This chapter is shorter than I hoped it would be, but I had quite a bit of writers block, so that's why it's shorter than the other chapters (I think) and that's why the end part is rubbish.
Replies:
Princess Pinky- Thanks! Glad you liked it! Do (did) you watch Buffy? Or do you just know about Dawn another way? Willow is related in two ways now, one will be revealed in chapter 9 I think, and the other in chapter 20 something maybe! You're not gonna see Paige in action for a while sorry!
Moonfirefairy: Thanks! Glad you liked it!
Whitelighter Yoz: Thanks! Glad you liked it!
A Glorificus Day:
Willow pulled a liquorice black sweater over her head as she trudged down the stairs to look for her girlfriend. After popping her head into each of the rooms on the ground floor, she eventually found Tara standing at the sink in the kitchen,
"it's six in the morning, why aren't you in bed?" the redhead groaned,
"I have slept, I just thought it would be nice to watch the sunrise," the wicca replied, her eyes not moving from the orange blaze in the sky that they had formerly become focused on.
"You should have woke me up, then we could have watched it together," Willow said, entwining her arms around her lover's waist and resting her head on the blonde's shoulder,
"I hope Patty's gonna be okay, Phoebe going all 'Kill Bill' on her hasn't exactly helped," the charmed one in the couple stated. It had been almost a week since Patty had tried to summon Prue and Phoebe had learnt the truth about her niece, and even though everybody knew of the attempted spirit conjuring; nobody knew about Patty being the Key, not even the teen herself.
"Hmm, things will get easier for them," Tara assured her, turning away from the glowing bulb in the sky,
"maybe, but I'm not so sure about Piper, she's pretty set on this 'giving up magic' gig," Willow pointed out,
"everything happens for a reason," the wicca reminded, moving over to the table and taking a seat. Her long skirt, which had a green and turquoise shimmer pattern decorating it, ruffled slightly as it pressed against the seat, while the sleeves of her lime sweater slid down her arms as she rested her chin on her hands.
"You okay sweetie?" Willow asked, concern shading her voice as she sat alongside her love, a frown bubbling onto her face while she did so, Tara didn't reply, but what she did do was walk over to her cardigan that hung on the chair opposite.
"What's this?" the redhead questioned, as Tara handed her a sandpaper brown envelope which was folded in half,
"it's from my dad," she gingerly replied,
"what does it say?"
"just read it," Tara said quietly, sitting back down and bowing her head slightly. Willow nodded and slid the letter out, rubbing her hand across it to straighten out the wrinkles, before beginning to read;
Dear Tara. You have always known of the legend that haunted your mother, that on their twentieth birthday, the women of her bloodline will become full-fledged demons. And I know that your birthday has just passed, so maybe I'm sending this too late, but if you are reading this then I hope it is in a human form not a demonic one.
Signed Mr Maclay
"But your birthday was four days ago, and you're not a demon, so what is this about?" Willow said,
"I'm guessing it was just a lie to keep him in control of my mother, he always did like being boss," Tara replied softly,
"I can kinda see that, with the whole 'Mr Maclay' thing." Tara just nodded glumly and they stood to make them some coffee, leaving Willow to just watch as her girlfriend continued on as normal. It appeared, that Willow saw this as a big deal, but Tara was still the soft, harmless, wicca who wanted nothing more than a nice, easy, life of butterflies and rainbows, and who also never used her power to it's full, both offensive and defensive, potential.
Meanwhile, a middle aged, almost overweight, man ran as fast as he could, only to find himself at a dead end. Two feet, each baring a red, sling back, high heel, stepped forward and glimmered in the moonlight,
"please don't hurt me," the man begged, sounding like a young child pleading the monsters under their bed.
"I'm not going to hurt you, I'm just gonna take a little taste," Glory told him, a glow hiding the connection as her fingers entered the sides of the man's head. The man screamed and then this passed as she freed her fingers from his head,
"don't go to crazy now," she smirked, brushing down her crimson pinstripe pants and matching top, walking away.
Later that morning, Piper slid some paracetamol down her throat to ease the blunt agony of her migraine,
"I could heal that for you," a voice said. Even though the voice seemed light, orderly, and even quite friendly, Piper assumed it's possessor as a threat and turned with her hands raised. Dressed in a snow white and gold robe, with a ring of greying hair atop his head, the stranger looked like some kind of angelic priest.
"What are you?" she questioned,
"an Elder," he answered, a small, yet proud, smile taking over his lips. Standing still with shock, Piper was sure she could feel the floor on her chin as she stared,
"demon!" Phoebe screeched, running forward as she entered the doorway, and flying straight through the elderly being as he broke apart into orbs.
"Whoa, since when could demons orb?" Phoebe asked, walking over to Piper with both her ego and her butt likely to be bruised,
"he's not a demon," Piper replied,
"y'know, the way he was dressed is kinda how I imagine an…" the clairvoyant began,
"Elder," the heavenly lord finished, orbing back in. Phoebe's jaw fell equally as far as Piper's had, as the Elder slowly approached them,
"what do you want?" Piper asked coldly,
"to offer you a deal," he explained.
"I don't care about any deal you or any other magical creature has to offer me, I've said to before and I'll say it again; I am done with being charmed," Piper said, throwing the dishcloth in her hands to Phoebe and storming off,
"if that's true then why was your first reaction to use your powers on me?" the Elder asked, causing her to stop at the door,
"I said I'm done," she said, both softly and sternly, not even turning around, then her pace erupted once again and her heels clicked along the floor, accompanying her walk.
"What's your offer?" Phoebe simply questioned, nodding for him to go ahead,
"I, well we, shall give you all the information we have on the beast known as Glorificus, if your sister will rejoin the power of three," the Elder told her,
"you've never made us give you something in return for information before," she stated,
"actually, you vanquishing the demons and saving the innocents is how you repay us, by keeping the balance in order and doing the work of the greater good," he said.
"But without Piper we can't do that properly, so we can't repay you, so you won't give us the info we need," she realised,
"correct," he nodded.
"Midas, why are you here? is something wrong?" Leo asked, after orbing in,
"I'm here to make an offer to your family," the Elder replied,
"and not a very fair deal at that," Phoebe added, "we can't control the decisions that Piper makes, and without her making the decision you want, we won't find out about Glory, how is that for the greater good?"
"I have an idea," another Elder said, appearing from the lights all of her kind possessed,
"and what may that be?" Midas asked the female newcomer,
"we shall give you all of our information on Glory, if you can prove you are capable to fight demons without the complete power of three," she, mainly known as Bethel, replied.
"We'll do it," Phoebe told them, without any hesitation,
"but aren't you even gonna think about this?" Leo asked,
"just go get Tara and Willow, I'll get Patty," she instructed, heading out of the room.
On her way to Patty's room, Phoebe stopped and turned towards Pipers,
"sweetie, it's me, can I come in?" she called, knocking in the door,
"if you want to take about the Elders and their deal, then no," Piper said back,
"I don't," Phoebe replied. Everything turned silent before Phoebe heard shuffling around inside and then the door opened,
"come in," Piper invited, leading her sister over to sit on the bed.
"Remember when I told you all that Glory was after something called the Key?" Phoebe said, Piper just nodded,
"well, the Key…it's human…it's…god I can't even say it," she said, standing up and rubbing her forehead with her hand,
"just tell me Phoebe," Piper told her,
"it's Patty," Phoebe murmured softly,
"looks like I'm not the only one that needs to get away from magic then," Piper stubbornly decided, practically pushing Phoebe through the door and closing it behind her.
"God help me," the molecular based witch whispered, leaning back against the door.
In Glory's plush, very ladylike, penthouse, the blonde lay on her fluffy pink, gold and scarlet bed while her disfigured looking minions tidied the room.
"The Key, do any of you have an idea where it is?" she asked,
"no, most beautiful and wonderful one," most of them replied, in unison,
"whatever, worthless creatures," she muttered, standing up and unzipping the back of her tight red dress, dropping it from her slender body as if nobody was there and walking through to the shower.
Not much later, Phoebe, Tara, Willow, Leo, Patty, Cole, Midas, Bethel and seven whitelighters were gathered in the basement,
"what are they here for?" Phoebe asked, eyeing the guardian angels suspiciously,
"they, will pose as the demons, one for each of you, even you Leo and Cole," Bethel replied. Even though she was an Elder, Bethel seemed quite friendly and nice, she looked quite a bit younger than Midas, but it was obvious she was one of the most powerful.
"Who's the seventh for?" but Willow's question was answered when one of the whitelighters glamoured into a hooded figure,
"the Source," Phoebe whispered, the whitelighter nodded.
"Lets get started," Midas said, emphasizing his point with a small clap, before he orbed out,
"we'll be watching you," Bethel reminded, orbing after him. The first whitelighter, a male with blond spiky hair and broad shoulders and chest, marched toward Leo, who pushed him to the ground with the power of his fist,
"Leo, didn't know ya had in ya," Cole said, giving his friend a pat on the back before throwing an energy ball at his own whitelighter enemy; a black haired Asian-American.
"Patty, you take the short brunette, Tara, you take the other brunette, Willow, you take the blonde, and I'll take the redhead," Phoebe told them, her eyes travelling between each of the four whitelighter women as she made her orders. The Short Brunette formed a glittering light ball in each hand which led Patty to telepathically clone this ability and create her own, conjuring up a battle of sparkling spheres. While this was going on, Tara was summoning all of her power, well what she said was most of her power, for both offensive and defensive against the Brunette.
"I've always wanted to fight a whitelighter," Phoebe said, positioning herself into a fighting stance,
"hey!" Leo exclaimed,
"sorry Leo, I meant a whitelighter other than you," she added, before lifting into the air and kicking the Redhead square in her jaw.
"What the hell is going on down here?" Piper yelled, charging down the stairs and stopping halfway when she saw that they had company,
"I've got an idea, just play along," Patty telepathically said, to her family (par Piper) and the whitelighters,
"are you just gonna stand there? it's the Source!" the teen claimed,
"I've been married to a whitelighter for nearly a year, I think I know one when I see one," Piper said, blowing the 'Source' into a flurry of orbs, and then doing the same to the others.
"Great, we've failed," Patty moaned,
"how are we gonna find out about Glory now?" Willow asked,
"we'll get it out of the Elders our way," Phoebe replied,
"to me that sounds like it involves breaking lots of rules," Leo said,
"screw the rules," Phoebe replied.
"Fine," Leo said, taking hold of her hand and Willow's, while Tara also took Willow's, and Patty took Tara's and Cole's and then Phoebe also took Cole's to complete a circle,
"lets get going then," Cole said, as Leo orbed them all out.
"What do you think you are doing Leo?" Midas hissed,
"helping my family," he replied,
"tell us about Glory," Phoebe commanded,
"you failed our task," Bethel stated, revealing her true 'no rules broken' attitude that all Elders had.
"Tell us," Cole threatened, holding an energy ball in his palm,
"that won't kill us," Bethel told him, with a glare,
"now I advise you all get out of here," Midas growled,
"we'll go when you tell us what you know," Willow said, taking lead as she stepped forward and her eyes turned black.
"And you call yourself charmed," Bethel spat,
"I'm more charmed than you," Willow responded,
"she's more charming too," Patty added,
"there's six of us…" Phoebe began, before more Elders began to come forward, "just tell us what you know about Glory and we'll never come up here again," she simply said, glancing around out the surrounding whiteness.
"I can't believe we're doing this," Midas muttered, nodding to Bethel as a sign for her to tell them,
"finally, so this Glory, what kind of demon is she?" Phoebe asked,
"Glorificus is not a demon, she's a god," Bethel explained, causing a ripple of shock to move throughout the family.
To be continued…
Next chapter- Phoebe casts a spell to restore Piper's faith in magic, resulting in her big sister getting an unexpected visitor…Meanwhile, Patty becomes suspicious when her family suddenly stops talking about the Key when she's around, after Phoebe tells them. And Glory becomes second priority as the Source plans an attack.
'Shoot The Messenger' should be up soon.