The title for this chapter is a play on 'Pandora's Box', you'll understand it when you read the chapter. In my opinion this is quite a good chapter, hope you'll all feel the same.
Pandora's Basement:
"Are you sure about this?" Cronus asked Hades,
"I want to be almighty and powerful again, so of course I am sure about this," the evil god replied,
"but my lord, it is dangerous, the Nexus is controlled by good, the shadow will kill us all," The Source stated,
"nothing can kill me," Hades stubbornly said, flaming out and back in again on his dark throne.
At the manor, the sisters were battling a tall, scary, demon,
"I'll kill you witches," she spat, green saliva spraying from his mouth with every word,
"ewe," Piper cringed, from where they were hiding behind the turned over dining table. The middle sister shot up from behind the table and gestured, expecting to release an explosive ice shard, but instead what could only be described as an arrow made of fire flew from her palm, vanquishing the demon, she was shocked.
"This is so not fair, first I get my whitelighter magic taken away, and now you get a new power," Paige moaned, as she and Prue also stood up,
"lets call Leo and see what he says," Prue said, "Leo!"
"yeah?" he said, orbing out,
"Piper's got another new power," Prue replied,
"yeah, and it's only been about six months since she got her last one," Paige continued to moan, sitting on one of the dining chairs.
"What's the new power?" Leo asked,
"this," Piper said, stretching out her hand and releasing another flame, but this time it was in the shape of a spear,
"pyrokinetic weapon generation, it must be an extension of your cryokinetic destruction power," he stated,
"it's cool," Prue complemented,
"I know," Piper beamed.
Meanwhile, five month pregnant Gabrielle sat at her desk at the Bay Mirror, typing her column, when suddenly Phoebe came flying out of her office,
"Phoebe, what's going on?" Elise questioned,
"nothing, y'know, just having some flying lessons," Phoebe lied, with a fake smile. The Angelic Seer rushed back into her office, locked the door, and confronted the attacking demon,
"couldn't you have at least waited until I was at home?" she asked, the demon laughed and charged up an energy ball, launching it at Phoebe. She concentrated her empathy and sent the energy ball back at the demon, bringing him to a quiet end,
"that was a silent vanquish," she said to herself, before Elise started banging on her door, "but evidently not that silent," she stated, opening the door and coming up with an explanation like the ones she had used many times before.
Later that afternoon, Paige was walking through the foyer when The Source flamed in, blasting her through one of the conservatory windows with a powerful blast of kinetic energy, rendering her unconscious.
"Master, the house is free," he called,
"you have served me well," Hades told him, flaming in, a large amount of demons, and Cronus and Rhea, shimmering in after him.
"The Nexus is this way," The Source said, leading through the kitchen and to the basement,
"you shall be rewarded for this," Hades stated, as they reached the bottom of the stairs, "open up the ground, I need to be certain that the shadow will come," he ordered,
"I will open it for you," Rhea told him, stepping forward and raising her arms. A large crack spread through part of the ground, stretching out into a circular shape and creating a hole, Hades smiled wickedly at the hole,
"the spell, say the spell," he instructed, The Source nodded and chanted something in an ancient demonic language, the shadow gradually rose from the hole. It moved around like smoke, before reaching out and surrounding The Source and the demons, sucking them back into the hole and vanishing,
"good still rules the Nexus, there must be another charmed one in the house," Hades hissed,
"your damn right," a voice said, they looked up to see Piper standing at the top of the stairs.
"Sire, we must leave, she is the most powerful of the charmed ones, and with only three of us here there's not much chance of any of us escaping unwounded," Cronus said,
"I'll be back for the shadow," Hades told Piper, flaming out, Cronus and Rhea shimmering after him.
They flamed and shimmered into the Olympian Underworld,
"how will we release the shadow now?" Rhea asked,
"I know one woman who can," Hades replied, he made a gesture with one hand and a small, black and gold, box appeared in the other one, "and this belongs to her," he said.
"Pandora," Cronus whispered, Hades nodded,
"if she can release evil from this little box then I'm sure she can release it from a basement," he stated,
"I shall track her down for you," Cronus said, shimmering out.
"What task may you have for me?" Rhea asked,
"get the sisters out of the house for when Cronus returns with Pandora," Hades replied, Rhea agreed and shimmered out.
She shimmered into the manor to find Piper, Leo and a just healed Paige in the conservatory,
"you've just made a big mistake by coming back," Piper told her, using her new power to create a sword of fire in her hands, throwing it at the Titan. Rhea managed to destroy the sword with a lightening bolt, before it could get to her,
"I think it's time you get out," she hissed, shooting heat from her hands,
"it's our house," Piper stated, deflecting the heat and blasting Rhea backwards,
"not anymore," Rhea snarled, waving her arms and throwing them into the foyer and out of the doors, she grinned before telekinetically closing the doors.
Somewhere in purgatory, Cronus shimmered in next to a young woman, her yellowy-cream toga was dirty and torn, her long, black, hair was scrawny and her innocent blue eyes were bloodshot,
"who's there?" she asked, from where her face was buried in her arms.
"An old friend," he replied, through the evil grin which was almost always plastered across his face, when she heard his voice she slowly rose her head,
"you're not my friend," she growled, jumping up into a fighting stance.
"Calm down, I'm here because someone needs your help, Hades needs your help, and he might just help you in return," he told her, her arms settled to her sides and she stepped forward,
"I might be interested," she said, letting him shimmer her out.
He shimmered them into the Olympian Underworld, where Hades was waiting, his ghostly form looking quite odd on his solid throne,
"Pandora, last time I saw you Zeus was banishing you to purgatory for releasing a big bunch of evil, and if I remember correctly you were the one to release the exact evil I'm after now, the shadow," he said.
"What do I get for doing it?" she asked, standing tall with pride, not wanting to appear small and timid to the god,
"freedom, from purgatory," he replied,
"you've got a deal," she agreed, offering her hand for him to shake, but unsurprisingly his just passed straight through hers.
In the manor, Rhea was sitting on the stairs that led to the basement, she was quite bored and had begun filing her nails with smooth stone she had conjured, which was actually making them bleed, but that didn't stop or bother her. When Hades, Cronus and Pandora finally appeared she got rid of the stone and stood up,
"is the family out of the house?" Hades asked, she nodded, "good,"
"so where am I doing this?" Pandora questioned, glancing around,
"right here," Hades replied, pointing to the hole in the floor,
"I don't need to a hole to release evil," she muttered, as she walked over. She knelt down next to the hole and held her hands over it,
"what's taking so long?" Cronus impatiently asked, she didn't answer, everything went silent for a minute, so silent you could practically hear the dust settling all around, then in quick movement the shadow flew up from the ground,
"come to me," Hades bellowed, Pandora looked at the shadow, and it appeared as if it was looking back at her, then she pointed to Hades and it moved towards him, entering his body. He grinned as his eyes turned all black and he became corporeal,
"I feel completely indestructible," he said, his voice completely demonic, "bring the sisters in, I want to test my new level of power," he continued, Cronus hesitated before waving his hand, making Piper, Paige, Leo, and Prue, who had not long joined them on the doorstep.
"Thanks for the lift, now get out," Prue told them, flicking out her hands at the foursome, but only throwing Pandora, Cronus and Rhea backwards, leaving Hades unfazed,
"uh oh, he's solid, I think he got the shadow," Paige whispered to Piper,
"I know, but who's the newbie?" the molecular asked, hinting at Pandora,
"the newbie, as you put it, is Pandora, and she has just released evil from your basement floor, like she released it from her box many, many, years ago," Hades informed them. Prue formed a pyrokinetic sphere in each hand, while electricity sparked around Leo's hands, Paige prepared to use her deflection, and Piper held out her arms, ready to use her powers,
"your magic is useless against me," Hades laughed, bouncing a fire ball up and down in his hands before throwing it at Paige. Surprisingly the youngest charmed one dissolved into blue and white lights, just managing to escape the flaming sphere, before reappearing,
"I orbed," she stated,
"you must have earned your powers back, or at least one of them," Piper said,
"but how?" she asked,
"the Elders just probably sent it back to you because you needed it the most," Leo suggested,
"less chitchat, more fighting," Prue instructed, releasing a burst of acid from her outstretched hand.
"I'll be seeing you," Hades said, absorbing the acid and flaming out, Cronus and Rhea shimmering after him, leaving Pandora,
"I think it's time we made sure you don't release evil ever again," Prue said, launching a pyrokinetic sphere at Pandora, wounding her but not managing to vanquish her.
"Let me try," Piper told her big sister, and with a flick of her wrists she blew Pandora up,
"demonic magic mustn't have effected her as much as witches magic," Leo said to Prue,
"we've gotta go sort out Hades," the eldest stated,
"I'll orb us," Paige said, taking hold of each of her sisters' hands and orbing them out.
They orbed in in the Olympian Underworld, as soon as they appeared before Hades Piper shot a pyrokinetic arrow at him, creating a burn in his chest,
"witch!" he bellowed,
"uh oh, I think you made him mad," Paige said, "we're going," she decided. Not giving Prue chance to protest she orbed herself and her sisters out.
"What is it?" Rhea asked Hades, seeing the strange expression on his face,
"my love, my Persephone, I can sense her, it would appear she's come out of hiding," he replied, a half smile appearing on his face,
"I suggest you take care of the charmed ones first," Cronus said,
"my thoughts exactly," Hades said, flaming out.
To be continued…..
Next chapter- The war between the charmed ones and Hades begins. Piper is determined to throw a Halloween party at P3. Hades tries to track down Persephone.
'Charmocalypse part 1' should be up soon, then the chapter after that: 'Charmocalypse part 2' will be the last chapter.