(A/N: Wee. Chapter 3. Again, thanks for all the reviews.. Hopefully the story will start picking up. The next two or so chapters, counting this one, have been pre-written, but the others will definitely be longer when need be.)

episode 1

chapter: the third

"Vase!" Paige pulled herself from the wreckage of the room, reaching out and grabbing the object as it orbed to her. She threw it quickly at the attacker, whom she had seen once before. The demon who tried to kill her, the demon who killed--it threw it back at her and she was tossed into the wall like a doll. "Phoebe!" she cried out, taking the crash hard.

"Oh, god--Grams--Wyatt?" Phoebe found herself hunched underneath a tipped-over piece of furniture and tried to assess the situation.

"He's okay, he's okay.." the obviously frightened-looking woman, albeit far into the after-life, commented, looking down to the Wyatt, who looked about curiously at the action. The demon howled in the background, and Phoebe decided this was no place safe for either of them.

"Wyatt, orb Grams out of here, now," Phoebe commanded. The two disappeared in a whir of blue, shimmering lights. She quickly pulled herself up to face the demon that had so violently ripped into the side of the house. She froze when she saw it, wind whirling about him in a fanciful frenzy. "... Shax?"

The demon let out a low moan from the back of it's throat. From the side, it faced at least a dozen or so explosions from Piper. None of them seemed to phase him. "What the hell are you doing alive?" Her attacks sparkled red and orange flames about Shax and his being, but seemed to have no effect, merely fireworks. The demon gave a low groan, almost that of a satisfaction. Piper bit her lip and tried freezing. Nothing. Again. Nothing. "Phoebe!" she waved her hand in her direction.

Phoebe ran over to her sister. Paige, meanwhile, regrouped herself and limped over. "The spell, the spell to vanquish Shax--where is it?" the girl asked, looking to her sisters and back at the demon, who seemed to idle, listening to them with a dirty grin on his face. Phoebe gave a nervous look, looking about as she did and giving a hopeless shrug, backing farther up as her sister did so; the presence of an old foe rekindling chilling memories.

"I--I don't know!"

"I think I remember some of it," Paige grabbed ahold of both of her sisters hands. "Just follow my lead," she paused for a moment, taking a breath, then looked directly at the demon that had killed her sister so many years ago. "Evil wind that blows---that which forms... forms below--no longer may you--" Suddenly the three were flown back with utterly violent force.

Piper hit the hallway wall, Paige smacked back into the front door, and Phoebe flew far into the next room. "Piper!" hollered Leo, looking out from Chris' room. She groaned, commanding him to get out of here. Leo looked at her once, as though almost a look of resistance. Piper gave a low groan as she rummaged about in the broken pieces of the house. Leo gave her one last look, then: "Chris, get us out of here." The little boy seemed to quickly understand this father's command; and the two were quickly safe from the grasps of Shax.

"Hey, not so fast!" Shax stopped his androgynous moan and looked in the direction of the voice. There stood Sam, a rather smug grin on his face--about a mix of determination and fear martinied together. "What exactly do you think--" the demon idly threw him back up the steps, then turned back to the Charmed Ones. A bloodied Phoebe pulled herself up, continuing the spell.

"No longer may you dwell, death takes you with this sp--" The demon let out a horrendous screech as it formed into a tornado. Suddenly, a huge portal ripped it's way across the air in the front hall. Paige and Piper looked on amazed, Phoebe stood up and walked to the entry. "Oh my god.." In what appeared to be a gigantic whirlwind of darkness, fog and everything you remembered from your darkest nightmares a hole grew larger in the house.

"What is he doing?" Paige balanced herself on a small table, her other hand supporting a light bruise on her side as she winced some. Looking from Phoebe then back to Piper, she returned her gaze to the endless hole tearing it's way into the fabric of the dimension.

"Ruining my house, that's what!" Piper commenced to try to blow him up, yet again. "C'mon you two!"

"No he's not, Piper--he's---he's getting away!" Phoebe hollered. Shax quickly made his way into the portal, and Phoebe made a mad dash towards the entrance. "You guys, come on!" Piper and Paige looked at each other. Piper made a call for her to stop; Phoebe managed her footing as the swirl continued to expand. "I'm not letting him get away this time--Piper... For Prue," the girl disappeared in the swell, albeit a foolish action without her sisters.

"Sometimes I wonder how she's my sister," Piper retorted as the portal opened up. "Here goes nothing," it began to swallow everything inside. Sam. Paige. Then her.

After what seemed like an endless amount of flying through a swirl of insanity, the girl found herself on a street. It seemed rather familiar, but she wasn't so sure--was it San Franciso? A diner sat nearby, a familiar diner--but she didn't notice it at first, as she was obviously preoccupied with the portal that had taken her to wherever she might be. Giving a grunt and dusting herself off, she retorted, "Well, Phoebe, in whatever dimension you might be--we're not in Kansas anymore!"

It was a bright, sunny day in the place that she had found herself. She quickly assumed it to be earth, almost most definitely. But then she recalled the dimension she and Leo had been pulled into, and random other misadventures the girls had encountered over the years. For all she knew, this could be some big mind trick. "Hello?" By now she came to notice something in the distance. It began with a holler and a scream. A gust of wind picked up, and Piper looked down at the ground for a moment--recollecting her thoughts. "Shax," she quickly took off.

The noises came from down the street, and she picked up her speed. Other factors of this apparently earth-like dimension, such as if her powers would work, mingled in her mind as she dashed down the street. She pulled herself to a stop and looked into the alley. Two people were battling a large, vague figure. But she knew who it was. Shax. Coming closer; she wasn't sure what exactly was going on.

"Sam!" cried the woman, clutching at the man as he fell to the ground. She recognized who it was now, and froze, a stutter on her trembling lip.

"M-mommy?"

(A/N: Patty, Shax, Prue and more coming up soon. Thanks for reading and reviewing !)