Prince Halliwell: you have to wait and see what becomes of Amanda and Ayleia. Sci-Fi Gillian: It's so good to hear from you again! Princess Pinky: You know, it always seems that the sisters spells never really work the same way twice. . PuReAnDaNdy: Thanks! Poofball: Update again soon!
Eternally Charmed: Rock, Paper, Sisters!
Morning came and Paige still found herself tooling about the manor. All night long she and her sisters had tried to find a way to change Colleen back into Cole but nothing had worked. Thankfully however, Phoebe had seemed to accept it for the moment. Wandering into the kitchen Paige watched the hustled and bustle of the morning routine. Piper was in the kitchen fixing cereal for the all of kids while Prue and Leo bathed and dressed the girls for school
Something resembling a smile crossed Paige's lips when she saw Amanda enter the room carrying her backpack, ready for school. She was wearing a miniature sized jean style skirt with a lime tank and matching shell. Her long brown hair was pulled back with butterfly clips at the sides while the rest lay loose around her shoulders.
"There's my angel girl!" Paige beamed with a hint of her usual excitement. Of all of her nieces, Amanda had always been her favorite, her first guardian issued charged, and the creation of the child that Paige herself had always wanted.
"Only my aunnie Paige and my Mommy call me that" Amanda set her backpack into the chair and stared with a blank expression on her face as Ally and Melinda came running through the swinging door, jumping into their places, eagerly awaiting food. Prue followed with Austin in her arms; intent on settling her into the high chair.
"Sweetie I am your auntie Paige" Paige's face would have surely been crestfallen, had it not been set in stone.
Amanda adverted her eyes looking to Prue for reassurance.
"Aunt Paige has just changed a little since she's been gone" Prue's face reflected the emotion that Paige wanted to feel as Amanda still gazed at her aunt with uncertainty.
"My Aunt Paige has red hair and she can orb like me"
"I can still orb" Paige announced proudly. "See". Quickly she orbed in place.
By now the conversation had caught the attention of both Ally and Melinda. "Yous looks likes a robot" Ally crowed before digging into the bowl of Cheerios, which Piper had set in front of her. "If yous our aunnie Paige then where's our wollipops?"
"I-I don't have any right now" Paige swallowed wanting to feel like she could cry, or scream. But reality was she couldn't feel anything.
Piper placed a one hand on a hip, "wollipops?"
"Aunt Paige always gives us Lollipops after you and Mommee leave for work" Amanda returned taking her seat at the table beside her sister and cousin.
"You give our children lollipops?" Prue repeated, "No wonder Amanda had so many cavities last year"
Sheepishly, Paige did her best to make her face all screwy, "I only did it a few times" Her stone set eyes then rolled, reflecting her little white, "okay so it's been more than a few"
"How long" Piper growled with impatience.
"Uh…Since they were babies" Paige winced seeing that she was about to be caught in the wrath of her oldest sisters.
"PAIGE!" Piper blistered making her hands into claws. "How many times have we told you not to give the girls a lot sweets? Good god, it's no wonder that Ally always wants cake!"
Paige looked at Prue who was reflecting her best glare, "Well you're always at the club and Prue's always in running back and forth from the realm and It was only so they would stop crying all the time because they missed the two of you!"
Prue and Piper were both speechless. Over the last several months they had both forgotten how much Paige had played the role of the mother hen to girls.
Phoebe stood in the doorway with Colleen smiling, "Look they're fighting" she whispered.
Colleen arched an eyebrow keeping on hand on Phoebe's shoulder. "And that's a good thing?"
"They're fighting like sisters" Phoebe walked into the room practically beaming with Colleen following in behind her. "Good Morning, Morning All oh what a beautiful day!" Phoebe planted a solid kiss on both of her older sisters cheeks.
"Your husband is still a woman and your happy about it?" Piper jerked her head aways Phoebe wiping the side of her cheek.
"All Cole and I need is Love" Phoebe proclaimed picking up a freshly toasted begal, nibbling at it delicately. "Hey Prue how was your first night with demon baby?"
Prue gazed down at her stomach, noting it had seemed to grow larger over the course of the long night. "Miserable, it's like I can Dantalians for me hatred growing larger by the second. This child is a cesspool of evil." Prue paused for a moment. "Is it just me, or am I getting bigger?"
Piper moved towards her cup of coffee that she'd set on the counter and picked it up,"I don't know, that's not possible is it?"
"I think Prue's right she's bigger" Phoebe commented looking to Colleen. "Is it possible?"
Colleen pondered for a moment, "It could be a combination of the powers. I mean you got a wealth of magic brewing in there; Prue and Dantalian both rival priestesses, and Andy."
"So maybe, the pregnancy excelling at a faster rate than normal?" Phoebe returned,
"It's possible" Colleen shrugged in a male manner.
"Fine by me, the sooner, I purge myself of this thing. The sooner I can get back to the realm"
"Wait a minute, Prue you sound like you think this is all going to end when Alyeia is born"
"It is" Prue nodded "I've decided that as soon as demon baby is born, that Andy and I are giving her to the Elders as a gift for a trouble they've caused us over the years. Let her be a pain in their ass"
"Prue, that's Andy baby" Phoebe protested watching Piper wet her lips.
"Phoebe has a point. Have you talked to Andy about this?"
"Mmm…not exactly" Prue looked at her watch hoping for a way out of the conversation "Amanda, it's time for school"
Amanda quickly stuffed her mouth with the last few bites of cereal and washed it down with a gulf of milk before hefting her backpack to her shoulders.
Wanting a little quality time with her niece, Paige placed her stone hands on her knees lowering herself to Amanda's level. "Hey, why don't you let me orb to school instead of taking the bus?"
Amanda frowned at her Aunt; she didn't have the right words to tell Paige that somehow she felt betrayed so instead she shook her head. "We might get es'posed"
Amanda headed for the back door, and Paige started to argue."No, I'll be really careful…you'll see we'll hide and everything will be-" The feel of Piper's hands on her hardened shoulders made her stop in mid sentence.
"You know she might come around, if you'd consider staying"
"I can't" Stiffly, Paige shrugged Piper's hand from her shoulder.
"Can't or won't" Piper retorted whirling on her younger sisters. "When are you going to get it Paige? This is your home. You belong here and we love you"
"That's not enough" Paige grunted starting to orb, until the sound of Phoebe's voice brought her back.
"Sisters don't run out on sisters"
"Then how come the two of you ran out on me when Glenn died?" Paige challenged, speaking heatedly through her orbs.
Piper and Phoebe both exchanged dumbstruck glances while Paige continued to accuse them. "When Glenn died nobody was there for me. You were both too concerned with saving Prue"
"Oh God, we have had no idea you felt this way" Piper pinched the bridge of her nose while Phoebe spoke calmly.
Paige, Prue is our sister too. We didn't have time, if we would have would lost Prue's entire family, sometimes we have to pick and choose."
But afterwards you could have been there, Phoebe but instead, I went to Glenn's funeral alone! I watched his parents bury him and nobody said a single word to me! Because it's always about Prue! You both expect me to be so much like her, so strong! Just because Prue didn't grieve when Andy died, doesn't mean that I can do the same! I have feelings and heart and unlike Prue I can't turn them off when it's convenient for my sisters!"
"We know you have a heart honey and we're so sorry we weren't there for you when Glenn died" Phoebe said reaching out.
Paige swiped her face, as the angry bitter tears began to flow. "You don't get it! All my life, I've been abandoned! Glenn was there for me my whole life and now he's gone!"
At that moment, Prue walked back into the house, just in time to see a piece of Paige's hard shell casing fall to the floor. "What's going on?"
I believe your youngest sister is starting to have a meltdown" Colleen informed as another piece of hardened rock fell from Paige's arm revealing the flesh underneath.
Prue shook her head, to her it looked more like Paige was starting to crumble back into her old self. "I think we get it Paige, or at least I do" Prue walked slowly towards her sobbing sister. "When Mom died and I had to take care of Piper and Phoebe. Andy was the only one and when Rodriguez took him away. I wanted to die too"
"But you got him back!" Paige sobbed causing a large piece of the rock shell to fall from her face. "You got him back, I didn't!"
"You will, I promise" Reaching out, Prue pulled her baby sister into her arms and held her tightly. Motioning for Piper and Phoebe.
"Sister hug" Phoebe cooed wrapping herself around Paige so that she was squished in like a sandwich.
"We're going to help you through this Paige" Piper promised as Ally and Melinda jumped from the table wrapping themselves tightly around Paige's legs. Little by the little the remainder of the rock hard shell fell from Paige's body.
"Oh you better watch out for falling objects" Phoebe quipped as the diamonds fell from Paige's hair. "Ooo, Can I have one of those now?"
Leo orbed into the corner of the room next to Colleen. "are you crying?"
"I can't help it. It must be all of those new hormones" Colleen sniffled reaching for a paper towel to dab his teary eyes, "This is so touching. We just got Paige back!"
Leo eyed his brother in-law carefully knowing that in the past there had never been any love loss between he and Paige. Maybe being female isn't such a bad thing he thought before calling for Prue attention.
"I'm sorry to interrupt the moment, but we have a situation"
One by one the sisters pulled from the hug, with Prue leaving her hand wrapped around Paige's petite waist. Paige's head was titled to Prue's shoulder.
"What kind of situation?"
"The Elder's have sensed that the Source has called for Mandela's return" Leo said watching Prue's eyes grow wide.
"What?"
"They believe he did it so that Ayliea would have both protection and a connection to the dark tracer.
"I need to warn Andy" Prue said softly under her breath pulling away from Paige.
"Wait a minute who's Mandela?"
"She's the only one with the power to vanquish Andy, not to mention, his children"
Piper added following Prue up the stairs leaving Phoebe to continue to the conversation.
"When Prue was pregnant with Amanda, Mandela tried to vanquish both Andy and the baby but luckily Prue was able to tap into Amanda's powers and along with the power of three we destroyed her first"
"So if Mandela has the power to kill Andy and his children wouldn't that mean she'd be able to vanquish Prue too, since she's carrying a his child?"
Phoebe shook her head, "yeah but knowing the source like I do I don't think he'd allow that"
"But what if Mandela went off on her own?" Paige countered thinking like a sister witch.
"Then that could mean the end of both the Charmed ones and our guardian Angels to be"
"Andy!" Prue hollered from the top of the stairs. Andy!"
"Where is he?" Quickly Piper checked all of the bedrooms as a growing sense of dred began to crawl up her spine.
"Frantic" Prue telekinetically, began to open every door on the second floor. "I don't know last night he was attacked by a demon in our bedroom, and then afterwards he tossed and turned all night, fading in and orbing in and out"
"You think she already got to him somehow?" Piper paused at the stairs of the attic.
"I hope not" Prue panted taking the steps two at a time, "Last time he barely survived"
"And so did we" Piper followed her sister up the steps into the attic.
In the underworld, the Source, the Source and the hooded figure watched the Piper and Prue in the attic, through the dark see'rs crystal. They hadn't anticipated that the Mandela's return would be discovered so quickly but still the Source was pleased.
"You have done well" the Source boasted, "but tell me how long will it be before the mortal tracer is gone, and Mandela has the power to vanquish, the so called angelic ones."
"She will be able to destroy all of them as soon as Prue gives birth"
"For a mere servant of the greater good you are awfully eager to see the destruction of these Guardian Angels and their Charmed Sires. Tell me what do get out of all of this?"
"Justice and a correction to destiny" The hooded figure answered, choosing not to show it's face.
