Charmed Anew

Prologue

Author's Note #1: I do not claim any ownership of any Charmed characters or ideas.

Author's Note #2: This fan-fiction is set in the future. Jarad, Wyatt, and Drew are all in their late teens.

Inside the Halliwell Manor, Piper rushed around the kitchen, getting ready to cook a meal for the family. Paige was on her way over from her apartment, and Phoebe from hers. Over the years, the three sisters had grown apart, and it was rare for them to get together for anything that wasn't life endangering, such as the vanquish of the Boromyr the week before.

Piper was eager to have her sisters under the same roof as her for something that they could actually enjoy. Paige had moved out of the house not long after having her son, Jarad. She had told Piper and Phoebe that she didn't want the kind of life for her son as she had had. She wanted him to have a life away from magic. Nonetheless, she recently told Piper that Jarad had begun training with her to learn control over his telekinetic orbing and deflective orbing.

Piper hurried quickly, starting a pot of water to boil for potatoes, and another for homemade macaroni and cheese. As she was shuffling about the kitchen trying to pull everything together, she was startled by the arrival of Chris, who had just orbed from school.

"Chris…" she lectured, "you're supposed to ride the bus home from school. What if someone had seen you?"

"Mom, I'm really careful, and I missed the bus anyway."

"I noticed. Wyatt is already upstairs doing his homework. Why did you miss the bus…again?"

"I was talking to Riana."

"Chris, I understand that you…."

Piper's words were cut off as the sound of a crossbow was heard from the other room. An arrow was now protruding from Chris' chest, covered in a mixture of blood and a black substance that Piper recognized immediately as the poison of a Dark Lighter.

"Leo!" Piper screamed, as she tried to keep from crying. The tears were already starting to flow down her cheek as she rushed over and grabbed the falling Chris. "Leo!"

Piper realized her mistake almost immediately, knowing that calling Leo to their aid would put his life in danger as well. Piper watched as the Dark Lighter who had shot Chris came running into the kitchen, crossbow at the ready. Piper started to throw up her hands to blow up the demon, but her head suddenly became light-feeling and she felt dizzy.

Then, the demon entered, surrounded on either side by yet another two Dark Lighters. He reached down and picked Piper up by the throat. She struggled some, but the illusion of dizziness cast by the demon made her aim disoriented as well.

Leo orbed into the kitchen as the demon snapped her neck. Piper's lifeless body fell to the kitchen floor, as Chris lay there beside her, fading quickly.

"Piper! Chris!" Leo yelled. He made a move to aid his dying son, but his path was blocked by a Dark Lighter. The Dark Lighter shot a poison-tipped arrow at him, which Leo only narrowly escaped by orbing.

Wyatt rushed down the stairs to see what was happening, and was shot at by another of the demon's Dark Lighter followers. He felt himself being carried away in the orbing power as the arrow flew past him.

He was back in his room, and his father was standing beside him, weeping uncontrollably. He knew that he needed to tell Wyatt what had just occurred and get him to safety, but the words simply wouldn't come. He just stood there beside his son, crying tears of anguish and pain.

"Dad, what's wrong!" Wyatt yelled. "Was that mom and Chris?"

It was all Leo could do to keep from breaking down even more as he nodded confirmation to his remaining son. He knew that there was nothing that could be done for Piper or Chris if they were to survive.

"We have… to warn Paige… and Phoebe!" Leo said, still struggling to get his sentences out between sobs.

Phoebe hurried up to her room, because she wanted to change before she went to the manor for dinner. It had been a long day at work, but she had finally finished next week's "Ask Phoebe" before she'd left. Now, she was late, and she needed a quick change.

"Where's that blouse?" She asked herself, looking around for a navy blue blouse that she'd bought the previous day.

She finally found it hidden beneath one of her notebooks, and changed quickly. She rushed out of the bedroom of her apartment to collide with Drew, her son. She had asked Drew if he would be going with her to the manor, and he had said that he didn't feel like it.

"They hate me, mom." Drew said. "They don't like me, because I'm half demon. I don't feel like taking in all their staring."

Phoebe looked at her son sympathetically. She had had a one night stand with a demon that resulted in her son. She didn't love him any less because of it, and she didn't think that any of the family did either, but he was right. They did treat him differently, because they knew he was half demon.

"Are you sure, sweetie?"

"Yeah, I'm going to go to a friend's house."

"No magic." Phoebe reminded him.

"I know."

With that, Drew left the apartment, his backpack in hand, to go to his friend's house. It was just Phoebe in the moderately sized apartment now, and she ran to the kitchen to grab her pie. She wasn't much of a cook, so she'd made a simple chocolate pie to take to the manor.

She was on her way back into the living room, when she was met by a young woman. Phoebe jumped in surprise. She dropped the pie, and it fell to the floor.

"How did you get in?" Phoebe demanded.

"It doesn't matter." The woman replied. "Soon, you won't be alive to worry about such things."

Phoebe took this as a threat, as was intended, and she immediately brought her levitation powers forth, going at the woman in an airborne kick. She collided with the entertainment center, crashing through it as she went straight through the illusion of the girl. As she stood and pulled herself together, the door was blasted off its hinges, and a rough looking demon walked confidently into her apartment.

The illusion of the young woman faded away, the demon dropping his hold over it. He made an advance toward Phoebe who backed away instinctively. She looked around, trying to find something to use as a weapon, and reached for a lamp that was on a side table by the couch. She smashed it into the demon's head, and as he recoiled in surprise she rushed around him towards the non-existing door.

The demon turned and lifted a hand, and before Phoebe could get out of her apartment, a brick wall appeared in the doorway, blocking her path. She realized that the demon had used an illusion of the young woman to draw her attention, and assuming the wall was an incorporeal illusion as well, she tried to run right through it. She was caught off guard as she slammed into the wall and fell to the floor.

"Leave me alone!" Phoebe yelled, trying to back away from the demon.

Once again, as he had done with Piper, the demon reached down and clutched Phoebe's throat in his thick, clawed hands. He lifted her into the air, and with a slight flick of his wrist, she too was dead.

Leo and Wyatt orbed into her apartment just after, only to see the demon gone and Phoebe dead. They had been too late, and now Phoebe had suffered the same fate as Piper and Chris. Hoping they wouldn't be too late, they rushed from the apartment to find Paige, Jarad, and Drew.

Paige drove her green bug, Jarad sitting in the passenger seat. Both of them were on their way to the manor for dinner. Jarad hoped that Drew would be there. It had been a while since he had come to one of the family gatherings, and Jarad felt that maybe it was because he felt strange around everyone due to his being a half demon.

"You don't think of Drew as any less part of the family do you?" Jarad asked.

"No," Paige replied, "of course not. Why would I?"

"I don't know, because he's half demon."

"It's a little strange, I have to admit, but I'm half White Lighter and you're fourth White Lighter. Chris and Wyatt are both half White Lighter. Not every Halliwell is a full blood witch." Paige explained.

Jarad accepted this answer, knowing that it was a sincere one. He looked out his window as they rode down the busy highway, and saw that the sun was beginning to fade across the sky. Then, things went crazy as his mother turned the car rapidly into the other lane.

"What was that for?" Jarad asked, breathing hard from the surprise of the quick maneuver.

"I just didn't see that red car ahead of us, that's all."

Jarad looked in front of them into the lane that they had just turned from, but he didn't see the car she was talking about.

"There's no car there, mom."

"What are you talking about, it's right…..ah!"

Paige once again swerved the car, this time turning it back into the lane they'd just left. However, she continued swerving, trying to avoid the car that seemed to be moving according to her movements.

"Mom, what are you doing!" Jarad yelled.

Paige lost control of the car and it spun from the frequent turnings. She slammed on the breaks, which only made matters worse. The little car flipped rapidly through the air, having hit a bump in the highway. The car landed on its top and rolled two or three times before coming to a stop, still on its top.

Jarad looked over at his mom, and saw the glass fragments of the windshield stuck in her throat. He cried out for help, and he cried out at his mom. She didn't respond, though, and Jarad continued crying out to her, knowing that it would do no good; knowing that she was dead already.

Leo and Wyatt finally found Paige's car, and once again they were too late. They could only hope, as they ran towards the overturned car, that Paige and Jarad were still alive inside its rubble. Wyatt bent down to look inside the car, traffic driving around them, and some stopping behind them.

"Wyatt!" Leo shouted, shakily. "You need to freeze them, or we'll get hit or seen."

Wyatt nodded. He held his hands out in front of him, and they began to glow with the blue light of his orbing power. Then, the area surrounding them was covered in the glowing blue magic, time frozen in its grasp.

Leo knelt down beside the car and looked into Paige's window. He heard Jarad's shout, and taking him by the hand he orbed the young teen from the car's grasp. When Jarad was out, he started pacing back and forth, crying and screaming, trying to take in what had happened. Wyatt tried to calm him down as Leo orbed Paige's lifeless body from the rubble of the car.

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I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please Review!

Josh