Title: Infinite Possibilities

Author: Johanney

Keywords: A/U

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I think everyone knows the drill by now. J is for Johanney doesn't make any money from this.

Author's Note: Please keep up the encouraging reviews!! It keeps me writing this, and I could always use more to know what to do next.

Summary: It's been a month since the Charmed Ones unlocked their new powers, and they're figuring out how to save the world, while Pryce is still looking for the answers to her own questions.

Infinite Possibilities Chapter Three: Natalis

One Month Later . . .

"Pryce, look out!" Phoebe shouted as Pryce headed down into the foyer from her bedroom. She froze and looked as a gout of flame headed right for her.

She put herself on what she called "magical auto-pilot" and braced herself for that feeling of breaking up into tiny pieces and becoming one with the air around her, rematerializing as the flame hit the wall behind her and set one of Grams' favorite pictures on fire.

As Pryce shook her head to try to reorient herself, Prue flung the attacking demon, a particularly tall, particularly ugly man/lizard with a long black coat, into the wall. Just then, Piper ran in with a vanquishing potion and the three oldest sisters chanted, and then threw the vial at the demon, who disappeared in the same fire he'd been tossing around.

"Ick," Pryce shuddered, holding the banister, looking both at her sisters and the mess that had been left.

"I know," Phoebe sympathized. "He was a nasty one."

"It's not just that," Pryce sighed. "I feel like I'm never gonna get used to doing that "particle" trick. It's tiring."

Pryce moved to the couch, tossed aside a damaged cushion, and leaned back. Since that day a month ago when Phoebe had unlocked the magic of the Halliwell sisters, they had all been trying hard to successfully live their new magical lives. Demons were all over the house at any given moment and all four sisters were fatigued from getting used to their myriad of powers.

The other three seemed satisfied with the answers that they had gotten from the book, a book that had revealed its' title not too long ago: The Book of Shadows. Pryce, however, wanted more than that little passage had told her.

When she'd tried to explain to her sisters about the Spare Heir entry, they'd asked to see it, but all subsequent attempts to find that page in the book had failed. It seemed that the book modified itself as necessary and never revealed all of its contents at one time.

She asked about being a half-sister, but they all clearly remembered finding her on the doorstep on a rainy October morning, and she took their answers as the truth, being that Prue, Piper and Phoebe had been nine, seven and four, respectively. That was surely old enough to remember.

They had all tried to assure her in their own little ways that it didn't matter where her powers had come from, the point was, she had them, and all of them were going to work together to try and make their magic as powerful as possible while also trying to have a normal life, somehow.

It was mornings like this that made Pryce almost wish she'd been left on a different doorstep, or even that she didn't have powers like the rest.

"Time for me to go back to bed," Pryce sighed, stretching and readying herself to go back up to her bed, which she'd been startled out of when she'd heard all the racket.

"No, way," Prue grinned and reached for her youngest sister's hands, pulling her up off of the couch. "Not on your eighteenth birthday."

"It's a lucky thing we left all of your presents in the kitchen." Piper said, trying to be merry despite the mess.

"Open my present first." Phoebe said excitedly as they entered the kitchen and Pryce was herded to a chair at the table.

"No, first I have to perform my last act as Pryce's legal guardian." Prue answered, sitting opposite the birthday girl and handing her a thick manila envelope. "These are your adoption papers. Grams left them in a safe deposit box at the bank, and I was only allowed to get them yesterday. No one's ever seen them but her."

"You don't ever have to look at them if you don't want to," Piper reassured, placing her hand over Pryce's trembling one as she uncertainly looked at what she was being given. "Grams just wanted you to have them today in case you were ever curious."

"Nothing in those papers will make you any less our sister," Prue put in, looking the girl directly in the eye. "They're a formality. You've been ours since the day we got you."

"Maybe there's something in here that could explain what's going on with me." Pryce said hopefully, fingering the metal clasp that would open the envelope. "Maybe my birth mother was a witch, or, or my birth father."

"That's a good possibility, sweetie," Phoebe said, tucking a lock of her sister's hair behind her ear. "We're here for anything you need."

"I think," she started, but hesitated momentarily. "I think I need to be alone for a minute, I want to open this and see if I can pry anything from the Book of Shadows about it. Just hold off the partying until I come back, okay?"

She looked at each of her sisters. She needed the reassurance that they understood her reasoning for being alone, and she felt nothing but love and compassion coming from all three.

Pryce let herself feel those emotions for a minute, basking in the love of the only family she'd ever known.

In the weeks that had approached her birthday, she'd feared that once her birth parents were revealed, that her sisters would reject her, leave her behind to find her "real" family. She'd told herself over and over again that the fear trapped in her heart was irrational, and besides, she could read her sisters' thoughts any time she needed to and find out the truth, plan ahead for the worst.

The temptation had been great, but she had decided against it. Pryce had no idea what this thought-knowing power of hers was supposed to be for, but she had a good impression that she wasn't meant to go prying into the minds and hearts of her older sisters.

Turning slowly, she went toward the staircase and began her quiet ascent. She ran her hand over the banister the entire way up, looking at the pictures that decorated the walls as if this were going to be the last time she climbed these stairs. Something in the back of her mind, her own negativity, was telling her it would be the last time she was in this house, going through the motions as a "true" Halliwell.

She thought about her sisters' words, and how their feelings had matched, and continued on to the attic, where she sat down on an old loveseat that she and Phoebe had dug up one night about a week ago while the two composed a spell. Phoebe was terrible at rhyming sometimes and Pryce was always happy to help.

Slowly, and with shaking hands, she undid the clasp of the envelope and shook the contents out onto her lap. There was only one piece of paper, and it fluttered quietly facedown, taunting her to flip it over and learn its' answers.

Pryce picked up the yellowed paper and turned it over, anxious for what it would say. She didn't know what to expect, she didn't know what adoption papers looked like, but was surprised to find instructions for a spell on the page rather than names, dates, facts.

The spell wasn't even complete; there were whole sentences missing! Pryce couldn't believe the betrayal of her adopted family, Grams, who'd put the paper there in the first place, Prue, who'd made a big deal out of nothing and let her get all excited, all curious, all anxious for nothing. How dare they?!

"How dare you?!" She screamed, channeling her fury and confusion into a scream that filled the attic. She threw the paper down and watched it fall to the floor as it had to her lap, not caring that it held betrayal all over it.

She stomped over to the Book of Shadows and wrenched the cover open. "I want answers, do you hear me?! You magical editor jerk, I want to know! Where the hell did I come from?! Why am I like this?! What's wrong with me?!"

The book stayed open to a blank front page, as if it were waiting for Pryce to stop her tantrum before telling her anything.

She screamed again and knocked the useless book to the floor just as her sisters entered the room. Prue saw the look of pure fury on Pryce's face and stopped the others from approaching.

The girl was trembling like a drowned animal and her screams had sounded ferocious. Prue wanted nothing more than to comfort her, but she also knew that her youngest sister didn't like people coming close to her during times like this, times when her emotions were extreme.

"What's going on, Pryce?" Piper asked steadily. "What happened with the papers?"

"Paper." She replied simply, sliding down to the floor and curling into a self-protective ball. "One paper." She pointed to it.

Phoebe picked it up. "A spell?" She said in complete surprise, handing it over to her other sisters to inspect. "It's not even a complete one."

"Why would Grams do that?" Prue asked, narrowing her eyes in confusion as she looked at the lines. There were only a few things missing here and there. They could probably make it out together, if they tried.

"Because no one wants to tell me the truth around here!" Pryce howled again, taking her head out of the shield of her arms. "Not even that damn book!" She jabbed an angry finger at the Book of Shadows, and, as she did, a flame rushed out of her pointer finger and headed to the book, where it was extinguished on contact.

This new development gave Pryce enough pause to look up at her sisters in complete bewilderment. They returned the look.