"Hear now the words of the witches, the secrets we hid in the night.
"The oldest of gods are invoked here, the great work of magic is sought.
"In the night and in this hour, we call upon the ancient power.
"Bring your powers to we sisters three, we want the power.
"Give us the power."
A soft yellow glow emanated from the ceiling covering Prue, Piper, and Phoebe. It lasted only a few seconds and then went out. Leo and Percy just looked on in amazement.
"Well, that should have done it," said Phoebe. "I guess all that's left is to check and see if it worked."
"I have an idea," said Prue.
She closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. Everyone watched her intently wondering if the blocking on the sisters powers had been removed.
"Well, I'd say it seems to have worked well enough."
Everyone turned to the entryway where the voice had come from. Standing in the middle of the entryway was Prue, dressed exactly as she was sitting on the sofa.
"My astral projection seems to be back," said the Prue in the entryway. "If the rest of our powers work as well then we should have a nice surprise for Damonculous when he returns."
Prue suddenly vanished from the entryway and the Prue on the sofa opened her eyes. She looked around for a moment and noticed the fireplace poker Leo had used on the warlock still lying on the floor where Leo had dropped it. With a wave of her hand the poker suddenly rose and flew back to the fireplace coming to rest in its holder with the other fireplace implements.
"So far so good," said Piper. "My turn."
Piper looked around for a moment.
"Leo," she said. "Do me a favor. Stand up."
Leo started to rise from the chair arm where he was sitting next to Piper. When he was about halfway up Piper brought up her hands and he froze in a stooped position. Percy couldn't help but snicker at the amusing position Leo was in. Satisfied her powers had returned Piper unfroze Leo who continued to stand up.
"Okay," said Piper. "Everything is working fine."
"What?" Leo questioned.
"It seems your wife has a very unusual sense of humor," said Percy, smiling at Leo.
"She froze me, didn't she?" Leo asked.
"Instant ice cube," giggled Phoebe. "Well, my precognitive power isn't an active power. I can't use it whenever I want like you two. But it seems the spell worked. Now, at least, we might stand a chance against Damonculous."
"What made you think to use that incantation?" Prue asked. "The spell you wrote didn't work."
"True," said Phoebe. "But what Percy said about our powers got me to thinking. If our powers were still intact inside us, then we needed something that was strong enough to break that blocking. The spell I wrote was trying to utilize our power. This spell," she indicated the one in the Book of Shadows, "had to be at least as powerful as our own powers. That's why it was strong enough to break the binding grams put on us."
"Kind of like giving your powers a jump start," said Leo.
"Exactly," said Phoebe. "The Power of Three squared. The power from the book combined with the power inside us both trying to reconnect. It seems the blocking wasn't powerful enough to withstand that."
"And a good thing, too," said Percy. "We are fast running out of options. The next time Damonculous attacks we may not fare as we have up until now. His power will be growing and once he has recharged, so to speak, I doubt that even Cole's power will affect him for long."
"Speaking of Cole," said Piper, "where is he? He said he wouldn't be gone long."
"I wish I knew," said Phoebe. "Sometimes he can be so secretive. But at least now we don't have to worry about him not being around. If our powers have returned then so should the Power of Three. I can write a spell to deal with Damonculous. We might not be able to vanquish him but I'll bet we can hurt him pretty bad. We might even be able to hurt him enough to disrupt this blocking he's put on good magic. That's all we'd need for the Elders to learn what's going on."
"It might also be possible to duplicate what the incantation in the book did," said Leo. "If you can write a Power of Three spell to break the blocking over Percy or me, we might be able to get to the other Elders. I'm sure they have no idea what's going on. If we can let them know they might be able to do something about it."
"That's a very good idea," said Percy. "We have access to some very powerful magic besides our own powers. Magic that won't be affected by this blocking. With it we might be able to restore the power to all the Elders. At the very least we can try to contact the Founders. Damonculous' blocking won't have affected them. And they will have all the power needed to defeat him."
"Okay," said Prue. "I say our top priority is to break the blocking on either Leo or Percy. So they can get up there and let everyone else know what's going on. With our powers restored we have a chance to hold off Damonculous until help arrives. And once Cole gets back we'll have his power to augment ours."
"And Damonculous is going to be in for one hell of a surprise when he returns," said Piper.
"We could get Cole's demonic friends back," suggested Phoebe. "They seemed to hurt Damonculous pretty bad the last time."
"No," said Prue. "They only helped us because Cole promised them we'd vanquish this Por when this was all over. I don't want to have to trust them again unless there's no other choice. We'll just have to stop Damonculous without their help. With our powers restored, we might just stand a chance of doing that, too."
"I must say I am quite impressed," said Percy. "Even with the odds so badly stacked against us and yet you still seem certain of victory. It is little wonder no demons have ever been able to best you. I have rarely seen such determination in a human before."
"Hey, we might loose," said Prue. "But if we start thinking we're going to loose then the battle's half over all ready. We have to keep a positive attitude and do the best we can."
Prue wished she were as confident as she sounded. Her sisters had always looked to her for strength and guidance. But Damonculous had survived the simultaneous attacks of seven demons, counting Cole. He appeared to be unstoppable. And Prue wasn't sure that even the Power of Three was going to be enough to stop him.