Princess Pinky – Thanks! I'm really enjoying 'The Children Of Light' you've got some pretty good twists yourself lol! I'm glad you liked the preview and titles! Although I think you're probably queen of chapter titles lol!
wyatt333 – I can take Prue away, and I did! (does evil laugh) lol, don't worry! Just because Prue's gone. It doesn't mean they'll never see her again! And the Connor part was part of the 'United As Three' preview! I hope you're excited as I am!
andy20 – Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it! I think the preview was awesome too lol!
Piperfairy63 – Is this update quick enough for you? lol! I knew you'd like it!
CuteLittleBritt – Thanks! I'm going to try and make her a really deep character! Aidan as well lol!
Thanks you guys! You're all so great! Here's the next chapter!
There's a Woogy In Your StepA week had passed since Prue had faded away, and the Halliwell Manor was still tense. Emma had mostly been keeping away from everyone, as the all the negative emotions were too much for her, not to mention she was feeling everyone's repressed feelings, which were even worse. Paige was trying to stay strong for the family by watching over Pamela and making sure she was safe. Although Paige's heart almost broke in two when Pamela had asked her about her father with a hopeful glint in her eyes, Paige had felt horrible when she told her told Andy wasn't alive anymore.
'Oh well, at least the two of them won't be lonely,' was her response, which had made her feel even worse. Piper had cut herself off from everyone, she had lost her big sister twice now and there was no getting her back. It was hard to look at Pamela as she resembled Prue so much and although Piper didn't mean to be, she ended up being pretty dismissive of her new niece.
Paige and Aidan were walking along a desolate street; it was quite late, even for people in San Francisco so there was no one around to see the two holding hands and Paige leaning on his arm.
'What's it been like at the house?' Aidan asked quietly, knowing that Paige just wanted to talk in whispers right now,
'It's been… hard. Piper finds it so hard to accept Pamela, I can understand that it's just that… she's our niece, we have to protect her,' Aidan just nodded, 'And then there's Emma, who spends more time at Magic School than at home right now. Her powers are just bombarding her with everyone's emotions which believe me, are not very nice,'
'Is it hard to live there right now?' Aidan asked cautiously.
'Ugh… it's almost unbearable! But when you're here, it's a little easier,' The couple stopped walking and faced each other, 'These past nine months have been so crazy, but the past six months… well, you've made them a lot better,' Paige suddenly hugged her boyfriend tightly, 'Thank you so much for coming into my life Aidan,' she was on the verge of tears now.
Aidan wrapped her into a big bear hug, stroking her hair and kissing the top of her head as she cried into his chest. She looked up at him, her eyes red from crying, and kissed him. Aidan began to return the kiss, but he didn't make anymore tense, Paige was fragile right now, and she needed to be treated that way, but he would need to ask her the question tonight, he was almost out of time.
The two of them began walking again, 'So, enough of this bad stuff, tell me something good!' Paige smiled
'Um… Well, this could be good if you accept, if you don't it could be really awkward,' Aidan replied.
'What?'
He took a deep breath, 'My friend who works in real estate told me about an apartment that just became available, 2 bedrooms, nice location, the rent is fair and I… want you to move in to it with me,'
Paige stopped abruptly and widened her eyes, 'What?!'
'I don't need an answer straight away, but I do need one soon,' he tried to take the pressure off quickly.
'I… Uh…' Paige's stuttering was cut off by a screeching sound coming from down the street.
'What the hell is that?!' Aidan exclaimed
Paige had heard the noise somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where. It suddenly hit her.
She gasped, 'Gargoyles! C'mon!' Paige began to run down the street, dragging Aidan by the hand. The only other time she had heard that sound was when she first became a witch, the gargoyles had been trying to keep The Source away from her, and this noise could only mean that a great evil had come up on the surface.
Paige had been right, she gasped and hid behind a bench when she saw the Evil Charmed Ones, all three of them!
'I'll be right back,' Paige orbed out, leaving Aidan to observe. He watched as the gargoyles that were sitting it the top of the church, unleashing their high-pitched scream to ward off the Evil Charmed Ones. They seemed to be effected by the gargoyles a lot, as Paige and Phoebe were holding her hands over their ears, to try and drown it out. Piper however, went on the offensive and blew up one of the stone beasts with a simple gesture.
Paige reappeared in a flurry of orbs; Pamela and Emma were accompanying her.
'Where's Piper?' Aidan.
'We don't have time for that story!' Paige hissed as she and the others crouched down.
'Okay here's the plan, I'll take Piper. Emma, you take Phoebe, and Pamela will take me,' anyone got a problem with that plan?'
'So those are the counterparts…' Pamela breathed, she had been brought up to speed with her family's current situation. Family. Pam went over that word in her head again, she was still trying to get used to the fact that she had one, she had been learning more about being a witch over the past two weeks and learning all the rules. She had been surprised when Paige had told her about all the Wiccan rules, and that there were consequences to selfish actions.
'Pam? You okay?' Paige looked at her niece with concern and put a hand on her shoulder.
'Yeah, I'm fine, let's go!' she said enthusiastically before running towards the enemy with the others.
'Hey!' Paige shouted, attracting their attention.
The counterparts noticed them and Paige immediately dark orbed out, causing confusion.
'We don't need our baby sister to take care of you,' Phoebe growled.
'Hmm… We'll see about that,' Paige replied before running forward and throwing Phoebe back with a wave of her arm.
Piper sat in the kitchen with her cold hands around a warm mug of tea, she had been thinking of all of her sisters recently and smiled at the memory of Phoebe's powers advancing.
Piper was chopping up some carrots and putting them into the pot, as her husband came from behind and snaked his arms around her waist, kissing her neck in the process.
'What do you say to orb away to Paris for the weekend?' he whispered huskily in her ear.
'Mmm… Don't tempt me,' she put the rest of the carrots in the pot.
'Okay, how about we go upstairs and we-.'
'Piper! Leo!' Paige's voice echoed from upstairs, it sounded urgent.
The couple walked into the dining room just in time to see Paige jump down the last couple of steps,
'Phoebe's went mental! Literally!' she announced before joining her brother in law and big sister. There was a flash from half way down the stairs and a small globe of light flew and hit against the wall. Phoebe appeared at the bottom of the steps, with a light glowing in front of her forehead.
'Okay, what the hell is going on?!' the light enlarged and flew from Phoebe's head, causing her to stumble slightly from the force. Everyone ducked out of the way as the light went over them, hitting the window and smashing it.
'I can't stop it!' another light appeared and was fired, Paige's fright caused her to unintentionally orb out, while Piper phased to avoid it, leaving Leo to take the blast and knocking him out. Piper was at his side, checking on him, she breathed a sigh of relief when she realised he had only been knocked out.
'Alright, that does it! Light thingy!' Paige put out her hand, surrounding the next light in a swathe of orbs; she turned it round to hit Phoebe, knocking her out.
Piper walked to her baby sister and raised her eyebrow, 'Light thingy?'
'Well it worked, didn't it?' Paige snapped.
Piper smiled again, but it disappeared when she heard a creak coming the basement, 'Prue?' she called out hopefully as she opened the door of the basement. She cautiously walked down the wooden stairs, when reaching the bottom; she pulled on the cord that turned the light on and gasped when she saw her baby sister's counterpart.
'Surprised to see me?' she smirked, Piper put up her hands and blew up the witch, but she just reformed in a flurry of black orbs, 'It's gonna take more than that to stop me,' Paige threw out her arm and sent Piper flying into a dresser.
Piper growled and stood up, this was not what she needed right now, she stomped her foot, and a yellow glow ran from it and into the ground sending a fissure towards Paige, who smirked before dark orbing out.
Piper stared at the whole in the ground with a confused look, why had she not put up much of a fight? And it was like she had wanted her to use her geokinesis, then she realised, earthquakes freed the…
Paige dark orbed back in to the fight, her oldest sister seemed to be holding her own against the whitelighter half-breed and the brat, her other sister was having trouble though, mainly due to the elementals interference.
'It's done! Let's get out of here!' Paige shouted, her sisters heard her and they huddled around, orbing out to their underworld hideout.
Paige put her hands on her hips, 'Well that is strange, did anyone get the feeling that they weren't even trying?'
'Hmm… I know what you mean,' Emma walked over to her, 'Why would they try to get into a church anyway? They should know that the gargoyles would have at attracted our attention.
'Maybe they did know?' Aidan chipped in.
'What?'
'Maybe this was a set up,'
Emma looked at Pamela, who was looking at the remains of the blown up gargoyle, 'Um… I'll go talk to her,' she walked off.
'So…' Aidan began.
'I'm definitely considering it,' Paige cut him off, knowing what he was going to say, 'But right now we have other problems,'
Aidan merely nodded as he followed her over to Pamela.
'Can we bring the little guy back?' Pamela asked, touching the pieces of stone.
'Uh… We could try!' Emma said cheerfully.
'Hmm… let's see, you got a spell?' Aidan knelt down.
Paige looked upwards, she was trying to think of one, 'Oh! I got one!
Let the object of objection return
So that its existence may be reaffirmed,'
The pieces floated up into the air and came together, forming a gargoyle; it floated up to its original place and returned to its vigilant post.
'Piece a cake!' Paige said triumphantly.
Paige sat in her office, scribbling her signature on some papers. The weather had changed drastically from yesterdays drizzle and it was scorching hot! Paige had put her fan on in her office. There was a knock at her open door, she looked up to see a gaunt man with a grin on his face, and Paige already didn't like him.
'Are you Paige Matthews?' the man said, narrowing his eyes and pointing at her.
'Who are you?'
'Oh! Sorry! Herb Landry, reporter at the Bay Mirror, so, are you Paige Matthews?'
'Yes, I can I help… you?' Paige made a face as the man looking at the stuff on her desk.
'Oh, I think so, you see, I'm working on a story,'
'About social services?'
'No, on the supernatural,'
Paige screamed in her head, but kept a neutral expression, 'Why would you come to me?'
'Oh I don't know, maybe it's because I saw you use magic while you were fighting a woman who looked identical to you last night, not to mention I saw you bring a stone gargoyle of life,'
Paige gave a stony glare, 'I don't know what you're talking about,'
'Oh really?' the man smirked, he put his hand next to the vase on Paige's desk, the one that had been her Moms, and he slid it off the desk, causing it to smash and making Paige grit her teeth.
'Wow, I admire your restraint!' he said with a grin. Paige just let out a growl from her throat, 'Oh well, I guess I'll go see what your niece has to stay,' Paige's eyes widened, 'I did my homework,' he responded, before walking off.
After she was sure he had disappeared into the elevator, Paige slammed her door shut and began shouting for Aidan. He appeared in a tower of water and looked at Paige with a surprised look.
'What's wrong?'
'A journalist saw our fight with the counterparts last night!' she replied.
'What?!' Aidan wore an urgent look.
'Yeah, now he's away to speak to Pam…' Paige ran a hand through her long brown hair as tears welled up in her eyes.
Aidan moved closer and rubbed her arm gently, 'You okay?'
Paige sighed and blew a strand of hair from her face, 'No. No, I'm not alright! Piper had wrapped herself in a little cocoon and has been acting even weirder since last night, Emma is distancing herself from everyone because she can't handle everyone's emotions, Pam lives way across town, vulnerable to demon attacks, so I need to watch over her constantly, and to top everything off, some weasel of a journalist is trying to expose us! I'm last witch standing right now Aidan!' she broke down as Aidan pulled her into a tight hug, just as he had done the night before.
'I can't take it anymore! I just can't take it anymore!' Paige sobbed into his chest.
Aidan pushed her away slightly so he could look into her eyes, 'Paige, you are the strongest person I ever met, and believe me, I've met a lot of strong people!' Paige chuckled through her tears, 'If anyone can get through this, it's you. And if you think you're going to do this alone, think again, I'm going to be here with you every step of the way. I'd do anything for you Paige,' he whispered as he brought his hand to her cheek and kissed her tenderly, just making their lips clumsily bump off each other.
Paige pulled away; her face had an expression of determination on it.
'We need to go get Pam…'
Piper appeared in an underworld cavern, she had made her entrance in a swirling shadow. She turned to see all three Evil Charmed Ones looking at her.
'Thank you for tricking the witch into freeing me,' she said, 'She's very powerful,'
'Your welcome,' Paige said tonelessly, 'But now we need you to do something for us,'
'Why should I help?' Piper said, 'I'm free now, I don't need you,'
'That's true,' Evil Piper began, 'But even though we're evil, we still have the power to put you back in the ground, so helping us is in your best interest,'
'What's it gonna be?' Phoebe raised one of her eyebrows.
Piper sighed and folded her arms, 'What do you want me to do?'
'No.'
'What?!'
'I said no.'
Paige and Aidan were currently fighting with Pamela, who usually snuck out of school at lunchtime. They had asked her to come with them because of the journalist, but she was refusing.
'But Pam, this guy might do anything to break this story! You need protected!' Paige argued.
'He's a mortal! I'm a powerful witch! I think the scales are tipped in my favour!' she replied sarcastically, she sighed and moved a strand of hair from her face with her finger, 'Look, you guys, l have lived without a family ever since I was born, I've been alone and I've got used to it, I just… need some time to adjust to this. And even though I'm willing to help with the big stuff, but hiding from a journalist is something I can do alone, so… just give me some space,' with that, she walked off.
Paige was about to go after her, when Aidan put a hand on her shoulder, 'You can't force her, she'll just pull away from you more,' he said.
Paige sighed and turned to him, 'Fine, let's go and warn Piper,' she walked into an alley and orbed out, with Aidan following by splashing.
Piper was in the kitchen, going over the plan again, she couldn't take over the house yet, not until she had completed the counterpart's plan, she sat in the counter filing her nails with a file that she had conjured.
'Piper! You there?' Paige's voice rang out.
Piper smirked. It was time, 'In here!' she dematerialised the file and jumped off the counter.
Paige and Aidan walked into the kitchen, 'We have trouble,' Paige announced.
'Tell me at Magic School,' Piper replied.
'What?'
'I need to go pick up the boys,' she answered.
'Boys? Isn't Chris here?' Paige asked with a bemused expression.
Piper's eyes widened, 'Um… Uh… No, I had some errands to run and couldn't take him,' she stuttered out, she had almost been caught.
'Oh, okay, let's go,' Paige grabbed her sister and enveloped her in orbs.
The three of them appeared in the Great Hall in water and orbs, as soon as they landed, Piper walked away from Paige and Aidan and began to look around, as if she had never seen the place before.
'Piper?' Paige asked cautiously.
'Your side did a good job of this place,' Piper turned round, revealing her black eyes, 'But I'm afraid it's MINE!' a shadow began creeping from Pipers feet, spreading and devouring everything it touched.
'Paige, orb out,' Aidan said calmly.
'But what about-,'
'GO!' he shouted, before throwing an ice blast at the shadow, but having no effect.
'I'm not leaving you!' Paige protested.
Aidan fired another ice blast then turned around and made a gesture at Paige, splashing her out.
Paige reappeared in the Manor, she heard crying from upstairs and assuming that Chris had been here all along. She walked upstairs to find Chris sitting on his bedroom floor, holding his foot.
'Auntie Paige! I stood on one of my toys!' he wailed.
Paige went over to him and picked him up, 'Shh… it's okay, you're safe,' she rubbed his foot gently, trying to ease the pain, 'Does that feel better?'
Chris sniffed and nodded, 'Where's Mommy?'
'Uh… she went to go get your big brother,' Paige said, it was sort of true, even though Piper had never collected Wyatt. She walked up to the attic, with Chris in her arms and picked up the book, putting it under her free arm, the Manor was no longer safe. She began to think of where she could go, she finally decided on Aidan's apartment and orbed out.
Chris was sitting on the sofa in Aidan's apartment, sucking on a Popsicle that Paige had found in the refrigerator, he was watching the 'after school' cartoons while his aunt flipped the pages of the Book of Shadows frantically.
'C'mon! There has to be something in here! Dammit!' Paige slammed the book shut and sighed heavily, Chris turned round, shocked at his aunt's temper.
'Don't tell you Mom I said the 'd' word, okay?' Paige winked; Chris nodded and turned back to the TV. Paige folded her arms and stared at the book, who could she go to? Emma, Leo, Wyatt, Piper and Aidan were all at the school, so they couldn't help her, and Pam was at her job and Paige couldn't exactly walk into a coffee shop with a kid in one arm and a very strange book in the other.
She kept staring at the cover, at the triquetra, and then it hit her! She had promised to this only in an emergency, and this situation qualified! She began flipping the pages again until she found what she was looking for. She slapped the page, 'Gotcha!'
'Powers of the sisters rise,
Course unseen across the skies,
Come to us who call you near
Come to us and settle here!'
Paige looked up hopefully, but her smile faded when nothing happened. Suddenly, a breeze blew through the room and white lights appeared in front of her, swirling around on the spot, and when they disappeared, they revealed a very confused Phoebe Halliwell standing in their place.
OMG! Phoebe's back! Wait, I wrote this, why am I surprised lol! And we haven't seen the last of Herb Landry!
Chapter 24 'Back To School' will be up soon!
PS: I'm writing the first chapter in a Mutant X Fiction called 'Far From Over' I'll inform you when it's up so that you can review it lol!
