Another Halliwell
A Crossbow is a Crossbow, Right?
Chapter 4
Not much happened in the Halliwell Manor for the next few days. Sarah went patrolling every night, but she hadn't seen Willow since her whitelighter had shown up. When Sarah had woken up this morning, she had a tingle that had run all the way up her spine and settled in the base of her neck. It was a feeling of impending doom. She didn't pay it much notice, going to classes, eating dinner with her family, and going out on patrol as if nothing had happened. She was in one of San Fransisco's numerous cemeteries, searching for newly dug graves of vampires when she was attacked from behind. A large demon with wings and a tail had knocked her out, grabbed her with his clawed feet, and flew off to his master's lair.
Sarah returned to consiousness several hours later, to find herself chained to a wall, and surrounded by dead bodies. 'uh oh.' She thought to herself. "Leo!" She called, hoping desperately that the whitelighter would hear her plaintive cry and come to her aid. Several minutes passed, and nobody appeared. Sarah cast her mind about, trying to remember the name of Willow's whitelighter, Tara, that was it; she tried again. "Tara! Leo! Help!" This time she got results. The female whitelighter orbed in accompanied by Willow who was clutching onto Tara's arm. "Am I ever glad to see you guys. Think you can get me out of here?" Sarah asked as she broke the chains off from the wall in a burst of Slayer strength.
"Sure, just grab on." Tara replied, extending her hand to the slayer. Sarah hurridly grabbed the proffered hand as she heard something coming up the passage way. They orbed directly into the Halliwell's living room.
"Everybody! Up and at em! We've got a big evil to vanquish!" Willow called up the stairs, and all three of the charmed ones, plus Leo came stumbling downstairs.
"What's wrong?" Piper asked, all maternal like.
"I was kidnapped by some evil demons with wings, claws, and tails! That's what!" Sarah replied stoutly, "And they stole my favorite crossbow. I have to get it back when I kick their asses."
"Kidnapped?" Piper was shocked! "How did you get out?"
"I broke the chains off with slayer strength, and called for a ride, from both Leo and Tara, but only Tara arrived." Sarah replied as she set about removing the remains of the manacles from her wrists and ankles.
"Here, let me do that." Paige offered, seeing her cousin struggling with the heavy iron chains. "Manacles." She called, using her magical gift, the manacles disappeared off of Sarah, and reappered in Paige's hands.
"Thanks." Sarah replied, rubbing the skin on her wrists that had been rubbed raw as Willow, Tara, and Leo began discussing what they thought the demon was.
"You say you were surrounded by dead bodies?" Leo asked, he had an inkling that this demon was the least of their worries.
"Yeah, four or five. Why?" Sarah asked, wondering where he was going with this line of questioning.
"Were they vampires?"
"They looked and smelled like they'd been dead for years. So I don't think vampires."
Just then, a light bulb went on in Willow's head. "Do you think?" She asked Tara, who knew what Willow was asking without her even saying.
"It's a possibility."
"Didn't we kill him already?" Willow asked.
"You should know you can never really kill them."
"Damn it."
While they were going back and forth, Sarah was still puzzling about what was going on.
"Uh, guys, do you want to fill us in?"
"I think it's Rovil, the demon of envy." Willow explained to Sarah, Leo and the Charmed Ones.
"So, what's so bad about a demon of envy?" Sarah asked, her typical slayer response was to go and kick it's ass back to the portal it crawled out of.
"It can turn you against everyone, think they're out to get you because you're prettier, stronger, whatever. Buffy had to go after one back in Sunnydale our first year in college, and it wasn't pretty the things she said to us after being under his influence." Willow explained, hoping that she was wrong about it being the demon of envy.
"So, everyone will know that they should just take what I say with a grain of salt. Until I've gotten over the side effects." Sarah replied, standing up, and slapping her hands on her knees. "I sure wish I had my weapons' bag, it's still in the cemetery, and I'd bet my good crossbow has been reduced to not much more than scrap wood." Sarah bemoaned her loss of her favorite crossbow.
"Weapons' bag." Paige called, her hands outstreatched, and Sarah's duffle appeared in them, toppling her over with their weight. "Okay, extremely heavy, how do you carry that?"
"Slayer strength, I could probably bench press a car without breaking a sweat." Sarah responded to Paige's question as she dug through her bag, wondering in vain if her good crossbow was in it. "Damn, they've got it."
"Sarah's crossbow." Paige called again, her hand's outstretched, and a mangled ball of wood and iron appeared in her hands. "Oh, this doesn't look too good." She cautiously handed the crossbow over to Sarah who's eyes began to tear, and she began to shake uncontrollably.
"It's gone." That's what she began to mutter under her breath, as she rocked back and forth. To Piper it was obvious what had happened, and why that crossbow was so important to Sarah. Her mother/watcher had probably given it to her as a gift shortly after she was Called as a Slayer.
"She gave it to you didn't she?" Piper asked, testing what she had worked out in her head. Her only response was a jerky shake of her head. "Leo?" Piper asked the question of her husband. He had healed the P3 neon light after all.
"I can try." He spread his hands over the crossbow, and a golden light emenated from his hands. A sweat broke out on his brow, it was obvious that he was straining to heal it, and not knowing what that crossbow had looked like before was probably not helping. Suddenly, it was slightly easy, he opened his eyes, Tara and Paige had added their hands to his, adding their healing power, and knowledge of what the crossbow had looked like to it. Just as it looked like they were going to have to stop or their brains would explode from the amount of strain, it was done. The crossbow was completely healed, and placed in Sarah's lap, almost instantly the feeling of the metal and wood in her lap cause her to look up and smile.
"Thank you all. I've got to get to sleep now, if I'm to fight a demon of envy, I need my beauty rest." Sarah gathered up her things, and headed for her basement bed.
Once she was gone, Tara and Willow filled the other adults in the house of what the Rovil demon was, how to kill it, and what Sarah said under it's spell, would probably be what she actually thought, but wouldn't be able to control what she said. Piper and Leo could see how this could be a problem, because Sarah had expressed to them that she mistrusted Paige and Phoebe. While Piper didn't know exactly why Sarah mistrusted Phoebe and Paige, she was sure it had to do with their evil past lives, or their less than warm welcome or understanding of her being the Slayer, and bringing more supernatural badness to their lives, well, Paige might not, but Phoebe did. Piper knew the shit was going to hit the fans when they found out about Sarah's less than open trusting of them, and knew that she needed to get some sleep.
"Alright, let's get some sleep, I'm sure something will make more sense to us tomorrow when we've had more sleep." Piper said, ending the conversiation for another time.