Fighting fate
Part 2: Charmed Again II
A/N: This chapter has taken ages to finish... I started on it somewhere during August 2003 and got stuck after the first scene. I decided to start working on it again in April this year and finished it now. I've enjoyed writing it though and am happy that I didn't give up on it. I hope you enjoy reading it and let me know what you think. :)
It was like any other normal night. Dark and puffy clouds covered what really was a starlit night sky. The leaves on the trees moved softly as the wind blew against them, causing the hardly visible shadows on the ground to shift each time a leaf moved. In normal neighbourhoods, normal houses and normal families, parents put their children to bed. They tucked them in, read stories and then went off to bed by themselves, because tomorrow had nothing but work and the same old routine in store for them.
But in a house were nothing was normal and routine was a word that belonged in a foreign language, Prue Halliwell sat in the sitting room and flipped the pages of the Book of Shadows fanatically, almost ripping out the pages in the process. Her brows were wrinkled in a frown and her eyes read through the pages fast in concentration. Standing a few feet away from the coffee table was Paige Matthews, a few years younger than Prue and a lot more confused about what was going on. She seemed terribly uncomfortable as she watched Prue, not knowing if she should help, stay, leave or even talk. Busy with looking through the Book of Shadows, Prue didn't notice Paige standing there and had forgotten all about her.
The uncomfortable moment was interrupted when small orbs lighted up a spot in the back of the room. In a few moments Leo had orbed in, looking as confused and saddened as when he had left. Hearing the sound of the orbing, Prue got up and turned to her brother-in-law.
"What did the Elders say?" she asked, her harsh voice revealing that she wasn't in the mood for anything irrelevant that he might have to say.
"They don't know where Shax could have taken Piper," Leo answered and was just as disappointed as Prue was with the answer. The disappointment could be read in Leo's face, but Prue kept hers behind a mask of calm and determination. She turned back to the Book of Shadows and closed it before picking it up.
"Leo, you have to orb down there and try to sense her from there," Prue ordered. "I'm not losing another sister."
She didn't even have to ask. As soon as she had finished the sentence, blue orbs appeared around Leo and they swirled around him as he disappeared. Prue left the sitting room and started to head towards the stairs. Paige, who had done nothing but watched during the whole thing, gathered her courage and walked after Prue.
"Wait," she said, causing Prue to stop and turn around. Paige was about to say something, when the look in Prue's eyes made her at a complete loss of words. So much sadness, pain and suffering in her eyes that Paige recognized it. She had seen it every time she had looked into the mirror the first few months after her parents' death. Paige had never had any siblings nor did she know whether Prue was close to her sisters or not, but she could tell that the recent events was starting to take a toll on her, even if Prue didn't want to show it.
"I wanna help," Paige finally said. "That... thing was after me and I'm the one who dragged it here. If there's anything I can do..."
Prue nodded silently and Paige's words faded. She followed Prue up the stairs, still not knowing what was going on or what she was going to help with. One thing she did know was that she had stumbled into this whole mess and that she couldn't leave until everything had been resolved.
A loud explosion and a scream echoed through the dungeons. It was simply one of many that had been heard the past few hours. Everyone who had heard it had grown used to it by now, but still each time the sounds left a worried thought in the back of their minds. Another explosion was heard but this time the unfortunate demon who died did not have the chance to scream.
"Damn that witch..." a demon with dark tattoos all over him hissed. "Why can't we just kill her and get it over with?!"
The demon who was known as the leader of the small group turned to the tattooed one. Despite his rugged and quite plain appearance compared to other demons, Shax's reputation preceded him and there was no one who did not respect his power. The fact that he had killed an innocent and injured two Charmed Ones in one sweep had only heightened his status in the Underworld.
"Because..." Shax slowly said. "...the Source has ordered us not to."
"Why?!" several of the demons exclaimed.
They were all frustrated and scared despite that the great Shax was there. The witch trapped in the deepest dungeon was dangerous. She had been brought there in a state of panic and was still in it. But the panic was to her advantage whether she knew it or not. The moment a demon tried to approach her he was either blown up or frozen and then blown up.
"We have our orders!" Shax shouted at them and they backed off from him. "We are to keep her here and alive until he says otherwise! Just make sure that she doesn't escape!"
None of the other demons dared to protest against him, but they all jumped once again when a loud sound echoed through the dungeons. But this time it was not an explosion, but a desperate voice sobbing and screaming for help.
"LEO! Leo, where are you?!"
What neither Piper, Shax or the group of demons noticed was another presence in the dungeons. He was standing in the shadows, behind a protective wall and listening to all that was said. Once he had come to the conclusion that he had heard enough, Cole Turner shimmered out of the Underworld.
The crystal spun around in erratic circles, barely an inch above the large map of San Fransisco. It had been doing that for a long time, yet the spinning was constant and no magical power pulled the crystal towards a place on the map. Frustrated, Prue sighed and let go of the crystal. It bounced lightly against the map before it rolled off and fell to the floor.
"Not working?" Paige said. She was sitting on an old chair and had not dared to disturb Prue by talking.
"No... my guess is that they've taken her somewhere else... the Underworld perhaps," Prue answered and picked up the crystal. "Scrying won't help if she's there."
"Scrying?"
"Yeah... it's using a crystal to guide me towards her or at least finding out where she is," Prue explained. She left the crystal on the table and then got up to take a look at the Book of Shadows again. Even though she had gone through the entire book at least three times, she opened the book again hoping that she had missed something or that some divine, upper power would help her find something.
Paige bit her lip and got up as well. Although Prue had accepted her offer to help, it had not taken Paige long to figure out that there was not actually much that she could do. It was not like she could call the police, tell them that a freaky looking monster was after her but had kidnapped someone else instead. During the hours Leo had been gone, Prue had spent most of it in the attic trying out different way to find out where Piper was and had not said much at all.
She nervously stuck her hands in the pockets of her jacket as she looked around the attic. Like in any other normal house, it was filled with old objects, heirlooms and furniture. But amongst all those normal things were bottles of mysterious liquids, crystals, candles, various strange objects, jars containing dried herbs and a cauldron here and there. If Prue had not walked around using those things Paige doubted that she would have noticed them at all. They seemed to blend in so perfectly with all those old heirlooms and furniture that it seemed like they had always been a part of the attic.
"So... is there anything I can do?" Paige finally asked, tired of standing around and doing nothing.
Prue looked up briefly at Paige, then at a shelf of glass jars and bottles that was directly behind her.
"There's recipe for a potion here that might work..." she started but then became quiet as she saw the confused look on Paige face when the word 'Potion' was mentioned. Prue looked at Paige closely for a while, then left the book and walked towards her. "Paige... it is Paige, right? Do you have any idea what's going on? Why Shax was after you?"
"Uh... yes and... no?"
Prue let out another frustrated sigh and ran her hand through her hair. She didn't mean anything bad by it but when Paige noticed her frustration she immediately frowned and crossed her arms.
"Hey, just because you're into this whole potions-scrying-people-dissolving-into-bright-lights thing doesn't mean that I'm supposed to understand everything you're saying!" Paige protested. "People don't exactly have monsters barging into your house every..."
"Okay, I get it!" Prue cut off. "That was a demon, okay?! Assassin working for the most evil of them all. We're witches and so are you!"
The uncomfortable silence that had plagued that manor returned once again. Paige just stared at Prue as if she was not sure of what she had just heard. Frankly, Prue understood her reaction. Her mind drifted briefly to that day almost four years ago when Phoebe had told her and Piper that she had read the spell and that all of them were witches. She sighed again, but this time at herself for letting her frustration over not finding Piper get the worst of her and offending Paige.
"Look... I know it's hard to believe," Prue continued in a milder tone. She walked past Paige and picked up a few jars behind her. "I had a hard time believing it too when I first found out... and to be honest we're not even sure of exactly what you are."
"Oh, that makes it sound a whole lot better," Paige said sarcastically and turned around to face her.
"Well, I don't know what else to tell you," Prue answered. "When Piper used her power in the church I wasn't effected because I'm a witch. But you weren't either... and then you orbed..."
"...orbed?"
"It's basically like teleporting... moving from one place to another," Prue explained as she set down the jars next to a cauldron and started to work on the potion. "Orbing can only be done by whitelighters. But the thing is that Piper's powers works on whitelighter and Leo checked with the Elders and even they had no idea who you are."
The long explaination only served to raise Paige's curiousity even more since she did not fully understand what Prue was saying about all the whitelighters and Elders. But she decided not to ask more about it, at least not at the time. Prue seemed to be too focused on the potion and Paige had a feeling Prue would rather find her sister rather than to explain every word of the whole whitelighter thing to her.
"So... what is this potion going to do?"
Before Prue had the chance to answer her, a slight shift in the air was felt. A spot a few feet away from them blurred, as strange as it looked. Paige instinctively took a step back while Prue's entire body tensed. Out of the clur Cole appeared, looking just as scruffy and unruly as he had at the funeral. He gave Paige a curious look before he turned to Prue.
Not one word was exchanged between them. Prue was too busy waving her arm and flinging athames and other sharp objects at Cole while he was busy trying to dodge them. Porcelain, wood, metal and glass crashed all around the attic and left a large amount of sharp debris on the floor.
"Damn it, Prue!" Cole yelled after a few long minutes. He ducked a mirror that came flying towards him. "Would you just... listen?!"
When Prue did not show any sign of even hearing what he had said, he shimmered out of sight. Prue's hand stopped when it was half raised and she looked around the attic nervously, knowing that Cole could appear anywhere and any moment. Paige, who had more or less taken cover under the table, got up shakingly. She took a slow look at her surroundings, shocked at seeing all the debris around them. Old lamps lay shattered and books had fallen out of the bookcases. Even an old, broken doll had been unfortunate enough to be underneath a few large boxes.
"Okay... is there a cleaning spell in that big, old book of yours?" Paige joked nervously.
"He can come back any minute," Prue said, not lowering her arm and slowly walking to the center of the room. She kept turning around as if she wanted to keep her eye on every inch of the attic at the same time.
Paige looked around as well, but not for Cole. Her eyes suddenly caught sight on a large, leatherbound book that had fallen out of a box. It was not as big as the Book of Shadows and judging by the state of the book it was a lot newer. Temporarily forgetting about everything around her, Paige bent down and picked it up. After dusting it off lightly, she opened the book and was greeted by images of smiling faces.
A family album.
Looking at the pictures, Paige quickly realized that it was not that big of a family. It was always the same three faces that appeared on the pictures. Prue, Piper and a third one Paige assumed was Phoebe. The pictures were taken during different time periods and once in a while there would be an older, yet proud looking woman in the pictures. There was also another woman who was in a few pictures. She had a kind, gentle face but she never appeared in any pictures other than those of the three sisters as children.
A small feeling of sadness entered Paige as she looked at the woman and knowing that this woman was probably Patty Halliwell, the one who she had suspected to be her biological mother. Patty Halliwell had been dead for many years, a fact that Paige had picked up during the time when she had desperately searched for her biological parents. Even though Paige knew that it was not her mother, seeing those pictures stirred up emotions inside her and she quickly turned to the next page.
The first picture that caught her attention was one of the three sisters standing in front of the house, probably the manor. Judging by the looks of it the picture was probably a few years old. All three sisters were smiling at the camera and Paige wondered briefly if they had any idea how things were going to end up. One sister dead and a chaotic web of magic and demons. Her fingertips touched the glossy surface of the picture and the part where Piper stood...
And then it happened.
She gasped, cold air entering her and filling her lungs. The area around her was quickly replaced by another. It happened so fast that she could not tell when the transition had happened.
Everything around her was made of stone. Stone wall, stone floor, stone doors... all lit up and colored red by torches that never stopped to burn. She felt dizzy by looking at the shadows dancing all around her. She heard a scream. It was not one of anger but one of great pain and desperation. The scream was calling for some. Crying. She spun and saw a figure half sitting and half lying on the floor, crying as she screamed names that no one else heard.
Piper.
Paige snapped out of it almost as fast as she had gone into it. She saw the picture of the three sisters and the family album felt heavy in her arms. Looking up, she saw that she was still in the attic, amongst all the debris and with Prue on the other side. It felt as if she had not left the attic at all. But what was it that she had seen and how had it happened?
Prue seemed to have noticed that something was wrong as well, because she dropped her guard and quickly hurried over to Paige's side.
"What's wrong, what happened?" she asked, helping Paige sit down on a couch that had been spared.
"I..." Paige started but she was not sure of how to express herself. The family album slid out of her hands and fell onto her knees. "I... touched the picture and I think I saw something."
In the corner of her eyes she saw what looked like a frown on Prue's face. Not one of irritation or frustration, but one of thinking and almost concern. It was an unusual combination of motherly and sisterly and Paige wondered briefly whether she had looked at Phoebe the same way too.
"A premonition," Prue corrected with a hint of sadness in her voice. "Tell me what you saw."
"It wasn't much, but..." Paige started but she was cut off by a third voice.
"Will you listen to me now?! Piper is in trouble!"
Both Prue and Paige were startled upon hearing the voice, Paige drawing a quick breath and Prue practically jumping. Instinctively she raised her hand again as she turned around to face Cole, who had now shimmered back into the attic. He was holding his hands almost raised, as if trying to make Prue see that he was not going to fire any energy balls at her any time soon. Prue's first thought was to telekinetically throw something at him again, but the words he had said had had an effect on her. She looked at Cole closely, as if thinking hard about whether to attack him or not.
"Where is she?" Prue finally said, her eyes narrowing slightly as she took one step towards Cole.
"In the Underworld," Cole scowled, clearly irritated at Prue's suspiciousness.
"She's scared," Paige unexpectedly filled in. Both Cole and Prue turned around and looked at her, making Paige feel a little insecure. For a moment she actually doubted that she had seen something after touching the photo. "I... I think I saw in my... whatever it was called. She's trapped in a dungeon or something... and she's calling for someone before no one's coming."
Prue looked so relieved and thankful that she could have walked over there and given Paige a hug. But instead of doing that she gave a small nod of sincere gratitude, before walking over to the Book of Shadows and starting to flip the pages again. Paige felt relieved as well, whatever she had said seemed to have been good.
"She's alive, thank God..." Prue said quietly. "Okay, I know I saw a teleportation spell somewhere..."
"The Source has Shax and dozens of other demons guarding her," Cole pointed out. "I don't think you can't just go in and..."
"You know what, Cole?!" Prue snapped angrily, looking up from the book briefly to glare at him. "No one here cares what you think. I'm going to get Piper back and..."
She was cut off by the familiar sounds of someone orbing into the manor. The bright lights lit up portions of the attic briefly before materializing back into Leo. If it was anyone who looked tired, it was him. It wasn't just obvious in his eyes and face, but also at his overall appearance. He had not changed out of the clothes he had worn at the funeral and they had become wrinkly and dirty since.
The grandfather clock in the hallway suddenly struck one and alerted them all of the fact that it had been two full hours since Shax had appeared and taken Piper away.
"I found her, she's..." Leo started quickly.
"In the Underworld," Prue finished and started to look very tired too. "Yeah, we know. What I need to know is exactly what kind of demons are guarding her and how many of them."
Leo looked at Paige and Cole dumbly, wondering how Prue had already gotten all the information before his return. But asking was a waste of time, time that flew away while Piper was trapped in the Underworld. Instead of asking Leo walked over to Prue and started the flip through the pages of the book himself. It didn't take long before he had identified almost all of the demons he had seen guarding Piper in the Underworld.
"I think that was one was there... at least two Grimlocks and there was a darklighter too."
"Okay..." Prue said, nodding slowly. "We need to get started on vanquishing potions and spells. Leo, you get started with this one. I'll do the Grimlock vanquishing potions and find the spells."
"Got it," Leo answered, quickly copying down the ingridients for the potion on a small sheet of paper before heading downstairs.
As soon as he was gone, Cole shimmered away without as much as a single word. Prue didn't seem to care much about it. She had gone back to the cauldron and was already trying to finish the potions she had started on. It became quiet again, save for the sound of the wooden spoon scraping against the cauldron bottom when Prue stirred the potion.
Paige sat down on the old chair again, finding nothing else to do. She began to wonder what in the world she was doing there at the Halliwell manor. First she almost been killed, miracolously escaped from her apartment and then run all the way there. Now she was in the middle of the planning of this whole rescue mission. Things had surely become strange and twisted since the moment she had walked out of the office to attend the funeral. But the fact that she still did not know what was going on lingered inside her and sitting in the chair doing nothing was not helping anyone at all.
"Paige..." Prue said slowly, too busy with the potion to look at her. "Could you look up how much chisandra root I need? I've marked the recipe in the book, it's in there between the harpies and the kill Nicholas spell."
"Yeah..." Paige answered and got up willingly. She walked over to the book and started to look for the recipe. As she briefly caught sight of detailed information on a necromancer who liked Clark Gable movies and lamb chops for dinner, she truly smiled for the first time that day at the bizarreness of it all.
Unknown to both Prue and Paige, Cole had not shimmered out of the manor when Leo had left the attic. Instead he had followed him and shimmered down to the kitchen, where he now spoke to Leo while Leo was working on the potion.
"It's a trap," Cole said as he was pacing back and forth around the kitchen. "The Source wants to lure you there by using Piper."
"I know," Leo answered. "So does Prue, but we can't leave Piper there. I'm not going to let her die!"
"I'm not saying that!" Cole snarled, clearly offended by the last few words Leo had spoken. "But there's something else going on that you don't know anything about! Why do you think Shax attacked at the funeral?!"
"To get rid of the Charmes ones... those that are left! Why else?!" Leo almost yelled and angrily threw a pinch of mysterious black powder into the pot. Cole took a deep breath and calmed down slightly. He then stopped pacing and leaned lightly against the kitchen table.
"Not in the way you think."
Leo looked up at Cole, wondering what he was talking about. He was just about to ask when Paige came walking into the kitchen. Her face had a look of confusion, as if she had just gotten lost and was about to ask for directions. But once she noticed that she had actually ended up in the kitchen here face lit up slightly.
"Took ages to find my way here..." she chuckled and Leo made a good attempt to smile back at her in return. Cole simply stood silently in the shadows. "Ah... Prue sent me down here to get something..." She suddenly made an awkward face. "...I think she said frog tongues?"
"Oh, it's over there," Leo told and pointed at a plastic bag he had taken out of the freezer just a few minutes ago. Paige walked a little closer to it to take a better look. Once she discovered that the frog tongues literally were what they were called, she made a disgusted look on her face.
"Oh... would you look at that..." she said lightly and spoke as if to convince herself. "Real frog tongues. Nice and frozen. Well, I'll just be going back to the attic... with the frog tongues."
Paige pinched the plastic with her forefinger and her thumb, careful not to hold the bag too close to her, and slowly walked out of the kitchen. Once the sound of her footsteps were gone and she had headed up the stairs, Cole spoke again.
"Who is she?"
"Paige?" Leo said. "She's a... actually, we don't know what she is and neither does. We're guessing that she's a whitelighter or a witch but not even the Elders know what she is. She was chased here by Shax..."
"Exactly," Cole finished smugly. Leo looked at him in a mix of confusion and curiousity.
"What do you mean?"
"I heard a few rumors while I was down there," Cole told and absentmindedly started play with an apple. "Shax was sent out to kill Paige, not Prue and Piper. It's just a coincidence that she happened to be at Phoebe's..." He looked pained at his own mention of her name and was silent for a few seconds. "The point is, the Source views Paige as a threat, especially now that she's met Prue and Piper. A threat that he had thought that he had disposed off."
Leo suddenly looked up at Cole, causing him to accidently spill some of the potion on the stove as he was trying to pour it into small vials. As he was nervously trying to wipe it off with a dig rash he although pushed over the vials as well. Once he considered himself done with cleaning up, leaving potion spots that would make Piper go crazy, he looked up at Cole again.
"You mean the Power of Three...?"
"Yeah."
Had it not been for the crisis, Paige thought that Prue might have been very proud at herself for mixing up so many potions and writing those spells in just one hour. Not that Paige had known Prue long enough to draw that conclusion. But by the way Prue did most of the things herself without asking anyone for help she got the impression that Prue was a proud person.
After what had seemed like a long hour, the preparations were finally complete. All the potions had been made and the spells written. They were all lined up on the table in the attic waiting to be used. Prue started to pack all the vials into a messenger bag, one that she would carry with her since holding all the vials was not really an option. Leo had left his on the table as well and when he had emerged from the kitchen Cole had silently tagged along, much to Prue's unspoken annoyance.
"You got all the spells?" Leo asked.
"Yeah," Prue answered and pointed at the table. "Over there by the book."
Leo walked over to the table where the Book of Shadows had been left often. Just next to the page with Shax's vanquishing spell was a sheet of paper with all the vanquishing spells that Prue had written down. He grabbed it and handed it over to Prue, who folded it neatly before putting it in the bag.
"Okay, just something before we go," she said and turned to Leo once she was done. "As soon as we get there, orb out and find Piper. I'll take care of the demons and try to distract them."
"But that would leave you al..." Leo began to protest.
"Leo, if you get hit by the darklighter we won't have a chance at all to get out of there," Prue reminded sternly. "Now, I'll hold them off for as long as I can. When you've gotten Piper, I need you to take her back here safely and then go back for me... is that clear?"
It seemed obvious to everyone else in the attic that it was not. Leo was looking extremely doubtful about it. It was his wife they were going to save and he wanted to save her just as much as Prue wanted to but what Prue was suggesting was simply dangerous. But this was Prue and once she had made up her mind there was no arguing about it. He nodded solemnly.
"Okay, let's go," Prue ordered and took Leo's hand. "Orb us down."
"Hey!" Paige suddenly exclaimed and stepped towards them. "What about me?"
"You stay here," Prue said in the same commanding voice as when she had spoken to Leo. "It's too dangerous down there and Shax will be there too."
"But... I wanna help," Paige said, thoroughly frustrated but not wanting to give up. She gave Prue a pleading look and for a moment Prue almost looked regretful.
"You can't... I'm sorry. Leo?"
Paige opened her mouth to protest again but by then both Leo and Prue had orbed out of sight. She rolled her eyes once they were gone and put her hands on her hips. Without knowing it, she then started to pace back and forth just like Prue had done before. Occasionally she let out a frustrated and irritated sigh. Cole watched her for a while.
So this was the girl the Source feared so much. She was normal, average. Looking at her there was nothing that really set her apart from any other human. Yet some weird twist of fate had caused her to end up as Shax target and had brought her to the Charmed Ones. The ones that remained. Cole forced himself to push the thought of Phoebe aside, now was not the time for him to dwell on her.
"You want to help them?" he asked, almost startling Paige after the long silence.
"Well, yeah," Paige answered, surprised that he even needed to ask. "I know there's not much I can do but..."
"Fair enough," Cole cut off. "Let's go."
Paige stopped and turned to him, giving him a curious stare.
"How are we supposed to follow them?" she asked.
"Easy, I'll shimmer both of us down there," Cole explained, demostrating quickly as he shimmered out and then reappared two feet away from his original position. "Wanna get going now?"
Paige looked truly interested in what he had just done and did not hesitate at all. She moved towards him but suddenly stopped as she caught sight of the Book of Shadows. It was still lying on the table where Prue had left it, open and with the illustration of Shax glaring menacingly back at her. For some reason Paige took a long look at the vanquishing spell next to the illustration. She only needed to read through it twice before it had embedded itself in her mind. After that, she walked towards Cole again and stood next to him.
"I'm ready, take me down... there," she said, pausing for a moment in order to try to imagine the place they were going to. Cole simply shrugged and extended his hand to Paige but she merely gave him a weird look. It almost made him chuckle when he remembered the first time Prue had to shimmer with him.
"You have to hold my hand," Cole said, using the exact same words he had used back then.
Paige gave him another weird look but she complied, although felt a little awkward doing so. They moment she put her hand in his, both their figures blurred briefly before they vanished from the manor.
A fireball flew by her, narrowly missing her ear, and struck a demon who had been unfortunate enough to stand directly behind her. The air suddenly smelled of burnt, a few of her hair strands had been touched by the fireball. But Prue was too busy to even think of it. She was engaged in a fight with the very demon who had thrown the fireball.
One punch to his face, another to his face again from her left fist and then she spun around and landed a kick right across his face, striking it for the third time in a few seconds. This was a good enough distraction. The second the demon had fallen to the floor she raised her arm, sending him flying up in the air. When she let go of her telekinetic hold on him, he dropped face first to the ground.
Turning around, Prue had just enough time to reach into her bag before two other demons came running towards her. Once she felt the right vial in her hand, she drew it out of the bag and threw it to the ground. As soon as the vial left her hand she turned around and threw herself as far away as she could. A moment later the vial broke against the floor and a heavy smoke emerged from it. The smoke quickly formed a thick curtain, seperating the demons from her.
Although it was temporary and would not last that long, it allowed her a few precious moments to stand up and observe her surroundings. Her chest heaved up and down rapidly. Looking around to her left, she saw two more demons who looked way too enthusiastic about attacking her. There were four other to her right, also looking for a chance to attack but they were positioned a little further away. Prue took one deep breath and instinctively chose to attack the demons before they attacked her. Her only thought was to fight, fight and vanquish. She had to keep them out of the way, she had to distract them.
There was too much at stake.
And she kept hoping for Leo to hurry up.
Despite Prue's effort to lure as many of the demons to her, the dungeon Piper was kept in was still heavily guarded. Leo peered at the guards from his hiding place behind a wall. There were five of them, one of them a darklighter of all things. Had Leo been a man to act with his mind as reason he would have retreated and gone back to Prue to replan their strategy. But it was his heart that was in control and at the moment Piper mattered more than the risk of getting shot by a darklighter.
Backing a little more into his hiding place, Leo closed his eyes and concentrated. A wave of warmth passed through him, leaving tingling sensations in his entire body. When those sensations quickly faded into nothing, he opened his eyes. His entire appeareance had been changed. Looking at his hands, he saw that they had become larger and that his skin had acquired a bizarre shade of blue. He was no longer dressed in the wrinkly and dusty funeral suit but in a set of torn and old clothes. His hair had grown much longer. Although Leo could not see it, his face had changed as well. Feeling satisfied with the transformation, Leo left his hiding place and boldly walked up to the demonic guards.
As soon as they saw him, they seemed to look both relieved and relaxed, but at the same time very respectful of him. One of them even bowed when he approached them.
"I've come for the witch," Leo spoke, not in his own voice. It was much darker, fuller... and it belonged to Shax.
"But wasn't the order to keep her here and watch..." the darklighter started.
"I know the orders!" Leo snapped and hoped that he looked frightening and intimidating enough. "But her sister is here and she will come here looking for her! I have orders from the Source himself to move her to another place!"
The guards exchanged a look, then quickly stepped aside for him. A million outcries could not have expressed Leo's relief enough. But he kept up his act and quickly walked past the guards and into a dark pssage. He did not have to walk far to see where it lead. Only a minute or two later he stood before the entrance to a dungeon. The doors had been blown up, as well as portions of the walls. There was dust and blood all over the floor, the only remains of dozens of demons.
Leo cautiously looked over his shoulder and, once he was certain that no one would discover it, the glamour faded away and he reverted back to his usual self. He moved quietly towards blown up door and carefully stepped over it and into the dungeon. At first he did not see anyone there but on a second look he spotted Piper huddled together in a corner. Upon seeing her he could not help but to smile in relief and he immediately ran into the dungeon.
"Piper!"
Piper looked up when she heard her name and discovered Leo coming towards her. At first she didn't move, as if afraid that he wasn't real. But when Leo finally approached her and drew her protectively into an embrace she weakly hugged him back.
"I was so scared..." she murmured between sobs. "I called for you and you didn't come..."
"It's okay now, it's okay," Leo assured, tightening his hold on her a little. "I'm gonna get you out of here now. But we can't orb... there's a spell. I have to get you out of there disguised as Shax."
"Where's Prue?" Piper asked when she realized that Leo had come alone.
"She's distracting some of the demons that are guarding you," Leo told. "We have to get her and then we'll all orb out of here."
Piper nodded and got up on her feet with Leo's help. Two minutes later she came out of the dark passage, dragged out of there by Leo who had glamoured into Shax again. The demons scowled as they caught sight of her and all of them looked very tempted to finish her off then and there. But fear of Shax and orders from the Source held them back, something that Leo was grateful for. Piper was in no state to fight and Leo had little powers who could be useful.
They had almost made it out of the area. They had just been three steps away and out of sight. Three steps from safety. But a chill was felt throughout the dark corridor, felt by all the demons, Leo and Piper.
A chill that meant the arrival of the real Shax.
It seemed like there was no end to them. Prue had fought them off to the best of her ability and yet they showed no sign of backing down or increasing in numbers. Her shoulder hurt from being thrown into the wall twice and she was sure that there was a bleeding wound somewhere because there were large dark red stains on her shirt.
With her frustration and anger growing, she felt all her energy gather at her fingertips. The new wave of attacking demons were thrown back at least thirty feet as Prue held out both hands in front of her. Wasting no time, Prue closed her eyes and focused hard. She felt an odd sensation of being removed from of where she was and a moment later she had astral projected right in front of the demons.
She instinctively grabbed the nearest demon by his horns, who had not even gotten up after being thrown back by her. Holding on to the horns, she delivered three quick kicks into his stomach before throwing him aside. Returning to her physical body, Prue immediately stuck her hand into her bag of potions and pulled up five random bottles. Using telekinesis, she sent them flying towards the group of demons and as they broke against the floor, a huge explosion occurred and the shockwave made Prue trip and lose her balance.
At that very moment, she was no longer alone.
Cole and Paige appeared out of nowhere right next to Prue and she almost threw another random vial at them, thinking that they were demons. Cole looked curiously at the burning inferno that the demons had become.
"And here we were thinking that you could use our help," he muttered.
Paige paid no attention to him and instead she walked over to Prue and helped her up on her feet. Prue shot Paige what seemed like a glare, although a part of her looked relieved.
"What are you doing here?" she asked Paige sternly.
"I thought that I could... you know, help," Paige answered and looked at the fires over her shoulder. "Not that you actually needed it... but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?"
She managed to smile nervously at Prue.
"Let's get out of here before more of them come," Prue ordered and dug into her bag. She then handed over about five different vials to Paige. "Here, take these and throw them the moment you see a demon."
"Got it," Paige confirmed and followed Prue who confidently walked away.
Cole let Prue lead the way although he knew it perfectly himself. He followed her as well, hands in his trenchcoat. But they had hardly walked for a minute before they heard footsteps from around the corner. Prue stopped and waved for Paige and Cole to do the same. All three of them pressed themselves against the wall, making themselves as less visible as possible.
The footsteps became louder, whoever they belonged to they were coming closer. Prue tightened the grip on her vial, her heart pounding fast. What kind of demons were coming this time? She slowly began to count down.
Three.
Two.
One!
Prue saw the shadows move on the floor and rushed forth. She was just about throw down the vials when she discovered that the ones who had come around the corner were none other than Piper and Leo. For a few seconds Prue was completely shocked. Piper was supporting Leo and had half dragged him as he had walked. She saw Prue and her injures and became equally shocked.
"Piper..." Prue whispered, cover the distance between her and her sister in two long steps. She threw her arms around Piper and held her tightly. "Thank God, you're alright... you are alright, right?
"Yeah, but Leo's not," Piper answered as Prue drew back. Her voice trembled as she spoke, not only was it out of fear of losing a sister but also her husband. "We have to get out of here now. Leo's hurt."
Looking at Leo, Prue concluded that he must have taken many hits and fireballs. He suffered from a few burnts and his face was torn up after taking too many punches. There was no doubt in that Leo was in no state to orb himself out of the Underworld, much less orbing everyone else with him.
"Shax..." Leo suddenly whispered. Prue's eyes widened.
"What?"
"He's... here..."
The moment Leo finished the sentence they all felt it. The chill. It was like a warning to them, a warning for someone that they could not defeat or escape. Prue instinctively pushed Piper and Paige behind her as she kept looking around and tried to foresee where the danger would come from.
"Piper, Paige... get back," she said slowly, struggling to sound calm.
Cole took a step forth and raised his hand slightly. Energy gathered in his palm, shaping itself into a glowing sphere as he stood, watched and waited for Shax. After that, no one moved or spoke. All was quiet and calm. But the chill was still there, lingering, and everyone could hear their own hearts pounding rapidly.
Then suddenly Cole turned around and the next moment he had been thrown back into the corridor where they had came frm. He clutched his stomach, where one of Shax's grey energy balls had struck him full force. Prue only had the chance to cast a quick look at him before she felt herself being lifted from the ground by some invisible force. The wind started to blow furiously around her, making her hair whip at her face and her eyes feel try. She kept them open long enough to see Shax standing a few feet away from her, before she was careless thrown aside and into the wall.
The fear pumping and growing inside Paige was further fuel by Shax's sudden appearance. He was there, he had taken out both Prue and Cole in less than a minute. Her heart pounded so fast and so loud that it seemed to ring in her ears. Blood rushed to her face, reddening her cheeks. Her body trembled and she instinctively backed against the wall. She was afraid, she did not want to be but she was.
But that fear caused the same tingling sensations she had felt earlier in the church to return. Her body felt sizzling and light for a few moments, before she dissolved into blue orbs and disappeared.
In the corner of her eyes Piper saw it happening, Paige orbing out of sight. She did not care whether it was intentional or not, but panic rose inside her as she found herself staring right at Shax as he slowly dragged his way towards her. Piper opened her mouth, perhaps to speak or scream but not a single sound escaped from her. She held on to Leo tightly, for both his and her own sake. Shax seemed to walk slowly towards her, as if trying to scare and taunt her by going that slow.
I'm not letting him hurt Leo or Prue, I can't! Piper thought.
Lacking confidence but full of determination she dared to remove one hand from Leo. The other one still supported Leo, who could still barely stand. She took a deep breath and noticed how much her entire body was shaking out of fear. Shax was less than ten feet away when he stopped and started to raise his hand. Instinctively Piper raised hers fast and flicked it.
Through the light sound of the wind blowing all around the corridor, a far more disturbing one was heard. A piece of flesh lay on the floor in a puddle of dark blue blood. When Piper dared to look she saw that Shax was kneeling on the floor, clutching his right arm that was bleeding and half of it had been blown off. Normally, she would have looked away in disgust but in that situation she preferred Shax's arm being blown off him rather than the opposite.
In a flash of blue orbs Paige suddenly reappeared again, this time standing behind Shax. She looked around, half confused about where she had ended up but as she saw Shax again she did not hesitate. Instead of letting fear take over her again she forced herself to stay exactly where she was.
"Evil wind... evil..." she started, trying desperately to remember the spell in the book. "Evil wind that blows, that of which forms below! No longer will you... dwell, death takes you with this spell!"
Piper stared at her, her only thought being that Paige had been silly enough to try the spell. It wouldn't work. Even if it did it would never even come close to actually putting a stop to Shax. He was too powerful and without the Power of Three she and Prue could not vanquish him. But just as that fact, that unquestionable fact, came to her mind she saw Shax dropping to his knees again after trying to get up on his feet. The spell, even though it was cast by Paige, had had some effect on him. Piper looked up and turned to Prue, who had slowly pulled herself up on her feet. Her eyes were focused on Shax and slowly she started to chant the spell as well.
"Evil wind that blows..."
"...that of which forms below," Piper joined in, almost without knowing it. There was a third voice as well and when Piper looked at Paige she saw that she was chanting as well. All three of them chanted together with powerful voices. Shax suddenly let out a loud roar, as he was trapped in the center of a triangle between Prue, Piper and Paige.
"No longer will you dwell, death takes you with this spell!"
Already on the floor, Shax was twitching and screaming. When the last word of the spell was pronounced, he let out one, final cry of pain before his entire body seemed to twist into bizarre forms. Suddenly he burst into billions of pieces in forms of dust, shattering his very essence and being around the corridor.
The wind stopped blowing and all was silent.
The sun had risen and set over the Halliwell manor since their return. Prue stood in the kitchen, taking care of all the dishing they had neglected to do. They had returned to the manor at dawn and gone to sleep shortly after all the wounds had been tended to and Paige sent home to her apartment. But Prue was not one to sleep long and by noon she was already up and walking around the manor. Doing the dishes was not something that she had neglected without a purpose, but they gave her a task she could finish while silently reflecting on what had happened.
As unbelievable as it was, it had only been thirty hours since Phoebe's funeral. So many things had happened since then that it seemed unbelievable that they had just buried a sister. In a way it was unreal... that Phoebe was gone and all that was left of her was a simple and modest grave in the cemetery. There was nothing simple or modest about Phoebe.
"Wow... you're actually doing the dishes. I'm impressed."
Prue turned off the water tap and looked over her shoulder, finding Piper standing in the doorway. Upon seeing her sister, she forced herself to give her a faint smile. Piper tried to smile back in return, but it was not that convincing. After washing her hands clean, Prue walked over to Piper and put her arm around her shoulder. Piper said nothing and the two remaining Halliwell sisters walked into the conservatory.
"You've been up long?" Piper asked casually as they both sat down.
"A while," Prue answered. "I couldn't really sleep."
Piper just nodded and looked down, studying her own hands. A comfortable kind of silence settled between the two sisters, both of them extremely deep into their own thoughts and memories. At the same time the silence seemed extremely out of place for them. There was so much to be said but none of them knew where to start. Most of all, there was not a third sister in the room to start the conversation.
"Rough day... don't you think?" Piper said after a while.
"Talk about it," Prue agreed. "Just glad it's all over now."
"Piper? Prue?"
It was Leo's voice, calling for them from one of the rooms in the manor.
"We're here!" Piper called.
Moments later Leo came walking into the conservatory. After the battle with Shax, Leo had been injured enough that he could hardly stand. The rest, however, seemed to have restored him to his usual strength. But the wounds that he had carried, the bleeding on his face, the places where he had been burnt... they were all vanished. Both Piper and Prue looked curiously at him.
"Leo, did you heal yourself?" Prue asked.
"Ah... no," Leo replied, half smiling. "I went up there a few minutes ago and a whitelighter saw it and decided to do me a favor."
"Up there?" Piper repeated, a clear hint of disapproval in her voice. "What were you doing there?"
Leo opened his mouth to answer, but just as he was about to he closed it. It was apparent that he was nervous, because he boyishly stuck his hand into his pockets and stood there for a while without saying a word. Then he pulled out his hands and decided to sit down instead. All this time he had a look on his face that clearly revealed that he was thinking about how he was going to word his answer.
"I went to talk to the Elders," Leo began. "About something that Cole told me."
"Cole?" Prue called out in disbelief, as if shocked to hear that anyone would even listen to Cole.
"Yeah... he told me something that I didn't think about... that neither of us could have thought of. It's about Paige."
"What does Paige have to do with Cole?"
"It's not what Paige has to do with Cole, but what she has to do with you," Leo answered to Piper's question. He became silent again and tried to desperately think of a good way to break the news to his wife and sister-in-law. It was only when Piper's irritation at his silence became too obvious in her eyes that Leo decided on how to speak. "Don't you wonder why the Source and Shax lured you to the Underworld?"
"To kill us," Prue stated. "Isn't that obvious?"
"But the Source had the Charmed Ones and the Power of Three out of the way," Leo explained. "There was no reason for him to fear it anymore. Going after you two alone and even sending Shax and so many demons on it would be a waste of time to him. There's someone missing in the whole scheme."
Prue frowned as the realization of what was truly going on struck suddenly her.
"Paige..." she whispered. "He was after Paige and us."
Leo nodded briefly, confirming what she had just said.
"That's why I went up and talked to the Elders," he continued. "They think... that it's possible that the Charmed Ones might have been reconstituted."
Piper flinched upon hearing the last few words. She looked at both Prue and Leo, as if trying to decide whether she had actually imagined everything or if it was real. After looking back and forth several times, she knew that her hearing had not been mistaken. Still, the first thought that came to her was one of denial.
"Wait," Piper unexpectedly said. "Are you saying that Paige is a new... Charmed One?"
Leo looked down, not wanting to face his wife interrogating and hurt eyes. He could guess that Prue was looking at him the same way. The news came as a shock to them, he knew that. But there was one more important thing to tell and he was not sure how badly they would react to it. Finally, when Leo had gathered as much courage as he could, he raised his gaze and looked at both Piper and Prue.
"I think... it's more than that. I think she's your sister."