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Chapter 12: The Menatar
It was two in the morning, and Phoebe and Paige were in the attic, looking up the demon. Leo was with the Elders and Piper was asleep in her bed. Phoebe, unable to sleep, came up to the attic, followed soon by Paige. Both were to worried about Piper and Chris to sleep.
"Why haven't we indexed this thing?!" Phoebe exclaimed, after flipping trough the book three times and finding no useful information.
"I tried, remember? But Piper got mad and took them off."
"I don't think post it flags were what she had in mind. I give up!" Phoebe slammed the book shut and immediately reopened it to continue her search.
"Phoebe, that is our heritage there."
"I know that. Why are you telling me?"
"Because." She walked over to her sister and grabbed her hand. She slowly pried her hand off of the page, leaving the page crinkled.
"Oh. Sorry about that. I just feel like we aren't doing enough. I feel like we are sitting back and letting Piper die, as we presumably do in the future."
"We are not letting Piper die. We are trying to save her." Paige began to flip thorough the book. "Hey. This looks like something."
Phoebe looked over Paige's shoulder as she read, "Menatar. A particularly nasty demon with the power to breathe fire and become invisible. Only magical people and those who believe in magic can see this monstrous demon. He hides in plain sight and announces his arrival by a monstrous roar."
"That sounds like the demon from the future."
"It looks like that demon, too. Piper said she saw something green before we came back. And," Paige said, picking up the tooth future Phoebe had given them, "this tooth looks like it could belong to that ugly mouth." Paige indicated the picture to the right, one with a monstrous green demon and sharp teeth. The demon looked as if it had been melted a reformed. Its facial features were in all the wrong spots and it looked as if it had a hide that could stop bullets.
Just then, Leo orbed in, holding a sleeping Wyatt in his arms. "Leo!" Phoebe exclaimed. "I thought you were back already," Phoebe said, referring to the fact her went up there earlier to talk to the Elders and get Wyatt.
"No," he said, switching Wyatt to his other shoulder. "I just got back. The Elders are making plans for the power forwarding ceremony. I also told them about the demon. They are concerned. Very concerned. Anything in the book?"
"Actually, yes. We think this is the demon." Paige turned the book around so Leo could see the entry.
"Boy that thing is ugly," a voice behind them said. Paige snapped her head up to see Piper a few feet behind Leo.
"Uh, Piper! Hi! We were just, um..."
"Looking for the demon who kills me? It's okay, really. I couldn't sleep either. I woke up and went to check on Wyatt, only to find he wasn't there," she said, taking him from Leo. "I'll put him to bed and be up in a few minutes." She turned around and headed out of the attic.
"She's taking this amazingly well," Phoebe commented.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Leo said. When the girls looked at him questioningly, he explained, "Piper's not one just to accept something. She's a fighter. Always has been. I think she's in denial."
"Well, the only way to fix that is to vanquish this demon, Phoebe said, pulling the book towards her. As she did, she was rocked by a premonition.
The Menatar headed towards a bed. Someone was in the bed, fast asleep. Sensing someone there, the person, a man, woke up. He saw the Menatar and began to run. He barely avoided a stream of fire that was projected from the monster's mouth. He ran out of his house onto a dark, quiet street. A sign on the street corner read Randolph. The man ran, barefoot, clad only in boxers and a t-shirt, down the deserted street. The monster soon caught up and the man was no longer nothing but a scorch mark on the street...
"What did you see?" Paige asked. When Phoebe explained the premonition to them, all Paige could say was, "Oh."
"I think we need to get started on a vanquishing potion. Fast," Leo said and they began to gather supplies.
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Piper gently laid Wyatt down in his crib, careful not to wake her sleeping child. She gently smoothed down his hair and he stirred under her touch. "Shhh," Piper whispered to him. "Go back to sleep." He immediately settled down and went back to sleep. Piper tip-toed out of his room.
She shut the door and turned around and let out a scream of surprise. "Chris! Don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry."
"Where have you been?" Piper asked, sitting on the bed.
"He shrugged his shoulders. "Walking around. I tried to orb, but I forgot I have no powers now."
Piper looked at Chris. This was her son, the son she was pregnant with. "I understand now."
Chris looked confused. "Understand what?"
Piper smiled, as if remembering a fond moment. "I understand how my mother felt." Upon Chris' confused look, she elaborated. "One time, Prue, Phoebe, and I traveled into the past to stop a demon. In the past, Prue and I were very little and Phoebe wasn't even born yet. I remember the way my mom looked at Phoebe when she saw her. That's how I feel now."
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"A very good thing," Piper assured him. "I wouldn't change this for anything in the world."
"Let's see if you say the same thing in sixteen years," Chris commented and Piper laughed.
Chris suddenly became silent and Piper looked at him. "What do you think killed me?" he blurted out. "If it wasn't a demon..."
Piper sighed a faced him. "I don't know, honey. In this family, it could be anything."
"But demons just seem to be the likely cause."
"Yes, they do. But in this family we tend to forget there are other bad things out there except for demons. Murders, diseases, kidnappers... I sometimes think the normal world has worse people than the demonic one."
"So it could have been anything?"
"Yeah. But don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you. I'll bet my life on that."
"Don't say that. You may just end up doing that."
Piper didn't say anything. She just pulled him into a hug and held him. After a while she said, "Don't worry about that. Your dad and aunts won't let anything happen to us. I have faith in that and so should you."
"I do. And I also know everything happens for a reason and destiny gets its way, no matter what. I just hope this is one event that can be changed."
Piper and Chris soon joined the others in the attic, and were surprised to find the others bustling around, creating potions. "Whoa. What did I miss?" Piper asked. After Phoebe explained the premonition and what they read in the book, Piper asked, "When are we going?"
"Right now," Paige said, bottling the last potion and handed it to Piper, taking her hand, ready to orb her.
"Chris, stay with Wyatt, please," Piper told him a Chris gave her a salute in agreement.
Paige orbed them to the house Phoebe believed to be the one from her premonition. They had been unable to scry accurately with the tooth; it kept jumping from place to place as if the demon couldn't make up it's mind where it was going.
They tip-toed the bedroom door and heard no noises. Phoebe cracked open the door a bit and turned around to face her sisters. "What's the matter?" Paige asked.
"In my premonition he was wearing his boxers," Phoebe said. "I don't think he would appreciate it if..."
"That is the least of our worries," Piper said, pushing her through the door way. As soon as she did, a rumbling came through the house, followed closely by a loud roar.
The man woke up and sat up in bed. Upon seeing them he exclaimed, "What the hell?!"
And hell did appear. In a sense anyway. The monster-demon thing appeared, from the melted features to the ugly green hide.
"Paige! Orb him out! NOW!" Piper yelled as the demon let out another roar. Paige didn't have time to orb the innocent out, due to the fat he hid under the bed.
The towering demon took a deep breath and let out a stream of fire form its mouth. Phoebe dove out of the way, but Piper, in the middle of the path, had no where to go. She put her hands up for protection. But what good would that do against fire?
Apparently a lot. The fire telekinetically changed course from Piper. Phoebe and Paige quickly ran to Piper's side to help.
"Nice job, sis."
Holding the fire back was beginning to take a toll on Piper. "Any mass vanquishes?" She asked in a broken voice.
Phoebe and Paige threw their potions at the demon, but they had no effect. The demon didn't even flinch.
"No," Phoebe said in reply to Piper's earlier question.
Piper put one hand down by her side, causing the fire to come closer to them. "Let's not do that again," Paige suggested.
Piper ignored her and used her one free hand to try and blow the demon up. Nothing happened. Next, she tried to freeze him, but it was no use. "My powers are useless," she told them. "On the count of three, Paige roll left and Phoebe right. One, two, three!" Paige rolled to the left and Phoebe and Piper went to the right. The stream of fire the demon had been relentlessly aiming at the girls soared forward, catching the curtains on fire.
Paige orbed to her sister's side. "As you goodness grows, defeat this evil foe!" Paige yelled over the roar of fire. The demon stopped as if he had been suddenly hit. Once again there was rumbling a roaring as the demon left.
"As our goodness grows?" Phoebe asked.
"Defeat this evil foe?" Piper repeated, freezing the curtain that was on fire.
"What did you expect? I didn't plan a spell because I thought the potion would work!"
"Well, I wasn't expecting the demon to be immune to my powers either. Did either of you read anything about that in the book?"
"Yeah, we did and just forgot to mention it to you," Paige said sarcastically.
"Alright. Sorry I asked. Can we get the innocent back to the manor? I think I'm going to be sick." Piper put her hand over her stomach and her sister orbed her home.
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"Thank God you are alright!" Leo exclaimed when he saw them orb in. he grabbed Piper and swung her into a huge hug.
"Leo.." Piper said, feeling as if she were going to throw up on him. He set her down and she ran out of the attic.
Leo looked at Phoebe in confusion. "Morning sickness, Leo." A look of understand swept over his face. The innocent, who had been watching the scene in front of him, suddenly passed out. Leo went over to him and checked his pulse, but let him sleep on. The last thing they needed was a troublesome innocent on their hands.
"Not that I'm not happy to see you Leo, but why are you so happy to see us?"
"Because I thought you may have gotten yourselves killed," Leo said, a pinch of reprimanding in his voice.
"Okay, I'll bite. What did we do?" Paige asked.
"There was another page in the book. One I'm assuming you didn't read."
"What? There was only the page with info and the page with the picture."
"Wrong. If you look at the bottom of the page, it says 'turn the page'." Leo walked over rot he book a showed them.
"It just gives some more information about the witches he has killed. And about the fact he is immune to powers, spells, and potions."
"What?!" Phoebe exclaimed, stomping over to the book and looking at the page. "Oh my God. We could have gotten Piper killed."
"No wonder we blame ourselves in the future. We probably did the same thing then."
"Well, we can't think of that now. The most important thing is that we kick this demon's ass and get back to our lives."
Piper soon returned to the attic, and the others immediately told her what they had missed about the demon. "Oh great," she replied. "So which one of you geniuses forgot to read the book all of the way?"
"Sorry," Paige said with a bit of an attitude. "There is normally just a page of info and a picture. Excuse me for being too stupid to turn the page!"
"Alright! No more arguing," Phoebe intervened. "Arguing will not help us now. Leo, did the book say anything about a vanquish?"
"No, but the Elders did. I checked with them after I looked in the book and couldn't sense you guys. They believe a Power of Three spell can to the trick."
"But I thought the demon was immune to spells," Paige said.
"Paige, when are you ever going to learn that we are the only ones on Earth that seem to be able to vanquish an unvanquishable demon?"
"Or any demon, for that matter," Phoebe added, getting a laugh from everyone.
"Alright. Who wants to do the Power of Three spell?"
"I will," Phoebe volunteered and walked to the table to grab a pen and paper.
"Uh, Phoebe..."
"What?"
"When did you get so tall?"
"What do you mean?"
"This is what I mean," Piper said, standing next to her. She put her hand to her head and measured herself to Phoebe. Her hand came to Phoebe's mid-chest. "I know I'm shorter than you, but not this short. So either you're growing or I'm shrinking."
Paige measured herself against Phoebe and only came to her chin. "Okay. Something is definitely wrong.
"Like your little spell?"
"Can we please get off of that?"
"No. I think your spell did this. The line 'As our goodness grows' must have backfired, making Phoebe grow."
"I'm sorry," Paige apologized.
"Don't worry about it. I always wanted to be taller." As for emphasis, she hiccupped and grew another inch.
"Uh-oh. We better find a reversal spell. Fast," Piper said.
"I'll check the book," Phoebe volunteered. The book was already open to the page on the Menatar, so when Phoebe touched it she was rocked by a premonition.
Piper and Paige, recognizing the expression on their sister's face all too well, asked, "What did you see?"
"A man being attacked by the Menatar."
"When?"
"At night, so let's go."
"We have to reverse the spell," Paige protested.
"No time," Piper said, grabbing her hand.
Paige orbed them to Phoebe's location, only to find themselves standing in once was a house.
Before it was burnt to the ground. Phoebe gasped in surprise as the charred wood made a crunching noise beneath her feet. What... how... my premonition..." She hiccupped and sprouted another inch in height.
"Come on," Paige said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Let's get you home and reverse that spell."
"I wonder if spell had anything to do with my premonition being messed up." Phoebe knew something was wrong with her premonition. Her and her sisters had left immediately after she had the premonition. Why hadn't they gotten here in time? Her premonitions always gave her enough time to solve the problem, so why hadn't this one? The spell gone wrong was the only reason she could think of.
"Uh, you guys!" Piper called from the other side of the burnt house.
"Yeah?" Paige asked, coming over to where Piper stood. "What's..." She let out a scream.
In front of them sat the charred remains of what once a human being.
"Oh God. I think I'm going to be sick. Paige, get us out of here." Piper pleaded, one hand on her stomach.
Paige grabbed Piper and Phoebe's hands and orbed them out of the horrific scene and into the manor, after which Piper raced to the bathroom and threw up her dinner.
Meanwhile, Paige and Phoebe went up into the attic to reverse the spell. Phoebe had now gotten so tall she whapped her head on the door frame entering the attic. They saw Leo talking to the innocent, who seemed very calm after his feinting episode.
Leo saw them, stood up, and asked, "Where's Piper?"
"In the bathroom," Phoebe replied, hiccupping and growing another inch.
"Being sick," Paige added.
"So how did it go?" Leo asked.
"Not so good," Phoebe said, looking at the floor. "We were too late."
"See, I old you they wouldn't be able to stop it. No one can," the innocent said.
"Now wait a minute. Just who do you think you are?" Phoebe asked, getting angry.
Leo held up his hand. "Phoebe, Paige, this is Stephen Basil. He's had dealings with the Menatar before."
"Dealings?" Paige questioned.
"The demon killed my wife seven years ago. Are you satisfied?"
"I'm so sorry," Paige said sincerely.
"Yeah, well..."
But he didn't get a chance to finish, because Piper walked into the attic holding Wyatt. "Alright people," Piper said with a new steely resolve, "this demon is pissing me off. I want him vanquished now. Leo," she said, handing him Wyatt. "Take Wyatt to magic school. Paige, work on the reversal spell for Phoebe. Phoebe, you work on a Power of Three spell for vanquishing this demon while I scry for him. Okay people, let's get started."
Everyone began doing the jobs Piper assigned them until the innocent cried out, "Are you guys stupid?!"
"Excuse me?" Piper asked offensively.
"I already told you that you can't vanquish this thing! Why do you insist on getting yourselves killed?"
"I don't know who you think you are..." Piper began, but the innocent, Steve, cut her off.
"I'm out of here. If you want to get yourselves killed, that's fine with me. But I'm not going to die with you." He began walking out of the attic, but Piper froze him.
"Well, at least we know he's not a good witch," Paige said, referring to the fact Piper couldn't freeze good witches.
"Thank God." Piper sighed with relief. "What is that guy's problem?"
"The Menatar killed his wife. And his name is Steve, by the way."
"Phoebe? Just finish the spell."
"Okay."
They worked strongly for the next half-hour, with Piper having to sporadically freeze Steve again. They were almost done when Leo orbed in, interrupting their progress. "How's it going?" he asked.
"I'm done," Paige cried out.
"Me too," Phoebe followed suit.
"Scrying isn't getting us anywhere. He isn't in this realm, so we'll have to rely on Phoebe for a premonition."
Phoebe, who just hiccupped and grew anther inch quickly said, "Let's reverse this spell before I'm too tall to stand in the attic." She was now over a good seven feet tall.
Paige took a deep breath and began to recite her reversal spell, and Phoebe returned to normal size.
"Do you think it worked a little too well?" Phoebe asked, measuring herself to Paige. "I would have been happy an inch or two taller." The others laughed.
"Here's the vanquishing spell," Phoebe said, handing each of her sisters a copy. "Let's go kick this demon's ass."
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Piper, Leo, Paige, and Phoebe arrived in some company warehouse after a premonition of Phoebe's indicating the Menatar would attack here next.
"I don't see anyone," Paige whispered, her voice echoing in the empty building.
"Well, we're not leaving until we find the little girl from my premonition." It had been a particularly ugly one, as Phoebe recalled.
They began wandering around the rows of boxes in the warehouse, looking for some clue that someone was here.
Leo, his curiosity getting the better of him, opened one of the boxes to see what was inside of it. It was a box of oxygen tanks, the kind used in hospitals to help people breath. Leo looked at them, wondering why they gave him an uneasy feeling.
Then the familiar rumbling echoed throughout the warehouse. The Menatar was on his way. It was them Leo figured out why the oxygen tanks gave him an uneasy feeling.
"We have to get out of here!" he yelled to the girls.
"Are you crazy? Let's vanquish this demon and get it over with."
"No! We have to go NOW!"
"Why," Paige questioned, the rumbling growing louder.
"There are oxygen tanks in those boxes!"
The girls looked at him in confusion.
"Oxygen tanks plus a fire breathing demon equals one huge explosion!" Looks of understanding swept over their faces as they hurried to orb. Paige grabbed Piper's hand as Leo grabbed Phoebe's.
Just as they were orbing, Piper heard a little voice cry out, "Help! Help me!" She quickly ripped her hand out of Paige's, and began to frantically look for the little girl as the others orbed to safety. She found the little girl, about eleven years old, huddled in the corner. She was crying, and Piper quickly helped her to her feet and ran for the back exit she noticed earlier. As they ran, the Menatar appeared behind them and let out a stream of fire from its mouth.
It hit the boxes and the oxygen tanks exploded, turning the building into a blazing inferno. With Piper and the little girl inside.
