*Characters not mine.but I wish Leo was.
"Paige can you not make such a mess I.."
"Piper, please. I will tidy it up! Relax! You're meant to take it easy when your pregnant and I don't want my cute little nephew getting stressed out, okay?" Paige looked admiringly at her older sister as she rushed around the house. Pregnant but still finds time to clean and cook she thought with a smile as she headed to the door.
"I'm going out with Drew now! I'll be back late..don't wait up! Phoebe? Piper?" She paused at the door, then, hearing no reply, ran out with the door shutting quietly shut.
*
"Leo, honey, as much as I love you, the table is not a footrest!" Piper smiled wryly at her husband who quickly moved his feet with a sheepish smile. Piper was distractedly tidying the living room when Phoebe came downstairs with a smile on her face.
"You look chirpy" Piper commented, with a note of jealousy in her voice.
"And why shouldn't I be! It's a sunny morning and I have a date.." Phoebe trailed off with a concerned look as she saw Piper wincing. Seeing her concern, Leo turned towards his wife, and saw her grimacing.
"Sweetie what's wrong?" Phoebe asked gently.
"Nothing I just.ahhhhhhhhh, make it stop! It won't stop! Make it stop! Please?" Piper screamed and yelled in pain, whimpering for it to stop. Leo and Phoebe were at her side in an instant.
"Piper? What's happening? Piper?" They cried out, trying to hold her as she fell to the ground in pain. A blue light shone brightly from her stomach and as quickly as it started, it stopped.
"Piper? What happened? What was that? Piper can you hear me?" Phoebe and Leo helped Piper onto the sofa.
"I.I don't know. It was so painful.." She winced, remembering the pain.
"Was is the baby?" Leo looked at her stomach accusingly.
"No! Of course not" Piper patted her stomach fondly, "the baby stopped it. He..I can feel that he's still protecting me. Leo, it's not gone. Whatever got into me is still trying. What if it's hurting he baby? Leo go and ask.." But a familiar blue glow had already appeared and Leo vanished, on his way to the elders.
"Phoebe it's gone..I think it's gone..but it hasn't given up". Piper looked anxiously at Phoebe waiting for Phoebe to keel over in pain. Waiting for her to feel the evil flowing through her blood..trying to overtake her emotions..and for her to enjoy it. Phoebe sat motionless in front of Piper wondering what she was trying to imply. It suddenly occurred to her that Piper meant it was going to try and get to all of the charmed ones.
"I don't feel anything Piper. Piper..?" Piper who had been deep thought snapped back to reality, or what she knows as reality.
"What?"
"If it was that easy to get to us without a demon trying to kill us in person, wouldn't someone have done it before?" Phoebe looked uncertainly at Piper, who from the look on her face had been wondering the same thing..
"It was definitely supernatural" Leo's voice came from behind Phoebe, making her jump.
"Well, we'd figured that one out!" Piper snapped. Immediately she looked apologetic as a hurt expression filled Leo's eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to.."
"It's okay. This isn't just your average 'I want to kill you' demon. It's got inside of you Piper. This is something much more powerful, and the elders think that it could be trying to access the thoughts of the charmed ones. This demon doesn't want to kill you.which is why it was able to do this..it wants to be you. To have your power, to have your knowledge..and the elders think that they want the baby. That they want to turn him evil" Leo looked at the awed expression on his wife's face as she digested this information. He knew what was coming next..
"How could they turn him evil?". Leo had wanted to avoid this question but he knew he couldn't deny her knowledge of her own child. He looked her in the eye.
"He has more power than you know Piper. Not just our power, other powers. When you are given the gift of that much power, there is sometimes a consequence. Fortunately Paige was not subjected to this but the elders have informed me that our baby is.." He couldn't meet Piper's eyes.
"Wha-whats the consequence?" Piper stammered feebly.
"Our baby has been given a void in his power. As he grows this void can be filled with either good or bad magic." Leo heard Piper sigh with relief.
"I thought there was something wrong Leo!" She smiled at him, "Of course it will be filled with white magic. That's what he will grow up with! It's just a matter of self-control".
"Yes. But that self-control can be overcome by power. Other peoples power." Piper suddenly understood. The demon wanted to turn her baby evil....not her. But.. "He must be good because the he protected me? It can't have worked." Piper looked at Leo questioningly.
"Yes, the baby did protect you. But that may have been instinct. The baby is good," he said reassuringly to Piper, "what I'm saying is that you might not be able to protect him from being taken over by evil if this happens again, and he might not be able to protect you. Piper, once he's evil, you will be."
Piper looked at her stomach, confused by her feelings. Her baby had control over her powers. Her baby could put the lives of her friends and family in danger. But she still loved it, no matter what.
"We just have to hope that it doesn't happ.." Leo trailed off.
Forgotten in the conversation, Phoebe fell to the floor with a cry..
*
"Phoebe! No!" Piper rushed over to her, shaking her, not knowing what she was trying to do. Phoebe's skin began to bleed; cut's appearing from nowhere. But the blood wasn't red..it was ink black.
"Evil." Leo said.
It was only one word but it was enough. Piper started to weep, not knowing what to do to help. Suddenly Phoebe stopped yelling and lay still on the carpet. Leo ran to her side and her cuts faded as a blue glow appeared from his hands. After healing her she lay motionless and dreaded silence filled the room.
"Phoebe?" Piper moved closer o her sister as she stirred. "Leo, it doesn't care about the baby. It wants to get the charmed ones. It must not know about the void!" Piper looked at Phoebe with extreme worry. She looked pale and tired.
"I'm..I'm ok." Phoebe sat up and looked around the room nervously. What happened? I felt.." She looked at the understanding face of Piper and the imploring face of Leo who was clearly not aware of how she felt or what had really happened.
"Happy? That the evil was there? It made everything fade away. Every worry..everything." Piper looked almost mournful that she did not have that feeling anymore.
"Yes." Phoebe nodded and looked at Leo. "Get Paige now. She's not safe and she doesn't know what's happening..where is she?"
"Out with one of her boyfriends.." Piper said, "but I don't know where she went."
Leo looked very concentrated before looking annoyed. He repeated this again. "She doesn't want to be sensed," he said, "why does she always do that? I can never find her when I need to". Leo saw two worried faces in front of him, looking for guidance. "Okay, Phoebe. Do you think you can go out and look at all the places Paige might be? P3 maybe." Piper looked disgruntled. "Why can't I.."
"You need to look through the Book of Shadows. You're the most endangered because even if you can fight it, our baby might not be able to. I'll go to the elders and see if there's any progress. Everyone okay with that?" Leo smiled to himself, glad that he was able to help. He was their white lighter and he healed them and gave them advice, but they usually did what they wanted to. He felt powerful but he soon shook this feeling away. Now was not the time. With a slight nod of Piper's head he looked up and a blue glow appeared, and then he was gone.
"Right, off you go then" Piper said to Phoebe.
"I know. But Piper..what if I can't find her? She won't know! Leo won't be there.I almost went Piper, and somehow I know that if I went I wouldn't come back. That I'd never be good again.." Piper nodded knowingly. She had also felt that. It was worrying her..because she was tempted by it.
*
Entering the house of her new boyfriend, Paige smile satisfied with his choice of decoration. Everything was good in her life at the moment..
*
"Hello? Anyone still up?" Paige yelled as she entered the mansion. She had an awful night. The house that her boyfriend took her to wasn't his but his parents! He had set up a dinner between them all as a surprise for her. She had obviously done the whole polite thing, but she was so bored..
"I'm upstairs! In the attic!" A voice echoed downstairs as Paige neared her bedroom door. Knowing that the voice belonged to Piper she started to head up to the attic not even wondering what Piper was doing up there.
"You will not believe the night I had.." Paige said as she opened the door and gasped in shock. "What..?".
*
Piper heard Paige call upstairs as she entered the mansion and informed her of her whereabouts. She saw the startled face of her youngest sister as she stood, paralysed, in the doorframe. The need to kill her was overwhelming, but she could feel an unwanted emotion of love somewhere inside..
*
Paige watched Piper for a moment, paralysed with fear. There in front of her was Piper's, her feet a few feet off of the floor. But it wasn't Piper because the eyes of whatever this was were completely black, but Paige could still see that they were filled with the hunger for death. Piper was dark. As soon as this had dawned on Paige one word escaped from her mouth. Loud and clear..
"LEO??" Piper smirked, as if this would pose as no problem. And sure enough, as soon as Leo appeared Piper blew him up.
Being a white lighter had its advantages, a main one being that you were already dead. He appeared again moments later, dodging another blast of magic from his wife, of whom he didn't know at all. Paige grabbed Leo as he came near her and orbed them to the kitchen knowing they had bought themselves some time.
"What's happening?" Leo looked so hurt and confused that Paige felt the sudden urge to mother him, and tell him everything would be all right.
"She's turned dark Leo..I just went upstairs and..she's dark. She wants to kill me, I saw it in her eyes!"
Leo looked pained at the thought of this but knew what had caused this darkness. After a puzzled look from Paige, he filled her in on the nights events. Gasping in horror, they realised that Phoebe was just a distraction and the demon, whoever or whatever it was, did know about the void.
"So the demon used the weakness of Pipers baby to make her dark?" Paige asked. It was evil but she had to admit, this demon was pretty damn smart.
"Right. But we don't know how to stop it. We don't have the power of three.." Leo glanced at the ceiling "and she isn't coming downstairs because up there, she has the Book of Shadows!"
Paige realised that their only chance was to retrieve the Book of Shadows and without telling Leo she orbed to the attic, grabbed it and orbed back.
"What do you think you were doing?" Leo said as soon as she returned, "she's going to come down now that you have that! You could've got hurt Paige." Paige just nodded and put the book onto the table. She might have put herself in danger but she didn't reduce the time they had.
"She isn't going to follow. She was protecting this. She's shielding Phoebe. But not in a good way..She's alive but..?"
"She wants you all evil, not dead." Leo supplied the answer to Paige's question. "But Phoebe must be fighting it. She probably became slightly immune to it when it happened before which is why she's only unconscious and not evil."
*
After looking through the Book of Shadows Paige found a potion that was meant to 'kill all evil'. "Perfect" she murmured as she started to make it carefully. Leo smiled encouragingly as he stood at the bottom of the staircase, on lookout. After completing the potion successfully Paige put it in two bottles.
"Okay, it's done. Let's go," she whispered to Leo, giving him one of the bottles. They orbed separately to give them a better chance.
"Ready?" Paige nodded, and the orbed upstairs, ready to face Piper.
*
Piper screamed like a banshee at the interruption of Paige and Leo. She instantly blasted Paige, who orbed to where Phoebe lay unconscious. Leo saved her from an unexpected blast by jumping in front of her, but the impact still knocked her out cold.
Leo appeared on the opposite side of the room and looked into Piper's eyes. There was no hope. He knew that she was evil.that she wouldn't come back. He looked at the potion in his hand, and as a tear escaped from his eye as he threw it towards piper.
It smashed at her feet..and worked it's magic. It killed all evil, but Piper, by that time, had turned to completely evil.
*
"Leo? I, what's happening to me?" Piper lay on the floor, weak and hurt. Leo ran to her side.
"I..how are you alive? The potions meant to kill all evil..that means it didn't completely get to you!" He sighed with relief as the salt from his tear stung his eyes. He looked lovingly at his wife, knowing he was lucky to be able to hear her speak.
"I was evil? I don't remember anything Leo. Honey, what are you looking at..?" Leo's eyes widened in horror as a red glow became visible..
"NO!!!" He yelled, "Please don't take her..please don't take them both from me.." He sobbed as he watched Piper's face glow a menacing red.
"Leo, help me! Heal me! Leo, it hurts, make it stop!" She cried out as her skin began to peel away. Leo stood by her side holding her burning hand, looking into her confused eyes. Eyes filled with love for him..and trust.
"Leo I'll always.." She screamed in agony as the last of her body was burnt to ashes. Leo sat in the eerily silent attic, looking at the scorch marks where Piper has been lying. He sat in shock unable to think straight.
"I'll always love you," he whispered as he wiped a stray tear. "I'll always..I'll.." Leo broke down crying..he had lost them both..
"Paige can you not make such a mess I.."
"Piper, please. I will tidy it up! Relax! You're meant to take it easy when your pregnant and I don't want my cute little nephew getting stressed out, okay?" Paige looked admiringly at her older sister as she rushed around the house. Pregnant but still finds time to clean and cook she thought with a smile as she headed to the door.
"I'm going out with Drew now! I'll be back late..don't wait up! Phoebe? Piper?" She paused at the door, then, hearing no reply, ran out with the door shutting quietly shut.
*
"Leo, honey, as much as I love you, the table is not a footrest!" Piper smiled wryly at her husband who quickly moved his feet with a sheepish smile. Piper was distractedly tidying the living room when Phoebe came downstairs with a smile on her face.
"You look chirpy" Piper commented, with a note of jealousy in her voice.
"And why shouldn't I be! It's a sunny morning and I have a date.." Phoebe trailed off with a concerned look as she saw Piper wincing. Seeing her concern, Leo turned towards his wife, and saw her grimacing.
"Sweetie what's wrong?" Phoebe asked gently.
"Nothing I just.ahhhhhhhhh, make it stop! It won't stop! Make it stop! Please?" Piper screamed and yelled in pain, whimpering for it to stop. Leo and Phoebe were at her side in an instant.
"Piper? What's happening? Piper?" They cried out, trying to hold her as she fell to the ground in pain. A blue light shone brightly from her stomach and as quickly as it started, it stopped.
"Piper? What happened? What was that? Piper can you hear me?" Phoebe and Leo helped Piper onto the sofa.
"I.I don't know. It was so painful.." She winced, remembering the pain.
"Was is the baby?" Leo looked at her stomach accusingly.
"No! Of course not" Piper patted her stomach fondly, "the baby stopped it. He..I can feel that he's still protecting me. Leo, it's not gone. Whatever got into me is still trying. What if it's hurting he baby? Leo go and ask.." But a familiar blue glow had already appeared and Leo vanished, on his way to the elders.
"Phoebe it's gone..I think it's gone..but it hasn't given up". Piper looked anxiously at Phoebe waiting for Phoebe to keel over in pain. Waiting for her to feel the evil flowing through her blood..trying to overtake her emotions..and for her to enjoy it. Phoebe sat motionless in front of Piper wondering what she was trying to imply. It suddenly occurred to her that Piper meant it was going to try and get to all of the charmed ones.
"I don't feel anything Piper. Piper..?" Piper who had been deep thought snapped back to reality, or what she knows as reality.
"What?"
"If it was that easy to get to us without a demon trying to kill us in person, wouldn't someone have done it before?" Phoebe looked uncertainly at Piper, who from the look on her face had been wondering the same thing..
"It was definitely supernatural" Leo's voice came from behind Phoebe, making her jump.
"Well, we'd figured that one out!" Piper snapped. Immediately she looked apologetic as a hurt expression filled Leo's eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to.."
"It's okay. This isn't just your average 'I want to kill you' demon. It's got inside of you Piper. This is something much more powerful, and the elders think that it could be trying to access the thoughts of the charmed ones. This demon doesn't want to kill you.which is why it was able to do this..it wants to be you. To have your power, to have your knowledge..and the elders think that they want the baby. That they want to turn him evil" Leo looked at the awed expression on his wife's face as she digested this information. He knew what was coming next..
"How could they turn him evil?". Leo had wanted to avoid this question but he knew he couldn't deny her knowledge of her own child. He looked her in the eye.
"He has more power than you know Piper. Not just our power, other powers. When you are given the gift of that much power, there is sometimes a consequence. Fortunately Paige was not subjected to this but the elders have informed me that our baby is.." He couldn't meet Piper's eyes.
"Wha-whats the consequence?" Piper stammered feebly.
"Our baby has been given a void in his power. As he grows this void can be filled with either good or bad magic." Leo heard Piper sigh with relief.
"I thought there was something wrong Leo!" She smiled at him, "Of course it will be filled with white magic. That's what he will grow up with! It's just a matter of self-control".
"Yes. But that self-control can be overcome by power. Other peoples power." Piper suddenly understood. The demon wanted to turn her baby evil....not her. But.. "He must be good because the he protected me? It can't have worked." Piper looked at Leo questioningly.
"Yes, the baby did protect you. But that may have been instinct. The baby is good," he said reassuringly to Piper, "what I'm saying is that you might not be able to protect him from being taken over by evil if this happens again, and he might not be able to protect you. Piper, once he's evil, you will be."
Piper looked at her stomach, confused by her feelings. Her baby had control over her powers. Her baby could put the lives of her friends and family in danger. But she still loved it, no matter what.
"We just have to hope that it doesn't happ.." Leo trailed off.
Forgotten in the conversation, Phoebe fell to the floor with a cry..
*
"Phoebe! No!" Piper rushed over to her, shaking her, not knowing what she was trying to do. Phoebe's skin began to bleed; cut's appearing from nowhere. But the blood wasn't red..it was ink black.
"Evil." Leo said.
It was only one word but it was enough. Piper started to weep, not knowing what to do to help. Suddenly Phoebe stopped yelling and lay still on the carpet. Leo ran to her side and her cuts faded as a blue glow appeared from his hands. After healing her she lay motionless and dreaded silence filled the room.
"Phoebe?" Piper moved closer o her sister as she stirred. "Leo, it doesn't care about the baby. It wants to get the charmed ones. It must not know about the void!" Piper looked at Phoebe with extreme worry. She looked pale and tired.
"I'm..I'm ok." Phoebe sat up and looked around the room nervously. What happened? I felt.." She looked at the understanding face of Piper and the imploring face of Leo who was clearly not aware of how she felt or what had really happened.
"Happy? That the evil was there? It made everything fade away. Every worry..everything." Piper looked almost mournful that she did not have that feeling anymore.
"Yes." Phoebe nodded and looked at Leo. "Get Paige now. She's not safe and she doesn't know what's happening..where is she?"
"Out with one of her boyfriends.." Piper said, "but I don't know where she went."
Leo looked very concentrated before looking annoyed. He repeated this again. "She doesn't want to be sensed," he said, "why does she always do that? I can never find her when I need to". Leo saw two worried faces in front of him, looking for guidance. "Okay, Phoebe. Do you think you can go out and look at all the places Paige might be? P3 maybe." Piper looked disgruntled. "Why can't I.."
"You need to look through the Book of Shadows. You're the most endangered because even if you can fight it, our baby might not be able to. I'll go to the elders and see if there's any progress. Everyone okay with that?" Leo smiled to himself, glad that he was able to help. He was their white lighter and he healed them and gave them advice, but they usually did what they wanted to. He felt powerful but he soon shook this feeling away. Now was not the time. With a slight nod of Piper's head he looked up and a blue glow appeared, and then he was gone.
"Right, off you go then" Piper said to Phoebe.
"I know. But Piper..what if I can't find her? She won't know! Leo won't be there.I almost went Piper, and somehow I know that if I went I wouldn't come back. That I'd never be good again.." Piper nodded knowingly. She had also felt that. It was worrying her..because she was tempted by it.
*
Entering the house of her new boyfriend, Paige smile satisfied with his choice of decoration. Everything was good in her life at the moment..
*
"Hello? Anyone still up?" Paige yelled as she entered the mansion. She had an awful night. The house that her boyfriend took her to wasn't his but his parents! He had set up a dinner between them all as a surprise for her. She had obviously done the whole polite thing, but she was so bored..
"I'm upstairs! In the attic!" A voice echoed downstairs as Paige neared her bedroom door. Knowing that the voice belonged to Piper she started to head up to the attic not even wondering what Piper was doing up there.
"You will not believe the night I had.." Paige said as she opened the door and gasped in shock. "What..?".
*
Piper heard Paige call upstairs as she entered the mansion and informed her of her whereabouts. She saw the startled face of her youngest sister as she stood, paralysed, in the doorframe. The need to kill her was overwhelming, but she could feel an unwanted emotion of love somewhere inside..
*
Paige watched Piper for a moment, paralysed with fear. There in front of her was Piper's, her feet a few feet off of the floor. But it wasn't Piper because the eyes of whatever this was were completely black, but Paige could still see that they were filled with the hunger for death. Piper was dark. As soon as this had dawned on Paige one word escaped from her mouth. Loud and clear..
"LEO??" Piper smirked, as if this would pose as no problem. And sure enough, as soon as Leo appeared Piper blew him up.
Being a white lighter had its advantages, a main one being that you were already dead. He appeared again moments later, dodging another blast of magic from his wife, of whom he didn't know at all. Paige grabbed Leo as he came near her and orbed them to the kitchen knowing they had bought themselves some time.
"What's happening?" Leo looked so hurt and confused that Paige felt the sudden urge to mother him, and tell him everything would be all right.
"She's turned dark Leo..I just went upstairs and..she's dark. She wants to kill me, I saw it in her eyes!"
Leo looked pained at the thought of this but knew what had caused this darkness. After a puzzled look from Paige, he filled her in on the nights events. Gasping in horror, they realised that Phoebe was just a distraction and the demon, whoever or whatever it was, did know about the void.
"So the demon used the weakness of Pipers baby to make her dark?" Paige asked. It was evil but she had to admit, this demon was pretty damn smart.
"Right. But we don't know how to stop it. We don't have the power of three.." Leo glanced at the ceiling "and she isn't coming downstairs because up there, she has the Book of Shadows!"
Paige realised that their only chance was to retrieve the Book of Shadows and without telling Leo she orbed to the attic, grabbed it and orbed back.
"What do you think you were doing?" Leo said as soon as she returned, "she's going to come down now that you have that! You could've got hurt Paige." Paige just nodded and put the book onto the table. She might have put herself in danger but she didn't reduce the time they had.
"She isn't going to follow. She was protecting this. She's shielding Phoebe. But not in a good way..She's alive but..?"
"She wants you all evil, not dead." Leo supplied the answer to Paige's question. "But Phoebe must be fighting it. She probably became slightly immune to it when it happened before which is why she's only unconscious and not evil."
*
After looking through the Book of Shadows Paige found a potion that was meant to 'kill all evil'. "Perfect" she murmured as she started to make it carefully. Leo smiled encouragingly as he stood at the bottom of the staircase, on lookout. After completing the potion successfully Paige put it in two bottles.
"Okay, it's done. Let's go," she whispered to Leo, giving him one of the bottles. They orbed separately to give them a better chance.
"Ready?" Paige nodded, and the orbed upstairs, ready to face Piper.
*
Piper screamed like a banshee at the interruption of Paige and Leo. She instantly blasted Paige, who orbed to where Phoebe lay unconscious. Leo saved her from an unexpected blast by jumping in front of her, but the impact still knocked her out cold.
Leo appeared on the opposite side of the room and looked into Piper's eyes. There was no hope. He knew that she was evil.that she wouldn't come back. He looked at the potion in his hand, and as a tear escaped from his eye as he threw it towards piper.
It smashed at her feet..and worked it's magic. It killed all evil, but Piper, by that time, had turned to completely evil.
*
"Leo? I, what's happening to me?" Piper lay on the floor, weak and hurt. Leo ran to her side.
"I..how are you alive? The potions meant to kill all evil..that means it didn't completely get to you!" He sighed with relief as the salt from his tear stung his eyes. He looked lovingly at his wife, knowing he was lucky to be able to hear her speak.
"I was evil? I don't remember anything Leo. Honey, what are you looking at..?" Leo's eyes widened in horror as a red glow became visible..
"NO!!!" He yelled, "Please don't take her..please don't take them both from me.." He sobbed as he watched Piper's face glow a menacing red.
"Leo, help me! Heal me! Leo, it hurts, make it stop!" She cried out as her skin began to peel away. Leo stood by her side holding her burning hand, looking into her confused eyes. Eyes filled with love for him..and trust.
"Leo I'll always.." She screamed in agony as the last of her body was burnt to ashes. Leo sat in the eerily silent attic, looking at the scorch marks where Piper has been lying. He sat in shock unable to think straight.
"I'll always love you," he whispered as he wiped a stray tear. "I'll always..I'll.." Leo broke down crying..he had lost them both..
