"That was too close," said Phoebe after they had returned to the manor.
"Well, Leo and Toushell both said the gargoyle was a formidable opponent," said Paige. "I just never thought it would be that formidable so quickly."
"Leo," Piper gasped, tears in her eyes.
Even after all the trouble and disagreements they had been having of late Piper still loved him. To watch him being destroyed right before her eyes was almost more than she could bear. Secretly, she had always harbored the hope that they would be able to work out their differences.
"Don't worry," said Phoebe, hugging her sister. "He saved us. I know it's not much comfort but at least he didn't die in vain."
"I didn't die at all," said Leo, coming out of the kitchen.
"Leo," squealed Piper, rushing to hug her husband. "We thought that thing had killed you."
"I'm a White Lighter," said Leo. "Nothing short of a Dark Lighter's arrow can kill me. That fireball may have vanquished my human form but I reformed very quickly. I thought after all these years you would have learned that by now."
"It's just unnerving, that's all," said Paige. "I guess we forgot for a moment that you're nearly indestructible."
"Well, from an attack like that, anyway," said Leo. "While it may not be able to do me any permanent harm I wouldn't want to go through that again. I'm not injured but it hurts like hell."
"Leo Wyatt," said Piper, some anger apparent in her voice, "don't you ever do that again. You aren't supposed to sacrifice yourself for us. Your our guide not our protector."
"Believe me I had no intention of sacrificing myself," said Leo. "It was just my own clumsiness that got in the way. I was only trying to get you out of the way, that's all."
"How touching," said a voice from the living room.
They all turned to see Toushell and the gargoyle standing next to the fireplace. "A nice family reunion. And the White Lighter is back. What a stroke of luck. Now we can see just how much punishment a Whitelighter can take and still survive."
"Toushell," said Paige as the sisters turned to face the demon.
"You didn't think I'd just forget about you, did you?" asked Toushell, making sure to keep the gargoyle between him and the witches. "I can't have you running around opposing me at every turn. I have a lot of plans. Plans that don't include the three of you."
"This ends now," said Piper bringing her hands up.
She summoned all of the explosive power at her disposal. Their powers were tied to their emotions and right now there was no one or no thing that Piper hated more than this demon and the gargoyle. They had survived the first assault against them. They had nearly destroyed Leo. And she was determined that neither would live to complete their plans.
She loosed her explosive power on the gargoyle intent on destroying it utterly. The power struck the gargoyle and it exploded into a thousand shards as many of her enemies had. But almost immediately the shards reformed and the gargoyle stood facing them again. It howled in anger at Piper.
"Stupid witch," said Toushell. "Gargoyles cannot be vanquished by your mere powers. Even your White Lighter has told you that. Do you think I would risk coming here if it were that simple to dispose of him? Not even your Power of Three is enough to destroy my pet. Oh, I'm sure you have a spell prepared. But you will find it just as useless as the rest of your pathetic abilities."
"The spell," said Phoebe.
The sisters all turned to face the gargoyle. In unison they began to incant the spell Phoebe had written to vanquish the demon.
"A demon once vanquished returned from the past, let its evil be vanquished at last.
"Scatter the essence of the gargoyle before us, and end its evil forever."
Flames sprung up around the gargoyle and Toushell had to step back to keep from being consumed by the flames. The look on the demons face indicated that it was not as confident about the invulnerability of the gargoyle as it had let one. They all stood and watch as the flames began to consume the gargoyle as it fought with every fiber of its being to resist.
For a moment it looked as if the Power of Three spell might accomplish what no magic in history had been able to do. The gargoyle began to fade as the flames consumed it. Just as suddenly the flames suddenly vanished leaving the gargoyle standing where it had appeared in the manor. There was no evidence that it had even been weakened by the spell.
"This is not good," said Paige, as the sisters began to back away from the creature.
Suddenly the gargoyle shot out with another flame attack as it had in the church. Prepared for this attack, the sisters and Leo all dived for cover as the flame tongue missed them and dissipated harmless on the wall behind them. They all came up in a defensive stance.
"Poker," Paige called out, extending her hand.
The poker from the fireplace suddenly began to orb and Paige redirected the item at the gargoyle. It struck the creature in the back impaling it completely. The gargoyle simply howled in anger, and then reached up and pulled the offending weapon from its chest. Just as quickly the wound the poker had caused suddenly healed over leaving not even a mark.
They were quickly running out of options. Not even the Power of Three, the most powerful weapon at their disposal, seemed to have any lasting affect against this creature. Even Piper's explosive power merely slowed it for a moment. They stood facing the gargoyle and the demon with no idea what they would do next.
Suddenly the gargoyle looked a Phoebe and took a step back. It howled at Phoebe in anger but made no attempt to attack. Toushell seemed to have recovered his wits and reached over and took the gargoyles arm.
"Another day," said the demon and then he shimmered away with the gargoyle.
"Okay, what happened?" Paige asked. "We were beaten. Then that thing just suddenly backed off."
"It seemed afraid of Phoebe," said Piper. "No offense, sis, but that doesn't make any sense. You don't even have an offensive power. Why would it be afraid of you?"
"Maybe not me," said Phoebe looking behind her. "Maybe it was something else."
Everyone looked behind Phoebe to see what she was looking at. There didn't seem to be anything behind her that should have solicited the reaction from the gargoyle. There was small table with a vase filled with flowers on it. Hanging on the wall was a small mirror the girls often used to check their makeup before leaving the manor. Underneath the table was a small wastepaper basket that was currently empty. Lying on the table were Piper's car keys.
"There's nothing there that should have caused that reaction from the gargoyle," said Leo. "I wonder what it was?"
"What about the keys?" Phoebe asked. "They're made of metal. Maybe the metal is something the gargoyle fears."
"Unlikely," said Leo. "The knights that fought against the ancient gargoyles had swords made out of metal. Besides, why would it fear a simple set of keys?"
"Well, there was something there that think was afraid of," said Piper. "We just have to figure out what it was."
"And we'd better do it quickly," said Paige. "Toushell and that thing will probably be back and we need to figure out what frightened it if we're going to defeat it."