew her throbbing arm, glaring at Prue.
"You really are an idiot, you know that?" she growled, her voice trembling slightly, full of spite. "You can't stop me Prue. You may as well give up. And you know what? I think I will kill him now. With my new new power," her angry frown slid upwards into a smirk. "And you thought the telepathy was cool."
Conjuring up an energy ball, Phoebe turned her attentions to Stephen. "Hope Prue didn't like you too much," she uttered darkly, sending it hurtling towards his terrified face. He used his deflection power without even thinking about it; Phoebe's energy ball was absorbed right into the blue shield, and disappeared.
Phoebe stared. "That is so cool!" she said, sounding exactly like her former - good - self. Then she shook herself out of it. "But you won't be able to hold it forever."
She began to throw a barrage of energy balls, each one smashing into Stephen's deflection, but he was visibly weakening as she was just getting started. Smirking, Phoebe conjured an extra-large one, and shot it straight at the shield.
Once it was absorbed, the blue portal Stephen was protecting himself with vanished. He wasn't powerful enough to keep it up. Sweating, he attempted to bring it back, flicking his wrists towards the floor in the style Piper would freeze something. But nothing happened. Prue began to hurry to his side.
Shaking the hair from her face, Phoebe made one last energy ball, and blasted it right at him.
There was an explosion as it hit, shattering into a million tiny pieces.
Phoebe's mouth fell open when she saw he was still standing. "What the..."
The tiny blue orbs rearranged themselves back into Prue. She had leapt in front of the energy ball to protect him.
"I guess being a whitelighter isn't so bad," she said, then snatched Stephen's hand. "Come on. We are so outta here."
Before Phoebe could protest or keep her promise and summon a darklighter, they were gone. Enraged at their escape and her humiliation, Phoebe stamped her foot, scratching the bare floorboards with her heel. "Bitch!" she spat angrily. Shoulders sagging, she blinked out.
*
"Where are we?" Stephen asked as they orbed in.
Prue quickly closed the door of her chambers. "Somewhere you shouldn't be," she replied, feeling her nerves heighten in worry. What if they were caught? She saw him standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. "Make yourself at home," she told him. "You might be here for a while."
Stephen sat down on the bed. "Is this your place?" he asked. The room consisted of one colour: white. He felt like he was making a mess just sitting there. "It's... nice."
"Can't say I'm a fan," Prue told him honestly as she continued to keep a look out.
"So where exactly are we?" he asked again.
Prue stopped what she was doing and turned around. "The one true place where you'll be safe," she said. She knew she must be sounding like Leo, but somehow she couldn't help but talk in cryptic sentences. It was like a whitelighter psychological dysfunction, and now that she thought about it, that was a pretty neat term for it! Even though it made her sound nuts.
"You mean we're," he lowered his voice, "Up There?"
"Not quite," Prue said. She sat beside him. "We're sorta... halfway there." On his blank expression, she sighed. "This is hard... I'm not sure if I understand it myself. Yes, we are 'up there', but the place we are has the same time system as on Earth, thank god."
Stephen blinked. "What is it usually?"
"Um, something like one day here to one Earth month," she said thoughtfully. "We found that out the hard way when Piper decided to pay a short visit to the Elders and didn't come back for weeks."
Nodding, Stephen tried to take in the atmosphere of the place. It was calm, tranquil, that was for sure. "And I'm not supposed to be here, right?"
She laughed. "Mere mortals such as yourself aren't supposed to be here, no. But I have good reason to keep you here. So you're staying, whether the Elders like it or not."
* * *
Phoebe blinked into the manor. "Piper?" she called, "Paige?"
Silence.
Taking a few steps further into the hall, she peeked into the living room and saw it was a mess. Glass was everywhere and the grandfather clock was shattered. "Great. Why does that always happen?" she grimaced.
Hearing a noise from upstairs, a high-pitched squealing sound, she hastily rushed up the stairs. It was coming from Piper's room. Bursting in, Phoebe searched the room. "Piper? You here?"
It was empty. Phoebe got an uneasy shiver travel down her back. She turned around.
'Phoebe?' said a voice. Wait... but nobody spoke... it was like she'd heard it in her head. It spoke again. 'Phoebe? It's Piper... I'm on the mirror.'
She realised Piper must be talking to her telepathically. "Oh," she said, whipping around. Her mouth fell open in awe when she saw Piper. "Is that really you?" she asked.
The eagle leapt off the rim of the mirror and flew over to Phoebe, who outstretched her arm for Piper to land on.
"Ow, claws," Phoebe cried. The eagle looked up at her apologetically. "You look amazing, you know that?" Phoebe told it.
The eagle cocked it's head. 'Don't I always?' it said silently.
It glided over onto Piper's bed, and began the painful morph back to it's human form. Phoebe watched, wincing. It looked like it hurt. A lot.
When she was back, Piper grinned at Phoebe, her forehead glistening. "What do you think?" she asked, panting slightly from the change.
"I think I'm glad it's not happening to me," Phoebe replied.
"Yet."
Phoebe nodded. "And I also think you should put some clothes on."
Looking down, Piper yelped when she saw her slight nakedness issue. "Where the hell did my clothes go?" she squealed while tugging the bed blankets up to cover herself. Then she saw the small pile of clothes in the corner. When she morphed, she must've simply discarded them. "Great. How am I gonna deal with that? Wear lycra?"
Phoebe snorted in laughter and shaking her head at her panicked sister, blinked downstairs. Moments later, Piper was by her side, fully dressed again. They were in the living room. It was still a mess.
"Oh man not the clock," Piper complained. "I'll call the repair guy."
Phoebe giggled softly - it was always the same thing. "What happened in here?"
Piper looked at her reproachfully. "Paige," she shrugged. "What else? She's quite the little persuader, you know that?"
Thinking back to when Paige had threatened to castrate a warlock for information, Phoebe bit her lip and nodded. She knew only too well how well Paige had taken to this life change.
Piper wandered away, leaving Phoebe to contemplate her thoughts. She wasn't expecting any visitors, but Cole was always a nice surprise, and he appeared right then.
"Hey," she said, pulling a strand of hair in front of her face and playing with it.
"Have you thought about what I said?" he asked urgently, referring to a previous conversation.
She sighed in annoyance. "You're not still on about me trying to be good are you?" she whined. "Cole, you should be happy! You finally get to be who you're supposed to be!"
Shaking visibly, he looked down at her. She was so comfortable in her new life, he almost agreed to stay with her right then, just because he felt so overcome with love. But it was wrong. How could he continue to resist though? He loved her, for gods sake! Surely all that mattered was that they were together, right?
Raising her eyebrows questioningly, Phoebe could tell Cole was battling with his conscience. She hoped it'd lose. She'd love to have Cole by her side as they took over the Underworld. Sure it seemed like an ambitious plan, but if they had been the most powerful force of good, then it seemed only natural to assume they were soon to be the most powerful force of evil. It would be easy to take out the Source and claim full power over the Underworld.
Cole gazed at her with pained eyes. He couldn't bear to lose her. And then and there, he made his choice.
Leaning forward and kissing her, perhaps for the last time, Cole was certain he'd made the right decision. She glanced at him curiously, awaiting his answer.
He wouldn't give it to her. He shimmered away.