DIMENSIONS
Summary: Piper is taken to a hell demon dimension where she has to fight for her life whilst her family think that she is dead. It seems that there is no hope.
CHAPTER 1
"I'm just going to do some shopping Leo, I need to find a dress for Daryl's party" "Honey, anything that you wear you will look good in, even your birthday suit" "Why Leo" Piper said in a seductive tone. They kissed passionately. "God you two get a room, in fact use your own room" Paige said as she walked passed them both at the bottom of the stairs. Paige was feeling a little in the way sometimes, well in truth a little jealous. Cole and Pheobe always making out, Leo and Piper always making out and her making nothing. "I take it that you don't have a date yet for the party," Piper said catching the slight narky tone. "Piper, us young people don't call them dates" "Okay, I take that as a no" "HA" Paige said and walked into the kitchen.
Pheobe came running down the stairs.
"Going out" "Yup, I'm going to have a look for a dress for the party, wanna come?" "Nah sorry sis but I'm a bit busy at the minute, but you could do me one tinny tiny favour" "What" Piper asked suspiciously? "Pick up my dress from the dry cleaners" Pheobe was using her baby voice and swinging from left to right. "How can I resist that voice"? "Oh, thank you honey" Pheobe kissed her on the head. "Sure you don't want to come Leo, you can pick the underwear" Leo raised his eyebrow at that. "Oh, don't temp me, sorry honey but I promised that at the first spare moment I got I would look at Pheobe's shower" "Okay but it is your loss on the underwear" she teased him, and then pulled him close for another kiss before leaving the house.
The shopping trip had gone well, she had found the perfect dress for the party; she was on her way back to her car when she remembered Pheobe's dry cleaning. "Oh crap" she headed off to the cleaners. She reached the tiny side street and walked down it. It was a small street with no sunlight reaching into it. Piper always had a bad feeling when she went down it. She made it to the shop and got Pheobe's dress, then was on her way back up the street to the sunlight when she was grabbed roughly from behind and dragged towards an ally way. Once in the ally, he attacker dragged her further away from the safety of the street so that they were out of sight. He turned her around and pinned her to the wall with her hands behind her. "Give me your wallet" he placed a gun to her head. "I cant you have got my hands pinned" Piper's heart was in her mouth. If she could just get her hands free she could freeze this idiot. He smiled and searched her pockets, taking far too much time searching her trouser pockets. Then he picked up her bag off the floor. "Not bad, thanks" "Okay now let me go you've got what you want" the mugger looked her up and down. "Who said that I have got what I want" he looked her up and down. Piper got a sick feeling in her stomach.
Suddenly there was a loud whoosh of wind and a bolt of lighting cracked open a rift in the ally way. They both watched as a demon walked out of the rift. "What the hell" shouted the mugger? "Let me go" Piper demanded. The mugger unpinned her and turned to the demon. Piper raised her hands to blow him up but nothing happened. "What" she said confused. The mugger staggered forward and shot the demon twice. The demon just looked annoyed. The mugger turned and ran out of the ally firing behind him as he went. One of the bullets his piper in the leg, she fell to the floor clutching her thigh. The demon walked towards her and Piper tried to blow him up again. "A charmed one, my lord will have such fun hunting you, too bad that you had to see the portal" "What" And with that, he picked Piper up and threw her through the doorway. As soon as she entered it, it closed behind her. "Now we cant have your sisters coming after you so lets see what we can do" He looked at the blood on the floor and made a clone of Piper, but he made it appear as though she had been shot in the stomach. Then he disappeared in search of the mugger.
The phone in the manor rang. "I'll get it" Pheobe yelled. "Hello, oh hi Daryl how are the plans coming for the party, what, when, we are on the way" Pheobe put the shaking receiver down. Paige and Leo were in the kitchen messing around. Pheobe was as white as a sheet when she came in. Paige noticed straight away. "Pheobe are you okay" "That was Daryl on the phone" Paige interrupted her. "Don't tell me that the Party's off after I spent way too much on that dress"
"He wants us to come to the hospital, Piper was mugged and has been shot" Silence fell in the room. Paige held out her hand to Pheobe and they orbed to the hospital.
Daryl greeted them with a sad face. "How is she"? "I don't know, the surgeons are with her now" "How did, when did, where did this happen" Leo stammered. "She was down off Maple street in an ally way, a homeless man found her and phone the police"
"Maple street, that's where my cleaners is, my god, if I hadn't of asked her to get my cleaning maybe this would have never happened" Guilt engulfed Pheobe. "Piper Halliwell" a doctor called out. "I'm her husband and these are her sisters" Leo said as he approached the doctor. "How is she"? "I think we should talk in here," said the doctor as he led them to a side room. Daryl followed. "Piper was shot in the lower abdomen, the bullet went through her kidneys and her lower intestine, it caused massive internal bleeding that we were unable to stop, she was brought in without a pulse and we worked on her for 40 minutes to try to get it beating again, but the damage was just too severe and I am sorry to tell you that she died 20 minutes ago. As the magnitude of the words hit Leo, Pheobe started to cry and scream. Paige tuned to Daryl and sobbed on his shoulder. Pheobe hugged Leo who was in shock. "I'm truly sorry," said the doctor as he left them to their grief. "She can't be dead, she just cant," Leo said.
Piper awoke in the demon dimension. "Oh Crap"
CHAPTER 2
Piper grabbed her acing leg and tried to stand. She took a good look around. She appeared to be at the top of a hill and it looked as though she was in some kind of jungle, there were funny orange coloured trees dotted around the place and surrounding them on the floor were orange bushes and orange grass. She looked up at the orange sky and saw two suns shining down. "Okay, that's new" She looked at the bottom of the hill and saw a huge village. She tried to remember an exact landmark so that if she needed to get back to the door she could. Suddenly there was a loud screech from the sky and Piper looked up to see a huge bird circling the jungle. As it came closer she realised that it was in fact a dragon. "You have got to be kidding me". She moved closer to the tree for shelter. Once the dragon had gone she took off her belt and tied it around her thigh to stop the bleeding. She decided to try to make her way to the village. Every step was agony. "Okay, I will just follow the orange tree road"
"Leo what are you talking about" "I have to at least try" Leo and his family had been shown to where Piper's body was so that they could say goodbye. Leo walked in and slowly moved to her covered body. He pulled back the sheet and gasped at how pale she was. He placed his hands above her wound and waited. Nothing happened. "Oh Piper, I'm so sorry I didn't go with you" he leant down and kissed her forehead. Tears fell from Leo's eyes onto Pipers face.
Pheobe and Paige walked in slowly; Daryl was behind them. Paige covered her mouth when she saw Piper's body. "I'm sorry, I just cant," she said as she backed out of the room. Daryl followed her out to keep her company. Pheobe walked to the other side of the bed and looked at Leo then looked at her sister's body. She picked up Piper's hand. "Can you ever forgive me, I'm so sorry that I made you go there " She kissed her hand. "I love you" she wiped the tears from her eyes. "What am I going to do without you, you were always the stable one, the normal one, what do we do now" Pheobe started to sob and Leo walked around to her and embraced her. The doctor walked into the room. "I'm sorry, but we need to take her down to the morgue now, you are welcome to follow her down" Leo shook his head and thanked the doctor for his efforts. He led Pheobe out and back to the room where they had first heard the devastating news. Paige was there with Daryl sobbing uncontrollably. "Come on I will take you home." None of them argued with him.
When they got in the door, Cole was coming out of the kitchen with a bowl of cereals in his hand. "Hey where did you all go" he stopped his sentence when he saw their faces.
"What's happened" Pheobe ran to him and started to cry again. Daryl walked up to Cole. "It's Piper, she was shot in a mugging today" "Is she okay" Daryl shook his head and Cole hugged Pheobe closer.
"My god" he had no words to comfort them. He wasn't prepared for the feelings that came to him. Grief, anger and sadness washed over him.
Leo sat on the sofa still in shock. Daryl had called his wife on the way home and she arrived at the manor. "Daryl" she said as she came in and hugged him. Daryl had always though of the girls as being his sisters. He cared for them more than they would ever know.
"Would you like me to make you a cup of tea" Daryl's wife said as she looked at the grief stricken faces. Pheobe nodded and so did Paige. "I'll help you" Leo said.
"No I can manage you just sit there" "Thank you" Leo said.
Piper had made it half way down the hill and was resting when she heard a scream. She instantly went on alert and tried to see where it came from. She heard lots of voices and what sounded like a fight. She made her way quietly through some bushes and the scene before her made her want to throw up. There were a group of demons with arrows and axes and swords. They appeared to have cornered a small female demon. "You weren't much of a hunt Janelle, your father would have been disappointed, and he was a much better prey than you." "Please, I can work in the mines, please don't kill me" One of the demons on a horse like creature fired an arrow and it pinned her shoulder to a tree. She screamed out loud. Then the demon that fired it got off his horse creature and walked slowly towards her. He looked at his fellow demon and took the axe from his hand. "Please my lord" But before she could utter another word he sliced her head off with the axe. Piper had to grab her mouth to stop herself gagging.
"These prey are all the same, I never have a challenge anymore" He ordered his servant to pick up the head as a trophy. They got on their horses and rode off to the village. "My god" Piper said. Maybe going to the village wasn't such a good idea after all. She turned around and walked in a completely different direction and walked straight into a netted trap. She was whisked up into the air.
Piper could see the demons coming back to see what they had caught. "Oh crap"
CHAPTER 3
It had been two days since Piper's death and Leo was the first to mention the funeral arrangements. Pheobe had no idea how to go about arranging it. Piper had managed gram's funeral and Prue's.
"What do we do"
"Don't worry, I will sort it" Leo said, trying to spare Pheobe any more pain. "Thank you Leo" Paige offered to help him. Pheobe walked into the living room to speak to Cole, well mainly it was so that she didn't have to hear them talking about the funeral procedures.
Cole was sitting, staring into space. "Cole" "Sorry Pheobe I was a million miles away" "I saw, how are you dealing with this" Cole looked shocked, she was going through so much pain and she was thinking of him, god he loved this woman. "It's just, I have always felt closer to Piper than I did to Prue, she always gave me a chance, she never judged me, I will miss her for that" "She was always the peace keeper between me and Prue, then when Prue died she was the rock that I leaned on, I don't know how we are going to go on" Cole hugged her.
In the kitchen Leo and Paige were talking about the funeral. "I haven't done one of these on my own before, I just helped Piper a little with Prue's." Leo said "Well I have done this before with my parents, I wanted to be fully involved, so lets start with picking a date" They continued to talk about setting a date, picking a casket, choosing a burial plot, letting people know by way of an advert in the obituaries.
The door went and Paige and Leo heard talking. Victor entered the kitchen holding Pheobe's hand. "Victor" "Leo" he said giving Leo a quick hug. "I never thought that she would die this way, it seems so unfair" "I know what you mean, killed by the people that she has spent most of her life protecting" Paige said. "Any word from Daryl, have they caught him yet"? "No, but Daryl wont rest until he's got him" "We are going to set the funeral for Thursday that gives us a couple of days to finished off the arrangements"
Piper heard the hoofs of the horse like creatures approaching. "Well what have we got here, cut it down and bring it to me later, I am late for a meeting with the other lords" the lord ordered and rode off back to the village. Piper pushed the netting off her head. One of the demons pointed an arrow at her. "A human woman" "I'm more than that pal," she said as she used her powers and blew him up. The other demon looked confused as to what had just happened. He looked at where his colleague had just been and then back at Piper. She raised her hands again and blew him up too. "Well thank god my powers still work" but it was draining on her, she was so tired from the bullet wound she hoped that there wasn't too many demons to kill. Suddenly a dart landed in Piper's arm. "What the" was all she said before the collapsed unconscious on the floor. "So we have a charmed one, pick her up and take her to the cells, I will inform my lord personally" Piper was carried over the shoulder by one of the large demons. They headed to the village, well specifically, to the dungeons.
It was now Wednesday in the real world. The funeral was tomorrow. Pheobe was up in the attic. She wanted to contact Piper, so she read the to call a lost witch spell. The usual lights appeared and instead of Piper, Prue appeared. "Prue" "Hello Pheobe, it's been a while" "Too long, oh Prue I really need you now and I wish you were here" "Why what's happened" "Your kidding right" Prue looked confused. "Prue, Piper was shot and killed 4 days ago" "What, Pheobe she is not here in heaven" "LEO" Prue and Pheobe shouted together. "How can she not be there?" Pheobe said, starting to panic. Leo came rushing into the room "What's the matter" he stopped when he saw Prue "Prue" "Leo, something is wrong, Prue tells me that Piper is not in heaven" "That cant be, she is a good soul, where else would her soul go" "Leo I think that you had better check" Prue said, pointing at the sky and meaning to the elders. "Right away" he said and orbed up to the heaven. "It's good to see you Prue"
Leo orbed up to the heavens and walked straight up to the elder's council. "How can you deny Piper Halliwell access to heaven, she has given her life many times to save innocents, she deserves a place here, how dare you" Leo was furious that Piper might be in the other place. "Calm down Leo, remember who you are talking too, we demand respect""
"well I demand that you place my wife's soul in heaven where it belongs" The elders looked blankly at Leo. "But the charmed one is not dead" "What, I saw her dead body" "Leo the elders do not lie, we would know if she was dead, and we know for sure that she is alive" Leo stood back from them. "So where is my wife"
CHAPTER 4
Piper awoke to find herself face down on a dirt floor. When she tried to push herself up she found that her hands were tied behind her back. "This is not good" she said, she rolled over and looked straight up at a stone ceiling, she sat up and looked around, there were stone pillars dotted around the room, chains and shackles on the wall. Some of the chains still had rotting bodies in them. She looked down at her bullet wound and winced, she knew that it looked infected. So if they haven't healed her leg then they are defiantly not interested in her health, which was another bad sign. The word that formed in her mind when she looked around the room was dungeon. Suddenly something flashes by in the corner of the room. "Hello" she said out loud. "My name is Piper" a little girl no older than 10, peered around one of the pillars. Piper gasped at the sight of a child being held in a dungeon. "Hi, what's you name" Piper kept her tone cheery; god knows what she had been through. "Natalie" "Well hello Natalie, it's very nice to meet you" Natalie walked forward with a bit more confidence. Piper could see chains on her feet and it made her furious. "Tell me honey, how long have you been here," The girl thought about it. "Well it was April when I was at home" "That was last month, how did you get here" "I was playing with my friend in her cleaning shop, we went outside to play hide and seek. I went into the near ally then there was a whoosh noise and I was here" "You must have been so frightened" Piper knew that they had come through the same doorway; this meant that maybe her sisters could retrace her steps and find the doorway. "You're bleeding," said the girl as she saw Piper's thigh. "I know but its okay" The little girl looked up to the door. "There coming" she said and hid behind one of the pillars.
The door opened and two one horned demons came into the room, they picked her up and dragged her out of the room. They led her to a large room, where the demon lord she had seen earlier, was sitting on a chair made from skulls. "Agghh, my new prey, and a famous one at that" "I am nobody's prey" one of the demons beside her backhanded her across the face. Piper was so weeks she fell to the floor. "Have some respect when you talk to Lord Deacon" Deacon stood up and walked towards Piper, he was at least two foot taller than her; he knelt down to her position on the floor. Unlike all the other demons she had seen here, he had two horns on his head and he was a lot taller than the others. He grabbed Piper by the chin. "I hope that your wound wont slow you down too much, I do want a good hunt" "You're going to hunt me" he smiled at her comment. "Its my sport, it keeps me fit, now here is what will happen, you will be led into the jungle and released, after 20 minutes head start I will come after you. Please make it exciting I have been so bored with my prey lately and you being a charmed one should give a good chase" Piper used her strength and stood up. She looked him in the eye. "What happens IF you catch me" Piper asked unsure that she wanted to hear the answer. "You will become one of my trophy's but I promise you, you will have pride of place" he said pointing to the side wall where all the other heads where mounted, including the woman she had seen earlier. "And what if I catch you" The demon laughed. Piper felt defeated. "If you catch me then you are free to go, but I use the word if, in 400 hunts I have never bee injured or caught" "Well that's because you have never come up against a charmed one before" "You have spirit, I hope that keeps you ahead of the hunt" Piper realised that he was no better from a male chauvinist back on earth. "What reassurance do I have that you will let me go"? "None, but like I said I don't expect you to win" "I don't suppose I have any other choice" Deacon pulled out a knife and placed it against her neck. "I could slice your head off right now," Deacon said "Okay, on with the hunt"
"Are you positive that's what they said Leo" Pheobe said "Yes, she is not dead" "Then that is great" Paige said, they all hugged each other. They had all felt so horrible the past few days and this was like a huge weight had been lifted. "I don't mean to be a killjoy, but, where is she, because someone went through and awful great deal of trouble to make sure we didn't go after her," Cole said. The weight was back on their shoulders. Victor walked in; he looked around the room confused. "Something going on" "Dad, Piper is alive," Pheobe shouted "What, but, how, what" "The body we saw in the morgue was a fake, the elders are positive that she is alive" Victor smiled and hugged Pheobe. "Well that's great, so where is she" "That's what we've got to figure out," Leo said "How about we start with the mugger, he might have seen something," Cole said "That's a good idea, I will call Daryl and see if he has any leads yet" Pheobe walked off to the hallway to use the phone. "This is great" Victor said, happy that he didn't have to bury another daughter.
After a few minutes, Pheobe came into the kitchen. "Well, they think it is one of the local thugs, petty crook, maybe we could do a spell to find him" "Leave it to me, I will find him" Cole said and shimmered out.
Cole shimmered into a known dive for crooks. He looked around for anyone evil. He grabbed one of the bartenders and dragged him around the corner into the shadows. "What do you want man, here take my wallet" "No I don't want your money, I want information, has anyone been in here recently ranting about seeing something, unusual" "What" "Think about it real carefully" Cole said lifting the man off the floor. "Well now you come to mention it, we had a guy in here several days ago, he said he said a huge monster and that it appeared out of thin air down an ally way" "What's his name, where does he live" "I don't know him" "You're lying" "No, no I'm telling the truth, but that guy at the bar, I have seen the two of them hanging around together before" Cole dropped the bartender and headed for the man drinking beer at the bar.
20 minutes later he shimmered back to the manor. Pheobe had been pacing up and down the kitchen since he had left. "Well" she said greeting him with a kiss. "I have an address, let's go" Pheobe orbed with Paige and Leo outside the door of the muggers apartment. Cole kicked it in and the mugger, who was watching TV, picked up his gun and fired. Leo threw the girls out of harms way and Cole hit the mugger with a low-level energy ball. They orbed the unconscious man back to the manor and tied him up. Leo smacked him awake. "Hey what the hell is going on, who are you, what do you want" "We want to know where our sister is" Cole was searching though his coat and pulled out Pipers wallet. "I found that" the mugger said in an innocent tone. "Sure you did, now we know that you mugged her and what we need to know is what did you see" "I have forgotten," said the man sarcastically. "Give us a minute" Cole said and everyone left the room. "What are you going to do, beat me up, I still wont tell you anything" Cole morphed into Balthazar. "OH MY GOD" the man screamed. "I'm not going to beat you up, I'm going to eat you before the others return" "Okay what do you want to know" Balthazar morphed back into Cole.
"Guys, he is ready to talk now"
CHAPTER 5
Piper was sitting on one of the horse like creatures; they were leading her into the jungle for the start of the hunt. After what seemed like a lifetime, the demons stopped and told Piper to get down. She tried to get down as best she could but the horse like creatures where elephant size and she ended up landing hard on the floor. She grabbed at her leg. "Come on get up," said one of the demons. She did and he walked towards her with a knife. "What are you doing, I thought he was going to hunt me" Piper backed away but the demon grabbed her hands and slit the ropes off her hands. "Oh" she said relieved.
"Now woman, if I was you I would run" the two demons laughed and made there was to the horse like creatures. "Oh really, well I think that I would like to do this first" she said blowing them up one at a time. She tried to get back onto the horse creature but it wouldn't let her get up. Eventually it reared up in the air. "Demon lover" she said as it snorted loudly then set off back to the village. Piper knew that she had 20 minutes before Deacon would come after her. Blowing up those two demons had really started to drain her, she felt the fever starting to take hold of her, she had to try to beat it or he was going to win. Piper looked around and decided that the best route was to go higher up, so she grabbed a piece of wood off the floor as a stick and started to walk up one of the hills.
"Time" "10 minutes has passed my lord, also I released the little human girl for an added distraction to the charmed one" "Excellent, oh that's enough time I'm too excited" said the Lord and kicked the side of his horse like creature and he and 5 of his men sped off a high speed into the jungle.
They had got all the information that they needed from the mugger. Pheobe had called Daryl and he had been arrested. They had found the ally way and began searching for the portal. Cole sensed it as soon as he entered the ally way. He motioned for them to come to him and as they gathered around him the demon that had first pushed Piper through, appeared and threw and energy ball at them. "Look out" Cole said pushing Leo out of the way. The demon ran forward and punched Cole, knocking him unconscious. "You can now enter, my Lord will have his Charmed trophy" "Trophy?" Leo said "Why, her head, what else" Leo ran forward to attack him but ended up being thrown against the wall, he lifted up an energy ball. "Energy ball" Paige shouted and it orbed into her hand, she threw it back at the demon and he exploded. Paige went to Leo and Pheobe went to Cole.
Piper had been running for 10 minutes. She had heard the horse creatures sometime ago, she knew that the demons had dismounted and where searching through the jungle for her. She heard a crack of twigs to her right and then some more to her left, she knew that they were trying to confuse her. She knelt down as best she could and waited for one to appear, the one of the left was the first and she blew him up as soon as she saw him, then the one on the right came running to their position and she blew him up too. She sank back to the jungle floor. Killing these demons with magic was draining her; she didn't know how many more she could kill. She carried on and suddenly an arrow flew past her face, she turned to see another demon, she blew him up. He dropped an knife as he exploded and Piper went over to pick it up, it was half the length of a sword.
"This will come in handy," she said to herself.
The lord had heard the three bangs and knew that he only had two men left. He knew he was close. He ordered his men to spread out. Piper was resting beside a tree; she saw one of the demons walking quietly in front of her. She ran up to him and stabbed him in the heart, he exploded loudly and Deacon knew that he had only one man left. Another appeared and lifted his sword to her Piper used her power and blew him up. She felt so weak, she knew that she had drained her powers, she knew that if Deacon attacked she would have to use physical strength to kill him, so she knew that they situation was bad.
Deacon had heard all the explosions and knew that it was just he and Piper left. He saw someone running out of the corner of his eye and knew straight away that it was the little girl. He smiled.
Piper heard a scream and knew straight away that it was from Natalie. She crawled along the floor to get a look; in the distance she could see Natalie being held by the throat by Deacon, his finger and thumb were all that was needed to go around her neck. "Come on and fight, or the girl will make a pitiful trophy" Piper knew that he would chop off her head. She picked up a large branch and crawled around behind him. Natalie was making so much noise crying that he didn't here Piper walking up behind him. "Hey" she said and he turned around to catch a large chunk of wood smacking into his face. He let go of Natalie and fell to the floor grabbing his nose. "Run" Piper said, she kicked Deacon in the head, it caused her great pain but it felt great. "Come on Piper" Natalie said holding out her hand.
"Cole, Cole honey" Pheobe slapped him gently and he awoke. "Is everyone okay" he asked as she helped him stand. "Yes" Leo said rubbing his head
"Okay, I will go through the portal and see if I can find her" "What, no we are coming with you" "No, there is no telling what kind of dimension is behind this door, it is best if I go" "He's right Pheobe, as much as I want to go, Cole is better qualified" Pheobe let out a breath and grabbed Cole, she kissed him passionately and he smiled, and then walked through the doorway.
When he emerged out the other side he knew exactly what dimension he was in. Centuries ago he had actually hunted for fun himself with Lord Deacon. He shimmered down to the village and walked into the Lord's chambers. A servant demon saw him and knelt down. "Lord Balthazar, it has been some time since you graced us" "Well, I heard that you have a charmed one here and I wanted to join the hunt" "That is correct sire, but Lord Deacon has already begun" "No matter I will find him and help" "Very good my lord" he said as Cole walked into the jungle.
CHAPTER 6
Piper couldn't run any more as the pain was too much. Natalie was trying to pull her along. "Come on Piper, he is coming" Piper saw Deacon out of the corner of her eye. He was aiming an arrow at Natalie. "Look out" she said and pushed her out of the way. Unfortunately the arrow didn't miss Piper; it went straight through her shoulder and embedded itself in a near tree. She fell down in pain. "Natalie run" Natalie grabbed the knife off Piper and stood defending her. Deacon approached them. "How touching, the humans have bonded, oh and look the little one wants to play" "Natalie please get away," Piper said trying to stand. Deacon pulled out the arrow from the tree. "These arrows were designed to penetrate demon skin, which is much tougher than human skin, I have never seen them go straight through before," he said smiling. Piper grabbed the knife off Natalie and pushed the girl behind her. Deacon pulled out his knife and advanced on Piper, the first strike against her knife sent her backwards. Deacon pushed Natalie aside so hard that she hit a tree head on and fell to the floor in a heap. "NATALIE" Deacon lunged forward but Piper blocked him.
Cole heard swords clashing and knew he had to hurry. Deacon punched Piper across the jaw sending her flying to the floor. When he got closer she used all her strength to kick his kneecap backwards. She got some satisfaction when she heard the bones break. He yelled out in pain and grabbed his leg. Piper crawled away but Deacon grabbed her ankle. They were both on the floor now. Deacon pulled her back towards him, he began to punch her bullet wound. Piper saw white spot in front of her eyes. He kept punching her over and over; Piper picked up the knife and stabbed it through his hand then collapsed back on the floor breathing heavily.
Cole appeared and saw the state Piper was in, she had a blood drenched leg and shoulder, bloody nose and split lip. Deacon didn't look good either; he had what looked like a broken leg, a bleeding nose, and a knife sticking out of his hand. Piper had put up a good fight. Cole summoned a huge energy ball and threw it at deacon. He screamed and exploded into fire. "Piper" he said running to her side. She was deathly pale and hardly conscious. Cole gently picked her up in his arms and started to walk away. "Natalie" Piper mumbled. Cole stopped and looked back. He saw a little girl crumpled at the bottom of a tree. He walked over to her and tried to lift her up. "Piper" she said as she woke up, she locked eyes with Cole and backed away from him. "It's okay, I am a friend of Piper's, come with me, and we are going home" "Home, back to my mum and dad" "Yes, take my hand, we are going to shimmer, it might make you a little dizzy" she took his hand and waited. Cole shimmered them to the doorway.
"That was so cool" she said. "Okay you go through first and I will come after you" Natalie walked through with her eyes closed.
Leo was pacing the ally, there was a loud whoosh and a little girl came out of the portal. "Hello" Leo said confused, he noticed her bleeding head. "Hi are you friends of Piper too" "Yes we are sweaty, we are her family" Paige said.
"Let me look at your head" she walked forward and Leo healed it for her.
Cole emerged a few moments later with a blood covered Piper in his arms. "Oh my god" Pheobe said. "Leo, she has just stopped breathing" Cole placed her on the floor quickly and Leo ran to her side. He started to heal her and she started to breathe again. "Where was she" Paige asked Cole. "In a very bad dimension where they hunt people for sport, she put up a good fight" Leo had managed to heal the shoulder and split lip, but he couldn't heal the bullet wound. "Leo" Pheobe asked concerned.
"Its not working, the mugger must have shot her, I cant heal this, we need to get her to a hospital now" Piper was still unconscious. "Okay sweaty, will you come with us to the hospital and then we can find you parent" "Okay" Natalie said "Is Piper going to be okay, she saved my life" Pheobe was so proud of her sister "She will be just fine" Natalie took Pheobe's hand and they orbed to the hospital.
CHAPTER 7
"How are we going to explain this, the doctors here saw her dead body several days ago" Paige asked. "I don't know, maybe we could say it was her twin" Cole said. "Well seeming as it would expose you all, I think that the elders wouldn't mind me using my memory trick and clearing out paperwork, as it is in the best interest of my charges" Leo said walking into the hospital. A jungle from the heavens gave Leo the all clear. "I need some help here," Leo shouted out A nurse came out from behind the admissions desk. "What happened"? "We were mugged and she was shot in the leg" The nurse looked at it and knew that it wasn't a recent wound; she could tell that it was infected. "When did this happen" Leo looked at her and did his magic. "Okay, lets go" she said, ignoring any questions that came into her mind. "Doctor Trent, GSW to the upper thigh, bad infection and bleeding" The doctor rushed over with a gurney and Leo and his family knew instantly that it was the same doctor that had told them Piper had died a few days ago, Leo placed her on the gurney. Leo realised that the Elders must have done his magic for him. "Okay follow me," said the doctor as he and a couple of nurses rushed her away.
"Does she have any allergies"? "No" "Any history we should no about"" "No" "Is she taking any medication at the minute"? "No"
"okay, if you would wait in the side room, I will be with you shortly" Leo and his family walked into the room that they had received the sad news in earlier on in the week. "Okay Natalie, what is your address, phone number"?
A couple of hours had passed. Piper had been to surgery and had, had the bullet removed and had several pints of blood pumped back into her. She was stitched up and put in a private room. Natalie's parents were called by Pheobe and were on the way to the hospital to pick her up. Pheobe had called Daryl to help out.
Leo walked into Piper's room. She looked a lot of a better colour than she had earlier. "Hi" he said quietly. "Oh Leo, I missed you, I see that you found me" she said reaching out to him with her arms. "And just in time, another day and you could have died" Piper pulled away from his hug and frowned "Another day, how long was I gone"? "5 days" Piper gasped "5 days, but it was only one day there" Leo kissed her on the head and Piper hugged him more tightly. "Is Natalie okay"? "She's fine, Cole got her out too" "Cole"
"yeah, he entered the dimension and got you two out" Piper smiled. "Natalie's parent will be here soon, I'm sure that they will want to talk to you, and I know that Natalie will want to say goodbye" "No problem, what shall we say to her parents, we can hardly say that she was in a demon dimension" "Don't worry about that now, just rest, Pheobe and Paige will be in, in a minute" "God Leo, I was so scared" Leo grabbed her hand tighter.
"Its okay now, your safe, I'm just glad that your alive" Piper frowned.
Pheobe and Paige walked in. "Oh it is so good to see you alive" "Okay Leo just said the same thing, did I miss something" Pheobe looked at Leo. "The demon who led you to the dimension made a clone of you, he made it look as though you had been shot in the stomach, we were told that you had died. We were planning your funeral with dad" Piper didn't know what to say. "Hence the, I'm so glad your alive, comments" Paige said trying to lighten the mood. "God, you must have been through hell all of you" Piper said with tears forming in her eyes. "Yeah well from what Natalie tells us, you were in hell" Leo said. The door opened and Cole led Natalie in the room. She ran over and jumped on the bed. Piper winced but didn't show her. "I'm so glad that you are okay, thanks Piper for saving me" "I'm just glad that you are okay, do you know guys that she stood off with a demon lord to protect me" "Wow, your one tough cookie" Pheobe said tickling her.
The door opened again and Daryl appeared. "Natalie, there are some people here that want to see you" he stepped aside and her parents ran into the room. "Mummy, Daddy" she jumped off the bed and hugged her parents. Her mother cried and hugged her little girl tightly. "Natalie, oh Natalie" she said kissing her head. "I missed you so much," said the girl crying herself. "We looked ever where, where were you?" Daryl stepped forward. "Excuse me, but she was being held by some Middle Eastern migrant workers, they wanted to sell your daughter to be a slave. This woman and man here saved her" "Thank you" said her mother standing up and shaking Cole's hand. She moved to Piper. "Thank you, are you going to be okay?" she said nodding at the bandage and machines around her.
"Yeah, I will be fine" Natalie's dad picked her up. "Well I cant that you enough" Pheobe led them out the room. "Keep in touch Piper" Natalie said as she left the room. Daryl walked out after them explaining that he would contact them if any news came of her kidnappers. Everyone knew that that call would never come.
"So I guess I missed the party, and I brought a killer dress" "The party is still on Piper, but it is now a joint get well and birthday party" Piper smiled. "Cole, Thank you" Piper said. The smile of pride on Pheobe's face did not go unnoticed by Cole. "Hey, anything for family" he said. They all smiled and Piper started to plan the extra details for her party.
THE END
Summary: Piper is taken to a hell demon dimension where she has to fight for her life whilst her family think that she is dead. It seems that there is no hope.
CHAPTER 1
"I'm just going to do some shopping Leo, I need to find a dress for Daryl's party" "Honey, anything that you wear you will look good in, even your birthday suit" "Why Leo" Piper said in a seductive tone. They kissed passionately. "God you two get a room, in fact use your own room" Paige said as she walked passed them both at the bottom of the stairs. Paige was feeling a little in the way sometimes, well in truth a little jealous. Cole and Pheobe always making out, Leo and Piper always making out and her making nothing. "I take it that you don't have a date yet for the party," Piper said catching the slight narky tone. "Piper, us young people don't call them dates" "Okay, I take that as a no" "HA" Paige said and walked into the kitchen.
Pheobe came running down the stairs.
"Going out" "Yup, I'm going to have a look for a dress for the party, wanna come?" "Nah sorry sis but I'm a bit busy at the minute, but you could do me one tinny tiny favour" "What" Piper asked suspiciously? "Pick up my dress from the dry cleaners" Pheobe was using her baby voice and swinging from left to right. "How can I resist that voice"? "Oh, thank you honey" Pheobe kissed her on the head. "Sure you don't want to come Leo, you can pick the underwear" Leo raised his eyebrow at that. "Oh, don't temp me, sorry honey but I promised that at the first spare moment I got I would look at Pheobe's shower" "Okay but it is your loss on the underwear" she teased him, and then pulled him close for another kiss before leaving the house.
The shopping trip had gone well, she had found the perfect dress for the party; she was on her way back to her car when she remembered Pheobe's dry cleaning. "Oh crap" she headed off to the cleaners. She reached the tiny side street and walked down it. It was a small street with no sunlight reaching into it. Piper always had a bad feeling when she went down it. She made it to the shop and got Pheobe's dress, then was on her way back up the street to the sunlight when she was grabbed roughly from behind and dragged towards an ally way. Once in the ally, he attacker dragged her further away from the safety of the street so that they were out of sight. He turned her around and pinned her to the wall with her hands behind her. "Give me your wallet" he placed a gun to her head. "I cant you have got my hands pinned" Piper's heart was in her mouth. If she could just get her hands free she could freeze this idiot. He smiled and searched her pockets, taking far too much time searching her trouser pockets. Then he picked up her bag off the floor. "Not bad, thanks" "Okay now let me go you've got what you want" the mugger looked her up and down. "Who said that I have got what I want" he looked her up and down. Piper got a sick feeling in her stomach.
Suddenly there was a loud whoosh of wind and a bolt of lighting cracked open a rift in the ally way. They both watched as a demon walked out of the rift. "What the hell" shouted the mugger? "Let me go" Piper demanded. The mugger unpinned her and turned to the demon. Piper raised her hands to blow him up but nothing happened. "What" she said confused. The mugger staggered forward and shot the demon twice. The demon just looked annoyed. The mugger turned and ran out of the ally firing behind him as he went. One of the bullets his piper in the leg, she fell to the floor clutching her thigh. The demon walked towards her and Piper tried to blow him up again. "A charmed one, my lord will have such fun hunting you, too bad that you had to see the portal" "What" And with that, he picked Piper up and threw her through the doorway. As soon as she entered it, it closed behind her. "Now we cant have your sisters coming after you so lets see what we can do" He looked at the blood on the floor and made a clone of Piper, but he made it appear as though she had been shot in the stomach. Then he disappeared in search of the mugger.
The phone in the manor rang. "I'll get it" Pheobe yelled. "Hello, oh hi Daryl how are the plans coming for the party, what, when, we are on the way" Pheobe put the shaking receiver down. Paige and Leo were in the kitchen messing around. Pheobe was as white as a sheet when she came in. Paige noticed straight away. "Pheobe are you okay" "That was Daryl on the phone" Paige interrupted her. "Don't tell me that the Party's off after I spent way too much on that dress"
"He wants us to come to the hospital, Piper was mugged and has been shot" Silence fell in the room. Paige held out her hand to Pheobe and they orbed to the hospital.
Daryl greeted them with a sad face. "How is she"? "I don't know, the surgeons are with her now" "How did, when did, where did this happen" Leo stammered. "She was down off Maple street in an ally way, a homeless man found her and phone the police"
"Maple street, that's where my cleaners is, my god, if I hadn't of asked her to get my cleaning maybe this would have never happened" Guilt engulfed Pheobe. "Piper Halliwell" a doctor called out. "I'm her husband and these are her sisters" Leo said as he approached the doctor. "How is she"? "I think we should talk in here," said the doctor as he led them to a side room. Daryl followed. "Piper was shot in the lower abdomen, the bullet went through her kidneys and her lower intestine, it caused massive internal bleeding that we were unable to stop, she was brought in without a pulse and we worked on her for 40 minutes to try to get it beating again, but the damage was just too severe and I am sorry to tell you that she died 20 minutes ago. As the magnitude of the words hit Leo, Pheobe started to cry and scream. Paige tuned to Daryl and sobbed on his shoulder. Pheobe hugged Leo who was in shock. "I'm truly sorry," said the doctor as he left them to their grief. "She can't be dead, she just cant," Leo said.
Piper awoke in the demon dimension. "Oh Crap"
CHAPTER 2
Piper grabbed her acing leg and tried to stand. She took a good look around. She appeared to be at the top of a hill and it looked as though she was in some kind of jungle, there were funny orange coloured trees dotted around the place and surrounding them on the floor were orange bushes and orange grass. She looked up at the orange sky and saw two suns shining down. "Okay, that's new" She looked at the bottom of the hill and saw a huge village. She tried to remember an exact landmark so that if she needed to get back to the door she could. Suddenly there was a loud screech from the sky and Piper looked up to see a huge bird circling the jungle. As it came closer she realised that it was in fact a dragon. "You have got to be kidding me". She moved closer to the tree for shelter. Once the dragon had gone she took off her belt and tied it around her thigh to stop the bleeding. She decided to try to make her way to the village. Every step was agony. "Okay, I will just follow the orange tree road"
"Leo what are you talking about" "I have to at least try" Leo and his family had been shown to where Piper's body was so that they could say goodbye. Leo walked in and slowly moved to her covered body. He pulled back the sheet and gasped at how pale she was. He placed his hands above her wound and waited. Nothing happened. "Oh Piper, I'm so sorry I didn't go with you" he leant down and kissed her forehead. Tears fell from Leo's eyes onto Pipers face.
Pheobe and Paige walked in slowly; Daryl was behind them. Paige covered her mouth when she saw Piper's body. "I'm sorry, I just cant," she said as she backed out of the room. Daryl followed her out to keep her company. Pheobe walked to the other side of the bed and looked at Leo then looked at her sister's body. She picked up Piper's hand. "Can you ever forgive me, I'm so sorry that I made you go there " She kissed her hand. "I love you" she wiped the tears from her eyes. "What am I going to do without you, you were always the stable one, the normal one, what do we do now" Pheobe started to sob and Leo walked around to her and embraced her. The doctor walked into the room. "I'm sorry, but we need to take her down to the morgue now, you are welcome to follow her down" Leo shook his head and thanked the doctor for his efforts. He led Pheobe out and back to the room where they had first heard the devastating news. Paige was there with Daryl sobbing uncontrollably. "Come on I will take you home." None of them argued with him.
When they got in the door, Cole was coming out of the kitchen with a bowl of cereals in his hand. "Hey where did you all go" he stopped his sentence when he saw their faces.
"What's happened" Pheobe ran to him and started to cry again. Daryl walked up to Cole. "It's Piper, she was shot in a mugging today" "Is she okay" Daryl shook his head and Cole hugged Pheobe closer.
"My god" he had no words to comfort them. He wasn't prepared for the feelings that came to him. Grief, anger and sadness washed over him.
Leo sat on the sofa still in shock. Daryl had called his wife on the way home and she arrived at the manor. "Daryl" she said as she came in and hugged him. Daryl had always though of the girls as being his sisters. He cared for them more than they would ever know.
"Would you like me to make you a cup of tea" Daryl's wife said as she looked at the grief stricken faces. Pheobe nodded and so did Paige. "I'll help you" Leo said.
"No I can manage you just sit there" "Thank you" Leo said.
Piper had made it half way down the hill and was resting when she heard a scream. She instantly went on alert and tried to see where it came from. She heard lots of voices and what sounded like a fight. She made her way quietly through some bushes and the scene before her made her want to throw up. There were a group of demons with arrows and axes and swords. They appeared to have cornered a small female demon. "You weren't much of a hunt Janelle, your father would have been disappointed, and he was a much better prey than you." "Please, I can work in the mines, please don't kill me" One of the demons on a horse like creature fired an arrow and it pinned her shoulder to a tree. She screamed out loud. Then the demon that fired it got off his horse creature and walked slowly towards her. He looked at his fellow demon and took the axe from his hand. "Please my lord" But before she could utter another word he sliced her head off with the axe. Piper had to grab her mouth to stop herself gagging.
"These prey are all the same, I never have a challenge anymore" He ordered his servant to pick up the head as a trophy. They got on their horses and rode off to the village. "My god" Piper said. Maybe going to the village wasn't such a good idea after all. She turned around and walked in a completely different direction and walked straight into a netted trap. She was whisked up into the air.
Piper could see the demons coming back to see what they had caught. "Oh crap"
CHAPTER 3
It had been two days since Piper's death and Leo was the first to mention the funeral arrangements. Pheobe had no idea how to go about arranging it. Piper had managed gram's funeral and Prue's.
"What do we do"
"Don't worry, I will sort it" Leo said, trying to spare Pheobe any more pain. "Thank you Leo" Paige offered to help him. Pheobe walked into the living room to speak to Cole, well mainly it was so that she didn't have to hear them talking about the funeral procedures.
Cole was sitting, staring into space. "Cole" "Sorry Pheobe I was a million miles away" "I saw, how are you dealing with this" Cole looked shocked, she was going through so much pain and she was thinking of him, god he loved this woman. "It's just, I have always felt closer to Piper than I did to Prue, she always gave me a chance, she never judged me, I will miss her for that" "She was always the peace keeper between me and Prue, then when Prue died she was the rock that I leaned on, I don't know how we are going to go on" Cole hugged her.
In the kitchen Leo and Paige were talking about the funeral. "I haven't done one of these on my own before, I just helped Piper a little with Prue's." Leo said "Well I have done this before with my parents, I wanted to be fully involved, so lets start with picking a date" They continued to talk about setting a date, picking a casket, choosing a burial plot, letting people know by way of an advert in the obituaries.
The door went and Paige and Leo heard talking. Victor entered the kitchen holding Pheobe's hand. "Victor" "Leo" he said giving Leo a quick hug. "I never thought that she would die this way, it seems so unfair" "I know what you mean, killed by the people that she has spent most of her life protecting" Paige said. "Any word from Daryl, have they caught him yet"? "No, but Daryl wont rest until he's got him" "We are going to set the funeral for Thursday that gives us a couple of days to finished off the arrangements"
Piper heard the hoofs of the horse like creatures approaching. "Well what have we got here, cut it down and bring it to me later, I am late for a meeting with the other lords" the lord ordered and rode off back to the village. Piper pushed the netting off her head. One of the demons pointed an arrow at her. "A human woman" "I'm more than that pal," she said as she used her powers and blew him up. The other demon looked confused as to what had just happened. He looked at where his colleague had just been and then back at Piper. She raised her hands again and blew him up too. "Well thank god my powers still work" but it was draining on her, she was so tired from the bullet wound she hoped that there wasn't too many demons to kill. Suddenly a dart landed in Piper's arm. "What the" was all she said before the collapsed unconscious on the floor. "So we have a charmed one, pick her up and take her to the cells, I will inform my lord personally" Piper was carried over the shoulder by one of the large demons. They headed to the village, well specifically, to the dungeons.
It was now Wednesday in the real world. The funeral was tomorrow. Pheobe was up in the attic. She wanted to contact Piper, so she read the to call a lost witch spell. The usual lights appeared and instead of Piper, Prue appeared. "Prue" "Hello Pheobe, it's been a while" "Too long, oh Prue I really need you now and I wish you were here" "Why what's happened" "Your kidding right" Prue looked confused. "Prue, Piper was shot and killed 4 days ago" "What, Pheobe she is not here in heaven" "LEO" Prue and Pheobe shouted together. "How can she not be there?" Pheobe said, starting to panic. Leo came rushing into the room "What's the matter" he stopped when he saw Prue "Prue" "Leo, something is wrong, Prue tells me that Piper is not in heaven" "That cant be, she is a good soul, where else would her soul go" "Leo I think that you had better check" Prue said, pointing at the sky and meaning to the elders. "Right away" he said and orbed up to the heaven. "It's good to see you Prue"
Leo orbed up to the heavens and walked straight up to the elder's council. "How can you deny Piper Halliwell access to heaven, she has given her life many times to save innocents, she deserves a place here, how dare you" Leo was furious that Piper might be in the other place. "Calm down Leo, remember who you are talking too, we demand respect""
"well I demand that you place my wife's soul in heaven where it belongs" The elders looked blankly at Leo. "But the charmed one is not dead" "What, I saw her dead body" "Leo the elders do not lie, we would know if she was dead, and we know for sure that she is alive" Leo stood back from them. "So where is my wife"
CHAPTER 4
Piper awoke to find herself face down on a dirt floor. When she tried to push herself up she found that her hands were tied behind her back. "This is not good" she said, she rolled over and looked straight up at a stone ceiling, she sat up and looked around, there were stone pillars dotted around the room, chains and shackles on the wall. Some of the chains still had rotting bodies in them. She looked down at her bullet wound and winced, she knew that it looked infected. So if they haven't healed her leg then they are defiantly not interested in her health, which was another bad sign. The word that formed in her mind when she looked around the room was dungeon. Suddenly something flashes by in the corner of the room. "Hello" she said out loud. "My name is Piper" a little girl no older than 10, peered around one of the pillars. Piper gasped at the sight of a child being held in a dungeon. "Hi, what's you name" Piper kept her tone cheery; god knows what she had been through. "Natalie" "Well hello Natalie, it's very nice to meet you" Natalie walked forward with a bit more confidence. Piper could see chains on her feet and it made her furious. "Tell me honey, how long have you been here," The girl thought about it. "Well it was April when I was at home" "That was last month, how did you get here" "I was playing with my friend in her cleaning shop, we went outside to play hide and seek. I went into the near ally then there was a whoosh noise and I was here" "You must have been so frightened" Piper knew that they had come through the same doorway; this meant that maybe her sisters could retrace her steps and find the doorway. "You're bleeding," said the girl as she saw Piper's thigh. "I know but its okay" The little girl looked up to the door. "There coming" she said and hid behind one of the pillars.
The door opened and two one horned demons came into the room, they picked her up and dragged her out of the room. They led her to a large room, where the demon lord she had seen earlier, was sitting on a chair made from skulls. "Agghh, my new prey, and a famous one at that" "I am nobody's prey" one of the demons beside her backhanded her across the face. Piper was so weeks she fell to the floor. "Have some respect when you talk to Lord Deacon" Deacon stood up and walked towards Piper, he was at least two foot taller than her; he knelt down to her position on the floor. Unlike all the other demons she had seen here, he had two horns on his head and he was a lot taller than the others. He grabbed Piper by the chin. "I hope that your wound wont slow you down too much, I do want a good hunt" "You're going to hunt me" he smiled at her comment. "Its my sport, it keeps me fit, now here is what will happen, you will be led into the jungle and released, after 20 minutes head start I will come after you. Please make it exciting I have been so bored with my prey lately and you being a charmed one should give a good chase" Piper used her strength and stood up. She looked him in the eye. "What happens IF you catch me" Piper asked unsure that she wanted to hear the answer. "You will become one of my trophy's but I promise you, you will have pride of place" he said pointing to the side wall where all the other heads where mounted, including the woman she had seen earlier. "And what if I catch you" The demon laughed. Piper felt defeated. "If you catch me then you are free to go, but I use the word if, in 400 hunts I have never bee injured or caught" "Well that's because you have never come up against a charmed one before" "You have spirit, I hope that keeps you ahead of the hunt" Piper realised that he was no better from a male chauvinist back on earth. "What reassurance do I have that you will let me go"? "None, but like I said I don't expect you to win" "I don't suppose I have any other choice" Deacon pulled out a knife and placed it against her neck. "I could slice your head off right now," Deacon said "Okay, on with the hunt"
"Are you positive that's what they said Leo" Pheobe said "Yes, she is not dead" "Then that is great" Paige said, they all hugged each other. They had all felt so horrible the past few days and this was like a huge weight had been lifted. "I don't mean to be a killjoy, but, where is she, because someone went through and awful great deal of trouble to make sure we didn't go after her," Cole said. The weight was back on their shoulders. Victor walked in; he looked around the room confused. "Something going on" "Dad, Piper is alive," Pheobe shouted "What, but, how, what" "The body we saw in the morgue was a fake, the elders are positive that she is alive" Victor smiled and hugged Pheobe. "Well that's great, so where is she" "That's what we've got to figure out," Leo said "How about we start with the mugger, he might have seen something," Cole said "That's a good idea, I will call Daryl and see if he has any leads yet" Pheobe walked off to the hallway to use the phone. "This is great" Victor said, happy that he didn't have to bury another daughter.
After a few minutes, Pheobe came into the kitchen. "Well, they think it is one of the local thugs, petty crook, maybe we could do a spell to find him" "Leave it to me, I will find him" Cole said and shimmered out.
Cole shimmered into a known dive for crooks. He looked around for anyone evil. He grabbed one of the bartenders and dragged him around the corner into the shadows. "What do you want man, here take my wallet" "No I don't want your money, I want information, has anyone been in here recently ranting about seeing something, unusual" "What" "Think about it real carefully" Cole said lifting the man off the floor. "Well now you come to mention it, we had a guy in here several days ago, he said he said a huge monster and that it appeared out of thin air down an ally way" "What's his name, where does he live" "I don't know him" "You're lying" "No, no I'm telling the truth, but that guy at the bar, I have seen the two of them hanging around together before" Cole dropped the bartender and headed for the man drinking beer at the bar.
20 minutes later he shimmered back to the manor. Pheobe had been pacing up and down the kitchen since he had left. "Well" she said greeting him with a kiss. "I have an address, let's go" Pheobe orbed with Paige and Leo outside the door of the muggers apartment. Cole kicked it in and the mugger, who was watching TV, picked up his gun and fired. Leo threw the girls out of harms way and Cole hit the mugger with a low-level energy ball. They orbed the unconscious man back to the manor and tied him up. Leo smacked him awake. "Hey what the hell is going on, who are you, what do you want" "We want to know where our sister is" Cole was searching though his coat and pulled out Pipers wallet. "I found that" the mugger said in an innocent tone. "Sure you did, now we know that you mugged her and what we need to know is what did you see" "I have forgotten," said the man sarcastically. "Give us a minute" Cole said and everyone left the room. "What are you going to do, beat me up, I still wont tell you anything" Cole morphed into Balthazar. "OH MY GOD" the man screamed. "I'm not going to beat you up, I'm going to eat you before the others return" "Okay what do you want to know" Balthazar morphed back into Cole.
"Guys, he is ready to talk now"
CHAPTER 5
Piper was sitting on one of the horse like creatures; they were leading her into the jungle for the start of the hunt. After what seemed like a lifetime, the demons stopped and told Piper to get down. She tried to get down as best she could but the horse like creatures where elephant size and she ended up landing hard on the floor. She grabbed at her leg. "Come on get up," said one of the demons. She did and he walked towards her with a knife. "What are you doing, I thought he was going to hunt me" Piper backed away but the demon grabbed her hands and slit the ropes off her hands. "Oh" she said relieved.
"Now woman, if I was you I would run" the two demons laughed and made there was to the horse like creatures. "Oh really, well I think that I would like to do this first" she said blowing them up one at a time. She tried to get back onto the horse creature but it wouldn't let her get up. Eventually it reared up in the air. "Demon lover" she said as it snorted loudly then set off back to the village. Piper knew that she had 20 minutes before Deacon would come after her. Blowing up those two demons had really started to drain her, she felt the fever starting to take hold of her, she had to try to beat it or he was going to win. Piper looked around and decided that the best route was to go higher up, so she grabbed a piece of wood off the floor as a stick and started to walk up one of the hills.
"Time" "10 minutes has passed my lord, also I released the little human girl for an added distraction to the charmed one" "Excellent, oh that's enough time I'm too excited" said the Lord and kicked the side of his horse like creature and he and 5 of his men sped off a high speed into the jungle.
They had got all the information that they needed from the mugger. Pheobe had called Daryl and he had been arrested. They had found the ally way and began searching for the portal. Cole sensed it as soon as he entered the ally way. He motioned for them to come to him and as they gathered around him the demon that had first pushed Piper through, appeared and threw and energy ball at them. "Look out" Cole said pushing Leo out of the way. The demon ran forward and punched Cole, knocking him unconscious. "You can now enter, my Lord will have his Charmed trophy" "Trophy?" Leo said "Why, her head, what else" Leo ran forward to attack him but ended up being thrown against the wall, he lifted up an energy ball. "Energy ball" Paige shouted and it orbed into her hand, she threw it back at the demon and he exploded. Paige went to Leo and Pheobe went to Cole.
Piper had been running for 10 minutes. She had heard the horse creatures sometime ago, she knew that the demons had dismounted and where searching through the jungle for her. She heard a crack of twigs to her right and then some more to her left, she knew that they were trying to confuse her. She knelt down as best she could and waited for one to appear, the one of the left was the first and she blew him up as soon as she saw him, then the one on the right came running to their position and she blew him up too. She sank back to the jungle floor. Killing these demons with magic was draining her; she didn't know how many more she could kill. She carried on and suddenly an arrow flew past her face, she turned to see another demon, she blew him up. He dropped an knife as he exploded and Piper went over to pick it up, it was half the length of a sword.
"This will come in handy," she said to herself.
The lord had heard the three bangs and knew that he only had two men left. He knew he was close. He ordered his men to spread out. Piper was resting beside a tree; she saw one of the demons walking quietly in front of her. She ran up to him and stabbed him in the heart, he exploded loudly and Deacon knew that he had only one man left. Another appeared and lifted his sword to her Piper used her power and blew him up. She felt so weak, she knew that she had drained her powers, she knew that if Deacon attacked she would have to use physical strength to kill him, so she knew that they situation was bad.
Deacon had heard all the explosions and knew that it was just he and Piper left. He saw someone running out of the corner of his eye and knew straight away that it was the little girl. He smiled.
Piper heard a scream and knew straight away that it was from Natalie. She crawled along the floor to get a look; in the distance she could see Natalie being held by the throat by Deacon, his finger and thumb were all that was needed to go around her neck. "Come on and fight, or the girl will make a pitiful trophy" Piper knew that he would chop off her head. She picked up a large branch and crawled around behind him. Natalie was making so much noise crying that he didn't here Piper walking up behind him. "Hey" she said and he turned around to catch a large chunk of wood smacking into his face. He let go of Natalie and fell to the floor grabbing his nose. "Run" Piper said, she kicked Deacon in the head, it caused her great pain but it felt great. "Come on Piper" Natalie said holding out her hand.
"Cole, Cole honey" Pheobe slapped him gently and he awoke. "Is everyone okay" he asked as she helped him stand. "Yes" Leo said rubbing his head
"Okay, I will go through the portal and see if I can find her" "What, no we are coming with you" "No, there is no telling what kind of dimension is behind this door, it is best if I go" "He's right Pheobe, as much as I want to go, Cole is better qualified" Pheobe let out a breath and grabbed Cole, she kissed him passionately and he smiled, and then walked through the doorway.
When he emerged out the other side he knew exactly what dimension he was in. Centuries ago he had actually hunted for fun himself with Lord Deacon. He shimmered down to the village and walked into the Lord's chambers. A servant demon saw him and knelt down. "Lord Balthazar, it has been some time since you graced us" "Well, I heard that you have a charmed one here and I wanted to join the hunt" "That is correct sire, but Lord Deacon has already begun" "No matter I will find him and help" "Very good my lord" he said as Cole walked into the jungle.
CHAPTER 6
Piper couldn't run any more as the pain was too much. Natalie was trying to pull her along. "Come on Piper, he is coming" Piper saw Deacon out of the corner of her eye. He was aiming an arrow at Natalie. "Look out" she said and pushed her out of the way. Unfortunately the arrow didn't miss Piper; it went straight through her shoulder and embedded itself in a near tree. She fell down in pain. "Natalie run" Natalie grabbed the knife off Piper and stood defending her. Deacon approached them. "How touching, the humans have bonded, oh and look the little one wants to play" "Natalie please get away," Piper said trying to stand. Deacon pulled out the arrow from the tree. "These arrows were designed to penetrate demon skin, which is much tougher than human skin, I have never seen them go straight through before," he said smiling. Piper grabbed the knife off Natalie and pushed the girl behind her. Deacon pulled out his knife and advanced on Piper, the first strike against her knife sent her backwards. Deacon pushed Natalie aside so hard that she hit a tree head on and fell to the floor in a heap. "NATALIE" Deacon lunged forward but Piper blocked him.
Cole heard swords clashing and knew he had to hurry. Deacon punched Piper across the jaw sending her flying to the floor. When he got closer she used all her strength to kick his kneecap backwards. She got some satisfaction when she heard the bones break. He yelled out in pain and grabbed his leg. Piper crawled away but Deacon grabbed her ankle. They were both on the floor now. Deacon pulled her back towards him, he began to punch her bullet wound. Piper saw white spot in front of her eyes. He kept punching her over and over; Piper picked up the knife and stabbed it through his hand then collapsed back on the floor breathing heavily.
Cole appeared and saw the state Piper was in, she had a blood drenched leg and shoulder, bloody nose and split lip. Deacon didn't look good either; he had what looked like a broken leg, a bleeding nose, and a knife sticking out of his hand. Piper had put up a good fight. Cole summoned a huge energy ball and threw it at deacon. He screamed and exploded into fire. "Piper" he said running to her side. She was deathly pale and hardly conscious. Cole gently picked her up in his arms and started to walk away. "Natalie" Piper mumbled. Cole stopped and looked back. He saw a little girl crumpled at the bottom of a tree. He walked over to her and tried to lift her up. "Piper" she said as she woke up, she locked eyes with Cole and backed away from him. "It's okay, I am a friend of Piper's, come with me, and we are going home" "Home, back to my mum and dad" "Yes, take my hand, we are going to shimmer, it might make you a little dizzy" she took his hand and waited. Cole shimmered them to the doorway.
"That was so cool" she said. "Okay you go through first and I will come after you" Natalie walked through with her eyes closed.
Leo was pacing the ally, there was a loud whoosh and a little girl came out of the portal. "Hello" Leo said confused, he noticed her bleeding head. "Hi are you friends of Piper too" "Yes we are sweaty, we are her family" Paige said.
"Let me look at your head" she walked forward and Leo healed it for her.
Cole emerged a few moments later with a blood covered Piper in his arms. "Oh my god" Pheobe said. "Leo, she has just stopped breathing" Cole placed her on the floor quickly and Leo ran to her side. He started to heal her and she started to breathe again. "Where was she" Paige asked Cole. "In a very bad dimension where they hunt people for sport, she put up a good fight" Leo had managed to heal the shoulder and split lip, but he couldn't heal the bullet wound. "Leo" Pheobe asked concerned.
"Its not working, the mugger must have shot her, I cant heal this, we need to get her to a hospital now" Piper was still unconscious. "Okay sweaty, will you come with us to the hospital and then we can find you parent" "Okay" Natalie said "Is Piper going to be okay, she saved my life" Pheobe was so proud of her sister "She will be just fine" Natalie took Pheobe's hand and they orbed to the hospital.
CHAPTER 7
"How are we going to explain this, the doctors here saw her dead body several days ago" Paige asked. "I don't know, maybe we could say it was her twin" Cole said. "Well seeming as it would expose you all, I think that the elders wouldn't mind me using my memory trick and clearing out paperwork, as it is in the best interest of my charges" Leo said walking into the hospital. A jungle from the heavens gave Leo the all clear. "I need some help here," Leo shouted out A nurse came out from behind the admissions desk. "What happened"? "We were mugged and she was shot in the leg" The nurse looked at it and knew that it wasn't a recent wound; she could tell that it was infected. "When did this happen" Leo looked at her and did his magic. "Okay, lets go" she said, ignoring any questions that came into her mind. "Doctor Trent, GSW to the upper thigh, bad infection and bleeding" The doctor rushed over with a gurney and Leo and his family knew instantly that it was the same doctor that had told them Piper had died a few days ago, Leo placed her on the gurney. Leo realised that the Elders must have done his magic for him. "Okay follow me," said the doctor as he and a couple of nurses rushed her away.
"Does she have any allergies"? "No" "Any history we should no about"" "No" "Is she taking any medication at the minute"? "No"
"okay, if you would wait in the side room, I will be with you shortly" Leo and his family walked into the room that they had received the sad news in earlier on in the week. "Okay Natalie, what is your address, phone number"?
A couple of hours had passed. Piper had been to surgery and had, had the bullet removed and had several pints of blood pumped back into her. She was stitched up and put in a private room. Natalie's parents were called by Pheobe and were on the way to the hospital to pick her up. Pheobe had called Daryl to help out.
Leo walked into Piper's room. She looked a lot of a better colour than she had earlier. "Hi" he said quietly. "Oh Leo, I missed you, I see that you found me" she said reaching out to him with her arms. "And just in time, another day and you could have died" Piper pulled away from his hug and frowned "Another day, how long was I gone"? "5 days" Piper gasped "5 days, but it was only one day there" Leo kissed her on the head and Piper hugged him more tightly. "Is Natalie okay"? "She's fine, Cole got her out too" "Cole"
"yeah, he entered the dimension and got you two out" Piper smiled. "Natalie's parent will be here soon, I'm sure that they will want to talk to you, and I know that Natalie will want to say goodbye" "No problem, what shall we say to her parents, we can hardly say that she was in a demon dimension" "Don't worry about that now, just rest, Pheobe and Paige will be in, in a minute" "God Leo, I was so scared" Leo grabbed her hand tighter.
"Its okay now, your safe, I'm just glad that your alive" Piper frowned.
Pheobe and Paige walked in. "Oh it is so good to see you alive" "Okay Leo just said the same thing, did I miss something" Pheobe looked at Leo. "The demon who led you to the dimension made a clone of you, he made it look as though you had been shot in the stomach, we were told that you had died. We were planning your funeral with dad" Piper didn't know what to say. "Hence the, I'm so glad your alive, comments" Paige said trying to lighten the mood. "God, you must have been through hell all of you" Piper said with tears forming in her eyes. "Yeah well from what Natalie tells us, you were in hell" Leo said. The door opened and Cole led Natalie in the room. She ran over and jumped on the bed. Piper winced but didn't show her. "I'm so glad that you are okay, thanks Piper for saving me" "I'm just glad that you are okay, do you know guys that she stood off with a demon lord to protect me" "Wow, your one tough cookie" Pheobe said tickling her.
The door opened again and Daryl appeared. "Natalie, there are some people here that want to see you" he stepped aside and her parents ran into the room. "Mummy, Daddy" she jumped off the bed and hugged her parents. Her mother cried and hugged her little girl tightly. "Natalie, oh Natalie" she said kissing her head. "I missed you so much," said the girl crying herself. "We looked ever where, where were you?" Daryl stepped forward. "Excuse me, but she was being held by some Middle Eastern migrant workers, they wanted to sell your daughter to be a slave. This woman and man here saved her" "Thank you" said her mother standing up and shaking Cole's hand. She moved to Piper. "Thank you, are you going to be okay?" she said nodding at the bandage and machines around her.
"Yeah, I will be fine" Natalie's dad picked her up. "Well I cant that you enough" Pheobe led them out the room. "Keep in touch Piper" Natalie said as she left the room. Daryl walked out after them explaining that he would contact them if any news came of her kidnappers. Everyone knew that that call would never come.
"So I guess I missed the party, and I brought a killer dress" "The party is still on Piper, but it is now a joint get well and birthday party" Piper smiled. "Cole, Thank you" Piper said. The smile of pride on Pheobe's face did not go unnoticed by Cole. "Hey, anything for family" he said. They all smiled and Piper started to plan the extra details for her party.
THE END