CHAPTER 22: RETURN FROM DOWN UNDER
Paige had just woken up when Memorex was bringing Piper into the chamber. She looked down at her hands and feet. She was bound to a dark, icky wall by rusty old iron cuffs. "Paige!!!" yelled Piper. "Shut up stupid witch. You're so lucky I'm being ordered to tie you up and not kill you or I wouldn't hesitate." Piper just gave him a dirty look and spat at his feet. "Go to hell…..oh wait you're already here. I'll just hafta vanquish your sorry ass." Memorex had no comeback so he just bound Piper to the wall like Paige was, and left. "Paige, what the hell is going on?"
"As far as I can tell, we didn't actually vanquish Memorex. He kidnapped me then you and is probably going after Phoebe unless her or Leo can figure out what happened first."
"But how? Why? Oooh if they don't figure out what's going on I'm so gonna blow 'em up. I'm telling you and when Leo rematerializes I'll do it again and again and if Phoebe rematerialized I'll blow her up again and again too." Piper continued to rant for the next five minutes or so until Paige got fed up.
"Can it Piper. I get the picture, you're pissed off. So am I but we needa concentrate on getting the hell outta here. Okay, try to blow up the cuffs but not me!"
"Okay, I'll try." Paige closed her eyes as Piper raised her hands and when nothing happened, she opened one eye and looked at Piper. "What happened?'
"My hands are bound, I can't move them to blow them up."
"Can't you channel your powers with your eyes or something?"
"No, only Prue could. Try to orb out." Paige prepared to orb but found she couldn't. "No go. What else can we try? I can't call for the cuffs because my hands are bound. Damn it damn it damn it damn it damn it."
"Wow I was the one with the mouth. Okay okay okay calm down. I have an idea." Piper managed to adjust the chains, giving her enough slack to stand as if she were getting ready to run. She moved her hands and feet as if she were running, activating her newest power. She managed to break through the chains and ran to the other side. "Woohoo! I did it! I rock!"
"Okay now blow up my cuffs. Hurry hurry before he comes back." Piper flicked her hands and blew up the cuff that was around Paige's left hand. She turned to the other one and blew it up. Paige extended her right hand and yelled "left cuff" at the same time Piper was blowing up the right cuff. The two were now free and Piper ran back over to Paige and grabbed her hand. Paige orbed them out, back into the manor. "How long were we down there?" she asked. "Well, we noticed you were missing at around 7:30 and then I stormed off into my room for like an hour when Memorex took me." Paige turned around to look at the clock on the microwave. "It's 11:15 now, but why is it so dark out?"
"Ooooh, it must be 11:15 at night I guess time moves differently down there like it does up there. Phoebe and Leo must be wo-orried. Let's find 'em. Can you sense them?"
"Hold on." Paige closed her eyes and searched her brain for Leo and Phoebe. She had only been able to sense for her entire family for a couple of months now but was almost as good as Leo. "They're in the manor. Your bedroom let's go." Paige grabbed Piper's arm and orbed into Piper and Leo's bedroom. They found Phoebe and Leo asleep on the bed. Prudence was laying next to Phoebe and May was next to Leo with Wyatt in the middle. Everyone was asleep and Piper hated to wake them up but she needed to see her family. She walked over to Leo and shook him gently. "Leo" she whispered in his ear. He stirred a little so she whispered in his ear again, "Leo, it's your wife, I'm back from the underworld…" Leo's eyes opened slowly and he turned around to see Piper standing over him. "Piper is that really you?!"
"Yeah, me and Paige escaped from the depths of hell." He jumped up out of the bed and hugged Piper. He broke the hug only to give her a long, long kiss. Paige decided to busy herself waking Phoebe up. "Pheebs, wake up." She whispered. When Phoebe didn't move, she whispered again but a little louder. "Pheebs, wake up!" Phoebe only stirred a little so she yelled, "Phoebe Halliwell wake the hell up and greet your sisters who have been in the friggin' underworld all day!!!!!" Phoebe shot up, startled. "Paige!!! You're home!!!!" Phoebe jumped out of the bed and hugged Paige. "Where's Piper?!" Paige just pointed to Piper who was still making out with Leo. "Ew!!! You two stop it!"
Piper and Leo broke apart when Phoebe yelled and ran over to her younger sisters, enveloping them in a group hug. Leo moved back over to the bed and woke up Wyatt. "Wyatt, Mommy's home." Wyatt woke up and saw his daddy standing over him. He turned to the other side to face his Mom and Aunts. He saw that his mom had returned and his eyes lit up. Piper saw him and ran over to him and picked him up. "Hey Little Man! Mommy missed you."
"Okay sorry to break this up again but while you two were missing, we had a visitor from the afterlife. He told us the Elders sent him and our former-elder over here claims to not have know the Elders could send dead people back to us." Phoebe gave Leo an accusing stare, only half joking.
"Hey! I told you I didn't know. I wasn't given full knowledge of my powers because some of those assholes still didn't think I could do it."
"Wow, you actually insulted the Elders. You know, you're kinda sexy when you diss the people I hate so very much." Said Piper suggestively, slowly inching towards her husband.
"Okay, well you two can do it later, I would like to know who this visitor was….."
"Oh right, Andy, Andy Trudeau."
This was the first time Piper had heard Andy's name in more than three years. "Wait, why was he back?"
"The Elders sent him to tell us about Memorex. We almost figured out how to get you back when we fell asleep." Feeling kind of awkward because she didn't know who Andy was, she sat down on the bed and started playing peek-a-boo with Wyatt. "So did he know anything about Prue?"
"A little. He didn't know about Paige but he said that Prue probably did. The Elders called him away before he could say much more. He said he'd try and come back though."
"Okay well we can summon him after we vanquish Memorex. Now he mentioned something about not being ordered to kill us which means he's working for someone. We just hafta figure out who that someone is. Any ideas people?"
"Well it can't be the Source……" started Phoebe.
"So it's probably just a very, very powerful demon. I'll look up all the upper level demons in the book and make a list of the ones we didn't vanquish yet. We can go from there and try to figure out who the most likely suspects are." Finished Paige. Everyone agreed with her and Paige started to leave the room when Phoebe stopped her. "Wait Paige. We should all stay together in case Memorex tries to kidnap us again. We'll stay in here with the kids. Paige can call for the book and whatever else we need." Paige nodded her head in agreement and extended her right hand, "Book of Shadows" she called out. Bright blue and white lights started forming in her hand and eventually subsided into the ancient heirloom. Paige sat on the couch and started flipping through the giant book while Piper and Leo played with their son. Phoebe came over and sat next to Paige. "Hey, um Paige, aren't you wondering who Andy is?"
"Well of course but I figured it would be best if I waited until we vanquished Memorex to ask questions."
"Oh, well probably but I think we can take a little break. Andy was Prue's high school sweetheart. They probably would have gotten married but they went off to different colleges. Andy was her best friend growing up and like the brother we never had. Prue met up with him again when we first became witches. They started dating for a while but it didn't work out because he was a cop and we kept becoming involved in his cases and couldn't tell him why. He eventually found out about us, and told Prue that it would never work between them. He remained our friend till the end. A demon named Tempus caught us in a time loop and Andy helped break us out of it. He was killed in the crossfire and gave Prue the courage to vanquish the demon trying to kill us and stop Tempus. I don't think she ever fully forgave herself for his death, I know I didn't."
"Oh wow. Lot of history huh? It really makes me wish I had been a part of your childhood."
"Oh, I know sweetie but what matters most is that you're with us now. Paige, I don't think we would have survived if it weren't for you. I don't think we've ever told you how much you really mean to me-"
"To us." Interrupted Piper. Neither Phoebe nor Paige had seen Piper come over. "Paige honey, I know I wasn't all that receptive to you at first, I was just so scared of getting hurt again. I really regret how I treated you at first, and wish I could take those couple months back. I don't think I could ever say this enough but, I love you Paige." Piper broke down sobbing and was soon enveloped in a hug by both her sisters. "Don't even go there Piper. If I were in your place, I wouldn't have even given myself the time of day. I love you guys too." The Halliwell witches just sat in a group hug until Leo cleared his throat. "Oh sweetie, we love you too!" joked Piper.
"Uh, not what I was going for but thanks all the same. You girls really need to figure out who's behind all this."
"I guess you're right. Paige, continue looking in the book and doing what you were. Phoebe work on a generic spell to vanquish a very powerful demon. I will start writing out the ingredients for some potions."
"Piper, don't be silly. You still have 30 minutes of your son's birthday left. I will work on spells and potions, go be with your family."
"Oh, Pheebs are you sure? You guys really don't mind?"
"Go Piper! We don't mind. Besides, this book thing will take me a while so Phoebe will have time to do both."
"Thanks guys." Replied Piper before joining her husband, son, and daughters on her king size bed. Wyatt was surprisingly alert for such a long day, but Prudence and May fell asleep soon after the celebration started. Paige did them a favor and called for the birthday cake Piper spent days making. Piper and Leo were currently eating cake, occasionally giving Wyatt a very small piece.
Memorex was kneeling in front of a hooded figure who was speaking to him in a deep, demonic voice, "You have failed me, how could you let the witches escape?"
"I…I….don't know. I have no idea how the witches escaped. I prevented the youngest one from orbing out, and their hands were bound so they couldn't use their powers."
"Did you forget about the eldest witches' new power, the one which doesn't require the use of her hands?"
"No, what power is this?"
"She possesses the power of supernatural speed, were you not aware?"
"No sir, never was I informed of this power. How may I repay you?"
"With your life." The hooded figure extended a hand and Memorex was engulfed in flames and disappeared in less than a second, leaving nothing but a large scorch mark behind. "Now that he's out of the way, I will be free to get rid of the witches myself." The hooded figure laughed sinisterly before flaming out.