Chapter Six – One down
Florentina Grimaldi sighed as she looked around the hotel room, and sat down on the bed. She had no idea what had pushed her to suddenly buy a ticket to San Francisco, and she certainly didn't know what to do now that she was there but sit there and yell at herself for spending her hard-earned cash in such a manner.
Though, if she really thought about it, it was the feeling that something important awaited her here that had driven her to do something so foolish. The feeling that she had had all of her life, the one that had gotten stronger in these last few weeks.
Well, not exactly these last few weeks. She had first noticed the feeling seven years ago, and it had gotten stronger gradually since then, but it was only in these past few weeks that it had been strong enough to apparently make her buy a ticket like that.
She took a sharp breath as a powerful sense of anticipation hit her, and just as she exhaled she heard a knock on the door. She exhaled slowly to get nerves under control before opening the door.
She didn't know the woman who stood before her, but there was a familiarity of sorts about her. She also seemed to be emanating wisdom, power and tranquillity, and for some reason Florentina felt immediately at ease.
"Florentina Grimaldi? I know we've never met, and I certainly know that what I'm going to say will make me sound like a crazy woman. But your life is in danger, and I'm here to take you to safety."
For reasons she herself did not understand, Florentina moved out of the way and let the woman walk into the room. She closed the door and looked at the woman, who seemed to notice she was being scrutinized and turned to face Florentina.
"What I'm going to tell you may sound crazy, as it should, but I swear to you that it is the absolute truth. And you have to trust me, because your life depends on it," the woman said and sat down on the edge of the bed.
Florentina took the small chair that stood behind the desk and sat face to face with the woman. "You are you?" It was the first thing that came up. "My name is Phoebe Halliwel. I'm…My sisters and I, we have these gifts…Inherited from a very special family tree. In a way, that's what I want to talk to you about."
Phoebe fidgeted a little, nervous about how to tell the young woman in front of her that she had become the embodiment of fire. Eventually she settled for starting with her own story, and then telling her about what had happened the past two days and what they had found out.
"I was in the same position as you seven years ago, so I do understand how you must feel," Phoebe said as she watched Florentina struggle with what she had just told her.
"And you say this…Source? You say he wants these powers for himself?" Phoebe nodded. She had discussed this with Leo and her sisters, and they had come to the conclusion that the Source couldn't possibly want to summon Spirit for himself. Spirit was, as it turned out, the Divine; and the Divine would never aid Evil. With just the powers of the four Elementani the Source could obliterate them all as if he were squashing bugs.
"He doesn't just want them, Florentina. He'll stop at nothing to get them. Your powers, and the powers of the other three Elementani. Look, I don't want to scare you any more than I already have but…."
Phoebe sighed and Florentina looked at her. "I can see flashes of the future, Florentina. That's how I found you. I saw him…doing this to you that you couldn't imagine. Just to get your powers. And you put up a good fight, but it wasn't enough."
Florentina's eyes widened. "That's why I need you to come to my house with me, where my sisters and my brother-in-law can protect you, so I can go looking for the other Elementani. That way at least we know you guys are safe until we find a way to defeat the Source," Phoebe said.
"You're welcome to try," a voice hissed, and Phoebe and Florentina both jumped. Before Phoebe could react, she was hit by a telekinetic wave that sent her crashing into the wall.
Florentina instinctively threw her hands before her, trying to protect herself, and was surprised when a powerful fireball shot towards the hooded figure that had just attacked Phoebe.
The hooded figure, who she figured was the Source, simply extended his hand and the fireball flew into some sort of invisible shield before it was extinguished. The Source summoned an energy ball in his other hand and threw it at Florentina, but powerful jolts of lightning fired by Phoebe hit it and the two attacks cancelled each other out.
"Meddlesome, aren't we? I have some time to play," the Source said and dematerialized, before rematerializing right in front of Phoebe holding an orb of black energy.
"Let's see how you like this," he screamed before hitting Phoebe on the chest with the hand with which he was holding the orb. Phoebe was thrown backwards, into the desk, and remained motionless.
The Source turned his attention to Florentina. "Your time has come, sister," he said before grabbing the amulet he had across his neck and extending it in Florentina's direction.
Piper looked up as Wyatt orbed into his playpen in her room, followed shortly by Paige walking in holding Chris. Leo, who was resting on the bed, smiled. He was still a bit fuzzy from the attack by the Council of High Priests, but it wasn't anything serious. Yeah, try telling Piper that!
Paige put Chris down in the playpen with Wyatt and was just about to say something, when an excruciating pain in her chest silenced her. And somehow, she was also aware of Piper experiencing the same on the edge of the bed.
"What's wrong?" Leo's question went unanswered for a few minutes before Piper managed to catch enough of her breath. "Phoebe," she wheezed out, and the look on her face told Leo that something terrible was wrong.
"Wyatt, danger!" As Wyatt listened to his father's command and erected his force field bubble around himself and Chris, Leo got up and was ready to orb to Phoebe when he felt a huge surge pf power in the room.
He looked at Piper and Paige, and to his surprise saw that they were both glowing. Then he understood: they were both so worried about their sister that they were summoning enough strength to conquer the ghost-pain and save her. Before he knew it, Paige started orbing out and Piper began to dematerialize. Quickly, he followed suit.
They arrived at the hotel room just in time to see the young woman Phoebe had described from her premonition dissolve into a big spiral of flames and being sucked into some amulet the Source was holding.
The Source quickly spun around and ignited a fireball to strike the helpless Phoebe with it, when the floor started shaking and tree leaves started falling from the ceiling. "Leave," Piper screamed, her eyes glowing red, and the Source immediately dematerialized.
T.B.C.
Author's Note: I'm sorry for the huge delay in update, I usually don't like to keep my readers waiting for an upload for so long. But I had a huge case of writer's block! It was unbelievable…no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't come up with something I liked enough.
So I'm very happy that my regular bunny has finally returned to me, and Now I even have the actual time to sit and write since holiday starts this week.
I've already started on the next chapter, and I think it will be up around Sunday. Stay with me, because terrible things are about to happen. In the mean time: please review….(I know I don't deserve it, but still….)
