Chapter 7: Trapped
Paige, Prue, and Phoebe orbed into Darcon's lair. Piper was tied up, while Leo, Chris, and Wyatt were all in a cage.
"I've been expecting you," Darcon told them. "Now!" he yelled. A large cage came down over them. Paige tried to orb out. Her orbs started flying off the cage sides like a pinball in a pinball machine. Prue tried to whip the door off, but it wouldn't budge.
"He still outsmarted us, even without the use of his foreseeing," Phoebe said. "Now what?"
"I don't think there is a way out of this one," Paige said.
"Yes, there is," Prue said. "We just have to wait for the right time to do it. Did you write an extra copy of the spell?" she asked Phoebe.
"Yeah, but I don't see how that's going to be any help to us when we're locked in a cage," Phoebe answered.
"You'll see," Prue said. They just had to sit around and wait to see what Darcon had in store for them.
They waited for over an hour, watching him walk around and give demons orders. Most of the orders had nothing to do with them. He seemed all prepared for what he was going to do with the Charmed Ones dead.
"Let's do it now," Prue finally whispered to Paige and Phoebe.
"Do what?" Paige asked.
"Get ready to say the spell." She used her powers to get the paper over to Piper. "Hide my body," she said. She astral projected over to Piper. Darcon had his face turned away from the sisters. They started to use the spell.
Evil being with the power of a charm,
Already has he caused so much harm,
Strength from these four Halliwells,
Destroy this demon where he dwells.
Phoebethrew the potion. Darcon exploded and a giant mess of dust and cloud filled the area. Prue grabbed the key and blindly walked back to the cage. She opened to door.
"Girls!" Leo yelled. The dust started clearing and they saw that Darcon was still standing there. He looked just as shocked as they did. Then his puzzled look became a smile. He started to laugh.
"It appears that I am invincible," he said. Phoebe untied Piper quickly and Prue unlocked Leo's cage. Paige orbed them all back to the manor.
"Now what?" Piper asked. "He can't be stopped, not even with a Power of Four spell. Even worse, he can get into Magic School, so now I can't keep you guys there."
"It's okay, Piper," Leo said. "I think your guys' next move should be to get your powers back."
"And how do we do that?" Paige asked.
"Same way he got them from you. I'm sure that somewhere in this house you could find a warlock's power-stealing athemae."
"Yeah, there's one in the attic," Phoebe said. "I'll go get it." Paige went with her.
"Our powers didn't help before, what use will they do now?" Piper asked.
"I don't know, Piper," Leo said. "But at least you'll have something to fight back with."
"He's right," Prue said. "But we still don't know how to vanquish him for good." After she said that, two demons shimmered into the living room. They heard a crash upstairs. Prue flung an energy ball at the one. Paige orbed herself and Phoebe downstairs. Two more demons came shimmering in from the attic.
Piper picked up a potion. "What is this, open house?" She threw a potion at one of them. He went up in flames. The two remaining demons shimmered away.
"Do you have the athemae?" Prue asked. Phoebe took it out of her jacket pocket.
"Good, let's get this thing done," Piper asked. Darcon shimmered in, along with four more demons. "This is ridiculous." Phoebe handed Paige the athemae. She orbed behind Darcon and stabbed it into his back. All of their powers went into Paige.
"Energy ball!" she yelled, orbing an energy ball back at it's creator. "Feels good to be able to do that again."
"Paige," Phoebe yelled, "you have all of our powers!" After hearing that Paige used Piper's powers and blew up a demon.
"Unfair," Piper said. "It took me forever to learn how to aim that."
"No!" Darcon yelled. "Retreat!" They shimmered away.
"Give me my powers back," Piper said. Once she had them, she blew up a vase for practice. "Yup, I still got it."
"Good for you," Paige said, "but I sort of liked being able to blow stuff up."
"Believe me," Phoebe added in. "You guys' all have great powers compared to mine."
"Can we finish this chitchat later?" Prue asked. "We need to find a way to vanquish Darcon before it's too late."