The title of this chapter is a play on the song lyrics "why does it always rain on me?" This chapter is also shorter than the previous one! And it would seem I've lost a reviewer (Laur) : (
Replies-
Fanmania: Glad you liked it! Thanks for checking out my other fic, that's been updated too! Karis has been through a lot and her mommy's vodka bottle is just another whirlwind in her life!
Whitelighter Yoz: Glad you liked it! A bit off topic here, but do you like Buffy hint, hint coughpleasecheckoutanewpathcough! Leo? Next chapter is Leo-based so I hope you'll like it!
Money makes me smile: Glad you liked it! You'll have to see about Paige sticking to water :P! I thought Patsy secretly smashing Kit would amuse you lol!
Princess Pinky: Glad you liked it! Glad I made you feel special ;)! The Dahlia mortality-dying thing was inspired by Kira's demise in Witchness Protection! The ice thing was bad but funny, I must say so myself :P!
Loz: Glad you liked it! Cole is gone and I'm kinda glad because without him Phoebe gets less of a focus, well actually so far she's gotten more :s!
Why Does It Always Rain On The Charmed Ones:
Cassandra looked around at the other kids in the nursery, before telekinetically-shimmering a toy car from a levitating little boy and destroying it with a small stream of fire.
"Cassandra, stop that right now!" Mrs Winterbourne exclaimed, seeing the half demon shimmer another toy to her, Cassie glared at the teacher and a circle of flame appeared around her. The kids began to scream and yell as the fire around Mrs Winterbourne grew,
"mommy!" Cassie screeched, using her newfound pyrokinetic abilities to blow a toy box into flames and ash. Paige, having heard all the commotion from her office, ran in and used her psychokinetic-orbing to transport Mrs Winterbourne from the blazing circle,
"Cassandra Penelope Halliwell-Turner stop this now!" the witchlighter shouted, Cassie cowered at her aunt's anger and shimmered out.
"What are you going to do?" Mrs Winterbourne asked,
"anything it takes to help my niece," Paige replied, "can you sort this out?" she gestured towards the burning mess,
"of course," Mrs Winterbourne said, grabbing a book from the shelf behind her and beginning to search for an appropriate spell.
Meanwhile, Piper held her collar up to her chin as she walked through the brittle Autumn weather and into Chinatown. As she reached out to touch the handle of the door leading into the most popular herb shop, a searing white light travelled through the metal knob and blasted her away.
"Looks like you'll have to go shop somewhere else witch," a booming voice, fully addressed with a Chinese accent, announced. Piper looked up to see the creator of the voice was some kind of man/monster hybrid; like a Zombie or Dr Hyde. Dressed in a black, leather, vest adorned with golden Chinese symbols, and black pants with tight matching boots, the demon looked more like an Oriental Biker than a creature of the underworld; but the unnatural streaks of copper in his long, raven, ponytail, and the evil glint in his crimson eyes, proved that he was in fact a member of the ever-growing underworld population.
"Or you can get out of my way and I'll shop here," she said, standing up to face the brute and shooting a pyrokinetic arrow. The flaming form of weaponry bounced off his rock hard chest like a yo-yo off air molecules, striking Piper in her shoulder and creating a deep, bloody, burn.
"You're a powerful little thing, that almost hurt me," he chuckled, giving her one last look at his evil grin of wonky, yellow, teeth and crispy, pale, lips, before vanishing into a funnel of murky grey water.
"Did Zan-Yi attack you?" the owner of the shop; a grey haired, Chinese, woman asked, running out to Piper,
"if Zan-Yi is some freaky guy with bad teeth and an armoured boob job then yeah," she replied, stumbling as she got into a standing position and clutched her wound.
"Father! Please forgive me! I have awoken the beast!" the woman yelled, her head and voice aimed skywards,
"I think you should come with me," Piper said, furrowing her brow and wrinkling her nose in confusion at the woman's outburst.
About twenty minutes later,
"I think I've found our guy," Prue said, tracing her finger across the page entitled 'Zan-Yi: The Aqua Beast',
"what does it mean by Aqua Beast?" Paige asked, walking over but not taking her eye off Cassie; who was sitting contently in the corner lighting a candle, putting it out with just her fingers, and then repeating the process.
"He is a descendant of a legendary Sea Serpent," the woman, who they now knew as Mula Wong, explained,
"do you know how to kill him?" Piper asked, handing the aging lady a glass of water,
"no, but I do know his body is full of water not blood, he's like a walking ocean," she replied.
"So we can stick a needle in him like he's a water bomb," Paige muttered, leaning lazily on the pedestal that held their sacred book,
"no need, there's a vanquishing spell, but what I want to know is how and why you brought him back? It says here that he was sucked into his own never-ending whirlpool," Prue said.
"Well it was an accident, I had completely forgotten how much of a threat he was otherwise I wouldn't have done it," Mula said,
"done what?" Prue questioned, resting her hands on the home of her seven months grown unborn,
"resurrected him to save myself," she told them, a continued silence hinted for her to carry on, "demons showed up in my shop and threatened me, either I used the specially created spell to bring back Zan-Yi, or they killed me and tortured my soul for the rest of eternity."
"Well as soon as we find him we can vanquish him and you'll never have to blame your self for unleashing him again," Piper promised, giving Mula's hand a comforting squeeze,
"any idea on how to find this guy?" Paige asked,
"there's a spell," Prue replied,
"okay then, let's go," Piper said, copying down the vanquishing chant before they began the transportation spell:
"Purged in water he does remain,
So let us see the demon Zan-Yi again."
A swarm of bright lights moved the trio through the boundaries of time and space and released them into an area of water, ice and wet stones,
"it worked," Prue stated,
"either that or we're in a scene from the day after tomorrow," Piper said, as rain began to tumble like boulders off a cliff.
"Somebody do something!" Paige exclaimed, covering her head with her arms and the bitter water soaked through her white tank top and tight, black, linen pants. Piper raised her hands and froze as much of the rain as she could, but another bucket load fell and soon reversed her actions,
"Prue move it!" Piper yelled, the drumming of the heavy liquid drowning out her normal level of voice. Prue took her turn and gestured viciously towards the plummeting water; throwing back up to the sky only for it to drop straight back down again, Paige soon became impatient and a deflective shield of orbs stretched from her hands over to Prue; who telekinetically held it in place.
"An umbrella of lights; nifty, better than that flying one Mary Poppins had," Piper commented, as they made a run for it while protected by the field of orbs,
"it's absolutely freezing here," Prue said, as they took refuge in an icy cave and Paige's shield dissolved.
"Yeah, you'd think a demon with water for blood would wanna stay away from cold temperatures," Paige said, walking towards the wall of glass which brought an end to the not-so-homely igloo, "Piper, blow this up," she instructed, running her hands across it and feeling a strange vibration behind. The middle charmed one obeyed and did her trademark hand flick; releasing a wave of glass chippings throughout the cave,
"maybe you shouldn't have blown it up," Paige murmured, as a parade of ten to fifteen soldiers, all clad in armour made of ice, marched from where the wall had stood,
"ya think?" Piper snapped, sarcasm punctuating her words.
"Is it just me or does this seem like a trap?" Prue said,
"it's a trap," Paige and Piper replied in unison, before the half whitelighter among them orbed the three out.
They orbed back in in the attic of the Halliwell-Wyatt manor,
"did you get him?" Mula asked, glancing from Leo and Kyle to the girls,
"no, but a big bad Chinese demon walking around town shouldn't be too hard to miss, I'll call Darryl and see if he knows anything," Paige replied, heading out of the room.
"Well as long as you didn't unleash his army," Mula said,
"actually, Piper blew up the wall," Prue told them,
"the Great Wall of China?" Leo exclaimed,
"and you call yourself a whitelighter," Piper sighed, folding her arms, "yes Leo, I blew up the Great Wall of China, and then moved onto the Eiffel Tower and I've got the wonky Pisa thing planned for tomorrow," she said,
"ignore her, she's having a very sarcastic day," Prue said, shooting her sister a warning glare,
"she seemed very nice to me, not sarcastic in the least," Mula interjected,
"is she being sarcastic?" Kyle whispered to Leo.
"Hey, I heard that!" Piper exclaimed, raising her hand threateningly,
"okay Piper, calm down," Prue told her,
"Darryl said that a guy matching Zan-Yi's description has been spotted killing three women in the Bay Area," Paige said, walking back in with the cordless in hand.
"Well let's get going, again," Piper said,
"but you don't even have an exact location," Leo stated,
"we can scry with this," Prue said, holding up a glass vial of rain water which she had just drained from her sopping wet cardigan, "if it's from his little home it might lead us to him,"
"or to the rain factory," Piper quipped, the eldest of the sisters pinched the sarcastic brunette at the top of her arm,
"ow, what the hell was that for?" Piper shrieked,
"you know what that was for missy, don't make me give you a timeout like we do the kids," Prue told her, narrowing her eyes as she wrapped the chain of the scrying crystal around her vial and held it above their map of San Francisco. A second or two later, the crystal hit a location,
"got him," Prue said, grabbing Paige's and Piper's hands and taking them from the room in the red orbs belonging to her half warlighter baby.
Somewhere across the city, Zan-Yi was absorbing the life out of a middle-aged man, when a wave of telekinetic energy forced him through the air and into a barrel of trash cans,
"you know what they say; it can't rain forever," Prue said, lifting him into the air with her primary power and holding him there while she and her sisters cast their spell:
"Water's weakness heed our call,
Use your means and make this demon fall,
End his rivers and oceans of life,
Stop his murdering, evil and strife."
The sisters waited for a big explosion, or at least a flash, but nothing. Zan-Yi was still standing and his crooked teeth were showing in a smile bigger than ever,
"tell Mula I said thanks," he said, rubbing his hands as he disappeared into a tower of dirty liquid, leaving the charmed ones stunned.
To be continued…
Next chapter- A very imaginative kid with a love for superheroes causes trouble for the family, namely Piper and Leo. Zan-Li learns of Brianna's destiny and kidnaps Prue in order to raise her daughter as evil.
'To Elder-land and Beyond' should be up soon.