Alright I have decided! I'm making this a split story and Piper and Paige are going to have a big bad to fight, as well as Phoebe, but can they beat it without each others help?
The Centaur Mentor'Dammit,' a very flustered Paige Matthews cursed as she dropped the grocery bag that was holding, on to foot. She fumbled about with her keys; she was wearing gloves, which made it harder to find the right key. Paige shivered and looked up at the sky and weather forecast said it was to snow tonight, and she didn't doubt it, already there was dull grey clouds covering the winter night sky. She finally found the right key and unlocked the door, proceeded to pick up the items that had fell out of the shopping bag and entered the warmth of the house.
'Piper! Where are you?' Paige called out to her big sister; she took off her gloves,
unwound her scarf, removed her coat and hung them up at the door. After not getting an answer from Piper, she decided to investigate upstairs.
Piper sitting in a meditating position on her bedroom floor, a peaceful new age soundtrack was emitting from the stereo, when she felt she was ready, Piper began.
She had had trouble controlling her massing and phasing powers ever since she got them, since they both had the same trigger, like her freezing and exploding power, when she went to do one, she did the other and she was willing to try anything to stop this from happening. After all, it could be life saving, if she jumped in front of someone to mass out and take an energy ball for him or her, she might phase by accident and the energy ball would go straight through her, and hit the person she was trying to protect.
Piper decided she was ready, her breathing was the trigger, and so she took a deep breath and tried to mass out. Her body defied her mind and began to phase, but she set herself back on track and massed, then she phased, then massed, then phased, and she hadn't did it all by accident.
Piper smiled Mass, phase, mass, phase, mass… she thought, she finally had her power down.
Suddenly, Paige came bursting through the door as Piper phased, she was startled by this and ended up going through the floor and landing on Leo, who had just orbed in from Magic School.
'Ooooo sorry!' Paige said apologetically as she ran down the stairs to meet her annoyed, but unharmed sister.
'People knock Paige! People usually knock!' said a pissed Piper before she lifted herself off her husband.
Leo, still a little dazed, got up with a groan.
'Do you need anything healed?' Paige asked.
'No I'm fine, all I need is an ice pack,' he answered rubbing his head
'Why would you need an ice pack? Am I heavy?' Piper said, sounding hurt.
'No, it's just that you accidentally punched me with one of your rings during you 'graceful' descent'
'Oh, okay I'll get you one honey,' she said, sounding like her caring self now that she was satisfied with the answer.
Leo followed her into the kitchen, leaving Paige alone in the foyer.
'Is anybody gonna help with these shopping bags?' she asked in vain.
The next morning, Piper was surprised what she saw, the snow had fell very thickly during the night, and it was still going! Leo had already left; being a headmaster of a school meant he had to be away early and usually in late. But Piper didn't always mind, she just thought that the time she did get to spend with him was more meaningful.
She opened the door and made her way downstairs, to run into Paige, who had her hair in a towel, a coffee mug in her hand and a stumble in her step.
'Good Morning,' she said wearily.
'Obviously it's not, what's wrong?' questioned Piper.
'I slept in, I'm late for work and this coffee tastes like crap,' her baby sister answered dryly as she pasted Piper on the stairs and went straight to her room.
Piper turned on the TV in the kitchen and began to make breakfast for her and the boys, she was getting Chris's bottle ready when she saw the news report.
'Traffic is backlogged all through the city because of the record amounts of snow, if you're trying to get to work, you'll be waiting a long time,' the weather girl said cheerfully.
Piper sneered at the screen, that weather girl always seemed to be in a good mood, despite if it was raining, snowing, Piper was willing to bet that even if meteors where falling from the sky, she would still be smiling her pearly white smile.
Paige appeared at the door, ready to go to work, but as soon as she saw the weather report, her face fell.
'Ugh, how am I going to get to work with all that snow?' she said dismayed with he face in her hands.
'Hmmmmmm… that's a problem, and one I don't have time for, because I also have to go to work,'
Paige's face suddenly split into a large grin.
'It's okay, I think I just solved my problem.' She picked up her purse 'Want a lift on the orb train?'
Piper sighed 'No thanks, when this little bit of personal gain bites you in the ass, I don't want to be a part of it,'
'Your loss,' her little sister answered simply before she disappeared in a swirl of white lights
Paige orbed into her office, she had a quick look around, and she seemed to be the only person here. She decided to get to work on the large pile of foster parent review papers that had mounted up on her desk.
There was a bright flash coming from outside her office, she looked and instantly regretted orbing to work.
A portal had opened up in the middle of the room, Paige was even more amazed at what came through, a man rode in on a horse and crashed into a wall, Paige was about to check on him, when another thing came through… it was a demon!
The demon seemed to be quite barbaric, he was tall, and was wearing a big goofy grin on his face. He formed an energy ball and was preparing to finish and horse rider off when Paige grabbed his attention.
'Hey!' Paige called out threateningly
The demon turned around and saw, what he thought, was easy prey, but he was wrong. He launched the ball at Paige who deflected it back with her telekinetic powers. The demon seemed to not be affected by this rebound attack, Paige then threw out her arm, and the demon went flying into a nearby desk.
She suddenly remembered what she kept in her purse in case of emergencies.
'Potion!' she called.
The potion disappeared from the purse in her office and rematerialized in her hand.
She walked up to the demon and threw the potion; she had made it to stun enemies, and not to kill. The demon was knocked out and lay in the remains of her secretary's desk. She took this time to examine the first thing that had come through the portal and gasped. It seemed that the top of a man was on where the horse's head should be; the 'man' was unconscious because of the arrow that was in his shoulder. Paige then realised it wasn't a man, it was a centaur.
Piper stood in the Great Hall at Magic School, tapping for foot in annoyance, she had warned Paige not to orb to work, and now something like this happens, she was planning going with Leo to the park with the boys so they could enjoy snow for the first time, but magic, yet again, was getting in the way.
Paige came down the long hallway to face her big sister, this was a confrontation that she was dreading, she decided just to stick to the facts and get out of there as soon as possible.
'I stuck the demon in a crystal cage in one of the dungeons, he won't be getting out anytime soon, let alone waking up,'
'What about your four-legged friend?'
'Leo's helping me look for the spell to give him two legs, we can't heal his wound until he's human so we need to find it fast,'
'Why not just write your own spell?'
'With our history? No thank you,'
'Oh so it's now you decide to preach about magic backfiring on us,'
That hurt, Paige thought, but she did deserve it.
'Look I said I was sorry, what more do you want?'
Piper just looked down at the floor, still tapping her foot.
'Just find the spell, I'll go and interrogate our 'witness',' she said as she made her way to the dungeon.
It's times like this I really miss Phoebe thought Paige; she sighed and began looking through the shelves for any books on transmographication.
After 3 hours of searching and centaur life saving, Leo found a book that might be useful.
'Look here, it has a potion to turn animals into humans,' he said as he showed the Paige the book.
'I think we've got most of these herbs at home, and the blood won't be a problem since that wound hasn't stopped bleeding, but I don't if we have that,' she said pointing at a place on the page.
'I think we have some of that in the potions lab, I'll go check,' Leo said and he walked off the potions district of the school.
Piper walked in to the library holding the Book Of Shadows, she seemed to have cooled down as she gave Paige eye contact as she walked in the room.
'Well our buddy downstairs is holding out on us, but he is in the book,' she announced as she handed the book to Paige.
'Lower level Mercenary Demons,' she read aloud 'This is the less intelligent species of Mercenary Demon, put is popular as their services are cheap, they are easy to control, and as they are common, a lot can be hired at the same time,' she stopped and looked at Piper 'That means that someone might have more of these ready to attack?'
'Probably, but as I said, he's holding out on us, but I did fid some info on centaurs,' she turned a couple of pages in the book and her sister began to read aloud again.
'Although centaurs are mythical creatures, they have no magical power, and are only considered supernatural because of their fame throughout magical tales,' Paige stopped again 'That means that he wasn't the one who opened the portal,'
'Hold on there missy, read on,'
Paige complied 'However, in some rare cases, centaurs are born with extreme magical power, they are considered lords of their tribes and are usually leaders. Their magic is coveted by many as because of it's raw, unshaped power, it is useful for rituals and sacrifices, and considered dangerous for any non-centaur to absorb,' she looked at the centaur that was lying on the floor, and suddenly realised that they didn't have time for this 'Okay, could look after him?' she asked, pointing at the centaur 'I need to orb home and get find the herbs we need to make the potion that turns him human,' Piper nodded 'Thanks, if all goes well, you still take the boys to the park,'
'What? How do you know?'
'Leo told me, he's looking forward to it,' she winked before she orbed out.
'He failed? Oh they will not be happy,' said one of the mercenary captains, who was currently sitting in his underworld chambers, hearing that one of his men had been captured.
'I don't see why we're working for them, they're what we fight against,' his second in command said.
'Ah, they may look like our enemies, but there are anything but, and when they come to full power again, The Charmed Ones will be finished,' he answered, clasping his hands and smiling.
'What about the centaur?'
'What about him?'
'The witches have him,'
'No matter, they'll bring him out into the open once they've healed them,'
'But we were lucky to get a shot at him last time, how are we gonna do it again? And then there's the witches to worry about if they find out they'll…ugh!'
The demon was stopped in mid sentence as he was blown up from behind, two people could be seen in the shadows, but their faces weren't visible.
'He was too negative,' a woman's voice said. The captain was immediately on his knees in front of the two people.
'You better get us that centaur Craydon, or you'll be next.' Another woman's voice said threateningly.
'Ladies, I can assure you we'll get him, but The Charmed Ones-,'
'The Charmed Ones will have to deal with us if they interfere again, now go!' the second woman shouted, the demon immediately shimmered out in fear.
'You do know that until we break the bond we have with The Charmed Ones, our fight would just end up being a stalemate,' the first woman said mockingly.
'Of course I do! Just because I'm not the oldest doesn't mean I'm any less smarter, but we may need to keep The Charmed Ones distracted if Craydon fails,'
'Yes, and it's something I'm looking forward to,' the woman stepped out of the shadows, she was medium height, had long brown hair that went down to the small of her back, and was wearing normal human clothes… it was Piper!
Paige orbed back in to the library holding the jars that held the herbs they needed, she walked and found and looked for Piper, who she found in the nursery with Wyatt and Chris, she was sitting down on the floor playing with them. She hadn't noticed her little sister's presence so Paige decided to do this alone, she was better at making potions than Piper anyway.
It suddenly hit Paige, how much time does Piper spend away from her family? Probably more than she does with them, and she knew that it wasn't by choice.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise from the library, Piper came out of the nursery to investigate, it sounded like a spooked horse… The centaur!
The two sisters ran into the library; only to find Leo on the floor, and the centaur up on its hind legs, ready to bring his front legs down on Leo! Piper quickly put hand up and froze the scene; she then unfroze Leo, who was glad to see the centaur had been stopped in his tracks.
He stood up, obviously shaken 'Here's the herb you wanted,' he handed the plant to Paige.
'Thanks, what happened?' she enquired.
'Well, I came in here looking for you guys, when he woke up and started going crazy! I couldn't exactly throw a lightning bolt at him so I tried to talk to him, that's where you guys came in,'
'Alright, Paige, make that potion, he'll be a lot less dangerous when he's human, you,' she said looking at Leo 'go and see if that demon ready to talk yet, I'll stay and keep hoof boy frozen,' she looked the statue wearily…
Paige announced that the potion was ready and came into the library.
'He unfroze at all yet?' she asked her sister.
'Twice, and I think he's figuring how to fight it off,' she answered; Piper had sat down on one of the big comfy chairs that the library offered.
'Alright, you ready?' Paige asked her sister, who just nodded.
Piper unfroze the centaur and was surprised when its front legs finally came crashing down on the floor. Paige took the creature's confusion as the perfect opportunity to throw the potion. It smashed off the animal's torso and slowly began to turn his horse legs into human ones.
Leo was there to cover the man with his robe after the transformation had taken place, Paige pouted at this, calling him a spoilsport. The man immediately fell to the ground, not being used to his new legs, not to mention he was still bleeding, but that was taken care of after Paige healed him.
'Where am I? Who are you? What have you done to me?' he obviously had a lot of questions, Piper decided to answer them factually.
'Magic School, witches, and we turned you human so we could heal you wound, so now I have questions, why was that demon chasing you and why did think it was appropriate to materialize into my sister's office?'
'He stood up from his seat, he stumbled a little nut then got his balance, he seemed to be getting the hang of human legs 'That demon was after what all demons are after, my powers, and the reason I went to your sister is because she was the closest and most powerful force a could sense,'
Paige seemed to be honoured by this, but continued the questions 'Yeah, we guessed he was after you for your power, but he's just a lower level demon, surely you could have taken care of him?' Paige then realised something and laughed 'I'm sorry we don't even know your name,'
The man smiled at her before turning to look out the window, 'My name Rodan, and the reason I came to you is because this runs a lot deeper than mercs,'
'What do you mean?' Piper asked
'There is something on the horizon, something more powerful than anything you've faced, I have seen it in the stars, I believe that they hired the demons to do their bidding,' he said in a low voice.
Piper and Paige looked at each other, they really wanted this to be over and done with, Paige hadn't been to work all day and Piper wanted to spend time with her family.
'Well, we have the means to take out the mercs but we can't do anything about the super strong evil that you're talking about.' Paige said, waving the mercenary vanquishing potions at him.
'But if there is something controlling these guys they're going to keep coming after him,' said Piper, then an idea hit her 'How would you feel about us stripping your powers?'
Rodan's eyes widened, and so did his smile 'Are you kidding? I would love to be powerless! That way I don't have to be a leader or do important stuff for the tribe anymore!'
'Leo, can we do even do that?' Paige asked
'Of course, all magic is the same, no matter what kind of species it's in,'
'Alright then! Let's get rid of those pesky powers for you shall we?'…
There was an entire horde of mercenaries in Craydon's chambers; he ordered them to be on standby until they sensed the centaur come out hiding.
'I'm getting bored!' one of them said.
'Silence!' Craydon bellowed, there was silence, then the same demon piped up again
'Those witches are cowards! Let's bring the fight to them!' there was a roar of approval, then silence began to creep in from the back, the demon who began the rally was hit by a lightning bolt and vanquished.
'How about we bring the fight to you instead?' a voice said.
The demons turned around to see Leo, Piper and Paige standing at the cave entrance, with murderous looks on their faces.
Leo and Piper began to vanquish and demons with ease, lightning bolts and explosions were flying all over the place, Paige covered them by throwing potions and deflecting any attacks that came at them.
Once there were all dead, Craydon stood up 'The centaur?'
'Free, and powerless,' Piper answered before blowing him up and sending him to hell.
The three of them orbed out to go and enjoy the snow as a family, they got the boys ready for going out before they come down here.
After they disappeared Piper and Paige came out of the shadows, but there were different, more like it was a different Piper and Paige.
'You have to hand it to our counterparts, they sure do know how to throw a demonic massacre,'
'Yes, I just hope we do ten times the amount of damage when we attack,' Paige answered her big sister.
'So do I, lets go home,' Piper answered, Paige took her hand and dark orbed out of the cave,'
It had been dark for quite a while now, but that didn't stop the Haliwells, Paige was helping the boys build a snowman as Piper and Leo cuddled on a nearby bench.
Paige decided to break their calmness by throwing a snowball at Piper, which hit her square in the face!
'Paige Matthews! I'm going to break your legs for that!' Piper warned, Paige just laughed it off and began running away from her angry sister. Paige kept a steady pace, making sure she didn't slip, Piper however, intent on getting revenge, lost her balance and fell!
Paige began laughing again, but stopped when Piper wasn't moving, she walked up to her sister to make sure she was alright.
She was surprised when Piper suddenly got up and hurled a snowball at her, which it her face.
'Gotcha!' Piper laughed at the shocked look on her face.
Paige began to laugh too 'Oh! You're gonna pay for that sister!' she said.
This went on for another 15 minutes and 15 minutes more after Leo was hit by accident and he decided to join in, the children just laughed. When they were walking home Piper realised, that, even just for a little while, she had had a normal life…
So… tired… that took 7 pages on Microsoft Word! But I feel it was worth it! I especially liked the ending
I haven't decided on Chapter 7 yet, more Piper and Paige, or back to Phoebe? If you want a say, you need to review!
