Charmed & Dangerous: Part 8
Summary: Paige must band together with Phoebe's sisters to save her from the Underworld. Part 1 of the conclusion!
Rating: R (for language)
Paige stood rooted to the spot, staring at the place where Phoebe had been moments before. Piper's groan of pain snapped her out of her daze as she glanced over and saw both her girlfriend's sisters raising themselves off the floor, looking much the worse for wear. Piper had a trickle of blood running from her nose, and Prue sported a nasty slash mark across her upper arm.
"Leo," Prue said weakly, holding out her arm to him. He rushed to her side and put his hand out over her arm, preparing to heal her. But nothing happened.
"Leo?" Piper said uncertainly. "What's the matter?"
"I can't heal her," Leo said in a shaky voice. "That potion the demons threw at me…it must have been a binding potion." He looked up at Paige grimly. "They got you too, didn't they?" Paige looked helplessly between them all, as guilt poured over her thin frame like molten lead. She nodded. Then she tried to orb. Her eyes squeezed shut as she balled her hands into fists, and appeared to hold her breath for almost thirty seconds. Finally, with a gasp she relaxed.
"Fuck," Paige whispered brokenly. She glanced around the room in a manic sort of way, eyes glazed, as if searching for a solution in the remains of the ransacked attic. Then she snapped her fingers and ran for the stairs. Piper and Prue glanced curiously at each other, and followed, Prue still pressing a ripped bit of her shirt to her bleeding arm. They found Paige standing in the middle of the kitchen, eyes closed, holding a small spice jar up to her face and breathing deeply. She sneezed violently, but didn't orb. When she opened her eyes and found herself stationary, she howled in frustration and threw the jar of cinnamon into the corner, where it shattered.
"Fuck…" she whispered again, her voice small and lost. She was staring into space, as if she were in shock. And, they thought, she probably was. Paige wiped her nose listlessly against the back of her hand, and sneezed again.
"Here, sweetie, blow your nose," Piper said gently, handing her a box of Kleenex from the counter and laying a comforting hand on her back. Paige accepted the offering, blowing her nose and rubbing her eyes roughly, blinking up at Piper as if she had suddenly realized she wasn't alone in the room. Piper felt a fierce protectiveness rising up inside her for this girl, her sister's lover. In some intangible way, she already felt that Paige was a part of their family, and her need to protect this younger girl was as strong in her as her need to protect Phoebe. She knew that Paige was her own person, and not just a part of Phoebe; but the connection between them was so palpable, Piper felt as if Paige were her little sister, now, too.
"We're gonna get her back, Paige," Piper said quietly, an edge of hard steel in her voice. "That's a promise." Paige nodded, as Prue came up on her other side. They all moved to the table, where Piper got out the first aid kit and began cleaning up Prue's arm as they worked out how to rescue Phoebe from an evil goddess.
"If she's in the underworld, we won't be able to scry for her," Prue pointed out unnecessarily.
"She is," Leo said. "It explains why I can't sense her anywhere."
"I can," Paige said quietly. All heads in the room turned to her.
"But—" Piper began, confusion evident on her face.
"That potion Leo and I got hit with, it bound our whitelighter powers…" Paige was staring at the tablecloth, a little spaced out, as if half of her attention were elsewhere. "But Phoebe's and my connection, it doesn't have anything to do with that. I can sense her…no matter where she is."
"What are you sensing right now?" Prue asked carefully.
"She's unconscious." Paige said flatly. "Which I guess is good, cause if they wanted to kill her, they probably would have done it already." Her eyes were still boring a hole in the tablecloth.
"What about the spell to call a lost lover?" Piper said suddenly. "Paige could say it, and if it works it'll take her straight to Phoebe."
"No Piper, she'll astral project straight to Phoebe. She'd be totally defenseless, and without powers." Piper frowned at this snag.
"Could that work?" Paige asked suddenly, looking up at them for the first time. "Don't you have to be a witch to say spells and stuff?"
"Normally, yes," Piper agreed. "But you're sort of part-witch now, in the sense that you're sharing powers with Phoebe. I mean, you got a premonition. Have you tried levitating?" Paige screwed up her face in concentration, raised her palms up slightly from her sides, and hovered several feet above the floor.
"That's great!" Prue exclaimed. "So, even though you can't use your whitelighter powers, you're not completely defenseless."
"Great, where's the spell?" Paige asked as she touched back down.
"Whoa, nelly," Piper held up her hand in a move that reminded Paige fiercely of Phoebe. "You can't just go running off half-cocked, we need a plan. Prue was right, you won't be able to defend yourself very well, if at all, in astral form. And our powers aren't very predictable in the underworld, to begin with. We're not sending you down there by yourself. We'll find another way."
"What if there is no other way, Piper?' Paige asked desperately. "What if they start torturing her while we're looking for one?" This hit a nerve with everyone. "Just send me down there," Paige pleaded, "and then you guys can look up some kind of antidote for the binding potion, and come after me." This suggestion was greeted by dead silence.
"Please," Paige begged, looking around at all of them. "I can't…I can't know that there's a way I could get to her, and not take it. And if anything does happen to her," Paige continued with a nervous swallow, "it'll hurt me just as much whether I'm standing here," she gestured around the kitchen, "or right next to her."
"Paige…" Piper reached out and took Paige's hand, squeezing it hard. "I know you're scared…we all are. But believe me when I say we will not let anything happen to Phoebe. And we're certainly not about to lose you, too. Let us at least try to look for another solution, okay? If we can't…then at least we've got a plan B. Deal?"
"Okay," Paige agreed dejectedly.
Miles below, Phoebe slowly opened her eyes to find herself in a dark, moist cavern, draped in blood red silks. Flickering light danced on the walls from the hanging torches that circled the open area, and there was a trickling sound which turned out to be wine spouting from a fountain, carved in the shape of a woman with four arms, who wore a necklace of human heads. Around her waist was a belt of hands, dangling from jutting white wrist bones. Her face was nightmarish, mouth open as if in a scream of fury, and the wine poured out over her tongue. Glancing around at all of this in a daze, only half-awake, Phoebe had no idea where she was at first. All she knew was that she was cold, she was bruised, and she was alone.
"Paige?" She murmured.
"Ohhh, you won't be needing her anymore," a smoky, almost gravelly voice echoed out of the darkness. Phoebe sat up, jaw dropping open, as a figure materialized out of the shadows. This woman was not the four-armed monster that she had expected…if indeed she could be called a woman. She did, after all, have blue skin. But aside from that (any maybe even a little bit because of it), she was quite devastatingly beautiful. She wore a rich, teal colored silk sari accented with gold embroidery, the fabric seeming to literally spill over her body, like a river. It didn't spill over that much of her body, though, and Phoebe's mouth went automatically dry at the sight of all that vibrant blue skin.
"Now, shall you be a good girl if I untie you, pet?" Phoebe hadn't even roused herself enough to realize she was tied up yet. "Or are we in need of convincing?" She smiled in a decidedly sultry way, as if the thought of the convincing gave her great pleasure. Phoebe said nothing. She couldn't even blink. There was something almost paralyzing in the very air of this place…it was like liquid, like she was dissolving. She could feel the dark magic pouring over her, cold, sharp, like jagged shards of ice. It hurt, she didn't like it—and yet—there was something, something that was pulling her in deeper, telling her she liked this pain. She felt her own magic begin to reach out to meet the icy tendrils curling toward her.
"So easily you come to me," The blue skinned goddess laughed mirthlessly. She took an impressive looking silver goblet from a pedestal, and filled it with wine from the statue's mouth. "Perhaps your little girlfriend is not as powerful as I had presumed." Phoebe glanced up at her captor, to the tiny gold bindi bead between her eyes. Her dark, brown, almond-shaped eyes.
"Paige!" Phoebe cried, as if calling her whitelighter girlfriend to appear before her. But nothing happened. The cruel goddess laughed again, more wantonly.
"She will not save you!" For a moment the blue-skinned goddess's eyes flashed with fire—not metaphorical fire, but actual, living flame. "She did not come when you called! I have not masked your essence from her. If she wanted to come to you, she could freely do so!"
"No," Phoebe whimpered, shaking her head violently as fat teardrops began to fall. "You're lying. She wants to come…she wants to be with me. You did something to her."
"Are you sure that's what you're sensing, child?" The demon goddess asked like a cruel governess. Phoebe closed her eyes, blocking out the hellish scene before her, trying to focus on finding Paige. Baby, where are you? She called out in her mind, knowing that words were useless. But then she felt something—something warm and breathing in the pit of her stomach. Paige. She tried to focus on it…but when she did, she ran up against a sharp volt of what felt like electric fencing. Phoebe screamed in pain, dark hair falling in her eyes as she writhed.
"You see," the goddess purred, "She does not want you anymore. I, on the other hand, do." She held the wine goblet to Phoebe's lips. Phoebe turned her head to the side, pressing her lips together like a child refusing her medicine. But the heady fumes of the dark, rich liquid were wafting over her like a siren's call…everything began to be hazy and muddled. She couldn't remember where she was; only that Paige had left her here. And the goblet in front of her offered escape from the pain coursing through her. After a moment's hesitation, Phoebe opened her mouth.
In the manor, things were not progressing the way Piper had hoped. The four of them—Piper, Prue, Leo and Paige—had not found any plan A to replace their plan B, and as the hour grew later, all were having trouble keeping their eyes open. Piper glanced at Paige, who was curled up on the couch with a pile of spell books in her lap, eyes out of focus. She nudged Prue, glancing at the couch significantly.
"Paige," she said gently, putting a hand out to shake the dozing girl's shoulder gently. Paige started, eyes opening fully as she looked up at Piper and Prue. "It's getting late…you should stay with us tonight, okay? It's not safe for you back at your dorm."
"Yeah," Prue nodded, "you can stay in Phoebe's room. We'll start again in the morning." They fully expected for Paige to insist that they continue researching, and argue that they couldn't rest while Phoebe was in danger. But Paige just nodded blankly, and rose to cross the attic. She left without a word.
"Do you think she's okay?" Piper asked, knowing it was a stupid question as soon as it was out of her mouth. Prue sighed, and Leo just looked at her.
"I think…" Prue said quietly. "I think that in the morning, we're going to have to let Paige say the lost lovers' spell. It's the only way."
"It's suicide," Piper whispered, a tremor in her voice. "We'll lose them both."
"We have to trust Paige, Piper," Leo said gently. "And Phoebe. We have to trust that they can beat this, together…it is their destiny after all." Piper looked from her husband, to her big sister, and nodded.
"Well, I'm going to bed…after I check on Paige." Piper sighed.
"I'll come with," Prue offered, and left Leo to put away their research books. Together, the two sisters went down to their third sister's room, both wishing she would be there to greet them with her devilish, playful smile. But when they got there, of course, they did not find their sister. Instead, they found their sister's other half, another dark-haired, powerfully magical girl, who at the moment was curled up in a ball on the bed, her sobs muffled by the pillow clutched in her arms. Without a word passing between them, Piper and Prue went over to the bed, and lay down on either side of Paige, holding her and stroking her hair. Paige didn't acknowledge them at first, but after a few moments during which neither of them told her not to cry, or that everything was gonna be all right, she threw herself on Piper's neck, clinging to her for dear life.
"We've got you, Paige," Piper murmured, her eyes filling with tears as she and Prue looked at each other. "You can cry. It's okay." Prue reached out and took Piper's hand over the crying girl's shoulder, squeezing her sister's hand tight. Then she gently began to rub Paige's shaking back, all of them falling into a light doze as the sobs subsided. Soon, the three of them were fast asleep on Phoebe's bed.
Paige was walking down a long corridor draped in blue silk. It was cold. She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself, trying to remember what she had come for.
"Phoebe?" she called out in a small voice, which nonetheless fractured and echoed down the seemingly endless walkway. A thousand Paiges called for a thousand Phoebes as the echo died away. Then a cruel, icy laugh wafted toward her. The very feel of that laugh vibrating through her body made Paige's blood run cold.
"You shouldn't have come, Paige." The cold voice that spoke sent a terror into Paige that ran deeper than any she'd ever known. It wasn't…couldn't be…
"Phoebe? …Baby?" Paige asked hesitantly.
"Idiot child!" Phoebe's eyes blazed with fire as she emerged from out of the shadows. She was dressed in a blood-red sari, hair swept up regally, with a gold bindi bead between her eyes that seemed to wink sinisterly at Paige. "Did you think this would end with kisses and rainbows, Paige?" Phoebe's eyes, normally full of love for her, were boring into Paige like ice, freezing her from the inside out. She raised her hand, and a lotus blossom flowered out of her palm. Phoebe jerked her own hand across her chest, and the blossom was gone—cut away, leaving a bloody slash across Paige's hand.
"I'm not leaving you here, Phoebe," Paige gasped out through the pain.
"You don't have a choice!" Phoebe spat, and before she knew what was happening, Paige felt a wall of dark magic slam into her like a ton of bricks, throwing her backwards through the cavern, tumbling through the icy vacuum of space that separated the underworld from the earth above.
"NO!" Paige awoke screaming. Prue and Piper were awake in an instant, holding Paige tight as she twisted and writhed.
"It's just a nightmare, Paige," Prue said soothingly. "It's okay, you're okay."
"No!" Paige cried again. "It wasn't a nightmare! It's real! I have to go, I have to go to Phoebe!" Piper grabbed Paige's right hand as she tried to jerk free of them, and gasped. Paige's hand was dripping with blood.
