Sorry for the delay. This's a long one. Enjoy and as always review it. ===================================================
Downstairs in the sitting room, a large fire had been made inside the fireplace. A few small touch lamps around the room were on, but the room was still obscured more in shadow.
The fire's flames created wavering shadows over the room surrounding it in a fever of mystery that covered its three occupants.
Phoebe sat on the couch gingerly sipping a freshly brewed cup of blackberry tea, and Paige sat on the alternate edge of one of the couch's arms with her arms crossed over her chest and her attention drawn to a shard of deadly looking wood beside her foot on the white carpet. Piper was going to have a spaz attack after she saw the room.
There was a small silence in the room. It was as if they all had chosen that very moment to contemplate what had happened between them.
Somehow it seemed like too much had happened in just one day to be real.
It was so silent that they all were awakened from their thoughts by a jarring honk that came from outside of the house. Their heads came up together and looked towards the window. None of them got up though. The outside was tame compared to what had happened between them so far that day.
Phoebe took another sip of her tea and looked around the room. She looked at Paige who raised her eyebrows as if to say 'well'. Phoebe gave her a glare. She didn't know what to do or say. This was all too weird.
She couldn't think of anything to even break the silence with as she watched Victoria.
Victoria walked around slowly letting the room sink in around her. She looked at the one big window leading into the front yard and the three doors to other rooms of the house. One led to the front door hallway, the other the room before the kitchen, and the last to the solarium. If she had to- if they had only tricked her into saving their precious nephew- she would use the closest exit as soon as possible.
She stopped beside the couch and table that held pictures of the family. Victoria slowly picked up a picture of the three sisters together. Each were smiling their own smile that framed their personalities at the camera.
Phoebe had a firm arm around her sister Piper with a giant warm smile directed at the camera and another arm around Paige. It looked as if she'd been trying to block Paige from seeing the camera. Paige was swatting her hand away and laughing hysterically in the picture with her hair swept along in the breeze. Piper was smiling confidently at the camera.
She was the one the camera was centered on.
Whoever had taken the picture had only had eyes for her because they had caught in her the very thing that kept her going. Her love for her sisters shone in her eyes as she smiled brilliantly at the camera.
Victoria smiled slightly. It was more of a grim line that parted over her deep red lips. She barely realized that she'd been doing it.
She'd had many pictures taken of sister and herself. They were in an album somewhere among the police tape and dead bodies at home.
She could remember the last picture that they'd taken together.
It had been after her father had been remarried to her stepmother.
She'd been thirteen and her sister fifteen. Her grandmother had let them down slowly that day. She'd waited till the end to tell them that she was dying of cancer.
They'd been to the graveyard. Her stepmother had drug them along for their annual grave rubbings anniversary that she decided to keep up in memory of their mother. Alexis had hated being there. She'd always hated anything relating to death.
Alexis had wanted to go to some local concert of her friend's brother's band instead, but their stepmother had told her she couldn't. Instead, she'd had to come along with her stepmother and younger sister to a graveyard of all places because they hadn't had enough 'quality time. Just the three of them' like their grandmother had said.
They'd talked about death that day.
It had been one of the only days that her sister had even briefly admitted its existence. She'd usually just claimed she'd live forever and that would be that. But that day, that day was the day that Alexis had been willing to give in and accept the inevitable.
Her words still haunted her as Victoria's hands shook as she held onto the frame for dear life and sanity.
"Death is like a car That disappears around a curve, Or like an ancient custom
That we've failed to preserve. The car continues going Even though we cannot see,
And the custom just remains Itself, outside of memory. Death is a relation
To a certain time and place" she'd said. Then, she'd added the poets name. "Nicholas Gordon."
Right after her sister had told her that, her stepmother had taken the picture of them together rubbing the hell out of an old graves remnants.
She'd had a surprised.. Shocked even look in the picture, but her sister had looked perfectly calm and collected. It had been her grandmother's favorite picture. When their grandmother had died the picture had disappeared.
Her sister had been right about death. It took her with it around the bend in the road as well as it had taken everyone else that she loved. Her family. Her friends.
Mark.
Victoria felt sick. It wasn't for what she had lost though. She felt sick because she was hollow inside. It was as if all the people that had died had taken a piece of her with them. She barely felt alive or caring or feeling even. She felt hollow. She felt an indifference to life that was scolding her heart.
Her sister, the one who had never believed in death, was now lying on the ground dead. Her life had been snuffed out like a candles flame. The only person that had been there for her her whole life, who knew her more then she had ever wanted anyone else to was dead.
Shut up, Victoria. She told herself calmly, this will all be over soon. Whether by the Charmed Ones actually saving her or else by her untimely, inevitable death. She had to be strong for the time being. If there wasn't a chance for her then she would leave.
As she stood there in the darkly lit sitting room, she shook off the only thing she had felt since her revenge and hatred for her enemy had taken over. She shook of the fatigue that came with knowing that she was a rat in a cage. Her life and death experiment was simply almost over.
She smiled bitterly at the thoughts boiling inside her sleep deprived mind. They were taking too long. They probably had no way to save her and were trying to find another way. She just wished they'd show themselves and tell her already.
If she were to die she wanted to be alone. At least, she would have the choice and simple luxury of being able to die in her sleep. She laughed bitterly in the quiet room. It was the only sound amongst the darkness.
She put the picture down on the table in its rightful place. She wondered where her rightful place was. Dead? Alive? Limbo? Heaven or hell? Or maybe she was simply meant to be cursed forever and lost inside the never ending pain of loss and sadness.
She turned back to Phoebe and Paige as they watched her suspiciously. She didn't blame them. She would have done the same.
They were her new allies for the moment. Surprisingly, she felt more trust for them then she had ever expected to feel for someone in her life. Perhaps it was because she was going to die and they were quite simply the only chance she had.
How wonderful.
She shivered in the cold breeze that clung to her side and swept up inside her bones. She could feel the presence of death in the room following her everywhere she went. She couldn't see him though. But he reminded her every chance he had that her time was running out.
She hoped death was a he. Otherwise, if he/she/it could read minds it would be pissed with her assumptions.
She shook the cold from her still breathing, warm body and looked at the sisters. It must be nice to not know when you were going to die. It must be nice to have a get out of jail free card to death because you had a white lighter.
"You're all so close," she said softly barely realizing she had said what she'd been thinking.
The Charmed Ones.
She had to admit it was ingenious to make them sisters. Not only were they bonded by magic, but also by blood. The only way to ruin their bond was by death, but they were too powerful to die. Not to mention the fact that they had many white lighters in their family.
The only other way to break their bond to kill them was to make them go against one another. Interesting, she thought as she slid into a chair facing the fireplace with half her pale face concealed in shadow. If they chose to deceive her and she survived their deception then she would use her last moments alive to destroy the power of three if she had to.
"Yeah, sisterly bonds. Gotta love them," Paige said, smiling.
Paige was still slightly creeped out by how Victoria was acting. Of course, if she were cursed to die in every lifetime she had then she sure as hell would probably be acting the same way. Just in case, Paige decided that she'd have to keep a close eye on her for the time being.
"I did." Victoria replied, leaning as far back in the chair as possible. She could feel her emotions surfacing and she didn't want to show them to the Charmed Ones. She wanted to keep them to herself. There was no way that she could let them see a weakness if she were going to try to survive.
She wasn't fooling herself. If they did successfully save her she knew there would be too many unanswered questions. If they saved her from the curse ever impacting her life again then they could easily try to vanquish her in this life. They didn't know who's side she was actually on. She wasn't willing to choose either.
She was on her own side. Hopefully, that side would win and she would survive and be left alone.
She doubted it.
The minute they figured a way to stop the curse from harassing her in other lifetimes they would vanquish her. That way she wouldn't be a possible future threat to them. They could go back to their petty little lives and say they all did it for the better good for her. They'd rationalize their choice by saying that this way she could start all over again and be happy in the next life and not have to be constantly reminded of what she'd lost in her last lifetimes.
She knew they would do that. Sooner or later, that would be their final decision.
She didn't blame them entirely for it either. She would've done the same thing in their shoes. However, she wasn't in their 'I'm so perfect, so wonderful, and so powerful because I'm a Charmed One' shoes so she was going to do everything she could do to survive.
"You have a sister?" Paige asked her as she watched them.
"Yeah, I did. We went through so much stuff together." Victoria said, smiling a rare smile as she remember the time that Alexis and she had been in trouble. Alexis had had to house-sat for the Shomocker's house and had been pretty impressed with their old fashioned laundry chute.
She'd been so impressed that she'd accidentally dropped her ham sandwich down the chute while she'd been looking at it. Instead of just falling to the bottom where the clothes were, the ham had stuck itself to the inside of the chute. It'd been too out of reach for with her sister and she couldn't get it up with a broom or anything because it only made it a bigger disaster.
Alexis had finally called her over to help and Alexis had had Victoria hold onto her shoes as she picked off the particles of ham from the chute.
Of course, that had been an even bigger disaster. Alexis had somehow gotten stuck in the shoot and they had had to call 9-1-1 to get her out. Needless to say, Alexis became the butt of a lot of people's jokes that year.
"Lots of trouble." Victoria added.
"Yeah." Paige asked lightly, raising her eyebrows in the air. What kind of trouble? She wondered.
The magic Victoria had just displayed in order to kill Wyatt made her wonder about that one.
Did Victoria use her magic for good or evil? Was it magical trouble or regular trouble that her sister and she had gotten into?
Paige doubted it was regular. It had to be magical. If Paige, herself, had known she was powerful when she was younger than she would have done the same thing.
"Yeah. I even got into a little trouble with her myself by inviting this guy she liked to come to my wedding. They were meant to be you could just tell. It would have worked out well, too. If..." Victoria had started loudly almost happily retelling her little ploy to set her sister up, but at the end of her statement she stopped softly.
Sometimes, reality seemed to rash.. Too harsh even to be real.
"Wedding? Wait you're married?" Phoebe interrupted, laughing a little in surprise.
Victoria didn't answer aloud. Instead, she merely shook her head. It was too hard to admit what had happened.
Revenge for her had been so easy. So nice to use to cover the pain or the slowly forming coldness in her heart. But reality was far worse then her revenge had been on Wyatt.
"Oh, did you get cold feet." Phoebe asked.
"No." It was all she could do to say that one word.
"Oh, did he?" Phoebe asked, more softly. She didn't want to open up an old wound. She knew how it felt to be burned.
Plus, she sure as heck didn't want to see what would happen if Victoria actually was emotional. It would be a lot worse on her if Victoria started showing her emotions. It almost seemed like Victoria wasn't human after everything. Her crying would break the spell over them and Phoebe wasn't sure how she would reach to that.
"No, he was excited. He cried at the altar when I came down the aisle." Victoria told them.
Her eyes betrayed her. They were so far away as if she were reliving everything all over again. Both Phoebe and Paige exchanged a quick look. They weren't sure if they wanted to open this can of worms.
"Okay, yet you aren't married?" Paige asked, confused.
"Today was my wedding day."
"Okay, so it's your wedding day. So why aren't you there instead of here?" Phoebe asked, her face crumpling into confusion.
"It ended abruptly you could say," Victoria said bitterly. She got up quickly and moved to the window. Both Paige and Phoebe got up just as quickly and stayed where they were. Ready for anything. Ready for her to attack or try to escape.
Victoria looked outside the window. The sun had set along time ago. it's pinkish orange hues had been stolen from the bittersweet deepening dark blue of the sky awhile ago.
It had been her last sunset.
"Confused here?" Paige said, trying to get Victoria's attention. Still not sure what was going to happen.
"I don't know what happened okay. The curse, I guess. He didn't want me to ever be happy if it didn't include him. So he made it so that if I ever experienced happiness I would be punished." Victoria told them vehemently. Her anger was very evident.
Phoebe and Paige looked at each other with growing eyes. Damn, it was too late now. They had opened the can of worms and now they had to deal with the aftermath. However hard it would be for them to deal with the fact that Victoria just wasn't some evil demon there to wreck havoc on their lives, but instead a human being that had just been through a nightmare.
"Oh god. Your wedding day is supposed to be your happiest day of your life." Phoebe whispered loudly.
She didn't know what to do. One minute she wanted to go to Victoria and hug her so that she could grieve in a normal way. A way that didn't consist of her killing her nephew or using her magic to hurt others.
Yet she stayed where she was. She wasn't sure what Victoria would do if she acted on her reactions. She didn't want to wind up dead for trying to give the girl a hug either.
"It was prefect you know. All my friends, my family, I swear anyone I ever met was there to witness it. My family even went all out. "
"I'm sorry." Phoebe said in a hushed voice.
"I was standing there at the altar and Mark was there with me. He was crying. He looked so sad but I'd never seen him so happy before in his life. Is that possible?"she didn't wait for an answer. Victoria just went on, "We were about to start the ceremony. He was holding my hands. It was the first time my father had ever said he liked someone I brought home. Mark, he liked him, and then I was standing there and he had my hands in his and I was finally getting married. We were going to be together forever. I was so happy. Then, there was a light or something. I was blinded and then Mark wasn't with me anymore. Everyone was dead when I woke up. Mark died in my arms." she said, a tear falling down her cheek as she turned to them.
Both stood in their places. Paige and Phoebe slowly realized that not only was she more human to them then before, but she was beautiful. She looked like an angel mourning for humanity. Instead, she was merely a lonely girl who had lost everything in a matter of moments for no other reason but for a jealous sociopath of a warlock's curse.
"Oh, sweetie. I'm sorry. We're gonna fix this I swear." Phoebe promised as she went to Victoria and gave her a warm hug. What had been holding her back before was now gone. She quietly motioned Paige over to hug Victoria too with a small wave of her hand.
"There is no fixing this." Victoria said, leaving the hug just as quickly as it took for Paige to join it.
She was almost willing to be dead now. At least dead she would be with everyone she cared about. And, at least, she wouldn't have to feel a thing. She'd be at rest.
She looked over to them. They were standing there not knowing exactly what to do or say to her. It was hard to believe that they even cared after what she had put them through. "It's okay. I've dealt with it. I mourned. I have to. I'm dying. I have to do these things quicker then everyone else."
"How are you really doing?" Paige asked, wrinkling her brow.
"Three hours and forty-five minutes. Counting down to my death." she giggled, staring at the wooden floor and kicking a wood piece out of her path. She couldn't believe she was even telling them the truth.
"We are going to save you." Phoebe replied, firmly.
"I can't be saved. I have come to terms with it. Don't worry about it. " Victoria said, shaking her head and half smiling sadly.
"Well, for going through the five stages of death she's sure hit acceptance rather hard." Paige commented casting her head to the side in thought.
"Ha ha. Well, you're right about one thing for once. I guess I should get rid of unfinished business now because of it. So, so I don't get bad karma in my next life, like I need it anyways, I guess I should say something like I'm sorry I almost killed all of you. It wasn't my intention to do so. I only wanted to beat down, torture, curse, mutilate, and maim your nephew for what he did to me," Victoria said matter of factly.
"Yeah, well uh, apology accepted I guess. But don't worry about that, we die all the time anyways . We are kind of used to it." Paige answered, then she thought a moment. "Hold on a sec. The apology is only accepted if you don't go through with your plan."
Before Victoria could reply to what had been said they had an unwarranted visit.
Piper and Leo came into the room. Piper leaning against Leo the whole time and holding his hand warmly in hers. She wasn't sure what would happen when Victoria found out there wasn't anything they could use as of yet so she wanted the ability of Leo orbing Wyatt, her sisters and her out as quickly as possible.
"Hey, you guys. What's going on?" Piper asked, looking around at her sisters expressions.
Paige gave Piper a muffled smile.
"Oh, Piper. And Wyatt, you're finally up!" Phoebe cried, smiling. She relieved the tension in the room that had been accumulating as she went to oldest nephew to ruffle his hair and gave him a big bear hug.
"Hey, did you figure out how to end the curse?" Paige asked, instantly.
"Uh, no. Not yet." Wyatt said, uncertainly. He was just waiting for Victoria to freak out and kill him soon. He didn't even look in her direction as he answered Paige. He didn't want to see the let down; he didn't want to see her realize that she was going to die young.
"Well now what are we supposed to do?" Paige asked, her hands quickly being placed on her hips.
"Hey, don't look at me. I just realized I was evil in my last lifetime." Wyatt cried when everyone looked at him for some kind of answers. He had no epiphanies. He felt raw and used and impotent in the situation he was facing.
"Looks like your suffering from a little post traumatic stress there, Wyatt." Paige said, as she went over to him and placed her arm around his shoulders.
Her poor nephew. He had never been able to admit he wasn't superman. He had to be beating himself up for everything.
"No, I'm not!" Wyatt replied, annoyed. He shook off her arm and went to stand in the doorway. It was easier for him to think when he wasn't as apart of the madness in the room. It was easier to breathe.
"Leo! What did you find out?" Phoebe asked, quickly trying to change the subject to lay the attention off of Wyatt. It worked.
"A lot actually." Leo replied, he slowly took his eyes off of his uneasy son.
"Well tell us already. She's pretty tight lipped as it is about herself. Why not give us the unabridged version of who she is so we can figure something out." Paige insisted.
"Well, Victoria is," Leo slowly started.
"Extremely powerful. And soon she'll be our ally if she lives through all this." Piper ended his sentence. The part, at least, that she knew.
"Wow, welcome to the good side of the force," Phoebe said in reference to Star Wars.
"I was never bad." Victoria answered, serenely.
"Talk about a turn of events." Paige added.
She took a good look at Victoria.
The girl standing in front of her now barely looked powerful. If anything she looked like someone that Paige would otherwise see in the mall trying to find a perfect set of shoes for her prom dress. To know that she was going to be a powerful ally was weird. Especially, after she'd almost killed all of them. Except for Phoebe, since she'd chose to come in late.
"But wait, how did she get so powerful. She's not a Halliwell, is she." Phoebe asked. She wasn't exactly sure if she was willing to hear that there was another illegitimate Halliwell running around in the world. It was enough for them to discover Paige existed after Prue had died.
"Well.. that's a bit of a story." Leo responded.
Leo looked down at his wife. She nodded to him. Her dark brown eyes watching his face as he told them the true origins of the girl who had earlier been an enemy, but now their ally. He knew it was hard for them to accept. He only hoped that they did. Fast, too, since time was running out. He hoped also that the story of Victoria's life would help them figure something out.
"Alright, we're all ears." Piper told her husband.
"Well, remember the Titans?"
"What? The Titans? Oh my god. Yeah!" Phoebe answered as she realized what he was saying.
"Well, while they were here trying to destroy the world and make it their own, Cronus wanted Victoria's mother for his own. So, he ended up taking on the identity of Victoria's father while he was away at military base. And well, you all know where that lead," Leo said clapping his hands together and pointing at a stony Victoria who's expression was priceless.
Leo could tell she wasn't willing to admit the truth. She knew though. Deep down inside she had always known that her father wasn't the man her mother had said he was. Yet by telling her this in this way was cutting deep into her emotions.
She was a god. Now she knew it.
"Wow, part god. That has got to be awesome." Phoebe laughed.
"So you're a goddess now." Piper said to Victoria, but to Leo she turned to and whispered to Leo with tight lips and large eyes." Leo, do we need to talk about this?"
"No, we don't. According to the Elders, she's good. And that's only half of her heritage." Leo said, knowing that this was like dropping a bombshell on WW2.
"Go on," Paige told him.
Leave it to Paige to want to know everything, leave it to Piper to start worrying inconstantly, and leave it to Phoebe to accept it all.
"Her mother happened to be a very powerful witch, too. A witch who happened to be related to The Crone." Leo told them. Then, he waited for a response. He waited for another world war. Instead, there was silence and exchanged stares.
"No wonder she's so good." Paige said aloud.
"So okay. Let me get his straight. She has both witch and god-like powers. But I thought that if a human had god-like powers they would lose their humanity and then go crazy or something really, really bad." Phoebe commented in confusion.
"No, actually, she's had her powers since birth. That's the difference. She was basically born human and raised as a human with morals and values. Since she was born with her powers they can't take her humanity away from her. " Leo informed all of them.
"Okay that was a mouthful. All I got was she's human. And that's a good thing," Paige said, annoyed slightly.
"Well, its difficult to explain."
"Never mind that. We don't have time to discuss what makes sense. Back to the problem," Piper quickly said waving her hands in front of her.
"Hold on a second. Do you think that her god-like powers can keep the curse from killing her?" Paige asked. "Gods are hard to defeat, right?"
"No, it won't work. A curse is a curse. Even gods can be cursed and they have to bare it, too." Leo told them. All their hopeful faces fell. He really hated being the bearer of bad news.
"Damn." Paige muttered.
"To sum it up. Yeah. Sorry." Piper replied. She was the only one willing to tell Victoria the truth at the moment.
"Great. Just great. Well, I guess I better accept what's happening to me then right," Victoria said, laughing crudely.
She shook her head and looked up at the white ceiling not willing to let the tears fall from her eyes. She should have never even hoped... even thought that she could live and be happy and be curse free. Who the hell did she think she was fooling?
Obviously herself.
"No way we'll find a way" Phoebe told her, going to her and reaching out to her to comfort her.
"Sure." Victoria said, taking a step out of the comforting grasp Phoebe was offering. "I've already lost everything else this death thing should really be a piece of cake."
"Your life is going to turn out better then this. Do you hear me? I don't care what happened at your wedding or about the curse. We are going to find a way. You can't just give up." Phoebe told her urgently trying to raise Victoria's hope.
Great, I try to comfort my son and get him down here to save Victoria. At least, face her, and I miss everything. Wedding? Wasn't Victoria a little too young to be getting married to anybody?
"Oh yeah. You weren't here for that part." Phoebe said.
"Well, Victoria was supposed to be getting married right about now, but the curse destroyed it," Paige informed Piper with a frown.
"Actually, I would be having the reception about now." Victoria told them, trying to think logically. Hopefully that would help her from crying like a baby.
"Married? Aren't you a little young?" Piper asked.
"Yes and no." Victoria responded.
"Well, then what happened?" Piper asked.
"My whole family, friends, the priest. Mark.." she said again only now to the oldest sister trying not to cry. But she couldn't speak anymore. Instead, her throat closed up on her and she turned her back on them.
"It's okay sweetie. It'll be okay." Phoebe told her soothingly, not moving closer to Victoria since her comfort wasn't wanted, but not leaving her side either.
"How is it ok? Everyone is dead! Everyone I know is dead. This was supposed to be my wedding day and I'm spending it here with all of you. Cursed, none the less!" Victoria cried.
She turned back to them for an answer they couldn't give. Her face was filled with a series of constant emotions that ranged from anger, hatred, sadness, vehemence, and fear. Then, she shook her head at them and started laughing bitterly in hysteria.