Author's note
lilchick1989: sorry, guess you have to watch nip/tuck to see Julian naked ;-)
cursedgirl, sehar, littleone0822, sirus183:you don´t have to wait any longer for the next chapter, here it is. I hope to be able to update every few days ..
middnightblossom: Phoebe trusts Cole, but not the Source...can´t blame her for that
ColePhoebe4eva: To your reassurance, premonitions are not always what they seem to be.
shel: to be honest, I could´t let Cole come up with a plan of keeping phoebe young and healthy, since I needed her to die for my story. As to your hope Cole finding peace - for me Cole and finding peace never fits into one sentence.
So let´s find out what happens next...please stay with me an pls don´t flame me for the next chapters...
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SHATTERED
The mood in the Halliwell Manor was depressed. It felt like the whole world had stopped spinning and held its breath, as they were waiting for the inevitable – Phoebe's death.
The Halliwells were going on with their every day life but their minds weren't in it. They had to pretend to other friends that Phoebe was so bad, that she couldn't get any visitors. That just added to the stress of the family. Victor had stayed in the city in a hotel near the Manor to be there to support his daughter and grandchildren.
Piper and Phila roamed in the kitchen, deciding on what to cook for dinner. Cooking always relaxed Piper.
"I'll get my favourite cook book", Phila said and turned in the direction of the living room when she suddenly flamed out.
Piper saw the flames from the corner of her eye. She shrieked and ran out in the living room. Her heart was beating heavily.
"Phila! Leo!" she called looking around.
She feared that Cole had kidnapped his daughter. She wouldn't put that past him.
"I'm here", Phila answered from atop of the staircase.
She came down slowly looking a little bit disoriented, the cook book under her arm. Phila had to hold on to the handrail to steady herself.
"Are you ok?" Piper asked warily. She waited at the bottom of the stairs for her niece.
"I guess I just orbed?" Phila asked her aunt haltingly and frowned, "but how?"
"Oh honey", Piper gathered Phila in her arms, "you didn't orb, you flamed."
Phila's head jerked up. "What? But that's an evil power", she said.
"Piper, you called?" Leo said orbing in next to them, a nice smile on his face.
"Yes, Leo", Piper said brushing a kiss on his cheek, "we have a demonic problem." She looked at Phila who shuffled her feet.
"Please get the rest of the family quickly. It's an emergency. Meet us in the attic." Piper turned and ascended the stairs, Phila on her heels.
Piper went straight to the Book of Shadows. Phila sat down on the couch, she didn't know what was going on. But she could tell from Piper's reaction, it wasn't good. She had never been able to tap into her demonic powers since her aunts and mother had bound them even before her birth.
The Book of Shadows waited innocently on the altar. Piper closed it with shaking hands and looked at the cover. And she kept staring at it until the others orbed in.
"This better be good", Paige said, "I was with a charge who really needed my support right now."
She looked around and saw Piper's paralyzed face and Phila's desperate posture. "What's wrong?" she asked annoyed.
Piper looked up. Her eyes were teary and she had a forlorn expression in them. She waved Paige to her side. Paige was crossing the room as Leo and his sons orbed in.
"Have you been attacked?" Wyatt asked worriedly and looked from his mother to Phila.
Phila shook her head but didn't look up. Piper took the book of Shadows in her hands and turned it around so all could see the cover.
"Look at this", she said with a faint voice. The cover of the Book of Shadows had changed. The Triquetra was apart.
"The Power of Three", Leo whispered, "it is broken."
There was silence in the room for some seconds as comprehension dawned on them, what it meant. Chris eyes grew wide. Wyatt went over to Phila and sat down next to her, putting his arm around her shoulders.
"Phoebe is dead", Paige said with a throaty voice. Taking her place on Phila's other side. She took her goddaughter's trembling hand in hers.
Piper nodded and said, "But it gets worse. Phila just flamed."
Wyatt and Chris looked at Phila doubtfully. Paige threw Piper and Leo a distressed look.
"You sure she flamed?" Chris wanted to be sure, "maybe it was something else? Like an attack of a demon, a misguided spell or something?"
Phila shook her head again and looked at Chris. There was fear in her face.
"I wanted to go to my room to get my cook book", she explained, "and suddenly I was up here."
"Can you do it again?" Chris asked. He had to see it with his own eyes to believe it.
"I don't know how to do it willingly", Phila whined.
"Just concentrate on the place you want to be. Throw aside all other thoughts", Paige instructed while stroking Phila's hand encouragingly. They had to be sure about what was going on if they wanted to stand a chance to come out of it alive.
Phila closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. She imagined herself standing at the other side of the attic. Suddenly she flamed out and in again, exactly where she had imagined herself to be. She swayed a little bit and Chris orbed to her side to hold her up.
"I thought you three bound her demonic powers?" Wyatt asked his mother.
He didn't like to see his cousin use demonic powers. No one knew which powers were unleashed in Phila and if she was able to resist their evil allure.
"That's right Wyatt, we THREE bound her powers", Piper emphasized the word three.
"That our power blocking spell is broken is another indication that Phoebe really is gone", Piper explained with a shiftless voice. "It's like it was with Grams. She had bound our powers too, but the day she died the powers came back to us."
Piper realized suddenly that she was the last one living, who remembered that day. The last one who remembered Grams and Mum in their lifetime. The last one who knew Prue. Her two sisters, she had grown up with, were gone and had left her alone. She felt very lost and alone suddenly. Leo sensed her emotional trouble and came over to cradle her in his arms. Grateful she holed up in his embrace.
Chris didn't want to add further stress to his family, but a disturbing thought had entered his mind. "The truce is also over", he stated.
Wyatt looked at him. "You are right little brother", he said, "that means the Source will soon came after us. In fact he could do it any minute now."
Wyatt felt that now that the Power of Three was gone, it was his responsibility to protect the family. After all he was the most powerful force good had at its hands at the moment.
Paige shuddered. "Boys you are right. I better go and get the crystals." She got up and moved to the closet that held their magical stuff, roaming in it for the box with the crystals.
"That's useless", Phila murmured as she watched Paige searching for the crystals.
Paige turned around. "What do you mean? We caught the Source in the crystal cage before. It is the only thing to hold him captive."
"It's not working anymore", Phila said stubbornly.
Piper pulled herself together. The family needed someone to lead them, and it was her obligation to be strong and look out for them. She stepped out of Leo's arms and went towards Phila where she crouched down in front of her niece.
"What do you know Phila?" she asked gently but firmly. The poor girl had a lot to digest, but timing was critical to their survival. She couldn't be too mellow with her just now.
Phila squirmed at her place. "I summoned him once", she started haltingly.
Her glance flickered over her family's faces. They all looked strained. She didn't want to disappoint them. They believed so strongly in her good side and she needed that urgently, to believe it herself especially at this moment.
"Not him!" Paige threw in. She hoped it wasn't the person she thought about.
"Paige", Piper silenced her sister, "Let her tell us what happened. Phila please go on", she encouraged her niece.
"I summoned the Source once. I can tell you he scared the wits out of me", Phila eventually confessed.
Seeing her family's disapproving faces she hastened to go on, "I used to crystal cage to trap him, like you guys had told us before. He really appeared inside the cage and it glowed and I was sure it would hold him."
Phila had started babbling. That reminded Piper so strongly of Phoebe that she had to wipe a tear from her eye secretly. Phila had stopped with her story. The memory of that meeting with the Source still gave her the chills.
"What happened next?" Leo urged her to continue.
"He just stepped out of the circle and the crystals fell to dust", Phila said. "He said something about same old tricks or so. I don't remember that part so well, because I thought I was about to be toast", Phila winced. She hadn't been as brave as she wished she had been.
"He didn't attack you?" Wyatt asked in bewilderment. The Source had had a witch defenceless in front of him and hadn't taken advantage of that? So maybe blood really was thicker than water.
"No, but he scolded me for being careless in summoning a demon", Phila disclosed. Piper threw a surprised glance at Leo.
"Shit", Paige cursed. "So our most powerful protection against the Source just failed. We have to come up with something …quickly." She put her hands on her hips and scanned through their magical stuff again.
"In any case we need new crystals", Chris stayed practical. "I'll go and get them from the Chinese market."
"Paige will go with you", Piper ordered, "Neither of us goes anywhere alone until we know how to deal with the Source." Chris nodded and orbed out together with Paige.
The others just sat motionless in the attic staring into space.
tbc