A/N: Wow, this one's getting a lot of hits! And a new reviewer! Thanks to everyone!
Mediatorsk: You scared me for a second there when you said "i loved the ending." I thought maybe I was so tired when I posted it that I'd wrote "THE END" at the bottom and now everyone thought the story was over! I'm overreacting, as usual lol...
dana-maru1: I can relate to the mega-busy feeling. My Geometry teacher made me do a stencil this weekend. Tell me, what the hell doesa stencil have to do with Geometry?
erica: Thanks for your review! I hope you keep reading :)
CHAPTER FIVE
"Them? Who are we, exactly?" Andy asked, mystified at the witch's strange reaction.
"God, your dad really did do a good job of keeping you away from magic, didn't he?" Chris asked.
"What? What're you talking about?" Stella asked. The people in front of her seemed crazy.
"What do you know about your mother?" Pam asked.
"Not much," Stella replied. "She died when we were five… she was a social worker… her name was Paige."
"Do you know her last name? Her maiden name?" Pam asked.
"No," Andy replied. "Why is this important?"
"It's Halliwell."
Both of their eyes widened, and they simultaneously said, "What?"
"You mean that Paige, our mom, was the same Paige that… that was a Charmed One?" Stella asked.
"Yeah," Pam replied. "And she would be buried in the family crypt with her sisters if your father wasn't so insistent on placing her in his family plot… God, that was a mess."
Andy looked at her peculiarly after she made that comment. "Did you… know him or something?"
"Know him? We're your cousins," Chris explained.
"Cousins? So, based on what you're saying, you two are Chris and Pam Halliwell?" Stella asked.
"In the flesh," Pam replied.
"You've gotta be lying," Andy replied defiantly. "If we're the children of a Charmed One, then we should be witches too. But we don't have powers."
"You did," Pam said. "Right up until your mom died. After that, your dad got so paranoid about something evil killing you that he made my mom, Phoebe Halliwell, bind your powers."
"So… we don't have them anymore?" Stella asked. She still wasn't sure whether or not to believe this, but if it was true, then it was a little unfair to find out that she used to have powers instead of finding out that she had them.
"Unfortunately. The spell was permanent," Pam explained. A thought then crossed her mind. "I always thought your dad was overreacting back when we went through all that… maybe he knew something about this, and he didn't want us to find out?"
"You think he's a relative of Stephen Joyce?" Chris asked.
"It would fit. Maybe that's why the Nattrods are after you two… they want revenge for what your great-something grandfather did to their species," Pam realized.
"Well, then that would be a little easier to deal with if we actually had powers to defend ourselves with," Andy murmured.
"I wonder…" Pam thought aloud. "One thing I've always been taught is that Halliwell magic is the strongest kind out there. Maybe… it'll be strong enough to give you guys your powers back." She began to flip the pages in the book.
"I dunno, Pam…" Chris started. He didn't want her to get her cousins' hopes up for nothing, since he figured that it probably wouldn't work.
"Give me your hand," she replied, cutting him off. "The more witches we have saying the spell, the more effective it'll be." Stella and Andy had taken their hands, too. "Okay, ready? We all have to say it together."
Powers of the witches rise
Course unseen across the skies
Come to us who call you near
Come to us and settle here
Blood to blood, I summon thee
Blood to blood, return to me
Chris and Pam then let go of Stella and Andy, who still held each other's hands. Miraculously, two bright balls of light came flying out of nowhere and went right into them.
"Does… does that mean it-" Andy stuttered, trying to find out where the strange glow had gone to.
"I think so," Pam replied. "We need a test."
"Well, since you guys are part whitelighter, you should be able to orb…" Chris began, "and there's one thing that makes you orb." He suddenly jumped at them, holding a knife he'd gotten from the kitchen counter. They both screamed and dissolved into bright blue lights, the reappeared a second or two later. "Fear," Chris finished, putting the knife back.
"So, did we just…?" Stella asked, a bit confused.
"Yep. You orbed," Pam verified. "It worked."
That meant that this really wasn't a lie after all. Stella and Andy really were witches, their mother really was a Charmed One, they had Halliwell blood, and there were invincible demons after them. It was things like this that made the bad outweigh the good. Both twins had an eerie realization that all their lives, they'd wondered what their mother looked like, and here her picture had been right on the front page of the newspapers they'd used to put under their coffee cups for years. It also meant that she had been killed by supernatural causes, not by cancer like their dad had always told them. They knew so little. It also made them fearful for their own lives… if she, one of the strongest witches alive with years of experience, could be killed by a demon, then they certainly could, too.
"So, what're we gonna do against these Nattrod things?" Andy asked.
"Let's focus on you guys controlling your powers first. It's most important that you can defend yourselves in case of an attack," Pam advised.
A/N: I know it's a bit of an abrupt ending, but just deal with it. :P
