Chapter 4: Day Three
"Are you each aware of the plan?" Xantlo asked.
"Yes," Paige said. "You guys are going to attack with all you got and force all demons in the house to go downstairs, and we go get the Book."
"Yes," Demiter said. "Be ready because we will only have one shot at this. Once Rindo discovers that we are working with you three, we'll all be found out and destroyed."
"Great," Piper said. "Just get in there already." The demons, in an assortment of shimmering, smoking in and even a few warlocks blinking in.
"Give them a few minutes," Phoebe said. They waited and after a few moments, they grabbed Paige and orbed.
"How can we be sure there are no invisible demons?" Paige asked.
"Like this," Piper said, freezing the room. "Let's quickly get the Book now." They walked over to it. Piper slowly laid a hand on it. "Good," she said. "Rindo hasn't been able to make it forget us yet."
"Come on, Paige," Phoebe said. Paige orbed her sisters back to the factory. The other demons and warlocks came back momentarily.
"May I see it?" Xantlo asked. Piper handed him the Book of Shadows. "I can't believe it's actually letting us touch it."
"Rindo must have cast some spell to let good or evil touch it," Phoebe said.
"We're done with you now," Xantlo said. "Kill them." Three demons formed energy balls to throw at the sisters.
"What?" Piper yelled. "We had a deal."
"Yeah," Demiter said. "You've outlived your purpose."
"Phoebe," Piper yelled at her. "You said they were telling the truth."
"They were," Phoebe said. "They just intended to kill us after we got them the Book."
"And you couldn't sense that before?" Paige asked. The demons threw their energy balls. Piper blew the one up aimed for her. Paige orbed hers away. Phoebe ducked to dodge hers. They grabbed onto Paige to orb.
"Stop them!" Xantlo yelled. It was too late, the sisters had escaped. "Damn it!"
"It's okay," Demiter said. "We have what we wanted. We can deal with them later."
"I can't believe those rotten demons betrayed us," Piper said. They were back at their Victor's house.
"Well," Paige said. "They are demons. They are likely to do so."
"She's right," Phoebe said. "We shouldn't have been so willing to help them."
"We shouldn't have been so stupid," Piper said. "I can't believe we fell for it." She stopped yelling for a second and started thinking. "Paige, orb me to the witch store. I'm going to make some vanquishing potions." Paige orbed her.
"You guys made a deal to work with demons?" Victor asked surprised. "Why would you work with them?"
"They tricked us," Phoebe said. "There wasn't much else we could have done anyways. We needed help."
"What's your guy's next step?" Darryl asked.
"Well, I think now we should be working on getting the Book back. Once Piper has that vanquishing potion done, Xantlo's going to get a piece of our mind." Phoebe, Darryl, and Victor suddenly heard a large thud and Wyatt start to cry. They ran to the back room to see what the commotion was. Leo looked like he had been thrown against a wall.
"We need to get out," Leo said weakly. "They know where we are now." Two demons shimmered in the room. Wyatt looked at them and blew one of them up. Before Wyatt could do so to him, he shimmered away for reinforcements.
"Where do you suppose we go?" Victor asked.
"Who knows," Leo said. "But we have to get out of here. There'll be more demons and they'll keep sending more until we're dead."
"We can go to the witch store and hide out there," Phoebe suggested. She got out her cell phone and called Paige. "Paige, come get us quick." Paige orbed in about the same time as six demons shimmered.
"Look out!" Paige yelled. A demon threw an energy ball at Victor.
"Dad!" Phoebe yelled as her dad fell to the floor.
"We need to go," Paige said. She grabbed Phoebe and Leo and orbed. Leo was holding Wyatt and Chris.
"We need to go back for him," Phoebe said once they rematerialized. Piper was standing behind the counter working on a potion.
"For who?" she asked. "What happened? Where's dad?"
"He was hit," Leo said.
"What?" Piper yelled. "No, he couldn't have." Piper sat down on a stool. She looked as though she were going to start crying. She pulled herself together and stood up. "The potion's done. I'm going to vanquish Xantlo and Demiter. Paige and her orbed to the abandoned factory.
"Where are they?" Paige asked. There were no demons in sight. They saw the Book in the middle of the room on the floor. They walked towards it.
"Now!" a voice yelled. Demons stood up from hiding places all over.
"The Book!" Piper yelled to Paige.
"Book of Shadows!" Paige yelled. The Book lying on the floor suddenly disappeared. It had only been an illusion cast by Demiter. Xantlo stepped out and walked towards the sisters.
"Make a move to orb," Xantlo said. "And you'll surely pay." He took another few steps towards them. "I should kill you now on the spot."
"Then why don't you do it?" Piper asked.
"Piper," Paige whispered. "I don't want to die that bad." Xantlo formed a fireball in his hand.
"Maybe I should."
"No!" Demiter yelled, running up to them. "We still need them." The two started whispering.
"They still need us?" Paige asked Piper in a whisper. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know," Piper said. "But I'm sure not helping their sorry asses again." Xantlo walked over to them once again.
"We are in need of you one last time," he said to them. Piper laughed at him.
"And you think we're going to help?" she asked.
"You don't need to help voluntarily. We just need you alive to transfer the power of three onto us. We then will be able to stop Rindo."
"You can't do the spell without Phoebe here anyways," Piper said.
"She'll come soon," Xantlo said. "Once she figures out her sisters are missing, she'll come looking."
"I should have gone with them," Phoebe said. "They've been gone for too long. They might need my help."
"Don't worry so much," Leo said. "They'll be back soon."
"I'm going to scry for them to make sure." Phoebe walked over to the other side of the room and sat down at a table with a map on it. She used the crystal to scry for her sisters. The crystal landed a few moments later. "Found them. They're at the factory."
"That proves it," Leo said. "They're alive and will be back soon."
"Either that or their alive and about to be killed by a demon. Either way, I'm going to find out." Against Leo's wishes, she walked outside and hotwired a truck. She drove to the factory building. She looked down at the truck's clock: 4:44. She drove right through the wall in the factory.
"Look who's here," Xantlo said. Phoebe grabbed the vial she had filled with Piper's potion and put it in her back pocket.
"Let them go," Phoebe said.
"Or what? You'll stop all of us?" He motioned to all the demons there were standing around. Phoebe knew she was severely outnumbered. With her powers, she would have no way of protecting herself against all the demons after she threw the vanquishing potion at Xantlo. She had no choice.
"Fine," she said. "You got me." He walked over to her smiling menacingly.
"Yes, I do." He walked her over to her sisters and sat her on a metal chair. "Tie her up!" A demon ran over to her and tied her. He motioned three warlocks forward. "These are the three that will be getting your guys' powers. They'll treat them nicely, don't worry."
"You can't take our powers," Piper said. "It takes a witch to read that spell and warlocks don't apply."
"We have a witch," Xantlo said. A woman with fierce, red hair walked to the Book.
"Paige," Piper whispered. "I know we could be killed after this, but orb us the Book." Paige looked at her uncertainly but did so.
"Book of Shadows!" she yelled. The Book orbed from the witch's grasp and over to the sisters.
"Do you want us to kill you?" Xantlo asked.
"Rope!" Paige yelled, orbing the rope off of her arms. She was about to orb her and her sisters when Xantlo threw a fireball at her. She flew against a window. It was impossible to survive a hit from a fireball.
"Paige!" Piper yelled.
"I warned you," Xantlo said. "Now you suffer the consequences. We can still have your two powers and I'm sure there's a spell to extract her powers yet." Piper had tears fill her eyes. First her dad, then Paige. Her whole family was falling from beneath her and there was nothing she could do to stop it. "Rest up," he said. "We'll be killing you after we've found a way." He and the rest of the demons used their mode of transportation and left. An energy field went up around the factory.
"Paige?" Piper called. "Phoebe, you can sense her can't you?"
"No," Phoebe said. "I can't. She's d-dead."
"She can't be," Piper said. "We can't lose another sister." Piper got her hands undone and stood up and ran over to Paige. She never truly realized how much she felt for Paige until now. Her sorrow was quickly overtaken by rage. Pure rage that filled her veins. She walked towards the factory exit. Phoebe got her hands out and ran after her.
"There's a force field, you won't be able to…" Phoebe started. Piper blasted the door open in one hit. "open it" Phoebe finished.
"I think it's time demons do a little suffering," Piper said, swiftly walking out the door.