"Does this look right?" Samantha stepped back from the stove so that Paige
could check the potion she was mixing, and as Paige leaned across the
counter, Sam found herself staring down at the back of her aunt's head, the
smell of her shampoo rising to her nose. Paige's hair fell forward across
her face, and without thinking Samantha reached out and pressed the soft
strands between her thumb and forefinger, tucking them behind her aunt's
ear. Surprised, Paige straightened, looking at Samantha in with a puzzled
expression.
"I'm sorry," Samantha stammered. "I don't know why I did that."
After a few moments, Paige's face softened. "It's okay. You just startled me." She smiled faintly and glanced at the potion. "And that looks fine. Now add the mandrake root."
As she reached for the herb, Samantha felt her face turning red and she closed her eyes against the embarrassment. She didn't know what had come over her to make her touch her aunt's hair. The gesture was a common one between her and Paige in the future, but how could the Paige of the present know that? Breaking a piece of mandrake root in half, she tossed it in the pot and looked timidly over at her aunt. "I like your hair. The red looks nice."
"Oh, thanks." Paige ran a hand through her hair self-consciously, feeling a little awkward. She wasn't quite sure of how to make conversation with her niece now that certain things had been revealed. "Have you not seen it red before?"
"Just pictures." Awkwardness filled the silence that followed, her words reverberating in her head. She felt so ridiculous not being able to speak to her aunt. As Sam carefully stirred the potion, watching as it thickened, she began remembering the weekdays and summers spent with her aunt learning about spells and potions while her parents were both working. Even though she respected her parents' wishes to keep her away from demons and warlocks, Paige had decided when Samantha was ten that she needed to be seriously trained in witchcraft and thought her mother was being unrealistic by not teaching her more. She had come to really know her aunt as they had studied herbs and potion recipes, chatting about magic and memories. From those conversations, Samantha had come to trust that she could ask her aunt anything and receive an honest answer.
"Paige." Her aunt glanced up from the potion. "Can I ask you a question?"
Paige's eyes widened slightly. "Sure. But I doubt there's much I know that you don't."
Samantha shifted her weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably before speaking. "My parents, do they-- Are they happy about me? Being born, that is."
Her aunt's face softened in concern and she placed an arm around Samantha in a reassuring half-hug. "Honey, of course they are. Why would you think they weren't?"
Leaning away somewhat from Paige, Sam shrugged. "I don't know. It's just that Mom seemed kind of upset that..."
When she left her sentence unfinished, Paige's face tilted closer to hers. "That what?"
"It's nothing. Forget it." Stepping out from under her aunt's arm, Sam moved closer to the stove and stared intently into the pot. Even though her doubts still whispered persistently in her mind, she feared her aunt's answer too much to vocalize them. She felt Paige's hand on her shoulder but her eyes remained fixed on the potion.
"Samantha, do you know that before you came along, your mom didn't think she could get pregnant?"
Samantha's face turned toward her aunt's. "Really?" Her mother never talked much about her birth or the time around when she was born. Sam had always assumed she didn't because what had happened soon after had been so painful, so she had been hesitant to ask her mother questions, concerned that she might upset her.
"Yeah." Paige's arm slid around her shoulders again and she did not shrug off her embrace. "Even though she never would have admitted it to Leo, I think Piper had pretty much given up hope that she would ever have a baby. But then they found out about you." Smiling, Paige brushed the hair back from Samantha's face. "So you're kind of a miracle to them."
Paige studied the profile of her niece's down-turned face, noticing the corner of her mouth curving in the beginning of a smile. "And because you're so special to her, I think your mom is just worried that she won't be as good of a mother as she wants to be."
"But," Paige gave Sam's shoulder a squeeze before walking across the kitchen to retrieve an herb from the cupboard. "I don't think that she has anything to worry about because...here you are." Facing Samantha again, Paige gestured to her. "You wouldn't be here and you wouldn't be as great as you are if Piper wasn't a great mom."
Paige could see Sam's eyes become a little glassy and heard her swallow. "She is a great mom." Samantha's mouth spread slowly in a smile. "And you have always been a great friend. Thank you."
In spite of herself, Paige felt a tightening in her chest, and the tiny residual of doubt she had about Samantha dissolved away. Taking a pinch of the herb she had retrieved from the cupboard, Paige extended her hand over the potion pot. "You might want to step back a little." When Sam had taken a few steps backward, she dropped the herb into the potion, which caused a small explosion, a white mushroom cloud of smoke rising from the pot. "Okay, looks like it's ready. All it has to do now is cool." Reaching across the stove, Paige turned off the burner.
Friend. She was a good friend. Paige knew that Samantha's statement was a compliment and she even took it as such, but part of her wondered if she could ever be more than just a friend to anyone in her new family. Could she ever become a sister to Piper and Phoebe like Prue had been? She didn't want to replace Prue--she knew that she couldn't--but sometimes she felt uncertain of whether she, and Piper and Phoebe, could ever see past the fact that their relationship had built out of necessity rather than choice. If they had not needed her to reconstitute the Power of Three, she would probably still be ignorant of her past and her family.
"Uh, I hate to pry," Samantha's voice drew Paige from her thoughts. "But are you okay? You look upset about something."
Paige shrugged and began putting herbs back into containers. "I'm fine. I was just thinking."
Samantha's mouth curved into a knowing smirk and Paige's breath caught in her throat, astonished at how much Sam looked like Piper. "You may not know me very well yet, Paige, so I would understand if you didn't want to tell me, but I know you. And you are not fine. What's wrong?"
She hesitated as she reached for the mandrake root. "I was just thinking that I'll probably never be able to get close to Piper and Phoebe like I want to. That I'll always be the sister they had to live with for protection."
Samantha shook her head in disbelief. "Paige, you're like Mom's best friend."
"I know, but will I ever be more than just a friend to her? I know she'll never think of me as a sister like she thought of Prue, but I don't think I'll ever come close." Glancing up from the powder she was siphoning back into a vial, Paige's eyes met Sam's and the depth of understanding she saw in them surprised her. "And I know I'm probably being unrealistic for wanting that, but they're the first family I've had since my parents died. Sometimes I get fed up with always feeling like an outsider."
As her sentence trailed off Paige began to feel a little awkward about revealing her insecurities about her family to Samantha, who didn't really even have a family anymore. Her problems seemed rather ridiculous in comparison.
"I want to tell you something that you told me once." Samantha exhaled a little shakily. "One day I was sad because my friends all seemed to have these huge families with grandparents and cousins and all I had was you and my mom and dad. And you told me...You said that all of these labels--aunt, mother, friend--didn't matter. What matters is that you have people in your life who love you and who you can trust and depend on. And that those are the people who are your family."
Paige felt like a lake that Samantha was skipping stones on, her words making small ripples but failing to sink in. She recognized and understood the truth in her niece's words--as someone who had been adopted, Paige's definition of family was not based on traditional ideas of blood and biology. Even if it remained unsaid, she knew that her sisters loved her, but she needed more than that. She needed to know that they appreciated her.
Casting a grateful glance at her niece, Paige handed her a potion vial and Samantha carefully transferred some of the liquid into little bottle and corked it. Holding the bottle up to the light, Sam's expression became thoughtful.
"You know, I've always wondered: where do you and Mom find of all these little bottles?"
Paige chuckled. "Actually, we buy them in bulk at a glass factory outlet just outside of town."
"Hmm." Samantha handed the bottle to her aunt. "They're so cute."
Smiling, Paige accepted the vial from her niece then jumped slightly in surprise as she noticed something over Sam's shoulder. At Paige's startled expression, Samantha turned and when she realized her father was standing beside her, she grinned warmly.
"Dad." Sliding her arms around his waist, Sam pressed her face against his sweater. Leo returned his daughter's embrace and cast a bemused but pleased look at Paige who shrugged and smiled in return.
"So what are you girls up to?" Leo asked tilting his side to one side to look down at his daughter.
"Well, Samantha was able to fill us in a little more, and because of what she told us we have just finished a vanquishing potion for Cole." Beaming, Paige displayed the potion bottle between a thumb and forefinger proudly.
"Oh, good. You've finished," Piper commented as she entered the kitchen. At the sight of her husband and daughter hugging, Piper smiled and unconsciously placed a hand on her stomach.
"How's Phoebe?" Paige asked a little sheepishly. She had begun to feel a little guilty about what she had said about Phoebe earlier.
With her smile dissolving, Piper shrugged noncommittally, her eyes downcast.
"Wait. Cole?" Leo asked incredulously. "You figured out how to vanquish Cole?"
Her father's hold loosening, Samantha stepped back from him and nodded solemnly at Leo. "At least, Mom and Paige figured it out--or will figure it out...you know what I mean."
"Is that why Phoebe and Cole attacked...us," Leo hesitated slightly. "Were they afraid that Piper and Paige would vanquish Cole?"
"No, they were after something called the Axis," Paige explained. "Do you know what that is?"
Leo's eyes widened in surprise. "The Axis?" He glanced down at Samantha. "Are you kidding? It's real?"
Samantha nodded. "Mom and Paige were protecting it."
"What is it?" Piper asked again.
Sighing, Leo leaned against the kitchen counter. "No one really knows for certain. Even the Elders have only heard stories about it. What I do know is mostly just legend."
Paige rolled her eyes in exasperation. "So what's the legend?"
"The Axis is something very ancient and very powerful. Supposedly it allowed whoever used it to manipulate time in any way he chose--go back to the past, into the future and who knows what else. But an old mystic became concerned that the Axis would give one person too much power, so it was hidden." Looking back over at Samantha, Leo's brow furrowed questioningly. "Did you use it to come here?"
Sam shook her head. "No, I used a spell in the Book of Shadows. I didn't really know what the Axis was--plus that thing didn't exactly come with an instruction manual."
His interest piqued, Leo leaned closer to his daughter. "Do you know how we got a hold of it in the future? Who found it or where it was found--"
"Uh, honey," Piper interrupted. "Could you exploit Sam for information about the Axis later so we can exploit her for information about Cole now?"
"Sorry." Leo held up his hands in apology. "I got a little carried away."
"It's okay. I just think that we should try to focus on the situation at hand." Clearing her throat, Piper's gaze met Samantha's. "How do we extract Cole's soul?"
"That's your plan?" Leo asked, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. "To remove Cole's soul?"
"Well, yeah," Piper replied. "Sam said that his soul is what's making him indestructible, so if we get rid of it, he's just an ordinary demon that we can vanquish."
Leo shifted uncomfortably, his apprehension evident in his expression. "Removing someone's soul is pretty serious, Piper. Are you sure that you know what you're doing?"
"Leo, Cole is dangerous. He has tried to kill you and Paige and our baby and we can't even touch the bastard." Even though Piper's face remained expressionless, the undercurrent of anger was apparent in her voice. "So unless you have a better idea, I think we should give Samantha's plan a try."
For a few moments, Piper and Leo's eyes locked, a silent battle raging between them. Exhaling audibly, Leo conceded with a curt nod and Piper turned her gaze back to Samantha. "So how do we do this?"
"Well, I was supposed to use my powers to remove his soul, but since I don't have them in this time, I guess you have to do it." Samantha gestured to her mother. Frowning slightly, her eyes lingered on her Piper's stomach. The idea of not being born, of being inside her mother disconcerted her.
Piper's eyes narrowed in doubt. "What do you mean? What are your powers?"
Samantha looked back and forth between her parents. "You don't know what my powers are? Haven't I been using them? Mom always told me that she had to give birth to me at home because you were afraid I'd use my powers--"
"I gave birth to you at home?" Piper said, her displeasure at this revelation unmistakable. "Well, that's just great." Slumping on the counter, Piper propped her head on her hand.
"Piper, concentrate." Paige elbowed her sister gently until Piper stood up again. "We have time to talk about that later."
"Yes, you have been using your powers." Leo began.
"But you've done a bunch of different things that we haven't been able to attribute to one power," Paige explained. "Or even two."
"Oh." Samantha hesitated, pushing her hair back from her face. Should she tell them? She was so afraid that she would make a mistake and tell them something she shouldn't, placing them in even greater danger than that from which she had come to save them. Sighing, she realized that her powers were something that would not change no matter how much she told her parents. Besides, she had told Paige about Max--her powers seemed rather insignificant in comparison. "My powers, well, power really is that I can manipulate other people's powers--people who are near me at least. At first, I could only affect good magic, but as I got older I could use demons' powers as well."
"What do you mean by manipulate?" Paige asked.
"Well, say that a demon tried to throw a fireball at me. I could alter his powers so that instead of throwing fire at others he sets himself on fire and vanquishes himself."
"So you can activate other people's powers?" Leo asked.
"Sometimes, but mostly no. The person still triggers her power, I just change the result." Samantha looked back to her mother, who still appeared skeptical.
Piper thought back to all of the little "tricks" the baby had done during her pregnancy, trying to account for each of the incidents with Samantha's explanation. "So how were you going to use your powers to remove Cole's soul?"
"By manipulating Paige's. She can orb objects to herself and even direct them places, but she can't separate something from a whole nor can she orb things that are not corporeal."
"Hey, that's not true. I orbed Piper's soul out of the dragon blade that one time," Paige protested.
"Yeah, but you haven't been able to do something like that since," Piper commented. "I think you were only able to do that because of the power boost you received in limbo."
"I still couldn't do it fifteen years in the future?" Paige asked her niece.
"I guess not," Samantha shrugged. "Else you wouldn't have needed me." Paige scrunched up her face in consideration, and Samantha turned away as she felt her ears burn red. Her aunt didn't need to know that when her husband had died, her powers had regressed somewhat and once the Power of Three had been broken Paige's powers and her mother's had stopped developing.
"So." At the sound of her mother's voice, she glanced up. "Are you sure that you, or your powers can do that? Separate a soul from a person?"
Nodding, Samantha pressed her arms close to her body, hugging herself. "I got to practice once on this vampire and everything worked fine."
"A vampire with a soul?" Paige scoffed. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of."
"So now that you know how to vanquish him, how are you going to get Cole here so that you can?" Leo asked.
"We'll summon him, we'll cage him and then we'll vanquish his sorry ass." Piper's steady gaze moved from Leo to Samantha. "Are you ready for this?"
After a few moments, Sam nodded slightly, hesitantly.
"I'll go get Phoebe." With a fleeting look at her niece that silently conveyed her concern, Paige left the kitchen, the sound of her shoes clacking against the tile overwhelming the quiet of the room.
Piper's gaze softened and Leo placed an arm around his daughter's shoulders. "Are you sure that you're ready for this?"
"You know, you don't have to be there when we do this if you don't want to-- "
"No," Samantha interrupted her mother. "You'll need me there in case you have trouble controlling my powers."
"Okay," Piper said with a small sigh of consent and a glance at her husband.
As her parents exchanged concerned looks, Samantha watched them closely. She had been watching them closely all evening, and she had noticed something in the way that they interacted with each other that seemed different. Seeing her mother allowing her father to embrace her and offer her support and comfort had caused her to realize that she had not seen her parents show affection to one another beyond the occasional perfunctory hug in years. There was a tenderness, a gentleness in the looks that they gave each other--a genuine feel of affection between them.
But she had also seen hints of the relationship to which she was accustomed: the clipped sentences, the business-like demeanors and hard stares. Those glimpses frightened her; they made her feel six years old again, sitting quietly in the living room as she tried her hardest to concentrate on the television and not to hear the faint sounds of her parents arguing in the background.
Drawing the flesh of her lip between her teeth, Samantha breathed deeply. "I have something that I want to tell you. Both of you." Her eyes flickered between her parents uncertainly.
"Okay," Piper said after Sam remained silent for several moments. "What?"
"It's some advice actually," Samantha replied with a shy smile. Staring uncomfortably at the counter, she cleared her throat and forced herself to meet her mother's eyes. "Don't blame each other when things go wrong," she said slowly.
Her mother turned her head to the side, partly in surprise partly in confusion, her eyes narrowing.
"Sometimes bad things happen that aren't anyone's fault," Sam continued, looking to her father who returned her gaze steadily. "You both need to know that."
The corner of her mouth drawing back in a melancholy half-smile, Samantha stepped out from under Leo's arm. Walking around the kitchen counter, she approached her mother. Embracing her, Sam felt her mother's stomach pressing against hers, which for some reason gave her hope. She pressed her face into Piper's hair, deeply breathing in its smell.
Stepping back from their embrace, Samantha squeezed her mother's hand warmly. "I love you both very much." With a final glance at her father, she turned and walked silently from the kitchen.
"I'm sorry," Samantha stammered. "I don't know why I did that."
After a few moments, Paige's face softened. "It's okay. You just startled me." She smiled faintly and glanced at the potion. "And that looks fine. Now add the mandrake root."
As she reached for the herb, Samantha felt her face turning red and she closed her eyes against the embarrassment. She didn't know what had come over her to make her touch her aunt's hair. The gesture was a common one between her and Paige in the future, but how could the Paige of the present know that? Breaking a piece of mandrake root in half, she tossed it in the pot and looked timidly over at her aunt. "I like your hair. The red looks nice."
"Oh, thanks." Paige ran a hand through her hair self-consciously, feeling a little awkward. She wasn't quite sure of how to make conversation with her niece now that certain things had been revealed. "Have you not seen it red before?"
"Just pictures." Awkwardness filled the silence that followed, her words reverberating in her head. She felt so ridiculous not being able to speak to her aunt. As Sam carefully stirred the potion, watching as it thickened, she began remembering the weekdays and summers spent with her aunt learning about spells and potions while her parents were both working. Even though she respected her parents' wishes to keep her away from demons and warlocks, Paige had decided when Samantha was ten that she needed to be seriously trained in witchcraft and thought her mother was being unrealistic by not teaching her more. She had come to really know her aunt as they had studied herbs and potion recipes, chatting about magic and memories. From those conversations, Samantha had come to trust that she could ask her aunt anything and receive an honest answer.
"Paige." Her aunt glanced up from the potion. "Can I ask you a question?"
Paige's eyes widened slightly. "Sure. But I doubt there's much I know that you don't."
Samantha shifted her weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably before speaking. "My parents, do they-- Are they happy about me? Being born, that is."
Her aunt's face softened in concern and she placed an arm around Samantha in a reassuring half-hug. "Honey, of course they are. Why would you think they weren't?"
Leaning away somewhat from Paige, Sam shrugged. "I don't know. It's just that Mom seemed kind of upset that..."
When she left her sentence unfinished, Paige's face tilted closer to hers. "That what?"
"It's nothing. Forget it." Stepping out from under her aunt's arm, Sam moved closer to the stove and stared intently into the pot. Even though her doubts still whispered persistently in her mind, she feared her aunt's answer too much to vocalize them. She felt Paige's hand on her shoulder but her eyes remained fixed on the potion.
"Samantha, do you know that before you came along, your mom didn't think she could get pregnant?"
Samantha's face turned toward her aunt's. "Really?" Her mother never talked much about her birth or the time around when she was born. Sam had always assumed she didn't because what had happened soon after had been so painful, so she had been hesitant to ask her mother questions, concerned that she might upset her.
"Yeah." Paige's arm slid around her shoulders again and she did not shrug off her embrace. "Even though she never would have admitted it to Leo, I think Piper had pretty much given up hope that she would ever have a baby. But then they found out about you." Smiling, Paige brushed the hair back from Samantha's face. "So you're kind of a miracle to them."
Paige studied the profile of her niece's down-turned face, noticing the corner of her mouth curving in the beginning of a smile. "And because you're so special to her, I think your mom is just worried that she won't be as good of a mother as she wants to be."
"But," Paige gave Sam's shoulder a squeeze before walking across the kitchen to retrieve an herb from the cupboard. "I don't think that she has anything to worry about because...here you are." Facing Samantha again, Paige gestured to her. "You wouldn't be here and you wouldn't be as great as you are if Piper wasn't a great mom."
Paige could see Sam's eyes become a little glassy and heard her swallow. "She is a great mom." Samantha's mouth spread slowly in a smile. "And you have always been a great friend. Thank you."
In spite of herself, Paige felt a tightening in her chest, and the tiny residual of doubt she had about Samantha dissolved away. Taking a pinch of the herb she had retrieved from the cupboard, Paige extended her hand over the potion pot. "You might want to step back a little." When Sam had taken a few steps backward, she dropped the herb into the potion, which caused a small explosion, a white mushroom cloud of smoke rising from the pot. "Okay, looks like it's ready. All it has to do now is cool." Reaching across the stove, Paige turned off the burner.
Friend. She was a good friend. Paige knew that Samantha's statement was a compliment and she even took it as such, but part of her wondered if she could ever be more than just a friend to anyone in her new family. Could she ever become a sister to Piper and Phoebe like Prue had been? She didn't want to replace Prue--she knew that she couldn't--but sometimes she felt uncertain of whether she, and Piper and Phoebe, could ever see past the fact that their relationship had built out of necessity rather than choice. If they had not needed her to reconstitute the Power of Three, she would probably still be ignorant of her past and her family.
"Uh, I hate to pry," Samantha's voice drew Paige from her thoughts. "But are you okay? You look upset about something."
Paige shrugged and began putting herbs back into containers. "I'm fine. I was just thinking."
Samantha's mouth curved into a knowing smirk and Paige's breath caught in her throat, astonished at how much Sam looked like Piper. "You may not know me very well yet, Paige, so I would understand if you didn't want to tell me, but I know you. And you are not fine. What's wrong?"
She hesitated as she reached for the mandrake root. "I was just thinking that I'll probably never be able to get close to Piper and Phoebe like I want to. That I'll always be the sister they had to live with for protection."
Samantha shook her head in disbelief. "Paige, you're like Mom's best friend."
"I know, but will I ever be more than just a friend to her? I know she'll never think of me as a sister like she thought of Prue, but I don't think I'll ever come close." Glancing up from the powder she was siphoning back into a vial, Paige's eyes met Sam's and the depth of understanding she saw in them surprised her. "And I know I'm probably being unrealistic for wanting that, but they're the first family I've had since my parents died. Sometimes I get fed up with always feeling like an outsider."
As her sentence trailed off Paige began to feel a little awkward about revealing her insecurities about her family to Samantha, who didn't really even have a family anymore. Her problems seemed rather ridiculous in comparison.
"I want to tell you something that you told me once." Samantha exhaled a little shakily. "One day I was sad because my friends all seemed to have these huge families with grandparents and cousins and all I had was you and my mom and dad. And you told me...You said that all of these labels--aunt, mother, friend--didn't matter. What matters is that you have people in your life who love you and who you can trust and depend on. And that those are the people who are your family."
Paige felt like a lake that Samantha was skipping stones on, her words making small ripples but failing to sink in. She recognized and understood the truth in her niece's words--as someone who had been adopted, Paige's definition of family was not based on traditional ideas of blood and biology. Even if it remained unsaid, she knew that her sisters loved her, but she needed more than that. She needed to know that they appreciated her.
Casting a grateful glance at her niece, Paige handed her a potion vial and Samantha carefully transferred some of the liquid into little bottle and corked it. Holding the bottle up to the light, Sam's expression became thoughtful.
"You know, I've always wondered: where do you and Mom find of all these little bottles?"
Paige chuckled. "Actually, we buy them in bulk at a glass factory outlet just outside of town."
"Hmm." Samantha handed the bottle to her aunt. "They're so cute."
Smiling, Paige accepted the vial from her niece then jumped slightly in surprise as she noticed something over Sam's shoulder. At Paige's startled expression, Samantha turned and when she realized her father was standing beside her, she grinned warmly.
"Dad." Sliding her arms around his waist, Sam pressed her face against his sweater. Leo returned his daughter's embrace and cast a bemused but pleased look at Paige who shrugged and smiled in return.
"So what are you girls up to?" Leo asked tilting his side to one side to look down at his daughter.
"Well, Samantha was able to fill us in a little more, and because of what she told us we have just finished a vanquishing potion for Cole." Beaming, Paige displayed the potion bottle between a thumb and forefinger proudly.
"Oh, good. You've finished," Piper commented as she entered the kitchen. At the sight of her husband and daughter hugging, Piper smiled and unconsciously placed a hand on her stomach.
"How's Phoebe?" Paige asked a little sheepishly. She had begun to feel a little guilty about what she had said about Phoebe earlier.
With her smile dissolving, Piper shrugged noncommittally, her eyes downcast.
"Wait. Cole?" Leo asked incredulously. "You figured out how to vanquish Cole?"
Her father's hold loosening, Samantha stepped back from him and nodded solemnly at Leo. "At least, Mom and Paige figured it out--or will figure it out...you know what I mean."
"Is that why Phoebe and Cole attacked...us," Leo hesitated slightly. "Were they afraid that Piper and Paige would vanquish Cole?"
"No, they were after something called the Axis," Paige explained. "Do you know what that is?"
Leo's eyes widened in surprise. "The Axis?" He glanced down at Samantha. "Are you kidding? It's real?"
Samantha nodded. "Mom and Paige were protecting it."
"What is it?" Piper asked again.
Sighing, Leo leaned against the kitchen counter. "No one really knows for certain. Even the Elders have only heard stories about it. What I do know is mostly just legend."
Paige rolled her eyes in exasperation. "So what's the legend?"
"The Axis is something very ancient and very powerful. Supposedly it allowed whoever used it to manipulate time in any way he chose--go back to the past, into the future and who knows what else. But an old mystic became concerned that the Axis would give one person too much power, so it was hidden." Looking back over at Samantha, Leo's brow furrowed questioningly. "Did you use it to come here?"
Sam shook her head. "No, I used a spell in the Book of Shadows. I didn't really know what the Axis was--plus that thing didn't exactly come with an instruction manual."
His interest piqued, Leo leaned closer to his daughter. "Do you know how we got a hold of it in the future? Who found it or where it was found--"
"Uh, honey," Piper interrupted. "Could you exploit Sam for information about the Axis later so we can exploit her for information about Cole now?"
"Sorry." Leo held up his hands in apology. "I got a little carried away."
"It's okay. I just think that we should try to focus on the situation at hand." Clearing her throat, Piper's gaze met Samantha's. "How do we extract Cole's soul?"
"That's your plan?" Leo asked, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. "To remove Cole's soul?"
"Well, yeah," Piper replied. "Sam said that his soul is what's making him indestructible, so if we get rid of it, he's just an ordinary demon that we can vanquish."
Leo shifted uncomfortably, his apprehension evident in his expression. "Removing someone's soul is pretty serious, Piper. Are you sure that you know what you're doing?"
"Leo, Cole is dangerous. He has tried to kill you and Paige and our baby and we can't even touch the bastard." Even though Piper's face remained expressionless, the undercurrent of anger was apparent in her voice. "So unless you have a better idea, I think we should give Samantha's plan a try."
For a few moments, Piper and Leo's eyes locked, a silent battle raging between them. Exhaling audibly, Leo conceded with a curt nod and Piper turned her gaze back to Samantha. "So how do we do this?"
"Well, I was supposed to use my powers to remove his soul, but since I don't have them in this time, I guess you have to do it." Samantha gestured to her mother. Frowning slightly, her eyes lingered on her Piper's stomach. The idea of not being born, of being inside her mother disconcerted her.
Piper's eyes narrowed in doubt. "What do you mean? What are your powers?"
Samantha looked back and forth between her parents. "You don't know what my powers are? Haven't I been using them? Mom always told me that she had to give birth to me at home because you were afraid I'd use my powers--"
"I gave birth to you at home?" Piper said, her displeasure at this revelation unmistakable. "Well, that's just great." Slumping on the counter, Piper propped her head on her hand.
"Piper, concentrate." Paige elbowed her sister gently until Piper stood up again. "We have time to talk about that later."
"Yes, you have been using your powers." Leo began.
"But you've done a bunch of different things that we haven't been able to attribute to one power," Paige explained. "Or even two."
"Oh." Samantha hesitated, pushing her hair back from her face. Should she tell them? She was so afraid that she would make a mistake and tell them something she shouldn't, placing them in even greater danger than that from which she had come to save them. Sighing, she realized that her powers were something that would not change no matter how much she told her parents. Besides, she had told Paige about Max--her powers seemed rather insignificant in comparison. "My powers, well, power really is that I can manipulate other people's powers--people who are near me at least. At first, I could only affect good magic, but as I got older I could use demons' powers as well."
"What do you mean by manipulate?" Paige asked.
"Well, say that a demon tried to throw a fireball at me. I could alter his powers so that instead of throwing fire at others he sets himself on fire and vanquishes himself."
"So you can activate other people's powers?" Leo asked.
"Sometimes, but mostly no. The person still triggers her power, I just change the result." Samantha looked back to her mother, who still appeared skeptical.
Piper thought back to all of the little "tricks" the baby had done during her pregnancy, trying to account for each of the incidents with Samantha's explanation. "So how were you going to use your powers to remove Cole's soul?"
"By manipulating Paige's. She can orb objects to herself and even direct them places, but she can't separate something from a whole nor can she orb things that are not corporeal."
"Hey, that's not true. I orbed Piper's soul out of the dragon blade that one time," Paige protested.
"Yeah, but you haven't been able to do something like that since," Piper commented. "I think you were only able to do that because of the power boost you received in limbo."
"I still couldn't do it fifteen years in the future?" Paige asked her niece.
"I guess not," Samantha shrugged. "Else you wouldn't have needed me." Paige scrunched up her face in consideration, and Samantha turned away as she felt her ears burn red. Her aunt didn't need to know that when her husband had died, her powers had regressed somewhat and once the Power of Three had been broken Paige's powers and her mother's had stopped developing.
"So." At the sound of her mother's voice, she glanced up. "Are you sure that you, or your powers can do that? Separate a soul from a person?"
Nodding, Samantha pressed her arms close to her body, hugging herself. "I got to practice once on this vampire and everything worked fine."
"A vampire with a soul?" Paige scoffed. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of."
"So now that you know how to vanquish him, how are you going to get Cole here so that you can?" Leo asked.
"We'll summon him, we'll cage him and then we'll vanquish his sorry ass." Piper's steady gaze moved from Leo to Samantha. "Are you ready for this?"
After a few moments, Sam nodded slightly, hesitantly.
"I'll go get Phoebe." With a fleeting look at her niece that silently conveyed her concern, Paige left the kitchen, the sound of her shoes clacking against the tile overwhelming the quiet of the room.
Piper's gaze softened and Leo placed an arm around his daughter's shoulders. "Are you sure that you're ready for this?"
"You know, you don't have to be there when we do this if you don't want to-- "
"No," Samantha interrupted her mother. "You'll need me there in case you have trouble controlling my powers."
"Okay," Piper said with a small sigh of consent and a glance at her husband.
As her parents exchanged concerned looks, Samantha watched them closely. She had been watching them closely all evening, and she had noticed something in the way that they interacted with each other that seemed different. Seeing her mother allowing her father to embrace her and offer her support and comfort had caused her to realize that she had not seen her parents show affection to one another beyond the occasional perfunctory hug in years. There was a tenderness, a gentleness in the looks that they gave each other--a genuine feel of affection between them.
But she had also seen hints of the relationship to which she was accustomed: the clipped sentences, the business-like demeanors and hard stares. Those glimpses frightened her; they made her feel six years old again, sitting quietly in the living room as she tried her hardest to concentrate on the television and not to hear the faint sounds of her parents arguing in the background.
Drawing the flesh of her lip between her teeth, Samantha breathed deeply. "I have something that I want to tell you. Both of you." Her eyes flickered between her parents uncertainly.
"Okay," Piper said after Sam remained silent for several moments. "What?"
"It's some advice actually," Samantha replied with a shy smile. Staring uncomfortably at the counter, she cleared her throat and forced herself to meet her mother's eyes. "Don't blame each other when things go wrong," she said slowly.
Her mother turned her head to the side, partly in surprise partly in confusion, her eyes narrowing.
"Sometimes bad things happen that aren't anyone's fault," Sam continued, looking to her father who returned her gaze steadily. "You both need to know that."
The corner of her mouth drawing back in a melancholy half-smile, Samantha stepped out from under Leo's arm. Walking around the kitchen counter, she approached her mother. Embracing her, Sam felt her mother's stomach pressing against hers, which for some reason gave her hope. She pressed her face into Piper's hair, deeply breathing in its smell.
Stepping back from their embrace, Samantha squeezed her mother's hand warmly. "I love you both very much." With a final glance at her father, she turned and walked silently from the kitchen.
