Hi! As PiPeRAnGeL39 said, the last chapter was a little brutal, but I do have a way I'm going with that storyline, but I'm going to Piper and Paige, just so some time can pass (This chapter has a lighter mood!)

Explosion Erosion

'I can't believe I'm the one being stuck with this!' Piper muttered to herself, Paige and Aidan had gone to Magic School to do 'research' on the counterparts. Although Piper knew that they just wanted to be alone. If came up with any good info in the process, it would just be luck.

This meant that Piper was left with the dirty job, apparently there was a manticore hiding out around this part of the city, Piper been sitting in her car for two hours, waiting for it to show. She yawned, if this demon didn't show up soon, she would go home.

But Piper wasn't that lucky, she saw the demon and the edge of the parking lot. She sighed and got out the car, the manticore sensed her and began sniffing the air. It spotted her standing in the middle of the parking lot and ran towards her.

'Bye, bye!' Piper threw the potion at the creature, but unfortunately, it didn't die instantly, it gave the demon a small injury on its chest.

'That should have worked…' Piper squeaked to herself.

The demon conjured a fireball, which confused Piper, manticores don't have that power. It threw the ball in its hand, Piper put up her hands and froze it, but the freeze didn't even last a second! The fireball kept coming and Piper had to duck out of the way, what was wrong with her powers?

'Alright ugly, time to put you down!' she focused her energy into her hands and tried to blow him up, but only a spark appeared!

What the hell is going on with my powers!? Piper thought, the creature them screamed at her, releasing some sort of energy pulse from its mouth, that settled it, Piper thought as she got up from the ground, this isn't a manticore. It ran at her again, Piper tried to mass out to avoid being injured, but the mass didn't even hold until the demon was right next to her. It hit her across the jaw with its hand and sent her flying into a nearby car.

Piper decided it was time to call for reinforcements 'Paige! Orb you ass here now and help goddammit!'

Her sister appeared next to her in a glow of orbs 'Piper what the hell is going… on!' Paige noticed the demon is it screamed again, she pushed Piper and herself to safety before the pulse hit.

'Okay, that thing isn't a Manticore!' Paige stated

'Gee, ya think!?' Piper snapped.

'Hey! Don't yell at me sister! I came to save your ass!' Paige stood up from her crouching position behind a car and telekinetically threw the demon into another car's front window.

She turned to her sister 'Go get Aidan! Tell him I need his help! Magic School!' Paige gestured at Piper and she orbed to Magic School. She came from behind the car to continue the fight.

The demon fired another energy pulse at her, but she deflected it and sent it back at him. The demon was prepared this time, he screamed another energy pulse out to meet the rebounding one, and the result of the two pulses hitting off each other was a wave, which sent both combatants flying back.

This didn't last for long though, as both were on their feet again. The creature threw a fireball

'Fireball!' Paige shouted, it vanished in a cluster of orbs and reappeared in her hand, she then orbed out and reappeared behind the creature, and threw the fireball at the demon's back. Unfortunately, this didn't do much, the demon turned around and prepared to fire another energy pulse, but it stopped, it suddenly began shaking violently as a large icicle pierced it's back and came out through it's chest. The demon blew up, and after the smoke disappeared, Paige saw Aidan standing there, with his arm outstretched, he had obviously fired the icicle.

Paige smirked 'I didn't know you could do stuff like that,'

Aidan walked over and put his arms around her waist 'Well, ice is a form of water, so I can control it,'

'Well Aidan Parker, you are just one mystery after another aren't you?'

'Yes I am,' he answered before leaning in and kissing her, it had been a month since she had met him, and thanks to the bond they made when he healed her in the fire, their relationship had progressed quickly and Aidan was spending most nights at the Manor instead of his apartment.

'Mmmmm… okay I gotta go, I've got the late shift at the fire house,' Paige had discovered that Aidan was a fireman, which was quite fitting because of his powers, he had told her that his powers were the main reason he went into the profession, so he could use them to save people.

Paige sighed 'Alright, go and rescue pretty girls from tall burning buildings, but don't forget about me, okay?'

Aidan smiled 'Of course not,' he kissed her again, but splashed out midway, making it look as if Paige was standing alone, kissing air.

'I hate it when he does that!'


Paige orbed home, finding Piper standing over Chris in the boy's room, watching him sleep.

'What the hell-,' Paige began

'Shh!' Piper mouthed for them to go downstairs, they walked down the stairs and continued their conversation.

'Alright, I know that demon was powerful, but how did it get the better of you? When I orbed in you were on the ground!'

Piper avoided her gaze 'I think something's wrong with my powers,'

'What makes you think that?' Paige asked

Piper picked up a book on the coffee table 'This is me freezing something,' she threw the book into the air and put up her hands in the familiar gesture, the book froze but it didn't even hold for a second, a person who didn't know about magic wouldn't have even noticed the short stall in the book's flight.

'And this is me being invisible,' when she used her invisibility, you could still see her, she was only a little hazy.

'And when I try to blow up stuff, I only make a spark, and I can't hold my massing and phasing for more than a millisecond!'

'Have you told Leo?'

'He's away checking with the Elders, but what if they just get weaker and weaker until they fade away?'

Paige couldn't answer that question 'I have an idea, I'll be right back,' Paige orbed out, with an idea in her head.


'Paige? What are you doing here?' Emma deLauro, the head of the potions department at Magic School asked the visitor who had just orbed into her classroom.

'Hey Emma, I knew you'd be here, you're always working late, anyway, I need your help, you're a telempath, right?' Emma nodded her head 'Good! My sister needs your help!' Paige grabbed Emma's arm and orbed back to the manor.


'Are you sure you want to do this? It can be quite dangerous,' Emma asked the two sisters. Paige's plan was to link up with Piper's mind using Emma's powers, she could use psionic blasts like Phoebe so she could use her ability to link Paige with Piper so that she could go into her mind and find out what was wrong with her powers.

'Yeah, it's the only way, if that sort demon attacks again, I can't defend myself and Paige's powers can't really kill so I have to get to the bottom of this,'

'Alright,' Emma walked over to Paige, ready to link her up 'Piper, when Paige enters, you first instinct will be fight it, don't, just go with it and you'll be fine,' she fired a psi-blast at Paige and her journey began.


'Whoa! What happened?' Paige asked herself, she was in the attic and had no idea of how she got there.

She heard Emma's voice echo in her mind This is one of Piper's memories, the root of her power is underneath them all, you need to find it if you want to know what's going on Paige nodded to herself, she made her way to the door, only to have it opened from the other side and pass right through her, it was Phoebe. But looked different, younger she looked as if she had just woken up

'Sweetie, it's 4 o'clock in the morning. What are you doing?' she said as she walked in to the attic. Paige looked around to see who she was talking to, it was Piper, and she was sitting at the table with the Book Of Shadows open and her finger bleeding.

'You're bleeding,' Phoebe said to her obviously distressed sister as she put a cloth on the bleeding hand.

'I don't understand why magic can't fix this. And why we can't bring Prue back. It's not like we haven't cheated death before. I don't understand why this time isn't any different!' she wailed at her little sister.

'Because Leo can't heal the dead, Piper. You know that,' Phoebe answered simply.

'There's other magic, magic that we've used before, scrying, calling a lost witch, reversing time,' she slammed the book shut and stood up 'It's like the book just deserted us and deserted Prue, and I don't understand why!' Piper buried her head in her hands.

Phoebe lowered her arms in defeat

'We lost our sister, how can we ever understand that? We've tried every magical way to bring her back… but we can't, she's gone,' she wrapped her arms around her sister 'I just - I thank God that I didn't lose you too,' she pulled away from the hug and looked at Piper 'We have to get some rest, Prue will never forgive us if we look bad at her funeral,'

Piper managed to smile slightly through all her sorrow and she walked out the attic with Phoebe.

Paige watched the younger versions of her sisters go down the stairs.

'What the hell have I got myself into?'


'Found it,' Paige said to her big sister after they black orbed into the cave.

'Good, after we revive him, we'll send him after Phoebe and her friends, then the two remaining sisters, after that we'll put him back into the after life and take over with the evil power of three,'

Are you sure we'll be able to return him to the afterlife? We may have the plan, but do we have the power?'

'Yes. After Phoebe's dead, her counterpart, our sister, will be released, then if he fails in killing Piper and Paige, we have the Power Of Three, which will be more than enough to finish two sisters,'

The two sisters entered the cave, a bat flew by, it didn't scare them, but Piper decided to freeze it, just for fun, she put up her hands and in cased the bat in ice. It fell to the ground, shattering and dying instantly, she smiled at her handy work and kept going.

The two reached the back of the cave and smirked at their discovery, there seemed to be some sort of seal, it had a pentagram on it and was glowing, but it was dark at the same time.

'Looks like we found the real gate of hell,' Paige joked.

'I'm surprised other demons haven't tried to use it, I mean they would be unstoppable,' Piper responded.

'It's probably because the demons couldn't get past all those damn traps that the witches made all those years ago, not one evil being comes close to our power,'

'True, but the one we are about to release is probably quite close, are you ready?'

'Hold on, crystals, circle!' the dark matter crystals that were in the box Piper had, obeyed Paige's command and made a circle around the seal as they appeared in a swirl of black orbs.

'Ready, this way he won't try and get away when we summon him,' Paige said.

They both began chanting something, it got faster and faster and as their chanting quickened, the seal began to glow more. It became so bright that the sisters had to close their eyes. They stopped chanting and the light faded away, but there was something there that wasn't before, more like, someone.

Piper and Paige had thin smiles on their faces as they marvelled at who they had summoned, there was a man, he had long brown hair, and seemed to be dressed quite normally for someone who had been summoned from the hellish afterlife.

'Gabriel Ashlocke, I presume?' Piper asked him

Ashlocke smirked 'Filthy demons, you just made a big mistake summoning me!' he threw an energy blast at Paige, but the black crystals that surrounded him started to glow blood red, and the blast fizzled out when it reached the barrier, he recoiled with a surprised look on his face.

'And you made the big mistake of assuming we're 'filthy demons'' Paige warned him.

Piper walked around the seal and looked him in the eye

'We need to talk,'


'This is getting ridiculous!' Paige said to herself, she had seen so many of Piper's memories, that she was confident she could tell her sister's life story to anyone that asked. She decided to ask for help 'Emma!' she called out, looking at the ceiling 'I'm getting nowhere! I need help,'

Alright, I'll see what I can do she answered.

Back in the real world, Emma talked to Piper 'Piper, you're drowning Paige in irrelevant memories, throw her a life ring, help her out,' although both sisters were unconscious, Piper's eyelids flickered in recognition.

After watching Wyatt being born, the scene changed again, Paige was still standing in the foyer, but the weather outside was awful it was dark and stormy. Her thoughts were interrupted when an a lot younger Piper ran through her ghostly body, followed by another woman, they were heading to the door

'Don't you think you're overreacting? We're perfectly safe here,' the woman said

'Don't say that,' Piper replied 'In horror movies, the person who says that is always the next to die,'

The woman spoke again 'It is pouring rain, there's a psycho on the loose and Jeremy's not even home,'

Piper was pulling on her jacket by this time 'Well I'll-I'll-I'll wait in the cab until he gets home,' she stuttered.

'That'll be cheap,'

'Prue, I saw that pointer move!' Paige gasped; the woman was her dead big sister, Prue!

Prue continued 'No, look, what you saw was Phoebe's fingers pushing the pointer, there's nothing in the attic, she's playing a joke on us,'

'We don't know that. We've lived in this house for months and we've never been able to get that attic door open,' she walked over to the phone 'Great, now the phone doesn't work,' she put it back down in defeat.

'Yeah, the power's out. Look, go with me to the basement,'

'What?' Piper's voice was high now.

'I need you to hold the flashlight while I check out the main circuit box,' Prue replied.

'Phoebe will go with you to the basement, won't you Phoebe?' Piper turned to look at a very young Phoebe who was heading up the stairs.

'Nope, I'm going to the attic,' she started up the steps.

'No, you're not. We already agreed,' the oldest Haliwell ordered.

Phoebe turned and shone the flashlight in her eyes 'I am not waiting for some handyman to check out the attic and I'm certainly not waiting until tomorrow. I'm going now,' she climbed the stairs.

Prue stormed into the living room in frustration with Piper running after her.

Paige was tempted to follow Prue, but for some reason, she was drawn towards the attic. She climbed to the top of the stairs to the attic, expecting to find Phoebe, but instead there was a portal in the attic doorway. She thought that it would be the only to progress in Piper's mind, so Paige stepped through the portal.

She didn't find the attic, that was for sure! She was a room that was filled with bright lights; the rest the room was pitch black. In the centre, there seemed to be one big light were all the little ones were going into, she had found the root of Piper's powers.

By looking at the light, she achieved some sort of clarity, it was such a tranquil feeling, if Piper's power were on the fritz and they looked like this, she could only imagine how beautiful her working powers would be.

By the looks of things, Piper's powers seemed to be conserving themselves, but for what reason? Maybe because she was using them too much, or more likely it was preparing for a power advancement.

It seemed that as Paige figured it out, there was a bright flash appeared and she was back in the Manor, with Piper and Emma standing over her.

'Oh God! Please tell me this isn't another memory!' Paige pleaded.

'Don't worry! It isn't! And I'm glad you find my life so interesting,' Piper retorted sarcastically.

'So? Did you find out what you needed,' Emma asked.

'Well, as soon as I thought that Piper was getting a power advancement, I was thrown out so I'm guessing that's what's wrong. Her powers are conserving their energy for the upgrade,'

'Wait a minute, I'm getting a power advancement?' Piper questioned her sister

'Seems like it,' they were all standing now.

'Awwww… isn't this touching?'

The three wheeled around to see the evil Piper and Paige, a man accompanied them, Emma went white when she saw who it was.

'Miss me Emma?' he asked her with a malevolent tone in his voice, he fired a powerful energy blast at her. Paige was about to orb it back at him, but Emma stepped forward and raised some sort of shield, which the blast bounced off harmlessly.

'I'll take care of her, get rid of the other two!' the man ordered

'With pleasure,' Paige said, as a crossbow smoked into her hand, she aimed at her good counterpart and fired.

Piper instantly recoiled from the thought of confrontation, since her powers weren't working properly, how could she protect herself against… herself!

Piper ran for the dining room, but she wasn't fast enough, the force from a nearby explosion sent her to the ground. Her counterpart walked up to her crippled body.

'Hmmmm…It's not like me to run from a fight,' she sneered, she put up her hands to deliver the final blow, when Piper put up her hands instinctively.

Her powers had come back! And even better than before! The blast sent her counterpart through the ceiling and severely injured.

Seeing that one of their allies was down, Paige and Gabriel realised that they were out numbered and left the fight, carrying Piper with him.

'Are you okay?' Paige asked her sister as she helped her up from the floor.

'Yeah, can't say the same for my counterpart though,'

'Or your ceiling, or most of your living room!' Emma stated, Piper gasped as she surveyed the damage from her power advancement, there was a large hole in the ceiling and most of her furniture was on fire.

'Oh my God! I did all that?'

'Well, no, but most of it, the rest is mine and Emma's fault,'

Emma looked instantly guilty 'I'm sorry! I'll pay for and replace anything I damaged!' she said hurriedly

'Ugh… don't worry about it, I'll fix it with magic or something, but I can be tomorrow's problem, along with all of the other problems,'

'I second that, I'm going to bed,' Paige began to walk upstairs with Piper.

'Um…okay… I'll just leave,' Emma realised she was talking to herself and quickly walked out of the house

Alright! I know, not one of my best, but as I said it was just a time filler, I'm back to MX now and the next two chapters are going to be really long and good (I hope!)

Chapter 12 'R and R' will be up soon!