Chapter 5: Power of Seven Fails
"Come on, Annie," Charles said soothingly. "We need you."
"It's obvious that you don't need me now that the Charmed Ones are here," she said, saying 'Charmed Ones' with a mean tone.
"Please," Charles said, trying to reason with her. She turned to face him. He then saw that her eyes were filled with tears.
"I can't do it," she said. "I can't stop him. I'm staying here where it's safe for Amanda." Charles gave her a hug.
"If we work with the others, we can make our home safe for her. I think they have a plan that might stop Rindo. We need to help them though. Are you ready to go back?" She dried her eyes and looked at him.
"Yes," she said. They walked back through the doorway and back into their house.
"Good," Robert said. "You guys are back. Now all of you work together. Get this spell done. Use your powers in harmony to stop Rindo and his demons. I have to go now. I have other charges to look after. I'll see you later." He orbed away.
"Let's start this spell," Annie said. She went over and sat between Jordan and Piper to assist in writing the spell. Phoebe was sitting in a chair next to the couch. Paige and David were sitting in a loveseat across from Phoebe. Charles was still standing by the doorway.
"I'm going to get some potions ready," he said. He started walking towards the hallway leading to their potions room and suddenly a demon shimmered in. In the living room, several more shimmered in. Lastly, Rindo shimmered in.
"Hurry!" Jordan yelled. "To the potions room!" Paige and David orbed. Charles flung the demon blocking the hallway out of the way. The rest of them scrambled to get in.
"A door's going to stop them?" Piper asked.
"No," David said. "This room is magically protected by our Book. Evil can't step in."
"Once again," Phoebe said. "Unfair!"
"We can't sit here forever though," Paige said.
"I'll start doing the spell," Annie said.
"I'm going to send a welcoming present," Jordan said. She closed her eyes and put her fingers to her head. They suddenly heard energy balls being thrown and demons exploding.
"You gotta love that power," Paige said. "
"I've got something," Annie said. "This spell should work."
"I'll freeze the room to stop his demons while we say the spell," Piper said.
"Let's do it," Charles said. They slowly opened the door and peeked out. There were demons all over the living room.
"Paige, orb me," Piper said. They orbed and a few moments later, the living room was frozen. It didn't affect Rindo though. The others ran out. They bunched up and started reading the spell.
Come together across the country,
Seven witches fighting jointly,
We summon power and all might,
Stop Rindo now and end this night
They waited for a few minutes for something to happen. Rindo had a scared look on his face, but it quickly went away. Nothing happened. Then his demons unfroze. Piper got her hands ready to freeze again but was pushed across the room by a demon.
"Energy Ball!" Paige yelled. She orbed an energy ball back at a demon. He exploded into flames. A roll of flames was sent through the air, emanating from Jordan's arm, and hit a demon, vanquishing him. A blue beam shot out of David's hands and a demon was frozen with ice. Charles telekinetically sent an energy ball at a demon. Annie, invisibly, snuck up to a demon and pierced his heart with an athemae. Three demons had energy balls in their hand, ready to throw at Phoebe. Her eye's got an orange ring around her iris.
"Throw them at each other," she said. They obeyed and vanquished each other. After a few more minutes of this, all the demons were vanquished except Rindo.
"Good job, witches," he said. "But you still have to deal with me."
"Back to the potions room," Annie said. "We'll think of something there." They all went back in there.
"I'm so sick of these witches running all the time," he said out loud.
"What do we do now that the Power of Seven spell didn't work?" Charles asked.
"Use a Power of Eight spell," Piper said. She started rounding up five white candles.
"It's only a matter of time til I get through this door!" Rindo shouted to them. "It can't hold me back forever." Piper, Phoebe, and Paige stood together and started to recite a spell.
Hear our words hear our cry,
Witches from the other side,
Come to us we call you near,
Cross now the great divide
In a shimmer of white lights appeared their sister, Prue. Prue gave them a smile.
"Didn't know I'd be back so soon," she said.
"We didn't either," Piper said.
"I'm not allowed to leave the circle though," Prue said. "The Elders ordered me not to."
"Screw the Elders," Piper said.
"I can't, otherwise I'll never be able to come back again."
"That's bull," Piper said. "They let Grams do it all the time."
"This is different," Prue said. "Let's just say the spell to get this over with." The door was blown open. A whirling wind started sweeping the room.
"It's Rindo!" he said. He outstretched his hand, which had a glowing, blue rip in it. It sent a ripple throughout the room pushing everyone off their feet, except Prue, who was only a ghost. "I'll have you witches," he said. His hand started to suck air in, like a vacuum. It sucked Paige, David, Phoebe, and Jordan inside it. The other three were too far back in the room for it to get them. He shimmered out.
"What just happened?" Piper asked.
"We have to hurry before he extracts their powers," Charles said.
"We'll have to save those four and lure him back here to say the spell," Annie said. "Doesn't seem too possible. Especially with only three of us."
"I have an idea," Piper said. "But it's going to take some reasoning with the Elders first."
"Robert!" Annie yelled. He orbed in.
"Is he vanquished?" he asked.
"No," Piper said.
"Um…where are the others?"
"Captured," Charles said. "We need you to talk the Elders into letting Prue become human. We need her to stop Rindo."
"I'll see what I can do," he said orbing to the Elders. A few minutes later, he was back with horrible news.
"What did they say?" Piper asked.
"They said 'no'," he answered. Annie let out a curse.
"Why? Why won't they agree?" Piper asked. "It's to save the world."
"Screw them," Annie said. "Come on out, Prue."
"Do it," Piper said. Prue stepped out. There was a swirl of orbs and a man in a long white robe appeared.
"You have disobeyed!" he yelled to Prue.
"We need her," Charles said. The Elder looked them over.
"As punishment, Prue isn't allowed to be brought back from the dead, ever again."
"What!" Piper yelled. "That's unfair." She was starting to sound a lot like Phoebe.
"You heard me," he said. "You were given orders to say the spell and be returned. You broke the rules, you will pay." He orbed away.
"And this would be why I hate the Elders," Piper said.
"It's okay," Prue said. "As long as we stop Rindo, we won't ever need me brought back ever again."
"Speak for yourself," Piper said.
"Let's say this spell," Annie said. They said a spell that switched Prue and Piper's powers with David and Jordan's.
"Wow," Piper said. "I can freeze, literally."
"Now we have the Power of Four," Charles said. "We can go and fight Rindo to get them back."
"First we're going to need to learn how to use these powers," Prue said. "I'm not sure how I use the pyrokinesis."
"I'm pretty sure Jordan uses her anger to replicate the fire," Annie said. "Try getting angry." Prue did this, and made a fireball in her hand.
"David uses his tranquility to create ice," Charles said. Piper calmed herself down, which was easy to do now that her big sister was back and she was no longer the oldest. She accidentally lost control though and sent an ice beam at the ceiling.
"Oops," Piper said. "But I think I have control over that. What about cloning? I don't think I'll need shape shifting."
"You just imagine being two of yourself," Charles said.
"Like astral projecting," Prue added. "But what about my mind control. I don't know if it will come down to it, but I might need to know how to do it."
"You just will yourself to control someone else's mind, I think," Annie offered.
"I'm pretty sure I know how to levitate," Prue said. "Just by watching Phoebe."
"Alright," Annie said. "Ready?"