Princess Pinky – Leo orbs Grams back to the afterlife all the time, so just because Andy isn't there with her, it doesn't mean that Prue is lonely in the afterlife, she won't be lonely at all with what I'm planning for her! ;) Thanks for reviewing!
wyatt333 – I may give Paige a new power… I haven't decided yet, and thanks for reviewing as always!
Mind, No Body, Just Soul'Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm on my way in right now! I'm in my car,' Paige lied, even though it was a Saturday, apparently there was an important meeting that her boss wanted out of the way before he went on vacation, which didn't make his employee's happy as he was ruining their weekend.
Emma walked through from the kitchen into the dining room to sit down and eat her cereal; this is what she loved about being a teacher, the great holidays. She looked around the table. Leo was trying to persuade Wyatt to eat his eggs and toast, while Piper struggled with Chris in the highchair as he was throwing food onto the floor.
Paige paced the foyer, still fighting with her boss, she put the phone to her shoulder 'Hey, Em? When's the latest Kick Boxing class tonight?' she turned to her redheaded friend.
Emma swallowed a bite of cereal 'Um… I think it's 8: 30; I'll go check the pamphlet,' she ran upstairs to her room. Paige and Emma had been taking Judo classes every week so they could how to protect themselves without the use of powers.
'Ugh! Great!' Paige looked down at her pants, the stray piece of food that Chris had threw landed just above her knee, she groaned and hung up the phone, slamming it down on the table.
'Wow, if you keep doing that, you're gonna have to buy a new cell,' Piper quipped.
Paige sat down and let her head fall to the table 'Ow…' she said from underneath her hair.
'Paige, why don't you just take a day off? You've been working so hard over the last couple of months,' Leo offered his opinion as Wyatt finally finished off his breakfast.
'I can't, I have a ton of paperwork to get through, abusive parents to investigate, foster parents to interview… the list is endless,' she placed her hands under her chin to support her head 'Not to mention demon attacks, the counterparts. The only time I get to see Aidan is when we're doing research! And even he's working double shifts at the firehouse! Do you realise how hard it is to fit all of our feelings into a couple of hours a week?'
Piper walked around the table and wrapped a supportive arm around Paige's shoulders
'Paige, I'm sure this heavy spell at work is just a passing thing, so you just need to ride it out and hope for the best,' she walked into the kitchen with dirty breakfast dishes.
'You're right, tell me about your plans for today, and leave out the good things. I want to know that someone else is suffering besides me,'
The phone rang on the table, Paige picked it up 'Hello? Uh… yeah! Traffic's really bad. What's that,' Paige began to make crackling noises 'Oh, sorry sir! The line's breaking up!' she made more crackling noises and hung up, 'I gotta go…' she told Leo wearily before heading towards the door.
'Uh…Paige?' Leo said cautiously
She sighed 'What?'
'Your pants,'
She looked and saw that the food stain was still there, she let out a groan of frustration and climbed the stairs to her room.
Paige walked out the exit of her new office building, her social services firm had been moved after the fire caused by the warlock, Gart, had burned the her old office to the ground. She did have to thank Gart though, because if it hadn't been for his fire, she never would have met Aidan. She smiled when she thought of her boyfriend, she was tempted to just blow off the rest of the day and go and spend time with him. Her smile vanished when he heard muffled screams coming from a nearby alley. She decided to investigate, as it was her nature to save the innocent. She walked up the alley and saw that it was empty. Paige was about to leave when someone cut off her exit.
'Going somewhere? Witch!' the person snarled
Paige sighed 'I've had a real pissy day today!' she said 'But I think wailing on some pathetic demons will help. Trash can!' she ordered a nearby trash can to disappear in a flurry of orbs, and reappear on the demons head, cutting off his vision. Paige decided to see how well she could fight using her powers. She picked a large broken piece of wood, and began hitting the side of the trash can repeatedly, causing the demon's head inside a lot of pain.
The demon shimmered out, leaving the trash can on the ground and rematerialized behind Paige.
'What are you gonna do now?' he smirked and conjured an energy ball.
'I'm gonna kick your scrawny bee-hind! That's what I'm gonna do!' she was going to attack again, but heard a voice on the roof.
'Come and get me witch!' a dark lighter taunted from the roof.
'What are you gonna do now?' the demon bounced the energy ball in his hand
The two evil beings continued their taunts, with Paige looking back and forth between the two. Because of her confliction of where to go, her astral projection power activated.
As Paige's soul was travelling to the roof, the dark lighter signalled the demon below to do something. The demon nodded and took a potion from his pocket and poured it down Paige's throat.
Astral Paige appeared next to the dark lighter 'Looking for me?' he turned around just in time to receive one of the moves that Paige had learned at her Judo class. He went over the edge of the roof but dark orbed out before he hit the ground.
'C'mon let's get her out of here!' the demon hissed to his partner.
'Relax. She can't get back thanks to that potion,' the dark lighter replied calmly
Paige looked over the side of the roof and saw her body being lifted up by the two beings. She quickly tried to return and was horrified when she couldn't! All she could was watch the demon and dark lighter disappear with her body.
'Aidan! Aidan!' Astral Paige called out in the middle of the roof. For some reason, Aidan was always the one she called out for when she was in trouble. She just felt safe knowing that he was aware of the problem and was going to do everything to fix it. There was a surge of water arising from the ground, Paige watched as it slowly took the form of her boyfriend.
'Paige what's wrong? I sensed your distress when you called me,' Aidan walked over to her, immediately concerned. Paige smiled, this was one of the reasons why she loved him, he would do anything for her. She quickly scanned her thoughts; did she just say in her mind that she loved him? This thought sent fireworks through her astral body as she realised that she really did love him. Paige shook herself back to reality; there would be time for self-reflection and proclamations of love later.
'It's a long story, could you please splash me home?' she asked.
'Sure, but what's wrong with your powers?' he questioned.
'As I said, long story. Let's go,' she took his hand and he squeezed it reassuringly as he splashed out.
'Emma look out!' Piper screamed as the demon fired another energy ball. Emma turned around just in time to use her telempathy and send the ball in the other direction. The energy ball hit the demon, but barely fazed him.
'Okay, that does it!' Piper stomped her foot, which send a ground cracking fissure through her living room and opening a hole in the floor. The demon was swallowed by the abyss and was vanquished when he reached the earth's core. Piper's geokinetic abilities were still a little shaky, she could easily make a fissure, all she needed was to be really angry and with one stamp of her foot, she'd make a hole, her only problem was closing them after they have served their purpose.
'Piper! Close it!' Emma shouted as she watched the sofa fall into the earth.
'I can't! LEO!' she screamed for her husband, who immediately appeared after hearing his wife's tone.
'Get the kids outta here! Now!' she ordered, he nodded and orbed away to get Wyatt and Chris out of danger.
'Piper, freeze it or something!' Emma shrieked she was backed up against the wall, if the hole got any bigger, it would take her.
Paige and Aidan appeared in the foyer and could hear and feel the rumbling coming from the living room.
Piper finally stopped the fissure from growing with her freezing power and saw Paige and Aidan enter.
'Oh thank God! One of you go over there and get Emma!' Piper said, pointing at the redhead in the corner who was standing on the edge of the chasm. The couple exchanged a look, Aidan spoke up.
'Uh… I'll get her,' he was consumed by a tower of water and reappeared the same way next to Emma, who was glad of the rescue.
'What!? You lost your body!?' Piper screamed in disbelief as they in the sunroom, the living room had a slight flooring problem at the moment.
'Well, I astral projected, the demons took my body and I can't get back to it,' Paige admitted shamefully.
'How…how…. How can that happen? You astral project all the time!' her big sister exclaimed
'Yeah, well, I can't, so let's get back to the problem at hand! Some horrible demon has his paws on my beautiful body…' Paige groaned buried her face in her hands.
'Aw… well, aren't we the little narcissist?' Emma joked
Paige shot her a glare 'This… isn't… funny!' she tossed a cushion from the sofa at Emma, who caught it just in time.
'Okay!' Aidan announced as he walked down the stairs with the Book of Shadows in hand 'According to this,' he tapped the page 'What happened to you has happened to another witch in the past,'
'How did she cure it?' Paige asked hopefully
'Uh… she didn't,' Paige groaned at his answer 'Unfortunately, there's more bad news, your body will only survive for so long without it's astral self, if your body dies…'
'I die too,' Paige finished off
Aidan sighed 'Yeah,' he looked at her with sad eyes.
Emma remained hopeful 'Well, she may not have cured it, but we will! Paige, where were you attacked?'
'Uh… the alley next to my office, why?'
'Well, how about Piper and me do a little re-con? I might be able to get a vision,'
'You get premonitions?' Piper asked
'Hmm… I wouldn't call them premonitions… there more like… psychic echoes, I can sorta feel what happened at the place,' Emma explained.
Leo orbed in, he had been checking with his fellow Elders on Paige's condition.
'Anything?' Piper asked him.
He sighed 'On curing it? No. But they think that demon is behind this and it's not just a malfunction in your powers,'
'Okay, stay here, take care of Paige, and look in the book,' Piper said as she walked off with Emma.
'Where are you going?'
'To do the CSI part of our job,' Piper called before Leo heard the front door shut.
Paige once again put her face in her hands and sighed, Aidan knelt down in front of her and took her hands.
'Paige, we're gonna fix this. So don't think this is the end, and… well… I was gonna keep this surprise until tonight but I think you need a cheer up. I got us reservations at your favourite Italian restaurant for tonight, you know? The little one downtown?'
Paige smiled 'You did?'
He nodded 'We've both been working so hard lately, normally and magically, but I thought that we could have at least one night together without having to do research!' he grinned.
She laughed 'You are so sweet…'
She leaned down to his kneeling level and kissed him, it was about to get more passionate when Leo came back from the other room.
'I fixed the fissure in the living room so… oh! Sorry!' he winced at his actions.
'No, it's all right. We need to get back to business anyway…' her eyes widened as she finished her sentence 'Business… oh no! Work! What am I gonna do?' She stood up and looked around for her purse.
'Calm down… I'll call your work and tell them you had a family emergency,' Aidan walked off in search of the phone.
'Say I'm sick! There's only so many times the 'family emergency' thing works,'
'You getting anything?' Piper asked Emma, who was walking around the alleyway and was in deep concentration.
'There's… something… but it's hard to describe…' she replied.
'Try me,'
'It's like… Paige is here…trying to tell me something… but…' Emma narrowed her eyes and continued walking.
'Are all telempaths as spacey as you?' Piper smirked.
Emma stopped and turned around 'No, the powerful we are, the more freaky we get!' she smiled 'Now shush! I need to concentrate!' she went back to looking like she was in a trance. Piper followed Emma's movements, until Emma stopped and bent down to look at the ground.
'What are we looking at?' Piper asked bluntly.
'This,' Emma pointed to a speck of moisture in the ground.
'What is it?'
'I think…' Emma narrowed her eyes again 'I think this is part of the potion that isn't allowing Astral Paige to return to her body,'
'Wow! You really are good!' Piper said, impressed
'Thank you, maybe we can use what we now know to help,' Emma replied.
Piper and Emma walked into the house where they saw that the living room was back to normal; they also saw Paige meditating on the coffee table.
'Argh! I can't do it!' Paige shouted in frustration.
'Paige, you can do it,' Aidan sat in a chair with a very happy Chris in his lap 'You just need to focus,'
Paige let out an exasperated sigh 'Would you stop doting over my nephew and help please?'
'I'm not doting, we're just getting along, aren't we, little guy?'
Chris laughed and nodded his head 'Yeah! Uncle Aidan's the bestest!' he replied.
Paige and Aidan shared an awkward look 'Uh… he's not as far as your uncle, honey,' Paige said to Chris 'Yet…' she winked at Aidan, to let him know she was joking, she didn't want to scare him off.
Aidan noticed Piper and Emma smiling in the foyer, 'Uh… Chris? Why don't you get your toy cars out? I'll be along in a minute,' Aidan set Chris down on the floor; he went up to his room to get his toys.
'I think Paige got the only great guy in the city,' Emma whispered to Piper who laughed.
'Where's Wyatt?' Piper asked
'Oh, he's in the sunroom watching TV,' Aidan replied
'And Leo?'
Aidan simply looked up to the ceiling and Piper knew what he meant
Paige opened her eyes to see her sister and friend watching her, 'Hey! So, what'd you guys find out?'
'We found out…' Piper sat down 'That the demon drugged your body with a potion when you were in astral form, so that's what's not allowing you to return to your body.
'Do you think they're in league with the counterparts?' Aidan asked
'Possibly. Let's not rule anything out. Anyway, how are things on your end?' Piper asked.
Paige looked at her wearily 'Not good. The only help we got from the book is that someone's real self and astral self can't exist at the same time,'
'But we already know that!' Emma flopped into a chair.
Paige nodded 'And what's worse, I'm starting to feel a bit strange. I think my body is dying,'
Everyone shared sorrowful looks, until Piper sat up properly.
'I've got it!'
'Got what?' Paige asked
'Emma! She can stimulate your body's mind with her powers!' Paige and Emma looked confused, but Aidan caught on to Piper's plan.
'Don't you see? It's like the book said! Someone's real self and astral self can't exist at the same time! So that means that if Emma can blast Paige's mind with an awakening jolt, it will force Astral Paige to return!'
'Uh… I hate to be a downer, but we can't even find my body! Let alone work this crazy mojo we're planning!' Paige protested.
'What? You don't have faith in me?' Emma asked
'It's not that it's just…' Paige stopped mid-sentence and smiled.
'What?'
She got off the coffee table and started flipping the pages of the Book of Shadows; she stopped and slapped the page in front of her.
'That's what!' she said triumphantly.
'To summon an astral spirit…' Emma read aloud 'How does that help us?'
'It can't… yet,' Paige began to explain 'If I can re-word it a little, I can use it to send me to my body and you guys follow, save the day and my body!'
Piper gave her a sceptic look 'That's so crazy!' she smiled 'It might actually work!'
Paige nodded furiously 'Yeah! Okay! I'll get to work!'
'Would you stop pacing!? This'll work I tell you,' the darklighter said to his demonic partner, who nervous about the Charmed Ones coming after him.
'I'm telling you! The witches are gonna come after us!' he rubbed his hands together nervously.
'You know, I don't know why they paired me with you, but I'm not putting up with it anymore!' the darklighter conjured his crossbow and shot his companion, vanquishing him instantly.
'Killing your own kind? That's sad,' a voice said behind him, he turned around to see his bosses, but as he looked closer, he realised they were his enemies. He began to dark orb out, but Piper froze him then unfroze his head.
'Aha! My precious body!' Paige spotted her body on the other side of the room,
'Well? Go get it!' Piper said, the others went over to the real Paige as Piper began questioning the witness.
'Who sent you?' she asked, the darklighter remained silent 'Oh, so that's how it's gonna be,' she flicked her wrists and blew up his hand. The darklighter screamed in pain, but was unable to move due to the freeze.
'You know, the only reason I didn't blow up your entire arm is so that I have more body parts to destroy and ultimately cause you pain,' Piper said with fake sadness.
'I'll never talk, witch!' he spat.
'No, you won't, not after I blow up your head,' Piper bluffed, she put up her hands just to scare him into talking. It worked.
'Okay! Okay! I'll talk! It was the-,' he blew up in mid sentence, only leaving a pile of dust.
Paige walked over to her sister, she was back in her body and she surveyed the pile of ash on the floor 'Nice going!' she said sarcastically, 'Now we'll never know,'
'What?' Piper looked hurt, 'I didn't do that!'
'No, I did,' a voice came from the shadows
Piper and Paige wheeled around to see their duplicates from out from the darkness.
'We've really gotta stop meeting like this,' the Paige standing in the shadows said.
'Aidan… Get Emma out of here…' Piper whispered.
'But…' he began to protest
'Now!' Piper shouted, Aidan didn't take it any further and splashed out with Emma.
'So this is what it's come down to? You kill us or we kill you?' Paige asked.
'Way of the world,' her counterpart answered before conjuring her crossbow. The fight had begun.
'Ugh! I'm so sick of that thing! Don't you do anything else? Crossbow!' Paige called for the crossbow in her twin's hand; it vanished in a swirl of white orbs and began to make its way to Paige.
'Oh no you don't! Crossbow!' evil Paige called out; both were now stuck in a magical tug of war with the crossbow. White orbs and black orbs clashing against one another, making a sort of grey light in between the combatants.
Both were struggling to keep their hold on it, but neither was backing down. Eventually, the cluster of greyness exploded, both Paiges fell to the ground as a result of letting go. They both recovered at the same time and stared each other down, before orbing out and making their fight airborne. A mound of white orbs hit against a cluster of black orbs, the two kept bashing one another and no one was winning. Both set orbs flew around the room, crashing against one another in a futile attempt to take each other down.
They finally ran out of energy and resumed their normal form, they stared each other down again before releasing powerful telekinetic blasts at each other, the two blasts met in the middle and created a shockwave which sent both girls into a wall and knocking them out.
Meanwhile, Piper was having troubles of her own; she was hiding behind a large boulder, while trying to avoid her counterpart's blasts and at same time trying to fire some of own. Another portion of the boulder blew up, Piper looked round it to see that her twin was doing the same thing, hiding behind a rock and attacking when she could. Piper threw a blast at the rocky defence on the other side of the cave, blasting quite a large piece off it.
She decided that it was time to stop hiding; she jumped over the top of the boulder as evil Piper did also and fired a blast. Once again, her moves were mirrored and the blasts cancelled each other out, but not before throwing the two Pipers back with the result of their clash.
Their movements where the exact same, as always, both walked towards each other, Piper knew that if she hit her with a massed out fist, it would send her flying. The two massed out their bodies and went hand to hand, Piper decided to be smart and phase out the next time a fist came towards. Her twin's fist went right through her phased body; Piper was pleased about her success, until evil Piper threw out an explosive blast. Luckily as she was phased out, so when she blew up, she just reformed in the same spot.
Both of them just stared at each other, they had used up most of their magical energy and were too tired to fight.
'Stalemate?' evil Piper offered.
'Gladly,' Piper replied
Both went to tend to their sisters. As she was tending to Paige, Piper noticed a look of concern on her counterpart's face when she was waking up evil Paige.
Looks like we have more in common than we thought Piper thought as she helped Paige to her feet.
'Until next time,' evil Piper warned before her sister dark orbed them out.
Piper nodded 'I'll be waiting,' Paige gave her a funny look
'What the hell… are you guys friends now?'
'No, we just understand each other. Now let's get outta here,' Paige nodded and the two disappeared in a glow of lights.
Paige was standing in the bathroom, adding the finishing touches to her outfit while looking at the mirror and sorting out her hair at the same time. She was manoeuvring it so that it covered up the bump on her head that she had got from being hit against a wall. She didn't want it healed as she had had enough magic for one day.
'Paige! Aidan just pulled up outside!' Emma called from downstairs.
'Okay! Tell him I'll be down in a minute!' she called back; she quickly straightened out her dress and walked downstairs.
Piper and Emma were watching from the window
'Now, is he going to honk his horn? Or is he going to come in and get her like a gentleman?'
'Who knows? But we'll find out soon,' Emma replied.
'What do you think, Wyatt?' Piper asked her son, who was peering over the window ledge to see why they were looking outside.
'I dunno what a gentleman is,' he replied.
Emma laughed 'Don't worry little guy, not many men know either,' she ruffled his hair.
'You got that right!' Piper said
'Huh?' he looked up at her
'You'll understand when you're older,'
'Oh! Look! He's coming to the door,' Piper said, Emma went back to the window and looked out.
'Oh! You're right! He gets points for that,' Emma said
'Yeah and points for about everything else too! Good looking, great with kids…' Piper and Emma were giggling so much that they didn't notice that Paige had answered the door and left.
Paige and Aidan walked up to the front porch of the Manor, this had been the best night in weeks, and neither wanted it to end.
'So, you have a good time tonight?' Aidan asked.
'Mmm…' she put her arms round his neck 'Definitely!' she kissed him, not noticing the two pairs of peering eyes and the side window of the living room.
Paige took a deep breath, if she was going to do it; she had to do it now. She looked down and prepared to say…
'I love you,' Aidan said.
Paige looked up with wide eyes; he gave her a hopeful look as his face began to redden.
'Uh… You can jump in anytime here, Paige,' he said.
She laughed and kissed him passionately, then whispered to him 'You took the words right out my mouth,' she stopped laughing and looked at him 'I love you too,' she was about to kiss him again, when she heard squealing coming from inside.
Aidan laughed 'I guess I better go…' he kissed her again 'Night,' he walked down the steps and back to his car.
Paige walked in to find Piper and Emma sitting watching TV, she glared at the back of their heads.
'I can't believe you guys were spying to me!' she put her hands on her hips.
'Spying on you?' Emma began to stutter 'Sorry to disappoint you Paige, but your love live isn't of our interest, right Piper?'
Piper's eyes widened 'Uh… Yeah! I mean, what makes you think that your love live is so hot that we spy on you!'
Emma gave Piper a look that said 'You couldn't be more obvious'
Paige sighed 'Whatever, I'm going to bed,' she walked into the foyer to head upstairs.
'Ugh! I hate her! Did you see how intense that kiss was?' Emma whined.
'Yeah, I miss the thrill of a new love,' Piper's eyes went misty as she stared into space.
'I heard that!' Paige shouted from the landing.
'Busted………'
Well, that was the first P & P chapter in a long time, and the next 5 chapters will be about them too!
Chapter 19 'I See Past People' will be up soon!
