The arrangements for Phoebe's funeral took some days. Expecting her death Phoebe had already sorted her documents and had made a last will. The family arranged to lay out Phoebe at the local church, since there were many fans who wanted to bid her farewell.
The preparations for the confrontation with the Source took more effort of them, they had to figure out a way to defeat him. Paige had been furious when she had learned that Cole had already tried to kill Wyatt and Piper and lure Phila to his side. She had come back with new crystals from the market and a new idea about the cage.
The family gathered in the living room to discuss the next steps. Nobody liked to be alone at the moment, they didn't trust Cole to stay away until the funeral. For the time being, Phila shared her room with Paige and Wyatt and Chris also stayed in Chri's room. Paige had sent Matt to stay with Darrly for some days. She didn't want to have to worry about his safety. She had enough on her plate already.
"I talked with the old hag in the wiccan shop about possibilities of enhancing the effectiveness of the crystals", she told the family agitatedly, "and she gave me an idea that might work."
"Really? We could use some good news", Piper snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. The assault of Cole had left her frantically searching her mind the last days for a way to save her family.
"Yeah, that's very true. Now listen", Paige said as she had the attention of the crowd.
"What if we blessed the crystals with our blood? The Source vanquishing spell draws on the power of our ancestors. So why not draw power from our blood to strengthen the power of the crystals. What do you think?" She looked at one after the other.
"It sounds possible", Piper pondered the idea leaning forward in excitement, "Sometimes we use our own blood as ingredient to strengthen potions. So it should work on the crystals too."
"But how can we test it?" Chris asked and looked at Paige. He didn't want to bank their lives on a possibility, he preferred to be sure.
"I'm afraid we can't", Leo answered, "If we summon Cole or if he attacks there is no time for a tryout."
"Aunt Paige, I really think your idea is great, but I'm not sure it will be enough. From what Phila said, the Source just stepped out of the cage – he didn't even use magic for it. Do you think some drops of our blood will make a great difference?" Wyatt doubted.
"Maybe if we put the crystals not plainly on the floor, but put them on the edges of a pentagram", Phila contemplated. Since Cole had stepped out so easily from the crystal cage she had been reading about protection charms.
"You are a smart girl!" Paige exclaimed and jumped up, "that's it. We catch him in a pentagram which edges are protected by our blood and the crystals. I have a real good feeling about that". Paige was chirpy.
"That really could do the trick", Piper was not so quick to let go of her anxiety.
"I'm in it", Chris said, "let's bless the crystals. The earlier we are ready the better. Then we have to paint the pentagram – that leaves one question," He looked questioning at the others, "How do we get the Source to step onto it?"
Chris knew Cole wasn't a fool. He would recognize the pentagram and avoid getting near to it. They needed a really good distraction.
"First things first", Piper aligned them, "Now we do the blessing. Then we think about a way to put Cole in the centre of the pentagram."
Paige had called for the crystals. She took them out of the box and gave one crystal to everyone except Leo. Piper reached for a needle and pricked her finger. She let the blood drop fall on the pearly white crystal and chanted,
"Blood and Power melt to one – Multiply the outcome".
The crystal sizzled slightly but didn't change its colour or form. Paige looked at Piper doubtful.
"What?" Piper asked slightly huffy, "I can't rhyme. If you know a better spell –feel free." She leant back against the couch and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"No it's ok, I guess I have to get used to more bumpy spells", Paige soothed her sister.
Then she took the needle from her and blessed her crystal the same way Piper had done it. Chris and Wyatt followed suit. As Chris gave the needle to Phila, Leo darted forward and took it from her, before she could finish the task.
"Uncle Leo?" Phila asked taken by surprise by his agitation. She looked at her uncle with wide eyes. Piper wasn't pleased with her husband's action.
"Leo, we need 5 witches to bless the 5 crystals, since a pentagram has 5 edges", she explained impatiently.
"I understand that", Leo answered calmly, "but please think about the following. Phila is the only one of our family related to Cole by blood. What if he can exploit this blood link to break out of the circle?"
Piper saw the concern on his face and loved him for it. He was always so thorough in protecting his charges.
Phila on the other hand felt resentment towards Leo. She was as much a good witch as she had been before. She didn't want to be treated differently because through no fault of her own she was Cole's daughter. She shot Leo a hard glance. He recognized it and said.
"Phila, that's nothing personal. I just want to look out for you all. I think we have a good plan and it shouldn't fail due to carelessness and wounded pride."
"Now suddenly I'm not good enough anymore!" She accused her temper flaring as she stood up to face the family with flashing eyes.
Chris watched her in astonishment. Phila had always had a temper, but it had been worse the last few days. They had ignored it because they had assumed it was linked with Phoebe's dead. But now he doubted his assessment. Maybe it had more to do with Phila's recently awoken demonic powers.
"Phila, get a grip!" Piper called her to order with a firm voice. "That is not the way we talk to each other in this family. It has nothing to do with your demonic powers, simply with your relation to Cole. I won't allow you to endanger the whole family because of your childish pride. Now sit down again." Piper gestured heftily.
The family watched the scene with frayed nerves. Phila starred at Piper defiantly for some seconds. She had balled her hands in fists. Not because she was so angry, but to prevent the family seeing the small energy balls that had formed in her palm of their own will. She sat down on the couch again and hugged her knees with her arms and set her chin on her knees also. She was in a snit and looked at her feet.
"That leaves us still one witch short", Chris resumed the conversation, "don't we have some blood of Aunt Phoebe somewhere?"
"Chris don't be morbid. Aunt Phoebe is dead. We can't get blood from her corpse. Besides she can't bless the crystal anymore", Wyatt put Chris' idea down.
"Aunt Phoebe would happily chop off the head of her corpse herself if this would help us", Chris fought back at Wyatt stubbornly.
Phila looked at her cousins disgusted. Sometimes they didn't know when to stop with their bickering. But Paige noticed Phila's inconvenience.
"Boys, pay a little bit more respect to Phoebe, will you", she rebuked them with a look in Phila's direction. Wyatt and Chris followed her gaze and a guilty expression appeared on their faces. They nodded and hung their heads.
"The idea in itself hasn't been so bad", Paige realised, "Piper do you remember when we talked with Phoebe about storing potions so that we could defend ourselves?"
Piper nodded. They had talked about brewing potions upfront. In the following they had created a store of some 50 potion basics with Phoebe's help.
"Do you think we could use one of the potion basics for the blessing of the fifth crystal?" Piper asked intrigued. Paige was really inventive today, she had to grant her that.
"No, not exactly." Paige admitted, "I stored some pure blood of Phoebe at a blood bank." Paige pulled a face, "you never know what it can be good for".
Paige shrugged her shoulders. She had been sure Piper wouldn't be ok with that, so she simply hadn't told her. Piper blinked. Her sisters had pulled this one behind her back. She knew exactly why. She wouldn't have allowed it. But now maybe it was saving their butts. So she couldn't even pick on Paige for it.
"Go and get it", Piper grumbled standing up, "we will work on the blessing. Maybe the Book of Shadows can help. Chris go with Paige."
Piper, Wyatt and Phila went up to the attic. Leo orbed out to inform the Elders of their plan and maybe get some confirmation on the blood-enhancing-the-crystals-theory. Piper browsed through the book with Wyatt for some time but didn't find anything helpful. There was no spell or charm on the topic of a third person doing the blessing of another one's blood. Phila was still sulking. She sat on the couch and didn't take part in anything.
"It is plain useless", Piper shut the book violently a disappointed look on her face.
She was almost at the point to abandon their plan. She crossed the room and looked out of the attic window, her hands on her hips. She had to calm down. It helped them not at all if she chucked away her nerves. She took some deep breaths watching the innocent's life oblivious to any magical matters.
Wyatt looked at his mother. Normally she wasn't the one to give in so easily. It seemed that the loss of her sister had taken its toll on her in more ways than he had acknowledged until now.
He stroked the cover of the book tenderly. It wasn't the book's fault neither that the Power of Three was gone nor that the right spell hadn't been invented yet. Wyatt had always been very fond of the Book of Shadows. Even as small boy it had been his favourite reading matter.
"We could use a little help right now", he whispered to the Book.
He had watched Aunt Phoebe do this in the past from time to time. She had the unwavering faith that Grams or Great-Grams hovered around and helped out, when they were down on their wits. It would not be amiss if he tried.
"Hey", he cried out as the pages of the book started scrolling all of their own.
Piper turned around and hastened back to him. Even Phila got up and joined them curiously. They waited impatiently for the book to find the right page. Wyatt bent over the book to read out which page had been selected.
"To find a lost sister" he read aloud. He hadn't seen this spell before. It was funny with the book. Sometimes he discovered pages he could swear hadn't been in it before.
Piper shook her head. "The Book must be off too. Maybe it's not working properly without the Power of Three." She dropped shiftless down on the couch.
"What's wrong with the spell, mum?" Wyatt asked, "Maybe we should just try it out. The Book won't fool us."
"That is the spell I wrote to bring back your aunt Prue years ago", Piper explained a sad tone in her voice, "It didn't work then. Why should it work now?"
"I don't know", Wyatt insisted," but it surely means something. I'll try it – ok?"
Wyatt was eager to do something. He couldn't just sit around and wait. Maybe he had enough power to call Aunt Phoebe back.
"That's fine by me", Piper resigned, "You need my blood to call for my sister, Here."
She took an Athame and cut a small cut in her palm. She let the blood drop in a silver bowl and handed it to Wyatt. Wyatt received the bowl and then grabbed his mother's hurt hand. A faint golden glow emitted from his hand and her cut healed immediately. He smiled at her and Piper returned to the Couch where Phila had settled again.
Wyatt chanted the lost sister spell three times and waited expectantly. Nothing happened. He was disappointed.
"I felt a chill", Phila said unsure looking at Wyatt.
"Then lets try again", Wyatt suggested, "Phila help me. You call for your mother. Mum could you call for your sister? And I will call again for my aunt. "
Piper nodded tiredly and not convinced at all. She had this rustling of the wind when she had called for Prue. But it had been the only reaction. Regardless she stood up again to join Wyatt and Phila. Phila had spilled some of her blood in the bowl too and Wyatt had done the same. They took their hands, and Piper thought about the new meaning of the Power of Three.
They chanted the spell again three times. This time they got a stronger reaction. A grey fog appeared in the middle of the attic. It started spinning around itself and slowly formed in to a human like figure.
The greyish colour vanished and Phoebe stood in front of them. She looked disoriented and transparent. She wore a long white robe with long sleeves and was her younger self.
tbc