Disclaimer: Piper Halliwell/Wyatt, Phoebe Halliwell, and Paige
Matthews/Halliwell don't belong to me as do Leo Wyatt, Wyatt Matthew
Halliwell, Cole Turner, Victor Bennett, Darryl Morris, Shelia Morris, and
any other characters that appear on the show don't. Ashanti, Beyonce
Knowles, and Jay-Z don't belong to me. Brian belongs to me, as does
Darlene, the Raven second vanquishing spell also belongs to me. The Source
vanquishing spell to Aaron Spelling and the creators of 'Charmed', and
Veronica belongs to ColeTurner4Ever. Please e-mail with any comments you
may have at Mattman39151@aol.com.
United Chapter 28!!
Author's Note: Ok, well I held a Chapter 28 Contest and the winner is Michael, FF.net penname-Charmed-Leo, Screename-Whitewater13)! This chapter is his entry! I hope you all enjoy it! I'll be back next chapter!
****Halliwell Manor-Basement (Prue And Brian's Room)**** "Parker is just so adorable!" Prue said to Brain for about the tenth time that night. "Did you see her little hands! And those tiny fingers and miniature curled up toes! Oh. Oh bless her." She gave a soft sigh. Brian, who had been staring at the ceiling and only half-listening to Prue babble about her niece, rolled over in bed and put his arms around her.
"Miss Halliwell, I do believe that you're getting broody." Prue scoffed.
"Am not!" She declared, although deep within her she could feel her biological clock ticking away. In fact its alarm was blaring at her, but for the moment she ignored it. She rolled over as well, so now she was facing Brian. He picked up a stand of her hair that had escaped from its ponytail and tucked it behind her ear. Prue smiled as Brian nibbled on her neck. "Mmmm."
"You do realize that having a kid would require an awful lot of work?"
"I know, Brian. There are the midnight feedings and the diapers and." Brian rolled his eyes, putting a finger on her lips to stop her from going on.
"I meant here. In our little basement bedroom. The groundwork, if you will."
"Oh. OH!" Prue said, her eyes widening. "I see." She said, catching herself just in time and trying her best to sound seductive.
Brian laughed slightly. "Yeah."
"Then I guess we'd better start some of that hard work right now, huh?"
Brian cocked an eyebrow at her. "You think?"
"Uh-huh." Prue gave a little wave of her hand and the comforter flew over them both, enveloping them completely. A giggle could be heard, but we're not sure whether it's Prue or Brian. ****Halliwell Manor-Piper's Room**** The moonlight shimmered over Piper's skin and made soft patterns across the room, giving the place a whole new, almost sensual, effect. Too bad there was nobody there to share it with her. She sighed and turned over, looking at the empty spot next to her. She couldn't sleep. She got up and leaned against the headboard, biting her lip and thinking for a little while before snapping on the lamp on the table beside her bed.
She pulled open the drawer and looked inside. Inside was an envelope with her passport, birth certificate, Wyatt's birth certificate and other important documents in it. She put it on top of the table without giving it a second glance. That wasn't what she was looking for. Then out came the second wallet that she liked to keep in there with some money in it, just in case and that went on top of the documents.
Next came a box of heated hair curlers and an assorted array of tangled hair ties. They went on the top too, some of the hair things escaping and falling down the side between the bed and the cabinet. But Piper either didn't notice or care. Then there was a baby thermometer still in its packet, Wyatt hadn't been ill enough for her to use it yet, thank God!
The romance novel she was reading came out and then a long black velvet box containing a necklace that she had been given for her sixteenth birthday. The clasp was broken and she kept forgetting to get it fixed. The last thing in there was a receipt for the hair curlers, and she screwed that up and threw it at the bin. It missed and she just decided to blow it up. It disappeared with a small flick of flame.
The wooden bottom of the drawer was covered in a layer of dust. Piper put her hand right inside the drawer and fiddled with the underside of the table with a slight frown. Her fingers scrabbled and then she felt a small notch. She smiled with recognition and moved her deft digits slightly right. There. She inserted her nail into a small crack and pulled. A section of the table fell out into the drawer with a clatter. A secret compartment. One that even Phoebe didn't know about.
Piper reached up inside and her fingertips brushed a cool metal object. She pulled it out into the light, holding it up between finger and thumb like she would do with a scrying crystal and the necklace glinted. But instead of a crystal there were two rings dangling from the chain. Her fingers, suddenly feeling clumsy, fumbled with the clasp and the necklace sprang open.
The second-oldest Charmed One slipped the two rings off the chain and held them up. She ran a finger around one's circumference and closed her eyes. She had done that often since Grams had died. This was the ring that she had given to Leo so that the white-lighter could give it back to her when he proposed.
The other ring was her actual wedding ring. A plain, flawless gold band. She slipped both of them back on her ring finger, covering up the tan line that she had developed from when they had last been there. Piper examined them from every angle, and smiled. It faded slightly. She had torn these rings off when she had learned of Leo's feeling for a demon and hidden them away. She hadn't seen them since that day.
"Do I want to be Mrs. Leo Wyatt again?" She paused, hoping for a sign. Like a chorus of angels from up high. Or even a pig flying past her window would do. But no. Nothing. Things weren't that easy. "Am I *ready* to be Mrs. Leo Wyatt again?" She asked herself softly, slipping both of the rings off her finger and realizing that was something that only she could decide.
She enclosed her fist around them for a few seconds and then pushed the compartment back into place, but not before shoving the necklace back in. She re-piled all of her stuff back into the space and, leaving the two rings on the top of the table, flicked off the lamp and settled down to sleep, suddenly feeling quite content.
****Underworld**** "I don't understand how we can win. They killed Elizabeth. They've vanquished several Sources! Belthazor has been turned *good* by them. They are much too powerful to mess with," The demon's voice bounced off the roughly hewn cavern's walls and reverberated in the emptiness. At the top of the chamber it was total darkness, and at the bottom flaming torches in bracket on the walls pierced the gloom.
The demon was kneeling down and looking up to talk to the other presence in the Underworld cave. It appears that his comrade is sitting in a chair carved from stone, almost a throne. The torches on this side of the room are out, and the throne demon's face and identity is hidden in shadow. The kneeling demon licked his scaly lips nervously with a forked tongue. Power - dark power - emanated from the faceless figure.
"The way to victory is simple," She had a cold voice, definitely feminine, and it sent chills down the cowering demon's spine. He tried his hardest not to show fear. Rumor was that his Queen could smell fear as well as any animal. "The Charmed One's themselves have few weaknesses. One of the few is their men, who happen to be weak themselves. Two half-demons, a white- lighter and a mortal. Just wait. You shall see." She waved her hand at the stone altar between them. There was a pool of what looked like black ink, reflecting the flames on its monochrome surface.
The pool rippled and started to turn into moving images. Prue and Brian in a corner at Phoebe and Cole's wedding. Lying in bed together. Glenn proposing to Paige. Paige standing on tiptoe to kiss her fiancé. Cole in an awkward sleep by Phoebe's hospital bed, looking uncomfortable on a chair with Parker asleep in her hospital-issued crib. Phoebe feeding Cole cake on their wedding day. The images faded then ended.
"I'm afraid that I do not understand."
"You see. Rorca, isn't it?" The demon merely nodded; humbled that she knew his name. "You see their powers are rooted in their bonds as sisters. Belthazor once got a demon to break that bond, thus making them lose their powers. But we do not need a demon for that. You see jealousy and rivalry over men could easily tear four siblings apart. What better way to induce a sisterly argument by making them catch their man with his tongue down someone else's throat? Especially if that someone happened to be a sister."
"A few words, a bit of powder. And their guys will be powerless to stop themselves from partner swapping." She paused, and ragged breathing was all that was heard from her. "However the white-lighter will be hardest of all. He isn't currently sleeping in the house; he stays Up There, meaning that you cannot get to him. I trust you to find a way."
"Ah. I see. A brilliant plan, mistress."
"Of course it is. It's one of my plans. Maybe you're not as stupid as I first thought. Break their bonds as sisters. That's the key to defeating them. Be gone and do my bidding," The she-demon clicked her fingers and a packet of red powder appeared in Rorca's clawed hands. He nodded and shimmered out without standing up.
****Halliwell Manor-Paige And Glenn's Room**** Paige slept curled into a ball and snuggled into Glenn's arms. Glenn snored softly, but it didn't bother the redhead and she slept on. Glenn had his arms around Paige in a protective gesture, and they lay there sharing body heat. The glowing clock on the nightstand read three in the morning.
Rorca shimmered in, now in human form. He was taller then the average man and had long, straggly black hair that hung in a greasy curtain around his ears. He pulled the packet filled with a finely ground red powder from thin air. He opened it and sprinkled the tiniest amount onto Glenn's upper lip. As the slumbering mortal inhaled through his nose the powder was drawn up his nasal passage. The demon put more powder on, a larger amount this time.
"Effreno amor absum caecigenus," (I'm a Latin student, by the way, and that means 'Let love be blinded') Glenn inhaled it and then sneezed, waking both him and Paige up. The demon quickly shimmered out before the couple could see him.
"Bless you, honey." Paige murmured.
"Mm.. Thanks. 'Night Paige." And soon the room was filled with steady, rhythmic breathing again.
****Halliwell Manor-Basement (Prue And Brian's Room)**** Prue and Brian were now asleep. Prue's arm was draped across Brian's chest. They were both breathing slowly and rhythmically, smiles on both of their faces. The sheet was rising and falling as they breathed. They looked so happy, so content. The demon shimmered in and shattered the happy moment to pieces.
The demon was right by Brian. The soft noise that shimmering made subconsciously unsettled Prue and she turned and rolled over, moving her arm from Brian's chest. The demon froze, but it soon became clear that they were both still asleep and Rorca let out a foul-smelling sigh of relief. He got out the powder again and made Brian breathe it in.
"Effreno amor abs-" The demon never finished his sentence. Brian woke up and started to choke, sitting bolt upright. Prue pointed her finger at the lamp and used her power to turn on the light.
"Are you ok, ho- Oh, OH!" She spotted the demon and waved he arm at it, sending him crashing into the door to the bathroom. The door splintered and chunks of it flew everywhere. The demon flew backwards and smacked his head on the solid porcelain of the basin. He grunted.
"Effreno amor absum caecigenus!" He muttered before shimmering out. His blood left a yellow stain on the white sink.
"Is he gone?" Brian asked, recovering from his coughing fit. Prue astral projected into the bathroom.
"Yeah, he shimmered away!" Her astral self called before returning to her bed and her body.
"What time is it?" Brian asked.
Prue scrabbled on her nightstand for her watch. Finding it, she checked the face. "A little after three in the morning. Why?"
"I'll shimmer us to the attic to look in the Book of Shadows, then. That way we won't wake anyone up."
Prue shrugged. "Sure. It's not worth waking everyone up and putting them on full alert until we know who he is. Although he was in human form so I don't know if we'll even be able to spot him in there." They disappeared.
****Halliwell Manor-Phoebe And Cole's Room**** Cole had a stiff neck from sleeping in such an awkward position on the chair. Well at least they'd discharged Phoebe now. He was sleeping in a proper bed instead of a chair.He woke up and rubbed the nape of his neck. He looked over at Phoebe, who was sleeping soundly, exhausted after labor. He smiled sleepily and went to check on little Parker. *His* little baby Parker. He got up, stretched, rotated his shoulders backwards and crossed to the crib. He gave a soft, proud Dad sigh as she yawned. He gently played with her fingers and tickled the palm of her hand. She stirred but didn't wake up.
He suddenly detected an evil presence in the room. He whirled around and there was a demon standing there. Cole formed an energy ball in his hand and flung it at the demon, who calmly stepped to one side. It hit a vase of congratulation flowers from Elise that a courier had delivered. The vase exploded, sending shards of china skimming through the air. Water sloshed everywhere and the flowers fell to the floor, delicate petals singed and ruined.
Phoebe and Parker woke up at the same time. Parker started crying and put up a shimmering light purple shield around her. Cole and Phoebe had little time to admire their child though as they moved into battle positions. Phoebe spin kicked the demon, sending him flying into the wall.
"Piper! Paige!" She yelled for the sisters that were closest to her and were most likely to hear. The demon got his packet of powder out again but Phoebe, thinking that he was reaching for a weapon, kicked it into the air. The demon caught it deftly; snatching it out of the air just as Cole was about to fry it with an energy ball.
"Phoebe!" Piper pounded on the door. Dammit! Phoebe had locked it so she could get some alone time with Cole and Parker. The pounding stopped. Piper had probably gone to get Paige to orb them in. Paige, unfortunately, could sleep through anything, even one of San Francisco's famous earthquakes. Phoebe lunged for the door, but the demon hit her with an energy ball and she crashed into the wardrobe, buckling the doors inwards. The mirrors on the front shattered, sending reflective shards all over the floor where they sparkled like raindrops in the moonlight. They hadn't turned a light on yet.
"Phoebe!" Cole yelled. She was unconscious and bleeding from a cut above one eye. "Prue! Leo!" He yelled. Rorca wrenched the lamp from the bedside table. The cord snapped with a small display of sparks. He shattered the lamp over Cole's head. Cole crumpled and Rorca took out his bag of powder again, brushing the dust up Cole's nose.
"Effreno amor absum caecigenus," Three sets of orbing lights appeared in the room. Before he was even fully formed Brian threw an energy ball at the intruder. But the orbing lights were bright and it made it hard to see. So it hit the packet instead and burned it up with a loud crackle and a puff of smoke. The demon quickly shimmered out.
****Underworld**** Rorca's cries for mercy echoed around the cave. He had come back and told his Queen that he had failed, and had lost the powder in doing so. He had no other choice; he needed more of that powder to complete the mission. Lying would have carried an even greater penalty. The leather swished through the air and cracked down again on the demon's flesh. Yellow blood oozed from its wounds and dripped thickly off of its sides.
"Will you fail me again?" Swish, crack. The blood made a spattering noise and it hit the floor.
"No, no! I p-promise!" The demon's back had been literally cut to ribbons by the leather whip being used on him. He was chained by his wrists and ankles to a stone table and was being tortured for his failure.
"Good, because I hate failures," The female demon on the throne came out of the shadows, but was shrouded in a black hooded cloak so her identity is still a mystery to us. She raised a scabbed, pale hand and the demon with the whip reluctantly stepped back.
"If I give you some more powder will you complete the job?"
"Yes! Yes! Anything! Please."
"Good." She snapped her fingers and the torturer, chains, table and all disappeared from view, leaving the demon bleeding on the floor. More powder appeared in the demon's lap. She conjured a fireball in her hand. "This fireball is made for you. If you fail no matter where you go this will find you and kill you. You got that?" No answer. "HAVE YOU GOT THAT?" She bellowed.
"Y-yes. Failure is unacceptable," He wailed.
"Good. Now get the white-lighter and be quick about it!" She screamed. The demon nodded and shimmered out of the cavern again.
****Halliwell Manor-Phoebe And Cole's Room**** Leo bent over Phoebe and healed her. The cut slowly disappeared and she regained consciousness. Brian was gently trying to wake Cole up. Neither Leo nor Prue knew how big an effect their healing would have in waking up a half-demon. They could heal his cut but they weren't sure how else they could help.
"Parker!" Phoebe asked, sitting bolt upright amongst the wreckage of the wardrobe doors.
"Right here, sweetie," Piper said, showing her sister the sleeping one-day- old child. "You know, being an auntie's kinda' cool. You can always hand the kid back to its Mommy."
"I definitely agree with that," Paige said, raising her hand. Her hair was disheveled and her eyes were glassy. She was leaning against the doorframe and covered her mouth to try and stifle a huge yawn she had coming on. Piper and Phoebe rolled their eyes at one another. Paige would understand. One day..
Prue was sitting on the end of Phoebe's bed, her head in her hands. She was frowning and muttering to herself. She looked up, her blue eyes confused and angered. She let out a frustrated growl.
"I can't remember!"
"What, sweetie?" Piper asked.
"What the demon said was in Latin, but I didn't hear it properly, so I don't know what he said." Piper put an arm around her.
"It's ok, you'll work it out," Piper gave her older sister's shoulders a gentle squeeze.
"I think it's time we hit the Book of Shadows." Paige said, yawning again.
"Agreed."
"I'll stay here and watch Wyatt and Parker, if you like," Leo said, holding his hand out to help Phoebe up. Phoebe accepted and got to her feet, taking Parker from Piper and putting her back in her crib.
"Thanks, Leo." Brian had just got Cole to start to stir, so Prue bent down and healed him the best she could.
"How you feeling, sweetie?" Phoebe asked. Cole sat up and rubbed his head.
"Like I got hit on the head by a lamp."
"We're going to go to the Book of Shadows, are you alright to walk?" Phoebe asked. Cole nodded.
"Uh-huh." He pulled himself up using the end of the bed for support. Leo orbed out and orbed back in with a very sleepy and confused Wyatt.
"Do you mind if I tuck him into your bed?" Leo asked Cole and Phoebe. "He's still kinda tired." Phoebe nodded.
"Sure, go ahead." All the adults except Leo left Phoebe's bedroom, and Leo listened to the footsteps fading on the stairs. The floorboards above him creaked as they entered the attic. Leo put Wyatt into the bed and covered him up. As soon as he was warm and covered up again Wyatt went straight back to sleep. Leo smiled and stroked his hair. He really hoped that it would work out between him and Piper. He missed living here, living with his son.
He sighed and sat down on the rocking chair that Veronica had bought Phoebe for her baby shower. He rocked himself slowly back and forth, every now and then checking on the two sleeping infants. The floorboards creaked again, but Leo didn't give it a second thought. Again they creaked. Then he realized that the noise was coming from *behind* him.
Suddenly the rocking chair tipped backwards with a loud crash, winding Leo. Someone was pinning his arms to the back of the chair. He struggled but they held their vice-like grip on his biceps, digging their fingers in and bruising the bone. Why had no one heard the crash? Why was no one coming?
"Wyatt, Parker, danger!" Thankfully, his niece understood and put up her shield. So did Wyatt. A strip of duct tape was put across his mouth. "Mmm! MMM!" Then somebody else was putting some sort of powder just below his nose. He turned his head to try and dislodge it but a strong hand slammed his head back down so that he was facing upwards again. Leo took a breath in through his nose at the pain, and then realized he had inhaled the dust.
"Nighty night, white-lighter." Something connected hard with his forehead and his vision swirled and went black.
"Effreno amor absum caecigenus. It's done." Rorca incinerates the packet to destroy any evidence that the Charmed Ones could use against him and then him and his crony shimmer out of the room.
United Chapter 28!!
Author's Note: Ok, well I held a Chapter 28 Contest and the winner is Michael, FF.net penname-Charmed-Leo, Screename-Whitewater13)! This chapter is his entry! I hope you all enjoy it! I'll be back next chapter!
****Halliwell Manor-Basement (Prue And Brian's Room)**** "Parker is just so adorable!" Prue said to Brain for about the tenth time that night. "Did you see her little hands! And those tiny fingers and miniature curled up toes! Oh. Oh bless her." She gave a soft sigh. Brian, who had been staring at the ceiling and only half-listening to Prue babble about her niece, rolled over in bed and put his arms around her.
"Miss Halliwell, I do believe that you're getting broody." Prue scoffed.
"Am not!" She declared, although deep within her she could feel her biological clock ticking away. In fact its alarm was blaring at her, but for the moment she ignored it. She rolled over as well, so now she was facing Brian. He picked up a stand of her hair that had escaped from its ponytail and tucked it behind her ear. Prue smiled as Brian nibbled on her neck. "Mmmm."
"You do realize that having a kid would require an awful lot of work?"
"I know, Brian. There are the midnight feedings and the diapers and." Brian rolled his eyes, putting a finger on her lips to stop her from going on.
"I meant here. In our little basement bedroom. The groundwork, if you will."
"Oh. OH!" Prue said, her eyes widening. "I see." She said, catching herself just in time and trying her best to sound seductive.
Brian laughed slightly. "Yeah."
"Then I guess we'd better start some of that hard work right now, huh?"
Brian cocked an eyebrow at her. "You think?"
"Uh-huh." Prue gave a little wave of her hand and the comforter flew over them both, enveloping them completely. A giggle could be heard, but we're not sure whether it's Prue or Brian. ****Halliwell Manor-Piper's Room**** The moonlight shimmered over Piper's skin and made soft patterns across the room, giving the place a whole new, almost sensual, effect. Too bad there was nobody there to share it with her. She sighed and turned over, looking at the empty spot next to her. She couldn't sleep. She got up and leaned against the headboard, biting her lip and thinking for a little while before snapping on the lamp on the table beside her bed.
She pulled open the drawer and looked inside. Inside was an envelope with her passport, birth certificate, Wyatt's birth certificate and other important documents in it. She put it on top of the table without giving it a second glance. That wasn't what she was looking for. Then out came the second wallet that she liked to keep in there with some money in it, just in case and that went on top of the documents.
Next came a box of heated hair curlers and an assorted array of tangled hair ties. They went on the top too, some of the hair things escaping and falling down the side between the bed and the cabinet. But Piper either didn't notice or care. Then there was a baby thermometer still in its packet, Wyatt hadn't been ill enough for her to use it yet, thank God!
The romance novel she was reading came out and then a long black velvet box containing a necklace that she had been given for her sixteenth birthday. The clasp was broken and she kept forgetting to get it fixed. The last thing in there was a receipt for the hair curlers, and she screwed that up and threw it at the bin. It missed and she just decided to blow it up. It disappeared with a small flick of flame.
The wooden bottom of the drawer was covered in a layer of dust. Piper put her hand right inside the drawer and fiddled with the underside of the table with a slight frown. Her fingers scrabbled and then she felt a small notch. She smiled with recognition and moved her deft digits slightly right. There. She inserted her nail into a small crack and pulled. A section of the table fell out into the drawer with a clatter. A secret compartment. One that even Phoebe didn't know about.
Piper reached up inside and her fingertips brushed a cool metal object. She pulled it out into the light, holding it up between finger and thumb like she would do with a scrying crystal and the necklace glinted. But instead of a crystal there were two rings dangling from the chain. Her fingers, suddenly feeling clumsy, fumbled with the clasp and the necklace sprang open.
The second-oldest Charmed One slipped the two rings off the chain and held them up. She ran a finger around one's circumference and closed her eyes. She had done that often since Grams had died. This was the ring that she had given to Leo so that the white-lighter could give it back to her when he proposed.
The other ring was her actual wedding ring. A plain, flawless gold band. She slipped both of them back on her ring finger, covering up the tan line that she had developed from when they had last been there. Piper examined them from every angle, and smiled. It faded slightly. She had torn these rings off when she had learned of Leo's feeling for a demon and hidden them away. She hadn't seen them since that day.
"Do I want to be Mrs. Leo Wyatt again?" She paused, hoping for a sign. Like a chorus of angels from up high. Or even a pig flying past her window would do. But no. Nothing. Things weren't that easy. "Am I *ready* to be Mrs. Leo Wyatt again?" She asked herself softly, slipping both of the rings off her finger and realizing that was something that only she could decide.
She enclosed her fist around them for a few seconds and then pushed the compartment back into place, but not before shoving the necklace back in. She re-piled all of her stuff back into the space and, leaving the two rings on the top of the table, flicked off the lamp and settled down to sleep, suddenly feeling quite content.
****Underworld**** "I don't understand how we can win. They killed Elizabeth. They've vanquished several Sources! Belthazor has been turned *good* by them. They are much too powerful to mess with," The demon's voice bounced off the roughly hewn cavern's walls and reverberated in the emptiness. At the top of the chamber it was total darkness, and at the bottom flaming torches in bracket on the walls pierced the gloom.
The demon was kneeling down and looking up to talk to the other presence in the Underworld cave. It appears that his comrade is sitting in a chair carved from stone, almost a throne. The torches on this side of the room are out, and the throne demon's face and identity is hidden in shadow. The kneeling demon licked his scaly lips nervously with a forked tongue. Power - dark power - emanated from the faceless figure.
"The way to victory is simple," She had a cold voice, definitely feminine, and it sent chills down the cowering demon's spine. He tried his hardest not to show fear. Rumor was that his Queen could smell fear as well as any animal. "The Charmed One's themselves have few weaknesses. One of the few is their men, who happen to be weak themselves. Two half-demons, a white- lighter and a mortal. Just wait. You shall see." She waved her hand at the stone altar between them. There was a pool of what looked like black ink, reflecting the flames on its monochrome surface.
The pool rippled and started to turn into moving images. Prue and Brian in a corner at Phoebe and Cole's wedding. Lying in bed together. Glenn proposing to Paige. Paige standing on tiptoe to kiss her fiancé. Cole in an awkward sleep by Phoebe's hospital bed, looking uncomfortable on a chair with Parker asleep in her hospital-issued crib. Phoebe feeding Cole cake on their wedding day. The images faded then ended.
"I'm afraid that I do not understand."
"You see. Rorca, isn't it?" The demon merely nodded; humbled that she knew his name. "You see their powers are rooted in their bonds as sisters. Belthazor once got a demon to break that bond, thus making them lose their powers. But we do not need a demon for that. You see jealousy and rivalry over men could easily tear four siblings apart. What better way to induce a sisterly argument by making them catch their man with his tongue down someone else's throat? Especially if that someone happened to be a sister."
"A few words, a bit of powder. And their guys will be powerless to stop themselves from partner swapping." She paused, and ragged breathing was all that was heard from her. "However the white-lighter will be hardest of all. He isn't currently sleeping in the house; he stays Up There, meaning that you cannot get to him. I trust you to find a way."
"Ah. I see. A brilliant plan, mistress."
"Of course it is. It's one of my plans. Maybe you're not as stupid as I first thought. Break their bonds as sisters. That's the key to defeating them. Be gone and do my bidding," The she-demon clicked her fingers and a packet of red powder appeared in Rorca's clawed hands. He nodded and shimmered out without standing up.
****Halliwell Manor-Paige And Glenn's Room**** Paige slept curled into a ball and snuggled into Glenn's arms. Glenn snored softly, but it didn't bother the redhead and she slept on. Glenn had his arms around Paige in a protective gesture, and they lay there sharing body heat. The glowing clock on the nightstand read three in the morning.
Rorca shimmered in, now in human form. He was taller then the average man and had long, straggly black hair that hung in a greasy curtain around his ears. He pulled the packet filled with a finely ground red powder from thin air. He opened it and sprinkled the tiniest amount onto Glenn's upper lip. As the slumbering mortal inhaled through his nose the powder was drawn up his nasal passage. The demon put more powder on, a larger amount this time.
"Effreno amor absum caecigenus," (I'm a Latin student, by the way, and that means 'Let love be blinded') Glenn inhaled it and then sneezed, waking both him and Paige up. The demon quickly shimmered out before the couple could see him.
"Bless you, honey." Paige murmured.
"Mm.. Thanks. 'Night Paige." And soon the room was filled with steady, rhythmic breathing again.
****Halliwell Manor-Basement (Prue And Brian's Room)**** Prue and Brian were now asleep. Prue's arm was draped across Brian's chest. They were both breathing slowly and rhythmically, smiles on both of their faces. The sheet was rising and falling as they breathed. They looked so happy, so content. The demon shimmered in and shattered the happy moment to pieces.
The demon was right by Brian. The soft noise that shimmering made subconsciously unsettled Prue and she turned and rolled over, moving her arm from Brian's chest. The demon froze, but it soon became clear that they were both still asleep and Rorca let out a foul-smelling sigh of relief. He got out the powder again and made Brian breathe it in.
"Effreno amor abs-" The demon never finished his sentence. Brian woke up and started to choke, sitting bolt upright. Prue pointed her finger at the lamp and used her power to turn on the light.
"Are you ok, ho- Oh, OH!" She spotted the demon and waved he arm at it, sending him crashing into the door to the bathroom. The door splintered and chunks of it flew everywhere. The demon flew backwards and smacked his head on the solid porcelain of the basin. He grunted.
"Effreno amor absum caecigenus!" He muttered before shimmering out. His blood left a yellow stain on the white sink.
"Is he gone?" Brian asked, recovering from his coughing fit. Prue astral projected into the bathroom.
"Yeah, he shimmered away!" Her astral self called before returning to her bed and her body.
"What time is it?" Brian asked.
Prue scrabbled on her nightstand for her watch. Finding it, she checked the face. "A little after three in the morning. Why?"
"I'll shimmer us to the attic to look in the Book of Shadows, then. That way we won't wake anyone up."
Prue shrugged. "Sure. It's not worth waking everyone up and putting them on full alert until we know who he is. Although he was in human form so I don't know if we'll even be able to spot him in there." They disappeared.
****Halliwell Manor-Phoebe And Cole's Room**** Cole had a stiff neck from sleeping in such an awkward position on the chair. Well at least they'd discharged Phoebe now. He was sleeping in a proper bed instead of a chair.He woke up and rubbed the nape of his neck. He looked over at Phoebe, who was sleeping soundly, exhausted after labor. He smiled sleepily and went to check on little Parker. *His* little baby Parker. He got up, stretched, rotated his shoulders backwards and crossed to the crib. He gave a soft, proud Dad sigh as she yawned. He gently played with her fingers and tickled the palm of her hand. She stirred but didn't wake up.
He suddenly detected an evil presence in the room. He whirled around and there was a demon standing there. Cole formed an energy ball in his hand and flung it at the demon, who calmly stepped to one side. It hit a vase of congratulation flowers from Elise that a courier had delivered. The vase exploded, sending shards of china skimming through the air. Water sloshed everywhere and the flowers fell to the floor, delicate petals singed and ruined.
Phoebe and Parker woke up at the same time. Parker started crying and put up a shimmering light purple shield around her. Cole and Phoebe had little time to admire their child though as they moved into battle positions. Phoebe spin kicked the demon, sending him flying into the wall.
"Piper! Paige!" She yelled for the sisters that were closest to her and were most likely to hear. The demon got his packet of powder out again but Phoebe, thinking that he was reaching for a weapon, kicked it into the air. The demon caught it deftly; snatching it out of the air just as Cole was about to fry it with an energy ball.
"Phoebe!" Piper pounded on the door. Dammit! Phoebe had locked it so she could get some alone time with Cole and Parker. The pounding stopped. Piper had probably gone to get Paige to orb them in. Paige, unfortunately, could sleep through anything, even one of San Francisco's famous earthquakes. Phoebe lunged for the door, but the demon hit her with an energy ball and she crashed into the wardrobe, buckling the doors inwards. The mirrors on the front shattered, sending reflective shards all over the floor where they sparkled like raindrops in the moonlight. They hadn't turned a light on yet.
"Phoebe!" Cole yelled. She was unconscious and bleeding from a cut above one eye. "Prue! Leo!" He yelled. Rorca wrenched the lamp from the bedside table. The cord snapped with a small display of sparks. He shattered the lamp over Cole's head. Cole crumpled and Rorca took out his bag of powder again, brushing the dust up Cole's nose.
"Effreno amor absum caecigenus," Three sets of orbing lights appeared in the room. Before he was even fully formed Brian threw an energy ball at the intruder. But the orbing lights were bright and it made it hard to see. So it hit the packet instead and burned it up with a loud crackle and a puff of smoke. The demon quickly shimmered out.
****Underworld**** Rorca's cries for mercy echoed around the cave. He had come back and told his Queen that he had failed, and had lost the powder in doing so. He had no other choice; he needed more of that powder to complete the mission. Lying would have carried an even greater penalty. The leather swished through the air and cracked down again on the demon's flesh. Yellow blood oozed from its wounds and dripped thickly off of its sides.
"Will you fail me again?" Swish, crack. The blood made a spattering noise and it hit the floor.
"No, no! I p-promise!" The demon's back had been literally cut to ribbons by the leather whip being used on him. He was chained by his wrists and ankles to a stone table and was being tortured for his failure.
"Good, because I hate failures," The female demon on the throne came out of the shadows, but was shrouded in a black hooded cloak so her identity is still a mystery to us. She raised a scabbed, pale hand and the demon with the whip reluctantly stepped back.
"If I give you some more powder will you complete the job?"
"Yes! Yes! Anything! Please."
"Good." She snapped her fingers and the torturer, chains, table and all disappeared from view, leaving the demon bleeding on the floor. More powder appeared in the demon's lap. She conjured a fireball in her hand. "This fireball is made for you. If you fail no matter where you go this will find you and kill you. You got that?" No answer. "HAVE YOU GOT THAT?" She bellowed.
"Y-yes. Failure is unacceptable," He wailed.
"Good. Now get the white-lighter and be quick about it!" She screamed. The demon nodded and shimmered out of the cavern again.
****Halliwell Manor-Phoebe And Cole's Room**** Leo bent over Phoebe and healed her. The cut slowly disappeared and she regained consciousness. Brian was gently trying to wake Cole up. Neither Leo nor Prue knew how big an effect their healing would have in waking up a half-demon. They could heal his cut but they weren't sure how else they could help.
"Parker!" Phoebe asked, sitting bolt upright amongst the wreckage of the wardrobe doors.
"Right here, sweetie," Piper said, showing her sister the sleeping one-day- old child. "You know, being an auntie's kinda' cool. You can always hand the kid back to its Mommy."
"I definitely agree with that," Paige said, raising her hand. Her hair was disheveled and her eyes were glassy. She was leaning against the doorframe and covered her mouth to try and stifle a huge yawn she had coming on. Piper and Phoebe rolled their eyes at one another. Paige would understand. One day..
Prue was sitting on the end of Phoebe's bed, her head in her hands. She was frowning and muttering to herself. She looked up, her blue eyes confused and angered. She let out a frustrated growl.
"I can't remember!"
"What, sweetie?" Piper asked.
"What the demon said was in Latin, but I didn't hear it properly, so I don't know what he said." Piper put an arm around her.
"It's ok, you'll work it out," Piper gave her older sister's shoulders a gentle squeeze.
"I think it's time we hit the Book of Shadows." Paige said, yawning again.
"Agreed."
"I'll stay here and watch Wyatt and Parker, if you like," Leo said, holding his hand out to help Phoebe up. Phoebe accepted and got to her feet, taking Parker from Piper and putting her back in her crib.
"Thanks, Leo." Brian had just got Cole to start to stir, so Prue bent down and healed him the best she could.
"How you feeling, sweetie?" Phoebe asked. Cole sat up and rubbed his head.
"Like I got hit on the head by a lamp."
"We're going to go to the Book of Shadows, are you alright to walk?" Phoebe asked. Cole nodded.
"Uh-huh." He pulled himself up using the end of the bed for support. Leo orbed out and orbed back in with a very sleepy and confused Wyatt.
"Do you mind if I tuck him into your bed?" Leo asked Cole and Phoebe. "He's still kinda tired." Phoebe nodded.
"Sure, go ahead." All the adults except Leo left Phoebe's bedroom, and Leo listened to the footsteps fading on the stairs. The floorboards above him creaked as they entered the attic. Leo put Wyatt into the bed and covered him up. As soon as he was warm and covered up again Wyatt went straight back to sleep. Leo smiled and stroked his hair. He really hoped that it would work out between him and Piper. He missed living here, living with his son.
He sighed and sat down on the rocking chair that Veronica had bought Phoebe for her baby shower. He rocked himself slowly back and forth, every now and then checking on the two sleeping infants. The floorboards creaked again, but Leo didn't give it a second thought. Again they creaked. Then he realized that the noise was coming from *behind* him.
Suddenly the rocking chair tipped backwards with a loud crash, winding Leo. Someone was pinning his arms to the back of the chair. He struggled but they held their vice-like grip on his biceps, digging their fingers in and bruising the bone. Why had no one heard the crash? Why was no one coming?
"Wyatt, Parker, danger!" Thankfully, his niece understood and put up her shield. So did Wyatt. A strip of duct tape was put across his mouth. "Mmm! MMM!" Then somebody else was putting some sort of powder just below his nose. He turned his head to try and dislodge it but a strong hand slammed his head back down so that he was facing upwards again. Leo took a breath in through his nose at the pain, and then realized he had inhaled the dust.
"Nighty night, white-lighter." Something connected hard with his forehead and his vision swirled and went black.
"Effreno amor absum caecigenus. It's done." Rorca incinerates the packet to destroy any evidence that the Charmed Ones could use against him and then him and his crony shimmer out of the room.